Are you Orthorexic? Are you a U.S. citizen...? Then probably, yes. Eat a freakin baguette!

You were once a child...or have children. How to you fuel the fire of a child's tantrum? Give it attention. How do you quench the fire...ignore it.

 I think we are paying too much obsessive attention to food, leading to a life of orthorexia.

Orthorexic =" people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating" (Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food) Taken from the Greek "Ortho" - right and correct and "exia" - appetite.

vs.

The "French paradox" (enjoy food....including Carbs and fats....oh my!..yet staying slender). This is how I justify ice cream,  I may be missing something.

-I once got to spend some time with authentic French boys. In California as interns for Louis Vuitton. At an after church, late night group trip to a restauraunt - they sipped a beverage sans food saying, "but I have already eaten dinner." ...except it was in a more French, man voice. What? Why would anyone skip eating a second dinner...this was absurd and new to me. Big fat Americans wouldn't do such a thing. (I am sorry - was that not P.C.?) Let me rephrase: Abundance driven Americans who seem to be at the mercy of science driven food rules, ever changing food concerns, and who can not stop multitasking long enough to have a decent meal with their family/friends/or complete stranger would never pass up eating again because they did not gain proper satisfaction from the meal the just had...thus come seeking more.

As orthorexics, let me clarify - I think attention needs to be paid to food. Just not the kind of attention that consumes us or becomes synonymous with an obsessive compulsive disorder.

I think that scientists (which I am one of) have killed the joy in eating.

Sir Hans Adolf Krebs....as in Krebs cycle...TCA...Citric Acid Cycle...

This is a problem. Pre scientific discovery of catabolism and anabolism (the breakdown of foodstuffs to monomers (or at least smaller units) to release energy and the body's construction of polymers and use of energy for re-building processes, respectively) by the way thank you to those who collaborated in the development of  GLYCOLYSIS and Sir Hans Adolf Krebs for the citric acid/Krebs/TCA cycle , for making all of us scientists memorize your proposed cycle....darned oxaloacetate and Acetyl CoA (although the Pyruvate/AcetylCoA shunt is pretty cool).

 Undergrad Biochemistry + Glycolysis, TCA, and the ETC: I may look happy in this picture. It is simple to eat a delicious POP burger in NYC ... it is NOT easy to outline the processes that each ingredient in the burger undergoes in our bodies. . . been there.

Wow that was a tangent. Let me start over; Pre scientific discovery of catabolism and anabolism, people ate what was a) available b) they could produce c) what they knew from their culture. Now we have more choices than ever and seem to have no idea what we should really be eating. As if we are unwilling to accept that the answer could be simple, eating fruits and vegetables are good and moderation in eating overall is a good thing, we try to make rules. The way things are heading, I would guess that we want some sort of "meal in a pill."

Well...I certainly do not. I have just discovered quinoa and I want to make it and enjoy it with friends.

Starting with our daily life...

Adam and Eve...

How organic is our workday. I remember in the Garden of Eden when I used to sit, naked because this was pre- apple incident of 3500 B.C., and work for at least 8 hours in a strange bent, sort-of, orientation called "sitting." Then I would go home and because Adam also had to work, dual income needed to support little Cain and Abel, I have only a limited amount of time so I have to rely on others to provide dinner from a factory....wait there are not others yet.

Back in the day, no production = no consumption. I recently thought it would be novel to start making my own bread. Until I opened my good friend Danielle's Better Home's cookbook to learn how complicated this endevor may prove to be. I may have to quite going to school if I plan to eat the literal fruits er...bread of my labor.

Point being: food production is hard and complicated. BUT we now have convenient markets BUT we now have abundant choices which we try endlessly to make...BUT even those who try to make CORRECT and HEALTHY food choices...well...how do they figure what is "healthy" and "unhealthy?" what is "good" and what is "evil" in the marketplace of foods.

 I adore nutrition. This is my master's degree....but people....don't be quick to believe drastic food claims. Listen to your body. And think about oxidative phosphorylation....I am kidding...don't do that. Unless you are a geek like me, that may ruin your appetite.

Think about what it means to gain satisfaction from your food and meals. Is that what you are currently gaining from your: I don't have time to eat so I eat in my car, bar-shaped food, stuff in a shake, stuff on a plate that I don't know the origin of, stuff that I don't really enjoy, stuff from a package that makes crinkling noises, stuff with ingredients that are hard to decipher? I am still guilty of some of the above, but I am taking baby steps away. I would like to ask you - - will you join me? E-mail me brittanykunza@gmail.com and let me know if you are with me! I can help with some info and suggestions.

I think that nutrition science has made a BIG Type 1 error. (In epidemiological terms - this is when a claim of association is made when really one does not exist). Lets backtrack to our roots and soil. Don't eat dirt, because that is a disease called pika, but lets eat from the soil or darned close to it.

Baked eggplant and vegetable cous-couse

Stop eating stuff and start eating food. No, none of us have time, but that is not my area of expertise. If something means enough to you...no matter what it takes, you will make it happen.

Bon Apetit my beautiful and handsome friends! Now go and enjoy freakin baguette :) Enjoy your food...don't obsess over it . . and enjoy one of my current favorite songs - - makes me want to dance and celebrate a healthy and active life! Waka-Waka

Columbia University Medical Center in New York - Student Housing (the Towers) - - video tour of my appartment

It has been several months in the waiting. I apologize. Somewhere between mid-terms and finals I got lost in my biochemistry notes, only to resurface recently and get back to blogging! Due to guests coming for the holidays, the apartment was in tip-top shape and I thought it would be the best time to share it with the world.

My big-little Christmas Tree

If you are a prospective Columbia University graduate student on the Morningside Heights campus (nursing, medicine, dental, public health, nutrition etc) 

this will come in handy as there are mysteriously little to no pictures of the graduate housing options online. Feel free to contact me with any questions. For student housing, you can either be assigned housing (priority goes to those who are traveling from greater distances), or you can contact the housing office about a "J&S" lease. I don't know what the J or the S stand for but basically this circumstance allows the remaining tenant to fill the additional rooms in the apartment rather than the school doing arbitrarily choosing the roommates - - this may give you some more options BUT they fill up fast and housing may not cooperate right off the bat with maintenance requests. They will get the vacant bedrooms in great shape (new paint/waxed floors) but the rest of the house they consider the "common area" and not their responsibility.

Before bathroom = Yuck

Luckily if you visit the New York City website you can find laws for renters and tenants, you can find laws that justify your request and get the black mold/broken stove/thrashed walls (not always the case) taken care of.

In a prior blog post from August, I posted the before pictures of the apartment.

The Kitchen - -I apologize for my quiet narration, my roommates were home and I thought they would find it odd if I was talking to myself.

 The Dining Area and my many umbrellas and shoes - - mind you, much of this furniture was left behind by the prior renters. So please excuse our Hodge-podge of items! 

The Bathroom - - grandma was on bleach probation when we first cleaned this bad-boy. Black mold and all - - housing also stepped in to re-paint, new medicine cabinet and ripped out the strange torture-looking device that they claim was to dry clothes...hmmm.

The Living Room - - this room actually gets less living than the rest of the apartment. With first year dental students as roommates and my one year master's program ( Institute of Human Nutrition)  - - we have not had a whole lot of time to hangout in the living room....

 Last but not least,  maybe the only time you will be allowed into.....my bedroom with the fantastic view of the George Washington Bridge. It is very important to own a sweater that matches your desk lamp....