Monsters in the Fridge

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I'm embarrassed to reveal this. This my

fridge on a good day. On a bad day, things will fall out and break your toes. Seriously. So as I was trying to squeeze in yet a few more things after a trip to the supermarket, it occurred to me to wonder if other people are guilty of over-stuffing.

There are some excuses here. Most of the things in here are healthy. That's part of the problem. Many good cooking oils need to be kept cold. Whole grains have to be refrigerated. As do whole grain breads without preservatives.  I cook, so I accumulate condiments. And salad dressings. I buy lemons and limes at CostCo (as you can see,) and I love clementines, which only come in big bags. AND I share an organic produce share with my daughter, but last week she was out of town so I got the bulk of it.

Not to mention the fact that my aspirations are usually greater than my cooking energy. (Will I really cook the butternut squash recipe I've been looking at for the last week?) And I try to plan at least five days of meals--otherwise we end up eating out, and I try not to do that during the week.

But all that aside, I wonder if I'm unconsciously emulating my mother and grandmother. They lived through the Depression, and food in the refrigerator and the pantry meant security. 

So I did an impromptu survey.  This immaculate fridge belongs to my friend Candy, who is single. She does cook, but she is gluten and dairy free. (That cuts out the cheese, the yogurt, the milk, the bread, the flour, etc., in my fridge...)



And this one, which I'd designate halfway between Candy and me, belongs to my friend Kathleen. She and her husband Matt both cook, and they seldom eat out. I think they're wonderfully organized.

So how about you, REDS and readers? I know we have a lot of foodies out there. Do you shop everyday? (I do fine in London with a fridge a quarter of the size, but I shop almost every day, and I don't cook much.) Do you use everything you buy?

Brag, or confess!!!

(And maybe someone will come cook my butternut squash...)

Hold the sugar?

HALLIE EPHRON: So in the latest nutrition news, it turns out "added sugars" can kill you. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed survey data from 1999-2010  and found that the 20% of people whose intake of sugar is highest were twice(!) as likely to die from cardiovascular disease as the 20% with the lowest sugar intake.

Now I read this feeling pretty sanguine. I drink my coffee and tea unsweetened, never drink soda; candy and cake and pie are just an occasional treat.

Then one morning I'm eating my unsugared bowl of Raisin Bran, touted on the box "heart healthy" (they added a sprinkle of flax seeds).  I happen to read the NUTRITION FACTS. And there it is, my little breakfast bowl contains 18 grams of sugar. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams a day. Yikes!

Keep in mind: 1 teaspoon of sugar has four grams. So it's as if someone dumped FOUR AND A HALF TEASPOONS of sugar in my cereal bowl.
Or maybe not - because food labels don't distinguish between (bad for you!) added sugars and the (not so bad for you) sugars occur naturally in products (like the raisins in the bran.)

Still, I start going through my cabinets. 
- Cranberry juice ("no sugar added"): 28 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce glass
- My go-to dessert, a 4-ounce ice cream sandwich: 16 grams of sugar
- A slice of whole grain bread has just a few grams, but peanut butter (3 grams in 2 T) and raspberry jam (a whopping 13 grams in 1T) are loaded. I really love raspberry jam.

So are you paying attention to this latest nutrition news, or have you been numbed by wave after wave of warnings about what to avoid eating. Cutting down the sugar in your diet -- piece of cake or not?

LUCY BURDETTE: I think it's smart to read the studies as they come out, because then we are AWARE of what we're consuming and where we can make tweaks. Exactly what you showed us Hallie!

So look at your cereal box and see how many grams of sugar in a serving, and then compare to others you might choose. (I bought a box of Barbara's Honest O's this week--1 gram of sugar--yay!) Fruit juice and soda are killers though--probably should be on the occasional treats list. I'd rather consume my sugar in a homemade cookie:)

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Every day of my life is a battle to keep the 9-year-old kiddo from consuming his own weight in sugar. (I jest, but I do wonder what he’d do left in a bakery or ice cream parlour on his own?) Yes, even avoiding the obvious sodas and juice, it’s a nightmare. Since he’s active (fencing, basketball), there’s no weight issue, but I worry about his overall health!

I can’t eradicate sugar completely for him or for us, but I shop and cook so there’s plenty of fresh, unprocessed stuff in the house. And if there’s a cookie, it will be homemade and have raisins and oatmeal to balance out the sugar.

Don’t even get me started on salt…

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been on a low-sugar regime since I was a teenager (diagnosed as hypoglycemic) so have always been careful about avoiding sugar, but as careful as I am, Hallie's post was a real wake-up call. 

My half-cup of "healthy" granola in the morning has 10 grams! And if I go with whole wheat toast or a whole wheat crumpet, the sugar is not bad, but, oh, like Hallie with her raspberry, I love my cherry jam. That's not to mention the organic, 2% milk I put in my tea and on my cereal, which adds another few grams.  And that's just breakfast!  I'm checking out Lucy's cereal... And going back to fruit only jam for toast...

Susan, I was very sugar-conscious with my daughter when she was growing up, and it is tough. We were the only house that never had soft drinks, or processed snacks, and where juice was served in tiny portions, if at all. I think it was worth it in the long term, as she was hardly ever ill and grew up to be both beautiful and healthy. She's also a very good cook, but neither one of us makes sweets, not even cookies.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm the biggest sugar junkie in my house, I'm embarrassed to say. The "25 grams of sugar" news made me roll my eyes a bit - have you ever tried to keep track of how many products have fructose and sucrose in them? I swear, fifty percent of food by weight in the United States is comprised of corn syrup. Not to mention the sugar content of alcohol. They're taking my glass of wine over my dead body.

That being said, I've tried to raise the kids with limited sugar  - soda as a special treat, homemade cookies rather than boxed, Cheerios and bagels instead of Sugar Sugaries. And I'm not sweating the new recommendation too much. I've lived long enough to see bran be proclaimed as the savior, then not-so-hot; for eggs to be killers, now okay for you; and for "eat-no-fats" to become "eat-no-carbs."

Moderation in all things.   

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I hardly ever eat sugar. I am really careful about it. I do have sugar in my AM coffee, but not in the afternoon. Otherwise, really, as little as possible. No jam, no candy, no sweetened anything.  I missed it at first--I don't at all, now.

Sure, I'll have an occasional bite or three of something, that can't hurt. And a Twizzler or two on Halloween, I mean, that is somewhat required. But I have no sweet tooth. 

And those food studies always amuse me. They ALWAYS change. Remember when you could die from peanut butter? And now they;re saying eggs are fine. They must have gotten the same PR person who is suddenly pushing kale.

However. I'm with you, Susan. Not giving up the glass of wine.


RHYS BOWEN: I grew up in England where sugar is one of the four food groups. So many English kids live on candy that half the population winds up with false teeth... or that may have changed by now. But when my kids were growing up they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost every day, ice cream as treats, but never sodas. Soda was something not known in our house. Although they did get orange juice, another sugar no-no.

These days we have dessert when company comes or my granddaughters are visiting. I have Wheatabix or oatmeal for breakfast with fresh fruit, or tomatoes on sourdough toast (almost no sugar). I do like a small teaspoon full in my tea and coffee and we really don't eat many processed foods. But my glass of wine or John's beer with dinner both have sugar in them. 

Our family motto is Inter Utrumque tene. Steer a middle course. I choose to abide by that. Eat healthily, small meals and the occasional treat. I expect they'll come up with another study next year that says everyone needs ten spoons of sugar a day!

HALLIE: That wouldn't surprise me, Rhys, because the other food recent food news is that regular old butter isn't all that bad for you after all.

So are you trying to cut down on sugar? Wouldn't it be nice if labels told us how how much sugar in a product is the kind we're supposed to strictly limit. Desperately needing to know: is honey ok? Because I really love honey with butter on my biscuits. And like Julia, I'm not giving up my glass of wine.

Smart People Don't Diet--or Do They?

  
LUCY BURDETTE: I like to read through the announcements on Publishers Marketplace to see what books have sold recently. Maybe you won't be surprised to hear that there are as many diet and health books as there are cookbooks. For example, you can expect cookbooks in the next 18 months on artisan ice cream, Recipes from a Roman kitchen, and 100 Things to Do with a Pickle.

On the other side, two books are coming called THINK EAT MOVE, "helping readers create a revolution from within with a lifestyle program that marries the practices of mindfulness, eating with intention, and interval-based movement in order to achieve lasting, optimum wellness" and SMART PEOPLE DON'T DIET, "a science-based, gimmick-free approach to healthy weight management and eating."

Sigh. I hate dieting. And I love eating. The times I've decided to diet, the foods I select to cut back on become irresistible. (Like Hank's suggestion to skip white food?--a movie runs through my brain showing all the white foods I cannot do without.) A decision to diet always boomerangs, and I gain a few pounds instead of losing. So I'm hoping that my strategy of eating reasonably, without depriving myself, and upping the exercise a bit will last me a lifetime.

So Reds, are you experts at dieting? If not, what are your strategies for enjoying food while staying healthy? 

HALLIE EPHRON: I do not diet unless I can't button my pants. But I always watch what I eat. Fortunately for me I don't have a sweet tooth and I love to cook.

Give up white foods? Never! I got a perverse pleasure out of seeing an analysis of rice that showed comparative levels of arsenic -- highest levels were found in brown rice. Least high in instant rice. Go figure. Make mine Basmati.

Lucy: The question is Hallie, which pants? 

Hank Phillippi Ryan:  Oh yes, indeed, I am an expert on dieting!  Television adds 10 pounds, it really does… And people always say to me, you look so much thinner in real life than  you do on TV.

I suppose it's better than the alternative.  

But it makes me very conscious of it. I don't eat sugar, really, or any carbs, very often at least, and I'm kind of conscious of it, when I do. Like last night I had nacho chips. And I think I had five…

But for someone who doesn't have to be so weird about it :-) , here's my true diet tip.

 The best bite of anything is the first bite. The other bites are just to try to recapture that first bite.  Which you can never do.

So just take one bite of whatever you want… And then just don't eat the rest.

Lucy: Oh Hank, you must be one of the most disciplined people on the planet! 

RHYS BOWEN: When I was young I was super-skinny. (108 pounds when I married, hence the brief and disastrous modeling career) I've always had a small appetite and we rarely eat calorie-laden foods so I never actually diet. I am eating homemade veggie soup for lunch all this week so that I'll look as slim as my Red counterparts by next Friday. (I confess to becoming a little poochy around the tummy recently. It never went after a 12 day cruise). 

John and I are great believers in the glycemic index and eat avocado every day. Also nuts as snacks and frequent grilled fish.

And hardly ever dessert, although I do love my two squares of dark chocolate.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I'm a complete chowhound. And sometimes I'm not even that discriminating. One night last week Bruce was out of town, I was grumpy and I ate an entire container of ice cream for dinner. I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT FLAVOR IT WAS.

I feel as if I've been on a diet my whole life, including an embarassingly trendy one last fall (which worked very well.) But most of the time I just, mentally count calories. If I know, as I do re this week, that I'll be going out with friends for dinner, twice, AND I'll be going to the feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy on Saturday night, I'll eat light the other days. It works most of the time. Can't not eat the zeppole in Little Italy.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: You are all thin and fabulous. I however, am here to represent the other 85% of American women: those of us who are pleasantly plump. Zaftig. Abbondanza. I eat what I like, and what I like is a lot. 

Admittedly, I was at one time considerably smaller. I used to run, hike, ski cross-country and alpine. Then my knees went all to hell. Now I swim in the pool at the Y at a decorous pace. My children have nicknamed me The Manatee. 

I eat healthfully, I have great cholesterol/blood pressure/blood sugar numbers, and the only reason I'm ever tempted to diet is because most designer clothes don't come in anything larger than 12. I'll think Ooo, that Thom Browne dress is amazing...then I'll bake a plate of brownies and remind myself that Ralph Lauren and Talbots both stock Womens sizes. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm on the "healthy lifestyle" side of the diet spectrum. I was diagnosed as hypoglycemic when I was about fourteen, so have been careful about sugar and refined carbs my entire adult life. Fortunately I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I read labels...very irritatingly, I'm sure. No high-fructose corn syrup. No hydrogenated oil. No msg.

But as long as food is real food, I eat just about everything. If the pounds start accumulating around my middle (which they do... sigh) my idea of a "diet" is to eat smaller portions and exercise more. 

Lucy: Time for you to weigh in Jungle red readers! Do smart women (and men) diet?

But I Don't Know Nuthin' About...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Yay, Edith. Is all I can say. Edith Maxwell, you know her, right? A stalwart here in the Jungle--funny and wise and thoughtful and one of the most centered and passionate people you could ever know. And now, her mysteries are out there in the world for everyone to read--look at that gorgeous cover! Are everyone here is cheering and applauding and so happy for her!

So of course, we had to invite her to tell you all about her new book--but instead, she's really discussing something...else.  Friday, we chatted about hockey here, and I said--whoa, here's something we've never talked about on Jungle Red. Well, today...something else we've never discussed.

On Farming and Birthing

              by Edith Maxwell

Thanks so much, Hank, for having me to visit! I wanted to talk a bit about how farming and attending births are related. Uh, howzzat, you ask? Well, hear me out.

A long time ago and a few miles away, I co-owned a small certified-organic farm north of Boston. I was the  farmer. I had two little boys who attended school and preschool. I had a (now-ex) husband who worked in Boston. I planned and planted, tilled and weeded, composted and cover cropped, reaped and sold. And then started all over again. I had left a full-time career working in speech recognition for a hi-tech (Kurzweil) company to be home with my kids while they were young.

At the same time I also taught prepared childbirth classes in my living room. It wasn't strictly Lamaze or Bradley methods, just trying to get couples comfortable with whatever might happen at the birth of their baby. We practiced relaxing. They talked about those weird pregnancy dreams moms-to-be (and sometimes  dads) have about their baby turning into a rat or losing the child in some dark hallway. We went through all the kinds of procedures that a hospital stay might include and what the physiological process of late pregnancy and birth is. And then we had doll-diapering races between the dads. In addition, I worked as a doula, hiring out as labor support. 

These were sweet and challenging times for me as a farmer, as a mother, as a birth support person, as a wife, even. For the first time in my adult life I depended on someone else for much of my financial wellbeing, farming and childbirth education not being all that lucrative. I loved growing organic vegetables and fruits, and I was good at it. I loved coaching nervous couples to learn all they could about this mysterious process they were about to go through and then trust their bodies to do the work, and apparently I was good at that, too. The hardest and most rewarding work was staying home with my own babies and trying to find something interesting to talk about with my husband at dinner that didn't involve poop or play dates.

Lately I've been thinking about the similarities between growing food and attending births. It's a real miracle to watch a baby come into this world. Women go down into death and bring forth life, every single time. Smooth progress can be interfered with by overly cautious care providers, by a slim-hipped woman with a large-headed baby, by fear, by malnutrition. My job as a doula was to intermediate between the couple and the hospital, explaining procedures to the couple, making sure the medical staff knew the couple's wishes,  helping the mom and dad feel comfortable.

 (Here's a picture of me with a baby whose birth I attended. He is now twenty and just finished his second year at Brown University!)

My job as a farmer was to intermediate between the seed, the soil, the weather, and my customers. Smooth progress can be interfered with by applying insecticides that wipe out beneficial insects along with pesky ones, by rainstorms that wash out the field just after planting, by neglecting weeds until they are bigger than the crop, by trying to grow varieties that don't flourish in this temperature zone, by a drought. 

Both jobs involve a kind of midwifery as well as an element of uncertainty. I'm glad I wasn't completely responsible for the births, and I'm also glad I now have a small backyard garden instead of a one-acre intensive farm. But as farmer and doula, I strived for smooth progress. And mostly got it.

I started writing this farm mystery during the winter before my last farming season almost twenty years ago. I didn't use any of the actual writing when I got going on it again last year, but I used the world I had set up: geek-turned-organic farmer Cam Flaherty, her small farm, the fictional town of Westbury, the chef and local-foods restaurant, and locally sourced murder. I added the Locavore Club and the plucky Girl Scout volunteer, and more. So far the series doesn't include any childbirth scenes, but you never know what might pop into book three or beyond!

Readers, what kind of unusual occupations do you like to read about? Are there any that stretch the imagination a little too much? 

Writers,what's the most intriguing part of your own past that you have worked into your books? Is there anything that's off limits?

HANK: And a copy of A TINE TO LIVE....to one lucky commenter! (And did I say--YAY Edith!) (And we won't even begin to discuss the connections between birthing babies and birthing books, right?)


*********************

Edith Maxwell writes the Local Foods Mysteries.  A TINE TO LIVE, A TINE TO DIE introduces geek-turned-organic farmer Cam Flaherty, a colorful Locavore Club, and locally sourced murder. Edith once owned and operated the smallest certified-organic farm in Essex County, Massachusetts.

Tace Baker, Edith Maxwell's pseudonym, is the author of SPEAKING OF MURDER (Barking Rain Press, Sept 2012) featuring Quaker linguistics professor Lauren Rousseau. Edith holds a PhD in linguistics and is a long-time member of the Society of Friends.

Edith has also published short crime fiction, most recently in the Fish Nets anthology and in Thin Ice from Level Best Books. A mother and technical writer, Edith lives north of Boston with her beau, three cats, and a small organic garden. You can find her at @edithmaxwell,  http://www.facebook.com/EdithMaxwellAuthor, and www.edithmaxwell.com