I *heart* the ADA

Yay for the American Dietetic Association!

While attending Bastyr University, some of the professors gave the impression that the American Dietetic Association (ADA) is a conservative organization. I took conservative to mean “doesn’t want anything to change.” How wrong could my assumption be?

Very wrong.

On the contrary, the American Dietetic Association is on the front lines of the political scene, advocating for change. For as long as the health care debate has been going on, ADA members have been communicating with their legislators, advocating for greater visibility in the health care field. As a result of their efforts, the HELP Committee: Affordable Health Choices Act includes and ammendment which requires registered dietitians be included in the medical home team!

I am proud to be a member of this progressive organization.

Finding a Groove

In a previous blog post, I portrayed the American standard cereal-and-milk breakfast with disdain. I need to rescind that statement.

Although it was accurate to my sentiments at the time I wrote it, my pretentious standards have significantly loosened since moving to Virginia. Perhaps it is the fact that I am staying with relatives and don’t want to inconvenience them with my sporadic, and sometimes unfounded, food aversions. Or the fact that I don’t feel like going out of my way to make allergy-free meals because the house is always wonderfully and conveniently stocked with conventional food items. Or maybe it’s because I’ve finally stop stressing about the small stuff and, in response, my stomach has stop stressing about the food I eat.

Whatever the reason, my strict food regulation has ended. What I’m trying to say is that, I eat cereal with milk (albeit soymilk) for breakfast four out of seven days of the week and don’t think twice about it.

What’s more is that I am feeling healthy again. In fact, I’m fairly amazed at how well and how quickly I’ve fallen into a groove with my new internship. After surviving the first two weeks (which were sleep-deprived and stressful as hell), I am now falling easily asleep each night, sleeping 7-8 hours, and am excited to wake up each morning. I joined a gym (the same one my cousin, Michelle, attends) and low forward to my new-found exercise: rock climbing.

The days are very full for me, but I love my constant engagement with the world. Maybe all I needed was a little fire in my life to help warm up my dampened spleen/stomach.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart organ system (element: fire, emotion: joy) nurtures the spleen organ system (element: earth, emotion: worry). Therefore, in order to help bring fire back into the digestive system (there’s a reason we call it “burning” calories), it is sometimes necessary to spice up your life!

p.s. The picture is of me at a Washington Nationals game on August 21st. They lost badly to the Milwaukee Brewers, but it was a good time and a great introduction to the Capitol City.

Movies that Inspire

Yesterday, I watched the movie Food, Inc.

It was fantastic.

It was not fantastic because it offered new information. Actually, it was largely duplicative of other movies (King Corn) and books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) that offer similar insight into the horrible state of our food supply. No, it was fantastic because it offered a SOLUTION to the problem.

The movie ended with an uplifting message: We, the people, can reverse the awful mess that food corporations have created simply by making conscientious choices about the food we buy and eat. The most inspiring quote of the movie was “As consumers, we hold the power…we are voting every time we go to the register!”

This movie, along with its compatriots, gives me hope for the future.

The mere fact that we are seeing more and more of these anti-CAFO, anti-commodity crop, anti-GMO documentaries leads me to believe that change is already happening. And that the change is good.

My friend, Cheryl, just purchased the movie “Fresh” (another from the aforementioned genre) and is going to hold an informal “screening.” Yay!

If you are reading this blog and haven’t heard about any of these must-see films, I urge you to do so RIGHT NOW. Open a new window, go to www.google.com, and search for a viewing near you!

Sugar Tax

A recent column in The Washington Post posed the question “Can we fight obesity by slapping a heavy tax on soda?” When they interviewed Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, he seemed to think the answer was YES. In fact, he has a article about the topic (Ounces of Prevention — The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages) in the April issue of the New England Journal of Medicine! Between pages 1805 and 1808 Brownell states that “Sugar-sweetened beverages…may be the single largest driver of the obesity epidemic” and then shows evidence that a government-imposed tax could significantly reduce consumption.

Although some people argue that it is unfair to tax food items, Brownell disagrees. His well-chosen quote accentuates his perspective: “Sugar, rum, and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation” (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776). The Washington Post article states that Brownell proposed the idea of a “sugar tax” 15 years ago, but it appears the idea has been around for centuries!

I first heard of the “sugar tax” at a family reunion earlier this summer when Uncle “Jim” brought it up. A staunch Republican, he immediately made his opinion clear – He was NOT in favor of the tax and was aghast at the idea of the government taking away more our civil liberties. “There have already been so many freedoms taken away!” he claimed. While my flaming liberal side would have immediately voted in favor of the tax, his abrupt, rough opposition made me stop short and re-think my reply. After a moment of ponderance, I took a deep breath and said…

I agree. I don’t think there should be a tax on soda… However, I do think there is a problem with the food economy in this country. When the price of a Coke is less than the price of an apple, you have to sense that something is wrong with the situation. A quote by Brownell from The Washington Post article says it clearly: “Until healthful foods routinely cost less than unhealthful ones, getting people –especially low-income people—to eat them will remain a challenge.”

While a “sugar tax” may not be the best way, I am not opposed to a government intervention of a different variety (please let me know if you think otherwise).

Adair’s solution: Instead of just taxing flavored sugar water, we need to stop subsidizing corn (which supplies the soda industry with cheap high fructose corn syrup, as one junk food example). Instead, the government should re-direct those funds to small (read: non-commodity crop, preferably biodynamic) vegetable farms. That way, the REAL cost of commodity crops will be felt by the public (and giving a little more integrity to the food system). In other words, the cost of junk food would increase and, by comparison, the cost of healthful food would appear to cost less. -- I don't know if this will ever happen (or if it's even possible), but until we make it economical for Americans to choose a bag of carrots over a bag of Frito-Lay chips, I don’t think we’ll ever get out of the obesity epidemic we’ve eaten ourselves into!

Blueberry Pie

Tonight my mom, the pie-crust master, taught me how to make a blueberry pie. She took out her tattered Joy of Cooking and went through the instructions, step by step, explaining to me in great detail. First you fold the chilled Crisco and butter into the flour. Don’t work the dough too much. You know you still have to add four tablespoons of water, right? I stood there, in stunned silence, as I thought to myself: Doesn’t she know that I already know this? I learned the mechanisms of pie-crust making in my Food Science class! Yeah, I can read directions just as well as you can…

I kept my mouth shut. Try to learn something from her, Adair! I scolded myself. Just because you think you know it all, does not mean that you actually do! Time passed.

Like cutting Crisco into flour, things eventually smoothed out. We worked together like a well-oiled machine. One of us rolled out the crusts while the other mixed up the filling. The pies went into the oven, baked, and came out beautiful and golden-brown.

The experience definitely made me think. I’ve been reading articles on the five stages of change (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance). The authors indicate that the best results happen when dietitians tailor interventions to the specific stage the patient is in. For example, it would not be appropriate to offer whole foods recipes to someone who sees no problem eating at fast food restaurants for every meal. Giving appropriate advice requires being able to recognize the stage in which the patient is. Today I realized that recognizing stages of change may be more difficult than it seems. If my mom can’t recognize that I’ve been around the kitchen a few times, how am I going to spot a contemplative patient?!

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It wasn’t that my mom didn’t recognize my ability to bake. The reason she was being so specific is because she wanted us to succeed! She wanted our pies to come out perfect and delicious. I mean, come on, she is the pie-curst master! She didn’t care what else I had learned about making crust. She wanted to pass her unique pie crust knowledge on to me. She wanted me to know the way she does it!

Tonight was an example of food tradition at its best: One mom passing down personal baking knowledge to her daughter. This is the way it should always be. Darn-it-all, why don’t more parents teach their children how to prepare wholesome, healthy meals!? Oh, that’s right, because most parents were never taught how to cook by their parents. Sigh, and the ignorance was passed down through the generations. Woe, the sad state of this country’s food culture… I feel lucky that I have a loving mother who can teach me the priceless art of baking a blueberry pie.