This year I was fortunate enough to attend FIG’s 6th Annual Media Luncheon.
To kick off Expo West, FIG (Fresh Ideas Group) hosted a beautiful meal followed by a panel of speakers to share their own ideas about the future of natural foods. The theme was “Ingredients for Change: Serving up a platform for a healthier future.” In other words, my dream subject.
Each and every day I see the range of effects (usually negative) that nutrition has on my patients’ health. It makes it unmistakably clear how wellness is correlated with diet. And it’s not a pretty picture. So I feel it is my job as a nurse to educate as best I can.
Imagine my delight to discover the speakers were also just as passionate and motivated to fight this uphill battle! Going against the grain (read: going against big business) in order to give today’s youth the knowledge needed to live full, healthy, disease-free lives is no easy task. It was an honor to be in the company of such leaders…
But before I get to these brilliant and admirable speakers, let’s get a look at the food!
The lunch (which was almost exclusively organic by the way) was prepared by Lyle Davis, chef and famer, featuring ingredients from: EVOL burritos, Earthbound Farms Organic, Niman Ranch, Santa Cruz Organic, Stonyfield, Whole Foods, R.W. Knudsen, Salba Smart, Numi tea, and Blue Horizon.
And whoa, what a menu it was! How lucky was I to be included in such a prestigious affair!?
Beverages:
- R.W. Knudsen Sparkling Essences and Spritzers in assorted flavors
- Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade and Mango Lemonade
- Numi hot and iced teas in assorted flavors
- Earthbound Farm strawberries and mint
Appetizers:
- 34 Degree Crispbreads with assorted Haystack Mt. Goat Dairy Cheese and assorted Santa Cruz Organic Fruit Spreads
- Salba Smart Organic Tortilla Chips with Salba Smart Organic Salsas
First Courses:
- Earthbound Farms “Fresh Balance” Lifestyle Salad: baby spinach, quinoa, sunflower kernels, dried blueberries, and balsamic vinaigrette offered a la carte
- Numi Gun Powder green tea-infused organic Basmati rice salad with fresh parsley, celery and spring radishes
- Sautéed broccolette with radicchio and Mache in a balsamic vinaigrette topped with Salba
Second Courses:
- EVOL Mini Burritos in Veggie Fajita and Chicken, Bean and Rice flavors with Niman Ranch New Mexican Pork Green Chili with Earthbound Farm organic cilantro
- Blue Horizon Wild Maine Lobster Mac and Cheese
Assorted Open Faced Sliders:
- Blue Horizon Wild Pacific Tuna Surk Burgers with homemade pico de gallo
- Blue Horizon Wild Alaskan Salmon with Stonyfield Farm Tsatziki yogurt sauce, slow roasted tomatoes and greens
- Niman Ranch tenderloin of beef with caramelized onions
Desserts:
- Earthbound Farm organic blueberries with R.W. Knudsen Family Just Blueberry juice reduction and fresh mint
- Stonyfield Ice Cream with Santa Cruz Organic chocolate syrup and whipped cream
I had fun at the salad bar (with quinoa, dried fruit, nuts and seeds it’s hard not to), and the basmati rice dish was really flavorful; but my favorite item was the EVOL veggie fajita burrito. I was surprised at how many ingredients were in it (there were black beans, tomato and roasted corn, plus colorful sautéed veggies aplenty – way more than the typical rice and beans snoozer). I usually find vegetarian options suffer from a lack of creativity and are more of an afterthought product to satisfy the non-meat-eating costumers, but this was a very delicious burrito. And if you read up on the company’s policies, you will see that they are totally committed to responsible and ethical practices. I could use all the buzz words – sustainable, green, natural, etc. – or you could just read up on it for yourself. Consider me an EVOL food fan (plus the name is pretty cute).
It should be noted, that the entire meal was 75% organic (and the rest was wild/natural), which is pretty impressive for a formal hospitality setting. Not your typical pathetic catering scene at all! In fact, the only food items that weren’t organic were the conventional ones (salt and pepper) and three of the lemons used (they ran out of organic ones). And the fact that they were so honest about the food prep is also nice to see.
Lunch wasn’t my only treat though. The post-meal panel was almost as good as the food itself! Like I said earlier, the theme was “change.”
“Change is in the air. It is showing up on the kitchen table, in the home pantry, in school cafeterias, and will be evident at Expo West. FIG is honored to host a panel of national change agents, each a voice for change in fundamental areas of our society and focused on nourishing infants, teaching school children about healthy eating and offering quality products that are good for our bodies and the environment.”
The panel included:
Gary Hirshberg: CE-Yo and co-founder of Stonyfield
Alan Greene, MD: Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP)
Chef Ann Cooper: Renegade Lunch Lady and co-founder of Food, Family, Farming Foundation
Ann Cooper was the first to speak, opening with a passionate tirade (in a good way) about how important it is for us all to “get pissed off.” Quite frankly, I couldn’t agree more. Who is going to do anything if there’s no opposition to the present situation?
Did you know that 1 out of 3 children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime? [source] The incidence of type 2 diabetes among children today is more than TEN TIMES what it was a decade ago. That is crazy talk!?! And that’s not even touching heart disease or cancer. We are talking about obese children. KIDS! We aren’t even giving our future generations a fighting chance!!
Wanted: movers and shakers. That’s you guys, right?
We can’t ask Jamie Oliver to do it all. Seriously. If we aren’t willing to rock the system and let our anger be known, then I don’t know how anything will change.
I especially loved Ann’s counter to the argument that “kids don’t like organic/healthy food and won’t eat it!” Since when do 8 year olds set the rules? We make them go to school and learn to read and write, and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So how is making them eat their vegetables different? I’m not a mom, so it’s not my place to judge other parents’ choices, but I do plan on starting a family one day, so I feel I am entitled to my own opinion on the matter. And I know there are ways to prepare kids to succeed; and whether it’s forcing them to do math homework or forcing them to finish their green beans, it’s about setting an example and forming good habits. As a school lunch lady, Ann’s recipe for change in 2011 is “one salad bar at a time.”
The second speaker was Dr. Alan Greene, who also focused his attention on the state of today’s youth. According to him, poor nutrition is a problem from birth. And while I was NOT a fan of his analogy comparing the obesity disaster to a tsunami (poor judgment man), I understood his point.
His recipe for change in 2011 starts with a child’s first bite. More often than not, rice cereal is the first solid food an infant receives. And once those overly processed simple carbohydrates are digested and hit the bloodstream, they are nothing more than sugar. I don’t think Dr. Greene is advocating starting kids off on quinoa with currants and pistachios, but there’s definitely a healthier, more wholesome (whole grain) choice.
In addition to the sugar issue, rice cereal truly does nothing to develop a child’s taste buds. In fact it does just the opposite, setting kids up to be afraid of things that are different from bland simple refined carbs (how sad that delicious, colorful, flavorful food becomes a predisposed aversion). Psychologically speaking, this fear of new tastes is called food neophobia. However, this entire phenomenon could be avoided (or at least significantly reduced) if processed white flour was no longer what we used as solid food imprinting. Rather than pre-dispose kids to such poor taste preferences, Dr. Greene is initiating his White Out campaign, to make every child’s first bite be a whole grain and subsequently rid the shelves of white rice baby food by Thanksgiving 2011.
The final speaker was Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield. He was far more down to earth than I was expecting and his entire presentation thrilled me beyond words. I was delighted (and impressed) with his ethical practices, which haven’t changed since his business first started 28 years ago with a mere 7 cows. And while I’m not a consumer of dairy, I can (and do) appreciate a good and moral leader. His respect for his famers is apparent in his every word, which he follows up on with action.
He is more than a great businessman, though. Sure, he understands the consumer, but he also isn’t willing to sacrifice his morals.
What touched me the most about his speech was how choosing organic is like voting. I couldn’t agree more. I believe wholeheartedly in the “power of one” and I treat every trip to the grocery store like a trip to the voting booth. My purchases say what I want (both now and in the future). Even though the price is higher, I think of it as an investment in my future health. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – paying for fresh organic food now is far cheaper than paying for B-blockers, Metformin, ACE Inhibitors, Lipitor (or bypass surgery) later.
Gary operates on the principle “1 consumer, 1 purchase, 1 vote at a time.” Rather than spend endless funds on marketing, the money instead goes directly into the food. Doing it right creates the loyalty.
His recipe for change in 2011 is to get everyone who believes in organics and believes in non-GMO (corn, soy, sugar, and cotton) to email President Obama and declare their opinion. So do it!
Change is hard. It’s easy to keep the current system as is. But your health is worth fighting for, and if you want to see action, you have to be the agent of change.
How amazing that my day at Expo kicked off with a luncheon that promoted such a great message (and one that affects me on a daily basis)!
As much as I am trying to make a difference in the lives of my patients, I know there is always room for improvement, so it’s really great to have a room full of others equally as passionate. Talk about lighting a fire under my a$$!
Even as I meet resistance, I vow to continue to work at sharing my breadth of information with those who need it the most. No condescension. No superiority complex. Just teaching, promoting, encouraging, and doing whatever I can to convey the importance of feeding the body with pure, wholesome, fresh food.
Like the dream I envisioned, Expo West delivered. Thank you FIG for putting on a lovely luncheon and promoting such an important cause.
hungry hungry hippie 