Day 1 Nutrition /Healthy Eating Camp

Morning started today earlier that I have been accustomed to lately, still in pain, still struggling in the a.m. However, this day is the first working day for our Summer Nutrition Camp. Our kids moved in to University of Chicago yesterday afternoon and this morning we woke them, got them, going and walked our students the 6 blocks to the dinning hall. They think they hated the walk but I am the one in pain. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone of these kids are walking slower than me. I can't keep pace with everyone but these are healthy teenager that need to get on the ball.

This is my first time working this camp. I'm not completely sure about why I didn't participate last year, but I think I wanted to establish myself better with my permanent student body. Last year's Summer session was only my second session at my school.

Their safety and sanitation class is beginning shortly, and I will post again later today.

Power of Words

When you think of chefs you may not think about them as wordsmiths. Be sure that we are a group greatly entrenched in language.  We have a long history and our own lingo. This realm of terms, definitions, and understanding both describes and confines us. Chefs notoriously use language that some find offensive as a daily ritualistic release of tension.

The language of food is important and chefs rely upon it to convey clarity when speaking about a food request. Having said that, I am a chef who is rubbed the wrong way when people misuse a culinary term but expect to receive exactly what they have envisioned instead of what they have asked for to eat. If you asked for the Tomato Florentine soup, you can't be upset by the presence of spinach, for example, as Florentine means spinach in the kitchen.

Recently, I was on a mini-vacation and was looking for food fair. I called the near-by Cracker Barrel and asked if their were gluten-free options on the menu. They said yes, but when I arrived the menu did not have gluten-free pancakes or waffles nor biscuits, they brought an alternative menu that gave both nutritional information and pointed to some menu items as safe for my consumption. Offering me a bowl of oatmeal, fresh fruit, or steak and eggs, is not offering me options. I found it insulting that this was all that was offered and I didn't need them to tell me the fruit was gluten-free. By the way, the oatmeal was amazing and I had an order for dinner later on that weekend, but that is not the point. When I think of Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Original Pancake House, or any other breakfast spot it should not be difficult to make adjustment for alternative eaters, and shame on those who have the boldness to offer me fresh fruit as if I don't understand what gluten-free means.

Re-branding food items under new labeling is a funny thing these days. Every trip to the grocer has me laughing as the things that should be relied upon to be gluten-free have redesigned packaging to inform us of this new revelation of food category. I don't need anyone to tell me that unpopped whole popcorn is gluten-free, what's next, gluten-free water?

Language can bind us together with a common ground of understanding and communication but also can divide us with a loss of clarity or misunderstanding. For many consumers who purchase gluten-free items, not all of us must buy these items for health reasons like I do, but rather buy these items because the term is trendy and new-ish. I'd even bet there are some who couldn't accurately define the term but swears that it is bad for your health. No, no, no... It isn't good for my digestion, not everyone's. 

Vegan Ben & Jerry's??

Yes, yes, yes.... You did read that correctly. Ben & Jerry's has announced a new product line to tempt even the most strict dietary eaters.  The new line will feature non-dairy frozen treats in similar flavors to mimic the very popular ice creams already offered by the company.

Personally, I am a bit excited about this announcement and can't wait to get my hands on a carton. For many years, I have struggled with the consumption of ice cream and other dairy products. I now know that my reaction to eating these products is connected to my fibromyalgia. I have been considering going vegan or vegetarian, at least for a short period of time, to help regulate my health and perhaps lose some weight. With that in mind this new product line would be a welcomed treat. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glamour/is-ben--jerrys-new-vegan_b_9190144.html

My illness' effects are huge in my digestion, slow bowl movement to not at all, urgent diarrhea, gas, bloating, and heart burn. My other symptoms are painful and irritating but this set of problems is the worst for me. As a chef, I work with food, especially pastry, and how I am forced to be a picky dinner to control my symptoms. I have become one of the customers I usually didn't like, asking a million questions about how the meal is prepped and being careful to explain that I can eat this or that. I am not eating out as much as I want to because avoiding dairy and gluten can be very hard when trying to eat out in Chicago.

This news about a non-dairy frozen treat is about as exciting as a the day I found Snyder's Gluten-Free pretzels!!!! Being gluten-free means a lack of a lot of the crunchy things I love to eat and has resulted in me having dreams of eating toast and jam. But lately, the medication has gotten me to a point where cereal and milk is okay so I have been diving into bowls of Cheerios and Chex with bananas. I have been able to enjoy that since about the 3rd grade without symptoms.

So it's "hats off" to Ben & Jerry's for putting in some work to be able to please the audience of consumers that have stood by and watched others enjoy items that we were not supposed to consume. I often ate ice cream anyway.... I just didn't in public. LOL.

Environmental Chef

Every body, and every chef, relies upon quality ingredients to make a meal go from hum drum to zing pop. Without honorable farming practices, from soup to nuts, the chef cannot do what we do best.

Organic, non GMO, pasteurized, and fortified, all influence what our plates contain. Should chefs have a voice in the movement away from Monsanto tainted food, processed and persevered, items with more chemicals than food? Yes. 2015 was the first year on record that Americans spent more money on restaurants then at the grocery store. One can extrapolate that chefs are having a greater and grater impact on the health of the American citizen. Will it be left up to the corporations or to the craftsmanship of skilled chefs?

How we grow and treat food, or manufacture it, should be very important to everyone, but especially to us chefs. Life happens, change is the only constant, but preservation of the food sources we rely upon, not only for our trade, but for our very lives, must be a concern.

There is a farm to table movement in the culinary scene. I am not directly apart of that movement per se, as pastry doesn't rely as heavily upon farmed items as does the savory chef. However, as a fibromyaliga patient, I am rewriting my common eating practice to be gluten-free because the ingestion of gluten reeks havoc on my system.

Gardening, farm to table, diets, vegetarian and vegan, no matter your eating style how your food is treated before you purchase it is a huge consideration to be mindful of when purchasing. Environmentalist point to climate changes that are signaling some drastic shifts to our planetary harvest of edible products. We need to listen and learn before it is too late. We must take some responsibility for feeding ourselves. We have hired corporations to provide our nutritional needs by way of prepacked and process foods. We are confusing good for you and good tasting, they are not mutually exclusive. Many things that are good for us nutrition-wise can be very good tasting as well, however, if you are accustom to eating process food almost exclusively then your have trained your tasting ability to like those types of things, and therefore, being unaccustomed to the flavors of this items.
macrobiotics

Lots of kids in this new generation are trained to eat so many processed food items, microwave entrees, microwave popcorn, chips, dips, salsa, and super sticky sweet pastries that are just spun sugars. Sugar is a very addictive item with levels of dependencies very similar to heroine addiction. Frequently this diet is tied to the income of the parents. The lower the annual income of the household has a direct connection to the types of foods consumed. Often the families chose food stuffs with the primary focus on getting the cheapest and the most abundant items. While this type of consideration can be understood, it is the worst reaction or action that the shopper can do. I once was listening to a radio show and the host hit the nail on the head. He stated many things about budgeting, the most import of them was 'It is most important to understand when to spend and where to save. You should save on items that depreciate over time, like a car or clothing, but you should never buy food totally based on saving money. You should spend on food with the mindset of health benefit. The quality food stuffs you buy today will help to prevent you from being sick tomorrow and spending a high percentage of your money on medical bills.' I totally agree.

The environmental impacts of toxic waste, oil spills, water contamination, polluted air, are easy to understand in terms of their effects upon food resources. The global warming issues of storm changes, floods, drought, shifts in tides, changes in streams and rivers, will devastate our farming lands and methods. These issues are looming on the horizon but the current threats to our food supply are in the methodology of how we currently grow our food. The debates are all over the place, and the two loudest sides of the discussion are the organic food movement against the Goliath chemical companies, like Monsanto, who produce pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics for livestock. Add to that the factory farming practices that have changed how our dairy, eggs, and meat production/slaughter. The corporations like Monsanto, have always contended that the use of their products has increased yields and improved quality, and they maybe right, however, anyone that has ever had a garden of their own can tell you, the taste, variety, quality, of their harvest far exceeds anything offered in the grocery store.

Many chefs have established relationships with local farmers and livestock growers. This way the chef has the opportunity to understand, share, and ask for items that they would love to buy. Farm to table is more than a catchphrase, it is becoming a movement. Factory farming kills any uniqueness in preference of the most shelf stable and consistent items. We have breed, cross pollinated, and forced ripened foods to the point that they have the highest profit margins and ability to transport these items long distances. I find it to be much like corporate cooking. The corporate chef is often forced to produce the highest amount of items as quickly and consistently as possible which erodes the creative artistic aspects of the chef. Cookie cutter concepts in grocery stores, kitchens, and manufacturing, stomp out the uniqueness that happens when a chef is able to use their imagination. Can a chef create and repeat highly crafted items? Of course, we can, but when the total issue is all about designing in the most cost effective methods, the major ways to achieve this is with lesser quality items, machines, and factory items instead of handmade items. Kill the chef?

Revolutions have been fought over food issues over and over again. "Let them eat cake!" When the body of citizens examine their nutrition substandard, it becomes a big part of how they view their poverty or wealth. Can you afford to eat or feed your family? Can you afford to have quality foods on your table? Are you needlessly suffering from malnutrition and diseases? And what are you able to about it?

I agree with Micheal Simon

On a aired episode of The Chew, 2/29/16, the topic of food destroyers and binge eating contest was brought up in the first segment. Chef Simon stated that he has never understood the phenomenon of eating more than a human can eat in a week choked down in a few minutes or the videos of people throwing or smashing food. I agree. I have never understood it either, add to that, the trend of folks making giant, over the top foods, from other foods, like taking 20 big macs and making a casserole from them. Yuck

This reminds me of the stories at the Romans before the fall of their society. We haven't yet began using vomitoriums but at this rate I would be surprised if it were to begin. This is the height of greed, excess and privilege. Only in a self centered community will you ever see such habits as their are too much famine in the world for this to make sense. Homelessness in America is the least talked about societal ill and with efforts, not to feed them and house them, but to install fixtures to detract homeless people from sleeping on bus stops and around buildings, I don't think it is at all reasonable to act in this manner. Yet, you can find many representations on social media depicting these acts.

In my opinion, the statement 'less is more' in this conversation is exactly right. We have so many people without and so many people with too much. Food waste is a big problem here. Every year we throw away an estimated 133 billion pounds of food. A lot of the waste happens in grocery retail outlets and in our own kitchens, as we may cook too much one day and not consume it before it spoils. Yet we have food stunts as I like to call them happening all the time. We have television series dedicated to this idea such as Man v. Food. Nothing succeeds like excess.

We humans think we are so clever and know so much but we are only gazing at the world through a peep hole wondering what it is we see. Hopefully the rise of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and the lot, will wake up our society to eating to live instead of eating to excess.

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/man-v-food
http://endhunger.org/food-waste/

I don't IHop

Okay, I have had to go gluten-free in order to reduce my allergic reactions. This is connected to my fibromyalgia and the consumption of gluten makes my symptoms much worse. I am not happy about this for several reasons, gluten-free can be rather expensive, sometimes finding gluten-free items isn't always easy, but it is getting better, and my favorite thing to not be happy about is the taste of many offerings in this category. YUCKY.

I have been dreaming of eating toast with jam, or my favorite crackers, but the gluten-free bread that I have tried are not pleasing and 5 times the price of the regular bread. I keep thinking about bread making, cupcakes, and other such things that I enjoy in the original recipes. I have successfully converted several cookie recipes to gluten-free and I have tired a few times to make gluten-free bread and cornbread but haven't liked any of them yet.

I was recently pissed off when I had lunch at the local IHOP because this major chain has no gluten-free option on their menu. I am not understanding why not, as many of the smaller breakfast places have included my specialized foods already. This is a national chain of restaurants and I am sure introduction of this line of products can be done rather easily and without a lot of issues. I am also sure that I have not been the only one to have asked for this option in the last few years.

While I didn't mind eating steak and eggs, I was looking forward to a short stack only to be disappointed. Just this week, I ventured to a nice breakfast joint not far from the house, and there it was, a gluten-free option for pancakes and waffles. I ordered a gluten-free waffle topped with mango and quickly inhaled my meal with glee and didn't mind the extra $2 charged for the waffle.

There are so many things that I now have to be careful of eating in order to lesson my inflammation, hives, stomach aches, headaches, and muscle aches. I am not, not that I ever was, a big consumer of street foods and drive-ins, but now being forced to completely go without forever more, has me not so happy. My biggest heartache is that I can't eat burgers. A burger isn't a burger unless you have a nice bun. I don't like to pick my burger apart to avoid eating the bun. It isn't pleasurable and messy. Booooooo!

So IHOP corporate, please understand our gluten-free necessity. I shouldn't have to avoid your outlets because there is very little I can eat there and I don't want to sit across the table from someone only to watch them eat what I can't while my plate is empty, sipping on tea.

Thank you

Food Deserts

In recent years, the term 'food desert' has come into our consciousness. For those of you who have not heard of this concept, it was brought to light after a academic study was conducted that looked into a possible connection between unhealthy eating habits and poverty. It was discovered that, in some of the poor inner-city neighborhoods in America, a consumer would have to travel 5-10 miles, or more, from home to find a fresh carrot, for example.  At the same time, middle-class residents and higher, has many more options and considerable shorter distances to travel for the same carrot.

Lower economic status brings with it a reduction in household amenities, such as limited refrigeration, and a greater chance that you will have to rely upon public transportation. Having to travel on to purchase groceries out side of your local area can be extra taxing on any consumer but needing to do that on a city bus can make someone give in and just buy what is nearby.

What does this mean? If you are a member of our society that have less economic strength and/or are receiving nutritional supplements, such as WIC or Link, you are far less able to purchase quality food products and whatever you purchase may have to drug home on the bus. This is a real problem health-wise and may have contributed to the high rates of obesity and other related health issues.

For some in this city, buying cheaper food products is the first reaction to a lower food budget but doing so can cause diseases down the line and essentially be extremely expensive and life shortening.

 

In Illinois, the maximum amount a household can be given through food subsidy is $3 per person per meal. Compare this to a trip through a drive-in, people are spending about $8 for a lunch or $5 for a specialty coffee drink. This can be helpful to a family but it isn't a whole lot and therefore I have never understood some who would begrudge a family who qualifies for assistance.

Living in a food desert can also mean you are living below the poverty line and in a higher crime area. It is a struggle but having a set mind to eat better can be accomplished. If you make efforts to not purchase pre-packaged and processed foods, your over all health will be much better. Even on a limited budget, I can't find a good reason to ever eat a hunny bun and a soda for breakfast. Buying fresh foods only can create a bit more work in the kitchen but it can be planned out properly and the extra effort pays off in greater health. Of all the things you can skim on, food should not be one. Buy less expensive clothes, for example, because its better to be healthy than sick and well dressed.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/24/1396100/-Think-Whole-Foods-is-a-ripoff-It-s-worse-than-you-thought?detail=emailclassic

Fibromyalgia and diet

Well, my fibromyalgia anyway. As fibromyalgia is a combined group of neurological responses, not everyone has the exact same experience. There are 18 conditions that in combination confirm a diagnosis of the syndrome, a patient must have a majority of them in order to be classified under this disorder.

Where does diet play a role in this disease?  Like so many other disorders, what you eat can be helpful or harmful. One of the effects of my disease is irritable bowel syndrome. I have been dealing with this aspect for about 20 years now. When this first was diagnosed, there was no treatment, and understanding what causes it is still not know but now there's medications to help regulate the movement and actions of the stomach and bowels. A blood panel revealed that along with the respiratory allergies that I have been dealing with since high school there's several food allergies including gluten sensitivity.

I am still learning all about what I am experiencing with my condition after spending a little over a year working with doctors to get at the root of what was going on. The full diagnosis is fibromyalgia, and a chronic knee pain syndrome.

It's a little more than 3 months since the fibromyalgia and knee pain syndrome diagnosis and I am struggling with getting to some sort of comfortable stasis. I changed my diet almost a year ago, gave up gluten, began to intake more veggie packed smoothies, and got regimented on the pill taking. I even had to change my career focus because being a professional production pastry chef is just too hard on me physically. I have always wanted to mentor and teach the next generation of cooks, but I believed it would have been under different circumstances.

I love what I do and I believe that I do it well. I am refusing to be undone by my aliments. I am too young to give up yet. Teaching, while often far more mentally taxing, is less physically demanding. Having trained all these years, I am reluctant to stop working, so I just re-purposed my skills.

These days I dream of eating toast and jam. The reason being is that I would rather do without than eat awful gluten-free bread at 6 times the price of regular. I have been very careful of my intake and modified my amount of activity. I need to add a good exercise routine soon. I have created a couple of great gluten-free desserts and plan on working on a few more. My stomach is at greater ease without gluten but I find it hard to avoid it if I find myself hungry away from home.

As the demand increases for gluten-free options the grocery selections are growing, but this is both good and bad. There are lots of people that are eating a gluten free diet that are not required to do so. It has become somewhat of a fad diet. I, on the other hand, don't have a choice.

I will continue to post on this subject from time to time.

Whole Foods, good?

Here in Chicago, we have about 20 Whole Foods outlets. They have expanded their reach and audience rather rapidly over the last few years and are currently building a new one in the infamous Englewood neighborhood. So the question comes to mind, is this a good thing?

The Englewood neighborhood has been historically black and under-served for generations. The area is infamous for having some of the poorest residents of Chicago and a legacy of violence. These recent years, the city has been dedicated to improving the infrastructure in this area. There was a extremely dilapidated shopping district at the heart of the area which has been demolished and is being replaced. Abandoned properties have been knocked down after sitting idle for years and the available public housing has been revamped and repurposed. Kennedy King College, a long standing city college, has built a new campus in the neighborhood which was well over due.

Right near one of the busiest intersections of this area, Whole Foods is rapidly building a shopping center and their store is slatted to be the anchor. This outlet is across the street from the new college campus. Many residents are curious to find out if this will a profitable venture. I would agree that the area needs a grocery store of better quality than the other available offerings nearby, made up of mostly liquor stores with some groceries and a few low cost store chains. But is this the right move for the area?

Englewood is one of a few food deserts present in Chicago, and it has been that way for a while now. Residents have had to go outside of the neighborhood to buy groceries of quality for as least as I have been a resident, I am 45 and lived here all my life. The difficulty of living in a food dessert is two fold, the residents that can travel outside the neighborhood quickly, mostly by car, are spending their economic power in another neighborhood which keeps the other area vital and their area continues to degrade. Secondly, the residents that can't travel by car regularly to do their shopping are left with little option that to buy substandard food offerings which will degrade their health and leaves little economic improvement in their own area.

It is wonderful that there is an effort to make a course correction in this matter. However, Whole Foods has been among the priciest offerings available in this city, and the organic and other high priced food offerings are not familiar to the population of the area. I support the revamping efforts to bring that location back to being a vital and strong location. What no one knows yet, is if this will be successful. Many people are questioning if this is a signal that the city is not just improving the area that has been in such need or are we seeing the first signs of gentrification? Will the current residents embrace and be able to afford to support the store? Or is the store building there ahead of a change in the racial and economic shift in the residents? In Chicago, when a neighborhood makes changes like these, it usually means that the minority residents who have lived in that section for generations, will be pushed out and replaced with non-minority residents with much higher incomes.

The stroller crowd has been rapidly moving into a area of Chicago that is known as Boy's Town, it was a heaven of activity and housing for our LGBT people. With that shift in population, the area is being forced to close some long standing business and the lots of its residents can no longer afford the increasing property values since the area became popular and desirable.

Will the same shift happen in Englewood? Or will Whole Foods fail to improve the health and options of the residents? If the neighborhood is gentrified, where will poorest of the residents be push into next? If Whole Foods fails, will any other chain store be willing to build in the area and keep from having yet another closed store sit idle? I think, everyone wants the area to be improved, but how do you do this successfully??

Food v "Food", Part 1

One of the major themes in my teaching to our young folks is that I constantly challenge their idea as to what is food and what is "food". I began this after watching them eat all sorts of garbage, listening to them talk about what they like to eat, and then seeing the deficits of understanding about nutrition. When you talk to kids that cannot identify that margarine is not butter, don't eat vegetables, drown their food in hot sauce, and never ever ask what is in this food... there is trouble brewing. A very large portion of the population that I teach just eat what they like and they never give a second thought to what they are consuming, while childhood obesity rates raise.

 

I teach them how to read a nutrition label, show them that vegetables aren't scary and can be very tasty depending on how it is prepared. I challenge their tastes by making them at minimum sample the dishes we prepare, make them look at what they are eating and why. It isn't easy work especially since the come to my class believing all that we are going to do is cook. If it were up to them, they would work in my class as if it was a cooking club, but its not, it's a culinary class. If it were up to them, we would only cook those things in which they are already eating regularly. The difference between a cooking class and a culinary class is very similar to the difference between food and "food".

 

I am fully aware that lots of food choices that are made in the households, in which my kids live, are done so with economy and convenience in mind. We Americans have totally bought into the idea that food must be cooked quickly and if you are in a lower economic rung the cheaper products tend to win the race to the shopping cart. Lots of our citizens are quick to spend a lot of money on clothes but not a lot on food. This is backward thinking, as clothes wear out quickly and go out of style, but your health is critical. I too have to consider my economy when purchasing, I buy some convenience foods, very few, mainly because I am not home for dinner 3 to 4 nights a week so the cooking duties fall upon my kids at least a couple nights a week. However, understanding what you are exposing your health to buy the constant consumption of these are risks most of us cannot afford. All of my children cook, nothing too fancy, for my middle school and high school kids, but my college kid does quite well, as she has had much more training.

 

Kids don't think about health and nutrition often as they have those perfect metabolisms and digestion that keeps up with the junk they consume. I often ask them what if the aging process begins to break down your body at a young age because of what they eat?

 

The populations that I teach are made up of inner city minority kids who's families are dealing with members that are impacted by cancer, hypertension, diabetes, glaucoma, drug abuse,  immobility, and early death. What they are more concerned with are the drug overdoses and deaths from gun violence that they face daily. I have talked to my kids and heard about the reasons they skipped attending class due to being in the hospital visiting their siblings and loved ones. They tell me of how many funerals they have had to attend and when asked questions about life longevity they tell me that they are not concerned with living to 100 because they are expecting to die before they are 30. It's easy to not think about your  health when you don't think you will survive very long, so why not eat and do whatever you enjoy today because tomorrow may never come.

 

So, there I go into the breach attempting to change their view of not only what is food and what really isn't food but also trying to change their world view through cooking and teaching. I speak to them about their life goals and dreams as well as their diet. I convey to them the impacts of poor diet don't just show up on the inside, but these things affect their appearance and their future. Basic nutritional information and health are done every week along with recipe comprehension. I am a firm believer that it isn't their fault that they don't know these things. I am a firm believer that you cannot give someone else something that you don't have. A great number of their parents either don't have time to teach them these things or don't know enough about the subject to teach them to their children. The notion of eating whatever is cheap and accessible is costly to your health. Anytime that you can go to the store and buy a 2-liter of soda pop for 99 cents but the same amount of juice or water is 4 to 5 times the price.... something is off.

 

I tell everyone if you cannot read all of the ingredients on the label then you might not want to eat that product. Whenever you leave control of your health and nutrition up to a corporation, you are already in trouble. The one and only purpose of a corporation is to make money. They make decisions not based upon what is best for the consumer, they make decisions based upon profit. If a natural item cost five cents per unit and a artificial substitute costs 3 cents per unit, the corporation will used the chemical substitute to gain a bigger profit margin.

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These artificial things do not create the same reactions in the body as real food does, and if you are around enough, you will see how the FDA and researchers will prove them to be harmful in the long run and it's use will then be stopped. But what about all the people that consumed these chemicals for years and are possibly suffering the after effects? Wouldn't be easier to select the natural food options and not suffer any side effects? I want to see my kids live long long lives full of joy and not short lives filled with discomfort and disease.

 

Any food that has multiple multi-syllables  chemical names and are high-up on the ingredient list should make you take pause. If you don't know what it is, then maybe you shouldn't be eating it. Can you find those items in your kitchen? Why are they in your food? Corporations make it difficult to make good choices. Their marketing campaigns, packaging, confusing labeling, hidden sugars, cheap ingredients, market saturation, are pervasive and target your kids.

 

A large percentage of your average citizens do not fully understand how to read nutrition labels.  The first thing that everyone should know is that the list of ingredients is listed in order of amount from the highest quantity to the least. In other words, if you are reading the label and the first ingredient listed is sugar then you know right away that is isn't a healthy item to eat. Secondly, look at the serving size on the package. This is one way the corporation tries to fool the consumer into believing that the item isn't too bad for you. A small package of potato chips is commonly consumed by one person, but the manufacturer may use the serving size as 4, for example, that way, if you aren't paying close attention you can believe that the bag is only 100 calories when it actually is 400 calories, deceiving. I also encourage folks to Google the chemical names listed to see their purpose, possible health issues, and perhaps why they are used. Knowledge is power.

 

Last year was the first year in American history that consumers spent more money in restaurants than in grocery stores. That is huge news to both the culinary industry, retail food store, and the medical community. Our families are not growing, harvesting, cooking, hunting, or controlling the most important aspect of their health, food!

 

Finding Your Roots

If any of you actually know me in person, you may already know that I have somewhat of an obsession about genealogy. Tracing my origins back through time, generation after generation, isn't an easy task, and often the discoveries made lead to more questions than answers.

When I entered culinary training, a good amount of the work would follow along either a technique, building skills, or it would be a grouping of dishes from one country and then another. I was surprised to learn that several of the dishes I grew up eating were cultural invites into other worlds that my family were not apart of to my knowledge. I remember learning that the oxtails my Grandmother cooked were not like the ones other blacks cooked that had come to Chicago from the Southern states, but much more in the style of Italian migrants, for example. We ate smoked sausages with sauerkraut, and I haven't found much in the way of German ancestry. As neighbors tend to do, Grandmother shared recipes with neighbors and friends.

Sharing food culture with others and the history of foods, their origins, and development, became a fascination for me. I once took a class at Roosevelt University all about the history of food. In that exploration, we ventured back in time to the cavemen days, and viewed history and archaeology of food, how food procurement is at the very beginnings of civilization itself. Farming changed us from strictly hunter-gatherers of nomadic origins to settlers and villagers. Yogurt changed trade routes and therefore economy. I will share more of this in later posts.

Even before Henry Louis Gates Jr. began televising episodes of his award winning show, I had a curiosity for this type of exploration. My companion podcast is a type of this kind of exploration as they are conversations with people about their relationships with food and by extension culture.

Chefs, foodies, critics, writers, culinarians, educators, artist, and any sort of people who eat have some type of connection with food. I am loving talking with my guests about the subject. Just in the first few broadcast, we have seen how the conversations have taken us into conversations about social unrest, cultural and religious rebirths, and dietary changes for religious and health reasons. These are all just breadcrumbs along the pathways of creation and generational growth.

I have a small collection of older cookbooks because I like to compare what was popular 20,40,60 years ago to what is consumed now. The techniques used, the flavor pallet, the available food stuffs, and the changes in the social norms of dinning etiquette and social graces, all change and as they change so does the preferred foods. The modern mothers of today, often can't imagine hosting a dinner party that consist of 9 or 10 courses of foods, let alone design, produce, and prepare such an culinary experience but it isn't so unusual for the cultured society women of the turn of the century.

No matter the era of your birth, your place in society, your ethic makeup, for country of origin, your immigrated home, your racial background, your chosen profession, your political background, or any other thing in which we classify ourselves, we all eat and we all have a love/hate/health relationship with food.

If you are interested in taking part in our weekly discussions, please leave me a comment with your contact information, and I will love to schedule a broadcast to explore your food history.

Listen in to our discussions both live and archived: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/giantforkandspoon
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Nourishment

There's a national attitude about food that is not in our collective best interest, only seeing food as pleasurable.  It is so apparent when you talk to kids about nutrition or health. Children are only interested in what they enjoy so if it tastes good they are content.

Some of us do as we are expected to do, become an adult and put away childish things.  The majority of Americans are not maturing as expected and continue to eat like they did in high school, which wasn't very good for them even then, creating a greater risk their own health. More often than not, it takes a doctor to inform said adults that a reevaluation of their consumption is required.  Diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, gout, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol levels, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, and a whole host of discomforts are directly related to our dietary consumption.

Please understand that I am not a person that jumps on the diet bandwagon at the start of every new year and as a pastry chef some feel like I am not qualified to preach about health. Wrong. I am not a advocate for rigid dietary restrictions because of the psychological effects of such limitations. Telling a human not to eat their favorite things only makes them crave them even more.  I advocate balance and a focus on healthier choices. Everyone needs room in the diet for treats and snacking.  We are social animals and celebrating always involves eating. There is nothing wrong with eating dessert, it is however, how often it is consumed and which dessert is chosen that makes all the difference.

Health comes from balance,  balanced diet, balanced emotions and stress, balanced work and life harmony. Eat to live instead of live to eat. Food is the first line of defense against disease and discomforts.  Too many people are addict to some very destructive eating habits, are living in a food dessert, haven't faced the reality of what junk food does to the body when you consistently consumed, and often times live in bodies that are not working well because it isn't being maintained properly.

Last year was the first time in U.S. history that it's citizens spent more money in restaurants and eating out than they did in grocery store purchases. The 'give it to me quick' mentality is taking it toll on the health of our nation.  Lots of the food regulations and feeding programs that we have grown up with and are most familiar with, were developed after a large amount recruits enlisted for WWI were so underfeed and malnourished that they were practically or completely unfit for combat. The U.S. government understood if the nation is not nourished properly that it would not be able to defend the country from foes. Tag along to that, it stands to reason that school age children can not make the most of their educational opportunities if they are not well feed. Mandatory regulations of school lunches, for example, is a result of the governmental effort to assure that our citizens are not burdened by a lack of nutrition.

Furthermore, the changes experienced in the American workforce has put pressure on the households to eat differently than their predecessors. Less that two generations ago, 90% of meals consumed in American were prepared at home, which included boxed lunches. These days convenience foods reign supreme in the food marketing wars. Get it quick, microwave it, take and bake it, and buy it precooked, all are outselling fresh produce and meats. The heavy demands on workers to increase work out-puts have pushed the average 8 hour work day on to the back burner it seems as often longer hours and taking work home is more and more common leaving whomever in the household that is responsible for meal production with less and less time to plan and produce what the family is consuming.

The biggest danger in this tend is simple, whenever you become reliant upon a soulless corporation to do things for you that are critical to your overall health, you are in trouble. Why is a pint of orange juice 3 times the price of a cola? Corporations really only have one goal, to make money! Cheaper, faster, longer storage life, and readily available is how a corporation makes its goals. Food additives and preservatives most often do not help your health, they only help the corporation to make money. I have seen in my lifetime alone, several sugar substitutes, food color, and other chemicals available for the consumer to purchase have been removed from the marketplace after finding out that they cause a cancer or a serious risk to public health, but how many years and how often have the public been eating them before they have been outlawed?

Just some thoughts to consider as you prepare your next grocery list....

Winter into Spring

Recently, I have been feeling the pull of a new season, in other words, I am so ready for Spring. In Chicago, the winter hasn't been bad this year, however, my spirit has been wanting to do some deep Spring cleaning and brush away the cobwebs in my brain.

I have often felt the need to purge and reorganize everything. This need is related to the seasons and often can be a deeper draw than my strongest food craving. Last year I was determined to garden but my health issues and my work schedule interfered. I was drained after teaching my high school class and didn't spend the time that I wanted to successfully grow anything. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain and fulfill my mental to-do-list this time around the sun.

As a chef and a mother, I have always enjoyed the bounty that only a garden can give. My grandmother always had a garden going in the backyard and I would help out. I have kept gardens myself as a adult but lately it has been much harder with my fibromyalgia and knee pain. I will give it a go within the next few months.

If you have never attempted to grow things, not even a flower bed, I encourage you to do so. You will never eat a tomato, for example, that tastes better than the fresh grown in your own garden. You are in control of this process when you garden. You can grow and harvest the foods you like best, you can control the chemicals used, you can monitor and effect change in your garden, and best of all, you lose no time from harvest to your plate.

I am determined to push past my limits and plant this Spring and force other members of my household to deep clean every inch of my house very soon, the first 60 degree days coming to our area will signal the beginning of our purging period.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Sunday's Weekly Wrap Up

I am determined to do a weekly review on a consistent basis there on this blog, kind of reminds me of the Sunday dinner ritual that my family once kept. I am thinking that it's purpose is to clear away the mental clutter of the week and start renewed for the next week.

This week has not be as routine as expected and I am not yet sure if that is a good thing or not. The work I do at the youth center has changed and it is expected to continue to change for the next couple of months. As my time spent at that location is just a few hours a week, I am finding it difficult to understand the whole dynamic of the organization, despite having been there for a few months now.

Yesterday was an extended session for the Act-so scholarship program. It went very well. We had guest speakers come and talk to our high school students about college selection, student loans, scholarships, and applications. We began the work to pair our competitors up with mentors and a few of the judges came and spoke.

You must crawl before you can walk....
So, a large amount of time was spent with one of our new teens to the Act-so program. Chef Y and myself have gotten to know this young man over the last few months, and while some of his accomplishments have been good, his drive and passion about culinary is excellent, however, he is fixated upon the big picture of winning international acclaim for his future restaurant, instead of researching all the steps to get to this dream goal. I admire his drive and his ability to dream big however it is the one bit at a time that will get your path going. An elephant can only be eaten one bit at a time. Along with his mother, Chef Y and I, talked to him trying to get him a clearer picture of what it is that he wants to embark upon. We served him the sugar and the salt of the chef life hoping to assist him. I laid out a generalized picture of what his next 6 months needs to look like in order to begin to leap over the hurdles; get the academic grades up, buckle down and prepare for our culinary competition, and we two chefs said we would assist him in finding a industry summer job.

Make your vision plain. I love the dreamers and the artists but we all must ground ourselves in order to gain traction in this long race. Pie in the sky, doesn't always pay the bills and I am a strong believer that it is the journey that's important, not the end goal. I have spent over 20 years honing my craft, seeking my goals, and being open to accept opportunities that have been given, even when I was not fully sure that it was directly upon my dedicated path as the road less traveled can gain more than expected.

Hopefully, our student chef, has heard a fraction of what he laid before him and wants to return for seconds and thirds.  When I was in his position, I had the opposite issue, I had little in way of mentoring resulting in me having to try and position myself with uncertainty as to if the next move was wise. In either case, nerves and second guessing decisions is commonplace. This kid is both a participant at the youth center that I work at and in our scholarship competition giving him and I ample opportunities to be guided and consulted.

My 10-day smoothie fast is going well and is on day 6. I have had some solid foods, once because I had been gone longer than expected and I was getting that hunger headache, but it was just a bit to keep me going. I think I will have to continue starting my day with a smoothie forever as it is a way to combat some of the effects of my medicines and my condition. Consuming a kale, spinach, fruit, flax seed, and protein powdered breakfast that is easy to take on the go, has been having a great shift in the positive direction.

Now that the holidays are completed, I am experiencing the typical first of the year slump in business, which is okay as I can focus on other efforts for a while. My other class, for my high school audience, doesn't start back up until the end of February. I have to set a new syllabus and start planning for that soon, while my time is somewhat open.

I will be beginning the companion podcast for this blog today. I have sorted out a few technical issues and they will be available to hear this week sometime. Giant Fork & Spoon podcast: Conversations about Food. I will post that information as soon as I can, stay tuned.

Day 4 of My Cleanse

So a few days ago my 18 year old daughter and I embarked on a cleanse together.  Yes , I have deceied the physiology the the American habit of guilty feasting followedby purging and dieting, but this isn't the case with me. Let me explain what the last 4 years have been like living in my skin.

As a chef and married mother of three, I have always been on top of our changing dietary needs, my kids can name a long list of chain restaurants they have never eaten out of and they never ate jarred baby food. I am now 45 years old and my genetic inheritance and the strenuous nature of my job, ecetera, have caught up to me. I have always lived full out, whatever I embarked upon I would try and do my all.

So I had to a couple of small surgeries a little while back but was still not 100%. It seemed like we would get one thing handled only to find another aliment.  It's been a few weeks since I got my diagnosis of a chronic knee pain syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, and fibromyalgia after more than a year of doctor visits and testing. We already know that I was a asymptomatic hypertension patient, in other words hypertension without a clear cause, this condition kicked off after my last pregnancy.

With this in mind, and a desire for greater balance, I have undergone huge diet changes along with shifts in medications. I am gluten free, as I am strongly allergic,  and lactose bothers me.

Long story short, I was encouraged by a relative to try the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse. Sharing my health struggles with her, we discovered that she and I were having similar experiences and she did the cleanse a few months ago.  After her cleanse was over she was feeling better and began to resume adding solid foods back into her diet. She made some toast, or something similar, after not eating any wheat products and she had an huge allergic reaction. After relaying this to her doctors they found out that she had Ceiliac's disease and that all the problems she had been experiencing was connected to the disease which is not easy to diagnose.

Since my issues are similar in several ways, but my test did result in a Ceiliac diagnosis, I  postponed any fasting until we got a handle on things. Up, down, back and forth,  doctor's visits and testing.  Hopefully I can have a few weeks without any lab coats. On of my friends pointed out rather smartly that the irony is thick that the pastry chef no longer can eat her own wares.

January and February, tend to be the slowest months for food service and due to that, I will have a lighter load, and thought that it would be great to so the fast now.

My eldest daughter, the nutritionist in training, decided to join me so off we went to the grocery store. I have often enjoyed smoothies as a treat and a few months ago, when the symptoms got too bad to ignore, I reduced my diet to a couple of smoothies a day and one small meal but I expected this to be a bit rougher. I am doing well and not beating myself up for my little cheating morsels I have had like some chips yesterday.  It will all be fine.

I am hoping that this will aid my digestion, detox my systems, and maybe shed a pound or two. I have had some extra pounds that I have not enjoyed having over the last years but I try very hard to be overly critical with myself. Each pregnancy gave me a long lasting negative effect and now that the factory is closed, no gas, or lights, no little elves to work the machinery, and we think we have gotten to the roots of my discomforts, now improvement can begin.

Thus far, it's been going well. I thought I would be the cranky one of the two of us in the undertaking, but the kid is complaining of hunger and I am not.  I have not been a big eater during my regular day, and mostly had small things to eat and a regular dinner. The recipes in this fast are not bad and the amounts of greens seem to be quite filling to me. Day one, I felt myself urinating more often, but it wasn't until yesterday that I felt as if my body began to release toxins and bowel movements became frequent. I only have 7 more days to go before I get back to solid foods.

I will continue to write on the subject and if you are interested in doing the same, I am including the book information.

Later days....

Smith, JJ (2014-07-01). 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse: Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 10 Days! (pp. 19-20). Atria Books. Kindle Edition