Monthly Archives: April 2023

A Letter to my Grandchildren

A Letter to my Grandchildren:

How To Save Our Health and the Health of the World!

With Earth Day approaching I have been giving a lot of thought to how I can contribute to making this world a healthier and safer place for you. We have a number of issues that may be stressful for you… but I would like to share some of my thoughts on why the food choices we make can be powerful factors in improving the health and safety in your life as well as the health of the world.
What are some of the problems we face?

  1. Global warming leading to extreme weather (storms, floods, tornadoes, droughts, etc.)
  2. Species extinction due to loss of habitat
  3. Crime and violence
  4. Pandemic issues
  5. Obesity and increase in chronic illnesses (like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, etc.) 

What is one of the most effective ways to reduce these problems? It’s Food!

Why? When you look around the world…you will discover that certain populations live longer (into their 90’s and 100’s) and are healthier than others. The book, The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner, documents the five regions of the world that have a number of similarities—a whole plant food diet, movement throughout the day, and good social support from family and friends.There are two sources of food available in our world—plants and animals. In the Americas, raising animals for our main food source contributes more to global warming than all the transportation we use. It uses more water and land than using plants for our main food source. And raising animals in close quarters has led to spreading diseases to humans and has contributed to antibiotic resistance. Animal foods are high in saturated fats, which leads to inflammation and clogging of our arteries. Saturated fats also are an underlying cause of obesity, diabetes, and many other chronic illnesses. Also, the processing of our foods to increase shelf life and to make food choices more attractive has increased the fat, salt, and sugar content, and at the same time, made them highly addictive. Addiction leads to anxiety, depression, and a lower quality of life. It may lead to mental illness and potentially to increased crime and violence. All in all, raising animals for our food is not only contributing in a huge way to making our health worse but it is also making our planet sick.

So what is the solution? The one thing we can all do is to start asking ourselves questions like: “Are the food choices I am making now because of my habits or will they help me reach my goals and help improve the health of our planet?” Greta Thunberg’s answer is to just eat plant-based foods. And eating plants as they have grown in nature (with only minimal processing) is the healthiest choice we can make.
What gets in the way of us making healthier choices?

  1. Family and friends
  2. Our culture
  3. Myths we live with…

Let’s look at some of the myths we live with.

Myth# 1. Our Genes Determine Our Health
We used to believe that our genes were the main determinants of our health. We now know that genetics account for about 20% of our health. 80% of our health is determined by our lifestyle (what we eat, how we move throughout the day, the chemicals we use, and how we deal with stress). A good analogy is this… If you put a bullet in a gun, no one gets hurt unless the trigger gets pulled. Our genes are like the bullet. If we choose unhealthy foods, live a sedentary lifestyle, use tobacco or alcohol, or do not learn how to handle stress, then our trigger gets pulled and we can develop the diseases that hurt us. So if you want to be the healthiest, do not stress out too much about your family history, but instead concentrate on the lifestyle choices you make. And eat healthy foods regularly to achieve your best health.

Myth# 2. The Best Source of Protein Is Animal Foods
The building blocks for protein are called amino acids. All of these building blocks are made by and found in plants—greens, beans, legumes, grains, roots and tubers, seeds, fruits, and nuts, etc. Animals are like a middleman. They eat plants and plant products to make protein. Our teeth and long digestive tracts are meant to grind up plants and make our own protein, just like the strongest animals on Earth—elephants and gorillas. We have no need to eat other animals. When we eat protein from animals we decrease the fiber content of our diet. Dietary fiber is the main deficiency in the American diet—the Standard American Diet (SAD).

Myth# 3. Protein Is Deficient in our Diet
If you eat enough calories and a variety of foods in the day, you will get enough protein. Do not focus your attention on getting enough protein, but do focus on how you are going to get enough fiber. Why is fiber so important? Fiber provides bulk and makes us full so we do not overeat. Fiber hooks up with excess cholesterol, other excess hormones, and toxins and wheelbarrows it out quickly through our intestines. For every 10 grams of fiber you add to your daily diet, you decrease your colon cancer risk by 10% because the toxins pass through the intestine so quickly they do not have time to do as much damage to the cells lining your colon. Fiber is the food for the good bacteria in your colon. These bacteria are called your microbiome. When you feed these bacteria they feed you back with chemicals like butyrate and serotonin. Butyrate is an anti-inflammatory chemical which helps heal the body. Serotonin is a hormone that prevents anxiety and depression. Remember… more fiber from whole plant foods leads to better health.

Myth# 4. Carbohydrates Are the Enemy
Many of us are confused about this issue. We all know that eating more fruits and vegetables is healthy. But we are told not to eat carbohydrates. Yet fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates plus fiber. So, why wouldn’t we be confused?

Carbohydrates packaged with their usual fiber are healthy and not harmful. That is why eating whole plant foods as grown in nature is healthy, but processing these same plant foods by stripping away their fiber leads to inflammation and spiking blood sugars that lead to disease. So avoid all processed foods like white sugar, white bread, sugary drinks and sodas, and artificial foods that are not grown in nature.

Myth# 5. Willpower Is the Main Factor in Obesity
Willpower is not the main factor in the epidemic of obesity in the Western world. Our foods have been altered (processed) in such a way as to make them highly addictive. Like any other addiction, high calorie density foods light up the pleasure centers in our brains and keep us wanting to eat more…even though we know this is harming our health. Transition your food choices to low calorie density and you will not have to worry about your weight. It may take several weeks for your body to adjust to eating low calorie density foods rather than the high calorie density foods that you are used to eating.

Myth# 6. Milk Does the Body Good!
Milk has been promoted for its calcium. However, science shows that milk drinkers do not have lower rates of bone fracture. In fact, sometimes they have higher rates of bone fracture. Get your calcium from the beans and greens in your diet. 75% of the world population lacks the enzymes to metabolize lactose (the sugar in milk). This lactose intolerance leads to bloating, increased gas, and a lot of unnecessary abdominal pain. Milk has IGF-1 (a hormone that promotes growth). That is good when you are a baby…but it is not so good if you are older and happen to have some cancer cells whose growth might be stimulated by the Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 hormone.

Myth# 7. You Can Trust your Doctor or Health Care System for Nutrition Advice
Currently there are very few medical schools that share the science of ‘food as medicine’ in the curriculum. So do not be surprised if your doctor or healthcare provider actually learns from you. If you look around and see the number of people who are overweight, have diabetes, or other chronic illnesses, you might ask yourself, “Do I really want to trust the information (nutritional advice) that my healthcare system has been promoting for many years?” or “Do I want to do some research and find a better way?”

Myth# 8. Animals that We Eat are Well Cared for
This might be one of the biggest myths. Big Ag (agriculture) has taken over how animals are raised and killed for our food. Animals are kept in very crowded conditions (I think of these conditions like concentration camps) that require the use of antibiotics to prevent spreading disease in these animals. This use of antibiotics has led to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is an important issue because if a person gets an infection that our antibiotics no longer can treat…it could result in increased rates of disability and death. The way we treat others (and that includes animals) will influence how kind or compassionate we become as human beings. The way we have been treating our animals is not an example of how I wish to be treated. My choice is to not support an industry that treats animals inhumanely—as is currently practiced in the meat and poultry industry.

It took over 30 years for the United States to understand that smoking causes cancer and death. Food has become our new tobacco. Promote transitioning to a whole food, plant based diet and watch the reduction in deaths from most of our chronic diseases as we eliminate calorie-rich and processed (CRAP) foods from our diet. We will feel healthier as we replace these with greens, beans, legumes, grains, roots and tubers, seeds, fruits, and nuts in our daily diet. Some of these can be eaten raw while others can be soaked and cooked—boiled or baked to make them digestible and palatable. Minimizing salt, oils (fats) and refined sugars and using whole grains (rather than white flour, white rice, etc.) in preparing meals, and fresh fruits rather than fruit juices ensures that we get that important dietary fiber in our digestive system.
The time is right to transition what we eat…let’s be thoughtful about the science of healthy food choices…not only for our individual health but also for the health of our planet!

Love,
Papa

By Dr. Charles “Charlie” Ross. Doctor Ross is a practicing osteopathic physician for over 45 years and a part-time Assistant Professor at Western University of Health Sciences in Oregon. He wants to change the practice of medicine from treating symptoms to treating the root causes of disease. He practices Lifestyle Medicine and co-teaches free community classes on the science of nutrition and food as medicine.  

 

 

Beneath A Tree

Happy Earth Day to all our subscribers and readers of Skipping Stones Magazine. To Celebrate Earth Day, we share with you a short poem by our contributor Maggie d., an African American poet in Washington. Enjoy it!
 

Beneath A Tree

Someone planted a tree
For me
To get out of
The sun
And enjoy the fun
Of reading a book
Under a roof of pine
Scented branches
Leaving behind my
Stuffy room
And watch
Zooming birds build
Their nest
Without rest
A hardy thank-you goes out
To the person
Who planted a tree
For birds and people like me
 
By maggie d., African American poet, Washington. She adds:
The poem erupted from a shade tree being cut down where I live.”

Color Me!

Landscape

Happy Earth Day 2023!

Our friend, artist Jon Bush of Massachusetts, invites the artist in you to color this landscape to your liking. Get out your crayons or color pencils and pens to bring to life the landscape in living color of your choice. What different things do you seen in this scene? As you begin to color, you may find many things that you may have missed in your first look. You will need to print out the image before you begin to color. Try different schemes. Have fun.  —Editor

Three Generations of Moroccan Women

Three Generations of Moroccan Women

By Marina Hammoud, age 15, grade 10, Toronto, Canada

The way I imagine it, the day she left was breezy, almost a token of encouragement for the long months to come in treacherous heat. She bent down to give her young son a kiss on each cheek before moving her things onto her camel. And so, as the sun rose that morning, she and her eldest departed on the most sacred and dangerous journey one could make. Hajj. They didn’t return for seven years.

Pilgrimage to Mecca is an important part of Islamic belief but being a woman with limited resources in the 1930s, a 3,800 mile journey by foot is a true testament to Allah. It is hard for me to know what exactly my grandfather’s grandmother experienced as she and her son made their way across the Sahara desert but I can say with complete certainty that her bravery was not just a manifestation to God. Climbing sand dunes of 180 metres with only the resources that fit on a camel’s back and facing the hidden risks of looting, violence and sexual assault for months is a testament of her will and of her strength. After the three year trek to Saudi Arabia, she could not return due to the impending war. The dangers of leaving were too great and so they stayed for four years until French soldiers brought them back. I only wish today, as I consider my identity, that I could have met the courageous Zhor.

One generation down, in a supposedly more modern world not too far away, Rita possessed a different kind of strength, a far less appreciated fortitude because her story is definitely not out of the ordinary. Child marriage, teen pregnancy, an apparent success in a young woman’s life. Sixteen year old Rita got married (see her wedding photo) and in the years to come she had five daughters.

She watched her children grow up differently than she did. She saw them become educated, and run around. She probably questioned her husband’s draconian outlook on studying. These are guesses on my part, but what I do know is that she was happy. At least in the fifteen years I have known her. She lives with her own sisters, her old nanny, her daughter. She cooks with them to make a couscous like none other. She stretches. She buys me gifts. Mama Rita questions police officers as to why she cannot go to the medina (market) without a quarantine pass. She found contentment in a life she did not have complete control over. She may not have been physically ground breaking but she raised a generation of well-educated women. She is happy in her nineties, and I am glad I have known her.

A metaphorical world away—but really just a few steps from where Rita prepares tea—Nora sits at her desk. She crams information into her brain until she can’t focus anymore and then she starts again. She impatiently sits through tea until her father lets her go back to study, knowing that he doesn’t need to remind her she can’t go out until she finishes. Nora is the first woman in her family to graduate.

Nora ran around Kenitra with her cousins. They ran past the market, past their mosque, past their school. They made up stories for the cats that owned the streets, they watched the boys play soccer with a tennis ball, they found a goat and kept it as a pet until their parents made them return it. She told me once that her family, her father especially, was ahead of their time. She had more freedom than any girl she knew, yet compared to my life, she had very little. Nora got married at eighteen, and a year-and-a-half later she had my father. She finished her education and became a grade school teacher. She raised three high achieving children. They moved around the country and settled on a lemon tree farm outside of Rabat. Her children moved away, to England and to Canada. She bought her grandchildren a swing set and made them msemen(Moroccan square pancakes, usually eaten for breakfast or tea time).They call her once a month, supposedly because of the “time difference”.

I grew up—I am still growing up—believing that I could be anything that I wanted to. I could write books, I could travel the world, I could become a racecar driver. I grew up privileged in the sense that the world is my oyster. I often think about how different the lives of my ancestors were. Zhor spent seven painstaking years crossing the desert and I can fly halfway across the world for 150 dollars in a few hours. Rita got married before she grew up and Nora, by just graduating, broke the glass ceiling. 50 years later, I order Cambodian or Peruvian food with a tap on my phone. But when thinking about these things, I have to remind myself that it is not just a question of time or of modernization, because in the same town that my father was raised, there are girls younger than me getting married with just as little freedom or education as my ancestors. As I reflect on the powerful women who through generations shaped who I am today, as I apply to one of the most prestigious journalism schools in America, I remind myself that a young girl who may have the same last name as me, begins her adult life. Perhaps my North American side has washed away the influences of Zhor, Rita and Nora throughout my life but they have still inspired me to open my eyes, to tell me that I have the resources to help give other girls a voice. And I want to start now.

By Marina Hammoud, age 15, grade 10, Toronto, Canada. She adds: “I love to read and write. I have been writing creatively for as long as I can remember and want some more experience and exposure under my belt! I’m also trying to start a literary magazine at my school.”

Patbingsu With A Twist

Patbingsu With A Twist

By Nina Choi Zaldivar, age 14, Illinois

“I am a fourteen year old high school freshman living in Chicago, Illinois. Half Korean and half Argentinian, I love connecting to the cuisines of both of my cultures. I wrote the attached piece, Patbingsu, inspired by my desire to explore my cultural identity through food, specifically, delicious desserts!”

During middle school, my cousin Audrey and I figure skated at a suburban North Shore camp where most of the coaches and skaters were white. We slept over at our Korean grandparents’ house for a shorter commute to camp, where our grandparents cherished every moment with us, their lovely granddaughters. My grandmother expressed her love through her Korean cooking: kalguksu (noodles with beef broth), bulgogi(sweetened beef), fishcakes, chapchae (sweet sesame glass noodles), chapssaltteok (rice cake with sweet red bean paste), and my favorite, patbingsu.

Patbingsu, pronounced pot-bing-soo, is a summertime red bean shaved ice dessert. “Pat” means red bean in Korean, and “bingsu” is the shaved ice part. Most bingsusare made with shaved ice, but my grandparents introduced an American touch of lemon-flavored Italian ice, which adds a light, citrusy note. On top of the ice, you layer a sweet, earthy, and creamy red bean paste and a variety of fruits—my favorite are grapes and strawberries, which add a crunchy texture. Finally, you sprinkle soft, chewy mini rainbow mochi among the fruit on top. The harmony of lemon ice melting with the red bean paste turns into a symphony with a bite of strawberry and mochi.

Every morning our grandparents fed us a Korean breakfast and our grandpa drove us to the skating rink, our Korean lunches wrapped securely in our rolling ice skating bags, where we were met by a chilly blast of air. During lunch, our friends pulled out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a Capri Sun, while I opened my bulgogialong with rice and gim (dried seaweed).

The pungent smell traveled across the table, the conversation skipping a beat while my friends noticed the difference. I felt humiliated, and then guilty about my embarrassment because I was betraying my Korean-ness. Ashamed of feeling ashamed, I quietly ate my bulgogi and rejoined the conversation about Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour.

At the end of each day of skating, I’d collapse at my grandparents’ kitchen counter where my grandmother greeted me in her floral blouse with faded pastel slippers, having lovingly prepared chopped fruit for patbingsu. “Muhguh chigoom!” she’d command—Eat now!—as she handed me a clear, square floral bowl full of freshly assembled patbingsu.Relieved to be home, I’d take the cold treat to the backyard where I’d devour the tangy and sweet patbingsu. My devoted grandmother never denied my request for a second serving, even though it was always smaller than the first.

My life consists of two worlds: the traditional Korean world, and the mainstream American one. Whenever I taste patbingsu, I am transported to the summers of my middle school, smelling the sweetness of the breeze in my grandparents’ backyard, enjoying the flavors of the lemon Italian ice melting into the red bean paste. Patbingsu is my place of comfort and security where I can be unconditionally accepted as both Korean and American.

Recipe for Patbingsu with Italian Ice (makes 1-2 servings)

This refreshing patbingsu recipe with lemon italian ice is courtesy of the Choi grandparents. For the fruit, I recommend fruits that are ripe and in season. I prefer using a variety: grapes, strawberries, watermelon, kiwi, and blueberries.

Ingredients:

⅓ cup lemon Italian Ice
¼ cup sweetened red bean paste
¼ cup fresh fruit
1 ½ tablespoon mini mochi (sweet rice cake)

Instructions:

  1. Add the Italian Ice then red bean paste into a bowl.
  2. Cut up fresh fruit into bite size cubes then add to the bowl.
  3. Add the mochi and serve.

Peace Through Awareness

Peace Through Awareness

“I am not a virus.” That was the message on many of the signs to call out anti-Asian hate. Asian hate crimes during Corona have rocked our country back and forth, but even before Corona pandemic came into our world, Anti-Asian hate crimes existed. We’re living in a time of change, with black people getting killed, Corona virus, Asian hate, and to top that all off, Russia’s war in Ukraine. Peace is hard to come by these days.

Back when Corona started, my mom talked to me about Asian hate crimes. She said that President Donald Trump called the virus “the China virus.” It was basically his way of saying, “Oh, this pandemic is all because of Chinese people.” That made me feel sad, but at that time I felt that there wasn’t really anything I could do.   

Unlike me, other people were already doing rallies, and a few people had formed an organization called Stop AAPI Hate. News spread even faster than Corona virus. A few months later, my family went to an Anti-Asian Hate support rally in Fort Lee, and we heard people speak about the hate crimes. My parents had heard about it from our friend. It was on a field, with a big “Be Fort Lee” sign. The supporters were crowded around a table, and the speakers spoke in a microphone. People brought their families with them, including their kids. They made signs to show their support. The signs said things like “Love,” and some even used drawings. One sign I remember clearly was a person with a mask, and the artist used rather dark colors to show their pain and fear.         

I may not have understood then how painful the attacks were, because I hadn’t even made a sign. But the rally encouraged some other people.  Recently, my mom and her coworkers started a podcast. It focused on the Asian Americans living in Queens, NY. I loved listening and learning the stories of these Asian American people, but the podcast also helped me understand the depth of Asian hate in the country. The podcasters would give some snippets of the attacks on Asians such as GuiYing Ma, a 62-year-old lady that was hit on the head with a rock by a stranger. She was sweeping the sidewalk outside her Jackson Heights home on Nov. 26th when a man ambushed her, smashing a large rock against the left side of her head just inches from her eye.

Mrs. Ma woke up in a hospital after a coma and even waved to her husband, though her brain was damaged. For a while everything seemed like it was going to be okay. But then she died. When I heard that, I was shocked. How could someone just kill her, when she didn’t even do anything wrong? What if this had been someone close to me? What if it had been someone in my family?
Then I started speaking up.

“Does anyone else want to share?” My teacher at school asked. It was a few days before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and my class was talking about equal rights and what movement we would like to stand up for.

“Noah?”

“I’m Asian, so I want to stand up against Asian hate. There are attacks going on, and many people have gotten hurt.”

I wasn’t the only one speaking about this. Several of my other friends pitched in, and talked about the attacks, and one almost made the teacher cry with her answer, which was more like a speech. Now I finally felt like I was part of this. Not a really big part, but enough that some people at least know about it. Who knows, they could spread the word, and more and more people will hear about it and speak up against the hate crimes. I might not be some famous speaker that would win the Nobel Peace Prize, but I did something to bring a little, just a little, more peace in our world.

By Noah Xia, age 9, Asian American, New York. She adds: “I like to write, read, play piano, and draw. I write poems, short stories and essays. I enjoy playing with my brother and riding my bike along the Hudson River. Even if I don’t have a piece of paper nearby, I make up stories in my head. In fact, one of my greatest stories (according to my brother) was completely improvised! My submission talks about the hate crime attacks against Asians and how they affected me. At first, I didn’t think I could do anything about the attacks, but I ended up actually bringing a little more peace in our world. I believe that world peace is possible, but we’re just not quite there yet…”