4B
LIFE/tElie Charlotte $o$t
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Book explores Lowcountry cuisine
Continued from page 1B
woTjld pick up both culturally
and from a cuisine standpoint
things that were beir^ done
in the moimtains by the
Scots-Irish. They would come
back to Charleston, and like
wise Charleston affected the
moimtains,” said Doug
Bostick, a co-author of the
book (Jo^ltng Boards Press,
$26.95), that includes 90
recipes.
Foods such as apples, nuts
and moimtain trout worked
thdr way into Lowcountry
cooking, Bostick said.
In the reverse, oysters from
the coast became identified as
a Christmas delicacy in the
mountains. Before refiigera-
tion, the arrival of cool fall
weather was the only time
when oysters could be
shipped safely, ixsually
packed, in a bed of seaweed.
‘Tor generations, whether
to escape the summertime
dread of malaria, the dangers
of war or the discomfort of
sweltering heat,
Charlestonians have beaten
a path to the mountains and
back,” reads the first chapter
of the book. “The melding
that naturally comes when
people and resources mix has
produced a delicious array of
foods and flavors.”
The book includes recipes
for a wide variety of dishes,
ranging fixim seafood pasta
with mushroom and
Parmesan cream sauce to
pan-filed trout witii pecan
brown butter.
The secret at the restau
rants and bdiind the recipes
is to use local produce,
seafood and other fresh ingre
dients, Jason Davidson,
another co-author and a
buyer for the restaurants,
said.
‘It’s not rocket science. We
are producing something that
is fiesh and strai^tforward,
and it can be easily done in
your backyard on your Weber
grill,” he said.
Local ingredients are some
thing Stoney insists on in his
restaurants, in a world where
he said food is becoming too
ccanplicated and too homoge
nous.
‘Tm a basic guy and I think
most of the world is like that,”
he said. ‘Tood is becoming too
complicated at times and too
much of an art form.”
Ifis insistence has caiased
some filction among the chefe
at his restaurants.
Tb keep the food simple, he
said, “I have had to hold them
bade. I have had to stifle their
creativity”
In an era of cookir^ shows
and Internet sites devoted to
at-home gourmets, food
preparation is becoming both
more fussed over and more
similar, he said.
“Everyone now feels they
are an esqjert on food,” he
said. “We are all scurryir^
aro^md trying to outdo the
other person. There is really
no local cuisine anymore. You
go to Spain or France or
Belgium and the food is aU
basically the same.”
By focusir^ on what’s avail-
aUe locally and not what can
be shipped fiom across the
country the book “is a cele
bration of great local indige
nous food,” Bostick said.
On the Net:
wwwjogglingboardpressjtom
Study: Obese people aren’t more jolly
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO - Fat people
are not more jolly according
to a study that instead found
obesity is strongly linked
with depression and other
mood disorders.
Whether obesity might
cause these problems or is the
resiflt of them is not certain,
and the research does not
provide an answer, but there
are theories to support both
arguments.
Depression often causes
people to abandon activities,
and some medications used
to treat mental illness can
cause wei^t gain. On the
other hand, obesity is often
seen as a stigma and over-
wei^t people often are sub
ject to teasing and other hmd-
ful behavior.
The study of more than
9,000 adults fomd that mood
and anxiety disorders includ
ing depression were about 25
percent more common in the
obese people studied than in
the non-obese. Substance
abuse was an exception-
obese people were about 25
percent less likely to abuse
drugs or alcohol than slim
mer participants.
The results appear in the
July issue of Archives' of
General Psychiatry, being
released Monday The lead
author was Dr. Gregory
Simon, a researcher with
Group Health Cooperative in
Seattle, a large nonprofit
health plan in the Pacific
Northwest.
The results- “suggest that
the cultural stereotype of the
jolly fat person is more a fig
ment of our imagination than
a reality,” said Dr. Wayne
Fenton of the National
Institute of Mental Health,
which funded the study
“The take-home message
for doctors is to be on the
lookout for depression among
their patioats who are over
weight,” Fenton said.
Both conditions are quite
common. About one-third of
U.S. adults are obese, and
depression affects about 10
percent of the population, or
nearly 21 million U.S. adults
in a given year.
Previous studies produced
conflicting results on whether
obesity is linked with mental
illness includir^ depression,
although a growing body of
research suggests there is an
association.
This latest study helps
Your
source of
community
news
resolve the question, said Dr.
Susan McElroy a psychiatry
professor at the University of
Cincinnati and editor of a
textbook on obesity and men
tal disorders.
“This is a state-of-the-art
psychiatric epidemiology
study that really confirms
that 1ha« is, in fact, a rela
tionship,” she said
The study was based on an
analysis of a national survey
of 9,125 adults who were
interviewed to assess mental
state. Obesity status was
determined using partici
pants’ self-reported weight
and height measurements.
About one-fourth of all par
ticipants were obese. Some 22
percent of obese participants
had ejqjerienced a mood dis
order inrInHing depression,
compared with 18 percent of
the nonobese.
McElroy said the study bol-
stos pre-vious research si^-
gesting that dn^ and alcohol
abuse are less common in the
obese. One reason might be
that good-tasting food and
substances of abuse both
affect the same reward-seek
ing areas of the brain,
McElroy said 'Why some peo
ple choose food as a mood-reg
ulator and others drugs or
alcohol is uncertain, she said.
The study found the rela
tionship between obesity and
mental illness was equally
strong in men and women,
contrasting with some previ
ous research that found a
more robust link in women.
On the Net:
Archives:
wwwjm:hgenpsyhcicary.comJ
National Institute of Mental
Health: ^vwwjtimhjiih.gov/
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