Food Deserts, and the documentary “Unnatural Causes…is inequality making us sick?”

An unfortunate cycle: some people get to live in neighborhoods with health food stores, Whole Foods, Trader Joes. People living in lower income neighborhoods might live in neighborhoods where there are no supermarkets at all, only fast food restaurants and liquor stores…increasing the likelihood of poor nutrition and diets, hypertension, diabetes, which may negatively affect educational and job performance and prospects, social mobility, etc. The concept is called Food Deserts:

Residents do without in America’s ‘food deserts’

Wikipedia: Food Deserts

Bread & booze; For too many Chicagoans the nearest grocer is a liquor store

What are any solutions? Changing zoning laws, tax incentives for grocery stores to move in to lower income areas, better public transportation? Reinstatement of home economic classes to teach about nutrition, higher sin taxes on fast food and liquor?

Also see the documentary as aired on PBS: Unnatural Causes …is inequality making us sick?

Probably a good thing I didn’t eat at Primanti Brothers today

Yeah man, the sandwich with the fries and coleslaw inside!  Like after the doctor tells you your blood pressure is kinda high, this is the last place you want to go.  Also if this is your girlfriend’s idea of a great date, she can probably hold her own against a defensive line.  Anyway I found out its around 1500 calories – but I guess a Whopper and fries is about that.  Everything in moderation……….

Oust the Smell of Life–Home Air Fresheners as the Agent Orange in the Chemical Industries’ War on Family Households and Human Life

New Oust TV ad: a woman cooking onions in a frying pan…complaining about the smell of cooking!!! And talking about the benefits of covering up cooking smells with chemical-laden Oust! She said something like, “The last thing I want is for someone to come over to my house and the first thing they smell is the smell of cooking.” Someone on Madison Street needs a good talking to…what is this world coming to? “Are you alive? We can solve that problem for you. Do you keep inhaling that nasty stuff called “air?” We have a pill to solve that problem for you…” This kind of life-hating chemical scent crap, Febreeze, Glade plug ins, all of that, has to end. It probably contributes to the rising rates of autism and breast cancer, I wouldn’t be surprised.

See also:

Stricter regulation of air fresheners urged

and

Toxic Cleaning Products, Environmental Pollution, and Negative Externalities

I mean, in many other cultures, the smell of cooking food in one’s household is seen as a good, cozy, homey thing–like, ah, someone’s cooking something nice. It should conjure good images of health and family. Madison avenue basically is declaring a war on human-ness, culture, and family bonds here. Oust and these other home fragrance products like Glade etc. are basically the Agent Orange in the chemical industries’ war on the American household and human life.

Hyperactivity and Food Additives: Let’s Have Some Natural Food Finally!

Um, basically natural food enthusiasts have been talking about potential dangers of food additives for years. Now studies are finding that indeed, food additives seem to cause hyperactivity (who knows what else). I hope this leads to more market share for Whole Foods and Trader Joes and leads to wider adoption of natural foods. Maybe we can cut out the additives and prevent the need for kids to engorge themselves on ritalin and prozac and numerous other drugs that have harmful side effects and possibly have unknown effects on kids’ neurological development. I mean, these drugs in kids are already linked to higher suicide rates. (See NIMH: Antidepressant Medications for Children and Adolescents: Information for Parents and Caregiver and NY Times: Panel to Debate Antidepressant Warnings) Let’s cut the nuclear power too! Our bodies are our temples, and our planet is our large, shared temple–why pollute them with crazy additives and nuclear power that have negative effects on our minds and physical health?

Hyper Kids? Cut Out Preservatives

Some Food Additives Raise Hyperactivity, Study Finds

WARNING: DO NOT feed babies and little kids a vegan diet though, this is insufficient and can lead to serious malnutrition and death!!! (See NY Times: Death by Veganism)

Photo by Olaf

Sada Punjab TV, Radio and Sikh TV

mp3: A kirtan on Sada Punjab/ Sikh TV (Can you tell me who the performers are?)

Today on a local public access show I got a chance to see a show called Sada Punjab–it was a totally great set of Indian music (I assume it was Indian, although Punjab culture is also shared by Pakistanis?) with dancing and videos. You may have seen this type of Bollywood-style video before–big groups of people dancing and singing, with neat percussion, violin-sounding string instruments, and that neat string instrument you may have heard in that Panjabi MC “Beware of the Boys (Knight Rider theme) song featuring Jay-Z a few years back. I know virtually nothing about Punjab
culture but this excellent music has me definitely intrigued.

Then the program switched to Sikh TV Chicago featuring a long, beautiful performance by three men, one on some sort of hand-drums and two others on these little organs–and singing songs with the most beautiful harmonies together. The chorus to one of the songs was “Pootan Mata Ki Aasees” which was translated as “O son, this is your mother’s blessing to you.” I’d like to track down the performers’ identities as the performance was awesome. The drums, those little organs, the signing, everything was great. Not to culturally mix and match but some of the harmonies reminded me of some Magic Hour/Major Stars, Brian Eno, what the Beatles sometimes tried to do and also some modern-retro indie folk rocksters. I really would like to hear some more music like this. Then another video was also great and had some lyrics reading “Miley Naam Har Nimka,” with no English translation. Both shows were produced by Indermohan Singh. I’d like to see/hear more and learn more about the culture and the music. What are the different types of stringed instruments, some of which sound like violins and some which sound sort of like Japanese shamisens? What are those little organs that sound so good?

Here’s a link to a punjab web radio feed from the Sada Punjab website:

http://www.sadapunjab.com/radio/dilapnapunjabi.php

I am hungry

 

As I get older, I seem to be more and more obsessed with food.  Luckily, there are many bloggers out there that share my obsession, and The Amateur Gourmet is one of the best.  Check out his Pizza Box Food Blogging!