Apparently the philosophy I subscribe to is called “positive eating” and today it is the subject of a New York Times article by Tara Parker-Pope. If you read the article you will probably recognize more than a little similarity between her talking points and many of the posts here on Thought for Food. In other words, Team, it looks like we’re on to something!

Parker-Pope defines the term positive eating as “shunning deprivation diets and instead focusing on adding seasonal vegetables, nuts, berries and other healthful foods” to your plate. Indeed the term seems appropriate, since it highlights the necessity of focusing on adding foods to your diet rather than cutting foods out. Also, the word “positive” implies a healthy, happy relationship with food rather than a negative one where food is the enemy. Thus positive eating means you can both enjoy food and be healthy without sacrificing quality of life. The sad part is that this is news to so many of us.

There are several reasons I think positive eating is more effective (for both health and weight loss) than diets that require a strict adherence to acceptable and unacceptable foods and practices. First, although less healthy foods are not explicitly restricted in a positive eating model, your stomach can only fit so much food (you may snicker at this, but it is true), and if you are filling up with more vegetables and other foods with low energy-density then you will end up eating fewer calories. This principle is called Volumetrics, and it is a very effective means of weight loss.

Second, eating seasonal vegetables, whole grains and a variety of proteins and healthy fats is incredibly nourishing to your body. Subsequently you feel satisfied with less food and are unlikely to have as many cravings later. Deprivation diets, on the other hand, starve you of certain nutrients. Not only does this make your body and your metabolism work less efficiently, it is also a major cause of binging and overindulgence. This is why going on a diet is one of the best predictors of future weight gain: your metabolism slows down and you eat more once you go off the diet. Deprivation is a recipe for dieting disaster, save yourself the suffering and go to the farmers’ market instead.

Third, fresh and healthy food prepared simply tastes absolutely amazing. Most people would be astounded by how delicious a 10 minute meal can be if high-quality seasonal ingredients are the centerpiece. After learning just a few simple cooking tricks, the thought of eating cheap, processed, tasteless food is appalling. It just stops making sense to subject yourself to unhealthy food when it no longer tastes good to you.

Positive eating also offers a lot more flexibility than any specific diet. If you have a healthy relationship with food, you can skip the broccoli if you don’t like it and you can have your favorite indulgence without feeling guilty. For this reason, people are far more likely to adopt positive eating as a way of life rather than a temporary fix to meet some specific fitness goal. This is incredibly important because time and again research has shown that overall dietary pattern is a far better predictor of your long-term health than any single food or nutrient.

Finally, if you are practicing positive eating it is difficult not to get more involved in the food culture of your own community. Going to the farmers’ market puts you in direct contact with the farmers who grow the best food, and there is no better way to feel connected to your personal food chain (to borrow Michael Pollan’s term) and support your local economy. Feelings of community and being a part of something bigger will elevate the importance of food in your life (in the good way, to where it should be), ultimately making you even more committed to following the most healthy (and moral) way of eating.

Positive eating may seem like a foreign concept to many of you, but I suspect it is easier and more attainable than you might think. This blog is specifically designed to simplify and demystify healthy cooking and eating. Your questions and comments are always welcome.

Some of you have probably noticed that I love pistachio nuts. I cook with them all the time and sing their praises whenever given the chance. For me this is kind of like cheering for the underdog. Pistachios tend to be overlooked because so many articles tout the benefits of walnuts and almonds that we almost forget there are other nuts out there.

Despite the fact that participants were already eating heart-healthy diets, pistachio consumption significantly lowered LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in a dose-dependent matter (9% and 12% for one and two servings, respectively). This means that the more pistachios people ate the more benefit they received. Moreover, total cholesterol went down without a concomitant decrease in HDL (“good”) cholesterol. This is encouraging because lowering HDL is an unwanted side effect of many LDL lowering interventions.

Other cardiovascular disease risk factors improved as well, including a decrease in apo B (possibly the best predictor of CVD risk).

Pistachios also contain more phytosterols, potassium, vitamin B-6, beta-carotene, lutein and protein than most other nuts.

Some of my favorite pistachio recipes are already posted on this site. What do you like to do with pistachios?

Wikipedia says the term Indian summer is meaningless in San Francisco because the weather never changes, but we had a few really hot days recently so I am going to use it anyway. To me, Indian summer represents Summer’s final hurrah, the last weeks of September when fruit gets almost too sweet and the first hints of fall produce begin to appear. Indian summer is your last chance to take advantage of the bounties of summertime before you are reduced to canned tomatoes, frozen berries and distant memories of stone fruit and peppers.

Already we have seen the appearance of pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, grapes, artichokes, pears and pomegranates. More exotic fruits like Asian pears and Chinese dates (jujubees) can also be found. But personally I cannot yet bring myself to buy these items. I am still hungry for melons, eggplants and, of course, summer tomatoes. Alas, soon these beauties will be gone.

This week’s purchases:

• Red beets (Chue’s)
• Rosemary (Chue’s)
• Chinese broccoli (Chue’s)
• Summerset peaches (Frog Hollow)
• Emerald beaut pluots (Frog Hollow)
• Warren pears (Frog Hollow)
• Flavor king pluots (Frog Hollow)
• Assorted summer squash (Ella Bella Farms)
• Ancho chilies (Happy Quail Farms)
• Mediterranean cucumbers (Happy Quail Farms)
• Assorted eggplants (Balakian Farms)
• Dry-farmed early girl tomatoes (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Blackberries (Glashoff Farms)

Summer squash is so delicate it is best prepared as a simple saute with leeks, garlic and basil. Buying an assortment of squash (as pictured) makes for a more interesting dish and colorful presentation. Squash is delicious with parsley, thyme, cilantro and marjoram as well, if basil doesn’t strike your fancy.

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat until it swirls easily. Add both the leeks and squash to the pan and stir to cover in oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. After two or three minutes add minced garlic and herbs. Continue to saute until squash is brightly colored and tender, but not dull and mushy. Throw in a handful of spinach when you add the herbs for extra greens. Cook some hot peppers in the oil before adding the vegetables to add extra spice and flavor.

This dish is a fantastic accompaniment to eggs, brown rice and beans, fish or chicken. Garnish with slices of early girl tomatoes for an ideal Indian summer meal.

Over Labor Day weekend, San Francisco was host to Slow Food Nation (SFN), a fundamentally gastronomic event that bills itself as “the largest celebration of food in American history.” With attendance peaking at 60,000 (10,000 more than anticipated) over the course of a four-day festival, it is difficult to argue otherwise.

SFN is the first event of its kind in the United States, a subsidiary of Slow Food USA and part of the Slow Food movement. Slow Food was founded in Italy in the late 1980s by Carlo Petrini as a way of combating the encroachment of fast food upon traditional cuisines. As such, the movement is largely political, but is founded primarily upon the principle of gustatory pleasure. Slow Food has dubbed “eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.”

The weekend showcased this principle with literally dozens of activities ranging from political discussions in the Food for Thought speaker series to Taste Pavilions highlighting sustainable growing practices. SFN also hosted a Marketplace, the Slow Food Rocks music festival, Slow hikes, farm tours, Slow dinners, a potluck and the planting and harvesting of the SFN Victory Garden in front of San Franicsco’s City Hall, to name a few.

There is little doubt that SFN was an incredibly ambitious endeavor. For example, the Food for Thought seminar series at the Herbst Theater was designed as a sit-down conversation among sustainable food advocates and icons like Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle and Wendell Berry. Taste Pavilions at Fort Mason allowed visitors to sample artisan cheese, bread, coffee, wine, charcuterie, spirits, honey, gelato and more from across the globe. The Green Kitchen offered simple cooking demonstrations by chefs from local powerhouse restaurants like The French Laundry and Chez Panisse, as well as cooks from as far away as Ireland. Taste Workshops included lessons on how to pair chocolate with coffee and how to live the Slow Food lifestyle on a budget.

But for all that was offered, SFN critics hone in on the same condemnation that has plagued the movement from its inception: elitism. The San Francisco Chronicle’s very own blog on the event is a virtual disparagement forum with angry comments like, “Funny how all the limousine liberals won’t do anything about the homeless until faced with the possibility of having to eat among them.” Such comments are evidence that the Slow Food movement’s efforts have done little to assuage their image as a bunch of upper-class foodies with too much time and money on their hands.

At first glance, it is not difficult to see how this impression was formed. Tickets to SFN were not cheap, and were at times staggering. A charity dinner that kicked off the event set the tone at $500 per plate. Each individual Food for Thought session (there were seven) cost $20, Taste Pavilion tickets were $65 and Slow Food Rocks admission started at $69 per day. Indeed, taking part in all the activities would put a hefty dent in anyone’s wallet.

But to point at ticket prices and denounce the event as elitist is to miss the purpose of SFN. First, many of the events were free and even those that were ticketed had a student discount price or other sliding scale option. The prix-fixe Slow Dinners at local restaurants had a range of prices, some of which were as low as $22. Also, many of the dinners were specifically designed to raise money and the proceeds were donated to various causes. Does it count as elitist if it is charity?

Most important, however, was the tone of the dialogue at SFN, which clearly set the goal of extending the accessibility of Slow Food to all individuals across the globe. The Food for Thought sessions (with titles such as “The World Food Crisis” and “A New, Fair Food System”) were expressly designed to begin a discussion about how to responsibly extend the methods of Slow Food to fight global food-related issues that have come to dominate industrialized and even non-industrialized cultures.

Thus, the overarching purpose of SFN was not to elevate the palates of average consumers to appreciate fine wines and cheeses, but to teach that Slow Food is a way of thinking and a way of life that we are all capable of embracing. Perhaps the most telling hint as to the intentions of the SFN founders was from the tremendous effort put forth at each of the activities to have visitors sign the Food Declaration (fooddeclaration.org), a visionary statement to help correct 21st century food, farm and agriculture policy. The idea behind the declaration is that the basic tenets of our national food policy contribute substantially to the global food crisis and that these issues must be addressed on a countrywide level if the problems are to be resolved. Ultimately the petition will be presented to Congress.

Call it what you will, but an earnest participant at SFN would deem the event a triumph of political activism, culinary brilliance and community enrichment. But it is critical to remember that Slow Food is just beginning here in the United States and will be ineffective unless it is able to touch the lives of ordinary people. To accomplish real change, the movement needs to shift into the hands of community members who participate by making daily decisions that contribute to the health of themselves, their families and the environment.

If you are interested in making a difference, a great way to start is by voting with your fork and choosing local, organic and sustainable food.

This article can also be found in Synapse.

For those of you who don’t know, Marion Nestle–nutritionist and food policy guru–has a new weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle. She is generally full of great advice, but I particularly like this week’s column where she comments on Michael Pollan’s philosophy to eat food, not nutrients. I encourage you all to read it.

It is also Marion Nestle’s birthday today. Happy birthday Marion!