Zucchini "Pasta"

A great raw dish, perfect for summer. This is from Whole Living magazine.

16 oz cherry tomatoes, sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped raw walnuts
4 TB torn fresh basil
4 TB extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
sea salt, to taste
2 zucchinis, thinly sliced lengthwise, slices cut into 1/4-inch-long strips (like fettuccine)

In a bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, walnuts, basil, and oil.  Season with salt.  Let stand for 20 minutes.  Toss with zucchini and garnish with basil.  Serves 4.

How Diet Soda Causes Weight Gain

Check out this informative video:

Peaches and Cream Gelato

The Problem With Diet Foods

One of the big contributing factors that motivated me to go into the study of nutrition was peering into other people's carts at the grocery store.  I admit it... I can never help but watch in curiosity as the shopper in front of me loads their selections onto the checkout belt.  And it's not the really obvious "junk food" that gets to me the most.  I tend to think that people who load up their carts with things like ice cream, soda, pizza, and chips know that they aren't make the best choices, and either don't care or are not ready to change. 

No, it's the ones who clearly do want to change,  but are missing the mark.  The ones who - knowingly or not - are putting their desire for weight loss ahead of their health.  The ones who are filling their carts with fruits, vegetables... and "diet" products.  Diet sodas.  Diet frozen meals.  Diet bars.  Diet peanut butter.  Diet orange juice.   Those blasted 100 calorie snack packs. 

Low cal!
Sugar free!
Fat free!

These are the people who kind of break my heart, because while they are so earnestly trying to lose weight, they are consuming things that both harm their health and actually hinder their weight-loss efforts.  Why?   In the simplest terms of terms, because our bodies were designed to deal with, and be fueled by, food..... and these products are not food.    Our bodies don't know what to do with them, so they store them, and make us sick in the process.

Ever stop to think about how a packaged product that would ordinarily have fat be fat free?  Or how a product that would ordinarily have sugar be sugar free?  Or how a product that would naturally have many calories suddenly have just a few?

They are processed - even more than normal.  Ingredients are removed, and replaced with chemicals.   More chemicals are added for shelf life.  Or color.  Or taste.  Or simply to disguise that the fact that there really isn't any palpable food present.  They are then wrapped and packaged and labeled in such a way that we're led to believe that they are a smart choice.  Look!  Only half the calories of the original version!  Look, no sugar!  No fat! 

NO NUTRITION.

Losing weight permanently and/or returning to a state of good health means learning to eat good, whole foods.  It means learning to pay attention to what it actually is that you're putting in your body.  It means learning to recognize and be mindful of portion sizes.  Eating these kinds of artificial, packaged foods not only doesn't get you closer to your goal, it takes you further from it.  It damages your health, and it hampers your progress.  It doesn't teach you how to eat, and it doesn't create good habits.


Let's get back to eating food.  Let's know where our food comes from.  Shop the outside aisles of the grocery store (or better yet, avoid the store all together and shop the local farmer's market!)  Stay away from the pre-packaged, overly processed foods, especially the diet products. 

And if you want a small treat, by all means have one!  But make it yourself, under conditions you can control, and with ingredients you can pronounce.

Pasta with Oven-Roasted Vegetables

This is one of my favorite pasta recipes.  It is great for summertime, especially if you have home-grown veggies!  You can add any other vegetables you'd like in here too.

2 TB olive oil
2 TB red wine vinegar
2 TB chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cayenne (or to taste)
1 tsp salt
2 zucchinis, quarted lengthwise
2 medium red onions, quartered
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
3 or 4 portobello mushrooms, stems removed
1 lb linguine or spaghetti

In a large bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, parsley, oregano, cayenne, and salt.  (If you've used a lot of extra veggies, and/or if you like it a little more "saucy", double the amounts given to make sure it's all well-coated)  Set aside.

Preheat the oven broiler, and cook your pasta until al dente.

Arrange the vegetables on a baking pan.  Broil until they are tender, around 5 minutes per side.  Remove them when they are done, and transfer to a cutting board.  Let them cool slightly, and then coursely chop.  Toss the vegetables with the dressing.  When the pasta is done and drained, toss it with the roasted vegetables and serve immediately.

What Are We Feeding Our Kids

I couldn't sleep last night, and I turned on the TV.  I don't usually watch live television so I - thankfully - miss most of the commercials.  Last night though, I happened to catch a commercial for Pediasure Sidekicks.  There were a bunch of kids playing soccer, and a mom was complaining about her child being sluggish.  Cut to the kid, who is running around in a french fry suit, and to the goalie who is inside a giant chocolate sprinkly donut. 

"Well kids are what they eat!"

And then the kid who drank the Pediasure Sidekicks comes running out of nowhere, makes the goal, and saves the day.

I'm admittedly not a big fan of foods marketed towards kids in general.  Not just things like the techni-colored sugary cereals, juice drinks, and gummy fruit snacks (which most people will agree are not good choices)... but also the Gold Fish, the granola bars, and my personal favorite:  the Lunchables.   My issues with these foods are lengthy, but my biggest complaint is that they offer no nutrition, and are aimed towards children:  people who are rapidly growing and developing and need good nutrition more than at any other stage of their life!  

You can imagine then, my enthusiasm over this drink... this artificial, chemical laden cocktail that is supposed to take the place of actual food.  When the commercial was over, I couldn't help myself;  I had to go look up the ingredients.

This is what you're getting for your money when you invest in a vanilla flavored Pediasure Sidekicks drink:

WATER, SUGAR (SUCROSE), MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY OIL, SHORT-CHAIN FRUCTOOLIGOSACCHARIDES, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE; LESS THAN 0.5% OF: CELLULOSE GEL, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, POTASSIUM CITRATE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT (SODIUM CHLORIDE), POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CELLULOSE GUM, CALCIUM CARBONATE, CHOLINE CHLORIDE, ASCORBIC ACID, CARRAGEENAN, SOY LECITHIN, MONOGLYCERIDES, m-INOSITOL, POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE, TAURINE, FERROUS SULFATE, dl-ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, L-CARNITINE, ZINC SULFATE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, NIACINAMIDE, MANGANESE SULFATE, THIAMIN CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, RIBOFLAVIN, CUPRIC SULFATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, BIOTIN, POTASSIUM IODIDE, SODIUM SELENATE, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, PHYLLOQUINONE, VITAMIN D3, AND CYANOCOBALAMIN.

Um.  It doesn't matter if you can't decipher what any of that says.  Does any of it sound like food to you?  I'll save you the time and decode it for you:  it's basically sugar water with some artificial flavors and a whole bunch of other harmful stuff thrown in.  It's even worse than something like soda in my opinion, because where soda doesn't claim to be anything other than what it is:  a fun, sparkly junk food that everyone and his brother knows isn't a healthy choice, this is masquerading as something that is good for your child, something that will help you fill in those nutritional gaps.

It is NOT good for your child, and it won't help fill any nutritional gap.   Kids need protein, yes.  They need carbs, and good healthy fats, and vitamins and minerals.  They need food.  

Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains, eggs = food

Sugar, fructooligosaccharides, soy protein isolate, cellulose gel, artificial flavors, monoglycerides = not food.

It's an old adage (and it was created for drugs, not food), but please, please, when it comes to products like this, Just Say No.

Cabbage, Radish, and Cucumber Pressed Salad

This recipe is from Alicia's Silverstone's The Kind Diet.  I love this book, and it's the one I go to when I'm feeling.. blah... and really want to clean up my diet.  I made this tonight, and it is delicious!



From The Kind Diet:

Pressed salads are an interesting twist on fresh salads;  by lightly salting and pressing the vegetables, they become more digestible while retaining all their live enzymes.  In fact, the word "salad" comes from the Italian herba salata, which means means "salted herb."

This recipe uses vinegar rather than salt to wilt the vegetables.

Serves 2 to 3 people.

5-6 leaves napa cabbage, very thinly sliced
3 red radishes, thinly sliced
3 whole scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 TB umeboshi vinegar
1 TB balsamic or brown rice vinegar
1 TB toasted sunflower seeds

Combine all vegetables and fruit in a large mixing bowl.  Add the vinegars and massage the vegetables with your bare hands until they begin to wilt and release some liquid.  This may take a few minutes.  It should feel quite wet by the end.  Form into a mound and place a small plate on the vegetables within the bowl and place a weight on top (a full tea kettle of a big jar of juice) to press the vegetables.  Press for 20 to 30 minutes.  Pour off the excess fluid, and give the salad a good squeeze with your hands.  Taste it;  if it tastes salty, give it a quick and gentle rinse under cold water, then squeeze it again.