October 2009

What Cooking Oil Should I Use?

By erika on 10/29/09 5:26pm
Add Comment

Olive OIlRecently I have noticed recipes specifying the type of cooking oil. "2 T canola oil," "1 T cottonseed oil," that kind of thing. Now we're not talking a specialty oil, like recipes which specify extra virgin olive oil, or oils with particular flavor like sesame or chili oil. I'm talking about oils that ordinarily I would just lump under the category of "vegetable oil."

Luckily, we don't have to worry about trans fats in the cooking oil section. Trans fats are found in palm oil and coconut oil, neither of which are for sale at my local grocery store, anyway.

I decided to do some research. What I found is that there is no single answer. (Why must life be so complicated?)

Read more >
Organic Food vs. Chemical Food

By ecoscott on 10/29/09 9:58am
Add Comment

Organic Farming Is Fastest Growing, Still Only 1% of U.S. FarmlandI read a recent post in Triple Pundit that dropped one of the more head-nodding statistics I’ve heard in a long time about organic farming-

“Sustainable agriculture is the fastest-growing sector of the food industry. On the other hand, less than 1% of American cropland is farmed organically.”

Great that it is the fastest growing and wild that only 1% of the U.S. is organic- that means 99% of the U.S. farmland is covered in chemicals.

Read more >
Pomegranate: The Magic Fruit

By erika on 10/22/09 12:47pm
Add Comment

Pomegranate season is in full swing here in the Northern hemisphere, running from September to February. The last time I went to the grocery store I noticed that they had gone on sale (only $3 apiece - which is quite a bargain around here!) so I picked one up on a whim. I didn't have the slightest idea what it was for or how to eat it, but I do like the taste of pomegranate juice, so I figured what the heck!

Read more >
Newsweek: Food Blogs Considered Harmful

By erika on 10/13/09 4:53pm
Add Comment

I understand that Jennie Yabroff's Newsweek article "How Food Blogs Led To The Demise of Gourmet" is meant to be a slam on food blogs, but it sure doesn't sound like it.

Aside from conflating two possibly unrelated events (the recent death of Gourmet magazine, and the rise in popularity of food blogs), Yabroff's article reads like a condemnation of Gourmet magazine rather than a hagiography. She posits - I think correctly - that Gourmet magazine was meant as a "lifestyle aspirational" magazine, in the words of magazine marketers.

Read more >
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

By sarajean on 10/13/09 9:09am
5 Comments

Chestnuts always conjure images of Christmastime (or lame jokes), so it might seem weird that National Chestnut Week is this week. I guess every other week in December was taken; maybe it’s because they’re now fully in season. For whatever reason, this is the week that we celebrate the chestnut; so here are some of the health benefits of chestnuts, as well as some ways you might want to celebrate.

That said, there are plenty of other benefits to be had from eating chestnuts. A full serving contains almost three grams of protein and 27 milligrams of calcium. They also contain iron, niacin, vitamin B, vitamin C, riboflavin and phosphorus. A serving also contains only 4 grams of fat, which is low for nuts.

Read more >
Jamie Oliver Converts West Virginia Town to "Real Food"

By erika on 10/9/09 11:54am
Add Comment

The New York Times has a really interesting article on Jamie Oliver's latest venture, teaching a small West Virginia town how to cook. The article's author does an admirable job of portraying the tension between "real food" and "healthy food" which seems to be gripping America these days.

We all know that we should cook our own food more often. It's cheaper, it's healthier, and it's better for the environment. Kids who sit down to dinner with their parents every night do better in school. The benefits of eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables can't be overstated.

Read more >
Coke Apologist Apologizes For Coke

By erika on 10/8/09 12:34pm
Add Comment

In a move that surprises no one, the Wall Street Journal is carrying an op-ed piece which is favorable to a large multinational corporation. The article in question is a defense of Coke by the CEO of the Coca-Cola company, and he wants you to know that the proposed tax on sugary sodas will not work, and will maybe break the entire country and also make puppies sad. You don't want puppies to be sad, do you? I didn't think so!

The CEO of Coca-Cola has a good point, which is that legislating behavior - particularly eating behavior - is probably doomed to failure, and possibly anti-American. But he's a little disingenuous about the deal with the proposed soda tax.

Read more >
Mostly-Vegetarian Paralyzed From Hamburger-Borne E. Coli

By erika on 10/5/09 1:35pm
Add Comment

The New York Times is carrying a high-profile article about a woman who was paralyzed from an e. coli infection. Stephanie Smith is a 22 year old woman who follows a "mostly vegetarian diet," but ate a fateful hamburger at Sunday dinner with her family. Within a week, "The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks." She awoke from her induced coma to find that the infection had left her paralyzed.

Read more >
Where Is The American Mad Cow Epidemic?

By erika on 10/5/09 12:13pm
Add Comment

I recently ran across an article online that mentioned "mad cow disease" tangentially, and it got me wondering. Weren't we in the United States supposed to have a massive outbreak of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) by now?

The prion disease which is called Bovine Spongiform Epilepsy (BSE) in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people was a media darling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it has largely faded from view. (Not least because a more lethal form of e. coli has developed in cattle, which presents a far more pressing medical issue. If you're a journalist looking to scare people, e. coli is where it's at these days.)

Read more >