Dare You To...

Last week, my dad sent me a link to an article about Michael Pollan and the Paleo diet.  He knows that I'm a big fan of BOTH, so it made sense that he'd forward this to me, and I was eager to read it.

You can read the original article here: Michael Pollan Explains What's Wrong With The Paleo Diet"- The celebrated food author dishes on how to eat well: less meat, more microbes, and cook it for yourself.".  Based on the title, you'd logically assume that this interview was just that: The Great Michael Pollan going through reasons why the "paleo diet" is wrong.  If you read the full article, you may still think that. But, if you listen to the actual interview... you see this title is completely misleading.



First, I read the article (by Cynthia Graber), and immediately sent my reactions back to my dad.  To be clear, my gripes below are with the article's framing and titling, not with Pollan's arguments.

My initial email response:

----- Thanks, b…

Over the summer, I listed the health benefits of sauerkraut dared you to start eating it.

My next dare after adding sauerkraut in my diet was making my own.Whoah.  Trust me, I didn't think of this all by myself.  A friend of the family (Hi, Mike!) grew cabbage in his garden and suggested we ferment it into sauerkraut.  Of course, I was game.  Didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but that's okay.  It was awesome and definitely a learning experience.

We browsed several different recipes online to get an idea of the process and printed out Diane Sanfillipo's Easy Recipe for Raw Sauerkraut.  You can also find good instructions at Nourished Kitchen.


Mike had grown cabbage in his garden, so we took the green and red leaves and chopped it up really small.




By massaging and pressing the salted cabbage, the waters would naturally come right out.



Mixed it up in a way-too-big mason jar, with carrots and garlic that we shredded, as well.


It took a lot of work pressing…

Today, instead of daring you to cook a new food (although that's coming up, don't you worry!), I'm just going to dare you to eat a new food:


This is a food that I had nothing to do with growing up.  Never ate it.  Never wanted to.  Didn't quite know what it was.  Didn't care to look past its slimy appearance and pungent smell to give it a try.  No interest whatsoever.

In my paleo and general nutrition readings, podcasts, books, etc., I repeatedly find suggestions that Sauerkraut is one of the absolute healthiest things we should all be eating.
At Paleo FX (March 2012), a "Whole Foods vs. Supplements Mastermind Panel" of nutritional and digestive gurus (Chris Kresser, Amy Kubal, Diana Rodgers,Liz Wolf, Diane Sanfilippo, Dr. Dan Kalish, Joe Johnson) were all asked toname 3 foods or supplements they recommend.  Guess which food was essentially unanimously agreed upon?  (Hear discussion on that discussion in this Balanced Bites podcast episode.)Presenters at th…