Going Green this Summer with Backyard Gardening

So I'm reading this fab book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". It's another gem by Barbara Kingsolver. I'd highly recommend it. This time she's moved her family to the East and has taken it upon herself with the help of her family to grow and raise everything they need to eat with the rare exception of things like cranberries. It's wonderfully written and her daughter Camille has some lovely pieces in there as well. This young woman is going to be as good a writer as her popular mom. This book has inspired me do expand my garden this year. My friend John helped by digging out my hardy but very overgrown Rosemary Bush....now I love rosemary..but you can't exactly feed yourself with it. Now I have about 4 feet more of growing space..yeah...! So far the snaps peas are in as our 2 varieties of lettuce, carrots, and beets. I won't even think about planting tomatoes until May. I cheat...I buy larger plants..since we have such a short growing season..last year it held me in good stead. I had loads of nice, ripe tomatoes while my friends were saying theirs were still green. I'm also job hunting as many of you know...I'm really into Obesity Prevention in Kids and sharing your garden with others. There are two places you can go to to share, Urban Land Army and Urban Garden Share..google them and I'm sure they will pop up....I also wrote an article on it which you can find by clicking here http://www.ehow.com/how_4887693_green-sharing-backyard-vegetable-garden.html. Or if you can't click just paste into your web browser....Thanks guys

How the Obesity Epidemic is Contributing Environmental Degradation

My most recent foray in the work world was as Program Director at the American Diabetes Association. Before working there, even though I’m a health educator, I didn’t pay that close attention to what I was eating. I’m one of the lucky ones who has never had to count calories or go on a diet, except when I was in high school once and decided to count calories for the fun of it and lost weight as a result. OK, go ahead and hate me, but that’s the truth. And since I’m not working a regular job I have more time to work out, so now I’m down 8 lbs from where I was about 2 years ago. But I digress.

As part of my job working for the American Diabetes Association I was asked to sit on a committee that was comprised of city council members, restaurant owners, and two other health care organizations, namely the American Heart Association and the health department. Our task was to figure out how best to eliminate transfats from restaurants and also make menu labeling more apparent to the consumer. The restaurants were there so that we could find a realistic timeline before going in front of the King County Council for a vote on both of these subjects. As we found out the restaurants were already working toward getting rid of trans fats, but they didn’t want anyone dictating to them when and how to do this. They were pretty much out and out opposed to menu labeling beyond what they were already doing because of the cost.

So in my normal course of business I brought this issue up at another meeting I regularly attended. I was told that the restaurants that are moving away from using trans fats are actually using Palm Oil. Not a perfect choice but much better for us than bad old trans fats. What I came to find out at that meeting is that because so many restaurants are converting to Palm Oil, we are rapidly degrading the Palm Trees in other parts of the world and of course impacting the environment negatively.

This my friends is all because we Americans are too lazy to cook our own food (instead of eating the crap at Micki D’s and others of its ilk) and get off of our duffs and go for a walk. It’s also because our towns are now mainly suburbs all designed for the car and not for the walker. We now have an epidemic of obese children glued to their computers sucking down fries by the barrelful. Now does this sound like a vicious circle to you. Because it does to me. If planners were willing to build towns (more like in Europe) where we could live closer to where we work (even walk to work-now there’s a concept like they do in New York-no wonder New Yorkers are thin), we would be less dependent on our cars, thinner, more relaxed, less likely to eat fatty food and protect the environment to boot. No need to replace Palm Oil for Trans fats because there would be no obesity epidemic. End of story.

Passover Miracles

My mother handed me over our 30 year plus Haggadah when I arrived at her home in Chicago and the place I was born. She pointed out how these well worn, wine encrusted Haggadahs had my name, my oldest brothers name and the name of my first friend Linda next to the sections we were supposed to read. How wierd is that she entoned. A few days later we would be paying a visit to my eldest friend who has by all strokes of the imagination (no pun intended) survived a brain hemorrhage and is doing unbelievably well after only a few short months. We arrive at her and her husbands condo and who helps deliver us to our parking spot in this downtown Chicago highrise, but one of her brothers. "What is he doing here", I think to myself? Then we walk in the door and not only is he there but so are Linda's other brother and his wife all the way from Florida. It doesn't dawn on me until I look at the table that we are going to be having 2nd night Seder. How cool is this I think and how miraculous that my friend is fully capable of reading the parts that are offered her. Still missing a major piece of her skull, she has all her faculties about her. She's a little slow moving and not her usual exuberant self but for the most part she is back.

It's so terrific when we can attach the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea to the miracles that surround us each day. Let us thank G-d for the ordinary and not so ordinary miracles in our lives. Hag Sameach!

Why It is Likely that Abraham and Sarah Lived Into Their 90s and Well Into Their 100s

Ok...I know it's been forever that I've blogged...here is something I wrote after reading the book Health at 100 by John Robbins.

If you read the book of Genesis in the bible you know how the story goes. Abraham and Sarah lived into their 90s and Sarah gave birth very late in life. Although the ability of Sarah to give birth that late could be disputed, I hypothesize that living into their 90s was not at impossible, but actually the most likely scenario of all.

Having just finished reading the book Healthy at 100 by John Robbins, son of the Baskin-Robbins tycoon, I began to think about the likelihood of our ancestors living healthy, vigorous lives l into old age. In his incredible book, Robbins talks about more recent cultures in which people regularly lived into their 80s, 90s, and even the low 100s while enjoying good health even in their advanced years. These cultures include the Abkhasians of the Caucasus, the Hunzians of Pakistan, the Vilcabambans in Equadors Andes Mountains, and the Okinawans of Japan. Likely you have heard of the last group but not of the other cultures.

Sadly these cultures have not maintained this amazing longevity because of the encroachment of Western society. As we’ve done all over the world, we exported our fast food and sedentary way of life as the “norm” for progress. Before coming into major contact with Western cultures all of the cultures named above farmed their own food which was organic and not filled with the junk that we identify as food today, because many of them are mountainous peoples they walked or hiked on a daily basis to farm their food and just do all the things necessary to survive, and in addition they all had close knit and loving societies where the elderly were revered and were the children and people of all ages.

Because of the healthy lifestyles they led they had none of the chronic diseases that we have today and so cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other diseases were unknown. He does not talk in his book about infectious diseases but I’m guessing that with the level of biodiversity prevalent at that time and certainly at the time of our ancestors infectious diseases were probably not that prevalent. And because there weren’t many people at the time, diseases like the plague, malaria and TB that often come with large populations living in close proximity did not have the opportunity to take a foothold. Fresh water was bountiful and predators to feed on rats often vectors of disease were available so these diseases did not have a chance to reach humans or if they did, they rarely spread.

Living thousands of years before these cultures, the early Jewish people would have been in a similar situation to the Abkhasians and the other cultures named above. Hard work and healthy food would have been abundant. Polution and other causes of disease would not have existed. People would have lived communally and although warlike at times would have spent most of their lives living in peace.

The Omnivores Dilemma

Ok...I know...I know...it seems like lately all I do is book reviews. Well here is another one. I have to say though I keep picking books that are somewhat depressing. This book is no different. It really gives you pause to consider how corporate greed and circumstance have turned an ordinary vegetable...corn...into a commodity and the creator of not only horrible stuff like high fructose corn syrup but toxic waste from all the cattle that are fed some version of corn. Practically everything you eat if it's processed or comes from a cow is made from corn. What I found out is that corn-fed beef is actually not nearly as good for you as grass fed beef. But you have to go to Argentina to find that. Why has this happened? Well it's a combination of subsidies that have been given to farmers since the 50s and the fact that they can now grow a tremendous amount of corn and have to keep trying to grow more of it because the more they grow the more the market is glutted and the price goes down...so they have to in order to stay afloat. So now we are awash in corn. And we have to come up with ways to use it. And we have. Who wins? Not the farmers...they are making a pittance...but the big conglomerates that make everything from plastics to ethanol to the lovely HFC I mentioned earlier that is so bad for you. What can you do? Read! Read all the labels on the packages of food you buy. Don't buy processed food. If you read a label and have no idea what the ingredient is...it is corn...

After reading this book, I'm considering going vegetarian. Or going to Argentina where at least I know the beef is good for you.

A Lonely World

As I read more of the book "Healthy at 100" and ponder the chapters about the protective health effects of love and family I can't help but wonder what has happened to our world. A world where many of us live alone or are divorced and may have one or more children in our care. Where old people are left to die in nursing homes. A place where many of us will never know what its like to live in real community. One where no one ever moves and you know all of your neighbors. One where people really care and stop by just to say hi. One that only a few in this country still know well; the Amish and Orthodox Jews.

How far has progress taken us except away from our families and ultimately from ourselves. I've lived for 28 years away from my family of origin. Have these all been lonely years? I have many people I call friends and I feel fortunate for that--but its not that the same as having them close at hand. Willing to stop by just to see how you're doing. They like I have incredibly busy lives. Even with husbands and children many feel the same sense of disconnection I often feel. The phone is only a poor substitution.

How can we be "Healthy at 100" if we live isolated lives. A part of me wants to go live in a place where "everyone knows your name" and yes "knows your business". Because that's the kind of person I am. I'm a connector. Today I had an idea. Instead of Big Brothers and Sisters; why not Little Grandchildren for those who really need grandchildren. As a single woman with no children, I don't look forward to my elder years. How can I when I fear being alone with no one to come visit me. I will need to adopt grandchildren just so I can have that privilege or have "Little Grandchildren" that will come to my side. Or perhaps, just perhaps I'll go live in Okinawa where elders are still treated with respect and people still live well to a ripe old age because they feel useful.

How to Get People to Eat More Veggies

So I've been thinking about our health care crisis and what we can do to fix it. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I'm currently reading Healthy at 100 by John Robbins. There is study after study about the benefits of eating a healthy diet and exercising to prevent chronic disease. Even if we start late we have a greater likelihood of living healthy, vigourous lives into old age. So how to we get Americans to eat more and exercise more?

One way I thought of getting people to eat more vegies is to utilize the Flexible Spending Account not only as a way to get a tax break on health care costs not covered by our insurance plans, but also there should be a way that we can use these cards to buy vegetables. Of course this doesn't ensure we will eat them but it would give us some incentive to buy them. We should also be able to use these cards at our farmer's markets and CSA's (CSAs are those farms that deliver fresh vegies to your house).

And while we're at it why not be able to use these cards to pay our monthly dues at fitness facilities.

Giving a tax break to those who are tryng to eat right and exercise only makes good practical sense.

So listen up Presidential Candidates...have you thought of this one?