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May 23, 2017
I’m making chili now. Some of you may know it’s been one of my obsessions for a while. Now that I’m off the road for a bit I’ve been getting more into it, and vibe-ing out in the kitchen more. Yesterday, I got serious created Prescott Foods LLC to share my chili with the world. Ladies and gentlemen, Jimi Jazz Chili!
Why Chili? Well, y’all know I’m a devout Carneterian! And I believe, with the Paleo and Primal people, that a meat based diet is what we evolved to eat. My personal philosophy accentuates treating carbs - especially excess sugar and simple ones - more like a drug - an indulgence - than food. It’s not that I even eat low carb, it’s just that’s what I watch. I only allow myself the occasional bagel or french bread. I rarely eat pasta and like sweets but find them easy to let go of. (Always have some protein with your carbs, I forget why exactly.)
What do you eat then? Vegetables and meat! Good meat, not commercial meat, where a similar mis-use of carbs in the finishing the animals is significantly detrimental to the nutritional content.
Anyhow, when made with pasture raised meats, a Texas Style chili is pure health food! No beans - legumes are a no-no in the paleo/primal dieting world and just unintentional carbs to me. Ditto for corn or rice (I like to serve it on brazed greens or cauliflower ‘rice’.) It’s heathy nutrient-dense meats and fats, cooked tomato providing the important antioxidant lycopene, bone broth for gut healing goodness, and fresh and dried chili and spice with plenty of caspian to enliven the heart and mind.
It’s an ancient recipe - stew. But the North American version. It is food from our land and history. So while, in his beautiful book Cooked, Michael Pollan laments the decline of cooking at home, we don’t often have time to spend an entire day fussing over a steaming pot. And unlike so many of the fresh foods in vogue, and in these diets, which really are better prepared at home, a chili pot stores well, indeed it’s always better the next day!
Given this I actually find it infuriating that you cannot get a decent canned chili. I tried a frozen packaged chili - supposedly all grass fed meat - it was disgusting. My jarred fresh chili is in a different class from anything commercially available, if I do say so myself, and I aim to turn-on as many people to it as I can.
And if you’re like, ‘what about all that fat?’ . . . well, the short story is fat is not the enemy. My detailed views on that will have to wait for another post, but it turns out the simplistic view of fats ‘clogging up the arteries’ is somewhat silly. Did you think the bacon fat just leached out of your stomach into your blood vessels and gums ‘em up like your frypan? And the original study has been discredited, apparently having left out important data. And so it goes.
I admit that my sense - my left-brain intuition - about all this confusing data, conclusion and opinion is heavily guided by taste and feel - what tastes good, and what makes me feel good. Sugars and carbs cause problems and often a hangover. But when I eat my health chili, it tastes great, I am immediately satisfied and I feel great. It never aggravates my gullet, and when combined with my more ascetic side can bring relief from the indulgences of rock and roll!
The conclusion that hasn’t changed in all the years of research is that calorie restrictions prolong life. Over-eating is the real culprit. Jimi Jazz All Meat Health Chili helps you eat less, by eating more satisfying nutrient dense food.
Here is the Jimi Jazz health diet secret, guaranteed to help you loose weight and prolong your life. For breakfast enjoy as much health chili and farm fresh eggs as you would like. After noon, limit your intake to (mostly green) vegetables and low sugar fruits, and water or unsweetened tea until bed. When you feel hungry remember the rich breakfast you had, and that you will have it again when you wake.
“If you eat more than one meal a day you are not using your mind” — Dr. NakaMats.
Portland Oregon, sunny and beautiful.