It's apples to apples and an announcement

As if all apples are created equal! Please. I think we all know a thing or two about organic produce vs. conventionally grown stuff.

For starters, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. These are no good for us or for the environment. Here's something interesting: google "umbilical pesticides." Scary, no? What else...hmmm...what about genetically modified foods? The most common GMOs are corn and soybeans but GM versions of other foods exist for sure. Check out this handy chart.

In response to CulinaryWannabe's recent comment on this post I am very intrigued by The Environmental Working Group's new guide to buying fruits and veggies. Here is a downloadable PDF you can keep in your purse to remind you of what produce is best bought organic, and which are ok to buy conventional if you have to. Thanks to Marion Nestle at Food Politics for this link!

I am going to print this puppy out and take it with me next time to the store. It's a great way to know where to cut a few pennies, like maybe go ahead and buy the cheaper, conventionally grown broccoli if it makes sense for you.

Related to saving money, I am happy to share that I will soon be spending a lot more time focusing on health counseling, cooking and yoga because I was laid off from my job in advertising yesterday. It's never easy to lose a job but in this case I think it's a blessing. There's so much I want to do in this field...I'm off to the kitchen right now to start a new recipe...! And now's as good a time as any to announce that I will soon be moving this blog over to a wordpress platform and new business site. This is just a warning that's it's coming soon but when it's ready I will make it abundantly clear to change your RSS and email subscriptions. I LOVE the community that has begun to grow here, so I hope you all join me for the next leg of the journey :-)

And now a word from somebody else

Just got back last night from New York – another super inspiring weekend at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Once I have time to let it all soak in I can't wait to share with you all some of the things I learned from Sally Fallon. (Are any of you already into raw milk?) Aside from school, I also had a great meal with an old friend at Gusto Organics near Union Square. It wasn't cheap, but the beef was grass-fed and the beet-parsnip soup was delicious.

Alas, I haven't even had time to unpack and it's already Monday and back to work. So here's a video I'm sharing with you until I get to writing a full post of my own! I'm a big fan of Mark Bittman already because of his cookbook How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Enjoy!

Speaking up and offending people. My specialty.

Yesterday at work I saw a sign announcing an event for the American Heart Association's Go Red campaign. It's nice to see the company supporting heart health...supporting it so very much actually, that they are giving out FREE SUNDAES to anyone that bought a pin! Anyone catching on to the irony yet? Here's the discussion that followed:

Email from me to 2 high ranking people in my company who I thought might be involved in this event:
"I think it's great to promote awareness of heart disease. But I'm having trouble with the idea of incentivizing people to come by giving away sundaes. It sends a mixed message, don't you think, since saturated fat from animal products is a leading cause of heart disease? Are you guys the right people to talk to or is someone else managing the actual event?"

At this point I was feeling nervous about having sent this email. I anticipated a negative response, or no response at all.

First response:
"You raise an interesting point. Maybe we serve healthier food! Mau, what do you think?"

After reading that someone saw my point and had taken it under consideration, I felt great! What a win!

Then this, from a woman at the front desk. She is a long-time employee, somewhat of a grandmother figure. Someone must have forwarded my message to her. Turns out she is involved in the event:
"Ice cream – very lo-fat, strawberries – no sugar added meaning they are healthy fruit and I mashed them myself in my kitchen, the chocolate sauce is fat free - I have kept this healthy and inexpensive since money is at a premium for these events that people want us to have but put on WORKLIFE budgets.

This is a fundraiser – we want to give the American Heart Association some money – if the kids here are worried about their health – that is their personal choice – they do not have to buy a pin or eat the sundae – and personally – I would not do anything to jeopardize their health - SUNDAES ARE FUN!!!

We are also trying to save money – I am not charging for the strawberries, or the M&M peanuts (some healthy item there), I am donating all this to save money – it’s a charity that is “close to my Heart” no pun intended – "

After reading this I was extremely frustrated. Clearly she means well and seems to feel insulted by my thoughts on food. But how to explain that even though SUNDAES ARE FUN, it doesn't mean it's the responsible thing to do? I decided that I'd said enough at this point and at least had a small win with the first response.

I replied:
"I just could not live with myself if I didn’t suggest a healthy alternative for food. Ice cream is certainly the kind of processed food/animal product that causes heart disease, although I respect your attempt to keep it all low-fat and such. I’m still interested in the mixed message it sends to combine a heart-healthy event with ice cream. It’s a point that can be taken, disregarded, or simply considered next time! Thanks for responding."

Speaking my truth was exhilarating, truth be told. But what could I have done better? How could I have handled this in a way that would have made a real difference? And have you had experiences like this, speaking out about food choices in a way that maybe offends other people? Please share in the comments!

I'm laughing but it's not funny: a nutmeg warning

I had an incredibly weird experience yesterday that I want to share as sort of a public service announcement. If you have nutmeg in your pantry, please read on...

Yesterday morning I woke up early and did an hour of yoga before leaving for work. It was one of those days you just feel great. Like I do every morning, I cooked up some whole grains for breakfast. I always add cinnamon, raisins and fresh fruit. But I had the idea to include some nutmeg for a real Christmas-y winter-y variation. I'm always in a big rush by the time I'm packing up breakfast, so without looking I shook my usual amount of cinnammon in, then the nutmeg – but ooops! the nutmeg didn't have a lid with holes, it was just an open bottle mouth. I dumped a fair amount into my breakfast so I tried to scoop it out but finally just mixed it in and decided breakfast may taste a little bitter today, oh well.

I typically don't do this, but I stopped for a small coffee on my way to work. At about 11am I noticed I was a little shaky and blamed it on the coffee. Then, around 3pm I started to feel really weird. My boss came in and was talking to me and all I could think was "Are we really having this conversation right now? Is he HIGH?" I felt like things around me just weren't right. Then I started to get really lightheaded, nauseous, and freezing cold. Sometimes I have a fainting tendency and thought maybe that's what was happening, although it didn't feel any better when I got on my office floor to lie down. And I never fainted. Around 4:30 I dragged myself to a couch on another floor of the building (of course too embarrassed and discombobulated to say anything to anyone) and tried to rest and maybe sleep a little. But my sleep felt more like waving in and out of consciousness, waking up every few minutes with a start. When I went to the bathroom I noticed my eyes were totally bloodshot red and I had the worst cottonmouth. Every little noise sent me reeling and I felt like I wasn't breathing, like my chest was heavy and I might forget to inhale. After an hour it wasn't getting any better so I called my husband and had him bring me to the emergency room.

Rush hour in Boston means I didn't get to the ER for another half hour, then we waited and waited to be seen. I started to come out of it a little, by 8pm. I felt like my eyes were focusing properly and I was fully conscious. Still a little shaky, but overall much better. By the time we saw a doctor I had no visible symptoms. I recounted this tale to 3 doctors, they tested my blood glucose, did a pregnancy test (negative) and an EKG. Everything was fine. I declined an IV and we finally went home around midnight. They told me to eat chicken soup and drink a lot of fluids.

So that's it, huh? Maybe a seizure, maybe a really crazy anxiety attack? Maybe it's something I ate? Which got me thinking, what did I EAT?? Maybe I'm not getting enough iron (but what about all that kale I had for dinner and lunch?). Maybe it was that little cup of coffee? The only other thing I could think of that was odd abount my meals lately was that mishap with the nutmeg. This morning I had to stay home from work so I did a very quick google search to find:

Nutmeg is perhaps the most readily-available psychoactive substance apart from coffee, alcohol, and chocolate depending on how you classify them...Since nutmeg is a deliriant and produces dizziness and disorientation at recreational doses, the nausea can be compounded and vomiting can occur. Perhaps the most difficult nutmeg side effects are those that involve drying of the mucous membranes. You are going to be in for the worst cottonmouth you’ve ever experienced...
from http://psychoactivation.com/nutmeg-side-effects

One interesting footnote is that during the nutmeg high’s peak...nervousness manifested itself in alarm at sudden noises of any kind. If the clock chimed for the hour, or the refrigerator motor stopped, I turned my head quickly and shuddered in surprise which quickly dissipated. Silence and calm felt best for me. I had fears about losing control over my actions, or at one point of ceasing to breathe. To some extent this was simply inexperience with nutmeg and fear over its effects. However I did notice a few times that I had forgotten to inhale. I would nod my head forward, doze briefly and then open my eyes and realize I needed to inhale again.
from http://www.truthtree.com/Nutmeg.shtml

There are a tons of links out there describing nutmeg's psychoactive properties and side effects. According to health services at Columbia University, as little as 2 tsp. of ground nutmeg can do the trick. And apparently it's a known fact that it takes a good 2-6 hours to start feeling the effects. It all describes my experience perfectly. Unbelieveable!! I don't know if I feel like a moron for overdosing on nutmeg accidentally, or like a genius for figuring this out!

It's now noon the following day and I still feel a bit off. The articles say it can take a few days for the nutmeg hangover to wear off. Am I serious right now? A nutmeg hangover?! Maybe I am better off eating a Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwich in the mornings... In any case please share if you know anything about nutmeg! This is just incredible to me, it's like some bad joke. I will be tossing that jar of nutmeg out of my pantry, pronto!

Hooray for Wall Street!

I feel like I hear a lot of complaints about how expensive it is to eat healthy. My friend goes to the Market Basket for 0.99/lb. meat and can't see a reason to switch to Whole Foods and pay more. (And god forbid, not eat meat.) This outlook can only be reinforced by a troubled economy, right? And as our purse strings get tighter, we're bound to eat less healthy because we can't afford better food? This is like, the last thing America's health crisis needs right now.

Happily, this story in the NY Times actually speaks to the opposite affect of the economy. Layoffs means that some people will have more time to take care of their families and cook homemade meals. And people will be forced to cut back on things like processed foods, alcohol and cigarettes.

The bad economy can be a harbinger of health! Hooray! Maybe this economic disaster is exactly what we need.

The promise of obesity sparkling in his eyes

I usually have a sense of humor that borders on sick and obscene, but the Heart Attack Grill is treading a little to heavily on my sense of right and wrong. The menu offering doesn't bother me more than any hamburger joint. And the sexy nurses don't bother me, not even the complimentary wheelchair rides to your car. It's just the idea that people would purposely promote and actually create...HEART ATTACKS. There's even a zipper club for people who, I suppose, have the telltale zipper scar from open heart surgery.

I have an idea for a restaurant. It's called Kill Your Kids Grill. You come in and order and then I shoot your kid in the head. HA HA Funny!

America kind of grosses me out sometimes.

Gettin' political up in here

I'm not a big fan of politics. Just don't have a head for it. I voted for John Kerry once...wait, was that his name...? Was that the whole hanging chad scandal? Sigh.

But that's not to say I don't believe in voting. The most important votes I make happen every day. The other night I had to wait for some friends in an area of town that has two coffee shops. One, Starbucks. The other, a locally owned place that supports local artists and has great vegan meals and drinks on the menu. Even though I could get a tea at either place, I voted for the local shop. Unlike my single political vote that gets filtered through an electoral college, my dollars vote directly for the establishment that I think kicks the most butt. Sweet!

Want to vote for protecting the environment? For protecting public health? Buy organic! Buy local! Buy less meat and fewer packaged foods. It's good for you, and it uses your spending power to tell big business where they need to focus in order to get your hard earned dollars.

Xtreme Food Issues

In the past week or so I stumbled on these two news articles, each talking about two ends of the food spectrum. On one hand we have citizens of Los Angeles outraged because the government has taken a small step towards bringing more healthy food options to the fast food filled area. What a bunch of jerks, right? On the other hand we have folks talking about orthorexia, an ironic disease where healthy eating become a dangerous eating disorder in and of itself.

Sigh.

I should mention that I got the link to the LA article from Kathryn at Limes & Lycopene. Thanks Kathryn!

Rising Costs aka Your Best Friend

Every time I turn anything from NPR to Fox News, it's the same story: The rising cost of food. Before I pound this one into a pulp, I'll preface by saying that I feel terrible and frustrated by the thought of people around the world struggling to survive, spending more than 75% of their income on food and forgoing their own meals for the sake of their children.

But here's what frustrates me even more: Americans driving SUVs to grocery stores to buy milk, eggs and Tyson chicken fingers, stopping for a Coolatta at the drive-thru, and coming home to watch one of their 500 cable channels on their 60" plasma TV which they bought on credit and are making only minimal monthly payments on. And then complaining about the rising costs of food.

I think the food cost issue is the best thing to happen to the American diet in a long time. It's like your best friend who carefully points out that maybe those pants DO make you look fat. Your best friend is just helping you by showing you the obvious facts...and you love her for it. Rising food costs can do the same by pointing out how our food production methods are simply not sustainable and we're going to have to change.

How about trading in chicken and hamburgers for locally grown swiss chard with tomatoes, olives, lentils and a homemade vinaigrette? Delicious, healthy, and cheaper than even the cheapest 70/30 ground beef. How about investigating plant-based options for calcium, like almonds or kale, and drinking less milk?

Even if food costs don't sway Americans towards eating more veggies and less processed food, I have to point out some mixed-up priorities. We'll spend way beyond our means on things like flat-screen TVs, ipods and iphones, the latest sneakers, and god forbid you don't get HBO. But spend money on quality food and suddenly it's a...crisis?

Irony of the Day: Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer

This morning on the news I saw a story about pastry chefs around Boston offering special desserts that you can buy to support breast cancer. Or rather, to support breasts, um, to not have cancer. Awkward. Anyway.

So haven't I been reading that sugar feeds cancer? That a diet full of processed foods actually can cause the problem in the first place?

Wouldn't a better message be to donate money to the charity every time someone ordered, say, kale? Or an unusally tasty bean dish? Why perpetuate the myth that diet and health are unrelated? This Mother's Day, sons and daughters will be visiting some of Boston finest restaurants, treating Mom to some lovely charitable cannolis, with every bite creating a greater likelihood of their own disease. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic but come on people! Use this opportunity to inform, not distract! Then maybe we really will help the cause.

You googled it and got here

Here are my responses to some things you guys have Googled in the past few weeks and thus ended up on my blog:

"can water wash out oil from your body"
I'm not sure exactly how this was intended, but my guess is Probably. If water doesn't work, don't let soap be your backup plan.

"what does eggplant do for your body?"
Eggplant is a nightshade vegetable, known to cause allergic reactions in some folks that results in joint pain. Other nightshades: tomatoes and zucchinis. I personally love eggplant but try to not eat it in excess until I learn more about these so-called nightshades.

"how is cheese good to your body"
It's really just...not.

"why does your body need cheese"
It doesn't.

"what vegetables are good for your body"
This is a broad question since everyone's body is different. It's the hearty greens that are great for you and most people don't eat enough of. I'm talking kale, mustard greens, collard greens, brussel sprouts, etc. Other than those, eat a rainbow of colors to ensure a variety of nutrients (beets, sweet potatoes, etc.)

"dance what it does for body"
I hope this person got up from the computer and went dancing that night.

I should note that the idea from this post came from my friend Amy's blog, which you can apparently find by Googling "my hot mailman" or "how long is too to dry my clothes."

One week of filling your pie-hole

How much money do you spend each week on food? And if instead of eating it you arranged it all on your kitchen table for some crazy photographer, what would it look like? This week at least, my table would show a lot of beets, brussel sprouts, and Oreos.

This series of photos are from Peter Menzel's book Hungry Planet. A nice sampling can be viewed at http://ambersbug.gaia.com/blog/2007/11/what_is_eaten_in_one_week.

The China Study: Less beef. More Broccoli.

In college I never went to Chemistry class, but showed up for exams and got straight A's. (Kudos to my highschool Chemistry teacher.) Anyway, that was probably the last time I paid any attention whatsoever to real science-y stuff. You know, experiments, data, statistics, bell curves.

The China Study is full of that stuff though, and I loved it. The author makes the case, simply put, for eating fewer animals and more plants. This sort of diet has been proven to reduce or eliminate everything from cancer to diabetes to MS.

Not as sensational as the Atkins diet or as sexy as the South Beach Diet, this suggestion of eliminating animal products definitely doesn't sit well with industry and government. Nor does it make for a best seller. But it does make a whole lot of sense when you consider the areas of the world afflicted with the most cancer, heart disease and other "Diseases of Affluence", then consider the diets that prevail in those areas. The China Study compares rural China to America and finds patterns that help us understand how diet is the key to solving so many health problems.

Crossing a Fish With a Strawberry and Other Tales of Genetic Engineering

The clementine, the mule, the liger...all fascinating feats of genetic recombinations! They've even tried combining a strawberry with an artic flounder to produce a berry more capable of surviving frost. (Didn't work. Shucks.)

But by and large, the most widespread use of genetic twister games are happening in crops to be able to withstand pesticides. Makes sense, right? Farmers who buy genetically modified seeds from the biotech giants can buy corresponding high-powered pesticides (from the same biotech company, which is good business sense) that will kill everything AROUND their crops, but leave the crops themselves unharmed. In addition to questionable food quality, this technique encourages irresponsible use of pesticides. Why not give the field any extra-heavy spray if it won't hurt the crops you're selling? Who cares about the runoff into the water supply? Or the chemicals that make their way to Americans' dinner plates? And genetically modified foods are surely safe...right?

There are more acres of genetically engineered soybeans than any other crop. Corn comes next. That's your tofu, soy milk, soy oil, lecithin emulsifiers, corn oil, corn syrup, corn starch, corn flour, etc. found in foods you likely eat every day.

The government certainly doesn't require food to be labeled if it contains GMO/GEO (Genetically Modified/Engineered Organisms) so look instead for "Non-GMO" labels. Buying organic corn or soy means it was grown without pesticides so you are probably safe there too.

Jeez! Who knew? I didn't until I read The Food Revolution by John Robbins, which is where the info all comes from. He's got it all footnoted and cross referenced so check it out.

Milk mustachio

First of all, who's that guy??

My doctor made me get a bone density scan last year because of my 'premature grays.' How mortifying. So it got me thinking about bones and calcium and stuff, and pretty much feeling like my mom. Turns out my bone density is fine and I intend to keep it that way.

I'm re-reading John Robbins' The Food Revolution and feel compelled to share some of his stats. (I understand that with any statistics they could be off, or wrong entirely. But it's worth thinking about, right?)

*Countries with the highest consumption of dairy products are the same countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis: Finland, Sweden, USA, England

*Calcium intake in rural China: 1/2 the calcium intake of the USA. Bone fracture rate in rural China: 1/5 of the USA.

*Amount of calcium lost in urine of a woman after eating a hamburger: 28 mg

*Amount of calcium lost in urine of a woman after drinking a cup of coffee: 2 mg

So, as mentioned in other posts on this blog, the best way to increase your calcium intake is to eat leafy green vegetables like broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts. The calcium absorption from these veggies are substantially higher than cow's milk, and come with no ill side effects. Plus, green veggies are a lot cheaper than those questionable chocolatey calcium chews.

Tap, please.

Remember how water used to came out of a faucet, or a fountain, or a hose? Everyone had it, sorta automatically, and when you went to a different place the water tasted different and that was considered ok. Restaurants would give it to you in a cup, for free.

If you are still using that stuff, pay some attention to how you carry it around. Turns out, refilling Dasani bottles might not be the best idea.

Be a cheapskate

When I was in college I lived on no more than $20/week in groceries. I'd look for old Sunday papers in my building's recycling bin and steal the coupon inserts. My big trick was getting food practically free by finding it on sale AND using a double coupon. Take that!

If you're a cheapskate like me, you'll look at organic produce or grass-fed beef and choke on the pricetag. But here's a different way of thinking about the cost of sustainably grown, organic food:

"The ninety-nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn't take account of that meal's true cost--to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc., costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly and invisibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illness and obesity), and the environment (in the form of pollution), not to mention the welfare of the animals themselves."

From The Omnivore's Dilemma

Where does all the poo go?

Sure, cow manure is good for the earth. But not in huge, overwhelming quantities! This is pretty easy to wrap your head around if you imagine how many cows would naturally exist on earth if no one was factory farming. Obviously there are many, many more due to the animal industry. Imagine, huge groupings of cattle in enclosed environments. Imagine how much waste they create. Where does it go? What about fish farms, where each fish has about the amount of water in one bathtub to spend its whole life? Fish poop too. And where does that all go?

This is such a delicious topic.
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/1995/103-12/focus1.html