The days of the tasteless and unsatisfying Veggie Burger have come to a wondrous end. In recent years with more and more people wanting to eat healthier the old Veggie Burger had to go. It is no wonder that chefs have stepped up their game and are now crafting Veggie Burgers worthy of consuming. Check out more on these delicious babies in this article from The New York times.

~ Enjoy!

THEY were the four syllables that had the power to make both carnivores and vegetarians cringe: veggie burger.

For meat-lovers, the veggie burger was long seen as a sad stand-in that tried to copy the contours and textures of a classic beef patty while falling pathetically short of the pleasure. And for meat-refusers, the veggie burger served as a kind of penitential wafer: You ate this bland, freeze-dried nutrient disc because you had to eat it (your duty as someone who had forsaken the flesh) and because at many a restaurant or backyard barbecue, it was the only option available.

If that has been your mental framework since the days when Jerry Garcia was still with us, it might be time to take another bite. To borrow a phrase from the culture that produced it, the veggie burger seems finally to have achieved self-actualization.

Across the country, chefs and restaurateurs have been taking on the erstwhile health-food punch line with a kind of experimental brio, using it as a noble excuse to fool around with flavor and texture and hue. As a result, veggie burgers haven’t merely become good. They have exploded into countless variations of good, and in doing so they’ve begun to look like a bellwether for the American appetite. If the growing passion for plant-based diets is here to stay, chefs — even in restaurants where you won’t find the slightest trace of spirulina — are paying attention.

“I just think it’s important to accommodate everybody,” said Josh Capon, who opened Burger & Barrel in SoHo last fall and quietly slipped a chickpea-based veggie burger onto a menu heady with pork chops, charcuterie and carpaccio. “And I don’t think somebody should feel like they’re eating an inferior burger. If you’re going to do a veggie burger, it should have that richness and mouth feel and overall texture. When you pick it up, it should eat like a burger.”

He will get no argument from Adam Fleischman, the owner of the expanding Umami Burger chain in Los Angeles. Even though his Earth Burger includes no meat, it offers the taste buds a gooey, decadent tradeoff by dandying up a mushroom-and-edamame patty with ricotta, truffle aioli and cipollini onions.

At Cru, a largely vegan and raw-food-focused cafe in that city’s Silver Lake neighborhood, the dietary and structural restrictions only seem to open up pathways of metamorphosis. Cru’s South American sliders are made of sprouted lentils and cooked garbanzo beans pulsed with garlic and spices. They’re deep-fried, dressed with a mojo sauce of blood orange and paprika and Peruvian aji amarillo chilies, and served on leaves of butter lettuce instead of a bread bun.

Read the rest of the Article, HERE.

Article Credit: Jeff Gordinier

From the Dr. Oz Show:

Dr. Oz reveals the 3 most powerful health benefits of this tropical oil.  Click on the video below to learn more.

Click to Watch this video clip from Dr Oz's Show

Coconut Oil has long been the subject of conspiracy theories.

Turns out this is true, as well, for coconut oil. Something along the lines if coconut oil is such an amazing product, how come it is not more popular? The conspiracy theory is that U.S. agribusiness has put the kibosh on coconut oil because it is not a domestic crop and would compete with soybean-based oil, which is. And it is the partially hydrogenated soy bean oil’s trans fats – once touted as a healthy option – that are now under the gun.

Organic Farmers Celebrating Victory over Corporate Agribusiness

CORNUCOPIA, WI — It’s not often that family-scale farmers can go toe-to-toe with a $12 billion agribusiness and come out victors. But organic soybean producers, and a modestly scaled but powerful ally, The Cornucopia Institute, are claiming victory over Dean Foods in the organic marketplace.

Dean Foods, the manufacturer of Silk, the top-selling soymilk drink, was first “outed” in Cornucopia’s May 2009 report, Behind the Bean: The Heroes and Charlatans of the Natural and Organic Soy Foods Industry, for switching its soybean sourcing from American farms to cheaper organic beans from China. Later in 2009, Cornucopia revealed that Dean Foods had then largely abandoned organic soybeans altogether, stealthily changing the soybeans in their core Silk product line from organic to less expensive conventionally grown soybeans that the company was calling “natural.”

The shift away from organic outraged many loyal consumers and alienated retailers across the country that were not informed of the change and continued to inaccurately merchandise Silk products as “organic.”

Now leading natural/organic foods retailer Whole Foods Market has decided to shift its soymilk offerings back towards organic. Saying that its relationship with Dean Foods had “chilled,” Whole Foods indicated it was bringing in a new branded organic soymilk partner, Earth Balance. The national retailer also told the Denver Post, in an August 27 story, that it wanted Earth Balance’s soymilk products to contain only domestically grown soybeans carrying the organic label.

“Dean Foods has been roundly criticized for taking the organic out of Silk, and now the marketplace and consumers are passing their judgment,” said Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst. “They took what once was a pioneering 100% organic brand, before they acquired the company in 2003, and cheapened the product at the expense of American farmers and consumers. Now they are paying a price for their naked profiteering,” Kastel added.

Dean’s purchase of Silk initially excited American farmers who had been selling organic soybeans for use in Silk soymilk. Many thought that Dean would use its marketing prowess to further grow the Silk brand and expand demand for domestic organic soybeans. Instead, the company turned the screws on its farmer-suppliers and demanded that they compete on pricing with Chinese imports – something they were unable to do.

“White Wave (the operating division of Dean Foods that markets Silk and Horizon organic milk) had the opportunity to push organic and sustainable agriculture to incredible heights of production by working with North American farmers and traders to get more land in organic production, but what they did was pit cheap foreign soybeans against the U.S. organic farmer, taking away any attraction for conventional farmers to make the move into sustainable agriculture,” said Merle Kramer, a marketer for the Midwestern Organic Farmers Cooperative.

Dean spokesperson Molly Keveney told the Denver Post that staying with organic beans would have resulted in price increases. This statement stands at odds with the reality of falling farmgate prices for organic soybeans in recent years.

The shift away from organics by Dean in its Silk soymilk products also produced additional embarrassment for and anger at the company when Cornucopia discovered in 2009 that it had failed to change the soymilk product’s packaging to overtly reflect that it was being made with “natural” soybeans. Cornucopia filed a formal complaint with the USDA’s National Organic Program over the matter. The company ultimately corrected its misrepresentation.

“Consumers and retailers repeatedly reported to us that they were deceived and ended up unknowingly buying Silk products with conventional soybeans,” said Kastel. “We know of numerous retailers that ultimately pulled Silk products from their store shelves over the gross misrepresentation of the soymilk product,” Kastel added.

Earth Balance is not the only company that is seeking to capitalize on the consumer’s hunger for authentic, organic foods. A new “natural” entrant into the soymilk marketplace, 8th Continent, is taking direct aim at dissatisfaction with Dean’s handling of Silk. Other soymilk manufacturers such as Eden Foods and Organic Valley are also hunting for sales to the growing legion of organic consumers. Still, with Dean spending upwards of $29 million on major media advertising (according to The New York Times), it will continue to flex its muscles in the marketplace.

The Cornucopia Institute maintains a soy foods scorecard on its website (www.cornucopia.org), which provides information and ratings of soymilk and various soy foods and rates them on the integrity of their production (including whether brands buy from American family farmers or from China). The scorecard can be used by consumers and wholesale buyers to make purchasing decisions that support their values.

MORE:

Dean Foods, a company that has seen a prodigious drop in share value in 2010, has been rumored to be looking for a buyer for its WhiteWave division (Silk, Horizon, International Delight, Land O’ Lakes creamer and other branded products).

In addition, Bloomberg News Service reported today (September 1, 2010) that there was speculation on Wall Street that Groupe Danone, the French dairy giant, was interested in acquiring Dean Foods.

“As part of our routine business operations, Dean Foods continues to evaluate all of our businesses on an ongoing basis,” Marguerite Copel, a Dean Foods spokesperson, said today in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. “It would be inappropriate for us to speculate about what choices we might make in the future.”

Original stories covering some of the controversial practices at Dean Foods concerning their Silk soy drink business:

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15906844
The Denver Post — 8-27-10

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/business/advertisingemail/27adco.html?src=busln
The New York Times – 8-26-10

http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/05/soy-report-and-scorecard/
The catalyst: Cornucopia’s soy report outing Chinese soybean imports

http://news.reportlinker.com/n01324459/Grocers-irked-over-not-being-told-that-bestselling-soy-milk-is-no-longer-organic.html
Fort Worth STAR-TELEGRAM (McClatchy-Tribune) — 11-9-09 Grocers irked over not being told that bestselling soy milk is no longer organic

Concerns Regarding Soybeans
Rheumatic.org
History of Soybeans
Soybeans come to us from the Orient. During the Chou Dynasty (1134-246 BC) the soybean was designated one of the five sacred grains, along with barley, wheat, millet and rice. However, the pictograph for the soybean, which dates from earlier times, indicates that it was not first used as a food; for whereas the pictographs for the other four grains show the seed and stem structure of the plant, the pictograph for the soybean emphasizes the root structure. Apparently the soy plant was initially used as a method of fixing nitrogen. The soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of fermentation techniques, sometime during the Chou Dynasty. Thus the first soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and shogu (soy or tamari sauce).

Dr. Joseph Mercola offers an overview on soy foods

The old adage “You are what you eat” is one to live by. Today, more and more people are making healthy dietary choices—not only for their own health, but also for the health of the Earth.

Hempseed is known by researchers and physicians to be one of the most nutritious food sources on the planet. Its 33 percent protein content is well-balanced, easily digestible, and also rich in iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamins B and E, Omega-3, and GLA. A Canadian government report says that hemp protein has 66 percent high-quality edestin protein—the highest percentage of any plant source. And hemp has the ideal 3:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3.

No wonder the hemp foods sector is booming! Walk down the aisles of a good store and you can now find hemp oil, hemp seeds, hemp protein, hemp bars, hemp bread, hemp butter, hemp milk . . . even hemp ice cream!

The Origins of Hemp Foods

More than 6,000 years ago, hemp was cultivated in China from a wild plant that grew in central Asia. The Chinese recognized the nutritional value of the hemp seed, and used it as a food source long before they used soy. About 1,000 years ago, hemp traveled to Europe, where one of the most popular ways that peasants used the plant was to make hemp butter by grinding the tasty seeds.

Health and Eco Concerns Regarding Soy Foods

Soy foods stand in marked contrast to hemp foods. Since the 1970s, the soy-food industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to convince the public of soy’s supposed “health benefits.“ Consequently, the average American diet includes about 10 percent soy—in dressings, butter spreads, cooking oils, shakes, desserts, etc. Yet, while the mainstream media has long promoted soy, a growing number of health professionals now caution people to think twice before consuming it in large quantities, due to potential allergic reactions, soy’s impact on thyroid health and mineral absorption, its poor fat ratio, and its estrogenic properties.

We should also be concerned about the environmental impacts of soy foods. First, most soybeans grown today are genetically modified, and even organic soy is often contaminated with GMOs by wind drift or processing. Also, toxic chemicals are applied to conventional soy fields in great amounts, causing damage to ecosystems from South America to America’s heartland.

A July 13, 2009, article, “Study Released in Argentina Puts Glyphosate Under Fire”  stated: “. . . research released by Argentina’s top medical school showed that a leading chemical used in soy farming may be harmful to human health.”

The article explained how soy cultivation is producing deformed frogs and adding untold hardships to small farmers. Do people understand that buying non-organic soy milk, food bars, cereal, and even common soy protein, supports this bitter harvest?

And it’s not only how soy is grown. The toxic chemical hexane, a petroleum byproduct, is used as a solvent to extract soy oil for about 98 percent of all soybeans processed in America. When ordering a soy burger or soymilk, you wouldn’t request a side of petrol solvent. But you get that added serving of hexane—also a major greenhouse gas emitter—anyway! Listen to what leading health researcher Mike Adams, a.k.a. “the Health Ranger,” says about soy protein products.

If you eat only organic soy (a much better choice), please read The Soy Report Scorecard by the organic watchdog group Cornucopia. If you are going to use soy, choose foods that are both organic and fermented, such as miso, tamari, and tempeh. The fermentation process makes soy more bioavailable and reduces its antinutritional qualities. And beware: Some firms claim “made with organic soybeans” even though their products contain hexane-processed soy.

Another issue that medical doctors are watching is soy’s effects on the thyroid.

Also, learn why longtime vegetarian Julia Wey is rethinking her consumption of soy foods.

Hemp Benefits

Unlike soy, hemp isn’t genetically modified, and no company uses hexane to extract its healthy oil. Another plus for hemp is that it’s easy to grow without pesticides or herbicides. It smothers weeds as a rotation crop, and its long taproot helps to restore soil health. Besides the seeds’ nutritional benefits, hemp’s strong fibers are being used to replace unsustainable cotton, petrol, and concrete in everything from clothing to car parts to construction materials.

More than thirty industrialized nations grow commercial hemp, including England, Germany, China, and Canada. Nevertheless,

United States law forbids growing hemp without a federal license. This has prevented commercial hemp production since the 1950s. Visit VoteHemp.com to learn how you can help to restore hemp farming in America.

Back in 1995, I wrote a booklet on industrial hemp in which these were the opening words:

“Imagine a crop more versatile than the soybean, the cotton plant, and the Douglas fir tree put together . . . one whose products are interchangeable with those from timber or petroleum . . . one that grows like Jack’s beanstalk with minimal tending. There is such a crop: industrial hemp.

“Hemp was once indispensable to world commerce. New World colonists and traders were able to cross the Atlantic Ocean because the hemp ropes and sails of their ships, unlike other natural fibers, resisted salt damage. Not so long ago, it was inconceivable for an economy to function without hemp.”

These words hold true today, and it’s good to see that the world is again acknowledging hemp’s great value. In this era of Google and YouTube, we can all access cutting-edge health information to help us compare hemp food crops to soy. I encourage you to do your own research, and to remember that good health is our greatest wealth. Our lives depend on it.

John W. Roulac is the Founder and CEO of Nutiva, the world’s leading brand of organic hemp foods and coconut oil. A longtime advocate of holistic living, he is the author of four books (with a million-plus copies sold) on hemp and composting. He helped jump-start the modern home-composting movement in the early 1990s, successfully sued the USDEA to keep hemp imports legal in 2001, and has founded three  nonprofit ecological groups. To learn more about John Roulac and Nutiva, visit www.nutiva.com/articles/.

Soy diet worsens heart disease in male mice: study
Heart conditions became worse in male mice carrying a genetic mutation for heart disease when they were fed a soy diet, a study published on Wednesday showed …

The whole soy story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food
The possibility that an inexpensive plant food could prevent heart disease, fight cancer, fan away hot flashes, and build strong bodies in more than 12 ways is seductive. The truth, unfortunately, is far more complex …

The Soy Food Industrial Complex Use of Hexane
Organic Consumers Association
A short eye-opener on the use of harsh chemicals in producing soy protein isolates.

AGP blast claims second victim
Sioux City Journal, By Julie Weeder
This is a tragic death caused from the soy industry’s use of Hexane, a by-product of gasoline. How many more workers have to be poisoned, burned, and or killed before natural food consumers and producers just say no to hexane processed soy protein isolate?