Harvest Market Kickoff 2008

The Downtown Elgin Harvest Market opened its 2008 season last Thursday with beautiful weather. The vendor list was fairly small due to the limited availability of early season produce. However, small does not always mean unpleasant! Vendors were selling pet treats, produce, meat, bread, cheeses, among other foods.

Don Hoffer (see right photo) from Gloria's Gourmet Meats & Eggs sold freshly out of Free-Range Chicken Eggs. The stand featured a wide selection of olive oils for sampling and numerous types of fresh cheeses including Gouda Smoked in Applewood, White Cheddar with Sundried Tomato and Basil, and Monterey Jack with Fresh Dill and Garlic! Next week the stand will feature grass-fed or corn-fed Ribeye Steaks and New York Strip Steaks.

During the day, Tonya Hudson and Steve Munson from The Downtown Neighborhood Association of Elgin were handing out information on upcoming Elgin events. Most recently announced was the Elgin Pub Crawl on August 15th with special guest Thomas Ian Nicholas (Kevin Myers from American Pie). They were also giving away Elgin tote bags made of recycled plastic bottles as part of the Elgin "Green Initiative" line of projects proposed. It was too bad the bags disappeared by 1pm!!

This Thursday, June 19th the Harvest Market will feature samples from the newly opened Elgin location of Ravenheart Coffee from 10am-2pm, yoga demonstrations by the Fusion Mind Body Studio from 2-6pm, and accompanying pan flute music by Inkapirka. See you there!

It's About Time!

Pun intended, of course. The Elgin National Watch Company located in Elgin, IL was the largest U.S. producer of pocket watches until production ceased in 1964 after the factory was closed. Hence, the relevance of the "Elgin" watch photograph below.

Again, It's About Time! Elgin has finally come around with an activist group to combat the troubling overweight community. Activate Elgin is funded by the YMCA Activate America Program. With nearly 3800 members in the Fox River Valley, the Greater Elgin Area YMCA is reaching out beyond the scopes of their facility. U-46 based Highland Elementary School has already been touched by encouraging simple exercise routines and healthy eating habits for students and their families. In addition to the pre-existing Downtown Elgin Harvest Market, Activate Elgin plans on helping startup a farmer's market on the west side of Elgin.

The Courier News: Activating Elgin Starts With Winning Logo


Speaking of farmer's markets... the Downtown Elgin Harvest Market kicks off tomorrow, June 12th from 10am-6pm at the Civic Center Parking Lot in Downtown Elgin. The theme is "Shop Green". Expect to find organic produce and hormone-free meats and poultry!

Civic Center Parking Lot
120 E. Highland Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120

Elgin: Fattest City in Illinois?

Elgin was recently rated the 52nd Best Place to Raise a Family in the United States. However, Elgin has also been rated as the fattest city in the state of Illinois. According to The Courier News on 05/23/08, 50% of the current enrolled district U46 student body (preschool-high school) is either overweight or obese. Elgin driver's license data does not show any better results!


Is it any wonder that Elgin is an overweight community?

1) Fast-food restaurants are a major staple for Chicagoans. Within a 10 square mile radius from the Center of Elgin (information from Yahoo! Local)...

• Taco Bell:15
• Kentucky Fried Chicken: 10
• McDonald's: 32
• Burger King: 14
• Wendy's: 16
• Dunkin Donuts/Krispy Kreme/Other Donut Shops: 17

2) Urban sprawl has traditionally been considered to be a major contributor to obesity. The larger the distance that residential units are from each other and from shopping, dining, work and entertainment, the more residents depend on transportation. Walking, as opposed to automobile use, is not typical in Elgin. In addition to the eating habits of Elginites, exercise is not a favorite pasttime.

Population density and housing unit density are strongly correlated with urban sprawl. The smaller the density numbers, more-often-than-not the greater the amount of urban sprawl. Keep in mind that Chicago has been considered to have an obese population for years. Below is a list of population densities (1st) and housing unit densities (2nd) for the largest communities within Chicagoland (information gathered from Wikipedia):

• Chicago: 12,470/sq mile and 5075.8/sq mile
• Naperville: 4,162.8/sq mile and 1454.5/sq mile
• Elgin: 3,779.2/sq mile and 1306.5/sq mile
• Aurora: 3,711.2/sq mile and 1266.6/sq mile
• Joliet: 1,066.4/sq mile and 1003.1/sq mile

Downtown Elgin is currently being transformed into a modern urban area with a more pedestrian friendly environment. While this may densify a portion of the population downtown, Elgin still continues its rapid sprawl expansion to the west.

3) Other factors that play in Elgin's "fattest Illinois city" reputation may be due to the following: poor health education in the school system, lack of resident health awareness activities, fear of gang activity, amount of time consumed traveling into downtown Chicago for work, lack of health food/organic restaurants, low incomes, lack of social networking, etc.

I would like to hear any comments or suggestions!

The Courier News: Group's Focus to Get Elgin Healthy

Trans Fats

As a consumer you are probably used to reading labels such as "NEW!" on food packaging. Intrigued? Well, of course! If something is "NEW!" then it must be worth trying, huh? What if a package has a major design change such as now being available in bite-sized quantities or in 100-Calorie pouches. As the well-informed consumers that we are then it must be worth buying.

Let's take another spin on this: "NO TRANS FAT" or "0g TRANS FAT". Little Billy explains to Mom, "it says there is no trans fat and Miss Smith at school said not to eat trans fat because it is bad for you". Do you end up buying this box of snack food? Maybe.

Trans fats do not contribute to one's good health like other dietary fats. Actually, the consumption of trans fats is a leading contributor to heart disease. Trans fats cause bad cholesterol (LDL) to rise and good cholesterol (HDL) to decrease. In essence trans fats clog arteries.

FDA requirements: Food manufacturers are allowed to label a product as having 0g trans fat if it contains less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving. No joke!! I have not found any limit on serving size for the 0.5g rule. Technically, a 0.5g serving of food can contain 0.49g of trans fat while still being labeled as "0g TRANS FAT"!

Dieting? NEWS FLASH: Even some dietary supplements contain trans fat!!!

Watch out for some alternative names for trans fat: partially hydrogenated oil, vegetable shortening, margarine...

Launch

Today is the launch of the "What You Consume" Blog. The website is designed to exchange information pertaining to the health and well-being of the world on both an individual and global scale. Here you will find an in-depth insight on what is actually being consumed on a daily basis. Perception is not always reality! Learn about what/where/when and how to change your current consumption habits in order to plan for the future.