Raspberry and Cherry Crumble Pi(e) for one

Happy pi(e) day! I always love to celebrate otherwise insignificant days that have somehow come to revolve around food. There is National Cinnamon Roll Day (which is kind of a Swedish thing), Mardi Gras, several pancake days and so on. This day in particular kind is so geeky and amazing at the same time that you just can't help but loving it. 

I pondered long on which pie to make. There was an idea of making it a banoffee-thingy lurking somewhere inside my mind, and vegan key lime pie had a certain appeal to it as well. As I was brainstorming, I kind of ran out of time. So what better way to save the day than to whip up an extraordinarily simple crumble pie! All you need is frozen or fresh berries and a couple of pantry staples and you're all set and ready to go!

Before going in the oven

Now, I usually make sure to test my recipes more than once before posting them on here but as there is so little that could possibly go wrong with this, I'll share this recipe before pi(e) day has passed. Let me know if you give it a try!

Raspberry and Cherry Crumble Pi(e) for one

Filling:

- 1 cup (roughly) frozen or fresh berries, I opted for frozen sweet cherries and frozen raspberries

- 1 tbsp cornstarch (potato starch/tapioca flour works as well)

- 1/2-1 tbsp sweetener of choice, such as coconut sugar or erythritol

Crumble:

- 4 tbsp rolled oats

- 1 tbsp coconut flour

- 2-3 dates (24g)

- 1/2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce

- 1/2 tbsp melted coconut oil

- Pinch of pure vanilla powder

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C
2. Place berries in a bowl and toss in cornstarch until everything is coated.
3. Transfer to a small pie dish and add your sweetener to the berries by sprinkling/pouring it on top. (If you've gone for all sweet berries such as sweet cherries and strawberries, you may want to omit the sweetener.)
4. In another bowl, combine all the ingredients for the crumble -except for 1 tbsp oats- by blending them with a hand blender until a sticky dough forms.
5. Mix the remaining oats into the dough. It should crumble easily and if not, add a bit more liquid/flour until you've reached the right consistency.
6. Sprinkle the crumble evenly on top of the berries and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until it starts to brown.
7. Let cool for a few minutes and serve with a few spoonfuls of coconut cream (preferably whipped - mine wasn't) and even more fresh berries if you wish.

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... a bacon hot dog donut, by Krispy Kreme!

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Statins increase the risk of diabetes by 46%

This study was published in Diabetologia DOI 10.1007/s00125-015-3528-5

Study title and authors:
Increased risk of diabetes with statin treatment is associated with impaired insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion: a 6 year follow-up study of the METSIM cohort
Henna Cederberg & Alena Stančáková & Nagendra Yaluri & Shalem Modi & Johanna Kuusisto & Markku Laakso
Institute of Clinical Medicine, Internal Medicine, University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital

This study can be accessed at: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/840884

The aim of this work was to investigate the mechanisms underlying the risk of type two diabetes associated with statins. The study included 8,749 non-diabetic men, aged 45–73 years, who were followed up for 5.9 years.

The study found:
(a) Individuals taking statins had a 46% increased risk of developing diabetes compared to individuals not taking statins.
(b)  Insulin sensitivity was decreased by 24% in individuals on statin treatment compared with individuals without statin treatment.
(c)  Insulin  secretion was decreased by 12% in individuals on statin treatment compared with individuals without statin treatment.

Cederberg concluded: "Statin treatment increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 46%, attributable to decreases in insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion".



Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... donuts!!

Krispy Kreme donuts being made.  Hopefully this image isn't appetizing enough to make you want donuts.

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Positive review of my books in Caduceus magazine by Dr Rajendra Sharma

My books "Cholesterol And Saturated Fat Prevent Heart Disease" and "Low Cholesterol Leads To An Early Death" have received positive reviews in issue 80 (page 11) of Caduceus magazine by Dr Rajendra Sharma.

Statin use is significantly associated with cataract requiring surgical intervention

This study was published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology 2014 Dec;30(12):1613-9

Study title and authors:
Statin use and risk for cataract: a nested case-control study of 2 populations in Canada and the United States.

Wise SJ, Nathoo NA, Etminan M, Mikelberg FS, Mancini GB.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25475465

This study examined the effect of statin use on the risk of cataract and need for surgical intervention. Data was derived from two health databases: The British Columbia Ministry of Health database and the IMS LifeLink database (US health claims database). The British Columbia Ministry of Health database included 162,501 male and female cataract patients who were matched with 650,004 control subjects. The IMS LifeLink database comprised of male patients aged 40-85 years; 45,065 cataract patients were matched with 450,650 control subjects.

The study found:

(a) In the British Columbia group, statin users had a 27% increased risk of cataract requiring surgical intervention compared to nonusers.

(b) In the IMS LifeLink group, statin users had a 7% increased risk of cataract requiring surgical intervention compared to nonusers.

Wise concluded: "This study demonstrates that statin use is significantly associated with cataract requiring surgical intervention.".

 

 

 

Links to other studies:

Statin use is associated with a 57% increased risk of age-related cataract

The unintended adverse effects of statins in men and women

Statins increase the risk of cataracts by 20%

Build Your Own Yogurt Maker, Sous-vide Cooker, and All-purpose Fermenter for $40

I make a half gallon of yogurt, twice a month.  I like making my own yogurt for many reasons, but it's a bit of a pain.  Since I make large batches, I can't use a standard yogurt maker.  I often get distracted and over-heat the milk, and the method I use to incubate the yogurt is wildly inefficient (my beloved Excalibur dehydrator).  I also need a constant warm temperature for various other fermentation projects, and that's often difficult to achieve with the tools I have.

I finally found a better solution: a temperature controller that accurately regulates the temperature of a slow cooker by turning an outlet on or off.  I simply set the temperature of the controller, place the temperature probe into the slow cooker, and plug the slow cooker into the temperature controller outlet.  The slow cooker then stays at whatever temperature I want.  Here's what the temperature controller looks like:

Once built, the temperature controller with or without the slow cooker can be used for a variety of other tasks (including regulating cooling devices).  Here are some ideas that come to mind:

• Sous-vide cooker
• High-capacity yogurt maker
• Bread dough riser
• All-purpose thermophilic fermenter (e.g., for tempeh, natto, koji)
• Beer/cider/wine fermentation temperature controller
• Kegerator controller
• Freezer-to-fridge conversion
• Egg incubator
• Soil temperature controller for seed starting

Don't worry, I'm not turning into a food blogger.  But this sous-vide-cooked
chicken I made with my DIY temperature controller was pretty tasty.
I used this recipe from NomNom Paleo.

You can build the whole thing for about $40, including the slow cooker.

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