Taylor - Love Real Food: More Than 100 Feel-good Vegetarian Favorites to Delight the Senses and Nourish the Body

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Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

2017 by Kathryne Taylor

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Book design by Rae Ann Spitzenberger

The following page number refer to the print edition of this book.
Photographs pages v 34, 61, 71, 108109, 114, 136, 156, 226, 228, 244 Sarah Sweeney

All other photographs Kathryne Taylor

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781623367411 hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781623367428 e-book

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My dog, Cookie, is the most effective alarm clock Ive ever met. You cant push snooze on Cookieonce shes decided its breakfast time, she morphs into a squirmy, insistent, enthusiastic little alarm bell who will shove the pillow right out from under my head. Shes lucky shes so cute.

Every morning, Cookie herds me into our Kansas City kitchen. I feed her first (she wouldnt have it any other way), and then I start shuffling around to make my own breakfast. I always eat breakfast, in part because I know Ill feel lousy later in the day if I dont, but also because I adore breakfast. Cookie and I both love food.

I might reach for a bag of granola in the freezer, and some yogurt to go with it. I know exactly whats in that granola because I made it myself: old-fashioned oats sweetened with maple syrup and made crispy with the help of some coconut oil, plus spices, nuts, and dried fruit. Learning to make my own granola was a revelation. Its super easy and tastes so much better than the store-bought kind.

Later in the day, lunch might consist of a giant, colorful bean salad (left over from last nights dinner) with fresh greens and crumbled goat cheese. Dinner could be a spicy, vegetable-packed stir-fry. Whatever I throw together, you can bet it will be a well-balanced meal that lights up my taste buds and keeps me energized for hours.

I havent always eaten so well, and I havent always felt so good. I was a picky kid who tried to get away with eating pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, but my body wouldnt allow it, even when my parents would. Those pancakes would turn me into a shaky, miserable, sweaty mess. My doctor called my extreme reaction to simple carbohydrates hypoglycemia. Trust me, if eating pancakes for breakfast turned you into a mumbling zombie, you wouldnt touch them no matter how good they tasted.

The funny thing about metabolism is that Im just an exaggerated example of how every human body functions in response to processed foods and unbalanced meals. I simply have a more immediate reaction to the foods that are contributing to our countrys growing obesity epidemic, and the chronic diseases that come with it.

You might think, then, that eating well came easily for me. It didnt. When I left for college, I thought that cardboard-flavored 100-calorie snack packs were healthy options, and that fat was best avoided. I tallied up calories in my head and repented for them on the elliptical machine. When I felt overwhelmed or sad, I turned to food for comfort, oftentimes to an unhealthy extreme. I struggled with binge eating, and I am all too familiar with the self-loathing and despair that go along with it. Basically, I asked far more of food than food could provide, and rode a miserable roller coaster of sugar highs and food-related guilt for years. My story is all too common, and I would do anything to spare you from these struggles. We all have to eat, after all. It doesnt have to be so hard.

Fortunately, my conscience is no longer at war with my taste buds. After a lot of self-reflection, Ive learned to deal with stress and anxiety in ways that make me feel better, not worselike reaching out to friends, going to a yoga class, and taking walks with Cookie. Perhaps most valuably, Ive learned to listen to my appetite and eat accordingly. Now, I open the refrigerator and greet the contents like trusted friends, and my body thanks me for it.

Learning more about nutrition was tremendously helpful in shifting my habits and helping me cut through the marketing noise. Once I started reading, I was shocked to hear that the food pyramid wasnt quite the pinnacle of nutrition I had once believed, and that protein comes in all different kinds of foods, not just meat. The more I read, the more I naturally gravitated toward the whole foods philosophy set forth by food writers and researchers like Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle. Their recommendations made sense to me on multiple levels. Of course I should be eating foods that my grandmothers would recognize, not artificially sweetened, processed foods with a healthy sticker on the front. The truth is always in the ingredients list.

FOCUS ON THE INGREDIENTS. Roughly how many ingredients are there? Five to ten ingredients is a good sign. Do you recognize them as ingredients you cook with at home? Ingredients are listed by weight, so the first few are the most telling. If you see a long list that sounds more like chemical compounds than food, move on to a better option. You have probably disqualified all heavily processed foods at this point, but be sure to avoid ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup, food dyes, hydrogenated oils, and preservatives like sodium nitrate.

GLANCE AT THE SUGAR CONTENT UNDER THE NUTRITION FACTS. For reference, 4 grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon of sugar. Flavored 16-ounce lattes often contain 30 to 50 grams of sugarthats a lot! Naturally occurring sugars in whole foods (like fruit) arent of concern, but processed foods with lots of added sugars (like high-fructose corn syrup) are not good for you.

CHECK THE SODIUM PERCENT DAILY VALUE, TOO. If one serving contains a significant portion of the sodium you need for the day (say, 40 percent or more), the manufacturer is probably trying to make up for a lack in flavor or freshness by adding tons of salt. Excess sodium can cause health problems, too.

When youre eating real, wholesome food in accordance with your appetite, you dont need to worry much about the rest.