Green Thumb?

I have never had luck with gardening. That could be from a few factors - and a big one would be that I haven't tired much! Yeah... that'll make progress slower...

But I've also had some bad luck with keeping things (or people!) out of my garden. I have twice tried growing from seed, and twice had things either pulled up or demolished. And I don't mean by rabbits or the like - we can see shoe prints in the area! A neighbor said the same thing happened to her - anything she'd planted in the ground had disappeared over a weekend while she was away. But what remained were things growing in buckets and pots.

So, try Number 3!

Yesterday we went to Marvin's Organic Gardens where they were holding an Organic Container Gardening class - and I guess fate was smiling on us! Five people called to cancel, so Dave and I got some one-on-one time with the teacher, Leslie. She walked us up and down row after row of organic plants that were started right there from seed! We got to sample nibbles of plants as we went - orange mint, chocolate peppermint, blueberries, celery, basil... amazing! I have never enjoyed blueberries until this visit! I still didn't love them, but they were much better than any thing I'd purchased at a store!

They even grow Stinging Nettle. I was shocked - I couldn't believe someone would choose to grow that plant! It burns when you get rubbed by it! But she said the leaves of the Stinging Nettle plant can be boiled into a tea that helps with arthritis. How cool! Add that to another weed with benefits :)

I wish I had gotten pictures there! Leslie was so patient with all of our questions, and didn't seem to mind that we kept walking her in circles as we wanted to revisit plants in the green house! I guess we'll just have to go back some time - I saw they had a whole wall of sprouting seeds! I haven't yet done sprouting, but it is something I want to try some day.

So, Leslie helped us narrow down our choices, and we finally decided on five plants that she said would grow well in our large pot: stevia, spinach, broccoli, Greek oregano, and chocolate peppermint mint (which I plan to brew a leaf of tonight after work! And maybe sweeten with a leaf of Stevia!) We gathered up our finds, and she helped us plant them in organic potting soil, topped with organic fertilizer and mulch. We somehow managed to lug the thing home, and set it on our back porch.

So, here's hoping trial #3 is more successful! I am not anticipating a huge bounty of food from it, but the experience that will lead to excitement for growing more at home some day! It doesn't get more local than your own home!

I'll be sure to post here some more of our container gardening :)

xoxox

~Katie

Stop... In the Naaaaame of Love! (Or Big Brother)

The Washington Post writes: One in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure, which in turn is a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. And while being overweight and inactive raises blood pressure, too much salt is a big culprit as well. The American Medical Association has said 150,000 lives a year could be saved by cutting in half sodium levels in processed and restaurant food.

And a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that added sugars may be playing a role in cholesterol problems.

Hmmm... ok, so maybe salt isn't good... but is salt-free dead food really all that much better? And added sugars aren’t wonderful either. But again – are sugar-free cookies really “healthy”? Let’s not get so focused on losing weight that we forget about health! Your weight is not the problem – it’s the symptom. It's the secondary result of imporoper nutrition, improper activity, and many o ther factors that may be more difficult to control. How about cutting down on processed foods, regardless of salts and sugars?

But on a different angle…

I heard on the radio this morning that the government is being urged to require food manufactures to cut down on the salt in their processed foods.

In theory, that’s a good idea. But in practice, where does that leave your personal freedom of choice? If companies want to volunteer to cut down on dangerous additives, I am all for that! But I also think people need to take responsibility for their own health. If you don’t care about your health, and want to go to town on that jumbotron-sized bag of potato chips, that’s your decision.

And yes, continued efforts need to be made to help people learn where hidden sources of these additives are – so here’s a little run-down for ya!

The American Heart Association shares this list of major food sources of sodium:
-Tomato Sauce
-Soups
-Condiments
-Canned foods (beans, veggies, sauces, etc)
-Prepared mixes (Hamburger helper, flavored rices, etc.)

Pretty much any pre-packaged food is going to have added salt to help preserve it. This includes many microwave dinners. Drinks are another source: pop and sports drinks are riddled with sodium! (Pop makes ya thirsty so ya want more! And sports drinks are for athletes who are sweating buckets due to more than 60 minutes of exercise!)

And sugar? Whoo-buddy! Where to start?

A Rose By Any Other Name Is Just As Sweet…

And sugar is no exception! It’s time to be a sleuth, my friends! Food manufacturers like to try to disguise the sugar! But we’re too smart for that sneakiness! ;-)

Sugar is known by so many names. Ready for this crazy list?

Corn syrup/High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Cane Juice
Dextrin or dextrose
Fructose
Fruit Juice Concentrate
Glucose
Lactose
Maltodextrin
Malt Syrup
Maltose
Rice Syrup
Sorghum
Sugar/Invert Sugar
Sucrose
Syrup
Xylose

*phew!*

Read any food ingredient list, chances are it will contain at least one of those items.

Common culprits often thought of as “healthy”: fruit juice, flavored yogurt, flavored coffees and teas, pop, and even some sweetened cereals! Am I saying avoid all those things? Not if you don’t want to (doesn’t it just ROCK that you have that choice still?!) but at least be aware. Check out those sugars! Am I saying all sugar is bad? Not at all! Natural sugars definitely have their place and purpose – but stick with the natural as much as you can: fruits! Ok, ok, and moderately use other natural sources like dates, honey, and agave. (Lets face it – we love sweet things!)

So make your own personal choice to cut down on that processed stuff! Don’t wait for the government to force you – do it for yourself, your health, your wellbeing.

Go fresh, baby! :)
~Katie

Junk The Juice

At my job, one of the daily topics is JUICE.

Juice - the wonders of marketing schemes.

For the most part, juice is a waste of money. Yes, even "all natural, no sugar added, 100% juice" juices. Juice is a highly-processed form of fruit that essentially leads to nothing more than sugar water - heck, the natural vitamin C of the fruit usually isn't even there! That "100% of your Vitamin C needs" is mostly just added back in after all the processing! (That's the "ascorbic acid" on the ingredient list.) So, if you are squuuuueeeezing out all the liquid from the fruit, what do you get? Water, sugar.

The bigger question: what are you NOT getting? Fiber, phytochemicals, enzymes, and the other aspects of the "whole package" that the fruit was supposed to come with.

Most juices will contain 28 grams of sugar per serving (and if you get one of those lovely 20-ounce bottles, check the label! They usually are not 1 serving, but 2.5 so you're getting 70 grams of sugar and about 275 calories in the whole bottle!)

How much sugar is 28 grams?

That's almost the same as what you'll find in most soda! (And we've been over the lack of health THERE!) Check out this video! (Thanks to Marshall Brain, who also brought us the books on How Things Work!)

There are 7 teaspoons in 8 ounces of sugar... or over 1 tablespoon!

And do you wonder WHY they add so much sugar to pop? To cover the salty taste with all it's sodium! Why do they have so much sodium? To make you feel thirsty and therefore want more cool, "refreshing" soda! (Or so some theories go. I wouldn't be surprised!)

Push the water, try some teas, and really limit or eliminate your sugary processed junk! And if you want juice, make your own! Or just blend it so you can keep all the wonderful benefits that come with it. Good things DO come in small packages! :)

Happy Hydrated Friday!

~Katie

Wednesday Words: Label Reading

Label Reading

As you probably have noticed, I would encourage you to buy and eat mostly foods that DON'T contain food labels - fresh fruits and fresh veggies. But there will of course be items that do have labels. I just wanted to look at a few terms found on food packaging labels, but there are many, many, many terms.

And, boy howdy, can they be sneaky!

Did you know that "fat free" doesn't really mean fat free? And that "calorie free" doesn't mean there are zero calories?

Ahhh, and the fun begins!

So, here's the top two tricky lingo you may see on a package, and what it can legally mean.

Calorie Free: Less than 5 calories per serving

Fat Free: Less than 0.5g of fat per serving

Yup, on labeling, they are allowed to simply round number down.

Another trick with fat free - it SO does not mean "calorie free"! If there's less fat, chances are the flavor is being made up with extra sugar and/or salt. Just because a cookie is "fat free" or "diet" doesn't mean it's helpful towards your weight goals - and by no means will it guarantee natural and healthy! Chances are, it's a highly-processed nutrient-depleted, love-it-for-a-moment-feel-guilty-later hunk of immediate gratification that does not lend itself towards natural, healthy, beautifying goodness. Better than an even more yucky option? Maybe. Worth it for the moment if you truly enjoy it and won't feel guilty later? Possibly. But that's your call.

Fun stuff, eh? ;-)

When working at a weight-loss retreat, the best examples of this were seen with a spray butter, and artificial sweeteners, both that claimed "fat free, calorie free." One poor woman would douse her potatoes, salads, vegetables... with the "fat free, calorie free" butter spray, assuming that would be conducive to her diet plans. The catch? She was going through about 1 bottle a week, which - despite misleading labeling - contained something like a whopping 200g fat, and over 1000 calories!

Little packets of sweeteners can be the same. Nutrasweet, Splenda, Equal, etc - debates on being potential carcinogens aside - all tend to average 4 calories per packet. So, legally, they can claim to be "calorie free." One woman liked to sweeten her daily yogurt with 3 packs, her cottage cheese with 2 packs, her coffees with 4+ each, her pineapple with 3 packs... In a day, she said she was adding well over 20 packs per day. So, from "calories free" items, she was adding almost 100 calories PER DAY from "calorie free" foods. Perhaps you feel 100 calories isn't that big a deal, but when you're basing your weight goals on counting calories, that extra 100 per day can add up to an additional pound per month that you aren't losing as you expected!

So, be label savvy, and also label minimizing - go for the good stuff! The natural, healthy, healing, vibrant stuff that doesn't need all the confusing jargon anyways!

xoxox

~Katie