Friday, August 29, 2008

Tell the FDA What You Think About Irradiating Fresh Lettuce and Spinach

The FDA has approved irradiating lettuce and spinach. There's a 30 day public comment period. Learn more, then Tell the FDA you don't want your fresh produce altered and it's nutritional value destroyed.

Get more nutrition from your food with organic.

Learn more about healthy food.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Agave Nectar - Healthy or Not?

Historically agave nectar was made from the aguamiel of the agave plant. It contains minerals and amino acids and has been used therapeutically. It is healthy as a sweetener.

However, the agave nectar on the health food store shelves today is not really agave nectar, but agave syrup. It is highly processed and many of the nutrients are removed. These sweeteners are very high in fructose. Too much fructose contributes to elevated triglycerides, which is a risk factor for heart disease.

So what sweeteners are healthy to use?

Raw honey has about half the fructose as the agave syrup and pure maple syrup has very little fructose at all. Both of these sweeteners are preferable to the highly processed agave products you find on the grocery store and health food store shelves. Another option is stevia, the Paraguayan variety rather than the Chinese.

Of course, even healthy sweeteners should be used in moderation.

Here are some recipes to treat yourself to healthy sweets.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Trans Fat News

The trans fats found in processed foods have received a lot of negative publicity lately and are being removed from many of the packaged foods on the market.

Trans fats are typically found in foods as partially hydrogenated fats and oils. Recent research has shown trans fats to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, non-agressive prostate tumors and infertility in women.

Beware of labels that say "No Trans Fats!" Read the ingredients to make sure there really are no partially hydrogenated fats or oils. Manufacturers are legally allowed to say no trans fats if there is less than .5 grams per serving.

The food industry's solution to the trans fat fiasco is to replace them with what are called interesterified fats, or fully hydrogenated fats. Not only are these fats not a solution, but they may cause your HDL cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol, to drop even more than the trans fats. In addition, they may raise blood sugar, contributing to diabetes.

Again read the label to make sure there are no hydrogenated or interesterified fats in the product.

There is one kind of trans fat that is good for you. It's the natural trans fat found in meat and butter. The natural trans fats have been found to lower your risk for diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Enjoy your butter and know that animal fats are not the bad guys they have been made out to be! The best animal fats are from organic raw milk and dairy products and organic grass fed meat.

Read more about healthy food.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Food Patterns of our Body

Watch the video.

Read more about healthy food.

The Secret Irradiation of Your Food

The FDA has just approved the secret irradiation of lettuce and spinach before it gets to your grocery store. The nutrients in irradiated food are destroyed. Eating irradiated food will cause you to be nutritionally deficient and your health will suffer greatly.

Read the article here.

Protect your health by growing your own food, buying locally grown food from farmer's markets and buy organic. Organic food cannot be irradiated according to the National Organic Standards.

If you're not buying organic, ask your grocer if they buy irradiated food. If they don't know, don't buy until they find out and make sure it's not irradiated.

Learn more about healthy eating.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Junk Food Fed to Cattle Raised for Meat

It's bad enough that factory farmed animals are kept in inhumane, congested conditions and fed grain which is not their normal diet. Now, because of the rising cost of corn, factory farms have stooped to feeding the cattle junk food. They're mixing potato chips and M&Ms in with the corn to reduce the cost of feeding these animals, making an unhealthy meat even less healthy.

Grass fed cattle eat what nature intended and give you the healthiest meat. However it will cost more BUT it is better for your health.

Watch the video here.

Learn more about healthy food here.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Omega-3's and Your Health

Omega-3's are vitally important to your health. The average American diet is low in Omega-3's and high in Omega-6's. This imbalance is a major contributing factor to many of the diseases rampant in this country today.

When you decide to add Omega-3's to your diet, it's important to eat the right kind of Omega-3's in the right balance.

The food industry has jumped onto the Omega-3 bandwagon to get their piece of the Omega-3 pie. However, there are a lot of products that have been mislabeled as to their Omega-3 content, thanks to an FDA loophole.

There's a good e-book that explains about Omega-3's in easy-to-understand language so that you can determine for yourself whether foods advertised as Omega-3 rich and heart healthy really do live up to the claims.

The Food Industry's Greed: How Misleading Labeling of Omega-3 Foods Undermines American Health with Lois Smithers gives you the facts. You won't find words in this book that say how you should eat, what to buy or how to shop. What you will read is information that will help you make the best choices possible.

Read more...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

How to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthy Food

There seems to be a broad consensus that kids don't like healthy foods. If you go into a restaurant and look at the kids menu, it's usually about as far from healthy as you can get.

The truth of the matter is that kids like to eat what they're taught to eat. So when kids don't like healthy food, it's because they were given the sugary, processed and junk foods as small children and that's what they learned to like to eat.

I was appalled when my daughter was a toddler and I went to Mommy & Me gymnastics classes with her. There was a mom who gave her little girl, less than a year old, sitting in a stroller, red licorice to keep her quiet while the mom and her 3-year old son were on the gym floor.

Giving kids cookies, crackers, sugary processed cereals, candy, ice cream and other processed foods is what teaches kids to like junk foods. It's not in their genes.

Kids will like vegetables, fruit, whole and healthy foods if that's what they're given. If you give your kids only healthy foods, they may not like them all, but they'll choose their favorite foods from among the healthy foods they're given.

The best way to get kids to eat healthfully is to start when they're infants. However, you can teach older kids to learn to like healthy foods too. Here's a tool for the whole family to have fun with while you're learning to eat healthier.