Elizabeth Yarnell, Author, Innovator, Naturopath, Speaker
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Farmer In Chief

What do the health care crisis, energy independence, and climate change have in common?

Believe it or not, these things are all related to the food policies of our government.

Michael Pollan, one of my favorite writers about food, where it comes from, and the systems that produce it, published an excellent open letter about food policies in the New York Times to the next president, whoever that may be.

Pollan thinks that the era of cheap and abundant food is about to end, and we need to think wisely about how we step forward to feed our country. Whatever your politics, this affects us all. As Pollan points out, “in the past several months more than 30 nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen.” We need to act effectively to make sure we don’t follow down the same path.

Spaghetti Squash

Last week I introduced my kids to spaghetti squash. They were happily eating away when I crowed about them eating “squash.” The mistake I made was in calling it “squash”. I should have just called it “noodles,” which I tried to do to salvage the meal, but it was too late.

Spaghetti Squash
Spaghetti Squash

I love spaghetti squash. One summer I grew it in the garden and we ate spaghetti squash weekly until January. That might have been a little much spaghetti squash, even for me.

I took a class on squash once and learned that you can pretty much cook squash any way you want: boiling, baking, roasting, microwave, slow cooker, etc. My preferred way to cook spaghetti squash is to wash it off, set it on a baking sheet, stab it with a knife a few times on the top (so the steam can escape the cavity), and leave it in the oven until it’s soft and an inserted knife doesn’t encounter any resistance. I’ll often bake it at 400F, but it doesn’t matter what temp you use; the hotter the oven, the faster it will cook, of course.

Once it’s soft, remove it from the oven, let it cook for maybe 20 minutes, until you can handle it, and slice it lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard. Then, take a fork and gently work it through the strands like a comb, until you have lots of “noodles.”

At this point, I usually put a pile of squash on a plate and top it with marinara sauce and veggies for a quick and easy meal.

If you’re trying to avoid simple carbs, like pasta, spaghetti squash is a great substitute. Filling, yet completely digestable as a whole food, we like to have it as a main course.

I had some left over last week, so I added it to homemade chicken soup and used it as soup noodles. This got a mixed review from the kids: my daughter loved it and my son refused to touch it.

Win some, lose some. As usual, I’ll keep presenting the new food until it becomes familiar and accepted. In the meantime, I’ve still got some extra squash left over. I’m thinking about adding it to a quiche of rainbow chard and mushrooms… I’ll keep you updated.

Flu shots for kids?

Vaccinating young children against the flu appeared to have no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons, a new study shows.

That’s not to mention that flu shots are the last early childhood vaccines to continue to contain the preservative thimerosal, a form of mercury. It seems that the vaccine doesn’t have to contain thimerosal, but the manufacturer uses it so that they can package the vaccine in multiple doses. (It seems you can make a special request of your doctor for the single-use, thimerosal-free vaccine.)

Beyond the mercury issue, should we be injecting our children with dead viral strains that have been grown on raw eggs when the efficacy rate of protecting them from getting the flu is somewhere between 7% and 52%? Those don’t seem like very good rates to me.

The natural health community believes that bodies in balance do not offer an appropriate breeding ground for viral infections like the flu. Rather than vaccinating, they would rather see everyone eat healthily, digest cleanly, assimilate fully, and eliminate regularly. While practicing good hand washing and other other hygene habits. Here are 7 tips for staying healthy this flu season.

I mentioned last month that I hadn’t made up my mind about getting my family flu shots this season as we have for the last 5 or 6 years. This morning my sister called from her pediatrician’s office, wondering if she should get the flu shot for her 1-year old daughter. Her husband, who completed his medical studies both here and in Russia (where alternative health practices are more accepted by allopathic doctors), advised against it. He pointed out that he wasn’t vaccinated against the flu as a child in Russia, and neither was my sister as a child growing up in the US. He wasn’t convinced that the vaccine was effective, and why put a foreign substance in your body if it didn’t make any difference as to whether or not you caught the flu?

My medically-trained brother-in-law and I often see eye-to-eye on health matters and value each other’s opinion and advice.

At this point, I have no plans to vaccinate my children against the flu this year. I know I will receive the most parental pressure to get myself the vaccine, since a case of the flu, or any viral infection, can trigger a multiple sclerosis exacerbation. Still, I think I’m going to pass on the flu shot this year for myself, too.

School Lunch Menus: The Coming Revolution

US Agriculture uses 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides annually. That’s about a 5-lb. bag of pesticide that we each — including children — ingest and consume every year. Isn’t that scary? It’s approved by the USDA.

This is just one of the things I learned from this fascinating video of Ann Cooper, the head of nutrition for Berkeley schools in California.  Here is a woman who cares passionately  about the health and future of our kids.

As she points out, our kids are the first generation who are predicted to live shorter life spans than their parents due to the toxicity of the foods they eat. The foods we serve them, at home and at school.

If this isn’t a wake-up call to what is really being served in our schools, then I’m not sure what is.

Watch Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady, talk about the coming revolution in the way kids eat at school — local, sustainable, seasonal and even educational food.

Toxic Chemicals in Cosmetics – Denver, October 5, 2008

The Environmental Working Group, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Women’s Lobby of Colorado are proud to host a book reading and panel discussion on toxic chemicals in cosmetics, and what low dose exposures to chemicals means for Americans.

The FREE event will take place at Craig Hall at the University of Denver on October 8th at 6:30pm. It will feature Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, Joshua Onysko, CEO of Pangea Organics, and Sonya Lunder, Senior Analyst at Environmental Working Group, who will give the exciting presentation “10 Americans,” the story of the 287 chemicals they found in the blood of 10 special people.

Light refreshments will be served, and Colorado companies that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics will be on hand with product samples.

RSVP to reserve your spot!

Directions to Craig Hall, Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver.

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