Omnivore Atlanta

The New York Times reports on a new study of red meat eaters:

Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.

The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.

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Last week Omnivore linked to a New York Times op-ed piece, “No Lunch Left Behind” about the National School Lunch Program in which contributers’ Alice Waters and Katrina Heron call for a complete overhaul of meal management and options. Instead of the usual chicken nuggets and cardboard pizza, they’d like to see more freshly cooked, nutritious alternatives on the weekly menus. According to the editorial:

Many nutrition experts believe that it is possible to fix the National School Lunch Program by throwing a little more money at it. But without healthy food (and cooks and kitchens to prepare it), increased financing will only create a larger junk-food distribution system. We need to scrap the current system and start from scratch. Washington needs to give schools enough money to cook and serve unprocessed foods that are produced without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. When possible, these foods should be locally grown.

The proposed changes would have a $27 billion price tag which is a far cry from the reported $9 billion tab in 2007.  Unfortunately, this seemingly reasonable request which would help combat record number childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes doesn’t have a fighting chance. Lobbyist and other advocacy groups vie to sway scientific opinion in order to cash in on this lucrative distribution market.

The American News Project posted this feature on YouTube explaining how corporate interests muddy the fight for better nutrition in the public school lunch program.

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Vitamin supplementation sucks, according to recent studies cited by the New York Times:

This week, researchers reported the disappointing results from a large clinical trial of almost 15,000 male doctors taking vitamins E and C for a decade. The study showed no meaningful effect on cancer rates.

Another recent study found no benefit of vitamins E and C for heart disease.

In October, a major trial studying whether vitamin E and selenium could lower a man’s risk for prostate cancer ended amidst worries that the treatments may do more harm than good.

And recently, doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York warned that vitamin C seems to protect not just healthy cells but cancer cells, too.

Plus, they can get you drunk, according to the late Lucille Ball:

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Once upon a time, there was a Chinese restaurant on Buford Highway where your meal was concocted sort of pharmaceutically. (It was located in the shopping center that contains Phuket.)

The owner-chef was a doctor who came to your table, read your pulse and then composed your meal on the basis of his findings. I’m not sure how he found the state of my health, but the remedy was always really, really bland.

But that was consistent with the advice of a Tibetan doctor who traveled with the Dalai Lama. I had an appointment with him years ago. The examination included a pulse reading and a look at my urine, which I’d been told to bring in a bottle. The doctor, after correctly diagnosing a muscle problem I’d never had before, held the bottle up to the light, swooshed it around and said: “You eat too much spicy food and you think too much. You must stop thinking for five minutes every hour.” Good advice for a dining critic and perpetual student, I guess.

In the 15 or so years since then, we’ve come increasingly to view food in a medicinal way. Yesterday, The New York Times featured a post in its “Well” blog entitled “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.” Topping the list composed by author Johnny Bowden is a food I actually eat quite often, beets, although I was surprised to see that I should be eating them raw. The best treatment of beets I’ve regularly encountered is at David Sweeney’s Dynamic Dish.

Another (stinky) surprise, popular in trailer parks throughout the South, is this dish, which I’ve heard called “Redneck Sushi” before (especially when served on Saltines):

Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.’’ They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.

Check out the entire list here. There’s a spirited discussion in the comments section following the post.

(Graphic from mattbites.com. Check out his recipes.)

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With all the back-and-forth discussion of the health benefits of red wine, it’s hard to know whether you can be self righteous about your wine consumption or not. But here’s some new research that furthers the wine-for-health argument we love so much.

According to an article in the New York Times, red wine may work its magic on the human lifespan to a greater degree than thought before.

The article explains:

The study is based on dosing mice with resveratrol, a chemical found in some red wines. Some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form, but others believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source, until there is better data on its safety and effectiveness.

Dr. David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, a co-founder of the the drug development company, Sirtris, said this new research could change medicine. But another researcher, Dr. Matthew Kaeberlein of the University of Washington in Seattle, said the results involving mice may not translate to similar results in humans.

(Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com)

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NPR’s “Morning Edition” featured a segment this morning about an interesting collaboration between the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard Medical School. The two recently held a joint conference devoted to healthy cooking.

“Intention is the driver of all behavioral change,” says Dr. David Eisenberg of Harvard Medical School, who initiated the collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America a few years ago. He says healthy and delicious go naturally together — but sometimes people need a little education and help. Doctors can be leaders in this area, he says.

Many of the physicians attending the Culinary Institute/ Harvard conference say they want to spend more time focusing on diet, lifestyle and disease prevention in their practices. Patients, they say, are hungry for concrete advice.

I was a bit repulsed to learn one dish was made from canned salmon and frozen spinach, but I do like those fried salmon patties served at soul-food restaurants. Somehow, I’m guessing Harvard’s version is less … fried.

Listen to the whole story or read the transcript here.

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