Consumers Can Influence Food Suppliers

November 8, 2012

You should check out Robyn O’Brien’s post in Shape Magazine on “3 Examples of How Consumers Changed the Food Supply.”

As a former financial analyst for the food industry, Robyn is in a good position to understand how companies react to consumer demands. She gives a good list as to how consumers and social media influenced three companies to change the ingredients in their products after consumers rose up and demanded it: Starbucks, Burger King, and grocery stores. These companies decided it was in their own best interest to meet the needs of their customers.

When McDonald’s rejected GM potatoes, growers found it was not financially profitable to grow GM potatoes anymore.

Awareness about the unknown risks of Genetically Modified foods is still rising, even as the FBI launches an investigation to fraudulent claims during the “No on Prop 37” campaign.

We can affect change. Knowledge is power.

GMO Labeling Efforts: What Now?

November 7, 2012

With the election now behind us, it is a bummer to see that Prop 37, the proposal which would have required Genetically Modified foods to be labeled as such, failed in California. no gmos

It’s not surprising that this grass-roots-led effort failed, as corporate interests spent $45-50 million dollars to defeat it. Who had these deep pockets and the desire to keep consumers in the dark about what they are eating because GMO labeling might cut into their profits or require them to re-think how they source their ingredients? Let’s name some names: Monsanto, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, General Mills, DuPont, Bayer and other food and pesticide companies.

The best thing that came out of the Prop 37 fight is the rise in consumer awareness about what are GMOs and why we might want to have the choice to eat them or not. Too many of us now know the dangers and can choose to opt ourselves out of this massive experiment with the public health by trying to avoid GM contamination in conventional corn, soy, canola, sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, and yellow squash. Since these crops have almost 90% or higher saturation of GM seeds, and almost everything you see that contains these products or their derivatives will be Genetically Modified, these items should form the core of you “Always Buy Organic” shopping list.

Watch out for the hidden GM sources in packaged foods like high fructose corn syrup, Aspartame, and animal products from animals fed GM feed.

What can we do now to continue to work for at least labeling of GMOs?

We can encourage President Obama to replace the current head of the FDA, Michael Taylor, formerly of Monsanto, with someone less corporate-friendly without ties to Monsanto and their GMO-interests, and more concerned with the public health.

And we can continue to vote with our dollars by choosing non-GMO foods over GM foods.

What to Do with All That Halloween Candy?

November 5, 2012

Have you thought about sending it to the troops?

Operation Gratitude Halloween Candy Buyback will pass your kids’ extra Halloween candy out to our soldiers deployed overseas and in harm’s way. It’s a way for your kids to feel good about forfeiting their sugary loot.

The Halloween Candy Buyback program works with participating dentists. Find all the information about the Operation Gratitude Halloween Candy Buyback program here.

The Life-Giving Power of the Sun

November 2, 2012

On this planet, all life comes from the sun.

sun The sun shines its rays down on plants and plants photosynthesize, using the sun’s energy for the growth of plant cells.

Animals and people eat the plants, absorbing the life-giving nourishment and energy stored in the plant’s cells.

People eat the animals as well, transferring the stored sun energy into energy the human body can use for fuel, growth, and higher-level functioning.

When exposed, human skin directly metabolizes the sun’s rays to manufacture Vitamin D, a key ingredient in health, immunity, and strong bones.

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

― Albert Einstein

What’s So Bad About Canola Oil?

November 1, 2012

I used to be a canola oil girl. I believed it was a healthy choice for a cooking oil, and even recommended using it all over my cookbook. Now I know better.

As I live and learn and mature, I reserve the right to change my mind as new information comes to light. Such is the case when it comes to canola oil.

In the 1980s and 90s, we were treated to a massive publicity campaign regarding the health benefits of canola oil, and I, for one, bought into it hook, line, and sinker. This campaign was somehow connected to the National Institutes of Health’s release of a bunch of studies correlating heart disease with cholesterol levels, and we were told over and over that canola oil was a “heart-healthy” cooking oil.

Now, the findings from those 1980s-era studies are in dispute, and we are learning the truth about canola oil.

say no to canola oil Canola oil is made from a variety of rapeseed hybridized in the 1970s by the Canadian Oil Company and named “canola” for “Canadian Oil, low acid”. In 1995, the company introduced Genetically Modified canola seeds. By 2011, 96% of the canola grown was GMO canola. Since GMOs don’t have to be labeled, you simply must assume that every time you see canola oil by itself or as an ingredient in a packaged food, it is a GMO.

Why should you care that your cooking oil is GMO? As I’ve been talking about on this blog, and you can see in films such as Genetic Roulette, GMO crops cause harm to the human body, the farmland and the farmers, and to the environment. In humans, GMO effects may range from tumors to infertility to leaky-gut diseases (autoimmune disorders, migraines, chronic fatigue, etc.). Once Genetically Modified canola is planted, all the surrounding crops are in danger of cross-pollination, even the non-canola crops.

We have been unwittingly made part of the largest experiment on the public health in history, and in time the effects will be catastrophic. The only way to opt out of this science nightmare is to avoid GMOs by buying organic and looking for the Non-GMO Project seal.

Consumers Can Influence Food Suppliers

GMO Labeling Efforts: What Now?

What can we do now to continue to work for at least labeling of GMOs?

What to Do with All That Halloween Candy?

The Life-Giving Power of the Sun

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

What’s So Bad About Canola Oil?

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