Last month’s newsletter highlighted the need for exercise and activity to achieve optimum wellbeing. Since March is National Nutrition Month, I thought it would be appropriate to look at how the average American workday — the way most of us spend the majority of our waking hours — affects our physical activity. It used to be that work was the source of our exercise, but that’s certainly not true for most of us today.

But first, some thoughts about food.

I haven’t read Michael Pollan’s new book, Food Rules, though it’s been well-recommended by bloggers and reviewers. In it, Pollan reaches back into language and culture, and lists favorite sayings about food and eating. These are things past generations learned, practiced and repeated often enough that they became part of familial and regional folklore. As we address the troubled modern day landscape of diet and nutrition, we can learn from both the wisdom and mistakes of previous generations. And the good thing is that, although the foods that nourished this wisdom became hard to find, they are not altogether lost. With the proliferation of farmer’s markets and upscale supermarkets, heirloom, farm-fresh produce and whole grain, hearth-baked breads can now be found again. I still like Pollan’s succinct summation in his Omnivore’s Dilemma: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” If we all followed this simple directive (with a corollary of “cook frequently”) we’d be in good shape.

It would be helpful if someone could retrieve the same cultural legacy for exercise and activity. But I don’t know if such a collection is possible, since work, the source of much exercise, has changed forever. In the cultural library, hard physical labor might be portrayed as honest and ennobling by some authors, but those who do it on a daily basis know how difficult it is. Growing up, my first hero and favorite ballad was John Henry, the “steel driving man,” but by beating the steam hammer with the sledgehammer, John Henry died of exhaustion. (And there is little victory in death, no matter how noble.) In general, workers have not resisted technological change; rather they have embraced those devices and means of production that would lighten their loads, even as it increased their productivity. In just 3 or 4 generations, we as a nation have exchanged shovels and tools for power tools, desks, telephones, and keyboards. We have fully entered an era in which little activity is demanded from our lives. Being paid for physical work has for the most part changed to paying to work out.

This is not to say that jobs don’t require great energy and work. My years as an artisan baker have left me with fond memories of not only teamwork and fantastic bread, but also an appreciation of how physical the constant lifting of dough, shaping of the bread and the loading and unloading of the ovens was. And it’s not just bakers. I only had to glance at my friends on the grocery team who practiced the “retail walk” (which is really more of a jog than a walk), to see how their constant hustle kept them in good condition. There is still plenty of physical work, but most of us don’t do it for more than a fraction of our lives, and the hard part is dialing down our food intake when this phase is over. The challenge is to get to Pollan’s “Not too much.”

If we are looking for personal inspiration or wisdom, it might be helpful to look to previous generations and consider how they live or lived, and what lessons we can draw from them. For his part, my dad typified the modern surrender to a sedentary existence. He was a CEO, traveled a great deal, ate in too many restaurants and, in the end, battled both his weight and Parkinson’s disease. While he also had the discipline to change his life decisively — I remember very clearly when he quit smoking and stopped drinking — food was something of a curse. As a POW in Germany, he lived hungry for 6 months before his release when the war ended, and, as a result, he always told us to eat up “since you don’t know where or when you next meal is coming.” Up to the day he died ten years ago, with all his discipline, he was unable to free himself of this uneasy relationship with food.

My mom is a better model of the mix between a modern and an early 20th century lifestyle. In Jungian terms, she would be the suburban warrior archetype: Xena with a vacuum cleaner. Living in a house large enough to accommodate 8 children, there were plenty of steps to climb every day, over and over, going from the basement to the second story, moving laundry, retrieving dirty clothes, cleaning vigorously, going to the store, and hauling groceries, and cooking 3 meals a day. It was a daily battle filled with many hard-fought, physical engagements. Mom never needed to “work out” in any modern sense of the word; she was in a constant state of activity, except for the single hour in the afternoon when she laid down for a refreshing nap. A life full of work and activity has kept her trim her entire life. My brothers, sisters, and I have encouraged her to move to a smaller condo, but this routine of walking and cleaning the house is too much a part of her life to give up. She badgered me with chores that always involved physical activity (sweeping, washing floors and mowing the grass), and, through her influence, I learned many good habits that I still practice today.

The fact is, the human body is made for motion, and we need to indulge its purpose. Modern technology and conveniences have changed how we use our bodies to work; a majority of us either sit dormant during the workday or minimally exert ourselves.

But the gym isn’t for everyone, and sports aren’t either — so how do we find ways to stay active, engaged, and physically energized? Well, there are still stairs to be climbed, walks to take, and new activities to learn. It’s left to each of us to figure out what our best opportunities for increased activities are. And the sooner we do it, the better off we will be.

When it comes to our children, we can’t rely on our schools or cities to create the solutions, since physical education, park expansion, and support of sports are all being cut, as schools and cities trim budgets. There are three active and one sedentary people in our house, and while nothing seems to inspire the 15-year-old, at least he sees our enjoyment. (Which is another point: it’s important that whatever new physical recreation we choose offers enjoyment as well as exercise, because if we don’t like what we’re doing, we won’t stick to it.)

On that note, I’d like your help. Send me your best ideas for activities that have worked for you — how did you choose them, how do you fit them into your day, and what benefits have you enjoyed from them? I’ll post them on the Dr. Kracker website for others to read, consider, and perhaps use as inspiration. You can reach me at: newsletter@drkracker.com.

Balancing the calories going in with the calories burned is the key to maintaining weight. My father, given his POW past, had difficulty keeping perspective on how much food was healthy, even as his CEO status guaranteed him continued access to as much (often rich, high-calorie) food as he ever wanted. Many of us have to rebalance our eating as we age, since our metabolism slows and our time for exercise decreases. Balancing food in with calories out is easier to do when we’re eating the right foods. Just as hard physical work has diminished, the supply and variety of vegetables, fruits and whole grains has multiplied in a way unimaginable 100 years ago. There are so many more ways to enjoy low-calorie but nutrient-dense foods than ever before. I’ve chosen the plant-strong diet, but there are many long-lived omnivores. The best advice is to keep the diet simple and easy to follow, and pair it with a physically active life style we enjoy.

And one last piece of advice for National Nutrition Month: Don’t be fooled by supplements and the “latest and greatest” miracle nutrient or antioxidant addition to foods. Foods are more than the sum of their natural components, or parts. There is no reason to create Frankenformulas that involve the denatured parts of one food now added to another, to create an enhanced food. Keep it simple. Eat natural foods, with their inherently genius biochemical mix of micronutrients, and enjoy their richness of color, texture and, best of all, flavor.

In “Hidden Benefits of Exercise” (online WSJ, 1/5/2010), Laura Landro begins with the lesser-documented benefits of exercise. “Regular workouts may help fight off colds and flu, reduce the risk of certain cancers and chronic diseases and slow the process of aging,” she writes, and, “Medical experts say inactivity poses as great a health risk as smoking, contributing to heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, depression, arthritis and osteoporosis.” Landro quotes physicians who have some strong beliefs about the link between well-being and regular exercise: “No pill or nutritional supplement has the power of near-daily moderate activity in lowering the number of sick days people take.” (Dr. David Nieman) “We need to refocus the national message on physical activity, which can have a bigger impact on health than losing weight … If there were a drug with the same benefits as exercise, it would instantly be the standard of care.” (Dr. Sollis) The emphasis is on physical activity instead of weight loss, but weight loss, if it is needed, will almost automatically follow from increased activity. And the activity level recommended can be “as simple as a brisk 30- to 45-minute walk five times a week.”

Landro’s article suggests exercise and activity are especially meaningful for women, and can reduce the risks of some cancers. Multiple studies, when taken together, link activity levels to the immune system. Exercise lowers estrogen levels, and lower estrogen results in lower incidences of cancers.

Then there are the anti aging effects for both sexes: “The study concluded that physical activity has an anti-aging effect at the cellular level, suggesting exercise could prevent aging of the cardiovascular system.” The benefits of a youthful heart pay large dividends for us both emotionally and physically, in terms of our outlook on life and ability to get up and go!

This same week, New York Times ran an article that looked at weight and overall health. (”Can You Be Overweight and Still Be Healthy?” by Gretchen Reynolds). While most of us would like to believe that good health is still possible in spite of the few extra pounds we might have put on over the years, the evidence is to the contrary. The studies, which focused primarily on men, concluded that “although being fat and having healthy blood work puts you at less risk of cardiac disease than someone who is thin and has lousy metabolic parameters, the extra pounds still leave you with at least a 50 percent greater risk of developing heart disease.” Professional football players are a good example of the combination of bulk and brawn. Although we may think their great conditioning protects them from the excess pounds that are their power and strength, research shows the metabolic dangers this elite group suffers for their chosen career.

Women do not fare much better, according to another study. “Women with a higher B.M.I. (body mass index), even if they were active, had an elevated risk of coronary heart disease compared with women engaging in an equal amount of activity who were normal weight. Being fit, for the thousands of women under consideration here, lessened but did not fully mitigate the health problems associated with being fat.” Reynolds goes on to explore the complex relationship between fitness and extra pounds. “Being overweight, even if you have sterling blood-cholesterol levels or a firm commitment to exercise, does increase your risk of heart disease, and you should probably try to lose the extra pounds.” Here the message has changed from the above: exercise and activity are not enough; maintaining ideal weight must be part of the plan. It’s easy to think that if one’s exercise level is above average, the other markers (like blood cholesterol or high blood sugar levels) will be balanced out and care of. We pick and choose the info we hear or ignore, but we do so at our own risk.

The second WSJ article on the subject (”Why You Should Step Up Your Workout” by Kevin Helliker), describes the work of Doctor Paul Williams. An avid runner, Dr. Williams used a Runner’s World magazine subscription list to create a database of 55,000 runners (which by now has grown to over 100,000). His research is easy to sum up: the key is “more.” “An early study … found that male distance runners gained weight with age unless they added mileage. Two others, one published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996, found that risk factors for coronary heart disease steadily improved with greater doses of exercise, up to 50 miles per week. Too few runners surpassed that number to determine whether such improvements would have continued, says Dr. Williams.”

Wow! This is an awfully intimidating message for sedentary people who’ve been thinking of starting an exercise program. And it’s precisely for this reason that other doctors and cardiologists resist including Dr. Williams and his work as part of the public health plan. The Helliker article mentions the “fragile motivation to exercise” that may characterize the mindset of those wanting to transition from sedentary to active. At some point most of us would say “enough is enough, already!” and give up on the idea of improving our lives with exercise if it seems impossible to ever be successful.

But what was missing from all of these examples was the idea of combining a better diet with increased physical activity. From the articles and information reviewed in past newsletters, we know that diet, especially the plant strong diet, can reverse weight gain and rejuvenate the heart muscles. (And by the way, Dr. Williams’ research also reaffirms the strong link between exercise and reducing the risks of stroke, heart attack, glaucoma, diabetes: “There is no gene or drug discovery that comes close.”)

Ideally, when the topic is optimum health, exercise and diet should be discussed together — and by “diet” I mean more than reducing the number of calories consumed in an average day. It is the quality of the natural nutrients and fiber contained in the food we eat that matter as much, if not more, than how many calories per serving. What real benefit is there in a long work out followed by greasy pizza and chocolate chip cookies?

In past newsletters, we’ve looked at taking control of what we eat by cooking more and eating out less. Cooking requires more time, it’s true. (Maybe we can cook and exercise at the same time? Watch for the next self-help video series: “Vigorous Cooking!”) I don’t have the answer to finding more time in busy lives, but I do count myself as blessed: the flexibility of my profession, my interest in cooking and food and my enjoyment of exercise and physical activity help me make time for all of the above. That is to say, because all are a source of enjoyment, I find the time. And the solution could be as simple as planning and scheduling — cook on the days that you don’t exercise! I know I simplify dinner if I am returning late from a long bike ride. And maybe the key here is to find those activities that are truly fun even if they can’t be measured in miles per week. Dancing, gardening and plain walking are not competitive, powerful cardio activities, but they do burn calories, stretch muscles and foster the sense of well being. And when we combine these activities with a good diet that regenerates the coronary system, the youthful heart is not so difficult to find.

It’s strange to read articles that recommend either diet or exercise, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Some doctors may be reluctant to recommend exercise if they think their patients will begin too exuberantly and create more damage than good. And in the case of diet, too few doctors have studied nutrition; they may hesitate to go beyond their sphere of expertise, feeling that diet is more a question of public health than their specific discipline. In this light, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s (a phyician I’ve cited in previous newsletters) move from heart surgeon to nutritional enthusiastic is even more admirable. Dr. Esselsyn’s son, Rip, has followed the nutritional path and written Engine 2 Diet, and he is a spokesperson for Whole Foods Market’s plant strong dietary initiative as well as being an accomplished triathlete.

The articles in the WSJ and NYT will not move many people from the couch to the bike spin class at the gym. And they shouldn’t. Abrupt changes can result in injuries or worse and permanently damage that “fragile motivation.” However, the spark of knowledge, awareness, and self reflection may motivate more walking, gardening, dance classes and fun. All are purposeful first steps. They may also lead to more cooking and to a less meat-heavy diet. Small changes prepare the mind and body for more momentous things.

Two Heroes of the Month for this shortest month of the year! The first is a friend I caught up with in January who told me that he’d joined Alcoholics Anonymous. In his words: “I didn’t have a drinking problem; I had a behavioral problem.” Hats off to him and all who find the strength to initiate change!

The second is nutritional yeast (not to be confused with brewer’s yeast). This super food is a phenomenal source of the B-Vitamin complex. It has a nutty, savory flavor reminiscent of rich chicken broth and adds a layer of complexity to sauces, soups, and dressings. Moreover, as a fermented food, it tickles the umami taste receptor. Our family uses it on salads and pasta as a great replacement for Parmesan cheese. And while I prefer my popcorn plain, the rest of the family insists on eating it with nutritional yeast — if you haven’t tried it yourself, get some now! (It’s available at most natural foods stores, usually sold in the bulk section.)

It’s curious to me that we so often give up on our resolutions so quickly, because following through any self-improvement resolution makes us feel so good. We like challenges and we like to succeed. We feel good as long as we follow the path and meet our objectives. Yet making lasting changes and true transformations is difficult to do. Past habits, long set ways of doing things and a status quo mindset are not easily broken.

Along with new exercise programs, the New Year often inspires new dietary resolutions — my wife waited until January 1 to join my daughter and me in our plant strong diet. Aside from losing weight or feeling healthier, the food choices we make have impact in other, less obvious, ways — not only on us personally, but also the rest of society. I think the New Year is a good time to reflect on these wider implications and the possibility for change, too.

One of 2009’s best books was James McWilliams Just Food. In it, McWilliams explores the options for sustainable agriculture in the 21st century. He looks very critically at the locavore movement. A strong supporter of organic farming, McWilliams is not afraid to examine its limitations and the implications of lower yielding farming. He looks at what genetically modified seeds have been able to deliver in terms of higher yields and lower use of herbicides and pesticides. But he also shows that much of their great potential to generate more efficient use of fertilizer and plant survivability under drought conditions has yet to be delivered. McWilliams’ harshest criticism is reserved for our government’s subsidy of corn, saying its elimination would go a long way toward helping sort out what our nation should grow, how much we should grow and where it should be grown. Given the heavy influence of Iowa in the early presidential primaries, however, I doubt I’ll ever see sufficient political resolve to eliminate this distortion of our natural resources and national finances. Nonetheless, the book presents a great overview of our agriculture system and its ability to deliver healthy, nutritious food in a sustainable manner. And fittingly, the book provides some hopeful notes in the last chapters. I read with great excitement about emerging opportunities for aquaculture and its ability to raise tons of tilapia and greens on a very few acres.

The point of the McWilliams book is to identify a sustainable way of eating: “just food” is food that comes from an agricultural system “we can rightly associate with the justice of sustainability.” This focus on justice has made me examine the moral component of food, and who decides the moral parameters. Would there be such a thing as a virtuous diet that follows from the moral component? Is a moral component to food and diet an effective way to improve diet and nutrition? Does it matter that I may be saving the planet by eating kale when others are enjoying their corn-fed beef fajitas and undermining all my efforts? I’m not totally comfortable thinking in these terms and I question the success of a moralistic approach to diet.

Consider for a moment the ways our American culture intersects food with religion. As a Catholic, I grew up with meatless Fridays. When this restriction ended, my two brothers and five sisters were quite happy to say goodbye to fish sticks and grilled peanut butter sandwiches. The good news was that my mother used no-meat days to introduce us to artichokes, and thus at an early age I discovered the joys of unveiling the artichoke heart, and how rewarding it was to scrape all those boring leaves with our teeth and cut away those annoying bristles to reach the elusive heart. Jewish dietary laws still define the lives of many Americans and many more Israelis. Muslims fast during Ramadan and avoid pork and alcohol. A virtuous life has meant and continues to mean following these dietary restrictions for many of us. In this sense there is definitely a virtuous diet, but my own religious background makes me very skeptical of rules that use moral injunctions to limit freedoms.

Some vegetarians and vegans make diet an organizing principal of life, and in this sense diet quickly crosses over into the sphere of religion and morals. The issue of animal rights and their inhumane treatment in confined feeding operations is drawing more and more criticism and has been compared by some authors to the horrors of the exploitation of slaves. Michael Pollan examined this issue carefully in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and I urge you to check out his book, as well as Jonathan Foer’s Eating Animals, for a much fuller examination of this question than I can provide in this short newsletter. I will admit that following a vegan diet for health reasons has made it possible for me to sidestep this moral issue, and in many ways, I feel less than courageous in my stance.

Food is one issue that unites us and divides us. I was a vegetarian during much of my young adulthood and came back to meat because I was so often embarrassed and reluctant to tell a host that I couldn’t eat the food that they were offering. I didn’t want food to interfere with their generosity and friendship, especially when I was living abroad. These days, we are much more aware of how important diet is in everyone’s lives and how diet is becoming an expression of our approach to life, and it is pretty normal to check in with people regarding any dietary issues before planning a menu. In the case of large gatherings like Thanksgiving, omnivores (at least here in Austin) almost always make certain that there are adequate vegan and vegetarian options. The amazing thing about food is its role as the center of and the creator of community. It would be wonderful if we never lose sight of this key role for food.

With the discussion of sustainability (and who can argue against making life sustainable?) diet has taken on yet another moral dimension. Inevitably we as individuals choose how we are going to eat and what we are going to eat, even if our early food patterns are established before conscious choice comes into play. As kids we pretty much obediently eat what is placed in front of us. As we grow up and our tastes broaden, our relationship with food also evolves into a utilitarian attitude. Food is fuel, and we seek as much of it as we can find to fill up the tank, often as inexpensively as possible. The change in the food mindset or food attitude may undergo significant transformation as we connect with different social groups, discover different ways and things to eat, or work in an early food-related establishment, like a restaurant or bakery, where a whole new door opens for us. A significant partner who’s gone through a food reevaluation can opens one’s eyes; in my case, it was a first serious love interest who gave me the joy of baking. I joke with my 15-year old that his anti-vegan views will change when he falls in love with a vegan. And as we age, diet becomes a health factor, especially when we are told that unless we change what we eat, we will suffer serious consequences. There are myriad reasons our food choices change, but one true thing is certain: they are seldom fixed for life.

Because food is so personal, many of the best-intentioned educational programs (such as the food pyramid) never gain traction. Diets intrude on choice, and any time choice is restricted, individualism pushes back and resists. I know that it does in my case. It doesn’t matter how rational and well-meaning the information and recommendations are if they interfere with personal choice. Because government programs like the food pyramid over-rely on education and information, they are probably condemned to irrelevance and perpetual indifference on the part of the general public. And due to this same resistance to changes, so many New Year’s dietary resolutions never get very far.

Consider smoking: in their early days, cigarettes were regarded as almost strictly a health issue, with very few moral implications. Initially, there was very little headway gained in lowering the percentage of people who smoked. The warning labels on packages were printed for years. The negative effects of smoking were well known. The individual’s economic cost of smoking kept increasing as sin taxes were imposed. But it was only when non-smokers gained the right to smoke-free environments and smokers were exiled from buildings that change gathered momentum. Under the pressure of exile and being made into social pariahs, many smokers capitulated and quit. Given the many illnesses and early deaths that smoking caused, this has been a very welcome transformation, even if the individual rights of smokers were infringed or trampled, in their own view.

The dangers and implications of dietary neglect are not that dissimilar. The health costs of diabetes are going to triple in 25 years to $336 billion annually according to the journal Diabetes Care (as reported in Bloomberg News). Diabetes (to single out just one chronic disease) is preventable and responds well to dietary intervention. Still, we are a long way from laws creating sugar-free, fat free or heart healthy zones to force change in the eating culture. Yet will the healthy continue to willingly pay for those who refuse to change their eating habits? Perhaps more ominous, will coming generations be able to fund their own healthcare as well as support the care of the aging population that suffers from diet induced chronic diseases? No one can predict the future and attitudes of the population. It may well be that the totality of the arguments for animal rights, public health, ecology and sustainable agriculture will sway enough people and create enough momentum to achieve the conclusions of Just Food: treat beef and grain fed animals as a costly delicacy rather than the every-day choice.

So where does this leave us with the New Year and new diets? Is this the year to cut back on beef and to increase vegetables? I would urge everyone to look at what is in your self interest. If you want to find a diet that furthers the goal of sustainable agriculture and protects the environment, by all means explore the less meat and no-meat options. It’s very easy to experience the positive effects a plant stronger diet adds to your life. Health careful dieting promises better weight control, more energy (since less weight will be schlepped around), more colorful eating as the richness of the vegetable world is experienced, and more adventuresome eating as new textures, tastes and sensations are explored. One of the real pleasures of dietary change is that there are so many foods that can be gained — like the artichoke hearts of my youth — and a new diet can be more about abundance than about deprivation. And in the work place, where many of us spend 1/3 of our lives, companies are waking up to diet and health and creating employee incentive plans to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass in order to promote wellness. New companies, like The Full Yield, are emerging to offer foods and plans for making these transformations easier for employees, and in this sense the work place is taking the lead to isolate poor dietary choices, much as smoking was banned.

Dietary change on a society-wide basis will not happen quickly, Diet remains an individual choice and the best results come from individuals freely choosing. It is up to each of us to personally decide whether to follow our self interest or the greater good of society as a whole. And if you do change, take moderate steps to create the momentum of success. And happy are the choices when self interest and the general good coincide.

Have a health careful 2010.

In previous newsletters, we considered the negative impact on good health of constant snacking, takeout and fast food; these are the villains in our personal reality diet show. (Restaurant sales are down, so the oversized restaurant portions are “off the plate” for now.) But the connection to healthier cooking is still missing.

Buying, preparing, and consuming unprocessed or minimally processed food is the best way to save money and improve the diet. The savings are even more dramatic for those of us who have made the switch to a plant strong diet. In its endorsement of this approach to eating, Whole Foods Market figures that the average person would spend around $200 per month (less than $7 per day per person) to eat “plant strong,” that is, to switch out concentrated animal proteins for whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. And although home-prepared, plant strong meals require a bit of an investment of time, with a little planning, it’s not that hard to do. (More on this later.)

In its November 1st article, the WSJ recommended a few ways to keep your wallet fat and your waist thin (my notes in italicized parentheses):

The common theme in these recommendations can be summed up like so: spend more time planning what and when you will eat. “Planning” sounds like work, and to some of us, it is. But if you think of it as a skill rather than a chore, it’s easier to do, and once you’ve mastered it, it’s very rewarding to experience. Rewarding both for the waist and the wallet.

Writing weekly menus is one way to do this. It removes the stress of the daily food prep and organizes your grocery shopping at the same time. (Check the web, there are lots of how-to plan guides). Using a list when you shop for food means less spontaneity, but also usually results in better food choices and more room for our favorite good-for-us foods. Filling the pantry with staples such as whole grain pasta, tomato sauces or canned tomatoes, healthy soups, precooked beans and whole grain rice may cost more initially as we build the inventory, but it also means more flexibility in preparing food and executing the plan. Putting a plan together for the week can be an interactive family activity that happens during a meal, and it is a good time to review what’s working in the diet, what pleases the palate and where more experimentation is needed.

What about planning a waist-and-wallet-friendly diet as a single person? I can’t remember that far back, but I think the same basic rules apply: avoid junk food and learn to cook. It may mean more salads, stir frys and smoothies, but there is no downside to creating a personal eating plan.

According to Harry Balzer, the single greatest impediment to improving our diets is our reluctance to spend more time in the kitchen. I’d like to address the time issue by using myself as an example, and describing how I plan, spend, and utilize the time it takes to cook dinner for my family of five. If we understand the time involved, and how little it really is, I think that it is much easier to make the commitment to it.

I cook dinner almost every night, and I find that an hour is about the time it takes to unwind, get things ready, cook and serve. (Despite the WSJ’s advice, I’m not certain that there are too many 10-minute recipes to be found that go much beyond peanut butter and jelly or the very quick tortilla wrap. Between 25 and 60 minutes is a more reasonable expectation when it comes to preparing a healthy and nutritious meal.)

The easiest meals are any of the hundreds of whole grain pasta dishes. Step number one for pasta, as I learned listening to National Public Radio, is fill a pot of water and place it on the stove to boil, which anyone can do. While you’re waiting for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, get busy on steps two and three: sauce and side dish. When it comes to the sauce, the sky’s the limit–unleash your creativity and use ingredients you love. (I always open a can of some kind of beans (Canellinni is my favorite) to add protein, flavor and body to my pasta sauce.) In the meantime, I usually organize a green salad, and if I have whole grain bread on hand, then I’ve got a healthy, filling meal, with fruit for dessert is always an option. I always try to make enough so there will be leftovers for lunch the next day. (This just happens to be a vegan dinner — for more wholly satisfying vegan ideas, check Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Diet.)

Another anchor ingredient for a typical dinner at my house is brown rice, which takes about an hour to cook from start to finish. While the rice is cooking, there’s plenty of time to prepare the accompanying greens and/or vegetables. For variety, check out all the curry and Indian simmer sauces that can open new gastronomic adventures.

I like the WSJ suggestion of making multiple portions; I’d go one further and suggest creating a basic soup that can morph into 2 or 3 stews and soups. During the week, the crockpot works perfectly — put the ingredients in the morning, and the soup/stew is ready in the evening. My favorite soup stock is a combination of lentils, split peas, other beans, potatoes and winter squash, all foods that add protein, colors and textures. To this basic soup or stew, I add vegetables such as spinach or chard to create one soup; I add an Indian curry simmer sauce and more beans to create another. (Sausage is a wonderful memory of my omnivore days.) There is no limit, all can be accomplished without a huge investment of time. All you have to do is plan ahead!

As Bunny noted last month, it’s rarely possible to change our lives immediately. I would recommend making a New Year’s vow of cooking 2 more meals every week. And in the spirit of planning, I’m suggesting this in December instead of waiting for January, 2010!

We’ve all got an eating gene that makes us want more food, it’s the cooking gene that needs to be discovered and developed. We truly need to look at cooking as a learned skill, one that takes practice.

For anyone who wants to get more involved with home baking, check out our new website: breadhealthy.com. I’ve been experimenting with some exciting new whole grain recipes that are both waist and wallet friendly. We don’t do any quick breads at BreadHealthy; it’s very much slow food and slow bread — and by the way, both of my kids love the hearty, whole grain flatbreads!

By contrast, my wife and I went to a Thai restaurant in Austin last week. As we read the menu, we noticed the table next to us was served two portions of multi-hued, whole grain rice in place of white rice. We ordered the same. And when the server brought the rice, I asked what percentage of customers ordered whole grain rice. She estimated 60% of customers now specified brown rice, despite the price being $1 more. It’s gratifying and encouraging that even though there’s nothing more traditional than a mound of snowy white rice served alongside a bowl of spicy Thai soup, the information about the health benefits of whole grains can indeed influence both patrons and restaurant owners. Shift happens most often when consumer awareness meets good and tasty alternatives.

One of my friends who successfully changed her life freely admits she had had an addiction to food since she was 12. Food obsessed her and she paid for it, ballooning to as much as 220 lbs over her present weight. This friend, Bunny Dimmel, (see bunnydiet.com) has helped me understand how difficult it is to escape from our culture of wrong food and excessive food. In one of her newsletters, Bunny writes about success and failure. She points out we generally eat three times per day, not including snacks. These are three opportunities to succeed or three opportunities to fail, at least 21 chances every week. A baseball player approaches greatness if he can hit the ball successfully 3 out of 10 attempts. Bunny aims higher when it comes to making good food choices. Because changing personal and cultural patterns is by no means easy, we face relentless pressure from the marketers and media. We are saying no to addictions to sugar, fats and salt, all of which weaken will power and undermine success.

Here’s an excerpt from Bunny:

Bunny talks about the societal pressure to “eat, drink and be merry,” which is never more present than the holiday season. Starting with Halloween, tag-teaming through the winter holiday celebrations up to and including New Year’s Eve, the opportunity to indulge in, if not binge on, sugary treats is almost everywhere.

Did you know the average American eats 14 tablespoons of sugar every day? That’s the equivalent of a 5-pound bag of sugar every two weeks. A single 20-ounce soft drink contains an astounding 8 tablespoons of sugar—imagine adding 8 spoonfuls of sugar to a glass of iced tea or coffee! Even more frightening is the fact that soft drinks and soda account for as much as 15% of the average adolescent’s daily calories. No wonder that the cost of treating diabetes has doubled in the past decade! This has an impact of nearly every system in the body—contributing not only to overweight, but diseases of the blood and bones as well.

There are some simple ways to cut back on weekly sugar consumption, starting with choosing unsweetened beverages, and then not adding sugar to them. You might guess I’m not advocating artificial sweeteners here—some studies show they actually can run havoc on our metabolic system and contribute to a continued addiction to sweet flavors. Better to reeducate the palate, and if not totally eliminate, then greatly reduce sweet foods and drinks from our diets. For example, as an alternative to heavily sweetened pastries or muffins to start your day, try whole grain breads or Dr. Kracker flatbreads in the morning. Learn to read labels carefully. The ingredients list must indicate the relative percentage of sugar or high fructose corn syrup in the product, and the nutritional panel declares the amount of sugar per serving. Verify that the serving size is credible; a 20-oz bottle of soda is not realistically 2.5 servings. Note that many prepared sauces and spreads have sugar as a principal ingredient. Since we are not going to go 10 for 10 and bat 1000, choose carefully which sugar you eat.

Above all, food should not be about deprivation or suffering. Aspiring to a healthier lifestyle should increase one’s appreciation for flavors and textures of foods, not stifle them. To Bunny’s point, creating a health careful lifestyle doesn’t mean having to swear off sweet, high-calorie foods for the rest of our lives. It means limiting them to a healthy percentage of the total of what we eat, so that, like a great baseball player, we’re successful at least three out of every ten times at bat.

Thank you, Bunny, for adding such valuable personal insight to the Doctor’s newsletter.

The Heroes of the Month for November are all the dieticians, journalists, bloggers and gadflies who exposed the so-called “Smart Choice” campaign as the marketing-based nutritional hooey it really was. The claim that Fruit Loops and other sugar-laden breakfast cereals were “Smart Choice” foods for kids was not only stupid, it was malicious. Thanks to our heroes, the hoax is dead. Good job, folks!

We all want to believe that given the right information, consumers, as rational human beings, will make better decisions. So what is going on here?

HartBeat goes on:

During World War II, when much of the domestically produced beef and pork was being purchased by the government for our troops and the allied war effort, the federal government attempted to persuade U.S. consumers to return to eating more organ meat (such as beef hearts, kidneys and liver), cuts that had been abandoned as the prices of “better” beef and other meats became more affordable. Since no other meat was available during the war, this effort to change eating culture met with only very short-term success. When the war ended, people went back to their old, but now new, eating habits.

Some of the detrimental elements of our “eating culture” today include:

• Snacking on foods high in sugars and fats instead of eating balanced meals
• Eating prepared foods rather than cooking meals at home
• The huge portions customarily served in restaurants
• Fast food as a frequent choice
• Diets that emphasize high protein/low-carb (such as Atkins), rather than veggies and whole grains

These trends enable obesity, give us heart disease, and in general make us unwell. Shift happens; the questions are how, when, and why?

Snacking

I don’t see us as a culture abandoning snacking any time soon. And while it’s true that more and more whole grain snacks are available today, many of them depend on excessive salt or fat for flavor, which virtually negates their health benefits. (We’re doing our part to offer a wholly healthy whole grain snack with the Dr. Kracker Snacker Kracker). If parents bought more whole grain products that don’t contain these added fats and salt, and accustomed their kids to prefer whole grain to refined white flour, coming generations will be part of a whole grain culture.

Lest you think creating a whole grain culture is not possible, consider this: in Denmark more than 80 percent of the citizenry eat the heavy black rye bread that so intrigues me as a baker. This whole grain rye is an iconic food of their culture. In Mexico, the segment of the population for whom beans and whole grain corn tortillas are the heart of the diet are lean. So it’s possible for families to raise children who crave and continue to eat whole grain foods. Interestingly, I can’t think of a single iconic health food (like Danish black bread or whole grain corn tortillas) that is a staple of our culture. (Sliced bread, hot dogs and apple pie don’t exactly qualify.) Why did each ethnic group who brought these iconic foods to our country abandon them in favor of the standard American fare of sugar, refined flour and fat? I don’t know, but I do know this: the taste we have developed for unhealthy foods and the way we snack on them with abandon is the single biggest obstacle to tackling dietary disease in our culture. And correcting that taste is something best done by every child’s mom and dad, by offering these foods when their kids are young, keeping them in the house, and making them part of the fond food memories that become cornerstones of our food culture.

Eating Prepared Foods Instead of Cooking

While snacking leads to excess caloric intake, our new dependence on foods prepared outside the kitchen makes healthy eating more challenging. Prepared foods offer more variety than the typical fast food, but they don’t always offer less fat and sodium, or more fiber and whole grains. Perhaps our current economic recession will lead people to switch to shopping for ingredients instead of paying extra money for the convenience of having someone else prepare their meals.

Why don’t more people cook at home? We seem to esteem the activity. Cooking shows are drawing record audiences, and oodles of tapes and photos are available on YouTube, Squidoo and foodie blogs and websites. Cooking is empowering. We can choose ingredients and recipes that we prepare, make exactly what we want to eat exactly the way we like it.

When the information on better food choices is combined with skills to cook better food, some shift will happen. In Austin, we need to look no further than our hometown favorite Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods is adapting its food message to emphasize more vegetables, legumes and whole grains; it’s promoting a plant strong diet as one of its new “healthy eating” programs which will offer corresponding classes in the stores, along with designated Healthy Eating information areas within the store. But again, the best opportunity to shift a cultural attitude is to teach and expose young children to cooking at home and freshly prepared meals become collectively woven into fond childhood memories.

Restaurant Portions

Large portions in restaurants promote obesity. It’s gotten to the point where people expect to stuff themselves to capacity for the money they pay. Some restaurant chains tried serving smaller portions in response to health criticisms, but customers accustomed to large portions criticized the value of the meal and the restaurants had to go back to super sizes to compete. So it’s up to consumers to modify how much they eat in one sitting. When my wife and I go out to eat, we often split an entrée, since neither of us can finish an oversized portion. It took some thought on our parts to make this change, and some discipline, but we quickly enjoyed the feeling of satiation over bloating.

Fast Food

Fast food is a major source of refined calories, excessive sodium and fats in the American diet. It distinguishes the American diet from all other World Cuisines. Genuinely unhealthy, yes, but fast food’s convenience and price are impossible to ignore, and they keep consumers coming back for more. Though these cheap calories may fill our bellies, long-term, they’re ruining our health (and our environment, too, which is a whole other topic). To add to the insidious nature of this market segment, in the lowest income neighborhoods in our larger urban areas, there are often no conveniently located supermarkets or corner stores where fresh produce can be purchased, yet fast food restaurants abound. When we consider that food cost has gone from 20 percent of the average household budget 40 years ago to less than 10 percent of that budget today, whereas health care has gone from about 4 percent up to a current 17 percent, we shouldn’t be surprised at the relationship between inexpensive calories and poor health. But perhaps we should be angry.

High Protein Diets

High protein diets work short term. People lose weight, and get the results they want quickly. Moreover, the beef, pork and chicken trade groups and the Dairy Council all make their living by convincing Americans to consume more concentrated proteins. Not to mention the fact that television viewers, especially of sports events, are bombarded relentlessly with tantalizing commercials featuring sizzling meats and cheesy dishes. A return to low protein eating may not happen until the link between concentrated protein and debilitating disease is further established. The fear of death can change how we act very quickly.

There’s no easy answer to rethinking our eating so that we make more time to prepare and to eat better food. Changes in choices like this are dependent on each individual, as well as an overall cultural acceptance of the benefits of eating fresh, authentic foods.

So what can we do to make shift happen? It would seem that learning to cook new foods and putting the knowledge that we have into the food on our dinner plates will be an important first step to changing our eating culture and with it our health. (Popular culture may be able to play a role too, Who knows, maybe the new movie Julie and Julia will inspire a new generation of cooks!)

But beyond food as art, food as fun, and food as comfort, we need, as a culture, to develop a respect and awareness for food that reverses our current disconnect between what we eat and how fat and unhealthy we are becoming. When we make associations between what we eat and our wellness, when we learn, as a society to recognize how the different vitamins, minerals, proteins and fibers contained in natural amounts in natural foods are necessary to good health and interdependent in their efficacy, we cannot help but shift our attitude, habits, and behavior around eating. Many writers describe the multiple ways that a meal shared together with friends and family fosters physical, mental and spiritual health. We need to foster health on all levels!

We can hope books such as the China Study by T. Collin Campbell reach larger readership. I can’t recommend this one highly enough. Much of Whole Foods’s new emphasis on vegan eating is based on the conclusions of China Study.

My October hero is one of our brokers, Gerald, who has lost 30 lbs since May. He and his wife joined Weight Watchers, and Gerald stopped eating fast food. Congrats, Gerald!

September will be Whole Grains Month, and I wanted to highlight the major contribution that the Whole Grains Council has made in setting standards for those of us that bake and cook with whole grains. The Whole Grains Council is a source that you can trust when it comes to whole grains.

The Whole Grains Council is part of Oldways, a non-profit “food issues think tank.” When WGC began, there weren’t (and as far as I know there still aren’t) standards that define what whole grain food is. The absolute truth of a product remains in the ingredients panel, but labeling and marketing messages are left to the creative whim of the marketing folks. When WGC established the Whole Grains Stamp, this was an important first step was taken to eliminate the confusion of reading labels and evaluating nutritional panels. To be certified to use the Stamp, a product has to contribute at least half a serving (8g) to the three servings or more of whole grains we’re all supposed to eat daily. Each Stamp has a different number, so you’ll know just how much whole grain it contains, allowing you to factually compare products. The WGC stamp ensures that if the package says “whole grains” then the product will make a significant contribution to your whole grain needs!

What really made me a believer in the Council is their history with the FDA. When the FDA began to zero in on the use of “whole grain” and how best to educate and protect the consumer, the FDA actually met with the WGC and exchanged ideas, resulting in an even stronger Whole Grain Stamp program. The government may, in the future, come up with some very specific standards, but the WGC’s work is always in line with federal scientists and regulators.

What is most impressive about the WGC is its ability to create and popularize a program engaging the respect and participation of millers, bakers and marketers who are signing up to use the stamp. To date, the stamp is on 2,800 products on 4 continents. The list of companies that have joined the Council and who use the Whole Grain Stamp is long and reads like a who’s who in baking. This is a powerful endorsement and validation and has created momentum to shift more recipes to whole grains.

In 2007 the WGC began to focus on foodservice and started a campaign to get customers to urge restaurants to consider expanding the use of whole grains. When I attended the WGC conference this year in DC, I stayed in a small hotel in Alexandria, VA. Hungry the first night, I ordered from the local Chinese restaurant and noticed that this delivery service offered whole grain rice. This is real progress and underscores the success of the WGC lobbying efforts.

September is Whole Grains Month, and the Council has created a number of programs and contests to spur learning and enjoyment of whole grains. Dr. Kracker has already signed up to give out prizes. According to the Whole Grains Council,

As part of this celebration and the prizes, Dr. Kracker has offered storage tins and the Klassic 3 Seed flatbread, winner of the Men’s Health Magazine best cracker award in June, 2009. To learn more about the contest, which runs from August 20 to September 30, 2009, please follow this link: http://wholegrainscouncil.org/get-involved/i-love-my-whole-grains-contest

There is a lot to think about in this NYT article (Dieting Monkeys Offer Hope for Living Longer, by Nicholas Wade, July 9, 2009). “You can have your cake and eat it too” seems like one more invitation to excess and empowers our current over-fed condition. Too much cake has been our undoing in both an economic sense (the credit binge) and in our lack of discipline when it comes to eating.

We all want longevity; that’s pretty much a given. Some of us may attempt the underfeeding route, but choosing emaciation doesn’t seem like such a happy trail; people that starve themselves seem more sick than happy. The tricking of the body is intriguing. The body will think that it is starving (which it is) and decide to shut down some reproductive functions so that the body can survive and reproduce at a later date when the food account is flusher. Good idea, but I know how hard it is to concentrate during the day if I am getting really hungry. Not to mention the fact that I get very cranky. And anything that shifts the body’s focus away from reproduction to tissue maintenance may have some very strange impact on our psyches. Watch for sales of Viagra to sky rocket!

The big question is whether a new “starvation” pill will also fix blood sugar, diabetes, triglyceride and cholesterol levels and heart disease that will come with all the cake we could now enjoy. Would it not be better to revert to the fundamentals of good nutrition and to live health carefully? That would be a diet that is whole grain based, heavily plant biased and light on the animal products. Get plenty of exercise. Simple things like walking more and biking more, especially to work, have been shown to improve the overall health of men. Do these things and you won’t have to worry about body mass index and taking pills. Look for the diet friendly foods and if you don’t cook, make a commitment to cook so that you can control your own diet.

That’s it!

Cholesterol was quickly singled out as the culprit, but the information about cholesterol and diet are complex. First we had to learn the differences between HDL and LDL. What to eat and what not to eat was constantly being challenged and there continues to be a new diet every week, not to mention the contradictory info about carbs, proteins, fiber and low fat.

A great fix was established when our friends in the industrial drug complex developed statins. These drugs are very effective at lowering cholesterol. They offer great hope and tremendous potential to treat cholesterol. The perfect solution. But here is the rub. The cholesterol equation is more complex, and as health careful folks we have to do more than just take statins. It’s still about changing one’s life and doing boring things like exercise. The Wall Street Journal (Giving Weight to the other Cholesterol, by Ron Winslow, June 16, 2009) seems to think so as well.

Once we learned to distinguish between the HDL (good cholesterol) and the LDL (bad cholesterol), the route to health seemed simpler. Just get rid of bad. But I wouldn’t be writing this, if there wasn’t more to it. Statins will also reduce HDL, and if HDL goes too low (below 50 for men and 40 for women), we find ourselves back in the coronary danger zone. And cardiologists are finding a third marker that has been ignored too often: triglycerides. The triglycerides are the chemical form of fats in our foods and in our bodies. Triglycerides in blood should be below 150 if we want to stay heart healthy. Apparently, the triglycerides affect how the bad cholesterol behaves. Elevated triglycerides turn LDL into more nasty, artery clogging cholesterol. This is precisely the danger of just taking statins and thinking that everything will be OK. Cardiologists see too many cases of heart attack patients with low cholesterol levels but elevated triglycerides.

But there is good news. Both triglycerides and LDL cholesterol respond to changes in life style. Eat more fruits and vegetables, avoid refined sugars and flours, limit fatty and fried foods, get more exercise and you will see progress in both areas. What is missing for most of us is the will-power to change our lifestyles. We start with good intentions but the follow through does not happen. Food is both comfort and nourishment, and the food guys, industrial as well as artisan, are great at concocting combos of fat, sugar and white flour that nag at our consciousness, weaken our resolve and beg to be eaten. Learning to say “no” is a long process with enough failures that anyone can become so discouraged that the good intentions totally crumble.

Last month, I took my wife’s car to our trusty mechanic rather than the dealer. This gentlemen, let’s call him Don, is crusty and irascible, but also extremely honest and knowledgeable. He’s in his 50’s like me. His mechanic’s office is the usual collection of trophies, pictures of stock cars and broken down furniture. I hadn’t seen him in a year at least, and I was shocked at how much weight he had lost. I assumed that he had suffered a health setback of some sort. But when I asked, he replied that he had lost the weight on this own initiative, “on purpose.” I asked why, and he said quite bluntly that he didn’t want to die, bed-ridden like his father during the last 5 years of his life. I checked to see what diet he was following, and he said no particular diet – meat maybe every two weeks – but lots of exercise and as little white flour and sugar as possible. Total cholesterol is below 150, even lower than mine, which despite being vegan sticks around 190. This is a guy who clearly recognized the risks, figured out his own program and followed through. The results are tremendously visible. Don is my hero of the month. And maybe health is more simple than we think, when the personal motivation is clear!

Fiber Education

It isn’t often that Kellogg drops a topic into my lap. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the champion of breakfast cereal and the creator of All-Bran and Raisin Bran has a great interest in the subject of fiber. The history of breakfast cereals in Battle Creek, Michigan in general and of Dr. Kellogg specifically is a fascinating look at America in the 19th century, a view of the early links between food and health and provides lots of entertainment. If you have time check out “Porn Flakes: Kellogg, Graham and the Crusade for Moral Fiber” by Carrie McLaren. It is available on the web, and the title alone should grab your interest.

Kellogg’s survey has found confusion about fiber, and of course Kellogg figures to turn that to their advantage:
“The consumer confusion around fiber and whole grains is staggering,” says Nelson Almeida, vice president, global nutrition for Kellogg Company. “Survey results highlight the fact that even people who are trying to improve their diets may be failing to do so because of this confusion.” And further:”Fiber brings big benefits. Yet only five percent of Americans get enough of it,” said nationally recognized dietitian Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, CSSD, LDN. “Confusion about how to find foods with fiber likely contributes to America’s fiber deficit.” Kellogg, according to USA Today, plans to add fiber to most of its cereal line so that by 2010, 80% of the cereals will have 3 grams of fiber per serving. Hopefully, the cereal guys will address the issue of excessive sugar as well.

Dr. Kracker was an early member of the Whole Grains Council, and the Whole Grains stamp is a big part of our marketing strategy. Unfortunately, because no standards regulate their use, the terms “whole grain” and “multi grain” have become empty and misleading. Hence the confusion on the part of consumers. The Whole Grains Council has worked very hard to establish a new, information-rich standard that consumers can trust. The WGC deserves lots of credit for their leadership.

Crackers are one the food categories that has barely begun the conversion to whole grains. But whole grain flour is not enough. Dr. Kracker’s flax, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds add much more significant quantities of both soluble and insoluble fiber than the flour and take Dr. Kracker right to the top of the leader board in any fiber competition. A 1-oz serving of Dr. Kracker provides at least 4 grams of fiber. While I doubt that only 5% of Americans eat enough fiber, I think that we can all agree that there is much room for improvement, and as the Whole Grains Council says: “Make at least half of your grains whole grains.” We are part of this mission.

Be careful of scams!

Driving, I was listening to sports talk radio and heard the marvelous promise of Ever Cleanse. Ever Cleanse magic crystals absolutely promise to dissolve and remove the 20 to 25 lbs of fat trapped in the walls of the colon. Drink this and watch the flabby belly melt away! Maybe even that twinkie that you ate 20 years ago will finally be expelled! Right. There are no magic bullets, powders or pills. And there are certainly not pounds of fat and toxins trapped in the body just waiting to be flushed out of some locked gate. Eat great food and don’t overeat. Respect your body and be careful of those charlatans who want to separate you from the money. If you do feel the need to do something, then invest in better food such as whole grains and whole foods!

My power breakfast tip: cooked brown rice and barley. Squeeze a lemon or lime or both. Top with 2 T’s of nutritional yeast. Add some pumpkin seeds or some chopped pickles. This will get you going and keep you going!

“I’m looking for nutritionists and RDs to respond. My piece is on foods that prevent disease. I’m not looking for general categories of foods but specific examples of foods that prevent a particular disease, based on a research study. Preferably these examples will be based on some recent research. For example, recent data show that apple juice can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. This is for a requested proposal. Thanks!”

Michael Pollan and T. Colin Campbell have both pointed out that food is a complex biochemical wonder, and that it is completely wrong-headed to take an aspirin-like approach to it (take two and your symptoms will disappear!) I’d even go so far as to say that in general, supplements that isolate specific vitamins and nutrients over-promise and under-deliver. Research consistently shows that few supplements and vitamins really work to the advertised degree, yet most of us still buy them “just to be on the safe side.”

In truth, the best approach to food and disease is to have a whole grain, whole food-based diet, preferably with lots of different colored vegetables and fruits. Forget the rest. Ultimately, your health and your pocketbook will be better off for it.