At Via Carota. Photo: Liz Clayman

After spending years cooking at Chez Panisse, and famously teaching Michael Pollan how to master techniques, chef and writer Samin Nosrats debut cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking came out this week. She traveled from her home in Berkeley to New York to promote the book, celebrated by eating at her favorite local spots (Via Carota, Tam, Bien Cuit), and popped some Champagne. Read all about it in this weeks Grub Street Diet.

Thursday, April 20In Berkeley. I woke up and took my vitamins and antidepressants. I was leaving the next morning, so that was a weird running errands before you go away for ten days day. Normally, I have an office that I go to in Oakland, but that day, I stayed in my neighborhood. I had a gluten-free bagel and did some work, and then walked to the Cheese Board and had an iced coffee before therapy.

Chez Panisse is right in my neighborhood, and on the same block as my therapy. I had copies of the book that had just come in, so I brought some to drop off for everyone there. And they were doing a dessert taster, so I had rhubarb tart and almond cake, which were really good. I always sort of elbow my way in if theyre having tastings. If Im walking by on the street and they see me, theyre like, Oh my god, can you come clean some fava beans? I always say hi to everyone there. Its a nice way for me to really keep up-to-date on the micro-seasons, because they always have everything coming in first to Chez Panisse. Every farmer wants to send their first celery there first.

Then I went to therapy, and then I had a little more coffee, and then I just walked a couple of blocks to my friends house and hung out with her, and we ate weird Easter leftover things quinoa salad, ham, and grilled veggies and smothered them in spicy green sauce. I did more errands, and grabbed a tangerine LaCroix and Passionberry kombucha from the fridge. Ive been a pamplemousse diehard until recently, when I accidentally bought tangerine and actually liked it.

I met my friend and her family in our neighborhood for Chinese food. It wasnt that exciting. Nothing about Chinese food is that exciting. Delicious sesame pancakes, though.

Friday, April 21I had to get up at 4 a.m. for my flight to New York, so the whole day was sort of off, but I tried to pack some healthy(ish) snacks for the plane, and I have vitamins, antidepressants, and Babybel cheese before I hit the road.

On the plane, I had airplane coffee, beef jerky, strawberries, almonds, and Babybel. Im kind of off in the morning, and I can never decide if I want to try to sleep on the plane or not.

Then I got to New York and I was hungry in the cab, so I found two more Babybel cheeses. Then when I got to my friends house in Brooklyn, they had made shepherds pie with sweet potatoes, and a big salad. They have kids, so I had Easter jelly beans for dessert.

Saturday, April 22 I went over to my friend and New York Times editor Emily Weinsteins house for breakfast, but first, I made myself a coffee, and snacked on a little Easter ham and kale.

Emily lives in Park Slope, and I was touched that she went out and got the good bagels for me from Bagel Hole. She also offered me multiple varieties of cottage cheese. Im deep in a cottage-cheese phase this year, so we discussed it at length. To her, only Friendship is acceptable; Im still familiarizing myself with the New York brands. I had a warm sesame bagel (my first warm-from-the-oven bagel!) with scallion cream cheese, and an iced coffee.

I walked to the farmers market in the rain and had an apple-cider doughnut, but they were out of cider! I came home to my friends house, and I made a sandwich out of leftover Easter ham. And then I had to do this very funny and strange event on Saturday and Sunday, where I had to go to the Jaguar booth at the New York Auto Show and sign books for VIP Jaguar people, LOL. I snacked on some nuts and raisins that I had in my bag. And it was interesting because not one person on the first day knew anything about Chez Panisse; they didnt know anything about Michael Pollan. And I was like, Okay, Im outside my bubble. Everyone was really, really nice, but it was this wake-up call that the food world is a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny world.

The friends I was staying with came to the auto show to check out Volvos and meet me. We were starving and hadnt thought to make a dinner reservation at Cookshop, and the wait was really long, so we came home and ordered pizzas and salad from my favorite place in their neighborhood, Table 87. There is simply nothing like a New York coal-oven pizza. I always drown mine in Calabrian chiles!

I should explain: I have this weird autoimmune disease Hashimotos, which is a thyroid disease. I have sort of a gluten threshold that I try to stay under, but when I come to New York, it always ends up being horrific because all I want to do is eat pizza and noodles. So I have to do this thing where half of the things I eat are gluten-free, and then Im like, Lets have bagels and pizza for dinner.

Obviously, I had more Easter jelly beans before I went to sleep.

Sunday, April 23I got up early, made a coffee, packed up, and left Brooklyn. Vitamins, meds. I checked into the Parker Meridien in midtown, went to the gym, and rushed down to Food52 for a cooking demo during their spring pop-up. I ate lots of odds and ends during my cooking demos boiled broccoli and asparagus, carrot sticks, caramel sauce, green-goddess dressing. And I tasted all of the Ample Hills flavors at the pop-up, including cinnamon burnt toast! One of them had banana and Nutella in it. That was my favorite.

Sweetgreen had been there the day before, and there were a bunch of salads left over in the fridge, so I grabbed one and ate that before I headed back to the Javits for round two. More nuts and raisins.

I was starving by the time I got back to the hotel, so I went to Burger Joint and ordered a burger (medium-rare) with spicy slaw. When I checked in, I was like, Im only going to go to Burger Joint once while I stay here. And then, obviously, I used it on my first meal. So I brought it upstairs and found that my friend, Josh Morgenthau, had sent over a bottle of his delicious, new Treasury Cider from his upstate farm, Fishkill Farms, that Id been wanting to taste. It was the perfect accompaniment to the burger and very spicy slaw.

Then I took a nap. I was like, Should I just turn this nap into all-night sleep? Because it was a 7 p.m. nap. And then I willed myself to go get snacks and stuff, so I walked over to the Whole Foods. Im the old lady who always has a snack in her bag. I got local bread. I was like, Im just going to have PB&J with me at all times, every day this week, in case I get hungry. I also got a whole bunch of Babybel cheeses, green juice, and white-cheddar popcorn.

I went up to the pool, which overlooks Central Park, and floated for a while, thinking about how strange it was to be in a pool on top of a hotel in NYC right before my book comes out. Surreal! I ate popcorn, and green juice, and half a PB&J sandwich in my room, and crashed.

Monday, April 24 Vitamins, meds. I went to Brooklyn with Wendy MacNaughton, who illustrated my book, to sign books at Books Are Magic, which is doing a little preopening this weekend. Im so sad about BookCourt being gone, but its really awesome.

When we got off the subway, I was like, I want to go to Bien Cuit! They do that thing that Tartine does at home, which is that they bake things so hard. They make everything so dark. And my whole thing is, I love chocolate-chip cookies that are really brown. I like everything to be really brown. Im like, Dont eat the croissant! Dont eat the croissant! I ate the artichoke-and-goat-cheese croissant. Best lunch ever.

Then we went to my favorite New York restaurant, Via Carota, where I was meeting my agent and the VP of my production company for a celebratory lunch. The book is being turned into a docuseries. I get to go to nine countries. I made up the number nine. Many countries. So thats crazy. Ive been a cook since I was 20 years old. I have worked for $10, $12, $14, and $18 an hour. And then I became a writer, which, as you know, is an equally not-so-lucrative career and this very interesting and wonderful and strange thing, to have this moment where, all of a sudden, the world is recognizing you. You all of a sudden have legitimacy, after so many years of just being a person who had her head down, working her butt off, feeling always sort of overlooked. So Ive gone to a lot of therapy, as Ive mentioned. This is an interesting week to be doing this with you, because its just a really fun and weird week in my life. There has never been something like this. And in a lot of ways, Ive been looking forward to this week for a long time. And in some ways, dreading this week for a really long time.

I always get certain things at Via Carota, including the bicicletta, the grilled artichokes with mayo, the burrata, and the huge butter-lettuce salad. We also had arancini; a beautiful, ethereal shrimp and squid fritto misto; grilled asparagus; and this insanely delicious saut of artichokes, favas, peas, and asparagus with mint. I love this place. Its a vegetable extravaganza. That you can eat an entire meal of just vegetables, thats my dream life. And I said that to Jodi, and she was like, Yeah, everybody gets pissed because when Rita and I go out to restaurants, we just order all the vegetable sides. And I was like, Me, too. And so they just made a restaurant thats all vegetable sides.

I did a few more errands, ate my bag PB&J, the rest of my green juice, and a kombucha as my p.m. snack, before I had to go out to record the Longform Podcast in Brooklyn. Exhausted, I came back to the hotel, walked to Whole Foods, and made myself a taco salad from the hot and salad bars.

Wendy came back to the hotel after an event, and we met downstairs. She was starving, so we went to Burger Joint so that she could get a bite, and I ate most of her fries while we befriended a stranger. There was a lady in a booth, so we were like, Can we share this booth with you? And she said, Oh, absolutely. She was a New Yorker who lives in the neighborhood and said, Whatre you doing here? And then Wendy, whos a total ham, said, Just so you know, youre sitting with the future Julia Child; her book is coming out tomorrow. And so the lady threw her hands up in the air and was like, Oh my god. Please give me an autograph! It was a very embarrassing and funny interaction.

Then we went to the hotel bar to celebrate our pub day at the stroke of midnight. I had an elderflower spritz; she had a bourbon on the rocks; and we ate all of the smoked almonds the server brought us. Wendy and I are so happy that were still friends. In the beginning, she was like, We may never talk to each other again at the end of this. But its been such a good collaboration.

Tuesday, April 25 Coffee! Vitamins and meds! PB&J for the bag!

I went downtown for an event at Cond Nast, but it got canceled, so I went to McNally Jackson to replace my favorite book-signing pen, which I had left at Books Are Magic. And then I went to Tam, my other very favorite New York place that I go to on every single trip. I had a harissa-falafel sandwich with zhug, pickles, and spicy peppers, and a pomegranate-honey tea.

I went to go see my friend, writer Tamar Adler Olivier, on the Upper West Side, and I met her baby, and we had a glass of ros to celebrate pub day! Then I went back to the hotel, where Wendy surprised me with Champagne!

I stuffed my pockets with Babybels, and we went to meet Julia Turshen at this place, Sfoglia, which is across the street from the 92nd Street Y. We were kind of late, so we just ate a little bite in there, and then went into the Y. I had packed all these Babybel cheeses in my pocket, so I was giving them out to everyone. I was like, You need your protein! I also had some salami and burrata and breadsticks that Julia had already ordered.

And then we did our event at the 92Y. Our friend Jill brought Wendy a big bag of Cadbury mini-eggs, so I ate a bunch of those while we signed books. Then we went to Flora Bar, where they made us a million delicious snacks, including these fantastic potato-and-cheese croquetas, and delicious jcama-and-olive salad. Prosecco up the wazoo.

My friend Laurie Ellen Pellicano, a fantastic pastry chef, brought me and Wendy a huge bag of rhubarb thumbprint cookies, so we came back to the hotel and drank the rest of the Champagne, ate those, checked Twitter, and went to bed.

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This is not a tip. It is a personal gift and not subject to federal or state income taxes.

The rest is here:
Cookbook Author Samin Nosrat Celebrates With Champagne and Babybels - Grub Street

Kids are spending more and more time watching more and more screens. If you havent noticed it, you must be Rip Van Winkle.

I used to harp against TV time, but gone are the days of just three network stations plus PBS. Now there are screens everywhere and I mean everywhere.

How many times have you almost bumped into someone walking down the street looking at the screen on their dumb phone? And look at restaurants, where mom and dad are sitting with their kids and no one is talking to one another. Theyre all in their own cocoon, looking at their screens. A recent ad for AT&T showed a father and 5-year-old son sitting on the step each with a phone or tablet. Not talking. Not interacting. Just looking and texting. Uh huh. Thats not what I would call good parenting at all. Yes, the times they are a-changin and not all for the better.

Learning to use technology appropriately is why two studies from the British Medical Journal caught my interest. That time your child is spending in front of the screen just might be responsible for the diabetes and obesity epidemic we see nationwide affecting our kids. Thats right screen time might be fat time.

Before you say hold your horses, lets look at the data. The study came out of England and, granted, British kids are not the same as U.S. kids. But I think you could comfortably say the differences are minor when you look at the results the study showed.

They looked at nearly 5,000 children, boys and girls, in more than 200 schools, checking to see how much time they spent in front of a screen. Diaries from the kids and the parents were a pretty good representation of what was going on in each house. They wanted to compare the kids who clocked in little or no time screen time, meaning an hour or less per day, with kids who clocked in three hours or more per day.

Then they took blood tests, measuring insulin resistance, blood sugar, cholesterol and inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, which has been implicated in heart attacks. And, of course, they measured the kids height and weight as well as skin-fold thickness, a fairly reliable measure of how much fat you have when youre a child.

The results may not surprise you, but they certainly did me. Children who spent more time in front of a screen were more likely have worse scores in nearly all of these measures, potentially putting them at risk for developing diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease when they become adults. Not only that, but the kids with more screen time showed elevated levels of leptin, a hormone that has been implicated in overweight people.

You might wonder what role family income, parents education, whether there were smokers in the house and other factors might play in this. The answer was nada, none at all.

My spin: Screen time is diabetes and obesity time. We talk about diet and exercise, diet and exercise; we dont talk about screen time, diet and exercise. Perhaps we should.

And perhaps what might be true for children also might be true for adults. I dont ask my patients to clock in how much time they spend in front of a screen every day. Perhaps that should be a question that all clinicians should ask whats good for the gosling is good for the gander.

Next week, Ill tell you about a disappointing study regarding childhood exercise. Stay well.

This column provides general health information and is not specific advice intended for particular individual(s). It is not a professional medical opinion or diagnosis. Always consult your personal health care provider about concerns. No ongoing relationship of any sort (including but not limited to any form of professional relationship) is implied or offered by Dr. Paster to people submitting questions.

Read more here:
Dr. Zorba Paster: Talk about diet, exercise and screen time - Madison.com

Are you eating the same foods you were eating in your 20s and 30s? Well, sticking to your old ways can cost you. As you may know, the body experiences rapid changes after age 50. Its ability to absorb nutrients fades, metabolism slows down, bone density declines and immune function weakens.

To combat these changes and maintain optimal health, you have to change your diet. Here are diet changes that will keep you healthy at age 50 and beyond.

Vitamin B12 deficiency has been linked to anemia, digestive issues and fatigue. And its estimated that 47 million Americans are vitamin B12 deficient. In fact, 80 percent of vegans and 50 percent of vegetarians are deficient in B12.

You have greater risk of vitamin B12 deficiency after 50 since your body doesnt have enough stomach acid to breakdown B12 from food. To make up for low vitamin B12 absorption, increase your intake of beef, fish, eggs, and milk. If you are vegan consume; fortified plant milks, fortified soy products, and vegan B12 supplements.

Unlike other nutrients which can be harmful when you go overboard, vitamin B12 is totally safe. According to Washington Post, this vitamin is water soluble, which means the body will flush excess amounts.

Related:How to Get Vitamin B12 on a Vegan Diet

According to research, bone loss triples in women after menopause. Increasing calcium intake will help keep the bones healthy and prevent fractures.

Calcium is also essential for muscle contractions and balancing pH levels (reducing acidity) in the body. The daily recommended calcium intake for women over 51 is 1200mg and 1000mg for men.

Here are the best vegan sources for calcium. Note that excess calcium intake can cause kidney stones, digestive problems and heart disease.

High fiber foods have been proven to reduce risk of colon cancer, heart disease, diabetes, constipation and promote weight loss. Unfortunately, most women dont consume the recommended 25g per day (30g per day day for men).

If you want to prevent your waistline from expanding, increase fiber intake and steer clear of processed carbs.

Vitamin D also helps prevent bone loss. Youll even be surprised to find out that adequate intake of vitamin D can lower mortality rate, research shows.

Its harder to get enough vitamin D as we age because our bodies absorb fewer nutrients from food sources. Plus the skin cant change sunlight to vitamin D as efficiently as it used to when you were younger.

Get vitamin D from food sources such as whole eggs, salmon, mushrooms and fortified foods. In fact, you may need to supplement to reach the recommended daily dose.

Related: 11 Reasons to Love Vitamin D

The recommended daily intake of magnesium is 400mg. People who dont reach this daily value have higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, fatigue and weak immune system.

If you choose to use supplements, make sure they dont exceed 400mg. Here are foods that fix magnesium deficiency.

Omega 3s can help you stay young. They fight inflammation, which is known to increase risk of diseases and promote aging. Fish is the most popular source of omega 3s. Vegans can get this fatty acid from flaxseeds and almonds. Feel free to take supplements. Aim for 1000mg per day.

Which diet changes have you made as you age?

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

See original here:
6 Ways to Alter Your Diet as You Age - Care2.com

The states Department of Transportation has told Avondale Estates that its eligible for a road diet along U.S. 278 between Ashton Place and Sams Crossing.

This would mean cutting the current five lanes down to three (removing one east and one west bound lane) and having bike lanes in each direction. It would also mean wider sidewalks and more effective pedestrian crossings (with hawk lights), consistent with the citys goal of connecting its commercial district with residential.

GDOT had previously rejected an identical plan in December 2015, saying it would slow traffic along a critical state corridor. In March 2016 the city devised a compromise plan with four lanes, but in December asked GDOT to re-examine the three-lane scenario.

From what I understand they went back and looked at the traffic studies, said City Manager Clai Brown. I think their [agreeing to three lanes] was based entirely on that.

The tentative price for the four-lane project was $2.8 million, but the three-lane version is more intense, Brown said, and will likely cost more. Eighty percent will come from an Atlanta Regional Commission grant, and 20 percent from the city.

Brown said the project unfolds in three stages, planning and engineering, right of way acquisition and construction. Tentative finish is the middle of 2021.

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Three lane road diet back on the table for Avondale Estates' U.S. 278 - Atlanta Journal Constitution