Coming Attractions

Over the past ten days I have had the pleasure of watching two upcoming, vastly different food and nutrition documentaries.

First up? Food, Inc -- an incredibly engrossing and harrowing look at the state of farming and food processing in the United States from the people who brought you An Inconvenient Truth.

To become familiar with the subject matter before its June release date, visit The Meatrix, where all the grizzly details of meat production are explained.

I also recommend checking this link to see if Food, Inc. will be screened at a film festival near you before its limited big-screen debut later this Summer.

This is a MUST-SEE for anyone interested in farm policy, agricultural subsidies, agro-business, and the current state of the United States' food chain. You might want to bring some anxiety medication with you.

On a more lighthearted note, this past Thursday I had the pleasure of watching upcoming kid-friendly documentary What's On Your Plate?, "[which] follows two eleven-year-old African-American [New York City] kids as they explore their place in the food chain [and] talk to each other, food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates."

While certainly softer (and much easier for children to grasp) than Food, Inc., What's On Your Plate? showcases issues of local agriculture, school nutrition, and big business with very little preaching or finger wagging.

PS: I predict an Oscar nomination for Food, Inc.

You Ask, I Answer: Fruit & Vegetable Ripeness/Vitamin & Mineral Content

Does the nutrition of a fruit or vegetable depend on how ripe it is?

-- Claire Snyder
Tampa, FL

An apparently simple question with a semi-complex answer.

Technically, yes.

Some fruits and vegetables offer different nutrition profiles depending on what stage of ripeness they are at.

Take tomatoes.

Sun-ripened vine tomatoes, for example, are ideal because they produce plenty of antioxidants and polyphenols while fully ripening, thanks to the sun's rays.

Conventional tomatoes, however, are picked when they are still green. Days later, they arrive at your supermarket.

In between being picked and going up for sale, they (as well as avocados, pineapples, and apples, among other fruits) are sprayed with ethylene, a plant hormone that speeds up the ripening process.

It's not so much that ethylene is harmful as much as this artificial ripening process does not allow the fruit to provide as much nutrition as it could.

Some of the chemical processes that occur as a result of exposure to ultraviolet light do not take place. In turn, some enzymes are not present in that tomato.

By the way, this is why often times a great-looking tomato is tasteless. Some of the enzymes a tomato produces as a result of exposure to the sun greatly affect its taste!

This is one big reason why buying local and sesonal produce is recommended.

Not only is it an easier load on the environment, it also increases your chances of buying produce that has been ripened by nature, in turn providing more nutrition.

This is not to say conventional tomatoes are "unhealthy" or "bad for you." However, you are definitely sacrificing some nutrition for convenience.

Assuming you are eating naturally ripened food, though, once it's okay for consumption (its texture and taste are palatable), its nutritional profile stays the same for a few days.

Tuesday's ripened banana will offer the same amount of potassium, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B6 on Thursday.

Before any glycemic index fans jump down my throat: yes, the glycemic index of that banana increases slightly as it ripens, but not significantly.

'Tis the Season

Summer's last days are upon us, and a new season of fruits and vegetables is around the corner.

If you are thinking about eating more seasonally this fall, look for the following fruits and vegetables (availability varies on geographic region, of course):

Vegetables: beets, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, collard greens, corn, eggplant, garlic, kale, leeks, lettuce, mesclun, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkin, scallions, spinach, winter squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and turnips.

Fruits: apples, blueberries, cranberries, grapes, pears, raspberries, and watermelon.

Those of you visiting from the Southern Hemisphere have the following goodies to pick from when Spring begins in less than two weeks.

Vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, beets, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, collard greens, fennel, garlic, kale, lettuce, mesclun, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, scallions, shallots, turnips.

Fruits: apples, apricots, avocado, mango, strawberries

Earth-Friendly Food

Every action we take affects our environment -- including the foods we choose to eat.

One way to get optimal nutrition while helping our planet is by purchasing produce from a local farmer's market.

Not only will you be getting food grown within a proximal geographic location (meaning it has not been sitting in a truck for days, slowly losing more and more vitamins and minerals), you will also be reducing the amount of fuel needed to get your produce.

For instance, if you are living in New York City, you could very well go to a supermarket and get commercial strawberries (shipped in from Mexico) or you could head to your local farmer's market for some delicious ones grown in your same state.

If you live in Seattle, you could buy commercial apples flown in from Argentina -- 10,000 miles away -- or ones brought in from just a few miles away.

After eating local produce, you might find it hard to buy that same item from a standard supermarket again. Flavors are more intense, and things spoil a lot slower (remember, when you buy most produce from a grocery store, you're getting it as much as two weeks after it was picked at a farm).

I find that eating locally 100% of the time becomes very limiting. For instance, avocados do not grow on the East coast of the United States, but that does not mean I will never eat them. Similarly, oranges in the United States come from two places: California and Florida.

The key is to buy locally when the option is presented to you. Feel free to enjoy a Florida orange in Iowa, but try to get your own state's crops from a local farmer. Your body -- and the environment -- will be grateful for the help.