Whole-Grain Breads- from Experience Life

Hype: Read the packages in the bread aisle and it’s easy to think you’ve hit the nutrient jackpot. Every label features words like “whole,” “multi-grain,” “oats,” “natural” and “fiber.” For generations raised on white bread, the mere hint of brownness and texture may be enough to signal wholesomeness.

Reality: When it comes to bread, you can’t judge a loaf by its wrapper — or its color. Nor can you assume that even a healthy bread is going to be healthy in any and all quantities.

First, read the fine print. Check the first few ingredients of most mass-market-brand breads and you’re likely to find “enriched flour,” meaning it’s made mostly of refined white flour — the same stuff in Wonder Bread.

“Just because it says ‘made with whole grain’ doesn’t mean it’s good for you,” says Michael Aziz, MD, author of The Perfect 10 Diet (Cumberland House, 2010). Also, make sure your whole-grain bread doesn’t contain added ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, artificial flavors, trans fats or industrial, unhealthy oils (soybean and cottonseed, for example, which are used because they are cheap, not healthy).

Keep in mind, too, that even the best whole-grain bread products require moderation. “Whole wheat has become a get-out-of-carb-jail-free card,” says John La Puma, MD, author of ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine (Crown, 2008). People tend to think that when they choose a whole-wheat product, they can eat it with impunity. “Some whole-wheat bagels are the size of tricycle tires,” he notes.

La Puma suggests that people strive to replace some of their grains with nonstarchy vegetables and legumes. When we do choose whole grains, he recommends eating a moderate serving (one slice of regular-size bread, for example) and pairing it with a healthy protein, such as nut butter, to slow digestion. A healthy serving of whole grains equals one slice of whole-grain bread, 1 cup of whole-grain cereal or a half cup of brown rice.

Better choice: Although many nutrition experts recommend eating bread sparingly, you don’t have to give it up completely. If you want to stick with conventional products, look for a loaf with fewer than five ingredients. Look at fiber and protein next, Ward advises. “You want 4 to 5 grams of fiber and some protein in each slice.” If you’re willing to sacrifice smooth, fluffy texture for a heartier, chewier one, Ward suggests opting for specialty breads made with sprouted grains and seeds. She likes them because “the sprouting process makes them more digestible and higher in key nutrients, like protein, than other breads.” Breads containing seeds also tend to satisfy hunger longer.

http://www.experiencelifemag.com/issues/january-february-2010/healthy-eating/6-healthy-eating-choices-to-rethink.html

Breakfast cereals- from "Experience Life"

5. High-Fiber Breakfast Cereals
Hype: Ads for adult cereals lead people to believe there is nothing more wholesome than starting the day with a heaping bowl of vitamin- and mineral-enriched flakes. Many fiber-rich cereals are emblazoned with health claims about cancer fighting, heart health and weight loss. But the truth may be a little harder to stomach.

Reality: Studies do show that a diet rich in whole grains and fiber can help thwart colon cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but it pays to be discerning. “In most whole-grain cereals, the grain is pulverized into a fine powder,” says La Puma. “And, once inside the body, it acts almost the same as a starch or sugar. The presence of ample fiber may help slow the release of all that sugar into your bloodstream and may also help you with regularity, but the cereal itself is unlikely to be a particularly nutritious day starter — even if it is fortified with a range of vitamins and minerals. Studies have shown that isolated nutrients, such as those added to many fortified cereals, don’t confer the same health benefits as eating whole foods.

In fact, one of the key problems with many high-fiber cereals is that they take a relatively unhealthy, conventional cereal product and then just add supplemental fiber and isolated nutrients to the mix. The product may still contain all kinds of other questionable ingredients and heavy doses of sugar.

Worse, relying on a cereal to fulfill daily fiber and nutritional requirements may discourage people from including more authentically nutritious whole foods (berries, nuts, seeds, proteins) in their breakfast regimens and may reduce their motivation to seek out vegetables, legumes and other fiber-rich foods throughout the day.

Better choice: Many dietitians prefer to see their clients eat breakfasts of yogurt with nuts and berries, eggs, steel-cut oatmeal, whole-food smoothies, or even leftovers, because these options are more naturally packed with nutrients as well as proteins, which help ward off hunger. If you enjoy having cereal for breakfast, however, just strive to have it a couple of times a week, rather than daily.

Take some time to select one or two truly nutritious cereal options. Most leading-brand products are heavily refined. Less-processed cereals, such as granolas and mueslis, may be more nutritious but can be surprisingly high in sugars and very dense in calories, so watch your serving sizes.

In choosing a fiber-rich product, select an unsweetened or minimally sweetened cereal that contains mostly whole-food, minimally processed ingredients and does not rely on “enriched” strategies for its nutritional merit. Make a point of topping whatever cereal you choose with nuts, berries, chopped apple, and ground flax or shelled hemp seed — or, better yet, start with a base of ingredients like these and then add a handful of cereal on top. Then add milk, yogurt or a milk alternative such as soy, hemp, rice or almond milk.

Avoid eating cereal plain out of the box for a snack. People tend to overeat cereal this way, getting a big infusion of fast-digesting sugars that can lead to hunger and cravings later. Instead, “toss cereal into a trail mix with nuts and seeds,” suggests Ward. Each of these options fuels the body with a steadier stream of energy and nets you more phytonutrients, fiber and healthy fats.

http://www.experiencelifemag.com/issues/january-february-2010/healthy-eating/6-healthy-eating-choices-to-rethink.html#Cereal

Quality of dairy, quality of life-

"You are what you eat"

If farmers are feeding their cattle and pigs everything from candy and cookies to french fries and waste cocoa, and people in turn eat and drink the meat and milk of those animals, what nutrition are people really getting from this? Sugar- and fat?

If you have any doubts about the validity of this, notice below that "wsj" stands for Wall Street Journal. Also go in the dairy aisle in a health food store and compare the fat content of (organic) grass-fed versus regular (organic, corn-fed) dairy. You will see that the grass-fed stuff has less fat. Now think of the food and drugs that non-organic cows are being fed, and imagine what kind of quality the fat in their milk, cheese, yogurt etc is going to have. Yes, we'll just opt for non-fat. But even non-fat has some fat. And don't pediatricians always tell us that we should feed our kids the full-fat versions because growing children need the fat?

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB117971270570109153-zOC0IHWiWPWox_jaHb4rBiWVpIo_20070528.html

More on slaughterhouses and pigs-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse

Quality of meat, quality of life.

I feel I left out something very important when I was talking about small (traditional) farms versus factory farms (CAFOS): the quality of life of the animals (and the people who care for them as well, if you think about it). How the animals live and are treated does matter, because animals do feel pain and suffer. If you know that you have only, say, 3 years to live, wouldn't you rather live your 3 years in good, rather than miserable, conditions?

If you were a cow, wouldn't you rather live in a big grassy field, and eat what you were made and supposed to eat- grass (NOT corn), instead of living in a concrete or dirt pen covered in manure, forced to eat food that you were never meant to eat: corn, antibiotics, beef tallow... "beef tallow": cow fat. They are making cows eat cow fat- how sick is that??? It's the same as giving humans human fat.

And where do you stop? Look at how they kill pigs- they gas them to death (don't you think that whatever chemical they use stays in the meat?). Look at how they keep chickens- in permanent darkness, inside a windowless metal pavilion; or how they keep pigs-even worse, in metal cages for their whole lives, just fattening them up, fattening them up... weren't they supposed to live and roll around in the dirt? Weren't they created to do that? I'm not making this up, you can see images of all this stuff, and even worse things (what they do with little chicks...) on the internet- it's all there, for all to see.

It is so upsetting to write this, because it forces you to think and vividly imagine the conditions that we subject animals to live in, just so we can have our milk, meat, pork or chicken- and now, of course, salmon as well (farmed salmon is given corn and antibiotics too)- in big quantities, and at our convenience. That is fast food for you, in a nutshell. It's just wrong, wrong, wrong; just look at the wages and conditions of the people that work on those places to start with, and go from there. Why would you want to even step in a place like that??

It doesn't have to be this way. We can choose to eat, if we must, animals that have been treated with decency, and that have lived and eaten how they are supposed to live and eat. They live a healthier life, and are healthier for you to eat.

It's pretty simple, really: what you would you rather have: tasteless chicken with hormones, or fresh, tasty, firm chicken from the farm (no hormones, no nothing)? Hormone milk, or just pure milk? Old eggs or fresh eggs? Meat with ammonia and other stuff, or just pure meat? The list goes on, and I am sorry to say, it does include cheese and all the hormones that end up stored in its fat (think pizza, right?)

We are so lucky to live in a country where we have choices- we are so fortunate to have that. All we have to do is ask- in the stores, in restaurants... ask for quality, for better.

www.foodincmovie.com

Quality meat in restaurants

Looking for a restaurant that serves meat that not only tastes great, but that you know is free of hormones and antibiotics, and comes from a farm where it is grass-fed... go to Orsay. They get their meat from Rosas Farm, in Ocala. Pretty cool-

I had given up eating meat in restaurants altogether- for fear of hormones, pesticide residues, antibiotics, amonia, irradiation, as well as other delicacies like e-coli, that is found in factory farm meat... But here is a place where they are doing it right! What a great find-

http://www.restaurantorsay.com
http://www.alrosas.com

Biodegradable plastic produce bags.

Best produce bags in town are at Native Sun. They are made of some kind of corn derivative- instead of petroleum. If that is not enough reason to get your produce there, consider this: their prices on produce are consistently lower than Whole Foods, Publix, Target, Winn-Dixie and Fresh Foods. They are knowledgeable, and truly care about what they do, where their produce and products come from, and their impact on the environment.

J.R.Liggetts

Experimenting with J.R.Liggetts bar shampoo. It is free of parabens, and phtalates and sodium laureth sulfates. First time I used it, my hair was a bit strange. Today I used it again, and it looks/feels more like what I am used to. I did use a conditioner afterwards. But I might not need to in the future, which is nice; that way I'll be able to save the money to pay for the health insurance premiums that just went up. I like the bar cause it does not come "enveloped" in plastic- one less plastic bottle and cap in the house, in the recycle, in the trash. Ken uses it for shaving as well.

Best chicken ever!

Just roasted a chicken that my husband picked up from the farm. It was "processed" (slaughtered) on Friday. It is (was, I should say) small, but... my husband and I agree, this is truly the best chicken we have ever eaten. The meat was firm, but juicy, and it had such a great flavor. I guess now I understand what Julia Child meant when she talked about fresh free roaming (truly free roaming) chickens tasting "chickeny". It does not need sugar water injections to make it taste better, that is for sure.

Part II: how to REALLY tell if eggs are fresh

After I published this post, I was fortunate to have a farmer point out a few things and make a few corrections. So I decided to republish this with the corrections, because they are important and pretty interesting!

If you ever manage to find a farm that you like... you will be amazed to see that the eggs that you get from them have really hard shells. You really have to bang them to break them, it's pretty cool. That is because the eggs are being laid by younger hens. As the hen ages the calcium in her bones is depleted, as it is used to make the shell. By the time a hen a 18 months old, the shells are thinner, even if the hen is given calcium supplementation.

When you manage to break that egg, you can see that the color is not pale yellow, but a strong, darker, almost orangy yellow. The color shows that the eggs are from chickens that really do roam around (instead of pacing around in a little fenced-in area called "free-range" for regulatory purposes) and are getting veggies in their diet.

You will also notice that the yolk is firm and stands up high, not runny. That firmness shows that the eggs are fresh. You can see the "strings" that attach the yolk to the whites and hold the yolk in place. The older the egg, the less you can see that "string" or line... another sign of freshness is that the whites stand up high. Eggs have 2 kinds of whites: the first one is immediately around the yolk, and the second is around the first white. An older egg's whites will both run. A fresh egg's first white will stand up, while the second white will run. Leave an egg outside of refrigeration, and it's like you put 7 days age on the egg.

So... when you are working with a farmer and buying their eggs, it is important to find out how often the farmer collects the eggs (daily is best); what the farmer does with the eggs after collection (refrigerate right away is best); and how many day's eggs the farmer has at any one time. It's a good sign if the farmer can't hold on to his eggs for more than a week; that indicates freshness and good repeat business!

Ask ask ask

The key to getting good quality stuff is to ask. Ask, ask, ask, don't be afraid to ask-

Where is the meat from?

What do these cows eat?

What food are the cows producing this butter eating?

Do these cows eat corn?

What is in this bread? Is this made with stone-ground whole wheat flour? Or just painted white flour?

What is... maltodextrin???...

What is in this cheese? Does it have hormones?

Where does this tomato come from? Does it have Endosulfan on/in it? Did they use chemicals to ripen it?

How many chemicals in these blueberries?

The people working in the store should know the answers! If they do not, and cannot give you a satisfactory answer, then maybe that is not where you want to spend your hard-earned money in the first place?

How to find a source for fresh raw milk and eggs...

If you are looking for a place to get fresh milk, forget about the supermarkets. The closest you'll get to the real thing is grass-fed cow's milk, but it is pasteurized. Sometimes one can find frozen raw milk. But the frozen stuff really doesn't taste that great, and carries that scary label "not for human consumption". That label is due to FL politics. If you go to different states, you will get everything from not being able to buy raw milk AT ALL, or being able to buy as much of it, for human consumption, as you please. So... having said that, here is a site that explains a whole lot about raw milk, and also where to find it. A lot of these farms also have fresh eggs: www.realmilk.com


I have found a farm to buy both milk and eggs very close to here (Jacksonville), and they are great. More than happy to share that info upon request-

How to tell if your "fresh" eggs are really fresh

After I published this post, I was fortunate to have a farmer point out a few things and make a few corrections. So I decided to republish this with the corrections, because they are important and pretty interesting! Learn something everyday!

If you ever manage to find a farm that you like... you will be amazed to see that the eggs that you get from them have really hard shells. You really have to bang them to break them, it's pretty cool. That is because the eggs are being laid by younger hens. As the hen ages the calcium in her bones is depleted, as it is used to make the shell. By the time a hen a 18 months old, the shells are thinner, even if the hen is given calcium supplementation.

When you manage to break that egg, you can see that the color is not pale yellow, but a strong, darker, almost orangy yellow. The color shows that the eggs are from chickens that really do roam around (instead of pacing around in a little fenced-in area called "free-range" for regulatory purposes) and are getting veggies in their diet.

You will also notice that the yolk is firm and stands up high, not runny. That firmness shows that the eggs are fresh. You can see the "strings" that attach the yolk to the whites and hold the yolk in place. The older the egg, the less you can see that "string" or line... another sign of freshness is that the whites stand up high. Eggs have 2 kinds of whites: the first one is immediately around the yolk, and the second is around the first white. An older egg's whites will both run. A fresh egg's first white will stand up, while the second white will run. Leave an egg outside of refrigeration, and it's like you put 7 days age on the egg.

So... when you are working with a farmer and buying their eggs, it is important to find out how often the farmer collects the eggs (daily is best); what the farmer does with the eggs after collection (refrigerate right away is best); and how many day's eggs the farmer has at any one time. It's a good sign if the farmer can't hold on to his eggs for more than a week; that indicates freshness and good repeat business!

365-brand shampoo and Sodium Laureth Sulfate

If you are one of the lucky ones, like me, that found the 365 brand shampoos on sale at Whole Foods... check out the back label. The reason they were on sale is that they contain SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE as their 2nd ingredient. Yes, that is right, the synthetic one, derived from petroleum. The new bottles apparently do not have synthetic SLSs, so one may go in there and trade the old for the new. I haven't seen them though, so I have no idea what they have- and, if it's a new substance, if it has been tested. The same goes, by the way, for Nature's Gate's shampoos. The old, white bottles have SLS. The new bottles don't. As far as getting a refund/exchange, call the store you purchased them from, or Nature's Gate directly: (818) 882-2951, ext:117- and speak with Natalie.

Canned food and BPA

If you are looking to purchase food in a can, either for yourself or your pet, you might want to know that, apparently, the only BPA-free canned foods out there are the ones produced by Eden Foods. That goes for soda too. And tuna, beans, soup, condensed milk, fruit, corn... At least one can still find real Coke glass bottles which, if made in Mexico, will contain Coke that is made with real sugar instead of corn syrup.
For more information on this, go online and listen to last week's Diane Rehm interview with Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, writers of the book "Slow Death by Rubber Duck" (http://wamu.org/programs/dr/10/01/24.php#31737)

First post

This is the very first post in this blog. Where to start? There is so much information that has been accumulated over the years.
I want to share that information, so that people can make informed decisions as they go through their daily lives. Information I wish I had the chance to access years ago, and even these days. I will post new findings that are heard in radio interviews, read in books, newspapers, magazines and internet, gathered from farmers, cooks, and people from all walks of life and varying professions. I do not claim to be an expert, but rather just wish to disseminate information that I think is vital, and yet does not get discussed in our daily news.