The Weekly Menu

The quick answer:  To improve health and happiness, write a weekly menu and shopping list.

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I’ve Never Been Happier

Two women, friends who had not seen each other for many years, sat down to a leisurely breakfast at a lovely restaurant overlooking the ocean.  It was a warm, sunny Saturday morning.  They admired the view, talked about the happenings in their separate lives, and caught up on shared friends.  I came late to the meal—was really only there to pick up the bill.  As they said their good-byes, the older lady said something I won’t soon forget:  “I’ve never been happier in my life than I am now.” 

Why is her statement so memorable?  She is dying—painfully—of cancer. 

She had previously sold the home where she and her deceased, husband reared their children, packed what she could fit into a few suitcases, and come to live by the beach.  Her apartment is small and simply furnished, plain enough to suit Thoreau, though it does have a lovely view of Catalina Island.  Her plan, it seems to me, is to sit by the sea in the warmth of the sun, compose music (her avocation), and await her passing. 

So I’ve thought about her words, and how we can find joy through living in harmony with our truest values.  There's a hint here, I think, about changes all of us might consider.  It requires that we listen more to the voices within.

The Voices Without

Food Inc. spends over $30 billions annually to get us to buy their food-like concoctions.  Why do they spend so much?  Because it works.  Humans, the researchers say, fuss over the infrequent decisions in their lives, like what car to buy.  But we tend to outsource the simple, daily decisions, like what to eat, to the culture around us.  We just find it easier to go with the flow. 

A century ago, in 1911, a food that people had used forever, lard, was driven from the market by a massive well-organized advertising campaign.  The campaign promoted Crisco as the modern replacement and suggested that those who resisted weren’t “progressive.”  It was a very successful campaign.  Crisco turned out to be a terrible mistake, but it would take a century to assemble the proof and convince the public. 

Food companies didn’t miss the lesson of Crisco's market launch:  You could sell almost anything with a skillfully done advertising campaign.  This seems arrogant, but we know from sad experience that it works.  Imitation food products continued to replace traditional foods all through the 20^th century.  Clever advertising created a new food culture:  the modern American diet (MAD). 

One purpose of our 52 Healthy Changes is to restore real food to the American dietary.  We must tune out the siren song from the billions spent on advertising and quietly rediscover olden ways.  To regain conscious control of our daily food decisions we turn to the simplest of tools—the weekly menu. 

Weekly Menus

Few people write regular menus.  A basic menu, covering four or five dinners, plus, perhaps, Sunday supper will simplify your life.  The few minutes it takes to write a weekly menu will free you from the frantic scramble to come up with something for dinner.  If you use a menu, you’ll throw out less spoiled food.  If you make a shopping list part of your menu plan, you’ll reduce shopping trips, saving time and money.  If you save old menus and organize them in a binder by season, your life will be even simpler next year.

The popular blog Inchmark is written by our daughter Brooke.  Brooke wrote a great post on grocery lists and provided an editable menu planner and grocery list.

Five Steps for Menu Writing

Here are five steps that work for us in menu planning:

1. Set aside a regular time for menu writing.  Consult the family the night before to get their requests.  Involving them in planning builds family support for the outcome. 
2. Check your inventory.  We look in the refrigerator for food that might spoil, in the freezer to see what needs turnover, and in the pantry for ideas.
3. Write down your meal ideas with links to recipes. 
4. Review the menu for needed ingredients and write a shopping list.  In our best weeks, using a menu-driven shopping list, we only need to shop twice.
5. Share the menu with the family and save it in a binder.  Keep a blank menu in the binder as a place to collect ideas for next week. 

In the first two weeks the Healthy Changes were aimed at reducing sugar intake and eliminating hydrogenated trans fats.  This week’s Healthy Change is designed to protect you from impulse buying and the hassle of last minute shopping. 

Please comment:  How do you write healthy menus and simply grocery shopping?

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 Big Fat Lies

The Truth About Fats

The quick answer:  No food group is more incorrectly understood by the public than fat.  For best health, avoid refined (especially hydrogenated) oils, in favor of traditional fats (olive oil, butter, lard, etc.).

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The 2^nd Deadly Trend

Last week we focused on the 1^st of seven deadly changes to our food—the rise of sugar from an occasional treat to America’s biggest source of calories.  Sugar is the #1 additive in processed foods.

This week we discuss the 2^nd deadly change:  factory fats, beginning with vegetable oil hydrogenation.  To explain, here are seven common hydrogenation and trans fat facts:

1. Why were refined oils (corn oil, soybean oil, etc.) hydrogenated?  Hydrogenation extends shelf life.  An unnaturally long shelf life is good for the food business but generally bad for our health.
2. What causes short shelf life?  Omega-3 oils—the ones needed for brain, eye, and nerve health, as well as fertility—after being processed, are highly reactive to oxygen.  When oxidized these oils become rancid which spoils taste. 
3. How do you hydrogenate refined oil?  The oils are heated and passed through a reaction chamber where they are exposed to hydrogen gas in the presence of a metallic catalyst.  The hydrogen saturates the carbon atoms that form the backbone of the oil molecule.  This thickens the oil and makes it much less reactive to oxygen, but also forms toxic trans fats.
4. How bad are trans fats?  They’re deadly.  The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) is our leading academic center for nutrition.   In 1994, Dr. Willett and others from HSPH published a paper in the American Journal of Public Health showing that trans fats cause between 30,000 and 100,000 deaths every year in the US.  Trans fats are a risk factor for inflammation, diabetes, and heart disease. 
5. How did trans fats get into our diet?  The first hydrogenated fat product was Crisco, introduced a century ago in 1911.  Crisco was followed by margarine as a butter substitute during WWI.  Vegetable oils, introduced later, were partially hydrogenated.  Because processed foods depend on vegetable oils for mouth feel and taste, most processed foods contained trans fats.
6. Are trans fats still allowed in food?  Yes.  As the public has become more informed about the toxicity of trans fats, the use of hydrogenation has declined, but Congress has not banned trans fats, though labeling was required in 2006.  Denmark effectively banned trans fats in food in 2003, followed by Switzerland in 2008.   New York and a few other cities restrict the use of trans fats by restaurants.
7. Why do some processed foods claim “zero trans fats” but have hydrogenated oils in the ingredient list?  Our federal government wrongly allows foods that contain less than 0.5 gram per serving to be labeled “zero trans fats.”   This is shocking because the prestigious Institute of Medicine recommends we eat absolutely no trans fats.

The Power of A Woman

Dr. Mary Enig of the University of Maryland was the first to publicly warn of the toxic nature of trans fats.  She also argued that trans fats were a cause of inflammation and heart disease.  This claim was controversial as the public had been told saturated fat and cholesterol was the main cause.  Enig pointed out that man had eaten saturated fats long before the rise of heart disease.  She further noted that trans fat intake increased in step with heart disease while saturated fat intake actually declined as a percent of calories.

Dr. Enig took a lot of flak from the food industry but stood her ground—time has shown her to be right.  For a better understanding of which fats are healthy, read her excellent book, Know Your Fats.

Dr Fred Kummerow, Enig’s colleague at the U. of Maryland, is also a feisty opponent of trans fats.  In 2009, at the age of 94, he submitted a 3000-word petition to the FDA that began, “I request to ban trans fats from the American diet.”  He publicly commented, “Everybody should read my petition because it will scare the hell out of them.”  I called Dr. Kummerow this morning to see if the FDA had responded to his petition—as required within 180 days.  I’ll share his response when it comes.

Deep Fat Frying

Deep fat frying is the ultimate test of cooking oil, as the oil sits for days at high temperatures, exposed to oxygen.  In the past tallow was successfully used (thus the great taste of the early McDonald’s fries).  When the public was falsely taught that saturated fats like tallow were unhealthy, the food industry converted to hydrogenated vegetable oils.  Unfortunately, because of the trans fats, this was far unhealthier.  Tragedies like this keep happening with Food Inc.

Deep fat frying thus remains the last major use of hydrogenated oils.  To my knowledge, only In-N-Out has stopped, but problematic oxidation of fats from extended use at high temperature remains.  I suspect the very last refuge for hydrogenated oil use will be the mom-and-pop donut shop. 

The 2^nd Healthy Change protects from toxic trans fats and other unhealthy stuff found in deep fat fryers:

This means no French fries, no donuts, no onion rings, no corn dogs, not even the toxic deep fried Twinkies or Snickers Bars at the county fair.  Please note this does not eliminate deep fat frying for the home cook, using fresh and healthy oils.  Better yet, check our recipe, for Oven-Roasted Fries.  The recipe works with sweet potatoes or yams also.

In 13 weeks we’ll return to the subject of fats, discuss the importance of balancing omega-6 and omega-3 in the diet, and recommend the use of traditional fats over refined vegetable oils. 

Pease comment:  Share your experience with trans fats, or your recipe for home fried vegetables.

the bitter truth

The quick answer:  Sugary drinks, with either real or artificial sugars, are a leading cause of chronic disease and premature death.  Pure water is the healthiest drink and a big step towards simplifying your life. 

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Allied With Angels

The 20^th century was a dietary disaster.  Food had remained essentially unchanged through the six millennia of recorded history.  Then, in one century, the industrial revolution reinvented what God had created.  We call what resulted the modern American diet (MAD).  MAD caused the rise of chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.).  The food reformation’s goal is to recover the goodness of natural food, taking advantage of modern methods, and prevent chronic disease. 

If you read this blog, benefit from the Healthy Changes, and invite your friends and neighbors to join—you are a soldier in the food reformation.  In this battle, you’re on the side of the angels.

Seven Deadly Trends

The industrialization of food can be seen in seven trends.  We’ll visit these trends in the coming weeks.  Trend #1 is the growth of sugar from an occasional treat to the main source of calories in the modern diet. 

In the early 1800s sugar was a rare treat; most sweeteners were natural, local, and seasonal—honey in the summer, maple syrup in the winter.  You couldn’t overdose on honey; first, because the bees made a fixed amount, and second, because honey is less addictive than sugar.  The experts estimate sugar consumption from all sources (honey, maple syrup, molasses, and refined sugar) in that time at 10 lbs. per year, or a couple of teaspoons daily. 

Our sugar consumption today, based on USDA data, exceeds 100 pounds annually.  This is a ten-fold increase from the early 1800s, and five times what the AHA recommends (6 tsp daily for women; 9 for men).  If your sugar intake is average, you get about 25% of your calories from some form of sugar.  There’s something terribly wrong when refined sugar is the leading source of calories. 

Two Heroes

John Yudkin, PhD, MD (1910-1995), was the first to connect sugar to the modern diseases.  In the ‘50s he studied the link between sugar, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease.  (If we had followed Yudkin we wouldn’t have wasted a generation trying to solve heart disease by reducing cholesterol.)  Yudkin wrote a famous book, published 1972 in England as Pure, White and Deadly, and in the U.S. as Sweet and Dangerous, that remains a classic.  Dr. Yudkins is a nutrition hero.

Robert Lustig, PhD, is a UCSF professor and obesity researcher who warns about the danger of refined sugar, especially fructose.  For an explanation, see his YouTube video, Sugar: The Bitter Truth.  Talking about the fructose naturally present in fruits, Dr. Lustig closes with a comment I never expected to hear from a UC professor:  “When God makes a poison (meaning fructose) He wraps it in the antidote.”  Skip the soda drinks; eat apples.

Good Calories, Bad Calories

The essential dietary change is to slash sugar intake to below the AHA goal of 6 tsp (25 grams) daily for women and 9 tsp for men.  For the average American, this is an 80% reduction!  Your blood sugar and insulin levels will decline as you do this, excess fat will slowly disappear, and real food (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts) will begin to taste better.  (Natural food has a hard time competing with food that’s more like candy.) 

Gary Taubes wrote a detailed book on the health problems linked to America’s excessive sugar intake.  The book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, carefully examines the role of sugar in overweight and obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, infertility, and aging.  It’s a scary book.  If you need motivation to curtail your sugar intake you should read it or others, such as:

• Suicide by Sugar by Nancy Appleton.
• Sugar Nation, The Hidden Truth Behind America’s Deadliest Habit and the Simple Way to Beat it, by Jeff O’Connell
• The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now!, by Dr. Mark Hyman.
• Sugar Blues, by William Duffy.

Sugary Drinks

Soft drinks are the #1 source of sugar for most of us, so this should be the first place to cut back.  There’s a hidden secret behind the limit of one 12 oz. soda per week—it’s hard at first but over time you’ll lose the taste and begin to skip weeks. At some point you may say, "My addiction is cured; I can live without sugary factory drinks."

Non-sugar Sugar?

Artificially sweetened drinks are defined as sugary so also come under this rule.  Do you buy diet drinks in the mistaken belief it’s healthier than regular soda?  Society made a foolish mistake when we assumed that food scientists could invent a new molecule that would be intensely sweet but not have the ill effects of sugar.  The bitter truth is artificial sweeteners seem to reinforce the infantile sugar craving in an addictive way, while adding new problems.  See this post for more on the dangers of sugar substitutes.

What to Drink?

When banning an unhealthy product, our policy is to offer a healthy replacement.  So what to drink?  Water!  Drink lots of water.  There is no healthier drink that water!  (We use a Brita charcoal filter on our water.)  Eight glasses daily is a common recommendation.  Here’s a good test of your water intake:  Fill a pitcher with eight cups of water and drink from it for one day.  Measure what’s left at the end of the day.  You’ll find it’s hard to drink the recommended eight glasses but you’ll do better with this pitcher method because of the daily feedback.

Occasionally we get bored and seek variety, something besides water.  A drink flavored with real fruit, even a slice of lime or lemon, makes a nice change.  One flavored drink a day seems enough for our family.  Green smoothies are good too.

Please comment on your experience cutting back on sugar drinks, including artificially sweetened diet drinks.

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.

A New Year, A New Light

A Call for Help

It was a good year, 2011.  Before New Years, the beautiful wife and I traveled to San Francisco for the 34^th annual holiday dinner sponsored by my fancy sister.  She might object to the term "fancy," but I make my case with this picture of her Christmas tree.  Do you think 4200 lights a bit much?  My sister doesn't.

After 34 dinners, it has become more than a tradition.  Though the main topic is resolutions—reporting on last year's resolutions, and sharing next years—it's more a validation of our family.  We're far from perfect, but we're immeasureably better for having shared our walk through life with each other.  So most years the beautiful wife and I drive 14 hours, round trip, simply to share a family dinner. 

When it came time to make new resolutions, my goal to double the Word of Wisdom Living audience in 2012 was challenged.  “You should grow ten-fold,” they countered.  So that’s our goal.  If we make it, we promise to continue for a 3^rd year.  We need your help—we've invited all our friends, and a few strangers.  So we’re asking you to spread the word and expand our audience—in December we averaged about 250 readers daily, so our new goal is 2500 per day.  

Please become a partner in the food reformation.  Make a difference by commiting to bring 10 friends or associates to Word of Wisdom Living, beginning right now. Each month I'll report on our progress. (One easy way to spread the word is to share our new Facebook page with your friends and family.)

Healthy Changes

The Healthy Changes are like resolutions, but better—they're done continuously, all year long, one each week.  I measured our family's performance on the 52 Healthy Changes in 2011.  Following the Healthy Changes has made a big difference in our health but we weren’t perfect—I put our compliance at 80%.  The hardest part was eating five vegetable servings daily.  So we square up our shoulders and resolve to do better in 2012.  If we do this for three yars, I think we shall have mastered it. 

Over the Holidays we worked on the 52 changes, keeping most, improving others, replacing a few.  We didn’t invent these changes—we sorted through the available literature and distilled the recommendations of doctors, scientists, and journalists into 52 topics.  It’s a good list, the fruit of 1000s of hours of study, but if you have health issues, follow your doctor’s counsel first.  And we're always open to suggestions for Healthy Changes.

We're making some improvements to this site too, watch for them over the coming weeks. (If you view this blog through a reader, you might want to click over to the actual site to see how things are changing.) We've thought a lot about how we can improve things and have come up with an ambitious list that includes small daily tips, web videos that expand on posts, and recipes that can make the Healthy Changes a little easier. We hope you'll stick around to see what we're working on and let us know if you have other ideas that would make this site better.

Measure Your Progress

Through 2012 we’ll collect the Healthy Changes into a list with the idea that you can grade yourself monthly as the list grows.  There’s a repeating seasonal pattern—each 13 weeks we cover the key themes of lifestyle and diet reform, each time building upon the prior changes.  The themes include eating less sugar, healthier fats, whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, and less meat.  Other themes are more exercise, better kitchen organization (menus, shopping lists), cooking, and special topics.  Be patient: reforming one’s lifestyle in a year is an audacious project.

Worried that your life is already too complicated without adding 52 things?  The big blessing is the 52 Healthy Changes actually simplify your life.  Factory drinks like sodas are this week's subject.  Drinking water—which is essentially free—is simpler and more natural than constantly buying soda or other drinks.  When we get to factory-made convenience foods we'll make the same argument—home cooking done right is simpler and cheaper.  There's a deep thought here, one worthy of Thoreau:  Living more simply is the first step towards living more deeply.

Please Comment:  Share your thoughts on how we can advance the food reformation.  Whoever puts their shoulder to this worthy task becomes a light upon a hill. 

Healthy Winter Desserts

The quick answer:  In winter, when you crave an after-dinner sweet, make fruit the first ingredient.

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Next Year

We’re most grateful for all that has been accomplished in 2011.  In the next post we’ll discuss our  plans for 2012.  We started our conversation a year ago with three basic premises. 

1. The modern American diet (MAD) is the primary cause of chronic disease (heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, etc.).
2. Prevention of chronic disease by dietary reform is better than treatment.
3. Dietary reform is too big a jump to do all at once, but could be substantially accomplished in a year of 52 weekly steps, called Healthy Changes.  

The three premises rested upon three hypotheses:

1. Because the science of nutrition is impossibly complex and changes with time, we could balance science with two timeless oracles: food tradition and scripture.  This brings to mind the stability of the three-legged stool.
2. Using these sources, an ordinary person given sufficient time could better define a healthy diet than any congress of conflicting and conflicted experts. 
3. Because everyone is different, this diet could be improved though conversation with other concerned people.  Whoever reads this blog and comments, adds to that conversation.

The focus of this blog is prevention.  Only qualified doctors can diagnose illness and prescribe treatment; nothing in this blog should be considered medical advice.

The Sugar Addiction

Americans eat too much sugar, over 100 pounds each year.  So six of the 52 Healthy Changes combined to reduce our sugar intake to below the AHA target of 6 teaspoons daily for women (about 20 lbs./year) and 9 for men.  

Healthy Change #1 targeted the problem of excess sugar intake, by going after sugary drinks:  If you consume sodas or other sugary drinks, limit yourself to one (12 oz.) serving per week. 

Healthy Change #3 talked about breakfast cereals, but actually provided a rule for all processed foods:  Cereal products must be made of whole grains, and have more grams of natural fiber than grams of sugar.

Healthy Change #8 went after the bag of candy in your home:  Buy candy a piece at a time; never bring a box or bag of candy into the home.

Healthy Change #9 applied the “more sugar than fiber” rule to the bakery aisle:  Your daily bread must be whole grain, with more grams of fiber than added sugars.

Healthy Change #31 put the dagger into the diet drinks, which many mistakenly think are healthier than the sugar drinks:  If you consume diet drinks, limit yourself to one (12 oz.) serving per week.

Healthy Change #51 proposed that traditional spices and herbs replace sugar as our most popular flavoring agent.  This is the hallmark of a competent cook—to not rely on sugar to make food taste good.

The Easiest Thing

Did you notice this year how we haven’t had a single post on one of the healthiest food groups—fruit?  There’s a reason.  Fruits are so easy to eat they don’t need an eating rule.  They’re Nature’s candy—fruit is fun to eat so it usually is eaten before it spoils.  Not so with vegetables—if you don’t include them in your menu writing, they’ll go bad sitting in your refrigerator.

People enjoy candy during the Holidays.  Because we expected a lot of company, the beautiful wife bought a box of See’s candy (technically, a violation of Healthy Change #8).  Christmas passed without opening the box.  Later, overwhelmed by the noise of little grandchildren, I proposed a silence contest, with a treat for all who could be still.  Silence by the promise of See’s worked.  Had a few pieces myself.

Dessert

We crave something sweet after dinner, a little dessert.  Have you noticed this craving more in winter?  I have.  In times past, summer’s fruit was put away for winter use.  Berries were preserved as jam.  Tree fruits were bottled, or dried.  Dried fruits could be used in compotes.  Traditional fruit preservation has declined because fresh fruits are available year around.  This presents an opportunity to reinvent, or at least redisocover fruit-based desserts:

Here are ten winter fruits desserts that can be made with little sugar:

1. Apple with cheddar cheese—no cooking required.  See this Washington Post article for cheese ideas.
2. Apple Crisp with granola topping—there are lots of recipes.  I could eat this every week; it’s great with vanilla ice cream, or just cream.
3. Pear Crisp.  I’m not a big Ina Garten fan, but she does have a recipe that combines pears and apples.
4. Chocolate dipped fruits—winter strawberries need a little help and what’s better than chocolate?  Here’s Martha’s recipe.
5. Tropical fruit—if you have a ripe pineapple, combine it with banana and/or coconut.
6. Baked Apple—here's a recipe for this traditional winter treat.
7. Poached Pears (photo shown above)—delicious with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, or lemon sorbet (recipe here).
8. Banana Nut Bread—good for desserts or snacks.  When bananas get brown spots, simply slip then into the freezer until needed.  Recipes abound but I do a health-up by replacing half the white flour with whole wheat flour, cutting sugar by 1/3 and replacing with brown sugar, substituting butter for less healthy oils, and adding applesauce to reduce the butter.  I also double the walnuts.
9. Orange slices with warmed raspberries—this recipe is another way to enjoy winter navels.
10. Dried Fruit Compotes—this recipe can be made from a variety of fruits by simply adding honey and a little vanilla.

Please comment.  Share your favorite healthy fruit desserts and treats.

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.

Saving Old Recipes

The quick answer:  Recipes are often family heirlooms, but those from the last century may require "healthing-up".

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1000 Words

I’ve renewed my intention to keep posts under 1000 words so can’t tell the whole story of our recent trip to Sacramento.  Except to say we attended the funeral of the beautiful wife’s namesake Aunt Clare; had dinner with my Mom who gave us some of her delicious Heavenly Hash (mixed berry jam) and prized Christmas fruitcake; and stopped at Elk Grove Walnut Co. for just-harvested walnuts at $5/lb., shelled.  (Yes you can get some, just Email: egwalnut@comcast.net.) 

But I did tell the walnut lady the lovely story of how Aunt Clare’s husband died after a 50-year marriage and how she rediscovered her first true love, whose wife had also died, and how through the years each had saved a portrait of the other, and how at 80 he swept her off her feet, again, so they could spend their last years holding hands in Hawaii.  Which simply proved that Robert Browning was right when he penned, 

Grow old along with me!  The best is yet to be,

 The last of life, for which the first was made . . . .

As I turned to leave, the walnut lady,  wiping a tear from her eye, thanked me for sharing the story. 

Nor can I tell how my Mom’s dad, a hard rock miner, died of pneumonia when she was just two, and how she and her widowed mom survived the Depression by the grace of God and the kindness of her Aunt Kate (she of Aunt Kate’s Chili Sauce), and how through the hard years Mom came to cherish the promise of Christmas future.  I can’t even tell the story of how at the moment she turned from girl to young woman, when she expected nothing for Christmas, her mother surprised her with a beautiful green gown that she later wore to the dance where she dazzled her husband-to-be.  Well, actually, that story has to be told—next week we’ll set food aside and tell a Christmas story.

Cooking and Flavor

By now you know I can’t resist a good story.  But the real subject of this post is how to improve old recipes.  On our drive to Sacramento I read Mark Bittman’s Ebook, Cooking Solves Everything: How Time in the Kitchen Can Save Your Health, Your Budget, and Even the Planet.  It’s short, meant to be read in one sitting, and echoes the argument we’ve made here:  If you want good health, cook!  I didn’t realize when I started this blog that home cooking would be the key to health.

Bittman, in his Ebook, shared his three favorite flavors for improving a dish:

1. A squeeze of lemon or lime juice.
2. Highlight with smoked paprika.  (Not the old stuff sitting in your spice drawer waiting for you to make deviled eggs, but Spanish paprika, also known as pimenton.)
3. Toss on whatever fresh herbs you have on hand, chopped.  (This works best, I think, if you have a herb garden, or at least some leftover parsley, cilantro, or thyme.)

Taking Stock

Bottom line:  It's best to make your own stock.  The picture (above) shows the evolution of stock.  Campbell's broth, mixed as directed, costs $3.34 per quart.  Swanson's Chicken broth is $3.39.  Maggi's chicken bouillon flakes are cheaper but the ingredient list starts with "salt, cornstarch, MSG, hydrogenated palm oil", etc.  Actually, all these imitations of old-fashioned chicken stock are high in sodium (salt) and artificial ingedients.  The tastiest, cheapest, and healthiest is our homemade chicken stock (shown in the pint Mason jar).

Saving Old Recipes

Have you looked through the recipes of a grandmother or great-aunt who has passed on?  If so you will notice that between the World Wars, food began to be modernized, i.e. made more convenient, or more factory-processed.  Food Inc. accelerated meal preparation, but didn't tell us they were also speeding up our aging process. 

Stock, as shown above, was replaced by high-salt, low-taste, factory substitutes.  Lard was replaced by Crisco, or hydrogenated vegetable oils.  And the amount of sugar in cakes and cookies approached the amount of flour, which was refined and bleached.  If you love those old recipes, here are some tips I’ve collected to "health" them up.  (Yes, "health" can also be a verb.)

1. Flour:  Use whole grain flours, or a mixture, in place of refined flours. 
2. Sugar:  Minimize the use of sugar; reduce sugar by ½, or at least by ¼.      
3. Broth:  If a recipe calls for store-bought chicken broth, Campbell’s, or chicken bouillon cubes—pull out your homemade chicken stock.  Last week I made three batches of Skip’s Potato Soup.  For the 3^rd batch I forgot to take my chicken stock out of the freezer so, because I was in a hurry, I used store-bought.  We could tell the difference—the soup was good but the flavor was diluted.
4. Fat:  Only use healthy fats.  Ignore the call for Crisco and substitute butter, or lard if you’re experienced.  Instead of refined vegetable oils, use butter, olive oil, coconut oil, or cold-pressed organic oils. 
5. Low-cal stuff:  Minimize low-calorie versions of food.  There are no studies—to my knowledge—showing any benefit from low-calorie food products.  The best way to reduce calories is to avoid refined foods in favor of whole foods.  Whole foods are full of fiber and fill you with way less calories.
6. Ditto for low-sodium products.  Less salt is better but some, especially if prescribed by your doc.  But the bigger issue for most if that salt is mainly found in processed foods.  Lowering the sodium doesn’t restore the lost nutrients.  Often low-sodium foods are higher in sugar.
7. Vegetables:  To increase your intake, puree your produce and add it to entrees, sauces, and soups.

Please comment, share your share your favorite healthy recipes, or your favorite healthy cookbooks.  In the next post we’ll tell how the Sunday roasted chicken got processed into those frozen chicken nuggets. 

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.

Making Soup

The quick answer: A warm bowl of soup makes a perfect winter dish.  It’s also healthy, tasty, economical, and filling (plus low in calories).

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Canned Soup

I spent two and a half years in Central America when a young man, living with humble people and eating their food.  It was a seminal experience that influenced my life.  I didn’t fully appreciate the wisdom of their diet at the time, but it was affordable, minimally processed, and mostly local.  I still remember the first soup I ate—homemade chicken vegetable.  It stands out because I discovered the chicken’s foot in my bowl.  I thought my Mom was a frugal cook, but these people were world-class in waste reduction.  Water-based soups were a regular part of lunch and even dinner.  I regret that it never occurred to me to collect a few recipes   

Later, the soup most familiar to me was Campbell’s.  The Campbell soup can, artfully copied by Andy Warhol, is an American icon.  The Napoleonic Wars caused the invention of canned food in the early 1800s.  There was a double benefit to the can:  It fit the needs of wartime eating, plus in-can cooking sterilized the food, eliminating spoilage.  Indeed, consumption of canned foods (like other bad habits) increases during wartime.  The Campbell Soup Company got its start following the Civil War based on one improvement—a condensed soup cut costs.  The user could add water or milk when the soup was heated, which at least gave the appearance of cooking.

The health complaints against Campbell’s soups have been the sodium content (lowered for a time, but recently increased when sales continued to drop), and concerns about high levels of Bisphenol A (BPA is a human endocrine and nervous system disruptor, a cause of obesity, and a suspected carcinogen).   There is a movement away from canned foods, though they’re useful when you don’t have time to cook dried beans, or don’t make your own tomato sauce.

Campbell soups played a role in the rise and fall of casserole dishes, I believe.  In the post-WWII emphasis on convenience, casseroles rose in popularity as a single-dish meal.  Recipes often included a can of Campbell’s soup.  Unfortunately, taste and wholesomeness were lesser considerations and there is a generation now who distain casseroles.  This is unfortunate as casseroles have a place in traditional cooking—think of ratatouille.  We should have a post on tasty and healthy casserole recipes.

Homemade Soup

Two things:  First, it’s cheaper to eat traditional home-cooked whole foods than buy modern processed foods (even before you consider the cost of healthcare for the diseases of the modern diet).   That’s our position—healthy home food is cheaper than factory food.  Second, Marie Antionette, wouldn’t have lost her head if she has just said, “Let them eat soup” and then cooked up a big pot to mollify those hungry protestors. 

Leah Widtsoe, a formidable advocate of healthy eating, wrote a 1943 book titled How To Be Well: A Health Handbook and Cookbook.  Widtsoe spoke of traditional soup making:

“A soup kettle is a wise possession for every family.  In it should go every scrap of meat, bone, cooked meat, chicken and turkey bones.  If a rolled roast or shoulder of ham is ordered, insist that the chopped bones are sent also for soup or gravy.  In the vegetable soup kettle go all clean vegetables parings, outer leaves or lettuce, celery, pea pods, chopped parsley, and all bits of good food that should not be wasted.  The basis of the soup of the day should be found here. . . . One must never waste good food.”

Soup is more a winter food and in Widtsoe’s day the wood-burning kitchen stove often heated homes.  So the stove would be hot often enough that bacteria wouldn’t get established in the soup kettle.  The soup kettle was displaced by modern heating, which led to the success of Campbell’s soups.   

It's time to reinvent soup making.  The soup kettle is no longer practical but a plastic container with a closable lid, placed in the freezer, could take its place for saving scraps.  Another innovation is slow cooking using a crock-pot.  Set the crock-pot on low for 8-hour soups, or on high for 4-hour cooking.  Or you can just simmer a pot on the back burner.

What are the most popular soups?  Tomato, followed by the chicken soups.  Other favorites include potato, onion, split pea, and clam chowder.  (For our split pea soup recipe go here.)  

There are established patterns to soup making.  Meat flavored soups, with the exception of the chowders, traditionally have four ingredient groups:  meat in some form, stock, mirepoix (chopped onion, carrot and celery), and herbs (typically bay leaf, thyme, and parsley, plus salt and pepper).  Some may include a carb, like egg noodles, rice, or perhaps orzo. 

Chicken Soup

If you read through enough chicken soup recipes, you’ll see a pattern.  The chicken is either whole, cut up, or pre-cooked & chopped.  The latter is the quickest to make, you can be done in 40 minutes.  Recipes using cut up chicken usually call for browning of the chicken with the mirepoix in a frying pan. 

For raw chicken—cut up or whole—plan on 2+ hours cooking time, but there’s a benefit—you can make your own stock by cooking the chicken with mirepoix, and the traditional herbs (bay leaf, thyme, and parsley).  Or you can slow-cook by using a crock-pot. 

To make chicken noodle soup simply follow the basic recipe and add ½-1 cup of egg noodles (preferably whole grain) per pound of chicken plus extra water.  For chicken and rice soup, substitute a cup of rice for the noodles, with extra water, adding it as needed to meet the cooking time of the rice.   For cream of chicken soup, replace the stock with milk and puree after cooking.  These are well-evolved, simple recipes. 

The approach that makes the most sense to me begins with the carcass of a roasted chicken.  After you’ve enjoyed a meal of roasted chicken (you may be buying them roasted, but a future recipe will feature home roasting) you’re left with the carcass.  I confess to throwing these in the garbage in my prior life.   The recipe below starts with stock; if you have a carcass see note #1.

Skip’s Chicken & Rice Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. meat scraps (about 3 cups)

6 cups liquid (I used 4 cups homemade stock and 2 cups water.)

3 cups mirepoix (roughly equal amounts of chopped onion, celery, and carrot)

1 cup of mixed wild rice, or brown rice (If you like more rice, add another cup plus 1-1/2 cups additional water.)

2 each bay leaf

2 T chopped parsley

½ tsp ground thyme

1 tsp each, salt and ground pepper

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a large pot, bring to a boil, and simmer 40 minutes.  Let cool, add salt or pepper if needed.  If too thick for your taste, add a little water.  Homemade bread or cornbread makes a nice side.  Could this be any simpler?  For the small family, this makes 2-3 meals.  Put a quart in the freezer for later use.

Note 1:  If you’re starting with a cooked chicken carcass, flatten the carcass in a pot, cover with 6 cups water, and add herbs (bay leaf, thyme and parsley).  Bring to a boil and simmer at least two hours to loosen meat and make stock.  Remove and discard the skin and bones, and chop up the meat.  Return the meat to the liquid (you can add extra meat if you have leftovers), add the mirepoix, rice, and salt and pepper, and cook per directions above.

Note 2:  If you want Chicken Noodle soup, replace the rice with noodles and reduce liquid by one cup.

Note 3:  We made this recipe with turkey.  We simmered the carcass of our Thanksgiving turkey for three hours with a couple of bay leafs to make a simple stock (no mirepoix).  When done, we gleaned the loose scraps of meat seen in the photo.   The stock and meat were refrigerated for several days before making the soup above.  Perhaps the turkey was content we wasted so little of his sacrifice. 

Please comment:  Share any favorite food blogs that follow the criteria noted above (Healthiness, Value, Simplicity, and Taste).  Contribute your favorite soup recipe.

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 One Best Way

The quick answer:  To reform your diet, organize and simplify your kitchen.
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We stand at #48 of this year’s 52 Healthy Changes.  Taken together, they have the power to transform your diet, and your health, by reinventing how you eat.  Fair warning:  they can also complicate your life.  For example:

• Exercise:  We’ve asked you to get outside and exercise most days, to work up a sweat.  We even had the nerve to suggest you reconsider the laborsaving devices in your life.
• Refined flour:  We proposed that you replace the modern flour with freshly ground flour that is so full of nutrients it must be refrigerated.  We also suggested baking your own bread.
• Packaged cereals:  We’ve shown you how to make your own breakfast cereals, here and here, when it’s so easy (though costly) to just go to the store.
• Canned soup:  And we’ve noted that homemade stock is better than store-bought; a future post will include recipes for homemade soups.

There are two themes here:  First, cook more (some food processing now done in factories is best done at home).  Second, sweat more (exercise is good for you; it makes you stronger and healthier).  These things, good as they are, take time.  Rather than get crazy busy, it’s best to simplify our lives.  We suggest a process of not adding but of replacing bad stuff with good, and good stuff with better.  Simplification can also reduce the stress of life and bring us that elusive peace we all seek.

Cheaper by the Dozen

As a child, I loved the book, Cheaper by the Dozen.  Frank B. Gilbreth was the father and author, but he was also a leader in the emerging field of scientific management.  The goal was to discover the most efficient way to do every task—the one best way—so when Gilbreth took a shower, he used two bars of soap.  He was a creative guy who led the family on many fun adventures but there was a sad turn to all this rushing about—he died of a heart attack at the age of 55.    

From the shadows of Frank’s premature death a new star emerged—his wife Lillian, also a practitioner of scientific management.  Lillian maintained the Gilbreth’s consulting business while rearing the children and making her own contributions to scientific management.  She put her children through college (one died in childhood), traveled the world, and advised five US presidents on women’s issues.  A less known book was written about this early career mom, appropriately titled, Making Time. 

The Gilbreths made a big impression on me as a father (when the kids were small, I put them all in the tub at once), engineer, and novice cook.  For example, when we make freezer jam, I reduce waiting time by doing multiple batches at once.  The beautiful wife thinks this a little reckless and patiently does her batches one-at-a-time, with exactness unknown to me.  So in the kitchen, I look for that one best way, trying to improve my cooking skills.  Those are my credentials for the following discussion on simplification.

Simplification

We humans can’t keep from complicating our lives.  For many, self-worth is linked to owning whatever’s in fashion.  We live in a shopping culture and a whole nation—China—has grown its economy by cheaply manufacturing whatever we might next fancy.  Did you notice the elaborate Halloween costumes?  Or what those crazed shoppers were carrying out of Wal-Mart on Black Friday?  Acquisitiveness isn’t a new habit, rather a human trait exposed by the limitless productivity of the Industrial Revolution. 

The poet William Wordsworth spoke to this human frailty: 

“The world is too much with us; late and soon.
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”

Henry Thoreau, rejecting the materialism of his time, retreated to the woods about Walden Pond, seeking to discover the essence of life by removing all distractions.  He found new meaning in simplicity: 

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”

Concealed within the Healthy Changes is a thesis worthy of Wordsworth and Thoreau:  “Life can be made more healthful by using modern means to reinvent olden ways.”  This thesis allows us to reject the “getting and spending” but to embrace those few things that most enhance the quality of our lives.  If we can learn to do this, less really can be more.  So starting in the kitchen, here are ten steps to simplicity.

Ten Steps to Simplicity

Here are ten ways to simplify your life, all centered on healthy eating. 

#1.  Write a weekly dinner menu.  This is a major time saver and stress buster.  Save old menus by season in a binder for future years. 

#2.  Collect your favorite recipes.  It’s great that chefs, once hidden away in kitchens, have become celebrities, but we must resist the trend of complicating food.  Exotic 15-ingredient dishes may be fine for the chef but for the home cook, traditional dishes of six or so ingredients are practical, healthful, and delicious.  Let the family vote as you collect 24 favorite recipes of comfort foods.  If you use 2-3 each week, it will take several months to repeat.  Preparing a few dishes repeatedly is key to finding the one best way to cook.

#3.  Keep a weekly shopping list, as discussed here.  You’ll save the hassle and expense of multiple runs to the grocery store.

#4.  Make Sunday dinner special.  Plan your best meal for Sunday and have family and friends over from time to time.  Cook a roast, whether chicken, beef, pork, or lamb, and reserve a portion to flavor meals during the week.

#5.  When you cook family favorites, make a double portion and save one for a rainy day.  This is easier to do if your freezer is just ¾ full (see #9, below).  Soups are extra work but can be eaten for several meals. 

#6.  Relish leftovers (for smaller families; large families tend to eat everything in sight).  You don’t need to cook an original dish every night.  Get the family’s support to include leftovers in following meals.  Some dishes even taste better the next day.

#7.  Recognize that stuff accumulates.  It collects in your kitchen drawers, cupboards, and in your pantry. Periodically dump the kitchen drawers on the counter—save the simple tools you regularly use and toss everything you haven’t needed in the last year. 

#8.  Clear out the pantry.  We recently went through the pantry and threw everything away over the expiry date.  There was so much stuff it became a game to find the oldest item—the winner was ten years expired.  When the pantry’s too full, you don’t know what you have.

#9.  Manage your freezer.  Most of us toss stuff in until it’s full and forget what’s underneath.  This follows the FISH inventory rule (meaning, “First In, Stays Here”).  Adding a freezer in the garage may just expand the problem.  Here’s a better idea:  When you write your weekly menu, poke through the freezer for stuff you can use.  Set a goal to keep your freezer just ¾ full.  If you do this with your refrigerator also, you’ll save money via less spoilage.

#10.  Include frozen foods.  Frozen fruits and vegetables, unlike the produce in grocery stores, are harvested at their peak so you get extra vitamins while saving prep time.  In the next post, we’ll take a walk through the frozen food aisles of our grocery store, to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Please comment on your favorite ways to save time while cooking better food.  Share your shortcuts and clever simplifications.

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.

. . . With prudence and thanksgiving

The quick answer:  The path to eating well begins in the head.  Practice prudence and thanksgiving.

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Reflections

A few years ago my interest turned to nutrition.  Could a normal person, amidst all the confusion about food, I wondered, solve the puzzle of what to eat?  In the beginning, it seemed as simple as “eat this, not that.”  Now, several years into the journey, I respect the complexity of nutrition, and the simple elegance of traditional foods.  The answer to what we should put in our mouths seems to begin with what’s in our head—our outlook.

In the ‘30s a pioneering dentist researched the cause of tooth decay by visiting the aborigines of every continent and clime, comparing their teeth to those of their cousins who had moved to the city and converted to the modern diet.  The native dietary was as varied as their landscape but one thing was constant:  natives living on their traditional foodstuffs rarely had dental decay or the need for orthodontia; their cousins who moved to the cities and ate the modern diet did.   Dr. Price demonstrated that cavities could be healed by diet reform, and thought it a better solution that drilling and filling the cavity.  He wrote a book that became a classic after his death, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.  He also made an important conclusion:  The cavity in your tooth is not a problem of that tooth—it’s an early warning of a health problem affecting your whole body. 

If you've heard of Dr. Weston A. Price, you’re an unusual person.  If your dentist is aware of his work, he’s also unusual because the powers-that-be didn’t want to hear Dr. Price’s message—that improving nutrition was a better solution than drilling and filling the cavities as they occurred. 

This is a provocative idea, that eating right starts with thinking right.  In this post we discuss two attributes of people who see beyond the conventional wisdom—prudence and thanksgiving—by first looking at those remarkable Pilgrims who founded the first successful colony in America.

The First Thanksgiving, 1621

You know the story of the Pilgrims sitting down with their Indian benefactors to celebrate the first harvest.  They counted themselves blessed, even though their condition was most humble.  Their survival had hung in the balance—of the 104 Mayflower passengers just 53 survived the first winter.  Weakened in numbers, they held their burials at night, lest the Indians see and take advantage.  But now, stronger for what they had overcome and with the harvest safely gathered, they paused to return thanks.  

In Boston, one’s social standing improves if Mayflower ancestors are proven.  It’s not such a rare thing—millions of Americans are descents but most are unaware.  I once checked our family history against the Mayflower passenger list and found the Chilton family, of whom only Mary Chilton, age 13, survived that first winter, and George Soule, sponsored by Edward Winslow, the sometimes governor.  Mary later married John Winslow, Edward’s brother, so there is a tie to the Winslow family.  This led me to an interest in Pilgrim and Puritan history, and a few stories I like to recount on Thanksgiving.  I gained one other thing: an appreciation for the hard-earned Pilgrim values of prudence and thanksgiving.

The Specter of Famine

In recent years we’ve heard disquieting discourses on the decline of food stocks around the world, as well as people impoverished by the resultant rise in prices.  Last week Stanford hosted a conference and Kofi Annan, past UN secretary general and Nobel Laureate, made these points:

• The number of hungry people, about a billion, is growing rather than shrinking.
• Food reserves around the world are also shrinking, which increases the risk of global famine.
• Africa is key; though plagued by dysfunctional governments, it possesses 2/3 of the world’s unused arable land.

Unless there are fundamental changes, the shortage of sufficient affordable food will continue to grow.  Annan called for Western nations to give more money to develop Africa.  I was okay until Annan asked for money—I question whether more Western money is the answer. 

Here’s a trend that Annan didn’t mention:  As nations develop and grow in prosperity, they adopt the modern American diet (MAD).  The MAD diet is high in meat (the least productive use of land and water) and refined grains (the least healthful use of the world’s main food commodity).  Because foreign aid tends to advance the agenda of the donor nation, it’s likely that Western aid will simply spread the MAD diet.

Prudence

Here’s a prudent idea:  Before we can properly help the world to eat, we must first learn to eat well ourselves.  This is best done if we embrace the qualities of prudence, meaning to be “canny, careful, cautious, circumspect, discerning, discreet, economical, far-sighted, frugal, judicious, provident, sagacious, thrifty and vigilant.” 

This morning I took the garbage cans out to the curb for collection.  One container is for garbage, the other for things to recycle.  In the past the cans would be overflowing but now, after a year of learning how we should eat I’m surprised that we’re creating less garbage.  We buy more whole foods, and less packaged goods.  We cook a little more, but we waste less. 

I met a charming woman recently who was Basque, visiting from a small town in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France.  I wondered about her diet, about her food traditions.  Last month she commented on this blog, sharing a family recipe for eggplant—La Zingara (which translates, I think, to “gypsy girl”).  Last night I made the recipe, a sauce that we put on homemade bread, for dinner.  It was tasty, healthy, and economical, so I share the Basque Woman’s (as she identified herself) recipe:

Recipe for Eggplant La Zingara

Ingredients:

1 big eggplant

1 or 2 T tomato paste, or 3 tomatoes if you have time to cook them down.

1 clove garlic

1 T olive oil

½ cup grated Swiss cheese (I used a cup)

Directions:

1.  Boil water, well salted, sufficient to cover the eggplant.  Peel and cube the eggplant.  Plunge the cubes into boiling water.  Cover and cook until soft.

2.  In a separate pan, cook the garlic in olive oil and add tomato paste or tomatoes.  Cook the tomato mixture until the eggplant is done.

3.  Put the drained eggplant cubes and the tomato mixture in a blender and puree.

4.  Return the eggplant mixture to the pan, heat gently, and stir in the grated cheese, until melted. 

5.  Serve the eggplant as a sauce over bread, or meat.

Note:  Rather than open a can of tomato paste, I used some tomatoes about to go bad.  This added more liquid than using tomato paste so rather than take time to cook down the mixture, I doubled the cheese to thicken the sauce.  It tasted great and was easy to make. 

Message to the charming Basque Woman:  More family recipes please.

The Bottom Line

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving day.  If you have time read this N. Y. Times article about the benefits of thankfulness.  There is something healing about the "attitude of graditude."  Here's another benefit: If we are filled with the wisdom of prudence and thanksgiving for food as it comes from Nature, the siren song of Food Inc’s marketers will have no influence with us. 

Please comment on how a prudent attitude affects what you eat.  Or how thankfulness for food as it comes from nature guides what you buy. 

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.

Diet and Fertility

The quick answer:  The decline in fertility is an indictment of the modern dietary.  A healthy diet of whole foods, including the fats found in eggs, is essential to conception.

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Conception

I was once an officer in a medical device company that developed catheters to treat hard-to-reach organs, via the blood vessels.  We developed a method of treating brain aneurysms that saved lives and won us some fame.  Our products were also used to treat liver cancer, giving people a most precious gift—a little more life to live. 

One day we got the idea our catheters could treat a rising problem for women—infertility.  The most common cause of female infertility is failure to ovulate, but blocked fallopian tubes also defeat conception.  So we started a new company, hiring a very capable woman as CEO.   The goal:  Use our catheter technology to access, diagnose, and treat fallopian tube disorders.  The company, named Conceptus Inc., was also a success.

Infertility

I’ve followed the rise of infertility as a result, and appreciate the anguish of couples who want children but can’t conceive.  About 1 in 8 couples have difficulty conceiving.  There are various causes; about 1/3 of infertility is from the man, another 1/3 is from combined or unknown causes, but about 1/3 is due to the woman, mainly failure to ovulate. 

The topic of female infertility got the attention of scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health; they had an enormous database in the Nurses Health Study, started in 1976.  Because it studied long-term effects of the Pill, they had collected information about attempts to conceive.  An analysis of the data led to an idea that hadn’t gotten much attention:  Failure to ovulate is related to health, particularly diet.  An excellent book followed, The Fertility Diet: Groundbreaking Research Reveals Natural Ways to Boost Your Chances of Getting Pregnant.  From this study and book, here are ten things that improve a woman’s chances for a child (foruntately, these tips have been covered in previous Healthy Changes):

#1  Avoid trans fats.  Hydrogenation creates toxic trans fats and we addressed the primary risk in Healthy Change #2: Never buy deep fat fried foods.  All hydrogenated foods should be avoided.

#2  Use healthy plant oils, such as olive oil or canola oil.  We covered this in Healthy Change #11:  Enjoy traditional fats like butter and olive oil (in moderation).

#3  Eat more plant protein (grains, legumes, nuts) and less animal protein.  You’ll recall we covered this in Healthy Change #20:  Eat twice as much plant protein as animal protein. 

#4  Reduce blood sugar and insulin levels by eating a diet of whole foods (low glycemic index, or G.I.) rather than refined carbs.  We’ve built the case for eating a low G.I. diet in multiple posts, particularly “Are Carbs Good or Bad” with Healthy Change #13:  Write a weekly menu that includes vegetables (4-5/day), whole grains (3/day), and legumes (1/day).

#5  Enjoy a daily serving or two of saturated fat (whole milk, ice cream, or full-fat yogurt).  A surprise finding was the link between skim and low-fat milk and infertility.  Who would have guessed?  Saturated fat has been demonized so much you’re likely surprised to see it recommended, so welcome to the proper role of saturated fats, covered in Healthy Change #11, noted above. 

#6  Take a multivitamin containing folic acid and other B complex vitamins.  This blog has advocated natural sources of vitamins, but want-to-be mothers should consult their doctors.  For all others, we propose Healthy Change #17:  Get your vitamins the traditional way, with a whole food diet of vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, and a little meat.  (Plus a little noontime sun for vitamin D.)

#7  Get plenty of iron, but from whole foods, not red meat.  A series of posts advocated a whole foods diet, but Healthy Change #22 recommended sparing intake of meat, with minimal processed meat. 

#8  Drink plenty of water, minimize alcohol, coffee and tea, and avoid sugary drinks.  This blog advocates water also, with a little fruit juice, as in Healthy Change #6:  Drink lots of water; make it your main drink.

#9  Aim for a healthy weight (a BMI from 20 to 24 was defined as healthy), but losing 5-10% if overweight can restart ovulation.  In our posts “The Skinny on Overweight” and “The End of Diets” we explored how a healthy diet naturally results in a healthy weight.  Unfortunately, a lot of shame has been put on the overweight.  Shame doesn’t motivate as powerfully as truth. 

#10 Exercise daily; if you’re already exercising step it up a little but not to excess.  Healthy Change #5:  Get at least 30 minutes of exercise, most days of the week.  It’s best if you sweat.  Other posts talked about stretching and resistance exercises.

The study didn’t address the issue of male impotence except to infer that what was good for the goose was most likely good for the gander.  (The guys need to take better care of their health too; in the last 50 years, it's reported, male semen counts have fallen 50%.)

Reduced-fat Milk

The last Healthy Change addressed milk, and the Harvard fertility study did also.  The conclusions were a surprise that confounded what we’ve been told about fats (read it twice to be sure you got it right):

• The more low-fat dairy in a woman’s diet, the more likely she was to have trouble getting pregnant.
• The more full-fat dairy, the more likely she was to get pregnant. 

Harvard scientists were astonished by the finding that reduced-fat dairy was harmful to the creation of life and could only cautiously recommended saturated fat for couples at conception.  This actually shouldn’t be a surprise; our most critical organ, the brain is mostly fat, and a baby’s optimal food, the mother’s breast milk, is full of fat, especially saturated fat.  In our home, we enjoy saturated fat in moderation; after all, it makes everything taste better.

The Bottom Line

The primary goal of every species is the creation and nurturing of the next generation.  Nothing else matters so much.  The modern diet is linked to two major ills: the rise of chronic disease, as well as overweight and obesity.  Now we've added a third calamity—infertility.  So diet reformation is not just about our health, it’s about the creation of life.

As noted above, there’s a remarkable alignment of the Healthy Changes with the findings of the Harvard fertility study.  So if you’ve had difficulty conceiving in the past but have followed the Healthy Changes over the last year and now find yourself pregnant, it’s just fine with me if you want to name your child “Skip”. :)

Eggs

We used to hear that eggs were bad because the yolk was full of fat.  People were making omelets of egg whites alone, or buying egg substitutes processed to remove much of the fat.  Imagine—low-fat eggs.  Now we’re told that eggs are back in favor.  You can safely enjoy 4, or even 6 per week, we’re told.

There’s been controversy about battery feeding and confinement of chickens in crowded cages.  The response of the industry was to take the doors off the cages—most eggs now are advertised as “cage free”.  It's one more demonstration of the power of informed shoppers voting with their dollars.

The chicken's feed remains an issue however.  A researcher named Artemis Simopoulos, on a trip to her native Greece, brought back some eggs from chickens fed the traditional way—roaming about eating bugs, seeds, grass, and a little fine gravel.  The eggs were tested and found to be ten-fold higher in the omega-3 fats essential to health, and higher in vitamins, compared to our commercial eggs. 

The healthiness of the egg, Dr. Simopoulos concluded, is tied to the healthiness of the hen.  Even for hens, diet is important.  Adding flaxseed to the feed provides more omega-3 fats in the egg, mostly of the short-chain type.  Adding seaweed or algae adds omega-3 fats of the essential long-chain type.   You pay more for these but in a prior post we pointed out that this is actually an affordable source of omega-3 fats. 

This past weekend I visited a most remarkable farmer’s market—in San Francisco, at the old Ferry Building on the Embarcadero.  It’s a place where you can actually meet the person who raised the food.  I visited with a friendly egg farmer with a handsome mustache, Charlie Sowell from the Rolling Hills Ranch, who put his hen houses on wheels, so he could move them around the pasture by day and close them up at night for safety.  The hens eat the traditional way, from Nature’s bounty.  Traditional?  I hope Charlie is the future too. 

Please comment on your experience with diet and fertility, or finding eggs from healthy chickens.

Photo by Kelli Nicole

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.