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Live Longer on California Diet
California cuisine synonymous with healthy eating
Mother had it right. Her frequent admonition to “eat your vegetables” was sound advice, as far as it went. Add nuts, fruit, beans and vegetable oils to the mix, along with a variety of ethnic influences, and you have what many scientists now consider the healthiest diet in the United States: California Cuisine.
Medical doctors, professors, nutritionists, and food experts who gathered at the University of California, Los Angeles, last fall for a symposium on “The Health Impact of California Cuisine” concluded that there is evidence to suggest that Californians are healthier and live longer, and are less likely to die from cancer or heart disease than residents of other states. Diet and the rising popularity of California Cuisine has a lot to do with it, they agreed.
Californians consume more fiber and less fat than the national averages. We eat significantly more fruit and less meat than other Americans, and our consumption of fruit and vegetables is increasing.
The result:
- Age-adjusted mortality rates in California are below the national average
- We enjoy lower rates of coronary heart disease and cancer than national averages.
- Californians are less overweight than people in other regions of the country.
While the scientists give much of the credit to the healthy California diet, they also point out that we exercise more, have a better attitude about diet and health, and enjoy a more diverse mix of ethnic groups, all of which are important factors in our health profile.
Why shouldn’t we enjoy a more healthy diet? We live in a state blessed with one of the best climates in the world for growing fruits, nuts and vegetables. An amazing abundance of those health-promoting products laden the produce counters of California supermarkets year-round.
Combine that wealth of healthy ingredients with the rich ethnic mix of the California population and it is no surprise that this state’s cuisine has evolved into a unique blend of interesting, life-enhancing foods. The best traditions of Mediterranean, Asian and Native American culinary arts combine to make California cuisine as exciting as it is healthy, the scientists agreed.
California cuisine began as a blend of the typical Mediterranean diet with foods consumed by Native Americans. The Mediterranean diet, you may remember, was the first to attract the attention of health professionals as a factor in the long, healthy lives enjoyed by people who lived along the northern Mediterranean coast. Those cultures made liberal use of fresh produce, nuts, grains and olive products, but relatively small amounts of meats and dairy products. This mix has been credited with their low rates of heart disease, cancer and other life-shortening diseases.
When the Spaniards arrived in California, they found the Native Americans enjoying a diet of acorns, nuts, berries, wild onions, fish and wild game. The Spaniards added olives, artichokes avocados, garlic, dates, nuts and chili peppers for the first blend of food traditions in this state.
More ingredients and new cultural blends arrived with the gold seekers who flooded in from the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Armenia, Ireland, Japan, China and elsewhere. Those whom gold failed turned to their original trades: farming, winemaking, cheesemaking, chocolate manufacturing, and commercial fishing. They introduced new crops and food traditions to California, further enriching the local array of foods.
As California’s population grew, so did the sophistication of its people. The great wealth pumped into the economy by the gold mines and businesses that sprang up around them attracted internationally renowned entertainers, businessmen, and political figures, and services to adequately provide for them: five-star hotels, top-tier restaurants, and professional chefs. California cuisine began to mature.
Even though California developed a reputation for variety and abundance - and a measure of sophistication - in its foods, for decades no single style or flavor stood out as distinctly Californian. A fascinating array of choices tempted the causal diner and connoisseur alike, but none dominated. Not, at least, until Alice Waters happened upon the scene. Alice is the proprietor of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Opened in the 1960’s, her restaurant became the first showplace for what is now known as “California Cuisine,” a concept developed by Alice and her chef Jeremiah Tower.
The partners’ recipe for California Cuisine emphasized careful selection of locally grown ingredients, the anticipation of dining, and the enjoyment of meals consumed in a leisurely manner. These are the main tenets of French cooking, notes Alice, a student of French cultural history. But California Cuisine derives its identity from a marriage of the unique blend of fresh ingredients available here with the finest flavors and culinary traditions of its complex mix of cultures.
California Cuisine found an eager public, and national and international recognition. In 1976, Tower left Chez Panisse to open Stars in San Francisco, now one of the nation’s top restaurants. Both he and Wolfgang Puck of Los Angeles feature California Cuisine in their celebrity-filled dining rooms, lending even more credibility and distinction to this food-style as something special that is strictly Californian.
This is not the end of the story, however. The California “culture” has never stood still. It and its taste in foods continue to evolve. Waves of newcomers add color and texture to our cities and towns, bringing new ideas and traditions with them. Mexican as well as Central and South American people are settling here, as are Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, Russian, Slavic, Indian and Iranian peoples. All bring something fresh and different with them. California chefs respond by adding those new flavors and textures to an already rich and diverse culinary repertoire.
But always California Cuisine sticks with its roots drawn from the food traditions of Mexico, Central America, Asia, and the Mediterranean area. Each of those cuisines has been found to promote longevity and relative freedom from chronic, life-threatening diseases. California Cuisine honors those traditions with its emphasis on the same key ingredients: fresh fruits and vegetables; whole-grain rice, cereals, breads and tortillas; all forms of protein-rich beans, including soy, kidney and pinto; lean chicken, turkey, egg whites, tofu, nonfat milk and low-fat cheeses; avocados, olives, nuts, seeds and other monounsaturated alternatives to traditional oils and dressings.
The kaleidoscope of food flavors and ingredients that blend in today’s California cooking bring more than good health. It signals latent pleasures. Small wonder that Californians seldom just eat. Meals tend to be a celebration, as they are in the Mediterranean. And as we begin our journey through this realm of countless wonders, we will find that there is ever more to celebrate.
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