on my mind monday 7.09.12

news | photo: mconnors

It's never the same two weeks in a row.  A collection of what I find interesting in the world of food, nutrition and holistic health.  Here's what's on my mind.

How can a big gulp look so small? - Mayor Bloomberg's soda ban has raised all kinds of backlash across the system.  The biggest misconception put forth is that we "know" how much we are consuming.  Manufacturers keep trotting forth this phrase each time they feel threatened to limited by any type of legislation that may impact their ability to peddle their product.  Frequently it's the least healthy manufacturers who complain the loudest.  So now another study has been done that once again proves that our brains don't do geometry very well.  We are not accurately able to gauge how much we are consuming, instead cueing off the size of the container.  This study, to my mind, confirms a study previously done with bottomless bowls of soup.  We do indeed eat with our eyes, frequently over-eating because we rely on visual cues.

Our Daily Bread - a slightly modified take of the work they've published in their book Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio have an exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston.  It shows a wide variety of people with the food that they plan to eat for that day.  The variety and circumstances are startling.  It gives one definitely pause for thought.  I hope the exhibit is very successful and even more that it will travel around the country, perhaps making it's way to a museum in Houston so that I can go see it.

Food Companies Concerned About Sustainability - As more consumers become more educated, more companies are beginning to listen.  Realizing that they need to be aware of and involved in this issue as well if they want to sell their products.  As always I propose we start with whole foods, but I do believe that sustainable practices across all parts of the food spectrum are important.

Nutrition Education on Wheels - This looks like an interesting concept.  Using a food truck and providing recipe cards and cooking demonstrations people are getting some ideas for how to use the food they get to make healthy, nutritious meals.  This is an idea that I think could be expanded greatly all across the country.  It seems to me that it would not only help people to eat healthier, but also to help avoid food waste as people often don't use what they don't know how to use and it sits until it becomes inedible.  I hope to see more food trucks like this.

EU Organic Label Now Mandatory - Well this just proves that it can be done.  It can't come to our shores fast enough in my opinion.  I even like the symbol they chose.

I use a LOT of onions in my house.  I've tried to grow there but here in my hot, piney woods garden they have not done well.  Out of two onion sets I got one reasonable size onion, yes, one onion.  The others all seemed to melt and disappear into the garden.  I'm still not sure how that happens but I've decided that, for now, growing onions is not for me. I continue to use them as they are flavorful and a great, healthy way to punch up your recipes but, for now, I'm still buying instead of growing them.  As a good source of vitamin C onions also provide a lot of phytonutrients.  They are considered to be beneficial for heart health and are also anti-inflammatory.  Using them can be a challenge however as chopping a spherical object into nice tidy dices or even slices isn't always easy.  Learning the proper way to chop onions is a handy skill.  Here's a great video demonstrating how to do it.

 


disclaimer: cmp.ly/5