General information and news on living, eating and being healthy.
More bad news for soda drinkers. Not only does high fructose corn syrup make you fat faster than other sugars, it may pollute your body with toxic mercury. And it isn’t just soda … products tested included foods “from the brands Hershey’s, Quaker, Hunt’s, Manwich, Smucker’s, Kraft, Nutri-Grain, and Yoplait,” according to US News and World Report. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
Good news on the salt issue: The New York Times reports that Dr. Thomas Frieden, the city’s health commissioner, wants processed and restaurant foods to reduce the exorbitant amounts of salt in them: 25% less in 5 years, and 50% less in 10 years. Overly salted processed foods and restaurant meals account for 80% of the sodium consumed in the U.S., because (as we’ve reported before) American palates have been conditioned to like way, way more salt that is healthy or necessary. Prime offenders, Dr. Frieden says, are cheese, breakfast cereals, bread, macaroni and noodle products, cake mixes, condiments and soups. His “stealth health” plan — reducing salt gradually — is great, because it’s not that hard to retrain your taste buds to “require” less salt. As NYC goes, so often goes the rest of the country … so here’s hoping Dr. Frieden’s plan takes hold. To start reducing your own salt intake, try this easy-to-make salt-free seasoning.
Most of my job is spent working in the organic world - researching products, regulatory issues, and consumer and business trends, and also putting content together for the Organic Summit . It’s an exciting environment, but I am always mindful of the need for a reality check. Which leads me to ask you, what does organic mean to you, and, what would you tell the organic industry if you had the opportunity? I’ll be compiling your comments and measuring it against what is occuring in the industry itself and will blog about it. I look forward to your feedback. - Jylle
Do you know what “sustainability” means? According to a new report published by Washington, D.C.-based market research group, Hartman, more than half of consumers don’t know what “sustainability” means. Just 56 percent of people surveyed were familiar with the term and a whopping 71 percent didn’t know which companies or products represented sustainable values. As the number of product labels touting “green!” “natural!” “sustainable!” flourishes, it’s not altogether surprising that we shoppers don’t know who or what to trust. I find that an easier approach is to break my guidelines for purchasing down by the values that I believe uphold the sustainability concept: Fair Trade Certified, locally grown, and USDA Organic. I’m interested in finding out what sustainability means to you…
Green tea…and more healthy green tea! Here’s another great reason to make it your beverage of choice: A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition has reported that regular green tea consumption may reduce the risk of developing breast cancer by 12 percent. The study involved approximately 4,000 women in the U.S. and China. About half of the women subjects had breast cancer and the other half were observed as healthy controls.
Green tea is rich in water-extractable epigallocatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate and epicatechin polyphenols, and it’s these organic antioxidant compounds that prevent cell damage. Beyond cancer prevention, green tea has been found to promote weight loss and protect against Alzheimer’s.
Want to learn more about tea? Check out this New York Times page to learn all about the history, health benefits and brands of tea.
Food safety issues coming out of China have increased the awareness and concern of US consumers. Issues like pesticides on tea leaves, and melamine in dairy have raised consumer awareness of where ingredients in manufactured food products come from, and have us seeking an easy way to identify “safe” products.
The recent article, Food industry urges Congress to reform food safety rules got me thinking about what food safety means to consumers, and how the USDA organic label might just be a de facto food safety label.
Food safety has different meanings depending on whether you view it from a food industry perspective or as someone shopping-the-aisles. From an industry perspective, food safety indicates the absence of conditions that cause food borne illness, and that food manufacturers and processors are maintaining practices to ensure food is safe. When it comes to consumers, food safety takes on additional concerns of allergens, pesticides, genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and cloning.
Certified organic products take some of consumer’s safety concerns off the table.
According to the USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), “the primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.”
USDA certified organic products:
• Come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones
• Are produced without using conventional pesticides
• Are produced without fertilizers
• Are produced without synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge
• Prohibit the use of bioengineering (GMOs, Cloning) or ionizing radiation
Additionally:
• Are produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.
• Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards.
I’d go so far as to assert that even though it’s not perfect, USDA certified organic also indicates that your food has been grown and/or processed with attention to the health and welfare of those that would consume it.
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Related Topics: Organics, Nutrition, Green Living, Health, Food and Safety, From the Editors, Food |
Vitamin D is all over health headlines these days—and with good reason. Vitamin-D deficiencies have been linked to increased risk of cancer and a multitude of other conditions including heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and now—the latest—dementia. A new study in the Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology has found that low levels of vitamin D in adults over the age of 65 may be linked to cognitive impairment.
The study, which surveyed almost 2,000 adults, is the largest body of research to identify this relationship, supporting other studies indicating the role of vitamin D in brain development. Smaller studies have shown that serum 25-hydroxyviatmin D [25(OH)D] is a good indicator of vitamin D status and can be used to determine levels of cognitive function. Results of this study indicated that people with normal cognitive function had higher levels of serum 25(OH)D than people who were cognitively impaired.
Most people get their daily dose in the sunshine or in fortified foods, but with age, the skin absorbs less vitamin D even with adequate sun exposure. Seniors don’t have to pack up and move to the Florida sunshine, but it is extremely important for adults over 65 to increase their daily vitamin D intake, usually through supplements. Find out what to look for in a vitamin D supplement.
If you’re not drinking green tea, you should be. In addition to green tea’s well documented benefits (improving longevity and reducing risk of diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and certain cancers), a new study published in The Journal of Nutrition links drinking tea with weight loss. more
Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is among the ninth-hour regulations imposed by the Bush administration that President Obama has blocked, saying that the new regs must be reviewed before they take effect. COOL would allow consumers to identify (and choose) where their food — such as meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables — comes from. But not so fast… more
According to a University of Florida 
