Cheap Good Food: Sack 'O Apples

By erika on 5/30/10 1:09pm
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Eating healthy is more than buying fresh organic grass feed free range beef.  It's also about making the best of a bad situation.  We can't all afford to shop at Whole Foods, and sometimes the paycheck runs thin.  This series will explore ways to eat well even when you're on a really tight budget.  

There is an interesting intersection between "frugal" and "healthy."  In America, a lot of very poor people are also eating very unhealthy diets.  There are two big reasons for this:


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Are You Getting Enough Fiber?

By erika on 5/20/10 12:10pm
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Let's face it: Probably not! The USDA recommendation for fiber is a lot more than most of us get in the course of a day.  Unless you take a product like Metamucil (the results of which can be… undesirably dramatic) it can seem like it's not easy to bulk up your diet.  But it really is!


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When Is Organic Food Not Organic?

By erika on 5/10/10 2:16pm
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When it's grown in China, apparently.  A local news team in Arlington, VA has done some crackerjack work tracking down the truth about a lot of the so-called "organic" food which is sold by Whole Foods.


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Really, KFC?

By sarajean on 4/30/10 4:40pm
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When I saw the new pink buckets of chicken from Kentucky Fried Chicken, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, break something, call Congress, or make a Colonel Sanders voodoo doll (which, we all know, wouldn’t do much good, anyway). These “Buckets for the Cure” will be donating portions of their profits to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer.

Their sale, of course, will lead to breast cancer.

Most people are aware that obesity, which comes from eating lots of very fatty, nasty fried food—like the Colonel sells—leads to cancer. Multiple cancers, in fact, though breast cancer is prominently there on the list. So we’re all going to go buy a bucket of chicken… to help raise money to fight the disease we might get from eating the chicken?

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Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Sticks

By erika on 4/21/10 7:16pm
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The Washington Post is running an article about the aftermath of Jamie Oliver's sudden appearance in Huntington, West Virginia.  Spoilers abound, so if you're planning to watch the last episode this Friday, you may not want to click to read farther!


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Spring Green Drink Recipes

By lafeeverte on 4/16/10 4:29pm
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Spring is a time of new life, love and greening trees, gardens, and fields. Out of the dead hold of winter, the soft sweet months of spring are a time of natural detoxification. The green, leafy vegetables and tender grasses and sprouts of the season promote cellular renewal and are packed with nutrients, teeming with life. The chlorophyll in green plants is literally, sunshine in liquid form, and is extremely beneficial to all living creatures. Chlorophyll naturally deodorizes the body, gives you a feeling of lightness and energy, and repairs any cellular damage in your organs and skin. Spirulina, blue-green algae, kelp, wheat grass, barley grass and all of your spring greens in season are excellent sources of liquid sunshine and I highly recommend eating and drinking as much as possible on a regular basis. I have noticed that it also improves your mood and gives you a sense of well-being.


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Olive Oil

By lisala on 4/15/10 9:37pm
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Olive oil, long a staple of Mediterranean and European diets, earned new respect and appreciation in the U.S. after the FDA allowed manufacturers to label olive oils with text that asserts that incorporating olive oil in our menus, especially as a substitute for other oils and fats, can assist in reducing the risk of heart disease by reducing the amount of LDL or "bad" cholesterol in our blood. According to the FDA, a mere 2 tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil a day will help reduce our risk of heart disease. Plus, it's pretty easy to substitute olive oil, with its healthier monounsaturated fats, for other products.

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The Joy of Canning

By lafeeverte on 4/15/10 3:27pm
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Mason jarsMason jarsCanning foods has fallen into the junk drawer of times past with the invent of plastic baggies, freezers, and Tupperware. Most of us don't think twice, strolling down the freezer isle and piling in bags of frozen berries, vegetable medleys, and snacks to savor at our leisure, or tossing cans of beans, soup, and vegetables into the cart to get creative in the kitchen later. Using foods that are already processed really isn't “cooking” or all that creative...... but, yes it does save time. Canning preserves, jams, jellies, garden veggies, and fruits is one of the best ways of keeping your food. If you have a large garden or receive an abundance of produce from a neighbor or CSA, it is a smart option that avoids the need for refrigeration or unneccessary waste.

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Choose Healthy: Choose Kosher

By erika on 4/15/10 3:22pm
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A family-owned kosher bakery in NYCA family-owned kosher bakery in NYCAccording to the New York Times, grocery stores are seeing increasing interest from their customers in kosher foods.  This ancient dietary regime is perceived as being healthier, which is enough to persuade many people to give kosher a try.

Kosher hot dogs have enjoyed a huge popularity for a long time, of course.  Hot dogs, out of all your basic meat products, are widely considered one of the most revolting.  "Everything from the squeal to the tail" is one of the (more family friendly) sayings.  I have many friends who are not in the least bit Jewish, but who insist on eating only kosher hot dogs.  


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See Food, Inc. On PBS Next Week

By sarajean on 4/15/10 9:34am
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If you’re one of those people who is always worried about the dangers hidden in your grocery cart—and who isn’t these days?—you won’t want to miss next week’s airing of Food, Inc. on PBS. The Oscar-nominated film discusses our food, how it’s made, and what you can find in it. We’re not talking about dangers that are found just at McDonald’s here, either; Food, Inc. is about all of the food produced in America and how, as much as we’d like to think it comes from happy cows from California or all natural groves in Florida and simple, all-American farmland in between, it’s quite often the opposite.

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