THE OMNIVORE'S SOLUTION

The Truth About Healthcare

Michael Pollan strikes again and says what was scarcely alluded to in President Obama's powerful speech on healthcare.  If he had included the topic of Mr. Pollan's Op-Ed in today's New York Times, I suspect the entire chamber would have exploded into standing applause.  What strikes me as completely brilliant about this Op-Ed is Mr. Pollan's conclusion that eliminating the ability of insurers to cancel or renege on coverage will force them to face the processed food industry as enemies, the cause of their high expenses to cover chronic, diet-induced diseases.  One monolith against another!  Step one is to put on the band aid (coverage for all) - step two is to prevent the injury from re-occurring or occurring in the first place!  Star Wars here we come.

Safety During Flu Season

OK - a little off topic for this blog.  But having just finished two grueling weeks of intestinal flu, one for me, one for Gourmenator, this article from The Daily Green on hand soaps that don't use the dreaded Triclosan caught my attention.  Those in the know are quite wary of hand sanitizers and it was good to see that there are still some that kids can use during this flu season.  So I posted this for all the lovely Moms in the 'hood in case they are too busy packing lunches to be surfing the web.  It all boils down to reading labels and avoiding Triclosan which is being blamed for antibiotic resistance and the spread of MRSA.  Be sure to read all the different names that can mask Triclosan:  Microban, Irgasan (DP 300 or PG 60), Biofresh, Lexol-300, Ster-Zac or Cloxifenolum.

Time for Lunch Campaign

Slow Food, USA, is featuring a Labor Day Eat-in to show support for healthy school lunches.  To find one near you (for instance, there is one in Bethesda), follow this link.  There are events in all 50 states.  While you are at the site, sign the petition for Healthy School Lunches.  If you can't find an event close enough, have one of your own - it's easy!  Slow Food is veering in a new direction - excellent!

Finally!!!

The Best Hot-Weather Read Imaginable!

This week in the mid-Atlantic has brought undoubtedly the most miserable sauna-like weather I have experienced out here since leaving the Chicago area.  That, coupled with a bout of "je ne sait quoi" put me flat on my back for a few days.  Fortunately, my dear friend Terra Brockman, writer and founder of The Land Connection, just sent me a copy of her incredible new book about her brother Henry Brockman and the family farm:  The Seasons on Henry's Farm.  

I spent quite a few days and evenings with Terra on Henry's Farm a few years back - LONG days starting at 4:30 or 5 AM and going until late evening, usually photographing the life of an incredible extended organic farming family, although sometimes pitching in as the work load seemed insurmountable.  Anyone who buys food raised by hand, forages at farm markets, or keeps an urban garden, will find this book an incredibly wonderful read!  Anyone who thinks there is no difference between sustainable and conventional food, large and small scale growers, owes it to him or herself to read this book.  I cried, I laughed, I tasted, I toiled, I experienced life in all its complexities on a multi-generational organic farm.  Terra's writing style is delightfully engaging, erudite, yet earthy and sentimental. 

I predict that this book will be as important as Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.  In Defense of Food tells us why we need this kind of farming, The Seasons on Henry's Farm shows us the commitment, knowledge, drive, and tenacity it takes to DO this kind of farming.  You won't be able to put it down!

Nutrient Dense Delicious Kale Chips

We have friends that have had so much kale in their garden this year that they are begging for kale recipes from everyone.  With this recipe, we have a hard time keeping kale on hand!  Everyone in the family likes these so much that they have been known to cause food “irritations”  (aka: fights!).  “You ate some while I was away at work!”, “Well, that doesn’t mean that you have to finish them now!”.  They really are that addictive and with the nutritional yeast they are a great source of protein, minerals, B vitamins, and especially the elusive B12, for those who are vegans or eating a lot less meat and dairy.  Plus, enjoy the healthy fats in cashews, vitamins in roasted or raw red pepper and the wonderful anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric.

At any rate, whatever your motivation, try eating one of these and then one of those artificial cheese crunch snack pieces (need I name them?) and see which wins.  Hands down it’s the kale chip.   Kale, by the way, scores highest on the nutrient charts of green vegetables or on Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s MANDI chart.  I heartily share his view that we overeat when we aren’t getting enough nutrients in the food that we consume.  How fun can it be to eat something this healthful?

Recipe for Kale Chips

1 bunch organic Kale washed, large spines removed and torn into large bite-sized pieces

Sauce:
1 c. raw cashews (soaked 2 hours covered with water)
1 roasted red bell pepper, seeded  (jarred roasted red peppers are fine) or
1 raw red bell pepper chopped in pieces
juice of a juicy lemon (at least 1 T – 2 is better)
1 T nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp turmeric

Drain cashews of soaking water.  Put sauce ingredients in medium bowl of food processor and process until fairly smooth. Put the kale pieces into a large bowl and pour the mixture on top. Mix with your hands, kneading the kale until all the pieces are coated. (Messy, but a great kid sport!)  Spread onto Teflex dehydrator sheets, separating pieces as much as possible and dehydrate at 140 for 2 hrs and 110 for 5 hours or so until crunchy.  Alternatively, cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, spread kale on top and bake at lowest over setting (150 – 200) for several hours until chips are dry and crunchy.  Store, in the highly unlikely chance that there are any leftovers, in tightly covered glass jars.  I truly have never met a person that didn’t love these!  Keeps at least a week, although ours only last a day or two, and that is with a fair amount of hand slapping and dirty looks (just kidding, sort of).  I’m not responsible for any family squabbles that break out over these!

Salad Bursting with Flavors

Summer can be overwhelming with the variety of fruits and vegetables begging for attention.  Sometimes, keeping things simple and limiting the number of ingredients provides the most surprising and tantalizing flavors, not to mention the plethora of vitamins and nutrients present.

6 C organic maché (lambs lettuce)
6 kumquats, thinly sliced
1 C organic strawberries, sliced
1 avocado, halved and sliced crosswise in 1/4 inch sections
1 organic cucumber, thinly sliced
2 slices sweet onion, cut into sections

Dressing:
3 T olive oil
1 heaping T crème fraiche (or sour cream)
juice of 2-3 key limes or 1 large lime
1 shallot finely chopped
2-3 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 T poppy seeds (optional)

Arrange maché in salad bowl.  Place rest of ingredients artfully on top of greens.  Thoroughly mix dressing ingredients, adjust to taste, and drizzle over salad.

Maché, aka lambs lettuce or corn salad, is a special green that is very high in Omega 3’s, much like purslane.  It is a hardy green, but one that  has a mild taste like spinach.  This salad absolutely sparkles with the tang of kumquats, the sweetness of strawberries, the crunch of maché, and the yin-yang of lime and honey.  Enjoy! 

Creatures in Food Means Healthy

Well, not always - as anyone who came with us to see the opening of Food, Inc. in DC will attest.  But this article from the NYT by one of my favorite journalists wistfully talks of a bygone era with which we all hope to form a reconnection.  By Nicholas Kristoff from the New York Times.  For those of you adverse to using your thumb - here it is:

Lettuce From the Garden, With Worms   
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: June 21, 2009

Growing up on a farm near Yamhill, Ore., I quickly learned to appreciate the difference between fresh, home-grown foods and the commercial versions in the supermarket.

Store-bought lettuce was always lush, green and pristine, and thus vastly preferable to lettuce from my Mom's vegetable garden (organic before we called it that). Her lettuce kept me on my toes, because a caterpillar might come crawling out of my salad.

We endured endless elk and venison - my Dad is still hunting at age 90 - or ate beef from steers raised on our own pasture, but "grass-fed" had no allure for me. I longed for delicious, wholesome food that my friends in town ate. Like hot dogs.

Over the years, though, I've become nostalgic for an occasional bug in my salad, for an apple that feels as if it were designed by God rather than by a committee. More broadly, it has become clear that the same factors that impelled me toward factory-produced meat and vegetables - cheap, predictable food - also resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet.

I've often criticized America's health care system, and I fervently hope that we're going to see a public insurance option this year. But one reason for our health problems is our industrialized agriculture system, and that should be under scrutiny as well.

A terrific new documentary, "Food, Inc.," playing in cinemas nationwide, offers a powerful and largely persuasive diagnosis of American agriculture. Go see it, but be warned that you may not want to eat for a week afterward. (It was particularly unnerving to see leftover animal bits washed over with ammonia and ground into "hamburger filler." If you happen to be eating a hamburger as you read this, I apologize.)

"The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000," Michael Pollan, the food writer, declares in the film.

What's even more eerie is the way animals are being re-engineered. For example, most Americans prefer light meat to dark, so chickens have been redesigned to produce more white meat by growing massive breasts that make them lopsided. Who knew that breast augmentation was so widespread in chicken barns?

"When they grow from a chick and in seven weeks you've got a five-and-a-half pound chicken, their bones and their internal organs can't keep up with the rapid growth," explained Carole Morison, a Maryland chicken farmer who allowed the film crew into her barns. "A lot of these chickens here, they can take a few steps and then they plop down. It's because they can't keep up with all the weight that they're carrying.

"Huge confinement operations for livestock and poultry produce very cheap meat and eggs. But at what cost?

The documentary introduces us to Barbara Kowalcyk, whose two-and-a-half-year-old child, Kevin, went from healthy to dead in 12 days, after he ate a hamburger tainted with E. coli bacteria. Even after his death, it took weeks for the tainted meat to be recalled.

"Sometimes it seems that industry was more protected than my son," Ms. Kowalcyk complains. She has a point. Agribusiness companies exercise huge political influence, and industry leaders often fill regulatory posts. The Food and Drug Administration consequently dozed, and the number of food safety inspections plunged.

There is some evidence that pathogens, including E. coli, become much more common in factory farming operations. Move feedlot cattle out to a pasture for five days, and they will lose 80 percent of the E. coli in their gut, the film says. And the massive routine feeding of antibiotics to farm animals is a disgrace that reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics in treating sick humans.

Pathogens are now seeping into the unlikeliest foods. On Friday, the F.D.A. advised consumers not to eat Nestlé cookie dough - cookie dough! - because of concerns about E. coli contamination, after reports of illness in 28 states. American agribusiness truly is wondrous. When I moved back to the United States after years of living in China, I remember visiting a supermarket and feeling a near-religious awe. Yet one consequence of this wondrous system is that unhealthy calories are cheaper than nutritious ones: think of the relative prices of Twinkies and broccoli. We even inflict unhealthy food on children in the school lunch program, and one in three Americans born after 2000 is expected to develop diabetes. The solutions aren't simple, and may involve paying more for what we eat, although we may save some of that in reduced health costs for diabetes and heart disease.

In any case, "Food, Inc." notes that we as consumers do have power. "You can vote to change the system," it declares, "three times a day." 

Sun’s Back Smoothie

Finally, that yellow orb in the sky that disappeared from the Mid-Atlantic region for at least a month has re-appeared!  That calls for a bright green, energizing, get-ready-for-gardening smoothie.  Yet another drink containing the queen of greens – frozen kale with all it’s nutrient goodness.  Freezing kale rids it of the strong flavor and leaves you with pure green nutrition.  Just wash it, bag it and stick it in the freezer.  Pumpkin seeds are loaded with zinc and unsaturated fatty acids.  My favorite oranges are the summer Valencia oranges – no not local, never did find an orange tree in DC area yards!  Wait, later we will have local fig smoothies.  Just when you don’t want to see another citrus fruit after a chilly winter, the Valencias come in to season and are beautiful sliced in salads, inducted into sauces and desserts, and yes, smoothies for pure vitamin C goodness.  Toss that with some other power house nutrients and you have a jump start to your morning, even without the morning cappuccino.

1 C filtered water
2 Valencia oranges, roughly peeled (or juice oranges)
4 leaves of frozen kale
1 handful pumpkin seeds
1 T coconut cream concentrate
1 T Dr. Ben Kim’s greens (or your green powder of choice)

Toss all into your powerful blender, gradually increase speed and blend at high for 30-45 seconds, or until liquid.  Pour into a beautiful red wine glass, walk among the flowers, and enjoy!

Note:  Dr. Ben Kim’s greens, like many high-quality green powders contains pre and pro-biotics, all manner of seaweeds, algae, and high protein, alkalizing nutrients.  A glass of this is like a vitamin pill, only better because it is all whole foods.

As Promised – Cocoa Kale Smoothie!

This powerful smoothie guarantees energy for long bike rides or hiking and is a fuel of choice for at least one neighborhood triathlete - go Rob!  For a few neighbors who have requested a way to combine raw cacao and frozen kale in a smoothie – here it is.  We experimented until we found a kid-friendly (i.e. un-kalish) way of combining raw cacao powder with frozen kale.  Freezing kale removes the cabbage-like taste from it yet still preserves all the calcium, carotenoids, fiber and vitamin A.  I use either lacinato kale or curly kale.  

Simply wash the whole leaves, stick in a plastic bag with a twisty and put in the freezer.  Keeps a good week, by which time you will have used it up in your daily smoothies.  This is a great way to get your young ones to drink a powerful green vegetable disguised as chocolate!

Kale, when frozen, crumbles readily – even the stems.  As a result, it is difficult to measure.  Hence, I go by handfuls of large crumbles of kale.  I simply reach into the bag and grab a handful of something, squeezing it a little to extract it from the bag.  This smoothie works best in a high-powered blender – did I say that the Vitamix was the best investment we ever made?  But other powerful blenders will work.

Cocoa Kale Smoothie for two and two little ones

2 C filtered water or milk substitute of choice
2 rounded T raw cacao powder
1 T coconut cream concentrate
1 1/2 C strawberries, stemmed  (fresh or frozen)
2 T ground golden flax seed
2 large dates, pitted
1 T organic agave syrup
1 C ice cubes if using fresh strawberries

Toss all into blender and gradually increase speed to high – blend until liquefied, but not heated!  You have an elixir loaded with good antioxidants, real food, and an energy boost that is sustainable.  I’m still working on getting Dr. Ben Kim’s greens (a Hodges Bottom elixir – those in the loop know) into a cacao smoothie – which should happen tomorrow.  But raw kale is an excellent start!