Sylvia's Scenario

I just returned tonight from our state's dietetic meeting in beautiful Sun Valley, Idaho - couldn't have been a better place to have it.  Just beautiful. The town was very quiet because ski season is over and summer hasn't started yet.  It was very different when we were there in February for a little ski trip with Lauren and her boyfriend, Kevin, who came to Idaho for the first time. Since Kevin hadn't been to Sun Valley, we had to take him skiing.  For our state meeting,  all the dietitians stayed at the Sun Valley Lodge, a historical place with all kinds of photos posted of the famous people who have visited.  It was built in 1936 and is just gorgeous inside and out.  The rooms are rather lovely, too, I must say.  (white robes, slippers, walk-in closets! Nice!) It looked very different than when we were there in February.  The snow sculpture isn't there anymore... It was a little warmer ...

I recently returned from attending our national conference for dietitians in San Diego on September 24-27 and was refreshed to get updated on all the latest research, as well as having a little fun in San Diego!!  This is a good event for all of us dietitians to go to because it keeps us abreast of current recommendations backed up by studies.  For example...have you see the blogs going around about "Unprocessed October" where they are trying to get people to eat "unprocessed" food for a month?  Well, I think its a fun idea, however, I went to a session called "Fresh Look at Processed Foods" and basically, the definition of "processed foods" is everything we eat unless it's pulled straight out of the garden!  Even bananas are considered a processed food!  The home grown tomatoes we can ourselves  are "processed foods".  So, as a dietitian, this conference is good at keeping us grounded with the scientific community so we don...

This week is the Idaho State Dietetic Association's annual meeting and our pre-conference event was a Farm to Fork tour.  There were 50 of us who toured around the Treasure Valley visiting local farmers starting with a feed lot that raises "natural" beef.   Next was a dairy with 3,000 dairy cows, quite a production.  Then we had lunch at a local winery which was absolutely DELICIOUS!  It was all locally grown/produced foods catered by Brick 29 in Nampa, complete with wine tasting, of course.  On the road again to an organic farm which grows greens all year around in 12 green houses.  Remarkable!  Every little garden was so perfect!  We ended the day at another winery, this one was organic and more beautiful scenery!!  It was such a gorgeous day with such inspirational stories from all these remarkable farmers! Our first stop was a feed lot with 4700 head of cattle.  It really didn't stink that much and wasn't as depressing as I antic...