In February of 2011, over 14,000 computers tuned in from locations all over the globe to watch the live simulcast of the first TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat.”
On Saturday, January 21, 2012, the second TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” – an independently organized event, licensed by TED – was held at the Times Center in New York City. TEDxManhattan will explored the issues, the impacts and the innovations happening as we shift to a more sustainable way of eating and farming and help to create connections and unite different areas of the food movement.
Riverside’s Habitat For Humanity ReStore hosted one of 70 global, live stream viewing parties and invited Riverside’s community garden advocates, teachers, gardeners and people who love to eat healthy food to come together, get connected and be inspired about how achievable healthy, safe and delicious food really is.
The presentation by Stephen Ritz, Edible Food Walls and How They’re Changing Students’ Lives, was truly an amazing tale of inspiration and joy. The talks are short, compelling and potentially life changing. You won’t waste your time if you take a look at some of them. WARNING!! You might not ever look at the food you eat in the same way, but then that’s the point isn’t it?
Thanks to Tedx, Habitat for Humanity and to all my friends and neighbors who will make a difference in the community because of this event.
If you’re NewYear health resolutions are already seeming more like good ideas rather than new habits being established, then you’re on track to yet another almost certain, likely future of exactly what you had at the end of last year – or maybe the years before that. Resolutions are “big picture” possibilities. We’d like it if they became real, they’re usually a good idea, we know they’d make our lives better. If you’ve ever found yourself inspired about a ‘new you’ and soon realized you were feeling and doing all the things the ‘old you’ did, you’re not alone. It’s called being human. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.
The New Year symbolizes a fresh start, and we’re all more motivated than usual—at least in our minds. The typical resolution cycle shows a steep incline in health-related goals during the first quarter of the year, followed by a rapid decline soon thereafter. We’ve all been there.
We do a lot of talking about what we plan to accomplish in the New Year, but the actual “doing” is what takes real effort. In fact, 78% of people break their resolutions because their goals are too aspirational and lofty. Overly ambitious goals thwart the will to stick to and stay with a game plan.
Real change takes planning—if our goals are broken down into bite-size nuggets and are properly thought out, we’ll be a lot more successful at making a long-term commitment. Consider, if you’re overweight, you didn’t get that way overnight. Don’t expect to get back overnight. Scientists tell us weight gain is more calories consumed than burned. True enough. It’s the ‘consumed’ bit that matters. It’s our actions, conscious or unconscious, in consuming that are responsible for our results.
This is particularly true as it pertains to our health and wellness plans. When it comes to our health goals, success or failure comes from taking or not taking the discrete actions appropriate to the result. This is really good news because we’re already in action. We breathe, move, think and feel!
Successful health-related programs can help people overcome struggles and reach their goals in incremental steps. They address the need for very targeted and specific daily goals, providing continuous motivation and short-term rewards that keep resolution-makers on track.
New Year’s resolutions are annual goals—and like all goals, they are best reached when they are measurable. There should be well- defined milestones during the year when metrics can be checked toward achievement of those goals.
The key to success in achieving our health goals is in focusing our awareness on our behaviors in the moment. We only have right now, this moment to take action. If we can make even very small improvements over time, we quickly build synergistic momentum as those improvements lead to expanded capacity to experience even more vibrant, energetic and radiant health.
Knowing what to do is the booby prize. If we don’t take action on what we know to do, we only have ourselves to blame for one more rationalization. So what are you measuring today, this week, this month and this happy, healthy New Year?
A new study published in the journal Nature links 24% of our intelligence to genetic factors. That means 76% of our intelligence is determined by environmental factors.
Scientists found decades old intelligence tests done in 1940 on 11 year olds in Scotland and then retested the participants at age 65.
DNA from blood samples was collected from all 1940 people. An analysis of the genetic markers revealed various genetic similarities. Scientists compared these genetic similarities with the participants’ intelligence levels in both youth and old age.
Well it’s a few short weeks into the New Year and most of us have stopped writing 2011 on our checks, I’ve been wondering how are those resolutions coming along? I had been expecting massive crowds at the gym as everyone kicked off 2012 with renewed enthusiasm for’ getting a move on’. I’ve been surprised. Seems like there are less people working out.
Maybe they’re just too worn down and exhausted to work out. That’s too bad because the costs of not working out are well known. In case you’re thinking of joining or getting back into a gym, here are 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym from the mind of Jason Gay for the Wall Street Journal.
1. A gym is not designed to make you feel instantly better about yourself. If a gym wanted to make you feel instantly better about yourself, it would be a bar.
2. Give yourself a goal. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you want to quarterback the New York Jets into the playoffs. But be warned: Losing 10 pounds is hard.
The New Year’s push to lose weight is bringing crowds to gyms. Jason Gay offers tips to conquering the gym. Photo: Getty Images.
3. Develop a gym routine. Try to go at least three times a week. Do a mix of strength training and cardiovascular conditioning. After the third week, stop carrying around that satchel of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.
4. No one in the history of gyms has ever lost a pound while reading “The New Yorker” and slowly pedaling a recumbent bicycle. No one.
5. Bring your iPod. Don’t borrow the disgusting gym headphones, or use the sad plastic radio attachment on the treadmill, which always sounds like it’s playing Kenny Loggins from a sewer.
6. Don’t fall for gimmicks. The only tried-and-true method to lose 10 pounds in 48 hours is food poisoning.
7. Yes, every gym has an overenthusiastic spinning instructor who hasn’t bought a record since “Walking on Sunshine.”
8. There’s also the Strange Guy Who is Always at the Gym. Just when you think he isn’t here today…there he is, lurking by the barbells.
9. “Great job!” is trainer-speak for “It’s not polite for me to laugh at you.”
10. Beware a hip gym with a Wilco step class.
11. Gyms have two types of members: Members who wipe down the machines after using them, and the worst people in the universe.
12. Nope, that’s not a “recovery energy bar with antioxidant dark chocolate.” That’s a chocolate bar.
13. Avoid Unsolicited Advice Guy, who, for the small fee of boring you to death, will explain the proper method for any exercise in 45 minutes or longer.
14. You can take 10 Minute Abs, 20 Minute Abs, and 30 Minute Abs. There is also Stop Eating Pizza and Eating Sheet Cake Abs—but that’s super tough!
15. If you’re motivated to buy an expensive home exercise machine, consider a “wooden coat rack.” It costs $40, uses no electricity and does the exact same thing.
16. There’s the yoga instructor everyone loves, and the yoga instructor everyone hates. Memorize who they are.
17. If you see an indoor rock climbing wall, you’re either in a really cool gym or a romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson.
18. Be cautious about any class with the words “sunrise,” “hell,” or “Moby.”
19. If a gym class is going to be effective, it’s hard. If you’re relaxed and enjoying yourself, you’re at brunch.
20. If you need to bring your children, just let them loose in the silent meditation class. Nobody minds, and kids love candles.
21. Don’t buy $150 sneakers, $100 yoga pants, and $4 water. Muscle shirts are for people with muscles, and rhythm guitarists.
22. Fancy gyms can be seductive, but once you get past the modern couches and fresh flowers and the water with lemon slices, you’re basically paying for a boutique hotel with B.O.
23. Everyone sees you secretly racing the old people in the pool.
24. If you’re at the point where you’ve bought biking shoes for the spinning class, you may as well go ahead and buy an actual bike. It’s way more fun and it doesn’t make you listen to C+C Music Factory.
25. Fact: Thinking about going to the gym burns between 0 and 0 calories.
26. A successful gym membership is like a marriage: If it’s good, you show up committed and ready for hard work. If it’s not good, you show up in sweatpants and watch a lot of bad TV.
27. There is no secret. Exercise and lay off the fries. The end.
The Situation: The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food. Studies show that the BPA in most people’s body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. “You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,” says vom Saal. “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.”
The Answer: Choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Bionaturae and Coluccio. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, like Trader Joe’s and Pomi.
Siri Says: A very dear friend of ours sent us this 7 foods article. Oh, bummer! Every winter I buy a 12 pack of organic chopped tomatoes for my winter soups and stews. Well, of course, I didn’t buy them this winter and I tossed the last can. (Throwing food away — ouch!)
Do watch the video below. It is quite helpful. However, I’ll tel you now, there are no tomatoes in BPA-free cans, and you’ll have to search for those in glass. I found organic tomato sauce and canned sun-dried toms at my organic grocers. A brief google search was very unsatisfactory — with one food site trying to convince me that BPA in tomato cans wasn’t that big a deal!!!
We haven’t been lucky enough to have a big crop of summer tomatoes to can. But boy, we sure can grow tiny tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and Japanese egg plant! Odd about the tomatoes, isn’t it?
Which cans are BPA Free? Watch the Video.
2. Corn-Fed Beef
The Expert:Joel Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms and author of half a dozen books on sustainable farming.
The Situation: Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grains. But farmers today feed their animals corn and soybeans, which fatten up the animals faster for slaughter. More money for cattle farmers (and lower prices at the grocery store) means a lot less nutrition for us. A recent comprehensive study conducted by the USDA and researchers from Clemson University found that compared with corn-fed beef, grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease. “We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores, and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure,” says Salatin.
The Answer: Buy grass-fed beef, which can be found at specialty grocers, farmers’ markets, and nationally at Whole Foods. It’s usually labeled because it demands a premium, but if you don’t see it, ask your butcher.
The Situation: Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. “They stay in your body for years and accumulate there,” says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.
The Solution: Pop natural kernels the old-fashioned way: in a skillet. For flavorings, you can add real butter or dried seasonings, such as dillweed, vegetable flakes, or soup mix.
The FDA says it’s safe. How about you? Watch the Video.
The Situation: Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes—the nation’s most popular vegetable—they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they’re dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. “Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won’t,” says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). “I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.”
The Answer: Buy organic potatoes. Washing isn’t good enough if you’re trying to remove chemicals that have been absorbed into the flesh.
The Situation: Nature didn’t intend for salmon to be crammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT. According to Carpenter, the most contaminated fish come from Northern Europe, which can be found on American menus. “You can only safely eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer,” says Carpenter, whose 2004 fish contamination study got broad media attention. “It’s that bad.” Preliminary science has also linked DDT to diabetes and obesity, but some nutritionists believe the benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks. There is also concern about the high level of antibiotics and pesticides used to treat these fish. When you eat farmed salmon, you get dosed with the same drugs and chemicals.
The Answer: Switch to wild-caught Alaska salmon. If the package says fresh Atlantic, it’s farmed. There are no commercial fisheries left for wild Atlantic salmon.
Other costs and impacts of farmed salmon in the video.
6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones
The Expert:Rick North, project director of the Campaign for Safe Food at the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility and former CEO of the Oregon division of the American Cancer Society.
The Situation: Milk producers treat their dairy cattle with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST, as it is also known) to boost milk production. But rBGH also increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It also leads to higher levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor in milk. In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers. “When the government approved rBGH, it was thought that IGF-1 from milk would be broken down in the human digestive tract,” says North. As it turns out, the casein in milk protects most of it, according to several independent studies. “There’s not 100% proof that this is increasing cancer in humans,” admits North. “However, it’s banned in most industrialized countries.”
The Answer: Check labels for rBGH-free, rBST-free, produced without artificial hormones, or organic milk. These phrases indicate rBGH-free products.
For a little back story on the story you didn’t get, watch the video.
7. Conventional Apples
The Expert:Mark Kastel, former executive for agribusiness and co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm-policy research group that supports organic foods
The Situation: If fall fruits held a “most doused in pesticides contest,” apples would win. Why? They are individually grafted (descended from a single tree) so that each variety maintains its distinctive flavor. As such, apples don’t develop resistance to pests and are sprayed frequently. The industry maintains that these residues are not harmful. But Kastel counters that it’s just common sense to minimize exposure by avoiding the most doused produce, like apples. “Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers,” he says. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides (from all sources) with Parkinson’s disease.
The Answer: Buy organic apples. If you can’t afford organic, be sure to wash and peel them first.
On Saturday, January 21, 2012, the second TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” – an independently organized event, licensed by TED – was held at the Times Center in New York City. TEDxManhattan will explored the issues, the impacts and the innovations happening as we shift to a more sustainable way of eating and farming and help to create connections and unite different areas of the food movement.
