Home Cooking Cited as Cause of Diabetes

Many of you may know that I do food demonstrations for the Fairfax food bank as part of my internship. One of the main reasons that I do this is that I think it changes the atmosphere of the food bank. For some people, the need to ask for help at a food bank brings with it a sense of shame. American society teaches us that asking for help means that we're somehow not good enough. We're expected to be able to take care of ourselves. Sometimes, this idea is enough to keep people away who are in real need.

By having food demonstrations, going to the food bank becomes more like a trip to Trader Joe's or Costco. It adds an element of fun and people really look forward to seeing what's cooking each week. There are practical reasons as well. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to do with the food that comes every week. I try to cook foods that people wouldn't necessarily think of making, like latkes or roasted cabbage with cream sauce. It's important that people actually use the food that they get or there's no point, and if people are able to create something delicious, I think it also helps with self esteem. People get a real sense of accomplishment when they are successful with a new recipe and that feeling can extend to other areas of their lives.

Sometimes, we get a ton of one thing, say cauliflower, and so I cook something using that ingredient to sort of push the item. People are more likely to take food items if they have an idea of what they can do with them.

The reason I'm telling you all of this is because I had a meeting today in which I was told that I should no longer use sugar in my cooking because of the high rate of diabetes in Fairfax. To give you perspective, the typical amount of sugar in one of my dishes would be something along the lines of 1 tablespoon of sugar to 2 heads of broccoli, 5 carrots and an onion. Ratios like this are not going to cause diabetes in anyone anytime soon. Sugar is an important part of cooking. It's important to have a balance of flavors in dishes in order to make them taste good. If people have the tools to make nutritious food that also tastes good, they will be less likely to eat fast food or processed foods, which are the actual cause of diabetes.

I don't understand this reactionary stance that people take when they think something is a problem. Are a few men drinking away their family's savings? Prohibition is the answer! Unemployment on the rise? Then legislation making illegal to help undocumented people what you need! Diabetes becoming a problem? Make nutritious home-cooked food not taste as good, increasing the allure of foods that are the actual problem.

Does this kind of thinking actually ever solve anything? Maybe we need to go back to electroshock therapy and lobotomies to help people with mental problems.

Why is it always the people with the loudest voices that have the power? Why are we so afraid of logic and reason? Perhaps I have become a victim of the fallout surrounding Paula Dean and her announcement that she has diabetes.

This world is just way too confusing sometimes. We focus so much on petty little things, like our disagreements over whether or not same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, or that 1 tablespoon of sugar in an entire pot of food that we forget that every 4 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from poverty. There are wars, murder & rape happening all over the world every day, and the number of people that don't have clean water to drink is mind boggling. Did you know that we as a human race are on schedule to have a severe water shortage in about 50 years?

Wake up, people! There are real problems in the world, and the more we focus on little inconsequential issues, the less effective we are at following Jesus Christ's instructions to heal the sick and feed the hungry. I don't see God acting in these kinds of behaviors, and yet I am forced to deal with them because my voice is too small.

I've decided to start blogging again to be a small voice of reason amidst the cacophony of noise out there in the world, so expect to see one of these about every week or so. It may not make much of a difference, but I think I have a responsibility to try.

In the meantime, I'm going to the store to buy some stevia.

Life in Marin (Title Stolen from Mike)

I finally decided to go out mushroom hunting again. Since this is only my second year trying this, I'm not sure what's normal, but it doesn't seem like there's as many mushrooms in general this year as there were last year. Still, I took some pictures of my walk so all you folks out there can get a feel of what it's like here if you've never visited.

I can always count on these Black Elfin Saddle mushrooms to grow around campus.

Here's some Chanterelles of the FALSE variety. It's so disappointing when you find these cuz when you first spot them, you get excited thinking you've found a bunch of huge yellow Chanterelles. Unfortunately, these False Chanterelles are poisonous. I checked my usual spot for the real ones, but there weren't any there. I wonder if someone else knows about that spot...

SFTS is beautiful. 'Nuff said.

Marin is kind of a quirky place. Take, for example, this UFO parked in front of this person's house.

This is a picture from inside their courtyard. I'm assuming the person that lives here is some kind of artist.

Witch's Butter. Pretty gross looking, isn't it?

I almost walked right by this cup type mushroom. It blended right in with the dead leaves.

A bunch of cool-looking red mushrooms growing around the graduation field.

And, of course, the Stinkhorn Lattices are back.

My loot for the day. Pretty sad, but at least it was something.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 10 (Thwarted at Trader Joe's)

My roommate and I spent a pretty hectic day cleaning and getting everything organized one I was able to figure out that the extra stuff in my room didn't belong to him. Apparently, his last roommate left a lot of stuff behind all over the apartment that I guess we are the proud new owners of. The apartment is actually quite lovely now. While I was going through all of my things, I came across a Visa gift card that some of my co-workers had given me as a going away present and I decided I would splurge on some bottles of wine since I had left all of my wine at home. I didn't want to bring it and risk having to keep it in my car where it might have gotten too hot.

So, Amber came by again, my unofficial guide to Marin County, so we could do some shopping and then catch a movie. We got to Trader Joe's, one of my most favorite places to shop, and we went through the wine section and I was trying to teach Amber about wines. It looked like they were out of that happy face wine, so I went to one of the cashiers and asked if they were out. He called over the manager and he said that they were out of it. I thanked him and kept shopping. We got to the register and the cashier, the same guy I had asked about the happy face wine, asked to see my ID. I was kind of surprised because I'm not usually carded. Then he asked to see Amber's. Amber is about 2 weeks away from being 21. I tried to explain that Amber had nothing to do with the wine; she doesn't even like wine and I was buying it for myself. He said that since he had seen her handling the bottles, he could not sell us the wine unless she was 21 as well. He called over the manager, the same manager I had asked about the happy face wine, and he said that they could not sell us the wine because I could be buying the wine for Amber. He told me that they had to go to meeting about it and that the term for it was "tag-along sale" as if telling me the term legitimized the ridiculousness of the situation somehow. As if I would EVER buy alcohol for a minor!!! I remember one time, some guys came up to my little brother Brian and asked if I would buy some for them, and he told them to not bother asking!

I had picked up some milk, lettuce and laundry detergent as well, but I just left everything there and walked out of the store cuz I was so pissed. Amber kept apologizing, as if it were her fault; I had to keep telling her not to worry about it. This is like the time I couldn't buy alcohol because my driver's license expired, as if my birth-date were suddenly invalid. The stupid thing is that I'm just going to go back tomorrow to buy all of it, so all they accomplished was wasting my time. I think the thing that pisses me off the most is how much I actually love Trader Joe's. If it was a different organization, I would just boycott it for the rest of my life, like Blue Cross or Citibank.

oh well...