64 Ways to Eat Food

How did your great grandparents ever figure out what to eat? Long before nutrition scientists began studying food, long before marketers began advertising food and long before the author Michael Pollan started writing about food, people, somehow, managed to eat more healthfully than they do now.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/michael-pollan-offers-64-ways-to-eat-food/

Great Reasons to Buy Locally...in Canada

The local food movement has planted its roots and is growing bigger each year across Canada and the U.S.

Here in Algoma, consumers have been eager to embrace local foods through farmer’s markets, community supported agriculture, community gardens, and businesses such as Penokean Hills Farms.

The Algoma Food Network has worked hard at becoming an invaluable resource to this movement by connecting local food producers to consumers since 2007 and would like to continue this partnership in the years to come.

So to address this growning trend, the Algoma Food Network needs to expand and would like the public to help.

The Algoma Food Network will be hosting a public event, Edible Algoma, on June 17, 2009 7PM at the Great West Life Amphitheatre in Algoma University. At this meeting, the Network will be presenting its current priorities and will host an open forum. The network is also announcing a change in leadership, with the appointment of Birgit Kroll as chair. Lee-Ann Chevrette, the former chair, has recently moved to Thunder Bay.

The Algoma Food Network is dedicated to building and maintaining a network of local food producers and consumers through education, advocacy, action, and relationship building.

The Island Where People Live Longer

Making it to 90 years old is awe-inspiring in much of the world. But on a tiny Greek island in the North Aegean Sea, nonagenarians barely merit a second glance.

The island of Icaria could be the newest of the world's so-called blue zones — places where the people have unusually long life spans.

read more here

Monica Seles Talks About Binge Eating

I had to throw out the word diet. I love food. That’s who I am. I enjoy a good meal. I’ve got to accept who I am. I’ve had enough of people telling me what to do. I had to do this one thing for myself, not for my mother, for the media or for my career.

I threw out every single diet notion I’d learned. I allowed myself to eat every single food group. My extreme cravings went away. I allowed myself to have cookies or pasta. I stopped dieting and I started living life. That’s how I lost 37 pounds.

read more here

Forgiveness is Good for You

Think of a time when somebody hurt you. Maybe your sister stole your wallet (or your boyfriend), or an uncouth BMW cut you off on the freeway? Now breathe deeply for a few moments; release your frustration. Forgive.

It’s not an easy thing to do, but as Greater Good magazine (Fall 2008) reports, psychologists have found that pardoning those people who dare to conspire against our happiness is good for our mental and physical health. Forgiveness techniques have been studied in the United States, and psychologists have now tested them in the post-conflict country of Sierra Leone, which is recovering from a brutal civil war in which nearly 500,000 people were killed or wounded. The trick is to start small—forgive the friend who stole from you, not the neighbour who killed your brother—and to understand that forgiveness needn’t replace justice.

Random Acts of Greenness

Today is the start of Earth Week. There have been 30 Earth Days until now and look how far we've come. Our awareness of the impact we have on this planet has greatly increased as well as our treatment of it.

Although we have a long way to go and some irreversible damage has already been done, we can be grateful that it has become so much easier to be environmentally friendly than it was 30 years ago. We have many systems in place such as blue boxes, bike paths, wind farms and community gardens that demonstrate the public's desire to be earth friendly.

I compare this time we are in to how a train changes direction; it takes a long time for it to slow to and stop before it can start moving in a different direction. And with a wink to the poor state of the economy, we now have the perfect storm (pun intended) of events taking shape for our green revolution to shift into high gear.

So as we watch the great ice shelves crumble, listen to the predictions of impending environmental disasters and feel the weather changing around us, it may be time to solidify this new “era of less” by taking advantage of this teachable moment and adopting a new lifestyle habit; let's call it Random Acts of Greenness.

So, what exactly is a RAOG. Some of you already participate to a great degree. A RAOG is a simple act that benefits our environment; from recycling water bottles to picking up a piece of garbage off the ground to turning off the lights when you're not at home. If we all increase our green productivity especially in public, this domino effect will continue and grow stronger.

Since Earth Day is less than a week away, how about intensifying our efforts with RAOG so we can start to feel good about our connection to this planet.

Here are some tips on how to green yourself even more this earth week:

1. Do you have a coffee mug yet? How about a stainless steel water bottle to carry around? We really need to stop creating garbage...even if we plan to recycle it. Reduce and Reuse so we have less to recycle.

2. Shop Smart. Buy locally grown foods and products when possible. Instead of arriving home with a million plastic bags from the grocery store, try to put your items all into one, large cloth bag. When shopping for appliances, look for ones that are energy efficient. Stay away from Styrofoam containers. Try to buy items in bulk not only will it help the environment, but it might even save you money.

3. Rinse, Reuse, and Recycle! Just because it's empty doesn't mean it's useless! Save old butter containers or jelly jars for places to put your leftovers stay away from foils and plastic wrap. Try to use washable rags to wipe off your counters and eat dinner with cloth napkins. Recycle everything you possibly can: paper, plastic, cans, glass, metal, etc.

4. Drive only when you have to. Carpool or take public transportation when possible.

5. Read more about environmental topics

6. Ask yourself some simple questions about the products you use and the packaging involved.

7. Educate yourself and others about how important it is to protect our environment. Challenge yourself and friends to do an act of Greenness just once a day. You really can make a difference!

8. Get together with your neighbours and have a community clean-up.

9. Teach the children in your community about the importance of RAOG in order to help them to appreciate and respect the environment.