My favorite food enthusiast, Nina Planck did a reading today from her book, Real Food: What to Eat and Why at the Strand bookstore on Broadway. Nina is a great speaker, and it helps that she’s very pretty and spunky. She spoke for about an hour, reading one or two chapters from the book (which I bought but haven’t read yet), answering questions, and explaining the benefits of real food.

Real food, according to Nina, is what humans have been eating for millions of years: meat, eggs, dairy, whole grains, and the like. She’s a huge proponent of grass-fed beef and raw-milk cheese. She viciously denounces refined sugar and flour and all processed corn products. She said that when she lived in London in the 1990s, she was a vegetarian. Although she exercised and ate what most considered a healthy diet, she was depressed and her health suffered. When she made the switch back to real food, including meat and eggs and cheese, she became well again.

I’ll post more about her positions once I read her book. The best thing I heard all night was that heart disease and cholesterol may not be as closely linked as is commonly believed. The number for high cholesterol is debated, and there are even skeptics who think that LDL is good for you! Either way I’m trying to be careful, but at least none of my doctor’s warnings are based on scientific facts.

Incidentally, on the snack table at the Strand, along with wine, cheese from Murray’s, and fruit and nuts, there were samples of a delicious, barely sweet chocolate called Vere. I indulged in several pieces, and I didn’t feel bad about it (until I remembered the two big pieces of chocolate cake I ate at work today).

By the way, Mom, Nina says hi.