How Small Changes In Food Choice Can Make BIG Everyday Differences: Stefanie Sacks (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Stefanie Sacks’ talk titled “How Small Changes In Food Choice Can Make BIG Everyday Differences” at TEDxManhattan 2015 conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

A Labor of Love and Pain

Thank you. A labor of love and pain. While making healthy choices and cooking may be a burden to many, it’s evidently my way of life, and it’s my kids’ way of life, and it’s a brilliant time for us to connect and share. Everything that you just saw on this video is possible, and each and every activity is fertile ground for an essential, edible conversation, one that is not happening in most homes in this country today, but actually needs to happen if we’re going to get healthy and stay healthy.

I’m like everybody else. I deal with a six-year-old who loves sugar. You saw my negotiation with him. He wanted the soda. Then he wanted the fruit and sugar water. And then he wanted the juice.

But I’m a realist, not an idealist. And so I bought him the Better Few alternative soda that had natural flavors and a little sugar, and we made lemonade at home. So I’m going to ask you all for something, which may seem a little lofty, but please understand that small changes in food choice can and will make big everyday differences, small changes.

Question the Foods You Choose

So please start to question the foods you choose for you and your loved ones. I’m going to make it really simple. So it’s three things. Make health your bottom line, commit to change, and start to get an edible education. Everybody has to start somewhere. But before I get into the details of that, I want to talk to you about values. This is a Mercedes, an expensive car. You put the highest quality gas in this car, right? Most expensive gas in this car.

Well, this is a human being, the single most precious thing in the world. In fact, priceless. Yes, this is the type of fuel we are giving the human body to make it run.

Many years ago, I was at my son’s hockey game, my older son’s hockey game, and I watched a woman, screaming 18-month-old child, pour red Gatorade into his bottle. Red Gatorade has red dye number 40. It’s proven to cause hyperactivity in already hyperactive children. It had GMO ingredients, tons of sugar, artificial flavors.

Why Has Food Choice Come to This?

I was furious. I felt like I was jumping out of my body. But then I became really sad, as I realized that likely she didn’t know any better. And for every one of you thinking, “I’d never eat this, I wouldn’t give my kids stuff like this,” there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who do.

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So why has food choice come to this in this country? There are barriers. I see them every day in my practice, working one-on-one, whether I’m teaching large groups. We’re all crunched for time.

Hey, I work full-time. I’ve got two kids who need me all the time. So I know what it’s like. And food access is a challenge for many. For some, it’s “I live in a food desert,” people without money, to even people with money.

It doesn’t matter. You can live in a food desert with or without money. And finding sometimes a grocery store that’s not within walking distance or comfortable driving distance is too much for people. And cost. Healthy eating costs more.

Navigating the Barriers

I’ll go back to what Deb said. We need healthy food, and it actually doesn’t cost more. More on that in a little bit. And confusion. How could you not be confused?

This is my big one. You’ve got a food industry that’s duping you every day, and you’re buying into it. You’ve got a government whose regulations on our food system are subpar, and you have credible health professionals on morning shows talking about healthy breakfasts, including a peanut butter filled with trans fats and tons of sugar. So guess what? We’ve got to start to understand that our health is nobody’s bottom line but ours.

So we have to make it that. Do these barriers actually exist? Time, cost, access, confusion? You know, for over 15 years now, I have been working with people one-on-one and in groups.

People from low-income communities to financiers to celebrities, and everybody comes to me to prevent or manage illness. I work with people with allergies, cancer, gastrointestinal issues. I see it all. And everyone wants to change the way they eat to support their health.

Breaking Down the Barriers

And after cooking with them, talking to them about food, taking them shopping, teaching them how to navigate food, everyone starts to break down these barriers. So how can you do the same? How about planning a little bit?

This is my six-year-old’s shopping list. You can see marshmallows are at the top. He’s always trying for the sugar. If he could have jelly beans for breakfast, he would. But he has me as his mom, so I don’t let him. It’s this shopping list that drives nourishment in our house weekly.

So do you have time to plan for meetings, doctor’s appointments? Have tea, schedule a lunch? If you have time for that, you have time to plan for nourishment. It doesn’t take that long. Sit down, write a shopping list. Write a quick menu for the week. Figure out when you’re going to shop. Figure out when you’re going to cook.

It’s all possible. You know, a couple weeks ago, Robin O’Brien, one of my favorite food crusaders, tweeted, “If we don’t plan for eating healthfully, then we better plan for illness.” It doesn’t get more true than that. I see it every day.

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Access to Healthy Food

There are options for those who complain that they don’t have access to food. Do you know you can order food online? Amazon, True Foods, Boxed, Abe’s Market.

Go to localharvest.org. You can find a food co-op.

You can find a CSA. It’s pretty accessible. Farmstand app, a great app that you can download onto your phone and find a farmstand or a farmer’s market in your area. So I don’t buy into access all the time.

And Ruthie Solari is a friend of mine who has this organization, Superfood Drive, and they drive health towards hunger relief to food banks and pantries. We had this conversation about healthy eating and costing too much, and she sent me this. And look, highly processed oatmeal is more expensive than just rolled oats. A pasta mix is more expensive than a whole wheat pasta.

And a canned, whatchamacallit, beef is more expensive than tuna. And have you ever heard of “Good and Cheap”? It’s one of my favorite new books. Eat well and $4 a day, that’s a food stamp budget. Leanne Brown, an NYU student. Brilliant.

Making Health Your Bottom Line

So guess what? Health can actually be your bottom line. It just takes a little bit of navigating. And please become a skeptical shopper. This is the drive behind all of my work. Question the foods you choose. Don’t believe the banners on the boxes.

Turn your box around. If your ingredient list reads like a short novel, if there’s something you can’t pronounce, don’t buy it. That’s a great start. And now, of course, we have Environmental Working Group’s Food Scores Database, which is brilliant. Nutrition, Ingredient, and Processing Concerns. You can zap in the barcode of your food and learn about it. So if you can grasp any of that, then you can make health your bottom line. You can commit to change. And you can start to get an edible education.

The Pantry Fridge Freezer Rehab

So a little bit on where the rubber meets the road in my work. This is the Pantry Fridge Freezer Rehab. I go into people’s homes as part of my work. For those of you who are at home, I urge you to go to your pantry. Turn boxes around.

See, do you have red dye number 40, yellow dye number 5, yellow dye number 6? Do you have trans fats? Do you have artificial flavors? Do you have names that you can’t pronounce? Typically chemical preservatives. If so, always know there’s a better alternative for every average choice. It’s possible. And then the Meal Rehab. This is me cooking with 30 people, 30 minutes, 2 meals at Food is Medicine, this great conference that I get to be a part of each year.

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Breaking Down Barriers in the Kitchen

A woman came up to me at the end of this hysterically crying. And I’m not joking. She was hysterical. And she said, “Stephanie, I never knew that cooking and eating healthfully was so simple. You have broken down barriers for me and my home. And I’m going to start to teach my patients how to do this, how to nourish themselves.” Thank you.

So you know what? Give the kitchen a shot. It’s not going to kill you. In fact, it could help you. Two hours a day, one day a week, you can put together soups, stews, and then complement them during the week with a vegetable and a grain. Nutritious can always meet delicious.

Starting Somewhere

So everyone has to start somewhere. And a little bit of where I started. This is me at three in my wooden play kitchen. I suffered a lot with illness as a kid back in the 70s and into the 80s. I had terrible asthma, allergies, recurring bronchitis, pneumonia, and doctors kept drugging me.

And I kept getting sicker. So I turned to my inner cook. And I picked up “Food and Healing” by Anne-Marie Colbin. And I started to heal, actually, by feeding myself and nourishing myself and learning about the food system in the 80s.

I was 15. I went on to the Natural Gourmet, Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, and then to get my Master’s in Nutrition at Columbia University. And it’s because of this path that I’m here today speaking to all of you.

Finding Your Inner Action Hero

And I have the great honor of being invited into so many people’s lives to help them make a difference in their health. And that is such a gift. So if you can’t find your inner cook, because some people don’t have one, please find your inner action hero. Wonder Woman is mine. I just love her.

Because you can make health your bottom line, you can commit to change, and you can start to get an edible education. Please know, small changes, let’s not talk big, small changes in your food choice can make very big, lasting changes for you and your loved ones. Thank you.