The Good Life

Up first is Lance Chastain from Chautauqua Hills Farm in Southeast Kansas.  My friend and neighbor is the producer of some of the finest blueberries and more and this years harvest seems to be better than ever.  He brought me a sample and I ate a a bunch by hand while we talked…YUM!  You can buy these magnificent blueberries at the Old Town Farmers market but if you want to have some fun, go to: www.chautauquahillsfarm.com and schedule a picking time.  Take the family and enjoy this mild weather as you bring home FRESH, high quality fruit.

Then it’s all about FAT…I’m talking Butter, Meat and Cheese and how they belong in a healthy diet.  Journalist and Author Nina Teicholz joins us to talk about her new book “The Big FAT Surprise”   www.thebigfatsurprise.com

In The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz reveals the unthinkable: that everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong. She documents how the low-fat nutrition advice of the past sixty years has amounted to a vast uncontrolled experiment on the entire population, with disastrous consequences for our health.

For decades, we have been told that the best possible diet involves cutting back on fat, especially saturated fat, and that if we are not getting healthier or thinner it must be because we are not trying hard enough. But what if the low-fat diet is itself the problem? What if the very foods we’ve been denying ourselves—the creamy cheeses, the sizzling steaks—are themselves the key to reversing the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease?

In this captivating, vibrant, and convincing narrative, based on a nine-year-long investigation, Teicholz shows how the misinformation about saturated fats took hold in the scientific community and the public imagination, and how recent findings have overturned these beliefs. She explains why the Mediterranean Diet is not the healthiest, and how we might be replacing trans fats with something even worse. This startling history demonstrates how nutrition science has gotten it so wrong: how overzealous researchers, through a combination of ego, bias, and premature institutional consensus, have allowed dangerous misrepresentations to become dietary dogma.

With eye-opening scientific rigor, The Big Fat Surprise upends the conventional wisdom about all fats with the groundbreaking claim that more, not less, dietary fat—including saturated fat—is what leads to better health and wellness. Science shows that we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.

Marty Johnson stops by for a brief chat about Midnight Madness at all Johnson’s Garden Center Locations
This is a great shopping opportunity!  www.johnsonsgarden.com

 20th Annual Johnson’s Moonlight Madness Sale!
July 19 – Noon to Midnight  

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
Something big bold and red to go with Meat and Cheese…
2010 Revelry Vintners Columbia Valley Merlot
The Merlot grape is responsible for establishing Washington State as one of the preeminent growing regions for Bordeaux varieties the world over.  It was also the initial and most influential variety in the founding of Revelry Vintners.  Merlot is all about balance, silky smooth mouthfeel, and well rounded flavors, that when done right linger on and on.  They source this Merlot across the Columbia Valley, finding sweet spots for the grape on consistent soft grades, with moderate heat and good air drainage.  This is the sole recipient of American Oak barrels in our lineup of wines, as Merlot tends to be accepting of the big sweet flavors that those barrels impart from their firing. 

Learn more!