How Healthy Is Your Diet?

The folks over at the Food Day website have devised a 14 question quiz designed to show how healthy your diet is for you, the planet, and the animals. I have a few issues with the quiz. They don't, for example, ask if you produce any of your own food or how much of your food is locally-produced, which could have a fairly significant impact on the environmental footprint of your diet. Aside from a few other quibbles with their methodology, though, I think the quiz is a great starting point for a conversation about the health consequences of our food choices.

I got a solid A when I took the quiz, but that's not too surprising since I eat an overwhelmingly vegetarian diet. I answered that I eat fish once a week, but it's really more like once a month. Given that the quiz takes the environment and animal welfare into consideration, I was almost guaranteed an A. 

My vegetarian diet is mostly about the environment, not animal welfare. I do love animals and certainly became a vegetarian in high school because of my concern for animals. But when I became an outdoor educator in college, it became clear that the environmental toll of industrial meat production is a more important reason to avoid meat. Many people, from Paul McCartney to a former chief economist at the World Bank to the United Nations, have called for people to reduce meat consumption and move toward a vegetarian diet in order to mitigate against climate change. I am not militant about vegetarianism (obviously, since some fish sneak into my mouth occasionally), but I do think it's important to talk about the connection between eating meat and the environment.

I worked for a summer as the head cook at an environmental summer camp run by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. I quickly learned that my coworkers were hard-core meat-eaters who demanded meat at every meal. It was disheartening, given that most of them were environmental studies majors in college and planned to stay in environmental education as a career. It was a frustrating summer. The last straw for me was when two of them were complaining about waking up in their tent on federal (probably BLM) land out west and finding cattle surrounding their tent. Even after I pointed out that those cattle were certainly beef cattle, not dairy, they could not see the connection between their desire for meat at every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the grazing of cattle on federal lands.

There are consequences to our food choices beyond our personal health and well-being. Take the quiz and share your score (if you'd like) in our comments section. Let's start this conversation!

Back Home On The Redwood Coast

Last year, my family and I left the beautiful Del Norte coast for parts east, driving out 199 the day before all the Food Day festivities started at the fairgrounds. After participating in many weeks of planning, I missed all those events as we drove through Great Basin National Park, traveled the "Loneliest Highway", visited old friends in St. Louis, and finally arrived in our new home state just as Hurricane Sandy smacked the whole region with devastating winds and flooding.

It was not the welcome to your new home we were anticipating.

Things didn't work out as planned, despite the wonderful proximity to parts of my extended family and my hometown. When I was offered the blandly-titled, but absolutely wonderful Food Systems Analyst position and my husband was told he'd be welcomed back to the parks here, the decision to come back wasn't all that tough. We will miss friends and family in the east, but I think we learned that we are all Westerners now.

I'm in my third week on the job now and in the midst of planning 2013's Food Day celebrations (see our dedicated Food Day posts here). There have been good and bad changes since we left town. Wild Rivers Market opened in their expanded space shortly after we left, but Ray's closed their stores in Crescent City and Smith River. 

Everywhere I've gone over the past three weeks, I've been welcomed back with open arms. It's hard to move a family across the country, but much easier when you're coming back to friends and the Redwood Coast.

We're going to be bringing the Growing Tables blog and our Community Food Council Facebook page back to life over the next several weeks. We want to be a place everyone can come to learn about food events, resources, and people. Keep checking back!

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"

"Animal Vegetable Miracle," by Barbara Kingslover, tells the story of a family who commit themselves to eating locally for a full year. They move to a piece of farm land they own in Southern Appalachia, and start to live off the land. The rule was they could only eat food they grew themselves, or that they could purchase locally. There were a couple exceptions, but for the most part, everything was local.

One of the things this book focuses on is the importance of buying food in season. It's a way of eating that has nearly disappeared from our lifestyle. Certain foods grow at certain times of they year, which is when they are meant to be eaten. I've become so accustomed to seeing the same fruits and vegetables in the supermarket each week that I had nearly forgotten this. The great thing about eating produce in season is it lets you know that it is in it's freshest and most nutritious state. It can also help you to understand what food is grown locally and it allows you to avoid food shipped from thousands of miles away.

A particular part of the book I liked were the recipes. Every few chapters, it gave a set of recipes they used for that particular season, based on what food was available. There were some great recipes in there, which showed how creative the family could get with the ingredients on hand in their house. Instead of limiting them to certain recipes, eating locally seemed to enhance their choices. It allowed them to make things they may have never made before. Also, making dinner each night from scratch seemed to bring their family together in a way that could not be achieved otherwise, as everyone got to play a role in the process.

It was interesting to read how the family's outlook toward this year changed. At first, it seemed like a bit of a challenge, giving up some of the foods they enjoyed and were accustomed to. However, without realizing it, it just became a part of their lives. By the end of the book, Kingslover even said there was no countdown to the end of this year. In fact, they did not even keep track. As the time went by, this way of eating became important to them and ingrained into their lifestyles.

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is an inspiring book about our relationship to food. It shows how much more we appreciate the things we eat when we grow it ourselves and support our neighbors.

Wheat Germ: A Quick Nutritonal Boost

People are always looking for a new way to lose weight. It seems like the new fad is Sensa, a weight loss product that claims sprinkling small crystals on all of the food you eat will cause you to lose weight. Though I am skeptical and do not believe this is the proper way to live a healthy lifestyle, it got me thinking about other quick ways to improve your health. There IS a substance that when you sprinkle it on foods gives it an extra nutritional boost. It is not called Sensa, it is Wheat Germ.

Wheat germ is one of those foods you can add to anything to give it an extra nutritional boost. Unfortunately, it is something missing from the majority of people's diets, particularly those who eat a large percentage of highly processed foods.

There are 3 parts of a wheat kernel: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. The bran is the outer layer full of fiber. In the center, is the endosperm, which provides carbohydrates , and in the inner, is the germ, which is the main source of nutrients. Since the germ has healthy oils that can go rancid after sitting too long, it is removed in the process of making white flour. This allows flour to be able to sit on the shelf for a much longer period of time. Unfortunately, this also means that all that good nutrition is completely stripped away, leaving a substance with little nutritional value.

So what nutrients are in wheat germ? One of the most important nutrients it contains is Vitamin E. This is a fat soluble vitamin, that has antioxidant protection and protects your body from the harm of free radicals. Free radicals harm the body by damaging cells and causes numerous chronic diseases. Many people are deficient in Vitamin E because of the processing of so many foods, and eating wheat germ is a great, natural way , to incorporate it into your diet without other supplements.

Besides vitamin E, wheat germ is great source of B-vitamins, fiber, healthy fatty acids, and minerals such as iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, selenium, and manganese.

The good news is wheat germ is an easy thing to add into your daily meals. Here is list of a few ideas:
1. Sprinkle it over your cereal or oatmeal in the morning
2. Use it as a substitute for breadcrumbs in a recipe
3. Add it into yogurt as an alternative to granola
4. Combine with flour when making baked goods
5. Sprinkle it into batters used for waffles/pancakes
6. Toss it in with a bowl of pasta/chili/stew

Adding some wheat germ to your diet is a great way help you get necessary nutrients that you would not get otherwise. There are no quick fixes to a unhealthy lifestyle, but wheat germ may be the next best thing.

Community Food Council Update

The Community Food Council for Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands had a retreat the beginning of February to determine what projects they wanted to focus on in the coming year. After a packed day with a lot of brainstorming they narrowed their ideas to 3 main projects:

Tribal Fishery: With this project, the Council hopes to connect with the tribes in Klamath, and to expand local fish sells in Crescent City. There is a program called Fish for Elders the tribe does, and the goal is to expand this to the neighboring communities. Next steps involve making a lot of phone calls and doing some research around fish numbers and river issues. The subcommittee leading this has already begun the process of making phone calls to Tribal Leaders and the Fishery Department.

Local Market Conversion: This project has two main goals: To make more fresh fruits and vegetables available in stores and to develop a Del Norte Local Brand. To get stores to carry more fresh, healthy food the Council plans on utilizing the California Endowments Freshworks Fund. This subcommittee has begun approaching local store owners to see who is interested in this. As far as the brand, creating a Del Norte Locally Made Logo aims to create a sense of pride in the community, and to encourage stores to carry local items. Steps to do this involve researching “Buy Fresh, Buy Local,” defining local guidelines, designing the brand, seeking  approval, and doing PR.

Community Education Series: The third project is being planned as a series of classes to educate the community about food and gardening. This subcommittee is in the process of developing the class schedule and a time frame of classes. Possible classes include: Beginning gardening, Intermediate gardening, Cooking with real food, and Canning/preserving/seed saving. These classes will aim to develop people's skills and encourage them to live healthier lives.

If anyone is interested in helping out with any of these projects, please email foodcouncildnatl@gmail.com. Our next Food Council meeting is Monday, March 18th at the RHS conference room at 5:00pm. Everyone is welcome!

A Highly Successful Recycling Program

The Recycling Program at Del Norte's School District has been flourishing these past 2 years thanks to the efforts of Recology, the Del Norte County Unified School District, Julindra Recycling, Lorie Poole, and the Children's Health Collaborative. July 2011 to May 2012 saw a 35% increase in monthly savings, while September 2012 to December 2012 saw a 37% increase in monthly savings. In it's first year, the recycling effort provided services to Bess Maxwell, Joe Hamilton, Smith River, and Pine Grove and expanded to Del Norte High School, Margaret Keating, Crescent Elk, Sunset High, and Redwood Elementary in it's second year.

The recycling program begins with a presentation at each school, which serves as an introduction to that school. This is followed by a week of Recycling training, where Recycling aide's are in the lunch rooms guiding the students and staff in placing items in the right cans. After this, the recycling aide's drop in from time to time to check up on the schools.

From September 2012 to December 2012, 1038 lbs of milk and juice cartons, 83 lbs of styrofoam lunch trays, 67 lbs of paperboard lunch trays, and 613 lbs of black plastic trays were recycled.

Recology also created a Poster Contest to reinforce the recycling program, Here are a few of the student's submissions:

Recology will continue this program and starting in September 2013, they will conduct lunch recycling training for all kindergarten classes, provide recycling presentations to individual classes upon request, do recycling projects, and work with managers and custodians to help manage the trash and recycle service. Thanks to everyone that made this program a success!

Changes in Del Norte and the Benefits of Buying Local

With the Wild Rivers Market and the Front Street Seafood Market both opening in these past few weeks, Del Norte has made some big improvements to their food system. Front Street Seafood opened after months of anticipation, which means there is finally place in the community where you can go and buy fresh, local fish. The Wild Rivers Market is the new location of Harvest Natural Foods, which has expanded to sell local grass-fed meats, local produce, and a variety of other healthy products.

Just as a reminder, buying locally is important for many reasons. First off, it is both more fresh and nutritious than other products in the store, since it has not been shipped from thousands of miles away. Also, it is beneficial to the environment as there is not much transportation involved, and farmers generally use less pesticides. In addition to that, it generates more money in the community and helps to improve the local economy.

These 2 additions to the community are 2 big steps in improving the health of Del Norte County. They are able to give people more options and more opportunities to make healthier choices. So make sure to go out and support these local businesses!

Wild Rivers Market is located at 450 M Street and Front Street Seafood Market is located at 400 Front Street.