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Awake at the Whisk

Thursday, September 30, 2010

 

October Unprocessed

Unprocessed October. Image found here.

Put down that donut! Hands off that frozen entrée! For the month of October, we’re unplugging from the wide world of processed foods here at Awake at the Whisk and beyond.

Join me and food folks across the nation as we commit to a month of unprocessed foods!

Why unprocessed?
The evidence is piling up: fresh food is good for you. Who knew?! We Americans are doing everything we can to avoid tainted peanut butter and Mad Cow disease. We’ve become vegetarian. We’ve turned locavore. We’re planting gardens. We’re cooking in our own homes. But you and I both know that when the craving for a big scoop of luscious ice creams calls us, we cave.

Try and try as we might, we’re imperfect in our quest to unplug from the food system as we know it. Whether we’re overworked and rely on the occasional frozen dinner to feed our families, or we just can’t kick the sweet tooth, we’re hooked! Nobody’s perfect.

And frankly, no one should have to be. This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. We all eat the occasional bowl of proverbial Fruity Pebbles.

Yet, sometimes it requires a grand leap to become aware. When we hyper-focus on an issue, we learn a lot. For instance, there has been a lot of talk lately about the influx of vegetarians starting to eat sustainable meats. Folks think this is odd, but it actually makes perfect sense. No one thinks about meat more than someone who makes the conscious choice every day to eliminate it. Meat is everywhere. You must be very educated about meat in order to avoid eating it.

Well, I wonder what will happen when we hyper-focus on processed foods. How often do we blindly select the best-marketed box of granola bars from the grocery store shelf? The package says “natural,” or “organic,” or “sugar free,” or “whole grain.” We assume we’re participating fully in our diets. But it’s not until you force yourself to turn that package over and scan the small print religiously for forbidden ingredients that you begin to wake up to all the strange stuff that’s been going into your body.

So, for one month, I’m asking you to turn the box over and read the fine print. If you’re craving ice cream, I double dog dare you to try to find the brand at your local supermarket that doesn’t contain corn syrup. It ain’t easy.

We’re in this together, and we’ll learn a lot as we go. I hope you’re as excited about the experiment as I am. I always love a good challenge!

Defining “Unprocessed”
The word “unprocessed” is a loaded term. Since I don’t have a PhD in nutrition, and don’t want to bore my wonderful readers, I encourage every reader to decide for themselves what “unprocessed” looks like. I’m applying my own code of unprocessed, and you’re welcome to follow along.

Code of Unprocessed October:
1)      No corn syrup. Whether you’ve bought in to the industry’s attempts to rename this dietary villain “corn sugar” or not, Dr. Oz tells me it’s bad for me. So darn it, I’m going to listen.

2)      Reduce white flour. I’m a baker, and nearly every beloved recipe from my youth contains this bleached powdery stuff. But it is bleached with chlorine (yuck!); many folks have sensitivities to it; and the man-made vitamins they pump into it in an attempt to replace the ones they previously stripped out of it by over-processing it are ruining our planet. I love whole grains and try to bake with them often. Now, I’m embracing whole grains more than ever before. In fact, I might even try a gluten-free recipe this month.

3)      Ingredients lists I can pronounce and recognize. Enough said.

4)      Fresh food. I’m not even going so far as to say it must be local or must be organic (although, on this blog, you know it will be). But if it’s a fresh head of broccoli rather than a canned soup with broccoli-ness, you can be assured that there’s no added preservative or processing. Stick to clean, fresh food and you leave out the guesswork.

Armed with this short list, I’m off to experience how truly fresh-tasting life can be. I hope you’ll join me! Even if you select just one day this month to commit to eating processed-free, I think you’ll find your eyes widening as you become more fully awake at the whisk.

Credit for this healthful idea goes to Andrew over at Eating Rules. As someone who prides himself on being awake at the whisk, he tries to inspire others to eat nutritiously, too. Needless to say, we bonded. When he came up with the notion of asking the blogosphere to join him in a processed-free month, I gleefully pledged—along with more than 200 others. You can sign a pledge to commit to our experiment on his blog, Eating Rules.

I hope you’ll join us! See you in the produce aisle!—or at the farmers’ market (which is more likely). 

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# posted by Amber @ Thursday, September 30, 2010 2 Comments

Saturday, November 8, 2008

 

The Jungle Effect: A World of Good-for-You Food Tales

Grab your mosquito net and your whisk. You’re about to embark upon a culinary health journey the likes of which no other book offers.

The Jungle Effect by Dr. Daphne Miller provides medical evidence of the health benefits from eating seasonally, locally, and organically. We all knew these diets were good for the planet; Miller points out why they are good for people, too. Her travels take place in the world’s “cold spots:” regions with little prevalence of diseases like colon cancer, heart disease, or depression. What do their diets have in common with being disease-free?

Miller provides delightful tales of digging for wild greens on the hillsides of the Mediterranean or guzzling mountain-made sports drinks in Copper Canyon. You’ll learn of foods as unique as cactus and as common as the potato. Why are they so good for our bodies? How do we prepare them? Where can we buy them?

Don’t let the medical science scare you away from one of this year’s best reads. The Jungle Effect is easily digestible—both the reading and the recipes included. Each chapter carries you to a new corner of the world where neon yellow cheese in a box and foam-wrapped, fast-food burgers have yet to penetrate. (Did you know such places still exist?)

Cast all prejudices aside: this is not a wacky new health book preaching a fad diet. Based in nutritional science, foraged at the local farmers’ market, and brought to life in easy-to-prepare home kitchen recipes, the diet Miller suggests borrows heavily from what other locavores have been touting for years. If you have already been filing your kitchen pantry with the bounty of your garden or farmers’ market, you are already firmly prepared to incorporate Miller’s recipes. Even if you haven’t, you’re just a hop, skip, and a cabbage from making the transition. No international passport required.

For any true food nerd interested in why our bodies crave anti-oxidants, or what benefits we reap from pork, this book is for you! Do you know someone with a family history of breast cancer? Then you’ll want to lend her this book. Have a parent with arthritis? Read up before the next family dinner.

From Iceland to Okinawa, The Jungle Effect offers travel tastes from around the globe that will tempt your tummy. Put that together with the nutritional knowledge you will gain and you’ve got the actual recipes to a happy, healthy diet. As they say in Denmark: Ver så godt. Or in Paris: Bon appétit!

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# posted by Amber @ Saturday, November 08, 2008

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