Salubrious Seeds

It has been well marketed by the “healthy” food industry (if such a thing exists) and highly recommended by a number of dieticians that quinoa and other exotic grains and edible plaints. However, slowly but surely, their fame is fading. It is not due to lack of their nutritional value – they are marvelous under certain circumstances. But because their consumption may not be right and just as once thought. An article from Mother Jones offers more details “Are Quinoa, Chia Seeds, and Other “Superfoods” a Scam?”

Fermented foods, vegetables in particular, which culturally may be much closer to the diet of many of us than delicious but exotic foods (as above), have shown to boost an immune system. More in the piece by Dr. Mercola Learn How to Make Cultured Veggies at Home to Boost Your Immune System.

From Food Day, this is a must to read, watch and show to children: Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory: A Children’s Story about Processed Food

This may be slightly of the topic but significant on the topic of prevention and providing equal access to treatments: Medicaid Expansion Denial Will Cost States Billions: Report.

Further, Sen. Bernie Sanders describes What Can We Learn From Denmark? about child care, raising families, education, healthcare, taxes, unemployment and security for elderly and disables.

Celebrate with Connecticut (CT) as a bill to label GMO food, based on a compromise between the original Senate bill and the version passed by House, has been unanimously voted by the Senate with a support from the House leadership and Gov. Malloy. YES!!!

However, on the GMO front, we still have a long way to go. Did you hear about or read the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement that test results of plant samples from an Oregon farm indicate the presence of genetically engineered (GE) glyphosate-resistant wheat plants? GMO wheat has NEVER been approved for sale in the US. Non-GMO Project has also begun their independent investigation. Japan and South Korea have frozen U.S. imports. A disturbing YouTube video from the UK shows a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese imported from the U.S. with a label declaring the product is “made from genetically modified wheat”. Are Americans eating GMO wheat without knowing it? Watch/read Imported U.S. Mac and Cheese Label: ‘Made from GM Wheat’.

What do you think are Top 5 worst “chemically altered” foods to avoid?

Germs – they support humans’ metabolism and immune system among other very beneficial roles. They are Some of [Our] Best Friends by Mark Bittman (NYT). So why are we destroying them?!

The pharmaceutical industry made Americans addicted to prescription drugs. However, one physician is fighting back. Meet the Doctor Big Pharma Can’t Shut Up.

Read about 3 Staple Foods that Big Ag Has Stripped of All Nutrients from AlterNet.

On one of my favorite topics, chocolate, one Chef Speaks Out for Fair Chocolate (Civil Eats). See my previous post related to the topic.

The Farm Bill is back on the agenda and it will be voted by the Senate. However, as Food and Water Watch describes in the article, Farm Bill 2013: The Bill Goes to the Senate Floor… Again, there are significant and some very worrisome differences between the Senate and the House versions. Dr. Marion Nettle finds the bill sarcastic, sober, troubling.

Food for thought on a New Study Links GMO Food To Leukemia.

More on GMOs and the price we are beginning to pay for using them can be found in the article by Tom Laskawy in Grist. In Frankenfoods: Good for Big Business, bad for the rest of us he concludes that “Corporations made billions on GMOs and all we got was ethanol and an unsustainable diet.”

In Kitchen Little, Mark Bittman talks about how “cooking went out of style for most Americans, and that a positive approach to it could help to change matters” and assist in developing healthier eating habits especially among children. He promotes ChopChop, a Boston-based cooking magazine for the whole family.

Bruce Friedrich from Huffington Post in Eating As Though the Environment Mattered presents how immense inefficiencies in the production of animal meat for human consumption cause environmental degradation of cathostrophic proportions. According to the article, “Eating Meat Causes More Global Warming Than Everything Else Combined.”

On the topic of the natural environment, here are Five Easy Ways to Reduce Food Waste from Civil Eats.

In a recent report, World Health Organization (WHO) warns that common, everyday chemicals may be causing cancer, asthma, birth defects and reduced fertility.

Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner report on how Your Body Is a Corporate Test Tube or “How Americans Became Exposed to Biohazards in the Greatest Uncontrolled Experiment Ever Launched.”

Did you know that U.S. Taxpayers (your tax money) are footing bill that promotes (or rather forces on) controversial biotech crops (GMOs) developed by Monsanto and other seed makers abroad?

Although there has been much progress, the use tobacco continues to be a significant health hazard. According to CDC, “Each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46.6 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes.” Hence the question from Michele Simon, a feverish public health lawyer and advocate, as to When Will FDA Stand Up to Big Tobacco?

According to AlterNet, “Reliable sources in Washington D.C. have informed the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that Monsanto has begun secretly lobbying its Congressional allies to attach one or more ‘Monsanto Riders’ or amendments to the 2013 Farm Bill that would preempt or prohibit states from requiring labels on genetically engineered (GE) foods” (GMOs). To read more about it, view How Monsanto Is Using Cronies in Congress to Take Away States’ Rights to Label Genetically Modified Foods?

Tom Philpott from Mother Jones enlightens us on 7 Dodgy Food Practices Banned in Europe But Just Fine Here (the US). (Warning: your hair will stand up)

Over 5000 children’s products contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and reproductive problems, according to reports filed with the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology).  The Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States just published a report revealing the chemicals.

Natural Society describes the many benefits of … see for yourself.

Jill Richardson in her article, The Price of Our Fertilizer Addiction, in Other Words, describes the benefits of organic farming and suggests that “Compared to the lifetime of grieving ahead for the people of West, Texas, a few years of reduced crop yields is a small price to pay for converting from “conventional” to organic farming.”

As written previously, studies in Europe, Russia, and other countries are showing that genetically modified food (GMOs) cause serious health problems in laboratory mice and rats. In Food Revolution Network, Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out On The Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food. The article explains that “In 2009 the American Academy of Environmental Medicine called for a moratorium of GM foods, safety testing and labeling. Their review of the available literature at the time noted that animals show serious health risks associated with GM food consumption including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell signaling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system. Monsanto writes “There is no need to test the safety of GM foods”. So long as the engineered protein is safe, foods from GM crops are substantially equivalent and they cannot pose any health risks.” The US Food and Drug Administration waived all levels of safety testing in 1996 before approving the commercialization of these crops. Nothing more than voluntary research is necessary, and the FDA does not even want to see the results.” (see the whole article for the complete explanation)

It also mentions previously shared report from Earth Open Source, “GMO Myths and Truths.”

In Highlands Today, Tracy Hodge lists the benefits of organic gardening.

It is no surprise that we are all Guinea pigs for big agrochemical and pharmaceutical companies. AlterNet’s You Are a Guinea Pig: What Happens to Your Body As It’s Bombarded by Toxic Chemicals in Your Home reiterate the issue by providing explanation and examples.

GMOs continue to be in the news as Washington State GMO labeling initiative to go to the voters in a November ballot. More from the GMOs world. Albeit an older article, from 2008, it eloquently and lucidly delineates the Potential Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods. Worth viewing! And if nothing else, Why GMO Supporters Should Embrace Labels.

It has become wildly acknowledged that factory farming in the US has greatly contributed to global warming (and the destruction of Southeastern, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut coastlines). OCS reminds about Climate Chaos: Boycott Genetically Engineered and Factory-Farmed Foods. As the article points out, “Traditionally conservative World Bank scientists estimated in 2009 that animal farming worldwide emits at least 51 percent of the world’s greenhouse gasses every year.”

Bees – the very basic of life propagation – in the USA continue to suffer. While Europe Bans Bee-Harming Pesticides, US Keeps Spraying. And ‘Victory for bees’ as European Union bans neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for destroying bee population.

On a positive note, Illinoisans Firmly Reject Bill That Would Allow Fracking in Illinois as “the detrimental effects of fracking are numerous and well documented.”

Also, found in Kitchn, Two Terrific New Podcasts have just become available: Talking With My Mouth Full and Slate’s Table to Farm. And as mentioned in Kitchn (I concur) other good podcasts include Along Good Food, The Splendid Table, America’s Test Kitchen Radio, Spilled Milk, Joy the Baker/Homefries, and The Sporkful.

Beans are a marvel. Now more reasons to enjoy them as 3 Studies Link Beans to Cancer Prevention from Natural Society.

Plenty of interesting articles and editorials reiterate in a refreshing way issues and concerns regarding natural environment, food, health and other matters worth attention.

On chemicals that are part of our daily life – cosmetics, detergents and alike – New York Time (NYT) article, Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?, enlightens us about no requirement for testing of those chemicals before they are supplied to your store. As the article states, “Unlike pharmaceuticals or pesticides, industrial chemicals do not have to be tested before they are put on the market.”

It appears that after all an apple a day may keep the doctor away, and physicians are writing prescriptions for fresh fruit and vegetables. More details in An Apple a Day: Doctors and Organizations Writing a New Nutrition Rx.

A majority of us presumes that most germs in the kitchen are in the sponge, on microwave keypads or around a trash can. But that is not the case. Read Where Germs Hide in Your Kitchen? in NYT to learn about the most contaminated spots in your kitchen. You will be surprised!

It would be terrific if GMOs issues could generate more positive news. No such a thing for the time being. NYT article, Food Politics Crates Rift in Panel on Labeling, writes on a registered dietician, Carole Bartolotto, previously on the panel of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, who has been removed from the committee for “pointing out that two of its members had ties to Monsanto, one of the biggest makers of genetically modified seeds” while working on creating policies on genetically modified foods (GMOs).

On the same subject of GMOs, Non-GMO Project is a great resource.

In Food Politics, Marion Nestle explains Why Regulate? Because it works.

A study out of Australia on childhood brain cancer warns that “PARENTS who have their homes professionally treated for termites are twice as likely to have a child with a brain tumor.”

I consider chocolate to be one of the miracle of life. Forlornly, however, its future appears rather bleak. In The Future of Chocolate, Maryam Henein write about chocolate’s history, difficulties of growing it and points out that chocolate became a commodity and not a food in recent times. Hence, sustainable supply of chocolate is on the verge of collapse. Genetically modified chocolate is a very scary prospect although very much entertained by scientists from companies like Mars, Hershey, and Nestlé who diligently are working on developing such a product.

Last but not least, in the February 2013 edition of Wired UK, an article explains that, “A laser tool funded by the European Space Agency to measure carbon on Mars has been re-appropriated to detect fake honey.” The issue of honey laundering is not news. As the reports states, “According to a Food Safety News investigation, more than a third of honey consumed in the US has been smuggled from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. To make matters worse, some honey brokers create counterfeit honey using a small amount of real honey, bulked up with sugar, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery (a type of unrefined sugar) and other additives — known as honey laundering.”

There it is. Enough for this time around.

Last week President Obama signed into law a spending bill with a controversial rider (Farmer Assurance Provision, Sec. 735 of HR 933) named the “Monsanto Protection Act” by the critics and activists.  It is important to notice that the provision was added to an essential spending bill without congressional hearings. It now protects Monsanto and its genetically modified creations/foods not only from the United States government including federal courts. The rider says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks.

Today, Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman, issued apologies to the public “stating that the legislation was buried deep within a government spending bill that was required to ‘prevent a government shutdown.” The question remains. Why did she not act sooner before the public fury? Let’s see what happens when the provision expires in six months. In a meantime, all need to voice their dissatisfaction with the bill thru contacting (calling, e-mailing, etc.) the president’s and the legislators’ offices.

For more information, view:

Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act Into Law After Promising GMO Labeling in 2007  by Natural Society

The Monsanto Protection Act? by Democracy Now

Monsanto Teams up with Congress to Shred the Constitution by Appetite for Profit