YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Extraordinarily Good Salmon

This recipe is perfect for when you want to impress someone, like a new friend or your future in-laws. But it is easy enough that you just might want to make it for your own crowd. The salmon becomes unusually juicy and flavorful because it essentially poaches in the juice that the onions release as they cook, which makes this a particularly good recipe for wild salmon. Continue reading


Reflections on Weight

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately: When we English speakers talk about our weight, we say “I weigh xxx pounds.” As if you have a say in the matter, and you could dial in what you want to weigh when you wake up in the morning. Not. We’re not machines — we’re dynamic creatures who are always adapting and responding to our environments. And what we weigh is a reflection of those environments, no matter how supportive or challenging.  Continue reading




YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lentil Soup & Sweet Potatoes

You know how much I love slow cooking and crock pots, greens and sweet potatoes. Put this delicious recipe up to cook on Sunday, and you’ll be all set for days. Consider it your “standby dinner” in case you get stuck in traffic, or at the office, or in a turnstile or a revolving door, or between a rock and a hard place. Or stuck for an idea. Or just plain don’t feel like cooking when you get home. Continue reading


The Actual Cost of a Burger

The announcements of the recent Academy Award nominations remind me to talk again about Food, Inc., a 2010 Academy-award nominee for Best Documentary, and winner of many other awards and nominations besides. Billed as a “civilized horror movie for the socially conscious, the nutritionally curious and the hungry” as well as “an unflattering look inside America’s corporate controlled food industry,” it minces no words. Just 94 minutes long, I urge you to make time to watch it. Continue reading



The Trans Fat Ban

This past summer, some 50 years after concerns were first raised about a possible link between trans fats and heart attacks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that partially hydrogenated oils, the primary dietary source of trans fats in processed food items, are no longer “generally recognized as safe” in human food. Processed food manufacturers will have three years to reformulate their products or request an exemption. This action is expected to prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks a year. Multiply that by 50 years. Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Roasted Garlic, Parsnip and White Bean Soup

Here’s a soup to, yes, satisfy your sweet tooth! One thing I really love about certain foods, like garlic, parsnips, and onions (tomatoes, too), is that their sweetness develops rather dramatically when you roast them or leave them to cook slowly. And, frankly, there just aren’t enough parsnip recipes around for my taste. Remember though, that if you want to be able to enjoy the subtle sweetness of foods like these, you will want to moderate your intake of sugar and especially corn syrup, both of which tend to overwhelm your tastebuds and raise your threshold for tasting the lesser (though more complex and satisfying) kinds and amounts of sweetness in fruits and vegetables. Continue reading