The Lifelong Impacts of Eating Disorders

What is one of the deadliest mental illnesses, especially to young people whose bodies are still developing? Many people would be surprised to learn that eating disorders can have lifelong impacts and high rates of morbidity and mortality. According to JAMA Psychiatry, "individuals with eating disorders have significantly elevated mortality rates, with the highest rates occurring in those with anorexia nervosa." More can be learned about the main types of eating disorders and their impacts here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1107207

States are stepping up to fight the rise in eating disorders that is yet another effect of the pandemic. In Colorado, legislation has been introduced to establish a statewide office of disordered eating prevention and to limit the availability of diet pills and better oversee medical practices related to weight reduction.   

In Minnesota, state schools have been offering free breakfasts and lunches to students who qualify for them. But now, to reduce the stigma, the free meals are available to all students regardless of whether their families can afford to feed them or not. Is this going too far? I don't think so. It's clear that to be corralled into a group of needy people is traumatic for students who are already suffering. But there's another reason for my view: children of all strata of society suffer from food insecurity leading to disordered eating. It looks different on either end of the spectrum, typically. Families who are economically challenged substitute filling carbs, over-processed, cheap foods for nutritious whole fruits, vegetables, and proteins. But children in affluent families are often left to their own devices without knowledgeable guidance in choosing healthy foods. They are preyed on by deceptive advertising and harmful diet schemes and drugs. 

Consider the beautiful actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn. She was born to an aristocratic family and lived on an estate. But this child of privilege and wealth suffered from so much food insecurity and malnutrition that she had a weak constitution during early adulthood and had to give up her dreams of becoming a ballerina. When she was nine years old, World War II broke out, causing her family's fortunes to collapse. The family was reduced to Hepburn, her mother, and a half-sibling when the Germans restricted food supplies to the Netherlands where they lived, and she remembered making flour out of tulip bulbs. 

After the War, Hepburn suffered from anemia, jaundice and other maladies. Her experiences and the upheavals she witnessed affected her her whole life long. Described by The New York Times as "a young lady of extraordinary range of sensitive and moving expressions within such a frail and slender frame," she used her experiences to become not only a highly accomplished actress but also a compassionate and inspiring humanitarian. 

Sadly, Hepburn didn't always recognize the beauty that the world did. In a 1959 interview, she said, "I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly... you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority." These self-images are also a hallmark of eating disorders. Alongside model Twiggy, she is credited with making extreme slimness fashionable in the 1960s, leading to a new wave of illness and malnutrition among women. The most famous victim was Karen Carpenter, who tragically died at the age of 32 from anorexia nervosa. Her story is recounted in The Guardian.

Super-slender models and actors have faded from the spotlight but there are still plenty of young people at risk. Many who were isolated during the pandemic and were scarred by exposure to harmful views on social media are still working through the impacts. First-time attendance at the Denver-based Eating Disorder Foundation’s family support groups has spiked more than one thousand percent. A Harvard analysis suggests that nearly 10 percent of people will develop an eating disorder in their lifetime. If it doesn't strike us, it will affect someone we know, someone we love. It's something worth thinking about, because Everybody Eats. 

More about Colorado's actions to prevent eating disorders here.

The Fruits and Flowers of Winter

The Fruits and Flowers of Winter

Around now, winter is wearing out its welcome. We long for the languid days of summer and the fresh breezes of spring. We may even flock to the florist's to cheer ourselves with flowers imported from tropical climes. 

But wait! Before you do that, explore some local sources of fragrant blooms, aromatic spices, and citrusy scents. 

Preserved Citrus

Dried or pickled oranges and lemons preserve the taste of summer as well as its nutrition. They are full of Vitamin C which is just what you need to ward off winter chills and sniffles. 

Preserved lemons are fun to cook with. Stuff a chicken, squash, or pumpkin with a preserved lemon for a bright but mellow taste. Preserving is easy: just fill a sterile jar with small whole lemons, lemon quarters, or strips of lemon peel and pour over a mixture of hot, salty lemon juice brine. Some people add bay leaves, star anise, or cloves, but this is entirely optional. Seal the jars and let mellow and cure for up to 60 days, shaking occasionally. With preserved lemons, you eat the peel, which becomes soft and chewy as it brines. Wash off excess salt before using your preserved lemons. 

I love the posts of David Lebovitz, who lives, dines, and writes from France. They're now growing citrus in-country! He celebrates that with a divine recipe for Grapefruit-Vermouth Jam Marmalade. It's grapefruit season in California, Arizona and Florida, so enjoy without guilt! Photo by learntopreserve.

Flower Power

Remember those hibiscus blossoms you gathered last summer? They're just waiting for you right now to make a fragrant tea. This works for the blossoms of chickweed, borage, viola, and many other plants. The chive blossoms, popped into rice vinegar, transform it into a rosy nectar. 

Here's a fun use for dried, pressed flowers: tea cookies! What better way to evoke summer than these sweet morsels.

Very Very Berry

Because of climate change, farmers are sending berry crops to market earlier and later in the season. But in Japan, things have gone too far, with farmers using fuel-burning greenhouses to produce strawberries for the Christmas holidays. They are starting to rethink this as data appear that show even transporting fruit from more tropical places beats growing local outside of the natural season. Learn more in this New York Times article. 

It won't be long until fresh berries start showing up in markets. If you'd like to try a traditional Indigenous recipe, here's one for Sweet Berry Wild Rice from Elena Terry (Ho-Chunk). It features Native ingredients like squash, maple syrup and wild rice in addition to blueberries, strawberries and cranberries, which can be fresh, dried or frozen. 

If you have chokecherries dried or in your freezer, take a tip from Wild Food Girl: "chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) lose their astringency when dried—astringency being that mouth-puckering sensation, sometimes confused with bitterness, that feels like the water is being sucked out of your mouth. After reading some accounts of indigenous peoples reconstituting dried chokecherries and enjoying them like fresh fruit, I soaked some in water. A few hours was not enough; it took 12 to 18 hours to get a desirable result. But at that point, the flesh comes off the stone very easily, making them an enjoyable snack.”

Fruits That Last

Some fruits are still abundant in winter. Apples and pears keep well--I'm making bulgogi sauce with ripe pears. The pear pulp is a tendering agent when marinating the beef for Korean bulgogi. Yum! 

I scored some excellent tomatillos at the grocery store. Many people don't understand the staying power of these wonderful fruits, the love child of a tomato and a citrus. I'm planning to make a fresh salsa with the tomatillos, cilantro, jalapeno chilies, and assorted spices. Olé!

 

 

 

 

The Legume With Many Names

 Chickpea: The Legume With Many Names

The chickpea has almost as many names as it has uses. It's often called a garbanzo bean, which comes from the Spanish word garvance. Before that, the word may have Arabic or Greek origins. This valuable, underappreciated plant is easy to grow in many climates and offers food with great nutritional value (protein, fiber, vitamins, amino acids) that keeps well.

So, what's not to like? Well, chickpeas can be a bit bland, especially in their canned, processed incarnation. That's why, when I chose to include chickpeas in my New Year's feast, I started with dried chickpeas instead of canned or frozen ones. After reconstituting by soaking in water and then roasting with aromatic herbs and spices, they make a mouth-watering, flavorful snack or addition to a salad or entree. They are especially good as a stand-in for meat in a vegan or vegetarian bowl with their abundance of protein and other nutrients. Be sure to make extra!

The above pictured Curried Chickpea Bowl is a delight that features fall and winter veggies: carrots, kale, and red cabbage. Grate carrots into a hot pan with a little oil or butter simmering in it. When the carrots are softened and aromatic, add rice and water, bring to a boil, lower heat and cover. While rice is cooking, quick pickle some shredded red cabbage in a brine of 1/2 lime juice and 1/2 water with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar added. Microwave for 1 minute and set aside. 

You can also make a dressing to drizzle over the top of all the ingredients with sour cream or yogurt, lime juice, and curry powder. Thin with water to a drizzling consistency. The last step is to sauté the chopped kale in olive oil. Assemble the bowl by fluffing the rice and adding to one quadrant. Place the kale, cabbage, and roasted chickpeas in the other quadrants and drizzle with the dressing. Find the recipe here. 

The chickpeas I'm using for this feast come from Pfz Farms in Eastern Colorado. Although most chickpeas are grown in India and surrounding countries they are also grown in Canada, Russia, and the U.S. They belong to the nitrogen-fixing family of legumes that improves the soil they are grown in, a win-win situation!

The World Traveling Spud

 

 

The World Traveling Spud

Unlocking the secrets of DNA has opened a new world of understanding about how past civilizations grew, moved around, and intermingled. Thanks to research into the human genome, we now know that Native Americans came into contact with Polynesian peoples as early as 1200 C.E.

But there's another way we know that Polynesians and people of the Americas came into contact. They shared their food, specifically, the sweet potato. Potatoes, like at least 50 percent of commonly used foods, arose in the Americas, in the "fertile crescent" of Peru.  But sweet potatoes have been a staple in Polynesia for more than 2,000 years.

Recent findings suggest that Polynesians traveled to western South America long before European contact. Not only did they learn about and adopt the sweet potato but they also intermixed with Native Americans in the Central and Southern continent. Polynesians were known for "island hopping" and covering vast areas of the Pacific region. 

Why haven't we known more about this before now? Well, as the journal PNAS Highlights writes, "the connectivities, transformations, and dynamism of traditional societies in many areas of the world continue to be underestimated for periods before European exploration."

Learn more at Sweet Potatoes: from the Andes to Polynesia in Science Magazine. 

King Frederick II Inspects the Potato Harvest

By Robert Müller - www.dhm.de, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3754769
 

The White Potato is a World Traveler Too

If the sweet potato originated in the Americas, from whence came other varieties? They also came from the same region, not Ireland, Germany, or even Idaho. They came by way of Spanish soldiers using an innovative tactic. Soldiers marching through Europe planted potatoes as they went, so there would be food for subsequent troops as well as for their return to Spain. 

But very few people in Europe knew what to do with potatoes. In Bavaria, they were grown for their flowers in ornamental gardens. Then, a visiting American named Benjamin Thompson developed a potato soup to be fed to the poor in Munich. From the late 1500s to the present day, interest and love of the "Earth Apple" has spread throughout Europe to the point where some countries have become dependent on it. 

With a caloric value 3.6 times as much as bread, potatoes soon surmounted grain as the food of choice for a traveling army. Peasants also benefited from the extra nutrition in potatoes, and lands grew more populous with healthier people and more children.  King Frederick the Great of Prussia was the potato's best marketer, issuing 15 Potato Decrees extolling its benefits and instructing his subjects on how to grow them. There was general widespread resistance at first because tasty recipes for potatoes hadn't been developed. But during two wars in the last half of the 1700s, growing potatoes prevented famines. In 1817, Germans bestowed the name Kartoffel on the potato to distinguish it from other plants growing underground. 

Today, Germans eat an average of 125 pounds of potatoes annually per person. No wonder the saying goes: "Potatoes make fries, chips, and vodka. It's like the other vegetables aren't even trying." 

My potato crop a couple of years ago

 

 

All Hail the Kale!

Kale: King of the Greens

Kale is an easy and pretty green to grow in your garden and heaps of it are on offer at farmers' markets. But even vegetarians shun it sometimes and it was thought to be fit for only cattle to eat (lucky cows!). 

In the past few years, we're growing and eating more kale. I was intrigued when my colleague Linnea Bjorkman gifted me a few large leaves from her beautiful garden. So I went to my bookshelf and pulled out Grow, Cook, Nourish by Darina Allen, a compendium of gardening advice and more than 500 recipes. 

 

I imagine you're thinking, "but what does kale taste like?" Granted, a leaf that's been hanging on the plant for a month might be bitter and fibrous, but the large leaves given to me were fresh and tasty. I could imagine them mixed with other greens in a salad, but for this first foray into kale eating, I wanted to cook them. 

Allen's book did not disappoint, with six recipes for kale. "Kale Stir-Fry with Asian Flavors" caught my eye and I selected the recipe to make as a side dish. It's easy, has few ingredients, and cooks up fast! 

If you don't have Darina's book, go to this link of easy vegan recipes for a similar one: https://www.glueandglitter.com/easy-kale-recipe/

However, the book's recipe adds sliced scallions, a chili pepper, a pinch of palm sugar, and a teaspoon of sesame oil at the end. Or you could omit the chili and use spicy sesame oil. 

It's a nice, simple recipe that invites you to experiment. I have made it into a full main dish by adding cubed tofu or chicken and vegetables. It is good over rice or scooped up in chapati or a tortilla. It shines alongside squash or stirred into a soup. 

Best of all, kale's benefits are many: it is packed with vitamins, phyto-nutrients, fiber, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, niacin, and antioxidants. You'll be hale if you eat kale--it truly deserves the title of superfood, as well as super tasty food!

Black Smoke Explores the Roots of Barbecue

 

Black Smoke Explores the Roots of Barbecue

Author Adrian Miller is too modest when he calls his recent book Black Smoke "a history of African Americans and barbecue." It's really a comprehensive and well-researched account of all of barbecue's roots, which also covers the indigenous peoples' uses of barbecue in the Americas. He includes a fascinating account of the Columbus expedition's second landing on the beaches of Cuba where they found several fires untended, with fish, rabbits, and "two serpents" cooking. The men fell upon and feasted on all but the serpents, which they found to be "disgusting" and later, they met up with the Taino people whose camp they had raided. The sailors confessed and the tribespeople rejoiced that the serpents (thought to be iguanas) were left alone. They could fish again and snare rabbits, but the iguanas were difficult to obtain.

 

After that, barbecue knowledge bounced from Native Americans to Black enslaved people to mainstream America. And Black people brought their own techniques from West Africa. Spanish colonizers contributed the pig. The cooking method served multiple purposes besides preparing food for eating; it also preserved food by drying and smoking. 

It's easy to see why Black Smoke won a James Beard award in 2021. It's well researched (23 pages of footnotes and bibliography!) and contains many illustrations and photographs. There are also 22 recipes, including The Sioux Chef Sean Sherman's Grilled Bison Skewers with Wojape, a sauce made from wild chokecherries with honey or maple syrup. 

In the photo below by August Schwerdfeger, Wikipedia Commons, Chef Sean Sherman forages for wild ramps. 

 

 

What Makes Mesa Verde So Green?

What Makes Mesa Verde So Green?

It is literally a "green mesa." This formation in the extreme southwestern corner of Colorado is in a high desert environment, yet it supports an amazing diversity of plant and animal life. In ancient times, it was the home of cliff dwellers, the Puebloan people who thrived and then disappeared mysteriously. Mesa Verde is a land of contrasts, myth, and surprising discoveries. 

How exactly did they thrive, these ancient Puebloan peoples, on this collection of three large mesas surrounded by deep ravines and canyons? Mesa Verde's geology offers clues. Deep in geologic history, the area was actually part of a vast inland sea. Sandy soils from beaches and shallow waters were deposited over a thick layer of shale, made from the hardened mud that was once sea bottom. Then, through geological uplifting, the mesas rose above the surrounding river bottom land and water runoff sculpted the valleys and canyons below. But the mesa surface, being relatively flat, absorbed rain water and snow, which percolated down until it met the hard shale. It then traveled horizontally, sometimes for years, until it seeped out of the mesa's vertical walls. These seeps were known to the dwellers, who carved out reservoirs in the shale to store the water, some of them as small as a ladle. 

The dwellers fashioned many water catchment structures to take maximum advantage of the water for growing food and satisfying their and their animals' thirst. Nearly 1,200 check dams and reservoirs have been discovered on the mesa, and extensive terracing was noticed after a series of wildfires uncovered numerous sites in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

Mesa Verdians practiced corn agriculture and grew "The Three Sisters": corn, squash, and beans. They domesticated turkeys, to which they fed corn. They foraged acorns, pine nuts, berries, and spring greens. Lower down, in the valleys, they practiced decrue farming, flooding the crops in the spring with runoff from the mountains and forests to the north. In fall and winter, they fished and hunted.

The people harvested and preserved their crops. Many of the structures in their cliff dwellings were devoted to food storage. The Puebloan people took basketry and pottery to a high art as well as the highest levels of functionality. Sadly, many of the pots and containers have been carried away by scavengers, but some beautiful examples are in the collections of museums ranging from the Denver Art Museum to the British Museum. 

About the mysterious disappearance of the cliff dwellers, modern Puebloans have an answer: "We're still here." They say that the residents of Mesa Verde simply migrated to other places, including settlements in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. The appearance of similar pottery and basketry confirms this. Puebloans, and their culture, continues today.