CLEAN FOOD: Part I

“Fill your kitchen with foods that don’t require labels” – Terry Walters

I recently opened my mailbox to find a much-awaited copy of the yet-released “Clean Food” by Terry Walters. I was asked by Sterling Publishing to review the copy, and was enamored to find out that Alice Waters and Mario Batali had already given it the thumbs up.

I flipped through the pages and fell in artwork love when I saw prints of Donna Estabrooks' work between chapters. For any of you who have been following A Fete For Food since its inception, you’ve probably read a couple posts about one of my most favorite restaurants, Judie’s, in Amherst, MA. This place is popover heaven and they make the most delectable poppy seed dressing and apple butter. BUT, they also feature scores of Estabrooks’ works on their walls. Sometimes when we go there, I make a special trip to the ladies’ room just to see the new and beautiful artwork hung over the bathroom sink.

Back to Clean Food – I flipped through the Introduction and found I was in agreement with most of Walters philosophical views on eating and food.

• Keep a food journal (with emotional and physical outcomes) to better cue yourself in to your food habits and emotional and physical connections with food.
• Choose food in its most natural and nutritious state.
• “Eat all the colors of the rainbow, all five tastes, a varied diet, locally grown, seasonal foods, and enjoy your food and mealtime.”
• Find a food balance that serves your unique composition.
  

Walkers also bullets her top 9 ways of improving health and well-being. After just posting on the fact that I practice evidence-based nutrition, I must give my two cents on each of these suggestions.

1. Chew, Chew, Chew!
   While chewing thoroughly helps to slow down and prolong the meal (therefore eating more slowly and thus consuming less food) the "excessive chewing theory" is no longer accepted as a significant contributor to losing weight.
2. Practice good habits.
   I wholeheartedly agree with taking time to sit and eat, eating regular meals, and getting into a routine of making time for healthy habits.
3. Stop eating three hours before bedtime.
   Calories are calories. If you eat 300 calories at 6 p.m. or 9 p.m., the result is the same - your body gets 300 more calories worth of energy. This recommendation is typically made because people tend to choose less nutritious foods in the evening, versus there being a scientific reason to refrain from eating before bedtime.
4. Don’t buy it if you don’t want to eat it.
   Yes!
5. Color + Taste = Balance
   Coming from a left-brained, logical standpoint, I can totally relate to this mathematically-phrased suggestion. I like that she emphasizes incorporating all colors and all five tastes. We usually discourage the sweet, and salty, but thinking in terms of incorporating all of these flavors helps to expand the palate’s acceptance of a variety of food. Experiment with healthful foods that satisfy these categories (think: sweet = a ripe peach, salty = a nori wrapper as part of a veg sushi)
6. Listen to and honor your body.
   Ditto!
7. Change slowly.
   You wouldn’t go out and run a marathon, so why should we expect our digestive systems to do the same? Right on, Terry.
8. Make peace with your food and your choices.
   I am definitely a peace advocate, and appreciate this suggestion wholeheartedly. Many people become manic and obsessive over their food. I think that’s why I named my blog “A Fete For Food”. We should be celebrating food and treating it like the guest of honor, not like an enemy every time we come to the table or open the cabinet.
9. Let go.
   Totally agree. Food should not be all-consuming and should not control you. (picture: an army of 100-calorie packs knocking down your front door). As a food blogger, dietitian, and foodie, (i.e. my all-consuming life of food), I could even take a bit of counsel from this suggestion.

Walters goes on to describe the simple but necessary tools of the trade. She doesn’t babble on for pages about unnecessary kitchen gadgets, but rather praises the work of a bamboo cutting board, quality knives, wooden spoons, Dutch ovens, large sauté pans, cookie sheets, etc. Walters notes that electric rice cookers have saved many-a-meal, as she’s remembered that the rice is done by the smell of burning rice! Bottom line: Splurge on a few, necessary, good-quality items.

Walters explains the difference between organic and conventional, and lists EWG's “Dirty Dozen”, which is a list of 12 fruits and vegetables, that, when grown conventionally, have the highest level of pesticides. When you can, these items should be purchased organic:
· Apples
· Bell peppers
· Celery
· Cherries
· Grapes
· Lettuce
· Nectarines
· Peaches
· Pears
· Potatoes
· Spinach
· Strawberries

She also lists the “Clean Dozen”, which have the lowest level of pesticides when grown conventionally:
· Asparagus
· Avocados
· Bananas
· Broccoli
· Cabbage
· Corn
· Eggplant
· Kiwis
· Mangoes
· Onions
· Peas
· Pineapple

Note: In general, any fruit or vegetable in which you peel off the outer layer usually has lower levels of pesticides.

The following chapters are organized by season, and contain 50 or so recipes per season.

From herbal iced tea using fresh peppermint to black bean, corn and tomato salsa, to gazpacho to green beans with sweet corn with summer vinaigrette to fresh berries with tofu cream, your summer bounty can be utilized in most of these recipes. I plan on trying one of these for the upcoming community garden potluck. Recipe to come!

Bottom line: This "cookbook con food counsel" is a good read and contains many recipes I would try at home. The recipes are fairly simple with short lists of ingredients. For people just beginning to experiment with a local food lifestyle and a more plant-based diet, this cookbook will take you through spring greens, summer salsas, autumn squashes and warm winter stews. You won’t be disappointed with Walters’ unique take on traditionally seasonal recipes.

For those moving toward trying new foods like quinoa, wheatberries, jicama, fingerling potatoes, and rice noodles, you may need to make a few shopping trips to the supermarket or make a special request to your local farmer, as many of these ingredients are not familiar in the typical American household; but, it will be worth it.

I applaud Terry’s hard work and happily look forward to working my way through this cookbook in the kitchen! Clean Food is scheduled to be released in September. For those of you interested in meeting the author, stay tuned, because she’s coming to Boston!

25, 25, 25

From Clean Food:

Question of the Day: What brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of YOUR soul?



P.S. I found that crazy-looking eggplant at the farmers market recently. The farmer had set it aside and was swearing on her life it could pass for a vegetable replica of Richard Nixon's face. Does anyone else see this resemblance? I was reminded of the book Food For Thought, which you need to buy if you don't already have it. I have a copy at work I flip through every once and again when I start to get frustrated. :-)