Two food celebrations from opposite ends

Within one week there are two food related com­mem­o­ra­tions occur­ring. One is an overindul­gence of every­thing healthy and the other is quite the oppo­site. And the happy medium is some­where in between.

On Oct. 24, National Food Day was cel­e­brated across the fruited plains. It is touted as a day to “eat real.” The menu includes any­thing grown and pur­chased from a farm­ers mar­ket and pre­pared with as few ingre­di­ents as possible.

Michelle Obama has declared Food Day for cit­i­zens to think about food, what is the most health­i­est, where it is grown, how it is pro­duced, how to cook it and the amount that is consumed.

This grass roots move­ment is pick­ing up momen­tum as folks are con­cerned with the food sup­ply and how it affects the human body. Mrs. Obama is cen­ter­ing this cel­e­bra­tion on a call for action to com­bat obesity.

The quan­tity of raw food as well as the acces­si­bil­ity in our daily diets is the main focus of this move­ment. Adding fresh fruits and veg­eta­bles to a sim­ple meal made from scratch is a great way to cel­e­brate Food Day. Get­ting to know a local farmer and shop­ping at a farm­ers mar­ket also con­nects the food sup­ply to the most basic source.

Devot­ing a day to “eat real” is a move­ment that brings together a var­ied group of peo­ple that believe that a more healthy and afford­able and sus­tain­able food sys­tem is pos­si­ble in this coun­try. Qual­ity food that is acces­si­ble is on the menu.

Now the other grand cel­e­bra­tion of things chewed and swal­lowed is on the com­plete oppo­site end of the spec­trum. To put it short and sweet, the other com­mem­o­ra­tion involves Hal­loween candy. Unless there is a swarm of bees in the back­yard these two cel­e­bra­tions are as sep­a­rate as night and day. Per­haps that is why First Lady Michelle decided to mark a date late in Octo­ber for Food Day. It is at the end of the grow­ing sea­son and it may serve as a bea­con of health amidst moun­tains of sugar laden snacks with very lim­ited nutri­tional value.

Bags of empty calo­ries are being pur­chased from every gro­cery and dis­count store in the land. Moun­tains of sug­ary treats and ghoul­ish delights will fill the daily diets of peo­ple, young and old, thick and lean, near and far.

Note the dif­fer­ence between an orange wrapped choco­late peanut but­ter cup and a hand­ful of fresh roasted peanuts and a bag of marsh­mal­low cir­cus peanuts that have no rela­tion to peanuts or but­ter but are 100 per­cent sugar.

Toot­sie Rolls are chewy but so are car­rots. The biggest dis­par­ity is the obvi­ous dif­fer­ence between “eat real” food and “real eat” foods.

There is a happy medium. A diner could daily count the num­ber of fruits and veg­etable serv­ings that are con­sumed. If the num­ber exceeds five, a candy treat is added.

Con­sider choco­late dipped broc­coli or candy corn made from real corn and tossed in an orange but­ter­scotch syrup. Fried pick­les are an unhealthy/healthy ver­sion of fresh cucum­bers. Dust let­tuce with pow­dered sugar and serve with raisin sauce. Need I go on?

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal, Orrville. Con­tact her at bobbie.randall@aultmanorrville.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Oct 24 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.