The Healthy Cooking Coach

Gluten-Free Cupcake Cookbook Giveaway

Do you love sweets or cook for someone who does? Would you like to treat your spouse, partner, boy friend, girlfriend, children, parents, neighbors, friends, or co-workers to cupcakes made without wheat, gluten, grain, corn, hydrogenated fats, or refined sugar? Do you have a special occasion coming up? Do you follow a paleo, primal, or allergy-friendly diet?

If so, I have the book for you (well, at least one of you!). Here’s your chance to enter to win a copy of Elana Amsterdam’s new cookbook, Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour.

Elana is known for her innovative and delicious recipes. Her popular blog, Elana’s Pantry, details her culinary experiments and walks you through the process of working with alternative ingredients, such as blanched almond flour, coconut flour, and coconut oil. She has tons of mouthwatering pictures on her blog and in her new book.

 The Gluten-Free Cupcake book contains 50 recipes, from cupcakes to savory muffins and from dairy-free to whipped-cream based frostings, fillings, and toppings. Most the recipes are dairy-free and several are vegan (dairy and egg-free). You’ll find goodies for breakfast and brunch, Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, and Halloween, treats that look like baseballs, Hostess cream-filled cupcakes, ice cream cones, and mini fudge marble cakes. It contains a list of recommended brands for ingredients and where to buy them, baking tips, and an index.

You can read view some of the cupcakes I made and more about the book on my previous post here.

Here’s how you enter for your chance to win:
Leave a comment below that either
(a) includes a link to your favorite recipe from Elana’s blog
or (b) tells me which recipe from her new book you want to make.

To receive bonus entries, spread the word about my blog and this giveaway:
(select as many as you like; post a separate comment for each action telling me what you did):

1. Subscribe to my YouTube channel
2. Subscribe to this blog (upper left side of this page)
3. Subscribe to my newsletter (upper left side of this page)
4. Tweet about the giveaway and send me a link
5. Announce this giveaway on Facebook and send me a link
6. Mention the giveaway to your family and friends and invite them to enter
7. Mention the giveaway on your blog and send me a link
8. Come up with your own creative idea and tell me about it

Note: Do any or all of the above; post a separate comment for each action telling me what you did.

Deadline: Midnight, Friday, May 6th, 2011.
Selection criteria: Random drawing
Limitations: Drawing open only to US residents due to shipping restrictions.

To order the book right now at a discount price, click on the thumbail of the book below.

Gluten-Free Cupcakes

If you love or once loved cupcakes and you follow a gluten-free, grain-free, trans-fat free, paleo, primal, or natural foods diet, I’ve (literally) got a cookbook for you.

Almond flour
Those of you who follow my blog may remember by review of Elana Amsterdam’s Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook in January of 2010. I’ve made at least six of the recipes from her book, a couple from her blog, and some of them, like her Olive-Rosemary Bread and Rosemary-Hazelnut Shortbread, I’ve made multiple times. I’ve also tinkered with other people’s recipes to turn out some amazing almond flour recipes myself.

The scoop on gluten-free cupcakes
Elana has a new book, Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour, official released TODAY (March 26, 2011)! As you know, both cupcakes and gluten-free foods have been gaining popularity and getting a lot of press. Cupcakes have become prime players on the food scene, stealing some of the stage light from desserts like ice cream, cakes, and bars. I haven’t heard of ice cream or brownie wars or cake wars although I have heard secondhand reports about cupcake wars (I’ve just never seen the shows about them).

Photo credit: Rachel Albert © copyright 2011

Gluten-Free Cupcakes gives natural foods enthusiasts, grain-free and dairy-free bakers, and gluten-free cupcake lovers recipes for 50 different cupcakes and 12 frostings that can be mixed and matched to make cupcakes for any occasion. Even people who don’t have food allergies or intolerances will probably start salivating just looking at the pictures. Whether you’re cupcake obsessed or just curious about how to make dazzling and delicious grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, naturally sweetened cupcakes, Elana’s book contains what you need to know to get started and keep baking.

Kitchen magician
If you’ve been following Elana’s popular blog (elanaspantry.com) you know she’s a adept at creating delicious recipes that rely on a small number of ingredients. Unlike most recipes for gluten-free baked goods that rely on a mix of three, four, or five different flours plus guar gum or xanthan gum, Elana’s recipes reoly on coconut flour or a mix of coconut and almond flours. Although most of the cupcake recipes require eggs, very few require dairy products.  Some of her recipes are both vegan and dairy-free.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert © copyright 2011

Perfect portions
Besides the taste, these cupcakes have other things going for them. First, they’re made in single serving portions, so you can indulge without the guilt. (If you want to sample more than one flavor at a time and eat lightly, you can do what I did, make some of them in mini muffin tins.) Another feature is that the recipes are made from healthy ingredients! For example, coconut, coconut oil, coconut flour, and coconut milk contain short and medium chain fatty acids that have proven health benefits. Coconut products contain one of the same fatty acids found in human mothers’ milk, lauric acid (aka monolaurin), which has antiviral, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties. Almond flour is a great source of monounsaturated fats. Both flours are rich in protein and fiber and lower in carbohydrates than flours made from grains. Some of her recipes also contain unsweetened cocoa powder, dark chocolate, dried fruits, citrus zest, herbs, and spices, foods that contain antioxidants and other health protective compounds. So with her recipes, you really can have your cake and eat it too… without sacrificing your health!

Cupcake
Elana's new book includes seven recipe categories: Classic Cupcakes, Fruity Cupcakes, Warm and Spiced Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes, Special Occasion Cupcakes, Savory Cupcakes (aka Muffins!), as well as Frostings, Fillings, and Toppings. It also includes a section on ingredients, recommended equipment and kitchen tools, plus tips, tricks, and techniques to improve your results with the recipes.

Just some of the offerings include Red Velvet Cupcakes, chocolate Marble Cupcakes, Cranberry Apricot and Orange Rosemary Cupcakes, Pecan Pie, Ginger “Molasses,” and Almond Poppy Seed Cupcakes, Fallen Chocolate Soufflé, White Chocolate Cherry, and Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes, Ice Cream Cone and Black Forest Cupcakes, as well as savory teats, such as Scallion Goat Cheese and Chive Pepper Cupcakes. And yes, they’re all nutrient-dense, high in protein and will satisfy kids and adults.

Sweet deal
Get your cupcake cookbook at a special introductory offer while you can. Right now you can buy Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour on Amazon.com for $9.23 (46% off the cover price). You’ll see the link for that below. If you buy it from my Amazon store you’ll not only get a great deal on the book, you’ll also help support me and all the time and energy I put into maintaining this blog: testing recipes, studying and reviewing books, products, and restaurants, and sharing my finds with you.

Stay tuned
I made four of Elana’s cupcake recipes and two of her frosting recipes yesterday and I’ve been sharing samples with friends ever since. I plan to make a few more recipes next week for a gluten-free, grain-free, paleo and primal diet wedding reception I’m attending the first weekend in May. I’ll tell you more about the recipes I made, what I and my taste testers liked best, I’ll share some of the actual recipes, and I’ll tel you about the wedding reception over the next few weeks along with a special giveaway promotion.

If you don’t already subscribe to my blog you can do so by clicking the link on the top left side of this page, so you receive email notification when I make new posts. The blog I make posts on once or twice a week. The newsletter I send out once a month. You can subscribe to both just know that my blog and newsletter are two different animals.

Gluten-Free, Grain-Free Rosemary-Hazelnut Shortbread

Call me intense (I am!). If I'm into something, I'm into it. I think about it, read about, write about it, and talk about it a lot. Take nutrition, paleo and primal diet, photography, blogging, reading, and hiking, interests that consume a lot of my waking hours. Aside from hiking, which doesn't provide any monetary return although it provides a challenge I enjoy, an opportunity to get outside and into nature, an outlet for stress, a means for meeting new people and socializing with my current friends, puts a smile on my face, and helps me stay fit. The other things I'm passionate about all tie into my work in one way or another and they also present ways to meet and connect with people who share my interests.

I almost always have my camera with me. I'm always looking for ways to practice and improve my photography skills and capture amazing pictures I want to keep and share. When I go out to eat, go to a friend’s house, attend potlucks, lead cooking classes, go grocery shopping, take a hike, or go almost anywhere else, I usually pack my compact camera and spare batteries.

When I dine out or at the home of people I know, my friends and acquaintances know I will probably whip out my camera and shoot pictures of my food and their's before we eat. If the meal moves me, I will often blog about it or use the pictures in presentations. If I see an adorable animal or a great sunset, it might end up front and center on a homemade greeting card.

Since one of the things I blog about is restaurants where people can get gluten-free or paleo and primal diet-style meals and I write a column for Arizona Weekly Magazine, I can justify not only dining out with friends, acquaintances, or colleagues on a weekly basis, but also shooting pictures of the food.

Since I also review books about nutrition and health, I can write off some of the books I buy. They also provide interesting topics of conversation and teach me things I can incorporate into my work. If they include recipes, I can take pictures of the dishes I make and then blog about my experience.

When I hike I can be quiet and enjoy nature, talk about what I'm reading, writing about, studying, cooking, or learning, make new friends, take a few nature photos, catch up on the what my friends are doing, share what I'm up to, explore new trails, or silently take in the scenery. Hiking isn't work; it's recreation and it seamlessly ties into the rest of my life and I'm very into it.

I met some (okay almost all!) of my close friends through my work and primary interests. Four of my best friends I met 15 to 20 years ago through my interest in nutrition and my career. One of my close girl friends I met 6 years ago through a couple I know here in Phoenix. Like me, she's into teaching and coaching people who want to improve their diets and we're both into fitness (unlike me, she teaches spin classes on the side). Another dear friend I met around the same time while taking a continuing education class in life coaching. Turns out we all spent varying lengths of time eating vegetarian, vegan, or macrobiotic diets and now eat omnivorously! We all share certain lifestyle preferences. It's like that with a lot acquaintances and friends I have.

Photo credits: Rachel Albert ©2011

Thursday, I joined two of my former cooking and nutrition students, who I now consider colleagues, for a paleo/primal potluck lunch and brainstorming session. The two of them started a nutrition education business called New Fooditude. They're all about shifting people's attitudes about food, turning people onto paleo and primal diet and holistic health and making it a fun experience. They both come from a long line of party givers and a excellent facilitators and organizers.

They're super excited about the benefits of a paleo/primal diet. They feel so much better eating this way. Cathy says, "This is just too good to keep to myself!" Karen concurs! She's turned her immediate and extended family onto this way of cooking and eating and now wants to take it out into the world and share it with even more people. So far they've hired me to lead cooking two classes in Phoenix and they've got bigger plans in the works. Even if we meet to talk business, we have a blast!

We coordinated our lunch menu by email. I made a parboiled vegetable salad with broccoli, purple cabbage, carrots, daikon radish, and yellow bell peppers and brought a jar of already made Lemonette Dressing (like vinaigrette but made with lemon juice in place of vinegar). I brought three grain-free, dairy-free Rosemary-Pecan Shortbread cookies made from blanched almond flour that had been hanging out in my refrigerator for a few weeks. Cathy cooked chicken breasts paired with Mango-Ginger Chutney (both from my Garden of Eating Cookbook and the cooking courses Cathy took from me at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe, AZ). Karen made kale chips and an iced herbal tea and offered us samples of a dense and delicious salami and beef snack sticks made from 100% grassfed beef from my friends Kenny & Brenna (known as the FishHuggers in the Phoenix area).

We had a fabulous lunch feast. I filled them in on my experience at Mark Sisson's PrimaCon 2011 the previous weekend in Oxnard, CA, and we talked about the recipes we'd made, their upcoming moves, their travel plans for the summer, and how we can work together sharing our mutual passion for paleo and primal diet and build our businesses. We blocked in 90 minutes for our meeting but once we started brainstorming about upcoming joint ventures, 90 minutes stretched into 120 minutes, and finally almost four hours. We all went away excited, even more inspired, and full of ideas. I also went home with pictures to post on my blog. That's how it works, all of my interests seem to flow together into one cohesive puzzle that makes up the matrix of my life.

Friday evening met with I couple I know that I also consider friends and colleagues; they're also into promoting paleo and primal diet, lifestyle, and fitness, and holistic health. We shared a potluck dinner. I told them about the fun I had at PrimalCon 2011 and we talked about building community and connection with other like-minded people here in Phoenix, AZ, and beyond, and ways we can use our specialized intelligence, help grow our mutual businesses, and have fun doing what we love to do!

Luckily for me, my circle of friends share some, many, and sometimes most of my interests, so they're interested in hearing about, seeing, and being part of my adventures and pictures.

Here's the recipe for the cookies I made with my 9 year old neighbor Abbey last month and for a couple of cooking classes in March. They keep really well. They're not too sweet and you can substitute different nuts for variety. I featured this recipe in my April 2011 newsletter too.

If you haven't already subscribed to my newsletter (it's different than subscribing to my blog), you can do subscribe to either or both by clicking the appropriate links at the top of this page on the left side.

Rosemary-Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies

Makes: 24 cookies

This recipe comes from The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam. You can find more of her great recipes, including almond flour crackers with rosemary, on her blog: Elana's Pantry. I made a few ingredient substitutions. I've had at least six recipes from her book, includes a phenomenal Olive-Rosemary Bread that's grain free and delicious. If you haven't seen her book, it's worth checking out from your local library or buying.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 teaspoon finely ground unrefined sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (I've substituted pecans or walnuts)
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried, powdered rosemary (my substitution)
1/3 cup honey (I subbed this for the agave nectar in her recipe)
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature or palm shortening or avocado oil (I subbed these for the grapeseed oil in her recipe)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and hazelnuts or other nuts.
2. In a smaller bowl, mix together honey, butter or oil and vanilla.
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Place dough in the center of a large piece of parchment paper and form into a large log approximately 2 inches in diameter.
5. Place in freezer for one hour, until firm, unwrap and cut into inch thick slices. If dough sits longer it won't be harmed. Remove log from freezer and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices with a wet knife.
6. Place slices on a parchment lined baking sheet leaving about 2 inches between each cookie.
7. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly golden, 7-10 minutes. Let cookies cool on the baking sheets for 30 minutes, then serve.

Source: The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook: Breakfasts, Entrées, and More by Elana Amsterdam. Copyright © 2009 by Elana Amsterdam, Celestial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA. Photo credit: Me! (Rachel Albert)

PrimalCon 2011

I just I returned from the second annual PrimalCon, The Primal Blueprint Experience, April 15 to 17th, 2011 in Oxnard, CA, where I spent two and a half days socializing, exercising, eating, and hanging out at a beach park on Mandaly Bay. Other than breakfast in the hotel and sleeping in a plush hotel rooms at night, I and the other 100 participants and staff spent 99% of our waking hours outdoors.

What brought all of together was our mutual interest in paleo and primal diet and lifestyle principles and our love for  outdoor activities. I immediately felt at home with this group. Where else could we find ourselves surrounded by so many people who have such similar views and interests about diet and fitness?

Technology break
I went three and a half days without a computer or my usual to-do lists. I had my phone but kept it off most of the time, except to text a handful of texts. This break from technology and my usual routine created space for new ideas to flow in, ideas I will share with you as they take shape.

Primal fare
The hotel provided a made-to-order omelet bar with bacon, sausage, and fresh fruit for breakfast. Midday we munched at on chocolate and vanilla Primal Smoothies, berries, apples, tangerines, veggies, nuts, nut butters, with the option of turkey one day and bunless burgers, green salad, leftover grilled veggies, avocados, and dark chocolate on the next. Dinner consisted of lavish Mediterranean and Asia Pacific-themed primal feasts.

  Primal fun
Activities included Morning Gentle Movement Sessions, Barefoot Running, a Posture and Movement Lecture, Ultimate Frisbee, Slacklining, Mind Body Obstacle Course, Gorilla Ninja Training, Kettle Bell Training, Survivor-Style Team Challenges, Samba Dance Night, Primal Blueprint Fitness Challenge, Primal Blueprint Seminar with author and Primal BluePrint founder Mark Sission, Primal Cooking Demos led by me, plus sun, rest, and relaxation.

I participated in two early morning gentle movement sessions that combined yoga and  tai chi-style warm-ups and stretches led by body worker Angelo Dela Cruz. I aim to incorporate some of those moves into my weekly stretching routine, especially on those computer breaks I intend to take more of. I attended a barefoot running class with Barefoot Ted, leader of the barefoot running movement and the 5-Finger shoe phenomenon.

Nearly half of the people there wore my favorite footwear, Vibram 5-Finger shoes. Most of the other half went barefoot while a small number wore running shoes.

The primal plunge
On the second night, I joined 40+ participants in a pre-dusk ocean plunge into the 55˚ F surf, followed by a dash to an oversized hot tub where we warmed up, chilled out, chatted, shared stores and recipes, and sampled 85% dark chocolate.

 Sunsets on the beach were amazing!  Aaron Fox, another one of Mark's assistants took most of the pictures I've posted here. I took the one of my dinner plate (below) and of Quincy (also below).

 

Primal cooking classes
I set up, prepped for, and conducted two outdoor cooking demos where I prepared four family-friendly recipes from my book, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook.

Here's what I made:

• Blanched Crudité Platter of Seasonal Vegetables
• Spicy Almond Butter Dip (a variation on my Spicy Peanut Sauce)
• Cashew Dill Dip
• Dark Chocolate Dipped Date Nut Truffles

I shared my "shop ahead, chop ahead, and cook ahead so you have healthy food on hand when hunger strikes" philosophy. I explained about the virtues of cooking with two or three days or meals in mind and mixing and matching leftovers and fresh foods (much like wardrobing) for fast and easy meals and snacks. I talked about freezing extra portions for future meals and demonstrated a cool way to cut and de-seed bell pepper to reduce prep and clean up time. I shared a couple of key knife safety tips. (You can watch me make the recipes on my set of two cooking DVDs.)

I packed a lot of practical information into two 90 minute sessions. The cooking classes were a huge hit (they didn't have cooking classes at PrimalCon 2010) and I received rave reviews and an invitation to next year's event. The parboiling technique and the dips got the highest accolades. I expected that; they've been favorite of mine and of my cooking students, clients, and friends for more than two decades. They liked the grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, date-sweetened truffles but they were more interested in the the vegetables and dips.

Added bonuses
I enjoyed a break from cooking and meal planning (other than what I did for my two 90 minute cooking demos near the picnic tables and grills). I met two couples that live in the Phoenix metro area who were thrilled to meet me and find out about the Phoenix Paleo/Primal Diet Meet Up group I belong to that hosts monthly potlucks and lectures. They’ll fit right into our local tribe and have great recipes to share. I heard about similar groups in other cities (some with 100 to 150 members) that I might eventually visit and do presentations for.
 
I met primal diet and fitness expert, author, and  blogger Mark Sisson and heard him speak. I have his three books and have followed his blog, Marks Daily Apple. He’s turning massive amounts of people on to the health and fitness benefits of paleo and primal diet and exercise. You'll see links to Mark's book at the bottom of this post. I'll be reviewing two of them soon.

I met and befriended an adorable dog named Quincy owned by Gail Kearns, mother of speaker, author, fitness coach, and former professional triathlete Brad Kearns.

Brad, one of Mark’s right hand guys, is skilled at organizing people, equipment, and athletic events. He founded a non-profit organization that promotes cardiovascular fitness for kids called Running School. The organization conducts events on campus at partner schools in Northern California and Nevada, tracking students' aerobic conditioning results against national standards and helping kids make healthy lifestyle choices and develop positive attitudes towards competition, so important at a time when most schools have outsized physical education, leaving kids without a healthy outlet for their energy or the opportunity to develop an exercise habit at an early age. If you have kids, check out the link to Brad’s running school.

Gail chauffeured me to and from the Burbank airport to Whole Foods Market to shop for my demos, to the beach on Mandalay Bay, to and from a house a mile away where I did the bulk of my prep, and back to the airport at the end of the conference.

I bonded with Quincy when he sat on my lap (the only open space in the car) on the ride from Whole Foods Market to the conference site when the car was filled to the ceiling with luggage, food, and supplies for the weekend. Although I now consider myself more of a cat person than a dog person, Quincy quickly wiggled his way into my heart and temporarily took the place of my two cats while I was away from home. There he is on the right.

PrimalCon 2012
I am excited about participating in PrimalCon 2012, reuniting with the people I met in 2011 and bringing more people from Phoenix. If you’re into paleo or primal diet and fitness or curious about it, check out Mark’s blog, his books (see links below), videos, lifestyle recommendations and resources, and his conferences and lectures.

Paleo Then and Now

My first introduction to native nutrition was Native Nutrition: Eating According to Ancestral Wisdom (Rob Heart Publishing 1994) and naturopathic physician Ron Schmid, later republished as Tradition Foods Are Your Best Medicine: Improving Health & Longevity with Native Nutrition (Healing Arts Press,1997) after hearing an interview of him on a radio show in Seattle, WA, where I lived at the time. Ron’s books presented anthropological information about traditional diets, the work of Dr. Weston A Price, the benefits of traditional foods, such as meat, organ meats, raw dairy products, vegetables, and fermented foods. The books recommended whole grains and dairy so they weren’t strictly paleo. They had an impact but at the time I wasn't ready to abandon my vegan and near vegan macrobiotic diet.

The Paleo Path to Health
In early 1997, after 12 years of mostly vegan diets interspersed with several six to 12-month infusions of eggs, fish, poultry, red meat and/or raw milk and yogurt, Don Matesz (my husband at the time) and I still had many signs and symptoms of deficiency that we couldn't shake no matter what permutations of meatless diets we tried. We always felt better when we added back animal products (especially fish and meat) and we saw so many other people, like us, struggle and fail to achieve health on grain and bean-based diets, so we decided to follow a diet modeled on hunter-gatherer or paleolithic food ways. We continued to eat generous amounts of fresh vegetables. We increased our fruit consumption, which the macrobiotic diet had severely limited, added in eggs, lean, clean meat and fish, and limited grains and beans to infrequent use. Our studies and experience convinced us that most of the benefits attributed to vegetarian diets come not from eliminating meat, but from increased consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits.

We’d both read about Dr. Weston Price’s work. We knew about the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, and later the Weston A. Price Foundation. We’d discovered Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition. However, on the occasions that we followed her lead and added satisfying amounts of meat, fat, and dairy to a diet that included grains and fruit, we experienced unwanted effects, including an increase in body fat. I and two of my close girlfriends (also recovering from vegan and macrobiotic diets) each gained 10 pounds of unwanted body fat within 6 to 12 months of combined fat and carb loading! We got that that wasn’t the way to go. We had to cut out the grains and limit other starchy foods or nix the meat and fat. From years of experience we knew that cutting out meat and fat didn't work for us.

NeanderThin
My first in depth intro to Paleo (short for Paleolithic) Diet came in early 1998 when I found Ray Audette’s book, Neanderthin: A Caveman’s Guide to Nutrition by Ray Audette with Troy Gilchrist (Paleolithic Press, 1996) advertised in a magazine. At that time, Audette had the only book on the subject that outlined a diet modeled on what hunter-gatherers ate. S. Boyd Eaton, Marjorie Shostak, and Melvin Konner’s book, The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet & Exercise and a Design For Living, published in 1989, devoted a lot of space to paleolithic diet and lifestyle yet when it came to application, the menus were watered down with low-fat milk and dry cereal. 

Audette’s book influenced many current and former vegetarians and vegans seeking recovery. Here’s the Amazon description of the collector’s edition of Audette’s book (later softened and republished by St. Martins Press in 2000 as NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body).

“At the age of thirty-three, Ray Audette was diagnosed with diabetes. This was devastating as he'd already been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for more than 12 years and walked with a cane. Tired of being sick all the time, and unhappy with what his doctors said couldn't be cured, he decided to school himself on these disorders. As a result of his research, he developed an interest in Paleolithic nutrition---a natural diet based on the science of what our Stone Age ancestors ate before the development of agrarian societies.

“He then started on this diet, and although he expected positive results, he was astounded by the improvement he saw in just one week. His blood-sugar levels were normal, and within a month his arthritic pain was gone, his muscle tone had improved, and he'd lost twenty-five pounds.

“His mission then became to share this information, so he developed NeanderThin, a simple plan for achieving a healthy weight, and most important, a healthy body.

Alone in the wilderness?
Other than Don, three of my girlfriends who lived in other cities, and the people who posted comments on a paleo diet digest online, I didn’t know anyone else who ate exactly like we did. That didn’t deter me and yet, I longed for community and communion with people who thought, shopped, cooked, and ate like I did, something I had during my vegan and macrobiotic decade.

Over a period of several years Don and I experimented with different protein, carb, and fat ratios and  varying degrees of strictness with the paleo diet. We wrote The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook (published in 2004), a comprehensive book about paleo diet and nutrition with extensive information about how to stock, organize, and outfit the kitchen, how to plan meals and snacks, cook for holidays and special occasions, and streamline food preparation. We included 250 family-friendly, grain-free, dairy-free, bean-free recipes. (Note: Our book contains a couple of recipes with the option of oats, a few grain recipes in the appendix, and the option of wheat-free tamari soy sauce, peanut butter, unsweetened baker's chocolate, and cocoa powder in some recipes; otherwise it's pretty paleo and primal!) At that time, the only other paleo book on the market (besides Audette's book) was The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain; however, his book lacked the details about shopping, meal planning, prep, and cooking, and the recipes that our Garden of Eating book contained.

Flashforward to 2011
Now there at least a dozen paleo and primal diet and lifestyle books on the market and on Amazon:

• Neanderthin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body by Ray Audette
• The Paleo Diet: Lose weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat by Loren Cordain, PhD
• The Paleo Diet Cookbook: More than 150 recipes for Paleo Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Beverages By Loren Cordain with Nell Stephenson and Lorrie Cordain
• The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordain
• The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf
• The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy by Mark Sisson
• The Primal Blueprint Cookbook: Primal, Low Carb, Paleo, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free by Mark Sisson with Jennifer Meier
• Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals: Delicious Primal Approved Meals You Can Make in Under 30 minutes by Mark Sission with Jennifer Meier
• Primal Body-Primal Mind: Empower Your Total Health The Way Evolution Intended By Nora Teresa Gedgaudas
• The Perfect Health: Four Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Life by Paul Jaminet and Shou-Ching Jaminet (I’m only part way through this one)
• The New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic Ancestors Can Teach Us about Weight Loss, Fitness, and Aging by Arthur DeVany (I haven’t read this one either)
• Everyday Paleo by Sara Fragoso (I’ve not read and only just heard of this one)
• The Everything Paleolithic Diet Book: An All-Natural, Easy-to-Follow Plan to Improve Health, Lose Weight, Increase Endurance, and Prevent Disease by Jodie Cohen and Gilaad Cohen (I’ve not read and only just heard of this)

If I left any books out, please email me and let me know!

Thanks in part to the Crossfit movement many more people have been exposed to paleo diet and it's cousin, the primal diet (the two differ only in minor details). Dozens paleo and primal diet blogs and information sites can be found on the web. You can listen to paleo diet podcasts and attend potluck hosted by people who have set up paleo and primal diet Meet Up groups across the U.S. Many of my past and present cooking students and assistants, clients, friends, and acquaintances, and many of my ex-husband's past and present nutrition students and acupuncture clients follow paleo or practically paleo diets.

PrimalCon
I am amazed and excited at how I meet people in some of the most unlikely places who follow, have dabbled with, or at least heard about the paleo diet. On my lastest business trip when I went to the second annual PrimalCon, a two and a half day three night Primal Diet conference in Oxnard, California, I sat next to a strong looking guy who turned out to be both a firefighter and part time personal trainer who had experimented with paleo diet for a couple of months!

At the conference, hosted by Primal Diet expert, author, speaker and blogger Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple fame, I met and hung out with 100 people from across the U.S. who share my passion for paleo and primal diet and fitness and share similar views about health maintenance. I immediately felt at home in this tribe. I also realized how blessed I am to have so many people in my life who share my dietary and lifestyle preferences and practices. I’ll tell you more about PrimalCon and the similarities and differences between paleo and primal eating later this week, once I receive more photos from the event.

If you'd like to buy some of the paleo and primal books I mentioned and help support me in operating this blog, click on the banners below to buy the books from my amazon store.

To order and get the best price on The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook, the book I co-authored with paleo and primal diet expert, acupuncturist, herbalist, nutritionist, and Don Matesz, click here. Order from our site and I''ll throw in a sample shopping list and links to my YouTube Channel and additional articles to support you in following a healthy diet and lifestyle. You can also check out my set of two cooking DVDs, which are paleo and primal with the addition of two gluten-free grain recipes.

Paleo Breakfast of Champions

I had a delicious paleo breakfast of champions this morning: leftover grassfed beef steak, green salad (also leftover) with Lemonette Dressing (from my Garden of Eating Cookbook), fresh pineapple with coconut milk, and  my favorite coffee alternative, Teeccino, with coconut milk, cinnamon, and vanilla stevia. I frequently eat meat, vegetables, and fruit for breakfast or brunch. This morning I had a special treat. Not only did I have a meaty bone to knaw on (the long thing in the front of the picture) and some exra juicy fat on the steak, I also had a rare delicacy.

Grassfed white beef
It wasn't just any grassfed beef steak I was eating. It’s white beef, something you’re unlikely to ever see in stores. It’s a genetic anomaly. I’ve been eating their beef for about six and a half years and last year was the first year they had (and I tasted) white beef. I had the ground white beef in tacos at their house. It looks like pork (see picture right)  even though it’s beef; it tastes very mild, more mild than typical 100% grassfed beef, which can have a slightly grassy (some call it gamey) taste. It still has the nutrients you’d expect in beef and a lighter taste. It’s the other white meat! It's so delicious!

Rare meat
It’s probably similar to white King Salmon that I had on several occasions when I lived in Seattle, Washington. It’s appearance always unpredictable and when they had it at Larry’s Market, where I worked the year following the closing of my restaurant, Rachel’s Natural Foods Café, I would often buy it for its rich buttery flavor. “No farmer or rancher that we’ve ever talked to has ever seen it [white beef] or heard of it,” says Brenna Aschbacher of Fishhugger Beef & Salmon.

Fishhugger beef
The white beef and most of the (regular red) grassfed beef I buy and eat comes from my friends Kenny & Brenna Aschbacher (known as the Fishhuggers in the Phoenix metro area and in Albuquerque, New Mexico). It’s raised on Kenny’s family’s farm in Sedan, NM, in the northeast corner of the state near the Kiowa National Grasslands. The cattle are raised on irrigated wheat, rye, and bermuda grasses. Whereas raw foodists grow wheat grass, juice and drink it, Kenny’s family graze and finish their cattle on the gourmet grass, a much better use of it if you ask me! Ruminants are far more efficient at digesting and converting the nutrients in grass into more important nutrients than humans.

Leaders in grassFAT beef
Kenny and Brenna are setting a standard for what they call grassFAT beef: their cattle are born and raised on the same farm their entire lives and spend about 3 years eating all grass, all the time. They are truly grassfed start to to finish. You may see meat in stores that’s grassfed initially, then finished on grain to make it fat fast! Technically, it’s no longer grassfed; once they’re fed grain the cows become grain-finished, a different animal altogether.

Grassfed is both a traditional old time practice, and a very new thing in our modern world. Lean grassfed beef can be easy to come by. As long as a cow has never been fed grain, it can qualify for the label “grassfed. We grabbed on to the term grassFAT to distinguish our meat from other [lean] grassfed meat,” explains Brenna. “Our animals are grassfed for their whole lives and they’re grass-fattened so they concentrate more of the nutrients that are found only in the fat."

Once cows reach sexual maturity (18 to 20 months old), when they’re done growing hair, skin, and bone, then they can lay down more fat. Some farmers butcher their cattle young so they can keep up with demand. Kenny & Brenna exercise more patience and allow their animals to live longer lives and eat more grass than most farmers in the grassfed movement. They want the animals to lay down more fat, particularly the kind of fat that 100% grass feeding produces.

Paleo food
Kenny and Brenna want to come as close to replicating what paleo hunters had access to and enjoyed the most. “We want the cattle to have a healthy life and really live to their full potential,” says Brenna. “It’s part of our commitment to the animals as well as to the quality of food.” You don’t want to trim off this fat before (or after) cooking. This if fat you want to eat! It’s good and rich and loaded with important nutrients that support health. Although many farmers and writer promote grassfed beef as being leaner than conventional grain-fed beef, their are many benefits to eating a higher fat diet. The fat content of cows, sheep, goats, and other ruminants depends largely on the breed of cattle, how the animals are raised, what they eat, and the age at which they are slaughtered.

Good fat is where it’s at!
"In the grassfed world most of the medicinal properties are found in the fat. All of our favorite vitamins (A, D, E, K) and essential fatty acids (long chain omega 3s) and cancer protective nutriens, such as CLA, are concentrated in the fat, moreso than the meat," explains Brenna. The meat provides a healthy protein, but we need the fat for other essentials that we can’t get or can’t get enough of from other foods. The hunter gatherers would go for the oldest, fattest animals. That produced the most energy for their efforts. Animal fat (yes, that means saturated fat!) is a traditional food our bodies are meant to run on.

The processor the Aschbachers use is located in Dalhart, Texas. It’s a small, Mennonite family-owned and operated USDA inspected facility about 30 miles from their farm that dry ages the beef for 14 days before cutting it and freezing it. Kenny and Brenna sell it to restaurants, individuals, and at farmers’ markets around the valley (Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Ahwatukee) from mid to late October to April, then they migrate to Albuquerque, NM, sell at markets there. During part of the summer, Kenny heads to Alaska to fish for wild salmon that's flash frozen on the boat. Some of that salmon gets sold to canneries, to the Japanese for the sushi trade, and some of it gets shipped to cold storage in Phoenix and Albuquerque to be sold along with the Aschbacher's beef.

If you’d like to buy and try some of their meat, visit the Fishhugger web site for the listing of farmers’ markets in the Phoenix metro area and in Albuquerque, NM, where they sell beef. You can also call them and arrange to pick up meat directly from them or have large orders delivered. If you are interested in saving money by purchasing in bulk, you can check out the Fishhugger Beef Bundles and 5th Dimension Food Shares. Half or whole beef orders are also accepted. Their beef stores well in a -10 degree F freezer for 1 year. Tell them Chef Rachel sent you!

The Power of Protein & Strength Training

Sarcopenia = Degenerative loss of muscle mass and strength associated with aging.
This results in a loss of balance and mobility, a reduction of metabolism, makes us look old, and makes us gain body fat.

Osteoporosis = Porosity and brittleness of the bones due to loss of calcium and protein from the bone matrix. This results in a predisposition to fractures and bone deformities, such as dowagers hump or the collapse of one or more vertebrae.

Both of these conditions can be improved with strength training and a protein-rich diet. Even if you’re not trying to look like a body builder, you want to build muscle and forestall the muscle wasting that frequently happens as we age. Muscles make us look young. They give our bodies pleasing shapes. They keep us strong and mobile. They enable us to get around, pick things up, and they are the furnaces that burn calories for energy. Lose muscle and your metabolism slows down making it easier to gain fat and harder to lose it, and difficult to get in and out of chairs, carry groceries, etc.
 
Use it or lose it
According to exercise physiologist, Dr. Ellington Darden, starting in their mid 20s most Americans lose an average of one half pound of muscle per year and gain an average of 1.5 pounds of fat every year. By age 45 that can amount to a loss of 5 pounds of muscle and a net gain of 7 pounds of fat. By 60 that can mean a loss of nearly 18 pounds of muscle and a gain of 53 pounds of body fat! Yikes! It doesn’t have to go that way!
 
Not one key, but two!
For years strength training has been touted as the best way to build and maintain bone and muscle and forestalling the loss of these tissues as we age---the best being  progressive resistance, meaning you progressively increase the resistance or amount of weight you lift as you get stronger. You bones and muscles need this stimulus (a challenge) to build more muscle and bone.
 
“Exercise is the only proven way to build muscle ---or slow muscle loss—over the long haul,” says editors of the article “Staying Strong: How Exercise and Diet Can Help You Preserve Your Muscles” in the April 2011 isue of Nutrition Action Health Letter.
 
If you don’t work out at a gym, you can exercise at home with weights or by doing body weight exercises that target all the major muscle groups. People into Crossfit training practice and teach many of these methods (some hard core; others designed for more typical trainees). You can find instructional videos about body weight exercises and ideas for creating an inexpensive home gym online.
 
No age limit
Whether you work out at home or at a gym, researchers have discovered that you can increase both muscle strength and muscle power even in your 60s, 70s, and 80s. So don’t think you’re past the point of being able to increase bone density, muscle strength, and muscle power that you need to function well in daily life.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright 2010©

Don’t forget the protein!
According to research cited in the April 2011 issue of The Nutrition Action Health Letter:

“Strength training builds muscle. So may eating enough of the right kind of protein as we get older, say researchers in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands.”

“Measuring changes in how the body builds protein over minutes and hours, they have discovered that as we age, we appear to need more protein---especially the kind that’s rich in the amino acid leucine---than younger people.”
 
Older people need more protein
“Our studies show that older individuals need a larger amount of amino acids to stimulate protein synthesis than younger people,” says Arizona State University researcher Christos Katsanos. One of his colleagues, Micah Drummond at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found that among people 60 and older, “their cells resist making new tissues after they consume small amounts of protein” but when given more protein (30 grams of protein, the amount found in 4-ounces of cooked meat or poultry at a single meal), the older people synthesized as much protein as young adults.
 
The problem with typical American diets
The typical food pattern many people (young and old) follow is to start the day with a carbohydrate-rich, protein-poor breakfast of cold or hot cereal, a bagel, or muffin. Lunches may or may not be protein rich. A pasta salad, a heat-and-eat bowl of mac and cheese, a PBJ, or soup and salad meal can fall short on protein. Some people load up on protein at dinner; others fail to get enough there too!
 
The studies cited in this article attest to the benefit of spreading protein intake out over an entire day. University of Texas researcher Douglass Paddon-Jones recommends shooting for 30 grams of high quality protein (meaning protein from eggs, fish, poultry, meat, or dairy) at each of the three main meals, something I’ve been advocating for years since I abandoned grain-based vegan and macrobiotic diets and learned about the Zone Diet and Paleo and Primal Diets.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright 2010©

A protein rich breakfast might consist of eggs, vegetables and fruit; leftover fish, poultry, or meat with veggies or veggies and fruit; or, if you're not accustomed to eating breakfast, a protein rich fruit smoothie made with egg white protein or whey protein.
 
Protein quality; yes, it matters!
It’s not just the total amount of protein that you eat that matters. Researchers found that only the essential amino acids (the ones we must get from food that our bodies cannot manufacture) stimulate protein synthesis (muscle building). Of the 9 essential amino acids, “It [leucine] is the key amino acid that’s driving the majority of the protein synthesis response,” says Micah Drummond of the University of Texas Branch at Galveston.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright 2010©
 
Eggs, fish, poultry, meat, and dairy (particularly whey protein), are the protein foods richest in essential amino acids and leucine. The experts cited in this article note that plant proteins are okay but contain lesser amounts of leucine, so they may not be as efficient as animal proteins. FYI: Plant proteins not only lack certain amino acids but they are generally harder to digest and thus may yield more protein on paper than they actually deliver in reality. (That was certainly my experience on vegan diets!)

The experts cited in the article say that to maintain or gain muscle (and bone), you may need to eat 25 to 50% more protein than the RDA in addition to engaging in strength training exercises on a weekly basis. If you build your diet and meals around a protein portion roughly the size of the palm of your hand (give or take a couple of inches) and at least twice as much fresh vegetables or vegetables and fruits supplemented with good quality fats and oils, you can’t go wrong. If you eat grains, consider reducing the amount and frequency and filling in with more veggies and fruits.

To learn more about how to eat a protein and produce-rich diet, check out these books:

The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Don Matesz & Rachel Albert

The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf.

The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your Gense for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy by Mark Sisson

The Paleo Diet: Lose weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat by Loren Cordain, PhD

 

Benefits of Hidden & Not So Hidden Veggies

For years I’ve been eating and advocating an omnivorous produce-dominated diet, one that is vegetable rich but not vegetarian where vegetables or vegetables and fruits make up the largest volume of food consumed. My previous book, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook, features fascinating facts about the benefits of such a diet and how it can facilitate body fat reduction and long term weight control, a clear complexion and more youthful skin, better mental focus, good digestion and elimination, reduced food cravings, lifelong vitality, and healthier smarter children.

My co-author, Don Matesz, and I include documented food ways of pre-agricultural people free of modern degenerative diseases who ate this way. We expound on the benefits of fruits and vegetables (as well as meat and show readers how they can easily consume 3 to 5 USDA servings of produce per meal.

Mainstream is catching up
Still, it’s taken the mainstream media a while to advocate a diet richer in vegetables and fruits where fresh produce replaces more of the grain, processed food, and sugar. Several months ago I read an article in the Nutrition Action Health Letter advocating eating more vegetables and fewer grains to provide more alkaline buffers, thereby reducing muscle wasting and to bone loss as we age.

We knew that!
This is something Don and I discuss in our Garden of Eating Book (published in January of 2004) that we learned from the work of professor Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet, and his colleagues Dr. David A. Bushinsky, M.D., professor of medicine and pharmacology and physiology at the University of Rochester (New York) School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Dr. Anthony Sebastian, M.D., professor in the Department of Medicine and General Clinical Research Center  at the University of California, San Francisco.

How to create an alkaline diet
In our book we show that you don’t have to go vegetarian or vegan to create an alkaline diet. We show that all you have to do is eat more than twice as much fruits and vegetables as meat [or grain] to avoid a net acid overload to your system.

Why does this matter?        
“Normal metabolism produces acids, including sulfuric acid, a by-product of protein breakdown. Too much acid accumulation will irritate, inflame, and erode tissues and impair the function of energy-generating and life-sustaining systems. To neutralize and excrete these acids, the body needs a reserve of alkaline elements or compounds.
   
“Fruits and vegetables provide potassium citrate and malate that the body metabolizes to potassium bicarbonate, which effectively neutralizes acidic by-products of metabolism. If this bicarbonate is not available, calcium may be drawn from the bones to neutralize acids before excretion." (Excertp from The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook.)

The scientists we site in The Garden of Eating found that a slight systemic acidosis corrodes bones and muscles, reduces rejuvenating growth hormone production, and accelerates aging. Other studies show that people who eat the most fruits and vegetables have the lowest rates of osteoporosis.

Veggies win again!
The April 2011 issue of the Nutrition Action Health Letter includes another study that expounds on the benefits of eating more fresh vegetables and fruit.

“Call it sneaky. Call it smart,” they say. “If you secretly swap pureed vegetables for other ingredients in some dishes, people will eat fewer calories and won’t notice the difference.” (Hey, we’ve been telling people to do that for more than a decade!)

Nutrition Action editors site a recent study where “Researchers at Pennsylvania State University offered 41 young men and women breakfast, lunch, and dinner once a week for three weeks. At each meal, one dish—the carrot bread at breakfast, the macaroni and cheese for lunch, and the chicken-and-rice casserole for dinner—contained pureed vegetables in place of other ingredients.”

They found that “When enough pureed vegetables were added to triple the amount of veggies in a dish, the calories [consumed] dropped by 15%. When enough were added to increase the vegetables by 4 1/2 times, the calories [consumed] dropped by 25%.”

How much food do you eat?
For years Don Matesz and I have both been telling people that studies have shown that most people eat 3 to 5 pounds of food a day (1095 to 1825 pounds a year or at least half a ton!) and that if you eat more vegtables and fruits you can crowd out less nutritious and more calorie dense foods, making weight control and blood sugar control easier while adding more vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and more soluble fiber, a less irritating form of fiber found predominantly in vegetables and fruits.

Interestingly Penn State researchers found that “People consumed the same weight of food regardless of the amount of pureed vegetables the dish contained. So on days when the vegetables were tripled, the participants ate 200 fewer calories. And on days when the vegetables were multiplied by 4 1/2, they ate 360 fewer calories. But hunger and fullness ratings stayed the same.” That means you can eat more food for fewer calories when vegetables or vegetables and fruits, which have a low calorie density, make a large portion of what you eat.

Thank you Penn State researchers and Nutrition Action editors for another piece of work supporting paleo and primal diets and what my co-author Don and I have been teaching for years. It also supports other research showing that portion control, simply eating smaller portions of highly stimulating and calorie dense foods, rarely works for long term weight control.

They key to long term weight control consists in eating a diet that allows you to eat your fill of nutritious foods at meals (or meals and snacks), so you can feel satisfied without having to play tricks on your mind, such as eating from smaller plates. Studies have repeatedly shown that being able to eat a large volume of food increases feelings of satisfaction at meals. The diet I have found most effective in allowing me and others I know to lose weight and keep it off without feeling deprived is a Paleo or Primal Diet. If you haven’t read much about it, I encourage you to order a copy of Don’s and my book, The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbok. You'll find the best price online here plus you'll get a sample shopping list that goes with the sample month of menus in the book.

Other good reads on paleo and primal diet include The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf, The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy by Mark Sisson, The Paleo Diet: Lose weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat and The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordain, PhD, and The Perfect Health Diet by Paul Jaminet.

If you enjoyed this article, I encourage you to tell your friends about it and about my blog and my books. You can subscribe to this blog at the top of this page (left side) to receive email updates when I make new posts. I plan to review more paleo diet books soon. I will also be doing some book giveaways!

Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

What you see on the shelf labled as a red garnet or jewel yam is actually a sweet potato, botanically speaking. It’s not really a yam but it was given that name after a variety of sweet potato introduced to the U.S. in the mid 20th century. The name was used to distinguish it from the drie, paler, cream-flesheded sweet potato that most people were accustomed to at the time. This whiter sweet potato is sweet and starchy like the red “yams.”

In contrast, true yams are starchy, earthy, hardy flavor and texture. They are not sweet. They belong to the Dioscoreae family of tubers native to Asia. You can buy dried dioscorea root (cut int thin oblong pieces) in Chinese and Japanese markets and Chinese herb stores. I powder and use this to replace oats or oatmeal in meatballs and meatloaf. I bring this up to give you an idea of how different true yams are to sweet potatoes and what we, in the U.S., have come to associate with when we see the word “yam.”

According to information in an article entiteld “Sweet Potatoes The Healthy and Anti-Diabetice Starch” on Dr. Michael Murray’s web site, “Sweet potatoes are native to Central America and are one of the oldest vegetables known to man. They have been consumed since prehistoric times as evidenced by sweet potato relics dating back 10,000 years that have been discovered in Peruvian caves.

The spread of sweet potatoes
“Christopher Columbus brought sweet potatoes to Europe after his first voyage to the New World in 1492. By the 16th century, they were brought to the Philippines by Spanish explorers and to Africa, India, Indonesia and southern Asia by the Portuguese. Around this same time, sweet potatoes began to be cultivated in the southern United States, where they still remain a staple food in the traditional cuisine.

"In the mid-20th century, the orange-fleshed sweet potato was introduced to the United States and given the name "yam" to distinguish it from other sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a featured food in many Asian and Latin American cultures. Today, the main commercial producers of sweet potatoes include China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, India and Uganda.”

What’s in it for you?
The nutrient these vegetables are most known for is their high carotene content. The darker the variety of sweet potato, the higher the concentration of carotenes. So red garnet “yams” pack more carotenes then Jewel “yams” or white sweet potatoes. A single cup of cooked sweet potatoes contains 30 milligrams of beta carotene. (Don’t assume that automatically converts to vitamin A though. There is some evidence that many people are unable to convert betacarotene into vitamin A or convert only a small amount.)

Deeper, darker red sweet potatoes (what we usually see labeled as red garnet yams) also contain the antioxidant lycopene (also found in tomatoes and watermelon). These compounds have been shown to be protective against many cancers, including breast, colon, lung, skin, and prostate cancer and to lower the risk of heart disease, cataracts, and macular degeneration neutralizing harmful oxygen free radicals before they can do damage our cells.

Move over oranges, make way for sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes also contain generous amounts of vitamin C and vitamin B6 along with lesser amounts of manganese, copper, biotin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B2, and dietary fiber.

Beyond the blood sugar blues
“Unlike many other starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes are classified as an ‘antidiabetic’ food," says Dr. Murray who cites animal studies that showed that sweet potato helped stabilize blood sugar levels and improve the response to the hormone insulin. White-skinned sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) appear to be more effective here than red-skinned varieties. In a human study, consumption of white sweet potato consistently improved metabolic control in type II diabetic patients by decreasing insulin resistance.

Selecting and storing sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes and what we see labeled as yams in American supermarkets should all be firm, smooth, and umblemished. Avoid wilted, leathery, or discolored sweet potatoes especially those with a green tint, soft spots, or moldy ends.

Look for narrow tubers that are no larger around than what you can wrap your hand around, touching your thumb and forefinger. Jumbo sweet potatoes with a wide diameter tend to be tough and mealy so I usually avoid them.

Store sweet potatoes at room temperature in a basket, bowl, on a rack with some room for air to circulate. If stored in a bowl or basket, check often to avoid spoilage. I usually buy six or more at a time. If you’re cooking for two or three people and you eat them several times a week you may want to buy them by the dozen.

Note: If stored in quantity, separate each sweet potato with crumpled newspaper to keep moisture from collecting on the skin, which can invite mold. Do not refrigerate uncooked sweet potatoes or yams. Sweet potatoes should be stored in a cool, dark, and well-ventilated place where they will keep fresh for weeks. They should be stored loose and not kept in a plastic bag. Keep them away from exposur   e to bright sunlight (read: don’t store them on a windowsil) and temperatures above 60 degrees F since this will cause them to sprout and/or ferment.

Tips for Preparing
If you purchase organically grown sweet potatoes, you can eat the entire tuber, flesh and skin. Yet, if you buy conventionally grown ones, you should peel them before eating since sometimes the skin is treated with dye or wax; if preparing the sweet potato whole, just peel it after cooking. I find even the organic ones often have tough skins or have a slightly modly unpleasant taste, so I usually peel before cooking (if slicing) or after cooking (if baking them whole).

Because the flesh of sweet potatoes will start to oxidize upon contact with air, you should cook them immediately after peeling and/or cutting. If this is not possible, to prevent oxidation, keep them in a bowl covered completely with water until you are ready to cook them or, if making sweet potato fries, toss them with fat or oil (the fat or oil you plan to roast them in) to evenly coat. Wait to add sea salt until just before cooking lest they weep and sit in a puddle of water, which will dilute the flavor and prevent caramelization during cooking.

Try it, you’ll like it
Here’s a family-friendly recipe that’s been popular with children and adults. It’s been a huge hit in my online and on ground cooking classes for years and with friends. It’s from my cookbook, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook. To read more about and order the book, click here.

Here’s a video of me making Roasted Sweet Potato Fries from my cooking dvd:

Silver Dollar Sweet Potatoes  

Prep: 30 minutes/ Cooking: 45 minutes /Yield: 6 servings   

Don’t wait for the holidays to serve sweet potatoes. They’re delicious all year round and handy for pack lunches or quick meals at home. These mouthwatering medallions are rich in potassium and beta-carotene and lower in fat and sodium than French fries. The aroma during baking or reheating under the broiler is reminiscent of oatmeal cookies or cinnamon toast. People who don’t usually like sweet potatoes or yams usually like these.

Source: The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert and Don Matesz. To read about and order your copy, click here for the best price on the internet.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons ghee, melted, unrefined coconut oil or avocado oil
2 teaspoons apple pie spice or ground cinnamon or dried, powdered rosemary
4 large or 6 medium sweet potatoes or yams (2 to 2 1/2 pounds):
    Jersey sweets, white sweet potatoes, beauregard, or Japanese sweet potatoes, or red garnet or jewel yams
1/2 teaspoon finely ground, unrefined sea salt, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400˚ F. Measure out the fat or oil and the spice and set aside.
2. Rinse and scrub sweet potatoes with bristle brush. Pat dry. Remove rough sections and any soft or black spots. Peel if desired. Cut into 1/3-inch thick rounds with sturdy vegetable or chef knife or use a mandoline for potato chip-like texture. Cut into 1/2-inch thick rounds for softer, French fry-like texture. 
3. Place the sweet potato slices in a large bowl and toss with the fat or oil to coat well. Sprinkle on the spice and optional sea salt and toss to coat. Arrange vegetable slices one layer deep on 2 to 3 large, liberally greased cookie sheets or shallow baking pans. (For easy cleanup, line them with unbleached parchment paper.)
4. Bake  for about 20 minutes minutes. Flip the vegetables with a metal spatula if desired, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. For crisper slices, raise the heat to 450˚F during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Serve while warm. Refrigerate leftovers and use within 3 days, reheating them in an oven or toaster oven for about 10 minutes.

1 serving: 205 calories, 3 g protein, 38 g carbohydrate (4 g fiber), 5 g fat, 52 mg calcium, 15 mg sodium

Variations:

• Baked Spiced Sweet Potato Halves: Cut raw sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. Rub or brush cut sides with oil or ghee and dust with pie spice or cinnamon. Rub 2 spiced halves together to spread seasonings. Place cut side down on baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment for ease of clean up. Bake until bottom side is golden brown and tubers are tender when poked with skewer, 20 to 40 minutes, depending on size.
• Roasted Sweet Potato Fries: Cut the sweet potatoes into french fry like sticks and prepare as directed above, turning them over after 25 minutes of cooking.

Source: The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert and Don Matesz. To read about and order your copy, click here.