My one day Vancouver tripped wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, copious amounts of driving aside. I did have to ditch the whole local, organic and grass fed mentality though. I made a trip to Johnny's Meats before the trip and loaded up on jerky and buffalo pepperoni beforehand. We pretty much just snacked on that and then ate salads from salad bars (lonsdale quay market has an unreal one) and sashimi. I will say that I probably ate about 140-150 grams of protein the entire day and had a hard time even thinking of meat today. 


Oh and I made some last minute little chocolate bar things that I'd probably change up quite a bit next time as they were way to cocoa-y and not enough filler. Here's the recipe of what I would do instead of what I did.


Paleo Chocolate and Nut Bars


1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup almonds (hazelnuts would be great too)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3 tbsp honey
2 eggs


Add both seeds and half of the almonds into a food processor and process until fine, but not over processed to a nut butter. Add the remaining almonds and pulse a few times to leave them in larger pieces. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add the cocoa powder, coconut and honey and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs slightly and add them into the seed and nut mixture and mix. You could omit the eggs for an unbaked bar but I wanted to add some protein and wasn't sure how they would hold up traveling if they weren't baked.


You can either spread this onto parchment paper about 1/2 an inch thick or roll into bite sized balls for baking. I decided to opt for the bar method. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (balls might take longer), let cool  slightly before cutting into desired bar sizes. Then let cool completely.


In other news, Robb Wolf put a great article up (written by someone else) about antinutrients that really got me thinking about the way I cook my food. I've always tried to eat at raw as possible when it came to veggies but in this article the author explains very simply how antinutrients are the plants form of repelling it's predators (us) biochemically, they absorb nutrients from the foods they are found in. Meaning we are being robbed of our precious nutrients! 


The 3 main ones are phytates, oxalates and goitrogens. Phytic acid binds itself to calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron and is mostly found in grains and legumes. Not our problem anymore right? The can be broken down and neutralized by soaking, sprouting and fermented. So don't be too worried about serving them to your family if you do. 


Goitrogens effect our thyroid function and are found in some great veggies like brussels sprouts, kale, all cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and collard greens. They too can be avoided by most cooking and fermentation. Which really makes sense.. most of those veggies and typically enjoyed cooked anyways.


Onto oxalates... much like phytates, these bind to vital nutrients and make it hard for the body to absorb them. Spinach, chard, blueberries, beef tops, cocoa and dark chocolate, to name a few, contain oxalates and are also best to serve cooked to avoid the nutrient stunting effect in our body.


So really, as long as you're cooking the veggies that make sense to cook, you should be fine and full of all the vitamins and minerals you need. She mentions that the negative effects of eating these veggies don't outweigh the good they do, but eaten in large amounts and very frequently they can definitely cause a deficiency in the good stuff we think they are giving us. So don't get fixated on just a couple veggies, eat a wide variety of the great produce available to us here in the okanagan. Stay seasonal and make sure you eat as many colours as possible. This will insure you're not depleting yourself of iron while wolfing done 10 cups of raw spinach a day!