Food Revolution: Tune In and Learn (Ugh)

Oh My Gosh.  The royal wedding is coming and I have nothing to wear!  I knew I was forgetting something.  This is the last time I let a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air marathon interfere with my life plans. I swear.  Well, I still have a little less than 48 hours to find a dress, book a plane trip and locate a hotel.  Not a big deal. I once caught a 9-pound salmon with nothing but some dental floss and a gummy bear.  Oh, now I'm being told by my assistant that I never actually received an invitation to the wedding. What?! I thought the royal wedding was like the Pope coming to town, you just show up and hope to see or hear something that doesn't make you question everything about yourself.  Alas, I suppose this is for the best. I have an eyebrow wax on Friday that not even my growing unibrow can ignore.

Sticking with the British theme, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has become somewhat of an obsession of mine (in case you missed the connection, Jamie Oliver is from England).  I wish I could say I've been a dedicated fan from season one, but truth be told I just got hooked on the show through Jon Stewart.  Jamie Oliver, creator, co-producer and host, was recently on the Daily Show and gave a first-rate interview about the issues he's encountering in season two. Below is a link to the five-minute interview. Check it!

Jamie Oliver on the Daily Show

Let me start out by saying I HATE reality television.  You know that feeling you get when a couple talks about how awesome their new baby is? That's how I feel when I watch anything even remotely resembling non-reality, reality television.  Don't get me wrong, infants are great.  But sometimes parents talk about them like they're already somehow better than you.  It's like wait, I get it that your seven month-old just recited an excerpt of Tolstoy in it its original Russian, but I some how managed to operate a moving vehicle before 11am this morning.  So take that! 

All rambling aside, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is reality television, in the sense that it's actually reality television.  Maybe it's not truly live, but the obstacles encountered are very real.  For those of you who are not familiar with the show, allow me to set up what's looking to be this season's premise.  

Los Angeles, California is where he and his vegetable peddling crew have set up shop and intend to facilitate their activism this season.  The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves roughly 650,000 meals a day.  Oliver has set his sights massively high for trying to overhaul this school district with only one season under his belt.  The problem is, the school board (specifically the LAUSD superintendent) has said "No".  Essentially, the school board has said they have "no interest in drama and conflict. At the same time, we have nothing to hide."  Right.  That's like saying I love a good Reuben but I hate corned beef.  My emphatic response to both statements is how? How is that possible?

Before any kind of revolution can begin, he must first gain access into the LA schools. Schools which he is currently not allowed to set foot inside.  In a nation where convenience is king, what do we do when this mentality infuses our school systems; a place where everything comes in a wrapper and at best, is served microwaved.  As Oliver says in episode one, "it's like eating airplane food." I don't know about you, but two things stood out to me in that statement:

1.  He is clearly only flying over the pond and back.  No weekend trips to Albuquerque.  Because I've got news for you, the last in-flight meal I received was back in the 90s on a trip to Hawaii with my parents. 
2. That's disgusting.  Please imagine yourself having to eat airplane food once a day, five days a week.

To play the devil's advocate for a minute, I can't help but remind myself that we are in the middle of an economic downturn.  As some media sources report the whisperings of our great nation defaulting on its own debt, shouldn't we just be grateful schools are still up and sort-of running?  To throw a hissy fit over lunch content seems rather juvenile when you consider the even worse consequences of school systems simply shutting down.  At the end of the day, a school has a budget too.  

Allow me to close this post with the cliché that these kids are our future.  As healthcare costs rise and our baby boomers continue to age, what will we do when we have multiple generations who require increasing amounts of healthcare coupled with the potential limited ability to work?  

"I think, basically, they don't want me washing their [LAUSD] dirty laundry in public, which is fine if you own the company. But I'm a bit of a believer that when it's public money and public service and your taxes pay for it, then maybe transparency is quite a good thing in a democracy. " -Jamie Oliver

Preach it Jamie.  

Check out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution! Tuesdays at 8pm ET on ABC 

 ABC: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution 

April's Nutrition Hot Topic: The Rise of Bacterial Resistance, Is Our Meat to Blame?

This is one hell of a serious post.  Well, serious for me.  It's the nutrition Hot Topic of the Month! (Envision a loud, cavernous voice echoing that title to you, goose bumps anyone?)   Let me tell you folks, it’s time to strap on those thinking caps, secure your Depends because this topic sometimes makes me scratch my head and poop my pants simultaneously.

The rise of resistant bacteria in humans and antibiotic use in farm-raised animals was an issue identified and brought to the public’s attention almost fifty years ago.  Today United States' cattle, hog, and chicken farmers are still able to freely issue antibiotics to their livestock for a multitude of reasons, without the consent of a veterinarian.

What happens when our farmers’ decisions begin to affect public health?

Before we begin our exploration, let me say this:  I am not advising you to go out, purchase a one-way ticket to Washington D.C. and start lobbying on Capital Hill.  Nor am I asking you to overhaul the meat products you purchase/eat or sprout into a vegetarian over night.  Weekly trips to grocers like Whole Foods can be expensive and their price points do not fit into everyone’s pocketbook.  I write about this issue because one, it’s a nutrition-related hot topic and two, in the hopes of simply raising public awareness as well as the hairs on the back of your neck.  Too melodramatic?

Let’s dive in!

The Issue:

Contemporary agriculture can be defined in one word: monoculture. “Monocultures are very dangerous things… Nature doesn’t have monocultures.  When you grow too much of the same thing, you end up with too many of the pests of those things. The only reason you can grow vast amounts of a [single] species of animal in close confinement is because you can use antibiotics to keep them alive,” says Michael Pollan in the food documentary, Fresh.  

Single animal farms were created with one goal in mind: maximize profits.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency we have over 11,000 of them in the United States.  So what is the problem with these single animal farms? Controlling the spread of disease while maintaining a sanitary environment is damn near impossible 100% of the time.  

Antibiotics are used to combat sanitation problems, and save “product” and profit.  The issue is, farmers are not just using them to treat the sick animals. They're also placing “sub-therapeutic” levels of them into animal feed and drinking water daily to ward off the spread of disease. Antibiotics are also used to promote growth. In an industry where size does matter, this is key to maximizing profits.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that as much as 70% of the antibiotics used in the United States are given to healthy livestock to encourage growth and prevent illness. This is great.  I practically have to throw an all out temper tantrum in my doctor’s office that involves a mental and physical breakdown leading to unexplained physical deformities like missing eyebrows and ramifications so intense I have to double up therapy sessions for the following two weeks to simply get a Z-pack, a five day antibiotic. Meanwhile, a cow about 40 miles out is simply drinking my antibiotics in their water as part of their daily routine. 

The Effect on You:

So why should you care? In an article for the LATimes.com the author writes, “The issue is not that the meat itself is contaminated or that consumers are ingesting antibiotics with their protein, but that the over use of antibiotics is diminishing the efficacy of crucial medications needed for human use.”  That my dear readers, is the take home point!

You may be interested to know both the European Union and Canada have put a ban on the use of antibiotics as a means of growth promotion.

The Evidence

During the mid 1990s an antibiotic in the fluoroquinolones drug family was approved for the use in poultry drinking water to treat sick birds.  Prior to that, fluoroquinolone-resistant bacteria was rare.

By 1999, before you could say Furby, two things had become very real in this country:

1. The Blair Witch Project had sufficiently freaked out most of us from ever entering into a wooded area again and

2. Roughly 11,000 people had contracted a bacterial illness that was resistant to fluoroquinolones.

Today, the use of antibiotics on commercial farms is still unregulated in the United States despite both the FDA and the World Health Organization having issued recommendations that farmers discontinue this antimicrobial misuse in an effort to protect public health.

The Good News:

Some meat producers and retailers, as well as certain corporate consumers, have put their foot down on purchasing products treated with antibiotics.  All Whole Foods stores sell antibiotic free cattle, hog, lamb and poultry products. While McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Popeye’s have all refused to buy chicken treated with fluoroquinolones.

The Potential For Change:

Want more information on potential legislation regarding this issue?  Visit the links below to learn more about the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA).

1. Union of Concerned Scientists

2. Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter
Side bar: Yes, her last name is Slaughter.  Am I the only one who finds it agonizingly hilarious that a congresswomen with the last name of Slaughter should choose to introduce this Act to the House of Representatives.  With a last name like that, I don't think anyone can doubt her commitment to meat. 

*****

I encourage you to seek out more information about this growing issue. As we have all heard so many times before from our sixth grade social studies teacher, knowledge is power. Lastly, I believe you as a consumer of our food supply and a tax-paying citizen have a right to be informed.

I sincerely hope I have not freaked you out or turned you off to my blog.  Maybe we should have eased into these hot topics.  Maybe this first hot topic post should have been about, oh I don’t know, agave nectar, natural vs organic, food allergies or Easter ham. 

Sources:

Antibiotics and meat don't mix. (2010, July 6). Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com

Edrington, T.S., Schultz, C.L., Bischoff, K.M., Callaway, T.R., & Looper, M.L. (2004).  Antimicrobial resistance and serotype prevalence of salmonella isolated from dairy cattle in the southwestern united states. Microbial Drug Resistance, 10. 

Harris, G. (2009, July 13). Administration seeks to restrict antibiotics in livestock. New York Times , A18. 

PBS: Frontline. (2009, July 19). Antibiotic debate overview. 

Sofia Joanes, S. (Producer) & (Director). (2009). Fresh [Motion Picture]. United States: FreshtheMovie.com.

Union of Concerned Scientist. (2010). Prescription for trouble: using antibiotics to fatten livestock. 

Shameless Product Placement of April

Chicky Chicky Boom Boom, it’s Friday!

Reader, the cost of gas skyrocketed yesterday where I live.  And while looking at these prices on gas station price boards induces a nausea that rivals how I felt after watching Grease 2, my pain is your reward.  In an effort to conserve that liquid gold in my car's tank, I have holed myself up in the confines of my apartment.  And what better way to use my time than to work on my brand spanking new blog.

I am currently working on this month's nutrition hot topic. In the mean time, I wanted to introduce a monthly feature I'm calling...

Shameless Product Placement of the Month  

 I was initially going to make it a weekly thing, but quickly realized I don't have THAT many products I truly love in an unadulterated way.  I mean how many food products do I actually consume on a regular basis that I am that passionate about?  Come on Kimberly, let's be realistic.  

April is the month of the lentil and lentils are the new chickpeas. That's completely not true, but I'm profiling a lentil dip so go with it.  Want to reintroduce excitement to your wraps, sandwiches and/or baby carrot?  Getting tired of your same old hummus? Yea, me neither. But I do like to change it up every now and then.  (Note: I'm going to try my best to not make this sound like an infomercial.)

Manufactured by Berhanu, this vegan, kosher lentil dip has been dubbed "the Royal Cousin of Hummus".  I'm all about products that contain few, simple ingredients.  My mother has always been under the persuasion that if you can't say it, you don't eat it.  I tend to go one step further and think that even if I can in fact pronounce it, if I don't know what it is, I don't want to put it into my body.  I could digress into the predictable tangent of talking about how our bodies are temples but I'll spare you.  Needless to say, I still eat foods that contain ingredients I'm not totally familiar with.  Just ask the empty 100-calorie pack at the bottom of my trash can.

Moving on.  Ingredients of this delectable spread include organic black lentils, olive oil, lime juice, peppers, onions and sea salt. That's it!

So what exactly are lentils anyway?  These little round disks are legumes and pack a powerful punch of protein, dietary fiber, and iron. For those of you who are not acquainted with lentils, here's the Sparknotes©:

1. Half a cup of cooked lentils is a mere 115 calories and a little over one ounce of protein.

2. Fiber

• Fiber plays a major role in keeping our bodies regular. 
• I, as an individual, am probably way too in tune with my bowel movements.  But I will tell you this people, snicker about it, hide from it or blush over this natural process of the body all you want.  But bowel movements are like a warning light in your car.  If there is too much or too little, it's telling you something is amiss.
• Fiber is also involved in lowering cholesterol and regulating our blood sugar levels. 
• Warding off large peaks and valleys in our blood sugar helps us control hunger.

3. Iron: 

• Common sources of iron include spinach and red meat.  
• Menstruating and pregnant women, as well as children have higher iron requirements.
• Iron is a part of hemoglobin, a compound found in our blood stream that is responsible for the transportation of oxygen to other cells in the body.               

I purchase Ah!Zeefa from Whole Foods, opting for the mild version. Below is a link to the Berhanu website.  Check them out!

http://www.berhanuorganic.com/

If I had a lentil spread recipe, I would put it here. Sadly, I don't. In fear of posting a recipe I haven't tried and ignorantly leading you down the wrong path, I'm not going to post one either.  If anyone has a recipe they'd like to share with the rest of us, please put it below in the comment section!

Come back Monday for April’s Nutrition Hot Topic!

Calcium: The Friend None of Us Can Seem to Get Enough of

Maybe it is because my Medical Nutrition Therapy class lecture revolved around bone health, maybe it is because I presented a nutrition education session to a gaggle of 7-9 year olds this afternoon on milk consumption, regardless - I am buzzing on all things calcium right now.

As a nutrition and dietetic student I like to think I eat pretty healthfully.  However, after today's lecture on bone health and completing an osteoporosis risk assessment questionnaire, it took every ounce of self-control I possess to not go running for the nearest health food store and purchase all the calcium and vitamin D supplements my depleted bank account could buy.  Okay, maybe it wasn't that extreme but you get the idea.

While I am totally conscious about consuming my fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, lean meats, and healthy fats most days of the week, my dairy intake is rather, well, embarrassing. The RDA for adults up to the age of 50 is 1,000mg/day.  After 50 years of age, the recommendation jumps to 1,200mg/day.  (Note: boys and girls ages 9-18 should be getting 1,300mg/day).

There is some good news out there if you want to reach your recommended daily allowance. First, calcium fortified foods can really help you get a leg up on your intake without having to drown in milk and yogurt each day.  Secondly, for all you caffeine addicts out there, lattes totally count. My teacher, an R.D., gets in one of her 3 cups a day through her ritual latte each morning.


I mentioned earlier that I took an osteoporosis risk assessment questionnaire in class today.  Below is the first question.  Answer it and see how you do!

How many servings of the following foods do you consume daily?

Food                  Serving Size          Number of Servings         Mg of Ca per servings
Milk                      (1 cup)                             _______           x 300 = _________
Yogurt                  (1 cup)                             _______           x 300 = _________
Cheese                  (1 slice)                           _______           x  200 = _________
Cottage Cheese   (1/2 cup)                           _______             x  70 = _________
Ice Cream             (1 cup)                             ______              x 180 = _________

                                                                   Daily Calcium Intake = ________

Needless to say, my total was pathetic.

Interested to see how many cups of dairy you should be getting per day.  Here is a helpful little table I pulled off mypyramid.gov

Still want more information?  Several organizations now have calcium calculators on their websites. Listed below are some links if you feel so moved as to tally, track and brag about your calcium consumption!

http://www.iofbonehealth.org/patients-public/calcium-calculator.html

http://www.yoplait.com/calcium-calculator

http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/ManageMyHealth/Calcium+Calculator

In closing, I leave you with Hayden Panettiere's Got Milk Ad.  Because nothing makes me want to drink milk more than broken glass and a mess on the floor...

Courtesy of: gotmilk.com

Welcome!

So this is the first official post!  Welcome!  I suppose a little background information would be beneficial to those of you who do not know who I am.

My name is Kimberly.  I am currently studying nutrition and dietetics.  As of the fall 2011, I will go to work on getting my Masters in Science as well as complete my required dietetic internship.   By January 2013 I hope to have the initials M.S., R.D. behind my name.

Having said this, here is my DISCLAIMER: I am not a registered dietitian yet.  Therefore, I cannot give official advice in regards to medicine or nutrition.  The information I dispense on this blog is simply based on what I have learned and observed and should not be misconstrued for professional recommendations.

Now that the technicalities are out of the way, let us truly begin!

I have decided to set up this blog for numerous reasons. However, a major contributing factor to this undeniable motivation is my desire to help us all sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly that can be encountered in the field of nutrition and dietetics.

As our nation faces an obesity crisis and money hungry sensationalist try and capitalize on this epidemic, those within the community whose expertise lies within this area must speak up.   Too often, people want a quick fix.  Everyone wants to lose the unwanted weight fast.   I am here to tell you, if you want it done right and you want it to last, you must take the necessary time to obtain the desired results.  As a dear friend of mine says, "you didn't put the weight on overnight, you're not going to take if off overnight."

However, I believe making food simpler is the top most priority.  The words "rules" or "guidelines" are used far too often in our society in relation to food.  When did it stop being about portion size and moderation and morph into this realm of deprivation and self-denial?

The word "rule" implies a right and a wrong behavior. You should eat this, you shouldn't eat that.  For the last two years I've met with an R.D. to discuss, dissect and understand my behavior with food.  The journey has not been easy.  And a word I have discovered that gets so many of us into trouble is "should".  Guilt is the far under-credited feeling that accompanies this "should" and "shouldn't" thought process.  There is far too much negativity in the world.  To allow it to set up shop in your mind in relation to food and exercise is a haunting practice that can often times lead to savage self-destruction.  Before long, one will find him or herself "shoulding" all over themselves.  Using the word "should" generates a right and a wrong.  But where does that leave room for the middle ground?