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Having choices feels good, and options can free us. But in the realm of snack foods, we may have experienced too much of a good thing: more choices than ever before, with more highly-refined, processed foods among them.
Every grocery and convenience store has shelves filled with snacks and prepared foods. Nearly all are made with white flour, refined sugar, and refined vegetable oil–including prepared organic “health” foods–because these ingredients are cheap and have neutral flavors. For fun, you might want to take a look at ingredient lists the next time you shop for snack foods. I imagine you will be as surprised as I was to find these ingredients in almost every product sold.
While many people believe that snacks have little place in a healthy diet, they may actually play an important role. Snacks can help manage hunger and avoid the frantic filling up that often follows denial and the postponement of needs; eating a snack at 4:00 may keep you from eating two or three helpings at dinner. Of course, how we define “snack” matters. Societal norms have a lot to do with our acceptance of a bag of potato chips or cookies as an afternoon pick-me-up, and relying on hummus and carrot sticks as a mid-morning lift might make us feel almost deviant. Yet these norms are leading us down the weedy path of poor health.
It’s true that we all feel more comfortable when we fit in, gathering food and eating the way others around us do. But if ever there was a moment to call upon your inner renegade, this is it. Our society needs to establish new snacking norms. Until this happens, we may want to set our own rules and live by them: figuring out what works; getting rid of empty calories that slow us down and offer little; finding snacks that satisfy us; and enjoying support where we can find it.
Here are several good snack recipes that will give you a lift when you’ve fallen low. All can be made ahead so they are ready when you need them.
Roasted Cashews
Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix the ingredients and place them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven and stir the cashews every 10 minutes, until they are lightly and evenly browned all over. This will take 20-30 minutes.
3. Remove cashews from the oven, cool, and store covered in the refrigerator for when you want a snack. They will keep for months.
Tamari Pumpkin Seeds
Yield: 3 cups
Ingredients
3 cups raw pumpkin seeds
2-1/2 tablespoons tamari
Recipe
1. Place pumpkin seeds in a dry heavy or cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until well toasted. The seeds will “pop” and crackle for much of the time, and when the crackling slows they are ready. They will be puffed and lightly browned all over. Turn off the heat and let the seeds cool for a minute or two.
2. Leaving the pumpkin seeds in the hot pan, pour 2 tablespoons of tamari over them and mix well with a wooden spoon. The tamari will sizzle a bit. Taste the seeds. For a stronger flavor, add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon tamari.
3. Transfer the pumpkin seeds to a cookie sheet or platter, spreading them in a single layer to cool. Store covered in the refrigerator for when you want a snack. They will keep for months.
Hummus
Yield: about 3 cups
You can make this recipe using canned chickpeas, which saves time by eliminating the first step–cooking the chickpeas–and you will get a good enough result. But to make exceptional hummus, there is no substitute for starting with chickpeas you cook yourself. This is because canned beans are left firm enough to be used for salads or spreads, but to make a creamy hummus, it’s best to start with tender, well-cooked beans.
Ingredients
1 cup dried chickpeas, or 1 cup of canned chickpeas
4 medium garlic cloves, divided between 2 steps
1 piece kombu, optional
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/4 cup tahini
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup reserved bean liquid
optional: 1 teaspoon cumin seed, toasted and ground, or 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
Recipe
1. Rinse dried chickpeas and place them in a bowl of cool, filtered water–covered by at least 3-4 inches–for 8-12 hours.
2. Drain beans, discard soaking water, and place them in a heavy pot. Add 1 clove crushed garlic, kombu (if you are using it) and coarse sea salt. Cover the beans with three times as much water, bring to a boil, and turn the heat to low. Simmer, partly covered, for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, checking from time to time to be sure the beans are submerged under water. If they’re not, add enough water to cover the beans by at least 1/2 inch.
2. Toward the end of cooking time, taste the beans for tenderness. When the beans are well-cooked, drain them and reserve 1/2 cup of cooking liquid. Discard any extra cooking liquid or save to add to soup.
3. If you like a textured hummus, skip step 3 and move on to step 4. If you like a smooth hummus, put the cooked beans into a large bowl filled with cool, filtered water. Using the palms of your hands, gently rub the beans to loosen the skins. As the skins float to the surface, skim them off and discard them. Repeat until nearly all the skins are removed.
4. Into a food processor, place the remaining 3 garlic cloves, beans, tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, and 1/4 cup of reserved cooking liquid. Also add the cumin if you are using it. Run the food processor for about 5 minutes for a smooth hummus, or less time if you like your hummus textured.
5. Check the hummus for flavor, consistency and texture. If needed, add more bean liquid, lemon juice or salt. Keep tasting and blending until you have the hummus you want.
6. Just about everything goes well with hummus: in it, on it and with it. To embellish a serving of hummus, add a sprinkling of smoked paprika or roasted and pureed red peppers. Garnish a bowl of hummus with chopped or sliced kalamata olives, or a sprinkling of fresh herbs like oregano or thyme. And serve hummus with carrot, celery or daikon sticks; pita triangles; or whole grain crackers.
7. Store hummus covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze.
Pita Triangles
Yield: As many as you like
Ingredients
1 package large or small whole-wheat pita pockets
olive oil
1 or 2 fresh garlic cloves
dried basil or thyme
fine sea salt
freshly ground pepper
Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cut small pita pockets into quarters and then split them in half. If using large pita pockets, cut them into quarters or eighths, depending on your preference, and do the same. Arrange the pita triangles, smooth side up, in a single layer on a baking sheet.
3. In a small bowl, mix together enough olive oil to use for brushing the pita triangles, a clove of minced garlic–or more if you are making a large quantity, and a pinch of dried herbs.
4. Brush the oil mixture over the smooth top of each pita triangle. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until as crisp as you would like, flipping the triangles halfway through cooking. Cool on a rack and serve or store for up to several days in an airtight container.
“The truth is so often the reverse of what has been told to us by our culture that we cannot turn our heads far enough around to see it.” Howard Zinn
Change is a norm we have come to accept and, within the food industry, change is the lifeblood of profit growth. For growth to continue, the foods we consider healthy, and therefore the foods we most often buy, must change frequently. Put another way, there’s great pressure within the food industry for novelty; new products can give food manufacturers a competitive edge and bring in greater profits.
Consider some of the popular “health foods” we are told we need: energy drinks; soy milk and soy yogurt; power bars; probiotic-enriched products; tofu; sugar-free and fat-free foods; tea drinks; butter and egg substitutes; processed “organic” foods; and vegetable oils. There are also popular health fads like vegan diets, carbohydrate elimination, and detox regimes.
Reading these examples, you may understandably feel some surprise. But can you see how all of them, the foods and the fads, have been manufactured to replace something real? Can you see how they are all touted to reduce something: weight or cholesterol, hunger or cancer? We are told that eating this way will nourish us and make us look and feel better. We are told there is virtue in making choices like these. If only we believe; if only we agree to open our wallets.
William Coperthwaite wrote these good words:
“Under pressure of marketing…, the average person has little chance of choosing sensibly. The only alternative seems to be to become very self-conscious about food. By this means some few people learn to live healthily, while a great many others go to extremes–all carrot juice, or no bread, or all brown rice and no dairy products.”
If you truly enjoy the sort of food products listed above, then by all means purchase and enjoy them. But if you consume them because you feel you must, because you believe they will move you toward good health or keep you there, feel no regret about passing them over.
Fad foods are the storms of our time: they blow in, create excitement, and stir up energy in the marketplace. And we take cover beneath food choices and rituals that make us feel we’re responding, that give us some sense of being in control, but these choices and rituals leave us with thinner wallets and without a corresponding increase in vitality. Read the complete post »
It’s worth taking a moment to consider how the tending of hens, our most abundant and reliable egg “producers,” has evolved in past decades because it connects to the quality of the eggs we consume.
Background
Factory farming began in the 1920s, and the timing is meaningful. This was just after the discovery of vitamins A and D. Once farmers could add these vitamins in synthetic form to animal feed, there was no longer a need to give animals access to pasture for sun and growth. There was no longer a need to have them live as animals do. So, motivated by a potential for increased profits, farmers moved their animals off of grass and onto industrial farms. The complication was that living in confinement and indoors made animals sick, but antibiotics–which came along in the 1940s–fixed that problem. Today, 80% of antibiotics are used on animals.
Egg Quality
When considering the quality of eggs, there are many factors to take into account. Chief among them is their balance of essential fats; how hens live and what they eat affects this balance directly and the balance then affects us. Essential fats are called essential because we need them but can’t make them; we have to get these fats from food. They are called “omega-3″ and “omega-6.” There is much evidence to suggest that traditional diets balanced these two essential fats, which is what our bodies require. Now, however, most of us consume far more omega-6 than omega-3 fats, causing internal inflammation and perhaps explaining our epidemics of obesity and cancer, as well as high rates of heart disease and neurological problems.
What do essential fats have to do with how hens live and what they are fed? When chickens live indoors and are fed grain alone, they are living in a manufactured environment, which makes their eggs less than what nature intended; these eggs can contain up to 30 times more omega-6 fats than omega-3 fats. Hens on pasture produce eggs with a 1:1 essential fat ratio. So hens that are outside absorbing vitamin D from the sun and eating bugs for protein have eggs (and meat) that are more nutritious; these eggs are also anti-inflammatory.
The Egg Labels
In the list below, I’ve attempted to decipher the most common egg labels. Some speak to how the hens live, others speak to what they are fed, and a few focus on both.
Pastured: This is the gold standard for an egg. Pastured eggs come from hens that roam free, foraging for grass, weeds, seeds and bugs. The hens return to a hen house at night to roost, nest and lay eggs; they are generally fed grain in the evening. Pastured eggs usually come from small farms, and are often sold at the farm itself, or at farmers’ markets or small health food stores. The label on these eggs will always include the word “pastured.” Because these hens live as hens should–on grass and in the sunshine, running, taking dust baths, eating bugs and pecking at the soil–their diet contains necessary minerals and their eggs have an ideal balance of essential fats. The question to ask the farmer is, “Did these eggs come from hens that live on pasture?”
High-Omega or Omega-3 Enriched: This label refers specifically to what the hens eat: a diet rich in a source of omega-3 fats like flax seed or fish oil. If your concern is your own health and the balance of essential fats in your eggs, and if you do not have access to pastured eggs, these eggs might be a reasonable option. Note that, like most labels, this one is unregulated so, unless it is specified, there is no way to know the true omega-3 content of the eggs and there is no listing of what else the hens eat other than omega-3 rich foods. In addition, the label gives us no information about how the hens live. These eggs may have a better balance of essential fats than those that follow.
Without grass and sunshine for the hens, the following eggs all have an imbalance of essential fats:
Certified Organic: This label requires that hens be uncaged, but most live inside barns and warehouses. Access to the outdoors is a must, but it can be a small door that the hens neither know about nor use–”access” being the key word. The hens consume a certified-organic feed free of antibiotics, pesticides and genetically-modified ingredients, but beak cutting and forced molting through starvation (to simulate the natural molting that occurs when hens are exposed to sunlight) are allowed. Certified organic eggs are the only eggs is this list that have inspections and enforcement to ensure that guidelines are met. But know that while giving organic grain to hens without giving them access to pasture does make their eggs “organic;” it does not improve the life of the hens or make their eggs more nutritious. The yolks are still pale and the eggs are often shipped long distances.
Free-Range or Free-Roaming: While there are no standards that qualify eggs as coming from free-range hens, these hens are most often uncaged and housed inside barns or warehouses with some access to the outdoors. They can sometimes enjoy natural behaviors like dust bathing, roosting and foraging, but there is no grass, and there are few bugs and little, if any, sunshine. We have no information about what free-range hens are fed, and beak cutting and forced molting are permitted.
Cage-Free: This label makes it seem as if the hens are on pasture, and it is meant to, but cage-free is a marketing term. Hens are uncaged, as the name suggests, but they most often live in a barn or warehouse without access to pasture. Beak cutting and forced molting are permitted. On the other hand, cage-free hens can walk, nest and spread their wings, which caged birds are prevented from doing.
Vegetarian-fed:To my mind, this might be the most misleading label, meant to make the eggs seem somehow virtuous. As I understand it, the label means that the hens’ feed contains no animal matter, but the hidden implication is that the hens are locked indoors. Bugs are a mainstay of a hen’s diet, and even small bugs that fly through the air will be food. To ensure that a hen eats no animal matter, I can surmise that a vegetarian-fed hen must be kept in a warehouse with no access to fresh air. If the point is consideration for all living beings, these eggs miss it entirely.
Fertile: This tells us that the hens that lay eggs live with a rooster, which probably means they are uncaged. But there is no guarantee and the label says little else about how the hens live or what they eat.
Hormone Free: Another label that sounds good, but means nothing. Hormones in poultry were banned in the 1960s.
Natural: This is a marketing term that has no consistent meaning, and tells us nothing about how the hens live or what they eat.
The Take-Home Message
Labels are necessary when we manufacture food, but eggs, in the ideal, are not manufactured. When hens are raised on pasture, we don’t need a fancy name or label; we simply need to know our farmer. Shop at farmers’ markets, farm stands or small health food stores for eggs from hens that live as they were meant to: on grass, in the sunshine, running, taking dust baths, and eating bugs. The egg carton will say “pastured,” and it is really this simple.
I was once swept off my feet while vacationing in Italy, la terra di amore, the land of love. As I might have expected (as you, by now, might expect) my irresistible suitor was not a “him,” but an “it”–the mercato, the Florentine farmers’ market–and the language of our courtship was curiously slanted toward all things edible: rosemario, pomodori, fagioli, aglio.
Blocks away, in my Italian kitchen, I could feel the bustle and energy of the market. People streamed toward it from every direction–on foot, bicycle, or motorcycle–and I joined them each morning as I set out to gather ingredients for the day’s meals.
What the mercato offered was a vision; even now, it takes no effort to conjure it in my mind. Barrels of capers in salt. Anchovies. Artichokes. Fresh beans in their pods. Porcini mushrooms and handfuls of wild mint to go with them. More vegetables and fruit, full of color, odd shapes and personalities, and all at the peak of ripeness, the best and most they would ever be. There was rich, creamy yogurt that must have been a thousand calories. There were fresh whole fish that smelled of salt air and sea, squat yellow peaches, and eggs with deep golden yolks. Rather than pack these eggs twelve to a carton, the farmers offered them one by one, each a treasure.
It’s so easy to roast a pepper, and when you do it yourself it tastes so much better than anything you can buy. Although I generally roast sweet red peppers, you can roast any type of pepper (hot or sweet) using the same methods. Roasted peppers are delicious as a pizza topping, in pasta, on bruschetta, in an antipasto platter, or tossed in a salad; they keep for about a week. I usually roast peppers over the flame of a gas burner, but if your stove top is electric, you can also roast peppers on a baking sheet in the oven.
Ingredients
As many peppers of whatever variety that you want to roast.
Recipe
1. Wash and dry the peppers.
2. If you have a gas cook top, place each pepper on a burner grate or use tongs to hold them over the flame. If you cook with electricity, slice each pepper in half lengthwise and remove the core and seeds. Then place each pepper cut-side-down on a baking sheet and broil them close to the flame until their skin is charred. A third option is to preheat your oven to 450 degrees and bake the peppers for about 35 minutes, until the skin is black. Regardless of which method you use, the goal is to char the skin, not the flesh. When the peppers are ready, they should be soft, but not falling apart.
2. With each roasting method, once the skin on your peppers is mostly black, put them in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, a dish towel, or a plate. Let the peppers rest for 10-15 minutes.
3. Uncover the peppers and place them charred-side-up on a cutting board. Then gently scrape away the blackened skin. The back side of a knife or spoon works well for this purpose.
4. Discard the charred bits and skin. Then slice the peppers and use as you wish.
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