Raw Rag™

Anyone still think sugar is an okay food? You may want to watch this video then

StephanieWestAllen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:02:37 -0600

Click to watch Dr. Robert Lustig speak at Authors@Google. His talk: "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." Click to learn more about Dr. Lustig.

On another sweet note, two articles related to safe and healthy honey

StephanieWestAllen — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:29:01 -0600

Since my post last week about securing good honey, I have seen two more resources for those of you interested in the topic:

"Poultry Farms That Stop Antibiotics See Resistance Fall" (Scientific American)
"Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves" (Food Safety News)

Honey, I am confused! How do I know nature's wonder from junk?

StephanieWestAllen — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:07:25 -0600

I have been reading books on honey and am convinced of its benefits both as a nutritional food and as a topical substance promoting beauty and health. For example, I've been looking through The Honey Prescription: The Amazing Power of Honey as Medicine and Honey: Nature's wonder ingredient: 100 amazing and unexpected uses from natural healing to beauty.

I talked with my friend Diane Wyzga, a bee guru (not to mention a lawyer and a storyteller) and asked her how to find good honey. Her response was not a simple one, so I asked her if she would write a guest post here so we can all be knowledgeable in our bee hunting. She said "yes," to my delight. Thanks, Diane!

Here is what she wrote:

I am the Lady Bee Wrangler of San Clemente. I have 11 hives and growing on an organic farm. We are so thrilled to have the space, as is the farmer. The bees get pollen and nectar and the farmer gets pollination.

How does one go about buying honey when you cannot get my Beach Blossom Honey? Bees do not produce year 'round. They follow the growing cycle. As I tell folks at the farm stand, "I can't just turn on the honey faucet."

The best source for buying honey is a local beekeeper or beekeeping organization. Usually you can find them if you Google "beekeeping" and your local area. Backwards Beekeepers is one such club in Los Angeles.

You can also try your local farmer's market. But you have to be careful. Make sure

you are buying from the source, not someone who is recycling already purchased honey. Ideally the honey should be treatment-free: no additives, antibiotics, mitricides or other pesticides. Nor should the honey have been heated; heating destroys the powerfully healthy enzymes.

What you want is what the bees brought in.

If you have to purchase off the shelf, be aware that much honey is made of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Yes, you read that right. Commercial beekeepers feed heir bees HFCS before they are carted off to do their pollinating job. The "honey" that the bees produce is siphoned off and sold as honey to General Foods and the like. It finds its way into salad dressing, baked goods, cereals and the rest.

Here is a really good read on honey production.

Scroll down and pay careful attention to this statement :

"Even though honey is produced in the United States, traded internationally, and consumed both as a packaged food and as a food ingredient, there currently is no federal standard of identity for honey in U.S. law."

So bottom line, unless you're buying it directly from a reputable beekeeper, there's no way to confirm the identity of the honey. We do not have organic standards for honey like we do for produce. The law does not require a “pure honey” label to say how much pure honey is in the bottle (frequently diluted with HFCS). Also, prices are not always a good indication of quality honey.

If you have any questions, please ask them below, and I will ask Diane to get back to us.

Videos of visit to Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms

StephanieWestAllen — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:33:05 -0600

Click here to watch the short clips of a visit to Polyface. If you click on "Play All," the clips will play consecutively and you need not click again. However, if you play all, you'll miss the descriptions.

When you do eat meat, are you careful?

StephanieWestAllen — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:08:57 -0600

Since we are advocating high-qual and high-raw, meat is not banned—as long as it is high quality! Here are some tips for you about what not to eat. From "The Biggest Myths About "Natural" Meat Busted" (Huffington Post):

When it comes to making cleaner, greener food choices, most concerned consumers take care to choose the most “natural” meats. But that’s often easier said than done. Marketing claims on meat and poultry labels are some of the most confusing around and may not mean what you think they do.

How much do you know about natural meats? Take this quiz to find out.

Click to read the rest.

Cuisine recommended in EAT NAKED seems to parallel my high-qual way of eating

StephanieWestAllen — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:01:13 -0600

Eat Naked. How's that for a book title? Ever since I learned of the author Margaret Floyd's philosophy of eating, I have been looking forward to this book. What are her recommendations? From her publisher's Web site:

Shift from...
...processed and refined foods with little nutritional value and unhealthy fats, sweeteners, flavorings, and chemicals...
To...
...foods that are fresh and unprocessed, or in other words: whole. Or, if they have been processed, the processing has been minimal and done in such a way as to preserve the nutritional value of the food.
Shift from...
Food that has been prepared using low-quality ingredients and preparation methods that reduce the nutritional value...
To...
...food that is prepared minimally, using high-quality ingredients and preparation methods that preserve and sometimes even enhance a food’s nutritional value.
Shift from...
...foods that are grown using pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals to ensure high yield and quick crop turnover...
To...
...foods that are grown naturally, organically, without pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals, and instead using traditional growing methods.

Doesn't this seem aligned with my high-qual, high-raw approach described at the top of this blog? My way, and Floyd's way, of eating seems to be a good fit, and an excellent choice, for those of us who have done the research.

Sometimes do you feel like a nut? Here's what to do!

StephanieWestAllen — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:12:55 -0600

Press release (American Chemical Society):

Walnuts are top nut for heart-healthy antioxidants

This research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society

ANAHEIM, March 27, 2011 — A new scientific study positions walnuts in the No. 1 slot among a family of foods that lay claim to being among Mother Nature’s most nearly perfect packaged foods: Tree and ground nuts. In a report here today at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, scientists presented an analysis showing that walnuts have a combination of more healthful antioxidants and higher quality antioxidants than any other nut.

“Walnuts rank above peanuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios and other nuts,” said Joe Vinson, Ph.D., who did the analysis. “A handful of walnuts contains almost twice as much antioxidants as an equivalent amount of any other commonly consumed nut. But unfortunately, people don’t eat a lot of them. This

study suggests that consumers should eat more walnuts as part of a healthy diet.”

Vinson noted that nuts in general have an unusual combination of nutritional benefits — in addition those antioxidants — wrapped into a convenient and inexpensive package. Nuts, for instance, contain plenty of high-quality protein that can substitute for meat; vitamins and minerals; dietary fiber; and are dairy- and gluten-free. Years of research by scientists around the world link regular consumption of small amounts of nuts or peanut butter with decreased risk of heart disease, certain kinds of cancer, gallstones, Type 2 diabetes, and other health problems.

Despite all the previous research, scientists until now had not compared both the amount and quality of antioxidants found in different nuts, Vinson said. He filled that knowledge gap by analyzing antioxidants in nine different types of nuts: walnuts, almonds, peanuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamias, and pecans. Walnuts had the highest levels of antioxidants.

Vinson also found that the quality, or potency, of antioxidants present in walnuts was highest among the nuts. Antioxidants in walnuts were 2-15 times as potent as vitamin E, renowned for its powerful antioxidant effects that protect the body against damaging natural chemicals involved in causing disease.

“There’s another advantage in choosing walnuts as a source of antioxidants,” said Vinson, who is with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. “The heat from roasting nuts generally reduces the quality of the antioxidants. People usually eat walnuts raw or unroasted, and get the full effectiveness of those antioxidants.”

If nuts are so healthful and nutritious, why don’t people eat more? Vinson’s research shows, for instance, that nuts account for barely 8 percent of the daily antioxidants in the average person’s diet. Many people, he said, may not be aware that nuts are such a healthful food. Others may be concerned about gaining weight from a food so high in fat and calories. But he points out that nuts contain healthful polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats rather than artery-clogging saturated fat. As for the calories, eating nuts does not appear to cause weight gain and even makes people feel full and less likely to overeat. In a 2009 U. S. study, nut consumption was associated with a significantly lower risk of weight gain and obesity. Still, consumers should keep the portion size small. Vinson said it takes only about 7 walnuts a day, for instance, to get the potential health benefits uncovered in previous studies.

###

Media Contact
During the meeting, March 27-31, the contacts can be reached at:
714-765-2012
Michael Bernstein
202-872-6042
m_bernstein@acs.org
Michael Woods
202-872-6293
m_woods@acs.org

Are you a jazz fan in the Denver/Boulder area? Here's a recommended event (free too!)

StephanieWestAllen — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:47:48 -0700

International jazz trumpeter Hugh Ragin will be giving a concert for his doctorate at University of Colorado, Boulder, on March 9. The public is invited. Hugh is a frequent performer in jazz concerts around the world, and is a director for Colorado Jazz Workshop. If you are a jazz fan, you will want to attend.

All the details about next week's concert are at the University of Colorado Web site. The concert is from 4:30 to 6:30 PM, and the music will be original compositions by Ragin. He will be accompanied by Ronald Jolly, piano; Manuel Lopez, percussion; and John Gunther, lap top realization.

Note (added March 9, 2011): Click to see and hear snippets of the concert.

Joel Salatin on the Food Safety Modernization Act: What's it really about?

StephanieWestAllen — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 12:36:59 -0700

Excerpt from "Joel Salatin teaches philosophy of farming: PolyFace Farms blends Eastern, Western cultures" (The Santa Clara):

"We have to understand that food safety, primarily in this country, is not about food safety. It's about who has access to the market...I know this is not about food safety, it's about regulating market access...consumer advocates believe bureaucrats can protect them and that a paper 1,000 miles away can protect them...[as a society] we love being victims; that's why we call them ‘stoplights' and not ‘go-lights.' Ultimately, the question is, ‘Who owns me?'"

...

"Eventually, we all walk by faith — at the end of the day, we put our faith in something, whether it be God, family, friends...all of these opportunities and decisions come down to who you're going to trust. Life is full of risks. It's so risky you could die from it!"

Salatin concluded with one final benediction, "May all your carrots grow long and straight. May we all leave the planet in a better place than it was found."

Do raw food teachers need to be certified? What do YOU think?

StephanieWestAllen — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:37:38 -0700

Last week, at the goneraw.com forum, someone asked if certification is necessary in order to teach about raw foods. Excerpt:

I am starting a raw foods business. Currently I have been teaching classes and am also working on my recipe book. My question is: HOW MUCH CAN I TEACH PEOPLE WITHOUT BEING A NUTRITIONIST OR DOCTOR?? Can I only show them how to prepare food or can I teach what to eat and what it does to the body? Do I need to be a nutritionist to recommend foods to eat? Who certified the original "raw food teachers"? Can i start my own raw food certification program/school?

So far there has only been one response. Excerpt:

People don't like hearing this, but in my view the very best thing to do for anyone who is really serious about becoming a professional nutritionist is getting a 'real' college degree in nutrition, becoming a registered dietician, and coupling that with a holistic nutrition course (which is a walk in the park compared to a B.S. in nutrition, where you take biochemistry and anatomy and physiology and so on). That way, you can *legally* dispense nutritional advice without worrying about lawsuits, since R.D.'s are licensed by the state. I'm not saying that I would only go to a person with the credentials I have described, but I would know that the person really knew his or her stuff.

What are your thoughts on certification?