The celebrities are featured in a new Just Label It (JLI) video calling for the FDA to require labeling of GE foods.  Fox, Bowen and Larter are joined in the video by 24 other entertainers like Chevy Chase and advocates and Just Label It (JLI) Chairman, Gary Hirshberg.

Bowen, a mother of three sons, shows her support for labeling by revealing a sign in the video with the message: “Every modern family has the right to know what’s in their food!”

As a mom, she gets it.  And it’s a message many of us can relate to.

It’s great to see mothers like Bowen, Ali Larter, Kimberly Van Der Beek and Anne Heche stand up for their right to know what’s in the foods they are feeding their families, as it’s a right that’s already been given to eaters in dozens of countries around the world, even in China, Russia and India.

The United States remains one of the few developed countries in the world that has not yet labeled these ingredients, introduced into our food supply in the 1990s, in our foods.

The message in this video sums up the argument JLI has been making throughout the country: every American deserves the right to know about their food and whether they are eating or serving their families food that has been genetically engineered.

Just Label It is petitioning the FDA to update its 20-year-old voluntary guidelines and require labeling for GE foods, giving a voice to all Americans who are concerned about wha is going into the foods they are feeding their loved ones.  Today, more than 1.2 million Americans have joined the petition. I hope you will too, so that together, we can have this same basic right enjoyed by citizens around the world.

To learn more, please visit Just Label It .

In an analysis of 237 studies of organic produce, meats and dairy foods, Stanford scientists determined that organic foods are no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts.   The recent study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine has the food world spinning.  The scientists looked at vitamin C in produce and omega three fatty acids in animal products among other nutrients and concluded that there just wasn’t enough difference to impact human health.

Human nutrition is a young science.  The first “vitamin” was discovered early in the 20^th century, the Recommended Dietary Allowances were first released in 1941 and the first dietary guidelines were established in 1980.

Since the beginning, nutrition science has been preoccupied with identifying essential nutrients.  This early orientation has led too many nutrition scientists down a path of reductionist thinking, as if food were merely a delivery vehicle for essential nutrients in our diet.  Today the rest of the food world is pushing back.  Farmers, chefs, journalists, environmentalists, foodies, as well as many more integrative nutritionists, dietitians and other health care providers are crying foul.

The push back to the Stanford study has been enormous.  Many Americans have become far too sophisticated in the post Omnivore’s Dilemma era to take the narrow findings of this study at face value.  Every post I have read over the past two days immediately points to the real differences between organic and conventional food.  To many consumers, the value of organic food production was never only about the nutrients.

The Problem with Reductionist Science

The traditional approach to studying nutrition is fragmented.  Nutrition science often focuses on the smallest components of the diet, the essential nutrients.  Most funding for nutrition research is appropriated for studies regarding specific nutrients.

It is easier to study a single nutrient compared to the overall diet.  This is why you get to read front page stories telling you to avoid fat, or more specifically to eat more unsaturated fat, and even more specifically to consume more omega 3 fatty acids.

There is very limited research looking at overall dietary patterns, and even less linking the production of food to anything.   Too often the only concern is what happens to man.  Nutrition science tends to ignore the rest of our ecological home.  Today, there is a need for nutrition science to connect more of the dots.

WHAT ABOUT THE VITAMINS AND MINERALS

Most critics of the Stanford study focus on the findings of the researchers.  People want to think organic food must be far superior compared to conventionally raised foods.  But research looking at nutrient content of organic versus conventionally grown food is mixed.

Sometimes conventional foods show higher nutrient content.   (Although research shown below shows that organically grown produce has higher content more often)  Still, this kind of data doesn’t often inspire the average Joe or Jane to pull out their hard earned cash to pay a premium for an organic product.

OMEGA THREE CONTENT IS DIFFERENT

The omega three fatty acid data is more compelling.    Greater amounts of omega three fatty acids are thought to be health promoting.  A lower ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 is linked to less inflammation.  Less inflammation is associated with reduced risk of everything from cancer, diabetes, and heart disease to allergies, asthma, and more.

Grass fed beef is markedly different than beef from conventionally raised cattle.    Grass fed beef contains more omega 3 fatty acids.   Grass fed beef has a 2:1 ratio of omega six to omega three fatty acids; conventional beef has a ratio of 9:1.  The greater amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in grass fed beef is bonus.

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HEALTH, NUTRITION AND DISEASE?

The Stanford’s study glaring omissions are exactly what has so many people energized about eating closer to the earth and preferentially choosing organic foods.

1. People know that water is important.  Runoff from conventional farms using conventional NPK fertilizer pollutes the waterways and creates dead zones in the oceans.

1. Today’s educated consumers don’t want to consume added hormones in their food supply.  The use of recombinant bovine growth hormone in dairy cows is far less common than it once was.  Many consumers won’t buy milk containing rBGH.
2. The educated food consumer knows that 80% of all antibiotics are used with animals, often in animal feed as a growth enhancer.  They worry about the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

1. Today’s consumers are concerned about exposure to pesticides, insecticides and other chemical agents used in conventional farming.  They are aware these substances pose risk to human health.  They bio-accumulate in fat stores.

These agents are known endocrine disruptors.   95% of “persistent organic pollutants” enter our body via the food supply.  These chemical agents impact all life forms, especially compromising biodiversity of insects and microbes in the soil.

1. Consumers have every reason to be wary of genetically engineered and GMO foods.   Studies regarding the safety of genetic engineering are inadequate.

Proponents of genetic engineering would like consumers to accept that GMO foods are “substantially equivalent” to traditionally cultivated foods.   Currently, substantial equivalence is determined using 90 day studies with lab rats.  No wonder the current initiative to label GMO foods in California garners huge public support.

WE CAN NOT AFFORD TO EAT ACCORDING TO REDUCTIONIST SCIENCE

When making food choices we can no longer afford to only consider the nutrient content of food.   The way food is grown and harvested matters.  They way in which food is processed matters.  The methods and packaging used to transport our food matters.

Today nutrition scientists need to broaden their scope and consider their findings in much broader context.  The range of issues impacting human health encompasses the health of our precious resources:  the vitality of livestock, crop diversity, soil ecology, the health of our oceans, our supply of fresh water and clean air.   Everyone connected to the food supply needs to understand and respect this truth.  Good nutrition has never been just about the nutrients.

_____

Bonnie Modugno, MS, RD, is a registered dietitian in private practice specializing in energy metabolism and sport nutrition. Bonnie works extensively with individuals and families addressing nutrition concerns throughout the lifecycle, with a special focus on maternal, infant and child nutrition.  She is a speaker and author, writing her blog at www.muchmorethanfood.com

Today, one in eleven children struggle with asthma, and one in four are affected by allergies. The incidence of allergy has increased significantly over the past two decades, and allergy to peanuts has more than doubled from 1997 to 2002. Approximately 30 million children – more than 1/3 of our kids – are affected by one of these four new childhood epidemics. This is not something we can just accept.

The official statistic holds that allergies affect some 7 million Americans, including about 6 percent of children below the age of three. That information comes courtesy of U.S. Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, J., D.V.M., Ph.D., speaking before the Consumer Federation of America on April 22, 2002. But that data is now almost ten years old.

Since then, the only update we’ve had is from the Centers for Disease Control and a report issued in 2008 that said that there has been a 265% increase in the rate of hospitalizations related to food allergic reactions.

This begs explanation.

An allergy is basically an overreaction by your immune system to a protein that it perceives as a threat—for example, the proteins in particular types of food, the dust mite protein, or pollen. For people without allergies, these proteins are harmless. But if you’ve got an allergy, your immune system sees these proteins as dangerous invaders.

To drive the invader out, your immune system mobilizes all its resources: mucous, to flush out the intruder; vomiting, to force it out; diarrhea, to expel it quickly. Such conditions may make you feel sick, but they’re actually evidence of your body’s attempts to get well.

A key aspect of the immune response is known as inflammation, characterized by one or more of four classic symptoms: redness, heat, swelling, and pain. Inflammation doesn’t occur only in allergic reactions; it flares up whenever your body feels threatened, in response to a bruise, cut, bacteria, or virus as well as to otherwise harmless pollen, dust, or food. Scientists now believe that much of our immune system is found in our digestive tracts, where many of these inflammatory reactions occur in the form of stomachaches, cramping, nausea, bloating, and vomiting.

Ironically, the immune system’s inflammatory reaction—meant to heal and protect the body—often causes more problems than the initial “invader” in the cases when allergic reactions become life-threatening.

Common Symptoms of Food Allergy: Immediate Reactions

* rash or hives

* nausea

* stomach pain

* diarrhea

* itchy skin

* eczema

* shortness of breath

* chest pain

* swelling of the airways to the lungs

* anaphylaxis

Food Allergies and Food Sensitivity: Our Immune System Overreacts Again

At first glance, the distinction between “allergies” and “sensitivity” may seem like a meaningless word game. But understanding the relationship between these two conditions is crucial to grasping the true nature of the allergy epidemic—and to seeing how even the supposedly healthy foods in our kitchens may be harmful to our health.

As we’ve seen, allergies are an overreaction of our immune system, a kind of exaggerated response to a perceived danger. When a child comes in contact with these proteins (peanut, egg, wheat, etc.) her immune system “recognizes” the protein as dangerous, just as it would have seen the danger in the bacterium that causes pneumonia or the virus that causes mumps. In response, her immune system creates special “fighter” proteins called antibodies designed to identify and neutralize the “invader.”

These fighter proteins are known as immunoglobulin E, or IgE for short. When they’re released into the bloodstream, their purpose is to “seek and destroy” the invader, which they do by creating one or more of the classic food allergy symptoms, such as the hives, or the diarrhea with which other children respond, or, in more extreme cases, the anaphylactic shock that can kill a child within minutes.

The classic IgE response occurs within minutes or even seconds, because IgE proteins are some of the most aggressive antibodies we know. That immediate IgE response is the defining characteristic of an allergic reaction.

Food sensitivities start out in a similar way. If a “sensitive” child is exposed to a protein that his system perceives as a threat, he’ll manufacture another type of fighter protein, known as Immunglobulin G, or IgG. Although IgE and IgG antibodies play similar roles, they produce somewhat different—though often overlapping—symptoms.

A crucial difference between the two, though, is their reaction time. The less aggressive IgG antibodies typically produce a delayed response that might not appear for hours or even days after the child has consumed the offending food.

So even though food sensitivities and food allergies both produce painful, inflammatory, and potentially dangerous responses, this delayed reaction time has led many doctors to give food sensitivities second-class status. Partly that’s because they don’t present an immediate and obvious threat to children’s lives: only the IgE proteins trigger anaphylactic shock, for example, and in that sense, only the IgE proteins can kill (though the IgG reaction can have serious long-term consequences). I also think that traditional doctors tend to downplay the importance of nutrition, frequently dismissing the idea that such symptoms as earache, eczema, crankiness, brain fog, and sleep problems might be related to a child’s diet.

However, an article in The Lancet, Britain’s most respected medical journal, casts another light on the subject. The article referred to doctors who use elimination diets—diets that begin with a very limited, “safe” array of food choices and then add potentially problematic foods back into the diet, one by one.

The reason to do an elimination diet is to identify which foods in your diet might be triggering symptoms like skin rashes, fatigue, or stomach ache. Often, some foods affect us without our realizing it and we live with the symptoms, taking medicine to alleviate the suffering. But if you eliminate these foods from your diet, you may find that your symptoms disappear. What becomes even more interesting is that when you reintroduce the offending food, you may suddenly suffer drastic symptoms which make it clear that the food was indeed triggering one or more problems. An elimination diet can sometimes reveal with dramatic speed that a particular food you’ve always believed was harmless is actually causing such chronic symptoms as headache, digestive problems, and even more serious complaints. Masked by your daily diet and by the slowness of the food-sensitivity reaction, the offending food does its dirty work without ever realizing that it is the culprit behind your—or your child’s—disorders.

When you take a break from eating that problem food, however, and then add it back into your diet, you see how powerful its effects are and how responsible it may be for a seemingly unrelated problem. Foods that you thought were safe for you turn out to be highly problematic, indicating the presence of a previous undiagnosed food sensitivity. As a result, the authors of the Lancet article conclude that the prevalence of food sensitivity (referred to in the article as “food intolerance”) has been seriously underestimated.

Certainly, food allergies are far more dramatic. Whenever you read about a kid who died within minutes of eating at a fast-food joint or after breathing in the peanut dust from a friend’s candy wrapper, that’s an “IgE-mediated” food allergy. They’re fast, they can be deadly, and I’m glad doctors want to give them the attention they deserve.

But I also think doctors should be looking at delayed reactions, too, the “IgG-mediated” responses to food sensitivities. And some doctors do look seriously at both. Most conventional doctors, though, tend to focus on IgE immediate reactions. I think there are lots of reasons why they should view the two types of reactions as part of a larger, single problem.

First, both reactions have the same ultimate cause: the immune system’s overreaction to apparently harmless food. According to internationally acclaimed author and physician Kenneth Bock, M.D., there’s also quite a bit of overlap between IgE and IgG symptoms. Both can contribute to inflammatory responses in multiple body systems.

True, the delayed IgG reactions are less likely to cause hives and are more likely to produce a host of apparently vague symptoms, such as headache, brain fog, sleep problems, joint pain, fatigue, and muscle aches. But both the immediate and the delayed responses are immune system problems triggered by a supposedly “harmless” food.

Conventional doctors’ tendency to separate “IgE-mediated” food allergies and “IgG-mediated” food sensitivities into two separate problems has the effect of minimizing the allergy epidemic. Remember, IgE allergies, IgG sensitivities, and asthma—three similar ways that our immune systems can overreact—are all on the rise. It makes sense to find a doctor who is willing to address all three as symptoms of a greater underlying issue.

Common Symptoms of Food Sensitivity: Delayed Reactions

* fatigue

* gastrointestinal problems, including bloating and gas

* itchy skin and skin rashes like eczema

* brain fog

* muscle or joint aches

* headache

* sleeplessness and sleep disorders

* chronic rhinitis (runny nose), congestion, and post-nasal drip

Four Take-Aways:

1. Even if your kids can’t talk, their skin speaks volumes! Did you know that the skin is a person’s largest organ? Even when your kid is too young to tell you how he feels or too used to her symptoms to identify them (when kids hurt all the time, they don’t know they hurt!), you can often read your child’s condition in his or her skin.

Does your kid have eczema? Does he get rashes around the mouth, especially after he eats a certain food or swallows a certain beverage? Rashes around the knees, elbows, or armpits? Does he have “allergic shiners”—that is, dark circles under the eyes?

These are all inflammatory reactions, signs that the body is trying to rid itself of what it perceives as “toxic invader.” In your child’s case, that “toxic invader” might be an apparently harmless food, to which your kid is either allergic or “sensitive.” Keeping that invader away from your kid may bring relief from symptoms—and it may clear up other problems, such as brain fog, crankiness, sleep problems, inattention, acne, and mood swings.

2. The toilet bowl has a lot to tell you. Your kids’ bowel movements, not to be too delicate here, also speak volumes. Runny poops are a sign that a person isn’t properly digesting his food. And indeed, as we got the allergens out of some children’s diets, poops tend to firm up.

3. Chronic ear infections are often a sign of dairy allergies. In some cases, milk may have ill effects like eczema, upset stomachs or chronic ear infections for children who are allergic or sensitive to it.

4. Find a doctor who is willing to work with you, test for both IgE and IgG allergies and sensitivities and to address the important role that elimination diets can play in managing allergic symptoms like eczema, ear infections and chronic mucous.

Disclaimer: Always discuss individual health inquiries and medical issues with a qualified personal physician and/or specialist. Robyn O’Brien/AllergyKids is not responsible for medical decisions made by any one person. The professionals who share their knowledge, discussions, minutes, handouts, agendas, and other products do not constitute medical and/or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Always discuss individual health inquiries and medical issues with a qualified personal physician and/or specialist.

At AllergyKids, inspiration matters to us…a lot. Because when you are handed a diagnosis – whether it’s a life-threatening food allergy or a child’s cancer – you need every shot of hope, inspiration and strength that you can get.

So when a friend emailed an article titled, “Happy Anniversary,” the same week that marked the 6 year anniversary of that life-changing breakfast that resulted in a food allergic reaction at our breakfast table, I reflected on how there really are no coincidences. Just lessons.

And we are grateful for them.

And when we hear stories like the one you are about to read below, we feel compelled to share them. Not because we believe that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to health and wellness, but because they offer so much hope. And hope is the knowledge that change is possible even when it seems hard to imagine.

So meet Nancy, a mom whose husband is beating brain cancer, in a post she shares called “Happy Anniversary” from their website Love, Laugh, Veggies.

I have never been into anniversaries. That sounds so un-romantic. I am always aware how many years Lance and I have been married, for example, and secretly psyched when we made it a decade, and kept on going, but I didn’t care about making a big deal about the actual day. I like to celebrate random days, not necessarily THE day.

However, this anniversary is different. It’s significant. It brings mixed emotions. Usually when you say “Happy Anniversary” it’s because that particular day was a celebratory one. A year ago was not celebratory for us. In fact, it sucked. It was hands down the worst day of our lives. I was sitting in ICU thinking all the worst things one could think, crying my eyes out, ridden with shock and sadness.

So when I look at where we are now, I think now that’s something to celebrate! Lately, I’ve been looking at Lance, thinking, “Damn, you look good.” In fact, this past weekend, we were at some hot springs near Winter Park with our friends. We were all coming out of the changing rooms with our swim suits on and both my friend and I took a double take when Lance came out in his bathing suit. He looked fit and strong and healthy and just plain good. My friend said something to me about how Lance looked, I nodded.

And when I think about all that we learned and grew and did and tackled and accomplished in the past year, it makes me beam with pride. We worked hard at getting where Lance is today. We didn’t let anything get in our way…not doctors, not naysayers, not statistics. We just put those aside and tried to be the best students possible. We continued to learn as we went along and added, or subtracted whatever was serving us or not serving us and kept on forging ahead. This included not only nutrition, but meditating, visualizing, resting, learning, learning, and more learning, being conscious in everything we did and being really clear on what we had time for and what we didn’t. It was like the ultimate fine tuning of our lives.

Also, a year is significant because getting to a year in Lance’s case was a big deal and increases his chances all the more. A couple months ago, I started feeling that sense that we were coming up to a year and Lance was doing so good and it made me think of the little engine that could and I kept thinking, “Come on, you can do it.”

While my Dad was in the hospital here in Boulder with his broken leg, I asked him if he would like to see Lance’s last MRI. Since my Dad is a retired radiologist (that specialized in neurology) this whole business with Lance has been a little touchy. I knew without discussing his views that we had very different perspectives on Lance’s condition but he kept his thoughts to himself (thanks Dad, I am eternally grateful to you for that). However, in this bonding father/daughter moment, I showed him Lance’s last MRI and watched him as he stared in quiet disbelief. He really could not believe what he was seeing. Because what he was seeing was practically NOTHING!

We didn’t immediately share Lance’s results on purpose for 2 reasons. 1) We both needed it to sink in and savor it. 2) We don’t want to jinx ourselves and seem cocky (we are still in this game). Basically what was once the size of a racket ball is now the size of a pea (and that could be just dead tissue).

So what we have to celebrate is a successful year of extreme discipline. I don’t think about that day, one year ago, and what it was like. I think about today and how far we have come. I think about how life and every single day should be celebrated, not just that one day. I think about that no matter what you are going through, there is always hope, there is always beating the odds, there is that silver lining. I feel grateful that Lance and I were blessed with that strength and foresight to have the outlook we have had. I hope that no matter what you are going through, whatever adversity you are facing, that you can have the strength to pull yourself out of it. Know that life is constantly changing and if you face your issues head on, with love and openness, before you know it a year has past and you think to yourself (as I do know),”What a difference a year can make!”

About Nancy Gentry: Nancy is living proof that norms, rules (and diagnoses) are made to be broken. In January 2011, Nancy’s husband found out he had brain cancer and had major brain surgery a few days later. Rather than accept the doctor’s dismal diagnosis, Nancy decided to tackle her biggest life challenge with food, juicing, love, laughter, meditation and more and put her and her husband on an uber-healthy trajectory. It took a little while for the burger eating, fried food loving, multi-tasking, too busy running Justin’s Nut Butter president to adapt to this way of life. However today, Lance and Nancy feel they could not be healthier and look back on 2011 as one of the biggest gifts of their lives. Their new balanced lifestyle and attention to every aspect of their lives has given her husband a new perspective allowing him to thrive. Nancy has begun coaching others on incorporating love, laughter and veggies into everyday life (www.lovelaughveggies), creating preventative, inspiring lifestyles for those who want to live life to the fullest and healthiest both inside and out. She hopes to inspire people (and you!) to take care of themselves and learn from their experience and learn how to prevent DIS-EASE by implementing some simple changes in their life NOW. From the non-stop frenzy of producing her own tv show, to the runways of the Parisian modeling world to being one of the world’s first moms to choreograph their husband’s healing from a malignant brain tumor, Nancy is living proof that norms, rules and diagnoses are meant to be broken.

You can follow Nancy and Lance at www.lovelaughveggies.com

So take a minute to watch it and think about what you can do to lend your unique talents and become part of the change. Because, together, we can create a healthy future for our children.

I thought about all the diets I had been on over the years. Each one promising, each one failing. Atkins helped me lose 60 lbs. then after a year, I gained it and 50 lbs. more back. I tried liquid and eating pre-made meals (gross) of what I thought was healthy. I’d lose 20 lbs. then stop and gain it right back. Enough was enough.

I love food so I decided I’m going to learn everything about it.

What is real healthy food?

I first gave up sugar. Then it was white flour. My sons were both doing the Paleo diet so I learned from them about eating lean meats, vegetable and fruits nuts and seeds. The first month was horrible. The cravings for sugar were endless. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and likened it to a drug addict. Was I really this addicted to sugar? I started looking at all the foods in my cabinets. Canned foods with corn syrup added, salad dressings w/ corn syrup, whole grain cereals, there’s the corn syrup again! Products I thought were healthy choices were full of corn syrup and chemicals I couldn’t pronounce.

What is going on?!

I began dumping everything that was processed and wasn’t a whole food that was in my kitchen. My cupboards were bare.

I then began watching documentaries to get educated on where our food comes from. King Corn, Food Inc., everything netflix had to offer on food documentaries. My favorites was to market to market to buy a fat pig which was about Farmers Markets and where their food comes from… Wow, what a difference and that’s when I really started getting mad.

It’s also when I noticed children holding large red dye slurpys and I wanted to cry for them! I researched every farmers market in our area and began to learn more about Organic food.

I started talking more and more to my girlfriend Ellen who was concerned about the genetic Alzheimer’s in her family and was researching food right along with me to learn more about fighting disease. My mother passed away of Cancer just two years ago. So cancer is another disease I want to fight off now by making my body as healthy as I can.

Ellen and I got together for lunches weekly to go over what we had learned. I was thankful for this because many people just don’t want to know and we needed to vent about GMO, Pesticides, Processed Food, Corn Syrup and our poor American farmers, seed companies and drug companies and giant food corps. Are they all working hand in hand making our families over weight, allergic, sick and dieing.

How did this happen? And what can we do to make it stop!?

Youtube had an amazing amount of wonderful recipes from our Vegan, Vegetarian, Raw foodies and Paleo friends. I have learned to make my own almond bread. I make zucchini pasta my husband and I love. Together we juice in the morning fresh Organic vegetables and fruit. I still eat meat but it has to be grass fed, pasture finished, eggs too. I can’t believe how wonderful this whole Organic food tastes! Were my taste buds numb before?

It’s been five months. And people started noticing the weight loss.

I’ve lost 45lbs. on this journey so far and I call it a journey because its not a diet. I’ve completely changed what I eat for life. It’s not something I will stop once I lose the weight. I have to much information now to ever go back.

My hope is to continue to lose at least another 6o lbs. but more importantly to get healthy and detoxify my body. My husband has lost 35lbs. and just got back from the doctors. The doctors told him keep doing whatever your doing, you’ve lost weight and your cholesterol went from 246 to 161and everything is within the normal ranges.

And this is a man who never ate veggies.

Learning how to make great organic food has made all the difference.(Thank you Youtube!) I’ve also begun gardening, so often in the afternoon I am tending to our organic tomatoes, zucchini lettuce and bell pepper. Watching the garden grow is an awesome reminder of how its really supposed to be.

I have an 8 month old grandson and two more on the way that I want to inspire and be a part of. I feel like I have a whole new wonderful life awaiting me by discovering whole foods. More then anything, I want everyone to have this gift. Just know that it all started with one change. The rest just kept coming.

~Lisa S.

I’ve been working on fixing school food in San Francisco since 2002, and have served as co- chair of my school district’s student nutrition committee for over 7 years. I don’t work for the school district and never have; I am a parent volunteer. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned with others who are hoping to drive change in their own school districts. Here are a few key points to understand before jumping into the battle:

1) Fixing school food is a team sport. You will get nowhere on your own, so be sure you have a core group of supporters who share your goals.

2) You have to make the decision going in that, no matter what, you will never, ever ,ever give up until you attain your goal.

3) Change is hard for a bureaucracy, and good bureaucrats always want to do what is easiest; that’s usually just doing what they have always done. You must make these folks realize that you are not going to give up and go away (see #2), that you are going to keep coming at them , and that each time you do, you have more people behind you. Eventually they will realize that it is easier to just give you what you want, rather than continue to do what they have always done while trying to fight you off, and at that point, you will prevail.

4) Fixing school food is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who want everyone in the world to like them. There will be those who won’t like you, those who will call you “the food police” or worse, and you may even make a few enemies; you have to be able to shrug that off. I always tell people who are put off by my blunt attitude that fortunately I am not running for Miss Congeniality.

5) Nothing happens overnight. It’s okay to dream big, but break your dream down into smaller pieces which can realistically be achieved. Celebrate every success, even if it is just baby steps. Getting to your ultimate goal will take years; you need to be in this for the long haul.

6) You may not know as much as you think you do about fixing school food. Much (really most) of the media coverage of this issue has been faulty, sometimes misrepresenting the situation, sometimes outright untruths. Some of the loudest voices in the debate have their own agendas to push, which skew the public debate. Try to be aware of who might have partnerships with businesses that may be focused on profit as much as on kids’ health, or a book, TV show, movie, consulting business or service to promote, and be a little skeptical when deciding what to believe. Keep an open mind and be ready to learn from every experience.

7) Every school district is different, and something which works in one place may not work somewhere else. Among the differences are cost of labor, availability of outside funding, quality of facilities, and socioeconomics of the community.8) School food is highly regulated by the government and you have to be aware of all of the regulations; it takes a lot of reading and asking the right questions before you can really understand what is involved in getting to your ultimate goal. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on this!

So, with those key points in mind, here is my Everybody’s Guide to Fixing School Food.

Getting Educated

Your very first step towards fixing school food should be Getting Educated. School food is tightly regulated by the USDA; your state and even your own school district may also impose further regulations. If you don’t understand the regs, you will get nowhere with your student nutrition director, and without the cooperation of your student nutrition director, you will get nowhere with fixing school food. A great place to start is with Janet Poppendieck’s excellent book “Free for All: Fixing School Food in America.” However, at a certain point, you are going to have to confront The Beast – the sections of the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) that deal with school food. Here is the link:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/regulations.htm

Start with SubChapter A – Child Nutrition Programs, Part 210; this part deals only with the National School Lunch Program; the School Breakfast Program has its own enormous set of regs, but if you understand the lunch regs, it will be easier to understand breakfast. Don’t try to read this all in one sitting; rather, think of it as a resource, the first place you go to try to find out what the regulations are. Skim through and get a sense of what is there.

It is important that you be at least familiar with all of the regs Janet P. discusses in her excellent book. There may come a time when someone who does not want to give you what you are requesting tells you that “the regs won’t allow it” and you must be informed enough to know if this person is telling you the truth or just bluffing to make you go away. You will also find that you have to be a teacher of the regs as well as a student; it will be up to you to make sure that others you come into contact with, including your supporters, key district officials, and the media, all understand the regs too. Right now it is a safe assumption that 99% of them don’t; you will have to understand well enough to be able to teach others. This is a process; you don’t need to understand everything before you begin. Just keep at it and try to learn a little more each week.

Getting Organized

Next step is to find a posse of other like minded individuals – parents, students, teachers, school nurses, health care professionals – who are willing to work with you. I call this Getting Organized. This isn’t as hard as it sounds; lots of people recognize that school food is a problem, but most of them don’t know what to do about it, and for sure they don’t want to be the ringleader. You have to be the ringleader, but once you assure people that they don’t have to lead, just follow, you would be surprised at how many people will sign on. Start at your own kids’ school, but branch out from there. If your school or school district has a parent listserv, that can be useful for finding people who share your concern. If you can get just 8-10 people to start, that’s plenty.

Have a meeting and let everyone share their concerns about school food. Brainstorm about what you would like to change. What would your ideal meal program look like? Prioritize the changes – what is most important to your group? Try to break big changes down so that they are manageable, because for your first challenge, it needs to be something you can actually win. A big win early on really galvanizes a group. So, for example, don’t pick something like “switch to scratch cooking” or “use all organic ingredients” for your first challenge – no one gets that on the first try. Instead, something like “Offer fresh fruit instead of canned 3 days a week at lunch” is much more doable.

Pick a good name for your group and get everyone’s e-mail address so you can easily stay in contact even if you can only meet in person once a month. If you have a group member who is willing to set up a website for your group, that can be hugely helpful moving forward. When you wage your various campaigns, it is so much easier if all of the information people need to have about the issue can be found in one place. That way, you don’t need to explain the issue to each person, you can just refer them to your website where they can find everything they need including background, who to contact, what to say, etc. You can also use the site to promote your group’s successes, archive your press releases, and solicit new members. Visit www.sfusdfood.org to see an example of such a site.

Getting Connected

Once you have organized your core group, you need to start Getting Connected; this is where you research your school board members to find out which one(s) are most likely to be sympathetic to your cause. Look for people with a medical background, or those with youngish kids in the public schools, or those who have fought similar battles in the past, especially battles based on the idea of social justice, that low income students deserve the same respect and services as higher income students. I think it will be obvious once you know about your school board members, which ones are the likely candidates to support you.

When you have identified one or two, make contact. Don’t be intimidated by these people – generally people on school boards are just like you – concerned citizens who think that they can make the schools a better place for the kids. Call or e-mail your target and ask for a meeting; explain that you represent a group of concerned stakeholders who have some practical ideas for improving kids’ health and academic performance through better school food. Make your pitch for better school food, but make sure your target understands that you are not asking (at this point) for a complete overhaul of school food, but rather for the one thing that your group decided upon – our hypothetical is “Fresh fruit instead of canned 3 days a week at lunch.” Try to get your target to agree in principle that better food would mean better nourished kids; have the documentation with you showing the connection between better nutrition and better academic outcomes (not hard to find on the internet.) Remind your target that when the food gets better, more kids eat the school meals and that brings in more income for the meal program, which in turn funds the purchase of better food. Make sure they get it that you are not asking for something which would bankrupt the school nutrition program. If you sense resistance, at least ask for a pilot at your own kids’ school; be sure you have your school Principal on board with this. The most likely response you will get from your target school board member is some form of “Let me think about it.” That’s fine, but even if you get an outright “I don’t think that’s a good idea”, move on to the next step.

Getting Active

Now it is time for Getting Active. After the meeting, have everyone in your group write to the school board target and thank him/her for meeting with you, and express support for whatever it was you requested. Ask each member of your core group to get just two of their best friends to send a similar e-mail; group members can even write up key talking points and send to their friends to cut and paste into their own message (the easier you make it for people not directly involved in your crusade to support you, the more likely they will do so.) If you have already gotten your website set up, put up all the information there, and then just refer people to the site, where they can get all the info they need (including e-mail address) to write to the school board member. If you can get 25-30 people to e-mail your target about this, all saying more or less the same thing, it is really likely that your target will support it. Individual e-mails are much more impressive than petitions; you want to fill up your target’s inbox, and petitions don’t do that.

At a certain point, your target is likely to refer you to someone within the district administration – either the student nutrition director or that person’s boss. You may need to start the process all over again here, but with luck, now you have the support of your school board target; make sure the district person knows that, as it is invaluable. Make your request; have your supporters e-mail to show their support, and let the district person know that you are not just one parent asking for this, but a group. Be sure to cc your school board supporter on your correspondence with district administrators.

Getting Coverage

Let’s say you asked for a switch from canned fruit to fresh fruit 3 days a week at lunch, and you got this relatively small change approved; make sure everyone knows what you have achieved. Getting Coverage is essential to moving forward. I highly recommend trying to get one of your core supporters to agree to take the role of PR person for the group; this is a big job and really needs its own dedicated person. If anyone in your group has a media or PR background, that’s the person to court, but really anyone who is comfortable writing can learn to do this.

Use whatever parent listservs are available to get news out directly to parents. Then make a list of all of the reporters from every news outlet in your town who ever cover school or children’s or health issues, everything from TV down to the smallest weekly shopper newspaper. Write up a press release lavishing praise on the student nutrition director or his/her boss, whoever it was that agreed to the change you asked for, as well as the school board member(s) who supported you. This is KEY – do NOT claim the credit and praise for yourself or your group! Thank the district official for supporting student health, and also thank your school board friend(s). It is vital to tell the public that these people value student health and good nutrition for kids above all else (especially if you feel that they only gave you what you wanted grudgingly and maybe they don’t really value student health….) because once you have announced it to the world, what the hell are they going to do – say they DON’T value student health? Make it all about them, and what a hero they are, and how they are following in the footsteps of Ann Cooper and Jamie Oliver and Michael Pollan. This makes it so much easier when you go back to them in another month and ask for the next thing on your list. They need to understand that the decisions they make about your requests are going to be made very public, and that they can be the hero and support better food for kids, or it can go the other way and the public will hear about and react to that, too.

If you can’t get any of the media to cover this as a story, try writing it as an opinion piece for the largest newspaper in town (if they won’t run it, go to the next largest paper, and keep going until someone runs it.) As a last resort, try writing it up as a letter to the editor. Be sure to check the guidelines for letters which your local paper probably has online. If they say letter should be limited to 150 words, don’t go over the limit; keep it short and to the point.

Letters to the editor are a good way to promote your work any time there is an article in the paper which is relevant, maybe something about child obesity, or about the poor quality of school

lunches nationwide, or about growing interest generally in higher quality food, or the White House getting involved in student nutrition. This is a perfect opportunity to let people know that the local angle on this national story is that your schools now offer fresh fruit three times a week instead of canned fruit, thanks to the visionary leadership of Ms. Nutrition Director and Mr. School Board Member, who both prioritize student health above all else, because they know that malnourished students can’t learn. Thank you, thank you Ms ND and Mr SBM! Signed, You, Chair of the Yourtown Student Nutrition Group. This short letter accomplishes so much – it promotes the school meal program and lets people know that there is fresh fruit being served; it highlights the “vision” of two key players whose support you need to move forward; it connects student health with academic achievement; and it lets people know that your group exists and has a voice.

That’s it – lather, rinse, repeat. You are on your way to fixing school food! Good luck! Return to “How To Guides” home page

Return to P.E.A.C.H.S.F, Parents Educators & Advocates Connection for Healthy School Food

You can also learn more from Chef Ann Cooper at www.thelunchbox.org

I am a huge fan of a woman named Kris Carr. She has absolutely taken cancer to task. Not only did she conquer the disease, but she also dismantled a lot of the barriers that prevent us from accomplishing seemingly impossible goals. And she helps others to do the same.

Kris challenges convention, unbridles creativity and inspires others to create the changes that they want to see in their lives. And her work is absolutely heroic.

So when her blog recently suggested making brownies with black beans, I had to laugh at how crazy that sounded. Always a fan of black beans (I grew up in Texas) and always on the hunt for variations on sweet-treats for my kids, I couldn’t quite picture how to weave the two together, and I loved the challenge.

So I am going to give this one a try. And if you are interested in doing the same, as well as learning more about Kris, her New York Times best-selling books and her incredible take on life, visit Kris’ site for added inspiration at Crazy Sexy Life. And bookmark it.

Black Bean Brownies

Originally seen on Crazy Sexy Life by Meredith Terranova, RD

-15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
-2 bananas
-1/3 cup honey, maple syrup or molasses
-1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
-1 tablespoon cinnamon
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/4 cup raw sugar (optional)
-1/4 cup instant oats (gluten free if preferred)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8- by 8-inch pan and set aside. Combine all ingredients, except oats, in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth, scrapping sides as needed. Stir in the oats. If too soft, add another 1/4 cup oats or flour.

Pour batter into the pan. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing.

Notes: Because there isn’t any flour these brownies come out pretty dense.
Rolled oats may be substituted for the instant oats. Put the rolled oats in the food processor.
Use optional sugar if your bananas are still green and not very ripe.

Rod Morrison is no exception. He is the CEO of a meat company and his constant efforts to educate consumers about the safety of meat are inspiring.

So when we recently asked him if he’d be interested in writing about his work for AllergyKids, he asked what he should write about, and we said: What inspired you?

Rod Morrison’s answer is below:

You asked, What inspires you? Well it happened while I was mindfully trying to ask myself what does inspire me. My cell phone rang and I picked it up, on the other end was a good friend that I had just visited with the day before.

He said, “I forgot to ask you yesterday if you had heard.”

“Heard what?” I said, about Glen. “No, what?”

“Damn, I was hoping you had” he said.

It was then that I realized I was about to hear some bad news.

The words that came next were not in the least what was flashing through my head, car wreck, divorce, sold the farm. No, worse than that. He had not been feeling well for the last few months and had just received word that he had cancer of the pancreas and the liver, a death sentence.

Now at this point I could go into all the life events that Glen and I have experience together but most of what we did would only lead to more questions and wonderment. Let’s just say we have been to hell and back on several occasions. Glen is, to this day a conventional farmer and a damn good one. Glen never left the farm. Even given the chance he would not have changed his position in life of being a conventional farmer. And for that effort, Glen has just received the time line that every person with cancer must ask, how long do I have? What he was told was 3 months to 5 years. I know Glen well enough that he will take this time line and live life to the fullest because that who he is. And as I’m setting hear putting words to paper I am for certain that both of us are asking the same question. Why did he continue down the road of conventional agriculture? His yearly use of chemicals and fertilizers that have never been tested for their affects on human tissues is certainly weighing on his mind as it does on mine.

One event that both Glen and I had experienced was the effects of malathion. Malathion is a pesticide that is widely used in agriculture, residential landscaping, public recreation areas, and in public health pest control programs such as mosquito eradication. In the US, it is the most commonly used organophosphate insecticide. This was back in the 70’s Glen had an infestation of alfalfa weevil in a large field so he had it sprayed be a local crop duster. Five hours after the application Glen and I went to look at the field.

What we both saw convinced the both of us that we would never use malathion ever again. Hundred of dead birds that had been feeding on the weevil were scattered on the ground outside of the field. Glen and I were both sick because neither of us were made aware of the environmental impacts of this pesticide let alone the human impacts over time. For me to write that I find inspiration in the slow demise of a long time personal friend sound heartless or mean, what I really feel is anger about the loss which then I turn into the inspiration to keep moving in an organic direction.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?

Change in the area of how and what we eat can be overwhelming. It requires time (reading, talking, and seeking reliable resources to understand a fairly complex system that we thought we could trust, a system of food production and marketing that is deeply imbedded in our culture). And what you discover on this journey is initially difficult to face. And if you do take control of your food consumption behavior, you will have to pay more for your food. Neither of these changes (time and money) are attractive. I will be frank, it isn’t easy. But is it worth it? Yes.

As I write this, it is early Spring. Farmers are on their tractors preparing ground for another growing season. Yesterday we had a light rain and I note an overnight hint of green in the winter-brown grass, trees are budding and geese are honking the overhead highways back north. Everything is hope and promise. And I connect all that hope and promise to the land, to the sun, to the waters that presently reside in the snow-covered mountains.

But I also know that soon I will see enormous plastic containers of synthetic chemicals and toxins stitching their way across fields. Small planes will spray these fields with poisonous concoctions. The big seed companies will begin shipping tons of genetically engineered seeds that insure a “perfect” looking vegetable–but at what cost? Suddenly convenience and cheap prices seem like twin sins. I don’t use that word lightly, but it seems to fit.

So, my hope is finding another way. And how, in the end, can you argue with food choices that not only help you become more healthy, but that give you more control and even offer you the opportunity to get to know your farmer? I have met more incredible people with the most fascinating stories . . . my life is richer, perhaps not financially, but richer, nonetheless.

Change is difficult. But once you start, you can’t go back. I just urge people to take that first step. Perhaps reading this is that first step.

Or perhaps you’ll discover what I discovered: it isn’t just about food, it’s also about relationships. When people buy my meat, I feel we are all sitting at the same table. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy talking at the table.

To learn more about Rod Morrison, his work and the process of meat production, please visit www.rockymtncuts.com