Ever heard of Latkes?  Neither had I, but apparently they’re originally made with potatoes and onions to make a hash-brown like breakfast pancake.  These are super tasty and fairly easy to make.  (If I can make’em without screwin’ it up, anybody can.)  Here’s the step-by-step.

1.  Peel and shred your butternut squash into a bowl.  Half of a squash makes 3 big pancakes.

2. Add in two eggs

3.  Mix it together with your hands.

4. Throw a handmade ball into a medium-high pan with extra virgin olive oil (lots of oil!)

5. When it’s crispy brown on the bottom, flip ‘em over and cook until the opposite side is golden brown.

6. Serve with meat and eggs for a terrific breakfast!  Enjoy!

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At my last nutrition seminar at CrossFit On The River, I was asked if agave nectar “is Paleo”.  This always comes up as an acceptable substitute for maple syrup, corn syrup, or cane sugar.

Most of the time, it’s people trying to cheat the system.  They think that if it doesn’t have added ingredients and it’s “not technically sugar,” it can’t be that bad.  Unfortunately, your body is smarter than your brain.  Try as you might, and rename it what you like, a sugar is a sugar is a sugar.

Be it the aforementioned sugars or agave nectar, your body still registers those toxins as sugars.  It all turns to crap inside the body, making you fat and possibly killing you. You can’t trick the engine into accepting dirt as gasoline.  Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way.

Simple solution: Stay away from the stuff.  However, the occasional (once every 2 weeks or so) Mac Attack isn’t going to drive the final nail in the coffin if you’re squared away on the rest of Paleo eating.

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When you don’t have time to read up on the latest nutrition info, throw on a podcast.  Here are two I suggest you start listening to regularly.

The Paleolithic Solution

Let’s face it.  Robb’s the man.  Robb Wolf and Andy Dees get super-technical on the why-side of Paleo eating.  With no gimmicks or background music, the pair go over in (very) great detail how the food we throw in our bodies effects performance and weight loss and weight gain.  He also answers questions from his blog over at robbwolf.com.

Livin’ La Vida Low Carb

A guy who’s shed some serious weight cutting down on carbohydrates, Jimmy Moore’s got a great podcast.  Twice a week, he has on a new guest from the low-carb community.  From Dr. Bernstein to Dr. Harris of PaNu Blog.  It’s always interesting and filled with good low-carb info.  Heads up:  I’ll be on there in a few weeks talkin’ shop!

Enjoy!

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Coach Charles Poliquin has 10 great tips for cutting the sugar out of your diet.  The headline at the top claims the tips are for women, but they apply just as much for men.  So eat up, but cut out the sugar!

1.  Don’t add it to foods. This is the easiest and most basic way to immediately reduce the amount of sugar you’re eating. Biggest targets: cereal, coffee and tea.

2.  Don’t be fooled by “healthy sugar” disguises. Brown sugar, turbinado sugar, raw sugar, agave nectar … it’s all pretty much the same thing as far as your body is concerned.

3.  Make a real effort to reduce or eliminate processed carbohydrates. Most processed carbs — breads, bagels, most pastas and snacks — are loaded with flour and other ingredients that convert to sugar in the body almost as fast as pure glucose. That sugar gets stored as triglycerides, which is a fancy way of saying fat.

4.  Watch out for “fat-free” snacks. One of the biggest myths is that if a food is fat-free it doesn’t make you fat. Fat-free doesn’t mean calorie-free, and most fat-free snacks are loaded with sugar.

5.   Shop for color. The more your grocery basket looks like a cornucopia of color, the better. It usually means you’re getting more fresh vegetables and low-glycemic fruits such as berries and cherries.?

6.  Become a food detective. This tip is from author and nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, who adds, “To reduce sugar, you have to know where it is first.” Start reading labels.

7.  Beware of artificial sweeteners. Unfortunately, they can increase cravings for sugar and carbohydrates. They can also deplete the body’s stores of chromium, a nutrient crucial for blood-sugar metabolism.

8.  Do the math. Look at the label where it says “total sugars” and divide the number of grams by four. That’s the number of teaspoons of sugar you are ingesting. This exercise alone should scare the pants off you.

9.  Limit fruit. (Notice I didn’t say “eliminate.”) Fruit has sugar, but it also has fiber and good nutrients. Just don’t overdo it. For weight-loss purposes, keep it to two servings a day and try to make most of them low-glycemic (grapefruit, apples, berries)

10.  Eliminate fruit juice. It’s a pure sugar hit with none of the fiber and less of the nutrients that are found in the fruit itself. Possible exceptions: “Pure” pomegranate juice or any of the other “Just Juices”- but only if you’re not “sugar sensitive”

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For those of you who are big squash nuts like me, you’ve probably realized that cooking your butternut or acorn squash in the oven takes FOREVER. I’ve figured out a great way to cook your squash in under 15 minutes, saving both your time and sanity!

Cut your squash in half and gut the seeds and membrane.

Fill a bowl with an inch of water, placing the squash in face down.

Cook in the microwave for 10 minutes.  (It’ll boil, but don’t worry.)

Take the dish out of the microwave, flip the squash over and take a fork to it, digging into it, allowing the heat to seep deep down in there.

Cook for another 2 minutes, remove and enjoy!

Just that easy.  And now you have a tasty meal that can be cooked at work!

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