Berry Sexy

When I was diagnosed with high cholesterol a few years back, my doctor put me on an insane diet. I already ate better than most people I knew and this took it to a whole new level. It was basically the Atkins diet, except without any of the fun fattening stuff. Low salt, low carb, low fat. So, basically, I was allowed to eat salad. All the time. Salad salad salad. More fucking salad. I wasn't even allowed to eat most FRUIT, for crying out loud. I lost a good little bit of weight on the diet and my cholesterol did, in fact, drop. Too bad it wasn't even vaguely sustainable. I was cranky all the time and basically obsessed with food. I felt incredibly deprived of all the sensual reasons that I love to eat.

So, every week or so, I would binge- I would eat a milkshake AND a brownie AND french fries AND chicken tenders. The binges began to happen more and more frequently until I was eating exponentially worse on the diet than I was before I started the damn thing. I ended up gaining all the weight back plus some and my cholesterol creeped back up.

This experience taught me an important lesson. If I'm going to be on a diet, it needs to be a diet of decadence. If I'm going to restrict myself, I better damn well enjoy it. I learned to add little ingredients to salads that made them feel luxurious, rather than like rabbit food. You would be amazed at how 1/2 an ounce of brie and a well herbed vinaigrette can really bring a salad to life. I learned that whole grains can be delicious if prepared right. And most importantly, I learned that berries are really really good for you and are basically the sexiest food on the planet. You know those commercials where chocolate is being poured into something and you just watch it drizzle and ripple like silky, liquid sex? I don't know why certain foods are so sexy but berries and chocolate are up there on the list of worlds sexiest foods. I can't really eat much chocolate on this diet- so berries it is..

1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup raspberries
1 tbs Fage 0% fat greek yogurt (or creme fraiche if you can afford the fat and want to make it really decadent)
1 tbs light coconut milk
teensy weensy drizzle of agave

-Place all berries in a small, beautiful bowl or a glass intended to serve alcholic beverages. Arrange them so they look like they're so tightly squeezed together that they might just burst.
-Top with dollop of yogurt or creme fraiche.
-Slowly pour coconut milk over berries, making sure you get some inside the raspberries.
- Finally, add an innocent little drizzle of agave. Just a tiny bit. Just enough so a few of the berries on the top row have little bitty glistening beads of agave.


Here's the great thing about this little bit of sex in a cup. It's really really fucking good for you. Blueberries are the shit. They really are a superfood. Joe and Terry Graedon (of The People's Pharmacy) have this to say about it in their book "Favorite Foods":

"Ounce for ounce, blueberries pack a bigger antioxidant punch than almost any other fruit or vegetable. Just 3.5 ounces of blueberries have 2400 ORAC units, a measure of Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. That's about twice as much as spinach or broccoli... Blueberries seem to help brain cells withstand stress (Joseph et al, 2009) blueberries can also help lower blood pressure (Shaughnessy et al, 2009) and protect against stroke in rats (Yasuhara et al, 2008). Promising work at Ohio State University suggests that blueberry extract can block the development of blood vessels that feed tumors, and can inhibit inflammation that encourages their growth (Gordillo et al, 2009)."

The Graedons also suggest that the coconut milk and yogurt are excellent for GI problems.

So, the next time you need a little healthy decadence, seriously, think about some berries with coconut milk and yogurt. I'm guessing it will make you roll your eyes in the back of your head and let out a long satisfied sigh... mmmmm, foodgasm.


UPDATE: Apparently blueberries are ALSO good for GI issues, especially when combined with... you guessed it, probiotics. Yup, yogurt. I'm telling you, these little guys are amazing. hattip: Catie Braly