This past weekend, I tuned into TEDx Manhattan 2012, “Changing the Way We Eat”, a day-long seminar with inspirational speakers from the food world. Needless to say, I was stoked! My “highlights” review will be featured in a guest post on the real food blog Hartke is Online. Until then, I thought to share a little snippet from the seminar. One of my favorite presentations was not a talk, but a recorded video that shows rather than tells how the human body digests processed food as opposed to real (whole) food. For all the doubters out there, this is hard-core evidence that the body was not meant to digest Cheetos, Gatorade, Cheerios, Ramen noodles, or any of the synthetic so-called “foods” out there. If you’re still not convinced that you need to abandon your junk food ways, I urge you to watch this video; it’ll speak for itself:

Stefani Bardin is the talented media maker behind this video. In collaboration with Dr. Braden Kuo who conducted the trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, she filmed the “M2A: The Fantastic Voyage”, a video that for the first time in human history actually brings us into the digestive tract while the food is being digested, and compares the difference between how the body processes synthetic food and real food. The M2A pill, which has a wireless camera, and the SmartPill which comes with sensors, both track how liquids and solids ingested are processed by the body.

We see how blue Gatorade stains the stomach lining because of the artificial color added (a petrochemical derivative!), and how Ramen noodles are not effectively broken down in the digestive tract (they contain TBHQ which is related to butane) … ugh, gross! The “whole food meal”, while definitely more nutritious than the junk food alternative, is still not ideal, but  at least the body knows what to do with it! This goes to show you that even incremental changes in your diet can either heal or further complicate your digestion…

So, next time a medical doctor urges you to give your sick child a colorful Gatorade to “replenish his electrolytes” when he or she has a fever (advice that makes me recoil in horror every time), I urge you to email him or her this video … and then find yourself another doctor!

So in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of days (or simply haven’t turned on any news sources), Paula Deen, 64-year-old Southern-cook turned Food Network celebrity chef has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. She’s kept the news on the down low for the past three years, but it made headlines as soon as Paula revealed that she has the condition on the Today Show a few days ago. Paula’s reluctance to alter her diet coupled with her endorsement of a diabetes drug, Victoza developed by the Danish drug company Novo Nordisk have both sparked a lot of heated discussion.

“Moderation”: An Excuse to Binge

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” ~ Oscar Wilde

In her announcement on the Today show, Paula reminds us that diabetes can be triggered by a lot of different factors, including “genetics, lifestyle and stress.” But what about diet? Paula shies away from admitting that diet plays a huge role in disease development. Instead, she uses my favorite word when it comes to dieting (note my sarcasm): “moderation.” I‘m sorry but saying you want to eat junk food in moderation just means that you want to make allowances for eating it more often than you would like to admit. Whenever someone I know says that they feel comfortable eating unhealthy foods “in moderation”, I tell them that unless they’re vigilant with their diet, what they think is moderate will become a lifestyle that allows junk into the body —  and that this strategy never fails to bring disease along with it.

Sadly, even Paula’s attempts to be “healthier” are misguided. In this cooking segment on the Today show she, along with her two sons, also chefs, show us how to make a supposedly “lighter/healthier” lasagna. The focus points: use low-fat cheese instead of full-fat, lean beef (quality or source of beef is given no mention), egg whites instead of an extra egg, low-sodium tomato sauce, low-gluten pasta. None of the changes they have made are actually healthier! Instead of focusing on macro-nutrients like fat and dietary cholesterol – which have nothing to do with developing diabetes – they should have instead focused on the QUALITY of the foods, and reducing sugars and grains. Is the beef from grass-fed cows grazing on pesticide-free grass? Is the cheese from healthy cows and not processed in a way that oxides the healthy cholesterol therein? Are the eggs pastured? Is the tomato paste from organically grown tomatoes and packaged in glass? Is the pasta healthy at all – weather made of ‘whole grain’ or not? No to all of those! Paula’s use of low-quality ingredients that have been processed to reduce fat will not make anyone “healthier”!

I don’t expect Paula to know anything about nutrition and healthy eating. But what about the so-called diet experts and educated media pundits? Do they also know nothing? After being irritated with the speculations about healthy eating that have been thrown around as “facts”, I had to write a post to rectify some of the misinformation…

Butter is not the culprit!

Paula’s cooking is unhealthy, no doubt about it (donuts fried in rancid vegetable oils are disgusting!). But if someone else yells out “No wonder she got diabetes — it’s all the butter and fat!” once again, I’ll scream. Eating butter doesn’t have an impact on unmanaged insulin levels, which is the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes. When a person has diabetes, his or her body either does not produce enough insulin or has enough insulin but cannot use it because the body has grown resistant to it. In both cases, this results in excess sugar (blood glucose) accumulating in the bloodstream, making one hungry for more insulin-spiking foods (like sugar and grains), which are again not metabolized properly by the body. This unregulated insulin stores calories as fat, instead of burning them up as energy. Frequent carb-rich meals that aren’t nutrient-dense (for example, cereal and Tropicana orange juice for breakfast) spike blood sugar, and if done excessively, can lead to diabetes. Eating fat does NOT spike the blood sugar, and therefore keeps the person satiated for a longer period of time.

The Healthy Advocate has the right idea:

News reports are claiming that Paula Deen’s “high fat recipes” may be a cause to her possible diabetic diagnosis; however, natural fat from things like butter, coconut oil or lard has virtually no effect on insulin resistance. It is true that hydrogenated forms of these fats can be a contributor to a number diseases; natural fats like butter do not raise blood sugar levels or insulin.

In fact, fat slows down the break down of carbohydrates in the body, leading to a slow release of insulin. The cells are then not bombarded by an onslaught of insulin, which can weaken insulin receptors. Cells actually need dietary fats to provide stabilization to receptor sites.  Natural fat also lowers the glycemic index of a meal, which is one of the reasons why coconut oil is promoted as a healthy fat.

Delicious and creamy scalloped potatoes au gratin

It’s almost mid-January, and there’s nothing better than a hearty dish on a cold winter’s day. When you’re super duper hungry (try to think back of such a time if it’s been a while), what do you immediately crave? A juicy carrot? An apple? I think not!

You most likely crave something with fat that is hearty and satisfying, like your mother’s chicken soup, or a juicy leg of pastured lamb, a hearty bowl of vegetarian chili, or some potatoes layered with cream and cheese … mmm. A delicious memory of that last one – the potatoes with cream and cheese – somehow nudged me in my dreams the other night, and I was inspired to replicate it at home. I couldn’t quite remember where I’ve had it, but it had registered in my brain as something I should definitely making. When the Advent fast was over, and we celebrated Christmas in my household, I made this dish for a potluck at my uncle’s and it was a hit!

There is some ‘controversy’ in the foodie community about the “correct” name for this dish – is it scalloped potatoes or is it potatoes au gratin? I did a little bit of Googling, and found that many people use the terms interchangeably, though technically ‘au gratin’ has grated cheese on top and is lightly browned, whereas the scalloped potatoes do not have any cheese. Technicalities! In this case, I decided to name the dish Scalloped Potatoes au Gratin because the potatoes are cut into thin slices, made with cream and milk, and topped with cheese. So it’s a fusion of the two recipes, and I found that they get along very well together. It’s a pretty rich dish, but it’s bowl-lickin’ good!

Since this isn’t a recipe I grew up making, nor is it one that is traditional in Egyptian households, I had to read a few others’ versions of it before I could come up with my own ingredient list and method. This version, from Real Simple was pretty much what I had in mind, but  it lacked a little bit of ‘character’ so I added the fresh thyme and ground nutmeg for a little extra flavor. I was going to go with just the sauteed onions, until I came across this recipe from The Brown-Eyed Baker, which also includes some minced garlic. And because I genuinely feel that garlic and potatoes are meant to be together, I added that in as well.

I’ve made this recipe twice so far, and the results come out almost identical both times – a good sign! The creaminess in every bite will fill you up and warm you up on a cold day in a way that almost no other dish can (other than soups, which are awesome at this time of year!)

A note about potatoes: It’s wise to opt for organic potatoes, because conventional potatoes have some of the highest pesticide residues among all crops. Check out this site, “What’s on my Food?” to get an idea of the pesticide content of different foods. Here’s the one for potatoes.

Opt for organic potatoes whenever possible.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe below, courtesy of Recipage, which now allows embedding of the printable recipe right within the post. That’s right: you can simply click “Print” below to get an awesome print-out of this recipe to bring to the kitchen. (I know from experience that bringing the laptop/phone to the kitchen to follow a recipe ain’t the best idea… trust me on that one!)

Scalloped Potatoes au Gratin

by Heba Saleh

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: bake simmer entree side gluten-free nut-free soy-free sugar-free vegetarian potato French winter

Ingredients (Serves 8-10)

• 8 medium organic Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped and sauteed in ghee
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced and added to the onion saute
• 2 tablespoons grass-fed ghee, plus more for the baking dish
• 2 cups whole grass-fed milk
• 1 cup grass-fed heavy cream (or if you don’t have cream on hand, just add an extra cup of whole milk)
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon organic ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons unrefined mineral salt (like Himalayan, which I buy online here)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 cup of grated grass-fed Gruyère or Dubliner Irish cheese, shredded on top

Instructions

(1) Wash, peel and chop potatoes: Wash the potatoes under running water, peel them and slice them into 1/8 inch pieces.

I don't have a mandoline, but chopping them into fairly equal slices wasn't difficult to do manually.

(2) Chop and saute onion and garlic: In a large pot, chop 1 yellow onion and mince 2-3 cloves of garlic and saute them in 2 tablespoons of grass-fed ghee until they have released their aroma and have turned a golden color.

(3) Add other ingredients to the pot: Add all chopped potatoes, and the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the grated cheese (2 cups milk, 2 cups cream, teaspoon of fresh thyme, 1 crushed bay leaf, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 2 teaspoons unrefined mineral salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper).

(4) Bring to a boil and simmer: Stir well and bring to a boil. Quickly lower the heat before it spills over, and continue simmering until potatoes have cooked – about 30 minutes.

(5) Add to a baking dish and bake: Grease 9×13 inch baking dish with a bit of ghee, then pour the potatoes into the dish. Grate about a cup’s worth of cheese (I used the Irish Dubliner) on top, and bake in a 350F oven for 15 minutes. You may wish to brown the top a little by broiling for an additional 3-5 minutes.

Grate some cheese on top - make sure the cheese is grass-fed for it to be healthy.

Serve warm and savor the creaminess.

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Behold this deliciousness, all raw!

After successfully making one raw dessert, you’ll feel almost invincible and you’ll resist going back to baking desserts. For those with the quizzical facial expressions right now, a ‘raw’ dessert is what it sounds like: a dessert whipped up from purely raw, or unheated, ingredients, and served, well, raw! There are many purported benefits to eating raw foods, though I don’t subscribe to an all-raw diet because there are some foods that can only be enjoyed (and benefited from) while cooked (and I would never want to deprive myself of that pleasure).

Who can wait for half an hour or more for something sweet and yummy to be baked in the oven? Not me, with my impatience in the kitchen! Though I am yet to find my (hidden) baking talent, I do revel in my ability to cook. In my opinion, cooking is simple: all you gotta do is mix stuff in proper proportions and watch to make sure the food doesn’t burn. With raw desserts, it’s even easier. In fact, the elimination of ‘cooking with heat’ makes raw desserts almost fool-proof. Since the ingredients you’re dealing with can be consumed raw, you can go a step further to ensure that the proportions are indeed proper, and that’s by taste-testing your dessert creation every step of the way (if you wish). Yes, I just gave you permission to dip a spoon into your half-baked (not literally, of course) raw dessert to test it out!

Today I’d like to share a delicious and super-simple recipe that I recently made: raw pumpkin pie, made with all natural, organic ingredients, and inspired by the Raw Foods Witch.

Carve pumpkin with a large, sharp knife – vertically through the middle.

You may be thinking: ‘I don’t want a hippie version of pumpkin pie – I want the real deal’. But I assure you that this pie is even better than the ‘real deal’. The pumpkin puree, fragrant with homey spices like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, melts in your mouth. The ‘crust’ adds the perfect crunch to every bite – oh the crust is another story entirely. You won’t even believe your taste buds when you find out that it’s made of just – brace yourself – TWO ingredients, and neither one of them involving gluten or anything related to grains.

Walnuts and dates really should wed. They’re a match made in heaven, especially in this grain-free crust!

Even though your eyes can’t believe that you’re making a legit crust out of just walnuts and dates (with a pinch of mineral sea salt), your taste buds nod in approval when you try a mini-bite as you’re taste-testing.

Fall this year has not yet turned into winter – check out the leaves in the background that are still hanging onto their branches.

I made this pie to take as dessert for one of our couple friends who kindly invited us over for a seafood dinner this week. You see, as Orthodox Christians, we fast for Advent for forty days from all animal products with the exception of seafood (so we’re basically vegan with a seafood allowance for 40 days before we celebrate Christmas on January 7th). So, you’ll find me actively experimenting with vegan recipes such as vegan ‘cheese’ (made with raw cashews), homemade almond milk, and vegetarian chilli (to name a few) several times a year. Although I personally don’t believe that abstainance from animal products is ideal for health (at least that’s my own personal experience), I do enjoy making nutritious vegan meals because of the culinary challenge they present!

So, if you’re in the mood for a healthy pumpkin pie that you can whip up in half an hour with access to a blender, give this one a try. It’ll appease even the finickiest of eaters, so you can consider making it this holiday season if you’re having a few people over, or attending a potluck!

Raw and Vegan Pumpkin Pie (Grain-Free and Sugar-Free)

by Heba Saleh,  adapted from the Raw Foods Witch

Prep Time: 30 mins+ 30 mins to chill

Keywords: raw snack dessert gluten-free low-carb low-sodium soy-free sugar-free vegan vegetarian pie fall

Ingredients ( Serves 8 )

For the Raw Pumpkin Pie Crust:

• 2 cups raw walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts – delicious!), soaked overnight in warm water with a little bit of sea salt, then rinsed and dried in the morning
• 1/2 cup dried dates, soaked for a few hours to soften
• Dash of unrefined mineral salt (I used Himalayan)

• 

  The raw pie crust ingredients – yup, just dates and walnuts (and a dash of salt!)

For the Raw Pumpkin Pie Filling:

• 2 cups organic shredded pumpkin, butternut squash, or sweet potato flesh (I had baked the whole pumpkin in the oven because I used one half of it for soup, but you can definitely go completely raw)
• 1/4 cup homemade almond milk OR filtered water to help blend
• 1 cup dates, soaked for a few hours to soften
• 2 teaspoons organic cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon fresh diced ginger (or 1 teaspoon organic ginger powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon organic ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Test-taste the raw dessert recipe in between the steps to ensure the flavor is just right!

Instructions

(1) Make the ‘crust’: Blend the soaked walnuts and dates in a food processor, then distribute the mixture evenly on the bottom of an 8-10-inch pie plate. Make sure to cover all areas of the pie plate evenly and compactly so it can hold together well (the stickiness of the dates does a good job of keeping the crust together anyway).

It’s even better than the traditional pie crust. You can take my word for it!

(2) Blend raw pumpkin: I baked the pumpkin halfway because my food processer isn’t strong enough to handle completely raw pumpkin. If you own a Vita-Mix, add shredded raw pumpkin and blend well.

(3) Add other ingredients and blend: Add almond milk (or water), soaked dates, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and blend well. Taste-test to see if it needs any adjustments in spices.

The filling, in raw form.

(4) Add filling to crust: Scoop the filling out of the processor and into the packed down pie crust. Even out with the back of a spoon, and refrigerate pie for 30 minutes to set. Enjoy!

The ‘decoration’ here is just crushed walnut powder (it was in the bottom of the bag and I thought of doing something creative with it)

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Once you’ve watched it all the way through, take out your calendar. If you’re old fashioned, you may still find some paper lying around your house. If you’re a tech freak, turn on your smart phone. Now take a look at your schedule for the next week. Schedule half an hour a day – preferably towards the beginning or middle of the day – to walk outside. Nothing fancy. Nothing tiring. Just a somewhat fast-paced, brisk (but not super fast) walk outside in the fresh air.

If you’ve taken the time to watch the video, you’ll know why this is super important. And if you think you’re ‘wasting time’ by not going hard during your workouts, think again. And if you’ve forgotten how to walk (gosh, I hope there aren’t very many people in this category), or if you like to do things ‘just right’, check out The Definitive Guide to Walking from Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint.

Happy walking!

Make ginger a regular visitor in your kitchen for good health.

Secretly, I’ve always wished I had red hair, just so I could be called Ginger. It’s such a carefree and colorful name; don’t you think? It’s also shared by a root that many tout as a ‘superfood’ - making it even cooler as a name, especially for a health nut like me. I’m willing to take the nickname, for all who can look past my dark brown hair and moles instead of freckles …

Pungent yet aromatic, ginger is an indispensable spice in my kitchen – often added in soups and smoothies, cakes and seafood dishes, sometimes in powdered form, but always more prized if it’s raw. Its powerful impact on the palate is a boon to some, and a curse to others; but whatever your personal taste, you cannot deny the accolades that it has collected over the years. Wherever you look in natural remedies and in modern medicine, you’ll find ginger being praised for its many medicinal and nutritional properties. If you want to get technical, ginger is rich in “hundreds of phytochemicals, including gingerols, beta-carotene, capsaicin, caffeic acid, curcumin and salicylates” (Food Watch). For all intents and purposes, you should probably know that it has been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer and to treat infections. For me, these benefits – accompanied by its unique taste – are enough to make me want to make it ‘crash’ permanently in my kitchen – always living in the door of my fridge and hanging on my organic spice rack.

The fact that it’s a root (if you want to be technical, it’s a rhizome) and tends to make nauseated and restless people feel more ‘rooted’ on the ground is a pretty cool connection, don’t you think? In any case, seeing that I have a problem with motion-sickness, ginger – previously the crystallized kind, but more recently, just raw or in smoothies – has come to my rescue many times in the past.

However, the “ginger ale” you find at the store really isn’t ginger ale at all, as you can see from the Food Facts information in the image below:

If you simply take the time to read the ingredients, you’ll realize you’re being duped if you buy this drink thinking that it contains anything that even resembles true ginger ale. You’re better off drinking water. Or, if you’re craving that tangy-spicy taste of a cold ginger ale, maybe you can just brew it yourself. Thinking that the process was too complicated for my measly abilities of making drinks at home, I procrastinated in looking up a recipe. Then one day, one of my family members came down with a nasty cold, and I figured I’d try to speed up the recovery naturally, using none other than the homemade ginger ale I’ve been craving.

When I came across Sarah’s recipe for ginger ale on her blog, The Healthy Home Economist, I had no more excuses. I had to try it! I was especially intrigued because it was also a fermented drink. Sarah’s addition of liquid whey (not the processed whey powder, but the liquid leftover from straining yogurt) helps promote the growth of probiotics, making the drink healthy, not only because of the ginger in there, but also because of the good dose of good bacteria naturally in whey that are necessary for a healthy gut!

Instead of trying to explain why fermented foods are healthy for us, here’s an excerpt that’s succinctly informative:

“The probiotic effect, or ‘natural healing force within each one of us’ are real, living beneficial microbes proven by modern science to exist in a wide-variety of lacto-fermented foods. Our flesh and digestive systems are dependent on microbes. When we do not have a diet rich in beneficial (probiotic) naturally-created food, this natural healing force suffers, and in turn, so do we.” (Pickl-It)

Surprisingly, it was super easy to make. I followed Sarah’s recipe, but made a few substitutions – for example, I used raw ginger instead of powdered, and used Rapadura, the least processed, purest sugar available instead of sucanat. Also, I did not feel the need to use raw honey or stevia, but it’s good to have the option to add it in your own drink if you’d like it sweeter.

Top: Himalayan mineral salt, grated raw ginger, Rapadura sugar Bottom: fresh lime juice and liquid whey from raw yogurt

Lactofermented Ginger Ale – Made from Scratch

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Fermenting Time: ~3 days on the counter and a few hours in the fridge

• 3/4 cup organic ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 quarts filtered water
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 3-4 organic limes)
• 1/4 cup of liquid whey, preferably raw/from raw yogurt (basically, it’s the leftover liquid after straining yogurt) If you have a dairy allergy, Sarah recommends “the contents of a probiotic capsule, coconut water kefir or the liquid strained from coconut milk yogurt from the store instead as the fermenting medium”, but I haven’t tried this to confirm if it’s the same taste.
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Rapadura (pure sugar)
• 2 teaspoons of unrefined mineral salt (I use Himalayan)

Directions:

1. Peel and grate ginger, squeeze limes, and if need be, strain the yogurt you have to get some whey.
2. Mix all ingredients (water, ginger, lime juice, Rapadura, whey, salt) in a 2 quart glass jug/jar, but leave an inch on the top, or “else the soda will rot and get moldy instead of ferment”, according to The Healthy Home Economist.
3. Stir well and cover tightly.
4. Leave at room temperature, on the kitchen counter, for 2-3 days. For more fermentation, and therefore more fizz, store for an extra day outside the fridge.
5. Chill in the refrigerator.
6. Shake well before consuming. If you find the flavor too strong, feel free to water it down with some filtered water. You can also stir in some raw honey if you’d like it sweeter.

To be honest, this drink recipe rocked my world. For those in my family used to Starbucks specialty drinks and bottled juices, the ginger ale wasn’t ‘sweet enough’. But, an easy solution to that is the addition of some raw honey, stirred into the cup to make it a tad sweeter. I actually really enjoyed making this, though at first it felt like a science experiment with all the mixing that was going on!

The refreshing final product!

Let me know if you ever try this, and what you think of the taste!

Dear Chipotle executives,

A few years ago, we learned about Chipotle’s ‘Food with Integrity’ philosophy and were thrilled that there exists a tasty fast food chain in America that defies many shameful practices of the fast food industry that have now become mainstream. It is pretty much the only fast-food spot we would consider frequenting, in terms of both health and ethical considerations: we believe, as Chipotle does, in food that is sourced as naturally and as locally as possible. So, when it comes to the fast food industry, we consider Chipotle’s position to be a pioneering one, and we want to thank you for the many satisfying dinners you’ve ‘salvaged’ in our household when we were in a pinch!

We appreciate Chipotle’s effort to make sure much of the meat is sourced in a natural and sustainable way. Of course, we encourage continuing further along in that direction, toward organically raised, pastured and grass-fed animals, as well as organic vegetables. However, we realize that it’s a long path toward making a complete switch in a cost-effective way.

At the same time, in recognizing your effort to uphold integrity in every facet of the food business, we would like to share a small complaint that we think would be easy to address, as we wish to continue to enjoy Chipotle’s food without any major concerns for our health. Based on our repeated and very consistent observation in several Chipotle locations all over the country, much of the food served comes speckled with noticeable black spots (especially on the fajita vegetables). These jet-black, shiny spots, as seen in the image below, range from tiny specks to larger pieces, but undoubtedly they are pieces burnt residue that results from cooking and subsequently scraping the cooking surface.

We believe that a different protocol for cleaning the surface, and/or a different material for the surface (that does not leach onto food) would easily solve this problem. Leaving this unaddressed introduces major health risks as burnt food or cookware pieces have been found to be possibly cancerous as explained in this article, this article, and this article. At the same time, mitigating this issue would require a solution that we do not imagine to be extremely difficult or costly.

We thank you for listening to your customers and addressing our concerns, and we would love to hear back from you about this issue.

Sincerely, 

Chipotle-lovers who don’t want burnt pieces in their food

This post was originally published on November 11, 2011 on DCWEEK’s official blog. It is written by me and based on my experience at the event. 

One of my favorite panel discussions at DCWEEK, a week-long, event-packed tech entrepreneurship conference in Washington D.C., was ‘Incorporating Social Good into Your Mission.’ Since I’ve been pretty much obsessed with learning about sustainable practices, this really hit home, and I learned quite a bit. Naturally, I wanted to share what I learned with the world! Here are some bulleted points from the panel of talented entrepreneurs:

Nicholas (Nic) Jammet is one of the co-founders of the Sweetgreen Restaurant Group

Nicholas (Nic) Jammet is one of the co-founders of the Sweetgreen Restaurant Group, which over the past four years has successfully opened ten lunch & salad restaurants and founded an annual  sustainable music festival, Sweetlife. Nic and his buddies started the business while they were seniors at Georgetown. It also helps that they all come from entrepreneurial backgrounds. Frustrated by not finding anything healthy and accessible to eat in the city, they set out to be the solution to that problem. Here are some tips to grow a sustainable business that Nic provided during the panel :

• Grow a sustainable brand that is truly sustainable in the long-term, not just ‘environmentally conscious’. The way to do that is to have social  mission in every aspect of business.
• From Nic’s experience, educating consumers about the importance of sustainable food was the biggest hurdle, but he advises that education is one of the most important things to tackle early on. The good news is that consumers nowadays know a lot more about than before, so it’s important to customize your message to satisfy your customers’ curiosity. Never ‘preach at’ the customer; think of more creative ways to reach out and deliver your message.
• Focus on creating a people-centered culture in your business.
• There are many different ways to connect with customers and employees. For example, Nic opened a Dupont Sweetgreen location right next to a farmer’s market. It wasn’t originally a very hip spot, so in an effort to liven it up and draw some crowds, every Saturday, Sweetgreen co-founders (two of them originally DJs) would DJ outside the restaurant. People would come in and they’d receive a free sample. Then it was comfortable for Sweetgreen to starting explaining their mission in a non-confrontational way. They used music to connect to customers and build relationships with them. Every May for the past two years, Sweetgreen sponsors the Sweetlife Music Festival with 15,000 people attending this year. It’s a completely carbon neutral event and features organic food.
• To engage employees who are motivated to work at Sweetgreen mainly for the hourly wage, they think of creative ways to incentivize them to get excited about the mission of the company. For example, Nic launched a program called “Shades of Green”, which awards various perks to employees on their anniversaries of how long they’ve been at the company.
• Try to create a win-win-win core value – where financial interests, customer interests, and environmental interests all line up. It is always more expensive to carry quality products. Think of creative ways to offset the costs. For example, Sweetgreen’s energy usage in stores is offset by energy credits. It requires an upfront investment but is worth it in the long-run. Sweetgreen also gives a free topping to customers who remember to bring and use their reusable salad ‘blasters’ (bowls), which greatly reduce waste from disposable bowls.

 

Michael (Mike) Radparvar is the co-founder of Holstee

Michael (Mike) Radparvar is the co-founder of Holstee. From the website: “The Holstee Tee. Made of 100% Recycled material the shirt featured a unique holster positioned pocket – rethinking the classic t-shirt with focuses on fit, style, sustainability, and functionality. Over the course of the first year of business the team designed and produced half a dozen new products including The Recycled Wallet, made of newspapers and plastic bags collected off the streets of India; The People Pendant, made of recycled acrylic scraps from a Chicago-area sign maker, and their Upcycled line of t-shirts which highlight the lasting value of apparel.” A few tips on sustainability and starting a business from Mike:

• Mike’s goal in creating Holstee was to re-think the T-shirt to make it really practical, with ample room in the front pockets. In an effort to eliminate packaging, some editions of the T-shirt were designed be folded into pocket itself.
• Remember that it’s perfectly normal to continue to refine your business as you learn more about the industry and people’s needs. For example, Mike and his co-founders learned that conventionally-grown cotton is bad for the environment, needing a lot of pesticides & large amounts of water to produce. After Patagonia introduced a new material derived from plastics, Holstee founders considered the idea, but after thinking about the  unknown long term effects of plastic in contact with skin, changed their minds once again. Now, they are looking into natural fibers. Mike explains that every decision is a learning process.
• Some barriers for running a small company include not having the economy of scale to dictate what suppliers give. On the positive side, smaller companies are able to take bigger risks. Some ways this is done at Holstee: Recap goals every week. Create ‘risk  of the week’. Work on the ’99 risks in 99 days’ summer internship role. The risks challenge founders to reach for the most idealistic goals. Any attempt will get you somewhere.
• Mike describes the success he found from writing a “manifesto“. In it, Holstee founders took the time to describe how they viewed success in non-monetary terms. One of the most prevelant themes in the manifesto include: “life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them.” Even though they did not market it at all and wrote it more for themselves, the genuineness of the message touched several people and it went viral, receiving 15 million views to date. Now they’re looking for ways to print the manifesto sustainably on T-shirts using old-fashioned letterpress machines.
• One should research the tradeoffs between the different options in business. In any case, strive to make a product that is “designed with a conscience”. Three elements to keep in mind at all times: people, planet and product. Holstee focuses on understanding how all materials used are sourced and their impact on the environment, on designers and on consumers.
• Even if you’re creating a ton of sustainable products and no one using them, that’s very unsustainable.
• Make decisions based on feedback from customers. Mike designs “selfishly” (makes things he wants but can’t find): in many ways, you are your own consumer. Discover a genuine need, and most likely you’ve found something that others will relate to.
• Holstee uses a small private group on Facebook, The Holstee Inner Circle as an advisory board of sorts, which ‘helps define the future of Holstee’. These Holstee fans frequently discuss details such as designs, color options, etc. This way, a few people already feel tied to the product even before it’s released.
• Holstee hired a CEO, or a Community Engagement Officer, who manages the Holstee hotline. She knows the top 40 twitter fans who support Holstee. Her job makes a big difference in customer service; it makes a huge difference when someone from the company knows customers personally.

 

 Olivia Khalili, Founder of Cause Capitalism

Olivia Khalili, “works with companies to design, market and evaluate social initiatives. She is the founder of Cause Capitalism, a consultancy and online resource that helps businesses grow by implementing a social mission. Currently, she is helping Ashoka Changemakers bring new products to market and build partnerships that connect corporations with social innovators and online enthusiasts to drive measurable social change” (DCWEEK). Thoughts from Olivia:

• Think about both both the longevity side and the environmental impact of sustainability.
• Ask the customer: “what is your true intent? How can you put back into the system from what you’re taking?”
• You have to start somewhere and it doesn’t have to be perfect.  You can always enhance.
• Some barriers to adding social good to your business: trying to do it perfectly and making it look really cool from the first try. Social responsibility doesn’t have to be cool or sexy – it can still speak to many consumers who aren’t looking for that, but are looking for demonstrable impact and durability.
• Another barrier is not knowing where to start. The solution to that is to look into what’s important to you internally – create a supply-chain community that is integrated into your product. Start somewhere; it doesn’t matter where – but eventually make the connections.
• As consumers, we like to be polled about how we feel about a brand.
• What if you have an online business that is trying to be sustainable? Make partnerships with a purchase trigger donation component.
• Set the stage for conversation: if consumers know that someone’s listening, they will come forward with their ideas and feedback. If you have customer base, put it out there.

 

 Sloane Berrent, Vice President of Digital Marketing for Lippe Taylor, and author at the Causemopolitan

Sloane Berrent is the Vice President of Digital Marketing for New York-based Lippe Taylor, a marketing service focused on PR and understanding the needs of women consumers. She’s also the author of the ‘social good’ blog ‘The Causemopolitan‘. Helpful advice from Sloane:

• A company can be either sustainable from ‘the inside’ and/or in the products they create. Ikea is an example of sustainable practices but they don’t necessarily make ‘green’ goods in the way that people expect.
• For brands that want to build a long  term cause-based relationship with customers, maybe packaging or transportation can be enhanced but maybe not the product itself if that will take more research, resources or fine tuning. Start with what’s easy to improve.
• Keep a running “parking lot for ideas”.  We often have a passion to do something but it may not always possible in that moment. Write them down to remember them and attempt them later.
• You may decide to shift your model from nonprofit to for-profit, if that makes more sense, even if your focus still remains social good.
• Every company should release a mission.
• Ask employees how they’d like to participate – this increases employee retention and builds on the product line.
• Do a poll or survey through email. Do people know how to find ‘someone’ in the company who can hear their question?
• Think of building social good that can scale.

So that’s it! I hope you find some of these tips helpful, and that they inspire you to include a ‘social good’ component in your business or place of work (or even better, to start something of your own that is centered on sustainability)!

Stay tuned for more posts on building sustainability in your life and business,

]]> http://mylifeinapyramid.com/2011/11/positive-social-change-starts-with-truly-sustainable-startups-notes-from-dcweek-event/feed/ 0 http://mylifeinapyramid.com/2011/11/a-new-look-for-my-life-in-a-pyramid/ http://mylifeinapyramid.com/2011/11/a-new-look-for-my-life-in-a-pyramid/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 06:21:44 +0000 Heba http://mylifeinapyramid.com/?p=1640

You may or may not have noticed that this site hadn’t been updated for quite some time. At least I’m hoping you noticed. Since May 2011, I have been thinking of how I’d like to proceed with this blog. My Life in a Pyramid was the first blog I had ever started (not counting those obligatory posts for grad school), and it meant a lot to me to keep it afloat, even though I was swamped with working on different projects, moving across the country, and launching a new site over the summer. After all, much had changed since I started the blog in January 2009. My interests have developed over the past few years to include more than traditional recipes (which I think is an essential component to life and health, hence motivating me to launch the new site that I co-author with my friend Brenda, dedicated to Middle Eastern food and culture: midEATS). As I read and researched more about sustainable agriculture, the locavore movement, alternative treatments, holistic health, and living sustainably, I itched to write about these topics and share my take on various of these aspects that touched my life. MidEATS was now satisfying my craving to constantly write about food and share traditional recipes with the world, but I still needed an appropriate outlet for all the other healthy living topics I wanted to write about …

So, for a while, I regularly posted interesting articles, research and findings on the My Life in a Pyramid Facebook page. I engaged with my readers on the social media page, sharing my shift of focus to include broader issues of healthy living. The response was always positive, and I found that people were hungry for the types of articles and findings that I posted. Because the media continue to cater to corporate interests while often ignoring health threats, an online movement of education is needed to jumpstart the awareness process on topics like GMO (genetically modified) food, the importance of buying locally, eschewing most medical interventions for a more holistic approach to healing, and so on. The number of ‘real food’ blogs and sustainable living sites was on the rise – and every time I came across a new one, I ‘liked’ it on Facebook, only to find myself even more inclined to engage in a broader conversation with these ‘industry revolutionists’ as I like to call them.

Buoyed by others’ interests in a site with a broader focus, I toyed with the idea of archiving My Life in a Pyramid, and starting fresh with another blog dedicated to healthy living. I also wanted to ditch the association with the failed food pyramid (it’s now a plate, in case you didn’t know). However, to set the record straight, the USDA food pyramid was not the original inspiration for the name; in fact, you should probably check out my updated “About” section for an explanation on the real inspiration! Though I wished to shift my focus a bit, I was not ready to ‘drop’ my readers and move on to a new site with no warning. So, I decided to stick it out. I’d keep the name and the old posts, but change the focus to include many more aspects of healthy living than just food, drink and exercise. (By the way, this by no means implies that I’m waning on my desire to share recipes with you – I’ll be doing most of that through midEATS, with a few exceptions to be shared on this site if they do not fit the Middle Eastern palate.)

Satisfied with my decision, I spent a few days designing my new logo, an inverted pyramid of green grapes – a symbol of defiance against a regimented ‘system’ of government-recommended food groups (heavily influenced by the industry rather than being solely about the public interest!). Again, you can read more about the meaning of this symbol here.

Suffice it to say that all visual symbols within the logo – including the color, circles within, and textured background – were accounted for, not just the pyramid! The overall message is this: instead of focusing on what others are telling me to eat, I have made a decision to focus on what God gave me to eat – real, unprocessed and unadulterated food found in nature. Grapes (i.e. real food) over a ‘food pyramid’ (or suggested ‘plate’) any day for me from now on. Same goes for fitness goals – I’ve adopted a philosophy to move my body and not “exercise” in the strict sense of the term. Check out my updated fitness goals for my explanation for this change.

If you have any ideas for improving My Life in a Pyramid or suggestions for posts, feel free to email me at mylifeinapyramid at yahoo dot com.

Until next time,

Throwing it away was not an option, given my newfound appreciation for conserving any healthy food, even the scraps or parts usually thrown away – like vegetable skins or meat bones (I actually have a cool recipe coming for bone broth – which will give you a better idea of what I’m talking about).  So if I wasn’t going to throw it away, I had to use it. Sometimes when I have no idea what to do about something, I just don’t do anything about it at all. So the almond pulp ended up chillin’ in my fridge for about three days – until it hit me one day to Google a recipe involving almond pulp. I used Foodily to search for a recipe – as I usually do – but found nothing. After a few minutes of scouring the internet, I found this recipe from a raw dessert site and it seemed perfect because it had literally four ingredients (including the almond pulp)! Naturally, I felt better adding more ingredients, but you can feel free to stop at the cinnamon if you don’t have the other ingredients on hand.

Ingredients for Vegan ABC Cookies: Adapted from Raw Dessert (yields about 12 cookies)

• 2 cups of left over almond pulp from making almond milk
• 1 ripe banana
• 1-2 tablespoons of raw honey (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon (you could add an extra one if the almond milk you made was not flavored with cinnamon)
• 1 tablespoon of virgin coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons of unsweetened and unsulphured shredded coconut
• Optional: if you want a chai flavor (and you haven’t already included this in making your almond milk), add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 tablespoon garam masala

It literally took me 5 minutes to blend the ingredients (in the VitaMix ) …

Scoop out in 2-inch spoonfuls and add to a tray …

and bake, er, dehydrate for 24 hours?

What the heck was dehydrating? It turns out that those who eat a primarily raw diet dehydrate some of their food instead of cooking it – there are actual kitchen machines called dehydrators that work by gently heating the air on a very low heating temperature and drying the food gradually – a process that can take many hours or days.

Though I didn’t know dehydrators existed, I had an idea that heating vegetables and fruits can destroy heat-sensitive, water-soluble vitamins. What would I do without a dehydrator? I could have just baked the cookies instead but I didn’t want to screw up the recipe and end up with rocks instead of cookies. Thankfully, I noticed a setting on (my archaic gas) oven called “warm” that was even lower than 2o0 F. Cool. I decided to try it. I “dehydrated” the cookies in the oven for 8 hours (and then left in the oven overnight while turned off) and they came out tasting great!

Chewy, flavorful and perfect with a cup of almond milk or raw dairy (pictured below). Yea, I know you’re curious about the raw dairy, so I’m saving that for tomorrow’s post! Stay tuned …

There ya go – Almond-Banana-Chai (ABC) Cookies – easy as A-B-C  My second attempt at raw desserts was a success!  My first was the chocolate mousse balls, in case you’re wondering.

Au revoir for now – I have to do something to divert my attention from this awful Chicago weather …