Archive for February, 2012
Foods – The Bad – The Good
Foods – The Bad – The Good
Years ago, even before my children were born, I remember the scares the government or the news media reporting how one food or another was bad for you. Some of the first that come to mind were yellow mustard, saccharine, red food dyes (hard to find a red pistachio, lol), bacon and, of course, eggs. Most recently, it is now sugar and salt.
Don’t get me wrong, I realize, that some warnings have great merit but I do get suspicious when a given market is impacted by whatever blurb hit the streets. Good example would be the egg industry. In the name of saving people from their own cholesterol the FDA, Surgeon General, pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals (everyone was on the band wagon) said more than 1 egg a week was no good for you, potentially causing your cholesterol levels to rise. People cut back on their egg intake and the industry was really having problems until a new egg came along. Proving that a safer egg could be produced by feeding with special feed. Egg Land’s Best came along! When that egg company started making a real dent in the market, oh my, that band wagon decided that those pesky eggs weren’t so bad for a person’s cholesterol after all!
I remember that saccharine scare too. We had no need to use it but, non the less, I noticed that everything that was diet or light all of a sudden made a total switch to NutraSweet. What bothered me about NutraSweet was that many parents were letting their children eat it. I read a report, back then it was in the library, that nutrasweet might have some bad side effects in children under eight years of age. I’ve looked for that report since the internet came along and just can’t seem to find it again. What bothered me about the report was that there were three or four independent studies before the release of NutraSweet. The problem for me was that each of the studies had been paid for by the NutraSweet corporation. It could be just me but how is that independent? I just, today, found an article that confirmed what I had read!! At Natural News.com. read the bottom paragraph.
I understand that there are some people with serious health issues but where did the phrase moderation and a person’s own responsibility get lost? I have known many people who have changed their dietary habits that no longer had to be on pharmaceuticals. This isn’t really the message of this article but I wanted to mention this possibility anyway.
Now that I have aged and lived though many of these events or scares. I really look things with a more cynical eye. I just simply don’t trust everything I hear from our band wagons. Often times I think, now, that some people are serving their own agendas.
What I want to really address here is what is going on with the genetically re-engineered seeds and some processed foods. I’ve, long ago, gotten away from processed vegetable oils and have stuck with butter, olive oil, and lard which is very difficult to find now days because it is so politically incorrect. My thought. Anything in moderation!
I used to love eating what I would call junk food. I loved Burger Chef and McDonalds. A burger and fries really hit the spot sometimes. Over the years things changed and I noticed that my occasionally yummy treats didn’t taste quite as good. Many of the fried foods I was eating had an unappealing flavor of bitterness or rancid taste. I was complaining to a co-worker one day and she said often times when one’s palette is not use to eating Canola oil you would find such unfavorable tastes.
Sure enough, when I did a little research on canola and found that many food companies use it now. I guess because it is cheaper to purchase. Canola isn’t very good for you because it is made from rapeseed. There is much information on this product so I need not say more than I just don’t eat at fast food places anymore. An in a nutshell article to read is on this site, Optimal Breathing. http://breathing.com/articles/canola-oil.htm
Monsanto is widely know for their re-engineering of seeds so that they can be patented. There seems to be more information on the internet daily. How come our Band Wagon doesn’t scrutinize them more? Holding small farmers accountable for the air or bees cross or pollinating their crops because Monsanto’s fields are adjacent. It is outrageous. As I see it this is a way to put the small organic or natural farmer out of business. You can view a full documentary “The World According to Monsanto” on YouTube. This video is about 1 hour 49 minutes long so you might want to book mark it at YouTube to save for later viewing.
If you CAN support your local farmer, DO!
I grow a garden every year and I freeze a lot of fruits and veggies when I have a decent crop. When the garden is not producing in the winter I try to support our local farmers. I just got back from shopping at a local Farmer’s Market, they sell goods that are mostly organic and locally grown. If they have hot climate items like citrus fruit they are grown in the U.S. from an organic farmer and they will let you know what farm it came from. Even baked goods do not have strange additives. No GMO’s. If I can’t find something there and shop at our local grocery stores, I at least, buy foods grown in the U.S. because I don’t know what foreign imports use on their crops. My rule is to buy it if it is in season. It isn’t a guarantee but it beats a blank. Again, there is a lot of great information on the internet. All you have to do is type in Organic Farming into your search engine.
Thank you for reading my blog.
This is some real food for thought! Digesting processed food by 2011 TEDxManhattan Fellow: Stefani Bardin
