Real Food for Everyone

enough to allow all of the arame mixture to stay packed in, but not too tight. Fold in the end pieces. The strudel will be about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet and brush the pastry with the mirin. Bake until the strudel is golden brown and cooked through, about 50 minutes. Let the strudel cool slightly, then cut it crosswise into 1-inch-wide slices and serve.

Don’t be swayed by fad diets that come and go in cycles, declaring all carbohydrates unhealthy. A healthy diet must consist mostly of whole, unrefined complex carbohydrates. That’s right: Carbs are good for you. But, if you take whole wheat berries (or any other plant food) and send them off to a refining factory to strip away all the fiber and nutrition, breaking down the complex carbohydrates into simple sugar molecules, then you have a fattening food that will spike your blood sugar level and wreak havoc on your overall heath. And that’s where carbs get their bad reputation—it’s the simple carbs that so many people are addicted to, and that offer so little for your body. That’s why the recipes in this book, the tenets of macrobiotic cooking, and the recommendations of any sensible eating

program limit or restrict refined white flours and sugary foods. I find it helpful to think of food in its whole form rather than in terms of protein, fat, and

Carbohydrates: The Good and the Bad

carbs; the latter is a reductionist scientific method of analyzing the nutritional content of food. If you are a regular person like me who wants to enjoy good food and not become an expert in biochemistry, then it’s easier to just learn what food looks like when it’s in the garden or on the farm, and learn to discern if it has been refined in a factory someplace before it got to your plate. If you can do that, you’ll make smart, nutritionally sound food choices.

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