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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News AP Entertainment Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Holiday Guide Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend November 22, 2006 Whole foods: not as simple as they seem By REBECCA WOOD for the Mail Tribune Today's industrially produced foods are just another corporate commodity. As with multinational commodities, cost-effectiveness is the production strategy. Quality is not relevant. Our trade-off for having convenient and cheap food is significant. We know almost nothing about how it is grown or produced, where it comes from and whether it's good for us. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. To clear away the ignorance, here's my pick of 2006 titles that enable a delicious and healthy diet. Here are four different authors — a naturalist, health writer, activist and nutritionist — and their timely wisdom. "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," by Michael Pollan (Penguin, 2006, $26.95). "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is on "best of the year" book lists because it's a great read no matter your dietary persuasion. Pollan (author of "The Botany of Desire") is funny, wonderfully self-honest and a no-holds-barred adventurer. As a naturalist, he astutely examines the ingredients in four different meals and leaves it up to readers to draw their own conclusions. Advertisement For Pollan's first meal, a Big Mac, he buys a feedlot steer and tracks it from weaning to ground beef. He also reveals the prodigious quantities of corn and petroleum this process requires and its dependence upon our defense and political systems. Corn not only feeds our livestock, but it is found as an ingredient in one-fourth of our processed foods. (A Chicken McNugget, for example, has 38 ingredients, 13 of which are corn.) Pollan cooks his second meal from Whole Foods Market ingredients. If you smugly believe that buying organic is part of the solution, Pollan shreds that fantasy. Yes, he points out, organic food has greater nutrient density and typically more flavor than conventionally grown food. Additionally, organic offers the substantive advantages of a healthier soil and biosphere. But, here's the rub. An organic meal of industrially produced ingredients is as equally dependent upon corn and petroleum as a McDonald's meal. While pricier, it also delivers convenience and year-round abundance despite the season. This makes all industrially produced foods part of the problem that comprise "our national eating disorder." For meal number three, Pollan traces the foods, and the energy their production entails, in a meal from a sustainable family farm in Virginia. For the fourth and last meal, the author hunts a wild pig and forages his own salt from the San Francisco Bay. Pollan is inclusive. Because "the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world," I highly recommend "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Pollan will not lull you with the cliché that eating well can be quick and mindless. Rather, he gives you a clear and honest look at what is. "Real Food: What to Eat and Why," by Nina Planck (Bloomsbury, 2006, $23.95). If, from fear of high cholesterol, you've avoided steak, butter and cream, here's your passport to satisfaction. Nina Planck builds a sound case as to how and why traditional foods not only maintain and improve our health but pleasure us, as well. Her sound research implicates cancer and degenerative health with processed foods. Planck grew up in Virginia with intellectual parents who left academia to farm and could articulate why real foods made sense. Planck, continuing in that tradition, now writes about food and creates and manages farmers' markets. She details why much of what we have learned about nutrition in recent decades is either misinformed or dead wrong. Furthermore, almost all of the foods invented in the past century are toxic. Planck's contrarian view of what constitutes sound nutrition happens to be the very foods — the real foods — upon which our grandparents thrived. "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements," by Sandor Ellix Katz (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006, $20). If you wish to reclaim a connection to the food you eat, consider Sandor Katz' (author of "Wild Fermentation") newest book. "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved" champions various causes against our modern food supply. From seed-saving as a political act to the role of food in healing, it's an invaluable handbook. A passionate crusader, Katz is also funny, quirky and eminently likable. Each chapter contains one of his low-tech recipes and ends with multiple resources pages including supportive books, films and organizations. "Eat Smarter: The Smarter Choice for Healthier Kids," by Dale Figtree (ZHealth Books, 2006, $19.95). Eat Smarter helps kids (and parents) understand the effects food choices have on health. It includes a removable, color storybook that portrays the successful transition of the author's now adult stepson from a junky diet to a healthy one. It's a well-told story. Figtree, a certified nutritionist, says she cured herself from cancer with a healthy diet. She offers a commonsense way of eating. No food directly heals or changes us. However, Figtree helps us understand how, with a good diet, our body can repair, readjust its weight and regenerate itself. While the book includes some fish recipes, it contains no meat, dairy or wheat. (There are even wheat-free recipes for pizza crust and pancakes.) Eminently pragmatic, "Eat Smarter" has useful meal plans, cooking shortcuts and features 82 easy recipes that most 10-year-olds could make on their own, including the one below. Rebecca Wood is a Julia Child award-wining cookbook author who, for over 30 years, has taught whole-foods cookery throughout the United States and in Europe. To find a recipe, see her list of classes, schedule a consultation or post your comment about this article, visit: " target="_blank">www.AshlandCooking.com Carrot Cashew Nut Paté or Spread 1 1/2 cups carrots, sliced 1 cup unsalted cashews, whole (cashew pieces tend to be rancid) 1/2 teaspoon orange rind, grated 1 tablespoon spring onions, chopped Black pepper, to taste 1 teaspoon tamari sauce 1 tablespoon orange juiceSteam the carrots until just soft. Blend the cashews in a food processor or blender until finely ground. Add the steamed carrots and remaining ingredients to the food processor bowl and blend until smooth. If dry, add a little more orange juice. Makes about 2 cups. Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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