Increasingly we seem to learn that there is mainly only disadvantage in the heavy processing and even the fortifying of foods. The more we learn about what whole foods have to offer, the more we seem to figure out that our refined-then-”enriched” versions are weak or even detrimental in comparison. A recent study of folic acid fortification shows flaws in the thinking that a vitamin is a vitamin is a vitamin no matter what the form or context.

Whole grains and greens are rich in folate, a B vitamin which has shown to be protective against colon cancer and other bowel issues and is just generally important for overall health. Folate deficiencies also cause fetal neural tube defects and thus pregnant women are urged to take a folic acid supplement. Folic acid is the supplement form of folate, and (doctors urging aside) does not impart the same positive results for cancer risk and whole-food derive folate. In fact as a recent NY Times article outlines, folic acid enriched foods may increase cancer risk.

This particular study lucked out with an easy control group (nutritional studies are difficult because control groups are hard to maintain) for folic acid consumption because Norway do not enrich their food with it like we do here in the US (lucky for the researchers and the Norwegians too apparently)

Turns out that folic acid enriched foods, mainly grains and cereals…um eaten particularly by children, increase cancer risk. So…no advantage there at all.

(Careful readers will note that the study of B vitamin consumption was originally aimed at understanding the relationship between B vitamins and heart disease, not cancer. In the previous post, on sick ancient Egyptians, this relationship was brought up as the likely cause of ancient cardio problems as the Egyptian Elite ate refined grains and were deficient in B vitamins that keep in check an amino acid that breaks down cell walls (which cholesterol goes in to fix…) I will not be at all surprised if the findings for b vitamins supplements (versus the stuff in whole foods) fails to show an impact on heart disease, but that will not be a good enough reason to discount the relationship until they look at food in the form it should be eaten. Maybe a start in the right direction to show the relationship to cancer)

Okay, so food in its most whole form provides all the nutrition we need without the fiddling from food scientists. Lesson: Avoid food with health claims and stick to those that have no package at all. That said, there are ways to “enrich” whole foods yourself and that is by pairing them with foods that help your body absorb all the goodness. And yes, this point loops back to the point about good fat and it being important and not causing heart disease.

I recently read author Nina Planck’s Real Food, What to Eat and Why. Of all of the points she made, I think the rundown of the usefulness of good quality whole fats in the diet was the most important. So I am just going to quote her verbatim: You can keep this all in mind with any catchy “holiday health hints” or such that tell you not to eat your turkey skin or eat low-fat dairy.

Eating protein with fat makes nutritional sense, because all food, and protein in particular , requires fat for proper digestion. As we saw with “rabbit starvation, without fat in the diet, digestion fails and you starve, but not for lack of calories. What is true of meat is true of all fat-and-protein pairs. They go together. Consider, for example, two near-perfect foods: eggs and milk. Both foods are a complete nutritional package, designed for a growing organism’s exclusive nutrition, and must contain everything the body needs to assimilate the nutrients they contain. The fats in the egg yolk aid digestion of the protein in the white, and lecithin in the yolk aid metabolism of its cholesterol. The butterfat in milk facilitates protein digestion, and saturated fat in particular is required to absorb the calcium. Calcium, in turn, requires vitamins A and D to be properly assimilated, and they are found only in the butterfat. Finally vitamin A is required for production of bile salts that enable the body to digest protein. Without the butterfat, then, you don’t get the best of the protein, fat-soluble vitamins, or calcium from milk. That’s why I don’t eat, and cannot recommend, egg white omelets and skim milk. They are low-quality, incomplete foods.

In each classic pair, fats help the body assimilate, use, or convert essential nutrient.

Fat and protein
Roast chicken (with the skin)
Eggs (with the yolks)

Fat and vitamins
Vitamins A, D,E and K are fat-soluble, eat them with fat

Fat and Beta-Carotene
Buttered carrots
Collards with fatback
Spinach salad with bacon
Flank steak with arugula
Beef with broccoli

Saturated fat and Omega-3 fats
Fish with butter or cream sauce

Saturated fat and calcium
Whole milk
Yogurt, cheese, and sour cream made from whole milk.

Each new piece of research reminds me that the most we should do with food is grow it in healthy soil, and prepare it in a way that our bodies can best use it. For some things that means raw (like dairy and fruit), eaten cooked or raw with some useful fats (like most veggies and meats), or fermented (particularly cabbage and other meant-to-ferment veggies as well as grains, ie sourdough, and some legumes ie soy)

Here are some particularly delicious whole meals:

                          

Everything is totally right about this dinner. It is quick and made of all whole and active ingredients, organic and local. And the flavors are beyond. Beyond.

Pictured above is Taco Night deluxe with a fresh pupusa rather than a simple fresh tortilla. The process was inspired by a Rick Bayless recipe, which at first seemed overwhelmingly complicated, but he has a knack for doing this to what are really simple foods. (And he could use about four times as many paragraph breaks in his descriptions. Just a note. )

The trick to these, for me, is to keep them thick. I use parchment paper and a heavy pot as I don’t have a tortilla maker. It works fine.

I start with fresh masa dough from the farmer’s market. 1 pound of dough for $3. That is a lot of amazing toothy tortillas, it goes a long way. I mix in just a spoonful of lard into the dough.

(Yup, lard. My vegetarian mother cringes. Freshly rendered, also from the farmer’s market. Good whole fats also go a long way and the flavor is mild and it really helps them to get crisp. Read more about this maligned whole fat here. This can certainly be omitted though and they cook just fine. )

At this point you have a perfectly good simple tortilla you can flip off your hand into a hot dry skillet, but the taco night deluxe called for a little extra.

(I don’t have a picture of that middle step, but don’t try to peel the tortilla off at the stage pictured, slide one hand under the paper, flip the whole thing on your other hand and peel the paper off. Then you just flip your hand over above the hot skillet and let go.)

For pupusa, the black beans are spooned onto the pressed dough while it still rests on the parchment paper. Then using the paper to help it fold without sticking to your hand fold the sides into the middle and carefully pull off the paper. Then do the same to the top and bottom. You end up with a masa bean dumpling. With the paper still folded over gently press the dumpling into a thick disk.

This then goes into the pan. I decided to fry them just a bit with additional olive oil. Deluxe remember?

The great thing about this process is that one side cooks in the time it takes to make the next one, then the first is done by the time it is time to put in a new one. So it goes quick.

Toppings can very but the toothy tortilla and rich meat (lots of cumin and chili powder cooked into it) is matched with heaps and heaps of fresh raw slaw. Use any kind of cabbage and other herbs or veggies. Carrots, cilantro or parsley, green onion, lime, are all good. Dress with just salt and pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. We top with creme fraiche (just like sour cream) to get in something active and cultured to help digest the mess.

I thought I had a photo of another taco night with the chicken from making stock (see freezer pictures in post below) but apparently that was eaten too fast to capture. The tortillas on these were topped with this extraordinary sauce sikil p’ak (purchased from the same booth as the masa). Now that was also deluxe.

Taco night has been a weekly affair since the first of the year, all I can say is 2009 thus far has been very good in our kitchen.

                          

So I went for other more affordable parts of the bulk section putting together dream cereal.

I used this recipe as a guide, but my ingredients are different, as it should be. I thought it might turn out too sticky or oily or clumpy- but it was just right- one more thing I normally buy packaged that I will now make myself.

First mixed the grains, nuts, seeds only:

This includes 3c oats, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds. These are mixed with 1/4 c of canola oil and a 1/2 c of honey. (The tip is to do the oil first, sloshing it around in the cup, coating the sides, before pouring into the mixture- then measure out the honey in the same cup and it all slides out easily, no sticking at all- genius.)

Then toasted brown and very fragrant (too fragrant to resist!)

this one shows the toasty-ness better:

Then mix in the fruit. This is a good process- some recipes cook the fruit, but it’s already dried and additional heat just makes it tougher, so I hear. I used raisins (cheap) and dried apples (a homemade gift- thanks Martha and David!)

Continue to mix gently as it cools so it doesn’t clump.

Enjoyed with some raw milk and fine reading material!

Mark Bittman with the NYT minimalist blog, which I do love, has a cute granola video- with a similar hippie identity dilemma- check it out, but note, he doesn’t use the genius oil then honey trick!

                          

I am lucky enough to have access to Organic Pastures milk, which is unpasteurized. The benefits of raw milk for the drinker, because of the helpful microorganisms, and for the cow and the earth, because of the cleanliness producing raw milk necessitates, are well documented and much information can be found on the OP links page, news page, and their FAQ. The owner of Organic Pastures is passionate about his products and the right to choose real, raw milk. Thus, my milk got political, donning a yellow flyer asking for support in the upcoming California State Senate hearing; Fresh Farm Milk-Assuring Safety and Consumer Choice. A joint hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness.

This call to action was well timed- just after reading a great article in latest Harper’s “The Revolution Will not be Pasteurized” by Nathanael Johnson who visited McAfee’s farm. Johnson discusses some of the looming policy changes threatening the production and sale of raw milk by limiting the coliform bacteria in bottled raw milk to the same levels required of pasteurized milk- a requirement that could not be met and allow the milk to remain raw.

Johnson’s article tells the shocking stories of the legal and forceful police action taken against raw milk producers. What is fascinating and frustrating about the cases of raw milk producers is how they are singled out as health risks in an industry where unhealthy animals, land, and consumers are the norm.

What is scary about milk is not the bacteria inside it but the conditions of the cows producing it and the fact that the diet fed to conventional (and organic) grain fed cows has created the harmful bacteria this legislation is trying to prevent.
Johnson’s article get high praises from me for reminding readers that we humans are in fact 90% bacteria. Yet even with this knowledge the general public and the medical and food industries has a relationship with the biotic world that is misguided and militaristic.

Why would the production and sale of raw milk pose such a threat the milk industry as a whole? There can easily be different policies for different types of products. They can easily identify good bacteria from bad (organic pastures tests for pathogens.) It boggles the mind to know that without the efforts of the few farmers like McAfee raw milk, with proven health benefits, would be banned nationwide and yet products which have only negative health impacts, none beneficial whatsoever-like tobacco- can freely cross state lines and the thousands of products made with harmful chemicals are circulated on the shelves.

What are the industries pushing this type of legislation really afraid of? Will our government ever significantly support products and production processes that don’t seem to be slowly killing us?

                          

A dog with complicated diet needs doesn’t work well on a tight budget. We found our solution at the butcher counter of the grocery aisle. “A couple pounds of meat scraps please.”

At 86 cents a pound we spend about $12 a month and give this dog of ours exactly what he needs and wants…basically as close as his dinner comes to resembling the compost pile, the happier he is.

He gets different stuff every meal (we feed about a cup twice a day) depending on what we’ve been eating, because he gets the scraps from our veggies we are cooking as well. We throw in some cooked brown rice and fish oil usually as well as well as mixing with hot water.

No doubt that its a little labor intensive. But we don’t mind. It’s a few minutes all said and done and it’s good variety for our little friend.

To go a little more into the allergy issue- we’re approaching the issue in way that makes a lot of sense to me and doesn’t involve trying to become some kind of laboratory testing different combinations of food for six weeks at a time, not allowing the dog to eat anything else (if that’s even possible). Basically what we’ve come to understand is that the dog’s immune system is out of whack- responding too heavily to things that shouldn’t be a big deal (certain animal proteins or grains). His body was producing significant histamine responses and making him itch, leading to him constantly licking and biting his feet. In trying to deal with the issue I found very little help searching the internet.

We are still figuring out if this approach is going to help him get to a place where he doesn’t itch and doesn’t need to lick and bite. He’s certainly calming down, but isn’t all the way there. To help him, I made cotton booties with velcro for when he’s at home. This may sound silly- but let me say it’s much less intrusive than a previous vet’s prescription of the lampshade “e-collar” that sort of prevented him from licking but also from eating, drinking, walking around or seeing properly. If you have a dog in a similar situation let me know and I can post the pattern.

We feed him this homemade food because we know he’s getting the stuff a living thing needs and it’s cheaper for us. I like the idea of tapping into his scavenger instincts and giving him the scraps from our food- and nice to know all the cuttings from the butcher isn’t going to waste! (Note, the lazier the butcher the better as the scraps will have more meat to them).

                          

Sauerkraut:

Two of my favorite cookbooks, the Art of Simple Food (Waters) and Farmer John’s Cookbook; The Real dirt on Vegetables, have recipes for homemade sauerkraut, and both tout the health and taste benefits of fermenting cabbage and other vegetables.

(note: both books are excellent resources for a variety of veggie-specific recipes. Very helpful with things that are in season with which you are not so familiar and ways to branch out in techniques, like braising, gratins, unexpected baked-good ingredients etc…I personally really appreciate this format)

The process for fermentation was a little different in each book. I leaned more towards the Farmer John method as it was framed as very traditional and involved pounding, which sounded fun. Waters’ process was simple enough, more about “working the cabbage with your fingers” than pounding and then adding extra “brine” if the working with the fingers didn’t produce enough liquid.

Well, Farmer John didn’t say anything about the amount of liquid, just to pound until you got some. Waters says to add a salt water mixture if there isn’t enough brine to cover the cabbage and even to make sure the cabbage stays submerged by weighting it down with something (a rock or whatever).

So, in the spirit of experimenting. I decided to go only by Farmer John and just see what happened. I started with less cabbage than called for, but sort of thoughtlessly added about as much salt and caraway seeds. So we’ll see. I’ll check on it in a few days and report with the taste. After this batch is eaten or composted, depending on the result I will try Water’s version.

Cabbage cut fine
and fermented in a brine
Made of its own juice, with salt.

(So it seems a little dry, but since the recipe doesn’t specify I am trying it out without my own changes- I will check back in)

Wait! There is more cabbage ahead!

Braised Savoy Cabbage:

From The Art of Simple Food this cabbage dish is sort of perfect; savory, crunch,and open to variations- my favorite. I decided to go with one of her listed variations that browns wedges of cabbage in olive oil. Then add garlic, a bay leave, thyme, salt and pepper. Having just picked up some beautiful fennel at the market yesterday I wanted to try out using the stalks/leaves- so I chopped up one stalk and threw that in too.

Immediately the kitchen filled with an earthy sweet fragrance- I was sort of taken aback actually by how delicious it smelled so quickly. Some glugs of wine go in and it cooks for a little while. Then stock is added (or water, but I prefer stock, and at 4 bucks a box it’s cheaper to just boil a whole chicken).

The cabbage needs another 15 minutes to get tender. In the meantime I pan fried two chicken sausages. I can’t pan fry without ending up throwing in a de-glazing liquid of some kind (usually white wine) and finishing whatever was frying with a quick pan sauce. All sorts of brown bits stuck from the sausage. Waters suggests putting some red wine vinegar over the cabbage when done. Instead I put the vinegar into the sausage pan (after the sausages were done and on their plates. Scraping up the good stuff and hearing that perfect hissing sizzling of the pan sauce, I poured it all over the dished out cabbage. Boy, it really turned out well. The whole process was maybe a half hour.

My fiance had the wherewithal to put some mustard on the table and that was it. Some leftover bread with a little butter served well to soak up the remaining liquid on the plate- too good to let it go to waste.

Indicative of how fast this was to prepare, there are no pictures of the process…and I could barely take a photo fast enough to catch the final product before devoured.