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Tag: GMO

Organic Vs. Non-Organic

By on May 24, 2016in Choosing Healthy Foods, Health and Wellness Blog, Healthy Eating Habits, Mindful Eating: The Origins Of Our Foods

How many times have you heard that organic foods do not contain more nutrients than non-organic foods? So why bother paying all that extra money for organic? Well, putting aside the nutritional component of organic produce for a moment, the chemicals and pesticides you are eating when you ingest non-organic foods have been associated with cancer, nervous system disorders, and other serious health problems.  We appreciate TV host, speaker, chef, author, Andrea Beaman’s take on it.  She says these chemicals kill bugs and the only difference between bugs and us is size.  Eventually they’ll kill us too.

Are you still wondering, “why bother?”now?!

Best organic choices:

Here is a list of the foods most likely affected by pesticides:
(originally referred to as the “Dirty Dozen” but now there are more than a dozen!)

  • Green Beans
  • Leafy Greens (kale, collard greens)
  • Potatoes
  • Blueberries
  • Cucumbers
  • Lettuce
  • Spinach
  • Grapes
  • Nectarines
  • Strawberries
  • Peaches
  • Red Peppers
  • Celery
  • Apples (THE WORST!)
  • Teas and Spices

What you can get away with:

These “Clean Fifteen” foods are those, least likely, to hold pesticide residues:

  • Asparagus
  • Avocado
  • Cabbage
  • Cantaloupe (domestic)
  • Eggplant
  • Grapefruit
  • Kiwi
  • Mangoes
  • Mushrooms
  • Onions
  • Pineapple
  • Sweet Corn
  • Sweet Peas
  • Sweet Potato
  • Watermelon

How to avoid toxins all together?

To avoid toxins and pesticides, the best of all bests is to plant your own garden if you have the time and space. If this isn’t possible, the next best option is to buy organic and in season from local farmers. If this is out of the question financially, buy as much organic as you can, keeping the Dirty Dozen in mind; and check out the section on “Detoxification” in our latest book The Power of Healthy Living. You’ll find there are many ways to help eliminate some of these toxins from your body.

Researchers have started tracking the nutrient components of organic versus non-organic produce, and the findings weigh very heavily in favor of organic. For example, tests show that organic tomatoes have as much as 55 percent more vitamin C than non-organic tomatoes. In 2005 a team of Newcastle University researchers found that organically produced food had higher levels of specific antioxidants and lower mycotoxin levels than conventional samples. The study found organic crops are up to 60 percent higher in a number of key antioxidants than conventionally grown ones. Professor Carlos Leifert, lead author of the study, said in the October 2014 issue of What Doctors Don’t Tell You, there are “statistically significant meaningful” differences between organic and standard produce, with organic having from 19 to 69 percent more antioxidants. One other study showed substantially higher levels of minerals.

Organic is not only better for your body, it’s also much better for your planet. Studies have shown that organic farming uses less energy, less water, and no chemicals. That means less erosion, maintained soil quality, and more conserved biological resources. As well, new reports show that current yields from some organic crops are exceeding those of non-organic crops.

For more detailed information on Organic Eating, pick up your copy of the Recipes for Life Boxed Set.

Access your complementary recipe here.

 

Health Coach Rita Thomas and Chef Erin Holm hope to inspire families, friends and communities to live happier, healthier and more delicious lives.
Sign up for their health and recipe blog to start your journey to good health.

Genetically Modified Foods

By on May 17, 2016in Health and Wellness Blog, Healthy Eating Habits, Mindful Eating: The Origins Of Our Foods

Right now in the United States, about 60% to 70% of the foods on our grocery store shelves contain GMOs, and there is absolutely no labeling to indicate this. As a result, we cannot always be certain whether the foods we are consuming are GMO or not, and the number of GMO foods is growing. This is absolute craziness.

The affects of GMOs

Animal studies on the effects of GMO foods have revealed all kinds of issues, including infertility problems, immune system complications, accelerated aging, insulin issues, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. Most of this research is funded by industries with a vested interest in finding no negative effects, so outcomes are always in their favor! And there have be no studies done on the long-term effects …

The Non-GMO Project is a nonprofit organization committed to preserving and building the non-GMO food supply, educating consumers, and providing verified non-GMO choices. Here is their response when asked if GMOs are safe:

“Most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs. In the U.S., the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. Increasingly, Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the GMO experiment.”

There are positive steps you can take to avoid GMOs and it starts by buying organic foods that contain the 100 percent USDA certified organic label.  GMOs are not permitted in organic products. If you cannot afford organic, then look for Non GMO Project seals. Buying local is also a great way to avoid GMOs; ask questions of your vendors about the lifecycle of the product and the philosophy of the producer.

Organic or Non-GMO?

Max Goldberg is one of the nation’s leading organic food experts and keeps us well informed on his website. Some of his readers tend to confuse the terms organic and non-GMO. So here’s the deal: non-GMO is not better than organic. Look for 100 percent USDA certified organic because all organic food should be non-GMO. Non-GMO is always second best to organic. If the product you want to purchase comes in a box, a can, or a jar, read the labels and check every single ingredient.

Here are some at-risk ingredients to avoid because they are probably genetically modified:

  • Beet sugar
  • Canola rapeseed
  • Corn ingredients and products
  • Cottonseed oil
  • Soy ingredients
  • Papaya
  • Peas
  • Potatoes
  • Rice
  • Yellow squash
  • Tomatoes
  • Zucchini

Actions you can take to ensure a non-GMO future for food production:

  • Stop buying GMO and processed foods. In the 2014 documentary Origins David Wolfe suggests you “vote with your money.” If you stop buying processed foods, there will be no market for them.
  • Get involved. Insist that your governments conduct their own studies on the safety of GMOs rather than relying on studies conducted by biotech companies who are only in it for the money. 
  • In April of 2014, Vermont was successful in passing a no-GMO bill, yet the very next month, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) confirmed it would sue in an attempt to overturn the bill. Jackson County in Oregon is the only other state that has had some success in banning the growth of GMO crops.
  • Stop supporting junk food restaurants. We were delighted to read that McDonalds reported a 30% drop in revenues for 2015 and is closing 700 locations. We’re sure it’s because of these revenue drops that McDonalds announced that they will be launching their first organic hamburger in Germany. Yay! If we continue to send the McDonalds’ of the world the message that we don’t want to eat unhealthy food, they will be forced to incorporate new, healthier, affordable choices into their menus if they want to survive.
  • Ban these brands from your grocery cart:
    • Pepsi Cola
    • Nestle
    • Kraft
    • General Mills
    • Naked Juice
    • Gerber
    • Organic Boca Burgers
    • Cascadian Farms
    • Simply Frito-Lay

You can be proactive. Even if all you do is a sign a petition, it’s a great place to start. And please, let your governments know that what they are doing to our food supply is totally unacceptable. Make them accountable by asking them why they subsidize junk food, making it so affordable yet not organic food?

More Resources

For more detailed information on GMOs in your food, pick up your copy of the Recipes for Life Boxed Set.

Access your complementary recipe here.

 

Health Coach Rita Thomas and Chef Erin Holm hope to inspire families, friends and communities to live happier, healthier and more delicious lives.
Sign up for their health and recipe blog to start your journey to good health.

Food Identity Theft

By on May 10, 2016in Health and Wellness Blog, Healthy Eating Habits, Mindful Eating: The Origins Of Our Foods

Are you mindful and intentional about your daily eating plan? Most people live on autopilot and don’t even think about what they will snack on during the day. Even the healthiest people can get sidetracked by spontaneous decisions in all aspects of life. Eating is certainly one of them. When it comes to the foods you choose, you have to be focused on planning and preparation in order to make the right choices. Be intentional. Be mindful that the foods you eat and the way you eat them are part of an entire ecosystem of health, from the health of your planet to the health of each person on it.

A great place to start is to encourage food producers to abandon their deceptive practices and focus on supplying healthy, organic foods that are not genetically modified, mislabeled, or misrepresented. We don’t want to dishearten you; we simply want to make you aware of how the decisions about what you eat can contribute to a more positive, mindful future for our planet.

So many foods have suffered from identity theft. News stations are reporting more and more on how the food we eat contain fraudulent ingredients, and in no small amount. One report for example found that pepper contained stems and starches, paprika contained synthetic industrial dyes that mimic the color, and saffron is actually black pepper cut with stems and cheap spices.

As if that isn’t enough, reports have found:

  • Extra virgin olive oil diluted with cheap vegetable oil
  • Caviar that did not come from sturgeon eggs
  • Dog food that contained no meat
  • Pomegranate juice containing cheaper juices, mostly grape and pear
  • Whole wheat crackers made primarily from processed and refined white flour
  • Teas filled with fern leaves and lawn grass (even some organic teas contained fern leaves, lawn grass, weeds, and goose foot)
  • Sheep cheese that was not sheep cheese
  • Jars of so-called 100 percent lemon juice that, when tested, only had 10 to 35 percent of actual lemon juice

Reports like this really make you realize how far some companies will go to make a buck.

The website www.FoodIdentityTheft.com is sponsored by Citizens for Health, a nonprofit consumer action group that keeps consumers informed about food threats. They report that sometimes companies try to mask ingredients by changing the names of them.

While the culprits add ingredients we don’t want, other companies claim their products contain certain items that aren’t even there! An example of this is the blueberry scam, where you think the product you are buying contains nutritious, antioxidant rich blueberries and surprise: not one blueberry can be found in the entire package! Health Ranger, Mike Adams, is a research director, food scientist, food activist, and outspoken consumer health advocate who is founder and editor of www.NaturalNews.com. His investigations found that McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets contained mysterious fiber hair-like structures, pasteurized milk contained pus, and Vitamin Water contained more sugar water than vitamins in the water. Even Coca-Cola’s own attorney has publicly admitted that Vitamin Water is not a health beverage.

Another health food advocate worth noting is Vani Hari who started the website www.foodbabe.com to help consumers understand what is actually in the food we eat, how to make healthy buying decisions at the grocery store, and how to live an organic lifestyle. It was Hari who led the charge to convince Subway to remove a controversial ingredient in their bread that was used to make yoga mats after receiving 50,000 signatures in twenty-four hours on her petition to the chain. Hari also investigated Jello, which has a warning label in Europe but not in the United States and Canada, noting that the “fun” food contains gelatin from animals in factory farms, artificial flavor, red #40 made from petroleum and is contaminated with carcinogens, artificial food dyes, GMO sugar and preservatives, and BHA linked to cancer that are banned all over the globe.

Moral of the story? Be intentional. Be mindful that the foods you eat and the way you eat them are part of an entire ecosystem of health, from the health of your planet to the health of each person on it.

For more detailed information on Mindful Eating, pick up your copy of the Recipes for Life Boxed Set.

Access your complementary recipe here.

Health Coach Rita Thomas and Chef Erin Holm hope to inspire families, friends and communities to live happier, healthier and more delicious lives.
Sign up to their health and recipe blog to start your journey to good health.

Top 10 Foods to Avoid

By on April 19, 2016in Dieting, Health and Wellness Blog, Healthy Eating Habits, Meal Planning

We hoped you enjoyed last week’s 10 Basics of Healthy Eating. It was full of great tips, tricks and insights into how you can get jump-started on healthy eating right away! This week we have for you a list of the the top foods you should eliminate from your diet, or at the very least, consume in moderation!

  1. Avoid gluten and grains whenever possible. If you don’t buy into all the stories of the negative effects gluten has on the body, read Wheat Belly by cardiologist Dr. William Davis.
  2. Avoid dairy unless you can find a safe, raw, and unpasteurized source. Besides the fact that not everyone can properly digest dairy, studies have found that countries with the lowest rates of dairy (Africa and Asia) have the lowest rates of osteoporosis. So, contrary to popular wisdom, the less dairy you eat, the better your bones will be.
  3. Avoid genetically modified foods (GMOs) at all costs. There have been copious amounts of research done on the damaging effects of GMOs, so don’t mess with this.
  4. Stay away from artificial sweeteners and eat all natural sugars in moderation, including fruit.  The less sugar or sweeteners you consume the better.
  5. Avoid processed food, junk food, and food with additives and preservatives: a lot of condiments fall into this category.
  6. Avoid soy products unless they are fermented because they can actually affect your hormone levels and not in a positive way!
  7. Eliminate foods labeled low fat, because low fat means added sugar. Don’t be afraid to eat healthy fats from nuts, seeds, avocados, and healthy oils. Fat makes you feel more satiated.
  8. Avoid foods cooked at high temperatures with low-smoking-point oils.
  9. Do not eat anything grown in a factory farm. There have been plenty of in-depth investigations showing the terrible cruelty to animals practiced on factory farms. You sure don’t want all this negative energy transmitted into your body.
  10. Avoid hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils are either semi-solid or solid at room temperature and are only one molecule away from plastic; plastic does not break down, as you can imagine. This oil can create thicker blood with a gummy substance that flows through your blood and can easily lodge in your arteries and build up arterial plaque. It doesn’t take anywhere near as much time as you may think for this to occur. Some studies have shown that negative health effects of eating processed foods occurs within only minutes of consuming such foods.

So stay away if you can… and refer to the 10 basics of healthy eating for what you can be doing.

For more detailed information on Healthy Eating and Choosing the Right Foods For You, pick up your copy of the Recipes for Life Boxed Set.

Access your complementary recipe here.

Health Coach Rita Thomas and Chef Erin Holm hope to inspire families, friends and communities to live happier, healthier and more delicious lives.
Sign up for their weekly health and recipe blog to start your journey to good health.