Author Archives: Dr. Sukol

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lovage Soup

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Many years ago I brought home some lovage from a neighbor’s garden, and I planted it on the eastern side of our house, alongside a screened-in porch. For a long time now it has grown there in abundance every spring, and there is always more than enough to share. This year I’ve been feeding some of it to the chickens, who love greens, especially the lemon balm that grows all over our property. Lovage tastes something like celery, but it grows up to five feet high on thick multi-branched stalks. It’s impossible to use it up. It’s quite beautiful, and would make a great addition to any herb or flower garden. It self-seeds every year, and my patch is easily 20 years old, if not more.

Here’s a lovely soup you can make with lovage. If you don’t happen to have access to any, you can make this soup with celery instead. Continue reading →

Cottonseed Oil, Crisco, and Trans Fats

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About ten years ago, some fifty 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 ultraprocessed food items, were no longer “generally recognized as safe” in human food. Processed food manufacturers were given three years to reformulate their products or to request an exemption. This action was predicted to prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks a year. Multiply that by 50 years to get an idea of the effect trans fats have on your heart.  Continue reading →

Cooking with Spice and Heat

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I have learned, mostly over years of reading cookbooks and watching cooking shows with my dad (of blessed memory), that one way to make spices really bloom is to heat them briefly in some olive oil. This past Monday, I made shakshuka for my entire book group, and I did not skimp one bit on the spices. A double recipe of this shakshuka translated to 4 teaspoons of sweet paprika, 2 teaspoons of cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon of the Serrano chili powder I was lucky to discover the last time I was in Napa. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Cole Slaw

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I have made coleslaw twice in the past few weeks, so I thought you might like to see the recipe. The first time I made it with green cabbage with a little bit of red cabbage for color (and because there was some in the refrigerator). The second time I made the whole recipe with red cabbage and it was exceptionally attractive. Both versions were delicious. Great summer food. Cole slaw is not particularly complicated to make, and the homemade version is always worth it. Continue reading →

About Omega-3s and Omega-6s

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This week I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned about two specific polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. 

Let’s start with omega-3 fatty acids. These are compounds in the form of a long chain of carbon molecules with several double bonds, each of which acts as a pivot point. Flexible pivot points confer the ability to move in many directions, essential for movement and flexibility. Omega-3s owe their flexibility to all those double bonds, the last of which is located just three carbons from the tail, or omega, end of the molecule. That’s why it’s called an omega-3 fatty acid. Omega means end. In contrast, omega-6 fatty acids contain fewer double bonds, and the last one is located six carbons from the tail. Hence, omega-6.  Continue reading →

Salmon Teriyaki by the Lake

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The first week of May, we spent a long luxurious weekend with old friends who live at the confluence of two quiet lakes north of Detroit. Twenty-four hours a day, we found ourselves looking out large windows at the mesmerizing ripples on the surface of the water, lakes filled with Mallard ducks, geese, swans, a pair of loons, and even the first egret of the season. We saw four waddling yellow puffballs following closely after their Mallard parents. No matter the time of day, no matter the weather, the view out those windows was stunning. Continue reading →

The Skinny on Fat

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With all the talk about saturated fat and monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and trans fat, it’s easy to get confused about how they fit into the big picture, and to understand what it means for the food choices you make. I’d like to give you another strategy for figuring out what to eat. Instead of FAT, I am going to talk about FATTY ACIDS. First, some definitions.

If fat is a sentence, then fatty acids are words. If fat is a word, then fatty acids are letters. If fat is the universe, then fatty acids are galaxies. If fat is a solar system, fatty acids are planets and moons. If fat is a pyramid, fatty acids are bricks. 

If foods are words, then I want to focus on the letters. Today, I want to talk not about olives and avocados, not olive oil and avocado oil, but rather about the o’s and the e’s with which they are spelled. This conversation is not about lard or chicken fat. It’s about the fatty acids of which they are composed. Continue reading →

P is for Phytonutrients

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I’m writing today about something I’ve been thinking about for a while but have not known how to put to words. A few weeks ago, I attended a wedding. After dinner, the woman seated beside me at the table remarked that now that she had eaten her “protein and vegetables,” it was time to go join the dancing. I hear friends describe how they ate their “protein,”or how they make sure to get the little ones at their tables to eat their protein. It’s like saying you ate your “produce” instead of your tangerine. Or your “fat” instead of your peanuts. People don’t say that. But I hear people say that they ate their protein all the time. Continue reading →

The Importance of Avocados, Olive Oil, and Peanut Butter

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Today I’m talking about fats, one of the macronutrients. Protein, fat, and carbohydrate are the three major macronutrients in the diet. Water is sometimes included as a fourth macronutrient.

But first, I’d like to begin with a few words on carbs: The term carbohydrates refers to carbohydrate that comes from a plant that grows in the soil. Whether leaf or fruit or root or stem, this kind of carbohydrate is always, always rich in fiber and phytonutrients. Except for milk and honey, carbohydrate doesn’t really exist in nature without the fiber. This means that whenever you come across carbohydrate without fiber attached, humans probably made it that way. But we don’t call whole, or fiber-rich, carbohydrates “healthy carbohydrates.” In a blog about good health and nutrition, you can assume that I’m always talking about the healthy kind. And while it is true that we, as a society, are drowning in stripped, “unhealthy,” carbs, people do not feel the need to keep reminding themselves.  Continue reading →

A Primer on Dietary Fat

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A great many parts of our bodies rely on fat to perform their essential functions, and I’d like to review some of them here. The better you understand fats, their functions, and their structures, the less susceptible you will be to the advertising that influences consumers to purchase products made with industrially-modified fats. Today we’re talking about fat. For purposes of this essay, consider the terms “fat” and “oil” to be interchangeable.  Continue reading →