Not just any plate, but one that has been approved by the First Family. A plate that says, less is better but what constitutes less will be unveiled in stages. We have become a full plate society from our parents earliest admonitions to finish your food to dining out and expecting full plates brimming over with food. Oversize restaurant portions were supposed to imply monetary value but instead helped contribute to our obesity numbers.

The President and the First Lady exemplify their commitment to exercise and good eating habits. The White House Garden has been a huge success and farm markets continue to expand in close proximity to the White House. At the same time some of the nation’s top chefs have contributed their time and expertise to improving the school lunch program. Logically, the next step is to take the tired pyramid of foods and replace its message with one that stresses vital health information. This is a more active focus that demonstrates the importance of being active and eating healthy. In addition to the USDA, other government agencies will help drive the important message.

Making the plate a thing of beauty with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables is a natural starting point. After all we are in the heart of the growing season and product availability. Grocers are competing with farm stands to show that locally grown food can be readily available to all shoppers.

Eating healthy has new rules and as a nation the time has come to step up to the plate and move into a healthier position. We welcome the pyramid retirement party.

It’s time to set up a healthy plate.

Not everyone has been on summer break as one of the champions of the need to make changes to school lunches has been vocal and focused on the topic all summer. That’s First Lady Michelle Obama who ended the school year with a chef-focused White House event and continued to focus her message on the importance of eating healthy. Many food industry leaders went back to their own kitchens and communities and rounded up the necessary funds and personnel to impact either a single school or work directly with a selected school system. Many such programs are in place and set for the new school year.

Also in the good news department is the recent Senate passage of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill which may or may not survive House debate. With added funds over 10 years, schools will be able to improve the school cafeteria situation and have better control over food safety issues.

Now let me talk about faint praise as the large dollar infusion, $4.5 billion over 10 years roughly translates to 6, yes, 6, additional cents per lunch preparation. Ludicrous, I say. Schools are operating on limited funding in the first place and now we are giving them additional guidelines to follow and increasing the individual spending by only 6 cents! Did I mention that food costs are already going up and that should continue as the weather of extreme heat and drought have played a rough card for growers. Six cents!

Schools that are without the appropriate funds and communities without the ability to implement changes need parental and restaurant involvement to insure change and secure the health and well-being of our students. We can no longer just nod at the school food programs and say they need to be changed. Instead we as individuals need to get involved and make districts hear that they cannot feed youngsters a double helping of pizza daily. The obesity problem does not always start at home. School lunch programs especially for individuals who receive breakfast and lunch assistance need to recognize that good eating can additionally be taught in the school cafeteria.

As for individual lunches that parents pack, it takes just a few extra minutes to cut up the celery and carrots or add an apple to the box. Skip the chocolate milk and go for the mini reusable water container. If it’s a sandwich consider bread with fiber and if the youngster needs gluten-free, G-F food, make certain that everyone has a clear understanding of the dangers of contamination and cross-contamination.

Businesses are getting involved, too. Whole Foods has an initiative, The Great American Salad Bar Project, to get more salad bars in schools.  The donation-based program is an easy way for everyone to participate in creating a better lunch program with healthier, fresher foods.

All these strategies together may solve one of the heaviest weights on future generations. Start the school year right and save a life.

That’s what’s happened today. Actually some of the news started yesterday when a link between sweetened drinks and pancreatic cancer grabbed headlines all day. Interesting that the study only took into account those who consumed multiple sugar-sweetened sodas daily. They did not study diet sodas or even sugar-sweetened fruit juices. The report (which covered a 14-year period with a sizable sample) found an 87% increase in the possibility of getting pancreatic cancer in individuals who consumed as few as two cans of soda a week. It’s the spike in insulin which occurs from the highly sweet beverage. Juice was not considered a culprit because quantities are often less than with soda consumption.

Soda has been linked to any number of medical issues before, but today it truly grabbed the limelight when First Lady Michelle Obama tackled childhood obesity and pointed a finger at a number of culprits, including soda. The message translates quite simply: We can control what we put in our bodies and what we offer our children. The obesity figures are staggering ( 1 in 3 children ages 6-19 are overweight and 1 in 5 are considered obese) and label us as an overweight society.

The School Lunch Program will receive greater scrutiny, and all facets of the food industry will be asked to consider how they can join the Partnership for a Healthier America. By creating a Task Force on Childhood Obesity, the nation will be able to work in lock step with all aspects of the food industry in bringing down the dangerous obesity numbers.

The First Lady has had a great first year focusing us on how we can all be healthier. The White House Garden was an important first step. Now the attention is on the whole child and the society that we have become. The worry is that with the current obesity figures, young people will have a shortened life span. The time to get off the couch and get moving is now.

The non-alcoholic Beverage Industry was ready with its response: Front and center labeling will spell out the calorie count in a visible fashion for packages, vending and fountain machines. In addition to smart labeling, the industry will continue its efforts to lessen sugar counts and reduce package sizes. Recall that Coke introduced a smaller can, with fewer calories, a while ago and has been aggressively marketing its properties.

Beer has had a much better week. It is not the first study that links the properties from a beer especially one with a high count of hops and barley to improved bone strength or a way to ward off osteoporosis. The new darlings, the wheat beers, would not qualify as being strong contenders in this space so ask for a light ale with a high malt content. This study has another added component: Women who seem to have more staggering numbers when it comes to instances of osteopenia or osteoporosis may think twice when they shrug off the beer choices. Raise the stein for bone density.

I know, I know, everything in moderation. Fill your refrig with a variety of foods and eliminate the sugar-laden ones that weigh us down. Water’s good, but my espresso lifestyle is not that bad!

–A week before the biggest snack game of the year and some new interesting products are ready for serving. Not officially G-F, but the new Quaker Baked Rice and Corn Crisps (Tortillaz, Zesty Guacamole flavor) give old-fashioned rice cakes a boot off the field. They are tasty, perfect snack dippers.

–We’ve extolled the health virtues of wine, now we can add grape juice to that list. Not a big, logical jump but one affirmed as a memory booster. Now you have a perfect excuse to stay with Welch’s beyond your 12th birthday!

–Have you noticed that the humble French Fry has taken on a new persona: A highly visible accompaniment to multiple restaurant dishes or as an expensive side as in Truffle, Mole, or Sweet. It’s been deliciously elevated as a special flavor treat. I accept.

–What’s it mean when a restaurant of  multiple-star recognition decides to close down for a couple of years to reinvent itself and come out of the gate as a different persona? That’s the question the food world asked this week with the news that the impossible-to-get reservation at Spain’s El Bulli need not cause you anxiety until they reopen as ??  Molecular tapas?

–Have you noticed that the Happy Hour is back? Hardly an hour but a solid period of time to help bring in both after work diners and late night partyers. As in times of old, it works nicely as an early, inexpensive, affordable outing. Many places have decided on a double shift: afternoon and late nights.

–Not just a healthy garden project for the First Lady, but a role as the spokesperson on Childhood Obesity, sadly,  the growing, national health concern.

–Yes, not a week goes by without some food recall. This week it’s more on burgers and now peppers and noodle dishes are a concern, too.

If the weather starts to improve, you’ll see plenty more food trucks. Right now they are operating under extreme conditions in most of the country, but this mini restaurant at the curb continues to be an influential trend.

Now it’s time to think February and recognize the longest month of the year; no matter what the calendar says!

The message quite simply says we need to teach the young and their families about the importance of eating healthy, about supporting the farmers, the growers. Now in what looks like a major coup for DC-based FreshFarm Markets, the operators at this new location near The White House. That is if the street permits, closing a small stretch of road near the White House for Thursday afternoons until the end of October, pass the approval process. Since the expected hours for the Market include the dreaded DC Rush Hour, this is not a plan without controversy.

At this point in time (one week before the anticipated opening), it is unclear how much produce, if any, will come from the White House Garden and if that will be made available in a less expensive format to those in need.

One possibility is to add this location to the DOUBLEDOLLARS program that FreshFarm Markets offers at two locations. The Wholesome Wave Foundation has made it possible to provide matching market food dollars to customers who use Food Stamps, WIC, or Senior “Get Fresh” coupons. Such a program provides the necessary outreach to individuals who otherwise would find the local, farm fresh products exorbitantly expensive.

Opening a farm market near the White House, whether produce came from the Garden, or not, would be another important step in the Administration’s food outreach.

Look, First Lady Michelle Obama who has championed natural foods, locavore decisions, and a White House Garden did not dine out last evening. Instead she showed the movie and invited the cast to join her.  Not too shabby a decision.

A Virginia restaurant has decided to cook up an August prix-fixe menu right from Julia’s cookbook and join with its neighborhood theatre to help guests get tickets if they want to see the show after they have dined.

Then of course, the old Dan Aykryod Saturday Night Julia clip, “The French Chef” has gotten plenty of Hulu viewers.

See, food is fun and challenging: Plenty of time to start Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Here’s your Save the Date card: August 7.

Why are people intimidated to ask for a doggy bag when dining out, especially at a fine restaurant? (See the link for the online discussion on this topic). Do not let restaurants intimidate. It is perfectly fine to enjoy the contents later, at home!

Maybe now we have a new placeholder: If the First Lady can ask for her pasta in a suitable container, we can follow that strategy and bag it up. Why should we abandon a perfectly fabulous dish because we can’t finish it now?

Wrap it up. We’ll have it later.

Once again, we can identify with the human side of the First Family, the First Lady.

Thank you.

My take: No explanation needed. You two have given the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers image a heightened perspective. After all you are the President and the First Lady and when you waltz into a room or glide into a theatre, the literal swoon takes over.

The approach and philosophy are such human qualities. It’s so wonderful. As noted before it is terrific to have an Administration that’s in touch. That has a life.

Sure we don’t jet off to New York in Air Force One or its cousin smaller plane and then take the helicopter into the city for dinner and a play. We aren’t the First Family. What do you want them to do, take the $25 bus from DC to New York and miss the play?

Time is too critical; there are too many matters that need desk time before the promise gets fulfilled. Let’s not forget security. It is the elephant in the room at every juncture. It’s in place for a reason. Transport them in the safest way possible. 

Anyway the transportation accouterments come with the office; better to use them than to take the plane for a flyover publicity stunt. Oh, that genius of a marketing person is history!

The homage to Dan Barber is well deserved. He is the New York king of local product and leader of the East Coast freshness movement with his New York restaurant Blue Hill and his upstate dining experience, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant and a working farm (The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture): Perfect Symbiosis. 

The First Family has very carefully chosen their dining out evenings. The fact that they have date night just enhances their human quality appeal. The streets of New York were lined with the gawkers. Why not? Gawk away; it is a privilege to see them out and about. The New York Times photo shows the excitement.

The Fairy Tale continues.

That’s great news for everyone.

Her message was clear: You can succeed. To drive her point even further, she, in celebration of National Women’s History Month, enlisted other famous woman to go out into the communities and help young people understand that success can be reached. With the likes of Alicia Keys, Sheryl Crow, and Alfre Woodward and a host of other successful women, the message emanated from the White House to the schools. Accomplished women showing other young women that their future does not have to be bleak, that they can overcome obstacles.

The women traveled to 11 nearby schools to show that The White House is not just a building in a history book, but that it is nearby and is a place with a strong message: success can be achieved. Students were chosen for their athletic and academic achievements and included young men and women who had the opportunity to meet headliners and sit with them and ask questions.

The day concluded with a special dinner for 110 young women who shared dinner with the luminaries who had taken their message around town earlier in the day.

Lots of Firsts in this new Administration.

This First Lady gets it.