Organic Foods

Purple Carrots The Next Superfood

Dr. Suess books aren’t the only place you’d expect to find funny-colored foods.  We get these purple carrots from our home-delivered Organic Grocer service. I juice them, and slice them up for salads.  have you tried them?  What do recipes do YOU use them in?  Let us know in the comment section below.

by Kelsey Munro

THEY may sound like something out of Alice in Wonderland but purple carrots are not only real, they’re being positioned as the next superfood.

A new Australian study has shown the ancient carrot variety is high in anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants.

”They’re the original carrots, from ancient Persia,” explained the study author Lindsay Brown, professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Southern Queensland.

Like heirloom tomato varieties, purple carrots are one of a huge range of fruit and vegetables almost lost in the age of single supermarket varieties. Claims have long been made about purple carrots’ health benefits, but until recently these remained untested.

Professor Brown ran a pre-clinical trial on rats, using purple carrots grown in Queensland. For 16 weeks, the rats were fed a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet designed to mimic the effects of an unhealthy western diet.

The rats quickly grew fat, developed high blood pressure, became glucose intolerant (or pre-diabetic) and incurred liver and heart damage. Then, for the second eight weeks, the scientists added purple carrot juice to the rats’ food. The results, to be published tomorrow in the British Journal of Nutrition, surprised even the researchers.

”Everything went back to normal,” Professor Brown said. ”The blood pressure went down, the collagen in the heart was back to normal, the liver histology was back to normal, the liver enzymes, the glucose tolerance, the fat pads were all back to normal, despite continuing this … terrible diet.”

Professor Brown cautions that purple carrots should be consumed in combination with a moderate diet and exercise.

There are up to 28 times more anthocyanins – the antioxidant that creates the purple-red pigment in blueberries and raspberries – in purple carrots than there are in orange ones.

To read the original article at TheAge.com click HERE


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The Year-Round Gardener: Hydroponics Offers A Healthy Alternative To Organics

Organic food is not a fad; it’s a phenomenon that’s here to stay. The principle goal of organic agriculture is to minimize soil degradation and erosion, decrease pollution while optimizing biological productivity in harmony with the environment. There is no disputing that organically grown produce is better for the environment and tastes better than soil grown crops that use polluting, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and systemic pesticides.

First let’s look briefly at some of the requirements and challenges organic growers must meet and overcome to be certified organic, then what it means to be organically grown, and finally why hydroponically grown produce is a healthy alternative to organically grown produce and possibly better for you.

[click to continue…]

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Definitely Something Wrong With This Picture! | Hardened Criminal?

There’s DEFINITELY something wrong with this picture!


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News Flash! Hexane in the Mix: From Soy Milk and Snack bars to iPod factories!

The latest news on the toxic chemical hexane is coming out of China this week with 4 workers reportedly died from work hexane exposure at the United Win iPod factory at which they worked.

Nutiva has been a leader in the organic food world alerting people to the dangers of hexane for both workers and consumers, and was one of the first brands to label its products non-hexane.  We look forward to a day when hexane is banned from food production altogether.

Many well-known food brands offer soy-based products that are processed with hexane.

Such brands include Clif, Luna, Kashi, Silk, Nature’s Way, Bragg’s,  and Genisoy, to name just a few.

Listen to this explosive YouTube Health Ranger Mike Adams  on hexane HERE.

From WIKIpedia: In the industry, hexanes are used in the formulation of glues for shoes, leather products, and roofing. They are also used to extract cooking oils from seeds, for cleansing and degreasing all sorts of items, and in textile manufacturing.

In in the news, from China Daily:

Workers protest over pay, toxic chemicals

SHANGHAI: Angry employees who attacked a Taiwanese company in Suzhou, Jiangsu province over management and pay disputes last Friday said yesterday they were not satisfied with the local government’s investigation into the case.
“The truth has been hidden from public view. There are people dying from long-term exposure to the toxicant used in the factory but no one is paying attention to that. There needs to be further investigation,” a worker surnamed Zhu, who took part in Friday’s gathering yet declined to give his full name, told China Daily yesterday.
He said at least four workers had died from overexposure to hexane, a toxic chemical workers had been asked to use for cleaning touch panels manufactured at United Win (China) Technology Ltd Co. The company is a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Wintek Corporation, one of the world’s leading producers of small mobile phone panels and touch panels.

SHANGHAI: Angry employees who attacked a Taiwanese company in Suzhou, Jiangsu province over management and pay disputes last Friday said yesterday they were not satisfied with the local government’s investigation into the case.

“The truth has been hidden from public view. There are people dying from long-term exposure to the toxicant used in the factory but no one is paying attention to that. There needs to be further investigation,” a worker surnamed Zhu, who took part in Friday’s gathering yet declined to give his full name, told China Daily yesterday.

He said at least four workers had died from overexposure to hexane, a toxic chemical workers had been asked to use for cleaning touch panels manufactured at United Win (China) Technology Ltd Co. The company is a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Wintek Corporation, one of the world’s leading producers of small mobile phone panels and touch panels.

Continue reading this important article at ChinaDaily

Help spread the word about this vital issue,  please Twitter, Blog, and Facebook this story and ask food suppliers their position on hexane in their foods.

Shoppers have the power to shift this debate and create a more healthy and sustainable world for all.

Remember Don’t Panic- Go Organic ~!

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The balancing act of grocery shopping

This article comes to us from The Star Tribune.com, and addresses an important issue for every household today.

Author Credit: Liza Schwab

Today’s blog came to me as I was making my weekly grocery list.  As a mom with not just 4 children but, 4 children with food issues, grocery shopping isn’t an easy task.  I have 3 children(plus a husband) who can’t do any dairy products, I have 3 children who can’t do any wheat products, and I can’t (or shouldn’t) eat sugar.   Add to that a son with Asperger’s who can only eat Organic fruits and veggies, Organic/free range meats, and no chemicals, preservatives, food colorings, soy, wheat/gluten, dairy/casein, sugar, or eggs and you have quite the interesting grocery list each week.

Not only do I have to be a very creative chef, after all, I am cooking dinner nightly for 6 people that all seem to have differently likes and dislikes and 4 of those people are children.  I am also usually shopping at 3-5 different grocery stores to find the foods my family can eat.  I also need to figure out how to do it all without coupons(as you rarely find coupons for organic, free range, or wheat free/dairy free items.) and without going over budget.  You would all cringe if you knew my monthly grocery bills, they are truly insane!

Not only are my lists long and descriptive, many of my cookbooks are now obsolete and I am fending for myself in cooking many of my meals.  Our family’s motto is, “If God made it, you can eat it.” That is how my children know if it is something they can eat or not.  Or course, they haven’t figured out that God didn’t make Hemp milk, Soy Milk, or rice cheese yet but, hey I am doing the best I can here.

My favorite question I get from people is, “What DO you eat?!”  Well, we eat pretty much the same things everyone else does but, I prepare ALL of it.   No boxed dinners, no takeout pizza, no fast food and no candy.   All of my recipes I have created or substituted ingredients as needed.  We still have pancakes, homemade bread, pasta, homemade pizza and mac and cheese.  The only difference is I make all of it from scratch and our ingredients are different.  We use gluten free/wheat free flour, Xantham gum(is our best friend for baking), egg replacer, soy or hemp milk(depending on if my son is eating it or not), blue agave(for sugar), organic rice pasta, and rice cheese just to mention a few.

The hardest part isn’t finding what the children can eat, it is finding the stores that carry what they can eat.  We go to Whole Foods in Uptown for our soy free/dairy free butter, hemp milk, rice cheese, Clif Organic/100% fruit snacks(for son’s lunches), and various fruits and veggies(all organic), they also are the only place I can find that sells the large multipacks of Silk chocolate soy milk in single serve for my daughter’s lunch!  I  head to Trader Joe’s in St. Louis Park to get our Organic rice pasta, rice noodle bowls(they are $.99 each compared to $2-3+ other places), Organic/100% fruit strips, 100% pure maple syrup.   I visit Costco(either SLP or EP)for our Organic/free range fryer chickens, Organic/free range chicken breasts, and Organic Blue Agave.  I then go to my store next door (truly is almost right next door) Cub in Edina for things like Organic salsa(they carry a brand that has no sugar in it), Organic tortilla chips, basics like brown rice, nitrate free bacon/pepperoni, soy yogurt and of course, Organic fruits and veggies.  Or there is also Super Target in Edina that carries the girls favorite wheat free donuts and nitrate free ham.  Last but, not least is our milkman, yes we have a milk man, he brings us our soy milk, eggs(for everyone but my son and I) and our OJ.    I know I could buy the soymilk anywhere but, after running to 3, 4, or 5 different grocery stores each week, it is nice just knowing someone is dropping off milk, eggs, and juice on my front step each week without fail.

Click HERE to continue reading.

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NY Chocolate Girl Makes Amazing Raw Chocolate Treats

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Vanessa Barg is the head chocolatier for Gnosis Chocolate. She makes amazing raw chocolates my friends tell me. I will be getting to meet her and taste her yummy chocolates in October when I visit NYC.

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Vanessa just ordered Nutiva organic hempseeds for some experimenting with Hemp Chocolate. Can’t wait to try these another organic hemp food delight.

Gnosis Chocolate is not just focused on purely the biz of making chocolates. In Vanessa’s words :

Gnosis means intuitive knowledge, knowledge of the heart and experiential knowledge. The company Gnosis Chocolate has really turned into so much more than a chocolate company. It’s turned into an opportunity to fill packaging and website and speeches full of knowledge about health, wellbeing, spirituality, social and environmental consciousness, and conscious commerce.

To learn more, visit
http://gnosischocolate.squarespace.com/chocolate-girl/

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