Monday, October 3, 2011

How to Green Your Grocery Shopping & enter to win a copy of Forks Over Knives

Foraging for a Healthy & Sustainable Meal

Last week we had Gina Cawly from Conscious Corner talk with ASHA staff about greening their shopping as a lead in to our biannual green living event on October 5. Conscious Corner is a group of stores committed to healthy and mindful living, supporting small organic farms, individual artisans, socially responsible companies, the environment, animals and the community. They own Roots Market, Bark Pawsitive Petfood, Great Sage Organic Green Cuisine and Nest Earth-friendly Clothing and Gifts which are all in Clarksville or Olney, Maryland.


Pesticides in Produce


Gina suggested using foodnews.org as a source for information on the dirty dozen and clean 15. Most experts recommend that you eat the Dirty Dozen only when you can get them organic and that you're safe in purchasing the Clean 15 in conventional form. You can sign up to "Get the Guide" on the Food News site and then download a pdf or an iPhone or Droid app.


Can you name the top three items on the Dirty Dozen list? List them in a comment below and I'll randomly chose someone to win a copy of Forks Over Knives. Include your email address or Twitter handle so I can contact you if you win. I'll select the winner on October 14. (You must be within the Continental US to win.)


Meat and Dairy


I won't repeat what I've shared about meat. If you're interested, you can read my post on Meatless Mondays. Gina talked a bit about eggs and the practice of killing the male chicks. I'm not going to go into it too much here because we eat five dozen eggs a week in our house and I don't want to think about it. We do order them from South Mountain Creamery and I believe their practices are more humane, but I should check into it more thoroughly.


Gina shared this trailer of Forks Over Knives with us. I didn't get the imagery at first. I was picturing a salad fork and a steak knife until I read a review I'll share in a bit. It's really fork -- food -- and knife -- scalpel. The message being you control your health with what you eat. They advocate eating a "plant-based diet." They clearly mean vegan, but wisely steer clear of using this label. All or nothing propositions are hard to embrace, but most of us can probably imagine eating less meat, fewer processed foods and more plants.









The scientific claims in the movie are very compelling. I found myself enthusiastically describing a number of them to my husband. I decided to look some of them up and came across this review -- "Forks Over Knives": Is the Science Legit? Health Blogger Denise Minger painstakingly analyzes each scientific claim made in the movie. I like that she supports the message, but chooses to question the claims. This is a long, but fascinating review. You'll learn that many of the claims in the movie aren't so sound, but like Denise, I still like the message.


I think other staff might be interested in this documentary, so I'm looking into hosting a screening or discussion. Please let me know if you'd be interested in participating. 


The movie is available on Netflix for instant viewing. 


Fair Trade


What does Fair Trade represent?
  • Fair Price for Producers
  • Empowerment and Self-Sufficiency
  • Investment in Communities and Cultural Heritage
  • Women's Participation
  • Enviromental Sustainability 
Look for these labels: 
Label Reading


What else should you look for when reading labels?
  • GMO Free
  • No cotton seed oil
  • No high fructose corn syrup
  • No dyes
  • No artificial flavors

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I learned so much!

Tom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom said...

#1 Apples, #2 Celery, #3 Strawberries

Steve Ritch said...

The worst of the dirty dozen is: #1-Apples, #2-Celery, and #3-Strawberries

Great Blog Janet!

Anonymous said...

Currently: apples, celery, and strawberries (with apples replacing peaches!).

Jeanette J

Pam L said...

#1 Apples, #2 Celery, #3 Strawberries
I spoke with an apple farmer at Homestead Farms. He wanted us to hear a bit from the farmer's perspective on apples being #1 on the dirty dozen list. He said apples are #1 because there are five different sprays approved for use. That doesn't necessarily mean all five are used by most farmers. At Homestead Farms they only spray when necessary and only use one type. He went on to say that apples are especially hard to grow organically. Which explains why the Green Team had such a hard time finding a local apple orchard that was organic. In the end, we went local, low-spray, well-washed apples for the staff to enjoy today at the ASHA Living Green event.

Anonymous said...

#1 Apples, #2 Celery, #3 strawberries

PM

Anonymous said...

Apples, celery, and strawberries--my three main foods. Diane Paul

Karen Graham-Cannon said...

Apples, celery, strawberries

-Karen G-C

Anonymous said...

Great post on a great session! I would definitely like to see a screening of Forks Over Knives, and I appreciate the link to the review.

Here's my answer for the contest!
1) apples
2) celery
3) strawberries

Taniza H.

Anonymous said...

Apples, celery and strawberries.
Melanie

jmcnichol said...

And the winner is... Steve Ritch. Congratulations Steve!

How To Lower Cholesterol said...

The video is very fantastic!It delivers the info well and an eye opener to change into a healthy diet.

Anonymous said...

The so-called balanced review on another web site is NOT. Here is the post I put on his web site:

You are making a mistake that is easy to make; but is critical. You are mixing two different monkey studies that are not using the same variables. One monkey study was “protein restricted” and high protein. In the OTHER study they were fed 5% ANIMAL protein and 20% animal protein.

Based on your analysis we can expect low animal protein fed monkeys to die young, but guess what, monkeys in the wild NEVER EAT ANIMAL protein. They eat bananas and other fruit and plants! You got that? Bananas! THEY ARE NOT MEAT EATERS!

This means they get enough protein eating fruits and other plants, which means the study that gave them VERY low protein actually took protein out of the food that they were fed, so that they got almost none!

An Angus bull can eat grass and grow big and strong! Because it is in his DNA. That is also why monkeys can eat fruit and plants and get enough protein. WE TOO can get enough protein from plants and fruits, we are only in danger if we only eat plants that are very low in protein. Beans and wheat and other plants provide plenty of protein.