To mark our 4-year anniversary and 200th post, I am featuring a guest post today from one of my favorite writers, Elizabeth Walling and her web site, The Nourished Life. Elizabeth has great information about natural living and nourishing our bodies through real food and nutrition.

She also offers great tips about reducing stress, exercise, keeping toxins out of your body, and much more. What you’ll consistently find on her site is a great offering of research & personal experience on useful topics that can help you take incremental steps to take toward getting your body back on track and becoming healthy again.

I’ve been reading both The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure by Julia Ross and it has a lot of great information in it about lifting your moods naturally using real food and real food supplementation. I’m still getting acquainted with the amino acid component of health; it’s such an important part of keeping your body feeling good and running optimally. Here is a good overview of the amino acid tyrosine and how it can profoundly affect your energy levels and health.

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Did you ever wake up and wonder where all your energy has gone? If life has you hitting the snooze button every morning, you may have a biochemical deficiency that’s sapping your energy, destroying your concentration and smothering your vivacity. The good news is that this deficiency can be easily corrected with the right nutritional therapy.

The Catecholamine Connection

The body produces a group of catecholamines which help you feel focused and energized. These are dopamine, adrenaline and norepinephrine. When you’ve got plenty of catecholamines floating around, nothing feels out of your reach and it’s easy to be optimistic. The trouble happens a) when you’re not providing the body with the raw material to produce these catecholamines and b) when you’re using up these biochemicals faster than your body can produce them. Then suddenly you have to drag yourself out of bed and don’t feel alive until you’ve had your morning coffee. In general you just kind of feel… flat.

Typically people low on catecholamines turn to stimulants like caffeine, chocolate and nicotine to boost their energy. But this can backfire quickly by causing your body to use up more catecholamines than it can produce. Eventually this can lead to burnout, when no matter how many coffee cups you drink, you can’t bring back your former focus and energy. If you’re constantly exhausted and listless, it’s time to start addressing this at a nutritional level.

Where Tyrosine Comes In

Supplementing with the amino acid tyrosine can prove immensely helpful in conquering these symptoms. Tyrosine is used by the body to make catecholamines, as well as other important hormones produced by the adrenal glands and endorphin-like chemicals that provide us with a sense of well-being.

Tyrosine also plays another important role in energy regulation: it fuels the thyroid hormones. The thyroid gland uses tyrosine to make the hormones T3 and T4. It’s no surprise that low tyrosine levels are common in people with poor thyroid function. Supplementing with tyrosine is often effective for eliminating symptoms of low thyroid function.

Research has demonstrated the power of tyrosine. Studies have shown that tyrosine can:

• Reverse the side effects of acute stress (such as in military subjects)

• Improve concentration and focus

• Treat symptoms associated with depression

In everyday terms, tyrosine can naturally help bring back the outgoing, energetic version of yourself.

My Own Experience With Tyrosine

I’ve used amino acid therapy in the past with great results, but tyrosine never did the trick for me. Recently I’ve felt a little off and I decided to take the Mood Cure questionnaire again. Surprise, surprise! I scored pretty bad on the “Blasting the Blahs” section. So, along with keeping my protein intake up, I tried taking tyrosine again. I started with two 500 mg capsules twice a day and have since moved up to three times per day (early morning, mid-morning and mid-afternoon).

Because I never noticed a big difference before, I wasn’t expecting much from this. But let me tell you: the change was obvious this time! It got me right out of this procrastination slump I’ve been in. I’ve been quicker to answer emails, return phone calls, do the dishes and do all of the other daily tasks that were beginning to seem insurmountable.

I noticed I’m more willing to take on projects around the house now. For example, after spending three hours in the city stocking up on real food the other day, I came home to realize my pantry was a wreck and needed to be revamped before I could store my new groceries. Normally this is an obstacle that would leave me exhausted just thinking about it. Instead, I hopped right to it and had my pantry organized and restocked within an hour. The whole time I was thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe I actually have the energy to do this!”

I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking I needed some more willpower. I thought it was a matter of buckling down and making myself get things done, but now I suddenly find I’m having no problem being motivated and enthusiastic about my responsibilities. I didn’t need willpower – I needed nutritional therapy!

Tips for Taking Tyrosine

• No supplement can take the place of a healthy diet and lifestyle. Use tyrosine as a way to facilitate healing and give you the energy you need to make other positive changes in your life.

• As with any amino acid, take tyrosine at least 15 minutes before a meal and at least 90 minutes after. Otherwise, the protein from your meal will compete with tyrosine and you may not get the same effect.

• Always start with the smallest dose (one 500 mg capsule at a time) and work up to the dosage that gives you the desired benefits. Most people find two capsules at a time are plenty, though this dosage may need to be taken 2-3 times throughout the day. Since tyrosine can keep you awake, don’t take it before bed.

• Taking too much tyrosine can make you feel jittery or agitated. It can also trigger headaches or migraines in sensitive individuals. Over time, as deficiencies are corrected, lower your dosage as needed to avoid taking to much.

• Consult with a physician before taking tyrosine if you are taking an MAO inhibitor, have manic depression, have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hyperthyroidism, melanoma or high blood sugar.

Best bets for tyrosine supplements: capsule or powder form (as opposed to tablets which are difficult to digest), use a 500 mg dosage since anything higher might be too much, and of course choose a supplement with as few additives as possible.

Julia Ross recommends NOW True Focus, a product which combines tyrosine with phenylalanine.

For more great information about health, nutrition, and feeding your body well, visit Elizabeth over at The Nourished Life.

Want more information about moods, stress, and health as it relates to food and what you eat?

Are emotional stress and money problems taking a toll on your health?

How much do you consume? If you could measure and keep track of it, do you think it would make a difference in your regular consumption levels? In our culture of mass consumption, we are so accustomed to buying products and having products around for our “convenience”, we seldom stop to think just how much we are consuming and how much waste we are producing as a result of that over-consumption.

Stop and think: do you really need to consume everything that you do? Challenge yourself to consume less of everything for one week. Keep a journal of the things you are doing without and ask yourself if you can do without those things permanently. At the end of the week, compare your reductions in consumption with your previous levels of consumption.

Here are some ideas for reducing levels of consumption:

• Ride your bike or walk to work, the store, or to a friend’s house. I’ve even heard stories of people riding their horses – don’t laugh…do it, if you can!

• When you do have to drive somewhere, combine trips to various locations that are in nearby locations. Instead of driving every day of the week, cut back your driving to 3 or 4 days a week.

• Carpool whenever possible.

• Use items over and over. Whenever you have containers, devices, or utilitarian items that can be used more than once, store them for later use to use again and again. This includes glass, paper, canvas, wood, metal, tin foil, boxes, plastic containers, clothing, and anything else you can think of. Find ways to reuse and re-purpose everything.

• Replace plastic with paper, wood, canvas, cotton, glass, metal, ceramic, tin foil, or wax paper.

• Stop buying dryer sheets. Hang your clothes in the backyard to dry on a clothes line. If you do use a clothes dryer, dry them without anything at all. I have been doing this for years with no adverse effects to my clothes. I don’t have static cling, and I am saving my family the hazards of toxic chemicals in dryer sheets (as well as a lot of $$).

• Wash your clothes all in cold water. I have been doing this for over 10 years and my clothes always come clean. If they need a stain removed, I soak them in a non-toxic detergent or soap, and add a non-toxic stain remover to them before washing.

• Make your own clothing detergent.

• Make your own toothpaste.

• Use bar soaps for everything in your house including the shower and all the sinks. Good bar soaps are those made from natural ingredients – olive oil-based soaps are great for your body. If you do buy liquid soap, consider Dr. Bronner’s (buy in bulk) or make your own with purified or distilled water, herbs, and, essential oils. Here are some great recipes for homemade soaps using ordinary bar soap. Stop buying commercial liquid pump soaps. They are bad for you and the environment.

• Make your own shampoo and wash your hair less. When you wash your hair less, you find the need to condition your hair less frequently or not at all, thus saving your health and your pocketbook.

Make a basic castille shampoo with 4 ounces castille soap flakes and one quart water. Bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat and pour water over the soap flakes. Stir until the soap flakes dissolve. Once the mixture has cooled, store it in a reusable bottle such as plastic (with no BPA), glass or ceramic, or stainless steel.

Add essential oils to the mixture for natural scents. Lavender is calming while oils like peppermint and citrus are more lively and promote blood circulation in the scalp. Try different oils to find those you prefer. To use essential oils in your recipe, mix 4 to 8 drops of the oil in to the soap mixture just after all the soap has dissolved.

You can also create an herbal shampoo using herbs. Instead of plain water, make an herbal infusion. For each quart of water, use approximately one-half ounce of dried herbs. Let the herbs steep for 20 minutes or more. Reheat the infusion if necessary, pour the hot infusion over flaked bar-soap or castille soap, and stir well. For dark hair, use rosemary and for lighter colored-hair, use  chamomile. For dry or oily hair, create an herbal infusion of comfrey and rosemary leaves, burdock root, and nettles. This will help return your hair’s natural balance to normal.

• Turn off your television or computer (to save electricity and $$) and read a book, do an art or craft project, invite a friend over for tea or a snack, engage in a cleaning project you’ve been putting off, or take a walk or do some gardening and get some Vitamin D. Most of us are short on Vitamin D and need it for good health and to keep away illness and disease.

• Consider alternative energy – wind, geothermal, solar, hydro, and other emerging technologies in alternative energy efforts. Incentives provided by the government can help offset the cost, and pay-back models for various alternative energy solutions are becoming more appealing and feasible as time goes on.

• Make your own cleaners from items in your home. Vinegar, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and olive oil work well for many different uses, are non-toxic, and economical. Buy spray bottles, use filtered or distilled water, and add your ingredients to make great cleaners that will do the job without harsh chemicals and odors.

• Stop using personal care products such as lotions, moisturizers, hand creams, and other similar items. Remember, most products on the market are designed to create a need in the consumer’s mind and make money. Most companies spend more money on their marketing and advertising budgets than on the quality of the product itself.

• Pay more attention to eating natural foods with whole, natural fats in them to supplement your health and support healthy skin, hair, and nails. Consume more Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) such as raw butter, raw cheese, raw milk, sprouted nuts, grass-fed meats, and fresh fish, cod liver oil, and other seafood from safe sources. If you must moisturize your skin from the outside (topically), use fresh, real oils like coconut, olive oil, apricot kernel, and sweet almond oil, or shea butter. To support healthy skin, hair, and nails, you need healthy oils and fats in your diet. Drinking more water does not hydrate your skin because the water in our skin is generated from the consumption of fats.

• Buy as many whole foods as possible, and less packaged and processed foods. You will save $$, your health, and the environment.

Want more information on reusing, re-purposing, saving money, and living sustainably?

Embrace and perfect your home-keeping skills

My kitchen staples – how I keep my family healthy

Is cheap food really cheap? The hidden costs of industrial food

Waste not, want not – tips for saving in the kitchen

Today I am sharing an important story of toxic waste spreading through our water from factory farming from The Journal of Food and Natural Healing, a site managed by my good friend, David (Augie) Augenstein.

David Michael has posted this expose on the appalling situation at Ohio’s largest inland lake, Grand Lake-St. Mary’s. David Michael has spent over 30 years in the environmental control field (air, water, waste, land) I would like to stress that Ohio farmers are good people and sacrifice much to produce food for everyone. I do not believe this is all their fault at all—but much of the blame should be placed on EPA and USDA—and the big food and agriculture corporations all working together.– Augie

Death of the Lakes: The Spreading of Toxic and Infectious Wastes and Disease

Ohio’s Love Canal: Toxic Pollution Dumping on a Scale of BP-Gulf Spill

By David Michael

Human illnesses and animal deaths have occurred recently from neurotoxins secreted by a heavy slime of blue and green algae floating on Ohio’s largest lake—Grand Lake St. Mary’s (Grand Lake) in Auglaize and Mercer Counties. This is a lake that has been deteriorating for decades, but especially so in the past 10 years as factory farms have sprung up all over the area, and more are being built.

A high concentration of factory farms and the application of composted manure from CAFO (confined animal feeding operations) manure and sewage treatment sludge (humanure, now called biosolids—a mixture of concentrated human excrement and industrial discharges) is spreading toxic and infectious substances on farmlands close by and in the watershed. CAFOs in the watershed area account for 3 million chickens; while sewage sludge spreading is permitted on 8800 Ohio farmlands—several close to the edge of Grand Lake.

Pollutants discharging into the lake also include fertilizer runoff (phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen (PKN) as well as some pesticides and herbicides—as is commonly known. But there is far more to the story, including heavy metals (like lead, arsenic and chromium), pharmaceuticals, neurotoxins, cancer-causers, viruses, bacteria—and just about every known chemical (60,000 some) known to man and being placed on the farmlands.

EPA and state officials know about this—as does USDA, and their partners in the big food and big agriculture corporations. Yet the smaller farmers are being accused for causing the mess, and homeowners too—while the CAFOs and spreading of sludge are being expanded rapidly though state and federally funded “green” programs and contracted out to a few individuals.

This and other similar situations occurring all around the US are coming to a head and, in sum, may be a far greater impact than the BP Gulf oil spill. The polluted farmlands may never be recovered without being excavated.

This news video on the situation does not feature a CAFO but rather a small 250-head farm using a natural treatment system as an example of the problem, rather than a superfarm. The big farms have gates and security procedures.

Make no mistake, there are increased deaths and illnesses for animals and humans living near CAFOs or lands where human waste is spread, which is well-documented. So far at the Lake, a 43-year old man may be neurologically impaired for life after washing the scum off his dog before the dog died from exposure. The man spent five days in the hospital and is now home hoping to recover. Two other dogs have died from exposure as well as innumerable fish.

The Data: High Levels of Toxins

Both CAFO wastes and sewage sludge contains these types of contaminants and EPA data shows many of these are extremely high levels.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs);

Chlorinated pesticides — DDT, dieldrin, aldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, lindane, mirex, kepone, 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D;

Chlorinated compounds such as dioxins;

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons;

Heavy metals — arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury;

Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasitic worms, fungi; and

Miscellaneous — asbestos, petroleum products, industrial solvents

EPA data shows high levels of known toxic compounds in these sludge “fertilizers” and are provided in a 2009 report on 74 sewage treatment plants. It shows high levels of contaminants including Arsenic (49 ppm, parts per million), Mercury (8.3 ppm), Aluminum (57,000 ppm=6%). Fluoride (234 ppm). EPA limits on Arsenic is 75 ppm (an additive in chicken feed) and Cadmium, 85 ppm. These are the maximum levels detected on a dry-weight basis. These are so high the wastes would be classified as a hazardous waste requiring treatment– but not is it used as soil amendments.

Pharmaceuticals (Ciprofloxcine, 50 ppm—Fluoxentine 3.1 ppm (this is Prozac)—Ibupropen (119 ppm), triclocarban (44 ppm). Levels of the tricloscan , the anti-bacterial compound in hand soap, was 133 ppm. These are maximum levels on a dry-weight basis.

To continue reading the rest of this story, please visit The Journal of Food and Natural Healing.

The Journal of Whole Food and Nutrition is all about traditional food– old world cuisine like eggs and bacon, grass-fed beef with fat in, real bread and butter, garden fresh vegetables, soaked whole-grain cereal with cream and honey and, of course clean raw milk and pure lard – the foods that give us health and strength.

Being talked out of enjoying this food by modern health, medical and food industries, has helped lead the US into malnutrition, diseases, disorders and obesity.

The Journal of Whole Food and Nutrition offers articles and comment on farm fresh foods, the Farm Enforcement Report, with a dash of news of medical research on positive effects of real foods and health detriments of imitation, factory food.

Augie recently retired from 15 years in business as a national publisher, consultant and conference producer in the environmental, health and safety field for the automotive and transportation industry. He is now employed as an air pollution engineer in an EPA-contracted county regulatory agency. He and his wife Annie are small homesteaders and parents of an autistic son, Dave Jr. He is a co-director of Ohio Connections to Natural Food and Healing and publisher of the Journal of Natural Food and Healing. Augie’s most recent venture is Alliance for Raw Milk Internationale to help in the development of the sustainable farm and food industry. In April 2010, Augie and his wife launched a local farm food publication called Living Food with national and local sponsors and is being test marketed in two states. His interests in the food, nutrition and health field is in teaching and education and with special interest in autism and other neurological disorders. He is a member of The Weston A. Price Foundation and the Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation.

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It is really quite staggering the deleterious effects had on human health and the environment by conventional farming and factory farm facilities – the bulk of which comprise where people buy their food in this country.

The recent massive egg recall and meat recall from Walmart should be a loud wakeup call about how food safety in this country is responsible for an enormous public health crisis.  Food recalls are becoming so commonplace that people don’t seem to make the connection between the way the food is grown and farmed and why it is making us sick. So far removed are we from where our food originates, we have become complacent and ignorant about the rippling effects these facilities and farming practices have on literally everything in our environment.

Government and food safety experts insist the way to manage this problem is through yet more and tighter safety regulations. But haven’t we learned our lesson yet? Here are some facts about this issue:

• Until the advent of industrial farming, there has never been a problem with Salmonella  in eggs. This type of environment crams hundreds of thousands of hens together in the most unnatural, filthy conditions.
• The company producing these eggs has repeatedly violated rules and regulations, so this is not the first time.
• Wright County Egg and many others like it are not required to follow standard food safety plans.  Whatever they are “required” to do has always been voluntary.

Bottom line is, mandatory rules or no, this system doesn’t work. It will continue to contaminates food, water, soil, air, and our bodies until changes are made at the source level. This pollution problem, as discussed in this information by David Michael should be yet another eye-opener about the consequences of our industrial food system. It’s yet another example of farms managing their businesses irresponsibly, and polluting everything around them just to make a profit.

Factory farms are a modern scourge that plagues our food supply, soil, air, and waterways. Remember that food recalls, pollution, and toxic waste dumping doesn’t occur as a result of safe, responsible, sustainable farming. In every instance where there is a food recall, it’s normally due to food originating from a large, multi-million or billion dollar corporation who puts marketing and advertising in the top of their spending budgets. They are there to make a profit, not bring you products that are healthy to consume.

What can you do to change the situation with food recalls?

• Buy your food locally

• Avoid food processed foods, especially at grocery stores and supermarkets unless it is from a source you know and trust

• Know what goes on where your food is produced

• Make relationships with your farmer and get to know others in your community who care about sustainability and food choices

• Support companies, farmers, and businesses who care about human health, the environment, and our future

If you think buying fresh, local, organic, sustainable food is too expensive, read what’s been going on in the news lately and consider the alternative!

• disease, illness, death

• massive environmental damage and pollution

• increased doctor, hospital, and medical expenses

• tax increases to pay for the damage incurred by factory farming and businesses

Want to know more about food recalls?

Huge FDA food recall of 10,000 products – another wakeup call to avoid processed foods!

For a long time I believed that with every food recall story in the media, we’d see more and more people start taking notice of what’s going on in the food system – that food produced in factory environments is harming our health because everything is completely backward and geared toward the reign of big food and corporate agriculture – and that sustainable agriculture would start to become the order of the day.

Food recalls are not doing the job they should – they are not waking people up fast enough. The more we continue to support big agriculture’s products by ignoring these problems, the more control will be given to entities (the government) and corporations (Big Pharma and Big Agriculture – companies like Tyson, Smithfield, Swift, and Cargill who control over 80 percent of the food sold in our country) to dictate the future of food growth, production, sales, and health (or lack thereof).

The reality is, nothing will change until major modifications occur in the way we produce food.  Stepping up regulations and laws will not change the recall situation or food-borne illnesses problem.

Every time food recalls happen, irrational and uneducated parties and spokespeople start rousing the masses to stop buying certain foods – tomatoes (2008), beef (2008), pork (2008), eggs (2010), and a breaking report today from Walmart – 380,000 pounds of deli meat (2010).

Recalls are becoming more numerous and people aren’t understanding the reason why – they believe it’s due to lax standards on “food safety” measures and laws. This is only a very small component of what is going on. The real culprit is not eggs or meat or anything else in and of itself – the cause is the farming methods and manufacturing processes used in the growth and production of these foods.

Where is the recall food coming from?

In every instance of these recalls, where has the food come from? That’s right, say it with me: BIG AGRICULTURE  corporations who are “supposed” to have their act together. How often do you hear about a small-time, sustainable farmer using traditional farming practices getting in trouble and having to “recall” their products? It does happen rarely, but realize that most of the time it does, those farmers are not using truly sustainable practices.

Beef recall

Today we read that Walmart is recalling 380,000 pounds of deli meats from its shelves.  Where does this meat come from? Factory farms. Case in point – remember the world’s largest beef recall to date…143 million pounds…in February of 2008 where downer cattle were being discovered on feedlots? These cattle would have, under normal circumstances, been taken away from the facility and destroyed. But they were being processed like every other animal on the facility (I say facility, because factory farms, like where these animals live, are not fit to be termed as “farms”) and processed through as meat for consumption.

Okay, I shouldn’t even have to elaborate about why this scenario is so horrific on so many levels…but humor me. I’m going to anyway to inform and educate those who don’t know or realize what’s going on here.

For starters, those cattle should not be living the way they do – even the ones that were not categorized as “downer” cattle. Those that made it through and were passed by USDA inspectors and deemed “acceptable” or “healthy” for consumption weren’t fit for consumption either. The reason why is that ANY animal born and raised on a feedlot – which is where the MAJORITY of our meat comes from – has experienced an existence that is so far removed from what it should be living, the details of it are staggeringly awful:

Feed Cattle are ruminants and should not be eating corn, soy, grains, and many other substances they are fed – they should be eating grass as that is what their digestive tracts are designed to process. When they eat these substances, their bodies grow faster and bigger, but they become unhealthy (think pathogenic bacteria like E. coli), and then farmers administrate antibiotics to control disease and illness. What results is super-resistant bacteria, and the death of all good bacteria. This is transferred over to humans when we consume the meat and helps us to become resistant too.

Hormones Most conventional cattle are given genetically-engineered growth hormones to speed up their growth process and get them ready for slaughter sooner. Some companies are beginning to ban growth hormones, but we are still a long ways away from this becoming common practice. Growth hormones in meat have been linked to the following health problems: disruption of  human hormone balance which affects development and growth, interference with reproduction, and development of various cancers such as prostate, breast, or colon cancer.

Antibiotics Conventional cattle receive regular doses of antibiotics to combat illnesses originating as a result of unsanitary conditions and the fact that they consume grain, which causes pathogenic bacteria like E. coli to develop in the digestive tracts of the animals. As stated above, antibiotics lead to resistant pathogenic strain bacteria in animals and humans, and the environment.

Pesticides and GMOs Cattle eat feed that has been treated with herbicide and pesticides all through its growing cycle, not to mention the DNA of these plants used for feed has often undergone alteration in a laboratory to change its basic gene structure so it can be resistant to the chemicals used on it to ward off pests.

Pesticides have been shown repeatedly to be toxic to the human body – it can kill all types of living organisms by attacking the nervous system – so how could it be harmless or cause negligable harm to humans and the environment? The Daily Green presented a report illustrating the harmful effects pesticides have on the health of young children. Because their bodies are smaller and still developing, they are more vulnerable, their metabolisms process these chemicals faster, and they have a greater overall negative impact. The damage? Disruption to hormonal, brain, and nervous system health, just to name a few.

The consumption of GMOs has been linked to widespread allergic reactions and problems in individuals – from soy, corn, and grains. It has also been shown to cause liver, reproductive, endocrine, and other health issues, as well as infant mortality rate (in laboratory rats). For more information about the dangers of GMOs, visit The Seeds of Deception.

Egg recall

One of the worst aspects of this egg recall (eggs originating from Wright County Egg farm in Iowa – one of the country’s largest producers – here’s the whole story) is that the issue is the salmonella – so, there’s salmonella in chicken meat from facilities that produce chickens…which provide the majority of supermarkets and restaurants with chicken meat. So why is it that the FDA apparently has no problem with that? If we were to look into just what causes salmonella in chickens, the abominable conditions of the facilities where these chickens live would become public knowledge. And then not many people would agree to buy these products. Well, it’s easy to see what the motivation is here.

If you’ve ever watched any food documentaries or read any books on food politics, you’ll notice that big food corporations and farms repeatedly decline to be interviewed or allow reporters or cameras inside their facilities. Most small-scale, sustainable farmers and food producers WELCOME the opportunity for people to come and tour their farm or facility during business operating hours and in some cases, after hours. Why, you may ask…why the wall of secrecy?

Radiation to the rescue

Now there is a threat of the FDA conducting a mass “sterilization”, or pasteurization of all eggs on the market to “eliminate” the problem. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at what’s already being done to spinach and tomatoes, lettuce, and other foods. The reasoning is that this process will kill E. coli and salmonella and make these foods safe once again for consumption.

As usual, the FDA and other authorities have employed short-sighted methods and are completely ignoring the cause of the pathogenic bacteria that is making consumers sick – the abhorrent conditions in facilities where food is raised and grown. But since these corporations often refuse to allow reporters and cameras in their facilities, they are allowed to continue producing food in ghastly conditions. This is exactly their goal.

How can you possibly get salmonella or E. coli from vegetables? Good question – the answer lies in runoff contamination which pollutes our soil and water from factory farms that raise animals for meat, or in food preparation environments – factories, kitchens, etc. where these foods are allowed to cross-contaminate on cooking and  cutting surfaces, and on machinery.

From Web M.D., “We’re very pleased to see one more tool that we can use to have what’s a nutritious, good product become even safer,” said Robert Brackett, senior vice president and chief science and regulatory affairs officer for the FDA. Sources like Web M.D.  impress that “irradiating spinach and iceberg lettuce is safe and won’t affect overall dietary nutrition, according to the FDA, which notes that although irradiating spinach curbs vitamin A and folate levels, that doesn’t hurt total dietary intake of those nutrients. Irradiation doesn’t make food radioactive, according to background information from the CDC”.

Other medical sources report that irradiation is, in fact, harmful to health. According to Medical News Today, “Food irradiation can result in loss of nutrients, for example vitamin E levels can be reduced by 25% after irradiation and vitamin C by 5-10%. This is compounded by the longer storage times of irradiated foods, and by loss of nutrients during cooking, which can result in the food finally eaten by the consumer to contain little more than ‘empty calories’. This is potentially damaging to the long and short-term health of consumers, particularly for sections of society already failing to obtain adequate nutrition.”

Irradiation of foods does not eliminate dangerous toxins which have already been created by bacteria prior to irradiation. “In some cases, such as C. botulinum, it is the toxin produced by the bacteria, rather than the bacteria itself, which poses the health hazard.”

When foods are irradiated, the chemical composition of the food has been noted to change and can cause mutations in bacteria which, like antibiotics, can lead to the development super-resistant strain bacteria.

What else? You should be prepared to pay a bit more for irradiated food, according to Brackett. About 3 to 5 cents more per pound. So not only is the food you are eating exposed to radiation and can harm your health, but you are expected to pay for it on top of all that? This is what I like to call insanity.

According to Natural News, “The FDA, you see, will seize upon each contamination event as a leverage point from which to ratchet up its food sterilization agenda, and the agency won’t stop until every scrap of fresh food sold at grocery stores is either pasteurized, fumigated or irradiated”.

How can food recalls work to fix the problem?

The answer is simple, but not easy. I’ll use the analogy of wielding the power of nutrition and nature to heal our bodies and health – if we changed our farming practices and methods back to the ways used by traditional farmers through the ages, we would heal the land, the creatures, and our bodies of many of the modern illnesses, problems, and scourges that plague our modern feedlots and factory farm environments. And I won’t pretend things would be perfect; there is no such thing as perfect health. But we would observe a vast improvement in the way things are.

We can use science and technology to our benefit – by taking advantage of modern inventions and discoveries like electricity, cold storage, sanitation, proper storage containment and facilities, and combine it with the best nature has to offer: real food that has not been damaged, processed, heat treated, denatured, deodorized, treated with chemicals, and extruded or otherwise altered by mechanization devices and processes. Just as big pharma has overtaken medical practice in treating symptoms, not causes, with drugs, procedures, and surgery, modern agricultural approaches seek to stop symptoms, not eliminate the issues that cause the problem in the first place.

Modern agriculture needs to heal itself by returning to tried-and-true methods used for thousands of years – and eliminate all these modern problems that exist due to the mechanization, standardization, deodorization, heat-treating, processing of foods which contain enzymes, nutrients, co-factors, amino acids, fats, proteins, probiotics (friendly bacteria), and prebiotics which aid in the digestion, assimilation, and nourishment of food in the body.

Buy from your local farmers, buy sustainable, know what you are eating and how it is produced:

• grass-fed meats and game

• eggs from pasture-raised hens

• safe-sourced seafood and fermented cod liver oil

• organ meats

• healthy fats like butter, extra virgin olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, tallow, and lard

• whole, raw milk and milk products – cheese, butter, buttermilk, sour cream, kefir, yogurt, cream cheese

• sustainable or organically-grown produce – fruits, vegetables, legumes

• whole and sprouted/soaked/fermented sustainable grains

If we can learn one important thing from food recalls, it’s that our [humans] way of packaging, processing, and making things readily available and more convenient anytime we want or need will never supercede nature’s innate ability to know how and what we need to maintain health.

So let’s put the focus where it needs to be – alter the face of industrial food processes, and recognize and embrace the important  health benefits of producing real food as nature intended.  We don’t need to step-up food regulation and safety laws, we need to acknowledge that food recalls happen due to these processes and mechanisms we’ve put into place – those systems we have come to believe are useful and even infallible, and which have ushered in the growth and development of harmful bacteria and harms to human health and the environment, on a scale which humanity has never before seen in history.

Want to know more?

Huge FDA recall of 10,000 products – another wakeup call to avoid processed foods!

Is cheap food really cheap?

The hidden costs of industrial food

Is hunger really a matter of willpower?

11 healthy and nutrient-dense foods at a glance

Nina Planck talks candidly about industrial food

Want to do more?

The time to act is now – oppose Bill S.510 – The Food Safety Modernization Act

Are you feeling emotionally-drained from tasks and obligations in your life? Has the economic downturn got you in a tailspin? If so, you are not alone. Millions and millions of people are experiencing the strain of too-heavy workloads and task-lists, and of the poor financial state of the nation and the entire world.

A recent survey by the American Psychological Association shows that at least 73 percent of its respondents were most affected by money and the economy. Americans are reporting sleeplessness, anger, and fatigue are on the rise. The problem is so acute that economic stressors are surpassing those of daily work tasks and personal relationships.

Many deal with it by overeating and consuming junk food, and the effects of poor diet and nutrition display themselves mentally as well as physically in the body and behaviors too.

On this site we talk a great deal about real food, but mental and emotional states of health are important too. Incidentally, your mental state of health is a direct reflection of what you eat too. Julia Ross, author of The Mood Cure says, “junk moods come from  junk foods!”

Stress is a chronic condition, experienced in particularly high levels by people living in developed countries, and is ranked among diseases and disorders such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and cancer. Feeling out of control and believing there is no way to offset stress are among the most commonly communicated sentiments about emotional frames of mind. And eating unhealthy foods only exacerbates these emotional downturns.

Especially in the United States and other developed countries, people have learned to associate fat, calories, and food cravings with guilt and deprivation. They believe that if they just starve themselves or curb their calories, or control their portions more, they will lose weight and be healthy. But where has this mentality taken us?  The avoidance mechanism we have been condition to use triggers a craving in our bodies which only becomes stronger until the person feels there is no other alternative but to indulge in “forbidden” foods. Lingering guilt and remorse after partaking in the food that is supposed to be avoided only leads to more binging (and in some cases, purging).

Chronic stress creates its own spiral of events in the body. When we are stressed and do not provide our bodies with proper support, health problems begin to occur. Chronic stress weakens the adrenal glands, immune system, can cause weight gain, and eventually leads to disease and illness.

A body short on the necessary fats for health and life will eventually suffer health issues, and more stress. Some people avoid junk foods until the very last, unwavering moment…and then overload themselves with a treat for being “good”. Eating junk food like this, while depriving your body of real foods and healthy fats creates a vicious cycle that is never ending. It causes the body to store up fat when food is being withheld, and then it stores the substances in junk foods eaten because the body doesn’t recognize it. This causes weight gain, cellulite accumulation, and health problems…which lead to emotional problems too.

Stress also puts tremendous strain on the heart. A person who is harried and stressed out is less likely to stop and take time to relax, meditate, eat a nutritious meal, or obtain adequate nutrition and rest. These lapses result in further disturbances in sleep, eating habits, personal relationships, and other major lifestyle factors and habits.

Many people turn to taking prescription drugs. Drugs are expensive and generally only cover the problem up rather than getting at the actual cause of what might be making your depression acute. During times of stress, it is important to remember not to allow your most important asset go by the wayside – your health. If you don’t have your health, everything else will suffer.

Here are some ideas for dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression naturally and remedying the causes at the root:

• Don’t load yourself up with more work/tasks/obligations than you can manage. If you are doing this, eventually something will have to give and it will be personal relationships and your health.

• Make sure to eat a healthy diet – no matter what. Don’t eat pre-packaged, processed, unnatural foods. Instead, allow extra time to make food from scratch. Eat plenty of healthy fats/proteins in your diet – pasture-raised meats, dairy, eggs, and butter, coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, and tallow, lard.

• Buy local and organic whenever possible.

• Make larger amounts so you will have additional meals from your effort. Freeze your food and reheat later in the oven or on the stove.

• Go to bed at a reasonable hour each night – around 10 p.m. Engage in relaxing activities before bed so you will be naturally tired enough to fall asleep within a few minutes. Avoid drinking alcohol and eating refined sugar or carbohydrates before retiring. These substances are unhealthy and upset the natural winding-down rhythm of your body.

• Get regular movement or activity that brings stress relief and enjoyment 3 -4 times weekly

• Find a good relaxation technique or activity you enjoy – massage, acupuncture, meditation, yoga, pilates, or martial arts are good choices.

• Be certain to budget money for important preventative health care items – whatever those may be for you, whether it is good, healthy, organic foods, supplements, or preventative health maintenance or care from a knowledgeable health care practitioner. Skimping on your health now will lead to problems later – often those that are more difficult to manage and are more expensive.

• Remove toxins from your environment as much as possible – look through your house and locate items that could be causing problems and increasing your toxic load, anything from plastic to chemical cleaners to devices that may emit radiation. Plastic can often be replaced with metal, wood, or glass (in many instances). Consider replacing old bedding, towels, or clothing that may be chemically-treated (most conventional fabrics, mattress coverings, and upholstery is). But only do so if you are financially capable of taking on the cost, if any.

• If you are experiencing a prolonged or chronic illness and are experiencing depression or stress from it, consider the impact your diet and other lifestyle choices may have on your mental state and stress levels. You may be on medication for a health issue, but might be experiencing mood swings or other issues as a direct result of medications or something missing from your diet.

• Maintain perspective. Whatever your situation, things could be worse and focus on being thankful for the things you do have. A positive outlook will help combat problems and issues going on in your life, and help to minimize the effects of stress.

Suggested reading: The Mood Cure by Julia Ross

Want more information?

Do Eating Habits or Execise Dictate Weight?

Why I don’t go to the gym

Eating disorders – a product of modern society

Are you nutritionally fit?

Do you pay attention to where your food comes from? Do you go to the grocery store and purchase whatever is on the shelf, or do you think about what’s in the food you eat and how it is produced?

Do you spend any time considering the preventative side of taking care of your body through the foods you eat?  Do you spend a lot of time and money eating out at restaurants and fast food establishments, or do you devote more effort to preparing home-cooked meals with good ingredients at home?

Where your food comes from is as important as making something at home from scratch. The ingredients and how they are produced say a lot about just how healthy that food really is.

When you go to the grocery store or out to eat at a restaurant, consider the following about the majority of food sold and served there:

• Most grocery store and restaurant meat comes from factory farm environments where the animals are confined in the most abhorrent conditions available. They are shoved together in filthy, unnatural spaces surrounded by waste lagoons, are administered all types of chemicals including hormones, steroids, and antibiotics, and are fed the cheapest and most unhealthy feeds available such as genetically-modified corn, grain, and soy, and renderings of bio-waste products. The waste generated by factory farm facilities contaminates our air, soil, and ground water, which places nearby residents at risk for exposure to pathogenic bacteria like E.coli and others.

• Factory farms are often large in scale, are highly specialized, and function like a factory (hence the term “factory farm”). These facilities use massive amounts of fossil fuel, pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals, and synthetic fertilizers derived from oil. Small-scale, organic farming operations have been shown to use 60 percent less fossil fuel per unit of food than conventional industrial farms (Norberg-Hodge, Helena , Todd Merrifield, and Steven Gorelick. Bringing The Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness, 2002.)

• Conventional produce is grown with pesticides and herbicides, from genetically-modified and engineered seeds, and with modern farming methods which are as harsh as can be to the landscape and damage and strip the soil of its nutrients – substances which are vital to the nutritional density and flavor of the foods you are eating. The over-use of chemicals like insecticides and pesticides has caused rapidly-developing resistance in pests which has rendered these chemicals increasingly ineffective. The production of herbicide tolerant (HT) biotech crops, particularly Monsanto’s RR crops, has resulted in the development of superweed strains that are nearly impervious to even conventional methods. Biotech info discusses how cross-pollination techniques, a method employed by GMO companies like Monsanto, leads to further and further resistance in these superweed strains.

• Conventional produce contains higher amounts of water and less nutrition. From Sustainable Table: “A comparison of the nutritional content between organic and factory farmed, conventional vegetables showed that organic produce has higher nutritional value. Organic lettus had 29 percent more magnesium, organic spinach had 52 percent more Vitamin C, organic carrots had 69 percent more magnesium, and organic cabbage had 43 percent more Vitamin C, 41 percent more iron and 40 percent more magnesium.”

• Processed foods in the store (representing at least 80 percent of what’s available) are full of chemically-laden “food-like substances” which contain carcinogenic ingredients, hydrogenated and highly processed oils, MSG and other excitotoxins, are synthetically fortified and contain little to no nutritional value.

• Being a vegetarian or vegan does not mean you are supporting sustainable farming or food. Many vegetarian and vegan foods – vegetables, fruits, grains (including corn), soy, and legumes come from conventional sources and their growth, production, and sale damages the environment. The majority of soy and much of the grain produced in the world comes from genetically-modified sources thanks to corporate bio-terrorists like Monsanto.

• These crops are responsible for damaging farmlands and are destructive to topsoil and biodiversity because of the methods employed in their farming. These farming efforts make use of monocropping – planting the same stains year-after-year, which destroys beneficial organisms and bacteria essential to health. They also employ the use of toxic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Monsanto has nearly 250 million GMO acres worldwide. Sustainable farming doesn’t need harmful chemicals to control pests and weeds, but instead uses nature to manage its land and crops.

• According to Sustainable Table, “Factory farms also threaten our health by incubating infectious diseases that can spread to the human population. Sometimes diseases are transferred directly from animals to humans. In cases of direct transmission, a worker who comes in contact with a diseased animal or its manure can contract the disease and pass it on to their family and community.”

Supporting industrial farming keeps the big players going – and the damage to health and environment, and doesn’t put your dollars toward smaller, family-owned farms whose goal is to bring you healthy food that preserves our health and the environment.

Benefits of small-scale, sustainable farming and food

When you buy sustainable food from small-scale producers, you are supporting local communities and healthy farming practices. The amount of fossil fuels used to transport these products is also greatly reduced, and the overall CO2 emissions into the atmosphere lowered as well.

Although conventional medicine tells us to stay away from saturated fats and red meat, grass-fed beef, eggs, and dairy do not contain artery-clogging fats commonly found in the conventional variety; in fact, they are loaded with conjugated linoleic acid, Omega 3s, and antioxidants.

The process of grazing a herd of cattle on open land and moving them around from pasture to pasture on a day-to-day basis allows regeneration of the land as well as replenishment of nutrients in the soil and grasses. This type of farming actually encourages the health of top soil – one of the most critical areas of the environment which has a profound effect on health. When farmers work with the land to encourage natural biodiversity and development of microrganisms, the result is a win-win situation for all involved, the land, humans, and animals. Organic Grass Fed Beef Info thoroughly explains the vast differences between how  grass-fed animals and grain-fed animals are raised.

Scientific research shows that sustainable, pasture-raised, and organic foods provide significant health benefits for consumers. In addition to being raised without synthetic hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and chemical fertilizers, sustainable meat is more nutritious than meat produced by industrial agriculture for the reasons discussed above. A recent report by the French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA) revealed that organic foods are higher in both mineral and antioxidant content than their conventional counterparts. Another study from The Journal of Applied Nutrition found that the overall mineral content of organic foods sampled was higher than conventional – apples, potatoes, pears, wheat, and sweet corn. Mercury levels in the organic foods were found to be 27 percent lower than conventional.

From a joint study conducted by CDC scientists, the University of Washington, and Emory University, results revealed that pesticide levels in test subjects dropped to undetectable levels upon switching to an organic diet. When the subjects switched back to a non-organic diet, pesticide residues almost immediately became detectable. (Schafer S., Kristin, et al. “Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability.” Pesticide Action Network of North America, May 2004)

Many health problems have been attributed to the consumption of these so-called foods, and yet the distinction is seldom made. Toxins and chemicals in our food supply are responsible for the onslaught of earlier degenerative diseases than in the historical past. We consume massive amounts of this food each and every day in our homes, in schools, hospitals, offices, stores, and restaurants. Body Ecology provides a good description of toxins in the things we eat and drink and those both in and outside of our bodies.

What are the hidden costs of cheap food?

Here is a comparative analysis of several processed foods versus a real, whole food free from chemicals and other toxins typically found in industrial food from Windy Ridge Poultry, in Alfred, NY:

Switching to natural, organic, and grass-fed foods seems expensive on the surface, but when you consider the medical problems you will save yourself in the long run, not to mention the enormous costs incurred on the health care, environmental, and tax systems we pay for directly out of our own pockets, doesn’t it seem worth it to spend more now and save later? Industrial food may have a cheaper price tag at the store, but the long-term repercussions of eating this way for an extended period of time will definitely show a higher price tag in the future, in more ways than one: you’ll pay with your pocketbook and your quality of life.

To learn more about factory farms, visit The Food & Water Watch web site. And here’s the factory farm list for every facility in the country by state.

Visit the ASPCA’s 10 ways you can help fight factory farms.

Join up with the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign to help preserve the environment and health, and stop this multinational bio-terrorist corporation.

Want to read more?

Proof that real food doesn’t have to cost a bundle, is nourishing, and satisfies!

Food budgets – using creativity and prioritizing for healthy eating

Waste not, want not: tips for saving money in the kitchen

Can you afford not to eat healthy?

Congress is in recess until September 10th, 2010 and it is urgent that you contact your local representatives and senators to keep this bill from going through and becoming a law.

• Talk With Your Senators and Congressman in Person!

• Tell your Senators to Amend or Oppose S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act

• Tell Your Senators and Congressman to Support USDAs Proposed Rules for Fair Play in Livestock and Poultry Markets

An in-person meeting with your legislators is one of the best ways to make an impact on them. And you dont have to go to DC to do it! Congress is in recess from August 9th through September 10th, which means that the legislators are heading back to their home states and districts to meet with constituents and attend public events. Town hall meetings and other public events are great opportunities to ask questions and to inform policy makers and their staff of your concerns.

Find your legislators’ public meetings schedules by calling their district office. Go to www.Congress.org and type in your zip code. In the column for President & Congress, click on the legislator’s name, and then on the contact tab for the phone number for the district office. Call and request a meeting to talk about food safety and fairness for farmers. If the Senators and/or Congressman do not have time available for an individual meeting, ask their offices for a schedule of any town hall meetings and public events. Let them know you would like a moment to speak to your legislator about food safety and fairness for farmers at one of the events.

FOOD SAFETY BILL

S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, continues to be delayed. But pressure from consumer groups also continues to mount, and there will be yet another push to bring the bill to a vote when the Senate reconvenes in September. Even if you have already called and written about this bill, talking with your Senators during the August recess can make a difference!

S. 510 poses a very serious threat to the local, nutrient-dense food movement. Farmers would be subject to FDA regulation of how they grow and raise their crops, while processed food producers (including people making products such as cheese and kombucha) would be buried in the red tape of HACCP plans. The bill does not outlaw backyard gardens or organic methods, but the long-term effect will be to drive local food sources out of business through unnecessary burdensome regulations and deprive consumers of their options to buy healthy foods from producers they know and trust.

Tell your Senators that you want them to amend or oppose S. 510. Senator Tester (D-MT) continues to work on amendments to exempt local and small-scale producers from some of the worst provisions of the bill, and we need your Senators to support this effort!

Over 150 organizations have signed a letter of support for the Tester-Hagan amendments to exempt small-scale and local producers from the more burdensome provisions of the bill. You can borrow some talking points from the letter (posted at http://farmandranchfreedom.org/sff/Amend-S510-June-7 ) or use the ones below:

1. The major foodborne illness outbreaks and recalls have all been caused by the large, industrial food system. Small, local food producers have not contributed to the highly publicized outbreaks. Yet S. 510 subjects the small, local food system to the same, broad federal regulatory oversight that would apply to the industrial food system.
2. Increased regulations and record-keeping obligations could destroy small businesses that bring food to local communities. In particular, the reliance on hazard analysis and risk-based preventative controls, a concept similar to HACCP, will harm small food producers. HACCP has already proven to be an overwhelming burden for a significant number of small, regional meat processors across the country. Applying a HACCP-type system to small, local foods processors could drive them out of business, reducing consumers options to buy fresh, local foods.
3. FDA does not belong on the farm. S. 510 calls for FDA regulation of how farms grow and harvest produce. Given the agencys track record, it is likely that the regulations will discriminate against small, organic, and diversified farms. Although language calling for flexibility may be included, but there are no enforceable limits or protections for small diversified and organic farms from inappropriate and burdensome federal rules.
4. Food safety and security both come from a diversified, vibrant local food system. Local foods give consumers the choice to buy from producers they know, creating a transparent, accountable food system without federal government oversight. State and local laws, which are often size-specific rather than one-size-fits-all, are more appropriate for local food producers.

You can also get more information about the bill in our earlier action alerts, posted at http://realmilk.comwww.westonaprice.org/action-alerts/2010-alerts.html

SUPPORT FAIR PLAY FOR LIVESTOCK FARMERS

While youre talking with your Senators or at a meeting with your Congressman, ask them to stand with family farmers on fair competition and fair contracts.

Today, a tiny handful of meatpackers and poultry processors dominate the livestock industry, making it hard for an individual farmer or rancher to get a fair deal or equitable price for cattle, hogs, or chickens. Packers are able to use their monopoly-like power to manipulate prices paid to livestock producers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is finally taking action, proposing rules to identify practices that are illegal under the Packers & Stockyards Act. These rules:

• Prohibit packers from selling livestock to each other

• Make it easier for ranchers to sue companies accused of using deceptive trade practices or offering unfairly low prices

• End discrimination against producers based upon size alone

• Restrict livestock buyers from buying for more than one packer

In addition, the rules contain improvements for contract pork and poultry growers.

The consolidation of the livestock markets in the hands of a few large corporations hurts everyone. Together with bad regulations, consolidation is one of the main reasons it is so hard for small farmers to find local slaughterhouses to process their animals independently. Consolidation also makes it harder to buy and sell animals at fair prices even if the farmer is raising meat for direct sales. Ultimately, all farmers and all consumers are impacted by the control the meat packers exert. So its important that we stand together and support fair markets for family farmers.

Urge your legislators to support the USDA proposed rules that restore competition and contract fairness to livestock and poultry markets. Tell them we need a level playing field for family farmers and ranchers. Ask them to contact USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and let him know they support the proposed rule.

More information:

The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 makes it unlawful for meat packers and companies that contract with farmers to raise hogs and poultry from engaging in any “unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practice or device,” or to “make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage.” But, until now, USDA has never issued the regulations necessary to properly enforce the protections for livestock and poultry farmers. In the 2008 Farm Bill, a majority of the full Congress voted to direct USDA to define these prohibitions and to clarify how the Act should be applied to give individual farmers and ranchers a fair chance when dealing with the large corporate entities that control our nation’s meat and poultry processing.

For more information on how the USDA rules help livestock producers, go to the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) website: http://www.worc.org/Unduepref

For more information on how the USDA rules help poultry producers, go to the Rural Advancement Foundation International USA (RAFI) website: http://www.rafiusa.org/programs/contractag/gipsa2101rules.html

COLORADO MEETING ON CONSOLIDATION OF BEEF INDUSTRY

The USDA and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are holding hearings around the country on the issue of the lack of competition in livestock and poultry markets and potential anti-trust violations. The hearing on the beef cattle industry will take place in Colorado on Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. The official purpose of this meeting is to provide the DOJ and USDA with information on the state of the cattle industry. Unofficially, the meeting will show the agencies whether cattle producers and consumers demand that the government take immediate, aggressive action to restore competition to the U.S. cattle industry.

If you are within traveling distance, please come! Even if you don’t speak, your attendance at this historic event will help send a powerful message to Washington, D.C.

WHEN: Friday, August 27, 2010, beginning at 8 am MDT

WHERE: Lory Student Center, 1101 Centre Avenue Mall, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523

MORE INFORMATION: The Department of Justice has a page dedicated to the hearings at http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/workshops/ag2010/index.htm

TRAVEL: Several organizations are coordinating buses to the event and special room rates at a nearby hotel. For more information, please contact jerilynn@worc.org or sam@fwwatch.org

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for the Surf & Turf online cooking class. All those who entered but did not win are eligible for a coupon code as well, if I receive an e-mail from you. The code expires on August 14th, 2010.

If you are interested in preparing real food and increasing your understanding of how real food nourishes, I know you’ll love this ecourse and learn a lot from Ann Marie. Her knowledge of real food and how to prepare it is extraordinary and her course teaching style is informal and easy to follow.

And now, drum roll please! The winner of the Surf & Turf giveaway is:

Amy Latham (commenter #19)

Congratulations Amy! Please contact me within 72 hours to claim your prize.

Many thanks to all who participated in this giveaway!

If this picture is a familiar activity for you and you have been following conventional health rhetoric about managing your Diabetes, the following information may be of interest to you.

Medical experts advise being under the care of a physician to take care of your disease. But are doctors really getting to the root cause of the disease? Is it just some unknown thing going on in your body that needs continual doses of insulin and other medications?

Common medical advice tells Diabetes patients to eat a diet high in fiber and low in fat, with lots of grains, fruits, and vegetables. Patients are advised to watch portion control, carbohydrates, and calories that “result in excess fat and excess weight”. The philosophy is that avoiding sugar is just not possible and that calories from sugar are no different than calories from any other carbohydrate.

And apparently, eating more protein and fats is not advisable. You can continue eating your favorite desserts and other processed carbs as long as you “monitor your calories, carbs, and other key dietary components” and keep a regular check on blood glucose levels through blood glucose testing.

Here are the guidelines (source, Web M.D.):

• Total fat consumption should be 25%-35% or less of total calories eaten per day.

• Saturated fats should be less than 7% of total calories eaten in a day.

• Polyunsaturated fats (from liquid vegetable oils and margarines low in trans fats) should be up to 10% of the total calories per day consumed.

• Monounsaturated fats (derived from vegetable sources like plant oils and nuts) should be up to 20% of total calories per day eaten.

• Carbohydrates should be 50%-60% of total calories per day eaten

• We should eat 20-30 grams of fiber per day. These can be derived from oats, barley, psyllium, and beans.

• The amounts of protein in the diet should equal about 15%-20% of total calories eaten per day.

• Cholesterol content of the diet should be less than 200 milligrams per day

In general, the claim is that saturated fats reduce insulin sensitivity in the body, and therefore a reduction in fat intake is necessary.  But following these directives are not only keeping your insulin levels in a haywire state, but they are ruining your health. When you eat carbohydrates without protein and fat, and especially refined and processed variety, your blood sugar will  spike unnaturally high.

Here’s some evidence as to just how saturated fats are not bad for your insulin levels or Diabetes, from Whole Health Source citing 5 studies conducted in 2008 that are “high-quality trials that used reliable methods of determining insulin sensitivity”.

Solutions for Diabetes

Since not enough emphasis is placed on removal of processed foods, which greatly contribute to the Diabetic condition in the first place, we must return the focus back to eating real, whole foods. This is why people with Diabetes, in general, continue to struggle and struggle with their weight and health.

There are some natural alternatives to taking care of your health and your Diabetes. As Diabetes is largely a modern disease that is caused by a combination of inactivity and consumption of processed, industrial foods, a return to eating a healthy diet should enable you to overcome your disease and lead a healthy life.

Here are the foods you should consider eliminating from your diet:

• crackers

• bread

• pasta

• bagels

• rice cakes

• packaged cereals

• most breads

• alternative grain products that are processed such as the above

• industrial pasteurized/homogenized dairy products – especially low-fat and non-fat

• processed (roasted, salted, coated) nuts and seeds

• refined, vegetable oils like canola, soy, safflower, cottonseed, sunflower, and other vegetable oils

• foods with too much polyunsaturated fat

• soy products of all kinds (except those that are fermented like miso and tempeh)

• industrial meats

• conventionally-produced fruits and vegetables

Basically, anything packaged, canned, or in a box should be suspect and probably eliminated from your kitchen and diet.

Here’s what you should include in your diet:

• grass-fed, naturally and organically raised meats, pasture-raised poultry

• raw milk and dairy (cheese, cream, butter) from organic or sustainable-raised, pasture-raised cattle

• eggs from pasture-raised poultry

• healthy seafood choices – wild caught salmon, farmed tilapia, mollusks like clams, mussels, oysters, squid, shrimp, octopus

• organically-produced fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables

• raw nuts and seeds that have been soaked and/or sprouted

• organically or sustainable-produced nut butters (avoid peanut butter)

• natural, healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil, real butter from grass-fed cattle, tallow and lard from healthy beef and chicken (see above)

• whole grains (avoid flour unless soaked in an acid medium such as yogurt, whey, apple cider vinegar, or lemon) from the bulk isle in the grocery store such as brown rice, oats, buckwheat, teff, quinoa, spelt, whole wheat, millet, oats, etc. that are soaked before eating and sprouted grains

• fermented foods like real, home-made yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, sauerkraut, lacto-fermented vegetables, and others

Obtaining regular stretching, movement, and exercise is important too. Here are some guidelines:

• Focus on regular activity rather than length of time spent doing the activity.

• Do something you enjoy and that fits your lifestyle and interests

• The best type of activity is something you can do outside. It allows you to get fresh air and sunshine (natural Vitamin D is very important for health), and gets you out of your everyday environment of the home or office.

• Start out slow if you have been sedentary.

• Don’t focus on calories or fat intake as a method of losing weight. If you do, you will continue to struggle with weight issues. If you are eating whole, healthy foods and obtaining regular activity in your schedule, your normal weight should be easy to maintain.

How do I know any of this is true? Almost 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with insulin-resistance. I had a broad panel blood test done to determine what was causing my health to be in such a poor state. One of the main problems discovered was that my blood-sugar levels were really out of whack. Insulin-resistance is a precursor to Diabetes. Yes, there are people in my family with Diabetes. All of them are on medication. I didn’t want to end up on medication too.

So I followed the advice of my practitioner and eliminated processed foods from my diet. I started eating a lot more proteins with real saturated fats and a lot of vegetables as well. Now whenever I do have anything refined it is few and far between, and I eat most of my grains soaked or sprouted. Soaked and sprouted foods are easier to digest and cause the blood sugar to stay more even, instead of spiking and then dropping like refined foods. Guess what? Last fall I had another blood screening done…and my blood sugar levels have returned to normal. No more insulin resistance!

Want to see what kind of foods I keep in my kitchen? Read my Kitchen Staples post.

For more insight about being nutritionally fit, and putting more emphasis on eating well to maintain your health and your weight, read Are You Nutritionally Fit?

For more information on types of healthy foods, read How Well Do Know Your Food? Find Out!

For more information on fats and health, read The Importance of Dietary Fats.

Yesterday was my birthday (I turned 41; I’m proud about my age!), and what better way to spend it than going with your family to a local restaurant that serves healthy, local food? One of my new favorites is a little lunchtime establishment called Jenny’s Lunch Line in the heart of downtown Boise, in the historic Pioneer Building.

This restaurant is located at 106 N. 6th Street, and is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Their fare includes a nice variety of salads, sandwiches, and soups, all made from scratch.

Their menu changes day-to-day and usually they serve whatever they have until they “run out”, which means it’s freshly prepared.

They also offer catering, and their web site provides an explanation about their catering service for businesses, private events, and other special gatherings. Jenny’s also provides a delivery service for those who can’t get away from their obligations for lunch.

On their site you can get a good idea of their daily offerings and variety in their soups, salads, and sandwiches by viewing their online menu. They have something for everyone – beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and vegetarian choices as well.

They use local and organic ingredients whenever possible, which I like. There are still some commercially-packaged items available as well such as potato chips and beverages.

I love visiting Jenny’s because each time I do, I know there will be something different and new that I’ve never had before. And their price are reasonable. Yesterday I ordered the chili made from locally-raised grass-fed beef and black beans. The chili was fabulous and filling. The meat is from a local consortium of farms called Homestead Natural Foods, which is comprised of about 6 local farms following sustainable principles in raising their meats and produce. The only improvement I would make to the chili would be more meat…but that’s because I love meat and I require a lot of protein. I’m also of Type O blood, and Type Os survive on a lot of protein from meat. For more information on eating right for your blood type, visit the Eat Right For Your Blood Type site.

I also had a green salad with bleu cheese, cranberries, and sundried tomato dressing. I asked if the dressings were made with healthy oils like olive oil, and I was told that the restaurant uses a blend of olive oil and canola oil in the vinaigrette. I explained that I don’t eat vegetable oils due to the fact that most of those oils come from GMO sources and are too high in Omega 6s. The salad was fresh and green, and the ingredients used on the salad were tasty and tangy, and made my tongue very happy! 

The total for my lunch was just over $8 – a great deal for a healthy chili – that was way more than I could eat – and a nice, fresh salad with unique and interesting flavors in it.

My husband and son decided to go to the taco/burrito joint next door, so we sat together in the outdoor seating and shared our different lunches. It was a beautiful day and I was glad to have a cute little restaurant so close to my house like Jenny’s Lunch Line that is mindful of earth-friendly principles and sustainable food in their business model.

I’m so encouraged and excited to see more and more businesses paying attention to where our food comes from in their business and supporting other local businesses who are also committed to the same things.

It’s great to see the ripple effect going out into the consumer realm too, as more and more people learn and becoming educated about sustainable principles and ways of living. I’ll be going back again and again! Thanks to the girls at Jenny’s, they rock!