To Live More Fully

13 Topics

Before we get to this week’s menu, we should pause for a moment to review the 1^st quarter, just finished.  The Healthy Changes thus far follow a pattern of 13 topics that repeat each quarter.  Each time we address a topic we add to what was said before as we build a new food culture based on the best of tradition, scripture, and science.  The most applicable scripture is known as the Word of Wisdom.  Our goal is a food reformation; the 52 Healthy Changes are a cure for the dietary errors of the 20^th century that gave us the modern American diet (MAD) and a host of modern chronic diseases. 

Here are the topics of the 1^st quarter (with the 1^st quarter’s Healthy Change in brackets):

1. Reduce sugar intake (one 12 oz. soda per week).
2. Eat only healthy fats (avoid deep fat fried foods).
3. Live purposefully (write a weekly menu).
4. Rediscover traditional meals (don’t skip breakfast).
5. Live a muscular lifestyle (get 30 minutes of sweaty exercise most days).
6. Eat vegetables (buy enough vegetables for 5 daily servings).
7. Eat more fruits and nuts (eat antioxidant rich foods, like berries).
8. Choose healthy snacks (prepare a daily snack plate, or bag).
9. Restrict meat consumption (eat twice as much plant protein as animal protein).
10. Eat whole grains (eat bread with more fiber than sugar).
11. Cook (it’s best to cook your own food, or be on good terms with a cook).
12. More ways to eat vegetables (eat a green salad, or smoothie, daily).
13. Special topics (get a little midday sunshine most days).

We've put together a report card, listing each Healthy Change for the first quarter and asking you to judge how well you are living each one (with a score of 1 to 5). Perhaps we'll have a prize for the reader with the best score?

The Good Word

I’ve been thinking about the scriptures this past weekend.  Scripture is one of the oracles, along with tradition and science, that guide Word of Wisdom Living.  The Bible opens in Genesis with a poetic retelling of the Creation story. Between the creation of earth and man, we read about the creation of our food supply—of the sun that shines upon the earth and makes the seeds to grow and yield fruit; then the creation of living creatures, those of the sea, the winged fowl, and finally the animals that walk the land. 

In these Creation steps, Genesis records the repeating benediction, “And God saw that it was good.”  There are clues here, I believe, to how we should eat.  I perceive a blessing of the food supply; I imagine God giving us a meaningful stare, a nudge towards the food He created and meant us to eat.

If we stand back enough to take a fresh look at the MAD diet, we see that the industrialization of food made a good business for Food Inc. but a dietary very different from what God created.  Such a contrast: God's work on the one hand and man's factory food on the other.  As we work our way through the 52 Healthy Changes—week by week, rediscovering the traditional food of the Bible—don’t you feel a growing reverence for food as originally designed?  I think learning how to cook should begin with reading about the Creation of the ingredients—and a reverence for food in the natural form.

This Week’s Menu

The Bible teaches the purpose of life, which leads me to this thought:  We don’t cook and eat well because we fear death—though I’m in no rush to experience it.  Rather we eat well because we love life and wish to experience its full potential.  To that end, here’s what we ate this week:

Monday (originally on Sunday when we had guests, but we used it for leftovers on Monday)

• Skip’s Potato Soup
• Fruit and Spinach Salad
• Sourdough bread
• Ice cream with strawberries

Tuesday

• Classic Shrimp Salad (recipe of the week)
• Asparagus (yes, a lot of green, but the asparagus was peaking)
• Ice cream with strawberries (lest the berries go bad)

Wednesday

• Stuffed bell peppers (using hamburger from the freezer and leftover rice)
• Skip’s Peanut Coleslaw (we substituted pineapple and cashews for the peanuts)

Thursday

• Beth’s Vegetarian Enchiladas (3 batches; one for a friend, and froze one)
• House salad

Please comment:  If you didn't share your vitamin D test history in the last post, go there and add your experience.  Due to an Internet outage we ran late this week so this post will just be up one day.  This month is National Infertility Awareness Week, which will influence our next post.

Let The Sun Shine

The quick answer:  Aside from a healthy diet and exercise, the next best thing you can do is to get enough sunshine to maintain a healthy serum vitamin D level.  It’s good for your mood and can help prevent a long list of diseases.

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About Vitamin D

It’s essential to eat vitamin-rich food because the body can’t produce them, with one exception:  With a little sunshine, the body can make it’s own vitamin D.  Unfortunately, the weathermen and dermatologists have scared us out of getting enough sunshine.  Ever had your vitamin D level tested?

Sufficient D is essential to good health; vitamin D receptors are found in cells all through your body.  The growing list of conditions where vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor includes seasonal affective disorder (SAD), osteoporosis, muscle and joint pain including back pain, certain cancers (breast, ovarian, colorectal, and prostate), obesity and diabetes, stroke or heart attack, G.I. diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or Crohn’s disease, and immunological diseases such as MS and Parkinson’s disease.  It’s a long list. 

Vitamin D deficiency increases as you move away from the equator.  In the Sunbelt you can get adequate D year around, though it takes longer in winter.  But if you live above the 40^th latitude parallel, roughly a line through Portland, OR, Salt Lake City, and New York City, you can ski all winter in your bathing suit and not get enough D.

There’s an annual cycle to your vitamin D level.  For most, our D level peaks in the last sunny days of summer, then hits rock bottom as winter turns to spring.  This is the point when you feel the blues, lack energy, or suffer muscle aches.  Because spring just started, your D is likely at its annual low-point (unless you’ve just back from sunbathing on a beach in Costa Rica). 

IOM Report

Americans love to take pills.  Maybe it’s because we’re in a rush and taking a pill is a quick fix, but we eat a lot of pills, including vitamin pills.  We get into vitamin fads—remember the vitamin C and E eras?   Usually these end badly; the hoped-for benefit proves elusive, or side effects present.  Because of the growing interest in vitamin D, the Institute of Medicine, perhaps the world’s most prestigious scientific body, was asked to study the vitamin D issue lest we run off on another pill fad.

The IOM report, issued in late 2010, disappointed many because of its cautiousness.  Basically, if you set the minimum level for serum vitamin D at 20 nanograms/mL, most people are OK.  But if you set the level at 30, as some labs do, then up to 80% are deficient.  Some doctors argue that 40-50 is a good range but the IOM couldn’t find sufficient evidence to support a target higher than 20-30.  (The IOM report also looked at calcium supplements and found little support, with the exception of girls in their teens.)

The N. Y. Times ran an article on the IOM report, repeating the message that vitamin D and calcium pills may not be indicated for most.  The article unleashed a torrent of reader comments, many from thoughtful people in the Northeast, the region with the least sunshine for vitamin D.  Readers expressed real anger that there wasn’t better guidance on the optimum vitamin D level, or on the best methods to maintain vitamin D in the winter.  This is a common problem in nutrition—after the billions spent on research, we have these basic questions without a clear answer.

The Vitamin D Solution

The best book I’ve seen on vitamin D is The Vitamin D Solution, written by Dr. Michael Holick, PhD, MD.  Holick suggests a 3-step solution of 1) testing, to know where you are, 2) sensible sunshine, and 3) safe supplementation when sunshine isn’t available. 

The book makes two remarkable statements about vitamin D and cancer:

First, on the benefit of getting sensible sunshine: “vitamin D could be the single most effective medicine in preventing cancer, perhaps even outpacing the benefits of . . . a healthy diet”.  We hear all the time that we should avoid avoid sunshine to prevent skin cancer, which brings us to the second point.

Second, the book quotes Dr. Edward Giovannucci on the benefits of sunshine for vitamin D versus the risk of skin cancer:  sufficient “vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer”.    I like those odds: 30 better outcomes at the risk of one bad outcome.

I recently saw my dermatologist.  She’s a charming woman who cares about her patients.  We talked about the trade-off between getting enough vitamin D the natural way—by sunshine—versus the risk of skin cancer.  The good doctor pointed out that in southern California, you could get sufficient vitamin D with 15 minutes of sunshine on most days.  Of course you have to show a little skin, so I do my workouts outdoors around noontime, wearing shorts and shirts without sleeves (except when it’s cold).  When no one’s around I take off my shirt, but I try to avoid the “pinkness” that’s the first stage of a sunburn. 

I’ve got a physical check-up scheduled that includes a test for vitamin D.  I’ll let you know how it comes out.  I’ll be happy if I have a serum level of 30 ng/mL, the upper range recommended by the IOM.  A number of people have told me their vitamin D levels—I’m forward about asking—and I’ve yet to meet anyone with a value of at least 30.  Per the IOM, this is a big problem, which brings us to this week's Healthy Change:

Please note the term "a little" sunshine, sun that burns or turns the skin pink may be harmful and should be avoided.  (If you live in the northern latitudes, don’t tolerate the sun, or are concerned about your vitamin D, consult your doctor.)

Please comment:  Want to share your experience with vitamin D, or how you tested?  Do you live in the northern latitudes?  If so, what do you do in winter to maintain vitamin D.

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change reminder card. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

The Love in Your Food

The quick answer:  At the end of the day, if you want to be healthy, you have to cook (or be on good terms with a cook).  Cookin' is how the love gets into food.

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Little House on the Prairie

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), she of the Little House books about the homesteading era of her childhood, made a visit to her daughter in San Francisco in 1915.  Her daughter, I surmise, had a home with running water, a gas stove, and maybe even an electric toaster.  Laura is moved to exclaim: “Aladdin with his wonderful lamp had no more power than the modern woman in her kitchen . . .”

Yet this is the 20^th century irony, seen clearly now in history’s rearview mirror:  The more convenient kitchens became, the less they were used.  Once you start down the laborsaving pathway, there’s no logical stopping point.  The Industrial Revolution provided better kitchens, but it also provided an alternative to cooking—factory food.  Whether the factory was a flourmill in Minnesota, or a fast food restaurant down the street, we slowly lost control of how food was made.  Have you noticed how factory foods are more often addictive than healthy?  It makes a good business. 

Now in the 21^st century we have a new goal:  Use modern means to reinvent traditional home cooking.  It’s a new menu now, more about soups (including stews and chili dishes) salads, vegetables, and whole-grain breads.  It’s about fruits as our main sweet, and a little meat for flavor. 

A Food Hero

In the last post we introduced Barbara Reed, PhD, once Chief Probation Officer for Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  Drawing on her own experience with ill-health, Dr. Reed theorized that criminal behavior came from bad thinking and wondered if poor nutrition wasn’t more the cause of crime, than any inherent evil in young people.  She started a program of testing young people entering probation, using tests that looked for hypoglycemia and lead exposure (both causes of bad decisions), but also assessed dietary habits.  Based on their findings, young delinquents were counseled on diet, exercise, and given needed treatment.

This was an unusual approach.  Concerns about crime in society have made harsher punishment a popular remedy but this hasn’t reduced recidivism.  The United States, the land of the free, has the highest percent of jailed people in the world.  Dr. Reed’s probationers were likely familiar with handcuffs but no one had taken them by the hand before and tried to understand the cause of their behavior.  The exceptional results of her innovative program made her famous.  While 2/3 of young criminals are typically back in jail within three years, only 11% of Dr. Reed’s kids got in trouble again. 

So I consider Dr. Barbara Reed Stitt—she later married nutrition author Paul Stitt—a nutrition hero.  And I love that her solution to crime was found in a kitchen, rather than a jail cell.

Staying Alive

In a prior post I told how my Mom—some years ago—remarked that her friends had all stopped cooking.  They had worked hard in the kitchen all their lives and as their husbands retired from work, they retired from their kitchens.  Now they ate out, or got some take out; they would warm food in the microwave but they didn’t cook.  It didn’t take too long to see the result.  Her friends and their husbands are all gone now, excepting one who has dementia.  Mom, in her 90s, is still chugging along, managing her home, driving her car, organizing old pictures into scrapbooks, and exercising when she can.  She’s cooking for one now, but she’s still cooking.

Saving Money           

It’s often claimed that it’s cheaper to buy factory food than to cook your own.  Don’t believe it.  You’ll always save by buying whole foods and cooking them yourself.  Fast food doesn’t save money—it just saves learning how to cook.  I’m not even sure that fast food saves time, once you consider the time spent driving to and fro and waiting in line.  And we haven’t counted the medical costs yet.

The Family Circle

Love is what glues a family together.  And when families get together, it’s most often around the dinner table.  While you’re sharing food, you share your lives.  This is where the daily happenings are observed and celebrated.  This is where traditions are born and preserved.  And it’s where day by day we polish the bonds that bring us together.

Think back to your childhood.  How many memorable moments happened around the family dinner table?  The family I grew up in swelled to ten children but we never gave up the smallish dinner table with built-in benches on two sides.  Dinnertime was the best part of the day.  That’s when the daily cares were set aside and the family was safely together again. 

The love within the family, I believe, begins with the love cooked into the daily meals.  Cooking is a form of caring.  Mom, or dad, busy in the kitchen, is a sign not only of something for dinner—it's assurance you’re a family. 

Cooking 101

This year the weekly posts include a menu and a recipe.  We’ll share 52 recipes that have this goal:  Rediscover the traditional diet of our ancestors using the best of the modern improvements.  For this reason we call them gateway recipes because they introduce us to the new dietary of Word of Wisdom living. 

Please comment:  Share what works best for you in home cooking.  What are your best new ideas for cooking?  How do you get your family to help with dinner?

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Love reading old cookbooks?  A cookbook is a snapshot of the nutrition beliefs of its time.  Gathered together they document the 20^th century drift that produced the modern American diet (MAD).  Anyone, it seems, can write a cookbook—even an imaginary person like Betty Crocker, the #1 best seller.  It helps if the cookbook is funny—Irma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking is the #3 all time best seller.  It also helps if the cookbook offers the promise of skinny—In The Kitchen with Rosie, a guide to low-calorie cuisine by Oprah’s cook, was the best selling book of 1995.

It’s more complicated for the “healthy” cookbooks because there’s so much confusion over what to eat.  The bestseller in this category is The New American Heart Association Cookbook.  Unfortunately the AHA falsely believed that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol was the main cause of heart disease.  We wasted a generation on that false premise and you still find people who should know better steering us away from saturated fats.  We discussed heart disease last hear here and here and we’ll return to the subject later in 2012. 

Healthy Cookbooks

There are some prolific writers of healthier cookbooks.  Alice Waters launched the local food movement, publishing cookbooks from her Berkeley Chez Panisse restaurant for 40 years.  Mark Bittmin wrote the “Minimalist” column in the N. Y. Times for 13 years and penned a series of best selling cookbooks, starting with Leafy Greens in 1995. 

We asked our own readers about their favorite healthy cookbooks.  Nearly 30 titles were suggested (see comments) but two tied for first place:

• Natural Everyday by Heidi Swanson
• America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, now in a 3^rd edition.  (The Apple Crisp was highly recommended.) 

This Week’s Recipe

This week’s Healthy Change requires a recipe for whole wheat bread.  A good source of health information can be found at the Whole Grains Council.  They document these health benefits for whole grains:

• Stroke risk reduced 30-36%
• Risk of type 2 diabetes reduced 21-30%
• Heart Disease risk reduced 25-28%
• Better weight management

Whole Wheat Bread

We developed a recipe last year but I actually preferred the recipe by reader NanO, which I slightly revised:

Ingredients (Makes 4 loaves)

4-1/2 cups warm filtered water

1 T yeast

½ cup vital wheat gluten

1 each 500 mg vitamin C pill, crushed (helps gluten develop)

4 cups freshly ground hard red whole-wheat flour

2 cups whole white wheat (or enriched flour)

½ cup healthy oil (Canola, etc.)

½ cup honey (or agave nectar)

1 T salt, rounded

4-6 cups freshly ground whole-wheat flour

Directions

1. Combine first 6 ingredients (up to, but not including oil) well and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Add oil, honey, salt and 4 cups of whole wheat four. 
3. Knead in mixer 6-8 minutes, slowly adding last 2 cups of flour as needed for flour to pull away from bowl and form a ball that is not too stiff.  Let sit for 10 minutes. 
4. Form into 4 equal loaves and place in oiled bread pan.  Let rise until height doubles.  Bake at 350 degrees 35-40 minutes.

Note:  I like to grind the wheat on a hand grinder—it’s a good workout.  We don’t stock vitamin C pills so I add the juice of one orange—it seems to work.  The beautiful wife prefers that white flour or enriched flour be included for a lighter loaf so I includes 2 cups in the recipe; if you prefer a “wheatier” bread, use all whole hard red whole wheat flour.  The trick when adding the final flour is to get the dough stiff enough to not be sticky, but not too stiff.  Just takes a little experience.  I warm the oven slightly, then turn it off, and let the bread rise in a warm oven.  I do remove the bread while the oven is heated to 350.

Sourdough comment:  Reader Lindsey noted the merits of sourdough bread.  Sources cite benefits such as greater phytate reduction, lower glycemic index, and improved gluten digestion.  Should we include a recipe for sourdough whole wheat bread in our 52 breakthrough recipes?  Please share your sourdough experience.

The Bread of Life

The quick answer:  Your bread should be like your breakfast cereal, whole grain with more natural fiber than added sugar.

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Connecting

Peering into the distant past in search of ancestors can be fascinating.  The TV program Who Do You Think You Are?, follows celebrities as they discover their origins.  Reba McEntire, the country music singer, followed an ancestor from the 1700s that came to America as an indentured servant.  He came at the tender age of ten but survived to prosper in the New World.  Reba traced his steps back to England to learn his story.  Walking in the footprints of our ancestors helps us to understand who we are. 

Want to connect with your ancient ancestors by doing something they did?  Make bread.  There’s something primeval about making bread, especially if you hand knead.  The traditional ingredients—flour, water, yeast, salt, honey, and oil or butter—have scarcely changed in mankind’s history.  One pillar of the food reformation is the rediscovery of traditional whole grain breads.

Americans eat their weight in flour each year, roughly speaking.  Most of this flour is eaten as bread but only 10% of flour, on average, is eaten whole; 90% is refined.  Whole flour is rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and other needed nutrients.  So this post is about the importance of whole grain bread.

Standard Bread

How did flour, and bread, lose these needed nutrients?  They were lost in man’s restless and relentless search for the next new thing.  In the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair flour from a new invention, the roller mill, was introduced.  The roller mill efficiently separated the bran and germ from wheat, leaving flour that was white and sweet, but lacking in nutrition.  Pastries made of this refined flour became a new taste sensation and healthier flours were soon pushed to the sidelines.  Brown bread was out; white was in.

With each generation, as human health declined, reform movements called for a return to whole grain flours.  Governments are indifferent to the health of the people except at wartime.  Wars can’t be won without strong bodies.  In England, before World War I, the Bread Reform League restored whole grain breads with a law defining standard bread.  It’s said you can still buy standard bread in the UK.

In the U.S., at the start of World War II, the poor health of army recruits was a concern.  Congress quickly approved enriched flour, in which synthetic forms of a few of the missing ingredients were returned as additives.  For better or worse, we still use this so-called enriched flour, though further adjustments have been made.

Waking Up In The Bread Aisle:

Last year the beautiful wife and I spent a Friday night in the bread aisle of a typical grocery store, searching out the healthy breads.  It was our most widely commented food post.  We applied two criteria to the breads:

1. The flour must be whole grain.
2. The grams of natural fiber must exceed the grams of sugar.

The first rule was more for information because natural fiber can only exceed added sugar, if whole grains are used.  Of the 70 breads available that night, just five met the rule.  Three were from Oroweat; Milton’s and Food For Life each had one. 

In a recent post, The Good Breakfast, we applied the more-fiber-than-sugar rule to breakfast cereals.  The rule is a good guide for all cereal products regularly eaten.

In this post, we shared a reader’s time-tested recipe for whole wheat bread.

Please comment.  What is your family’s favorite bread?  Do you have a great recipe to share?  Any bread making tips to share?

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

Meat Sparingly

The quick answer:  In the end, our care of animals will say everything about what kind of humans we have become.

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The Devil’s Herd

I love the old West . . . the ranches and barns . . . cattle in the fields . . . the smell of the tackroom . . . even the aroma of corrals . . . all those cowboy values and traditions.  My late Uncle Fred was as good a cowboy as you might meet.  He cussed a little and got to church late but was good to the core.  The picture above is his daughter Peggy—who I got in plenty of mischief with as a child—sitting pretty on a handsome cutting horse.  At Fred’s passing, I was moved to remember his colorful character in this bit of doggerel.

I love western music too.  My favorite song is Johnny Cash singing Ghost Riders in the Sky.  The song, I think, could be a warning for the exploitation of animals by the food corporations, for it tells of a group of ghost cowboys who had fallen short in their lives and were doomed to endlessly ride the skies, chasing the devil’s stampeding herd.  It closes with this cowboy call to repentance (try singing it):

As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies

The good Lord gave man dominion over the animals but with that power came the duty of care.  This post is a call to reconsider our relationship with the animals of the world, lest we too wind up chasing the devil’s herd.  Yippie yi yaaaaay.

The Blue Zones

Want to enjoy a long life?  Dan Buettner traveled around the world, studying the longest-lived societies.  He summarized his findings in a book, The Blue Zones.  Bottom line: Though these long-lived peoples eat a variety of foods based on where they lived, they universally eat very little meat.  With the exception of special feasts, meat is used to flavor food rather than as the main course.

Chronic Disease

Meat is good for us—it’s the only natural source of vitamin B-12 which is essential to our health—but too much meat is problematic.  In the modern American diet (MAD) we eat three or four times more meat than we should.  An Oxford University study of the English diet found that reducing meat intake to three servings weekly—the amount a person might consider “sparing”—would reduce mortality from chronic diseases.  Specifically, they projected these benefits for England:

• 31,000 fewer heart disease deaths each year.
• 9000 fewer deaths from cancer.
• 5000 fewer deaths from stroke.

World Wars

Health improves when we eat less meat.  Due to World War I shortages, Denmark was forced, as a nation, to eat a Word of Wisdom Living diet—mostly plant foods with very little meat, less milk and butter than before, and practically no alcohol, coffee, or tea.  They even ate a “war bread” of whole grain rye flour. 

Later, Dr. Martin Hindhede, a researcher in low-protein diets, studied the result.  Despite the stress of war, there was an immediate drop in mortality rates that continued through the war but disappeared post-war as people returned to their normal habits. 

Hindhede saw an important lesson about the body’s recuperative powers—improving diet quickly improves health.  During World War II this mortality benefit was again observed in other affected countries. 

The Scriptures

It would be a failure of reverence to overlook scriptural guidance.  The scriptures have cautioned about meat eating.  In Genesis we are counseled to make herbs and fruits our meat; in Moses’ time Israel was restricted in what meats they could eat, and how animals should be killed; Daniel with his three friends benefited from eating plant foods (pulses) instead of the king’s meat; and the Apostle Paul warns darkly of carnal living. 

The canonized LDS scripture known as the Word of Wisdom counsels that flesh of animals was ordained for the use of mankind, but with thanksgiving, and the admonition to eat sparingly—perhaps the best and most succinct guidance found anywhere.  These words reflect a duty of care.

The definition of sparing is left to each person's inspiration.  For our use, we aim to get two-thirds of our protein from plants and just one-third from animal sources. (In a future post on protein, we’ll return to this 1:2 ratio.) This is equivalent to three servings of meat (excluding two servings of fish) weekly, though we spread it around.  Research reported in The China Study suggests this is a healthy level—Americans are reported to eat four times this amount. 

Pollution

Do you worry about environmental pollutants but find organic foods too expensive?  One study estimates that 85% of our pollutant exposure comes in the meat we eat.  The surest way to reduce your exposure to pollutants, then, is to reduce meat consumption, as in sparing.  It’s also cheaper.

Best Methods

After a person resolves the amount of meat to eat, two questions remain:

1. What are the healthiest meats?  The simplest guidance is to eat a variety of meats including fish and fowl, choosing pastured or grass fed meats over industrially fed (CAFO) when possible, and minimizing processed meats like bacon, ham, etc.  Here’s a rule:  Eat less, but better.
2. How should meat be prepared?  Lower cooking temperatures produce less carcinogenic or harmful byproducts.  Stewed meat, especially if cooked with herbs, is better than baked meat; baked meat is better than fried; and fried is better than BBQ’d meat.  That’s pretty simple. 

Ready for Skip's beef stew recipe? 

Healthy Change

Please comment:  Share the ways you feature meat in your diet.  Where do you find healthy meat?  How do you use it as a condiment, rather than the main course?  What do you do to show reverence for the Creation of animals?

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

The Joy of Snacking

The quick answer: Snacks are the barometer of a healthy diet.  If you don’t eat well, you won’t snack well either.

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Our Goal

Eat smarter, look better, live longer—that’s the stated goal of this blog.  If there’s a resource that will help you do it better than this blog, please tell us because we haven’t seen it. 

A disaster happened in the 20^th century:  Food was industrialized for profit without proper consideration for health.  The deadly rise of chronic diseases was one consequence.  In the 21^st century we’re sorting through the food rubble we call the modern American diet (MAD) and relearning how to live and be well. 

Sledgehammer Blows

In 2012’s first Healthy Changes we took a sledgehammer to the modern American diet (MAD).  Here is the effect of the first seven changes:

1. Reduce dependence on sweets:  The average American drinks 96 oz. of soft drinks each week.  New goal: one 12-oz drink, or less.
2. Eliminate man-made trans fats:  Zero deep fat fried foods.
3. Take back control of your diet:  Write a weekly menu.
4. Eat a healthy breakfast:  Cereal products must have more natural fiber than added sugar.
5. Be muscular: Exercise 30 minutes most days.  It’s best if you sweat.
6. Return to the plant-based diet of your ancestors:  Eat (USDA recommended) five vegetable servings daily. 
7. Slow aging:  Eat a varied diet of whole foods (especially berries) to maximize antioxidant intake and minimize free radical damage.

Our goal is to rediscover the best way to live and be well.  We’re not trying to live forever, just more fully.

Snack Food

There’s nothing wrong with a snack between meals.  The problem started when Food Inc. decided to make a business of homemade snacks.  Here are some notable factory-made snacks, all featuring sugar as the primary ingredient: 

• Cracker Jacks (first sold at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair);
• Hersey bars (introduced in 1900, 10 cents);
• Tootsie Rolls (1905, first wrapped penny candy);
• Twinkies (1930, cake for life on the go).

Healthy, Affordable Snacks

The goal of this post is to rediscover healthy snacks.  In a prior post we summarized reader’s healthy snacks.  Here are ten ideas for traditional snacks that are wholesome and affordable:

1. Fruit:  Nature wraps some fruits in individual servings, like the apple, banana, orange, and peach.  Purchased in season, they’re a nutritional bargain.  In winter, enjoy dried fruits.
2. Veggies:  Carrot sticks and celery (with PB) are favorites.  But try broccoli, cauliflower, or zucchini with a little hummus.   Important point:  To get your daily five veggie servings, you should get at least one in your snacks.
3. Green Smoothies; easiest way to eat your greens plus you get fruit too.
4. Seeds:  Sunflower seeds are a healthy treat.  Popcorn is a real bargain—put popcorn in a paper bag, staple it closed, and pop it in the microwave.
5. Nuts: But them in bulk at harvest, save them in the freezer, and enjoy year around. 
6. Homemade bread:  This is my favorite snack, toasted with butter.  You can bake a loaf for under a buck if you buy yeast in bulk.  Homemade bran muffins make a great snack; put a batch in the freezer.
7. Homemade granola makes a great snack too.  Try Katie’s Granola Recipe. http://wordofwisdomliving.squarespace.com/home/katies-granola.html
8. Hard-boiled eggs:  A great treat: boil them on Monday and enjoy all week; pastured eggs are high in omega-3 fats.
9. Cheese, especially with bread or healthy crackers, or in a quesadilla.
10. Sardines:  For essential long-chain omega-3 fats, sardines are the best value.  Our grandparents ate them on crackers; we should rediscover the humble sardine.

Healthy Change:  We used the weekly menu rule to take control of food selection.  To control snacking, prepare a snack plate early in the day. 

Please comment:  When we eat regular, healthy meals, we snack less and make better choices.  You can find healthy store-bought snacks but ours are mostly homemade.  The best snacks are minimally processed—whole food snacks are best; we draw the processing line at granola and trail mix.  Please share your favorite snack ideas.

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

Staying Alive

The quick answer:  To slow aging and protect against cancer and other chronic diseases, eat an antioxidant-rich diet of whole plant foods.

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How We Age

If the cells of our bodies are constantly being replaced, why do we get old?  It’s a good question.  In 1956 a scientist brilliantly proposed that aging was primarily caused by free radicals.  Here are the basic steps:

1. Energy:  Cells produce the energy needed for life in their mitochondria.  Not all cells are equal:  Heart muscle cells work hard so contain many mitochondria.  Fat cells contain much less.
2. Oxidation:  Mitochondria produce energy by burning (or oxidizing) fuel called ATP.  (The cell makes ATP from the sugar delivered by your blood.)
3. Free radicals:  During oxidation an electron is lost, which creates free radicals.  If free radicals can’t replace the lost electron they become toxic to the DNA of your mitochondria.
4. Aging:  The accumulated damage from free radicals is a major part of aging. Free radicals are also a risk factor for cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and age-related vision loss.
5. Antioxidants:  The missing electron can be supplied—and cell damage avoided—by the antioxidants in our diet.   
6. Longevity:  If your diet supplies enough antioxidants, aging is significantly slowed.

Antioxidant Sources

Whole foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts) are a rich source of antioxidants.  (Processed foods are not.)  Antioxidants play a protective role in plants, protecting them against UV damage from the sun.  There are many types of antioxidants and more are being discovered.  Here are some common sources:

• Vitamins:  The vitamins A, C and E are powerful antioxidants if taken in whole foods.  Pills do not provide the same benefit and can even be harmful.
• Minerals:  The minerals in food, like selenium, are antioxidants.  (This may be why Brazil nuts, rich in selenium, are protective of prostate cancer.)
• Food:  Different food groups produce different kinds of antioxidant so it’s a good idea to eat a varied diet.  The skin of berries is loaded with antioxidants.
• Sleep:  The body also produces antioxidants.  Melatonin, produced when we sleep, is a potent antioxidant.
• Pills vs whole foods:  Studies have failed to find a consistent benefit of taking antioxidants in pill form.  Getting your antioxidants in whole foods, complete with other helper nutrients, is the safest answer.  There is also a synergistic effect in eating a variety of whole foods. 

The Modern American Diet (MAD)—Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods

What part of the American diet is whole foods vs. processed foods?  It's not pretty to see, but here’s a breakdown provided from government sources:

• Processed foods:  62.5% of calories come from factory foods made from refined grains, refined oils, and sugar or HFCS.
• Animal products:  25% of calories come from meat, fish, dairy and eggs.
• Plant foods:  Just 12.5% of calories come from whole plant foods, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, or nuts.

This is just a horseback estimate, but I would put the diet of someone following the 52 Healthy Changes from Word of Wisdom Living at something like this:

• Processed foods:  10-15% of calories.
• Animal products:  10-15% of calories.
• Whole plant foods:  75% of calories.

The latter diet—with 75% if calories from whole plant foods—provides a rich source of natural antioxidants, as well as vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other helper nutrients. 

Healthy Change: 

Cancer: In closing, a word about cancer:  we noted above that free radical generation was linked to oxidative stress, which the body resolves with antioxidants.  Studies have linked low levels of antioxidants to a greater risk for cancer, including breast cancer.  For example a low blood level of vitamin A doubled the risk of breast cancer.  Women with low vitamin E had triple the risk.  In other studies, elevated markers of oxidative stress are an independent risk factor for breast cancer.  A whole foods diet rich in antioxidants protects against breast and other cancers. 

Please comment: Please share what you do to provide adequate antioxidants in your diet.

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

In Defense of Veggies

The quick answer:  The key to good health is to learn to like the food group Americans most hate—veggies.

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A Rose By Any Other Name . . .

That famous line by Shakespeare ends “would smell as sweet.”  Maybe so.  But the English word for the edible plants so necessary to good health—vegetables—has a problem.  Americans don’t exactly have a love affair with vegetables.  The nutritionist David Ludwig commented on our conflicted feelings: “In my experience, hating vegetables is essentially an American trait.  I never saw anything close to it during my travels through Asia, Europe, and South America.” 

If we do eat veggies, we prefer them processed into unhealthiness.  Take French fries, our most popular vegetable.  Cooked in trans fat-laden, toxically oxidized vegetable oils, fries account for an astonishing 46% of our vegetable intake.  The onion ring is another perfectly healthy vegetable gone wrong.  To further improve their edibility, fries and onion rings are doused with sugary ketchup and salt.

In Defense of Veggies

One of the most remarkable surprises in nutrition studies in the last few years was the discovery of the remarkable dietary qualities possessed by the edible leaves of plants.  Among vegetable foods, only the leaf is rich in calcium, and is also rich in vitamins A, B and C, as well as fiber.

Recent news?  No, this is from a 1925 book, Food, Nutrition and Health!  So three generations have passed and little has changed—except more discoveries about the merits of vegetables, like their rich supply of the antioxidants that slow down aging.  Vegetables are the opposite of today’s highly processed foods—veggies are rich in nutrients, sparse in calories, and healthy. 

Vegetables come in colors and three colors are of special value.  They also come in botanical families; two are extra healthy—cruciferous and allium:

• Dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, broccoli, etc.) contain vitamins A, C, K, and folate.  Greens also contain minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, and iron, as well as lutein and fiber. 
• Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale) are potent cancer fighters, some studies suggest.
• Orange vegetables (sweet potato, carrots, banana squash, pumpkin, etc.) are rich in carotenoids. 
• Red vegetables (beets, red cabbage, red pepper, and tomato—borrowed from the fruit family) contain beneficial lycopenes, and anthrocyanins.
• Allium (garlic, onions, leeks, chives and shallots) family by tradition is prized for healthiness.  Alliums are high in flavonoids, polyphenolic compounds that stimulate the production of potent antioxidants.  Alliums help produce the “natural killer” cells that fight infection and cancer too.

You Do The Math

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans—our official healthy diet guide—recommends we eat five vegetable servings daily.  For food groups without powerful lobbies—vegetables are the best example—I trust the Dietary Guideline of five servings.   (For food groups with well-funded lobbies, like dairy, or edible oils, I take the guidance with a grain of salt.)  A serving is the amount that will fit in the palm of your hand—about 2-4 ounces, depending on hand size and food density.  Doing the math, five veggie servings a day with allowance for waste is:

• Two adults—about 15 lbs. per week.
• Mom, dad, and three grammar school kids—20-25 lbs.
• Family of six, ranging from toddler to high school—30-40 lbs.

Getting five daily servings is the core challenge of healthy eating.  It works best for us if we get a serving or two at lunch, another in our afternoon snack (usually raw), plus two or three at dinner (salad plus a side vegetable). 

Looking Better

There’s an additional benefit to eating yellow, orange and red vegetables.  Scientists in Great Britain found a salutary improvement on skin color among people who ate the orange and red vegetables.  They had better skin color, looked healthier, and were judged even more attractive than those whose skin color came from suntan induced melanin.  Drop those French fries and grab a sweet potato, or some carrots, to get that healthy glow.

Healthy Change

One reminder:  You can’t eat veggies if they’re not in the house so healthy eating starts with the weekly menu and shopping list.

Please comment on your favorite vegetable ideas, or share your veggie recipes.  The key test of mom’s leadership is enticing children to enjoy vegetables.  How do you do it?

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.

Working Out

The quick answer:  For a long and healthful life, work up a regular sweat.

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Labor-Making Devices

In the beginning, there was a direct connection between work and food.  Do you recall the charge in Genesis, “By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”?  For millennia this was true—people worked hard for their daily bread.  Until the 20^th century, this hard work was a sharp check against overeating. 

Then came the Industrial Revolution, with its laborsaving devices.  You could make a long list of the inventions that eliminated the use of muscles.  Your home is likely full of them.  The problem is what we don’t use we lose, and muscles are essential to health, longevity, and appearance.

At the dawn of the 21^st century there’s a new goal:  Invent ways to regularly use your muscles.  This isn’t just about the recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise—though that’s the starting point for this post—it’s about using your muscles all day long in varied ways and going to bed physically tired. 

The photos above are MRI scans from a recent study comparing the muscle mass of active vs. sedentary subjects. Scary, isn't it?  Bottom line, whether 40 or 74, you're better off if you use your muscles. 

Benefits of Exercise

1. Heart disease is the #1 killer in the U.S. but this doesn’t have to be—regular exercise protects the heart.  This is generally known but, sadly, not widely practiced.  Way back in 1953, to the surprise of many, a health study of London bus operators found twice the risk of heart disease among drivers, who were seated, versus ticket takers who moved about the double-decked buses.  Since then a plethora of studies have confirmed the value of physical activity.  Researchers estimate that 2-1/2 hours weekly of brisk walking could save 280,000 heart-related deaths a year in the US.  Warning:  Consult your doctor before starting an exercise program.
2. Longevity is improved with regular exercise.  There are many benefits, including protection of the mitochondria that produce energy in muscle cells.  A N. Y. Times article, “Can Exercise Keep You Young?” summarized the dramatic longevity difference between mice that exercised versus sedentary mice.  If you’re older, consider this article: The Incredible Flying Nonagenarians.”  Experts say regular exercise adds 6-7 active years to your life.  (Yeah, I did the math, you’ll spend one of those years exercising, a small price to pay.) 
3. Exercise reduces the risk of certain cancers and even extends life after a cancer diagnosis.  One report noted how exercise (2-1/2 hours weekly) reduced the risk of dying from breast cancer by 40% and the death risk from prostate cancer by 30%.  Check here for guidance and precautions.
4. The brain is greatly aided by aerobic exercise.  This makes sense; though just 3% of body weight, the brain consumes 20% of the oxygen supply.  The hypothalamus (where short term memory is stored) shrinks with age, as does its memory capacity.  A recent study had a group of sedentary people, aged 55 to 80, start a walking regime (3 walks of 40 minutes duration weekly).  After a year the walking group had reversed hypothalamus shrinkage with a 2% growth.  A control group had shrinkage of 1.5%, even though they did stretching exercises.  There’s something healthful about sweating. 
5. Osteoporosis risk is reduced with exercise.  Because they're attached to each other, strong muscles make for strong bones.  You can see this in the picture above—the dark circle with white interior represents bone. 
6. Maybe it’s vanity, but another benefit of exercise is improved appearance.  It’s not just that you feel better—you also look better.  Which leads to other nice happenings.

Scientists are cautious if they don’t understand the exact mechanism for a benefit, like exercise.  In truth, we don’t know exactly why using our muscles makes us happier and healthier, it just does. 

Healthy Change #5

We begin with the minimum exercise recommendation: regular workouts, working up a sweat doing whatever works for you.  I walk or jog up a nearby hill three days of the week and cycle on alternate days.  The beautiful wife takes a vigorous morning walk with her friends, where they discuss all the news of the day.  The best exercise is the one you keep doing. 

Please comment:  Share the exercise that works for you, and tell how you’ve benefited.  We’ll return to the subject of muscle building three more times this year, addressing resistance training, stretching, and ways to live the muscular lifestyle.  It’s good to be strong!

Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.