Why you should eat fat

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:42:00 +0000

Jennifer McLagan is on a mission: to dispel the myth that fat is a "greasy killer." Or, as she writes in her new book, "Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes": "Human nutrition is complex, and no two bodies function the same way, but for the majority of us, eating animal fat is not the death sentence we have been led to believe."

The book tackles the controversies that have long been swirling around fat, from the fact that doctors praised the wonders of a low-fat diet only to watch as that wisdom was contradicted by a major 2006 study to the more recent study that indicated there may not, after all, be a direct link between obesity and heart attacks. On the other end of the spectrum, of course, there is Dr. Atkins and his contrarian high-fat-diet approach to getting healthy.

Good to the last drop

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:48:00 +0000

Journalist Michaele Weissman says she had her first real cup of coffee in 2005; everything before that was "hot water and Ritalin." The revelation came in the form of a double-shot 12-ounce cappuccino with whole milk made with specialty coffee purveyor Counter Culture's Toscano espresso blend. It was a concoction she remembers as tasting "as luxurious as cashmere, bringing mouth memories of caramel, chocolate and hazelnut." Baristas call this epiphany a "Godshot moment."

Now a self-described coffee obsessive, Weissman spent a year visiting coffee plantations around the world in search of "the perfect cup of coffee" and documented this enviable journey in a new book, "God in a Cup." Her book comes at a time when coffee is, well, hotter than ever. 2007 saw $12 billion in sales for specialty coffee -- defined by the Specialty Coffee Association of America as "the highest-quality green coffee beans roasted to their greatest flavor potential by true craftspeople and then properly brewed to well-established standards." Recent studies have shown that high coffee consumption may actually lower the risk of heart disease, and America's consumption of specialty coffee just keeps climbing. According to the 2008 National Coffee Drinking Trends Study, 17 percent of the adult population consumed a daily gourmet beverage in 2008, compared with 14 percent in 2007.

Salon.com > Monica Bhide

Why you should eat fat

Good to the last drop