Red Flags - Nutrition

The Food We Eat: Why It’s Important To Choose Organic

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 04:00:00 -0500

The day I received my first basket of organic food from Desert Lake Gardens, I found a pair of ladybugs crawling over the produce. My initial reaction was surprise, because like most people, I’ve been conditioned to value picture-perfect fruit and vegetables and to think that it’s unsanitary for any insect — no matter how beautiful it may be — to contact fresh food.

I didn’t consider the ladybug for long before I realized something alarming. In all the years I had shopped in grocery stores, I’d never once seen any living thing on the produce. The sinister explanation is that nothing can live there.

Gustatory pleasure — And Other Good Reasons To Eat Local Food

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 04:00:00 -0500

The summer of 2005 will go down in my memory as the summer of the perfect tomato. That’s not a signature distinction for one outstanding tomato. Rather, it’s homage to hundreds of vine-ripened and jelly-filled delights that took shape in the sunny northeast corner of my city yard.

A designated 6- by 15-foot patch — wedged alongside a few low-maintenance rows of arugula, mesclun mix, baby romaine and herbs — nurtured several flawless glamour, roma, sweet 100s and yellow pear varieties. The plants required minor attention in the form of occasional pruning, tilling and weeding, along with a good shower every other day. In return, not only did they keep a dedicated cast of bumblebees knee deep in pollen throughout the summer, but by mid-July, they filled my kitchen, and that of friends, with a steady supply of edible nightshades. Food writer M. F. K. Fisher famously penned the words “serve it forth,” and so we did with a steady menu of salads, salsas, sauces and toasted sandwiches. Now with frozen plum tomatoes at the ready, I will relive the summer of the perfect tomato all winter long.

Fat Of The Land

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 18:05:50 -0400

Walk into a North American school cafeteria and you are confronted with trays of something remotely resembling food. A glance at the meat course - or mystery animal - and a green sludge that might have, at some point, passed for a vegetable is sufficient to throw the onlooker into a state of permanent dyspepsia.

The Boy Who Cried ‘Soya’

Sun, 26 Jun 2005 04:00:00 -0400

I was happily driving to work listening to the radio when a ‘health’ item popped up, and almost caused me to drive off the road in rage. There is, or maybe it has just finished, a European conference on fertility going on. As usual everyone is looking for an angle to promote. The researchers and the media, all hunting for a ‘story’, something to make people stop and pay attention for a few microseconds.

The Nutritional Guidelines – Facts Or Fraud?

Wed, 25 May 2005 15:56:38 -0400

The following paragraph is taken from a recent ‘Team Nutrition’ pamphlet from USDA:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is doing what it can to help. The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs must be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. USDA’s Team Nutrition Initiative provides nutrition education materials to help schools meet these standards.”

There’s Something Fishy Going On…

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 04:00:00 -0500

For a few years now supplementation with essential fatty acids (EFAs) has become all the rage. We are correctly told of the importance of EFAs in our health, that North Americans are at risk for an EFA deficiency, and of their many benefits that range from reducing chronic inflammation to nourishing the skin, eyes and nervous system. Supplementing with these “healthy oils” has become a multimillion dollar industry, and apparently, a prerequisite to staying healthy. In particular, the importance of omega 3 fatty acids has garnered a lot of attention and now we find a plethora of “omega 3” supplements on the market, derived from either vegetable sources such as flax, hemp or perilla seed, or from animal sources such as cold water fish.

Does Atkins Affect Conception Chances?

Thu, 01 Jul 2004 04:00:00 -0400

Does Atkins Affect Conception Chances?

Just When You Thought That Medical Research Findings Couldn’t Possibly Get More Mindless, A New Report - On High Protein Diets - Suddenly Appears And Gets Wide Media Distribution

Just when you thought that medical research findings couldn’t get any more blitheringly idiotic, a new report drops upon the unsuspecting public from on high.

An Ode To Dr. Robert Atkins, Sort Of, With A Not So-Sutble Point To Be Made About The Medical “Brotherhood”

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 04:00:00 -0400

"When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing -- they believe in anything." GK Chesterton

When I read about people like the Aztecs, and their jolly human sacrifices, I wondered how on earth they could have reached to the point where they were slaughtering children in their hundreds, and thousands, in ritual sacrifice.

Dieting: A Singer's No-Nonsense Perspective

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 15:11:06 -0500

All the so-called “diet experts” are becoming one big pain. And that goes for anyone pushing a particular diet.

Both the conventional and alternative food gurus and the rest of the monstrous diet “industry” want to dazzle you with their big-time opinions. They want you to buy their books and order their specially-grown foods. They also want you to sit in front of the TV and watch their diet programs and believe in their commercials. And as for the Internet, that really takes the cake. Everyone is now a diet expert. Dieting is the new miracle pill for the masses.

Pandemic Of Hunger And Starvation

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 04:00:00 -0500

Half Of The World’s Population Suffers From Some Form Of Malnutrition

Every year, 12 million children in the Third World, under the age of five, die of diseases related to malnutrition. This pandemic of hunger and starvation is unmatched since the Black Death coursed through Europe in the 14^th century.

How many of us in the comfortable developed world know this? How many care? How many of us are concerned only with our own existential needs and ignore the hopeless realities of daily death and life in distant countries?

Oh Canada!

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 04:00:00 -0400

Exposing The National Shame And Its Profound Implications For Health

It is disturbing that 1.5 million Canadian children - 20%, or one in five - live in poverty. Many go to sleep hungry, sit in school without breakfast, and lack the warm clothing required in our winter climate.

The school dropout rate is double that of non-poor children. There is a look of sadness and resignation on their faces as they sleepwalk through another depressing day.

The Modern Scourge Of Obesity

Mon, 09 Sep 2002 16:38:43 -0400

Dogs and Cats, Carbs and Fats, and the Evolution of the Human Race

Why does obesity not afflict any other animal species? Why does obesity not affect primitive humans?

On The Issue Of Dietary Fat

Mon, 12 Aug 2002 17:00:43 -0400

A REACTION TO DR. DEAN ORNISH AND THE PRITIKIN CENTER

Predictably, Gary Taubes' NYT article "What If Its All Been a Big Fat Lie?" generated a hornet's nest of coverage around the world, but particularly in the USA. Unfortunately, the essential message of the article got quickly twisted by the Spin Doctors of Modern Medicine to suit their own agenda.