Confronting Food

“The passive American consumer, sitting down to a meal of pre-prepared food, confronts inert, anonymous substances that have been processed, dyed, breaded, sauced, gravied, ground, pulped, strained, blended, prettified, and sanitized beyond resemblance to any part of any creature that ever lived. The products of nature and agriculture have been made, to all appearances, the products of industry. Both eater and eaten are thus in exile from biological reality.”
- Wendell Berry

Quick Chocolate Treat for Holiday Gifts

Want a quick, healthy and delicious holiday gift for friends and neighbors?

I made this dark chocolate pistachio bark in five minutes, and it couldn't have been better. It's from Whole Living Magazine.

Pistachios are a great antioxidant and are high in B6, thiamin and fiber. And the dark chocolate is also an antioxidant that can help lower blood pressure. Sounds good for the holidays.

• Ingredients
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 8 ounces dark chocolate (70 percent cacao), melted
• 1/4 cup shelled pistachios, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, such as fleur de sel or Maldon
• 
  
• Directions
• Lightly coat an 8-inch pan with cooking spray. Line with parchment paper, leaving a small overhang. Pour in chocolate and smooth with a spatula into an even layer.
• 
  
• Sprinkle with pistachios and sea salt. Chill in fridge until completely set, about 30 minutes. Peel off parchment, and break into pieces.

We Need to Spend Some Time Alone

My four-year-old making apple crumble at his preschool fall festival.

I recently hand fed my four-year-old, Jack, meatballs. He only eats meat in that form. I really wanted him to get the nutritional value of the meal which I had bolstered with flax and a nice parmesan.

In between his chatting and chewing, I would fork in a hefty bite. He chewed and chatted some more. I kept giving him more until, at one point, he put his hand out in front of him and said, "Mom, I think we need to spend some time alone."

My father happened to be at the other end of the table and laughed with an uproar.

I really didn't need to feed him, but I wanted him to get some iron, protein, etc. I felt a little nutty doing it at the time, but felt like it outweighed any inappropriateness.

"We need to spend some time alone."

Read it loud and clear, Buddy.

I put the fork down and moved on.

I came across this article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition about how we actually feed our kids. Not the what of how we feed them, but the how - the logistics of how you eat. Is there a set routine for meals? Do you eat together? Do you barter or coerce them into eating?

They don't mention spoon feeding kids like this wackadoodle did, but it's an interesting snapshot of how ritual and patterning affects kids' eating.

Here's the top 10 take aways republished on the Huff Post:

1. Pressuring kids to eat fruits and vegetables and markedly limiting their access to sweets and fatty snacks, along with using food as a reward are all strongly linked with disinhibited children's eating patterns.

2. The more inconsistent parents are with either eating schedules or serving healthy vs. unhealthy foods, the greater the negative impact of the parenting styles listed in the first point above.

3. Having at least one parent at the family meal is associated with better consumption of fruit and vegetables, and a lower risk of skipping breakfast.

4. Adopting a knee-jerk pattern of dietary restriction with an overweight child may drive that child to be more, not less, likely to overeat.

5. The availability and exposure to foods at home most certainly affects children's long-term food selections and preferences.

6. The earlier and more broadly a child is exposed to different foods, the healthier that child's eventual adult diet.

7. The more fruits and vegetables available at home the more fruits and vegetables your kids will consume.

8. The more fruit juice and breakfast bars available at home the less actual fruits and vegetables your kids will consume

9. The greater the frequency of meals in front of the television and/or the lesser the frequency of family meals, and/or the greater the use of food as a reward, the higher your kids' intake of sugar sweetened beverages.

10. "Children like what they know and eat what they like."

So to make sure your children know healthy, here are some straightforward prescriptions for healthy at-home eating:

Encourage a wide and varied healthy diet introducing new foods frequently and early.

Don't pressure your children to eat (one-bite rules are fine), or withhold dessert unless they eat their veggies.

Don't reward them with food.

Disband the "clean your plate" club.

Keep plenty of fruits and vegetables handy, accessible, visible, washed and prepared and literally smile at your kids when they eat them.

Sit at the table and eat with your kids.

Don't skip meals.

Dramatically minimize meals out and takeout.

Ensure that as many meals as possible a week involve the transformation of raw ingredients (not mixing boxes).

Involve your kids in cooking.

Don't jam a fork in their mouths even if it contains organic, grass-fed beef with flax and imported parm.

A Poison Apple ... Juice

Snow White fell prey to a poison apple thanks to the Wicked Queen, but our kids are falling prey to poisoned apple juice thanks to the federal government.

As of today, there's absolutely no federal limit for the amounts of arsenic or lead found in fruit juices. The apple juice and arsenic issue came to light this school year when Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of "The Dr. Oz Show," commissioned tests of three dozen apple-juice samples and found that 10 of the products had total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb), which is the national limit for bottled and public water.

The FDA tried to reassure the public about the safety of apple juice and insisted that the arsenic found in apple juice and other foods is the "organic" type and "essentially harmless." Consumer Reports (CR) conducted their own study based on a scientific analysis of federal health data, consumer polling, as well as interviews with docs and experts.

Check out the Consumer Report PDF on their complete test results.

Arsenic is an organic, naturally-occurring element that can contaminate ground and drinking waters where it is most abundant. But CR points out that those numbers are compounded by additional amounts used by agricultural and industrial business - about 1.6 million tons of arsenic since 1910 and half of that used only since 1960. Lead-arsenate insecticides were used in cotton fields, orchards and vineyards until they were banned in the '80s, but residual levels still affect current crops.

CR summarized their findings:

* Roughly 10 percent of our juice samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.

* One in four samples had lead levels higher than the FDA’s bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. As with arsenic, no federal limit exists for lead in juice.

* Apple and grape juice constitute a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic, according to our analysis of federal health data from 2003 through 2008.

* Children drink a lot of juice. Thirty-five percent of children 5 and younger drink juice in quantities exceeding pediatricians’ recommendations, our poll of parents shows.

* Mounting scientific evidence suggests that chronic exposure to arsenic and lead even at levels below water standards can result in serious health problems.

* Inorganic arsenic has been detected at disturbing levels in other foods, too, which suggests that more must be done to reduce overall dietary exposure.

The information is scary because kids drink a lot of juice. CR reports, "One in four toddlers 2 and younger and 45 percent of children ages 3 to 5 drink 7 or more ounces of juice a day. The American Academy of Pediatrics cautions that to help prevent obesity and tooth decay, children younger than 6 should drink no more than 6 ounces a day, about the size of a juice box."

Check out the brands you buy for the levels and seriously consider reducing juice consumption. Stick to milk and water.

Here's a quick summary of what CR suggest you do to reduce your family's risk. Check out their site for more detailed information:

* Test your home drinking water
* Limit kids' juice consumption
* Consider your food - even organic juice may still contain arsenic
* Get yourself and your kids tested - simple urine tests can measure arsenic levels

Like Snow White, I don't think you'll drink apple juice the same way again.

Tips for a Healthy Holiday

Two families owned our house before we lived here. One of them is a local Ayurvedic doctor named John Douillard. He's a well known, respected practitioner in Colorado and around the U.S. He's taught natural medicine and Ayurveda for 22 years, and he's written and produced 18 health and fitness books, CDs and DVDs. I just read a quote from him in Martha Stewart's magazine Whole Living.

His clinic is around the corner from us, and he offers a lot of free resources on his website about health and well-being. I've met him and what's striking about him is how healthy he looks - glowing eyes and skin.

He's offering a free webinar called, "Stress-Free Holidays with Ayurveda." There's also a live Q&A session.

The holidays are often associated with stress as much as celebration. This webinar is designed to, "reduce stress, cultivate peaceful relationships and keep your immune system strong."

Along with the webinar, Dr. Douillard offers three simple tips to stay healthy during the hectic holidays:

Tip #1 - One-minute meditation

Tip #2 - Respect your digestion

Tip #3 - Stress support

I especially like the second tip about giving your digestion a break with holiday foods. Ayurveda places a lot of emphasis on "gut health" - on how and what you're eating during each season. He also provides Fall/Winter tips and a Winter Grocery List to help you eat optimally during this season.

Who Profits from Privatized School Lunches?

I wrote a post three years ago about Aidan buying food at his school cafeteria on the sneak. His school had a contract with food giant Aramark which offers highly-processed food with little or no nutritional value and high amounts of sugar and sodium. So, instead of having the option to buy a healthy lunch of fresh foods or even eating the healthy lunch I packed, he chose to feast on chips and cookies. A kid thing to do ... maybe. But the option to buy junk on credit no less was just too easy.

So goes the story of the privatized lunch room at public and private schools across the U.S. I just read the OpEd in The New York Times called, "How the Food Industry Eats Your Kid's Lunch," by Lucy Komisar.

Her piece reveals that privately managed school cafeterias really offer little return to the schools in terms of cost and provide virtually no value to the student from a nutritional perspective. In fact, she writes that a researcher from the University of Michigan found in a 2008 study that schools that use private firms like Aramark, Sodexo and Chartwells spent less on labor and food and more on fees and supplies so there was "no substantive economic savings." So, schools really gain nothing.

Plus, the study found that, "privatization was associated with lower test scores, hypothesizing that the high-fat and high-sugar foods served by the companies might be the cause." So, kids really gain nothing ... except weight.

Kids pay the price of nonexistent cost savings.

There is an attempt by the USDA to write legislation that would provide kids with better lunches and higher nutritional standards, but corporate lobbying squelches any attempt at that. No surprise. Lobbying just prompted Congress to stop a once-a-week limit on starchy vegetables and allow tomato sauce to count as a vegetable.

What's most striking is that these food giants actually assert that kids don't want to eat healthier food. That's logical given that many of these kids haven't even reached the age of reason and when offered the choice between steamed veggies and chips, they probably choose chips.

Komisar points out in her op-ed that Sodexo says an increase in fruit and veggies could create "plate waste." Adding a protein to breakfast, Aramark says, would hamper efforts to provide "popular breakfast items." Profit motive is the only thing driving these decisions that have a significant health impact on kids ... remember, we're talking about kids.

It's unreasonable and unsafe to allow these corporate giants to feed students like this anymore. We have to demand reform.

We are beyond lucky to live in Boulder, Colo. where our kids enjoy lunch provided by chef Ann Cooper and the School Food Project. It's akin to Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard of Berkeley, Calif.

The Boulder mission:

"We believe that all children of Boulder Valley School District will have daily access to fresh flavorful and nutritious food made with wholesome and when possible, local ingredients, so that every child may thrive."

There's no food giant which means there's an attempt to completely eliminate all highly processed foods, partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar and flour, chemicals, dyes and food additives. Every day kids get access to an unlimited salad bar, organic one percent milk and fresh fruit.

The Aramark website proudly touts that the Ethisphere Institute named it one of the World's Most Ethical Companies in 2010 based on best practices in sustainability and business ethics. There's nothing sustainable or ethical about how they are feeding kids.

To learn more about how to help eliminate the deep fryer and chemicals in kids' lunches, check out food writer and researcher Marion Nestle's resource list for anyone who wants to advocate for better school food.

Also check out The Center for Ecoliteracy's PDF called "Rethinking School Lunch: A Planning Framework."

Tree and People Food

This weekend we headed to Northern Colorado to Roosevelt National Forest to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree.

Every year the Forest Service opens up certain areas for people to cut their own trees to help thin out the overgrowth.

We brought our snowshoes to negotiate the three feet of snow in the area. I don't think it could have felt more festive for the holidays.

We worked up a wicked appetite in the cold wading through the snow to find our tree and then lugging it out of the woods. I think we got a great one.

The boys have had residual hunger since the weekend. Tonight they were begging for dinner to be done. I made oven fried chicken, green beans and a whole wheat baguette. There was nothing left.

Oven-Fried Chicken

by Ina Garten

from the Food Network

Ingredients

• 2 chickens (3 pounds each), cut in 8 serving pieces
• 1 quart buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil or vegetable shortening

Directions

Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk over them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Take the chicken out of the buttermilk and coat each piece thoroughly with the flour mixture. Pour the oil into a large heavy-bottomed stockpot to a depth of 1-inch and heat to 360 degrees F on a thermometer.

Working in batches, carefully place several pieces of chicken in the oil and fry for about 3 minutes on each side until the coating is a light golden brown (it will continue to brown in the oven). Don't crowd the pieces. Remove the chicken from the oil and place each piece on a metal baking rack set on a sheet pan. Allow the oil to return to 360 degrees F before frying the next batch. When all the chicken is fried, bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve hot.

The Rocky Mountain Region Forest Service had a really useful mixture for keeping your Christmas tree moist to minimize fire risk:

Tips for Helping Your Tree Stay Moist Longer

When you get home, re-cut the end of the tree by 1 inch and let it stand in a bucket of the "Christmas Tree Life Extending Formula" (recipe below) until you’re ready to bring it indoors. Fill the tree stand reservoir twice a day (morning and evening) with the remaining mixture.

Fire Minimizing Mixture

2 gallons of hot water

2 cups of corn syrup

2 ounces of liquid bleach

2 pinches of epsom salts

1/2 teaspoon borax

1 teaspoon chelated iron (available at garden shops)

Find out exactly why this mixture works.

Alice Waters' Ginger Snaps

Last October I met Alice Waters at Chez Panisse. I completely dorked out with excitement, fumbling with my camera and smiling like an insane person when Dirk took our photo together.

I also talked way too fast.

But she was gracious and sweet. The dinner that night was incredible ... fennel frisee, soup au pistou, grilled Wolfe Ranch quail stuffed with corn and chanterelles, squash blinis and Chino Ranch greens. Dessert was hazelnut ice cream profiteroles with chocolate sauce and espresso caramel ... it was so good I had caramel all over my sleeves from trying to steal Dirk's dessert across the table.

I bought her cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, and she signed it for me. I use it all the time for vegetable soups, poached eggs, vinaigrettes, roast chickens. I really treasure it. It's a simple book in that the recipes are easy to execute and not ingredient heavy. Waters writes in the introduction of the book, "This book is for everyone who wants to learn to cook, or to become a better cook."

It's also a great holiday gift. Her recipe for ginger snaps is perfect for this time of year.

I made the dough and the boys helped roll them out ... and eat them.

Ginger Snaps

from The Art of Simple Food

Makes 30 2 -inch cookies

Alice suggests using them for ice cream sandwiches, too.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Measure into a bowl and stir together:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

In another bowl, beat until soft and fluffy:

11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) butter, softened.

Add:

2/3 cup sugar

Cream the mixture until light and fluffy. Stir in, mixing well:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

14 cup molasses

1 egg, room temperature

Stir in dry ingredients. Don't over mix, but make sure they are completely incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for 2 hours.

On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the cookies with a floured cutter and place them 1 1/2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Bake until puffed and set, about 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 1 to 2 minutes before removing from the pan.