Written by the Tidings Staff | 09 December 2011

As part of the HSBC - Evergreen Youth Action Series initiative, youth from across Vancouver gathered on Sunday to experience first-hand the interconnection between food and the environment.

The event started with an engaging and interactive discussion about how diverse groups can work together to create sustainable food systems, and how culture and diversity can be celebrated through food. Empowered with a broadened sense of their ability to effect change, the youth then turned discussion into action in the afternoon. They learned how to grow their own food, manage seeds, grow vegetables year-round and how to build their own food gardens. The event also included a seed starting/growing workshop, where participants were able to plant different seeds in pots that they had made either to bring home or
leave behind to help Evergreen stock their new greenhouse.

With help and guidance from experts in the field, the workshops and demonstration exercises were the perfect way to engage youth with nature through food, while also highlighting the many fruitful connections between local food and local diversity. "It's inspiring to work with young city dwellers to learn together where their food comes from, especially while celebrating the local culture of diverse communities," explains Stephanie Levy, Project Manager of Community Development for Evergreen. "The energy, enthusiasm and community pride from the youth is infectious."

Written by the Tidings Staff | 07 December 2011

Financial portfolios are not the only portfolios that yield a return on investment, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association about the Portfolio Eating Plan. The diet, developed by University of Toronto researchers, Dr. David Jenkins and Dr. Cyril Kendall, was so named because it includes a variety of heart-healthy foods. At the risk of suggesting that there's a magic pill to achieving a healthy lifestyle (there isn't), the study does focus on nuts as an almost perfect food, kind of like an egg, because they may help to maintain healthy levels of cholesterol more effectively than a diet low in saturated fat alone. Almonds, for instance, deliver 3.5 grams of fibre, 13 grams of unsaturated fat and only 1 gram of saturated fat per one-ounce serving.

This study is the fifth instalment in a series of studies confirming the ability of the PEP to help people maintain healthy levels of cholesterol. Distinct from previous Portfolio Eating Plan studies, it found that this diet provides health benefits irrelevant of the amount of nutrition counselling, which indicates that individuals were able to successfully follow and see positive results from the Portfolio Eating Plan without intensive dietary counselling. No more monthly meetings! The current study builds on more than a decade of previous research to show that incorporating nuts in the diet along with other known cholesterol-lowering foods is the key to health.