Sigorta’s Blog

Wine is deeply ingrained in the cultures of Old-World wine producing countries such as France, Italy, and Spain. As such, drinking it is an everyday affair, nothing elitist or over-romanticized. I wholeheartedly share this outlook. Indeed, wine is a perfect complement for most any meal or occasion, from the momentous ( a champagne toast to newlyweds ) to the mundane ( a quite Friday dinner at home with the whole family ).

Wine need not to be expensive to be enjoyable, the many offerings from various countries, not only from the Old World, attest to that. Partial as I am to red Bordeaux and white Burgundy, I would not hesitate to pop open a bright, refreshing SpyValley sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand to got with the lemon-grass infused Thai dishes; nor would I balk at recommending Pepperwood carbenet sauvignon to anyone hosting a dinner for one hundred people. If one insists on good wines from the Old World at nominally higher cost, there are affordable yet delectable choices from Spain and France.

For extra special occasions, however, those rare, self-indulgent times when one feels the pressing need to be transported to other places and eras, the  proverbial “good stuff” is called for. This is true whether at home or in any wine-producing country. Even the wealthy French do not open expensive bottles on a daily basis, and rightly so. Too much familiarity would breed ennui, and even bankruptcy, I imagine. The good stuff should only come out on proper occasions. And when one speaks of the good stuff, to many, this means well-aged reds from notable vintages. There is nothing quite like them.

Remember the four basic food groups you learned about in grade school-1) breads and cereals, 2) fruits and vegetables, 3) meats and proteins, and 4) dairy products- and you eat two or more servings of each everyday? Well, doctors are finding that is not quite as good as we used to believe.

What these new researches did was look all around the world, find areas where people were the healthiest, and researched what they ate. What they found is that people who live around the Mediterranean Sea have one of the healthiest diets in the world.

So based on yhis information, these doctors built a new food pyramid: the bottom level is whole grains and plant oils (olive oil is the best- no, you don’t take it straight; it is used in cooking) which are eaten at most meals; then next level is fruits and vegetables, eaten five to nine times a day: nuts and beans are next- one to three times a day; then fish, eggs and poultry- eaten once or twice every couple of days; then dairy products once or twice a day; and at the top are red meat, butter, white rice and bread, potatoes, pasta, and sweets eaten two or three times a month. And doctors are even recommending that most of us take multivitamins and/or nutritional supplements in addition to that.

The key is not cutting out the bad things you eat, but in replacing them with good things that you like. Let’s be honest, if you don’t like it, no matter how good it is for you, you won’t eat it. But if you find healthy things that you like, it is not hard to eat those instead and find that you soon don’t have the cravings for the not-so-good stuffs anymore. Nor do you have to completely drop all of the things that you like. Ice cream every night may not be such a good idea, but every once in a while it isn’t so bad especially if you have eaten well for the rest of the day.