Category Archives: feed me!

Occupy the Food Supply

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My living room veg garden: cabbage seedlings, burdock and sweet potatoesBy Dr. Susan Rubin

My journey from being a dentist to a food activist has been filled with twists and turns over the years. When the Occupy Wall Street movement started last fall, I was immediately intrigued. At the core of the Occupy movement is greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on our government. The corporate control of food in every level of our lives had been pretty darn clear to me for a long time, its a big reason I’m an active participant in the Occupy movement.

Corporate control of our food is every where you look. Here are just four examples (there are many more):

1. School Food: 25% of all school cafeterias are run by giant corporations such as Aramark, Chartwells, Sodhexo and others. These corporations are required by law to deliver a profit to their shareholders, that comes way before providing healthy, safe food to kids. In my 10+ years of school food advocacy, I saw first hand that the school cafeterias who made meaningful healthy changes came from school districts that did NOT outsource their food service to corporations.

2. Genetically modified organisms, aka GMOs. Approximately 70% of all processed and packaged foods contain GMOs. One corporation, Monsanto, controls more than 95 percent of our nation’s sugar beets, 94 percent of the soybeans, and 88 percent of the corn grown in this country. Pretty darn creepy. Learn more about Monsanto’s influence on our food system by clicking here.

If you live near me, get your seeds from the Hudson Valley Seed Library.

3. Seeds. Ready for another creepy fact? Five companies dominate the world’s seed market — Bayer (Aventis), Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, and Syngenta (Novartis and AstraZeneca). These are the corps who make pesticides and genetically modified organisms. Corporate control of seeds is terrifying, learn more by clicking here. The answer to this is save your own seeds or be involved with a local seed swap. I belong to the Hudson Valley Seed Library – check it out!

4. A flawed farm bill Sadly we live in a country where a happy meal is cheaper than a healthy meal. Multi-national meatpacking corporations like Tyson-IBP, ConAgra, Cargill and Smithfield are big players in the farm bill, keeping subsidies for corn and soy so they can profit from factory raised cows. Learn more about the farm bill by clicking here.

So what can YOU do to keep corporations out of your food supply?

Here are some suggestions:
1. Buy your veggies from a local farmers market. It is essential that we all do everything we can to support our local regional food systems. With climate change and resource depletion (fossil fuels), we must rebuild local food. Regular visits to farmer’s markets can be a delicious way to wean yourself away from corporate controlled food.

2. Join a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture- its a great way to keep corporations out of our food supply, you deal directly with a farmer for an entire growing season. Local Harvest is a website that can help you to find a CSA near you. (l I’m psyched that Kitchawan Farm is a starting new small CSA just minutes from my home. Learn more about their 2012 farm share by clicking here.

3. Buy your bread from a a local bakery. Get yourself some REAL bread! We have one a few towns away from here, in Port Chester, its called Kneaded Bread its a special treat and worth the trip. You’ll find that 99% of bread in supermarkets contains questionable ingredients that don’t belong in bread. Most of it contains GMO ingredients. Get your family off of this poison!

4. Prepare you own meals instead of buying fast food, take out or frozen dinners. If you stop to think about it, how did we ever lose this skill of preparing food for ourselves and our families? You guessed it! Food corporations and their slick ad campaigns turned cooking into “drudgery” and sold us “convenience” YUP, it comes down to re-skilling: learning how to cook, its really not rocket science. Get your kids started on this as well, child labor is appropriate, you’ll be teaching them life skills. By the time they’re out of high school, they should know how to cook for themselves. That way they will not be dependent upon the corporate run cafeterias at their college or worse yet, RAMEN! Note that there are colleges with great food, UMASS Amherst is a great example.

5.Buy your milk from a local farm. Find one in your area and support it. Corporate influence of our milk supply is truly disturbing. One thing you must make sure of and that is that the milk you drink does not contain Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone. rBGH increases your chances of breast, colon and prostate cancer.

6. Make you own cookies, cakes, and pies. With real ingredients. Organic butter. Fair trade sugar. Teach your kids that these forms of treats #1 taste better……teach them quality counts, #2 better for you and for the planet. Stay far far away from toxic corporate cookies like Girl Scout cookies. Support your local troop with a check instead and make your own cookies at home.

7. Start growing your own. I often tell people, “gardens are the answer. what was your question?” The benefits of growing food are enormous, let me start to count the ways. Getting your hands in the dirt, soil, has health benefits: anti-depressant properties, may help facilitate learning, may help people with asthma.

 

bio Dr. Susan Rubin is an eco-gastronomically focused food educator and leader in the world of school food activism as well as a mother of three.  She is the founder of Better School Food, a coalition of health professionals, educators, and concerned parents, whose mission is to raise awareness about the connection between better food and better health. She is one of the Two Angry Moms in the documentary film of the same name.  Dr. Susan has a private health counseling practice in Westchester, NY.  You can contact Dr. Rubin at www.drsusanrubin.com

 

Coffee: Drink up AND Scrub Cellulite Away!

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Cup of joe in the morning, latte in the afternoon and an invigorating, aromatic coffee scrub after that!  Never had had one, actually never even heard of it before, but the description sounded like the miracle I’ve been looking for…all my life.

Invigorating Experiential Coffee Scrub ~  Deep nourishing experience as it exfoliates and cleanses away dead skin cells.  Clinically proven to provide powerful antioxidant and tightening benefits for the skin.  This scrub will stimulate circulation, and will scrub away cellulite. 

Yes, you read that correctly, “scrub away cellulite“!

Actually, they had me at “tightening benefits”.

Sign me up, right NOW!

Costa Rico, what a beautiful amazing place, where the coffee flows as freely as it’s many water falls. I am so grateful to have been able visit paradise, but also to immerse myself in, what else?  Coffee, organic, good for you, once in a while, coffee.

Imagine if you will:  It’s aroma filling the air you breath…ah… You’ve just made a pot of coffee.  Pour the coffee into your mug, its warm, wonderful, heaven on earth aroma fills your being.  Deep breath. You sip it, feeling comforted, loved and ready to take on the day.  Now taking the filter out of the coffee maker, the wet coffee grinds are on your finger tips,  you take a another nice deep breath, taking in again the aroma as you toss the the filter toward the garbage pail, you miss it.  The coffee grinds spill all over the floor.  You gather up the wet coffee grinds, scooping them up, go ahead….just slap some on yourself and scrub away.

My “Invigorating Experiential Coffee Scrub” was indeed like a massage, but with coffee grinds rubbed into my body, that felt a little like gravel.  My masseuse worked especially hard on my thighs, butt and upper arms, the more evident parts of my body that needed tightening.  I then showered, went back to the massage table for a light massage.  That was it?  $100 later and that was it.

The result:  I felt refreshed, and even energized, oh wait, that was the caffeine kicking in.  My skin felt a little tighter, but the cellulite was still there.

So, I did some research on the wonders of a coffee ground scrub and found that coffee does indeed break down cellulite, but you need to use it daily.  Coffee helps to redistribute fat cells, thereby reducing cellulite, but also another added benefit of a coffee scrub is it helps to reduce varicose veins.  Caffeine shrinks blood vessels, helping to contract varicose veins, by shrinking them away and helping to prevent more from showing up.

DIY:  Have a cup of coffee, wipe out cellulite, varicose veins and feel energized all for the price of a cup of joe, I say let’s do it!!!!!! (!!= caffeine)

Here’s how:

1.  1/4 C or more ground coffee (Caffeine)

2.  1 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

Optional add ons:   1 Tbsp sugar and sea salt.  1 tsp honey.  Warming spices:  Ginger for circulation; Cinnamon for reducing inflammation.  Essential oils, such as lavender, frankincense, or another of your favorites, creating a scent that works for you and gaining even more health benefits.

Your skin should be moist before applying the scrub.  Rub in a circular motion on the “problem areas”.  Give yourself a good 5 minutes of this. 1 minute or more per area. Rinse well.

My personal result after four days:  It is making a difference, but the jury is still out (my full length mirror, not my husband).  I will keep you posted.

Try it and let me know if it works for you.   My and Cynthia’s progress will be reported on our radio show, The Family Balancing Act.

Take a deep breath, smell the coffee and know that you’re not alone.

Sources:  livestrong, Spa Magazine

Tea for Healing Yeast, Cancer, Ulcers and Parasites

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healing soothing tea

by Cynthia Henrich

I am lovin’ me some mulling this winter! Enjoying the comforting fragrance of spices simmering and imbuing the house with a cozy expectant feeling. The best news is that instead of the calories of a baked muffin or gingerbread, which I have been stuffed to bursting with this past month or so, this delightful little tea has no calories and a plethora of healing properties. It also tastes so incredibly sweet and tasty that it’s hard to believe there is not a drop of sweetener or sugar in it!

I found a great little brewing teapot, with a stainless steel strainer that holds whatever tea leaves or spices that I’m using, right within the hot water. It’s about 3 cups and is the perfect amount to fill my mug twice in the morning. Make sure that the “basket” for holding the tea or mulling spices is made of either glass or stainless, so that you are not leaching plastic compounds into your hot tea.

The spices that I used in brewing the tea have many healing properties:

Cinnamon is great for relieving nausea, gas, bloating, indigestion, vomiting and diarrhea. It has been shown in studies to reduce blood pressure, and to just about double insulin’s ability to metabolize blood sugar. Doses of cinnamon tincture have been used historically to control uterine bleeding. Cinnamon has been shown to be useful against liver cancer and melanoma. A fungus that grows on the bark has been found effective against leukemia cells in animal testing. Cinnamon is also a potent antifungal, especially useful when yeast medications, such as Diflucan, have failed. It works wonders for fungus-induced sinus infections caused by Aspergillus niger, and combats gingivitis and thrush. Propanoic acid, a compound found in cinnamon, stops the formation of stomach ulcers without interfering with the production of gastric acid, necessary for the breakdown of foods to ensure proper nutritional absorption. Additionally, compounds in cinnamon upregulate glutathione production and protect the epithelial cells of the colon. The myristicin that cinnamon contains has been found to be anti-inflammatory.

Cloves are protective against stomach cancer, are antifungal, antibacterial and analgesic. Clove oil has literally saved my life when it comes to exposure to food poisoning bacteria, along with oregano oil. Cloves are antiparasitical, interrupting the egg cycle of many parasites. Cloves can reduce the feeling of bloating for people with peptic ulcers.

Anise is an herb that stimulates the body to secrete fluids to clear out congestion and normalize digestion. Anise is useful for taming bad breath, stimulating the production of breast milk in nursing mothers, increasing libido, reducing colic and spasmodic gas pain, calming asthma and unproductive coughs. Anise seeds are chewed traditionally after meals in India, and bottles of anisette, such as sambuca, are typically put on the table after a large dinner as a digestif.

Nutmeg‘s distinctive flavor and fragrance are derived from myristicin. Nutmeg as a functional food, has been found to reduce dental caries, reduce gas, aid digestion, improve appetite, treat nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and reduce inflammation. Nutmeg is also anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-cancer.

So enjoy a spot of tea yourself this afternoon, or serve it when your family comes in the door from work or school for an extra boost of health and comfort!

Sources:

The Epicentre Encyclopedia of Spices

Prescription for Dietary Wellness, by Phyllis A. Balch

Prescription for Herbal Healing, by Phyllis A. Balch

Molecules, 2010, The cinnamon-derived dietary factor cinnamic aldehyde activates the Nrf2-dependent antioxidant response in human epithelial colon cells.

Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 2011, Food components with anticaries activity.

Molecules, 2011, Anti-inflammatory effect of myristicin on RAW 264.7 macrophages stimulated with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid.

Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand, 2007, Myristica fragrans Houtt. methanolic extract induces apoptosis in a human leukemia cell line through SIRT1 mRNA downregulation.

Spicy Mulled Coffee

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Spicy mulled coffee made on the stove is warming and delicious. We enjoy it in our home as something a little extra special with breakfast or after dinner. It’s super easy and fast and SO much better than whatever you’re usually making, no matter the brewing process.

And if you need more encouragement, you can read this study showing that long term coffee consumption may be associated with up to a 25% reduced risk of endometrial cancer. Or you can read about how the risk of depression is reduced by up to 20% with caffeinated coffee. Take a look at the EPIC study associating the consumption of more than 100 ml of caffeinated coffee or tea per day with significantly reduced risk of brain tumors known as gliomas.

For a hostess gift, you can make up the dry ingredients for this delicious brew and put it into a jar. Put a cute label on it, or package it in a plastic baggie and tie it up into one of those drawstring chiffon bags from the craft store. Put it together with a package of really good coffee beans, a couple of mugs, some crystals of sugar, and you have a beautiful gift!

Spicy Mulled Coffee

Star anise, one flower or star

Cinnamon stick

Pinch of cardamom

Freshly grated nutmeg

Few cloves

Raspadura or raw sugar to taste

Orange peels or grated rind

Put all of the ingredients in about 2 quarts of water in a pot on the stove. Add 4-5 heaping scoops of ground coffee. Adjust coffee to water ratio to what you typically use, although I find that this makes stronger flavored coffee. You can always pour more water in the pot if it tastes too strong for you. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for about 10 minutes. Adjust flavor to suit your taste. You can either ladle the coffee out into cups or pour through a fine sieve into a tea or coffee pot or heat-safe pitcher to serve. I add cream or milk to mine.

The very first time I made it, I thought to myself, this is the elixir of sugar plum fairies, it tastes SO delicious!!!