Organic
Connections SEPTEMBER 2007
The magazine of Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality
Smoothies for Life Nutritionist and author Daniella Chace creates nutritional blended drinks Art of Consumerism Fine art photographer Chris Jordan does the math and documents our excesses
© 2007 Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality. All rights reserved.
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Smoothies and fine art— what’s the connection?
N
o, we’re not painting canvases with colorful health drinks and selling them to unsuspecting art collectors as the latest trend in “Organic Art.” The connection is more one of motivation. I’ll explain. In this issue of Organic Connections, we’re highlighting Daniella Chace, a nutritionist and author who creates recipes for smoothies that improve health and quality of life. We’re also focusing on fine art photographer Chris Jordan who has turned his talent and his lens on the excesses of disposable consumerism. His objective—to raise consciousness of our struggle between having “stuff ” and being responsible to our environment. This societal dilemma comes down to an individual level where each of us makes his or her own decisions. Chris shows how the infinitesimal amount of waste we each generate becomes a mountain when multiplied by millions. But here’s the ray of hope. Sure, there are problems in the world. Haven’t there always been? But we have great resources among us. We have people like Daniella and Chris whose motivation is to improve our quality of life. We have people in the natural products industry who work very hard to provide natural and organic products that are better for our bodies and better for our world. We have visionaries like architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle, who explain how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new. We have our friends in Remineralize the Earth who have a simple way to get nutrients back into our soil. We have Conservation International and many other groups addressing global warming. The point is, many people of goodwill are on the case. That’s good news because these man-made problems are susceptible to manmade solutions. So next time you feel a bit depressed after watching the TV news, remember the good folks who are working hard to make this a better world for us all.
—Editor
Organic Connections is published by Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality 2530 N. Ontario Street, Burbank, CA 91504-2512 National Office (800) 446-7462 www.petergillham.com info@petergillham.com
In this issue
or•gan•ic |ôr ganʹik| denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole: the organic unity of the integral work of art. • characterized by continuous or natural development: companies expand as much by acquisition as by organic growth.
4 feature We’re all familiar with smoothies, but nutritionist and author Daniella Chace puts a new healthy spin on these tasty and colorful drinks. Her newest book includes 150 smoothie recipes designed to cure common ailments, increase longevity and satisfy cravings.
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6 gallery Consumerism meets art in the dramatic and provocative photography of Seattle-based fine art photographer Chris Jordan. Chris did the math and helps us envision the magnitude of what we use once and throw away.
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A portion of the profits from the sale of
Natural Calm ® and Organic Life Vitamins™ goes to our Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative addressing global warming, which helps fund Conservation International (www.conservation.org) and Remineralize the Earth (www.remineralize.org).
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Daniella Chace
D
aniella Chace is a nutritionist and author of the best-selling book Smoothies for Life. She has just released a follow-up, More Smoothies for Life (Random House, 2007) with 150 smoothie recipes designed to cure common ailments, increase longevity and satisfy cravings with fatburning snacks. A leader in the field of medical nutrition therapy, Daniella is the author of sixteen books and is the president of Nutritionist Approved, Inc., which provides nutritional information to empower consumers to improve their health through educational literature. Her initial smoothie recipes were developed for cancer patients at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s facility in Seattle, Washington. “I needed to find a way to increase protein, antioxidants, minerals and essential fatty acids in patients’ diets before and after treatment,” Chace says. “Many of them had lost their appetites or had mouth sores which prevented much chewing. Smoothies provided the perfect vehicle for the nutrients they needed, and they loved drinking them because the cool, creamy nature of smoothies was comforting on their tender mouths.” The results led her to her first book Smoothies for Life, co-authored with Maureen Keene, published in 1998. “In the first book, we focused on the flavor combinations of different fruits and milk alternatives such as
flavor. When you are in the healing process you may need to take numerous pills, as there are often many supplements that help speed recovery, but it becomes difficult to swallow that many pills each day. We found quite a few supplements that can be added
almond milk, rice milk or soymilk and/or fruit juices,” she says. “We also experimented for months with supplements to find ways to add them to drinks without altering the
she learned through her years of clinical practice that most people have magnesium deficiencies due to daily coffee intake and high-sugar, high-carbohydrate diets,
without altering the flavor of the smoothie, such as vitamin C, magnesium powder, microflora and protein powder.” There were a number of reasons for her choice of Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm. First,
We found quite a few supplements that can be added without altering the flavor of the smoothie, such as vitamin C, magnesium powder, microflora and protein powder.
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and Natural Calm is a highly bioavailable source of magnesium. She had also found that many people taking calcium are not absorbing it due to their lack of magnesium. Then the flavors of Natural Calm, such as sweet lemon and raspberry-lemon, blend well into her smoothie recipes, adding just a hint of citrus without overriding the fruit flavors. And lastly, Natural Calm is widely available in many retail stores and through many natural healthcare practitioners, so she knew her readers would be able to find it easily. The choice did not come easily, however. “To be honest, I am skeptical of supplement companies in general because there are so many sub-quality products on the market,” Chase says. “I use only a small handful of products in my office that I learned to trust while I was interning at the Bastyr Natural Health Clinic in Seattle, the Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center in Seattle and in my private practice. Those are Thorne Research, Douglas Labs, Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm and now Peter Gillham’s Organic Life Vitamins. I really pay attention to feedback from clients when I send them home with supplements, to be sure they are getting long-term benefits. In addition, I rely on lab results, looking at blood work before and after mineral supplementation to ensure my clients are at optimal levels.” Chace’s new book, More Smoothies for Life, came about due to a plethora of new medical nutrition studies. She read through thousands of these studies and built recipes around the research, and each recipe is designed to have a medicinal benefit when the smoothies are consumed on a regular basis. The book focuses on the prevention and treatment of health conditions such as fatigue, toxicity (detoxification), insomnia and hypoglycemia as well as fat burning. Smoothies for Life, More Smoothies for Life and Daniella Chace’s other books are available in bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.
Nutritional and Revitalizing Smoothies These recipes are adapted from More Smoothies for Life: Tart Cherry Tropical Cooler (serves 2) This sorbet is a sweet mix of fresh tropical flavors, with a tart cherry finish. 2 cups milk 2 cups mixed tropical fruit (melon, pineapple, strawberry, mango) 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil 3 ounces protein powder (whey or rice; pea or soy if allergic to whey) 1½ tablespoons tart cherry juice concentrate 1 teaspoon Natural Calm Tart cherries contain natural anti-inflammatory compounds called anthocyanins. Research at Michigan State University indicates that the anthocyanins in tart cherry compounds protect artery walls from plaque buildup and heart disease. Magnesium is the mineral responsible for relaxing muscles and blood vessels throughout our bodies. When we are deficient in magnesium we may experience stress, anxiety and high blood pressure. Just 1 teaspoon of magnesium powder each day can help reduce these symptoms. Natural Calm is a magnesium powder that is available in several flavors, such as sweet lemon and raspberry-lemon, so it blends well with fruity and citrusflavored smoothies.
Lemon Drop (serves 1) This sweet citrus cocktail shimmers with bright flavor. 2 cups sparkling water ½ cup seedless grapes 2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon Electro Mix (Alcer Corp.) 1 teaspoon Natural Calm 1 teaspoon honey Electrolytes are minerals that are essential to carry electrical currents in the body to keep our physiological functions going. When we are low in these minerals— calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium—we can become fatigued, have irregular heartbeat, feel depressed and experience muscle weakness. Replacing these minerals instantly corrects the problem, giving us more energy.
Breakfast Blend (serves 1) This classic combination is a favorite daily smoothie to support the immune system. 1 cup milk ½ cup orange juice 1 frozen peeled banana ¼ cup cottage cheese
1 tsp honey (optional) 2 Tbs Peter Gillham’s Organic Life Vitamins Even if you don’t love cottage cheese, try it in smoothies. It’s high in protein and low in calories and so creamy that it is hard to detect once blended.
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Chris Jordan the art of consumerism
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hen you stand back at a distance, our consumerism doesn’t look so bad,” Chris Jordan says. “In fact, it looks pretty good. We get all these cool, beautiful things—snazzy cell phones, new BMWs, and much more. But when you walk up close and look at the details, when you zoom all the way in, it looks like something very different.” Fine art photographer Chris Jordan is rapidly capturing the attention of the art world and beyond by focusing his lens on consumerism in a unique and discomforting way. Currently exhibiting in both New York and Los Angeles, one enormous five-by-ten-foot print appears from a distance as if it might only be many points of interesting color. Walk closer and you begin to see what appear to be tiny plastic bottles. Up close, you see that they are indeed plastic bottles, and at actual size. The enormity of the print is used to portray two million of these containers— the number consumed and discarded by Americans every five minutes. Nearby, you might notice another of these titanic prints containing what appear to be thousands of black dots. Coming closer, you see that the mass is composed of tiny oblong objects. But move up close enough to touch it and you’ll see that it is a photograph of 426,000 cell phones—the number of cell phones retired daily. It is a truly mind-boggling experience— for Jordan as well. He feels that if there is an evil within our society, it is our collective greed and desire for power. Chris doesn’t exclude himself from that category—he has been an avid consumer and continues to be so. But there is another side of himself, he says, that craves connection on a human level and experiences deep grief upon hearing of the environmental degradation occurring worldwide. “It’s a constant internal struggle,” he says. “And I think that’s the motivation behind my work—to raise the consciousness of that internal struggle in others so that people can make a more conscious choice for themselves.” 6 organic connections
Does Jordan consider himself an activist? “Preaching never works,” he says. “I have learned that art can reach us on a kind of non-accusatory level that no amount of advocacy and preaching can do.” One type of reaction Jordan sees very consistently in people who view his work is, This certainly can’t be caused by me. I just have one little cell phone, or I only dispose of a few plastic containers a week. “It’s very interesting, and I’m guilty of this myself,” he says. “Everybody blames it on somebody else—even our own president blames it on China.” But this ubiquitous attitude may find its answer in the very device Jordan uses in his photography. “It’s hard to get our arms around the notion that each one of us is contributing an infinitesimal amount to the destruction of the world; but you just take that infinitesimal amount and you multiply it by hundreds of millions, and it turns out to be a catastrophic effect. One of the things that I want to try to convey with the really big prints is the sense of standing back and seeing the staggering many, and then walking up and being able to see the individual components. You see that each individual component is exactly the same size—each one contributes equally. And that’s what makes up the cumulative.” Chris Jordan’s work is currently on exhibit at the Von Lintel Gallery in New York, at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California, and on Chris Jordan’s website at www.chrisjordan.com. Check the website for upcoming exhibitions. Comments on Individual Works Cans Seurat, 2007 The reason I chose the Seurat painting (Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886) as a model was, first, I wanted to make it a pointillist image with 106,000 aluminum cans (the number used in the U.S. every thirty seconds). I wanted the viewers to stand back from a distance and see one thing, and as they walked up closer see something else. Second, the original painting was done just at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, back at a time when taking your leisure in a park didn’t involve parking lots filled with SUVs and coolers of drinks and Frisbees and Nikes and boom boxes and all the stuff
that’s associated now with taking our leisure in a park. It’s just a quiet, serene image of people being in a park together. I thought it would be an interesting image to play on that way. Cell Phones, 2007 This one was made in a similar way to Plastic Bottles, 2007. I obtained about two hundred cell phones, all the same model—I wanted this one to be monochromatic and just have the number itself be the whole force of the image with no “interesting” composition or color to distract from the force of the number. I made a little frame in my studio that was about sixteen by twenty inches and took lots and lots and lots of pictures of the same bunch of cell phones and stirred them around each time in between. I slowly assembled this one gigantic image of 206,000 cell phones—one day’s worth of cell phone retirement. There’s a very interesting thing about cell phones: the vast majority of them aren’t recycled—the recycling rate is less than 2 percent. They just get put away in people’s drawers and boxes in their homes. It’s really hard to get people to relinquish them. That’s the whole challenge of the cell phone recycling business—they have the capacity to process ten times as many phones as they receive but they just don’t have the pipeline of phones coming in. They’re always trying to come up with new creative ways to get people to donate their cell phones. Paper Bags, 2007 I made that whole image from a pile of a hundred paper bags, which was about a foot high on my studio table. I set up my camera looking at this little pile of paper bags and I took a picture, and then I took down the stack and restacked it into a different looking stack and took another picture. I did that for a few days until I had lots and lots of pictures of the same stack of bags, but each stack was configured a little bit differently. And then, keeping track of the number of duplications and the number of images I was using, I just started piling them on top of each other and creating this image of trees in a forest until I had 1.14 million bags, which was one hour’s worth of brown paper supermarket bags. Plastic Bottles, 2007 This one depicts two million plastic bottles, which is the number of bottles we use in the United States every five minutes. I just got a few hundred bottles and put them in my driveway and took a picture of them. I then stirred them with a rake, took another picture, and repeated the process until I had hundreds and hundreds of separate photographs of the same bottles. Then I did the math to figure out how big the picture would have to be to show two million of them. That’s the staggering experience of doing this—the print had to be five by ten feet in size, and it had to contain five thousand individual photographs of four hundred bottles. I had to digitally stitch together this incredible number of individual images into one giant photograph.
Cans Seurat, 2007
Cell Phones, 2007
Paper Bags, 2007
Plastic Bottles, 2007 organic connections
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