New Permission for Nuts and Beef
Nuts and beef both were, in the
words of HealthGate, "among the first foods to be eliminated during
the 'fat-free' craze in which Americans became entrenched a few years
ago."
That craze is now losing momentum as leading
nutritionists insist that total fat is not the whole story. There
are different types of fat, and these need to be in balance in the
body.
Generally, saturated fat seems to have
kept its status as pure villain. Saturated fat, as we all probably know
by now, is found plentifully in whole milk, cream, and cheese. It is
also found in the fatty cuts of meat, whether beef, pork, or lamb.
That said, we still apparently need to eat a
certain amount of unsaturated fat, such as found in nuts.
And, lean cuts of beef have recently been
heralded as acceptable, even desirable as they provide certain essential
ingredients unrelated to fat.
A balanced diet has always been a mantra
for healthy eating. This seems to be as true now as ever, although we
seem always to hearing new information as to what elements need to be
balanced.
Nut Cuisine Now
Most of us grew up being taught that nuts
are bad for you. They contain too much fat, we were told. They are a sin
food, to be nibbled sparingly at cocktail parties and other dubious
gatherings.
Medical research of the last couple of years
has changed this. It now seems that the particular fats contained in
nuts are "good" fats, since they lower the "bad"
component of cholesterol.
Thus nuts are actually good for you, if you use
them to replace foods with "bad" fats, such as butter, whipped
cream, and bacon.
Snack Strategy
They are also good to replace sweets in your
snack strategy. If you are hungry, and snack on a cookie, you take in
mainly sugar, and will be hungry again soon. But if you snack on nuts,
you are getting calories, it is true, but from fat, not sugar.
Therefore, you will not be hungry as quickly. (I am not making this up.
There was scientific study to this effect.)
Naturally, you can blow the whole thing if you
always eat salted nuts, too much salt being another contemporary health
hazard.
Given this go-ahead (somewhat limited, to be
sure), nuts are under-used in American home cooking. This opens up
many opportunities. Our attention is drawn to two:
Middle-East
cooking, and
Viennese nut
tortes
Middle East cookbooks (see Algar, Roden,
Wolfert in the Cookbook
section) have many recipes using nuts. These include the famed
tarator, a group of sauces "based on almonds, walnuts, or
hazelnuts; flavored with garlic and lemon juice or vinegar; and served
with poached, grilled, or fried fish or shellfish, as well as steamed or
fried vegetables" (Algar). Sounds pretty yum to me.
[Tortes: Rombauer, 1975 edition, gave the four
essential conditions for nut tortes. These are often thought to be
difficult, but are actually fairly simple, if you observe the four
conditions.]
This page may be slow in developing, but it can
be hastened along if interest is shown.
For uses of black walnuts, and their availability, see Share Recipes,
Recent Mail, July 28, 00.
