Cravings

Photo by 

Victoria Rachitzky

We've probably all gone through cravings as we've cleaned up our diets. A big one for me was the craving for sugary sweets, but eventually that went away. Same with carbonated sodas, caffeine, alcohol, and cigarettes. All addictions, with some harder to give up than others.

But, I think our bodies tell us when we are lacking in something, and that's different than the cravings we have for things that are addictive but not good for our bodies and basic health.

For about 3 weeks now I have craved grapefruit, and I finally realized it's my body's attempt to get back to a good pH balance. Most of our American diets are strong in acidic pH foods rather than a balanced pH. 

Although most folks think of citrus (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit) as acidic, in fact once in our systems they are alkaline. I'm speaking of fresh fruits here; concentrated fruit juices and processed fruits are NOT alkaline.

Over the course of 3 weeks of eating a whole grapefruit every day, the craving is almost gone and I feel a lot better!

Some things are Better Said by Others

Some people just say it much better than I can...

Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food
By JO ROBINSON

WE like the idea that food can be the answer to our ills, that if we eat nutritious foods we won’t need medicine or supplements. We have valued this notion for a long, long time. The Greek physician Hippocrates proclaimed nearly 2,500 years ago: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Today, medical experts concur. If we heap our plates with fresh fruits and vegetables, they tell us, we will come closer to optimum health.

This health directive needs to be revised. If we want to get maximum health benefits from fruits and vegetables, we must choose the right varieties. Studies published within the past 15 years show that much of our produce is relatively low in phytonutrients, which are the compounds with the potential to reduce the risk of four of our modern scourges: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia. The loss of these beneficial nutrients did not begin 50 or 100 years ago, as many assume. Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers.

These insights have been made possible by new technology that has allowed researchers to compare the phytonutrient content of wild plants with the produce in our supermarkets. The results are startling.

Wild dandelions, once a springtime treat for Native Americans, have seven times more phytonutrients than spinach, which we consider a “superfood.” A purple potato native to Peru has 28 times more cancer-fighting anthocyanins than common russet potatoes. One species of apple has a staggering 100 times more phytonutrients than the Golden Delicious displayed in our supermarkets. (I'm sorry she didn't name the apple variety in this article.)

Were the people who foraged for these wild foods healthier than we are today? They did not live nearly as long as we do, but growing evidence suggests that they were much less likely to die from degenerative diseases, even the minority who lived 70 years and more. The primary cause of death for most adults, according to anthropologists, was injury and infections.

Each fruit and vegetable in our stores has a unique history of nutrient loss, I’ve discovered, but there are two common themes. Throughout the ages, our farming ancestors have chosen the least bitter plants to grow in their gardens. It is now known that many of the most beneficial phytonutrients have a bitter, sour or astringent taste. Second, early farmers favored plants that were relatively low in fiber and high in sugar, starch and oil. These energy-dense plants were pleasurable to eat and provided the calories needed to fuel a strenuous lifestyle. The more palatable our fruits and vegetables became, however, the less advantageous they were for our health.

The sweet corn that we serve at summer dinners illustrates both of these trends. The wild ancestor of our present-day corn is a grassy plant called teosinte. It is hard to see the family resemblance. Teosinte is a bushy plant with short spikes of grain instead of ears, and each spike has only 5 to 12 kernels. The kernels are encased in shells so dense you’d need a hammer to crack them open. Once you extract the kernels, you wonder why you bothered. The dry tidbit of food is a lot of starch and little sugar. Teosinte has 10 times more protein than the corn we eat today, but it was not soft or sweet enough to tempt our ancestors.

Over several thousand years, teosinte underwent several spontaneous mutations. Nature’s rewriting of the genome freed the kernels of their cases and turned a spike of grain into a cob with kernels of many colors. Our ancestors decided that this transformed corn was tasty enough to plant in their gardens. By the 1400s, corn was central to the diet of people living throughout Mexico and the Americas.

When European colonists first arrived in North America, they came upon what they called “Indian corn.” John Winthrop Jr., governor of the colony of Connecticut in the mid-1600s, observed that American Indians grew “corne with great variety of colours,” citing “red, yellow, blew, olive colour, and greenish, and some very black and some of intermediate degrees.” A few centuries later, we would learn that black, red and blue corn is rich in anthocyanins. Anthocyanins have the potential to fight cancer, calm inflammation, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, protect the aging brain, and reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

European settlers were content with this colorful corn until the summer of 1779 when they found something more delectable — a yellow variety with sweeter and more tender kernels. This unusual variety came to light that year after George Washington ordered a scorched-earth campaign against Iroquois tribes. While the militia was destroying the food caches of the Iroquois and burning their crops, soldiers came across a field of extra-sweet yellow corn. According to one account, a lieutenant named Richard Bagnal took home some seeds to share with others. Our old-fashioned sweet corn is a direct descendant of these spoils of war.

Up until this time, nature had been the primary change agent in remaking corn. Farmers began to play a more active role in the 19th century. In 1836, Noyes Darling, a onetime mayor of New Haven, and a gentleman farmer, was the first to use scientific methods to breed a new variety of corn. His goal was to create a sweet, all-white variety that was “fit for boiling” by mid-July.

He succeeded, noting with pride that he had rid sweet corn of “the disadvantage of being yellow.”

The disadvantage of being yellow, we now know, had been an advantage to human health. Corn with deep yellow kernels, including the yellow corn available in our grocery stores, has nearly 60 times more beta-carotene than white corn, valuable because it turns to Vitamin A in the body, which helps vision and the immune system.

SUPERSWEET corn, which now outsells all other kinds of corn, was derived from spontaneous mutations that were selected for their high sugar content. In 1959, a geneticist named John Laughnan was studying a handful of mutant kernels and popped a few into his mouth. He was startled by their intense sweetness. Lab tests showed that they were up to 10 times sweeter than ordinary sweet corn.

Mr. Laughnan was not a plant breeder, but he realized at once that this mutant corn would revolutionize the sweet corn industry. He became an entrepreneur overnight and spent years developing commercial varieties of supersweet corn. His first hybrids began to be sold in 1961. This appears to be the first genetically modified food to enter the United States food supply, an event that has received scant attention.

Within one generation, the new extra sugary varieties eclipsed old-fashioned sweet corn in the marketplace. Build a sweeter fruit or vegetable — by any means — and we will come. Today, most of the fresh corn in our supermarkets is extra-sweet. The kernels are either white, pale yellow, or a combination of the two. The sweetest varieties approach 40 percent sugar, bringing new meaning to the words “candy corn.” Only a handful of farmers in the United States specialize in multicolored Indian corn, and it is generally sold for seasonal decorations, not food.

We’ve reduced the nutrients and increased the sugar and starch content of hundreds of other fruits and vegetables. How can we begin to recoup the losses?

Here are some suggestions to get you started. Select corn with deep yellow kernels. To recapture the lost anthocyanins and beta-carotene, cook with blue, red or purple cornmeal, which is available in some supermarkets and on the Internet. Make a stack of blue cornmeal pancakes for Sunday breakfast and top with maple syrup.

In the lettuce section, look for arugula. Arugula, also called salad rocket, is very similar to its wild ancestor. Some varieties were domesticated as recently as the 1970s, thousands of years after most fruits and vegetables had come under our sway. The greens are rich in cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates and higher in antioxidant activity than many green lettuces.

Scallions, or green onions, are jewels of nutrition hiding in plain sight. They resemble wild onions and are just as good for you. Remarkably, they have more than five times more phytonutrients than many common onions do. The green portions of scallions are more nutritious than the white bulbs, so use the entire plant. Herbs are wild plants incognito. We’ve long valued them for their intense flavors and aroma, which is why they’ve not been given a flavor makeover. Because we’ve left them well enough alone, their phytonutrient content has remained intact.

Experiment with using large quantities of mild-tasting fresh herbs. Add one cup of mixed chopped Italian parsley and basil to a pound of ground grass-fed beef or poultry to make “herb-burgers.” Herbs bring back missing phytonutrients and a touch of wild flavor as well.

The United States Department of Agriculture exerts far more effort developing disease-resistant fruits and vegetables than creating new varieties to enhance the disease resistance of consumers. In fact, I’ve interviewed U.S.D.A. plant breeders who have spent a decade or more developing a new variety of pear or carrot without once measuring its nutritional content.

We can’t increase the health benefits of our produce if we don’t know which nutrients it contains. Ultimately, we need more than an admonition to eat a greater quantity of fruits and vegetables: we need more fruits and vegetables that have the nutrients we require for optimum health.

Jo Robinson is the author of the forthcoming book “Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health.”

Worst Foods for O-6 to O-3 Ratios

Worst foods for high Omega-6 and low Omega-3. This does not mean that these foods are not healthy, but rather it means you need to eat a lot more high Omega-3 foods to help balance it out.


For my own diet, I eat almost none of the high O-6 foods, although carrots, sweet potatoes and some of the fruits are often included on my diet, especially fruits in the summer time. I succumb to grits (shrimp and grits) occasionally, and I love hummus (which is made with chick peas) although I eat a lot less of it anymore.

Vegetables
Beets, and Beet greens
Carrots, raw
Okra
Parsnips
Sweet potato

Fruit
Avocado
Olives
Peach
Pear, Asian
Tomato

Grain
Amaranth
Corn
Corn grits
Oats
Brown rice, brown rice flour
Rye
Sorghum
Spelt
Sprouted wheat
Sweet corn
Hard red winter wheat

Legumes
Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
Dry roasted peanuts
Peanut butter

Seeds
Cottonseed
Pumpkin
Safflower
Sesame
Sunflower

Nuts
Brazil nuts
Pine nuts

Meats/Seafood
factory grain-fed meats

Oils
Corn oil
Sunflower oil

Misc
Bread (whole grain is 3X higher in O-6 than white bread, go figure!)
Cheerios
Corn flakes
Ketchup
Marshmallows
Portabella mushrooms, raw
Oatmeal
Shredded wheat
Spaghetti (WW is worse than white)

Best High Omega-3 Foods

Lacinto Kale

There are many things necessary for our bodies to Heal, although the very best is a good diet from the get-go to be healthy and never need healing. As a part of a healthy diet,
a good ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids is necessary, as is the pH of the foods we feed our bodies. Here I'm just touching on a good ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids.

This is NOT a complete list, just the best foods I know about with a good ratio (4:1 or lower) of Omega-6 to Omega-3. Both fatty acids are necessary for our bodies, but the ratio needs to be low for good health. There are other considerations to examine for these foods, like the glycemic index/load (sugars), but I'm not covering that aspect in this post.

There are some foods that are really healthy for us in spite of a high O6-O3 ratio, like the avocado I just ate for lunch. I'll have to eat a ton of spinach or kale to balance it out, but that's okay because I love those greens as much as I love avocados. Cold-pressed virgin coconut oil is another that's very healthy yet has high O-6 and low O-3. 

I'll put up a list of some foods with the worst O6-O3 ratios in a couple of days, but here are some of the really good ones (ratios of 4:1 and lower):

Vegetables
Artichoke, Globe
Asparagus
Pak Choi
Broccoli Flower, Broccoli stalks, Rapini (Broccoli Raab)
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Collards
Kale
Leeks
Kohlrabi
Iceberg and Romaine Lettuce
Spinach and Savoy Spinach
Dill pickles
Radish
Rutabagas
Acorn, Butternut, Hubbard and Spaghetti squash
Zucchini
Turnips, turnip greens
Watercress

Fruits
Apricots
Bananas
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Cranberries
Sweet Cherries
Dried Figs
Honeydew
Lemon, Lime
Canned Peaches in Light Syrup (drained)
Pineappple
Plum
Pomegranate
Raspberries
Strawberries
Watermelon

Grains
None

Beans
Navy, Pinto, Black, Green (fresh), and Kidney Beans

Seeds
Breadfruit, Chia, Flax

Flours
Acorn, Almond (roasted), Coconut (from raw coconuts),

Meats, Seafood
Almost ALL except grain-fed beef
(grain-fed beef, conventional pork, and conventional chicken or turkey are the worst)

Oils
Most EXCEPT Avocado, Corn oil, Sunflower and Walnut oils

Misc
Cider Vinegar
Blue cheese, cheddar cheese
Coffee
Eggs except conventional eggs
Honey, maple syrup, molasses
Milk
Mushrooms
Yogurt

Expect Upcoming Posts on Good Nutrition

I've been taking a harder overall look at nutrition since I was in the hospital (again) last week, even though I know my nutritional intake is probably better than 90% of Americans. The first things I will be looking at more closely are my Omega 6/3 fat ratios, and body pH.

Two days ago I got the results of the ultrasound done last week, where they were looking for a build-up of abdominal fluids (which turned out to be non-existent). However, the report shows they also found a lesion on my left kidney, and a growth (hopefully just a cyst) on my pancreas. I'll have an MRI scheduled soon to get better definitions of each, but both are worrisome.

So I've been (and will be) taking a deeper look at the nitty-gritty of the vitamins, minerals and healthy fats we can get from Real Food, and how they impact our health. Most of what I've read so far has to do with how cancer cells grow in our bodies, and while my kidney and pancreas anomalies hopefully aren't cancerous, my doctors have told me for several years that any liver disease puts someone more at risk for cancers of the liver and pancreas.

I am a firm believer that most disease wouldn't occur at all with a nutritionally balanced diet of real foods, containing all the vitamins and minerals we need to function. Our food system is woefully inadequate at providing them.

Deer in the Headlights

We all know that vitamins we get from natural food sources are more easily assimilated in our bodies than synthetic vitamins. So are essential fatty acids.

I posted a blip about the importance of a proper ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3  fatty acids a few days ago. Those fats are considered essential because our bodies cannot make them, and they really ARE essential to us. 

Here's a copy from a post by Ted Slanker with specifics about humans and cattle eating green leafy plants and/or grains.... and what each choice does to the O-6:O-3 ratio. He explains it so much better than I could...

"Scientists have determined that the “essential fats” in the membranes of cells have a very powerful influence on each cell’s ability to function. These essential fats consist of the Omega-6 family of fatty acids and the Omega-3 family of fatty acids. Via laboratory experiments on rats and in some cases humans, scientists have determined that the appropriate balance between these fats is one to one.  That means the O-6 and O-3 fatty acids must be in nearly perfect balance for proper cell function. When the balance between O-6 to O-3 exceeds 4:1 cells malfunction and chronic disease is the result. All chronic diseases are body failings. They include, but are not limited to, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, lupus, attention deficit syndrome, autism, and most other mental disorders, Crohn’s disease, obesity, osteoporosis, and the list goes on and on.

A chemical analysis of the fatty acid profiles of the cells of cattle tells the story that is common for all animal life. Cattle, which are raised on pastures and only in major emergencies are fed hay, have a 1:1 fatty acid ratio. Feedlot steers that have been fed grain have a ratio of 15:1 or higher. Skinless chicken breasts from chickens fed all “vegetarian diets” (grain) have a 18:1 ratio. 

Here are some additional ratios:  
wheat 11:1
rice bran 32:1
corn germ 59:1
raw kale 0.5:1
raw spinach 0.1:1

Many of the vitamins required by animals and humans come directly from the leafy, green plants or the meats from animals that ate the leafy, green plants.  Without this tie animals can experience severe vitamin deficiencies. For instance, after 180 days in a feedlot eating grain a steer can lose as much as 80% of the vitamin A that would normally be in its liver and 75% of the vitamin E that would be in its muscle tissues!

But what about grain?  Why is it bad?  Grain is the seed head of grasses.  Grain is one of the ways the grass-plant kingdom perpetuates itself.  Consequently, the plant kingdom does everything it can to protect its survival as a species.  Grains can host defensive fungi (endophyte) and mycotoxins.  Mycotoxins are nearly all cytotoxic, disrupting various cellular structures such as membranes and interfering with vital cellular processes such as protein, RNA, and DNA synthesis. 

Of course, they are also toxic to the cells of higher plants and animals, including humans. In addition, the chemical composition of seed heads differs significantly from the leafy, green plants themselves. Green plants can be clipped over and over again and they grow back. A green leaf falls to the ground and it becomes a food source for microorganisms that break down the leaf into organic matter that ultimately feeds the next generation of green plants.  The green plant creates its own perfect cycle.

A seed head has a strong protective coat that protects the “internal workings.”  When a seed falls to the ground it can remain in the soil for decades (under appropriate conditions) and still sprout when favorable conditions occur. For grain to perform its natural function it has to have a totally different fatty acid profile than the grass it will be once it sprouts. Seeds cannot re-grow. They are the grass plant’s one-time shot.

Man invented grain farming by isolating certain grasses and protecting them from grazing pressure until their seeds had ripened.  Then he harvested the seeds in a narrow window of time and was able to store the seeds for future use. This turned a minor food source into something that was more abundant. 

Unfortunately, even though grain farming increased the quantity of “food” available for the masses, it dramatically lowered the health of the people who ate the new food source.

Today, in America’s grain-based food system in which nearly all livestock products come from grain-fed livestock and nearly all food products have grain additives or are made from grain because it is cheap, the food system is more grain-based than during any other civilization in the history of the world except that of India. This is why 70% of all deaths in our nation are due to chronic diseases. Most other deaths are from accidents, infectious diseases, murders, and wars. Very few people die of natural causes in our country.

Here's why. Take a steer off pasture and put him in a feedlot. As he comes off pasture his O6 to O3 fatty acid ratio is close to 1:1. After about 180 days in the feedlot his fatty acid ratio will have increased to the 15:1 to 18:1 range. As his fatty acid ratio changes his vitamin levels plunge. Vitamin A in the steer's liver can drop as much as 80%. Vitamin E in his muscle tissue can fall 75%.

This is the same thing that happens to people who eat grains, grain-based foods, and food products from grain-fed livestock. Alarmingly, scientists in the know estimate that due to "modern" foods the average American consumes a fatty acid ratio of from 20:1 to 30:1. 

It's no wonder then that children in America (grain-fed from conception) have ADD, diabetes, are obese, and suffer from many other chronic diseases unheard of 60 years ago.  Their parents are in deeper trouble, yet they are none the wiser. 

The entire population resembles deer in the headlights.  It focuses on materialistic consumption while its health and well-being wallows in the sewer."

Hospital Food

Well, once again I ended up being taken by ambulance 2 hours southeast to Wake Forest Hospital, where I spent most of the last week. That makes 10 days of bring incarcerated since the end of January... and I say "incarcerated" simply because hospital food tastes like prison food (not that I've ever tasted prison food, but that I believe all institutional food is alike: ghastly).

They had me NPO for 36 hours while they did some testing, then on a clear liquid diet. The next day they allowed soft foods, including yogurt. I was surprised to read on the Yoplait Light Strawberry Yogurt label they served that it contained aspartame... Wouldn't you think a hospital dietitian would know better??

I don't even want to talk about the other foods they served, even though they had a menu where I could make my own choices. The choices were almost all pitiful, both in taste and nutrition. The closest thing to healthy was some cooked spinach, but I question the sauce ingredients (not stated) even though it was tasty.

One thing my doctors discovered is that my blood ammonia level was very high, but they found no reason for it after 3 days of tests. (I really didn't know we all have ammonia in our bloodstream.) The other blood work showed that I'm still way below normal in red and white blood cells, platelets, etc., and in fact I have lost some ground since the last labs on March 12 when they had shown slight improvement following my GI bleed in February.

The food advice my doctor gave me was to cut down on proteins. When I told him that all of my animal proteins are from grass-fed animals (or wild fish), his eyes glazed over... it meant absolutely nothing to him. To be fair, undigested proteins can increase ammonia levels, but the target should be how to improve digestion, not to eliminate the foods. The protein portion of my diet is within normal limits.

However, I DO think I'm slowly getting some sense of what's really going on with my health, and I think it all goes back to years of workplace chemical exposure that has damaged my liver. Kinda like the chemical exposure that is killing our honey bees... same syndrome, different chemicals.

I believe it is going to be up to me to take the data my allopathic doctors find in tests and integrate it with what I know, or can research, on solving the problem. I believe good nutrition is essential to both heal disease, and to prevent it, but most doctors do not hold the same beliefs. To me, there is a BIG difference in treating the symptoms, and finding and treating the cause.

For example, the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 in our food intake needs to be 1:1 for optimum health, yet our diets generally fall short, to the tune of 20:1 and even as high as 40:1 on a fast food diet. I thought mine was pretty good, in the range of 4:1 (acceptable but not great), but reviewing my food intake since January 1, I find I have strayed. Just that fact all by itself, could have an impact on how my impaired liver is able to function, and how it affects my health.

Blood Tests incl. Vitamin D

Well, the medical news from my 2 day visit to Wake Forest Hospital for doctor's appointments and lab tests is not bad, but it's not so great either. The doctors continue to ponder WHY my body is not processing and utilizing all the good, well-balanced nutrients I eat.

Now six weeks after my recent GI bleed, my levels of red blood cells, platelets, hematocrit and hemoglobin are all still below normal (although improving, albeit slowly), and also low are potassium, magnesium and calcium. No wonder I'm tired all the time, and have zero energy!

Surprising to me, my Vitamin D level is also "insufficient". The new recommended daily allowance (RDA), as set in 2010 and based on age, is as follows: for those 1-70 years of age, 600 IU daily; for those 71 years and older, 800 IU daily; and for pregnant and lactating women, 600 IU daily.

I take 1000 IU softgels 3 times daily (breakfast, lunch and supper) but my insufficiency level supports the research I've read over the last 3-4 years that says we may need a minimum of  5,000-10,000 IU's daily. Vitamin D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins, along with Vitamin A, E and K. Those vitamins are stored the liver and adipose (fat) tissue when not needed, but if we don't have an intake of enough saturated fat in our foods, they are lost.

I get enough saturated fat in eggs, cheese, whole milk and grass-fed meats that I'm sure I get enough for the fat-soluble vitamins. I'm not so sure that folks who buy all the "fat-free" products actually get enough (if any) of the right kind of fats to utilize vitamins A, D, E, and K.

What do YOU eat?

Liver Disease and Nutrition

Six and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with Liver Disease, and referred to the University of Virginia to see some liver specialists. The first thing they did was to refer me to the Transplant Program, where I underwent a battery of tests over several months to determine if the rest of my body was healthy enough to withstand the rigors of a liver transplant.

At the time, I was also having the same intermittent low thyroid symptoms I'd had for most of my life. I show all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, yet the thyroid tests always come back in the normal range. This time, the endocrinologist talked to me about foods that adversely affect the thyroid, most notably cruciferous vegetables and soy products. They are goitrogens, meaning they suppresses thyroid function and the uptake of iodine needed by the thyroid.

Cruciferous vegetables lose a lot of the goitrogens when cooked, but soy does not. I thought I had pretty much eliminated soy from my diet years ago... that is, until I discovered soy masquerades under 40 or more names as food additives. The first thing to eliminate from my diet was any food that came in a package with a long list of chemical ingredients on the label, many of which are soy-based (and from GMO soy).

The next thing to eliminate was sugars, high fructose corn syrup in particular. Fructose damages the liver and causes mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in the same way as any other toxin.

Sucrose (table sugar) is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is anywhere from 42 to 55 percent fructose depending on which type is used. Glucose is the form of energy our bodies are designed to run on. Every cell in our body uses glucose for energy, and it's metabolized in every organ of our body; only about 20 percent of glucose is actually metabolized in our liver. Fructose, on the other hand, can only be metabolized by the liver, because the liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it. 

Since all fructose gets shuttled to the liver, when we eat a typical Western-style diet, we consume high amounts of it, so fructose ends up taxing and damaging the liver in the same way other toxins (including alcohol) do. In fact, fructose is virtually identical to alcohol with regards to the metabolic havoc it wreaks. 

According to Dr. Lustig (an endocrinologist at the Univ. of California), fructose is a "chronic, dose-dependent liver toxin." And just like alcohol, fructose is metabolized directly into fat—not cellular energy, like glucose. So when eating fructose, it just gets stored in our fat cells, which leads to mitochondrial malfunction. 

The liver is the major site for converting excess carbohydrates and proteins into fatty acids and triglycerides, which are then exported and stored in adipose (fat) tissue.  I was advised to cut my carb intake to 50 grams a day until my system got clean, and then keep the intake to under 100 grams a day. 

The last thing to eliminate was any meat and eggs from animals that may have been fed the same soy and grain I was to avoid, as well as avoiding all fresh produce grown in a chemical cloud. That meant local free-range eggs, grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork, free-range chickens, and the Farmer's Market for veggies I don't grow.

Well, let me tell you, for 2-3 weeks I thought I would starve to death! Giving up the obvious addictive sugars was hard enough, but giving up bread and pasta was even worse. That's when I really started to delve into Real Foods, and things started to turn around.

Within a month, my energy levels and mental outlook began to increase, and my liver enzymes improved enough in 3-4 months that my liver docs took me off all meds.

I also began to lose a little weight. I learned to always carry a wholesome snack when I was away from home, usually a hard-boiled farm egg, or a piece of raw milk cheese (for the enzymes not found in pasteurized cheese). (Do not believe raw milk cheese might harbor pathogens. By Law, they must be aged at least 60 days before they can be sold, and if there were pathogens, the cheese would be rotten before the 60 days were up.)

Unfortunately, I have fallen partially off the "good diet" wagon over the last 12 months, mostly due to the increased cost of food and utilities versus my income (just a monthly social security check) and partly due to laziness. Eating right requires planning ahead and making time to prepare nutritious foods. In the last 3 weeks, I've had 3 sodas because I was experiencing low blood sugar while away from the house. That's 3 more than I've had in 5-6 years.

It's time to climb fully back up on that healthy food wagon no matter what else I have to give up. (Or continue a downward spiral in my health.)

There are many, many good things I can make from cheap cuts of meat and bones. Slow cooking a crockpot full of bones produces an incredibly nutritious broth/stock that's like jello when cooled.  Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals.  Bone broth also supports joints, hair, skin and nails due to its high collagen content. In fact, some even suggest that it helps eliminate cellulite as it supports smooth connective tissue.

Cooked long and slow, bone broth also contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons, stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

The "odd bits" like heart, liver, kidneys, sweetbreads, etc. contain so much more nutrition than the muscle meats, and they are much cheaper to purchase. I just received a Christmas gift of the book Terrine, plus I found a used copy of Terrines, Påtes and Galantines on ebay for under $4 earlier this year. (If you are not familiar with terrines, think meatloaf... and a galantine is just a meaty loaf encased in a pastry shell.)

What else did I eat when I felt so great?? Bacon, eggs, sausage, homemade yogurt, salads dressed with fresh lemon juice and a drizzle of EVOO, cheese, real butter, real cream in my coffee (not UP), fresh veggies, olive oil and coconut oil, sardines, not much fruit because of the sugar content, no legumes, no grains, and grass-fed meats daily. My one daily treat was a half-inch square of an 85% cacao bar at bedtime, and it was enough.

Eating those foods also brought the ratio of my Omega-6 to Omega-3 back into a better balance (about 4:1) than the SAD (Standard American Diet) which is as much as 40:1. 

All the meat and dairy provided the essential amino acids necessary to build proteins (essential because our bodies cannot produce them internally). The failure to obtain enough of even 1 of the 10 essential amino acids has serious health implications and can result in degradation of the body's proteins. Muscle and other protein structures may be dismantled to obtain the one amino acid that is needed. "Unlike fat and starch, the human body does not store excess amino acids for later use; the amino acids must be in the food every day.

I bought some wonton wrappers yesterday and intend to make and freeze some wontons (they contain just 4 grams of carbs per wrapper). A lunch of a wonton or two added to some home canned stock is quick, easy, and nutritious. 

It's a start. Salads will be scarce over the winter because I'm leery of bagged greens, even organic ones. Thankfully I froze lots of green veggies from my summer garden.

Einkorn, an Ancient Grain

I've been reading a lot about industrialized wheat, and its impact on human health from the book, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health, by William Davis, MD, a renowned cardiologist. What got my attention was connecting his theories and remembering two years ago when I gave up ALL grains from my diet... I lost 30 pounds and felt great.

When I was a youngster, both of my grandparent's families raised wheat in Kansas. I can remember visiting, and walking in the fields. The wheat was just over 3 feet tall, and lots was lost when the combines harvested the crops because many of the tall stalks had fallen over before harvesting.

So I did a little more reading on wheat. BigAg started to "improve" wheat around the early- 1960's, and crossbreeding resulted in much shorter (dwarf) wheat stalks with fuller heads of grain. The new wheat grew faster too. As a result, the per-acre wheat yield of modern wheat far exceeds the yield of old wheat varieties.  

"That wheat has been hybridized is not, in itself, a reason to think that wheat is bad. The bad part comes by way of a little-known situation that resulted when wheat was hybridized. Unlike with most other plants, when wheat is hybridized it is genetically altered by the addition of chromosomes. New genes that were never present in either parent were created. As a result, modern wheat varieties are profoundly different from the wheat that mankind ate for centuries prior to our industrial age. For example, the wheat mentioned in the Bible is most likely Emmer wheat, which has 28 chromosomes, while modern wheat varieties have 42 chromosomes." Source

By the way... "modern (hybridized) wheat" is NOT THE SAME AS GMO wheat!

According to Dr. Davis, modern wheat with its new genetic code, and the newly-created constituents that came with cross breeding, is largely responsible for widespread obesity (wheat bellies), but it is also doing damage to people’s bodies in other serious ways. Dr. Davis provides convincing evidence to suggest that, in addition to heart disease, modern wheat is a player in such diseases as diabetes, bowel cancer, asthma, schizophrenia, autism, hypothyroidism, and dementia, not to mention Crohn’s disease.

The earliest known ancient wheat, Einkorn, has just 14 chromosomes and is being grown organically in Tuscany (Italy) and sold in many product forms by Jovial. It's also now being grown in a small pocket in the Western US and Canada. According to Dr. Davis, Einkorn naturally crossed with wild goat grass to make Emmer wheat (with 28 chromosomes). Both of these grains are available today, although not likely in your supermarket. In fact, the 2-3 health food stores within a hundred miles of me don't carry them either, so I had to order mine online.

I bought a package of Jovial™ Einkorn pasta to try, and I have some Einkorn flour coming soon. Baking bread may be a challenge simply because using the grains is a bit different, but there's a good tutorial here.

I cooked the Einkorn pasta for spaghetti last night, and I found it really did have a slightly nutty taste. Other than that, it was just pasta. One other thing I did notice... cleaning the pot. All the pasta I have ever cooked has always left a thin starchy film on the pot, but the Einkorn did not.

Wheat is in almost everything we eat, and giving it up totally is really, really hard... no cookies, breads, cakes, hamburger buns, crackers, biscotti, muffins, pizza, sandwiches, breakfast cereals, pasta, thickened gravies and sauces... the list is almost endless.

It will likely be several months before I will really know if I can have some wheat in my diet (in the form of Einkorn or Emmer) and still have the benefits of weight loss and increased energy from my no-wheat diet of 2 years ago.

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Growing Yuppie Chow

 Photo By ilovebutter

Photo by Phillie Casablanca

Yep, I guess I'm guilty of growing "Yuppie Chow".

Yuppie Chow is that stuff Foodies buy from upscale natural foods stores and farmer's markets, such as heirloom slicing tomatoes, garlic scapes, mesclun salad mixes, baby carrots and tiny squash, haricot verts, bok choy and such -- you know, expensive things, but not the bulk of one's calories. Yuppie Chow.

I'm currently rethinking what I can grow because if there's a food crisis, I don't grow enough to feed myself adequately without outside additions. In an extended crisis there will be NO food on the grocery shelves, and perhaps no gas to get there anyway. I'm open to growing food suggestions if you have any! 

Of course, Yuppie Chow is not all I grow. The heirloom tomatoes, various herbs, asparagus, and bulbing fennel are considered Yuppie Chow, but I also grow enough garlic, shallots, leeks, onions, and long-keeping winter squash to last through winter. The winter squash, of course, provide lots of calories. The other things simply add more flavor than calories. I hate insipid-tasting food.

I don't raise any meat animals or have chickens for eggs, so I'd be low on protein. My few small nut trees wouldn't produce 2 ounces of oils even if I could press them, so I'd be short on the essential fatty acids that come from meats and oils. Tubers don't do well for me here (other than Jerusalem artichokes), too many tunneling rodents that get to them first.

I'm looking to grow things that can flesh out my pantry in an extended crisis, both perennials, and annuals where I can save seeds for the next year. Currently, I only plant a few things where I save seed, like tomatoes and beans. I need to learn how to save seed from things like summer squash and cole crops because in an extended crisis, there may be no available seeds.

My fruit trees are small and won't bear for a few more years so I only have some perishable berries for fruits right now.

I'm thinking to try growing oyster mushrooms because they contain around 15% protein, as well as adding complex flavors to cooked foods, but I guess that might be considered more Yuppie Chow...

Dem bones, dem bones, dem soup bones...

I've been thinking a lot about bones lately... not bones as detritus, but the magical gifts they hold with their exceptional nutritional value, decorative use, and historical use as tools.

Bone House Fence and Gate Bone Details

There's even a Bone House (thanks to the tip from Gaias Daughter) using bones as architectural details! Regardless of their decorative appeal and usage as tools, bones also hold significant nutritional value.


Too many people throw away the bones from whatever meat they ate, whether the chicken carcass, their steak bone, or the pork chop bone. Yet those bones actually hold more nutrition than the meat eaten off those bones!

 

Nutrient-dense stock is chock full of minerals that every body needs, not the least of which is calcium, but also magnesium, phosphorus, and trace minerals. Our bodies easily absorb the minerals and amino acids from good stock or broth used in soups, stews and sauces. They also help us to efficiently utilize protein. Nutrient-dense stock has been indicated in helping to heal rheumatoid arthritis, gastritis, colitis, Crohn's disease, allergies, and other digestive and bone disorders. 

The silky-smooth, wobbly gelatinous stock from bones has been an essential ingredient in savory foods, preferred by cooks all over the world for centuries. (You don't really want to know how they hydrolyse the bones to make the commercial broths sold in grocery stores.)

It takes very little except time to release those goodies from the bones: cover with water, add a tablespoon or two of fresh lemon juice or vinegar; cover and let sit for an hour for the acids in the vinegar to start work on the bones, then simmer long and slow. The vinegar or lemon juice taste will cook off, and leave the bone minerals behind in the broth. I use about 6-8 quarts of water to 2 or more pounds of bones, simmered down to about half the volume when finished. Bones from younger animals give up their goodies quicker... like a fryer chicken vs an old stewing hen, although the old hen will have more collagen and flavor. 

The other great thing bones give us is the gelatin that cooks out of the joints and connective tissue (collagen) with long, slow cooking. This gelatin contains chondriton and glucosamine, which help lubricate our joints, and build strong bones. Keep in mind, though, that overcooking (like more than 12 hours) will break down all that lovely gelatin. I enhance the gelatin content when I am cooking bones by adding chicken feet if I have them, or pig trotters, and often make Fergus Henderson's Trotter Gear just to have some little jars in the freezer to give body and a nutritional boost to a sauce, soup or stew. 

Marrow Bones, photo by Allerina & Glen MacLarty

Roasted Marrow Bones, photo by rvacapinta

I participate in a chatty thread (on a gardening site) that discuss foods and recipes, and recently we talked about the dearth of marrow bones in this country. Some thoughts included ➀ many younger Americans don't know what to do with marrow bones, ➁ there's a big ag market for bone meal, and ➂ we now buy more boneless rather than bone-in cuts than previous generations. We all agreed it is hard to find marrow bones in most markets.

I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of scooping marrow out of a roasted bone; it isn't part of my culture like it is across the pond. Who knew there are marrow spoons??


As far as where the bones from the slaughter houses go, I can attest to both #1 and #2 above. I know the tri-county meat packing house near here sells the bones, as well as the offal, hides, horns, hoofs and other scraps. I'm sure the soft tissue waste goes into pet foods, and I'm inclined to think the other stuff is sold to make commercial gelatin and bone meal. I don't even like to think about it!


On the healthy side, whatever kind of bones you have, you are missing a very nutritious addition to your diet if you don't cook them down for yummy homemade stock!

Giving up Sodas

Photo by fimoculous 

The New York Times posted a couple of articles recently about doctors and under-the-table payments. One article is Who Else is Paying Your Doctor? and the other is Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors. I think that's a good start (at least for reporting), maybe actually enabling us to know who pays our doctors, assuming we can ever find the reports... but I think there's much more to health care than "the doctor".

It seems to me that prevention is the least expensive way to be healthy, and going to doctors for treatments once you become ill is the most expensive. Plus, when something goes wrong (as it eventually will with a poor diet) the doctors may not "cure" you. They may merely prescribe drugs, treatments, or maybe operations that permit you to live with your afflictions. 

It has been five years since I had surgery to remove my gallbladder, but in retrospect I think it could have been prevented if I had known as much about eating right, and real food, as I do now. If so, I wouldn't have had the surgical expense and aftercare, the trauma to my body being cut open, and I sure wouldn't have the resulting adhesions that now double me over occasionally.

Drugs and/or operations are for the most part just crutches after the injury. Eating right is far cheaper in the long run, and the resulting quality of life is far greater... and that's the advantage of prevention over treatment.

The problem is that we are complacent, even with less than optimal health, and no one wants to give up their sodas, diet sodas, artificially sweetened fake coffee creamers, donuts, chips, McD's and other junk food. We even fool ourselves into believing that sweetened fruity, non-fat yogurt is actually healthy! No one wants to increase their food budget with organic salad greens, fruits, vegetables and free-range eggs/meats in place of sodas, chips, donuts, burgers, fries and pizza, even though they would probably come out cheaper without the junk in the grocery line, not even even considering the additional cost of medical care later on.

Real Currants or Zante Currants?

Black Currant Photo by mwri

The first fruit bushes I ordered when I moved here 5 years ago included 3 black currant bushes and 2 gooseberries. Soon thereafter, I also planted several red currant seedlings, and a couple of "buffalo" currents from a friend. Slowly but surely they have all withered away. (Not sure what that's about, but that's not the focus of this post either.)

The compelling reason for growing black currants is my love of currant scones, and the very healthy benefits of currants. Black currants have some amazing properties... high in antioxidants (almost 2X most fruits), potassium (one cup has more than a small banana) and Vitamin C (one cup has more C than 3 oranges), plus iron, calcium, magnesium, and manganese.

Finding I had less than a cup of black currants from this year's pitiful harvest (I finally trashed the bushes) saved in my freezer, I picked up a box marked "Zante Currants" in the local grocery store so I could make some Christmas scones. 

Well, Pooh!! It turns out that Zante Currants are NOT currants at all, merely a very tiny dried small grape (a seedless variety of Vitis vinifera named Black Corinth), containing very few of the healthy properties of real currants, which are a Ribe. Now I wonder about the "dried currants" I buy in the health food stores since misnaming is so common.

There is a semi-legitimate reason for all the confusion in the name. A hundred years ago (1911), the US government outlawed growing currants (and gooseberries which are in the same family). It was believed that the White Pine Blister Rust threatening the pine lumber industry needed to have currants or gooseberries to complete it's cycle, and that the disease would wipe out the white pine lumber industry if those fruits were not banned. The ban was actually lifted in 1966 but few were ever aware it was lifted. (Regardless, the belief that currants are the cause persists even today.)

So, for a hundred years, almost no one in the US grew currants, and now we in the US really don't know much about currants at all. Very few are grown today, although there are improved varieties that have eliminated any possible connection to the pine disease. Happily, NY state is now seeing a few currant farms spring up. Well over a century ago currants were a huge cash crop in NY, and may be again!

The confusion about Zante Currants started about 90 years ago when a small Greek island named "Zante" exported a tiny dried grape called Black Corinth to the US. It was 1/4 the size of a normal dried grape (aka raisin) and accidentally named a "currant" due both to similar size and to language barriers at the import docks that changed the word "Corinth" into "currant".

Almost any American recipe originating in the last hundred years calling for "currants" surely intended "Zante Currants" and not real currants, since that's all that were generally available. I encourage you to try the real thing! (Besides, earlier this year a report out of Tuft’s University announced that “Black Currants may thwart Alzheimer’s.”) Source

There is a noticeable difference in the plants. Currants grow on a bush and are tart, and grapes (of all sizes, including the tiny Zante/Black Corinth) grow on a vine and are sweet. I am satisfied that what I bought and planted are true currants because they were bushes, but I'm not so sure that what I buy in bulk are real currants. Clearly, though, the box of Sun-Maid Zante Currants doesn't say anywhere that they are raisins. I guess it's implied when they say in the very tiny print that "raisins are mechanically processed and may have some stems".

(BTW, Crème de Cassis, the favored drink of the fictional detective Hercule Poirot created by Agatha Christie is made from black currants, as is the popular wine cocktail Kir.)

Walk the Talk

As much as I continually suggest we should all eat nutritious, real food... I fell off the wagon a year ago. Actually I didn't fall... it was a very long, slow descent, adding a few empty calories here and there... until the additives (which are designed to addict) took over after a few months. I even lost the habit of taking my few daily vitamins. As a consequence, my energy levels are down and my weight is up. So it's time to get back with the program.

I don't have the disorder known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but I can sure tell the difference in how I feel on bright, sunny days, even in winter. My self-diagnosis is a shortage of Vitamin D3 (the sunshine vitamin) and I started taking it again this very morning. I take about half a teaspoonful of fermented cod-liver oil in a gel that's mixed with a high-vitamin A butter oil made by Green Pastures. Mid-day and evenings I take a less expensive D3 gel cap.

A good breakfast had fallen by the wayside too, giving way to something high-carb and/or high sugar with my 2nd cup of coffee. I picked up 2 dozen farm eggs (from chickens fed NON-GMO feed) and some decent organic bacon this weekend, but not enough for the whole month because I didn't intend to start this until January, after the holidays. (It may still be just half-measures over the holidays.)

I'll need to make another trip to the nearest natural foods store (80-90 miles one way) later in the month to re-stock, plus buy some fresh yogurt to inoculate/make my own. I should order some kefir grains too. Mine were stored in milk in the fridge but unmarked, and I accidentally discarded them. Probiotics are an important part of a good food regime for me.

I don't expect the first several weeks will be easy, and I know that every time I nosh on something not good for me, it will just lengthen the time of adjustment back to well-being. No doubt I'll be cranky as a bear much of the time, but the Vitamin D3 should help.

I can't promise this change won't affect my every-other-day postings for the next few weeks. I will do my best, but they may contain some rants against the food companies where their designed use of addiction additives helped my fall from the wagon.

We Humans are 4% Minerals

Yep, that's right... this post is about the 4% of our bodies that are minerals, but a very important 4%!  It came about because someone asked me why I'm adding minerals (like Greensand and Azomite) to my new sheet-composted garden area.

96% of our human body is composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen... the other 4% of our body mass contains over 70 or more minerals, some in miniscule amounts and most of which are unfortunately no longer readily available in our soils. Without that mere 4%, we would die. 

Minerals participate in a multitude of bio-chemical processes necessary for the maintenance of health in human beings, animals and plants that inhabit our planet. There would be no life without minerals!

Minerals control literally millions of chemical and enzymatic processes which occur in the human body at all times. That alone should make us want to know more of the importance of minerals for our health and survival, and what to do about the current lack.

So What's the Big Deal about Adding Minerals to my Soil??

Simple. If the soil doesn't have the minerals, there's no way for vegetables to absorb them!

Consider: We no longer get as many minerals from our vegetables as we got 50 years ago. The nutritional value of modern foods isn't just declining, it's collapsing. We cannot live healthily without adequate minerals; they are the fundamental source and the basic building blocks of life.

Over-farming, soil depletion, commercial fertilizer, hybrid crops and genetic modifications are slashing the nutrients found in our fruits and vegetables. In fact, we'd have to eat 10 servings of spinach to get the same level of minerals as from just one serving about 50 years ago.

And that's only the beginning.
Take a look at the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) nutritional values for fruits and vegetables today compared to 1975.

Apples: Vitamin A is down 41%
Sweet Peppers: Vitamin C is down 31%
Watercress: Iron is down 88%
Broccoli: Calcium and Vitamin A are down 50%
Cauliflower: Vitamin C is down 45%; Vitamin B1 is down 48%; and Vitamin B2 is down 47%
Collard Greens: Vitamin A is down 45%; Potassium is down 60%; and Magnesium is down 85%

To be fair, some vegetables appear to be gaining vitamins, or at least vitamin A. Carrots, for example, have more of the vitamin now than they did in 1963. Why is a still a mystery. But the phenomenon has apparently occurred just in the nick of time. The National Academy of Sciences has issued an alert that it takes twice as many vegetables to get the daily requirement of vitamin A as previously thought. (Carrots and pumpkin are exempt from the caveat.)

Despite the apparent increase of vitamin A in carrots, most vegetables are losing their vitamins and minerals. Nearly half the calcium and vitamin A in broccoli, for example, has disappeared. Collards are not the greens they used to be. If you're eating them for minerals and vitamin A, be aware that the vitamin A content has fallen from 6500 IUs to 3800 IUs. Their potassium has dropped from from 400 mg to 170 mg. Magnesium has fallen sharply-57 mg to 9. Cauliflower has lost almost half its vitamin C, along with its thiamin and riboflavin. Most of the calcium in pineapple is gone... from 17 mg (per 100 grams raw) to 7. And the list goes on and on.

However, this is not just a 21st Century phenomena!
Back in 1936, a group of doctors introduced Document No.264 to the floor of the United States Senate. It was a dire warning that the mineral content of the soil was eroding. Vegetables were losing their power and people were at risk. Unfortunately Congress did nothing.

Today, it's worse; much worse. Minerals like iron and magnesium have dropped by more than 80 percent. That's from commercial farming technology and powerful fertilizers that practically sterilize the soil... leaving it with little to no mineral content. 

Commercial farming methods have depleted the soil of every essential nutrient, except NPK (nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous). Our planet's soil is being stripped of minerals, and generally nothing is being done to replace them.


Do we even eat enough vegetables?
No way. The preferred American meal is one-dish, already prepared. Unless a vegetable can be squirted out of a bottle, it’s a nonentity for too many of us. Why? We’re in a hurry. Vegetables are considered side dishes, and Americans don’t have time for such frivolity. The decline is relentless. Within the last 15 years, the percentage of all dinners that include a vegetable (other than salad or potatoes) dropped another 10%. It’s now 41%. (Data Source)

I haven't totally figured out the mineral thing yet in my garden, but I've been working on it going on 5 years now. (The Greensand and Azomite mainly add trace minerals rather than address the major ones like calcium, although they do contain some calcium.) Balanced soil minerals is very complex subject and I'm not convinced anyone has all the answers. For example, a mineral like calcium is one the microbes can/will eat and convert to plant food. We know the microbes make calcium available to plants, but which of the 5 or more forms of calcium should we put on our soils?

Until I can afford $150+ professional soil tests, I have to rely on what I can glean from my research and my gut intuition. My gut instinct tells me that adding trace mineral mixes like Greensand and Azomite has to help put some of that 4% of minerals back into my soil and thus into my vegetables.


My Thanks to Keith Scott-Mumby MD, PhD for the idea that sent me searching for more information on that 4% of our minerals.

Will Renaming HFCS make it healthier?

We are so gullible that the makers of HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) have applied to the government to change the name of HFCS to corn sugar on food labels. Changing the name has helped sales of other products in the past, like low euric acid rapeseed oil (now canola oil) and more recently, prunes (now dried plums). The FDA could take up to 2 years to approve the new name but that isn't stopping manufacturers from using the name now in advertising.

I'm not a chemist, nor an expert on what the human body knows, so I can't say for sure that "the body doesn't know the difference". BUT... I read a Rueters report about a US study which shows cancer cells know! They proliferate (multiply) on HFCS. ("Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the [refined] fructose to proliferate.")

I can say that when I pound a chunk of sugar cane and get a syrup, the water will evaporate and the sugar turns into sugar crystals all by itself. (I did it myself, as a kid in school!) It's nature at work. I can also say that most of the corn now grown is GMO... and highly subsidized by the government, making it much more profitable and 60% cheaper than cane sugar.

I read a Wiki article on producing high fructose corn syrup which states, "High-fructose corn syrup is produced by milling corn to produce corn starch, then processing that starch to yield corn syrup, which is almost entirely glucose, and then adding enzymes that change most of the glucose into fructose."

Americans are increasingly avoiding HFCS, and even First Lady Michele Obama has said she doesn't want her daughters eating it. Some manufacturers are starting to get the message. Sara Lee switched to sugar in 2 of it's breads, and Gatorade, Snapple and Hunt's Ketchup have very publicly switched to sugar in the past 2 years.

The debate will continue, I'm sure, as HFCS advertising dollars go to work. However, the bottom line is too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit (according to the American Heart Association) in diabetes, heart disease and stroke.


As for me, I have given up all added sugars, and only eating the natural sugars occurring in my fruits and vegetables.