Looking for an easy, budget-friendly plant-based recipe? This Smoky Lentil Chili certainly passes the test! Filled with rich, smoky flavors, this healthy, family-friendly chili recipe is 100% plant-based (vegan) and gluten-free, perfect for everyone at your dining table. Lentils require no soaking, and cook up faster than beans. So, you can mix up the ingredients for this dish, which include green or brown lentils, vegetable broth, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and spices in a pot in just a few minutes, and let it bubble away for about 30 minutes, and dinner is served! Just pair this chili recipe with a salad and a serving of rustic whole grain bread or my skillet cornbread, and you have a balanced meal in no time. You can also throw all of these ingredients into a slow cooker in the morning, and a savory, fragrant crockpot lentil chili will greet you when you come home at the end of the day. You can use an Instant Pot to get an Instant Pot lentil chili done even more quickly! I love to garnish this recipe with a handful of fresh cilantro, avocado slices, and green onions. Or, let your dinner guests sprinkle it with plant-based cheese, Vegan Sour Cream, and baked tortilla chips for a hearty, delicious dish.
Nutrition Notes
This gluten free vegan smoky lentil chili is packed with plant proteins, fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Tomatoes add a touch of lycopene—a powerful antioxidant compound to this dish, too. This recipe can be made as an oil free, added sugar free, salt free recipe, if you follow a whole foods plant-based lifestyle.
Watch me make this recipe on my Plant-Power Live cooking show here.
Print
Description
This easy, budget-friendly vegan, gluten-free chili recipe is a go-to in your kitchen for the main dish, parties, potlucks, and side dishes.
Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch Oven over medium heat (may omit olive oil and use broth; see below).
Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic and saute for 5 minutes.
Add lentils, broth, 2 cups water, tomatoes, tomato paste, liquid smoke, chili powder, crushed red pepper, oregano, smoked paprika, parsley flakes, mustard, celery salt, and salt in a large pot. Stir well, cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 30-35 minutes, until thickened and tender. May add additional water to adjust consistency—should make thick, stew-like texture.
Serve into bowls (about 2 cups per portion). Garnish each bowl with fresh cilantro, green onion, and sliced avocado, if desired.
Notes
May omit oil, if desired. Sauté the vegetables in a small amount of the broth for 5 minutes, then follow the remaining directions.
Instant Pot Directions: Place all ingredients (except cilantro, green onions, and avocado) in the container of the Instant Pot. Press “Bean/Chili” setting. Cook according to manufacturer’s directions. Serve immediately. Garnish with cilantro, green onions, and avocado, if desired.
Slow Cooker Directions: Place all ingredients (except cilantro, green onions, and avocado) in the container of the Slow cooker. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-12 hours. Cook according to manufacturer’s directions. Serve immediately. Garnish with cilantro, green onions, and avocado, if desired.
Prep Time:12 minutes
Cook Time:35 minutes
Category:Soup, Entree
Cuisine:American
Nutrition
Serving Size:1 serving
Calories:262
Sugar:9 g
Sodium:342 mg
Fat:2 g
Carbohydrates:50 g
Fiber:12 g
Protein:16 g
For more of my favorite plant-based chili, soup and stew recipes, check out:
As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information about affiliate links, click here.
Carlo Aquino (left) and “Shogun” star Takehiro Hira in the official trailer of “Crosspoint.” | Image: Screengrab from YouTube/CROSSPOINT
Filipino actor Carlo Aquino and Japanese star Takehiro Hira, known for his role in the award-winning series “Shogun,” are set to team up in the upcoming Philippine and Japanese independent collaboration film “Crosspoint.”
The official trailer of the action-drama has been released and it showed Manuel (Aquino) and Shigeru (Hira) stumbling upon each other in Japan. The pair came to an agreement about finding a wanted person to claim the 10-million yen reward to make ends meet.
Article continues after this advertisement
The one minute and 30 second clip gave a glimpse of Aquino and Hira’s characters’ distressing, action-packed lives.
In an interview with TV Patrol, Aquino shared that it was an “achievement” for him to have worked with the Hollywood actor.
“Ang daming checklist para sakin, Japan shoot, kasama ko si Takehiro Hira. ‘Yung pagdating niya sa set alam niya na lahat. ‘Yung blocking na lang ‘yung aaralin namin, saka kapag nagre-rehearsal ginagawa niya na kung ano ‘yung gagawin niya sa take,” he said.
Article continues after this advertisement
Directed by Donie Ordiales, “Crosspoint” will premiere in Philippine cinemas on Oct. 16 and is slated for a screening in Japan next year. It will also feature Sarah Jane Abad, Kei Kurosawa, Ian de Leon, Zeppi Borromeo, Dindo Arroyo and Polo Ravales.
Article continues after this advertisement
Meanwhile, Hira was recently nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Ishido Kazunari in “Shogun,” which received a historic 25 nominations and won 18 of them at the 2024 Primetime Creative Arts Emmys.
On the other hand, Aquino is also set to appear in another big local project, the Philippine adaptation of Korean drama “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay,” where he will be playing an adult who’s part of the autism spectrum.
Aquino will be joined by Anne Curtis and Joshua Garcia, among others, in the said series.
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Despite knowing about biodiversity’s importance for a long time, human activity has been causing massive extinctions. As the Environment New Service, reported back in August 1999 (previous link): the current extinction rate is now approaching 1,000 times the background rate and may climb to 10,000 times the background rate during the next century, if present trends continue [resulting in] a loss that would easily equal those of past extinctions. (Emphasis added)
Additionally, as reported by UC Berkeley, using DNA comparisons, scientists have discovered what they have termed as an evolutionary concept called parallelism, a situation where two organisms independently come up with the same adaptation to a particular environment. This has an additional ramification when it comes to protecting biodiversity and endangered species. This is because in the past what we may have considered to be one species could actually be many. But, as pointed out by scientists, by putting them all in one group, it under-represents biodiversity, and these different evolutionarily species would not be getting the protection otherwise needed.
Increasing rapid ocean acidification, caused by the oceans absorbing more carbon dioxide than usual (because it is emitted by humans more than it should) also affects marine ecosystems, as explained on this site’s climate change and biodiversity page.
What also makes this a problem is that many of the endangered species are only found in small areas of land, often within the borders of a single country.
New species of animals and plants are still being discovered. In Papua New Guinea, 44 new species of animals were discovered recently in the forests. Logging may affect these animals’ habitats, though. The loss of rainforests around the world, where many species of life are found will mean that potential knowledge, whether medicinal, sustenance sources, or evolutionary and scientific information etc. could be lost.
Brazil, which is estimated to have around 55,000 species of flora, amounting to some 22% of the world’s total and India for example, which has about 46,000 and some 81,000 animal species (amounting to some 8% of the world’s biodiversity), are also under various pressures, from corporate globalization, deforrestation, etc. So too are many other biodiverse regions, such as Indonesia, parts of Africa, and other tropical regions.
Sustainable Forests or Sustainable Profits?
The overly corporate-led form of globalization that we see today also affects how natural resources are used and what priorities they are used for.
It is true that cutting down forests or converting natural forests into monocultures of pine and eucalyptus for industrial raw material generates revenues and growth. But this growth is based on robbing the forest of its biodiversity and its capacity to conserve soil and water. This growth is based on robbing forest communities of their sources of food, fodder, fuel, fiber, medicine, and security from floods and drought.
Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, (South End Press, 2000), p.1(Image source: Wikipedia)
We hear more about sustainable forestry practices by the large logging multinationals. However, what does that really mean? Who is it sustainable for? Society and the environment, or for the logging companies? By replanting trees that will grow quickly and allow them to be felled for sustained logging sounds like a good strategy. However, the trees that are favored for this (eucalyptus) require a lot of water to grow so quickly. As John Madeley points out:
[T]he [eucalyptus] trees achieve this rapid growth by tapping large quantities of groundwater, impoverishing surrounding vegetation and threatening to dry up local water courses.
John Madeley, Big Business Poor Peoples; The Impact of Transnational Corporations on the World’s Poor, (Zed Books, 1999) p.76.
Madeley continues by describing the impact that the use of chemicals to treat woodpulp from the eucalyptus has on local fisheries and on food production. This has had terrible effects on indigenous people within such regions.
Illegal Timber Trade on a Large Scale
Some government institutions even buy illegal timber from pristine forests. For example, it is claimed that UK buys all of its Mahogany from pristine forests in Brazil where 80% of all timber is traded illegally. Even though Brazil has now tried to introduce a moratorium on Mahogany logging for two years, this has been slammed by some as too little, too late.
Legal Timber Trade on a Large Scale
Under much secrecy, there is a push from USA and Asian economies to reduce tariffs for wood and paper products. Also at the WTO Ministerial meeting in November 1999, opening more markets for easier access was the agenda, which included forests.
People and Forests
Quite often we make blanket statements or generalized conclusions that people are the cause of deforestation. While that is true, unfortunately all people around the world are not equal, and it also also follows that some are more responsible for deforestation than others. Often, in forests of the Amazon, Africa, or Asia, forest protection schemes have been promoted that go against indigenous peoples and cultures, rather than work with them.
As Indian activist and scientist Vandana Shiva and others have shown in countless work, indigenous people often have their cultures and lifestyle structured in a way that works with nature and would not undermine their own resource base. For example, in her book Stolen Harvests (South End Press, 2000) she describes how their traditional knowledge has been beneficial to the environment and has been developed and geared towards this understanding and respect of the ecosystems around them.
Hopetoun falls, Australia; an example of trying to preserve nature while allowing tourism. (Source: Wikipedia)
Yet because of blanket conclusions that humankind is responsible for deforestation, we risk assuming all types of societies are equally responsible for deforestation that is damaging to the environment. (This hints then, that for sustainable development projects, a more participatory approach can be accepted by local people, reducing the chance for conflict and distrust and therefore be more likely to succeed as well.)
As the cartoon, further above, from the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment notes, logging companies and others can often have a larger impact on deforestation. Industrial agriculture and beef production for example, is a major cause of deforestation in the Amazon, to raise cattle. This is not even for local needs, but to meet fast food restaurant demands in the Northern countries. A combination of geopolitics and economic agreements foster a scenario for such results to occur.
For more on this aspect of people and biodiversity, you can see also the following:
Pining for More, an article from their Down to Earth magazine (Vol 10, No 18 February 15, 2001). This article describes how Pine-based sustainable forests are not sustainable at all, and that Pine trees even make forest fires spread rapidly, while degrading local ecology, but grow fast, which is good for business.
On this web site’s population and environmental stress section, there is in-depth discussion on flawed and missed out assumption regarding ecological limits and factors that affect environmental degradation. These errors lead to often blaming the wrong groups of people for the problems and therefore lead to the promotion of inappropriate policies to deal with the issues.
Beef from this web site describes many aspects of deforestation and provides links and sources to other information.
Ogiek web site. This web site is about the Ogiek indigenous people of Kenya’s Mau Forest, and highlights an example of how they are being denied to live on their lands, for fears of deforestation issues. Yet, logging companies have an interest in this forest as well.
How land is used to produce food can have enormous impacts on the environment and its sustainability. And this often has nothing to do with populations. Take the following as an example:
Junk-food chains, including KFC and Pizza Hut, are under attack from major environmental groups in the United States and other developed countries because of their environmental impact. Intensive breeding of livestock and poultry for such restaurants leads to deforestation, land degradation, and contamination of water sources and other natural resources. For every pound of red meat, poultry, eggs, and milk produced, farm fields lose about five pounds of irreplaceable top soil. The water necessary for meat breeding comes to about 190 gallons per animal per day, or ten times what a normal Indian family is supposed to use in one day, if it gets water at all.
… Overall, animal farms use nearly 40 percent of the world’s total grain production. In the United States, nearly 70 percent of grain production is fed to livestock.
… In Indian Agriculture, women use up to 150 different species of plants (which the biotech industry would call weeds) as medicine, food, or fodder. For the poorest, this biodiversity is the most important resource for survival. … What is a weed for Monsanto is a medicinal plant or food for rural people.
Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, (South End Press, 2000), pp. 70-71, 104-105.
Because industrial agriculture promotes the use of monocultures, rather than a diversity of crops, the loss of biodiversity is leading to more resource usage, as described above. This as well as other political situations such as the motives for dumping surplus food on to developing countries to undersell the local farmers, leads to further hunger around the world.
For more information on land and hunger issues, this web site provides sections on:
If ecosystems deteriorates to an unsustainable level, then the problems resulting can be very expensive, economically, to reverse.
In Bangladesh and India, for example, logging of trees and forests means that the floods during the monsoon seasons can be very deadly. Similarly, many avalanches, and mud slides in many regions around the world that have claimed many lives, may have been made worse by the clearing of so many forests, which provide a natural barrier, that can take the brunt of such forces.
As the Centre for Science and Environment mentions, factors such as climate change and environmental degradation can impact regions more so, and make the impacts of severe weather systems even worse than they already are. As they further point out, for poor regions, such as Orissa in India, this is even more of a problem.
Vanishing coral reefs, forests and other ecosystems can all take their toll and even make the effects of some natural events even worse.
The cost of the effects together with the related problems that can arise (like disease, and other illness, or rebuilding and so on) is much more costly than the maintenance and sustainable development practices that could be used instead.
As an example, and assuming a somewhat alarmist scenario, if enough trees and forests and related ecosystems vanish or deteriorate sufficiently:
Then the oxygen-producing benefits from such ecosystems is threatened.
The atmosphere would suffer from more pollution.
The cost to tackle this and the related illnesses, problems and other cascading effects would be enormous (as it can be assumed that industrial pollution could increase, with less natural ecosystems to soak it up)
Furthermore, other species in that ecosystem that would depend on this would be further at risk as well, which would lead to a downward spiral for that ecosystem.
Compare those costs to taking precautionary measures such as protecting forests and promoting more sustainable forms of development. Of course, people will argue that these situations will not occur for whatever reasons. Only when it is too late can others say told you so — a perhaps very nasty Catch 22.
Social costs to some segments of society can also be high. Take for example the various indigenous Indians of Latin America. Throughout the region, as aspects of corporate globalization spread, there is growing conflict between land and resources of the indigenous communities, and those required to meet globalization related needs. The following quote from a report on this issue captures this quite well:
Many of the natural resources found on Indian lands have become more valuable in the context of the modern global economy. Several factors have spurred renewed interest in natural resources on Indian lands in Latin America, among them the mobility of capital, ecological limits to growth in developed countries, lax environmental restrictions in underdeveloped nations, lower transportation costs, advances in biotechnology, cheap third world labor, and national privatization policies. Limits to logging in developed countries have led timber transnationals overseas. Increased demand and higher prices for minerals have generated the reopening of mines and the proliferation of small-scale mining operations. Rivers are coveted for their hydroelectric potential, and bioprospecting has put a price tag on biodiversity. Originally considered lands unsuitable for productive activities, the resources on Indian lands are currently the resources of the future.
Indian land rights and decisionmaking authority regarding natural resource use on territories to which they hold claim threaten the mobility of capital and access to resources—key elements of the transnational-led globalization model. Accordingly, increased globalization has generally sharpened national conservative opposition to indigenous rights in the Americas and elsewhere in the name of making the world safe for investment. The World Trade Organization (WTO), free trade agreements, and transnational corporations are openly hostile to any legislation that might create barriers to investment or the unlimited exploitation of natural resources on Indian lands. The result has been a growing number of conflicts between indigenous communities and governments and transnational corporations over control of natural resources.
Why is it that these problems seem to be in developing countries? Don’t they know how to take care of their environment? That is what many ask in the industrialized nations. What people in the richer countries often fail to realize is that often their very own lending hand has been the one that takes most of what the environment has to offer, often in an unsustainable way. The debt that the poor countries are in has led to the stripping of resources in order to pay back what is owed. To learn more:
This web site’s look at Consumption and consumerism provides a deeper look at the enormous costs to society and to the environment by certain consumption habits. Given that the culture of consumption is so central to most societies today, it is often the system itself that is very wasteful.
This web site’s page on Debt and the Environment has more about the effects of debt on poverty and the environment.
this web site’s page on structural adjustment has more details of how debt has occurred and the structural adjustment policies that have led to governments stripping their environmental resources, reducing the cost of labor, exporting more to the industrialized countries, often without feeding their own people first, repaying more debt than spending on health or education, and so on.
We have seen a glimpse of how the environment is related to global policies that have caused poverty and how poverty can affect the environment. Slowly, projects are helping at the local level for people to take ownership of their environment and help foster a sustainable development cycle. However, globalization, in its current form may have additional effects on the environment too. To learn more about how trade and poverty in general are related, go to this web site’s section on Trade, Economy, & Related Issues.
The Genetically Engineered Food section in this web site also discusses issues to do with patenting foods and seeds and introduces issues to do with the importance of agricultural diversity and other issues related to patents on genetic resources.
As a dietitian, I’m not just navigating the intricacies of nutrition; I also have to be up to date with food safety laws and any widespread issues that pop up.
Lately, the buzz around per – and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their presence in plastics has started a conversation in the media. Talk of potential health risks, environmental repercussions, and the ubiquity of these compounds in our daily diet are on the rise. The conversation on microplastics, although a different but similar topic, has also reached a level that’s impossible to ignore.
This post will address both PFAS and microplastics in food, since the issues surrounding them are similar.
I think the questions that everyone is asking are, ‘are microplastics harmful? How harmful are PFAS, and where are they found?’
Should you worry about PFAS and microplastics in food?
While both PFAS and microplastics are environmental concerns, they have different sources and pathways of entry into the environment.
PFAS are intentionally manufactured chemicals, whereas microplastics are the result of the degradation of larger plastic materials or intentional production of small plastic particles for specific applications.
What are PFAS?
A lot of us first heard about PFAS in 2020 when they hit the news because of their presence in sparkling water. Consumer Reports, which is an advocacy group, did a study showing that 47 brands of water had levels above what CR has set as their safe levels – 3 ppb.
Please be aware that the federal government’s guidelines are less than 70 ppt (parts per TRILLION). This sort of number fudging by Consumer Reports is akin to what we often see fellow activist group the EWG doing. They did it, for example, when they told everyone that Cheerios contain high levels of glyphosate.
The EWG’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen is another example of the EWG setting arbitrary safe limits on chemicals that are far lower than what has been determined to be safe for human consumption, and then doing ‘research’ and – surprise!! – finding that food contains more than those levels.
Nonetheless, PFAS are something we all should be aware of. Despite the hysteria that resulted from the CR headlines, we at least began to understand that PFAS are infiltrating our food supply on a larger level than just Teflon frying pans.
PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are a group of human-made chemicals that have been widely used in various industrial and consumer products for decades. The first company to introduce them to the world was DuPont, in Teflon cookware, in the form of PFOA.
Even though PFOA has mostly been phased out, it took thousands of people becoming seriously and often terminally ill from PFOA contaminated air and drinking water near the DuPont plant in order for that to happen.
Unfortunately, newer PFAS have been developed, and these appear to be just as problematic. There are literally thousands of PFAS in existence, many of which haven’t been tested for toxicity.
PFAS are known for their resistance to heat, water, and oil, making them useful in applications such as non-stick cookware, water-resistant fabrics, firefighting foams, and more. We eat them, breathe them, and – a new study has found (although it’s in vitro, not living humans) – likely absorb them through our skin. Some of the sources of PFAS we encounter every day are drinking water (gasp), grease-resistant paper, personal care products like some shampoos, and clothing.
Most of the studies have been done on animals and while PFAS have been shown to have adverse effects, it’s important to note that doses of PFAS that the animals were exposed to are much higher than the doses humans would experience.
Let’s put it this way: nobody is arguing that PFAS aren’t an issue for both the environment and human health. We just need more information to make a solid link and to make a definitive recommendations around dosing, etc.
What are microplastics?
Microplastics are small plastic particles, typically less than 5 millimeters in size, that result from the breakdown of larger plastic items or are intentionally manufactured at a small size for certain products like exfoliating face washes. Nanoplastics are also microplastics, but they’re so small, they’re actually invisible to the human eye.
To make the distinction, microplastics do not directly produce PFAS. Similar to PFAS, microplastics are not broken down in the environment (or the human body).
Plastic is largely made using fossil fuels,
We consume microplastics in seafood, drinking water, and salt.
A 2023 study in Environmental Science and Technology found that plastic cutting boards – the ones we’ve always thought were ‘safer’ than wood, at least from a bacterial perspective – are a significant source of microplastics in our food. This 2022 study had similar findings.
Microplastics have been found in human tissues, oceans and ocean animals, sand, even rain and snow. They’re basically everywhere. We eat them and breathe them. Nanoplastics are so tiny, they’ve been found in human cells. Bees have been found to carry microplastics on their bodies.
You all know that I’m always critical of research and definitely don’t overstate risks, but I find all of this pretty upsetting.
Here’s how microplastics get into honey.
Here’s how they get into fish:
A 2019 study found that per year, humans consume 39,000-52,000 microplastic particles per year. Drinking bottled water increases that number by 9000.
In March 2023, a study delved into the prevalence of microplastics in some soft drinks. Microplastic particles were discovered in all of the top ten soft drinks tested. The study found that each liter of soft drink exposes people to about nine microplastic particles.
Are microplastics harmful?
Although they’re everywhere, there’s a lot we don’t know yet about the effects of microplastics on human health.
Not only is it extremely difficult to measure microplastics in the environment, it’s hard to establish causation between them and negative health outcomes. We do suspect that they are likely destructive to our health in some ways, but it’s more of a ‘if there’s smoke, there’s fire’ sort of situation.
With both microplastics and PFAS (and whole lot of other things), the dose will make the poison. Is it possible to consume a certain amount of each of these things and have it be innocuous? Probably. But we don’t yet know where that line is that separates harmless from harmful.
This 2019 review of studies suggests that the ingredients in plastics (and therefore microplastics) are endocrine disruptors. However, most of the studies were done in animals and in lab dishes. Exposing cells to a high amount of a certain chemical does not mimic how that chemical would affect a free-living human.
This 2023 review of studies suggests that microplastics can cause gastrointestinal inflammation, disruption of the gut microbiome, lung disease, reproductive issues, and a whole lot more. However, most of the studies used were done on cells, mussels, and rodents.
A 2024 study on microplastics published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that patients who had microplastics and nanoplastics in their arterial plaque had a higher risk for cardiovascular issues than people who did not have the particles in their plaque. The study did not establish causation between microplastics and any illness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has acknowledged the emerging issue of microplastics in the environment, including their presence in water sources and potential ingestion by humans.
The WHO has emphasized the need for further research to better understand the potential health risks associated with microplastics ingestion. They recognized the importance of monitoring and assessing the levels of microplastics in the environment and their potential impact on human health.
What are theRegulations around PFAS?
In both the U.S. and Canada, regulations around PFAS are being considered and enacted.
In Canada, PFAS are still used in certain products, but are currently regulated.
In the U.S., the EPA is still working to designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances. According to this review, California, Vermont, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New York and Wisconsin are some of the states currently regulating PFAS in products.
The EPA has a Strategic PFAS Roadmap which includes getting more data around PFAS levels in the nation’s drinking water (UCMR 5).
The bottom line is that there are many types of PFAS, and they are still used in things most of us are exposed to every day.
What are theRegulations around microplastics?
The manufacture of all toiletries that contain microbeads is now prohibited in Canada, the U.S., and the E.U.
Health Canada has acknowledged that people may be exposed to microplastics by eating food and drinking bottled or tap water, but more research is needed to understand the extent this has on human health over time and to make regulations around microplastics. Similarly, the U.S. does not have microplastic regulations and dosage recommendations. More research is needed.
In April 2024, world leaders convened in Ottawa, Canada for the Global Summit on Plastic Pollution, which aims to be a historic treaty to lessen plastic pollution (and therefore microplastics in the environment). This work is ongoing.
We have a long way to go with research and regulation of both PFAS and microplastics. And while it’s impossible to have no exposure to them, being aware of how to minimize your exposure is probably a good idea.
How to avoid microplastics in food:
Use Glass or Stainless Steel Containers. When storing or microwaving food, opt for glass or stainless steel containers.
Avoid Heating Food in Plastic Containers. If possible, transfer food to glass or ceramic containers before reheating.
Limit Use of Plastic Wrap. When covering food for storage, consider using alternatives like beeswax wraps, parchment paper, or reusable silicone lids.
Use metal water bottles. Instead of drinking out of one time use plastic water bottles opt for a metal reusable one.
Be aware of plastic cutting boards. Use wooden ones when you can.
Minimizing Exposure to PFAS:
Be Informed About Products. Learn about products that may contain PFAS, such as non-stick cookware, water-resistant clothing, and certain types of food packaging.
Use Alternatives to Non-Stick Cookware. Consider using stainless steel, cast iron, or ceramic cookware as alternatives to non-stick pans, which may be coated with PFAS.
Filter Drinking Water. Use a water filter that is certified to remove PFAS if your water source is potentially contaminated.
Choose PFAS-Free Products. Look for products labeled as PFAS-free or those specifically marketed as alternatives to PFAS-containing items.
Always consult with healthcare professionals for personalized advice, especially if you have specific health concerns or conditions related to exposure to these substances.
Additionally, staying informed about regulatory updates and ongoing research is essential for making informed choices.
Kolkata, India: Tapas Pal has been making clay idols of various gods and goddesses for the past two decades at Kumartuli, a traditional potters’ hub in Kolkata in eastern India’s state of West Bengal.
The 42-year-old, who makes six-metre (20ft) high idols from unfired clay, told Al Jazeera that he would not normally have any spare time in the two months leading up to Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the state, as he would be on deadline to deliver the idols to the festival organisers.
But the situation this year is completely different, he says, with fewer orders and scaled-down budgets, as the residents of the city are in no mood for festivities after the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old woman doctor at the government-run RG Kar Hospital on August 9.
“The festival offers [a] chunk of our annual business, and we expect high returns. But there is hardly any business this time due to the severe protests in the state,” and his business is down two-thirds, he said.
Durga Puja is a 10-day worship of the Hindu goddess Durga to celebrate her victory over a shape-shifting demon and embodies joy. Durga is one of the most powerful goddesses in Hinduism. She represents woman power and her legend is centered around her ability to vanquish evil. In 2021, Durga Puja in Kolkata was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
In the lead-up to the festival, artisans spend months making idols of Durga – shown as a beautiful woman riding a lion or a tiger, with many arms each of which is carrying a weapon used to destroy evil. The idols, often depicting some of this battle, are intricately hand-painted, beautifully dressed in clothes, bejewelled and displayed at the pandals.
The state comes to a standstill in the days leading up to the festivities, which are scheduled to start on October 9 this year. Schools and offices shut down and people pandal hop – a tradition in which people visit multiple venues where the idols are housed to offer prayers and eat prasad – as neighbourhoods compete for the biggest, fanciest idols and decorations.
Last year, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pegged the festival economy to be about 840 billion rupees ($10bn).
Idol maker Tapas Pal in Kolkata, India, says organisers have scaled back orders [Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera]
But it’s not clear if the numbers this year would come even close to that as people are still in shock after a trainee doctor’s dead body bearing multiple injuries was found at the government hospital. Hospital authorities initially told her parents that she had died by suicide. But an autopsy revealed she had been raped and murdered.
The police have since arrested Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer at the hospital who had unrestricted access to the ward where the doctor worked, and four others including the former principal of the college, Dr Sandeep Ghosh, and a police officer.
The brutality of the crime and allegations of apathy by the state administration have shocked citizens who have taken to the streets in protest especially as the city prided itself in being safe for women.
Activists say the doctor’s rape and murder showed how women in India continue to face sexual violence despite tougher laws introduced after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi, the national capital.
Crimes against women in India rose 4 percent in 2022 from the previous year, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), released late last year, showed.
So far, Banerjee’s request urging people to return to the festivities has failed to yield any results.
On the contrary, the locals have emotionally united with the victim’s family after the father broke down in a TV interview, saying that no one would want to celebrate the festival this year, and that whoever does, will not celebrate with happiness.
The sombre mood has affected several hundred artisans and entrepreneurs who depend on the festival for their livelihood.
The brutality of the crime and allegations of apathy by the state administration have shocked citizens who have taken to the streets in protest [File: Sahiba Chawdhary/Reuters]
Business ‘ruined’
Artisans say the incident could not have come at a worse time as several organisers place orders for idols in the second or third week of August every year and have either scaled those back or paused altogether.
“The incident is unfortunate and condemnable. We demand strict punishment for the perpetrators of the crime and justice for the victim’s family. But the timing badly coincided with our peak season that has completely ruined our business, this year,” Subhendu Pal, 52, an idol maker at Kumartuli, told Al Jazeera.
Subhendu Porel, 35, who makes decorative polystyrene items for pandals, said that business had more than halved.
“There is hardly any enthusiasm among the people for the festival. We usually go to other states during this season to make the decorative items as there is a huge demand for us. But this time, people from other states have not come to take us for their work fearing [the] deteriorating law and order situation here. It seems that the festival is just a formality this year and nothing else,” Porel said.
Prabhakar Porel, 32, an artisan who designs the bamboo structures used to hold up the pandals, said: “We make tents that go up to the height of 60ft [18 metres], but the organisers are scaling down orders to 30ft [nine metres] and even less as budget constraints are an issue this time. Sponsors are not willing to spend whole-heartedly sensing the dull mood in the state,” he said.
State grants declined
In West Bengal, about 43,000 Durga Pujas are held by community clubs every year, 3,000 of which are held in Kolkata alone. The state government offers 70,000 rupees ($840) to the clubs to organise the festival every year, which was increased to 85,000 rupees ($1,013) this year.
But several clubs, rattled by the incident, have declined the grant, in turn limiting their spending capacities.
Artisan Prabhakar Porel says size of the decorations and structures have been scaled down [Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera]
Apart from state grants, a large part of the costs of the festival are borne by sponsors like local and national businesses in exchange for promotion of their brands. Based on the size of those promised funds, organisers like the clubs commission idols, decorations, food stalls, among other things. Whiff of a weak turnout at the festivities may make some of them withhold or cut back on their promises.
Avishek Bhattacharyya, an executive committee member of Forum for Durgotsab, an umbrella body of more than 600 festival organisers in the state, told Al Jazeera that a boycott would be disastrous for the festival.
“The discussions with sponsors … are done several months in advance. There is no question to roll back as the organisers decide their budget depending on the promised sponsorship. But if the [sponsors] back out now, that would be a major problem for the organisers to clear the fee of the idol makers, decorators and others involved in it. Several people will lose their livelihood,” Bhattacharyya warned.
Professor Mahalaya Chatterjee, from the economics department at Calcutta University, conceded that the festivities might take a big hit against the backdrop of the protests. “Undoubtedly, the bulk shopping will scale down to bare minimum and that would be a major economic blow to those connected with the business. [If] the festivities suffer, that would affect the food stalls and other itineraries during the festival”, she said.
Shoppers absent
The impact of the protests is also palpable in Kolkata’s shopping zones, which are devoid of customers.
Stores are devoid of customers as citizens are in no mood to celebrate after the murder of a young female doctor last month in Kolkata, India [Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera]
“A month before the festival, people start buying clothes and other items to avoid [the] last-minute rush. The shops are full with customers and there’s no place to keep a toehold. The sales generate massive income for the traders. But the RG Kar incident has devastated us economically,” said Maqsood Khan, the secretary of the Shreeram Arcade shop owners association, which has about 250 shops in the market.
“There are virtually no buyers in the streets and shopkeepers have to wait till evening hours to get their first sale of the day,” Khan lamented.
The shopping arcade has extended closing time by an hour to 10pm, still, there are no customers. “The situation is worse than post-COVID where sales had started once pandemic-induced restrictions were reduced,” he said, adding that their losses could be as much as 100 million rupees ($1.2m).
Every year, Durga Puja also attracts tourists both from other parts of India and abroad. That too has taken a hit this year.
Koushik Banerjee, the founder of Supreme Tours and Travels in Kolkata, told Al Jazeera that there is a drastic drop in tourists coming to the state. “There is already [a] 50 percent drop in inbound tourists which has badly affected our business,” he said.
That is already taking a toll on the hospitality industry where sales are down 15 percent so far. “Our member restaurants did a business of about 18 billion rupees [$215m] across West Bengal last year during one month of the festival. Even in hotels, the business was around 15 billion rupees [$179m]. But there is uncertainty this year,” said Sudesh Poddar, the president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India.
Idol maker Pal feels that the damage has been done, and the festival is unlikely to generate any enthusiasm. “The young generation takes [an] active part in the festivities, but they all are busy in protests and in no mood to upload rejoicing images on social media. Earlier, they used to come to Kumartuli to click our pictures during the idol-making every year, but nobody is coming this time and that shows the sad mood in the city. The festival will pass silently.”
Inside: As a dietitian-mom, I’ve learned a lot of important lessons after 20 years of feeding kids. Some of them the hard way.
When I started Real Mom Nutrition, our firstborn was 5.
Then I blinked, and he turned 20.
There’s something about that kind of milestone–a new, round number decade–that makes you pause and reflect. And dab away a few happy/sad tears.
Like all parents, I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way. Like no, you will not always be terrified when your kid is behind the wheel of the car. And yes, children will eventually pee on the potty without the promise of an M&M.
I’ve also learned a lot about feeding kids–and learned some of those lessons the hard way.
1. The one-bite rule works…until it doesn’t
Our oldest kid willingly took a bite of every new food, and I thought I had it all figured out.
Until our second kid came along.
He didn’t want to take “just one bite”, and it would spiral into a battle of wills, leaving us all miserable and exhausted (and that one bite never taken).
The same goes for any kind of feeding strategy or advice–including on this blog: What works swimmingly with one kid may not work with another.
Even two kids raised in the same house with the same meals and routines can have wildly different preferences and habits. Case in point: While I was a picky eater, my brother ate nearly everything without complaint.
Get More: Should You Make Your Child Take Just One Bite?
2. Don’t sweat the small stuff
You know those parenting moments where you wish you had a do-over, the ones that jolt you awake at 2am in a puddle of regret? (No? Just me?)
One of mine occurred at an Ohio State football game, where I had a meltdown over the kids wanting soda. Tempers flared, and I ruined what could’ve been a fun family day. Over sugar.
Back then, I was worried that every bite or sip was make-or-break, that somehow I was dooming my kids to a life of disease and sugar addiction if we didn’t order water.
Thankfully, I’ve lightened up a lot over the years and found a much healthier mindset around food and balance for my kids. And for myself.
Get More: How Intuitive Eating Can Help You Make Peace With Food
3. Serve salads early and often
I beat myself up over some things, but this is a move I’m happy I made: I started serving green salads early in my kids’ lives, and now both of them happily eat them and order them in restaurants.
I put a high value on this for a couple reasons:
They saw salad nearly every night at dinner and learned that veggies, especially leafy greens, aren’t yucky.
They learned to eat different kinds of foods mixed together when things like shredded carrots or diced peppers were added. Eating mixed dishes is a big deal for some kids, especially picky eaters.
Get More: How to Teach Your Kids to Love Salad
4. Making just one meal sets you free
As a former extremely picky eater who rarely ate what my dear mom cooked for dinner, I didn’t want to go down the buttered noodles road with my own kids.
So from the start, I just made one meal every night, deconstructing some mixed dishes (like the photo above), and allowing the kids to opt out of certain components of the meal, like a sauce or particular veggie, if they wanted to.
I made sure there was something on the table they liked, even if it was just rice, and decided to be okay if they occasionally ate only that rice for dinner.
In my mind, if I didn’t give my kids a get-out-of-dinner-free card in the form of a PBJ or chicken nuggets, they’d have more incentive to eat what I made. And generally, that was the case.
Get more: The Dinnertime Rule That Will Change Your Life
5. People’s food choices are their own business
I cringe when I read some of my early posts. I was judgmental and up in other people’s business, especially when it came to pee-wee sports sideline snacks.
I learned the hard way that food choices are emotional and personal, especially when it comes to what people feed their kids, and that I have no right telling other people what to do.
Sometimes those food choices impacted my own kids, like when cupcakes were brought to the soccer fields after practice.
But there are better ways to enact change that shaming or snark.
Do I still believe in healthy team snacks? Yes. Do I wish I had gone about it in a different way? Also yes.
Get More: How Parents Can Create A Healthy Team Snacks Plan for Kids Sports
6. The only constant is change
It’s the Murphy’s Law of parenting: Once you feel like you’ve finally mastered a phase or stage, everything changes.
But I’ve found that the opposite is true as well. Just when you’ve accepted that your kid is never going to enjoy piano lessons, remember to say thank you, or like green beans, they can surprise you.
That’s why you should never write off a food forever, even if your kid has refused it for years. Our youngest son didn’t eat cucumbers–until he plucked one from a restaurant salad I had one night and announced that he wanted to try them. Ditto for guacamole. Our older son refused pesto for years before deciding it was good.
To this day, my mom still occasionally looks over at my plate and says, “You eat that now?”
Get more: Your Kid Hates Vegetables. Now What?
7. Hungry kids are easier to feed
When my kids were little, my handbag was full of boxes of raisins and containers of crackers. All it took was one hunger-induced meltdown in Target, and I never left the house without an arsenal of snacks for my kids. Just in case.
But I learned that children who are nibbling all day are never truly hungry for meals, which can make them seem a lot pickier than they really are.
Sure, snacks can be helpful. But it’s okay for kids to get hungry. It’s the natural order of things. So before you label your kid a picky eater, consider how hungry he is when he actually comes to the table.
Get More: 5 Easy Mistakes That Make Picky Eating Worse
8. Comparison is the thief of joy
Just because your friend’s kid loves quinoa doesn’t mean yours has to. And just because that child on Instagram takes sushi and cucumber salad in a bento box to school for lunch doesn’t make your kid’s brown bag PBJ inferior.
Comparing our kid to someone else’s is never helpful–whether it’s how soon they slept through the night to what college they were accepted to. Or what (and how much) they eat.
Get more: The Kind of Eaters I Want My Kids To Be and Why Boring Packed Lunches Might Be Best for Some Kids
9. Those two extra bites don’t matter
They may even make things worse.
How much time did I waste deciding how many more bites each kid needed to take of each food on their plate before they “could be done”? Way too much.
When I stopped micromanaging and started trusting my kids to eat what they needed, they actually did.
Yes, they sometimes jumped down from the table after a couple of bites and announced they were hungry again as soon as the dishes were cleared. But over time, they figured it out–and I could go back to focusing on my plate, not theirs.
Get More: Why Pressuring Kids To Eat Doesn’t Work (And What To Do Instead)
10. Family dinner gets better
“Family dinner” has a lovely ring to it, but it’s not always lovely. Family dinner can be especially hard when children are very young. They’re tired. You’re tired. Someone is spilling something. And someone is crying because their pizza slice is cut into pieces but they wanted it whole.
My husband and I slogged through some tough dinners with our kids. But we kept our eyes on the prize: Surely, kids can’t throw tantrums over the color of their cup forever and eventually, they would learn how to pour their own milk and sit in their seat for longer than two and a half minutes.
So we kept at it and made family dinner a priority. Over time, it got a whole lot better. My older kid even named family dinner his favorite family tradition on a college application (*sob!*).
Get More: The Truth About Family Dinner
11. Even cranky kids should learn to cook
I tried and tried to get my kids into the kitchen. I was embarrassed that I had a blog about feeding kids and wrote about the importance of teaching kids to cook–yet my two took no pleasure in helping make a meal.
There were brief periods of enthusiasm and moments they were seized with the desire to cook or bake. But overall, they resisted. And instead of pushing, I turned on good podcasts and savored the alone time in the kitchen.
Yet now my college kid is getting ready to live on his own, and I’m giving him a crash course in how to cook chicken breasts. I wish I had made cooking a non-negotiable. (Luckily, HelloFresh meal kits are helping me get my younger son into the kitchen more often.)
Get More: Easy & Healthy Meal Prep For College Kids
12. Serve foods you don’t like
Another misstep on our part. My husband and I are both recovering picky eaters and between us, have a handful of foods we still don’t like, like tomatoes and eggplant.
So I didn’t incorporate those foods into our meals. And as a result, our kids don’t eat those foods either. *Cue sad trombone*
I know there’s still time. It’s never too late to learn to like a new food. But it would’ve been easier if we’d done it from the start.
Get More: I Was A Picky Eater. Here’s What I Want You To Know.
13. A happy dinnertime is more important than everything else
It doesn’t matter how many bites of cauliflower they took or who had their elbows on the table (like my kid above!).
It matters whether your kids feel safe and accepted at the dinner table, not nagged and punished for what they eat–or, rather, don’t eat.
So as much as you can, keep dinner pleasant(ish). Ask silly questions. Play little games. Know it will get better.
Because time goes fast. And before you know it, you’ll miss having those little elbows on the table too.
Get more: Conversation Starters for Family Mealtime that Get Kids Talking
This month has flown by! The leaves on the tree in our yard are just beginning to turn yellow, and Skelly has made his (her?) appearance in our neighborhood! Our neighbor has an amazing collection of Halloween decor, and Birch has been talking about it for weeks. When we finally walked down, he was quite scared! Wouldn’t turn his back for a pic so we took this one : )
September Begins!
But let’s zoom back to early September because somebody turned 12!!!! He requested a sleepover with two of his friends, and we had ice cream sundaes to celebrate.
I asked him to make a list of things he wanted for his bday this year, and 90% of it was fishing gear!
For his sleepover, we took the boys to Riverside for burgers + fries, and then they made a huge fort in the basement and watched a movie.
Rumor has it they stayed up till 3am!
UVA Soccer
Mid month we went to a UVA men’s soccer game. Thomas’s dad and Nash met us there.
Raise your hand if you play soccer!
Thomas is taking this season off of co-rec to focus on playing golf and watching football. I miss having him on the field!
Virginia Spirits Dinner
Thomas and I were invited to a special dinner in honor of Virginia Spirits Month! We went to Broadcloth at the Wool Factory and enjoyed a 4-course treat.
Chef Tucker Yoder knocked it out of the park again with some super creative dishes. There was a cocoa cookie crumble under the salad that was Oreo adjacent and an amazing combination with fresh veggies (sounds weird, but I loved it!).
Lemongrass + Salted Coconut Water + Vitae Spirts Platinum Rum!
The dessert course was incredible!
That paw paw ice cream was perfection with the combination of finely diced nectarine and a crumble underneath.
(Don’t worry, I didn’t finish all of my drinks or I wouldn’t have been able to walk out!)
Out on the Town
Meg and I had a girls night out. First stop Bang, second stop Bebedero!
I am obsessed with this Chai Old Fashioned at Bang. And the coconut rice!
These menus!!
Trivia Night with this crew!
Our team did pretty well. I think we got 7th place out of almost 30.
Healthier Content
Beautiful fall walk on the greenway. This is the best time of year for walking!
Kath Eats Real Food
My Sweetie
Some days he is so grown up and other days he’s my little sweetie.
OPM singer Coritha—best known for her hit songs “Oras Na,” “Lolo Jose,” and “Sierra Madre”—died after a long illness, her partner Chito Santos confirmed. Santos made the confirmation through broadcaster Julius Babao, as per the latter’s YouTube vlog on Friday, Sept. 27. Speaking about the late singer’s final days, Santos said, “Ilang araw namin siyang binabantayan hanggang sa manghina na siya nang manghina. Ayoko namang magtagal pa dahil lalo lang siyang mahihirapan.” “Tumigil na lang siya [sa paghinga]. Lumalaban siya kanina… [Pero] nakita ko na hirap na hirap na siya kaya nag-decide na ako na gano’n… Hindi ko na kayang […]…
CHEAT ON POPCORN WITH WITH QUESTIFIED BIRTHDAY CAKE POPCORN. Why wait ‘til you’re a whole year older? Party like it’s your birthday right now! With a crispy, crunchy snacking creation that’s as fun to make as it is to munch. Think fluffy, buttery popcorn. Drizzles of white chocolate. A confetti shower of sprinkles. And best of all? Quest Birthday Cake Crispy Protein Bars. Joining forces to dish out a snack experience so tasty you’ll want to enjoy it 365 days a year.
