La Comida- Food

One of my hospital patients from south east Asia once told me she hated the boiled food eaten by Canadians. While hospital menus may have some nutritional merit, they are bland especially to a person used to fragrant curries and stir fries. One of the best things about travel is the opportunity to try new foods and to taste local produce. Altaulfo mangoes from a Canadian supermarket are good, but tree ripened ones in Mexico are far more sweet and flavourful. And I have found no corn tortilla even close in flavour and texture to those from a Mexican tortilleria.



I have maintained a vegetarian diet now for a year and have enjoyed trying new recipes. Melissa of Empress of Dirt sent me a DVD called Raw for Life last December and I thought the principles were somewhat extreme. But gradually my tastes have changed and I am endeavouring to eat two raw meals a day. That is not hard to do when fresh fruits and vegetables are abundant.

Our daughter has become quite an accomplished cook, producing tasty meals for family and visitors. She showed me how to make several salsas including milder avocado-based green sauces as well as fiery hot red sauces. And we tried delicious watermelon and melon drinks which were very refreshing in the heat.


On my last day in Tepic my brother took me with his family to Restaurant Vegetariano Quetzalcóatl, an excellent vegetarian restaurant in the city. The breakfast buffet was less than $10.00 per person and it was impossible to try all the dishes which were offered. The decor was traditional Mexican and the service was impeccable.


Closer to home...
Our daughter came to Canada with me at the beginning of July and returned to Mexico yesterday. She starts teaching again at the university in Torreon next week. The summer has been busy and the weeks have gone quickly so I am still putting up posts about my June trip. My mother has finished three rounds of chemotherapy and is in good spirits. She will be having some tests in a week or so to see how her tumours have responded to treatment.

I decided to donate blood today and made an appointment through Canadian Blood Services central office. After one screening interview and completion of a questionnaire, I was told I could not donate blood for a year as I had been in Nayarit, Mexico. The area is one of over a hundred countries and districts in the world which have malaria mosquitoes and travel to them disqualifies a donor from giving blood for up to three years. Malaria is not endemic in Mexico as it is in parts of Africa and Asia and my family has not been affected by the disease in all the years they have lived there.

My Google Reader is bursting at the seams and perhaps I will have time to catch up a bit in the next few days.

More Adventures with Food

Greens at the Chinese Market

I find my exploration of vegetarian meal options very interesting and have discovered that many ethnic cuisines feature vegetables, grains and legumes served in tasty combinations. One of our larger local supermarkets has two rows of international foods including ingredients for Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Central American, and South Asian dishes. I like the bags of rice and chick pea flour, the many varieties of rice, beans and lentils as well as the pouches of unfamiliar herbs and spices.

Vegetables Bahjis with lime and hummus

The Becka has perfected vegetable bahjis which are made with chick pea flour or besan. This week, I bought a colourful bag of mixed lentils and used them in a vegetarian version of my mother's ground beef goulash recipe. The experiment turned out well and the recipe is posted on Come Home for Supper. There is a Chinese supermarket downtown which has the largest selection of reasonably priced fresh green vegetables I have ever seen. Last week I bought a large bunch of mustard greens, a vegetable I have never found in our regular stores. It has a peppery flavour and is tasty in soups and stir fries.

Rice and Lentils with mustard greens

My daughter and I spent two weeks last fall in Nevada, Arizona and California. I managed to find healthy vegetarian food most of the time. Las Vegas was the most difficult place to find a good restaurant so I drank a lot of Odwalla smoothies and ate fresh fruit from a nearby Walmart. California is a very vegetarian friendly state and even the ferry we took across to Alcatraz sold vegan lunches at their snack bar.

Roasted Vegetable Fajitas, El Torito, Monterey, CA

We ate at a Mexican restaurant near Cannery Row in Monterey and enjoyed a well presented vegetarian fajita sizzler. Served with rice, beans and tortillas, it was so big that we enjoyed another meal of leftovers the next day.

My main complaint with restaurant meals is the high sodium content of almost every dish. I really notice salty foods because we use few processed foods or canned soups at home. So I prefer to spend money on good ingredients and experiment with herbs and spices instead of relying on salt for flavour. I am enjoying this food adventure very much!

Food as Medicine

"Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food."

Hippocrates

I have read numerous books and articles on nutrition and have generally followed the advice of the Canada Food Guide in choosing foods for myself and our family. Our daughters were all sensitive to cow's milk, yet I continued to give them dairy products after they were weaned thinking they would not be healthy without them. From my mid twenties on, I had frequent migraine headaches which would last three days at a time. No medication would relieve them. I had several episodes of back pain as well as inflammatory joint pain on a regular basis.

Just over a year ago I had surgery for a locked knee. The surgeon noted inflammatory damage beyond what he expected for my age. I was off work for weeks and gradually worked back to my normal hours in the following three months. In early April I developed acute plantar fasciitis in my right foot. My knee pain was nothing compared to the searing pain experienced when I walked. Custom orthotics helped somewhat, but I needed anti-inflammatory medication daily along with Zantac to protect my stomach. I then noticed my blood pressure readings were going up alarmingly from their low-normal averages. By mid-summer I was barely getting through a day of work and was unable to walk much outside after work. I did some research and found my anti-inflammatory medication could cause a rise in blood pressure. I decided to try an anti-inflammatory diet to see if I could get some pain relief.

In August I started by eliminating all sugar and refined foods from my diet. Within three days my foot pain was noticeably better. I then stopped eating meat and after a couple days of withdrawal, felt even better. Dairy was last and hardest to give up as I love plain yogurt. Eating a vegan diet with no refined foods allowed me to completely stop all medication and my blood pressure quickly dropped to normal. The night pain which interfered with my sleep cleared up. I went on a trip to the States for two weeks and walked a lot without having a flareup. (I managed to stick to my diet 90% of the time we were gone). I had a set back when I developed septic arthritis in my elbow after a big dental procedure in December. Once that was treated with antibiotics, my pain and inflammation has been diet controlled again. If I cheat, I have more pain. As a bonus, I have had no headaches at all and other hormonally related problems have cleared up completely.

I have not restricted my portions of allowed foods and am deprived at all. When I plan a meal for myself, I imagine a large garden with an orchard and can have anything from it I want. My meals are colourful and satisfying. It is sometimes socially awkward to refuse food and I do not like to bring attention to my preferences. I have eaten fish a few of times since the summer. I had clam chowder in a sourdough bowl on the wharf in San Francisco because I felt it was part of experiencing that city's culture. The food pyramid from Dr. Joel Fuhrman's books is a good model for the kind of eating I need to stick to. It allows some flexibility but is primarily vegetable and fruit based. I stick to the bottom three sections most of the time.

This way of eating is right for me but each person needs to figure out which foods are best for them. We would never think of filling the tank of our car with anything but the proper fuel. Our dog is on a restricted diet due to liver disease and we are careful to adhere to it. Why is it so hard to treat our bodies with the same respect? I have been inspired and encouraged by some bloggers who are long time vegetarians. Melissa (Empress of Dirt) lives in my community and has been very kind and helpful.

Many health conditions can be treated effectively with dietary modifications, yet most people have difficulty following recommendations. Taking medication and vitamins is no substitute for healthy food. David H. Murdock, the 86 year old chairman and owner of Dole foods is a good example of someone who adheres to this philosophy. He says,"No pills, not even aspirin, and certainly no supplements ever enter my mouth -- everything I need comes from my fish-vegetarian diet, which incorporates 30-40 different kinds of fruit and vegetables every week." (source) I think it would be impossible to feel deprived eating a diet with that amount of variety.

We ate at a new Central American restaurant last weekend and ordered a few of their vegetarian dishes. From the bean soup to the green salad with grilled fruit, each course was delicious and satisfying. There were eight different fruits and vegetables in the salad on the right alone. (The Becka has written a post about this restaurant on our blog An Insider's Guide to Waterloo Region)

Here are some other resources I have found helpful while changing the way I eat.

The China Study
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Disease Proof

Food, Glorious Food, Don't care what the cook's like...

Published by Carnation, 1955

This is my first cookbook which I received at the age of six or seven. The Becka scanned the cover for me last week and labeled the file

sexist_turning_little_girls_into_housewives_beginners_manual.jpg

She was appalled at the tone and content of the book which suggested that only Mother and Older Sister could work in the kitchen and little girls, not little boys had to learn culinary basics. Father and Boyfriend were the recipients of the fine meals prepared by the women in the family.

I never thought there was anything wrong with this model. Men earned the money and women kept the home. I was 18 years old when I saw a friend's brother-in-law drying dishes in the kitchen. This was so novel (in 1972) that I remember the moment vividly. Since that time, the men in my life, my father, brothers and husband, have proved themselves to be capable with kitchen duties. I took Home Economics classes in middle school and learned to sew, set a table and cook simple meals. Our daughters took Family Studies and Shop in mixed classes where the boys learned kitchen skills and the girls learned woodworking together.

My husband and I preparing Thanksgiving dinner

As women, including myself, entered the working world, roles and relationships with food changed. Busy living requires more convenience and with more disposable income, fast foods and processed foods are eaten more often. Children prefer birthday parties at the golden arches to having a picnic in the park. Treats are useful for pacifying children when we are busy. And food is a stress-reliever, a "drug" of choice.

I was taught that we were to respect our bodies and that alcohol and cigarettes would defile our God-given temple. But no one objected to gorging on food at a buffet or eating foods which were unhealthy. Every day I see the result of a lifetime of poor food choices in patients I work with. Fatty foods in excess cause liver disease in the same way excessive alcohol consumption does. High sodium intake damages tissues of the circulatory system and organs. And excessive weight leads to many chronic illness which are as debilitating as diseases caused by cigarette smoking.

To top it off, we are inundated with confusing and conflicting information on what we should and shouldn't eat. I took vitamin E supplements for years until a recent study showed that the mortality rate of those who took the supplement was higher than for those who didn't take it. Diet fads have swung from one extreme to another. Prescription medications are marketed widely by pharmaceutical companies while the market for vitamins and other supplements has also grown exponentially.

Food, glorious food!
Eat right through the menu.
Just loosen your belt
Two inches and then you
Work up a new appetite...

Where is common sense, intuition, and listening to our bodies in all of this?

More to follow....

Food Glorious Food!

Ruth, Sandra and Nathan 1958

Food, glorious food!
What wouldn't we give for
That extra bit more --
That's all that we live for
Why should we be fated to
Do nothing but brood
On food,
Magical food,
Wonderful food,
Marvellous food,
Fabulous food...
(from Oliver!)

We had a vinyl recording of the Broadway musical Oliver! which we listened to repeatedly as children. I still remember the words to the song Food Glorious Food which was sung by the orphans as they were served a meal of tasteless gruel. Food is such a big part of our lives. Whether we have little or plenty, much time is spent in storing, preparing and eating it. The first picture was taken in Grandma's back yard where we enjoyed many outdoor meals over the years. My brother, cousin and I were at an age where parents tend to coax children to eat. Like many children in our post war generation, we were encouraged to clean our plates and were rewarded with dessert after we finished our first course. Our parents and grandparents had memories of war time rationing and shortages. Our food was always homemade and few processed foods were used.

Noddy's Milk Bar, Durban South Africa circa 1960-61

My earliest childhood memories are in Durban, South Africa. Mom would shop at the market and bring home large amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables. On market day she would spend hours cleaning and storing her purchases. She was a fan of nutritionist Adele Davis and always served healthy meals. I remember her taking brewer's yeast in fresh orange juice each morning. Thankfully, she did not make us drink it. Grandma visited us for several months and I remember going out with her to the gardens of a hotel for tea. I imagine she had something to do with us visiting Noddy's Milk Bar and while I don't remember eating there, they likely had a British style tea menu. (I was a great fan of Enid Blyton and her Noddy books).

Picnic time with our cousins May 1963

After we returned to Canada, Grandma's picnics were still very popular. We drank orange crush as a special treat and it was the only soda pop we ever had except for the medicinal use of ginger ale for an upset stomach. About this time my dad started giving us an allowance of 5 cents a week. I spent much of it on penny candy at the nearby corner store and for the first time had tooth cavities. We never ate out, but convenience foods such as cake mixes, puddings and TV dinners were becoming more popular. Mom continued to serve healthy foods and did a lot of canning and preparation of food for the freezer in order to stretch the food budget. We drank powdered skim milk, ate cooked cereals and generally had fruit and muffins for dessert.

As a teenager I was introduced to restaurant and fast foods when I went out with friends and would eat at places like Mother's Pizza, KFC, A&W drive-ins, Harveys and Dairy Queen. At home we experimented with home made yogurt and recipes like cabbage rolls and lasagna which Mom learned at an international cooking class in Toronto. Cuisine in the late 60s and early 70s was not very adventurous. Processed foods were more popular but most homes had a stay at home mother who cooked meals from scratch. The average person was not overweight and while dieting was popular enough, the media was not obsessed with nutrition and weight loss strategies.

More food posts to follow....

Remember Whensday

Festive Food

This is the time of year for special foods and treats. Rich desserts, squares, cookies and candies seem to be everywhere. I have been looking for some healthy but festive recipes to take to potlucks and parties. Yesterday I constructed my first fruit bouquet and here is the result. These can be purchased at specialty stores and are quite pricey. We have had one or two given as parting gifts from patients at the hospital and I found they looked better than they tasted as the fruit was too unripe for my liking. Harder fruits are easier to work with.
I found this website with instructions for various fruity creations and made one in a mini-watermelon base with a head of lettuce as the support for the bamboo skewers. And it was fun to do. I will put more detailed instructions on my recipe blog just in case the link above goes dead.

Three Sisters and the Iroquois Village

Inside the longhouse

On the long weekend, I decided to hike around some areas of the Niagara Escarpment which are within a forty minute drive from home. Halton Region has many lovely parks and trails, including sections of the Bruce Trail, which runs for 800 km from Niagara to Tobermory, Ontario.

Crawford Lake is a meromictic lake and has layers of water which do not mix. It is on top of the Niagara Escarpment near Campbellville, Ontario and is protected by ancient cedar and hemlock forests. Researchers discovered an Iroquois village here and efforts were made to rebuild the native settlement as it looked between the 14th and 17th centuries.


After I walked around the nearby lake I wandered around the village looking at the longhouses, the simple tools and the ways in which food was prepared. Nothing was wasted from the animals killed, fish and turtles caught, crops grown, and forest growth which was collected.


The garden had been planted with the Three Sisters;- corn, beans and squash. They were traditionally planted together in mounds and were dietary staples. It was the discovery of corn pollen deep in Crawford Lake which led to the eventual excavation of this village. Everything looked clean and simple in the model longhouses and I had to use my imagination to see the smoky fires indoors and out, to smell the fresh hides and fish and garbage, and to hear the voices of the people who lived there. The kitchen was simple and made we wonder why I think I need ours remodelled.


When I got home I made a big pot of Three Sisters Soup, one of my favourite fall recipes. It could be made easily over the fire in the village. After spending an afternoon in the peaceful quiet of the escarpment, the Labour Day traffic on Highway 401 seemed like an intrusion to my state of mind.

Life here was simple, but not easy five hundred years ago.
Life here is more complex, and still not easy for many today.

But our dilemmas and complexities are often brought upon ourselves unnecessarily by the many choices we have to make in our modern society. Supper is easy when you use the only three ingredients available, much easier than wandering around a large supermarket with a thousand options marketed for our "convenience".