Sardines, Sushi and the Healthiest Diets on Earth

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  05.13.08 | 10:35 AM ET

imageGourmet magazine has a great Q&A with Daphne Miller, author of the book, The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World - Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home. Miller, who practices family medicine in California, traveled the world to study indigenous cuisines and find out why they are so much healthier than the typical American diet. Think many places in Japan and Crete, China and West Africa, where the food is local, whole and never processed.

I was especially happy to see her advocating for the sardine, that most misunderstood and delicious of small fish. Sardines are still popular on Crete, despite the island’s depressing trend of importing deep-fried and heavy-cream-soaked food for tourists. Try roasting fresh sardines with garlic, tomato and olive oil—the Chicken McNugget could never compete.

Related on World Hum:
* The Oreo Goes Global
* Seeking Salmon in Southeast Alaska

Photo by avlxyz via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: Food, News and Briefs

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


3 Comments for Sardines, Sushi and the Healthiest Diets on Earth

MarilynTerrell 05.13.08 | 6:53 PM ET

Yeah, especially when you consider that chicken nuggets are made of deep-fried meat slurry, corn and chemicals:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/05/invitro-meat-chicken-nuggets-and-meat.html

Aaron Phillips 05.14.08 | 10:50 AM ET

I am visiting Japan this June and I hope to try some authentic, healthy, and of course appetizing cuisine.  Maybe I can take a que from my hosts and bring back a few great recipes that will help me live a healthier lifestyle.

Daphne Miller MD 05.14.08 | 1:05 PM ET

I am glad you enjoyed the blog. When you’re reading the book you’ll be surprised (as I was) by indigenous food discoveries at every turn. Who would have thought that bugs (fermented foods) in West Africa play a role in keeping them free of colon cancer or that those healthy Okinawans actually love pork? It was all enough to humble even the most confident Western nutrition specialist.
Daphne Miller MD
Author of The Jungle Effect

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