Kraft Foods, on the other hand, is still neck-deep in the program and insists it will continue to use the “Smart Choices” symbol on its own processed, factory-made food products. The Smart Choices organization itself also continues to defend its position, declaring that labeling processed, sugared-up dead foods as “Smart” is a great idea. “Our nutrition criteria are based on sound, consensus science,” said Smart Choices chair Mike Hughes (in all seriousness).

As NaturalNews previously reported (http://www.naturalnews.com/027077_n…), the fraudulent Smart Choices food labeling program was being led by a Tufts University dean named Dr. Eileen Kennedy, a woman who continues to insist that sugary breakfast cereals made with 40% sugar, artificial coloring chemicals and partially-hydrogenated oils are really, really healthy for kids! (Eat more!) To paraphrase her view, they’re smart choices because they are “better than a donut.”

The whole purpose of the Smart Choice program, of course, was to influence gullible parents into buying highly-processed, dead food products that earn more profits for participating food companies. And in order to accomplish that, this group had to abandon commonsense nutrition and push processed food products onto a nation full of children who are already obese, diabetic and increasingly diagnosed with ADHD.

That’s why Michael Jacobson from the CSPI resigned from the group early on. He said publicy, “It was paid for by industry and when industry put down its foot and said this is what we’re doing, that was it, end of story.”

The American Society for Nutrition pretends to invoke science

This Smart Choices program was also engineered in part by the American Society for Nutrition, a corporate-sponsored group that caters to the financial and political interests of its members like GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Monsanto, Procter & Gamble, the Sugar Association, Abbott Laboratories, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, ConAgra Foods, National Dairy Council, PepsiCo and the drug giant Wyeth. (http://www.nutrition.org/media/abou…)

(Are you starting to get the picture here yet?)

The American Society for Nutrition has now removed their former page touting the Smart Choices program (http://www.nutrition.org/news/smart…). Now, the page just says, “The page you requested is forbidden. The page you are looking for is restricted.”

For its role in the Smart Choices scheme, the American Society for (Mal?)Nutrition has received the Integrity Disgrace Award from TheNewIQ.com. (http://www.thenewiq.com/integritywa…).

Page 19 of its 2007-2008 annual report explains that the American Society for Nutrition seeks to “Position [itself] as an authoritative leader in nutrition through science.”

It’s laughable, of course, when you’re pushing refined sugar to children and calling it a “smart” choice. Where’s the science in that? Maybe all the scientists they hired are whacked out on a sugar high from eating too much Froot Loops…

Complete marketing hoax

I find it fascinating that the minute the FDA says it’s going to investigate the Smart Choices labeling program, the big food companies who funded the project flee like cockroaches scurrying under the kitchen counter. If the Smart Choices program was really based on such great nutritional science as its hucksters claim, then why did these food companies distance themselves as quickly as possible the minute a hint of scrutiny was announced?

The reason, of course, is because the entire Smart Choices program was a fraud to begin with. Nutritionally, it was a complete joke, and from a regulatory point of view, it was a disaster… did anybody really think the processed food industry could police itself?

If a genuine Smart Choices labeling program were ever put into place, it should have required large red warning symbols on virtually all the products from the participating companies. “Warning: Don’t eat this unless you, too, want to get cancer, diabetes and heart disease! (50 cents-off coupon on back!)”

I can’t think of a single product made by PepsiCo that’s actually good for you. Kellogg has some products that could qualify as somewhat nutritious, but Kraft Foods manufactures primarily nutrient-depleted, processed dead foods that in my opinion no parent should ever feed a child. It’s difficult to imagine any of these being labeled “smart” anything. Processed, dead foods loaded with sugar and refined carbohydrates actually make children obese and diabetic, and diabetes has been scientifically linked to impaired cognitive function (http://www.naturalnews.com/027281_d…). So if you really do the math on processed foods, they tend to make kids stupid, meaning this “Smart Choice” program would have been more accurately named, “Stupid Foods!”

Why did the FDA tolerate this fraud for so long?

It’s a relief to see this fraudulent Smart Choices program falling apart so quickly. The program was an outright fraud that pushed health-harming disinformation onto parents and families.

Of course, that was the whole point of the program, and it would have succeeded if it wasn’t so blatantly stupid to begin with. With Smart Choices, the food industry tried to hoodwink the entire American population, and they got schooled on it by a few outspoken nutritionists who exposed the program as complete bunk. Dr. Eileen Kennedy also got an earful, most likely, for her role as head honcho of the fraudulent program, if not for her hilarious comment about processed foods being “smart” because they’re better than donuts.

Any person who tries to push 40% sugar cereals onto children while labeling it a “Smart Choice” probably deserves to be caned in a public square in Singapore. Or better yet, they should have their hands tied behind their backs and thrown into a neck-deep marsh pit full of soggy Froot Loops then ordered to try to eat their way back to shore without getting diabetes…

But here’s my real question: You know how the FDA conducts raids on herbal companies that dare to tell the truth about their herbal products, like the fact that astragalus supports immune function? (http://www.naturalnews.com/027303_t…) Well, why isn’t the FDA threatening PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Unilever and Kellogg with the confiscation of their products that are being sold through these fraudulent labeling claims?

In other words, why does the FDA threaten companies that tell the truth on their labels, but it completely ignores (influential) companies that lie on their labels? If the FDA had any real credibility left, it would have sent nasty warning letters to these big food companies long ago, threatening their CEOs with criminal arrest and prosecution, confiscating their products, shutting down their companies and listing them on the FDA website as violators of federal law.

But that never happened. Care to guess why? The answer, as you well know, is because in the food and drug industries, MONEY TALKS. The companies with the big bucks get a wink and a nod instead of a threatening letter. In fact, it was only after a huge public outcry forcing the FDA’s hand that these food companies decided to flee the Smart Choice labeling program at all. Had nobody raised a stink about it, absolutely zero enforcement action would have taken place.

Food companies will get away with everything the public lets them get away with. They will use dangerous chemical additives in their products, they’ll target children with obesity-promoting sugary cereals, they’ll engage in blatant labeling fraud to promote junk products as “smart,” they’ll use clever packaging illusions to make a small quantity of food look larger, and they’ll even lobby lawmakers in Washington to stop the passage of any new laws that might hamper their ability to keep on selling disease-promoting products to a gullible population of hungry (but nutritionally deficient) consumers.

The only way to stop these crooks is to stand up and shout the truth about what’s they’re trying to shove down our throats. From processed white sugar via genetically modified sugar beets to snack chips laced with monosodium glutamate, these companies are in the business of selling poison to a population that’s already among the sickest in the world.

When will the criminal investigations begin?

What we really need in America goes way beyond any labeling program. What we really need is an army of deputized nutritional investigators to arrest and prosecute these food company executives for poisoning our children with aspartame, MSG, chemical food additives and nutrient-depleted processed ingredients like sugar and white flour. We need food company executives to start serving jail time for the crimes of negligence they’ve committed against our people.

People have a right to nutritious food. When they are forced to eat from a national food supply that makes them diseased and nutrient deficient, that’s a crime. When sodas and junk foods are sold in vending machines in public schools, that’s a crime against children. And when food companies engage in blatant marketing fraud to try to push their dangerous, disease-causing products onto gullible consumers, that’s a violation of federal labeling laws and should be prosecuted as such.

It’s time we took the crooked food companies to task. It’s time we demanded honest, nutritious food that prevents disease and supports both mental and physical health. And as long as we tolerate the shenanigans of both the FDA and the big food companies it is protecting, we’ll never get a national food supply that promotes a healthy population.

Here are some things you might want to check out to learn more:

This report from Yale University researchers details the marketing of sugary cereals to children:
http://www.cerealfacts.org/media/Ce…

Be sure to watch the movie Food, Inc.:
http://www.foodincmovie.com/

You’ll find the trailer on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKY…

Reposted from NaturalNews.

“Child-parent dietary resemblance in the U.S. is relatively weak, and varies by nutrients and food groups and by the types of parent-child dyads and social demographic characteristics such as age, gender and family income,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, senior author of the study and associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Human Nutrition. “When looking at overall diet quality, parent-child correlation in healthy eating index score was similar for both younger and older children. To our knowledge, this is the first such study that examined the similarities between children’s and their parents’ dietary intakes in the United States based on nationally representative data. Our findings indicate that factors other than family and parental eating behaviors may play an important role in affecting American children’s dietary intakes.”

Researchers examined data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, a nationally representative multi-stage sample of 16,103 people containing information about dietary intake, socioeconomic, demographic and health parameters surveyed from 1994 to 1996. Average dietary intake and dietary quality indicators were assessed using two 24-hour dietary recalls provided by study participants. Researchers also assessed the overall quality of the participating children’s and their parents’ diets based on the USDA 2005 Health Eating Index (HEI) along with a number of other covariates. They found that the correlations between children’s and their parents’ HEI scores ranged from 0.26 to 0.29 across various child-parent dyads such as mother-daughter and father-son; for total energy intake they were 0.14 to 0.29, and for fat intake, -0.04 to 0.28. The range of the correlation measure is between -1 and 1, while 0 means no resemblance and 1 indicates a perfect resemblance. The researchers also found some differences in the resemblance between different types of child-parent dyads and nutrient intakes, and by children’s age and family income.

“Factors other than parental eating behaviors such as community and school, food environment, peer influence, television viewing, as well as individual factors such as self-image and self-esteem seem to play an important role in young people’s dietary intake,” said May A. Beydoun, PhD, co-author of the study and a former postdoctoral research fellow at the Bloomberg School.

“Our findings have a number of important public health implications. In particular, the overall weak to moderate parent-child resemblance in food groups, nutrients and healthy eating index scores suggest that interventions targeting parents could have only a moderate effect on improving their children’s diet. Nevertheless, based on our findings stratified by population groups, for interventions targeting parents, those would be more effective when targeted at mothers, minority groups, and as early as possible in childhood. We suspect that the child-parent resemblance in dietary intake may have become weaker over time, due to the growing influence of other factors outside of the family,” said Wang.

“Parent-child dietary intake resemblance in the United States: Evidence from a large representative survey” was written by May A. Beydoun and Youfa Wang.

###

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

This article was reposted from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

It’s an effect called “vicarious goal fulfillment,” in which a person can feel a goal has been met if they have taken some small action, like considering the salad without ordering it, said Gavan Fitzsimons, professor of marketing and psychology at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, who led the research.

In a lab experiment, participants possessing high levels of self-control related to food choices (as assessed by a pre-test) avoided french fries, the least healthy item on a menu, when presented with only unhealthy choices. But when a side salad was added to this menu, they became much more likely to take the fries.

The team’s findings are available in the online version of the Journal of Consumer Research, and will appear in its October 2009 print edition.

Although fast-food restaurants and vending machine operators have increased their healthy offerings in recent years, “analysts have pointed out that sales growth in the fast-food industry is not coming from healthy menu items, but from increased sales of burgers and fries,” Fitzsimons said. “There is clearly public demand for healthy options, so we wanted to know why people aren’t following through and purchasing those items.”

Working with co-authors Keith Wilcox and Lauren Block of Baruch College, and Beth Vallen of Loyola College in Maryland, Fitzsimons asked research participants to select a food item from one of two pictorial menus. Half of the participants saw a menu of unhealthy items, including only french fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. The rest of the participants were given the same three options, plus the choice of a side salad.

When the side salad was added, a few consumers did actually choose it. However, the vast majority of consumers did not, and went toward unhealthier options. Ironically, this effect was strongest among those consumers who normally had high levels of self-control.

“In this case, the presence of a salad on the menu has a liberating effect on people who value healthy choices,” Fitzsimons said. “We find that simply seeing, and perhaps briefly considering, the healthy option fulfills their need to make healthy choices, freeing the person to give in to temptation and make an unhealthy choice. In fact, when this happens people become so detached from their health-related goals, they go to extremes and choose the least healthy item on the menu.”

Two other test menus showed the same effect. “We also had participants choose from menus contrasting a bacon cheeseburger, chicken sandwich and fish sandwich with a veggie burger,” Block said. “And we tried chocolate covered Oreos, original Oreos and golden Oreos against a 100-calorie pack of Oreos and obtained the same result.”

“Adding the healthier option caused people with high self-control to choose the least healthy option possible. Even though it was not their first choice before the healthy option was included,” Block said.

The team’s findings suggest that encouraging people to make better choices may require significant effort on the part of both food service providers and customers. “What this shows is that adding one or two healthy items to a menu is essentially the worst thing you can do,” Fitzsimons said. “Because, while a few consumers will choose the healthy option, it causes most consumers to make drastically worse choices.”

Schools and other establishments concerned with promoting healthy behaviors may need to take an extreme approach and eliminate all unhealthy food, Fitzsimons said. “It sounds quite drastic, but because the effect of mixing healthy and unhealthy choices is so powerful, we would suggest that the safest way to get children to eat well is to take the pizza, fries and other junk foods completely out of schools, and replace them with healthy foods.”

The team also suggests that consumers might empower themselves through awareness. “This is one of those human quirks that we may be able to overcome if we are conscious of it and make a concerted effort to stick to the healthy choices we know we should be making,” Block said.

Reposted from the Duke University.

A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.

“To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.”

CITY OF BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL

In writing Diet for a Small Planet, I learned one simple truth: Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy. But that realization was only the beginning, for then I had to ask: What does a democracy look like that enables citizens to have a real voice in securing life’s essentials? Does it exist anywhere? Is it possible or a pipe dream? With hunger on the rise here in the United States-one in 10 of us is now turning to food stamps-these questions take on new urgency.

To begin to conceive of the possibility of a culture of empowered citizens making democracy work for them, real-life stories help-not models to adopt wholesale, but examples that capture key lessons. For me, the story of Brazil’s fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a rich trove of such lessons. Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry. Then in 1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The officials said, in effect: If you are too poor to buy food in the market-you are no less a citizen. I am still accountable to you.

The new mayor, Patrus Ananias-now leader of the federal anti-hunger effort-began by creating a city agency, which included assembling a 20-member council of citizen, labor, business, and church representatives to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The city already involved regular citizens directly in allocating municipal resources-the “participatory budgeting” that started in the 1970s and has since spread across Brazil. During the first six years of Belo’s food-as-a-right policy, perhaps in response to the new emphasis on food security, the number of citizens engaging in the city’s participatory budgeting process doubled to more than 31,000.

The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce-which often reached 100 percent-to consumers and the farmers. Farmers’ profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.

When my daughter Anna and I visited Belo Horizonte to write Hope’s Edge we approached one of these stands. A farmer in a cheerful green smock, emblazoned with “Direct from the Countryside,” grinned as she told us, “I am able to support three children from my five acres now. Since I got this contract with the city, I’ve even been able to buy a truck.”

The improved prospects of these Belo farmers were remarkable considering that, as these programs were getting underway, farmers in the country as a whole saw their incomes drop by almost half.

In addition to the farmer-run stands, the city makes good food available by offering entrepreneurs the opportunity to bid on the right to use well-trafficked plots of city land for “ABC” markets, from the Portuguese acronym for “food at low prices.” Today there are 34 such markets where the city determines a set price-about two-thirds of the market price-of about twenty healthy items, mostly from in-state farmers and chosen by store-owners. Everything else they can sell at the market price.

“For ABC sellers with the best spots, there’s another obligation attached to being able to use the city land,” a former manager within this city agency, Adriana Aranha, explained. “Every weekend they have to drive produce-laden trucks to the poor neighborhoods outside of the city center, so everyone can get good produce.”

Another product of food-as-a-right thinking is three large, airy “People’s Restaurants” (Restaurante Popular), plus a few smaller venues, that daily serve 12,000 or more people using mostly locally grown food for the equivalent of less than 50 cents a meal. When Anna and I ate in one, we saw hundreds of diners-grandparents and newborns, young couples, clusters of men, mothers with toddlers. Some were in well-worn street clothes, others in uniform, still others in business suits.

“I’ve been coming here every day for five years and have gained six kilos,” beamed one elderly, energetic man in faded khakis.

“It’s silly to pay more somewhere else for lower quality food,” an athletic-looking young man in a military police uniform told us. “I’ve been eating here every day for two years. It’s a good way to save money to buy a house so I can get married,” he said with a smile.

No one has to prove they’re poor to eat in a People’s Restaurant, although about 85 percent of the diners are. The mixed clientele erases stigma and allows “food with dignity,” say those involved.

Belo’s food security initiatives also include extensive community and school gardens as well as nutrition classes. Plus, money the federal government contributes toward school lunches, once spent on processed, corporate food, now buys whole food mostly from local growers.

“We’re fighting the concept that the state is a terrible, incompetent administrator,” Adriana explained. “We’re showing that the state doesn’t have to provide everything, it can facilitate. It can create channels for people to find solutions themselves.”

For instance, the city, in partnership with a local university, is working to “keep the market honest in part simply by providing information,” Adriana told us. They survey the price of 45 basic foods and household items at dozens of supermarkets, then post the results at bus stops, online, on television and radio, and in newspapers so people know where the cheapest prices are.

The shift in frame to food as a right also led the Belo hunger-fighters to look for novel solutions. In one successful experiment, egg shells, manioc leaves, and other material normally thrown away were ground and mixed into flour for school kids’ daily bread. This enriched food also goes to nursery school children, who receive three meals a day courtesy of the city.

“I knew we had so much hunger in the world. But what is so upsetting, what I didn’t know when I started this, is it’s so easy. It’s so easy to end it.”
The result of these and other related innovations?

In just a decade Belo Horizonte cut its infant death rate-widely used as evidence of hunger-by more than half, and today these initiatives benefit almost 40 percent of the city’s 2.5 million population. One six-month period in 1999 saw infant malnutrition in a sample group reduced by 50 percent. And between 1993 and 2002 Belo Horizonte was the only locality in which consumption of fruits and vegetables went up.

The cost of these efforts?

Around $10 million annually, or less than 2 percent of the city budget. That’s about a penny a day per Belo resident.

Behind this dramatic, life-saving change is what Adriana calls a “new social mentality”-the realization that “everyone in our city benefits if all of us have access to good food, so-like health care or education-quality food for all is a public good.”

The Belo experience shows that a right to food does not necessarily mean more public handouts (although in emergencies, of course, it does.) It can mean redefining the “free” in “free market” as the freedom of all to participate. It can mean, as in Belo, building citizen-government partnerships driven by values of inclusion and mutual respect.

And when imagining food as a right of citizenship, please note: No change in human nature is required! Through most of human evolution-except for the last few thousand of roughly 200,000 years-Homo sapiens lived in societies where pervasive sharing of food was the norm. As food sharers, “especially among unrelated individuals,” humans are unique, writes Michael Gurven, an authority on hunter-gatherer food transfers. Except in times of extreme privation, when some eat, all eat.

Before leaving Belo, Anna and I had time to reflect a bit with Adriana. We wondered whether she realized that her city may be one of the few in the world taking this approach-food as a right of membership in the human family. So I asked, “When you began, did you realize how important what you are doing was? How much difference it might make? How rare it is in the entire world?”

Listening to her long response in Portuguese without understanding, I tried to be patient. But when her eyes moistened, I nudged our interpreter. I wanted to know what had touched her emotions.

“I knew we had so much hunger in the world,” Adriana said. “But what is so upsetting, what I didn’t know when I started this, is it’s so easy. It’s so easy to end it.”

Adriana’s words have stayed with me. They will forever. They hold perhaps Belo’s greatest lesson: that it is easy to end hunger if we are willing to break free of limiting frames and to see with new eyes-if we trust our hard-wired fellow feeling and act, no longer as mere voters or protesters, for or against government, but as problem-solving partners with government accountable to us.

Reposted from yesmagazine.org.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

People across the country and throughout the world are realizing that to confront the climate crisis and create secure and healthy communities, we’ll need vibrant regional food systems. The Food for Everyone issue of YES! takes a look at the people and organizations who are planting the seeds of sustainable agriculture and sharing the bounty of the local food revolution.

Interested in growing a local food revolution in your kitchen or community? Here are some helpful resources that inspired YES! as we produced this issue.

• Local Harvest is a site that helps you find farmers markets, family farms and other sources of sustainably grown food near you. Check it out at www.localharvest.org
• Organically Grown Company is the largest wholesaler of organic produce in the Pacific Northwest. Find organic food and learn more about the organization at www.organicgrown.com
• National Farm to School Network brings healthy food from local farms to school children nationwide. Learn more about programs in your state at http://www.farmtoschool.org/

The Politics of Food:
Here are some organizations that are working on food politics at the local, state and federal levels.

• State and Local Food Policy Councils convene citizens and government officials to provide an examination of a state or local food system. Learn more at www.statefoodpolicy.org
• Community Food Security Coalition is a North American coalition of people and organizations working from the local to the international levels to build community food security. Find programs, committees and events at www.foodsecurity.org
• Agriculture Observatory at the Institute for Trade and Agriculture Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. Learn more at www.agobservatory.org
• National Family Farm Coalition unites the voices of its grassroots members to demand viable livelihoods for family farmers, safe and healthy food for everyone, and economically and environmentally sound rural communities at www.nffc.net
• Roots of Change is a collaborative of diverse leaders and institutions unified in a common pursuit of achieving a sustainable food system in California by 2030. Learn more at www.rocfund.org
• Dreaming New Mexico: Food and Farming is researching ways to bring about a more self-reliant local food system for New Mexico at www.dreamingnewmexico.org/the-dream/food-farming
• Farm and Food Policy Project is a diverse group of family farm, rural, public health, anti-hunger, conservation, faith-based, and other groups that have come together to inform the Farm Bill at www.farmandfoodproject.org/declaration
• Central Appalachian Network is a network of seven nonprofits that have worked in 150 counties in the Central Appalachian states to transform the area’s economy. Find members, read publications and learn about events at http://www.cannetwork.org/
• Community Alliance with Family Farmers builds a movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice. Watch for legislation and download a county guide to local food at www.caff.org

Join the Local Food Revolution:

The following websites offer more resources for getting involved. Eat local; start a farm-to-school program; or even become a farmer yourself.

• Organic Volunteers helps you connect with educational opportunities in sustainability at www.organicvolunteers.org
• World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms connect people who want to volunteer on organic or small farms with the farms that need help at www.wwoof.org
• FoodRoutes is a national, non-profit that reintroduces Americans to their food. Donate, take the buy local challenge, and visit the organization’s library at www.foodroutes.org
• National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service: Sustainable Farming Internships and Apprenticeships is an online directory of opportunities in sustainable and organic agriculture at www.attrainternships.ncat.org
• Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association generates opportunities for farm workers and limited-resource, aspiring farmers to grow and sell crops from two organic farms in Monterey County, California at www.albafarmers.org
• Land Stewardship Project has a mission of fostering an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing sustainable communities. Take classes and find events at www.landstewardshipproject.org
• The Food Project works with teenagers and volunteers who farm in urban and rural Massachusetts. Find programs for youth, buy food and products and volunteer at www.thefoodproject.org
• Local Harvest is a site that helps you find farmers markets, family farms and other sources of sustainably grown food near you. Check it out at www.localharvest.org
• Sustainable Table celebrates local sustainable food, educates consumers on food-related issues and works to build community through food. Find recipes, read the organization’s blog, and discuss related issues at www.sustainabletable.org
• Eat Well Guide is a site that maps where to find wholesome, fresh, sustainable food near you at www.eatwellguide.org
• American Community Gardening Association is building community by increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening across the U.S. and Canada. Learn how to start a community garden at www.communitygarden.org
• Center for a New American Dream helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life and promote social justice. Find polling and research, publications and ways to green your office at www.newdream.org
• The Edible Schoolyard provides urban public school students with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom in Berkeley, California. Learn more about the program at www.edibleschoolyard.org
• Slow Food is a global, grassroots movement that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. Find the latest news at http://www.slowfoodusa.org/

Food Justice:
Organizations across the country are working to ensure that everyone has the right and ability to eat good food. Here are a few innovative food justice initiatives and resources.

• Growing Power is a national, non-profit organization and land trust that supports people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food. Learn more at www.growingpower.org
• Growing Food & Justice For All Initiative is aimed at dismantling racism and empowering low-income and communities of color through sustainable and local agriculture. Find more at www.growingfoodandjustice.org
• Business Alliance for Local Living Economies helps small business leaders use less energy and produce less waste at www.livingeconomies.org
• Garden Resource Program Collaborative is an effort to empower Detroit residents to grow, harvest, prepare and preserve food for their families at www.detroitagriculture.org
• Just Food is a non-profit organization that works to develop a just and sustainable food system in New York City at http://www.justfood.org/

•  Detroit Agriculture Network promotes urban agriculture and the sustainable use and appreciation of urban natural resources in Detroit at www.geocities.com/detroitag
   

Feeding the World:
Solving world hunger requires rethinking trade and aid. In today’s globalized world, a truly just and sustainable food system means empowering our international neighbors to feed their own communities. For more about international food access and food policy, visit these websites.

• Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy has a mission of eliminating the injustices that cause hunger. Check out the institute’s blog, publications and bookstore at www.foodfirst.org
• Community Alliance for Global Justice aims to transform the global economy by identifying local and global impacts of trade and monetary institutions, by using education, grassroots mobilization, media and legislative strategies, and by building solidarity across diverse movements. Learn more about the food justice project at www.seattleglobaljustice.org
• Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. Find programs, projects and publications at www.iatp.org
• Small Planet Institute supports the grassroots democracy movements worldwide addressing the causes of hunger and poverty. Check out more at www.smallplanetinstitute.org
• Institute for Policy Studies turns ideas into action for peace, justice and the environment. Find projects, events and publications at http://www.ips-dc.org/

Food Traditions:
Before we had fast food and industrial farming, different regions of the U.S. developed food traditions and cultures that were sustainable, delicious, and well-suited to local climates and resources. Here are some organizations that are reviving those traditions.

• Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit, member-supported organization that saves and shares heirloom seeds. Become a member, join discussions and shop online at www.seedsavers.org
• White Earth Land Recovery Project has a website where you can learn more about ongoing projects and events, and even shop for food and crafts at www.nativeharvest.com
• New Mexico Acequia Association was founded in 1990 to build a united voice for acequia communities throughout New Mexico. You can find declarations and resolutions, news and a calendar at www.lasacequias.org
• Renewing America’s Food Traditions is a coalition of seven non-profit food, agriculture, conservation and educational organizations dedicated to rescuing foods and food traditions. Find workshops, read news and learn what you can do at www.environment.nau.edu/raft
• Waipa Foundation is working to restore Waipa as a native Hawaiian learning and community center. Learn more about Waipa, find projects and programs, and read about current initiatives at www.waipafoundation.org/index.php

Sustainable Farming and Ranching:
Learn more about eco-friendly food production.

• Wild Farm Alliance has a mission to promote agriculture that helps protect and restore wild nature. Learn more about wild farming and food safety, browse the chef’s toolkit and find upcoming presentations near you at www.wildfarmalliance.org
• Holistic Management International works to heal damaged land and increase the productivity of working lands. Find certified educators, learn more about projects and services, and visit the organization’s online library at www.holisticmanagement.org
• Quivira Coalition fosters ecological, economic and social health on western landscapes. Learn about apprenticeships, find workshops and events, and view a photo gallery at www.quiviracoalition.org
• Eatwild provides information about the benefits of raising animals on pasture, links to local farms that sell grass-fed products and a marketplace for farmers who raise their livestock on pasture at www.eatwild.com
• Grass-Fed Party supports grass-fed ranching. Read the organization’s blog and join the grass-fed party at www.grassfedparty.com
• Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture cultivates alternatives that secure healthier people and landscapes in Iowa and the nation. Find research, resources and seminars at www.leopold.iastate.edu
• National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service provides information and technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, extension agents, educators and others involved in sustainable agriculture. Find publications and resources at www.attra.org
• The Stockman Grass Farmer has been devoted to the art and science of making a profit from grassland agriculture since 1947. Find back issues, events and join member forums at www.stockmangrassfarmer.net
• The Land Institute collaborates with public institutions to direct more research toward natural systems agriculture. Find programs, publications and books at www.landinstitute.org
• Permaculture Activist is a quarterly publication that helps people provide food, energy and shelter without exploitation of the land. Learn about permaculture at www.permacultureactivist.net
• Rodale Institute is an organization that has been devoted to organic farming since 1947. Receive a newsletter, watch videos and follow the institute’s blog at http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/

Fair Food:
Food and farm workers are often treated unjustly and inhumanely by the corporate food system. Sustainable food advocates are striving to create standards that would bring dignity, respect, fair wages, and ethical treatment to the people who produce, package, and process our food. Food workers are organizing to defend their rights. You can learn more or get involved through the following resources.

• White Dog Café Foundation: Fair Food is dedicated to bringing local food into the Philadelphia marketplace. Find programs and visit the farmstand at www.whitedogcafefoundation.com/fairfood.html
• Magen Tzedek is a new ethical certification seal for the kosher food industry. Learn more about the seal at www.hekhshertzedek.org
• The Farmworker Support Committee is a migrant farmworker organization governed and comprised of farmworkers who are fighting for better working and living conditions. Volunteer your time, find videos and learn about fair labor standards at www.cata-farmworkers.org
• Local Fair Trade Network is a Minneapolis-based organization that brings together growers, sellers and eaters of food to build a system that is just and healthy for everyone. Whether you are a farmer, farm worker, business owner or consumer, you can find more information at www.localfairtrade.org
• Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a community-based worker organization whose members are largely immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout Florida. Find out more at www.ciw-online.org
• United Farm Workers has a mission to provide farm workers with the inspiration and tools to share in society’s bounty. Learn more about campaigns, find research and even send an e-card at www.ufw.org
• The Agricultural Justice Project is a non-profit initiative to create fairness and equity in our food system through the development of social justice standards for organic and sustainable agriculture. Learn about the project’s standards and international scope at www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org
• Equal Exchange Fairly Traded partners with cooperatives of farmers who provide high-quality organic coffees, teas, chocolates and snacks. Find products, farmer partners and resources at www.equalexchange.coop
• Southern Alternatives Agricultural Cooperative promotes human rights agenda aimed at eradicating race, class, cultural, religious and gender barriers experienced by southern black women. Learn more (and order pecans!) at www.federationsoutherncoop.com/pecansales04.htm

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, investigates the complex answers to the simple question: What should we have for dinner? (Penguin, 2006)

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan, proposes that what we eat comes down to seven simple words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (Penguin, 2008)

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe, features 100 pages of recipes by ecological culinary pioneers including Alice Waters, Mollie Katzen and Nora Pouillon. (Tarcher, 2003)

Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty, by Mark Winne, offers an insider’s view of what it’s like to feed hungry people in inner cities devoid of healthy food options. (Beacon Press, 2008)

Revolution on the Range: The Rise of a New Ranch in the American West, by Courtney White, shows a new American West where cattle and conservation can go hand in hand. (Island Press, 2008)

Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, by Brian Halweil, examines our current food system. While Halweil exposes many flaws, he also offers solutions. (Norton, 2004)

“The Pleasures of Eating,” an essay by Wendell Berry, suggests that eating is an agricultural act, a fact not always recognized by industrial eaters.

The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, by Wendell Berry, suggests that farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families, and as a nation we are more estranged from the land. (Sierra Club, 1977)

Stuffed & Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, by Raj Patal, examines the irony that some parts of the world are dealing with an epidemic of obesity while people in other parts of the world are enduring starvation. (Melville House, 2008)

Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, by Vandana Shiva, reveals what connects humanity’s most urgent crises-food insecurity, peak oil and climate change-and why any attempt to solve one without addressing the others will get us nowhere. (South End Press, 2008)

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon, tells the story of how the authors devote a year to eating food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home. (Harmony, 2007)

Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasure and Politics of Local Food, by Gary Paul Nabhan, reminds us that eating close to home is an act of cultural and environmental significance. (Norton, 2002)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver, makes a case for returning the kitchen to the center of family life and the diversified farm to the center of the American diet. (HarperCollins, 2007)

Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy, by Lyle Estill, chronicles a community-powered response to resource depletion in a fickle global economy. True stories from Chatham County, North Carolina offer a counterbalance to the bleakness of our age. (New Society, 2008)

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus, explains this new science and how it is transforming how we invent, compute, heal ourselves, harness energy, do business and feed ourselves. (Harper Perennial, 1997)

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser, examines the local and global influence of the U.S. fast food industry. (Harper Perennial, 2002)

Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, by David Tracey, outlines the power-to-the-people campaign to greening our cities. (New Society, 2007)

Eat Where You Live: How to find and enjoy local and sustainable food no matter where you live, by Lou Bendrick, is a fresh, funny and positive approach to eating locally. (Skipstone, 2008)

Gardening for The Future of The Earth, by Howard-Yana Shapiro and John Harrisson, shows you how to create bounty in your own backyard and help save the planet one seed at a time. (Bantam, 2000)

Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, by R.J. Ruppenthal, is a guide to growing in small areas without using energy-intensive systems. (Chelsea Green, 2008)

Chefs on the Farm: Recipes and Inspiration from the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts, by Shannon Borg and Lora Lea Misterly, describes the work on the farm and how students learn to connect with the food they grow. (Skipstone, 2008)
You can also watch these films.

• The Future of Food, directed by Deborah Koons Garcia, is an in-depth look into the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods. (Arts Alliance America, 2004) www.thefutureoffood.com
• The Real Dirt on Farmer John, directed by Taggart Siegel, tells the story of one man, his farm and his family-a story that parallels the history of American farming. (Gaiam, 2008) www.pbs.org/independentlens/realdirt
• Good Food, directed by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young, tours Washington state farms and ranches that have adopted healthier organic methods in raising their products. (Bullfrog Films, 2008) http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/gf.html

Reposted from yesmagazine.org.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

How to turn a lawn into lunch, swap preserves, glean, boost your food security, live the good life.

“Food is the rare moral arena in which the ethical choice is generally the one more likely to make you groan with pleasure.”
                                                               -Barbara Kingsolver

1. From Lawn to Lunch

To convert your sunny lawn to a lunch box, remove turf in long, 18-inch strips. Cut the edges of each strip with a sharp-bladed edging tool. While one partner rolls up the grass like a jellyroll, another slices through grass roots with the edging tool. Remove about an inch of rooty soil with the top growth. When the roll gets heavy, slice it off and load it in a wheelbarrow.

To compost the strips, layer green sides together, then brown sides together, ending brown-side-up. Cover the stack with soil and mulch (straw, chopped leaves, or shredded bark) and let stand for 10-12 months.

Make beds 10 to 20 feet long and six to eight feet wide (so you can reach the center from each side). Mulch three to four-foot wide paths between beds (grass left in the path will infiltrate your beds) to accommodate a wheelbarrow. Now fork over the soil strips and remove as many roots as possible. Aerate beds with a garden fork, sinking it as evenly and deeply as possible.

Spread on two or three inches of compost, then set plants about six inches apart, in staggered rows. Top with a mulch containing corn gluten, a high-nitrogen protein that prevents weed seeds from germinating.

– Ann Lovejoy is author of Ann Lovejoy’s Organic Garden Design School (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book, 2004) and many other books.

www.YesMagazine.org/lawn
Look who wants to TransFarm the White House lawn…

2. Eat Your Vegetables

Some 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by meat production. The USDA attributes 14 percent of all deaths in the U.S. to poor diets and/or sedentary lifestyles. You can improve your health and the health of the planet by following food columnist Michael Pollan’s simple rule: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

3. Party with Your Preserves

Ten quarts of pumpkin puree in the pantry, and not a jar of tomato sauce left? Throw a canning swap party. Here are some tips and recommendations from foodroutes.org:

Plan ahead.
Gauge interest with your friends early on. Then remind them throughout the planting, growing, and harvesting season to set aside extras for canning and swapping.

Don’t be afraid to grow a lot of something.
If you’re a budding salsa artist, plant that extra row of tomatoes. Or if you see a good deal on a box of local pears — get them.

Try new recipes on your swappers.
Bust out that crazy 5-alarm salsa verde recipe you’ve always been scared to try. Make sure to can extra so you can pop a jar open for samples.

Be aware of what constitutes a “fair” trade.
This is simple. You’re all friends and canners who know how time-consuming canning can be. Be open and ask what your neighbor feels comfortable receiving in exchange for one jar of Grandma Edie’s apricot chutney.

Think outside the Ball Jar.
Not everything at the canning swap party has to be pressure-canned or boiled in a hot water bath. Dried items, homemade baked goods, candies, and homebrewed beer are all eligible. You’ll be amazed by what can be preserved from the season’s bounty.

4. Glean Those Fields Clean

A lot of perfectly good food is left to rot in farm fields and under fruit and nut trees. With a bit of work, you can gather a group to “glean” this free food, providing fresh, nutritious food to your community.

To glean in your area, talk to farmers, gardeners, and orchard owners. Explain your purpose, share a copy of federal “Good Samaritan” law, which protects them from liability, and ask for written permission to glean.

Recruit gleaners. Family, friends, students, and members of your faith community are potential volunteers. You can also put a notice on craigslist, bulletin boards, at farmers markets, or in the local paper.

Contact food banks, shelters, and other facilities to check on their needs, and to arrange delivery times.

On gleaning day, bring collection baskets and buckets, snacks, water, and other necessities that will ensure a successful expedition.

As the day ends, gather your freshly harvested food, thank the landowner, distribute something to each gleaner, and leave the land in better condition than you found it.

– Kim Nochi

Source: University of Maine Cooperative Extension

5. Shop Outside of Supermarkets

It’s easy to see, taste, and feel the benefit of locally produced food, but for many of us it’s a hassle to locate alternative food sources. Local foods are not nearly as well-advertised or visible as chain supermarket foods, so even those who want to give locally harvested food a try may not know where to get it. Here are some ways you can find local food sources in your area.

Get the lay of the land; consider what types of agriculture are natural to your environment. Does your area have a history of blueberry farming or cod fishing? Are there traditional foods that have been neglected in the fast-food age?

Talk to old timers, ask around at farmers markets, look for road-side food stands and U-pick places. Watch for hand-painted signs. You may find a wide variety of freshly harvested foods and get to know new communities and regional traditions at the same time.

Visit localharvest.org, sustainabletable.org, and eatwellguide.org to find sources of affordable and environmentally friendly food.

– Heather Purser

6. Start a Community Garden

Start by calling a meeting (or better yet, a potluck) to decide what kind of garden you want, what locations might work, and how to manage plots.

Identify possible sites. Look for land that gets plenty of sunlight, has a water source, is convenient to get to, and is free of soil contamination. You could consider combining back yards if several neighbors are involved.

Identify the owner of the land and negotiate a lease long enough to make it worth building the soil and the community involvement. Invite immediate neighbors to join.

Test the soil for nutrient levels and contaminants. Clean the site, mark plots with gardeners’ names, and, if possible, include on-site storage for tools and equipment. Also designate a spot for compost.

When the first planting season comes around, consider hiring someone to turn the earth, or throw a work party to build raised beds.

Meet now and then with your fellow gardeners to swap seeds and seedlings, advice, and produce, and to resolve any difficulties. Have potlucks to enjoy the harvest.

For more ideas, including sample bylaws and insurance policies, go to communitygarden.org

7. Plant a Row for the Hungry

As unemployment rises, more people are wondering how they will put food on their table. How can you boost food security at home …

• Skip the so-called convenience foods; processed foods almost always cost more for what you get.
• Form a buying club to get healthy food in bulk at discount prices.
• Grow your own — start a community garden, or transform your lawn or parking strip (see #1 and #6).
• Buy in season, or harvest and preserve it yourself.
• Study (and/or teach) the art of cooking and preserving tasty, nutritious food on a budget.

… and in your community:

• Contribute something from every shopping trip to local food banks.
• Glean (see #4 above).
• Plant a row for the hungry and donate the produce to a shelter, day care center, neighbor, or food bank.
• Start a food bank out of a faith center or community center if there are no similar programs nearby (see http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2849).

8. Share Your Table

The best antidote to fast-food culture is as simple as your table. Invite friends and a few strangers to a local-foods potluck. In good weather, eat outside. Share an evening of conversation and enjoy the good life.
 

www.YesMagazine.org/sundaydinner
Meet Jim Haynes, the man who invites the world to dinner.

Reposted from yesmagazine.org.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Hardly a month passes without a report of another study linking consumption of animal fat and meat with elevated risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other killer diseases that cripple then kill over a million Americans annually. Estimated costs of associated medical care and lost productivity run as high as $300 billion.

We have witnessed alarming developments:

• Obesity is implicated in 300,000 US deaths and costs the nation $117 billion per year.
• American Heart Association has condemned popular high-protein diets.
• A diet rich in fruits and vegetables substantially reduces the risk of high blood pressure.
• Consumption of dairy products increases the risk of prostate cancer.
• Consumption of meat and dairy products increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 60%.
• USDA is failing to test adequately for ‘Mad Cow’ disease.
• A hundred feed plants may be spreading the Mad Cow disease.
• Deadly Enterococci bacteria have been found in 3% of pork samples.
• Widespread use of antibiotics by the poultry industry threatens their efficacy for humans.

Meatout Can Help

These developments confer special meaning on the annual observance of the Great American Meatout, the world’s oldest and largest annual grassroots diet education campaign.

On and around March 20, caring folks in a 1,000 communities in all 50 states and a host of other countries are welcoming spring with educational events ranging from information tables (‘steakouts’) and exhibits to classroom presentations, receptions, public dinners, cooking demonstrations, homeless feedings, and elaborate ‘lifestivals.’ They ask their friends and neighbors to “kick the meat habit this spring and explore a wholesome, nonviolent plant-based diet.”

The explosive growth of the Great American Meatout has been due in large measure to the support of consumer advocates, educators, health authorities, and the mass media. Radio and TV networks have interviewed entertainers Casey Kasem, Mary Tyler Moore, James Cromwell, Bill Maher, and other members of the Meatout National Council.

Health editors have carried stories on national trends toward meatless eating, provided delicious, healthful meatless recipes, and covered local Meatout events.

To assist you in covering The Great American Meatout, we have provided links to websites dealing with health and nutrition, and a table of selected events.

Please, contact us at info@meatout.org or 1-800-MEATOUT for any additional questions or to arrange interviews with celebrities, authors, physicians, and activists.

Thank you for your interest in The Great American Meatout!

“Place of residence plays a larger role in dietary health than previously estimated,” said Manuel Franco, MD, PhD, lead author of the studies and an associate with the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology. “Our findings show that participants who live in neighborhoods with low healthy food availability are at an increased risk of consuming a lower quality diet. We also found that 24 percent of the black participants lived in neighborhoods with a low availability of healthy food compared with 5 percent of white participants.” 

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the association between the availability of healthy foods and diet quality among 759 participants of a population-based cardiovascular cohort study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Using a food frequency questionnaire, Franco, along with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas, summarized diet into two dietary patterns reflecting low and high quality diet. The availability of healthy foods was assessed by examining food stores within MESA participants’ neighborhood or census tract, their closest food store and all food stores within one mile of the participants’ residence. Availability of healthy foods in each food store was assessed by measuring the availability of items like fresh fruits and vegetables, skim milk and whole wheat bread as recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Their findings were reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Franco, along with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Michigan, examined the differences in the availability of healthy foods across 159 neighborhoods and 226 neighborhood stores in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Researchers found that 43 percent of predominantly black neighborhoods and 46 percent of lower-income neighborhoods fell under the category of low availability of healthy foods versus 4 percent and 13 percent, respectively, in predominantly white and higher-income neighborhoods. In addition, supermarkets in predominantly white and higher-income neighborhoods had higher levels of healthy food availability compared to supermarkets located in lower-income neighborhoods and predominantly black neighborhoods.

“Previous studies have suggested that race and income are related to healthy food intake and our choice of foods play a major role in our health and diet,” said Benjamin Caballero, MD, PhD, professor at the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health. “Our studies show that where you live is a major determinant of your health. The joint efforts of public health researchers in collaboration with community groups and policymakers will be required to effectively change the current picture of the less-than-optimal availability of recommended healthy foods.”

“Availability of Health Foods and Dietary Patterns: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atheroscerosis” was written by Manuel Franco, Ana V. Diez-Roux, Jennifer A. Nettleton, Mariana Lazo, Frederick L. Brancati, Benjamin Caballero, Thomas A. Glass and Latetia V Moore.

“Neighborhood Characteristics and Availability of Healthy Foods in Baltimore” was written by Manuel Franco, Ana V. Diez Roux, Thomas A. Glass, Benjamin Caballero and Frederick L. Brancati.

Reprinted from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

COLLEGE STATION – There’s an emerging star in the super-food world.

Plums are rolling down the food fashion runway sporting newly discovered high levels of healthy nutrients, say scientists at Texas AgriLife Research.

Plainly, “blueberries have some stiff competition,” said Dr. Luis Cisneros, AgriLife Research food scientist.”Stone fruits are super fruits with plums as emerging stars.”

Far from fruit snobbery, the plum is being ushered in after Cisneros and Dr. David Byrne, AgriLife Research plant breeder, judged more than 100 varieties of plums, peaches and nectarines and found them to match or exceed the much-touted blueberries in antioxidants and phytonutrients associated with disease prevention.

The duo acknowledge that blueberries remain a good nutritional choice. But Byrne said their findings are plum good news, especially in tight economic times, because one relatively inexpensive plum contains about the same amount of antioxidants as a handful of more expensive blueberries.

“People tend to eat just a few blueberries at a time – a few on the cereal or as an ingredient mixed with lots of sugar,” Cisneros said. “But people will eat a whole plum at once and get the full benefit.”

Discovery of the plum’s benefits – along with that of fellow stone fruits, the peach and the nectarine – came after the researchers measured at least five brands of blueberries on the market. Against those numbers, the team measured the content of more than 100 different types of plums, nectarines and peaches.

The first comparison was for antioxidants, molecules that sweep through a body looking for free radicals to knock out. Free radicals are atoms or molecules that lurk where diseases like cancer and heart disease are found.

“If the radicals aren’t taken care of,” Cisneros said, “they will cause the problems that lead to disease.”

But the scientists didn’t stop at knowing that plums and peaches were flexing their antioxidant muscles.

“Knowing that we had all these varieties with high levels of antioxidants, then the possibility of preventing these diseases would also be high with their consumption, so we went to the next step – how these compounds could actually inhibit chronic diseases,” Cisneros said.

The team examined the full content of plums and peaches, then tested the effect of the compounds they found on breast cancer cells and cholesterol in the lab.

“We screened the varieties again with the biological assays,” Cisneros said. “And that had never been done before, because it is expensive and a lot of work. But that investment is small in terms of the information we got, and how it can be used now for breeding efforts to produce even better fruit.”

Byrne noted, for example, that one benefit the team found was that the phytonutrients in plums inhibited in vitro breast cancer growth without adversely affecting normal cell growth.

He said this type of research needs further study but is an indication that breeders ultimately will be able to produce new crop varieties with the best ratio of various phytochemicals to have an impact on disease prevention and inhibition. And these fruits will be available as fresh produce as well as in extracts for dietary supplements.

“Future work with stone fruits will focus on cardiovascular and cancer using animal models and identification of specific compounds that exert the properties,” Cisneros added.

Bottom line from the researchers: “We suggest that consumers take seriously the recommendation to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables – or even more – every day and to make sure that plums are part of that,” Byrne said.

Funding comes from the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center at Texas A&M University and the California Tree Fruit Agreement.

Reprinted from Texas A&M.

by Lenette Nakauchi, citizen journalist

(NaturalNews) Now that you’ve decided to eat a primarily raw-vegan food based diet, you may wonder how you can dine out at regular food restaurants. Of course you want to maintain and even grow your social life, right? Right. Well you have good reason to be thinking ahead about this because dining out at restaurants and in other people’s homes are definitely going to happen. In fact, dining out is our culture’s most popular social activity. Rest assured, it is possible to eat a healthy, raw, satiating meal while out with friends or family. The key here, as with maintaining a raw lifestyle while traveling, is planning and packing.

Most likely you’re going to be ordering a salad. It can be a chicken salad without the chicken, a shrimp salad without the shrimp, or an order or two of the simple garden salad. If the restaurant offers an organic or local salad — even better!

Never be afraid to ask your server to “customize” a salad for you. You can create your own salad by looking at the menu’s salads and entrée side vegetables to know what ingredients the restaurant has on hand. Ask for a big salad with greens, other than iceberg, as the base and lots of different chopped raw vegetables on it. Ask for as many different colors as possible. If the restaurant has any guacamole or avocado anywhere on the menu — great! Now you know they have avocados back there and can ask for avocado to be put on your salad as well if you want to. Of , course, be as polite and as discrete as you can and they will most likely to their best to help you. Your customized salad can lead to the most gorgeous and most colorful salad the restaurant has ever seen! Your salad is most likely going to have people turning their heads in your direction asking “where was that on the menu? That looks great!”

For dressing you could choose the restaurant’s vinaigrette, lemon juice, or oil and vinegar on the side. I usually don’t worry about the house vinaigrette being entirely raw. After all, that’s what detoxing is for!

Now, you may not get enough protein, fat, carbohydrates, or calories from this salad and this is where a bit of planning comes in handy. In your purse or pocket, you might want to bring along a handful or two of nuts or seeds, dried fruit (can be your dessert!), flax crackers, or a raw food bar, in a small plastic baggie. You’ll be glad that you did. It’s very important for your raw food success to do whatever it takes for you to feel full and happy with your dinner so you feel comfortable enough to be in the present moment with your dinner party. The worse thing would be for you to be still hungry and thinking about food, missing out on all the conversation!

You could also supplement your salad with hemp seeds and sea veggies but be prepared, as this will definitely turn some heads. It depends on how comfortable you are around the party you’re with. There is a well-known raw foodist in Chicago who does this to her salads at cooked-food restaurants and swears by it. She knows it raises the vibration of the food before it reaches her mouth.

More tips for the raw foodist dining out at a non-raw restaurant:

-      Nuts and seeds on salads are usually toasted or candied.

-      Make sure to ask to hold the cheese or dairy-based dressings on your salad.

-      Bringing some sort of sweet with you is a great idea if you’re going to be tempted to eat a cooked/baked dessert that others will be eating (A date rolled in cacao nibs might satisfy your chocolate cake desires).

-      If you’re not entirely “raw,” you can ask for plain steamed vegetables as an entrée.

Others in your party may or may not notice what you’re doing. If you’re comfortable, confident, and nonchalant about what you’re doing, they probably won’t notice. They’re more likely to notice and focus on you if you feel uncomfortable and embarrassed about it yourself. Other people will usually be at least a little interested in what you’re eating and will even comment on how good your food looks! If and when people ask about your diet, have a simple definition planned and memorized that you can give them. If you don’t want the entire dinner conversation to focus on raw foods, just say it’s how you prefer to eat right now or you’re trying something new out for a while. In a nutshell, choose your line and deliver it in a positive and confident way.

If you’re not comfortable dining out with others on the raw food diet and lifestyle, you can always eat beforehand and let others know you had a late lunch or breakfast. Just make sure to bring a snack in your purse or pocket just in case you’ll be out for a while.

In time, you will definitely get used to how to eat out on a raw food diet. Dining at fine restaurants may not be as fun as it used to be, but that’s because you know you can eat a much healthier and more satisfying meal at home for pennies on the dollar now. Propose a night out for your non-raw friends at your favorite raw restaurant. This is a great way to introduce them to raw foods and all they have to offer.

Soon we’ll need an article of tips to help cooked food eaters survive in the raw-vegan world!

About the author

Lenette Nakauchi is a raw foodist who is passionate about teaching, coaching and demonstrating to others how to go and stay “raw” in a fun, healthy, sustainable way. Learn more about the raw food lifestyle and about superfoods by visiting her websites www.gorawchicago.com and www.eatsuperfoods.com.

Reprinted from NaturalNews.

(NaturalNews) Victory gardens are popping up all over. Last seen during World War II, these gardens now represent our fight to regain control of our lives and our health. They are the first battlefields against the increasing corporate tyranny, a battle that may end with us throwing off the philosophy of every man for himself and a realization that we are all together in this thing called life.

World War II united people and allowed them to reach into the depths of themselves and pull up a resourcefulness they didn’t know they had. During this time of horror and hope people realized that they were living out a great saga in their lives, and in this saga they all had a part to play. The world was a violent and dramatic place, yet also an awakening happened, a vision of unity and understanding. The victory garden has come to symbolize this unity and vision.

What’s a victory garden?

It was emphasized to urban and suburban dwellers that the produce from their gardens would help provide the nutritious food needed by the soldiers to keep them fighting strong. It would also help keep the price of that food low, so the War Department would have more money to spend on other military needs. The victory garden would also help solve the shortages of labor and transportation that made it difficult to harvest and transport produce to market. One poster from the mid 1940′s reading, “Our food is fighting” portrayed the high sense of patriotism so characteristic of the time.

The Department of Agriculture along with agribusiness corporations distributed booklets providing information about basic gardening techniques. In 1943, 20 million gardens were producing 8 million tons of food. Victory gardens were planted in backyards, apartment building roofs, vacant lots, backyards, and pretty much every available patch of dirt and container throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different kinds of foods and formed cooperatives, doing whatever had to be done.

Magazines printed stories about victory gardens, and women’s magazines provided instructions on how to grow and preserve garden produce. Sales of pressure cookers to use in canning skyrocketed as families were encouraged to can their own vegetables. Home canners used non-toxic glass mason jars. The government as well as businesses urged families to make gardening a group effort. At the peak of the effort, 9-10 million tons of produce was produced, an amount equal to all commercial production. Even children and teenagers willingly took part in the work of the garden.

The victory garden was clearly a victory on many levels.

Why victory gardens are back in style

Today we are again involved in fighting a battle, but this time the battle involves how to stay healthy and live genuine lives in a world where everything is increasing stacked against us.

Today’s commercially grown produce comes from soils depleted of the minerals and nutrients so necessary to keep us healthy in our polluted and stressful environment. Plants grown in depleted soils are less healthy and able to resist attack by pests, so the use of pesticides is more prevalent than ever. Much of our big agribusiness produce is now being grown in foreign countries not subject to highly controlled use of pesticide. Today’s big food corporations choose the cheapest, most effective pesticides, not the ones that are least toxic to humans and other life forms. Along with pesticide residues, our produce contains residual amounts of soil depleting synthetic chemical fertilizers which are toxic to our livers.

Parabolic gas prices are estimated to increase wholesale food prices by 30 percent in the coming months. We wonder how we will be able to continue buying quality foods to keep us healthy. Fruits and vegetables are on the road for 1500 miles on average, before they reach the supermarkets. Produce is picked without having a chance to ripen so it can withstand the long trip to market. During this process, even more of the nutrients are lost. When it finally reaches the supermarket, produce can sit in cold storage for a week before being put out for sale.

We want to have access to health promoting fruits and vegetables during the winter months without them having to be flown in from other parts of the world. Asparagus from Argentina in January is a luxury few can afford. Yet we are told that our commercially canned produce contains carcinogenic and toxic bisphenol-A.

We’re short on money to put gas into the SUV to drive our children around to their programmed activities. At the same time, we are realizing that our children are not really learning what is important in life. We yearn for projects and activities that will bring our families together.

We are stressed out and overworked trying to get the money to buy all the stuff that corporations have decided we must have. Our closets and homes are filled, but our bank accounts are empty. We are so busy that we seldom see our family as a whole or do activities in which the whole family participates. It’s time to say ‘no’ to the big corporate food sellers and big oil. It’s time to reach inside ourselves again and rediscover that kernel of resourcefulness. It is still there.

Victory gardens and the new age

A victory garden is a manifestation of new thinking, new vision and an explosion of new understanding. We not only live in this world but we help create it. We can choose to participate in unity and renewal, and to become part of the higher forms of consciousness. We are at the point now where evolution can become conscious of itself.

We can choose to participate in a new age of creative intelligence and love. This new age is like a rising tide which may wash away those who seek to go on working in accordance with that old law of every man for himself. It is a movement just beginning like the emergence of a tiny shoot in spring. You can tear out that shoot or stomp on it, but there is no way that you can hold back the coming of spring.

We have had enough of the old ways of thinking, and we are here to take back control of our lives, our health, our resources, and our futures. We are resisting the control of destructive governmental and corporate forces. We are developing an energy and enthusiasm that characterizes new values, new ways of living, new survival techniques, and new experiences.

A garden that symbolizes our part in this evolution is a challenge and a source of immense hope. If a family or group is able to achieve this, others will follow and the movement will grow. In a time of famine for many and threatened famine for many others, the victory garden is an indication of a new way the earth can be made more fruitful. We must have a vision.

We realize with horror what the human race in its greed and arrogance is doing to the earth, and the life forms on it. Our ignorance of the realities of nature has led us to follow all sorts of practices which hurt and alienate. We are at the juncture where we may either come to be parasites upon the planet, or we may come to a new enlightenment. The choice is ours.

A victory garden can be our symbol of the victory of the decision to be part of the new enlightenment. It can provide us with a way to re-establish a positive relationship with nature as we are called on to love life-giving plants, to cherish and nurture them, to talk to them, and thank them for all their work for us. When we have reached out to do this, we are breaking down barriers within our minds, and our resistance to this new age will dissolve. We are readying ourselves to go forth openly toward nature with a loving attitude.

Remember, this is not somebody’s thought out plan. It is a phenomenon and an expression of the living energies for renewal that are sweeping through our society. This is a creative energy to renew in many facets, the garden being just one of them. The garden is an expression of a community filled with energy, enthusiasm and love for all life.

A garden teaches us the secrets of creation in various ways. Once we make the decision to pull back from the getting and spending lifestyle, we learn the power within us to create our world by the choices we make. We realize that we no longer have to be controlled by the power of events, but that by our power of thought, we control events. We can bring about what is in our thoughts.

When this is our direction we will have the confidence to succeed in the garden. Gardening is about the relationship we have with the plants. When we love and cherish them, they will return the favor. Plants are like our children. A child who is loved thrives no matter what the conditions are, but a child who has no love dies. Gardening is never about technique or the color of your thumb. It is about what is in your heart and spirit.

About the author

Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using “alternative” treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.

Reprinted from NaturalNews.

When you are sick or injured, you want to know what’s wrong and what can be done. You want a diagnosis. A correct diagnosis reveals what is wrong, what is the preferred treatment and what is the likely outcome. For example, a diagnosis of pneumonia indicates a serious lung infection that can usually be cured with antibiotics.

While medical diagnoses are based on science, psychiatric “diagnoses” are not at all scientific. They do not reveal what is wrong, what is the preferred treatment, and what is the likely outcome. Nor are they reliable. Different psychiatrists who examine the same patient typically offer different “diagnoses.” Moreover, psychiatric “diagnoses” move in and out of favor, depending on a variety of social factors.

Psychiatric “diagnosis” is actually a labeling process, where the patient’s symptoms are matched with a grouping of symptoms listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM). As we shall see, this psychiatric “bible” was developed and is maintained by financial and political interests.¹

Sigmund Freud

Who decides what is normal or healthy and what is deviant or sick?

Before the 20^th century, life stresses were generally seen as spiritual problems or physical illnesses, and people turned to religious advisors and physicians for help. Medical doctors treated “hysteria” and “nerves” as physical problems. Psychiatry was restricted to the treatment of severely disturbed people in asylums.² The first classification of psychiatric disorders in the United States appeared in 1918 and contained 22 categories. All but one referred to various forms of insanity.

In 1901, Sigmund Freud revolutionized psychiatry by breaking down the barrier between mental illness and normal behavior. In The Psychopathology of Everyday Life,³ Freud argued that commonplace behaviors – slips of the tongue, what people find humorous, what they forget and the mistakes they make – indicate repressed sexual feelings that lurk beneath the surface of normal behavior.

By linking everyday behavior with mental illness, Freud and his followers released psychiatry from the asylum. Between 1917 and 1970, as psychiatrists cultivated clients with a broad range of problems, the number of psychiatrists practicing outside institutions swelled from eight percent to 66 percent.⁴

The social movements of the 1960′s opposed psychiatry’s focus on inner conflict and emphasized the social sources of sickness instead. Dr. Alvin Poussaint recalls the 1969 convention of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

“After multiple racist killings during the civil rights movement, a group of black psychiatrists sought to have murderous bigotry based on race classified as a mental disorder. The APA’s officials rejected that recommendation, arguing that since so many Americans are racist, racism in this country is normative.”⁵

Growing the industry

In 1980, the APA overhauled the DSM. The Task Force established to create the new manual declared that any disorder could be included,

“If there is general agreement among clinicians, who would be expected to encounter the condition, that there are significant number of patients who have it and that its identification is important in the clinical work it is included in the classification.”⁶

In other words, the new DSM was not based on science, but on the need to maintain existing patients and include new ones who might seek help for any number of problems. A profitable and self-perpetuating industry was born. The more people could be encouraged to seek treatment, the more conditions could be entered into the DSM, and the more people could be encouraged to seek treatment for these new conditions.

By 1994, the DSM listed 400 distinct mental disorders covering a wide variety of behaviors in adults and children. Significantly, racism, homophobia (fear of homosexuality) and misogyny (hatred of women) have never been listed as mental disorders. In 1999, the chairperson of the APA’s Council on Psychiatry and the Law confirmed that racism “is not something that is designated as an illness that can be treated by mental health professionals.”⁷ Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder until activists campaigned to have it removed.⁸

The women’s liberation movement condemned labeling symptoms of oppression as mental illnesses. In They Say You’re Crazy: How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal, Paula Caplan explains,

“In a culture that scorns and demeans lesbians and gay men, it is hard to be completely comfortable with one’s homosexuality, and so the DSM-III authors were treating as a mental disorder what was often simply a perfectly comprehensible reaction to being mocked and oppressed.”⁹

Caplan describes efforts to prevent “Masochistic Personality Disorder” from being included in the DSM. This disorder assumes that women stay with abusive spouses because like to suffer, not because they lack the resources to leave. Despite protest, “Masochistic Personality Disorder” was added to the 1987 edition of the DSM, although it was later dropped.

The inclusion of “Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder” (PMDD) in the DSM also raised a protest. According to Caplan,

“The problem with PMDD is not the women who report premenstrual mood problems but the diagnosis of PMDD itself. Excellent research shows that these women are significantly more likely than other women to be in upsetting life situations, such as being battered or being mistreated at work. To label them mentally disordered – to send the message that their problems are individual, psychological ones – hides the real, external sources of their trouble.”¹⁰

As soon as PMDD was listed in the DSM, Eli Lilly repackaged its best-selling drug, Prozac, in a pink-pill format, renamed it Serafem, and promoted it as a treatment for PMDD. By creating Serafem, Lilly was able to extend its patent on the Prozac formula for another seven years.

A marketing gold mine

The DSM is a marketing gold mine for the drug industry. The FDA will approve a drug to treat a mental disorder only if that disorder is listed in the DSM. Therefore, each new listing is worth millions in potential drug sales. Most of the experts who construct the DSM have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, and every new edition of the DSM contains more conditions than the previous one.

Once the DSM lists a new mental disorder, drugs for that disorder are heavily marketed for everyone who might fit the symptom checklist. (Doctors are also encouraged to prescribe these drugs for “off-label use,” which means to anyone they think might benefit.) Not surprisingly, the   numbers of people “diagnosed” with a mental condition rise rapidly after a drug is approved to treat that condition.

In 2005, a major study announced that “About half of Americans will meet the criteria for a DSM-IV disorder sometime in their life…¹¹ How is this possible? Has it become normal to be mentally ill, or has the definition of mental illness expanded beyond reason? Both could be true.

Capitalism damages people in many ways. It’s also true that the more people can be labeled as sick, the more profits can be made from selling them treatments. In Creating Mental Illness, Alan Horowitz warns,

“…a large proportion of behaviors that are currently regarded as mental illnesses are normal consequences of stressful social arrangements or forms of social deviance. Contrary to its general definition of mental disorder, the DSM and much research that follows from it considers all symptoms, whether internal or not, expected or not, deviant or not, as signs of disorder.”¹²

Most people know the difference between normal behavior (such as grief over the death of a loved one) and abnormal behavior that could indicate an internal disorder (such as prolonged grief for no apparent reason). However, the DSM does not consider what happens in people’s lives. With one exception (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), the DSM lists and categorizes symptoms outside of any social context. As a result, DSM-based surveys artificially increase the numbers of people suffering from mental disorders and, therefore, the market for drug treatments.

DSM-inflated rates of mental illness are typically accompanied by the warning that not enough people are getting treatment,¹³ which serves to further expand the market for drugs. The question of whether all these people are actually sick is never raised, nor is the question of whether their symptoms might be linked to physical illnesses. 

Many physical diseases generate psychological symptoms. Researchers estimate that from 41 to 83 percent of people being treated for psychiatric disorders are actually suffering from misdiagnosed physical diseases like hyo- or hyper-thyroidism, heart disease, immune-system diseases, nervous system diseases (including multiple sclerosis) and cancer.¹⁴ Undiagnosed and untreated, these physical diseases can progress to cripple or kill. Furthermore, psychiatric drugs can worsen physical diseases, sometimes fatally. None of these “costs” are borne by the pharmaceutical industry – the most profitable industry in America.

Social control

Psychiatry has a long history of medicating the oppressed, including children, for social control.¹⁵

Schools force youngsters to sit still in closed rooms for long periods of time and force-feed them information that has no connection to their lives. Those who rebel are diagnosed with mental disorders (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, etc.) and forced to take mind-altering drugs. To preserve a crazy-making system, the healthy child must be made “crazy.”

Using DSM criteria, at least six million American children have been diagnosed with serious mental disorders, triple the number in the early 1990′s. The rate of boys aged 7 to 12 diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder more than doubled between 1995 and 2000 and continues to rise.

A 2007 survey of 8- to 15-year-olds discovered that nine percent met the DSM criteria for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The survey found that fewer than half of these children had been diagnosed or treated, “suggesting that some children with clinically significant inattention and hyperactivity may not be receiving optimal attention.” Noting that poor children were least likely to receive medication, the authors of the study recommend “further investigation and possible intervention.”¹⁶

Instead of addressing the oppressive social conditions that agitate children, psychiatry imposes conformity through medication. To force compliance with this oppressive system, access to insurance benefits, medical care and social services depends on “having a diagnosis.”

Most of the symptoms listed in the DSM describe human responses to deprivation and oppression (anxiety, agitation, aggression, depression) and the many ways that people try to manage unbearable pain (obsessions, compulsions, rage, addictions). Depression is strongly linked with poverty,¹⁷ and alleviating poverty can lift depression.¹⁸

The suffering of war veterans is labeled as a mental disorder (PTSD) instead of the inevitable consequence of war. These soldiers are sick because they have been violated. Their symptoms express their anguish and outrage at the barbarism they witnessed and perpetrated on others.  What’s sick is sending good people into the hell of war.  

Schizophrenia is designated as a mental illness that is assumed to be genetic. However, studies from several countries show that living in a city gives a person a higher probability of developing schizophrenia than having a family member with the disease. Moving from rural to urban centers increases the risk of developing schizophrenia, while moving in the other direction reduces the risk.¹⁹ City living is associated with increased stress and trauma, exposure to lead,²⁰ infection,²¹ malnutrition,²² and racial discrimination²³- all of which are linked with higher rates of schizophrenia.

Under capitalism, addressing the social causes of illness is politically risky and unprofitable. So psychiatry extracts the individual from society, splits the brain from the body, severs the mind from the brain and drugs the brain.²⁴

A sick society

Capitalism is a system that requires the majority to have no control over their lives and to believe that this condition is normal. Therefore, all reactions to inequality and deprivation must be viewed as signs of personal inadequacy, biological defect, mental illness – anything other than reasonable responses to unreasonable conditions.

During slavery days, experts argued that Black people were psychologically suited for a life of slavery, so there must be something wrong with those who rebelled.² In 1851, the diagnosis of “drapetomania”(runaway fever) was developed to explain why slaves try to escape.²⁶ Not much has changed. Today, exploitation and oppression are considered normal, and those who rebel in any way are considered to be sick or deviant and in need of medication or incarceration.

What’s the diagnosis for a sick society? We know what’s wrong. Most people are kept in sick social conditions so that a few can maintain their wealth and power. What is the treatment?  Putting human needs first would eliminate most human misery. Who will deliver the medicine? The majority must organize to take collective control of society.

I don’t expect this diagnosis to appear in the DSM anytime soon.

1  Kirk, S.S. & Kutchins, H. (1992). The selling of DSM: The rhetoric of science in psychiatry. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

2. Horowitz, A.V. (2002). Creating mental illness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

3. Freud, S. (1901/1991). The psychopathology of everyday life. New York: Penguin

4. Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: From the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

5. Poussaint, A.F. & Alexander, A. (2000). Lay my burden down: Suicide and the mental health crisis among African-Americans. Boston: Beacon Press, p.125.

6. Spitzer, R.L., Sheeney, M. & Endicott, J. (1977).  DSM III: Guiding principles. In Psychiatric diagnosis, (Eds). Rakoff, V., Stancer, H. & Kedward, H. New York: Brunner Mazel.

7. Egan, T. (1999). Racist shootings test limits of health system and laws. New York Times, August 14, p.1.

8. “DSM and homosexuality: A cautionary tale.” in Kirk, S.A. & Kutchins, H. (1992). The selling of DSM: The rhetoric of science in psychiatry. New York: Aldine De Gruyter  p 81-90

9. Caplan, P. (1995). They say you’re crazy: How the world’s most powerful psychiatrists decide who’s normal. New York: Addison-Wesley, pp.180-181.

10. Caplan, P.J. (2002). Expert decries diagnosis for pathologizing women. Journal of Addiction and Mental Health. September/October 2001, p.16.

11 Kessler, R.C. et. al. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. Vol.62, No.6, pp.593-602.

12. Horowitz, A.V. (2002). Creating Mental Illness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.37.

13. Talen, J. (2005). Survey says nearly half of all Americans will be affected by a mental illness, some before adulthood. Newsday, June 7. www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsment0607,0,6745489.story 

14. Klonoff, E.A. & Landrine, H., 1997, Preventing misdiagnosis of women: A guide to physical disorders that have psychiatric symptoms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage 

15. Breggin, P.R. & Breggin, G. R. (1994). The war against children: How the drugs, programs, and theories of the psychiatric establishment are threatening America’s children with a medical ‘cure’ for violence. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

16. Froehlich T.E., et. al. (2007). Prevalence, recognition, and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in a national sample of US children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Vol.161, pp.857-864. 

17. Duenwald, M. (2003). More Americans Seeking Help for Depression. New York Times, June 18. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/18/health/18DEPR.html

18. Costello, E.J., Compton, S.N., Keeler, G. & Angold, A.(2003). Relationships between poverty and psychopathology: a natural experiment. JAMA. Oct 15, Vol.290, No.15, pp.2023-9.

19.. Pedersen, C.B. & Mortensen, P.B. (2001). Evidence of a dose-response relationship between urbanicity during upbringing and schizophrenia risk. Arch Gen Psychiatry. Vol. 58, No. 11, pp.1039-46.

20. Calamai, P. (2004). Lead exposure in womb linked to schizophrenia. Risk also found if mother had flu: 1960′s U.S. data help unravel mystery. The Toronto Star, Feb. 15.

21. Opler, M.G.A. et al. (2004). Prenatal lead exposure, -aminolevulinic acid, and schizophrenia. Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol.112, pp.548-552.

22. St Clair, D., Xu, M., Wang, P. Yu, Y., Fang, Y., Zhang, F. Zheng, X., Gu, N., Feng,G., Sham, P. & He, L. (2005). Rates of adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to the Chinese Famine of 1959-1961. JAMA. Vol.294, No. 5, pp.557-562.

23. Joan Arehart-Treichel, J. (2003). Is schizophrenia a downside of urban life?  Psychiatric News (American Psychiatric Association) May 16, Vol.38,  No.10, p.37.

24. Ross, C.A., & Pam, A., (1995).  Pseudoscience in biological psychiatry: Blaming the body.  New York: Wiley.

25. Poussaint, A.F. & Alexander, A. (2000). Lay my burden down: Suicide and the mental health crisis among African Americans. Boston: Beacon Press.

26. Cartwright, S. (1851). Report on the diseases and physical peculiarities of the Negro race. New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. May, p. 707.

Susan Rosenthal is a practicing physician and the author of POWER and Powerlessness (2006) and Class, Health and Health Care (2008). She is a founding member of International Health Workers for People Over Profit. She can be reached through her web site: http://www.powerandpowerlessness.com/ or by email: powerandpowerlessness@rogers.com

This article was origanily published on Dissident Voice.

  Nutrients to focus on for vegetarians

• Protein has many important functions in the body and is essential for growth and maintenance. Protein needs can easily be met by eating a variety of plant-based foods. Combining different protein sources in the same meal is not necessary. Sources of protein for vegetarians include beans, nuts, nut butters, peas, and soy products (tofu, tempeh, veggie burgers). Milk products and eggs are also good protein sources for lacto-ovo vegetarians.
• Iron functions primarily as a carrier of oxygen in the blood. Iron sources for vegetarians include iron-fortified breakfast cereals, spinach, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, lentils, turnip greens, molasses, whole wheat breads, peas, and some dried fruits (dried apricots, prunes, raisins).
• Calcium is used for building bones and teeth and in maintaining bone strength. Sources of calcium for vegetarians include fortified breakfast cereals, soy products (tofu, soy-based beverages), calcium-fortified orange juice, and some dark green leafy vegetables (collard greens, turnip greens, bok choy, mustard greens). Milk products are excellent calcium sources for lacto vegetarians.
• Zinc is necessary for many biochemical reactions and also helps the immune system function properly. Sources of zinc for vegetarians include many types of beans (white beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas), zinc-fortified breakfast cereals, wheat germ, and pumpkin seeds. Milk products are a zinc source for lacto vegetarians.
• Vitamin B₁₂ is found in animal products and some fortified foods. Sources of vitamin B₁₂ for vegetarians include milk products, eggs, and foods that have been fortified with vitamin B₁₂. These include breakfast cereals, soy-based beverages, veggie burgers, and nutritional yeast.

Tips for Vegetarians

• Build meals around protein sources that are naturally low in fat, such as beans, lentils, and rice. Don’t overload meals with high-fat cheeses to replace the meat.
• Calcium-fortified soy-based beverages can provide calcium in amounts similar to milk. They are usually low in fat and do not contain cholesterol.
• Many foods that typically contain meat or poultry can be made vegetarian. This can increase vegetable intake and cut saturated fat and cholesterol intake. Consider:
  • asta primavera or pasta with marinara or pesto sauce
  • veggie pizza
  • vegetable lasagna
  • tofu-vegetable stir fry
  • vegetable lo mein
  • vegetable kabobs
  • bean burritos or tacos
• A variety of vegetarian products look (and may taste) like their non-vegetarian counterparts, but are usually lower in saturated fat and contain no cholesterol.
  • For breakfast, try soy-based sausage patties or links.
  • Rather than hamburgers, try veggie burgers. A variety of kinds are available, made with soy beans, vegetables, and/or rice.
  • Add vegetarian meat substitutes to soups and stews to boost protein without adding saturated fat or cholesterol. These include tempeh (cultured soybeans with a chewy texture), tofu, or wheat gluten (seitan).
  • For barbecues, try veggie or garden burgers, soy hot dogs, marinated tofu or tempeh, and veggie kabobs.
  • Make bean burgers, lentil burgers, or pita halves with falafel (spicy ground chick pea patties).
  • Some restaurants offer soy options (texturized vegetable protein) as a substitute for meat, and soy cheese as a substitute for regular cheese.
• Most restaurants can accommodate vegetarian modifications to menu items by substituting meatless sauces, omitting meat from stir-fries, and adding vegetables or pasta in place of meat. These substitutions are more likely to be available at restaurants that make food to order.
• Many Asian and Indian restaurants offer a varied selection of vegetarian dishes.

For more information, check out the USDA National Agriculture Library’s Vegetarian Nutrition Resource List [http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/pubs/bibs/gen/vegetarian07.pdf].

Offering expert cooking advice, nutrition information, and shopping tips, the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters campaign demonstrates that eating MORE fruits and vegetables does matter to all of us. The Fruits & Veggies-More Matters campaign replaces the 5 A Day for Better Health Program. http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/

Animal Products Lead to Heart Disease
Heart disease is the number one health problem in the United States, accounting for more than a million heart attacks and a half million deaths every year.(2) Because we now know what causes heart attacks, we can prevent them. In many studies, researchers have found that higher levels of cholesterol are linked to a greater risk of having a heart attack. For every 1 percent increase in the amount of cholesterol in your blood, there is a 2 percent increase in your risk of having a heart attack; conversely, every 1 percent reduction in your cholesterol level reduces your risk by 2 percent.(3)

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the meat, dairy, and egg industries, many Americans still believe that animal products are necessary for good health. One of the largest studies on lifestyle and health found that heart disease mortality rates for lacto-ovo vegetarian males was only one-third that of meat-eating men.(4) The British Medical Journal published findings from a study concluding that lifelong vegans have a 57 percent reduced risk of death from heart disease.(5)

Plant foods contain no cholesterol, whereas meat, eggs, and dairy products contain large amounts of cholesterol, saturated fats, and concentrated protein-all harmful substances. Also, the high fiber content of a vegetarian diet (meat, dairy products, and eggs are devoid of fiber) helps “wash away” excess cholesterol in your digestive tract.

A vegetarian diet can even reverse damage already done. When Dr. Dean Ornish put patients with coronary artery disease on a low-fat vegetarian diet combined with moderate exercise and relaxation techniques, he found that they reversed the buildup of plaque in their arteries.(6)

Cancer’s Connection to Animal Products
The number one recommendation in the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) Guidelines on Nutrition for Cancer Prevention is to eat a diet “with an emphasis on plant sources.”(7) Researchers have found that vegetarians are between 25 and 50 percent less likely to suffer from cancer, even after controlling for other factors, such as smoking.(8) A recent study by the ACS found that people who ate 3 ounces of meat a day were 30 to 40 percent more likely to develop colon cancer.(9) Researchers for the ACS have also found that while plant foods lower men’s risk of prostate cancer, eating meat raises their risk.(10) Researchers from Yale University report that meat-based diets can cause cancers of the stomach and esophagus, as well as lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system).(11,12) Scientists have also found that people who regularly chow down on hot dogs, sausages, or other processed or cured meat suffer from a 70 percent increase in pancreatic cancer rates.(13)
Meat Can Be Poisonous
In addition to causing heart disease and cancer, animal products also contain harmful contaminants-including bacteria, arsenic, dioxins, and mercury-that can affect our health both in the short and long terms.

Every year in the U.S., there are 75 million cases of food poisoning, and 5,000 of these cases are fatal.(14) The overuse of antibiotics in factory farms has caused many of the bacteria found on animal flesh to become antibiotic-resistant. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recently reported that 96 percent of Tyson chicken flesh is contaminated with dangerous antibiotic-resistant campylobacter bacteria.(15) In a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study, researchers found that 66 percent of beef samples were contaminated with super-bugs resistant to antibiotics.(16) A recent report by the U.S. General Accounting Office warns, “Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been transferred from animals to humans, and many of the studies we reviewed found that this transference poses significant risks for human health.”(17)

It is not uncommon for farmers to lace chicken feed with arsenic to kill parasites, and some of the arsenic stays in the animals’ flesh. One USDA study concluded, “Eating 2 ounces of chicken per day-the equivalent of a third to a half of a boneless breast-exposes a consumer to 3 to 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic, the element’s most toxic form.”(18) Daily exposure to low doses of arsenic can cause cancer and other ailments in humans.(19)

Fish flesh is also not a healthy food. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), residual industrial compounds that can be found in the environment, have caused cancer in animals and skin problems and liver damage in humans.(20) Fish flesh has been found to harbor levels of PCBs thousands of times higher than those in the water in which they live.(21) Researchers at the University of Illinois found that fish-eaters with high levels of PCBs in their blood had difficulty recalling information that they had learned just 30 minutes earlier.(22) Fish also accumulate methylmercury in their bodies, and pregnant women and children have been cautioned not to eat fish that may contain high levels of this toxic substance.(23)

Factory Farming Hurts Animals
Animals are much more intelligent and complex than most people realize, and scientists are providing more and more evidence of this all the time.

According to researchers, cows enjoy mental challenges and feel excitement when they use their intellect to overcome an obstacle. Dr. Donald Broom, a professor at Cambridge University, says that when cows figure out a solution to a problem, “The brainwaves showed their excitement; their heartbeat went up and some even jumped into the air. We called it their Eureka moment.”(24) Scientists now know that pigs have the cognitive skills of 3-year-old human children.(25) Biologists wrote in Fish and Fisheries that fish are “steeped in social intelligence, pursuing Machiavellian strategies of manipulation, punishment and reconciliation, exhibiting stable cultural traditions, and cooperating to inspect predators and catch food.”(26) Chickens form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another, develop a pecking order, and even have cultural knowledge that is passed between generations.(27)

Nearly all the animals raised for food in America today spend their lives in factory farms. These animals, who feel pain and fear just as the dogs and cats who share our homes do, are separated from their families and crammed by the thousands into filthy warehouses. They are mutilated without the use of painkillers and deprived of everything that is natural to them-they won’t be permitted to see the sun or breathe fresh air until the day when they are forced onto trucks bound for the slaughterhouse. On the killing floor, many animals are completely conscious and struggling to escape while their throats are cut-and some are still conscious while their bodies are hacked apart or when they are dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water.

Factory Farming Hurts Our Planet
Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of resources. Of all the agricultural land in the U.S., 80 percent is used to raise animals for food and to grow the grain to feed them-that’s almost half the total land mass of the lower 48 states.(28) Chickens, pigs, cattle, and other animals raised for food are the primary consumers of half the water in the U.S.(29)

Each day, factory farms produce billions of pounds of manure, which ends up in lakes, rivers, and drinking water. Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as does the entire human population of the United States-87,000 pounds of waste per second!(30,31) A California study found that a single dairy cow “emits 19.3 pounds of volatile organic compounds per year, making dairies the largest source of the smog-making gas, surpassing trucks and passenger cars.”(32)

What You Can Do

• Include high-fiber foods in your diet. Whole-wheat bread, brown rice, oats, flax seeds, and vegetables supply fiber, which helps lower cholesterol.
• Avoid dairy products; they contain cholesterol and saturated fats. Calcium can be obtained from beans, broccoli, sesame seeds, and green, leafy vegetables.
• Visit VegCooking.com for delicious eggless, nondairy vegetarian recipes.

• Call 1-888-VEG-FOOD or visit GoVeg.com for a free vegetarian starter kit.References

1) The American Dietetic Association, “Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dieticians of Canada: Vegetarian Diets,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 103 (2003): 748-65.
2) American Heart Association, “Heart Attack and Angina Statistics,” 3 Oct. 2003.     

3) Neal Barnard, Food for Life (New York: Harmony Books, 1993) 34.
4) R.L. Phillips et al., “Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Among Seventh-Day Adventists With Differing Dietary Habits: A Preliminary Report,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 31 (1978): S191-8.
5) M. Thorogood et al., “Plasma Lipids and Lipoproteins in Groups With Different Dietary Practices Within Britain,” British Medical Journal 295 (1987): 351-3.
6) Dean Ornish et al., “Can Lifestyle Changes Reverse Coronary Heart Disease?” The Lancet 336 (1990): 624-6.
7) American Cancer Society, “Cancer Prevention and Early Detection: Facts and Figures, 2004,” 2004.
J. Chang-Claude et al., “Mortality Pattern of German Vegetarians After 11 Years of Follow-Up,” Epidemiology 3 (1992): 389-91.
9) Jessica Heslam, “Don’t Have a Cow, Man: Docs: Meat Hikes Cancer Risk by up to 50 Percent,” Boston Herald 12 Jan. 2005.
10) American Cancer Society, Inc., “‘Good’ Fat Linked to Lower Prostate Cancer Risk,” 29 Sep. 1999.
11) Yale University, “Animal-Based Nutrients Linked With Higher Risk of Stomach and Esophageal Cancers,” news release, 15 Oct. 2001.
12) Daniel DeNoon, “Diet Linked to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: Lots of Meat, Saturated Fat, Dairy May Raise Risk,” WebMD Medical News 9 Mar. 2004.
13) “Processed Meat May Cause Pancreatic Cancer,” Xinhua News 22 Apr. 2005.
14) Reuters, “CSPI: Seafood, Eggs Biggest Causes of Food Poisoning in U.S.,” CNN.com 7 Aug. 2000.
15) Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “Drug-Resistant Bacteria on Poultry Products Differ by Brand,” Johns Hopkins Public Health News Center 16 Mar. 2005.
16) “Drug-Resistant Bacteria Found in U.S. Meat,” Reuters Medical News, 24 May 2001.
17) Dave DeWitte, “Report Urges USDA to Accelerate Study of Livestock Antibiotic Risks for Humans,” The Gazette 26 May 2004.
18) Dennis O’Brien, “Arsenic Used in Chicken Feed May Pose Threat,” The Baltimore Sun 4 May 2004.
19) O’Brien.
20) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “ToxFAQs for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)” 16 Sep. 2003.
21) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
22) Susan Schantz et al., “Impairments of Memory and Learning in Older Adults Exposed to Polychlorinated Biphenyls via Consumption of Great Lakes Fish,” Environmental Health Perspectives June 2001.
23) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish,” brochure, Mar. 2004.
24) Jonathan Leake, “Cows Hold Grudges, Say Scientists,” The Australian 28 Feb. 2005.
25) “New Slant on Chump Chops,” Cambridge Daily News 29 Mar. 2002.
26) “Scientists Highlight Fish ‘Intelligence,’” BBC News, 31 Aug. 2003.
27) Valerie Elliott, “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?” Times Online 18 Mar. 2005.
28) Marlow Vesterby and Kenneth S. Krupa, “Major Uses of Land in the United States, 1997″ Statistical Bulletin No. 973, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1997.
29) Bill McKibben, “Taking the Pulse of the Planet,” Audubon Nov. 1999.
30) Ed Ayres, “Will We Still Eat Meat?” Time 8 Nov. 1999.
31) U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, “Animal Waste Pollution in America: An Emerging National Problem,” Dec. 1997.
32) Jennifer M. Fitzenberger, “Dairies Gear Up for Fight Over Air,” Fresno Bee 2 Aug. 2005.