Love reading old cookbooks? A cookbook is a snapshot of the nutrition beliefs of its time. Gathered together they document the 20th 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 3rd 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
- Combine first 6 ingredients (up to, but not including oil) well and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Add oil, honey, salt and 4 cups of whole wheat four.
- 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.
- 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.