The Doctor Cooks

Winter Tummy Warmers

After being assured that an infected ear was not the cause of his daughter’s fever, our conversation turned.  His girls weren’t eating their serving of fruit at breakfast, usually a kiwi or a small apple.  “Summer is over.  Perhaps the fruit isn’t so good. Do they need a supplement until fruit comes back in season?” he asked.

“Maybe,” I replied, “but consider this.  Most fruits have a cooling effect on the body.  With winter coming on, their inner wisdom may be telling them to eat more warming foods.”  Here’s how I advised him.

Food Cures for the Post-Winter Blahs

While winter is clearly on its way out, the chilly rainy days of early spring can make me feel stuck.  I call it the post-winter blahs.  Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) calls it dampness.  Loose bowels, gurgling digestion, bloating, nasal drainage, skin breakouts, flat energy and an overall stuck feeling both mentally and physically are signs of dampness.  While the weather contributes to this condition, the richer foods we eat to keep warm and energized during the winter can promote dampness come spring.

Quick Pasta Sauce Under Pressure

  Is your spaghetti tired of seeing red?  This creamy yellow butternut squash is a welcome change from the usual red sauce.  It cooks quickly with a pressure cooker and the natural sweetness of the squash will please the entire family. 

Locally Grown Favorites

My commitment to locally grown food began years ago when Clearly Nature’s Own, now the Wild Oat’s at 43rd and Main, began selling Mark Moreno’s organic lettuce.  Mark went on to found Earthbound Farms, selling his organic produce nationwide.  I later would trek to the City Market on Saturdays to shop his booth and perhaps the two or three other local growers committed to natural methods.  Since then, local and organic markets have sprouted all over the area.  This month’s theme, “locally grown,” inspires me to share some of my favorite local growers and producers.

Pasture Raised Chickens Lay the Best Eggs

It’s no doubt that a dozen eggs were an unusual gift.   But for my friend Carol, “hmmm, eggs,” quickly became “Mmmm, eggs.”  Here’s the story.

Maria, a friend and fellow osteopath, lives on a farm where she, her husband and two children raise chickens, and to be complete, ducks and geese.  She always comes bearing eggs, which I share with friends—green eggs, blue eggs, brown eggs, white eggs and sometimes big fat duck eggs.  The color depends on which breed laid the egg.   But the real treat comes when you crack it.  The white is thick and buoyant; the yolk glowing orange.   And the taste?  Well as my friend Carol put it, “I’ve never savored an egg before!”

The Taste of Summer

If you could taste summer, what would it taste like?  It tastes like a juicy, sweet, vine ripened tomato to me.  I’m not alone.  More people grow tomatoes than any other garden vegetable in the United States.  Whether you are growing them yourself, or buying them from your favorite local farmer, now is the time to enjoy them.

The health benefits of tomatoes have been well studied because of their place in the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet.  Much early research focused on the carotenoid lycopene.  It thins the blood and stimulates the liver to more effectively detoxify substances that cause inflammation and cancer.

Image by Flaviu Lapoian (www.sxc.hu)

Tempeh Brings Thrill to the Grill

Now is prime grilling time, whether for entertaining or to keep the kitchen cool.  This month, I introduce you to my favorite barbeque recipe and to tempeh, a delicious, lesser known soy food. 

Tempeh hails from Indonesia, where it has been a staple food for over 2000 years.  Hulled soy beans are cooked and then in a process similar to cheese making, are mixed with a culture of Rhizopus Oligosporus.  After fermenting under controlled temperature conditions, a solid nutty tasting cake is formed.  Like cheese, it can be sliced into any shape or shredded.  Like tofu, it marinates well, yet it can be skewered and will not fall apart on the grill.

Learning to Love Vegetables

Impossible, you might say, especially if the vegetables you ate growing up were boiled into oblivion.  Or maybe yours were embalmed as canned vegetables or cryogenically frozen.  Treated with such disrespect, it’s easy to understand why many of us avoid vegetables, and lose out on the most life sustaining and disease preventing food available to us.

Vegetables (and fruits, too) are rich in special molecules called phytochemicals.  Phyto simply means plant.  Phytochemicals give plants their characteristic color, smell, taste and texture.  They help the plant protect itself from disease and predators.  We get the same benefit when we eat properly prepared vegetables and fruits.

Go Nuts!

Back when we hunted and gathered for our food, nuts and seeds were part of our daily diet.  They gave us energy, soft healthy skin, fertility, immunity, healthy joints, strong hearts, and sharp balanced minds.  Many of us have avoided nuts and seeds to keep our diet low in fat, so it’s no coincidence that we may lack these qualities in our health. 

Want Fresh Produce? Hire a Farmer

The first sign of spring is here!  It's time to enroll in your CSA for the summer?  Don't know what a CSA is?  Please read on.  It's the best way to get the freshest local produce delivered to you every week.  I'm hoping the answer to the question "do I garden?" will change.  My husband and I are planning an herb garden this year!

February in Cherokee is "Gaga lu nee” which means "bony or hungry month.”  It often feels that way to me.  Of course I am grateful for the abundant choices of fruits and vegetables throughout the winter months, thanks to modern transportation.  By February however, I am hungry for fresh organic fruits and vegetables grown right here, not 1500 or more miles away.  Do I garden?  No, I hire a farmer.