Food and Nutrition - some articles of note

More and more people are discovering what Udo Erasmus first wrote about in 1986 in "Fats that Heal Fats that Kill" and in the 1999 collection of recipes, articles and references, by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig titled "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats."

Tonight I read an article from the New York Times Sunday Magazine by Michael Pollan basically saying what Erasmus, Fallon and many others have been saying for a while: the "Diet Dictocrats" have it all deadly wrong.

Read the article: Unhappy Meals - Michael Pollan - New York Times Magazine, January 28, 2007.

Pollan's recommendations in a nutshell (and I very much have selectively cut his wonderful list, you need to read the article):

1. "Eat food." ..."Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food."
2. "Avoid food products that come bearing health claims."
3. "Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup."
4. "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible."
5. "Pay more, eat less." (Eat organic, home grown, low pesticide, beautifully, thoughtfully prepared foods.)
6. "Eat mostly plants, especially leaves." (We eat too much based on seeds, not enough plants.)
7. Eat a traditional diet (eat the way traditional cultures eat, not a modern American supermarket diet.) (See Nourishing Traditions" again, above.)
8. "Cook. And if you can, plant a garden."
9. "Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases."

Pollan refers to the July 7, 2002 What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? article by Gary Taubes about the "shocking" news from studies showing that low-fat diets do not impart any healthful benefits. Again, if you read "Nourishing Traditions" or "Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill," that would not come as much of a surprise.

Unfortunately, (as the past 10 years of my life will attest?) the advice is really hard to live. It is difficult to eat healthily when you get up at 7:00, rush to work, grab some coffee, a quick lunch and are home at 7 or 8 too tired to do any creative (or otherwise) cooking. The easiest thing is to eat something quick to prepare and that often doesn't fit the recommendations in any of these books.

Basically, what everyone is saying is this: eat as close to natural food (food from the actual plant or animal, with no processing, and cooked with natural or organic ingredients) as you can. Eat mostly plants, eat small portions, don't worry much about the fats at all, unless you use hydrogenated products, margarine, or supermarket (heat processed) vegetable oils, which are almost as bad as the hydrogenated kinds. Meat from humanely raised animals tastes better, as does any food grown on healthy land, and it is better for you too.

At the very least, I try to make sure I get some vegetables in my lunch or dinner each day, but not even close to enough, I'm sure. I gave up eating anything with corn syrup a few years ago, cut down on my sugar drastically (but could do better,) and no longer eat anything with hydrogenated (trans) fats nor use much vegetable oils. I prefer poultry and meats raised humanely and cooked from scratch, and know from my palate that the skin, fat and bones impart tremendous flavor. (The fashion for skinless, boneless chicken leaves me cold - it tastes like bad cardboard. Why bother? A good rule of thumb: if it tastes that bad, it can't possibly be good for you!) However, the lack of leafy green and other vegetables in my diet is a problem. Ah well, to recognize the problem is the first step towards the solution.

How to change all this on my schedule though? I used to like to cook, now I have absolutely no energy for it when I am working. I guess it is good that I get some good things from Planet Organics, where we can usually order some prepared meals that are fairly healthy.

On a very much related note, Salon.com also had a very interesting article about raw milk and the various arguments for and against. Very interesting reading. Again, more of what Sally Fallon encourages in "Nourishing Traditions," she is very much a proponent of raw milk from spotless dairies, with grass-fed cows and farmers you know and trust. I've tried raw milk cheeses and butter, but I've not yet tried raw milk.

We are all looking for quick fixes in our hectic lives. Hard to go back to the old ways of preparing foods and cooking, which were very time intensive - all day affairs, actually. (As anyone who has cooked a thanksgiving meal can attest.) Our current lifestyle (if you work at a desk in an office, like I do) is health destroying in many ways, and eating factory farmed, manufactured and produced food is one of them. If only I had the money to go to really good restaurants (who use the best local and natural ingredients) every night! I guess I'm going to have to do the best I can to take the time each day to find, prepare and cook good food - but not stress to much about it. All things in moderation.

Salud!