Eat your veggies

We live in an area of town where fresh, inexpensive produce is easy to find, and there are five major grocery stores within a couple of miles of home.

I bought some of these big beautiful peppers at the QFC (Kroger's) this morning, which is right across the street from my little gym, which is right underneath a Safeway grocery store.  These peppers came all the way up the west coast from Mexico, and we can still buy them for a dollar in January! Everyone along the way made a few cents I guess, or the grocery system wouldn't work.

Millions of Americans are not so lucky. A "food desert" is a geographic area where affordable and nutritious food is hard to find, at least without a car.  A rural food desert is a county where residents must drive more than 10 miles to the nearest supermarket chain, and in urban areas, one mile. Seattle actually has 17 food deserts, which really doesn't fit in with our self-image as a city of celebrity chefs and swanky neighborhood farmer's markets. 

According to King County Public Health, in 1990, just 6.2 percent of adults in King County were obese. Today, more than half are overweight and one in five are obese.

This map tells the story-- the people who most need fresh, nutritious food are not getting it. Dinner often comes from the KFC or McDonald's drive through. 

Here's a healthy recipe for a cheap and ubiquitous vegetable-- those "baby" carrots in a bag. This is easy:  melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a pan (or use olive oil) then add a small amount of brown sugar (or honey) and a dash of cinnamon and ginger.

Pour the mixture over the carrots and mix them up to coat, sprinkle with salt and then bake until they are very tender and sweet. Even if you don't especially like cooked carrots, you'll like these.