The Food Revolution has begun, and we must all participate if we want our children and our planet to survive and thrive. Our consciousness is being raised by many inspirational people: T. Colin Campbell, Alicia Silverstone, Tal Ronen, Rory Freedman & Kathy Freston, to name a few, all best-selling authors with a message and passion for creating a healthier culture and planet. Also, let’s acknowledge the passionate Jamie Oliver, who is taking a stand in what I call a “food intervention” in Huntington, West Virginia after his successful ventures in England. He clearly identifies that lack of fresh food is a matter of life and death. As a nutritionist, I am overjoyed by Jamie’s candor and care for people’s health, happiness and culinary satisfaction. I share his triumphs and failures as I have spent the past 4 years working with the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food and The New York Department of School Food in the Future Leaders Institute (FLI) School, a charter school in Harlem. There have been plenty of tears of frustration and yelps of joy over the past years, as we have worked on the front lines of change within the New York City school food system. The challenges are many, but the importance of feeding our children quality, plant-based foods has never been more apparent. The time is now, and we must ask for what is our children’s birthright: GOOD CLEAN FOOD.
I have been a nutritional consultant for 20 years (which is hard to believe since I still feel I am in my twenties). I have studied food and its impact on mood, health and self-esteem, and I am convinced that by feeding our children well we can heal so many health concerns—childhood obesity, asthma, diabetes, and heart disease, among others—while fostering a happier, healthier, and more productive society. It is awesome that we now have the support of our First Lady, Michelle Obama. Her support could be the seed for a team of powerful change agents and activists who are unstoppable in their commitment to the health of our children and the future of our food supply. I could not be happier that Michelle Obama’s focus is on this issue. What a blessing!
Over the past four years, Candle Cafe and Candle 79 have been partners with the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food, cooking plant-based meals for the children at the FLI School and three other schools in the same building. We have been on the front line, in this case the lunch line, talking with the kids and guiding them as they learn that there are delicious, healthy alternatives to the fat-, salt-, and sugar-laden status quo. Our progress, although at times discouraging, has been a transformational experience for all of us. As I would walk up and down the lunch line to inform the kids what would be on the tray when they got to the front of the line, I was so ecstatic to be sharing my excitement about the food that was being served as the healthy choice that I would literally be singing and dancing! I empowered them all to be food critics and try new foods. Although they love the word YUCKY, I would ask for a more detailed description of their food preferences. The children’s most common critique was that the food was not sweet or salty enough—proof we have work to do to retrain their taste buds from the adulteration of sweets, fat, and excessive salt bombarding their palates! I have seen kids in baby carriages being fed Coke for breakfast. Trying a new food is commendable, but I always reminded the kids of the statistic that it can take ten times to try a new food before you know whether you actually like it. Education is a powerful tool that has allowed for change.I get very emotional when I see what our kids eat and drink, because I know the negative impact on the body, mind and spirit.
We have developed recipes for the NY Department of School Food with the support of Chef Jorge Collazo and Stephen O’Brien that meet standards and taste delicious. We also have empowered the kids to write and submit their own recipes so that they could actively contribute to the recipes used in New York schools. The recipe contest was held at the James Beard House, where we tasted and chose a winning recipe to be served in school. The excitement and maturity of the students who participated was heart-warming and life-changing, and the recipes they created captivated our taste buds.
What an honor to be able to sit with the kids and their parents to talk food and its many powers. One moment I will never forget was when a young mother jumped up on the table and did a spin around and said, “Look at my body, 15 pounds lighter and no more asthma or blood sugar problems!” She was so proud of her accomplishments. She took control of her eating with new recipes from our food demo portion of family dinner night. It was brave of her to open up to the new information she was learning, to move beyond the fear of change and the worry that it would be too expensive for her to choose healthy foods for her family. The truth is, it is too costly not to make healthy choices! This is an obstacle we can help people overcome, but only if we demand change from our government and institutions, commit to healthy foods in our nation’s schools, and demand support and funding for school lunch programs and local farms instead of industrialized food production and factory farms.
The issue does not end in the lunch room; it is in our homes as well. Teaching our children and their families where their food comes from and how to create delicious and nutritious meals is an ongoing education. At Candle Cafe, we are feeding a fourth generation of clients who have embraced our food and our mission. Kids are choosing us for their birthday parties and other celebrations, and bringing their parents to dine with us. What a thrill to see children seek out our food and the compassionate, green, and sustainable mission behind the food. Food Fresh from Farm to Table is our mantra, and it’s what motivates us. As my partner Bart Potenza would say, “It is easier to change people’s religion or politics than it is their food habits.” So, we have our work cut out for us! As a result of passing the junk food habit through generations, we have compromised our immune systems, but healing happens on a profound and far-reaching level when we “begin at the beginning” and start with our children. We must change the story—we must change the world of food. We must demand change from our leaders and vote with our consumer dollars and forks, supporting local farms and farmers’ markets, choosing organic, fresh, healthy plant-based foods. Change starts with you! Join me in a food revolution!
I wrote CLEAN in an attempt to clear the general confusion on detoxification and to prevent something tragic in my opinion. We are at risk of discarding the whole thing as a fad, because celebrities are endorsing it. There is great value in examining things without jumping into them because of endorsements from people we trust. Ironically, the most catastrophic backlashes came from fads endorsed by the people we trust with our lives, doctors. I am referring to the “Low Fat” fad. In the 90’s, America declared war on fat. Fat free was the secret to good sales. The concept that eating fat made you fat was endorsed by the medical community, and the country blindly followed. The result is the fattest country in the world. Obesity has caused more deaths and disability in the last 20 years than all the wars ever fought by the US throughout its entire history, put together. Don’t believe me ? Read the National Health Statistics, if you are not at risk of a heart attack. They are scary.
Literally, the same generation of doctors that prescribed you a fat free diet are now warning you of the dangers of detox programs. Some go as far as to say the whole thing is quackery, that there is no basis to any of it. That the body has its organs of detoxification, they know how to do what they need to and if you leave things alone, everything will work as it should.
Well, that explanation is not good enough for me. It is like saying that the body has its muscular system that will take you here and there, and if you leave things alone, everything will work as it should. But look at what happens when we understand the muscles, and how they respond differently to different kinds of exercise, and how it responds to different kinds of diets. We have developed gyms, treadmills, elipticals, weights, gear, technology, services, foods, supplements and a whole culture that have yielded miraculous ways of shaping your body, gaining strength, agility, elasticity and many other benefits. Plus this industry has provided thousands of jobs.
A similar thing is happening with the understanding of detoxification. Spas, chefs, blenders, colonics machines, detox supplements and many other supporting services, activities and tools are appearing every day.
Some are excellent, some are good and some are dangerous. To give you the distinctions you need to figure these things out is my intention behind CLEAN.
And last , but not least, to give you a day by day guide to a 21-day detox program that can change your life while you live your life. Detoxing while living a busy life is not easy. Especially at the beginning. Most people need to stop everything and take a few days off, retreating into a spa and focusing on detox alone. The CLEAN Program described in the book, with Recipes by Jill Pettijohn, life food chef and detox expert, can be done while working, taking care of your family, and even working out. CLEAN will teach you what toxicity is, what and where these toxins are, how we are exposed to them, how we absorb them, what and where damage is caused and more importantly, what to do about it. It will teach you how to slow down the workload of your digestive system so that the detox systems can work at maximum intensity. But it doesn’t stop there. It teaches you what happens when detox in ON. How to support it and what to do when you encounter the most common obstacles.
It is undeniable that the earth has a fever. Global Warming is “An Inconvenient Truth”.
But a fever is just a symptom. In my opinion, the cause behind this fever is toxicity. Toxic thoughts, toxic emotions, toxic relationships, toxic governments, toxic financial institutions…..modern life in the modern world is toxic. And the biggest source of toxicity is through the chemicals we manufacture to use in our homes, our clothes, to clean our houses, to put in our cosmetics and pretty much everything else. The one thing that is mind blowing to me, that I still cannot wrap my mind around, is that the chemicals that kill us for sure over time are in what WE EAT. Yes, we don’t eat food any more, we eat chemical concoctions that look like food. 90% of what humans consume, wild animals won’t even go near if found in their natural habitats.
Global toxicity is “Another Inconvenient Truth”. Educate yourself about it. Spread the word. For more info go to www.cleanrevolution.tv.
In the meantime, don’t eat anything that you wouldn’t find in nature if you had to go look for your own food. When you walk in the supermarket, Imagine you are hunting, gathering or fishing in the wild. Nothing in the wild comes in cans, boxes, jars, bags or tubes.
Food, Inc. is opening tomorrow, but it’s already creating quite a buzz. If you would like the chance to participate in a live Twitter chat on Friday, June 19th, with the director, Robert Kenner, read more here. If you want to learn more about what the Food Inc. team is up to, you can read their blog, follow the “Take Part” tweets, and check out the Food Inc.’s Facebook page. CSL’s blog posse member, Kristen Suzanne, saw the film in NYC last week and you can read her review here. Kristen’s review includes an enlightening Q & A session with Robert Keener following the screening she attended! To find a theater near you, check out this list. Spread the word!
When Passover comes to mind I immediately find myself closing off my nostrils and breathing through my mouth. This innate physical reaction is due to trauma – gefilte fish trauma. I think of the beautiful traditions associated with Passover, like the Four Questions, and leaning to the left in our seats to eat the way royalty used to eat. But I personally find myself leaning left to avoid the dinner guest next to me with the gefilte fish breath, who is all hopped up on Manischewitz and wants to give me a loving embrace. That is no way to enjoy a Seder.
Last year, word got out to the family that my sister and I had recently started our own vegan food company, so of course they said that if we wanted our Passover to be animal-free, we would be cooking – for all 40 of us! We couldn’t slide by anymore with our own veggie side dish. It was time for some action. We knew there would be a few skeptics in the crowd, so we had to act strategically, with everyone’s food preferences in mind.
In planning the menu the first thing I did was make some changes to the Seder plate. We said no thanks on the lamb shank. Instead, we used a beet grown in a friend’s garden. Not only are beets used to symbolize the color of the blood that lamb shanks represent, but their high iron content can revitalize our own blood. I don’t want us to be too selfish, but let’s get the most out of our Seder experience. Beets have other amazing nutritional benefits, including detoxifying the liver. After guzzling four cups of White Concord Grape Manischewitz (my personal fave), who wouldn’t appreciate that?
Instead of the hard-boiled egg, we used fresh flowers. Flowers are symbols of spring and new growth. They are beautiful and they smell a million times better than their hard-boiled counterparts. You can also go the extra step to get some roses, pansies or other edible flowers for the Seder plate. Eating flowers with loved ones is sure to make your Passover more memorable, and roses are known to be a powerful antioxidant. Click here to learn more about edible flowers.
My sister and I knew we had to do something about the gefilte situation, so we decided to make fresh spring rolls instead of gefilte fish for our first course. Spring rolls have the same shape, and, oddly enough, similar color to gefilte fish, so they do the trick. The whole family was elated to try something deliciously different.
Below is my recipe for Passover Spring Rolls. The recipe is not too traditional, but when tradition involves opening a jar of compressed fish in a jelly and letting it thump out of the glass, I don’t feel bad about breaking tradition. If your Jewish family is like mine, as long as something is wrapped in some sort of doughy wrapper, with a little sauce, everyone will be happy. Involve friends or family in rolling these guys if you have a big party. They do take a little time and effort. Note that these spring rolls do include rice ingredients. While Sephardic Seders permit rice, you may want to consult your Ashkenazi relatives if you think it will be a problem for them.
The lesson that I learned in treating my family to a vegan Passover is that the most important traditions are those of tempting smells, new experiences, and good karma all the way from the Seder plate to the meal. There is so much love and thoughtful preparation that goes into creating a Passover dinner that it only seems fitting to make it cruelty-free.
As an end note, though it may be a pain in the tuchas to cook food for the entire family just to prove to them how right we are for being vegetarian, you kind of have to because even if you only make food for yourself, everyone else will want a bite anyway when all of your food smells the best. That is why the recipe below is portioned to feed ten hungry Jews. Double the recipe for bigger parties or really hungry Jews.
Fresh Spring Rolls
Yields 10 servings
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp roasted hot sesame oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp agave
2 cups thin rice noodles, or bean sprouts
2 cucumber, peeled and sliced into thin strips
6-8 shiitake mushrooms
2 avocados, sliced into strips
1 cup shredded carrots
8-10 rice wrappers
*Optional ½ cup pine nuts
Procedure:
Bring a quart of water to a boil and cook the rice noodles as directed. Set aside when finished. Add sesame oil, rice vinegar and agave to the noodles. If using bean sprouts instead, blanche the bean sprouts and toss with the sesame oil, rice vinegar and agave.
Place the sliced pre-cooked rice noodles, cucumber, avocado, shredded carrot, and in separate bowls or plates, like an assembly line.
When you are ready to roll your fresh rolls, soak each rice wrapper in water until slightly softened. This should only take about 10 seconds. Place the wrapper on a flat working surface and fill with a line of your choice of the fillings, beginning with about 2 tablespoons of rice noodles or bean sprouts.
Begin by folding the bottom flap over your filling. Bring the two sides over the folded bottom flap and then bring the remaining side over the entire roll, to create a burrito shape. The trick is to not overfill the spring roll. This will make it much easier to wrap.
Almond Sauce:
½ cup almond butter
¼ cup hot water
1/4 cup organic tamari
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Rice vinegar
2 Tbsp sesame oil (with or without chilies)
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* optional: 2 Tbsp Red pepper flakes
Procedure:
In a medium pot, add almond butter and hot water. Whisk until the almond butter is thin. Add remaining almond sauce ingredients. Whisk until uniform and creamy. Add water if the sauce is too thick.
Spork Foods is a Los Angeles-based gourmet vegan food company owned and operated by sisters Jenny and Heather Goldberg. Our delicious, innovative cuisine emphasizes organic, local, and seasonal ingredients. We offer cooking classes, In-home healthy eating consultations, and small scale catering.
Lately I’ve been really driven to try a bunch of new alternative therapies. Why? Because I’m a health junkie and a writer. I want first-hand experience, not recycled articles with agendas. This past month I had a little downtime so I decided to give oxygen treatments a whirl. I had been reading about their benefits for years, saved some money from my speaking gigs, and dove head first into goodness and madness.
Recently, several comments regarding the cost of a healthy lifestyle have stuck in my mind. Forget my out-of-the-box treatments; the main problem is the raw, vegan, organic diet, and all the goodie-boosters that go with it. It’s expensive! Some folks get really miffed at me for promoting this way of living – if they can’t afford it then I shouldn’t write about it. Now that’s not fair or constructive. My point is to address problems and find solutions. But clearly I have more work to do.
Our system is broken and it makes me angry. I promise to do my part in a more constructive, inclusive way – or at least to try. In these times we all need to dig as deep as we possibly can to find and share cost effective ways to improve health, spiritual wealth and happiness. Will I always succeed? Will you? NO WAY. Bottom line: It’s cheap to get sick and expensive to be healthy. Integrative medicine should be covered by insurance. Insurance should be affordable. Advertisers should be more responsible. Your doctor should know more about nutrition – and so should you/me/us. I want to “eat my veggies and shake my ass” but I don’t want it to break my bank. Since my diagnoses I have spent most of my money on chow. How about a vacation? Or better yet, some home repair and my credit card debt!
Listen up Mr. Obama (who I love and crush on), if you really want to bring the troops home in the war on cancer (and other dis-eases), don’t just focus on new drugs. Get uber serious about how you’re gonna’ spend the money allocated for “prevention”. Seek advise the RIGHT people. If one more nutritionist tells me to boil my skinless chicken I’m gonna’ snap! We’re wasting tons of cash chasing our tails. Bring me on board, Mr. Prez, I’d be happy to sit down over a green drink and give you some pointers. :)
But I digress…
A vegan, mostly raw, organic lifestyle costs more than McDonalds – or so we think. It’s pricey because it’s not subsidized! The costs of a fast-food, nutrient-deficient diet are hidden. That burger may be 99 cents today, but its cost to your health and the health of the planet down the road are huge. Kids are fat and loaded with diabetes in our country. Cancer is a shit pickle that you don’t want to find yourself in and yet it’s cheaper to follow a lifestyle that promotes it. The poorest countries in the world struggle with infection – we come a long – westernize their diets – BAM – stroke. Heart disease is virtually non-existent where indigenous diets of rice and beans are king.
Good foods, on the other hand, may cost more now, but in the big picture, they’re actually a bargain… But of course that doesn’t solve the elitist problem right now for someone trying to get through a busy day. Add superfoods, supplements, potions, powders, raw snacks and forget it.
So I’m gonna challenge myself to be thrifty. This morning I downloaded McDonald’s menu but there were no prices so I called the location of the nearest drive-through feeding trough. Here’s a sample of what I thought an average day would look like if I ate this way:
Breakfast:
* Egg McMuffin – $2.40 * Medium OJ – $1.70 * Large Coffee – $1.50
Lunch:
* Big Mac – $3.80*Medium Fries – $1.55 *Medium Ice tea – $1.40
Dinner:
* Premium Salad with chicken – $4.95 *Oatmeal raisin cookies – $1 * Medium Coke – $1.40
Total: $19.70
I can certainly eat healthy for $19.70 per day but not if I don’t make it myself! How about $10? $5? Not if I jam the juice.
Join me. Save your receipts, blog about your experience. Be honest and be healthy. Ramen noodles and ketchup don’t cut it. I know that I can slice my food bill by buying a combo of organic (for the 12 most sprayed) and conventional fruits/veggies, bulk grains etc. I’ve written about this stuff many times but have I ever REALLY tried to limit myself? What about the staples I’ve stocked? You know the oils, Braggs, hemp seeds, dulse, spices, nut butters, etc. Do I start from scratch or can I average that stuff in? Hmmm. As many of you know, the big $$$ gets laid out in the beginning. Once we stock the basics it’s easier to save do re mi.
How do you cut costs and live this lifestyle on the cheap?
PLEASE share. Let this blog be a solution and not a bitch fest.
