This week in Contemporary Nutrition class, we had to develop a “sustainability” food pyramid. It may sound strange – but the more we worked on it as a group, the more value I saw in the project. I am most interested in what we put as our base and what we put at the top of the peak. In between we had things like, ‘grow your own food’, buy from a local farmers market’, and ‘eat food grown within 150 miles of your location’. These are wonderful suggestions and could make a huge difference – but some people either cannot do these things, or are not yet ready to make a change.
The top of our pyramid lists:
“Limit processed and pre-packaged foods” (use sparingly)
This has many benefits – less packaging going into the environment, less manufacturing of chemicals and additives to preserve the food, less machinery and fuels used to create the foods. On the other hand, if you are limiting these types of foods, hopefully you are increasing your consumption of whole and unprocessed foods – grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, meats. Any person could do this if they just increased the awareness of their choices at the grocery store.
Our base lists:
“Consume only what your body needs. Do not eat in excess. Enjoy as many meals as possible with family and friends”
Can you imagine the impact this could have if people took an interest in it? Do you know what your body needs? What if you started paying attention? Enjoying meals with friends or family could start to create more of a community around food, more fun around food, and possibly more respect of the food we choose to eat.
October 27, 2010
October 4, 2010
Airplane Cheeseburger
Time: 6:30 pm Central
Date: October 2, 2010
Location: 36000 feet in the air
Offense: unhealthy airplane food
As we were flying home last weekend from Houston, TX to Seattle, WA, my flying partner was lucky she was asleep and I was surprised to hear that our Continental flight would be serving a complementary dinner.
Having prepared at Central Market off of Westheimer in Houston, we were stocked with delicious turkey sandwiches (pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, pesto spread, ciabatta roll) as well as fresh fruit and trail mix from the bulk section. However, I was lucky to be entertained by the guy next to me who hadn’t prepared and thought he’d give the “cheeseburger” a try. He took it somewhat warily, pinching the plastic bag enclosing the offending sandwich and dangled it above his plastic serving tray. I could understand his hesitation as I observed the inside of the bag was smeared with cheese and sauce that had melted into a soggy mess during the re-heating process. The burger looked sad: monotone color and not appetizing in the least bit. Surprisingly, I glanced around the plane as every passenger on the packed flight gobbled their mushy, plastic wrapped dinners.
The rest of the meal included: Fritos, M&M’s and a tiny bag of baby carrots. I am not against any of these foods in theory, but found it odd that this was the combination of foods they chose to serve for dinner that evening. In a nutshell, I consider this meal high in sodium, low in potassium (and many other vitamins and minerals), and very calorically dense.
This is not the type of food I choose to consume myself – and I urge you to start to recognize when food is downright unappetizing! You do not have to eat it if you don’t want to. You don’t have to eat it because it’s free. You have choices and options – do not settle for a melted burger, chips and candy. Please.
Date: October 2, 2010
Location: 36000 feet in the air
Offense: unhealthy airplane food
As we were flying home last weekend from Houston, TX to Seattle, WA, my flying partner was lucky she was asleep and I was surprised to hear that our Continental flight would be serving a complementary dinner.
Having prepared at Central Market off of Westheimer in Houston, we were stocked with delicious turkey sandwiches (pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, pesto spread, ciabatta roll) as well as fresh fruit and trail mix from the bulk section. However, I was lucky to be entertained by the guy next to me who hadn’t prepared and thought he’d give the “cheeseburger” a try. He took it somewhat warily, pinching the plastic bag enclosing the offending sandwich and dangled it above his plastic serving tray. I could understand his hesitation as I observed the inside of the bag was smeared with cheese and sauce that had melted into a soggy mess during the re-heating process. The burger looked sad: monotone color and not appetizing in the least bit. Surprisingly, I glanced around the plane as every passenger on the packed flight gobbled their mushy, plastic wrapped dinners.
The rest of the meal included: Fritos, M&M’s and a tiny bag of baby carrots. I am not against any of these foods in theory, but found it odd that this was the combination of foods they chose to serve for dinner that evening. In a nutshell, I consider this meal high in sodium, low in potassium (and many other vitamins and minerals), and very calorically dense.
This is not the type of food I choose to consume myself – and I urge you to start to recognize when food is downright unappetizing! You do not have to eat it if you don’t want to. You don’t have to eat it because it’s free. You have choices and options – do not settle for a melted burger, chips and candy. Please.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)