The first thing I did coming back to the apartment was jump online and watch the second class of my six-month Photoshop course put on by CreativeTechs. The second thing I did was redirect to NYT.com.
And just what did I find? A new op-ed piece by Michael Pollan. I know there are some mixed opinions on Pollan (in case I didn't post it before, please read the article The Omnivore's Delusion), but I find it impossible to find any wrongdoing in stating the facts that America, condemned to eat itself sick and spend itself bankrupt, pays ridiculously low attention to nutrition, fitness and and preventative care in general. We are famous the world over for producing the largest and strongest athletes, but the average citizen seems to have no idea how many calories he is meant to consume in a day or how many hours of exercise he needs to log in order to make a significant fight against heart disease. For many, especially us Midwesterners, corn and potatoes count as vegetables. Seeing sugar as the enemy of good health, we turn instead to sugar substitutes so that we can still drink our daily Coke.
In Obama's recent speech on healthcare reform, he says that everybody needs to take responsibility to do his own part. This means that every citizen needs to have insurance, regardless of who is providing the policy, but it also means that we need to our part to not strain or exploit the healthcare system.
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I always found it silly when I saw sniffling, coughing and physically-drained students in the waiting room at university health services. Despite what many people seem to think, there is no good in going to the doctor for a cold or the flu. For simple aches and pains -- wait a week or two, see if you still notice a problem. Sleep more, buy a better mattress, drink more water, take leisurely walks, try herbal remedies. Good health demands more than regular visits to the gym, and good health care is so much more than prescribing pharmaceuticals.
And when we keep poor diets, we are not doing our part. There is no shortage of scientific evidence proving that poor eating habits contribute directly to a number of health problems.
Last night Matt and I watched "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," a documentary about the production and release of Wilco's album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. For those of you who don't know they story behind the album, here's a recap. During the '90s, Wilco released three albums with Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. They were a solid, mature group that were proving to be a worthwhile investment, so Reprise offered to pay for their next record. The band wanted to take it in a new direction creatively and hoped that Reprise would appreciate their work. They didn't. Reprise refused to release the album, and despite having already paid the production costs, decided it wasn't in their favor to cover the costs to market the album. Reprise dismissed the group from the label, leaving the rights to the album in Wilco's hands. In the end, the album was bought and distributed by Nonesuch Records -- whose parent company is also Warner Music. Warner paid twice for the same album. Now it appears as if the U.S. government is doing something very similar. As Pollan wrote in his piece: "...the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup."
According to Robert Bryce on Slate.com, "between 1995 and 2003, federal corn subsidies totaled $37.3 billion. That's more than twice the amount spent on wheat subsidies, three times the amount spent on soybeans, and 70 times the amount spent on tobacco." The government has been adding tariffs on sugar and handing out subsidies for corn. This means that any profit-driven food manufacturer will choose high-fructose corn syrup over sugar, when given the option. So our money is going to support corn farmers. Okay. If I've learned anything this spring, it's that farming is very difficult work and most of its laborers are underpaid (and that's putting it modestly). But these subsidies also allow companies to use HFCS (and we know they do, and you would be shocked how many foods in your cupboard contain it), excessive consumption of which leads to Type 2 diabetes. Considering how many foods contain it and American eating habits in general (i.e. super-sized portions), it doesn't take much. Great, now we have a problem.
The good news is that we can choose what we eat. We as consumers hold the purchasing power. We choose what we eat, how much of it we eat and how we prepare it. Sadly, our culture has been putting less and less emphasis on the importance of quality food and healthy eating habits. Short, regulated lunch breaks. Rushed family dinners. The invention of Pop-Tarts. And just take a look at what's being served in school cafeterias.
Let's go back for a moment to Pop-Tarts, the deliciously sweet treats that cause second-degree burns on the tender thumbs of our beloved youths. Just the first couple of sentences on the Wikipedia page for Pop-Tarts suggests that perhaps they are nothing we ought to be putting into our mouths.
Pop-Tarts are a brand of flat, rectangular, pre-baked toaster pastries. Pop-Tarts have a sugary filling sealed inside two layers of rectangular, thin pastry crust. Some varieties are frosted. They can be eaten without being warmed, but are often warmed inside a toaster. They are usually sold in pairs inside foil packages, and do not require refrigeration.
What kind of pastry comes in a foil package? What kind of frosting can last several months without needing refrigeration? What are "flat, rectangular, pre-baked toaster pastries," and why is there more than one brand of them?
With the economic crisis, we learned that we had to start spending responsibly. We were enraged by the recklessness of large corporations gone unchecked and the advertising of luxury goods, which convinced us to spend outside of our limits. With the healthcare crisis (and it is a crisis), we need to learn to eat and act responsibly. We need to be equally upset with manufacturers that trick us and our children to eat products so processed that we really have to stretch the definition of food.
And although exercise is important for a number of reasons, there stands the simple fact that most people find it burdensome and unenjoyable. This has to change, too, of course, but allow me to let you in on a little secret. If you don't eat garbage, you don't have to exercise as much! That's right, become healthier and lose weight without adding that extra lap, step or squat.
Over the past year and a half, I have lost between 10 and 15 pounds. And for those of you who know me, I've never been overweight. First I cut out of my diet as many foods as I could that contained high-fructose corn syrup. (I replaced them with foods containing sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar or honey -- not any diet-orientated artificial sweetener.) I bought a new brand of bread, unflavored yogurt, natural peanut butter, etc. I didn't go crazy over it -- when I ate out at restaurants, I would pick entrees that I expected would have a lower amount of HFCS, but I never bothered to ask the waitstaff about the actual contents. I still had the occasional candy bar and sweet treat. But after making the majority of my meals HFCS-free, I easily lost 4 lbs. Then I started a primarily vegetarian diet (again, I'm not at all strict about it. It's not for ethical reasons, other than the fact that I don't want to unnecessarily offend my boyfriend. I do that enough as is). Since cutting out pork and beef and limiting my intake of chicken (I've never been a big fan of fish), I've lost another 3 or 4 lbs. For the past year I've limited my intake of alcohol (a natural result to a change in lifestyle, not a choice I've been particularly conscious or even fond of), which also made a significant difference. When I was living on the farms, working lots of manual labor and eating small, leafy meals, I was under 115 lbs (admittedly underweight, even though I had built new muscle). I don't have a scale at my disposal here in Berlin, but I know that since then I have reached a healthy and stable median weight.
A sidenote must be added here: a lower body weight does not necessarily mean better health. The point is, I consciously altered my eating habits and as a result, I feel lighter and healthier. I sleep better. I don't have as many headaches. My skin looks great. It was a relatively easy change, and it allowed an interest in cooking and nutrition to develop naturally. Because these decisions weren't forced or part of a fad diet, I will be inclined to keep these habits for years to come.
I discovered recently that, when I prepare our meals, I more or less follow Dr. Weil's recommended food pyramid. Instead of as much pasta, we eat a lot of legumes. I like lentils, but we also cook quite a bit with chickpeas, kidney beans and dried peas. We use dried beans as often as can, but chickpeas take forever to soak. Those we buy canned. We ditched basmati rice for bulgar -- not the tastiest substitution, but it's much healthier and tastes earthier, for what it's worth. Nuts, seeds and flaxseed oil work great in oatmeal. Avocados are a nice snack and work well in salads, and as far as the "healthy spices" are concerned -- bring 'em on. I never realized turmeric was especially good, but according to Dr. Weil, it is. And I want to believe him. So Matt sometimes throws ginger in the oatmeal, too. Ginger, turmeric and garlic make it into almost every dinner recipe. Again, I'd love to get a list of some of our recipes up on here, along with a "shopping list." If there's enough interest, I could be convinced if pressured!
A query I posed to Matt the other week still stands unanswered. It breaks down to what is easier to achieve, all-organic or all-local? Which would be better? Organic has been around for awhile now, but I have only felt the push for buying local food products within the past couple of years. Are there any stores and restaurants that serve food that is both organic and local? The argument for local food is that it supports the local economy and cuts down on the carbon imprint. The downside is that bringing industry closer to home potentially means side effects to the local population, particularly from chemical run-off. Organic produce, on the other hand, gives us the peace of mind knowing that we aren't consuming chemicals, but it doesn't necessarily pack more nutrients than its non-organic counterparts. Organic is arguably more sustainable agriculturally than non-organic.
For the sake of our wallets we have been buying most, if not all, of our produce from the neighboring Turkish markets. Most of it isn't local. Bananas from Ecuador, apples from Spain, bell peppers from Turkey. It's not organic, either, I presume. They pick the fruit before it's ripe, and it usually turns en route to the markets. Sometimes the produce looks right -- but tastes completely off. The avocados often feel ripe, but once we peel them find that they are bruised on the outside and completely firm inside. The apples seem okay, but biting into them reveals that they are mealy and inedible. The green beans look like green beans, but taste inexplicably strange. We look forward to returning home, where it's reliable. But at home, it's also more expensive. And most of it is still shipped halfway across the country. Here we can track the prices fall systematically throughout the week, tomatoes starting at 99 cents a kilo when delivered and dropping to 50 cents when they are soft like water balloons. At home, often the price stays stable unless there's a tropical storm or other natural disaster that affects the area where the particular crop is grown. Michigan boasts plenty of corn, soybeans, apples and sugarbeets. It produces less, though still a substantial amount, of wheat, potatoes and berries. I wonder what my diet would be like if I committed to an all-local diet. Clearly the avocados, peanut butter, and turmeric would be out. Ginger? Tea? I'm not sure.
I learned this spring that I am not a daughter-of-the-earth hippie. I do care about the earth's well-being and my own, but there is only so much work that I am willing to put in. Partly because I don't know how much of a difference it will make, whether or not we can still "save the world." Matt says it's worth it to make the effort. I want to believe him. As far as everyone else is concerned, I know that most people can't be much lazier than I am. I suspect that if they really gave a minute to look at the information we have, they would make the right decisions. Better decisions, at least. But they're busy worrying about other things and don't have time to ask questions at their local health food store or read Pollan's books. That is why as mainstream types (read, non-"crunchies") -- particularly the influential Alpha-Hubs responsible for the success of word-of-mouth and other types of viral marketing, whether they be authors, talk-show hosts, or politicans -- need to start taking a look, step up on the soapbox and, above all, lead by example.
A veritable outpouring of political passion!
You are completely right, of course, about HFCS, however it is not the only product to benifit the gov't subsidies. There's also biofuel, and the fear that beef prices will skyrocket when the corn growers can make more money on that and HFCS than feed for livestock.
I waiting for my turn at "The Omnivore's Dilemma" from the library.
Well, I know that cattle are major contributors to global warming. So maybe the cattle should go. We could then use that feed for people. And I am pretty sure they have given up on corn/ethanol as a biofuel, haven't they?
Bravo dear Heart....bravo!! When I lived on the Cape and my allergies were HORRIBLE....anything with HFCS would make me extremely sleepy...irresistably sleepy...silly and giddy first but then BOOM! and out. That went on for years and I learned that HFCS is in the most unexpected places.
Have you read DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET? It is out in some sort of anniversary printing.
No, I've never heard of that one. While WWOOFing with Leni I was turned on to the Vegetarian Epicure, a bestseller from the '70s. I'll add it to my Amazon wishlist, which is growing longer every day. (I hope it doesn't take too long for me to find a job!)
Hey!
What happened to the long version of this post???