Nutritious choices made simple®
For years the debate about whether organically-raised food is more nutritious than conventionally-raised crops has made media headlines and spurred heated conversations. For some consumers, these reports may lead to flip-flopping from one side to the other, perhaps trying to balance their concern over their health (and that of the environment) with concern over their food budget. Sound familiar?
Though few of us are large-scale farmers, lots of us have heard of cover crops (sometimes called “green manure.”) These crops are typically not raised as cash crops. Instead, they are planted to keep the bare soil from being exposed to the elements and also to nourish the soil and suppress weeds during the regular crop’s “off season.” Which crops are these exactly? Often they are legumes, grasses and certain grains. Small grains like barley, millet and buckwheat are common cover crops. These also happen to be cover crops that local farmers can actually harvest and sell as well. Growing this type of cover crop allows farmers to make money from crops grown past the normal summer season, so buying these products is a great way to support smaller, local farms.
To some of us, seaweed is just that annoying stuff that you gingerly step around when walking the beach, but for others, it’s on tonight’s dinner plate. Seaweeds, sometimes called sea vegetables, have been a traditional food in China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and are frequently used as a salad ingredient in Indonesia and Malaysia. Other people who live close to the oceans (various European and Nordic countries) have also a history of harvesting and eating local sea vegetables. Along the northeast coast of the U.S. as well as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, seaweed companies are growing their businesses rapidly as food manufacturers discover that the public is becoming interested in the taste as well as the potential health benefits of sea vegetables. Eating seaweed isn’t something new in the U.S. and Canada, but it is becoming more popular as people learn more about these abundant sea vegetables. Last year Maine hosted its first Seaweed Festival to help spread the word.
Have you heard of “superfood bowls”? Maybe you’ve seen the many bowls full of colorful food combinations on Pinterest? “Superfood bowls” are really just artfully arranged, mini-portions of various healthy foods all collected into one bowl. Bowls are appropriate for breakfast and lunch since they are designed to be a quick and healthy option you can take with you on the fly. But a casual dinner is also the perfect time for a bowl you create at home. They are endlessly customizable, which appeals to today’s consumers, and you can find them everywhere from hipster hangouts to everyday franchise restaurants—or make your own bowl of goodness.
I’m just guessing here, but I bet that you probably are not interested in reading the 500+page report from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee last week. No worries (and I don’t blame you)! The Committee (made up of 14 recognized experts in the field of nutrition and health) has been at work for the last year and a half or so, reviewing pertinent new science in order to present their Scientific Report to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, who are jointly responsible for revising the Dietary Guidelines. Why do they need revising? Because science changes, because the state of Americans’ health changes, and because the Dietary Guidelines form the backbone upon which rests a good deal of national nutrition policy—including those of public food and nutrition programs like school lunch.
You might think that “comfort food” and “healthy” don’t go together naturally, and that might be. After all, many of our cozy favorites are not bursting with kale or quinoa. And sometimes you simply must have Grandma’s stuffed shells—just the way Grandma made it, made with regular pasta and lots of full fat cheese. That’s okay; I get it. If that’s what you want once in a while, that’s perfectly fine—enjoy. But if you’re one of those folks whose comfort food concoctions have become less a “special food” and more of a staple in your recipe rotation—you might want to consider a few easy recipe modifications in the name of healthfulness. These three basic tweaks are easy to achieve and go a long way toward moving your edible soothers onto the “everyday acceptable” list.
Does this sound familiar? You had an especially tough day at work, or broke up with your significant other, or the weather is dreary/damp/dreadful (maybe you’ve been snowed in three times in the last week?) or you’re down in the dumps for any of the other myriad reasons we all encounter, and your thoughts start turning to that specific food (or foods) that always makes you feel better…and later you stop and get that food at a restaurant or take-out joint, or purchase the required ingredients on your way home. Soon you’re “self-medicating” with the comfort food of your choice (and perhaps snuggling in your favorite comfy jammies for an extra measure of soothing). It’s okay: most of us have been there too
The swirl of publicity surrounding this simple broth is astounding. If one believes the proponents, daily bone broth consumption can prevent or cure all manner of ills, from aiding in digestion to repairing and strengthening bones to giving a glow to skin and a gloss to hair—and that’s just a partial list of the purported benefits. So does this old-fashioned food live up to the hype, or is the bone broth trend a load of bunk? Let’s take a look…