The Longevity Kitchen: Satisfying, Big-Flavor Recipes Featuring the Top 16 Age-Busting Power Foods [120 Recipes for Vitality and Optimal Health]

by Rebecca Katz, Mat Edelson, Andrew Weil (Foreword by)

Overview

A collection of 125 delicious whole-foods recipes showcasing 16 antioxidant-rich power foods, developed by wellness authority Rebecca Katz to combat and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, inflammation, arthritis, and other conditions that plague American adults, enabling readers to live longer, healthier lives.

Food is your most powerful tool. You want to make better nutritional choices, but the science of eating has become more complicated than ever. If you’ve been diagnosed with prediabetes, are at risk for heart disease, have a family history of high blood pressure, or simply want to eat a healthful diet to promote long life, how do you know which foods will really deliver the greatest benefits?

In this collection of more than 100 recipes that combine smart nutrition and superb flavor, culinary nutrition pioneer Rebecca Katz highlights the top sixteen foods proven to fight the most common chronic conditions. Katz draws on the latest scientific research to explain how super foods such as asparagus, basil, coffee, dark chocolate, kale, olive oil, sweet potatoes, and wild salmon can build immunity, lower cholesterol, enhance memory, strengthen the heart, and reduce your chances of developing diabetes and other diseases.

This practical, flavor-packed guide presents the most effective—and delicious—ways to use food to improve the performance of every system in the body. Katz explains the health advantages of each main ingredient, and includes menu plans to address specific symptoms and detailed nutritional information for each recipe.

Easy-to-find ingredients are incorporated into a powerful arsenal of tantalizing recipes, including:
• Roasted Asparagus Salad with Arugula and Hazelnuts
• Costa Rican Black Bean Soup with Sweet Potato
• Black Cod with Miso-Ginger Glaze
• Herby Turkey Sliders
• Thyme Onion Muffins
• Yogurt Berry Brûlée with Almond Brittle

Based on the most up-to-date nutritional research, The Longevity Kitchen helps you feed your family well and live a long and vibrant life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607742944
Publisher:	Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony
Publication date:	02/26/2013
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

REBECCA KATZ, MS, is an accomplished chef and national speaker who has worked with the country’s top wellness physicians, including Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Michael Lerner, Jim Gordon, and Dean Ornish. She is the author of the award-winning Cancer-Fighting Kitchen and One Bite at a Time, as well as director of the Healing Kitchens Institute at Commonweal and executive chef of the annual Food as Medicine training program sponsored by the Center for Mind Body Medicine at Georgetown Medical School. She has been featured in the Washington Post, Oprah.com, The Atlantic, Better Homes and Gardens, Associated Press, and other national media. Rebecca lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit RebeccaKatz.com for more information.
 
MAT EDELSON is an award-winning science, health, and sports writer. He is the former anchor/director of the Johns Hopkins Health Newsfeed, a nationally syndicated daily radio program. This is the third book he has co-authored with Rebecca Katz. Edelson resides in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Read an Excerpt

Introduction
 
It started with a carrot that had gone on in its second year to make a beautiful lacy umbel of a flower. I was enchanted and began to notice other lacy flowers in my garden that looked similar—parsley, fennel, cilantro, anise, as well as Queen Anne’s lace on a roadside—they are all members of the same plant family, as it turned out. Similarly, small daisy-like flowers, whether blue, yellow, orange, enormous or very small, bloomed on lettuce that had gone to seed as well as on wild chicories, the Jerusalem artichokes, and, of course, the sunflowers themselves. Were they related? They were, it turns out. And did edible members of this group somehow share culinary characteristics as well? Often they did. That led me to ask, What are the plant families that provide us with the vegetables we eat often, what characteristics do their members share, and what are their stories?
 
 
Cauliflower with Saffron, Pepper Flakes, Plenty of Parsley, and Pasta
For 4
I love this approach to cauliflower. In fact, I’d say it’s my favorite way to cook it. It’s golden, aromatic, and lively in the mouth. It’s good alone and very good spooned over pasta shells, which catch the smaller bits of the vegetable. Even a small cauliflower can be surprisingly dense, weighing a pound and yielding 4 cups florets.

 
1 cauliflower (about 11/2 pounds), broken into small florets, the core diced
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for tossing the pasta
1 onion, finely diced
2 pinches of saffron threads
1 large clove garlic, minced
Scant 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Sea salt
8 ounces pasta shells, snails or other shapes
Grated aged cheese or crumbled feta cheese (optional)

Steam the cauliflower florets and core over boiling water for about 3 minutes. Taste a piece. It should be on the verge of tenderness and not quite fully cooked. Set it aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.

Heat the oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saffron and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft, 6 minutes or so. The steam will activate the saffron so that it stains and flavors the onion. Add the garlic, pepper flakes, and a few pinches of the parsley, give them a stir, and then add the cauliflower. Toss the cauliflower to coat it with the seasonings, add 1/2 cup water, and cook over medium heat until the cauliflower is tender, just a few minutes. Season with salt, toss with half of the remaining parsley, and keep warm.

While the cauliflower is cooking, cook the pasta in the boiling water seasoned with salt until al dente. Drain, transfer to a warmed bowl, and toss with a few tablespoons of oil and the remaining parsley. Taste for salt, then spoon the cauliflower over the pasta, wiggle some of it into the pasta crevices, grate the cheese on top, and serve.
With Shrimp: When wild Gulf shrimp are in season, take advantage of their sweet goodness. Peel 1 pound shrimp, then sauté them over high heat in olive oil until pink and firm, after 5 minutes or so. Toss them with chopped garlic and parsley and divide them among the individual pasta plates or heap them over the top of the communal dish. Omit the cheese.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Table of Contents

Foreword by Andrew Weil, MD
Acknowledgments  
Introduction
Chapter 1: Food, Nutrition, and Your Body
Chapter 2: The Healing Power of Food           
Chapter 3: Making the Most of This Book
Chapter 4: Life-Enhancing Soups and Broths
Chapter 5: Vital Vegetables
Chapter 6: Generous Grains
Chapter 7: Protein-Building Foods
Chapter 8: Nibbles and Noshes
Chapter 9: Dollops of Yum!
Chapter 10: Invigorating Tonics and Elixirs
Chapter 11: Sweet Bites
Resources    
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“There is an ever-growing interest in eating better, but we usually hear about what to eat and not why to eat it. This book fills in the gaps with creative and approachable recipes, helpful tips, personal writing, and a plethora of information that will help in the kitchen for generations. I will keep this book within arm’s reach.”
—Sara Forte, author of The Sprouted Kitchen

“The fresh, funny, personal voice in this book cheers the reader on toward self-confidence and culinary open-heartedness. This isn’t just inspiring mat-erial, it’s infectious—in the best sense. Beyond sharing tools for living longer, it also provides many good reasons to want to.”
—Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook

“Rebecca serves up a veritable feast for the soul with her blend of fascinating science, wit and wisdom, and recipes that look as beautiful as they taste, making it easy to translate good nutrition into delicious dishes. I can’t wait to share her latest masterpiece with my patients, friends, and family.”
—Cynthia Geyer, MD, medical director of Canyon Ranch health resort

“Rebecca Katz is the top chef of the culinary medicine world. With The Longevity Kitchen, she melds first-class flavors with first-class science to create meals that you’ll want to make forever. My patients will all want a copy.”
—John La Puma, MD, author of Manly Eating, co-author of The RealAge Diet

“Getting healthy is not about eating less; it’s about knowing how to eat right. This book is a guide to doing just that. It’s excellent.”
—Jorge Rodriguez, MD, author of The Acid-Reflux Solution

Editorial Reviews

Asparagus. Avocado. Basil. Blueberries. Those are the first four items on the "Super Sixteen," a list of the foods that offer, in the author's words, "the highest levels of antioxidants" and the "premier sources of healthy omega-3 fats, probiotics, and other body-boosting phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals." While Katz and Edelson (The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen) don't offer scientific proof of these claims, it's easy to believe that the ultra-healthy ingredients they recommend are good for the body. The recipes that follow introductory material on the various properties of the Super Sixteen run the gamut from appetizers to desserts, and most seem, perhaps surprisingly, delicious, from Lemony Lentil and Quinoa Salad to Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Caraway. It's worth noting that this is not a vegetarian cookbook, as made clear by the inclusion of several chicken or lamb recipes. The authors' introductions to each recipe can be tiresomely silly, so readers should skip straight to the ingredient list and start cooking up something healthy and delicious. 60 color photos.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

There is an ever-growing interest in eating better, but we usually hear about what to eat and not why to eat it. This book fills in the gaps with creative and approachable recipes, helpful tips, personal writing, and a plethora of information that will help in the kitchen for generations. I will keep this book within arm’s reach.”
—Sara Forte, author of The Sprouted Kitchen

“The fresh, funny, personal voice in this book cheers the reader on toward self-confidence and culinary open-heartedness. This isn’t just inspiring mat-erial, it’s infectious—in the best sense. Beyond sharing tools for living longer, it also provides many good reasons to want to.”
—Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook

“Rebecca serves up a veritable feast for the soul with her blend of fascinating science, wit and wisdom, and recipes that look as beautiful as they taste, making it easy to translate good nutrition into delicious dishes. I can’t wait to share her latest masterpiece with my patients, friends, and family.”
—Cynthia Geyer, MD, medical director of Canyon Ranch health resort

“Rebecca Katz is the top chef of the culinary medicine world. With The Longevity Kitchen, she melds first-class flavors with first-class science to create meals that you’ll want to make forever. My patients will all want a copy.”
—John La Puma, MD, author of Manly Eating, co-author of The RealAge Diet

“Getting healthy is not about eating less; it’s about knowing how to eat right. This book is a guide to doing just that. It’s excellent.”
—Jorge Rodriguez, MD, author of The Acid-Reflux Solution

From the Publisher