Jimmu's blog

Supporting what I wrote below about obesity being a result of the way we live,not just of a lack of physical activity, or calories here is the book The Fattening of America:

“What’s behind the sudden, explosive rise in obesity rates? In a word, it’s economics. Author Eric Finkelstein, a renowned health economist who has spent much of his career studying the economics of obesity, with the help of coauthor Laurie Zuckerman, reveals why America’s growing waistline is a by-product of our economic and technological success. Because of declining food costs, especially for high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, and increasing usage of technology, which make Americans more sedentary, the environment has changed in such a way that we’re eating more calories and burning off less.

The issue is not that Americans don’t care about their increasing waistlines—quite the opposite, in fact. But the reality is that in America’s (and increasingly the world’s) obesity-inducing environment, the sustained changes in behavior required to lose the weight and keep it off are simply too difficult—and becoming more difficult all the time. Moreover, generous insurance coverage and vastly improved medical treatments have lowered the health costs, if not the monetary costs, of excess weight. So carrying a few extra pounds is not as bad for one’s health as it used to be.”

Microwave ovens have revolutionized food preparation since their use became widespread in the 1970s. Magically promoting the TV dinner to its glorious status. They have succeeded in alienating even more the people with their food. In Europe, it is still common not to find that device in the kitchen. Try to look for one in an Italian Kitchen, they will chase you down the street, a sacrilege to the purity of good food. Yet, no American kitchen is finish without the precious oven. 

The microwave oven is the golden boy of our society. Illustrating everything about how we have come to perceive our environment - quick, programmable, sealed, detached (you don’t know how it is done, it just does)

When the crazy gets crazier!

In the LA Times, by Alan Zarembo. A recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that those as young as 8 be aggressively treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs is creating controversy. The guidelines, produced by a seven-member panel and published in the academy’s journal, Pediatrics, did not include any disclosures about the authors’ ties to drug makers.

Obesity is not a simple issue where the magic answer is more activity, like the Government would like it to be. It is a consequence of the industrialized society, of the way we have been living for the past 150 years. It is the culmination of a series of decisions, done over the years, by different parties, and by us. What we are seeing today is a long work in process. 

We have been slowly disconnecting ourselves from our food, and from nature. The Catholic religion has not been helping the matter. Putting the man has the sole creation of God and giving him the Earth as a playground, therefore only there to supply him. 

We have lost the ability to look at food in a healthy way. Still today, we examine, study food and analyze its components. We believe that food is only vitamins, calories and carbs. We have forgotten what food is suppose to be, what it is suppose to do, and what it is suppose to taste. 

We consume too much sugar, no problem, here is a chemical, unsafe for human, but sweeter with less calories. We consume too much fate, no problem here is a chemical to treat the problem. The children have cholesterol problem, no problem, let start giving them drugs. Every year, thousands of supposed new diets come out, pretending to be the silver bullet. Attempts after attempts, in hope to carry on this destructive, disconnected lifestyle. We keep trying to fix the consequences without thinking about the cause. 

We unconsciously consume everything. I remember some years ago, during a Shiatsu class, the teacher was talking about Yin and Yang within food. In Asia, one can spend his entire life studying the delicate balance of food. He said that the food itself is only a small part of process. It is the how, when and where that matters the most. You could gorge down a healthy salad, walking to your next appointment, stressed about your next project, and the nutritional value of this salad would not be better than an oily plain pizza. 

The microwave was probably one of the worst invention for the family dinner. Creating a world where food is sealed, and cooked in 5 minutes, all packed together. 

We spend more time watching television about food, then cooking it. We worry, feel guilt, stress over every ingredient, battle with a society that continuously want to stuff you like a duck.  We freak out about the treatment done to ducks to create the delicious foie gras, yet, the irony is that society is doing it us. 

The writer of the movie Wall-E said that he didn’t write it thinking about the obesity reality, it just turned out that the timing was perfect. 

Andrew Stanton: I didn’t know any of that ten years ago when I began to work on this and I’m not that psyched that some of these things became prophetic. I just went with simple logic. The thing that made me pick humans the way they were. It’s funny, I actually tried to avoid obesity. I wanted blobs, I wanted babies. Because in doing research with our, one of the consultants to NASA and his expertise was long term residency in space and the reason we don’t send a man out to Mars right now is because if we do, they’ll come back with almost no bones because disuse atrophy will kick in with very little gravity and osteoporosis will occur and you will lose a large percentage of your bones, and you’ll just be this jello blob. And, so I thought oh my gosh, that’s a perfect sort of thing dealing with people, later on in life, who have everything solved for them. We don’t have to farm anymore, we don’t have do all these things that make us get up and survive and what if technology was so advanced that all these things were solved. How to live longer, regenerative food, all that stuff, what would you do with your time? Because the theme of the movie was irrational love defeats programming. I just love the idea of a machine that basically had more of an understanding of what living was all about than everything else in the universe that was living and he was almost like the involuntary keeper of the flame of that. And what if everyone that was truly human living had forgotten all that, that they were so distracted and so programmed into their habits and their rituals, that they were filling their days but they weren’t really living. And that’s really what drove it. And the whole realization that if you were out in space for that long you would sort of have a lot of bone loss made me feel like wow, you could almost buy that people would be stuck in their beach chairs and we be almost babies. And I thought that was a great metaphor for having to grow up again and stand on your own two feet. And that’s what drove it.

Now the web is filled with headlines about Disney/Pixar Obesity propaganda. Everyone is so afraid to speak up and wake up the machine. The country is fat and sick, but quiet, otherwise the sponsors will not be happy. 

America being the poster child of the industrialized world, it is normal that the obesity problem finds its root here. The rest of the world will follow. Obesity is a result of our way of living - the way we eat, the way create, the way we sleep, the way we move, the way we think. 

The absurdity of the situation sometimes make me question the intentions of certain establishments. When parents take their children out to Museums, Theme Parks or Restaurants, most of time, their only choice to feed them is fast food. The idea that chicken fingers and french fries are the only thing children eat have led a society that believe they are actually the definition of “Children Menu”. Whether being at the Bronx Zoo, The Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, Central Park Zoo, the reality is depressing. It is even more wrong when it is a Museum for Children, like the National Museum for Play, or the Children Museum in Houston, or the one in Indianapolis, where the food court filled with Fast Food giants. The photo above was taken from the website of the National Museum for Play. Notice the food the child will have for lunch, oversized soda and a pizza!

How can we teach children and parents about healthy nutrition when institutions that are suppose to show and lead by example are making the situation worst?

Why is it that the Association of Children Museum does not take this reality seriously? Will someone, somewhere take the responsibility to change things?

It is refreshing to see places like the Children Museum in Boston which, in its list of food options, offers first of all to bring your own picnic, that you can eat either inside or outside. But then the 3rd options is Au Bon Pain which feature a nutrition kioks, which with a little research turns out not to be better than anything else - their kids menu has chicken nuggets, buttered pasta, grilled cheese, amongst others boring and un-healthy solutions.

Sunrise Orchards Farm started in 1974 by Barney Hodges Sr. Today, it is his son Barney Jr who runs it. In 2007, Jr. was elected on the Board of New England Apple Association. Barney is serious about his passion, apples:

“I really am interested in providing high-quality, responsibly grown fruit, I think people need to know where their fruit comes from. Consumers need to understand what they are eating.”

At Sunrise Orchards Farm, apples are cared for in a Eco-way. A way that is gaining momentum throughout the States and the world. 

Eco Apple™ farmers follow a standard of advanced Integrated Pest Management (IPM) that honors the unique ecology of each orchard. ‘Integrated’ means all the elements - farmenrs, trees, weather, bees - work together to create fruit of exceptional flavor. Eco Apple™ farmers are rebuilding earth-friendly local agriculture in the northeast U.S.

On the farm’s site, on the left, it is written:

Eco Apple means

• • Fruit grown on family farms
    
  • By stewards of land, water and wildlife
    
  • Using natural methods and minimal spray
    
  • Closing the distance from farm to table
    

Trust the farmer. Know the orchard. LOVE the furit.

Sunrise Orchards is also part of Red Tomato.

If you live in Vermont, or close by, take your children one weekend and go visit them. For the others who live on the East Coast, look up for their products are your local market.

Next visit at the grocery store, look for the Red Tomato. 

“Its mission is connecting farmers and consumers through marketing, trade, and education and through a passionate belief that a family-farm, locally based, ecological, fair trade food system is the way to a better tomato. 

Founded in 1996 by Michael Rozyne, Red Tomato is another great initiative that offers an alternative to the oppressing mass-produced food-like industry. 

“New York Coalition for Healthy School Foods works to promote optional plant-based entrees, healthy snack foods, farm to school programs, and nutrition education to encourage healthier choices. Plant-based entrees contain no cholesterol, are low in saturated and total fat, and contain fiber. This helps schools to better meet their requirement for meals to meet the US Dietary Guidelines. We encourage schools to apply nutrition standards to meals, snack foods, vending machine items, school stores, snack bars at school events, fund-raisers, and not to use unhealthy food as rewards nor exercise for punishment. 

Healthy foods and exercise are both important lifestyle choices that go hand in hand to make a healthy person with a strong mind, strong body, and strong spirit. The New York Coalition for Healthy School Foods focuses on the “healthy foods” aspect of the equation to bring positive change to schools.

Appleton, Wisconsin made drastic changes to food available in their public schools. But first they started by making those changes in their high school for troubled youth. By eliminating junk foods and artificial ingredients, offering plenty of fresh whole foods, and a plant-based option each day, they saw dramatic improvements in attendance, grades and behavior.”

On May 18th, New York Times published an article on the food wasted by the so called “Civilized” countries:

The problem isn’t unique to the United States. In England, a recent study revealed that Britons toss away a third of the food they purchase, including more than four million whole apples, 1.2 million sausages and 2.8 million tomatoes. In Sweden, families with small children threw out about a quarter of the food they bought, a recent study there found.

In the news today, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown is condemning this societal reality and vows to change it. Unconscious of the value of food, in general, between 15% and 40% of the food we buy is thrown out. In numbers, well depending from the sources, America alone is throwing 44 million tons, and Britain 7 million tons. 

Blogs like Wasted Food have been following the problem and reporting on it. From its creator Jonathan Bloom:

Fusing my journalistic research on the topic with the work of countless others, this site examines how we squander so much food. Part blog, part call to action, Wasted Food aims to shed light on the problem of, you guessed it, wasted food.

I’ve been researching this topic since 2005, when two experiences made me aware of just how much food is wasted. Volunteering at D.C. Central Kitchen, a homeless shelter that rescues unused food from restaurants and supermarkets illuminated the excess in those areas. Gleaning, or gathering crops that would otherwise be left in the field and distributing them to the hungry, illustrated the agricultural abundance that is often plowed under.

Most of the food wasted is compost-able:

Food scraps, yard trimmings and brown waste (anything made out of paper) make up 40-50% of the average household garbage. There is more food and paper in landfills than diapers, styrofoam, and tires — combined. According to the US EPA, food waste is the #1 least recycled material.

The benefits of composting are known and obvious. Cities need to facilitate and fund these programs which will benefits everyone. Start at home, find your local Farmers Market or local compost service to find more. 

Also from NPR Do You Know Where Your Mushrooms Come From?

by Zoe Corneli

July 2, 2008 · When it comes to figuring out where their fresh produce comes from, consumers often have little information to go on.

That lack of information has been brought into focus by the recent outbreak of salmonella poisoning from tomatoes. The Food and Drug Administration was able to clear tomatoes from many states — but you might have trouble figuring out where the tomatoes at your local supermarket were grown. That’s because for now, there is no federal law requiring stores to tell you where fruits and vegetables come from.

Another example of the confusion over food origins is shiitake mushrooms. Chinese imports of the specialty mushrooms have doubled in the past few years — and now account for half of the shiitakes sold in the United States.

After two to three weeks on a cargo ship from China, many imported shiitakes wind up at the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market. There, vendors sell a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables to grocery stores and restaurants.

Bill McKinney, who works for Berti Produce, is in charge of mushrooms. He says local companies that sell both imports and locally grown mushrooms “don’t mark the box ‘local,’ and they don’t mark it ‘from import.’”

With no labeling law in place, local distributors can take boxes labeled “Product of China” and re-box them under their own brand name. Origin is important to some consumers, particularly those interested in eating locally grown produce.

Loose produce in stores sometimes bears a label, but labeling is voluntary in all but two states. That will change in September, when the first federal “country of origin” labeling law for many fresh foods — including produce — goes into effect.

McKinney was presented with unlabeled shiitake mushrooms from five supermarkets in the San Francisco area. Of the five, he said, three were selling shiitakes from China.

“When you pick up a Chinese [shiitake] and you look at it, a Chinese one is dried out, and it always looks that way,” McKinney noted.

As for a local mushroom, he said, “It’s got a darker look and it’s more wet, and it’s — you know, meaty-looking.”

But, McKinney said, those distinctions may be lost on the average consumer.

“I’m in a lot of supermarkets,” he said. “I don’t see where it says it’s from China or it’s from the USA. It’s pretty much ‘shiitake’ and the price. It’s always a high price. Whether it’s China or local, you will pay the same price in the supermarket.”

While consumers might pay the same price, some grocery stores might pay only a third as much for the Chinese mushrooms as for those locally grown.

At one of the stores that McKinney said was selling Chinese shiitakes, the produce aisle was stocked with all the usual lettuces, herbs, fruits and mushrooms in bulk.

Supermarket co-owner John Garcia was surprised when asked whether he sells Chinese shiitakes in his store, which is locally owned. He said he thought his supply was all domestically grown and that he wasn’t sure there was a difference.

“There’s definitely not anyone on our staff who knows that,” Garcia said. “If they knew, I would know.”

But Garcia was curious, so he went to his office to look more closely at records from his supplier.

“I have an invoice that says I got some shiitake jumbos that were imported, it doesn’t say from where,” Garcia said.

When asked whether that was a problem, he said, “Yeah, I would like to know where it’s coming from, because I never knew this was an issue.”

Even if supermarket owners know where their mushrooms come from, they can choose whether to post that information for customers. That goes for other types of produce, too.

One shopper recently looking for vegetables at a San Francisco market said that more labeling would be a good thing.

“If I saw it was from China, I probably wouldn’t buy it,” said Ed Rose. “But I just think we need to have the labeling to make the choice, and then we’ll make our own decisions.”

The confusion over food labeling dates to a 1930 Tariff Act that introduced labeling for imported goods. Shortly after its passage, restrictions on certain products, including fresh fruits and vegetables, were relaxed.

Barry Krissoff, an economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says foreign produce wasn’t on people’s minds back then.

“In the 1930s, we were much more of a local trader, we bought our fruits and vegetables from local vendors or regional vendors,” Krissoff said. “So as times changed, there was more of an interest for informing the consumer about those global products.”

This fall, a new federal law will update the 1930 act. Everything from shiitake mushrooms to steak — and tomatoes — will be labeled according to the country they came from.

This means that after more than 70 years, American consumers will finally know exactly what they’re paying for.

From NPR, this morning. Chef Proves School Lunch Can Be Healthy, Cheap

by Eleanor Beardsley

 July 2, 2008 · Chef Dominique Valadier starts each day at 5:30 a.m., just as the fish market opens in the southern French provincial town of Salon de Provence.

On one particular day, he picks up 20 pounds of fresh, live mussels at the market before heading off to Lycee de l’Emperi, the public high school where he is the cook.

At the school, he prepares meals for about 800 students, using all fresh, local ingredients. The introduction of healthy school lunch programs, like this one, is one major reason France has been able to curb childhood obesity rates after two decades on the rise, according to two recent studies.

From Within 30 Miles

The menu on this day at Valadier’s high school: mussels in cream sauce over rice with leeks and stuffed turkey thighs, accompanied by a squash au gratin casserole.

Nothing here is frozen or pre-prepared, Valadier says.

“Voila. This sticker here shows where these mussels came from and when they were harvested,” he says. “This guarantees their freshness.”

Eyes twinkling and knives flashing, Valadier opens up the plump turkey thighs, cutting out the bones.

The flattened turkey filets are wrapped around a stuffing of ground up parsley, garlic, cheese and smoked pork shoulder. The loaves are then tied with twine and baked for three hours at low temperatures to keep in the juices and flavor. When sliced, they will serve hundreds of students, 10 times the number that could have been fed on the plain turkey thighs. Preparation and proximity are the keys to high quality meals at lower prices, says Valadier.

“We try to get our base products — meat, fish, vegetables — within a 30-mile radius, because there are fewer intermediaries and we can negotiate prices and quality with the producer. These turkeys were raised and slaughtered just near here,” Valadier says. “If I have a problem, I’ll ask the producer to come see me, and I can guarantee you things will be a lot better the next time!”

Healthy and Cheap

All around the school kitchen, food is cooking in various pots and pans. Gallons of bechamel, a seasoned white sauce, bubble for the squash casserole. A vat of chickpeas boils for homemade hummus. It is hard to believe this is a public school cafeteria and not a three-star restaurant.

Perhaps what is most impressive about Valadier’s meals is that they cost the students only $3 a day, less than the typical fast food fare served at many French high schools.

Another way Valadier saves money is by getting maximum use out of every ingredient. He never throws anything away. In one corner of the kitchen, he is boiling down the fish heads, flesh and bones from yesterday’s salmon to make a tasty bouillon for today’s mussels.

As lunch hour begins and the students file in, Valadier serves them while answering questions about the meal. He reaches across the counter with a forkful of the squash au gratin to give 17-year-old Valentine Biemence a taste. Biemence says she and her friends have all but quit eating lunch at McDonald’s and have discovered a lot of new dishes.

“It’s all the time different food and very, very good,” Biemence says. “People are really happy, because it’s really hard now to eat well and cheap.”

Investing in the Future

Valadier once worked in the glamorous world of Riviera restaurants. He says he left that life for something more meaningful. Investing in students’ well-being is also an act of citizenship, he explains. If young people learn to eat well early on, they will cost the country’s health care system a lot less in the future.

He has clearly found his calling here, while winning over the students — and teachers. Danielle Viou teaches drama and English at the high school.

“We are very, very lucky because it’s a real project. It’s not just doing the cooking, it’s a whole concept of educating and taking time and enjoying it,” Viou says. “And it’s artistic at the same time.”

Maggie Wood is a consultant in green design, and wife of Matthew Kureck

from Golden Earthworm Farm. She took some time to answer my questions.

• What do you remember about food when you were a child? 
  Cooking with my parents in the kitchen…Picking raspberries that grew along the driveway…Our house always smelling like soup!
   
• If I say Picnic, what do you think about? 
  Summertime, warm breezes, ants trying to steal the crumbs from your sandwich!
   
• What is your favorite food?
  Kale.  I’m not kidding.
   
• What does good food brings?
  Good food brings good health, good spirits, and good connections.  Good food also brings my body to beg for more.  (This could explain my kale addiction.)
   
• What is a perfect meal?
  A meal that celebrates the local, seasonal bounty!  For me, it starts with a trip out to the fields of my farm, and ends in the kitchen.  I like to give every vegetable its moment in the spotlight, so we cook simply.  When you’re eating produce so fresh, just minutes old, the food speaks for itself. 
   
• Do you think it is possible to feed the world in a mindful and sustainable way?
  Yes, I do.  I have hope.  
   
• Is food only food? Or is it bigger than simple nutriments? 
  Food is very powerful.  It heals, and it brings people together in a way that nothing else can.
   
• What do you think are the problems today with food and children?
  There’s nothing wrong with the children.  It’s the parents!  I’m tired of hearing the same line, “My kids won’t eat that!”  Of course they will!  Parents need to step it up and feed their children real food.  Food that will enable them to live healthy, productive lives.  I hate to be such a pessimist, but there’s little hope for the future with a generation raised on fake foods. 
   
• If you could change one thing in the way we eat today, what would it be?
  I wish everyone had access to the quality of food that I eat every day.  Growing your own food is one of the most amazing experiences you or your children can have.  I encourage everyone with a little extra space in their yard to start digging!
   
• Your fondest memory as a child about nature?
  Getting “lost” in the woods behind our house.  I remember imagining that I would have to survive for weeks on my own.  I would have to build my own shelter, forage for my own food.  I think my time spent outside as a child encouraged me to become a practical, capable person.  It made me want to learn to do almost everything for myself.  Even today, I find myself doing things that most people wouldn’t - or couldn’t - do for themselves.  We’ve lost a lot of skills through the generations.  It’s sad, really, but that’s for another discussion..
   
• What does spending time in nature brings you?
  The feeling of freedom and empowerment.  
   
• Do you have plants at home? Why? 
  Both indoors and out!  Having a 100 acre farm is not the norm, I know that.  I can safely say that plants make up a huge part of my life.  
   
• If you could build your summer house anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why?
  I’m already living in one!  It’s on a gorgeous organic farm and just steps away from one of the most beautiful beaches…  I’m extremely lucky and I love it here!
   
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is the time children spend playing in nature?
  Very important - 10!
   
• When you go on vacation, where do you go? Why?
  We go to Europe to visit friends and family.  Since we spend so much of our time in the “country” it’s nice to visit more cosmopolitan places.  
   
• If you could change one thing in the way cities and public buildings are designed, what would it be?
  More open space, of course!  More trees to help clean the air!
   
• Do you think enough is done to bring children to nature?
  More could be done, of course.  There are so many opportunities for learning in nature.  In a perfect world, half the school day would be spent outdoors.  
   
• Do you think it is possible for human to grow in a mindful and sustainable manner?
  Yes I do.  

This week’s recommendations for reading, in the car, on your way to spend a day in the park I hope!

I love Dirt! by Jennifer Ward

Oh, what fun a child can have by jumping in mud puddles, collecting bugs, and listening to the birds! And yet, many children today have become so  occupied with TV, computers, and video games, that unstructured, outdoor play is sadly becoming a thing of the past. I Love Dirt! is a call to parents, educators, and caregivers to help children recover one of the great joys of childhood. Through fifty-two activities, readers will find a wealth of creative ways to actively engage children, ages four to nine, in nature. Each project is meant to promote exploration, stimulate imagination, and heighten a sense of wonder.

A Natural Sense of Wonder by Rick Van Noy

The question of how parents should appropriately connect their children with nature is accessibly and gently articulated here. This is a great book for a wide range of parents and is full of the realities of parenting in a postmodern age. Whereas Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods is issues oriented and broadly sociological, A Natural Sense of Wonder is hands on. —David Sobel, author of Beyond Ecophobia

A wonderful, timely, and much needed lyrical reminder of the fundamental importance of children’s ongoing experience of nature as the basis of creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and so much more that ultimately makes us human. Van Noy’s book is a profoundly moving, powerful, and eloquent reminder of this basic truth, with which our modern society, estranged from nature, has lost touch to its ultimate 
detriment. —Stephen R. Kellert, coeditor of Children and Nature

Classic Litterature

The Geography of Children by Gary Nabhan

More than half of American children get their environmental information from the media, according to the authors, who find this a disturbing trend. In alternating essays, conservation biologist Nabham ( Gathering the Desert ) and Trimble ( Great Sand Dunes ) examine the needs of children to experience nature firsthand. Each author draws on his childhood experiences: Nabham’s among the steel mills and sand dunes of Gary, Ind., and Trimble’s travels in the West with his geologist father. They describe how their own children react to the world of nature and look at Southwest Indian cultures that are closely tied to nature. Trimble speaks to three-generations of a ranch family in Nevada; Nabham visits an extended family on a Mexican ranch. Observing social activities on school playgrounds, Trimble discovers more interaction between the sexes on grassy areas than on bare asphalt. This thoughtful presentation, testifying to children’s need for direct contact with nature, has value for parents and those who work with children