The Lustful Vegan

Yesterday and today I took part in a study run by the local university, evaluating Eatracker.ca. It was pretty interesting. Yesterday I had to create a special account on the site, and use it to track everything I consumed throughout the day (including food, vitamins and supplements, drinks, etc.). This morning I met with a dietitian, and she collected much the same information via conversation. Naturally the two approaches had a lot of overlap, but they differed in the details they collected. For example I missed some things in the interview, because it was morning and my memory doesn’t kick in before the afternoon. On the other hand I’m sure that the dietitian managed a better overall assessment, because Eatracker’s database didn’t include a lot of the foods I eat (things like bulgur, kiwi, dried cranberries, etc.), which meant my online food list wasn’t 100% complete.

She also took general feedback on the system — which I can summarize as “easy enough to use and nice assessments, but the food database is sadly lacking.” My site of choice remains NutritionData.com, though admittedly the focus is different — more concerned with nutrition information, less with daily tracking. I use it mostly for analyzing recipes and individual foods; it has the best food database I’ve found, and offers tremendous detail. Eatracker may be better for tracking nutritional info over time though. I used it intermittently even before this study, and so learned that I’m consistently coming up a bit short on potassium, but have absolutely no worries re: the usual vegan ‘deficits’ — protein, iron, B12, or calcium.

Anyway, that was the study and the site. While I was participating I jotted down some notes for my own amusement. The highlight?…

“4:17pm…*bite head off of chocolate Easter bunny*…Uh oh…*eyes laptop*…How many grams of chocolate in a Botticelli bunny head? Nope, forget it, I’m not logging this. Never happened. Move along now.”

I’m in a bit of a work crunch, so photos and food thoughts are backing up. I’ll get to them eventually (I hope).

Today I stole a bit of time to answer a nagging question though. My housemate and I keep debating “eat local” versus “eat organic” in our food choices. Neither of us wants food covered in pesticides, but we also question the environmental cost of eating food that’s travelled more than both of us put together. So how can we balance environmental concerns with health concerns?

The answer I came up with is this [PDF] — a list of the top twelve ‘cleanest’ and ‘dirtiest’ fruits and vegetables. (You can also see the full list of 45 rated items here.) I figure I’ll use these lists as decision makers. Anything on the ‘dirty’ list I’ll buy organic, always, even if that means well-travelled produce. Anything on the ‘clean’ list will be a local purchase whenever possible. (In truth I may do a bit more research and make my own dirty dozen list, specific to the fruits and veggies we buy most often.)

It’s not a perfect solution. Ideally everything we buy would be both local and organic. But when it’s a case of either/or, at least now I have a way of choosing.