the thirties grind

WE WANT IT: Heart and Stroke Foundation launches movement to get nutritional information into BC Restaurants

We’ve all been there…you go out for a meal and sit staring at the menu, not knowing what to choose.  Sometimes it’s because there are too many choices, sometimes there aren’t enough.  Sometimes it’s because we don’t know if what we want to order is good for us.  And…fair enough.  Two thirds of Canadians want to know the nutritional contents of the meal they order.   We go to great lengths in our lives these days to live and eat healthily.  It is important to many of us to know what we are putting into our bodies.  For others, knowing the nutritional facts about the meal they eat is an important part of a dietary plan that is saving their lives.

The Canadian Heart and Stroke foundation has launched WeWantIt.hsf.ca so people can tell BC restaurants to list the calories, fat, sugar, and sodium and other nutritional information for their menu items.

“Our goal is to show restaurant owners that nutrition information is vitally important to their customers,” said Gavin Arthur, Vice President of Research and Health Promotion at the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “Everyone likes to indulge now and then, but we are encouraging restaurants to give people the information they need to make an informed choice.”

On the website, people can identify their favourite restaurant and add their first name to the We Want It list. Heart and Stroke Foundation will send the list to each restaurant identified.  Include the reason you want it and you could win a gift card to a participating Health Check restaurant.

Join the movement at WeWantIt.hsf.ca.  To spread the word, and for a chance to win an unlimited week’s free pass to Kalev Fitness, tweet out the following message on Twitter:

I want it. #TheThirtiesGrind wants it. #BCWantsIt. RT + join the movement to get nutritional info into BC restaurants. http://ow.ly/hhEGd

FEAST VAN: Great food for a good cause in my hood.

Here’s a heads-up on FeastVan, a 17 day dining event involving many of the best restaurants of East Vancouver. From January 18th to February 3rd, local foodies and visitors will be invited to enjoy a selection of specially priced three-course meals (two course meals at lunch) from Au Petit Chavignol, Cascade Room, El Caminos, Habit, Harvest Community Foods, Les Faux Bourgeois, The Parker, Union Bar, and many more.

Participating restaurants will donate $1 to the Strathcona Community Center Back Pack Food Program, which provides meals for both Raycam and Strathcona community centers. The awesome organisation, which serves the children of Strathcona and the DTES, aims to “bridge the weekend gaps when school food programs are not running”.

$1 from every prix fixe dinner sold will go towards the Strathcona Community Center Back Pack Food Program

2013 Participating Restaurants Include… Read more…

Local Vancouver cafe owner has her Mom to thank for more than just recipes.

For Mother’s Day, I wanted to find a great, local business that had some kind of tie to motherhood and the way that our moms affect our lives in ways we sometimes don’t even expect.  My friend, Stephanie, suggested I speak with Delainy, owner of The Gluten Free Epicurean, located in our Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.  Delainy’s simple and cute cafe opened a few months ago and, from what I understand, business is thriving!