Food Choices for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet

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farmers' market lg

Last month there was good news for those of us who a) want to know what’s in our food, and b) have hopes that a successful food chain can retain (or regain) its moral compass.

Whole Foods, possibly the largest and best-known earth-friendly food chain, announced in early March that by 2018 every product sold in its stores will have a label stating whether or not it contains genetically modified organisms.

Why does this matter? Because there hasn’t been enough independent research to determine whether genetically modified foods are safe – for our bodies and for the environment. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust that the people whose livelihoods depend on proving something is safe will objectively weigh the evidence – and tell us what it says. My friend Michele Simon has been studying corporate misbehavior for years, and on her website eatdrinkpolitics.com (and accompanying newsletter) you can find out all the reasons you should be skeptical, too.

Five years is a long time to wait for full labeling of GMOs to appear in this chain, but in the meantime you can look for organic foods, which by definition do not have GMOs in them. You can also support the wave of legislative proposals to require labeling of GMOs. According to the Organic Consumers Association, there are 25 states currently working on such laws!




Berkeley Vegan Earth Day 2013

The Berkeley Vegan Earth Day will be a fun-filled, action-packed day that focuses on the intersection of veganism and the environment. There will be a bevy of knowledgeable speakers, an eco chef battle, interactive Q&As, food demos, a panel discussion, and a film screening of Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home.

Location: David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way at Oxford St., Berkeley. Near downtown Berkeley BART.  Time: 11 am to 6 pm.  I’ll be speaking at 12.45 on how people who avoid meat are helping to save endangered species.

  • We will have a series of speakers throughout the day, starting at 11:15 AM sharp.
  • At any given time, there will be two to three speakers or events going on at once, including an eco-chef battle, the showing of the film Peaceable Kingdom, and food demos
  • There will also be vendors selling and/or sampling their vegan and eco-friendly products.  Come hungry!
  • There will be a variety of amazing food for sale, lovingly made by catering companies and restaurants that are a part of this event.  Plus, of course, many items to try out before you decide just how much of it you want to purchase to bring home with you!

Even if you can only attend for a portion of the day, you don’t want to miss this fun, educational, and inspiring event.




yellow tomatoes lg

The Great Tomato Plant Sale. That’s the name given by master gardeners in Contra Costa to the plant sale they held yesterday in Walnut Creek. And it was great! I had no idea so many hundreds of people devotedly grew their own tomatoes. One of the many volunteers hosting the event said to me, “Last year, we planted 4,000 tomato starter plants, and sold out in three hours. So this year, we planted 14,000.”

red tomatoes lg

It’s a good thing they did. When I arrived a few minutes before the official start time, there was a line three deep winding down the block and around the corner. People had come carrying boxes, flats, and other containers because boy, they were ready to start buying! The mood in the line was friendly but slightly competitive, as we all lusted after the rare heirloom varieties that had been advertised.

Tomatoes come in all colors and have snazzy names. Black tomatoes can be had in varieties called Black Cherry, Black Ethiopian, Black Prince, Chocolate Stripe, and more. Yellow tomatoes rejoice in the names of Yellow Brandywine, Wapsipinicon Peach, and Isis Candy. Classic reds are Box Car Willie, Principe Borghese, Red Zebra, and Cuore de Toro. Then there are Sugar Sweetie, Cherokee Purple, Chianti Rose – oh, you get the idea.

ccmg our garden lg

Master gardeners are people who have taken specified classes through university extensions and passed a rigorous exam. If you want to contact Contra Costa Master Gardeners, they are at mgcontracosta@ucdavis.edu    ccmg.ucdavis.edu

CCMG also collaborated with the Contra Costa Times to create a project called Our Garden, where volunteers and master gardeners offer demonstrations and classes every Wednesday from April through October.

Check it out! These people know how to grow and how to teach. Very inspiring. Stay in touch with Contra Costa Master Gardeners so you can plan to attend next year!




Salt_shaker

“Stomach share” is probably not a phrase you’re familiar with – but it’s the holy grail of industrial food makers. It means how much of YOUR stomach they can fill with THEIR products.

Walter Willett, a nutrition expert from Harvard whom I’ve admired for years, calls it “the transition of food to being an industrial product.” That’s right, we’re being sold industrial products to put in our mouths.

According to Michael Moss, whose new book Salt Sugar Fat is justifiably causing a sensation, one industry insider, who must be credited with some awakening consciousness about industrial food’s role in obesity, said at a secret top-level executive meeting, “We have to make a sincere effort to be part of the solution.” (location 179 of 7341). But another company CEO retorted with hostility and the others kept their mouths shut. Thus ended an opportunity 1999 for the food makers to reform themselves.

sugar cubes lg

Moss began his quest after a 2009 peanut salmonella factory killed 8 people and sickened 19,000 in 43 states and a tainted meat shipment paralyzed a dance teacher and sickened hundreds. He was stonewalled – not by the meat industry but by the USDA, which refused to release basic information. After detective work – for which we must all be grateful – Moss found that slaughterhouses protected themselves from scrutiny by requiring big industrial hamburger makers to delay safety testing until these slaughterhouses’ products had been stirred together with the products of other slaughterhouses, thus effectively destroying information about what police call the “chain of custody.” (location 271)

These are just a few of the jaw-dropping discoveries Moss made. If you know anyone who eats manufactured food, do them a favor and give them this book.

Personally, I would like to know what these industry executives eat at their business lunches – and what they feed their children.




Salt_shaker

“Stomach share” is probably not a phrase you’re familiar with – but it’s the holy grail of industrial food makers. It means how much of YOUR stomach they can fill with THEIR products.

Walter Willett, a nutrition expert from Harvard whom I’ve admired for years, calls it “the transition of food to being an industrial product.” That’s right, we’re being sold industrial products to put in our mouths.

According to Michael Moss, whose new book Salt Sugar Fat is justifiably causing a sensation, one industry insider, who must be credited with some awakening consciousness about industrial food’s role in obesity, said at a secret top-level executive meeting, “We have to make a sincere effort to be part of the solution.” (location 179 of 7341). But another company CEO retorted with hostility and the others kept their mouths shut. Thus ended an opportunity 1999 for the food makers to reform themselves.

sugar cubes lg

Moss began his quest after a 2009 peanut salmonella factory killed 8 people and sickened 19,000 in 43 states and a tainted meat shipment paralyzed a dance teacher and sickened hundreds. He was stonewalled – not by the meat industry but by the USDA, which refused to release basic information. After detective work – for which we must all be grateful – Moss found that slaughterhouses protected themselves from scrutiny by requiring big industrial hamburger makers to delay safety testing until these slaughterhouses’ products had been stirred together with the products of other slaughterhouses, thus effectively destroying information about what police call the “chain of custody.” (location 271)

These are just a few of the jaw-dropping discoveries Moss made. If you know anyone who eats manufactured food, do them a favor and give them this book.

Personally, I would like to know what these industry executives eat at their business lunches – and what they feed their children.




dietitians for prof integrity

Uh oh, food politics again. Here is more proof that we, individual citizens, need to become our own food safeguards. We knew that the FDA and USDA are heavily influenced by meat, dairy, and grain lobbies (and that’s putting it politely), but it’s sad to learn that organizations that we thought were on our side may not be so innocent.

My friend Michele Simon, who runs the watchdog organization Eat Drink Politics, has found that the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is way too friendly with major food industries. According to her report, the Academy accepts money from ConAgra (which makes ReddiWip cream in a can, the heavily salted Marie Callender’s products, etc), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (which sued Oprah Winfrey for daring to say she wouldn’t eat another hamburger), Kellogg’s, Mars, and the National Dairy Council.

If you’re a dietitian or nutritionist, you can get continuing education credits by taking a course from Coca Cola (where you will learn that sugar is not a threat to children), Kraft (which makes a cereal that is 55% sugar), Nestle, and others.

Maybe we should not be surprised, then, that the Academy has not yet endorsed important public health measures, such as taxing sodas and labeling genetically modified foods.

But as always, there’s good news just around the corner. Disgusted by this unhealthy partnership, a group of dietitians has recently formed Dietitians for Professional Integrity.

I’m happy to report that, according to food activist Ocean Robbins, over 500 dietitians joined the group – within two days of its launch.