Tagged With "comfort food"
Blog Post
New App Will Help Fight Hunger in San Diego County [kpbs.org]
By Priya Sridhar, KPBS, November 5, 2019 Each night, as many as 12% of San Diego County residents go to bed hungry. Meanwhile, 40% of food in our county is thrown away every day, according to Feeding San Diego, a local nonprofit dedicated to solving hunger and ending food waste. The organization launched a new app Tuesday called MealConnect that provides a platform for restaurants, hotels and caterers to offer up their excess food to one of 170 local organizations that feed the hungry. "The...
Blog Post
Nutrition is an Overlooked Aspect of Harm Reduction
“Even though a lot of the [harm reduction] organizations were providing food at various levels, when we asked them how does harm reduction link in with nutrition, that was like the first time they had really thought about that,” Miewald said. “There wasn’t really a philosophy. It was just more of, ‘We have people here, they’re hungry.’ But if we’re talking about harm reduction, then nutrition should be part of that … It’s not just about needles, it’s about a lot of other things.” ...
Blog Post
Obesity and the Link with Childhood Adversity: An Interview with Mary Giuliani
Most people who struggle with weight and food have probably suspected that trauma in the past plays a role. In this new video, Anna Runkle (the Crappy Childhood Fairy) interviews Mary Giuliani, who explains what we now know about childhood adversity, food and obesity. She shares how she lost 160 pounds (and has kept it off for 15 years), and teaches ways to calm emotions (and the brain) and face the triggers that drive overeating in the first place (READ MORE AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE).
Blog Post
Our Bodies are Basically Good (lionsroar.com)
Non-diet dietician Jenna Hollenstein’s new book Eat to Love paves a Buddhist path toward transforming our often troubled relationship with food and body. Lilly Greenblatt spoke with Hollenstein about how her revolutionary approach can guide us away from chronic dieting, food anxiety, and disordered eating with mindfulness and compassion. In her practice, Hollenstein uses meditation and mindfulness techniques to help people overcome disordered eating, eating disorders, and chronic dieting.
Blog Post
Our Idea of Healthy Eating Excludes Other Cultures, and That's a Problem
A nutritionist of Trinidadian heritage writes of the harm done to people by failing to include a deep understanding of cultural diversity in nutrition and dietetics training: "We were often being taught to perpetuate idea that Eurocentric eating patterns were the only paths to healthy eating, that healthy eating means one thing and one thing only. But teaching someone healthier eating isn’t about making swaps here and there to fit a patient’s culture into a Eurocentric diet. It should be...
Blog Post
Parenting Aggravation Associated with Food Insecurity Impacts Children’s Behavior and Development [poverty.ucdavis.edu]
Parents struggling with food insecurity can experience heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. These pressures may negatively affect their parenting, which may in turn affect the behavior of their children. In this study, we investigated the parenting aggravation levels of parents who experienced food insecurity in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We also explored the extent to which such aggravation may be responsible for the link between food insecurity and children’s...
Blog Post
Parenting and Nourishment: an important read
Addressing children's nutritional well-being in a trauma-informed way has to include this conversation: “[E]xperts say a lack of time is no excuse [for not cooking],” but the authors believe that when such messages inevitably prove impossible to live up to, mothers bear the brunt of blame for everything from their child’s obesity to their own food insecurity. What will take some of this pressure off moms—and bring us closer to a more just and healthy food system for all? The authors offer...
Blog Post
Pasta Primavera: HOPE Style [HOPE Garden Project blog]
Pasta Primavera: HOPE Style Pasta Perfect Last week our crew made Pasta Primavera from scratch (noodles included) and it was wonderful to watch the kids take turns digging into the dough. It was my first time to take part in the Summer Program here at (click link:) H.O.P.E . and being a part of the process was a special treat. I remember the first time I ever dug my hands into something messy. . . it was meatloaf and I was a lot more hesitant and dare I say grossed out than our crew members...
Blog Post
"Prescribing" Fresh Produce Could Save $100 Billion in Healthcare Costs [CWA Flash E Newsletter]
A new study from Tufts University finds "prescriptions" for healthy foods could save more than $100 billion in healthcare costs and prevent millions of cases of chronic diseases , which account for roughly 86 percent of annual healthcare costs in the United States. The study followed adults between the ages of 35-80 who were enrolled in Medicare and/or Medicaid. It placed participants into two groups : one in which Medicare/Medicaid covered the cost of 30% of fruits and vegetables, the other...
Blog Post
Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness [California Community Colleges]
Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness March 7, 2019 Sacramento — More than half the students attending a California community college have trouble affording balanced meals or worry about running out of food, and nearly 1 in 5 are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a survey released today. Click HERE to read the press release and click HERE...
Blog Post
Racism at Food Pantries
http://kvpr.org/post/spanish-speakers-experience-discrimination-valley-food-pantries
Blog Post
Reframing Health Ethics to Support Liberation
One of my favorite thinkers on trauma-informed care talks about the problem of "healthism." I think it is an important concept to consider. She writes: "Healthism teaches that health is mainly about personal responsibility. It’s a set of beliefs that sees health as an outcome of lifestyle, and the healthcare system..... We need to replace healthism with the message that health emerges from right relationship . The route to health is social action — making sure we all have food, dignity,...
Blog Post
Scaling Back on Weight as a Measure of Patient Health
by Yoni Freedoff, MD How we talk about weight and health is even more important when people have a history of trauma. Bariatric surgeon, Yoni Freedhoff, talks about how to rethink weight in health care. "Scales do measure the gravitational pull of Earth at a given moment in time. Scales don't measure the presence or absence of health, nor do they measure lifestyle or effort. And for patients, it's useful to note that scales don't measure happiness, success, or self worth, either. ... it's...
Blog Post
School district looks to head in healthier direction (smdp.com)
The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District agreed to move forward on a revision to its food and nutrition program at a June 14 board meeting, allocating money to improve Malibu HS and Samohi kitchens as well as offering more food and food purchasing options for students. To increase participation and revenue, the program proposed many options: freshly preparing meals at revamped Samohi and Malibu High School kitchens (an estimated $700k cost to replace kitchen equipment) to be...
Blog Post
School district turns unused cafeteria food into frozen, take-home meals for kids [KCTV 5]
(Meredith) – A school district in Indiana is working to provide take-home meals for students in need to ensure they have enough food to eat over the weekends. Elkhart Community Schools teamed up with a non-profit group called Cultivate to create a pilot program that will provide weekend meals for a small group of children at Woodland Elementary, WSBT reported. The district's goal is to expand the program to feed more students in neighboring schools. As part of the pilot program, 20 kids will...
Blog Post
She, The People: Dara Cooper On Food Redlining, Reparations, And Freeing The Land
"From Houston, Texas , and Atlanta, Georgia , to Birmingham, Alabama ; Baltimore, Maryland ; Nashville, Tennessee , and Jackson, Mississippi , the long, treacherous history of redlining in this country aligns with where food redlining (or food apartheid) is prevalent today—and that is unambiguously state violence. “Just looking at food alone, hunger, the inability to feed ourselves,” Cooper tells ESSENCE. “ That’s violent . To be hungry and malnourished is a very violent phenomenon. ...
Blog Post
Soil-to-Sanctuary: Black Churches, Powerful Cultural Forces, Set Their Sights on Food Security
“We feel that apolitical and ‘color-blind’ approaches to addressing food inequity fly in the face of the statistics, which clearly show that Black people are disproportionately impacted in a negative way by food apartheid, environmental racism, and discrimination in planning and public policy,” says Brown. “To ignore these realities in [so-called] food justice work is a gross miscalculation at best.” ...
Blog Post
Student slams school for assignment designed to make children feel 'undeserving of food'
Sometimes good intentions can create unintended consequences. Its important to think through the messages we send when we try to promote health or food security. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/student-slams-school-assignment-designed-221056046.html
Blog Post
Students Test Scores Rise a Few Weeks After Families Get Food Stamps
Families receiving food stamps get their benefits once a month. A few weeks later, kids’ test scores tick up.
Blog Post
Study Analyzes Adolescents' Reactions to Weight-related Terms Used by their Parents
Conversations about weight can be particularly challenging for parents with adolescent kids, and insight into the characteristics of parent-adolescent communication about body weight is limited. Published in Childhood Obesity, this study from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity interviewed 148 adolescents enrolled in a weight loss camp, asking them what words their parents typically use to talk about their weight, how those words make them feel, and what words they would most want...
Blog Post
Take Two Carrots and Call Me in the Morning (pewtrusts.org)
In the 21st century, food is seen as medicine — and a tool to cut health care costs. The California Legislature last year became the first in the nation to fund a large-scale pilot project to test food is medicine. The three-year, $6 million project launched in April will serve about a thousand patients with congestive heart failure in seven counties. Food is medicine goes beyond traditional advice to eat more fruits and vegetables. Projects pay for people to purchase produce and offer...
Blog Post
The Chefs Redefining Polynesian Cuisine
What a powerful articulation of cooks, chefs and communities attempting to reclaim lost sustenance, identity, and connection to food and place-- lost because of colonization. Marginalized and oppressed communities around the world are trying to reclaim their power, often through food. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/t-magazine/polynesian-cuisine.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Blog Post
The Government Knows A Plant-Based Diet Is Best–It Should Make It Official (fastcompany.com)
The latest developments in the food industry show how fast the world is moving forward in countering climate change. Just this week, the global food chain giant McDonald’s announced that it is planning to cut its emissions intensity by 31% , across its supply chain, by 2030. That’s a big deal. It’s the first global restaurant company in the world to set a science-based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If McDonald’s can lead on this, so should the United States. If the U.S. wants to...
Blog Post
The Kitchen as Classroom: How Food Helps Students Learn Leadership (yesmagazine.org)
The Detroit Food Academy works with local educators, chefs, and business owners to teach young people entrepreneurial skills. The kitchen is their classroom. And on this day it has the smell and sounds of home. It’s like family, the six student participants from Cody High School say. It’s the first time the students have prepared this meal. In fact, there are many firsts when preparing cultural dishes, and it’s one of the things the students find most exciting about DFA. Working with local...
Blog Post
The Second Assault
"Victims of childhood sexual abuse are far more likely to become obese adults. New research shows that early trauma is so damaging that it can disrupt a person’s entire psychology and metabolism -- Women [have] said they felt more physically imposing when they were bigger. They felt their size helped ward off sexual advances from men." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/sexual-abuse-victims-obesity/420186/
Blog Post
The Wrong Eating Habits Can Hurt Your Brain, Not Just Your Waistline
"A diet high in saturated fats and sugars, the so-called 'Western Diet', actually affects the parts of the brain that are important to memory and make people more likely to crave the unhealthful food -- Research from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience found that obese people have less white matter in their brains than their lean peers — as if their brains were 10 years older." ...
Blog Post
This is How Dutch Kids Enjoy and Learn from Keeping Vegetable Gardens (brightvibes.com)
Fruits and vegetables and everything you need can be bought at the supermarket nowadays. Due to this convenience, kids hardly know where their food comes from, much less how to grow it. By teaching them how to grow their own vegetables, their interest in healthy food is sparked. It’s fun, they learn a lot and spend time in nature. Every week the kids from this middle school in the Netherlands go to the vegetable garden with their teacher and a volunteer parent. At the vegetable garden they...
Blog Post
Trauma Affects Your Relationship with Food & Your Body [huffingtonpost.com]
When I was invited to deliver the Keynote Speech on Trauma, Food and the Body at the “9th” Annual SCTC Conference in October I immediately pinpointed my biggest area of trauma, sexual abuse. I wrote about my sexual abuse and how it contributed to me developing an eating disorder in my memoir so this was a no brainer for me. Then I began to create my power point presentation. I decided to revisit the ACES test, (adverse childhood experiences), that not only identifies trauma but also...
Blog Post
Trauma at the Table: Why Kids in Care Have Food Issues
http://www.michigancasa.org/uploads/1/6/4/6/16460156/monica_smith_-_trauma_at_the_table_why_kids_in_care_have_food_issues.pdf
Blog Post
Trauma, Food Addiction, and “Painful” Pounds [HuffingtonPost.com]
For years I’ve listened to women and men recount an agonizing spectrum of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse and trauma that occurred during their childhood, often continuing through adolescence. Most remember that period in their life as the time when they began to overeat. Neglect, abandonment, isolation, and physical harm usually send young people on a desperate search for a way to numb and soothe their pain. Of course, food is the main accessible and primal reward. Laurie has her...
Blog Post
Wed 4/24/19 2-3 p.m. California’s Farm to Summer Week 2019 Webinar (Click link to Register)
This is a webinar co-hosted by the CA Dept of Education and CA Dept of Food and Agriculture to connect kids with farmers and fresh foods. California’s Farm to Summer Week 2019 Webinar The California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) invite you to participate in the upcoming webinar, California’s Farm to Summer (F2Summer) Week 2019. Participating is easier than ever! This year, California is celebrating F2Summer during the week of June...
Blog Post
Welcome to ACES and Nourishment
Adrienne and I are excited to launch this community where anyone can share research, articles, stories and ideas about the connections between food, eating, nutrition, obesity and ACES. As many of you know, the foundational ACES research emerged from an investigation into why participants in an obesity program were dropping out despite initially losing weight. It uncovered how participants' childhood trauma histories affected their weight, risk for metabolic or diet-related disease,...
Blog Post
What Children understand about Food Insecurity
https://civileats.com/2018/03/26/what-children-understand-about-food-insecurity/
Blog Post
What Cookies and Meth Have in Common
"Neuroscientists have found that food and recreational drugs have a common target in the 'reward circuit' of the brain, and that the brains of humans and other animals who are stressed undergo biological changes that can make them more susceptible to addiction. -- [People] will literally have a different brain depending on [their] zip code, social circumstance, and stress level." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/opinion/sunday/what-cookies-and-meth-have-in-common.html
Blog Post
‘White People Food’ Is Creating An Unattainable Picture Of Health
"There’s a perception in the black community that eating healthy means eating like white people, but it doesn’t have to be that way. " This article discusses the complexity that race, class, and history, bring to how nutrition practitioners address the diet and health of African Americans: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-people-food_us_5b75c270e4b0df9b093dadbb?utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_source=women_fb&utm_medium=facebook&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000046
Blog Post
Why Emotional Eating Can Be a Consequence of Trauma
Research suggests that trauma can be a cause of emotional eating, or the drive to consume “comfort foods,” to manage the negative emotions directly related to past negative events.
Blog Post
Why Nutritional Psychiatry Is The Future of Mental Health Treatment (theconversation.com)
The link between poor mental health and nutritional deficiencies has long been recognized by nutritionists working in the complementary health sector. However, psychiatrists are only now becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of using nutritional approaches to mental health.
Blog Post
Why we Need to Talk about Trauma in Public Health Nutrition
When you consider the word trauma in relation to food, health and eating
what does it conjure up? In what ways is trauma relevant to dietetic practice?
What does it even mean? In this article, I briefly introduce the concept of
trauma as used in public health, social justice activism and counselling.
Blog Post
Why We Need to Talk About Trauma in Public Health Nutrition [lucyaphramor.com]
Link to .PDF of article by Lucy Aphramor, Dietician and Social Action Poet: https://lucyaphramor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NHD-Trauma-April-2018.pdf?utm_source=Training+Registration&utm_campaign=dc0bee3aa9-AUTOMATION__2_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_38d9a4f547-dc0bee3aa9-80253031
Blog Post
Young Women are Reviving Indigenous Food Traditions Online
"For Gladstone, upholding Indigenous food is partly about healing from a history of trauma. The processes of colonialization and the genocide of Native peoples across North America was mirrored by the devastation of the plants and animals that Native Americans had long relied on for sustenance and spiritual companionship........ Gladstone believes that the trauma of genocide and the devastation of food-giving landscapes had a large impact on driving poor health outcomes in her community, as...
Calendar Event
Food and Mood MeetUp in Tacoma
Comment
Re: Why We Need to Talk About Trauma in Public Health Nutrition [lucyaphramor.com]
Laura- Thanks for posting Lucy's article. Yes, all professions need to know more about trauma. And all professions need to know how to screen for food insecurity, housing insecurity, medical care insecurity, domestic violence, racism, addictions and other limiting factors that keep trauma in place and is made visible through the labels of mental health challenges, physical health challenges, incarnation, foster care/dependency to name a few. Kristen
Comment
Re: Why We Need to Talk About Trauma in Public Health Nutrition [lucyaphramor.com]
For me it conjures up free government cheese, drinking those cups of fluoride liquid and the fraudulent dental work we poor kids had done to us plus it conjures up popcorn and cool aid as the only things to eat because we were dirt poor. I think everyone needs to know how to garden and can/preserve food.
Comment
Re: How to Nourish Your Brain to Improve and Protect It (thebestbrainpossible.com)
Great introduction article to the world of nutritional psychology! I think an important part is also understanding what foods include unhealthy simple carbs ( refined grains, processed foods), sugars ( lactose, malt, carbohydrates), saturated fats, salts, and most importantly and not identified, cholesterol and heme iron. Understanding the importance of protein,fat, and fiber and its forms with the highest nutrient consumption is crucial to the protection of our brains, gut, lungs, and...
Comment
Re: New App Will Help Fight Hunger in San Diego County [kpbs.org]
One of the things that I look for in an Anti Hunger strategy is whether it provides dignity to the people who are receiving the food. I worry that the food waste reduction/food rescue programs neglect the end user experience. I would love to know if this strategy thinks of that. Having seen what the food looks like when it arrives at clients doorsteps, the product isn't always what is needed, desired or appealing.
Comment
Re: This is How Dutch Kids Enjoy and Learn from Keeping Vegetable Gardens (brightvibes.com)
I was so interested in this subject that i felt compelled to respond. sorry for its length...A few years ago i managed a family service in a most disadvantaged community in Kent. The families that i supported came from an array of chaotic backgrounds and traumatic experiences that initially our community service mirrored that of a war zone. The rates of families on CP and CHIN were alarming. i spent most of my days stopping fights breaking out, and arguments NOT with children, but their...
Comment
Re: Childhood Trauma Can Impact Our Gut Bacteria
"The children with a history of early caregiving disruptions had distinctly different gut microbiomes from those raised with biological caregivers from birth. Brain scans of all the children also showed that brain activity patterns were correlated with certain bacteria. For example, the children raised by parents had increased gut microbiome diversity, which is linked to the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain known to help regulate emotions." Food and nutrition is such an important...
Comment
Re: Eating Kale May Help Older Adults Slow The Decline In Cognitive Skills (scienceblog.com)
Lots of interesting research around whole foods-plant based diets and cognitive functioning. Though we should always be wary when a single food is correlated to a health benefit.
Comment
Re: Eating Kale May Help Older Adults Slow The Decline In Cognitive Skills (scienceblog.com)
Concurring with you Monica on one single food, although the article has kale in the title, please know the research was on green leafy vegetables. A plant-based diet is so tremendously beneficial, especially when we can eat vegetables (and fruit) grown organically. Impressed with Tufts Human Research Center on Aging, please find more information on a well-balanced diet for older adults. http://hnrca.tufts.edu/myplate...ults/fruits-veggies/ Here's a graphic from Tufts for consideration also.