The new USDA food guidelines no longer consist of a pyramid–now it is a simple, clean plate with fairly equal portions of grains, vegetables, fruits, protein, and smaller portion of dairy. However, this article points out that while the USDA is telling Americans to eat this way, less than 1% of U.S. agricultural subsidies go to [...]
Archive for the ‘Food and Nutrition’ Category
30 May
Update on bill about photographing farms
I recently posted about a bill in three states (Florida, Minnesota, and Iowa) that would make it illegal to photograph farms. SlowFoodUSA.com collected almost 33,000 signatures on their petition against these bills and for transparency on farms. The bill has failed in Florida and hopefully will do the same in the other two states. Even [...]
5 May
Taking photos of a farm illegal?
Consider signing a Slow Food USA petition against legislation in three states that would make it illegal to photograph farms. Consumers have a right to see how their food is produced and to know how farms treat their animals.
14 Apr
What’s really in our food? Pesticides, MSG, and Food Dye
I believe it is very important to feed your children organic food free of artificial ingredients. I recently recommended the book Superbaby, which has a chapter on how to feed your child. The section on pesticides and food additives is particularly compelling. I thought I’d share some of the information from that chapter here: By [...]
16 Jan
Baby food
We are currently working on shaping my 7 month old’s tastes. Well now, this actually has been going on since he was conceived, as research seems to suggest that fetuses can taste what Mom eats in the amniotic fluid (which caused my husband to request I consume spicy food while pregnant to create a child [...]
7 Nov
Our taxes going to support conventional agriculture campaign
Looks like the federal government is giving California conventional agriculture money to launch a campaign against the EWG’s campaign to bring awareness to consumers about pesticides on their produce (surely by now you’ve heard of the “dirty dozen“). Here is some information I just received via email from the EWG: Our Shopper’s Guides to Pesticides [...]
23 Sep
Home cooking tips
We have always made time for home-cooked meals, but lately with 3 boys, I find it nearly impossible to cook in the evenings of weeknights. Rather than resort to frozen pizzas all the time, we’ve tried some of these tricks to make it work: We double every meal we make and eat the leftovers the [...]
2 Sep
Happy hens make healthy, safe eggs
On August 13, 228 million salmonella-tainted eggs were recalled. That recall has been expanded to now include more than half a billion eggs produced by two Iowa companies. This is the biggest recall in U.S. history and it certainly makes me glad that I get my eggs from a farm 2 hours from my house. [...]
20 Jul
Real Food for Mother and Baby
I just read a book by the author of Real Food, Nina Plank, but this more concise version is specifically about nutrition as it relates to pregnancy, babies, and nursing. It’s not really any new information from her previous book, but I did enjoy reading about her advice to mothers, her humorous experiences as a mother, and [...]
1 Jul
Eating seasonally
This is a great time of year to try to eat seasonally and locally. Below is what we had for dinner tonight, inspired by the produce delivered to us by our CSA. We had spinach feta pie made with spinach and eggs from the CSA, and for dessert, another pie–strawberry rhubarb crumb pie, made with [...]
