Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (99 page)

To distinguish the "strict" vegetarian diet from the easier regime allowing dairy products, it became the custom to call the strict dieters
vegans
and the others
lacto-vegetarians. . .
vegans run a serious risk of deficiency diseases owing to the difficulties of providing, with a vegetable diet, all the essential materials that the human body cannot synthesize for itself. Vitamin B
₁₂
is one of these, and vegans often get anemia. . .. Other materials are the essential amino acids, some of which are not included in very large amounts in the vegetable proteins in nuts and pulses; and vegans can suffer from a kind of kwashiorkor arising not from a gross shortage of protein but from a lack of some of the essential building-blocks for it. Terence McLaughlin
A Diet of Tripe

Cutting out cholesterol to avoid heart attacks increases the risk of dying by violent means, according to a study published Friday in the
British Medical Journal
. . .researchers. . .found a low-cholesterol diet appeared to make people more aggressive. They said that in 1980 U.S. average mortality rate from motor vehicle accidents, murders and suicides among middle-aged white males was 62 per 100,000 people, as against 107 per 100,000 among people trying to cut their cholesterol level. Attempts to cut cholesterol, the researchers said, "do not have a robust favorable effect on overall survival."
Reuters Wire Service

Ground meats are fine, as long as they are freshly ground and the meat is of good quality. The beauty of ground meat dishes is that almost any type of meat can be used in their preparation. For variety you can use buffalo meat in recipes that traditionally call for beef or lamb. If you have hunters in your family, you can even use ground venison or other game in any of these recipes, but they will require the addition of some lamb, beef or venison fat. You may also add a small amount of ground heart meat, which is especially rich in Co Q
_10.

If you prefer not to eat red meat, ground chicken or turkey can always be substituted but be careful—as their fat contains high amounts of polyunsaturates, ground turkey and chicken spoil more quickly than red meats. The results will also probably be more dry than the same dish prepared with red meat.

Always buy "regular" full-fat ground meat but avoid cooking hamburgers and sausage on the barbecue, where flames can come in contact with the fat and form cancer-causing substances. Cook hamburgers and similar meats in a heavy, cast-iron skillet to minimize carcinogen formation in the final product.

Our readers may have noticed that we do not have a chapter on pasta in our book; simply because pasta, even and especially whole grain pasta, is difficult to digest due to the fact that pasta flour, in general, has not been soaked, fermented or sprouted. Nevertheless, nobody expects today's mothers to raise children without preparing spaghetti for them once in a while. For this reason, we have included two spaghetti sauce recipes, one of which can be made without tomato products. Serve these with Oriental pasta made from brown rice or buckwheat flour, which is more nutritious and easier to digest than pasta made from whole wheat or white flour.

HAMBURGERS

Serves 6

2 pounds ground beef or buffalo, including the fat

½ pound ground heart (optional)

Form meat into six patties about 1-inch thick. Heat a heavy, cast-iron skillet over a medium flame. When skillet is hot, add three patties. Cook about 7 or 8 minutes per side—hamburgers should be medium rare. Keep warm in oven while preparing the second batch.

Serve with whole grain hamburger buns (commercially available spelt buns are recommended),
ketchup
,
mayonnaise
,
pickled cucumbers
slices,
corn relish
and thinly sliced onions.

SPICY MEAT LOAF

Serves 8

2 pounds ground beef or other red meat

½ pound ground heart (optional)

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

4 tablespoons butter

¼ teaspoon dried chile flakes

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon cracked pepper

1 teaspoon sea salt

1½ cups whole grain bread crumbs

1 cup cream

1 egg

1 tablespoon fish sauce (
Fermented Fish Sauce
), optional

4 tablespoons tomato paste or naturally sweetened
ketchup

Saute onions, carrots and celery in butter until soft. Add chile flakes, thyme, pepper and salt and stir around. Meanwhile, soak bread crumbs in cream.

Have a 9-inch by 13-inch pyrex pan ready. Using your hands, mix meat with sauteed vegetables, soaked bread, egg and optional fish sauce. Form into a loaf and set in the pan. Ice with ketchup or tomato paste. Add about 1 cup water to the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1½ hours. Serve with
ketchup
,
sauerkraut
or
ginger carrots
.

Leftovers are great on sandwiches!

John Ott, of time-lapse photography fame. . .tested three young athletes who ate hamburgers, with all the trimmings, that were prepared in a fast-food restaurant. The first group of the hamburgers were cooked in the restaurant's microwave oven while another was prepared conventionally in an iron frying pan. This latter group and even the raw hamburgers held in hand resulted in strong muscle test results, while the same athletes tested muscularly weak with the microwave cooked food. Ott also reported most food prepared in these appliances and especially meat was less tasty. This opinion seems to be shared by most who use this form of cooking. George Meinig, DDS "Nutritionally Speaking"
Ojai Valley News

SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Serves 8

2 pounds ground beef or other red meat

2 onions, peeled and finely chopped

1 green pepper, seeded and finely chopped

3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or 1 can tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped

1 small can tomato paste

1 cup
beef stock

½ cup red wine

½ pound chicken livers

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon each dried thyme, rosemary, oregano and sage

sea salt and pepper

To peel tomatoes, see
Kitchen Tips and Hints
. Saute meat in a large pot until it becomes crumbly and all the pink is gone. You may pour out the melted fat, but it is not necessary. Meanwhile, saute the chicken livers in butter until cooked through. Cut into a fine dice. Add chopped livers and remaining ingredients to the beef, blend well, season to taste and simmer, covered, for about ½ hour. Serve with buckwheat or brown rice noodles.

TOMATO-FREE SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Serves 8

2 pounds ground beef or other red meat

2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped

3 cups
beef stock

1 cup red wine

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped, or 1 tablespoon dried rosemary

sea salt and pepper

Saute ground meat in a heavy skillet until crumbly. Add onions, stock, wine and rosemary. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 15 to 30 minutes until liquid has reduced to a thick sauce. Season to taste. Serve with buckwheat or brown rice noodles.

If you're buying extra-lean ground beef to lessen your intake of fat and cholesterol and think that the extra cost is worthwhile, think again! That's the finding of nutritionists Kenneth Prusa and Karla Hughes, at the University of Missouri at Columbia, who conducted an experiment to decide this very issue.

These researchers broiled hamburgers made from 100 grams of three grades of ground beef: regular, lean and extra lean. And what did they find? That the broiling process almost leveled out the cholesterol and fat content of the hamburger. The remaining fat content varies by just five percent, despite a threefold difference in the raw meat. (Regular hamburger has 28.5 percent fat content, compared with extra-lean meat's 9 percent.)

However, other surprising things happened during broiling. The higher-fat hamburger lost mainly fat and cholesterol, while leaner patties lost moisture. Is it logical that regular hamburger would cook down appreciably more in weight than lean and extra-lean? Actually, it cooked down only four percent more than the others. Hughes stated that lean and extra-lean hamburger may not be worth the premium price compared with the regular grinds.

Then came the crusher to leaner grinds. A trained panel of hamburger tasters voted in favor of regular grinds because they were juicier and more tender! James F. Scheer
Health Freedom News

SPICY STUFFED CABBAGE

Serves 6

1 large cabbage

1 pound ground red meat or turkey

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped

2 cups
basic brown rice

½ cup raisins

¼ cup fresh dill, chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

2 teaspoons ground cumin

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¹
/
₈
teaspoon ground cloves

sea salt and pepper

¼ cup
crispy pine nuts

1 egg, lightly beaten

4 cups
beef stock
or
chicken stock

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons arrowroot mixed with 2 tablespoons filtered water

To peel tomatoes, see
Kitchen Tips and Hints
. Remove core from the cabbage and set, cored side down, in a large pot containing about 2 inches of water. Cover and steam about 15 minutes. Remove wilted outer leaves and steam a bit longer, if necessary, to soften inner leaves. Strew leaves on a tea towel to drain and set aside.

In a heavy skillet, brown meat in olive oil until crumbly. Add onion, rice, raisins, pine nuts, herbs and spices. Season to taste. Let cool slightly and stir in the egg. Place a spoonful of stuffing on each cabbage leaf, fold in sides and roll up. Arrange in several layers in a flameproof casserole and cover with stock and tomato pieces. Bring to a boil and transfer to the oven. Bake at 300 degrees about 1 hour.

Use tongs to remove cabbage rolls to a platter and keep warm in the oven. Return the casserole and its liquid to the stove. Bring to a boil and cook vigorously about 15 minutes, skimming occasionally, until stock has reduced. Add arrowroot mixture, spoonful by spoonful, until desired thickness is obtained. To serve, place two or three cabbage rolls on each plate and spoon on sauce.

Most people are prone to think that eating fat makes fat; however, fat does not make fat in the body. A healthy body must have fat to carry on its vital processes. Carbohydrates—the grains, bread, starches, and sugar—are the foods that make fat—and it is these foods that must be curtailed for the person who has great difficulty with obesity. People who wish to lose weight should give up grains, sugar and starches until their desired weight is attained, then they should eat grains and starches only moderately. H. Leon Abrams
Your Body Is Your Best Doctor