Artificial Additives

We just returned from the Expo East Natural Products Trade Show in Boston.  At each trade show I seek out and choose the latest and greatest new product or brand among the thousands of foods on display.  This year’s winner is:

Plum Organics Kids Meals and Plum Organics Baby Food

All meals are frozen which means there are NO Preservatives!
All meals are Organic!

Below is the list of their products:

KIDS MEALS: Bowties Pasta with Creamy Sweet Potato
                    Cheese filled Spinach Tortellini with Marinara Sauce
                    Rainbow Pasta Shells with Creamy Parmesan Sauce
                    Italian Sausage Marinara Suace over Multigrain Pasta
All include a Veggie Delight mix

 - 100% organic ingredients
 - Fortified with Omega-3 - brain food!
 - No artificial sweeteners, colors or flavors
 - Og trans fat, low fat
 - Convenient 2-item frozen meals
 - Biodegradable Tray

BABY FOODS: Pumpkin Banana
                      Mango Muesli
                      Black Bean Tomato Tagout
                      Harvest Vegetables with Turkey
                      Pears and Apples
                      Sweet Potatoes
                      Super Greens
                      Super Greens Multigrain
                      Red Lentil Veggie
                      Pasta with Veggies and Chicken
                      Banana Peach Rice Pudding
                      Vegetable Stew with Beef
 - No Added Sugar
 - No Added Salt
 - No Artificial Ingredients

As usual, good ideas spring from a need and desire to do a better job.  I met and talked with the founder of this new company.  As a young mom, she looked at herself and said, “There has to be a better way to feed babies and kids.”  She began by feeding her baby son and now has developed a wonderful line of foods for young ones starting at 6 months.  If you recall from our interview with pediatrician, Dr. Ocampo, the recommendation is to not start by feeding your babies sweet foods.  Plum Organics line for babies offers many non-sweet, vegetable and other healthy options.  Bravo! 

We encourage you to look for this line and weave it into your current food choices.  Plum Organics is a new bright light in the food industry.  It’s a win/win for all.

… for the health of families,
ellen

Kids

$2 Billion - that’s how much money shoppers are expected to spend on candy for Halloween.  That’s 2 with nine zeros following it - $2,000,000,000!  How much of this is going on credit cards adding to debt?  How many credit cards will be used to pay for the medicine purchased for all the kids who will eat this candy and then get sick?  How much money will be spent paying for dentist bills afterwards?  Halloween is a costly holiday and no one even gets presents - just candy full of fake dyes, flavors, and sugar. 

What’s the solution?  Since we are warned not to give out or receive anything thing that is not packaged, why not some small bags of trail mix, crackers (Cheddar Bunnies), and even cookies (Late July) that kids love - the ones that meet our Better Food Choices standards? Joseph’s Lite Cookies has some little snack paks of cookies that have been Kid Kritics Approved.  This is money better spent.  I also like the idea of having parties with home-cooked treats, especially those using fruit.  Serve a good ice cream made with real cane sugar and cream topped with frozen berries and nuts (for those not allergic) - yum!   If you use chocolate syrup, make sure it is Ah! Laska.  Let’s Go Organic has some sprinkles made with natural food colors that are fun. 

As a child years ago, I loved running around our village in a home-made costume going from house to house for treats.  There was one house always to be avoided because they always made you do a trick first- sing a song or something - before they gave you anything.  I am afraid that those days of fun innocent trick or treating are over - too many real scary possibilites in today’s world of “crazies”.  Unfortunately, this holiday tends to lend itself to bad experiences.  

Please spend your portion of this $2 billion on good healther food and fun.

Everything you put into your mouth and swallow has a positive or negative reaction in your body.  Everything. 

A few nights ago, my son began vomiting at midnight and couldn’t stop. With time, the frequency of vomiting increased.   After ten nightmare hours of this I took him to doctor who immediately put him on an IV with some drugs to quell the retching.  It worked.  He was zonked for 17 hours. This long period of silence was eerie.  I kept walking into the bedroom to check to see if he was still breathing.  The good news is that after he woke up and he was fine.  Why did this happen?  He ate something that caused his body’s alarm system to go into action and repel whatever had “ food poisoned” him. 

Too bad our bodies aren’t quicker to repel the ingredients that collectively cause cell damage and disease.  Your body knows what foods properly fuel our bodily systems and what “food” it needs to turn over to your good guy defense system to destroy.  The destruction and management of cell damaging foods is your immune systems job. When you insist on continuing to overtax the body’s immune system by eating too much unhealthy food, eventually the immune system goes into overload, breaks-down and the bad guys win. Bottom line, you get sick.

Each time you put something in your mouth and swallow it, think twice and ask yourself this question, “Is it worth it?”  Is the Robo popsicle worth it?  Is the tri-cheese pepperoni pizza worth it?  Are the French fries worth it?  How about when you go to the movies and order the giant soda with the giant container filled with popcorn coated with fake butter?  (Doesn’t it drive you bonkers when you have to listen to them grab and munch on the popcorn during the quiet moments in the movie?) A treat once in a while is okay.  Make sure it is worth it.  Have a scoop of REAL ice cream made with REAL sugar, cream and cho colate – not a fake version.  Enjoy it once in a while – not often.  I look forward to my annual scoop of real mint chocolate chip ice cream that is not dyed green. (Mint flavors come from the oil of the leaf.  These oils are not green.)  Writing this makes me salivate for my favorite ice cream as I now anticipate it melting all over my eager taste buds . Yes, indeed.   It will be worth it!  Maybe I won’t wait until summer…

… for the health of families

Ellen

Fortunately, I cannot stand the smell of air-fresheners.  Perfumes give me headaches - I am one of those.  Thus, I have never been tempted or lured by the sell phrases of air-freshener companies. 

I hope you are not tempted or lured into buying and using air-fresheners.  Research supports the fact that none of us should:

1. Increases risk of pulmonary diseases
2. Raises odds of developing asthma symptoms by 71 percent
3.  Chemical 1,4 dichlorobenxene often found in air fresheners, make it more likely for those with high blood pressure to see a reduction in lung function
4. When used in small rooms not well ventilated (bathrooms!), the emitance of pollutants that cause high levels of formaldehyde, a cancer causing carcinogen, can lead to respiratory irritation.

Dr. Norina Ocampo, a pediatrician who recently was interviewed on our Blog Talk Radio Show, Better Food Choices, said the number one illness in her practice is upper respiratory infections.  The number of her patients with asthma is on the rise.  I’ll bet that air-fresheners in the home, even baby rooms, are causing some of these illnesses.  Little bodies with little lungs are vulnerable.  All lungs are vulnerable.

Get rid of those chemically inducin artifical smelling air-fresheners.  Open your windows.

Source: Dr. Weil, “Question: I use air fresheners in my home, but have been told I shouldn’t. Are they bad for my health?”, Prevention Magazine, November 2008, p. 44.