Babes in Foodland

Thanksgiving Foodstuffs: A Dog/Fox's Dinner

2008-11-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

Poppy McKee pretty much had a taste test of a day today. Me versus the Cesar dog. Now, while I took culinary classes, that little dog has a much better haircut and sunnier disposition, so it really could go either way....

Since it is just she and I this year (Damn Amtrak for not allowing dog/foxes. She is a service dog/fox! She serves as my lapwarmer?!?!?!), I decided that I would spend about $15 dollars (not counting the wine) and only do a few things from scratch. The entire start to finish on this dinner took 30 minutes, a new Thanksgiving record.

So about that turkey.... We did not have turkey, we had chicken, and here's why.... Poppy cannot adequately tell the difference. We only have one of those mini-stoves with oven so a small bird would be necessary. She is a 7.5 lbs. dog and I could not find any turkeys that small and all the turkey breasts were sold out, not shockingly. We are going to have the same dinner in three weeks in Vegas so I think we can live with chicken.

I made her a small bowl replicating some of what I had, and had the forethought to put it in a glass bowl so I could see what she was going for through the bowl. She clearly cannot be expected to stop and give feedback as she goes, this is not Kitchen Stadium. What I did not anticipate, though, was quite how quickly she would gobble up her dinner, so therefore, some of the photos are fuzzed. I took over 120 and these were the only ones where she was not frantically having at the bowl, which she ate in under 3 minutes, a new record for someone her size.

Poppy's dinner is as follows: 2 ounces minced baked chicken, 3 tablespoons turkey gravy, 2 tablespoons Stove Top turkey stuffing (I could live on Stove Top for an entire winter and nothing else very happily), and one tablespoon of chopped skinless apple. Basically, she went apeshit on it. I guess I kicked the Cesar dog's ass.

Bees Without Borders is Sitting in My Kitchen?!?!

2008-10-23T22:10:00.000-04:00

So I happened upon this Bees Without Borders video on Time Magazine's website and when watching it, realized that I sampled and then purchased some of their honey at the infamous International Pickle Day on 9/14/08. Who knew?! I thought I was supporting local business, honey making which is vital to agriculture, etc. etc. If anyone doesn't understand that every third or so bite we eat is supported by pollination, they need to get on their science.

What I did not know was that I was supporting the organization which teaches beekeeping to cultures all around the world to propagate fair trade in a nonperishable product that can be produced with little funds, regardless of gender, and add a sustainable source of income to people in poverty. Guess I know where I'm purchasing my honey from now on....

VIDEO

"The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey....and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it. " Winnie the Pooh in A.A. Milne's 'The House at Pooh Corner'

Monsanto and Michael Pollan Talk About Creating a World That Can Feed Itself

2008-10-15T13:42:00.001-04:00

This is a video of Michael Pollan discussing food security issues. If you click on the link back to the original article the list of topics at the bottom of this post are there. They discuss hormone use, organics, sustainability, etc. Ideally, I hope to go through all of the links eventually, however, with the current inundation of readings and links from classes, I am certainly short on the time and energy for this to happen soon.

Monsanto and Michael Pollan Talk About Creating a World That Can Feed Itself
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 09.23.08

Michael Pollan and Hugh Grant (president and CEO of Monsanto, not the floppy-haired British actor) on the same panel? Bring it. In this 36-minute video, taken on Sept. 17, 2008, Pollan, Grant, and Sonal Shah, a development expert at Google.org, talk about the sustainability of food production.

Held on the Google campus, the panel was moderated by Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org, who became friends with Grant after the two visited the Doomsday Seed Vault in Norway.

Monsanto: Double yields in 20 years
Grant, who presents Monsanto as a charitable outfit for the better good, is all about the numbers, insisting that the way to solve the world's food problems is to double yields over the next two decades, while reducing water and fertilizer usage. His solution is for us to bulldoze our way out of a potential food-shortage quagmire by planting genetically modified seed. Of course.

Pollan: Create a better food-distribution system
"Yield of what?" Pollan shoots back, noting that Monsanto's history has been growing crops, such as corn and soy, for raw materials, not for human consumption. He also says that GMO crops are not exactly renowned for their high yields and that one of the ways to ensuring food security is to allow farmers to save seed, something Monsanto takes a dim view of.

Another wrinkle in Monsanto's yield-doubling utopia is the fact that producing enough food and getting them into the hands of people are two separate problems, he says. Despite bumper agricultural yields in the United States, for instance, there remain some 35 million Americans Pollan categorizes as "food insecure".

More on Michael Pollan
Video: Michael Pollan, Taking a Plant's Perspective
Michael Pollan: Read it and Eat!
Biofuels, Food, and Sustainability Examined: Michael Pollan Interviewed by Yale Univ.
Michael Pollan on What Sustainability is Really About
Michael Pollan: The Government Makes You Fat
Quote of the Day: Michael Pollan on Eating
Michael
Pollan On Organics at Wal-Mart

More on Monsanto
Monsanto Dumping Bovine Growth Hormone
Monstrous Harvest: "The World According to Monsanto" Movie Review
Wal-Mart To Monsanto 'No Thanks For The Bovine Growth Hormone
Monsanto pays $1M for GMO bribe
Business Week on Monsanto, Pickens
Monsanto House of the Future
Monsanto’s Monopoly Challenged in Munich
Battles over Bovine Growth Hormones
Got Hormones? - Hormone Free Milk Not Healthier After All

Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:

Pratt LMS Post Response to Food Fights Comments ~ "Farmer in Chief"

2008-10-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

A few of the students in my class know that I am an R.D. and will direct food or health related questions towards me. It's nice that someone thinks I am worth some sort of point of view in these discussions, as I really don't get that impression in class in the slightest. But I digress...in the form of an answer to someone's post concerning the amount and quality of fat in school lunches and it's direct weight on performance.

Posted comments stemming from the link to the article "Farmer in Chief" from the NY Times Magazine. Here is the first paragraph of this article, an open letter:

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention. ...

My answers as posted:

Amanda, I certainly want to answer you on the concepts of fresh ingredients in promoting health and performance. And while a leaner and more clean fat approach is certainly a start and shows results, it merits mention that the techniques of farming and regionality that Pollan refers to are often with less antibiotic use and food served with the aid of fewer preservatives which is another factor being studied in the diet changes in elementary and high school children. Due to a very very busy work day, I will find you a few studies on it tomorrow and post them. Also, I will be happy to direct you to some information on the burgeoning problem of the "certified organic" standard v. local foods.

However, if you have not read Michael Pollan's books: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural history of Four Meals, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World, or his earlier works, you should pick one up at the library and read it. His name will most definitely come up repeatedly in the media as a purveyor of a more sustainable move of the human diet. With the growing importance of water conservation, carbon neutrality, and self accountability in areas like personal consumption choices, hubris and ignorance about livestock and agricultural is really going to come to the forefront. Unfortunately, the food lobbying in this country as well as the strong farm-state coalition will assuage these issues as much as possible (as evidenced in this past summer's farm $300 billion bail outs). It really will come down to personal choices and localized food movements to get these concepts like that have been recently addressed by the UN on lessening meat consumption. Regardless of anyone's enjoyment of meat, there is literally no argument that it is, as the industry is today, sustainable. And frankly, there is no medical need for humans to eat meat so that will never be an issue in this argument.

While I often recommend to my patients that they lessen the meat and change the type of meat in their diets, those are usually health or weight management issues. Frankly, for all other healthy people, it needs to be a choice based on logic that the industry is pushing out fossil fuels, eating up land, and wasting a disgusting amount of potable water and a meat-reliant diet is at this point, selfish and unnecessary. So yes, Meryl, I think that this should be a political issue of regulation and that if people want to eat meat, they should have to really pay the actual cost of it. Eating meat at each meal or everyday is kind of like driving a Hummer to run your errands; It's wasteful and just because you are "allowed" doesn't mean you should. Eating less meat and researching what you're eating is going to begin to look like the seafood industry where people check their Monterrey Bay Aquarium fish lists to determine whether they should order something from a menu.

If anyone has any questions re: the nutritional need of meat in your diet, feel free to email me. Apologies that I have to answer clients first, but I will try to answer your questions as quickly as possible with supporting evidence.

Meat Contributes to Climate Change
UN on Livestock production of fossil fuels being worse than automobiles
FAO Information on Meat and the Climate
Livestock Creating too Much Nitrogen
Livestock Use of Water Statistics

A Summary of NO MEAT Month

2008-10-01T19:00:00.006-04:00

So, I kind of made it through the month of September without incorporating meat into my diet. I know some people think I cheated since I ate eggs and they debate that they are meat, but until they get their Registered Dietitian's licensure, they can basically suck it. I am going to break this into a few categories as there is so much concept in this process that needs to be somewhat organized.

The Math ~ These facts can stand on their own. They do not need to be supported by any nutrition information whatsoever, it's all math and science. HA!

In order to produce one pound of edible meat (without bone, etc.), approximately 5,000 gallons of water must be used. Therefore, you could say that you could either shower for a year or eat a pound of meat. If I were to eat an average of three servings of meat a day (not counting fish, obviously), that would be nine ounces of meat. Therefore over 30 days, that would be approximately 17 pounds of meat, which equals 85,000 gallons of water, or 17 years of showering. Compare it to 25 gallons for the production of one pound of grain. Replace my 17 pounds of meat with 17 pounds of grain and you only net 425 gallons of water in production. In a water conscious world (which is what we should be living in, forget oil), meat consumption should plummet. Don't even get me started on the the CO2 savings here. People, get educated! It's in the numbers.

Here's another number: 149 lbs. (67.7 kg.). This is my weight at the beginning of September. Having recently fractured my skull, I gained a few pounds not being able to work out and I maintain that a quick way to shed some of that weight is to drop meat from your diet. People assume that being turned into a carboholic will keep that weight on, but that did not seem to be the case. I went from eating pasta once every 2-3 weeks to sometimes twice a day. I still don't really like potatoes or bread, but because I was making things for Andrew, I had quite a bit myself. And we went through a straight liter of olive oil in 30 days. And I lost almost 6 pounds (4% of body weight), and trust that I have been doing about nada in the exercise department. There are pants being brought out of storage.

What Worked?

It was a Godsend that this month was a great harvest month for the Greenmarket in the New York Metro area. There is literally no reason that you should be without vegetable choices since they are all around the city and have plenty of options. Luckily, I am schooled in doing more than making salads, although I have to say, those were some good heirloom-type salads I had.
Debbie Meyer Green Bags! These things work on the simplest concept that the bags are treated to wick away that pesky ethylene, a chemical compound which hastens the ripening of fruits and vegetables. These bags allow your vegetables to last so much longer! Totally worth it and at your local Tarjay.
Cooking Light has long been one of my favourite magazines for recipes. I am much more visual a learner than any other sort, so their having photographs to accompany their recipes is a huge help! I am letting my subscription go as it is a waste of paper seeing as their site has all their recipes in their database. I know that website aren't run on unicorn farts and rainbows, but still...less wasteful. I look something up at least once a week on there...pickles, potato salad, you name it.
I may have fell more in love with Morningstar Farms fake meat (analogs). I know they are a company pretending to be small and cute and organic when they are really just a subsidiary of Kellogg Company, but they do have some tasty stuff that fills in the gaps where meat would have otherwise likely been the option du jour. Given better selections of meat analogs, I would hope to find a less corporate producer. Drop another scoop in the moral chore bucket.
Andrew also gave up meat this month. His agenda was not the same as mine, but it is easier when the kid you are sharing the table with is not heffing back a slab of ribs or two dozen ribs. Trust.

What Didn't Work?

I think the first big problem with NO MEAT month for me was that it coincided with the beginning of the fall semester for grad school and for the rugby season. I just did not often make the effort due to a lack of time or a lack of energy to make as many meals as I really should have. And then once I ran out of Easy Mac....
My worm box died while I was on vacation. This made me feel kind of like a total wastoid for just throwing out my organic waste and once again made me want to move to San Francisco where the municipal garbage service picks up compost materials for you. Geez, Bloomberg, why don't you get on it.
My friends are kind of dicks. I think that it is largely American hubris that people think their ways of living are superior to other people's or that they should be shooting off their opinions on anything. I do often pass judgment on what people eat as a function of being an R.D. but at the same time, it is likely solicited. Let's just say, there are people I think less of now with their "But meat is good, " and their "You're such a hippie." No, I am just brighter, more principled, and better educated than you.
Living in the ghetto is in no way food friendly. The "grocery" stores here maintain very little edible produce (even less edible meat to be honest) and are only good for packaged basic foods. Tragic. We wonder why diabetes is rampant...even outside of personal accountablity. But I guess I would never invest in this neighborhood given the chance either to be honest. Damn.
Vegetables are actually more expensive than meat. This is such a mindfuck of a concept. They take far less cost of production, water, labor, etc. This is truly sad and wrong.
Companies need to be more straightforward in their packaging. When I pick up a can of vegetable soup...I want it to be all vegetables. I don't want to have it already in the pan heating and then read the label and find a meat composite somewhere down the line of the ingredient list. Bad Progresso, bad!!

What did I miss?

Maruchan Instant Lunch Chicken Ramen cups
hot wings (Largely, with Poon at the Lion's Head. I should have taken rugby and football seasons into account here, clearly.)
PD II's ribs (Doubtful would I miss any other ribs or any other rib sauce.)
shrimp (Now not to be eaten since they are on the don't buy list. Thanks Monterrey Bay Aquarium!!)
sushi (Sweet lord in heaven did I have a problem with this. Maybe it was my body trying to react to the mercury shortage in my system? Although sweet potato tempura rolls are acceptable, I guess.)

In summary, I will resume eating sustainably farmed/fished animal sources. Yes, this will mean a little more work on my part, more questions asked, etc. I will likely have one serving a week of the following: poultry, red meat, fish. Andrew has decided he will bring back fish, occasional poultry, and no red meat. Every few months we will go back to lactoovovegetarian status for a month or two to detox ourselves and feel less like all the other self-centered people polluting the earth so they can have a cheap cheeseburger.

~beth who thinks people should eat to live rather than eat to pollute...

Welcome, Baby Bert!

2008-10-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Friends Jody and Adam finally had their silly baby, Baby Bert, on September, 30th. It's like he knew I was starting to eat meat again on October 1st and wanted in on the action. Fiendish baby.... He was 7 lbs. flat and 20.5 inches long and is modeling a jaunty green pea hat and stunning striped blankie roll.

From Baby Schwartz

~beth who is suspicious of babies in general.

Making Pickles Is Kind of Easy....

2008-09-26T17:20:00.011-04:00

Really, too easy in fact. We'll see how they taste after the requisite four days of refrigeration. This is the perfect time to find tons of Kirbys, little pickling cucumbers, at the Greenmarket stalls. You, of course, can use all sorts of other cucumbers, or other vegetables, even for pickling.

I got this refrigerator pickles recipe from Cooking Light's website, the only recipes website I will really quote at this point. It reads as follows:

Refrigerator Pickles
Yield ~ 7 cups (serving size: 1/4 cup)

Ingredients
6 cups thinly sliced pickling cucumbers (about 2 pounds)
2 cups thinly sliced onion
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Preparation
Place 3 cups cucumber in a medium glass bowl; top with 1 cup onion. Repeat procedure with the remaining 3 cups cucumber and remaining 1 cup onion.

Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan; stir well. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute. Pour over cucumber mixture; let cool. Cover and chill at least 4 days.

Note: Pickles may be stored in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 28 (10% from fat)
Fat: 0.1g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.1g), Protein: 0.3g, Carbohydrate: 7g, Fiber: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 0.0mg, Iron: 0.1mg, Sodium: 64mg, Calcium: 7mg

We'll check back in four days and see how they taste. Until then, some pickle-making photos!

Ingredients

Layering

Pickling juices, Garlicky bits!

Apparent subconscious evidence that I crave ribs 24/7....

Ready to go!

~beth

I Heart Pickles: 8th Annual NYC International Pickle Day

2008-09-26T15:35:00.006-04:00

When I heard about the 8th Annual NYC International Pickle Day, I cleared the calendar. Beginning as a small child, eating virtually all garden harvest in the form of pickles my mother made and canned on the farm, I have been hooked. My favourites have always been the dilly bean, zucchini pickles, pickled beets, and sauerkraut. Therefore the concept of two full blocks of pickle madness got me really excited. Apparently, it got the rest of the city excited as well as you could almost not walk through the street fair. I know they expanded it to be two city blocks this year, but...next year, they should aim for three or four. There were long long lines to get to the pickle goodness and due to it being the last humidity-riddled hot weekend in New York City (9/14/08), it was a hot mess!

The NYFood Museum (which I must find a day to go explore, to see the past to present of pickle lore) put on the pickle worship session on Orchard Street between Broome and Grand and next year, I am going to earlier and be more prepared! Here are some random photos of pickle goodness. Please to enjoy.

Yes, I bought this shirt, and it so looks better on me!

~beth who is making pickles as soon as this post is finished.

I Can Quit Meat, But Procrastinating...Not So Much

2008-09-26T12:14:00.005-04:00

And I have tons and tons of work to do for Doomsday Studies (what I have termed my grad program), but instead, in celebration of the start of Autumn and the rainy nor'easter mess hitting the East Coast right now, I am going to try to pump out a ton of old posts. They ll have the photos done and subject matter, they just need to be put together. And until those pop up, this gorgeous summer puppy, Summer McQuade, will hold the place.

~beth who hates busy work especially since the internet has destroyed her reading concentration skills.

CUWRFC Alumni Group

2008-09-10T13:54:00.001-04:00

View my page on CUWRFC Alumni

Week ONE of NO MEAT Month: A Week in Photos

2008-09-07T16:34:00.016-04:00

Eating a no meat diet in Manhattan should be easier, and cheaper! What gives? Anyway, here are some notable finds and meals of the week (Wednesday to Sunday). Please to enjoy!

Wednesday Union Square Greenmarket near closing... 2 beautiful bags of fruits and vegetables!

Expensive but worthwhile....

Baby succulent for my glass desk. No more cut flowers, people! Only succulents!

Salad made from beautiful butter lettuce, Japanese plum, heirloom cherry tomatoes, dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and herb mix.

Hannah poured rain on the isle of Manhattan. Global warming questioners, go outside without an umbrella and tell me how real that shit feels, k, thanks.

Jalapeno poppers, one of the few vegetarian things on the menu at Blondies on W. 79th Street. I avoided buffalo wings, though, which is no small triumph. MANHATTAN PURVEYORS TAKE NOTE: Vegetarians watch sports in public too!!

A Beth's Breakfast Bowl: scrambled egg, French bread toast, heirloom cherry tomato salad, vegetable mix of baby red potatoes, garlic, haricot verts, and red pepper.
Suck it, Denny's.

Hopefully this week will have some new finds...

~beth

Farewell, Dear Worm Box, RIP

2008-09-05T13:12:00.006-04:00

So....it seems that the way to keep your feisty little worms alive and well and not completely decimated is to not leave them for two weeks while you go on vacation. I know this seems like a no brainer, but I did leave them plenty of food and young Becca did visit them every few days, spritzing their box if it seemed hot or dry.

Then we come back from Vegas, it looks kind of OK in there. Due to their digestive prowess, it is hard to tell what is vermicompost, what are coffee grounds, and where the worms are in that mess. And then a few days later it was all over. Suddenly the box was overtaken by white mold, every inch of it. It is totally suspect since everything was carefully washed or frozen before being added to the box. Grrr! The composting people really need to train their interns to answer emails already, because they were no help. Alas, Andrew laid the little worms to rest just yesterday and cleaned out their box completely unsure if we will try again.

Very sad indeed....and now in their honor, a shark pouring a little out, for the wormies.

~beth

Without Humor I Will Not Survive Grad School, and Arguably Without Fish, Neither Will My Brain.

2008-09-03T15:48:00.000-04:00

And now for something completely different....

During group time I mentioned that London (and the surrounding UK) are going to suffer a huge economic and cultural setback in direct concert with the death of the cod sources due to overfishing (The complaint group's was that London's food is too expensive.). I am no Amazing Kreskin with a preternatural sense of ocean lore, I am reading Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, by Taras Grescoe (ISBN: 1596912251). I really can only make it through a few pages a day as frankly, the book pisses me off. It is amazingly well-written and researched, but the idea that this is all information any of us can have and yet the Charlie the Tuna and Gorton's Fisherman are cultural phenomena here infuriates me...to the point where I have given up seafood for a month to see if I really miss it (It is not nutritionally necessary to humans to consume fish sources as long as nutrients are accounted for through other sources.). But that's another mess entirely. Here is an excerpt taken from the introduction of the book which will help give me focus in my search for sustainable and secure food systems. Please to enjoy....

I love seafood. And by seafood, I mean fresh-caught sardines as well as raw salmon tartare; piles of just-peeled coldwater shrimp and trays of raw flat-shelled oysters; sesame-oil-drenched jellyfish salad and deep-fried haddock; in fact just about any squirmy, wriggly, fishy, edible thing that comes out of the ocean. I have some almost every day.

Let me explain. Ten years ago I cut meat and poultry out of my diet and limited my flesh-eating to fish. I had read too many news items about growth hormones, factory farms, and antibiotics to feel good about a regular diet of steaks, burgers, and chicken; the alternative, organic meat, was expensive and at the time hard to find. (In the years that followed, as the mad cow scandal broke and it became advisable to treat salmonellosis-laden raw chicken in your kitchen as if it were a biotoxin, it was a decision I had no cause to regret.) Seafood seemed like a logical choice: fish not only had half the fat of beef but also seemed to be in endless supply. The oceans were immense and apparently inexhaustible. True, the cod fishery off Newfoundland had recently collapsed, but that, I figured, was a fluke that could be blamed on bad science, greed, and inept bureaucrats. The supermarket shelves were still piled high with canned tuna, the fast-food joints were selling bargain all-you-can-eat shrimp, and a fillet of Atlantic salmon was cheaper than it had ever been. There were lots more fish in the sea. There would always be lots more fish in the sea.

I quickly began to discover the advantages of being a piscivore, a fish eater. A seafood meal, after all, is one of life's great simple pleasures. Find a pier, a creek, or a fishing hole, dangle a hooked line into the water, and with a bit of luck (as well as a fire, some foil, and a wedge of lemon), you've got dinner. Centuries after agricultural societies replaced game and fowl with domesticated livestock, and venison and partridge became rarities reserved for the tables of the the rich, there are still hunter-gatherers going to sea—fishermen—who bring back a form of game that people of all classes can afford to eat. In most supermarkets, fish is the only real wild food, a product not created by industrial agriculture, that you are likely to find.

And human beings will eat just about any kind of seafood, no matter how daunting. South Americans enjoy the picoroco, a huge edible barnacle with a Krakatoa-shaped shell that conceals a golf-ball-sized sphere of glistening white flesh, as sweet as crabmeat. The French have figured out a way to make the reproductive organs of the cuttlefish, la pousse de la seiche, into a delicacy, and the Japanese long ago mastered the art of making the poisonous pufferfish into sashimi. More astonishing to me is the fact that anybody eats the hagfish, a lampreylike bottom-dweller that haunts abyssal depths two miles beneath the surface. Lacking a spine, a gas bladder, or even a jaw, it employs a rasping tongue to burrow into its prey. Marine biologists who find whale corpses on the ocean bottom often observe that the flesh of the dead giants is actually crawling—a grisly submarine puppet show courtesy of the thousands of hagfish writhing through the rotten meat. Threatened by a shark, the hagfish will excrete mucins from dozens of pores, choking its attacker's gills with gallons of rapidly expanding slime. (It then sloughs off the mucus by tying itself into a bow and squirming the knot down its body.) The hagfish gets my vote as the most repellent fish in the sea. Yet Koreans consider it a delicacy: they import nine million pounds a year and savor it as an appetizer after broiling it in sesame oil.

Entire cultures have built elaborate identities around the cooking and consumption of seafood. In a world of homogenized fast food and microwavable frozen dinners, seafood cultures serve as bastions of local tradition. To be Venetian is to have grown up with the taste of spaghetti alle vongole veraci (though the Lagoon's native bivalves have succumbed to pollution and must now be replaced with Manila clams). To be Japanese is to know the rituals of the sushi bar, the taste of seaweed-wrapped salmon roe, and the fact that the finest cut of the finest tuna you can order is called o-toro (though bluefin is now in such short supply that Tokyo's sushi bar owners are substituting other red-fleshed meat, like smoked venison and horse). And to have lived on the shores of Chesapeake Bay is to fetishize deep-fried clam strips, the taste of breaded and battered oysters, and all the pleasures of a shoreline-kitsch-drenched seafood shack (even if the crab in the cakes you are eating happen to be Asian swimming crabs, flash-frozen in Indonesia and air-freighted to Washington, D.C.).

Fish have shaped human history. From medieval times the vast shoals of herring that annually poured down from Scandinavia forged Dutch and English seapower and created the wealth of the Hanseatic League and thus the balance of power that drew the map of Europe. Fish are responsible for humanity's spread across the globe: the technology for curing cod allowed men to undertake long sea voyages, permitted the Vikings to raid England and France and settle Iceland, and brought the Basque whalers to the Grand Banks.

And there is increasing evidence that, were it not for seafood, we would not be human at all. Life began in the sea, about four billion years ago, and the ancestors of all mammals were fish that crawled out of the oceans and colonized the land 360 million years ago. Since the remains of the earliest humans were found in what is now African savannah, anthropologists have long believed that man's ancestors left the forests for the open plains, in the process evolving the upright gait that led to bipedal humans. But recent research on pollen records has shown that four million years ago such regions were not Serengeti-like plains at all but heavily wooded shorefront environment. Protohumans such as Lucy, like most of her kin, evolved close to the water.

These seaside roots may explain why our brains weigh twice as much as those of our closest early human relative, Homo habilis. Around two million years ago the hominid cranium started to expand, with an exponential growth spurt occurring about one hundred thousand years ago. Evidence from shell middens around early human settlements shows that this is exactly the time people started eating seafood in great quantities. Brain size is limited by the availability of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, one of the fatty acids found in omega-3 supplements), without which it is impossible for the body to build brain cell membranes. The only place this acid is abundant in the food chain is in fish from the world's oceans, lakes, and rivers. It is likely our seafood-rich diet provided the nutrients that make us the world's brainiest primate. Without fish, we might still be microcephalic apes, swinging through the trees.

For generations, mothers have known that fish is brain food. It turns out that forcing children to choke down cod liver oil—or its modern equivalent, a capsule of omega-3 fatty acids— is a very good idea indeed. The human brain is 60 percent fat, and the kinds of fat you eat determine what your brain cells are made of. At the beginning of the twentieth century, much of the protein in the Western diet came from nest-laid eggs, beef and milk from grass-fed cows, and other free-range animals, all of which have higher levels of omega-3s than their industrially farmed counterparts. Starting about 1960 an unplanned study in brain chemistry has been taking place, one whose subject is the entire population of North America and much of Europe. Around that time corn and soybean oils and grain-fed livestock, all of which are relatively low in omega-3s but high in the structurally similar omega-6s, became the dominant sources of fat in our diets. Both forms of omega fatty acids are essential for making cell membranes more liquid, but people who have high levels of omega-3s—sometimes called the happy acids—are less prone to depression, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Thanks to half a century of consuming cheap vegetable oils, the average cell membrane of an American is now only 20 percent omega-3-based fats. In cultures where fish is still a staple, such as Japan, the average cell membrane is 40 percent omega-3 based.

The results of this experiment may already be in. In 1998 a paper in the British medical journal the Lancet showed that major depression spiked in New Zealand, Germany, the United States, and other countries with lower rates of fish consumption, but declined in such seafood-loving cultures as Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. In Europe suicide is highest in such landlocked countries as Austria and Hungary (where per capita consumption of fish is, respectively, 25 pounds and 10 pounds a year) and lowest among seafood-eating Portuguese (125 pounds) and Norwegians (114 pounds). A researcher with the American National Institutes of Health has shown that a mother's consumption of omega-3s during pregnancy can predict her child's intelligence and fine motor skills. The children of women who had consumed the smallest amount of omega-3s, the study found, had verbal IQs six points lower than the average. Telltale signs of a lack of omega-3s include dry skin and dandruff, lifeless hair, brittle nails, and raised bumps on the skin. Perhaps most surprisingly, a lack of omega-3s seems to predict antisocial behavior: a daily dose of fish oils given to inmates in an English young offenders' prison reduced recidivism by 30 percent.

Nature's richest source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are ultimately derived from oceanic plankton, is wild-caught seafood. River fish such as trout have much lower levels, as do farmed fish, which are now often plumped up with vegetable oils. Though flaxseed oil is also a source of omega-3s, the human body is inefficient at converting it into DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), the latter of which is essential for cardiovascular health. Most national public health authorities now recommend having at least two meals of fish, especially such fatty species as mackerels and sardines, a week.

"There are no limits to Jeeves's brain power," Bertie Wooster once marveled about his fictional gentleman's gentleman. Author P. G. Wodehouse repeatedly had the clueless Wooster attributing his manservant's intelligence to his seafood-heavy diet: "He virtually lives on fish. If I had even half his brains, I would take a shot at being prime minister."

The evidence may be circumstantial, but I concur: if getting more omega-3s in my diet means lowering my risks of major depression, dementia, Alzheimer's, suicide, and ending up in prison, then eating fish is a no-brainer.
-from the Introduction of Bottomfeeder.

Digital Diaries Are Suspect

2008-09-03T09:23:00.007-04:00

My first class of the semester touched down last night (Night classes are the pits, by the way.). EMS 620 - Sustainable Communities.... Yeah...about that.... And 40% of our grade is doing a "digital diary" about topics in class, readings, other literature, etc. on a daily (?) basis. So, there's that which I will not put on here because the page box is not wide enough. Part of me wishes I took Computer Science instead so I could at least fix this damn box. I might make a place to put it up elsewhere though. You know, for posterity.

And now a photo of a lovely flower at East New York Farms and a reminder never to buy cut flowers because they are environmentally unethical. Send a succulent instead!

~beth

Day 1 of NO MEAT Month: Labor Day

2008-09-02T16:50:00.008-04:00

For Labor Day I decided to let others do much of the laboring in preparing my food, largely because it was hot as balls here in the city and I could not be less bothered. Also, more than ever, I really hate my kitchen. I find it a really poorly designed cheap space and it makes me want to not only withhold rent but move all of my pink kitchen appliance to the other end of the building (my office) where I will likely enjoy them more. This happens every time I come back from Vegas, where I love my beautiful granite and chrome oasis kitchen. But I digress...

Take that chicken! (Vegas kitchen of glory)

Here's what I ate today:
m&m Veggie Wedge sandwich: I am kind of shocked there is no web presence or listing for this Asian market and deli on Broadway at 115th Street. You can order from a lengthy list of sandwiches, etc. as well as buy all the Sriracha and fresh oyster mushrooms your little heart desires. The sandwich is more than excellent. It is a giant Kaiser roll with slices of fresh mozarella, shredded letture, thin slice cucumbers, roasted red peppers, avocado slices, and sun dried tomatoes. I, of course, ask them to substitute real tomato slices for the gag-inducing sundried ones. It's glorious! ($5.75)

Then walking down Broadway to meet some CU Rugby minxes and watch the greatest movie ever made, we saw the Van Leeuwen Artisanal Ice Cream truck. If you have not had this and have been gagging back that non-food chemical Pink(crack)berry stuff all summer, you need to switch over NOW. It uses local milk from Lewis County, NY, with other ingredients to form a custard base, then all natural flavorings to finalize the ice cream. It is delivered to only NY (three turkc locations) and CT, uses biodegradable cartons and spoons (made from 100% renewable resources), and is 105% glorious! I had a small with one scoop of chocolate and a scoop of strawberry. Andrew had a cone with a scoop of pistachios. If the photo below does not make you want to switch to this kind of confection, you should also factor in that they donate a percentage of their profits to help one of the world's most endangered species, the Mountain Gorillas of the Congo through a grassroots organization called Wildlife Direct. Now you should feel guilty and go eat their ice cream. What have you done for gorillas today?

After the movie, Andrew and I stopped at one of our sometimes favorite cheap organic/vegetarian (for us) restaurants. You would think there would be more numerous options on the Upper West Side, but alas.... Nanoosh Mediterranean Hummus Bar (2012 Broadway between 68th and 69th) is somewhat of an oasis from that. Yes, the waitstaff is a little dead behind the eyes, yes, they often run out of items, yes, they serve the most Gumby-like celery ever, but otherwise, it's pretty good. We tried to get our favorite item, the Mushroom and hummus wrap with Mediterranean salad, but of course, they were out of mushrooms. Curses! We had to order the egg and hummus salad wrap with a side order of hummus and vegetables (including flexi-celery). The waitress tried to test the theory that moisture is the essence of wetness and not give us any water, but we prevailed! It was good.

Then we stopped at Fairway to pick up some lettuce, mushrooms, red potatoes, and Bumble Bars which I will be taking to school. Some nosy too tan Naugahyde broad with smudged fierce teal eyeliner in the elevator (No steps to the organics? Curses!), reached into Andrew's basket, picked up one my my prized Chai Bumble Bars, and declared, "You know these are full of fat." I could not have hidden my annoyance and superiority more, mainly because I did not care to, and said, "I know, and it's good fat." She turned to me and said, "But it's still fat." Andrew was still confused as to whether she had insulted his red leaf lettuce, and the other elevator passengers looked intrigued like a dead cougar v. cat fight might happen in a teensy tinesy elevator with them. I only had one floor so I made the quick decision not to educate this woman on omega fats and the power of flax, and just cut her down quick, saying, "I'm a dietitian and I know what's in them. The fat is good and they are filled with fiber." She started to kind of stammer as the door to the first floor opened and I stepped out. Another girl in front of me turned and said, "I hate women like that." I have to agree. Either way, I know what I'll be eating in class for the rest of the week.

When we got back to the house, it was still horrifically hot. I wish we didn't live in a place where even on an upper floor you have to keep things locked up tight because 89% of the surrounding community should be in Rikers Island. Anyway, I felt the need for more ice cream in the form of Haagen Daz Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream. I am going to write an entire post about the honey bee collapse which will leave us barren of many fruits and vegetables, etc. soon. Profits from sales of this product go to research on how to stabilize and save the honey bee population. However, until then, know that you should google the condition and read up!

And after that, we start to see why I am still on West Coast time, or at least my stomach is. I had a late night can of Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable. I should have just poured salt in my hand and licked it occassionally. Then a Swiss Miss hot chocolate packet with marshmallows (what a joke) and some half and half. All in all, no meat. However, I choose to think that this will be easier once this blazing weather chills a little. It is certainly making me scraps. For those interested, Andrew ate virtually the same until the soup. What a good boy he is.

~beth

30 Days, NO MEAT!!

2008-09-01T22:29:00.011-04:00

For the month of September, Andrew and I are going to go without meat (including fish). No, we have not become hippies, but we have decided that it just isn't necessary and we will try thirty days without it.

For me personally, it is just the fact that eating meat takes so much water to produce. So really, I would rather have water to drink than meat to eat and I think that Americans are very uneducated and disgustingly selfish and need to stop whining about gas and take note of water and how to use less. Not to mention that the methane fartprint of livestock alone... Everyone needs a wake up call about meat in general.

Also, it is nutritionally unnecessary in the human diet. So I will be putting up recipes, photos, websites, and musings on the process this month. If nothing else, the weight loss alone should be obvious, which should be interesting.

And then there's the math on water. If both of us give up an estimated two 3-ounce servings of meat a day, or 11.25 pounds this month, we will in theory save 112,500 gallons of water (5,000 gallons to make one pound of edible meat).

Anyveggie, we'll see how this goes.... Until further news, here is a gorgeous photo of Stitch Mittens. Please to enjoy!

~beth

Dear Sweet Melissa...NO BLOOD FOR YOU!

2008-08-26T22:18:00.014-04:00

I went to give blood with my friend Melissa today on the Upper East Side. This is only the second time I have given blood. I am not only lazy and annoyed by needles in general, but no longer work at a hospital where they are more than willing to take all sorts of fluids from you if you'll let them, whenever you'll let them. In theory I always should schedule myself to go in right after a really vicious rugby tournament of the beginning of a Bikram yoga habit as it is excellent pain relief to sore muscles, however, I am just that lazy. But I digress...

There are some guidelines of what to expect when giving blood and some of those include nutrients components that you can "beef up" with your daily diet. That said, since I have been in attempts to shun meat and don't eat many fortified foods, who knows if I will even make the cut? And by that, I mean will my hemoglobin, hematocrit, and blood count be high enough? Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Therefore, it is of huge importance to the function of blood in the body. Hematocrit is a test which gives you a percentage form showing the number of red blood cells as well as the size of the cells. Your blood is not all actual red blood cells, so knowing the percentage tells quite a bit about your blood count. The general guidelines are as follows:

Acceptable if you have a hemoglobin at or above 12.5 g/dL.
Acceptable if you have a hematocrit at or above 38%.

Luckily my hemoglobin came in at a solid 13.8 g/dL. Thank you double serving of Cheerios and Rice Dream this morning! However, young Melissa fell short of the mark in the blood iron exhibition and was banished to the waiting room to eat jelly beans and contemplate politics. So here's how one could prevent that from happening in the future. Basically, make sure to incorporate food iron sources into your diet on a regular basis but more actively so the week or few days before you plan to donate. It is plentiful not only in animal sources (Heme iron) but in many vegetarian and vegan sources (non-Heme iron) for those who don't do meat or are avoiding red meat for health reasons or personal preference. There are also tricks to increase your absorption. Do you get enough? The RDA is as follows:

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for iron for non-vegetarian pre-menopausal women is 18 mg/day. The RDA for non-vegetarian men and post-menopausal women is 8 mg/day. Because of iron absorption issues in a healthful, high-fiber vegetarian diet, the RDAs for vegetarians are higher - 14 mg/day for vegetarian men and 33 mg/day for vegetarian women. The upper level of intake should not exceed 45mg/day.

A simple google search can show you a little over a half million lists of iron rich foods. I enjoy this one the most as it organizes all the listings into nice neat little columns:

	FOOD	AMOUNT	AVG. MG. IRON
GRAINS	Bread (white or whole wheat)	1 slice	0.5
	Bran muffin	1	1.5
	English muffin	1	1.5-1.9
	Tortillas	1	1
	Cooked cereal	1/2 cup	0.7
	Dry cereal	3/4 cup	read label
	Wheat germ	1/2 cup	4

MEAT	Organ meats	3 oz.	7
	Liver	3 oz.	8-9
	Liver sausage	3 oz.	4-6
	Shellfish	3 oz.	4-5
	Red meats	3 oz.	4
	Fish and poultry	3 oz.	2-3

MEAT SUBSTITUTES	Tofu	4 oz.	2.3
	Sunflower seeds	1 oz.	2
	Pumpkin seeds	1 oz.	3.2
	Cooked dry peas (beans, lentils, lima beans)	1/2 cup	2-3
	Egg	1	1
	Nuts	1/3 cup	0.5-2.0
	Peanut butter	1 tbsp.	0.3

FRUIT	Water melon	6" x 1/2" slice	3
	Strawberries	1 cup	1.5
	Banana	1 cup	1

DRIED FRUIT	Raisins, dates, prunes, figs, apricots	1/2 cup	3-4

JUICES (CANNED)	Prune juice	3/4 cup	7.4
	Tomato juice	3/4 cup	1.6
	Apple juice	3/4 cup	1.1

VEGETABLES	Cooked dark leafy greens (spinach, collards, kale)	1/2 cup	3
	Raw dark leafy greens (spinach, collards, kale)	1 cup	2
	Jicama	1/3 cup	0.8

MISCELLANEOUS	Molasses	1 tbsp.	3.2
MISCELLANEOUS	Brewer's yeast (dry)	1 tbsp.	1.4

FAST FOODS	Pizza (cheese or pepperoni)	1/2 of 10"	4.5-5.4
	Hamburger	1 reg.	2.5
	Cheeseburger	1 reg.	2.5
	Beef burrito	1	4.6
	Bean burrito	1	2.8
	Beef taco	1	2.9

Therefore, Miss Melissa can have a nice dinner of naturally iron abundant or iron-fortified foods tonight and attempt once again tomorrow!

And you should too if you are healthy and eligible to donate. New York is currently experiencing a shortage of blood and blood products (also reported by the Red Cross with a chance to win Yankees v. Red Sox tickets...) and you never really know when you are going to be on the receiving end. Instant Karma!

~beth who is stoked to finally know her blood type and will donate again in 56 to 60 days!

A Summer Slush Puppy in Red Hook; Who Knew?

2008-08-22T15:20:00.000-04:00

The last time I saw a Slush Puppy machine would have to be in the 80s in rural Ohio. So logically the next time I would see one would be a day I was melting in Red Hook. These icy treats contain about zero nutrition and likely rot your teeth on impact, but they make for general confusion as strangers give you weird looks for the rest of the day.

~beth who remembers it being way better than that...

Columbus Park Greenmarket!

2008-08-21T11:46:00.001-04:00

Right when you get off the train first stop into Brooklyn (from Manhattan) is Columbus Park where there are some lovely weekend summer vegetables and farmers' products. They make for lovely photos as well as tasty treats!

~beth hopes everyone is taking advantage of their local produce to the fullest.

I Think I Want to Volunteer...

2008-08-19T11:00:00.003-04:00

...and you should too. Try one of these (listed in no particular order):

And if you're too lazy to do any of that or just plain can't make the time, then donate some dollars instead. Let's face it, this world is made up of many more people who are happy to sit back and do nothing, to jump borders, to accept welfare, and to milk the planet. Don't be one of those assholes.

And yeah, there are more animal links than human. I think they deserve more than we do.

~beth is currently having an existential dilemma AKA is at "home" in Vegas, the land of the Hummer.

Happy Birthday Emy!!

2008-08-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some onion rings to savour with your milky boozeshakes!!

~ beth loves her wife!

The Indoor Compost Box: A Must Have for Manhattan Girls (And Boys) This Season

2008-08-14T10:15:00.005-04:00

Last week I went to a very long-awaited indoor composting workshop provided by the Lower East Side Ecology Center. I had initially heard about this months ago (September 2007 to be exact), signed up only to be robbed of my worm box by a cancellation due to inclement weather. The following two workshops conflicted with life in general and I went without a worm box. I know this may sound slightly off to those of you who do not have eco-anxiety like I do but Andrew "Recycling Boy" can testify to my broken record declaring that I would be so much better off composting things instead of landfilling them for months now. So when we were shut out of this one, I was about to give up. Thanks to my minx, Dani, who gave me her spot so that my vegetable cuttings and I could have some solace.

Enough with the dramatics, let's get into it. What is a worm box (bin) you might ask? A worm box is a small clear plastic tote with a snap on lid that is outfitted with four air vents. The box is ideal for the placement of worms, their bedding, and your food scraps to create an indoor composting atmosphere. This allows you to put certain food scraps, decaying plant matter, and some paper waste in the box to feed the worms and yield glorious nutrient-rich compost months later called vermicompost. This being in bin form allows those who do not have access or space for full scale outdoor composting to do so in the small space of an apartment.

"One red worm processes half of its own weight in food scraps every day!"

I pride myself on knowing quite a bit about worms. I used to catch them on the farm as a child, throw them in my favorite flowers to try to help them grow, etc. I did not know, however, that the only worms that actually create vermicompost are red worms. The kind bought at the workshop were Eisenia fetida. the bin comes with a pound of worms, roughly 1,000 who all told can power through roughly half a pound of scraps a day, or three and a half pounds of food a week.

You begin with a crafty paper mache feeling leading me to wish I had grabbed the box made in class instead of making it myself. I assembled a bowl of water, three copies of the Village Voice (They print using soy ink. Who knew?), my pound of worms, and a ready-made worm bin from the workshop. After tearing all the papers into long strips, wetting them, then wringing them out, I tried to make some fluffy moist bedding. Then I dumped in the worms onto the top of the bedding leaving the lid off in the light for about an hour so they would be prompted to burrow into the bedding. The instructions asked that the box/bin be kept somewhere between the temperatures of 55 and 75 degrees which might be tough in NYC in July, but I tried to stash it out of direct light in the kitchen. I like composting, but it's not going in my bedroom....

When you decide to when to feed the worms, you can do it daily or once a week depending on what works for you. Things that are in large pieces (think broccoli stalks) should be cut down so they are easier to be eaten by the worms (who do not have mouths, but have gizzards instead). Each time you feed, rotate where you are putting the food and put it under the bedding, adding more bedding as needed. Basically, the worms eat their bedding as well.

Items you can feed your worms: Red worms eat fruit and vegetable scraps, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, and leftover breads and grains. They should not eat meat or fish scraps, dairy, or fatty or oily foods. Vegetables are largely made of water and will keep your box damp, however, you should spritz then bedding with water it it is drying. If the temperature is an issue, you can cool down the box by freezing your scraps then introducing them to the box. I may throw in the occasional ice cube to cool it down in there for the little hermaphrodites.

After my worms burrowed I went to the refrigerator to see what items were waiting for my new little buddies. They got about 6 ounces of blueberries past their ripeness, some chopped tomatoes and lettuce from a forgotten salad, a coffee filter of Fairway's best blend, and a small container of plain brown rice leftover from Asiakan (serious yum). So far so good, they are pampered by the soy ink Village Voice and some lovely colorful nip.

As I learn more about my own worm box and composting there will certainly be troubleshooting updates!

The next Indoor Worm Composting Workshop being held by the Lower East Side Ecology Center is on Tuesday, September 18, 2008 from 6 to 8pm at the Whole Foods (95 East Houston Street). There you can purchase a worm box with worms at a subsidized rate thanks to the Department of Sanitation. To RSVP, email info@lesecologycenter.org

~beth (Who wishes NYC would step it up like SF and have curb-side compost pick ups...)

A Week in San Francisco

2008-08-13T13:52:00.001-04:00

Will bring a good fortune of photos!

~beth

Agoraphobic Cuisine

2008-08-13T01:08:00.001-04:00

Andrew is away on an acoustic adventure in foggy Londontown, therefore, I get to be as agoraphobic as I like and no one can nag me because I don't ever answer my phone. HA! And really, I am more neighoborhoodophobic anyway. However, this means that there is no one to fetch me choice treats from outside this barren wasteland called Central Park North. Damn you, ghetto with no food or civilization that no one will deliver to for fear of getting mugged! So I have to resort to what is already in the apartment and that can be tricky.

There are two items which shine brightly as things I forgot were tasty and now am going to throw back into the regular rotation, Cheerios and Morningstar Farms Philly Cheese Steak Burgers.

As we all know, Cheerios are one of the most basic cereals you can find, without all the crap being put in cereal now and are fantabulous with Vanilla Rice Dream. They provide tons of fiber, which I am addicted to not just a little bit. They also don't get soggy quickly as I have a tendency to walk away from food and forget about it until 20 minutes later. Anyone who is interested in heart health or lowering their cholesterol should have them on their shelf ASAP. They're back in the rotation!

And as for Morningstar Farms Philly Cheese Steak Burgers, those I have loved for a long time. Unfortunately, our apartment has a freezer that I hate and tend to avoid, so I forget what's in there. They have 10g of protein per "burger" which is largely derived from my arch-nemesis, soy. However, they are so tasty that I kind of overlook that fact. And they taste great out of the microwave with just a little sprinkle cheese and either some tomato sauce, salsa, etc. I would make more extraordinary things out of them, but I just cannot be bothered. Not shockingly, when there is no one for me to impress with my culinary skills, I just cannot be bothered. Grrr!

~beth (Who is reminding everyone to recycle! Really, people, it's not that hard.)

What the Hell is Hairy Lemon and Why Can't I Live Without It?

2008-08-12T11:10:00.004-04:00

When my main minx Annika and I went to
Australia and New Zealand in the winter of
2004, presumably to hunt the elusive All
Black, we came upon this fantabulous new
(to us) lemon-flavoured fizzy supplement
called Hairy Lemon. I proceeded to put in
water, diet Coke, tea, etc. I was even tossing
these tabs into vodka tonics. I was a Hairy
Lemon addict and still am to this day.

But what exactly is in Hairy Lemon? Their website lacks my choice of scientific examine, however, in an attempt to find a way to get it short of traveling internationally...I found this quick list.

"Active Ingredient Each Hairy lemon tablet contains: ascorbic acid (vit.C) 250mg, thiamine hydrochloride (vit.B1) 15mg, riboflavine sodium phosphate 20mg, nicotinamide 50mg, calcium pantothenate 25mg Equiv. pantothenic acid (vit.B5) 22.5mg, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vit.B6) 10mg Equiv. pyridxine 8.2mg, cyanocobalamin (vit.B12) 10mcg, biotin 150mcg, paullinia cupana (Guarana) seed dry 240mg Equiv. caffeine 4mg, eleutherococcus senticosus (Ginseng Siberian) root dry 200mg. Contains saccharin. This preparation contains 287.4mg (12.5mmol) per dose of sodium which should be taken into account by those on a low sodium diet. The maximum recommended dose of two tablets daily contains 574.8mg of Sodium."

Guarana, tsk, tsk. What exactly is guarana? AKA Brazillian coaca (which sounds way less sinister, in my opinion) is a South American shrub whose fruit seeds are rich in caffeine (even more than coffee) and other naturally occurring compounds such as tannins. It is widely accepted as a stimulant and is now enjoying favor in some weight loss products claiming to depress appetite and increase metabolic fat use. Due to the very very limited and, in my opinion, dangerous lack of regulation by the FDA in the field of supplements and vitamins, I would never professionally recommend it. It also bears mention that you should use it under medical supervision to avoid health condition and medical interactions as there are many.

So that explains a lot. Hangover cure, indeed! Still a little suspect.... We eventually did find an All Black in the Eden Park parking lot. It was kind of anticlimactic but worthwhile all the same. Prop forward John Afoa was changing a tire there and he was nice enough to take a photo with us. No touching, however, his very suspicious girlfriend was there. Hairy situation...

~beth (Who misses Annika now that she finally made the leap.)

Little Italy Festival

2008-08-11T18:11:00.010-04:00

Friday evening Andrew and I made a run down to Little Italy to see the opening of the Little Italy Festival. It essentially is an excuse to close a few blocks of Mulberry Street "Pedestrian Mall" and eat at the many restaurants there offering, you guessed it, Italian fare. We did not go to eat, we only went to take a few photos before the light completely disappeared... Please to enjoy.

When: The Summer in Little Italy Festival will run every weekend through Labor Day. The hours are Fridays from 6 PM to 11 PM, Saturdays from 11 AM to 11 PM, and Sundays from 11 AM to 10 PM.
Where: The festival will take place along Mulberry Street between Canal and Broome Streets and on Hester Street between Mott and Mulberry Streets. During these weekend hours, Mulberry Street will be closed to vehicular traffic.

~beth

Cleanses In General aka Why You Should Stay at Home This [That] Weekend

2008-08-07T21:30:00.004-04:00

Clearly I have too much time on my hands this summer waiting for school and coaching to start, so I will bring out a photo documentary of a cleanse we did during the winter. And by we, I mean myself and my faithful guinea pig, Andrew. Also, many of my rugby minxes ask questions concerning detoxes/cleanses and how they can use them to kick start diets, so here is one of those "recipes." However, I am quick to say that all detoxes should be done under the care of a trained and certified health professional, not just gleaned from the interwebs...

All recipes are taken from my handy dandy copy of the The Detox Book, by Bruce Fife, N.D. (byline: How to Detoxify Your Body to Improve Your Health, Stop Disease, and Reverse Aging). Fife is a nutritionist, naturopath, and co-director of an alternative health center and The Detox Book is essentially a comprehensive handbook of detoxification therapies, including nutrition, fasting, juicing, oxygen and heat therapies, exercise, and kidney and liver cleansing. I don't subscribe to all of these personally, but it is really hard to give an opinion on detoxes/cleanses without doing one yourself. However, I will try almost anything once and the idea of getting rid of a bunch of waste in my body is enticing.

Initially I chose to do the Liver Cleanse because I think that is one of the organs I abuse the most (not counting my knees), and seeing as it is the largest gland in the body (averaging four pounds!) doing the bulk of my body's natural detoxification, it likely needs a wash out. It is the only organ that receives a double blood supply and despite a fairly good diet, I suspect my blood is kind of crappy. Andrew and I both feel like our metabolism is sluggish and since the liver plays a major role there, we are set on it.

The recipe advises to start the cleanse on a Friday and clear your weekend plans! You should have a non-fat breakfast and lunch on Friday and then eat and drink nothing else excepting water past 2pm (Basically, skip happy hour). Fat stimulates the excretion of bile, and therefore when saved up will cause a larger evacuation later on once underway. Avoid taking any medications or vitamins that you can live without.

At 6pm (Friday), mix 1 tbsp. of Epsom salt with 3/4 cup of water and drink. This is not the most pleasant taste, so feel free to doctor it up with some flavoured vitamin C powder or in my case, some Crystal Light (I doubt it would be Fife's first choice, O well.). Make sure to get all the salt, adding more water if necessary. Do this again at 8pm.

Just before 10pm, right before bed, measure 1/2 a cup of extra virgin olive oil and 1 cup of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice (Thank you, Gourmet Garage!) and mix in a glass with a spoon. With this mixture you want to take 4 L-ornithine capsules which will help you sleep through some of the unpleasantness. Then go immediately to bed! If you follow these directions, you should not feel any pain or discomfort although you may feel things "moving."

You should wake up Saturday after 6am and make a third drink of 1 tbsp. Epsom salt and 3/4 water. Wait literally 2 hours and repeat the Epsom salt and water mixture. After waiting at least another 2 hours, you may go back to eating normally.

So how did it (bed)pan out? Well, Andrew claimed that there really was nothing going on and frankly, seemed bored by the process. The Epsom "salt shakes" wore both of our nerves and gag reflexes. I, on the other liver, had a very quick reaction to the Epsom salt, and was almost to the point of making a little bed in the bathroom well before 8pm on Friday night. I also felt nauseous throughout the night which could have had to do with me cheating a tiny bit with a diet Coke (It will be the death of me!!) around 9pm... I do feel the process cleaned my colon out though.

Fife claims that you will see hundreds of small green (tinted by bile) marble-ish gallstones and liver stones in your movements and that this is natural. I saw none of these and recall avoiding discussing it with Andrew in favor of the couch, a liter of apple Pedialyte, and some Cartoon Network. He also recommends doing his kidney cleanse first (oops), another liver cleanse a week or so later if you feel you still have stones, followed by a colon cleanse in case stones settle there on the way out. Suspect.

Because it would not be a worthy experience without photos and video... ;)

~beth (Who is very proud of her pink coffeemaker!!)

Kittens Against Plastic: Cheeto Beans

2008-08-07T18:24:00.007-04:00

Since his early kittenhood, young Cheeto Beans has shown an affinity for green living with his love of reusable shopping bags. Here he models a green bag from the London Zoo. Makes you want to go adopt one of the bazillions of kittens out there who need homes and well as never use plastic again, doesn't it?

~beth (Who is OCD and lines up all of her spices on the counter by category and fullness of container...)

Ladies Who Lunch: Mary Ann Pants at Campo

2008-07-30T23:47:00.000-04:00

Miss Pants, as I have come to know her (referred to after refusing our internship director's comments on why wearing skirts was preferred for us during orientation), is one of my first minxes. She and I are closer in age than the others (yes, 25) and so we have more things in common having left our initial undergrad days behind a few years sooner than our fellow interns. However, I miss seeing her daily and have lunches of bad and worse hospital food. It is rare that she ventures out of her native Queens so I have to lure her with the promise of potential Italian eats.

We chose to meet at Campo, a "Rustic Tuscan Gathering Place" which had opened on Broadway at 113th Street in early May. Despite the item of hype, the Fried Green Tomato Caprese, there was little other reason for us to go there besides logistics. Needless to say, with our luck working for us as usual, that day they had not placed them on the menu. So we each had some overly priced underwhelming salads, hers of arugula and chicken and mine a version of a Cobb. Also, due to their positioning in the neighborhood of Columbia they had their drink menu named closely to entice young alcoholics with daddy's credit card; we chose to try the Barnard.

Basically, even a nice sunny day could not save this restaurant's boring food, organic hypocracy (breaded monkfish and organic ethics do not mix!), and high prices, however, I was still lucky to have lunch with the very photogenic Miss Pants!

above: The Barnard
above: Chicken and arugula salad
above: Italian dough balls...with honey?

~beth (Who also refused to wear anything but pants! Viva la revolucion!)

So What's This Grad School Business?

2008-07-25T02:08:00.009-04:00

All four people who check in here every few months have noticed that the background color is different...and that after two months I posted something. Hooray, it looks different! Well, with this new stage of life goes a new, although ironic, color. I have decided that clinical nutrition is not for me at this stage. Many of you know the reasons as I have a tendency to talk things out until I resign them to be fact. Therefore, I successfully applied to Pratt Institute's Master's Program in Environmental Systems Management which began about five weeks ago.

My original base major (wager) in college (at Ohio Wesleyan University, Go OWU!) was Environmental Studies and despite the attempt towards each career I have, I end up back knee deep in John McPhee and Jared Diamond books feeling like a douche who needs to do something to save about sixteen species of obscure flora and fauna featured on late night Jack Hanna-type television commercials while simultaneously recycling every single fraction of physical matter I come across. Then I have a breakdown that I am turning into my parents. But I digress...

What in the world does this have to do with food or dietetics or anything I had spent the past 3.5 years and some odd $60K to accomplish? Well...this program does allow me to concentrate in LEED certified kitchen design as well as sustainable agriculture. No one in their right can deny there is a food crisis worldwide and that it is not going to get better any time soon. Therefore, while the Megans may wow you with TPN ditties, tube feeding cruises, or a broad scale clinical explanation of my tortured cholesterol scores (if they find the time), I will be focusing on green food and nonfood topics and my classes with a few restaurant trashes interspersed.

I hope you enjoy. And if you don't, please at least recycle the knowledge.

~beth (Who will use this website to procrastinate homework to the point of destruction and not so secretly would love to be Peter Beard when she grows up.)

Ladies Who Lunch: Ellen at Candle 79

2008-07-24T00:51:00.012-04:00

During a yearlong unpaid dietetic internship you will actually find yourself becoming more conservative by the day. This is why I loved having rotations with Ellen, because she was the one person who might actually have been more conservative than me at any give moment. She totally understood every single thing I would say and she made the best faces when someone was being completely ridiculous. I miss her facial judgments on a daily basis.

We are both in flux between that soul-sucking internship and grad school so we have time to lunch and discuss our very important social lives and such. We decided to go to Candle 79 as it had been voted the Vegetarian Restaurant of 2007 by just about everyone who was deciding such things. Also, it is a Green Certified Restaurant, and since I am going to grad school for this...it seemed right up our alley. The menu was kind of like that of many Southern California places with raw items. After a precise eye roll from Ellen towards our new wavey server, we decided on some drinks, a lunch entrée, and Ellen had some dessert.

The food was interesting...the salad was divine, and I love Ellen's scrowl face!

above: Ginger Rush sake, plum nectar, ginger

above: Wild Fiddlehead Salad

above: Live Zucchini Enchiladas cashew cheese, spinach, guacamole, chipotle tomato sauce, cashew sour cream, pumpkin seeds, baby romaine, tomato-corn salsa

above: Some Special Ice Cream Thing

~beth

Goodbye Florent!

2008-07-23T22:56:00.017-04:00

Literally one month ago my Brooklyn wife, Amy, and I went to see the send off for Gansevoort St. 24/7 iconic restaurant Florent held at Comix. Due to rising rents in the High Line area (Don't get me started on this...Meatpacking District!), it will close after 23 years. There are so few French diners in the world that last a day in the States, let alone 23 years!

There were many amazing acts that wowed us and made wearing such painful hot pink python Marc Jacobs pumps completely worthwhile. One moment it would be intimate to the point of confusion on our part, but then disturbingly entertaining the next. We followed it up with a trip a few blocks away across the bricks to get (literally) a midnight bite.

Where else in the city can you be the only two females within 5 tables of pretty ladies and get a plate of quality pâté for $9? I will be sad to only go to that neighborhood now for lesser things, if anything at all. We fear change.

above: The Dueling Bankheads

above: Varla Jean Merman

~beth ~ Who wishes she were around back during New York City's American Psycho days. Now it's just...pedestrian at best.

Ten Alternative Uses for Coca Cola

2008-07-22T10:38:00.003-04:00

For the month of July I have been in attempts to not have a single bit of soda for the entire month. Not one teensy tinesy drop. Reading this list often of other productive uses for it helps.

Taken from the book 5 People Who Died During Sex and 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists, by Karl Shaw....

This just confirms my feelings on Coke in addition to its being liquid Diabetes...

Ten Alternative Uses for Coca Cola
1. As a spermicide [India]
2. As a pesticide [India]
3. As a toilet bowl cleaner
4. As a windshield washer
5. As a rust-spot remover
6. As a bloodstain remover
7. As a grease-stain remover
8. As a sink cleaner
9. As s meat tenderizer
10. As a wallpaper paste remover

~beth (Who until this month used to make poor little Andrew go fetch diet Coke at random hours.)

Preoccupation Eventually Gets Boring

2008-07-21T23:20:00.005-04:00

Amidst the sea of CU Rugby, Facebook addiction, fractured skulls, beginning grad school and generally being away from the interwebs, I have written nothing substantive. Even the personal statement I wrote for my grad school application was pointless (However, thanks Annika!). I feel like I am under a sea of magazines and books compounded by a fractured skull, helacious humidity, and a depressing economy and environmental outlook...I find myself with tons to write about but no energy to do it. Therefore, I am going to make a decent stab at clearing through some photos and topics promised to myself and others.

Until that takes off, here is a photo of my friend Sarah's posh free range chickens as that is what I owe young Poon, who has asked many times for nutrition information on chicken. Sorry, kiddo.

~beth

Ouch, Starbucks, Ouch

2008-04-25T12:00:00.007-04:00

I am once again ahead of the curve on current events, yet was too lazy to post about it last week... *cough* Bloomingdale's shoe sale *cough* Anyway, I think we all know that when it comes to coffee, Starbucks is rather mediocre but they make it so damn convenient by having one every 3.5 blocks, that you get sucked into the trend. Anyone from the southwest knows that it would be far more enjoyable to lick the inside of a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf filter sheet taken straight from the dumpster than drink a drop of Starbucks premium blend. Here in the east we're kind of confined to that or Dunkin Donuts, which is also overbrewed trash, but I digress. But this week I have to give Starbucks credit for a breakthrough.

So from a logistical standpoint, being in midtown is already enough to make you want to kick baby pigeons and straight arm tourists, so I needed a little caffeine to make it through the shoe department. There is a teensy hidden Starbucks on 57th Street which is usually dead and so I snuck in there thinking I would get a small plain coffee and life would go on. When I got to the counter there was an overweight suburban mom with a visor and knockoff sunglasses buying her obese son a large Frappuccino (Screw their Italian sizes!). I proudly held my tongue although an eye roll might have slipped out, oops. Anyway, I took the time to look at the pastry selection which always amazes me. I am not a sweets person, so when I see people loading up on that stuff like it's crack I wonder what's up with their wiring. But low and behold, I noticed a new tagging system, giving the calorie counts on each item under their names. Sweet Jesus, I said, now this is exciting....especially since many items, even the "lowfat" ones were well over 400 calories per item. There was even one with 520 calories on the tag.

As I get to the counter to order my basic baby coffee, I size up the counter guy. He could have doubled as one of Ludacris's back up dancers and had tons of flair, so I figured he might be approachable and that I could ask him some questions. I asked him if since their re-tagging of the items, have people been buying as many? His face got all animated as he told me that their sales were down by over 50%, that people come in and see the tags and flip out. But he said that just as many others don't read or cannot care. He capped that off with stating, "400 calories? That's like a whole meal. I'm not wasting that on one tiny cupcake." Good man. I left a tip.

The public repeatedly rides the fence, half the time demanding they know nutrition information and the other half denying a need to know. I just think it's nice to see the numbers. Cupcake conspiracy indeed. Don't even get me started on the lemon pound cake. Ouch.

~beth

Happy Earth Day! Now Get Off Your Ass and Make a Change!

2008-04-22T15:05:00.004-04:00

Happy Earth Day! No really.

OK, now that we're done cheering for the earth... There is a concept that bothers me just as much as water wasting, plastic bottles, and automobile reliance. Can we quit with the damn plastic bags already? That has been one of my peeves increasingly over the past few years and it is my Earth Day resolution. I will do everything in my power to not use these bags even if it disgruntles every last grocery store bagger on the planet. What does this have to do with nutrition, you ask? Well, every trip to the grocery you have the options of using your own reusable bags, the store's paper bags (if they have them), or plastic bags. You have the choice to turn down these bags and also, to inform the places you give business that they should rethink their use of plastic.

Some malnutritious facts:

1.2 trillion bags are used per year, averaging roughly 300 per adult on Earth.
1 million bags are used per minute and the average span of use for a bag is twelve minutes.
High density polyethylene bags can take over one thousand years to degrade.
The U.S. alone goes through 100 billion plastic bags, requiring 12 million barrels of oil to produce.

The statistics on landfills and wildlife destruction at the will of the plastic bag litter are equally as staggering. And this is what you rely on to carry home your organic produce and precious snacks? Countries around the world are taxing and banning such bags to try to squelch their prevalence. My former home city of San Francisco even passed a law banning them, so hopefully New York City will follow. First the trans fats, now... Really how hard is it to hit up etsy or just plunk down the change to get a reusable bag at the check out?

And if you are still not concerned enough to start using other options to carry your precious Cheetos and 6-pack home from the corner store, watch this little informative video. Seems that plastic is making a place in our bodies....a fact which is more than a little creepy. Malnutrition indeed!

PLASTIC PLANET: THE CURSE OF THE CARRIER BAG

~beth
*I know "malnutritious" is not technically a word, but it should be!

Oatmeal, Good... Orange Rind, Good...

2008-04-22T09:52:00.006-04:00

In an effort to eat less meat and to also use some of my not-as-limited-as-the-actual-consumer knowledge, I am trying to come up with ways to incorporate more whole grains into my diet. It is strange for the average American woman not to be a bread hound it seems, or in those terms at least not to be a pasta puppy? For some reason I never really developed a taste for starches. I probably could live without bread entirely, I downright don't like white potatoes, and I could go weeks without pasta. Frankly, all these things are only useful to me if they are covered with olive oil or tomato sauce of some sort anyway. Therefore, I am trying to actively fill some of the gaps in my diet left by meat with whole grains.

I have always liked couscous, barley, oats, etc., they just can occasionally be a pain in the ass for someone as lazy as myself to really bother with on a day to day basis. For example, there is this can of stone cut Irish oats that has been sitting on the counter for what I would guess as over six months at this point. So I should probably just cook the damn oats because frankly, I live in Manhattan and I need the counter space, and I do know they have tremendous health benefits, that's why I bought it in the first place. I love me some fibers and manganese! So how can one make this a habit? Oatmeal is one of those foods that if not prepared well, can come out with a taste and texture likened to wallpaper paste.

Then I turned and saw a few nice oranges we had just picked up. Being a kitchen dork with too much time on my hands, that means we all know I attempt to put zest into everything. Well, why not cook it into oatmeal? Orange rind has a compound known as d-limonene in it which holds many cancer fighting benefits. Therefore, lately I have been scrubbing all my oranges (if they were not organic) to get off any residues, pesticides, then zesting them and putting the zest of just about anything I can find. Screw skin cancer! However, dependent upon the variety of orange, the product may be more sweet or more bitter, although still chemopreventive. Therefore, I thought cooking it into oatmeal might tone it down a little....and the addition of a little light brown sugar didn't hurt either.

~beth

Congratulations! Now Have Some Street Meat!

2008-04-14T17:32:00.015-04:00

What does one do directly after passing the R.D. exam? You don't pass go. You certainly don't collect a penny (Quite the opposite to be exact.)... That's right, you indulge in a little street meat. All your currently overloaded knowledge of foodborne illness and Coronary Artery Disease be damned!

Please to enjoy some random photos from the Union Square Street Festival, which is code for "We're going to shut these streets so people can roam and eat otherwise hideously bad for you food." Traffic be damned!

~ beth

Allison's a Celiac. Thaw Out the Steak!

2008-03-28T14:37:00.009-04:00

My token hot bald friend, Allison, is coming to dinner. She also happens to be my token Celiac friend. Anyone who knows what Celiac Disease is, knows it is a colossal pain in the ass and can wreak havoc on the intestines as well as the general day to day life of the person afflicted with it. Basically, she cannot eat gluten, which is a protein found in wheat, barley, oats, and rye....and therefore just about every other processed food on the planet, even including things like envelope glue. The affected person's immune system reacts in attack against a portion of the intestines when gluten is ingested. In light of this, I try to provide her with edible menu options while also leaving stamp licking for my other guests.

Seeing as gluten is in such a large percentage of general menu items, it is easiest to prepare foods for her from whole foods using as few ingredients as possible. Now, while she never gets to pig out on pizzas and pasta (that's what everyone else will be stuck with), she does get choice cuts of meat, fish, cheese, and vibrant fruits and vegetables. Really, I don't want this to sound like one of those Beneful ads on television where you are drooling over the dish of tasty meaty chunks then get confused and embarrassed when they put the dish on the floor for the dog, it looks that good. Anyway, since my house has been meat free for awhile now, I went to dig in the freezer to find some relics of our former diet. I found a lovely London Broil cut steak for young Allison, but now it needed to be thawed. I know how to do this due to the genius that is sanitation certification class, but trust me, not many other people actually do it correctly.

We'll start with freezing, most directly with a little freezer maintenance. Make sure that the temperature is at 0 (zero) degrees Fahrenheit keep any bacteria or mold from growing. This seems to be a common problem, especially with apartment dwellers. If there is an item that has a funky smell or a crystalline blanket if ice, chuck that out, it is not worth the energy it is going to take for you to cook it to deem it too nasty or freezer burnt and then throw it away anyway. There should be no suspect odors coming from your freezer or items in it.

If you need to be freezing things to save them for later rather than buying small quantities to use fresh (My choice!), then avoid freezer burnt items by eliminating as much air as possible. This means either using a freezer-lock bag system or covering the item with heavy duty foil, then placing inside a freezer bag, pushing the air out. Unlike the TSA, I don't liken plastic bags to Kevlar, so you should not as well. If what you put it in there was a bomb of bacteria or meat after its date to begin with, that is going to be the same bomb when you get it out.

Now you are planning on eating an item from the freezer that needs to be thawed. Unfortunately this requires a little bit of planning, because just as it took a long time to freeze your tasty food, it takes much more time to thaw it. You want to check your refrigerator to make sure it is operating at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, then make some space on a low shelf for your item. It should be left in it's packaging and placed in a container that could catch any potential drainage on that bottom shelf. You should expect to leave said item overnight. The general rule is applying to things like turkeys is 24 hours for every five pounds. So Allison's two pound steak got the overnight treatment.

If you recall your mother leaving items out on the counter to thaw and then cooking them up for your tasty dinner, I hate to say it, but that would be a bad bad choice on her part, and here's why. When food sits out, bacteria can play all over it, loving the temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and multiplying copiously. That makes for a tasty old plate of food poisoning for din dins. You should never leave food out on the counter, that's just common sense, but especially no longer than 2 hours. Any bacteria that was present before you froze the food will be ready to go when the temperature rises, trust me. therefore, using the item promptly is important. Ground meat and poultry should be used within a day and whole red meats within three to five days. The longer you wait, the more quality will be lost.

There are other thawing options such as cold water thawing and thawing via the microwave. They require much more care and use of food more quickly. Water thawing can open the item to bacterial damage if the packaging is not waterproof and can also water log the item as well. And microwaving can produce an uneven thaw and even cook parts of the item being thawed. Depending on the quality of the item, these can really not give you the same effect as time and refrigeration. All in all, you have multiple options to get the job done. Happy thawing!

~beth
*Continued good luck to the CUWRFC! Don't forget the green beans and never fake it!

No, Peeps Are NOT Food. Now Carry On.

2008-03-26T16:46:00.004-04:00

I know, it's fun to taunt your local dietitian about whether marshmallow Peeps are actually food. Do a google search to obtain their ingredients if genuinely want to know, but my answer will be the same as if you ask me if McDonald's or Twinkies are food, an emphatic "No."

~ beth
No, I would never feed the Meer Brothers Peeps! there are dried cod treats shoved in the back of them. Joyous Easter Peep Carnage!

Feeling Small And Helpless? Read This.

2008-03-26T14:44:00.006-04:00

I am finding it hard to generally function on a daily basis (not because I am staring down this ineffectual R.D. exam), but instead because I feel like the choices I am making are not impacting the world, or more specifically, the environment. I'm in no way a dirty hippie, but I grew up on a nonworking farm where we did not waste water or food or electricity, where we grew a majority of what we ate, and we composted and recycled. Now I live in the city where people lap the block in their cars for status in a city with a subway, there is a litter of water and other bottles on each corner, and chicken bones regularly crunch under your feet if you don't look down when you walk down my block. A stark comparison, yes, but it does at least make me feel like I should be doing more to make up for it. This, of course, makes me want give a wake up call to everyone around me, but apparently American society at large does not care so much.

So here's is a topic from an organic nutrition standpoint that the average person might want to check out and ultimately the to help make a dent. You cannot live without it...

Water! Yes, we all know we need water to live, but if any of you heard any statistics this past March 22, aka World Water Day, you might tighten up that two shower a day policy, turn the water off when brushing your teeth, and generally stop watering/washing everything in sight. One of the biggest consumer impacts you could make would be to stop buying so much bottled water. The other day I was picking up some necessities at my local Tarjay and the woman in front of me in line was going on and on about how the case of "baby" water bottles she was purchasing was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. Really? That's the capstone? She's right, those bottles are probably way cuter than all those African kids with the swollen malnutrition bellies and flies on their faces who have no water at all. Well played, Tarjay lady. Yes, I did see her loading her plastic shrine into an SUV five minutes later, but I digress.

Here are some facts about her precious bottled water: "A person can live weeks without food, but only days without water. A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive. The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day, and the average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day." Yes, we concede the body needs water, but does it need that mountain of plastic that seems to go along with it? Due to our addiction to bottled water, 38 billion bottles a year end up in landfills. I guess they're not so cute when they're empty, huh? Get a reusable bottle and find something other than the fact that your water came from Fiji to get psyched about already. And just because you have access does not mean you should abuse it, and in that vein, that you always will have access. Take the minute and a half to figure out how much you're using, then make an active decision to use less.

Another huge consumer impact is made when you choose not to purchase meat. Fast food companies and meat lobbyists pay billions of dollars a year to keep y'all yearning for meat, but frankly, it shouldn't be what's always for dinner. Digestive purposes aside, the fact that it takes the farmed animal industry approximately 5,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat and only 25 pounds to produce one pound of wheat is a hard one to stomach. You don't even have to think animals are cute or that they feel pain or have feelings to wrap your brain around that one. That means you could in theory, eat one pound of meat or have a year's worth of showers. And then if you push one step further and take into account that it averages approximately 13 pounds of wheat or grain to produce one pound of edible beef (not bone), your mind might explode. I know what I'd pick...a lot less meat in my diet.

Even if you cannot give up meat completely, you certainly can choose to eat less of it, just think how logically thirst-quenching it could be. That would be way more water you could drink from your tap instead of from a plastic bottle. Because if you are still going to choose to eat anything it is going to have to be farmed on land not filled with plastic bottles... See, this is how all the dots can be connected and I can make myself feel once again as though my personal choices have an impact, as would everyone else's. Enough for now, my high horse and I are thirsty.

~beth

I Heart DanActive. Here's Why...

2008-03-25T12:52:00.018-04:00

Let's face it, dietitians tend to believe that food-based nutrients can be as genuinely supplemental to health as most medications. So when this wave of "Let's poop!" dairy-based yogurt-like probiotic products came out, they needed to be taken seriously....at least by us. At the end of the day, who doesn't want to clean themselves out? Waste equals weight. Previously we had acidophilus capsules, aloe vera, and a few bales of broccoli to do the job, but now once a day incorporating a small serving of these products instead? I had to try it, so I could at least answer the basic questions that one out of three people who know what my degree is in are going to ask.

Before we get into the gut to gut comparisons, some background information. What are probiotics? To short word this one, probiotics are bacteria that can help maintain the balance of the intestinal tract. As mentioned earlier, the most well known bacteria is Lactobacillus acidophilus, found in yogurt. These different strains of bacteria can be introduced in the diet to regulate the gut and make it more functional. While they may help in aid to a host of digestive issues, they can also cause allergic reactions and other side effects, so they should be monitored while in use.

I chose the three most commercial products to try: Activia, DanActive, and Yo-Plus. I judged them initially on texture and taste, followed by other aspects of convenience cross-referenced with their actual merit on improving my digestion. Their websites all show extensive scientific testing, etc., but frankly, if it tastes nasty, it's useless to me.

First, I tried Activia. Frankly, they were the frontrunners with their overly catchy theme music (Think "Hot Pockets" or "By Menon."), their aggressive "challenge" advertisements and using Jamie Lee Curtis as a spokesperson which makes me think of the some of her better work, etc....snowball effect, I'm trying it first. Sadly, it was fairly less than homogenized and gloppy and I did not even make it through the 4-pack of containers, let alone the challenge time... Icky. It did nothing for my taste buds (horrible fake sugar taste) or my digestion, although I would not have ingested as much as as was stated (two weeks) it would take to see a difference. This product was also panned by Andrew "The Yogurt Lover" at breakfast. If that kid won't eat it, trust me, there's something wrong with it. Sorry, Activia, you lose, even with your challenge rebate of freeness.

Second, I tried DanActive. They boast to have "more than 10 billion live cultures per bottle, including Dannon's exclusive L. casei Immunitas(TM)." Now why wouldn't I want that? Exclusive, trade-marked bacteria? Sign me up! The other thing I liked about this product is that it is a drink, kind of like a slightly fruity double shot of live bacteria. There is no spoon required. Pesky, time-consuming spooning is a such a plague with modern foods. And the container tossed easily in my recycling bucket; It gets major points for the convenience and green aspects. It also came in 8-packs which insured I would have enough to last a full week (one per day). But did it work? Why, yes it did! And only after two days, holy regulation, Batman! This is a product I would recommend, clearly. However, when I stopped using it, my digestive system lapsed back to its former sluggishness in about a week. It claims many aids to immunity, which frankly sound delightful, but in reality you are going to see basic changes just by cleaning out your intestines. Any time you rid yourself of toxins, you have a win-win situation.

Lastly, I tried Yo-Plus. Even though I already had an active love with DanActive, it seemed my local grocery was not ready for the run on it and one day I found myself without, and there was no way I was going to gag back any Activia. Yoplait had long been my favourite yogurt until their recent ad campaign featuring annoying women debating what kind of good the yogurt actually was (I broke my mute buttons on these hags.), so I felt it merited a taste test. It is the most like yogurt of the three, but it definitely has the shortest shelf life. One of the containers in the 4-pack was already molding by the time I got it out to eat. Some aggressive bacteria, indeed, although more likely a commentary on the ghetto quality of my local Fine Fare. This product tasted the most like a smooth creamy yogurt, so it got points there. And even denying the one moldy bit, it was easy to stick to three days of it, although no dent was made in my digestion. Then when I returned to get more, it was nowhere to be found. Back to DanActive.

So, in the great spirit of consumerism and choice, I would have to say that DanActive does make good on my digestion. I would recommend it only to healthy adults without medical conditions, of course, and each person's gut is, of course, different, as are their taste buds, so choose accordingly.

~beth

New 3 Train Cat Blog from Moi

2008-03-12T16:04:00.002-04:00

So...we have gotten a little lazy here in Foodland. I even stole that last sentence from two posts ago, that's how lazy it's gotten. It's all that time spent studying...or better yet, avoiding nutrition related topics altogether in a last ditch procrastinatory effort to do Lord knows what instead. So instead we will get to delve into the microcosm of NY public transit explored on 3 Train Cat. It's completely different, but still fiendishly written.

~beth

Busy Times Call For Cute Cupcake Photos!

2008-01-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

Due to some pending nuptials and new jobs, this blog has not gotten the fabulous effort and attention which it deserves. Therefore, a friend sent a cute little deer to remind us to get back at it already!

New Scrumptious Food Blog from Miss Kim

2007-12-13T12:56:00.001-05:00

So...we have gotten a little lazy here in Foodland. It's all that time spent studying...yeah, right! Anyway, we have found other little blogistas who appreciate food too! Check out Scrumptious Photography to catch some, well, let's face it, drool on your chin and also a lovely photo of pickles taken by yours truly.

Restaurant Review ~ Community Food & Juice

2007-11-08T12:53:00.001-05:00

On November 2^nd I received an email forward (Thanks Becca!) touting the addition of yet another brunch stop in Morningside Heights, this time claiming quality baking and all organic ingredients with a focus on comfort food gone eco-gourmet. “Wow,” I said, “This place seems to have hit the hilt on the list of potential current trends.” I love businesses being socially conscious as much as the next former tree hugger, but lately it seems like the quick way to cash in without having much thought towards the actual finished product. So we decided to check it out, wisely choosing to go on a weekday rather than a weekend.

Overall look, feel…Is it worth the price? ~ First of all, decide on one name and stick to it. Either it is “Community Food & Juice” or it is “Community Restaurant.” At this point the two are not separate and it says one thing on the windows and another in the media, so.… The décor is nice and light and sunny with the entire front the restaurant utilizing the floor to ceiling windows/doors. The space boasts to be designed in accordance with the Green Restaurant Association Environmental Guidelines for sourcing and use, which is nice. There is a large dark wood bar which looks kind of out of place with the otherwise light color scheme and the open kitchen seems to not fit in the scheme as well being tucked in the back at an odd angle. The layout just seems ill proportioned and poorly aligned. But as I was sitting in the front next to a window, I just ignored all of that. I got to watch the restaurant get a citation for trash on the curb from two of New York’s finest, the unloading of organic fruits from Riverside, CA, which doesn’t scream “locally sourced” to me, and a number of other events.

Service ~ The service is not even a week in the making and is therefore going to be not as polished during training phases as one would expect in an established restaurant, but it was almost worse than it should have been even with the exceptions. There were just so many staff there wandering around looking awkwardly for things they should be doing not sure who should be doing what. The hostess was agreeable which was nice. The server was personable, but really dropped the ball on a few things that will make or break a breakfast/brunch location. When someone orders coffee, it should not take more than 5 minutes to get it on the table. When it his the 4 minute mark (Yes, I’m that finicky in the morning.), I asked the young man who kept refilling our water with unparalleled diligence if we could have our coffee. He wasn’t sure, so he went over to a small group of cheerfully bored looking servers in the back if we could have it. A few minutes later, we got some coffee. This is how the rest of the service experience would play out: plenty of water but asking multiple people multiple times for ketchup, butter, milk, etc. Luckily, we did not have to ask for the check, which was nicely delivered when our plates were cleared.

Food…the MOST important part of all! ~ I ordered the Veggie Scramble made with egg whites, market vegetables, and avocado slices served with 7-grain toast, a side order of double cut bacon, bruleed ruby red grapefruit, and coffee. The scramble was exceptionally boring; the only thing giving some taste was the cauliflower. The eggplant tasted very salty as if it had not been rinsed properly. The peppers and onions had little taste as if they had been cooked too long and avocado slices were crunchy. I am all about using ingredients in season, so don’t go the extra mile to include something if it is not ripe enough to serve. I had ordered the bacon soft and it came out crunchy which 9 times out of 10 means it’s getting sent right back. But the young Andrew traded me his Canadian bacon for it, so it was not an issue.

Both of our meals included breakfast potatoes which were very pretty, but completely without taste. There were three ramekins of gourmet ketchup delivered by there different people which would have solved the problem excepting that it was so sweet that it overwhelmed the potatoes entirely. The highlight was the bruleed ruby red grapefruit which was not really bruleed but was excellent all the same.

As for the inclusion of Clinton St.’s famed baked goods, I didn’t see what all the hype was about. The 7-grain bread made for a horrible toast as it was so dense that it was cold in the center and did not really accept the butter or jam offered to us in little ramekins lined up on the table. Andrew enjoyed his biscuit, but noted that he likes biscuits largely because “they really remind me of scones, and I like a good scone.” I think he was just slightly stoned on the raspberry jam.

All in all I would recommend that this place has another three to 6 months to iron out their growing pains. This was a soft opening and you shouldn’t really expect greatness but there were too many detractors. The restaurant offered 15% discount on the check for their opening week patrons. That was thoughtful, it almost covered the cost of my $6 half a grapefruit.

Community Food & Juice

2893 Broadway, between 112th and 113th Streets

212-665-2800 or communityrestaurant.com

~beth

Halloween is coming and if you’re in South Carolina, for god’s sake, grease your shingles

2007-10-30T11:48:00.001-04:00

I love Halloween. I can safely say that it is one of, if not the only holiday I celebrate with wild abandon. That said, there is no quicker way to end the party than to overdose on piles of mini candy bars and candy corn washed down with “seasonal drinks” often filled with "buttered" rum or “punch” and then fall asleep on a couch still dressed as a less than stealth ninja.

And then there is that hangover…worse than a typical hangover because you threw that extra dime store orange plastic pumpkin full of sugar down your throat. And yes, because it is Halloween, you rationalize that it is totally worth it, but that doesn’t make your head hurt any less the next morning. Well, why don’t you try gearing up for the nights of partying with the same strategy that scored you that costume that your friends can’t figure is a werewolf, the rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or even you under a pile of makeup and hair. Make a plan and stick to it to the best of your ability.

Begin about a week ahead of festivities making sure you are properly hydrated. Take a genuine interest in becoming a water bottle junkie and avoid drinking alcohol in excess if at all. Water molecules are required in the metabolism of alcohol, so it is easy to become dehydrated quickly leading to dizziness and balance issues followed by that seriously fun headache then next morning. This is especially likely to happen if you were not well-hydrated prior to those tasty drinks, which you really may want to limit to one per hour to give your body a better chance to cope. Increased urination will magnify a loss of electrolytes, so drink mineral water in between rounds.

Going out on an empty stomach can only make the impending hangover worse. Your digestive system needs something to do to slow down that alcohol metabolism. Having a solid meal (Think meat and potatoes!) in your stomach will lessen gastric irritation and allow you to last longer through the night and be less likely to gobble all sorts of candy or munchies through the night. Warm drinks, sugary drinks and champagne metabolize the fastest and should be avoided. Vodka and gin have the least concentration of congeners, by-products of termination and distillation, and should be chosen before drinks with wine, rum, tequila, or scotch. Unfortunately for the body, the higher the concentration of congeners, the more intense the hangover.

So you may or may not have prepared your body for the haunted forest that is a hangover, here’s how to deal with it. Before you go to bed, drinking an electrolyte replacement drink is a good idea to replace electrolytes and attempt to correct the body’s fluid balance. Having this next to your bed is also advisable in case you wake up thirsty. Avoid taking ibuprofen or other painkillers as they will irritate your stomach. If you can eat, have a hearty breakfast with some bouillon if possible. Anecdotally, I recommend a chicken or beef ramen cup to sooth the stomach and regain electrolytes. Avoid coffee as it will make the stomach more acidic and prolong digestive discomfort due to tannic acid. If you must have a warm breakfast beverage, opt for green tea. If your stomach is feeling normal, the big breakfast is just right. Eggs, bacon, and toast will help to absorb excess acid in the stomach and fuel you for your hangover bounce back.

And don’t forget you should finish where you started: Hydrate!

Happy Halloween!!

~beth

Oral surgery: The (not so) quick way to lose (but not really) 10 pounds

2007-10-18T23:59:00.000-04:00

If getting your wisdom teeth pulled doesn't sound like your idea of an fun-filled Monday afternoon, I'm going to bet it's because you haven't considered the fantastic nutritional side effects of said procedure. Pureed diet? Bring it on. At least that was my attitude before the oral surgeon had at my mouth...

So you guessed it. I got my wisdom teeth extracted. All four of them. At once. All impacted. The oral surgeon gave me the typical spiel about "pudding, applesauce, mashed potatoes." I, in my ignorance, thought that as a nutritionist, I should be able to write the book on this kind of stuff. This is a mechanical soft diet. I prescribe them all the time. Might as well get a taste of my own medicine.

Suffice to say, I was not prepared for the pain. Let's not dwell on how it still felt like a jackhammer was pounding inside my jaw by post-op day 10. Eating was more than a challenge. I started my first night (with gauze still packed in the freshly gouged holes in the back of my mouth) with half-melted ice cream, the only thing I could get into my mouth without wanting to call Dr. Kevorkian. The next morning, my pain induced coma kept me in bed until the early afternoon, at which point I tried to have some oatmeal. Bad choice. While delicious under normal circumstances, all that soluble fiber stickiness attached itself to my stitches, and I wasn't about to go spelunking to get it off. For the next few days, pudding was my best friend. That chocolate deliciousness slipped right down the gullet, no problems. Not exactly nutritionally sound, but at that point I was looking for calories any way I could get them. Four days post-op was potroast night, and it smelt so delicious that I couldn't not eat it. I chopped it up as small as I could and swallowed it whole. The mashed potatoes were easier. The corn, not so much.

So here are my survival tips to get through any sort of oral surgery/extraction/other dental torture without swearing off food altogether:

-Stick to semi-liquid foods the first two days: Think milk shakes (even pudding is too thick for now), but pour them into your mouth off a spoon, since no straws are allowed! Puckering your mouth hurts like a mo fo and can tear your sutures out.
-You need protein to heal up your mouth. Stick to tender meats (flaky fish are great) and cut them up. When you think the pieces are small enough, cut them some more. Better than pureed chicken, that's for sure.
-Get some Vitamin C for wound healing from some OJ. Easy to pour down your throat, but try not to swirl it around your mouth. The acidity could sting your "holes," as the dental profession responsible for their existence so lovingly refer to them.
-Tender cooked veggies are easy to mash up and get down, and the vitamins and minerals will help you heal more quickly. Boiling may be your best option, but if you'd like to retain more vitamins, just steam them to death.

One way to prolong your suffering: Chew with your front teeth. I thought I was helping myself out by keeping any food I ate away from my holes, but my oral surgeon let me know that by chomping away with my incisors, I was straining my jaw and extending my torment longer than necessary. Just deal with the fact that once you can tolerate moving your jaw more than a fraction of an inch to chew, you are going to stash away half of every mouthful in those holes. Gargling gets most of it out and lets you enjoy every meal at least one and a half times.

I ended up losing 5 pounds over the course of the two weeks of intense pain and "functional capacity affecting intake," as we in the clinical field call circumstances like these. I would hardly classify myself as malnourished, and I gained all the weight back when I started eating again. So if you're looking for a (not so) quick way to lose (but not really) 10 pounds, I've got a great oral surgeon for you.

Chocoholic Benefits / Dagoba Review, by Emy

2007-09-19T16:46:00.004-04:00

Very rarely do I eat chocolate, but when I do, I like it to be good and usually dark. Therefore, I tend to give friends and family good chocolate sometimes for presents. If I am going to give them some sort of confection, I want it to be a healthy one. Chocolate, especially kinds with high amount of pure cocoa, or dark chocolate varieties, are filled with flavonoids (flavonols are specific to cocoa) which are powerful plant substances that have a strong antioxidant effect on the body. These flavonols can contribute to a heart healthy effect by lowering blood pressure and curbing the risks of cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that antioxidant effects can be seen in the reduction of LDL-cholesterol culminating in a decrease in arterial plaque.

Now while [especially] dark chocolate is good for you, that doesn't mean you should throw care to the wind and storm the Hershey's factory. Chocolate is still high in sugar and calories, and should be enjoyed in moderation. There is no serving size information to couple with the studies relaying the health benefits. Choose dark chocolate varieties over milk chocolates (higher in fat) and look for brands which have been less processed. This way you will get the best benefits as over processing can strip the flavonoids from the finished process, as they are are what gives chocolate its pungent taste in the form of polyphenols. Basically, learn to appreciate real, less processed dark chocolate like you would a fine wine.

For this present I needed to get a whole carton of small presents together for the belated birthday of my S.F. wife, Emy, so I threw in a Dagoba organic dark chocolate bar for good measure asI knew she would get it at her office and would most likely need some sort of carbohydrate boost to make it to the end of the day. The rest is in her own words.

"It was with trepidation that I took my first nibble of the organic bittersweet dark chocolate bar sent to me so kindly by my wife. I don't know why I was so worried, as she generally knows what's best for me, and has yet to lead me astray. I generally don't condone that which is either too dark (coffee without creamer) or too bitter (shots of Fernet Branca), and don't get me started on organic. I went to Berkeley and those organic-loving hippies are about to single-handedly ruin Cal's football team by refusing to stop living in a grove of trees near the stadium.

Furthermore, the label reads "new
moon 74%", and such astrological
references led me to believe I'd be
fortunate if this thing didn't taste
more of patchouli than of chocolate...
But I digress. Despite all indications to the contrary, I liked it. It's not the sort of thing I'd eat in a sitting, but half a square as a quick pick-me-up with my afternoon coffee would be pleasant. Further, I'm pretty sure it would be fabulous in baking, very creamy (which surprised me since I often conflate organic with vegan, my mistake), and it has a good strong chocolate flavor. -Emy"

*This post is semi-dedicated to my former neighbor Megan T., who used to pretend to be surprised when I would slip these chocolate bars under her door at 6:30am in the morning.... ~beth

Restaurant Review ~ Saigon Grill

2007-09-19T15:04:00.000-04:00

I often go to dinner with my girl Chinky (yes, that’s her chosen nickname) and now that she is getting her Master’s in Nutrition at NYU, we tend to eat more down there. Just having moved from that area in July, I know the restaurants there pretty well. Therefore, we decided to meet at Saigon Grill as it is typically a safe bet. Unfortunately for us, though, the labor dispute that began in March 2007 still seemed to be raging on in front of the restaurant steps. The almost thirty protesters fled as police arrived just in time for us to get a table, frankly at that hour we were too tired to figure something else out.

Overall look, feel…Is it worth the price? ~ The décor of the restaurant is attempted nightclubesque and Asian themed with a large open room with booths and tables behind a full bar with tables situated at the front of the building. It is a fairly large restaurant. We opted to get a small booth behind the bar to be close to the bar, yet away from any lurking protesters. Like most restaurants in the area, the prices are above average; high enough to make you think you are having an adult dinner yet low enough to entice students to spend their parents’ money there. It is supposed to be a Vietnamese restaurant but the dishes steer towards a general generic Asian fair.

Service ~ The service is always a sore point in this place. Of course, you are welcomed in graciously by the hosts because you have almost broken picket lines to get inside. This is nice because before their labor issues, the hostesses were a real bitch to deal with in general, even if the restaurant was not busy. Once we were seated, one of the black clad super robotic waiters brought us water and took our drink order. When he brought us out drinks, we ordered appetizers. He was visibly annoyed that we had not chosen entrees yet and left the table in a huff, muttering. A few minutes later we waived him down again to order the rest of our meal. He stopped to explain the ingredients of the meal to Chinky, which did not go well since she can actually read and was really more focused on her Lychee martini instead of dealing with the server. The phrase, “I’m half Asian, I know what curry is,” may have been dropped.

My soup was brought to me very quickly but Chinky’s spinach dumpling appetizer failed to appear. They often bring out dishes as they are ready there instead of in course groupings so we figured it would just show up later. Five minutes passed and what did show up was our dinner. Chinky flagged down our server and asked him why she had not gotten the dumplings only to be told that she had not ordered them. I told him that she clearly had, he argued it, I stuck with my point, and he went away muttering under his breath in Vietnamese. Chinky was not amused. I think she was more offended that he did not notice that she needed drink refills on a regular basis. We were sitting next to the bar for a reason, but anyway…

Food…the MOST important part of all! ~ The food was the same as always, which is why we go there. Not terribly authentic but completely consistent. My hot and sour shrimp wonton soup was very nice with tons of mushrooms and pineapple chunks. My plum wine was…plum wine. I have ordered Bo Luc Lac (beef chunks cooked stir fried served with salad greens, tomato slices, brown rice, and fish sauce) about 15 times and it is always the same: good and beefy. Chinky’s Royal Seafood Curry was very nice, I was having order envy, but she gave me some bites and some noodles so that was close enough. Next time, that will have to be what I get, it is very good.

Overall, the consistency of the food is why we go back to this place. They have their labor issues which they should sort so they can deliver again before it gets colder, and the in house service is fairly weak in a robotic yet bitchy way, but until they stop making that soup, I think that we will eat there.

Vietnamese

Neighborhood: NYU, Union Square

91 University Place (between 11^th & 12^th)

New York, NY 10003

~beth

I ♥ Cilantro

2007-09-18T15:41:00.000-04:00

Some of my former fellow interns may think this is a post about Cilantro the restauarant, the site of our graduation day intern lunch, where the margaritas are strong, the plantain chips are endless…. And while I do love that place (Hornitos, please!), this is about cilantro the herb.

Cilantro is also known as Chinese Parsley or Coriander and is a member of the carrot family (vital information!). It is a staple of Mexican, Caribbean, and Asian cooking and has a distinctly pungent flavor and odor which if used incorrectly can overpower a dish. This is one of the reasons it is not found in European cooking despite its growth in the wild of southern Europe. The Chinese used to believe the herb brought immortality and it has been considered an aphrodisiac since the days of the Arabian nights.... Get in!

This herb is available year-round in the grocery store, so there is no real excuse for not adding it to meals in lieu of other salty or fat filled condiments. It is great in all tomato based recipes and gives bold tastes to stir fries and salads. It is said to have medicinal use as an appetite stimulant that curbs cholesterol, and has antibacterial qualities when used externally.

Cilantro can be easily grown in a pot…in say, even a small Manhattan kitchen. It grows quickly and can be used in everyday cooking to keep the plant fresh of bolting (early seeding through flowering). Basically, if the flavor agrees with you, it is great. If it doesn't...don't eat what I cook. ;)

~beth with her girls, Megan F. and Jatonamous at the NYP August 2007 Intern Graduation Lunch

Juniata County Fair Photos

2007-09-18T12:38:00.000-04:00

I know this was a few weeks back and that you have all been holding your breath for these, but if we pretend we aren’t in the digital age, this would be right about the time I would get my film back…or something like that.

Andrew, Becca, and I went to visit her parents and also stopped by the juggernaut that is the Juniata County Fair. No flora or fauna were harmed in these photos…well, except maybe that butternut squash. But that’s a post for Becca, not for me. Enjoy….

~beth

Padma Lakshmi’s Groceries Are As Boring As She Is

2007-09-18T12:10:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has ever watched Bravo’s Top Chef for more than ten minutes can clearly state that the person with the least personality on the show is also the person who looks like she actually ingests the least amount of food…and that would be show presenter, Padma Lakshmi. She really should have stuck to her original claim to fame as India’s first supermodel and left speaking parts to those who can conjure up actual working commentary. Let’s just say that her grocery list published on Fresh Direct is as boring as she is.

Also, it begs the question of whether this is a post Salman Rushdie list or not (Lakshmi recently "packed her knives and went" for Top Chef Tom Colicchio...?). Was he the one serving up the Stonyfield Farm’s baby yogurt every morning? Was that what drove her to another man’s arms? Probably not, but that is how boring the grocery list is.

Yes, it is obvious that Fresh Direct, who is using the lists in cross promotion of different celebrities and their services, would never post anything racy or less than organic on their website. But come on, give us something worth clicking on here people. I want to know that Kelly Clarkson only eats chicken nuggets and rum raisin ice cream with her Vitamin Water. I want to know that 50 Cent has an Entenmann's addiction bordering on Type II Diabetes. I want to know that Tiki Barber orders Chef Boyardee Spaghettios by the case…. Come on.

*If you happen to be a celebrity and need help grocery shopping or even just making the list, I'm your girl. For serious. ~beth

Restaurant Review ~ Caffe Swish

2007-09-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

In an effort to find a place above Midtown which has decently priced sushi that doesn’t taste like fish ass on a three day layover, we decided to try Caffe Swish. The online reviews were more than mixed, warning of poor service and unimaginative dishes, but frankly, just a solid spicy tuna roll would be like a breath of fresh air right now in the wasteland of chicken bones that is Central Park North. This place is a staple of the Columbia Business School crowd, so how bad could it be?

Overall look, feel…Is it worth the price? ~ The décor of the restaurant is nice enough but typical: high ceilings, light hardwood, small tables and booths, fake corn cobs on the wall behind glass, outside seating…. The prices are not terribly high; high enough to make you think you are having an adult dinner yet low enough to entice students. When we came in there was an unidentifiable smell in the air, and it wasn’t a good one. Also, the bathrooms were pretty foul. I hate restaurants with foul bathrooms. Come on people, it really is not that hard to mop up once a day and toss in some fresh tissue. Right….

Service ~ The service was robotic and dismissive from the moment we walked in the door. The “hostess” was certainly NOT a part time model or even the mother of a part time model, and she was more than rude. This led me to hope that the food would be good. Eventually we were shoved in a small table in a corner next to the opening to the outdoor patio, where we asked not to sit due to the chill finally hitting Manhattan. Our server seemed appalled that I asked for light rice on the sushi rolls and he either thought I was joking or disregarded it altogether. It took more than five minutes to get their standard hot tea, the sushi rolls came before the soup, our server forgot a roll, and our table was so small that we had to consolidate dishes to fit things. The only thing that was fetched with some sort of pertinence was the check.

Food…the MOST important part of all! ~ Well, let’s just say that I have not spit out food into a napkin while at the table since 2002. As I noted earlier, if a place has a solid spicy tuna roll, a lot can be accomplished there. Caffe Swish’s spicy tuna…kind of like tuna paste, not spicy, and certainly not good. The tea was weak, the rolls all were coated in sauces and mayonnaises which were not listed on the menu, and the food came out of order. The only good thing we got out of 4 rolls and soup was the Hot & Sour Prawn Soup. However, if you are going to say “with Prawns” there should be more than 2 of them in a large bowl. The other rolls: the Volcano, the Lobster Mango, and the Sushi Bullet were all fairly disgusting, the last of which got spit into a napkin. Even the young Andrew would not eat it. Our server did not even care that we mentioned how bad it was. I hope he enjoyed cleaning up that napkin then.

Overall, if the food was good I would go back, but it really really wasn’t. The soup has the best chance of being ordered by delivery as it was cheap and decent and Saigon Grill won’t deliver here (I don’t blame them). Overall, I give it zero out of three possible points. Back to the drawing board.

Japanese, Sushi, Thai fusion

Neighborhood: Manhattan/Morningside Heights
2955 Broadway (between 115^th and 116^th)
New York, NY 10025

~beth

The Mythical Legend Known As “Bacon Dinner”

2007-09-17T16:32:00.000-04:00

“Bacon Dinner” grew out of a stifling August night in a kitchenette on the Lower East Side. It began in the market, while searching for foods palatable to people who loathed vegetables and vegetablekind to make a full dinner. The scarcity of items led to the realization the bacon should probably just be included in every dish, therefore rendering the vegetables bacon-like in their greatness and acceptable to all who would dine on them. Therefore, two 1 pound packages of thick-cut Boar’s Head Brand cured bacon were placed lovingly in the basket with some other ingredients, all of which would become what we now know as “Bacon Dinner.”

The main course would be a variation on this meal called “Monterrey Chicken” served at the horrid and now defunct chain restaurant where I waitressed in college. Only with this preparation, the bacon would not be there to accessorize the bird, it would take over the plate to make it an experience. The bacon is cooked first, not to a crisp, but to a medium, then set aside. Hands will be slapped if they try to steal any of the bacon goodness, it is understood. The chicken is then browned in the nice bacon juices and kept on warm in wait for the other bits and bobs to be finished.

All the while sweet potatoes are being sliced to millimeter thinness to be tossed on medium heat with sliced Vidalia onions, a chunk of butter, and about a 1/3 pound of glorious bacon to cook and meld together. The bacon juices from the chicken are then added. Also, green beans are being steamed with some slices of chopped up bacon for flavor, or rather to make them taste less like beans and more like bacon.

Lastly, a tossed salad is put together made of crispy Romaine hearts, tomato wedges, green onions, crisped bacon bits, and a snappy French dressing ("Briana's"). The chicken is laid on plates and topped with bacon strips, sprinkled with cheddar cheese, chopped tomatoes, chopped cilantro, and green onions. There is spicy barbecue sauce and Tapatio on the side for dipping.

The hot August air of the small apartment would not be noticeable to those sitting down to the bacon feast. Bacon had been infused into all four parts of the meal, beginning the legend which would only be celebrated in the most important of settings. The apartment would smell for days like this feast of pork and all who are lucky enough to consume it remain giddy for days with joy that only bacon brings.

That is just a small look into the legend that is bacon dinner. It has only been replicated once since and no, there is not a recipe to be given out.

*Dedicated to my one and only "Bacon Dinner" sous chef, my S.F. "wife" Emy... ~beth

Maruchan Instant Lunch Can Cure Anything That Ails You, I Swear

2007-09-17T15:09:00.000-04:00

Anytime anyone is sick or hung over or generally just feeling like ass, I always tell them the same thing. They should immediately get a liter or two of water, a handful of vitamin C, and a chicken flavored ramen soup cup. It will literally cure anything that ails you, at least conditions within reason.

The water will take away dehydration as a factor. Dehydration can cause lethargy, dry mouth, decreased urine output, thirst, muscle weakness, dizziness, and headaches. All of these symptoms can make whatever else is wrong with you feel about a million times worse. If your stomach can handle it, push the water. If your stomach cannot handle it, have fluids like ginger ale or Pedialyte which will be easier on your stomach but still hydrate you adequately. I know that Pedialyte is for kids, but I don't care, it comes in sippy bottles. You could put diesel fuel in a sippy bottle and there is a good chance I would give it a swig. But I digress...

Vitamin C is thought by many to be a cure all of sorts. It is a water soluble vitamin which means that you cannot technically overdose yourself on it. Various studies have shown that taking small doses of the vitamin throughout the day is the key to increased absorption rather than taking one megadose. For example, take four to five 250 mg doses of vitamin C at different times rather than one large 1000 mg dose in the morning. And as always, there are a large number of foods loaded with vitamin C, but if you are feeling like crap, odds are your appetite is really not that good. More later on vitamin C….

And now, the holy grail to my hangover, the chicken ramen soup cup. Sadly, I am a purist and will only consume the finest of all of the ramen soup cups, the Maruchan Instant Lunch brand. Don’t be bringing me any of those silly other brands. You fetch me that nasty Nissan on my deathbed and it’s not getting eaten. Sadly, the cure granted from this “food” I love is only anecdotal. While the sodium content is off the charts for what I would tell humans to consume in a day let alone a meal…in theory when you’re sick it helps you hold fluid, can be tasty on your dulled taste buds, and soothes the stomach. It is high in saturated fat and carbohydrates, but you can always argue the carbohydrates help replete your energy. Frankly, it is warm and tastes good and makes me feel less crappy.

So, that’s my key to not feeling as crappy as you were an hour before you sent someone to the store to fetch you this stuff. That and sleep…lots of glorious sleep.

*This post is dedicated to my lovely NY "wife" (above) who is feeling like ass today. If she hadn't eaten the last of my tasty tasty Maruchan Instant Lunch cups on Saturday night in a fit of drunkenness, I would totally fetch her one. ~ beth

What the Hell Are International Units?

2007-09-15T11:15:00.001-04:00

No, that is not code for James Bond in a Speedo, although that would be nice. In looking over some information on vitamins and minerals to put up here, it seems that a few terms may need to be explained before we just assume all those friendly little vitamin and mineral bits are the same thing.

Living in the United States, we all might as well admit that we are too arrogant as a society to accept the superiority of metric measurements in life. But if you are in a medical profession like nutrition or dietetics, metric is just plain more convenient to deal with on a daily basis.

How does this benefit the average consumer of supplements? Well, it would if you were to know a few key points.

The following units weigh vitamin and mineral materials in the physical sense…I know, heavy, huh?

“g” stands for gram ~ About 29 grams make one ounce

“mg” stands for milligram ~ One thousandth of a gram. 1,000 mg = 1 g

“mcg” stands for microgram ~ One thousandth of a milligram. 1,000 mcg = 1 mg

Now International Units (“IU”) are a different type of measure, although it still deals with supplements, so you should know what it is when perusing supplements. It is not indicative of the weight of the substance, but more accurately, the activity of the substance. Vitamins A, D, and E are all measured this way. Knowing the Recommended Daily Allowance of each of these vitamins is recommended.

Honestly, vitamins and minerals are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration at this point, although in the opinion of many, they are just as strong as many drugs on the market. This having been said, knowing safe dosages can start with being aware of the dosage meanings on their labels and each supplement is different.

And now, as incentive to use what we’ve learned, a nice photo….

*This post is dedicated to my minxy girls stuck out on Long Island this morning. Saturday's a Rugby Day! ~beth

Food Babe Slang #1

2007-09-09T19:28:00.000-04:00

foodgitive [foo-ji-tiv]... How one feels after eating too much food at one sitting; The outcome of your meal making you a fugitive.

Usage: "If I had any idea how that dozen hot wings would make me a foodgitive, I would have run screaming into the night."

~beth

Ask A Dietitian

2007-09-06T17:42:00.000-04:00

Really we won’t bite. Well, some of us won’t. Send or comment us with your nutrition/food questions and we will do our very best to answer them.

Some examples…

"Is Splenda the Devil?"

"Is yoga a bunch of hippy bullshit?"

"Can I live on bacon alone?"

"Are oysters alive when I eat them?"

"What is the difference between a nutritionist and an R.D.?"

"Is Atkins better than South Beach?"

"When you say 'HDL' you mean what?"

"What makes custard taste like heaven?"

"Why is salt so bad when it tastes so good?"

"Expliqueme diabetes, por favor."

Really, challenge extended.

~beth

Once It Hits Your Lips, It's So Good!

2007-09-06T16:45:00.000-04:00

Let’s face it, beer is part of life as most of us know it. In high school you sneak it, in college you funnel it, as an adult you should appreciate it in pint form with friends. Beer is great. There’s only one little thing that is wrong with beer…it sticks with you.

Only a few people on this vast green earth can drink their weight in glorious beer and not gain an inch on their waist. When you are done wishing them ill or willing them your share of calories for last Saturday night, take a minute and learn some facts about beer so you can stave off that beer intertube that is sadly only attractive with the use of beer goggles.

If you’re bored enough to be reading the nutrition information on the case or bottle, you are not utilizing that beer to the fullest. Luckily, there are many online resources for you to determine what’s in your beer, AKA “What Happened to My Formerly Slim and Athletic Figure.”

Let’s take for example a NYC after work friend, Amstel Light, the post-grad girlfriend of beers. Per 12 ounces of lovely Amstel Light (3.9% alcohol by volume) there are 99 calories. It takes 3500 calories to be stored in order to make a pound of fat. Therefore, that means you would be able to drink 35 of those little beers if you were willing to put on a pound…

Pretty simple, right? Nope, alcohol in its simple joy wreaks havoc on your metabolism in a very complex way. Those hoppy hops are slowing down your metabolism, not being burnt nearly as quickly as you’re drinking them. Your system has no other option than to store them as adipose tissue…basically, nasty fat. You liver is busy converting the majority of the alcohol to acetate which gets dumped into the bloodstream to be used for fuel instead of fat cells. And like all good things that you can’t live without, beer is high in calories, so the more you drink, the more calories you take in, the more fat is stored.

Who knew getting on the piss could be so complicated?!? Here are some tips to try to get you buzzed but keep that beer belly at bay:

Eat a solid meal before drinking. This will fill your stomach and slow the absorption of alcohol. Alcohol not only depresses blood sugar but also willpower, making it an appetite accelerator. The munchies combined with alcohol are the tag team enables of the beer gut.
Don’t confuse "light" with "diet." If you're a person who tosses back far more because the bottle says "light" on it, beware! Choose a beer you can savor the taste of and enjoy it rather than racing to the point where you have drank enough light beer to not be put off by the taste.
Plan your drinking. If you know that you are going to have 3 beers at the bar during the game this Saturday, avoid calorie laden foods for snacks that week to offset what you plan to have there. This is also a good way to plan for your workouts. Planning does take
practice and is a good way to find some willpower.

*This post is dedicated to the Rugby World Cup beginning 7 September 2007. ~beth

Welcome to Babes in Foodland!

2007-09-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

We know, the name is a little cheesy, but what’s wrong with cheese? Nothing, that’s what! Like it says at the top of the page, we are three minxy girls who are looking to put some humor back into our lives after finishing our yearlong Dietetic Internship in New York City. All food related topics are fair game here, some will be more medical, some more fitness and diet, some more culinary, and others will be just plain silly (the best!).

Anyway, let us introduce ourselves…

beth holds multiple degrees including a B.S. in Nutrition Sciences from UNLV, her hobby school. In addition to her varied knowledge as a dietitian she excels at writing headlines, traipsing the globe in search of a home, taking inhuman amounts of photos, semi-elemental knuckle cracking, cupcakery, and tomato juggling. In her next life she will be a wildly successful Will Ferrell impersonator who will work towards environmental peace in conjunction with rock greats the Wyld Stallyns, but for now she is an unemployed bloggette.

Now, the Wilford Brimleys to beth's Steve Guttenberg...the megans...

megan.f is a clinical dietitian by way of NYU who spends her time bamboozling diabetics with her intimate knowledge of the Kreb Cycle while waiting for the chance to revive Solid Gold. She is willing to give anyone a chance to pick her brain if they want to shed a pound as long as they understand that she is actually A Pepper, original recipe, not diet. 'Cause it's all in moderation, baby...

megan.T likes to dose her patients with food and has traveled coast to coast spreading her personal motto, "Beans Not Drugs," taking nutrition support to new plateaus of greatness. Her unique method of hippy chic means she doesn't smell like patchouli, which she counts as one of life's great achievements (more than her masters, maybe?). Please feel free to send her a chimp mint as a token of your appreciation, she will savor it while playing Legend of Zelda online with beth.

Feel free to ask us questions (“Ask A Dietitian”), ask about products or restaurants, comment on things in general, or just peruse… We hope you enjoy reading as much as we do writing…

Thanks!