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Food Matters

Thank you to Jonah Lehrer for bringing this article to my attention.

Micheal Pollan:

This, in brief, is the bad news: the food and agriculture policies you’ve inherited — designed to maximize production at all costs and relying on cheap energy to do so — are in shambles, and the need to address the problems they have caused is acute. The good news is that the twinned crises in food and energy are creating a political environment in which real reform of the food system may actually be possible for the first time in a generation. The American people are paying more attention to food today than they have in decades, worrying not only about its price but about its safety, its provenance and its healthfulness. There is a gathering sense among the public that the industrial-food system is broken. Markets for alternative kinds of food — organic, local, pasture-based, humane — are thriving as never before. All this suggests that a political constituency for change is building and not only on the left: lately, conservative voices have also been raised in support of reform. Writing of the movement back to local food economies, traditional foods (and family meals) and more sustainable farming, The American Conservative magazine editorialized last summer that “this is a conservative cause if ever there was one.”

Read the whole article!

Immune fortifications

Well its that time of year again, the time to get sick. Everyone I know has been sick lately (even me!) and while I was puttering around the kitchen trying desperately to force myself to drink even MORE fluids I invented a yummy immune fortifying drink. (Ok maybe invent is a stretch since I saw the juice at work first, but I decided to make it myself instead of relying on a commercial brand that was mostly grape juice*.)

So take two tea bags of echinacea (if you have the root its probably about 8 tsp. ) 2 tsp chopped fresh ginger. Pour 4 cups hot just boiling water over echinacea and ginger and let steep for 2 hours in a closed container (or at least something you can place a plate over to keep the heat in). Pour tea into a container ( I used an old glass juice jar, but a pitcher will work fine) with room and add 1/4 cup lime juice and 3 cups lemonade, or to taste (I use Simply brand lemonade even though its not organic because they use sugar not high fructose corn syrup like other brands). Pour over ice and enjoy!

Now of course the dose of echinacea in this drink is still fairly low. You could up the dose** of echinacea in the tea portion, or just drink this in between cups of hot echinacea tea (of which you should have about 4-5 cups daily).


*My drink doesn't even HAVE any grape juice in it!

** the recipe I have here is exactly what I made so I know it tastes good, I haven't checked on a mega dose yet mostly because I am still drinking the original juice I made.