Corona-Conscious Eating

Sea Bass, salad, and soup

You’ve been ordered to shelter in place.  But for how long?  Days?  Weeks?  Months? 

So you’ve followed the herd, bum-rushed the grocery story, gobbled up all the toilet paper, food and snacks that you could get your hands on in preparation for the long haul.  My guess is, you didn’t have time to thoughtfully plan out your meals, right?  Not that the other shoppers in the store left you many options.

The memes and jokes all over social media show American’s concerns with being sedentary for the immediate future, over-eating and mindless munching to help pass the time of day.  So we’re going to offer some tips on how to survive the COVID19 shelter in place dilemma and come out on the other side healthy, happy, and ready to resume your normal life when things finally get back to normal.

On this episode, it’s all about making food choices that are good for you.

My guest today is Sophie Egan,  the Director of Health and Sustainability Leadership for the Strategic Initiatives Group at the Culinary Institute of America…  And author of the book How to be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the Planet.

We had a great conversation on making healthy and conscious choices for building a proper pantry, choosing good processed foods and healthy proteins. We also talk about how our food choices impact the planet and other people around the globe. Take a listen to the conversation by hitting the “play” button on the audio player.

How To Be A Conscious Eater is a great resource for living a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.  It cuts through the noise and conflicting information and offers an easy to remember, holistic guide for making smart decisions about food consumption.    No diets, no fads, or hard-fast rules.  Just a straightforward way of eating for you, and good for others and the planet. 

As Sophie reminds us in How To Be A Conscious Eater, keep your eyes on the prize: your general health.  Rather than fixating on specific nutrients or trying out strict diets over the short term, the best bet for a lifetime of healthy eating is to enjoy the flavorful and diverse options included in a dietary pattern with lots of evidence behind its long-term health benefits, such as flexitarian eating.  Remember as a rule of thumb, most of the healthiest foods don’t have food labels.  Keeps this in mind during your next run on the grocery store to stock up on COVID19 survival supplies.

To view Sophie Egan’s town hall presentation, see the YouTube video here.

Change Your Diet, Save The World

By Unknown – This image was released by the National Cancer Institute, an agency part of the National Institutes of Health, with the ID 2413

Are you a resister? The kind of person that is resistant to change but you actually want to change that behavior? Well you are in the right place. This season of the Life in HD podcast is devoted to change both big and small.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series on reducing meat consumption for a healthier lifestyle and healthier planet. That’s right, by simply reducing the demand for red meat, you can improve your health outcomes and limit the environmental impact that the meat industry has on our planet.

If you’ve ever considered moving to a more plant-based diet, now would be a good time to make that change. To help us think through it, I chat with Ruth Sullivan a registered dietitian at Syracuse University. She helps us understand the health benefits of a plant-based diet and guides us on the best way to get started if it’s the change we want to make. Then I check in with Karen DeVose, a busy higher education professional on her recent decision to live a meat-less lifestyle. It’s an informative discussion. Just push play on the audio player and absorb the info.

Music in this episode is Ultraviolet by A.A. Aalto under creative commons attribution license.