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Hi Guys-

Well, it's happened, five years after her death and thirty eight years after it was first published, Julia Child's quintessential French cookbook, ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking' has made it to the New York Times bestseller list.

To this day, it remains the only cookbook to explain how to create authentic French dishes in American kitchens with American ingredients. By teaching techniques of French cooking, Julia Child singlehandedly turned American housewives into gourmet cooks.

I used to race home from school to watch old reruns of Julia (as I called her) cooking everything from soufflé to lobster (yikes, that was awful, I must say). She was masterful and goofy, funny and wise, graceful and clumsy and I loved her and her cooking. I was hooked, something that many people who make their livings in kitchens will admit.

I remember meeting Julia for the first time. I was brand new to television and we were both at a national public television event. I was dying to meet her. As I stood in a hallway one day, lo and behold, Julia Child was walking toward me in all her height and eccentric splendor. She was with a young woman and as she strode past me, she said,' Now remember, I want to meet that new young woman who doesn't cook with butter.'

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I try not to judge. People are where they are in their evolution. I consider that all the time and carefully measure my words and actions to accommodate that fact. But sometimes I wonder what people are thinking.

I just returned from teaching on a cruise ship. I know what you're thinking. What was that cruise line smoking when they invited me, the queen of bad news for junk food eaters, onto one of those floating binge palaces to teach healthy cooking? I thought the same thing.

My first class was on the first day we were at sea. I convinced myself that the first attendance would be light, first morning and all; people struggling to find their way around the ship. But I walked onstage to a packed room, filled the brim with people ready to be entertained and educated about healthy cooking. Class was totally fun. The people asked thoughtful, concerned questions about health. Who knew?

But before we get all warm and fuzzy about change; hang on. After class, I had free time. So my husband and I took up seats on the ninth deck overlooking the sea...and it turns out, the buffet dining room. Yikes!

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Hi Guys-

I was reading a magazine the other day and I saw a tiny blurb talking about the connection between eating red meat and MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus)...remember that super-bug that was wiping people out in hospitals and long term care facilities because bacteria can flourish in these environments and many of the people there have compromised immune systems and are heavily antibiotic-reliant?

Well, it seems that MRSA is back in a big way and you'll never guess how...turns out that confined animal feeding operations (aka factory farms) have become a spectacular breeding ground for this vicious little villain because the animals are compromised and so antibiotic-reliant. And then it's passed on to us, through the meat we eat and since we are so heavily antibiotic-reliant and compromised, MRSA can thrive in us, too. Wow, another selling point for McDonald's, Arby's and Wendy's!

And it gets better. A new study has been released linking the consumption of red meat and dairy products to an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. The study was done by the Division of Cancer, Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD (wow, that's a mouthful...) and was initiated because ‘up to now, the link between pancreatic cancer and dietary fat, a risk factor that people can do something about, has been inconclusive.' Ay, ay, ay!!!! But I held out hope...

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I am sure everyone has seen the latest stats to be released on obesity. (I just got home from Italy and found them waiting on my desktop.) While Mississippi is ‘still king of cellulite,' an ominous tide is rolling onward as Alabama is currently running a close second in its obesity rankings.

The new stats have just been released and they hold little good news. In 31 states, more than 1 in 4 adults is obese (not just pleasantly plump, but obese...yikes!). The report, released by the Trust for America's Health says that obesity rose in 23 states over the past year, while not one state experienced a decline. In fact, the report indicates that the crest of the wave of obesity has yet to crash over us.

And while this report provides one of the first in-depth looks at obese baby boomers...and also credits them for a good deal of the crushing rise in obesity (39% of boomers in Alabama are obese), I won't bore you with yet another blog about obesity and its impact on health. We all know the truth. We need to eat real food and exercise regularly to be fit, vital humans.  

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Hi Guys!

I'm totally under the gun here. Between blogging, work, newsletters, magazine articles and cooking and cleaning, I can barely think straight. And I am running out of time before I head off to Italy for another adventure hosting one of our fabulous groups.

Each trip to Italy reminds me more and more to live in the moment and to enjoy each day as if it was to be the last one. And I will proudly boast that, for the most part, my husband and I live exactly that way, savoring our days, working hard, playing just as hard and surrounding ourselves with people we love. It's a nice way to live.

But that is not say that I do not get incensed over how advertising is robbing America of its health and vitality. Look, I work in television, so I know the game, but seriously, if we don't wake up and smell the toast...really soon...we're headed for trouble we can't even imagine. To allow these health-robbing pirates to steal your future is criminal.

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Hi Guys!

All the buzz is around the new movie, Food, Inc. and I must say it is out of this world. If you have any doubts about who controls the food you eat or any thoughts that the ‘health food nuts' you know are conspiracy loons, this will open your eyes. According to the research and facts presented in this film, unless you are eating whole, unprocessed, organic (as much as possible) food, you can not be sure at all what might actually be on your plate. Not for the faint of heart, this powerful film pulls no punches.

Food, Inc., for those of you not aware, is a documentary that indicts the industrial system of agriculture and the policies that have allowed companies like Monsanto and the National Chicken Council to all but own the food you buy and consume daily...and since they own it, they control the quality (or lack thereof) of it. [Editor's note: Michael Pollan, author The Ominvore's Dilemna and In Defense of Food appears in this film]

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Veganism will never, in my view, be a widely accepted lifestyle choice...ever. And not because it isn't a gorgeous way to live (because it is...); not because it is a deprived and grim way to eat (because it isn't...); not because it's too weird or left of center (okay, I'll give you that one...). No, veganism will never thrive because a lot of vegans will not allow it.

 I was reading an article recently...written by a good friend of mine, someone I love and adore, respect and admire. I was so upset by what I read that I thought my head would explode. Maybe it's me, but the attitude he displays in the piece shows me arrogance underneath the supposed compassion he professes.

The article was all about the word vegan and its proper use. You may say, huh? I did. You know that joke I make about not being ‘vegan enough' for most vegans. I think it may be true, sadly. Apparently, you may only use the word ‘vegan' to describe yourself if you choose this compassionate way of living in order not to contribute to cruelty to animals. (It's apparently okay to be mean to people, just not animals...). And before anybody goes nuts and writes me about compassion and animals, I am all in for that, so save your breath.

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I think I may have figured out why Americans do not make better food choices. I think people are completely confused. Heck, I get confused and I work in food, study food and research the effects of food on health. I am considered an expert (whatever that means...) and if I get confused, I can only imagine what the rest of the country...who just wants to live their lives and eat dinner...feels.

And I know why we are confused. The latest addition of Men's Health magazine arrived the other day, the ‘Life in Balance' issue and it kicked off with a great...and I mean great editorial by David Zinzenko, author of ‘Eat This, Not That' and editor in chief. In the essay, he talks about Michael Pollan and eating real food, skipping drive-through and junk food; he speaks of whole unprocessed food versus the ‘edible foodlike substances' we have come to rely on in our diets. He waxed poetic about ‘pulling off the packaging and examining what's really on the end of our fork.' He goes on that our modern food culture has pulled us away from the reality of food with slick graphics, cartoons and healthy-sounding words like ‘lite.'

Well, you can imagine my excitement as I prepared to steal my husband's magazine and pore over every word of this balance issue. I could not wait to read the exposes, the scathing indictments of processed foods. Sure enough, I turn the page and there is an ad for ‘Silk' soymilk. Cool. But wait...what's this? Can it be? An item in the Table of Contents called ‘Soy's Dark Secret'? (I'd bet ‘Silk' knew nothing about this article before they bought into the ad space.)

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Hi guys-

I wanted to talk about something that seriously bugs me. I have lived a vegan lifestyle for more than 25 years and people rarely knew it. I always told myself it was because I hate labels, so ‘macrobiotic,' ‘vegan...' whatever was off my list of things to call myself. 

But that's not entirely true...actually not true at all. Having lived as part of both of these communities for many years, I think it's time to have the discussion about compassion, a word thrown about by both vegans and macrobiotics that seems to have little to do with the actual living of the lifestyle.

In macrobiotics, we say that by living this way, we are choosing to create a bigger life, one steeped in ancient wisdom, compassion and freedom of choice. And yet, I repeatedly see a kind of ‘them and us' attitude that excludes anyone not of the same mind as us. I was always taught that, in accordance with macrobiotic thinking, we are all part of one whole...all connected to each other and that what happens to one, happens to all.

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So I sat down last week, tired from too much office work and decided to see what Oprah was into these days. I like to check her show out now and then to see what she has America thinking, feeling, wearing and reading at any given moment.

Well, her show was about hooking people up to make their lives better...note that I said to make their lives better...and the promos for the show were positively seductive! Oprah looked directly into the camera, her big brown eyes moist with compassion and promised America that she was hooking everybody up with a special gift.