Green Table is a business that helps restaurants adopt more environmentally friendly practices. I encourage you to visit their website to see which restaurants are participating, and support businesses that are taking the initiative to look out for everyone’s health.

Members are expected to do things like:

• Send their organic waste to compost

• Recycle paper, plastic, glass, metal as much as possible; use energy-efficient equipment and lighting

• Use water-saving equipment and fixtures; use recycled, biodegradable and non-toxic supplies

• Buy local and organic foods, sustainable seafood, etc.

• Support like-minded local suppliers and service providers working to ‘green’ their operations

Go to their website and support the businesses in your area that are trying to make a difference.

 

 

Choose between the following items:

• Sashimi (not too much tuna, choose salmon more often)

• All seafood is okay

• You can usually add an order of mixed vegetables

• Most soups and salads are ok

• Miso Soup

• Gomaae salad

• All Teriyaki is okay, except tofu

• Order no rice, extra veggies

• Chicken (don’t eat skins)

• Seafood is best

Avoid:

• Rice

• Dumplings

• Tofu (unless it is not deep fried)

• All tempura items

There are many salad bars available in Vancouver. For now, they are listed in their specific regions within the Weight Loss Restaurants category.

Dressings:

Bring your own or keep your own at work.

You never know what you are going to get with dressings, and many of them may have undesirable contents such as sugars, artificial flavours or colours, trans fats, or saturated fats. They also may lack unsaturated fats that your body needs to function properly.

When choosing dressings, simple is usually best. Contents like extra virgin olive oil, and other expeller pressed vegetable oils such as sesame, sunflower, borage, hemp, pumpkin or flax are best. Vinegars, fruits, and spices are all welcome ingredients. Organic ingredients are good, and they usually show that the manufacturer is making an effort to provide a healthy product.

Avoid all cream based dressings. Some creamy looking dressings can actually be okay, but you have to read the label carefully to make sure they did not use fatty animal products.

Avoid additives in your dressings that you don’t need.

Examples of additives you should try to avoid are:

• Sugar

• Trans-fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils

• Bromide or Bromine

• Sulfates and Sulfites/ Nitrates and Nitrites

• MSG

• BHA, BHT, and other contents that start with ‘Benz’

• Artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners

• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)

Choose the following items at your salad bar:

• Eggs (For faster results, remove the egg yolks)

• Fish (Most salad bars have tuna. Don’t have tuna more than twice per week, and don’t the ones that are already mixed with mayonnaise)

• All green leafy vegetables: Spinach, Lettuce (all), Kale, Mixed greens, Arugula

• Zucchini

• Onion

• Mushrooms

• Celery

• Cabbage

• Cauliflower

• Broccoli

• Water chestnuts

• Cucumbers

• Sprouts

• Brussel sprouts

• Pickles

• Radishes

• Parsley

• Artichoke

Higher carbohydrate vegetables (moderate quantities only):

• Tomato

• Carrot

• Peppers (all types)

• Snow peas and snap peas

• Green beans

Nuts and Seeds (use sparingly):

• Good Choices:

• Nuts – Almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, and pistachios.

• Seeds – Pumpkin, sunflower, flax (must be ground in blender or processor)

• Soy nuts

• Less optimal choices – Macadamia, brazil, cashew, and pine.

• Cottage Cheese

• Feta Cheese (use sparingly)

• Mozzarella (use sparingly)

• Avocado

• Soybeans

• Tofu

Last weekend, Whistler hosted four world cup alpine ski races. The weather was fantastic, the snow conditions were fast, and the Canadian Alpine Ski Team athletes performed very well. I found the giant slalom race on Saturday particularly entertaining, and John Kucera’s performance down the final pitch entering the finish arena was very impressive. Our Canadian ski team is looking strong going into the 2010 Winter Olympics. 

That weekend, I also enjoyed doing some work for my friend and former teammate, Dana Williams. His company, Best of Both (www.bestofboth.ca), brings former World Cup ski racers together with ski enthusiasts of all kind. I enjoyed sharing some of my old ski racing stories and offering some helpful ski-tips to a great group of people from San Francisco. Thanks to Dana and Tim for a great experience!