Guest Post: Sauteed Shrimp and Asparagus with Sesame Seeds

Carrie Murphy studies poetry in the MFA program at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM. She blogs about eating well in graduate school at Master of Fine Eats.

Being a strapped-for-time-and-energy graduate student, I am always looking for quick, easy and healthful dinner recipes I can make after a long day of class. Eating healthfully as often as possible is important to me, but so is relaxing (which, for the purposes of this post is defined as watching bad TV on Hulu and laying on my couch). So, how to eat well when I'm tired and don't feel like cooking?

I came up with this fast little saute after reading this recipe and wanting something a little bit more substantial (apologies to Martha). I had half a bag of frozen shrimp and some shriveling green onions in the fridge, so I threw this together one night a few weeks ago. The sesame seeds and green onions add a nice crunch and the lemony broth smells heavenly; it turned out flavorful and fresh-tasting without taking a lot of time or effort.

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If this looks good, you're gonna love:

• Noodle Salad with Shrimp, Chicken, and Mint
• Roasted Asparagus with Poached Egg and Parmesan
• Sweet and Sour Shrimp with Vegetables

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Sauteed Shrimp And Asparagus With Sesame Seeds
Serves 2
Total Time: 10-15 minutes
Hands-On Time: 10-15 minutes
NOTE: This recipe is designed to be eaten over your favorite grain. I served quinoa, but rice or couscous would work just as well.

1 tablespoons garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large bunch of asparagus chopped into 1 in pieces
20-30 small to medium shrimp (about 10-15 per person, depending on the size)
1/4 cup white wine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Liberal sprinkling of sesame seeds
Liberal sprinkling of chopped green onions

1) Defrost your shrimp and chop your asparagus and green onions.

2) Put the olive oil and garlic in a deep skillet on medium high until heated through.

3) Add in asparagus, thoroughly coat with garlic and oil. Cook for about a minute.

4) Add in shrimp, stir well. Cook for another minute.

5) Add in the wine and lemon juice, stir. Let this cook down, about 5 minutes or so (liquid should be bubbling).

6) Sprinkle on sesame seeds, mix well.

7) Spoon asparagus and shrimp mixture with broth over your selected grain; top with chopped green onions.

Tip #1: I know asparagus and green onions aren't really in season now, but imagine how good this recipe will be when they are!

Tip #2: Substitute sesame oil for olive if you want more of an Asian flavor, or add in some soy sauce near the end. You could also easily omit the sesame seeds or green onions for a slightly simpler recipe.

Calories
Asparagus, 27 cals
Ten shrimp: 80 cals
Olive oil in 2 tbsps: approx 238 cals
White wine: approx 40 cals
Garlic: 4 cals
Lemon Juice: 8 cals
Sesame Seeds: 52 cals
Green Onions: 10

Total: 459 calories
Total per serving: 229.5
(not including whatever grain you choose to serve this with)

Ask the Internet: Easy Slow Cooker Recipes

Today's question comes from reader Tanya:

Q: I would like some slow cooker recipes where I can just dump canned or frozen foods into the slow cooker, turn it on, and walk out the door. No slicing, dicing or browning. I would like them to be healthy and mostly vegetarian. And, oh yeah, I am sick sick sick of chili!

I am looking for these to save me from going out to eat. I would rather pay a little bit more for the price of pre-chopped veggies than the price of dining out.

A: Tanya, I'm happy to introduce you to A Year of Slow Cooking, Stephanie O'Dea's extensive blog dedicated exclusively to simple crockpot recipes. She also has two cookbooks out, including More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, which was just released in December.

Phyllis Pellman Good's crockpot series is also full of dump-and-walk recipes, but I find the dishes themselves can be hit-or-miss.

Readers, whaboutchoo?

Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday for an answer/several answers from the good people of the World Wide Net.

Guest Post: BFF Squash Soup With an Added Bonus Lentil Soup

Michelle spends her days as a computer geek. In her copious spare time she throws all of her creative energies into cooking. She is the mother of two pre-school aged boys and is married to a wonderful man who does all of her dishes.

A funny thing happened while I was making French Onion Soup for the first time: I discovered that onions sautéed in butter made a wonderful base for a vegetable broth. I extended that thought by adding carrots, celery, mushrooms and thyme after the onions had browned a bit (10-15 minutes), cooked for a few more minutes, and then added water. From that point, I could make any number of soups and they would have been incredibly rich.

The first time I made it, I added two cups of lentils with about 12 cups of water and some more thyme. I brought it to a boil and then lowered to simmer for an hour. It was awesome! I have always loved lentil soup and still have fond memories of eating canned Progresso as a child. This soup beat the pants off Progresso.

This weekend I was charged with making butternut squash soup for my Best Friend’s 40th birthday dinner. The complicating factor was her wonderful new boyfriend, who is a vegetarian. I always used chicken broth in the past and had a batch of chicken broth itching to be used in my freezer. Fortunately, before I offended the guest of honor and her honored guest I remembered the Lentil Soup vegetable broth base. I also decided to roast the squash with sage and olive oil to add a layer of depth. Once the squash was nicely roasted, browned and mushy, I added it to the soup base. I used my handy dandy hand blender and voila - rich yummy, vegetarian, squash soup.

Just for fun, because I don’t have enough to do with my husband, two children under five, full-time job out of the house and three cats, I decided to make sage toasted croutons out of homemade bread. I used my new go-to no knead bread recipe and then tossed crouton-sized chunks with sage and olive oil and toasted in the oven at 350 degrees until crunchy. You could save some time by toasting the croutons while you roast the squash.

If 20 cups of soup seems like too much, both soups freeze well or make great party favors. We left some with our hosts and gave some to the guest of honor to take home.

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If these look good, you'll surely enjoy:

• Gingered Carrot Soup with Lime and Cilantro
• Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup
• Italian White Bean and Spinach Soup

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Vegetable Stock Base

 4 TB salted butter
1 large onion (I used yellow)
3 large carrots diced (about two cups)
3 large celery sticks diced (about two cups)
1/2 pint mushrooms diced (about two cups)
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
12 cups water

1) Melt butter in large stock pot

2) Cook onions in butter on medium heat until they brown, about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3) Add carrots, celery, mushrooms, thyme leaves and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

4) Add water, salt and thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer for a half hour.

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Squash Soup with Sage Croutons
Makes about 20 cups of soup

1 recipe vegetable stock base
1 large butternut squash peeled and cubed
30 fresh sage leaves chopped
1/2 loaf hearty bread cut into cubes
4 TB olive oil split
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2) Toss squash with 2 TB of olive oil, 1/2 the sage leaves, salt and pepper.

3) Toss bread cubes with 2 TB of olive oil and the other 1/2 of the sage leaves.

4) Roast the squash on the bottom half of the over for 40 minutes stirring at 20 minutes.

5) Toast the bread cubes on the top half of the oven until you reach your preferred level of crunchiness. I like mine crunchy and it took about 20 minutes.

6) Add the squash to the vegetable stock base. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

7) Puree soup with a stick hand blender if you have one. Alternately you can use a regular blender but be very careful!

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Bonus Lentil Soup
Makes about 20 cups of soup
1 recipe vegetable stock base
2 cups lentils
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Add two cups of lentils to vegetable stock base. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer for an hour or until the lentils are soft.

2) Add salt and pepper to taste.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price per Serving
191 calories, 6.4 g fat, $0.63

Calculations
4 tablespoons butter: 400 calories, 44 g fat
1 large onion: 67 calories, 0.13 g fat
1 medium butternut squash: 410 calories, 1.0 g fat
3 carrots: 164 calories, 0.62 g fat
3 celery stalks: 18 calories, 0.21 g fat
½ pint mushrooms: 30 calories, 0.48 g fat
4 TB olive oil: 476 calories, 54 g fat
1 tsp thyme: negligible fat and calories
30 sage leaves: negligible fat and calories
Salt, freshly ground black pepper: negligible fat and calories
½ loaf whole wheat bread: 540 calories, 6.00 g fat
TOTAL: 1705 calories, 62.44 g fat
PER SERVING (TOTAL/20): 85.25 calories, 3.12 g fat

Saturday Throwback: 1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG archives. This one is from February 2009. Oh, memories.

The stretchability of a whole chicken is a frequently discussed topic among food and frugality bloggers. It’s commonly accepted that a single fowl will feed a family of 11 for weeks, years - even millennia. Even after 20 months of keeping CHG, I’m constantly gobsmacked by how moms and dads can create dinner after dinner from the same bird.

Here’s the thing: sometimes, those dinners aren’t the healthiest meals in the world. There tend to be a lot of quesadillas and casseroles whenever these type of posts pop up, not to mention chicken salads drenched with full-fat mayo. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this whatsoever (except the mayo - blech), but I wanted to see if I could put a healthier spin on it.

In a sentence: I wanted to find out if it was possible to create a gaggle of inexpensive, lower-fat meals with the leftovers from one big ol’ chicken.

Here were my rules:

• The budget – for EVERYTHING - was $25.
• I had to use as much food already in my pantry as possible. (Which accounted for a lot, and saved me mad dough in the long run.)
• Each meal had to feed at least two people (The Boyfriend and me).
• Bonus points for leftovers.
• The chicken had to be used up within a few days, so it wouldn’t go bad.
• The meals had to have reasonable variety, preferably from a range of cuisines. It couldn’t be Chicken with Spaghetti on Day 1, then Chicken with Penne on Day 2.
• The meals had to have very little added fat, since the leftover chicken would provide most of it.

And? Victory, for the most part. I ended up cooking five distinct, delicious, largely healthy dinners with PLENTY of leftovers. And miracle of miracles, there were no duds in the group. (Thanks, online reviewers!)

However, I did go $0.86 over budget. I’m okay with that, though. Between what we consumed each night and ate for lunch the next day, that $25.86 made 17 full meals, which works out to $1.52 each. That’s less than a cup of Starbucks coffee, so … aces.

What follows is the menu breakdown, complete with pictures and links to four of the five recipes. The last, a Cook’s Illustrated curry dish, isn’t online, so I transcribed it at the very bottom of this post. There’s also a master grocery list, so y’all can see the price breakdown of everything.

With that said, let’s get started with introductions: Charles, these are the CHG readers. CHG readers, this is Charles. He’s my chicken. He’s 6.99 lbs.

He will not look like this for long.


Day 1
Marcella Hazan’s Lemon Roasted Chicken with Carrots and Potatoes
2 servings
Chicken consumed: 10 ounces

We kicked everything off with Marcella’s Lemon Roasted Chicken. It’s been featured on the blog before, with good reason. In a world of dry, lame-o poultry, it is the Queen Mum of moist, flavorful goodness. Plus, when you add a few thick-cut carrots and quartered (unpeeled) red potatoes to the pan before it starts cooking, it becomes a whole meal. (Seriously, that’s all you have to do.) Together, The Boyfriend and I polished off all the vegetables and 10 ounces of chicken (five ounces each) for a Sunday night meal.

Afterwards, we stripped the chicken bare. Nude. Butt-naked. There was nothing left on that carcass but skin and gristle. It was a little hyena-like, honestly, but fun nonetheless. In total, our booty came to 2 pounds, 4 ounces of pure, straight-up leftover meat, mostly from the breast. Here’s a shot of the carnage.

If I had half a brain, I would have saved Charles’ bones to make stock. But I forgot.

To quote the bard, “Duh.”


Day 2
Cooking Light’s Chicken Picadillo with Rice and Black Beans
3 servings
Leftover chicken consumed: 1 pound

(Note: The experiment almost ended here, since I didn’t go grocery shopping in time for Day 2. Fortunately, for this particular recipe, everything was in my pantry already. [Woo hoo!])

Going in, I had mid-level expectations for Chicken Picadillo, and was super-pleasantly surprised by the results. All in all, it’s supremely easy to cook, and a nice change from the average Tex-Mex dish. Ground chicken, salsa, raisins, and almonds make up the main ingredients, but a dash of cinnamon ties it all together, giving everything a warm, lovely flavor. We ate it with plain rice and mashed black beans (to prepare: heat in pot, mash with masher, add salt and pepa), and used the leftovers to create a chicken/lettuce/salsa wrap the next day for lunch. Good times.


Day 3
White Chicken Chili
2-3 servings
Leftover chicken consumed: 1-1/2 cups

This tangy, mild, ridiculously simple chili was The Boyfriend’s favorite dish of the bunch. (He is the Chili King. He can do anything.) He slurped a bowl in record time, scarfed leftovers for lunch the next day, and openly wept when I told him he had finished it all. Poor guy.

The key to keeping this dish low-fat is the beans. By lightly mashing them, you create a thicker chili consistency, and don’t have to add as much cheese. FYI: If you like your chilis a little spicier, the heat is eminently adjustable here: just include the jalapeno seeds OR add another pepper altogether.


Day 4
Food Network’s Sesame Noodles with Chicken
5 servings
Chicken consumed: 1 cup

Three days into this thing, and we were barely halfway through Charles’ leftover meat. That started to change here.

It must be known: I loooooooove noodles. I luff them. I lurve them. I want to kiss them, but they keep falling through my fingers. (Ooo … deep.) Naturally then, this dish from Food Network was my favorite of the experiment. It’s a cross between Ellie Krieger’s Aromatic Noodles and this Noodle Salad from Cooking Light, with just a little more tang. The whole shebang is a tad higher in fat than the experiment’s others (see: butter, peanut), but it’s the healthy, protein-y kind, so I wouldn’t worry too much.

One note: I substituted a pitted, sliced regular cucumber for the Kirby. No harm, no foul, and it worked just fine.


Day 5
Cook’s Illustrated’s Chicken Curry in a Hurry
(recipe at bottom of post)
4 servings
Chicken consumed: 2 cups

Finally, we had reached the end. Charles was nearly tapped by Day 5, though perhaps surprisingly, we weren’t getting tired of chicken in the least.

It’s a good thing, then, we went with Curry in a Hurry. Served with a side of brown rice, it’s a fast, fantastic, Indian-inspired weeknight meal that will absolutely use up the last of any leftover chicken. Plus, it’s a lot of frigging food. CI claims it serves four people, it’s really more like five or six. Maybe eight or nine if you’re elves.

Note: we skipped the peas because they represent the oppression of the worker by the bourgeoisie, and can only be freed through shared profit and community-wide effort. (Oh wait – that’s not right. Actually, I just forgot to buy them. It didn’t make a difference.)

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And that, my friends, is it. We're full. The chicken's gone. The experiment worked.

Here’s our grocery list (just like we promised!), plus the curry recipe, should you be into it. Comments and questions are welcome, and I'd love to hear what y'all have done with a whole chicken. Enjoy!

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SHOPPING LIST
(* means I already had it in my pantry or fridge)

1 7-lb Oven Stuffer Roaster chicken: $6.92
1 lb thick carrots: $0.67
1-1/2 lbs red or Yukon gold potatoes: $1.42
2 lemons: $0.80
*1 or 2 tablespoons salt: $0.04
*3 teaspoons olive oil: $0.11
*2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil: $0.36
*2 tablespoons vegetable oil: $0.18
*2-1/2 medium onions: $0.30
*9 garlic cloves: $0.30
*2-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin: $0.05
*1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon: $0.01
*1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or Italian seasoning: $0.02
*Pinch ground cloves: $0.01
*1 teaspoon crushed red pepper: $0.05
*1/2 to 1 tablespoon curry powder: $0.07
*1 cup bottled salsa: $0.99
*1/3 cup golden raisins: $0.79
*1/4 cup raisins: $0.42
*1/4 cup slivered almonds: $0.73
1/4 cup dry-roasted peanuts: $0.35
1 large bunch fresh cilantro: $0.99
*1 14-oz can black beans: $0.67
1 can large white beans: $1.39
*1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas: $0.67
*1-2/3 cup uncooked brown rice: $0.95
1 seeded jalapeño pepper: $0.25
1 cucumber: $0.80
6 scallions: $0.67
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger: $0.32
1 can (4-ounce) chopped green chilies: $1.49
*2 cups chicken broth: $0.60
*1 pound spaghetti or Chinese egg noodles: $0.80
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter: $0.21
*1/4 cup soy sauce: $0.38
*2 tablespoons dark brown sugar: $0.06
*1 tablespoon rice vinegar: $0.24
*1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (we used low-fat, and it was okay): $0.28
*1/2 cup grated low-fat Monterey Jack or white cheddar cheese: $0.50
TOTAL: $25.86

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Cook’s Illustrated’s Chicken Curry in a Hurry
Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced thin
1/2 to 1 tablespoon curry powder (mine is hot, so I only use ½)
Salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
½ cup water
2 cups shredded of thinly sliced cooked chicken
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen peas (I left this out, but please use)
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (we used low-fat, and it was okay)
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, curry powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Saute about 6 minutes, until onion is browning. Add garlic and ginger. Cook 30 seconds, or until fragrant

2. Add water, meat, chickpeas, peas, and raisins. Stir. Saute 3 to 5 minutes, until warmed through.

3. Kill heat. Add yogurt and cilantro. Serve, over brown rice if you like.

Top Ten Links of the Week: 1/7/11 - 1/13/11

The links are back, yo! It's a new year, and to go with it, we have some new sources, along with proven favorites like Marion Nestle and the minimalist, uh ... (nothing rhymes with "minimalist," except maybe "Stephanie Zimbalist," but if anything did, I would put it here) ... always great Mark Bittman.

1) Grandparents.com: Recipe Section
I maintain this now! It’s my job! So, I’m posting it as #1. You might exclaim, “Why, she’s gone mad with power. MAD, I tell you.” And in reply to that, I cackle maniacally, shake my fist at the heavens and reply, “Yup.” (P.S. As you would expect with a grandparentally-oriented website, the cookie section is particularly solid. Not my doing, but my predecessor’s.)

2) New York Times: How the Microplane Grater Escaped the Garage
Loved this neat piece about microplane creator Chris Grace, who was just trying to file some wood. It’s like the penicillin legend, only delicious and less yogurty.

3) Food Politics: Predictions – National Nutrition Issues for 2011
Marion Nestle gazes deeply into her crystal cantaloupe and comes up with eight food policy issues (see: the title of her blog) that will be on everyone’s lips in the coming year. Most prominent: safety and school eats.

4) 344 Pounds: Stop Making Excuses for Weight Problems
Somewhat bluntly worded? Yep. Somewhat totally true? Absolutely. And it’s advice it’s about time I took. (Why, hello, post-honeymoon/holidays precipitous weight gain! I missed you so.)

5) Jezebel: The Problem With the Special K Challenge
In a nutshell: It’s nutritionally and calorically no good. But there’s a much more extensive, detailed explanation inside.

From Flickr's megleo

6) Washington Post: Consumer Reports Insights - Breakfast is important; tips for making it nutritious
Old news, reconfirmed, but with lots of interesting, helpful, and practical solutions to cramming breakfast into a busy day.

7) The Kitchn: 10 Inspiring Blogs on Vegan Food & Cooking
You! Meatless, eggless, and cheeseless people! Heed my call! Read this and weep no longer, for your diets have been saved from a eon of snow peas and cold spaghetti.

8) Food Network: Paula Deen’s English Peas Recipe
Come for Paula’s recipe. (Butter + peas = buttered peas.) Stay for the incredible comments. (Skip the first three. They’re a tad bitter.)

9) Bittman: Muffins, Infinite Ways
Not only is this a solid master recipe for all sorts of muffin-oriented treats, but “Muffins, Infinite Ways” will be the name of my first album.

10) Serious Eats: 5 Veggie-Packed Frittatas
Not only is this a solid post about healthy variations on the standard egg dish, but “5 Veggie-Packed Frittatas” will be the name of my first child.

AND ALSO

Saturday Night Live: Amusement Park Ride
Dunno if y’all saw SNL this past weekend, but Jim Carrey hosted, and about 2/3rds of the way through the show, they aired this sketch. It’s about a young couple haunted by animatronic figures when an amusement park ride breaks down. And it’s awesome. I forgot what a phenomenal physical comedian Jim Carrey is. Look at his face. LOOK AT HIS FACE!



Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!

Does Dietary Saturated Fat Increase Blood Cholesterol? An Informal Review of Observational Studies

The diet-heart hypothesis states three things:

1. Dietary saturated fat increases blood cholesterol
2. Elevated blood cholesterol increases the risk of having a heart attack
3. Therefore, dietary saturated fat increases the risk of having a heart attack

To evaluate the second contention, investigators have examined the relationship between blood cholesterol and heart attack risk. Many studies including MRFIT have shown that the two are related (1):

The relationship becomes much more complex when you consider lipoprotein subtypes, density and oxidation level, among other factors, but at the very least there is an association between habitual blood cholesterol level and heart attack risk. This is what you would want to see if your hypothesis states that high blood cholesterol causes heart attacks.

Now let's turn to the first contention, the hypothesis that dietary saturated fat increases serum cholesterol. This idea is so deeply ingrained in the scientific literature that many authors don't even bother providing references for it anymore. When references are provided, they nearly always point to the same type of study: short-term controlled diet trials, in which volunteers are fed different fats for 2-13 weeks and their blood cholesterol measured (2)*. These studies show that saturated fat increases both LDL cholesterol ("bad cholesterol") and HDL cholesterol ("good cholesterol"), but typically the former more than the latter.  These are the studies on which the diet-heart hypothesis was built.

But now we have a problem. Nearly every high-quality (prospective) observational study ever conducted found that saturated fat intake is not associated with heart attack risk (3). So if saturated fat increases blood cholesterol, and higher blood cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of having a heart attack, then why don't people who eat more saturated fat have more heart attacks?

I'll begin to answer that question with another question: why do researchers almost never cite observational studies to support the idea that dietary saturated fat increases blood cholesterol? Surely if the hypothesis is correct, then people who habitually eat a lot of saturated fat should have high cholesterol, right? One reason may be that in most instances, when researchers have looked for a relationship between habitual saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol, it has been very small or nonexistent. Those findings are rarely cited, but let's have a look...

The Studies

It's difficult to do a complete accounting of these studies, but I've done my best to round them up. I can't claim this post is comprehensive, but I doubt I missed very many, and I certainly didn't exclude any that I came across. If you know of any I missed, please add them to the comments.  [UPDATE 4-2012: I did miss several studies, although they're basically consistent with the conclusion I came to here.  I plan to update this post with the new references at some point.]

The earliest and perhaps most interesting study I found was published in the British Medical Journal in 1963 and is titled "Diet and Plasma Cholesterol in 99 Bank Men" (4). Investigators asked volunteers to weigh all food consumed at home for 1-2 weeks, and describe in detail all food consumed away from home. Compliance was good. This dietary accounting method is much more accurate than in most observational studies today**. Animal fat intake ranged from 55 to 173 grams per day, and blood cholesterol ranged from 154 to 324 mg/dL, yet there was no relationship whatsoever between the two. I'm looking at a graph of animal fat intake vs. blood cholesterol as I write this, and it looks like someone shot it with a shotgun at 50 yards. They analyzed the data every which way, but were never able to squeeze even a hint of an association out of it:

Making the most out of the data in other ways- for example, by analysis of the men very stable in their diets, or in whom weighing of food intake was maximal, or where blood was taken close to the diet [measurement]- did not increase the correlation. Because the correlation coefficient is almost as often negative as positive, moreover, what is being discussed mostly is the absence of association, not merely association that is unexpectedly small.

The next study to discuss is the 1976 Tecumseh study (5). This was a large cardiovascular observational study conducted in Tecumseh, Michigan, which is often used as the basis for comparison for other cardiovascular studies in the literature. Using the 24 hour dietary recall method, including an analysis of saturated fat, the investigators found that:

Cholesterol and triglyceride levels were unrelated to quality, quantity, or proportions of fat, carbohydrate or protein consumed in the 24-hr recall period.

They also noted that the result was consistent with what had been reported in other previously published studies, including the Evans county study (6), the massive Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Study (7) and the Framingham study. One of the longest-running, most comprehensive and most highly cited observational studies, the Framingham study was organized by Harvard investigators and continues to this day. When investigators analyzed the relationship between saturated fat intake, serum cholesterol and heart attack risk, they were so disappointed that they never formally published the results. We know from multiple sources that they found no significant relationship between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol or heart attack risk***.

The next study is the Bogalusa Heart Study, published in 1978, which studied the diet and health of 10 year old American children (8). This study found an association by one statistical method, and none by a second method****. They found that the dietary factors they analyzed explained no more than 4% of the variation in blood cholesterol. Overall, I think this study lends very little support to the hypothesis.

Next is the Western Electric study, published in 1981 (9). This study found an association between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol in middle-aged men in Chicago. However, the correlation was small, and there was no association between saturated fat intake and heart attack deaths. They cited two other studies that found an association between dietary saturated fat and blood cholesterol (and did not cite any of the numerous studies that found no association). One was a very small study conducted in young men doing research in Antarctica, which did not measure saturated fat but found an association between total fat intake and blood cholesterol (10). The other studied Japanese (Nagasaki and Hiroshima) and Japanese Americans in Japan, Hawai'i and California respectively (11).

This study requires some discussion. Published in 1973, it found a correlation between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol in Japan, Hawai'i but not in California. The strongest association was in Japan, where going from 5 to 75 g/day of saturated fat (a 15-fold change!) was associated with an increase in blood cholesterol from about 175 to 200 mg/dL. However, I don't think this study offers much support to the hypothesis upon closer examination. Food intake in Japan was collected by 24-hour recall in 1965-1967, when the diet was roughly 3/4 white rice by calories. The lower limit of saturated fat intake in Japan was 5g/day, 1/12th what was typically eaten in Hawai'i and California, and the Japanese average was 16g, with most people falling below 10g. That is an extraordinarily low saturated fat intake. I think a significant portion of the Japanese in this study, living in the war-ravaged cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, were over-reliant on white rice and had a very peculiar and perhaps deficient diet.  Also, what is the difference between a diet with 5 and 75 grams of saturated fat per day?  Those diets are probably very different, in many other ways than their saturated fat content.

In Japanese-Americans living in Hawai'i, over a range of saturated fat intakes between 5 and 110 g/day, cholesterol went from 210 to 220 mg/dL. That was statistically significant but it's not exactly knocking my socks off, considering it's a 22-fold difference in saturated fat intake. In California, going from 15 to 110 g/day of saturated fat (7.3-fold change) was not associated with a change in blood cholesterol. Blood cholesterol was 20-30 mg/dL lower in Japan than in Hawai'i or California at any given level of saturated fat intake (e.g., Japanese eating 30g per day vs. Hawai'ians eating 30g per day). I think it's probable that saturated fat is not the relevant factor here, or at least it's much less influential than other factors. An equally plausible explanation is that people in the very low range of saturated fat intake are the rural poor who eat a  diet that differs in many ways from the diets at the upper end of the range, and other aspects of lifestyle such as physical activity also differ.

The most recent study was the Health Professional Follow-up study, published in 1996 (12). This was a massive, well funded study that found no relationship between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol.

Conclusion

Of all the studies I came across, only the Western Electric study found a clear association between habitual saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol, and even that association was weak. The Bogalusa Heart study and the Japanese study provided inconsistent evidence for a weak association. The other studies I cited, including the bank workers' study, the Tecumseh study, the Evans county study, the Israel Ischemic Heart study, the Framingham study and the Health Professionals Follow-up study, found no association between the two factors.

Overall, the literature does not offer much support for the idea that long term saturated fat intake has a significant effect on the concentration of blood cholesterol in humans. If it's a factor at all, it must be rather weak. It may be that the diet-heart hypothesis rests in part on an over-reliance on the results of short-term controlled feeding studies.  It would be nice to see this discussed more often (or at all) in the scientific literature.  It is worth pointing out that the method used to collect diet information in most of these studies, the food frequency questionnaire, is not particularly accurate, so it's possible that there is a lot of variability inherent to the measurement that is partially masking an association.  In any case, these controlled studies have typically shown that saturated fat increases both LDL and HDL, so even if saturated fat did have a modest long-term effect on blood cholesterol, as hinted at by some of the observational studies, its effect on heart attack risk would still be difficult to predict.

The Diet-heart Hypothesis: Stuck at the Starting Gate
Animal Models of Atherosclerosis: LDL


* As a side note, many of these studies were of poor quality, and were designed in ways that artificially inflated the effects of saturated fat on blood lipids. For example, using a run-in period high in linoleic acid, or comparing a saturated fat-rich diet to a linoleic acid-rich diet, and attributing the differences in blood cholesterol to the saturated fat. Some of them used hydrogenated seed oils as the saturated fat. Although not always consistent, I do think that overall these studies support the idea that saturated fat does have a modest ability to increase blood cholesterol in the short term.

** Although I would love to hear comments from anyone who has done controlled diet trials. I'm sure this method had flaws, as it was applied in the 1960s.

*** Reference cited in the Tecumseh paper: Kannel, W et al. The Framingham Study. An epidemiological Investigation of Cardiovascular Diseases. Section 24: The Framingham Diet Study: Diet and the Regulation of Serum Cholesterol. US Government Printing Office, 1970.

**** Table 5 shows that the Pearson correlation coefficient for saturated fat intake vs. blood cholesterol is not significant; table 6 shows that children in the two highest tertiles of blood cholesterol have a significantly higher intake of saturated fat, unsaturated fat, total fat and sodium than the lowest tertile. The relationship between saturated fat and blood cholesterol shows no evidence of dose-dependence (cholesterol tertiles= 15.6g, 18.4g, 18.5g saturated fat). The investigators did not attempt to adjust for confounding factors.

Veggie Might: Hash Browns—Kablammed!

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

I learned something on a recent roadtrip South: the Waffle House is no longer an exclusively Southern delight. Not as nationally ubiquitous as Cracker Barrel, you can still get your pecan waffle and cheese grits fix as near to New York as Bethlehem, PA.

Where I grew up, in semirural/suburban North Carolina, the Waffle House was a sketchy roadside joint frequented by exhausted truckers and tweaking rednecks. At least, that’s was the conventional wisdom. Nice girls who wanted breakfast food after a late-night movie went to Shoney’s. My friends and I were nice girls.

Our idea of a fun Friday night was straight out of Gidget minus the surfing (I even named my car LaRue after Gidget’s best friend). After seeing a movie or working on our musical at A’s house, we’d drive past the Waffle House on Hwy. 74, turning up our noses at the pick-up trucks with gun racks and late-model Chevys for classier (read: safer) fare at the all-you-can-eat breakfast bar.

It wasn’t until college that I dared enter the greasy, syrupy underworld of the Waffle House, likely after alcohol-infused evenings with my theatrical cadre. We were old enough to feel worldly and young enough to feel invincible. Though my first experience is lost down the memory hole, it seems like I’ve always gone there.

Beyond waffles, WH is known for “scattered and smothered” hash browns, which come crisp as can be after being “scattered on the grill” and then “smothered” in sauteed onions. An additional array of verbs are available for your fried potatoes, including “covered” with cheese and “capped” with mushrooms.

To me, these are the gold standard in hash browns, and I can’t imagine the oil slick necessary to create the crunch they achieve. For these reasons, and the notion that hash browns just seem hard and scary, I’ve never made them before. However, Sunday, I set out to make a healthier and equally delicious version for brunch, and I think I’m onto something. The secret is straining the liquid from the grated potatoes.

I began by combining grated potatoes with carrot, scallion, mushrooms, and parsley. Then I pressed out the water while I made biscuits. Here’s how: wire mesh strainer --> potato/veg --> clean kitchen towel --> glass mixing bowl = water dripping into sink.

My first batch came out delicious, but a little mushy in the middle with only a few crispy edges. I thought maybe the potato mixture was still a little too wet, so I spread it out on another clean, dry towel and laid yet another on top. Then I rolled up the towels together to squeeze out the remaining water.

Attempt number two showed marked progress. Once I placed the potatoes in the pan, with only a teaspoon of oil, I let them cook for 2 minutes each side, pressing down with a turner. The potatoes browned, but did not attain the crispiness I sought. After one more tweak to the cooking time (4 minutes each side + pressing), I was seeing and tasting near perfection: golden brownness, crispy texture, vibrant flavor, and a very happy boyfriend.

Waffle House, you and your hash browns no longer scare me. You’ve been kablammed!

Gentle readers, do you have any fabulous hash brown tips you’d like to share? Waffle House stories you need to get off your chest? The comments are all yours!

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If this recipe tips your canoe, swim on over to:

• Tofu Veggie Scramble
• Winter Squash Frittata
• Malt Vinegar Oven Fries

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Kablammed Hash Browns
Serves 6

2 russet potatoes, grated
1/2 cup carrot, grated
1/2 cup scallion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon safflower oil

1) Peel and grate potatoes; wash and carrots. Place grated veg in wire mesh strainer with kitchen towel on top. Place a heavy bowl on top of towel to press water out of potatoes and carrots. Allow to strain for 10-15 minutes, or while you do other chopping.

2) Chop scallions, mushrooms, and parsley and combine in large mixing bowl. Remove grated potato and carrot from strainer and spread out on clean kitchen towel or paper towels. Roll up to strain out any remaining water. Combine with vegetables in bowl and mix well.

3) Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet. Spoon 1/2-cup portions of potato mixture into pan and shape into patties OR spread all potato mixture into one thin layer. Press with spatula and allow to brown on one side, 3-4 minutes. When potatoes are crispy, carefully flip and brown other side, 3-4 minutes.

4) Serve immediately with eggs or tofu scamble, grits, and biscuits and pucker up for some smooches.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price per Serving
73 calories, .76g fat, 1.75g fiber, 2.3g protein, $.72

Calculations
2 medium russet potatoes: 336 calories, 0g fat, 6g fiber, 10g protein, $0.86
1/2 cup carrot: 26 calories, 0g fat, 2g fiber, 0.5g protein, $0.16
1/2 cup scallions: 16 calories, 0g fat, 1.5g fiber, 1g protein, $0.16
1 cup crimini mushroom: 20 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 2g protein, $2.99
2 tablespoons fresh parsley: 2.6 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.14
1 teaspoon safflower oil: 39.6 calories, 4.62g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.03
TOTALS: 440 calories, 4.6g fat, 10.5g fiber, 13.5g protein, $4.34
PER SERVING (TOTALS/2): 73 calories, .76g fat, 1.75g fiber, 2.3g protein, $.72