Day 6: Nutrition vs food science

Nutrition and food science are both housed in one building at the University of Minnesota. They are like two siblings, always bickering about who is right and who is wrong, each one fighting for the attention of some parent audience, the public at large. The food scientists say,

"look at the exciting flavors we can make! See how we can make your food last on the shelves. We are the ones who prevent your cheese from growing listeria, and who can make your food low in fat, or devoid of sugar. In fact, we can even make magical fats and sugars that your body won't absorb! You can eat forever and never gain a pound! We will dehydrate your veggies so that they won't spoil, we will salt your meat so that you don't have to refrigerate it, we will pasteurize your eggs and your cream."

The food scientists study what happens to food when the food is processed in various ways at the level of the food. With so many chemical reactions happening to food before it even reaches the consumer, the food chemist never gets a chance to hear the rest of the story (ie. what happens to the food products after they have entered the human body). Here is where nutrition chimes in.

"See how those dehydrated foods are constipating you! You need fresh vegetables with water still in them. I know that you are used to the salty flavor, but that salt is causing you to bloat and stressing your heart. Try some fresh mozzarella instead of that salty shredded stuff. Add more vegetables to your diet, for vitamins and phytochemicals and to reduce your intake of saturated fat. Stop eating white flour, it will cause your insulin to spike and you will become tired. Try some fiber rich whole wheat flour instead."

While the food chemist knows little about the health consequences of their delicious concoctions, the nutritionist learns very little about how to make your healthy meal delicious. Although we are housed in the same building, their is an invisible wall that divides us. Like republicans and democrats, each group imagines that if the other group really understood their point of view, they would change their ways.

The cook is both a food scientist and a nutritionist, though he usually doesn't think of himself as such. His hands, eyes, ears, and nose are always gathering data about the chemical properties and nutritional benefits of foods. The first few times he puts something together he follows a recipe exactly, but soon he learns that foods are seasonal and that so too are recipes. He begins to notice the differences between high gluten whole wheat flour and unbleached white flour. He discovers that some grocery stores have low turnover of certain types of grains and consequently they are likely to be rancid when bought from there. He learns about where to get the freshest meat, how to pick the tastiest produce, how to combine foods to get the most complementary flavors.

Often these food combinations yield nutritional benefits, though the cook wasn't thinking about that when he chose to combine them. Vitamin C from the tomato sauce helps increase the absorption of calcium from the cheese. Vitamin C also helps with iron absorption from the basil, and from the pepperoni. Fats increase the absorption of vitamin E, which is in the whole wheat flour and olive oil.

Cooking is what happens when food science and nutrition meet for dinner.

Pizza (makes 2, 7-8 inch pizzas)

Dissolve 1 tsp active dry yeast (quick rise) in 1 cup water. Feed the yeast with 1 tsp sugar or preferred sweetener by dissolving it into the water. In a separate bowl mix together:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 tsp salt

Add the yeast water to the flour and pull together with a spatula. Turn the dough out on the counter and knead for about 10 min (you probably won't need extra flour, I found that the amount was just about right). When the dough is smooth, and doesn't break easily, coat the dough with olive oil and let rise for about 1 hour in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a wet towel.

In the meantime, make the sauce. Heat

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

in a saucepan and add

1 small yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic minced

cook until the onions begin to soften, then add

1/2 small yellow onion, diced (I like a more raw onion flavor as well as the sweet cooked onion flavor)

Add 1 29 oz can of tomato sauce (or if it is summer, about 5 cups diced tomatoes. This will make a chunkier sauce, but I think it will be delicious)

Add 2 Tbsp fresh chopped oregano, 1 Tbsp fresh Thyme leaves, 2 Tbsp fresh chopped basil, 1 tsp black pepper.

Cook until it begins to bubble, then turn off the heat before things get messy.

Preheat oven to 425. Cut the pizza dough into two sections and form it into a flat circle using your fingers. Try to make it thin in the middle and give it a bit of a crust (spin it if you know how). Place the formed dough on a cookie sheet with yellow cornmeal spread underneath to prevent the crust from sticking to the pan. Ladle some sauce onto the middle of the crust and spread it around with the back of the ladle. Now top with either pepperoni and then shredded mozzarella, or fresh mozzarella only. Spray both crusts with a squirt bottle filled with water. The steam will promote a crispier crust. Place them both in the oven and set the timer for 10 min. After 10 min, take the pizzas out and rotate them (switch racks). Before putting the fresh mozzarella one back in, top with 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil and a few more slices of fresh mozzarella. Cook pizzas for about 8 more min, or to desired doneness.

Christina's vote: It's important that people understand how delicious this pizza is.