Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food

A little while ago I read Michael Pollans book "In Defense Of Food"

It is a easy to read book and if ever you wanted some no nonsense advice about good eating then this is the book for you.

Image from here

These are my favourite statements from the book:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  Sound advice indeed, can you imagine how many peoples lives and health would be improved if they followed this simple statement.

“Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.”  Going back to the way your nanna cooked is one of the best things you can do for your future health.  Sticking to meat and three veg, using real butter, eating whole foods like egg yolks and chicken skin, and even making your own bone broth like granddad did. 

“Real food tends to be on the perimeters of the supermarket…”  Yep unlike the middle aisles – stocked with mostly packaged food – the outer edges focus on fresh meat, fish, dairy and produce.  When you build your diet this way, you automatically reduce sugars and unfamiliar, unpronounceable ingredients that can derail your plans for health.

“We are what we eat eats too.” Yep just read that again.  If the animals you eat were not cared for and respected and fed a diet suited to their digestion (eg grass fed not grain fed beef, free range pigs and pasture raised chickens) then how can you expect their flesh to bring maximum nutrition to you. Plants are also affected by the environments in which they are grown.  How can we expect them to provide us with macro and micro nutrients if they are grow in dead herbicide laden soils.

“Shake the hand that feeds you.” Eating locally and knowing the person growing your food means you can ask questions and feel informed  about your food choices and can be a fool-proof way to eat for wellness.  You are also doing the environment a favour by reducing the food miles.

“Most of what we’re consuming today is no longer, strictly speaking, food at all, and how we’re consuming it – in the car, in front of the TV, and, increasingly, alone – is not really eating, at least not in the sense that civilisation has long understood the term.”   Hello mindful eating, just changing your behaviours to ensure self-awareness before you eat, can improve your emotional state and we need to get back to eating at home and treating the food with some love and respect and treating every mealtime as a chance to celebrate good food.  Now this might be going a bit far for some people but lets get away from eating on the run and shoving faux foods in our mouths.

Do you have any other great rules about eating?

Burmese Spicy Chicken Noodles

This is a very tasty dish and not difficult at all as long as you prep all your ingredients before you start cooking which is always the way to go when stir frying.  It has a bit of spice but the heat does not linger, cut the chilli back if you want but you will need at least 1/2  Teaspoon unless you are sharing this with young children.

Burmese Spicy Chicken Noodles

2/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
10 Cm Piece of Ginger
1 Brown Onion
4 Garlic Cloves
3 Tomatoes
2 Tbs Tomato Paste
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1 1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
600 gm Chicken Mince
2 Tbs Fish Sauce
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Castor Sugar or Rice Malt Syrup
3 Spring onions
3 Tbs Chopped Peanuts
Rice Vermicelli Noodles for 4 people

Shred 1/2 the ginger into very thin strips and set aside to be fried off at the start to be used for garnish.  Dice the other half of the ginger super fine and place on a small plate along with the 4 cloves of garlic that have been crushed.
Slice the brown onion into thin strips, dice the tomato and slice the spring onions and set all aside.

Pour boiling water over your rice noodles and set aside.

Heat 1/3 cup of oil in a wok and fry the ginger strips until brown and crispy and set aside as a garnish. 
Brown the chicken off in batches setting aside after each batch.  Once all the chicken is cooked remove it all from the pan and add the rest of the oil to the pan.
Cook the brown onion until it is soft then add the finely diced ginger and garlic and fry for 2 minutes stirring all the time.
Add the chilli powder and turmeric and cook for 30 seconds before adding the tomato paste and diced tomatoes.  Stir well to combine and then add the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar and half your spring onions.

Drain your rice noodles and divide between your bowls.  Spoon over you spicy chicken mix and garnish with your peanuts fried ginger and the remaining spring onions.

I think this dish would also work well with pork mince and would stand up to having additional veggies such as eggplant or broccoli added to increase the veggie content and will give that a go next time.

What Is Wrong With Sugar (Fructose) and What About Other Sweeteners?

Since we have stopped eating sugar we have been asked by a few people "why what's wrong with sugar and what about other sweeteners and sugar substitutes?"

The "why" part we explain like this. Sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Glucose is used by every cell in your body as energy while fructose is primarily processed by the liver. High levels of consumption can also lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (one of the fastest growing diseases in western society) and fructose is highly addictive so the more you eat the more you want to eat and the less sensitive to sweetness.

The "What about other sweeteners" we stick to a couple of basic rules: 

• We use dextrose for baking
• We use Rice Malt Syrup (a complex carbohydrate that is fructose free) instead of golden syrup, maple syrup and honey
• We use stevia sometimes too
• We eat whole pieces of fresh fruit but no more than 1 piece per day - and while yes fruit contains fructose you can never really eat that much because of all the fiber (think of eating 7 whole oranges instead drinking 500ml of orange juice)

As far as other sweeteners goes:

• Brown sugar contains molasses which means it has a tiny fraction more mineral, but it’s still 50 per cent fructose like white sugar. 
• Honey and maple syrup are about 40% fructose and contain vitamins and minerals. 
• Dates contain about 30 per cent fructose and some vitamins and minerals, but some recipes use cups and cups of blended dates and at 1 teaspoon of sugar per date that is a lot of sugar.
• Agave syrup is up to 90% fructose and expensive so not something I would buy.

We also assure people we are not militant about it.  Our aim is to reduce the sugar in our diets as much as possible not to be poster children for the sugar free movement.  Overall we like to keep our sugar intake from all sources to less than 5 teaspoons per day.

The World Health Organization recommends that we limit our intake of added sugars to no more than 10% of total calories. That comes to about 50 grams of sugar, or the equivalent of 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar for a person eating 2000 calories a day. One tablespoon of granulated sugar is equal to about 12 grams so we are aiming for less than that.

When it comes down to it, if we really want to treat ourselves to an ice-cream at the beach we will, which probably happens about twice a year for us.

If a recipe for 8 serves includes 1 table spoon of sugar at this stage I would probably just use it as I still have sugar in the pantry to use up and on hand in case other want it in their tea or coffee.  We still eat chocolate (75% cocoa and above only) on occasion.  If I wanted to have honey on toast once a month I would.  If we were at a dinner party (not that we go to many of these) and the host had made dessert I would just ask for a small portion so as not to offend and to acknowledge the effort they put in.

For us this is about our health and by avoiding sugar we all of a sudden avoid a lot of overly processed foods and beverages that are not good for us either so it seems like a win win situation.

Do you avoid sugar?

Do you have rules about what sugars you will and will not use?

Sugar Free Cinnamon Tea Cake

This was a really easy cake to make and it was very buttery so lovely and moist. I am not a huge fan of cinnamon and I think if I made this cake again I would use cardamon instead but if you like cinnamon then this is for you.

Sugar Free Cinnamon Tea Cake

200 g Unsalted Butter - chopped and softened
1 1/2 c Dextrose
2 tsp Vanilla Essence
3 Eggs
1 1/2 c Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 c Sour Cream

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (160 fan forced) then grease and line a 22 cm spring-form cake tin.
In an electric mixer beat the butter, dextrose and vanilla until pale and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time mixing well between each one. 
Fold in the dry ingredients and sour cream then spoon into the lined cake tin.
Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool in the tin for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Growing Basil From Cuttings

Do you grow basil from cuttings?

To be honest I never knew you could.  I picked some basil from the garden the other day and did not use it all so it sat on the bench in a glass of water for a few days waiting for another dish that needed it.  
But then it got forgotten and next thing you know it is sending out roots.  Well I'll be...

Why I have been growing it from seed and waiting so long for it to grow I don't know.  Now that I know this work I will be getting some other cuttings going as well so that I have a constant supply of basil without it going to flower.