Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet

Karina's Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet

Baking gluten-free and vegan translates to one simple truth that is hard to teach. Because it can only be learned by experience. This one simple truth?

Unlearn everything you think you know- or thought you understood- about baking.

All those mandatory Home Economics classes about kneading bread dough for ten minutes to improve elasticity or leavening a cake with beaten egg whites won't help your inner Betty Crocker to bloom if you're gluten-free and vegan. In fact, clinging to old notions about what works- and what doesn't- might lead you down a rather prickly circuitous path to ruin. Not to mention, your personal Culinary Museum of Failure. But don't let this bare bones truth inhibit you.

In fact, let it free you.

Embrace your unlearning. Cast your tightly gripped assumptions about butter and cream and spelt and yolks out the kitchen screen door. Give them a boot. Wish them Vaya con Dios, because Kansas, Dorothy, is going bye bye. Welcome to Oz.

Some gluten-free folks bake vegan for ethical reasons- they don't eat anything with a face. Others are dairy-free or egg-free due to additional food allergies (common among celiacs and those on the neuro-diverse autism spectrum).

Whatever your reasons for baking g-free vegan, I welcome you with open arms. I've been baking without gluten for seven-plus years. And June 2009 marks my second anniversary for baking strictly vegan- no dairy, no eggs, and just to keep life interesting, no soy. Or beans. My body is less than fond of anything in the legume family. That's why you won't find me using tofu, soy milk or chick pea flour in my recipes. (But if they float your boat, have at 'em.)

One important note about gluten-free treats and ingredients-

My philosophy is that a treat should taste like a treat- especially if you bake with a limited palate. For sweetening I use organic golden brown sugar. I don't pretend my Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookie is health food. It's a cookie. If you need to balance your diet, make a soup chock full of seasonal veggies. Eat a crisp green salad topped with hemp or salba seeds. Whip up a fruit smoothie with rice protein powder. And if you crave a cookie, then go enjoy a cookie. Take a walk. Stretch. Breathe. A little sugar is not going to hurt you- unless you need to eat low glycemic; the choice then, is to use organic raw agave nectar (basically, fructose, which is metabolized by the liver and impacts blood sugar with less of a bang). But- and you suspected there was a but, right?- too much agave, like too much sugar, isn't necessarily a "healthier choice", either. Fructose- in any form- is still sugar, and should be enjoyed in moderation.

In the spirit of moderation, I follow two approaches- a traditional Mediterranean Diet approach to cooking that emphasizes extra virgin olive oil as the main fat (I use olive oil in place of butter as an Italian inspired bread dip, drizzled on baked potatoes, and whisked in salad dressings), plenty of fresh vegetables,  gluten-free whole grains, and garlic with herbs. In cooking I use a higher smoke point avocado oil. The second approach I favor is a fusion of Asian and California vegan cooking that features fresh stir-fries, rice, and rice noodles, Thai-inspired sauces with coconut milk, salads, seaweed, non-GMO organic tofu, soaked nuts and vegetarian sushi.

For shortening in baking I use raw organic coconut oil, or sometimes Spectrum Organic Shortening made from palm oil. If you can use one of the organic non-trans fat vegan margarine spreads on the market, they should work in my recipes as long as the blend is suitable for baking (some light blends contain too much water for use in baking or cooking).

I'm starting to experiment with more nut flours and coconut flour in baking. If you'd like to add a nut flour to your g-free flour mix, feel free to replace 1/4 to 1/2 cup of one of the higher protein flours I use (such as quinoa or buckwheat) with nut meal or coconut flour. Note: nut meals create a chewier texture; and coconut flour absorbs liquid, so use less liquid with coconut flour, or the result will be heavy.

Karina's Vegan G-Free Baking Cheat Sheet

My favorite protein rich gluten-free flours in vegan baking:

Sorghum flour
Almond flour
Hazelnut flour
Buckwheat flour

Millet flour

Quinoa flour
Brown rice flour

Coconut flour

More choices:

Cornmeal (certified GF)
Teff flour
Amaranth flour

Chick pea and bean flours

Soy flour

A blend of at least two gluten-free flours is best. Add a little starch or two to help the heavier g-free flours rise and stretch. In summer heat and humidity keep flours stored in the fridge (bean and brown rice flours especially can spoil quickly).

Starches for lightness and stretch:

Arrowroot starch

Potato starch (NOT potato flour)

Tapioca starch

Cornstarch

Add some flaxseed meal for fiber.

You need a gum:

In gluten-free baking, xanthan gum helps add viscosity and stretchy give to batters and doughs. Some folks are highly suspicious of xanthan gum, a mold derived additive grown on cellulose (usually corn), but to me, xanthan isn't all that scary; it is odorless and tasteless (if it isn't, you've got a bad batch). It doesn't come cheap; but a bag will last you for months; store it in the fridge.

For those who can handle legumes, guar gum is a cheaper, similar binding product made from guar beans. Note: those with sensitive digestion may react to guar gum (some report it works as a laxative).

For those of you baking gum-free, one alternative is to add a tablespoon of arrowroot starch to your basic g-free flour mix. It doesn't exactly replicate the viscosity that xanthan gum gives dough and batters, but. Hey. It helps. Flax seed gel helps a bit, as well.

Replacing eggs:

For most egg-free recipes, I use powdered Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with warm water. 1 tablespoon powdered replacer whisked with 4 tablespoons warm water equals 2 eggs. This works in cakes, cookies, muffins, and breads. It does not replace eggs in a custard based recipe, unfortunately.

If avoiding corn or potato starch, substitute 1 tablespoon tapioca starch or arrowroot starch plus 3 tablespoons water for each egg called for in recipe to help binding. You will need to increase leavening a bit to compensate; add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder.

Flax seed is a choice (for those not allergic to flax seeds). Use two tablespoons ground flax meal plus 1/8 teaspoon baking powder blended with 3 tablespoons of water for each egg called for in recipe.

Chia seeds can also- theoretically- be used as a gel for gluten-free baking. From the genus Salvia hispanica, chia is a plant in the Mint family- an excellent alternative for those of us allergic to flax seed.Just be careful it doesn't make the batter too gummy. Bake thoroughly.

Banana: Try a half mashed ripe banana plus 1/4 teaspoon baking powder for each egg.

Mayo: Use 3 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise in place of one egg, for binding. I would add a little extra leavening- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder.

Tofu: Try using 1/4 cup silken tofu for one egg for binding; I would add a little extra leavening- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder.

Replacing Dairy:

This is the easiest part of vegan baking. Use your favorite non-dairy milk alternative in place of milk. To create a sour buttermilk taste, add a 1/2 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice or light tasting vinegar to the non-dairy milk. Or add a tablespoon of Vegenaise. You can also use juice- in an apple cake or muffin, try apple juice or cider. In cakes and scones try orange juice, pineapple juice, or pear juice.

For replacing yogurt, any g-free non-dairy yogurt should work.

Replacing butter:

As mentioned above in the introduction, I use light olive oil or organic coconut oil in baking and it works like a charm (as well as being good for you). Start with LESS oil than the butter called for. At least 1 to 3 tablespoons less.

Other choices include Spectrum Organic Shortening (you can sub one to one for butter), or grapeseed oil, canola and safflower oil (use less than the amount of butter called for).

Fruit puree can also work as a fat sub, but some tinkering may be necessary. Start with only subbing half the fat and go slow. Mix up the batter and make sure it's not too heavy. Applesauce, pumpkin, squash and sweet potato puree can all add low fat body to batters and breads. You may have to compensate for the added flavor- use extra spice (ginger, cinnamon) or more vanilla extract. Choose your pairings for compatibility- stronger tastes like sweet potato go better with deeper flavors like molasses, ginger and pie spices, for instance.

Storing G-Free Vegan Baked Goods

Freeze it. If you're not eating all of it, it's best to slice, wrap in foil, bag, and freeze it. Even cookies. It seems like a pain to do this for simple things like cookies and brownies, but it's worth the effort. It will keep your goodies fresh. And one advantage is you'll have a store of ready-to-go treats on hand.

Troubleshooting in vegan g-free baking:

The cake or bread did not rise; or it rose and fell:

Too much liquid and not enough structure (sugar is structure, if you lessen it or replace it with agave, your batter may be too wet or too gummy), or too much leavening (it rose too fast then collapsed). Try using less liquid.

The oven temperature was too high or too low (every oven has its own personality). Test your oven with an oven thermometer- you might be surprised.

The pan was too small. If there is too much batter in a pan, the middle is thicker and takes longer to bake.

The pan was too big. A larger pan than called for results in a thinner, flatter end result.

You used frozen fruit and the batter got cold. Or you chill your flours or liquid ingredients; next time bring all ingredients to room temperature; use hot liquid.

Or mix your batter and let it sit for ten minutes.

Tips:

Batters should resemble slightly thicker, stickier versions of their wheat based counterparts. If a batter is too thin, add more g-free flour (not starch). If a batter is too thick add a tablespoon of warm water at a time until it reaches the right consistency. How will you know it when you see it? After baking awhile, you will develop an intuition about batters, and how they behave in your oven, at your altitude, season, and weather.

Karina's Notes on gluten-free vegan batter:

Gluten-free vegan batters are a tad different than wheat and white flour batters. They are stiffer at first, then stretch and get sticky as the xanthan gum and egg replacer do their thing.

If the batter "climbs" the beaters, slow down the speed and slightly lift the beaters to encourage the batter to move back down into the bowl. Move your beater around the bowl in figure eights, at a slight angle. Practice your technique- soon you'll be winging around gluten-free vegan baking like a pro.

Vegan G-free Dough:

Yeasted g-free bread dough (and pizza dough) is less like traditional dough and more resembles a thick cake batter; you spread it with wet hands or spatula. If it's too thick, I find the loaf turns out too dense. Check the consistency while mixing and adjust the wet to dry ratio if you need to.

Weather and humidity can influence dough; I find I need to tweak dough from time to time- adding an extra tablespoon of warm water if it's too thick, or a tablespoon of sorghum flour if it's too thin- like a thin cake batter. It needs to be more like thick cake or muffin batter.

If the weather is very humid, use less honey or agave- they are both humectant and attract moisture. Use less liquid as well- too much liquid makes a loaf gummy or sunken.

Use metal pans for baking. I use (Chicago Metallic).

If you use glass baking pans, read the manufacturer's guidelines for glass pans; you may need to alter oven temperature by lowering it 25 degrees F.

I don't care for silicone baking pans. I'm not sure gluten-free flours do either.

Trouble: The cake, bread, cookie, muffin wasn't done in the center; or it was gummy in the center.

Check the cake, bread etc before removing it from the oven. If the center of a cake, muffin or bread is soft, wiggly or depressed, bake it longer until it is firm to a light touch. Don't be afraid to bake it for another ten minutes or more if it needs it.

Test with a wooden pick. It should be clean when it's done.

Note that every oven is slightly different, and your oven temperature may be hotter or cooler than mine; adjust the baking times to your oven. If you consistently need 5 extra minutes baking time, expect that. Or if you seem to need less, check for doneness sooner.

High altitude baking needs longer baking times. Some egg-free recipes, such as brownies, are really tough to bake at high altitude. You might try increasing oven temperature by 25 degrees F.

Your pan might be too large, or the batter too wet.

Using seed gels for an egg replacer can produce a gummy center. Even hemp seed "milk" might do this.

Too much fruit puree, frozen fruit, or too much liquid can all produce a gummy center.

I find that agave increases moisture in a recipe- like honey, it's a humectant. If the center is gummy, cut back on the agave- especially if it's humid.

Tips:

Measure the dry ingredients with dry nested cups - not glass liquid measuring cups.

Measure wet ingredients in glass measuring cups for liquid- not dry nested cups (there is a difference in volume!).

Spoon or pour dry ingredients into dry measuring cups and level off- do not scoop the cup into the flour bag.

Make sure your ingredients are room temperature.

Let your batter or dough rest after mixed. Gluten-free flours often benefit from a little extra batter time. Let the batter sit in the baking pan ten minutes before baking it.

If cookies spread too rapidly, chill dough for an hour first. Try using a silicone baking sheet liner. Try using a dark metal cookie sheet.

Weather affects ingredients. Flours can absorb humidity. Storing them in the fridge also adds dampness. You may need to use less liquid on rainy or humid days. Start with two tablespoons less.

For more baking tips on substitutions see this extensive post on G-Free Baking + Cooking for Food Allergies.

The Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet is © 2009 Gluten-Free Goddess. All rights reserved.

Gluten-Free Pizza Flatbread with Roasted Vegetables

An easy gluten-free pizza flatbread topped with roasted veggies.

Flatbread Topped With Roasted Veggies

I've been offering up picnic food recipes this week because we're eating easy picnic style here in the final countdown phase of leaving for our summer adventure in Los Angeles. Only four remaining stacks of books to box, a tilting fence of wet paintings to frame, and the all important decision of which t-shirts, pots and kitchen power tools to pack stand in the way of our coffee fueled departure early next week.

I am reminded of the opening scene of A Walk on the Moon where Pearl and Lilian Kantrowitz are cramming the family car with colanders and tablecloths and onions and potato peelers. Kitchen stuff for their summer cabin in the Catskills. Such a production this is. Planning ahead for gluten-free snacks on the road (chocolate cupcakes are a must, and popcorn) and an easy microwavable supper for the hotel in Arizona (I'm thinking I'll freeze some of my favorite Mac and Cheese). We still don't have a rental lined up. And the storms knocked out our Internet this week. I'm lucky to be on at all tonight.

So yours truly has been running out of steam by cocktail hour, whipped not only by the attention-to-detail process of organizing two lives and shedding old stuff, but by the monsoon season thunderstorms growling across the Chama River in the afternoons, sending wind and rain and howling coyotes up the mesa. And knocking out our web access.

So forgive me if I have not responded to a comment or a question. I haven't been on-line much. I've been a total social network slacker stranded out here in the wilds. Cooking up flatbreads and Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies between rinsing out empty shampoo bottles. Thinking of you.

Hoping you're having a wonderful week!

Gluten-Free Pizza Flatbread Recipe Topped with Roasted Vegetables

Millet flour gives this chewy Italian flatbread a delicate nutty flavor. I also add plenty of minced onion, garlic and dried herbs to the dough to kick it up. Why not?

Ingredients:

1 cup GF millet flour

1 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour!)

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon minced onion

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary

1 teaspoon thyme

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey or raw organic agave nectar

1/4 teaspoon light, mild vinegar

1 cup hot water (115 degrees F)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Lightly oil a large round pizza pan or baking sheet and dust it with a little cornmeal or rice flour.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the millet flour, sorghum flour and starches with salt, onion, garlic, herbs and yeast. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the olive oil, honey, vinegar and hot water. Mix with a wooden spoon until you get a dough that is more like a thick cake batter than a standard flatbread dough. It will be wet and sticky.

Scoop out the dough onto the prepared baking pan and using hands shape and press the dough into an even, flat round (or rectangular) shape. Smooth with wet fingers. Set the dough aside to rest and roast your vegetables.

Cut up an assortment of your favorite seasonal vegetables and toss them into a bowl. We used red onion, yellow pepper, Baby Bella mushrooms, asparagus, and grape tomatoes. Add chopped garlic and Italian herbs like thyme, oregano, basil, marjoram. Season with sea salt and pepper. If you like it hot, toss in a few red pepper flakes. Drizzle with a little olive oil and toss the vegetables to coat. Dump them into a roasting pan (or on to a baking sheet) and spread them out in an even layer.

Bake in the center of the hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes until tender crisp. They don't have to be completely cooked, just softened a bit.

Remove the pan from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Brush the flatbread with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt over the top. Pre-bake the crust for about 7 to 10 minutes. You want to be somewhat firm and no longer sticky.

Remove the pan from the oven and spoon the roasted veggies all over the flatbread. Return the pan to the oven and bake until the dough is firm and slightly crisp. In my oven it was done after 18 minutes.

Slice with a pizza cutter and serve hot or at room temperature.

Add fresh chopped herbs just before serving- parsley, basil, mint, rosemary or cilantro.

Great picnic food- serve as an appetizer with a crisp green salad and a chilled glass of vino.

Makes 6 generous slices.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

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Easy Champagne Vinegar Red Potato Salad

No mayo in this classic potato salad. Nope. Nada. Zip.

Easy Vegan Bliss

For those of you looking for a mayo-free potato salad recipe, here's an easy, tasty picnic style salad seasoned with Champagne vinegar and tarragon. I plan on making potato salad several times this week. Picnic food- that's perfect for packing. Sorry for the alliteration. I blame excitement. Life is getting interesting again. We're living sans furniture now- except for a bed, desk and rug. The casita feels empty in a good way. Clean and spacious.

Inviting possibility.

Let's hope potential buyers feel the same way.

As for me, I'll be at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market a week from Wednesday (expect pictures). We don't know where we're staying yet. But if Craig's List is any indication, choices will be numerous. Until then?

Dinner will be picnic style.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Vegan Pasta Pie with Mushrooms, Garlic and Tomatoes

My vegan version of a savory pasta pie- 
no eggs, dairy or tofu. Seriously.

This savory pie recipe reminds me of a roasted vegetable frittata. Or my Roasted Vegetable Noodle Kugel, even. I invented it because I was craving a simple one-dish pie for supper- something easy and light and bordering on picnic food- with guaranteed leftovers. Because- and I tell you this with all the happy feet gyrations of a gypsy heart locked inside a hot flashing nest-eschewing body- we're boxing books again- we're storing art and family pictures and files and (most of) our movie collection. We're selling our furniture, consigning everything from roomy chairs and Mexican tables to Kilim pillows and punched tin mirrors. A truck arrives today to haul the lot to Santa Fe.

Even though the house has not sold.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Another Garden Update

Two mint plants here. Last week my nephew decided to run and stamp on it when he kicked a footbal around the area. It looked like it was dying but today looked a bit healthier. Anyway I bought another mint plant to the right which seems to be doing fine. I want it to grow quite a lot still so that I can start eating more mint. I've only just been using a few leaves with some lindt chocolate at the moment, and mint tea too. My nephew and niece both love the mint though, I have to stop them from eating it all lol



Slug attacK! Last night I went outside about 11pm and found quite a few slugs attached to my spinach leaves. It seems they not gonig for my broccoli plants, just the spinach. So over the next few days I really have to find a solution for this, many of the leaves now have holes in them lol. I should have really sorted this out sooner but will find something to keep them away! When the spinach is ready to harvest can I eat the spinach leaves that only have small hole in? If I wash them properly of course?

The broccoli plants clearly need spacing more, I think i'm going to just about be able to fit 5 into that box but a lot more in the other one.



Carrots, well not much to say about these really. Starting to take on a different appearance now than that of just grass.



And my best plants are the cherry tomato plants. Soon to find their home in the garden at the end of May, i'm leaving them out until the evening at the moment for them to get used to slightly colder temperatures. They look very healthy.



The strawberry plants are finally starting to grow a bit faster. They took a very long time to get started, slowest plant I've ever seen grow! Pics of them next week :)

I have some miracle grow that I picked up from the supermarket the other day. I have yet to use it. Does anyone else use this and how have they found it? A big difference in plant growth?

Anyway I'm off right now to start picking out some of the weeds that have grown in the boxes!

The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic: Possible Culprits Part I

In the last post, I reviewed two studies that suggested heart attacks were rare in the U.K. until the 1920s -1930s. In this post, I'll be discussing some of the diet and lifestyle factors that preceded and associated with the coronary heart disease epidemic in the U.K and U.S. I've cherry picked factors that I believe could have played a causal role. Many things changed during that time period, and I don't want to give the impression that I have "the answer". I'm simply presenting ideas for thought and discussion.

First on the list: sugar. Here's a graph of refined sugar consumption in the U.K. from 1815 to 1955, from the book The Saccharine Disease, by Dr. T. L. Cleave. Sugar consumption increased dramatically in the U.K. over this time period, reaching near-modern levels by the turn of the century, and continuing to increase after that except during the wars: Here's a graph of total sweetener consumption in the U.S. from 1909 to 2005 (source: USDA food supply database). Between 1909 and 1922, sweetener consumption increased by 40%:

If we assume a 10 to 20 year lag period, sugar is well placed to play a role in the CHD epidemic. Sugar is easy to pick on. Diets high in refined sugar tend to promote obesity due to overeating.  An excess causes a number of detrimental changes in animal models and human subjects that are partially dependent on the development of obesity, including fatty liver, the metabolic syndrome, and small, oxidized low-density lipoprotein particles (LDL). Small and oxidized LDL associate strongly with cardiovascular disease risk and may be involved in causing it. These effects seem to be partly attributable to the fructose portion of sugar, which is 50% of table sugar (sucrose), about 50% of most naturally sweet foods, and 55% of the most common form of high-fructose corn syrup. That explains why starches, which break down into glucose (another type of sugar), don't have the same negative effects as table sugar and HFCS.

Hydrogenated fat is the next suspect. I don't have any graphs to present, because no one has systematically tracked hydrogenated fat consumption in the U.S. or U.K. to my knowledge. However, it was first marketed in the U.S. by Procter & Gamble under the brand name Crisco in 1911. Crisco stands for "crystallized cottonseed oil", and involves taking an industrial waste oil (from cotton seeds) and chemically treating it using high temperature, a nickel catalyst and hydrogen gas (see this post for more information). Hydrogenated fats for human consumption hit markets in the U.K. around 1920. Here's what Dr. Robert Finlayson had to say about margarine in his paper "Ischaemic Heart Disease, Aortic Aneurysms, and Atherosclerosis in the City of London, 1868-1982":

...between 1909-13 and 1924-28, margarine consumption showed the highest percentage increase, whilst that of eggs only increased slightly and that of butter remained unchanged. Between 1928 and 1934, margarine consumption fell by one-third, while butter consumption increased by 57 percent: and increase that coincided with a fall of 48 percent in its price. Subsequently, margarine sales have burgeoned, and if one is correct in stating that the coronary heart disease epidemic started in the second decade of this century, then the concept of hydrogenated margarines as an important aetiological factor, so strongly advocated by Martin, may merit more consideration than hitherto.

Partially hydrogenated oils contain trans fat, which is truly new to the human diet, with the exception of small amounts found in ruminant fats including butter. But for the most part, natural trans fats are not the same as industrial trans fats, and in fact some of them, such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), may be beneficial. To my knowledge, no one has discovered health benefits of industrial trans fats. To the contrary, compared to butter, they shrink LDL size. They also inhibit enzymes that the body uses to make a diverse class of signaling compounds known as eicosanoids. Trans fat consumption associates very strongly with the risk of heart attack in observational studies. Which is ironic, because hydrogenated fats were originally marketed as a healthier alternative to animal fats. The Center for Science in the Public Interest shamed McDonald's into switching the beef tallow in their deep friers for hydrogenated vegetable fats in the 1990s. In 2009, even the staunchest opponents of animal fats have to admit that they're healthier than hydrogenated fat.
The rise of cigarettes was a major change that probably contributed massively to the CHD epidemic. They were introduced just after the turn of the century in the U.S. and U.K., and rapidly became fashionable (source):
If you look at the second to last graph from the previous post, you can see that there's a striking correspondence between cigarette consumption and CHD deaths in the U.K. In fact, if you moved the line representing cigarette consumption to the right by about 20 years, it would overlap almost perfectly with CHD deaths. The risk of heart attack is so strongly associated with smoking in observational studies that even I believe it probably represents a causal relationship. There's no doubt in my mind that smoking cigarettes contributes to the risk of heart attack and various other health problems.

Smoking is a powerful factor, but it doesn't explain everything. How is it that the Kitavans of Papua New Guinea, more than 3/4 of whom smoke cigarettes, have an undetectable incidence of heart attack and stroke? Why do the French and the Japanese, who smoke like chimneys (at least until recently), have the two lowest heart attack death rates of all the affluent nations? There's clearly another factor involved that trumps cigarette smoke. 

Non Human Primate Study Presenation

The Younger control monkey who eats ad lib looks significantly more frail and older than the older CR'd monkey. (click images to enlarge)

EATING LESS, LIVING LONGER

Ricki Colman, PhD, reviews the long-term health benefits of caloric restriction (CR) using data from a 20 year study in non-human primates at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. She outlines positive health changes associated with longevity including lower diabetes incidence, less age-as sociated loss of muscle mass, altered energy expenditures, and lower rates of obesity. Low quality and high quality videos are available for those that can't watch on high.

VIDEO HERE

This shows the survival of the control and Calorie restriction group at the moment. As you can see, the CR group are living longer. On the left they include all deaths, so this includes early accidental deaths from anaesthesia... which is not the important one we want to look at here. The most important thing is death from age related disease, and for this the CR group are showing the same results we see in other animals and are likely to live a few years longer.





This is the disease incidence of the primates on CR. Calorie Restriction completely prevents diabetes and this is true for all animals that are put on CR, including humans.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Gluten-free strawberry rhubarb crisp with a tangy twist.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

When I was a little girl my favorite way to eat rhubarb was to snap off a stick in the back yard, run into the kitchen and dip the end into the sugar bowl, repeating the dipping process as needed to coat each tart and chewy bite with granular sweetness. In a post-Seinfeld world I risk being labeled a dreaded double dipper. And I admit up front, it's true.

I double dipped and triple dipped and lived to tell the tale.

Beyond childhood I never bothered much with rhubarb, except for tasting the occasional strawberry rhubarb crisp at someone else's family picnic. I was never much a fan of it cooked. Stewing and baking seemed to rob it of its charms, mocking my memory of those sugar coated crisp and sour stalks. The mush in the bottom of all those Pyrex baking pans was a sorry excuse for rhubarb, I thought. So recreating a rhubarb crisp recipe for living gluten-free was never glowing brightly on my cooking radar screen. It was never even the faintest of blips. I've been blogging for four rhubarb seasons now and haven't felt inspired to develop a recipe. Until now.

Why now, I've no idea. Perhaps it's because we're stuck out here in the desert, with nary a garden or bursting rhubarb patch in sight. Just rolling hills of crusty earth studded with brittle pinon and juniper trees, the oddball cholla, or tuft of tenacious sage. The words green and leafy don't exactly come to mind when you walk the dirt road to the arroyo.

So when I spotted a few lonely stalks of rhubarb in a basket at Whole Foods in Santa Fe- ruby red and sexy in their glistening rhubarb goodness- I thought, Why not attempt a strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe?

And because I'd asked myself out loud my husband said, You do realize you just asked three stalks of rhubarb if you should make them into a crisp?

Well, yeah, I shrugged back. I talk to my fruit.

Don't you?

Read more + get the recipe >>

Snappy Crunchy Vegan Coleslaw (No Mayo!)

A tasty slaw recipe without a drop of mayo.

Here's a crisp and crunchy slaw recipe without a drop of mayo. That's what I'm craving. How about you? Stop by and share your favorite spring side dish recipe in comments.

From the archives: By April I'm itchy with anticipation. By May I'm storing sweaters and mittens. Winter is behind us. Spring is officially here. Days are longer, inch by inch. If not for juniper allergies I might even be out walking, testing out my new cocoa suede sneakers- albeit gently, Dear Reader, treading softly down our bumpy dirt road, shiny new walking cane in hand.

The craving for comfort food is fading. Slow cooked stews, Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie, and bowls piled high with embarrassingly hefty mounds of gluten-free pasta are feeling a tad, well, bottom heavy. Thick. You know, like the more-than-an-inch pie roll I've acquired around my waist. My great grandmother Josefa would be kvelling, She no longer eats like a bird! (Yeah, well, that's obvious.)

And while I believe the Sweet Husband when he tells me he likes me with more meat on my bones- and who am I to complain about (finally!) absorbing food and calories after years of celiac malabsorption- your intrepid expanding goddess is simply hankering for lighter fare.

Something to perk up the taste buds.

Something with snap and crunch. Something fresh and green that makes you feel virtuous and light and happy to be alive with summer on its way.

Read more + get the recipe >>

The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic

Few people alive today are old enough to remember the beginning of the coronary heart disease (CHD) epidemic in the 1920s and 1930s, when physicians in the U.S. and U.K. began sounding alarm bells that an uncommon disease was rapidly becoming the leading cause of death. By the 1950s, their predictions had come true. A decade later, a new generation of physicians replaced their predecessors and began to doubt that heart attacks had ever been uncommon. Gradually, the idea that the disease was once uncommon faded from the public consciousness, and heart attacks were seen as an eternal plague of humankind, avoided only by dying of something else first.

According to U.S. National Vital Statistics records beginning in 1900, CHD was rarely given as the cause of death by physicians until after 1930. The following graph is from The Great Cholesterol Con, by Anthony Colpo.


The relevant line for CHD deaths begins in the lower left-hand part of the graph. Other types of heart disease, such as heart failure due to cardiomyopathy, were fairly common and well recognized at the time. These data are highly susceptible to bias because they depend on the physician's perception of the cause of death, and are not adjusted for the mean age of the population. In other words, if a diagnosis of CHD wasn't "popular" in 1920, its prevalence could have been underestimated. The invention of new technologies such as the electrocardiogram facilitated diagnosis. Changes in diagnostic criteria also affected the data; you can see them as discontinuities in 1948, 1968 and 1979. For these reasons, the trend above isn't a serious challenge to the idea that CHD has always been a common cause of death in humans who reach a certain age.

This idea was weakened in 1951 with the publication of a paper in the Lancet medical journal titled "Recent History of Coronary Disease", by Dr. Jerry N. Morris. Dr. Morris sifted through the autopsy records of London Hospital and recorded the frequency of coronary thrombosis (artery blockage in the heart) and myocardial infarction (MI; loss of oxygen to the heart muscle) over the period 1907-1949. MI is the technical term for a heart attack, and it can be caused by coronary thrombosis. Europe has a long history of autopsy study, and London Hospital had a long-standing policy of routine autopsies during which they kept detailed records of the state of the heart and coronary arteries. Here's what he found:

The dashed line is the relevant one. This is a massive increase in the prevalence of CHD death that cannot be explained by changes in average lifespan. Although the average lifespan increased considerably over that time period, most of the increase was due to reduced infant mortality. The graph only includes autopsies performed on people 35-70 years old. Life expectancy at age 35 changed by less than 10 years over the same time period. The other possible source of bias is in the diagnosis. Physicians may have been less likely to search for signs of MI when the diagnosis was not "popular". Morris addresses this in the paper:

The first possibility, of course, is that the increase is not real but merely reflects better post-mortem diagnosis. This is an unlikely explanation. There is abundant evidence throughout the forty years that the department was fully aware of the relation of infarction to thrombosis, of myocardial fibrosis to gradual occlusion, and of the topical pathology of ostial stenosis and infarction from embolism, as indeed were many pathologists last century... But what makes figures like these important is that, unlike other series of this kind, they are based on the routine examination at necropsy of the myocardium and of the coronary arteries over the whole period. Moreover Prof. H. M. Turnbull, director of the department, was making a special case of atheroma and arterial disease in general during 1907-1914 (Turnbull 1915). The possibility that cases were overlooked is therefore small, and the earlier material is as likely to be reliable as the later.

Dr. Morris's study was followed by another similar one published in 1985 in the journal Medical History, titled "Ischaemic Heart Disease, Aortic Aneurysms, and Atherosclerosis in the City of London, 1868-1982", conducted by Dr. Robert Finlayson. This study, in my opinion, is the coup de grace. Finlayson systematically scrutinized autopsy reports from St. Bartholemew's hospital, which had conducted routine and detailed cardiac autopsies since 1868, and applied modern diagnostic criteria to the records. He also compared the records from St. Bartholemew's to those from the city mortuary. Here's what he found:

The solid line is MI mortality. Striking, isn't it? The other lines are tobacco and cigarette consumption. These data are not age-adjusted, but if you look at the raw data tables provided in the paper, some of which are grouped by age, it's clear that average lifespan doesn't explain much of the change. Heart attacks are largely an occurrence of the last 80 years.

What caused the epidemic? Both Drs. Morris and Finlayson also collected data on the prevalence of atherosclerosis (plaques in the arteries) over the same time period. Dr. Morris concluded that the prevalence of severe atherosclerosis had decreased by about 50% (although mild atherosclerosis such as fatty streaks had increased), while Dr. Finlayson found that it had remained approximately the same:


He found the same trend in females. This casts doubt on the idea that coronary atherosclerosis is sufficient in and of itself to cause heart attacks, although modern studies have found a strong association between advanced atherosclerosis and the risk of heart attack on an individual level. Heart attacks are caused by several factors, one of which is atherosclerosis.  

What changes in diet and lifestyle associated with the explosion of MI in the U.K. and U.S. after 1920? Dr. Finlayson has given us a hint in the graph above: cigarette consumption increased dramatically over the same time period, and closely paralleled MI mortality. Smoking cigarettes is very strongly associated with heart attacks in observational studies. Animal studies also support the theory. While I believe cigarettes are an important factor, I do not believe they are the only cause of the MI epidemic. Dr. Finlayson touched on a few other factors in the text of the paper, and of course I have my own two cents to add. I'll discuss that next time.

Getting old in Okinawa

GETTING OLD IN OKINAWA



Most of the diseases that people get in the western world are much more rarein okinawa. Breast cancer and prostate cancer especially. Heart disease is also less common as well as many other diseases of aging. Their lifestyle which is active, eating a low calorie but highly nutritious diet keeps them younger for longer. In this video you see 90+ year olds being active and happy. 97% of their life is in good health, whereas in the US and UK much of elderly life quality is poor because of bad habits.

Vegan Garden Loaf with Maple Apricot Glaze

Delicious vegan garden loaf with quinoa.

Go ahead and snicker. I'll wait. I'm fully aware that veggie loaves are the punch line for many a joke in Burger King sponsored sit-coms and pseudo-reality shows pitting sweaty cranky chefs against each other for the promise of fame and fortune. So do your thing. Snort. Sigh. Bare your teeth. I can handle it. 

Vegetarians and vegans endure more than their fair share of indiscreet eye-rolling.

I know this first hand. Because I've been a vegetarian and sometimes vegan for most of my life. Four decades. And after my medically recommended foray back into Omnivore Land (to jump start the healing of my broken hip) now that I am vertical and ambulatory without a cane I am once again whistling past the graveyard into familiar territory, leaving behind the protein I flirted with, listening to my body's need to get back to the garden, back to my first love, my culinary Eden. My natural preference, before The Fall.

I tell you this without judgment. 

I mention this without pressure of any kind. Seriously. I'm not proselytizing. Goddess knows, I understand better than most how hard it is to eat in this gluten infused world of ours without whittling down our choices even further. If you love your bacon and eggs, Babycakes, go rustle up some grub.

Gnaw on some haggis.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Gluten-Free Blueberry Brownie Bites

Tasty little vegan chocolate brownie bites.

The idea for blueberry brownies came to me in the middle of shampooing my hair. I was thinking about a chocolate bar I'd seen the day before (what, you don't think about chocolate in the shower?). It was a slim dark chocolate confection with dried blueberries. I'm a fruit and chocolate combo fan, you see. I love berries and chocolate. Orange and chocolate. Pineapple and chocolate. Actually, is there anything that doesn't taste better with some chocolate on it?

Such are my ponderous meanderings.

I'm still waiting for my Babycakes cookbook to arrive (I pre-ordered it from Amazon) along with pastry bags and icing tips. Ever since my unexpected success developing my first gluten-free and vegan Orange Creme Cupcakes I've been dreaming up cupcake flavors and imagining sweet little gems galore. Although I was less than thrilled to learn that Babycakes bakery uses bean flours (yuck), soy milk powder (um, why?) and spelt (spelt is not gluten-free) in their recipes, I'm still stoked to get the book, hoping it will at least inspire my own gluten-free vegan beauties.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Dihydro-Vitamin K1

Step right up ladies and gents; I have a new miracle vitamin for you. Totally unknown to our ignorant pre-industrial ancestors, it's called dihydro-vitamin K1. It's formed during the oil hydrogenation process, so the richest sources are hydrogenated fats like margarine, shortening and commercial deep fry oil. Some of its benefits may include:

• Inhibiting vitamin K2 metabolism
• Reducing bone mineral density
  
• Causing organ damage and inhibiting platelet formation in animal models
• Dramatically increasing the death rate of spontaneously hypertensive rats

Dihydro-vitamin K1 accounts for roughly 30% of the vitamin K intake of American children, and a substantial portion of adult intake as well. Over 99 percent of Americans have it in their diet. Research on dihydro-vitamin K1 is in its infancy at this point, so no one has a very solid idea of its effects on the body beyond some preliminary and disturbing suggestions from animal experiments and brief human trials.

This could be another mechanism by which industrially processed vegetable oils degrade health. It's also another example of why it's not a good idea to chemically alter food. We don't understand food, or our bodies, well enough to know the long-term consequences of foods that have been recently introduced to the human diet. I believe these foods should be avoided on principle.

The G-Free Diet: An Opinion from Elaine Monarch, CDF

Tonight- like the many readers of the Celiac List-Serve- I received this letter from Elaine Monarch of the Celiac Disease Foundation. Because this letter accurately reflects my own view regarding the new book, The G-Free Diet, I am sharing this public letter with my readers.

Celiac Colleagues:

I am writing to call your attention to the current publicity surrounding the new book, The G-free Diet, A Gluten-Free Survival Guide by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View. While it is important to call attention to celiac disease, the information must be accurate - the inaccuracies in this book are potentially dangerous and detrimental to celiacs and to those yet to be diagnosed if people self diagnose and start eating GF. Our mission is to assist in getting people accurately diagnosed and the message in this book could defeat this mission. It appears that this book is being marketed as a fitness diet - eat g-free and feel so much better. Celiac is incorrectly referred to as an allergy not an autoimmune disease. The GF diet is the medically mediated prescription that controls the condition for a diagnosed celiac. Several items in the book are misleading and inaccurate and place further limitations on the GF diet. The gluten-free lifestyle is a lifelong commitment for the diagnosed celiac, not an option, not a fad diet - adhering to the GF lifestyle requires patience and persistence. This lifestyle can not be trivialized.

Thank you.

Elaine Monarch

Celiac Disease Foundation
Founder and Executive Director
13251 Ventura Blvd. Suite 1
Studio City, CA 91604

Pastured Eggs

Eggs are an exceptionally nutritious food. It's not surprising, considering they contain everything necessary to build a chick! But all eggs are not created equal. Anyone who has seen the tall, orange yolk, viscous white, and tough shell of a true pastured egg knows they're profoundly different. So has anyone who's tasted one. This has been vigorously denied by the American Egg Board and the Egg Nutrition Council, primarily representing conventional egg farmers, which assert that eggs from giant smelly barns are nutritionally equal to their pastured counterparts.

In 2007, the magazine Mother Earth News decided to test that claim. They sent for pastured eggs from 14 farms around the U.S., tested them for a number of nutrients, and compared them to the figures listed in the USDA Nutrient Database for conventional eggs. Here are the results per 100 grams for conventional eggs, the average of all the pastured eggs, and eggs from Skagit River Ranch, which sells at my farmer's market:

Vitamin A:

• Conventional: 487 IU
• Pastured avg: 792 IU
• Skagit Ranch: 1013 IU
  

Vitamin D:

• Conventional: 34 IU
  
• Pastured avg: 136 - 204 IU
  
• Skagit Ranch: not determined
  

Vitamin E:

• Conventional: 0.97 mg
• Pastured avg: 3.73 mg
  
• Skagit Ranch: 4.02 mg

Beta-carotene:

• Conventional: 10 mcg
  
• Pastured avg: 79 mcg
  
• Skagit Ranch: 100 mcg
  

Omega-3 fatty acids:

• Conventional: 0.22 g
  
• Pastured avg: 0.66 g
  
• Skagit Ranch: 0.74 g
  

Looks like the American Egg Board and the Egg Nutrition Council have some egg on their faces...

Eggs also contain vitamin K2, with the amount varying substantially according to the hen's diet. Guess where the A, D, K2, beta-carotene and omega-3 fatty acids are? In the yolk of course. Throwing the yolk away turns this powerhouse into a bland, nutritionally unimpressive food.

It's important to note that "free range" supermarket eggs are nutritionally similar to conventional eggs. The reason pastured eggs are so nutritious is that the chickens get to supplement their diets with abundant fresh plants and insects. Having little doors on the side of a giant smelly barn just doesn't replicate that.

How to look younger (skin anti aging)

HOW TO LOOK YOUNGER

These are just some simple tips on how to stay looking more youthful for a longer period of time. The earlier start the bigger the pay off. So if you start at age 20 years of age, you could literally still look in your 20's - 30's at ages 40 - 50 years. Prevention is the key, not waiting until the damage has already been done. Although the anti-aging skin creams do have some benefit, there is no miracle cream just yet. So far the most promising looks to be Copper peptides, Retinol, and Vitamin C topicals. To those that do a bit of research or generally keep up with the latest in skin aging then most of this will already be known to you. This is for people that have limited knowledge of skin care.

SUN AVOIDANCE - Well what an obvious one! If you like to get a nice healthy tan, you will age your skin faster and look older. 80% of skin aging is caused because of the sun, simple everyday exposure. Use sun protection and avoid the sun between 10am - 3pm. Make sure you take vitamin D3 because we normally get our vitamin D from the sun in the spring and summer. At least 2000-5000 IU of D3 is good enough to keep level optimal (which in itself protects you from such damage).

AVOID SMOKING - Do not smoke and make sure you're not exposed to smoke. This is one of the things that will age you the quickest.

EXERCISE - Generally improves overall health and circulation to the tissues giving a more glowing appearance to the skin

OMEGA 3 - Takin Omega 3 supplements. This helps lower inflammation and increases lipid levels in the skin to have a more soft and smoother feeling to the skin, also increasing radiance.It will also help keep you looking younger by preventing inflammation from sun burn, which causes damage and aging skin.

LUTEIN - (found at high levels in Kale and cooked spinach (or blended)). Here are some details on how Lutein performed. You can search where to find lutein here [ 2,3]

Improved skin photo-protection

Skin photo-protective activity improves 2.5 times when FloraGLO Lutein is used in oral application and 4.2 times when the oral and topical treatments are combined - demonstrating a clear synergic effect between the two treatments.

Improved skin elasticity

After 12 weeks of the topical treatment or by combined oral supplement and topical application, the study shows an increase of skin elasticity of 68% in comparison with the initial value. With oral supplementation alone, the increase is 56%.

Improved skin hydration

Skin hydration improved by 82% after 12 weeks of combined oral and topical treatment. Meanwhile those who took only oral supplementation saw an increase of 60% while though who used only the topical treatment had an increase of 62% after 12 weeks.

Effect on skin lipid levels

Finally, the study revealed a positive and significant effect on skin lipid levels. An increase of 63% was reported for the patients who followed the combined treatment of FloraGLO Lutein while an increase of 46% was noted among those who only took the oral treatment.

Furthermore, after 12 weeks, a decrease of 65% lipid peroxidation was observed when an oral and topical treatment with FloraGLO Lutein was used and a decrease of 63% when subjects only used the topical treatment.

LYCOPENE - This is found in tomatoes and is essentially what makes a tomatoes red. A study was released last year showing that consuming lycopene with a bit of olive oil increased skin procollagen levels by. Heres a quote from the researcher

""The tomato diet boosted the level of procollagen in the skin significantly. These increasing levels suggest potential reversal of the skin ageing process. This is in addition to the significant reduction in sunburn."

BETA CAROTENE - This gets converted to vitamin A and is stored in the body. Also is good as a skin antioxidant. Eating too many foods high in beta carotene can cause the skin to go slightly orange/yellow however. But this is different from jaundice in liver disease. This is completely safe and beneficial. Beta carotene can be found in carrots, kale, sweet potatoes, broccoli among other foods.

GREEN TEA - Green tea is simply less processed than black tea, otherwise they're both from the same plant. Green tea contains compounds called Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). It's believed from some recent studies that they prevent oxidation to the skin, they also inhibit collagenases, elastinase and certain MMP enzymes responsible for breakdown down the tissues and causing fine lines and wrinkles. EGCG is also a good anti inflammatory and has some effect on protecting you from from UV rays. [5,6,7,8]. There was also a study done using topical green tea extract and they found although there were no significant changes in the short term, there was a significant increase in elastin in the skin. Longer studies are needed to compare the effects of long term application of green tea. [9].

There is also some evidence that Green Tea can treat mild - moderate acne. Placing a used green tea bag when cooled down onto a spot will in my experience decrease the size by 50% and make it less red and this happens within 30 minutes of applying it for about 10 minutes.

EAT GARLIC - Garlic contains sulfur, which helps your body produce collagen.

Eat Less - It's simple, the more calories you take in the faster you will age. The fewer calories you take in the slower you will age, upto a certain point at least before it because detrimental to health. Eating a low calorie nutrient dense diet in animals like worms, flies, dogs, cows, monkeys slows the signs of aging, they grey later, the monkeys don't wrinkle or it's delayed significantly [11]. They just generally look much younger at all ages, and they go on to live very long healthy lives equivalent upto 150-180 human years depending on the time the restriction was imposed.

Avoiding sugar - This causes cross linking of proteins and ultimately wrinkled skin. The high sugar sweets, drinks and foods that are on the high GI index will all cause accelerated skin aging. If you make toast or burning food and consuming it this will lead to AGE's.

"Collagens are important proteins for the skin, as they are essential for structure and function of the extracellular matrix in the dermis. Thinner and
wrinkled skin, the typical signs of normal aging, are the consequence of reduced collagen. Protein glycation contributes to skin aging as it deteriorates
the existing collagen by crosslinking. Accelerated skin aging is especially noticeable in diabetic patients, where glycation is increased because of the high serum glucose level." [12]

IS NUTRITION GOOD ENOUGH?
A lot of the above advice is through simple and non expensive methods on how to maintain younger looking appearance, and they do work. Almost anyone can looks 'years' younger by doing all the things above and the difference can be noticed within 4 weeks and improvements can continue months and even over a year later.

TOPICALS - Although there are always claims that product x is the real deal in anti aging, and the industry is worth billions of dollars, you have to be careful what you're buying. I would recommend a good product like 'Juvess' which http://www.juvess.com/ingredients.html . It has 'proven ingredients' such as Copper Peptide, Carnosine, CoQ10, Vitamin E, Beta Glucan. All of which help repair the skin damage that you have but also prevent further skin aging. The product is also on sale from a fraction of the price of some top brands line Creme de la mer which would cost you over $200 for the same amount you get from Juvess. It's literally an identical copy. I've provided a link here to the cream so if you want to you can try it out. Almost everyone i talked to say they have seen amazing benefits from using it. It can heal scars, hyperpigmentation, skin dryness, uneven skin tone. I personally cannot use it because I think I'm allergic to one of the ingredients, however everyone else I know who tried a sample from me never had any issues. Using a high SPF protection will also improve your skin and is a good idea when you're trying to repair. Especially when using retinoids for example.

Using topicals and changing your diet will have a synergistic effect so that you can get younger instead of older.

REFERENCES

[1] Omega 3 for Skin Health - Get a Radiant and Glowing Complexion Naturally
http://ezinearticles.com/?Omega-3-for-Skin-Health---Get-a-Radiant-and-Glowing-Complexion-Naturally&id=852876

[2] New Clinical Trial Shows Lutein Can Help Improve Skin Health
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/70700.php

[3] Lutein Sources
http://www.luteininfo.com/whereraw

[4] Lycopene improves skin and protects against sunburn
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Study-supports-lycopene-protecting-skin-from-within

[5] Green Tea Polyphenols Induce Differentiation and Proliferation in Epidermal Keratinocytes
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/306/1/29

[6] Inhibition of UVB-Induced Skin Tumor Development by Drinking Green Tea Polyphenols Is Mediated Through DNA Repair and Subsequent Inhibition of Inflammation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19020550

[7] (-)Epigallocatechin gallate hampers collagen destruction and collagenase activation in ultraviolet-B-irradiated human dermal fibroblasts: involvement of mitogen-activated protein kinase.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18226437

[8] Green tea extract suppresses the age-related increase in collagen crosslinking and fluorescent products in C57BL/6 mice.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14743550

[9] double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial to determine the
role of a combination regimen of systemic and topical green
tea in UV protection and the improvement of skin appearance http://www.spabeautyathome.com/global/library/flash/spabeauty/media/tfessence_greentea_clinical.pdf

[10] which foods promote collagen?
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=fightdz&dbid=6

[11] Modulation of Cutaneous Aging With Calorie
Restriction in Fischer 344 Rats
http://archfaci.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/7/1/12

[12] Collagen glycation and skin aging
http://www.mibellebiochemistry.com/pdfs/Collagen_glycation_and_skin_aging_-_CT_2002.pdf