Healthy foods keeping the kids happy

I thought this story on the 7:30 report last night was interesting - in summary, a school in South Australia has found a "dramatic effect" on kids behaviour (for the better!) when they switched to a diet free of "artificial colours and preservatives" for just two weeks. A (somewhat cynical) scientists' point of view could be that it is all just psychosomatic, but luckily I'm not that cynical. :) However, I did think it was interesting that there were a few shots of the kids eating fruits etc during the story. Maybe "artificial" stuff the kids ditched also tended to be highly refined, high saturated fat, high sugar, high GI, low fibre "convenience" foods. And just maybe they were replaced with more whole food items like fruit: rich in vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants, fibre, lower GI, higher in complex carbs and lower in fat? Personally, it doesn't matter what the mechanism(s), the point is that it is likely that less refined foods, either because or in spite of lacking "artificial" ingredients can improve some/many/most children's behaviour.

A Cure for Diabetes (Type 2)

Science news today - a team at the Garvan Institute in Sydney announced they have found a gene implicated in the development of type 2 diabetes following high fat intakes. Kudos to them. The press release ends with speculation about the future development of drugs to target this "to see whether we can protect against or even reverse diabetes in mice." This is pretty typical in most basic medical research in other debilitating disease areas, eg. cancer. What the article doesn't make clear is that type 2 diabetes is overwhelmingly a disease of diet and lifestyle, which can be cured today in the majority of cases, with no new drugs and at no great expense.

A dangerous idea

Jonathan Safran Foer is in Australia for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. I found his book "Eating Animals" to be one of the most thought provoking I have ever read, and I could identify with him - a 30-something recent father who had been on and off vegetarian, and was re-examining what he ate and why. Click through to the link above for a little SMH article about him and his visit, but if you like to be challenged, provoked or inspired, I dare you to read Eating Animals.

Underwater astonishments

OK, I'm a bit addicted to TED Talks, but this video was too awesome not to share. Specifically the octopus at the end (it's only 5 minutes)...

Can we eat to starve cancer?

This TEDTalk video is about looks at angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels) and its role in diseases, particularly cancer. Notably, the speaker shows a list of foods with known anti-angiogenic properties...

Whipped horses 'don't go faster'

I thought this story, with the above headline, was interesting:

http://yhoo.it/nzVrKI

The link above is to the mass media story. However, this Eureka Prize page has more detail:

http://bit.ly/n2b0xm

Facebook founder 'basically vegetarian'

Did anyone else see the news item earlier this year about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg choosing to only eat meat from animals he'd slaughtered himself? I was still eating meat at the time, but I nevertheless found the story rather bizarre.

Just found out about a UK series called "Kill It, Cook It, Eat It" that reminded me of the Mark "The Butcher" Zuckerberg story. The first episode is up on ABC's iView at the moment. For reality TV, it isn't so bad, although there are some annoying personalities there, it is fairly even-handed. There are quite a few meat-eating bloggers who said they found it educational as well. I do wish they had filmed on a more mainstream larger scale farm and production line abattoir, more representative of the bulk of retail meat. Perhaps the problem is that the large scale farms and abattoirs won't allow filming because they think their sales might drop.

Minestrone to feed an army!

The picture doesn't do justice to the taste.

Minestrone is one of my favourite winter dishes, so this was a last chance to cook it before the weather starts getting properly warm. This recipe is based on one of Stephanie Alexander's, but I have removed animal products - ham hock, parmesan rind - and oil. Also, I made it on a pilot plant scale so there would be lots of leftovers!

Two must-see movies

Two documentaries have recently been made featuring Drs T. Colin Campbell (The China Study) and Caldwell Esselstyn (Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease) - Planeat and Forks Over Knives. They're both interesting viewing and give some insight into what is in the books that inspired me to change my diet.

Planeat has had limited screenings in Europe and the USA, and one showing at Maleny! The film focuses on the Campbell and Esselstyn's research, but intersperses it with some great food and cooking by top chefs in restaurants around the globe, including Saf in London. It also goes into some of the environmental issues. You can watch it online for $5.99 (USD), with a 7 day limit, and the (independent) film-makers say the proceeds are going towards funding wider distribution of the film.



Forks Over Knives has also had limited screenings overseas, but it has recently become available on DVD and Blu-ray (there's also a companion book with 125 recipes). It focuses in more detail on the science, and unfortunately doesn't show the great cooking that Planeat does. It does, however, spend a bit more time with people who have made remarkable improvements to their health through changing their diets. Worth seeing if you can get hold of the DVD or find a screening. Here's a trailer:

Brain-eating worms: another good reason to avoid meat

From pork (Pt 1):

Pt 2:


And from lamb:

What are the healthiest foods?

This video - Nutrient Density is the Key to Good Health - has over 4 million views on YouTube, so I figured it must be a topic that interests many people.

A new website, NutritionFacts.org, has launched with loads of short videos talking about the latest nutrition research. It has some interesting videos if you are into this kind of stuff, even if his narration can be a bit off-putting. His most popular videos are about the "#1 Anticancer vegetables":