ColumnYou can’t outrun a bad diet, but big food companies want you to think you can.

A healthy lifestyle is one that involves eating well and getting regular physical activity. You don’t need to be a scientist to know that. But are we sold a myth that is only a half truth?

In a world with skyrocketing obesity rates, we are constantly looking for the solution. Do people just need to be more active? Do they just need to make sure they only consume a certain amount of calories every day? An editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine points the finger at big food companies, saying that they have mislead us in the thinking that maintaining a healthy weight is all about calorie counting and exercising.

The authors write that “members of the public are drowned by an unhelpful message about maintaining a ‘healthy weight’ through calorie counting, and many still wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. This false perception is rooted in the Food Industry’s Public Relations machinery, which uses tactics chillingly similar to those of big tobacco.”

It’s true that many are more focused on how many calories they consume as opposed to where those calories come from. A 300-calorie fast food burger and a 300-calorie meal made from lentils and leafy greens is an entirely different thing. And if you eat that fast food burger, going for a workout afterwards isn’t necessarily going to help you either.

The authors of the editorial note that in an analysis of worldwide sugar availability, it was shown that for every excess 150 calories of sugar (ie what’s in a can of cola), type 2 diabetes was 11 times more prevalent, compared to when those 150 calories came from fat or protein. Where your calories come from matters.

But big food businesses have big advertising, marketing and lobbying budgets, and they can push any message that they want. “Coca Cola, who spent $3.3 billion on advertising in 2013, pushes a message that ‘all calories count’; they associate their products with sport, suggesting it is ok to consume their drinks as long as you exercise,” write the authors. “However science tells us this is misleading and wrong. It is where the calories come from that is crucial. Sugar calories promote fat storage and hunger. Fat calories induce fullness or ‘satiation’.”

Of course, it’s much easier for these companies to put the blame on the individual consumer than it is to change their business model. If you’re gaining weight it’s your fault for not counting your calories and not exercising enough. It’s certainly not the fault of the company that’s pumping sugar, salt and fat into the economy at enormous rates.

At some point, if we really want to deal with the public health issue then we are going to need to take a stand for government intervention, much like how we dealt with tobacco. But as the authors of the article note, the food industry uses the exact same tactics used by the tobacco industry; tactics that allowed the industry to keep functioning unchecked for decades. “The tobacco industry successfully stalled government intervention for 50 years starting from when the first links between smoking and lung cancer were published. This sabotage was achieved using a ‘corporate playbook’ of denial, doubt, confusing the public and even buying the loyalty of bent scientists, at the cost of millions of lives.”

Want to live a healthy lifestyle? Eat well, get regular exercise. But also, stand up against the big food companies that continue to make us sick.

We all need to take personal responsibility for our health, but these companies should take some corporate responsibility as well.

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Scorpion and Centaurs

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At first glance, Foodstand appears to merely be an app: One where foodie Instagrammers can post without the backlash that so often comes with repeated photo updates of their lunch. In fact, Foodstand serves more as an incubator than it does as an abstract mobile platform, fostering New York area food startups with a mission to change the way the city eats.

It does so with several initiatives that only begin with its app. While admittedly Instagram-esque, it maintains an element of exclusivity. Only those within the food industry are invited to participate, be them chefs, food writers or foodie entrepreneurs. Foodstand exists, according to its website, “to reconnect with our food community” and “make it easier for everyone to help grow a better food system.” A regular celebration of that mission comes in the form of the Foodstand Spotlight Series: An event where food startups can pitch their business models and purposes to a panel of experts, as well as an audience of industry representatives.

Last Tuesday’s Foodstand Spotlight event featured four food startups looking to make major changes in the way New Yorkers eat and think about where their food comes from.

1. The Pixie and the Scout

Katy McNulty knows her way around a kitchen and holds strong tenets for the ingredients that belong in it. That credo remains a motivation behind The Pixie and The Scout, the catering company that she co-founded with her husband, offering “sustainable events” and “intelligent hospitality,” she says. Today, one of the company’s goals is to become a regular alternative to the cafeteria-like settings to which busy professionals commonly restrict themselves, and to earn status as a regional household name that is viewed, as McNulty puts it, like “a sustainable cafe in-house.”

The Pixie and the Scout’s price point is steep, with catered business lunches going roughly for the tune of $250 or more. However, the proof is in the sustainably-sourced contents of each meal. “To actually use…farms and farmers is difficult,” says McNulty. “[We’re] trying to make high-end catering…much more approachable.”

2. Eco-Farm on Wheels

It’s been proven time and time again: Good habits begin in childhood. Carol Lake, owner of the Ridgefield, Connecticut biodynamic Dancing Dog Farm, agrees. Her mission: If urban-dwelling kids can’t come to the farm, bring the farm to them. Armed with live rural animals (pigs, mostly), compost boxes, and buckets of dirt and worms, Lake and her team travel to New York City to teach children the fundamentals of food cultivation. The worms eat the apple core, then produce soil, and that soil is used to plant seeds that turn into fruits and vegetables. Eco-Farm on Wheels has already won a fairly big first client: The New York Public Library.

3. Mountain Morsels

Rebecca Scott is a one-woman shakeup of the snack industry’s landscape. Her company, Sustainable Snacks, produces Mountain Morsels: Five flavors of vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free energy bites, the ingredients for which Scott hand-slices, mixes and produces entirely on her own. Mountain Morsels’ naturally-named varieties (e.g., “Harper’s Ferry Cherry” and “Great Valley Ridge Raisin”) are presently available in 15 locations, with Scott looking to saturate the New York market and beyond.

4. Green Top Farms

Hydroponics are a friend to the urban farmer, allowing eco-friendly vegetables to be grown in non-conventional settings. That’s how Josh Lee, better known as “Farmer Josh,” came to launch Green Top Farms, a producer of microgreens that employs indoor seed trays to locally harvest and distribute sustainable produce. A North Carolina native, Lee gained his expertise in agriculture during the summers he spent working on area farms, today putting that knowledge toward both Green Top Farms and Nourish International, “a non-profit that fights poverty through student action,” according the the former’s website. Weekly microgreen subscriptions can be purchased from Green Top Farms for $20 each, affording four days  of 2.5-oz fresh salads.

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Harvest vegetables image via Shutterstock

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ColumnWhat fuels our desire to combine food and business.

It was only a matter of time before a small-town Airstream food truck opportunity that involved tacos crossed my path. No, really.

Over a sunny, Saturday morning coffee in Salida, Colorado this weekend, the conversation was going a little something like this:

“We need someone to get the Airstream taco truck going. We already have the Airstream and the space. You ladies in?” Annie, a go-getter, mountain biking bad ass asked us hopefully, in the kind of voice that you know someone is trying to insist on something really hard.

My friend Megan and I looked at each other. We both have jobs, and love our urban friends and living spaces, but I could see the wheels turning in her head thinking about all it would take to make this a possibility. How often are you propositioned with opening a food venture in a small town that several of your friends live in? Not every day.

Let me back up a little.

Food is a constant theme between a close group of friends of mine. New Years was devoted to the overconsumption of tacos in Baja, Mexico, the following winter months sharing recipes and the warmer spring days catching up over outdoor weekend brunches.

We’re spread out, two of us in Portland and others in Colorado. The geographic distance between us has lead to plenty of emails, group texts (often with food photos) and Skype chats, the former being exactly how I first found out about the Airstream.

“I have an idea to run by you,” my friend Beda kicked off one weekend call.

“Yes…” I responded, knowing fully well that anytime Beda has an idea it’s going to be a good one.

“So we’re thinking of starting a taco truck in Salida, because there’s no good place to get a burrito! And it would be in an Airstream,” she continued.

At this point we launched into the logistics of running a food establishment – logistics that neither of us have any experience in – and whether or not it was possible.

“And then you could move down here and run it!” she said.

I laughed and we left things at that.

Flash forward to five months later when myself and my fellow Portland foodie urbanite – yes, we eat sea salt with everything – Megan were drinking coffee with the Salida crew that we had come to visit.

“So, that food truck… we need someone to run it. We already have the wine tasting room and the distillery on board, and the space is right next to the new bike shop. You could serve locally roasted coffee, and breakfast burritos to all the skiers in the winter. You ladies want to move down here and take on the project?” Annie was all over this.

Wine, bikes and tacos? My heart skipped a beat.

These are all things that have become ubiquitous with urban food hot spots, you can barely walk five blocks in Portland, San Francisco or Brooklyn without coming across an off-the-cuff food operation, be it a food truck, a waffle window or a refurbished storage container that sells local food. But rural Colorado where there’s a good mix of mountain bikers, cowboys, river guides and four wheel truck drivers, is something different. On the other hand, isn’t this where free range local beef and real artisan goat cheese is just down the road? Good food abounds even if it’s not drizzled in truffle oil (although if you’re ever in Salida, be sure to try the truffle oil fries at The Fritz).

Can’t you envision an Airstream parked here serving up homemade tacos and burritos?

What is it about a food venture that is so appealing?

“You should open a restaurant!” is a common phrase heard at dinner parties when someone cooks a delicious meal, and who hasn’t had romantic visions of starting a brewery where you can serve local food and craft beer? Grab coffee at a quaint cafe with art on the walls and local bands playing at night while you’re on vacation and you’ll soon find yourself thinking, “we should have something like that here,” as soon as you return home.

Food is primal, and providing our communities with a chance to enjoy it is appealing. Seductive even.

There is of course the reality, and at the back of my mind I always hear my mother saying, “you don’t want to run a restaurant, you need balance.” Mothers like to give that kind of advice, especially if they know you well. There is no denying that a job in the food industry is a stressful and time consuming one. But it’s also rewarding.

Making food is making sustenance, and turning it into an art in the process. It’s about providing people with a place to eat, but also a place to appreciate good food and the community around them, all things that even those of us sitting around drinking coffee and discussing the potential business venture, without any restaurant or food truck management experience under our belts, are passionate about.

I am by no means trying to over-romanticize the everyday logistics that go into such a project, or even say that I would be willing to commit to it.

Run a restaurant and you need to put food on the table. Every. Single. Day. Or at least every single day you commit to being open. You also have to do fun jobs like inventory, permitting and clean-up. But at the end of the day, you’re still running a business that’s all about food. Shouldn’t everything we do in life be a labor of love? And what requires more love than good food?

We may not all launch a restaurant, but plenty of people out there are passionate about what they eat and drink and pursuing successful business ventures, from baking to support nonprofits, to hosting local farm-to-table tours, to roasting specialty coffee and delivering it on a bike. There is a reward in giving back to a community that you can’t put a dollar value to, and what better way to do so than through food and drink?

It might be a stretch to say “change the world one food truck at a time” but if in doing so we are creating a better conversation around food, what’s to say that this isn’t the tipping point? We all need to eat, and if we can have affordable and equitable access to a healthy product, the faster we can influence a path to positive change in the realm of food politics.

Airstream taco truck in Salida, Colorado? Who knows. But the seed has been planted, and at the very least, it’s fun to dream.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

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