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By Emily, June 12, 2010 4:27 pm

Few things in the world are making me as annoyed as the BP Oil Spill. I know I’m not alone in this, and I suspect most of you are well aware of what’s been going on. If not, this video from Time provides a pretty good overview.

The oil spill is going to do some serious damage to Gulf food culture: “of some 136 species or stocks of fish and shellfish from the Gulf that have been historically featured in regional seafood markets and restaurants, 125 are projected to have been directly impacted by oil contamination.”

“Toxic Soup” is a Change.org series focusing on how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacts the Gulf’s seafood industry and marine life.  Topics include the effects on shrimp and oysters, plus the various efforts to reduce the damage.

In addition to everything else, this week the oil spill shut down the nation’s oldest oyster-shucking company.

Some restaurants are doing their part this weekend by participating in Dine Out for the Gulf Coast.

The Atlantic has 3 lessons food marketers can use to combat their crisis, obesity.

To lighten the mood, my favorite BP Oil Spill parody thus far:

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By Emily, September 11, 2009 8:28 am

Perhaps in an effort to make up for my lack of posts this week (I made meatloaf and it lasted us several meals), a somewhat longer than usual list of highlights from my Reader.  Seems like there was a lot of interesting stuff on the web this week.  If these aren’t enough, remember you can always check out “What I’m Reading” on my right side bar.

Highlights for September 5-11

Michael Pollan’s “Big Food vs. Big Insurance” in the NY Times connects health care and food.  ”… Three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.”…We’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease…”  Crazy.

This piece in The Atlantic about the cost of year-round tomatoes and the people that harvest them gave me a lot to think about. In the past I’ve consumed a lot of winter tomatoes.  However, Gourmet just published a piece reporting that things are improving a bit for the migrant tomato workers because of the implementation of a “Fair Food” program and the burrito chain Chipotle agreed to buy its tomatoes from the growers involved in the program.

Also from The Atlantic, some fasinating things about Ghandi, food and vegetarianism (and a little about Obama too).  Ghadni has always been one of those people I’ve been really intrigued by, I may have to actually start learning more about him.

Yay for frugality! Another great post from The Simple Dollar featuring 12 Clever Substitutions That Save Money (Nearly) Effortlessly.  I may have to try some of these out, especially the drain, oven and carpet cleaners.

Both Epicurious and Serious Eats mentioned this Cheese or Font game.  Apparently its pretty addictive and wicked hard.

I got a 58% on Planet Green’s Who Owns Your Food quiz.  Can you do better?

Alex and Brandon of A Food Coma have started a new site called Wadjeet, as in “what did you eat?”.  It’s “a new social site tailored to all of us who whip out our cameras as soon as the food hits the table” and features some pretty delicious looking meals.  Take a look and leave some comments.

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By Emily, September 4, 2009 8:26 am

Highlights for August 29-September 4

The Daily Beast has an excellent piece on The Dirty Truth about Cutting Boards.  Read it, because who wants to get sick from a dirty cutting board?

From Planet Green, 75 Things You Can Compost, but Thought You Couldn’t …pizza boxes, hair, potpourri, feathers…wow, who knew? (via Serious Eats)

The Nation‘s September 21st issue is all about food!  It’s already online. I haven’t looked at it yet, but I’m sure there’s some good stuff.  I love major news outlets covering food issues.

Here’s 21 Ways to Reduce Your Spending Without Making Your Life Miserable from The Simple Dollar, including Buy in bulk the staples you use all the time, Figure out your most cost-effective grocery store and shop there, Whenever you make supper, if it’s reasonable, make twice as much and freeze the extras, and more.

The BBC has an interesting article that Scottish households throw away a billion pounds worth of food a year. That’s a lot of waste, most of which could be avoided by better planning, storage and preparation.  I’m sure we’re not any better in the United States.  I need to work harder on being aware of what we already have to eat and consuming that, instead of buying new stuff and letting the old food go to waste.

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By Emily, August 21, 2009 9:18 am

It’s Friday, time for this week’s most interesting articles from my Google Reader.  Remember, there’s always more to read from “What I’m Reading” on the right sidebar of the blog.

Highlights for August 15-21

Time Magazine’s cover story this week is a really quality article by Bryan Walsh titled “Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food”. I’m always thrilled to see mainstream media sources reporting on what I know to be true.  Definitely an article worth passing on.  Grist has some good commentary on the piece as well.

On a lighter note, the folks at The Internet Food Association have a lot to say about candy.  A very amusing post about m&ms, artificial flavoring and advertising.

I have never watched Dancing with the Stars.  I planned to keep it that way.  But Mark Decascos, the Chairman on Iron Chef America, is going to be on this season so I may have to change my viewing habits.

My food blogging friend Alex (who as you may recall is partly to blame for this blog) was interviewed by Epicurious!  I’m super jealous, but she’s clearly better spoken than I am.

Scientists have been hard at work testing the effects of food on us: Via Serious Eats, “Scientists Say Popcorn is Good for You” and via mental_floss, “Caffeine Reverses Memory Impairment (in Alzheimer’s mice, at least)“.

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By Emily, August 7, 2009 6:18 am

Highlights for August 1-August 8

Julie and Julia opens in theaters today!  I’d certainly like to see it at some point, though it’ll probably be a while if the amount of time it took me to go see Food, Inc is any indication.  At any rate, the internet (and the news, for that matter) have been all abuzz about it:

• Hollywood met the food world at the movie’s premiere as told by The Atlantic Food Channel.
• NPR reports that Julia Child’s copper pots have been added to the exhibit at the National Museum of American History.
• Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, a “Julia-lite, Cliffs Notes” book of Julia’s tips is being re-released…I may have to get that one…I’m suddenly feeling guilty that there’s not Julia Child in my cookbook collection (via Huffington Post)

Last week I posted a link to Luxirare’s pie lollipops…and Bakerella actually made them!

Finally, if you’re looking for a way to change the world, Caitlin of Healthy Tipping Point has started a revolution: Operation Beautiful.  The mission is simple: end “fat talk” by leaving anonymous positive messages on the mirrors of public bathrooms (or tucked into diet books, or on a locker at the gym or on a window…).  The movement has been getting quite a bit of attention and you can participate today!  Caitlin posts the best submitted notes on the Operation Beautiful site.  Even if you don’t participate, visit the site for an instant mood boost.

Officially, Relishments is on vacation at the moment…but its a food-filled vacation, so look forward to lots of restaurant reviews when I get home!

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By Emily, July 31, 2009 4:13 pm

Denny’s Sued Over Sodium Content from Atlantic Food Channel & Denny’s Going the Way of Phillip Morris from Change.org –Finding out the amounts of sodium in Denny’s food makes me want to stay away from there for a long time…not that I really wanted to go to begin with…

Pie Lollypops from Luxiare–Not that I would ever make them, but the photography is absolutely amazing! (via The Food Section)

Blue M&Ms May Treat Spinal Cord Injuries from Hungry Beast–I always knew that M&Ms were amazing, but who knew they were that good?

Ree of the great blog, The Pioneer Woman, recently created a new website.   Tasty Kitchen is “a happy little place on the web where people who love to cook can easily share recipes.”  With thousands of members already, it’s definitely worth checking out next time you need a recipe (or if you want to submit one of your own!)

What Britain Eats: Three Decades of Grocery Shopping is an impressive chart/graph of British shopping habits broken down by time and food groups (via The Internet Food Association)

Check back next Friday for more of my favorite links from the week!

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By Emily, May 13, 2009 6:04 pm

1) The Maine Brewer’s Guild  has just released a brochure about the “Maine Beer Trail” (opens PDF).   Personally, I’m not a fan of beer.  I’ve been told it’s is an acquired taste but I’ve been trying it for almost 4 years now and I still haven’t acquired it.  Nevertheless, visiting breweries can be fun and I know a lot of people who do like beer, including my wonderful Man.  So if you’re in the great state of Maine, check out some of the locations on the Maine Beer Trail (apparently Maine has the fourth most breweries per capita in the United States, one for every 42,000 residents).

2) The Portland Press Herald had a lovely story on the front of the “Food and Health” section of the paper today about Rob Evans,  the James Beard Foundation Award winner for Best Chef: Northeast.  Evan’s restaurant, Hugo’s, is in Portland.  I haven’t been there yet, but it’s definitely on my list.  Who would’ve thought a Portland chef would beat out the Boston ones?  Me, because Maine is awesome.

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By Emily, April 26, 2009 4:17 pm

CBS Sunday Morning ran a segment about Engine Company 2 in Austin, Texas, a group of fire fighters who are vegan, and plenty healthy.  The story can be read here. It’s definitely interesting, and definitely more good press for those of us who choose to go without meat.

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By Emily, April 7, 2009 7:39 am

From Time: Study: Is Vegetarianism a Teen Eating Disorder?

As soon as I saw this headline, I was annoyed.  I’m no longer a teenager, but I certainly identify with them in a lot of ways, never mind the fact that I work with hundreds of them on a daily basis.  On one hand, it shouldn’t have taken the Journal of the American Dietetic Association to tell us that vegetarianism isn’t always healthy. Clearly, that isn’t limited to just teenagers. It takes a lot of work and effort to be a healthy vegetarian. But eating like a “normal” teenager and consuming bags of potato chips isn’t healthy either. Unfortunately, according to this study

it seems that a significant number of kids experiment with vegetarian diets as a way to mask their eating disorders, since it’s a socially acceptable way to avoid eating many foods and one that parents tend not to oppose.

That said, I think we must be careful not to assume that the findings of this study apply to all vegetarian teenagers. It was teenagers who “converted” me to eating less meat to begin with and the teen vegetarians I know are healthy students, one of whom has the possibility of going to the Olympics (seriously).

We must not ignore the fact that the study found that “in one sense, vegetarians were healthier.”  Furthermore, only 4.8% of the students surveyed reported that they were currently vegetarian, which means the study found that 1.2% of the surveyed  youth were vegetarians who “had engaged in extreme weight-control measures.”  I think we must be very careful not to assume that all, or even most, teen vegetarians are doing so for the wrong reasons.  Vegetarianism is becoming increasingly popular and it’s only to be expected that more teens will be changing their eating habits.  I take issue with the article’s title: it seems vegetarianism itself isn’t the eating disorder, though teens may use it as a way to mask other issues.  The authors suggest that “parents and doctors should be extra vigilant when teens suddenly become vegetarians.” In my opinion, parents should be vigilant and pay attention to all lifestyle changes a teen makes, but it’s clear to me that eating a diet which focuses on consuming fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains over meat is better than the average American diet.  Finally,

The findings suggest that age matters when it comes to vegetarianism: teenage vegetarians as well as young experimenters — those who try it but abandon it — may be at higher risk for other eating disorders compared with their peers. But by young adulthood, many still-practicing vegetarians have presumably chosen it as a lifestyle rather than a dieting ploy, the study suggests.

Not all teen vegetarians may be doing so for the right reasons, but I think we must assume that is the exception, not the rule.  Those of us who are flexitarians (or vegetarians) must continue to educate youth about good nutrition, but I don’t think this study should cause those of us who know teen vegetarians to panic.

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By Emily, March 24, 2009 7:17 am

I was thrilled when on this morning’s news there was a story about how schools in Kittery and York, Maine are working on a program to put local food into their school lunch program. It’s great to see that the ideas which are popular in New York and Washington DC are finding their way up here to Maine.

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