Pleasantly surprised.

[rivka]

"March is National Nutrition Month!!" said the announcement. It went on to explain that the hospital dieticians would have informational displays outside the cafeteria every Thursday in March. Boy, was I ever thrilled to look forward to a month of "you should be ashamed of how much junk you eat, you big fatty!" at lunchtime every week.

I am delighted to report that my fears were completely unjustified... at least, so far.

The first week, the focus was on eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. They set up a tasting table with samples of unusual fruits: I tried cherimoya, uglifruit, starfruit, and blood orange. They raffled off fruit baskets and tubs of fruit salad. They had brochures with recommendations on how to fit more servings of fruit and vegetables into your diet, and booklets of vegetable recipes.

A side table offered cups and pens that said "100% fad free," and brochures explaining that popular diets typically aren't based on scientific research and are often lacking in nutrients.

I missed the second week, which was on protein foods. Today they were focused on grains. They had a lovely display of about twenty different kinds of grains, in glass jars. There was a whole-grain bread tasting table, with your choice of butter or olive oil. A guy from a local organic bakery was there giving away unbelievably delicious rolls - made, he told me, with six different whole grains, plus flax seeds. They handed out recipes for kasha, bulghur, and other uncommon grains. I also noticed a number of brochures about gluten-free cooking.

Both times, I made sure to let the dieticians know that I appreciated the positive focus on tasty, enjoyable foods, instead of a shame-and-restriction focus on "bad" foods. Because really, in a culture where most people only ever use the word "sinful" to describe desserts, this is not what I expected.

Comments

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

My university has hosted a weekly farmer's market on Fridays at lunch time from April-September every year, with a weekly raffle for attending, and generally live music. This year they're also promoting CSAs that will drop off at a central, car-accessible place at work once a week. The message is very much "Eat Yummy Fresh Vegetables!" as opposed to "Stop Eating That Crap!" (Since they have a McDonald's in the hospital, they can hardly claim the moral high ground on the latter.) I'm glad they're promoting local farmers, many organic, too.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Now, that's fantastic.

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

Was it Atwater's bakery? Their breads are delicious!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It was Stone Mill. You know, they may not actually be organic - I might have just come away with that impression because the guy was handing out a brochure about sustainable agriculture.

[toadnae.livejournal.com]

Ooooh I am SO jealous about the cherimoya. I fell in love with them when I was in Ecuador, and I can't seem to find them here in the frozen north. Chermioyas make the world's best ice cream.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I've had cherimoya here in Boston, sometimes in late summer. Sometimes they're extraordinary, sometimes not particularly good.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful!

Whenever I'm reminded of bulghur, I get nostalgic pangs for kibbeh. It's one of the few things that I miss since becoming vegetarian where I haven't found something else that fits the psychological niche. (Felafel *almost* does, but since I ate felafel long before I gave up kibbeh, it's hard to shunt over to that space.)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

What's kibbeh? Or is it too painful to talk about? ;-)

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

It's ground meat and bulgur wheat rolled into a football-like shape and fried. There are slightly more complex variants, but that's usually how I made it. The best explanation would be, "Like felafel for carnivores." :)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Soy mince and bulgar wheat rolled into a football-like shape and fried? Seems like it would work.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I suppose you could try it, but it doesn't strike me as something that would have the same feel to it. (Plus, I don't really need any more soy in my diet. I strongly suspect that my digestive tract is becoming slightly unhappy with the level of soy it gets.)

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

That's really wonderful.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I get my whole grains here (http://www.bobsredmill.com/). This is the limit of my "cooking" these days -- rehydrating whole grains in canned low-sodium, low-fat broth.

[redbird]

Excellent news. I particularly like "100% fad free" though the chance to try fine new fruits is also excellent.

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

There was a healthy beverage display at my work and they had the 100% fad free pens. I took one because SO FUNNY! Then I won the raffle they had so now I have a strainer, hot pad, measuring cup, timer, measuring spoon and a peeler all of which say 100% fad free! Hee! Plus a coffee cup with the new food pyramid on it, which is less funny.