My Ten Rules for Healthy Eating and Cooking

Last night I finished teaching a six week class on Healthy Cooking for the Community Education program of our school district. It was great fun and forced me to truly examine my own beliefs about healthy cooking.

Let’s first toss aside a few incorrect assumptions.

Healthy cooking is not about losing weight, although if you truly cook in a healthy way your weight will naturally find its way to a healthy number that works for your body.

Healthy cooking is not about using “light” ingredients. It’s about using real ingredients –the kind that heal and grow your body. Many times these ingredients are anything but light.

Healthy cooking does not mean bland, boring food. On the contrary, it means exploring all kinds of taste sensations. It means cooking fabulous food that you LOVE to eat.

At last night’s class I shared my ten rules for Healthy Cooking. I’ll share them with you now. (and if you want to learn more about these rules, be sure to sign up for my class in the fall!)

Ten Rules of Healthy Cooking and Eating:

Home Ec Circa 2012

Home Ec has changed since I was a kid toiling away in the Kumquat Kitchen (they really called it that in honor of the color of the counter tops!). These days it’s called “Family and Consumer Science”, but the kids call it “sewing” or “cooking”. Each of these units last 8 weeks, but are required classes for the two years of middle school here in south central PA.  

When my first child traveled through the curricula of cooking, I was flabbergasted to listen as he regaled what he learned to cook! Smoothies! (is this actually cooking? Isn’t it just “chop, drop, and press the button”?) Coffee drinks! Cake Pops! Cookies! Pancakes! Brownies! It seemed as though if it contained sugar, it was on the menu. By the end of the semester I felt confident that my son could hold his own behind the counter at Starbucks. 

Now as my daughter works her way through the same classes, she corrects me as to the proper names of the cooking instruments. “It’s not a spatula, it’s a turner, mom.” As if I am too ignorant to be trusted with lifting the cookies off the sheet if I don’t even know the proper name for the flipper I’m using! I informed her that the rubber spatula was actually called a “child cheater” and she rolled her eyes and gave up. When I lamented that she wasn’t learning to cook any real food, she protested, “But tomorrow we’re making Cherry Crisp!” Ten to one the cherries come out of a can, loaded with sugar and food dye, and there are no cherry pitters involved in this lesson. 

I appreciate the districts efforts, truly I do, but as I said before, Home Ec has changed. You can’t teach a child to cook in 8 weeks when there are 30 or more kids in the class and you have no budget for fresh ingredients.  

Talk to a young adult these days and quiz them on their cooking abilities. 9 out of 10 will tell you frankly, they don’t cook. And really, they don’t. They reheat, they unwrap, they order out, they “chop, drop, & press the button”, and many of them do not know much about cooking beyond boiling a pot of pasta, and that’s being generous. 

A wonderful young adult from my community has house sat for us on several occasions. This is a former honor roll student, very bright and articulate. When we arrived home from our last trip, she had forgotten to remove her groceries from the week she spent at our house. No problem, I gathered them all up for her. I have a large, well-equipped kitchen, yet every single item required no more than a microwave to prepare. I don’t think she’s outside the norm.

Much attention is focused on the children in this time of the “obesity epidemic” in the US, but take a look around and you’ll see those same children growing in to adults who do not know how to eat healthy. The schools are certainly not teaching them. Nutrition rears its important head during health class and occasionally science, but I would wager to bet it’s not a vital cog in the home economics curriculum where they make such great use of a blender. 

If we want to stem the tide on this epidemic, we must equip our children not only with the knowledge of what foods they should eat to be healthy, but how to cook those foods. What I wouldn’t give for my daughter to come home and announce, “We learned how to cook broccoli today without letting it get mushy!” Sadly, I’m guessing those words will never pass her lips. 

To that end, I instituted a new policy in my house for my two Home Ec grads. One night a week they each are responsible for planning and preparing dinner. My only guidelines were – it needs to be balanced and it needs to include at least two vegetables or fruits. My son took the news of our new policy in stride planning a steady menu revolving around hamburgers. My daughter sighed and slumped and warned that I had to eat what she cooked. Touché!  

My husband assists my son on his night. Being boys, several of the meals have involved the grill. I assist my daughter and she has produced three delicious meals so far that included her major food group - pasta. The first was fettuccini alfredo and baked chicken fingers. I watched from the breakfast bar as she dipped and breaded the chicken, wiping her hands after each piece. I said nothing. They were delicious. Last week she made homemade pesto with the basil from our yard. It was magnificent. The boys opted for plain noodles, but she was triumphant. 

Cooking has a way of transforming my kids. It gives them confidence and skills so that when the time comes they will be able to cook a real meal for themselves and not subsist on frozen dinners. My husband calls my daughter the “apathetic chef” doing a funny imitation of her attitude each week when we inform her it’s her turn. “Whatever,” she says and pretends she doesn’t care. When we ask what she would like to cook she again replies, “Whatever.” But then once she gets started, her interest is peaked and she creates delicious meals. I doubt she would ever volunteer to cook a meal before this trial began, but now I’m certain that she will be cooking circles around me in no time. 

My 10-year-old asked me last night if he could cook dinner. I said, sure, and his eyes lit up. Whatever his older siblings do, he wants to do, but more than that, he hears us having fun together in the kitchen and he wants in on it.

What's For Dinner?

What’s for dinner tonight? Are you sick of that question? I certainly am. I believe it might be the most challenging question for any parent. Coming up with healthy dinners seven days a week, 52 weeks a year can make a person nuts. Or maybe it just makes me nuts.

My repertoire is fairly extensive. Even so, I’ve grown tired of it. So this year I’ve challenged myself to expand it. Instead of making one of my tried and true meals, or slapping together something from what’s lurking in my pantry and then being pleasantly surprised (or disappointed) in the result, this year I’m going to try at least 100 new recipes.

100 seems daunting until you break it down to 2 new recipes a week. I’m just finishing my fourth week of the new year and have already nailed down 10 recipes, so I’m ahead of the game. Would you like to join me in the challenge? How about just 50 new recipes?

My shelves groan with the weight of cookbooks I just had to have (or someone just had to give me!). My desk is scattered with recipes torn from magazines, and the cubby in my kitchen is jammed with index cards, papers, and pamphlets full of recipes. I have the best intentions, but the untold potential was beginning to weigh on me. So I collected as many as I could in a 3-ring binder and piled the dog-eared books on the corner of my counter. I’m ready. I can do this.

So far, we’ve all been enjoying the new venture. The Chia Pancakes made the blog a few weeks ago, and were requested a second time (heavens no!) this past weekend. The Balsamic-Roasted Sweet Potatoes resulted in zero leftovers. The grapefruit cake was a monster hit. But my favorite is the Pear-Celery salad. I’ve made a batch each week since I discovered it. I will confess to altering the original recipe quite a bit, but it’s still delicious and super healthy, so it’ll do.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. My kids are in on my challenge. My oldest son just started a course on Food Management at the high school, which I’m certain will provide endless fodder for our dinner table (and this blog!). I’m thrilled at the idea of someone else teaching him his way around a kitchen. Maybe he’ll realize I’m not the crazy loon he imagines me to be. As he’s gotten older, he’s begun trying more of my creations. I can't wait to try his!

I’m planning on adding a current recipe challenge count on the blog front page to keep myself accountable, but I’d love for you to join me. If you need some recipe ideas, I’ll pass one along right now –

Winter Celery-Pear Salad

2 cups chopped celery

1 cup chopped pear

¼ cup crumbled blue cheese

¼ cup walnut pieces

1 Tablespoon dressing

Cara’s “house” dressing:

½ cup roasted garlic grapeseed oil (or good canola or grapeseed oil, plus 1 t finely minced garlic)

½ cup good vinegar (this week it’s half balsamic fig vinegar and half white wine balsamic vinegar)

¼ t salt

½ t pepper

Happy cooking!

The Wonders of Grape Seed Oil

That glass of wine is good for you, right? That’s what the research says. Isn’t it wonderful when science proves your bad habit is actually a good one? Gotta love that. Recently I’ve discovered another product of the wine industry that’s even better for you – grape seed oil.

I first learned of grape seed oil at a wine festival in Virginia. I was with an old friend (who was driving) and truly enjoying the fine selections of Virginia wines, so I didn’t necessarily appreciate all that the chef was explaining at the grape seed oil tasting. I just know it tasted delicious. I bought several bottles of natural grape seed oil and garlic-infused grape seed oil.

Once home I found that the oil was even better when you have all your senses about you. It’s got a clean, nutty taste that works wonders in salad dressing. Grape seed oil has a higher smoke point than olive oil, so cooking with it was a pleasure. Veggies sauteed in the oil were divine and lemon infused grapeseed oil made a baked chicken heavenly. Dipping bread in any of the infused oils quickly became a family favorite treat.

But then I started snooping. I needed to know if the things I had heard in my happy state at the wine festival were true. Great news – they are true and then some. Here’s what I learned.

The benefits of grape seed oil have been enjoyed for thousands of years. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians not only consumed wine for their health, they used the sap from grape vines to make a salve and the leaves to treat all kinds of ailments. Mostly consumed in the form of wine, the real benefits of grapes can be found in the seed.

Grape seed oil is made from squeezing the oil from the seeds. Something wonderful from the waste product of another industry – this is good. When buying grape seed oil, be sure you pay attention to the method in which it was made. Look for expeller pressed grape seed oil. Most of the grape seed oil you might buy in the grocery store has been chemically processed like other oils. This process destroys many of the beneficial properties found in the oil. It also wreaks havoc on the flavor.

Expeller pressed grape seed oil is bright green. That threw me at first because I thought some kind of dye had been added, but nope, that’s the color. Bright green – just like the seeds of the grape.

So how is grape seed oil good for you? It’s a poly-unsaturated fat (remember it’s the saturated fats that are bad for you). Fats should be eaten in moderation. That said, grape seed oil has Omega 6’s and is not the kind of fat that raises your cholesterol. Grape seeds are stuffed with vitamin E, flavanoids, lenoleic acid, and OPCs (oligomeric proanthcyanidin complexes) – all proven antioxidants. It can easily replace olive oil or canola oil and is equally healthy for you.

If you’ve been reading the papers as you fill your wine glass, you know that wine is good for your heart (again, in moderation. Too much wine will offset any potential benefits, particularly if you get behind the wheel). The same benefits are concentrated in grape seed oil, since most of the beneficial elements in the wine come from the grape seed extract present in the wine. Here’s an abbreviated list. Most of my findings come from a recent University of Maryland study.

• Grape seed extract is sometimes used to treat health problems related to free radical damage, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Studies done, mostly with animals support these uses.

• The flavanoids found in grape seed extract (same as the ones found in wine) seem to lower “bad” cholesterol. Research is in the early stages, but the findings are promising.

• A study using healthy volunteers found that grape seed increased the levels of antioxidants in the blood.

• Animal studies showed that grape seed extract reduce blood pressure substantially.

• The antioxidant compounds found in grape seed oil may also help protect the skin from premature aging. Is that why Mediterranean people’s skin looks so good?

• Test tube studies found that grape seed extracts may have prevented the growth of breast, stomach, colon, prostate, and lung cancer cells. Antioxidants, like the ones found in grape seed extract may reduce the risk of developing cancer. Studies also found that grape seed extract may help prevent damage to human liver cells caused by chemotherapy.

• In a double-bind, placebo-controlled study breast cancer patients who took grape seed extract daily following surgery had less edema and pain than those who took the placebo. So grape seed extract, found in grape seed oil is helpful in reducing swelling and pain.

Grape seed oil, therefore, is at its worst a delicious oil to cook with, and at its best a cancer and heart disease deterrent, that can help reduce swelling and improve the condition of your skin. Wow – that’s a win-win.

Personal Note:

Most of the grape seed oils I found in the grocery store are chemically processed. So I went back to the company that was selling the grape seed oil at the wine festival. Turns out it’s a direct sales company along the lines of Tastefully Simple, but the food is all natural, and free of preservatives, MSG, and food dyes. My kind of company. Discovering that there were no reps in my area, I signed up.

I was hesitant to mention this information here. I’m very sensitive to my reader’s trust. I don’t want you to ever think I’m selling you a bill of goods. However, after talking with several people about my dilemma, it was pointed out to me that friends share information about where to buy the best products with each other. So consider it like that. I’m your friend telling you that here is one source for grape seed oil – me.

You can buy through my website or you can become a “culinary club member”. To be a culinary club member you pay a one time fee (not yearly) of $25 and then you can order the products through my website for 20% off and not have to host a party, attend a party, or badger me (not that I mind). You can also choose to host a party and earn some free product. You know the direct-sales drill. I’d be happy to speak with you about Wildtree. I’m hoping this little venture will help fund my daughter’s upcoming experience as a Student Ambassador with People to People. I will leave a permanent link on my blog’s home page.

I hope you won’t take offense and will continue to trust me as a writer sharing her ideas, knowledge, and honest experiences. I turn down several offers a month for free products from companies that would like me to print their spiel or write my own wonderful review that will convince you to buy said treasure. I don’t do it because this blog is not about selling things. Can you tell how much I stressed over posting this information on Wildtree? OK, I’ll stop. But now you have the information. Do with it what you wish.

Blind Chickens, Blind Consumers

I’ve been thinking lately about how far removed we are from our food. What’s brought this to mind is the fact that I now have a blind chicken living in its own personal hutch custom built and attached to the garage. When this chicken survived its horrendous attack by the other chickens, my first thought was – Sunday dinner! I’m sure you’re shuddering. But really, we have 31 other perfectly good chickens and here is just one more chore waiting to happen. Why shouldn’t we butcher it? My children have lots of arguments for saving the life of “Kernel” (named after the ill-fated Popcorn who was carried off by a hawk), none of which amount to anything more than “how could you?”.


When I mention my disappointment to friends, they ask, “Could you really kill it?” I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve never had the opportunity. But I’ve been thinking that if I’m going to eat meat, I really should be able to kill the animal that supplied it. We all should. Don’t get me wrong – I think it would be incredibly hard. I’m certain I would have nightmares afterward and shed plenty of tears in the process, but I also think that morally I shouldn’t be eating meat if I can’t do the deed.

Not that long ago, everyone killed the animals that supplied the meat for their dinner. My father-in-law likes to horrify us all by demonstrating with a waving arm how he killed chickens back in his day. After watching the movie, Food Inc., I was convinced that we needed to raise our own chickens for meat. I explained, carefully, to the kids that these chickens would be so much better off than the chickens in the film. They would live happy, carefree lives right up until the moment we butchered them. No dice. I haven’t given up hope, though. They are petitioning to let our two broody hens hatch the eggs they have to be pried off of each night. I’m willing to make a deal here. But they haven’t yet decided that the joy of watching the girls hatch our own chicks would offset the final end for some of these precious chicks.

How many of us really know what we’re eating? We’ve become so far removed from creating our own food that most of us have to look up how to boil an egg or make a pie crust. Our grandparents could do these things in their sleep. I can’t help but wonder how the waistlines of Americans might be effected if they had to make all their own foods. If we ate only what we created with our own hands from ingredients purchased whole or grown ourselves, I bet we’d lose some serious weight. Maybe I should create a diet, called “Made (and Lost) From Scratch”.

Recently I came across an article with a quiz in it. It listed the ingredients in the average breakfast cereal, cracker, cookie, and bread. Then it asked the reader to identify which was which. It was impossible. In fact, you wouldn’t even recognize the group of ingredients as any food because most of the lengthy list would have been hard to pronounce. I love this quote –

“If you are what you eat and you don’t know what you’re eating, do you know who you are?” (anonymous)

It’s funny, but it’s also a very poignant comment on the state of the average person’s diet.

The next time you’re shopping, pick up your favorite box of crackers or cereal and take a look at the ingredients. Do you know what they are? Cause if you don’t, you’re gambling your health (and possible your life) on the trustworthiness of some huge manufacturer whose main consideration is how much you’ll pay for said product. You’re also banking your life on our government’s ability to regulate the food industry. They wouldn’t allow companies to sell something that would endanger your health, right? Of course not, just like they wouldn’t allow you to have a mortgage you can’t afford. Or allow an oil company to drill miles deep in the ocean with no safety net.

Be smart and remember, we truly are what we eat.

Salt - the New Bad Guy

Seems like everyone’s talking about salt these days. The government’s got a bee in its bonnet and is on a mission to reduce salt in the American diet. Good luck with that. Our bodies require about 1500 mg of sodium a day. Most Americans get more than twice that. And too much salt can lead to high blood pressure which can cause stroke, heart attack, osteoporosis, and asthma, to name a few. Salt is the new bad guy, but really you can’t blame salt.

Salt brings out the flavor in foods. It makes food taste good. Ever leave the salt out of your chocolate chip cookie recipe? Yuck. Hard to believe sugar and flour and chocolate couldn’t be delicious, but without the salt it’s basically cardboard. And truly, there’s nothing wrong with salt. We all need it.

Sodium is essential for life. Without it our body can’t balance its water regulation. It’s also necessary for muscle contraction and expansion, nerve stimulation, acid-alkaline balance, and the proper function of the adrenal glands. Deficiency symptoms include confusion, low blood sugar, weakness, lethargy, and heart palpations. On the other hand, I read from a reputable source that a salt-free diet will often cure acne and oily skin. That might have been helpful when I was 16, but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.

I love salt. We use celtic sea salt granules in a grinder at our table and I’m pretty guilty of grinding away over my food. My husband always winces as he watches me douse my food with salt. I feel pretty healthy and my blood pressure is always excellent, so I try to avert my eyes when my hubby gives me that look that says “Stop using so much salt or you’re going to DIE.”

I’ve been following the big salt crisis, as I have a vested interest in not dying. Here’s what I discovered. The salt that is sickening us is not coming from our salt shakers. In fact, only 11% of our sodium intake actually comes from what we add to our food at the table. Where the sodium is really lurking is in processed food and restaurant foods. Chefs all over are panicking at the idea that the government might regulate how much salt they are allowed to add to their signature dishes. Most chefs add salt to their cooking by the fistful, not the teaspoon. Time’s recent article revealed that the Admiral’s Feast at Red Lobster has 4,400 mg of sodium. That’s three days worth! Country fried steak dinner at Denny’s has more than 3600 mg of sodium – the same as 24 strips of bacon.

Now, I’m certainly not holding up Red Lobster or Denny’s as the example of fine dining, but the parking lots of places like that are crammed, so somebody must like their cooking. We have a Cracker Barrel just a mile from our house and ever since it opened I’ve never driven by and not seen it stuffed. We ate there once, just to see what the fuss was all about. I couldn’t find anything on the menu that wasn’t smothered in gravy or deep fried. And the vegetables were boiled to death and drenched in too much salt for even my taste. Collectively we are encouraging this kind of restaurant to exist and expand, just like our waistlines.

The other place that the bulk of our sodium intake comes from is processed food, and I’m not just talking about lunchables (ham and swiss lunchables have 930mg of sodium!). Breakfast cereals and snack foods, the staple of any normal kids’ diet are loaded with sodium. Check out your bottle of ketchup - 150 mg in a tablespoon. I don’t know about your kids, but mine practically mainline the stuff. Ranch Dip has 290 mg of sodium in a 2 tablespoon serving. It all begins to add up. You can count on sodium in pretty much anything you buy from the store, it’s even found naturally in some foods, like meat, poultry, vegetables, and milk. One cup of low fat milk has about 107 mg sodium. Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup has 1,110 mg and here you thought you were being healthy having soup for lunch. In college we all ate through cases of Ramen Noodles because they were so cheap, but they are loaded with sodium – 1120 per serving!

Sodium chloride is everywhere. I was reading the ingredients in a bottle of hair conditioner the other day and found sodium chloride listed as the final ingredient – in hair care?! So what’s a person supposed to do? I think it’s fairly simple. Avoid processed food. Cook food yourself. Buy your food from people you know. I was explaining this to my 13-year-old and he said, “that’s your theme, I think.” So at least he’s getting the message even if he doesn’t always heed it.

If you do buy processed food, and let’s face it, it’s pretty hard to avoid, pay attention to labels. Salt is a great preservative, so food manufacturers use it heavily to protect food. They depend on it to reduce the dryness in crackers, and bring out the sweetness in cakes and cookies. And don’t overlook that salt is also found in sodium-containing compounds like monosodium glutamate (MSG), baking soda, baking powder, disodium phosphate, sodium alginate, and sodium nitrate.

I admit that I can be heavy handed with the salt shaker on my own plate, but I can do that because most everything I cook comes from fresh ingredients and I add very little salt when cooking. In fact, I’m kind of famous for leaving it out. My poor family has endured all manner of salt-less concoctions. All this bad press about salt has me reading labels again and that’s a good thing. The key for most of us when it comes to eating healthy is awareness. Salt is not the bad guy – our eating habits are.

Note: See the post, “Salt is Salt is Salt…or is it?” from September 2009 to learn about the healthiest types of salt.

The Price of Oil

The price of oil dictates many of our decisions from the cars we purchase to vacations to the budget we (and our country) live on. Since many of us have very few options when it comes to fuel oil for our vehicles or houses, let’s talk about our options when it comes to the oils that fuel our bodies. I seem to remember a time when the grocery store simply stocked big plastic bottles of golden cooking oil. It was cheap and we used it for everything. As I’ve grown up and learned more about health and cooking and appreciating the taste of warm bread dipped in fresh cold pressed olive oil, things have gotten much more confusing, at least for me.

This past month’s Cooking Light had an excellent article summing up oils, how they’re made, what they’re used for and highlighting some of the oils we never knew existed – like truffle oil or pumpkinseed oil. It inspired me to go back to some of the original information I gathered when I first set off on my organic path.

By now we’ve all had it beaten in to our heads that transfats are bad. But do you know why? Or for that matter, do you know what a transfat is? Manufacturers are motivated to create and add transfats to foods because they make it possible for oil to be solid at room temperature. A good thing when what you’re creating is a cheese curl that can live for centuries in any climate. Transfats are created by heating the oil to extremely high temperatures and infusing it with hydrogen gas. This causes the chemical makeup of the oil to be changed, or hydrogenated. First of all, this isn’t anything that would naturally occur so I’m guessing that in the original design for our bodies, processing partially hydrogenated anything wasn’t in the plan. In fact, several scientific journals point out that “altered partially hydrogenated fats made from vegetable oils actually block utilization of essential fatty acids, causing many deleterious effects including sexual dysfunction, increased blood cholesterol and paralysis of the immune system”. These findings were first published in the 40’s and 50’s as the process of hydrogenation was just getting big. One wonders if the rise in fertility problems, heart disease, and immune disorders is any coincidence. Transfats are now listed on food labels for all to see.

So transfats and hydrogenated anything isn’t good, but what about heart healthy canola or olive oils? It’s important to read the label and determine how the oil was extracted from its original source. Back in the day, say when horses were still important to our daily existence, oils were extracted by something like a stone press. Basically you squeezed the heck out of the seed or nut, or what have you, and the result was oil.

But who can stand in the way of progress and scientific advancement? Soon manufacturers discovered that by adding refiners like hexane (a petroleum by-product used to make plastics, glue, and solvents) they could extract even more of the oil, very quickly. More oil from less raw materials creates a bigger profit. Never mind that workers in shoe factories utilizing hexane in their processes developed nervous system and respiratory system failures. Never mind that teenagers in the US and Europe looking for a quick high sniffed hexane and ended up paralyzed. 90% of the hexane evaporates once it does its job, and the rest is removed by boiling the oil, causing much of the remaining hexane to leave in the form of steam. The US government allows a tiny percentage of hexane in oils as acceptable and doesn’t require companies to note it as an ingredient.

And how to get that gorgeous clear, clean color? All you need to do now is refine the oil some more by degumming, bleaching, and then deodorizing the oil. Now it’s beautiful. But is it safe? Hard to say, since laboratory mice don’t process oil the same way we do. Studies have been few and far between.

I’ve only glossed over the details, if you’re interested; you know how to use Google. Here’s my take on oils. Look for oils that are cold and expeller-pressed. It will say so on the label. Although the US does not yet regulate cold and expeller pressing, it’s got to be better for you than mass marketed oils. If you buy expeller pressed oils produced in Europe their standards are strict. These oils are more expensive than a big bottle of Wesson, but since we aren’t supposed to be using too much of any oil, I think the splurge is not just justified, but necessary.

Look for dark or green glass bottles when buying oils. Oil can be damaged by light if it is unrefined. Another boon for the mass manufacturers – they can bottle their highly processed oil in clear plastic because not much more damage can be done to it. Besides, after you’ve worked so hard to make it look pretty you just have to show it off.

It’s a good idea to buy your oils in small amounts since they only taste fresh for a few months after opening. Vegetable oils will last longer, but olive and nut oils should be used within 3-6 months.

I use mostly canola, coconut, and olive oils for everything I cook. Occasionally I’ll use sesame or peanut for Asian dishes. These oils and a little butter get me through just about any recipe. Canola or butter are better oils if you are cooking at high temperatures. You lose the flavor and much of the nutrient value when you heat olive oil too high.

Making healthy food choices for you and your family, requires reading labels. Like so much involved in living a healthy life, we need to slow down and act consciously. It is dangerous to assume that just because the broader culture accepts a food or an activity or an attitude as the norm, does not mean it’s safe or sane for any of us.