Best organic poultry brands

If you eat poultry, then take a little time to check out Cornucopia.org's scorecard on the brands. While the emphasis is on Organic, there's good information here for everyone to be aware of!

Bob Quinn - Organic Farmer & American Hero - Grain By Grain

Bob Quinn is one of my heroes and he should be one of yours, too! He's an awesome agricultural scientist, organic farmer, and nutritional advocate who's making a major impact on global food production.

Check out his recent book, "Grain by Grain" for his inspiring story and forward-thinking perspectives for U.S. and global organic farming. A totally inspiring discussion; let's DO IT!

The Holy Grail of Sweeteners

Stepping back and taking a look at the big picture, it appears that all sweeteners have upsides and downsides. For some time, like many others, I believed that agave syrup was a healthy, low glycemic alternative to sucrose / white table sugar. However, recent discussions indicate that agave has a bothersome issue, because it substitutes glucose / sucrose with high levels of fructose, which aren't digestible by the body and end up being removed by the liver. Therefore, completely replacing sucrose with agave likely isn't a good dietary strategy. And like the Holy Grail, "The Perfect Sweetener" may be unattainable. So, we have to understand the advantages and disadvantages of any sweeteners we use and maintain an intake level and variety that works best for us. 😉

Great Pasta!

Here's a nice pasta product: Barilla ProteinPLUS® Rotini, with all ingredients that you can understand and pronounce and 12% protein, too! 😊

Add Pulses to your diet!

The pulses.org website is a great resource to learn more about the many benefits of Pulses and how to include them into your diet easily. Check it out!

Image attribution: pulses.org

Does it have GMOs or Not?

Here's a useful on-line Non-GMO Shopping List from the Institute for Responsible Technology. So if you're wondering if your favorite strawberry jam contains GMO fruit, this list can help!

And here's a helpful explanation from cpr.com concerning how to identify conventional, GMO, and organic foods in the grocery store.

Refined sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup?

Given in the course of simple existence that we will be faced with the decision, "Do I eat this product, which contains high fructose corn syrup, or find one like it that uses raw or refined sugar?" Which is the better choice? I was curious myself and found this article from HealthDay, which concludes, sugar is sugar and daily intake is what you want to manage! Seems like an obvious and intuitive conclusion - and this livestrong article backs it up.

Golden grains

See this article for a great intro to heritage grains that provide healthy alternatives to wheat and rice. Nice to see these grains are gaining cultivation and favor nowadays! Montana's organic farmers are helping with it, too.

The MIND diet

Not a lot surprising here, since a lot of the MIND diet overlaps with a vegetarian and reduced dairy diet anyway. But it's nice to see corroboration of the healthy effects of a Mediterranean style menu, too.

Chocolate and Heavy Metal - Yeah I guess they don't mix

Chocolate's a favorite treat of mine. Unfortunately, As You Sow released a report this week showing most major manufacturers of dark chocolate bars and candies have elevated levels of cadmium and/or lead in their products. Bummer! So much for the anecdotal "good health" benefits of dark chocolate, huh?! Will I now drop it from my diet? Unlikely, but I'll probably think more about how much I'm consuming, where before I never used to.

Neat article on the lentils revolution

Saw this on Michael Pollan's Facebook page. Neat article on lentils and one UCB graduate's journey into chronicling family farming, renovation, and organic innovation.

What the world eats

Looks like the U.S. is in last place for consuming nutritious calories, tsk tsk! An informative infographic from National Geographic on what the regions of the world eat.

Pseudo-science sells

Great article on the nutritional mystique that sells products with high claims but that fall flat on substance when challenged. Dietary beliefs probably rate right in there with religion, sports, politics, and sex concerning the areas that people get most dogmatic about. But the bottom line: Are product nutritional claims supported by independent scientific studies or not? Many will fail this litmus test.

Gluten Free isn't a panacea

Gluten free has become trendy, but is it really a healthier diet? Only if you suffer from celiac disease or are allergic to wheat according to Consumer Reports.

Near East spices and herbs guide

I like Near East grain mixes because they're easy to make, complement most dishes, and feature simple, basic ingredients. They also have a nice on-line spices and herbs guide, check it out!

What place diet?

Diet alone cannot prevent or defeat cancer but it can help in the battle. Here's an example.

Annies: Can their culture persist?

Why Bigger is not always Better. The bottom line remains the same: Read the labels!

When healthy dieting becomes obsessive...

This article caught my eye in the Mercury News. It's an interesting story about how obsession with healthy diet can become a clinical abnormality for some people. Seeking to eat fresh and nutritious is a noble goal, as long as it doesn't become the overriding goal! Eat well, my friends, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater in the process ;-)

The chips & fries dilemma

Found this warning on a bag of all natural chips that came with my lunch today:

WARNING: This product contains acrylamide, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer. Acrylamide is not added to this product, but is created by browning potatoes. The FDA does not recommend that people stop eating potatoes. For more information, see the FDA's website at www.fda.gov.

Wow, that was enlightening! Yet another health reason to avoid eating excessive chips & fries, huh?! Then I learned from the Wikipedia article that some chip manufacturers add an pre-cooking enzyme to prevent the acrylamide from forming. And that other foods may contain the compound, too. Fascinating! I don't think I'll cut out chocolate from my diet, though :-)

Your stage in life matters

This article from the L.A. Times is an insightful look at the effects of dietary protein and aging.

Personally, my important take-aways are the following:

• Vegetarian protein sources are preferable over animal based ones (just my opinion, but I think it's a better plan for an older adult in particular).
• This quote from biogerontologist Valter Longo says it all, “Your stage in life matters”. Make sure you research and act on health, vitality, and longevity approaches that make sense for your stage in life :-)