It’s State Fair time again, and I thought I’d trot out last year’s post on healthy eats at the fair.
Filed under: Food
About a week ago, there were a few stories on the news about consumers starting to get a little sick of the constant “we’re green” and “it’s eco-friendly” marketing talk coming out of nearly every business on the planet these days.
And then, earlier this week, I heard what some are saying is the ultimate in “eco friendly” marketing nonsense. Domino certified “carbon free” sugar. Sugar without Carbon? That is what they are literally saying, gramatically speaking.
That is, of course, not possible, from a chemical standpoint. The molecular formula of sucrose (aka table sugar) is C12H22O11. And C = carbon.
However, apparently, what Domino means is that their production process is carbon-neutral. From their website:
The label CarbonFree® means the product’s carbon footprint is rendered neutral by cutting green house gases. And that’s a sweet thing for all of us!
Our certification is unique because our Florida-farmed products’ carbon neutrality is the result of our own production and supply of clean, renewable energy, which replaces the use of fossil fuels. Our renewable energy facility generates eco-friendly power for our sugar milling and refining operations as well as tens of thousands of homes.
Congress is considering taxing soda pop to pay for the health care “overhaul” proposed by President Obama. This is being recommended by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. While this might at first glance seem like an OK thing, I want to talk for a minute about my grave concerns with this idea, and what those have to do with natural living.
This quote from the Wall Street Journal article quoted above. (Pause for a moment while I consider how much I miss my daily WSJ read that I endulged in when I was working. It was, in fact, a part of my job. Getting paid to read the paper, doesn’t get much better than that.)
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group that pressures food companies to make healthier products, plans to propose a federal excise tax on soda, certain fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and ready-to-drink teas. It would not include most diet beverages. Excise taxes are levied on goods and manufacturers typically pass them on to consumers.
They are going to tax drinks with sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup. Not those with artificial sweetener.
Thus, should the Federal Government decide to go along with this proposal, they will essentially be saying that the official US Government position is that artificial sweeteners (man-made chemicals) are healthier than and preferred over natural sweeteners (sugar, honey, etc.).
In fact, since diet pops will be a bit cheaper (assuming the beverage industry doesn’t raise the price of diet at the same time, just because they can), Congress might actually push consumers into choosing artificial sweeteners over natural sweeteners.
If you need a refresher course on why artificial sweetener is not exactly health food, check this article at Wikipedia, information from Mercola, this list of articles, and this from Dr Sears (scroll down a bit).
From the Dr Sears website:
Artificial sweeteners (e.g. aspartame, saccharine) were originally developed as a sugar substitute for diabetics, but then the manufacturer discovered a huge market in a calorie-conscious society, one that has also been misfed a lot of hype about the hazardous effects of sugar. Artificial sweeteners do not usually satisfy a body that is craving sweets or carbohydrates. In fact, they may so accustom the taste buds to sweet flavors that sweetener-users want more sugar rather than less. (snip)
Also, some scientists are concerned about biochemical quirks of artificial sweeteners. The sweetener aspartame (Nutrasweet) is basically a combination of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Amino acids have different effects on the brain than sugars do. In natural foods these amino acids enter the brain in company with other naturally- occurring nutrients. The amino acids on their own may have an unnatural effect, particularly on neurotransmitters.
When we let the Federal Government start deciding which foods are healthy and which are not, where does it end? I’m all in favor of Americans making healthier choices, but when the government starts sticking their noses into the issue, I get concerned. Because what if their definition of what’s healthy is different from my definition? Or your definition?
Will butter be taxed in favor of margarine? Whole milk be taxed in favor of skim milk? Whole foods advocates know that natural foods are better than created foods, and that whole foods are better than parts of foods. But society in general believes that margarine and skim milk, being lower in fat, are the healthier choices. What if Congress started taxing real butter (or even real milk) and whole milk? Real yogurt, but not “lite” yogurt? I don’t think these questions are so far-fetched if Congress decides to take this recommendation seriously (which, note, they have not yet indicated their intentions to do so).
This is definitely an issue to keep an eye on for everyone in the Natural Living community. And, um, stop drinking pop. Even with real sugar, it’s not doing you any favors, health-wise.
*I’m studiously avoiding getting into details about High Fructose Corn Syrup here. No, I don’t believe it’s a good choice just because it was once corn.
It’s Farmer’s Market season! Here are the markets in the Des Moines metro:
- Downtown, Saturday mornings (7-12)
- West Glen, also Saturday mornings, starting at 10.
- Urbandale, at Living History Farms, Thursday evenings
- Drake, by the Drake Diner, Wednesday evenings (4-7)
- East Village, Friday Evenings, 4:30-7:30
- Valley Junction, Tuesday evenings.
Other Polk County Farmer’s Markets are listed here.
Filed under: Food
Diana blogs today about her experience with the Franklin Community Garden. I would imagine that most people in my part of town (near Roosevelt) could benefit from the Community Garden over by the Franklin Library – we have these beautiful giant trees…. but they shade our yards and leave no room for a garden!
Interested in participating in the Community Garden program? Teva Dawson is the coordinator, and she may be reached through email: TLDawson@dmgov.org
The ones that imply that anyone who doesn’t consume corn syrup is an idiot just doing it because “people” say it’s bad?
Well, apparently, mercury is found in corn syrup. That’s hardly harmless! (not to mention all the other problems with corn syrup.)
Stuff Happens. It combines two awesome things. Bill Nye and discussion of the ins and outs of making better choices. For example, how eating conventional bacon is endangering the lives of sea birds. On the show I’m watching now, he just pointed out how utterly stupid it is that Iowa imports Strawberries, grapes, and other foods we could totally grow here.
Filed under: Food
Cityview has an excellent article this week about the way we get our food in America. A few of my favorite quotes:
When future historians study those 35 years of cheap food, they will surely marvel that humans could have sustained a system that suspended the laws of logic. They will shake their heads at the labyrinthine creation that made it possible to grow garlic in inner China, harvest it, package it, ship it to California, truck it to Iowa and sell it for less than it costs an Iowa farmer to grow garlic and drive it to Des Moines.
The system that created our cheap food also stopped Iowa farmers from raising things for Iowa humans to eat.
Please note that the same article mentions several POSITIVE steps that Wal-mart is taking to improve the environment, including persuading suppliers to use smaller packaging and buying produce from local suppliers.
Filed under: Food
I was browsing through this week’s Juice (because I’m in it and had no idea until several people mentioned it to me – that interview was a looooong time ago!) and was quite disappointed to see this comment on page 39.
(and what we’re over) Natural peanut butter. I tried to give it a chance, but the texture is too grainy. You have to keep it in the fridge, so it doesn’t spread. Also, it doesn’t taste good.
Um, what?
I seriously cannot imagine anyone sampling the locally-made nut butters and walking away disappointed. My favorites are honey roasted peanut, and cashew butter. (I don’t have a favorite producer.) They have so much more flavor than Jif or Skippy or whatever else Hy-Vee has on their shelves. And grainy? Hm. I haven’t noticed, but I tend to get chunky style, maybe that makes a difference? (I detested chunky style peanut butter until I tried the natural variety.)
But then I wonder if “BM,” the author of the snippet, had tried the mass-produced natural peanut butter. I will admit, my first foray into natural nut butters was Skippy’s Natural Peanut Butter. And, well, that jar ended up in the garbage after about two uses. Yuk. It was grainy. It lacked flavor. It was gross.
Then, the first time I ever walked into the Metro Market (now closed), I sampled some natural peanut butter from one of their vendors. It was like a little party in my mouth. Our family went through that tub in less than a month. (And when I say “our family,” you should know that Wally was not eating solids yet and Randy really doesn’t consume peanut butter.)
Since then, I’ve tried nearly every variety produced locally, as well as the Maranthana brand, available at Campbell’s. Yum, yum, yum. Maranthana is not bad, but I do prefer the local ones.
Let’s address the specific concerns raised by BM. (I know I could flip to the front of the publication and track down who BM is, but I’m really too lazy.) 1) Grainy. I think that’s more a factor of whatever brand he/she has tried, as certainly not all natural pbs are grainy. 2) needs to be refrigerated. True. Trade-off of not being pumped full of nastiness that keep the oils from going rancid. 3) hard to spread. Yes and no. Take the stuff out of the fridge a few minutes before you want to use it if you’re using it on bread. I personally always eat mine on toast, so what I do is plop a glob on the hot toast, let it sit for a minute, and then spread it after it’s had a chance to melt a bit. mmmm. 4) doesn’t taste good. Obviously a matter of taste, but I think this has more to do with choosing the wrong stuff!!
Farm Fresh Eggs. Yum. Despite certain “experts” insisting that there is no measurable difference between the way that factory eggs taste and the way that small-farm eggs taste, I beg to differ.
Our family has been exclusively eating eggs from Sugar Creek Family Farm for over a year now. About a month ago, I was eating eggs that Randy had made for us for breakfast at our family’s inherited time-share at Okoboji and realized that something was NOT right. It took me a good few minutes to figure it out – these were eggs from the store, not from the farm. They just weren’t as tasty. I needed salt and pepper. The flavor was flatter, less…well…flavorful.
Beyond the taste aspect, there’s the whole process of farming the eggs. I’ve been to Abby’s farm, I’ve seen how the hens live. I’ve been to “conventional” egg farms, seen how those hens live. And, well, I’ve watched a few too many episodes of Dirty Jobs, as well. I’d take eggs from the undoubtedly healthier (and happier) hens at a small family farm any day.
Besides – look at those eggs! Just look at them! How pretty they are. (The color of the shell is only an indicator of the hen’s breed, and nothing else, but my eyes appreciate the variety found in a box of eggs from Sugar Creek.)
Want to learn more about eggs? This is a good article to start.
