The Supply of Restaurants

I stumbled into today's story. My family and I were planning to attend the "Minneapolis Healthy Life Expo" and meet up with a friend there. The expo turned out to be more of a joke that I expected it to be; I supposed there would be simply a showing of health-related vendors and if I were lucky maybe a semi-interesting spontaneous seminar, but it the vendors weren't even entirely health-related. There were housing/repair and vacation vendors as well. Since it was as much an insult as a disappointment, we called our friend and told her to not even bother showing up.  Our friend and her family were at the moment shopping at a very nearby restaurant supply store, and thus we met up with them there.

Inside it looked like most any regular buying club-style grocery store. You may already be familiar with Sam's Club or CostCo, and that's the same kind of impression I got when I walked inside. The only thing you have to keep in mind was that this particular business is catering specifically to restaurants as clients. I believe you're supposed to have a registered business in order to sign up with their club. With that in mind, the feelings I had after that ranged from disappointed to appalled when I saw what kinds of things were on the shelves.

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We are so Lucky! Eating Locally, part two.

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Part Two of this series on eating locally takes us to the very popular LocalHarvest.org. I actually remember when this site first started out, thinking to myself that I hope it becomes really useful. I believe it has done so, and is continuing on its journey to become the place to bring farmers and consumers together.

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Those Relentless Girl Scouts!

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Once upon a time, young scouts, wanting to help raise money for their troop, baked cookies on their own or with the supervision of their mothers, using simple ingredients like butter, milk, eggs, sugar, and flour. And so it went for almost twenty years until somehow ... something went wrong. In this real-life story, around 1935 the Girl Scout organization began to license the creation of these cookies to manufacturers and thus began the subtle shifting of ingredients from mainly tolerable snack-quality ones to those that are more economical than healthy. Now their recipe has more unpronounceable words than is easy to count.

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What you can do: Eating Locally, part one

If there's one thing that you could do to really change the food industry - and leave an amazingly positive impact on your own health - choosing to eat locally is right up there with the best options. However, this is one of those things that's easy to say, but a little harder to actually do, because the people - farms, cooperatives, and so on - that sell the best products directly to you have neither time nor money to advertise to you. And on the other hand, the corporations selling you junk products that are supposed to be good for you spend millions of dollars to have massive, dedicated teams that sit around thinking of ways to make you buy their products. I have firsthand knowledge of this, so I know what I'm talking about.

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Not all foods are superfoods!

The TimesOnline ran an article listing "20 great foods you aren't eating" which was brought to my attention by my cousin, so naturally I went to check it out. I'm a bit surprised by some of these recommendations in this article. Not only do many of them seem like things people really would already be eating every day, but as they're also labeled "superfoods" by the article, I wonder whether the author has actually studied nutrition or is just repeating some things she heard on the internet somewhere.

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Raw Dining in Minneapolis: the Ecopolitan

Tonight I walked into the Ecopolitan restaurant to be greeted by what can only be described as the aroma of REAL food. It's the smell that's only and always found in health food stores, and there never was a better case for aromatherapy than this. The Ecopolitan is a raw-food restaurant located a few miles south of downtown Minneapolis, a restaurant created from a renovated and classically-styled duplex. It's a little small for a restaurant and there are a couple of seats in the place that are tucked into what were once hallways. I can imagine there must be nights when the wait for seating would be fairly long as there's really only enough to fit, perhaps, 36 people at most.

Despite the limited seating, not a single thing about the restaurant failed to please. The focus of the restaurant is on good, healthy food and minimized impact - that is, a reduction of waste. The food is 100% vegan and organic, and although personally I don't advocate pure vegan diets for everyone, the food here can be TRUSTED. It's a feeling you don't get at a typical establishment, and it's a great change of pace.

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Raw Milk in Minneapolis

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Update, June 2010: Kalisch Farms is not an option for buying raw milk products.

Just a quick review of the Kalisch family farm, a Minneapolis-based CSA where you can get raw, organic milk products, eggs, vegetables (in season), meat, and more. My brother found this farm somewhere, but I have found their link on the Raw Milk Locator page on RealMilk.com as well.

My first reaction, which was as of this writing a few months ago, to finding the website was to scour their site for offered products, read about their farm and user reviews, and to check out the pictures of happy cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, and other animals in their "Pictures from the Farm" album.

If sometime I get the chance, I'd love to take this fact-finding a bit further and actually go visit the farm, to see it in person, as I believe that to be an important part of the Psychic Lunch idea: knowing what you eat. Until then, the photos and other users opinions were enough for me to try them out, and I'm glad I did.

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InGREEDients the Movie: Another for your Watch List

David Burton, a registered nurse, discovered that he was feeding himself - and his family - with foods that were slowly killing them. Being a nurse, his job is essentially, supposedly, focused on being healthy and maintaining that good health. Yet as we can all see, even doctors and nurses can be as unknowing as the rest of us. David's experience with hydrogenated oils starts out in a typical fashion. He had heard these oils were bad for your body, but didn't really know why they were bad or how much damage they really did.

This film is the result of finding that information out.

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Vegetable oils are NOT healthy, especially hydrogenated ones!

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Vegetable oils are typically soy, canola, or corn and are almost completely polyunsaturated fats. Oils from soy, canola, or corn are most likely genetically modified, definitely rancid by the time they are "finished," and are BAD for your health. Thus, hydrogenation starts with a bad product, and ends with an even worse one.

in reference to: Hydrogenated Oils And Your Health – What Is Hydrogenation (view on Google Sidewiki)

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