Repetitions on a theme

In the past few weeks, I have attended multipe webinars and professional gatherings. By and large, a theme emerged. That theme is LISTEN to each other and show that you CARE.

As part of the community rotation of my dietetic internship, I am currently working at the American Dietetic Association office of Policy Initiatives and Advocacy. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to listen to highlights from The 2009 Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public. It was inspiring.

One woman talked about the importance of having on person on every medical team whose job it is to partner with patients to help make the changes they want to make in their lives. She called this postition an Integrative Health Coach. If only we all worked in Team Care Environment and had an Integrative Health Coach to really support each one of our patients.

Dr. Dean Ornish also spoke at the Summit. My favorite story of his was when he explained a Yale angiogram study where persons were asked "Do you feel loved and supported by your spouse?" It turned out that, the more loved and supported the person felt, the less atherosclerosis and blockages were seen in their arteries.

In my Nutrition Assessment and Therapy II class at Bastyr, my wise professor Debra Boutin expressed the idea that the heart chakra (the center from which feelings of love emenate) might somehow be connected to the health of the actual heart. In America, we tend to function as idividuals, move away from our families, and live on our own. Very few of us have a good sense of community anymore. Is it not surprising that our cardiovascular health is also ailing?

At a talk by Dr. James Gordon this evening, I was struck by how much he emphasized listening and caring. He said, in order to promote healing, people must have a safe place to go and be able to talk without fear, knowing that those who are listening care. The absence of judgement. A hope for the possibility of a better future. For change that is good.

How does this relate to nutrition? Well, emotions are tied to eating behaviors and quality of digestion. How many people eat when they are stressed? sad? happy? tired? I propose that, if more people were happy and felt loved every day, there would be way less stress- and emotion-related eating in this country.

So make someone's day and give them a hug.

*HUGS* to all those reading this blog!

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.

Mountains

Poem:
The mountains in Seattle feel claustrophobic,

like they are closing in on the city, encroaching...

About to kick it into the sound.

The mountains in Colorado are expansive,

like opening your hands to release a butterfly, freeing...

My digestion is better here.

Translation:
I was extraordinarily stressed while attending graduate school in the Pacific Northwest. The eternal damp didn't help the situation, either. As I began driving east, though the dry hills of the plains states toward a relaxing summer in Michigan, I could feel the stress melt away...

Application:
Determining the root cause of a food issue and be as simple as taking a deep breath. Stress can be the culprit for many gastrointestinal troubles. Here is why:

Nutrient absorption is orchestrated by a cascade of hormones. When you eat a meal, the “rest and digest” hormones direct blood to your digestive tract to help you digest the food. However, when the mind is busy stressing about work, the "fight or flight" hormones take blood away from your digestive tract and send it to your muscles! As a result, food is less digested and symptoms like gas and bloating can occur. Not to mention that you are probably absorbing half of the viable nutrients in your food!

To eat with integrity, it is important to create an environment that favors healthy digestion. Choose a calm place. Bring your mind into a place of gratitude before beginning. Think pleasant thoughts. Set down the fork between bites to breathe. Inhale and feel relaxation enter your body. Exhale and feel any lingering stress leave the body. Eating is a time of appreciation, enjoyment, and nourishment.

Listen to your body, part 2

I've recently come to terms with the fact that I might be sensitive to wheat. I had been avoiding gluten-containing foods (gluten is the main allergy-provoking protein in wheat) for about two weeks and was feeling pretty good. Then ate four small butter cookies (made with enriched white flour) while volunteering at the hospital this morning and immediately had GERD-like symptoms (GERD = gastro esophageal reflux disease, a.k.a. acid reflux and/or heartburn).

Now maybe it was just an upgurgle of the frustration I usually experience while volunteering -- the angst and unrest associated with being expected to complete complicated tasks without any explaination of how to accomplish them -- but, more than likely, I just need to avoid the wheat.

As a science-minded person, I would perfer to get bloodwork done to confirm my self-diagnosis. However, I do not have insurance-enough for lab tests. Therefore, I will take the advice of a recent guest-speaker (Dr. Stephen Wangen) who believes that, if you take out the food and you feel better, who cares what the lab results say. (He also wrote a book, called Healthier Without Wheat) Yep, I guess I will just have to listen to my body on this one.

And, anyhow, self-diagnosis (Elimination Diet being included) has way more integrity than relying on external validation. If the answer is strong inside, there will be no need for anyone else to confirm what is right and what is wrong. Period.

I've found that the best way to strengthen the voice inside is by sustained periods of calm silence. Now if only I could find more time to do this... *sigh* Such is the life of the student.

Listen to your body

I got up early on Saturday and made a big breakfast of quinoa, lentils, and asparagus with an over-easy egg on top. It was delicious. And I thought it would sustain me for a long while...

...but, before it was even close to lunchtime, I was hungry again! Trying to get as much work done as possible before taking a break, I "push through" and ignore my hunger. That was a bad idea.

I was supposed to meet a friend for a walk around Green Lake at 1pm. My original plan was just jump in the car and (without integrity) just munch on a Clif bar and a apple with peanut butter and wait until dinner for a real meal. My body had a different plan.

Ten minutes before I was supposed to meet my friend, I had to call him back and tell him that I needed to postpone. I suggested meeting him an hour later. Thankfully, he agreed.

I needed a real meal, I was craving *meat*. Instead of the snacks, I went to the store, and bought myself a small steak and braised it with onions and broccoli.

The results were immediate.

I felt SO much better after I listened to my body. My energy and concentration improved. I was a whole new woman.

Now, if only I could move classes around the same way I postponed my walk around Green Lake -- I would move our Medical Nutrition Therapy class up an hour or so (earlier in the day) so that we could all get home and eat dinner at a reasonable time!

free will

Have you ever refused to eat your vegetables, using the argument that they tasted “yucky”? If the answer is yes, did you later change your mind about vegetables when you learned about their superior nutrient content? Probably not. In America, we like to throw education at things because we think that will fix all our problems. “If only we educate them about the benefits nutritious foods, then they will all make appropriate lifestyle changes.” Right?

I think there is more to the equation than education. I have been pondering this thought for a few days, wondering how useful my book will be if no one actually follows the recommendations...

And then, the answer came to me. A serendipitous comment uttered by Daniel Faraday in this evening's episode of LOST...

"I’ve been so focused on the constants that I forgot about the variables," Daniel proclaims.
"What variables?" Jack asks.
"Us," replies Faraday, "we all make choices that influence the future. We can change our future..."

While not verbatim, the general idea is that we, as humans, have free will. We get the unique opportunity to create our lives in any way we want. This includes choices about food.

Maybe someone told you to “eat organic” and your immediate thought was “I can’t afford that.” Well, think again. What if it IS possible? In my life, I’ve found that, if I put enough positive energy into something, anything is possible.

Really.

If I truly want something and I do everything you can to make it happen, it eventually happens. To go along with the example: If I wanted to buy organic but didn’t originally think I could afford it, I would think about buying organic, talk about buying organic, share my plan to buy organic with friends… By making all my thoughts and words positive, I would, in turn, bring the experience to myself. Maybe my mom would buy me a bushel of organic apples. Or maybe a friend would give me the heads up about an organic greens sale at Grocery Outlet.

Maybe it’s not as simple as I make it sound, but I do know that eating with integrity means taking responsibility. Eating with integrity means not making excuses. Today you have the opportunity to create a delicious meal. You choose what to buy for dinner.

Intention

I love Saturdays.

On the weekends, I get to sleep in and then make myself a leisurely breakfast. This morning, I created a variation of "Eggs in a Nest" from Barbara Kingsolover's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Fresh, local, organic kale, sautéed in olive oil with onions and garlic. Add a water/apple cider vinegar mixture and braise for a few minutes. Make an indentation in the greens and crack an egg. Cover and cook a few minutes more, depending on your yolk preference (runny or firm). Serve over aromatic basmati rice with succulent orange slices on the side.
Oranges, although not local, provide vitamin c to help absorb iron from the kale.

I take the first bite and the tender kale nearly melts in my mouth, savory and hearty. The gooey yolk runs and mixes with greens. The result is magical. I chew slowly and thoughtfully, savoring the moment. Swallow. Take a breath. I select an orange slice, the juices filling my mouth with delicious sweetness. I am transformed. I can literally feel my body being nourished by this nutrient-dense breakfast.

I wish every meal could be like this. Most mornings I find myself running out the door, tea in hand and a piece of peanut butter toast hanging out of my mouth, hurrying to get to class on time. The experience is dramatically different. And my stomach lets me know, with GI discomfort sometimes plaguing me 24 hours later.

How often do we rush through our meals? Do we ever really TASTE what we are eating? I know I am guilty of this more than I would like to admit. And how many times do we skip lunch, trying to get that last little bit of paperwork done? Again, I raise my hand with shame.

Intention. It's not enough to just choose good quality food. Another important aspect of eating with integrity is to be in the moment and really appreciate and give thanks for the food that is nourishing you.

Instead of writing a long list of tips on how to eat more mindfully, I will refer you to this excellent (and entertaining) youtube video.

Enjoy!

Alternate Welcome

I have wanted to write a book about Eating with Integrity since the spring of 2007, when I attended an empowerment seminar in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, life as a graduate student in nutrition has proven to be a roadblock on the highway of serious literary synthesis. Since my vision of authorship does not seem likely to happen in the near future I am going to begin drafting my thoughts here and hopefully come up with a formidable enough collection to compile my ideas later in life.

Local Food

Take a journey with me. Close your eyes and imagine your last airplane trip. You wake up at 5am to catch an early flight across the country, you arrive at your destination nine hours later feeling groggy and disoriented…

Now imagine how a kiwi might feel after taking a long trip from New Zealand to your local grocery store. No matter where you live, that is at least 7,000 miles (11.3 km) of air travel! Not to mention that air travel is the most environment-damaging form of transportation through the HUGE amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) it releases. (Carbon dioxide: a greenhouse gas that absorbs and emits radiation, contributing to global warming).

Let’s compare travel methods. Shipping food by boat will emit 21 g of CO2 per metric ton of food per kilometer of distance traveled. If you refrigerate that boat, the number goes up to 27 g CO2/ton/km. A train expels 81 g, a truck belches 102 g, and a cold (fridge) truck jumps up to 131 g CO2/ton/km. Air travel, however, wins the booby prize with a carbon footprint of 570 g CO2/ton/km!

Taking a look at the ton of kiwi flying in from New Zealand again, I made some calculations (570 * 1 ton * 11.3km) and was shocked to learn that my innocent kiwi put 6441 g of CO2 into the atmosphere! Bleh!

Fact: It's not just tropical fruit. Most produce sold in the US travels nearly 1500 miles before it reaches the grocery store!

Choosing locally-grown food helps the environment by using less global-warming fossil fuel. In addition, you also reap the benefits of fresher (read: more flavorful and nutrient-rich) produce… but that is a topic for another day.

Whole Foods

If Maslow made a hierarchy for Eating with Integrity, the base level would be all about WHOLE FOODS.

What do I mean by whole food? To borrow lightly from my professor, Cynthia Lair, a whole food is a food that has not been modified from its original form, a food that you can picture growing. An apple. Asparagus. Brown rice. Garbanzo beans.

These foods have INTEGRITY. They are still in their whole form. They are as God made them.

"And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food'" (Genesis 1:29).

Anytime a food is processed, nutrients are lost. This can be as simple as removing the skin from your potatoes (the majority of nutrients are found just underneath the skin!), or as complicated as the chemical process of transforming whole corn into high fructose corn syrup.

The more whole foods you can consume each day, the more vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients you are providing your body. The American Dietetic Association recommends 5-a-day. For a more personalized recommendation, visit this website.

Welcome to Eating with Integrity

Not all food is created equal. In addition to the many species of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, there are a multitude of processed products that we regularly consume. With billions of choices lining the supermarket shelves, how does the average American decide what to purchase and eat? What makes a food nutritious/healthy, anyway? Is there a “perfect” diet, and if so, what is it?

This blog will strive to answers these questions (and many others) using a mixture of anecdotes, quotes, and facts. As a future dietitian hoping to Revolutionize Health in America (Read: help people eat better) it is my goal to maintain an optimistic tone and provide useful dietary advice for any visitor to this site.