public health
Did you hear about the incident at Reagan National Airport last week? Here’s what happened: 2 planes landed without assistance because the controller on duty was asleep.
Oops.
It’s not like I’ve never napped while working before. When I was still in advertising, we had a whole room dedicated to napping – they called it the Recovery Room. Excellent for hangovers.
However, I was not an air traffic controller.
I’m happy that, according to NPR, “the incident has renewed concern about the potential safety consequences of controllers suffering from fatigue, a longstanding concern.”
Which leads me to wonder…what about all employees with important safety-related jobs like this? Firefighters? Police? Heck, when I had my c-section, the doctor had been on duty for like, 18 hours straight. Eek.
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March 27th, 2011 | detoxify, public health, Washington D.C. | 7 Comments »
Another post pre-written to hold us over while I’m in the early days of motherhood 
But I think it’s a good one! Can’t wait to be back blogging “live,” but in the meantime Danny has gained weight, had a great checkup with his pediatrician, and I’m eating like mad to keep up with a 9 lb. baby’s demand for food!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but frozen yogurt shops are kind of a big deal. I see one every time I turn around. Like Pinkberry. Are you familiar? Because apparently they’re in 14 states and 6 countries outside the U.S. And they have a catchy little song with lyrics like these:
“It doesn’t feel like I’m cheating when I’m eating it”
That’s funny, what would I be cheating on? Oh, that’s right, I’m supposed to be on a diet aren’t I? Obviously I have a weight problem or at least a body image issue. Because…I’m a woman. And I imagine the name “Pinkberry” is targeted at me. So it’s nice to imply guilt right off the bat, because women should feel guilty about how much they weigh and what they look like. Right. Thanks, Pinkberry! I almost forgot!
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February 26th, 2011 | calcium, dairy, fat, public health, quick and easy, recipe, Sugar | 11 Comments »
I’m 41 weeks pregnant tomorrow. A natural birth means I will not be induced nor will I have a C-section just because I’m a bit past my due date. This makes me weird in the pregnancy world, where most women by now would be facing medical intervention in the form of surgery or drugs. But babies have been born at 42 weeks, 43 weeks, whatever, for a gabillion years. No need to rush. Yet still…I admit…I might punch someone. I think this is the appropriate way to feel at 41 weeks pregnant. Ha!
In the meantime, I thought I’d direct my punching to 3 newsworthy items from this past week. They all fit in well with Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday, which I haven’t participated in for awhile. But today…yeah, I’ll Fight Back!
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about food allergies. My main questions: What is causing the rate of food allergies to rise so drastically? And what can we do to reverse the trend?
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February 11th, 2011 | disease, groceries, nutrition school, pregnancy, public health | 27 Comments »
Maybe I’m exaggerating here, but I feel like every baby born to my friends has a food allergy of some kind. Peanuts. Soy. Milk. Wheat. Eggs. Fish. It’s become commonplace, almost expected. And we’re talking about pretty severe allergies here for the most part. There’s a whole other category of kids who have allergies that result in eczema or something less obvious and I bet they haven’t even been diagnosed yet.
Is it just me, or are food allergies going through the roof? Because thinking back to when I was a kid…I knew one boy allergic to shellfish. It made him puke. Um. I can’t think of anyone else, anyone carrying an epi pen or bringing their own food to birthday parties.
In this week’s New Yorker magazine, I came across an article entitled The Peanut Puzzle validating that in the US: “the rate of allergy is rising sharply…In the past decade, allergies to peanuts have doubled.”
This is not what an expecting mama wants to hear. I remember one of my friends warning me to stop eating peanuts when I got pregnant, so I wouldn’t cause my baby to have a peanut allergy. I’ve also received advice to stop eating common allergens (milk, eggs, soy) in my 3rd trimester so my milk won’t contain it – just in case baby is allergic.
And I thought about doing those things. I did. I bought almond butter instead of peanut butter. I skipped milk for a few weeks. But then I was starving, needing protein, and accidentally ate some eggs and cheese. Whoops.
What really concerns me here is why the rate of food allergies are on the rise. It just doesn’t make sense to be allergic to such nutritious, real food that has been part of the human diet for so long! If kids were allergic to Doritos, THAT I would understand.
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February 7th, 2011 | dairy, pregnancy, public health | 25 Comments »
Where do you begin when you’re trying to eat healthy? Should you ban all fried food? Start counting calories? I know, I know, how about using protein powders? It really can be confusing.
There are a gabillion dietary theories out there, and it may surprise you to know that I don’t believe any one of them is the answer. Nope, not Paleo, not South Beach, not veganism, not macrobiotics. That’s not to say these theories are wrong. I just don’t believe there can be one way of eating that works for everyone, all of the time. So tell your diet-crazed neighbor to take a chill pill.
You’re gonna find out what works for you!
Here are 8 ways that you, or anyone, can upgrade your diet starting today. And they’re simple, just like eating should be.
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February 1st, 2011 | dairy, detoxify, groceries, organic, public health, recipe | 15 Comments »
When your mom was pregnant, was she happy? What was her health like? Was she on medication? Did she eat broccoli? Did you ever think about how her experience in those 9 months created you and your unique characteristics?
This weekend I heard an awesome segment on NPR about Annie Murphy Paul’s new book, Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives.
It made me wonder about my little boy (shown above at 18 weeks) and all that he is experiencing. He goes to yoga with me, eats what I eat and hears my voice all day long. But does he take in the sounds of the TV I watch? Does he feel when I try to squeeze into my pre-pregnancy leggings?
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October 12th, 2010 | book review, pregnancy, public health | 12 Comments »
Have you ever traveled to a place where the water wasn’t safe to drink? Well, residents of Eastern Massachusetts didn’t have to go anywhere for the past few days to get that cultural experience.
A water main break caused this big ol’ problem and a boil water order was mandated by the state. Boil my water? All of it? WHAT? First of all, I received this news via Twitter, which apparently is my news source of choice – found out Michael Jackson died that way too. Seriously, why watch TV?
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May 4th, 2010 | beverage, Boston, detoxify, public health | 8 Comments »
There are more dietary theories out there than most of us know what to do with. Vegetarian? Vegan? Raw Vegan? Or is meat good? Low carb? Low fat? The Zone? South Beach?
As with anything in life, there are many ways to approach diet and nutrition. My belief has always been that you can learn what works for you by being open to all systems. And the real sweet spot is where they overlap. Where do all these different theories agree?
Well, I’ll tell you where. I’ve never seen a single diet that promotes eating sugar. Sure, maybe the low-fat craze had us eating more sugar incidentally. But no diet I’ve ever seen has come out and said “Sugar is key to good health.”
Because, well, it isn’t.
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February 16th, 2010 | public health, Sugar | 11 Comments »
It’s some odd hour of the day, stomach growling, and only fast food joints in sight. We’ve all been there, right?
What do you do?
Wanting to eat real food is like wanting to breathe real oxygen – not too much to ask if you ask me. But it can be a ridiculous request in the middle of a food court. I gotta tell you, it really pisses me off! Real food is as basic as it gets yet we have a culture built around consuming products from an industry thriving on serving refined, polished, bleached, chemically altered, cheap, nutritionally-void food.
But there you are, eyes are crossing from hunger and well, life happened and you are nowhere near a kitchen or a lovingly prepared brown bag lunch. Not really the time to get on your high horse about nutrition. What do you do?
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January 27th, 2010 | public health, quick and easy, restaurant, travel | 18 Comments »
Before we get going, have you entered to win free Khaya cookies yet? How about a trip to Cape Town? If not, enter here.
Osteoporosis. Is it a problem?
My mom has started hearing from her doctors that she’s losing bone density and of course this worries me. For her, and for me! Certainly we are both at high risk for osteoporosis: we’re slender, small-framed caucasian women! Oh, crap.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing Annemarie Colbin, PhD speak at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She’s the author of Food and Healing, The
Natural Gourmet, Food and Our Bones and her latest book, The Whole Food Guide to Strong Bones. And she asserts that osteoporosis is actually not a problem.
Fractures. That’s the problem!
Well, it’s becoming more and more common for women to be prescribed medications to help stop bone loss. It’s clearly good business, as I see they have Sally Fields touting Boniva (one of my favorite names for a prescription drug…isn’t it cute? And so is she! Wait, wait, that’s marketing getting into my brain! Aughh) As with all prescription drugs, you just gotta wonder…is there a better way? After all, too much calcium in our bones can lead to an even greater danger: brittle bones with no flexibility. Now THAT is going to cause fractures.
If you want to have strong, healthy bones you need calcium in your diet, sure. But you also need certain vitamins and healthy fats to help your body make use of the calcium you ingest. Ms. Colbin noted that the dietary risk factors for breaking bones are:
1. Too many nightshade vegetables (eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.)
2. Diet high in refined sugar and grains
3. Not enough dark, leafy greens,
4. Not enough good quality fats
The first thing that comes up when you think about calcium is…Milk. Of course. The dairy industry has spent a gabillion dollars on marketing to sear in our brains the connection between milk and calcium and strong bones. According to some experts in the holistic nutrition world, you actually don’t need milk at all in your diet. Milk from mothers is great for babies. Milk from cows is perfect for calves. But as a full grown human being, milk is unnecessary and often the cause of allergies and digestive troubles. Ms. Colbin states that milk is inappropriate for women in particular as we are milk-makers…milk is supposed to go out, not in.
However, then you have those on the other side of the fence who swear by milk – and typically raw milk. You have Sally Fallon and the Weston A. Price foundation who go to great lengths to extoll the virtues of the creamy raw white stuff for it’s nutritional value, probiotics and live enzymes. After all, whole milk (not skim or 2%) is a whole food. And that’s what we are supposed to be eating, right? Whole foods are good!
Well.
We’re not going to solve this conundrum today, folks. To milk or not to milk? I say, do what’s right for you. If milk doesn’t sit well in your belly, or if you prefer a vegan lifestyle, then fine. If you love milk and want to find good quality organic and even raw milk, that’s cool too.
And while we’re on the topic of choosing milk or no milk, remember that milk substitutions are really not “health foods.” For instance, soymilk is neither a whole food nor something that is healthy by the glassful because of the phytoestrogens in soy and the sugar almost always added to processed soymilk. Many people say that milk causes congestion and mucus buildup, and if that’s true for you then stay away from all milky-quality foods like almond milk or rice milk. I mean, really, you don’t need to have a white liquid in your diet! So if you can’t do whole organic milk then just skip the milk category altogether.
Ms. Colbin offered this idea which is quite nice: If you really must eat cereal and you must pour something white on it, blend half a banana with 1/2 cup of water and use that! (I tried it – it’s good!)
But back to the idea of healthy bones.
So, we know we need calcium, and the fats and vitamins that occur alongside it in whole foods. We need less sugar, fewer refined grains and more dark leafy green veggies.
Here’s a bone-building recipe I came up with that will knock your garlic-loving socks off. My mom always made this as a quickie dinner when I was growing up so all I’ve done is added veggies and swapped out the pasta. Kale is a great source of calcium, as are anchovies!
Anchovy pasta with kale
1 head kale, chopped small including stems (any variety, I used red curly)
2 Tbl. organic butter
1 lb. whole wheat pasta (I used fettuccine)
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin organic olive oil
2 cans anchovies (chopped) and liquid they are packed in (sardines also work)
1 handful fresh oregano, basil or parsley, chopped
1/2 cup water
S+P
1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While it cooks, heat butter in a large pan over medium high heat. Add kale and toss with some salt and pepper. When kale is soft and stil bright green, set aside in a bowl.
3. Rinse out pan and add olive oil over medium heat. When hot, add garlic and allow to turn golden. Then mix in entire contents of anchovy cans, water, herbs, water, S+P. Bring to a simmer and reduce to low.
4. Combine cooked pasta with anchovy sauce. Top with a generous scoop of kale.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Fight Back Fridays by Food Renegade.
July 8th, 2009 | calcium, dairy, public health, recipe, Uncategorized | 28 Comments »
