Grilled Chicken - Heart Healthy or Cancer Causing?

Grilled chicken has typically been promoted as a heart-healthy choice.

However, recently The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine hired an independent laboratory to test grilled chicken from these California restaurants: Outback Steakhouse, TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Chili's, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's and Burger King.

Heterocyclic amines, a group of compounds known to cause cancer, were found in the chicken from every one of these restaurants.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has filed suit against these restaurants for serving food containing cancer-causing chemicals without warning the consumer.

The grilling process causes the formation of heterocyclic amines. So, grilled meats are NOT a healthy choice. When eaten regularly, they increase your risk of cancer.

In addition, most grilled chicken, as well as other meats, has been marinated in sauces that contains MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin and it excites your brain cells to death.

Recently, when I was developing the course, Healthy Eating in a Fast Food World, I intended to search out healthy fast food choices since fast food restaurants are so popular. What I found instead is that most of the food, not only in fast food restaurants, but in restaurants in general, contains MSG, along with a wide variety of harmful food additives. MSG is found in food in restaurants that claim No MSG as well, because MSG goes by a large variety of names. And while the restaurant may not add the ingredient MSG, they may use other ingredients that are hidden sources of MSG, like hydrolyzed protein, yeast extract, autolyzed yeast, gelatin, flavorings and seasonings to name a few. They may not even know that these ingredients they are adding are hidden sources of MSG.

So, how do you cook your chicken so that it is healthy? Here are a couple recommendations:

1. Put it in a skillet with a little bit of water - so it's cooking in the water and not frying - and cook till tender. Season it with your favorite herbs and a little bit of good salt, like Celtic salt. You can also add some onions, peppers and other vegetables to the skillet while you're cooking your chicken.

2. Bake it in the oven in a covered casserole dish at 350 degrees F. Bake it by itself or add vegetables of your choice. Put it on a rack so that it doesn't cook in its grease. Always cook meats at temperatures below 400 degress F; 350 degrees is preferred.

Click here for more information on healthy eating. Get the low down on additives in your food here.

Organic Dairy Products from Factory Farms!

If you're buying organic dairy products because you want healthier dairy products, be careful what brands you buy.

If you haven't already heard, Aurora Dairy in Colorado, although it has organic status is a factory farm. There is a lot of controversy around Aurora Dairy already because of its large scale operation with little space for the animals. It does not meet the criteria for the typical organic dairy. Yet it continues to produce dairy products under the organic label.

If you want truly organic quality dairy products from healthy animals raised in clean, healthy environments, you will want to avoid products from Aurora Dairy. They sell their products under the following labels:

• Costco's "Kirkland Signature"
  
• Safeway's "O" organics brand
  
• Publix's "High Meadows"
  
• Giant's "Natures Promise"
  
• UNFI's "Woodstock Farms"

Read more...

Learn more about organic food.

Processed Food Can Cause Liver Disease in Children

You've probably heard that processed foods are bad for you. You may have even cut back or cut them out for the most part.

New research, published in the Journal of Obesity in September, shows that eating processed food is causing liver disease in children.

"According to an article from CanWest News Service, a 10 year old girl became the first child diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in 2000. Now in 2007, liver disease is being found in 5-7 year olds with the youngest child reported being two years old. Fatty liver disease is now showing up in approximately one in every three obese children."

Read the full article here.

Learn more about healthy eating and how to get your kids to eat healthy food.

One Good Reason Why You Should Eat Organic Foods

The government agencies that are supposed to be protecting us are doing just the opposite!

I have always recommended that when you buy strawberries, you should choose organic because of the pesticides used on strawberries.

The EPA has just approved a new pesticide and fumigant, methyl iodide, to be used mostly in fields growing strawberries in California and Florida. It is also approved for use with tomatoes, peppers, ornamentals, turf, trees and vines.

Methyl iodide is a carcinogen; it causes cancer. It is a neurotoxin; it causes damage to your nervous system. "In a letter sent last month to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, 54 scientists, mostly chemists, warned that "pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farmworkers and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk."

Full story...

More healthy eating information...

Genetically Engineered Sugar to HIt Grocery Stores in 2008

Watch out! Here comes more genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, UNLABELED, on the grocery store shelves and in your food. If you buy processed foods containing sugar, if they are not organic, it's very likely that they will contain GE sugar in 2008. The processed food on the grocery store shelves already contain UNLABELED GE soy and corn ingredients. Now they'll also have the addition of GE sugar from biotech beets.

Take action now to stop Genetically Engineered Sugar.

Discover how to choose food with safe, non-GE ingredients in FOOD ADDITIVES: A Shopper's Guide...

Beware: The definition of raw is about to change when it comes to almonds!

The USDA Says that almonds labeled as "raw" or "organic" must be pasteurized, effective September 1, 2007, unless thousands of consumers take action NOW!

This law will effectively eliminate the availablity of raw almonds in the U.S., while still labeling them as raw.

Pasteurizing almonds will reduce the nutritional value that is obtained from truly raw almonds.

One of the proposed methods for pasteurizing almonds involves using propylene oxide, a possible carcinogen according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. This chemical is banned in Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Let the USDA know that you want your raw almonds really raw! Take action here.

Get more information on healthy eating here.

Healthy Eating in a Fast Food World

New class taught by Dr. Christine H. Farlow, D.C. in Escondido, CA on July 11 and 18, 2007.

Read more about Dr. Farlow in the right hand column of this blog.

If you live in San Diego County or will be visiting at this time come and join us. Get information on how you can attend here.