Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. ~Cicero

Celebrations of the harvest have existed for as long as civilization, for indeed it was agriculture that necessitated both. But Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday; a celebration of the bounty shared by the native inhabitants of this land with foreign pilgrims. While Judeo-Christian prayers before a meal give thanks to God and Native Americans thank the very animal on which they feast, each are also a recognition of our own place in the world.

Giving gratitude for the bounty we enjoy demonstrates respect not only for nature and God, but for ourselves as well. And so, while gratitude should be acknowledged, felt, and practiced every day, we set aside one particular day each fall to celebrate the harvest and pay special attention to that which makes it possible for us to do everything else we do in this life. To recognize that food transforms us even as it is transformed into us.

The food that says Thanksgiving to me is my mother’s wild rice dressing which, in my own version, gives nod to those historic Native Americans. I never thought my mom’s recipe could be improved upon until I discovered the magnificent flavors of real Manoomin wild rice, hand harvested and parched on the lakes near Ponsford, Minnesota by members of the Ojibwe Nation. This is truly wild wild rice, far more flavorful, nutritious and surprisingly quick-cooking than the California-grown “paddy rice” that is commonly marketed as wild rice (In fact, a common Ojibwe joke on the White Earth reservation goes something like this: “How to cook paddy rice: put the rice in a large pot with a stone and plenty of water. Bring to a boil. When the stone is soft, the rice is almost done.”)

On Thanksgiving and every day, I am thankful for my family more than anything else, for they are my true source of sustenance and joy. I am thankful for my awareness of the importance and impact of my food. I am thankful for crisp autumn mornings and rain and my dogs. I am thankful that I am still on the right side of the grass.

And bacon. I am very thankful for bacon.

Next time you eat, whether around a sumptuous table or alone in the kitchen with that leftover turkey sandwich, stop for just a moment to consider what you’re truly thankful for.

Chef Kurt’s Mom’s Wild Rice Dressing Print this recipe

by Kurt Michael Friese

The spirit of the harvest season, the richness of my mother’s kitchen and an acknowledgment of my Heartland roots, all brought together in one enameled, cast iron casserole.

1 pound Manoomin wild rice, washed three times in cold water (if using “plain” wild rice, forgo the rinsing)
4 tablespoons butter
1 pound pork sausage
4 cups chicken broth
2 portobello mushrooms or about 10 cremini mushrooms, diced
1/2 onion, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil rice in broth for 20 minutes (if using wild rice other than Manoomin, follow package directions).

Melt butter over medium heat in an enameled, cast iron casserole and brown pork for 8-10 minutes, breaking up with a spatula as it cooks. Add broth, mushrooms, onion, parsley, celery and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes. Then mix in rice (and any broth left over from cooking), cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake for 10 more minutes, until dressing has got a bit of a crust on top.

Serve immediately or cool and freeze.

Serves 8

 

		Kurt Michael Friese, Gather Food Correspondent
	Gather ‘Round the Table is a regular feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Chef Kurt Michael Friese is a freelance food & wine writer & photographer. He is also the co-owner - with his wife Kim - of Devotay, a restaurant in Iowa City, serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Directors, and is owner/publisher of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. His book, A Cook's Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland was released in the fall of 2008. He lives in rural Johnson County, Iowa. Keep up with Kurt Michael's food series by joining his network, or subscribing to his content.

Chef Kurt Michael Friese | Create Your Badge

Introduction

  Dietetics can save your life if you have this disease. Also dietetics can prevent you from getting the disease, but it is better if you don't smoke. Being overweight is another risk factor, but that can be handled by diet and exercise.

The Low Sodium Diet

  Don't eat popcorn. Salt is added to popcorn, even when you pop it yourself. It is already in the package of microwave popcorn. Also, don't eat chips. At lot of salt and fat are in chips. Read the nutrition labels on food that you buy.

  Often you can taste the salt. For example, olives have a lot of salt. A can of beef stew has salt added to it before canning. Bacon has a lot of salt and bad fats. Eggs also have a lot of bad fats. Fruits are low in both salt and fat. Also fruits are high in potassium. Eat fruits.

  Sodium is in the following foods:

Anchovies, bacon, beef, bologna, bran, butter, Canadian bacon, clams, corned beef, dulse, green beans, green olives, ham, Irish moss, kelp, margarine, meat, milk, poultry, rose hips, salt, sardines, seafood, tomatoes. Supplements: Baking soda, monosodium glutamate, sodium ascorbate, sodium chloride. 

  Note that the worst offenders are animal foods. The only fruits mentioned are rose hips and tomatoes. Even bread can have salt added to it. Read the label on the bread before you buy it.

Potassium

  Potassium is considered heart healthy. Potassium is in the following foods:

 Almonds, apricots, avocados, bananas, beef, bran, Brazil nuts, brewer's yeast, broccoli, brown rice, cabbage herb, cashews, celery herb, chard, citrus fruit, dairy foods, dates, figs, fish, fruit, garlic, grapefruit juice, green leafy vegetables, guava, legumes, lentils, meat, milk, molasses, nectarine, nuts, oranges, parsley, parsnips, peanuts, peaches, pork, potatoes, poultry, raisins, rice bran, sardines, seaweed, seeds, soybeans, spinach (fresh), squash, sunflower seeds, tomato juice, veal, walnuts, wheat bran, whole grains, yams. Supplements: potassium ascorbate, potassium aspartate, potassium benzoate, potassium carbonate, potassium chloride, potassium gluconate, potassium hydroxide.

  Note that fruits are rich in potassium. Both fruits and vegetables are low in fat except for the avocado. Fruits are almost the perfect foods! Nuts contain a lot of fat.

Stress

  Avoid stress because it is a risk factor for hypertension.

Fight Fat

  Fat is also a rsk factor. The vegan diet is relatively low in fat. It has no cholesterol and is low in saturated fats. The best foods are fruits and vegetables. Some grains are good. Whole wheat bread is better than white bread because it has more fiber. Brown rice is better than white rice for the same reason. Fiber has no calories. Water has no calories. If you are overweight, lose some weight. The Pritikin diet, which is low in fat, is also good. The Dean Ornish diet is similar. Both Pritikin and Ornish were like Jack Spratt. Unfortunately Pritikin is deceased, but his son is still carrying on with his work. I think Ornish is still alive.

The Elderly

  Hypertension is more common among elderly people (1).

"Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for the main cause of death in adult populations world wide: cardiovascular diseases (including ischemic heart disease and stroke)."

Ericka Méndez-Chacón,#1 Carolina Santamaría-Ulloa,#1,2 and Luis Rosero-Bixby, #1

1. Centro Centroamericano de Población, Universidad de Costa Rica, Sede Rodrigo Facio, 2060, Costa Rica

2. Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Corresponding author.

#Contributed equally.Ericka Méndez-Chacón: ericka@ccp.ucr.ac.cr; Carolina Santamaría-Ulloa: csantamaria@ccp.ucr.ac.cr; Luis Rosero-Bixby: lrosero@ccp.ucr.ac.cr

  The quote is from Ref. 1. This is an Open Access article, meaning that it can be quoted at will providing the proper citation is given. The article is available free full text on the Internet at the Pubmed Central database.

  If the diet fails, there are a number of drugs that can be used. Unfortunately some have bad side effects. Failing to beat hypertension could lead to a stroke. Cholesterol is also a factor in a stroke. Cholesterol builds up in the artery and causes a blockage. See Ref. 2 for more information.

  There are also theories that certain supplements, including omega-3-fatty acids, help. Most fats are bad guys, but these fats are helpful.

Conclusions

  More research is needed. However, a great deal of research has already been done.

  There are certain prescription medications that can raise your blood pressure, unfortunately. Some of these are MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors). There are also over-the-counter medicines that can raise your blood pressure including Sudafed (pseudoephedrine). The general rule is that catecholamines such as epinephrine can raise your blood pressure. Anxiety and pain can raise your blood pressure, probably due to the release of catecholamines. Information on anxiety is given in Ref. 3.

  Information on the vegan diet is given in Refs. 4 & 5. Information on alternative medicine is given in Ref. 6.

References

1. Factors associated with hypertension prevalence, unawareness and treatment among Costa Rican elderly. Ericka Méndez-Chacón, Carolina Santamaría-Ulloa, and Luis Rosero-Bixby. BMC Public Health. 2008; 8: 275. Published online 2008 August 5.

2.  Aggarwal M, Khan IA. Hypertensive crisis: Hypertensive Emergencies and Urgencies. Cardiol Clin. 2006;24:135–146. doi: 10.1016/j.ccl.2005.09.002.

3. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2371816/anxiety_causes_and_treatment.html

4. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2359246/animal_rights_activism.html

5.  www.associatedcontent.com/article/2339808/the_vegetarian_and_vegan_diets_to_fight.html
6. www.orthomolecular.org

Type I diabetes is the kind that develops in young children, a sudden inability to produce insulin in their bodies. The rates for this disease are now rising in Europe and in the United States at around 4% per year. This is very bad news, as this condition is very serious, requiring a lifetime of insulin injections or pumps, and careful nutrition in order to avoid potentially deadly or crippling complicaitons.

This trend pay point "toward harmful changes in the environment in which contemporary children grow" according to Dr. Dana Dabela of the University of Colorado at Denver*.  But the problem with that logical diagnosis is simple: we are talking about EVERYTHING to which a child is exposed, from conception to the time that the diabetes develops. Diet, chemicals, everything. Any idea how many chemicals are in the "environment" of an american infant? Carpet, pajamas, food preservatives, infant formula, everything. Not easy to esolate the One or more factors that is causing the problem. We are also talking about the mother's body before birth, and all the chemicals that the mother ingests.

Someday we may figure it out. But if you are the parent of a young child in the meantime, it is common sense to try to keep the child's exposure to chemicals under control. Breastfeeding might be a good idea, because imitation breast milk (formula) is not as good for your baby as the real thing.

By the way, type II adult onset diabetes is also on the rise. That one is less of a mystery, although the exact mechanism has not yet been proven. It is believed by the medical world that adult exposure to blood sugar over a lifetime is the root cause of adults in the industrialized world losing the ability to handle sugar in their bodies. Obesity is the biggest risk factor.

* Parade magazine, November 8, 2009, page 14.