All intellectual justifications aside, I have to confess that my efforts to remove dairy from my diet have been hampered by my appreciation for centuries- old food traditions. And when you add to that the I come from a long line of people who not only depended on dairy but improved upon it, I feel like I’m denying my roots every time I pass on the slice of cheese. Half of my family, on both my father’s side and my mother’s side come from the area of northern Italy that invented the Parmesan (the true Parmiggiano Reggiano). There’s also some sprinkling of Dutch (also known for being big on dairy) and lots of Portuguese. When the Italian side of my family immigrated to Brazil, many settled in the fertile lands of Minas Gerais, which is known for its Queijo Minas.

Although it pained me, I was prepared to give up dairy if I felt it significantly improved my health. But after a while without eating any dairy product and being very careful of what I ate, I felt no significant improvement. It was nothing like when I discovered a couple of years ago that I have an intolerance to white rice and a mild intolerance to wheat and actually minimized my exposure to those ingredients. Replacing white rice and wheat for other grains improved my life significantly. I now have lots of energy and feel much more focused. Avoiding dairy did not have a similar effect. In fact, drinking coffee without a bit of dairy in it is a bit hard on my stomach. Even if I replace it with non-dairy milk.

For me at least, looks like cutting dairy completely is not the solution.

• 2 cups tomato sauce [since I didn’t think it would be enough for a pound of pasta, I added a small can of chopped tomatoes)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 small shallots
• 1 bunch swiss chard, stalks and leaves washed and chopped separately
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 tbsp chopped capers (optional)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1lb pasta (I used fusilli)

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan, add shallots and cook for a few minutes, until it begins to brown, add the garlic and the stems of the chard and let it simmer for a 2-5 minutes. Add the white wine and once it has reduced by half, add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Let simmer for 20 mins, add capers and chopped broccoli florets and let cook for another 5 mins or until the broccoli is cooked to your satisfaction (I like al dente). Cook the pasta and add the chopped chard leaves in the last minute of cooking. Strain the pasta and chard and mix in the tomato sauce.

One of the interesting aspects of Julia Child’s memoirs is precisely her disregard for the then new industrialization of food production in America. She doesn’t measure words when describing her disdain for pressure cookers (“the stinking, nasty, bloody pressure cooker… [i]t made everything taste nasty!), margarine (which she called “the other spread”) or even the quality of produce and meats. When researching poultry for her cooking book, she came to the conclusion that the “American poultry industry had made it possible to grow fine-looking fryer in record time and sell it at a reasonable price, but no one mentioned that the result usually tasted like the stuffing inside of a teddy bear.”

After books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma, or films like Food Inc., we now know that the process made more than simply make food taste bad. In the video below, Bill Maher interviews Michael Pollan on the subject:

Also interesting is this article on the NYT in which Pollan talks about how “American cooking became an spectator sport” in which we have become completely fascinated with cooking shows and celebrity chefs while fewer of us actually cook. Most people assume cooking is complicated, time-consuming, and not worth the effort since it is so much cheaper to simply buy ready-to-eat food. That’s very sad. As Michael Pollan points out in the video above, “what happens on your plate represents your most important engagement with the natural world.” It is also our clearest engagement with ourselves and mental and physical well-being.
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While Pollan is great and I’m a big fan, he’s not always right, of course. For some interesting critiques of Pollan’s latest article, take a look at this and this.

Michael Ruhlman offers another interesting comment on Pollan’s article and the influence of Julia Child. Take a look here.

1. Eat fewer animal products than average
2. Eat all the plants you can manage
3. Make legumes part of your life
4. Whole grains beat refined carbs
5. Snack on nuts or olives
6. When it comes to fats, embrace olive oil
7. Everything else is a treat, and you can have treats daily

Numbers 1 & 2 are the hardest for those in a strict meat-and-potatoes kind of diet. But you can cut down gradually, making dishes that combine meat and grains to reduce the proportion of meat. Number 7 will depend on how you feel. If you are feeling fine, losing weight and your doctor is happy, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t indulge on your daily dessert but if you are not getting the results you want, it might be better to reduce the treats.

His plan is not really a diet in a faddish sense. He doesn’t preach we must eat all organic although he admits that eating what is produced locally and in season would be best not only for us but for the environment. And this is where all this eating sanely leads to – better health for us and for the earth we live in. Bittman started becoming more conscious of his eating habits after he read a scientific report that showed that the meat industry was responsible for producing one-fifth of greenhouse gases, much more than the transportation industry. At the same time his doctor raised the red flag telling him his cholesterol and blood sugars were out of wack. By switching the proportions of animal and vegetable products, cutting junk food and prossessed food (anything with more than 5 ingredients or with ingredients with more than five syllables), he lost 15 pounds in the first month, his lab work turned out normal in the second month, and within four months he slept better than ever before, lost 35 pounds (his weight eventually stabilized) and he felt confortable and well with his new eating style.Without counting calories, nutrients, feeling hungry, or rebounding.

Makes a lot of sense to me and I do try to follow many of these tips in my daily life.

Worth a read if you feel your health is below optimal and/or you are concerned about the environment.

Check the Globe and Mail review of the book.