Worlds Collide

Freaky!

So, last night we went to see Julie and Julia – a fabulous, uplifting movie about life, passion, cooking and following your dreams.  I came home all revved up and started my other blog, Lessons From Gus (check it out).  It’s weird how this movie has acted like a catalyst for me – to get me to take action and execute on some things I feel passionate about:  life, health, food, and of course my dog, Gus.

This morning I was going through some  emails from the week, and I opened one from my friend Julie (ironic!).  It was a link to a N.Y. Times piece written by Michael Pollan  called “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” http://tinyurl.com/mumt9t  .  The piece, while lengthy, is a fascinating reflection that touches on the movie Julie and Julia, and looks at the evolution of home cooking in America – from the phenomenal impact of Julia Child to the current sports-like obsession with Food Network shows like Iron Chef and Hell’s Kitchen.

Pollan walks us through the changes that have occurred in American home kitchens from the 1950′s to today.    Julia Child’s endearing, fearless and human approach to putting a meal on the table empowered many women to step away from the Swanson’s frozen dinners and to mess about with real food with delicious results.  Pollan highlights the evolution of the American dinner table from this point to the current reality:  “. . . the decline and fall of everyday home cooking.”

It turns out that in 2009 we as a population (because let’s face it – Canadians aren’t much different from Americans in this respect) are enthralled with watching others  (food celebrities) cook, yet claim that we don’t have the time, interest or skill to actually do any cooking ourselves.  The kicker is that it turns out that the rise in North American obesity rates has occurred in direct relation to the decline in the time spent on home cooking.

Okay, so this is all interesting, but where do I come in?  Well, for several years now I have had this burning desire to do something relating to nutrition, food and health. With university degrees in both nutritional science and health promotion, I have carved out a rambling career path.  I’ve sold candy (!!), taught human physiology and nutrition, done weight loss counseling, and more recently developed an obsession with taking beautiful pictures of fruit and vegetables and the dishes I create from them.  The title of this blog, “Rainbow Plate,” is intended to reflect this, and is also the name of my fledgling business through which I hope to make  this obsession a success on a few levels.

I’ve long believed that the secret to making people healthier is to just help them to do more of the right things and less of the wrong things when it comes down to making choices.  The average person doesn’t need to know the chemical structure or physiological action of anthocyanins – they just need to eat more blueberries!

My stated mission for Rainbow Plate is “better health made simple.”  I am now more convinced than ever that this is the key to helping people take charge in the area of food and health.  As of this morning, I am committed to including the focus on home cooking as an integral piece of what I do.  As things unfold for me I will do my best to blog along with the process, to share what I believe and what I’m doing.  Please join me for the journey.

If you do nothing else. . . just cook dinner!

Janet Nezon