Tracey Miller

Please join me for a Raw Food Retreat on June 1

Tracey — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:42:34 +0000

I am not a raw foodist, but I am a true believer in the power of raw foods. I ate only raw foods last summer for 30 days and felt amazing, light and strong. I’m inviting my friend Lisa Wilson, founder and director of the Raw Food Institute at the National Integrated Health Associates in Washing, DC to teach a one-day class on raw foods to go into detail on the power of raw foods.

Why raw foods?

To maintain optimal health, it is absolutely necessary to bring in a flood of nutrients into the body. Excellent results can be achieved with enzyme therapy, or RAW FOODS. We can tap into the wonders of the body, and it’s natural ability to heal itself. This is achieved with fresh raw green juices, raw foods, and medicinal foods.

This one-day retreat will feature Lisa Wilson, Director and Founder of the Raw Food Institute and will cover the following:

green juice therapy
digestive wellness
dehydration
recreational raw
levels of raw
equipment & pantry
emotional detox & goal setting
sprouting 101 & 102

Click here for a video from Lisa on the event. Lisa is a national speaker, writer, consultant, certified health, nutrition and wellness counselor, fitness trainer, and mom to 3 kids, Lisa is in love with her job because she guides people to a state of abundant health… with food! Lisa is a highly sought after speaker. She keynotes at events, seminars, retreats, corporations, universities, women’s groups and schools. Join us!

Friday, June 1, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm
Fee: $125. (Includes lunch)

8 Wendell Drive, Brentwood, NH

The Raw Food Institute, http://therawfoodinstitute.com/, is a national detoxification center that uses advanced techniques with food as medicine to take health to the highest levels. Please email me at tracey@traceymillerwellness.com to register for this event. Or call me at 603-380-1080. Space is limited.

Making Supper Safe May 21

Tracey — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:33:47 +0000

“Food recalls have become so ubiquitous we hardly even notice them. The massive peanut salmonella contamination of 2008–2009 alone killed nine and sickened an estimated 22,500 people; only a few weeks later, contaminated frozen cookie dough sent 35 people to the hospital. These tragic, inexcusable events to which no one is immune are but a symptom of a broader food system malaise.” – Making Supper Safe: One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety.

Is the food you’re eating and feeding your family safe?

Come find out by joining farmer and author Ben Hewitt as he presents a realistic look at the multifaceted United States food industry exploring both the vulnerabilities of industrialized large-scale food processing and the possibilities of regionalized food systems on May 21^st at the Food and Health Forum dinner seminar series at the Blue Moon Evolution.

From dumpster diving, to the battle over food rights, to genetically engineered salmon and the interplay between humans and the bacteria they consume, Ben covers it all in Making Supper Safe: One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety.

Ben is the also author of The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food that tells of the story of a rural, working-class Vermont community that is attempting to blueprint and implement a localized food system. This blueprint is being recognized across the country as successful model of food production.

The evening includes a three-course locally-sourced dinner, a glass of wine and an opportunity for participants to engage in conversation on how to strengthen our local food system and create a healthier community. The seminar goes from 6:30 – 9:00 pm. The cost for the dinner and seminar is $70. For information or to register go to www.foodandhealthforum.com or register at the Blue Moon Evolution located at 8 Clifford Street, Exeter, New Hampshire. For more information call 603-380-1080. Special rates are offered for farmers ($35) and non-profits ($55).

Sign up with the Food and Health Forum on Facebook to download a free spring cookbook and be entered to win a free ticket to the event! Click here!

And be sure to check out Ben Hewitt’s website to learn more about him!

Spring Cookbook

Tracey — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:13:37 +0000

I’m excited to share with you a free Food and Health Forum Spring Cookbook featuring recipes from me, Kath Gallant, owner of Blue Moon and also Phil Philbrick, owner of Philbrick’s Fresh market.

You can download the book from our web site: www.foodandhealthforum.com or like us on facebook and you’ll also be entered into a contest to win a free dinner with our Food for Thought speaker, Ben Hewitt, on May 21. Here are some of the recipes:

Fiddleheads with Bacon & Chevre Cheese Quinoa

Asparagus & Heirloom Tomatoes

Sweet & Tangy Asparagus

Spring Pesto

Enjoy! Check out our web site at www.foodandhealthforum.com

Super Nourishing Greens Cooking Class on May 7

Tracey — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:15:05 +0000

Stout Oak Farm arugula

Spring is here and my mouth is watering for asparagus and leafy greens. I picked up a pound of fresh spinach yesterday from Audrey at Pick Pocket Farm. It was sweet and crunchy and had so much flavor! It became dinner as we topped it with bacon, hard boiled eggs, onion, tomato and avocado. The perfect meal.

I’m excited to be teaching my Super Nourishing Spring Greens class with Kath Gallant, owner of the Blue Moon Evolution and my partner in the Food and Health Forum. Kath will be sharing some of her favorite greens foods like her green smoothie, kale salads and more. We will taste the full range of spring greens and give you some recipes that will build up your arsenal of tasty and “cleansing” foods that help sweep out the cob webs and make you feel great.

Here’s the description for the class. You can register online at by clicking here.

Leafy greens such as kale, chard, dandelion greens, and arugula are some of the first things the harvest brings. These bitter greens help cleanse and detoxify the body after a long winter of heavy foods. In this 2-hour cooking class you will learn some simple ways to saute, steam, and “saladify” these super nourishing greens to bring out their sweet flavors and healing properties and enjoy a light dinner at the Blue Moon Evolution.

Location: Blue Moon Evolution, 8 Clifford Street, Exeter, New Hampshire
Price: $40 per person includes a light dinner.

Click here to register.

What’s the Story Behind Your Food?

Tracey — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:30:10 +0000

Amy Cotler spoke at our Food for Thought dinner seminar this past Monday and encouraged us to connect with the story of our food. “Food has a soul,” she said. “Get to know your farmers and consider the cost, convenience and seasonality of everything you buy.”

She encouraged us all to become ambassadors for local food and not be afraid to ask questions and find out the story behind the food we eat.

It’s exciting to hear from someone like Amy who doesn’t surrender to the status quo and just forges ahead to make changes in her community and schools. She said the produce managers at her local grocers know her by name and now sell local greens upon her request. She works with schools in Massachusetts and believes, “food and education are a gorgeous partnership and when kids understand that, they eat healthy food,” she said. There are so many opportunities to teach kids about food.

Amy Cotler at Blue Moon Evolution

Here are some great food tips from Amy:

Befriend your produce manager and hold them accountable for providing the freshest food possible.
Look for fresh food in unexpected places. (Amy found fresh eggs for sale at her bookstore!)
Forage for local food! Check out those roadside stands – you might find some treasures.
Don’t be afraid to ask where your food comes from when you eat out! Show chefs that you care and build demand for local food.

One of the participants on Monday told us she was excited to see the head of food services for Exeter schools at the event. She has been making lunches for her teenage children since they were in first grade because she didn’t think they could get something healthy at school. Now at Exeter High School, her girls recently told her, “Mom! You don’t need to pack us lunches anymore! We can get healthy food at the cafeteria that tastes good!” As a mom, she was excited to be relieved of her lunch duty and pass it along to someone she could trust.

That really about says it all doesn’t it? We want to buy food from people that we trust.

Our next speaker, farmer and author, Ben Hewitt, will take a look at where our food comes in America and help us unravel the complex web of food production, processing and politics. He takes a nuanced look at how the USDA and the FDA protect our food, the consolidation of agribusiness’, raw foodists, raw milk, dumpster divers and the foodborne pathogenic bacteria that help us thrive and that can also kill us. For more info click here: www.foodandhealthforum.com.

Weekly Round-Up: Sustainable Food

Tracey — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:42:38 +0000

In an age of processed food and chemically treated crops, sustainable food not only benefits our health, but also the environment. Organic and local farms produce better quality food and cause less harm to the environment through things like carbon emissions and water pollution. In addition, the organic farming movement encourages people to plant seeds and grow their own food, thereby empowering people to eat healthier and take personal steps to creating a better world to live in.

Here are a couple of related articles that I found interesting and wanted to share this week:

Sustainable Food: 10 Reasons to Care

Why should sustainability be a priority? Not only does it create more nutritious foods, but it also fosters a sense of community, is more ethical and is better for the environment. This article explores the many ways that sustainable food is good for society as a whole.

Eat Organic to Mitigate Climate Chaos

There is a common belief that industrialized agriculture is more efficient that organic farming. This article offers research that discusses how organic farming is actually more efficient, yielding the same amount of products but with less pollution to the environment.

Joel Salatin Responds to New York Times Article on “Myth of Sustainable Meat”

I’ve often wondered if the Joel Salatin model of organic farming can be scaled up. Joel takes on James McWilliams article point by point to covering methane, neanderthal management, pig rings, global warming and nutrition.

Sugar Ain’t So Sweet

Tracey — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:29:20 +0000

Did you know that the average American consumes more than 130 pounds of sugar per year?

Did you know that obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are all linked to sugar consumption?

Most people don’t realize how much sugar they are consuming on a daily basis. Why should you care? Although our body needs glucose, it does not need sugar. In fact, white table sugar has NO nutritional value. Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, suppress your immune system and cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children. More and more research is coming out on the harm that sugar can do to our body. (See the link to 60 minutes video below.)

How much sugar are you eating? The photographs below illustrate just how much sugar is in some of America’s favorite beverages and treats. Sugar is also added to just about all processed foods, so make sure you read labels so you know how much you’re getting. Aim for less than 40 grams of sugar per day.

4.2 grams = 1 teaspoon of sugar = 1 cube
Each cube below represents a teaspoonful of sugar.

Learn about the latest research on 60 Minutes by leading medical institutions on why sugar is toxic below. (transcript).

(source)

If you’d like more information, here are some other interesting articles/videos on sugar:

Video – Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Video – Sugar and Kids

Article – Is Sugar Toxic? A debate.

Article – 8 Surprising Foods with More Sugar than a Twinkie

We’re Drowning Our Oceans With Plastic

Tracey — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:59:43 +0000

Photo from Dianna Cohen.

I went to the New England Aquarium in Boston yesterday to attend a luncheon on “plastics in the ocean” sponsored by Women Working for Oceans, W₂O, a group created to promote healthy and sustainable oceans. The featured speaker was Dianna Cohen, a visual artist who has spent years using recycled plastics as a medium for her art and whose focus now is on reducing the amount of plastics that find their way to into the oceans. She helped found the Plastic Pollution Coalition. She was joined by Kathleen Frith, Harvard Medical School, Director for the Center of Health and the Global Environment.

A few facts from Dianna:

Oceans have become a dumping ground for plastics
Plastic does not biodegrade – it always exists in some form: FOREVER
A water sampling test was done in every ocean testing the existence of plastic particulates – every ocean contained them.
70-90 percent of marine debris is plastic.
Our plastic usage has doubled over the last few decades.
Each person uses 500-700 plastic bags per year.
Airlines alone use 1 million plastic cups every six hours.
We now only recycle about 20 percent of plastic bottles are recycled (in state without deposits).
The City of Los Angeles spends about $2 million per year cleaning up their shoreline.
Right now there is something called the Pacific Trash Vortex (or what Dianne referred to as a gyre)that has 700 millions tons of plastic floating in it – two times the size of Texas.
Many plastics contain BPA and other chemicals which mess with your endocrine system.

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown was there along with three (Mass) state representatives who were supporting bills to reduce the usage of plastic bags and bottles. I appreciated the participation of the politicians. It was refreshing to have them telling us about the importance of recycling policies versus the other way around. I must find out what’s going on in New Hampshire.

Since only about 20 percent of bottles used are recycled – so just recycling is not enough. We need to get water bottles out of our house and out of our waste stream. The bottom line is that although plastics are petroleum based, the earth cannot digest them. I recycle and try to minimize any packaged foods, but come recycling day, I am amazed at the number of bottles, cans and plastic packaging that we throw away. Not anymore!

Beyond reduce, recycle and reuse, What can you do: REFUSE!

STOP buying plastic water bottles. Find cool alternatives such as stainless steel or glass water bottles.
Save glass jars to hold your cheese, or leftovers in and skip the plastic bags.
Make your own drinks with water, a squeeze of orange, lemon or lime.
Buy whole foods like fruits and vegetables to reduce the amount of plastics you use.
Bring your own grocery bags with you when you shop.
Just say no and encourage your friends and family to reduce their consumption of plastic bottles. Just do it!

Thank you to Women Working for Oceans for organizing this event. For more information or to sign up for their mailing list contact womenworkingforoceans@gmail.com.

More resources:

Atlantic Garbage Patch: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/atlantic-garbage-patch-pa_n_538514.html

MA Plastic Bag Reduction Act: http://www.malegislature.gov/Bills/BillHtml/9686?generalCourtId=1

MA Updated Bottle Bill: http://www.massrecycle.org/bottlebill/index.html Nurdles: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders/archive/2006/11/whats_a_nurdle.html

Video: The Garbage Patch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUjTHB1lvM

Video: The Pacific Trash Vortex Explained: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc6LvdsyJ4U&feature=fvw

See my earlier post about W2O on sustainable fishing.

Photo from Dianna Cohen.

Pete Johnson Puts the “Culture” Back into Agriculture

Tracey — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:32:08 +0000

This past Monday, we welcomed Pete Johnson of Pete’s Greens to our 3rd Food For Thought dinner at Blue Moon Evolution. Pete painted a picture of the community and culture of farming that is attracting many new young farmers to the Harwick, VT area. He shared with us the trials and tribulations of how his Vermont farm has grown to a four season operation marketing to 80 stores and restaurants, a farmers market, and a 400-member CSA. He also shared how he was able to move beyond the catastrophic fire that destroyed his barn last January with a huge amount of help from his community.

This series has been an inspiration to me over the past few months as we hear from farmers who are making a growing food in a sustainable way. I know that the food I buy from local farms is fresher, more nutritious and just tastes better. That’s why I choose farmers over factories when I can. Because the food industry is so competitive, a lot of money is spent on marketing and packaging. The closer to the source, the more money goes to the farmer. (And they work their butts off and deserve to be paid well!)

Did you know?

• The local food system in Vermont can support a whopping 38% of its population, whereas New Hampshire’s local food system can only support 6%. Maine can support 39% of its population. We have a lot of catching up to do!

• A typical carrot has to travel 1,838 miles to reach your dinner table.

• In the U.S., a wheat farmer can expect to receive about six cents of each dollar spent on a loaf of bread—approximately the cost of the wrapping.

• Farmers’ markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer

I hope you’ll join us for one of our dinner seminars at Blue Moon Evolution. Our next speaker, Amy Cotler, will give us some tips on how to make the most of what our local farmers offer including shopping tips, cooking tips a what to do with all that fresh food! Here are some pictures from the event. For more info go to: www.foodandhealthforum.com

Here are some takeaways from Pete’s speech:

“Eating local isn’t that hard, it depends on peoples priorities.”

“Sometimes there is too much burden put onto farmers to solve all of the problems like school lunches. When young people start farming now, they need to focus on building a business. Plus, I think there are often other community members who need to be a part of the solution and who have better resources.”

“We’ve all helped each other and cooperated to a high level.”

“I see the power of kids taking food from the farm to school, and then it ends up in their home. One kid tries spicy mustard, usually the ‘cool’ kid, and the next thing you know there are 15 kids liking ’spicy’ mustard.”

“I started growing vegetables in the North East Kingdom, Zone 3….then again, who knows what zone it is this week….regardless, not a real smart place for year round production. It’s difficult to provide the variety of vegetables that we do, but that’s just what we like to do.”

In 2007, only 30% of NH farms had positive net income.[i] Buying directly from farmers ensures they get a greater proportion of the crop sale and therefore helps the local economy.

[i] http://www.nh.gov/agric/publications/documents/HomeGrownReport_final.pdf

On this page:
What is local?
Local vs. sustainable
Local vs. global
Did You Know?

With the explosion of interest in local food, consumers now have more choices of products, labels, and ways to shop, so, many people are left wondering where to start. Food choices can be overwhelming, and changing where and how we shop can be stressful. On the other hand, the benefits of buying local can be great. Sustainable Table’s “Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local” section is designed to help consumers learn what’s happening in the local movement, and to better understand the concept of local food.

In “Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local”, you’ll find:

What exactly is local food?
Talk of local food is everywhere. But what does it mean? How local is local? Local is shorthand for an idea that doesn’t have a firm definition. Unlike organic standards, which entail specific legal definitions, inspection processes, and labels, local means different things to different people, depending on where they live, how long their growing season is, and what products they are looking for.

Practically speaking, local food production can be thought of in concentric circles that start with growing food at home. The next ring out might be food grown in our immediate community – then state, region, and country. For some parts of the year or for some products that thrive in the local climate, it may be possible to buy closer to home. At other times, or for less common products, an expanded reach may be required.

People who value local as their primary food criterion are sometimes referred to as locavores. The term “locavore” was coined by Jessica Prentice from the San Francisco Bay Area for World Environment Day 2005 to describe and promote the practice of eating a diet consisting of food harvested from within an area most commonly bound by a 100 mile radius. With such excitement and momentum building in the local food movement, the New Oxford American Dictionary chose locavore as its word of the year in 2007.

One easy way to start buying local is to choose one product to focus on. Vegetables are often a good place to start. Produce also offers a good introduction to eating seasonally—an excellent way to learn about local agriculture. Then, try seeking out sources for local meat or dairy. Check out the Shop Sustainable section for more on how to make buying local fun and easy. Search the Eat Well guide to start shopping. With a pantry and fridge full of beautiful, local foods, you may want to start experimenting in the kitchen. For recipes, cookbook reviews, tips, and other culinary tidbits, visit Sustainable Kitchen.

While local is certainly a flexible term, the basic concept is simple: local foods are produced as close to home as possible. Buying local supports a more sustainable food system because true sustainability goes beyond the methods used in food production to include every step that brings food from farm to plate.

Local vs. sustainable
Sustainable agriculture involves food production methods that are healthy, do not harm the environment, respect workers, are humane to animals, provide fair wages to farmers, and support farming communities. Sustainability includes buying food as locally as possible. Buying local food does not guarantee that it is sustainably produced. Pesticides, chemical fertilizers, factory farming, hormone use, and non-therapeutic use of antibiotics can all be involved in local food production, so it’s important to make sure that the local food you buy is from farmers or gardeners using sustainable methods.

When considering the sustainability of a product there are a lot of questions to ask, so if a store or producer is advertising that their food was raised locally, take the time to ask a few questions like: “Do you know how these animals were raised?” or “Do you know the name and location of the farm where this product was grown?”

Local vs. global
At its roots sustainable farming benefits the local community and local economy while supporting the environment by enriching the soil, protecting air and water quality, and minimizing energy consumption. Industrial food production is entirely dependent on fossil fuels, which, when refined and burned, create greenhouse gases that are significant contributors to climate change. The biggest part of fossil fuel use in industrial farming is not transporting food or fueling machinery; it’s chemicals. As much as forty percent of the energy used in the food system goes towards the production of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.¹

By adding transportation, processing and packaging to the food system equation, the fossil fuel and energy use of our current food system puts tremendous stress on the environment. For example, between production and transportation, growing 10% more produce for local consumption in Iowa would result in an annual savings ranging from 280,000 to 346,000 gallons of fuel, and an annual reduction in CO2 emissions ranging from 6.7 to 7.9 million pounds.²

Food processors also use a large amount of paper and plastic packaging to keep fresh food from spoiling as it is transported and stored for long periods of time. This packaging is difficult or impossible to reuse or recycle. In addition, industrial farms are a major source of air and water pollution.

Small, local farms are run by farmers who live on their land and work hard to preserve it. They protect open spaces by keeping land in agricultural use and preserve natural habitats by maintaining forest and wetlands. By being good stewards of the land, seeking out local markets, minimizing packaging, and harvesting food only when it is ready to consume, farmers can significantly reduce their environmental impact. In fact, studies show that sustainable agricultural practices can actually increase food production by up to 79% while at the same time actively reducing the effects of farming on climate change through carbon sequestration.³

Why buy local?

Did you know?

Hawaii imports 90% of its food.⁴
In 1866, 1,186 varieties of fruits and vegetables were produced in California. Today, California’s farms produce only 350 commercial crops.⁵
Communities reap more economic benefits from the presence of small farms than they do from large ones. Studies have shown that small farms re-invest more money into local economies by purchasing feed, seed and other materials from local businesses,⁶whereas large farms often order in bulk from distant companies. Large factory livestock farms also degrade local property values because of the intense odors they emit and other environmental problems they cause.⁷
A typical carrot has to travel 1,838 miles to reach your dinner table.⁸
In the U.S., a wheat farmer can expect to receive about six cents of each dollar spent on a loaf of bread—approximately the cost of the wrapping.⁹
Farmers’ markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.¹⁰
About 1/3 of all U.S. farms are located within metropolitan areas, comprising 18% of total U.S. farmland.¹¹

Dinner:

Why is this important?

Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taking into account only US grown products! Those distances are substantially longer when we take into consideration produce imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America, and other places.

We can only afford to do this now because of the artificially low energy prices that we currently enjoy, and by externalizing the environmental costs of such a wasteful food system. We do this also to the detriment of small farmers by subsidizing large scale, agribusiness-oriented agriculture with government handouts and artificially cheap energy.

Cheap oil will not last forever though. World oil production has already peaked, according to some estimates, and while demand for energy continues to grow, supply will soon start dwindling, sending the price of energy through the roof. We’ll be forced then to reevaluate our food systems and place more emphasis on energy efficient agricultural methods, like smaller-scale organic agriculture, and on local production wherever possible.

Cheap energy and agricultural subsidies facilitate a type of agriculture that is destroying and polluting our soils and water, weakening our communities, and concentrating wealth and power into a few hands. It is also threatening the security of our food systems, as demonstrated by the continued e-Coli, GMO-contamination, and other health scares that are often seen nowadays on the news.

These large-scale, agribusiness-oriented food systems are bound to fail on the long term, sunk by their own unsustainability. But why wait until we’re forced by circumstance to abandon our destructive patterns of consumption? We can start now by buying locally grown food whenever possible. By doing so you’ll be helping preserve the environment, and you’ll be strengthening your community by investing your food dollar close to home. Only 18 cents of every dollar, when buying at a large supermarket, go to the grower. 82 cents go to various unnecessary middlemen. Cut them out of the picture and buy your food directly from your local farmer.

Farmers are an important part of our society and

We started the Food and Health Forum to scale up our efforts to

We invite you to join us at one of our dinner seminars.

Amy Cotler will show us how to…

A Maine Day

Tracey — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:51:48 +0000

It was a Maine Day today. We beat the snow and headed up the coast with relatives from out-of-town (Michigan) to check out the rocky coastline and find some lunch in Kennebunk. It was a gray day, but it still felt good to walk on the beach and get some fresh air.

Kennebunk was quiet, but it’s always nice to be in a quiet town, even in the dead of winter, when there are no tourists and you have the town to yourself. We asked a local shop owner to recommend a good spot for lunch on the water and she suggested Federal Jacks.

We hit the jackpot and enjoyed some local favorites and a cold beer made by their own brewery, Shipyard. (They even offer a gluten free beer called Greens which is delicious.) Federal Jacks has a seasonal menu and offers local seafood and things like venison chile, bison burgers and of course local vegetables in the summer. The waitress gave me a list of 10 local farms they support.

My brother in-law was in hog heaven enjoying some oysters from Duxbury. I learned its best to buy oysters in months that have an “R” in them. (So not in the summer which surprised me.)

Take a day to enjoy our beautiful coastline, even in the winter and hope you find a nice spot for lunch.

Cedar Roasted Maine Scallops

The Infamous Lobster Roll

Oysters on the Half Shell