Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Traditional Americans Have Forsaken Tradition - to their Detriment

Saving American Indians' Diet

Decolonizing American Indians' Diet 1
Eli Reichman for The Chronicle Review
Devon A. Mihesuah at home in her kitchen, Baldwin City, Kan., April 2, 2010
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If Devon A. Mihesuah had her way, American Indians would abandon their love of fry bread, quit drinking so much, and embrace a healthy, active lifestyle like that of their ancestors. As a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a professor of global-indigenous-nations studies at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, she has made it her goal to educate her fellow tribe members about the importance of nutrition and fitness.
Mihesuah has long sought to empower American Indians

Friday, October 16, 2009

Google search/feed for 'vegan' for October 16, 2009

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Monday, October 05, 2009

Vegan Food Professionals Can Promote Veganism for Fun and Profit


Veganizing Standard Menus; and
Normalizing and Publicizing the IDEA of all-Vegan Restaurants


More and more diners either want meatless meals themselves (whether or not THEY are actually FT vegetarians) when they dine out, or diners want those meals for others - vegetarians or vegans who dine out with them (business colleagues, friends, family members, coworkers, et al.).
Restaurants can save money by using fewer animal ingredients because plant-based items spoil less quickly.  Less spoilage means less waste or 'shrinkage' of food supplies (and that saves money).  Attracting vegetarian diners and selling meatless items (with the same profit margin calculated for their other food) to current and drop-in diners is a socially conscious way to make money while doing the right thing.
Vegan dietitians, nutrition educators, nutritionists, culinary gurus, and others who are vegans who have dared to commit their scientific and educational careers to empowering the food side of veganism often are often Under-employed stay-at-home moms, and thus they are short of cash, but these under-employed vegan SAHMs can earn money while doing effective outreach to modify prevailing food habits at the 'supply chain' level.
You will need or should have:
*  good working relationship with local vegetarian group(s)
*  basic business clothing
*  comfortable clothing for working with 'back of the house' (restaurant kitchen)
*  computer with Internet connection
*  stable Internet connection
*  commitment to veganism and its broad public desirability
*  good understanding of vegan food and vegan nutrition
*  broad vegan menu design skill and experience
*  web design skill or a partner wish with someone with wed design experience
*  good business sense
*  good selling and other persuasion skills
*  flexible daytime work hours without a need to haul a child around at the same time
*  restaurant or food service experience
 
© Maynard S. Clark - http:// Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com - Maynard.Clark@GMail.com


Veganizing Standard Restaurant Menus


Under-employed dietitians, nutrition educators, nutritionists, culinary gurus, and others who are vegans who have dared to commit their scientific and educational careers to empowering the food side of veganism often are short of cash.


Such vegan food professional go out to restaurants that are not vegetarian - and offer to VEGAN-ize the menus as follows (a modest fee – oh, perhaps $150 per restaurant - is charged):


The vegan food professional understands food and looks at the pre-existing menu, comprehends the SORTS of things that could QUICKLY be 'veganized' by substituting one, two, or three vegan items for animal products, then types out that recipe.  Ingredients chosen should be inexpensive, health-supporting, common (easy to find), versatile, and not distasteful.
This process is repeated for each of the menu items which could be 'veganized', and the collection of all 'veganized' menu options is listed in a reasonable order, then the list is word-processed into a simple format (usually with the restaurant's contact information, logo, hours, and more.  The electronic template is e-mailed to the management, and the vegan food professional keeps a copy and retains (unlimited non-exclusive) IP or intellectual property rights to the ideas, the menu, the menu (food) items, etc,. (so that s/he can use these identical ideas again (and the restaurant) is free to customize the items in their way.  The vegan food professional’s (e-mail?) contact info is visible in small print on the menu.


Then, when vegetarian or vegan diners (or diners with a vegan friend) arrive and ask about vegetarian options, the serving person brings out the 'very special menu' (the vegan menu), and the vegan diner is made to feel 'very special' with an all-vegan menu in a nonvegetarian restaurant.


The vegan food professional also offers to coach the kitchen staff ('back of the house') on vegan food substitutions and to coach the serving personnel and host(s)/ess(es) and managers on how to attract, support, please, and retain veg(etari)an diners.


The restaurant management is taught how more vegan items can be more profitable (less spoilage, thus less shrinkage or food loss).


A possible synergy could be a two-fold advertising program.


A website is maintained for the local vegetarian group(s), which feature these ‘veganized’ menu clients prominently but appropriately on the local vegetarian society’s website.  The link opens NOT to the restaurant’s website, but to a CUSTOMIZED all-vegan-appropriate PAGE with (a) the restaurant’s all-vegan menu AND the restaurant’s appropriate contact information and hours, and a pop-up MAP (perhaps with travel directions from a typed in location).  Also, the restaurant could offer a 10% discount on vegetarian (vegan) items ONLY to veg society members (when their show their vegetarian society or vegan association cards).


© Maynard S. Clark - http:// Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com - Maynard.Clark@GMail.com

Second Idea
: no additional charge.

Exciting Vegan Advocates about Vegan Restaurants
Normalizing and Publicizing the IDEA of all-Vegan Restaurants


(1) Humorous vegan restaurant business plans are written out and posted widely around the Internet, including 'themed' vegan items:
e.g. The Boston Bean (either a vegan legume-based restaurant in Greater Boston, or else a global chain, as in SBC - Seattle's Best Coffee - need not be in Seattle), etc.  Vegan laugh at the concept.  SOME concepts 'catch on' and some ideas 'germinate' in the vegetarian and vegan online communities, and ideas happen, and more clever vegetarian and vegan restaurants emerge as clever veg(etari)ans who can get funding start opening such clever veg(etari)an restaurants.


(2) Writers include vegan restaurants in their short stories, novels and novellas, radio and TV scripts, jokes and anecdotes, etc.  Vegan dining is culturally 'normalized'


(3) Songs – fun, humorous singable songs – are composed that have lyrics about ‘going to the vegan diner’ or dining out in a veggie eatery, etc.


(4) Local vegetarian societies are encouraged to develop dining guides that include (i) all-vegan, (ii) all-vegetarian), and (iii) vegan-friendly eateries.  The local vegetarian (or vegan) dining guide is put online.  What’s missing with MOST online vegetarian dining guides is a list of WHAT vegan diners can BUY (and eat) in these vegan-friendly eateries.


© Maynard S. Clark
http:// Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com
Maynard.Clark@GMail.com


© Maynard S. Clark - http:// Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com - Maynard.Clark@GMail.com
 
© Maynard S. Clark  MaynardClark@Yahoo.com
http://Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com
 
- Links ALL my blogs and photo sites
"Making  connections  for  plant-based  diets"
Vegetarian Resource Center   (since 1993)
P. O. Box 38-1068; Cambridge, MA 02238-1068 USA
617-571-4794 (cell)  
Maynard.Clark@GMail.com
http://maynardclark.spaces.live.com -
 
 
 
Maynard's Veggie and Boston Blog
 



 


Sunday, October 04, 2009

On World Vegetarian Day 2009, US WIC nutrition program expands to cover fruits, vegetables

  ~~ Maynard S. Clark: http://Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com
QuantcastAn internationalist view:


Quantcast

An internationalist view:

"From New York to Kabul, we need to have the vegetables;
From Boston to Beirut, we need to have the fruit."
2001, Vegan Global Reflections on Peace and Rightful Human Moral Claims

  ~~ Maynard S. Clark: http://Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com


WIC nutrition program expands to include the purchase of health-supporting, life-sustaining, disease-fighting high-fibre phytochemical-rich fruits and vegetables


These changes in the supplemental US food package better reflect the US Federal government's dietary guidelines.

Vouchers also can be used to buy whole grains, canned beans, baby food, and tortillas.


By Mary MacVean October 1, 2009

Beginning today (World Vegetarian Day), women and children who receive food vouchers through the federal government's WIC program will be able to use them to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

"It's a really welcome change," said Gail Harrison, a public health professor at UCLA who was on the national Institute of Medicine panel that recommended the revisions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children -- the first major change in the program since it began in the 1970s. "The supplemental food package contributes a very substantial share of dietary intake, and so making it healthier is all to the good."

Added Laurie True, executive director of the California WIC Assn.: "We're in seventh heaven. We've been pushing for this for 20 years."

A typical family will get $14 a month for produce alone, True said by phone Wednesday. That breaks down to $6 for children; $8 for pregnant women and mothers of children 5 and younger; and $10 for mothers who are exclusively breast-feeding.

The changes, instituted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, better reflect the federal government's dietary guidelines.

WIC predated the guidelines by several years and, because it was established at a time when hunger and anemia were problems, had emphasized consumption of calcium, iron, vitamins A and C, and protein. The revisions reflect today's problems: obesity and attendant diseases such as diabetes.

The changes also will allow recipients -- more than 8 million low-income pregnant women, new mothers and young children -- to use WIC funds for whole grains, canned beans, baby food and tortillas.

Previously, recipients could buy infant formula and cereal, eggs, milk, juice, peanut butter and dried beans. Nursing mothers could buy fresh carrots for their vitamin A content.

The new provisions reduce the allotments for some dairy products and juice.

Congress funds WIC annually, with $6.86 billion in fiscal 2009; the changes don't increase the program's costs.

Pina Hernandez, the outreach manager for the Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC Program, which provides WIC services to 316,000 people in Los Angeles and Orange counties, said families would continue to receive about $60 a month in vouchers, but the mix of foods would shift.

Families are eager for the change because of the high cost of produce compared with other foods, she said.

Added True: "We have little kids who have never tasted broccoli, have never seen brown rice. . . . The issue is not just ignorance; the issue is cost and access."

All stores -- major supermarkets, corner stores, shops operating exclusively for WIC recipients -- that want to take part in the program will have to stock produce and whole grains, True said. That's 4,700 vendors in California.

A UCLA study, published last year in the American Journal of Public Health, found that "if you add vouchers for fruits and vegetables that they get used and used wisely," Harrison said.

Overall, few Americans are eating enough fruits and vegetables, said a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Tuesday.

In the report, the CDC said that 14% of adults and 10% of adolescents were eating the recommended amounts of both fruits and vegetables -- not including French fries -- for their age and size. The recommended amount is two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day.

mary.macvean@latimes.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times