Fats – some can be beneficial

Here is a great post by Alana Sugar, nutritionist at Whole Foods Market.  She provides an excellent article on what fats are good for the body and how they are beneficial.   You can read about it here.

Great Article From New York Times on Organic and Locally Grown Foods

This is a great article that really highlights the delimmas we face and the hope there is to change the way the vast majority of people thinks about food and how our food is produced.  

By ANDREW MARTIN

Published: March 21, 2009

ANAHEIM, Calif.

AS tens of thousands of people recently strolled among booths of the nation’s largest organic and natural foods show here, munching on fair-trade chocolate and sipping organic wine, a few dozen pioneers of the industry sneaked off to an out-of-the-way conference room.

Although unit sales of organic food have leveled off and even declined lately, versus a year earlier, the mood among those crowded into the conference room was upbeat as they awaited a private screening of a documentary called “Food Inc.” — a withering critique of agribusiness and industrially produced food.   

Story here.

Allergy Season and Mucus… The Season is Here

Proteolytic enzymes are specifically functional proteins found in our bodies and throughout nature that aid in digesting or breaking down proteins.  In our body’s protease’s are most famously involved with our digestive tract.  

We are aware that due to proteolytics ability to break down proteins, there is an anti-inflammatory effect.  By digesting the protein plugs in the vessels around an injury, accumulated inflammatory fluid (swelling) is allowed to drain aiding in pain relief and speedy healing.  The anti-inflammatory and healing attributes of protease’s are well known while some other very timely and useful characteristics remain largely unknown to most people.  

At this time of the year many of us are beginning our seasonal battle with allergies.  The congestion and runny noses leading to sneezing and general unhappiness.  Proteolytic enzymes have the ability to ease the mucus production, break up the congestion and even clear pollen, bacteria and viruses from the body like.  Clinically we know this works and works well.  Exactly how it works is harder to say with certainty.  Protease’s do rise to a measurable blood level when taken on an empty stomach and will therefore be circulated throughout the body scavenging various allergens and probably finding their way to the mucus membranes.  Once around the mucus membranes, the thickened mucus is broken down, thinned out and thus the sinus’ throat and nasal passages are cleared.  

“Not so new” news on red meat

There is a “new” study out by the National Cancer Institute stating that “Men and women who eat higher amounts of red meat and processed meat have a higher risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, and other causes compared to those who eat less, according to a new study.”    Report

This information is widely known already, but we are glad to see it making the news again. Not only red meat but processed meats are being talked about. It’s time to change our eating habits. It is also time for a shift in the corporate powerhouses that supply our food. Local, organic farmers need our support!

Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

By MARIAN BURROS

 

Published: March 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of the South Lawn on Friday to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets — the president does not like them — but arugula will make the cut.

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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Sam Kass, an assistant White House chef, left, and Dale Haney, the White House gardener, at the site of the new vegetable garden on the South Lawn.  Read the rest of the store here.