Dr. Greene’s Organic Journey

Organic in 2008

Food trends are very interesting to watch and this trend is dear to my heart (and stomach).  So what’s changed in organic since I started my journey?  Here’s the short list:

1. Organic foods can be found in more places.  When I started, I was very limited to “organic only” stores and a few restaurants.  Now I find organic selections popping up in mainstream stores and restaurants every where.

2. The general public is becoming far more aware of organic. There are still big gaps in understanding. Myths and misconceptions still abound, but we’ve made real strides.

3. As the green movement takes center stage, people are starting to recognize that choosing organic foods is central to a green lifestyle – not only in reducing the use of fossil fuels and the proliferation of toxins in our air and water, but also in enhancing the brimming biodiversity of our soil and the life that depends on it.

4. Research is starting to show that conventional industrial agriculture reduces the nutrient value and taste of our foods, while organic agriculture increases them. And these trends build over time, as we improve or deplete the soil.

5. People are starting to value both organic (how food is grown) and local (where food is grown). Both can be important pieces of a diet that is sustainable for us and for our planet.

6. Organic: it’s not just produce. Families who drink milk are recognizing that organic milk is a priority choice. Ditto for eggs, butter, meat, and cheese.

7. Organic isn’t considered “fringe” any more. The wonderful New York Times article on Dr. Greene’s Organic Rx (ranked #4 health story for all of 2007 based on volume of comments) is a great example.

8. I can find most food ingredients I want certified organic (or wild) during some season of the year.  When I started this journey there were some ingredients that I just couldn’t find. New things are becoming available all the time and now I can cook almost anything I desire – if I plan ahead. My 12-year-old son just cooked a 5 course French meal for the family.  It was an assignment for his French class, but he insisted that it be 100% organic.  Not easy to do, but what a great meal!!

9. Travel is becoming easier.  Sterling Airlines announced an all organic option on flights.  It’s only in Europe now, but that’s a big step forward. And in the  US, more airports have something organic available.

10. For better or worse, there are a lot more processed foods available with USDA organic certification. I’m excited about some of these (organic whole grain bread, organic tomato ketchup and organic peanut butter are real steps forward). I don’t think we need organic junk food, but this trend shows that organic is becoming something conventional wants to imitate.

Bon Appétit, Organic Style!

Organic Find(s) Part 3

Not all great organic restaurants are “high end”.  In fact another of my Bay Area favorites is very reasonably priced.  Hidden City Café serves breakfast and lunch for around $8.50 per person.  They have a wide variety of organic dishes on the menu, which changes seasonally.

It’s a little hard to find (truly hidden), small (so you may have to wait on a busy weekend morning), and can be chilly (so wear layers), but certainly a great organic find. 

We live in the East and this little find is perfect for breakfast or lunch meetings (for business or pleasure) with people from the Marin side of the Bay.  In fact, my extended family is from the North Bay so we met at Hidden City Café this year for Father’s Day Brunch.

Their address is 109 Park Place, Point Richmond, CA and their phone number is (510) 232-9738.  You’ll want reservations on the weekend and tell them “Dr. Greene sent you!”.

Organic Find(s) Part 2

Since I live in the San Francisco area I’m very familiar with Bay Area restaurants. I apologize in advance if this list is San Francisco-centric, but since it’s a great place to visit (and do business) you may have an opportunity to check out several of these hot spots, even if you don’t live in the area.

Three of my favorite eateries are owned by the amazing Jesse Cool. Cool Café, located on the Stanford University campus inside the Cantor Center for the Arts, JZCool in downtown Menlo Park, and Flea Street Café also in Menlo Park.

The setting for the Cool Café is one-of-a kind. You can dine on an outdoor patio (weather permitting) over looking original Rodin sculptures. Great food with many organic dishes available and the settling will blow you away. It’s a little tough to find, but well worth the hunt -- 328 Lomita Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94305, They have limited hours of operation so call for hours and directions -- 650-725-4758.

JZCool was recently re-invented as a Jazz and small plates foodery. We attended the jammed-packed opening and hope to go back often for the great food and music. It’s located at 827 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025. Call for hours -- 650-325-3665.

Jessie’s fine dinning establishment is Flea Street Café, located at 3607 Alameda de las Pulgas Menlo Park, CA 94025. In case you don’t know "las pulgas" means "the fleas". Fortunately we’ve never seen fleas anywhere near The Flea Street Café", but we have had some amazing organic meals there. It’s and hour from our home, but my family took me there for my birthday last year – it’s that special! Call ahead for reservations -- 650 854-1226 and be sure to tell them Dr. Greene sent you.

Organic Find(s)

There are a lot of lists of great restaurants available online.  My favorite is The Chef’s Collaborative.  They specialize in fresh, local, sustainable restaurants.  Many of the chefs listed on this site use organic ingredients whenever possible.  Before I go to any of these restaurants (really before I go to any restaurant) I call ahead to see if they have organic options on the menu for the date I want to visit.  Some do.  Some do not.

Over the last two years (yep, I will have been exclusively eating organic, wild, and home grown foods for two years on Oct. 17!) I’ve discovered a host of amazing places.  To celebrate my two year anniversary I’m going to spend the month highlighting some of my favorites.  These are in no particular order – except when I find them in my notes as I go back in time, so come back often to get the whole list!

Let’s start with one of the highlights from the last two years – Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, California.  Last year Cheryl and I attended the Organic Farming Research Foundation fund raising dinner that was held at Lark Creek Inn.  The evening was lovely, the food was great, but this story doesn’t stop there.  That night we bid on and won “An Organic Evening at Lark Creek Inn” in the silent auction.  Just a few weeks ago we used the “Organic Evening” to celebrate my new book coming out. 

WOW! Chef Erica Holland-Toll and the entire staff absolutely amazed us.  The atmosphere was elegant, the service was top notch, and the food was fabulous.  This was one of the finest dinning experiences I’ve had in my entire life – organic or otherwise!

Call ahead to make reservations (415 924-7766), ask about organic foods for the evening you want to visit, and tell them Dr. Greene sent you!

Extreme Organics

Our family is busy – just like yours. One of the things we do to take advantage of the time we do have together is build traditions. Many of these are around holidays and one of the BIG ones is each child’s 18th birthday. My second child recently turned 18 and here’s what we did …

Kevin enjoys camping and backpacking. We had one very memorable two-man camping trip when he turned 12, but for 18, it had to be more than the typical camping trip – something really special. After researching our national parks and racking our brains we came up with the idea of a backpacking trip, just for the two of us, to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Each year about 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon. But the hike to the bottom is only attempted by fewer than 1 percent of the visitors. This seemed like an adequately “special” hike.

We began planning months in advance, researching trails, obtaining a hiking permit, researching weather conditions, making equipment lists, buying or renting the equipment we didn’t already have, making travel plans, and finally purchasing the much needed supplies for the hike to the bottom. Our trek was in February, when weather conditions vary as much as 20 degrees from the top to the bottom and we might face rain or even snow. We had to be prepared for almost anything. The good news – it wouldn’t be scorching hot, as it is in the summer months.

One of my big fears was how difficult it would be to eat 100% organic food during the hike. Dehydrated backpacking food is a godsend to keep the packs light, but I knew I might be forced to carry heavier foods and be limited to dried fruits and nuts. This diet is not idea for a strenuous hike. You can imagine my relief when we went to our local REI to find high-quality, certified organic, dehydrated foods created just for hikers. Of course this makes sense – hikers know that in order to excel in strenuous situations you need great fuel!

The day of our departure arrived and our packs, with all our gear, layers of clothing, food, and cooking stoves were light enough to carry to the bottom – and, hopefully, back up again. Our first leg of the journey required a flight, followed by a car to the Grand Canyon where we stayed over night before the hike began. Before leaving we had one last “cooked meal” at the lodge.

The next day we descended the canyon to just beyond the halfway point and our campground. The majestic, tranquil beauty was breathtaking. We made it with just enough time to pitch our tent and make our way to a lookout on Plateau Point to catch the last rays of daylight, then race back to our campground for dinner.

On day two we woke to a magical sunrise through the mist. After breakfast we set off to the bottom, carrying only what we needed for the day and knowing we needed to make it back to our campground by nightfall. Once at the bottom we decided to try another short hike (after all, we’d come this far, why not see as much as we could?) to the other side of the Colorado River, where we fired up our little camp stoves for another organic meal (eaten with spontaneous chopsticks – we hadn’t carried utensils on this leg. Knowing the sun would not wait for us, we turned around and headed back to camp, arriving just before it had gotten too dark.

On the third morning we repacked everything and headed to the top, very slowly. I’m often asked, “What’s harder, going down or coming back up?” That’s not an easy answer, both are hard, both are so rewarding.

We reached the rim arm-in-arm late that afternoon to the cheers of waiting family members. We did it and it will be life-time-memorable, along the way I learned some pretty cool things about extreme organics:

1) Finding organic backpacking food was easy – sports enthusiasts know they have to eat well to perform well.

2) Getting some great organic food at the national park lodge was very doable – many restaurants now have some organic options.

3) Airports and airplanes are still the hardest place to find great organic options – I still need to “backpack” my own organic food whenever I fly.

One Year Later ...

I can’t believe that a year ago I jumped off the conventional food grid and into the wild and wonderful world of eating 100% organic. It has been a real adventure and as with most such quests, it hasn’t always been easy.

I made my family promise to continue to enjoy their favorite restaurants, even if the only thing on the menu I could order was a bottle of sparkling water. This hasn’t always been easy for them or me. At times they’ve refused to go where I can’t eat and at times I’ve sat and watched them enjoy wonderful meals only to grab an organic energy bar a little later.

I’ve lost a lot of weight and gained some of it back. At first I was without food fairly often, but as more and more of my friends and business associates learned of my adventure, I began to be treated to amazing organic feasts. At one meeting, two different parties arranged for me to have a special organic dinner brought in so I actually had TWO full meals (both delicious).

One of the huge side effects is that I feel great. I need less sleep, get sick less often, and (so my wife tells me) have very soft skin. In general, I’m more vigorous. As a study group of 1, I’m not going to make any scientific claims, but as an individual, I know I feel better, healthier, more alive.

I’m often asked what I’ve learned and so here is my top 10 list:

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Oh, What a Vacation!

We’re back and those walks on the beach with my family were priceless -- building memories that will last a lifetime.  And this year, we’ll all remember the eating adventures as well!

When we arrived, we went directly to the local co-op I’d found online.  After a bit of hunting we located the address, but were totally disappointed to find out that it was now a nail salon.  But on this adventure, one of the things I’ve learned is not to give up.  So we all piled out of the car and asked around in hopes that it had merely moved (and not totally closed). Indeed that was the case and it was only a few blocks away.

I’m so glad we didn’t give up because this co-op is a real gem!  The store was well stocked with staple items and the fresh fruits and vegetables were seasonal and locally grown.  The employees were so well informed, in fact they personally knew most of the farmers whose produce they carry. That first day, we loaded up with so much great organic food that we spent most of the week eating-in.

As I mentioned in my last post, this retreat is a tradition for us and so is a special meal at the beginning of the week and the end of the week at the water front café on the property.  We skipped our beginning meal because we had called ahead and the food services manager had told us that they didn’t offer any organic meals, but I insisted that the family go there for the traditional end of the week celebration.  Once we arrived I asked our waiter if there were any options on the menu that were 100% organic.  I always do this, even when I know there is no chance.  I feel that just by asking, I’m getting the message out that customers want organic to be available.  Our waiter graciously offered to check with the chef and came back a few minutes later with my answer – the chef would be happy to combine the organic ingredient that he had on hand to create a special 100% organic meal for me!  He also sent word that he would do special shopping for me for organic foods so we could eat there the rest of the week.   If it hadn’t been for the wonderful organic food we’d purchased at the co-op, I would have been crushed that we hadn’t been eating at the waterfront café all week.

Time and again we’ve found that if a restaurant or café has some organic ingredients on hand the chef is thrilled to make a special organic meal for our table.  We now call ahead to try to make arrangements and we always try to get through to the chef.  The food services manager will often say no, but the chef will usually make an extra special meal because I’ve shown that I’m concerned about the quality of the food I eat.

So the moral of this vacation story – don’t take no for an answer, ask the chef directly, and go to your favorite spot at the beginning of your vacation because even if it’s not known to be organic, if you ask for organic food, you might just get it!

Alan Greene, MD, FAAP

The Organic Vacationer

I can’t believe that it’s summer … again – where did the time go?  When I started my organic journey last fall, I didn’t even think about vacationing organic style with a family of six.  The purpose of this experience isn’t to make anyone feel bad for not eating 100% organic (it’s an extreme life style and I know it!) so before launching out I made my family promise not to avoid their favorite non-organic eating places on my behalf.  Unfortunately, they haven’t been that good at it -- or perhaps fortunately, for their health and my eating happiness.  But now it’s vacation planning time and I need to make some extra preparations.

A number of years ago we began the tradition of going to the same spot every year for our family vacation.  We love the ocean, so selected a seaside retreat and all treasure the relaxed atmosphere and long walks on the beach.  Unfortunately it’s secluded spot with limited eating options.  Fortunately, our accommodations include a kitchen, so I’ll be checking on organic markets as well as organic restaurants.

My first step was to call the retreat center to find out if they served any organic food.  After several rings, a friendly trainee answered and, you guessed it, she didn’t have a clue about organic options.  She transferred me to someone who would know – but that person didn’t answer.  After 32 rings, I hung up. 

She didn’t think they offered any organic options, but offered to check with the food and beverage manager.  Of course, he was out, but after only four rings I had the opportunity to leave a voicemail message.  Let’s see if he calls back.

Good news -- the director of food services called back within 30 minutes.  Bad news – they offer no 100% organic food options.  They try to use organic ingredients in dishes when they can, but nothing is 100% organic.  He did offer to research local options and mail me a packet of info including maps.  It’s a good thing I started calling over a month before our trip.

If I weren’t committed to eating 100% organic I might give up -- perhaps I should be committed.

By inputting the zip code for where we are staying I found 15 stores that carried organic products.  The closest is over 10 miles away from where we’re staying, so we’ll have to plan ahead and pick up food on our way in.  With just these two printed pages, I’m well on my way to an organic vacation!

I then spent about half an hour trying all the search words I could think of to come up with organic options.  At first I had trouble, because I was using search terms that were too narrow.  But when I opened up the criteria (not just searching on organic +the specific location where we’ll be staying, but organic +the state where we will be going), I found a large variety of co-ops, farms, natural food stores, cafes, and restaurants and was able to use the organic pages to find ones that are close to where we will be.  Interestingly, some of our traditional favorites list organic options on their menus.

It looks like the most valuable find will turn out to be the local organic market/coop: “We are more than a great store; we are a community for, by, and of our member-owners, providing organically- and/or locally-grown fruits and vegetables, organic herbs and spices, fresh sandwiches, healthy snacks and deli foods, pastas, rices, nuts, dried fruits, … and organic meats... We care about community, and sustainable living. We invite our customers to visit us via bicycle or bus, though we also do have parking available; bring their own bags for carrying groceries, if they wish to do so, or to use our supply of recycled bags at our cash registers.”

This market sounds like gems I have found all across the country, from small towns to big cities. My plan is to make this co-op my very first stop. Besides picking up supplies, I’m looking forward to picking up valuable conversations with staff, members, and other shoppers. As I’ve found in many other co-ops, these promise to be people in the know. If you haven’t shopped at a co-op recently, you may want to do a search for the one closest to you.

I’m very excited to find out that there is an abundance of organic food available -- even on vacation.  The big lesson I’m learning is that eating organic does take advanced planning and a little persistence.

When we return, I’ll let you know how it goes, but I’m sure we’ll have a great time.

Alan Greene, MD, FAAP

The Organic Business Traveler

I’m a frequent business traveler.  I pride myself on having “figured out” the little things that make traveling easier, like packing a pair of disposable ear plugs in my carry on bag for long and noisy flights.  When I decided to go 100% organic, I knew I’d have a few challenges.  Here’s what I’ve learned …

Flying
Several airlines are becoming more health conscious.  Some offer a limited number of natural options for food.  A few even have some organic selections.  In general, though, I don’t count on finding anything I can eat at an airport or on an airplane.  The good news is, unlike movie theaters, airlines are fine with you bringing your own food.  I’ve learned to pack a small carry-on with a few of my favorite “portable” organic foods – apples, cheese (Stringles are really good for this), nuts, and single-serve milk.  Fortunately most airlines have some form of bottled or canned water that I can drink while in the air.  By planning ahead, I usually have healthier AND tastier food than the folks who rely on in-flight food.

Business Meetings

Eating with business associates in meetings is one of the toughest things for me, but I’ve found a few things that make it easier.  The most important is to call ahead and find out if the food service for the meeting has any organic options.  Often the people organizing the meeting won’t know, so I ask to speak to the Chef.  It’s amazing how often I actually get to tell my story to the person in charge of the kitchen and almost uniformly he or she is excited about what I’m doing.  Chefs tend to treat me, not as a bother, but as someone who really cares about what I’m eating and they typically go out of their way to provide what I need. 

I was recently at a meeting with a group of people that was largely not aware of organic foods or at least not convinced that eating organic has a positive health and environmental benefit.  At lunch the group had a buffet, but I was served a magnificent plated meal.  Of course the group wanted to know why I was getting special treatment, so I told them what I was doing.  Many in the group we’re genuinely interested in my experiment and will be following my progress over the coming year.

Late Nights in the Hotel Room (This also applies to early morning, mid-day, any-time-away-from-home-and-in-a-hotel time.)

Hotel mini-bars do not have anything organic in them – at least I’ve yet to meet one that does.  And it’s really tough to get motivated to go out to find organic food after a long day of meetings.  Planning ahead really is the key.  Whenever I’m going to spend a night away from home, I make sure to stop by a Whole Foods or Wild Oats or a local Co-op before I go to my hotel.  To do that, before leaving home I run a search on Google to find a great store that is near the route from the airport to the hotel.  It’s become part of the routine – the part that makes hotel stays and 100% organic possible.

While stocking my room for my the duration of my stay, I pick up an extra loaf of whole wheat organic French bread, a hunk or two of cheese (I love Raw Milk Sharp Cheddar and PepperJack cheese), and a bottle of red wine.  It’s easy to find someone to share an organic picnic and a very nice change of pace for most business travelers!

Alan Greene, MD, FAAP