RCAC gets things done

Instead of a regular RCAC meeting, tonight we had a workshop and session away from the TV cameras. Turned out to be pretty productive.

Christine Dargas from the city’s Planning Department briefed (and I do mean briefed) us on major changes to Raleigh’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Lots of questions were raised and Christine answered as many as she could in the time we allotted her. The UDO is a huge beast of a document and 90 minutes is not nearly enough time to do it justice, so I hope to have a follow-on session sometime in the near future where we can get into more detail.
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Milk: it does a body good? Perhaps not.

Here’s an interesting take on milk and how we’re probably drinking too much of it.

Today the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for dairy is a mere three cups daily — still 1½ pounds by weight — for every man, woman and child over age 9. This in a country where as many as 50 million people are lactose intolerant, including 90 percent of all Asian-Americans and 75 percent of all African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Jews. The myplate.gov site helpfully suggests that those people drink lactose-free beverages. (To its credit, it now counts soy milk as “dairy.”)

There’s no mention of water, which is truly nature’s perfect beverage; the site simply encourages us to switch to low-fat milk. But, says Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Sugar — in the form of lactose — contributes about 55 percent of skim milk’s calories, giving it ounce for ounce the same calorie load as soda.”

via Got Milk? You Don't Need It – NYTimes.com.