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Nutritionist, Food Blogger… Author

February 19, 2011

I try to make it a point to celebrate the small things we encounter daily that make life interesting and enjoyable. Every now and then, though, life brings along a big thing and you don’t have to try all that hard to start the celebrations.

Enter The Everything Guide to Food Remedies by Lori Rice, MS.

Yep, my book has arrived!
I received copies last weekend and it was a huge surprise! I knew the book would be published in March, but I didn’t know when I would see my first copy.
It is an interesting feeling to hold a book in your hand and as you flip through it recognize that these are your words, and in this case, your recipes. There is excitement, pride, humility and gratefulness. I’d also be lying if I said there wasn’t a slight bit of sadness since I’ve put freelancing on hold currently to return to work in my field of study.
With this though is also a huge sense of accomplishment.
Just a few short months after we moved to Brazil I was struggling with what I should do with my time and how to take full advantage of no longer being commented to an employer. If you’ve ever lived in another country or been a so-called expat wife, you can probably relate. I was filled with big ideas, but they had gotten lost in the confusion of learning a new culture.
One night as I sat frustrated, my husband told me that I could do anything I wanted to; I just needed to choose something and do it. Due to his advice I decided I wanted to be a freelance writer.
I spent the following months working from scratch and tackling a major learning curve because I knew absolutely nothing about the art. I read blogs, tips, advice, forums and began applying for jobs. Soon I found myself with gigs for small articles and blogs which then led to an ebook project.
I continued writing when we moved back to the US in 2009 and last spring I finally got what I would consider a pretty good gig – this book.
While I would someday love to have a book that tells my story, perhaps about my experiences abroad or with travel and food, the more I think about it, this book tells my story too.

It represents me leaving a secure job where I was well respected to accomplish a dream of surrounding myself by a new culture. It represents me focusing my energy to accomplish the goal of becoming a writer.

On another note, it represents part of my food journey. Four years ago, I might not have been able to write a book like this because at that time I still believed in mainstream diet foods – low fat, low carb and processed. The changes in my food and health views shown here through Fake Food Free, allowed me to write this book from a perspective that it is truly something I believe in.

The Everything Guide to Food Remedies: An A-Z guide to healing with food (Everything Series)

The Everything Guide to Food Remedies: An A-Z guide to healing with food  covers diseases and ailments that plague our society and identifies the whole foods (not pills or isolated nutrients) that help to alleviate those conditions. With each chapter the reader will find five recipes that utilize these nutritious foods.

This blog has been a big part of my food journey and will continue to be for as many years as I keep on blogging. Thank you for reading and sharing it with me!

I have three copies of my book to give away right now and there will likely be more opportunities in the future.

If you’d like one tell me your food philosophy in the comments.
Do you feel that food contains all we need for optimal health?


Thanks in advance for the thoughtful comments. And by the way, please no drive-by comments. Only those who thoughtfully answer my question will be considered.

I’ll select three commenters at random on March 14, 2011!

The book is available via advance order at Amazon and other online bookstores.

Seeking Out the Truth About My Sugar

January 19, 2010

Don’t you just hate it when you think you have things all figured out only to learn you were wrong. Much to my disappointment that is how I felt last week. It all started when I came across the wonderfully informative post about types of sugar by Oyster Food and Culture.
When we first moved to Brazil my sugar quest began. I hadn’t really intended to reduce or cut out white and brown processed sugar until I started to learn about the açúcar mascavo (which all online sources tell me is the same as muscovado) available there. Considering this comes from evaporated sugarcane juice my research lead me to assume that it was a better choice than our standard, nutrient stripped white and brown sugars widely used in the US.
When we got back to the US, I was horrified at the price of a tiny little box of it considering what I had paid in Brazil. I then turned to demerara sugar learning that it was a more natural form from evaporated sugarcane juice as well.
Knowing that raw sugar isn’t much better than refined white sugar nutritionally, when I came across that post last week I was a bit shocked to find that both muscovado (mascavo) and demerara were listed under raw sugars.
I’ve conversed a bit with LouAnn (Oyster Food and Culture author) about this and she double checked her sources and let me know that they indicate that those two sugars undergo heating before evaporation which classifies them as refined. I double checked my sources and this is what I’ve come up with.
First, let me address demerara because I’m less clear about how beneficial it may be. So far I haven’t found a detailed nutrient outline, but I now know that this sugar is heated and then evaporated which can classify it as being refined and processed. Read on though, because you may be surprised by what I found out about two other popular so-called unrefined sugars.
Okay, so on to the mascavo sugar.
After reading that post last week I just wasn’t ready to give up on it so easily. Perhaps it is a fondness of discovering it while living in Brazil and that connection to culture. However I was still determined to confirm it a better choice than refined white and brown sugars, including raw sugars.
So far every website which sells it has stated that it is unrefined, simply evaporated cane juice. Another site which doesn’t have references (grrr!) stated that it is slightly refined.
Still, I remained hopeful in my search when I came across the Diabetes Society of Brazil which states that mascavo does contain the vitamins and minerals associated with sugarcane which is the important part for me.
In the post I mentioned earlier, another sugar that claims to be unrefined is rapadura. What’s interesting is that it is produced in Brazil, but I never came across it in the supermarkets we frequented. However, my husband seems to remember trying it from the local feira and seeing it at roadside stands.
After being thoroughly confused something dawned on me that I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I let slip by. My husband worked closely with the sugarcane industry when we were living there and many of his coworkers were very familiar with the processes. So, I did some asking and this is what I found out.
First of all, both mascavo AND rapadura are heated. They are just heated for differing amount of times. The rapadura is boiled and concentrated into block form. In the words of my Brazilian source it is the most basic/natural type of sugar between the two. The process maintains mineral and a small amount of vitamin content.
Mascavo is taken just past boiling and is transferred to a crystallizer for cooling and evaporation. The good news is while it isn’t as superior nutritionally as rapadura the process does maintain some vitamin and mineral content and it is superior nutritionally to refined white sugar.
My source was kind enough to show me this chart from the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil listing nutrient content of three sugars – white refined, mascavo and rapadura. Don’t be overwhelmed by the Portuguese. Most nutrients are similar in both languages just keep in mind that “a” in Portuguese is “to” in English and a comma is used where we would use a period. For example “1,5 a 7” is “1.5 to 7”.
You can see when you check out the chart that nutrients are most plentiful in rapadura, but that mascavo still has some healthy components left in it versus refined white sugar. What I haven’t confirmed yet is whether or not mascavo is, in fact, muscovado. I think it is, but I can’t confirm because our friend in Brazil had never heard the term muscovado. I’m still pretty certain that it is just a difference in languages though.
So the truth is that if heating is part of the refining process than even rapadura can’t exactly be considered unrefined even though it may be the best choice nutritionally. I also learned that the reason I didn’t see it in Brazil is that it isn’t common for cooking due to it’s block form, although I know a lot of real-food focused food bloggers do use it. Mascavo is more ideal for cooking at least it seems that way in Brazil. Regarding the refining process really the only unrefined form of sugarcane available is the juice like what is being pressed in the photo below, called caldo de cana in Portuguese.

Okay, I’m not sure how much you all have cared about this, but I must admit I feel a lot better. I’ m not sure that I will keep using demerara, but I still plan to check out rapadura and I’m happy with my choice of mascavo when I can get it.
Anyone else find it odd that the less processing the more expensive the sugar? Seems like it should be the other way around to me.
I’ll close by saying that sugar is sugar when it comes to calories and cavities. I just want a product that is less refined with more nutritional value when I do use it. I trust more natural sweeteners such as maple syrup and honey, but I also like to bake and sometimes a sugar product is necessary. That’s really why I felt the need to find out some answers for myself.
References mentioned in this article:
Ministry of Agriculture Brazil – Rapadura
Diabetes Society of Brazil – Mascavo Sugar

This post has been submitted as part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday.

First photo of sugarcane fields in southern Brazil.

Expanding My Tea Knowledge: Pu-erh

January 8, 2010

This time of year I find that in order to stay warm I must always have a steaming mug of something in hand. It feels as though if I’m prevented from sipping a warm drink, I risk freezing up into an ice cube entirely.

You know I’m a huge coffee fan, but that doesn’t mean I’m anti-tea. In fact, I find that I must nip the coffee drinking in the bud by midmorning or I may overdo it on the caffeine. Too much of a good thing and all. So this only means that my tea drinking drastically increases in the winter to fulfill this ever present need to sip a cup o’ warmth.

I’m not a tea expert by any means, but I have had the opportunity to try several varieties. A few years ago my when my husband went to Beijing for work, he brought back flower tea and green tea which resulted in my first Chinese tea experience. While visiting Hong Kong in October we drank Jasmine tea with every meal and brought some back with us to enjoy as well.

My most interesting tea experience, however, came about last September, just before we left Brazil. The last few months of my time there I had the opportunity to meet and hang out with a fellow expat. Miranda is from London and married a Brazilian (Paulo) who happens to be from the same area we were living. They had settled there for a year or two while deciding their future plans.

Last summer, instead of a big wedding they set out on a round-the- world trip, and one of their stops was China and a tea tasting house. When we were able to meet after their trip Miranda presented me with this.


A pretty canister of Pu-erh tea. At that point I had never heard of it or seen it before. She let me know about its growing popularity and my excitement about having the opportunity to try it began to grow.


Pu-erh tea (also spelled as puerh, puer, pu-er and pu’er,) comes from the Yunnan Province of China from a town of the same name. It has over 1700 years of history and I’ve learned that it is quite the prized possession especially if it has been aged well which in some cases can be up to 65 years!

It comes in two varieties, sheng which is green and known as raw and shu which is black or sometimes referred to as cooked. Both start out the same way as maocha and then are preserved/processed differently.

For sheng, the maocha is lightly steamed and pressed into tea cakes. The microbes that remain in the tea result in the product undergoing a natural fermentation process as it is aged. Often left to age for at least 8 to 10 years the pu-erh turns from raw to cooked during this time. It is known for becoming smoother and less bitter as it ages.

For shu, the maocha is put into piles, spread out and wetted. Then it is covered to create something similar to a compost pile. From what I’ve read the technique for making the tea in this way is very detail oriented. It must be turned at the appropriate time and frequency to achieve the correct flavor and fragrance. Once the tea is ready, it is lightly steeped and pressed into cakes like the sheng. This method was developed to speed up the process of making pu-erh tea, but the sources I found didn’t indicate just how much more quickly the final product results.

I think it is well established that tea in almost any form is good for us. Well, okay, perhaps not the sugar-laden sweet tea (pronounced swate-teh) that we have in the south. But you know what I mean – oolong, green, black, jasmine, chai – they all have their individual health benefits to offer. Pu-erh is no exception.

Of course, as we often do with most ancient products consumed by other cultures, pu-erh tea has become a bit of a fad weight loss aid. I’m not commenting on that simply because I get tired of how my society must grasp perfectly good, real foods and turn them into money-hungry weight loss campaigns.

I did learn, however, that pu-erh tea has been found to be successful at lowering LDL cholesterol while raising HDL cholesterol (1). In addition, one study found that the tea has antioxidant and lipid-lowering effects and could potentially be used to reduce cardiovascular disorders (2).

However, do keep in mind the studies were done with rats consuming the leaves and extracts of the tea. I always pay attention to this because in grad school I did a research review of green tea. Of course there are health benefits, but most studies used extracts that would be equivalent to drinking 10 to 12 cups a day! Kudos to all the researchers out there who strive to evaluate foods as we would actually consume them.

The good part though is that drinking teas can be good for you overall. That is why I’m such an advocate for eating real, natural food and not worrying about the specific amounts, percentages and benefits. Healthy foods are going to work together to make you healthy overall. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.

So what type of pu-erh tea did I get?

I actually don’t know. Perhaps there is a way to tell by the label, but not speaking any form of Chinese, I’m clueless. Although I would suspect it is shu, as I’m sure the varieties aged the traditional way are likely untouchable regarding price.

I can tell you about the flavor though. The tea has a very rich, dark flavor, almost woodsy and the dark leaf that results as it steeps remind me of coffee grains. The overall flavor is incredibly complex as the production of the tea would indicate.

So if you come across real pu-erh tea, do try it. Not only does it warm me up, but it is very different from any tea variety I’ve experienced before.

Have you ever tried pu-erh tea, or do you have more details about it you can share?

References:

Curious About Coconut Oil

June 24, 2009

I’ve gladly embraced the coconut since I’ve been living in Brazil. As you can imagine it shows up in a lot of places around here. Those green coconuts with the tops chopped off and a straw inserted which most people seek out on their vacations, I now have access to everyday after my workouts at the park.

It’s a different world for me and while I was not a lover of coconut as a kid, it has grown on me quite rapidly in the past few years. Readily available as it may be, I will admit that it has been with reservation that I’ve generous added all forms of this food into my cooking.

Old habits die hard and when you are in a field where the dangers of saturated fats and all associated foods has been hammered into your head for years, it takes a while to adjust to new things. Then I started to read more and more about coconut oil. It’s nothing new, actually, been around forever, like most other natural, healthy foods, I might add.

I’ve been promising this post a while and I finally feel like I’ve done enough research to present what I’ve found and the views I’ve formed. It is really, really difficult to research topics like this in my opinion. I mean, 75% of the information out there that is understandable is from a company who sells coconut oil so you know they are going to present the positives. Yes, the info may be true, but one must read and believe with caution.

So here’s the breakdown.

Coconut oil has been used for a very long time in many of the cultures who have had easy access to it, India, Thailand, etc. Well, with our “eat low fat” mantra which eventually changed to a “eat healthy fat” mantra which is slowly becoming a “everything is okay except trans fat” mantra, coconut oil got a bit of a bad rap in the US.

Now this isn’t completely unwarranted. Much of what was being analyzed was refined and hydrogenated coconut oil, not good for you. However, the good stuff, the virgin coconut oil got thrown in with it making all coconut oil, no matter the source, bad for your heart, according to health professionals and some researchers.

Well, researchers (and lots of companies selling coconut oil) are now telling us that’s not true. I have to say, at this point, I agree.

Coconut oil has a high concentration of saturated fat, but this particular fat actually has two very positive qualities when it comes to health. One, it contains lauric acid. This gives coconut anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-viral properties. You can find people all over the web swearing how good it works for the immune system and as a topical ointment.

Second, coconut oil is made up of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) which are metabolized differently by the body than other fatty acids. They are absorbed more efficiently in our gastrointestinal tract and transported directly to the liver where they are utilized for energy. Long chain fatty acids, on the other hand, are converted into chylomicrons (substances that transport fats in the body) and go through the lymph system.

The big buzz around MCFA is that research studies have shown them to be associated with weight loss. Animal and human studies show an increase in energy expenditure after consumption leading researchers to believe they hold potential for promoting weight loss (1). In addition, another study concluded that intake of MCFA oils was more effective for weight loss than olive oil (2). In response to speculation that MCFA are associated with cardiovascular disease when used with weight loss programs, yet another study determined that there was no negative effect on metabolic risk factors (3). It was added in the conclusion that a distinction should be made on fatty acid chain length when discussing the effects of saturated fat on metabolic risk factors.

Okay, take a breather. Just a little more science stuff.

There has been some research linking coconut oil to improved cholesterol, but a lot of this has been in animal studies. Of course, that is where most nutritional research starts so it is worth mentioning. One study showed that the consumption of coconut oil by laboratory rats resulted in a decrease of total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL (4). From what I have gathered even if some professionals believe coconut oil doesn’t necessarily improve cholesterol, they do recognize that it may not exactly hurt it either. That can be viewed as a positive when it comes to fats considering all the bad publicity they’ve had in the past.

Virgin coconut oil is where it’s at when it comes to health. This name means it has been extracted from young coconuts using little to no heat and is in its most natural from. Refined coconut oils sometimes labeled as RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) can contain chemicals used in the processing and does not have the same nutrient profile as the virgin variety. Some people go for organic. I did read in my research that this wasn’t of utmost importance because coconuts don’t need a lot of pesticides to grow, but I can’t verify the accuracy of that information. I didn’t find anything else about that in my search.

Now for my minor rant.

I do believe that foods have medicinal, healing and even miracle properties and coconut oil just might be one. However, I dislike it when foods are advertised like this. Why? Well, because that is what we do in the U.S. with fads and most fads are dishonest. The miracle cure, the potential weight loss, etc. may be true, but turning things into fads and quick fixes is where we get ourselves into trouble. I feel by doing this we are buying into the fact that health is about quick fixes and not lifestyle.

I feel that foods should be about nourishment and enjoyment and the miracles a bonus for being healthy.

So you won’t find me taking coconut oil medicinally by the teaspoonful like I have read about. Mostly because, well, that is what we do with medicine. Food can act as medicine, but I prefer to enjoy it as food. I do believe that coconut oil has health benefits and I plan to start incorporating it into my diet more when possible. Although probably not a lot considering the price, but I’m certainly not going to be avoiding it like I used to.

So far I’ve only enjoyed it as a spread on bread and I hope to eventually start cooking and baking with it more. It is only sold in small jars here and while I haven’t searched too hard I haven’t seen it in bulk.

My next step is to determine if coconut milk and grated, unsweetened coconut contain the same benefits as the oil. I’m thinking probably not since they may be processed, but if you have info on that, send it my way. I use these much more in my cooking. So far all I’ve found on it is from the About.com guide for Alternative Medicine. She states that 3 ½ tablespoons of coconut oil is equal to about 10 ounces of coconut milk when it comes to lauric acid and the milk is processed differently so the nutrient and chemical makeup is likely different as well.

Do you use coconut oil?

References
1. Papamandjaris AA, MacDougall DE and Jones PJ. Medium chain fatty acid metabolism and energy expenditure: obesity treatment implications. Life Sci 1998;62(14):1203-15
2. St – Onge MP and Bosarge A. Weight-loss diet that includes consumption of medium-chain triacylglycerol oil leads to a greater rate of weight and fat mass loss than does olive oil. Am J Clin Nutr 2008 Mar;87(3):621-6
3. St – Onge MP et al. Medium chain triglyceride oil consumption as part of a weight loss diet does not lead to an adverse metabolic profile when compared to olive oil. J Am Coll Nutr. 2008 Oct;27(5):547-52
4. The Weston A. Price Foundation: The Latest Studies on Coconut Oil by Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

Resources
A New Look at Coconut Oil
Coconut Research Center
Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Blog Posts
Food Renegade
Nourishing Gourmet

This post has been submitted as part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays!

Thanks so much for reading!

Thanks so much for reading!

Hello! I'm Lori Rice, food photographer, writer, wanderer, pug-lover, and craft beer fan. This blog is my creative outlet for connecting with wonderful people like you! Have an interest in food styling and photography? Be sure to check out loririce.com

My New Cookbook published in 2020!

My New Cookbook published in 2020!

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