Archive for the ‘Food-Nutrition-Health’ Category

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Organic Label Standards in Peril

Monday, August 4th, 2014

organic labelby Catherine Haug, Aug 4, 2014 (image, right from Organic.org)

This post offers a summary of an article in Montana Organic Association’s Organic Matters newsletter, including quoted text. The original article is by Barry Flamm, Former National Organic Standards Board Chair and MOA Lifetime Member. You can read the full article on the MOA Website (1). It’s a long article; even my notes are long. Here’s what it all really boils down to:

  • “Does the organic community and public want a strong NOSB (National Organic Standards Board) as prescribed by OFPA (Organic Food Production Act of 1990)?
  • Does the organic community and the public believe and want the implementation of the overall principle of OFPA that for any product to be labeled organic it must be produced and handled without the use of chemicals with only temporary exemptions allowed and then only after stringent review?” (1)

If you have strong feelings in response to these questions, please contact your legislators and/or the White House (see our page: Government (Contact)). To contact the Secretary of Agriculture see US Secretary of Agriculture Contact Page.

(more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Organics | Comments Closed

Good News in the battle against GMOs

Sunday, July 20th, 2014
Frankenfood

Frankenfood

by Catherine Haug, July 20, 2014 (Image, right,used with permission from the OCA)

You may be aware that Oregon is the next state to attempt to mandate labeling of GMOs, and just as in California and Washington, Big Ag and the GMA (Grocery Manufacturers Association) are pulling out all stops to defeat the ballot measure.

What you may not know is that other measures to limit GMO crops are faring better. Recently, voters in Jackson County, Oregon – led by local farmers – voted overwhelmingly to ban GE crops because they can contaminate other farmers’ crops. This success despite the big chemical companies like Monsanto having spent millions to defeat this county measure.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat (don’t let my cat Charlie hear me type that….), and this is a great example of how grassroots efforts can pay off.

It’s important in another way too: One of the claims made by Monsanto, et. al., say that labeling genetically engineered products will hurt Oregon farmers. This vote in one of Oregon’s agricultural counties proves this claim false. Non-GMO crops are worth more as exports as well as when sold in the US.

>> If you support the effort to label GMOs in Oregon, you can sign a petition by Friends of the Earth (FOE):

We Have The Right To Know What’s In Our Food

Posted in GMO | Comments Closed

Sustainable Seafood in Summertime

Sunday, July 13th, 2014
Salmon leaping at Willamette Falls, Oregon City, OR

Salmon leaping at Willamette Falls, Oregon City, OR

By Catherine Haug, July 13, 2014

Fish has long been my favorite food (beginning with lutefisk when I was a toddler). Growing up here in the Flathead, land-locked Kokanee salmon is another favorite, along with native cutthroat trout and other native trout. As native fish, these are the most sustainable we can get here in the NW Montana

(NOTE: lake trout is not native, and they are out-competing our native bull trout, which to me is very very sad, but that’s another article).

If you are not a fisherman, what are your best sustainable (and healthful) fish and seafood you can buy in the store?

  • If your main goal is healthful fish, definitely avoid farmed fish, as they are not fed their natural diet and may carry disease. Many are treated with antibiotics in their feed, and are likely exposed to PCBs;
  • If sustainable seafood is your main goal, the Center for Food Safety (1) provides guidelines and recommendations; read on.

See also my 2016 posting: Dietary fish & seafood: Which are/are not healthful.

(more…)

Posted in Food-Nutrition-Health | Comments Closed

Grains and Sugars – Are they the dietary bad guys?

Saturday, July 12th, 2014
Field of Wheat

Field of Wheat

By Catherine Haug, July 12, 2014 (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)

I recently posted an article, Butter (and other saturated fats) is a Health Food, based on an article in the New York Times (3) by researcher Dr. Fred Kummerow, who has been studying the effect of different lipids (including fats and cholesterol) on health for 80 years. He concludes that science made the wrong conclusions from early studies on saturated fats (beginning in the 1940s), when they pointed the bad finger at saturated fats. At the time, these scientists did not know what we know today, when they made their erroneous conclusions.

For example, early research involving saturated fats were actually using trans-fats made by hydrogenating unsaturated fats; this research led to the beliefs that dietary saturated fats lead to heart disease. They mistakenly assumed the hydrogenation was complete, and that’s where they went wrong. Had they used actual saturated fats like butter or coconut oil, they would have gotten very different results.

So, if saturated fats are not the problem we’ve all believed they are, than what is the problem? (more…)

Posted in Food-Nutrition-Health | Comments Closed

Butter (and other saturated fats) is a health food!

Monday, June 23rd, 2014
Stick of Butter (Western Pack)

Stick of Butter (Western Pack)

By Cat, Jun 23, 2014 (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)

Headlines around the world are announcing “Butter is Back” after articles published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine (1) and Medical News Today (2) in March of this year were lauded in Time Magazine (4), and now, on the NBC’s Today Show (5, includes video). These follow the publication of an article in the New York Times (3) by researcher Dr. Fred Kummerow, who has been studying the effect of different lipids (including fats and cholesterol) on health for 80 years. He was the first to alert people to the problem of trans fats in margarine and vegetable shortening, in 1957!

I’ve been writing for a long time about the misunderstanding concerning saturated fats in general and butter in particular, since the late 1970s – there are several articles on this blog (see list below) and on my personal website about this as well.

One caveat: To be most healthful, butter should be from the cream of grass-fed/pasture-raised cows. Most national brands feed their cows grain/soy feed that is likely GMO. The best butter is homemade, from the raw or cultured cream of grass-fed cows.

So, where did ‘science’ go wrong in pointing the finger at saturated fats, and why? (more…)

Posted in Cat's Fats, Food-Nutrition-Health, GMO, Health | Comments Closed

Event Summary: Herb Walk, with Tom Tracey of Swan Valley Herbs, May 23, 2014

Friday, June 6th, 2014
Ripening Hawthorn Berries (C. Haug photo)

Ripening Hawthorn Berries (C. Haug photo)

by Catherine Haug, June 6, 2014 (Photo, right, by C. Haug)

Tom Tracey presented his spring herb walk at Wayfarer’s Park in Bigfork, on May 23, 2014. Tom is an herbalist, dietitian and nutritionist who is very knowledgeable about native edible plants and healing herbs.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but the Bigfork Eagle had an article about the walk, that included interviews of Tom Tracey, and of Ronny Honthaas who was in attendance. Yesterday the article was posted on the Eagle’s website:

On a related topic, Ronny Honthaas gave an excellent presentation to a July 2010 ESP Gathering, on Herbs & Their Traditional Uses. Read on for link to a printable pdf version, and links to other presentations by Ronny. (more…)

Posted in Ecology, Food-Nutrition-Health, Gathering Summaries, Health, Remedies | Comments Closed

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