Tag Archives: Food for Thought

Food Snob

Posted by

8

I don’t like to consider myself a food snob.  Some people wear that card proudly.  Not me.  I like fresh, whole foods but would be willing to enjoy some Pillsbury product if someone made me something.

That being said, I’ve had a box of Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix sitting in the cupboard since August 2009.

Now this pancake mix is supposed to be on the healthier side.

The ingredients are: Whole Wheat Flour, Whole Grain Yellow Corn Meal, Buttermilk solids, Dextrose, Leavening (monocalcium phosphate, baking soda) and salt.

I’ve made pancakes and waffles numerous times, always refusing to use the mix.

Why? I’m not entirely sure.  I guess it was the food snob in me turning my nose up at the box, reassuring myself that my own combination of flour, eggs, milk and baking soda would surely be a million times better.  This morning I decided to get over that silly attitude and use the box mix to make some waffles.

Because I can never keep things simple, I added blueberries to one and a tablespoon each of unsweetened coconut and white chocolate chips to the other.  Obviously they were topped with bananas.

Tasty enough.  I like the grainy texture.

At the risk of sounding like a food snob, I like mine better.  For some reason I always think box mixes taste salty!  When I was little I hated pancakes because my mom used to make them with Bisquick (and it wouldn’t surprise me if that box of Bisquick she used was expired), and they always just tasted REALLY salty.  Then I tasted non-Bisquick pancakes and fell in love.

Oh and I used Wegman’s Butter Flavored Light Syrup.  How’s that for not being a food snob?

What do you think of pancake/waffle/box mix?  Do you use it?  Do you like it?  Is it unhealthy?

About these ads

Let’s Talk About Weight

Posted by

16

A few days ago, Gracie, wrote a post about being “healthyfully correct,” which I thought was really interesting and got me thinking about the “healthy living” blog world.  Then a few days later, Katie wrote a post about her frustration with women complaining about their bodies.

Let me start by saying that I love healthy living blogs.  For the most part, I find them interesting and inspiring.  I’ve read them for years now.

I have one issue: I feel like I can’t talk about weight.

It’s a taboo topic.  But why?

I was looking at the big, popular blogs (you know the ones…) most of them started as weight loss blogs AND most of them started with calorie counting.  However, now they’re maintaining their weight and seem to be against calorie counting.  But what if you need to lose weight?

I was looking around, and I weigh as much now as most of those blogger weighed when they thought they were overweight (I checked we’re about the same height) and needed to (and started to) lose weight.  Really, go look at some weight loss/about pages…

I’m not trying to compare myself to others, and I don’t think I’m fat, but I’m technically overweight (by about 4 lbs… not a big deal in my opinion).  To some extent though, it’s a question of health.  Yes, you can be healthy but overweight if you exercise and eat right… BMI isn’t everything… Muscle weighs more than fat…, but to another extent I wonder if it’s an excuse to stay slightly overweight?

I’m not saying I want to start complaining about my weight or telling you all everything that’s wrong with my body.  That’s not what I’m saying. I actually like myself, and I think that’s particularly unbecoming of someone to fat talk themselves and so I avoid it in real life as well.

I guess this is an issue for me because I’ve been overweight the majority of my life.  I’m taking large… As in, I probably weighed as much in the 6th grade as I do now… I would love to say that my weight doesn’t matter to me now, but it does. In the back of my mind, there’s always the fear that if I don’t watch what I eat I’ll be severely overweight again and that’s pretty scary.

Sometimes I want to express my frustration about weight (since it is my blog after all) but I feel like I can’t because someone will get angry/offended.

Should I even be worried about this?

What’s your take on the situation?

What are some other blog taboo topics?

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

Posted by

21

In the food blogging world, we’re all into the most exciting healthy, “real” foods.  A purple potato gives a sweet potato a run for its money.  A smoothie chalk full of spinach elicits a smile.  Kale is probably the most exciting things since sliced bread.  Outside the healthy food blog world, I don’t think this is particularly common…

This morning, I watched the first episode (or sneak peek, first episode premieres on Friday March 26th) of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

I was really torn while watching this for one major reason: who is he to go into this town and tell people they need to change?  I don’t disagree that there needs to be a change, but can we really tell people that what they are doing is wrong?    I was so shocked when people in the town were so resistant to Jamie.  It made me question whether people can change.

In my field, we face similar issues all the time.  In all my classes, people spout out recommendations, and I’m always the first one to point out that you can’t change what people do.   Planners want people to live in high density areas, but I know that not everyone wants to do that.  Who am I to tell you that you can’t live in the suburbs?  Planners want people to use their car less, but I know that no everyone is going to take public transit, bike or walk. You can change people’s options, but you can’t make them do something they don’t want to do.

I value people’s right to choose how to live their lives, but obviously based on the field I’m in, I also want people to live better lives.  There’s a fine line between recommendation/suggestion and paternalism.

Is food the exception?  Should we be able to tell people that they are eating terribly because it is detrimental to their health and ultimately harming society?

Honestly, I feel like a little bit of a hypocrite saying food is the exception, but to some extent I see it as a life and death situation.  Although, I understand that for some sprawl and over use of cars is as well in terms of the environment.

Whether or not you’ve seen the show, what do you think is the best way to get people to change their eating habits?  Should we even bother?  Should we let those who choose to eat poorly (for whatever reason… economic, cultural, social, etc.) just eat what they want?  Should we be concerned about the health of others or is health a personal thing that we need not meddle in?

I’m interested to see the next episode this Friday.  It’s definitely a show that’s right up my alley.

Anyone else watch this or interested in watching this show?

Anyway, the fella is here so we’re spending some time together.  Blogging might be a little sparse this week.

Hope the weather is better where ever you are!  Have a great day!

Food Fight

Posted by

7

Yesterday was the longest day ever!  After we last “spoke,” I went to class, prepared for my discussion section, had discussion section (went really well for the first time yesterday woo!), went to class again, met with a professor, worked on the demographic forecast from hell and went to see Food Fight!

Ok, let me tell you a bit about Food Fight.

It was an interesting documentary about local/slow food.  The documentary centered largely around the local food movement started by Alice Waters in Berkeley.  Watching the documentary was sort of exciting since a lot of it took place in Berkeley and a lot of the interviews were done in Chez Panisse (remember when I went in January?).

Basically, the documentary critiqued the federal government for promoting industrialized agriculture through the use of agricultural subsidies for specific products and consequently degrading the quality of our produce.

I thought this was really interesting.  It really got me thinking about who to “blame.”  I know some people don’t agree with this, but I have a hard time blaming the federal government or specific people for things.  I think things need to be looked at in the context of a larger system.  While this film promoted local farming, which I agree is great, I was torn because I understand the rationale for industrial agriculture.

In economic terms, I understand that industrial agriculture creates economies of scale which are more efficient.  However, there is a disregard for quality.

I guess what I took from this documentary was nothing particularly new: our food production system needs to change.

For me, the larger understanding I gained is that it’s easy to assign blame to the federal government or particular people (yesterday in my discussion section, a girl said she “hates Earl Butz,” which I think is a little crazy), but I think it’s important to understand the underlying assumptions and motivations to what people do.  I understand that lobbyists are an important part of this mix, and I’m not saying that this is okay.

Local food is a little elitist and expensive.  A lot of chefs in the documentary admitted it, which I thought was quite refreshing.  While they talked a bit about poverty and accessibility, I would like to see an entire documentary on access to good food by the poor.  Local and organic isn’t cheap, I’d be interested to know how we can change that.  Is “voting with your fork” enough?

Anyway, I recommend the documentary.  Unlike, Food Inc. and other documentaries on local/sustainable food, this documentary is centered on the idea of good tasting food, as in eat local/organic because it tastes good.  I thought this was an interesting approach.

Have you heard of Food Fight?  Any interests or thoughts?

Have a fantastic day!!

Stop Stress Eating

Posted by

12

I mentioned earlier this week that I’m under considerable amounts of stress.  No where else is this more evident than in my eating patterns.  I’ve been a Snacky McSnackerson literally to the point of feeling ill many times this week.  I want it to stop. Not only is it causing weight gain (I was down 5lbs on my new leaf challenge.  I don’t want to ruin that), but it’s just not healthy (physically or mentally).

There are some people who don’t eat when they’re stressed.  I wish I could be one of them.  I’m the exact opposite.  I can’t stop.  I’m not talking about an extra cookie here or there.  I’m talking about a lot of extra eating when I’m not even hungry.

Honestly, this is a little embarrassing for me to write, since so many people I know in person read this, but I keep reminding myself that I write this blog for myself, not for anyone else.  Lately, I haven’t been posting healthy recipes I like, because I simply haven’t made any.  I want that to change.

I was reading a few articles on stress eating and a lot of the problems/solutions don’t really apply to me.  I don’t keep junk food in the house.  Whole wheat toast, almond butter, peanut butter, cheese, fruit, granola bars, beans and green monsters aren’t unhealthy, but too much of anything is not good.  Sure, I have junk food occasionally but for the most part, I eat very healthy foods.  After reviewing many suggestions for reducing stress eating and finding solutions that don’t really meet my needs, I’ve decided to devise my own.

Here are a few problems and solutions I have in mind for how to stop stress eating:

  • Exercise: One common recommendation to reduce stress is to exercise.  Working out isn’t an issue for me.  I exercise 5-6 days a week, but I’m still stressed (and still stress eat).  I’m going to keep exercising but when I’m feeling very stressed, I’m going to try to do some yoga.  I’ve never gotten into yoga as it’s been terribly boring each time I’ve tried it but on Netflix watch instantly there are a few yoga DVDs.  Worth a try right?
  • Balanced Meals: A lot of people recommend eating 3 meals and 2 snacks throughout the day.  I think every person is different.  For some, 3 meals works best but not for others.  Recently, my snacking problem has been after lunch.  I come home and have a snack simply out of habit, even if I’m not necessarily hungry.  This results in me snacking the entire night and never actually eating a balanced dinner (today was a perfect example of that).  Instead I’m going to try to eat 3 meals a day and only have a snack if I’m really hungry.  Expect to see more healthy recipes I try!
  • Schedule: Being in grad school means I have a very irregular schedule.  While I start class everyday at the same time, there after, each day is different.  This makes it difficult to get in the rhythm of a schedule.  I need to have regular exercise, study, eating and relaxing times.  I want to re-form all the healthy habits that I used to have.  I’m working on devising a daily schedule for myself, which I can share if anyone is interested.
  • Obsession:  I admit it.  I’m obsessed with the scale.  This is just my personality.  I’m not very good at half assing things (except maybe math…).  Am I okay with it?  No.  Am I trying to fix it?  Yes.  I started counting calories again in January, as I had successfully done before.  This time it backfired.  The more stressed I got, the more I ate and the more guilty I felt.  I would eat very few calories one day (around 1200-1300) then I’d be ravenous the next day only to overeat!  The following day, I’d try to make up for it by eating very few calories again… see the cycle?  I lost weight but was terribly unhappy.  I still think calorie counting is an effective tool for weight loss, but obsession is not.  I need to check myself and reassess the deeper issue: stress.  So for now, I’m concentrating on eating 3 healthy, balanced meals a day while avoiding mindless snacking.  I’ll worry about weight loss and calories once I’ve gotten this one down.
  • Finding Alternatives: I’ve realized that a lot of times I eat to put off work.  Instead of eating, I need to find healthy substitutes.  I mentioned yoga above, but another one I’m going to try is cleaning.  Every time I feel like eating something when I’m not hungry, I’ll clean/organize something.  If I really want it by the time I’m done cleaning, I’ll have it.  Cleaning should be a good enough break :)

I’m writing this because I want to be healthy.  Not just physically healthy but mentally healthy.  I’m sure there are a ton of people out there who don’t struggle with this and simply don’t understand, some may even think this is flat out stupid.  But I also know there are a ton of people out there who face the same issues I do. I’m not going to let a stage of my life control my happiness. I’m going to take control, overcome it and succeed!

Do you have any other suggestions to put an end to stress eating or to manage stress?

I’ll keep you all posted on my progress.  Have a great, relaxing night!

Lent

Posted by

8

Thank you all for your very sweet comments on my post earlier!  I really appreciate the support!

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  The past few days, and today in particular, I’ve read about a lot of people “giving something up for Lent.”  Most of these things included things like chocolate, baked goods, pastries, candy, etc. I’ve commented about this on a few blogs and thought I should write my own post on this.

Now, I am no hard core Catholic.  I did First Communion, but I don’t go to church and I’m not observing Lent.

I’m not entirely sure what I believe but I do have respect for religion.

I’m a little irked that so many people are taking a sacred 40 day period in anticipation of the resurrection of Christ and turning it into an excuse to diet.  Lent is supposed to be about sacrifice and redemption, not a guilt trip into putting down that cookie so you’ll look better at the end of 40 days.

What about the rest of the Lenten requirements: not sinning, abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays…?

Obviously, bloggers don’t post their entire lives on their blogs so some may be very religious/spiritual.  I don’t mean to judge, but I’m a little concerned that this is a serious sacrifice for some while it is merely a tool for others.

*Stepping Off Soapbox now*

What are your thoughts on “giving up” things for Lent? Am I being a little unreasonable?

On to food…

I try not to eat frozen food too often, but I like to keep a frozen meal in the freezer for those days when I just absolutely don’t feel like cooking.

Today was one of those days.

Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake (image from kashi.com)

Oh goodness.  If you haven’t tried this, you should.  It’s AMAZING! Slightly spicy and has a great texture.  Also, if you love plantains and sweet potatoes, this entree is for you!

It was the perfect dinner after a loooong day!

Off to do more reading.  Have a great night!

Taste the Rainbow

Posted by

18

Happy Tuesday!!

Did you all hear about Michelle Obama’s Campaign Against Childhood Obesity?

What do you think of this new Let’s Move campaign?

I had some colorful eats today and luckily they DID NOT include any of this:

For lunch, I had a DELICIOUS, COLORFUL and HUGE salad!

Isn’t it bright?! Lettuce, Cucumbers, Tomato, Carrot Ribbons and a sliced up string cheese with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar as dressing.  Along with a Morningstar Sausage Patty taco, which you’ve seen so here’s part of the tortilla process:

I would die without a gas stove!

After my scrumptious lunch, I went to class then I worked on Econ and Methods problem sets with people.  Ugh I need to learn to be more patient!

Then the highlight of the evening.. Dinner was pretty much the epitome of a fake and delicious makeover!

You know chicken parmesan? Served as such…

Forget that!  Mine was a million times better!

Boca Spicy Chik’n Patty topped with marinara sauce and cottage cheese (soo good!  If you’ve never mixed marinara and cottage cheese… go try it now! Creamy and delicious!), served with a side of spaghetti squash and broccoli, then sprinkled with some grated pecorino romano for good measure.

A dinner entree of Chicken Parmigiana at Macaroni Grill will set you back 1650 calories, 98g of fat and 2500mg of sodium!  Isn’t that nuts!

My version had a grand total of 405 calories and 12g of fat!  Much better and just as tasty and voluminous! Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of pasta (maybe because I didn’t grow up eating it?) but I understand that a lot of people do like it.  A serving of pasta still would make this a million times healthier than a restaurant version!

What’s your favorite at home dish makeover?

Ahhh Lost is on in a little over half an hour!  I have to read now so I can then glue myself to the TV!

Have a fabulous night!!

No Impact Man

Posted by

10

In this blog, I probably come across as a person who is pretty concerned with the environment and climate change (see posts on environment by clicking “environment” tag on the side bar), but the reality is that relative to a lot of people I know (especially in my Master’s program), I’m not.

Yes, I care about the environment and climate change.  I turn off the lights.  I don’t eat meat.  I recycle.  I use reusable grocery bags, but the environment isn’t necessarily on the top of my agenda.  I try to do my part, but I wouldn’t call my myself an environmentalist.  I care about people, and people and the environment are undoubtedly connected.

This morning I woke up and opened a Netflix that had been sitting on the table for about a week, as I’ve been too busy to even open them to see what was in it.  It was the documentary No Impact Man.

In case you haven’t heard of it, No Impact Man is a documentary that follows a NYC family in their quest to live 1 year with no net environmental impact.  This means giving up all motorized transportation (including elevators), no electricity, no television, eating only locally, buying nothing, creating essentially no waste.

When I first heard of this documentary, I thought it sounded slightly ridiculous so I was interested in seeing it.  I often accuse extreme environmentalists of making the problem worse by alienating the masses and scaring people into thinking that the only way to reduce carbon emissions is by cutting everything out of your life… much like the family in this film did.

However, after watching it, this documentary and the family is much different than I expected.  They aren’t preachy; they don’t expect the world to live they way they did for an entire year, nor do they plan on doing so for more than a year.  I guess what I liked most was Colin Beavan’s point that it’s not about depriving yourself but rather finding ways to get what you need without harming the Earth.

Obviously, the family’s experiment was a bit extreme, but I enjoyed watching their lifestyle change.

I won’t bore you any more with my take on the film but I recommend it for a few reasons:

  • It was entertaining.
  • It makes you think about a lot of aspects of your life that you don’t always think about (i.e. toilet paper).
  • It sheds light upon the fact that cities can be sustainable and environmentally friendly. (I won’t get into this but since I’m in City Planning, you can probably imagine I have a ton to say about this.)
  • A large aspect of the lifestyle change revolved around food consumption, production and acquisition, which may be of interest to you all.

Have you seen or heard of No Impact Man?  Would you consider yourself an environmentalist?

I’m sort of at a loss for what to do the rest of the day.  I’m thinking I might go to a spinning class in about an hour but other than that, they day is free!  Kind of weird!

Happy Saturday!  Enjoy your day!

Pour Some Sugar on Me

Posted by

9

Happy Groundhog day!

I hope you had a fab Monday and an even better Tuesday!

You’ll be happy to know my class devoured the Banana Chip Cookies!  I managed to resist and not eat a single one (except for the one I ate hot out of the oven on Sunday)!

Yesterday, I talked about my lack of February challenge.  Even though I don’t have an official one, I really like Anna’s from Newly Wed, Newly Veg.  For the month of February, she is cutting back on added sugar (it’s in the most unexpected places sometimes!).  This doesn’t include natural sugar in fruits and veggies.

I think this is a great idea!  Out of curiosity, I decided to count how many grams of added sugar I consume on an average day.

I don’t usually post everything I eat but for today’s experiment, here are today’s eats along with the added sugar count.

Breakfast: Coffee, PB Toast and Green Monster

Lactaid (3.3g) + GM (0g) + PB (0.5g)+  Toast (2g)= round to 6g

I’m shocked at how much sugar Lactaid has!  7g for 1 cup!  Luckily, I only put 1/3 cup in my coffee each morning!  Actually I sort of knew this… the added enzyme apparently starts to breakdown the sugar in the milk while it’s in the carton.

For mid-morning snack I had an unpictured apple and string cheese: 0g added sugar.

Lunch: Wrap, Fruit and Yogurt

Wrap: Honey Wheat Flat Out Wrap (3g)+ Hummus (0g)+ Pepper Jack Cheese (0g)+ Tapatio (0g)+ Cucumbers (0g)+ Tomato (0g)+ Lettuce (0g)= 3g

Kiwi: 0g added sugar

1/2 cup Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (4.5g) + Strawberry Jam (6g)= 10.5

Total Added Sugar in Lunch= 13.5g

I had no idea plain Greek Yogurt would have 9g of sugar per cup!  It doesn’t taste sweet!

Afternoon Snack: PB Toast + Tea

Wegman’s Omega-3 Bread (3g) + PB (0g) + Tea (0g)= 3g

Ugh, I’m pushing through this bread that is not very tasty :(   Wegman’s you failed me!

Dinner:

After my afternoon snack, I was still starving, so I decided to have the first part of my dinner early.  I started with some Kale chips.

Usually I just use some rice wine vinegar then throw them in the oven for 10 minutes.  But today I decided to try out a sauce that I got from Tina‘s Open Sky dealio she had a few weeks ago.  It was only $0.99 and free shipping so I figured why not.

I think had I seen the nutrition information beforehand, I would have saved my dollar.  A serving (2oz) of this sauce has 120 calories, 2000mg of sodium and 28g of sugar!  Essentially it’s sugar, salt and water.  I’m a little shocked that this was on Tina’s Open Sky page (by no means am I trying to judge!).  I suppose anything is okay in moderation.  On my kale chips I used a little less than half a serving.  Honestly, it did make the Kale Chip ridiculously delicious!

Kale (0g) +Wild N Mild Sauce (13g) = 13g added sugar

The other half of dinner was a corn tortilla with cheese both of which had 0g of sugar.

Although I may have something else later, probably a piece of fruit or something…

The Grand Total Added Sugar Consumption for the Day = 35.5g

That’s 142 extra calories, about 9-10 teaspoons.

I’m not entirely sure how to analyze this but it doesn’t seem like THAT much to me.  What are your thoughts?

Is it realistic to not eat added sugar?  Obviously it should be avoided where ever possible but is there such a thing as too healthy?  Any thoughts?

Ugh so much to do tonight!  Hope you’ve had a great day!!

Anyone else SUPER EXCITED about Lost?!?!?!

International Food Assistance

Posted by

11

Now that I’m back at school I remembered that I do actually like and care about something other than eating! Hard to believe, right?

In case you’re a new reader, I’m interested in global food security.  I started this blog to combine my passion for healthy living and international issues.  Recently, I’ve been slacking on the food security end of the blog.  In the past, I’ve written about the causes of food security (four parts) and the environment.  If you click the tag “Food Security” on the right sidebar, you’ll find all my food security related posts to date.

Image from Google Images

Today, since the recent crisis in Haiti, I thought it would be a good idea to give a little history of global food assistance and little introduction to the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

Before the establishment of an international organization (i.e. the United Nations), food assistance was distributed from one nation to another (bilaterally).

The United States, since the 1950s, is the largest donor of food aid through Public Law 480 Title I (P.L. 480), now known as Food for Peace managed by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Food being sent abroad by USAID (from Google Images)

P.L. 480 began as a scheme to relieve some of the surplus agricultural products produced in the US.  This assistance from the US government comes in three forms:

  1. Trade and Development Assistance:  “government-to-government sales of U.S. agricultural commodities to developing countries on credit or grant terms.”
  2. Emergency and Private Assistance: “the donation of U.S. agricultural commodities to meet emergency and nonemergency food needs in other countries, including support for food security goals.”
  3. Food for Development initiative (recently inactive):  “government-to-government grants to support long-term growth in the least developed countries. Donated commodities are sold in the recipient country, and the revenue generated is used to support economic development programs.”[1]

Bilateral food assistance proved to not be the most effective solution to food insecurity as it depends on surpluses in donor nations and generally serves the interest of the donor nation.  I don’t mean this as a judgment of the US or any other nation that provides food assistance, but it makes sense that you donate what you have extra of.  You don’t produce specifically to give away.

The result of food programs like P.L. 480 was the “dumping” of agricultural products into the markets of developing nations, undercutting local producers (since this food was free or cost next to nothing) and creating more poverty and food insecurity in the long run.

Therefore, an unbiased organization was needed to deal with issues of food assistance…

This is where the United Nations comes in…

Next time: United Nations involvement in global food security and the formation of the World Food Programme!

Please don’t be shy!  Let me know if you think this is interesting!  What do you think of food assistance at home or abroad? Is there anything you’d like to know more about?

[1] USDA: Foreign Agriculture Service. “Public Law 480, Title I.” http://www.fas.usda.gov/excredits/foodaid/pl480/pl480.asp