Organic Eggs: Not Created Equal | Health Goes Strong

Organic Eggs: Not Created Equal 

Organic eggs are a healthier bet than regular, because chickens fed a pesticide and hormone-free diet will produce eggs that don't contain pesticide and hormone residues. And if an egg is not only organic but comes from a "pastured" chicken, even better, because chickens allowed to roam freely and eat a diverse diet are going to produce eggs packed with more nutrients for us.

But not all eggs bearing the organic label are pastured (far from it) and the label "organic" can mean a wide variety of things. A new report from organics watchdog the Cornucopia Institute reveals that many organic eggs are produced at factory farms where chickens are crammed into cages and fed an unnatural diet of commercial feed—but because the feed is grown without pesticides the resulting eggs qualify as USDA Organic.

Even if you don't care about the chickens' quality of life, you should pay attention to this report because the conditions under which chickens are raised affects the health properties of the eggs they lay:
"Research at Pennsylvania State University reveals discernible nutritional benefits to the consumer from raising laying hens on pasture. When compared with caged hens fed only a commercial diet, pastured hens produce eggs with twice as much vitamin E and 2.5-fold more healthy omega-3 fatty acids."
To see the rankings of various brands of organic eggs, including small local ones and the cartons sold by the big grocery chains, check out the Cornucopia Institute's Organic Egg Scorecard.

Entrepreneurs feed hunger for healthy, organic, local products in metro Detroit | Michigan Business | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Entrepreneurs feed hunger for healthy, organic, local products in metro Detroit

 

In downtown Plymouth, three sisters are making and selling raw, organic fruit and vegetable juices. In Detroit's Eastern Market area, three-year-old Corridor Sausage recently moved into its first production facility. And in Ferndale, 30-year-old Alla Dihes is trying to put together a food truck she calls Plantain Republic.

These and many other Michiganders are part of a surge in food-based businesses, a trend that took root long ago, but has been gaining momentum in recent years. Detroit, in particular, has become a magnet for food entrepreneurs.

"We don't see it slowing down," said Dan Carmody, president of Eastern Market, which early next year plans to open a commercial kitchen that local businesses can rent.

At Eastern Market and local farmers markets, food entrepreneurs are showing up in larger numbers. Last year, they formed their own networking and support group in Detroit. And this summer, the TechTown business incubator at Wayne State University has been hosting a nine-week program specifically geared toward food entrepreneurs that attracted 22 participants.

 

 

Microgreens Provide More Vitamins Than Full Grown Leafy Greens

Microgreens Provide More Vitamins Than Full Grown Leafy Greens

Baby spinach and baby lettuce are de rigeur in every grocery store, but a new study says that even younger greens might give us more nutritional benefits. Enter microgreens. These tiny leaves that are less than 14 days old can provide people with lots and lots of nutrients, possibly even more than baby or full-size varieties of leafy greens.

The study, conducted by USDA researched Gene Lester at the University of Maryland College Park, looked at 25 different varieties of very young greens, aka microgreens. The results, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, are pretty amazing.  Researchers found that microgreens generally had four to size times the amounts of vitamins as fully mature greens of the same plant. That means tiny little baby leaves, which have barely been exposed to sunlight, can potentially provide people with large amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene.

 

Lifesize, a Weight-Loss Strategy From an Unlikely Pair - NYTimes.com

Lifesize, a Weight-Loss Strategy From an Unlikely Pair 

By NICOLE LaPORTE

Published: September 1, 2012

WHEN Myles Berkowitz first met Steven Kates through a mutual friend in 2006, Mr. Berkowitz had serious doubts about him. 

 First, there were the tattoos. Mr. Kates, a personal trainer in Los Angeles, is covered in them, including one, on his neck, of a dead mouse. Mr. Berkowitz, an indie filmmaker known for the mock documentary “20 Dates,” favors khakis and button-down shirts. Second, what Mr. Kates was saying seemed too good to be true. At the time, Mr. Berkowitz was the heaviest he’d ever been, 219 pounds, and asked Mr. Kates for advice on how to lose weight. Mr. Kates told him to eat all his favorite foods — ribs, hamburgers, pizza — but to eat less of them.

Mr. Berkowitz didn’t buy it. 

“He thought I was a know-it-all pop off,” Mr. Kates, 56, said recently, sitting next to Mr. Berkowitz, 51, at a restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif. 

“The jury is still out on whether I like you,” Mr. Berkowitz shot back, smiling. 

Meet the creators of Lifesize, a weight-loss company that evolved out of that encounter, and that after a long, tumultuous and costly journey is finally beginning to succeed. 

Mr. Berkowitz and Mr. Kates are an example of how complementary, if somewhat unlikely, pairings are often what it takes to get an idea off the ground. Think Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak or Coco Chanel and Pierre Wertheimer, her partner in the perfume business — even Sonny and Cher. All are instances of how two very different skill sets, and personalities, united to create something innovative.

Organic, conventional foods similar in nutrition, safety, study finds - The Checkup - The Washington Post

Organic, conventional foods similar in nutrition, safety, study finds

By Jennifer LaRue Huget

 

Organic foods offer little benefit over conventionally farmed foods, a new review of existing research finds.

Crystal Smith-Spangler of Stanford University culled the scientific literature for research into the health benefits and risk of contamination among organic and conventional produce and meats.

Her review of 17 human studies and 223 evaluations of nutrient and contaminant levels in foods ranging from milk and grains to pork, beef and chicken detected mostly minor differences between organic and conventionally farmed versions.

Overall, her research, published Monday afternoon in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found little scientific evidence to support organic food’s superiority over conventionally farmed food. Among the mixed bag of chief findings:

- Eating organic produce instead of conventional produce may reduce risk of exposure to pesticides by 30 percent. But in general, both organic and conventional produce’s pesticide levels were within limits regarded as safe.

Bagged lettuce or bulk? Experts offer food safety advice - Vitals

By JoNel Aleccia, NBC News

 

A recall this week of 8,000 cases of Fresh Express Hearts of Romaine salad marks the sixth time since April that the nation’s top producers of bagged lettuce have pulled products because of worries about food safety.

Listeria was the problem that forced Fresh Express officials to recall certain 10-ounce bags of the greens, the same potentially dangerous bug that led Dole Fresh Vegetables to withdraw bagged salads four times since spring, most recently on Aug. 22.

No illnesses have been tied to the voluntary withdrawals and company press releases describe each one as an “isolated incident” unlikely to harm human health.

Green living: Food safety risks are hard to see | The Coloradoan | coloradoan.com

There is an old aphorism that “You have to see it to believe it.” This phrase embodies the notion that if you can’t see it, perhaps it’s not true. The idea serves us well in many everyday experiences, but it does not apply well in the selection of safe foods.

There are, of course, some very visible potential food-safety hazards. You are well advised to not eat moldy foods. If you eat fresh vegetables, especially root crops, you want to wash off dirt because it’s quite likely a bird, cat or a dog has visited the garden bed even if it’s your own beautiful garden. If you are Elmer Fudd and shoot rabbits to eat, you will want to pick out the shotgun pellets, even if steel pellets only break your teeth (instead of giving you lead poisoning).


Most of the things in food that can harm us are quite invisible. There are potential chemical contaminants that include those things that are used to kill insects, rodents, molds and bacteria. Then there are potential microbe problems. These include a bewildering array of bacteria, viruses, bacterial and fungal toxins and other micro-organisms way too small to be seen.