We recently ate at a friend’s home and enjoyed a juicy roast along with fresh steamed broccoli with cheese followed with a surprisingly delicious baked apple with caramel topping for dessert. I was helping her clean up after dinner and saw that she had prepared everything in her clay cookware. This was new to me since I’m used to the standard pots and pans I grew up with – namely made of aluminum, stainless steel, ceramic bakeware, or copper. But it turns out that clay cooking is quite popular around the world, including here in the U.S. My friend raves about her clay pots and thinks everyone should own at least a piece or two in their kitchenware collection.

Thousands of years ago, Romans would prepare their meat by covering the food in clay and toss the “clay pot” into hot embers. As the moisture would leave the clay from the heat, the meat would be cooking on the inside of the pot. Once the clay dried, it would be pulled from the embers and cracked open to reveal the delicious, juicy, cooked meat inside.

Clay cooking is generally thought to be quite a healthy way to cook food because the food does not need any additional oils and fats added to create moist and tender results. Before cooking, the cookware should be soaked in water before placing the ingredients inside. This is done to allow the clay to absorb the moisture, which is a factor that helps to deliver such juicy results. If a pot is placed in a pre-heated oven it is likely to crack, so always be sure to set the filled clay pot inside a cold oven prior to setting the temperature at approximately 450 degrees. Check your recipe for the exact temperature recommended.

You’ll find an array of recipes available that have been adapted for cooking in clay. One example of a tasty dish is Beggar’s Chicken. You simply combine chicken legs with a few spices such as ginger, pepper, and garlic plus some flavoring sauces such as sherry and soy. After baking in your clay cooker, serve with a side of rice pilaf, pasta and a fresh salad or vegetable.

Clay pots also serve perfectly as slow cookers and stockpots too. You can make any number of your favorite soups, stocks, and casseroles in these versatile cookers. Whether you’re in the mood for a rich pea soup, a creamy potato soup, a layered vegetarian casserole, or beef stew, the clay cookware cooks evenly and slowly producing perfectly flavorful foods your family is sure to enjoy.

Not only is clay cookware functional, but it’s very attractive and perfectly useful as serveware too. Romertopf is a company that produces a popular clay cookware line that offers a great variety of pots in different sizes and styles. You’ll find apple and banana bakers, fish roasters, maxi bakers for a big Thanksgiving turkey, garlic bakers, and much more. Next time you’re ready to buy some new cookware for your home, take a look at some of the great clay cookware available and treat yourself to a piece or two – you’ll be glad you did.

Everywhere we look seems to have someone trying to sell us a ‘fool-proof’ way to a healthy long life. If it’s not a vibration machine, or a gold solution, it’s an expensive book that promises if bought will teach us the secret to living forever. Each one of these products has a different business behind it, and a different celebrity that swears by it. And let’s not forget the special powers it’s gained from a different Power of the Universe. (POTU for short).

How can they all possibly be correct? Short answer, they’re not. They’re almost all charlatans, thieves to use plain English. The few that believe the hokum they’re flinging are simply deluded, mistaking the plural of anecdote for data and forgetting that humans are well and truly blessed with an ability to see only the things we want to see and find confirmation in the slimmest of evidence.

Almost all of them are charlatans, though. Most know they’re selling bunk, and the ones that believe it are just sad and deluded. Like those who buy their products, they mistake a few happy customers for real research, preferring to think they can see the world more clearly than the rest of us. They want these cures to work, and who wouldn’t? But the difference between wanting and having isn’t as fuzzy as the marketers would have you believe.

The best thing I can ever tell anyone that wants to live a long life is to eat well. More and more research shows us that a healthy diet can cure most diseases, or at least prevent them. Incorporating a diet that is rich in leafy greens, fresh fruits, and whole grains is the best chance for any of us to make our lives longer.

For example, are you aware of how many forms of cancer are lessened by a high fiber high plant food diet? I’m not sure of the exact number, but I am sure that it’s a large percentage. Scientists have done research is caners as diverse as breast, lung, mouth, and bowel. All of them are affected by fiber, phytochemicals, antioxidants or poluphenols.

Even the best research into healthy foods has trouble pinpointing exactly what it is in a particular item that makes it better for you. Think about it: how could the remedy for eating too many processed, chemical laced foods to be a highly concentrated processed chemically laced pill? The research on soluble fiber, to take another example, and its effect on cholesterol and heart disease points to the need to get fiber in a bowl, from oatmeal or cereal, rather than from a bottle.

Even the research on fiber and its effects on cholesterol and heart disease point to the need of solid foods. Sometimes the answer to a question is both as simple and complex as eating good whole foods.