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Eating Local in the Desert

joshua-tree

On a trip to the high desert community of Joshua Tree, Calif., I was happy to see a Saturday morning farmers’ market in the middle of town, where there hadn’t been one on my last visit a few years before.

As I perused the well-stocked stalls of apricots, strawberries, cherries, greens, potatoes, eggs, and all the other goodies that are in season here in Northern California as well, I wondered how far the farmers had driven. I talked to a few and found that most farm less than an hour away. …

A Simple Tip to Lower Your Blood Pressure

blood-pressure

My boss has hypertension. And about two years ago, he nearly died. He was hundreds of pounds overweight, but because of a disciplined diet and exercise regimen, he’s lost 150 pounds (with more to go) and is feeling much better.

One of his newly found secrets? He eats a banana a day. The potassium helps him lower his blood pressure.

Hypertension, the clinical name for chronic high blood pressure, is caused by a variety of factors, namely stress, obesity, high sodium intake and low potassium. So eating a diet high in potassium …

Serve Up a Superfood Salad

Here’s a gorgeous and tasty salad that’s packed with super foods to keep your immune system in top form. Enjoy it for a light lunch or dinner or serve it to guests. It’s sure to perk up the winter doldrums and inspire your palate.

Beet, Orange and Spinach Superfood Salad

Serves 4

4 small-medium red beets, scrubbed trimmed and drizzled with a little olive oil.
4 small handfuls of baby spinach
2 juicy navel or blood oranges
2 tablespoons juice from the oranges
2 tablespoons white wine or champagne vinegar
7 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Toasted …

24% of Groceries Get Trashed (and 8 Other Insanities)

There’s only one way to tackle the biggest obstacles – a tiny bit at a time. Every small contribution adds up. Here are eight challenges that face us today, and the seemingly small changes to our lifestyles (and so to ourselves) that could make a real difference.

THE FOOD WE EAT

Image: svadilfari

Food, water, shelter – the most basic requirements to sustain human life. Thanks to catastrophic global agflation, one of these is in widespread turmoil. Lack of food is causing

Raw Food on the Run: Confessions of a LARABAR Addict

A few months back I discovered the most fabulous treat. But they’re also a healthy snack. Or even breakfast. I’m so addicted to LARABARs that I’m eating one right now, justifying it for research and inspiration.

Those with knowledge of the Raw Food Movement are aware of the health benefits of consuming uncooked fruits and nuts, which my lovely LARABARS contain. But even if you prefer beef over beans, there’s bound to be a flavor that moves you. At the moment I’m nibbling away at an Apple Pie LARABAR. Perfect balance of sweet …

Melamine Continued: More Pervasive Than We Thought

Remember that recent melamine scare in China? You know, the chemical that was found in milk and killed a few Chinese infants and harmed at least 10,000? Yes, the very same chemical that was responsible for many animal deaths from tainted pet food. Unfortunately, we’re not over the melamine problem yet.

Recently, melamine was found in high levels in Chinese eggs too, because of chickens fed on melamine-laden wheat gluten. If you’re thinking, “Oh, but that’s in China, I eat American eggs,” remember the wheat trade is global. Wheat gluten from …

What's So Bad About Those Waves of Grain, Anyway?

Corn is everywhere, it’s undeniable. Most American cows are corn-fed (even though their grass-digesting stomachs suffer greatly when fed with grain), high fructose corn syrup seems to taint every processed food and drink, and many American rural areas are covered with acre upon acre of corn fields. It’s a romantic vision, those beautiful cornstalks with their pretty tassels sprinkling pollen in the breeze.

Before industrial agriculture, corn was grown with companion plants that would help nourish the soil, and crops were rotated so living soil could regenerate itself, but in commercial

Today's Corn Isn't What It Used to Be

Corn ““ it’s an American favorite. We love it popped, roasted, processed into chips, baked into corn muffins, liquified into soda, hydrogenated into crackers ““ the list goes on and on. And what would a great American picnic be without hot buttered corn on the cob?

And really, what would Mexico be without the tortilla, tamale or atole? Maize (corn’s original name) was domesticated from a wild grass thousands of years ago in southern Mexico and soon became a staple of the Americas, from North to South. But if corn was …

How Corn Changed the Cattle Industry

Once upon a time, cows lived in pastures and grazed on grass, living a life that was as quiet and peaceful as their bovine nature. But then, somebody discovered that feeding cattle cheap, subsidized corn would fatten them up two to three times as fast as grass and that you could raise hundreds of cattle in the same pastoral space that would only support a few. Thus began the era of modern feedlot cattle.

The truth is, a cow’s stomach is made to eat grass ““ and only grass. Corn is a grain (not a …

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