Links:
www.peachinfo.com
www.e-zrecipes.com
www.fruitgrow.com
www.wfs.org
www.sail1620.org
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News and Views:
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Why Chocolate Is a Health Food
Checking Out Those Pesky Stickers on Fruit
What Food Futurists Think
Pilgrims.com
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| Why Chocolate Is a Health Food |
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| It may never quite achieve a foundation block of its own in the Food Pyramid, but chocolate has been shown in new research to contain abundant amounts of flavanoids, the antioxidants that are found in red wine, green tea, and fruits and vegetables. According to a recent issue of The Journal of Nutrition, the chocolate flavanoids, called epicatechins, are believed to decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke. Please pass the bon-bons! |
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Checking Out Those Pesky Stickers on Fruit
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Sunrise Spread |
 Those annoying little stickers pasted on pieces of fruit in the supermarket sometimes give Web site addresses, along with supercilious advice like "Ripe When Soft." We checked on three Web addresses that we found on peaches, nectarines, and plums: www.peachinfo.com, www.e-zrecipes.com, and www.fruitgrow.com. They all go to the same Web site, which has lots of great recipes, tips, and useful information. It’s sponsored by the California Tree Fruit Agreement, a marketing organization for fruit growers. Fruit smoothies, pies, salads, jams, and many other recipes are available, including Sunrise Spread, which tastes like summer. Spoon it onto your toast in the morning. |
3 cups diced fresh peaches and plums
1/3 cup 100% berry juice
1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Whirl until combined. Pour into a 9-inch baking dish and place in microwave oven. Cook, uncovered, on High for 16 minutes, stopping every 4 minutes to stir. Cool.
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What Food Futurists Think
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Art Siemering is managing director of the International Food Futurists, a group dedicated to monitoring the state of the food industry around the world and predicting which food trends will catch on. In the November-December issue of The Futurist (www.wfs.org), he offers the following prognostications about what and how we will eat in the next 50 years.
A great division will form between "massfood" (nutritionally correct engineered foods of mysterious origin, delivered in uniform packages, like all-purpose energy bars) and "classfood" (organically grown, creatively cooked real food available only to the privileged).
Breakfast will become the biggest meal of the day.
Cures will be found for digestion problems and diseases that now make food restrictions necessary.
Chocolate will be in such demand and short supply that we will be forced to practice chocolate conservation; most chocolate bars will be artificially flavored. (Is it time to start hoarding the real thing?)
Siemering also edits a weekly food-trends newsletter. For more information, go to www.foodchannel.com (where you can find out great tidbits of food-industry gossip and news).
But before you rush out and buy up enough chocolate bars to last for the rest of your life, remember this: 50 years ago, futurists predicted we would all be zipping around wearing little personal jetpacks and popping a pill or two a day instead of eating food.
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Pilgrims.com
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In 1621, after a year of privation in which half their members had died, the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrated their survival with a thanksgiving feast. In keeping with the English custom of Harvest Home, it was held in October and lasted for several days. Neighboring Indians, friends of the Pilgrims, contributed five deer. The Pilgrims shot wild fowl (possibly including turkeys); fished for clams and lobsters (considered trash food at the time) as well as cod; and cooked Indian corn, pumpkins, and beans they had grown.
For more about the Pilgrims, including how to separate the real history from the myth, go to www.sail1620.org, which has links to many other Pilgrim-related sites.
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