Food Choices for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet

All posts in Food to Try



It’s a good lifestyle – healthy for you, for animals, and for the planet. There’s a huge array of delicious food choices and recipes available to you, and there’s lots of support for making the transition (books, groups, websites, and more).

The weekend before Thanksgiving, the Tri-Valley Vegetarian Society held a sumptuous potluck at the San Ramon library. (Tri-Valley refers to the area of the East Bay that includes San Ramon, Danville, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Livermore). We had not only a tasty meal, but also two informative presentations. Chris Durrant of Pleasant Hill has invented a children’s board game, Fur and Feathers, that playfully shows kids how to be kind to animals. Josephine Bellaccomo, an executive coach and animal lover, gave us a lively demonstration of how to communicate effectively. Lisa Books-Williams, a certified Green Chef instructor, demonstrated a yummy relish recipe and coordinated the whole event. I made new friends and had a great time.

If you live in the Tri-Valley area and would like to know more about the TVVS, contact Lisa Williams at lisa@thriveholistic.com. If you’re in or close to San Francisco, contact Dixie Mahy at the San Francisco Vegetarian Society at dixie@sfvs.org. You don’t have to be a perfect vegetarian or vegan to attend – as TVVS says, “Non-vegetarian family members and the “veg-curious” are also welcome to participate!”




Remember this timeless dynamic duo? Healthier than s’mores, and don’t require building a fire. If you grind your own peanut butter fresh at the supermarket, you know you’re avoiding all the sugars and added trans fats that go along with conventional store-bought peanut butter. What you may not know, however, is that peanut butter, both organic and nonorganic, contains aflatoxin. Uh oh! Aflatoxin is a mold found (by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) to be directly linked to liver cancer. While the aflatoxin in food may not exceed minute amounts, according to the FDA, exposure to hot or humid environments can cause these small amounts of mold to grow. A particularly risky place is the grinding machines that customers use in the grocery store, which are not tested by the FDA for levels of the mold.

To minimize the amount of aflatoxin in your peanut butter, you can do the following:
* If you grind the peanuts yourself, refrigerate the resulting peanut butter as soon as possible. Or,
* Buy store-bought organic peanut butter which has already been put into sealed containers.

credit: kafka4 on flickr

Johns Hopkins University researchers found that eating celery, parsnips, carrots, parsley and other leafy greens with peanut butter actually reduces the amounts of aflatoxin in your body, so feel confident and healthy the next time you crunch away on your organic peanut butter and celery, with raisins on top. This artistic concoction is also called “ants on a log.”

Submitted by Mina Arasteh




Eating lower on the food chain is recommended by health experts and by sustainability
experts — that is, eating less meat, fish, and dairy. We can all do this easily by having one
meatless day a week, by choosing chicken instead of beef, and stretching a little fish a
long way.
But what about giving up meat, fish, and dairy altogether? Vegans make this decision,
and also give up eggs and honey. So what do they eat – is it boring? Are they healthy?
Having researched this a bit, I can tell you that food made of animals is probably less
healthy, when you take into account pesticides, hormones, and cholesterol – not to
mention unsanitary slaughtering plants. We’ve all heard of food safety issues! So vegans
are probably exposing themselves to fewer health problems, as long as they choose a
variety of foods (which we should all do, anyway).
Back to the question, “Is vegan boring?” Not if you go by a wonderful cookbook called
Vegan world fusion cuisine, Mark Reinfeld, Bo Rinaldi and their colleagues at a
restaurant in Hawaii. I’ve tried quite a few of these and found them astonishingly tasty,
varied, and healthful.

Here in the Bay Area, we have a caterer who will offer vegan food on a regular schedule or for special events. Vegan Local Love Catering http://localloveservices.com/

Check out these menus from the website:


1. 3 grain Lentil burger with roasted Rosemary potatoes served with chipotle ketchup and “Mayo”.
2. Veggie Enchiladas with Black beans and seasonal veggies in a house-made enchilada sauce served with Spanish Rice.
3. Greek Moussaka: Layers of Eggplant, Zucchini, Tempeh, tomato, and onion baked in a creamy potato béchamel sauce.
4. Mushroom, and Carrot Sunchoke Risotto topped with crispy dried onion rings with a side salad.
5. Baked BBQ tofu in a tangy Barbecue sauce served with Quinoa pilaf and roasted Brussels Sprouts.
6. Tofu Roulade Stuffed with a Mushroom and Spinach Duxelle served with “Caesar” Salad.

*Story also found on Examiner.com




The latest report on obesity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that obesity in the US is increasing constantly, with some states much more obese than others. (If anyone tells you it’s genetic, ask them why the obesity rate has gone up within our own generation).

In 2001, the US Surgeon General called for action on obesity, yet things have just gotten worse – as of 2009, not a single state has an obesity rate lower than 15%. That means one person in seven is not just pudgy, not just overweight, but seriously, dangerously fat. There are many causes of obesity, but with respect to food, our understanding is growing that WHAT you eat, not just how much, is key. You could reduce your calorie intake, but if your calories are full of fats and salt and additives, and prepared by frying, you haven’t made as much progress as you might.

You’ve read it before, and here it is again: eating more fresh fruits and vegetables can help.  Luckily, this is part of the weight loss or maintenance plan that can be pleasurable. You don’t have to shovel down mounds of those same old green beans, when the earth has given us such a spectacular variety of foods to choose from.

In Berkeley, Monterey Market and Berkeley Bowl offer cornucopias of amazing colorful delicious fresh fruits and vegetables. Even your regular grocery store probably has more food diversity than you’ve realized. When in the produce aisles, look at the higher shelves or corners of the cooler that you ordinarily walk past without noticing. Jerusalem artichokes! Jicama! Tomatillos!

Tomatillos

I personally suspect that the chemical drenching inflicted by industrial agriculture on its crops may contribute to obesity, and I can’t wait for scientific studies on the matter. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and eat food with less processing, i.e., fresh.




Oregonian Thomas Houseman is an undeterred vegetarian winemaker. “Anything that you can pair with meat, if you think about it stylistically, it’s easy enough to pair with either vegetables or meat alternatives,” says Houseman. Meanwhile, Jon Grant, another winemaker and vegetarian, adds, “Wild mushroom risotto with an understated California Pinot Noir can be quite lovely.” Turns out there are quite a few meatless vintners out there. Read more at this SF Chronicle article.




Recently stumbled upon this article on CNN.com where they explained how many pesticides are in a actually in certain servings of fruits and veggies. There’s even a video that you can watch if you don’t feel like reading the article. 🙂 But here are the F&V that you should definitely buy organic because they have the most pesticides:

The Dirty Dozen: “contain 47 to 67 pesticides per serving. These foods are believed to be most susceptible because they have soft skin that tends to absorb more pesticides.”

  1. Celery
  2. Peaches
  3. Strawberries
  4. Apples
  5. Domestic blueberries
  6. Nectarines
  7. Sweet bell peppers
  8. Spinach, kale and collard greens
  9. Cherries
  10. Potatoes
  11. Imported grapes
  12. Lettuce

The Clean 15: the non-organic f & v’s because they have the least amount of pesticides

  1. Onions
  2. Avocados
  3. Sweet corn
  4. Pineapples
  5. Mango
  6. Sweet peas
  7. Asparagus
  8. Kiwi fruit
  9. Cabbage
  10. Eggplant
  11. Cantaloupe
  12. Watermelon
  13. Grapefruit
  14. Sweet potatoes
  15. Sweet onions