dissociatedpress.com » food

Eat Like a Caveman

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:56:55 +0000

Hey America: are you fat, lethargic, stressed out, and always suffering minor ailments? Well, stop thinking like a caveman and start eating like one. I didn’t realize it until a friend pointed it out to me, but except for massive amounts of chocolate, coffee, and cigarettes, I eat a Paleo Diet. And I feel great. Our friend George pictured here has it all wrong as usual. Lay off the corn, for starters. Otherwise, the basic idea is simple: we only started eating many common foods with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, and evolution hasn’t had time for our organism to adapt to the diet. Therefore, eat things like lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots and nuts, and don’t eat so many grains, beans, and dairy products. Also watch the salt, sugar and processed oils. For recipes and lots of links to other resources, visit PaleoDiet.com. Friends of mine who actually subscribe to the specifics of the diet say not to be obsessive about it; as soon as you start lowering your intake of grains and dairy a little, you actually start losing your appetite for these foods. The same friends also recommended The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat. Happy hunting, grunting and gathering!

Detroit: Turning Fords into Plowshares?

admin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:42:53 +0000

Having grown up in the shadow of Detroit’s Beirut-like inner-city crumbling buildings, it’s exciting for me to find out that someone’s working on an innovative and green idea for re-vitalizing parts of the city. Urban Farming is a non-profit whose mission is to “eradicate hunger while increasing diversity, motivating youth and seniors and optimizing the production of unused land for food and alternative energy”. Sounds to me like a great prescription for many of Detroit’s problems. This BBC News piece has a nice overview, and Urban Farming’s media page has many more press links.

Spread the Word, or Spread the Compost?

admin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:58:21 +0000

Call me cynical, but maybe the people that are so worried about this issue and have time to design nifty graphics for it could just order less food? Or think of a way to convert their waste pizza to fuel? I’m not sure what I think about RePlate.org’s idea of putting your unfinished food on top of trash cans instead of in them to make it easier for homeless people to eat it. It seems to me there are plenty of people who are happy enough doing the necessary diving for dinner that we’d really just be creating a trash problem rather than performing a public service. Interesting concept though. Read their FAQ and decide for yourself.