Thursday, March 31, 2011
Homestead Creamery
So a lot of you have been asking about where you can get fresh milk from grass fed cows. I have an answer for those of you who live in on the east coast and have a whole foods store or Kroger nearby. Home stead Creamery sells thier milk to both places. They are just about as fresh and natural as you can get. They are not labeled as organic because they didn't pay the fee and don't Ultra pasteurize their milk, but they are a whole lot better than most "organic" milk. Their cows are free range grass fed, aren't given any anti-biotics or growth hormones and run by a 4th generation family. Check them out on this video. I'm super excited about this.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Organic or Non-organic...What's the big difference? Pt. 2 Dairy
The more Brooke and I have read up on nutrition and our nations food the more we have started to buy more organic food and get away from "Factory farmed or produced foods". It is more expensive short term (By short term I mean that you might be okay for awhile, but will most likely end up spending a lot more money on frequent family visits to the Dr. or even develop medical issues later in life.) and can take more time to shop, but we are doing it for our kids, which we feel you can't put a price on.
Unfortunately it's near impossible to go 100% organic in our society for many reasons, so we are starting with the most common foods we eat, one of which is dairy-specifically yogurt and milk . We (mostly our kids) go through about 3 gallons of milk a week, so other than buying our own cow the next best thing was buying milk from the local dairy's.
There aren't too many small local dairys around anymore either, so we've been buying it from the grocery store. Trader Joe's is the cheapest place I've found since it's about a dollar cheaper per gallon than anywhere else at $5.99, but we might start buying it from the farmers market due to recent info I read about where they get their "organic" milk from. We thought about buying from Oberwies but they do not label their milk as organic, because some of the farms they buy from did not pay to be classified as organic, and it's not really buying local since they are a national company. Not a bad thing, but if we are going to go all natural we want to support and buy from a real local dairy.
Here is a good link about what goes on with milk and called "considerations for pasture - beef and dairy producers".http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/cattleprod.html
From my research I found a few major issues with Factory Dairy Farms, which is why we won't buy dairy from them anymore:
1) Mastitis: This is an infection that the cows develop in their mammary glands that is caused by unsanitary bedding, use of hoses in milking, or flies. It can happen to any cow, but is much more prevalent in factory farms. When it happens there is a discharge that gets into the milk and is very painful for the cow. Organic farmers treat this with a homeopathic infusion or ointment, while factory farms just load them up with more antibiotics. Many times the cows are not treated at all since the farmers don't want to take the cow off the milking line. If untreated mastitis will spread to the legs and the cow will go lame, which means it's of no use to the dairy farmer anymore so they auction it off to be slaughtered.
3)rBGH's/ rBST or bovine growth hormones are used in factory farmed dairy cattle to help them produce more milk at a faster rate. These hormones are naturally found in cattle, but farmers inject them with much higher than normal amounts. Unless the container is marked NO rBGH's, or has the statement "No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from cows treated with artificial hormones and those not treated with artificial hormones" then the cow has been injected with rBGH!!
Elements of rBGH have been linked to causing cancer, specifically breast, colon, and prostate cancer. What makes rBGH hazardous is the "insulin like growth factor" or IFG-1, which is what causes cancer in humans. This is why U.S. Dairy products and rBST is banned in every other developed country in the world!! It is allowed in the US because of a company called Monsato that produces it and has spent millions lobbying to keep it legal.This isn't just milk, but any dairy product such as yogurt and cheeses.
4) Soy milk is not really a better option to cow's milk since most soybeans are genetically altered and owned by one national company that bio engineers their beans to be resistant to pesticides. I'll talk about this more in the next blog.
So besides not having the issues described above one of the many benefits from having milk delivered or buying it at a farmers markets is that it comes in a glass bottle. This is better for several reasons. 1) It stays colder, which makes it tastes better, and 2) No waste from plastic containers. So not only is it better for YOU, it is better for our environment and 3) There are many theory's on toxins that are released from plastic containers into whatever it is they are holding. If you want to read more about why organic milk is better than regular milk here's a great article.
http://hubpages.com/hub/
Here's another website that ranks the quality of dairy products from dairys and grocery stores around the country. You'll notice that surprisingly Trader Joe's received a 1 out of 5 cow score since it would not participate in the study and is believed to buy it's milk, both organic and non-organic from Factory Farms. This is why we are looking for other sources of milk.
http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html
So there you have it. If you're going to drink/eat dairy you are doing yourself and your family a huge disservice and putting them at risk by not buying grass fed dairy. Next up Produce.
Unfortunately it's near impossible to go 100% organic in our society for many reasons, so we are starting with the most common foods we eat, one of which is dairy-specifically yogurt and milk . We (mostly our kids) go through about 3 gallons of milk a week, so other than buying our own cow the next best thing was buying milk from the local dairy's.
There aren't too many small local dairys around anymore either, so we've been buying it from the grocery store. Trader Joe's is the cheapest place I've found since it's about a dollar cheaper per gallon than anywhere else at $5.99, but we might start buying it from the farmers market due to recent info I read about where they get their "organic" milk from. We thought about buying from Oberwies but they do not label their milk as organic, because some of the farms they buy from did not pay to be classified as organic, and it's not really buying local since they are a national company. Not a bad thing, but if we are going to go all natural we want to support and buy from a real local dairy.
Here is a good link about what goes on with milk and called "considerations for pasture - beef and dairy producers".http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/cattleprod.html
From my research I found a few major issues with Factory Dairy Farms, which is why we won't buy dairy from them anymore:
1) Mastitis: This is an infection that the cows develop in their mammary glands that is caused by unsanitary bedding, use of hoses in milking, or flies. It can happen to any cow, but is much more prevalent in factory farms. When it happens there is a discharge that gets into the milk and is very painful for the cow. Organic farmers treat this with a homeopathic infusion or ointment, while factory farms just load them up with more antibiotics. Many times the cows are not treated at all since the farmers don't want to take the cow off the milking line. If untreated mastitis will spread to the legs and the cow will go lame, which means it's of no use to the dairy farmer anymore so they auction it off to be slaughtered.
Does this look normal to you?
2) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or "Mad Cow Disease" is more prevalent in factory farmed cattle. This is because one of the main causes is by-products in the cows feed. The USDA has stated that grass-fed cattle have a much lower chance of contracting Mad Cow disease since they are not consuming by-products in their feed.
Yup, that's cow crap they are standing it.
Elements of rBGH have been linked to causing cancer, specifically breast, colon, and prostate cancer. What makes rBGH hazardous is the "insulin like growth factor" or IFG-1, which is what causes cancer in humans. This is why U.S. Dairy products and rBST is banned in every other developed country in the world!! It is allowed in the US because of a company called Monsato that produces it and has spent millions lobbying to keep it legal.This isn't just milk, but any dairy product such as yogurt and cheeses.
4) Soy milk is not really a better option to cow's milk since most soybeans are genetically altered and owned by one national company that bio engineers their beans to be resistant to pesticides. I'll talk about this more in the next blog.
So besides not having the issues described above one of the many benefits from having milk delivered or buying it at a farmers markets is that it comes in a glass bottle. This is better for several reasons. 1) It stays colder, which makes it tastes better, and 2) No waste from plastic containers. So not only is it better for YOU, it is better for our environment and 3) There are many theory's on toxins that are released from plastic containers into whatever it is they are holding. If you want to read more about why organic milk is better than regular milk here's a great article.
http://hubpages.com/hub/
Happy cow's!
http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html
So there you have it. If you're going to drink/eat dairy you are doing yourself and your family a huge disservice and putting them at risk by not buying grass fed dairy. Next up Produce.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Organic or Non-organic...What's the big difference? Pt. 1 Meat
Being in the fitness industry Brooke and I are constantly reading or watching information about nutrition and food. I just finished reading a very informative book called "The Maker's Diet" and we recently watched two eye opening documentaries, Food Inc, and Food Matters. The information we learned through these various sources have changed our attitude toward unnaturally produced/raised food forever.
First off I want to clarify a few things. "Organic" is a term the USDA used to qualify products. Here is what it means: Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too. This has actually changed in the past few years and more and more processed foods are being put on the approval list for non-organic ingredients. Check this article out for more on that. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19837522/ So if you trust everything the govt. tells us than by all means go by the label, but labels only include what the FDA or USDA says is necessary, so use your brain.
I am using the term Organic because that's the industry term we all know, but this is an USDA term. Farmers have to pay a huge sum of money to qualify for this and many smaller farms cannot afford this fee. Many of these farms are better than organic and are what you would find at a farmers market.
So from watching/reading I was shocked and amazed at what our food industry has gotten away with for many years and how little the average American knows about it. This is because these giant food corporations go to great lengths to make sure we don't find out about what is going on and threaten to cut ties with their farmers if they talk. It also helps that many of the decision makers in the FDA are ex employees of these corp. giants and aren't going to rat out their buddies. The fact is that many of the mass production farms and factories have not been inspected by the FDA once in the past 5 years and when they have inspected they only test a fraction of the meat and facilities.
There are four main things I found out recently about these our meat industry that is completely shocking to me.
1) "Factory Farm" Cattle is fed primarily corn, which is not a natural food source for them. This causes all sorts of health problems and viruses such as E.coli that kills the nutritional value of their meat. The problem is multiplied even more on large "Factory Farms" since they are packed in so tight and literally standing in their own manure all day. Instead of feeding cattle hay or allowing them to graze the solution is to pump them full of antibiotics to fend off the viruses and disease.
2) Poultry "Grower Houses" is where most chicken comes from unless you buy "free range" chicken. "Free Range" means that the chickens are not kept in a pen all day and allowed to come and go inside and out as they please and only eat natural feed. The above picture is a "Grower House" and this is actually one that allows sunlight. Most of them are now required to be blacked out and the chickens never see the day of light their whole life. They eat feed that is mixed with chicken, so they actually eat their own meat!!! Many of them die from the harsh environments and are eaten by the other chickens. This isn't the farmers decision to raise them this way, it's the corporate company's requirement or they will cut ties. Pretty much all of the poultry you buy in a grocery store is bought and packaged by one of three corporations,Tyson is the largest. Why do this? Cost, cost, cost. It's much cheaper this way.
3) Chickens are now bio mechanically altered to grow twice as fast as they do naturally. A normal chicken takes about 12 weeks to grow to adulthood. Grow Houses have shortened it to 6 weeks. This causes the chickens to grow faster than their organs and muscles can keep up with. It's not uncommon for them to die from organ failure or to have legs that are not strong enough to hold up their body weight. Here's a video of what goes on in Grow Houses....Warning, it's graphic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6YTn3JYY4&feature=player_embedded#at=94
4)Finally most meat is "cleaned" with AMMONIA before packaging! This is crazy!! Would you clean your food with ammonia before you cook it? NO WAY, it's poison. Most of these factories are controlled by a central control center that is computerized and monitors the process. Eventually the goal is for all factories to be run by one central control center.
If you want to see really how far factory farming has grown in the past decade check out this map and website. http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/ The darker red the color the more density of factory farms in the area.
First off I want to clarify a few things. "Organic" is a term the USDA used to qualify products. Here is what it means: Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too. This has actually changed in the past few years and more and more processed foods are being put on the approval list for non-organic ingredients. Check this article out for more on that. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19837522/ So if you trust everything the govt. tells us than by all means go by the label, but labels only include what the FDA or USDA says is necessary, so use your brain.
I am using the term Organic because that's the industry term we all know, but this is an USDA term. Farmers have to pay a huge sum of money to qualify for this and many smaller farms cannot afford this fee. Many of these farms are better than organic and are what you would find at a farmers market.
So from watching/reading I was shocked and amazed at what our food industry has gotten away with for many years and how little the average American knows about it. This is because these giant food corporations go to great lengths to make sure we don't find out about what is going on and threaten to cut ties with their farmers if they talk. It also helps that many of the decision makers in the FDA are ex employees of these corp. giants and aren't going to rat out their buddies. The fact is that many of the mass production farms and factories have not been inspected by the FDA once in the past 5 years and when they have inspected they only test a fraction of the meat and facilities.
There are four main things I found out recently about these our meat industry that is completely shocking to me.
2) Poultry "Grower Houses" is where most chicken comes from unless you buy "free range" chicken. "Free Range" means that the chickens are not kept in a pen all day and allowed to come and go inside and out as they please and only eat natural feed. The above picture is a "Grower House" and this is actually one that allows sunlight. Most of them are now required to be blacked out and the chickens never see the day of light their whole life. They eat feed that is mixed with chicken, so they actually eat their own meat!!! Many of them die from the harsh environments and are eaten by the other chickens. This isn't the farmers decision to raise them this way, it's the corporate company's requirement or they will cut ties. Pretty much all of the poultry you buy in a grocery store is bought and packaged by one of three corporations,Tyson is the largest. Why do this? Cost, cost, cost. It's much cheaper this way.
3) Chickens are now bio mechanically altered to grow twice as fast as they do naturally. A normal chicken takes about 12 weeks to grow to adulthood. Grow Houses have shortened it to 6 weeks. This causes the chickens to grow faster than their organs and muscles can keep up with. It's not uncommon for them to die from organ failure or to have legs that are not strong enough to hold up their body weight. Here's a video of what goes on in Grow Houses....Warning, it's graphic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6YTn3JYY4&feature=player_embedded#at=94
4)Finally most meat is "cleaned" with AMMONIA before packaging! This is crazy!! Would you clean your food with ammonia before you cook it? NO WAY, it's poison. Most of these factories are controlled by a central control center that is computerized and monitors the process. Eventually the goal is for all factories to be run by one central control center.
If you want to see really how far factory farming has grown in the past decade check out this map and website. http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/ The darker red the color the more density of factory farms in the area.
Facts and Rankings Spotlight
The number of U.S. beef cattle on industrial feedlots grew by 17 percent to 13.5 million between 2002 and 2007.
Commercial confined livestock and poultry operations produce half a billion tons of manure each year, more than three times as much as that produced by the entire U.S. population
Between 1997 and 2007, U.S. factory farms added 5,800 broiler chickens every hour.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Slim Pickings
Fruits are fabulous healthy snacks, but just like anything good for you- you can over do it. Mother natures candy contains a lot of sugar and calories, even though natural and good for you. So here are a few that are my personal favs.....
raspberries- 64 calories per cup.
I like to eat. i like the process of putting things in my mouth- over and over and over again. lol. So if I can eat A LOT of one thing, for LOW calories, than I am happy. Raspberries are small so you can eat a ton in just 1 full cup. They are filled with fiber- as much as 4 slices of whole wheat bread actually)
Grapefruit- 82 calories per medium grapefruit. They are low in sugar and high in fiber ( um, hello perfect) they also have a really high water content so they make you feel full. I eat one almost every day, sooooo dang good!
Apples- 95 calories per medium apple ( not a huge jumbo one you pick during the fall in upstate new york people, some of those could count as 3 apples!!) Saw this today " an apple a day keeps your fat jeans away" LOL. Filled with fiber and slows digestion. If I dont feel like eating an apple by itself i chop it or slice it and add it to my salads.
Bananas- 85-105 calories per medium banana. Its best to pick a banana with a little bit of green onit. Like any fruit, the starches turn to sugar during the ripeneing process, so that super soft, browned banana you use to make banana bread.... yep, that one has the most calories and the most sugar. :) But hey- its not as bad as a super sized banana split topped with ice cream and hot fudge.
A few other small tips- Frozen fruit and even unsweeted canned fruit is great in a pinch. Try to stay away from dried fruits- the concentrated sugars are ridiculously high, and its better to just have the real thing. ( i used to put golden raisens in my salad or oatmeal everyday- till i realized, how many less calories and lower in sugar the grapes were- instant switch!)
Make sure you are eating 2-3 servings of fruit everyday! Think back to yesterday, or even to the past week, how many pieces of fruit did you eat?
If you can consume 51% raw foods during the day then you will start to see amazing changes to your health and your body.... more on RAW FOODS next week!
In the meantime- eat your fruit, and stay away from processed CRAP! :)
raspberries- 64 calories per cup.
I like to eat. i like the process of putting things in my mouth- over and over and over again. lol. So if I can eat A LOT of one thing, for LOW calories, than I am happy. Raspberries are small so you can eat a ton in just 1 full cup. They are filled with fiber- as much as 4 slices of whole wheat bread actually)
Grapefruit- 82 calories per medium grapefruit. They are low in sugar and high in fiber ( um, hello perfect) they also have a really high water content so they make you feel full. I eat one almost every day, sooooo dang good!
Apples- 95 calories per medium apple ( not a huge jumbo one you pick during the fall in upstate new york people, some of those could count as 3 apples!!) Saw this today " an apple a day keeps your fat jeans away" LOL. Filled with fiber and slows digestion. If I dont feel like eating an apple by itself i chop it or slice it and add it to my salads.
Bananas- 85-105 calories per medium banana. Its best to pick a banana with a little bit of green onit. Like any fruit, the starches turn to sugar during the ripeneing process, so that super soft, browned banana you use to make banana bread.... yep, that one has the most calories and the most sugar. :) But hey- its not as bad as a super sized banana split topped with ice cream and hot fudge.
A few other small tips- Frozen fruit and even unsweeted canned fruit is great in a pinch. Try to stay away from dried fruits- the concentrated sugars are ridiculously high, and its better to just have the real thing. ( i used to put golden raisens in my salad or oatmeal everyday- till i realized, how many less calories and lower in sugar the grapes were- instant switch!)
Make sure you are eating 2-3 servings of fruit everyday! Think back to yesterday, or even to the past week, how many pieces of fruit did you eat?
If you can consume 51% raw foods during the day then you will start to see amazing changes to your health and your body.... more on RAW FOODS next week!
In the meantime- eat your fruit, and stay away from processed CRAP! :)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Its the First!
Hello Fabulous People!
I am starting this blog in hopes to continue to help myself and others get fitter instead of getting fatter! I get asked many many times on a daily basis for tips and tricks on health, fitness and nutrition. So I might as well put it all in once place. So this is the place!
I will focus on healthy recipes, super foods, nutrition, workouts, and of course, motivation and encouragement. I will post videos often and try to keep this blog fun and entertaining, as well as a place to help others.
I will start by posting a video I shared a few days ago on facebook, and I will work on making a new video this weekend.
As you can see from the video, I try to start out semi serious, but by the end, with my BLAAAAAAAAAAAH blooper, you can see how I REALLY am. :) I am silly!
I am starting this blog in hopes to continue to help myself and others get fitter instead of getting fatter! I get asked many many times on a daily basis for tips and tricks on health, fitness and nutrition. So I might as well put it all in once place. So this is the place!
I will focus on healthy recipes, super foods, nutrition, workouts, and of course, motivation and encouragement. I will post videos often and try to keep this blog fun and entertaining, as well as a place to help others.
I will start by posting a video I shared a few days ago on facebook, and I will work on making a new video this weekend.
As you can see from the video, I try to start out semi serious, but by the end, with my BLAAAAAAAAAAAH blooper, you can see how I REALLY am. :) I am silly!
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