If you're here, you probably know about the local vs. Chinese agriculture. How it is financially feasible for a piece of garlic to come from China rather than the farm 5 miles away is mind-boggling. I have been a member of our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture...go online and check for one near you at www.localharvest.org) for 2 years, although I've run co-ops or participated in them since my college days in the 1970's. This year, with the business of my cooking classes, writing a book and media training, I wasn't always able to pick up my weekly "share." Delicious, flavorful and fresh as it was, I considered not joining again next year. They're going to have a new service where you can actually buy produce at a stand, like a farmer's market.
But then I considered recent stories about issues with some soy products, the way it is processed with hexane and organic foods not being regulated so well in China (imagine that?), and I thought, "ya know what? I'm going to support the CSA even if I never show up. They donate the food to the food bank if you don't show up, and more than any charity I could donate to, this is as good as any. We have to make the statement and show our demand for local foods. Article after artice on so many different food issues, say this is the way to go. And if we don't wake up and smell the garlic soon, as some national stories are starting to suggest, we are going to have a crisis similar in the food/agriculture industry that will make the financial services meltdown seem like nursery school.
If you compare the taste of your CSA's tomatoes compared to the grocery, I think you'll quickly understand what we're talking about. Even the USDA has done a study comparing nutrients in veggies now compared to years ago. Guess what? Not so many today. Of course, eating any veggie today is better than not eating them at all...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Lycopene Magic Bullet
Well, I know I already wrote earlier, but I couldn't let this one pass me by.
Last night, my favorite news magazine show ran a piece on the discovery of resveratrol and it's fountain of youth and wonderful antioxidant qualities. Even though this segment was a repeat, it reminded me of how we are so duped into thinking this new product will do the trick, give me the quick fix, and make me live till 100. I should have counted the number of times the doctor interviewed or the reporter used the phrase, "magic bullet." I couldn't have written an infomercial better.
Resveratrol...the story ranted, is found in red wine. So follow the wisdom of the Mediterranean diet and drink till you feel healed. A double-whammy...not only do we have a magic bullet, but it comes in something that we can feel justified in getting drunk. How wonderful. Is anyone questioning the reporter, "what about alcohol and its' link to cancer? What about the connection of drinking leading to more eating which leads to weight gain which is not good for cancer survival and other conditions? Why isn't it equally wonderful to just eat friggen grapes which have every bit of resveratrol that wine does, only they are healthy enough that kids can eat them!???"
What are these reporters and their bosses thinking? Again, I understand how cash-strapped media outlets are. But why are the true heroes of our time, Drs. McDougall, Barnard, Essylstyn and Colin Campbell not the focus of real investigative reporting? Why are their successful lifetimes of fighting so many diseases with a low-fat, plant-based diet not in the headlines.
As a cooking instructor for The Cancer Project and lessons of the above-mentioned docs, I see these battles being won on the front lines every day. It is so friggen easy! Food as too many have said, is powerful medicine. I see how relatively easy it is for students to lose weight without every being hungry or counting a calories. I see them come off heart, blood pressure and diabetes medications. As Dr. McDougall says, this is so much more convenient than having your chest cracked open, chemo, or daily insulin injections. Where are the courageous doctors who tell it like it is and have the guts to tell patients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear? When you see how easy and lucrative it is to sell a supplement, a gadget, a device or a complicated diet plan, then you understand why your doctor may not share this lifesaving information.
In my classes, many attend knowing this is the best way to eat. But they just don't know how to make a variety of salads, or even salads without lettuce. They don't know how to cook beans, or the huge variety and advantages to some over others.
I don't get paid for saying any of this. I do it because I've seen death and disease up close and personal. It isn't pretty, convenient or life-saving. It is so sad to know that your parents are so sick they will never pick up your child, let alone baby-sit. Selfishly, I want to be healthy if and when my children ever have kids. I want to be there for them, able to do what my parents could not. And I hope my children will learn enough through good examples that they won't be part of the coming generation which may be the first to not live longer than the one before them.
I feel better now. Do you? Till next time...and thanks for being here!
Last night, my favorite news magazine show ran a piece on the discovery of resveratrol and it's fountain of youth and wonderful antioxidant qualities. Even though this segment was a repeat, it reminded me of how we are so duped into thinking this new product will do the trick, give me the quick fix, and make me live till 100. I should have counted the number of times the doctor interviewed or the reporter used the phrase, "magic bullet." I couldn't have written an infomercial better.
Resveratrol...the story ranted, is found in red wine. So follow the wisdom of the Mediterranean diet and drink till you feel healed. A double-whammy...not only do we have a magic bullet, but it comes in something that we can feel justified in getting drunk. How wonderful. Is anyone questioning the reporter, "what about alcohol and its' link to cancer? What about the connection of drinking leading to more eating which leads to weight gain which is not good for cancer survival and other conditions? Why isn't it equally wonderful to just eat friggen grapes which have every bit of resveratrol that wine does, only they are healthy enough that kids can eat them!???"
What are these reporters and their bosses thinking? Again, I understand how cash-strapped media outlets are. But why are the true heroes of our time, Drs. McDougall, Barnard, Essylstyn and Colin Campbell not the focus of real investigative reporting? Why are their successful lifetimes of fighting so many diseases with a low-fat, plant-based diet not in the headlines.
As a cooking instructor for The Cancer Project and lessons of the above-mentioned docs, I see these battles being won on the front lines every day. It is so friggen easy! Food as too many have said, is powerful medicine. I see how relatively easy it is for students to lose weight without every being hungry or counting a calories. I see them come off heart, blood pressure and diabetes medications. As Dr. McDougall says, this is so much more convenient than having your chest cracked open, chemo, or daily insulin injections. Where are the courageous doctors who tell it like it is and have the guts to tell patients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear? When you see how easy and lucrative it is to sell a supplement, a gadget, a device or a complicated diet plan, then you understand why your doctor may not share this lifesaving information.
In my classes, many attend knowing this is the best way to eat. But they just don't know how to make a variety of salads, or even salads without lettuce. They don't know how to cook beans, or the huge variety and advantages to some over others.
I don't get paid for saying any of this. I do it because I've seen death and disease up close and personal. It isn't pretty, convenient or life-saving. It is so sad to know that your parents are so sick they will never pick up your child, let alone baby-sit. Selfishly, I want to be healthy if and when my children ever have kids. I want to be there for them, able to do what my parents could not. And I hope my children will learn enough through good examples that they won't be part of the coming generation which may be the first to not live longer than the one before them.
I feel better now. Do you? Till next time...and thanks for being here!
Eat Well on $4 a Day #1 "I'm Mad as Hell!"
I'm mad as hell & not taking it any more, as the movie classic Network embedded in our brains.
If I see one more Twinkie in one more grocery cart on one more network broadcast, I will tear out my thick vegan hair. So...I'm trying to sell my book, Eat Well on $4 a Day. My agent is wonderful and shopping it hard. Everyone says you have to have a "platform." I think I do. I have many friends in high and low places, and of course, many friends on Facebook and other cyber hangouts. I'm thinkin' I have a huge platform. Every time I mention the book title, the reaction always is, "let me know when it comes out. I NEED that book!" C'mon publishers...I know the economy is tight, the industry like many others, are changing hugely. But this is information so many people need right now. C'mon America, wake up! Smell the garlic!
Part of my experience of 18 years in broadcasting, and media consulting some of the names in news you would know, says don't give away the store. Don't write here what will be in the book. So I won't. But just enough to be interesting.
My agent and editor tell me after years of experience, they have never seen a book so well researched. They say they almost never have clients who write too much. Guess that means I should have enough for an occasional blog that might be of interest to you. I promise I'll write more. But for now, just consider this a teaser of what's to come. Let's see how many we can get to the party. Thanks for being here.
If I see one more Twinkie in one more grocery cart on one more network broadcast, I will tear out my thick vegan hair. So...I'm trying to sell my book, Eat Well on $4 a Day. My agent is wonderful and shopping it hard. Everyone says you have to have a "platform." I think I do. I have many friends in high and low places, and of course, many friends on Facebook and other cyber hangouts. I'm thinkin' I have a huge platform. Every time I mention the book title, the reaction always is, "let me know when it comes out. I NEED that book!" C'mon publishers...I know the economy is tight, the industry like many others, are changing hugely. But this is information so many people need right now. C'mon America, wake up! Smell the garlic!
Part of my experience of 18 years in broadcasting, and media consulting some of the names in news you would know, says don't give away the store. Don't write here what will be in the book. So I won't. But just enough to be interesting.
My agent and editor tell me after years of experience, they have never seen a book so well researched. They say they almost never have clients who write too much. Guess that means I should have enough for an occasional blog that might be of interest to you. I promise I'll write more. But for now, just consider this a teaser of what's to come. Let's see how many we can get to the party. Thanks for being here.
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