The Pantry Principle, excellent reference for the Real Food newbie

Posted on June 17, 2013 by

The Pantry PrincipleIf you already cook from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and have read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price and if you follow the websites of The Healthy Home Economist, Dr. Mercola, and GreenMedInfo, you may not need The Pantry Principle.  However, if you know you should eat healthier, more nutritious food but just don’t know where to start, The Pantry Principle, by Mira Dessy, NE, could be just the right book for you.  The subtitle tells you what to expect: “How to read the label and understand what’s really in your food.”  This book is aimed primarily at the grocery store shopper who buys packaged foods but doesn’t understand the ingredients labels.

The Pantry Principle is your guide to “building a healthy food source in your home.”  The term pantry is inclusive to any place where you keep your food–a pantry/closet, shelf, cupboard, counter, refrigerator, or freezer.  The book is cohesive and very well-written, plus it provides lots of detailed information about choosing foods wisely.

I agree with Mira’s statement that many people believe “all of the edible-appearing products on the shelves are food. The truth is that many of them are not! Many of these items contain ingredients that have the potential to be harmful.”  Not only is “food” today often confusing, but their labels can be misleading, sometimes intentionally so.  Mira wants to help you see through the vague wording and misdirection of labels to find the useful information.  One example of a confusing labeling is the use of the terms “free range” or “organic” on egg cartons.  Other examples of confusing labeling are the unpronounceable and unrecognizable “food” items in ingredients lists.

The Pantry Principle begins with Mira’s Story.  She, like many of us in the Real Food movement, had serious health problems that were not being helped by conventional medicine.  She did her own research and took charge of her own health to the extent that she went back to school to study holistic nutrition and become a Certified Nutrition Educator.  She wanted to help others improve their health as she had improved hers through good nutrition.  As a Nutrition Educator, she has been accompanying people to the grocery story to teach them how to read labels and select nutritious foods; however, she realized she couldn’t help those who needed her guidance but lived too far away.  Thus The Pantry Principle was born.

For the beginning Real Foodie, Mira has seven simple but excellent rules for interpreting food labels. The first two rules are (1) “If you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it” and (2) “If it has a number, don’t eat it.”   All seven rules are great to help eliminate the many non-foods often listed on “food” labels.  Mira even has a handy pocket-sized chart that can be printed and taken to the grocery while shopping.

The Pantry Principle is full of detailed explanations and essential information for the grocery story shopper.  Chapter Two, How to Read a Nutrition Label. is the perfect place to start.  Here’s a tidbit in Chapter Two that I really hadn’t paid much attention to before–the difference between Fortified and Enriched.  While either label should alert the buyer that the product is not a whole food, it’s good to understand the difference.

Fortified means nutrients have been added that are not
normally part of that food; such as calcium in orange juice.
Enriched means nutrients lost in processing have been put back
into the item; such as some of the B vitamins in wheat flour.

Chapter Three, Understanding Additives, begins with the top 3 non-food additives that should be avoided but are found in many processed “foods”–high fructose corn syrup (it’s even added to the tobacco in cigarettes!), monosodium glutamate (MSG), and artificial colors.  References, examples, and explanations are given to support why these should be avoided.

Other additives (with examples) to be avoided include preservatives (e.g., BHA, BHT, EDTA), flavorings (e.g., diacetyl “butter” flavoring), stabilizers (e.g., alginic acid), emulsifiers (e.g., propylene glycol), and artificial colors (e.g., Red #40).  The Pantry Principle covers all these and many more with their uses as well as the potentially harmful side effects of consuming them.

Later chapters talk about natural and artificial sweeteners, types of fats, and genetically engineered foods (GMOs).  Chapter Seven addresses the cost of eating healthy food by providing recommendations to help maintain your budget.  For example, there’s a discussion of when to buy organic or conventional foods.

For all these reasons, I can highly recommend The Pantry Principle to those who are beginning their journey to health through nutrition and need help finding the path.

To be fair to the reader, however, I need to mention a few areas where the information in The Pantry Principle is either incomplete or misleading.  Most of these are of minimal concern for beginners interested in the basic food information, the primary focus of the book.

Chapter Six on fats and oils refers to “good” (HDL) and “bad” (LDL) cholesterol, a distinction that can be misleading.  Both HDL and LDL are necessary and useful for body processes.  The list of recommended fats and oils for cooking on p. 73 of The Pantry Principle includes a few oils that should not be heated according to Nourishing Traditions, p. 19.

The chapter on dairy is missing some information that I consider to be very important.  There is no mention of the type of milk people have been drinking for thousands of years–real, unprocessed, “raw” milk.  When I asked Mira about this omission, she said that she (and her editor) wanted to avoid a controversy which could “detract from the primary message of the book which was to educate people about the chemical garbage which is in their food.”  I can understand the focus of the book and the wish to stay “on course,” but mentioning raw milk and including a link to more information (such as RealMilk.com) would not have been out of place in a book that has so much detailed nutrition information.

An omission that may be even more important for the Real Food beginner is that, while organic milk is recommended over conventional milk for several excellent reasons (including rBGH), there is no recommendation to avoid UHT (ultra high temperature pasteurized) organic milk.  The UHT process is so deadly that UHT milk cannot be used to make yogurt.

I also question the inclusion of two of the listed sweeteners as acceptable: xylitol, a sugar alcohol, and turbinado sugar.

Note:  I’ve known Mira Dessy, a Houston-area resident (The Woodlands) and member of The Weston A. Price Foundation, for several years.  She is dedicated to helping people to be healthier through making wise choices in the foods they eat.  She has provided no compensation for my opinions in this post other than a PDF review copy of her book, The Pantry Principle.

Click here to buy now:

Posted in Fake Food, Food on a budget, GMOs, Health, Healthy Fats, Raw Milk, Real Food | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Study finds significant new evidence that GMOs can cause harm

Posted on June 12, 2013 by

GMO-pig-intestines-300A new study published in the Journal of Organic Systems provides compelling evidence that GMO foods cause physical damage.   If you haven’t been concerned until now about eating GM foods or meat from animals fed GM foods, you need to read about this study.  The concerns with GM foods are quite real and can be scientifically demonstrated.

The study

This long-term study included 168 weaned pigs which were fed a typical diet of soy and corn for 22.7 weeks (over 5 months).  Pigs were chosen for the study because their digestive systems are similar to humans.  Half of the pigs were fed GM soy and GM corn, and the remaining half were fed non-GM soy and corn.  The GM foods included one that was herbicide resistant and two that contained insecticides. [source]

[Photo description:  Different levels of stomach inflammation found (clockwise from top left): nil (from a
non-GM-fed pig, number B41), mild (from a non-GM-fed pig, number B15), moderate (from a
GM-fed pig, number C34) and severe (from a GM-fed pig, number D22)]

The results of the study

The pigs were slaughtered at the normal age for processing and autopsied by veterinarians who did not know which ones had been fed the GM food.  Here are the most significant findings from the autopsies:

The GM diet was associated with gastric and uterine differences in pigs. GM-fed pigs had uteri that were 25% heavier than non-GM fed pigs (p=0.025). GM-fed pigs had a higher rate of severe stomach inflammation with a rate of 32% of GM-fed pigs compared to 12% of non-GM-fed pigs (p=0.004). The severe stomach inflammation was worse in GM-fed males compared to non-GM fed males by a factor of 4.0 (p=0.041), and GM-fed females compared to non-GM fed females by a factor of 2.2 (p=0.034). [source]

The severe stomach inflammation was 4 times more likely in the male GM-fed pigs and 2.2 times more likely in the female GM-fed pigs.  A 25% higher weight of the uterus and the extent of the severe stomach inflammation are biologically and statistically significant.

Why this study is important

The lead researcher, Dr. Judy Carman, says the study results are significant for several important reasons:

First, we found these results in real on-farm conditions, not in a laboratory, but with the added benefit of strict scientific controls that are not normally present on farms.

Second, we used pigs. Pigs with these health problems end up in our food supply. We eat them.

Third, pigs have a similar digestive system to people, so we need to investigate if people are also getting digestive problems from eating GM crops.

Fourth, we found these adverse effects when we fed the animals a mixture of crops containing three GM genes and the GM proteins that these genes produce. Yet no food regulator anywhere in the world requires a safety assessment for the possible toxic effects of mixtures. Regulators simply assume that they can’t happen.

Our results provide clear evidence that regulators need to safety assess GM crops containing mixtures of GM genes, regardless of whether those genes occur in the one GM plant or in a mixture of GM plants eaten in the same meal, even if regulators have already assessed GM plants containing single GM genes in the mixture. [source]

Howard Vlieger, an Iowa-based farmer and a coordinator of the study, said “For as long as GM crops have been in the feed supply, we have seen increasing digestive and reproductive problems in animals. Now it is scientifically documented.”  [source]  [Real Food Houston interview with Howard Vlieger]

The safety of GMO foods

Dr. Nathan Daley has evaluated the science behind the studies which supposedly demonstrate the safety of GMO crops and foods and has found them seriously flawed for a multitude of reasons:

(1)  For each of three approved GMO corn varieties “a single study was done.  However, a central tenet of sound science is that the results are reproducible and replicated by other studies, preferably those done by different researchers.”

(2)  The studies only used the rat as a test subject, maybe valid for human detoxification systems but less so for human reproductive systems.

(3)  The studies only lasted three months and were done on only young adult rats.  Problems that could have occurred later in the normal 24 month life of the rat were not evaluated.

(4)  No reproductive or developmental studies were done; however, there are no warning labels on GMO foods for pregnant women or young children.

(5)  Problems were not considered if they occurred in only female or only male rats even though there are significant differences between their systems.

(6)  Adverse outcomes that are considered “normal” in older rats were omitted even though all the subjects were young adults.  For example, kidney disease common in older rats was not thought to be a problem even though it was occurring in the younger rats fed GMOs.  [source]

Why the dangers of GMO foods are different from other food dangers

The situation with agricultural GMOs is unique compared to other technologies. While genetic engineering of food crops has been ongoing for 15 years, it is currently experiencing a major boom with the potential for widespread worldwide application. Yet, few people understand how a GMO food could really be so much different than a non-GMO food in regard to health and disease effects. GMO foods look like non-GMO foods and so we don’t experience the same hesitation and aversion to consuming them like we would, say, a clearly labeled bottle of virus and pesticide in tomato juice. [source]

I have been reading about GMO foods for several years and have heard experienced researchers give talks about the very real health problems that are being covered up.  My concern is ever increasing as the GMO crops are gradually overtaking agriculture around the world.  As detailed above, there have not been adequate studies that demonstrate GMO foods are truly safe, and there have been important studies showing the potential harm.  Respected researchers that find problems can be slandered, demeaned, and sometimes even fired.  Two of these are Dr. Árpád Pusztai and Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini.

What can we do?

Here’s what I do:  to avoid GMOs in my diet, I buy most of my food locally–meat from pastured animals, local yard eggs, and farmers market produce.  When I don’t buy local foods, I buy organic, especially those that are highly likely to be GMO, such as corn and corn derivatives, soy, and sugar.  You should also know the source of your foods.  Try to avoid eating GMO foods as much as possible.

However, probably the most important action we can take is to tell everyone we know about the dangers of eating GMO foods.  The risks and dangers have, at least until now, been largely covered up by the companies that make huge profits from selling these unproven foods.  Many people don’t know much about GMOs.  I’ve already written several posts on GMOs–a few of them are linked below.  If you are active on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, you can post or repost information about GMOs.  Even if you don’t use social media, you can forward emails and talk to family, friends, and co-workers.  All of us can do our part to educate others about the dangers of GMOs.

Other Real Food Houston posts you might want to read:

It’s Not Pretty Behind the Biotech Veil, an Interview with Howard Vlieger
What Does Genetically Engineered (or GMO) Mean?
Study finds that GE toxins damage human cells
Glyphosate is already in our food, air, and water: What is it and why should we care?

Sources:

Study: A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a combined genetically modified (GM) soy and GM maize diet
A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a mixed GM diet. Adverse effects of GM crops found. by Dr. Judy Carman
Evidence of GMO Harm in Pig Study [Sustainable Pulse]
New study finds GM grains harm reproductive and digestive health [Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance]
Evidence of GMO harm in pig study [GM Watch]
GMOs and Health: The Scientific Basis for Serious Concern and Immediate Action [GreenMedInfo]

Photo credit: Study: A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a combined genetically modified (GM) soy and GM maize diet

This post is shared on Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Posted in Food Freedom, Food Rights, GMOs, Health, Organic Food | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Four Houston restaurants have been added to Real Food Restaurants

Posted on June 3, 2013 by

Local Foods - Houston TXA reader has suggested some new additions to the Real Food Restaurants listing, plus I’ve added another that I have long wanted to try; however, it’s on the exact opposite side of Houston from where I live.  Although I have not yet visited any of these restaurants, a review of available information indicates that they belong on our list.  If you have visited any of these, please comment about your experience.  Do they belong on the list and why?  Also, do they serve food that tastes good while being nutritious?   Eating Real Food should be enjoyable!  Local, fresh food should be the best tasting food as well as the best for your health.

Here are the four restaurants added to Real Food Restaurants:

Local Foods advertises a “gourmet selection of sandwiches, salads and prepared meals with local ingredients.”  Their website lists these local food sources: Gundermann Farms (organic), Atkinson Farms (no claim to be organic), Animal Farm (organic per Yelp review), Texas Hill Country Olive Oil (organic olives), Texas wild gulf shrimp, and Hatterman Egg Farm (free range and no soy per Urban Harvest review, have high omega 3′s and no soy per HoustonPress review), Pola Cheese (artisan cheese made in the Montrose area per HoustonPress review), and others.  Most of those listed seem to be excellent sources of local, Real Food.  Local Foods sandwich menu lists Duck Confit, House Smoked Salmon, and “Banh Mi.”  Salads include Spring Harvest Salad and Asian Chicken Salad.  Sides include Housemade Chips, but there is no information about the fat used for frying.  Beverages include kombucha, beer, and wine, but there’s no claim to be organic for any drink.

Roots Bistro: the website says they are “Local. Organic. Green.”  They are the second Green-Certified Restaurant in Houston.  They claim that “Everything from the animal chef butchers to the salt that flavors it is locally sourced and organically grown.”  However, I was unable to find any backup information about their ingredients.  Reviews on UrbanSpoon and Yelp varied widely.  Many thought it was too expensive.

Season’s Harvest Cafe, in the Cypress/Fairbanks area, (no website, but they have a Facebook page featuring their daily menu which varies according to what is locally available) is a small, family owned, farm-to-table restaurant serving local, organic foods.  There are vegetarian/vegan and gluten-free options for some menu items.  The Yelp and UrbanSpoon reviews are generally favorable.  Season’s Harvest Cafe is open for breakfast and lunch, Tuesday through Saturday.

Zelko Bistro, owned and operated by Chef Jamie and Dahlia Zelko has New American Fare “prepared with the highest quality and sustainable ingredients.”  Chef Jamie Zelko has been named Sustainable Restaurateur by H Magazine.  The restaurant claims to be focused on local ingredients, and the website mentions using local, 100% raw honey; however, I could find very little specific information about their food sources.  Both owners are beekeepers.  The menu lists several fried foods but does not say what fat or oil is used for cooking.  Reviews on Yelp are uneven.

Posted in Real Food | 4 Comments

Houston Real Food Nutrition hosts class on making stocks and broths

Posted on May 27, 2013 by

Stocks and Broths ClassOur Houston Real Food Nutrition meetup group hosted another great class Saturday, May 25, where we learned how to make delicious and nourishing stocks and broths using a variety of meats and bones.  Our instructor, Susan Doiron, gave us many useful hints and tips how to make the best use of pastured and wild caught meats, fish, and poultry. She highly recommends that we all eat some variation of stocks or bone broths every day for our nutrition and health.

Susan demonstrating methoSusan has extensive experience in teaching nutrition and cooking classes.  Her unique style is both entertaining and informative.  She brought samples of stocks that she had made previously for us to taste.  We tried all of them plain without seasoning and also with various additions to enhance the flavors.  The samples included a beef and venison stock, a chicken and turkey stock, and a fish stock made with crab, fish, and shrimp shells.

I thought all of the stocks were delicious just plain; however, the variations Susan provided for sampling would make it easier to eat the stocks every day.  The additions included pureed vegetables, tahini, avocados, spices, and herbs, plus much more.

Although I’ve made stocks and broths many times, I learned some very good tips to make broth making easier in the future.  For example, Susan recommends using Ziploc plastic bags (they don’t have BPA) for freezing the broth.  I’ve always used glass Ball jars, but, with glass jars, there is a slight risk of cracking, and they aren’t the most efficient shape for maximizing freezer storage space.

Broth making equipmentAnother great tip for making flavorful stock is to save vegetable ends and peeling, such as carrot and celery ends and onion peels, to add to simmering broth.  Susan says she keeps a bag in the freezer just to store these vegetable pieces ends until broth-making time.  She does not recommend adding seeds, such as bell pepper seeds, to broths because they can make the broth bitter.

Susan even showed us how to use the leftover bones and vegetables from broth making to make treats for our pets.  Nothing goes to waste at Susan’s house.  Anything not eaten by people or pets goes into the compost pile.  Way to go!

Jeanette Pearson, owner and chef of Partners in Paleo, was a gracious host for our meeting, and served a delicious dinner of beef or chicken soup, made with, of course, bone broth and stock.  The soup was accompanied with a mixed greens salad and a variety of house made dressings.  Dessert was a special treat–paleo orange cake with orange slices.  It was superbly moist and delicious–just sweet enough!  Jeanette explained that much of the food at Partners in Paleo is local, and most of the rest is organic.  She buys pastured meats, including grassfed beef and pastured chicken.  She buys produce from local CSAs, and is even beginning to grow some of her own vegetables.

Everyone who attended seemed to enjoy the class and dinner.  Many stayed after the dinner to discuss recipes, nutrition, and health issues.

If you live in the Houston area and are interested in nutrition for your health, please join our meetup group, Houston Real Food Nutrition. We have a great time together and enjoy nutritious meals while we learn.

Houston Real Food Nutrition is sponsored by the Houston-Galveston Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Posted in Events, Health, Houston Real Food Nutrition, Nutrition, Paleo, Real Food | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crisco – how marketing trumped nutrition!

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

story of criscoI recently came across the interesting story of how and why Crisco was developed and marketed.  The history of Crisco is essentially the history of our modern lab-created, highly processed food.  Through highly successful marketing, lab food has gradually and insidiously replaced many of our delicious and healthy traditional foods.

History of Crisco

Crisco, which is derived from crystallized cottonseed oil, was invented by Procter & Gamble in the early 1900′s.  Candle maker William Procter and soap maker James Gamble launched their company in 1837.  P&G’s Ivory soap, made from hydrogenated cottonseed oil, had been very successful.  Ivory was the first mass-produced branded soap, replacing the bulk soap previously sold at local stores.  The process of hydrogenation, initially developed by chemists to produce soap, proved to be useful to create Crisco as well.  Crisco was invented by chemists, not developed by cooks in kitchens.  Sound appetizing?  Why would you want to eat it?

The Marketing of Crisco

Crisco was introduced in 1911 and initially marketed by paying customers (such as train lines) to use it instead of lard.  Testimonials from doctors and rabbis (as a kosher substitute for lard and butter) were solicited and society teas were held in many U.S. cities at which all the baked foods were made with Crisco.

P&G published a cookbook, The Story of Crisco, where all of the 615 recipes used Crisco and which praised its benefits and versatility.  The cookbook became very popular, partly because it was often given away free, prompting many home cooks to begin using Crisco for their baking.

The introductCrisco recipesion to the Crisco cookbook gives a highly favorable view of the newly invented fat, calling it an “altogether new and better fat.”  The book emphasizes the digestibility of Crisco calling it a healthier alternative to lard and butter.  Even more concerning is that Crisco is specifically promoted for children.  [source]

Health Problems with Crisco

The hydrogenation process used to make Crisco creates a plastic-like fat with a much higher melting temperature than the oils it is made from.  This “plastic” fat contains trans fatty acids which are dangerous because they “are sufficiently similar to natural fats that the body readily incorporates them into the cell membrane; once there their altered chemical structure creates havoc with thousands of necessary chemical reactions—everything from energy provision to prostaglandin production.”  [source]

P&G did not know at first about the dangers of trans fatty acids, but here’s what happened when evidence began to appear about problems of heart disease, cancer, learning disorders, and infertility:

“P&G worked behind the scenes to cover them up. One scientist who worked for P&G, Dr. Fred Mattson, can be credited with presenting the US government’s inconclusive Lipid Research Clinics Trials to the public as proof that animal fats caused heart disease. He was also one of the baleful influences that persuaded the American Heart Association to preach the phony gospel of the Lipid Hypothesis.” [source]

The New Crisco

Maybe as a result of these increasing problems from trans fats, P&G divested itself in 2002 of the Crisco brand, which is now produced by J. M. Smucker Co.  The current formula for Crisco is not made with cottonseed oil but is a “blend of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, and partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils.”  [source]  Even though it’s claimed that “a serving” of the new Crisco is trans fat-free, legally defined as containing less than 0.5 g of trans fat, notice that Crisco still includes hydrogenated oils and is still a highly processed, lab-created food.  It probably contains as much trans fat as allowed without having to admit it.  It is not really trans fat-free, nor is any product that includes hydrogenated oils. [source]

The Success of Crisco

P&G’s cottonseed oil Crisco was such a huge marketing success that my mother, grandmother, aunts, and almost every other cook I knew growing up used Crisco to cook just about everything–fried foods like chicken, cakes, pies, biscuits, and on and on.  They believed, just like the advertising said, that everything cooked better in Crisco.  They believed it was healthy and safe–never questioned it.  We didn’t even have any butter or lard in the house. Were people more gullible to marketing then?  No, I don’t think so.  We all need to find out about the foods we eat, know the sources, how they were grown and prepared, and avoid boxes and packages of processed foods.  Never just believe advertising without research!

Although now I try to eat traditional, nutritious foods and cook with healthy fats, I may never know the extent of the damage to my health caused by the Crisco and the other lab-created “foods” I ate for so many years.

Note on Cottonseed Oil:
This is not directly related to the history of Crisco, but I’ve always found it strange that we eat cottonseed oil.  Cotton itself is not and, as far as I know, has never been used as a food, other than for animals.  So why is the oil of the cotton seed called a “vegetable” oil and used in so many foods?  To meet regulations, cottonseed oil must be refined, bleached, and deodorized to remove a toxic compound called gossypol.  Cottonseed oil is used primarily because it is a cheap by-product of the cotton industry. [source]

An additional problem with cottonseed oil today is that, as of 2012, 80% of U.S. cotton is genetically engineered. [source]  More research is needed to understand the effect of genetic engineering on the oil of a plant.

Sources

Crisco: Product-Driven Marketing Evolution by Seth Goding
The Story of Crisco by Marion Harris Neil
Crisco, Wikipedia
The Rise and Fall of Crisco by Linda Joyce Forristal
Man’s Most Important Food is Fat: The Use of Persuasive Techniques in Proctor & Gamble’s Public Relations Campaign to Introduce Crisco, 1911-1913 by Susan C. Pendleton
The Oiling of America by Mary G. Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon
Cottonseed oil, Wikipedia
Healthy Crisco? by Heather Gehlert

Related Real Food Houston posts

10 Reasons Cholesterol is Necessary for Health
Why eating fat doesn’t make you fat!

This post is shared on Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager..

 

Posted in Cancer, Fake Food, Fats, Heart Disease, Nutrition | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Learn how to make nourishing, delicious stocks and broth!

Posted on May 16, 2013 by

Class in making stocksHouston Real Food Nutrition and the Houston-Galveston Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation are hosting a cooking class on May 25, 2013.  Susan Doiron, who gave an excellent demonstration of making fermented foods in January, is offering a class on making rich stocks and soup bases. Susan will provide many samples for participants to taste. Those who attended the fermentation class in January will remember the many delicious fermented foods we all got to taste. The May 25th class begins at 6:00 pm at Partners in Paleo in League City.

Susan has a bonus for this class:  how you can use the leftover bones from making stock to make healthy treats for your dog!

Partners in Paleo will serve dinner after the class at 7:30 pm.  For dinner, there will be soup made with bone broth–your choice of beef or chicken–plus a side and dessert.  Cost of the dinner is $20.  You will love this meal–PinP soups are delicious, rich, and satisfying.

There will be a drawing for a door prize after the class.  I hope you can join us at Partners in Paleo on May 25.  To sign up for the class and dinner, go to Houston Real Food Nutrition.

Other posts you might want to read:

Bone broth from pastured chicken
Meat Stock or Bone Broth – which do you make?

Posted in Events, Health, Houston Real Food Nutrition, Nutrition, Real Food, Traditional Food | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates with Pecan Topping

Posted on May 13, 2013 by

Stuffed DatesHeavenly and decadent, these lightly broiled stuffed dates are delicious and will satisfy your sweet tooth without any additional sweetener!  I love Medjool dates and eat them just plain, but these stuffed dates are way better than even I imagined.  My family and I all loved them.  We found that two stuffed Medjool dates are just about right for one dessert serving.

Ingredients [see below for sources]

Medjool Dates, preferably organic, 2 for each serving
Goat cheese, preferably made from raw goat milk, about 1 teaspoon per stuffed date
Crispy pecans, finely chopped, a sprinkle for each stuffed date

Preparation

Cut the dates almost halfway through lengthwise and remove the seeds. Stuff each date with a teaspoon of goat cheese, then sprinkle with chopped pecans.
Broil briefly just until the pecans begin to brown. I used a toaster oven. Serve immediately and enjoy.

These are very quick to make but taste like they require much more time and effort. They are elegant enough for serving company, but they’re also easy enough to make for a quick dessert for just one or two.

There are many versions of these stuffed dates on the web.  Some call for unnecessary added sweeteners (they are already very sweet), although a few have additions such as cinnamon which might be good.

Food Sources

Organic Medjool dates can be found at markets and groceries that emphasize healthy and organic foods.  I bought my organic Medjool dates at my favorite health food store, Erma’s Nutrition Center in Nassau Bay, Texas.

Raw goat milk cheese is best sourced from a local farmer, which is where I buy mine.  For sources of raw milk and raw milk products in your area, go to RealMilk.com.

Crispy pecans have been soaked and dehydrated at low temperatures to retain enzymes and nutrients while reducing anti-nutrients such as phytates.  If you don’t have a dehydrator (I don’t), there are several online sources.  I buy mine from Wilderness Family Naturals.

This post is shared on Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.

Posted in Dairy, Grain Free, Organic Food, Raw Food, Raw Milk, Real Food, Recipes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The EU Wants to Control All Seeds!

Posted on May 9, 2013 by

Seed packetsThis week the European Commission is considering a new law that would give control of ALL seeds to a new organization–the EU Plant Variety Agency.  Controlling all seeds is not very far from controlling ALL food.  Just think about the extent of power of an organization, government, or corporation that controls ALL FOOD!

The EU’s Plant Reproductive Material Law regulates all plants–vegetables and woodland trees would be controlled immediately, and the law also gives the power to the new Agency to extend control to all other plants of any species without needing any further approval from the EU Commission. in the future. [source]

Under the new law it would be “illegal to grow, reproduce or trade any vegetable seed or tree that has not been tested and approved by . . . [the Agency], who will make a list of approved plants. Moreover, an annual fee must also be paid to the Agency to keep them on the list, and if not paid, they cannot be grown.” [emphasis added] [source]

The EU has already given patents for many seeds to Monsanto, including “36% of all the EU’s tomato varieties, 32% of all peppers, and 49% of all cauliflower—and this process has just begun.” [source]  The new law would give even more control to industrial agriculture.

The law would harm home gardeners because “varieties suitable for home use don’t meet the strict criteria of the Plant Variety Agency, which is only concerned about approving the sort of seed used by industrial farmers.” [emphasis added] “Although the Commission protests otherwise, it becomes obvious that the small farmer—meaning true organic farmer—and the home gardener will be subsumed.” [source]

In fact, there was so much protest over the law that last-minute changes were made that did lessen the impact on home gardeners and small organizations of fewer than 10 employees.  However, even with those added changes, the new law “will halt the professional development of vegetable varieties for home gardeners, organic growers, and small-scale market farmers.” [source]

What could this mean to people who value organic and small-scale farm production? According to Heidi Stevenson, writing at GreenMedInfo, “seed diversity will fade away, leaving us to the whim of Agribusiness and their monoculture slash and burn ethos. . . Rare and heritage seed varieties simply won’t have a chance under the planned regulations. Only those seeds with deep pockets behind them, such as Monsanto and other Agribusiness corporations, will be able to gain approval for their seeds.” [source]

Don’t think for a minute that this new law doesn’t have implications for the U.S.!  If industrial agriculture is behind it (and it almost certainly is), do you really believe that Monsanto, et al., will limit their desire for control of all seeds/food to the EU?

Sources:

All ABOUT THE New EU Seed Law
EU Taking Control of Seeds for Agribusiness Benefit
BREAKING: European Commission to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with government

Posted in Access to Good Food, Access to Real Food, Food Freedom, Food Rights | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Abbott Labs Shareholders Vote to Keep GMOs in Similac Infant Formulas

Posted on April 30, 2013 by

Baby fed with bottleAbbott Laboratories shareholders have rejected a proposal to remove genetically engineered ingredients from Similac infant formulas, according to DairyReporter.com,. [source]

In a press release dated April 23, 2013, As You Sow, an Abbott Labs investor, announced that it would present a resolution at the annual shareholders meeting, April 26, 2013, to have GMOs removed from Similac infant formula. As You Sow cited the “new and credible scientific concerns” about the safety of GMOs and the shift of public opinion illustrated by a recent poll where 91% of consumers wanted foods with GMO content to be labeled.

The proposal was presented to the shareholders by Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow,  and, according to a company spokesperson, it was rejected receiving only 3% of the votes. [source]  It looks like only 3% of shareholders are able to value the health of babies over a potential loss of profit.  Is this more profit at any cost?

Be assured that although shareholders rejected the proposal, it was NOT because a GMO-free infant formula could not be marketed.  Abbott Labs is already doing so in the EU.[source]

How much GMO is in Similac?  A look at the ingredients gives us a clue.  The first ingredient in Similac Sensitive is corn syrup, and, in the U.S., the vast majority of corn is GMO.  Being listed first means that there’s more corn syrup in the formula than any other ingredient.  The GMO content increases if the second ingredient, sugar, is made from beets, which, if not organic, is probably also GMO.  At least for now, cane sugar is not GMO.  Soy oil, another likely GMO ingredient, is number five on the list. [source]

Similac soy formula has even more GMO content than Similac Sensitive, probably more than 70% since the first few listed ingredients include 42.6% corn syrup, 14.7% soy protein isolate, 10.1% sugar (if beet sugar), and 8.4% soy oil.  All of these are probably GMO, if not organic, and nothing on the label says any ingredient is organic.  [source]  Of course, GMOs aren’t the only problem with Similac soy formula, but that’s a subject for another post.

Although some people thought there might be strong support for the proposal, the shareholders overwhelming rejected the removal of GMOs from infant formula.

Sources:

DairyReporter.com, Abbott Laboratories shareholders reject proposal to remove GMOs from infant formula
As You Sow, Investors Ask Abbott Labs to Take GMOs Out of Similac Baby Formula
Cornucopia Institute, GMOs Tell Makers of Similac That Our Babies Are Not “Human Lab Rats”
Natural News, Action Alert: Demand that Similac take GMOs out of its infant formulas
Natural News, It’s not the bugs in Similac that make me sick – let’s recall the other ingredients
Cornucopia Institute, Pull GMOs Out of Similac? Shareholders Vote No

Better than commercial formula:

Baby Formula Video

Information about soy formula:

Food Renegade, Soy Infant Formula: A Formula For Disaster
Weston A. Price Foundation, Why Babies Should Not be Fed Soy

Photo credit

Posted in Babies, GMOs, Health, Nursing | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Do you want to know what’s in your food? Moms Across America do!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by

Moms Across AmericaIf you care about the health of your family, you should absolutely look into this group:  Moms Across America March July 4th for labeling GMOs and the right to know what’s in our food.  There are events and marches planned in many states, including Alaska and Hawaii.  Here’s the statement of founder Zen Honeycutt: “I am marching for the future of food, the health of our children and national right to know what is in our food.”  We ALL need to be concerned about these things.  I’ve posted before about the dangers of genetically engineered crops (GMOs) and the pesticides used on GMOs (list below).  These crops have NOT been proven safe in long-term studies, and independent testing is strongly discouraged (or prevented) by Monsanto and other biotech companies.  These Moms are not silent and “do nothing.”  They are organizing a protest about the secrecy surrounding GMOs, the absolute refusal of companies to allow labeling of foods that contain them.  You can sign up for one of the events or you can organize an event in your home town.

This group is doing far more than just organizing a march.  They are also publishing information that reveals the harm caused by GMOs and their accompanying pesticides.  The latest article, What is Roundup ( Glyphosate) Doing to Our Families? : New Study, gives a devastating picture of the harm done to the family of a farmer who used glyphosate (the herbicide in Roundup which is heavily applied to many GMO crops).  Here’s some of what the study found:

The family in the study lived 1.5 miles away from their fields that were sprayed with Roundup. The father would spray the fields, come home and wash his hands thoroughly, but not take a shower. Apparently he hugged his children, because the levels of glyphosate found in their urine were far above what has shown to be toxic in animals. The glyphosate level in the  father’s urine was 9.5 ppm and the children’s was 2 ppm. It is scientifically documented that infertility is caused by glyphosate at .5 ppm and endocrine disruption (which causes birth defects) is caused by glyphosate at .2 ppm.

 The farmer and his wife had two children with birth defects including imperforated anus, growth hormone deficiency, hypospadias (which is when the urethra of the male penis’s opening is not at the end but under, and along the side instead), heart defect and micro penis.

How tragic! This is just one example of what is being covered up. This is the type of damage that the biotech companies DON’T want you to know about.

There is another new study, ”Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases,” that says “glyphosate residues have been found primarily in corn, sugar, soy and wheat.”  These are the main GMO crops and are in foods many people eat every day?  This study connects the use of glyphosate to many diseases which are increasing exponentially in Western cultures.  There are links to all of these studies here.

The Moms published an amazing comparison of GMO corn versus non-GMO corn, Stunning Corn Comparison: GMO versus NON GMO and an update with more information.  Non-GMO corn was found to be 20 times more nutritious than GMO corn!  Twenty times! The biotech companies (and the FDA) say we don’t need to label GMO foods because there is no substantial difference between GMOs and non-GMOs!  Twenty times more nutritious is not a substantial difference?  Which one do you want to eat?  Although Monsanto will deny this, their actions indicate that they already know about the differences.  Here’s what Zen Honneycutt says: “We suspect they have this data already, as they pressured the EPA to raise the EPA standard of Glyphosate from 6.2 to 13 ppm the year before this report came out. They also had the Monsanto Protection Act rider passed in the nick of time from when this information was posted. We believe they knew harm could come from their GMO corn and had the ” Monsanto protection act” passed to pre-empt lawsuits.”  Would a company ignorant of these harms take so many steps to ensure that it would not be held liable for damage?

Hear from the Moms about why they are putting so much effort into exposing GMOs:

Founder, Zen Honeycutt:

Co-founder, Kathleen Hallal:

I first heard about this effort from Howard Vlieger of Verity Farms, who is an expert on the dangers of GMO foods and a tireless campaigner to educate people about them.

Please support the Moms and other groups that are trying to help us know what’s in our food!

Join them at Moms Across America March July 4th.

Follow Moms Across America on Facebook.

More about GMOs on Real Food Houston:

It’s Not Pretty Behind the Biotech Veil, an Interview with Howard Vlieger
What Does Genetically Engineered (or GMO) Mean?
Glyphosate is already in our food, air, and water: What is it and why should we care?
Monsanto wants glyphosate limit in food to be raised up to 150 times
Eating genetically engineered corn causes obesity
Double GM Whammy for the Monarch Butterfly
Why Was an Antibiotic-Resistant GE Potato Approved?

More about GMOs on other sites:

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Institute for Responsible Technology
The Weston A. Price Foundation on GMOs

Posted in Food Freedom, Food Rights, GMOs, Health, Health Freedom, Poisons | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment