WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Wasting Food

 

"There is no substitute for the best.  Good food cannot be made of inferior ingredients masked with high flavor. It is true thrift to use the best ingredients possible and to waste nothing."

                                                                      --James Beard, American chef 

Between 30 and 40 percent of the food supply in the United States is wasted.  Why are we wasting so much?

“Food loss occurs for many reasons, with some types of loss—such as spoilage—occurring at every stage of the production and supply chain. Between the farm gate and retail stages, food loss can arise from problems during drying, milling, transporting, or processing that expose food to damage by insects, rodents, birds, molds, and bacteria. At the retail level, equipment malfunction (such as faulty cold storage), over-ordering, and culling of blemished produce can result in food loss. Consumers also contribute to food loss when they buy or cook more than they need and choose to throw out the extras.” (Source:  usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs)

I have composted for most of my adult life.  When I prepare food at home, things like pineapple skins, banana peels, and fibrous stems of kale and collards go into a recycled plastic coffee can in preparation for my daily walk to the compost pile in the corner of the yard.  There are two basic rules for composting: (1) only fruit and vegetable scraps go into the compost pile and (2) NOTHING from an animal (such as cheese or meat) and NO OILS go into the compost pile.

Composting fruit and vegetable scraps to make biological rich soil has changed how I buy and prepare food.  When shopping, I now buy in smaller quantities.  When cooking, I prepare what is needed for an evening meal and maybe enough for a healthy time-saving lunch the next day. When using mushrooms, celery, onions, and carrots, I freeze the peelings and mushroom stems to make vegetable stock for soups.  When making muffins and cakes, I always use a spatula to get every spoon of batter into the baking pan. 

In our Growing Healthy Kids workshops, teaching kids about not wasting food always includes a lesson on the power of the spatula.  Kids are ALWAYS amazed at how much batter there is on the inside of a mixing bowl that would otherwise have been washed down the drain.  

There are opportunities to teach our children life lessons about preventing food waste with every food shopping trip and every meal prepared in the family kitchen.  Preventing food waste is a way to respect the work of American farmers.  

With love and kindness,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder and Wellness Architect

 

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Spring Salads

"So, if I'm cooking, I'll be steaming vegetables, making some nice salad, that kind of stuff."

                                                                                             --Paul McCartney

The lessons for kids, when you teach them how to make a simple spring salad, are endless.  Possible ingredients to use.  How to select a fruit to add the perfect burst of natural sugar with each bite.  The joy of a simple vinaigrette dressing. Best meal for having a salad. Which of your favorite bowls to use?  How to display the salad?  Will it be a chopped salad, a salad nicoise-type salad, a salad bowl, or a salad bar?   Which pair of salad tongs will you use? So many choices!

Recently I bought a head of organic green leaf lettuce for a dinner salad.  Once home and in the kitchen, I thinly sliced English cucumbers, avocado slices, and cut organic seedless red grapes in half.  I topped the salad with a freshly whisked EVOO, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper vinaigrette. Simple and easy.

So, how did my salad taste, you ask?  It was awesome!!! The first bite of salad, and every consecutive bite, was like biting into Spring, all fresh and crunchy.  There is nothing like it. A spring salad with just 3 or 4 ingredients in perfect proportions.  Gently toss ingredients and place into a beautiful bowl with your favorite salad tongs. Serve with some fresh Italian or French bread and you have a beautiful meal.  

Won’t you join me in celebrating this wonderful season and all the delicious fruits and vegetables being grown by our local farmers?  The joys of spring salads await you!

With love and kindness,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder and Wellness Architect

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Exploring Farmers Markets

"We have food deserts in our cities. We know the distance you live from a supplier of fresh produce is one of the predictors of your health.  And in the inner city, people don't have grocery stores.  So we have to figure out a way of getting supermarkets and farmers markets into the inner cities."

                                                                                              ---Michael Pollan

Spring is around the corner.  It has been a long, cold winter here in Indiana and I am ready to spend my days outside working in the flower gardens instead of working inside with the heat turned on, dressed in layers of fleece vests and jackets.  When spring is here, the farmers markets are near. Pictured above are kids and volunteers with our Growing Healthy Kids workshops where we take kids to the Vero Beach Farmers Market.  From my experience working with kids who live in food deserts, our Growing Healthy Kids' trips represent the first time these kids ever visited their local farmers market.  

Taking children to the local farmers market is a game changer for kids. If you were not raised on a farm to see how food is grown, the farmers market is the next best thing.  Meeting the farmers who grow the food is a great way to learn about how important it is to eat real food.  Learning how much work it takes to grow food makes one think about what we are eating and drinking.  Are we eating nutrient dense food so every bite contributes to our health? Are we treating our food with respect?  Do we respect the people who grow our food? 

Since Growing Healthy Kids began in 2009, we have taken lots of kids to local farmers markets.  The kids meet farmers, talk with them, buy organically grown vegetables for our cooking workshops, and taste what they have bought and prepared.  These are life lessons that kids don’t forget.  This spring, find out where your local farmers market is and take your kids shopping there.  Support your local farmers.  Teach your kids what real food is.  Be kind. 

With love and kindness,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder and Wellness Architect