Liquidated

Everybody knows by now that we should drink 8 glasses of water a day for good health. Water is super great for us, as it helps us absorb nutrients, cushion our bones, and move waste out of the body, among many other benefits. The trouble is, staying hydrated can be a pain. When I read "drink 8 glasses of water a day," all I see is those glasses of water lined up in a row and me thinking, "I can't possibly drink all that in one day."

So it was quite a relief for me to read that this 8 glasses a day thing has been debunked. 

The New York Times:

"Contrary to many stories you may hear, there’s no real scientific proof that, for otherwise healthy people, drinking extra water has any health benefits. For instance, reviews have failed to find that there’s any evidence that drinking more water keeps skin hydrated and makes it look healthier or wrinkle free. It is true that some retrospective cohort studies have found increased water to be associated with better outcomes, but these are subject to the usual epidemiologic problems, such as an inability to prove causation. Moreover, they defined 'high' water consumption at far fewer than eight glasses."

Finally! One less thing to feel guilty about not doing right. What the author, Aaron E. Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, points out, is that most of us get plenty of hydration from the food we eat as well as from what we drink. Fruits and vegetables contain water, for instance. As does any beverage you can think of.

So, we're not stuck drinking plain old boring water anymore, right? Not to rain on that parade (har har) but this infographic I found shows how quickly calories from other choices add up: 

from http://www.entwellbeing.com.au/alcohol/

1,370 calories!? Should have had 0 calorie water, instead!

It's not just the calories, either. It's the caffeine, and the chemicals, and the alcohol, that we're better off without. 

Personally, I think staying on top of one's water consumption is important. It's too easy to go an entire day and at the end of it, realize, "Hey, I'm really thirsty--and I've BEEN really thirsty for A WHILE now." 

So, how DO we keep ourselves properly hydrated throughout the day? I can't vouch for the accuracy of the healthful effects stated here (they do seem a little sketchy), but I think this infographic (below) is a pretty good schedule for keeping on track, nonetheless. 

http://deafseniorsusa.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-times-to-drink-waterfind-out-why.html

Waste Not: "Just Eat It," the Documentary

Back in January, 2013, I made two New Years Resolutions. The first was to stop wasting so much food; the second was stop using so much plastic. I did fairly well on the first, though it interfered a bit with the second. Being more on top of food storage meant a certain investment in Tupperware-like plastic containers. Hm.

Anyway, little did I know at the time that my personal battle against wasting food was a much larger issue. 

Irony abounds in the fact that, as a nation, we are fatter than ever, even while more and more Americans enter into "food insecurity" -- not having enough money left over after bills for food--every day. 

The irony does not end there. While our dependence on food assistance grows, and the difficulty in funding it does too, there is, in fact, an abundance of food that goes into landfills via restaurant and grocery store dumpsters, and our own household trash cans. According to a study done in 2011, approximately 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes to waste, and about one third of the food produced in the world for humans is lost or wasted.

A sorry state of affairs.

And it's not just a problem in the way that would have aggravated many of our mother's "waste not, want not" philosophies. If your mom (like mine) was one of those--made you clean your plate, and smuggled home uneaten bread rolls from restaurants in her purse--then you know what I'm talking about.  It's also increasingly being seen as a serious environmental and economic issue.

In 2014, two young filmmakers decided to document their efforts to not just reduce their own food waste, but to literally consume the discarded food of others, for six months. The resulting film, "Just Eat It," is available in its entirety on YouTube. Serious eww factor warning: they regularly "rescued" food from dumpsters and. ate. it. Not only did they never get food poisoning and die (not that they mentioned, anyway) they found such an abundance of available free food that they couldn't even store it all.

Filmmaker Grant Baldwin eyes a dumpster filled with discarded though viable yogurt.

So why DO we waste so much food? The film answers this question in a variety of ways, with enough blame to go around. From confusing labeling requirements  (expire dates and "sell by" dates are not, apparently, the same thing) and safety standards, to our own kitchens, where fresh produce goes bad and dairy products always find their way to the back of the fridge. 

I highly recommend this film, and since, like I said, you can watch it now for free (natch!) on YouTube, it couldn't be easier. 

Bon appétit!

For more how to feed people, not garbage cans, visit the "Just Eat It" Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Justeatitmovie

Meatless Monday: Destroy the Hun! Edition

See this poster? When I first saw it, I assumed it had been created by foodie hipsters, probably for some Oregonian farm co-op. However, reading the fine print, I discovered it was, in fact, a product of a much sterner and squarer entity: the U.S. Food Administration, circa World War 1.

When the U.S. entered that war in 1917, Europe had already been fighting it for 3 long, dreary, and sickeningly brutal years. Despite America's seemingly steadfast neutrality, Germany's provocative actions made our entry into the conflict nothing short of inevitable.

But to get back to the poster, what is fascinating about it is that it could have been created by foodie hipsters of today. All the tenets are there: Be mindful of what you buy to eat. Cook it yourself. Eat less wheat and meat! Buy local! Don't gorge yourself, and don't chuck your left-overs! When did these common sense attitudes about food go out of style?

For that matter, why were they so important to the government at that time? Hard as it is to imagine today, during the First World War, the United States was short of nearly everything it would need to fight. Citizens were asked to donate any weapons, horses, and ammunition they possessed to help supply the army. Rationing was also very much in vogue, to feed the troops and everyone on the home front, as well as to help relieve famine in Europe. Concepts such as "Meatless Mondays" and "Wheatless Wednesdays" were implemented to help the food rationing effort.

It's interesting that things we now think of as matters of health, were then matters of national defense. 

And when you think about it, they still are. A nation that uses its resources wisely and supports healthy lifestyles in its citizens, ensuring safe and nutritious food, is far better equipped to handle the threats of the future than a nation that does not.

What Has Your Meat Been Eating?

If you've been following this blog, you know that it's a problem when cattle eat corn. It turns out, dependence on a corn diet has even more drawbacks than we thought.

Back in 2012, the worst drought in half a century ravaged the U.S. corn crop, causing the price of cattle feed to sky rocket. Scrambling for affordable ways to keep their stock fed, dairy and beef producers gave them literally anything they could get their hands on.

As this Reuters article put it, "discarded food products" were being substituted for corn, such as candy. And if "discarded food products" weren't bad enough, how about "never was food" products? This article, from Mother Jones, adds that not only was Bessie fed the candy, but the wrapper, as well! 

The article goes on to list other, even less appetizing items that appeared on the cows' menu: sawdust, ground limestone, crab guts, and chicken feces. 

2015, only 4 months in as of this writing, is already the hottest year on record. 

Drought will be the inevitable result of such temperatures, leading again to less corn, higher prices, and beef and dairy cows being fed candy, rocks, and chicken poop.

So, when the urge to barbecue inevitably comes this summer, before those burgers hit the barbie, it may be a question worth asking: What has my meat been eating?

Stop the Pop! Part lll

Full disclosure: I used to drink a lot of Coca-Cola. A LOT. I didn't grow up drinking it; soft drinks were strictly off limits on our house. Not only was our mom a health fanatic, she was a thrifty health fanatic. Whenever one of us might hint that perhaps having pop around would be kind of awesome, she'd say: "I'm not paying good money for sugar water!" So, naturally, the first thing I did when I moved away was to start drinking Coke, which had grabbed my customer loyalty in my formative years. If there ever was a kid who wanted to be a hippie on a hillside, it was me.

This ad captured not just my imagination, but was an advertising smash; what in today's marketing parlance would be referred to as "Lifestyle Branding." That is, the ad wasn't about the product--fizzy brown sugar water--as much as it was about the experience that the customer could associate with it; it provided consumers with an emotional attachment to a particular lifestyle.

And that was me. Every time I had a Coke, I felt I became all the things the commercial had imprinted on me at a very young age: beautiful, peaceful, independent. Laterally, it also tapped into my always-appealing rebellion against my mom and her rules, and her generation's (in my view) missteps and misdeeds. Pretty silly, isn't it? That all those things could be contained in a bottle of fizzy brown sugar water, straight out of Atlanta, Georgia.

That's where they make it.

Mindfulness means thinking about why we do the things we do. What influences the decisions we make about what we eat and drink? Are they based on emotion? rebelliousness? conformity? economics? politics? Are our children learning to make their own choices, or are their choices being made for them by the bombardment of advertising they see every day?

Our house, where even the toys were vegetables.

Superheroes to the Rescue!

With greater and greater numbers of children in this country becoming obese, and at high risk for other metabolic diseases, it's more important than ever that we find ways to help them eat healthier. As any parent knows, that's a tough proposition: gentle suggestions and outright nagging have limited results. As a study conducted by Cornell University researchers in 2012 found, however, kids make better choices when asked what their favorite superhero would eat:

When children were asked what various admirable people – such as Batman or Spiderman – would eat, 45% chose apple slices over French fries, which was higher than the health prime or the control condition.

The study was aimed at choices made within a fast food setting, obviously (apple slices over french fries), to see how to get kids to make better food choices within that setting. In my view, keeping kids OUT of fast food restaurants in the first place is the best way to keep them eating healthy, but that's not always an option in today's world. 

So when you inevitably find yourself there, do as the study suggests and ask your child:

"What would Batman eat?"

Meatless Monday

Eating less meat is a healthy choice, in more ways than one:

click on the picture to enlarge

Predictably, this perfectly reasonable idea has received a certain amount of push-back from meat producers and their supporters, as well as those who have a problem with reasonable ideas in general.

For the rest of us, being vegetarian one day a week will probably not make us head for an ashram any time soon. In fact, depriving ourselves for just that one day might actually make us appreciate meat that much more. That's the sort of "mindfulness" about what we put into our bodies that's worth having. Questions like: What is this? Where did it come from? Do I really need it? are a great way to learn about food and health, not to mention all of the factors, political, environmental, mental, and even spiritual, that influence our eating decisions every day.

The official Meatless Monday website offers a lot of great suggestions on how to go meatless today, as well as offering a lot of good info on healthy eating in general. Go take a look!

My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you.

Bacon?

The world is full of dieting advice, and it's hard to know which is right. Low-fat or low-carb? Paleo or vegan? Sinatra or Atkins?

Nope, not that one

Logically, advice based on solid scientific research should get the most credence. However, when the curtain is lifted on the funding of that research, or the motives behind the research, some ugly truths can be revealed.

Take the long standing idea that eating less fat is supposed to be the silver bullet to loosing weight. That's a no brainer, right? Eat less fat, BE less fat! Yet a recent revisiting of how that ball got rolling revealed that not only is that truism less than true, it may be dangerously false (read the entire article here).

Cutting back on saturated fat has had especially harmful consequences for women, who, due to hormonal differences, contract heart disease later in life and in a way that is distinct from men. If anything, high total cholesterol levels in women over 50 were found early on to be associated with longer life. This counterintuitive result was first discovered by the famous Framingham study on heart-disease risk factors in 1971 and has since been confirmed by other research.

That's just one example; be sure to read the entire article for more surprising and unsettling facts. This article from Business Insider also covers much of the same "fat not bad, lies were told" ground, but still worth a read.

Sweden Weighs In

Really running with the idea that a low-fat diet is flawed and possibly dangerous, a recent Swedish study suggests that it's not just okay to eat certain highly saturated fats, but positively heathy:

Butter, olive oil, heavy cream, and bacon are not harmful foods. Quite the opposite. Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight. And there are no connections between a high fat intake and cardiovascular disease.

Hm! Gotta believe those Swedes, right? All that cool furniture, those great fish snacks, those excellent meatballs, ABBA...but bacon? Seriously--bacon?

Okay, I had to know what that was about. So I went over to thelocal.com, a Swedish daily in English, and got the skinny on the fat:

Many of the studies to which Dahlqvist, and fellow LCHF advocates such as Andreas Eenfeldt, Ekot has found, are funded by food industry groups despite their insistence to the contrary ... Ekot's report indicates that among the financiers of some of the studies referred to by the pair include the US-based National Cattlemen's Association, dairy firm Swissmilk and other organisations linked to the now deceased Robert Atkins, who gave his name to a similar popular diet.

All right, so even Swedish dietitians can be a little shady. A researcher has to get their funding where they can find it, after all. But where does that leave us, the consumers? With all this confusing information from sources that should be reliable out there, how do we know who to believe?

IMHO

In my view, to make sure you're not jumping aboard some fad diet bandwagon, first, use common sense, and second, ask yourself two questions:

1) Am I going to have to eat this way for the rest of my life to keep my weight under control?

If the answer is yes, and your diet has you eating nothing but Jello and sardines, you may be on a fad diet.

2) Did my grandparents ever eat this?

If your grandparents are in their '60's or younger, this question probably doesn't apply to you. Your grandparents ate the same highly processed, sugar- and chemical-filled crap you grew up eating. For you older folks, your grandparents prepared and ate food that was grown without chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, shot full of hormones and genetically modified. Try to eat more like them. And take big sweeping claims about weight loss and health with a grain of salt.

ABBA displaying amazing Swedish ice cream eating powers