Philip J. Goscienski, M.D.
December 2008
A recipe is a suggestion, not a command. We don't have much control over the ingredients in restaurants or fast-food places so if we're going to get a handle on the problems of obesity and diabetes we need to take advantage of what we can do in our own kitchen.
First, toss out your deep fryer and your frying pan. If you can't bear to do that, just give them a rest on the garage shelf for 6 months. There was no fried anything in the Stone Age when our body chemistry took its present form. Sautéing with wine, olive oil, chicken broth, fruit juice or even water avoids saturated fat, trans fat and the heart-harming toxins that form when cooking oil is heated in a deep fryer.
You can cut the amount of butter or lard in most recipes by at least a third without destroying the texture or the flavor. If you really need a substitute, how about bananas or applesauce? Try canola oil if those fruits seem a little extreme.
A baked potato really is a healthy food provided that it's not half the size of Rhode Island and you garnish it with yogurt, paprika or chives instead of sour cream. And be sure to eat the skin. That's where the good stuff is — fiber, potassium and B vitamins — just like your mother said.
Any recipe that calls for ground beef (hamburgers, meat loaf, tacos, stuffed cabbage and lasagna, to name a few) tastes just about the same with ground turkey instead. Speaking of turkey, white meat has a little less fat than dark meat.
Fruits, especially apples, are among the best "subs" in your kitchen. Get in the apple habit by adding them to salads, cereal, desserts, tuna and chicken casseroles, meat loaf and lots of other favorite recipes.
We have about 4 times as much salt in our diet than what nature intended. Most processed foods have too much of it so try using less when you cook from scratch. Get to know your spice rack better. Use nutmeg, allspice, curry, rosemary and pepper as you gradually cut down on salt. After a few weeks you will not only enjoy the new flavors, you'll find that your old favorite foods will taste too salty. If you're liberal in the use of cinnamon your cholesterol and your blood sugar are likely to go a little lower as well.
Get out of the whole milk habit. Use skim milk instead. You can make that a gradual change, starting with 2 percent milk, then one percent, then skim.
The health benefits of chocolate get a lot of press these days and the claims are genuine. The cocoa bean, after all, is a vegetable and it contains beneficial antioxidants and minerals such as magnesium and copper. If cocoa powder isn't sweet enough for you add some of the newer sugar substitutes. Most hot chocolate mixes have none of the healthy stuff.
Don't feel like you're locked in to any recipe. Enjoy the freedom to experiment.
Philip J. Goscienski, M.D. is the author of Health Secrets of the Stone Age, Better Life Publishers 2005. Contact him at drphil@stoneagedoc.com.