WELLNESS 2008

Everyone
knows and most people enjoy carrots, potatoes, beets and radishes. But
more and more variations of root vegetables are showing up on grocery
store shelves, in food magazines and on television cooking shows.
Rutabagas, turnips, parsnips and celery root are among the lesser-known
root vegetables, but also among the more healthful varieties of the
vegetables in season from October to April.

MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

Hues you can use: Among the taproots populating the Syracuse Real Foods Coop are black winter radishes, carrots and beets. 

And
with the growing trend of eating foods only when they are in season,
now is a logical time to introduce taproots to your diet. A good place
to start is the Syracuse Real Food Co-op, 618 Kensington Road
(472-1385), where winter-hearty vegetables are in stock. “Beets are in,
we have storage carrots that local farmers have been storing since
summer, black winter radishes and rutabagas,” says interim general
manager Travis Hance, listing a handful of veggies on hand.

The
Coop’s main clientele comes from its Syracuse University area
neighborhood, a group that is educated, has sophisticated palates and
brings international experience to the table. They also are among the
trendier eaters in town. “We have our share of seasonal eaters who
frequent the Coop,” Hance notes, “and more and more people are looking
to support New York state agriculture and farms. Let’s face it: Lettuce
doesn’t grow here in January.”

Unless it comes
from Finger Lakes Fresh, an Ithaca business that cultivates all sorts
of vegetables year-round in greenhouses at the same time providing
employment to people with disabilities. “Now we have Boston lettuce,
and next week we’ll get arugula and basil, which is pretty remarkable
in New York state in January,” Hance says. But I digress.

The
health benefits of root vegetables mirror those of other produce: low
in calories, no fat, and a decent source of fiber, vitamin C,
potassium, folate and iron. And like other produce, the deeper the
taproot’s color, the more healthful it is. Deep-orange carrots have
beta carotene, which forms vitamin A; red beets deliver phytochemicals
that are good for liver health; and purple potatoes have anthocyanins,
pigments that act as antioxidants.

Here is a primer on some root vegetables you may want to try:

Beets.
Notable for their sweetness, beets are good roasted, steamed, braised,
in soups and salads, and pickled. Their greens are just as healthy as
the root itself. Beets are in season from March to October.

Celeriac.
Also called celery root, celeriac must be peeled before use. Eat it
cooked rather than raw, and paired with potatoes and carrots. Celery
root works well in soups and stews. The peak season is October through
April.

Parsnips. Looking like a top-heavy, pale
carrot, parsnips add complexity to stews, soups and mashed potatoes.
They also make excellent chips when baked in the oven. Peak season is
December through April.

Turnips. Like beets, you
can cultivate turnips for their root and the greens. Most commercial
turnips have white flesh. Peel, then dice, slice or julienne them for
cooking. They are in season in spring.

Rutabaga.
A member of the cabbage family, rutabagas should also be peeled before
use. Their peak season is January through March. The accompanying
recipes use rutabagas. ●

REHAB-IT FORMING

 

Some substance abusers get just as addicted to their recovery regimen   •  By Tom Kahley 

In an era
of cheap media thrills, the perspective of drug and alcohol abuse has
become dollars and senselessly distorted as it is depicted as a
revolving shtick in the not-so-simple lives of Hollywood’s decadent
divas. The elegantly wasted exploits of Amy Winehouse saying “no, no,
no” to abstinence and paparazzi snapshots of Britney Spears walking her
beaver elicited laughter in many people. But for those struggling to
overcome similar addictions as those heroines of inebriated chic,
hilarity hardly happens.

If a person with an
addictive personality zeroes in on a narcotic—alcohol, opiates,
nicotine, cocaine or any other drug in the multicolored galaxy of pills
and poppers—their economic and egotistical welfare could be entirely
consumed by the constant urge and pursuit of a continual high. Prison
is also a possibility, as well as the metaphysical incarceration of
interpersonal relationships.

Addiction
counseling and inpatient rehabilitation have been effective in helping
users kick the habit and remain sober. While Syracuse may be a step or
three behind in many progressive trends, the city has been perpetually
forward-looking in the development and availability of drug and alcohol
rehabilitation treatment.

One such facility,
providing services to Central New Yorkers since 1920, is Syracuse
Behavioral Healthcare (SBH), which offers extensive drug and alcohol
rehabilitation treatment through inpatient, outpatient and residential
services divisions. “Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare is the most
comprehensive chemical dependency service provider in the region
because we have so many different levels of care,” says president and
CEO Jeremy Klemanski. “We’re not necessarily the largest of any of
those levels, but we do have a substantial market share in each of
those areas.” In 2007 alone, he notes, the 160-member staff treated
3,082 people for a variety of addictions.

As an
all-inclusive provider, SBH welcomes anybody seeking addiction-recovery
help that is clinically appropriate—medically and psychologically. Even
though they are a non-profit organization, nobody is denied help based
on ability to pay. SBH is able to cover monetary gaps through a state
funding program, which allots a designated allowance of OASIS deficit
dollars per year, as well as coverage from Medicaid and private
insurance companies to help pay for their $8 million annual operating
budget.

Cooperation agreements are in place with
a number of local health care facilities, but there are no exclusivity
arrangements, and patient referrals are made from a number of sources
such as primary care physicians, therapists, social workers and
court-mandated decrees. There are also those who finally respond to
external pressure from a spouse, an employer or friends.

A 24-hour
help line (471-0568) is available for emergency situations; to inquire
about admission into one of their programs, call SBH at 474-5506.

Sober News

Upon
arrival, every patient conceives an individual service plan in an
initial consultation with their primary counselor and a medical and
psychiatric team, if requested, to make sure the program suits them.
Everyone has the same meal times, but education is dispatched in
separate groups for different addictions and for men and women.

Traditional
visitation therapy is administered in SBH’s outpatient program.
Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselors on staff see
300-plus individuals at any given time and, in most cases, patients are
seen at least twice a week. The average length of stay for SBH’s
outpatient program is four to seven months. The residential services
division has three halfway houses throughout the city: 16- and 26-bed
facilities for men and a 12-bed residence for women. Beyond that, there
are 72 supportive-living beds in various apartment locations, some
owned and others leased, and another 50 to 60 beds for a homeless
housing program SBH conducts.

The inpatient
division consists of two New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance
Abuse Services-certified facilities: an 18-bed evaluation and crisis
center located on Hickory Street, and a traditional “30-day” rehab
facility with 40 beds located in the SBH building at 847 James St.
Klemanski estimates the service costs about $200 per day on average,
but it is subject to the individual’s treatment requirements.

People
in a temporary incapacitated state caused by alcohol or other
mind-left-body drugs detox under the supervision of the medically
staffed crisis center. Instead of serving the addict cold turkey,
“Vitals are measured regularly and withdrawal symptoms are managed
pharmacologically,” notes Klemanski. “In those early withdrawal stages,
we make sure they are not destabilizing. If they need a higher level of
care, we have a very good relationship with Crouse Hospital that has
its own medically managed detox we transfer them to.”

Once
the initial withdrawal phase has passed, patients are likely to begin a
stint in the rehab facility on James Street. The living quarters are
arranged more like a dormitory than a medical institution and the first
night the addict settles down the road to recovery, they take on the
dreams of those who have previously stayed there, with the hope of
waking up from a living nightmare. Aside from transfers from the crisis
center, the facility is also inhabited by people abiding by a criminal
justice mandate, as well as silver spooners and the empty-handed and
everyone in-between; addiction is not prejudiced and it affects people
from all walks of life.

Klemanski estimates
that the average length of stay for an individual in the inpatient
facility is 24 or 25 days, but some leave after only one day. Not
because of a marvel of modern science or a faith healer, but because a
person can self-discharge at anytime. “It may be against medical advice
or something that we would encourage them not to do,” he stresses. “But
everybody has that freedom and this place is not what we call a ‘secure
facility’ in the sense that they’re forced to be here.” When folks
admitted because of a criminal justice mandate leave before finishing
the program, SBH will notify the proper authority and further
discipline ensues based on the individual’s case.

Once a person
begins treatment at the facility, he or she follows a systematic daily
routine consisting of designated meal times, group and one-on-one
counseling, and educational programs. “There’s a little freedom; it is
not completely structured,” Klemanski points out. Family can visit on
Sundays and personal time is also built into the schedule to give
people a chance to take care of chores and catch a breath and reflect
before the next group or class.

“We aren’t
creating a completely false and sterile environment that doesn’t give a
person an opportunity to assimilate back into daily living,” continues
Klemanski. “The danger in doing that is it would create an artificial
bubble within rehab, and when a person leaves, all of a sudden, the
world comes at them hard and fast and a lot of the things that were
affecting them and led them to where they were to begin with are all of
a sudden around and available to them again, so you have to be careful
in managing the controlled environment.”

The
farther away a person gets from the peripheral discord of an addictive
lifestyle, the closer they become to once again feeling good
vibrations. “Our environment is tailored to address those things,” says
Klemanski. “It’s a quieter, more serene environment and there’s a
reason for that. There’s so much chaos going on around them and we know
we can balance that out with a calm environment. They won’t hear lots
of loud paging over intercoms and radios blaring and TVs running and
things like that, which helps them feel comfortable and helps them
become more receptive to what’s being offered.”

Immediate
engagement is what Klemanski believes is what people need for
follow-through. “If they walk in and we can’t keep them past 48 hours,
the likelihood of us getting them for repeat visits is pretty good,” he
continues. “If we can get them to stay and complete inpatient
treatment, they have a much greater chance of long-term success recovery than someone who doesn’t engage.”

Success
at SBH means a person has hit all or most of their service plan goals
while completing treatment. Nearly 600 people entered their inpatient
rehab facility in 2007, and 69 percent met those objectives. Klemanski
points out that rehab doesn’t just help the addict, it also benefits
the economy.

“We help a dozen people get back
to work each month, and 100 to 200 people per year,” he notes.
“Rehabilitation not only helps the individual, it echoes throughout the
community-at-large.”

When a person is ready to
leave rehab, the facility follows an exit plan that was devised upon
admission that evolved as counselors learned more about the individual.
Depending on the kind of housing available and if patients need a
stable housing environment to go back to, SBH will often suggest a stay
at one of their halfway houses or supportive living residences. Some
people will be also be referred to receive further outpatient treatment
to monitor their development as they readjust to their surroundings in
a different state of mind.

Altering States

Dr.
Robert Gregory, an associate professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate
Medical University since 1993, says that for addicts, giving up the
bottle or a drug of choice is like giving up a best friend. “The
addiction serves a strong symbolic purpose and is a substitute for
pleasures most of us get in interpersonal relationships,” he notes.
“And it’s kind of like having a constantly abusive relationship because
the substance typically bites back.”

After
completing formal training at Harvard Medical School, Gregory continued
his studies in Nome, Alaska, where he observed a population of Eskimos
where addiction is highly pervasive. “Many people died of hypothermia
there because they passed out before they made it back home,” he
recounts.

What defines addiction is the
continued use of a substance despite recurrent harm. Not everyone can
split their pants at a narcotic buffet and still have room for a lush
dessert like Keith Richards can or Hunter S. Thompson could. If someone
is constantly gassed and seeing double as they’re taking multiple field
sobriety tests or rolling joints with the want ads as job after job
goes up in smoke, their quality of life and socioeconomic status will
sink.

“The most difficult and important step to
recovery is for them to acknowledge they are not in control,” says
Gregory. “The reason some people hit rock bottom is because of the
denial problem.” That doesn’t mean, he adds, that people are denying
their ability to conduct themselves in a cognizant manner while under
the heavy influence of a substance. It means that if someone gets
canned for showing up to a morning Power Point presentation with a
Black Velvet tie on, they will blame the short-sighted boss who
couldn’t recognize true talent as they pink-slip out to hail a cab to
the nearest liquor store, accepting no responsibility for their
actions.

“They will get into external
conflicts with other people as a way to avoid an internal conflict with
themselves,” Gregory elaborates. Their buzz-kill and total bummer, man,
is always with the boss, doctor or spouse hassling them to shape up and
put the drink down.

But the decision to teetotal
can only come from one source willing to take the risk. “What they have
to do is a make a self-motivated choice to commit to recovery,” says
Gregory. “Those who have it in their heart to quit are the ones most
likely to succeed. People who are forced into programs by courts or an
exterior motivator, which could ultimately be beneficial, are less
likely to succeed because the individual may not have really come to
terms with themselves to stop using.”

When
someone eventually kicks the habit, recovery can be a lifelong process.
“People with addictive personalities are constantly avoiding risk
factors that might trigger a relapse,” continues Gregory. “Just walking
past a bar or going to a party might develop a craving, and someone
giving into the notion that it’s all right to have just one drink might
trigger a relapse. But the fact that they relapsed doesn’t mean they
failed; it means they have a chronic illness.”

Most
addicts go through rehab more than once, as modeled by the in-and-out
reports of Lindsay Lohan and the like. Transferring the addiction from
drugs and alcohol to a daily dependence on recovery is how most people
abstain from relapsing.

“This is really a
treatable condition,” Gregory summarizes. “The hard part is getting
people to a place inside themselves where they can split the
consciousness to weigh the positives and negatives and make an informed
decision about the path they choose.” ●

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