Approximately one third of the world’s people suffer from a lack of micronutrients. Micronutrients are “any substance, such as a vitamin or trace element, essential for healthy growth and development but required only in minute amounts”  More specifically, micronutrients in food include essential things such as: folic acid, iron, vitamin D and iodine. Although they are consumed in minute amounts, the have profound implications on our health and wellbeing.

According to the World Health Organization, “these substances are the “magic wands” that enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development. As tiny as the amounts are, however, the consequences of their absence are severe. Iodine, vitamin A and iron are most important in global public health terms; their lack represents a major threat to the health and development of populations the world over, particularly children and pregnant women in low-income countries.”

The proposal to address this problem is to enrich food staples and salts with micronutrients. It is true that enriching food staples such as adding iodine to salt and vitamin D to milk has been practiced in the US for a long time and is a primary cause in the elimination of nutrition based diseases such as rickets. Also, the article correctly notes that the cost of fortifying food stables with micronutrients is extremely cost efficient.

But, doesn’t this seem a bit like treating symptoms instead of treating problems?

The problem is not exclusively a lack of access to foods containing micronutrients. In all reality, the problem is a lack of access to an entire diet capable of meeting the current nutritional needs of people.

In a sense, fortifying food staples is the somewhat the nutritional equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The situation is akin to switching from regular to diet drinks as a way to regulate sugar and calorie consumption. The switch comes with the trade off of increased caffeine consumption as well as increased exposure to artificial sweeteners. At the end of the day, all you are doing is playing a game of nutritional three card monty by trading one bad thing for another.

It is critically important to ask what food staples that will be fortified. If fortified food products in the US serve as an example, they will be highly refined or processed, bearing little-to-no resemblance to their traditional form or place in a person’s regional or ancestral diet.

Considering:

“[When we eat refined foods] … we limit the opportunity to bolster our immune system, keep our blood sugar and emotions balanced, keep our blood sugar and emotions balanced, protect against degenerative diseases, maintain a trim and fit body, and in general, keep our integrated experience of life harmonious.”

“Our desire to overeat can stem from eating foods that are refined and therefore missing ingredients; these deficient foods can foster addiction as we are instinctively driven to over consume them in our endeavor to obtain the missing nutrients that are never there.”

Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford (2002 edition) pgs 16 -18

And, according to Harriet V. Kuhnlein, Professor of Human Nutrition and Founding Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) at McGill University in Montreal, Canada:

The development, health and scientific communities do not usually understand the food resources that indigenous people know and use. Scientific identifications and laboratory data for nutrients and other phytochemicals for a food system may be unknown for many species.

A possibly better solution to this issue might be re-examining and then reintroducing traditional dietary and agricultural practices “upgraded” for current daily life instead relying upon artificially fortifying foods derived from highly refined and processed foods frequently from foreign sources and diets.

So, at first impression it seems this spouse deserves a gold star for supporting the partner and understanding the challenges of following an unconventional diet with many possible restrictions.

Then the spouse laments for the days of gluten foods and half jokingly says gluten free foods taste “like straw”. Now, it seems that re-evaluating those gold stars might be a god idea.

Since this is “FOOD for the rest of us” and not “MARRIAGE counseling, guidance, and judgement for the rest of us”, I lets focus on the food.

This spouse is not the only person in the world to consider gluten free foods to be unpleasant.  In fact, I have previously blogged about a NYT article where celiacs’ laments for gluten foods such as pasta and breads were followed with praises to the food industry for coming up with increasingly “better” imitation foods as substitutes.

In fact, while making a birthday cake with two layers of genoise brushed with sherry and iced with mocha butter-cream and chocolate icing using regular all purpose flour, I found myself thankful for not having to counter balance any of the garbanzo bean flavor sometimes found in many gluten free flour mixes. I was also glad to focus on the cake and not if the amount of xyntham gum added was sufficient or too much.

So, while I wasn’t saying it tasted like straw, I was viewing it as something inferior to a gluten based product. Then I realized this was probably due to the fact that I was automatically assessing the possible tastes and textures of something made with out gluten against something made using gluten.

Just as substituting beef or chicken with some sort of soy based product, using vitamin pills instead of eating fruits and vegetables, or eating farm raised vs wild or “free range” fish, fowl, or beef leads to all kinds of dietary issues and doesn’t taste all that good; forcing an over processed, chemically stabilized, and artificial-in-nearly-all-aspects-of-its-existence food item to replace is not exactly a good idea.

Instead of looking for substitute food products or items that can be swapped in and out of your eating habits as if they computer parts or brake pads, maybe it is better to consider it time to undertake a food odyssey, searching for new to you foods that are fun to eat and do not conflict with your dietary choices.

After all, just because a meal or a specific dish or food item is made to be gluten free does not mean the food should not be good.

For example, the other weekend I cooked great meal.

The salad included fresh cherry tomatoes, sweetened red onions, basil, sheep’s milk feta, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

For the main course, I roasted beef sirloin with a rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, Grana Padano cheese and garlic crust. The beef was accompanied by roasted apples, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and turnips, a pan sauce, and rustic mashed potatoes.

For dessert, I used Giffords’ double chocolate ice cream with warmed “Last of the Season” peaches and a ruby reduction.

Although I added toasted bread croutons with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, parsley, and basil to the salad, and the salad would have been equally good without them, the meal was essentially gluten free.

Nothing came out of a box, was almost entirely gluten free and it did not taste like straw. In fact, I was later told the meal was “Kick A** Good.”

Peach Cobbler No 2

With very few exceptions, sequels and/or copies, imitations or duplications are usually less entertaining, engaging or good as the premier version. I suspect the cause is some sort of motivation to “out-do” the original by some completely arbitrary and ultimately important-for-only-a-fleeting-moment form of measurement.

But, sequels are also second chances, opportunities to learn from previous experience and seek out additional information to improve upon the previous product.

Or, somewhat more appropriately, sometimes the only way to learn the difference between good and bad wine is to drink both, tasting is the only way to experience the difference for yourself.

The gluten free peach and blueberry cobbler I made earlier this month was good and well liked. Although the earlier peach cobbler was good, the crust did not have the crisp, almost cookie or scone texture I wanted. And, I was not all that happy with the taste of the crust.

But, purchasing half a bushel of peaches (in other words many, many pounds of fresh peaches) and a visit by a cousin participating in a GW master’s program provided me with a chance to make a sequel, as if I really needed the excuse.

Without blue or blackberries to go with the peaches and since some were less ripe than others, macerating them in sugar with a splash of vanilla extract for a few hours heightened their sweetness, making them even richer in flavor. Maceration, similar in concept to marinating, adds or heightens foods’ flavors by immersing the food in sugar, spices, salt, vinegar or other substances.

For the crust, I wanted something with a bit of a crust, not a thick distracting crust but enough of a crust to have its own flavor and contrast-to-compliment the peaches. Somehow shortcake came to mind. Using the “Fluffy Biscuits or Shortcake Dough” from Joy of Cooking as a base; I substituted Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free All-Purpose flour for regular AP flour, 6-7 tablespoons chilled butter, a bit extra sugar, and some cinnamon for extra flavor.

The resulting dough was thick, perfect for baked or pan fried drop biscuits. After spreading the dough over the peaches sitting in nearly all of the maceration “juice”, remembering to spread it evenly and leave space around the edge, I baked it It was baked at 450 for about one hour.

The results were great! The high heat browned the dough, caramelizing some of the sugar in the dough and making a firm but crumbly crust covering. Served with freshly made goat milk ice cream, the cobbler was a perfect end to a hot summer’s day.

ice-cream cone

Goat’s milk is a great substitute for cow’s milk.  Not only does goat’s milk offer more protein than cow’s milk, goat’s milk does not normally irritate the stomachs of people with celiacs or with other digestive issues such as lactose intolerance.

Fortunately, Wife and I both really like ice creams. So, when I found fresh, local and excellent goat milk from J-Wen Farms & Dairy at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market I had a great opportunity to put the ice cream maker to good use give making goat’s milk ice cream a try.

It turned out to be some of the BEST ice cream I have ever eaten.

Only with further testing (batches) I will be able to conclusively determine if the stellar quality of the ice cream was due to the excellent quality goat’s milk, the recipe used, or something else. I know it will be a tough job, but … somebody has to do it.

In case you want to give it a try, the following is the recipe used for this batch:

2 2/3 cups goat’s milk

2+ teaspoons vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

*adopted from the Ambrose Ice cream recipe listed at Meyenberg Goat Milk Products website: http://meyenberg.com/