Perfect Roast Turkey

1 14-16 lb young turkey

Brine:

1 cup kosher salt

1 gallon vegetable broth

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 tablespoon all spice

1 gallon ice water

In a large stock pot add all the ingredients. Stir to combine. Remove innards and add turkey to the brine, breast down. Weigh turkey down until fully immersed. Cover and refrigerate for up to two days.

Rub:

2 cups Greek yogurt

3 large garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped

Sea salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F

Combine all the ingredients and stir to combine. Remove turkey from the brine and cover with a thick layer of rub. Add to a large roasting pan and cover with foil.

Bake for 4 hours, basting constantly with the juice in the pan. Remove foil during the last hour of cooking.

This turkey is crispy on the outside, moist on the inside and very flavorful.

Australian Expert Slams US Study "Sugar as Toxic as Alcohol"

www.au.ibtimes.com - February 6th, 2012

One of Australia’s leading diabetes experts has criticized a report of a study published in the journal Nature, on February 2, 2012 that was written by Dr Robert Lustig, Dr Laura Schmidt and Dr Claire Brindis of the University ofCalifornia San Francisco (UCSF).

The co-authors have claimed that high consumption of sugar “largely mirrors the effects of drinking too much alcohol” and should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco. Dr Alan Barclay, head of research at the Australian Diabetes Foundation, has responded to this study by saying, “The commentary is a provocative piece intended to encourage debate. Many of the statements simply do not apply to Australia and on certain issues there is little evidence to support their views.” Dr Barclay says that sugar consumption in Australia has “dropped 23 percent since 1980”, despite the US study claiming that over the past 50 years sugar consumption has “tripled worldwide”.

Dr Barclay said that despite the Australian drop in sugar consumption, obesity had doubled and diabetes had tripled in this time. Dr Barclay noted that Dr Lustig and his team in California believed that attention should be turned to ‘added sugar’, which was defined in the study as any sweetener containing the molecule fructose that is added to food in processing and claimed that fructose could trigger processes that lead to chronic diseases including liver toxicity.

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Molasses Baked Chicken

5 large chicken legs

2 tablespoons good quality molasses

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons honey

2 garlic clove, crushed

1 teaspoon chili powder

sea salt and black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 F

Remove skin off the chicken and cut into three pieces. Combine honey, molasses, garlic, chili and cumin. Add chicken to coat generously. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Arrange chicken on a single layer in a baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes, turning over occasionally. Paste chicken with the juice on the pan for color and extra flavor.

Serve hot. Also good cold.

Toxic Sugar: Should We Regulate It Like Alcohol?

www.huffingtonpost.com - February 2, 2012

Should sugar be regulated like alcohol? That's the premise of a new position paper, published today in the journal Nature by three leading obesity researchers from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

They argue that added sugar in all forms -- sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup alike -- is as perilous to public health as a controlled substance like alcohol. Bolstering their argument with statistics on obesity and other chronic disease, as well as evidence that our bodies process sugar in a way that is harmful to our health, they advocate for regulation to temper sugar consumption worldwide.

The researchers' main impetus came from a 2010 United Nations report revealing, for the first time, that more people are dying from chronic, non-communicable diseases, so-called "lifestyle diseases" like heart disease, than from infectious disease. "The UN announcement targets tobacco, alcohol and diet as the central risk factors in non-communicable disease," wrote the researchers. "Two of these three -- tobacco and alcohol -- are regulated by governments to protect public health, leaving one of the primary culprits behind this worldwide health crisis unchecked."

The paper's lead author, pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig, is well known for this line of argument, most notably in his popular lecture, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" -- a YouTube phenomenon with close to 2 million hits. It's rare that a medical researcher achieves world-wide renown -- or that an endocrinology lecture goes viral, for that matter -- but his argument is a compelling one. He explains that our bodies process fructose in much the same way they process alcohol and other poisons. Sugar isn't just a source of empty calories, responsible for obesity and Type 2 diabetes, in this scenario: at high quantities, it is a full-fledged toxicant and contributes to many of the major fatal non-communicable conditions, like cardiovascular disease and cancer.

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