Re: Fwd: I-D Action: draft-barnes-healthy-food-06.txt

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 4:10 PM, joel jaeggli <joelja(_at_)bogus(_dot_)com> 
wrote:
> On 2/25/13 10:36 AM, Mary Barnes wrote:
> > In light of the upcoming meeting in Orlando, I have updated the
> > document.  For folks that are not on the IETF-86 attendees list, we've
> > had a fairly lengthy discussion about the remoteness of the venue and
> > the lack of access to food other than the hotel restaurants that are
> > often mediocre and over-priced.   For folks that aren't familiar, this
> > document has recommendations for meeting planners and IAOC folks in
> > terms of selecting venues that can ensure that IETF participants have
> > access to the types of food they require during the meetings.   Lunch
> > is often the biggest challenge due to frequent lunchtime meetings and
> > the volume of people requiring lunch at the exact same time.
> >
> > I wrote this document right after the IETF meeting in Dublin (almost 5
> > years ago) and given the Orlando venue selection (which occurred after
> > the Dublin meeting) it does not seem to me that the requirements and
> > recommendations in this document are being considered as serious input
> > to that process.   While I am the most vocal with regards to this
> > issue, it isn't just me - others just don't want to be the target for
> > the types of discussions we inevitably have on this topic.
> fwiw I generally support documents that encourage a consistent and
> repeatable approach to meeting requirements and which assigns responsibility
> to the participants as well, and I would probably support this document.
>
> One observation though. The introduction:
>
>   While much of the success of IETF protocols can be attributed to the
>    availability of large cookies and readily available beer, there are
>    some IETF participants for whom such items aren't compatible with
>    dietary restrictions or the choice to eat a healthy diet.
>
>
> A significant contributor to the complaints about breaks without snacks and
> indeed "cookies" is hypoglycemia and there the snack/cookie issue should be
> seen in that light. Big cookies is clearly a trope, in the context of
> plenary dicussion, but low blood sugar is not.
[MB]  Cookies, like any processed carbohydrates, are a poor food
choice for folks that have blood sugar issues (you can find the
research on this in pubmed).  A low carb diet is a significantly
better choice if one has difficulty stabilizing blood sugar.
Certainly, once you reach the hypoglycemic point you do need carbs
immediately but something like fruit juice or even better chocolate
milk (since it has some protein) is a much better choice for that
situation than a cookie.  Eating a cookie will just cause the cycle to
repeat until you do get real food into your system.   So, avoiding
processed carbs in lieu of fresh vegetables and fruit along with
protein such as peanut butter, nuts or cheese can reduce the incidence
of hypoglycemia.   Fortunately, some of the venues have had the veggie
trays during breaks and that's great as it does give us some options.
Since I do have issues with hypoglycemia, I must eat frequently and I
always have safe and appropriate snacks with me to tide me over -
again, nuts or high protein snack bars work really well in this
situation.  And, I regularly smuggle them in (packaged) to countries
that don't want you bringing in any food.  I will have a *big* issue
if we travel to a country and they get confiscated.  From a practical
perspective, given that the hotels likely charge $3.00/cookie, IETF
could buy cases of quality vegan, kosher, gluten-free snack bars for
the same price.  Of course that gets into some of the issues I
highlight with regards to these hotels not allowing outside food.
[/MB]
> >    I will
> > note that if we were discussing wheel chair accessibility to IETF
> > meetings, most folks would understand the concern.  In the US, medical
> > conditions that require special diets are considered hidden
> > disabilities and the same legal requirements apply in terms of those
> > diets being accommodated.   While IETF is a non-profit, my
> > understanding is they have no legal requirements to provide the
> > accommodations, one would expect such as part of the nature of IETF in
> > terms of being an open and inclusive organization.
> >
> > I will note that there have definitely been improvements since Dublin,
> > including the fruit bars when we have Ice Cream Thursdays and the
> > secretariat always communicates requirements when they are made aware
> > (e.g., WG chairs luncheon, as well as IAB stuff).  ISOC has also been
> > accommodating for their Tuesday lunch sessions.   As an aside while
> > I'm on the food topic, I didn't learn until last IETF that we don't
> > have Ice Cream Thursdays unless someone sponsors it.  Since I was
> > highly disappointed at the Atlanta meeting, I was able to get Polycom
> > to sponsor the event at IETF-86 ;)
> >
> > At this stage, the feedback I would like related to this document is
> > with regards it's readiness for publication as an RFC.  One of the
> > updates to the document was with regards to the references to other
> > IETF logistic documents (the Tao and the travel FAQ) which have since
> > been published.  I believe this document is equally substantive and
> > applicable to the IETF as those documents.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Mary
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From:  <internet-drafts(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
> > Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 12:18 PM
> > Subject: I-D Action: draft-barnes-healthy-food-06.txt
> > To: i-d-announce(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
> >
> >
> >
> > A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts
> > directories.
> >
> >
> >          Title           : Healthy Food and Special Dietary
> > Requirements for IETF meetings
> >          Author(s)       : Mary Barnes
> >          Filename        : draft-barnes-healthy-food-06.txt
> >          Pages           : 18
> >          Date            : 2013-02-25
> >
> > Abstract:
> >     This document describes the basic requirements for food for folks
> >     that attend IETF meetings require special diets, as well as those
> >     that prefer to eat healthy.  While, the variety of special diets is
> >     quite broad, the most general categories are described.  There can be
> >     controversy as to what constitutes healthy eating, but there are some
> >     common, generally available foods that comprise the basis for healthy
> >     eating and special diets.  This document provides some
> >     recommendations to meeting planners, as well as participants, in
> >     handling these requirements.
> >
> >
> > The IETF datatracker status page for this draft is:
> > https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-barnes-healthy-food
> >
> > There's also a htmlized version available at:
> > http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-barnes-healthy-food-06
> >
> > A diff from the previous version is available at:
> > http://www.ietf.org/rfcdiff?url2=draft-barnes-healthy-food-06
> >
> >
> > Internet-Drafts are also available by anonymous FTP at:
> > ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > I-D-Announce mailing list
> > I-D-Announce(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
> > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/i-d-announce
> > Internet-Draft directories: http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html
> > or ftp://ftp.ietf.org/ietf/1shadow-sites.txt