1. Whole food– in original form with minimal processing and refining.
2. Organic–Has minimal disease-causing pesticides. In a conventional PB & J for example 78 pesticide residues were found, 12 known to cause cancer.
3. Meats raised without the use of growth hormones.
4. Eat in season food to avoid shipping from far away places.
5. No fried food cooked in partially hydrogenated oils.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Bagged Lunches
Bagged Lunches—infinite options
Peanut butter and banana quesadilla--ingredients: peanut butter, banana, tortilla. Optional carrots and red peppers, and favorite dressing for a dip. Also have a cold milk. Directions: Spread favorite nut butter, sliced bananas on a tortilla, fold over, and slice into triangles. Tomato quesadilla with humus and pesto—ingredients: sun-dried tomatoes, lettuce or sprouts, tortilla, shredded chicken pieces, and a little dollop of goat cheese. Directions: Assemble these items in tortilla and fold over for perfection. Pesto, tomato, and mozzarella sandwich on ciabatta bread—ingredients: pesto, tomato, mozzarella cheese, and ciabatta bread. Out-of-the-Ordinary Salad—ingredients: spinach, purple cabbage, tomato, zucchini, red onion, orange bell pepper, avocado, olive oil, Muscat champagne vinegar, salt pepper, dried Italian herbs. Directions: Mix these ingredients into container. Whole Wheat Pasta—ingredients: tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, grilled chicken breast, parmesan cheese, fresh herbs. Directions: Mix tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, grilled chicken breast. Top with a drizzle of olive oil, parmesan cheese, and herbs. Peanut butter & jelly sandwich—ingredients: organic peanut butter, organic honey, bananas, honey wheat bread. Pita Sandwich—ingredients: pita bread, pesto, hummus, tomatoes. Directions: Spread onto pita. Fruit & Yogurt Parfait—ingredients: side of nonfat plain yogurt sweetened with a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of ground flax. Baguette with Savoury Sweet Egg Salad—ingredients: organic whole wheat baguette, organic or free range eggs, low fat mayo, Greek yogurt, grey poupon mustard, a few sliced almonds, celery, chives, dried cranberries, sea salt, ground pepper, sliced tomatoes, arugula or romaine lettuce. Directions: Cut open baguette. Make egg salad: Hard boil eggs for 10 minutes. Take yolks out, and mash up. Mix with mayo, Greek yogurt, poupon mustard, sliced almonds, finely cut celery and chives, dried cranberries, sea salt, pepper, tomatoes, and arugula or romaine lettuce. Spinach, hummus, and chicken wrap—ingredients: red pepper or spinach whole grain wrap, hummus, spinach, chicken. Directions: Put a layer of hummus, chicken, and spinach into wrap. Turkey and Cheese Sandwich—ingredients: 3 slices of turkey, 1 slice of Munster cheese, whole wheat bread, mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato. Directions: Place turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato on whole wheat bread. Topple contents with mayo and mustard. Cold fruit sushi—ingredients: one small melon, one small pineapple, and honey. Directions: Chop melon and pineapple into pieces. Pineapple should be cut into rectangles. Place melon inside line of pineapple and roll. Drizzle with honey.
Snacks
Granola or power bar~low fat string cheese~raw almonds~fruits such as grapes or a sliced pear~a small square of dark chocolate complements the meal~sparkling water and a slice of lemon or lime~fresh celery with organic peanut butter~Horizon strawberry milk~and homemade oatmeal cookies.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Emma the Eater
Emma Carron loves food. She recalls her first bite at Harvard University’s Annenberg Cafeteria. Prior to meeting its “all you can eat” buffet, Emma was a slim blonde from New York City who wore a size zero. Just as impressionable as your average newcomer, Emma became one of the victims of the dreaded Freshmen 15; the fifteen pounds that freshmen are expected to gain. She managed it with a surprising method of self esteem and confidence.
Carron still recalls the moment when she eagerly entered Annenberg. She still remembers a smile spreading across her face. “I love food! Food is always on my mind, so if Harvard doesn’t work out for me I’m becoming a chef.” Emma chose a self-made grilled cheese sandwich for her first meal. “Shredded mozzarella stuff on panini. There’s really no words to describe it,” she said. After building her first meal, Emma went on a compulsive pastry-shopping spree with her roommates.
Along with her new habits of overindulging, she adapted other habits during the college transition. “I was used to walking forty-five minutes [from my house in New York] to school everyday. Here it only took me a couple minutes to walk to my classes, so I wasn’t exercising at all.” Nutrition experts such as John Grey from G.N.C. recommend that one should exercise twenty minutes per day; a commitment she soon abandoned. There’s a widespread consensus that exercise controls weight and promotes a psychological well-being.
Carron was among the 20% of incoming freshmen who suffer the Freshmen 15. Attributed to a lifestyle change, the Freshmen 15 is attributable to lack of exercise, drinking habits, and up to 52,500 calories in supplement to their normal diet.
In a society endlessly preoccupied with image, many are driven to hysterias about their weight gain. “I would friggin’ drop out of college if I gained that much weight,” High school junior Suzie Fertzman from N.Y.C. said when referencing the Freshmen 15. As magazine readers are greeted with a parade of ultra thin models, teens are subjected to these images.
According to a survey by Gallup University, 62% of teens concerned about these issues resulted from the media’s influence. 90% of teen girls are not happy with their appearance. Teenage girl Irina from Argentina believes that someone who has confidence would not be affected by the media’s promotion of thin models. Emma Carron possesses this confidence and self-esteem, as the excitement of transitioning towards an independent lifestyle overcame any possible weight concerns. “I was happy freshmen year. It definitely was worth it, enjoying myself,” said Emma.
One of the other activities Emma participated in for enjoyment was drinking. When college freshmen get freedom away from their parents, alcohol plays an increased role in their lives. Beer has a low alcohol content compared to other drinks, so freshmen who want to get wasted have to drink more. “Emma chuckles, “Beer counts calories too.”
As she fulfilled her food and drink aspirations, she did not check up on her weight gain. She knew she was getting a little chubbier, but she didn’t really care at the time. “I always thought, “I’d rather not look at the scale,” she said. Nonetheless, she continues living in a world of food.
“I read 500,000 food blogs. There’s Food Porn Daily, Serious Eats, Delish,” Emma said. However, Emma’s food interests aren’t uncommon among other Americans. America has countless food magazines, as well as three full time networks including The Food Channel, The Cooking Channel, and the Food Network. “They show tempting pictures. Food is constantly on my mind. There’s a kitchen in my mind.” Another student says that it reminds him of the movie Ratatouille; in which food is everywhere.
The world is like Ratatouille’s because readily available food is sold everywhere you go; throughout restaurants, cafes, and delis. College freshmen Jacqueline Lopes reports on the responsibilities of eating in a college setting. “Here there’s no control on how much we eat,” she said. The student might absentmindedly go eat a chocolate bar and forget and later eat something else. “[Compared to] at home, there’s a fridge to see all the food that our parents buy, which makes it easier to not eat everything we see,” says Lopes.
The more food is talked about, or around, the more temptation gives in.
“If it’s readily available, I’ll eat it,” Emma said. “Imagine a medieval Christian, who was lured by the enticements of the flesh—food, drink, sex—even as he was told that such things were sinful,” said Max Larkin, a Harvard student who likes cooking. “This is the situation in which the modern weight conscious food lover finds herself.”
In a society with so much emphasis placed on food, magazines and government organizations respond by advising the same tips to the American nation. The crash dieting advice sold in magazines, which contributes to detrimental results, are tested by one in every four college girls (American Research Group on Anorexia Nervosa). Fortunately, Emma’s love for food did not take her on this path.
Skipping meals—a strategy promoted by magazines such as Cosmo Girl, actually impedes weight loss. John Grey from G.N.C. says, “Crash dieting is harmful because it removes fat and muscle.” Muscle is incorporated in the process of metabolism. When you lose the lean muscle part of your metabolic system, your body’s metabolism slows down.
Another result of skipping meals includes that you are hungrier for the next meal. Consequently, you eat more to satisfy your hunger and overcompensate for what you missed. As your metabolism slows down from fasting, it is easier to regain any weight you lost after starting to eat again. This occurs in 90-95% of crash dieters.
Other recommendations, such as how much food to eat, cannot be generalized. People live all sorts of different lifestyles—from the exercise nut who burns calories, to the social drinker that counts them. While a recommendation for Emma to consume 2,000 calories would work if she exercised, it would not be healthy for her when she lived a sedimentary lifestyle.
That leaves people wondering, “How much food should I consume?” As a purely beneficial rule, Marya Eragon, a worker at a vegetarian restaurant called Café Gratitude recommends, “People should eat small amounts of food throughout the day.” This allows you to improve and maintain a fast metabolism, gives your brain energy to function, and prevents the detrimental effects resulting from crash dieting.
Instead of eating food that is readily available, one should evaluate how your body feels and what your taste buds want. “[Knowing how your body feels] may be difficult to describe, but it’s quite the natural feeling,” said raw foodist Colleen Filler who lives solely off plants.
As research shows skipping meals does not result in desired weight loss, and generalized recommendations do not work for everyone, the torrent of these mainstream recommendations would have only hurt Emma both physically and mentally if she had heeded them. Physically her body’s metabolic system would have been negatively affected, and psychologically her well-being would be suppressed due to her love for food. At least Emma lives as a happy eater.
Avoid the roller coaster of food related woes, as happiness and eating good food relieves stress caused by the rigors of college. According to a survey on 683 colleges and universities led by the University of California at Los Angeles, around thirty percent of students reported to feeling especially overwhelmed and stressed out. As stress is most prevalent among freshmen, they will seek mood-improving behaviors, through foods such as chocolate. “Chocolate makes me happy,” Carron says.
There is a reason for this—even as chocolate adds calories it releases endorphins, stress relieving neurochemicals, to your brain that inhibits worry and triggers happiness. However, when one is concerned about weight, eating produces more stress. Since Emma was not concerned about her weight, she enjoyed the stress-relieving pleasures that chocolate brought.
As freshmen year ended and Emma went home, she went back to her normal life—a balanced life style of eating and exercise. Emma reflects back, “I knew I had gotten a little heavier, but I didn’t realize how much until [out of curiosity] I checked the scale.” How much weight did Emma gain? Emma beat the expected 15 pounds, and gained 30. “I didn’t really freak out, because I knew I would go back to my normal life [walking many blocks in New York City].
Emma lost the weight she gained during the summer, and designed a new lifestyle of food and exercise for when she started school again in the fall. She began going to the gym and joined the Harvard Polo Club. “I learned the value of working out, and continue to enjoy food, just at balanced levels.”
Carron still recalls the moment when she eagerly entered Annenberg. She still remembers a smile spreading across her face. “I love food! Food is always on my mind, so if Harvard doesn’t work out for me I’m becoming a chef.” Emma chose a self-made grilled cheese sandwich for her first meal. “Shredded mozzarella stuff on panini. There’s really no words to describe it,” she said. After building her first meal, Emma went on a compulsive pastry-shopping spree with her roommates.
Along with her new habits of overindulging, she adapted other habits during the college transition. “I was used to walking forty-five minutes [from my house in New York] to school everyday. Here it only took me a couple minutes to walk to my classes, so I wasn’t exercising at all.” Nutrition experts such as John Grey from G.N.C. recommend that one should exercise twenty minutes per day; a commitment she soon abandoned. There’s a widespread consensus that exercise controls weight and promotes a psychological well-being.
Carron was among the 20% of incoming freshmen who suffer the Freshmen 15. Attributed to a lifestyle change, the Freshmen 15 is attributable to lack of exercise, drinking habits, and up to 52,500 calories in supplement to their normal diet.
In a society endlessly preoccupied with image, many are driven to hysterias about their weight gain. “I would friggin’ drop out of college if I gained that much weight,” High school junior Suzie Fertzman from N.Y.C. said when referencing the Freshmen 15. As magazine readers are greeted with a parade of ultra thin models, teens are subjected to these images.
According to a survey by Gallup University, 62% of teens concerned about these issues resulted from the media’s influence. 90% of teen girls are not happy with their appearance. Teenage girl Irina from Argentina believes that someone who has confidence would not be affected by the media’s promotion of thin models. Emma Carron possesses this confidence and self-esteem, as the excitement of transitioning towards an independent lifestyle overcame any possible weight concerns. “I was happy freshmen year. It definitely was worth it, enjoying myself,” said Emma.
One of the other activities Emma participated in for enjoyment was drinking. When college freshmen get freedom away from their parents, alcohol plays an increased role in their lives. Beer has a low alcohol content compared to other drinks, so freshmen who want to get wasted have to drink more. “Emma chuckles, “Beer counts calories too.”
As she fulfilled her food and drink aspirations, she did not check up on her weight gain. She knew she was getting a little chubbier, but she didn’t really care at the time. “I always thought, “I’d rather not look at the scale,” she said. Nonetheless, she continues living in a world of food.
“I read 500,000 food blogs. There’s Food Porn Daily, Serious Eats, Delish,” Emma said. However, Emma’s food interests aren’t uncommon among other Americans. America has countless food magazines, as well as three full time networks including The Food Channel, The Cooking Channel, and the Food Network. “They show tempting pictures. Food is constantly on my mind. There’s a kitchen in my mind.” Another student says that it reminds him of the movie Ratatouille; in which food is everywhere.
The world is like Ratatouille’s because readily available food is sold everywhere you go; throughout restaurants, cafes, and delis. College freshmen Jacqueline Lopes reports on the responsibilities of eating in a college setting. “Here there’s no control on how much we eat,” she said. The student might absentmindedly go eat a chocolate bar and forget and later eat something else. “[Compared to] at home, there’s a fridge to see all the food that our parents buy, which makes it easier to not eat everything we see,” says Lopes.
The more food is talked about, or around, the more temptation gives in.
“If it’s readily available, I’ll eat it,” Emma said. “Imagine a medieval Christian, who was lured by the enticements of the flesh—food, drink, sex—even as he was told that such things were sinful,” said Max Larkin, a Harvard student who likes cooking. “This is the situation in which the modern weight conscious food lover finds herself.”
In a society with so much emphasis placed on food, magazines and government organizations respond by advising the same tips to the American nation. The crash dieting advice sold in magazines, which contributes to detrimental results, are tested by one in every four college girls (American Research Group on Anorexia Nervosa). Fortunately, Emma’s love for food did not take her on this path.
Skipping meals—a strategy promoted by magazines such as Cosmo Girl, actually impedes weight loss. John Grey from G.N.C. says, “Crash dieting is harmful because it removes fat and muscle.” Muscle is incorporated in the process of metabolism. When you lose the lean muscle part of your metabolic system, your body’s metabolism slows down.
Another result of skipping meals includes that you are hungrier for the next meal. Consequently, you eat more to satisfy your hunger and overcompensate for what you missed. As your metabolism slows down from fasting, it is easier to regain any weight you lost after starting to eat again. This occurs in 90-95% of crash dieters.
Other recommendations, such as how much food to eat, cannot be generalized. People live all sorts of different lifestyles—from the exercise nut who burns calories, to the social drinker that counts them. While a recommendation for Emma to consume 2,000 calories would work if she exercised, it would not be healthy for her when she lived a sedimentary lifestyle.
That leaves people wondering, “How much food should I consume?” As a purely beneficial rule, Marya Eragon, a worker at a vegetarian restaurant called Café Gratitude recommends, “People should eat small amounts of food throughout the day.” This allows you to improve and maintain a fast metabolism, gives your brain energy to function, and prevents the detrimental effects resulting from crash dieting.
Instead of eating food that is readily available, one should evaluate how your body feels and what your taste buds want. “[Knowing how your body feels] may be difficult to describe, but it’s quite the natural feeling,” said raw foodist Colleen Filler who lives solely off plants.
As research shows skipping meals does not result in desired weight loss, and generalized recommendations do not work for everyone, the torrent of these mainstream recommendations would have only hurt Emma both physically and mentally if she had heeded them. Physically her body’s metabolic system would have been negatively affected, and psychologically her well-being would be suppressed due to her love for food. At least Emma lives as a happy eater.
Avoid the roller coaster of food related woes, as happiness and eating good food relieves stress caused by the rigors of college. According to a survey on 683 colleges and universities led by the University of California at Los Angeles, around thirty percent of students reported to feeling especially overwhelmed and stressed out. As stress is most prevalent among freshmen, they will seek mood-improving behaviors, through foods such as chocolate. “Chocolate makes me happy,” Carron says.
There is a reason for this—even as chocolate adds calories it releases endorphins, stress relieving neurochemicals, to your brain that inhibits worry and triggers happiness. However, when one is concerned about weight, eating produces more stress. Since Emma was not concerned about her weight, she enjoyed the stress-relieving pleasures that chocolate brought.
As freshmen year ended and Emma went home, she went back to her normal life—a balanced life style of eating and exercise. Emma reflects back, “I knew I had gotten a little heavier, but I didn’t realize how much until [out of curiosity] I checked the scale.” How much weight did Emma gain? Emma beat the expected 15 pounds, and gained 30. “I didn’t really freak out, because I knew I would go back to my normal life [walking many blocks in New York City].
Emma lost the weight she gained during the summer, and designed a new lifestyle of food and exercise for when she started school again in the fall. She began going to the gym and joined the Harvard Polo Club. “I learned the value of working out, and continue to enjoy food, just at balanced levels.”
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
David Craft Brings Foraging Back
Your average urban city dweller would find foraging to be a lost lifestyle. Urban foraging refers to gathering food directly from the weeds, bushes, and trees located in the city. Globalization has led to nation-wide supermarkets including Whole Foods, Walmart, Safeway, and made it less common for foraging to exist. As food comes readily available from supermarkets, people deem it a wasted effort to forage food their-selves.
But it's not actually that complicated. David Craft, a city dweller in the Boston area, eats a 50% foraged diet. It only takes him fifteen minutes before each meal to forage through the urban areas of the city! David first started with foraging 5 years ago when he eagerly devoured a book his friends gave him called The Forager's Harvest He suddenly adapted this newly found inspiration and dug through the dirt in search of a new way of life. David Craft doesn't forage for a means of survival, instead he does it for a rewarding lifestyle and to take his vegetarianism to the next level. "It's kind of fun knowing that no human being has ever touched that plant," he said as foraging a scrumptious flower, part of his lunch from the Charles River.
And the following analogous situation depicts his newly found lifestyle...Walking up a winding forest path, the dust kicks up after every step. Rigid green vines slowly and treacherously wind their way into the root systems of innocent daffodils. These so-called "gardener's monsters" are just misunderstood. Just as philosopher Ralph Emerson said, weeds are just "a plant whose virtues have not been discovered." Continuing up the path of weeds and intertwining trees, rounding a corner one may find a lonely man. The plants in his hands may seem as meaningless weeds at first but when looking past their label, the unknown ambiguity of a dreadful poison awaits. As cool as foraging may seem, foraging has risks. New England is home to the top ten poisonous plants including the stinging nettle, rhubarb, as well as many others which can be observed here. This lack of education on ingesting toxic plants is one reason why foraging is not as widely practiced as it could be. I have yet to come across a school that studies detrimental, as well as beneficial plants alike. Many voices aided in expressing their concern about this so-called"diet." "You don't know where your food is coming from, or how long it's been there," a horrified dining manager exclaimed. Another innocent little brunette cringed at the idea with concern flashing in her eyes. "What it it could kill you?!?" The fearless threshold of death is not enough to stop Craft's diet. Pollution is constantly hovering over cities in clouds of smoke and suffocating the plants within it. As the plants struggle for air, a man named David Craft pulls them out and eats them.
However, one may also argue the dangers in eating store bought food. Conventional fruits contain many more pesticides known to cause carcinogens, neurotoxins, and disrupt hormones and growth. An apple, for example, contains forty-two detrimental pesticides that go widely unnoticed because of the lack of education of living a conventional lifestyle as well. People aren't aware of what they are eating and thats why many of these movies come in handy and other organizations work to educate the public on the dangers of this conventional, non organic food.
So eating a foraged lifestyle includes and exceeds the benefits of eating organic as well as vegetarian. Living a vegetarian lifestyle, you lose weight, your cholesterol level reduces, and your body does not have to work as hard to process food. When I asked a nutritionist John Grey from G.N.C. about his thoughts on foraging, he replied, "Why not it's probably good for you and it's right from the source." Additionally, there is a certain connection a being shares with the food they eat knowing that they plucked it directly from Mother Earth. "I have this beautiful sense of fulfillment in my heart when I stir up a lunch directly from the ground," said a nature dweller who frequently camps in the great outdoors.
After examining the pros and cons of foraging, one rushed New York City businessman over-booked in meetings from 8:00am to 8:00pm responded, "Why would I want to forage my dinner after working a twelve-hour day? That's why we have fast-food restaurants for food on the go." A foraging lifestyle is not found in many people of the world. In our society, working on computers and paperwork is the extent of our businessmen. However, if people just look past the work and enjoy themselves, then maybe Craft's lifestyle isn't so bad after all. Not only is this life style healthy for both the body and soul but it also helps protect the earth by using its resources rather than man-made factories. However, too much of anything is not good at all. Harvard professor of Environmental Management George Buckley said, "there are some areas where the growth and reproductive rates of some of the natural plants may be good for a few people but not many because of the destroyed commons. So we do have to be careful."
Thursday, July 8, 2010
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