A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Move over Food Pyramid for Choose My Plate

 

I really like the way First Lady, Michelle Obama, has headed up replacing the old Food Pyramid style nutrition icon with the new Choose My Plate icon. To me, even though this lacks in depth information about calories, the simplicity and the heart of the message is much, MUCH better.  This is what a meal plate should look like, even breakfast.  The concepts of breakfast and lunch or easily seen and comprehended, breakfast is if you think in terms of omelet with veggies, fruit, and whole wheat toast or yogurt with fruit, carrot sticks, and half a whole wheat English muffin sort of thing.  The glass icon for the milk is good, although I wish a second glass was there for water.

I applaud this change.  Very nicely done.

What's for Dinner? Ground up Pink Old Chicken Parts Paste Anyone?

 

Photo from this morning's Springfield News-Leader.

This is yet another good reason why I'm doing everything in my power to never need to eat fast food again if I can help it.  Cooking all our meals at home can be a pain sometimes, in the least it's not very convenient, but the alternatives are disgusting and terrible for our bodies.

After all the people who left out McDonald's Happy Meals and photographed them day after day with virturally no changes in appearance (translated: didn't decompose) (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20019427-10391704.html)  here's another reason to stop eating at fast food restaurants: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20110509/LIFE04/105090314/-1/NLETTER01/What-s-really-in-a-chicken-nugget?&source=nletter-news  The chicken nuggets are only approximately HALF chicken meat, the rest is bones, cartilage, skin, and fat, all ground up into a pretty pink paste that has to be colored with food dye to even approach appearing like chicken meat.

I'm not picking on just McDonald's.  All of the fast food chicken nuggets are like this. All of the fast food buns and commerical breads are teeming with preservatives.  All of the sodas and juices high fructose corn syrups or chemical sweeteners.  These items may all be edible by the definition that they don't poison us right away but they are certainly not not food nor nutrition. It's amazing that we wonder why the cancer and obesity rates are so high in this country. We're a nation of obese but nutritionally starved people.  Including me. It's sad that I/you/we have to work so hard and pay so much more at the grocery store for actual food that is nutritious for our bodies.  Do the CEO's, marketers, and food scientists of these companies not have families?  How can they produce this crap that their own families consume with a clear conscience? The even sadder thing is that even with knowing what I know, I still eat it when it's convenient and a lot of it still tastes good to me, but I am phasing it out. I'm hoping the day will come when the taste and smell of burgers and fries nauseates me.

 

Disney Chef Helps Celebrate The Royal Wedding

 

Disney Swan & Dolphin Resort just posted this photo of Princess Diana's tiara (top) along with the edible version Chef Branlard made entirely from pulled sugar (bottom).

Gorgeous! That is just incredible.  I keep staring at it, so impressed with his talent and the beauty that can be food.

Here's a link to their facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/swananddolphin

How many folks here in the U.S. are planning to get up at crack of dawn's hiney to watch?  That's 0500 here in the midwest.  Yes. I will either get up or stay up and watch.  I can't help it. There is still something glamorous that speaks to my little girl heart about the pretty and seemingly nice girl who walks in the church a commoner and leaves as a princess.

Health & Wellness Done Right: Crapeteria to Healtheateria

I admit, and have often lamented on these pages, that our hospital's cafeteria didn't offer more healthy choices and higher quality food. Everybody I know bitches about  observes the same thing.  You would think a place where they put the patients on health-restricted diets would have plenty of healthy choices available to the employees and visitors but many hospitals offer the same transfat-laden, grease-heavy, processed food items that you can get at any fast food or diner type outlet.  If we're not going to be leaders in healthy eating, we should at least have healthy choices available to those who want them.

Well....

We got a memo today that hopefully proves that those with the power are paying attention to the employee surveys...

As of yesterday, I'm proud to say that my hospital cafeteria is now using only 90/10 lean ground beef, is doing away with hot dogs, doughnuts, pastries, and all but a few fried items (french fries), and will offer at least two entrees a day of higher quality, low processed, healthy meals.  They've also added a new cooler that has tons of house-made grab-n-go items like fruit and cheese plates with cottage cheese or yogurt (I get this all the time! Yum!),  and be-still-my-heart greek yogurt (and in my favorite: plain!  No added sugar!!!), grilled chicken wraps on whole grained tortillas, fruit parfaits, veggie/dip snack plates, etc.

I'M LOVING THIS!!!!!  Thank you!  This is the kind of food I eat at home, want to eat at work, and am proud to be a part of leading the way in healthy wholesome dine-out food. 

Kraft Foods to Increase Amount of Whole Grains in Its Products

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100727/BUSINESS/7270316/-1/NLETTER01/Kraft-Foods-to-increase-whole-grain-in-products?source=nletter-news

Who Needs Jamie Oliver? The Eureka Springs Arkansas School District has had their own Food Revolution for Years

Chicken noodle soup.  Photo courtesy of Eureka Cool School Cafe
 

Much attention has been brought to school lunch programs lately through the efforts of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  His goals are admirable even if parts of the mini-series are at times too reminiscent of reality TV stunts-for-the-drama for my taste (but I also realize that there are others above Jamie controlling that part of the show's content.) His message is this: 

"I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It's time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!"  --Jamie Oliver