sutton067

I love this time of the year. The weather is mild and the Farmers’ Market is teeming with life. I’m not talking about the big crowds with families enjoying their morning shopping at the market, or the joy of watching young children tasting fruits and learning about real food. I’m referring to the incredible varieties of produce and rare seasonal treats that appear at farmer's markets and which you will never see at the supermarket. What really caught my eye today were the beautiful freshly cut, right off the tree, green almonds. The almond is native to, and was first domesticated in, the Mediterranean Middle East -- present day Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan and nearby countries. However, almond trees spread throughout the region, and have been a major food in Greece for thousands of years. In ancient Greece, almonds were eaten in a wide variety of states, from dried and roasted, as we eat them, or green and right off the tree. Green almonds are still eaten in Greece. The Greek wor...

Researchers at the UK's University of Newcastle found that eating tomatoes helps prevent sunburn . The volunteers in the study who ate five tablespoons of tomato paste every day were on average 33 percent more protected against sunburn than the control group. Researchers calculated that this quantity of tomatos is the equivalent of constantly wearing a 1.3 SPF sunblock. The scientists attribute this effect to an antioxidant present in tomatoes called lycopene, which is also responsible for giving tomatoes their red color. It's also found in red carrots, watermelons and papayas. Lycopene has also been linked in the past with protection against age-related events like macular degeneration, the formation of skin wrinkles, prostate cancer and the rise in bad cholesterol. The research suggests that we should re-think our understanding of sun damage and skin cancer as not just about exposure, but also diet. In the past few decades, we have seen dramatic rises in both Vitamin D defici...

Most foods are "processed" at some point. For example, if you slice an apple, you have "processed" it. If you cook rice, make a salad or bake salmon, you have by definition transformed them from unprocessed to processed foods. People talk about "processed foods," but it's a confusing term because some processing is good and necessary, and some is bad and unnecessary. The Spartan Diet draws a very sharp distinction between foods processed for eating on the one hand, and those processed for preservation on the other. Although the Spartan Diet is made up almost entirely of raw, whole, unprocessed foods -- at least when you buy or pick them -- foods that have been processed for eating are on the diet. Olive oil, for example, has been processed. The oil has been extracted from olives, and that's a process -- and a necessary one if you want olive oil. However, it has not been processed for preservation. Good olive oil hasn't been pasteurized, irradia...