Good morning. It’s Wednesday already. These four-day weeks really fly by, don’t they?
I don’t know about you, but my social media feed is chock full of all manner of confusing – and conflicting – health-related content.
According to these influencers, who may or may not have credentials, I should either be eating all the time or not eating at all, and when I DO eat, it should be the cleanest and most unprocessed foods available, which may or may not include carbs.
I think it’s a safe bet that the less processed and closer to its original state your food is, the better for your body. This isn’t rocket science and doesn’t require a PhD in nutrition to understand. Chemicals and additives are not good for you, generally speaking.
Then again, “processed” can mean a lot of things.
Unless you’re taking a bite out of a cow on the hoof or a fish pulled directly from the water or a carrot yanked from the ground, pretty much ALL food is “processed” in some way – even if it’s merely skinned, washed, and/or cooked or preserved (canned, pickled, frozen etc.) And carbs do have a benefit – they provide energy to fuel your life, including workouts and brain function.
It’s the ultra-processed stuff – stuff with a lot of additional sugar, fat, salt, and things that aren’t easily pronounce – that you have to watch out for. All carbs are not created equal. A pop tart doesn’t have the same nutritional value as, say, oatmeal or sweet potatoes. Though they also have their place, arguably. I know some distance runners who swear by pop tarts for quick energy on the course. And also beer, which is a great recovery drink.
Somewhere along the way, bread got a bad rap. Today, it’s considered anathema by those who are worried about putting on weight. But once upon a time, it was the staff of life, or, as the Bible says specifically, “the great life sustainer”.
The practice of combining some sort of flour, water, salt, and yeast – even if it comes just from the air – dates back many centuries, with flatbreads (unleavened loaves) predating the Egyptian version of raised loaves that originated about 5,000 years ago, give or take.
The trouble is that we’ve strayed very far from the basic bread-making process, with mass-produced loaves that are made as cheaply as possible and full of preservatives to make them last longer.
There are still many bakeries at which one can procure an honest loaf- and there was a time during the Covid lockdowns that it seemed everyone was making their own sourdough. Remember the great pandemic flour shortage?
Even I briefly joined that craze, though I what I ended up producing was more akin to bricks than bread and I eventually gave up, chucked the starter, and opted for the no-knead version that even a child couldn’t screw up.
Bread CAN be good for you, which is good news for a carb-lover like myself. Generally speaking, the whole grain and sprouted varieties are best, followed by sourdough, oat, and rye. For those who like these sorts of seedy, sustainable loaves, you’re in luck, because we’re smack in the middle of Real Bread Week, which was launched in 2008 as part of a larger campaign to advocate in favor of more equitable access to additive-free, healthy, bread.
If you have a moment, that Real Bread Campaign website linked in the sentence above is really worth a visit. These people take their bread very seriously.
It’s going to be a great day for enjoying all manner of bread-related items out-of-doors (assuming you have a warm coat, and maybe a hat). Skies will be sunny, and temperatures will be in the mid-40s. Downright balmy!
In the headlines…
The US vetoed an Arab-backed and widely supported UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the embattled Gaza Strip, saying it would interfere with negotiations on a deal to free hostages abducted in Israel.
The United States said the resolution could have disrupted its negotiations to free hostages and secure a temporary cease-fire, but its vote drew outcry from many diplomats and aid workers.
The WHO said that the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis had no electricity or running water after an Israeli raid last week, calling the destruction around the hospital “indescribable” and saying piles of medical waste and garbage were breeding disease.
The World Food Program has paused “life-saving” food deliveries to northern Gaza, saying aid convoys had endured “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order”.
For the first time in weeks, there have been signs of cautious optimism from Israel regarding the possibility of progress in negotiations for a hostage deal with Hamas.
An ex-FBI informant who allegedly fed the bureau false information about Biden and his son Hunter Biden during the 2020 race said some of the information he spread came from “officials associated with Russian intelligence,” prosecutors said in a filing.
Alexander Smirnov, a 43-year-old who had been working as a confidential human source for the FBI since 2010, was ordered released under conditions after a detention hearing in a federal courtroom in Las Vegas yesterday.
James Biden, the president’s brother, is set to appear before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors today, the first of two high-profile testimonies the panel will hear this month as part of its impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Democrats found reasons for optimism after scoring a special congressional election victory in swing Long Island territory last week, but President Biden continues to show signs of weakness in deep-blue New York, according to a statewide Siena College poll.
Biden’s reelection campaign and Democratic allies raised $42 million in January, giving the incumbent president $130 million in the bank for the 2024 campaign, significantly outpacing his likely Republican opponent Donald Trump.
The campaign said they and the DNC have a combined $130 million on hand. Biden has established joint fundraising committees with the DNC and state parties, allowing him to collect checks worth up to $929,600 from a single donor.
Biden’s re-election campaign ended January with nearly $56 million on hand, extending his cash advantage over Trump, whose campaign had about $30 million available at the end of the month – a tick downward from the end of the year.
Every morning Trump wakes up, he now owes another $87,500 in interest on the massive legal penalties he received last week.
Four days after a judge ordered former Trump to pay $354 million in his civil fraud case, New York Attorney General Letitia James told ABC News that she is prepared to seize the former president’s assets if he is unable to find the cash to cover the fine.
“Who would you rather compete with in November: Nikki Haley or Donald Trump?” a reporter asked the president yesterday. “Oh, I don’t care,” Biden replied, before walking off.
A defiant Haley vowed to stay in the GOP presidential race, saying it’s clear that Americans want a choice beyond Trump vs. Biden.
“I feel no need to kiss the ring,” she said in Greenville, S.C.. “I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him. My own political future is of zero concern.”
Biden, who romped to a 23-point victory over Trump in New York in 2020, leads his Republican rival by 12 points in a hypothetical rematch, but his approval rating in New York is underwater at 45%, according to the poll.
Michelle Obama is the most likely candidate to replace Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee should the incumbent step down before the election according to a leading bookmaker, though she hasn’t launched a White House bid.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for the use of admissions criteria intended to diversify the student body at an elite Virginia public high school, declining to revisit the role race may play in admissions after it sharply curtailed affirmative action in higher ed.
Two Missouri residents were charged with murder in the shooting that erupted after the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City, Mo., last week, Jean Peters Baker, the Jackson County prosecutor, announced.
The charged men – identified as Dominic Miller and Lyndell Mays – were both shot and wounded during the incident. Two teenagers were charged with gun and resisting arrest violations last week.
Miller is 18 or 19 years old, according to local KMBC. Mays is 23. The two men are both being held on $1 million bond.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo were at GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 computer chip factory to celebrate its $1.5 billion federal grant to upgrade and expand its manufacturing plants in New York and Vermont.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s favorability rating, 41-46%, down from 45-42% last month, and job approval rating, 48-47%, down from 52-43%, each fell by net eight points from January, according to the new Siena College poll.
The Siena College poll finds that most New Yorkers think Hochul is hard-working, and a plurality of voters believe she is an honest politician. But many don’t view her as a strong leader, and they believe she is out of touch with the average New Yorker.
Nearly half of voters, 49%, identify the cost of living in New York as one of their top two issues for the governor and Legislature to address. The recent influx of migrants, crime, and affordable housing are New Yorkers’ next three top issues.
Hochul announced grant awards totaling more than $1.8 million for 26 projects to help communities along the Hudson River estuary improve water quality, enhance environmental education and advance stewardship of natural resources.
Hochul has allocated an additional $100 million for SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in her 30-day budget amendments to cover the hospital’s annual deficits for two years of its restructuring process.
The U.S. Supreme Court said it will not take up two lingering challenges to rent stabilization from New York City landlords, ending months of uncertainty after a broad challenge to the regime got tossed out at the beginning of October.
But hinting at interest in future challenges, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a brief statement accompanying the court’s denial notice. “The constitutionality of regimes like New York City’s is an important and pressing question,” he wrote.
Frank Carone, Mayor Adams’ former chief of staff and political confidante, has together with a dozen employees at his consulting firm, registered to lobby city and state officials on behalf of powerful private interests, new filings show.
Adams said that he has “another plan” for an NYPD robot that has been sitting in storage in the Times Square subway station since the end of a two-month trial period for the bot last fall — but he declined to explain what he had in mind.
A sweeping class-action lawsuit filed against New York City argues that the agency that investigates child abuse and neglect routinely engages in unconstitutional practices that traumatize the families it is charged with protecting.
Adams defended the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) dance crew after a viral video of the team performing last week sparked online criticism.
This summer, struggling swimmers off Coney Island might be met not just by a young lifeguard in an orange suit but also by assistance from above, in the form of a buglike device delivering an inflatable float.
Startling video shows a group of NYPD cops being attacked by migrants at a shelter on Randalls Island.
Adams said the latest incident of violence at the Randall’s Island migrant shelter is a natural consequence of the shelter’s residents being unable to work.
Nearly two million New York City residents, including one in four children, lived in poverty in 2022, an increase of 500,000 people that amounted to the biggest single-year jump in a decade.
Overall, 23 percent of the city’s residents lived in poverty, defined as not being able to afford basic needs like housing and food, according to a new report by a research group at Columbia University and Robin Hood. In 2021, that number was 18 percent.
Brighter lights are coming to New York City’s subway stations as part of a change that transit officials believe will make the system safer.
A small, single-engine plane landed on the Southern State Parkway on Long Island late yesterday morning, officials said.
The sale of Mohawk Fine Paper to an Italian company will lead to 76 job cuts at its Crane Stationery Co. operation on Saratoga Street, according to a notice the company filed with the state.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
