Food Fascination

Lately, like everyone, I've been riveted by the Sinclair-esque downer cows (via Gristmill) in our meat supply. My favorite description of the situation (at Eating Liberally) called out the meat plants for "bovine water boarding."

Sometimes, in fact oftentimes, the frugal thing to do (bagging lunches) is also healthier. Last I checked, there weren't very many organic, free-range, locally- and sustainably-farmed, whole-grain, additive-, preservative-, and synthetic dye-free items on the school lunch menu.

But I figured last week was the safest time in history to relent and let our kid get a much-desired Hot Lunch or two since all of the bad press caused our school district to yank meat, recall or no, from the menus. C'mon, didn't you trade your lunches back in the day? Hostess Ding-Dongs being the platinum currency of lunchbox wampum. Kids can't do that now, what with food allergies on the rise and all. So to take an item off the Delightfully Forbidden Fruit list you have to bend the rules now and again.

EGirl had a (persistant organic pollutant-laced) fish sandwich (on white GMO bread) and some (bGH) cheese pizza. But her favorite part (and my favorite description?) was the milk: "Mom, it was chocolate and even though it wasn't organic? It tasted so cold and delicious that it seemed like it really was." Ah, everlasting sweetness.

Below: less musing, more foodbits...

• This cool tool at Foodsel allows you to see nifty visual guides to food contents. Like if you eat a Krispy Kreme, what does that really mean? Why, a fifth of a stick of butter and four sugar cubes just went down your gullet. But you got 16 batteries' worth of energy. And if you're my weight, to burn off the calories, you could play lawn darts for two hours and 16 minutes. (via Lifehacker)
• This nifty little list by Kid Safe Seafood answers the question on a lot of parents' minds -- just tell me what fish is safe for the little ones to eat. A-OK to gobble = shrimp, scallops, salmon, cod, crayfish, mussels, and tilapia. (via Green Mom Finds)
• Rocket fuel's in all of our food. Sigh. (chipper fact courtesy of EWG).
  
• Get rid of those teflon pans, easy to clean though they may be. (more EWG).
  
• Americans may be fatter than the French because we look to external cues to tell us when to stop eating (like whether The Daily Show's still running) rather than internal cues like satiety. Blame it on the Clean Plate Club, eh? (via Science Daily)
• A tip from Zen Habits to help you stop eating sweets after dinner: brush your teeth right away. You won't want to mess with your minty freshness. Plus, you can get your kids on the path to bedtime pronto.
  
• An aside in a recent Gristmill story about wine and chocolate pairings noted that highbrow chocolate is fair trade because really expensive chocolate is made from custom grown cacao and therefore is free of forced child labor. It's also relatively pesticide-free, labeling or no, so gobble up that Valrhona.
• Safeway's getting on board with animal rights. (also via Grist) First an organic line and now bunny-love? More to love than just the hook-ups....
• Button mushrooms are just as healthy if not healthier than highbrow expensive fungi like shitaake or porcini. Mmmmmmushroooms. (via Science Daily)
• Here's a thorough piece at the Boulder explaining the debate about big organic milk producers like oh-horror-a ahem Aurora and whether or not they are fauxbies breaking the spirit of organics or the real deal. (via chewswise)
• Another reason to bag the nuggets? Runoff from conventional poultry farms is polluting waterways like the Chesapeake Bay. (via NPR)
  
• Cool resource: a list of high fiber veggies. Apparently avocados have way more fiber than carrots. Who'da thunkit? (from A Veggie Venture)

Happy Wednesday!

*Photo via sxc - for more of ramasamy chidambaram's work, see http://www.studiosrishti.com

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I Heart Fairtrade Chocolate

Soooo...I know where you stand, readers. Most of you are chocolate-desiring, not chocolate-indifferent. But an anonymous commenter way back in November first alerted me to the labor issues swirling in my cup of hot chocolate, and the phrase "child slavery" is really too much for this mama to gloss over.

Via Baby Toolkit, a reminder (or a harbinger of doom, if this is new to you and you care deeply about both sweets and justice) that chocolate comes with a dear cost to African children, some of whom are sold to harvest and process it. Since fair trade chocolate is available, I think this mama's going to have to try to switch us on over. I know it's expensive (I just went to the Dagoba website since I've had their dark chocolate bars mmmmm and thought I'd look into chocolate chips and YIKES, we may have to go for oatmeal raisin every now and again) but I imagine this is one of those issues where once you know, there's no going back. 43% of the cacao beans produced may be tainted by present-day slavery, and the way the supply chain works, all the major chocolate producers' beans are mixed together. Unless we buy fair trade chocolate, odds are that we're supporting unjust labor practices impacting children.

I've gotten Dagoba bar chocolates at Cost Plus World Market (although I don't see them online -- maybe they only have them in their stores) and they are delectable. I know Whole Foods has a selection of fair trade chocolate bars (Green & Black's Maya Gold bar is tasty and fair-trade). Not sure about the chips and cocoa but I will report back if I find good sources. I would love any tips from readers about where to find milk chocolate products (not chips but bars, different candies, etc.) that use fair trade chocolate. It's easy to find dark chocolate bars but the many milk permutations seem elusive. All the fair trade chocolate seems pretty highbrow, I must say, which has its place. But for someone used to lining up double digits of Rolos on a pregnant belly shelf to make, you know, any number of pals, it's just not the same experience to have a nibble of an extra-dark bar with hints of lavender, if you get my drift.

May we be able to find something truly sweet (and just) for our loves this Valentine's Day. Read more!

Born to Different Sensory Worlds (I Am Salty, You Are Sweet)

"Some mothers and their children may live in different sensory worlds due to differences of taste sensitivity related to genes, age, or both." I so love this line. Apparently some kids are more sensitive to bitter (read: spinach-y) tastes than others, and are predisposed to like sweets. I know this will shock many of you, but it's true, some kids prefer frosting to pimento cheese spread. This may be a childhood sensitivity that those kids grow out of, or experience may trump sensitivity after a certain point. They just don't know yet. On a related note, scientists have also figured out something I've long known -- some people just don't like chocolate. Yup, as I've long maintained, some of us adults have a specific metabolic chemical that makes us "chocolate indifferent" -- much to my mother-in-law's horror, she being of the "chocolate desiring" persuasion. So some of the behavior we see in our kids may be age-related, and some may be part of their basic metabolic make-up. And all of this underscores once again how tricky it is to navigate food issues when your husband-- I mean child--is very different from you. Read more!