More stories on healthful eating (and tell me if I've missed anything!)
• Reviving An Heirloom Corn That Packs More Flavor And Nutrition (Allison Aubrey interviews chef Dan Barber of the famed Blue Hill restaurant--this makes you want to grow heirloom corn, which packs more protein, less sugar). Barber says better flavor goes hand in hand with better nutrition; much of our food is bred to be easy to grow and have long shelf-life -- not for wholesomeness and flavor. Sources of heirloom produce: Seed Savers Exchange, High Mowing Organic Seeds , and Harry Here Farm
Click HERE for Part 1, We are what we eat?
• Julia Child Was Wrong: Don't Wash Your Raw Chicken, Folks (Maria Godoy, NPR) Washing the chicken increases the chances that you'll spread the foodborne pathogens that are almost certainly on your bird all over the rest of your kitchen too.
• The Scary Truth About Chicken (Rachael Moeller Gorman, Men's Health, 12-10-14) Advice? Go organic. Look on the packaging for "Animal Welfare Approved" or "Free Range." Stop rinsing your chicken. Don't consume "medium-rare" chicken. Cook poultry to an internal temperature of at least 165°F—the lowest threshold for killing harmful bacteria.
• Slow Food Quickens the Pace (Mark Bittman, Opinionator, NY Times, 3-26-13). See also Slow Food USA (supporting good, clean, and fair food), which Bittman calls "probably the only international organization that integrates concerns about the environment, tradition, labor, health, animal welfare … along with real cooking, taste and pleasure."
• Curb Those Cravings (blog)
• How Oreos Work Like Cocaine (James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 10-17-13) Oreo cookies may not be more addictive than psychoactive drugs, but the neuroscience of junk food addiction is worth reading about before you go down that aisle in the supermarket.
• Non-GMO Shopping Guide (for if you want to avoid genetically modified food)
• How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger and Gene Stone. Very persuasive on how your diet can affect your health. Basically, eat plant-based foods and not much meat -- and chicken (because processing is so filthy) is particularly bad for you. You can get much of the same information at NutritionFacts.org, which hosts many videos (which make you race to buy things like barberries).
• New USDA Dietary Guidelines Validated by UCSF Sugar Research (Jyoti Madhusoodanan, UCSF, 1-13-16)
• New USDA Dietary Guidelines
• Dr. Mark Hyman On Why Sugar Is A Recreational Drug (MindBodyGreen) Low fat diets started us down this path to obesity.
• Sugar addiction much harder to address than salt (David Burrows, Food Navigator.com, 12-1-15)
• The Food Chain (BBC, listen to podcasts) The economics, science and culture of what we eat. What does it take to put food on your plate?
• Foods That Help Keep the Pounds Off as You Age (Amy Norton, HealthDay, 4-23-15) Keep that glycemic load in check.
• How Gut Bacteria Help Make Us Fat and Thin (Claudia Wallis, Scientific American, 6-1-14) Intestinal bacteria may help determine whether we are lean or obese
• Why do people put on differing amounts of weight? (BBC, 1-26-16) "By comparing the gut microbes of hundreds of study volunteers with their blood sugar responses, Segal and Elinav have been able discover that our microbes might be the key to why our blood sugar spikes with different foods are so individual. The chemicals they produce, it seems, control our bodies to this extent. What is particularly exciting about that fact is that - unlike our gene - we can actually change our microbes." See also, also from BBC: Why do some people put on weight and not others – and can we change it?
• The Health And Safety Of Raw Milk (Kojo Nnandi show, 1-20-16) "...many from the Washington area go out of their way to get their hands on raw milk. Its proponents say it tastes better and has additional health benefits despite the fact that it is illegal to sell in many states and strongly warned against by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We discuss the risks and legal status of raw milk. That's a follow-up to the earlier The Raw Milk Wars (Kojo Nnandi, 7-27-11, transcript). "Recent raids by the FDA have some communities up in arms about whether raw milk is safe to consume. But supporters of unpasteurized milk are rallying a movement that would make it easier to obtain. Kojo explores where food safety, the law and milk collide."
• Are Happy Gut Bacteria Key to Weight Loss? (Moises Velasquez-Manoff, Mother Jones, 4-22-13). Imbalances in the microbial community in your intestines may lead to metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes. What does science say about how to reset our bodies? (Explains difference between prebiotics and probiotics.) See also Should You Take a Probiotic? (Maddie Oatman, Mother Jones). The popular supplements might be more about marketing than beneficial microbes.
• Why no food, not even kale, is ‘healthy’ (Michael Ruhlman, News-Observer, 1-22-16) Food is not healthy; it is nutritious. Kale is packed with nutrients your body needs but if that was all you ate, you would get sick. Pay attention to the words used and what they mean. Refined flour, for example, is actually flour stripped of nutrients. If it's enriched, it's partly to put back in what's been removed. And so on.
• How The Food Industry Manipulates Taste Buds With 'Salt Sugar Fat' (Nell Boescheenstein, The Salt, National Public Radio, 2-26-13). "In his new book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss goes inside the world of processed and packaged foods. "Dealing Coke to customers called "heavy users." Selling to teens in an attempt to hook them for life. Scientifically tweaking ratios of salt, sugar and fat to optimize consumer bliss."
• What’s Up with Bone Broth?
• Fig & Olive, Food Safety And Risks Of “Fresh” Food (Kojo Nnandi show, 1-6-16) A fall salmonella outbreak at D.C’s Fig & Olive restaurant — and foodborne illness outbreaks at Chipotle nationwide — have shone a spotlight on food safety issues at both the high and low ends of the menu price spectrum. Now, a recent investigation by the Washington City Paper reveals that pre-made ingredients from an off-site commissary not only provided menu staples to Fig & Olive, but also played a role in the restaurant’s food safety. We learn more about the Fig & Olive investigation, and explore the role commissaries and off-site food preparers contribute to food safety — and to expectations of what goes on our plates.
• Smoke Points of Various Fats (Michael Chu, Cooking for Engineers). It is believed that fats that have gone past their smoke points contain a large quantity of free radicals which contribute to risk of cancer. A chart listing the oils that can be safely used at higher temperatures. (Thanks to Joan Young Writes for this and other links.)
• Food Technology And How It Shaped The Western Palate (interesting Kojo Nnandi radio interview with Gabriella Petrick)
• For Three Years, Every Bite Organic (Tara Parker-Pope, NYT, reports what Dr. Alan Greene learned from his three-year experiment)
• The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating (Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times 6-30-08)
• Hypertension: Tips for Eating Out in Various Cuisines (Southwestern Medical Center)
• The Intolerant Gourmet: Glorious Food without Gluten and Lactose by Barbara Kafka
• Is there a link between chocolate and depression? Joanne Silberner, NPR, 4-26-10, on the connection between depression and chocolate. Chocolate-lovers, check out Joanne's favorite website, Cnocolate and Zucchini (especially the forums).
• Meatless Monday (recipes and information to help prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer)
• Michael Pollan Offers 64 Ways to Eat Food (Tara Parker-Pope, NYTimes, 1-8-2010)
• Please, don't pass the salt! (blog)
• Recipes for Health (Martha Rose Shulman's articles, recipes, NY Times)
• The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book (2nd edition) by Jessica K. Black. Subtitle: Protect Yourself and Your Family from Heart Disease, Arthritis, Diabetes, Allergies, —and More
• The Autoimmune Solution: Prevent and Reverse the Full Spectrum of Inflammatory Symptoms and Diseases by Amy Myers (full of recipes)
• Reduce Your Cancer Risk (recipes from the AICR Test Kitchen, which also produced a fabulous cookbook: The New American Plate Cookbook
• Snake Oil? Scientific evidence for popular health supplements (great graph showing how much scientific evidence there is to support various supplements)
• Stay Young at Heart (Cooking the Heart-Healthy way, good recipes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
• Best Diets (U.S. News Best Diet Rankings, 2014)
• Vegan Before Dinnertime (Mark Bittman on carnivores eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods)
• A Year of Produce (Jane Pellicciotto)
• Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat (Hank Cardello with Doug Garr)
• Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (Michael Moss)
• Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal (Melanie Warner)
Click HERE for Part 1, We are what we eat?[Back to Top]
COOKING FOR FAMILY MEMBERS WITH ALLERGIES:
• The Gluten-Free Craze, transcript for Diane Rehm's radio broadcast on the topic (WAMU-FM, 88.5 NPR 2-16-12). One point made by panelist Katherine Tallmadge: a gluten-free diet may not provide many essential nutrients, so you must be careful. Try using whole grains from another culture..."that we're not used to... They're emerging in the marketplace and people are using them in recipes instead of the refined grains that create nutritional deficiencies, fiber deficiencies, B-vitamin deficiencies."
• The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book: Great Dairy-, Egg-, and Nut-Free Treats for the Whole Family by Kelly Rudnick
• Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook by Cybele Pascal
• The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen: Recipes for Noodles, Dumplings, Sauces, and More by Laura Russell
• by Annalise G. Roberts
• Gluten-Free Living, a magazine aimed at people with the auto-immune disorder celiac disease
• Gluten-Free on a Shoestring: 125 Easy Recipes for Eating Well on the Cheap by Nicole Hunn
• The Gluten-Free Vegan: 150 Delicious Gluten-Free, Animal-Free Recipes by Susan O'Brien
• The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen: Delicious and Nutritious Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free Dishes by Donna Klein
• The 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes for Your Vegan Kitchen: Delicious Smoothies, Soups, Salads, Entrees, and Desserts by Kelley E. Keough
• Flying Apron's Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book by Jennifer Katzinger
and do read
• Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life by Sandra Beasley
Click HERE for Part 1, We are what we eat?
[Back to Top]
• Reviving An Heirloom Corn That Packs More Flavor And Nutrition (Allison Aubrey interviews chef Dan Barber of the famed Blue Hill restaurant--this makes you want to grow heirloom corn, which packs more protein, less sugar). Barber says better flavor goes hand in hand with better nutrition; much of our food is bred to be easy to grow and have long shelf-life -- not for wholesomeness and flavor. Sources of heirloom produce: Seed Savers Exchange, High Mowing Organic Seeds , and Harry Here Farm
Click HERE for Part 1, We are what we eat?
• Julia Child Was Wrong: Don't Wash Your Raw Chicken, Folks (Maria Godoy, NPR) Washing the chicken increases the chances that you'll spread the foodborne pathogens that are almost certainly on your bird all over the rest of your kitchen too.
• The Scary Truth About Chicken (Rachael Moeller Gorman, Men's Health, 12-10-14) Advice? Go organic. Look on the packaging for "Animal Welfare Approved" or "Free Range." Stop rinsing your chicken. Don't consume "medium-rare" chicken. Cook poultry to an internal temperature of at least 165°F—the lowest threshold for killing harmful bacteria.
• Slow Food Quickens the Pace (Mark Bittman, Opinionator, NY Times, 3-26-13). See also Slow Food USA (supporting good, clean, and fair food), which Bittman calls "probably the only international organization that integrates concerns about the environment, tradition, labor, health, animal welfare … along with real cooking, taste and pleasure."
• Curb Those Cravings (blog)
• How Oreos Work Like Cocaine (James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 10-17-13) Oreo cookies may not be more addictive than psychoactive drugs, but the neuroscience of junk food addiction is worth reading about before you go down that aisle in the supermarket.
• Non-GMO Shopping Guide (for if you want to avoid genetically modified food)
• How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger and Gene Stone. Very persuasive on how your diet can affect your health. Basically, eat plant-based foods and not much meat -- and chicken (because processing is so filthy) is particularly bad for you. You can get much of the same information at NutritionFacts.org, which hosts many videos (which make you race to buy things like barberries).
• New USDA Dietary Guidelines Validated by UCSF Sugar Research (Jyoti Madhusoodanan, UCSF, 1-13-16)
• New USDA Dietary Guidelines
• Dr. Mark Hyman On Why Sugar Is A Recreational Drug (MindBodyGreen) Low fat diets started us down this path to obesity.
• Sugar addiction much harder to address than salt (David Burrows, Food Navigator.com, 12-1-15)
• The Food Chain (BBC, listen to podcasts) The economics, science and culture of what we eat. What does it take to put food on your plate?
• Foods That Help Keep the Pounds Off as You Age (Amy Norton, HealthDay, 4-23-15) Keep that glycemic load in check.
• How Gut Bacteria Help Make Us Fat and Thin (Claudia Wallis, Scientific American, 6-1-14) Intestinal bacteria may help determine whether we are lean or obese
• Why do people put on differing amounts of weight? (BBC, 1-26-16) "By comparing the gut microbes of hundreds of study volunteers with their blood sugar responses, Segal and Elinav have been able discover that our microbes might be the key to why our blood sugar spikes with different foods are so individual. The chemicals they produce, it seems, control our bodies to this extent. What is particularly exciting about that fact is that - unlike our gene - we can actually change our microbes." See also, also from BBC: Why do some people put on weight and not others – and can we change it?
• The Health And Safety Of Raw Milk (Kojo Nnandi show, 1-20-16) "...many from the Washington area go out of their way to get their hands on raw milk. Its proponents say it tastes better and has additional health benefits despite the fact that it is illegal to sell in many states and strongly warned against by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We discuss the risks and legal status of raw milk. That's a follow-up to the earlier The Raw Milk Wars (Kojo Nnandi, 7-27-11, transcript). "Recent raids by the FDA have some communities up in arms about whether raw milk is safe to consume. But supporters of unpasteurized milk are rallying a movement that would make it easier to obtain. Kojo explores where food safety, the law and milk collide."
• Are Happy Gut Bacteria Key to Weight Loss? (Moises Velasquez-Manoff, Mother Jones, 4-22-13). Imbalances in the microbial community in your intestines may lead to metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes. What does science say about how to reset our bodies? (Explains difference between prebiotics and probiotics.) See also Should You Take a Probiotic? (Maddie Oatman, Mother Jones). The popular supplements might be more about marketing than beneficial microbes.
• Why no food, not even kale, is ‘healthy’ (Michael Ruhlman, News-Observer, 1-22-16) Food is not healthy; it is nutritious. Kale is packed with nutrients your body needs but if that was all you ate, you would get sick. Pay attention to the words used and what they mean. Refined flour, for example, is actually flour stripped of nutrients. If it's enriched, it's partly to put back in what's been removed. And so on.
• How The Food Industry Manipulates Taste Buds With 'Salt Sugar Fat' (Nell Boescheenstein, The Salt, National Public Radio, 2-26-13). "In his new book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss goes inside the world of processed and packaged foods. "Dealing Coke to customers called "heavy users." Selling to teens in an attempt to hook them for life. Scientifically tweaking ratios of salt, sugar and fat to optimize consumer bliss."
• What’s Up with Bone Broth?
• Fig & Olive, Food Safety And Risks Of “Fresh” Food (Kojo Nnandi show, 1-6-16) A fall salmonella outbreak at D.C’s Fig & Olive restaurant — and foodborne illness outbreaks at Chipotle nationwide — have shone a spotlight on food safety issues at both the high and low ends of the menu price spectrum. Now, a recent investigation by the Washington City Paper reveals that pre-made ingredients from an off-site commissary not only provided menu staples to Fig & Olive, but also played a role in the restaurant’s food safety. We learn more about the Fig & Olive investigation, and explore the role commissaries and off-site food preparers contribute to food safety — and to expectations of what goes on our plates.
• Smoke Points of Various Fats (Michael Chu, Cooking for Engineers). It is believed that fats that have gone past their smoke points contain a large quantity of free radicals which contribute to risk of cancer. A chart listing the oils that can be safely used at higher temperatures. (Thanks to Joan Young Writes for this and other links.)
• Food Technology And How It Shaped The Western Palate (interesting Kojo Nnandi radio interview with Gabriella Petrick)
• For Three Years, Every Bite Organic (Tara Parker-Pope, NYT, reports what Dr. Alan Greene learned from his three-year experiment)
• The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating (Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times 6-30-08)
• Hypertension: Tips for Eating Out in Various Cuisines (Southwestern Medical Center)
• The Intolerant Gourmet: Glorious Food without Gluten and Lactose by Barbara Kafka
• Is there a link between chocolate and depression? Joanne Silberner, NPR, 4-26-10, on the connection between depression and chocolate. Chocolate-lovers, check out Joanne's favorite website, Cnocolate and Zucchini (especially the forums).
• Meatless Monday (recipes and information to help prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer)
• Michael Pollan Offers 64 Ways to Eat Food (Tara Parker-Pope, NYTimes, 1-8-2010)
• Please, don't pass the salt! (blog)
• Recipes for Health (Martha Rose Shulman's articles, recipes, NY Times)
• The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book (2nd edition) by Jessica K. Black. Subtitle: Protect Yourself and Your Family from Heart Disease, Arthritis, Diabetes, Allergies, —and More
• The Autoimmune Solution: Prevent and Reverse the Full Spectrum of Inflammatory Symptoms and Diseases by Amy Myers (full of recipes)
• Reduce Your Cancer Risk (recipes from the AICR Test Kitchen, which also produced a fabulous cookbook: The New American Plate Cookbook
• Snake Oil? Scientific evidence for popular health supplements (great graph showing how much scientific evidence there is to support various supplements)
• Stay Young at Heart (Cooking the Heart-Healthy way, good recipes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
• Best Diets (U.S. News Best Diet Rankings, 2014)
• Vegan Before Dinnertime (Mark Bittman on carnivores eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods)
• A Year of Produce (Jane Pellicciotto)
• Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat (Hank Cardello with Doug Garr)
• Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (Michael Moss)
• Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal (Melanie Warner)
Click HERE for Part 1, We are what we eat?
COOKING FOR FAMILY MEMBERS WITH ALLERGIES:
• The Gluten-Free Craze, transcript for Diane Rehm's radio broadcast on the topic (WAMU-FM, 88.5 NPR 2-16-12). One point made by panelist Katherine Tallmadge: a gluten-free diet may not provide many essential nutrients, so you must be careful. Try using whole grains from another culture..."that we're not used to... They're emerging in the marketplace and people are using them in recipes instead of the refined grains that create nutritional deficiencies, fiber deficiencies, B-vitamin deficiencies."
• The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book: Great Dairy-, Egg-, and Nut-Free Treats for the Whole Family by Kelly Rudnick
• Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook by Cybele Pascal
• The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen: Recipes for Noodles, Dumplings, Sauces, and More by Laura Russell
• by Annalise G. Roberts
• Gluten-Free Living, a magazine aimed at people with the auto-immune disorder celiac disease
• Gluten-Free on a Shoestring: 125 Easy Recipes for Eating Well on the Cheap by Nicole Hunn
• The Gluten-Free Vegan: 150 Delicious Gluten-Free, Animal-Free Recipes by Susan O'Brien
• The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen: Delicious and Nutritious Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free Dishes by Donna Klein
• The 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes for Your Vegan Kitchen: Delicious Smoothies, Soups, Salads, Entrees, and Desserts by Kelley E. Keough
• Flying Apron's Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book by Jennifer Katzinger
and do read
• Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life by Sandra Beasley