Nutrition and Physical Regeneration

Back in May of 1989, after Tom Valentine first moved to St Paul, Minnesota, he heard on the car radio a short announcement that bolted him upright in the driver's seat. The announcement was sponsored by Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota: "Although microwaves heat food quickly, they are not recommended for heating a baby's bottle," the announcement said.

The bottle may seem cool to the touch, but the liquid inside may become extremely hot and could burn the baby's mouth and throat. Also, the buildup of steam in a closed container such as a baby's bottle could cause it to explode. "Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed."

The report went on. "Warming a bottle by holding it under tap water or by setting it in a bowl of warm water, then testing it on your wrist before feeding, may take a few minutes longer, but it is much safer." Valentine asked himself: If an established institution like the University of Minnesota can warn about the loss of particular nutrient qualities in microwaved baby formula or mother's milk, then somebody must know something about microwaving they are not telling everybody.

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Julia Child has been a favorite topic for several weeks now in the blogosphere, largely on the strength of the new movie Julia and Julia. She was a delightfully funny and perky lady, well known in America but not so much in the land whose cooking style made her famous. You can read a few posts here, here, and here.

I like the way one fellow summed up her two favorite foods as illustrated in the picture below:

Ah yes, if you think of gin as a broad term for alcoholic drinks including wine, then no doubt Julia and I would have got along just fine.

Julia was a big believer in the taste and nutritional superiority of animal fats (i.e. saturated fats -- what French chef isn't), as you will see in her comments in the video below about McDonald's french fries, which were originally made with beef tallow but "nutritional pressure" forced them to adopt vegetable oils nearly 30 years ago.

Julia Child passed away in 2004 at the ripe old age of 91.

There is a Making It From Scratch blog carnival going on over at SimplyForties and my post How To Make Ghee is one of the featured articles. Check it out!