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Between 30 and 40 percent of the US food supply goes to waste each year. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly 80 billion pounds of food end up in landfills annually. This figure takes on a greater significance in the context of another food crisis: food insecurity. More than 10 percent of US households are food insecure, and the nonprofit Feeding America reports that this number will increase due to the economic and unemployment consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weight bias is a moving target. It is moving from a shout to a quiet murmur, from explicit shaming to implicit insults. In 2015, a peer-reviewed medical journal would publish advice to tell patients bluntly that obesity is their fault.

Proper nutrition is a key ingredient in rewiring your client's traumatized neural pathways. Yet, research shows that nutrition is not part of trauma treatment. In fact, Nutrition and trauma are on two different planets. Join Dr. Scott Sells, to learn

As someone with an eating disorder history, the holidays, which should be joyful and exciting, can be awkward—and even destructive—as the same problems present themselves year after year: We’re expected to spend time with family members who can be jarring. We’re faced not only with an abundance of food, but also open judgments about how much (or how little) we eat. Our bodies are considered small-talk conversation starters, like the size of our waists are as banal as the fluctuating weather.

The right mix of nutrients revitalizes the brain that's been wounded by ACEs. Good nutrition can quickly improve mood and functioning in the present, while improving the potential to rewire disturbing memories imprinted in childhood.

“Enough food” is each person having daily access to an average of 2,353 calories of culturally appropriate, locally available, affordable, unrefined, and delectable nourishment. The good news is that we already grow enough food to feed 10 billion people . The challenges are that the food is not fairly distributed, a lot of it is thrown away, and the process of growing it industrially is trashing the planet. Contrary to conventional mythology, smallholder farms and regenerative agriculture...

Access to food is a human right, [1] yet in the United States, an estimated 13 million children may experience food insecurity in 2021, [2] which means they lack consistent access to adequate and nutritious food for a healthy, active life. [3] The nation’s history of systemic racism, including discriminatory employment and housing practices, has kept Black families from acquiring equal wealth and access to resources (e.g., grocery stores) compared to their White counterparts. [4] As a...

In a small patch of green space on Andry Street in New Orleans’ lower ninth ward, nine garden beds lie next to one another, each 6 feet by 9 feet, each the size of one standard solitary-confinement cell. Each garden bed grows a mix of herbs and flowers, among them pansies, stinging nettles, onions, mugwort. They are a mix of plants with medicinal properties and some that just bring pleasure to the eyes, and their growth is limited to the parts of the tiny space where a person would be free...

n February 2017, when Keia Blount was preparing to be released after serving a five-year prison term at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, she had no idea where to go. “Family was not an option to go back to,” she says. “There was nowhere for me to go except for a shelter.” At the last minute, she found Benevolence Farm in Graham, North Carolina, a transitional residential and employment program on an organic farm. She applied, a few members of the staff came to visit her...

A new study shows that chemicals known as phthalates, which have been linked to health problems, have been detected in food from popular chains like McDonald’s, Chipotle and more. The peer-reviewed analysis was published this week in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology by researchers from George Washington University, the Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, Texas), Boston University and Harvard University. The research includes items from McDonald’s,...

Food insecurity has been a significant adverse impact of the COVID-19 crisis. But for one local nonprofit, hunger relief isn’t “one size fits all.” “Our mission is to provide nutritious food to people living with critical illnesses,” shared Alberto Cortes, CEO at local nonprofit Mama’s Kitchen . The organization develops and delivers medically tailored meals to people navigating HIV, diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease and cancer. “Our goal with our services isn’t just...

CUMAC’s two-story facility in Northern New Jersey has the look and feel of a standard food bank, with a warehouse, a handful of trucks, a client-choice pantry, and even a small garden. In practice, the operation has a mission that goes much further than giving out food or even addressing the root causes of hunger. In the view of Executive Director Mark Dinglasan, problems related to food insecurity go back — way back — to childhood traumas and the harmful impacts they collectively have on...