Amanda’s Restaurant is now open in Downtown Berkeley from 11am-9pm daily.
We serve picnic-fresh and naturally delicious food that is easy on your schedule, wallet, and conscious. Please stop by to try our freshly made salads, naturally-raised burgers, freshly stirred sodas and milks, and healthy snacks.
After working on this blog and planning our restaurant for several years, I am so pleased to be able to welcome you in for a feel good meal or a snack.
Another ally in raising awareness about global warming is the website founded by Stonyfield Farms, climatecounts.org. The site teaches consumers how to increase the eco-efficiency of their day to day lives, as well as rating large companies of all realms and documenting their attempts (or lack thereof) to increase their efficiency. Their conclusions are based upon whether or not the companies have, “Measured their climate ‘footprint’… Reduced their impact on global warming…Supported (or suggest intent to block) progressive climate legislation…Publicly disclosed their climate actions clearly and comprehensively.”
One of their recent articles addressed directly the waste outputs of large-scale fast food restaurants. While everyone knows that fast food companies have come under fire for much of their less-than-healthy food, the fact that most of them are extremely wasteful has often gone unnoticed. Climatecounts.org has taken it upon themselves to rank many well-known companies annually, with some falling under the category of fast food. In the past year, four out of the six companies inspected failed entirely to improve their score (they remained at zero, all four). These companies were Wendy’s, Burger King, Yum!Brands (restaurants such as Taco Bell and KFC), and Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden and Red Lobster). The fact that such large companies are producing so much waste and doing nothing about it is of great concern.
At Amanda’s, we plan to be the exact opposite of this. On our brand-new website (yay!) amandas.com, all of our attempts to be as economically friendly are clearly documented, along with aspects that we will work to improve on in the future!
In this day and age, we at Amanda’s believe that it is of the utmost importance to not only do our best to reduce our contributions to global warming, but to be honest about our attempts to do so.
Child Obesity has become a global health problem, but there are some solutions.
First of all, let’s look at our nation,
The main reasons behind the increasing number of child obesity are the increasing intake of high-calorie foods and the lack of physical exercises. Family’s low income levels have been correlated with childhood obesity. Our blog has discussed the relation between low income and obesity in “Fast Food and Obesity in Low Income Areas”. Fresh and healthy food are relatively more expensive than junk food. Therefore, people who have a tight budget for food tend to buy fast food or unhealthy food. However, we can always find some good place to hunt for inexpensive healthy food, like Trader Joe’s and local farmers’ market. Amanda’s is also a good choice for you— healthy, fresh, fast food at very affordable prices.
After all, if we look at obesity in a broader view, obesity is a global problem that the whole world has to fight together. According to the research done by the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, almost 58 percent of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2030—more specifically, 2.16 billion people will be overweight, and 1.12 billion will be obese. If we don’t want the problem to further worsen, the key is to eat healthy and exercise more.
Great news everybody! Chipotle is going to start sourcing locally grown produce on a significant scale. The Denver-based Chipotle will be buying 25 percent of at least one of its produce products for each of its 730-plus restaurants from small and mid-sized local farms. The move is part of Chipotle’s Food With Integrity approach. This method of doing business will help the chain improve food quality, reduce fuel consumption and benefit rural economies.
Personally, I love eating Chipotle. It is great to hear that the chain is putting a significant effort towards eating fresh food. Hopefully, Chipotle will be buying more local produce for other Chipotle chains too.
If you’re like me and need to have snacks throughout your busy day or if you just love to snack, there now exists a feel good treat called Popchips.
These chips are not what you typically find in stores. First the cooking process does not involve baking or frying. Rather it involves popping the potato, corn, or whole grain brown rice-based snack. There are nine flavors altogether including original potato and wasabi rice. Also, one serving of any flavor contains only 120 calories and less than 5 grams of fat!
From your local grocery store to Jamba Juice to even Amazon.com, getting a bag of Popchips is easy making this snack truly feel good fast food. Tell us about your favorite flavor and about any other feel good snacks you enjoy.
What is more American than Hamburgers?
Fast food used to be an American tradition that we were proud of. We were proud of the efficiency, consistency, and affordability that fast food offered, not to mention the freedom and flexibility that it enabled us to pursue our dreams without having to spend the time worrying about food.
Now, our values have changed to embrace environmental sustainability and question so much of the things we thought were American. This doesn’t mean we have to shun our past or be embarrassed about tradition.
I believe we can choose the taste, comfort, and ease of one of our American traditions without feeling bad about it. Why not be proud of what you eat by choosing good ingredients and good food sources? Why not buy natural meat this 4th of July or, make your own vegan burger? Get beautiful tomatoes from the farmer’s market?
