Mindful Eats

Milk 101 with Organic Dairy Farmer

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity. ~Lou Holtz

When I was a little redneck kid, the milk man used to deliver weekly rounds. Then that stopped, and we went to the dairy to pick up milk. Now almost everyone buys their milk in the grocery store. Milk and dairy products can be mysterious to urbanites - how does milk get from a cow to a bottle? I was fortunate enough to have organic farmer Dan France demystify the process for me. He gave me a Milk 101, explained organic and raw milk, and shared some of his amazing work.  Dan is an 8th generation dairy farmer in Cobleskill, NY. He has a 70 cow dairy, and he's the spitting image of the hale, apple-cheeked farmer that is portrayed in children's books. Charming and smart, they were very patient with my simple questions.

MindulEats burning question: "Um, are cows pregnant all the time?" Turns out that the way it works is that after a cow gives birth, she produces milk for 10 months then has a dry period. The normal cycle is 13-14 months. Cows are bred while they are milking, then the cycle starts all over again. The normal lifespan for a cow is 7-8 years, and she calves 4 times during her lifetime. After she gets old, she becomes a hamburger at a fast food restaurant. I'd always thought the burgers in fast food restaurants came from beef cattle like Black Angus - but it's actually old dairy cows! Industrial dairies keep their cows in extremely stressful situations - thousands can be penned in dirt lots, standing in their waste, with little room to move. Disease spreads quickly so they are given antibiotics. They get hormone shots to increase milk production and lengthen their milking period. Cows in these Confined Area Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have shorter life spans.

"What happens to the calves?" Female calves are raised until they are two, then they get impregnated and are a dairy cow. Male calves are sold and become veal. (Carla, there's your question answered).

"Is all organic milk from family farms?" Most of us think that organic milk comes from happy, pasture-fed cows. After all, I don't want to consume food or items based on another creature's misery. Well, some organic milk is actually coming from CAFOs out west. These CAFOs get to call their milk organic since they feed the cows organic grain (but they're still standing in cramped dirt lots). A lot of the cheap organic milk you get from Target and WalMart are from these operations. However, this should all change on June 11, 2010. The USDA's National Organic Program is being amended with the New Pasture Rules, which state that cattle have to be pastured for the full local season (at least 120 days), and must get at least 30% of their food from pasture during the season. Dean and Dan are delighted by the ruling - Dan points out that any farm with 300+ cows is a CAFO. This means the price of organic milk will increase to reflect a truly quality product.

"What's the deal with raw milk?" There is a growing trend for drinking raw milk (unpasteurized). Fans say that is full of nutrients that get killed during pasteurization, and that it is far more delicious than pasteurized milk. People claim that even the lactose intolerant can drink it since it still has the enzymes to help you digest it. However, there are risks to raw milk - it hasn't been pasteurized, so bacteria can grow, especially if it hasn't been handled carefully. "Don't ever ask a farmer to risk his family and farm. If you want raw milk, go buy a cow - asking someone else to do it is putting them at too high a risk." Dan personally knows of multi-generation farms that have been put out of business over raw milk. A consumer can take a gallon of milk during the summer, stop at the library for 30 minutes and leave the milk in the car (allowing the bacteria to fester) before going home and putting it in the refrigerator. If someone then gets ill or dies from the milk, the farmer is blamed. Dan's drunk raw milk for 60 years. But then again, he has his own cows.

"OK, no raw milk without owning a cow. What about pasteurization?" Pasteurization means heating milk to kill bad bacteria. Low heat pasteurization (140 degrees) kills less bacteria but has better nutrition (more calcium and vitamins). High heat sterilizes milk and gives it a longer shelf life. It's up to you, but we prefer the more nutritious version. Organic milk is often pasteurized at ultra high heat because it has a longer shelf life. You are more likely to find local organic brands that do low heat pasteurization. Homogenized milk is personal preference. I like unhomogenized milk since that's what I grew up on.

Local organic dairies often provide the freshest, highest-quality milk. Since they are organic the cows are guaranteed space and pasture unlike industrial CAFO farms. Our dairy also uses recyclable milk jugs which they collect and reuse. They cost a little more, but we're happy to pay a fair price for quality goods. 

What to do - Support Local Dairies

1. If you've decided to consume dairy products, think about the kind of agribusiness you're supporting. Organic products may be more expensive, but they don't have unnecessary chemicals like hormones and antibiotics. And you are paying the farmers a livable wage.
2. Consider buying local. Shipping may take less of an environmental toll, and your dollars stay in the area. If you buy from the farmer's market you meet the farmer who is accountable for his food. 
3. Save money. You can learn more about Organic Valley and get some coupons.

Fore more posts on sustainable, organic, local and ethical food, go to Food Renegade.

Updated: Feb 23, 2021

What I ate: Oikos vanilla yogurt + ground flax seeds, strawberry kefir, latte, (full day of eating out): 2 little chicken sandwich bits, turkey/brie sandwich, salad, apple, spaghettini + cherry tomatoes + clam sauce, 2 oz. popchips, cheddar cheese, hot chocolate, 50 oz. water

Exercise: none

Local Winter Seasonal Foods

Paffenroth Farms stand at Union Square Greenmarket, NYC, 1/30/10

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. ~Henry David Thoreau

MindfulEats is celebrating our first year anniversary, and we are very grateful to have you with us. We were founded last January during a particularly inspirational time - New Year Resolutions were swirling, Obama had just been inaugurated and the Steelers were on the way to the Super Bowl. 

It was also the middle of winter, and food choices were more limited than during the summer. Root vegetables dominated over fruit. If you haven't noticed a difference, you probably live in a warm and sunny area. Those of us in cold, wintry climates are fortunate that we can take advantage of delicious seasonal specialties. The interest in local foods seem to be increasing (yay!) and we've recently fielded several questions on what's in season - so Bill, Jon and Kaitlyn, this post is for you.  

It's possible to deny winter with food that's been shipped from warmer areas, but that stuff isn't great. It was picked days before it had a chance to ripen naturally, and it's been sitting around for a while. It also cost a lot of carbon to ship. Use it as a supplement to the bonanza of hearty winter foods easily available: cabbage, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, brussel sprouts, dried beans, eggs, meat. There may not be as wide a selection as the summer, but this is definitely a season to take advantage of. (And do it while you can - the winter season is short!) Eating seasonally provides you with:

• Food that makes sense. It's cold out there, and filling your tummy with roasted sweet potatoes and a heart-warming stew or cassoulet makes more sense than eating a tomato and mozzarella sandwich with strawberries. You'll be in sync with nature!
• Cheaper and tastier food. Produce that's in season and local tastes better. Parsnips and turnips in the NYC greenmarket are $1 a pound. That's a lot less than the small bundles of spinach from California.

The hardest thing about adding seasonal foods is knowing what's in season, so:

What to do - Eat Seasonally (and Locally)

1. Bundle up and go to the farmer's market. The selection is more sparse than during the summer, but you'll quickly see what's in season and you'll be able to buy the freshest. Besides, this is when your local farmers need the most support. They get a lot less traffic and they're cold too.
2. Use this great site from Natural Resources Defense Council and check out what's in season.
3. Learn how to cook root vegetables and meat. Most any winter food can be roasted or turned into stew. Your slow cooker is perfect for this season, and we roast veggies at least once a week.
4. If you're in the NYC or SF area, buy this clever and beautifully illustrated Local Foods Wheel from Chelsea Green to always see what's in season. It makes a great gift too! It was our favorite item in a gift bag.

What I ate: City Bakery hot chocolate shot, 1 cup plain yogurt + 1T Sarabeth's peach-strawberry jam + flaxseeds, 1 cup McCann's steel-cut oatmeal + dried cranberries + ground flax seeds, cheddar cheese, macadamia nuts, 1 grapefruit, 1 large latte, 1 cup tea, Trader Joe's dried mangos, Tazo white apricot tea, whole wheat fusilli, roasted eggplant + portobello mushrooms + parsnips + turnips, hot chocolate, New Chapter multivitamin, water

Exercise: 30 min run, 60 min yoga

Butchering a Pork Shoulder

Wares from Flying Pigs Farm, Union Square Greenmarket  

I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary. ~Lou Holtz

I try to be mindful and grateful about the meal on my plate. A lot of effort and carbon went into growing and transporting it, and lives were given up for it, sometimes animal. I even wrote a post about appreciating food. But after butchering a pork shoulder and some winter vegetables for an upcoming slow cooker recipe, I hit a whole new level of food gratitude.

This was the second time I'd made a meat dish in the 8 months since I started eating meat again. In love with my slow-cooker, and hearing multiple stories about how perfect it is for meat, I went to the farmer's market in search of something to braise. After a discussion with a guy at Flying Pigs Farm, I went home with a pork shoulder. My only criteria was simplicity. I wanted to pop the meat in the slow cooker with veggies and flip a button - no roasting or prepping of any type beforehand. He promised the shoulder would fit the bill.

The pork shoulder might have been perfect - but it was a tad too big for my small crockpot. So I started to chop it up. Chopping into the shoulder was entirely different from browning grass-fed ground beef, the other meat that I had made.

The last biology class I had taken was in high school (a very long time ago), and this kitchen exercise reminded me of it. As I cut into the pork shoulder, I called a lifeline to determine whether the skin was edible (he didn't know either. If you do, please let me know.) The skin had small bits of hair on it, and I was pretty sure I didn't want to eat hair so I discarded the skin. Underneath the skin were layers I vaguely remembered from class - fat, membrane, muscle, and bone. And blood. The shoulder had that cool rolling joint in it - I imagine it looks exactly like my shoulder. For the first time, I realized why people get expensive knives. My knife wasn't quite sharp enough for the job, so it took me nearly an hour to cut off the necessary bits. 

The whole operation left my soft, citified, restaurant-eating self pretty squeamish and grossed out. I lost my appetite. I'm sure I did just about everything wrong, but as I was unhappily butchering the shoulder, I felt a real connection with my food and a very strong appreciation of the stew I was preparing. When I finished with the shoulder and starting peeling turnips, even the butchering of the vegetables made me nauseous - my appreciation extended to everything that went into the stew. It's a connection that the traditional hunters and farmers are closer to (or for completely non-country folk, the same appreciation that the blue Avatar people have when they hunt).

The stew ended up being delicious. Getting my hands "dirty" gave me a connection that I just don't have when food shows up beautifully plated at restaurants, or when it's precut and ready to pop into the pan. You gotta eat, and getting down with the pork shoulder helped eliminate the distance that is so common in today's food chain. I'm not going to butcher another cut of meat tomorrow, but I will at some point. And in the meantime, I have a whole new respect for everything that crosses my plate.

What I ate: 1 grapefruit, macadamia nuts, 2 cups coffee, 1 latte, cheddar cheese, sushi + salad, 10 wasabi nuts, 1 orange, baby carrots, Heavenly Hummus, Minetta Tavern: steelhead salmon, cabbage + mushrooms + beans, whole wheat spaghetti + Rao's Siciliana, 40 oz. water

Exercise: 30 min stationary bike, 30 minutes lifting

Hassle-Free Healthy Meal: Slow Cooker/Crockpot

Collard green and turnip soup

My parents gave me a slow cooker for Christmas last year. I thought it was an odd gift, but I sweetly thanked them and took it home. Then I took the slow cooker out of the box and fell in love. 

The thing is magic! You load it up, add water, turn it on, and when you come home 9+ hours later on a frigid night so hungry you could eat your dog, the warm smell of love hits you as you walk through the door. It's the only way a working stiff like me can come home to a delicious smelling dinner. And the only effort required is chopping and flipping a switch. Magic. Parents (often) do know best.

The magic isn't limited to meals - the slow cooker is great way to prepare slow foods like dried beans and lentils, or carrots on their way to being pureed. 

Slow cookers are especially perfect during the winter. They're great for soups, chili and stews. I also understand they are great for braised meat (next on my list of things to try), but the most frequent meal in my slow-cooker is a turnip collard green soup.

In addition to slow cookers, there are a few other ways to cook healthy and fast.

Turnip and Collard Green Soup

Serves 2

5-6 small turnips
5 collard greens
1 stalk of celery
1 carrot
1/4 clove of garlic
 1/2 barley, quinoa, brown rice or any other grain
 water
 any other vegetable you like - onions, potatoes, etc.

1. Chop the turnips, celery and carrots into bite sized soup pieces. Turnips should be small (2 inches or less) and heavy.
2. Strip the collard green stems off the leaves and slice leaves into strips. (collard stems can be saved for vegetable juice)
3. Put all the vegetables into the slow cooker.
4. Add enough water to cover the vegetables plus another 2-3 inches. Unless the water is 3/4 inches from the top of the cooker. If so, only fill it until it's 3/4 inch from the top.
5. Turn cooker on low. Let cook for 5+ hours. I've let it cook for over 9 hours.
6. When you're ready to eat, add the grains. Leave them in for the regular cooking time. If you have pre-cooked grains, add them in at the end. Do NOT cook grains for hours - they get overcooked, clumpy and gross.

You're done! One of the easiest meals ever. Feel free to experiment - slow cooking is flexible and nearly impossible to screw up.

What I ate: vegetable juice, 1 grapefruit, 1 c. steel-cut oatmeal + flaxseeds + dried cranberries + milk, 2 scrambled eggs, macadamia nuts, 1 latte, baby carrots, hummus, 1 green tea, lobster ravioli, salami, prosciutto, 2 slices bread, cheese, hot chocolate, water

Exercise: None

What is Conventionally-Grown, Industrial Food?

Grocery shopping in Aleppo, Syria. 

Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made. ~William Dyer

Have you ever noticed that hippies, yuppies and environmental folk love farmer's markets and sustainably grown, organic food? What's up with that? Is it better for you? And why are people making such a fuss over conventional, industrially grown food? Read on for most of the answers...

If MindfulEats were to draw a bright line in the world of food, the first and most important cut would be between processed and non-processed foods. Eating non-processed food is the best thing you can do for you and those you love. But you already knew that.

The second cut would be within the non-processed food world, between 1) conventional, industrially grown food and 2) locally, sustainably grown food. 

Conventional, industrially grown food is quickly becoming the villain in movies and popular press. But like processed food, the reason it came into being wasn't to be evil - the idea was to make farming more efficient to provide more and cheaper food for everyone. Not a bad idea. It's the actual production and execution that is the problem.

To understand the issue, let's take a look at the way food has traditionally been grown. Food (plant and animal) is grown on land. Like you, land gets tired and less productive when it is worked hard and without rest (which is what farming does). Different plants take different nutrients from the soil, and leave different types of waste. The traditional farmer had to be smart about raising multiple types of crops so he didn't strip the soil of all nutrients, and leave himself with dead fields in a few years. He also had to rest plots of land so the soil could enrich itself. 

Likewise, he had to grow different animals to be efficient. Cows would graze on grass and poop in the fields. Chickens would peck through the poop for food, scattering the manure for more efficient fertilizer as they pecked. Pigs ate leftovers and rooted through fields, helping to aerate the soil and creating more poop for chickens to peck through. Farms were an ecosystem of their own, growing food for the farmer and a few others, and being carefully managed so the farm would exist for generations.

Industrialization came along and decided traditional farms were inefficient. Like factories, industrialists thought they could increase production. Instead of planting different kinds of crops, they thought they'd just plant one type (corn, for example) on a large tract and be super efficient about it. They added chemical fertilizers to make the crops grow faster, and herbicides/insecticides to reduce pests. The problem is, the chemicals and just the one crop stripped the soil of its nutrients, so even more chemicals had to be added to make the same land grow as much. This creates a huge environmental problem with all the chemicals, and lots of people don't want to eat those chemicals. It's gross. Enter the growing demand for organic, unchemically grown food.

Meat production went through the same process. Industrial farmers figured they could produce more meat if they raised mass amounts of one type of animal. So each farm focuses on one type - beef, pork, chicken, etc. To grow more meat, they jam as many animals as possible on a plot of land. This means the animals don't have room to exercise, stand around in lots of poop, and are prone to getting sick (that's what happens with poor quality food and lack of exercise). Since they are so close to each other, disease sweeps through quickly. Hello antibiotics. To counteract potential disease, 70% of the antibiotics produced in the U.S. is fed to animals, as stated by Congresswoman Louise Slaughter in her statement to the Agriculture Subcommittee. So when you eat industrial meat, you are eating sickly animals that are filled with artificial hormones and antibiotics so they will grow more quickly and not get diseased. All those drugs and waste leach into the environment and water supply, which causes a big environmental issue that will have to get cleaned up some day.

Sure, cooking helps kill the additives, but that animal you're eating is pretty sickly and unhappy. Yuck. It's bad karma. Pigs are smarter than dogs, and those industrially grown pigs get so depressed they put antidepressants in their feed along with antibiotics. If you took two kids, and raised one so that he played outdoors and ate healthy food, he'd have a good shot at being happy and hale. If you forced the other kid to spend all his time in a closet eating nothing but cereal, you'd have a kid with lots of issues. That's industrial farming.

So the theory behind industrial farming isn't a bad one, but the practice of it is terrible in terms of:

1. the environment - a massive amount of chemicals and waste is being offloaded into the environment, without any kind of replenishing
2. your health - you and your family get lots more chemicals into your food, and you eat sickly depressed animals. It hasn't been proven to be harmful yet, but do you really want to wait for that proof?

That's why people like farmer's markets - it provides a direct connection to food grown the traditional, sustainable way, as do responsible retailers and grocery stores.

What to do - Eat Sustainably

1. Eat less processed food.
2. Buy organic and locally produced food if you have the means. You're getting a bigger bang for your buck than you are when you spend your moolah on designer clothes.
3. Ask your restaurants about their food, and patronize the ones that buy responsibly.
4. Share your philosophy with others.

Want to learn more?

• Watch the movie Food, Inc.
• Read Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma
• Read Congresswoman Louise Slaughter's Statement On Agriculture Subcommittee Hearing on Animal Health, Antibiotics

For articles on SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) food, go to Food Renegade.

What I ate: macadamia nuts, large latte, 3 clementines, 1 banana, dried mangos, cheese, baby carrots, babaganoush, whole wheat spaghetti, roasted eggplant + portobello mushrooms + zucchini + yellow squash + grape tomatoes, 2 cups hot chocolate, water

Exercise: 90 min. vinyassa yoga, 30 min. lifting

Food Portions and Serving Sizes

 Peppers at a Green Bay Farmer's Market ©Michelle Correa Photography

Your body is the baggage you must carry through life. The more excess the baggage, the shorter the trip. ~Arnold H. Glasgow

I have a colleague that's frustrated with her diet. She started eating healthier, but she still wants to lose 10 pounds. Sometimes that happens. Getting rid of processed foods is a fabulous start for losing weight, but you still need to be mindful of how much food you're eating. Learning serving sizes will also help you keep a better food log, which is key to weight loss.

American portions keep getting supersized. You can blow a whole day's worth of calories on a restaurant meal. If you want to lose weight, you need to know what a proper serving looks like, so check out the MindfulEats Food Portion Chart below (based on this SparkPeople article). It's shocking how much smaller a portion should be than what we're used to.

Just so you know - a serving is the amount that food experts recommend you eat, and a portion is what you actually eat. For example, experts recommend that you eat 6-11 servings of grains per day. So if you don't snack on grains, you may want to eat two servings per meal.

MindfulEats Food Portion Chart

 
 

American PLATES are also getting bigger, which sneaks in more calories. Use a smaller luncheon size plate (9"-10") for your dinner, and fill it with 1/2 veggies, 1/4 whole grains and 1/4 protein. If you need a visual reminder, you can buy a portion-control plate here, or one of the more stylish plates featured on the Today Show.

What to do - Lose Weight through Proper Portions

1. Memorize serving sizes. Or print out the above chart, cut it out, and put it in your wallet for easy referral.
2. Pack away your dinner plates and only use luncheon plates (9"-10"). Make sure your plate is filled with 50% veggie/fruit, 25% whole grains, and 25% protein.
3. Stick to recommended serving sizes. It's great you're eating healthier, but that doesn't mean you can eat massive amounts!
4. Throw away extra food, or wrap it up for later. We're giving you permission not to clean your plates. You didn't ask for that huge portion, did you? Eat a healthy portion and leave the rest, or have it wrapped. You're also probably getting a lot of cookies, chocolates and sweets for the holidays. We give you permission to eat one and throw the rest away (don't worry, they'll never know).
5. Look at what 300-450 calorie meals look like.
6. Check out the Cool Resources page for more ideas.

Want to learn more?

• SparkPeople article on Portion Sizes and Serving Sizes
• Web MD's Portion Tool and Simple Secrets to Portion Control and Healthy Eating
• How to Lose Weight

What I ate: (horrible day of holiday parties) 1/2 c. couscous, 1 small potato pancake, lox, smoked trout, food, mixed nuts, 1 slice ham, shrimp cocktail, lots of cheese and crackers, 1 small crab cake, carrots + hummus, whole wheat spaghetti + egg + spinach, 1 hot chocolate, water

Exercise: 15 min stationary bike, weights

Virtues of Strength Training

Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live. ~Jim Rohn

You know you should be exercising, right? You're biking, walking, taking the stairs - working out your heart and body. That is awesome. But don't forget to strength train! Men are usually sold on the virtues of weight lifting, but the ladies often need more convincing. So, listen up. Strength training makes you:

• Gorgeous. Anyone want to argue the merits of a flabby body in a swimsuit vs. a toned one? (If you're a woman, and you're worried about developing huge muscles, forget it - it's not going to happen.)
• Healthy. Lifting weights can help strengthen your bones and prevent osteoporosis, as well as a whole host of chronic issues like back pain, diabetes and depression.
• Better. A stronger body means you can do everything better. You'll have better posture, be better at all sports, and you won't get tired as quickly. 

As you age, your muscle mass declines. You become more frail, and if you don't do anything to replace the lean muscle, you increase the percentage of fat (read flab) in your body. Women naturally have weak upper bodies. Without weight training, many women lack the strength to lift their own bodies as they get older. Lots of broken hips are sustained by women who can't get themselves out of the tub. Let's make sure that's not you. The good thing is that strength training increases your muscle mass, however old you are. If you start now, you can get rid of those batwings and have toned arms for your holiday outfits.

What to do - Strength Train

1. Add strength training to your exercise routine. It's only one part of your exercise - the others are cardio and stretching.
2. Find a place to weight train. Join the gym. Or find a chair and some floor space at home.
3. Commit to a strength training routine. If you join a gym, you often get a free introductory session with a trainer. Tell her you need a basic weight training routine. If you don't belong to a gym, you can always do push-ups, sit-ups and lunges at home. Browse through some fitness magazines for a routine, find an exercise show on TV, or buy/rent exercise videos (you can borrow them from the library too!) Look online - here's a workout from Women's Health. Here are some basic routines from Men's Fitness. Don't feel compelled to do a man's or women's workout - the moves and benefits are the same.
4. Rest. When you exercise, you tear your muscles, and they get stronger by building back up during recovery. If you work out a set of muscles one day, give them at least a day's rest.

Want to read more?

• Mayo Clinic article on strength training

What I ate: vegetable juice, latte, macadamia nuts, banana, Stacy's pita chips, 2 cups of coffee, quinoa, 2 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, steamed broccoli + tofu, brown rice + steamed broccoli + tofu + mushrooms + ground flaxseeds, hot chocolate, 60 oz. water

Exercise: none 

What is Processed Food?

 I made this bread from scratch - is it a processed food? 

Truth never damages a cause that is just. ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

So what is processed food anyway? Processed food is any food that has been altered from its natural state. As soon as it is altered (processed) in any way (no longer fresh and raw), it starts to lose nutrients. The more processed, the less nutrients it has. This doesn't mean that you should eat only raw food (that takes a lot of effort and dedication), but it does mean you should focus on eating raw or simply cooked whole foods. 

The chart below describes the spectrum of foods. It goes from the least processed from the top box most processed (and worst) in the red box. You want most of your food to be from the green boxes.

 
The best food is still in its natural, recognizable form. Raw or steamed spinach is good (raw is better since cooking destroys some nutrients). Creamed spinach - not so good. Though cooking does destroy nutrients, it doesn't mean all cooking is bad. Certain things, like tomatoes, actually increase in lycopene (important nutrient for your eyes) when cooked. So don't obsess over cooking.

Wheat does not grow naturally in bread or pasta form. That is always processed, even if it is whole wheat! My cousin questioned whether homemade bread was processed. The answer is yes. Flour is milled, ground up wheat.

What about frozen or canned vegetables? Not bad - just make sure it doesn't have sweeteners, additives or chemicals, it is a fine way to get your vegetables. Back in the day, it was the only way to get any fruit and vegetables during the winter.

Of course, you can't avoid all processed foods. Just try to consistently eat the majority of your food from the green bars and try to avoid the red. Does it seem overwhelming? It's not! You can do it. Start with 50%, then when you are comfortable there, bring it up to 60%. Keep going - you might hit 90-95%.

What to do - Eat Less Processed Food

1. Understand what processed food is. Read the chart above.
2. Eat more whole foods. Stick to the green and yellow boxes.
3. Always read your food labels so you know how processed that food is. 
4. Cook more of your own food. It's healthier, easy, and cheaper.

Want to learn more?

• Ultra-processed food vs processed food vs minimally processed food vs real food

For more articles on real unprocessed food, go to Food Renegade's Fightback Friday.

What I ate: plain kefir, Barbara's Bakery Shredded Oats + skim milk, 2 squares dark chocolate, walnuts, spinach + mesclun salad + roasted beets + green beans + baked tofu + felafel + Asian noodles + red rice + barley + cucumbers, 1 potato chip, 12 oz. cafe au lait, 12 oz. coffee, 1 madeleine, 3 dried apricots, 1 medium apple, carrots + hummus, whole wheat spaghetti + spinach + Rao's Siciliana sauce + parmesan cheese, 1/4 roasted sweet potato, hot chocolate, white tea, 1 T. Udo's Oil, 1 multivitamin, 60 oz. water

Exercise: 15 min stationary bike, weights

Healthy Bones and Osteoporosis

We are delighted to welcome back Brandi Simpson, who wrote the popular post on her week-long raw food diet experience. This time she is sharing her vast knowledge on osteoporosis. I met Brandi when we were consulting for a pharmaceutical firm. She worked on their osteoporosis drug, and has since worked extensively in the area. I learned a lot of things from this post - I had no idea that my food goes into my bones!

It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about how what we eat today makes us feel and look now. And I know you mindful eaters are concerned about eating your fruits and vegetables to stave off cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions associated with aging. But have you given much thought to your bones lately?

Just like every other system in your body, your bones cells are constantly turning over. Surprisingly, the cells that make up your skeleton today will be no where to be found five or six years from now. This is because about 20% of the cells of your skeleton turn over each year. A little sobering when you consider the four years in college (before you became a mindful eater) when maybe you lived on coffee, beer, and cheese puffs. Those four years contributed to most of the skeleton you had at 23! It’s a wonder you didn’t break a hip!

This isn’t to say that if your diet remains unchanged your bones remodel every 5 or so years to the same state they were in 5 years earlier. In fact, about 80-90% of your adult bone mass was acquired by age 20. After age 20, the real battle becomes trying to maintain the bone mass that you have. This is actually challenging as we tend to lose bone mass as we age and our habits (as well as our genetics) make a big difference.

It probably didn’t strike you until a few years after you started growing. But every time you gave grandma/grandpa/great aunt Edna a hug you noticed that they seemed to be shrinking. They probably were! Long before osteoporosis causes broken hips (which, by the way can even lead to death) it causes vertebral fractures. In fact, many physicians believe that vertebral fracture should be suspected in any woman over 45 experiencing back pain. Over 25% of post menopausal women have at least one vertebral fracture. Over time, osteoporosis causes the vertebra to fracture and compress, resulting in loss of height, loss of spinal mobility, and significant pain.

But can’t they cure osteoporosis these days? No! Some drugs can slow the re-absorption process, but they do so at the cost of long term bone remodeling. In fact, the seller of the world’s most successful osteoporosis drug, Merck, is currently facing several court cases because it is believed that its therapy can cause osteonecrosis (that is, bone death), most commonly in the jaw. There are other therapies that have been shown to improve bone mass and reduce fracture risk - but these drugs also have a lot of risks.  If someone has severe osteoporosis, they really have no choice but to either accept the risk of fracture or the side effects that come with the therapies. But you are far from that decision. Act now to save your skeleton!

What can you do?

• Eat a diet high in calcium and vitamin D.  These nutrients aren’t found exclusively in dairy products.  Dark leafy greens are excellent sources of calcium.  Fatty fish and eggs are good sources of vitamin D. 
• Avoid smoking and excessive alcohol (yup - these affect your bone mass along with everything else).
• Do weight bearing exercise!  Running and jumping are actually great for your bones!  Do it before your knees can’t take it!  Weight lifting positively affects your bone mass too.  So if lifting your suitcase to get it into the overhead bin isn’t enough - now you can do it for your bones!
• Know your risks:  non-Hispanic Caucasian and Asian women have higher risks as do smokers (stop that!), those with small frames, and individuals who have taken corticosteroids for long periods of time (like those with asthma.) 

What I ate: Kashi Go Lean cereal, Fage 2% Greek yogurt, nectarine; salad with mixed greens, hard-boiled egg,  beets, olives, red peppers, and balsamic dressing; 1.5 oz of pretzels (I know, I know); 2 clementines; homemade chicken noodle soup with organic chicken and homemade noodles; 1 fruit juice sweetened Cascade farms yogurt.

Exercise: 40 minutes on elliptical, 10 minutes hard running at 5% incline

Marathon Daze - Obsessing Mindfully

Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory. ~George S. Patton

One of the main tenets behind MindfulEats is moderation. Moderation in what you eat and drink, and moderation in your habits. 

However, I am spending six weeks obsessed with the marathon. I'm training for NYC, and the countdown has started. So now I'm either running or worrying about not running. When I'm not stressing about training, I worry about staying healthy, how painful the race will be, and if I'll have a meltdown during the race, in addition to a whole slew of other running-related issues. 

I have no doubt that I'm not going to win (or even be in the top 10,000), but I'd like to do well for me. Last year I got hit with a huge wave of nausea at mile 16 which never let up, and it killed my performance. So now I have to run it again this year.  

The marathon obsession is taking a big toll in other areas of my life. When I trained for it last year, I became very resentful of the time it took. I often had to skip out on fun evenings so I could get up early to go for a run. (Right now it's Saturday evening, and I'm staying in so I can get up to run 20 miles at 7.) It seemed unfair and I whined a lot about it, but then a wise friend asked me if I wanted to go through life without ever sacrificing to accomplish anything. I paraphrase poorly, but you get the gist.

Mindful obsessions and passions are what life is about, as long as they are healthy.

What to do - Be Mindful About Your Obsessions

1. Is your obsession hurting you or anyone else?
2. Does your obsession prevent you from enjoying other priorities? (Can you still balance other people and fun things?)
3. Are you shirking your responsibilities for your obsession? (e.g. work, kids, exercise, cleaning, your health, etc.)
4. Is your obsession the only thing you talk about?
5. Is there a finite time box for your obsession - when will it be over? If not, figure out how to work it into the rest of your life without having it take over.

If you answer yes to any of the first 4 questions, your obsession is unhealthy. Figure out what you need to do to make it work. Talk to a trusted confidante or a professional.

As for me, I can't wait until November 1. There's a huge list of things I've been waiting to do:

1. Have a party  
2. Go on vacation
3. Clean my apartment
4. Get a hair cut
5. Go to the dry cleaner
6. Revamp MindfulEats
7. Write overdue letters
8. Catch up on the Economist
9. Find another obsession

What are you obsessed with? Another obsession I have is the book I'm reading: The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. I can't stop reading it and don't want it to end. It's inspiring, thought-provoking and fun.

What I ate: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 latte, 1 banana, goat cheese, 10 macadamia nuts, pear cider, dried mango slices, seaweed rice ball, miso soup + tofu + seaweed, 1 clementine, rotisserie chicken, whole wheat spaghetti + Rao's Siciliana + parmesan cheese + spinach, GT's Kombucha, hot chocolate, water

Exercise: jogged 4 miles, 30 minutes lifting, 70 min. yoga