I’m a big fan of yours, Catherine, and also of Pete Evans, and bought his MAHA Cookbook after reading Jeff Louderback’s recent piece here. But what you’re describing about this kid’s book, it’s too complicated. Parents will turn off if there’s too much to get to know. Getting kids to eat right should be simple. One fundamental thing that should happen through MAHA is Home Ec should become mandatory in schools starting from the beginning. Also, since when is milk and gluten bad? Raising kids dairy and gluten free is right for kids who can’t handle it, but it’s harmful to suggest that good dairy and good bread are going to wreck a kid’s life. Processed bread is bad, but homemade bread is something people have been nourished on for millennium.
I shall be known as the Lady Who Won't Stop Complaining. In this case, I have no objection to the book review itself; it's the book that's raised my hackles. It looks like any number of cookbacks with an agenda that I see tossed after five years into Little Free Libraries when the agenda is old. This isn't a complaint about the content per se; foodistes gotta read, too. But, like Polly (below), I wonder whether making cooking hard is overall how MAHA should trend. Preaching to the choir is okay as an aside but should not divert one's attention from big pictures. Gluten and dairy have made up much of the western child's diet over the millenia and may cause problems for some, but we're getting frightfully close to Cancel Culture, Food Division, when we tell parents used to pouring squeezy things into their toddler that they also can't offer a glass of whole milk or a bowl of Cheerios. I also agree with Polly's comment about Home Ec; if mom and dad never learned to cook (in school or at home), you can't present them with food porn photos and expect anything other than frustration. My preference is to continue along the Mike Tyson commercial path. How did he improve his diet? He ate an apple. This involves a lot of tinkering with our trade and agricultural policy (can we start in rural Maryland????), the cooperation of groceries and other food purveyors, and lots and lots of ground-level education and advertising.
Dairy products like yogurt that have real probiotic culture in them are great for kids. People should be taught to read labels and know whether or not the yogurt they’re buying does have real probiotic culture. That would be a bigger step forward for kids than cutting out dairy, which I believe would be harmful except, as I wrote in my first comment, if kids have dairy sensitivity (which I did as a baby and child, and which continued into my adult life). And I think MAHA should concentrate on A2 dairy which I have read and found out personally is far better than our current American dairy, even the “organic” kind. From everything I’m reading, people with dairy sensitivity do well with A2 milk products. And closer to home, my husband developed dairy sensitivity in his adult life. He has no problem with A2 products. I could never handle drinking milk straight until I went to New Zealand and suddenly, I had no problem. This was the 80s and maybe it has changed, but I was told then that they had A2 dairy, not our A1. We buy Strauss and Alexandre milk, yogurt, sour cream and ice cream. There are brands of A2 Skyr as well.
A century ago people lived very close to their food sources! Farm to table was real.
Schools fed children the same foods they also got at home?
It was unimaginable then to eat fruit grown in South America ?
Big AG today means very little if any food comes to our table without processing ? You simply can’t avoid it ? You have no idea where fruit and veggies were grown much less their journey to the markets or where ,how and when they were hybridized to travel and live in boxes for. Months?
Try to eat clean? With glyphosate and sprays on all of it? Dozens of chemicals on every label?
No book of recipes can ever fix the food industry ? We need a whole new system not yet invented to do that?
As a Nutritionist with a 5 year degree from a US land grant University rated #3 in best schools for Nutrition degrees at the time I attended, it is interesting to me that the public is so quick to accept the nutrition advise from a chef in Australia. He is quoted as taking an online course in Nutrition from an Integrative Nutrition Institute and considers himself a coach. But this book appears to be based on his own opinions and not on gold standard scientific research that is the bedrock for our USA USDA Dietary recommendations.
Let me say this: Nutrition is a very complex science and a degree involves years of classes in biochemistry, physiology & anatomy, metabolism, bacteriology, statistics, hormonal controls, nutrition, and food science. Just studying individual foods and learning of their basic macronutrients is encompassing. And the study of the food matrix to how nutrients need other very specific co-partner nutrients to be effective is key to understanding the even further physiology to organ systems.
I have a Bachelor of Science, many go own to a Masters another 2 years and then a PhD. Is another 2-4 years. Dietitians have internships to work alongside the medical teams to work with patients medically compromised that includes children. We read research, write papers based on science, attend conferences and keep up our continuing education. Before we ever receive our diploma, we have had two years of food science lab learning how to cook everything so that we can teach others.
For a chef to write a cookbook for children that is dairy free and gluten free as good nutrition, the question would be Why? His own opinion in 2016 is that the calcium in dairy pulls calcium out of bones - this is not true and quite a dangerous statement to make. There are no statements from him on the value of phosphorus and Vitamin D in milk or the other over hundred micronutrients, and the tremendous values and benefits whole dairy brings to children’s growing brains, immunology, bone development and the best food to drink everyday for a lifetime. It is the ideal hydration for athletes as studies have shown.
Mr. Evan claims fermentation foods are good for children with no apparent studies to back his insistence. He ignores the gut the children were born with assuming it is not good enough and his recommendations are the answer. Based on what?
There are two photos that show processed meats. Nutritionists/Dietitians recommend to avoid processed meats due to the curing/smoking are Class 1 carcinogens. Making an effort to not feed your children processed meats is the direction towards better health years later.
It appears from the photos the recipes are not simple, it assumes the families have specific kitchen tools, and know how to cook. The basis to move from processed foods to real foods is MAHA’s mission. A cookbook based on solid scientific gold standard research that safely benefits the intended audience is the need at this moment. To assume dairy and gluten are bad for children is a red flag from the onset.
Freedom is the ability to make your own meals, and bake your own bread with the ingredients you choose to benefit your health. The entire subject of feeding children is another book for an expert in child nutrition to write including the start with breastfeeding and for as long as mothers can up to 2 years with the introduction of solid foods all along the way, healthy baby formulas, considerations to age and growth developmental needs, food safety, toddlers’ sensory exploration, creativity and enjoyment, to family meals where children learn to cook with adults to teenage years cooking for themselves.
Pete’s book has the essence to exploring foods not usually thought of, high in protein foods combined with creativity, and engaging families to cook together.
It's fine to challenge folks to eat better. Meanwhile, fruit farmers are being slammed by continuous closings of local canneries and there is literally no place for them to sell their fruit. This leads to pulling out orchards and giving in to all those salivating developers. It's real and it's happening.
You were doing great until this: " Evans also includes “simple pâté,” a smooth, savory blend of pasture-raised liver and broth. The texture is creamy and mild, not overpowering. Liver delivers bioavailable iron, zinc, vitamin A, and choline, nutrients critical for brain growth and immune resilience. “Miracle Marrow” offers soft, buttery palatable fats that support developing brains, and “Pro-Teeny Purée,” made from slow-braised grass-fed beef or lamb, provides tender, protein-rich real food nourishment"
The liver is the detox organ of all mammals. Eating liver would in many ways be equivalent to reusing an spent oil filter in a car... That is without considering the environmental, ethical, and most importantly spiritual consequences of this bizarre cult behavior. Choosing these words very carefully...
Really people there is nothing healthy about killing and eating animals. It is positively barbaric.
Plenty of healthy fats and proteins from plants, now as before.
I’m a big fan of yours, Catherine, and also of Pete Evans, and bought his MAHA Cookbook after reading Jeff Louderback’s recent piece here. But what you’re describing about this kid’s book, it’s too complicated. Parents will turn off if there’s too much to get to know. Getting kids to eat right should be simple. One fundamental thing that should happen through MAHA is Home Ec should become mandatory in schools starting from the beginning. Also, since when is milk and gluten bad? Raising kids dairy and gluten free is right for kids who can’t handle it, but it’s harmful to suggest that good dairy and good bread are going to wreck a kid’s life. Processed bread is bad, but homemade bread is something people have been nourished on for millennium.
I shall be known as the Lady Who Won't Stop Complaining. In this case, I have no objection to the book review itself; it's the book that's raised my hackles. It looks like any number of cookbacks with an agenda that I see tossed after five years into Little Free Libraries when the agenda is old. This isn't a complaint about the content per se; foodistes gotta read, too. But, like Polly (below), I wonder whether making cooking hard is overall how MAHA should trend. Preaching to the choir is okay as an aside but should not divert one's attention from big pictures. Gluten and dairy have made up much of the western child's diet over the millenia and may cause problems for some, but we're getting frightfully close to Cancel Culture, Food Division, when we tell parents used to pouring squeezy things into their toddler that they also can't offer a glass of whole milk or a bowl of Cheerios. I also agree with Polly's comment about Home Ec; if mom and dad never learned to cook (in school or at home), you can't present them with food porn photos and expect anything other than frustration. My preference is to continue along the Mike Tyson commercial path. How did he improve his diet? He ate an apple. This involves a lot of tinkering with our trade and agricultural policy (can we start in rural Maryland????), the cooperation of groceries and other food purveyors, and lots and lots of ground-level education and advertising.
Dairy products like yogurt that have real probiotic culture in them are great for kids. People should be taught to read labels and know whether or not the yogurt they’re buying does have real probiotic culture. That would be a bigger step forward for kids than cutting out dairy, which I believe would be harmful except, as I wrote in my first comment, if kids have dairy sensitivity (which I did as a baby and child, and which continued into my adult life). And I think MAHA should concentrate on A2 dairy which I have read and found out personally is far better than our current American dairy, even the “organic” kind. From everything I’m reading, people with dairy sensitivity do well with A2 milk products. And closer to home, my husband developed dairy sensitivity in his adult life. He has no problem with A2 products. I could never handle drinking milk straight until I went to New Zealand and suddenly, I had no problem. This was the 80s and maybe it has changed, but I was told then that they had A2 dairy, not our A1. We buy Strauss and Alexandre milk, yogurt, sour cream and ice cream. There are brands of A2 Skyr as well.
Help Close the Revolving Door at the EPA. No liability shields, no more GMO!
https://toxinfreeusa.org/take-action/epa-revolving-door/
Teach Your Children Well" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQOaUnSmJr8
CSN, those were the days
A century ago people lived very close to their food sources! Farm to table was real.
Schools fed children the same foods they also got at home?
It was unimaginable then to eat fruit grown in South America ?
Big AG today means very little if any food comes to our table without processing ? You simply can’t avoid it ? You have no idea where fruit and veggies were grown much less their journey to the markets or where ,how and when they were hybridized to travel and live in boxes for. Months?
Try to eat clean? With glyphosate and sprays on all of it? Dozens of chemicals on every label?
No book of recipes can ever fix the food industry ? We need a whole new system not yet invented to do that?
As a Nutritionist with a 5 year degree from a US land grant University rated #3 in best schools for Nutrition degrees at the time I attended, it is interesting to me that the public is so quick to accept the nutrition advise from a chef in Australia. He is quoted as taking an online course in Nutrition from an Integrative Nutrition Institute and considers himself a coach. But this book appears to be based on his own opinions and not on gold standard scientific research that is the bedrock for our USA USDA Dietary recommendations.
Let me say this: Nutrition is a very complex science and a degree involves years of classes in biochemistry, physiology & anatomy, metabolism, bacteriology, statistics, hormonal controls, nutrition, and food science. Just studying individual foods and learning of their basic macronutrients is encompassing. And the study of the food matrix to how nutrients need other very specific co-partner nutrients to be effective is key to understanding the even further physiology to organ systems.
I have a Bachelor of Science, many go own to a Masters another 2 years and then a PhD. Is another 2-4 years. Dietitians have internships to work alongside the medical teams to work with patients medically compromised that includes children. We read research, write papers based on science, attend conferences and keep up our continuing education. Before we ever receive our diploma, we have had two years of food science lab learning how to cook everything so that we can teach others.
For a chef to write a cookbook for children that is dairy free and gluten free as good nutrition, the question would be Why? His own opinion in 2016 is that the calcium in dairy pulls calcium out of bones - this is not true and quite a dangerous statement to make. There are no statements from him on the value of phosphorus and Vitamin D in milk or the other over hundred micronutrients, and the tremendous values and benefits whole dairy brings to children’s growing brains, immunology, bone development and the best food to drink everyday for a lifetime. It is the ideal hydration for athletes as studies have shown.
Mr. Evan claims fermentation foods are good for children with no apparent studies to back his insistence. He ignores the gut the children were born with assuming it is not good enough and his recommendations are the answer. Based on what?
There are two photos that show processed meats. Nutritionists/Dietitians recommend to avoid processed meats due to the curing/smoking are Class 1 carcinogens. Making an effort to not feed your children processed meats is the direction towards better health years later.
It appears from the photos the recipes are not simple, it assumes the families have specific kitchen tools, and know how to cook. The basis to move from processed foods to real foods is MAHA’s mission. A cookbook based on solid scientific gold standard research that safely benefits the intended audience is the need at this moment. To assume dairy and gluten are bad for children is a red flag from the onset.
Freedom is the ability to make your own meals, and bake your own bread with the ingredients you choose to benefit your health. The entire subject of feeding children is another book for an expert in child nutrition to write including the start with breastfeeding and for as long as mothers can up to 2 years with the introduction of solid foods all along the way, healthy baby formulas, considerations to age and growth developmental needs, food safety, toddlers’ sensory exploration, creativity and enjoyment, to family meals where children learn to cook with adults to teenage years cooking for themselves.
Pete’s book has the essence to exploring foods not usually thought of, high in protein foods combined with creativity, and engaging families to cook together.
It's fine to challenge folks to eat better. Meanwhile, fruit farmers are being slammed by continuous closings of local canneries and there is literally no place for them to sell their fruit. This leads to pulling out orchards and giving in to all those salivating developers. It's real and it's happening.
You were doing great until this: " Evans also includes “simple pâté,” a smooth, savory blend of pasture-raised liver and broth. The texture is creamy and mild, not overpowering. Liver delivers bioavailable iron, zinc, vitamin A, and choline, nutrients critical for brain growth and immune resilience. “Miracle Marrow” offers soft, buttery palatable fats that support developing brains, and “Pro-Teeny Purée,” made from slow-braised grass-fed beef or lamb, provides tender, protein-rich real food nourishment"
The liver is the detox organ of all mammals. Eating liver would in many ways be equivalent to reusing an spent oil filter in a car... That is without considering the environmental, ethical, and most importantly spiritual consequences of this bizarre cult behavior. Choosing these words very carefully...
Really people there is nothing healthy about killing and eating animals. It is positively barbaric.
Plenty of healthy fats and proteins from plants, now as before.