Hey Low Crap Foodies – its time to stand up for health and stop big agribusiness from taking over our food!

You can get tons of information at the free Food Revolution Summit hosted by bestselling author John Robbins (Diet for a New America, Food Revolution.) John will be interviewing 21 amazing leaders in movements for healthy, sustainable, humane and delicious food.

From April 28-May 6, 2012 there will be three interviews broadcast daily that you can access by phone or internet. You’ll get cutting edge disease-beating, health-activating, age-reversing information. These tools can help you and your family thrive and with those newly awakened brains cells make a real difference in the way our food industry operates.

I’m going to be listening to every word and I hope you will too!

Get more info and register today:

http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1452194

Here’s some clues to help you decide.

One comes in compostable packaging, that will break down and add nutrients to the earth in less than a year.

The other comes packaged in a plastic jug, that will get tossed in a land fill, and still be recognizable in 100 years.

One, once opened is guaranteed to contain real juice … actual real juice, self contained in the same packaging that it grew in.

The other, says its fresh squeezed, but may have been sitting flavourless in a tank for up to a year.

One has a flavour that reflects the amount of sun it received when growing, and when it was picked, ensuring that each one will be a unique experience.

The other has a laboratory produced flavour from peels and oil based on a recipe, ensuring that each jug tastes exactly the same.

Find out more in Ms Allisa Hamilton’s book Squeezed: What you Don’t Know About Orange Juice

Time Magazine recently posted two photo essays documenting what families from around the world eat in a week and how much it costs (in US$).

I invite you to spend time with each photo and consider the nutrition and waste of the different foods eaten.

What The World Eats Part 1

What the World Eats Part 2

Fluoride in municipal tap water is a hot topic. Where I live, Calgary Canada, City Council will vote January 10, 2011 on whether Calgary should remove fluoride from the municipal water supply.

I would like to offer a ‘Low Crap’ approach to this topic.

We must always remember that we don’t know what we don’t know.

We do know that that scientific studies can be, have been, and forever will be manipulated to ‘prove’ a hypothesis for individuals’ and companies’ political, social and/or financial gain. This happens all the time in big-pharma, big-agra and, dare I say big (and small) -‘natural health’ industries.

And we don’t know what studies will be disproven at some point in the future.

See? We don’t know what we don’t know.

We all agree that our collective state of health is not great. We all agree that rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, thyroid irregularities, autism, and other health issues are rising at an alarming rate. We don’t need science to prove this. We can see it happening all around us.

Theories and hypothesis are plentiful and are continually being disproven.

We still don’t know what we don’t know.

So why not error on the side of caution, and remove, wherever possible, chemical additives from our diets… including fluoride.

Fluoride has been linked to pitting and discolouration of teeth, osteosarcoma and other cancers, dysfunction of the thyroid and pineal glands, lethargy, osteoporosis and bone fragility, skin eruptions, calcification and arthritis, environmental pollution and destruction of crops and animals.

Instead of waiting for scientific studies to prove or disprove any virtues and/or dangers of fluoridated water … why not just take it out of the picture. Forget about fluoridating municipal water supplies!

If you believe that fluoride prevents tooth decay go ahead and brush as often as you like with fluoridated toothpaste. Even the cheapest toothpaste has been ‘fortified’ with fluoride. And while you are brushing, it would be a good time to read the warning label on the toothpaste tube about the dangers of ingesting fluoride …

Yup is a crazy ass world we live in.

Cut the crap … Lets go fluoride free!

Here’s an ingenious way to turn trash into something useful. Guess where this beautiful pond is located?

Yup … this beautiful pond is in the trunk of an old car.

Last year this same neighbour grew a productive garden in the back of an old truck.

Happy Friday!

Contrary to what your mother might have told you, you do not have to eat meat every day to get enough protein in your diet. In fact there is plenty of protein in non-animal food products to keep you healthy… just ask any vegan and they will tell you it is possible to live meat free. For example 1 cup of walnuts has the same amount of protein as a chicken drumstick; and 1 cup of quiona has a little more protein than 1/4 pound of lean ground beef.*

But Meat Free Mondays isn’t asking us to all become vegan. It is simply asking us to cut our meat consumption by about 14% to help lessen the impact that we have on our environment … and that fits beautifully with the low crap diet.
 
This movement is growing quickly. A Google search for “meat free Monday” returns over 20 million hits. Even Sir Paul McCartney has, not surprisingly, joined the movement and if you visit supportMFM.org you can watch Sir Paul strumming his guitar and singing a little song to get everyone in the spirit: “Meat free Monday… It’s a fun day… And its happ’nin …All around the world.”

Making Mondays meat free makes a lot of sense. To learn more watch the video below, or click here to watch on You Tube.

*Nutrition Facts Source: Dunne, Lavon J., Nutritional Almanac Fifth Edition, 2002 McGraw-Hill

BYOB has taken on a whole new meaning.

My local organic store, Sunnyside Market, carries quite a few things in bulk … including dish soap. And they are quite delighted when you bring your own container … or in this case, bottle.

My last plastic bottle of dish soap had a big crack in it, so it had to go to recycling.

I went looking through my cupboards for a suitable replacement and discovered this cleaned out glass olive oil bottle.

I should tell you that I am a bit of a glass bottle hoarder … meaning I have a hard time sending any glass bottle to recycling if I think there is a remote possibility that it may one day come in handy.

I remember cleaning out this bottle and if you have ever tried to clean out an olive oil bottle you will understand my pain because it takes a lot of hot water and dish soap to get that bottle oil free. I remember asking myself if my efforts, along with the extra hot water and soap were worth it.

Today I was feeling kind of smug … yes my efforts were absolutely worth it.

The great thing about reusing an olive oil bottle is that it has a ‘spout’ attachment that slows down the speed that liquid pours out. This little feature makes it quite suitable for refilling with dish soap … and the bottle looks much prettier than plastic.

A British study on the nutritional value of organic foods was released yesterday.  (source National Post: “No nutritional value added in organics: study.” Thur. July 31, 2009 http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1842708)

The study concluded that “Organically produced foods have no more nutritional value than conventionally grown products and consumers who pay a premium for organic foods are doing so based on perception, not fact” [my emphasis]

Are they daft?

Do they think that people who purchase organic food are daft?

I purchase organic products because I care about my health and the health of my planet.

I purchase organic products because of what it doesn’t contain . I personally do not want to eat residue from pesticides such as:

- Iprodione*. A known carcinogen used in the conventional production of almonds, Iprodione is also a potential ground water contaminant and suspected endocrine disruptor.

- o-Phenylphenol*. A known carcinogen used in the conventional productions of apples, o-Phenylphenol is also a developmental or reproductive toxin and a suspected endocrine disruptor.

- Chlorothalonil*, a known carcinogen used in the conventional production of tomatoes, that also has the potential to be a ground water contaminant.

By purchasing organic products I support biodiversity, environmental stewardship, clean water, clean air, safe work environments for farm workers, preservation of heirloom plants, soil nutrition, small-scale family farms, ethical treatment of animals, sustainable agriculture and the list goes on.

Purchasing organic isn’t about better nutrition.

Purchasing organic is a non-selfish way of saying “I care.” 

*Information sourced from PAN Pesticide Database http://www.pesticideinfo.org and What’s on my food? http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/index.jsp. Retrieved July 31, 2009.

Here’s a mid-month treat for you.

Organic Apricots in all their glory ready to serve up their low crap goodness to all who care.

These beauties are from Abbott Acres in Cawston, British Columbia.