Good Food Bad Food…

a primer for the anti-aging gastronomy neophyte

 Thereis good food and there is bad food.  There is food that when consumed will nourish our bodies, make our hair and skin glow, our fingernails and teeth strong, our bones straight and our eyes bright.  Good food makes us think quicker, see better, run faster, grow taller, move with grace and live longer with a high degree of wellness. 

What, then, does bad food do?  When we consume bad food, our bodies are not nourished, our cells are deprived and our organs pay the price.    Consuming bad food results in inflammation, fat building, malnutrition, bad skin, bones, teeth, hair and nails, slow thinking, aching joints and eventual age related chronic disease.  All of which is preventable.  You could say that healthcare reform begins in your kitchen.   

If you are reading this blog, I assume that you have the same interest as I have in the benefits of preparing and eating foods that keep us young, foods that slow the aging process.   The aging process to which I refer is cellular aging, a complicated process of cell replication that takes place in our bodies as new cells replace old.  But, simply put, cellular aging was once described to me in this way.   Think of your favorite photograph, a self portrait of you at your best.  Now make a photocopy.  You can see that it is not exactly as perfect as the original.  Now take the copy and make another copy.  You can see this one is even less perfect than the second one.  The sharpness dulls, the contrasts lessen.  Now take that copy and make another copy and so forth and so on.  That is what happens to our cells as they replicate.

So, you can see that if we cause our cells to become damaged or imperfect, as they replicate, the damage and imperfections are magnified time and again.   That is why at fourteen years old we feel well and physically fit eating a diet of hamburgers and fries, but at forty-four years old, our arteries are lined with plaque, our joints ache and our fasting glucose has risen from 85 to 115, a mere one point per year.  Who would notice?

I noticed, first, in my forties when I began to experience osteoarthritis, then in my fifties when I began to experience swelling in my ankles and pain in my back, and finally nearing sixty, when my medical history described me as pre obese, pre diabetic, pre hypertensive, pre high cholesterol, and pre hypothyroid.   I was suffering from symptoms of non specific origin (although my physicians were quick to assign labels such as adult onset diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, adult onset asthma, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and pseudo gout), symptoms that included swelling in knees, fingers and ankles, muscle pain, extreme fatigue, chronic sinusitis, hair loss, dry skin, occasional short term memory loss as I searched for  forgotten words.  I was prone to skin infections and my weight had ballooned out of control.  I had none of these problems in my past history. 

Always the skeptic, I rejected my physician’s offer of pharmaceuticals, one for each of the symptoms, his glib assessment that my symptoms were part of the inevitable aging process and his advice to accept it as a natural part of life.  Instead, I took the advice of my wise and learned chiropractor, Dr. Eleanor Rolnick, who gently but persistently advocated for nutrition as a remedy.   Her advice, her patient and outstanding care and the concern and attention of her staff (and by that I mean her Girl Friday, Pam Gaudette) started me on a path to wellness.  Thank you, my friends.

As a chef educator I have had the experience of teaching in our public schools, teaching young adults how to cook.  We are all aware of the obesity epidemic and the rapid increase of adult onset diabetes and assume it is the result of fast food giants and soda pop. It is, but not that alone. It is also the fault of the parent who prepares quick fix foods, the pop tarts, hamburger helper and pizza, sandwiches with 12 oz of meat and 6 oz of cheese, refined flour products, and all the over salted over sweetened foods from quick service restaurants.  These are the foods my students dined on every day.    

Even the weight conscious teens, the young women especially,  who strive to be model thin and are told to eat less meat, more pasta, salad and cheese, even they are at risk.  Alfredo anyone?  Do you know what a fig is, or what tortilla chips are made from or have you ever roasted a red beet?  "What's a beet", one of my students asked. 

 It didn’t take much research for me to discover the connection between my years of feasting on the western diet of meat and bread, meat and pasta, pasta and cheese and cheese and bread and my burgeoning weight.  I was convinced that my adult onset symptoms were also, in fact, the result of years of consuming inflammatory foods even when I thought I was dieting. 

Diets like Atkins, the Zone, South Beach, and the Mediterranean diets successfully led to weight loss, but you talk about yoyo diet.  That was me, down ten, up five, down five up ten.  Never once did it occur to me that the whole time that I was feeding my body food to lose weight, what I was really losing was my health.  Yes, most of these diets encourage fewer carbohydrates, but they recommend replacing them with excess meat and dairy.  Or, they discourage fat, eliminating meats and replacing them with grains.  In either case, these inflammatory foods accelerate cellular aging. 

The only publicized diet that I know of that resembles the anti aging diet is one followed by my older sister, Michael’s mother, who like her son, at age eight was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.  After 60 years of eating good food, she now looks 10 years younger than me, is far more physically fit and is never bothered by the nagging aches and pains that I battled for decades. 

The diabetic diet may not be referred to as anti aging or anti inflammatory, but that is exactly what it is.  The same foods that are considered to be inflammatory are the foods that also cause havoc with how our body processes sugars which in turn causes more inflammation and symptoms of disease.  So, whether it is called the diabetic diet, the anti inflammatory diet, the anti aging diet, or even the alkaline acid diet, it is one in the same. 

Based on the principle that foods which are alkaline producing are also anti inflammatory (good foods that promote wellness and therefore are anti –aging) and those that are acid producing are inflammatory (bad foods which promote cellular aging), I embarked on a dietary change that lead to my recovery.  Alkalinity and acidity, the ph to which I am referring is not the ph of the food itself, but the ph of the food after it is metabolized by the body.  So, for example, a lemon has an acidic ph, but when processed in the body it is alkaline forming.  Don’t confuse the two.  There are dozens of websites that explain in detail the science behind the acid or alkaline diet including lists of foods with their corresponding ph as the result of the metabolic process in the body.  Do your own research, and you will find that they correlate with lists of anti inflammatory vs inflammatory foods as well. 

Eating a diet that consisted of at least 60% alkaline producing foods had a dramatic effect.  My blood glucose returned to 85 and my hypothyroidism disappeared along with all of the other age related symptoms.  And although it was not the goal of my new anti-aging dietary habits, my weight dropped considerably as well. 

As time went on and I became more accustomed to eating and preparing an assortment of vegetables, the  proportion of alkaline producing food was easily bumped up to 70% and 75% simply by adding alkaline producing garnishes such as almonds or sunflower seeds, sprouts, chili pepper flakes or my own sauces like blueberry ginger chutney or cilantro salsa verde.  It was not a matter of counting calories or weighing out portions to reach those proportions, but much simpler.  It was just how much of my plate was covered with what type of food.  As long as more than half of my plate was filled with alkaline producing food, I was good to go. 

Here’s an example.  The dinner plate of a typical western diet is a center of the plate meat such as steak, pork or ham (takes up ½ of the plate) with a sauce, splash of ketchup or applesauce, mashed potatoes (1/4 to ½ of the plate) sprinkled with cheese and a spoonful of peas (or none at all).  The dinner plate of a typical anti aging diet is a portion of protein such as chicken equal to about 4 oz. (1/4 or less of the plate) topped with fresh chili and cucumber salsa, an even smaller portion of starch, if at all, such as brown rice (1/8 of the plate) garnished with scallions, and the rest of the plate filled with steamed fresh green beans sprinkled with cilantro, and a garden fresh tomato and watercress salad drizzled with canola oil and fresh squeezed lemon.  Our wellness requires a change of mindset from the current concept of center of the plate protein to center of the plate fresh vegetable---from this

Center of the plate short ribs

to this.

Center of the plate green beans

 In addition, it was not a matter of either or, but how alkaline or acidic producing as well.  For example, lemon and watercress are extremely high alkaline producing, while blueberries are alkaline producing but not as high as lemons or watercress.  So, knowing that, there are little tricks to having your cake and eating it too, so to speak.  If I want to indulge myself by having a glass of red wine which is slightly acid producing, I add a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice and throw in the lemon rind as well.  Or if I am craving beef which is highly acid producing, I accompany it with a gigantic watercress salad.

The difficult part at first, was creating interesting, flavorful, and feel good meals without the use of many of our favorites from our western diet.  A hamburger patty and bun is 100% highly acid producing.  Spaghetti and meatballs is 100% highly acid producing as is pizza with pepperoni.   I was raised in an Italian/Scottish household where pasta of some kind was served almost every day unless we were eating beef and barley soup.  What is the food group with the highest acid producing rating?  Grains!  What is the meat with the highest acid producing rating?  Beef!  This created a challenge for me.

We love our companion pets, primarily ourcats and dogs and wouldn’t think of deliberately feeding them food that causes inflammation or leads to chronic disease.  No, we feed them only the best---the foods that are especially prepared for them to promote shiny coats and bright eyes.  Why, then, do we not do as much for ourselves? 

I can’t go back and redo my youth, undo the harm that has been done, but I can go forward and continue reaping the benefits of eating an anti-aging diet, one that is rich in good foods---foods that are anti-inflammatory, promote wellness and reduce my risks for age related chronic disease like heart disease, arthritis and diabetes.   And, I can teach others to do the same. 

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute,  Chef AngelaB

P.S.   You can purchase As Good As It Gets, Cooking Skills for Life, Volume 1  

available on Amazon now...

http://www.amazon.com/As-Good-It-Gets-Cooking/dp/1477466886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338323791&sr=8-1

 All proceeds from the sale of my books will be used to open the first EAT SMART restaurant in the upstate SC the first to offer anti-aging gastronomy.

A Cucumber A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Grow cucumbers on wire
fencing for easier picking

Cucumbers have the highest alkaline forming rating of all the vegetables available in your local grocer or your  backyard garden, so eat them as often as you can and any way you can.  My favorite way is to pluck them off the vine and eat them as a snack.  A cucumber fresh off the vine is crunchy and sweet and cool---cool as a cucumber.  But, cucumbers also pair well in condiments with the heat from chilis and spices, and they are excellent alkaline boosters to accompany poultry and fish.  You know the old saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away?  I am officially replacing it with a cucumber a day!  Here are five ways to use cukes in your daily meal planning, each starring the smartest of all vegetables---the cucumber.   Eat smart, America!

 1.       Cucumber dip

             Dice a cucumber, add a dollop of Greek yogurt, a few jalapeno slices, cilantro and an avocado.  Blend until smooth and use it to dip crudités or whole grain pita wedges.

          2.        Cucumber soup 

            In the blender combine mint, cucumber, chicken stock, and goat cheese for a cool as a cucumber refreshing chilled soup starter before any meal.

3.       Chopped cucumber salad

Cucumbers can be sliced, diced, curled or rough chopped and make an eat smart salad when paired with radish, tomatoes, basil, with or without a goat cheese garnish.  Even on their own, they are perfect with fresh herbs and a sprinkle of oil and lemon.

4.       Cucumber condiments 

             Ice box pickles are easy to make with no cooking required.  Just pack cucumber slices in a jar of cider vinegar, a little brown sugar, some onion and celery.  Add celery seed, mustard seed, a pinch of sea salt and refrigerate.    Or for a zesty cucumber salsa follow my recipe below.

A cucumber a day
keeps the doctor away!

5.       Wholey cucumber

            The perfect snack food eaten whole! 

Cucumber jalapeno salsa 

This recipe yields 6 cups.  Cucumbers don’t last very long in the refrigerator once cut so make only what you can eat a day or two at a time.

Yield:   Approximately 6 cups          

Preparation Time:  20 minutes 

Cooking Time:  0

Ingredients

3 each cucumber, Mexican, small dice, peel on

2 each jalapeno, brunois

1 cup corn, frozen whole kernel

4 each scalliions, diced, green part only

8 sprigs cilantro, fresh, rough chopped

1 cup vinegar, apple cider

1 pinch sea salt

2 tablespoons sugar, dark brown, real molasses

1 each juice and zest of lemon, optional

Directions

Combine apple cider, salt, lemon and sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolve.  Fold in the remaining  ingredients.  Chill and serve.

Recommended Service:  Top off fish or fowl, mix into quinoa as a salad or top off a dinner salad by adding a little oil and cucumber salsa.

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AnbelaB

Ten Reasons to Eat Smart, America

Eating smart of course means eating a diet based on anti aging gastronomy of which this blog is all about.  Eating a diet based on the 60/40 ratio of alkaline forming to acid forming foods is anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and has multiple benefits.  Here are ten.

No more mood swings

You know the moodiness that plagues you mid morning and mid afternoon and sometimes results in brain fog as well?  Most likely it is from eating sugary, refined grains (cereal and bread) at breakfast and luncheon meals.  When the body gets a load of these, it reacts with a load of insulin.  The result is elevated blood glucose from the sugar (happy, happy) followed by a plunge of blood glucose (grouchy, grouchy) when the insulin does its job.  Eating smart guarantees your family and friends can tolerate you 24/7 with no timeouts in between.  

More energy

Without the mood swings from high and low blood glucose, you will find you have more energy and are more productive at home or at work.  Eating smart results in a constant level of blood glucose where and when it should be in your body to do its work---to energize. 

Higher libido

Naturally, when you feel better all around, the feel-good feeling makes for a higher libido.  There’s no more to say about that!

More awake time

With more energy and clairvoyance, you don’t need to sleep to noon anymore and still wake tired.  Your spouse will be happy to converse with you before your morning caffeine fix and your boss will be pleasantly surprised when you arrive on time.  More awake time means more time with family and friends who can now tolerate you 24/7 with no timeouts in between.

Kick the over the counter meds

You can finally stop taking anti-inflammatories for nagging aches and pains, anti-histamine for allergies and decongestants for stuffy nose and sinus.  Eating smart means eating fewer acid producing foods, foods which cause excess mucus formation in most people resulting in symptoms of sinusitis and congestion.    

Complements from family and friends

After 4 to 6 weeks you will definitely be getting complements from family and friends.  Why?  You will see a difference in hair, skin, and nails.  Hair will be shinier (maybe even thicker since it will no longer be falling out) skin less dry and nails stronger and healthier (no more ridges).  You might not see it in the mirror, but when your long lost cousin turns up to visit after a year or two of absence he will think he came to the wrong address.  Oh, and did I mention that your clothes will fit you better?  Cutting down on sugar and refined grains and increasing vegetables, legumes, seeds and nuts will also result in shedding of the extra pounds around the middle.  That pesky “beer belly” look will slowly fade away.

Reduce risk for age related chronic disease

There may not be scientific evidence that eating a diet based on anti-aging gastronomy reduces the risk of heart disease, joint/autoimmune disease and diabetes II, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence.  I for one can document my history of success, lowering blood glucose from 109 to 85, correcting my hyperthyroidism, and turning heart disease risk factors from bad to good, not to mention reversing the joint swelling that plagued me since my mid forties.  You won’t need a scientist to prove it to you. 

Longevity

Of course you will live longer without obesity, diabetes II, auto immune disease or heart disease!

Cheaper

Even if you don’t believe eating smart will reduce your risk for chronic disease, who doesn’t want to save money, right?  A meal of 60/40 alkaline producing to acid producing food means that you are eating more vegetables than protein.  Doesn’t a tomato cost less than a chicken leg, a sweet potato less than steak? And when you dine out, eat smart and that will cost you less as well.  Choosing salads and sides over steak and lobster will certainly mean a smaller bill.   

Grow your savings account

How does eating smart mean a bigger savings account?  Here’s how:  fewer medical bills, lower household food expense, no more over the counter drugs to buy, less expensive meals out, less time off work and maybe even more overtime, a second job, who knows?  With all the extra energy you may even want to start a second career. 

I know I said ten, but here’s one more.  Be a role model for your kids.  Childhood obesity and diabetes has been on the rise for decades now and needs to come to an end.  For your kids, eat smart, and they will too.  If you have any more reasons to add, leave them in the comments for all to see.

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB.

 

Does Anti-Aging Sell?

Yes, I think it does, but for all the wrong reasons.  For youthful skin?  Yes.  For a better sex life? Yes.  For tighter abs?  Yes.  That's all on the outside, but what about the inside?  Anecdotal evidence, of which there is plenty, strongly suggests that our insides can benefit from anti-aging foods if only we could break our addiction to meat and bread.  The Earl of Sandwich did not do us any favors when he came up with the sandwich, nor did Oscar Mayer with the launch of lunch meats.  And how about all those quick service fast food chains who serve up meals that consist of refined flour, sugar and meat...the all American hamburger.

Since switching to my diet of 60 to 70% alkaline producing foods, I have produced an environment in which my body has dramatically slowed the cellular aging process.  For those of you new to this journal, you can go back to the beginning in the archives and read how this all came about and see for yourself what a diet based on what I refer to as anti-aging gastronomy can do.  Just quickly for the newbies, it reduced my blood glucose from 109 to 85 in just a few months as well as correcting my thyroid and ridding me of the stiffness and joint pain that I dealt with all through middle age and into my fifties.

But, anti-aging only seems to sell if it improves the outside of the body, not the inside.  I say this because I have been trying unsuccessfully to get someone to notice my monumental efforts to launch a restaurant in  Anderson, SC in which the menu is based on entrees that are at least 60% alkaline producing food, eliminates added sugar, refined grains and bad fats, and loads up the plates with vegetables and proprietary fresh sauces.  I have been trying to market it as an "eat smart" bar and restaurant in order to raise funding to launch what I think is a most worthy project---an eatery offering Americans who now eat out more than at home, a reasonably priced alternative to the massed produced bad food that leads to age related chronic disease such as diabetes II.  A restaurant that even I would go to, not a health food, whole food or true food restaurant.

I have a dream to open a restaurant in Anderson, SC, a place where Americans are most in love with pig barbecue, hot dogs, deep fried oysters and fried mac n cheese---a restaurant that offers anti-aging gastronomy, not health food, just reversing the proportion of good and bad foods, eliminating sugar, refined grains and bad fats.  It is as easy as that.  I have a dream that I can teach there.  I have a dream that I can offer an incubator for others in the food industry to produce "eat smart" packaged products to help the busy homemaker.  I have a dream that my restaurant will be a footprint for more to spread around the nation so that families can learn to love and even crave good food.  I have a dream that young adults and homemakers will learn from my book series, Cooking Skills for Life, what good food can do, how to prepare it and embrace it with enthusiasm, creating the first generation with fewer diabetics.  The second in the series called Good Food Bad Food will  be available in September.


Yes, I have become an advocate, a zealot for anti-aging gastronomy.  I am because I know first hand that it is the key to our longevity and good health.  It will solve the obesity problem, stop the epidemic of diabetes appearing at a younger and younger age, and make the how to fix our healthcare and health insurance systems arguments go away.  My solution is this:  change the palate of Americans beginning with this generation by offering good food choices where they eat most of their meals,  restaurants.  

The US and SC state government programs (based on US mandates) created for the purpose of eliminating obesity and chronic disease have failed.  Their efforts to educate have failed.  And their new programs to put farmer's markets in the inner cities and make whole food more easily accessible to low income families and welfare mothers will also fail.  It will not put a dent in the metrics.  Americans are hooked on fatty meats, sugar and flour and until the American palate is changed they will walk right past the farm store and into sandwich and ice cream shops, the hamburger chains and meat and three's and step up to the soda machines.  Our tax money is being spent on programs that DO NOT WORK!

I need $ 40,000 to take the first step for America---the first step toward fixing our failing health.  I have
$ 20,000 of my own funds which I have set aside for that purpose.  I just need to match those funds and thus far I have been unsuccessful.  I have been declined for conventional bank loans, SBA guaranteed loans, Angel investors, SC "eat smart" grants, federal grants, went unnoticed on kickstarter and have tried to sell every asset I have without success.  These are hard times for all Americans and Europeans, and I get that.  I want to know from you, my readers in Russia, England, Canada and the U.S.who I know are out there according to the Google stats.

Here is my question, if I list this project on Indiegogo (again), will you contribute $ 20 to help me fund my dream?  If not, I want to know why?  This is not rhetorical, please respond in a comment below.  

Here is a sample menu for you to see what I mean by it is easy to eat smart, America!


.   Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB

      https://www.facebook.com/ChefAngelaB

In celebration of the fact that I no longer am dependent on a daily anti-inflammatory dose of ibuprofen, I am making a special dinner for two, my husband, me and my loyal companion dog, Digger.  Oh, I guess that makes three.  Here's what I have planned for our celebratory menu, full of anti inflammatory foods and yummy surprises as well.

Appetizer

Lentil Rollups

1 cup lentils, brown
4 cups chicken stock, made in house
1 teaspoon garlic granules
1 each lemon, zest and juice
1 teaspoon cumin, ground
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, finely ground
1 each scallion, thinly sliced on the diagonal
3 each bay leaf
sea salt to taste
4 ounces sour cream fraiche
4 ounces seasoned oil
8 each lettuce, romaine leaves or similar

Bring lentils to boil in a frying or saute pan in chicken stock and bay leaf and crushed black pepper, cover and cook about 30 minutes 

Fold in garlic granules, cumin, zest and juice of lemon, and scallions

Continue to cook, uncovered, until liquid evaporates, and lentils are tender
Let cool to room temperature

Fill each leaf with 2 oz of lentils, 2 per plate

Garnish with additional scallions 

Paint plate with sour cream fraiche and seasoned oil

Soup
Cucumber, Avocado and Cilantro
No need for recipe, just combine as much of each as you want and blend.

Salad
Tomato
Keep it simple, just slice fresh out of the garden tomatoes, sprinkle with canola oil, fresh squeezed lemon, scallions cut on the diagonal and a few sprigs of fresh flat leaf parsley.

Entree
Braised lamb shank in tomato juice and capers, topped with chili sauce
lamb shank (small 16 oz or less will shrink to 6 to 8 oz)  Eat half!
fresh thyme
fresh rosemary leaves and sprigss
tomato juice
diced tomato
garlic clove
sea salt
crushed black pepper
garlic granules
mirepoix of celery, carrots and onion

Smash garlic in salt
Dredge in seasonings  (thyme, rosemary leaves, garlic granules, pepper and salt)
In braisier, sear all sides to caramelize in canola or olive oil
Add diced tomatoes, bay leaf, rosemary sprigs, and enough tomato juice to bring liquid up to 3/4 of the shank 
Cover and bring to simmer
Cook in oven at 425 degrees for 1.5 hours hours  
Add mirepoix, cover and cook  and cook for .5 to 1 hours or until falling off the bone
Serve with mirepoix center of the plate and top with chili sauce on side

For the chili sauce, blend all ingredients to taste:

1 can diced tomatoes with sweet onion, small can
3 each jalapenos, fresh whole, small dice
cilantro, fresh
chili powder
brown sugar  (just a pinch)
cider vinegar
garlic granules
cumin powder

Twice Baked Eggplant with Chevre
2 each eggplant, whole, peeled, cut in half widthwise then 1/4X1X3
trimix, 2 parts sea salt, 1 part white pepper, 1 part roasted garlic granules
canola oil
chevre or goat cheese crumbles
tomato juice

Place eggplant slices on baking sheet in overlapping rows, drizzle canola and sprinkle with trimix
Toss leeks in canola, and trimix and place on a separate baking sheet
Roast both in convection over at 375 for 30 minutes until eggplant is soft 
Cover bottom of a casserole with tomato juice
Place a layer of eggplant, then goat cheese
Add a second layer of eggplant and cover with tomato juice
Add a second layer of goat cheese
Add top layer of eggplant  
Cover and roast at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes

Basmati Mexican Red Rice  
Cook rice then fold in the tomato salsa fresca
For the tomato salsa fresca
Combine the following:
 4 each tomatoes, whole fresh, med, diced 1/4 inch
1 cup corn kernels, frozen
2 each jalapenos, fresh, small, brunois, seeds removed
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons cumin, ground
6 sprigs cilantro, fresh, small rough chop
2 teaspoons chili powder
sea salt to taste

Dessert
4 oz Chocolate pot de creme


I know, I know, this sounds like an awful lot of food and it is, but it is a variety of food of which I will eat small amounts, I promise.  


Buon Appetito e Buona Salute,  Chef Angela B.

For those of you who followed my personal challenge, the reason I started this journal, I have good news.  Two days ago, for the first time in years, I did not have to take ibuprofen for the pain in my right thumb, left knee, ankle, nor did I awake with any of the stiffness or annoying aches and pains to which I had been accustomed upon waking every morning.  It wasn't until the mid-afternoon that I realized that I was pain free and had not taken an anti-inflammatory.

Now, that may seem like a little thing to some of you, but the fact is, I have been taking an anti inflammatory for decades for the relief of joint and muscle pain, 800 mg three times per day.  That is four tablets three times a day.  I have been eating an anti-aging diet for a couple of years now (not always steadfast), and have seen a steady weight loss, but more importantly, less inflammation in fingers, ankles, knees, shoulders and less pain in hips and back, especially between the ribs.  In addition, my annual physical bloodwork has shown a reduction of blood glucose from 109 to 85, better thyroid function, cholesterol and normal c-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation.  But none of these improvements meant as much to me as the sudden realization that I no longer have to rely on ibuprofen every morning to get moving!

I have increased the ratio of alkaline producing food to acid food to 75/25 over the past 3 weeks and it has certainly paid off.  Our garden has yielded a hefty crop of cucumbers which I have been picking and eating right off the vine for the last two weeks, and the yield of tomatoes has been great as well.   Cucumbers in particular are beneficial, not just because they are alkaline producing, but they have a high water content and fiber, assuming you eat the skin.  Eat smart, eat fresh and eat raw vegetables, America!

In addition to the extra vegetables, I have reduced the daily amount of protein and grains.  The protein at breakfast and lunch has been from peanut butter, eggs or vegetables with only 3 or 4 ounces of animal protein at dinner.  Grains have been limited to one slice of whole grain bread at breakfast, and a couple of tablespoons at dinner in the form of brown rice or quinoa, or sometimes a root vegetable instead like white potato with skin on, sweet potato with skin on or none at all if I am eating legumes.  It is true that variety is the spice of life, so I always spice it up with a garnish of parsley, a wedge of lime, a spoonful of blueberry ginger sauce or fresh tomato salsa or pickled onion.

For all of you, especially those of you over 40, who want to be free of the age related stiffness, aches, and pains and for those of you who want to avoid the all to common age related chronic diseases of arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, and even the age related skin anomalies like psoriasis and skin abscesses, EAT SMART, America.

Here's my best recipe for pickled red onion, the onions are sweet and sour and crunchy.


1 each onion, red, whole, large, thinly sliced
1/2 cup vinegar, apple cider
1 tablespoon sugar, dark brown, real molasses
12 each jalapeno slices, sliced round, thin
1 each bay leaves, whole, bruised
1/4 teaspoon salt, sea salt
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns, whole balck


Combine all ingredients except onions and stir to dissolve sugar (Yes, I know sugar is acid producing but remember we are always going for 75/25 and look at the rest of the ingredients!)
Add onions and stir to coat evenly.
Place onions and pickling liquid in air tight container and refrigerate overnight.

Buon Appettito e Buona Salute, Chef Angela B

 Here's a prepublication preview of the next book in my series Cooking Skills for Life, Good Food Bad Food.      Publication is planned for September and it will be available on Amazon as is my first in the series, As Good As It Gets, Cooking Skills for Life, Volume 1 which is available now.  Let me know what you think by posting a comment here or on my facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/ChefAngelaB   

Buon Appetito and Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB 

Lesson One

Good Food Bad Food

There is good food and there is bad food.  There is food that when consumed will nourish our bodies, make our hair and skin glow, our fingernails and teeth strong, our bones straight and our eyes bright.  Good food makes us think quicker, see better, run faster, grow taller, move with grace and live longer with a high degree of wellness. 

What, then, does bad food do?  When we consume bad food, our bodies are not nourished, our cells are deprived and our organs pay the price.    Consuming bad food results in inflammation, fat building, malnutrition, bad skin, bones, teeth, hair and nails, slow thinking, aching joints and eventual age related chronic disease.  All of which is preventable.  You could say that healthcare reform begins in your kitchen.   

If you are reading this book, I assume that you have the same interest as I have in the benefits of preparing and eating foods that keep us young, foods that slow the aging process.   The aging process to which I refer is cellular aging, a complicated process of cell replication that takes place in our bodies as new cells replace old.  But, simply put, cellular aging was once described to me in this way.   Think of your favorite photograph, a self portrait of you at your best.  Now make a photocopy.  You can see that it is not exactly as perfect as the original.  Now take the copy and make another copy.  You can see this one is even less perfect than the second one.  The sharpness dulls, the contrasts lessen.  Now take that copy and make another copy and so forth and so on.  That is what happens to our cells as they replicate.

So, you can see that if we cause our cells to become damaged or imperfect, as they replicate, the damage and imperfections are magnified time and again.   That is why at fourteen years old we feel well and physically fit eating a diet of hamburgers and fries, but at forty-four years old, our arteries are lined with plaque, our joints ache and our fasting glucose has risen from 85 to 115, a mere one point per year.  Who would notice?

I noticed, first, in my forties when I began to experience osteoarthritis, then in my fifties when I began to experience swelling in my ankles and pain in my back, and finally nearing sixty, when my medical history described me as pre obese, pre diabetic, pre hypertensive, pre high cholesterol, and pre hypothyroid.   I was suffering from symptoms of non specific origin (although my physicians were quick to assign labels such as adult onset diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, adult onset asthma, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and pseudo gout ), symptoms that included swelling in knees, fingers and ankles, muscle pain, extreme fatigue, chronic sinusitis, hair loss, dry skin, occasional short term memory loss as I searched for  forgotten words.  I was prone to skin infections and my weight had ballooned out of control.  I had none of these problems in my past history. 

Always the skeptic, I rejected my physician’s offer of pharmaceuticals, one for each of the symptoms, his glib assessment that my symptoms were part of the inevitable aging process and his advice to accept it as a natural part of life.  Instead, I took the advice of my wise and learned chiropractor who gently but persistently advocated for nutrition as a remedy.   Her advice started me on a path to wellness. 

As a chef educator I have had the experience of teaching in our public schools, teaching young adults how to cook.  We are all aware of the obesity epidemic and the rapid increase of adult onset diabetes and assume it is the result of fast food giants and soda pop. It is, but not that alone. It is also the fault of the parent who prepares quick fix foods, the pop tarts, hamburger helper and pizza, sandwiches with 12 oz of meat and 6 oz of cheese, refined flour products, and all the over salted over sweetened foods from quick service restaurants.  These are the foods my students dined on every day.    

Even the weight conscious teens, the young women especially,  who strive to be model thin and are told to eat less meat, more pasta, salad and cheese, even they are at risk.  Alfredo anyone?  Do you know what a fig is, or what tortilla chips are made from or have you ever roasted a red beet?  "What's a beet", one of my students asked. 

 It didn’t take much research for me to discover the connection between my years of feasting on the western diet of meat and bread, meat and pasta, pasta and cheese and cheese and bread and my burgeoning weight.  I was convinced that my adult onset symptoms were also, in fact, the result of years of consuming inflammatory foods even when I thought I was dieting. 

Diets like Atkins, the Zone, South Beach, and the Mediterranean diets successfully led to weight loss, but you talk about yoyo diet.  That was me, down ten, up five, down five up ten.  Never once did it occur to me that the whole time that I was feeding my body food to lose weight, what I was really losing was my health.  Yes, most of these diets encourage fewer carbohydrates, but they recommend replacing them with excess meat and dairy.  Or, they discourage fat, eliminating meats and replacing them with grains.  In either case, these inflammatory foods accelerate cellular aging. 

The only publicized diet that I know of that resembles the anti aging diet is one followed by my older sister, Michael’s mother, who like her son, at age eight was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.  After 60 years of eating good food, she now looks 10 years younger than me, is far more physically fit and is never bothered by the nagging aches and pains that I battled for decades. 

The diabetic diet may not be referred to as anti aging or anti inflammatory, but that is exactly what it is.  The same foods that are considered to be inflammatory are the foods that also cause havoc with how our body processes sugars which in turn causes more inflammation and symptoms of disease.  So, whether it is called the diabetic diet, the anti inflammatory diet, the anti aging diet, or even the alkaline acid diet, it is one in the same. 

Based on the principle that foods which are alkaline producing are also anti inflammatory (good foods that promote wellness and therefore are anti –aging) and those that are acid producing are inflammatory (bad foods which promote cellular aging), I embarked on a dietary change that lead to my recovery.  Alkalinity and acidity, the ph to which I am referring is not the ph of the food itself, but the ph of the food after it is metabolized by the body.  So, for example, a lemon has an acidic ph, but when processed in the body it is alkaline forming.  Don’t confuse the two.  There are dozens of websites that explain in detail the science behind the acid or alkaline diet including lists of foods with their corresponding ph as the result of the metabolic process in the body.  Do your own research, and you will find that they correlate with lists of anti inflammatory vs inflammatory foods as well. 

Eating a diet that consisted of at least 70% alkaline producing foods had a dramatic effect.  My blood glucose returned to 85 and my hypothyroidism disappeared along with all of the other age related symptoms.  And although it was not the goal of my new anti-aging dietary habits, my weight dropped considerably as well. 

Most of the time, my plate was 75% to 80% alkaline producing and the rest slightly acidic producing.  It was not a matter of counting calories or weighing out portions, but rather, how much of my plate was covered with what type of food.  As long as more than half of my plate was filled with alkaline producing food, three quarters was better, I was good to go. 

Here’s an example.  The dinner plate of a typical western diet is a center of the plate meat such as steak, pork or ham (takes up ½ of the plate), a heap of starch like mashed potatoes (1/4 to ½ of the plate) and a spoonful of peas (or none at all).  The dinner plate of a typical anti aging diet is a portion of protein such as chicken, equal to about 4 oz. (1/4 or less of the plate), an even smaller portion of starch, if at all, such as brown rice or whole grain ziti (1/8 of the plate), and the rest of the plate filled with steamed fresh green beans, and garden fresh tomatoes and cucumbers with oil and fresh squeezed lemon.  Our wellness requires a change of mindset from the current concept of center of the plate protein to center of the plate fresh vegetable. 

In addition, it was not a matter of either or, but how alkaline or acidic producing as well.  For example, lemon and watercress are extremely high alkaline producing, while blueberries are alkaline producing but not as high as lemons or watercress.  So, knowing that, there are little tricks to having your cake and eating it too, so to speak.  If I want to indulge myself by having a glass of red wine which is slightly acid producing, I add a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice and throw in the lemon rind as well.  Or if I am craving beef which is highly acid producing, I accompany it with a gigantic watercress salad.

The difficult part at first, was creating interesting, flavorful, and feel good meals without the use of many of our favorites from our western diet.  A hamburger patty and bun is 100% highly acid producing.  Spaghetti and meatballs is 100% highly acid producing as is pizza with pepperoni.   I was raised in an Italian/Scottish household where pasta of some kind was served almost every day unless we were eating beef and barley soup.  What is the food group with the highest acid producing rating?  Grains!  What is the meat with the highest acid producing rating?  Beef!  This created a challenge for me.

We love our companion pets, primarily our

cats and dogs and wouldn’t think of deliberately feeding them food that causes inflammation or leads to chronic disease.  No, we feed them only the best---the foods that are especially prepared for them to promote shiny coats and bright eyes.  Why, then, do we not do as much for ourselves? 

I can’t go back and redo my youth, undo the harm that has been done, but I can go forward and continue reaping the benefits of eating an anti-aging diet, one that is rich in good foods---foods that are anti-inflammatory, promote wellness and reduce my risks for age related chronic disease like heart disease, arthritis and diabetes.   And, I can teach others to do the same. 

So, it is for all of you who believe as I do, that bad food leads to cellular aging and chronic disease, and that good food leads to wellness and longevity, that I have written this book, a compilation of information, cooking methods and recipes, the basis for anti-aging gastronomy.  In the words of the father of western medicine---Let food be thy medicine…Hippocrates.

Lesson Two

Sugar is Sugar

First, I would like to give some discussion to three foods that are a huge part of most American diets, but which should be completely eliminated for the devastating effect that they have on our health.  These are common ingredients found in almost all store bought prepared packaged foods.  They are ingredients for which there are no recipes or cooking methods to discuss, for they are additives which for all purposes of nutrition, have no value.  The first is sugar. 

Sugar is sugar.   A true statement, one that is used as a marketing tool to convince the viewer of the television advertisement that corn sugar, the new moniker for what was previously known consumer wide as high fructose corn syrup, is simply nature’s sugar in another form.  Whether it is corn sugar or cane sugar, the body doesn’t know the difference, says the concerned parent as he strolls through the corn fields while his school age daughter holds onto his hand and skips alongside.  Using a clever framing technique, the producers get the viewer to make the decision that if corn sugar is the same as cane sugar, then it follows that high fructose corn syrup is okay for our kids. 

Well, they are right about one thing.  Sugar is sugar.  Whether it is high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, natural sugar in the raw, brown sugar, beet or cane sugar, or the refined white sugar in just about every cake and cookie in the world, they are all equally bad.

Food has always been the focus of social and familial events in my life and always will be.  Sometimes I think it would have been nice to have been brought up in a family environment where food was a bothersome interruption, a nuisance to have to stop a task in order to feed oneself because one had to it order to survive.  NOT!  I love everything about food, the hunt for new ingredients, the buying, the preparation, the camaraderie, the rituals, the experience of serving and being served, and mostly the tasting.

Speaking of hunting for new ingredients, I am currently on the hunt for a nutrition bar that can be used as a supplement for energy in support of all dietary limitations, low sugar, no gluten, no dairy, no trans fat, no fructose, whole food, paleo, balanced macronutrients, and most of all, and this is the most important to me, this blog and my mission to advocate anti-aging gastronomy, anti inflammatory.  It is the anti inflammatory nature of the food which has been elusive and I have already looked at the nutritional breakdown and ingredients in 101 bars.  I could not find one bar claiming itself to be a health bar, protein bar, energy bar or nutritition bar that could claim it to be anti inflammatory as well.   And yet, if the bar is anti inflammatory, by the very nature of the ingredients that are used to make it such, it follows that it will also be low sugar, no gluten, no dairy, no trans fat, no fructose, whole food, paleo and balanced.

Of the 101 bars I looked at, most contained some sort of grain, refined flour, white sugar,  cane or rice syrup, whey protein, and hidden fructose.  Who knows agave nectar is high fructose corn syrup?  If you can find a bar that has no grains and no added sugar in any form, please send it to me posthaste or I will be forced to make one myself!

Buon Appetito and Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB

Some days it just doesn't pay to wake up and get out of bed.  Today was NOT one of those days.  Today, I am just a little closer to my dream of opening the first "eat smart" bar and restaurant serving anti-aging (anti-inflammatory) food to be located near the AnMed Medical campus on Rte. 81 in Anderson, SC.  If you are anxiously awaiting the opening, you still have a little more waiting to do.  I am hoping to open in September this year in order to participate in the Clemson football season, and we are still on schedule for doing that with just one small obstacle, funding.  However, I am still $ 20,000 away from the funding needed to open, but I am not to be deterred.

This idea of mine that we can eradicate age related chronic disease by getting Americans to change to a diet of anti aging (anti inflammatory) foods from the current popular diet of meat, bread and soda, is catching on.  The change to embracing the anti-aging diet also known as the anti inflammation and diabetic diet, is not going to happen over night, but already since I have been blogging here about anti aging gastronomy, the number of views has exponentially increased, and the concept is being blogged and written about all over the web.  

If we can change the American palate to accept and even like or, wow, CRAVE anti inflammatory foods, we can change the entire medical industry.  It is possible.  My recipes are to die for and no one will ever miss the french fries, fried chicken, pizza with pepperoni or burgers on white buns (yuk!)  Imagine our kitchens as the key to real healthcare reform.  Image how much the cost of caring for the elderly would be reduced if there were no diabetes II, heart disease, pain of arthritis or immunological diseases.  Imagine children growing up without the fear of obesity and all the chronic diseases associated.  Imagine taking that first step, here in the upstate, here at Beyond the Bull in Anderson, SC.  Here is where it will happen.  We have a lot of work to do.

Hop on the "eat smart" bandwagon, America.  I need investors at $ 2500 per share, I need 8 more to make this happen.  Better return than a bank and what a great feeling knowing you were there to take the first step for the next generation. I am positive that this venture will be profitable as well as worthy, so much so that I am investing $ 20,000 of my own, hard earned savings that I have been able to scrape together.  I will not be deterred.  To read more go to http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/97093?a=559839  .  Don't pledge but do think about investing.

Buon Appetito and Buona Salute, Chef Angela B.

This is my first in a series of books written to teach young adults and homemakers how to cook and is now available on Amazon.  As Good As It Gets, Cooking Skills For Life, Volume 1 teaches the skills the same as I have taught them to students in the past, the same methods I learned as a professional.  It is not a book of recipes, but rather a how to for the person who wants to know how to set up a kitchen, learn about food safety and sanitation in the kitchen, and the basic methods of cooking from scratch.  When you are done, you will have the basic skills on which you can build your own family food legacy as I have built mine, thanks to my parents who showed me that it is around the dining table that good friends are made and families unite. At the end of the day, good food and good people coming together is as good as it gets. Perfect life skills gift for any celebration and part of an ongoing collectible series.

I am currently working on Volume 2, Good Food Bad Food which teaches more about cooking methods and ingredients, but more importantly concentrates on ingredients that are anti aging and therefore reduce the risk of adult onset chronic disease.  Volume 2 should be on Amazon before September, both in time for the holidays.

Buon Appetito and Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB