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No Magic Bullets

As I write this, I’m sipping red wine, nibbling on some dark chocolate and popping Hoodia. I expect to live forever, thin and cancer-free. I’m kidding, of course but it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that each new day seems to bring news of another miracle food, guaranteed to grow hair, shrink bellies and prolong life. Acai is the latest wonder food to be foisted upon us and, as is often the case when it comes to “too good to be true,” the news is exactly that:

There’s some dispute as to whether acai juice has more antioxidants than the juice of other fruits; the Washington-based food industry watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest notes that acai is only a middling source of antioxidants, providing more than, say, apple juice, but less than pomegranate or Concord grape juice.

You can read the whole story, here. And to the larger issue, are there short cuts when it comes to nutrition? Well, yes and no, there is probably no single food item that will absolve you of your nutritional transgressions but there are some neat rules of thumb you can follow:

Eat the rainbow – eating fruits and vegetables of every available hue is a good way to ensure that you are receiving the most possible vitamins and nutrients.

Get the white out – which is to say, eat more whole grains and less refined flours. So, swap whole grain pasta for white pasta, whole grain bread for white bread and brown rice for white rice.

Moderation is the key – controlling portion size can be tough and we were all taught to clean our plate. Add in our tendency to eat on the go and you have the makings of an overeating nightmare. Step one is to slooooow down, give your brain time to get the message from your stomach that you are full; it’s just oo easy to eat way past the point of being stuffed.

These are just a few helpful tips and we’ll look to post more over time. Until then, beware of anything that markets itself as a “superfood.” Can it fly? Does it have x-ray vision? No? Then it’s not a super food.

Posted by: Dan

Resolarizing the Food System

Today is Earth Day (isn’t every day Earth Day?) and we were pleased to stumble across an article written by one of our favorite authors, Michael Pollan. Along wth Alice Waters, Mr. Pollan reminds us that some of the most progressive thinking on food and food systems comes from right here in the Bay Area. As usual, Mr. Pollan gets to the heart of the matter with plain, unadorned language that always serves to remind us that good food can and should be a simple proposition:

Resolarizing the food economy can support diversified farming and shorten the distance from farm to fork, shrinking the amount of fossil fuel in the American diet. A decentralized food system offers many other significant benefits: Food eaten closer to where it is grown is fresher and requires less processing, making it more nutritious, and whatever may be lost in efficiency by localizing food production is gained in resilience; regional food systems can better withstand all kinds of shocks.

If you have a moment, read the whole article and if you like what you read, buy his books, you won’t be disappointed.

Toward a Sustainable Food System

The Nimans’ are at it again. Today’s post provides the broad-brush outlines of a sustainable (non-industrialized) food system. The article is appealing for its optimism. You can read it, here.

Your Water Footprint?

Okay, okay … we’re mindful of lapsing into finger-wagging when it comes to how to eat (or how not to eat) so make what you will of this:

Good Magazine  has a wonderful graphic that compares the water you use and the water that helped make the thing you used. For instance, it takes 1500 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef, whereas 287 gallons of water is needed to produce a pound of chicken.

Bring It, Portland

A few days ago we reported that San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, proclaimed that the San Francisco Bay Area was on the road to becoming the electric car capital of the world.  Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, didn’t take kindly to this and threw down the gauntlet:

“Working with the Governor’s office, Portland General Electric, and others, we will be announcing the most aggressive in-garage and on-street wired up charging station strategy that I think any city in the United States has sought to achieve. And that even means you Gavin Newsom, who’s trying hard to make the Bay Area the EV capital of the world. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. That’s gonna be Portland.”

Mayor Newsom’s Communication Director, Nathan Ballard, responded, “We welcome the healthy competition. The more the merrier.”
You can read more about this smackdown, here. 

Meat is Seasonal?

 A provocative notion, to say the least:

If we are seeking something better from our food and our food system, however, we must begin regarding meat and other foods derived from animals as among foods that have a season. That’s because the most environmentally sustainable, humane animal farming is based on grass. Like other vegetation, grass has a season of plenty, a time of growth, reproduction, and then retreat. The best animal farming is based on, and in harmony with, those cycles.

You can read the whole post, here. The comments are worth a look-see, as well.

Electrified!

Count us among the advocates for a tailpipe-free vehicle. And we are fortunate to call San Francisco home as SF is one of the greenest cities this side of, um, Berkeley. Now, 3 Bay Area Cities are committing to make the kind of public investment in infrastructure we’ll need if we are going to see an emissions-free commute.

San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose took the first step in becoming the electric vehicle capitol of the world.  The cities unveiled a nine-step program that includes everything from buying fully electric vehicles to creating a massive infrastructure of charging outlets throughout the Bay Area. All of this comes at a cost, of course. It is estimated that the program will cost 1 billion dollars.

You can get all of the details, here.

U.S. Launches HIV Prevention Campaign

While support for Africa seemed to dominate the conversation around HIV for the last decade, we still have a troublingly high rate of infection to confront, here at home. The Obama Administration has announced a new effort to to slow the spread of HIV within the the United States:

The move comes several months after the CDC revised statistics showing the annual rate of HIV infection in the U.S. to be far higher than previously thought. Roughly 56,000 people become infected with HIV every year domestically, according to the new CDC statistics, compared with a previous annual estimate of 40,000 new cases a year. About 14,000 people die of AIDS annually in the U.S.

You can read the whole article, here.

Toward a Fossil Fuel-Free World

San Francisco is in the initial stages of building its first biodiesel plant at Pier 92 in the Bayview. Environmentalists and the city’s Planning Board are working together, studying the environmental impact to the surrounding community. Even though ground breaking appears to be a ways off, it’s a step in the right direction. 

The city of San Francisco uses a blend of biodiesel in all of its 1500 diesel vehicles, but the fuel is delivered by rail and truck from as far away as the Midwest. The city would like to get all its fuel from local sources. You can read more about this story, here.

HIV/AIDS Considered “Severe Epidemic” in DC

A few weeks back the Washington Post reported that 3% of Washington DC residents have HIV or AIDS. At first glance this would appear normal; however, according to health officials, 1% constitutes a “generalized and severe” epidemic.  In comparison, 1992 San Francisco reported that 4% of the population was HIV positive. You can read the whole story, here.