Y. Breyn's blog

Happy New Year! (I know I'm a little late, but what the heck!) I know that people use the new year to start things, but sometimes the new year is a time to finish up what you started the year before.  It’s the start of a new decade and a time to take some huge steps in the FOOD MOVEMENT.

In a recent New York Times article, Weight Watchers overhauls their point system to reflect what we and many other progressive eaters have been saying:

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants"

WHAT?! Since when did Weight Watchers and Michael Pollan coincide?

Since they have revamped their points system not based strictly on the amount of calories, but on how the calories are used in the body.

Reprised from healthyalterego.com

So, in our ongoing quest to better ourselves we sometimes take short cuts, but as my mother always said, "There are no free lunches" so where you may cut back for convenience and cost's sake, you will pay for with your health. So here are some foods that mask themselves as healthy, but can take a huge bite out of your healthful living efforts.

The top 8 foods that are unhealthy "healthy" foods are

1.) Rice Cakes

These usually pretty flavorless discs are high glycemic foods, which make blood sugar levels peak, thus increasing insulin, which could lead to other health probs such as diabetes.

2.) Juice

So, this week in the Food is Elementary classes we are learning about good ole vegetables; Where they come from, what parts of the plant are we eating when we eat them, and what vitamins we are getting from them. And in thinking of this lesson I began to wonder about how many of us are actually eating enough veggies.

According to the CDC, in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in September, only 32.5% of adults in the U.S. ate fruit two or more times a day and only 26.3% ate vegetables three or more times daily.

So today was the first day of Local Matters extended partnership with Franlin County Board of Developmental Disabilities (FCBDD). We have been working with them for many years now with everything from Outdoor Learning Environments (OLE) to Lunch and Learns and finally, *trumpet sound* we have been able to share the cornicopia of good foods from our Weekly Fresh Market Bag with them!

So, typically when we think of "Power Couples" we think Barack and Michelle Obama, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but what about the foods we eat?

As Michael Pollan has stated in his books, we have become a culture obsessed with "Nutritionism", or the idea that we need different nutrients and forgo the foods that they come in. So we eat foods that is infused with that nutrient but what if that nutrient needs its "other half" to be effective? Here are a few "Power Couples" that pair up to pack a nutritional punch:

Chickpeas & Red Peppers

Tomatoes & Olive Oil

Chicken & Sweet Potatoes

Food is Elemenetary has gotten off to a great start! We are now in our third week and growth is eminent. We've had some bumps along the road, but with the new additions to the FIE team, we will be able to keep the Local Matters ball rolling.

Monique and Elizabeth are taking on the Head Start classes and the Jesse and Jessica team taking on the elementary schools, leaves just myself and Shannon to do the adult education and community events. Looks like we got things covered.

On top the the excitement of the new year we have the OH SO GOOD Local Foods Week this week with delicious events all over Columbus. If you didn't know, it was declared by Mayor Michael Coleman to be Local Foods Week for the whole city. how cool is that?!

Corny, I know, but peelings can be apealing. Most of the time we peel veggies to get to the "good part" like potatoes, carrots, and apples, but the peel is the BEST PART!

Apple peels for instance contain awesome cancer fighting antioxidants, and fiber bearing potatoes hold most of their fiber in the skin.

The one that suprised me the most was the vitamin E and flavinoids in the skin of the fuzzy kiwi.

I was able to find some great recipes on how to fix these apeelin' foods on Yahoo!

I suggest that you check them out!

  If you are an 80s baby/90s kid like I, you totally remember Will Smith's "ode to summer". Since it is coming to an end, I wanted to rehash some of the highlights of my summer working in the community.

I am going into my second year working at Local Matters, and over the summer when class numbers are down (due to school being out), I work at the Godman Guild with their Summer Teen Employment Program as the supervisor of the Weinland Park Community Garden. I have posted blogs about events that we are doing, but never really went into detail.

Food affects us all, and one thing that I have noticed about the next generation of young people is that, they have lost their connection with food. Why do we eat it? Where does it come from? What is best for us?

Last summer I was given the great opportunity to work at Godman Guild in the Weinland Park Community Garden (WPCG) as an assistant supervisor to 15 youth in their Summer Teen Employment Program (S.T.E.P.) used to employ hundreds of youth at different job sites around the Columbus area. In this position last year I had the pleasure of meeting a lady who is now MY supervisor here at Local Matters (Trish). She saw the dedication that I had to the kids in the program and thought that I would be a great fit as a Food Educator.

So now, a year later, as school days have ended, I started my transition back to Godman Guild for work in the WPCG now as SUPERVISOR. (whoo hoo!)