There are well over 10,000 chemical additives–flavorings, colorings, preservatives–that the federal government permits for use in food products sold in the US. While a few occasionally grab headlines–think monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrite, high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame–the vast majority garner very little public attention.
After decades on the margins of both polite society and medical research, psychotropic compounds such as psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and the like, are once again the focus of serious clinical investigation as potential therapies for a host of psychological and neurological conditions. In his newest book, How to Change Your Mind, popular author explores the resurgence of psychedelic medicine without bias, agenda, or pretense.
Call it what you will, tissue cultured meat is closer to market than it has ever been, and may very well find its way to the nation’s dinner plates by year-end. A look at the pros and cons of this fascinating–and freaky–new method of food production.
The connection between food choices and wellness goes back at least as far as ancient Greece. Yet it’s taken two millennia for Western medical schools to make food part of medical training. Innovative medical schools around the country are beginning to introduce Culinary Medicine into their curricula.
Philippe and Ethné de Vienne an explorer by nature. He and his wife Ethné travel the world, sourcing organic spices and herbs where they’re grown. That’s their job as the owners of the Montreal-based spice company, Épices de Cru. But five years ago, when Philippe was suddenly diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, their search took a very different turn–one that led to important discoveries about how to use foods and spices to alter the course of serious autoimmune diseases.
With a restaurant and catering company called Sioux Chef, an Oglala Lakota chef named Sean Sherman is helping Native American communities–and many other non-Natives–to discover the original indigenous foods of North America. Many native foods–things like cattail shoots, prairie turnips, choke cherries, prickly pears, rabbit and bison–are extremely healthy.
“Eat more fresh produce.” It’s an easy bit of medical advice to give. Yet it’s advice millions of Americans aren’t able to follow, even if they want to. A non-profit group called Wholesome Wave is working to make it a little bit easier for both practitioners and patients, by creating a system that allows doctors to literally prescribe produce for patients and their families in underserved communities.
Sweet potatoes, peanuts, black-eyed peas, lima beans, collard and mustard greens, sorghum, millet…. these and so many other healthy foods originated in Africa and the African diaspora. Reconnecting with these foods offers the opportunity to make Black History Month a celebration of wellness as well as a celebration of culture.
Mention okra to someone you generally get one of two reactions – a passionate declaration of undying love, or a repulsed face followed by a dismissive reference to its sliminess. Strong reactions aside, there’s no denying that okra is a very healthy vegetable with some interesting medicinal properties.
When the Oxford English Dictionary released a list of contenders for its prestigious 2013 Word of the Year award, among the runners-up was the word “schmeat.” Defined as, “a form of meat produced synthetically from biological tissue” schmeat ultimately lost out to the far more ubiquitous “selfie.”
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