Kiwis Prove It
A recent study has found that organic kiwis are in fact more nutritious than conventional:
“The Davis scientists, led by Drs. Maria Amodio and Adel Kader, showed that organically grown kiwifruit had significantly increased levels of polyphenols, the healthy compounds found in red wine and coloured berries. They also had a higher overall antioxidant activity, as well as higher levels of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and important minerals compared with their conventionally grown counterparts.”
Who would have thought such a tiny piece of fruit could have proven something like that?
(Image from Wikipedia)
Get Certified
Receiving organic certification is certainly no walk in the park. What exactly does the organic certification mean?
”Organic certification is not a guarantee of quality or purity of the product,” according to a fact sheet from the Organic Trade Association. ”Rather, it is evidence of the operation’s adherence to a prescribed system of agriculture and food production that involves the building and enhancing of the soil naturally, protection of the environment, humane treatment of animals and avoidance of toxic synthetic substances.”
Q & A: Does cooking food kill pesticides?
This morning I found myself asking the question “Does cooking conventional food kill pesticides?” After pondering the answer for a few minutes, I decided to look it up on good ol’ Google. I immediately found a link to the UK’s Food Standards Agency. Here’s their answer:
“Processing, including cooking, generally reduces the level of pesticides in food. This is because processing can break down the pesticides, or remove the part of the plant that carries the residue.”
Strangely enough, I couldn’t find any more information on the topic. Of course, you probably have to cook your food to hell if you want to kill any pesticides..
If you have a question, let me answer it! Send your question with your name to organicorbust@yahoo.com
Beauty or Cancer?
I wasn’t surprised when I heard skincare and cosmetic products could be potentially harmful considering the ingredient lists go on forever and contain a lot of foreign substances. The Environmental Working Group tested skincare products and their results were far from shocking:
“Many cosmetic products — including more than half of all baby soaps — contained a carcinogenic chemical.”
Here’s a rule to live by: “Don’t put anything on your skin that you couldn’t safely eat!”
This is just another example of how horrible the industry is. Why would companies ever want to harm the consumer? It will never make sense to me. The only reason why they ever change is so they can make more sales too! It’s never “We should make our products healthier and take care of the consumer.” Instead it’s always “If we make our products healthier and tell everyone about it, we’ll DEFINITELY sell more!!”
Anyway, the study recommends Pangea Organics which seems like a fine brand. The only problem is their products are pretty expensive.. So, I suppose for now organic skincare is BUST.
Honest Tea Moroccan Mint
For the past few days, I have been drinking Honest Tea’s Moroccan Mint Green Tea. It has a nice mint flavor with just a touch of sweetness. I have the bottle (sadly, it’s empty) right here next to me and the back of it says:
“For centuries, Moroccans have savored green tea with mint. Studies have shown that green tea is packed with antioxidants. Every bottle of our Moroccan Mint contains as much of the antioxidant EGCG as 32 servings of blueberries.”
I wonder if that’s true? Anyway, this tea also has approximately 1/4 the caffeine of coffee which also translates to me probably not being able to sleep tonight. Hooray!! (I am REALLY sensitive to caffeine.)
Why should I spend more?
Here’s a little article that answers a few questions about why organic food is worth your money:
“Any chemical that is foreign to the body will harm it. Organic food has been found by the Journal of Applied Nutrition to have greater levels of vitamins and minerals than non-organic produce.
This could be due to the lesser degree of chemical irritation and disruption. Imagine how produce was grown before technology was discovered and chemicals created to fight off disease and increase growth rate and size.”
Dutchy Originals
A few weeks ago, Prince Charles was in the news for saying a ban should be placed on McDonald’s food in order to improve people’s diet. Critics were all over the Prince because some of the foods in his organic line contained just as many calories and grams of fat as several items sold at McDonald’s.
Now, when I read this, I wasn’t really paying attention to the criticism because I agree McDonald’s should be banned or at least be a little healthier for people (adding salads to the line-up just doesn’t cut it!) But what surprised me more was uhm.. Prince Charles has an organic food line? What?
Dutchy Originals was started by Charles in 1992. They sell everything from organic gardening products to organic personal care and grooming products. They also sell plenty of different types of food including bread, biscuits, preserves, pies, chocolates, and more. Unfortunately, not many of these products are available in America.
The funny thing is, I was at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and I saw Dutchy brand organic lemon biscuits. I would have bought them if they weren’t $5.99!
So, Prince Charles has an organic product line? I guess you learn something new everyday..
