August 23rd, 2011
By Craig Fear
A few weeks ago I wrote a series of blogs on the three resources I use most to convince and inspire people to shop for real, local foods. The first was Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, the second was the documentary Food Inc. and the third was the experience of shopping at farmers markets compared to supermarkets .
Now when it comes to farmers markets in America, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is that many places in our country still have little access to fresh, real foods. I call these real food deserts.
I grew up on Long Island, the classic example of a real food desert. There are still some farms here and there but they’ve mostly been converted to parking lots, condos, golf courses, shopping malls and suburbs with lawns that soak up chemicals instead of the roots of real food. We’re all familiar with these real food deserts. If you live in a real food desert, this blog is for you. And if you don’t, I bet you know someone who does.
The good news is that as the awareness of our broken, toxic food system grows more and more people are looking for ways to opt out of the conventional system. Many businesses and farms are becoming savvier by using the internet and online ordering systems to reach concerned consumers who are seeking organic, non-GMO, pastured, grass fed foods.
One such local business here in the Pioneer Valley is Valley Green Feast. Valley Green Feast is a local, organic foods delivery service. All you have to do is go to their website, www.valleygreenfeast.com, order from a wide variety of foods from a variety of small farms in the area and they bring it right to your door. How great is that?! Literally, the farmer’s market at your doorstep. No check-out lines, more time at home, smaller gas bills and of course, great quality food!
More than that, Valley Green Feast is a worker-owned collective that supports local farms by expanding their consumer base. They are working to make real, healthy food more accessible to more people.
I think there’s a huge market for this sort of thing out there and I hope more services will be offered like this around the country.
In fact, the last year I lived on Long Island I was part of a food co-op that received weekly shipments of food from Amish country. A number of Amish farms had partnered together and set up an online ordering system. Once a week they would deliver to various locations around the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area. It was absolutely fantastic. I had dozens of amazing choices right on my computer screen – pastured eggs, cultured vegetables, raw cheeses, yogurt, butter, soup bones, soup stocks and an amazing variety of grass fed meat products. It was a one stop real food shopping heaven and saved me tons of time.
Certainly setting up these online systems and having the capacity to ship and truck fresh food around to different locations is no small task for many farms. But I see a huge potential in this sort of thing. And hey, if the Amish can do it, I think others can too.
Regardless of where you live though, many farms are starting to do this. This is great if you live in a real food desert with no access to healthy local foods.
A fantastic online resource is www.eatwild.com . They have a state by state directory of over 1300 pasture based farms. In particular, check out their “Farms that Ship ” link.
Here are two such sources that are quite popular online:
www.uswellnessmeats.com
www.vitalchoice.com
Another great resource for finding these farms is the Wise Traditions quarterly publication put out by the Weston Price Foundation . It’s included with your membership to the foundation which is only $40 per year for individuals and $25 if you’re a student or senior. At the back of the publication you’ll find a section called “The Shop Heard ‘Round the World” with dozens of businesses and cottage industries selling various nutrient dense foods. In recent years I’ve noticed this section keeps growing and growing.
So if you know someone who lives in a real food desert, please help me spread the word about these wonderful online resources. In particular, if you know someone who lives in the southern Pioneer Valley where’s there’s less access to the farms of the upper Valley, please help me make them aware of Valley Green Feast. They’re a very new business and many people could really use their services.
Finally, I know what you may be thinking, “Yeah but this is all so expensive!” Maybe. But maybe not. As I’ve said repeatedly in previous emails, what is the cost of your health? Even if your health insurance can cover the costs of medications, doctors visits and even hospitalization, what’s the cost of living with sickness? What is the cost to not develop the lifestyle diseases of type II diabetes, obesity and heart disease? I can only answer that question for myself which is to say that for me personally, the extra money I spend each month on real food is well worth it to me. Most importantly, I feel better.
And I think you will too.
August 17th, 2011
By Craig Fear
When people come to see me we go over a handout called The Blood Sugar Control Diet. It helps get sugars out of the diet and thus is useful for a myriad of chronic health issues. This handout details what to eat for proteins, carbohydrates and fats. It further differentiates the good carbohydrates from the bad carbohydrates and thus has further sections for grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy. I’ll tweak things depending on what I think each person can or cannot handle. For example, some people are more ready than others to give up all sugar, refined grain products or say, diet coke.
Regardless, there’s one thing I underline on this handout that is essential for everyone and it has nothing to do with specific dietary changes. It’s so important that I always have a red pen on hand to underline it for emphasis. As I’m underlining I always say this, “This is absolutely the most important thing on this handout. None of this is possible unless you do this one thing.”
This is exactly what I underline:
This way of eating does take a little planning, but is well worth the effort.
In other words, you have to cook a little more to eat healthier. It’s hard to get around the fact that to minimize processed foods, to stop eating sugar and to start making real changes, that you have to spend a little more time in your kitchen. This doesn’t mean you have to be Julia Child! As I like to say, “You don’t have to be a chef, but you do have to be a cook.” Big difference.
This can be intimidating for many people, especially those with full time jobs. But with a little planning and a little preparation it’s amazing how quick and simple it can be to eat well at home.
I have yet to find a fish or a vegetable that does not work beautifully with a simple sauce of butter and lemon. Olive oil, salt, pepper and an herb or two work equally well. Soy sauce, ginger and garlic are pure magic in my book for red meats and green vegetables as well. And as far as I’m concerned, the crock pot is one of the greatest inventions of all time.
I always try to help my clients with simple strategies for eating well in a way that isn’t completely overwhelming. Trust me I’m certainly no chef myself. But I am a cook. I’ve realized that I have to be in order to nourish myself and feel well. With a little practice, patience and persistence, you can have quite the repertoire of delicious home cooked meals within a very short time.
There are so many great cookbooks and websites that can turn almost anyone from a microwaving, hot pocket eating, processed food junkie into a real food cook. As I’ve mentioned previously, Nourishing Traditions is a personal favorite of mine.
However, there’s nothing quite like learning from others in person. And it’s a heck of a lot more fun.
On that note I’d like to give a shout out to my friend Molly Merrett. Molly is very active in the local food movement here in the Pioneer Valley and she has recently started a series of cooking classes using local foods. I’ve taken a few of them and they’re really great. I always learn something new from Molly’s classes be it a recipe, a new technique for chopping vegetables or a new way to hold a knife so that I don’t slice my finger off! Trust me that last one is an important skill to learn.
Check out this short video of Molly and myself at her last class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9OChvWBuCg
If you’re in the Pioneer Valley, Molly’s next class is this Saturday, August 20th from 2-5pm at the Friends Meeting House in downtown Northampton. You can find out more about her classes at www.localfeastcookingclasses.blogspot.com .
If you’re not in the Pioneer Valley, I bet if you google your town name with “cooking classes” you might find more options than you realized. It’s a great way to learn some new recipes and meet some people as well.
August 8th, 2011
By Craig Fear
I’ve been lucky enough to have traveled quite extensively through Asia. I’ve seen many great cities, historic temples, jaw dropping architecture and beautiful landscapes. I met a lot of amazing people, had a lot of great experiences. But when I look back on those travels, there is one thing that really sticks out, one constant that seemed to follow me wherever I went.
The markets.
How I looooooved the markets of Asia.
It was and still remains the thing I most adored about the places I visited. You see, for someone like myself who grew up going to supermarkets, the markets of Asia provide quite a shocking contrast. Let’s just say that in the markets of Asia there is no fluorescent lighting, minimum wage produce workers that don’t smile (who can blame them), disgruntled high school cashiers that don’t smile, and that sickening, life-deadening elevator music playing in the background. And of course, there is no processed food.
Most Asian markets are vibrant beyond explanation. The vivid colors, the succulent smells of herbs and spices, curries and simmering soups, the freshly caught fish leaping out of their buckets and crates, the bizarre and exotic fruits and vegetables, the busy flow of people and animals, carts and mopeds, all intersecting in these somewhat random but patterned processions, all of which sweeps you into this almost trance-like state of sensory stimulation.
Below are just a few pics I took while perusing the markets of Burma.
I’ve uploaded a few more onto my Facebook page. You can check them out here : http://on.fb.me/qwreyM And please give my page a “like” while you’re at it!
My point of this is that in most places in Asia, this is how people get their food. No one’s selling Cheetos. It’s all fresh and it’s all local.
You may have had similar experiences in other areas of the world – Europe, South America, Africa, etc. This is how people do it and have done it for hundreds if not thousands of years.
And this is what we need to return to in America.
Now I know that’s quite unrealistic right now. I know we’ve created an industrialized system that’s woven into the fabric of our culture. It’s not going away anytime soon. There are certainly other forces that have created this system. But make no mistake about it – it’s killing us.
Most of the food you get in conventional supermarkets is killing us. It’s full of sugar, preservatives, chemicals and toxic oils. The animal products are factory farmed, full of hormones and chemicals. The fruits and vegetables are grown in deficient soils and sprayed with pesticides and insecticides. And more and more it is becoming genetically modified.
We can no longer ignore our escalating health epidemics and their connection to industrialized food. This awareness is growing and it’s growing fast. And as a result, farmers markets are growing. And that is the third and final secret weapon, my ultimate secret weapon.
Secret weapon #3: Your Local Farmers Market
Now most farmers markets are relatively small right now. Most take place only once a week. And most pale in comparison to anything you’ll find in the cities of Asia.
But what resonates with people is when they compare their experience at a farmers market to a supermarket.
There’s something that appeals to not only the senses at your local farmers market but also to the heart. There’s something that just feels right. Something that intuitively says, “This is the way I should get my food”. There’s sunshine. There’s smiling faces. There’s conversation. Maybe there’s even music – real music with real people playing real instruments.
Of course, it’s more than just the aesthetics. Farmers markets are less taxing to the environment than supermarkets. The average food item in a supermarket travels 1500 miles from farm to fork. Farmers markets support local families, they support our local economies and they are an investment in our future by helping to maintain the integrity of our local food systems. And of course the biggest reason of all is that the food at farmers markets support good health!!
And little by little as these markets make their way across the American landscape, as they grow, as they become more accessible and maybe even more convenient, maybe someday our farmers markets will become so crowded and vibrant that they’ll look like this:
http://www.wimp.com/vegetablemarket/
Pretty amazing, huh?
Of course I am kidding. But you get the idea.
If you’re in western Massachusetts, check out the Tuesday Market in Northampton. It’s my personal favorite. But wherever you are, make the effort to get out there and support your local farmers markets. It’s important! Check out www.localharvest.org for a list of all the markets in your area.
Lastly, don’t forget: Food, Inc. is on PBS tonight! If you missed last week’s blog, Food Inc. is my second nutritional weapon of choice.
So there you have it. My three secret nutritional weapons revealed! To review, the first is the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. The second is Food Inc. And the third is your local farmers market. The clients of mine that follow through on these are always the ones that seem to lose the most weight and make the best progress with whatever health issue they’re dealing with. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
August 3rd, 2011
By Craig Fear
It wasn’t too long ago that I was at a party and as so often happens, the topic of nutrition came up. Somehow the conversation moved to factory farms. I started talking about the horrific treatment of animals in these places and before I could even get the next sentence out of my mouth, one woman put her hand up and with agitation said, “I don’t want to hear any more about this! It is too upsetting!”
I know full well that this person continues to shop at conventional supermarkets, the realm of factory farmed animal products. And I know full well this person has the financial capability to not shop in conventional supermarkets. Essentially what this person was saying was that it’s too upsetting to change her habits and that convenience is more important than conscience.
Don’t get me wrong. I know a lot of people are financially strapped in America today. Many cannot withdraw their hard earned money from cheap, industrialized food. But many can and choose not to out of convenience.
This is the choice many of us face today in America. And yes, it’s not comfortable. It can take more time and money to shop for healthy foods. But when you consider the alternatives, a little more time and money now can perhaps save you a lot more time and money in the future.
As a child recently proclaimed in a popular TED talk, “you can pay the farmer now or pay the doctor later”.
Because let’s face it. Our health care system is really a sick care system. It’s strength is treating and managing disease, not prevention.
This is where I come in with my second nutritional weapon (see my previous blog post for my first weapon of choice).
Secret weapon #2: Food, Inc.
You’ve probably heard of it. Maybe you’ve seen it already. It was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary category a few years ago.
This food documentary exposes the horrors of industrialized agriculture, horrors that most of us have been blindly supporting for most of our lives. This film will educate you, scare you but most importantly, inspire you to step out of the industrialized system.
Trust me, I get it. We’re all stressed beyond belief in this country. I know it’s not easy to change old habit patterns. But as Michael Pollan says at the end of this documentary, you get 3 votes a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Three votes to not support factory farming and in so doing, three votes to not support cruelty to animals. You get three votes to not support genetically modified foods and in so doing three votes to not support the evils of corporate agriculture. You get three votes to support organic, local food. You get three votes to support health in you, your children and your local economies.
Maybe you can’t use all three votes each day for local and sustainable. That’s OK. Make it one vote and go from there. Do what you can. But I bet if you watch Food, Inc. you’ll cast three votes more often.
Oh and look, it’s being broadcast for free on PBS on August 9th!
http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/
And if you really can’t wait you can watch it right now on YouTube:
Next week, I will reveal my final secret weapon, the ultimate secret weapon. I promise it has nothing to do with me. I won’t be promoting any of my services. I’m just sharing what I think is the absolute most powerful tool for convincing you to eat healthier and to support real, local, sustainably grown foods.
See you next week!
