Here, on the other hand, is a 100% natural and sustainable solution to a tricky problem in a remote part of the world. It’s pretty hard to argue with the brilliance of this solution.

Video from KarmaTube

Vegetable Oils – Friend or Foe?

The food guide tells us to cook with vegetable oils, yet after trans fats, they are the worst choice we can make.

Plant oils such as canola oil, safflower oil, corn oil, soy oil etc. are very reactive to oxygen, and go rancid when heated even at low temperatures. Once oxidized, these fats cause free radical damage in our bodies, which has been linked to cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

According to the animal research of Dr. Kenneth Carroll, “…the more polyunsaturated fats were in the diet, the more they were cancer promoting; and the more saturated fats were, the more they were cancer reducing…” Yet we are told by such organizations as the American Heart Association that these polyunsaturated oils are the healthy oils to eat and cook with.

In actual fact, we were only meant to consume vegetable oils by eating the nuts and seeds that they come in; the nuts and seeds also contain the antioxidants that prevent the oxidization of the fats.

Vegetable oils are refined with solvents and heat, making them toxic and rancid. Deodorizing compounds are added to cover up the smell, and voila – they will stay on the store shelf for months looking deceptively beautiful.

Even in their unrefined form, these polyunsaturated oils cannot be recommended even in salad dressings, as they are sensitive to light. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils are also most frequently turned into trans-fats, so pretty much any time you see any vegetable oils listed on an ingredient list in a packaged food or a recipe, you would be doing yourself a huge favour in the long run by not eating it.

The best fats for cooking are organic pasture-fed raw butter or ghee, organic virgin coconut oil, organic, pasture-fed beef tallow, and unrefined organic olive oil (low to medium temperatures only).

Sources:
Enig, Mary; Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer For Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol Bethesda Press, Silver Spring, MD, 2003.

Fallon, Sally and Enig, Mary; Nourishing Traditions, Revised 2nd Edition NewTrends Publishing Inc., Washington, D.C., 2001

Copyright 2005/2011 Vreni Gurd
Reprinted with Permission

A friend sent me a link to an old advert for DDT:

“The great expectations held for DDT have been realized. During 1946, exhaustive scientific tests have shown that, when properly used, DDT kills a host of destructive insect pests, and is a benefactor of all humanity.”

Hmmm, what a great reminder that magic bullets are best evaluated with long term results in mind.

Read the entire ad (note a link at the bottom to the original black & white ad with the correct chemical company name).

I hope this isn’t you…

LocalDelicious.com was featured under Lesson 2: Start Small:

If you were to analyze the lifecycle of every grocery item you bought, you’d be paralyzed whenever you went shopping, says Liz Gaige, the Vancouver resident behind the website LocalDelicious.com.

“You don’t have to change your whole diet,” she says. “But if you just shifted 5 per cent of your grocery budget into eating more locally, eating more healthfully and … thinking about where your stuff’s coming from, it has this huge impact.”

Ms. Gaige says she’s always had an interest in “the artisan approach to stuff,” and has been buying her food at farmers markets long before it was popular to do so. She believes in supporting small, local businesses as a way of strengthening the local economy and building community ties.

But it doesn’t matter what your motivations are for dropping out, she says; every step has greater consequences. If you start buying organic meat, for instance, simply because you want a better-tasting option, that decision may also be better for the environment and more humane, she says. And once you start examining one aspect of your food, it becomes natural to scrutinize other parts of your diet. For example, if you consider buying organic, free-range eggs, you may soon find yourself buying organic, free-range chicken and other meats too.

“I never expected to be like a tree-hugger, but I kind of am just because of these small, incremental steps that I take,” Ms. Gaige says, noting that she grows some vegetables in her yard, and buys non-medicated meat and organic produce.

“I’m not going to agonize and spend my life freaking out about every food decision, but it’s about, on a greater consciousness, ‘Okay, what am I trying to accomplish here?’ ”

The online version is slightly expanded from the print version, so if you only read the newspaper you’ll miss some of the juicy parts. Check out the full article.

If you really want to go crazy, you can try a zero mile diet, a backyard garden. Or in some cases, the two block diet or the 5 ½ block diet (my choice, since that’s how far my community garden plot is).

More likely — and a lot less work — feeding your Eat Local addiction could be buying produce or preserves at a farmers market or craft fair. It might be supporting a local food retailer or buying via a CSA program (community supported agriculture) or food co-op.

Or even more simply, it could be as effortless as checking the label at the supermarket, and choosing products with a tell-tale red, Made in Canada maple leaf on the package.

Announcing the Look at the Label Campaign

Really, it’s not a big deal. You don’t have to sign a placard or worse, carry a placard. To be part of the Look at the Label Campaign, you just have to, well…look at the label. Find out how far your food has traveled to reach you, and choose options that are produced nearer to home. While you’re at it, you can look for additional benefits.

• Look at the labels in the produce section to find out where your fruit and veggies come from, then choose the ones from closest by and grown with the best farming practices. Choosing items that are currently in season will help support your local farmers year round.
• Read the labels in the bakery to find out which goods were made locally and which were shipped a great distance. If they’ve come a long way and have a long shelf life they’ll have had to be pumped full of preservatives. Real food, the kind with nutritional value, will rot. Pseudo food, does not.
• Examine the labels in the sauces and canned goods aisles. I’ll bet you can find the lots of local sources for your favourite flavours amidst the dizzying array of options.
• Check out the labels in the coffee and tea aisles. I can’t find coffee that’s grown nearby, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving it up! I can, however, choose locally roasted and/or fair trade beans that give farmers a living wage.
• Definitely look at the label in the meat department. Nearby sources are good, organic and grain fed are even better. Meat and poultry are prime sources of secondhand pesticides, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Face it, eventually, we eat what they’ve eaten.
• Be sure to check the label of eggs and dairy products both to ensure the animals have been raised humanely, and to be sure you know what you’re eating. For example, “frozen dessert” instead of “ice cream” on a label is code for “made with petroleum by-products,” which is just gross.

Michael Pollan said it best when he described his rules for buying food. If the ingredients are not something you would find in your grandmother’s pantry, don’t put it in your mouth.

The directory uses a map to help users identify producers who live nearby. It’s not immediately apparent, but scroll down on the home page and you can click the word “Canada” above the map of the US, which will take you to the Canadian directory.

In addition to helping you find local producers, Eat Wild is a wealth of information on everything from the basics of grass-fed to detailed information on the environmental and food safety benefits, along with the science behind the claims.

After seeing one too many documentaries showing the cruel treatment of animals who are raised on factory farms, I’m also pleased to see that proper care of the animals is a big part of what goes into running a grass-fed farm operation.

It might seem like it’s all about the animals, but there are benefits to farmers, too. Taking a more balanced approach to farming makes for animals that are healthier and require less medication. They also need less purchased feed, increasing the likelihood of profitability for farmers. And farmers directly benefit from a reduction their own illness due to exposure to hazardous chemicals and high concentrations of animal waste products.

Most climates aren’t blessed with a year round growing season so one must make hay while the sun shines, then save for a rainy day. In this climate, literally. That means finding ways to preserve your bounty for the winter months.

This past year I’ve noticed a huge resurgence of interest in canning, pickling and other time honoured methods of “putting up” the harvest. So it’s no surprise that folks are looking back a generation or two for additional traditional solutions, calling up distant memories of how parents and grandparents fed themselves between growing seasons.

Enter, the root cellar. Cheap to make and maintain, naturally cool, highly effective, the perfect DIY project (no electrical wiring required).

Enter, a new generation of children sent down to dark, damp, spider-infested rooms to bring up the ingredients for dinner. Not to worry, we survived the trauma, so will they.

How To Do It Yourself

Want to be all trendy and get your own root cellar, but you’re not sure where to start? Here is an assortment of resources, in no particular order (but I saved the best for last):

• BC Agricultural Building Systems Handbook: Small Root Cellar – Long-winded name, thorough small root cellar building plan complete with measurements, and list of optimal temperatures for vegetable storage.
• The Return of the Root Cellars – Survivalist manifesto on storing food in the event of calamity, trials and/or tribulation. Whatever the reasoning, the content is quite informative.
• Garbage Can Root Cellar – This must be the most basic of root cellar concepts, but doesn’t allow for much in the way of temperature control.
• What to Store in a Root Cellar – Vegetable storage chart including optimal temperature, humidity and storage duration.
• Storage of Home-Grown Vegetables – Colorado State University tips on harvesting and storage, as well as a description of various root cellar types.
• Home Storage of Fruits and Vegetables in Root Cellars – As the name suggests, a very precise list of conditions required for specific produce, courtesy of University of Michigan. Just the facts, ma’am.
• Root Cellar Capital of the World: Elliston, Newfoundland – Not sure what to say here. Truly, stumped. Note: the misleading link “Root Cellars and Puffins” does not in fact show puffins stacked tidily amongst the potatoes in one of Elliston’s world famous root cellars. I checked.

She has a point. If it doesn’t taste good, the discussion ends there. However, organic meat does taste good, very good. So if that’s all you need to know, consider the issue resolved. If you still aren’t sure why you’d want to pay more to get the good stuff, you may want to know a bit more about what you’re actually eating when you sit down to that nice, juicy steak.

As I’ve become more aware of what’s involved in meat production, I’ve also become much more keen to source organic, grass fed beef for the occasions I choose to eat it.

Organic

On the organic side of the equation it boils down to this: the last thing I want entering my body is genetically modified corn, pesticides (sprayed on the corn), hormones and antibiotics, passed down to me in the form of beef.

• Cows in the industrialized meat industry are fed GMO corn.
• Corn is a grain, which cow stomachs are not designed to digest.
• Mass-produced cattle are also fed animal by-products. Note: cows are herbivores. Feeding them their kin is messed up on many levels. Remember “mad cow” disease…
• Cows are ruminants, they chew their cud. In the industrialized food process, cows are kept closely packed together and cannot lie down to chew their cud.
• Cows are kept in such close quarters and in such great numbers that disease is easily spread, hence the heavy dosing of antibiotics.
• The only priority in commercial farming is profit, so cows need to fatten up quick. That’s where the growth hormones come into play.

Cutting out the carcinogenic chemicals and going organic was a no-brainer, especially when I learned that all the nasty stuff collects in the fat of the animal. Fat is also what gives food its flavour so if you want tasty meat, you are eating fat.

Grass Fed

Then there’s the “grass fed” part of the equation. Why  not choose beef that’s organic and be done with it? Or choose “naturally raised” beef?

Well, if you’ve never seen how mass-produced cattle are raised, just wonder for a moment why it’s called “factory farming.” Really, it’s just like that. No pastoral scene of mother and calf, this.

• Grass fed cows eat grass. Not grain and not other cows. That’s more healthy.
• Grass fed means a cow has had access to grass. In a field. At liberty. With other cows, doing what cows do.
• Cows need to chew their cud to digest their food. It’s what nature intended. In a field, there’s room for a little ruminating.
• Stockyards used to be where cowboys drove their cattle after life on the open range. Now, they may live almost their entire short life there. To me, that is inhumane.
• Cows are animals, not machines. The research is very clear — they have feelings, they need to socialize, they develop bonds. Providing them an opportunity to live without undo stress seems the least we can do.

If you are still one of the few who believe the treatment of animals is no big deal, you can hold to that opinion and still recognize the value of grass fed beef. When I thought that way, I still couldn’t believe there was much nutritional value in a cow eating food it was never meant to eat, in an unnatural environment.

The Final Word

Don’t take my word for it that. You need to know enough to decide what matters to you. Just don’t stay in the dark about where your food really comes from.

The resources are endless, but here are a few to get you started:

Our Daily Bread the Movie
FRESH the Movie
King Corn the Movie
Food, Inc. the Movie
The Food Revolution by John Robbins
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Ecoholic by Adria Vasil

Readers, I welcome your comments on books, movies or other resources you’ve found helpful in understanding all that goes into choosing healthy food. Please leave a comment and share…