Animal, vegetable, kingsoliver

Just finished reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and her family. It was okay…had some interesting facts and stories, but a bit too Martha Stewart goes farmer for me. She along with her family left Tucson and the desert, to start a farm in Virginia and live off what they produce. If they couldn’t produce certain foods, they made a pact to not eat any foods that were not local, adhering to the now environmentally friendly, hip way of eating of a localvore. So, no bananas ever. No strawberries in December. No leafy greens in February. Admirable and difficult but some of the writing is a bit dumbed down. Her husband contributed small passages about sustainable agriculture and organic production, which i actually found more informative than Kingsoliver’s diary. A quick read and one that is interesting for all those soccer moms who want to “have a farm” in Africa…

believe the mediterranean hype

I just got back from a two-week Mediterranean diet binge. This type of “diet”, largely defined and studied from populations of Greece and Southern Italy, consists of:
•    abundant plant foods and fresh fruit
•    olive oil as the principal source of fat
•    dairy products (principally cheese and yogurt)
•    fish and poultry consumed in low to moderate amounts
•    zero to four eggs consumed weekly
•    red meat consumed in low amounts
•    wine consumed in low to moderate amounts

fall harvest in rome

The total fat in this type of diet consists of 30% of fat calories with low amounts of saturated fat or trans fats (partially hydrogenated vegetable oils). Dr. Walt Willett of Harvard University, has been one of the pioneers on emphasizing the Mediterranean diets importance on health and has since proven its benefits through many studies include the Nurses Health Study. Dr. Willett has written “Epidemiologic evidence has supported beneficial effects of higher intakes of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, and daily consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol. Together with regular physical activity and not smoking, our analyses suggest that over 80% of coronary heart disease, 70% of stroke, and 90% of type 2 diabetes can be avoided by healthy food choices that are consistent with the traditional Mediterranean diet.”

Regarding the diet’s impact on weight loss, a 2008 New England Journal of Medicine study compared different diets with the goal of measuring weight loss. Over 300 obese subjects were put on one of three diets and tracked for two years: low-fat, restricted-calorie; Mediterranean, restricted-calorie; or low-carbohydrate, non–restricted-calorie. The Mediterranean diet group consumed the largest amounts of dietary fiber and had the highest ratio of healthy fats, monounsaturated, to saturated fat. This group lost 4.4 kg of body weight – very similar to the low-carbohydrate group, and more than the low-fat group.

And of course, you will live longer on this type of diet. A recently published meta-analysis of 12 cohort studies, showed that those consuming a Mediterranean diet had reduced risk of mortality including cardiovascular, cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease incidence (Sofi et al, 2008).

cheese, pears, balsamic...yum

But there must be something about the air and culture of the mediterranean that impacts health. When we were there, we walked a lot, ate lighter meals, and savored each dining experience, usually outside, taking in the piazzas and beautiful people. When we did eat meat, it was in very small amounts, and the red wine was always flowing. So were the espressos. And maybe a limoncello or two…We also didn’t consume too many sweets – we were too full on the other stuff, like olives, anchovies and artichoke salads.

“we shouldn’t have gone to italy”

Derek and I just ended a two-week gastronomic affair with Italy. We were first in Torino for the Slow Food/Salone del Gusto food conference. Then a stop off to Cinque Terre and onto Roma for six days of melt in your mouth cuisine.

Our first day back in Nairobi involved grocery shopping. Unfortunately the choices are limited. There is one very small organic market that has totally inconvenient hours unless you are unemployed, but in that case, you wouldn’t be able to afford the food there. The store is limited – some local vegetables, butter, eggs and some meats like chicken and rabbit. But better than nothing right? We always seem to get there around 5:30 when the store is “closing” (which is at 5:45). Hmmm….is this an anti-localvore conspiracy?

The other choices around Nairobi are the big walmart like Nakumatt or the Muthiaga market that has a separate fruit/vegetable store with the saddest looking selection of lifeless plant life I have ever seen. The market also has a meat market that smells like rotting flesh, which is not all that ironic, and the meat looks like well, rotting flesh. Flies in meat shops = not good.

ecogastronomy at nakumatt

To compare those options to the plethora of open air markets of Italy, like Campo de Fiore with colorful fresh fruits and vegetables of all kinds, usually seasonal and local, or the ecogastronomica pleasures of the cheese shops, the salumerias, the macellerias, or the pasticcerias. Mamma mia. Ah, my appetite just came back!

campo de fiore

But alas, Kenya is where we live, and we have to find a way to survive as foodies living without a lot of variety and choice. We are back less than 12 hours, and it is not looking good. We bought a very small amount of pecorino cheese from the market here (which cost $10 bucks…) and when derek tasted it, the only thing he said was “we shouldn’t have gone to italy.”