Real Food Part 9

In the nineteenth century, a patriotic French chemist, who had already earned gold medals for making bread with less flour, invented margarine. A cattle plague having recently devastated European herds, "b.u.t.ter was difficult to get and expensive," writes Margaret Visser in Much Depends on Dinner. Napoleon III offered a prize for the invention of a cheaper subst.i.tute for b.u.t.ter. Tinkering on the imperial farm in Vincennes, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries won the prize in 1869, for his blend of beef fat and sheep stomach, with added milk for flavor.

This inexpensive, solid fat- known in English as oleomargarine- was taken up by the Dutch and English poor, who, like other European peasants, couldn't afford b.u.t.ter. When the first U.S. oleomargarine plant opened in Manhattan in the 1870s, Americans, blessed with ample green pastures, were in a better position: there was still plenty of b.u.t.ter to be had. Although the Chicago-based meatpacking industry doggedly promoted oleomargarine as a cheaper subst.i.tute for b.u.t.ter, the unappealing white blocks were not an overnight success with American cooks.

Dairy farmers, however, rightly saw a long-term commercial threat from this less expensive upstart and began to lobby furiously for laws to restrict margarine sales. For example, they stopped it from ever being called "b.u.t.ter." Margarine makers fought back, proposing, quite sensibly, to dye margarine yellow to make it look like b.u.t.ter. Color had always been the buyer's clue to b.u.t.ter quality. Gra.s.s-fed b.u.t.ter, rich in vitamin A, is yellow, while b.u.t.ter from grain-fed cows is white.

With the help of friendly politicians, dairy farmers put a stop to yellow dye, and five states with dairy muscle even forced margarine makers to dye it pink, apparently intending to make it look ridiculous. Undeterred, margarine makers responded by selling the white blocks with a packet of yellow dye to mix in at home. This, presumably, would fool the family- if not the cook.

"On the whole," writes Visser, "the producers of b.u.t.ter fought a very dirty fight." But in vain. After a series of skirmishes, the dairy industry gradually lost clout, while the power of margarine manufacturers grew. By 1950, President Harry Truman had repealed the last of the antimargarine laws, and punis.h.i.+ng taxes on margarine were lifted. The modern margarine business was off and running.

Meanwhile, a revolutionary method for making solid fats was soon to transform the margarine industry, according to the food writer Linda Joyce Forristal, who is famous for lard pie crusts and better known as Mother Linda.2 In the late 1890s, the soap and candle company Proctor & Gamble was fed up with the high price of lard and tallow- the market was controlled by the powerful meatpacking industry- and began to look for alternatives. It settled on cottonseed oil and in cla.s.sic capitalist fas.h.i.+on soon owned eight cottonseed plants in Mississippi, the better to secure its supply. In 1907, company scientists figured out how to make liquid oil solid by firing it with hydrogen. "Mindful that electrification was forcing the candle business into decline, P&G looked for other markets for their new product," explains Forristal. "Since hydrogenated cottonseed oil resembled lard, why not sell it as a food?"

Introduced in 1911, the new product was presented as healthier, cheaper, and cleaner than b.u.t.ter and lard. Proctor &c Gamble promoted the spreadable white vegetable fat in women's magazines and gave away a cookbook with 615 recipes calling for its brand name: Crisco. The marketing department spent time on Jewish cooks in particular. Crisco made it easier to keep kosher because it was like b.u.t.ter but could be eaten with meats, and it was also a subst.i.tute for lard.

Then, in the 1950s, came another fillip for plucky, can't-knock-me-down margarine: official advice that saturated fats were unhealthy. The makers of Crisco and the vegetable oil industry worked to spread the word that animal fats caused heart disease. Food companies and restaurants came under pressure to stop using coconut oil, b.u.t.ter, and lard. With hydrogenation, the vegetable oil industry could offer what seemed to be the ideal fat: polyunsaturated, yet solid and shelf-stable. And that, dear reader, is how trans fats pushed lard and b.u.t.ter out of American kitchens.

A RECIPE FOR MARGARINE.

Begin with a polyunsaturated, liquid vegetable oil rancid from extraction under high heat. Any oil will do, but about 85 percent of hydrogenated oils are soybean. Mix with tiny metal particles, usually nickel oxide. In a high-pressure, high-temperature reactor, shoot hydrogen atoms at the unsaturated carbon bonds. Add soaplike emulsifiers and starch to make it soft and creamy. Steam to remove foul odors, bleach away the gray color, dye it yellow, and add artificial flavors. If you prefer real food, but you like a soft spread, try this idea from Fran McCullough: mix equal parts room-temperature b.u.t.ter and olive oil until creamy. Add unrefined salt to taste.

As we now know, the experiment with margarine ended badly, spectacularly so. Trans fats wreak havoc all over the body, and for a long time, these dangerous fats were hard to detect. Nutrition labels listed saturated and unsaturated fats, but the careful consumer had to read the ingredient list for "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oils to avoid trans fats. In 2006, things got easier, when the FDA required food labels to list trans fats. "The minute it goes on the label, it's out of the food supply," said Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University. "That's how food policy is done in this country."

How Fake b.u.t.ter Causes Heart Disease.

[Trans fats are the] biggest food-processing disaster in U.S. history . . . In Europe [food companies] hired chemists and took trans fats out . . . In the United States, they hired lawyers and public relations people.

-Professor Walter Willett, Harvard School of Public Health.

IN THE LAST CENTURY, the American diet changed radically, but how it changed might surprise you. Given that heart disease began to be a problem around 1950, you might guess that we eat more saturated fats than in 1900. But in fact we eat less b.u.t.ter, lard, and beef and vastly more polyunsaturated oils now. In another way, however, the a.s.sumption that we eat more "artery-clogging" saturated fats is dead right: today we eat an industrial saturated fat that didn't exist in 1900. Before World War II, Americans ate about 12 grams of trans fats daily, by 1985 as much as 40 grams.3 Since the 1970s, Americans have eaten roughly twice as much margarine as b.u.t.ter. For a major cause of heart disease, look no farther. Lard and b.u.t.ter "aren't public enemy No. 1 anymore," says Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. That designation now belongs to trans fats.

According to Dr. Walter Willett at Harvard, trans fats cause up to one hundred thousand premature deaths annually from heart disease.4 Compared with saturated fat, trans fats raise triglycerides, reduce blood vessel function, and raise lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)), which causes clots and atherosclerosis.5 They raise LDL and reduce HDL. Willett says trans fats are twice as bad for the HDL/LDL ratio as saturated fats. Even experts who are cautious about saturated fat agree that b.u.t.ter is better.

I find it dismaying that the dangers of trans fats were known for sixty years. Weston Price cited 1943 research that b.u.t.ter was better than hydrogenated cottonseed oil. In the 1950s, researchers guessed that hydrogenated vegetable oil led to heart disease.6 Ancel Keys, the proponent of monounsaturated fat, showed in 1961 that hydrogenated corn oil raised triglycerides more than b.u.t.ter.7 Year after year, the bad news piled up.

One dogged researcher, Mary Enig, helped to get the word out. The author of Know Your Fats, Enig waged an often lonely battle. I'm afraid her efforts were not always welcomed with bouquets of roses. In 1978, Enig wrote a scientific paper challenging a government report blaming saturated fat for cancer, in which she pointed out that the data actually showed a link with trans fats. Not long after, "two guys from the Inst.i.tute of Shortening and Edible Oils- the trans fat lobby, basically- visited me, and boy, were they angry," Enig told Gourmet magazine.8 "They said they'd been keeping a careful watch to prevent articles like mine from coming out and didn't know how this horse had gotten out of the barn."

The stakes were high. "We spent lots of time, and lots of money and energy, refuting this work," said Dr. Lars Wiederman, who once worked for the American Soybean a.s.sociation. "Protecting trans fats from the taint of negative scientific findings was our charge."

TRANS FATS: UNSAFE AT ANY MEAL.

* Lower HDL * Raise LDL * Raise Lp(a), which promotes atherosclerosis and clotting * Reduce blood vessel function * Promote obesity, diabetes, and hypertension * Alter fat cell size and number * Reduce cream in breast milk * Reduce fertility and correlate with low birth weight * Increase asthma * Reduce immune response * Interfere with the conversion and use of DHA and EPA * Disrupt enzymes that metabolize carcinogens and drugs * Damage cell membranes.

* Create free radicals.

Main source: Enig a.s.sociates.

At Harvard, meanwhile, Willett and his colleagues produced definitive studies on trans fats, providing data that proved crucial in convincing the government that trans fats were unsafe. In 1999, Willett described how the food industry had tried to delay the guilty verdict.

Food manufacturers use partial hydrogenation of vegetable oil to destroy some fatty acids, such as linolenic and linoleic acid, which tend to oxidize, causing fat to become rancid. Commercial production of partially hydrogenated fats began in the early 20th century and increased steadily until about the 1960s as processed vegetable fats displaced animal fats in the diet. Lower cost was the initial motivation, but health benefits were later claimed for margarine as a replacement for b.u.t.ter . . . Trans fats [are] a.s.sociated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. In response to these reports, a 1995 review sponsored by the food industry concluded that the evidence was insufficient to take action and further research was needed.9 Fortunately for the public, researchers did carry on. Unfortunately for the trans fat lobby, the news got worse. At last, official word came from the National Academy of Sciences, which announced in 2002 that trans fats have "no known health benefits" and no level of consumption is safe.10 As the list in the preceding sidebar shows, trans fats do a lot of damage in addition to causing heart disease. Recall that all of your cell walls are made of fat. Like natural fats, trans fats enter the tissues and become part of the cell membrane, where, unlike natural fats, they disrupt every cellular activity, from metabolism to immunity. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are walking around with cell walls made of trans fats, which have no place in the diet or the body. The deadly effects of industrial trans fats will be with us for some time. The sooner we ban trans fats- as Denmark has- the better.11

Why I Don't Eat Corn, Soybean, or Sunflower Oil.

SINCE THE 1970s, experts have urged us to eat less fat and to replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated oils. Did Americans do as they were told? Yes and no. In 2000, we ignored official advice and ate more total fat than before. In the low-fat era, this may be surprising; larger portions of junk foods and plain old gluttony probably played a part. We did eat more vegetable oils, as instructed. Perhaps we were simply obedient and used more vegetable oils in cooking, but I suspect Americans didn't always choose the polyunsaturated oils now ubiquitous in cookies, crackers, and other processed foods. Sometimes, the food supply changes, not only without our say-so, but without our being the wiser. In this case, cheap vegetable oils (often hydrogenated) were the ingredient the food industry chose, and those were the fats we got.

REAL FOOD U.S. CONSUMPTION OF FATS AND OILS.

Source: USD A Agricultural Statistics, 2003.

Perhaps you're thinking what I thought when I first saw these figures: vegetable oils are a good source of omega-6 linoleic acid (LA), one of the essential fats. What's wrong with that? In modest amounts, nothing. But we eat far too many. The balance between the two essential fats, omega-3 and omega-6, is out of whack. We should eat equal amounts, but the industrial diet has about twenty times more omega-6 than omega-3 fats. For three million years, no human ate like that.

The flood of omega-6 fats comes from the American heartland, once known for rippling wheat fields. This lovely image is outdated.

Today the bread basket is more like an oil field, studded with rigs spewing soybean and corn oil. (And corn syrup and starch. The writer Michael Pollan calls corn "the keystone species of the industrial food system.")12 The heartland oils are fountains of omega 6 fats. Soybean oil is 53 percent omega-6, corn 57 percent, sunflower 68 percent, and safflower 78 percent. Corn oil contains sixty times more omega-6 than omega-3 fats. In safflower oil, the ratio is 77:1. That's a long way from the ideal ratio of 1:1.

"The current Western diet is very high in omega-6 fats because of the indiscriminate recommendation to subst.i.tute omega-6 fats for saturated fats to lower serum cholesterol," says Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, author of The Omega Diet. Industrial farming has made things worse: "Intake of omega-3 fats is much lower today because of the decrease in fish consumption and the industrial production of animal feeds rich in grains containing omega-6 fats, leading to production of meat rich in omega-6 and poor in omega3 fats. The same is true for cultured fish and eggs."13 What's wrong with eating too many omega-6 fats? From the omega fats, the body makes chemicals called eicosanoids, hormonelike agents with far-reaching effects on metabolism, inflammation, immunity, fertility, blood pressure, skin, vision, and mood. "Eicosanoids are involved from the top of the head in the brain to the nerves at the bottom of the feet and everywhere in between," writes Kenneth Broughton, a professor of nutrition at the University of Wyoming.14 Omega-3 and omega-6 eicosanoids play opposite and equally vital roles. Omega-3 eicosanoids are anti-inflammatory and calming, for example, while omega-6 eicosanoids are inflammatory and reactive. Late in pregnancy, omega-6 eicosanoids prompt labor to begin and omega-3 fats prevent premature birth. Omega6 agents suppress, and omega-3 agents promote, ovulation.15 By promoting clotting, omega-6 eicosanoids stop you from bleeding to death from a small cut. Omega-3 eicosanoids, on the other hand, thin the blood, which helps prevent heart attack and stroke. (There is one notable exception: the omega-6 fat GLA tends to behave more like an omega-3, fighting inflammation and heart disease. GLA is in the oils of black currant, borage, evening primrose, and Siberian pine nut.) Imagine a body dominated by omega-6 eicosanoids; symptoms would include inflammation, obesity, insulin resistance, premature labor, infertility, blood clots, and depression. As for heart disease, omega-6 eicosanoids are trouble. They promote inflammation, constrict blood vessels, and encourage platelet stickiness and clotting. Oxidized omega-6 fats lead to oxidized LDL, which causes atherosclerosis.16 Omega-6 fats are the key to a mystery scientists dubbed the "Israeli Paradox." In 1996, researchers noted that Israeli Jews followed the recommended diet for preventing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

They ate fewer calories, more carbohydrates, less fat, less saturated fat, and more polyunsaturated vegetable oils than Americans. In fact, their diet closely resembled the USDA food pyramid, including generous amounts of fruit and vegetables. Notably, they ate more omega-6 fats than any group in the world. The reward for this dietary discipline? Higher rates of obesity and diabetes than Americans and similar rates of heart disease. "Rather than being beneficial," said researchers, "high omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid diets may have some long-term side effects within the cl.u.s.ter of hyperinsulinemia, atherosclerosis, and tumorigenesis."17 In plain words, omega-6 fats lead to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. There is strong evidence that omega-6 fats make cancer cells grow faster.18 FAT CONSUMPTION IN U.S. AND ISRAELI POPULATIONS.

Israelis eat less fat and more polyunsaturated oils than Americans, yet they have higher rates of obesity and diabetes and similar rates of heart disease. Scientists blame excess omega-6 LA.

Source: Susan Allport, "The Skinny on Fat," Gastronomica 3, no. 1 (2003): 28-36.

Americans are on the same unhealthy track. We eat too many vegetable oils, too few natural saturated fats, and too many refined carbohydrates, which raise triglycerides. This is new. When our ancestors ate grains and omega-6 fats, they came from whole foods: leafy plants, whole wheat, and corn. Native Americans rarely, if ever, ate pure corn oil. They ate the whole corn kernel: bran, carbohydrate, oil, and all. Corn was ground slowly between stones, leaving its unsaturated fats and antioxidant vitamin E intact. People ate whole grains and fresh, unrefined oils.

Industrial vegetable oil processing, by contrast, removes flavor and nutrients. Grain, beans, and seeds are crushed under high heat and extracted with chemical solvents like hexane, which is then boiled off. They may be bleached, refined, and deodorized. All this damages the polyunsaturated fats, destroys vitamin E, and creates free radicals.

Modern vegetable oils are not my idea of real food. Corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oil have little flavor, which is reason enough not to eat them. Moreover, they don't contain any important nutrient that I can't find in some other traditional food. You can get all the vitamin E you need from almonds, avocados, and whole grains, and more than enough omega-6 fats from olive oil.

I Am Not Convinced by Canola.

IN THE ANNALS OF OILS, canola oil is worth a little detour, because it is a unique vegetable oil and much celebrated by advocates of the "heart healthy" diet. Perhaps the most famous modern vegetable oil, canola is made from rapeseed, a member of the genus Bra.s.sica, which includes broccoli and cabbage. Unusually for a seed oil, it's rich in monounsaturated fat, with some omega-3 fats, too. In recent years, Americans have added huge amounts of canola oil to their diets. In 1992, the United States imported 381,000 metric tons of canola oil; in 2001, 540,000 tons came in.

Traditional rapeseed oil has a long history of culinary use in China and India, where the seeds were ground between stones and they used the oil fresh, probably in relatively small quant.i.ties, given the slow method of making oil. Unfortunately, much of the fat (about 50 percent) in rapeseed is erucic acid, which causes lesions on the heart. Scientists have long been aware of the erucic acid problem, and in the 1970s they bred a new rapeseed oil low in erucic acid. They called it canola, for Canadian oil.

This new rapeseed oil is typically about 60 percent monounsaturated oleic acid, 20 percent polyunsaturated omega-6, 10 percent polyunsaturated omega-3, and most of the rest is saturated. With this combination of fats, canola oil was promoted as good for the heart and sales grew quickly. Official dietary advice and cookbooks were key to the campaign, with many recipes calling for heart-friendly monounsaturated canola oil to lower cholesterol. In 1985, canola oil won GRAS status- Generally Recognized as Safe- from the FDA. Highly coveted, GRAS means that a company doesn't have to prove an ingredient is safe each time it is added to foods.

However, canola oil isn't perfect. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in canola oil (2:1) is not ideal- but it's not terrible, either. As we've seen, an equal amount of omega-6 and omega-3 fats is best. Like other modern vegetable oils, most canola oil is refined under heat and pressure, which damages its omega-3 fats. Because canola oil is more easily hydrogenated than some vegetable oils, it is often used in processed foods. Finally, much of the low-erucic acid canola oil crop is genetically engineered.

It's difficult to find neutral information on canola. Its fans and critics are equally firm. For obvious reasons, there are no long-term studies: low-erucic acid canola oil is a relatively new food. Many of the alarming claims making the rounds are probably overstated, and I won't repeat them here. However, animal studies have linked canola oil with reduced platelet count, shorter life span, and greater need for vitamin E. The United States and Canada do not permit canola oil to be used in infant formula because it r.e.t.a.r.ds growth in animals. In one human study, canola oil raised triglycerides (fats that are part of the "total cholesterol" number) while saturated fats lowered triglycerides.19 Despite these caveats, many nutritionists are enthusiastic about canola oil for its monounsaturated fats. Loren Cordain, the expert on Stone Age diets, favors canola oil, even though it is a very modern food. "There is no credible scientific evidence showing that canola oil is harmful to humans," he says.

I never use canola oil, largely because I have no reason to. For flavor, health, and cooking, I simply prefer other fats. The flavor of canola oil is nothing special. Wild salmon and flaxseed oil are a far better source of omega-3 fats, and olive and macadamia nut oil are more delicious sources of monounsaturated fats. For sauteing and roasting, I prefer to use olive oil and b.u.t.ter, and for baking, b.u.t.ter or lard.

If you do use canola oil, recall the general rule for unsaturated fats: buy cold-pressed, unrefined oil and heat it gently, never to the smoking point. If you would like to avoid genetically engineered rapeseed, look for certified organic oil.

8.

Other Real Foods.

The Abominable Egg White Omelet.

AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, my mother has eaten her breakfast in the late morning. When she comes in hungry from watering the greenhouse, the squash pick, or any number of early morning jobs, breakfast is two eggs in b.u.t.ter, yolks runny, toast if the bread box is full. I like eggs, too. Foolish me, I was nearly thirty years old before I resumed the habit of eating eggs for breakfast.

The complex and delicate egg is indispensable. Fried, scrambled, poached, or baked in a frittata, eggs make a meal on their own, and many wonderful dishes like mayonnaise and custard are impossible without them. But when the experts began to warn about cholesterol, the egg- specifically, the yolk- became a guilty pleasure; hence the culinary and nutritional abomination known as the egg white omelet. Eggs are rich in cholesterol, by the way, for the same reason breast milk is: cholesterol, among many other uses, is an essential part of cell membranes in mammals. That fact, however, was not enough to save the egg. In Last Chance to Eat, Gina Mallet writes of "the Egg Trauma."

In the early 1970s, out of the blue, the American Heart a.s.sociation declared the egg a threat to the heart. The egg contained 278 milligrams of cholesterol, and food scientists had just decreed that no one should consume more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day. The trauma that resulted lasted more than twenty years, almost crashed the egg industry, and turned what was then the largest egg-eating country in the world against eggs. The attack would prove to be a cla.s.sic case of food science gone awry . . . I thought of course that the scientists, being scientists, had arrived at a safe level of dietary cholesterol through proof. How wrong I was.

Curious about the fate of the egg, Mallet interviewed Donald J. McNamara, a biochemist and the executive director of the Egg Nutrition Center, the egg industry lobby in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. She asked how scientists had arrived at the "safe" level of dietary cholesterol. "Dr. McNamara laughed," Mallet writes. "That was disconcerting." In 1968 food scientists met to sort out a safe amount of cholesterol to consume. Some were opposed to the very idea, while others firmly believed dietary cholesterol had a significant effect on blood cholesterol, and after much haggling they reached a compromise. The average intake of cholesterol was about 580 milligrams per liter of blood. Halving that, they settled on 300 milligrams- a political solution. "There's not one bit of scientific evaluation in that number," McNamara told Mallet.

We've known for some time that eggs are actually good for your heart. A study of 118,000 people reported in the Journal of the American Medical a.s.sociation in 1999 was conclusive: "We found no evidence of an overall significant a.s.sociation between egg consumption" and heart disease. In fact, people who ate five or six eggs a week had a lower risk of heart disease than those who ate less than one egg per week.1 The researchers, led by Walter Willet at the Harvard School of Public Health, cited a host of reasons fresh eggs might prevent heart disease: antioxidant carotenoids, vitamins, omega-3 fats, and good effects on blood sugar and insulin.

How did the egg get framed? Kudos to Gina Mallet for unearthing the origins of the arbitrary limit of 300 milligrams of cholesterol, which sparked three decades of unjustified fear. Our understanding of cholesterol is also more sophisticated now. We know that cholesterol metabolism- what the body does with LDL and HDL- is more important than the cholesterol in foods.

I was still curious about earlier studies apparently linking eggs and heart disease. Dr. Kilmer McCully, an expert on cholesterol metabolism, told me that real eggs weren't to blame. The studies used dehydrated eggs, which are liquidized, pasteurized, and spray-dried, in the same way powdered milk is made. Powdered eggs are mostly used in processed foods like cake mixes, but unfortunately the label won't say powdered eggs.

The cholesterol in powdered eggs (and powdered milk) is oxidized, which causes atherosclerosis. McCully says scientists have known since the 1950s that eating oxidized cholesterol causes atherosclerosis, but natural cholesterol does not.

The home cook who favors industrial convenience foods can buy powdered eggs, which last five or ten years. Here's the pitch from one company: "Our egg mix is mostly whole egg powder with a bit of powdered milk and vegetable oil . . . The egg mix has been formulated to make scrambled eggs, omelets or French toast. We think you'll find our egg mix a labor-saving food." No doubt, for some people, cracking open an egg is one ch.o.r.e too many, but I'm not sure you end up with more free time cooking with powdered eggs- just more omega-6 fats you don't need and lots of oxidized cholesterol.

Fresh eggs, by contrast, are a nutritional bonanza. Above all, eggs are a fine source of inexpensive protein. In fact, because the ratio of amino acids in eggs is so close to the ideal for human nutrition, eggs are the model for rating the quality of protein in all foods. Compared to meat and fish, eggs keep well. A fresh egg (ideally unwashed, with its protective film intact) will keep for two months in the fridge without much change in flavor or nutrition. An older egg will, however, be much easier to peel. This information comes in handy if you like your deviled eggs to look perfect- or if you think the farmer is putting you on about when they were laid.

A key ingredient in the egg yolk is lecithin, most famous as the emulsifier that makes mayonnaise creamy. Found in every human cell, lecithin helps the body digest fat and cholesterol. Lecithin is the source of choline, a B vitamin-like agent vital to the fetal brain. Eggs contain many antioxidants, including glutathione, which helps other antioxidants fight cancer and prevents oxidation of LDL. Yolks are extremely rich in the antioxidant carotenes lutein and zeaxanthin, which are good for the eyes (they prevent macular degeneration) and show promise in fighting colon cancer, and the lutein in eggs is more easily absorbed than the lutein also found in spinach.2 Along with liver, egg yolks have the highest concentrations of biotin- a B vitamin essential for healthy hair, skin, and nerves- of any food. Biotin is vital for digestion of fat and protein. Vitaminlike betaine is also abundant in eggs and liver. Betaine reduces h.o.m.ocysteine, an amino acid that causes atherosclerosis. All this makes chopped liver- the traditional Jewish paste of liver (chicken or beef), eggs, and chicken fat- very nutritious. It's a pity that many modern recipes for chopped liver call for corn oil instead of old-fas.h.i.+oned chicken fat, which is far better for you.

Eggs from pastured birds are superior to those from hens raised indoors, whose yolks are literally pale imitations of those from hens on gra.s.s. Pastured yolks are a rich yellow from the beta-carotene in plants. They also contain more monounsaturated fat, vitamins A and E, folic acid, lutein, and beta-carotene than indoor eggs. Pastured eggs are dramatically richer in omega-3 fats, which prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and depression. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in pastured eggs is ideal (about 1:1), while an indoor egg has almost twenty times more omega-6 than omega-3 fats. The omega-3 fats come from gra.s.s as well as insects, grubs, and worms. Another source is purslane, a lemony weed loved by poultry and foraging cooks alike. Along with walnuts and flaxseed, succulent purslane is a rare plant source of the omega-3 fat ALA. Some egg farmers feed flaxseed to indoor chickens to increase omega-3 fats.

WHY GRa.s.s IS BEST: EGGS.

* The ideal ratio is 1:1.

Source: Artemis Simopoulos, "Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Health and Disease and in Growth and Development," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 54 (1991): p.445.

Some eggs are advertised as "vegetarian." That may sound good, but it's actually not ideal. Recall that chickens are not natural vegetarians. Omnivores like us, they need complete protein and thrive on a diet of grain plus plenty of insects, worms, grubs, and other foods like sour milk. "Vegetarian" means the chickens were not fed cheap protein in the form of ground-up pigs, cattle, and poultry; that's good. But it also means something else. You may be certain that a vegetarian chicken has never been outdoors. If it had, it might have eaten a bug or two. If you can't find pastured eggs, barn-raised birds (not in cages) fed omega-3 are second-best.

The lesson of the egg trauma is simple. Don't eat factory eggs, powdered eggs, liquid eggs, pasteurized eggs, egg subst.i.tutes, or any other kind of industrial egg product somebody invented in the laboratory. Do eat the real thing: fresh, whole eggs from happy hens eating bugs and grubs outside on fresh green gra.s.s.

Whole Grains and Real Bread.

PEOPLE ARE BEWILDERED BY FATS, but that's nothing compared with the welter of myths, half-truths, fears, and health claims around carbohydrates. Let me try to cut through the confusion. There are three macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Fat and protein, as we've seen, are essential for life. But no carbohydrate is essential. The body uses carbohydrates for energy, not structure or function, and it is theoretically possible to get all the energy you need from fat and protein. If calories aren't required, a highly sensitive hormone called insulin ensures that surplus carbohydrate is stored (with impressive efficiency) as fat- a little security against starvation in lean times. Because they don't cause insulin to rise quickly, fat and protein are less likely to be stored. This is the gist of low-carbohydrate diets.

None of this means that carbohydrates per se are bad for you. Let's talk about weight first. I'm afraid my advice is not original: eat as much carbohydrate as your body needs. How much that is depends on many things, including exercise and individual metabolism. My mother used to say, "If you're out in the cold or you work hard at physical labor all day, you can eat a lot of bread and rice." Some people gain weight easily on carbohydrates, while others can put away stacks of pancakes. A serving of pasta, rice, polenta, or oatmeal about the size of your fist is probably right for most people. It's crazy to count grams of carbohydrates in milk, carrots, or grapes. Even steak contains some carbohydrates. If you own a book listing those figures, throw it away. That's a recipe for neurosis.

There are indeed "good" and "bad" carbohydrates. "Complex" carbohydrates in whole foods are good, and "simple" carbohydrates like sugar are not. Eating sugar depletes B vitamins, which leads to premenstrual symptoms and depression, and promotes Candida albi-cans, a systemic yeast infection. Sugar also causes bone loss and, of course, tooth decay- but not for the reason you might think. Sugar upsets the balance of calcium and phosphorus, which causes teeth to rot from the inside out. Remember what the dentist Weston Price found when he studied people eating traditional and industrial foods? Poor nutrition- not lack of toothpaste- led to bone deformities and rotten teeth. Last but not least, by raising blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol, sugar leads to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Of all the industrial foods, sugar is the most villainous.

Complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat and brown rice naturally contain B vitamins, vitamin E, and fiber. But even these complex carbohydrates are often refined. White or "polished" rice and white flour have been stripped of vitamins and fiber. After they remove the best parts (the bran and germ), only the starch, or carbohydrate, remains. The food industry prefers white flour because whole grain flour doesn't keep well; once grain is milled, wheat germ oil becomes rancid. White flour is fortified with synthetic B vitamins, but the vitamins in whole foods are superior. By the way, the bran and vitamin E taken from whole grains are fed to nutritionally deficient animals on factory farms. Animals on gra.s.s get all the fiber and vitamin E they need.

WHAT'S IN A GRAIN?.

A grain- the starchy seed head of a gra.s.s- has three parts. Whole grain means the food contains all three. White flour contains only the endosperm, or starch. Grainlike foods, such as buckwheat, are often grouped with grains. They, too, are best whole.

* Bran. The hard protective coat; contains fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

* Endosperm. A complex carbohydrate wrapped in protein; the source of energy for a new plant.

* Germ. A tiny seed, capable of sprouting into a new plant; contains fat, protein, and vitamins.

The digestion of carbohydrate requires B vitamins. That's why the two nutrients are often found together in nature: whole wheat, brown rice, and beets (a major source of sugar) all contain B vitamins. When you eat white flour, white rice, or sugar, the body uses up B vitamins merely in the process of digestion. Thus, over time, refined carbohydrates deplete the body of B vitamins.

We have seen how carbohydrates cause blood sugar and insulin to spike more than fat and protein. Complex carbohydrates cause blood sugar to rise less quickly than simple ones because they must first be broken down into simple carbohydrates called mono-saccharides. The simple carbohydrates {mono- and disaccharides such as sugar and juice) are small and able to enter the bloodstream rapidly. The larger complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides such as whole wheat) must be dismantled first. That takes time, so blood sugar rises slowly.

The fiber in complex carbohydrates further delays the spike in blood sugar. Fiber explains why an apple, even though it contains a lot of the simple carbohydrate fructose, is healthier than a soft drink sweetened with fructose- or even pure apple juice. In the apple, fructose comes with plenty of fiber.

Let me repeat: uneven blood sugar makes you fat. But even for slim people, steady blood sugar is desirable. Peaks and valleys in blood sugar also lead to diabetes and make you moody and lightheaded. With carbohydrates, this is my rule of thumb: avoid the ones that go straight to your head.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES.

All carbohydrates consist of monosaccharides and end up as mono-saccharides after digestion. Complex carbohydrates may contain hundreds of monosaccharides, and they cause blood sugar to rise more slowly than simple ones. Fat and protein are even better for steady blood sugar.