Many people would rather go to the dentist than speak in public. I am not one of those people. Quite frankly, I really get a kick out of speaking about topics I am passionate about in front of an audience.Yesterday was no exception.

I was one of three “mommy activists” on a panel at the Canadian Organic Growers conference. One mom, Fran Murrell came all the way from Australia. She spoke about her group,   MADGE -Mothers Are Demystifying Genetic Engineering. Check out her website www.madge.org.au.

Another mom, Susan Smith, is one of the founding members of a not-for-profit agricultural community land trust known as ROSE (Redeeming Our Soil Economically).  ROSE is dedicated to caring for Sunnivue Farm northwest of London, Ontario.

The moderator of the panel Allison Savage a food blogger who created Radishes and Rhubarb, a blog that contains great recipes and beautiful photos.

As I promised during my presentation, to save trees, I am posting my resource links here on my blog. I know how it is at conferences, we all pick up loads of handouts. They either get lost in a pile or tossed. With my method, you’ll never lose the links, they’ll always be here!

Just click on the colored links and you’ll be directed right to the sites! Enjoy!

BSF Action Plan- this plan along with many other resources on the Better School Food website has stood the test of time. Check it out and get involved with school food in your community.

Nourish curriculum- this free downloadable middle school curriculum is fabulous. It can be facilitated by teachers or parents. I’m betting scout troops could use it towards a badge too.I gave  a review of Nourish on the Better School Food blog.

Jeff Rubin- this Canadian economist is on the spunky side, which is good since most economists are pretty dull to listen too. Jeff’s message: your world is gonna get a whole lot smaller as the price of oil goes up and its availability goes down. Watch one of his talks on You Tube, I promise you won’t be bored!

The Alberta Tar sands has the potential to create massive damage to Canada’s water supply and environment in general.  Greenpeace has been working hard to raise awareness of this problem.

In the USA, our big problem that is destroying watersheds Hydro fracking: the movie GASLAND tells the story well.

Gardens are the answer! What was your question? Kitchen Gardener’s International is a great garden resource for home, school and community gardens.

My Movie list Help your community to raise it’s Food IQ by setting up a film series at your local library, community center or other venue. Include a pot-luck and make it a regular community building event. Here’s a handful of my favorite films.

Ingreedients is an eye opening look into things you can’t pronounce on food labels.

Food INC this film is a must see for a wake up call about our food system.

King Corn is a great movie about corn in America. Filmmakers Ian Cheney and Kurt Ellis have gone on to do even more wonderful things. They are founding members of Food Corps and have a new movie out called, Truck Farm.

How to Boil a Frog is one of my most favorite new movies and it’s Canadian to boot!  It was just nominated for the Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting award. It’s a comedy about the environment, how’s that for different?

The World According to Monsanto is a tremendously important film for anyone who cares about the food they eat.  You can watch the whole movie on YouTube or buy the DVD

The Real Dirt on Farmer John is a fun story about the history of farmland in America.

Additional movies

Tapped is a movie about the impact of bottled water.

And This is My Garden is a new film about school gardens that was created in Canada and has been screening there since 2010.

FRESH is a movie similar to Food Inc. but is a bit more sweeter and gentler.

Killer at Large is a movie about obesity. I have a cameo appearance in this film. You’ll get to see me raising hell in DC at a hearing for food advertising to kids.

2 Angry Moms is  a movie about school food activism. I am one of the Two Angry Moms, I am not the filmmaker, I am the trouble maker.

My book list is another fun way to build community and raise the consciousness of food related issues. Work with your local librarian or your PTA/PTO to start a book club.

Food Rules is Michael Pollan’s lastest book. Its short, its sweet and very digestible. See how many of the 64 food rules you can adopt for your own.

Chew on This is a middle school version of Eric Schlosser’s classic book, Fast Food Nation. Well worth the read for kids and grownups alike.

How to Grow a School Garden: A Guide for Parents and Teachers book

The bottom line message of my presentation is this: STIR THE POT! Don’t be afraid to make some trouble. Don’t say silent in the face of our kids being poisoned. Even if your kid seems to eating good food, trust me, all of our kids are connected. Do something to raise the Food IQ in your community. The rewards are numerous.

Rebellion is most certainly part of a teenager’s job description. Its part of our kid’s journey to become independent adults. As a parent of two teens and a twenty year old, I’ve endured my share of this energy over the years.

An anguished parent of a teenager reached out to me today. Her teen-aged son has a job working at a food store and is eating huge amounts of junk food as a result. This mom wanted some help in finding a way to get her kid to see the light about chemicalized processed packaged food. After all, at home she cooks great food from scratch using real ingredients.

The toxic food environment is everywhere, and the older our kids get, the more they are immersed in it. At a certain point, all we can do is cook really good food, don’t preach (too much) and hope that at some point our kids realize that our food values are worthwhile.

But if you want to do a little  gentle preaching with your teen, here are some ideas on how to go about it.

ZITS: Connect the dots between clear skin and clean food. Mark Hyman’s recent piece about Ance and Sugar is worth a read. Perhaps a 21-day elimination diet that includes lots of fresh water (and no Gatorade or diet soda) will show some results that will keep your teen eating clean.

MANIPULATIVE MARKETING: Teenagers hate being taken advantage of. Once they learn more  about the $4.2 BILLION dollars spent to lure them to eat junk food,  they might re-think their choices.

ADD/ADHD: If your teen has a hard time staying focused, junk food may be the culprit. Recent research in the Lancet medical journal suggests that ADHD can be induced by food. In the new study, kids with ADHD were put on a “restricted elimination diet” containing only rice, meat, vegetables, pears and water for five weeks. The authors found that ADHD symptoms were reduced in 78 per cent of children placed on the diet.  5 weeks of clean food may result in your teen getting more homework done in less time. It is well worth looking into.

My Junk Food E-book

My E-book, Winning the Junk Food War will give you further support and inspiration to fight the good fight with your tweens and teens. You can learn more about it by clicking here.

But  always remember, at the end of the day, your best bet is to invest in a good meal made at home from excellent ingredients. Our walk is more powerful than our talk!

Whack-a-mole

I do enjoy playing Whac-a-Mole when I bring my kids to the arcade. For those of you who don’t get out that much to participate in this sort of amusement, the Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a large, waist-level cabinet with five holes in its top and a large, soft, black mallet. Each hole contains a single plastic mole. Once the game starts, the moles will begin to pop up from their holes at random. The object of the game is to force the individual moles back into their holes by hitting them directly on the head with the mallet, thereby adding to the player’s score. The more quickly this is done the higher the final score will be. As the game goes, on the pace gets faster, sometimes with 2 moles at a time rearing up out of the holes. You’ve got to be fast and hit hard to beat the moles and win the game. Its good exercise and builds hand eye coordination.

As  a parent who is trying to feed their kids the right stuff, I feel we are playing Whac-A-Mole every day with the food industry.  Let me explain my metaphor and see if you agree.

Way back when I was growing up, it was somehow determined that fat made you fat. The food industry responded with loads of “low fat”  and even “fat free” food products. Everyone rushed out to get them. And everyone continued to get fatter, and sicker. Next came the no carb craze and just about over night, everything, even bread, became “low carb” And everyone continued to gain weight and lose their health.

These days, the moles that pop up in the food industry’s Whac-A-Mole game are things like trans fats. We pounded that one down with our mallets, but the food industry responded with palm oil and cottonseed oil: two ingredients that are hurt our health and the health of the planet (as I’ve written about in previous posts) . HFCS was the next bad boy ingredient that popped up in the Whack-A-Mole game, the food industry is responding by renaming high fructose corn syrup into corn sugar and replacing HFCS in some drinks with real sugar. Will that sneaky mole get by us, or will we pound it back into its hole with our mallets?

There is way to win this game. You see, the food industry wins every game as long as we keep putting our money into their system. Bang all the moles you want, but the machine gets your quarter no matter how high the score. What we all need to do is walk away from the Whac-A-Mole game that the food industry has set up.

Invest your money elsewhere in real food that you can believe in. Food that is grown closer to home, food that doesn’t have ingredients you can’t pronounce, food that doesn’t have a fancy marketing budget.  Don’t play their game anymore.

Watch this Whac-A-Mole action and see if you feel the same way when buying standard American food in the supermarket. There really is a better way to eat and to live besides being forced to play continual game of Whac-A-Mole…..

This is NOT a diet food!

A friend sent me a crazy article today about “The Chocolate Milk Diet” which was so outrageous that I had to take some time to blog about it.  It’s been said that the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.  I can’t believe that people could actually believe that chocolate milk is a healthy food, but then again the dairy industry has been pushing this propaganda for years.

As I tell my clients and students, milk is a hormone laced beverage that is designed to help a little baby calf grow into a big strong cow in a short amount of time. We are the only ones who drink milk past infancy and we are the only ones who drink the milk of another species.  How could a beverage designed for quick and efficient growth, help you to lose weight? That doesn’t make sense.

More importantly,  how did we get to this place where our government, schools and alleged health experts are pushing chocolate milk as a healthy drink?  I guess you could say it comes down to the almighty buck. Health organizations such as Action for Healthy Kids and the American Dietetic Association receive huge amounts of funding from the dairy industry. There was plenty of money and influence present when the USDA came up with their latest pyramid too. You could say Milk has friends in high places.

Over the years, I’ve taught lots of classes about bone health. My favorite quote comes from Dr. Walter Willet  who teaches at Harvard’s School of Public Health:

If you want strong bones, don’t drink milk! Walk the cow instead

One of my favorite mentors, Annemarie Colbin PhD, reminds us that every other animal on the planet builds strong bones by eating green foods: green leafys are the way to go. She should know, she wrote the book on food and bones: The Whole Foods Guide to Strong Bones

In my practice, I believe in biochemical individuality. Milk may be a great food for some but not for others. If you have a personal or family history of eczema, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, digestive issues or autoimmunity, I would suggest you stay away from dairy products. If you do drink milk, I strongly suggest that you invest in organic brands without the residues of antibiotics and additional synthetic hormones found in conventional milk. Those hormone residues may be the factor responsible for increased risks of cancer, especially hormonally driven cancers.

Now let’s talk a bit about CHOCOLATE MILK. I see moms all the time giving their kids little single serving boxes of Organic chocolate milk when they buy themselves a Starbucks coffee or shop at Whole Foods. I know these moms think they are doing the right thing. And I know that it is truly an uphill time consuming job to fully understand how to feed our kids beneficial food and drink in this crazy complex world we live in. But here’s the bottom line, moms: You’ve been duped!  Chocolate milk is loaded with sugar. And sugar is a serious anti-nutrient.

This anti-nutrient is addictive, creating a sweet tooth that makes kids clamor for more sweet stuff! Personally and professionally, I do not believe that chocolate milk is a beneficial beverage.  And now way could anyone consider this beverage a “diet food”. Except, of course, the authors of Eat This Not That! who wrote the crazy article insisting you should drink three glasses of chocolate milk a day. Who is paying them? I can only guess that the dairy boys are behind this one!

Here’s the beverage that will help to melt away the pounds and put money back into your wallet. WATER. Clean, clear, fresh filtered tap water. Drink it in a Kleen Kanteen or other reuseable container.  Insist that your kids have access to clean, delicious filtered water for FREE at school. Pretty simple, huh?

What is so friggin’ happy about it?

OK, I hate to sound like Debbie Downer here, especially after yesterday’s blog post about Gratitude, but we’ve got to have a serious talk about Earth Day. I’m sick and tired of all the “eco-friendly” blah blah blah and the corporate greenwashing that lulls most Americans into a complacent stupor. Sadly Earth Day has become another Hallmark Holiday with people wishing me a happy Earth Day like its Easter or Valentines day. ENOUGH of the hype, let’s talk about what really matters.

Earth day was originally created in 1970 as a nationwide  teach-in to challenge corporate and government leaders about environmental issues.  Today, thanks to collective environmental apathy, our continued existence on this planet is more questionable than ever. We’ve thoughtlessly depleted resources like fossil fuels and water to name two. This is the only planet we can live on, there is no “Plan B”.  If each one of us doesn’t wake up and take some solid action, we are screwed.

I’ve known this information most of my life. My dad read a book entitled “Limits to Growth” in the 1970′s. As a tween, I rolled my eyes as he rambled on about future economic, political and environmental instability as we waited in the gas lines to fill up our car.  My dad is no longer with me, he passed on in 1999, he’d be saying “I told you so” if he was here today.

So what can YOU do to have a “happy Earth Day”? Please don’t buy another “eco-tote” or green cosmetics.  Read a book instead. From your local independent bookseller or from the library if you like.  Here’s two that will help you to understand what my dad knew back in the ’70s and will help inspire you to move forward in creating a better world for all of us.

One of my favorite authors, Bill McKibben, explains that we are already living on a different planet.  He eloquently opens our eyes to the kinds of change we’ll need to make in order for our civilization to endure. The endorsement below says it all:

“Read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.” —Barbara Kingsolver

I stumbled upon The Transition Handbook  a few years back. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.  This handbook is a goldmine of inspiration to get you started.

There is a growing Transition Movement worldwide and in the US, check it out online, connect with those nearby or start a group yourself.  I’m part of Transition Westchester.

Speaking of gratitude, I am very grateful for Bill McKibben, The Transition Movement and Transition Westchester. As I said yesterday, what you think about grows. Stop thinking about useless eco-friendly stuff and start thinking about real solutions: Transition is  the one that I’m focusing on.

Happy Earth Day.

This week is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. I remember as a kid watching an earth day TV special entitled “1985″, it went into grave detail about issues such as air and water pollution. This was a relatively new word in the 1970′s, I remember reacting with fear about the future. But 1985 seemed so far away to my little 10 year old mind, I’d be the ripe old age of 25 when 1985 rolled around, hopefully our advanced technology would take care of all of this air and water  “pollution” I was learning about!

Fast forward to today. I am now the ripe old age of  50. Technology didn’t fix very much. In some cases, it made things worse.  Its not just air and water pollution we are facing, we’re living on a fundamentally different planet now. We’ve got to deal with depletion of natural resources such as water and fossil fuels, climate change, a broken food system. Its a wonder I can sleep at night!

Although things seem pretty bleak, I’m doing my best to remain idealistic and optimistic. Part of the reason I feel this way is that there are a number of interesting and informative movies out there that will help get the message across that we need to get to work on these issues, now.

DIRT! Is one of those movies. Your local PBS station is screening this movie sometime this week. Check your local listings.

The Oscar nominated film, Food Inc makes it’s TV premiere this week on PBS. If you haven’t seen it, this is another very necessary film. We have to seriously consider the impact of our food system on the environment.

Last but not least is the No Impact Man.  This movie, which is part of a bigger “No Impact Project, is holding Earth Day screenings across the country in partnership with Slow Food USA and  1Sky. Bringing people together to watch, discuss and act is a powerful first step. Click here to find a No Impact event near you!

I remember a few years back when I first started using cloth bags for food shopping.  It took a while to build a solid habit. To remember to bring the bags into the store, and to put them back in the car when I was finished with them at home. After a few months, it was simply part of the routine. Along the way, I grew quite a collection of re-useable bags. I’ve learned they can be quite handy to have for all sorts of things besides just food shopping.  I’m thrilled not to have all of those useless plastic bags in my house.

Its the same thing with water. Sometimes I forget to fill my bottle and bring it along.  I end up feeling like I’ve been duped when I find myself in a place where I have no choice but to buy a bottle of water. Considering that bottled water can cost up to 1000 times more than tap water, and that it adds to our  waste stream, I just don’t feel good about drinking the stuff.

The good news is, like my re-useable cloth bags, there are loads of way cool re-useable containers and the habit does catch on.  Both my husband and I use these way cool mugs ( I like to think of it as my “sippy cup”) that we found at Ben & Jerry’s. I always carry good tea bags on me, so all I need is some hot water and I’m good to go.

It’s a small habit, but small habits add up.

I hope some day soon, everyone will be BYOB.

As I finish putting together the finishing touches on lecture portion of my class on food for medical students, its time to focus on the really fun part of this class.  For a clinical rotation, they’ll be joining me at a supermarket. I want them to understand what their patients deal with on an every day basis. Ideally, I’m hoping that a higher Food IQ along with some compassion will help to make better doctors.

Two questions for you:

What edible foodlike substances do you think I should introduce to these future physicians?

What real food should they know about?

Post your ideas in the comments section. Forward this anyone you know who would like to see doctors with a higher Food IQ!

As the Copenhagen Climate talks wind down, I’m not feeling all that hopeful that our world leaders can all agree on some bold meaningful action to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

I’ve been sitting here in a funk about what the next decade will look like as the climate continues to change in unpredictable ways and as sea levels rise as a result of polar ice melting. The polar bear has become a symbol of wildlife that suffer direct impact of our wasteful ways.

I was not blue for long as one of my friends, foodie blogger Cheryl Sternman Rule, posted a neat list on her blog, 5 Second Rule entitled “Vanish” in which she made a list of foods and edible foodlike substances she wouldn’t mourn if they suddenly left the planet.

That got me thinking about my own list of foods I’d like to see go extinct. My list might take days and would likely get me into an even deeper funk!

With John Lennon’s Imagine playing in my head, I considered what would happen if instead of the polar bear,  just one giant food company were to go extinct. Like some of the banks did last year. Would the world be a better place without this product? I think  you know which one I’m referring to. Imagine all the world living life in peace.

Language is important. Political strategists say those who own the language run the show. So far the food industry has been running the show when it comes to confusing the American public on what to eat. They play games with words like “natural“or “smart choice” or, my personal favorite, “zero trans fat”.

I’ve decided to beat the food industry at their own game. I’ve come up with language to help demystify food selection that works for kids and adults alike. It’s part of my trademarked system, Dr. Susan Rubin’s House of Health
I rate foods on a continuum from “Beneficial” to “Useful” to “Useless” to “Hazardous.”

Beneficial foods include any food that is unprocessed or “whole,” with most of their nutrients intact (e.g. whole oat groats or steel cut oats).
Useful foods are a little processed, but in a way that does not excessively diminish their nutritional value (e.g. old fashioned rolled oats).
Useless foods are too processed to be considered “health augmenting” but not dangerous enough to be considered hazardous (instant oatmeal with sugar).
Hazardous foods, however, are heavily processed and artificial – often having a negative impact on one’s health (e.g. instant oatmeal with “dinosaur eggs” in it).

Why do I use a strong word like hazardous? Because I remember the label on my mom’s cigarettes when I was a small child: The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. If the food lobbies weren’t so rich and powerful, I bet you’d see warning labels like that on foods containing these ingredients! In my system, a food product is hazardous if it contains any of these hazardous ingredients. Work to have a zero tolerance policy in your home when it comes to these ingredients.

So, want to learn what my top 10 Hazardous ingredients are?
Here goes:

1. Cottonseed oil Cotton is NOT a food! Oil made from cotton is super high in pesticide residue and off the charts when it comes to pro-inflammatory Omega-6 fats (contains a ratio of 259:1 Omega 6 : Omega 3). Learn more about Omega 3 & Omega 6 fats on Susan Allport’s site. She’s the author of Queen of Fats

2. Soybean oil Most soy oil is genetically modified, I don’t want my family ingesting oil made from Round Up Ready soybeans! Soybean oil is also excessively high in Omega 6 fats.

3. Hydrogenated oils These Franken-fats are created by bubbling hydrogen through liquid oils to turn them into solids at room temperature. Mother Nature never meant for us to be ingesting this stuff. Steer clear of any ingredient with the word “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated”, even if the nutrition information says “zero trans fat”.

4. High Fructose Corn Syrup Here’s another man made ingredient that is, in my opinion, unsafe in any amount. HFCS raises your triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. There seems to be a correlation with fatty livers and this ingredient. The food industry loves HFCS because it’s so cheap, it retards spoilage and, get this one, it makes you not feel full, so you eat/ drink more of their product! There also seems to be an issue with dangerous levels of mercury connected with HFCS.

5. Artificial Colors Let’s face it, food and drink should never be the color of Windex! These questionable chemicals are linked to behavior issues like ADHD. Food colorings that make candy pretty colors have been linked to cancer and tumors of the brain, thyroid, adrenal gland and kidney in animal studies. Have they done studies to determine safety in children? Nope.

6. Artificial Flavors These chemicals were whipped up somewhere in New Jersey. A guy from Kraft once told me they had over 20 different artificial flavors of strawberry alone! Most artificial flavorings are derived from petroleum. They have been shown to affect the RNA, thyroid, and enzymes. Most have never even been studied for safety or toxicity.

7. Artificial Sweeteners I steer myself and my family far away from Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame-K and all the rest. They’ve got loads of bad side effects such as increased sweet cravings, migraine headaches along with questions of carcinogenicity. These tricky chemicals may be addictive. If you don’t believe me, just ask anyone you know with a diet soda habit!

8. BHA/BHT These preservatives Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are used to keep fats and oils from going rancid. Used commonly in cereals, chewing gum, vegetable oil and potato chips (and also in some food packaging to preserve freshness), these additives have been found by some studies to cause cancer in rats. My bottom line: I shouldn’t have to rely on my two semesters of organic chemistry back in the 1980s to figure out what’s in my food!

9. MSG Good old monosodium glutamate does more than cause headaches. I can’t even begin to get started on this neurotoxic flavor enhancer, so I’ll refer you to this website dedicated to everything MSG related.

10. All other unpronounceable ingredients. My simple policy is: If you can’t pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t eat it. At the very least, look it up and figure out just what the heck it is. I studied chemistry in college, but you shouldn’t have to in order to eat!

What’s YOUR list of hazardous ingredients? Post them in the comments section!