It’s not often that I am shocked by an article in the weekly food section, but this one from the Seattle P-I has me waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out.
When good food goes … bad (January 30):
> There is a dark side to so-called “good foods.”
> The problem isn’t exactly with the foods themselves. The issue is how we so commonly prepare the foods: mixing them with cream or butter or cheese, cooking them in fats and meats, topping them with oils, sweetening them with sugars….
> If you must cook with bacon, use turkey bacon or Canadian bacon.
In the article, the writer chooses three recipes from The Gourmet Cookbook that she says exemplify a “good foods gone bad” approach. She then submits the recipes to three nutritionists for their comments.
The article is by food editor Rebekah Denn, and I found it puzzling for several reasons. Before I enumerate them, I should add that Rebekah is a friend of mine, a good writer, and a loyal booster of my career, and I am hereby presenting her with a license to pick on anything I write. So here goes:
1. Did no one involved in this article get the memo that low-fat diets are, if not totally passé, at least on the ropes? Even Walter Willett of Harvard, probably the most respected nutritionist in the country, no longer advises reducing fat intake. If you don’t trust Willett, trust Michael Pollan, who shreds the “lipid hypothesis” in his new book, In Defense of Food. Major studies have found dietary fat consumption (excepting trans fat) to be unrelated to cancer, heart disease, and obesity, and some studies have found dietary fat consumption to be *negatively* correlated with weight gain: eat more fat, lose more weight. Recall also that Julia Child was right and margarine-peddling nutritionists were wrong: butter is better. This doesn’t mean nutritionists are always wrong, but when one is recommending an engineered substitute (turkey bacon? seriously?) for a traditional food, my money is on the tasty stuff.
2. Cooking vegetables with oils, meat, and dairy is not a new trend. It’s downright prehistoric. I am hard-pressed to think of a traditional vegetable dish that is low in fat. And I am thinking about a lot of delicious vegetable dishes. Indian curries. Peperonata. Szechuan green beans. Tempura. Collard greens with a ham hock. Kale gratin. Sliced summer tomatoes dressed with olive oil and balsamic. (Okay, I thought of a couple: green papaya salad and pickles.) This is not a historical accident, as the nutritionists could presumably tell you: vegetables taste better with fat because most vegetables contain fat-soluble vitamins and are therefore not as nutritious when consumed without fat.
3. In the same vein, “many Americans have not acquired a taste for the slight bitterness that dark leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli can carry,” writes Denn. True, I guess, but as a huge fan of these vegetables I would argue that combining them with fat or dairy doesn’t blunt their bitterness but transforms it into something uniquely savory. There is a primal relationship between green vegetables and pork, milk, butter, or olive oil. It’s not something invented by Gourmet magazine. I cook something in this category at least once a week, and more often in the winter.
3. One of the nutritionists (Myrtle McCulloch of Georgetown) seems to be recommending raw spinach. Here is what she should know about raw spinach: “Oxalic acid, it seems, forms an insoluble complex with calcium and iron–not only the calcium and iron in the spinach itself but other sources of them as well–and renders uncooked spinach a non-nutritious green,” writes Jeffrey Steingarten. (**edit:** He is wrong about the iron; see the comments) This is aside from the danger of food poisoning. Raw spinach should be eaten only occasionally and I wouldn’t serve it to a child; it is not good for you. (**edit:** Cooking spinach, especially by boiling, destroys both *E. coli* and oxalic acid, so have at it.)
4. This is the only time I can remember seeing a column with recipes where the column is advising you *not to make the recipes.* But the kale recipe (sauteed kale with bacon and vinegar) sounds awesome and I’m going to make it this week.
5. “[N]ot many people would make the effort to make mushroom soup regularly,” writes Denn. It’s not clear whether she’s paraphrasing a nutritionist or saying this herself, but in either case, isn’t this the FOOD section, where the writer is supposed to explain why it might be worth spending 30 whole minutes to make mushroom soup from scratch rather than opening a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom?
5. Finally, here’s what Denn wrote just five days ago:
Mangalitsa Madness: Porcine Foie Gras (January 25):
> I have eaten the pork belly, and suddenly I comprehend the zealot’s gleam in Heath Putnam’s eyes when he implores buyers of his Mangalitsa pigs not to trim the fat. This fat-laden cut — belly with some small ribs — is sinfully rich and salty-sweet. By the time it left its slow braise and joined some glazed turnips and Brussels sprouts on the plate it was practically pork candy, or the pig equivalent of foie gras. It was so tender and moist it fell apart at the touch of a fork.
As a nutritionist, I recommend substituting Sizzlean for the Mangalitsa pork.
