Hey Low Crap Foodies – its time to stand up for health and stop big agribusiness from taking over our food!

You can get tons of information at the free Food Revolution Summit hosted by bestselling author John Robbins (Diet for a New America, Food Revolution.) John will be interviewing 21 amazing leaders in movements for healthy, sustainable, humane and delicious food.

From April 28-May 6, 2012 there will be three interviews broadcast daily that you can access by phone or internet. You’ll get cutting edge disease-beating, health-activating, age-reversing information. These tools can help you and your family thrive and with those newly awakened brains cells make a real difference in the way our food industry operates.

I’m going to be listening to every word and I hope you will too!

Get more info and register today:

http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1452194

A recent article makes the claim that “popcorn is a health food”. (Source Calgary Herald “Popcorn is a health food, says research” August 19, 2009 http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Popcorn+health+food+says+research/1908039/story.html)

I don’t disagree with that in principle, and with so many forms of ‘popcorn’ out there it would be wise to examine which forms have the lowest crap factor.

High on my list of crappy popcorn would be any type of commercially prepared ‘candied popcorn’ … especially ones that contain high fructose corn syrup, food colouring, preservatives and other nasties.

Then there is the flavoured microwave popcorn. Just the smell of that stuff cooking puts my crap-factor-spidey-senses on full alert … not to mention the fact that some popcorn factory workers have developed lung cancer from breathing in the chemicals used to make fake butter and other flavourings. And what about the single use bag that holds the popcorn as it pops away in the microwave. While that bag may or may not be recyclable where you live, it is coated with chemicals that could contaminate the popcorn as it pops. Also, I’m just not a fan of cooking food in a microwave oven … just my personal preference.

I have heard it is possible to pop corn in the microwave using a paper lunch bag or glass bowl with a lid … but I have never tried it myself. This would seem to be a very low crap form of popcorn … except for the microwave part … again … just my personal opinion.

Then there is that pop in a jiffy stuff, specially created for popping over a campfire. Great idea, but I always wonder what nastiness the heated aluminum foil adds to the finished product … and again there is the issue of recycling the oil soaked aluminum after your done.

Those little hot air popcorn makers work well, although I have concerns about the non-stick coating and fumes from the plastic cover contaminating the corn as it pops.

Theatre popcorn, in my opinion, has a lower crap-factor rating, especially when I pay the extra 50 cents to have it topped with real butter and it is served to me in an environmentally friendly paper bag. I stay away from those flavourings in the shaker containers though … too many artificial ingredients that make my tongue feel yucky.

Popping corn in a pot on the stove with a little bit of oil, while not as convenient as other methods, is my favourite form of popcorn, mostly because I can purchase organic ingredients (popping corn, oil, sea salt) in bulk which cuts down on packaging and I can choose my own low crap flavourings.

Here’s an ingenious way to turn trash into something useful. Guess where this beautiful pond is located?

Yup … this beautiful pond is in the trunk of an old car.

Last year this same neighbour grew a productive garden in the back of an old truck.

Happy Friday!

Contrary to what your mother might have told you, you do not have to eat meat every day to get enough protein in your diet. In fact there is plenty of protein in non-animal food products to keep you healthy… just ask any vegan and they will tell you it is possible to live meat free. For example 1 cup of walnuts has the same amount of protein as a chicken drumstick; and 1 cup of quiona has a little more protein than 1/4 pound of lean ground beef.*

But Meat Free Mondays isn’t asking us to all become vegan. It is simply asking us to cut our meat consumption by about 14% to help lessen the impact that we have on our environment … and that fits beautifully with the low crap diet.
 
This movement is growing quickly. A Google search for “meat free Monday” returns over 20 million hits. Even Sir Paul McCartney has, not surprisingly, joined the movement and if you visit supportMFM.org you can watch Sir Paul strumming his guitar and singing a little song to get everyone in the spirit: “Meat free Monday… It’s a fun day… And its happ’nin …All around the world.”

Making Mondays meat free makes a lot of sense. To learn more watch the video below, or click here to watch on You Tube.

*Nutrition Facts Source: Dunne, Lavon J., Nutritional Almanac Fifth Edition, 2002 McGraw-Hill

The 1st Annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic Day has come and gone and I’ve heard some great stories from friends and family about how their plastic awareness was ignited.

The best story comes from someone I won’t name … She tells me she was having lunch with a coworker at a food court and enthusiastically talking about it being the 1st Annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic Day. As she was speaking she suddenly noticed that her food court food had been served in Styrofoam containers … oops …

When she sheepishly told me the story I cheered! Hooray! That tells me that the 1st Annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic Day succeeded in raising both her and her coworker’s plastic-awareness. Plastic is so integrated into daily life that we hardly even notice.

They then discussed how they could have easily brought down reusable plates and cutlery from the office kitchen.

Maybe next week they will.

It doesn’t matter if you succeeded in going 24 hours without purchasing plastic or not. What matters is that you became a little more plastic-aware.

Congratulations!

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Today is my birthday and you can wish me well by participating in the first annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic day. All you have to do is pay attention to how the food you purchase is packaged. And when you have a choice, choose food products that are self-packaged or in non-plastic containers.

Before a problem can be solved, we must first be aware that there is a problem. Do you remember when Big Mac’s and Quarter Pounders were served up in cancer-causing polystyrene aka Styrofoam? 

More than 20 years ago McDonald’s assistant vice president was quoted in the New York Times: ”We use foam packaging for the same reasons that schools, hospitals and other restaurants do. It keeps our products hot, it keeps them fresh, its portable and it’s a safe and sanitary way to serve our product.” (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/11/nyregion/mcdonald-s-is-urged-to-alter-packaging.html Accessed: July 16, 2009).

Today, McDonald’s no longer uses foam packaging for its sandwiches and the change in packaging hasn’t seemed to hurt their business. Their sandwiches are still delivered hot, fresh, safe and sanitary … in benign paper-based wrapping.

Change can happen. It starts with awareness.

Its fairly rare to see food in Styrofoam packaging these days. But the packaging of choice is still predominately other types of plastic. Plastic keeps food fresh. Its portable. Its sanitary. It’s a wonder product. But is it safe? The evidence is mounting that it is not; not for lab rats, not for babies, not for adults, not for fish; not for water, not for landfills.

Today is the day to raise your plastic awareness. Can you go the whole day without purchasing food wrapped in plastic?

It’s a difficult challenge, but its not impossible.

Well here I am, half way through my PFF experiment. (PFF = Plastic-Free-Food … way easier to type than “30-Day-No-Food-Purchased-In-Plastic”.)

Eating PFF is not easy and as I reflect on the past 15 days I realize that I have had some wins and some slip ups.

For instance, I didn’t think I had to give up my daily whole milk latte habit. After all I was bringing my own cup to the coffee shop. But today I watched as the barista poured the milk for my latte out of a plastic jug. Crap! Ok technically I didn’t purchase the milk in the plastic jug … or did I?

Then there are the herbs I bought in China town yesterday that were all sealed in plastic bags. I was buying the herbs for my business, so I didn’t think I was compromising the experiment. And I wasn’t … well not until I tore into the bag of Goji berries for a snack. I was well into my third fist full of the berries before I noticed the plastic bag in my hand.

One day on the weekend I was at the big box grocery deli and wanted a quick, high protein snack. I scanned the deli case and spied unwrapped sausage rolls. I told the clerk I wanted one, but I didn’t want the plastic take out tub that they use. I suggested that she simply wrap it in a paper towel. She said she could put it in a plastic bag instead. I told her “No! I don’t want plastic!”

I didn’t mean to yell … I apologized and tried to explain about my PFF experiment … but I’m pretty sure she rolled her eyes at me as she handed me the paper wrapped roll. I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded to pull off all the crappy white flour pastry and then ate just the meat part. It wasn’t very good.

So I stopped at the organic store on the way home and picked up a few handfuls of fresh cherries, using one of my cloth bags instead of a plastic bag. The clerk in that store gave me a 5 cent bag discount. The cherries were delicious.

This Friday, July 17th is your turn to experiment with PFF purchases. Write in and let me know your experiences.

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Since there are so many new readers this week, I thought I’d give you a quick catch-up on what’s going on at LowCrapDiet.com and then we’ll talk about ketchup.

Low Crap Diet is about cutting ‘crap food’ out of our diet … improve our health; improve the health of the earth.

Lately I’ve been cranky about plastic and other throw away packaging. In fact I became so frustrated with all the low crap food in high crap packaging that I decided to try a 30 day buy-no-food-in-plastic experiment. Feeling a little lonely in my experiment, I invited you to join me by declaring Friday, July 17, 2009 to be the first annual “Buy No Food in Plastic” day. (Better start getting organized … Friday is only two days away.)

Now that you are all caught up, here’s the promised ‘ketchup’ bit.

I’ve always wondered why “returnable glass bottles” didn’t catch on for more products. It’s a brilliantly sustainable system. When I purchase milk in a glass bottle, I pay a ‘deposit’ on the bottle as incentive to bring it back to the store so it can be refilled. When I return the bottle the deposit is refunded. It works for milk and pop and there is no reason it couldn’t work for other consumable products.

I’d like to see the following products in returnable glass bottles:
- yogurt
- feta cheese
- olives
- cooking oil
- vinegar
- mayonnaise
- nut butters
- stewed tomatoes
- bar-b-que sauce
- spices
- honey
- juice
- ice cream
- ketchup

I think you get the picture and you can probably add other products that you regularly purchase.

The ability to purchase ketchup in a refillable glass bottle would remove a huge amount of ketchup’s crap-factor.

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Did you know that:
- plastic is collecting in the ocean
- the plastic in the ocean breaks down into tiny colourful bits
- fish and birds eat those colourful bits thinking they are eating food
- you can be part of the solution.

Raise your “plastic-awareness”. On Friday July 17 purchase only plastic-free-food.

Click here for a poster that you can forward to your friends.

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