White House Chef Chris Comerford offers ideas for packing lunch boxes with good-for-you stuff like vegetables, fruits, hummus as well as meats and cheese.It seems really healthy and hopefully tastes good too! The idea of including a dip with the veggies is great as kids love dips and will get through their veggies better that way.
Tag Archives: nutrition
Seeds of Change
They say every cloud has a silver lining and with this long downturn it seems like the clouds have been here forever. But,even in these difficult times, there is some good news. Rising food and healthcare costs are forcing people to rethink the way they live. Farmer’s markets are thriving and people are trying to grow their own produce. The next step is the revival of (almost) lost skills like canning, pickling and preserving produce. That is how people used to live in the past: enjoy produce when it is fresh and also prepare for the rest of the year. But grocery stores continue to be a source of produce for many and I wonder if this trend will impact what we pay in the store for fruits and vegetables?
Note: the link above is to the New York Times article on the changes in produce growing in rural Kentucky. There is some issue with the link that I am trying to fix at the moment, you could go straight to the new York Times site to read it in full.
Posted in Food Policy, Food Security, Green, Hunger, Living, Nutrition, Price Rise
Tagged food policy, food security, Green, Hunger, Living, nutrition, Price Rise
School Lunch Program: some good news
It is nice to read a positive piece on a usually dismal topic: school lunches, specially when it comes from the West Virginia school district that was the subject of Jamie Oliver’s TV program. The school district is now making most of its food instead of simply heating up packaged and frozen foods and the children are loving it.
Children, at home and underfoot during the long summer break, have contributed to a quieter than usual time on this page. Earthquakes and hurricanes also proved to be major distractions. But we are back to the routine now and I will be posting regularly, only occasionally taking off to pack very healthy lunches!
Chipotle’s Short Film on Farming
on the need to change farming and animal raising practices, please share it with your children too.
Where Have All the Nutrients Gone?
So, a new study shows that today’s fruits and vegetables contain fewer nutrients and are also less flavorful than those that grew a generation ago. Could the market’s emphasis on size and unnaturally perfect appearance have something to do with it?
How to Feed the World
Jason Clay of WWF identifies 8 steps to “freeze the footprint of food” in his article in Nature. While he examines the issue particularly with regard to Africa, these points are relevent in a global context as well. For instance, recent discussion in food and foreign policy areas have focused on the practice of “land grabbing”; Clay points out the need to restore degraded, underperforming or abandoned land instead of looking for fresh land to cultivate.
But what makes the top of the list of options is genetics: it cannot be said often enough, we are facing a huge problem here and time is not on our side. Using a technology which allows us to catalyse the process of selection of existing desirable traits and also prepare to combat climate change by including traits such as drought or disease resistance; should be an integral part of any solution (accompanied, of course, by a robust biosafety framework). Organic methods can yield good results but time is short and the technology for genetic modification is already available.
Posted in Farm Technology, Food Policy, Food Security, Hunger, Nutrition
Tagged food policy, food security, Hunger, nutrition
Wholesome or not?
Whole Foods has a wholesome aura. When we walk in, we tend to suspend our skepticism and give in to the idea that we are surrounded by sustainable, local produce from a family farm. The reality is that Whole Foods carries conventional produce as well as organic and some of it may even have arrived on it’s shelves from a different continent altogether. This article brings out some of the questions that we all struggle with as we try to eat healthy, respect the environment and balance our budget! One important consideration that will help make these decisions is to eat seasonal produce. It is summer, blueberries are growing all around us so they are local, and we can even pick our own organic ones at a nearby farm. If it is winter and you are looking at blueberries, they have traveled a long way, will cost more and not taste as good; so vote with your feet and your wallet, do not buy any and the store will not be motivated to stock them. Small actions can have a big impact.
Posted in Climate Change, Green, Living, Nutrition
Tagged climate change, Green, Living, nutrition
Fries By Any Other Name…..
GOOD reports on the National Restaurant Association’s new healthy eating initiative based on the idea of optimal default. What this means is that the customer is offered the optimal menu and has to actually ask for the less healthy option. So you will be asked if you want apple fries or french fries and will have to order full fat milk as kids’ beverages will all be low-fat. This is a good first step, but still a small one. Can we stop frying up everything, please? “Would you like a fruit cup or fries with that?” sounds so much better.
Peas are the new Spinach?
President Obama urged all parties involved to do the right thing in the debt ceiling debate, unpleasant thought it may be. So, he says we need to get serious, rip off the band-aid, or “eat our peas”. Well, when did peas go out of favor? I thought that was supposed to be broccoli or spinach.The fresh new ones in summer are delicious, with a little butter. Perhaps the President should try some from the White House Garden!
Food and (Virtual) Community
It is almost dinnertime. You are staring at the green beans and thinking, “not again”.How do you think up a fresh, new dish with the same old beans? Check out the Internet, of course! It is positively bursting with blogs and websites where you can learn to cook just about anything. But for some people who wanted to grow their own food, in an apartment ,no less, a quick search was not always enough. Thus , grew the online community of Windowfarms. An initial model for growing plants indoors in a hydroponic system was set up online and users from all over the world could use this model and bring in their own input based in their experience of using the model. A great way to share and grow knowledge! Windowfarms is also the subject of a research project at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute which aims to study how online communities work. One of their conclusions was that the community members were motivated to join because “it was fun to do”. If the project involves growing basil in a wine glass, fun describes it really well.
Posted in Food Security, Green, Living, Nutrition
Tagged food security, Green, Living, nutrition
Thought + Food 