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Cookbook author discusses insights by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff
Katzen discussed balancing a need for better eating habits with a need to be more relaxed about food. "People want good food," she said. "I feel like people...want very much to eat well. It feels like there are tall mountains between the person with good intentions and the food. "The subject of food in recent decades has become kind of a fraught one. In recent years, it's become so mired in anxiety and worry and judgment and stress – even food that you're supposed to enjoy." With more than 4 million cookbooks in print, including "Still Life with Menu," "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest," and "The Moosewood Cookbook," Katzen is credited with moving vegetarian eating from the fringes to the mainstream. But now, Katzen said, she has changed her focus from vegetarian diets to a broader sense of healthy, enjoyable eating. "It used to be that when someone told me, 'My child has become a vegetarian,' I said, 'That's great!' Now I say, 'Let's talk.' "Nutrition-wise, it really was assumed by many people that simply by giving up meat, you're going to be healthy. A healthy diet is about what you are eating. For a long time vegetarianism has been about what you are not eating." She also has changed her mind about dietary fat. After being on a low-fat diet for years, she and her husband noticed they had begun to develop health problems, so she reconsidered the levels of fat and protein in their diet and started incorporating more of both, focusing on high-quality sources. "Avoid trans fats," she said. "Trans fats" are the partially hydrogenated oils that are in vegetable shortening, most margarines, and nearly all packaged cookies and crackers and many chips. But "good" fat, like olive, nut, and fish oils, should have a substantial role in the diet. "You can pour olive oil on your food," she said. Research indicates that, in addition to avoiding trans fats, people are better off avoiding refined grains, like white flour, rice and pasta, and sugar, all of which raise blood sugar quickly, Katzen said. "The glycemic roller coaster is bad for your health." Instead, people should make sure to eat ample vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, and whole grains – organically grown when possible, she said. But changes that are relatively simple for her aren't necessarily easy for a typical person, she acknowledged. Messages on her Web site tell her that her readers want not only better nutrition but also to be spending less time preparing food. "The cookbook author's lament is that people don't want to spend any time cooking," she said. "So I'm trying to gear less toward giving you more and more recipes that you may not cook and focus more on how to fit buying and cooking good food into your life. My responsibility is to help increase the odds that you'll actually cook." Toward that end, Katzen has been working on a book about breakfast for four years. During the process, she has become aware of how difficult it is to find "meaningful calories - nutrient-dense, nutritious, real food" outside the home. While writing in cafés, she found that "I can get a latté the size of my arm, but I can't get nutritious food." She started bringing her own breakfast: "something that is easy, stores well, is portable and gives me enough energy." She began making what she called, "nutrient-dense, little nugget thingies," one variety of which she made from ground almonds, grated carrots, vanilla extract and a little sugar. Another type contains currents, ground pistachios, honey and tahini. "I'm working on things you make the night before, things you make on weekends. "The best thing anyone can say to me is 'We use your book on weeknights, and it feeds our family.'" One thing she would like people to learn is that "food can be delicious, and it can be good for you. "It turns out that what's beautiful about fruits and vegetables is also the very same thing that makes them good for you," she said. "Beta carotene makes things orange and yellow. Chlorophyll makes them green." She hopes to contribute to a culture of eating well, naturally, and without anxiety, she said. "If we're so focussed on having the perfect healthy diet, we'll die of a heart attack because of the stress. Of course, care more about it, but also care less. "Do good work in the world. Find ways to feed the hungry, and quit obsessing about yourself and the stock market. "When we're done eating, we need to get up from the table and go have a life and do something." Katzen on eating well Although Mollie Katzen eschews consideration as a diet or health expert, saying she relies on physicians and other experts for her information about nutrition, she has developed a food philosophy that she shared at her public lecture June 20. As much as possible, eat organic foods – ones grown without genetic modification, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers – if you can find them. Reduce your intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates to the lowest level you can live with happily. Get as much of your carbohydrate intake as possible from fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes and whole grains. Don't count total fat. Learn the difference between healthy and dangerous fats. High oleic safflower oils are especially good. Use good oils from nuts and olives, and supplement with even better ones from fish and flax seed. Get a general idea of the range of protein you need, and experiment with eating different sources of it. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Drink plenty of good clean water. Eat enough. A lot of obese people don't get enough nutrient-dense food. Enjoy every bite. |
