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Eating Close to Home: the Locavore and Other Challenges

What happens when one takes on the challenge to eat only locally produced food (and wine) and all within a 160 kilometer radius (100 miles) for an entire month? It’s about getting back to our grassroots, supporting our local farmers and reducing the miles our food travels from paddock to plate. It’s that simple. It is a movement sweeping the world.

Coined by a Bay Area group, the term locavore refers to people who only eat food grown, processed and produced within a 100 mile radius of where they live.

More and more of us are turning our backs on imported products and getting back to our grassroots supporting local farmers and producers. Eating local food cuts back the distance it travels from the paddock to the plate and in turn reduces harm to the environment. Read more »

The Mighty King of All: Garlic

A diet rich in garlic can have a significant positive effect on your health, according to the New York Times. Really? I could have told you that a thousand times! It seems that garlic increases the production of hydrogen sulfide in your blood, which - in the short term - relaxes your blood vessels and increases blood flow.

The power to boost hydrogen sulfide production may help explain why a garlic-rich diet appears to protect against various cancers, including breast, prostate, and colon cancer, say the study authors. Higher hydrogen sulfide might also protect the heart, according to other experts. Did I mention it tastes great in sauces like Aioli? Read more »

Juice is King!

Long term supplementation of antioxidant-rich apples and purple grapes, particularly in juice form, may prevent artery hardening, researchers from France have reported for the first time.

Measures of atherosclerosis were reduced in hamsters with high cholesterol levels following consumption of the fruit and their respective juices, but the benefits were significantly greater for the juices, report researchers from the University of Montpellier 1 and 2, and the Victor Ségalen University in Bordeaux 2 in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your juicers! Read more »

Nuts to You!

Macadamia nuts included in a heart healthy diet reduced low-density cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and should be included among nuts with qualified health claims, according to researchers. “We looked at macadamia nuts because they are not currently included in the health claim for tree nuts, while other tree nuts are currently recommended as part of a heart healthy diet,” says Dr. Amy E. Griel, a recent Penn State Ph.D. recipient in nutrition and now senior nutrition scientist at The Hershey Company. “Macadamia nuts have higher levels of monosaturated fats, like those found in olive oil compared with other tree nuts.” Along with Brazil nuts and cashews, macadamia nuts are not included in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s list of nuts with qualified health claims because the cut-off point is 4 grams of saturated fat per 50 grams of nuts. Macadamia nuts have 6 grams of saturated fat per 50 grams, cashew nuts have 4.6 grams and Brazil nuts have 7.6 grams of saturated fat per 50 grams of nuts. “Epidemiological studies showed that people who are frequent nut consumers have decreased risk of heart disease,” says Penny Kris-Etherton, co-author and distinguished professor of nutritional sciences. The researchers used a controlled feeding study to compare a heart-healthy diet with 1.5 ounces – a small handful – of macadamia nuts to a standard American diet. The participants had slightly elevated cholesterol levels, normal blood pressure and were not taking lipid-lowering drugs. Researchers randomly assigned participants to either the macadamia nut diet or the standard American diet and provided all meals for the participants for five weeks. The participants then switched diets and continued eating only food provided by the researchers for another five weeks.

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