Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (54 page)

This salad may be prepared several hours in advance of your meal. The secret to its success is, as always, to cut the vegetables into a fine dice.

Prepare the dressing in a large bowl. Add celery, cucumbers, green onions, peppers and radishes. Toss well with dressing, cover and refrigerate several hours.

Just before serving, slice the tomatoes thinly and cut the slices in half. Arrange the slices around the outer edge of six plates and make a mound of salad in the center of each. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or chives.

In order to evaluate the status of food enzymes in normal nutrition and metabolism, [it is important] to learn the condition of health of animals reared under aseptic conditions, given sterile food with the usual sterile vitamin accessories, and allowed to drink only sterile water and breathe only sterile air. Just such an experiment has been in progress at the Laboratories of Bacteriology, University of Notre Dame, for the past 12 years, during which time more than 2,000 germ-free guinea pigs, as well as germ-free chicks, rats, mice, rabbits, cats and insects, were born and reared under rigidly aseptic conditions. . .. Sterility of the intestinal tract during the lifetime of the animal is assured by frequent tests for bacteria. . .[the] sterile animals often grow to unusual size but very few of them are healthy. It is stated their digestive tracts are "delicate" and they apparently lack something which germs could furnish them. . .sterile animals are on the whole a little more susceptible to infectious diseases than animals raised normally, and a great many organic diseases show up in germ-free animals. Edward Howell, MD
Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity

MUSHROOM SALAD

Serves 4

12 medium mushrooms

l bunch green onions, finely chopped

l bunch cilantro, chopped

¾ cup
lemon pepper dressing

This salad is very rich—three mushrooms per person will suffice. The mushrooms must be very fresh.

Have your dressing ready in a mixing bowl. Remove stems from mushrooms, wash and dry well with paper towels. Slice very thinly. Mix immediately with dressing, green onions and cilantro. Divide between four plates and serve.

GELATIN SALAD MOLD

Serves 6

1 tablespoon gelatin (See
Sources
)

½ cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

1-2 tablespoons raw honey

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup lemon juice

1 cup carrots, grated

1½ cups finely shredded cabbage

½ pepper, green or red, seeded and finely sliced

Place cabbage in a strainer and dip into boiling water for 1 minute. Drain well. Mix with carrots and pepper and strew into a 4-cup ring mold. Soften gelatin in cold water. Add boiling water and dissolve thoroughly. Add honey, salt and lemon juice and pour mixture into mold. Chill until firm. To unmold, dip briefly in hot water.

Variation: Gelatin Cabbage and Apple Mold

Omit carrots and pepper. Add
1½ cups chopped apples
and
¹
/
₃
cup chopped
crispy walnuts
.

In 490 BC the Greeks defeated the Persians in a battle that was fought in a fennel field. Thus, one of the most famous battles in history was named after a vegetable. A runner raced 26 miles to carry news of the victory to Athens. The word for fennel in Greek is
marathon
.

A member of the anise family, fennel is as common in Mediterranean markets as celery and carrots are in ours. The stalks form a kind of false bulb that has many of the properties of celery. In fact, fennel can be used in place of celery in a variety of recipes. Fennel is a good source of carotenes and is said to help in weight reduction. SWF

CARROT-COCONUT MOLD

Serves 6

1 tablespoon gelatin (See
Sources
)

½ cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

1-2 tablespoons raw honey

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

2 cups carrots, grated

1 cup dried unsweetened coconut meat, finely cut

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

½ cup chopped
crispy pecans
.

Mix carrots, coconut, ginger and pecans and strew into a 4-cup ring mold. Soften gelatin in cold water. Add boiling water and dissolve thoroughly. Add honey, salt and orange juice and pour mixture into mold. Chill until firm. To unmold, dip briefly in hot water.

Some intriguing experiments were performed on normal people and diabetics. . .at George Washington University Hospital in 1929. The subjects ate almost two ounces of raw starch and then had blood tests for sugar. Eating cooked starch, as is well known, causes the blood sugar of diabetics to skyrocket, unless they use insulin. The diabetics in the study used no insulin, and yet after raw starch ingestion the blood sugar rose only 6 milligrams the first half hour. Then it decreased 9 milligrams after 1 hour and 14 milligrams 2 ½ hours after ingestion of the raw starch. In some diabetic individuals, the decrease in blood sugar was as much as 35 milligrams. In the normal persons, there was a slight increase followed by a slight decrease in blood sugar in 1 hour. This is convincing evidence that there is a difference between raw and cooked calories. Edward Howell, MD
Enzyme Nutrition

DILLED POTATO SALAD

Serves 8

16 small red potatoes

2 red onions, finely chopped

1 bunch fresh dill, snipped

3-4 tablespoons raw wine vinegar

1¼ cups
creamy mayonnaise dressing

Wash potatoes but do not peel. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Plunge in the potatoes and cook until still slightly firm. Remove with slotted spoon.

While potatoes are still warm, cut lengthwise into quarters, slice thinly and toss with vinegar. Mix with onions and dill and toss with dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Note: Potatoes require more salt than most vegetables.)

Trans fatty acids that are products mainly of partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils were introduced into human foods in the U.S. beginning in 1910, and greatly increased amounts of partially hydrogenated vegetable fat products were added to human diets in the U.S. beginning in the 1950's. Although the
trans
fatty acids were ignored during the early decades of their use, they became a focus of concern for a few researchers beginning in the 1950's, and since 1990 they have been a prominent topic in the biomedical and fats and oils literature as researchers around the world continued to ask hard questions about the problematic effects
trans
fatty acids in the diet have on physiological functions. Many of these researchers have recently published their findings as they gradually unraveled the mechanisms responsible for the adverse effects related to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, immune dysfunction, obesity, low birth-weight and lactation deficits. Mary G. Enig, PhD
Know Your Fats

FRENCH POTATO SALAD

Serves 8

16 small red potatoes

2 green peppers, seeded and cut into a julienne

2 red peppers, seeded and cut into a julienne

1 large red onion, chopped

3-4 tablespoons raw red wine vinegar

¾-1¼ cups
basic dressing

Wash potatoes but do not peel. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Plunge in the potatoes and cook until still slightly firm. Remove with slotted spoon.

While potatoes are still warm, cut lenghtwise into quarters, slice finely and toss with vinegar. Mix with peppers and onions and toss with dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Note: Potatoes require more salt than most vegetables.)

MAGGIE'S POTATO SALAD

Serves 8

8 yellow potatoes, preferably Yukon gold variety

1 small head celery, finely chopped

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 bunch radishes, finely chopped

2 tablespoons celery seeds

1¼ cup
creamy mayonnaise dressing

1 tomato

In this recipe, celery seeds, rather than mustard and pickles, provide a pleasant tart taste that combines so well with starchy potatoes.

Peel potatoes and cook in boiling water until still slightly firm. (Save potato peels for potassium broth,
Tonics and Superfoods
.) Cut into a ½-inch dice. Mix with vegetables, celery seeds and dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with tomato wedges.