Wow, what a great meeting! (Do I say that after everyone? This one was REALLY good, I promise!)
First–important announcements:
- December 2nd will be our Operation Chill + Fundraiser. We will have 10-12 vendors here selling products for you, your kids and your family. Come to shop, eat, and wrap gifts. If you have gifts you want to wrap away from home or in different paper, feel free to bring those as well. Invite anyone you want to join us, they do not have to be mothers of preschoolers. We’d love to have a good turn out for the vendors who are going to be there. Watch out for an e-vite telling you more specifics (such as what vendors will be there). If you’re interested in setting up a booth to see things you make or sell, contact Kristy. This is a fundraiser for our group, as an effort to keep our costs down! The Steering team and Liz’s table will be bringing snacks.
- December 11th–Girls Night Out at Arni’s @7. Again, watch for an e-vite!
- December 16th this meeting will be a craft + our gift exchange (Bring a wrapped $10 gift–something nice that a fellow MOPS mom will like. We’ll be doing a gift exchange that will have you laughing like crazy!) Sarah & Kristi’s table will be brining snacks.
Our speaker was Emily Vannest. She is passionate about the health of the next generation and had a number of ideas and tips on healthier eating for our families. Several people wanted to know the resources she mentioned so here are those first:
Cookbooks:
- Jeanne Lemlin (Main Course Vegetarian Pleasures, Vegetarian Classics, Quick Vegetarian Pleasures)
- Moosewood Collection Cookbooks
Places to get local organic foods:
Here are some basic notes for those of you who weren’t there (I’m sorry it’s so long, but I wanted to pass on her resources if you weren’t there):
What Do I Eat? Michael Pollan, in his book In Defense of Food” summed it up saying “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Eat Food:
- Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
- Avoid foods containing ingredients that are a) unpronounceable, b) unfamiliar, c) more than five in a number, or d) contain high fructose corn syrup.
- Avoid foods that make health claims
- Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and avoid the middle.
- Get out of the supermarket whenever possible–get to know the people who provide your food so you can know what you’re getting.
Mostly Plants
(Note–a culture that eats a pound of veggies/fruits a day has 50% less cancer rates then ours):
- Especially leaves
- You are what you eat eats, too (Note what the animals you eat are getting fed–animals are not meant to eat corn but most are fed that, better to have grass fed animals)
- Eat a wide variety of foods (species, types, colors)–almost everything in the store is corn, soy and wheat.
- Eat well-grown food from healthy soils.
- Don’t look for the magic bullet.
<At this point we got off track of the handout and she did more answer of questions, but I wanted to include this last part because she did mention it some and you can understand the meaning from the notes>
Not too much:
- Pay more. Eat less. (Buy higher quality and enjoy & savor it)
- Eat meals
- Do all your eating at a table(For 18-50 year olds, 20% of all eating takes place in the car)
- Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.
- Try not to eat alone.
- Consult your gut. Eat deliberately (from freedom and not from compulsion).
“Eating with the fullest pleasure–pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance–is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.” Wendell Berry
7. Cook and plant a garden if you can.
Why Organics?
- Taste
- Health
- As a matter of stewardship–the resources of the earth, the local farmers, and caring for our bodies.
“Organic food is not expensive, conventional food is falsely cheap.”
First place you want to make a chage:
Vegetables/Fruits:
Dirty Dozen (If you eat only these from organic sources, you will eliminate 90% of the pestsides from your diet)
- Apples
- Cherries
- Grapes (Imported, especially from Chile)
- Nectarines
- Peaches
- Pears
- Raspberries
- Strawberries (Most concentrated amounts of chemicals on them)
- Peppers
- Celery
- Potatoes
- Spinach
(Washing/peeling will not get the chemicals off, nor do the veggie washes work)
OK Non-Organics (if you wash these you’ll remove most of the chemicals):
- Bananas
- Kiwis
- Mango
- Papaya
- Pineapple
- Asparagus
- Avocado
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Corn
- Onions
- Peas
Finally she encouraged us to start slow. Don’t get overwhelmed and don’t freak out your family by trying to throw everything out and starting with a brand new diet. Some suggestions she made:
- Stop drinking soda/pop/coke (sugar amounts, acid, sucks calcium out of your bones–and this is coming from a Diet Coke lover guys…hurts me to type this but deep inside I know it’s true.)
- Drink organic milk or water–cut out juice. Drink whole milk instead of skim (they do funky things to milk to make it skim).
- Eat whole wheat pasta instead of white (experiment with brands, some taste better then others).
- Brown Basmati rice is best, you can get it at Whole Foods (White rice has no redeeming value).
- Use olive oil
- Use garlic and onions when you can, they have immune boosting properties.
Did anyone else catch tips they want to share in the comments? Or would you want to share things that work in your family?
