Green is definitely the new black. But is going green a shopping fad or the seed of a deepening conscious movement? SUV hybrids? In my mind, it’s all good – the more people become aware of the issues and alternatives, the more people will realize that every choice they make initiates a ripple ’round the world. There are a growing number of high quality and inspirational sources for those who love great food but wonder if the American food-industrial-complex is the chemical cocktail it at times appears.
For starters, if you haven’t 
seen films, take a look. A funny, goofy presentation of an underlying truth in our modern food system. In addition to the films, they’ll link you in to resources for finding sustainable meats and other foods in your community through the Eating Well Guide, a comprehensive listing of sources for sustainable whole foods suppliers, chefs, restaurants, and farms.
What’s in that blue pill, anyway?
May you be healthy, happy and stand in the light of your own truest self.
Annie
If you are interested in the cultural issues that underlie the obesity epidemic, the Rudd Center at Yale’s website is required reading. They have done some great research on the social stigmatization around weight, and in my opinion have some of the most progressive and comprehensive ideas on making real change at the national level.
Here’s some info from their site on the shift in public opinion around obesity. Interesting reading!
There has been an interesting trajectory of public opinion about obesity. The majority of Americans are clearly concerned with obesity and there is growing support for obesity-targeted policies. The following table presents the changes that have been found in support of strategies that influence the environment in order to promote better nutrition.
| Trends in Public Opinion |
2001 |
2003 |
2004 |
| Favor taxing foods |
33% |
40% |
54% |
| Favor restricting children’s food advertising |
57% |
56% |
73% |
| Favor soft drink / snack food bans in schools |
47% |
59% |
69% |
| Favor required calorie labeling in restaurants |
|
74% |
80% |
Source: Brownell KD. The chronicling of obesity: Growing awareness of its social, economic, and political contexts. J of Health Politics and Law. 2005; 955-64.
This year I hit on a quick and easy recipe that did the trick for me. Through my 2-week cleanse this spring I had at least one of these Asian slaw-salads most every day. It’s rekindled my love of cabbage – which, being in the brassica family (with broccoli and onions), is a phytochemical-packed cleansing powerhouse.
Asian Slaw-Salad
What you’ll need:
- A good chef’s knife
- A clean cutting board
- 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- ½ c Savoy cabbage sliced thin
- ½ c Red cabbage sliced thin
- 1 slice fresh ginger, diced with skin trimmed
- ¼ c diced red pepper
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 1 Tbsp fresh cilantro if available
- 2 Tbsp Asian salad dressing or
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
Putting it together:
Toss everything together and eat.
I got into the ritual of making this in a beautiful bowl that I love to eat out of. This slaw-salad has been a mainstay of my 3pm-give-me-carbs attack. It usually worked, and when I still craved something starchier, a few crackers didn’t turn into a box of crackers after having a bowl of slaw. Sometimes I double the recipe, and sometime I have two. It’s very low in calories and nutritionally dense, and has lots of fiber, the secret weapon of the weight-conscious.
Let me know how you like it.
Annie
Spring is the season to open up the house, empty out the closets, and clear out the clutter and cobwebs. It’s also the time when those in northern climes might wince as they uncover their bodies (winter is such a great time to cover-up, burrow in and just forget about it, right?). I wish you just a momentary wince or none at all.
As a dietitian and yoga teacher, the idea of nutritional cleansing fascinates me. Each time I cleanse (I don’t fast and I only do very gentle cleanses, by the way. I think fasting and harsher cleansing can do more harm than good – more on this later) I reaffirm my everyday cleansing diet – that is, cleaning up my diet as a way of life. My spring cleanse this year was more about being strong in my own wellness than about nutritional goals per se. I have a tendency to allow stress from others’ poor lifestyle habits influence how I take care of myself. Since my fruit & vegetable cleanse with herbal support (I used Yerba Prima support products this time), I’ve worked harder to resist being swayed by well-meaning loved ones gifting me treats.
For the next couple months, I’ll tease this topic of nutritional cleansing and detox, let you what I’m thinking about it, and the resources that I have found helpful.
So first, why even do it?
Our environment has changed for the worse in the past 100 years. The EPA estimates a grand total of 4.3 billion pounds of the 650 toxic chemicals they follow were released into the environment in 2005. Other groups estimate that 1,000 newly synthesized compounds are introduced each year.
Toxic chemicals enter into our bodies through the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. While our bodies have an elegant system of removing toxic chemicals from the body (via the work of the liver, kidneys, lungs, skin and digestive system), there has been an increase of toxins in the environment, and at the same time a decrease in the nutritional quality of the average American’s diet. The deterioration of our diet (through eating large amounts of processed foods, chemicals and hormones, and not enough healthy fruits, vegetables and unadulterated whole grains and clean proteins) impairs the ability of our body to effectively detox. That’s the basic rationale for learning a little about detoxing and occasionally focusing on it as a means of maintaining overall health.
Here is the EPA’s brochure from their Toxic Release Inventory (TCI), and a more detailed report. You can find loads more information at www.epa.gov.
EPA 2005 Toxic Chemical Inventory (TCI) – overview brochure
You can find the full eReport on the EPA website.
In future postings, we’ll review the basics of nutritional cleansing, the mental aspects of cleansing, safe vs. not-so-safe cleansing, resources available to you, products I know of, and some non-nutritional cleansings.
May you be happy
May you be healthy
And may you stand in the light of your own truest self
Annie
I’ve been fortunate to have experienced lots of great vegetarian cookbooks this winter. The raw-foods movement has fascinated me, and there are flurry of beautiful books that inspire. I also love books by dietitians. RDs, in my opinion are well-educated and underappreciated, and while our professional organization tends to sell our collective souls too easily to the processed food industry and big pharma, please don’t let that detract from the wisdom you’ll often find among this crew – like anything, you need to find the good eggs. With RDs, they are lots of them.
One good egg I’ve been blessed with connecting with this winter is Jill Nussinow, MS RD, The Veggie Queen. She’s a California-based nutritionist, and I’ve found her cookbook an inspiring one for the everyday cook (which, for the most part, I am). Jill is a fan of mushrooms, as am I, and she’s into her pressure-cooker. The appeal of a 12-minute soup, or 5-minute mashed potatoes tell me that last year when someone left this cute little pressure-cooker in our house (long story) that I was right to keep it. Now I have some coaching about how to use it and why to pull it out from the back of that bottom kitchen drawer. Her cookbooks is lovely to hold, and features culinary tips as well as a view into her Farmer’s market lifestyle. Jill illustrates, I think, the degree to which sustainable eating really is a lifestyle.
Find out more about Jill and her book The Veggie Queen, at www.theveggiequeen.com.
Another recent entree in the vegan cookbook genre that I’ve been having a good time with this winter is Blossoming Lotus’ World Fusion Cookbook. This is another beautiful book – this one in full Technicolor, high production value loveliness. Healthy cats in Kauai know Blossoming Lotus well – and if you ever make it to the north shore here, a meal at the restaurant is a must. It’s a great place to bring your non-veggie friends to see just how delicious and refined vegan cuisine can be.
So I’ve been cooking from this book through the winter, and the one drawback for really wide appeal is that it’s very Hawaii-centric. Many ingredients just aren’t available or as good off-island. And, the secret to many BL dishes is pureed macadamia nuts! Heavy cream it isn’t, and I suppose if you are living the vegan lifestyle you can boost the healthy fat a bit, but for those who must be weight conscious, just know that you’ll need to be conscious of how much of those fab rich sauces you slather on you veggies.
Another small detraction is the cutesy recipe names. Now, just being in Hawaii tends to make the most hard-nosed Easterner a little whimsical. But I think the book would be stronger if it settled down in that area a bit.
Overall, it’s an inspiration. A beautiful book to hold, and some great ideas that really could be modified to accommodate the possibility that not everyone can live in paradise.
Find out more about the book and their very cool scene at www.blossominglotus.com/about_book.htm
Happy healthy eating.
