Books & Music...

As the husband of a bright, intelligent woman who possesses her Ph.D. in nutrition, my habit of eating at greasy spoons died a quick, yet painful, death. Instead of telling you how many pats of butter the short order cook at the Waffle House will add to my hashbrowns, I can now read the nutrition information on a food package with astounding clarity and understanding about what each item is and what it means to my health.

Since my wife is a scientist, she's also interested in why certain flavors go better together and loves to experiment with our weekly evening dinners. I'm totally fine with a nice rotation of 15-20 meals in a month, but that's just way too boring for her. And our eco-friendly lifestyle also now includes ways to grow our own food and integrate more organic foods into our diet.

Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking: The science and lore of the kitchen is a great book that not only addresses health issues in your cooking but also why going green matters in the kitchen and how it impacts you. Here's McGee explaining why there's been a recent return toward fruits and vegetables as a larger portion of our diets:

"Plant foods can provide us all the nourishment we need in order to live and thrive. Our primate ancestors started out eating little else, and many cultures still do. But meat and other animal foods became important to our species at its birth, when their concentrated energy and protein probably helped accelerate our evolution (p. 119). Meat continued to have a deep biological appeal for us, and in societies that could afford to feed livestock on staple grains and roots, it became the most prized of foods. In the industrialized world, meat’s prestige and availability pushed grains, vegetables, and fruits to the side of the plate and the end of the meal. And for decades, nutritional science affirmed their accessory status. Fruits and vegetables in particular were considered to be the source of a few nutrients that we need only in small amounts, and of mechanically useful roughage. In recent years, though, we’ve begun to realize just how many valuable substances plant foods have always held for us. And we’re still learning."