on my mind monday 10.01.12

It's never the same two weeks in a row.  A collection of what I find interesting in the world of food, nutrition and holistic health.  Here's what's on my mind.

Women who read nutrition labels are slimmer - Supposedly several new studies who that women who read nutrition labels have either a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) or are nine pounds lighter than those who don't.  There are other studies out there which look for connections between label usage among mothers and BMI in their children.  I am skeptical of the numbers quoted here as I don't believe the connection is quite as clear cut as the article would have you believe.  I am, however, a huge proponent of learning to read the label and truly understand what you are reading.  That should, in theory, help people potentially lose weight.  It will, in actuality, help them to understand what is in their food.  Hopefully that knowledge will encourage them to make healthful choices.

Ingredient Delivery - Similar to a service I wrote about a while back where the take-out restaurant would, for an extra fee, bring you the dirty dishes to go with your meal so it looked like you actually cooked.  This service however just brings you all of the prepared food.  Apparently it comes all ready to go in the oven so you can actually cook it, but you don't have to shop, slice, and dice.  I'm glad to see that the options are local and organic but wonder if there really are that many people who will utilize something like this.  It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend.

Drought tolerant corn? Not really - Monsanto is apparently at it again.  The USDA approved this GM corn in December of last year and then admitted that it doesn't work well.  So why did they approve it in the first place?  These types of useless modifications are only one small part of the reason we should not be playing around with our food like this.  I believe that the more modifications we release into the environment the higher the potential damage to non-modified crops from cross-breeding.  I also believe we are giving up too much control of our food to one company and that is not a smart idea.

Pink Slime Manufacturer Sues  - Who are they suing?  Well, it appears just about everyone.  ABC News, Diane Sawyer, several ABC reporters, a former USDA scientist.  They're even suing a couple of guys who used to work for them.  Apparently if you can't convince the public that your product is suitable for consumption and they stop buying it, you sue the folks who told people what was really in their food.  They are suing for $1.2 billion dollars (yes, that's billion with a B).  But if people don't want your product and you created all kinds of hokey spin around it and that still didn't work what do you hope to accomplish.  People are STILL not going to eat your product.  It will be interesting to watch this one unfold in the news.

Milk's Nutritional Value Debated - There is a huge misconception about milk and dairy products in this country.  We somehow have come to believe that we need dairy products in our diet in order to get enough calcium.  The truth is that we don't have to have dairy and there are other food sources of calcium.  There are also a lot of people who are sensitive to dairy products, who have lactose intolerance, and, if you're not drinking organic milk, it comes with a hefty dose of hormones and antibiotics.  I'm not saying we should not have any dairy whatsoever.  I'll be the first to admit that I love my organic whole milk yogurt.  However, if you want to make sure you are getting enough calcium in your diet and you don't like or consume a lot of dairy it's not a problem.  Consider adding sesame seeds, tahini (sesame seed paste), sardines, and dark leafy greens.

photo: mconnors