In the name of using real foods (definitely a theme for me these days), I recently tried a new product from farmer-owned Organic Valley: Pasture Butter. This is the real deal, all right: churned from milk produced by cows grazing on nutrient-rich pasture from May to Sept. So it’s high in butterfat (84 percent!), but they say it’s also got more omega-3s than your typical butter. But let’s face it, I don’t eat butter for the omegas; I eat it, in small amounts, because it’s so delicious. I used Pasture Butter to make a batch of dark-chocolate-chip cookies the other day, using Ghirardelli’s 60 percent cocoa chips and King Arthur’s organic white whole-wheat flour; they were awesome. Most got sent off to a college-age friend so as to avoid eating the whole batch myself!

Delicious Living is meant to be a portal to all things natural and healthy. In other words, it’s an online community where you can connect with likeminded people and find answers to your most niggling questions. But ours isn’t the only web-based community out there. In the past month, or so, I’ve logged on to a few terrific, new online resources. Here are my current favorites. What are you reading?

Green For Good: A brand new site with a blog and articles related to green values. (Free membership)

DHERBS: Forms, articles, and a shopping page with detox items and herbal news.

Can Do Kid: Resources to inspire kids to get involved in their communities. Products, too.

Tuttie Foodie: Loads of recipes, food news, products and chit chat for fun-loving foodies!

If you were as shocked as I was to read about the recent deaths of 24 Danish pancreatitis patients in a probiotics trial, you might find a more balanced perspective at this article by Stephen Daniells, PhD, originally published on www.nutraingredients.com. In it, he explains the high mortality rate of those with pancreatitis. Here are some highlights:

“The fact remains that probiotics have displayed significant benefits for a range of health conditions, and the safety record is exemplary when used by the average health consumer at recommended intakes.”

“…it may serve as an interesting example of expecting too mcuh from nutritional supplements. Whether it’s a probiotic, a pomegranate extract, an omega-3, or whatever, the bigger issue from these data may be that the benefit of nutrients is in the prevention, not the cure of disease.”

A new study performed at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development confirms what you may have noticed in your own kids: They learn better when they verbalize a problem to you. In the study, mothers were asked to simply listen while their 4- and 5-year-olds explained problems. Compared with kids who were not asked to explain problems, kids who verbalized were better at solving similar problems later on and had an edge when it came to solving more difficult problems.

I just read that Whole Foods is eliminating plastic shopping bags by Earth Day 2008. A great move! We’ve covered this problematic issue for years (most recently in Nov 2007’s issue, here). I’m delighted to see a chain as large and influential as Whole Foods taking a leadership stance.

I just read this January 17 New York Times interview with Michael Pollen, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and, more recently, In Defense of Food (which offers the simple directive, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”). I especially loved the last paragraph of the interview, where Pollen says:

“The big challenge is that you do have to cook. A lot of us are intimidated by cooking today. We watch cooking shows on TV but we cook very little. We’re turning cooking into a spectator sport. This process of outsourcing our food preparation to large corporations, which is what we’ve been doing the last 50 years, is a big part of our problem. We’re seduced by convenience. You’re going to have to put a little more time and effort into preparing your food. I’m trying to get across how pleasurable that can be. It needn’t be a chore. It can be incredibly rewarding to move food closer to the center of your life.”

Eat real food and eat well — this has ALWAYS been Delicious Living’s message. “Convenience” foods, while vastly improved from years past, won’t bring you joy or health in the long term; there’s simply something inherently healthy about cooking real food, in real time, and enjoying it with real gusto. I hope our recipes help you do that.

First it was pomegranate, then acai and goji … now there’s a new super-antioxidant star on the scene, the yumberry (there’s a nice photo of it here). That’s its real name, all right; it’s an anglicization of yang-mei, a fresh fruit that’s been grown in China for millennia. (Why are we Westerners always the last to know?) Apparently this fruit is so perishable (like a raspberry) that it can’t be imported to the U.S., so you’ll only find it in juice form, and it’s positively stuffed with free-radical-fighting antioxidants; enthusiasts are calling it the next big thing on the health-beverage horizon. (The New York Times‘ fruit sleuth wrote about it in December.)

Just today, I got some yumberry juice samples from Frutzzo, the first U.S. company that’s bottling it; they offer USDA-organic, 100 percent yumberry juice in hip recycled-glass bottles (I’m a sucker for foods packaged in glass) and recyclable metal caps. Frutzzo also makes yumberry blends, with cherry, blueberry, and pomegranate juices. But the pure yumberry stuff is terrific; tart but not puckery, light and refreshing — a delicious, healthy treat. Aside from drinking it at my desk for a worthy pick-me-up, I plan to experiment with it in cooking too; wonder what it’s like when reduced to a syrup?

You may not have realized that you could ask for organic milk in your grande decaf nonfat vanilla latte, but it looks like you won’t have the option at Starbucks much longer. This week, the cafe giant announced that it will take organic milk off the menu. Why? Because Starbucks’ milk supply will no longer contain rBGH (the controversial bovine growth hormone), they feel organic is no longer necessary. No rBGH is certainly good news, but what about pesticide contamination? A lack of essential fatty acids? Not to mention animal treatment?

I just read a thoroughly thought-provoking article in Mothering magazine about aluminum additives in vaccines (”Is Aluminum the New Thimersol?,” page 46, Jan/Feb 2008). The article, written by Robert W. Sears, MD, FAAP (yes, he is related to the well-known pediatrician Dr. William Sears; he’s his son) questions the amount of aluminum added to vaccines to make them more effective. Could it be toxic at the levels kids are commonly getting? As Sears points out, not enough research has been done on the topic.

What’s a parent to do? Sears recommends asking your doctor to use vaccines that do not contain aluminum (for those that are available aluminum-free), and asking for the lowest-aluminum option for others. He also suggests a modified vaccination schedule, that allows children to receive all of the recommended vaccines but spaces out the number of vaccines given in one visit, to limit the amount of aluminum taken at one time (the body does rid itself of the aluminum, but large amounts may not be as easily cleared from the system).

Vaccines–for so many reasons!–are a hot topic in my circle of moms. Are they in yours? Have you taken an alternate path when it comes to vaccinating your kids? Which resources have helped you make those decisions? Tell us.

This is a pretty cool new project from the folks at natural skincare company Derma E. The company is selling Paraguayan Spiderweb Lace — or nanduti — to raise money for two Paraguayan nonprofits — Global Infancia and Guyra Paraguay. (Derma E will also donate 1 percent of sales of its Organic Expressions line.) Why is it called “Spiderweb Lace”? Because each colorful little doily is gorgeously embroidered to look like a vibrant web — or a sun, depending on your POV. So you can be beautiful and help the world, all at once.