There’s a great website out there called Everyday Dish TV, run by Julie Hasson, author of “Vegan Diner”. They post recipe videos on a regular basis. This is the latest one, Pumpkin Spice Bars, by Sarah Matheny, author of “Peas and Thank You”. And it’s also gluten free. Once I procure Xantham gum, I’m going to make it myself. They look delicious.
I have a friend who came over the other night, and it was dinner time. I asked if she wanted to eat with us. I was cooking Mushroom Veggie burgers with all the fixings. The burgers had rice and other grains in them. She exclaimed that she is on the Paleo Diet and that she was only eating proteins and vegetables, but just this time she could eat with us.
The Paleo Diet confuses me. Why would anyone want eat like a caveman? Or revert to a diet of 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. I’m not even going to stand on defense of veganism here, it is just that basic question, “why go backwards?”
I was perusing Facebook, and came across a link for Colleen Patrick Godreau’s lastest podcast , “The Newest Diet Fad: Paleo.” So I took a listen. It is informative and well-thought out. She discusses the reasons we should not pick up this kind of diet, and why it is even impossible because we don’t know everything the Paleolithic person consumed. And she talks about “Pasturbation” If you want to know what that is, get on over and listen. And you’ll have a bit more information for the next time one of your friends say “Oh, I’ve gone Paleo.”
It is a New Year, and I’ve been dodging writing for quite awhile. I want to write, but life and work get in the way. I’ve been taking care of some family stuff, and working on getting a different position at the Job. It’s an important step in my culinary career.
I want to share this information I just came across. You may already know about it, but I didn’t. Check out this blog about the 100 day Real Food Challenge. Lisa Leake and her family cut out processed foods, and realized how much better they felt. And then they blogged about it and built a Challenge that any of us can take. I think it’s fabulous, and fits right in with Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution. There’s another site out there called Eating Rules, take a look at that as well.
There are a few other folks out there doing this kind of challenge. It seems to be connected by Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food,” published in 2009.
I don’t think any of my readers would argue that Americans need to change the way we eat. We cook, skrunch, extract, and re-form food, and then sell it in packages and cartons to the public, with “added” nutrients, and claim it is healthy. I’ve contended for a long time that is not the way to eat. I’m a Chef, I work with whole foods, proper foods, and turn them into something that is yummy and delicious on your plate. However, they do not get stored in a freezer or can for up to two years, waiting for someone to open it up and eat it.
So these food challenges that pop up are very cool. And I like to see that some of us are starting to eat better. And step by step we can turn back from a Processed Nation to a Whole Nation . If more of us stop buying what’s pre-packaged, and buy the produce, we can send a very loud message in the form of consumer dollars to the people who make the food. We want fresh, wholesome, whole ingredients, and we want to cook our food ourselves.
And if you want to learn to cook, contact me. I am a culinary instructor.