That soda will kill ya!

Sodas will kill you, it seems. Sugar, hfcs, or artificial sweerners, all will shorten your life.!
This massive study in Europe followed almost a half million people for an average of 16 years, analyzing death rates. Drinking two or more sodas was correlated to many types of fatal illnesses.

Other studies have shown links to cancers and other ails.

Doctors recommend water instead.

Meanwhile, drinking a glass of beer or wine increases your life and (generally) improves your heath.

https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20190903/once-again-soda-tied-to-higher-risk-of-early-death

Processed Foods will Kill ya

There's a great study out related to letting people eat processed foods, as much as they want, verses giving people healthy food... as much as they want.
Personally, I wonder if the salt alone is not part of the problem.
Those people who eat processed foods for the required 15 days, eat more and gained more weight.
This seemed like an exceptionally well designed study. One group did the 15 days healthy first, then junk-y food; the other group did the opposite.
NPR did a great go at the results of this study that was published in Cell magazine.
Looks like very good controls were used.
When on the ultra-processed foods diet, subjects eat more and eat more quickly. Really. The researchers thought that they might eat more rapidly because the processed foods required less chewing. All health and body weight markers sent along with the over-eating.
The supplement shows the menus each day for the ultra-processed foods and for the non-processed foods. Check out the pictures of 7-days of food each. Really interesting is the snacks in each case. Lay's potato chips, Planter's peanuts, Keebler's cheese 'n peanut butter crackers, etc. vs apples, almonds, etc.
As always in diet, the question is about organic vs. non-organic. First glance did not indicate organic on the healthy side?

Okay. Coconut oil really is good for you, no BS

I was surprised to see what seemed like a reputable source questioning the good health values of coconut oil. See our blog post here.

But I like this discussion much better by Dr Hyman. He discusses how coconut oil always has been good for you. The "battle against cholesterol" is generally a bogus war being won by billions of dollars in Staten drug pharma. Hyman discusses island countries that have no cancer and no heart disease, but eat tonnes of coconuts off the trees!

In short, coconut oil increases your good cholesterol (HDL) and improves your cholesterol ratio. What it might do to total cholesterol is in no way relevant. It leads to heather outcomes and lower risk of heard disease.

Dr Hyman complains that the FDA shows a bias toward the existing huge organizations, avoiding the most basic foundations of health and science. Hyman observes how they caution against cholesterol, without scientific foundation, yet allow sugary cereal and soft-drinks.  After watching them tap-dancing around the labeling for GMO, you gotta believe it. (GMO labeling is required, but it does not have to be on the purchase label, just off in space on a web site somewhere.)

Doc H argues that coconut (oil) is still one of the most healthy and wholesome super foods in existence. He presents the evidence. He wrote the book. It looks like he's got it right.

Bees in Peril. Costco Connection - July 2017

The Costco Connection - July 2017 - Page 34-35:

Bees in Peril: Working together to find a solution

What to do when the canary (bees) stops singing (buzzing)?

This is a great (short) overview of where we stand on bee front, written by Stephanie Ponder. (You gotta wonder if that's a pseudonym!:0)

This should worry people everywhere for soooo many reasons. The economic impact of a massive, or total loss of bees, is obvious. But bees are simply an indicator of our unhealthy impacts. It's like amphibians (frogs). Frogs live in both the water and the land, so a little pollution in one or both, can totally wipe them out.... giving a strong indicator of what destruction a lot of pollution will do.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not so much the problem anymore. The big killer now is the vorroa mite.

We still having a die-off of 40% of the bees each year, continuing to make a huge challenge for the beekeepers to maintain and replenish. This is hard to wrap the mind around. Imagine, that 40% of your cattle crop died each year. Beekeepers are going through some major gymnastics to try to replenish the hive(s) each year.

The 4Ps are pests (vorroa mite), pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition.

Massive monoculture like almonds are providing poor nutrition (and no diversity). The article compares the mono-crop of flowers to a human diet of 100% steak. Farmers are introducing (or not killing) flowers and wild-flowers among the mono-crop. This also suggests that the monocrop itself is not so healthy.

SustainZine has prior blogs related to CCD and healthy Bees. Think of bees as the Canary in the Coal Mine. When the canary dies, its a pretty strong hint that all is no longer well in the mine; when the bees die en mass, all is not well on the land.

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Coconut oil isn't healthy. It's never been healthy.

Coconut oil isn't healthy. It's never been healthy.:
by Ashley May.
*** See our update pertaining to this article. It seems like Ms May, may have overstated her case against the coconut. See the update here... okay-coconut-oil-really-is-good-for-you. ***

Like many such as the poor egg with its off-the-charts level of cholesterol, several foods have gotten a bad rap.

Coconut oil got a bad rap, then got a good rap, and now it's bad again.
*** I'm sooo confused !!!! ***

I have a Coconut book Bible on all the healthy benefits of coconuts and coconut oils, Coconut oil for health: 100 amazing and unexpected uses for coconut oil, by Brett Brandon, 2015.

So coconut oil for weight loss is apparently not true. Like that's never happened before!

Related to the health benefits, it's all about saturated fats. High levels of saturated fats can, and will, kill you.

So aiming for uses of coconut oil outside your body, seems like a good thing. But ingesting it, not so much so.

Honey might be a better homeopathic remedy for antibiotic, antiseptic cures and also allergies (local raw honey). Studies on honey curing allergies are inconclusive.

Glad to clear this all up, like the Mississippi River during floodwaters,

Well, gotta go put coconut oil on the scar on my knee that I'm trying to clear up.

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Panera, getting clean and serving up Krispy Kreme

Panera, as you know, is the casual dining, yet healthy, place to eat out (and now with a lot of delivery). Now that we are not so concerned about the salt in the menu (sometimes up to 1,000mg for a meal) it seems Panera is really living the wholesome live and riding the healthfood craze. Early in 2007, Panera was talking about totally cleaning up its already pretty squeaky clean act. (See company press and this WSJ article.)

This WSJ article has a good discussion of the buyout by a private conglomerate JAB of Panera. The company's already well priced stock jumped almost $100 over a couple days to about $310 today. (See PNRA stock trend for a month.) Going private has lots and lots of advantages for a company. There's all the reporting and restrictions of a publicly traded company. Plus, you need to tell investors how you have done and what you plan to do. Surprisingly, competitors read these same annual reports and utilize the public information to their competitive advantage.

Apparently JAB Holdings will allow PNRA to run with relative autonomy, or so believes CEO Ron Shaich. They do expect some synergies with the sister companies, especially when entering other countries.

JAB is a German family owned holding company that has acquired lots of companies including the coffee kup craze of Keurig Green Mountain and the sugary delight of Krispy Kreme.  The coffee thing with K-cups, Peets, Caribou and Mighty Leaf Tea all make a lot of synergy sense. But Krispy Kreme seems like a bit of a head-scratcher.

You know how you have the diet craze with salad at the fast-food restaurant; something for the carnivore and the vegan -- in the off chance they travel together. How about Krispy Kreme at the Panera restaurant; wholesome-healthy and the sinful-decadent? Something for both the angel as well as the devil in the family.

To Eat or Knot to eat Knot Weed - WSJ

Pittsburgh Tries to Eat Its Way Through a Savage Weed - WSJ:

What do you do, with Kudzu?

Invasives like kudzu and Japanese Knotweed, can take over square miles. They really go wild in strip mines and disturbed areas, and completely take over. Once started, the weed pushes out anything and everything in the surrounding areas -- an ugly mono-culture that disrupts entire ecosystems much like Melaleuca has done in Southern Florida.

Melaleuca trees transplanted to Florida to attempt to dry up the Everglades is not the same type that is found in herbs, incense  and oils. Ours tree apparently burn toxic, so firewood is out. One of the best uses of it is to make mulch... A rather cool business model where there's an endless supply, and land owners will typically pay you to take it. Getting paid twice for the same job, land owners and customers, while doing a good turn for the environment and society, has got to feel both good and green.

One of the best uses of kudzu, that invasive vine that has taken over the South (all the way down through Georgia), is to feed it to goats. Goats will eat anything. Once they eat all the kudzu in a field, they simply have to rest a while while it grows back.

Eating Knotweed is an interesting idea. It tastes a little like chicken, oops, no, that's an invasive animal. It apparently tastes somewhat like rhubarb. There is a limit to how much garnish people are willing to eat, however. I'm not sure that we could get everyone in the US to eat a couple helpings of rhubarb each day. Knotweed might require three helpings a day.

Unfortunately, knotweed often grows in disturbed soils like river banks and spent strip mines where the quality of the soil is not only poor, but often semi-polluted. Metals and heavy metals from coal dust/mines will make many knotweed harvests non-nutritious, at best. Modestly toxic at worst.

One of the best uses of knotweed would probably be biomass uses that go directly to incinerate, or are processed into ethanol. But, yet another kick in the pants: transporting knotweed  to the refinery/incinerator when in bloom, will spread the seed of invasion into fresh new virgin territories.

The weed is easily propagated from "cuttings" so 4-wheelers or trucks can readily spread the weed to places where it is not.

As with most (all?) invasives, this is a gift that keeps on giving.

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FDA miss, more or less!

Uncle Sam Just Told Us To Drink Water, Not Soda. You Might've Missed It http://n.pr/1TI2QUx

The guidelines, and the pictures, should be, and could be, very simple.
More... fresh fruits and vegetables. More water. More exercise.
Less... Processed foods, red meat, and sugary soft drinks.
Simple. And fits nicely into almost any diagram you want to make.

Fast 10 sustainability leadership tips | GreenBiz

'Fast 10' sustainability leadership tips | GreenBiz:

There are great tips.

I really like the "building a business case" tip.  If you can't build a pretty good business case for something, then it makes a case for change that is usually hard, nearly impossible.

Getting ahead means that you can play offense, not defense.

Langert is from McDonald's so he has had his work cut out for him. When McD has tried to introduce more healthy foods, the consumer usually hasn't been buying it... they go to McDonald's for BIG Mac and fries.

McD really grew sales after the Great Recession. Until 2014, when sales slumped (same-store sales). Consumers have been going for healthier foods like Chipotle.
* Check out the healthier Corner McCafe by McDonald's.
* Is Chipotle really healthier than McDonald's?

It would be interesting to see what Langert recommended for McDonald's. Healthier fair would likely be slower fair, ... and in a few weeks, it won't be there.

That doesn't make Langert's advise any less valuable. But in some places it is a whole lot easier to go more sustainable than in others.

Makes you wonder what Hall and Knab (2012) would suggest related to how these 10 tips fit into the profile of a Sustainable Leader?

Reference

Hall, E., & Knab, E.F. (2012, July). Social irresponsibility provides opportunity for the win-win-win of Sustainable Leadership. In C. A. Lentz (Ed.), The refractive thinker: Vol. 7. Social responsibility, (pp. 197-220). Las Vegas, NV: The Refractive Thinker® Press.
(Available from www.RefractiveThinker.com, ISBN: 978-0-9840054-2-0) 

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Top 15 Contaminated Fish You Shouldn't be Eating

Top 15 Contaminated Fish You Shouldn't be Eating:

What's the USDA recommendation for Mercury intake?

If you eat some of these fish, you will exceed safe levels if you eat it more than once every couple weeks. Sharks and swordfish I new about, but others in the list are a real eye-opener.

Biomagnification is where toxic chemicals such as mercury build up more and more as it moves up the food chain (to humans).

This is a really good article with lots of good information on sustainability and safe eating levels of fish.

Maybe salmon will move up on many people's list. Sustainable, wild would be best, of course.

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Shhh!!! Don't tell anyone it is healthy(er). With low(er) Salt.

Food Makers' Secret Ingredient: Less Salt http://online.wsj.com/articles/food-companies-quietly-cut-salt-fat-from-recipes-1403566403

Thanks. But it is too bad it has to be a secret.

It is interesting how taistless and healthy seems to be synonimous to many people.

In the meanwhile, there is so much salt in things like soup, that even then "low salt" soups are 25 to 50% of US Daily recommended. And they are still not edible for those of us who have adjusted our salt pallet. You find yourself drinking gallons of water (or, worse, sodas) for the rest of the day.

Oh and Campbells slips in High Fructos sugar into all of the tomato soups we own as about the second ingredient. What is with that? Tomatoes are already sweet.

Enriched flower.

Of the Three Deadly White foods, sugar, salt and white flower, Campbells tomato soups seemed to have all three in the top 5 ingredients. Tomatos weren't even the first ingredient in the regular tomato, paste was second!

Now we'll see about donating these soups... And being even more careful with our food shopping.

ABCs: Scientists discover another cause of bee deaths, and it's really bad news : TreeHugger

Scientists discover another cause of bee deaths, and it's really bad news : TreeHugger:

The ABCs of colony collapse among Bees appears to be really, really ugly. Well, it has been ugly, but know we know a little more about it, vs. being mainly in the dark.

This current research seems to find that a combination of pesticides and fungicides reduces the immune system of bees.

This story summarizing the research is just filled with horrible little nuggets. On average the bee pollen they studied had 9 different special ingredients in the pollen cocktails taken live from California.

Worse, much of the pollen comes from the "wild", not harvest crops.

However, finally knowing more about the cause will help hugely in addressing this critical issue (for diversity and food crops).

Remedies of better use and control of pesticides/fungicides seems obvious. But organic methods should help a little or a LOT.

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Organic. Foods to buy Organic -- The dirty dozen foods

There's a lot of discussion about foods that are really and issue to eat that are not organic.

The idea is that you can eat the cheaper stuff in many cases but definitely spend the money on some of the foods that are really likely to be very unhealthy if you don't go for the organically grown.

Look here for the annual list of the dirty and also the green foods by Environmental Working Group's annual list.

7 Best Foods to Buy Organic

Here's the Dirty 7: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/builtlean/best-food-to-buy-organic_b_3779168.html

• Potatoes
• Beef
• Milk
• Apples
• Strawberries
• Kale / Spinach
• Peaches

The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/dirty-dozen-foods#slide-1

"But organic food can cost more, meaning many families are loathe to shell out the extra cash for organic produce on every shopping trip. That's what makes the Environmental Working Group's annual list of the dirty dozen foods so useful. The group analyzes Department of Agriculture data about pesticide residue and ranks foods based on how much or little pesticide residue they have. The group has estimated that individuals can reduce their exposure by 80% if they switch to organic when buying these 12 foods."

The Dirty Dozen PLUS (14 foods to strongly consider organics)

Eating Well will tell you that there's a couple more you should keep your eye on that are dirty(er).

http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/organic_natural/dirty_dozen_plus_14_foods_you_should_buy_organic

Note that the USDA has not yet offered a Minimum daily recommendation for pesticides. So, if you want to reduce that wild-card in your diet, avoiding these foods unless they are organic is probably a good idea!.

But, it's your body and your diet, so you decide where and how you spend your money and gain your calories/nutrition.  

Healthy eats to you.

Non-GMO Food Market to Hit $800 Billion by 2017 (i.e. Organic) Environmental Leader

Non-GMO Food Market to Hit $800 Billion by 2017 · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader:

Notice that Non-GMO does not necessarily mean "organic"...

Should be cool to read the full report: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Non-GMO-Foods-7822141/

But that would cost about $3,000... So we'll have to read the discussion on it.

But the trends in whole foods -- as in Whole Foods, Hanes, Chipoltles, etc. -- has been more than impressive. The organic section of all grocery stores is growing like weeds, to offer a green mixed metaphor.

Looking forward to more momentum on the organic front.

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Hain up about 20% on great earnings?

Hain Celestial (HAIN) was way up today on great earnings... That's right, the high end and heathy food company. Shouldn't they be getting crushed on the high prices from the great drought of 2012?

Healthy eating is "not a fad, not a trend", according to CEO Simon. Consumption of the category is up 14%, vs about 1% on the main stream food categories.

Of course the super fast growth of Whole Foods doesn't hurt, but HAIN is growing like mad in Walmart, Costco,and ... wait for it ... Amazon!
Organic chips, Sleepy Time tea and a book, why not?

97% are GMO free.