Where do we turn?

Today marks the first day of fall quarter in my second year of obtaining both my masters degree in nutrition and clinical health psychology. After 8 hours in class, my mind is racing with excitement, anxiety, and eagerness. I feel that I am overstimulated with the amount of information given in the first day. It is as if each professor gives you a snapshot of what the next 10 weeks will be like, as I sit and ponder how I am going to be a master of the material they are presenting in such a short time. There are some classes that I could study the material for years and years, and at times I feel that I get cheated by only studying it for such a short time in my academic career. However, I suppose that is the purpose of obtaining a PhD, which I won't begin to discuss the intense pull that I have felt in that direction, especially since 2 of my profs today had both their RDs and PhDs.

However, despite the overwhelming amount of information that was given to me, I once walked away from the day, satisfied that I am indeed in the right field and pursuing my dream. Last year, I would sit and ponder if I was making the right decision about my future, and I am grateful that my overall feeling today consisted of trst more than anything else. Especially sitting through the first lecture in my Global and Ecological issues in Food class, I was captivated by what my professor was talking about how the missing link in nutrition today is the failure to look outward and to see how our food supply provides us with essential information that communicates messages to our bodies. This shift in focus from internal to external is one that I am eager to explore and so grateful that my education at Bastyr allows to learn.

It was especially helpful to receive a message from my mother this morning, talking about how proud she was of me and my decision to pursue nutrition and psychology. I think she is beginning to see what an intense passion i have for both fields and I am hoping to continue to share this passion with others. A goal that I have for this quarter is to spend time with my studies so that I can explain it to others, so that they not only get my passion for the subject, but a practical view of food and their relationship with it.

Well hopefully there will be more coming soon. I would like to say that I will contribute regularly to this blog, but with school beginning, I am hoping to post at least 2 times a week. Lets start with that, and I will be surprised if I am able to muster up more than that.

Here's to learning, and pondering and being okay with never having all my questions answered all the time!

Welcoming Fall Soup

So this evening I made a Thai Pumpkin Soup that filled the entire house with scents of fall and warmed me up as if I was sitting by a warm fire. It was the perfect ending to my first day back to school, especially since it was a bit hard to leave home last night. Cooking the soup tonight made the entire house warm and cozy which is exactly what i needed. I also especially liked using coconut milk in this recipe, because I have been on a coconut milk kick lately. Today at school, me and a classmate experimented with a new smoothie using coconut milk, mango, banana, and ginger. It was so smooth and creamy. The coconut milk stuck with me all day and I contributed it to my sucessful run around greenlake this afternoon. We are using coconut milk in our smoothies at the Juicebar and I am excited to allow students the chance to try this non-dairy milk in their drinks.

Tomorrow is the start of classes, which is one of the main reasons I cooked tonight, because I had the TIME to! It felt like the calm before the storm, but honestly, I am hoping to continue to make time to cook. It is always so hard to go to my clinic shift each week and talk to clients about making time to cook dinner and experiment with new recipes when I can't find the time to. So I hoped that tonight I set an intention to cook during fall quarter, and to view my meals as a time to relax and nurture myself. If I can just remember the feeling of cooking tonight in a calm environment, just like I had all the time in the world to experiment in the kitchen, because whos to tell me that I don't!

Here is the recipe I used tonight: I experimented a bit with Goat milk instead of the non-fat milk and I also added more coconut milk for a creamier taste. Dried thyme can be replaced with rosemary.

Thai Pumpkin Soup

1 Tbsp butter
1 small onion chopped
1 Tbsp peeled, fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
2 cups canned pumpkin
1.5 cups coconut milk
1.5 cups nonfat milk
1 tsp thai green curry paste
pinch of dried thyme
1 tsp lime juice
salt, pepper to taste
1/3 cup chopped peanuts

Melt butter, saute onions, ginger, and garlic.
Place 1 cup pumpkin, coconut milk, nonfat milk, curry paste, and thyme into a blender. Add onions and puree until smooth.
Pour the puree into a pot, add the other cup of pumpkin, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes
Season with lime, salt, and pepper. Top with peanuts and enjoy!

Frosting Fun

This week I have had the privlidge of being a "taste tester" in my mother's kitchen as she prepares wedding cakes for a family friend's wedding this Saturday. I have already blogged about my love of raw cookie dough, but my love of frosting is almost tied with it. Tonight I was able to compare the sour cream maple frosting to the buttercream with mini chocolate chips to the orange peel vanilla. So many to choose from, what is a girl to do? Each one had the creamiest and richest flavors you could ask for in a frosting. I enjoyed it even without the cake, which by the way, is just as decadent.

Frosting is so much fun to eat. My favorite way is a quick lick with the finger, but in order to be more sanitary, I have been using a spoon . .well maybe a few spoons. I think eating frosting this way brings me back to my days as a child, when people thought it was cute to let the kids lick the spoon. I don't know how cute I look anymore, as a 25 year old asking my mother to lick the spoon, but something tells me she enjoys my help testing the batches. It keeps us both young and helps me to remember that its okay to endulge in some sweet delights, and has helped me realize to do this more often. Besides, cooks love to spoil their family and friends, and I have felt truly spoiled this week.

The importance of Blogging

What a long time it has been, since I last posted on here. I have had an extremely busy summer, and unfortunately blogging has not been a top priority. Honestly, I was a bit unsure of the future of my blog after my writing class ended. However, I was looking through some of my old postings last night, and realized how much insight I gained from keeping my blogs during spring quarter. Reading through the blogs was like opening up an old journal from my teen years. I was able to see my how my insight and opinions were changing about food with each week. I believe this blog can be a place to continue to log that change and discuss all the exciting things I am learning on my path to becoming a nutritionist. The field of nutrition is growing daily and a blog can hold all of my new thoughts and insights for others to see. Which I am unsure of how many readers I will have, now that the classmates aren't required to read my blog. But having the chance to practice communicating what I am reading and studying about, seems to be the most vital thing for my career at the moment. I love the field of nutrition because of how much education I am required to give to my clients, and a blog can be a great way to practice educating clients.

So basically, what I am trying to say, is that I am setting the intention to revive this blog and keep it running throughout the next two years of my graduate program! I am eager to see what will become of it when I a teacher is not forcing me to write for a grade. I am doing this as a gift to myself and my education.

It would be appropriate to give an update on my summer and all the things that I have learned in the field, especially since I started seeing patients at the clinic and giving real nutrition advice. I also experimented with an elimination diet and have been reading a hugely insane amount of material on emotional eating and eating disorders. I have been reading and studying vibrational food and the Chakra systems, thanks to an excellent book by Deanna Minich, Ph.D., C.N., which I will write an entire blog on due to the passion and I acquired from reading it.

Lastly, I have been very aware of my own opinons, habits, philosophies of my own diet. This has probably been the most important, because I have truely learned that we teach what we need to learn. So as I am teaching and studying nutrition, I find that I am the one who needs to adopt the principles the most. So look in the future for more personal insights about food and mood especially!

Well it is great to be back! Looking forward to the Fall and my continued passion to evolve through this blog!

Culinary passion

Last night i was lucky enough to reunite with an old high school friend, who is a culinary chef. I discovered much about the way in which a passion for food can span across many professions. I often think that nutritionists must be the only career that loves to analyze food and think about food, but i fail to give credit to the chefs who make masterpieces with food and help people fall in love with food.

Our conversation helped me realize that culinary cooking is much different than the cooking classes I take in my education at Bastyr University. But especially in Seattle, culinary cooking is becoming more advanced with incorporating nutrition aspects. Many restaurants are having to prepare gluten free items and be knowledgeable about food allergens and additives. As my friend stated, the two hot topics in the culinary world are locality and simplicity. This sounds very similar to themes across my nutrition education. I think in the future, it will be important for nutritionists and chefs to "share notes." At least that is what came up in our conversation, because we need them to make the food taste delicious and they need us to educate them on how to make food health promoting. Even with the economy, people are still choosing to eat out and I always think people will make room in their budgets for good restaurants.

Overall, when people have a passion for food, amazing things come of it. For my chef friend, he loves his job, because the food he makes will always be apart of the memory that his customers make in his restaurant. I love my career, because food holds so much emotion for people, and i want to help my clients heal from negative emotions around food and gain control over their nutrition.

I encourage anyone with a passion for food to study what aspect intrigues them, and cultivate it into a career. Food is love, sorrow, happiness, grief, and memories are made with it many times a day. There is so much work to be done in the growing field of nutrition and cooking, and i feel so privileged to be apart of it.

Just for fun, check out to search for local cooking school in your area!

Simple Mango Salsa

So lately my creative juices haven't been very apparent in the kitchen. Stress about finals could be a reason for that, and that i just don't have the time to cook an ellaborate meal. However, last night i made mango salsa for a potluck at school today, and was very satisfied with my beautiful creation of colors and flavors. The best part was how easy, simple, and yet relaxing it was to prepare it in the kitchen last night.

Today at the potluck, i was asked about the recipe. I kinda chuckled to myself because I thought, "why would someone want a recipe for something as simple as mango salsa?" I realized that anything that is created in the kitchen, deserves to have pride behind it, whether it be simple or ellaborate. Also many times people underestimate how simple salsa can be, or perhaps a recipe gives them security that they are making it right. For me, it is a lesson and a reminder to myself that things can be simple. Just because i am studying nutrition, doesn't mean i have to always cook meals that reflect my knowledge. Sometimes i just want to pop open a can of beans, mix some salsa into it and still have it taste good. Well I accomplished my goal of making something that tasted good and allowed me to be humble in the kitchen.

For now here is my Simple Mahgo Salsa recipe:

1 large mango, cut into chunks

4 medium roma tomatoes, cut into chunks

Juice from a lemon and lime

1 bunch cilantro

1 cup of prepared organic valley salsa (any prepared fresh salsa will do)

I can of organic black beans

pinch of salt


See . . i told you it was simple!

Enjoy your food in any form!

Teaching turns into learning moments

This Spring Quarter, I was able to be a Teacher's Assistant for a cooking class at Bastyr University called Therapeutic Whole Foods cooking. I was thrilled for the chance to be a TA, mostly because i loved the class so much when i took it and now i was getting the chance to experience it again, but this time by shopping for the weekly menu and tasting the student's food each week.

The quarter is coming to a close, and I can honestly say that i got so much more out of being a TA for this class than i thought i would. Moslty because i opened my mind to listen to the messages that my body was giving me about the food i was tasting. In the end i think the students in the class taught me something about the way i was experiencing food.

A few things i learned about myself through this experience was how i learned about the importance of shopping for a cooking class. First of all, so much more fun to venture around PCC and collect items for the weekly menu than grocery shopping on my limited and small budget. I think that i have realized that i don't shop for myself the way i should, with my senses and listening to my hunger cues.

The most important thing i discovered this quarter was how food tastes differently based upon who is cooking it and the kind of intention and thought that goes into it. The class is set up so that each station prepares the same meal with the same ingredients. Myself and the cooking instructor sample the menu items from each station. There were so many times when the soup of one group tasted completely differnet from another, or the consistency of the bread was different based upon if they used egg yolk or egg whites. I loved getting the chance to share in the hard work and effort of each group and sit down to share their meal as a community of eaters and food lovers. I felt honored that they had prepared the meal and that i was to share it with them. This quarter i started eating some meat, after not having it for about a year. One day i just felt that my body was craving it and the students had preparred some organic grass fed lamb. We were doing a class on elevated needs and i couldnt help but think how my meat-deprived body was needing some elevated nutrient. There could be no better time than that day to allow my body to benefit from the nourishment of the love and nutrients the students had made that day. Since then, i have been trying all the food the class has prepared as a way to honor the messages in my body as well as the efforts of the chefs.

I think it is important to always pay attention to the way food tastes and feel in our body because of the love and intention behind it. I encourage you to begin seeing each meal this way and eat therapeutically even if you were the one who cooked the meal!

Happy cooking!

Worshiping My Solar Plexus

The Sun has been vibrantly out in Seattle the past week . .only to hide behind the clouds this weekend, but these past few days of no sun hasn't affected me a bit, because lately i have been having a craving for another type of solar energy . . . .

About a month ago i started my obsession back up with Mangoes. To me they are the most loveliest fruit and have been such a great addition to my morning yogurt with bananas, also a yellow food. ( notice the color scheme) Corn season couldn't have come any sooner. I have been eating corn in many different ways. We had a corn-roasting party at midnight a few weeks ago over our fire pit in the back yard. I also introduced my two friends to roasting over the barbecue while we were at the lake cabin. They didn't believe me that you could keep the husk on the corn, place it on the BBQ, and trust the rest to the grill . . turned out crunchy and sweet. My boyfriend and I have used our oven to cook the corn, and last night at a BBQ we enjoyed some boiled corn. In fact, i recall that at the BBQ last night, while everyone was eating the hot dogs and sausages, my plate looked a little unbalanced: Corn on the cob and a corn salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. I finished up the leftover corn while others got seconds on the meat! Also last week, while working at the juice bar, I felt very drawn to the pineapple, snacking on pieces throughout the day! I have always been a big fan of bananas for breakfast, but this last week, i have been craving them in the afternoon before my daily workout! Lastly, i have been eating a lot of jack fruit which is a sweet tropical fruit that I ate a lot of when i was in Vietnam ( see the picture above).

So anyone notice a pattern here? It's definitely staring at me like a big sun shinning in my eyes . . . . yes, i have been obsessed with yellow color foods! Now normally, this would concern me a little, except for the fact that i bought a book last week that confirms my behavior as normal and totally appropriate if we look to the vibrational energy of the food i am eating. According to Deanna M. Minich, Ph.D., C.N. and her book: Chakra Foods for Optimum Health, the vibration of food interacts with our internal vibration so we should eat foods that have the vibrational food that we are lacking in. Low energy yellow foods can both stimulate and balance the solar plexus charkra which represents fire, inspiration, accomplishment, and self-esteem. This chakra liberates energy and carbohydrates. I feel that i need to stimulate this chakra within my own life because of my digestion problems and my high need for intellectual stimulation among other things. This chakra is the one most people in American need help balancing!

Healthy low glycemic food that will sustain the Solar Plexus are legumes, hummus, broccoli, dark green leafy vegetables, barley, oatmeal, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts,nut butters, apples, berries, cherries, and yellow, tan, and golden foods like pineapple, plantain, corn, ginger, yellow squash, lentils, amaranth, brown rice, millet, quinoa, and cornmeal.

I encourage anyone with an interest in how foods can improve their energy to check out Deanna's website at www.foodandspirit.com for more information!

Okay off to eat some sunny yellow eggs for breakfast!

Studying and Coconut Dreams

Today was a very productive day which needed to happen in order to perserve my sanity for upcoming finals week. However, i was not as sucessful in catering to my nutritional needs. I know that when i get busy and start working on a project, i can actually feel my body's sympathetic nervous system being turned on. I have never been one of those people who "snack" a lot on bad junk food while trying to study. Oh no, I am the opposite, letting my mind run wild, rapidly writing my papers, and not much thought on the needs of my stomach.

This of course isn't the first time i have realized my extreme nature surrounding my forgetfulness about eating while doing homework. I know that food is fuel for the brain, but just can't simply stop myself and cook up something in the kitchen. I did however have a delicous coconut smoothie with blended cashews from a new restaurant by my house, called Thrive. http://www.generationthrive.com/. It was the perfect addition to studying, because it was cold, creamy, and I could sip on it while i divulged myself in my readings. Coconut is a great source of saturated fat for vegetarians and in traditional chinese medicine, it can help clear the effect of summer heat and quenches thirst. Cashews are in fact the nut with the least amount of fat!

Most importantly it brought me back to my trip to Vietnam last summer. It has almost been a year since i took my first trip overseas and indulged in all the tropical fruits the country had to offer. We drank coconuts morning, noon, and night, mostly because of the abundance of them and their ability to quench our thirsts when it felt like 150 degrees outside. My favorite memory was heading to the local market on old bikes, and having another coconut craving, we had to tie the coconuts to the back of our bikes. The locals got quite a laugh at our attempts to be "tourists" at the market and willing to try and bike ride home on a rusty old bike loaded down with coconuts. We definitely had some "junk in the trunk" that day!

So I was highly satisfyed with my drink today that brought back such vivid memories. Perhaps if I dont think i have time to stop and eat while I'm cramming for finals, i can try to surround myself with a particular food that evokes a memory of happiness, relaxation, and comfort. Happy Studying!

Angie

Food comes first at the Local Farmers Markets

Well here I am again . . ready to blog again, or so I hope. I took a little hiatus from my blog due to busyness. A word that i generally dont like using, because i think it is way overused. Everyone is busy, I know, which is why it isnt a very good excuse for not doing something that you value. I vaule expressing myself with food and with words, but at times, i feel that i spend so much time studying food, that at the end of the day, i dont want to write about it. Since my last blog, i have only cooked a few times, and none of them were great masterpieces, except that my boyfriend and I made about 5 bowls of Emerald City Salad one night until about 1 am! It was very exciting, because it was his idea, and he is a meat eater, who never gets too overly excited about kale and collard greens. I was estatic when he asked me if we could make it one night, and the outcome was that we made enough for an army and ate it all weekend. However, I wouldn't recommend making it in such large batches, because after about 2 days, the kale and collards start to taste bad. Other than that culinary experience, i have been telling myself that i was just too "busy" to cook. In writing this, i realize that there are other things in my life that i don't put value on, even though i want to, for example being more mindful and slowing down in life.

This morning i finally made time to walk to the University Farmer's market. (check out www.seattlefarmersmarket.org for a listing of all of them ) So close to my house and i was very impressed by the amount of vendors and people shopping around. I love watching the families with their small children. I evesdrop on their conversations about what they are having for dinner, and listen closely to how they describe the produce to their children. I thought how lucky those children are to grow up going to the farmer's market with their parents and hoped that they would establish a lifelong love for food. I hoped that food always comes first in their lives and that they always make room for it no matter what other things go on in their day. These of course are still areas that I am cultivating in my life, but i hope this summer to make it a more regular event to visit the farmers market. Not only is it a great experience, local, and sustainable, but its great to be around other people who love and appreciate food as well. Now im off to make some black bean mango salsa lettuce wraps with my goods from the market!

Papayas and Klondike Bars

Recently, I read that stress is spiritual isolation. I know that food anxiety is a form of stress that many people experience daily. Where does this anxiety over food start in a culture?

I have been fortunate to share many meals eating homemade Vietnamese food by my boyfriend's mother. His family and him came to the states 18 years ago, and she still prepares traditional meals from her country every night. They are flavorful and unique, and eating her cooking has helped me open up my taste buds from the american food i grew up on.

Tonight as i was over at his parent's house, we shared a fresh papya after dinner. As i sat there like a small child, waiting for it to be peeled and the seeds scraped out, i had flashbacks of our trip to Vietnam last summer. We spent 3 weeks in south Vietnam, and although the scenery and people were amazing, the tropical fruits were unforgetable. I woke up every morning eating pomelos and lychee. Every meal was followed by my favorite: dragonfruit. If you have never ate a dragonfruit, i highly encourage you to buy a ticket to a tropical country just to experience this great combination of kiwi and watermelon! And the apperance of the fruit is just badass, i mean who wouldn't want to eat something that looks like a hot pink ball of flames?

So as we enjoyed the fresh papaya, my boyfriend's father sat on the couch next to us and induldged in good old american Klondike bar! He looked just as satisfied with his dessert as i was with mine. But i did find it ironic that him and I were both enjoying food from the other's culture. I guess it demonstrates that everyone wants what they don't have or didn't have growing up. Im pretty sure he wasn't offered ice cream every week, like i was. I hardly saw ice cream or any dairy products for that matter while i was in Vietnam. On the other hand, i ate my very first papya at that same dinner table, just like i have tried a great deal of new tropical fruits and asian vegetables since moving to Seattle.

As i watched his father walk to the fridge and grab his second Klondike bar of the night, i realized that some cultures dont have a fear of food like Americans do. Some people are just glad to be living in a country where they have food on the table, whether it be a traditional meal or a savory american ice cream bar. Some people are excited to have a refridgerator even!

I think tonight i became aware that in order to rid our culture of food anxiety, we need to be humble and thankful for food in all its many forms. Although we can separate health food from the SAD: standard american diet, we can and need to also be thankful that we have food in this country and more imporant that we have choices and freedom to eat what our stomach desires.

The art of burger making

Last night i attempted to make garbanzo bean burgers that would be the perfect consistency for my mechanically altered diet for someone with dysphagia ( difficulty swallowing). At first, i thought it was going to take all the fun out of cooking, having to make food that forms a "bolus" in your mouth without chewing. In fact, i had a lot of fun, trying out both pan frying and broiling the patties to get a desired consistency. I felt like a scientist in the kitchen, experimenting with different temperatures, oils, and methods. But really, isnt that what all good cooks do? They experiment while they cook. I wish someone would have brought this up back in science class . . why dont they teach kids about food and science at the same time, instead of only talking about food in health class or home economics?



It does seem kinda ironic that although i have been studying science for both my undergraduate education and graduate program, learning to be a scientist in the kitchen is still frightening to me. I still cling to my recipes and try to follow every step. I know that one of the best ways to cook is through the senses, but i am still trying to remind myself that food is forgiving.

Just like our bodies.

I am also trying to step away from the having a scientific mindset about everything and instead learn through better use of my feelings. I feel that it is easy in my program to get consumed by the scientific knowledge about food and analyze it down to the last molecule. I also feel that my program is unique because it allows me to grow in my relationship with food emotionally and spiritually.

Therefore as with most things, the answer for me is to find a balance between the art and science of cooking. The art will evolve quietly, sometimes without my awareness, and this process requires trust and maybe burning a couple of burgers first!

Truthfully . . .

I have heard of new diets which are based upon trying to hide healthy food from children so that they will eat it. These disguised diet, do more harm than good. Why are we hiding good food? Why don’t we tell children whats in food? Where did it begin in history where we gave a piece of food to a child and said, "eat it, its good for you." Since when did we start treating children like they couldn't handle the truth. Children have so much more understanding then we give them credit for? I grew up with a great amount of love and attachment, but i also grew up with very little information about food. My mother cooked a lot, and i remember having to cook a meal for my family for my junior high home economics class, but other than that, i watched my mom cook. I never understood about what made a food whole versus what made a food processed. I never looked at an ingredient list and i didn't really understand where real food came from. But i knew that i loved eating my mom's meals, because they were satisfying and she took time to cook them. I could taste her intention to love through the use of food.



But what does education do for us? I keep thinking back to the ignorance is bliss statement. What we don't know wont hurt us. Now that I'm fully armed with education about food, am i really that much healthier? yes for sure, i have lost weight and my skin looks great, and how about my cravings . .they aren't for chocolate as much as they used to be. But am i happier? I couldn't tell you. I feel that my food choices are made off of what i learn in school, I'm still having trouble allowing myself to eat anything i crave.

SO i guess what I'm trying to say, is what if we teach children how to experience food for themselves, without just telling them to eat vegetables cause they are good for them? What if instead we taught them where food comes from and how farming can change the quality of food and then give them types of food to try and let them be the experts of their own bodies. That way they feel that they had the choice and let their body decide what was good and nutritious for them to eat.

Gut Lessons

Our bodies are forgiving.

I am realizing this more and more with each year that i live and put more food into my mouth. Our bodies can handle quite a bit in fact. There are some bodies that can go for 60 or 7o years on a diet of grease and saturated fat . .and never choose to rebel until then. Today i woke up and was amazed at this fact. Just the simple fact that our bodies can heal from the poor diets that we choose to feed it. And they can heal so beautifully and quickly, if we give them the proper nutrients. This thought came upon me, because i was thinking of how drastically different my diet is today from when i was growing up. I sometimes have to sit back and laugh at myself when i think of how many turkey sandwiches and spaghettio's i would eat. It was my favorite thing to eat after swim practice in the summer. Or how about good old McDonald's again . . .earlier i divulged my obsession with the sweet and sour sauce, but how do you think i got addicted to that stuff? Yep, i was a big fan of the chicken nuggets as well. I remember my sister and I fighting over who got to open up the 20 piece box first and choose which ones to devour.

So i never went hungry as a child, that's for certain. I was always happy and full. But now, I can't even stand the smell of fast food. And spaghettio's? Haven't touched the stuff since i was 12. But my body has been enjoying the whole grains, veggies, and beans i have been giving it, and the fruit . .i love the fruit. I just guess what I'm trying to say is that everyone has their memories of the food they grew up with and how yummy it was, but most people i know don't still eat like that. They tastes have changed or simply, the fact that they are now adults and have more control about who buys the groceries. But our bodies, they adapt from the poor diets we may have had as children and learn to run off of the food we choose to eat instead.

So the next time i do want to remember my days of spaghettio's or indulge in a little fast food. I should have no concerns that my body will handle the food just fine. It may not like it. It may grumble, it may rage as the sodium and high fructose corn syrup enter my stomach again. Or maybe it might say, " AH yes . . I remember this . . . .where have you been?"

You see, I'm pretty sure my body likes the food i give it now better. How do i know? Well i feel better, lighter, my skin is clearer, i lost weight, my blood pressure went down; stuff like that. But how do I really know if my body misses any of my old food obsessions that looking back, i think were so "BAD?" I guess that in writing this, i cant say for sure. What i do know, is that the body is adaptable and it will use whatever we feed it for fuel. It will make the best of the environments we choose to place it in. Our bodies will always try to find a balance for us to live in, regardless of what we may be supplying it with.

I think we all should marvel at that more. Or at least I'm going to, because i don't give my body enough credit for what it is capable of doing. And i certainly don't listen to its messages enough.

So who knew? Our own bodies can be the best teachers of adaptability and forgiveness. And all we have to do is listen and eat.

Doughgirl

Cookie Dough . .Raw cookie dough. Cold, sweet, sticky, sitting like a blob in my stomach, cookie dough. A little raw ball of my doughy childhood.

You see, i have had a love affair with cookie dough since i was old enough to peep over the kitchen counter. My mom, who bakes desserts in the best way imaginable, would tell me stories of how she would get in trouble by the nuns in Catholic school, for licking the bowl. Well i kinda have always looked up to my mom, and from that story on, i guess i decided to follow in her bowl licking steps. And so my affair began. I would stalk the cookie dough from the dining room table, watching my mom get out the flour, next, the whizz of the blender, then i would say to myself, "she'll be adding the chocolate chips anytime now." And then, off i went dashing into the kitchen, grabbing a spoon, or better yet rolling up my sleeves to dive into the fresh batch before all were rolled up and sent off to the mean oven. I didn't like the oven, it changed the dough. I have never been able to put my finger on it, but in the raw, something about that substance that no oven could ever recreate. Its as if the dough was perfect on its own. "Why do we ever have to make it into a cookie anyway," I would ask my mother. The only good answer she ever came up with had something to do with, "consuming raw eggs is hazardous . .blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

Well, I am living proof to to the rest of the world: raw cookie dough never hurt anyone! Well let me take a step back. Ah yes, my stomach reminds me of the fullness i have experienced after a few too many snatches of dough from my mothers' kitchen. Or the time my best friend from high school and I took a package of cookie dough in the car as we drove up and down the neighborhood streets looking at Christmas lights. Stuffing our faces in between the Ho Ho Ho's. Ah yes, now i remember that feeling of being a human doughgirl, but honestly besides a little discomfort, has anyone ever died from it?

Just recently i discovered something in the grocery store that i have been waiting to see for years. A pre-made, lovely package of natural cookie dough, and printed in small font on the side, i smiled as i read, " eating raw cookie dough doesn't make you sick." Finally! At last! Like-minded cookie dough enthusiasts who have come to save the day! Spreading the news to all hungry girls like me! But where were they all those cold winter nights trying to convince my mom that just another spoonful wouldn't put me over the edge?

I have thought about sending my mother a package in the mail. It would most certainly contain that cookie dough.

My love of cookie dough has followed me into my relationships with men, and most recently has shown me that i really do worship it. This became apparent one night, when i had a craving for cookie dough, but not just any cookie dough, the kind swirled in ice cream. Surprisingly though, when i crave cookie dough ice cream, i do a damn good job of making sure i pick out just the dough, and only the dough. There is something about that wet, just been immersed in cream dough that i love. Unfortunately, for my boyfriend, this means his stomach will be getting an entire gallon of plain vanilla ice cream. But seriously, what's a girl to do? Someone has to eat the vanilla ice cream that is plainly getting in the way of my the cookie dough! And that . .i have decided is true love. Girls, you know you have found, "the one," when between the both of you , an entire gallon of cookie dough ice cream is consumed, and you got to eat the best part: the raw dough. Yep, he's a keeper.

Even to this day, on one of the weekends i head back home to visit my parents, i can always be sure of two things. That my mom will make me my choice of cookie dough before heading back on the long, boring drive to Seattle. And that with each trip, she lets me sneak a little more dough than before. Maybe its a sign of maturity. Like she is silently saying, " I trust you. Eat all the dough you want, because by the time you make it home to Seattle, I'll be too far away to do anything about your bellyache. "But honestly i think that's what it is all about. The dough, sitting in my belly; my mother's love from afar.

Raising Healthy Eaters

In my last blog, i touched on the idea that so many people have ideas on how to raise healthy eaters. I think it is obvious why this area of nutrition is exploding, because of the rise in childhood obesity in America. Parents are afraid that their children will become fat and have to deal with all the implications of being obese. But is this better than raising children who are fearful of food and learn to call one certain food "good" or "bad"? I have alot of firsthand experience with this topic, because i struggled with my weight throughout elementary school, highschool and college. When i was born, i weighed 10 lbs 2 oz, so i guess i entered the world a lot larger than most babies! It wasnt until I came to Bastyr Univeristy for my graduate degree and learned about food and started to eat a variety of food and of course our well-loved whole foods diet that we promote. I am a great example of how education about food can impact a person's health. I am also a great example that just because someone is overweight as a child, doesnt mean they can't grow up to be a healthy adult. I reversed my high blood pressure as well. What this means to me, is that parents should be less concerned that their children's waistlines are growing and more concerned that their knowlege about food is growing smaller and smaller each day. Education surrounding food will always be available, but it is much more difficult to change the negative thinking that we have ingrained in our children's minds surrounding body image. What most parents aren't seeing, is that while they are trying to save their children's waistline, they are sacraficing their self-esteem. A child's mind is so impressionalbe and they can easily learn to put labels on food based upon the teaching of their parents. I think the best solution would be something that i would have appreciated growing up; cooking classes or classes in school that teach children about the wonderful ways to enjoy the vegetables that their parents always try to get them to eat! Giving children a sound background on where real food comes from, will help them to understand why their oreo cookies are not considered to be a "whole food." These are only my opinons and i am not a parent yet, so i cant say if any of this will work. I am eager to start working with children and nutrition so i can test my ideas. I am going to start this summer with creating a program about food for a pediatric cancer camp that i volunteer at each summer. I'm interested in creating my own way to reach kids about eating healthy, or more importantly forming positive relationships with food and their bodies. I suppose that i am still learning to do this as well, and I'm certainly not a child anymore. More than likely i am still trying to re-teach myself the unhealthy labels i have placed upon types of food, and let me tell you that it takes a while to undo!

Calling All Foodjags!

I first heard of the word, "foodjag," last fall, in one of my graduate nutrition classes. We were discussing how to raise children to be healthy eaters, which is a extremely hot topic in the field of nutrition. There are many opinions on how to do this, coming from nutritionists, physicians, psychologists, parents, and teachers. I am interested in it, because as a child, i had many foodjags, and most of them unhealthy. First of all, i should tell all you inquiring minds, exactly what a foodjag is. I was actually quite surprised that in my conversations with people this week, no one had heard of the word. Basically, a foodjag is an obsession with a particular food. Children who eat only one type of food over and over again, are said to be on a "foodjag." This behavior is noticeable in children, who tend to be picky eaters, but i have found foodjags to be occurring in adults as well. Just think of how many people around you are obsessed with a particular food or food group. Whether it be because it really is their favorite food and they can't stop eating it, or because they are on a diet and it is the only thing they can eat. We as a society also become obsessed with a food, once someone has made a statement about it's health benefits or ability to help us loose weight. If Oprah has a food item on her show and talks about its power to do such and such, you can better believe that people will be rushing to the stores to gobble it up. I find it fascinating how effective the power of suggestion can be, and not necessarily coming from any professional source. Our country has seen its share of foodjags, and theses are disguised as some of the most popular diets ever known. The Atkins diet had people obsessed with eating protein, while the low-fat diet made people fear anything that claim a low-fat label on the front of the package. The grapefruit diet was supposed to curb hunger, but I know some who will never touch another grapefruit after that diet. Many people can't even begin their day without a 16 oz double tall latte from Starbucks, and they start each day off with one. As you can see, we grow up, and many of our obsessions with food don't change. We have yet to learn how to balance out our diet and eat a variety, so that we can get the most nutrients and prevent boredom with food. I encourage you to think back to your own childhood. What food could you not get enough of? Most importantly, why did you choose the foods you ate all the time? For me, I was obsessed with McDonald's chicken nuggets dipped in sweet and sour sauce. I actually cant say if it was the nuggets, or the sauce, because i dipped anything in that sauce! I even remember my parents buying a large box or sweet and sour sauce from McDonald's so that we always had it on hand! Now as an adult, my obsessions with food are based off of what i learn in my graduate program, or what i read from health books or professionals. I think that while these are all good sources to get my nutrition education from, i tend to forget to listen to myself and my own human cravings. What does the food taste like in my mouth? Does the food satisfy my cravings? Is the smell appealing to my senses? Is the texture appealing? These questions and many more, should guide my food choices more than anything else. I am learning so much about how to think more about what i am eating and why. These questions may help me and others get to the bottom of our obsessions with food.