Trying new shades of green, orange, yellow, red and purple

Photo credit: Claremont Farmers'  Market 2006 by libraryman.
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Yesterday,  Planet Green's food-smart contributor, Kelly Rossiter,  suggested we check out a new site to help us increase our intake of fruits and vegetables.  It's the University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center's recipe collection where you can search for recipes based on preferences and dietary restrictions.  Kelly has written an excellent description of the site so rather than paraphrase her words, I'll  encourage you to read her post. 

What I will do, though, is post about my experiences using the site's features. This morning I imagined myself using the recipe search tool in different scenarios. For example, 

1. Counseling a patient/client with active cancer who is a vegan and needs a high protein diet.  By entering the appropriate search terms (vegan, high protein), you will obtain these results:  Boiled Lentils  and Glazed Edamame Beans. OK, I admit "boiled lentils" do not sound that exciting but I really like the tip that is part of the recipe title, "add to soups and stews." As dietitians we often make suggestions on how to increase the protein-density of meals. Here is another option besides skim milk powder.

2. Responding to the comment "I'd like to eat more foods in-season, especially the dark, green leafy vegetables like kale, chard and mustard greens but I don't  know how to prepare them so they taste good."  You can either browse the index or, if there are dietary restriction, use the search tool to find recipes  (all meeting the low-fat criterion) like Spaghetti with Mustard Greens and Italian Sausage,  Southwest Swiss Chard and Bean Soup, Wilted Winter Salad,  and Vegetale Posole (with kale).

Thank you, Kelly, for pointing out this new site.  I've already found it personally and professionally useful.

Link: University of Michagan's Comprehensive Cancer Center's recipe collection.

CBC Series on Hospital Food -- Longer Post

Here are a few more details about and page links from this series I posted about earlier today:

Monday January 7 - Hospital Food - A patient's story (21:58)
Sounds Like Canada Producer Jason Proctor lays out his reasons for launching this series about hospital food. It all stems from the time when his mum was sick in hospital with cancer, and despite her greater worries about her illness, the food was one of the things she complained about the most.

Tuesday January 8 - Behind the Scenes at Two Hospital Kitchens Continuing our series about the state of hospital food in Canada - we take a backstage tour of hospital kitchens across the country - from Grand Manan to Edmonton. And depending where you are - there's a lot of variety on those food trays - from fish caught fresh off the dock to reconstituted, "re-thermalized" soup flown in from afar. We'll lift the lid and see what's for lunch - Tuesday on Sounds Like Canada.

Wednesday January 9 - Hospital Food Experts Panel
Shelagh Rogers speaks to a panel of people who've dealt with hospital food on the frontlines: Darlene Ravensdale is a dietician. Brad McKay is C.E.O. of Ottawa Hospital Food Services. And Dr. Brian Goldman is the host of White Coat Black Art here on CBC radio, and he practices emergency medicine at Mt. Sinai in Toronto. A lively discussion about the challenges of feeding healthy food to hospital patients.

Here from the web page is the state of the "manifesto behind the movement", the evolving Hospital Food Bill of Rights:

1. "... the right to tasty and nutritious food - plain and simple!"  - Judy McLaren
2. "...Our tax dollars pay for health care and I believe that we should expect "quality" service and food." -  Carole Findlay
3. "When a family is going through a crisis, good nutrition should be a  part of the healing process. " - Berni Harley
4. "Hospitals should be making good quality vegetarian meals that would offend no one's culture."
5. " The food should be fresh and colourful and make people feel better." - Cathy Flannagan
6.  "Specialised food for specialised diets should be appetizing." - Darlene Ravensdale

Well worth reading are all the listeners' comments on hospital food. Here are a few:

"...In defence of Hospital Food I have to tell you the food in our small rural hospital is wonderful. Staff and patients all eat the same thing. It is cooked from scratch by wonderful cooks and it is like eating at home. Fresh muffins in the morning-toast that isn't soggy and Cottage cheese fruit plates for the evening meal-to mention a few. However I can't tell you where we are because if our Health authority were to find out they would probably make cut backs to save money and our wonderful food would be gone. We don't want to be like the big city hospitals so I am remaining incognito."

"...I have watched the steady deterioration of hospital food. The salt-water soups, the grey meat and veg, the jello/ice cream desserts. In the hallowed name of economy, hospitals in BC are having meals made, then frozen and shipped to them from Ontario. How that can be cheaper, I do not know. My father-in-law was in hospital for months before he died. The worst 'food' he was given was soggy, cold toast in a plastic bag for breakfast - toasted in Ontario, frozen and bagged, then nuked in Victoria and served up 1/2 hour or more later. Has the world gone mad?"

"... Back in 2005 I was amazed at the food my Japanese wife was given while she was in the hospital after our son Tomo was born. The food arrived in a large machine that kept one side of each meal tray heated and the other chilled - the two sides separated by an insulated divider. Several of the meals were special "hearty" meals to help in recovery. These filled two trays. I attach a few photos - you can see the delivery machine, one of the double-tray meals, and a few details showing some of the individual dishes. Not only was the food delicious (Noriko generously let me taste), but its presentation was so appetizing."

I'm both encouraged and disheartened by this series. Encouraged that the CBC is raising public awareness and stimulating discussion about the importance of good food and nutrition in illness but very discouraged about the state of hospital food services as perceived by Canadians. Today, there are 22 comments: half are negative with valid criticism -- not just whining about not getting food preferences. I was heartened to read the positive comments, but must truthfully disclose the really good reports are about hospital experiences in other countries (Italy, Japan).

This is a very valuable series for dietitians working in hospitals. Thanks, CBC.

CBC series on hospital food -- quick post

Photo credit: Hospital dinner in Japan.
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I was browsing the CBC radio web site  yesterday evening and stumbled over Shelagh Roger's Sounds Like Canada feature on Hospital Food, which is airing this week. 

I am working today so unable to listen to this morning's segment. Fortunately, we can listen to Monday's and Tuesday's archived features, read listeners' comments about their own hospital food experiences,  as well as -- and I love this -- help build the Canadian Hospital Food Bill of Rights. It's all available on this page. I do love our "Mother Corp."

I will share more series' content and my thoughts later.

Save the CHN Petition

A few weeks ago I posted on the phasing out of the Canadian Health Network (CHN) by March 2008. You can sign a petition to save the CHN by going here: Save the CHN.

Take a moment to add a personal message. Here is mine:

As an acute care dietitian working with stroke patients as well as other chronic health conditions, I regularly use the CHN site to keep up-to-date with reliable nutrition education resources. Also, for my personal health questions, I go to the CHN before consulting other sites. Please reconsider your decision to remove funding.

You can read more about Dietitians of Canada's efforts to save the CHN by reading the January 2008 Members in Action article.

Planet Green stays on my 2008 reading list

Do you ever feel like this frog in a pond of aquatic plants,  drowning in the sea of blogs?

One of my decluttering and simplifying steps during this first week of 2008 is to discontinue all but two of my RSS subscriptions on environmental/sustainability topics. This has nothing to do with their quality, which is excellent.  Unfortunately, I just can't read fast enough to keep up with the volume of posts.  It seems pointless to keep "starring" articles I have no time to read critically or with a view to changing my behavior. I think a better strategy will be to set aside time periodically to do focused searches on Grist, Treehugger and Worldchanging.

In a recent post, I mentioned that Planet Green is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs -- a daily must-read. It's one of the two environmentally-flavoured RSS feeds I'm keeping.  Actually, calling it "green" or "environmental" is too limiting. Nearly everyday there are posts that can be tagged with "health", "food", "cooking", "nutrition", and most of all, "practical."

Here are a few of today's posts -- I've selected the ones I think would interest other dietitians:

• Soup of the Week
• Follow the 3-Month Rule for Fruits & Vegetables
• Cook with Foods that Fight Cancer

I'm particularly looking forward to Kelly Rossiter's series of posts on this third topic. She writes:

We are constantly inundated with studies and information regarding food that is potentially cancer causing, as well as foods that we should avoid eating to reduce the likelihood of the disease. When studies conflict, it becomes difficult to know what to believe. Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras are taking the opposite tack and are writing about foods that we should be including regularly in our diet. ....Beliveau is a professor of biochemistry and the chair in the prevention and treatment of cancer at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Gingras is a researcher in the Molecular Medicine Laboratory of UQAM-Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal. Together, they have come up with a common-sense book which carefully outlines the properties of these foods and why they are so efficacious.