Nutritious choices made simple®
The selection of plant-based burgers has grown quickly. There are now numerous brands to choose from, along with other cookout favorites like plant-based sausage links. Clever names and attractive packaging aside, what’s the story with these new meatless patties? Here are the basics so you can make an informed choice when you’re ready to get your grill on.
Supermarket shopper expectations are higher than ever. We expect to be able to buy almost any food, anywhere, at any time. And at a low price. In order to retain customers and avoid losing them to aggressive competitors, grocers aim to stock a consistent assortment of fresh foods regardless of season or location. Because most produce is now available year-round, we can lose touch with the seasonality of foods. Let’s discuss some benefits of shopping seasonally and nutritious ways to do this at our local supermarket
The French have what I consider an ingenious tradition called “Le Goûter.” Le Goûter consists of a cup of tea/coffee and a snack, typically a chocolatey one. It is consumed in the late afternoon/early evening to get you through the rest of the day, tiding you over until dinner. I am a chocolate lover and need no additional reason to consume chocolate other than the fact I like it, but this is a tradition I embraced while in France and was happy to continue here in the States.
Sustainability encompasses many meanings, the least of which is the ability for something to be maintained for future generation use. One important aspect of sustainability is food security, which is defined by the United Nations as the availability and access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. The USDA has compiled data over the years reporting 12.7 percent (15.8 million) of U.S. households to be food insecure at some time during 2015. This includes households which are uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, at some time during the year, enough food to meet the needs of all their members due to insufficient money or other resources for food. From 2013 to 2015, the U.S. national average of food insecurity came in just below 14 percent.
Most of us know that fish are good for our health, but how do we know which fish are good for environmental health? Like many other foods, we need transparency of where it came from and how it got to our plate. To complicate matters, we don’t have labels like “USDA Organic” to help guide us – you don’t know what the fish is eating, so you can’t very well label it organic. What we do have is labeling of farmed or wild-caught, but that tells us very little about how it was caught or raised or treated after it was caught. The simple answer to a simple question, “How do I know if my seafood is sustainable?” It’s complicated.