Great Way Weekly

One of our favorite meals is “rice and soup.” It doesn’t sound especially appetizing, I suppose, but it’s our short-hand for a Korean/Japanese-style meal of short-grain white rice, miso soup, and a wildly varying (and often enormous) collection of vegetable and protein side dishes. The variety possible is endless, and many of the side dishes are easy to pull together. As a meal, it’s a bit like tapas.

We learned to love these types of meals when we lived in Taegu, S. Korea. In the local parlance, such a meal was called “chung shik” (I think other parts of the country call it “bap shik”). “Chung shik” is a “regular meal.” Most restaurants serve some version of this–a soup, often deon jang jjigae, the Korean version of miso soup, rice, at least one type of kim chi, and a variety of small dishes of vegetables and a bit of protein. Restaurants near temples often specialized in vegetarian fare in recognition of the nearby buddhist monk’s vegetarianism, usually including delicious house-made tofu.

Every time I ate something delicious I would ask anyone who could speak a bit of English how to make it. We bought some English-language Korean cookbooks while we were there, but they’re only so-so.

So, I’m super excited about two new Korean food blogs I’ve found, Bap Story and Mangchi. They have great recipes and pictorial or video instructions on how to make them.

Our “rice and soup” dinners are better than ever now!

Every few years my husband and I trek to Montreal for the Montreal Jazz Festival. The festival has changed a lot since our first trip their. On this trip we realized that instead of going to mostly listen to music, we were going to mostly enjoy some favorite things about Montreal, and then listen to a little al fresco music in the evening. It was one of our best trips yet.

Community garden in Montreal

We rented a small apartment near the Atwater market and the Lachine Canal, two of the highlights of our trip. The lovely community garden pictured above was next to the apartment, and it was pure joy to walk past it several times a day and see gardeners tending their tidy plots.

Farm stand at Atwater Market

The Atwater Market was a delight for me–a permanent farmer’s market with a wide variety of small local vendors. Quebec is a bit behind Boston in their season, so they still had strawberries and asparagus. Both were delicious and so simple to enjoy in our our little kitchen. We also bought some delicious local goat and sheep’s milk cheese, some maple syrup and La Messagere, a wonderful Quebec-made gluten-free beer.

The Lachine Canal (with access conveniently located right behind the market) is an amazing urban park, perfect for biking. It was originally built as an industrial canal, and spurred development in that parts of Montreal that it traversed. Biking along it is fascinating–a range of historic stone buildings, modern buildings and infrastructure, crumbling factories, and luxury condos line the path. There’s even one section that travels parallel (and within a visible, but safely distant) section of a major highway. Despite all of this human-made scenery, sections of it are lush with greenery and overall it was a peaceful ride.

Our bike journeys were made possible by the BIXI bike share program that’s like the one we’re getting here in Boston. It was a great service and I’m so excited to have something similar in Boston.

Kusmi Tea store

We also found a shop dedicated to selling our favorite tea, Kusmi Tea. It’s Russian-via-Paris, expensive, decadent and totally worth every penny.

Most of our meals were simply prepared dishes with loot from the farmer’s market (like the egg, potato and asparagus recipe that follows), but I have to mention the fantastic vegetarian restaurant we visited in the Plateau neighborhood, Aux Vivres. They serve a nice variety of interesting and healthy vegetarian fare, including several gluten-free items.

I’ve found that one of the easiest and healthiest foods a vegetarian can prepare when you’re traveling is eggs.

They’re versatile–on recent trips I’ve made omlettes and fritattas, hard-boiled, scrambled and poached in spicy tomato sauce–all with minimal equipment and seasonings.
They’re healthy–the white is almost pure protein, providing slow-burning fuel. Eggs are also an important source of B vitamins for vegetarians, something in short supply in the vegetable kingdom.
They’re filling–perfect to fuel a morning or afternoon of walking around or biking (or after, to refuel for the next adventure).
They cook up fast! Perfect for a quick lunch after a morning of exploring

They’re also available everywhere, maybe one of their best features.

Taking advantage of the delicious local asparagus and some nice new potatoes, I made this “hash” for lunch after one of our bike rides. It’s so simple it’s hard to call this a “recipe.” If you can use real butter, I encourage you to do it tastes great! If butter is not you’re friend, use your favorite butter substitute.

Eggs with potato and asparagus hash

For 2

4-6 eggs, depending on how hungry you are, beaten
8 small, 2-3 medium or 1 large potato
1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces.
1 small onion or 2 shallots, chopped
butter
Salt, pepper
Optional additions: crumbled goat cheese (or any cheese), tabasco, avocado, chopped fresh herbs

Cut potatoes into a 1/2 inch dice. Boil until just cooked through (about 8-10 minutes).
To prepare asparagus, either add to potatoes in the last minute of cooking, or parboil or steam them separately until bright green and just tender.

Heat butter in a large frying pan. Saute onion or shallots until soft. Add potatoes and allow them to gently brown in the butter (but don’t burn the butter!). Add asparagus, stir to coat with butter.

Push veggies to the side of pan, add a bit more butter and pour eggs into the empty 1/2 of the pan. Scramble until mostly cooked, then stir veggies and finish cooking the whole process should take about 5 minutes, depending on how well you like your scrambled eggs to be done). Salt and pepper to taste

Served topped with any of the optional additions you’d like.

My favorite New York Times food columnist and cookbook author, Mark Bittman wrote this nice blog post about some good news regarding healthy foods. He points out that it’s getting easier (and hipper?) to eat healthy foods–there are more farmer’s markets, more emphasis on sustainable growing practices, and most importantly, a greater emphasis on healthy meals in our school systems.

Hopefully all of these changes really do turn us into a nation of healthy whole foods eaters instead of chubby processed foods eaters. I suppose we won’t see real change until we stop subsidizing corn (which is processed into all sorts of chemicals and sugars) and start subsidizing things like kale, fruit and whole-grains. I could get excited about my tax dollars being spent on that!
Read the original post here.

The New York Times ran this article about new regulations on giving antibiotics to livestock. I am hopeful that it’s the beginning of changing our terrible farming and animal husbandry practices. It’s crazy to me that animals are fed antibiotics to make them grow faster and keep them healthy in the squalid conditions factory farms use. I’m sure the changes are not enough, but it’s a start.

Fewer antibiotics will help make our meat supply healthier for us, but sadly, I don’t think it will change the inhuman way livestock animals are treated.

Maybe we can start working on that. . .

Read the full article here. Oh, and this photo is from the New York Times. I did a quick search on the internet for a different photo, but factory farm photos are horrific! This one is a little gentler on the eyes.

Check out this listing of some great health and diet blogs: Nursing Online Ed has a list of the top 100 health and wellness blogs. Who chose which blogs made the cut? I’m not sure, but they do seem to have picked some good ones.

Scroll to the bottom for the list of blogs on alternative medicine, including acupuncture. And it’s nice to see so many people writing about being healthy!

Lifehacker (one of my husband’s fav blogs, BTW) points us to this great comparison of the calories versus the caffeine in lots of popular bevs and treats.

More at Caffeine and Calories via Lifehacker.

Lately I’ve been trying to get my patients to eat pumpkin seeds, but most of them seem non-plussed by the idea. Pumpkin seeds are loaded with magnesium, B Vitamins, protein and iron. Like all nuts and seeds, they have fat, but it’s the good kind, so that’s not such a huge worry. Click here and here for 2 links to nutritional info about pumpkin seeds.

I eat them almost daily by sprinkling them into my morning hot cereal (along with other nuts, raisins and honey), or into some of my lunches (I like them with brown rice, tofu and broccoli topped with a quick peanut/miso sauce). The ones I buy most often are not roasted or salted, so their flavor isn’t strong, but they add a very pleasant crunch to whatever I’m eating.

Another way to add pumpkin seeds (or other nuts) to your diet is to add them to sauces (or smoothies). Today I found an interesting-looking pumpkin see and tomatillo sauce recipe on the New York Times website. I’ve never made Green Pipian, but frequently make tomatillo sauces–they’re tangy and have an interesting flavor. For those with food allergies and intolerances, this recipe is great, so long as you can eat pumpkin seeds! There’s no gluten, soy, egg, or corn.

Click here for the original article in the New York Times.

Here’s the article:

This classic Mexican pumpkin seed sauce, also known as green mole, is tangy, herbal and spicy all at the same time. Serve it with poached or pan-cooked chicken breasts, fish (it’s very pretty with salmon), or shrimp. You can bathe grilled vegetables with it, or serve it with white beans and steamed or poached vegetables. Hulled untoasted pumpkin seeds are available in many whole foods stores and Mexican markets.

1/2 cup hulled untoasted pumpkin seeds

1/2 pound tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and coarsely chopped, or 2 13-ounce cans, drained

1 serrano chile or 1/2 jalapeño (more to taste), stemmed and roughly chopped

3 romaine lettuce leaves, torn into pieces

1/4 small white onion, coarsely chopped, soaked for 5 minutes in cold water, drained and rinsed

2 garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed

1/4 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon canola or extra virgin olive oil

Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste

1. Heat a heavy Dutch oven or saucepan over medium heat and add the pumpkin seeds. Wait until you hear one pop, then stir constantly until they have puffed and popped, and smell toasty. They should not get any darker than golden or they will taste bitter. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.

2. Place the cooled pumpkin seeds in a blender and add the tomatillos, chiles, lettuce, onion, garlic, cilantro, and 1/2 cup of the chicken stock. Cover the blender and blend the mixture until smooth, stopping the blender to stir if necessary.

3. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven or heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Drizzle in a bit of the pumpkin seed mixture and if it sizzles, add the rest. Cook, stirring, until the mixture darkens and thickens, 8 to 10 minutes. It will splutter, so be careful. Hold the lid of the pot above the pot to shield you and your stove from the splutters. Add the remaining chicken stock, bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring often, until the sauce is thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt. For a silkier sauce, blend again in batches.

Yield: Makes about 1 3/4 cups

Advance preparation: The sauce can be made 5 days ahead and freezes well. Whisk or blend to restore its consistency after thawing. It’s easy to double this recipe and freeze a batch of it. For a beautiful main dish, double the recipe and place cooked chicken breasts or fish fillets in a large baking dish, cover with the sauce and heat through in a medium oven. Garnish with chopped cilantro and toasted pumpkin seeds.

From Great Way Blog

The Wall Street Journal has published this interesting commentary by Deepak Chopra about the real benefits of alternative medicine and lifestyle changes to improve our health and reduce our health care spending. I like how he emphasizes that our current, ineffective system is focused on treating disease after it strikes rather than on working to prevent health problems. Prevention gets talked up a lot in the press, but I sure haven’t seen anything change in how my MDs treat me or my patients. Some of the most debilitating and expensive-to-treat health problems are preventable in a large percentage of the population. Why aren’t we focusing on that as we look to fix our very broken medical system? Hopefully, someone in the Obama administration will take a look at this and maybe start requiring insurers to cover things like acupuncture. I suspect they’ll find that it’s much more cost effective than what we’re doing now.

Read the full commentary here.

You hear a lot these days about inflammation.  In the past, inflammation was viewed as an unfortunate byproduct of disease.  It made a lot of trouble for the patient, but the thing to do was to bring it down with things like steroids and non-steroidal anti inflammatories (NSAIDS–like Advil).

These days, inflammation is seen as a cause of illness, an integral part of the disease process. It’s something to be avoided as best you can, but how?

One of the best things you can do to protect your health in both the short and long term is to eat a healthy, balanced diet. You hear that all the time,  but what does it mean in practical terms?

The very best diet for minimizing inflammation in the body is primarily vegetarian + fish/seafood, with a little bit of lean meat on occasion.  Whole grains, lots of veggies, extra-virgin olive oil–these foods deeply nourish the body and help it make qi (or vital energy). My husband and I have been lacto-ovo vegetarians (meaning we eat eggs and milk) for over 15 years.  We also recently decided to add some seafood to our diets.  We feel great on this diet, and are the thinnest members of our families.

In Chinese medicine, we believe that food is a type of medicine.  You must be mindful of what you are eating at all times, and do your best to eat foods that give your body something to work with.  Refined, packaged and fast foods are convenient, and in a pinch, are fine to consume occasionally, but they should the the exception and not the norm.  Take the time to prepare healthy meals for yourself and the dividends will be tremendous.

Dr. Andrew Weil has redone the food pyramid to reflect our understanding of what to eat to minimize inflammation in the whole body.  Following this type of diet should pay off in more energy now, and some protection from bigger health problems in the long run.

Dr. Weil's Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid

One thing about this pyramid that I disagree with is the notion that you need to eat chocolate “sparingly.”  I think that so long as you eat dark chocolate, you can (and should) eat a little every day.  I see dark chocolate as a special “vitamin” that we need regularly.  So indulge, but don’t over do it.