GMO's and Monsanto, Evil? Yes, Yes They Are.

Genetically modified food can be patented – this is a problem because if a company creates genetically modified food and then takes it out of the lab and puts it into nature, there’s almost no way of getting back all of the genetically modified food because of vertical and horizontal gene transfer (horizontal gene trans. Trade related intellectual property rights make that genetically modified crop the property of the company who creates it. So if the genetically modified organism is found on someone’s property who did not buy it, then they can be sued. Trouble is, crops are living organisms and they reproduce. Seeds can fly off trucks or plants can migrate in other ways. There’s no way to prevent a genetically modified organism from coming on to your land one hundred percent of the time.

Genetically modified organisms reduce biological diversity and may also cause health problems we’re not aware of yet because the FDA has said they were identical to food and thus required no testing. If you remember from my previous entry, the man who oversaw the decision to not label genetically modified organisms also worked for Monsanto, the company who is producing all of the genetically modified crops. It is unlawful to not let consumers choose whether or not they want to purchase a genetically modified organism just because the FDA said they were not harmful. The FDA should not have even allowed genetically modified foods on the market because they are untested. It’s not like technology where we advance – nature gives us perfectly great food already. Genetically modifying an organism by selectively breeding it is something that nature produces by manipulation – genetically modifying a crop by taking genes from a trout and putting in a tomato is not something that would be made by nature. Nature is not something that should be toyed with, let alone have the results of toying with it in most of the foods Americans consume.

It will be years before we can determine whether or not genetically modified foods are harmful, but they will become more and more prolific as time goes on. Over 90% of soybeans in the U.S. are the genetically modified organism that Monsanto put out. We will lose more and more genetic diversity as more and more genetically modified organisms are released into the world, and we will never be able to get back the original organisms that couldn’t compete with their genetically modified counterparts. Let’s just hope it doesn’t lead to a disaster.

Agave Nectar, Syrupy Poison?

Agave nectar has recently been advocated as a great sugar alternative due to its low effect on raises in blood sugar. However, agave nectar is made up of roughly 70% fructose, which is harder for the body to utilize as energy. Instead of going right into the blood stream as energy, the liver has to process it and convert it into energy, but it is converted into triglycerides and then most likely stored as fat. Agave nectar has more fructose than high fructose corn syrup, which, if you know anything about nutrition, you know is essentially poison for your body. Also, while agave is touted as a natural sweetener, it is not. It is a heavily refined product that involves a lot of processing. Just because the label says "organic" and "raw", it does not mean it is healthy. Trader Joes sells organic American cheese, but American cheese is not actually cheese; it is a cheese-like product that is much more refined than actual cheese. Highly processed ingredients can be organic, but they will never be healthy for you. So for the few people out there in cyberspace that actually read my blog and care about eating healthy, don't eat agave nectar. Instead, use stevia as often as possible. Even evaporated cane juice, palm sugar, or brown rice syrup are not terrible for you. As always though, take it easy on the sweets.

Butter, Healthy?

I know I know, this is some kind of belated April Fools day joke of some sort. Surely I must be out of my mind! Even the government has said that butter is bad and has endorsed a low-fat diet, and butter is full of death-friendly fats right? There's no way that delicious, golden fatty food could be of any nutritional benefit to me, is there? Well I'm glad you asked, kind reader. As it turns out, butter is healthy and does play a role in improving a person's nutritional profile.

The fats in butter are stearic acid, lauric acid, and palmitic acid. Stearic acid is converted to oleic acid in the body, which you may recall as being the heart-healthy fatty acid found in olive oil that so many nutritionists and health experts have been recently praising. Lauric acid and palmitic acid do in fact raise your LDL (bad cholesterol), but interestingly they also raise your HDL (good cholesterol). Not only do they raise your HDL, they raise it to levels equal or greater than the levels they raise your LDL to. This of course means that you are increasing your blood cholesterol. Butter also contains CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which has possible anti-cancer properties and plays a role in weight management and fat loss.

Wait, wait, wait! Am I telling you that butter can actually help you LOSE weight? Short answer? Yes, yes I am. But that's not all! Butter does increase LDL, though not as much as it increases HDL, so your cholesterol is already better, but the LDL it increases is large and fluffly LDL, which makes it benign (it has no adverse affects on the body) and is not the small, dense LDL that is malignant (it has adverse affects on the body). This of course means that the HDL increase is even more dramatic. When the government and every health expert/nutritionist was telling everyone to eat margarine instead due to its low fat, they were basically telling the general population to ingest poison, as margarine contains trans-fats, which UNLIKE butter, do cause heart problems.

There are, however, some specific guidelines to follow when consuming butter. They are the following:
1. Do not eat a lot. Just because it is not bad for you does not mean it is not calorie dense; it is, so eating a lot will cause weight gain, just like it will for any other food.
2. Always buy grass-fed butter, and as a matter-of-fact, always buy grass-fed dairy, period. Grass-fed dairy will have more beta-carotene (antioxidants), more omega-3 fatty acids (decreases chance of disease), and more CLA.
3. That's it. Simply follow those two rules when eating butter and enjoy.

Now, I feel as though I must end this post with a reputable brand of grass-fed butter, along with a delicious meal to spread said butter on. When buying grass-fed, I exclusively purchase Kerry Gold unsalted butter, which is made in and imported from Ireland. Another brand I know of that is reputable, but that I have never had the opportunity to purchase is Natural By Nature. There may be more that I am unaware of or have simply not tried. If there are and you know of them, feel free to tell me about them in the comments. I also want to state outright that I do not receive any compensation for endorsing any brands of food and that I will only ever endorse brands that I trust, have done research on, and personally consume myself.

Finally, how to eat your butter. I buy Ezekiel sprouted grain bread (low sodium variety) to spread my butter on as it is the healthiest bread I have found. After spreading the butter on, I also put a very generous amount of cinnamon on top of the butter because, well for one cinnamon is just plain delicious and two, it helps prevent spikes in blood sugar, which causes weight gain and diabetes. I urge you to start eating butter if you have been avoiding it (like I really have to urge you to right?) and I urge you to only eat it under the two guidelines I have given. Also, try my simple, but delicious snack idea if you like cinnamon dusted buttery toast. Happy eating!

A Food Revolution

Food: it is essential to humans. It seems as though all of our time is spent on food; working to get money for it, buying it, preparing it, and eating it. Food is and always was so much more than just a source of calories and energy. It's able to comfort us and activate the pleasure centers in our brain. A long time ago, finding a fruit tree meant that a human could eat something they rarely came across - sugar. More often than not, our ancestors were eating meat, nuts, and vegetables, while only occasionally eating fruit, and even more rarely eating honey. Yet, in today's modern, industrialized world where sugars are widely available to us, humans have participated in the consumption of these pleasure center activators too more frequently than they should have and more frequently than our bodies were made for. Snack foods and junk foods are accepted in today's society as a socially acceptable thing to eat when someone is hungry.

I, however, disagree. Our bodies were not made for it; we evolved to be lean, not sluggish and full of sugars. Now, indulgence is not a bad thing every so often, because even our ancestors ate honey, which is essentially sugar syrup, but they ate it rarely and infrequently; they did not have beekeeper suits, so you can imagine why obtaining honey must not have been the most exciting idea. From now on, before you eat a sugar-filled snack, imagine that in order to obtain and then eat the snack, you have to endure being stung by very angry bees. If that doesn't stop you from eating junk food, then you are far beyond the help of a simple, humble blog. The mass production of junk food has led to numerous diseases in the world becoming prolific, and while we could all blame the food companies, we must also all realize that they are only supplying a demand. It is easier to blame others than to blame ourselves, but the fault of unhealthy food choices lies solely with us.

I say throw away the sugar-laden junk foods and eat something more substantially nutritious. I say we stop eating out of plastic bags or cardboard boxes and we eat a hot meal off of a plate. I say we stop indulging so much in large portions of food and we start eating less; we too often smother the fire instead of stoking it. As of late, there has been a surge of increasingly healthy foods being produced and it could not have happened any sooner. I smell a revolution in the air, and I only hope it occurs soon.