More and more organic products are showing up in our groceries every day.  They range from cereal to candy bars, pancake mix to meats, covering a wide spectrum of foods.  Should you buy everything organic?  If you can, to make it easy, sure.  If you are on a limited budget, like most of us, no.  Some foods have been tested and are known to include higher levels of pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones.  THESE you should buy organic.  Below is a list of these foods.  If you want to start buying organic, this would be a great place to begin.  Each week or visit to the grocery, switch one of these out with it’s organic counterpart.

Meat, Dairy, and Eggs: Organic meat, milk, and eggs are free of antibiotics, added growth hormones, and pesticides. Unlike their conventional counterparts, the animals used for organic products are raised without antibiotics or hormones. Chemicals present in animal feed can end up in conventional meat, dairy, and eggs. However, organically raised animals eat an organic diet that does not contain pesticides or fertilizers. That’s why the top three items on our buy-organic list are:

Fruits/Vegetables:  A good rule of thumb, the thinner the skin, the more apt they are to absorb pesticides.  Even washing does not eliminate the pesticide residue.

1. Peaches and nectarines
2. Strawberries
3. Apples
4. Blueberries
5. Bell Peppers
6. Spinach and lettuce, Kale/Collards
7. Cherries
8. Potatoes
9. Grapes
10. Carrots

References:

• http://www.healthcastle.com/organic_foods.shtml - great explanation of why the above list items are susceptible to pesticides
• Tony Gonzalez’s “The All-Pro Diet”
• For a full list of fruits and vegetables from low to high pesticides visit http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php.

So when you walk in a grocery store, do you ever feel overwelmed?  Your list says coffee, but there are twenty different kinds.  Your list says eggs - which brand should you get?  Do you find yourself saying, "I want to eat healthy, but I have heard that healthy food is just not as good as the 'real' stuff."  Ha (oxymoron - I have to comment).  

Healthier food can be a little different then the food you have come accustomed to.  At first they may taste a little bland...  It took me a while to find brands that have more taste and that I enjoy versus just eating them because they are good for me.  Below are some of my favorites.  Maybe I can save you a little time.  Give them a try.

• Cascadian Farms - jellys, frozen fruits (blueberries are delish!)
• Back To Nature - crackers, nuts, trail mix
• Earth Grains, Ezekial 4:9, Nature's Own - breads, pitas, pastas
• Eggland's Best (organic) - eggs maybe?
• Organic Valley - milk, butter, cheese, cream cheese
• Blue Diamond - almond butter
• Maple Grove Farms - maple syrup, pancake mix
• Springer Mountain Farms - chicken (and it is local to Atlanta)
• Alexia Foods - frozen potatoes (red, sweet)
• Amy's - soups, chilis, pizzas, various

And this is the tip of the iceberg.  I try a new brand or food each visit to the grocery. 

What are your favorites?

So after my last post, I felt bad not giving my readers suggestions for when a sugar craving does arrive.  As a reader commented, fruit is a
 great way to satisfy that craving.  I eat bananas when I crave something sweet during the day.  I have also found a handful of baby carrots is a good option.   Both have "good" sugars and the body thinks the same of it as say a candy bar (or a "bad" sugar).

One thing that really troubles me about the popular fad diets is that they are insistent on not eating fruit.  Avoid
 fruit in stage one or avoid fruit all together.  This should be a red flag to dieters!  If they had your health in mind, you would not be asked to miss one of the best foods out there for you.  Keep this in mind the next time (usually at least once a year), you decide it is time to go on a diet.

Another snack I commonly have is a homemade trail mix.  It is hard to find a good trail mix now-a-days without some form of sugar added so I make my own.  I will buy Back to Nature almonds (or any kind of nut), Kroger Organic raisins, and other dried fruits I can find that have no added sugar (cherries, cranberries, blueberries, etc).  Remember, read the ingredients...  It is very common for manufactures to add sugar, salt (low salt not too bad), and other preservatives to their products.

Other snacks I love - Larabars, grapes, Sambazon acai juice, and other fruits.

In case you are worried about calories or portion size, as most of us are, try to stick to the label serving size.  For instance, I eat no more than one cup of trail mix, one banana, and/or fifteen carrots a day.  If you are still not feeling full, modify as you go.  As you can see, I have three snacks a day outside of the three essential meals.

Happy snacking!

So let's begin the "Food Game."  First, you should focus only on what you can control.  This does not include eating out at restaurants.  When dining out, you should use your best judgement.  It is nearly impossible to know what all ingredients comprise a meal in an average restaurant.

So eating healthy all begins in the grocery store.  This, you can control.  When purchasing items, read the "nutrition facts" label.  Below are a few rules I keep in mind:

1. Avoid foods with ingredients that include words the average human can not pronounce
2. Look for the word "whole" when buying grains such as "Whole Wheat"
3. Avoid bleached or enriched flours
4. and buy products that do not have sugar in the first three ingredients

If there are ingredients you can not pronounce, the food has been processed, manufactured or mass produced.  More than likely, one of the "words unable to be spoken" is a preservative, artificial flavoring, or something that gives the food color.  Pick up another can of beans and compare.  I have always found an alternative to getting the one with all of the chemicals sitting near by.

"Whole" grains is important and often a mistaken ingredient.  If the word "whole" is not in front of the grain, it has been broken down and stripped of it's nutritional value.  Bleached and enriched products are also stripped of their nutritional value through the process of bleaching and enriching.

And lastly, if sugar is in the top three ingredients (as ingredients are listed in the order of their volume), it is not a good choice.  Sugars can come in many forms:

• high fructose corn syrup
• brown rice syrup
• have fructose, glucose in their names
• dextrose

There are basically two types of sugars.  One is a naturally occurring sugar found in nature (like Stevia, cane sugar, agave nectar, etc.) and the other is one that has been created by us humans to make food processing easier (commonly called refined sugars and include the bulleted items above).  For further reading on sugar, you can read "Is Sugar Toxic?"  Sugar alone is a blog by itself.  Most foods have enough naturally occurring sugars that they do not need any additional.

So the next time you are in the grocery store spend a little extra time...it is worth it.

In celebration of Earth Month...

Today it is hard to know what is healthy...  The media, the medical profession and government all report only what is beneficial to them ($$).  There are so many health professionals who all seem to have a different opinion.  One article says one thing and then a month later, another article reports another.  So if you want to be healthy, what should you believe?  What are the best resources since there are so many?  Who is correct?

After reading many nutritional books, they all have some things in common.  If more than one source is saying we should do something, I am more than apt to believe it and put it into practice AFTER I do a little research of my own.  Since a lot of us do not have the time to read 10 books on nutrition (yes, no time and they can get a little dry), I would like to share what I have learned.  I really enjoy these books and want my friends and family to share in the wealth.

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting  25 food principals I have compiled through my reading on food best habits.  If you are looking to transform your eating ways, significantly reduce your chances of getting heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and alzheimer's (all of which have been proven to be diet-related diseases), and/or shed some unwanted pounds in the process, be sure to come back.

If you have not already, rent the movie Food, Inc. to get more information about how our food is manufactured by corporate America.  Whole Foods is also sponsoring an event, Do Something Reel Film Festival, short movies about people making a difference and how you can too in lieu of Earth Month.

For more information or to read for yourself, some of my resources are listed below.  I highly recommend "The China Study" over all of them.  "Food Rules" is a quick summary for those who want to know on the go.

The China Study - by T. Colin Campbell

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual - by Michael Pollan

The All-Pro Diet - by Tony Gonzalez

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - by Michael Pollan