I saw Carol Alt on the shopping channel not long ago promoting her line of anti-aging skincare line. I really didn’t pay much attention until the host reminded views that Carol was in her late 40s and she was appearing on television without any makeup!

I stopped dead in my tracks and I got as close to the television as I possibly could because it’s not every day that a former supermodel (she is the first American to be the face of Lancôme and graced the cover of more than 700 magazines) appears on television without makeup.

Her skin was flawless and she explained that it was in great part due to the fact that she’s been following a raw food diet (which she’s been doing since the mid-90s).

It’s hard to believe that Carol Alt will be 50 later this year (born December 1, 1960) because her youthful skin and youthful body could lead us to easily believe that she’s not even in her 40s.

I’m not sure if the raw food diet is for everyone because it’s quite difficult to manage 7 days a week when you already are juggling a busy schedule, but I can assure you that even if you were to only integrate the raw food diet a few times per week, everything about your health and body would change.

A few years ago, Carol documented her raw food diet in her Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way book and not she’s following that with a cookbook of raw foods called The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle!

The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle is packed with raw recipes ranging from breakfast, to lunch to dinner to snacks to drinks. You’ll learn how to cook tasty dishes that are not cooked and that are packed with nutrients, vitamins and all around goodness.

Don’t worry because when it comes to desserts, Carol has that part covered. You’ll learn how to cook a delicious Raw Food Brownie recipe, Lemon Ginger Coconut Tart and Frozen Watermelon Cheesecake.

>>> If you are interested in knowing more about the raw food diet and if you’re not sure where to start, you might want to check out Carol’s two books dedicated to educating people on the benefits of raw food diet.

1) Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way

2) The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle

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Did you see the 2009 list of top 100 best selling books? “Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia” makes the list at # 95 as reported by USA Today! It was #11 in 2008 and #3 in 2007.

It’s easy to see that Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” is a smash hit.

I picked up the book simply because she spends time in Italy. The dream of touring Italy and eating your way around my favourite country in the world!

I have to say that when she left Italy and made her way to India and Indonesia, I really disconnected (and I mean REALLY) with the story and kept reading hoping that I’d feel the same level of enthusiasm I felt at the beginning of the book, but I couldn’t.

I’ve stopped women on the street who were reading the book to ask for their opinion and it seemed that the majority of women I spoke to loved the part when Elizabeth Gilbert was in Italy, but weren’t as keen on her trips to India and Indonesia.

Regardless of my opinion Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” is a best-seller and it will soon come out as a movie where her role is played by leading lady Julia Roberts!

>>> If you’ve not yet read the book, there’s still time before the movie comes out on Friday, August 13, 2010: “Eat Pray Love”

I was cleaning out some of my cooking magazines when I landed on an interview Gilbert did with Bon Appetit where she talks about food and Italy.

>>> Here is a summary of the October 2007 interview with Elizabeth Gilbert:

Bon Appetit: Eat is the first word of your book’s title. How important was eating on your spiritual journey?

Elizabeth Gilbert: I wouldn’t have had the strength for all the meditation if I hadn’t been well fed. I needed to eat food that made me happy. You can’t accomplish anything until you’ve eaten.

Bon Appetit: You’ve traveled far and wide in the name of self-discovery. Is there a lesson closer to home?

Elizabeth Gilbert: Italians take every ingredient they know and make a feast of it. That’s a lesson for the rest of us: make the time to notice what you’re eating. We have to push against a society that tells us we don’t have time to chew.

Bon Appetit: What do you love best about cooking?

Elizabeth Gilbert: The simplicity. There are few ways to create happiness more efficiently than by cooking for yourself and others.

Bon Appetit: Do you have any specialties?

Elizabeth Gilbert: Feijoada (Brazilian black bean and pork stew) and Asian-style coconut curries. If I ever went on a major quest again, I would return to India to learn to cook.

Bon Appetit: Is there a food you’d be willing to drive all day for?

Elizabeth Gilbert: There are foods I would get on 14-hour flights for! The food in northern Laos is so deeply flavorful and defines exotic. They cook with venison, woody mushrooms, cured water buffalo skin – there’s nothing like it.

Bon Appetit: What’s your comfort food?

Elizabeth Gilbert: Macaroni and cheese. Isn’t it everybody’s?

>>> Here’s a photo preview of Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” movie featuring Julia Roberts:

The movie trailer is not quite out yet, but this photo speaks volume!

>>> Here’s a video where Elizabeth Gilbert talks about her book “Eat Pray Love”:

Photo of Julia Roberts from trailer to Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” movie

Photo of Feijoada from Brazilnyc

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I think Wolf Blitzer has the coolest name. Before even doing a search on his name, I thought to myself, this guy has got to be of German descent.

Well, it turns out that I was right and that Wolf Blitzer was born in Germany!

In one of my old issues of Bon Appetit magazine, I found a great food-chat with Mr. Blitzer and I thought it really cool to learn more about which foods he likes to eat.

Bon Appetit: You grew up in Buffalo. Any local specialties come to mind?

Wolfe Blitzer: We had fabulous pizza from a place called Bocce Club Pizza. I always like it plain – just cheese. Afterward, we would go to a frozen custard place called Anderson’s. Decades later, I am still struggling with those calories.

Bon Appetit: We hear you like delis. What’s your “usual”?

Wolfe Blitzer: My tastes are simple. I start with sweet-and-sour cabbage soup, then continue with a knockwurst sausage, sauerkraut, and baked beans. I wash it down with club soda and wrap it all up with a big black-and-white cookie.

Bon Appetit: Do you eat before you go on the air?

Wolfe Blitzer: I try not to eat too much before a program. My boring but regular routine is this: I always try to have a healthy breakfast – freshly squeezed O.J. and Special K with skim milk, crushed walnuts, and sliced bananas. If I am feeling a bit tired, I’ll have a cup of coffee to perk me up during the course of the day. And I always have dinner after work – whatever time that is. My wife, Lynn, makes great meatballs, brisket, and a Bundt cake-like carrot ring!

I always find it fascinating to learn about which foods people just love to eat and the ones they cannot live without. Wolf Blitzer is an award-winning journalist and it’s pretty interesting to find out that he finds his comfort at a deli!

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Not long ago, I was watching an interview with the Obama family chef on segment on CNN. I wasn’t surprised at all about the fact that current Obama family chef was once the chef of Queen Oprah! Since Oprah is very close to the First Family, I’m not surprised one bit that she’s pass along her own favourite chef.

During the interview, the Obama family chef did reveal a lot of great information.

Art Smith has been cooking for many a lot of politicians and his Washington “Art & Soul” restaurant … which happens to be one of the most sought after eateries in the U.S. capital.

The interview with CNN host Campbell Brown was short, but Art was able to give us a good idea of the eating habits of the President and the First Lady!

To make this a simple and easy read, I’ve decided to go with bullet points in order to provide you with as much information as possible!

Chef Art Smith talks about the Obamas’ eating habits:

* It’s not surprising that both the President and the First Lady are very healthy eaters.

* Both Sasha and Malia have followed in their parents foot prints and are also healthy eaters.

* Grilled fish, greens and broccoli top the list of favourites for the Obamas.

There were no surprises for me from what Art Smith revealed about the way the Obamas eat because you can look at their physique and you can see that they respect their bodies. I know President Obama is a former smoker and he even recognized the need to clean up that part of his life.

Chef Art also talked about how President Bill Clinton liked a good old fashion burger and fries combo, but he’d never dream of eating it daily (see again, that didn’t surprise me, as I could totally see Bill Clinton gravitating towards that American classic).

I quite liked something Chef Art said at the end of the interview when Campbell Brown was asking him about the fact that the Obama menu was vastly different from the menu that helped him win the “Top Chef Master” competition with his fried chicken, smothered chicken and pie dishes. Chef Art responded, justifiably so, that you should eat healthy most of the time and indulge here and there in some of your favourite comfort foods. I honestly couldn’t agree with him more.

When asked about the skyrocketing cost of health care because of the burden of having to treat so many illness related to the huge obesity problem in America, Art Smith blamed portion size for the problem of growing fat bellies in America.

I’d add that poor quality foods in combination with the massive attack supersize portions are making Americans fatter and fatter and sicker and sicker.

I agree with Art’s very European point of view on the topic:

“If we spent more time at the dinner table, we’d have fewer problems because we’d be communicating way more”!

If we did indeed communicate more, perhaps fewer people would use food as a friend, a lover and a confident because they’d actually feel their needs are being met in their relationships.

Obviously, this short post only scratches the surface of the almost-epidemic unreasonable weight gain problem in America and I hope you’ll keep reading this site because I’m determined to get more and more people to embrace the concept of healthy eating!

>>> You can read more about the Obamas eating habits, you can check out the posts below:

Start a summer garden to deal with food inflation!

President Obama’s favourite healthy foods

Photo by maggiephotos

I was watching “The View” late one night and they had this segment on diet and food and Whoopi Goldberg declared that she HATES vegetables, but she feels that her decision to start drinking V8 cocktail juices is helping her.

Now, I don’t want to put down V8 because it’s certainly a much better choice than drinking soft drinks or many of those sports drinks (have you noticed how sports drinks aren’t always consumed by people who actually train???), but V8 will never (EVER) replace eating your five-10 portions of raw or cooked vegetables.

Most of the fibre is nil in your glass of V8 juice and many of the nutrients and antioxidant benefits of eating vegetables are negligible.

I feel sorry for people who say I HATE vegetables because it often means they don’t really know how to prepare vegetables so they taste good.

VEGETABLES CAN BE QUITE TASTY!

I’ll eat pretty much any vegetable and I’d say that I’m a mesclum mix salad freak because I have a bowl twice a day with tons of other veggies. I’d say that all varieties – mushrooms, red peppers, onions and rapini – top my list of favourites and I eat so many of those vegetables each week.

I’m not as familiar with some of the more exotic Asian vegetables and usually wait to eat them at a Chinese or Thai restaurant. If I had to find two vegetables I don’t like off the top  of my head, I’d say fiddleheads (I don’t like the way this vegetable looks and I don’t like the taste) and okra (I hate the slimness of this vegetable).

>>> Here’s a photo of fiddleheads:

I cannot eat radishes because I don’t digest them, but other than that, I’ll eat pretty much anything.

I hope this site will help some of my readers who aren’t all that crazy about vegetables become a bit more daring and try a few more seasonal vegetables.

Don’t forget that we have a section dedicated to the goodness of vegetables: Eat more Vegetables

Photo by Lollie-Pop

One interesting thing that I have noticed a lot lately while watching CNN, it’s that Dr. Sanjay Gupta (CNN’s medical expert) has been recommending that viewers consider eating foods that have 7 different colours throughout the day (fruits and veggies to be precise).

I know that a number of CNN reporters have looked quite confused and perplexed every time Dr. Sanjay Gupta has made that suggestion. And you could see that they were trying to figure out in their heads how in the world anyone can eat 7 different colour fruits and vegetables per day.

Dr. Gupta has been quite adamant in mentioning as many times as he possibly can that he makes a point of eating foods that many different colours foods every single day to support better health. Now, if you are wondering how in the world you are supposed to eat 7 different coloured foods in one single day … I’m here to help!

In fact, I will prove to you that eating 7 different coloured fruits and vegetables in one day is as easy as child’s play. Eating that many different coloured foods in one day is really all about variety. The more you are willing to be adventurous with food, the easier it will for you to follow Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s rule of 7 different coloured foods per day.

5 steps to eating 7 different coloured foods per day:

1) Eat a fruit plate in the morning: I eat a fruit plate almost every single morning. My fruit plate usually consists of more or less the same fruits. I usually have 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 tangerine and a handful of grapes. When in season, I’ll add mangoes, pieces of pineapple or watermelon to my fruit plate. If you look at the list, you’ll see that before the CNN trading bell rings (the markets open at 9:30 am), I usually get at least 4 different coloured foods into my body.

2) Shake things up in the morning: When I’m not eating a fruit plate in the morning, I’m having a smoothie. I always put at least 2 fruits in my smoothies and will sometimes add a handful of wild blueberries. As you can see, if we only keep it to two fruits, that means I only need to find five other coloured fruits or vegetables to meet Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s rule.

3) Have a salad for lunch: I almost ALWAYS eat one salad at lunchtime. I exclusively eat mesclun mix leaves and I usually add a few vegetable such as red peppers, carrots, corn (I buy frozen corn), cooked mushrooms or cooked onions (I cannot digest raw onions). Once again, if you will look at the type of salad that I eat for lunch, then you can quickly see how I have just added 2 to 3 other coloured foods in my diet. Up to now, it’s been relatively easy for me to easily add six different coloured foods by lunchtime.

4) Choose fruits or vegetables for your snack: If you didn’t have fruits or vegetables for your breakfast or your lunch then you can always make up for it by choosing fruits or vegetables for your morning and afternoon snacks instead of choosing foods that are high in sugar, high in saturated fat, high in salt or bed containing lots of preservatives.

5) Start or end your dinner with a salad: Along with eating one salad at lunchtime I usually always end my dinner with a salad. Some people prefer to eat a salad at the beginning of a meal, I prefer to end my meals with a salad. My night time salads are usually as colourful as the salads I have a lunch. I usually take advantage of any leftovers that I have in the fridge … I usually always have grilled vegetables on hand that I don’t hesitate to add to my salads.

Photo by yomi955

I think that Cheryl did the right thing because saying that a woman her size is fat is sending a dangerous message to women and young girls.

I don’t know about you, but the photo below is hardly depicting a woman who is “fat”!

It’s now the turn of one of Cheryl’s co-stars from the widely popular dancing show to create some buzz. It seems that when it comes to keeping her weight in check and keeping her body super lean, Ukrainian world champion professional dancer Karina Smirnoff uses a little secret ingredient from my Motherland: Italy!

Karina relies on one daily spoonful of olive oil to help her digestive system. Just in case you don’t see the connection, let me just say this: when your body digests your intake of food, your body is better able to convert that food into fuel and move what it doesn’t use into waste and you are better able to eject that waste from your body by having regular bowel movements!

I don’t go as far as Karina does, but I do eat two salads a day and each salad is topped with my home made salad dressing that is made from Italian olive oil and Vega Antioxidant EFA oil blend.

Photo source Wen

It’s true that U.S. President Barack Obama is a smoker (well, the man cannot be perfect after all), but when it comes to fitness and diet, he’s quite conscience of what the decisions he makes.

I’ve read that President Barack Obama likes broccoli just as much as I do!

As you know, I’m quite partial to a few online food magazines, and I found this great list of Obama’s favourite recipes WITH the recipes on Food & Wine.

When I look at the list, I have to say that most of these are foods I’d choose myself.

So here are a few of Obama’s 10 favourite meals:

Grilled Margherita and olive-fontina pizza: In Chicago, Obama heads to Italian Fiesta Pizzeria to savour his favourite pizza dish. I head to Ferro or Bar Mercurio to enjoy one of my favourite foods. I see President Barack Obama likes thin-crust pizzas and that’s exactly how I like my pizzas! One of the reasons I head to either Ferro or Bar Mercurio in Toronto is because they serve really thin crust over-baked pizzas and you can ask (ok, I beg) for their chili peppers in oil. I top my pizza with those and enjoy the whole experience with a beautiful glass of Vouvray (aka Chenin Blanc).

2) Arugula salad with grilled mushrooms and goat cheese: I simply love arugula and never hesitate to add it to my salads and to my pasta dishes. Arugula is one of those super foods packed with anti-cancer compounds and antioxidants that help detoxify the body.  This is a favourite among Italians and it’s one of my favourites!

3) Salmon steaks with soy maple glaze: I’m partial to the sweet and savoury mix of soya sauce and maple syrup. It really adds a lovely texture to salmon. In terms of healthy dishes … this one is a winner because you get protein, your essential fatty acids via the salmon and if you pair this with some bok choy or broccoli and a bit of rice, you’ve got a great dish in record time!

4) Cashews with crispy sage and garlic: USA Today reports that Obama likes one of my favourite snack foods: nuts! Food & Wine’s cashew dish sounds divine.

You can get the recipes to all 10 of President Barack Obama favourite dishes here: Eat like President Barack Obama

Photo by jasonlam