foodmuseumblog

Pollan Writes of the Elephant in the Room--Fat Americans

In today's NYTimes, Michael Pollan writes that no discussion of health care reform, costs, and so on should overlook "...a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet."

Bravo!

It's obvious, it has been said and written before, but there it lies, maybe less like an elephant and more like what an elephant leaves behind after digesting a good meal.

When Foodie Spouse and I applied for a slightly different health insurance policy several years back, we were asked if we smoked--no, never--and if we "used alcohol."  Nothing was asked about our diet, nor about our level of physical activity.  I asked the asker why her company was not interested in knowing any of that.

Silence.

You can get better auto insurance rates if you show evidence of being a safe, skilled driver. My health care provider apparently could care less that we might be a better risk for them than an inert couple hooked on fast food and soft drinks.

But, as Pollan points out, once the pre-existing condition loophole is removed with the passage of a proposed health care bill, "... health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet."  

According to Pollan, currently it costs the country $147 billion to handle obesity in the United States.

Yesterday evening, out walking with the terrier, I watched young parents leaving the neighborhood soccer fields with their kids after practice. A pretty, seriously overweight blond mother looking well shy of 30, and her hefty 6 year-old daughter climbed up into their Jeep, the mom with some effort.

This is not only nuts, it's irresponsibly sad.

From Soup to Song: La Chorale sous les Etoiles

A Frenchman named Pierre Anthian had a notion:

According to a report in the Guardian Weekly, "I already had the idea of starting a choir when I was volunteering in a soup kitchen back home in France. I didn't want to just serve homeless people soup, as if I were a farmer handing out hay to a herd of cattle. I wanted to help them make something of themselves, to live with human dignity. 

Just as the idea was developing, I received my papers to migrate to Canada. I began volunteering in a soup kitchen again as soon as I settled in Montreal, but this time I didn't just ladle soup into the bowls of the homeless who queued up in front of me: I got to know them."

The result? The 12th year of the "homeless choir," in Montreal. Though they started out singing in the Metro, since that beginning they have performed widely, and recorded an album. And Anthian has moved ahead with varied plans for linking up homeless men with employment and educational opportunities.

See his website here.

( Photo by  Nachammai Raman.)

Food News From All Over

"Functional" foods are on display at the annual Institute of Food Technologists convention in Chicago. Wait--I thought we were all attempting to eat fresh, as local as possible, unprocessed foods, right? Not if these food fantasists win us over. The NYTimes reported that even sushi and brownies can be, um, enhanced.

"There was also sushi concocted from fish paste colored by lycopene and green-tea infused rice, and brownies with phosphatidylserine, a chemical compound that is said to enhance memory. "

Twinkie anyone? ( Am currently browsing the chemical contents of Twinkies courtesy Steve Ettlinger's book, Twinkie, Deconstructed, Hudson Street Press, 2007.)

The NYTimes also reported that thieves intent on raising money for drugs are stealing copper wire and other metals from California farm equipment, including irrigation setups, causing crop losses , as well as lost time, to farmers.

Meanwhile,  Austin-based organic food purveyor Whole Foods is battling the FTC   regarding its wish to purchase Wild Oats, a 565 million dollar deal---anti-trust watchdogs say the acquisition would cause prices to rise. ( You may recall that Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was caught out posting on the Internet anonymous, false and negative comments about rival Wild Oats in past years...)

The Light Side of Dark Choc

When I read that dark chocolate, my best friend, was effective in lowering blood pressure,  while tea, love it it iced with loads of lemon, is not, I zeroed in on the daily portion mentioned, 3 1/2 ounces.  This ounce thing has always irritated me, other than in the liquid realm. I comprehend an 8 ounce cup and thought I understood a shot glass, which I see is often 2 ounces, with a line marked at 1.5 oz--but then again, to complicate our lives, there is such a thing as a "pony shot" , of just one ounce.

Anyway--3 1/2 ounces of DARK chocolate is apparently enough to lower BP with great pleasure and without nasty meds. The study results are here.

So what is/are 3 1/2 ounces?  According to the Iowa State University Extension website, it's a tad less than 8 dominoes, a tad more than a playing card.  Don't have any dominoes handy but in my mind's eye they seem much bigger than the amount of choc I eat each day--my usual pattern is a square of Belgian dark chocolate ( T. Joe's) in the a.m. as my breakfast "dessert," and another square or two in the afternoon, in between meals.

Having scanned the packaging of dark choc with almonds, I now see that 3 squares at 1.3 oz total, is considered a 200 calorie serving--clearly I am not eating enough!  ( The caloric content is an issue, at higher levels.........but I am gardening furiously these days.)

My BP is rising just contemplating this whole ounce annoyance.

(Thanks to www.kitchenslave.com/chocolate.htm for pic.)

Slovenian President Follows Vegan Path

According to a piece in The Telegraph, the president of Slovenia has gone vegan.

"Adopting a New Age existence after being diagnosed with cancer, Janez Drnovsek, 56, has moved from the presidential palace in Ljubljana to the village of Zaplana, where he lives alone with his dog on a vegan diet of organic fruit and vegetables, while he bakes his own bread."

( Pic from (©AP/WWP) )

Feast Now!

An elderly friend of Foodie's is dying.  A woman who once relished good food is now gumming bacon, slurping heavily pureed chicken soup and surviving primarily on vanilla ice cream. But yesterday, out of the blue, she was able to munch the tiniest sandwiches in the world that Foodie made from wild smoked salmon,  perfect cream cheese and sliced challa, no crusts.  She beamed, just for a moment, as if the tastes enjoyed over the past 94 years briefly filled her memory.

Enjoy your meals, friends!   

Spuds to the Rescue: Visit The Potato Museum On-Line

If potatoes are not being fed to the weakest 0f the  Gulf  Coast's  rescued, they should be. It has long been known that severely malnourished people do well on simple mashed potatoes, a bit at a time.  The pure potato' s virtues are many and varied.

That's a Foodie segue to alert FOOD Museum Blog readers to the presence of our other rejuvenated website, that belonging to The Potato Museum,  and to its Potato Blog.
We started out with the potato back in 1975 in Brussels, Belgium, and were pioneers in creating a museum about food.

The Potato Museum grew from three classrooms to the world's largest collection about the history and social influence of the potato,  a vegetable considered the most important globally. TPM was a key contributor, simultaneously, to the Smithsonian's Quincentenary exhibition, Seeds of Change,  and to Canada's  The Amazing Potato, a 6000 square foot exhibition in Ottawa at the National Museum of Science & Technology. 

Take a look around TPM, now on-line,  the seed entity that led to The FOOD Museum.

"Reduce cardiovascular morbidity" by Eating, Friends

Folks in the public health department of Erasmus University in Rotterdam suggested in the Christmas  issue of  the British Medical Journal that the right meal eaten once daily could happily boost our life expectancy.  Men, by 6.6. years, and women by 4.8. years.
( Why--because the women had to cook the meal???)
Dubbed Polymeal, it consists of fish, wine, dark chocolate, fruits and veg, garlic and almonds.
The study suggests these items can be combined into one glorious feast, in moderation of course, or eaten separately.  Let's see--the suggested 100 grams of chocolate is about 5 ounces?

Chef Raymond Blanc was asked by Sarah Boseley, health editor of The Guardian, what menu he would create using these foods.  His response:  watercress soup, grilled fillet of mackerel with a  stew of root veggies, chickpeas, toasted almonds and garlic, followed by chocolate mousse.

Hey, why not?   Well, once a day is a bit much maybe--but three times a week, sure. Or four, okay.
With exercise.

Illustration titled "The Power of Chocolate,"  by Shelly Wilkerson, on sale at www.catcompanions.com.