Frozen Vegetables

Dietary vegetables are critical to human health.

One problem is that store bought vegetables lose nutrients with time, and because of shipping and storage, they are often depleted of nutrients.

It has been documented that frozen vegetables have a high nutritional content because they are flash frozen when the vegetables are fresh.

Locally obtained vegetables are also more nutritious, such as those obtained from a CSA or farmer's market.

However, frozen vegetables are convenient because of their ease of preparation. They can be rapidly steamed or boiled, and avoiding frying vegetables in oil (even healthy oil) is better for health.

Healthy Food is LESS Expensive Than Junk Food (Note: I Was Right)

As you know, I have been saying for a long time, DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE that junk food is cheaper than healthy food. No one had ever done a definitive study of the subject, so that idea was all based on speculation and hype.

But now, there is a study. It's conclusion...

I was right.

SOURCE

Can Anything Be Sold As a "Dietary Supplement?"

The FDA is investigating whether "inhalable caffeine" is safe.

Stop reading this now and just think about that for 30 seconds.

What do you draw from that?

When I used to work in R&D at a vitamin company, they would market all kinds of products under the moniker dietary supplement.

But now we are no longer talking about benign products, but rather dangerous ones.

So it begs the question, are the laws surrounding dietary supplements too soft?

This example of inhalable caffeine would seem to support that notion.

Although nutritional supplements are not allowed to make any direct health claims, they also are not regulated for what they contain (think Chinese imports).

No regulation means a prime market for charlatans and criminals.

That means, for now, it is up to consumers to do their homework.

Read labels and don't buy any suspect nutritional supplements.

For more information, visit the VITAMIN FUN HOUSE, where you can ask questions and get well-researched answers about supplements.

THE VITAMIN FUN HOUSE.

Salads

Hi. It's Joe.

I'd like to be able to say I am eating more salads.

Actually, I think I can say it. I am eating my third salad in two days right now.

It's got spinach, mushrooms, green pepper, roma tomato, grass fed beef, chicken, and some Neuman's Own Italian dressing (one of the few dressings that has no added sugar, although it does have a lot of highly processed oil in it).

It's almost totally Paleo, except for the dressing. No cheese, even. I guess the chicken is not strictly Paleo, as I am sure it was raised in an industrial facility. But the 100% grass fed beef was raised on a farm in Montana. Bison would be better, but this will do.

 

Health Benefits of Beer

I think beer should be classified as a nutritional supplement.

I know some of my readers will read that and think I am being facetious.

But studies have shown that people who drink just a little bit of beer or wine are healthier than people who drink too much or even none at all.

The evidence on the health benefits of light to moderate alcohol consumption is quite a bit stronger than it is for most of the health claims on your average vitamin or herbal supplement. In fact, I am a little surprised the beer companies haven't been more active in promoting these benefits, especially the craft brewers. I guess it is still easier to sell beer with attractive members of the opposite sex than it is to tout the healthiness of beer. But that doesn't change the facts.

I think that since a couple of beers can be shown to have a statistically beneficial health benefit, then why shouldn't it be called a nutritional supplement? I mean, those are the same claims implied by most other nutritional supplement manufacturers.

Now, it is true that a lot of people don't just stop at two or three beers, and alcohol abuse is very unhealthy. But abuse of almost anything is unhealthy. You take 15 aspirin and you will be in the hospital. Even fish oil can have ill effects on the heart and prostate gland in higher than normal doses, and there is the risk of heavy metal toxicity with fish oil from shady sources.

You can overdose on a vitamin or nutritional supplement, if you take too much of it. Vitamin A can be great in normal doses, but causes all kinds of problems in excess. Beta-carotene as a purified isolated nutrient has been shown to actually INCREASE lung cancer risk in smokers. Yet, beta-carotene from the diet (carrots) is protective.

Conventional multivitamins contains pharmaceutically high doses of certain vitamins compared with the amounts found in a healthy diet. They are also purified isolates of nutrients that don't really occur in nature. They can be very harmful if consumed in excess.

Same for beer. But like most other nutritional supplements, a little bit can't hurt you and it might help you. That's all I am saying.

So have a couple of beers and call me in the morning!

Organic Food Companies - The Paleo Diet This Week

Hi. It's Joe.

This week, I violated the Paleo Diet plan a few times. Remember, my goal was to try to adhere to it as best as possible. I arbitrarily settled on 80% compliance as the baseline lowest I would go.

I ate some cheese this week. I also ate some sweets at work. I have a co-worker who makes the best baked goods I have ever tasted. This week was National Chocolate Cake Week (or so she claims), and she rose to the challenge. So did I, by eating some.

I also ate some birthday cake and chocolate ice cream at the end of my work day yesterday. Not a huge amount. I also had a couple of beers at a work celebration yesterday. It was on the company, so who am I to decline free beer?

But for most of the week, I think I was pretty compliant. I ate Paleo chili, homemade beef and veggie stir fry, some HuHot Mongolian Grill, eggs, and tofu. I did eat a veggie wrap at Barriques, and so the tortilla itself was not compliant, but the innards were.

As I was writing this, just minutes ago, Fed Ex delivered me a shipment of 100% grass fed Black Angus beef from Montana. There are now 12 1-pound bricks of frozen Paleo friendly beef in my freezer. It's stir fry beef, so I plan to incorporate them into meals the next couple of weeks. No, they were not cheap, but they were not as expensive as I thought either, and shipping was free, and I got some free grass fed Black Angus meatballs as part of the deal.

I used to be an affiliate of the grass fed beef company in Montana, but they dropped me for some reason. That's too bad, because I would totally endorse their product.

I also got some dry ice in the package they sent it in. Hours of fun. I wish it was Halloween, so I could make a bubbling cauldron of (no sugar added) fruit punch.

P.S. I fully admit to putting "Organic Food Companies" in the title of this post as an attractant for web traffic.

Echinacea Root. Not Flower.

Sick?

This is the time of year that I remind everyone about Echinacea (and my 8 years in R&D at a vitamin company, that gives me a modicum of credence to make such reminders).

Echinacea gets a bad rap sometimes as being ineffective at fighting colds.

But this is because vitamin companies are charlatans who use media hype to sell you inferior products. Remember, I worked at one for 8 years, before firing them for charlatanry.

The science is clear. It is the ROOT of Echinacea that is effective against colds and flu, not the flowers or leafy parts.

Most commercial Echinacea products contain the flowers and leafy parts, with little if any root. It is also really important to get Echinacea purpurea root, which has the highest concentration of effective biochemicals.

Such products are hard to find, but do your homework and find one, because the good stuff works against colds and flu.

Get well soon!