Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen

We've probably all heard of the "dirty dozen" by now...it's the 12 fruits and vegetables that contain the most pesticides when grown conventionally. Buying organic can be expensive, but these are the 12 produce we should actually splurge on for the organic (or at least eat less of the conventionally grown). There's also the "clean 15," or the fruits and veggies with the least amount of pesticides when grown conventionally. Then there's the grey area in the middle...the ones with some pesticides, so it's good to buy organic when possible, but they're not TOO bad.

Here's a handy list with the top 47 most eaten produce to keep around when grocery shopping. It's listed in order from worst pesticide offenders (#1) to least pesticide offenders (#47) and was borrowed from Organic Grocery Deals.

1 (worst) Peach (highest pesticide load)
2 Apple
3 Sweet Bell Pepper
4 Celery
5 Nectarine
6 Strawberries
7 Cherries
8 Kale
9 Lettuce
10 Grapes - Imported
11 Carrot
12 Pear (this ends the dirty dozen)
13 Collard Greens
14 Spinach
15 Potato
16 Green Beans
17 Summer Squash
18 Peppers
19 Cucumber
20 Raspberries
21 Grapes - Domestic
22 Plum
23 Orange
24 Cauliflower
25 Tangerine
26 Mushrooms
27 Banana
28 Winter Squash
29 Cantaloupe
30 Cranberries
31 Honeydew Melon
32 Grapefruit
33 Sweet Potato (here we begin the clean 15)
34 Tomato
35 Broccoli
36 Watermelon
37 Papaya
38 Eggplant
39 Cabbage
40 Kiwi
41 Sweet Peas
42 Asparagus
43 Mango
44 Pineapple
45 Sweet Corn - Frozen
46 Avocado
47 (best) Onion(lowest pesticide load)

One Part of Healthcare

Like any other business, hospitals HAVE to make money in order to stay open. Bills must be paid to keep electricity and running water, staff must be paid, etc. With that in mind, consider this excerpt from the book Overtreated by Shannon Brownlee (I recommend the book, by the way, if you want a breakdown of how Medicare works):

Congestive heart failure is the most common diagnosis leading to hospitalization among the elderly, and it’s a miserable condition to have, because when you go into a crisis and your lungs fill with fluid, you feel as if you’re drowning. Several hospitals have demonstrated than an integrated approach to care can keep heart failure patients from having a crisis and out of the hospital for long stretches. In 1995, for example, Duke University Medical Center instituted a program that allowed nurses to call heart failure patients regularly at home to check on their breathing, and to make sure they were taking the right medication, and taking it properly. Nutritionists helped patients improve their diets. Doctors shared information about them, and came up with new ways to improve care. The number of hospital admissions for congestive heart failure at Duke declined, and patients who were admitted spent less time in the hospital, bringing down the costs for insurers by 37%. There was only one problem: Duke lost money. Bringing down costs meant hospital revenue was down, due to a decline in heart failure admissions and the premium (money) hospitals make from Medicare for complicated cases. Other hospitals have run into the same problem when they implemented similar integrated care programs for such conditions as pneumonia, diabetes, and heart failure. That leaves hospitals looking for profit where they can, and providing care that loses money only when they must.

How backwards is that? Hospitals can’t help people in the most non-invasive, cost-effective way because they lose too much money. Insurance companies and Medicare pay only for certain procedures (surgeries, etc.)…they DON’T pay for the doctors and nurses to talk, even if it is about medicine and diets. Until insurance companies and Medicare start reimbursing doctors and nurses for their TIME instead of the amount of procedures, the cost of health care won’t be going down or even stabilizing (in my own opinion). How can it if doctors are forced to do the expensive stuff just to get paid?

What’s your opinion on it?

Organic Grocery Deals

Organic Grocery Deals is a forum for people to post deals, coupons, samples, etc. for all kinds of organic products.
It's currently a semi-small forum with just a handful of updates each day, but it's still useful. Check it out and post any deals you know of! I'd love to see this forum really grow.

Chocolate Attack!

I try not to deprive myself of foods I love. I don't have a problem with eating a little bit of junk food every now and then. A Reese cup or other chocolate is usually reserved for those occasions. A few days ago, however, I OD'd on sugar and preservatives. For 3 days I craved nothing but junk food. I felt like a drug addict, counting down the moments until my next fix, wondering where it was going to come from...and how to hide it. The people closest to me know I'm trying to eat better so they encourage me along the way, which includes discouraging me from the junk. I didn't want them to know about my multiple break-downs during those few days. Candy bars, cake, cookies - I indulged in all of it in a matter of hours.

For a couple of days, I felt like I'd failed. I was almost ready to throw in the towel and watch myself go downhill from over-processed, nutritionally-void faux foods. But I had to realize those 3 days were behind me. I couldn't change what I'd eaten, but I didn't need to dwell on it either. What I ate/eat in the present and future is more important.

I'm currently skimming through Breaking the Food Seduction by Neal Barnard, M.D. Here's an excerpt that I could empathize with:

You’ve felt the seduction. “I know I shouldn’t,” you tell yourself. But tastes and aromas call out like Sirens, leaving you little hope of resisting. We love food—and adore it sometimes—even when it doesn’t love us back. Love is supposed to be nourishing and even invigorating, but sometimes our affairs with food pass from love to enslavement.
Foods are not our enemies. They nourish us and give us pleasure. But sometimes enough is enough.
No one ever told me they just couldn’t get away from radishes or green beans. I never met anyone hooked on spinach, cantaloupe, pears, or romaine lettuce, either. The seductions are sugar, chocolate, cheese, and meat, mainly.

The bolding is not in the book...it's just the part of the passage that hit home the most with me. By hiding the junk food, I felt almost like I was having a forbidden affair. That's certainly not a nourishing love. So here's my mantra: I will not let food enslave me. I will enjoy it without being obsessed, addicted, or overly compulsive.

Seasonal Allergies: One More Reason to Eat Healthier

School has begun again, and I'm still figuring out how to get back into a routine and have time for everything when 7+ hours of work are added in. Please bare with me if there are 2 or 3 days between posts.

Spring and fall are my least favorite seasons when it comes to allergies. My face and eyes get extremely itchy, I sneeze like crazy, and I can't hardly breathe through my nose. It seems all of the really effective drugs on the market cause drowsiness. Those that don't just weren't potent enough for my extremes, so I thought I just had to deal with it. I thought "natural remedies" to allergies were old wives' tales.

But an interesting thing happened during Spring when I first started eating healthier...my allergies weren't nearly as severe. No, they didn't completely go away. There was a day or 2 when my eyes still itched or there was sinus pressure around my nose. That little bit was WAY better than what my allergies normally are. Last year, there were some days I couldn't even function because my eyes itched so badly. All I could do was lay in bed with a cold, damp towel on my face no matter what kind of medicine or eye drops I used. My face itched so badly that I had to be careful not to leave marks from scratching. Don't even get me started on all of the sneezing.

But enough about me. What about those natural remedies?
I'm not a scientist, doctor, nutritionist, or any other certified specialist, but my best guess is that by eating healthier, your body has more energy and resources to heal itself and fight only the bad bacteria rather than allergens.

Here are a few "natural" ideas from other sources:
(Natural Ways, ABC News, and printed sources)
**Folate, according to a recent article published in a local magazine, helps counteract seasonal allergies. Folate is highest in leafy green veggies, asparagus, enriched cereals/grains, lentils and beans, and oranges.
**Saline or salt water - as a spray or mist, these help wash away the pollen from the nose
**Fruits and veggies, particularly those high in antioxidants.
**Fresh garlic, cayanne pepper, or jalapenos - for stuffy heads
**Green tea extract - is rich in phytonutrients that help to ward off everyday cellular attacks
**Magnesium (Citrate) - buffers the acidic stage of an allergic reaction
**Vitamin B15 - Helps lessen muscle fatigue and increase endurance
**Vitamin C (Ascorbate) - Provides an anti-histamine-like effect.
**Omega 3 fatty acids - found highest walnuts and fatty fish like salmon & tuna

It's Natural: Homemade Sugar Scrub

Keeping our bodies healthy involves more than just healthy eating. The toxins we subject ourselves to every day also effect our systems. It's Natural is a new section of posts where I'll tell about natural products to replace the chemical ones. It may be homemade, store bought, or a new use for a natural item. If you know of an easy, homemade solution, please leave a comment.

Homemade Sugar Scrub
1 cup sugar
1 cup olive oil
1/3 cup kosher or sea salt
1 tbsp lemon juice (lime or pure orange juice will work too)

Stir together. Rub a small amount on hands, feet, elbows, and other rough spots. Rinse off with warm water.

Store unused sugar scrub in the fridge.

The sugar and salt scrub off dead skin cells while the oil moisturizes. The citrus juice gets rid of odors, and lemon juice may help lighten dark spots. Other essential oils can be used in place of the juice if desired. If you have cuts on your hands, I recommend not adding the salt because it will BURN.

Review: Wild Snax Energy Bar

I grew up eating candy bars...Snickers, Milky Way, Reese Cups (my absolute favorite), PayDays, Twix, Baby Ruth, Hershey bars (especially the Cookies 'n Creme), Kit Kats, Butterfingers. Are you craving something sweet yet?

I blame those darn candy bars for my attraction to energy bars. It's not that I want the energy (though that doesn't hurt) - I'm drawn to the convenience of grabbing it quickly and size/packaging that allows eating with no fuss. I like quick, simple snacks that don't require microwaves, forks, napkins, or both hands. Unfortunately, even most energy bars have preservatives, too much sugar, or have added caffeine. I found a store-brand trail mix bar that was good...nothing but honey and nuts. I think one kind had cranberries, too.

Yesterday, I found Fruit Snax Energy Bars that claim to have 2 apples in every bar. I tried Wildberry flavor, but there was also apple strawberry, apple apricot, and apple raspberry. It's kind of small at 1.4 oz, but it was just enough to satisfy my craving. It's like a cross between a typical energy bar and a fruit roll-up. Ingredients: juice concentrates, natural flavor, apple fiber, and ascorbic acid. Think smooshed fruit. The ingredients are smooshed together and flattened to approximately 1/4". It was a nice mix between sweet and tangy fruit. The texture was interesting with small smooshed fruit pieces, but I'll buy it again next time I come across it. I found them on sale for .50/bar, but you can buy them on Amazon for $12 for a box of 12 (+ shipping).

Sweet, Juicy PEACHES

For the last couple of days, I've been eating my way through a basket of freshly picked peaches. They are absolutlely delicious...sweet with a hint of tang-iness and plenty of juice that threatens to run down my chin with every delectable bite.

Peaches are currently a fairly cheap buy since they're in season. According to the Walmart ads I looked at, conventional ones are between .78 - $1 per pound this week, depending on where you live in the US. However, keep in mind that conventional peaches are on the dirty dozen list - they're loaded with pesticides. I recommend buying organic peaches if at all possible.

Here are a few recipes to use those cheap peaches. I tried to find ones that used the cheapest or the least amount of ingredients to keep the cost down.

Strawberry-Banana-Peach Smoothie - I tried this one this morning. It was really good, with room for variation. You can try almost any variety of juice instead of orange-peach-mango, though I recommend one in the red, orange, or yellow color range. You can add yogurt too...vanilla, plain, Greek, strawberry, or peach would be good.

Peach Brulee - A quick dessert. You can easily use fresh peaches (peeled) instead of canned.

Spicy Peach appetizer, Roasted Peaches, and Fresh Peach Pie from Kitchen Parade

Arugula Salad with Peaches & Feta - a light, very summery salad

Grilled Fruit with Apple-Maple Syrup

Even Sunscreen has Disadvantages

Here's a recent article from AOL News: Study Finds Vitamin D Deficiency in Kids.

A study of 6,000 people, ages 1-21, showed a Vitamin D deficiency in 70% of the nation's children and teens. That's 58.4 million youth. Lack of Vitamin D is associated with bone diseases like rickets and osteoporosis. Long term effects may include type 1 diabetes, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.
The cause is sited as poor diet and lack of sunshine. Fish, shiitake mushrooms, and milk top the list of foods rich in Vitamin D. Personally, those aren't foods that often show up in my own diet. As for sunshine, study leader Dr. Michal L. Melamed said, "Kids have more sedentary lifestyles today and are not spending as much time outdoors. The widespread use of sunscreens, which block UV-B rays, has only compounded the problem." Sunburn is bad for our skin and poses more risk for skin cancer, but not every outdoor occasion requires spf 50+.

Milk (including soymilk), orange juice, infant formula, and some dry foods are fortified with added Vitamin D. However, another article posted on Reuters last year noted that "6 percent of the children fed fortified formula also were vitamin D deficient. The researchers said this raised questions about whether the fortification was sufficient." For me, this raises the question is laboratory fortification as good as the real thing?