ecoyear

I am reading a great new book from San Francisco Bay Area professional chef and food activist Jessica Prentice. It is entitled "Full Moon Feast", and is an exploration of seasonal foods throughout many traditional cultures. Full moons are named in many cultures after the most prominent food of the season, and so afford a link with a food tradition easily lost in our supermarket abundance.

I am only part of the way through the book, but I hear one message loud and clear: we have been eating diseased plants and animals. Feedlot meat has unhealthy fats, not to mention bad karma. This is also true of white sugar, traditionally made using the labor of slaves. Prentice also writes that in many traditional cultures, sweet flavors were incorporated into the main meal, through curries, sauces, etc... Dessert combining white sugar, white flour, and lots of butter was only invented to deal with an overabundance of those ingredients.

As an MD, I think the book can be a little misleading when it states that the evidence linking fat to heart disease is weak. Actually, I would say Dr. Dean Ornish proved that an extremely low fat diet does cause marked improvement in coronary artery disease, so fat does play a role. Whether you could show the same improvement if a person were to switch to grass-fed butter, meat and cheese, is possible, but also unproven.

Also, I don't like arguments that use observations of traditional populations, whether in Switzerland, or in remote parts of Fiji. I think there are basic differences between how we live, and maybe even who we are genetically. The traditional Inuit ate a diet with 80% of calories from fat, but they did not live in houses heated to 70F (or even 60F).

It is important to realize, nevertheless, that we have subverted our sources of food with our industrialization practices. Red meat is out for me, anyway! Half of all water used in this country is used to raise cattle, most of which is raised for meat. So I do mention to my patients that they should cut out meat, except maybe seek out grass-fed, pastured animals once in a while for a celebration. As to unpasteurized milk, also interesting the argument that it contains live enzymes, etc. that could make a difference. I have an open mind... many of these live enzymes would be destroyed in the acid stomach environment, but honestly, I don't know enough to say. Here in Colorado, it is illegal to sell unpasteurized milk, but if you own a cow, you can drink it legally. So Windsor Dairy does offer cows - I think you buy a share and they raise it, then they give you the milk.

Any readers out there, I am still looking for sources of staples: wheat and other grains, other cheeses, anyone making sunflower oil??

Myrto