When I was in college, I went on a study abroad program to India. The morning we arrived at our YMCA hotel in New Delhi, most of my 12 fellow travellers went to bed immediately. Three of us, though, too excited to stay still, set out to explore. We’d been warned repeatedly not to drink tap water, or even beverages with ice, and to be careful about street food. Every semester, a number of students wound up in hospital with dysentery. But I was a hungry and foolhardy, and bought myself a samosa at the first cart that I saw. Man, was it delicious! And man, did I have diarrhea soon after getting back to the hotel! (Making negotiating the toilet-less, hole-in-the-ground bathroom stalls that much more challenging.) Nothing needing medical intervention; I made sure to rehydrate. The rest of my group took their anti-malarial pills diligently and washed fruit with bottled water. I availed myself of the cornucopia of treats to be found on the streets – chaats, kabobs, dosas, kichari, scrumptious, every bite – and simply got used to a looseness of stool that would last my full four-month stay.

But as the weeks passed and our group ventured forth to tour the city’s sites, everyone came to eat food that was not prepared in the YMCA kitchen. chinese food delivery london n17Sure enough, everyone got at least a little sick. sushi tei jakarta cabangSome people got very sick. sushi grade fish new haven ctAnd as it turned out, there was a direct correlation between early precaution and eventual hospitalization.sushi conveyor belt tn I tell this story to show how an overreaction to fears about germs and contamination can come around to bite us in the butt, as it often turns out. haru sushi menu los angeles

And I do so now to join Anthony Bourdain, Steve Cuozzo and Scott Rosenberg in decrying the New York City department of health and mental hygiene’s ill-considered insistence that sushi chefs not touch the raw fish they’re preparing with bare hands.how much sushi gestational diabetes Sushi is traditionally prepared with bare hands, and good chefs rely on tactile sensation to gauge the quality of the meat – the freshness, the fattiness, the oil content – that they’re cutting and molding into just the right bites.where to buy inari skin in singapore If you question whether there’s a fine and delicate artistry to the process, or whether well-trained, bare-handed sushi chefs adhere to strict codes of cleanliness and hygiene while they work, I encourage you to watch the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

As Bourdain puts it in his typically understated style, requiring sushi chefs to wear gloves will lead to “the destruction of sushi as we know it”.Sushi, good sushi, is the type of thing that sings the importance of intimacy and the human touch, of the care and attention to every step of creating every perfect morsel – of the feeling, literally, of the food. When I eat sushi, when the chef places each piece on my plate, I almost want to be able to read his fingerprints in the glistening fish. I trust that I am in good hands. That’s part of the pleasure. The more scientific argument, the one that, you’d think, would hold sway with the department of health, is made by Scott Rosenberg, who founded Sushi Yasuda in midtown in 1999 (and, oh my God, if you’re ever in New York, devote a bunch of money to going there). In an essay for the Daily News, Rosenberg explains how the well-intentioned no-bare-hands rule actually serves to create a more unsanitary work space, how it impedes proper hygiene.

I would walk out of any sushi restaurant if the sushi chefs were wearing gloves. Here’s why: as concluded in a 2010 study published in the Journal of Food Protection, gloved hands “were more contaminated than were bare fingers and palms.” That’s in part because “glove use can create a false sense of security, resulting in more high-risk behaviors that can lead to cross-contamination.”What are the department of health guys thinking? I am all for cleanliness in the kitchen and sanitary food, and, for that matter, regulatory codes designed to protect the populace. But next time you’re at a sushi bar, watch how frequently and carefully your chef cleans his workstation and washes his hands; watch him dip his fingers in vinegar after serving each dish. Or here, watch this clip. This is a tradition deeply entrenched in the ideas of health and hygiene. Preparing sushi is an art: an old one, and a careful one, and, most pertinently, a healthy one. A bureaucratic city department attempting to impose newly devised rules on it will only be shooting itself in its own gloved foot.

Rating for Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Rule Requiring Sushi Chefs to Wear Gloves While They Work: 1 star Rating system: from best to worst 4 stars: Sex with a condom 3 stars: Sex with a condom and a diaphragm 2 stars: Sex with a condom and a diaphragm and a birth control sponge 1 star: Sex with a condom and a diaphragm and a birth control sponge and your sixth-grade health teacher sitting in the room watching to make sure all prophylactic measures are properly applied and safely removed We are an independent, non-profit organisation which prides itself on showcasing independent and auteur cinema, as well as championing innovative filmmaking talent.I flew up to Boston for the Conscious Capitalism® Conference last year out of curiosity, not with the expectation that two days of speakers and conference hobnobbing would shift my work and life. It offered up a community, framework, and lexicon that were both inherently natural and alluringly new.

This year’s conference, held in San Francisco, begins Friday, April 5th and continues through the 6th with hands-on practicums where you can learn alongside founders of Method, Whole Foods, the Container Store, and B Lab, among others. Rather than urging you to join the event, I decided to share how it shaped my last year and direct you to 10 takeaways from 2012. Registration for the event is nearly capped but there are still some slots. (And if you’ll be in the city, send me an email to come meet me for a drink.) 1. Conscious Capitalism gave me a broader framework in which to think about business and social impact. My work before primarily focused on external outputs: how can a company positively impact its suppliers, consumers, community, or environment? But I realized that looking only at external outputs is incomplete. It’s the systems, policies, culture, practices and values within a company that make possible any positive outputs like reduced waste or strong supplier relationships.

To maximize impact, it’s critical to first understand and be able to work with company culture and systems. Put another way: as humans, we inherently want the same positive outcomes for our lives and world. When we build the systems and the culture to allow us to practice these inclinations, we see positive outputs, such as more equally distributed pay or increased employee education. This evolution of understanding has impacted the nature of my work, the clients with whom I choose to work, and the writing I do. 2. I’ve built community. The quality of conversations I had at last year’s conference was so high (and so honest) that I wanted more when I returned home to Washington, D.C.  To find and create these conversations, I organized an event for Conscious Capitalism businesses, practitioners and enthusiasts.  Although I’ve since moved to San Francisco (more on this below), people from the event remain in touch and are actively growing the D.C. community. To kick off the next week’s conference, I’m co-hosting a reception and dialogue focused on women in Conscious Capitalism.

The event is open to both men and women. Please join us if you’ll be in town! 3. I’ve become more conscious. Admittedly, I just wrote this and wanted to delete! and replace it with another outcome, but I’m forging ahead in honesty. Being exposed to people who were leading engaging, intentional lives helped me to think more intentionally about my own and to recognize the choice I have in it and the responsibility of this choice. I switched my environment, moving back to California. I switched how I relate to and engage clients. It’s no longer just about delivering product; I’m now more attuned to the motivations, concerns, and fears of the entrepreneurs and executives I work with. By understanding these, we’re able to make deeper shifts than we would have if we only focused on creating a partnership strategy and pipeline, for example. Ninety-five percent of our days seem directed by outside stimuli so I take some time each morning to turn inward. Having shared all this, I should be clear that the intent of the Conscious Capitalism Conference isn’t personal transformation (that is, no fire walking sessions).