The Glycemic Index

Written By ELIZABETH FIEND

To eat healthy, eat low on the glycemic index. White bread is at 100 and the list works down from there. Foods ranked at 55 or lower are considered ‘low.’ To start out, eat at least one food that’s 55 or lower at each meal. Throw in a serving or two of something over 55 but less than 70. You’ll lose weight and be more nourished. Foods ranked over 70? Danger, danger, Will Robinson!

The Glycemic Index could save your life — literally. It could make living with diabetes easier. Or prevent diabetes in the first place. It can reduce your risk of heart disease. It will lower your cholesterol. It will make you thinner. It might even get you laid.

The Glycemic Index is a scientific measurement of how rapidly foods release their sugars into your blood. It’s an invaluable, easy-to-use tool for maintaining or getting to a proper weight. Forget diets. Get jiggy wit’ the GI instead.

Research on the Glycemic Index originally began as a way to pin-point the best foods choices for diabetics; to help them better control their blood sugar and therefore insulin production. But soon it became apparent that the Glycemic Index was a great tool for people to use to control their weight.

The concept was popularized in diets like Atkins, The Zone and The South Beach Diet which center around the philosophy of low-carb/high protein. The problem with these diets is that they rely on too much protein and not enough fruits and vegetables to keep you healthy in the long run. Carbohydrates are found in foods like bread, pasta, cake and fruit as these foods contain sugars. Foods that are low in carbs are fish, meat, cheese; these foods contain fat and protein. Also low in carbs are most vegetables which usually are very low in fat.

The Glycemic Index was built by sitting down 10 people and measuring their blood sugar after feeding them a specific food — and then measuring their blood sugar again two hours later. Days later, the process was repeated and the numbers were combined and averaged. So yeah, they made a list checked it twice, and found out which foods were naughty or nice.

THE SCIENCE OF IT

The basic building block of a carbohydrate is a sugar molecule composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Starches (another word for carbohydrates) are basically chains of sugar molecules, some containing only one sugar, others hundreds of sugars.

To digest these sugars, our body has to break them down into a simple sugar molecule of glucose, aka blood sugar, so they’ll be tiny enough to enter our bloodstream. As our blood sugar rises after eating, cells in the pancreas produce more and more of the hormone insulin which tell our cells to absorb the sugar. Our cells act like a sponge and soak up the sugar. But if too much sugar is released into our blood all at once, our bodies are overwhelmed and the ‘sponge’ can’t sop-up the sugar fast enough. This is a problem for diabetics whose insulin system isn’t working properly. But it’s become clear that this is a problem for non-diabetics, as well.

When you eat a candy bar, you are essentially pouring spoonfuls of sugar into your bloodstream. You spike, suddenly you got energy up the wazoo! And then, just as suddenly, you crash and burn, losing energy and feeling hungry again, even though you just consumed a zillion calories an hour ago. You eat more, you get fat and grumpy and soon you have no girlfriend. Time to turn to the GI. If you use the Glycemic Index to help you make food choices you’ll feel fuller longer because your blood sugar will stay relatively stable before eating, after eating and in-between meals — and this will help you to eat less. When you eat less, you weigh less.

Carbohydrates are the fuel for our bodies, they’re necessary for our survival. They charge us up so we can be physically active and have proper organ function. But in recent years our diets have been skewed by excessive carbohydrates added to processed foods. One of the biggest offenders is high fructose corn syrup.

Before GI, the world was divided into simple carbohydrates such as white rice, white bread and white potatoes, which are made up of single sugars like fructose, sucrose, dextrose and glucose and complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice, whole wheat bread and yams, which are made up of three or more linked sugars. Then along came the Glycemic Index which offers us much more detailed information. The Glycemic Index lays out the findings in a convenient list format ordered by how quickly a foods’ glucose is released into your body after you eat it.

To eat healthy, eat low on the list. White bread is at 100 and the list works down from there. Foods ranked at 55 or lower are considered ‘low.’ To start out, eat at least one food that’s 55 or lower at each meal. Throw in a serving or two of something over 55 but less than 70. You’ll lose weight and be more nourished. Foods ranked over 70? Danger, danger, Will Robinson!

Remember, a serving is a very specifically defined portion, not how much you can eat at one sitting, rather the amount you should eat at each meal. Take a sandwich for example — that’s two servings of bread — each piece of bread is one serving. So remember when eating a sandwich you’re getting two servings of carbohydrates just from the bread alone.

Serving sizes are conveniently detailed on every single package of food. It’s the law. Read the label, ok? Package says three servings, you eat one third of the package, not the whole thing, duh. Some packages try to trick you into thinking one package = one serving (especially beverages). Not true. Read the label. Do the math.

For items that aren’t prepackaged, like fish and meat, a serving is the size of a deck of cards. For fruits a serving is one cup or about one medium fruit. For vegetables a serving is half a cup of chopped vegetables or one cup of leafy greens. Don’t lie to yourself. Get a measuring cup. Use it until you’re familiar with what a true serving size is.

The best way to use the list is the ‘this or that’ method. Pick a food category and take a look at all the items listed. Fill up on foods you already like to eat that have low GI numbers. Or, just take a look at the list, look at all the foods 55 or lower, which ones do you like? Eat them. For example vegetables: corn = 60; peas = 54; raw carrots = 16. OK, you don’t care. How about this: angel food cake = 67; pound cake = 54; sponge cake = 46. Knowing these numbers can help you plan a meal.

THE DOWNSIDE

The Glycemic Index only measures carbohydrate absorption in the blood, it doesn’t take any other nutritional values into consideration. Therefore you’ll see that the GI of French fries is lower than that of a baked potato. But this is not license to eat tons of French fries. Why? Because French fries contain a load of fat, probably the unhealthiest fat of all, trans fat. You must still use common sense when consulting the GI.

Fat is not all bad. In fact we need some to survive and eating some fat can be ‘worked’ to actually help you lose weight because fat slows the rate your stomach empties out after you eat (that’s why fried potatoes are lower on the list than baked potatoes). Include small to moderate amounts of ‘good’ fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat with each meal and you‘ll feel full for a long time. If you don’t know which foods contain which types of fat it’s listed on the package label. Read it. Or ask me in a comment on this blog. You can also check out my previous column on fat.

The GI is full of surprises. It seemed to be a no brainer that pasta, would have a high (bad) ranking like white bread. However this turned out to be wrong. Pasta has a mid level rating. Seems the physical entrapment of ungelatinised granules of starch form a sponge-like network of gluten molecules (gluten is the protein component of wheat) making pasta a very unique food in terms of it’s Glycemic rating. That’s why we LOVE the Glycemic Index it really dishes the dirt.

Pasta should be eaten for sure, but in moderation. A meal comprised of a few cups of vegetables and ONE serving of pasta is a fine healthy meal. Switch this ratio, two cups of pasta and one cup of vegetables and your diet goes down the tubes. The GI also found out for us that overcooking pasta raises it’s GI. So, al dente it is. And choose whole wheat pasta because it contains more minerals, vitamins and antioxidants than white pasta.

The studying of a foods GI is so sophisticated and extensive that research also found that the best way to eat the dreaded high carb white potato is, ready? ….. Day old, chilled potato salad made with a vinaigrette. Freaky huh?

Cold increases the potato’s resistant starch content and the vinaigrette makes your tummy more acidic slowing down digestion. Lime and lemon juice will do the same thing to other foods.

I didn’t want to tell you this, but there’s another list. It’s called the Glycemic Load. It’s newer and is based on an even more complicated equation. It also uses a whole different numbering system. I say skip this list for now, it’s very helpful for scientific research but just too complicated to use for meal planning. If you’re some brainiac-dieter and you want to search out foods on the GL list, eat ones that score 10 or lower.

Here are links to two web pages that contain the Glycemic Index. These links contain the same list and ultimately the same information but present it in different formats. Go there right now. Bookmark then. Refer to them often.

Glycemic Index via a search engine (click on: GI Database, left hand column).

You can search by a specific food category like ‘nuts;’ a specific food like ‘cashew;’ or by a specific number on the Index, even using the ‘<’ symbol to come up with a list of all tested foods under 55.

Glycemic Index in list form (you have to scroll down the page to get to the list).

This list includes foods in their natural state and packaged, processed food by brand name. The list is ordered by food categories and unfortunately starts out with ‘baked goods’ with ‘vegetables’ all the way at the bottom. The alphabet can really mess with your head at times. Ethnic foods are for some reason separated out and listed at the end.

This is a huge, huge, intimidating list because it includes all the foods tested for their GI and GL and you have to just keep scrolling down, and down until you find what you’re looking for. But I have confidence you can handle it.

The list shows the Glycemic Index in the first column (aim for 55 or below, ignore the crazy delimiter symbol). The Glycemic Load is in the last column (aim for 10 or below).

You will notice, the Australians are all over this GI thing and some of the food brands are unfamiliar to us, just ignore.

Some meal ideas that are low on the Glycemic Index: Serve Chili over a bed of lettuce instead of eating with chips or rice; switch to open face sandwiches whenever you can; try my recipe below.

Popeye’s Nutty Portabella Mushroom Burger
by Elizabeth Fiend

Quick and Easy, 1 Dish Meal, Low Carb, Vegan
Serves 2 Human Beings or 8 Martians

Ingredients:
2 large portabella mushrooms
1/2 onion
4 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
1/4 cup white wine (or white grape juice or water)
1/2 cup water (divided in to 2 parts)
2 cups fresh spinach (packed)
2 teaspoons white miso
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 small whole grain rolls/buns (like a dinner roll)

Method:
Wash mushrooms and break off stems
Chop stems finely
Dice onion
Mince garlic

Heat sesame oil in sauté pan
Add onion, mushroom stems and garlic
Cook 3 minutes, or until onion is tender

In a cup, mix the wine, 1/4 cup water and cayenne pepper.
When the pan becomes dry, add this mixture as needed.
By not adding more oil you save on calories and fat!

Push onion and mushroom stems to the edges of the pan
Add mushroom caps
Sauté for 10 minutes (add more wine mixture when too dry)
Turn mushrooms over and sauté for 8 minutes (add remaining wine mixture)

Start toasting the rolls/buns

Add spinach to sauté pan
Dissolve (stir) miso into 1/4 cup water and add to pan
(Don’t bring miso to a boil as it will loose it’s nutritional value)
Stir for 1 minute or until spinach is evenly wilted (pan should be fairly dry by now)
Mix in pine nuts

Put mushroom cap on toasted roll and top with vegetable / nut mixture

Sources and For More Information:

Everything you always wanted to know about the GI but were afraid to ask:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Harvard School of Public Health; carbohydrates; whole grains; the GI

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Article and Photo BY ELIZABETH FIEND

SALAD BURNET makes an awesome home-grown herb because it’s practically evergreen. Do you realize the implications of this? Well, the pilgrims did when they brought it to America from its native Europe. It means you can grow something GREEN to eat practically year round, even in cold climates. It tastes yummy, like chicken. Oh, no that’s rattlesnake. Salad burnet is tangy with a hint of cucumber. It makes an attractive edging plant and is easy to grow.

PERENNIAL CHIVES is a must have herb not only for cooking but also for the garden as it’s a great companion plant which repels problem insects. In the Middle Ages chives were used to ward off evil spirits. Today we appreciate their high content of vitamins A, B and C plus the minerals iron, potassium and calcium. Like all alliums, chives reduce blood pressure. The purple flowers are edible and very good tasting. Sprinkle some snipped chive stalks and a crumbled chive flower over rice, or other food, and you’ll have a strikingly beautiful presentation of green and purple confetti.

FLAT-LEAF PARSLEY is a biennial herb that’s easy to start from seed. Parsley contains more vitamin C than an orange! Because if its high chlorophyll content, parsley gently clears toxins from the body thus combating inflammation and high blood pressure. The ancient Romans gave parsley to gladiators to promote their fighting skills.

TO GRoW Salad burnet and parsley are biennials, which means the plant has a two year lifecycle. They’ll grow like gangbusters the first year and you should harvest plenty. The next year they’ll “bolt” or “go-to-seed” producing flowers, than seeds and then they commit suicide. It’s a good idea to “deadhead” or pinch off the flower head and replant the seeds. Plant new seeds every year to ensure a steady supply of these nutritional powerhouses. Chives come in many varieties. I recommend a perennial chive which will live forever, giving you more bang for your buck. There are also flavors of chives like garlic chive (you can recognize it by its flat leaf). Buy plants or seeds. Reseed and make more plants as needed.

TO HARVEST For salad burnet and chives, simply cut off the stems about 1 inch from the ground. Parsley grows in individual stalks. Cut them right above a set of leaves. Always make sure to leave at least 1/3 of each plant intact. Best eaten fresh (not dried).

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Article and Photos by ELIZABETH FIEND

Although there’s still a chill in the air and a bit of winter to come, if you want to do a garden this year, start now. That’s right. The key to gardening is to be on top of everything. Gardening is based around the weather and the weather waits for no man — or woman.

You probably have a growing mound of garden catalogs by now. A few arrive in my mailbox every day.

Overwhelming! If you don’t have catalogs, try buying a mail-order plant ONE time, and you’ll be flooded with garden catalogs for the rest of your life.

What I do is just thin out from the very beginning. If you try to look through every single catalog, you’ll be paralyzed by too many options. So you must weed out from the start.

Divide the catalogs into categories like flowers, seeds, landscaping, accessories. I grow a lot of soft fruit, so I set aside catalogs that sell fruit as well.

After you’ve divided the catalogs into categories, start with the Buy Local philosophy Sure, buying local helps dollars grow in your own neighborhood economy, but there’s another reason why this is a good idea. Buying a plant from a nursery located in an area that has the same ecology as where you plan to plant the plant is some extra insurance that it will grow happily in your yard. Yes, that plant from the nursery in New Mexico is gorgeous but face it, it’s just not going to take root around here even if the phrase “hardy enough for colder climates” is tossed about in the catalog’s description.

I live in Philadelphia and there are some big nurseries right here in my state. You can’t get much more local than that. Plus by buying local, you’ll be kinder to the environment by saving fossil fuel with a shorter transport to your garden. There is one major downside to the buy local thing when it comes to mail order. The Feds. When you make a snail mail or Internet purchase from a company located in your home state, yikes, you’re going to be charged sales tax. Still, I do it.

Of course, not all the plants I desire can be obtained from Pennsylvania nurseries. So I move out geographically, just not too far.  I also make a political decision and NEVER buy from a company associated with evil GMO company Monsanto. Instead I look for companies that have good work conditions, and care for the environment. Check out this article from the Organic Consumers Association for more info.

You know about the hardiness zones right?

The hardiness zone, or just zone, was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture. Zones are based on the average annual minimum temperature over a five-year span. Numbers are assigned and graphed, they make undulating bands across the map, much like you see on a weather forecast map. Zone 1 is the coldest, here in Pennsylvania, we’re Zone 6. (Yeah, the zone thing is starting to get a little thorny right now due to global warming, but we won’t get into that today.)

A good, reliable catalog will list the hardiness zone of each plant. If it doesn’t, I’d ditch that catalog right from the start and move on to a more informative and honest supplier.

The zone is a great indicator, but it only tells one part of the story. The hardiness zone only talks lowest temperatures. Plants are also picky about the high temperatures. And they care deeply about how much rain there is, or how long between rain, or what the snow cover is and how likely an early or late freak frost is in your ‘hood. And let’s not forget the number of hours of daylight. So think about the big picture too.

Code words.

The catalogs can be sneaky with their wording and descriptions. Buying plants that are inappropriate for your area is one of the top reasons for garden frustration and failure. It wastes a lot of lettuce too. So be on guard.

There are a ton of code words in garden catalog land. “Woodland” equals shady, we know that, but it’s also a code word for wet. If the area under that tree out back isn’t a moist environment, forget about it, it’s not suitable for that plant. Go for the plant labeled “shade” or “part-sun” instead.

Other code words like “needs winter protection” mean that the plant probably won’t do well in Pennsylvania even if it says hardy up to Zone 6. “Plant along pond or stream” is code for “needs lots of water,” while “drought resistant” indicates the plant will probably die if there’s too much rain. “May bloom first year” means it won’t bloom until the second year. And phrases like “self-seeds readily” and “a good neutralizer” imply that the plant has the potential to be a garden pest, plant with caution.

Also consider your soil and the location of your garden when selecting plants. Clay soil? Sandy soil? Full sun, partial shade? Which do you have? Choose plants accordingly. You’re doomed to failure if you try to force a plant into an inappropriate location.

Seeds.

You have to be realistic about selecting seeds as well. Unless you’re an experienced gardener I would recommend staying away from trying to grow perennial plants from seeds. Stick with annuals and you’ll be a lot happier.

As for food from seed, one of the main things to look for when selecting seeds is the length of the growing season. I stick with vegetables seeds that will go from being in my hand to ready to eat in the range of 120 days. Plant May 1, eat Sept. 1, that is of course if everything goes according to your plan, which it never does.

My order this year:

Plants: Songbird Cardinal columbine; Blue Angel and Great Expectations hostas; Southern Charm verbascum (a cascade of sherbet-colored blossoms, so lovely!); D. Agatha dianthus (aka carnations, spicy, edible flowers!); Avante Garde clematis; Mt. St. Helens, H. Regina and Dale’s Strain coral bells. This order is larger than most years for me. Total cost = $122.00.

Seeds: Four packs of various lettuce; greens: chard, kale, bok choi, (the Fiends are green inside and out!); cucumbers; sweet and hot pepper mix; summer squash mix; tomatoes: Brandywine, Genovees and Sun Gold Cherry; basil: Siam Queen, Bounty, Mammoth and Holy; parsley; nasturtium mixed (these edible flowers and leaves turn a bagel and cream cheese into haute cuisine); cosmos; larkspur; and for the birds, sunflowers. Total cost = $85.00.

Right, gardening is not cheap. But the yard will be lookin’ good, and yum, we’ll be eatin’ good this summer!

Categories: Gardening, plants, plant catalogs

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Written by: By Carolyn O’Neil    Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend

Source: ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

When the mercury hits 90 and above, tempers can get pretty fired up, too. But another glass of water or a slice of watermelon might help, because irritability is a classic side effect of dehydration.

The first physical sign is thirst, of course. But other symptoms are more subtle. You might get a headache. You can become cranky, forgetful, tired, and dizzy, and your skin appears dry and wrinkly.

Remember the old admonition to drink eight glasses of water a day? Well, in 2004, the Institute of Medicine issued new general fluid recommendations indicating women should drink 11 cups per day and men 15 cups.

These amounts include the water in all food and beverages we consume. Iced tea, fruit juice, and even hot coffee and soups all count as hydrators. It turns out that 80 percent of our water intake is from drinking water and other beverages, and the other 20 percent is from food.

Watermelon, a summertime favorite, is more than 90 percent water. Other foods with high water content include lettuce, peaches, broccoli, and citrus fruit. The Georgia Peach Council handed out more than 10,000 fresh peaches during the AJC Peachtree Road Race on July 4.

It’s worth noting that iceberg lettuce, often dismissed as having little nutritional value as compared with its dark green leafy cousins, is a better source of water. Just go easy on the blue cheese dressing.

Sports fitness experts say it’s best to drink small amounts at a time throughout the day, because the body is better able to absorb the fluids.

Avoid sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks and sweetened ice tea, because they come with a hefty calorie count – 150 calories for a 12-ounce soft drink. Studies show that Americans are consuming 220 more calories a day from sugar-sweetened beverages than they did in the 1960s.

If you want the bubbles, choose zero-calorie flavored sparkling waters or good old club soda.

Fruit juices provide nutritional benefits, including antioxidants and vitamins needed to help keep summer bodies at their best.

“Drinking water – either sparkling or flat and perhaps with a twist of citrus – is a great, noncaloric way to satisfy your thirst. But if you prefer 100 percent fruit juice, low-fat milk, coffee, or other flavored beverages, they too can keep you well-hydrated,” said Kathleen Zelman, Atlanta dietitian and nutrition director for WebMD.

“Bottom line, make your beverage choices work to satisfy your nutritional needs, fluid preferences, and hydration needs.”

Fruits and vegetables are foods with especially high water content. So, when you choose gazpacho or a peach cobbler, you’re helping to hydrate your body.

Here’s how the percentage of water plays out:

Iceberg lettuce, cucumbers – 96 percent

Cabbage, celery – 95 percent

Tomatoes – 94 percent

Watermelon, strawberries, spinach, eggplant – 92 percent

Broccoli, citrus – 91 percent

Carrots, pineapple, peaches, raspberries – 87 percent

Yogurt, blueberries, plums – 85 percent

Apples – 84 percent

Bananas – 74 percent

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High levels of a dangerous chemical, BPA, are being found in the urine and blood of people who eat canned food. BPA is used as an epoxy to line cans. As of now there’s only one brand of canned foods, Eden, that doesn’t contain this hormone-mimicking, possibly cancer causing chemical.

See two articles below, the first about the dangerous of canned foods the second from the company Eden detailing how they’ve solved the BPA problem. Posted By Elizabeth Fiend

Source: My Health Daily News.com and Eden Foods

Soaring BPA Levels Found in People Who Eat Canned Foods

Eating canned food every day may raise the levels of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in a person’s urine more than previously suspected, a new study suggests.

People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study. BPA is found in many canned foods — it is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion.

When the researchers looked at the rise in BPA levels seen in the average participant who ate canned soup compared with those who ate fresh soup, they found a 1,221 percent jump.

“To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising,” said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The levels of BPA seen in the study participants “are among the most extreme reported in a nonoccupational setting,” the researchers wrote in their study. In the general population, levels have been found to be around 1 to 2 micrograms per liter, Michels said.

The study noted that levels higher than 13 micrograms per liter were found in only the top 5 percent of participants in the National Health and Examination Survey, which is an ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them,” Michels told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The study is published online (Nov. 22) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Soup for lunch

The study included 75 people, whose average age was 27. One group of participants ate 12 ounces of fresh soup every day at lunchtime, while the other ate the same amount of canned soup each day. Urine samples were collected from the participants on the fourth and fifth days of the study.

BPA was detected in 77 percent of people who ate the fresh soup, and all of the people who ate the canned soup, according to the study.

Only a few studies had previously looked at BPA levels from eating canned foods, and those relied on asking people how much of the food they usually eat comes from cans, Michels said. The new study was the first in which researchers randomized participants to eat a small serving of canned food or fresh food, and measured the resulting difference in their urine BPA levels, she said.

“We’ve known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use,” said study researcher Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student at Harvard.

BPA and health

A 2008 study of 1,455 people showed that higher urinary BPA levels were linked with higher risks of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and abnormal concentrations of certain liver enzymes, even after factors such as age, body mass index and smoking were taken into account.

And other studies have linked BPA levels in a woman’s urine during her pregnancy to health problems in her child.

It is not known how long the levels of BPA might remain high, according to the study. However, it is also not known whether such a spike, even if it isn’t sustained for very long, may affect health, the researchers wrote.

The study was limited in that all of the participants were students or staff at one school, and a single soup brand (Progresso) was tested, but the researchers wrote that they expected the results to apply to canned foods with a similar BPA content.

“Reducing canned food consumption may be a good idea, especially for people consuming foods from cans regularly,” Michels said. “Maybe manufacturers can take the step of taking BPA out of the lining of cans — some have already done this, but only a few.”

The study was funded by the Allen Foundation, which advocates nutrition research.

Pass it on: Cutting down on the amount of canned food you eat might be a good idea, researchers say. (end article)

Only ONE Brand of Canned Foods is Free of BPA

article from Eden Foods

All Eden Organic Beans, Refried Beans, Chilies and Rice & Beans are cooked in steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous c-enamel that does not contain the endocrine disrupter chemical, bisphenol-A (BPA). Oleoresin is a non-toxic mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir. These cans cost 14% more than the industry standard cans that do contain BPA. The Ball Corporation tells us that Eden is the only U.S. food maker to date to use these BPA free cans and we have been since April 1999.

How Eden Foods Pioneered BPA-Free Cans
Interview with Eden Foods President, Michael Potter by Investigative journalist
Nena Baker, author of The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of
Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being (enviroblog.org)

No one is more pleased to see the hazards of bisphenol A in the spotlight than Mike Potter, father of six, grandfather of four, and founder and president of Eden Foods. His company began using BPA-free cans in 1999, after two years of frustrating negotiations with his can suppliers. “It’s regrettable that the use of BPA has gone on so long,” Potter told me. “I’ve been flabbergasted as I’ve observed the lack of will on the part of the rest of the food industry to take advantage of an option we created.”

Here’s the back story on Eden Foods’ switch to BPA-free cans for its bean products: In 1997, Potter learned that new research was raising questions about the safety of bisphenol A and that one of BPA’s many applications was in the linings of cans. “Being a canner, it got my attention,” said Potter.

He asked his can suppliers — three of them at the time — if bisphenol A was in the cans they were selling to Eden Foods. “I made hundreds of phone calls to these three manufacturers,” he said. “Remarkably, I couldn’t find out if it was in the cans I was using or not.” The can companies didn’t have to disclose what chemicals they were using as long as they claimed it was a trade secret.

“I was flabbergasted that legally, it was none of my business. I had no right to know, as a consumer, a food manufacturer, a parent or grandparent.” Two of his can suppliers (who he declined to name) gave Potter “half information and half answers.” One can supplier, Ball Corp., “ascertained that I wasn’t going to go away. They weren’t going to disclose specifically what was in the linings of their cans, but they did help me understand the complex chemistry that goes on to make the linings and how that process leads to bisphenol A.”

So Potter asked what he describes as the “high-school question.” What did Ball Corp. use before the days of the formulation that results in bisphenol A leaching into canned food?

“They told me they used an enamel made from vegetable resins. So I asked: Can I get my cans with that on it, please?”

The answer was yes, if Eden Foods paid 14 percent more for the BPA-free cans. “That’s hundred of thousands of dollars a year for us, ” which is a big deal for a small company in a very competitive canned food business.

Potter felt he had no choice but to switch to BPA-free cans. “It was the right thing to do. I didn’t want BPA in food I was serving to my kids, my grandkids, or my customers.”

Eden Foods did not promote its switch to BPA-free cans 10 years ago. “At the time, consumers hadn’t heard about bisphenol A. The name itself was like Swahili.”

But with growing awareness about BPA’s laboratory links to recent trends in human diseases — a chilling list including breast and prostate cancers, increases in urogenital abnormalities in male babies, a decline in semen quality in men, early onset of puberty in girls, metabolic disorders including Type 2 diabetes and obesity, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder — Eden Foods recently began labeling its bean cans “BPA-free.”

For the moment, Eden Foods tomato products are packaged in industry-standard BPA-containing cans. “The FDA hasn’t approved any other type of can lining for highly acidic foods,” Potter said.

But Potter, who is also involved in the Non-GMO Project, is convinced that “today’s modern chemists can solve this problem” — especially if consumers demand it. “It’s not fun dealing with this stuff, ” said Potter. “But where there’s a will there’s a way.”

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BY ELIZABETH FIEND
Serves 4 as lunch or main course, 6 as a side salad
Time: 20 minutes

Category: Vegetarian Recipe

This salad is all about contrasts.
The pears are served warm, making this a great dish to serve on a chilly, rainy day. The sharp cheese, crunchy nuts and creamy honey-lime dressing each stimulate different taste buds providing satisfaction and a feeling of fullness. I’ve divided up one serving between the cheese and nuts so even thought you’ll be eating cheese AND nuts (both contain fat) you will be getting just the right amount of fat and protein.

There’s an optional fun part in this recipe for the kids too. Instill in them a love for vegetables by having them cut the cucumber slices into stars with cookie cutter.

Salad Ingredients:
½ pound spring salad mix
¼ head endive – tear off and discard ends; break into bite size pieces
1 cucumber (see below for treatment)
1/8 lb gorgonzola cheese – break into pieces
3 pears (any kind) – cut into slices
½ cup walnuts – break into pieces

Dressing Ingredients:
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons lime juice
Blend above with a spoon or small whisk until honey is dissolved, than add:
½ cup buttermilk (or 3/8 cup soy milk plus 1/8 cup lemon juice)
2 stalks scallions diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

Instructions:
Mix dressing ingredients until blended (use a small plastic container with a lid for easy shaking)

Mix together spring salad mix and endive in a large bowl

Peel / slice ½ cucumber
Optional: For a beautiful presentation cut cucumber slices into stars with a cookie cutter
Kids love to do this, it’s a great way to get them interested in vegetables too
Dice remaining cucumber and add to dressing

Coat greens with dressing

Gently blend the nuts and cheese into the greens

Top with cucumber stars / slices

Just before serving, microwave pears for 1 minute (or until heated, but not cooked)
Place warm pears alongside cucumbers

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Save Energy When Cooking by Elizabeth Fiend

When cooking soup, stew or boiling water for pasta or rice put a lid on that pan.
By keeping the heat in you’ll use less energy to cook your food.
Bonus: you’ll get to eat sooner. Love, Elizabeth Fiend

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Source: Mother Jones    Written By Kate Sheppard     Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend

In 2006, Congress quietly passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a sweeping new law that classified many forms of animal rights campaigning as terrorism. Now the law’s critics have taken to the courts to try to kill it. In a case filed last week, five activists argue that AETA violates their rights by criminalizing constitutionally protected actions.

AETA, which replaced an earlier, weaker law called the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA), prohibits anything done “for the purpose of damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise” or that “causes the loss of any real or personal property.” (The earlier version of the law only covered “physical disruption” to operations.) The law also prohibits “economic damage” to an enterprise, which includes loss of profits and pressure put on any investors or other companies that do business with the animal enterprise. Even the definition of “animal enterprise” is so broad that it could be construed as covering any institution that has a cafeteria selling meat or cheese products, argues Rachel Meeropol, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is backing the plaintiffs in the case filed against Attorney General Eric Holder.

“Basically, the law is saying if you cause an animal enterprise to lose profits, then you’ve committed a terrorist act,” Meeropol says. “The whole point of many protests is to cause a business to lose profits, to convince the public that a certain company doesn’t deserve to be patronized.”

Faced with the possibility of terrorism charges for engaging in many forms of protest, a number of activists have decided to curb their activity.

Sarahjane Blum, the cofounder of the anti-foie-gras group Gourmet Cruelty [1], is the lead plaintiff in the suit. She has spent years documenting ducks and geese that are too fat to walk or breathe in videos and photographs, posting them online. In 2004, she was charged with burglary for removing birds from a New York farm, though the charge was later downgraded and she was sentenced to community service. Blum, 33, now worries that otherwise legal activities—like picketing a restaurant that serves foie gras or running education campaigns—could lead to her being deemed a terrorist under the AETA. The law’s broad reach means Blum’s no longer comfortable participating in or encouraging much of the work that helped prompt California lawmakers to outlaw foie gras [2] in the state starting in 2012.

“It’s impossible for me at this point to speak freely,” she says. “I feel, and I am, censored. I am censoring myself.”

One federal judge has already endorsed the idea that the government’s use of AETA has been too broad. In 2009, four protesters in California were charged under the law for allegedly chalking a sidewalk, handing out fliers, and engaging in protests at the homes of researchers that use animals. Ronald M. Whyte, a federal judge in California, threw out [3] the charges, finding that they were too vague and included constitutionally protected actions.

The US Department of Justice has used the older version of the law successfully in some cases. In 2004, a group of animal rights advocates were convicted and imprisoned under AEPA. One of the convicted activists, Lauren Gazzola, is a plaintiff in the suit against the updated law. Gazzola, 32, was a US coordinator of an international campaign against animal product testing known as Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty [4]. The campaign started in the United Kingdom and targeted the animal testing lab Huntingdon Life Sciences, which tests a variety of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other products on animals. The SHAC campaign gained traction in the late 1990s after undercover video was released showing Huntingdon employees in the UK punching beagle puppies in the face. It eventually expanded to the US to target a Huntingdon facility in New Jersey.

Gazzola worked with other US-based activists to organize demonstrations, write press releases, and run SHAC’s websites, which advocated for and published reports on a variety of protest activity targeting Huntingdon, its employees, and companies that had done business with it. That included publishing the names, addresses, and phone numbers of Huntingdon employees and other people who had done business with the company. The actions SHAC posted on ranged from legal nonviolent protests to property destruction. In its indictment [5], the government argued that the SHAC website encouraged people to commit violent acts and gave them the information they needed to do so.

In March 2006, Gazzola was found guilty of six felony charges, including stalking and conspiracy to violate AEPA. Gazzola was never personally involved in any illegal protest, she says—just in writing and speaking about protest actions, and posting accounts from people who did engage in those acts. Nor were the other five SHAC activists charged with actually committing violent acts. But government prosecutors made it clear that they believed they were shutting down the activities of a group that promoted terrorist acts. (Mother Jones covered the case [4] in 2006.)

Gazzola served over three years in a federal women’s correctional institution in Danbury, Connecticut, and another five months under supervision at halfway house. She’s now in the middle of three years of federal probation, and for next 20 years, part of her salary will be garnished to pay restitution to the companies her actions affected. She works a communications associate at the Center for Constitutional Rights and is finishing up a graduate degree from Antioch University that she began while in prison.

Although the government locked up Gazzola and other SHAC activists under the the older statute, in 2006 Congress decided to strengthen the law and rebrand it as the “Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.” The new version passed in the Senate in September 2006, where it was touted by cosponsors [6] Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) as necessary to “enhance the effectiveness of the U.S. Department of Justice’s ability to prosecute animal rights extremists.” It passed the House without a roll-call vote several weeks later, and President George W. Bush signed it into law on Nov. 27, 2006.

AETA was passed specifically to cover a broader range of groups and activities than its predecessor, says Will Potter, a reporter who has covered the attempts to classify various forms of activism as terrorism in his blog and book [7] Green Is the New Red. “They’re really trying to scare the hell out of people,” he says.

Gazzola and the other activists involved in the case say they want to resume their work on animal rights campaigns—but not if that means being labeled terrorists. “It’s a real problem when you’re not sure if your protest activity is protected or terrorism,” Gazzola says. “Under AETA, protest and terrorism are conflated. They’re one and the same.”
Source URL: http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/12/are-animal-rights-activists-terrorists

Links:
[1] http://www.gourmetcruelty.com/
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/us/in-california-going-all-out-to-bid-adieu-to-foie-gras.html?pagewanted=all
[3] http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/judge-dismisses-animal-enterprise-terrorism-act-indictments-against-activists
[4] http://motherjones.com/politics/2006/01/americas-1-threat
[5] http://www.scribd.com/doc/5496568/SHAC-Complete-federal-indictment
[6] http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7929e3ca-7e9c-9af9-78e6-8049c2e67205
[7] http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/

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A Public Service Announcement By Elizabeth Fiend

If you have advance notice – Sneeze and cough in to a tissue and discard it in the trash immediately.

If there’s no time to grab a tissue – Sneeze or cough into your elbow. You heard it right, the correct place to sneeze is in the nook of your elbow.

The worst possible place to sneeze or cough is into your hand. When you sneeze or cough into your hand your hand gets covered with germs, then everything you touch becomes germy and the germs spread to other people.

Sneezing or coughing straight out into the air — just plain rude.

DON’T BE A JERK, SNEEZE or COUGH INTO YOUR ELBOW.

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“The material I’m working with is people — creating moments for them to be thoughtful,” says Britta Riley, whose window farms have been displayed in more than a dozen buildings in New York City. Riley and her collaborator, Rebecca Bray, are conceptual artists whose goal is to engage the public in developing simple solutions to vexing environmental problems. By artfully demonstrating how lettuce and tomatoes can be grown in even the most cramped urban spaces, they hope to inspire people to think about where their food comes from — and then take part in producing it. (1)

(2)  “The Windowfarms project broaches both immediate urban agriculture goals as well as a far-sighted shift in attitudes toward the green revolution. We are both starting a windowfarming craze in cities worldwide and hoping to accelerate the pace of sustainable design by having ordinary citizens think of themselves as innovators.”

The Project was started by artists Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray in February, 2009 through an artist’s residency at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York and sponsorship by Submersible Design, Riley and Bray’s interactive design firm. Riley continues to drive the project at Eyebeam with a team of volunteers and the participation of hundreds of windowfarmers worldwide.

Windowfarms: Growing Food Year-Round in Inner City Buildings

Researchers have argued that to grow some of his own food is the most effective action an individual can take for environment, not only because of the food industry’s heavy carbon footprint but also because participating in agricultural production cultivates a valuable skill set around sustainability issues.

Many neighborhoods (particularly low income ones) in cities aroun the world are considered food deserts, meaning little fresh food is easily accessible. Residents tend to consume processed, packaged, and canned food having depleated nutrients.

Few other projects provide opportunities for such direct personal involvement, make this productive use of existing construction, or so directly target urban dwellers estranged from agricultural issues.

Inner city dwellers can grow their own food in their apartment or office windows throughout the year by means of these elegant, inexpensive, vertical, hydroponic vegetable gardens made from recycled materials or items available at the local hardware store. The first system produced 25 plants and a salad a week in mid winter in a dimly lit 4’ x 6’ NYC window.

R&D-I-Y: Mass Collaboration to Solve Environmental Problems

The ultimate aim of the Windowfarms project, however, is not to create a perfected physical object or product. Rather, the most highly valued result is a rewarding experience with crowsdsourced innovation. We are interested in the participants’ experience as they design for their own microenvironments, share ideas, rediscover the power of their own capacity to innovate, and witness themselves playing an active role in the green revolution.

The windowfarms project approaches environmental innovation through web 2.0 crowdsourcing and a method called R&D-I-Y (research and develop it yourself). Big Science’s R&D industry is not always free to take the most expedient environmental approach. It must assume that consumers will not make big changes. Its organizational structure tends toward infrastructure-heavy mass solutions. A distributed network of individuals sharing information can implement a wide variety of designs that accommodate specific local needs and implement them locally. Ordinary people can bring about innovative green ideas and popularize them quickly. Web theorists claim that this capacity to “organize without hierarchical organization” will be a fundamental shift in our society brought about by the web over the coming decades.

After only 7 months and only $5000 in funding the project has already been widely acclaimed and supported with features in Grist, Art in America, Wired Blog, Ready Made magazine, prominent food blogs, and upcoming documentary films. Hundreds of thousands of hits have come in to the site from IP addresses workdwide. The participating public has submitted 29 unique viable design improvements.

What are Window Farms??

Window Farms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials.

Goal 1:

to start a Windowfarming craze in New York City and other dense urban areas, helping people grow some of their food year-round in their apartment windows.

Goal 2

give ordinary folks a means to collaborate on research and development of these vertical hydroponic food-growing curtains through the community site at our.windowfarms.org

How the Windowfarms Project Works

Each participant in the project makes it easier for the next windowfarmer to grow some of his/her own food. The system design and instruction sets evolve as each person comes up with ideas for improvements or points out problems and we collectively test solutions proposed by the group.

—-

Sources:

(1) First paragraph from an the article “Art You Can Really Digest” in onearth, NRDC’s online magazine

(2) Body is excerpts from the WindowFarms website

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