NINA is 'the antidote to the faddists and kooks who all too often dominate American food discourse.' That's David Kamp, author of The United States of Arugula, talking. I'm a nutrition geek, local food entrepreneur, and maniac about the details of farmers' markets. I grew up in Virginia, selling our ecological vegetables at local markets. After some years as a vegan and vegetarian, I now eat beef, eggs, butter, raw milk - the foods I grew up on - with impunity. In Real Food, I explain why. Mark Bittman called Real Food 'compellingly smart' and Michael Pollan said it was 'persuasive and invigorating.' In Real Food for Mother and Baby, I'll tell you what to eat when you're eating for two - from fertility to pregnancy, nursing to baby's first foods.

What's New

the truth about fakes

Apparently a Dutch company is trying to get market approval for a new starch-based fat substitute. I'll tell you right now I don't know the first thing about it. Here's why I don't give a hoot:

People ask me all the time about the latest imitation, fake, substitute. They wonder whether the new solid, trans-fat-free vegetable oil spreads - again meant to replace real butter - are 'okay.' They're wasting their time. If people understand what I mean by real food, I'd never sell another book. Because it's really quite simple:
    Eat foods with a long history in the human diet (peaches, spinach, lard).
    Eat them in a whole state, or close to it, or produced in a traditional manner.
    Eat foods that spoil. But eat them before they do.
    Don't eat anything that's engineered to be something it's not - low in
something or high in something else. That includes orange juice with DHA -
the vital fatty acid found chiefly in fish - made from algae. God or Nature
(as you prefer) made us fish-eaters. You don't find fish in orange juice.

We don't have studies on many of these new, industrial, engineered foods. But when we do get them, the news is invariably bad. Consider interestified oils. These are the new solid oils which are trans-fat free. So people ask, 'Are they good for me?' No. Now we discover they lead to diabetes and heart disease. In a 2007 study comparing naturally saturated palm oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, and interestified soybean oil, K.C. Hayes at Brandeis University found that palm oil - a traditional solid fat for baked goods - was the only fat that didn't alter human metabolism for the worse.   The latest industrial fats lower HDL, raise blood sugar, and raise insulin resistance.

Stop searching for the new and the fake. Don't read the latest 'nutrition' bulletins. Eat old foods. Don't eat too much. That should leave time for other, satisfying activities - like reading a novel.

FOOD ON FILM

Documentary film makers Wendy Hebb and Michael Richard are working on a new feature called FOOD FIGHT: the real food revolution. Read their blog about our interview, and then hang onto the edge of your seat until the premiere!

the conscientious omnivore

Lorette Luzajic quotes our interview in her article on the dilemmas between choosing real food or choosing life (for animals, that is).

do you love lard?

Get some validation by reading James Temple's article for the San Francisco Chronicle. James provides a nice history of lard's dark past and illuminates its comeback on the farm, in restaurants, and in your very own home.

back on the real food road

Find out when I'm coming to your town to talk about real food.

Are you pregnant? Congratulations!

Suddenly a handful of women I know are pregnant. And every story is wonderful. First pregnancy at age 40 - should I drink raw milk? That sort of thing. You can learn all about what I ate for fertility, during pregnancy, and while nursing, not to mention what Julian ate from seven months to two years, in April, when REAL FOOD for MOTHER and BABY comes out. It's not like the other prenatal diet books. You'll find out why I didn't take iron or calcium supplements, why the US government is wrong about warning pregnant women not to eat too much fish, and why I drank raw milk. But suppose you're pregnant now? It'll all be over by April! Eating for two is not difficult. Real food is still best. Protein and fish are probably the two most important foods you can eat now. If you think you're not getting enough real food, look under MOTHERS and BABIES for WHEN YOU'RE PREGNANT for my short list of the best prenatal supplements.

vegetarian pregnancy and insulin-resistant kids

Researchers found that largely vegetarian women consuming high levels of folate (from leafy greens and beans) and low levels of vitamin B-12 produced children who were small but fat and insulin-resistant at age six. This has interesting implications for vegetarian pregnancies. Lots of folate is good, of course. Don't stop eating leafy greens. But don't rely on beans and rice for protein. Vegans and vegetarians are likely to lack adequate B12, which is found only in animal foods.

B12 is all-important. Allow me to quote the UK Vegetarian Society. 'It is exclusively synthesised by bacteria and is found primarily in meat, eggs and dairy products. There has been considerable research into proposed plant sources of vitamin B12. Fermented soya products, seaweeds, and algae such as spirulina have all been suggested as containing significant B12. However, the present consensus is that any B12 present in plant foods is likely to be unavailable to humans and so these foods should not be relied upon as safe sources.' If you're pregnant or planning to be, eat plenty of grass-fed beef, pastured pork and poultry, and clean wild fish for adequate B12, protein, iron, and zinc.

real food delivered

Too busy to cook? Industrial food used to be the only option. Not anymore. See my brand-new, highly-selective, national list of real food caterers. And send suggestions! Traditional dishes only, of course. We also want chefs who use ecological ingredients from independent, local farms.

thanks, Michael pollan

Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food, picks up some themes from REAL FOOD. The more Americans think about nutrition, the worse our health becomes (in REAL FOOD, I called this Amerexia Nervosa, our national eating disorder). Eat foods your great-grandmother would recognize as food. Real food (like yogurt) is conservative; it hasn't changed in thousands of years. Weston Price was right: any traditional diet is good for you. Thanks, Michael, for citing REAL FOOD several times!

short films introduce the real food hypothesis

How did the misguided advice to avoid butter come about? Two short films, called Big Fat Lies and The McGovern Report, explain. Thanks, YouTube.

mothers + babies

Things we like.

real food babies

Are you starting to feed your baby real food? From seven to ten months, Julian ate all kinds of things, including raw cream with banana and cinnamon, eggs, spicy Italian sausage from Flying Pigs Farm, guacamole, tomato salad with garlic yogurt dressing, pesto, and German potato salad with mustard and capers, along with heap plenty fruit and vegetables. And some 70% or even 85% chocolate.