Consider: A vegetarian in a Hummer produces fewer carbon emissions than a meat-eater in a Toyota Prius. Perhaps we'd be better off eating less meat.

75% of the world's croplands are dedicated to [mostly commodity] grains and oil seeds. Local gardens--vegetables, nuts, fruits--are not the foundation of the world human diet. We can change that by beginning to shift the foods we eat.

When the average American walks into a grocery store, 40% of the purchases are compulsive--driven by in-store advertising, convenience, or your hunger level at the time.

Grocery stores are in the real estate business! Slotting fees, end-caps, interior shelf units, ethnic aisles, high-traffic areas, shelf sizes for kids, areas for women, food locations for men, food campaigns, etc. Do you know the landscape of your local grocery store? The moment you walk in, you are in their marketing grips!

Iron: The most common mineral deficiency in people worldwide

By Sarah Jacobson

Iron is a very important trace mineral essential for our immune system, brain function, and is contained in hemoglobin and myoglobin, two proteins that transport oxygen throughout the body. Iron is also the most common mineral deficiency in people worldwide. Without this mineral our oxygen carrying capacity is decreased and in severe cases a person can develop Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA). IDA decreases red blood cells capacity to carry oxygen causing paleness, fatigue, poor growth and even cognitive function in young children under three, brittle nails and difficulty breathing. It is most commonly seen in young children, vegans, runners and women of childbearing years. One of the best things you can do is to make sure you incorporate quality sources of iron from whole foods into your diet.

Meats are the best sources of iron with a bioavailability of about 23 percent. Plants and other animal foods such as milk also have some iron but are not as readily absorbed by the body, and iron supplements are not well absorbed at all. Iron absorption will actually increase during pregnancy, as well as when it is consumed with vitamin C (drinking orange juice), and a special MFP factor makes it highly available from beef, fish, and poultry.

Other good sources of Iron:
Clams, oysters, mollusks (bottom feeders will be higher in minerals like iron)
tomatoes
lentils
spinach
organ meats (beef liver, liver sausage, turkey giblets)
pumpkin/squash seeds
sardines
shrimp
prune juice
Fish/seafood – tuna, halibut, crab
mushrooms
chickpeas

Vitamin A. The best sources of vegetable-based vitamin A are:

BEST SOURCES
Raw carrots (1 cup, 53 calories)
686 percent daily value
Cooked spinach (1 cup, 41 calories)
294 percent daily value
Baked sweet potato with skin (95 calories)
262 percent daily value
Cooked turnip greens (1 cup, 28 calories)
158 percent daily value
Baked winter squash (1 cup, 80 calories)
145 percent daily value
Cooked collard greens (1 cup, 49 calories)
118 percent daily value
Cantaloupe (1 cup, 56 calories)
103 percent daily value
Romaine lettuce (2 cups, 16 calories)
58 percent daily value
Steamed broccoli (1 cup, 43 calories)
45 percent daily value
Cooked green peas (1 cup, 134 calories)
19 percent daily value

Research indicates that children exposed to pesticides either in utero or during other critical periods face significant health risks including higher incidence of:  birth defects , childhood brain cancers, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), neurodevelopmental delays, and endocrine disruption. If you're worried about your child or a young person whom you care about, you might wish to read more at the Pesticide Action Network.

Food is food to most human beings. They simply do not stop and think about what they are consuming.  I learned in a college anthropology class that explaining the human diet is a complex process that academics, physicians, nutritionists, anthropologists, food historians, and many others have a hard time unraveling. According to noted anthropologist E. N. Anderson at the University of California, we’re “obligatory omnivores” and have been selected for three things:

1. Our ability to live on anything we can bite and chew with our relatively small mouths and teeth

2. Our ability to learn, reason, and plan

3. Our social lives, including conformity to local group ways

These three mainstays of academic anthropology hold the answers of how Homo Sapiens (Sapiens = wise, knowing, tasting, reasoning) eats the way it does.  The long circumstantial evolution of our species explains why we need certain vitamins, minerals, and complex nutrients like amino acids from protein sources—from animal and vegetables alike.

Great thinkers and writers, from Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe (Hope’s Edge) to Jane Goodall (Harvest for Hope) have pondered humankind’s ability and willingness to stop this slippery slide in our food choice evolution in favor of WHOLE FOODS. Since this is a practical Web site, I’ll dispense with the anthropological and cultural references and get to the basics.  Here’s how my mind works when I source my foods...either from a grocery store, farmer’s market, my garden, a local co-op market, or from my hikes in the woods (read: blueberries, dandelions leaves, blackberries, and apples).  Here’s my 1-2-3 on Whole Foods!

1. I start here!  I subscribe to the notion that Whole Foods are those that are minimally processed or truly whole, meaning in their natural state.  This means no shipping waxes applied to apples, no harmful pesticide sprays, no preservative gases used, and no coloring or other additives.  As close to organic as possible!  (Packaging is also a good idea to pay close attention to!)
2. Then, I look at nutrition: vitamins, minerals, fat grams, sodium content, etc.  I try to avoid the nasty stuff, but don’t go uber crazy about it.  Michael Pollan and others write often about high fructose corn syrup, and I agree with them.  If this ingredient is down the list of ingredients—say at number five—then it might be acceptable for me in some cases.  But, I attempt to limit what I purchase to those foods that have fewer than four ingredients.
3. I look at provenance next:  the growing region, in the case of fruits, vegetables, and animal products.  In my mind, food loses its “wholeness” when it is shipped across the world in the belly of some rusty, rat-laden metal cargo container.  The temperature changes, the gases and plastics used to protect the foods, the light (light rapidly degrades food’s nutritional value), etc.    In this case, the closer the better!  Localvors-ism!

Minimally processed.  Not too many additives.  As close to home as possible. 

I also have, by memory, my list of the 14 SUPER FOODS, which is helpful when I'm shopping:
Beans
Blueberries
Broccoli
Oats
Oranges
Pumpkin
Salmon
Soy
Spinach
Tea—green or black
Tomato
Turkey (I don’t know the reason why on this one!)
Walnuts
Yogurt

WHY FOCUS ON LOCAL FOODS?

Knowing where our food comes from, and how it is grown or raised, enables us to choose food from farmers who avoid or reduce reliance on toxic fertilizers and pesticides, hormones and antibiotics, and farmers who treat their animals humanely. Do we want local farms to survive and continue to be part of our landscape? Are we concerned about oil-dependent shipping of foods over long distances and a secure, local food supply? Do we want irradiated, waxed, genetically modified foods? Are we concerned about the control of our food supply in the hands of a few, multinational corporations focused on short-term profits? Localvores have questions about the production of their food, and eating locally helps to provide some of the answers. It also adds to our eating pleasure when we know where our food has come from and the farmer who grew it. http://www.uvlocalvore.com/

 

New certification is on its way! Small- and medium-scale farmers in New York's Hudson Valley have grown food that, other than the USDA certification, is organic. But without the investment and certification process, the food cannot be labeled as such. So, they have come up with CERTIFIED NATURALLY GROWN labeling, allowing them to provide fresh, wholesome, healthy foods that are not officially organic, but are grown with organic practices. Nearly 500 farms in 47 states are enrolled. Visit them at http://www.naturallygrown.org/ for more information. This may mean less expensive healthy foods for all of us!

Raw or cooked broccoli? Broccoli tends to be toward the top of the "superfoods" lists. Much of its power comes from the healthy doses of sulforaphane, an anti-cancer agent that detoxifies the bodies bad enzymes. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry recently announced that RAW BROCCOLI PROVIDES SIGNIFICANTLY MORE OF THIS BENEFICIAL NUTRIENT THAN COOKED BROCCOLI. Additionally, studies have found that eating more kale and cauliflower has uber benefits to our health. And if you want to eat these veggies cooked, then try steaming them. Some studies suggest that steaming these types of vegetables keeps moresulforaphane available for the body to absorb.

Eat a rainbow of colors. Antioxidant levels in whole foods is important. Antioxidants protect the cells from a natural process called “oxidative stress”. Although oxygen is vital for life, oxidation produces free radicals that damage human cells. This damaging, physiological process works against the immune system AND is also responsible for ageing Antioxidants help our body eliminate these harmful free radicals.  In fact a decrease in the level of antioxidants is proportional to the increased risk from cancer, heart attacks and umpteen other health disorders. In fact a new research shows that antioxidants in tea may actually help fight cataracts – one of the primary causes of blindness globally.  Green tea contains polyphenols which are powerful antioxidants. They favor those bacteria that are beneficial to the human body while killing those that are harmful. Here is a chart comparing other super foods against green tea: http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/product/organictea.html