NATIONAL FOOD DAY

I am on the Advisory Board of Food Day because I think we need a national movement to begin to change how Americans eat and to alter government policies regarding food. It is insane that our country is so unhealthy and partly this is because of how we eat and part of THAT is because of the way our government gives subsidies to agribusiness that makes things like fructose, corn syrup, etc etc that allows fast foods to be so cheap—and unhealthy. For too long environmentalists, farmers, animal rights activists, health care reformers are working working in separate silos. We need to all come together to change America’s food and food policy. This includes eating fresh, wholesome, local food, treating the animals that provide us with food in ways that are healthy and kind. The animals should not be shot up with hormones. The vegetables should not be shot up with chemicals that make them last longer and look redder. I could go on—and on.

This Food Day (Oct 24th) will be an important opportunity for each of us in our own ways to join together. It’s only 4 months away.

Here is an excerpt from a letter from Dr. Michael Jacobson, head of Center for Science in the Public Interest and publisher of Nutrition Action Newsletter:

“Now’s the time to plan that event you’ve been dreaming up, or gather fresh ideas from our Guide for Coordinators. One of the best ways to support Food Day is to continue spreading the word about Food Day by communicating on Facebook, following us on Twitter, and tweeting about your events with the #FoodDay hashtag!

We’d like to invite you to our next Food Day webinar on Tuesday, June 28th, from 1:00-2:00 PM (EST). Join us for a conversation with Robert Lawrence, founding director of the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on the topic “Industrial food animal production and the high-meat American diet: health and environmental consequences.” Register today!

You can access a recording of our last webinar on junk food marketing to kids by Dr. Kelly Brownell at the following link: http://www.foodday.org/files/2011-05-26Curbing_Junk_Food_Marketing_to_Kids.wmv. Soon we will be adding several new resources to foodday.org, including a Media Guide and a Campus Guide for universities.

Check out our new events on the Food Day map! We are excited to announce that Seattle Public Schools will hold a special Menu Day in all of its schools on October 24 to celebrate Food Day. Youth L.E.A.D Miami will have a screening of the film “What’s on your Plate?” and LiveWell Colorado is organizing their network of health and food-related groups to put on an event in October. Even if you don’t know all the details for your Food Day event, you can add a placeholder and put it on the map. You can also participate by making a donation to support Food Day events.

Don’t forget to register for the webinar on Tuesday, June 28th at 1:00 PM (EST)!

Thank you,

Michael F. Jacobson & the Food Day team

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10 Comments
  1. Hello Jane,
    nice to hear about you, hope your will.
    There is a old Irish saying “You never miss the water until the well runs dry”. Food is a suject of interest, to all people, maybe all life in fact.
    Your very right “We need to all come together to change America’s food and food policy”. The new exhibit “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? The Government’s Effect on the American Diet” at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. offers an intriguing display of documents, posters, photos and other artifacts dating from the Revolutionary War to the late 1900s which serve to remind us that our government has long played a crucial role in determining how safe, nutritious and affordable our food supply is. Here is a online link to the exhibit http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/whats-cooking/ Good to see you so interested in this subject.
    with love and care,

  2. I am very guilty of poor eating habits. I KNOW what I eat is bad and I KNOW that I have the power to change it, but I don’t. Frutose and corn syrup seems to be in almost everything, especially for someone with a taste for sweetness like me. I don’t drink, smoke, or take drugs, yet I use a drug of my own, anything with sweetness, especially Pepsi and Coke. Everytime I try to quit drinking pop or stop eating unhealthy food it’s like a survival instinct kicks in . . . . What if I get a terrible headache from not drinking Pepsi? This is not the time to quit. Or what if I stop eating my junk food, yet I can’t find something to replace that need for sweetness? Will I then start eating double the junk?
    I know all of this sounds silly, that I can start eating healthy if I put my mind to it. I KNOW that, but yet I don’t. Did I mention frutose and corn syrup are found in practically everything! It is something I can’t easily avoid! I don’t cook, so I tend to just grab something that is easy, quick, and there for me already. Sigh. They should make a rehab center for folks like me. They could help me get clean from the Pepsi and sugar, plus teach me how to eat properly.
    Yes, Food Day is a great way to make people like me more aware of what this garbage is doing to our bodies.

    • There’s a chapter in my new book, “Prime Time,” that’s called “Now More Than Ever You Are What You Eat.” You will learn from this chapter, Susan, and maybe it will motivate you to find your sweetness elsewhere. xxx

      • Thank you. I will most definitely be reading that chapter and more. I think I am motivated enough to begin my journey into a new, healthier me . . . . taking baby steps. I already took the steps of exercising. My next step is to eliminate the drinking of Pepsi and Coke. Hopefully I won’t fall into a coma from doing it! 🙂 After that, I will take a look at the foods I eat. Heck, by the summer’s end I could be a whole new healthy me!

    • Susan, you are not alone or anomalous in this attachment to junk food.

      You can break these addictions very easily actually. But if there are underlying emotional issues, you have to address that separately.

      Type in “natural food store (your city or state region)”

      You can also buy many organic foods on amazon.com or from company websites.

      Buy organic versions of the foods you have the most trouble with. Eat all you want of those until you detox your body from MSG, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, etc. Then, fix up your diet by adding more raw organic foods, whole grains, and organic meat.

      The magic formula for kicking food addictions is sea salt and healthy oils. Drink half your weight in water every day and eat or drink about a teaspoon of sea salt per gallon of water. Eat coconut, flax, olive or hemp oil every day. Your body will stop screaming for sodium and fats and you will stop craving junk food.

      Do research on MSG and aspartame. They are addictive neurotoxins that destroy glutamate receptors and are the reason you feel addicted to the foods they are in-which are just about everything in the regular supermarket aisles.

  3. In my opinion, there should be a “Food Day”,everywhere in the planet!Here in Brazil, there is already a lot of movement about “how to eat well and healthy”,icluding in Public Schools,and about organic product.There is a lot of picure from brazilians in the 50\60´s, that we see, and the people from those times were not obese at all! Why? There were not those kind of “junk food” when I was a kid!Now,like in the USA, where I lived for 35 years,we too have a big problem with overwheight people,some of them children!Add to that, the health problems that come togheter with the bad habit of eating.I will post in my Facebook page, about the Food Day.Best regards from Brazil

  4. This is sooo important. I have to tell you when I’m in the US (and I really don’t want to criticize your great country) I am dilgent about reading food labels. It started when I bought yogurt years ago – low fat yet sooo creamy and I thought ‘wow, why don’t we have such high quality low fat yogurt in Europe?’ Well I checked the label and there were about 10 ingredients and about 9 I couldn’t even pronounce. Yogurt is suppposed to be just milk isn’t it?

    It’s so misleading. This past weekend in LA I bought sushi. You’d think sushi would be basically just rice and fish. Why does it need high fructose corn syrup and a host of other laboratory created additives?

    I love shopping in American supermarkets because of the vast range of products, but I’m extremely aware of what I buy there. I’m of the opinion that lots of these additives can lead to weight gain.

    Keep up the good work.
    Best
    Jason

  5. This must be addressed at the meetings for National Food Day. This is a crime against humanity.

    Organic Foods Not Allowed on WIC.

    Click on the states to view the PDF’s showing they specifically state no organic food is allowed.

    http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17931.cfm

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