A Healthy Snacking Option: Seaweed Snacks

November 12, 2012

One of our favorite snacks at our house are toasted seaweed strips.

These irresistibly crunchy, salty, flavorful strips of nori are the same toasted seaweed wrappers used for making sushi rolls, cut into 3″ strips for snacking and often flavored with teryaki, sesame, or spicy chiles. You can find them in large plastic jars or smaller wrapped packets. Check the labels before choosing as some brands will contain added MSG and others may contain wheat and soy, if those are issues for you.

Like any leafy green vegetable, seaweed is a powerhouse of nutrition. For snackers, fat- and cholesterol-free seaweed offers soluable fiber, protein, and loads of calcium to make this a feel-good munchy. Seaweed’s bounty includes Vitamins A, C, E, and K, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Phosphorus, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium, Copper, Manganese, and hard-to-get iodine.

High sodium levels may concern some, but look for those strips seasoned with sea salt rather than regular salt and you may not experience as much water retention as from eating other salty foods.

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

A Healthy Snacking Option: Seaweed Snacks

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.”

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