A layperson’s understanding
Following George’s excellent article on Blood Sugar, I thought I’d add my two cents regarding hypoglycemia, commonly referred to as low blood sugar.
The word hypoglycemia comes from hypo– (less than normal) and glycemia (the presence of glucose in the blood). Answers.com’s Alternative Medicine Encyclopedia gives us this definition of hypoglycemia:
Hypoglycemia occurs when blood sugar (or blood glucose) concentrations fall below a level necessary to properly support the body’s need for energy and stability throughout its cells.
and lists the symptoms of hypoglycemia as follows: more »
A layman’s understanding
As well as to fill our stomachs and to enjoy the pleasures of eating, we eat to obtain energy. In this quest, we also consume different kinds of sugars, not all of which are recognizable as what you’d think of as sugar. But how do you we get that energy in a healthy manner? Blood sugar is another piece of the puzzle regarding how our bodies work. more »
As covered in our Food Safety Still High Risk to Economy, in February 2009, Congresswoman Rose L. DeLauro of Connecticut introduced the Food Safety Modernization Act which would establish a new, separate Food Safety Administration within the USDA, this legislation would provide the regulatory tools to access important records, recall products and penalize companies for knowingly selling tainted products. As we noted, Rep. DeLauro is married to Stanley Greenburg, who works for Monsanto, which seems not to have been the champion of organic food. But there’s more news, this time from Natural News: more »
I was pleased and surprised to discover that people have been visiting We Want Organic Food (which we refer to in-house as “WWOF”) from the New York Times website. That is, the NYT is listed in our website stats as what Web folk call a “referrer” … a website that sends people to another website. At any rate, I visited the NYT times page, and there we are:
Organic Food Navigator
“A list of resources from around the Web about organic food as selected by researchers and editors of The New York Times.”
New York Times - Organic Food
Here’s a screenshot. Thanks, NYT! We feel honored.
The regulatory activities governing food safety continue to pose a “high risk” to the economy and public health, declared the Government Accountability Office in January of this year (link) — the consequence of a fragmented legal and organizational structure with insufficient authority and too few resources to protect the American people.
For years now, the American people have learned to live with the possibility that their food may not be safe
In February, 2009, Congresswoman Rose L. DeLauro* of Connecticut introduced the Food Safety Modernization Act. In addition to establishing a new, separate Food Safety Administration within the USDA, this legislation would provide the regulatory tools to access important records, recall products and penalize companies for knowingly selling tainted products. Separating food safety regulation from drug and device approvals would go a long way toward restoring the balance that has long been missing at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and give food safety the attention it deserves. By establishing a Food Safety Administration within Health and Human Services, headed by its own commissioner, we can give food safety experts and researchers the room and the resources to do their jobs.
ADDED: Rep. DeLauro is married to Stanley Greenburg, who works for Monsanto, which seems not to have been the champion of organic food. /Editor more »
In the United States, we pass the ketchup to the tune of over half a billion bottles every year. The modern word “ketchup” comes from a Chinese word ke-tsiap — a naturally pickled fish-brine, the universal condiment of the ancient world. The English added foods like mushrooms, walnuts, cucumbers and oysters to this, and it was still a naturally fermented brew.
Since most ancient times, lactic acid has been used to keep the intestines functioning efficiently, and different types of lacto-fermented juices were often the only remedy against infectious diseases. In her Nourishing Traditions cookbook, author Sally Fallon credits Annelies Schöneck for recent research which has confirmed that the beneficial action of lactic acid bacteria creates an environment where pathogens cannot multiply. The bacteriological flora of the gut varies from one part to the next, but the lactic-acid-producing type survives from the stomach all the way through to the colon; they prevent the growth of coliform bacteria and cholera from establishing themselves. Even certain carcinogenic substances are inhibited and inactivated … In effect, the state of our intestinal flora contributes not only to the absorption of nutrients but also to our ability to resist infections. more »
I received an email invitation to take a survey from Whole Foods Market. I was happy to do it, and thereby discovered the Whole Foods Market forums. So I happily popped in to see what was happening, and discovered a discussion started in late November 2008, Organic Produce from China?, in which a forum member states:
Imagine my surprise when preparing a dish for Thanksgiving when I discovered that the Whole Foods "365 Organic Chopped Spinach" was labeled "A Product of China". The front of the package is also labeled "USDA ORGANIC". I had a conversation with several Whole Foods employees at the Walnut Creek store, all of which were puzzled and unaware that the spinach was from China. Due to work I spend a lot of time in mainland China (Shanghai, Bejing, Guangzhaou), and like many I am both saddened and shocked by the poor environmental regulation, oversight or even a modicum of real concern about the environment and it’s impact on its citizens.
More worrying yet is the comment: more »
Following the news published by the Associated Press last September (432 babes sick from Chinese tainted milk product which stated that "A Chinese state news agency has reported that more than 430 babies have suffered from kidney stones from contaminated milk powder" and also stated that "A New Zealand dairy cooperative that owns part of Sanlu said Friday it believed none of the tainted powder was exported."), the BBC is carrying a story today. In China firms ‘to pay milk victims’: more »
We’d heard that the California Department of Food and Agriculture had settled with Organic Pastures over the CDFA’s recall of OP products in 2007. It’s my understanding that settled generally means (as Answers.com puts it): more »
A Meal in Itself
This winter squash soup takes just 90 minutes to prepare and simmer, not counting the stock-making, this colorful, uniquely-flavored soup is well worth the effort for its nutrient-density and delectable taste. more »
