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Meet Stella.  She’s the gorgeous bloodhound who spent an hour happily slobbering on a bone in the backseat of my car on Saturday as part of an animal rescue transport operation I volunteer with.  An owner-surrender to an animal shelter in northern Ohio, Stella eventually reached her destination later that night with a nonprofit bloodhound rescue group in Tennessee, who will train her to work with law enforcement.

I’m passionate about many causes, but grad school really ate into any free time I had to volunteer the past couple years.  After I graduated last year, I, in typical ADD fashion, wanted to immediately throw myself in an avalanche of causes.  Part of successfully living with ADD is realizing that your zeal and enthusiasm often exceeds the grasp of your limitations and so these past few months I’ve thought long and hard about what it is that I’m most passionate about.  Yes, I’m very concerned about poverty and homelessness issues and this blog is evidence of my commitment to eating disorder awareness and promotion of healthy body images, but what I’ve been most passionate about since an early age is animal rescue.  Our house was always overflowing with both kids (there were four of us) and animals and our pets were all very much beloved members of our family.  I rescued my first animal at the age of six — a box turtle slowly meandering across the street I lived on who found a new home in the woods behind our house.  My mom worked as a 911 dispatcher at a police department and through it we adopted a black lab puppy some cruel boys tried to kill by cinching it in a plastic garbage bag and throwing in the dumpster (Bear lived to the ripe old age of 15), and a Irish Setter mix puppy, abandoned with his litter mates in the snow (all but one of the seven puppies found homes within the department).

Our family menagerie has included cats, dogs, fish, hamsters, rabbits and even a trio of baby Lovebirds I tried to nurse after their mother died.  A family who lived down the street from my childhood home had a mini-farm with cows, goats, chickens, a turkey and even burros and they’d hire me to “farm-sit” whenever they went on vacation.  The hours I spent there at the farm, laying in the hayloft with only the quiet cooing of speckled chickens insulating their eggs, are among my favorite childhood memories.  My mother sometimes referred to me as Dr. Doolittle for all the time I spent with both our critters and various wildlife and indeed, as a fat kid who was taunted and harassed virtually every day of the school year, I often preferred the company of animals to that of other kids.

Just months after moving into my first apartment, I defied my no-pets lease and rescued two kittens I’d found on the side of the road.  Word must have spread, because I was soon “found” by a succession of stray cats, none of whom I could resist.  A few years later my eating disorder struck and I went vegetarian, originally because it offered me a convenient excuse to exclude large swaths of foods from my diet.  Later, I saw a flier for a local Earthsave chapter that held monthly potlucks and was amazed to find that there were actually other vegetarians in Porkopolis.  It was then that I began to learn about the horrors of animal slaughter and the often brutal and inhumane treatment of the animals and I soon realized that I couldn’t very well say that I was for animal rights so long as I continued to eat them.  As I learned more about factory farming and animal abuses and progressed in my own personal eating disorder recovery, I became an ethical vegetarian, a lifestyle I remain firmly committed to today.

Our furfamily now consists of two rabbits, six cats and a foster-who-am-I-kidding-I’ll-probably-keep-cat and I will be picking up several bunnies this week to foster until I help them find their forever homes.  We recently got involved with rescue animal transporting, which some have called kind of like an Underground Railroad network for dogs.  The way it works is this: dogs are rescued from high-kill shelters and/or abuse and neglect and transported by volunteers to shelters or adoptive homes waiting for them.  States like Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia are considered non-adoptive states for the high numbers of unwanted/abandoned animals, so sometimes these animals can only find temporary or permanent homes in regions like the Northeast where there are more adopters than adoptees.  The transports are broken down into legs of about 60-90 miles one-way and volunteer transporters — or pet taxi drivers –  then hand off  the animal to the volunteer taking the next leg of the journey.  Sometimes these travels can be two- and even three-day long events.  We transported three dogs a couple Saturdays ago that were coming from the Midwest and going to Canada!

Volunteerism is supposed to be altruistic, undertaken selflessly in the name of helping others without the expectation of personal gain, but I have to admit that I’m a selfish volunteer.  What do I get out of animal rescue?  Joy. Pride. Laughter.  Confidence.  For me, helping animals is not only the right thing to do but I find the gratitude of a fast wagging tail and sloppy kiss rewarding beyond measure.  I get to meet lots of like-minded people who don’t think I’m crazy for the number of cats I keep and get the chance to indulge my dog fix (I can’t have one of my own as our lot isn’t suitable for a dog and Brandon is adamant that he doesn’t want one).  I also do rescue work as a tribute to all the pets who have immeasurably enriched my own life and for those I was unable to save.  But perhaps  most of all, helping animals helps me feel better about myself.  Knowing that you’re needed, that you’re making a difference even if only in the life of one dog or cat is one of the biggest self-esteem boosts I’ve ever found and the animals never gripe that you’re doing it wrong.

How about you?  Are you involved with any causes, organizations or activities that you find enriching and rewarding and help you feel more accepting of yourself?

February is not my favorite time of year. By this time, I am beyond bored with winter, yet it’s still kickin’ strong as ever. Yet another day of looking at snow dunes, bald trees and brown grass makes me nauseous, but it’ll be at least a month and a half (if not longer) before that changes where I live. Oh yeah, and by now I am so.incredibly.tired of freezing my arse off every single day that I’d do just about anything for a sun-soak in Phoenix.

These are desperate – and depressing – times. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is no joke, and if you experience it yourself, you probably relate to my point of view, which I admit, is a downer. That’s why I do anything and everything possible to make the month of February fly by.

Aside from an already chaotic life as a full-time student with a part-time job, I have somehow acquired a new obsession: I’ve been spending my “free time” literally feeding my obsession for apple chips. It started a few weeks ago with these babies; my taste buds became addicted to the golden delicious chips and I plain and simply couldn’t get enough of them. Several trips to Safeway later, I realized that not only was I spending quite a bit of money on these apple chips, but they contained sugar and corn syrup, which completely defeated the goodness of eating dried fruit, which I think is quite good on its own. Why screw up a good thing?

My husband quickly came up with a solution: as an early Valentine’s Day gift, he got me my own food dehydrator so I could make my own apple chips. Before you rip on me for being a major nerd for obsessing about apple chips, let me say that a food dehydrator is now one of the coolest kitchen gadgets I own*. Okay, now you can rip on me.

Experimenting with this new machine has been a blast. I’ve made apple chips to my heart’s content in a few different varieties: plain, with a squirt of lemon juice (to keep from browning) and cinnamon. The lemon juice adds a nice touch of tart, and the smell of cinnamon chips has the same amazing aroma as baking a dutch apple pie. I made each variety with fuji apples and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the results thus far.

I’ve also had a blast playing with combinations for fruit rolls. These are fantastic for someone like me who doesn’t have much time and needs snacks on the run – aside from apple chips, of course. The end result of these babies is a cheaper, natural, preservative-free alternative to the Fruit Roll-Ups I remember eating incessantly as a kid. And again, the only sugar in my version is the stuff that’s in the fruit. Nothing else.

I have played with a few different flavors, and I am learning that texture is just as important to creating an awesome fruit roll as flavor. What’s wonderful is that combinations of fruit complement each other in this capacity. For instance, the mandarin orange fruit roll I tried was way too sticky, even after dehydration – too much juice and not enough binding fibers. Combined with something thicker, such as strawberries, and without having tried it (yet), I can say that’ll be a safe bet for a beautiful fruit roll. Another example: although blueberry and raspberry taste awesome together, the combination is a little too grainy for my tastes. Raspberry and peach, on the other hand, was a huge hit with my husband.

You don’t have to use fresh fruit if it’s not in season – canned and frozen fruit work all the same in a food dehydrator, and this is especially convenient for fruit rolls since all you have to do is puree the fruit and spread it evenly on the tray. Although it takes some time for the dehydrator to work its magic (about 10 hours for fruit rolls), preparation time is minimal. Anyone can do this, including crazy-busy college gals like me.

Not only has this been a cool, new experiment, but it has helped me increase my fruit intake by leaps and bounds. I’ve noticed a change in the amount of energy I feel in the morning after eating dehydrated fruit as a part of my breakfast, which is awesome (and needed) since I am running around on campus for most of the day. Anyone interested in eating more fruit, enjoying fruit in a different way, or just interested in a healthy snack should seriously consider a food dehydrator. Not only is this kitchen gadget well worth the price, but it’s delightfully fun as well. Not a bad way to let February speed by.

* Food dehydrators are considered nerdy only because of this infomercial from 1991.

Food Finds is a semi-regular feature in which I channel my inner Andrew Zimmern to experiment and try exotic and new foods — sans creepy crawly bugs and bull’s testicles, of course.  Have an idea for my next food find?  Post your suggestions in the comments below!

It is a testament to the marvels of modern technology that I am able to savor an UGLI fruit while gazing out my window at steadily falling snow in my corner of the American Midwest.  What exactly is an UGLI fruit, you ask?  It’s the trademark name under which Cabel Hall Citrus Ltd. markets it brand of tangelos from Jamaica (pronounced there as “hoo-glee”).  The fruit was found in the 1920s growing wild on the island nation, and is believed to be a hybrid of grapefruit, Seville oranges and tangerines.  It’s available from December through April, and sometimes in the fall.   The company’s slogan for the fruit is, ““The Affliction is only Skin Deep so the Beauty is in the Eating,” so while a name makeover might make it more palatable to consumers, it’s a perfect food find for this blog.

As its name suggests, the UGLI fruit is indeed a rather unattractive fruit — it’s slightly larger than a grapefruit with misshapen, dimpled wrinkly green-yellow skin.  I bought mine at my local grocer for 99 cents, a price comparable to a grapefruit of similar size, and not knowing anything about the UGLI fruit, selected one with a bright Kermit-green colored rind.  The skin is easier to peel than a grapefruit or orange and sheds to reveal an orangey-yellow, pulpy, virtually seed-free citrus inside.  I later read that the green surface blemishes turn orange when the fruit is at its peak ripeness, so mine was perhaps a bit under-ripe for the eating (they can be stored for up to two weeks in the fridge). The UGLI fruit is much juicier than an orange and even a grapefruit, so make sure you aren’t wearing white, like I was.  Better yet, wear a bib.  For those of you raised with manners, Cabel Hall recommends cutting the fruit in half, loosening the segments and eating with a spoon.

I found the taste to be somewhat of a weak orange with a slight sour zest of lemony citrus.  In reading other accounts of people who actually waited until their fruits were ripe, the taste at its peak is comparable to a juicy naval orange.  I’ll probably stick to oranges and grapefruits for stand-alone fruits, but I think the UGLI fruit would be fantastic in a fruit salad or smoothie.  Check out these other creative UGLI food and drink recipes:

• UGLI Salad with Dressing

• Caribbean Cold Souffle

• Moroccan Fruit Salad

• Flambe’ed Bananas with Ugli Ice Cream

• Emeril’s Ugli Fruit Mojito

• Ugli Cerviche; Fennel Salad; Martini

Are you an UGLI fan?  Have a recipe to share?  Post your comments below!

A new study of 1,000 American girls between the ages of 13-17 by the Girl Scouts finds that 9 out of 10 girls say they feel pressure from the media and/or fashion industry to be skinny.  More than 80 percent of the girls polled said they’d rather see natural photos of models than digitally enhanced or altered photos.

Specialists calculate life expectancy for people with anorexia to be 25 years shorter than average.  Patients who recover however, may expect full lifespans.

A Chicago mom and grandmother shares her story of finally overcoming anorexia after 25 years of battling the disorder.

Remember the mental health parity law that passed in 2008? The The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury jointly issued new rules this week governing the law.

The Website Realself.com tracked cosmetic surgery trends by region and even city with some surprising results.

New “groundbreaking” study shows abnormal brain function in people with body dysmorphic disorder.

Eve Ensler: Girl power can save the world.

The New York Times reviews Michael Pollan’s new book, “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.”

You’ve heard the aphorism, “You are what you eat,” right?  Well, here’s an interesting project that seeks to expose our innermost selves.  In a creative exploration of hunger, photographer Mark Menjivar photographed the contents of strangers’ refrigerators and posted them to his website along with a brief description of the contents’ owner.  From the virtually empty refrigerator of a person living on a meager fixed income (image 2) to the refrigerator of a female short order cook who can bench press 300 pounds with a coiled snake resting on the top shelf (really! it’s image 15), it’s certainly an interesting peek into the lives of diverse people from different regions and backgrounds.  In his artist’s statement, Menjivar explains:

For three years I traveled around the country exploring food issues. The more time I spent speaking and listening to individual stories, the more I began to think about the foods we consume and the effects they have on us as individuals and communities. An intense curiosity and questions about stewardship led me to begin to make these unconventional portraits.

A refrigerator is both a private and a shared space. One person likened the question, “May I photograph the interior of your fridge?” to asking someone to pose nude for the camera. Each fridge is photographed “as is.” Nothing added, nothing taken away.   These are portraits of the rich and the poor. Vegetarians, Republicans, members of the NRA, those left out, the under appreciated, former soldiers in Hitler’s SS, dreamers, and so much more. We never know the full story of one’s life.

My hope is that we will think deeply about how we care. How we care for our bodies. How we care for others. And how we care for the land.

So, what would the refrigerator of a eating disorder-recovered, vegetarian, health-conscious 30-year-old journalist from the Midwest look like?  Here’s a peek into my own fridge.

If we are what we eat, what does your fridge say about you?

When I was younger, our parents would have us fill out our Santa wish lists weeks before Christmas.  As the sole bookworm in the family, I, of course, always requested a long list of books — Oliver Twist in the third-grade, Shakespeare at the age of 9 and later, in my teen years, Stephen King.  My list must have not made it to the North Pole because instead I got things like a makeup brush kit or a t-shirt screenprinted with a picture of a black labrador.  One of the joys of marrying a man who used to do all his Christmas shopping at Walgreens on Christmas Eve is that now all I do is fill out my Amazon wishlist and know that most, if not all, will be wrapped and waiting under the tree.  I’ve already devoured the two fiction books I received — Stephen King’s new book, Under the Dome and The Strain, coauthored by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro — and am now ready to dig into my non-fiction gifts.  In no particular order…

• Sherrie Inness, Secret Ingredients: Race, Class and Gender at the Dinner Table

• Sander L. Gilman, Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity

• Jessica Weiner, A Very Hungry Girl: How I Filled Up on Life… And How You Can, Too!

• Stewart Lee Allen, In the Devil’s Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food

So, what’s on your reading list?  Any recommendations for the rest of us?

Happy Chanukah to my Jewish readers! The eight-day Jewish festival of lights began at sundown Dec. 11 and continues through Saturday. I was raised Christian and now identify as Buddhist, so my knowledge of Chanukah and its origins is rudimentary at best. But the internet is a wonderful, wonderful tool and there are lots of websites devoted to sharing the holiday’s history and time-honored traditions.

As in most religious and secular holidays, food plays a large role in Chanukah traditions.   Many traditional Chanukah foods are cooked in oil, in remembrance of the oil that kept the menorah alight.  Traditional favorites in the U.S. are latkes, a potato fritter that may have developed in Eastern Europe.  In Israel, the favorite Chanukah food is sufhaniya, a kind of jelly doughnut cooked in oil.  A small spinning top, the dreidle, is used to play a gambling game using nuts, raisins, sweets or chocolate money (gelt).  The four-sided top carries the initials of the Hebrew phrase “a great miracle happened there.”  Dairy products, especially cheese, are another Chanukah tradition.  This is done in memory of the Jewish heroine Judith, who according to legend saved her village of Bethulia from Syrian attackers.  With her main, Judith entered the enemy camp and fed Holofernes, the Syrian leader, salty cheese and fine wine until he fell into a drunken stupor.  The clever Judith then seized his sword and cut off his head, which she brought back to her village in basket.  The next morning, Syrian troops saw their leader’s head mounted on the city walls and fled in terror.

A typical Chanukah party menu might include: gelfilte fish, or poached fish patties; potato pancakes, fried, of course, in lots of oil; sweet cream cheese rugelach, strawberry-jam-filled doughnut covered in powdered sugar; fried apple fritters; cheese-filled doughnuts fried in oil and dipped in honey; and cheese blintzes.  Yum!   You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy these delish treats.  Check out some of the creative recipes I found online:

• Potato isn’t the only kind of latke.  Check out these vegetable latke recipes or for a twist, fruit latkes.

• Not afraid of a little hot oil?  Check out this jelly doughnut recipe from the Food Network or this recipe for bimuelos (fried honey puffs) from About.com.

• Sweet tooth?  Check out the New York Times’ recipes for delkelekh (cheese danish pastries), chocolate-apricot babka, cinnamon-raisin filling, or jam-filled mandelbrot.

• If you’re looking for something a bit more filling, check out these recipes for noodle kugel, challah (braided bread), sweet potato tzimmis, matzah onion stuffing and mulled wine.

Share your own Chanukah recipes or traditions in the comments below.

Every morning, I take a small jaunt to Starbucks (my apartment building sits on top of it, literally) for my Venti-3-pump-sugar-free-gingerbread-half-calf-Pike’s Place coffee.  And every morning, I can’t help but notice the three-digit numbers adorning the drink menu and baked good case that lists the calories–a NYC law enacted by the NYC Board of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2008, to help fight the obesity epidemic.  Food addicts could’ve told NYC policymakers that merely listing the calories in chain restaurants and fast food outfits wasn’t going to cut the mustard.    Moreover, I’m guessing that the Board of Health failed to consult anyone who has had a food addiction.  If they had, they would’ve known that food addiction and obesity is much more powerful and complex than knowing what the calories are in a food or beverage.  I mean, really.  Way to reduce such a huge problem to an education issue.  I’m not saying education isn’t helpful–there are just so many other, more deeply-rooted layers.

A couple of months ago, and nearly one year after the law had been in effect, The New York Times ran a story about a study conducted by professors at NYU and Yale University, which measured the fast food spending habits of consumers in low-income neighborhoods, both before and after the employment of the calorie-listing-law.  While consumers felt like they were making healthier choices, the evidence–fast food receipts collected–showed that consumers were, in fact, choosing higher calorie items, thus contributing to the perpetuation of the obesity epidemic.

By the way… pardon the repeated mentioning of calories.  I couldn’t avoid it.

While the intention was good, the Board of Health is now, for lack of a better word, in a bit of a pickle I’d say.  The plan has backfired, so now what?  Clearly, there is no easy answer.  Just the fact that the study was conducted in low-income neighborhoods says that at least one of the issues around obesity concerns the social environment in which one lives and the type of food readily available to people with a low socioeconomic status.

I wanted to write about this article, even though it was back in October, for a couple of reasons.  First, I’m currently running a therapy group for people in recovery who have cross-addicted to food and are now overweight (more on that in another post!).  Second, it reminds me of my own experience.  Both I, in my addiction, as well as my group members, knew what to eat.  I planned every day to be a perfect food day, even in the height of my addiction.  And every day, I’d louse it up.  Why?  Because, as we know, it’s so much more than about food.

I’m living in a city where, depending on the geographic location, a large percentage of people vacillate between orthorexia and obesity.  I’m surrounded by thousands of restaurants, as well as athletic clubs, spinning, yoga and pilates studios.   Whether in the weight ranges of under, “normal,” or over, people in this city are definitely into food.  I’m also living in a place where free exercise is at one’s disposal; however, we have one of the highest obesity rates.  I think if policymakers are really into tackling the obesity epidemic, they need to look a little deeper.

So, I had just dozed off again yesterday morning when my cat, who usually sleeps next to me each morning, tried to jump up on the bed.  Sweet, right?  Not so much… I was hugging the side of the bed and she nailed me instead above my eye.  Three inner stitches, five outer ones and a tetanus shot later, I’m sporting the Frankenstein look this week.  There were seven people ahead of me in line at the Urgent Care office, so I had lots of time to peruse through their fine selection of health magazines and found these snippets to share.

Can I get an amen?: Abby Sher, who used to perform with the comedy troupe The Second City, takes a comedic look at her struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia in her new memoir, Amen, Amen, Amen.

Hello, body; goodbye, loathing: Body image expert Sarah Maria is the author of the new book, Love Your Body, Love Your Life.   The self-help guide gives readers five steps to help end negative body image obsession and start living a confident and empowered life.  Bonus: Check out an interview with Maria at the blog Weightless.

Goodbye workout ruts!: Score fresh fitness DVDs for free when you trade in old ones at SwapADVD.com.

Down dog with eating disorders: A pilot study, recently published in the Journal of Adolescent Health,  found that yoga was effective in treating adolescents with anorexia, bulimia, and ED-NOS

Why you can’t eat just one: A group of neuroscientists have discovered a reason for why we (or rats, at least) can’t seem to get enough candy or junk food: we’re addicted.  Their study found that pleasure centers in the brains of rats on high-fat and calorie diets became less responsive as the bingeing wore on, making the rats consume more and more food.

Sink your teeth into this: Market research firm Mintel predicts the top five dining trends for 2010 will include healthier dishes, seasonal ingredients, lesser-known ethnic cuisines and a back-to-basics approach to old-fashioned foods such as burgers.

I think there exists some kind of cosmic law of nature wherein the weekend passes at an exponentially faster rate than do the weekdays.  I took a much-needed few days off this weekend from both the Internet and work and I’m still wondering where the time went.  I hope everyone survived Thanksgiving and indulged in the bounteous feast without a heaping side of  guilt.  I have some great news to share soon, but for now consider this an open thread to discuss your Thanksgiving experiences.  Did you hear the endless ruminations of “Ugghh, I ate way too much!”?  Does your family have any particular traditions or time-honored family holiday recipes you prepare?  Have any suggestions for what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers?  Gobble, gobble away…