People frequently mention that they are unsure about whether they should eat dried fruit. They are usually worried about the amount of sugar. There are a number of ways to approach this issue. One would be to ask yourself if your great-grand ancestors ate dried fruit, if they would have considered it food. The answer to this question would, of course, be yes. You could also ask yourself if dried fruit was invented in the 20th century. And the answer would, of course, be no. Continue reading
Author Archives: Dr. Sukol
Chocolate Mousse
What follows is a true story. It really happened, and you can draw your own conclusions.
Many years ago, my daughter and I ventured out on a snowy evening in January and returned home with the sweetest, gentlest, eight-week-old Labrador Retriever puppy. We named our new chocolate lab Mousse. Mousse played ball; Mousse cuddled with the children; Mousse helped me weed the garden; Mousse stole food from the kitchen table when she thought no one was looking; Mousse hung out with the chickens and enjoyed visiting with our friends and neighbors, both human and canine. Mousse became family, and all was well. Continue reading
Big Cereal Gives Frooty Words the Business
I have written in the past about the high margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. I also think a lot about the words Big Cereal uses to sell its product, specifically the pervasive use of fruity words in naming breakfast cereals. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Apple Pie Muffins for the Fourth!
If you’d like to make a dessert that captures the feel of July fourth, try these apple muffins from Honest Cooking and Travel. They have a streusel topping reminiscent of some fancy apple pie recipes I’ve seen, but feel free to substitute graham cracker crumbs if you like. Save one for yourself for breakfast tomorrow morning, along with your cup of tea or coffee. Continue reading
Chemistry Experiments Disguised as Food
It’s not always easy to figure out what’s food and what’s manufactured calories. Some items have the best names, names that make it seem as if the product is definitely food, and quite nourishing at that. So I didn’t realize that Nutrigrain bars had 52 ingredients until someone pointed it out to me. That’s not food, that’s a chemistry experiment. Continue reading
A Quantity of Commodities
Some time ago, Michael Ruhlman lent me a book by Chef Dan Barber called The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food. It took me a long time to get through the book, primarily because it made me think so hard that I could read barely one chapter at a time. In 2009, the same year I started writing Your Health is on Your Plate, TIME Magazine named Dan Barber as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Third Plate got me thinking about the fact that mainstream America survives not on nutritious food but, instead, on a commodity-based diet. When goods and services are traded on the grand scale for other goods and services, they become commodities. The primary characteristic of a commodity is that its price is determined not by quality but, rather, quantity. A commodity meets explicit contractual requirements unrelated to the product’s nutritive value or taste, so that the source and nutritional quality of the product become, essentially, irrelevant. Commodities from different producers are of more-or-less uniform quality and, therefore, considered equivalent. Food-based commodities include white flour, sugar, soybean oil, degerminated corn meal, corn syrup, and corn starch. Other kinds of commodities include coal, gold, silver, iron ore, and aluminum. Continue reading
Your Healthy Grocery Cart
The other day, a thought crossed my mind. Maybe we’re focused on the wrong part of the equation: Maybe the time for constructive decision-making about what we eat is not when it’s time to prepare the food, but when it’s time to purchase the food. Waiting until you’re hungry for dinner is like chasing a horse after it’s left the barn. That’s why I want to start this conversation by examining the standard shopping cart. Continue reading
Big Food: The Industrialization of What You Eat
What does it mean to be nourished? The word nutrition, related to “nourish,” comes from nutrire (Latin), meaning to feed, support, nurture, and also nurse. “Food,” from foda (Old English), is related to “fodder” and “feed,” and means nourishment or fuel. The purpose of food is to nourish. There is a fair bit of controversy about what constitutes good nutrition, but most successful strategies recommend increasing high-fiber foods like produce, legumes, and whole grains, while simultaneously decreasing ultraprocessed items like chips, commercially baked items, and “fast” food. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lentil Soup with a Splash
I’ve come across a really good and relatively simple recipe for lentil soup, and thought I’d share it right away before I misplace it! I wish I knew where I got it from, but that information will sadly have to wait until I figure it out and can add it to this post. I made this recipe for the first time on a rainy day in early spring a few weeks back, and was so pleased with the results that I decided to write a post about it. Lentils are a special food, a special type of legume, with all kinds of important benefits for your health. And they taste good. Continue reading
The Trouble With Angel Food Cake
Have you ever worked with someone whose actions made you hear your mom’s voice inside your head saying things like “Everyone gets a turn,” or even “Let’s be nice”? When my friend Dee’s kids complained about the seemingly unjust behavior of certain teachers or neighbors, she would suggest they consider them “negative role models.” Just as it’s important to have good examples in your life, it’s also valuable to have examples of behaviors you would rather avoid.
Year in and year out, I post recipes that have a lot going for them. I am always on the lookout for good examples of nourishing recipes made from whole foodstuffs, with plenty of produce, legumes, nourishing fats, and high-quality protein. Today I am trying a different approach: I am dissecting a recipe that has nothing going for it. This angel food cake mix is a negative role model. Its best use is as an example of what not to eat. Continue reading