Sauce variant: Instead of avocado-lime-cilantro, avocado-lime-tarragon

I wanted to have a sauce on hand, and I do like this one, a whole-food variation of a Derek Simnett sauce — garlic instead of garlic powder, scallions instead of onion powder. I don’t know why he bothers with the powders. Since this is a blended sauce, the real deal could readily be used instead and provide more nutrients.

I also used a jalapeño instead of hot pepper sauce: again, going for a whole food.

I could perhaps used more tarragon — I used the leaves from three sprigs rather than the whole box — but it tastes good and will serve. Now in a jar in the refrigerator.

It’s not just what you eat, but the time of day you eat it

Anahad O’Connor has a very interesting column in the Washinton Post (no paywall):

Most people know that what and how much you eat plays a major role in your health. But scientists are finding that when you eat can make a difference as well.

Studies show that for optimal health, it’s best to consume most of your calories earlier in the day rather than later — for example by eating a large breakfast, a modest lunch, and a small dinner.

This pattern of eating aligns with our circadian rhythms, the innate 24-hour clock that governs many aspects of our health, from our daily hormonal fluctuations and body temperatures to our sleep-wake cycles.

Because of the way our internal clocks operate, our bodies are primed to digest and metabolize food early in the day. As the day progresses, our metabolisms become less efficient. Studies show that a meal consumed at 9 a.m. can have vastly different metabolic effects than the same meal consumed at 9 p.m.

This emerging field of research, known as chrono-nutrition, represents a paradigm shift in how nutrition researchers think about food and health. Instead of focusing solely on nutrients and calories, scientists are increasingly looking at meal timing and discovering that it can have striking effects on your weight, appetite, chronic disease risk and your body’s ability to burn and store fat.

“This is something that until recently no one in nutrition had looked at — it’s always been what are you eating, and what’s the energy content of your food or the carbohydrates, protein and fat,” said Marta Garaulet, a professor of physiology and nutrition at the University of Murcia in Spain who studies meal timing and its effects on obesity and metabolism.

In today’s busy world, it’s common for people to skip breakfast and binge at night after a long day at work. Researchers say that whenever possible it would be better to do the opposite — or at least to space your dinner a few hours from your bedtime.

Garaulet has found in her research that even in her native Spain, which is famous for its late-eating culture, people who typically eat a large midday lunch and a light dinner develop fewer metabolic problems than people who consume a lot of nighttime calories.

“In Spain our main meal is in the middle of the day, from 2 to 3 p.m.,” she said. “We eat 35 to 40 percent of our calories in the middle of the day. And even though we eat dinner late, we don’t eat very much.”

When you eat your meals is just one of many dietary factors that can influence your metabolic health. And for some people, like night-shift workers, it’s impossible not to consume meals late at night.

But for those whose schedules permit, research suggests that . . .

Continue reading. (no paywall)

A test shave and a new blade

Today’s shave is to compare and contrast two aftershave: Aion Nourishing Balm and Grooming Dept Rejuvenating Serum. (Aion is a brand name Grooming Dept recently introduced.) But to do that, the initial priority is the shave.

I’m very fond of my Rooney Finest Style 2, and it easily produced an excellent lather from Grooming Dept’s Mumtaz shaving soap.

Bergamot, Lemon, Mandarin, Orange, Jasmine, Rose, Incense, Vanilla, Opoponax, Civet, Tonka Bean, Cedarwood, Iris, Patchouli, Vetiver, Leather, Musk, and Sandalwood.

This soap is in his Kairos formula, a tallow-based soap. He sometimes varies the formula (for example, using lamb tallow + emu oil instead of beef tallow), but this is the base formula.

I noticed I had to add a little water to complete the loading. This happens with some Grooming Dept soaps even though they do not contain clay, the common reason more water is need in loading. I think here it’s just because the soap is so rich. Check out the ingredients list:

Water, Stearic Acid, Beef Tallow, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Kokum Butter, Castor Oil, Tucuma Butter, Avocado Oil, Glycerin, Coconut Milk, Goat Milk, Cupuaçu Butter, Shea Butter, Safflower Oil, Collagen Peptides, Whey Protein, Betaine, Fragrance, Lauryl Laurate, Jojoba Oil, Lanolin, Colloidal Oatmeal, Rice Bran Wax, Meadowfoam Oil, Linoleic Acid, Ethylhexyl Olivate, Hydrogenated Olive Oil, Isostearic Acid, Allantoin, Sodium Lactate, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Gluconate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Tocopherols, Silk Peptides.

Whatever it was, the resulting lather was totally wonderful. The razor today is the superb RazoRoch MJ-90A, to my mind the absolute perfection of the Mühle/Edwin Jagger idea. It’s a remarkably good razor, and I think the US$30 price is a bargain. 

That said, today I did not get quite the perfect result this razor normally delivers. I fault the age of the blade, so following the shave I swapped out the (old) Gillette Silver Blue for a (new) Kai. Next shave will be better.

I applied Nourishing Balm to the left side of my face and Rejuvenating Serum to the right (matching alphabetic order — aftershave and sides of face (left, right) — to aid memory). They feel different when being applied — the balm feels slicker and slighter than the serum — but now, after they have settled down, on feeling my face I cannot detect a difference. Both leave my skin feeling soft, nourished, and supple, and I like the effect of both. I’ll call it a tie and try again sometime when I have a new blade in the razor.

The tea this morning is the last of my Murchie’s Editors’ Blend: “a rich and smooth blend of black teas: Ceylon adds depth and a brisk sparkling finish, Yunnan provides smoothness and sweetness and Keemun ties it together.” I didn’t realize how much I liked it, but on observing my behavior — that is, that this tin is empty while others are mostly still half-full — I realize that I must like it. (I often find that observing my behavior provides me information about my preferences about which I am not consciously aware — cf. Susan Blackmore’s comment on the various selves of which we are made.)

Useful password idea from xkcd

By xkcd

Full disclosure: I don’t like to remember dozens of different passwords — well, more like I can’t — so I use a password manager. I used to use LastPass, but they have had too many data breaches and have not been forthcoming about what all they lost, so I switched to 1Password, which I like a lot. LastPass was free but bad; 1Password is less than 75¢ a week (paid annually) and very good — plus they maintain it. 

But with a password manager, you still need a master password — something long, so that it’s hard to break, but also easy to remember. For that, the idea above is excellent. A master password of (say) correct+horse+battery+staple or correct.horse.battery.staple or the like would work well and also be easy to remember.