A new book reaffirms old research and even older traditions. Heard yesterday on KQED’s program “Forum” Daphne Miller, MD has gone into the kitchens of historically healthy peoples to find out what they eat. Not surprising to me, and many others, particularly those who are cooking with Nourishing Traditions, she found that it is not so useful to reduce food into good and bad categories but necessary to understand that the whole gestalt of a culture’s diet contributes to health. When that contribution is good, resulting in longevity and a paucity of chronic diseases Dr. Miller found that there are some common themes, much along the lines of what Dr. Weston A. Price found in the 1930’s.
Whole grains, whole fats, no refining or reduction of nutrients for convenience sake, lots of fermentation, enjoying food with others. I just heard about the book and I haven’t had a chance to read it, but apparently she includes recipes gathered through her travels that explain how various groups have combined certain foods to maximize flavor (the first concern in food) and health benefits.
Though I think this information is already out there I am happy to see additional beating of the drum that modern diets just can’t make food better for you. Dr. Miller’s observations are helpful for more people to understand that foods as found in nature or minimally processed cannot be bad per se, but that health is about more than supplements and carbs or no carbs but the whole approach to daily life and that fundamental need to eat.
I am actually very impressed overall with her presentation of this information, probably because I found it so affirming of what I go on about here and the changes I am trying to make in my own kitchen. (Yes a doctor cooks with lard)
Here is the interview:
I have been thinking for some time, especially since trying to maximize the role my food plays in my overall health (particularly important having no health care insurance), that family physicians should be first and foremost dietitians. I know from bothering various friends and family in the medical field with my questions about saturated fat, cholesterol, raw milk, etc that the amount of their training spent on nutrition is very minimal. More and more we hear the astounding idea that health is directly affected by diet! Even in the above interview is seems to be kind of revelation that what we put in our mouths does more that fills our stomach and exit later. As Dr. Miller revealed the moajority of the issues she treats as her daily practice can be traced to diet, and therefore can dealt with more effectively, less expensively, and much more enjoyably by changing what people eat! I think this book is a great beating of the Dr. Price drum, I think her next step should be trying to get this information to more doctors and students.
One Comment
very timely and excellent point. there was much talk of health care leading up to the inauguration, many articles discussing the the US health care situation…from what care means to how to provide it. prevention, through shifts in eating and simply exercising, is easy but educating in our culture is hard. i can’t get over how many people i encounter think that not eating much and not exercising is a fine way to be, as long as they are thin (or less fat than they used to be). they drink soda, they eat lean cuisine. they don’t want to hear about how it’s not going to work in the long run. they trust information from doctors, so that we should consider doctors emphasis and influence. sigh.
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[...] diets (a la Dr. Price but without the examinations), explained in an interview (which I wrote about here) that the best home cooks have about fourteen meals that they really know well. This gives you a [...]
[...] in the world without disease and then looked to find out how they got to be in that lucky state. Dr. Daphne Miller did the same thing in her book. She found people who lacked certain chronic diseases and then [...]
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