One never knows what one’s media feed will present to one on any given day.
Last Monday morning, the following ad appeared:
Ad for Fatty 15 (TM), a bottle of pills claiming to improve your health in myriad and miraculous ways.
My first thoughts were:
Fatty15?
FATTY15?
Really?!
THAT’S the name the marketing team came up with in order to SELL this to me?
I am so very confused. Thanks Uday Mittai from Unsplash, for the perfect rendition of it.
Okay, what in the wild and unregulated supplement world is this FATTY15 thing? Here’s the TLDR version.
There are a lot of fatty acids.
They are found in lots of foods we eat.
Omega-3 fatty acids are a good fatty acid. They’re found in e.g. salmon, walnuts and edamame.
Trans-fats are a bad fatty acid. They’re found in e.g. many ultra-processed and fried foods, and many baked goods.
C15:0 is a recently found fatty acid. We don’t know much about it.
A new company called FATTY15 (again, wtaf) wants to sell it to you, promising you whole health in a bottle.
BUT BUT… HOW DID THE DOLPHINS GET INVOLVED?
Patience– I’m getting to this now.
It turns out that some dolphins work for the US Navy. They detect underwater mines and enemy swimmers (don’t ask me how). Part of their employee health plan includes research on and treatment of diseases related to dolphin-aging (they get some of the same diseases we do).
This person below– Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson, the translational medicine and research program director for the Navy’s National Marine Mammal Foundation– led a crack team of dolphin health experts to manage their care.
Honestly, if my job were to make sure that dolphins lived their best lives ever while in the employ of the United States government, I’d look that happy, too.
The team analyzed the dolphins’ blood samples taken throughout their lives to identify molecules present in the healthiest dolphins. One of the top nutrients was the molecule C15:0, a saturated fatty acid (pentadecanoic acid). In the human diet, C15:0 is present in dairy fat—whole milk, butter, and cheeses.
Obviously, dolphins don’t have that option after infancy, unlike humans. But don’t worry– your research dollars found a solution:
…when they fed [older] dolphins with chronic diseases diets higher in C15:0 (fatty fish), they became healthier. Further research supported their findings that C15:0 lowers risk and can actually reverse many chronic diseases [in older dolphins, maybe], making it an essential fatty acid, a nutrient that the body does not produce but is essential to health.
Venn-Watson co-wrote this paper to argue for proof of concept for C15:0, but with no human studies. Then she started a company to try to sell C15:0 to humans, since dolphins a) don’t carry credit cards; and b) C15:0 supplements are covered by their navy employee health plan. She also wrote a book to help shill this stuff. And gave a TEDx talk to shill some more. But we have any actual evidence that it works?
Healthier skin/hair? NO Balanced metabolism? Uh-uh. Deeper Sleep? No chance. 3X more cellular benefits than omega-3? What does this even mean?
And is it FDA-approved? Hell to the no. Just like all those other untested supplements. Please, oh, please just save your money.
BUT BUT THE FATTY15 WEBSITE!
It says all kinds of things that maybe are true. What about their claims?
To sum up:
The dolphins are going to be okay.
We are going to be okay.
Eating food and moving our bodies are good things to do, be we human or dolphin.
The one supplement that I personally can recommend is to supplement your viewing by adding Heated Rivalry to your watchlist. You’ll be glad you did.
FIFI readers may recall I’ve written before about ebike tourism – in PEI, Canada and in New Zealand. This time, I had a new ebike experience: my first ever ebike food tour.
My partner and I went during our recent holiday at my sister’s condo in Bucerias, where we also visited family who winter in nearby Puerto Vallarta. Our morning tour group of eleven buzzed slowly through town on pedal-assist bikes, stopping at locally owned spots for cafe de olla, birria, carnitas tacos, and crema dessert. Vegetarian accommodations were made for me without fuss. Our bilingual guide, Pepe, kept stories flowing, including tales of his own cycling tours throughout Mexico. When the annual chalk drawing festival took over the main strip, he adjusted our route without missing a beat.
We wait patiently behind our 11 bikes for enough seats to open up at this local taco cafe.
Bici Bucerias is owned by Canadian expats rather than Mexican nationals. At the same time, tours like the one we took still funnel money and visibility toward the Mexican‑owned cafés, taco stands, and dessert places that make the experience worthwhile. Some of the places we visited were quite small, or out of walking distance from where tourists stay, which meant we likely would never have chosen them otherwise.
One of my delicious meals: soup, tortilla, cheese, beans, and bread.
It was also my first time on a bike on cobblestone, and slow-rolling over the uneven ground with pedal assist felt surprisingly unsettling. I ended up turning off the assist on those stretches, feeling I had more control that way. I also spotted a few road cyclists out along the busy highway and marvelled at their nerve. It’s a good reminder of how much I take for granted the space and infrastructure that cyclists get in many parts of Canada.
Pepe reviews ebike technology and safety before the ride.
This week, I’m thinking about those who ride and own businesses that are shut down due to shelter-in-place ordinances following cartel-related property damage throughout Jalisco, Mexico. I hope Bici Bucieras can resume their tours soon to continue supporting authentic food culture and locally owned businesses in the area. As my sister who lived full time in Puerto Vallarta for 10 years says, Mexicans are resilient and good at recovering from challenges.
What was the verdict? Ultra-processed food diets were associated with weight gain (compared with minimally processed food diets) as well as increased mortality risk.
[Ultra-processed foods are] ready-to-eat industrially formulated products that are “made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives, with little if any [minimally processed plant or animal] foods.
It’s now time for an update.
In a recent scientific advisory, the American Heart Association clarified the messaging around ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption. On the one hand, they advise us to:
Reduce the intake of most UPFs, especially junk foods, and
Replace most UPFs with healthier options such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, and lean proteins.
However, they also said this:
… not all UPFs are harmful. Certain whole grain breads, low-sugar yogurts, tomato sauces, and nut or bean-based spreads are of better diet quality, have been associated with improved health outcomes, and are affordable, allowing possible inclusion in diets. These food products should be monitored and reformulated if future data show harm to overall health.
The focus should be on cutting back the most harmful UPFs that are already high in unhealthy fats, added sugars, and salt while allowing a small number of select, affordable UPFs of better diet quality to be consumed as part of a healthy dietary pattern.
So what’s the more nuanced message here, and why does it seem like nutrition scientists are pulling their punches on processed foods? These are complicated questions. But, here’s my attempt as a first pass.
We know that a lot of people consume ultra-processed foods for a majority of their daily diets.
Recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that from 2021 to 2023, people in the US aged 1 year or older consumed an average of 55% of their calories from ultraprocessed foods. For youth aged 1 to 18 years, ultraprocessed foods made up about 62% of their diets.
Just telling people they’re eating a lot of junky food and to stop it forthwith isn’t an effective public health policy. Instead, we can focus on a few more specific strategies.
“When we’re shifting the 55% to 60% of calories from ultraprocessed foods,” [nutrition professor Maya Vadiveloo] said, “we really need to be reducing sugar-sweetened beverages, processed meat, candies, baked goods.”
Still, she noted the considerable challenges ahead. It’s difficult for people to make wholesale changes to eating behaviors, especially when there are barriers to accessing and affording more healthful foods. Plus, preparing whole foods often takes longer—time that many households may not have.
“We want people to make healthier choices most of the time, and we need to set up the food environment in a way that allows that, which involves changing so many different things, including the marketing of different foods; the cost of raw ingredients used to make different foods; the availability of adequate fruits and vegetables and whole grains and things that people need to consume more of; and the skills that they need to have to prepare them,” she said.
What does this mean?
Focusing on particular ultra-processed foods–paying more attention to them as individual consumers, community members, voters, and policymakers– can pay off in terms of incremental and sustainable changes in diet patterns, and hopefully public health in the long term.
Also, we need to work towards building a food environment with better access to good-for-us and yummy-tasting fruits, vegetables, whole grains and proteins, which includes pricing and easy consumability (I made up that word, but I mean not having to cook for five hours to make it edible).
How do nutrition experts and medical organizations propose to do this?
They don’t know exactly. But they think it’s important, and need our help. So I though I’d put this in bold letters too.
Personally, I love pictures to help illustrate complicated and often technical messaging. So in summary, even though we often eat like this::
A trio of ultra-processed foods: burgers, chips/crisps, and those candy sprinkles that taste weird
We should apply principles of nuance to our eating, which will help, like this:
This is what Unsplash came up with when I entered “nuance”. Good luck to all of us.
Sometimes a thousand words are better than pictures, eh?
Now that I’m back at the pool regularly, I’m feeling like my body isn’t fitting well into my swimsuit. Normally this doesn’t bother me, but I have a new swimsuit, and new suits are always very tight.
Coincidentally, I have been following a nutritionist who writes about the nutritional contents of many different foods and encourages people to eat at least 5 servings of vegetables and 2 of fruits each day. She doesn’t worry about exact measurements for servings – eyeballing, filling half your plate with vegetables, measuring by using your hand or fist are all valid. Eating a variety of things will probably be just fine for overall nutrition. No foods are off-limits. I find her nonjudgmental approach refreshing.
An example of a plate half filled with veggies. This one is from The Institute for Family Health.
So, as part of my fall routine, I’m trying to be more mindful of what I eat. I am writing very basic notes in a paper journal. I don’t track amounts or types of food. If I had an egg salad sandwich with lettuce and tomato, and ate a peach afterwards, that’s literally all I write down.
I have considered adding a note at the end of the day about whether I felt satisfied, or whether I needed to adjust my meals going forward, but so far I haven’t bothered. I’m just focusing on noticing when I feel satiated and when I feel hungry, and whether I am drinking enough water.
It’s not quite as simple as the principles of intuitive eating that Tracy wrote about many years ago, but it is definitely inspired by that approach.
After 6 days, I have noticed that I don’t normally eat much fruit; having a piece of fruit with two meals a day feels like a lot.
I have also noticed that I don’t always eat as many vegetables as I thought I did. I eat a lot of vegetables most days, so that’s an area for further exploration. Are the servings I estimate too big? Am I underestimating the vegetables I hide in sandwiches, omelettes etc?
Have I noticed any other things? Honestly, no. And I may never notice any. My aim is to see if focusing on the positive aspects of food will help me to make some tweaks to my already fairly healthy eating habits.
If, over the next six months, my bathing suit starts to fit a little more comfortably, that would be nice. But that might have nothing to do with how I eat. It could happen because I’m getting more exercise, or getting more consistent about engaging my core, or because my bathing suit stretches out with wear, as they always do.
An old picture of me playing in the water while wearing a comfortable old swimsuit. Clearly, I am not concerned about how I look as long as I’m having fun.
Welcome, dear readers, to high summer! It’s July 13, and all the produce is out-producing itself, offering us loads of opportunities for new and perennial favorite taste experiences.
Yes, I know this is not a cooking or gardening or farmers’ market blog. But here’s the deal: I am saddled with a flare-up of sciatica (likely brought on by too much air travel and car travel, but wha’cha gonna do…). This means it’ll be a couple of weeks before I’m okay to resume summer outdoor activity. For now, I’m enrolled in physical therapy, which is good for me if not good for the season. Sigh.
But, in keeping with the brightness and warmth and availability of copious amounts of beautiful fruits, I’m, literally making lemonade out of lemons. And other cold yummy summer beverages. Here following, several recipes and beverage projects I’m engaging in these days.
First, I always make sure to have plenty of freshly-brewed iced tea on hand. This means heating water in a kettle until boiling and pouring it into a container (I use a marge metal bowl), and then dipping tea bags into it to infuse them. I leave them for 5–7 minutes, then remove them. Once the tea has cooled, I transfer it into a pitcher for the fridge. It never lasts more than a day or two, so it always tastes very fresh and looks clear.
I use Earl Grey tea, but you can use anything you like, caffeinated or non, black, green, herbal, whatever.
Just. don’t. use. instant. Ever.
Potential variations: you can add sugar to the bowl before the boiling water, or honey (as I prefer). Amounts vary according to taste. You might also add a handful of fresh mint leaves if you like, taking them out with a strainer within 15–20 minutes. You can also leave the tea unsweetened, and make simple syrup for people to add to their glasses to taste.
Earl grey iced tea in vintage glasses with cute paper straws. I don’t use straws and any glass will do for me.
Basic simple syrup recipe: combine one cup sugar (any kind) with one cup water in a small saucepan. Heat up the pan and stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Take it off the heat before it boils. Then let it sit and cool. Put it in a container with a lid in the fridge. It will last several weeks.
Variations on simple syrup recipe: you can add so many things to simple syrup, like mint leaves, lemons, lime, basil, other herbs, you name it. Make sure to strain them out before storing in the fridge. Feel free to go wild. Here’s a link to some interesting syrups you can try. One I love is this tea-infused one, which I add to beverages other than tea…
Second, it’s great to have fresh-squeezed lemonade around as well, as it can form the base of fun fruity concoctions. There are loads of recipes online, but here’s what I do:
make simple syrup with 1-1 water and sugar
squeeze maybe 6–8 lemons, enough to have at least one cup of fresh lemon juice
mix together one cup of lemon juice, one cup of cold water, and 1/2 cup simple syrup.
Then add water to the mixture until you like the taste
serve in glasses with plenty of ice, mint leaf or raspberry or lemon wheel or something else festive
tip: maybe leave the mixture a little strong, as serving with ice waters it down a bit
Variations on lemonade: you can use mint simple syrup to make minty lemonade, or add pureed strawberries to make strawberry lemonade.
Fresh lemonade in vintage glassFresh limeade in old-fashioned glass.strawberry lemonade in lowball glass.
Or, you can use my list, substituting limes for lemons, for fresh limeade. It’s more work, as it takes more limes, but it tastes dee-licious.
Another pro tip: get ahold of a very good lemon/lime juicer for the job. Flimsy ones will just irritate you and make you give up and blame me. Here are ones I recommend:
This is what I use– buy a sturdy one!Wirecutter likes this one. Meh, but YMMV.For those looking to get an extra workout while juicing.
I don’t have a view on electric juicers. Readers, anyone have expert knowledge on this?
Third, you can combine the beauty of fresh ice tea with the tart sweetness of lemonade to make a drink called The Arnold Palmer. Yes, it’s named after this guy. He was a very great golfer. And, in the 1960s, according to this wikipedia article, he ordered a drink at lunch in Palm Springs made with 3/4 unsweetened ice tea and 1/4 lemonade. As the story goes, a woman copied his ordering the drink one day at lunch saying, “I’ll have that Arnold Palmer drink, too.” And so a drink was born.
These days, the drink is very commonly served in the summer at resorts and warm-weather locales. A variation of it with half iced tea and half lemonade is more popular, but you can be your own judge.
The Arnold Palmer, half and half version, with striped paper straw and lemon slice optional.
Fourth, and general variation on any of these beverages: you can add some razzmatazz by pouring a float of seltzer (or prosecco, or ginger ale, or whatever alcoholic or non-alcoholic bubbly you like). In fact, a version of this drink has its own name: the Raspberry/Lime Rickey. Just make whatever simple syrup you want, add lemon or lime juice or ade, and then froth it up with whatever bubbly you want. I love them- they say old-fashioned New England summer to me.
Fifth and finally, there’s the wonder of the homemade agua fresca, a Mexican beverage that you can make wherever you are. If you haven’t heard of this or tried it, you’ll soon very very glad you read on. Here’s some information from this article in the Mexico News Daily, and some pictures they shared of the wide variety of aguas frescas available:
Refreshing and flavorful, aguas frescas are a treasured part of Mexico’s gastronomic heritage. Sold widely by vendors, shops and restaurants, the non-alcoholic drinks are instantly recognizable.
People have been flavoring water with fruit and flowers in Mexico since ancient times…Many of the popular aguas frescas found in Mexico today — notably, jamaica and horchata — were made possible by the trade network the Spanish established during the colonial era. However, [many] aguas frescas developed regionally [with] grains and legumes like barley and alfalfa to nuts and seeds like almonds and chia and flowers and spices like hibiscus and cinnamon. Fruits were even more frequently used, of course, thanks to a natural bounty that included introduced plants like grapefruit, mango, melon, orange, papaya, passionfruit, peach and local ones including sapote, soursop, guava, tejocote and xoconostle.
from article: you can find aguas frescas in markets and street stands across Mexico. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
My introduction to agua fresca came at La Tacqueria in the Mission District of San Francisco. You must go there if you are ever in San Francisco. The cantaloupe version is still my favorite. But I’ve made several kinds at home since then.
Unlike say, lemonade or limeade. agua frescas are made by pureeing actual fruits or vegetables (or combinations), then adding simple syrup and either lemon or lime juice. You put the whole mixture through a fine sieve (or cheesecloth, depending on your temperament– I go with the sieve), add water to taste, and there you have it– a pure, refreshing elixir of summer produce, made just for you.
A variety of agua frescas– cantaloupe, waterlmon, honeydew, and mango. But you can use all kinds of produce, as well as mix and match.
You’ll need a blender (or vitamix or food processor of something that will seriously puree your ingredients). Here’s a good recipe and guide to aguas frescas. But all comes down to this:
find some fruit or veg you want to make a beverage with (I’m trying cucumber mint next week)
peel, seed and slice it
puree it in your pureeing contraption with some water (1–2 cups?)
add some lime or lemon juice (a few tablespoons?) and puree again
adjust as needed, adding simple syrup if you want more sweetness or a different flavor
pour into container to chill for an hour in fridge
use in two days (but that really won’t be a problem)
Aguas frescas are their own world, and you can read more about them here to start if you’re interested.
Pro tip: if you have leftover sliced fruit that is maybe not as sweet or soft as you would like, puree it with some water and lime or lemon juice, and voila! instant agua fresca. Throw in whatever you want. The difference between smoothie and agua fresca is one of degree, so you are the boss of your ingredients and consistency.
Last comment: I hear from Samantha and Sarah that the muskmelons will be in season when I visit Ontario in August, so we will make muskmelon aguas frescas! Yum. Will report back.
Dear readers, what summer fruit beverages do you love and/or do you make? I’d love to hear any tips or recipes you might have to share.
This week I was at one of my favorite conferences– the joint conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society. Yes, that’s a mouthful. And it’s also a banquet of information from folks in lots of different disciplines, all united by a concern for how we can engage with our food systems in ways that support the people who grow, harvest, distribute, sell, buy and eat food. Oh, and how we can support our earth at the same time. So, not much– just that… 🙂
I learned so much about many different areas of agriculture, cooking, pedagogy and activism this week, it would take another week just to write it all down. And I will (well, at least some of it).
But for now, I have a treat for all of you.
At one of the sessions, we all got to hear about four new books that
…focus on the connections between food, health, and techno-science… With science and technology playing highly prominent albeit contested roles in defining good food, healthy bodies and the future of planetary health, it is time to push the field in new directions… Collectively, [these books] show that notions of food, nutrition, hunger, and appetite are not apolitical but cultural technologies through which governments, institutions, and the public create knowledge, shape how we shall live, and bring worlds into being. (from the conference program)
And the treat is: All of these books are open-access, which means they’re all free! Well, except for one of them. But it’s great too, and all are worth checking out.
Yeah, I know. Thanks Alexander Krivitsky for Unsplash.
Here are the books, with the download links included and a little blurb from their press pages. Take a look and see if any of them catch your eye. I’m planning on reading all of them this summer, so will report on each in more detail.
In recent decades, many members of the public have come to see processed food as a problem that needs to be solved by eating “real” food and reforming the food system. But for many food industry professionals, the problem is not processed food or the food system itself, but misperceptions and irrational fears caused by the public’s lack of scientific understanding. In her highly original book, Charlotte Biltekoff explores the role that science and scientific authority play in food industry responses to consumer concerns about what we eat and how it is made. As Biltekoff documents, industry efforts to correct public misperceptions through science-based education have consistently misunderstood the public’s concerns, which she argues are an expression of politics. This has entrenched “food scientism” in public discourse and seeded a form of antipolitics, with broad consequences. Real Food, Real Facts offers lessons that extend well beyond food choice and will appeal to readers interested in how everyday people come to accept or reject scientific authority in matters of personal health and well-being.
In this book, Dana Simmons explores the enduring production of hunger in US history. Hunger, in the modern United States, became a technology—a weapon, a scientific method, and a policy instrument. During the nineteenth century, state agents and private citizens colluded in large-scale campaigns of ethnic cleansing using hunger and food deprivation. In the twentieth century, officials enacted policies and rules that made incarcerated people, welfare recipients, and beneficiaries of foreign food aid hungry by design, in order to modify their behavior. With the advent of ultraprocessed foods, food manufacturers designed products to stimulate cravings and consumption at the expense of public health. Taking us inside the labs of researchers devoted to understanding hunger as a biological and social phenomenon, On Hunger examines the continuing struggle to produce, suppress, or control hunger in America.
Mal-Nutrition documents how maternal health interventions in Guatemala are complicit in reproducing poverty. Policy makers speak about how a critical window of biological growth around the time of pregnancy—called the “first 1,000 days of life”—determines health and wealth across the life course. They argue that fetal development is the key to global development. In this thought-provoking and timely book, Emily Yates-Doerr shows that the control of mothering is a paradigmatic technique of American violence that serves to control the reproduction of privilege and power. She illustrates the efforts of Guatemalan scientists, midwives, and mothers to counter the harms of such mal-nutrition. Their powerful stories offer a window into a form of nutrition science and policy that encourages collective nourishment and fosters reproductive cycles in which women, children, and their entire communities can flourish.
This one’s not free, but it’s worth considering, and those of you who are academics might think about ordering a desk copy. Here’s what it’s about.
Why has Silicon Valley become the model for addressing today’s myriad social and ecological crises? With this book, Julie Guthman digs into the impoverished solutions for food and agriculture currently emerging from Silicon Valley, urging us to stop trying to fix our broken food system through finite capitalistic solutions and technological moonshots that do next to nothing to actualize a more just and sustainable system.
The Problem with Solutions combines an analysis of the rise of tech company solution culture with findings from actual research on the sector’s ill-informed attempts to address the problems of food and agriculture. As this seductive approach continues to infiltrate universities and academia, Guthman challenges us to reject apolitical and self-gratifying techno-solutions and develop the capacity and willingness to respond to the root causes of these crises. Solutions, she argues, are a product of our current condition, not an answer to it.
So, a few little somethings to add to your summer reading list. Let me know if any of these appeal to you, if you read it, and what you think.
Close-up of a hand grasping a freshly glazed donut oozing with icing, ready to satisfy a sweet tooth craving
A year ago today, I posted a blog here about the jarring effect of seeing a very thin Brie Larson, playing the lead role in Lessons in Chemistry, preparing food that she never seemed to eat. I was not alone in trying to puzzle through the strange effect that her appearance had in relation to the show’s rich stylization of food. FIFI stats tell me that at least 5489 readers clicked the link to open that post in 2024.
The nerve that the blog touched, perhaps, is the nerve hit, repeatedly, by the horrible lessons served every day to North American women for dinner and dessert. “You should be perfectly thin. If you are perfectly thin, we will adore and praise you.” But also, “You must not be imperfectly thin. If you are imperfectly thin, scaring us with intimations of death and disease, we will shame and shun you.” Putting food near the perfectly thin celebrity reminds us of what she eats, or maybe doesn’t eat, to look the way she does. We see the food, we see the body, and the red flags appear. The imperfectly thin body, we fear, serves as the star’s understudy. It’s like the optical illusion that has us looking at a duck—no, wait, a rabbit! The mind is not quite sure what it’s perceiving. Should we clap or hold the applause?
The trouble with making all of this explicit is that drawing attention to the problem may look like blaming the victim. I see the jutting collarbones and hear the rumours and turn away out of respect for the privacy of the woman whose life is so mercilessly mined for entertainment and exploitation. She may be naturally tiny or she may be suffering. It’s none of my business. Except it is, insofar as her body elicits a visceral response, reminding me of my own vexed relation to the story it tells, or doesn’t tell.
I started thinking about Brie Larson again because I’ve been thinking, lately, about elite women runners and the price they may pay to achieve their goals. Last year, I wished them all happy holiday eating in my post. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult, for me, to ignore the problem of disordered eating and running excellence. In some ways, it’s even harder to have this conversation than it is to talk about Hollywood celebrities. There might be a world in which actors could all gain weight and continue to play characters in movies, but could women marathoners carry any weight and still be competitive? And, if we want to respect both their professionalism and their boundaries, should we not simply agree that they are born lean, mean, running machines and move on? Only, reports concerning college women athletes suggest that it’s probably not just all good nutrition and good genes, all of the time. The idea that a decade after graduation, North American runners have grown out of whatever food-related issues they might have had as young women—well, I wonder. (A brave post by Kelowna runner Christy Lovig addresses this subject head on.)
Recently, I wrote here about a marathon that went sideways. One of the stranger thoughts I had, in the final excruciating hour of that race, was that donuts were to blame for my lack-lustre performance. In the cacophony of nasty voices that I had to listen to, one was louder than the rest: “Too many donuts.” To be clear, this was not a reflection on whether my nutrition plan might have failed me—that more protein and fewer simple carbs might have made for more muscle and less fat. No, this was a moral judgement: “You are a bad person because you eat donuts and now you are being punished for it.”
I feel lucky in not having had to struggle with disordered eating since brushing up against it as a teen. But like most women I know, I carry an internal critic quick to judge and shame my appearance and the appetite that has me relishing donuts whenever I can get my hands on a good one. Most of the time, I ignore her. But when I’m sad or vulnerable, there she is, observing that I want too much, whatever that “too much” might be—wanting to run a marathon or to eat a second piece of pie. I had better prove it’s all worth it–by running a BQ every time I take on the 26.2 distance, for instance–or make myself small.
So, this holiday season, I wish everyone enjoyment of their favourite festive food. But I also wish for honest conversation, at the family table, about the damaging lessons we learned as girls about appetite; about the casual comments made by friends and family that reinforce these lessons, decades later; about the runners, including me, who work to maintain the illusions of control and self-discipline that our culture values so highly, at such great cost.
Alison Conway lives and works in Kelowna, British Columbia, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people.
I had a hard time getting out of bed Monday morning. Winter weather. Less light. Cold room. Early hour. Big work week ahead. Feeling kind of stiff.
And one great reason to stay in bed: Warm blankets.
I put off rising by scrolling through a few photos from the weekend when my friend, Kimi (who recently travelled to Turkey), made us a great Turkish-style brunch with simple but fresh and delicious foods: simit (a sesame crusted bagel), menemen (an egg and tomato dish), clotted cream and honey, tahini and molasses, cheeses, fruits, Nutella, crusty bread, and Turkish tea. Easy to make, eat with your hands, and enjoy many cute little ramekin dishes! After our feast, she gave me some of our leftovers.
Turkish-style breakfast for two. All the cutlery was placed by me; turns out it was not needed because you are supposed to grab things with your hands or with the crusty bread.
In my bed nest, looking at the photos, I thought: I could make breakfast today. But I almost never make breakfast during the week, even when I work from home.
So that is what I decided to do. Instead of heading straight to my desk with a cup of black coffee sloshing in one hand and store-bought granola in another, I made myself leftover Turkish-style breakfast and a half carafe of tea. A decadent breakfast by my weekday standards.
A smaller but still exciting leftover Turkish-style breakfast for one. Notice the lack of unnecessary cutlery this time.
As I munched, I mused over how I have periodically tried to motivate myself to rise early with exercise: stretching, YouTube dancing, around the block walking. This time last year I was training for a Ho Ho Ho holiday run. But I haven’t loved AM exercise enough to stick with it; plus, for me PM exercise feels good for unwinding from the day.
While I have had many noble starts with early morning exercise, I could not remember the last time I got up early on a weekday intending to eat a great breakfast. But Turkish-style breakfast was awesome: I was fuelled all day (sustained by the caffeine infusion of clove tea).
A carafe of loose black tea in a small bell tea cup.
I share this story as an idea and as permission: if you wake up and you don’t feel motivated by what usually gets you out of bed…try making yourself an awesome and unexpected breakfast.
Toothbrushing, morning stretches, reaching out to a loved one, pet care, awesome breakfast: what gets you jumping out of bed in the morning to face the day?
This week in nutrition news we are reminded that ultra-processed foods are bad for us. What does “ultra-processed” mean? Pretty much what you would think– “foods made using industrial methods and ingredients you wouldn’t typically find in grocery stores — like high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and concentrated proteins like soy isolate”, according to this NYT article. Everything from sodas to flavored yogurts to boxed mac and cheese to breakfast cereals counts. To paraphrase one of food writer Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, “if it comes from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.”
So far, so bad. At least we understand this. But wait a second: I just mentioned breakfast cereals in the same damning sentence as boxed mac and cheese. Surely these two foods are not equivalent in their so-called unhealthiness? Right. How processed a food is according to the Nova system some nutrition scientists developed is unrelated to its nutritional content. See below from the NYT:
The Nova system notably doesn’t classify foods based on nutrients like fat, fiber, vitamins or minerals. It’s “agnostic to nutrition,” said Maya Vadiveloo, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Rhode Island.
That has led to debate among nutrition experts about whether it’s useful for describing the healthfulness of a food, partly since many UPFs[ultra-processed foods] — like whole grain breads, flavored yogurts and infant formulas — can provide valuable nutrients, Dr. Vadiveloo said.
Yeah. Maybe researchers should focus on the nutritional content of the food rather than the extent of its processing when deciding on nutritional recommendations. Just FYI, this isn’t my idea. Some other researchers developed a study to test this claim, which was published this week. Here’s what they found:
A new study demonstrates that eating primarily minimally processed foods, as they are defined by the NOVA classification system, does not automatically make for a healthy diet, suggesting that the types of foods we eat may matter more than the level of processing used to make them.
Comparing two menus reflecting a typical Western diet -; one emphasizing minimally processed foods and the other emphasizing ultra-processed foods, as categorized by the NOVA classification system -; the researchers found that the less processed menu was more than twice as expensive and reached its expiration date over three times faster without delivering any additional nutritional value.
“This study indicates that it is possible to eat a low-quality diet even when choosing mostly minimally processed foods,” said Julie Hess, PhD, a research nutritionist at the USDA-ARS Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, who led the study. “It also shows that more-processed and less-processed diets can be equally nutritious (or non-nutritious), but the more-processed diet may have a longer shelf life and be less costly.”
Wow. If that’s true, then why are nutrition researchers telling us that ultra-processed foods are bad for us? I mean, if it’s possible to eat an equally nutritious diet that is a) cheaper; and b)lasts longer in the fridge or on the shelf, then what’s the problem?
There is research suggesting that eating ultra-processed foods may be linked to medical conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. But this research is observational, so it’s hard to make strong conclusions. The NYT cites one small study of 20 adults who were given a diet of minimally processed food for two weeks and an ultra-processed menu for two weeks. On average, they gained weight on the ultra-processed menu and lost it on the minimally-processed menu, even though the menus were adjusted to be calorie-equivalent. In short, it looks like they ate more of the ultra-processed food.
Clearly, more studies are needed to try to sort this out. But what are we to do in the meantime? One expert in the NYT says this:
Cook at home as much as you can, using minimally processed foods, Dr. Davy said. “We can’t really say a whole lot beyond that at this point.”
Great. And I am aware that you, dear readers, are left not knowing more about nutrition than you did before you starting reading. But don’t worry, because I have some actual definitive nutrition news for you that’s not at all confusing. Here it is, again from the NYT:
Watermelon is really good for us. It’s hydrating, not very sugary (yes, this is true!), and it isn’t not heart-healthy (which is to say, they don’t know if it’s promotes cardiovascular health, but it doesn’t hurt).
Whew. That’s a relief. Now we can all proceed to enjoy lovely fresh summer watermelon with no hesitation. You’re welcome…
I could eat one of these big juicy watermelon pieces in a single summer picnic.
Hi folks– if you don’t yet know about FIFI founder Tracy’s blog Vegan Practically, I recommend you take a look. It’s chock full of useful discussions about ways to eat that don’t involve consumption of animal products. Posts include philosophical arguments around veganism and vegetarianism, restaurant reviews and delicious recipes. In short, there’s something for the whole family.
For me, Tracy’s blog has two additional huge advantages: 1) explicit acceptance of the fact that each person’s process of matching up their eating habits with their moral principles is different. Lots of people who are interested in reducing, say, meat intake, will want to do it incrementally. Her blog supports that, which leads me to 2): strategies around reducing one’s animal-product footprint in easy-to-follow ways. She shares her own research and product reviews, offers restaurant and catering critiques and shout-outs, and shows how her life works as a practical vegan.
I’ve been a life-long omnivore, but over time an increasingly uncomfortable one. I teach a Philosophy of Food course, so am very familiar with both the philosophical arguments and overwhelming factual case to be made against eating animals. But, all my previous half-hearted and unprepared attempts to eat vegetarian petered out. I felt stuck and, well, uncomfortable.
Over the course of many conversations with Tracy and others who eat few or no animal products, I came to the conclusion that ANY reductions in e.g. meat or dairy intake were a good thing. I started with eating vegetarian food at restaurants with friends who were vegetarian, and cooking more vegetarian food when having friends over. I moved on to finding vegetarian favorite dishes at restaurants (or for cooking/preparing in my house) and incorporating them into my regular eating rotation.
Then, in 2022, I watched My Octopus Teacher on Netflix. I also read the book Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Both of them feature an octopus protagonist with a great personality. Yes, I know that the book is fiction. But hear me out: these representations of an intelligent, complex, lovable animal flipped a switch for me. I no longer would even consider eating octopus. The decision was made. Period.
Done (at least for that particular animal). Thanks Eden C for Unsplash for the photo.
Of course, eliminating octopus from my diet wasn’t exactly a heavy lift, as I didn’t normally eat much octopus. But, it was proof of concept. And, as a good philosopher, I looked around to see what inferences I might and could and should draw from this position.
Enter the pig. Pigs are known to have complex lives and engage in lots of intelligent behavior. Studies have shown them to be smarter than dogs and even 3-year-old children, says the Humane Society of the United States. Well, okay, then. Pigs are off my table. No more pork for me. Oh, and while I’m at it, no more lamb (again, not a heavy lift, so let’s put it on my no-eating list).
As a person from the American South who visits family there often, avoiding pork is not an easy feat. Also, I admit I like the taste of pork products. But that is no longer a reason for me to eat it, or even consider eating it. Pigs are just not creatures I eat. Period.
However, even though the switch has flipped, I have to do some mental and moral work to keep away from pork, mainly because there’s pork in so much food out there (e.g. corn chowder in restaurants). Now I’m among the folks who are actively bothered that there aren’t more non-pork items on a menu.
As of this writing, I’m still eating beef, chicken and seafood. I particularly love shrimp. But, it’s the next thing on my no-eat list. Why? I read this NYT article about the environmental and human damage the shrimp industry imposes. I already sort of knew some of that info, but reading the article flipped that switch again. I can’t, in good conscience, eat shrimp anymore.
Of course YMMV. The Times article points out that different folks respond in many ways to information about harms produced by industrial animal (in this case shrimp) farming:
In the end, decisions around shrimp come down to your values about what you eat. Dr. Rodriguez Martín and Dr. Lively said they eat shrimp, as does Mr. Nash, though rarely, and he reads the packaging meticulously. Dr. Lively generally eats shrimp only from the United States.Dr. Koehn doesn’t eat shrimp, but he tries not to lecture friends and family.
You may be wondering: what about the chicken and the beef? And dairy, too. The same arguments and considerations apply to them, too.
Yes, you’re right. What I can say by way of explanation (not defense) is that I’m paying attention to what I’m eating, actively exploring meat-free options, working them into my diet as best I can, and knowing that for me, this process takes time. But it’s happening.
Eliminating meat from my diet one animal at a time may not be the most efficient way, but it is my way, for now. And it’s kind of working.
What about you, dear readers? If you are at any point in the process of animal product reduction, let us know what you’re doing. We’d love to hear from you.
