nutrition

Precision Pro Kitchen Scale

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I hesitate to endorse a ‘nutrition’ oriented product on a feminist website due to the ongoing tyranny of the emaciated female form in marketing, eating disorders, and fear of accusations of insensitivity, insecurity, close-mindedness, and size-ism. However, here are the facts of my situation: an undiagnosed medical condition made me overweight, and now I want to lose that weight. Half of the pounds evaporated as the result of successful (non-bariatric) surgery, but I would like to lose the entire quantity and return to my healthy size. A recovering bulimic roommate hid my body scale in the mid ‘90s, and I have not owned a scale since but prefer to go by clothes size.

I have always objected to strict dieting as a step on the slippery slope to anorexia. It also feeds an oppressive ideology (see Susan Bordo) and is ultimately ineffective because the metabolism lowers at a rate corresponding to the decrease in calories unless the dieter exercises. (And here is the inevitable) BUT now I seek helpful tools to assist in weight loss and maintenance. While aesthetic and emotional motivations may be suspect, concern regarding heart disease, the number one killer of women in the United States, is entirely legitimate. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides a site to help create an individualized heart-healthy diet. The EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale is another useful device.

Here’s why I like it: reasonably priced, it is also small, discreet, and multifunctional, as well as simple and thoughtfully including a tare feature (subtracting the weight of a dish or storage container). It works on any continent, or with your recipe of choice, offering four measurement modes: grams, ounces, kilograms, and pounds. In addition to the cross-trainer, free-weights, walking, bicycling, medical supervision, and the uninhibited enjoyment of the food that I do consume, I appreciate the use of this scale on the road to regained health.

Written by: Erika Mikkalo, March 21st 2010

Running on Empty

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:09:00 +0000

Directed by Emily Marlow, Charles Stewart

Television Trust for the Environment

When I was perhaps ten years old or younger, I used to sit in front of the television on weekend mornings, and flip around until I found a Save the Children show. I’d then proceed to watch the entire episode, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and cry. For years afterwards I was always furious when my mother would flip past the standard image of a young child of color, starving and attracting flies, with a sound of disgust.

Running on Empty is part of the sixth season of _Life, an educational series put out by Television Trust for the Environment, which delves into globalization’s myriad of affects on poverty. This particular episode shows the effects, mostly ineffective, of the Millennium Development Goals, a plan signed by 192 United Nations members to halve poverty and hunger by the year 2015.

The film contrasts the lives of Dawn, a mother of three living in one of the poorest areas in Europe, and Asemu, a mother of two living in northern Ethiopia. Dawn and Asemu, both only twenty-two years old, depend on cash payments to buy food, clothing, and other basic necessities. The film deals with the question of whether it is more effective to give cash or food aid to families in need. The fear is that adults will spend the money on more frivolous items instead of necessities.

While Running on Empty logically decides that cash is the best form of aid, it also shows the women spending a large part of their meager resources on events described as “social obligations.” Dawn ends up borrowing six hundred and fifty pounds (over nine hundred dollars to us) for her children’s Christmas presents, and struggles to pay back the loans. Asemu doesn’t receive regular cash payments until five months after the harvest; and she must spend a large part of their harvest on a women’s gathering, at which the women take turns supplying the food.

The film ends agreeing that the Millennium Development Goals are not working. Dawn receives just enough money to survive on after she splits her cash between food, diapers, laundry, gas, and electric bills. While her children are not underfed, and she knows what kind of diet is best for them, she lacks the money to buy healthy food. Therefore, Dawn falls back on fries and other high-fat, high-calorie solutions.

Asemu, who receives one pound for every one hundred and thirty of Dawn’s, explains that the cash aid she receives hasn’t increased to keep up with inflation rates. Her youngest child is developing well, but her older son, born before the family began receiving aid, only started to walk at age four due to malnutrition. The damage done by lack of nutrition in his first two years will never be undone, and the family’s diet is still extremely poor in protein, with no money for fish or meat.

The show is well filmed, with segments in Ethiopia and South Wales, and does a striking job at drawing parallels between the different types of poverty the two families live in. In the end, neither can afford to give their children the nutrition they desperately need for proper development, despite all of the rich promises of our “world leaders.”

Written by: Ilinca Popescu, June 1st 2009

It's Not About Food: End Your Obsession with Food and Weight

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:11:00 +0000

By Carol Emery Normandi, Laurelee Roark

Perigee

The new year is upon us, and it’s not just because George W. Bush has finally left the White House. Whenever we decide to turn on our televisions, the Resolutions Monster is there. It appears as a perky model that lost fifty pounds after some fad diet. We look at our own bodies in disgust, poking at the extra pounds of flesh formed after gorging extra slices of pumpkin pie. Summer suddenly creeps up on us like our monthly cycles and those dreams of wearing a bikini are shattered.

There aren’t many options in combating the Resolutions Monster. We could either eat all the greasy Chinese we desire, or shove fingers down our throats in hopes that the salad from lunch hasn’t turned into fat. Fortunately, two women have discovered a new solution, one that will hopefully put an end to the vicious cycle of vanity.

Carol Emery Normandi and Laurelee Roark spent years of struggling with eating disorders because, like millions of others, they yearned to look and feel 'beautiful' every year. Despite fasting, vomiting, and dieting, they've never won the bulge battle—at least not until they formed the nonprofit organization Beyond Hunger, which targets the negative viewpoints of weight created by women. In their latest revised version of It's Not about Food, Normandi and Roark expose the appalling relationship women have with their bodies and how they can overcome them.

Along with personal tales of how they punished themselves with laxative pills, these women reveal advice on taming hunger and how releasing years of shame is the key to respecting and loving every inch of us. The mission seems impossible, but their insightful chapters are nothing short of inspiring and worth the read until the very end.

One of the surprising exercises that Normandi and Roark suggest to readers is eating exactly what you want. Whether it’s freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or potato chips, eat away! It may sound like a terrible trick, but it’s the first stepping stone to being at peace with food. "It is very helpful to have with you at all times snacks that you like and can eat whenever you feel hungry," they explain. "This cuts down on the cycle of binging. You won’t get too hungry and slam down any old thing if you have your favorite foods with you." While this may be true, should we just give up fruits and vegetables for fried chicken and cheesecake?

Before the book is thrown out for seemingly lacking the knowledge readers need to physically improve themselves, Normadi and Roark provide step-by-step meditation rituals on savoring each bite we eat, when to know the signals of being full, and how to stop relying on food for emotional support. They state, "Go into your body and get into your sensual feelings about your body—excited, passionate, turned on, or climactic. Let yourself become childlike—be absolutely delighted with your body."

In other words, discovering all those curves and erogenous zones that make us feel like goddesses is good for our hearts, along with keeping a journal, complimenting yourself in front of a mirror naked, and creating plans to nurture your shape. Does bubble baths and personal massages ring a bell?

It may be a new year, but that doesn't mean we should force ourselves to hate who we are just because we don't look like Beyonce. We must learn to overcome a society that believes Jessica Simpson's new voluptuous shape is newsworthy. It's Not about Food provides women of all ages the tools needed to not only become content with so-called flaws, but also the determination to build much-needed confidence for happier lives. It is then that we can focus on ways to become healthier without dieting to death.

Written by: Stephanie Nolasco, February 24th 2009

This Crazy Vegan Life: A Prescription for an Endangered Species

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:37:00 +0000

By Christina Pirello

Penguin

I love meat. I love cheese. I love all things animal, and I've always believed that these foods are part of a healthy, balanced diet. I couldn't imagine becoming vegan, giving up all animal products completely. Veganism seemed like a quick road to malnutrition (how could you possibly get enough protein and calcium?), boredom (spinach again?), and overall weirdness. ("I'll have the soyburger with soy ketchup on a soy bun with soy fries.") Fortunately, Christina Pirello's This Crazy Vegan Life challenges all of these perceptions and shows how choosing a vegan lifestyle can improve health, energy, and wellness.

The author begins by briefly sharing her powerful personal testimony; adopting a vegan lifestyle led to her recovery from a terminal form of leukemia. In addition, veganism has helped her to lose weight and feel better about her impact on the planet. Her energetic, passionate voice and real-life stories and advice make this book practical and engaging from cover to cover.

The initial chapters are devoted to educating the reader, providing information on food and culture throughout history. The author presents startling statistics about the origin of foods we eat and the impact of these foods on our health, and shows how choosing healthy non-animal foods will benefit the reader and the planet. Veganism begins to sound not only appealing, but also intelligent, practical, and delicious.

Common misperceptions about veganism are dispelled clearly and simply. For example, many people believe that eating a vegan diet is too expensive. The author points out that a pound of veal costs $7.99-$8.99, while a pound of tofu is just $1.49 and a pound of carrots is about $.89. It's hard to argue with that!

After reading the first chapters, most people will be ready to give veganism a try. Fortunately, the author anticipated this, and included several very complete chapters about how to make the transition to the vegan lifestyle. She explains basic nutritional principles, such as different types of carbohydrates and fats, and how these work with a vegan diet. Readers learn how to make sure they're getting proper nutrition, and why seeking this nutrition through non-animal foods is healthier and safer than what most Americans are exposing themselves to through conventional foods.

Lists of foods to stock in your pantry and refrigerator are included, along with a twenty-one-day menu plan. Over 100 recipes for delicious dishes (even desserts!) will help the new vegan approach meal preparation with confidence and know-how. A chapter on exercise provides an illustrated resistance band workout and ideas for other forms of healthy movement.

By the end of This Crazy Vegan Life, I was chomping at the bit to try some new recipes and give up animal products in my diet. Thanks to Christina Pirello, I'm on my way to a healthier, more natural, more energetic life.

Written by: Amanda Moss, February 20th 2009

Eat Out, Eat Right: The Guide to Healthier Restaurant Eating

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:12:00 +0000

By Hope S. Warshaw

Surrey Books

Hope Warshaw is on a mission; she wants to help health conscious diners navigate their way through the minefield that is dining out in the United States. As Warshaw points out in her book, more Americans eat out than ever before—an average of five meals a week—for a variety of sociological and economic reasons. Because we’re spending less time eating at home, we also have less control over the food we eat. Warshaw has just the ticket to help us to regain control over our grazing habits.

Each chapter is devoted to a type of food, ranging from breakfast food to ethnic foods—including Mexican, Italian, Japanese Thai and Indian—and ends with a suggested low calorie and moderate calorie menu. Reader-friendly sections in the book also feature “Red Flag” and “Green Flag” words to look for on a menu, which are based on their caloric value.

In addition, Eat Out, Eat Right provides detailed nutrition breakdowns of menu items for a variety of eateries ranging from well-known chains to fine dining. Warshaw offers practical and often simple strategies for the health conscious eater, such as ordering smaller portions and sharing entrees. Don’t be afraid to be assertive and ask for substitutions, or, at the very least, ask for salad dressing on the side, Warshaw advocates. She also includes suggestions for “special requests” in the book.

The author also offers such sage advice as “Be careful with vegetarian sandwiches. Some of them are drenched in fat from salad dressing or cheese,” and “Freshly prepared soups are best because they have less sodium than canned ones.” An unabashed Thai food lover, I learned a thing or two. Who knew that Pad Thai and coconut based curries could pack so many calories?

Whether it’s fast food, take out, fine dining, ethnic restaurants, pizza joints, or breakfast spots, this third edition of Eat Out, Eat Right should be read before you embark on your culinary adventures.

Written by: Gita Tewari, April 15th 2008

McLibel

admin — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:32:00 +0000

Directed by Franny Armstrong

Spanner Films

Dave Morris, a former postman, and Helen Steel, a gardener, both lead quiet lives in London, England before getting involved in one of the most influential libel suits the world had ever seen. The meetings, pickets and fliers they created in protest of the global fast food chain McDonalds worked so well that spies, secret investigations and even a lawsuit were used against the two activists. The lawsuit, and subsequent appeals, spanned fifteen years, and its effects are still being felt.

McLibel exposes the extraordinary lengths McDonalds went to in order to silence Dave and Helen, the only two out of a small anti-McDonalds group brave enough to face the fast food giant. After sending spies to report on the group's bank reports, agendas and, most importantly, personalities of its members, McDonalds felt it had no choice but to silence the activists for advertising "false information" about the company to the public at large. The thought that a global corporation would sue a group of only a dozen people is frightening enough, but the real horror, as McLibel reveals, lies in the corporate spokespeople's vague sense of fact, overwhelming spirit of manipulation and damning ability to sweep over anybody in their way. The group's accusations - that McDonalds lies about the nutritional benefits of its food, unfairly targets children in their advertising, supports the destruction of the rainforest and is a leading cause of the increasing obesity in society - are now widely accepted in public debate. But in the early 1990s, any attempt by the British mainstream media to discuss these concerns ended with editorial corrections and apologies to the fast food giant.

The street style documentary, directed by Franny Armstrong, perfectly captures the grassroots movement it took to battle the corporate giant: volunteers opening letters and sorting donations in bedrooms, legal council working for nothing and witnesses flying over from the United States to testify on their behalf, to name a few. Shots of cramped London apartments juxtaposed with expert interviews and distorted flashes of McDonalds advertising give the viewer a full view of what Dave and Helen were up against: a tower of neverending money. Despite the company's wealth, it couldn't stop two people from changing the way fast food does business. Next stop... NYC bans transfat in cooking oil.

Written by: Jessica Rossi, December 7th 2006