School Food in France and Bringing up Bebe Book Review

While we in America argue whether to include "pink slime" in our beef products, the French are preparing truly farm-fresh organic produce for their children with in-school chef's and a real kitchen.

They use real utensils and real plates (highly sustainable) and are served at their round tables to facilitate discussion.  And, they get adequate time to enjoy their food and socialize compared to the typical American school kids 20 minute lunch with which to scarf down whatever processed food he or she can.

I thought we were the country with the most resources?

I finished reading Pamela Druckerman's (She's a American raising her family is Paris) book, "Bringing Up Bebe", and was impressed with the level of service French parents receive when raising a child.  Particularly of interest was the three days of menu options Pamela shared in her book at the French daycare for her three-year-old.

She writes of the meals, "An in-house cook at each creche (day care)  prepares lunch from scratch each day.  A truck arrives several times a week with seasonal, fresh, sometimes even organic ingredients.  Aside from the occasional can of tomato paste, nothing is processed or precooked.  A few vegetables are frozen, but never precooked."

So here are the menus (served in four courses of salad, main meal, cheese and dessert) she observed.  And remember, this is a daycare/preschool:

Day 1 (Page 112):
Course 1:  Bright-red tomato salad in vinaigrette
Course 2:  Flaky white fish in a light butter sauce and a side dish of peas, carrots and onions
Course 3:  Crumbled blue cheese
Course 4:  Whole apples slices at the table

Day 2 (Page 112):
Course 1:  Hearts of palm and tomato salad
Course 2:  Sliced turkey with rice in a Provencal cream sauce
Course 3:  St. Nectaire cheese with a slice of fresh baguette
Course 4:  Fresh Kiwi

Day 3 (Page 204):
Course 1:  Shredded red cabbage salad and fromage blanc
Course 2:  White fish in dill sauce and a side of organic potatoes
Course 3:  Coulommiers cheese
Course 4:  Baked organic apple

The French have a commission where parents can provide meaningful input into their children's menu.  They stress visual and textural variety along with nutrition and suggest offerings such as mousse of sardines in cream sauce, duck mousse, spinach, green beans, smoked pork, monk fish, tuna fish, salmon, yogurt cake with carrots, etc.  The parent food meeting Pamela attended lasted more than two hours.

I found this documentary from CBS (below) that highlights some of the French school cooking.  They manage to do it for $2.50 per student, about what many of our schools pay for mostly processed trash.

So I wonder, what would our school lunch program look like if each school got to create its own menus with parent-driven input and the kid actually had the time to enjoy their meal and have conversation during their day?  Our kids deserve so much better than our schools are giving them.

As an additional resource, check out the movie "Food Beware:  The French Organic Revolution" on Netflix or buy at Amazon.com.

Raw Cauliflower Salad

It was my wife's birthday today and I wanted to make a really nice meal for her and the kids.  We have been discussing lately the advantages of a raw diet and tonight I incorporated a raw cauliflower salad to serve alongside the main entree.

Why raw?  Heat degrades the nutritional aspects of food.  All raw food is prepared at temperatures of less than 110 degrees to maintain the foods total nutritional value.

I've started collecting raw recipes and rely heavily on the Boutenko's of www.rawfamily.com for advice.

Sergei and Valya Boutenko wrote a book of raw recipes titled "fresh:  The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook".

Had I served the cauliflower tonight as typical, I would have probably steamed the vegetable and then added some olive oil  and sea salt before plating it.  Tonight, I followed a recipe from the Boutenko's on page 61 of their book that was raw, cold, and absolutely delicious.

Cauliflower Salad (for two or three):

• 1/2 head organic cauliflower diced finely
• 2 Tbs quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbs. organic lemon juice
• 1/2 bunch green onion finely cut
• 1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• Mix together and plate.

It was amazing and a salad we will be eating again and again.

Try serving your side vegetables raw at your next meal.  It's easier to make, more nutritious, and you just might like it better.

If you are interested in learning more about eating a raw diet or incorporating more raw foods into your daily diet, I would recommend visiting www.rawfamily.com.

Olive Oil Illusions

For its health benefits, I have tried to use olive oil for most of my cooking the past ten years.  I sometimes purchased "olive oil" at the store and most times "extra-virgin olive oil", never really knowing what the difference was -- though a friend suggested once that just plain "olive oil" is a lower quality and therefore less expensive.

The past year or two our family has been purchasing an extra-virgin organic olive oil from Costco.

So when I read Tom Mueller's, "Extra Virginity:  The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil", I was disturbed to learn about the high rate of fraud in the industry and that much of what is sold on our grocery shelves as "extra virgin" is no better than regular olive oil or often much worse.

First, I learned that common phrases such as cold-pressed and first-press mean little as today's means of extracting oil is usually done by modern centrifugal machines -- eliminating presses altogether.  These words are used as an illusion of quality.

Extra Virgin is a category of olive oil that is reserved for the top 10% of olive oils that meet a chemical and taste profile.  If you're like me, you may be wondering why a small percentage of all olive oil takes up 90% of the olive oil shelf allotment at the grocery store.

Here lies the problem.  There are few regulations in the olive oil industry and the few that exist are not actually enforced.  Mueller describes The United States of America as "an oil criminal's dream".

He mentions a recent study of supermarket extra-virgin olive oils by UC Davis Olive Center along with the Australian Oils Research Laboratory that found 69% of the extra virgin oils tasted had flaws such as rancid, fusty, and musty -- ensuring they were not extra-virgin and mislabelled as such.

Mueller cites Los Angeles as being a major mixing port for fraudulent oils.  Companies (even well-known brands) are buying a mix of low-grade olive oil blended with soy, seed oil, or cottonseed oil and then resold as "extra-virgin".  How does this happen?  Mueller quotes an industry buyer who says:  "The American [authorities] tell me, 'so long as a product isn't toxic, you can sell it however you like--so long as it isn't toxic.  Because if you put seed [oil] inside extra [virgin olive oil], you don't poison anyone'.  So they say 'It's the consumer's choice whether to buy it or not'".

An FDA (Food and Drug Administration) specialist told Mueller the FDA considers olive oil adulteration a low priority stating, "We're inclined to spend our money on things where there's a clear public health benefit."

A real extra-virgin olive oil doesn't need additional processing that requires chemicals and cleaners and deodorizers like other oils.  But, many olive oils receive this treatment to make it more shelf stable with the familiar green tint artificially added back in to the oil to fool the consumer.

On a final note, Italy imports much of its olive oil, packages it and then resells it to the rest of the world.  The pictures of Italian country sides and flags on bottles is designed to be misleading.  The Italian government allows oil (any oil) bottled in Italy to be labelled "from Italy".

Mueller's book is a fascinating read that reveals the rich history of olive oil and how it came to be one of the world's most revered and sought after oils.

Mueller provides suggestions on finding an authentic oil.  They include:

• Read www.extravirginity.com for the latest updates and olive oil news.
• Buy traceable estate olive oils.  Look for reputable retailers such as www.weolive.com, www.oilandvinegarusa.com, The Olive Press (Sonoma, CA) and Zingerman's Delicatessen (Ann Arbor, MI) among others quality retailers nationally.
• Olive oils deteriorate quickly.  Buy as close to the source as possible and from vendors who buy in bulk and resell in green glass bottles.
• Anything at these reputable retailers labelled other than "extra-virgin" means the oil has undergone chemical refinement with many of its health benefits removed.
• Try to buy within the year of harvest.  "Best by" dates are usually two years after harvest.
• Store your purchased oil away from light, heat and oxygen.
• Prices under $10/liter usually suggests an inferior product.

Costco does offer a traceable estate olive oil I will look into as a suitable replacement to our current olive oil.  All of the years of olive oil buying and I never imagined I would have to research to determine if the bottle I was buying was anything other than what it said it was.

This book was great for its historical information and current harvesting information.  It was certainly eye-opening and disturbing.  But most importantly, it has taught me how to find a real product, with real taste and real health benefits.

I strongly encourage your reading of this informative book.

Do you buy any estate olive oils?  Which do you recommend?

Tomatoland

I love reading to learn.  Lately, I've begun reading a variety of food related books to educate myself on choosing foods more wisely.

I just finished an informative and highly disturbing book, Tomatoland, by author Barry Estabrook.  The subtitle sums up the book, "How Modern Industrial Agricultural Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit".

I figured the details of commercial tomato growing would be disgusting, environmentally destructive, and produce flavorless fruit.  In fact, those thoughts were confirmed with a series of detailed descriptions of the types of chemicals that are applied.

About 1/3 of the tomatoes in America are produced in Southern Florida, an area naturally devoid of nutritional soil because of the year-round humidity, ripe for bacterial growth.  To provide "nutrition" for the plant and stave off insects and disease, Florida growers use a "category I acute toxin", methyl  bromide.

Methyl bromide can damage the lungs, throat, eyes, skin, kidneys, central nervous system and has been linked to birth defects and cancer.

The tomatoes are picked green and sprayed with ethylene to ripen them on their way to the discount grocery store shelves or fast food restaurants (McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Taco Bell are all buyers of Florida tomatoes).

The ethylene, methyl bromide and host of other chemical applications are all produced by the petrochemical industry.  Therefore, as gas supplies are depleted, food costs naturally increase.  Our food is literally grown on unnatural and harmful fuel derivatives.

Perhaps more disturbing than the extreme chemical applications, was my ignorance to the modern slaves who pick these tomatoes.  These workers, most of whom live in Imokalee, Florida, are paid little for their daily back-breaking work.  Many are illegals from Mexico smuggled by coyotes into work they had hoped would provide them a better life only to be trapped by a life of low pay, severely inadequate housing and ridiculous fees that keep them enslaved to contracted tomato picking agencies.

The Museum of Modern Slavery highlights these human atrocities and has been working for better conditions for the tomato pickers.

The stories from field workers and the suffering of their families, the birth defects on their children, and the low wages they receive makes me think twice about where I buy tomatoes.

As if toxic tasteless tomatoes weren't enough reason to choose differently, here is one more tragic reason to buy from known sources and avoid the restaurants and grocers who support them.  Or even better, consider growing your own tomatoes from organic heirloom varieties and preserve your harvest through canning or drying for winter use.  We just bought our seeds from Annie's Heirloom Seeds, but there are many providers.

I checked out this book from the library.  It is an easy read, informative, with the history of the tomato and its fall from taste.  It is a book that will forever change the way you look at a tomato.

Cancer Fighting Eggs

I own and have read a copy of the late David Servan-Schreiber's (MD, PhD) book, "Anti Cancer:  A New Way of Life."

One of my many takeaways was the powerful anti-cancer combination of Turmeric, Virgin Olive Oil and Black Pepper.

David says of olive oil, (pg. 112) "olives contain an abundance of antioxidants such as acteosides, hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, and phenylpropionic acids.  The direct effect of such molecules is to limit the initial development of cancer.  Particularly when it is virgin, olive oil also contains secoiridoids and lignans, both known antioxidants that have been linked with slower progression of cancer."

Of turmeric, he writes (pg. 114) "No other food ingredient has such a powerful antiinflammatory effect.  The principle molecule responsible for that effect is curcumin.  In the labratory, curcumin inhibits growth in a large number of cancers:  colon, prostate, lung, liver, stomach, breast, ovarian, brain, and leukemia, for example.  It also inhibits angiogenesis and forces cancer cells to die (through the process of cell suicide known as apoptosis.  In mice, curcumin prevents the development of several types of tumors caused by chemical carcinogens.  Additionally, curcumin inhibits the growth of human tumors when implanted in mice."

He mentions that Indians consume and average of 1/4-1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric each day and experience 1/8 as many lung cancers, 1/9 as many colon cancers, 1/5 as many breast cancers, 1/10 as many kidney cancers, and 1/50 as many prostate cancers as Westerners of the same age.  He cited this database.

BUT, here is the key.  He writes (pg. 116), "..when [turmeric] is not mixed with pepper or ginger -- as it has been in curry -- turmeric does not pass the intestinal barrier.  Pepper increases the body's absorption of turmeric by 2,000%.

So what do my eggs have to do with it?  Well, I was using organic (cage free) eggs and organic extra virgin olive oil anyway when I fried an egg. And I also always use fresh cracked black pepper.  After reading this book, I simply add a good does of organic turmeric to the mix and I have cancer fighting eggs!

Turmeric is not overpowering, so it doesn't alter the taste of the eggs much.  The most notable difference is the distinct yellow color.  But I am proud to explain to visitors why their eggs are yellow.

Try it at home and enjoy your own cancer fighting eggs and let me know how you liked them.

Add virgin olive oil, fresh cracked pepper and turmeric to other dishes as often as you can and pick up a copy of the anti-cancer book.