The massive egg recall has made many of us stop and think about how many eggs we use and, for some, questioning our use of them at all. According to the New York Times, “A Hen’s Space to Roost” Sunday August 15; 97 per cent of all eggs consumed in the USA are from hens raised in battery cages, six birds to a cage allowing 67 square inches for each hen for her entire life.

This for an animal who enjoys seeking out a nesting place, hunting for food of various sizes, shapes, taste and textures, walking proudly with her chicks and engaging in a social life. Here, she cannot sit on her eggs or even stretch her wings. The Humane Society of the United States has stated, “Confining birds in cages means increased salmonella infection in the birds, their eggs and the consumers of caged eggs,”.

Many people think that if they buy hens from “cage-free hens”, these inhumane and dangerous conditions do not exist. Two per cent of hens live crowded together in large indoor spaces with 120 square inches per bird. The same hideous ammonia smell of a caged facility exists.Only one per cent are free range and they only need to have “access to the outside air”. This may mean a door leading to a cement yard with a large dog chained to the fence. The hens do not care for that. Only a very tiny amount of producers raise hens who truly live out of doors and have anything resembling a natural life. Even if these eggs are used at home, people consume eggs from caged hens in baked goods, processed foods and restaurant dishes. If you eat eggs you are not observing the commandment called “Bal Tashlit” which means we are not to destroy needlessly.

Here is a recipe for a vegan banana cake, it is not only delicious, but you can lick the bowl without fear of salmonella. Puts the fun back into baking with children. I have recipes for scones, cookies, biscuits and other cakes. All egg-free and all delicious.

Banana Cake

I cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

I teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ginger and ¼ teaspoon each nutmeg and cloves

½ cup organic sugar

¼ cup grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 small bananas

¼ cup soy or ricemilk with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar added

½ half cup raisins or walnuts (or both) – optional

First add the vinegar to the soy or rice milk (makes it like buttermilk, for a tender crumb)

Mix the baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt into the flour stir well, add nuts and/or raisins, if using, stir to coat.

Add the oil and sugar to the soymilk mixture, add the sugar and vanilla and stir well

Mash the bananas (overripe bananas can be frozen and used for baking)

Add the wet ingredients and the bananas to the flour mixture, mix well with a fork but do not over mix as this makes cakes dry.

Lightly oil a 9×9 or 9 inch round pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Use convection setting if you have it. This recipe can be easily doubled.

To frost, mix some Earth Balance margarine with powdered sugar and some sherry or lemon juice and a bit of vanilla, should be soft enough to spread but not runny. Spread it on in bits, leaving some of the cake showing.

This entry is also posted on Dr. Sukol’s blog, Your Health is on Your Plate.

About a year ago, a friend of mine got interested in the raw food movement.  Raw foodists prefer their food, as advertised, raw.  Uncooked.  She said it changed her life.  OK, lots of people say stuff like that.  But I have to admit that I see the difference – she is more relaxed, and brimming with beauty and energy.  Four kids?  No problem!

So she had been wanting to introduce me to her new style of cooking, and we decided to get our families together for dinner.  No deal.  We couldn’t make it fit all our crazy schedules.  We resigned ourselves to the fact that we had to put the idea on hold until things settled down a bit.  My daughter was a little disappointed, having been introduced to the raw food movement as a college student in Toronto, but the boys were secretly relieved, skeptical as they were about the idea of eating “raw food.”  I decided to withhold judgment for the meanwhile. 

Then last night I had the good fortune to attend a picnic in the woods complete with tiny electric lights, an enormous bonfire, spectacular grilled salmon, great company, children of all ages, and a talented guitar player.  Something for everyone.  And a raw peach pie, courtesy of my friend, who was also in attendance.  It was fantastic.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterward.

This morning I called her for the recipe.  She measured one cup each of raw almonds and brazil nuts, and placed them in a water-filled jar to soak overnight.  The next day she drained the water, and placed the nuts in a food processor with 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and a scant 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  She processed the contents until the consistency of meal, and then added 6-8 dates (Medjoul variety, the finest and sweetest) to make a dough.  She pressed the dough into a pan to form a crust, and then placed it in the freezer to firm up while she finished the recipe.

Next she cut 6-8 peaches into chunks, and mixed them with 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional), and 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg.  I was surprised to learn that the less sweet the peaches, the more important it was to include the lemon juice.  Then she slid the peach mixture into the crust, and refrigerated it until it was time for dessert.

Now, here’s what I want to know, and I’m going to need your help, dear readers.  First, you have to make this recipe, or take it to the family cook in your kitchen, and help them make it.  Then, you’re going to take out your glucometer or borrow one from a friend or relative.  Now you’re going to check and record your sugar, eat a slice of raw peach pie, and recheck your sugar 1 hour later. 

How much did your blood sugar rise?  Send a comment and let me know.  If I’m right, this pie will not spike your blood sugar like a traditional one made with a flour crust.  So, depending on how insulin-resistant you are, you may be able to eat a slice of this pie without hesitation, without worry, and without spiking your blood sugar.  And even if you are diabetic, you may be able to eat a slice, knowing that the blood sugar spike will be modest instead of astronomical.   

And did I mention how good that pie was?  I went back for a second piece before I’d finished the first.  OK, yes, I’m hooked.

Last summer, after my patient Mrs. Price heard me say that her blood sugar was 204, a single tear ran down her cheek as she said,  “My eldest granddaughter is getting married next year.”  A blood sugar measurement over 200 is one way to confirm a diagnosis of diabetes.  Her parents had both died in their 60’s from complications of chronically elevated high blood sugars.  Here is what I told her.

“The most important difference between your situation and mine right now is that your body is no longer able to keep its blood sugars in the normal range by itself.  But that doesn’t mean you are going to suffer the terrible complications that your parents did.  Kidney failure, blindness, heart attacks and amputations are not inevitable complications of diabetes.  It’s not diabetes itself that’s the problem; it’s uncontrolled diabetes.”

“There’s good news here: First, we found out about this before it turned into a serious problem.  Secondly, as long as you learn to keep your blood sugars in the normal range, your risk of developing complications will be pretty close to mine, which is to say, low.  A diagnosis of diabetes doesn’t mean that you’re going to have trouble.  It just means that your body can’t control its sugars automatically anymore, and it’s going to need your help.  But as long as you give your body the help it needs, and you learn how to conserve your insulin, the payoff will be huge.  I have no doubt that we will be able to get your sugars in the normal range.  You’re just going to need to involve your brain in the process.”

“You’re not going to be able to keep your blood sugars in the normal range automatically anymore, because if you could, your blood sugars wouldn’t be over 200.  And I can’t keep your blood sugars in the normal range all by myself either.  But if we work together, we can and we will.  So let’s figure out what we need to do to get your sugars under good control.  And then let’s do it.”

When I take care of patients with diabetes, I have lots of goals.  I want to get their average blood sugars under 125.  I have goals for total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL and LDL.  I want blood pressures below 135/85, and I want kidney function in the normal range.  I want strong peripheral pulses and I want my patients’ feet cared for expertly, at home and by the podiatrist.  I want my patients’ eyes checked at least once a year.  And so on.

“But you, Mrs. Price,” I continued, “have only one goal.  Your goal is to dance at your grandchildren’s weddings.  Not just attend them, but dance at them.  All of them.  Starting next summer.”  She smiled a little.

“Did you know that one hundred years ago, before we had medicine for diabetes, the only treatment for diabetes was a high fat diet?,” I asked.  She did not know that.

I taught Mrs. Price how to conserve her insulin using the “Four Recommendations.”  She stopped buying the cereal and orange juice she’d been eating at 11:30 a.m. for years.  I prescribed a medication “to make my insulin more efficient,” as she put it.  We made an agreement that she would begin to walk 5 minutes every day, and that she would begin to increase that number by 1 minute a month.  I reminded her that “Slow but steady wins the race,” because I certainly didn’t want her to sprain an ankle or get shin splints, two complications that would prevent her from getting much exercise at all for months.  She also made a rainy-day plan — to walk in the nearby mall in bad weather.  This is Cleveland, after all. 

We got Mrs. Price a glucometer, and I showed her that she could actually figure out which foods were causing blood sugar spikes by testing before she ate and then an hour afterward.  As time went by, she got better and better at predicting which foods were going to cause unacceptable spikes, and which foods kept her blood sugars in the normal range, more or less.  She stopped buying foods that spiked her blood sugar, except once in a while “special for the grandkids,” as she put it.  She started eating a protein-rich breakfast at 8 a.m., and noticed, to her surprise, that it resulted in significantly less after-dinner snacking.  As the year went by, we watched her 3-month blood sugar averages drop from 190 to 150 to 120.

Last weekend, I am pleased to report, Mrs. Price danced at her granddaughter’s wedding.

When I ask patients what they put in their coffee, they almost always say “cream.”  So I say, “Like from a cow?”  And they usually say no.

What do they mean by “cream” then?  They mean coffee whiteners.   “Cremora Rich ‘n Creamy!”, “Coffee-mate Lite The  Original,” “International Delights Coffee House Interpretations Vanilla Latte,” “Spoon ‘N’ Stir Non-Dairy Creamer,” and so on.  They mean corn syrup solids and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.  Translation?  Sugar and trans fat.  Some of my patients even have a favorite flavor, now that the folks who make and market coffee whiteners have identified and exploited the consumer’s insatiable desire for variety.

Coffee whiteners are everywhere.  They’re at the office, at meetings, at the workshop I attended last week, and at parties given by folks otherwise committed to fresh food, backyard gardens, and the like.  Like some kind of stealth bomber, they slip in under everybody’s radar.  Coffee whiteners are Trojan horses filled with diabetes, obesity, heart attacks, and strokes.

A visit to my neighborhood supermarket reveals a few interesting facts about coffee whiteners, also known as non-dairy creamers.  In and of themselves, they are a study in advertising spin.  First, although they contain no milk sugar (lactose), they are NOT non-dairy; virtually all of them contain a milk derivative called sodium caseinate.  People who are allergic to milk protein cannot consume them.  That is why the Orthodox Union classifies them as dairy for those consumers, Jewish and otherwise, who purchase kosher food.  And that’s just the beginning.

Coffee whiteners, a very successful form of fabricated calories, are advertised as containing zero trans fats even though they actually contain almost 1/2 gram per serving.  That’s because, according to the law, products containing up to 1/2 gram may be advertised as trans-fat free.  But a teaspoon of powder isn’t very much.  If you use more, whether in one cup of coffee, tea or cocoa (as recommended on the label), or several cups, you get more trans fat.  And even small amounts of trans fat cause damage to blood vessels, increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and interfere with fat storage, cholesterol synthesis, and fertility.  There is no amount of trans fat that is safe to consume. 

Okay, so if you use more than the recommended serving size, you’ll get more trans fat.  That’s obvious.  What of it?  Well, I’m having a hard time with the fact that the advertising on packages of coffee whitener actually encourages people to use more than a single teaspoon (powder) or tablespoon (liquid) serving size:  “Pour in a teaspoon or more of Cremora.”  “Savor the rich flavor and smooth creaminess of Cremora, cup after creamy cup.”  “Scoop or pour…”

Remembering that the more manufactured the product, the more creative the names, let’s take a look at the coffee whitener flavors: Coffee-Mate makes liquid versions in French Vanilla (blue), Hazelnut (yellow), Peppermint Mocha (light blue), Vanilla Caramel (orange), and Italian Sweet Creme (purple), this last one part of their special “World Cafe” line.  Linking each flavor to a particular color spectrum improves identification, selection, and loyalty.  International Delight makes French Vanilla (blue), Hazelnut (orange), Hershey’s Chocolate Caramel (brown), Amaretto (pink), Irish Creme (green), White Chocolate Mocha (purple), Caramel Macchiato (light brown), and Vanilla Latte (turquoise), the last three from their “Coffee House Inspirations” (silver) line. 

Coffee-Mate liquid French Vanilla comes in regular, sugar-free, and fat-free versions.  I can’t figure out how it is that all of these list the same first three ingredients (water, corn syrup solids, and partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil) in the same order.  But they do.

International Delights also makes a product called Sweet Buttercream, advertised as Limited Edition, whatever that is.  Sweet Buttercream features a thickly iced cupcake in hues of tan, gold and ivory.  I figured since it had the word “buttercream,” there must be some butter, or maybe cream, in the ingredient list, but I just found the usual — corn syrup solids and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, i.e., sugar and trans fat.

So what should you do?  Don’t use coffee whiteners.  Put cream (from a cow!), half-and-half, or milk in your coffee.  You will not gain one single pound.  Substitute soy, rice, coconut, or almond milk if you are intolerant of dairy, and stick to the original without added sugar and flavorings.  Or drink your coffee black.  Don’t use “fat-free half-and-half.”  I’m still trying to figure out what that even means. 
 
Don’t buy anything with the words “partially-hydrogenated” in its ingredient list.  “Partially-hydrogenated” means trans fats, and there is no place for trans fats in the diets of your loved ones, friends, or coworkers.  We will not build healthy communities with coffee whitener.

Here in the City of Angels, the thermometer has rocketed into the triple digits. It’s more like gehanna than heaven.

That means it’s time to celebrate Los Angeles’ cultural diversity and make some agua fresca.

An agua fresca is a cold beverage made with blended fruit or juice and water popular in Mexico and Central America. It is similar to a licuado, except a licuado is made with milk and more closely resembles what we call a smoothie.

To make an agua fresca, take 1 to 2 cups of peeled, seeded fruit and blend with the water. Add a sweetener such as agave nectar or honey to taste — but this may not even be necessary with fresh summer fruit. A tablespoon or so of lime or lemon juice will make the flavors sparkle. Garnish with mint, citrus slices or chunks of fruit on a skewer and serve over ice. Peak summer fruits may not even need sweetening.

An agua fresca can be made with chunks of seedless watermelon, cantaloupes, honey dew melons, strawberries, papayas, pineapples or even peeled and seeded cucumbers. A watermelon agua fresca is particularly good blended with fresh mint. A savory agua fresca, such as one made with cucumber, is best with cilantro.

An agua fresca has all the goodness of fresh summer fruit. It’s a thirst quencher fit for angels on a hot summer day.

Originally posted on Food Forever – The AJWS Food Justice Blog.

Today’s heart-breaking New York Times story about Haiti’s orphans is a painful reminder of the earthquake’s enduring devastation. The article offers a harrowing portrait of Daphne, a 14-year-old girl who watched her mother’s mangled body get carted away in a wheelbarrow from a shattered marketplace. Daphne then lived in a makeshift orphanage founded by Frades—a grassroots collective that specializes in microloans and began supporting abandoned and orphaned children after the earthquake. Daphne was just beginning to feel at home until she was claimed by a distant relative.

The article goes on to profile other children who have faced similar hardships—a 13-year-old named Michaelle who lost both of her parents in the earthquake and resides at Frades, cooking for the younger children with whatever food she can procure.

Frades’s board members and volunteers all shared similar thoughts: that even with so many international aid groups in Haiti, sustained help is hard to find. Mattresses, latrines, showers, medical care, psycho-social counselors and, most importantly, a consistent food and water supply are profoundly limited.

Nearly six months after the earthquake, cries for help are falling on deaf ears and efforts to hasten Haiti’s reconstruction have been stalled. It is absolutely unthinkable that countless other Haitian orphans could be profiled in the New York Times six months from now.

Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Tell your senators to pass the Haiti Empowerment, Assistance and Rebuilding (HEAR) Act to ensure that Haitians get the long-term aid and attention they need to build a sustainable future.

Most of the time I feel like we’re really making progress.  Patients are looking younger, losing inches, feeling better and decreasing their medications.  Still, not a day goes by that Angie, Barb, Chuck, Doris, Elijah, Fritz, or Gayle doesn’t tell me proudly that they have switched to “wheat bread.”  I thought I covered that, I say to myself.  I thought we discussed the fact that practically all bread is made from wheat.  That buying “wheat bread” is the same as buying “bread.”  That the word “wheat” means nothing in terms of good nutrition unless it is prefaced by the word “whole,” as in “whole wheat.”  That someone is trying to confuse you, and they are succeeding.  That’s when I feel as if I’m climbing a mountain with a Wonder Bread truck tethered to my backpack.

If nothing is working, no matter how hard you try, it’s time to reexamine the fundamentals.  So let’s go back to the beginning, and take a careful look at the words that are being used to sell bread. The goal here is to understand what you are choosing to eat.

When I enter a Subway, the sandwich maker asks me, “White or wheat?”  What are my choices again?  White bread or wheat bread?  But white bread is made from wheat.  And wheat bread is made from wheat.  Both white bread (always) and wheat bread (usually) are made from the starchy core, or endosperm, of a wheat kernel.  So what’s the difference?  Near as I can figure, the major difference is the color.

I checked out the nutrition information for the white and wheat breads.  They both contain 200 calories, but white bread has less fat (0.5 versus 2.5 g), less carbohydrate (38 versus 40 g), less fiber (1 versus 3 g), and less protein (7 versus 8 g).  So how can they both have 200 calories?  Something isn’t adding up.  The only thing that white bread has more of is sodium, at 470 versus 360 mg.

What is white bread?  It’s bread made from wheat kernels that have had their bran fiber coat and oil-rich germ stripped out.  What is wheat bread?  Same.  So why are some wheat breads tan instead of white?  Usually because they have had caramel coloring added.  What else can we learn about “wheat bread?”  Well, manufacturers use a variety of descriptive words to make bread seem better for you, including “enriched,” “unbleached,” and sometimes even “organic.”  ”Enriched” was the name given to flour to which vitamins and minerals were added, after it became apparent that stripping grains caused anemia, beri-beri, and other nutritional deficiencies in the people who consumed them.

The only time bread is really made from whole grains is when the first ingredient is WHOLE wheat or WHOLE grain flour.  The very FIRST ingredient.  Not the second.  Why is it important for you to know this?  Because there is virtually no place in a nutritious diet for refined (i.e., enriched, stripped) flour.  Yes, it’s that serious.  The standard American diet (SAD), based as it is upon refined flour, is one of the major contributors to the diabetes and obesity epidemics.

Now, just for the record, I will restate that folks should eat very little (if any) grain at breakfast.  I’m not saying that we should never eat refined wheat products.  I’m not really the “never” type.  Like Julia Child, I prefer moderation.  I think people can handle a little bit of refined flour now and then.  But not at breakfast, except on very, very rare occasions like your birthday, or your niece’s wedding brunch.  It just doesn’t make any sense to waste large amounts of insulin at the very time of day it works worst.

Remember that some people need to be more strict about their intake of grains (like “wheat bread”) than others.  Who?  Those people who are 1) inactive, 2) more than 30 lbs. overweight, 3) pre-diabetic, or 4) diabetic.  This short list includes around 85% of Americans.  That means no toast, bagels, muffins, waffles, pancakes, cereal, biscuits, bread, grits, leftover mac & cheese, at all.  Even if they are made from whole grains.  Why?  Because grains are absorbed very rapidly, which raises your blood sugar quickly, which means that you need to release a huge load of insulin to catch the sugar.  And insulin works worst when we wake up in the morning.  We can’t afford to waste our insulin like that.  So don’t eat foods made from flour (which, as you have learned, is almost always wheat flour) for breakfast.  The remaining 15% of us can have a little bit, sometimes.  Not every day, unless we are very active.

As for “wheat bread,” don’t let anyone fool you.  Call it by its more correct name –  bread — and switch to whole-grain bread.  Avoid it for breakfast always, and don’t eat it every day in any case.  Send me your questions if you’re still confused.

A long-time reader of The Jew and the Carrot, it’s easy for me to see the importance and power of conversations within the Jewish community regarding eating, nutrition, food politics, and sustainability. However, the Jewish imperative for justice does not allow us to stop at environmental or personal levels. Rather, we have to continue our pursuit of justice to ensure that everyone has access to fresh, seasonal produce, healthy food options, and the skills to prepare healthy meals. The Nourishing Kitchen of New York City is an organization working to do just that for the East Harlem community.

Founded in 2008 as a “healthy soup kitchen,” The Kitchen is the only emergency food organization providing nutritionally balanced food for immune-compromised individuals struggling with diabetes, obesity, and malnutrition. East Harlem has one of the highest rates of hunger as well as the highest rate of obesity in New York City, with 62% of the population reported overweight or obese. The East Harlem community also has the densest concentration of diabetes in any borough. These apparent contrasts can be explained by the heavy presence of affordably-priced yet nutritionally void fast food and the scarcity of affordable fruits and vegetables.

The Nourishing Kitchen has expanded its mission in an effort to incorporate healthy eating into clients’ everyday lives. In addition to a hot meal service, The Kitchen offers a food pantry, produce distribution, nutrition classes, and yoga classes – all free and open to the community.

A foundation stone of The Kitchen is not just providing food for low-income clients, but connecting an otherwise marginalized and underserved community with the green movement. As the only certified green soup kitchen in the country, The Kitchen does this primarily through the use of a number of community garden plots. The produce harvested in these plots is served in our hot meals and distributed in our Urban Free Produce program. The Kitchen also runs educational programs and events that expose the community to recycling, composting, seasonal eating, and growing their own produce at home.

One of The Kitchen’s most important projects is the Junior Chef program, a summer program that takes kids ages six to thirteen and gives them hands-on culinary and nutrition workshops. This program was created to connect underserved and undernourished youth to the culinary arts while educating participants and their families on issues of nutrition and wellness. In addition to direct training, participants receive ingredients and recipes to prepare meals at home with their families, plus a local gym membership to engage in physical activity. Through this curriculum, participants learn how to protect themselves and their families from the threat of diabetes and obesity raging in their neighborhood while having fun and gaining comfort in the kitchen.

I’m writing about this organization today because The Nourishing Kitchen (specifically the Junior Chef program) needs your help. The Kitchen is currently a finalist in the national Post Grant for Good Health for $25,000 to support and expand the Junior Chef program. The catch is that it all depends on votes. Each person can vote once per day until July 12 and the winner will be announced on July 22. It takes less than a minute of ‘e-volunteering’ a day, just one click and you are on your way to pursuing food justice for all. Click here once a day to help.