New USDA Food Plate Part of a Much Longer, More Complex Relationship with What We Eat

July 15, 2011 - PRLog -- Seattle, Washington – A few weeks ago, the USDA replaced the Food Pyramid with a new “Food Plate.” This shouldn't surprise anyone, says author Devra Gartenstein, author of the new book "Cavemen, Monks, and Slow Food." In fact, our ideas about what to eat and what is good for us have been changing steadily for thousands of years.

Gartenstein, a cookbook author and cooking instructor who owns the popular Patty Pan Grills, a fixture at Seattle-area farmers’ markets, started researching the history of food after talking to dozens of local, small-scale farmers with “new ideas and old frustrations.” She says, “I grew fascinated by the timelessness of their stories. I began wondering about food exchanging hands at public markets since the beginning of civilization. This book explores those connections, showing how today’s food issues are both very new and very old.”

Gartenstein, who sources her ingredients locally as much as possible, discovered that the local foods debate is nothing new, either. In ancient Rome, the physician Galen was recommending a diet of fresh foods grown close to home. He was reacting to a predilection for fancy, imported food, which continued into the Middle Ages, when sugar was rare and expensive and rotten teeth became a status symbol. Giving a modern twist to the story, today sugar is so cheap that food manufacturers use it for filler, and we rhapsodize about the fresh, local ingredients that medieval peasants grew in their kitchen gardens.

“It’s no secret that the modern, industrial diet is making us sick and desperately needs to change. A long range perspective on why we eat what we eat can be an indispensable tool for moving forward.”

"Cavemen, Monks, and Slow Food: A History of Eating Well" tells the fascinating story of our relationship with our meals, from the Paleolithic hunters who painted their prey on remote cave walls, to the medieval monks who fashioned fine cheeses and liqueurs, to the artisans and organic farmers who supply today’s trendy restaurants.

Gartenstein is available for interviews and/or cooking demonstrations. A limited number of review copies of the book are also available.

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DEVRA GARTENSTEIN is the owner of Patty Pan Grill, a favorite Seattle-based farmers’ market business. In addition to Cavemen, Monks, and Slow Food, she is the author of two cookbooks, The Accidental Vegan and Local Bounty, has dual master’s degrees in English and philosophy, and teaches regular cooking classes. Visit her online at http://www.quirkygourmet.com.