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Category Archives: Health issues

On thinking ahead

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I bet that some of you who live in California are feeling a little paranoid right now. Can you trust the authorities to tell you what the radiation levels are? And maybe you went looking for iodine supplements and couldn’t find any because it had sold out. You’ve got to think ahead, folks. Several years […]

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Into the woods, for your health?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The New York Times reports on studies that have shown that going into the woods improves immune function. One Japanese study, for example, found that spending time in dense vegetation lowered cortisol levels, lowered the pulse rate, and lowered blood pressure. Another study found that two-hour walks in a forest over two days raised the […]

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Rehabilitating potatoes

Friday, February 26, 2010

I’ve written previously about how sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index than white potatoes and are all around healthier than white potatoes. But lately I’ve become aware that there are things we can do to lower the glycemic insult of white potatoes. If you Google around, you’ll find a number of sources that say […]

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Potassium broth

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Now that I’m back on the cold and snowy East Coast, I’m remembering how good it is to have an arsenal of warm drinks. How about a bit of old-fashioned broth? It was from Jethro Kloss, in the hippy handbook Back to Eden, that I first heard about potassium broth. Kloss’ version of potassium broth […]

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Coffee substitutes

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I’m amazed how easy it was to give up coffee. I decided that the caffeine couldn’t possibly be doing me any good. And besides, when one no longer has to go to work each morning, the caffeine kick really isn’t necessary. For years I was very San Francisco-ized in my taste in coffee. I drank […]

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Has U.S. life expectancy peaked?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Life expectancy in the United States is at an all-time high. But like the stock market, it’s starting to look a little toppy. Life expectancy has started to decline in some parts of the United States, particularly rural areas and parts of the South. According to LifeScience: “Though the United States has by far the […]

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Scrambled tofu

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Vegetarians and vegans have known for a long time that one quick cure for a protein craving is scrambled tofu. When I started buying tofu back in the 1970s, you could get it only at health food stores. Now even my country supermarket at Walnut Cove has it, organic. I always buy the firmest tofu […]

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Rolling back the clock on sweets

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

These will be ready to eat tomorrow. There are a couple of scenes in the BBC series Cranford, which is set in Cheshire around 1840, in which some children get very excited about the fact that their cherry tree has come into season. The children get a big thrill out of helping the new doctor […]

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Living to be 100

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Island of the Ancients The Huffington Post has an article today on the growing number of people living to be 100 years old. One of the reasons cited for this is “improved diet.” I think it would have been more accurate to say “the possibility of improved diet.” The diet of the average American […]

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Chapati bread

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The dough, kneaded and resting Those of you who’ve been reading my scribblings here know that two tenets of my theory of cooking and health are that we should all eat like diabetics, even if we’re not; and that the elimination of simple carbs is the key to maintaining body weight. The problem is, bread […]

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