A Look Back at 2015 Through Food Cartoons

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a nice holiday season. As 2015 comes to an end, I wanted to reflect on the year through the lens of ever-satirical New Yorker food cartoons 

The issue of Genetically Modified Organisms in food production drew mass attention this year. While amazing groups like Vani Hari's Food Babe Army worked hard this year to bring change, there is still a lot to be done. I loved this cartoon for how it poked fun at the whole issue. It was an interesting interpretation...

"Foodie": pretentious snob or thoughtful gastronomer? I'd like to go with the latter, but regardless, "foodie-ism" spread like wildfire this year, especially on platforms like Instagram with the growth of the "foodstagram" community.

These two cartoons made me laugh. I cut both of them out of the magazine and they now hang on my bulletin board above my desk. I hope they make you laugh too.

With the rise in popularity this year of raw-vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, non-G.M.O. diets makes this cartoon a very accurate picture of what it's like to eat in 2015. I know that when my family gets together, the cook must first create a venn diagram to figure out what dish could satisfy everyone's dietary restrictions and preferences. 

And finally, a cartoon so accurate that I might as well be that man. Darn avocados! So delicious, yet so elusive. Has an avocado ripeness timer been invented? If not, I think I've found my next project... 

Cheers to a year of much more!!

Thank you all,

Gourmanda

All images courtesy of TheNewYorker.com 

The Bugs in our Bellies

"Probiotic" is a word that I learned back in 2011.  I was interviewing a cheese saleswoman at the local farmers market and she was describing their camembert cheese as probiotic. "It's basically the opposite of an anti-biotic," she told ten-year-old me. "It's the good bacteria, not the bad bacteria."

credit: sandhyamanoj.com

Fast forward six years and I am a junior in high school studying the effect of probiotic bacteria on our diet and mood. I am part of the high school science research program and have read tons of studies and articles on how the bugs in our bellies can effect our overall health and mental state.

How did I get here? It seems as if the microbes in that delicious camembert cheese infected me. Ever since then stories of their (literally) mind-boggling properties have followed me and piqued my interest.

In 2012, one of my favorite podcasts, Radiolab, aired an episode dedicated to Guts. They orated on the discovery of digestion, interviewed a man who battled with his gut (actually a family friend, Jon Reiner), and, most intrguingly, chatted with researcher John Cryan of the University College Cork who explained how eating probiotics can decrease anxiety and depression in mice. This amazing research led to an outbreak of similar literature in the "psychobiology" world and is causing people to think twice about the significance of the bacteria in our bellies.

After my first exposure, I consumed article after article, presentation after presentation, and book after book about the role of our microbiota. 

credit: The New York Times

• "Our Microbiome May Be Looking Out for Itself" by Carl Zimmer
• "The Scientists Who Want to Fix America's Guts" by John Swansburg
• "Missing Microbes" by Martin Blaser
• "Mind-altering Microbes: How the Microbiome Effects Brain and Behavior" by Elaine Hsaio
• "Can the Bacteria in Your Gut Explain Your Mood?" by Peter Andrey Smith

And just recently, due to all the hype around this exciting area of science, The Museum of Natural History in New York opened an exhibit "The Secret World Inside You."

Here is an excerpt from the exhibit description: 

"Our bodies are home to approximately 100 trillion bacteria living inside us and on us—a vast community known as the microbiome. The Secret World Inside You explores the rapidly evolving science that is revealing the complexities of the human microbiome and reshaping our ideas about human health, offering new perspectives on common health problems including allergies, asthma, and obesity. "

So, how has all this research effected me? Well, I think my meals can speak for me. Today for breakfast I had homemade granola with greek yogurt, for lunch I ate sourdough bread sandwich with pickles, and with my dinner I drank plain kefir. 

Cheers to our microbiota!

More,

Gourmanda

Food for Thought: Bacon Causes Cancer

Did you guys see Time Magazine's feature article about the detrimental health effects of eating bacon and other processed food? If not, scoot on over to read it and then share your thoughts in the comments.

Vegetarians: Has an enemy been exposed?

Carnivores: Has a friend been offended?

Everyone else: What do you think? Would you change your eating habits based on scientific research, even if the food in question was a staple so strong that there are entire Facebook communities created around it?

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Gourmanda 

Working at the Farmers Market

Every Saturday morning, I wake up at 6:45am, throw on my green t-shirt, and head down to Pleasantville to intern at the farmers market.

I love waking up to work with a smiling staff of volunteers eager to make the market's environment as accommodating and lively as possible. As media intern, I post a weekly collage and video to Facebook to get patrons pumped about the market. I photograph the weekly splendorous harvest of corn, apples, cheese, bread rolls, fish, kale, etc., and use the photos in my weekly posts.

Working at the Pleasantville Farmers Market has taught me about what it means to run a non-profit, about the life of a farmer, about how to take the most yummy pictures, about how to change money, about how to set up a tent, the list goes on and on.

So if you're ever in Westchester County, stop by for a "delicious good time" at the best and biggest market around!!
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Gourmanda

Food Product to Try: Blue Hill Savory Yogurt

saveur.com

The first time I heard about Blue Hill's new savory yogurt, I knew I had to try it. The yogurt is your average joe yogurt, except for one thing, it's comes in sweet potato flavor!!

In recent years, the yogurt industry has gone bananas trying to reel in customers with every dessert-turned-yogurt flavor you can think of. Some examples from Yoplait include Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Red Velvet Cupcake, and Boston Cream Pie.

But the minds at the world famous farm-to-table restaurant Blue Hill (Dan Barber et al.) are going against the grain and flavoring their unconventional dairy products with root and vine vegetables.

I took a trip to my local Mrs. Greens and bought a cup of Sweet Potato flavored yogurt. I immediately spooned it into my mouth upon arriving home and was met with a slightly salty and umami taste that almost made me forget I was eating yogurt. But then I came to my senses and realized that I didnt like this non-sweet yogurt. I added a little honey and some walnuts and tried it again. Much better.

The verdict: Based on my taste analysis of one flavor, this yogurt would go great in sauces and marinades, but maybe not by itself. I blame it on my tastebuds's affinity for sweet-tasting yogurt. Definitely give a try, and let me know what you think!

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Gourmanda

Avoiding the word "vegetables" in commercials

The perception (and half-truth) of American children and their relationship with food is that they are processed food-ivores, and incapable of ingesting such victuals as (whispered) *vegetables.* This perception and taboo on vegetables is only furthered by recent commercials for Bush's Baked Beans and Progresso Soup.

Allow me to regale you with my grievances about these two commercials in epistolary format.


Dear Bush's Baked Beans,

Beans are legumes, not vegetables.

Sincerely, Informed Citizen

Dear Progresso Soup,

The actor that plays the father in your commercial pronounces "vegetables" in a way that makes me uncomfortable. He practiced it way too many times in front of the mirror.

Yours truly,
Uncomfortable Viewer

Dear Bush's Baked Beans,

The fact that there is twice as many grams of sugar than protein in your baked beans makes me sad.

Regards,
Disappointed Consumer

Here's the bottom line: I don't want to write these pathetic letters to these apparently uneducated companies. Reinforcing the idea that kids won't eat vegetables and thereafter replacing the fresh, whole veggies with canned beans and soup is doing nothing to help this sorry perception in our country.

source: progresso.com

So I'm asking you, informed citizen, uncomfortable viewer, and disappointed consumer, to not give in and to spread the word: "KIDS CAN LOVE VEGETABLES!"

We should all be advertising agents for Vegetables & Co., so children are not reduced to meek creatures who live on diets of "Brown Sugar Hickory" Baked Beans and "Chicken Cheese Enchilada Flavor" Soup.

More,
Gourmanda

Junk Food is Linked with Depression

http://havefunwithenglish.eklablog.com/

Hello everyone!

I read today a very interesting article on Time Magazine online about a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that shows a link between junk food and sugar consumption and depression. The findings make sense in that those who consume excess sugar and junk food are probably trying to compensate for sad feelings. I know when I'm feeling a little down, I like to eat a square of chocolate to perk up.  We should eat because we are hungry, not because we are sad. Taking a walk or run is a much more beneficial method to clear away depressing feelings, in the long term and short term. And if you choose to eat unhealthy foods while you are feeling glum, it will only perpetuate the habit and lead you to believe that junky sugary foods are associated with happiness. The bottom line is this: you are what you eat. If you eat foods that bad for you, you will experience a brief sugar high, but then return back to feeling bad. If you eat foods that are good for you, you will feel better and your body will thank you for it.

More to come!

Gourmanda