FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
NEW VITAL NUTRITION PROGRAM Food For Thought, an HIV and AIDS-focused food bank for the past 26 years, has expanded its services to help people in the community who are critically ill and at risk of malnutrition. Many of them have no one to help care for them, and many are as sick as people living with HIV were in the 1980s. “We just signed up our first client,” said Karen Gardner, FFT development director. “There are so many people in our community who are suffering from a variety of illnesses who aren’t getting enough to eat, and we have the capacity to do more. It’s a huge need. We provide comprehensive nutrition services including weekly groceries, prepared meals, vitamins and supplements, and a lunch program where people can come in and get a hot lunch. We also offer cooking classes and nutritional counseling.” “We saw our neighbors who are sick and not getting enough to eat in our community, so we are going to be working with a couple of medical institutions, including West County Health Centers and Santa Rosa Community Health Center, for referrals,” she said. This year’s pilot program will serve 50 new clients. People are also invited to contact Food For Thought directly. fftfoodbank. org, 707-887-1647. –PMR
14
sonomadiscoveries.com
Teen volunteers learn about good nutrition and cooking while volunteering at Ceres Community Project.
the movement towards eating fresh, local foods. It supports healthy food choices, by supplying the body with seasonally appropriate nutrition. Daly and his fellow practitioner Laurie Martin also provide acupuncture, herbs, massage and other treatments at their clinic. But he said he offers nutritional aspects to almost all of his clients. “They all like to talk about it, but most don’t implement changes,” he said, with a laugh. Those most likely to act are the clients who are very fit or very motivated. “I work often with clients dealing with infertility. They will do anything I tell them.” Daly said his clients tend to like the latest research. While he is referencing nutritional knowledge centuries old, “they want to talk about whatever Dr. Oz is peddling.” No matter what, though, for him, food matters. “Medicine we take every once in a while. Food we take every day. We have the opportunity three times a day to help or harm our health. That’s the definition of medicine.”
What’s on your plate? A plant-based diet is shown to be the best prevention for cancer. That’s according to Kaiser Permanente oncology nutritionist Christina Fifer. That doesn’t mean plants only; a minimal amount of animal products can fit into the picture. Fifer recommends looking at your dinner plate. Half of the plate should consist of
non-starchy vegetables. One-quarter should be filled with 100 percent whole grains (quinoa, brown rice). And the remaining quarter should have lean protein, either plant or animal. A plant protein would be beans or lentils, for instance. Fifer said the most important thing to focus on is eating whole foods in their natural state, foods that have only one ingredient—like carrots or grapes or broccoli. Think of food “as it comes out of the earth,” she said. Then add herbs and spices to make the food taste good. “But you’re not eating a box of Rice-a-Roni.” What are the biggest barriers people face when moving towards healthy eating? “Knowledge and time management,” Fifer said. “You may know what to do, but don’t get to the grocery store, or allow time to prepare. You don’t have the time management to put it into place.” She recommends improving one step at a time, looking at one area of your diet that could be changed. “People tend to give up before they start, or start out strong and burn out,” Fifer said. “It’s better to just keep building. We have habits that go back many years, and those aren’t easy to flip over and change.” To find out more about nutrition’s role in fighting cancer, attend one of Fifer’s free classes offered at Kaiser in Santa Rosa, “Food Is Medicine,” available to the general public. The next two classes will be held on Saturday, Sept. 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30