Food is more than nutrients

The last week or so has been very busy here in Sonoma County. And there's lots of food system news from further afield.

The thread running through everything for me is that food is more than fuel, and even more than the right fuel.

It began for me in the middle of the week with our monthly Food System Alliance meeting. With lots of new members and some significant work behind us we are trying to find a new focus. The conversation was the best yet about this. But there's some wondering going on about whether the entry point of health which has kept us going for the last several years will change as grant and staff support from the county health department goes away in the middle of this year. Could it be that we are looking at economic justice (or social equity which seems to be a phase that sells better these days) to be our new focus? Where are the places in our food system that are perpetuating or increasing inequality? Or, more positively, how can our local food system promote greater equity?

On Thursday - news from the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for the first time suggests that the environmental impact of our food choices are to be considered as part of the picture. Hooray!
Eat your eggs with whole grains, beans, nuts, fruits and veg; lower your meat consumption, watch the saturated fats, sodium and added sugars. The feds have caught up with us!
Read in full and comment (for the next few weeks) here:
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/
A sensible environmentally aware diet. Call it Mediterranean or Nordic depending on your cultural tastes - or combine them into what I am calling the Norditerranean diet. (Much better than the Medic diet.)

On the same day we had our Sonoma County Hunger Index Forum. While the focus was clearly and deliberately on reducing the meal gap, I was surprised to see people representing so many different aspects of the food system and our foodie culture there. What a gathering at the Redwood Empire Food Bank! We add a delicious supper, premiering the new vegetarian option from the Council on Aging's Meals on Wheels, prepared for 200 people on the federal SNAP allowance per meal of $2.27. Really - the meal made me wish I were eligible for the program - though thankful that my only qualifying stat is the age number.

My sense is that to make further progress on providing the 34 million missing meals here, two things will be necessary. One is in the area my panel covered, grassroots action. We need more community gardens, and just plain more community and neighborliness. We must develop policies that support such activities, rather than regulations which frustrate them. (The gleaners in the county are working hard to resist the latter, for example.) The other thing we need is more opportunities for people to earn a living wage. Reducing the income gap would contribute greatly to reducing the meal gap.

Friday evening and Saturday I took a break from all the food system work and just enjoyed it. My great niece was visiting, so we picked up dinner from Ruthy's Real Meals http://www.ruthysrealmeals.com/ on Friday, tasted at a few wineries and Vella Cheese http://www.vellacheese.com/ on Saturday stopping for lunch at El Molino in Boyes Springs, and ate in on Saturday evening with a nice winter soup (even though winter here was a 70F day) made with produce from my garden and Imwalle Gardens https://www.facebook.com/pages/Imwalle-Gardens/.

Speaking of enjoyment, of food being more than nutrients, what about the news from the San Francisco school district, where work is underway to improve choices and ambience in school cafeterias? More fresh foods alone were not enough. Wouldn't it be wonderful if school dining everywhere could be made slower, more pleasant, more constructively social? Go SFUSD!  http://www.sfusdfuturedining.org/

This new week began, and this frenzied period of food system activity wrapped up, with the annual conference of the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative. The best yet. And I came away with so many ideas that I am going to write part 2 of "more than nutrients" later.

Very sweet potatoes

It didn't take genetic engineering or charities doling out vitamin pills for children in Mozambique and Uganda to get more Vitamin A in their diets.   It just took introducing a tasty crop similar to one people already grew and ate - orange fleshed sweet potatoes as opposed to pale ones - and working the women's networks with a fun campaign (theatre and song) to promote it.  
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=158783117

The results are truly remarkable.  Two thirds of the households targeted adopted OFSP.
http://www.harvestplus.org/sites/default/files/HarvestPlus_OFSP_Infographic_web%28withlinks%29.pdf

It all made me think about my tree collard - another good source of Vitamin A that's easy to grow in mild climates and provides a continuous supply of greens under tough conditions.  

Golden rice was never necessary, except in the minds of some bio-engineers with messianic longings.   How often the best solution is the simplest and the closest.

Oh Well

It's now two weeks since clergy conference and I am still stewing about the well-to-serve presentation.

Let me resist any ad hominem stuff about the presenters and just make four general points:

1)  If one listened to the key words in the presentations, they seem to be a response to stress and overwork on the part of Episcopal Clergy.  But nobody is asking who is throwing these folks in the river. (Everybody knows that modern parable, right?).  Why is the expectation and practice of over work and unbalanced lives valued so much?   At times we say we deplore it, but again and again it is reinforced.   Nothing will change until somebody had the honesty to step up and challenge these basic assumptions in clerical culture.   True health must begin with a positive response to life, not a reaction to or compensation for fundamental habits that are not life giving.

2)  The nutritional information presented was pretty pitiful.   Whole grains only once a day?  8 oz of red meat?  Calorie intake below one's basal metabolic needs?   This is a prescription for undernourishment, higher disease rates, and major yoyoing.

3)  There was no attention whatsoever to ethical eating.   No eco-justice dimension at all.

4)  And there was no joy.  

My cynical side remembers when the Church Pension Group got with the program of addressing sexual harassment and abuse.   It was all about preventing law suits, and their costs, not about the basic sin of sexual expolitation and abuses of power.   Now I wonder - even if the presenters of this program really do care about people's health, and I suspect they do - is the underlying reason for this program an attempt to slow the rate of increased costs of caring for an aging, fat client base?  

Plating the American Diet

I'm exploring http://choosemyplate.gov/, the web site for the place setting graphic which replaces the food pyramid. Certainly this is an improvement visually, and it's good that "meat" is now "protein" and there's encouragement for drinking water. But the new scheme also has its critics. If you care about the environmental impact of what you eat, you will need to tack on those values to guide your food choices, like seasonal, local and sustainably harvested seafood. If you care about the glycemic index, then you will also need to modify these guidelines accordingly. (For example, choose fruit, not juice, and limit the flour in your diet.) And if you believe that humans should not eat grains (that is, that our digestive systems have not evolved in 12,000 years) or that adults should not drink milk, then you aren't going to be happy with the plate and its accompanying glass. But for a quick reminder it's, well, a graphic graphic.


Nosing around on the site, I found some items of interest.


There is a resource list for vegetarians. This seems significant to me, particularly for children and young people who decide not to eat animals without knowing much about nutrition.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/pubs/bibs/gen/vegetarian.pdf
Though why do I think it's only young people that don't have basic nutritional information?


The ten tip series http://www.choosemyplate.gov/tipsresources/tentips.html
seems pretty helpful - and perhaps refrigerator postable. I'm happy to see the increased emphasis on watching sodium in foods.


Looking at the personalized eating plan calculator, the results seem to be pretty much what they were with mypyramid. You plug in age, weight and activity level and choose whether you want to maintain your weight or lose slowly. Then you get a list of daily and weekly choices from the different groups. So while myplate is a more useful visual, the detail is there for those who want to design their own eating plan specifics.


If you follow the trails and links at choosemyplate you will also find your way to the background information, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. The appendices may be the best part of this document. I just printed out two of them, one on adapting the guidelines to a vegetarian diet (Actually, the only difference is that this tells me how to distribute my protein choices among non-meat items. You'd think it would be a little heavier on the whole grains and dark, leafy greens.) - the other a list of high potassium foods. I wish the trails were a little more clearly marked, though, as having closed that window, I can't seem to figure out how I got there.

The world and I are crazy

I have been spending far too much time doing other things lately. Two days after I got back from Iowa I headed to Berkeley for a day for science and theology connections. I've been cooking and preserving with the last of the garden's summer produce, and with the Massachusetts cranberries my family sent. (Food miles: bad; cultural foods: very good) this week I have been focused on getting things ready for the Celebrating Creation table at our diocesan convention. And I'm not sure I'm going to make deadline on a paper about food system for the Episcopal economic justice network. In between all those things there is work for the cluster congregations and for the communication department at world headquarters - things for which I actually get paid!

But if I'm crazy, it seems the world is no less so. The food news item which keeps catching my attention is that MacDonald's profits are going up, and fast food outlets are the only restaurants making money. It's all about cheap food. Cheap, calorie dense, nutrient low food. As we spiral downward into recession, will the American diet get even worse? What will be the tipping point to get people to spend more time and less money on food?

Olympian eats

I'm not quite sure why I am so interested in the Olympics. Perhaps my life is less exciting than I thought.

Of course, I am paying attention to the food angle. There was a really culturally disparaging piece on NBC about Chinese food. The implication was that they'll eat any part of any creature - and the critic apparently just faked eating things, not really tasting them. When did making fun of another culture become acceptable again? Let's criticize China for the tiny underage gymnasts, but not trash their centuries of amazing food culture.

The ads would suggest that the successful athlete eats fried chicken sandwiches on white buns with pickles as a vegetable (MacDonald's), Coca-cola, and Pringles. Mmmm. Actually it might be tasty- but nutritious?

The little vignettes about American stars are pretty interesting from the food angle, too. I wonder what is going to happen to Michael Phelps when he stops training for six months given how much he eats. How long does it take for the metabolism to begin to drop? He commented in the biosnip that basically, he "just shovels it in." Sleeps, eats, trains, eats, plays with his dog, eats some more. An interesting contrast with Natalie Coughlin who was depicted - both by NBC and local news - as enjoying a variety of activities, not just competitive swimming. And - yea Natalie - though I'm sure that Berkeley influence helps - she enjoys a trip to her neighborhood farmers' market and cooking for her friends.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/swimming/news/newsid=100854.html#coughlin+photography+cooking

Here's my analysis: At any given time there are probably about 1 or 2 billion people alive of an age to compete in sports. Only one of them can be the most decorated - and it may be worth ignoring good health habits and being single-minded to the point of not worrying about later until later to get there. But our local girl Natalie has gold medals and the beginnings of a fun and well fed life - lifelong.

update: Natalie won six medals, the most of any American woman in swimming at any Olympics. But somehow the media didn't bother to celebrate the fact.

Meanwhile, Shawn Johnson's biosnip showed her in her West Des Moines supermarket, reviewing her image on packages of all sorts of processed industrial food. AND - they sculpted her in butter! But one of her sponsors is Orowheat (bread and butter!) and she reports eating only the occasional junk food item.

update: Iowa's woman track star was sculpted in ice at the State Fair. What does this difference say?

"Food Access"

Tuesday I went to the Sonoma County Food Access meeting. I knew some of the folks there from working on our Food Connections conference last summer. I knew a few others by reputation or organization. Some I didn't know.

Things were heavy on the school garden, childhood obesity end of things. I know this is partly because that's where the grant money and the programs are these days. But it discourages me that the perspective of some of the folks involved is so narrow. What about food security generally? what about environmental concerns? what about the whole peak oil re-localization agenda? what about, if you are going to be part of a county-wide interest group, trying to take a broader perspective, not just advocate for your little project?

I also have some issues with some of the racism and classism I see around this obsession with the obesity epidemic. It feels a little judgmental, a little condescending. In some ways it parallels the stop smoking campaign. Since fewer of even poor and working class people smoke now, let's attack the fat.

I keep thinking about the woman I met at the gathering in November of Episcopal commissions and committees, the urban nurse educator from the Health Commission. She said, "We've been working so hard with our young black women, trying to build self-esteem, and now we have to tell them you're fat and that's bad."

I couldn't believe that one woman concerned with child health in this community did not know what Lola's was. We were talking local supermarkets and I mentioned Lola's. Lola (is there a Lola, or is she like Betty Crocker?) has two smallish supermarkets serving the Spanish speaking community. I can't get a non-profit job because I don't speak Spanish - but I know where Lola's is and what she sells. How can anyone concerned with Food Access in this community not know? (And now I am embarrassed to admit that I don't know if there really is a Lola - another research project.)

Limiting food systems policy development to the realm of health bugs me too. That seems to be the best banner in the county plan under which to place our concerns, but the food system is about so much more than personal well being. (My favorite edible symbol of American individualism and self absorption: the "personal watermelon".)

Clearly I probably shouldn't be attending these meetings. I'm sure I make almost everyone there crazy asking system questions and challenging them to take a wider perspective.

We also talked about a name for the group. People seem happy with "Food Access". It makes me uncomfortable. And toward the end of the meeting I realized why. It implies a consumer perspective. Now in one way we are all consumers. Consume food or die. And we live in a consumer culture. But I think one of the reasons our food system is such a mess is because of consumerism. So why are we looking at a consumerist solution? That's intervening in the system in a way that plays right into the problems and reinforces them.

As long as we are focused on an individualistic consumer solution to food system issues we are only going to reinforce the problems. We need some approaches that stress building relationships and community, and that respect people as participants and producers in the food system, not just shoppers.

Today's News - 3 Things to Check Out

Marion Nestle just plain makes sense. I learned today listening to Science Friday that she has a blog with the same title as her most recent book, What to Eat. Check it out here:

http://www.whattoeatbook.com/

In my links list you'll find Science Friday. Usually it takes them a day or so to get the broadcast up in podcast form. Do listen to today's second hour with Marion (okay - I feel like I know her, and you will, too, after reading and listening) and Michael Pollan and others on the Farm Bill. Hope remains that the Senate might do something more creative than the House when all get back from their summer vacations.

There's also a blog item on SciFri about urban agriculture with some helpful comments and many links:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/blog/index.php?/archives/200-Urban-Agriculture-and-Eating-Local.html

Consumer news and notes

While I've said many times that more than consumer choices are involved in changing the food system, we are, of course, still consumers of food in one way or another.

This week I ran across an article from the Chicago Tribune about food and nutrition which contains some helpful and some amusing information.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-0703060268mar07,1,6213107.story

(You may have to register to get to this, but I recommend doing so if you like food news and recipes. You can sign up for a weekly e-mail compilation of the best food stories from the Tribune, the L.A. Times and some other papers. I have done this and not gotten unwanted mail because of it.)

My favorite line from this article is in the review of diets at the end. The Sonoma Diet is basically the South Beach Diet with lots of wine.

While I always learn from articles like this, it bothers me that we seem to have three strands of food concerns that rarely work together.

Articles like the one above on nutrition myths approach food from a nutrients only perspective, without much regard to either the pleasure of eating or the justice dimensions of the food supply.

OR, you can read articles about which ingredients are trendy this year, or features on international reviews of cheese, wine, etc., with no regard to the environmental cost or the contribution (or not) to a healthy diet.

Read the beginning of this article on leeks from the L.A. Times - it's so over-written that it could qualify as vegiporn. Still - it does celebrate a vegetable that's in season.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-leeks7mar07,1,2196125.story?coll=la-headlines-food

OR you can read articles about environmental impact, or injustices in food production and distribution, that give only a nod to nutrition and celebration.

Few articles get down and get honest about the intersection of nourishment, celebration, and eco-justice.

Here's an article that tells some truth: Comparing eggs, those from your local farmer's market are probably the best, and $5 a half dozen for free range eggs flown in from New Zealand is ridiculous.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-eggbox14mar14,1,263409.story?coll=la-headlines-food

We really need more food writing that covers the subject from many angles.

The Food Police

Last week I was reading an article about trans fats (trans fatty acids) which suggested there may be problems with eliminating all trans fats from our diets. The ones we are going after are synthetic trans fats, produced by partially hydrogenating vegetable oils so that they are solid or semi-solid at room temperature. Trans fats also occur naturally in butter, other fatty dairy products, beef and lamb - and there is some suggestion that these natural trans fats may not have the negative effect on "good" cholesterol that the manufactured ones do.

All of this started me thinking about when I first became aware of the food police. Of course, I had been on and off diets since puberty - that's not what I mean. The food police are people who focus on single foods or nutrients or chemical components and condemn them.

In the late eighties I was underemployed, and earning some extra money by temping for the Reno-Sparks convention and visitors' bureau. One of the events we worked was the California Grocers' Association - so, of course our conversation during slow times at the registration booth turned to food. I remember one of my co-workers saying, "I love custard, but it is so BAD." I tried to imagine being condemned to a world where custard did not exist. I tried to imagine childhood without custard, and particularly my childhood without my mother's cup custards with a little maple syrup in the bottom. I tried to imagine life without the other homey desserts based on custard, like squash pie and bread pudding, or without custards for breakfast like french toast and leftover bread pudding. I made up my mind not to listen to the food police.

But they seem to be always with us, at least in our land of plenty, whether to condemn some foods or food components to oblivion, or to promote the nutrient du jour. And rarely if ever do they consider the big picture, taking into account the impact of what we eat on our planet, not just on our own bodies.

Let's consider the fat dilemma.

I know to eat less saturated fat, but I also know you just can't make that occasional pie crust without it. My favorite pie crust combines vegetable shortening (where synthetic trans fats got their start) and butter.

I suppose I could do what a neighbor does and use vegetable oil, but I really don't like the results. And besides, I can't imagine olive oil in a fruit pie crust, and many of the others are made from genetically modified crops.

So I'll hang on to the butter (using the kind without bovine growth hormone from a local dairy) and figure out what to do for the shortening. Actually when shortening prices got higher and higher I just used hard margarine, but that is now the ultimate no-no.

So I began looking for a shortening made from a plant oil that was solid at room temperature naturally, and there are a couple: coconut oil and palm oil. They, of course, are also the plant oils highest in saturated fats. (Lard is actually lower in saturated fats than butter, but even if I did eat meat where's the sustainably grown pork around here from which I could render it? I'm not going near the factory-farmed stuff, laced with preservatives, which you can buy ready made.) But I thought, well, I'll look for some palm oil shortening - after all I am just using it for the occasional pie crust.

But then I learned that most palm oil comes from plantations which are destroying the habitat of orangutans. This is something the food police who want to get rid of trans fats won't tell you - that many commercial establishments and processed food manufacturers are substituting palm shortening from half way around the world. And in the process our dear relatives are being driven close to extinction. Wouldn't it be a shame if the species that so inspired Charles Darwin were wiped out because Americans couldn't live without cheap solid fat?

The only solution I did come up with was some organic shortening from Whole Foods, Spectrum brand, from plantations in Columbia being established as an alternative crop to coca and costing about as much. Actually, I'm kidding here, as I have no idea of the price of cocaine. Better to say this shortening was priced a little higher than a comparable weight of butter.

That's quite a saga for arriving at a politically correct pie.

It seems that rather than focusing on the thou-shalt-not's, we need to spend more time looking at the big picture and the basic goals of a diet that is good for us and good for life which shares our planet. As far as possible eat fresh, local and seasonal. Make sure things that aren't are conscious choices. Choose sustainably grown when you can. Eat as low on the food chain as possible. And follow some manageable guidelines for eating, like the food pyramid. (Yes, I know - it's probably not p.c. - and it doesn't consider planetary health - but it's a whole lot better than it used to be. Check it out if you haven't.)

And once in a while have a little custard or a piece of pie.