Category: Foods products (Page 3 of 22)

Benefits of Health Food Stores

June 17, 2011 / Staff

First Lady Michelle Obama launched a worldwide campaign to fight obesity. The White House launched a campaign that focuses on prevention and the weight loss industry is worth more than $61 billion. One would think that with all of the campaigns and billions of dollars poured into weight-loss products and plans, America would be well on it’s way to becoming the healthiest nation in the world. Not so. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite recent reports stating that the obesity rate for Americans has leveled off, nearly 34 percent of adults are obese, more than double the percentage 30 years ago. The share of obese children tripled during that time, to 17 percent.

So why is it so difficult for Americans to lose weight or stay healthy? Could it be the large number of food deserts across the nation? Or maybe the lack of grocery stores isn’t fully to blame. Maybe it’s the type of grocery stores that contribute to the problem. Maybe health food stores like Whole Foods, Mothers Market, and Wild Oats can help solve America’s obesity epidemic, or at the very least, help America develop better eating habits. Sure, traditional grocery stores do carry some healthy foods, but they also carry some of the unhealthiest foods you can find. Unless you’re committed to being healthy, it’s just too easy to choose Cocoa Puffs and whole chocolate milk over Kashi and rice milk. Health food stores don’t give you the option to choose one over the other. The only choice is “healthy!”

Health food stores rarely carry household names such as General Mills, Kellogg’s, and Wonder. You’re more likely to find health food brands such as Kashi, Muir Glen, Nature’s Path, Eden Organic, and Stonyfield Organic. Health food stores stock their shelves with foods that contain few to no chemicals, no additives, and no preservatives. Also, foods are mainly organic. Even the non-organic foods are made with healthy ingredients and without harmful chemicals. Meats, poultry, and dairy are usually organic, and the seafood is fresh and wild caught. If farmed, seafood is always antibiotic and hormone free, and raised in an environmentally conscious setting.

Health food store products can do more than just curb obesity. They can help those that are already healthy stay healthy, and they can help individual’s that may be an average weight, get healthy. Health foods stores are also the best places to shop if you have food allergies (peanuts, milk, gluten), if you are on special diet due to a medical condition (diabetes, heart disease, digestive conditions) , or if you’re a vegan, vegetarian, raw foodist, or follow a macrobiotic diet.

How to Locate Health Food Stores

If you live in a major city, chances you have a number of health food stores to choose from. Even some smaller cities have a local health food store. In some areas, finding a health food store may be a bit more challenging. Fortunately, several directories can help you search for health food stores by state. One of the best is GreenPeople.org. You can search for health foods stores by zip code or city, state, and country. The site lists thousands of health food stores. A search in Illinois alone returned more than 100 results.

Diabetes, Diets, Foods products, Heart disease, Nutrition, Weight Loss

diet find health food stores health food store health food stores how to find health food stores Obesity weight loss

Beware of salmon

June 11, 2011 / Mike Furci

Unfortunately for Americans, the food industry has little or no oversight from the government and has thereby created a food supply almost completely devoid of any nutrition. Everything from beef to bread to milk is overly processed and stripped of its naturally occurring nutrients.

Take salmon, for instance. Most of what you see in the grocery store, unless it is labeled “wild caught,” is farmed. What they don’t tell you is the farmed salmon contains 60 percent more fat because they are in pens, but it has much less of the beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids.

Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that more than 100,000 salmon can be in one pen with no filtration system. These fish are excreting and living in their own wastes. Findings from a study show that farmed salmon have three to 15 times more organic pollutants than their wild caught counterparts. [1] In 2004, Science Journal warned that farmed salmon contain 10 times more toxins (PCBs, dioxin, etc.) than wild caught salmon. The study recommends that farmed salmon be eaten only once a month, perhaps every two months as it poses a cancer risk to humans. [2]

Moral of the story, Read food labels. Only buy salmon, any fish for that matter, that is wild caught.

1. Salmon, Wild-Caught. www.jigsawhealth.com/products/carvaiho_king_salmon_html

2. Tsang G. PCBs – Is Farmed Salmon Safe to Eat? www.healthcastle.com. November 2004. www.healthcastle.com/farmed-salmon.shtml

Diets, Food preparation, Foods products, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

baked salmon recipes fish grilled salmon grilled salmon recipes plenty of fish salmon salmon filet recipes salmon recipes

Tips for clean fruits and veges

June 9, 2011 / Mike Furci

Nearly 48 million people are sickened by contaminated food each year in the United States. Many people don’t realize that even produce can sometimes be the culprit in outbreaks of food-borne illness.

During the growing phase, fruits and veggies may be contaminated by animals, harmful substances in the soil or water, and poor hygiene among workers. After produce is harvested, it passes through many hands, increasing the contamination risk.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers the following tips for protecting yourself:

1. Wash your hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap before and after preparing fresh produce
2. Cut away any damaged or bruised areas
3. Gently rub produce while holding it under plain running water
4. Wash produce before you peel it
5. Use a clean vegetable brush to scrub firm produce
6. Dry produce with a clean cloth or paper towel
7. Throw away the outermost leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage

Food preparation, Foods products, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

FDA fda approval fda recalls fda website fda.gov food poisoning food poisoning symptoms fruit fruits and vegetables signs of food poisoning symptoms of food poisoning

Whole grains don’t equal health

June 5, 2011 / Mike Furci

Celiac disease, also more commonly referred to as wheat- or gluten intolerance, occurs when your body cannot digest gluten, a protein most commonly found in wheat, rye and barley. However, it’s very important to realize that these are not the only culprits that can cause severe problems. Other grains such as oats and spelt also contain gluten, and gluten can be found in countless processed foods without being labeled as such.

The rising prevalence of celiac disease is clear evidence that we’re simply not designed to consume such vast amounts of carbohydrates so many now indulge in. The vast majority of Americans consume far too much bread, cereal, pasta, corn (a grain, not a vegetable), rice, potatoes and junk food, with dire health consequences.

This even includes organic stone ground whole grains for those of you who eat only whole, natural foods. Obviously these are healthier for you, but ultimately they cause the same problems through two mechanisms: Reaction to the protein gliadin in the wheat, and an adverse increase in insulin secretion.

When you consume carbohydrates, even whole grain, the result is a sharp spike in insulin, which has a whole host of problems in and of itself. The undigested gluten then triggers your immune system to attack the lining of your small intestine, which can cause symptoms like diarrhea or constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain. In more recent years it’s been shown that the condition can also cause a much wider array of symptoms that are not gastrointestinal in nature, further complicating proper diagnosis.Over time, your small intestine becomes increasingly damaged and less able to absorb nutrients such as iron and calcium. This in turn can lead to anemia, osteoporosis and other health problems.

The rapid increase in celiac disease and milder forms of gluten intolerance is no surprise considering the modern Western diet, which consists in large part of grain carbohydrates. Additionally, modern wheat is very different from the wheat your ancestors ate. The proportion of gluten protein in wheat has increased enormously as a result of hybridization.

Until the 19th century, wheat was also usually mixed with other grains, beans and nuts; pure wheat flour has been milled into refined white flour only during the last 200 years. The resulting high-gluten, refined grain diet most of you have eaten since infancy was simply not part of the diet of previous generations.

(Mercola.com)

Diets, Food preparation, Foods products, Medical Issues for Men, Men's Health and Wellness, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

benefits of organic food celiac disease celiac disease diet celiac disease symptoms corn gluten diagnosing gluten allergy diet for celiac disease foods containing gluten gluten gluten allergy gluten free beer gluten free bread gluten free diet gluten free flower gluten free foods gluten free products gluten intolerance gluten intolerance symptoms gluten sensitivity Headlines high carbohydrate diet low carbohydrate diet mercola.com neurological symptoms of celiac disease organic food organic vs inorganic foods processed food symptoms for celiac disease symptoms of wheat allergy symptoms of wheat intolerance the western diet what is celiac disease what is gluten wheat wheat allergy wheat allergy symptoms wheat free diet wheat free recipes wheat intolerance whole food whole grain

Restaurant menus, tricks of the trade

May 16, 2011 / Mike Furci

If the restaurant owner/manager is doing their job correctly, the menu will be the heart of the business. Although many restaurant owners don’t pay much attention to their menus, menu engineering can yield greater profits.

“It embodies the restaurant’s demographics, concept, physical factors and personality. It’s a sales vehicle, and many restaurants, smart ones, use it to get you to eat right. And we’re not talking about your health, but about their profits.”

Being a business owner and proponent of free markets, I don’t feel there is anything wrong with business making a buck. However, consumers need to be aware that health is not a concern when selling items on a menu.

Marlys Harris reports for Yahoo Finance that menu dishes are normally divided up into 4 dishes, and clever menu engineering steers you to the most profitable items coupled with enjoying the meal. This makes sense considering business thrives on repeat business and referrals.

The following are seven ploys used in restaurant menus.

The first in show: Testing has shown that if you decide on a dish like chicken, you are most likely to choose the first item under the chicken heading. If a menu is engineered correctly, the most profitable items always appear first.

Menu Siberia: Dishes that require expensive ingredients and are labor intensive, which makes them less profitable, are usually placed in harder to find places.

Visual aids: People tend to order dishes that have boxes around them or pictures of the dish. So, If restaurants want to promote profitable dishes like chicken wings, photos definitely help.

Package deals: You walk into an establishment with the intention of getting a cheese burger and a medium drink, but leave paying a few bucks extra for the package deal that includes fries and a large drink. Getting a large percentage of customers to pay to shell out a few extra bucks for package deals translates to bigger profits.

Dollar-sign avoidance: Getting rid of dollar signs and decimals makes spending less threatening.

Small plate-large plate conundrum: A restaurant may offer two sizes of the same dish, but the price difference is almost pure profit.

Ingredient embroidery: The more special each ingredient sounds the better it sells. Just because it’s labeled “Grandma’s Three Cheese Mac and Cheese” will sell better than just plain mac and cheese.