If you like pistachios you’re in good company: as in the Queen of Sheba, Israel (the man), Babylonian kings, Alexander the Great, and, more recently, the USA Water Polo team. And the enduring popularity of the pistachio through the ages is well-founded: it has many health-enhancing properties and a savory, unique taste that the Joy of Cooking describes as “haunting.”.

Day Nine – 2.4.14 - Adam Swenson, editor I feel my body has arrived at a point of equilibrium as far as the detox goes. I don’t have any more weird detox symptoms, my body just generally goes about its business without a lot of drama or fanfare, which is how I prefer it. All systems are go (pun intended) and I feel good.

Americans are getting heavier—rates of obesity have doubled in the last 30 years—and along with that comes an epidemic of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. This is quite clearly connected with our modern culinary proclivities and their perfect-storm partners, our crazy lifestyle, stress, and lack of sleep.

This is a 6,000 word history of resorting in Minnesota that I wrote for the introduction of the book. It starts with the 19th century vacationers fleeing the heat of the city, and follows generation after generation of people seeking solace alongside Minnesota's 10,000 lakes.

A literary essay on the merits and sociological relevance of a 1931 Philco AM radio.

What's it like to be a firefighter for a day? To find out I took a 24-hour ride along with the Stillwater Fire Department. The feature tells that story, while weaving in the current culture of the department and tales from its 100-plus-year history.

There are few more simple, pure, and earthy pleasures than tending a small crop and tasting its sweet rewards on a warm evening in late June, the sun on the horizon, the heat dissipating from the summer day. With hands caked in earth, you pick a snap pea and pop it in your mouth. It is the most direct possible connection to one’s food—a pleasure that does not depend on ignorance.

“I remember back in the old days, when bacon, eggs, and sunshine were good for you.”. Is sunshine good for you? Much like bacon and eggs, it depends who you ask. With the paleo diet books touting the virtues of bacon and eggs camped out on the best-seller lists for months at a time, a segment of society has turned back to these foods, seeing them as virtues, not vices.

“Progress,” says futurist-physician Richard A. Swenson, MD, “is a one-way street. It thrives on differentiation, giving us more and more of everything, faster and faster.”. In many ways, progress has been good to us. As much as we might be nostalgic for that ‘69 Camaro, the new Chevys are much more reliable, safer, quieter, more efficient, and so on.

There was a lot to like in the food projections at the beginning of this year. After perusing many different sources some distinct commonalities emerged—simple, healthy, farm-to-fork, hyper-local sourcing, and sustainability all rang out resoundingly across the food forecasts. The idea of “functional foods” came up frequently, and this is a development we should be applauding.

Although it has been around, quite literally, since the dawn of time, it’s only within the last few millennia that some of our more enterprising ancestors decided to try out this blue-green algae as a foodstuff. Though the logistics of harvesting must have been difficult—and the taste was likely nothing to write home about—the unparalleled nutritional benefits provided them ample reward for their effort.

Fish oil has long been the king of omega-3s, but the field is changing. Omega-3s show up in a wide variety of foods and supplements originating from both plants and animals. They come in three varieties (each of which have their own merits), are an essential part of the membrane of each cell in the body, and help correct or prevent a long list of conditions.