Recently, musician, and Bay Area food activist  AshEl put his concerns about the way we eat to music, in the song Food Fight! He asked filmmaker Ben Zolno, of New Message Media, to help him create a music video for the song.

The resulting video is an in your face story with what Zolno calls a dynamic “Boys N the Hood” on its head. It’s graphic and attention grabbing. In Food Fight! bad guys who might be robbing a convenience store are now actually putting bad food into the store. Zolno says that the story “seemed a natural response to the irony that people in suits get rich for helping kill kids through diabetes and conversely starving large parts of the rest of the world.”

He explained his intention for the video: “I feel like solving our food problem is the answer to so many of our problems–malnourishment, global food price instability, herbicide pollution, fossil fuel waste, etc. Ash’s lyrics succinctly provoke a potentially wide audience to think in a new way about virtually everything unsustainable about our current agriculture system, so I said, let’s do this.”

Food activists of color think that the video is by and large effective.  Bryant Terry, vegan chef, and author of Vegan Soul Kitchen said, “I think that  when we talk about these issues, there is the matter of personal responsibility, but it is larger than that. We have to look at the larger structural issues.” Terry not only writes about health and the connection to food, but also connects with young people as he tours the country. He said the video visually shows a balance between the structural challenges and the personal responsibility of eating well.

Kendra Lee, a long time health journalist and editor thinks the video is heavier on “these are bad” than “here’s what to eat to replace bad,” and there’s nothing about portion control (or where the communities this is trying to reach should buy healthier foods). “I’d give it a C+ on getting the message across, though I’m not sure exactly what their message goal is,” she said. And she takes exception to parts of the video: “I’m not too crazy about the simulated shooting, but that might work with young folks.”

Malik Yakini, a urban farmer in Detroit and blogger at Be Black and Green gives the video high marks.  “I am a fan of Stick Man and Dead Prez,” Yakini said of the musicians who lend their talents to the message.  “I liked incorporating Vandana Shiva, talking about the control of seeds and thus humanity. It’s a little bit graphic for my taste, but will probably be a good tool for driving home the point to young people whom have grown up in a culture dominated by gangsta rap videos.”

Whether it tells a larger story or not, LaDonna Redmond, a Minneapolis-based food justice advocate said, “I think it gives kids and community the context of the food fight that we are in. And it does that in a context that they can relate to, and the reality is that the system (food and others). It’s violent and pervasive.”

Some of those who live in the urban reality portrayed in the video, including Jenga Mwendo, a New Orleans-based food and community activist and founder of the Backyard Gardeners Network in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward found the video resonated with them, “Love it,” Jenga said. “Yes, it’s a bit graphic, but necessarily so.” In terms of getting the message out, she thought it was a good start: “I think we could go even farther with messaging like this to show what’s actually in these ‘foods’ and what they do to us,” she said. “Granted, it needs to be entertaining to be well-received. But I’m not sure how seriously it would be taken by young people. It’s definitely a good basis for a conversation about food choices.”

Vanessa Carter, an educator and the creator of the curriculum for the video says the video “invites students (just students?) to question their relationships to food, food deserts, food access, global food sovereignty, ecological justice, stereotypes, drug use, racism and more.”  According to Carter, young people are experts at consuming media.  She said that this film asks them to polish their media literacy skills, question their relationships to the systems around them and join a movement. “The best chance we have of the long battle to point our food system toward sanity is to reach the youth, so I hope teachers pick up the video to start the discussion,” she said.

The very passionate Zolno thinks that this project is just the beginning: “It is ultimately the choice of many individuals who will step up, once we are awoken by leaders in the movement who can show us that choice.”

Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

When I buy a cookbook, I am always drawn to the pictures. When I read a non-fiction book, I want a good story. American Grown, by First Lady Michelle Obama, is both–it’s an interesting hybrid of a gardening, cooking and history book, chronicling the story of the White House Garden, the importance of growing and eating fresh food.

The book trails the development of the White House kitchen garden through its inception and planting in April of 2009 to the seasonal bounty produced on the grounds.

This is not the first time there has been a garden on the White House.  There have been some famous presidential gardeners, including Thomas Jefferson. The last time food was grown on the White House grounds was during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. This iteration not only produces food for the First Family and guests, but has also captured the imagination of community gardeners and school children across the country.

Then there are the bees. So much emphasis has been placed on the growing of the herbs and vegetables in the garden, yet the unsung stars of the show may just be the story of the bees, the hives and the honey.  According to Mrs. Obama, they harvested 140 pounds  of honey in the first year, and in 2011, 225 pounds.

The book hit home for me, as my first visit to the White House was to visit the gardens with the Food and Community (then Food and Society Policy) Fellows. A member of our class of fellows, Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, had developed a campaign during the last presidential election to encourage the winner to plant a garden on the White House lawn. Seeing his dream realized was a tremendous experience, and seeing it all documented in a book was pure magic for me. While I can’t claim to be a proficient gardener, reading this book made me feel that anything is possible.  A real feast for the gardener’s eye is in the sections that lay out how the White House Garden team plants food according to the season, complete with detailed, hand drawn diagrams.

The thing that makes American Grown so engaging is its accessibility. The book skillfully reaches you wherever you are in the good food movement.  If you are a history buff like me, there is lots of narrative and photos that document not only the First Lady’s journey from growing up in Chicago to stories. The book is peppered with stories of community gardens that are using the tradition of growing to bring their communities together.  And as America debates the importance of healthy school food, this book gives a brief history of U.S. School Gardens that go all the way back to 1891 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, according to the First Lady.

And it goes beyond what’s growing on Pennsylvania Avenue to the ways that community gardeners are approaching growing and cooking fresh. My favorite part of the book is definitely the recipes that clearly send a message that fresh food can also be great tasting. There are recipes from each season, from a spring pea salad to a summer corn soup to a hearty linguine with a bacon mushroom sauce.  It is a snapshot of gardening creativity and self-determination that reaches across cultures. Because of the vibrant photos it could have a place of honor on the coffee table, or as a reference for cooks and gardeners.

The book not only speaks to what’s possible, but it also does real time work. All proceeds go to  support the National Parks Foundation.

As a health writer who often talks about the links between what gets grown and what gets put on the plate, I consider myself an advocate. I want to see people eating good food in close proximity to their homes. It never occurred to me that walking to the store—no matter what you go there to get–could get you murdered. And as a person who cares about justice, I never thought that in 2012, our system would care so little about seeking justice for this boy. He was somebody’s son. As the mother of a young black male who often walks to the convenience store by our house, my heart is broken. 

As a person who wants equity and justice for everybody, I am just mad. But there is a teachable moment here. We who work hard in the food movement often work in the silos of our own passions and forget that justice and equity move across sectors. Place matters. Race matters. Humanity matters.

The other day a young woman I know who is righteous in the food and environmental movement was upset that organic produce wasn’t getting the media attention that she thought it deserved. She wanted me to write an expose on apples. She said that it was the real social justice issue of the year. And it was also an hour after I learned about Trayvon Martin. “Why aren’t you mad as hell about the fact that all the good organic food never makes it into poor communities?” she asked.

There are a lot of things I want to see happen. I want kids to have healthy meals at school and at their homes. I want them to be educated so that they can compete in the workforce. I want there to be places that offer workers a living wage and health benefits. I want kids to be able to walk to the store to get a snack and not get killed. I want law enforcement to care enough about all our kids to protect them—even when they buy Skittles. And, I want them to have access to apples.

I still might write about apples. But I also want folks in the food movement to care about the people we want to see eating those apples. I want people to see that equity and advocacy are bigger than an apple.

Over lots of conversations with folks who are trying to make a difference, whether it is through the food we eat, the wages we earn, or where we lay our heads at night, I have learned about the notion of being a change agent. I discovered that we all come to it on our own paths, sometimes deliberately and strategically and for others it is accidental and surprising. Some are trained and groomed for the work of change, others like Trayvon Martin end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sometimes, sadly, young black men can become change agents by walking to the wrong convenience store in the wrong city, at the wrong moment.

There is a lot of work for us all to do together. If the food movement  wants to make real progress, we must be vigilant in addressing the truly uncomfortable things that hold us all back. We have to tear down the silos to begin to deal with the constructs of poverty, racism, and inequities wherever we see them—in the food system or in a young man with a hoodie. It all matters.

Would you change the way you eat if it kept you from getting cancer or stopped the disease in its tracks? Could you see yourself adding more sustainable, fresh local foods to your diet every day if it might prolong your life?  Cancer researcher Dr. William Li, of the Angiogenesis Foundation, thinks you can.

Li’s work revolves around looking at the way that our blood vessels–every person has around 60,000–deliver oxygen and nutrients to the all our body’s organs, but can also feed cancers and grow tumors in the body. To prove his theory about the preventative powers of healthy food, his Angiogenesis Foundation has kicked off an Eat to Defeat campaign, that has a goal of signing up one million volunteers who are willing to increase their intake of healthy foods, and to become a part of his research.

How It Works

Dr. Li says that each person’s body has the power to regulate how many blood vessels there are operating in it at any one time, and that balance of this number is critical to health.

When we suffer an injury, the body creates a set amount of new blood vessels, and when we don’t need that much blood supply, the body knows how to “prune the vessels back to baseline,” said Dr. Li. This process is called angiogenesis. When the body doesn’t have enough blood vessels, it can lead to poor circulation, strokes, heart attacks and even hair loss. On the flip side, a body that has too much angiogenesis can create cancers, blindness, Alzheimer’s disease and other ailments. “Obesity can also be linked to the imbalance of angiogenesis,” said Dr. Li.

Cancerous tumors cause the body to have a difficult time regulating the number of blood vessels present. Dr. Li said that most of us live with small microscopic tumors in our bodies that don’t cause us any risk at all. The trouble comes when there is an increase in blood vessels that feed those small tumors and make them grow.” And as the cancer grows, it allows the malignant cells to metastasize to other organs.

His main theory is that certain foods can literally bring naturally occurring inhibitors of angiogenesis into the body and stop or slow down cancer.

“Prevention is a better way of doing this than through treatment after the cancer has occurred,” Dr. Li says. “We know that diet accounts for 30 to 35 percent of environmental cancers.”

On his list of superfoods that help keep cancer and disease at bay are red grapes and red wine that have concentrated levels of resveratrol, which Li says  “can cut off the growth of blood vessels.” In the case of prostate cancer in men, Li says that consuming cooked tomatoes at least two to three times per week can reduce a man’s risk of prostate cancer. Why? “Those who ate more cooked tomatoes had fewer blood vessels growing and feeding their cancerous tumors.” Other foods with the power to block the growth of blood vessels are oranges, lemons, cherries, spinach, kale and bok choy, tumeric, nutmeg and garlic, to name a few. He even suggests that drinking a combination of teas can aid in anti-angiogenesis.

While studies show that eating a healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables can make significant improvements in health, more work needs to be done to prove that the cure for cancer lies in what we eat. Dr. Li has teamed up with Dean Ornish, the diet guru at University of California to learn more about the impact of diet on controlling angiogenisis.  The two doctors will also be looking at the impact of angiogenesis on obesity. Dr. Li has suggested that cutting off blood supply through diet may be a way to shrink fat and reduce obesity. Chefs Mario Batali, Ming Tsai, and Michael Schlow have signed on to the Eat to Defeat campaign by offering up healthy recipes using the dietary sources that Dr. Li outlines.

At this point, does anybody know that this approach to eating is a sure fire guarantee that you’ll spend your whole life cancer-free? No, but it is a part of a common sense approach to being fitter and living healthy.

Watch Dr. Li talk about angiogenesis at TED here:

We are in the midst of dramatic changes in how we think and talk about food. An explosion of interest amongst groups and individuals new to food discussions is expanding the dialogue and broadening the concerns of the food movement. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Food and Society Fellows Program is looking to be a catalyst for that change.

In the past there seemed to be two kinds of “foodies,” Mark Muller, Director of IATP’s Food and Society Fellows Program says. “The people working on the obstacles that face farmers and rural America were working in one movement, and the other was the consumer, chef/culinary movement.” The needs of people living in vulnerable communities and people of color were often missing in the conversation.

Muller sees this as a perfect time to get synergy between many interests pertaining to food across the country. “The food system needs to work for all of us. It’s important to be inclusive and embracing of many efforts that create an equitable and just food system across the board,” Muller says.

The Fellows program is in the process of recruiting for its next two-year class, most likely consisting of nine individuals. “The fellowship program is expanding its focus to place a higher priority on issues that impact low income communities and communities of color that are stuck with a food system that is failing them on so many levels,” Muller says.

“The relationship between the food system and health will continue to be a priority, especially at a time when obesity is impacting the health and well-being of our children, youth and families.” Muller points to the high levels of obesity related chronic disease that are showing up among this country’s school-aged children. “We are also looking for fellows who want to address a broad range of issues including breastfeeding, emergency feeding programs, farmworker rights, food deserts, economic development through food, and racial equity in the food movement,” Muller says. “We hope that the work of the nine fellows mirrors the expanded discourse on food, and includes innovative projects at the local level, national policy advocacy, and a variety of innovative communications.”

“We have already heard from amazing people doing really innovative work all over the country,” Muller says. “For every one of the star television chefs or bestselling food authors that you see, there are hundreds of hard working folks at the ground level making change in their communities. These pioneering approaches and ideas deserve more attention.”

“All Americans need to be able to see themselves in this discourse,” Muller says. “One way to open the dialogue is to begin to cultivate a culturally, ethnically and geographically diverse body of leaders in the food work.” As IATP continues to recruit  applicants (the deadline is January 18, 2011) for the new class, Muller says they are casting a wide net. “We continue to reach out to the farming community, but also want to do more outreach to people involved with food processing, schools, anti-hunger, food justice and public health.”

“The Food and Society Fellows have always been change agents,” Muller says. “We invest in individuals that have a vision and plan for bettering the food system. These fellowships aren’t about incremental change; we want big visions that have the potential to change how we grow, process, eat and think about food.”

Synergy is the key to making change. The Fellows Program is looking to bring about even more collaboration across issues and interests than ever before. Just recently, for example, Shalini Kantayya used her filmmaking skills to strengthen the corporate campaign that Sean Sellers was working on for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. And Deb Eschmeyer and Curt Ellis teamed up to launch a service program called FoodCorps that will bring service members into schools to help students grow and learn about healthy foods.

Thanks to the work of fellow Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International, the fellows were able to take a trip to the White House vegetable garden in September of 2009. Many months prior to the 2008 election, Doiron started a campaign to have the next President plant a kitchen garden on the White House lawn. He used Facebook to gather over 120,000 signatures of support, which contributed to First Lady Michelle Obama’s decision to plant a garden in the spring of 2009.

Muller cites successes from Bryant Terry’s nationwide book tour getting people thinking about healthy soul food, to Ann Cooper’s ground-breaking campaign as the “Renegade Lunch Lady” changing how we feed schoolchildren, to the food and nutrition resources that Nicole Betancourt provides young parents at Parentearth.com. “What I’ve learned is that there is no cookie cutter approach to success; fellows have found an incredible number of creative ways to change how we think about food.”

“This is part of the reason why we are really interested in a truly diverse cohort of fellows, working in different networks with different skill sets, backgrounds and communications techniques,” Muller says. “Amazing things can happen when a diverse group of individuals gets to know each other and strategize outside of their comfort zone.” He encourages other groups to start brainstorming and collaborating outside of their traditional networks. “A good conversation with a different crowd can really spark creative thinking,” Muller says.

If you are interested in becoming a fellow and have more questions, feel free to email Mark Muller at mmuller (at) iatp.org. You can apply for the IATP Fellows Program here.

Blogger, author and Ph.D. candidate A. Breeze Harper has brought together a group of black women writers to deconstruct the notions of veganism in Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health and Society (Lantern Books, March 2010). In this book, she and 30 writers addresses veganism, often thought of as a white construct, as a way of life for many black women and a core part of their values. This book broadens the view of the vegan from the perspective of race, class, gender and politics.

Harper, who consumes a whole food oriented, plant based diet, started The Sistah Vegan project as an online community, to get to the root of the questions she saw emerging around veganism, especially as it related to black females. The thought provoking essays, poems and critical writings in the book offer something for the person exploring becoming a vegan, or one who is learning about the impact of all the food we put in our mouths. The fearless writers in Sistah Vegan offer up new perspectives, and an unflinching lens on what food means to women of color and their family members. “This is the first volume of its kind to address the racialized, sexualized-gendered vegan in the USA,” Harper says.

The Sistah Vegans each offer up their diverse perspectives on their choice to pursue a vegan life. But they do have something distinct in common—they see their dietary choice as a way of self-empowerment. Whether they came to the decision to go vegan came at an early age, or later, most connected their food choices to taking control of their health. They have also seen food as a way to move away from social victimization.

Harper is clear that this isn’t a vegan manifesto, rather it is a compilation of voices each willing to share how they got to this point and its significance in changing the world.

In an African American culture that is firmly anchored in food love, deciding to become a vegan may be a personally easy decision, but it is almost never without its challenges.

One essay by college professor, Michelle R. Loyd-Page, is about her initiation into the vegan life through a New Year’s fast at her church. Loyd-Page points to the immediate health benefits of just 30 days of no meat. She attributes her change in diet to weight loss and reduction in hot flashes. Loyd-Page makes a bold declaration that black folks are killing themselves and shortening their lifespan by the foods they choose to eat. And it might sound a bit zealous, if it wasn’t for the fact that the data shows many of the chronic diseases–obesity, diabetes, some cancers, cardiovascular disease–that are linked to premature mortality in communities of color are connected to what we eat and how we move. Many of the authors make strong links between what we eat and our health outcomes, and more than a few tie food choices to our reproductive health. There is no doubt that after reading Sistah Vegan, it will be difficult to look at what we eat in the same way again.

One of the more exciting and amusing (she probably didn’t expect me to be amused) essays is Young, Black and Vegan, by Joi Marie Probus, who practices the vegan lifestyle for purely ethical reasons. Her approach to food through the humane treatment of animals is somewhat of an enigma to her friends and family. She says she is the only person she knows who has looked at veganism over vegetarianism as a statement on the treatment of animals. And while her values in many ways line up to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), she struggled with a job with the organization doing outreach to the black community. She seemed to get hemmed up between the black community’s need to improve its health and PETA’s need to get black folks to stop wearing fur—by any means necessary. Her story reminded me of the clash between hard core, white Feminists of the 70s and 80s who challenged black women who also saw themselves as Feminists, because they weren’t radical enough, or aggressive enough, or in-your-face enough.

The beauty of this book, for people of color, for women and for activists, is that it gives a balanced view into food as a political movement and as a civil rights movement. The women writers in Sistah Vegan offer up a rare view into the thoughts, ethics, values and choices of many black women who have moved off the traditional path of food into veganism. This view can also be a lesson for traditional food systems and ethical treatment advocates into reaching people where they are, versus where you might think they should be.

Through a very sophisticated mathematical calculation, I have figured out that I have baked 1,532 cupcakes, cookies and little gooey pecan thingies for school bake sales. I hated every minute, but I did my tour of duty. And yes, I cheered when the last of my kids hit middle school and it became uncool for his mom to show up with cupcakes for any reason. But even I am horrified that bake sales are on the chopping block in the fight against childhood obesity. Bake sales? Really?

In New York, school officials are working to create a policy that would limit bake sales. In an effort to reduce childhood obesity, they are looking to ban baked good sales from schools, with the exception of one day per month or after 6 p.m. when very few people are around to buy or sell their wares. Instead, PTAs and other groups will be allowed to sell fresh fruits and vegetables along with some packaged items that are on the district’s list of healthy snacks.  Doritos are on the list. A chocolate chip cookie baked by Grandma, not so much.

I had a heated discussion about this issue with one of my young, zealous friends who is almost always a food buzz killer.  “But don’t you think that schools can raise just as much money if they sell carrots?” she asked. After a long pause, and much thought, I said “No, not ever.”

From a food policy standpoint, “Setting out guidelines for when and what is included in a bake sale may be a good way of modeling healthy food habits, which include variety and moderation,” IATP Food and Society Policy Fellow Alethia Carr says,  “A bake sale held monthly, is different from a weekly sale for fund raising.  A monthly offering of baked goods, that are wholesome, good food, including those with fruits and vegetables in the recipe, demonstrates a form of good eating for our children, while infrequent enough to demonstrate moderation.”  Carr says, “We have to remember that in schools, we’re really showing our children how to live.  Let’s make sure we’re doing it in a way that promotes good health.”

But are we going too far?  Cheryl Danley, an academic specialist at CS Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University believes that it is a good move for schools to begin to control what is on the school campus and to look at the various ways children access empty calories.  “There is something to be said for moderation and honoring and recognizing people’s food cultures.”  She thinks it is important to have discussions and forums about such moves.  “The New York City health department unilaterally ordered the transfat ban, and also the Mayor’s food Czar created  “green cart” program of fresh fruit vendors without consulting communities.”

But is the little bake sale where moms and kids bring in homemade goodies the main thing that’s making kids fat? Nancy Baggett, baker, writer and author of several books including The All American Cookie Book, says “the sugary colas and “fake fruit” drinks that folks guzzle by the gallon and 1,000-calorie burger and fries meals they routinely chomp down are the real problem because they are on menus every day.”  She adds that, “home-made baked sale goodies are a special treat eaten only once in a while. We always had school/church/community bake sales as I was growing up and almost nobody was obese, and even a slightly overweight child was an absolute rarity.” Baggett says, “The difference now is the fat-packed junk food and super-sized drinks, NOT the cupcakes from the PTA sale.”

Maybe traditional bake sales can be teachable real world moments for parents and kids, where the focus could lie more on education about moderation and less on dictating ingredients.  “It is important to teach children that they can enjoy an occasional treat as long as they engage in an appropriate amount of physical activity that allows them to burn calories and maintain a healthy weight,” says Maya Rockeymoore, Ph.D., president of Global Policy Solutions.  “School officials should consider acceptable alternatives to traditional bake sales such as “healthy bite” sales that offer more nutritious food items or “bake and shake” sales in which students purchase healthier baked goods while burning off excess calories with physical activity such as dancing, hoola hoop, or other active play options.”

“I think this knee-jerk reaction to the “obesity epidemic” is wrong, wrong, wrong” says Jill O’Connor, baker and author of several books including Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.“I am no longer allowed to bring home-baked goodies to the schools and no cupcakes on birthdays either.  But I can bring in processed snacks — as long as they have the nutritional breakdown listed on the package — are still permitted in limited amounts.”  She also comments that “as a country, Americans tend to swing from one extreme to another in an effort to solve such big (no pun intended) problems — there are no shades of grey, no middle ground.”

O’Connor is a scratch baker and a food purist in her own right. She makes a firm distinction between baking cupcakes from a boxed mix and icing them with canned frosting and a home-baked chocolate chip cookie made from scratch. “Kids should be exposed to real, honest-to-goodness baking, so they know what GOOD is, and will be more likely to pass up a Twinkie or packaged cookie if they have sampled something better.”  O’Connor also emphasizes the larger, satisfying benefits of actually producing homemade treats. “Real baking takes time, talent, patience and skill.  If you want something sweet badly enough and you go to the trouble to shop for the ingredients, and skillfully assemble them into a delicious dessert you deserve to have a taste.”

I feel a bit like Scarlett O’Hara, disheveled, flour on my face, holding a cupcake up to the heavens, declaring “By God as my witness, I will never do a bake sale again!”  But it won’t be because I am going to singlehandedly make kids fat with lemon blueberry muffins, or because I personally feel responsible for increasing fiber intake in little children, or because I want to tear down just one more cherished tradition.  It will be because I have baked my 1,532 cupcakes, and I am too lazy to do any more.

Photo: Aaron Landry

Last week I spent $200 on food. I was traveling in Washington D.C., and the money was spent on two meals, just for me. The meals were great, but shelling out that kind of money, when I am committed to reducing the amount I spend, was a little shocking. It gave me a real sense of gratitude for the $130 I spent the week before for a week’s worth of groceries for my family of four.

In these interesting economic times, everybody is looking at ways to save money, and with rising health care costs we are also looking at ways to stay healthy. The answer seems to be in forgoing restaurants—both the big ticket and the fast food kinds, to spend more time in the kitchen and in the garden.

Experts say that whenever things get tight, people tend cut back on eating out. When you think about the fact that the average family eats 40 percent of its meals away from home (taking lunches into account), it’s easy to see how we can make a significant impact on our bottom line by hitting the farmer’s markets, CSAs, and our grocery stores to make healthy, nutritious meals at home. With a little bit of effort, you can save thousands of dollars on your food and medical bills by spending more time in the kitchen preparing healthy food.

Health Impacts

Ask any medical expert, and they will tell you that the majority of chronic and life-threatening illnesses can be prevented through lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthier diet. Studies show that people who eat most of their meals out not only spend more money on food, but they also tend to be more overweight and are at more risk for obesity, diabetes, cancer and other illnesses. Of course, this is not to say that as consumers, we can’t make healthy choices when we eat out. But it does show that we can have more control over what we eat, how much we eat and how much we spend.

By cooking at home we can control the amount of fat, sugar, and sodium that we expose ourselves and our families to on a daily basis.

Get A Plan

Trying to eat more meals at home without a plan is like trying to drive across country without a map. And hitting the grocery store without a list, or while hungry, are recipes for spending a lot more cash at the register. Figure out what you want to cook before you leave home. Look through your recipes and make sure you have all the ingredients on hand or on your list. Shop the sale papers to find out what’s on sale. Planning your healthy meals around what’s on sale, and what’s in season reduces the cost per meal, and your grocery bill.

Also map out your shopping trips. Some people will go to several places to buy their groceries in one week. Is it worth it to drive across town to save 50 cents on a gallon of milk, when you would spend more time and money buying it at the market where you buy the rest of your groceries?

And look at ways that you can get the freshest, local produce at a fair price. Planning your shopping around the days that the farmer’s market in your area is open, can make a big difference in reducing your food costs, and in the quality of  the food on the table. While fresh fruits and vegetables seem to bump the cost of your groceries up, they are healthier  and a better savings than the high calorie, high sugar processed food that  promise “ a quick healthy meal.” Scratch sodas, potato chips and junk food off your grocery list, and you will have a lot more money in the food budget for well balanced meals.

Just think about the money you can save if you give up just a couple of days of fast food or restaurant lunch, to bring your own. It could be the leftovers from the meal that was cooked at home the night before, or a nice green salad and homemade soup. Taking lunch is one of the quickest ways to see big savings. And bringing lunch is a much healthier alternative to old, stale sandwiches and chips from the vending machine.

Grow Your Savings

This year, I am going to reduce the cost of the food I cook at home by taking part of our back yard to grow my own tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce. I’m already thinking about the meals I can put together with my own fresh herbs, green onions, zucchini and greens. Not only will I have a foundation for the healthiest, freshest meals, but I will be saving a ton of cash. And even though I am going to try my hand in the garden, I am also going to support the farmer’s markets and roadside market stands. They also offer a great value.

Tips for Saving at Home

You may already be cooking more meals at home because of a sluggish economy. Or you may stirring up creative meals because you just love to cook, like me. But you may just be getting started on your quest to reduce your restaurant bill and save on cooking at home. Here are some tips to help you grow more savings by cooking and eating at home:

• Cut back on the meat. Meat is a high ticket item. Reduce the portion of meat in a meal, or even try cutting back and having several meatless days during the week.
• Buy into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group or a food co-op grocery. If you are not a member yet. look for one in your community.
• Invest in a good health cookbook and use it. You don’t have to sacrifice great taste and flavor to save money and eat healthy. With a good recipe and a little patience, your home meals can match or even trump anything you can get out.
• Try a new healthy recipe each week. You may not like everything you cook, but over time you will have a repertoire of meals you can prepare and enjoy for a lot less money.
• Shop the sales. Each week grocery stores and markets have plenty of bargains on the basics. Plan your meals around the deals.
• Make leftovers a part of your plan. Cooking enough to have leftovers of your healthy meal stretches your food budget. Don’t be afraid to freeze portions for later.
• Grow and share. Grow your own fruits and vegetables and save money over going to the grocery store for them.  And if you have a big bounty, share with your friends and neighbors.
• Buy what you will eat, even if it means having to make more frequent trips to the market. A bushel of apples may have looked like a deal at the time, but if you can’t eat or give them away fast enough, they will go bad. That includes bulk spices.
• Make the home cooked meal the rule, and eating out the exception.

Photo: theesit aua

I bought it. It reminded me, like God was whispering in my ear, that my love of  pulling together ingredients was a gift, and a legacy. Gifts should never be taken lightly. It made me smile instantly.

It also reminded me that the ability to get up in the morning and decide what I want to cook, and making it happened, is a privilege. My grandparents raised their children during the Great Depression. I don’t have much knowledge of how they put food on the table, or what they pieced together for their four children every day. But I can guess that having lived through it shaped their sense of plenty—and it showed up in the pot, and on the table years later. Both great cooks, they’d sit in the morning and ask, “what do you feel like eating today?” It is a different question I now understand than the, gnawing, entitled whines of two kids who have defiled my empty nest, “what are you going to cook,” or “what are we supposed to eat.” Their question was more a response to living without. Their answer was a declaration that they could now have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. It was their slice of affluence.

It is one of the legacies I brought with me into my marriage. And it has been a joy that has pulled me through the best of times and the worst of times. To go to the farmer’s market and get what’s looking good to you that day, or to do a good old fashioned meat loaf  has always brought me comfort and pride. Both because I could, and because I could do these things really well. And because I know in my essence, that slowing down to be present in cutting vegetables, or kneading a dough that will become a beautiful hot batch of rolls is more than utility, it is a gift to those you love. I had forgotten that, especially as the kids got older and got these opinions about what they will and won’t eat –  even after I cooked it.

I travel a lot now on assignment, so I don’t even get to cook as much. On the road, I grab nasty airport food, or in the evenings I get to experiment with some of the best restaurants in the world. The ones that make the most marked impression on me bring good home-style cooking with the freshest ingredients to the table. Whether at a friend’s house enjoying home cooking, or at a great restaurant, there is something that you just don’t get with a bucket of chicken. There is that moment when the chatter stops and there is silence, maybe even the collective moan of appreciation. It comes when somebody who prepared it, lovingly selecting ingredients, and got low and slow to bring it to you.

Most families have scheduled themselves so tightly. Some to chase the bigger house, bigger job, or the right social activities. Some to work two or three jobs to just make ends meet. For many, a good home-cooked meal comes in a microwave safe package, or a box or bag. After seeing that little plaque I was reminded that cooking is not just about love, but it is also about changing the pace. I can jump off the treadmill and say, I think I want to make a pound cake, or to start a pot of gumbo that will take all day to simmer slow. I can get off the grid to go shop mindfully for everything I need. I can put the rest of the “stuff” on pause and get in the kitchen with a stockpot, a mixer—whatever it takes. When I cook, I control the pace. The deadlines are mine. I breathe, I sing. And when I cook, I pray, or meditate. I center, much in the way runners do.

Over the past year, I have learned to my horror that I am a food elitist. I approach food and cooking the way I do because I can. I have a car to go get what I want. I don’t have to stay in the neighborhood and buy rank fruit, or bad bread from a party store. I can afford to eat local and organic. Most days I work at home, so I can spend hours in the kitchen if I choose to. I am aware that poor people, both urban and rural are doing all they can to get by. They don’t have my choices or my resources.

Some are people who grow my food, and get it to places where I can buy it, and who ring it up. There is a woman who works in my favorite grocery store. She like me, is a woman of color. She asked me if I was a cook for someone else. I explained that it was just for my family of four, and a few friends coming over for dinner. By the look on her face, I could tell that I boggled her mind. As she asked me for my money, she said, “one day I’m going to be able to feed my kids like that.” She said it in the way that I say, “One day I am going to be an Oprah book club selection,” or “one day the kids are going to move into their own places.” It reminded me that I am one blessed cook.

Every possible malady has a name and a pill. Your kids can’t focus, they now have Attention Deficit Disorder. Your leg moves while you sleep so you get a diagnosis of restless leg syndrome. I just found out that I have Eco Anxiety. I heard an editor from a magazine say that one of his writers covers so many doom and gloom environmental stories that he went screaming from an assignment and took to bed. It hit home for me. I read and write so many scary health and environment stories that I give myself the shakes.

Thunder can kill us, pesticides can kill us, juice can kill us. Spinach can kill us. Before I take a bite or a breath, I wonder if this will be the final straw that finishes me off. According to therapists who treat Eco Anxiety, we react to our fears in one of three ways. We freak out. We shut down. Or we take action. I am probably a shut down person these days. But at one point I was on the freak out trail. Every time I wrote a story about a malady or an environmental trigger, I would rush to the doctor and swear I had the symptoms. Killer mosquitos headed toward the Gulf of Mexico? I was sure I had been bitten by one. My doctor always asks me what I have been writing about before she asks me about my health. She saves a lot of time that way.

Clearly the point of all of these messages we get is to inform and educate us. But it is also a way of scaring us into some kind of public outcry and action. I see enough action. I just focus on the anxiety. Perhaps the advocates, the researchers, and the people who sell products that will save us from the ills of the world can take it down a notch. Remember the days when people told you that you should drink bottled water for your health? Well, this year we are told that if you drink bottled water you are going to wreck your health and the environment. It is always a situation of hope-nope.

I think most of us want to be educated about the world around us. It is important to know the impact of the foods we eat, the air we breathe, the bad habits we have. But it is also important to leverage it with what can happen that is positive. We have moved beyond the possibilities to the train wrecks.

We all care passionately about issues. I am very much in support of the availability of fresh, fair, and affordable foods for people living in urban areas. It is tied to the health of the community, the education of our children, our housing and our overall wellbeing. Others care about how our food is grown. Others care about the pesticides that help to make food look beautiful but have negative impacts on our health. All are important. And all can be informative without making me afraid to eat an apple or having to pay $10 for an organic one.

Whether the issue is health, race, poverty, air quality, or education, we need to be able to talk about them without turning them into a horror show. There is so much stress in the world. There are so many issues that push up against us. I can’t help but wonder if this anxiety that feeds us is also wearing away at us. As a colleague says, it might not be the environment that finishes us off, it could be the panic that does the deed. Let’s lighten up.

Photo by Brooks Elliott