There are many ways in which living a little greener can save you money: conserve energy in your home and you will save on your utilities bills, buy secondhand clothes and you will cut your wardrobe budget, reuse and re-purpose objects and you will simply have less to buy.

But, in general, eating organic or all-natural food is going to cost more. So, just how much more money are we talking about? And what to do about it?

Green Mama: Comparison Shopper

While my supermarket cart looks a lot greener than it did a few years ago, not everything I buy is organic or all-natural. But this week, I wondered what my grocery bill would look like if everything on it were organic or all-natural. So I did my best to make it so, and then I calculated what it would have cost to buy the “traditional” versions instead.

So, what did I learn? First, I learned that comparison shopping is a big headache — no joke. Organic and non-organic versions of the same foods are often in totally different sections of the market, or they are very different sizes, or priced differently (e.g. by weight vs. by unit). This project required a lot of note-taking and fighting my son for the calculator (“buttons! buttons!”), as well as a follow-up price study on the market’s online delivery website.

Also, I couldn’t find comparables for a bunch of items (e.g. no organic garlic, avocados, or pears; no non-organic tofu or scallions) and so, for the sake of this exercise, I left them off the list. The resulting grocery bill doesn’t look exactly like a week’s shop for my household, but it’s pretty close, and includes produce, dairy, fresh meat, grains, canned and jarred non-perishables, and snacks (no paper or cleaning products).

The Result: A 30% Premium!

The organic/all-natural grocery bill was 30% higher than the “traditional” one. My initial reaction was that this isn’t so bad, probably because I thought it would be worse. But wait, am I crazy? What if my household income were cut by 30%? That would sure seem like a lot, right?

Looking a little more closely, I discovered that some products’ prices were very close to those of their comparables (e.g. peanut butter, salsa), and sometimes I found an organic or all-natural version of a product less expensive than the traditional version I would have otherwise bought (e.g. pasta sauce, tortillas, cheddar cheese).

On the other hand, I really paid a premium for some organics, including 78% for those organic Os over that yellow box from the leading brand, and 51% for organic apples over non-organic.

So, since buying organic/natural is not an all-or-nothing proposition, your supermarket flyer, grocery bill, and store shelves might all merit a little study.

The Bottom Line: Saving Money

So, how to deal with the desire to eat clean without breaking the bank? Here are some tips, sources, and resources for making natural eating more affordable. Some of these are old standbys, but they bear repeating because they work!

TIP #1: Prioritize your Purchases
Should I really pay extra for organic apples? (YES!) What about sweet potatoes? (MAYBE NOT.) Check out the 2011 Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 in the Environmental Working Group’s annual Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. This awesome resource will help you determine which produce has the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables (the “Dirty Dozen”) and eating the least contaminated produce (the “Clean 15″).

TIP #2: Buy Store Brand
Supermarkets can offer lower prices for their store-brand natural and organic lines (e.g. Stop & Shop’s Nature’s Promise) because they don’t spend for advertising. I can’t tell the difference between two brands of organic milk or butter — can you? As always, be sure to take a moment to read labels to see if the claims on the front stand up to the ingredients list.

TIP #3: Stock Up With Sales
The natural and organic items on sale at the supermarket are usually featured in the same place in your flyer each week — in a sidebar or at the bottom of a certain page — so it only takes a moment to check. (Plus, it can be a fun family activity, flipping through and identifying pictures.) Also, make a point to spin through the natural section each week to find non-featured sale items. And when organic non-perishables, like snacks and canned soup, or frozen organic fruits and veggies are on sale, stock up! (And try to combine with coupons — see below).

TIP #4: Green Coupons!
While you can sometimes find printed coupons for organic and natural products in newspaper inserts (if you don’t get a paper at home, grab a free New Haven Advocate), your best bet for coupons is going to be online. Many natural food companies, like Stonyfield, offer printable coupons, as well as rewards programs that allow you to earn points toward additional discounts. Most sites require a free registration with an email and reset coupon limits monthly.

See greenHaven’s new Green Deals & Coupons page for a list of some popular companies, and tell us about any we are missing! Also, sign up with services like Organic Deals & Coupons to receive free email alerts of discounts for green groceries at national chains, including Target and Whole Foods, as well as online retailers, and special coupons that can be printed via Facebook, for example. A great time-saver when planning the week’s food shop.

TIP #5:Buy Big
Buying big really means two things. As with all products, the larger the package, (typically) the lower the unit cost. Organic baby carrots cost 20% more than non-organic, and I don’t feel like paying that! However, a 5 lbs. bag of organic carrots — you know, regular carrots like you used to eat as a kid — costs $4.99, way less by weight than either type of baby carrots. Can’t I find time to cut up carrot sticks? (yes) Won’t it be nice to have extra carrots around to incorporate into mashed potatoes and pasta sauce? (yes) And with their skin on, they stay fresher longer.

Also, the larger the store (typically), the lower cost for the same product. While I can’t find many organic items, like cream cheese, at my supermarket and must go to a natural foods store, I can find many others at the supermarket, and for a lot less. The organic yogurt that my family goes through like water costs 32% less at the supermarket than at the natural foods store. (Note: I am absolutely all for supporting my small, local, independently-owned food store rather than a corporate chain, and do so as much as I can. I am torn about even including this tip!) Also, price clubs, like BJs and Costco, are increasingly carrying organic products, especially produce and dairy, so if you have a membership — or maybe a friend or neighbor who does — you might be able to save. (Be sure to recycle all that frustrating shrink wrap on multi-packs wherever plastic grocery bags are taken.)

There are many other dimensions to a discussion about cost and healthy eating aside from supermarket shopping, but, alas, it is time to stop. Potential budget-saving options like buying from farm stands and CSAs, growing a food garden, and cooking more from scratch will have to wait for another time!

Common Ground (www.commongroundct.org) is a finalist to win an AWESOME TEACHING KITCHEN from Ikea - a $10,000 makeover to our farmhouse classroom that will allow us to do much more learning, cooking, and eating with kids!  A teaching kitchen in the farmhouse would mean that we can make salad, bake bread, invent salsa recipes, scramble up eggs, and make pizzas whenever we want to.  Right now our cooking programs are limited to the times that we can access the high school kitchen – sometimes challenging as our school chefs work hard to feed 200 people per day and process and preserve all the food from our farm. Our whole community would benefit from a teaching kitchen: our high school students who can learn new culinary skills, adults who come for cooking and food preservation workshops, and young children in after school and summer camp programs who cook with and try new foods!

Ikea will decide who wins the $10,000 makeover based on the number of votes texted in by the community from January 6th through January 20th.  You can text once per day, and every vote counts!  We need YOU to text every day from now through January 20th!

We love to cook. And we know good food brings families together. That’s why we’ve spent the past few years sharing many of our popular market menu dishes and some of our all-time favorite recipes on our blog. We’ve been getting requests for some time now to help shed some light on family friendly recipes that inspire even the tiniest of chefs to help make—and pick up their forks to eat without a battle.

To us the holidays mean family, and that means family friendly recipes! With the holiday season rapidly approaching, we thought there was no time like the present [get it] to share our go-to kid-pleasers with the kidHaven family to enjoy at home.

This is one of my favorite recipes—it just feels like home. Making this classic ricotta gnocchi reminds me of my time in my grandmother’s kitchen, rolling gnocchi dough, making homemade sauce and eventually sharing a delectable dish for dinner [and so much more].

Homemade Gnocchi

Ingredients:

•  3 lbs. Ricotta

•  4 cups of parmesan cheese

•  2 cups of semolina flour

•  2 cups of all purpose flour

•  1 teaspoon of salt

•  1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper

•  3 egg yolks

•  3 whole eggs

•  1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

Yield: Dinner for the family.  Store the rest in the freezer for those days when you need dinner in a hurry.

Directions:

•  Place all ingredients in a mixer using the dough attachment.

•  Mix slowly until everything is incorporated.

•  Wrap the bowl in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (nap time?).

•  Take one ball of dough and break off approximately a 1/2 lb. piece and roll into a cylinder of 1/2 inch thick—add flour if it is too sticky.

•  Cut 1/2 inch pieces and press each piece with your thumb.

•  To get the right shape for the gnocchi, take each piece and fold it over using the slope of the fork (like shown here).

•  Place the pieces on a well floured sheet pan and freeze in thin layer storage bags until frozen.

•  When you are ready to use, strain off all excess flour and boil for 7-8 minutes.

© 2011 Denise Appel. Permission must be given by Denise Appel to reproduce.

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Hailing from Glastonbury, Connecticut, Denise Appel has been wildly successful in her passion and vision as a chef. As co-owner and head chef of ZINC Restaurant and Kitchen ZINC New Haven, Denise credits her Grandmother Katherine for instilling in her true love for the art of cooking.

Chef Appel’s trademark cuisine features regionally farmed produce and cheeses, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef, veal and poultry and fresh and non-endangered line-caught fish. At her restaurants, Denise switches her menu every few weeks and during the summer season, she will spend mornings at the Farmer’s Market before deciding what meals to cook for the evening. Denise’s Farm-to-Table approach has earned her many honors.  Teaching and discussing food is another passion for Chef Appel. She introduced her Chef’s Table courses in 2008 to the public that focused on a different topic each month during the winter and spring and were received with sell-out attendance for each event. Outside of creating culinary masterpieces and broadening her cooking repertoire, you can also find Denise spending time with her three rescued pups or traveling the world, seeking inspiration for new dishes.

What: The fresh Fruit Experts® at the New Haven Edible Arrangements® have partnered with Yale-New Haven Hospital to host the first Apple Harvest Festival.  The community event is part of a week long effort to raise funds for the Pediatric Oncology Outpatient Unit at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH).  Open to the public, the Apple Harvest Festival will offer a day of fun for all and kid-friendly activities to celebrate the season including:

- Fresh fruit treats such as chocolate dipped fruit and fruit smoothies

- Activities with clowns

- Complimentary face painting and balloons

As part of the excitement, Edible Arrangements® will provide clowns to encourage guests to sign get well cards for the pediatric patients at YNHCH.  The cards will later be distributed to the children at the hospital.

In addition to enjoying the fun, it’s a great opportunity to order Thanksgiving and holiday arrangements early while helping raise money for Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.

10% of the sales of Edible Arrangements® products sold at this location during the week of October 30-November 5, 2011, will be donated to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.

When:

• The Apple Harvest Festival takes place on Thursday, November 3rd 2011, 10am-7pm.
• All in-store purchases benefit Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital from October 30 – November 5, 2011.

Where: Edible Arrangements® – 936 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Who: Edible Arrangements®, the fresh fruit experts and pioneer in artistically designed fresh fruit displays, chocolate dipped fruit and Edible To Go™, a line of healthier, on-the-go snacks including all fresh fruit natural beverages and salads, parfaits, sundaes and more. (www.EdibleArrangements.com)

Okay fellow parents…I’m on a mission! Will you join me?

Anyone else tired of kids getting candy as rewards in school?  Frustrated with your child bringing home the healthy snack that you so lovingly prepared (even though you were tired and wanted to just relax after the kids were finally in bed and the kitchen cleaned up from dinner) because there were cupcakes and junk food in the classroom?  At our school, we are creating policy to encourage healthy change.  As parents and educators, you play a very important role in helping children make healthy choices.

Here are some delicious and nutritious ideas for class parties, PTA events or snacks:

• Fruit- sliced and ready to be eaten, fruit kabobs, fruit and yogurt dip
• Vegetables and dip
• Cheese and whole grain crackers
• Hummus and pita or Tortilla chips and salsa
• Whole grain pretzels or crackers
• Popcorn
• Healthy muffins/ zucchini or banana bread
• 100% frozen juice or smoothie pops
• Mini whole wheat bagels and cream cheese
• Trail mix- cereal, dried fruits, seeds (sunflower and pumpkin seeds are ok with nut allergy)
• Yogurt parfait with granola and fruit
• Whole wheat graham crackers and fruit
• 100% juice or water

Some teachers will allow parents to come in a do a cooking activity, such as baking muffins, making soup, pizza bagels, or ethnic foods for holidays.  Kids love to participate in food preparation, and are more likely to be adventurous eaters if they feel invested in the process.

If you do decide to bring a sweet treat, please consider choosing mini sizes of cookies or cupcakes and perhaps bring fruit or a healthy snack on the side.

And don’t forget about food allergies.  Communication within each classroom can help to accommodate individual children’s allergies.  Sometimes the parent bringing in the snack can accommodate allergy restrictions by avoiding certain ingredients, and sometimes parents of children with allergies can bring in a “treat box” so they have a special snack if they are unable to partake in the class snack.

Treats are fine as an occasional treat, but with the number of kids in a classroom, anywhere from 16-25, that’s a lot of cupcakes! Junk food is becoming a regular part of our kid’s diets.  Kids are delighted with any deviation from the normal day.  Treats don’t have to be food… Extra recess time, special arts and craft project, fancy pencil/eraser, class dance party are all fun ways to celebrate!

Change begins with us.  Please join me in bringing healthy snacks to your child’s classroom and encouraging other parents to do the same.

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Amanda M. Levitt, ND  has been practicing as a board certified naturopathic physician for over 10 years, applying her expertise in nutrition, herbal medicine, and other natural therapies to treat digestive problems, women’s health issues, pediatric conditions, and a wide range of general health concerns. Dr. Levitt is an owner and practicing physician at Whole Health Natural Family Medicine in Hamden, CT.  Dr. Levitt has three beautiful children and a wonderfully supportive husband.

I am just noticing some discrepancies in nutritional math.

Much to the irony of my liberal arts education, I currently spend most of my work day doing math. Rates, percentages, some mid level algebra, spotting patterns, these were not things that I was good at growing up. But as I am required to do math at work, I have gotten better at it. And now I would say that I am a spot on pattern detector. I have a good sense for when numbers don’t add up. And I understand fully that in business, you can make numbers say anything.

Let’s look at a little nutrition math, shall we?

If you operate by the assumption that one should eat three meals a day with maybe one small snack (or better yet no snack) You should have no more than four eating opportunities during the day. I am going to go with this number for the sake of the exercise, even though we know that things like dessert creep in. If we believe that 1800-2000 calories are the target for an average day, those calories should probably be split out fairly evenly, right?? Let’s say that 90% of calories should come from meals and 10% from that snack you eat. Of 2000 calories, that means 200 calories for snacking and 1800 calories for meals. If each meal is even, then that means 600 calories for each meal.

On one hand, this is not a lot of calories in each meal when one considers the amount of 1000 and 1200 calorie meals available at fast foods restaurants daily. But when one considers that 3.6 ounces of beef tenderloin with some fat left on the cut is only 275 calories, that a baked potato is strangely also 275 calories and a cup of broccoli is about 85 calories. That is a good sized meal for 635 calories! I don’t think I would walk away hungry from that table. And not every one of my meals is 600 calories. Lunch might be less, making room for some butter and yogurt on my potato at night. So my conclusion is, 1800-2200 calories a day is probably sufficient for me to be satiated.

So why on earth do I see dietician and nutritionists recommending 200 and 300 calorie meals??!!! And why do people think that eating one 150 calorie serving of breakfast cereal is enough to keep you feeling good?? I get it, dieters need to cut back in order to lose weight, but come on! Anyone can see that such severe calorie restriction leads to binge eating. Consuming a 200 calorie breakfast would have me panhandling snacks from my co-workers before 10am. And if you have 3-300 calorie snacks meals and a 100 calorie snacks for your whole day, you have eaten a whopping 1000 calories in a day. How long do you think you could last on that diet? Do people who need to lose some weight think that a normal person is supposed to eat that little? How disconnected are we?

When I see people thinking that healthy eating means severe calorie restriction, my heart bleeds for them. We have become so far removed from what real food is that people are AFRAID to eat. And what a shame because food is wonderful. But calories are not just calories. Real food is naturally lower in calories than fried tater tots and hot dogs, and of course higher in nutrients, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, etc. It keeps you fuller longer. So you can eat a greater volume of food and weigh less. While I love the political and nutritional aspects of food, and I love examining the ethics of sustainability and family farming, the truth is, I just want to eat more while being healthy and looking good.

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Christa O’Brien lives in New York City with her husband and her two very energentic little boys. She believes in real traditional foods, living without modern processed foods and cooking with kids. In addition to working full time she blogs about cooking and eating real food at The Table of Promise: One Family’s Search for a Better Meal.

Why is everyone compelled to give children junk food at every event?

Math night: colored popsicles, Choir: Processed ice cream and a bag of candy, religious school: ice cream with every imaginable topping.  It is ubiquitous! Even when I take my kids on a bike ride to a local park to see tadpoles and hike around, the well intentioned ranger offers a lollipop.  What is this need to ply our children with junk food at every possible opportunity?  Isn’t the experience reward enough? The last straw for me is when a group of parents wanted to buy a cotton candy machine for our school.  Once a year at Art Night (which is a fabulous, enriching event at our elementary school) the school rents a cotton candy machine.  Don’t ask me how this became a traditional or what in the world relates this junk with art…but ok, once a year, we can choose whether or not to partake.  Buying a machine is another matter. Besides issues of storage and cleaning, I can predict that at each and every school event, that machine would be rolled out so we would get our money’s worth!   Aren’t we supposed to be advocating for our children? 

I can tell from the way other parents roll their eyes, that they think I’m a bit much.  “What’s the big deal, it’s a party”…but you know what? It’s not just a party here and there anymore.  It is ubiquitous.  No longer are treats a treat! They are becoming a regular part of our kids’ diets.  As a naturopathic doctor and mom of three, I am passionate about nutrition and want my children to make good food choices that are actually health promoting.  Every day in my practice I educate my patients about nutrition.  With my pediatric patients, we talk about how foods help your immune system, help build muscles, give your brain the nutrients it needs to help with learning.  With older kids, I emphasize foods that will help their skin and hair look healthy and beautiful, help athletic performance, ok, and even make you look great in those new jeans.  Personally, I  need to eat healthfully and stay fit if I want to have a fighting chance of keeping up with my family, work and community involvement!

In our family, it is not about obesity, though the rate of obesity in America is increasing at an alarming rate.  It is about consistently choosing healthy options.  Whether it is a meal, a treat, a relationship, it is up to us as parents to advocate for our children. This is a topic of discussion in our household.  Hmm. You eat the healthiest food in your class. You have the best behavior and are in the highest reading group? Coincidence?  Maybe not.  We talk about this not to push kids to be perfect, but to emphasize that healthy choices have desirable benefits.

I feel vindicated when they turn down Hi-C or Sunny Delight, or decide not to eat the “chemical ice cream” or green yogurt.  I work hard as a parent to help them develop a palate that includes a variety of healthy foods, and to choose treats that have some nutritional merit.  They can trade in a junky snack for a more organic option.  I am not a purist.  I appreciate the indulgence of a little chocolate, some good ice cream or an icy frozen yogurt.  It’s not the sugar that I object to, though I do try to keep it to a minimum, it is the artificial colors, artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, and trans fats… to name a few ingredients that I don’t want my children to ingest. I would prefer them to have ice cream without chemicals, juice pops, frozen yogurt, home baked cookies, popcorn, or fruit kabobs with fresh whipped cream as a treat.  I can think of many other snacks that aren’t pure sugar with color, chemicals and artificial flavors.  Food doesn’t have to be laden with fat, sugar and chemicals to be delicious.

Why do I always have to be the heavy…the junk food police?  I find it frustrating as a parent to have to monitor what choices are available at every event and deal with my children bargaining and harassing me about junk food while I would rather be enjoying my meal and socializing.  If mostly healthy choices are offered, it limits the negotiations, meltdowns, and viral infections that often follow a sugar fest.  And hey, I would like to be the good guy sometimes too! The one who doles out the treats! If they receive junk food everywhere else, I never get to be the one to style them out with my healthier versions.  If junk foods were not present at every event, I don’t even think kids would miss them.  It is up to us to encourage a change in food climate.  School parties can include a cookie or brownie, but how about adding a fruit plate, and some cheese and crackers, carrots and hummus, yogurt and fruit.  Let’s teach our children and ourselves that every event doesn’t warrant binging on junk food, and that healthy foods or even the experience itself can be the reward.

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Amanda M. Levitt, ND  has been practicing as a board certified naturopathic physician for over 10 years, applying her expertise in nutrition, herbal medicine, and other natural therapies to treat digestive problems, women’s health issues, pediatric conditions, and a wide range of general health concerns. Dr. Levitt is an owner and practicing physician at Whole Health Natural Family Medicine in Hamden, CT.  Dr. Levitt has three beautiful children and a wonderfully supportive husband.

A few weeks ago I saw the following title on Yahoo, “Two New Eating Disorders Discovered”, or something similar. Of course I was intrigued. So of course, I clicked on the link.

The first ‘new’ eating disorder discussed was ‘Adult Selective Eating’, or Severe Adult Picky Eaters. These adults tend to choose mostly bland, white foods like plain pasta, cheese pizza along with French fries or chicken fingers. Sound familiar? I found it fascinating that they described the very same kid foods that I have tried so hard to banish from my house. Perhaps, the article extrapolates, these adults just never outgrew a particularly picky eating phase as children. Perhaps there were other deep seated phobic reasons for the choice of such bland food. The article did not delve deeper.

The second ‘new’ eating disorder grabbed my attention a little more. It is called Orthorexia Nervosa. The term Orthorexia Nervosa was coined by Dr Steven Bratman, MD, and it is Latin for ‘correct eating’. A person with orthorexia is obsessed with eating healthfully or correctly. And the article states that for many sufferers of orthorexia eliminating processed foods is the first step towards the disease.

This caught my attention in a rather dramatic way, seeing as how I have been obsessed with healthy food and eliminating processed foods for well over a year.   I clicked over to Dr Bratman’s website where he has written several thoughtful essays including one entitled ‘The Health Food Eating Disorder’. In the essay, originally written in 1997 (proving that this eating disorder is not so new as Yahoo claimed it to be),  Bratman describes the time he spent living in a commune in upstate New York. On that commune he lived with vegetarians, vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians and those who enjoyed a side dish of meat. The essay is worth a read, so go ahead and click on over. Even one member had ideals about the way vegetables should be cut in order to maintain the energy of the vegetable!  At the end of the day, there was little that the communists could agree upon. Raw versus cooked foods, meat versus no meat. The debate was endless and all of the nutritional ideals conflicted at certain points.

It goes without saying that this Yahoo article interested me. I don’t lie in my own blog, The Table of Promise.  That is, I read and research about food and nutrition, but I haven’t come up with any of my ideas on my own. I have simply read about them, tried them out and shared the ones that I have liked. I fancy myself in a store. I am only going to buy the clothes that I like. So does that make me orthorexic?

Bratman’s website links up to a quiz. I think I was born with a Seventeen magazine in my hand, so naturally I love to take quizzes. This quiz is relatively easy. Fifteen questions about your eating habits, and at the end you will have a score which gives you a diagnosis of sorts. (Note: I am NOT a doctor, and taking quizzes online does no replace the care of a physician or health professional. Please PLEASE do not take drastic action in your life through diet, medication or any other means without first consulting with your health care professional.) In the quiz, each answer is rated 1-4 and at the end a score of less than 35 denotes orthorexia.

Some of the questions seem simple and even mainstream:

• Are you willing to spend more money to have healthier food? Well, yes, always.
• That one was kind of easy, but some of the questions were more thought provoking:
• Do you think that eating healthy food changes your life-style? Well, yes. My life has changed dramatically since beginning my blog. I would even go so far as to say that my life revolves around food. I try and make weekend plans around the farmer’s market because it is only open from 8am-3pm on Saturdays and the good stuff sells out. I eat out less often because I prefer my own home cooked organic meals to those heavy with salt and sugar from God knows where.
•  In the last 3 months did the thought of food worry you? Well…yes. I have worried over non-organic produce. I have worried if I should opt for truly organic turkey rather than the one at the FM simply labeled ‘no hormones’. I have worried about enforcing a tighter budget because of concern that I would not be able to afford the food that I think truly benefits my family. And I have worried about phytates so much that I am simply not ready to discuss it right now.
• Are your eating choices conditioned by your worry about your health status? Absolutely.
• My score on the quiz? 28.

I read 40-50 blogs about real food on a weekly basis. Many of these other bloggers share the same fervor and passion that I have about food and health. Many of them have overcome health adversities as a result of eliminating processed food, chemical additives and food dyes. My children have cut their seasonal illness by two thirds. Seasonal allergies are the worst thing we are dealing with these days. I believe that eating real food is the way to go. I believe whole heartedly that fat doesn’t make you fat, but rather it is an important macronutrient. I believe that many chemical additives are making people sick and interfering with their general health. But is that a strict rule for absolutely everyone? No it isn’t. Many people eat crap I don’t advocate and lead perfectly healthy lives. So am I crazy for believing I should eat only real food? Does that make me orthorexic?

I do not think that ‘orthorexic’ is a term that can describe me. Yes I worry about what I eat. I put a lot of time and effort into learning about food, time and effort in something that others may not be interested in. I may have altered my life considerably to fit real food in my schedule. But that doesn’t make me orthorexic. Because when it is someone’s birthday in the office, I still reach for a cupcake to celebrate someone’s special day. I do still eat out on occasion and I ENJOY it. Food is amazing and carnal and blissful. It should be enjoyed. I don’t obsess over food so that I can get an ‘A’ from the food police. This is not about some satisfaction that I am eating better than other people. It is not about my ego or my self-worth.

But that being said, my previous paragraph shouldn’t negate the disease. I think likely there are people who are truly afraid to eat certain foods whether the danger is real or imagined. There are people who refuse to eat out for fear that something might harm them. There are probably people who have lost friends over their food choices, and that is unfortunate. You should see the hate mail that Dr. Bratman gets on his website. It is unfortunate that an attempt to help some people who are suffering from something legitimate has invoked nasty letters. Dr Bratman is not necessarily saying that everyone needs to eat the Standard American Diet. He is not an agent of Monsanto. I agree and believe there are truly people out there who should seek counseling for their serious food manias. But maybe the online literature regarding the disease should spend more time talking about the phobia, mania and obsessive compulsive components of the disease and less about the food. Because when it all comes down to it, I eat organic real food because I do believe it is better for me. But I also believe that does NOT make me an orthorexic.

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Christa O’Brien lives in New York City with her husband and her two very energentic little boys. She believes in real traditional foods, living without modern processed foods and cooking with kids. In addition to working full time she blogs about cooking and eating real food at The Table of Promise: One Family’s Search for a Better Meal.

There was one day when I was in the eighth grade that I was standing in the school cafeteria after classes had ended. There was a group of people near me, some of whom I knew, and some of whom I didn’t. There was one young girl who I recognized from my church, but I had never introduced myself. I walked up to her, did the introduction thing, and her response was a surprisingly confident “Oh yeah! You’re that fat girl so-and-so was telling me about.” I can’t quite remember, but I must have stuttered some small response and then I walked away in my own amazement.

This event happened nearly 18 years ago, yet even now when I think about it, the palms of my hands sweat. The memory still upsets me, although I am not angry anymore. I don’t seek revenge. It has made me the forgiving person I am today. In junior high school I was chubby. And I was teased for being chubby. There may have been bigger kids than me, and there may have been kids who were teased more than me. That isn’t important. I am not trying to hang myself on a cross here, I am pretty sure that movie has been made. But my experience of being overweight and vulnerable left an undeniable imprint on my person. As a result, I developed a desire to be empathetic to others and to look beyond any outward appearance for who they are inside. I believe that as a result, I have become a relatively good judge of character.

Last month DH sent me a link. DH does not send me food related links ever. It is much more likely that he will send me a link to an SNL skit. So when I got the email entitled “Pretty Good Article about Childhood Obesity”, I took notice. The article began by describing a series of Georgia billboards in which obese children stand next to print such as “Big bones didn’t make me this way, big meals did.” The effect was almost pornographic. Parents were furious! The Georgia Children’s Health Alliance who created the ads said they were aimed at parents that need a wake-up call when it comes to their children’s health and weight. A doting parent can easily forgive a few pounds rather than get tough and stop buying junk food. However the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance called for the billboards removal due to the negative stigmatizing of overweight and obese children.

The article is excellent, and there are several very quotable sound bites included. Please read the full article if you get a chance. But in reading it I was left so confused, conflicted, and a little self-hating. On one hand, obese children are likely the most stigmatized group of children out there. Their obesity is on display. And it has been proven in study after study – stigmatization and bullying are not effective motivators for weight loss. In fact, it is believed that bullying increases the likelihood that one will continue to engage in behaviors that increase weight gain, creating an endless cycle. And furthermore, the article continues, overweight children are usually left out of the bullying discussion, which generally tends to center around sexual orientation, race and religion among others.

Yet I couldn’t help but stop and stare at the group called the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. I had no idea such a group even existed. Here I am, someone who has felt the verbal barbs of fat-hatred.  I am also someone that does not, under any circumstance, condone harassment.  Yet, I can’t say that I am rushing to exclaim that our obesity problem should just be overlooked so that people don’t feel bad. And I have a feeling that others think the same way. Conflicted is probably the best word to describe how I was feeling.

According to the NIDDK, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services, two thirds of the US adult population is overweight or obese. Over one third of the US adult population is obese. Only about 5.7% of the population is considered extremely obese (BMI greater than 40). Obesity rates among the total population remained relatively even until 1980, when they took off. In the early 1990’s another spike is visible. Research remains inconclusive about the reasons for the various spikes.

Obesity is a national epidemic, as is the stigmatization and discrimination of overweight and obese people. And considering the depth of obesity in our nation, it is not just a case of the thin mocking the fat. It is likely that there are discriminators all along the size scale, simply discriminating against those larger than themselves. Perhaps some folks reading feel that discrimination and name calling should simply be an accepted ‘negative consequence’ of being overweight. Perhaps people assume that the overweight should be held personally responsible and should simply take action and lose weight to avoid ridicule. Perhaps some people worry that ending stigmatization sends the message that being overweight is perfectly fine even though it carries considerable health risks? I just can’t go there. I agree with that initial article DH sent me: being called a nasty name, or being left out of a social situation does nothing to help someone lose weight. It is far more likely that a ridiculed person will continue to gain weight as a result of the stigmatization.

However, I also agree that overlooking obesity and accepting it in order that no one ‘feels bad’ doesn’t really help the problem either. In 2009 CBS News reported that about 147 billion dollars were spent each year on obesity and the related illnesses associated with obesity. By comparison, only about $100 billion dollars were spent on all cancers combined. And for the individual, an obese person can expect personal health care costs of approximately 42% (or $1429) more than their regular weight counterpart. But costs aside, don’t forget that additional health care costs mean that someone is SICK. Despite the economic burden, an obese person can experience a reduced quality of life from chronic pain, joint degradation, fatigue, difficulty breathing, etc as it relates to their obesity. And let’s not forget, obesity is considered largely preventable by the medical field. We prevented it rather well until about 1980. So I understand the person who would say that to accept fatness is to accept a poor quality of life. But I believe that everyone deserves a better quality of life! It is counterintuitive to fully accept a condition that is bringing so many of our countrymen misery.

What I believe we really need to have is a healthy positive food culture in place that supports weight loss and the maintenance of a healthy weight. We place on a pedestal outrageous foods full of fat and sugar and try to counter it with celery sticks and low fat fake foods. Our eating habits are too high and too low. My approach since beginning my blog has been to eliminate most of the highs and lows of my diet. I try to eat a normal, healthy diet everyday. And while I certainly have celebration foods and will eat some small amounts of refined sugar, I tend to stay away from dishes that seem over the top. The Bacon Explosion comes to mind. How did we ever get to a place where we feel that eating that way is appropriate? The accepted notion that outrageous foods can be balanced in the diet with lower fat, lower calorie options is the hallmark of our sick food culture. And to those who want to exclusively eat these over the top ‘live your life to the fullest’ foods, obesity is certainly waiting around the corner.

With a name like The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, I assumed that their agenda would be to make you accept obesity or ‘fatness’. And accepting obesity to me is like accepting smoking. However that’s not what the NAAFA is. The NAAFA is an organization that wants to end the discrimination of fat people. Their website clearly states, “Fat people are discriminated against in all aspects of daily life, from employment to education to access to public accommodations, and even access to adequate medical care.” And I think most Americans know that this is wrong. Yet, we also know that it happens daily. I believe that it is important to fight obesity and not the obese person, all while not confusing the two.

When I began to write this post, along with feeling conflicted, silent is another word that comes to mind. Although I read that thought-provoking article over a month ago, I didn’t even consider writing a post about it until last week because I considered the topic too controversial. I feared my inability to adequately discuss all the angles of the topic, and I also feared upsetting others. It is likely that are many, many people are like me.  That is, I (we) don’t want to fully reject the stigmatization of being overweight for fear that it might encourage the problem to grow. But in the end, as I have sorted out my thoughts, my issues are not with the people who are overweight but with the culture that has allowed obesity to become such a problem. Discrimination against anyone because of their gender, race, religion OR weight is downright wrong. And it is not helping anyone get well. This broken food culture is what’s hurting us. It is making us sick. And it should not be condoned. All the medicine and diet plans in the world won’t help us if we still long to eat foods that make us sick.

Now it is your turn. What do you think? What questions has this post raised for you?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110501/ap_on_re_us/us_obesity_backlash

http://www.naafaonline.com/dev2/about/index.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/25/sunday/main5419040.shtml

http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/

http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/resources/upload/docs/what/bias/WeightBiasStudy.pdf

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Christa O’Brien lives in New York City with her husband and her two very energentic little boys. She believes in real traditional foods, living without modern processed foods and cooking with kids. In addition to working full time she blogs about cooking and eating real food at The Table of Promise: One Family’s Search for a Better Meal.

See, I’m a planner.  A do-er.  I like to think it’s one of my best qualities…but know that it can also be my worst enemy, particularly when things just aren’t going my way.  Welcome to my August.  I’ll spare you the details (a phrase I’m using way too often lately), but to make a long story short: I had other plans for August.  But instead, I’ve found us living in a constant state of Plan B.

Welcome to Mommy Camp.  Mommy Camp is me with two kids, all day, everyday and no real plans.  It’s me thinking on my feet.  It’s me wondering what today’s road block will be, because I’m telling you, they just keep coming.  It’s me pulling my Mommy-self up by my bootstraps every morning and repeating the Mommy Camp mantra, “Remember, they’re yours to keep forever, so be nice.”  :)  Thought I’d share some things I’ve pieced together after nearly 2 weeks of full-on Mommy Camp.  Some days it’s felt like a really bad episode of Survivor and other days it’s felt like what Summer is supposed to feel like!

Made a bird feeder

M is into Sid the Science Kid and is keen on “reusing” things after watching it on Sid.  She insisted we make something out of a milk container.  I whipped up some glue using flour and water – which was equally interesting to her, it turns out – gave her some tissue paper remnants and let her go at it.  Got the idea for using tissue paper from Pink and Green Mama.  Knocked on the neighbor’s door and asked to “borrow” some bird seed.  Filled it, hung it.  Done.

Let M Yarn Bomb Our Trees

Not even sure how this happened, but I found M wrapping our trees with yarn and building a gigantic web.  I swear it wasn’t my idea!  She kept asking for more yarn and I kept giving it to her.  It’s not the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen (which I would never tell her), but it was literally, hours of entertainment for her.  Later that day, we sat down and Googled “Yarn Bombing” and I showed her some of the really incredible projects other folks have done.  She was totally amazed.  She especially liked this tree.

Made Homemade Playdough

We hadn’t made playdough in a while so we made some on that really rainy Monday we just had.  The dough hasn’t left the kitchen table for two days now.  One or both of the kids seem to have their hands on it anytime we’re in the kitchen.  I love, love, love this recipe.  Quick and easy as long as you keep a stash of Cream of Tartar around.

Practiced Writing Numbers

It’s the teacher in me, sorry.  A white board, some dry erase markers, a rag and we’re golden.  Can I tell you how much I love white boards?  I have this odd, oblong shaped one that is perfect for this.  I think every kid should have their own mini-whiteboard at home.  Come school, it’s great for practicing things like spelling words, math facts, handwriting…  Not that M is doing any of those things yet, but we’re already getting lots of use out of her whiteboard.  It’s amazing what 20 minutes with one-on-one attention can buy you.  Worth mentioning that I’m also a huge fan of Priddy Book’s Wipe Clean books.  Same concept as a white board, except in workbook form.

Painted

Paper, paints, brushes for M (including an oversized brush she found in the garage) and fingers for E.  Easy.

Made a Garden Stone

In our craft cabinet, I stored away a couple of crafty gifts M had gotten for her birthday.  Took out a Make Your Own Garden Stone kit.  It was one of those projects where I did a lot of the work; it required cement mixing, afterall.  But she liked the pretty stones.  Still have to find a home for it in our yard.

Made Homemade Donuts

A while back I had told M a story about Grandma’s delicious donuts and she couldn’t believe that Grandma actually knew how to make a donut.  It wasn’t the shock that Grandma could do it, it was more a disbelief that anyone could do it!  I guess she’d never stopped to think how a donut was made.  When the weather’s lousy, my first instinct is to bake something.  Last rainy Sunday’s project: donuts.  I hadn’t made donuts since I don’t know when, but damn, I’ve still got the touch!  Sprinkled with a little powdered sugar – delish!  M loved making donuts together, she really did.  It was like watching myself as a kid.  Learned everything I know being my own Mommy’s sous chef in her kitchen and now look at me :)  Good stuff.

Made Flower Bouquets

The black-eyed Susans are aplenty right now.  Found M pulling them out of the garden and just rolled with it.  For a quick minute I thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, but ended up giving her a pair of scissors to cut them instead of yank them roots and all.  Turns out my sweet gal had this idea to make flower bouquets that she tied together with some sparkly pipe cleaners so that she could leave them on the neighbors’ doorsteps.  How sweet is that?

Made Tissue Paper Butterflies

My favorite kind of craft these days is the open-ended kind.  With a 1 year old that walks around the house looking, searching for things to climb, it’s not an exactly ideal setup for lengthy craft projects with M.  The other day she invented these whimsical butterflies using tissue paper and more of those sparkly pipe cleaners.  It’s not so much the craft that’s important here as the concept I’m trying to move to with her:  Sit.  Experiment.  Think.  Create.  You decide, not Mommy.

Had a Travelling Lemonade Stand

When your lemonade stand isn’t getting any foot traffic, put that show on the road!  We did just that the other day with the neighbor kids and boy was it a hit.  Whipped up a batch of Lemonade, grabbed some cups and a money box and had the kids pull it around the neighborhood in a wagon.  They had the best time, so much, they begged to sell a second pitcher.

Made Mud Cupcakes

Saw this cute idea to make mud cupcakes and so we did.  The kids were covered in mud when it was all said and done, but it was nothing the kiddie pool couldn’t solve.

Tie Dyed Some T-shirts

Why not?  Got a couple of Once Upon a Child white shirts (not a special trip, we were already there) and some dye from Michael’s next door, came home and reminded myself of the basics here.  This was a M-only project while E napped.  We wore aprons, set up outside, and make-shifted gloves by tying plastic shopping bags around our hands.  This was a very imprecise project as I eye-balled the amount of dye I mixed with salt water, but it seemed to work just fine.  There’s something extra fun about “coloring” a plain white shirt, isn’t there?  It’s like supervised mischief :)

Played at the Beach

When all else fails, we lather up with sunscreen, get buckets, shovels, an umbrella and play at the beach (I’m a minimalist by nature).  Mommy Camp has very luckily coincided with afternoon low tide and it’s truly my favorite time to be at the beach with the kids.  Plop ‘em on the sandbar and everyone’s happy :)

Fieldtrips in the Works:

Connecticut Science Center in Hartford

Peach Picking in Cheshire

Now you tell me, what things have you done at your own Mommy Camp, or perhaps Daddy Camp?