Food Co-ops - The Smart Buyer's Destination For Locally Grown [Organic] Produce

"But it's too expensive to eat healthy!" If I had a dime for every time I heard this excuse I'd be one of the youngest retirees on the face of the planet. Eating healthy has become synonymous with eating expensively, but it doesn't have to be. It is what you make of it.

You can spend a fortune shopping at the trendiest and fanciest health food store down the block filling your cart full of high end organic produce, or you could accomplish the same by seeking out less conventional routes for grocery shopping. This is where food co-ops come into play.

What Is A Food Co-op?

A food cooperative (or food co-op) is simply a food distribution outlet organized by a group of volunteers working together to meet their common economic and social needs. In other words, it is a member owned "grocery store". This doesn't mean there has to be an actual grocery store to shop at. Many food co-ops simply have pickup sites where once a week members will come pick up their "share" of the crop for that week.

Food co-ops almost always focus on buying from local farms if at all possible. Many will also concentrate on buying organic goods or at least have organic goods available for their members should they choose this option.

Overall, buying the bulk of your fresh produce from a food co-op can save you a lot of money. It's not unheard of to save 50% or more off of regular retail prices at the local supermarket for the same items. Plus, the fruits and vegetables are typically fresher since they've been picked a day or two prior (if not the same day) to you picking them up. You get fresh produce at a fantastic price that's even organic in many cases.

"All Natural" Not Always Better

by guest blogger Jody Perrecone

While at the grocery store the other day, I saw many products on the shelves labeled “all natural.”  I wondered how they could be labeled “all natural” since all of these products were processed foods and were in packaged in boxes, bags, and jars. 

Looking into this further, with the exception of meat and poultry, I found the FDA does not regulate these words on food packaging. Without any regulation, “all natural” labeling is like the Wild West.  I saw a bag of veggie crisps labeled “all natural.”  These are potato chip-like snacks. Eight ingredients were listed on the ingredient list including beet powder. Cruising the grocery aisles, I saw bottled salad dressing with 14ingredients listed including lecithin - a processed soy product that keeps the dressing from separating.  “All natural” was also on bottled green tea.  The label said it had “no preservatives, no artificial flavor, no artificial color.”  True, but it did list high fructose corn syrup and “natural flavors” on the ingredient label.   Fruit chews are snacks that are similar to juju beans. They too are “all natural” and “made with real fruit juice.”  One serving had the equivalent of nearly four teaspoons of sweeteners corn syrup and sugar in addition to carnauba wax. Made from leaves of the copernicia prunifera palm found only in Brazil, carnauba wax is also used in shoe polish and car wax but is food safe. The ingredient list of an “all natural” chicken flavored soup base didn’t contain any chicken, but did include maltodexrin and autolyzed yeast extract. A colorful breakfast cereal had “natural fruit flavors” advertised on the front of the box.  The ingredient list had sugar as the first ingredient and no fruit mentioned. One cup of this cereal contains 3 teaspoons of sugar.  Also listed were blue dye #2 and yellow dye #6 which studies have shown to cause tumors in animals.  What a way to start the day!

A Mother's Story Of Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Imagine being faced with one of the most difficult decisions of your entire life. A decision of whether or not to let another human being live or die. By choosing life, it may result in years of surgery for this person, the possibility of retardation, and even the chance of them being put into a vegetative state. By choosing death, it means letting go of a newly formed bond and love so strong that you don't know if you could possibly forgive yourself for making such a decision.

This is the exact decision that Cherise Scally and her husband, Michael, were faced with as they looked into the eyes of their precious baby girl weighing only 1 lb. 11 oz. Nicole had been born nearly three and a half months early and was currently on life support in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She was suffering from a severe infection called sepsis which is a life threatening infection in the blood. Sepsis is actually the seventh leading cause of death for infants in the United States [1]. In Nicole's case, it was likely due to Cherise's water breaking early and the resulting preterm delivery. Cherise had just been admitted to the hospital a few days earlier due to diabetic complications. Her blood sugars were fluctuating wildly between 165 and 485 and she nearly suffered a diabetic coma. She had no idea she was in such critical condition.

Gardening As A Natural Stress Reliever

by guest blogger Mark Carol

Work, family, bills, and other obligations and responsibilities can make stress a part of your daily life. Stress can help you get motivated, but too much stress can increase your risk for illnesses such as stroke, heart attack, and high blood pressure. Natural stress reducing activities, like gardening, can be an ideal solution to finding a peaceful balance in your life.

The Benefits

Gardening has been shown to have many health benefits. In fact, the activity is recommended by the JAMA, or the Journal of the American Medical Association, to lower the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by nearly fifty percent. According to Capital District Community Gardens, tending a garden alleviates stress by immersing you in nature. Gardening requires dedication, care and patience to be successful. When tending your flowers, fruits and vegetables, you are spending time on something that redirects for attention away from daily stress. Gardening also provides you with real results that you can share with family, friends and neighbors.

"Natural Foods" - Don't Be Fooled!!!

What comes to mind when you see the word “natural”? Ice cream, key lime pie, chips? Probably not. But that is what I saw on packaging when I made a trip to the grocery store last week.

“Natural” filled the shelves – tortilla chips, lemon-lime soda, crackers made with refined flour, pies, lemonade powder with a long list of ingredients including yellow dye #5, vegetable oil made with genetically modified soybeans, fruit juices with “natural” flavors added, potato chips – the list goes on.

For some reason, I think of “natural” foods as being bananas, broccoli, apples, lettuce, potatoes, carrots and the like – foods that are unaltered and recognizable for what they are.

Unlike many descriptions listed on food packaging, the term “natural” is not regulated by the FDA. Therefore, the term “natural” can be put on anything. A recent study concluded last year 28% of Americans bought more foods labeled “natural”. “Natural” sells. But don’t be fooled! Unless you recognize the food in its truly “natural” state, it has been reconstructed and has had unnatural chemicals and preservatives added.

For optimal health, eat “natural” foods in the form nature intended them to be.