super loving the grey-blue color / this is like the perfect grocery shopping or errand running in the middle of the heat wave dress xD
21 April 2019
18 April 2019
rice
A sustainable food system is one of the causes that I care about, but haven't done much towards. I'll at least summarize a great research paper on the subject: "Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems" (free access too!!)
Context:
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Context:
Providing a growing global population with healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an immediate challenge. Although global food production of calories has kept pace with population growth, more than 820 million people have insufficient food and many more consume low-quality diets that cause micronutrient deficiencies and contribute to a substantial rise in the incidence of diet-related obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Unhealthy diets pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than does unsafe sex, and alcohol, drug, and tobacco use combined.Aka it's a quality and distribution issue, and a very big issue.
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The absence of scientific targets for achieving healthy diets from sustainable food systems has been hindering large-scale and coordinated efforts to transform the global food system.
Everyone's favourite management quotation: you can't manage what you can't measure. The target is based on the planetary boundary framework. The article also proposes a reference sustainable diet that will "provide major health benefits".
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The article recommends 5 strategies to achieve the required drastic and global change:
- National & international commitment by "investment in public health information and sustainability education, and improved coordination between departments of health and environment" (I'm not optimistic on this one after what happened with the Paris Agreement)
- Farm for healthy (both human and biodiversity) rather than quantity
- Intensify agriculture in a sustainable way, aka not what we've been doing by inefficiently applying tons of water and fertilizer
- Not fuck up biodiversity (any more than what we've already done) by "strong and coordinated governance of land and oceans"
- Minimum 50% reduction in food loss and waste
...
We've done well to increase food production to better some facets of life, but have shifted to an unhealthy diet, driven by "rapid urbanisation, increasing incomes, and inadequate accessibility of nutritious foods". This in turn is killing us and the planet.
Some environmental stats (all quoted):
- Agriculture occupies about 40% of global land, [13] and food production is responsible for up to 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions [14] and 70% of freshwater use.[ 2,15]
- Conversion of natural ecosystems to croplands and pastures is the largest factor causing species to be threatened with extinction.[16]
- Overuse and misuse of nitrogen and phosphorus causes eutrophication and dead zones in lakes and coastal zones.[17]
- Environmental burden from food production also includes marine systems. About 60% of world fish stocks are fully fished, more than 30% overfished, and catch by global marine fisheries has been declining since 1996. [18]
We also gotta preserve natural carbon sinks and turn our farmlands into carbon sinks if we want any chance of keeping global warming below 2˚.
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Food Consumption
This Bon Appetit article focuses on the reference diet, and also where I heard about this article.
- Protein: 0.8g/kg body weight is a guideline, with vegetarian sources (soy, legumes, nuts) > poultry & fish > red meat. 1 or 2 servings of fatty fish a week seem to be good due to omega-3
- Dairy: pretty neutral, no need to consume dairy for calcium if diet is otherwise balanced
- Carbs: eat less of it (<60 and="" energy="" grains="" li="" of="" preferred="" total="" whole="">
- Fruits and vegetable: seem to be pretty good, the article recommends 300g veg and 200g fruits daily.
- Added fats: also seem to be pretty good if and only if they're unsaturated fats, aka more olive oil or rapeseed oil and less butter
- Sugar: article recommends less than 5% of total energy
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Food Production
- GHG: "The total estimate of all greenhouse-gas emissions from food production is 8·5–13·7 Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent per year." whereas the target set by the article is 5 Gt annually.
- Water: requires regional analysis. Interesting point about the conflict of interest between food sovereignty and balancing water use in different regions through trade.
- Nitrogen & Phosphorous: require more efficient use, both in spatial distribution and also in closed loop systems
- Biodiversity: severely underrated. "habitat loss and fragmentation, particularly through human appropriation of land for food production, is the greatest driver of biodiversity loss"
- Land use: in relation to biodiversity "Globally, the net area for food production has remained constant since the mid-20th century. However, this trend masks the real picture because substantial reductions in agricultural land have occurred in temperate regions of Europe, Russia, and North America, whereas substantial expansion of agricultural land has occurred in biodiversity-rich tropics". The article proposes 13M sq. km of food production land use.
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The next section of the article, "Achieving healthy diets from sustainable food systems" is quite heavy on the figures, which I won't steal. But the main points are:
- "grains, fruits, and vegetables have the lowest environmental effects per serving, and meat from ruminants the highest", while seafood is super variable
- "Vegan and vegetarian diets were associated with the greatest reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions and land use, [5,221] and vegetarian diets with the greatest reductions in water use. [219]".
- Interesting point on how some crops are less nutritious when grown in an atmosphere with higher CO2 concentrations (Panel 5)
- Hitting the biodiversity target will require the most ambitious of changes. But there's again a conflict between biodiversity and food sovereignty:
We found that adopting the reference diet (or one of its variations) could increase the global number of extinctions if land-use change occurs in areas of food production. This effect is mainly a result of increased caloric intake to 2500 kcal / capita per day in the reference diet in countries where caloric intake is lower than this value, and shifting production priorities to produce crops (eg, nuts and pulses) needed to support the reference diet. However, these results assume that domestic production will meet a proportion of the additional demand. Rebalancing regional production on the basis of biodiversity concerns could mitigate those additional stresses and have the greatest effect on reducing biodiversity loss (figure 6). [144,206]
16 April 2019
Sylvaine Delacourte Vanilla Collection
Here's part 2, featuring the Vanilla Collection.
I originally did not intend on buying this sample set, since I didn't think I like the smell of vanilla. But this set was only a $4 add-on, so I caved into temptations. Never hurts to sample broadly at the beginning, or in brainstorming speak, never dismiss an idea as bad. After some reading, I think I'm not a big fan of vanillin, but vanilla is ok. Still not a note that I'll actively look for, but also not a note that will turn me off of a fragrance.
...
Sylvaine Delacourte Valkerie
There is an initial blast of creamsicle smell! Actually creamsicle is probably not right, since it’s a smell I recognize from my childhood, which did not involve creamisbles. Rather it’s the orange flavour chinese freezies…or like orange yakult! Now I’m craving yakult ;_; The head notes are perfect for brunch, and afternoon tea as well. If I try hard to separate the notes out, I get the impression of a burnt wood, not smokey tho, along with the vanilla and citrus. Once it settles, it’s just the vanilla and the wood. It’s weird that the scent is creamy but a bit harsh at the same time. Although I like this scent, I am doubtful that I will regularly wear it.
Sylvaine Delacourte Vahina
Man I’m liking all of these openings. This one is sparkling for sure, a tender green stem of a flower? There is the creamy vanilla behind the sparkles, a very nice combination. It’s a girlish smell, not like a young girl per se, maybe like a bubbly, sheltered almost 20? Strangely the florals are gone within an hour on me, and all there left is a faint vanilla base. Will test again / try on clothes.
Sylvaine Delacourte Vanori
The opening indeed reminds me of a tropical beach, although I can’t tell what the notes are. A sour floral that’s also sweet? Reminds me of something I’ve eaten, a snack, but the thing escapes me. The floral combination in this one is so far my favourite, very well blended, soft (as in the texture, not the strength). I would want my therapist or doctor’s office to smell like this haha. The sour part (apparently grapefruit) goes away perhaps 10min in, leaving the sweet floral. I’m surprised at how much I enjoy the sweet floral. I can see myself wearing this when I want to seem approachable, for a sleepover, or maybe gift this to a niece or friend’s daughter.
Sylvaine Delacourte Vangelis
Opens with soft wood and soft spice. Then comes a slightly sharper, greener wood, but nothing harsh at all. Again I like the opening notes. I can’t distinguish the individual spice note, overall it smells like a mix between the Aesop Marrakesh Intense (sandalwood, which I correctly identified) and Hwyl (perhaps the blend of spices is giving off a forest impression to me). I can see myself wearing this scent on a regular basis. Ahh I smell the chai spices, loud and clear about 10mins in! Also coming in is the almond? Then there is also an underlay of a heavy floral, possibly the jasmine? I have a hard time deciding between this or Helicriss.
Sylvaine Delacourte Virgile
Opening smells like..lemon balm? Some not too sharp herbal plus citrus. Maybe like a frosted lemon cake minus the sweetness. On the other hand, its also reminding me of those pine-shaped air fresheners, which is not a great association. Interestingly Bergamote 22 never gives me the cleaning product / air freshener association. Around 20min in I smell the vanilla creeping in, but the overall scent is still fresh. The citrus has gone and along with it the air freshener association. Quite interesting right now with a back and forth between fresh and vanilla. An hour and half in, it’s mostly the vanilla that remains, but a “lifted” vanilla compared to the others.
...
Overall, It’s been a running theme amongst the vanilla collection that I really like the opening, which pretty much disappears like 15min in and all there left is vanilla. It would be a worthwhile exercise to do a comparison between the musk and vanilla collection, since the styles match up. At the moment, I'm tempted by the 30% off code to order 2 travel size bottles, one of Helicriss and one of Vanori. But first, gotta sample Parterre, my super impulsive order.
I originally did not intend on buying this sample set, since I didn't think I like the smell of vanilla. But this set was only a $4 add-on, so I caved into temptations. Never hurts to sample broadly at the beginning, or in brainstorming speak, never dismiss an idea as bad. After some reading, I think I'm not a big fan of vanillin, but vanilla is ok. Still not a note that I'll actively look for, but also not a note that will turn me off of a fragrance.
...
Sylvaine Delacourte Valkerie
There is an initial blast of creamsicle smell! Actually creamsicle is probably not right, since it’s a smell I recognize from my childhood, which did not involve creamisbles. Rather it’s the orange flavour chinese freezies…or like orange yakult! Now I’m craving yakult ;_; The head notes are perfect for brunch, and afternoon tea as well. If I try hard to separate the notes out, I get the impression of a burnt wood, not smokey tho, along with the vanilla and citrus. Once it settles, it’s just the vanilla and the wood. It’s weird that the scent is creamy but a bit harsh at the same time. Although I like this scent, I am doubtful that I will regularly wear it.
Sylvaine Delacourte Vahina
Man I’m liking all of these openings. This one is sparkling for sure, a tender green stem of a flower? There is the creamy vanilla behind the sparkles, a very nice combination. It’s a girlish smell, not like a young girl per se, maybe like a bubbly, sheltered almost 20? Strangely the florals are gone within an hour on me, and all there left is a faint vanilla base. Will test again / try on clothes.
Sylvaine Delacourte Vanori
The opening indeed reminds me of a tropical beach, although I can’t tell what the notes are. A sour floral that’s also sweet? Reminds me of something I’ve eaten, a snack, but the thing escapes me. The floral combination in this one is so far my favourite, very well blended, soft (as in the texture, not the strength). I would want my therapist or doctor’s office to smell like this haha. The sour part (apparently grapefruit) goes away perhaps 10min in, leaving the sweet floral. I’m surprised at how much I enjoy the sweet floral. I can see myself wearing this when I want to seem approachable, for a sleepover, or maybe gift this to a niece or friend’s daughter.
Sylvaine Delacourte Vangelis
Opens with soft wood and soft spice. Then comes a slightly sharper, greener wood, but nothing harsh at all. Again I like the opening notes. I can’t distinguish the individual spice note, overall it smells like a mix between the Aesop Marrakesh Intense (sandalwood, which I correctly identified) and Hwyl (perhaps the blend of spices is giving off a forest impression to me). I can see myself wearing this scent on a regular basis. Ahh I smell the chai spices, loud and clear about 10mins in! Also coming in is the almond? Then there is also an underlay of a heavy floral, possibly the jasmine? I have a hard time deciding between this or Helicriss.
Sylvaine Delacourte Virgile
Opening smells like..lemon balm? Some not too sharp herbal plus citrus. Maybe like a frosted lemon cake minus the sweetness. On the other hand, its also reminding me of those pine-shaped air fresheners, which is not a great association. Interestingly Bergamote 22 never gives me the cleaning product / air freshener association. Around 20min in I smell the vanilla creeping in, but the overall scent is still fresh. The citrus has gone and along with it the air freshener association. Quite interesting right now with a back and forth between fresh and vanilla. An hour and half in, it’s mostly the vanilla that remains, but a “lifted” vanilla compared to the others.
...
Overall, It’s been a running theme amongst the vanilla collection that I really like the opening, which pretty much disappears like 15min in and all there left is vanilla. It would be a worthwhile exercise to do a comparison between the musk and vanilla collection, since the styles match up. At the moment, I'm tempted by the 30% off code to order 2 travel size bottles, one of Helicriss and one of Vanori. But first, gotta sample Parterre, my super impulsive order.
14 April 2019
capers
It's already hit the 30s this week in Houston, which is summer as far as I'm concerned. What this means is...bring on the salads!
I'm very picky about salads, there are many things that I don't like:
I've also got a very long list of salad recipes saved in various places. Luckily I'll have plenty of warm weather this year to get to them.
Kroger was out of stock on radishes, so I threw in some cherry tomatoes instead. Super glad that I did, the sweetness from the cherry tomato is a good foil for the huge amount of sourness in the salad (there's half a jar of pickles in there).
Cumin and coriander is my go-to spice combo, so much so that I ran out of coriander and used that as an excuse for a Penzey's order. This vinaigrette is a good match for grain salads.
I'm very picky about salads, there are many things that I don't like:
- Overly large pieces of food (do not want to smear dressing all around my mouth)
- Non-chopped up lettuce (a pain to try to eat with a fork, a little more bearable with chopsticks)
- Too much dressing
- Too sweet of dressings (although a suitable amount of sugar is necessary for balance)
- Anything but peak season tomatoes
I've also got a very long list of salad recipes saved in various places. Luckily I'll have plenty of warm weather this year to get to them.
Potato salad with super mustard-y dressing
Kroger was out of stock on radishes, so I threw in some cherry tomatoes instead. Super glad that I did, the sweetness from the cherry tomato is a good foil for the huge amount of sourness in the salad (there's half a jar of pickles in there).
Barley, green bean and chickpea salad with toasted spices vinaigrette via Bon Appetite
Cumin and coriander is my go-to spice combo, so much so that I ran out of coriander and used that as an excuse for a Penzey's order. This vinaigrette is a good match for grain salads.
12 April 2019
Sylvaine Delacourte Musk Collection
I'm done my first round with both of Sylvaine Delacourte's collections (musk and vanilla), so here are my first impressions for musk:
Sylvaine Delacourte Dovana
The official description is pretty accurate: “light as soap bubbles”, it reminds me of the super thick, luscious, foams from certain face wash. The smell isn’t soupy at all, more like powdery. So far it seems like I’m a fan of powdery scents haha. It also smells familiar…perhaps I recognize the orris. I also recognize the vanilla, and like it actually. Maybe I don’t dislike vanilla haha…hopefully this is true since I have the vanilla discovery set as well. Online notes say there’s rose and sandalwood, don’t smell those yet. Projection is good, sprayed it on my elbow and can smell it in a seated position. I imagine it to be perfect for lazing in bed. I’m thinking that this would be good to layer onto Lord George after it wears for the day. However, I can see myself feeling fatigued by the super powdery scent.
Sylvaine Delacourte Florentina
The opening is sweet-is with some sharpness, and then some floral note rising through. It smells different than Dovana, but both are predominantly powdery that I feel its repetitive. Once the scent settles into the heart, it’s super iris-y and more to my preference. This would be a good wedding guest perfume. About 3 hours in I catch a whiff of the vetiver, also very much my thing. Iris and vetiver is such a wonderful combo.
Sylvaine Delacourte Smeraldo
The opening is green and citrus-y, I like! Possibly because it’s a rather hot and humid day. The particular green scent I can’t readily identify, will have to read the notes. It’s still a smooth fragrance, like the others. There’s somewhat of a sparkling feel in the green, like fizzy soda bubbles? I think a common pit fall for citrus scents is that it can quickly resemble cleaning products, and I’m getting just a hint of that. Something warm is emerging, but the soda bubbles are still here. Reading the official description now, “tonic” is quite accurate, and this fragrance does feel very fresh. The citrus I smelled in the opening was yuzu, and the bubbly green is angelica. The something warm would be the vetiver? Or is the warmness the white musk? I think I’m starting to have a sense of what it smells like.
Sylvaine Delacourte Lilylang
I was expecting full on floral opening, but it’s actually quite green? Like smeraldo but without the citrus. Turns out the green-ness is from pink peppercorn. The creaminess is starting to show, maybe 5 or 10 mins in, which I read is from the ylang-ylang. Sometimes I can smell the jasmine? Usually it’s quite a dominant note so I’m surprised at its subtly here. Once it settles into the heart, I wouldn’t say it’s very floral at all, mostly the white musk scent (I’m more confident that what I’m smelling is the white musk, all four fragrance ends in this way).
Sylvaine Delacourte Helicriss
Opening is earthy! I like very much. There’s some feelings of tonic as well, like herbal-y bitter? Official description says middle notes of rosemary and sage, which I get, but I seem have missed the top notes of citrus. Feels quite refreshing to wear during a humid hot evening. It’s settled for a bit and still very much earthy and tonic-y. Not complaining at all, I’d be happy if this stayed like this till the end. I’m tempted to compare this to Terre D’hermes vetiver intense, but it’s been too long since I smelled it. About 2 hours in, I'm starting to smell the musk peaking through? Or at least the earthiness has changed to be smoother. I also realized that the earthy/tonic-y smell is real similar to the forest in Aesop's Hwyl. So it's also woody, which should be the patchouli. I also imagine this to be good with Aveda's Chakra 3 layered on top.
...
So far I like Helicriss the best, by a good margin, and then Florentine. In the broader picture, I'm likely to pick up a full bottle of Helicriss since it reminds me of Terre D'Hermes vetiver intense (regardless of if they actually smell similar, the mental connection is good enough for me), and this is a prettier bottle lol. (Ugh Hermes I just don't vibe with your bottle designs.) Will compare the other Iris perfume samples against Florentine tho.
Sylvaine Delacourte Dovana
The official description is pretty accurate: “light as soap bubbles”, it reminds me of the super thick, luscious, foams from certain face wash. The smell isn’t soupy at all, more like powdery. So far it seems like I’m a fan of powdery scents haha. It also smells familiar…perhaps I recognize the orris. I also recognize the vanilla, and like it actually. Maybe I don’t dislike vanilla haha…hopefully this is true since I have the vanilla discovery set as well. Online notes say there’s rose and sandalwood, don’t smell those yet. Projection is good, sprayed it on my elbow and can smell it in a seated position. I imagine it to be perfect for lazing in bed. I’m thinking that this would be good to layer onto Lord George after it wears for the day. However, I can see myself feeling fatigued by the super powdery scent.
Sylvaine Delacourte Florentina
The opening is sweet-is with some sharpness, and then some floral note rising through. It smells different than Dovana, but both are predominantly powdery that I feel its repetitive. Once the scent settles into the heart, it’s super iris-y and more to my preference. This would be a good wedding guest perfume. About 3 hours in I catch a whiff of the vetiver, also very much my thing. Iris and vetiver is such a wonderful combo.
Sylvaine Delacourte Smeraldo
The opening is green and citrus-y, I like! Possibly because it’s a rather hot and humid day. The particular green scent I can’t readily identify, will have to read the notes. It’s still a smooth fragrance, like the others. There’s somewhat of a sparkling feel in the green, like fizzy soda bubbles? I think a common pit fall for citrus scents is that it can quickly resemble cleaning products, and I’m getting just a hint of that. Something warm is emerging, but the soda bubbles are still here. Reading the official description now, “tonic” is quite accurate, and this fragrance does feel very fresh. The citrus I smelled in the opening was yuzu, and the bubbly green is angelica. The something warm would be the vetiver? Or is the warmness the white musk? I think I’m starting to have a sense of what it smells like.
Sylvaine Delacourte Lilylang
I was expecting full on floral opening, but it’s actually quite green? Like smeraldo but without the citrus. Turns out the green-ness is from pink peppercorn. The creaminess is starting to show, maybe 5 or 10 mins in, which I read is from the ylang-ylang. Sometimes I can smell the jasmine? Usually it’s quite a dominant note so I’m surprised at its subtly here. Once it settles into the heart, I wouldn’t say it’s very floral at all, mostly the white musk scent (I’m more confident that what I’m smelling is the white musk, all four fragrance ends in this way).
Sylvaine Delacourte Helicriss
Opening is earthy! I like very much. There’s some feelings of tonic as well, like herbal-y bitter? Official description says middle notes of rosemary and sage, which I get, but I seem have missed the top notes of citrus. Feels quite refreshing to wear during a humid hot evening. It’s settled for a bit and still very much earthy and tonic-y. Not complaining at all, I’d be happy if this stayed like this till the end. I’m tempted to compare this to Terre D’hermes vetiver intense, but it’s been too long since I smelled it. About 2 hours in, I'm starting to smell the musk peaking through? Or at least the earthiness has changed to be smoother. I also realized that the earthy/tonic-y smell is real similar to the forest in Aesop's Hwyl. So it's also woody, which should be the patchouli. I also imagine this to be good with Aveda's Chakra 3 layered on top.
...
So far I like Helicriss the best, by a good margin, and then Florentine. In the broader picture, I'm likely to pick up a full bottle of Helicriss since it reminds me of Terre D'Hermes vetiver intense (regardless of if they actually smell similar, the mental connection is good enough for me), and this is a prettier bottle lol. (Ugh Hermes I just don't vibe with your bottle designs.) Will compare the other Iris perfume samples against Florentine tho.
11 April 2019
10 April 2019
fish
Work's been busy since training has taken up several days in the past 2 weeks. Surviving the last full week before spring holiday & visiting Toronto for a couple of days *u*
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