HEALTH: The Government’s Bad Diet Advice

By NINA TEICHOLZ

Mark Pernice

America’s dietary guidelines have long been based on weak science.

For two generations, Americans ate fewer eggs and other animal products because policy makers told them that fat and cholesterol were bad for their health. Now both dogmas have been debunked in quick succession.

First, last fall, experts on the committee that develops the country’s dietary guidelines acknowledged that they had ditched the low-fat diet. On Thursday, that committee’s report wasreleased, with an even bigger change: It lifted the longstanding caps on dietary cholesterol, saying there was “no appreciable relationship” between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. Americans, it seems, had needlessly been avoiding egg yolks, liver and shellfish for decades. The new guidelines, the first to be issued in five years, will influence everything from school lunches to doctors’ dieting advice.

How did experts get it so wrong? 

Read more at nytimes.com

RECIPE: Banana Oatmeal Almond Smoothie

By Martha Rose Shulman

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons rolled oats
• 2 to 3 tablespoons hot or boiling water (enough to just cover the oats)
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, or 1/3 cup light coconut milk and 2/3 cup almond milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 frozen banana, sliced
• 1 tablespoon almond butter
• 1 teaspoon agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon soaked chia seeds (1 teaspoon dry unsoaked; see note)

Preparation

1. Combine the rolled oats and hot or boiling water in a small bowl or ramekin and leave until the oatmeal is soft, about 15 minutes.
2. Place all of the ingredients (including the soaked oatmeal) in a blender and blend at high speed for 1 minute. Serve at once.

Note

• To soak the chia seeds place in a jar or bowl and add 4 tablespoons water for every tablespoon of chia seeds. Place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. The seeds and water will be become gelatinous but the smoothie you make with them will not be. To add to a smoothie, scoop up a tablespoon of the gelatinous mixture and add to the blender jar.

Recipe via cooking.nytimes.com