Real Simple printed the list of the 50 recipes that were most often viewed on its website in 2008. From my critical perspective, they reflect the tendency towards agrobusiness-made-cheap chicken and inflammatory, high glycemic index foods in the American diet, which are at the root of so many chronic health problems plaguing our population's health, bloating our national spending on health, and hurting the environment, too.My recipe for more universal health would be to reduce portions of animal protein and eat less dense, more fibrous foods - like more lentils, fruits, and vegetables - and substitute whole and "ancient" grains (like wild rice and amaranth flour) for processed, "post-agricultural" ones (like bleached all-purpose flour and polished white rice).
A dinner plate should look more like a colorful smorgas board and not be a big slab of white breast meat from a coop-raised, beak-snipped, chicken, slathered with cheese and white breadcrumbs with a few tasteless steamed green beans on the side like an afterthought.
Ice Cream Cake, for instance, was #2 (in fact, dessert recipes made up four of the top ten). Instead, how about antioxidant-rich fresh berries - maybe blended with some frozen hung and whipped organic, whole fat yogurt (satisfying, rich in calcium and the right amount of fat needed to absorb that calcium, and providing healthy pro-biotic "good bacteria"), sweetened with a little raw honey?
I tried to find some recipes that I would actually feel like making and eating myself. Probably only the grilled shrimp tacos and summer bouillabaisse, with a few modifications, would make it onto my plate, and maybe a modified version of the banana nut bread (more bananas, different sweeteners, some applesauce instead of all that fat, and ground flaxseed, almond flour, and whole wheat flour in place of the refined grains).
What did you think of the list?
No comments:
Post a Comment