Policy in Plainer English

A project of the Bi-State Primary Care Association and the Vermont Food Access & Health Care Consortium. These are informational podcasts intended to be shared & used in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Background music "Too Fly" by FesliyanStudios.com.

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Policy in Plainer English

Food Journals

January 04, 2022 • Helen Labun • Season 4 • Episode 8

Writer Alexandra Johnson helps us get the new year off to a strong start. Among the things she writes about is the practice of journaling to support creativity. You know what we'll all need to put into practice food appreciation as a tool to become adaptable in our diets? Creativity. It's time to redefine how we think about food journals - these aren't the standard food logs of calories and serving sizes, Alex is helping us define a different tool entirely.

No surprise, we referenced a lot of writing over the course of this conversation. Here are some links for additional reading:

The Hidden Writer, Alexandra Johnson
Leaving a Trace, Alexandra Johnson
On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion appears in Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Here is an article about the essay, with excerpts, from The Marginalian.
2022 Food Trends - with the coffee & climate change reference (see also a longer piece from October, here)
Why I Switched to Eating Grandma's Food, Geeta Pandey in BBC News
Melissa Clark on Wine-Braised Chicken in the New York Times

For examples of prompting questions for finding flavor details, peruse this handout from my "Describing Flavor" craft seminar. It's from the Lesley University MFA program that I mentioned at the top of the episode. Sadly, the food samples that went with it were only available in-person.

Do look for Alex's other work - we focused on only one aspect of it in this episode. Her essays, reviews, and travel pieces appear in national publications and anthologies, and her book in progress set in southern Italy is The Saint's Laundry.

Full season archive here. This podcast is part of the Food Access in Health Care program at Bi-State Primary Care Association.

This season of Policy in Plainer English is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $189,892.00 with 0 percentage financed with non governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.