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Heartline Magazine April - June 2006
Common Sense and evidence
The Joys of Healthy Cooking
By Professor Henry Fraser
“Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet.” (Anonymous)
“There is no greater sin than letting chocolate get so old
that you have to throw it away!” (Refrigerator magnet quote)
The publication of The Joys of Healthy Cooking in the
Caribbean is a signal event in Caribbean publishing, and in the culture of
Caribbean cuisine. This superb book, by Manuelita Zephirin (former Consultant
Nutritionist at PAHO/WHO), Alison White, Wendy Clarke and the late Rosie Jackman,
in collaboration with the Caribbean Association of Nutritionists and Dieticians
(CANDI ) and published by Ian Randle
Publishers of Jamaica, is a splendid Caribbean cookbook,
which, as the old beer advertisement claimed, “reaches the
parts others can’t reach”. It’s both educational and enjoyable, with
easy-to-digest facts about nutrition that we all need to understand in Part 1,
and a tempting assortment of Caribbean recipes in Part 2.
The Joys of Healthy Cooking in the Caribbean is much more
than a cookbook. It’s an answer to prayer! Let me explain.
The dramatic post-war and independence transformation of our
societies, with massive tourism, light industry, trade unionism, et cetera, has
been accompanied by a transformation of demographics, health and diseases –
often described as an epidemiological transition. It’s characterized by an
ageing population, no longer plagued by infectious diseases but increasingly
suffering from the chronic, non-communicable diseases of physical inactivity and
an over abundance of food. These, of course, are our epidemics of obesity,
diabetes, high blood pressure and their inevitable consequences of heart
disease, strokes, kidney failure, amputations, blindness and so on.
The Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute has shown that
Barbados leads the way with excessive calorie intakes, and an average (per
person) intake equal to that needed by a very hard working male engaged in
physical labour. This leads to the inevitable health consequences, and the
Chronic Disease Research Centre (CDRC) and the Barbados Eye Studies, led by
Professor Leske and Dr. Anselm Hennis, have shown that we also lead the
Caribbean with our “achievements” in the fields of obesity and diabetes! (Athough
on a recent trip to Nassau, I suspect that our Nassauvian cousins , even more
dependent on tourism and food culture, are beating us!)
Now many people continue to think that what tastes good must
be bad for you, and that healthy food has to be tasteless. Hence a culture of
intermittent, guilty “dieting”! This may have its roots in the advice given 50
years ago to eat plain foods, without spices or pepper, for digestive problems.
Certainly healthy food, well prepared, is as tasty or tastier than fast foods,
fattening foods or any other popular “poisons”. And this book proves it.
I particularly liked the very readable chapters in Part 1,
on the quality of the diet, on the food groups (they left out the food group
“Chocolate”, says a friend of mine) and on healthy food shopping, although a bit
more could have been said about vegetable buying. I liked the constant attention
to how to increase the fibre or the flavour, and reduce the salt or fat. And the
recipe selection is great.
Although there’s a great selection of healthy deserts, I
couldn’t find ANYTHING with chocolate, so let me remind all my fellow
chocoholics that chocolate contains healthy, heart-protecting flavoproteins – so
once you eat the DARK chocolate and avoid the cream-filled milk chocolate, IT”S
OK!
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