In the fight against obesity, many solutions are more stick than carrot: taxes on sodas, bans of junk food in schools and, most recently, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to ban the sale of sugary drinks in servings larger than 16 ounces. But an innovative produce program does just the opposite — and it’s working.
Wholesome Wave’s fruit and vegetable prescription program lets doctors prescribe vouchers worth $1 per day for low-income families to spend at farmers markets. Now in its third year, already has shown remarkable results: Of the 1,200 participants in six towns and cities in the Northeast, 66 percent said they ate more fruits and vegetables as a result of the program and 38 percent improved their body mass index, a standard measure used to estimate healthy body weight. The program brought new customers to farmers markets. More than half of families that received fruit-and-vegetable prescriptions had never, or rarely, been to a farmers market.
All the details are in my latest Smarter Food column. What do you think? Do carrots work better than sticks when it comes to healthy eating?
I am a Brooklyn-based food writer who covers food politics, trends and sustainability issues. My work appears in the Washington Post, (where I was a staff writer), the New York Times, Slate, New York magazine and other publications. On this site, you will find my blog and links to my written work and my Washington Post column, Smarter Food.
Pulling together real stracciatella
Image courtesy of The New York Times
Perhaps love was in the air. I was on my honeymoon in Italy, after all. But when I took my first bite of just-made stracciatella, thin strands of fresh mozzarella soaked in heavy cream, I knew I had found another true love.
That first day, last year, we ate it with juicy summer tomatoes. The next day, we smeared it on bread and topped it with fig preserves. One night before bed, I ate what was left in the container with a spoon.
Back home, though, the good stuff was hard to find, and I couldn’t understand why. Fresh mozzarella is everywhere. So is burrata, a ball of fresh mozzarella stuffed with stracciatella. Even the imported product lacked the tang and richness I remembered.
Happily, that is changing, thanks to the cheesemakers Rynn and David Caputo, who I profiled today in the New York Times. The Caputos, who are in their 30s, spent years perfecting their pasta filata, or stretched-curd cheeses, before opening Caputo Brothers Creamery in Spring Grove, Pa., in 2011. While it would have been easy to sell the familiar mozzarella and its fashionable and very profitable cousin, burrata, Ms. Caputo is on a quest to crown stracciatella the new “it” cheese: one that provides the wow factor of burrata, but is far easier (and less expensive) to make.
I like to use stracciatella in any dish that calls for fresh mozzarella. The creaminess pairs beautifully with tomatoes. But it is as delicious with roasted peppers or grilled peaches and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Stracciatella also melts like a dream: perfect for pizza or a standout cheeseburger.