When we no longer have good cooking in the world, we will have no literature,
nor high and sharp intelligence, nor friendly gatherings, nor social harmony. 
Marie-Antoine Carême

Eat wonderful meals brimming with taste.  Dance, drink, laugh, love. 
Think Zorba the Greek meets Julia Child. 
W.C. Willett

Eating with the fullest pleasure —
pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance —
is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world.
In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude,
for we are living from mystery,
from creatures we did not make
and powers we cannot comprehend. 
Wendell Berry

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic
who waved off the dessert cart. 
Erma Bombeck

It’s the fourth of July today, and my sibs and I have converged on the family home for the great annual bash.  Five strong grandsons have been carting cartons of beer, soda, wine, water and iced tea upstairs to the deck on and off since yesterday evening.  Great drums of ice stand ready to receive them all. 

I walked upstairs this morning to see my mother arranging a mountain of rolls (from the local Italian bakery) in a huge basket lined with a striped blue cloth napkin.  My dad was driving around in his kaboda, a mini-tractor, positioning grills, chairs, and recycling bins.  Tall piles of burgers (from our own steer) were thawing in the kitchen, and my mother’s delicious homemade cole slaw and potato salad were blending their flavors in the refrigerator.  The gorgeous, cool green cabbages for the cole slaw were harvested from my mom’s garden last night.  I’ve been assigned to cut and arrange trays of peaches, plums, and mangos for the celebration.  There are blueberries, raspberries and cherries to add, too.  The raspberries are everywhere around my parents’ farm this time of year. 

Across the street, our neighbors Connie and Duane are compiling several magnificently marinated salads.  They arrived the other night for a different meal with a large tray laden with marinated asparagus on one side, haricot verts on the other, triangular slices of Parmigiana, whole basil leaves, lettuce leaves, and thickly cut tomatoes sprinkled with oregano and fresh black pepper.  Humble and generous, they would have you believe they tossed it together in just a few minutes.  Connie, the daughter of a fireworks scion from the Midwest, makes me feel like a kind of July 4th royalty is in our midst. 

A last-minute trip down to the vegetable garden yielded the last of the season’s lettuce greens.  Here’s a recipe for a delicious homemade ranch dressing with no secret ingredients.  Add 6 T sour cream, 2 T mayonnaise, 1 chopped green onion, 1 t each of honey and mustard, 1 T chopped celery leaves, 1 t finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, 2 t apple cider vinegar, 2 chopped garlic cloves, salt and fresh pepper to taste.  Puree the ingredients for a minute, and add shredded Parmesan for more taste if desired.  It can be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator up to 1 week.

In a few hours, the table will be piled high with cornucopias of plenty.  I saw the fixings for a gallon of black bean, corn and cilantro salsa on my sister-in-law’s counter yesterday morning.  If we’re lucky, Aunt Gerda will show with a reprise of the same extraordinary arborio rice pudding she brought to my wedding 30 years ago.  Libby always brings a beautiful fruit pie, some years peach and some years strawberry-rhubarb, and sometimes her guitar, too.  And my sister, a cantor, has invited a bunch of her musician friends.  So in addition to the great sights and smells, there should also be some great sounds coming from here in a little while.  The music, food and friendship should last late into the night.

I indulged a desire for a bucket of silly bands to share with all the children we’re expecting today, and picked out a few red, white and blue ones for myself.  Some of the bigger kids will spend the afternoon playing cribbage in the air conditioned living room.  A few years ago, the grandparents taught their grandchildren to play cribbage, and now they attend competitions together.  The annual soccer game will be played in the field, and it will most likely end with a large influx of young people doing cannonballs right into the pool.  I expect that the pool will see even more activity than usual today, with temperatures expected to reach the mid 90’s. 

I hope you enjoy all of your celebrations today.

***********************Upcoming Events***********************

Log on to WCLV.org FM 104.9 tomorrow Monday July 5th, Wednesday July 7th, and Friday July 9th, at 5:45 p.m. to hear Dr. Roxanne Sukol speaking about  preventing diabetes and obesity on Healthlines, the award-winning project of Cleveland’s Academy of Medicine.

Most of the time I feel like we’re really making progress.  Patients are looking younger, losing inches, feeling better and decreasing their medications.  Still, not a day goes by that Angie, Barb, Chuck, Doris, Elijah, Fritz, or Gayle doesn’t tell me proudly that they have switched to “wheat bread.”  I thought I covered that, I say to myself.  I thought we discussed the fact that practically all bread is made from wheat.  That buying “wheat bread” is the same as buying “bread.”  That the word “wheat” means nothing in terms of good nutrition unless it is prefaced by the word “whole,” as in “whole wheat.”  That someone is trying to confuse you, and they are succeeding.  That’s when I feel as if I’m climbing a mountain with a Wonder Bread truck tethered to my backpack.

If nothing is working, no matter how hard you try, it’s time to reexamine the fundamentals.  So let’s go back to the beginning, and take a careful look at the words that are being used to sell bread. The goal here is to understand what you are choosing to eat.

When I enter a Subway, the sandwich maker asks me, “White or wheat?”  What are my choices again?  White bread or wheat bread?  But white bread is made from wheat.  And wheat bread is made from wheat.  Both white bread (always) and wheat bread (usually) are made from the starchy core, or endosperm, of a wheat kernel.  So what’s the difference?  Near as I can figure, the major difference is the color. 

I checked out the nutrition information for the white and wheat breads.  They both contain 200 calories, but white bread has less fat (0.5 versus 2.5 g), less carbohydrate (38 versus 40 g), less fiber (1 versus 3 g), and less protein (7 versus 8 g).  So how can they both have 200 calories?  Something isn’t adding up.  The only thing that white bread has more of is sodium, at 470 versus 360 mg. 

What is white bread?  It’s bread made from wheat kernels that have had their bran fiber coat and oil-rich germ stripped out.  What is wheat bread?  Same.  So why are some wheat breads tan instead of white?  Usually because they have had caramel coloring added.  What else can we learn about “wheat bread?”  Well, manufacturers use a variety of descriptive words to make bread seem better for you, including “enriched,” “unbleached,” and sometimes even “organic.”  “Enriched” was the name given to flour to which vitamins and minerals were added, after it became apparent that stripping grains caused anemia, beri-beri, and other nutritional deficiencies in the people who consumed them. 

The only time bread is really made from whole grains is when the first ingredient is WHOLE wheat or WHOLE grain flour.  The very FIRST ingredient.  Not the second.  Why is it important for you to know this?  Because there is virtually no place in a nutritious diet for refined (i.e., enriched, stripped) flour.  Yes, it’s that serious.  The standard American diet (SAD), based as it is upon refined flour, is one of the major contributors to the diabetes and obesity epidemics.

Now, just for the record, I will restate that folks should eat very little (if any) grain at breakfast.  I’m not saying that we should never eat refined wheat products.  I’m not really the “never” type.  Like Julia Child, I prefer moderation.  I think people can handle a little bit of refined flour now and then.  But not at breakfast, except on very, very rare occasions like your birthday, or your niece’s wedding brunch.  It just doesn’t make any sense to waste large amounts of insulin at the very time of day it works worst. 

Remember that some people need to be more strict about their intake of grains (like “wheat bread”) than others.  Who?  Those people who are 1) inactive, 2) more than 30 lbs. overweight, 3) pre-diabetic, or 4) diabetic.  This short list includes around 85% of Americans.  That means no toast, bagels, muffins, waffles, pancakes, cereal, biscuits, bread, grits, leftover mac & cheese, at all.  Even if they are made from whole grains.  Why?  Because grains are absorbed very rapidly, which raises your blood sugar quickly, which means that you need to release a huge load of insulin to catch the sugar.  And insulin works worst when we wake up in the morning.  We can’t afford to waste our insulin like that.  So don’t eat foods made from flour (which, as you have learned, is almost always wheat flour) for breakfast.  The remaining 15% of us can have a little bit, sometimes.  Not every day, unless we are very active.

As for “wheat bread,” don’t let anyone fool you.  Call it by its more correct name — bread– and switch to “whole-grain bread.”  Avoid it for breakfast always, and don’t eat it every day in any case.  Send me your questions if you’re still confused.

                                    ***

And…now…finally…the results of our 10,000-hits Contest [even though we’re past 11,000 already!].  Thank you to everyone who sent an entry.  The stories you tell inspire and encourage me to continue to spread the word, teaching more and more about the difference between real food and manufactured calories. 

The grand-prize winner is: Maggie Henry, whose eloquent entry says it all!!  Maggie, claim your prize at www.sarvasoap.com.  Maggie’s winning entry is posted below, along with honorable mentions from ZW and Teresa Downum.  Thank you to all who participated.

**Grand Prize Winner**
In the last 5 years my life has changed dramatically. The documentaries about our broken food system and the adulteration of food in general have completely changed how I eat and feed my family. I now farm organically and grow all my own food. Grass-fed beef and pastured chicken, eggs, pork and goat are all I will eat. Crazy thing is what word of mouth has done. Lots of people want good clean food. I always gardened and grew our veggies but now I help feed my community.  Maggie Henry

**Honorable Mention**
Since receiving “Your Health is on your plate” emails, I take a closer look at what is on my plate and how much is on my plate. I have taken steps to reduce the amount of calories, carbs, cholesterol and sodium I put on my plate. I can now exercise up to 30 minutes a day and I feel better. My 8 pound weight loss and eating the right foods has given me a new confidence in myself; and being more in control of my health has empowered me to continue losing the next 42 pounds I look forward to losing!   Teresa Downum

**Honorable Mention**
As a teenager, my body has always been at the forefront of my mind, yet I was so misinformed about being healthy that I ate bars and 100 calorie packs and expecting things to change for me.  They didn’t.  However, a few months ago I read about the health benefits of a mostly whole foods, plant based diet and quickly became a vegan. I began going on more walks, eating more natural foods, and really coming to love the body I have.  In 3 months, I have only gotten a cold once and I have virtually no acne anymore.  This year in school, I started a club to teach grade school children, along with my club members about healthy snacks and food, so that young children can enjoy the foods they eat while never having to face the troubles that are involved with childhood obesity that often is followed into adult life.  ZW

Last week, Gene [not his real name] the computer guy showed up at my office for the first time in a while.  Right away, I knew something had changed.  I said, “Gene, how are you?  You’re looking very well!”  He responded with an uncharacteristic grin, and answered by telling me one thing all of us know, but few believe (despite numerous confirmatory personal experiences!).  I sat up fast when he said, “Diets don’t work.”

He motioned to a small machine on his belt that I had noticed only peripherally, assuming it was a cell phone, or pager, or maybe even an insulin pump.  It was a pedometer.  He said that he had started slowly, satisfied at the start with even 8,000 steps per day.  In the beginning, his goal had been to get to 10,000 steps every single day.  That was then.  Now he frequently walked close to 20,000 steps a day, and related that “if I have time, and I feel like going a little further” he was walking even more.  His pants had gotten loose, and he, proudly, had taken in his belt a notch.

Change begets change, and health begets health.  It wasn’t long before Gene realized that the daily fast-food lunches he had eaten for years were not part of this new program.  He decided to try eating a bag of nuts instead and discovered, to his amazement, that it satisfied his hunger.  He took in his belt two more notches.

Tip O’Neill, the longtime Speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., once said, “All politics is local.”  He meant that all members of Congress bring the concerns of their hometowns to their offices in the Capital.  The issues they consider most important are the ones that affect them most deeply.

In the same way, I would say that all nutrition is personal.  One size never fits all.  I know: I’m barely 5 feet tall and 110 pounds, and “one size fits all” never fits me!  Some of us enjoy the taste of cilantro; some truly despise it.  It amuses me to see that some people at my gym carry their water in gallon jugs, whereas others carry small bottles or none at all.  Some folks seem to thrive on a vegan diet, and others have never been able to manage their weight unless they cut their carbohydrate intake to just about nil.  If you have a mini-food processor and you like dill, then you loved last week’s post about dill pesto.  Otherwise, maybe you scrolled down to find out what else I’ve posted lately.

The same goes for exercise.  It’s not just about food.  If you live close to a track, or in a safe neighborhood with sidewalks in good repair, and you enjoy walking, then you may be wondering, just about now, where to buy a pedometer.  If your knees are giving you the blues, and you have always loved being in the water, maybe you’ll check this week to see if there’s a pool nearby.  Or maybe the idea of checking out a yoga or tai chi DVD or videotape from the library sounds good.  The point?  Do what appeals.  Work with, not against, your inclinations.  You can’t fight City Hall.

What is the secret to Gene’s success?  The main thing is that he is not trying to make change based on “a diet.”  He understands that diets don’t work.  As I have been known to say, a system built on deprivation will never provide a basis for constructive change.  Secondly, Gene figured out which aspects of his lifestyle were most troublesome, and he fixed just those.  One step at a time.  Literally.  And then one meal at a time.  Small changes.

Gene increased his activity in a way that was pleasurable to him.  Then he removed one major source of refined carbohydrate and trans fat, the daily fast food lunch.  Finally, he stopped drinking soda pop.  And that did it.  He continues to feel better and better as these changes settle in for the long haul.  He didn’t stop eating all processed carbohydrate.  He didn’t say that he will never again drink a soda.  He just decided that he will no longer be doing it every day.  And what keeps him going?  The fact that he feels so much better.  And his son.

Almost all my patients tell me that the changes they make for themselves go on to be reflected in their entire families.  Gene said that he now gives his 6-year-old son only water (or milk) to drink.  He says to him, “If you don’t want water, you’re not thirsty.  If you want something sweet, eat a banana.  If you’re really thirsty, you’ll drink water.”  He has a great point here, and one I intend to share around.  Plenty of my patients complain that they don’t like to drink water.  I believe that this is a learned response, and one that can be unlearned.  I advise them to dilute their drinks by ½, then ¼, then 1/8, and so on, until they no longer use the sweet stuff.  Small changes, always.  Gene is right.  If we’re really thirsty, water is fine, even desirable.

Change is reflected first in the way we think about it, whatever it is, and then in the way we go about it.  Change occurs first in our minds, and then in our bodies.  As our conversation came to an end, Gene said, “I still have a long way to go.”  I guess he means how far he intends to walk.  Mentally, I’m delighted to report, he’s already there.

Two months ago, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published its own commentary on the obesity epidemic with a series whose cover page spelled out, in large type, the words, “Eat, drink, and be sorry.”  Excuse me?  Eat, drink, and be SORRY?  The actual quote reads, “Eat, drink, and be merry, so that joy will accompany him in his work all the days of his life…”  And herein lies the problem. 

Wendell Berry said that “Eating with the fullest pleasure — pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance — is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world.  In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.”

In the movie Chocolat, we hear, “Listen, here’s what I think. I think we can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we don’t do.  By what we deny ourselves.  What we resist, and who we exclude.  I think we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.”

We cannot hope to reverse the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in a culture of deprivation.  It says a lot when people feel the need to demonstrate just how little butter or cream they actually used by squashing together their thumb and index finger.  If the so-called French paradox has taught me anything, it has taught me to be proud that I fried my fresh eggs in butter this morning, and that I drank my tea with real cream.  There is no French paradox.  There are only large numbers of well-meaning individuals who are utterly confused about what constitutes healthy eating.

Most of my obese patients are severely deficient in Vitamin D.  Many are deficient in protein, and in various B vitamins.  Caring for them has taught me that obesity is a malnourished state perpetuated, in part, by a diet that adversely affects certain individuals more than others, and a society that assigns blame to those individuals for the effects of that diet. 

If you google the disease kwashiorkor, which is caused by a severe deficiency of dietary protein, you will find photographs of pale, swollen babies with listless appearances, abnormal swelling around the eyes (called “periorbital edema”), and distended bellies.  I see people who look like that in my office every day.  We all know some people who appear to need more water, and others who appear to need more calories, remaining thin despite the fact that they always take a second helping of everything.  What if some types of obesity are caused by a relative deficiency of protein or fat?  What would be the consequences of eating a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet to people whose own particular metabolisms require more protein or fat?  Or both? 

If it’s not about depriving ourselves of the healthy pleasures of the table, then what is it about?  I give myself permission to pursue delicious, flavorful food, and here is a very abbreviated list of ideas for where to find it:  In cheeses, especially ones with strong flavors like parmigiana, blue cheese, and extra sharp cheddar.  In herbs and spices, like basil, chili powder, cinnamon, curry, ginger, horseradish, lemon balm, mustard, and rosemary.  In lemon juice, soy sauce, roasted sesame oil, and balsamic vinegar.  In ripe strawberries, peaches, and cantaloupes.  In chives, jalapenos, scallions, and carmelized onions.  In dark, green, leafy vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted root vegetables.  In peanuts, hazelnuts, wheat germ and roasted almonds. 

If you’re looking for flavor, chop 2 garlic cloves with 1½ tablespoons lemon zest (peel) and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt.  Mix in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and then ¾ cup finely chopped parsley.  Finally, add a can of rinsed white beans.  It’s called White Beans & Gremolata, and it’s delicious.

Dean Ornish encourages us to “eat with ecstasy,” knowing it’s a strategy that will last a lifetime.  As opposed to the strategy of portion control.  “Awareness is the first step in healing. When we become more aware of how powerfully our choices in diet and lifestyle affect us—for better and for worse—then we can make different ones.  It’s like connecting the dots between what we do and how we feel.”

Eating well and eating smart are one and the same, so denying ourselves the pleasure of eating dooms us from the start.  I’m not talking here about the food industry’s carefully targeted mix of fat, sugar and salt, identified by David Kessler in The End of Overeating, that hijacks our natural ability to enjoy and appreciate food, and feel satisfied.  I’m talking about color, texture, temperature, and flavor. 

Once upon a time we understood in our bones that eating well and eating smart were one and the same.  When we reclaim that knowledge, then we will reclaim our health as a community. 

This morning my daughter and I stopped by our neighborhood butcher to buy something to grill tomorrow.  Arriving only 10 minutes before closing, we were absolutely astonished to discover that just a few packages of chicken remained, along with some knockwurst and hamburgers.  Not a single steak, roast, chop or rib. 

It seems odd, but we celebrate Memorial Day by eating meat.  It’s a meat lover’s holiday.  Is this a good thing?  Despite the U.S. dietary guidelines, which recommend eating less red and processed meat, I think eating meat is a fine thing.

Dr. Renata Micha, of the Harvard School of Public Health, would probably agree.  She published the results of a very interesting experiment in this month’s journal, Circulation.  Dr. Micha’s team contacted the authors of 20 previously published studies about the effects of eating meat (evaluating a total of 1 million adults in 10 countries on 4 continents), and asked them to go back and separate the results of their raw data into processed (smoked, cured or salted) and unprocessed meat.  All the meat contained similar amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol.  The researchers found that eating the equivalent of one hot dog, or 2 slices of deli meat, per day was associated with a 42% increase in the risk of heart disease, and a 19% increase in the risk of diabetes.  But eating twice as much unprocessed red meat was associated with neither.

It is important to note that they are not saying processed meat caused heart disease or diabetes here.  At this point, they are just saying that they saw an association.  This means it may be the processing, and not red meat itself, that is the problem.  Processed meats contain 4 times more sodium, which increases blood pressure, and 50% more preservatives (like nitrates) than unprocessed meat.  Nitrates promote insulin resistance and hardening of the arteries.  You can learn more about the Dr. Micha’s study here. 

This study and its not-so-surprising results demonstrate a fundamental change in nutrition research.  For a long time, researchers, nutritionists, and government analysts have grouped together various foods in ways that made it difficult to draw conclusions.  Given that they are studying nutrition, it seems to me like a serious oversight.

For example, last year another Harvard University study was published that examined the effects of 3 different diets on mouse blood vessels.  The researchers called the diets “low-carbohydrate, high protein (LCHP),” “standard chow diet (SC),” and “Western diet (WD).”  But they did not explain what they meant by LCHP.  They did not actually explain what they fed the mice.  Did the protein come from grass-fed beef, genetically modified soybeans, or canned cat food?  And what is an SC diet?   How much carbohydrate, protein and fat are “standard”?  What about the WD?  Did those mice get fried chicken, burgers, iceberg lettuce, soda pop and doughnuts?  Also, what do mice in the wild normally eat?  These are crucial questions if we are trying to draw conclusions from what the mice ate.

A second example comes from the nutrition labels on the packages at the grocery store.  In order to determine the amount of white flour or starch in a product, for example, I must add together the fiber and sugar, and subtract that sum from the total carbohydrates.  Determining the polyunsaturated fat content presents a similiar difficulty.  Well, I’m not going to let it worry me this weekend.  I’ll just be grateful that my cousin John came home safely from Vietnam, and then I’ll look forward to a dinner of barbecued chicken, homemade cole slaw and potato salad, and grilled onions, plus some new lettuce from our garden!

For a long time now, my husband has been asking me to help him understand why traditional fats are a very important part of a nutritious diet, and why manufactured fats are not an acceptable substitute.  This post is for him.

The so-called evidence against saturated fat, a significant component of traditional fat, begins with a biochemist named Ancel Keys.  In the 1950’s Dr. Keys said that the risk of heart attack increased with the amount of saturated fat eaten.  In a famous paper on the subject, he confirmed his hypothesis with data from 6 countries: Japan, Italy, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.  The problem?  He evaluated a total of 22 countries, and dropped the ones that did not support his hypothesis.  So he excluded the data from the other 16 countries, such as Norway and Holland, with relatively few deaths from heart disease despite a high-fat diet, and Chile, with a high incidence of fatal heart attacks despite a relatively low-fat diet.

In a previous post, I discussed the Framingham Heart Study, the ongoing, 60-year study of what has now become several generations of families in Framingham, Massachusetts.  One of its directors famously stated that, “We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.”  We observe that while saturated fat increases total cholesterol, it is due to a rise in HDL, the good cholesterol. 

What is a saturated fat anyway?  Last week I explained that each carbon atom has a total of four possible binding sites.  I used the example of a commuter train to describe how trans fats are structured.  To continue on this track, I would say that a saturated fat is like a commuter train with all the seats filled.  It is, simply, a chain of carbon molecules in which all the binding sites are filled.

Saturated fats come in different lengths, from short (like 6 carbons) to medium (12 and 14 carbons), to long (like 18 carbons or more).  Each one has a different name.  The saturated fats are very important biologically, not least because they make up 50% of our cell membranes.  Saturated fats help bones to absorb calcium.  They protect the liver when it metabolizes toxins like alcohol and acetaminophen.  Palmitic acid, the 16-carbon saturated fat, helps lungs transfer oxygen between the air and our blood, and protects against asthma and other lung diseases.  Palmitic acid and stearic acid (18 carbons) are preferred nutrients of heart muscle. 

Butter and coconut oil are valuable sources of medium-chain lauric acid (12 carbons) and myristic acid (14 carbons), which support our immune systems and help white blood cells to recognize and destroy viruses, bacteria, fungi, and even tumors.  Saturated fatty acids are involved in the production of many hormones, including insulin.  They signal our brains to feel satisfied after we eat.  So it should not surprise you to learn, given all these biological functions, that saturated fats make up 54 percent of the fat in human breast milk.  Monounsaturated fats make up most of the rest, at 39 percent.  Monounsaturated fats have one open binding site (mono = one).  Polyunsaturated fats make up the remainder.  Polyunsaturated fats have more than one open binding site (poly = many).

Switching gears now, last week’s post drew a lot of comments and additional information about Crisco.  I learned many interesting things, a few of which I will share with you here.  It turns out that the name “Crisco” comes from the phrase CRYstallized Cottonseed Oil, from which Crisco was originally made. 

The story of Crisco begins with William Procter and James Gamble, who were a candle maker and soap maker, respectively, living in southwest Ohio.  Between 1890 and 1905, Procter and Gamble purchased 8 cottonseed mills in Mississippi.  Their goal in purchasing the mills was to secure for themselves an alternative source of raw material for their two businesses.  The making of soap and candles required large supplies of lard (from pigs) and tallow (from beef), the prices for which were controlled at the time by the meat packing industry. 

After they had obtained ready access to large amounts of cottonseed oil, a chemist named E.C. Kayser helped Messrs. Procter and Gamble to develop the process of hydrogenation.  Hydrogenation converted liquid cottonseed oil to a solid form that the men could use to produce more soap and candles.  At the same time, these two brilliant entrepreneurs realized that the newly invented light bulb was causing the market for candles to shrink. So they began to look for another market for their new product. 

Because of its resemblance to lard, P&G decided to market Crisco as a food.  They presented it as cleaner, healthier, cheaper and certainly more modern than lard.  Then they made advertising history with the publication of a free cookbook, each of whose 615 recipes used the new product.  Crisco introduced partially hydrogenated fat to the American diet.  The damage would not become apparent for decades.

Last week I was asked to become a contributing writer on the award-winning food blog “The Jew and the Carrot ” a project of the Jewish environmental organization, Hazon.  I chose to write my first essay about trans fats and non-dairy creamer and margarine.  Even though these products were invented only 100 years ago, they play a major role in what is now considered “traditional” Jewish cooking.  In fact, most people who use them never even consider that our foremothers could not possibly have used them in “the old country,” wherever that may have been.  So what happened?  Two things happened — trans fats and marketing. 

Trans fats are produced by a chemical process called hydrogenation, which means the addition of hydrogen atoms.  Adding hydrogen atoms to liquid fats (oils) thickens them.  Thicken them enough, and they become solid, after which they can be used like other solid fats traditionally used for baking.  Traditional fats, depending on where you grew up, were usually butter, or lard, or coconut oil. 

So the young food science industry had developed a product that acted like fat.  It actually seemed better than butter and lard.  It was much cheaper.  It could be made in enormous quantities, and more simply.  It could be shipped long distances without refrigeration, and its shelf-life was counted in years instead of weeks.  The first cans of Crisco® came off the factory lines in 1911.  Margarine and coffee whiteners came in the years and decades that followed. 

Now the marketing and advertising departments got busy.  Procter & Gamble, the maker of Crisco®, launched a nationwide campaign, actively enlisting the support of various community leaders to endorse their products.  Mazola worked with local women’s groups to organize picnics to teach interested parties how to use their product, and made contributions to those groups for every unit sold.  Other examples abound. 

America became the target of a focused, sustained, and wildly successful marketing campaign.  It took just a couple of generations to unlearn how our great-ancestors had cooked for a thousand years.  It was not long before these inexpensive fats became industry standard in the manufacture of baked goods, breakfast cereals, and the like.  The rates of heart disease began to soar.

Why?  When we eat trans fats, they become incorporated into our organs.  Then those organs become stiff and inflexible.  Blood vessels harden and thicken.  Oxygen-carrying red blood cells can no longer pass through.  When arteries that supply the heart become blocked, the heart becomes starved for oxygen, and its unfortunate possessor develops chest pain.  Blockage of arteries to the brain causes strokes.  And the medical term for blockages in the legs is “peripheral vascular disease.”  We do “bypass” operations to describe both heart and leg surgeries that replace closed blood vessels with open ones.  Trans fats also interfere with all the fat-requiring metabolic processes, such as those involving fat storage, cholesterol synthesis, and reproductive hormones. 

What does the phrase “trans fats” mean?  To understand, we need to consider the chemistry of fats (solid) and oils (liquid).  Although we call them different names depending on whether they are liquid or solid at room temperature, fats and oils are the same chemically.  They are composed of long strings of carbon atoms, each of which has four binding sites that are available to attach to other carbons or hydrogens. 

Think of those four binding sites as two 2-seater benches on a commuter train.  The benches are situated so that they face one another, and the train still has a number of empty seats.  Now two commuters enter the train.  They have the option of sitting either directly or diagonally across from one another.  If they decide to sit directly across, they will be in a chemical configuration that is called a cis arrangement.  All the weight is on one side.  Cis arrangements make a carbon chain lopsided, floppy, and flexible, which is ideal in living, moving organisms. 

If, on the other hand, the two commuters choose to sit diagonally across from one another, they will be in a configuration that is called trans.  Think transportation, transfer, trans-Atlantic.  In this arrangement, the weight of the passengers is distributed across the benches in a more balanced, but less flexible, way.  Trans fats are stiff and stackable.  That is why they are not safe for consumption.  They may act like solid fats on the stove, but they do not behave like fat once they are eaten.  They behave like Legos®.

Trans fats have been banned in other countries, and in several cities throughout the U.S., but they have yet to be banned across our nation.  What the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated is that food containing less than ½ gram of trans fat per serving may be advertised as ”trans-fat free.”  That’s not good enough.  In the case of coffee whitener, a serving is 1 tablespoon.  This morning I felt like making my coffee extra light, so I put 4 tablespoons, or ¼ cup, of milk into the mug.  If I had used coffee whitener, that would have added up to almost 2 grams of trans fat.  Just for the first cup.  So it would be easy, on any given day, to consume quite a bit of trans fat solely from trans-fat-free food.  That’s a problem.

What are our alternatives?  Skip the Crisco®, and avoid any foods that are advertised as “trans-fat free.”  Even reformulated Crisco contains “less than ½ gram of trans fat per serving.”  Bake as your foremothers did for a thousand years with, yes, butter, lard, or coconut oil, which is a solid below 75 degrees Fahrenheit.  Skip the coffee whitener and use milk or cream.  Or choose tea with honey or lemon.  Drink your coffee black, or try coconut, almond, soy, or rice milk if you’d like.  Decline to make recipes that call for margarine.  Use butter or coconut oil instead. 

We vote every time a bar code passes over a scanner, so don’t buy anything with the words “partially-hydrogenated” in its ingredient list.  There is no place for synthetic trans fats in a healthy community.

On the subject of shopping for and preparing nutritious meals, one piece of advice that I like to share is that it’s best to stick to the outer walls of the supermarket and avoid the center.  So with only a few exceptions, like flour, oil and beans, that’s exactly how I shop.  What does it mean to shop at the edges of the supermarket?  Let me show you what I choose, and where I get it.  I thought that this week I would invite you to join me on a virtual shopping trip to the supermarket around the corner from my home. 

Entering the store now with a cart, I walk straight into the produce section, where I buy the bulk of my groceries.  Most supermarkets are set up so that you have to walk through the fresh fruits and vegetables to get to the rest of the store.  That’s how they increase the chances that shoppers will buy fresh produce while it’s still fresh.  The shelf life of produce is obviously quite short in comparison with the boxed, bottled, and canned items in the supermarket. 

The produce section is easily identified with its enormous mountains of seasonal items, usually well-priced.  Today I pick apples, blackberries, strawberries, a couple of grapefruits, kiwi, sweet potatoes, red leafy lettuce, red and green peppers, a few jalapenos, lemons, asparagus, tomatoes (roma and vine), potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, fresh garlic, and bananas, which make my husband very happy.  At the edge of the produce section are shelves filled with all kinds of nuts, nut butters, and dried fruit.  I get 2 containers of freshly ground peanut butter, and one bag each of dates and dried apricots.  Then I move on. 

At the back of the store now, in dairy, I take whole milk and butter.  Sometimes I find Hartzler’s milk and butter from a family-owned farm about 50 miles away, sometimes not.  If I need eggs, this is where they will be.  I select a few cheeses to add to the substantial pile already in my refrigerator, and I take a pint of cream.  I always keep cream in the refrigerator; a spoonful in my tea is one of my daily morning pleasures.  Cream is also the secret ingredient that turns a light and flavorful vegetable soup into a concoction whose essence is entirely more sublime.  Last year we were lucky to receive an ice cream maker as a gift from my parents, so if I’m organized enough, and inclined to make some ice cream, I buy two pints of cream instead of one. 

I avoid margarines and coffee whiteners, which are placed in the cold section simply to provide the illusion that they require refrigeration.  Keeping them cold makes them seem more like real dairy products and increases sales.  Otherwise, there’s no reason for them to be here.  Or anywhere else, as far as I am concerned.

Now I turn away from the outer wall and head down a long aisle to get a few cans of cooked beans and bags of dry beans.  If I want rice (brown) or pasta (whole grain), I’ll get them nearby.  I venture into the aisles to add mustard, olives, pickles, and cans of tuna to my cart.  Some weeks I need tea, coffee, spices, pet food, baking supplies, foil or detergent.  But otherwise, I stay out of the aisles.  We don’t need chips, breakfast cereals, snack bars, canned soups, sodas, or Hawaiian Punch.  My great-great-great grandparents didn’t eat them, and neither will we.  I turn back toward the dairy, and add 2 large containers of plain yogurt to my cart. 

The frozen section doesn’t have much for me.  Once in a while I buy frozen peas or chopped spinach, and occasionally I am in the market for a frozen pie crust (yes, I have been known to purchase ……) but that’s about it, except for the occasional pints of ice cream.  I look for sales in the premium ice creams, and stay away from brands with long lists of ingredients with unpronounceable names.

The bakery, located just past the frozen section, is where I find a loaf of whole-grain, seeded bread.  I was very happy when, a few years ago, the supermarket decided to carry this bread made by a local, well-known bakery.  Before that, I used to make my final bread selection by choosing a loaf that contained at least 3 g fiber/slice, listed whole wheat as the first ingredient, and — as a tie breaker — felt heaviest in my hands.  I still do that sometimes.

Just past the bakery is the meat section.  This year the supermarket actually began to carry a line of organic, pastured chicken.  Before that, I bought a regular brand.  But even the kids agree that the pastured chicken is truly delicious, so we decided it was worth it.  Now, maybe once a month, I’ll buy a whole chicken to roast with lemons and garlic or thyme from our herb garden.  Other times, I fill a roasting pan with chicken legs and thighs, cover the chicken pieces with generous amounts of onions and tomato sauce, cover the pan with foil, cook it at 325 for 2 hours, and then cook it uncovered at 400 for 15 more minutes.

As I turn for the last time to return to the checkout area, I pass the fish counter.  Once a week, we have tilapia or salmon.  Maybe once or twice a year, I bring home wild salmon.  It’s not cheap, but then again it’s not on my list every week either.  Near the checkout, I stop for olive oil and a large bottle of cider vinegar.  Done.  I purchased almost all of the food my family will consume this week at the edges of the supermarket.

My book group makes the most amazing meals.  There are no assignments; creativity runs wild.  Last week Brigitte brought tomato-basil soup with homemade croutons, Lynne served a quinoa-feta-cranberry salad in a bowl lined with kale, Elaine made a rum cake, or maybe that was Diane.  Beth brought rice balls filled with melting cheese, Nancy brought a claypot filled to the top with bubbly macaroni & cheese, and these are just the dishes I remember!  A few months ago, I took the time to write down a particularly memorable meal that included roasted eggplant appetizer, spinach salad with roasted beets & pomegranates & red onions with white raisins, sweet corn pudding, jarlsberg cheese grated with red onion and served on whole-grain crackers, squash soup, and chocolate-covered strawberries.  There is always a selection of wines, and a scrumptious collection of cheeses and crackers.  Now that’s something we haven’t talked about yet — crackers.

Looking just at the names, it’s nearly impossible to tell which crackers are nutritious.  I mean, who would guess that 10 Ritz Crackers Whole Wheat contain less than a single gram of fiber?  It’s the same for 4 Keebler’s Townhouse Bistro Multigrain crackers, and 10 Nabisco Wheatsworth Stone Ground Wheat crackers.  Less than 1 gram of fiber per serving.  Even Late July Organic Classic Saltines, though they’re made with “organic wheat flour,” contain zero grams of fiber.  Okay, so now what?

I found a smart comparison at www.environmentalnutrition.com, which I give to patients who eat lots of crackers or are just plain curious.  Generally, I recommend that people avoid crackers with less than 3 grams of fiber per serving. 

Which crackers make the cut?  Ak-Mak 100% Whole Wheat Stone Ground Sesame Crackers (but not just because they’re called Stone Ground), Back to Nature Harvest Whole Wheats (but not just because they’re called Whole Wheat), Nabisco Triscuit Thin Crisps (but definitely not the reduced fat ones), Trader Joe’s Multigrain Savory Thins and WASA Multigrain Crispbread, (but not just because they’re called Multigrain), Trader Joe’s Woven Wheat Wafers, RyVita Rye & Oat Bran Whole Grain Rye Crispbread (which pack a walloping 6 grams of fiber per serving), and Mary’s Gone Crackers (my favorite). 

What gives these crackers the fiber that the others don’t have?  Whole-grain flour.  In most cases, the very first ingredient contains the word “whole.”  Whole wheat, or 100% organic whole wheat, or whole-grain rye flour.  The one exception?  Brown rice, which is a whole grain.  So you are looking for either “whole [grain name]” or “brown rice” as the first ingredient.  It has to be the first ingredient. 

Nabisco Wheat Thins 5 Grain Crunch and Keebler Townhouse Wheat crackers, each with less than 1 gram of fiber per serving,  list “enriched flour” first, and “whole wheat flour” second.  Second doesn’t count. 

Nabisco Premium Multigrain Saltine Crackers have 0 grams of fiber per serving, and list “enriched flour” first, “whole grains” second, and “whole wheat flour” third.  Second and third don’t count.  Neither does “rice flour,” the first ingredient in Blue Diamond Almond Nut-Thins, of which you have to eat 16 crackers to get a gram of fiber.

Dare Breton Multigrain and Kashi TLC Crackers Original 7 Grain may sound authentic, but the first ingredient in both is “wheat flour.”  Don’t let that fool you.  Wheat flour is not whole wheat flour.  In fact, most flour is made from wheat, so “wheat flour” doesn’t buy you whole grains.  Also, don’t be enticed by “enriched flour,” which would not have required enriching if it had not been stripped of its germ and bran first.  “Wheat flour” doesn’t count, and neither does “organic wheat flour.”

By the way, these rules apply as well to bread.  “Wheat bread” is just plain old bread, sometimes with brown caramel coloring added to make it appear more nutritious.  That’s not the same as whole-grain bread.
 
You’re almost done, but not quite.  Now look at the nutrition label and check the number of grams of fiber per serving to make sure there are at least 3.  Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers, and Hain All Natural Wheatettes list whole wheat flour first, but they have 2 grams of fiber per serving.  Not so bad, but not so great either.  You can do better. 

A post about crackers wouldn’t be complete without encouraging you to try your hand at making your own.  Cracker making is a great family activity.  I confess that it’s been a while since I made them myself, but I do remember that they were delicious, and then they were gone.  You’ll find two recipes below, one simple and elegant, and the second somewhat more adventurous.

“Homemade Crackers” from Cooks.com: 
Combine 4 cups whole wheat flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 2 tbsp. sugar.  Cut in ¼ c. butter, and stir in up to 1 ¼ c. milk to make a stiff dough.  Wait 15 minutes, and then roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thick on a lightly floured surface.  Cut into squares, and bake until browned.  The crackers will crisp up as they cool.  No nutrition info on this recipe, but you know what’s in them, because you made them yourself, with whole-wheat flour.

“Four-Seed Snapper Crackers” adapted from Peter Reinhart on the LA Times website:
Heat oven to 300.  Grind 1/8 c. sunflower seeds and 1/8 c. pumpkin seeds into powder in a blender, coffee grinder or mortar & pestle.  Stop before they turn into seed butter.   Combine sunflower and pumpkin seeds with 1/8 c. flax meal, 1/8 c. sesame seeds, 1 c. whole-wheat flour, ¼ t. salt, 1 tbsp. honey, 1 ¼ tbsp. vegetable oil, and 3/8 c. water.  Mix ingredients to form a firm ball of dough. It should not be sticky.  Knead the dough by hand on a lightly-floured surface for about 30 sec.  Add a bit more flour if necessary to keep it slightly tacky but not sticky.

Line baking pans with parchment.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces. On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll each to nearly paper thin. Continually lift or flip the dough so it doesn’t stick to the surface, and dust more flour underneath if need be.  Transfer to baking pan, and cut into rectangular or diamond-shaped crackers. 

Combine the egg with ¼ c. water, and brush crackers lightly with egg wash.  Sprinkle with more sesame seeds, and bake for approx 25-30 minutes.  The crackers will be dry, crisp, and golden brown, and they won’t spread or rise in the oven.  This recipe makes 3-4 dozen crackers, each of which contains a full gram of fiber.

Hearty appetite!