EDITORKRISTYNANTHONY | Activated Charcoal unscented Charcoal products are on the rise at The Soap Dispensary where Cally Bailey demonstrates various uses, incuding soap and self-care products. Ric4 TALAY PHOTOS Charcoal is back in a big way Vancouver businesses embrace the food and health trend m™ By RICA TALAY n the past two years charcoal products have become more popular due to their cosmetic and medical benefits and some Vancouver shops are now carrying the carbon-based compound. Local shops like The Soap Dispensa- ry and The Juice Co. are selling charcoal products to accommodate a growing demand in Vancouver. Via Hope, manager at The Soap Dis- pensary on Main Street, said that char- coal products at their store “fly off our shelves" because people are becoming more aware about the toxins in their environment. "It's really good for oil absorption and if you drank something that made you sick and you went to the hospital they do give you charcoal 'cause it does just pull things out of your stomach," Hope said. The Soap Dispensary sells a variety of charcoal products from water filters to food grade powdered activated charcoal. It is used in a variety of ways, including face masks, teeth whitening, to make soaps and as a medicinal substitute. Cally Bailey who is a health coach at The Juice Co. at their Main Street lo- cation, said that charcoal products have started to become popular in Vancouver because in this city, “when somebody starts something it just spreads like wildfire.” Bailey said when charcoal enters your system it is activated for a reason. "Tt goes in and searches out any of the pathogens that your body identifies as toxic or harmful and what it will do is it will bind to it," she said. The Juice Co. utilizes activated char- coal in smoothies like the “hangover hug” to combat these toxins. Candice Savage, the store's manager said the “hangover hug” is a way to try activated charcoal if you don’t like the taste. “The hangover hug, when you mix it with the banana, it just gives it an added sweetness,” Savage said. Maggie Tsur, a first time shopper at The Soap Dispensary was excited to fi- nally find a charcoal water filter that she purchased to balance the acidity built up from food. “T’ve been looking for it for over a year," Tsur said. "There’s no other store that sells it.” asst é ww The Chosen Food Supper Club's ten-part dinner series will reflect Jewish culture and traditions from a global perspective. susiiTTeD PHOTOS Traditional Jewish fare with a side of storytelling Ten-part dinner series represents the cultural variety in the global Jewish community ™ By SAM MOWERS iverse cuisine, storytelling and culture come together this spring in the Chosen Food Supper Club's celebration of Jewish cu- linary tradition. The dinner series, put on by the Jew- ish Museum & Archives of BC, features ten different dinner events from April to September. Each meal represents a different region of the world and re- flects the cultural variety in the global Jewish population. The museums director of community engagement, Michael Schwartz, said that a key function of the events is the pairing of stories with the meals to il- luminate their cultural setting. “The dinner will be served in courses, and the person who we got the recipes portance beyond physical sustenance, and was essential to communication. from __ _— “Food is will be ‘a . . really im- present Food is really important as portant as to offer ere one of the some | Oneofthewaysthat families, | ways that story- *,e families, telling | ANAculturesand communities | and cul- and * * ‘2 * ”" tures and «ome | + Maintain their identity. ment: context — MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, ties in gen- for the JEWISH MUSEUM & ARCHIVES OF BC eral, main- food,” |[_ _| tain their identity Schwartz said. After the event, participants will be sent home with a set of recipes to try out. Schwartz said that food carries im- and transmit that identity between gen- erations,” Schwartz said. “It provides a starting point for conversation and for talking about things that are sometimes hard to talk about.” Along with the ten dinner events, the museum has also started a twelve- episode podcast series called The Kitchen Stories. Each episode features interviews from Jewish community members shar- ing their experiences from around the globe and the role that food had in de- fining and distinguishing them cultur- ally. Archivist Alysa Routtenberg said discussing food in the podcast was a great means of collecting new stories for the museum archive. “We're always looking for a new rea- son to approach people,” Routtenberg said. “Now we have a reason to ap- proach people who have restaurants or who are great home cooks.” THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017 | THE VOICE 9 Suits for all Sizes Real women design real Swimwear for real bodies = By CASSANDRA OSBORNE s big box retailer Target launches an ad campaign claiming they haven't photo shopped any of their models, a Van- couver clothing brand says they've been promoting body positivity since 2014. Julia Church is the owner and found- er of Nettle’s Tale, a Vancouver-based clothing line that designs swimwear for the everyday woman. Church said they've been using "average" women to model their line for the last four years. “T think there are a lot of larger cor- porations that are now jumping on the body diversity train,” Church said. “T look at some of them and I can tell whether or not it’s authentic or not and whether they’re just doing it because they need to be sort of ahead of the curve or trend.” According to Target's ad campaign, the company has "decided to show women’s bodies as they are, without reshaping their curves or removing stretchmarks." However, Church said what sets Nettle's Tale apart from other swim- wear lines is that they aren't exclusively marketed to younger women. “(The models are] all so different. Different ages, different ethnicities, different body types, [all] modeling together,” Church said. “Not only are we body diverse, but we took it a step further and took photos of women who are just like your mom, or your sister, or your cousin.” Nancy Pollak is a women’s stud- ies professor at Langara College. She warns retailers aren't the only source for social change and that as customers, we have to be very cautious. “When you walk into stores what are the products that are for sale there? How are they treating their women workers? How are they treating the women who sew those bathing suits?” Pollak said. “Real genuine social change involves changing a whole set of rela- tionships not just a set of images.” Britney Berrner, after whom a Net- tle's Tale bathing suit is named, believes the company helps women feel more confident. “Women would come out [of the changing room] and walk out in just a bathing suit, full confidence, and they’re like ‘I’ve never felt so good in a bathing suit’,” she said. “T’ve never felt beautiful like that.” Nettle's Tale, a Vancouver brand, makes swimwear for the everyday woman. CASSANDRA OSBORNE PHOTO