Years ago a friend lost his job as an engineer. Rather than seeking employment in the corporate world, he decided to farm. Not growing up on a farm, it took several years of poverty for them to see the fruits of their labor.

Why am I telling you this? One day his wife confided in me that the only fresh salads they got were from the weeds in the backyard. Unbelievable? Not really. The herbs growing in our backyards contain many more nutrients than the bags of iceberg lettuce in the produce section of the grocery that most of us call a salad. Let me introduce you to a wild salad—one of highly nutritious herbs—growing in my yard.

 Dandelion

The chief of salad greens, dandelion (Taraxaum officinale) cleanses your liver and kidneys and promotes digestion. It also delivers boron, calcium, and silicon; making it an excellent choice for preventing osteoporosis and other bone and muscle conditions.

“Young dandelion leaves make delicious sandwiches, the tender leaves being laid between slices of bread and butter and sprinkled with salt. The addition of a little lemon juice and pepper varies the flavor,” states the classic book on herbs A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve.

 Chickweed

Grieve also says that when boiled, the young leaves of chickweed (Stellaria media) “can hardly be distinguished from spring spinach, and are equally wholesome.” A crawling perennial, this wholesome herb grows about six inches tall. It has hairy stems, ovate leaves, and star-shaped white flowers (from which the name stellaria comes). Chickweed is native to Asia and Europe, but you can now find it in most parts of the world. It is a wonderful addition to skin products and also contains compounds that aid digestion; making it the perfect salad green. “Apart from its medicinal uses,” says Andrew Chevallier, FNIMH in his Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, “chickweed is a tasty and nutritious vegetable.”

 Lamb’s Quarters

Another ideal addition to your salad is lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album). Amazingly, this European relative of spinach actually tastes like spinach. It branches like a tree and unchecked, can reach up to six feet tall. However, for your salad, you would want the young, tender leaves. Diamond shaped, they appear to have white powder on the undersides. High in beta-carotene, calcium, potassium, and iron, lamb’s quarters provides more nutritional punch than its cultivated cousin. Some folks even harvest it from their field before plowing and can or freeze it just as they would spinach.

Now that we have the foundation for our salad, with what shall we top it? I could add a few red clover blossoms, a cup of wild berries, some sprigs of mint, or even some chopped green onions—all from the backyard.

But this only begins our produce foraging experience. My backyard, and probably yours as well, also has herbs for health, ones for tea, and fruit for dessert. What have you eaten from your backyard lately? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

References:

•  Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve
• Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew Chevallier, FNIMH

Disclaimer:

If you are not familiar with foraging, please use a field guide for proper identification or have an experienced forager accompany you before eating wild foods.

Photo by Chiot’s Run

As a child I remember my grandmother carrying around a bottle of tiny pills she would drop into her coffee or tea. She said it was better for her than sugar. Used as an artificial sweetener since the late 1800s, those little pills (saccharin) would later carry a warning label that they caused cancer. Since further studies, the FDA removed that label. So my question is, does anyone really know? Personally, I’d rather use a natural sweetener, not one formulated in a chemist’s laboratory. Introducing stevia…

Native to Paraguay, Stevia (Stevia rebaudianais) is an herb said to be up to 300 times sweeter than sugar. It can be used straight from the herb bed, or in a processed form of drops or powder. Not only is it sweet with zero calories, studies have shown its sweet glycosides to have a positive effect on those with blood sugar issues. Although some might complain of an aftertaste when used in drinks, stevia is heat-stable and can be used in baked goods successfully. Let’s look at the different forms.

Loose Leaf

Like any herb, you can buy stevia leaves in the dried form. Or, you can grow it and make your own sweetener. The dried leaves contain about 8-12% of the sweet glycosides and work great to sweeten your iced tea. To make a gallon of tea, I pour about a quart of boiling water over 6 regular-sized tea bags and roughly two tablespoons of stevia leaves. (You will have to experiment with the amount here, to suit your own taste preferences. The longer you steep the tea, the more of an aftertaste the stevia leaves.) After steeping, I strain into my gallon pitcher, and add ice and cold water. Considering the price of evaporated cane juice recently jumped up 50%, using stevia provides quite a savings for a large family drinking sweet tea in the summer.

Concentrated drops

Sold in 2-ounce dropper bottles for around $10, you only need 1-4 drops to sweeten most beverages. For a great substitute to soda, you can add a few drops of flavored stevia extract to water, or even seltzer or soda water. Lara DeHaven, The Texas Homesteader, discusses her struggle to eliminate soft drinks from her diet. As we know, most soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners that have adverse effects on our health. Lara’s alternative? Mineral water with flavored stevia drops.

Stevia powder

If you like to bake sweet things, but want to cut back or eliminate the sugar, try stevia powder. Containing 85-95% sweet glycosides, a 25-gram bottle of the powder equals almost 17 pounds of sugar. To substitute in your favorite recipes, you use ½ teaspoon to a tablespoon (depending on the brand and whether it contains fillers) to replace a cup of sugar.

What about you? Have you ever tried using stevia? Please share your experiences in the comments.

References:

http://www.sweetleaf.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

Photo by Arria Belli

Snack food. What comes to mind when you hear that? Cookies? Chips? Ice cream? Anything in a bag that rattles or that is covered in chocolate? Surely, you can do better than that. I would like to challenge you to steer clear of those machines loaded with colorful lures that hook you into breaking the diet, or otherwise compromise your good health. In place of those packaged, factory-made morsels of ill health, consider the following options.

Vegetables

You don’t even have to cut them up, anymore. If money is no option, you can purchase tubs of cut-up vegies in the produce section of your grocery just for snacking. If you need to pinch your pennies, cut up your own tubs and keep in the refrigerator for a quick snack. If you are on the go a lot, or have small children that like to help themselves, divvy up the vegies into little zip-shut snack bags. Then, when you are heading out the door, grab a baggie or two for the road. A few that keep well for snacking are:

• Carrots
• Celery
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Green beans
• Asparagus

Fruit

Keep a bowl of fruit on your kitchen counter for a healthy sweet treat. Fresh fruit is always a better choice than fruit canned in heavy syrup. If you can your own fruit when in season, cut the syrup. I use the recipe for thin syrup and then cut the sugar that in half yet again. It makes no difference to the final quality. Also, when I can applesauce, I choose Golden Delicious apples. These apples are so sweet, no added sugar is necessary. Whole fruit is another good choice for those people on the go. Who needs a something out of the vending machine when they have an apple in their bag?

Trail Mix

Don’t go buy the trail mix with the chocolate candies in it. Go to a store that sells bulk groceries and buy the ingredients for your trail mix and mix at home. Some great suggestions are nuts, dried fruit, coconut flakes, Cheerios or Chex cereal pieces, and sunflower seeds. Having a healthy combination of protein and carbohydrates is suggested. Again, this is something you can divvy up into snack baggies or small containers for individual servings.

Cheese and Crackers

If you want a protein snack, don’t reach for the Snickers bar. Ounce for ounce, a slice of cheddar cheese gives you more protein than the peanuts in that candy. Cheese also has the staying power you will want for the afternoon slump, too.

Yogurt

Not only is yogurt high in calcium (about 100 mg. per cup), it provides the pro-biotics that our digestive system needs. Also, making your own yogurt is easy and fun if you learn to do it in a cooler. If you have access to raw milk, your homemade yogurt will have many more health benefits than that purchased from the store.

What about you? What kinds of healthy snacks do you keep on hand? I’d love to have you share your ideas with us in the comments.

Photo by JennaPrete

The cranberry is a small, red fruit that is often passed over in favor of the blueberry. However, the cranberry has several health benefits and is most commonly available as a juice. If your juice of choice with your breakfast is orange, stop and consider for a moment the benefits of cranberry too – and perhaps swap out your regular juice once in a while! Here’s a closer look at cranberry and the health benefits it offers.

Botanical Description of Cranberry

The cranberry (Vaccinium spp.) is of the Ericaceae plant family. It is related to both the bilberry and the blueberry and is similar in size. However, the cranberry is a deep red fruit on maturity (it starts off as white and then turns red). The cranberry bush is a low vine or shrub that creeps along the ground. It has dark pink flowers and small, evergreen leaves. Cranberries are a popular commercial crop in parts of the United States and Canada.

Ingredients in Cranberry Juice

Some of the ingredients of cranberry juice are vitamin C, vitamin A, beta-carotene, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and fiber. Vitamin C is a powerful anti-oxidant and helps to protect the immune system. Vitamin A and beta-carotene are powerful free radical scavengers that destroy carcinogens and protect the body from heart disease and stroke. Calcium helps to form strong bones and teeth and also helps to protect against heart disease. Potassium helps to promote a health nervous system.

(source on vitamin and mineral functions: Prescription for Nutritional Healing, James F. Balch, Phyllis A. Balch)

Health Benefits

Cranberries have several health benefits; here’s what cranberries can do for you:

• help with urinary tract infections – drinking one glass of unsweetened cranberry juice can help with the prevention of urinary tract infections such as cystitis and pyelonephritis (infection of the kidneys). The main cause of urinary tract infections is Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria and cranberry juice helps to rid the body of such bacteria.
• help prevent cardiovascular disease – research studies have shown that drinking 3 glasses of cranberry juice in a day raises the levels of “good cholesterol” in the blood and increases the levels of plasma antioxidants which overall reduces the risk of heart disease (source: ScienceDaily).
• help prevent tooth decay – a glass of unsweetened cranberry juice can help reduce the build up of dental plaque as the chemical ingredients found in cranberry juice inhibit the growth of mouth bacteria.
• help prevents kidney stones – cranberry juice is effective in clearing the body of toxins and wastes, thus leading to the prevention of kidney stones (although this has yet to be conclusively proved scientifically).
• help fight colds and flu – cranberry juice is rich in vitamin C which helps build up the immune system against diseases such as colds and flu.

(source: Cranberryjuice.com except where otherwise accredited)

The Healthy Alternative

There are a wide variety of different types of cranberry juice available from stores. Check and make sure that you purchase unsweetened (from sugar) cranberry juice to benefit from the full potential benefits. In addition, watch out for any additional ingredients that might have been added to the cranberry juice.

You might want to make your own cranberry juice from fresh cranberries, water and sugar; check the internet and natural health books for recipes that are easy to make at home.

Cranberry juice is a healthy alternative to processed fruit juices that you often find on the store shelf and it is full of potential valuable health benefits. Cranberries are sometimes referred to as a “superfruit” and it is easy to see why! Next time you are in the store, give a little bit of consideration to the small, red fruit on the store shelf.

Photo by Half Chinese

At the moment I am on a pretty crazy and restrictive diet as I am trying to track down some food allergies that have been bugging me. So because I have been mostly eating veggies and fruits, I have been craving some good dark chocolate. But, even the best dark chocolate I can find all seem to contain dairy, soy, and sugar all things I am trying to avoid.

Well, last night I hit the jackpot. I found a healthy chocolate fudge recipe that I modified a bit based on the ingredients that I had – and I am so glad that I did!

Recipe Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder (health benefits of cocoa)
• 1 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla
• 1/4 Cup Honey (health benefits of honey)

Also make sure you have some parchment paper on hand.

How to make it:

Final Thoughts

Nothing warms body and soul in January more than a simmering pot of soup. No wonder it has been dubbed National Soup Month.

Making a pot of soup involves more than haphazardly throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot of water and hoping for the best. I carefully choose each ingredient. Texture and color matter. Taste and smell matter. Everything matters. My soup is art.

The Stock

Soup begins with a quality stock—never out of a jar, can, or box; and certainly not water with bouillon cubes added. To get healthy stock, you must simmer bones, with a little apple cider vinegar added, for several hours. The vinegar extracts precious minerals from the bones. I suggest you make your stock in big batches and freeze or can for future use.

The Meat

Most Americans eat soup with a chicken or beef base. I have made soup with venison and pork with great success. Whatever meat you choose, make certain you have a stock on hand that will complement the flavor. You wouldn’t want to put venison in turkey broth, for example. Start with meat from organically raised, grass-fed animals. Cut into bite-sized pieces and brown in a little butter or olive oil. Once seared on the outside, add your onions and garlic and continue until the onion turns clear. Then add your stock and vegetables.

The Veggies

The choice of vegetables for your soup depends on several factors: what you have on hand, what you are in the mood for, and what sounds good together. Soup is intuitive. Trust your feelings on this. But here are a few pointers to get the most health value out of your soup:

• Don’t put in more than one brassica plant (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower). It makes it too gassy.
• Don’t mix beans with brassicas. Again, too much gas.
• Add greens or cabbage just before taking the soup off the stove so they don’t turn to mush.
• Mix the colors—eat the rainbow.
• Add grains sparingly. They will swell and take over the pot.

Creamed Soups

If you are making creamed soups, like my favorite potato soup recipe below, do not boil after adding the milk. You could curdle it or risk scorching. Add the milk, heat to hot, and serve. If you want a thick base, rather than a watery soup, I used to add potato flakes. A healthier alternative is to scoop out some of the soup, blend in the blender, and return to the pot. Do this until your soup is the right consistency.

Fixing Mistakes

One last point—no one is perfect and mistakes with soup can happen.

• If you add too much salt, peel and quarter a potato and add to the pot. The potato will absorb some of the salt. When the potato softens, remove and taste. If it is still too salty, add another potato.
• If your tomato base is too acidic, add a whole carrot. The carrot will cut the acid. As with the potato, cook until the carrot is soft, remove and taste. If needed, add another carrot.

Now, for my favorite and famous (at least with my family)

Creamy Cheesy Potato Soup:

 Ingredients:

• 5 pounds of potatoes, peeled and diced (This will feed a large family.)
• 1-2 onions, diced
• 1-2 carrots, diced (Sometimes I use broccoli, too.)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Lots of grated cheddar cheese (If you use Extra Sharp Cheddar, less will be required to get the same flavor and therefore reduce the fat content of your soup.)

Directions:

1. Prepare vegetables and put into stock pot with a thick bottom. Add enough water (or ham broth is good) to just cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are soft.
2. In batches, remove a few cups of the soup and carefully blend in blender until smooth. Return to pot. Continue doing this until soup is desired consistency. We like a few potato chunks left.
3. After blending, add enough milk to give soup a creamy look and taste. Return to heat until hot.
4. Once hot, add cheese and stir until melted.
5. Serve immediately with a fresh loaf of homemade bread.

Photo by 3liz4

If your schedule looks anything like mine, you are in for a dieter’s nightmare in the next coming weeks. Even those that do not necessarily try to watch their weight, but strive to just eat healthy, need to keep their eyes peeled for dietary traps this time of year. But if you enter the season with an awareness of what lurks ahead, you can arm yourself with strategy to withstand the temptation to eat things you would otherwise pass up.

Stock your pantry

The first strategy to eating right during the holidays is to keep healthy food in your house. Prepare nutritious meals at home and eat before going to a function where you know snacks will be served. This is especially true for your children who struggle to make wise food choices. Keeping a pot of vegetable soup simmering (or at least in the fridge, handy for dipping) will provide a quick and easy meal when someone has to dash out the door.

Take food along

Because of the time spent shopping, grabbing a burger on the go is a real pitfall this time of year. If you are heading to the mall for your holiday shopping, pack a little bag of healthy snacks to tide you over until you can make it back home. Apples, oranges, cheese sticks, and trail mix all travel well and will not spoil if left in the car. If you just cannot help eating out, choose a healthy, but inexpensive alternative to fast food like soup and salad or pizza.

Drink plenty of water

We often confuse thirst for hunger. And when the temperatures hover around freezing, we don’t desire cold drinks like in the hot summertime. Keep a water bottle with you all year round and drink freely to eschew the munchies. A well-hydrated person will not be tempted by all the break room goodies at the office. Also, keep in mind that your beverage choices are just as important as your food choices. A regular 12 ounce beer contains around 145 calories, a soda 145-165. And that little glass of wine? From 110-130 calories. Since I cannot recommend consuming artificial sweeteners, I’d just stick with the water.

Watch your choices

Sometimes we just have to be our own mommies. You know what I mean—telling ourselves to eat our veggies first, or no dessert until we clean our plate. If you find yourself at the office party or the fellowship time after the church Christmas program, go for the veggie platter first. After you’ve had your fill of carrot and celery sticks (without big globs of dip balancing off the ends), then go for the non-sugary snacks like pretzels or crackers. Next choose from the protein snacks—meat and cheese or nuts. I put those third because they tend to be the high-fat offerings on the table and we don’t want to fill up on fat when we are trying to avoid gaining that extra 10 pounds. Finally, you may partake of the sweet, sugary choices; but hopefully you will be too full to consider them.

Use your freezer

When friends and family bless you with tins of cookies or homemade banana bread for the season, don’t leave them on the counter to tempt you. Pop them in the freezer. Then in March when you want a little sweet treat, take a few out to thaw. Also, you might consider cutting back on your own holiday baking. Just because Mom and Grandma baked dozens of sugar cookies, made pans of fudge, and dipped bags of pretzels in chocolate each Christmas season, doesn’t mean you need to carry on the tradition. Rather than give family and friends tins of cookies, opt for fruit baskets or cheese balls and crackers.

If you combine these tips for eating right during the holidays with last week’s tips for getting exercise in winter, there is no reason to have to work off extra pounds in the New Year. Have any other secrets for a healthy holiday season? We’d love to hear them in the comments.

Photo by pshab

The day before Thanksgiving I harvested the last of the broccoli I planted this year. It was beautiful. The heads were so tight and green and there was not a single worm. I love fall gardening much better than the hot summertime. But you’re probably wondering what I can grow in the cooler temperatures.

Well, right now I still have cabbages, beets, and Swiss chard in the garden. And I aim to plant a few more things this week—even though a cold front is moving in as I type. Let me explain.

Several years ago, my boys made me some wire hoops to put over the garden rows. They are cut and shaped from the thick, high-tensile fencing that you use to brace corner posts in the field. In the summer I use them to suspend my floating row covers that provide shade and insect protection. When we were hit with a snow storm in early October, I used them to cover my rows with plastic sheeting. I kept this make-shift tunnel up for a few weeks because the clear plastic allowed the sun to shine through, warming the plants; and it protected them at night from frost. And that leads me to the first way to extend your growing season.

Tunnels

Cathy Heidenreich, Berry Extension Support Specialist of Cornell University’s Department of Horticulture, says that tunnels lengthen your growing season more economically than using greenhouses. Andy McAllister of Fortiter Farms in Pennsylvania produces vegetables 11 months out of the year by using low tunnels. At the Mother Earth News Fair this summer, McAllister shared his economical design for creating low tunnels.

Cut 10-12 inch lengths of 1 ½ inch PVC pipe. Drive them in the ground on either side of your row about 3 feet apart. How many you will need depends on how long your row is. Then insert full lengths of 1-inch PVC into the pieces in the ground to form an arch. Once you have your ribs erected, cover them with 3-6 mil plastic sheeting. You can purchase this from the concrete department of your local home-improvement superstore.

Tunnels made this way will be about waist high—depending on how wide your row is and how long your ribs are. Of course using tunnels requires you to monitor the temperature and moisture in the tunnel and to vent and water accordingly.

Cold Frames

Historically, cold frames were small, unheated additions to greenhouses. Currently, any serious gardener will have at least one cold frame on their place to serve a variety of needs—from growing greens in the cold weather to hardening off seedlings that were started indoors. But building a cold frame need not be a huge expense. Here are a few ideas to get you going on the cheap.

Save old windows—If you have a source, save any old window that you can use for the top of the frame. If not, you can use heavy plastic temporarily; although you will lose more heat at night with the plastic.

Scrap lumber—You do not need to go purchase expensive lumber to build your cold frame. Since any size frame will do, you can use scrap lumber from a local construction site or that acquired from your friend the building contractor.

Straw bales—If you cannot locate any scrap lumber, you can use straw bales. Place your straw bales in a square or rectangle, lay your discarded window sash on top, and you have a cold frame for less. At the change of seasons, remove the glass and use the straw bale bin for your compost.

Be creative—My son salvaged a couple sets of shower doors from a remodeling job. Using the height and slant dimensions from The 12-Month Gardener by Jeff Ashton, I asked my husband and another son to build a cold frame using the shower door as the glass top. When trying to save money in the garden, it is always a good idea to ask yourself, “What do I have in my hand?”

Cloches

Another way to protect your plants from frost is to cover them individually, rather than as a row. Operating like a tiny greenhouse, the cloche is a bell shaped cover that sits over each plant to keep it warm. According to Ashton, the first glass cloches were used in Italy in 1623. You can spend a lot of money on some handsome-looking cloches for your garden. Or you can use an overturned gallon milk jug, a lamp shade frame or tomato cage covered in plastic, or for tiny plants, an overturned glass bowl.

This is December and we are still having very mild temperatures in the mid-east coast region of the country. If you implement one of these methods, there is still time to get out there and start a patch of greens.

Photo by JanneM

I haven’t always eaten a healthy, organic, fanatically local diet. In fact, I don’t now. I do what I can, when I can; and I try not to feel guilty about the rest. But the one obstacle I hear regularly when I counsel someone to make dietary changes is that they cannot afford it. I empathize; really I do. But I disagree.

Last week I reviewed the movie Food, Inc. It was a great movie and I believe everyone should watch it. However, I have issue with the portrayal of the family that does not have time to cook because they leave their house at 6 a.m. and do not return until 9-10 p.m. They also said that they could not afford fresh vegetables, so opt for drive-through dollar menu food at Burger King. Sure, on the surface, junk food looks cheap. But they also shared their struggle with diabetes (a disease directly related to diet) and having to afford medications to treat it. This is what I would advise them to do.

Change Your Lifestyle

Why are you gone from home for 14 hours a day? That is not healthy. Families need rest and play time together. Please don’t tell me you’re running your kids to sports, drama, debate, etc. Please don’t tell me you work 14 hours a day and still cannot afford to eat properly. Something has to give, and at this point, it is your health.

Eating healthy is a lifestyle choice. To make whole wheat bread from freshly ground flour, one must be home to grind the wheat and make the bread. Healthy food requires preparation time. If eating healthy and changing your diet is important to you, you will change your habits to include the time.

Change Your Vision

The mistake a lot of folks make is to compare the price of “bad” manufactured foods with that of organic manufactured foods. You need to get past that. Become a shopper of ingredients and learn to cook. Purchasing raw ingredients (like grains, salt, sugar, and oil) in bulk and making your food from scratch is much cheaper than buying manufactured food. Give up the factory foods—even the organic ones.

Change Your Choices

Can you not afford locally grown produce because you spend $10 a week on Mountain Dew? Do you stop on your way to the office every day for a $3 cup of coffee, or join the guys for unhealthy $10 lunches several days a week? Perhaps your 120-pound Rottweiler eats $50 worth of dog food a month? These are all things you are free to do; but are these choices helping you in your goal to change your diet?

Grow Your Food

I realize that everyone doesn’t have a couple of acres to work with. But many, many people have urban homesteads. Gardens can be grown in back yards and even on patios. Do what you can; rather than complaining and doing nothing.

Check with your city. Many municipalities now allow a couple backyard chickens. Some even allow goats.  Subscribe to a helpful magazine like Urban Farm to learn all you can. Read All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew for more helpful advice.

However, if you do live in a rural area, what are you waiting for? Find a farmer friend and learn all you can about gardening and keeping animals for eggs, milk, and meat. Do what you can.

Buy Locally

If you cannot produce enough for your family, or if you are physically unable to garden, visit your local farmers’ market. Purchase what you can from local organic farms. If you still cannot afford it, barter something. Many Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms accept work hours in exchange for food.

Start Slow and Small

Whatever you do, do it slowly. For one thing, this transition takes time. For another, you will need to adjust your budget to allow for monthly shopping of bulk products. I started 25 years ago with baking my own bread. It was several years later before I was introduced to a produce co-op that provided all the produce my family needed. Rather than cutting out boxed foods entirely, start reading labels. First, quit buying anything with MSG and replace them with what you make from scratch. Second, eliminate high fructose corn syrup. Third, axe the artificial coloring. By this time I’m betting there’s nothing in a box left that you can purchase.

One step at a time, and over 25 years, we’ve gone from eating manufactured food for every meal to eating it only on occasion. And I still spend less than $400 a month to feed a family of six. If I can do it, you can too.

 Photo by Downing Street

I know Food, Inc. has been out for a while. However, our family is so slow at getting to movies that I just watched Food, Inc. while we were on Staycation. This movie made such an impact on our thinking that I wanted to share it with you here.

Prior to viewing, I did already know that our food supply is controlled by only a handful of major corporations. But I had no idea how that control came about, or to what extent these corporations go to keep it that way.

Narrators Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, take the viewer behind the scenes of commercial chicken farms, slaughterhouses, poultry and pork processing facilities, and Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFO). A few of the chapters include:

• “Fast Food to All Food”—how the fast food industry started the industrial revolution for food.
• “A Cornucopia of Choices”—the role corn plays in most manufactured food.
• “Unintended Consequences”—highlights one mother’s battle for legislation after the death of her son due to an infection with E coli.
• “The Dollar Menu”—discusses the choices parents make between fresh vegetables and cheap, fast food.
• “Power of the Consumer”—discusses what choices consumers can make to change the system.

Manufactured Food

According to the movie, manufacturing food began to fulfill the fast food industry’s need for uniformity. McDonald’s, for instance, wants to know that a hamburger in one of their stores in Ohio looks, weighs, and tastes the same as a hamburger in Florida. This drive for uniformity not only led to manufacturing the food, but growing it as well.

In 1950, it took 70 days to grow a meat chicken. Today, a chicken twice the size grows in 48 days. Since people like to eat white meat, chickens have been redesigned to have large breasts. This disfigurement causes other issues. On my own place, I’ve seen our Cornish Rock Cross broilers get so heavy they could barely walk. We routinely lost chickens to broken legs. Feeling this unnatural and unhealthy, this year we purchased Freedom Ranger chicks and were much happier with the outcome. But in an interview for the movie, Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council said, “We’re not producing chickens, we’re producing food.”

Conversely, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms shares, “The industrial food is not honest food. It’s not priced honestly; it’s not produced honestly; it’s not processed honestly. There’s nothing honest about that food.”

Corn Facts

Following are a few random facts about corn that I gleaned from this movie:

• “So much of our industrial food turns out to be clever rearrangements of corn.” Michael Pollan
• A hundred years ago a farmer could grow 20 bushels of corn to the acre. Today, 200 bushels is normal.
• Thirty percent of the land in the US is planted in corn.

My own brother, a physician, told me that the number one concern that Americans face with their diet is that we are overdosing on corn. It is in practically everything we eat. If you want to avoid genetically modified corn products in your foods, look to avoid  the following ingredients on your labels:

• cellulose
• calcium stearate
• xantham gum
• saccharin
• maltodextrin
• sorbital
• sucrose
• gluten
• high fructose corn syrup
• ethel acetate
• citrus cloud emulsion
• ascorbic acid
• di-glycerides
• baking powder
• vanilla extract
• fructose
• sorbic acid
• starch
• semolina
• margarine

You probably want to avoid all commercially raised meat as well because corn is the main ingredient in all animal feeds. Even farm-raised tilapia and salmon are fed corn—something they would never eat in nature.

While on the subject of corn, the chapter “From Seed to the Supermarket” plays like a suspense thriller describing the lengths that Monsanto goes through to protect the patents that they have on corn. Yes, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of this corporation patenting what, initially, God created, and now they have genetically modified.

What We Can Do About It

Watching Food, Inc. is almost despairing. But there are things that you can do. That is where “Power of the Consumer” comes in. Grow as much of your own food as possible and what you can’t, buy from local, organic farms. Taking this transition one step at a time, you can change the way your family eats and make a difference in the food manufacturing process.

The Washington Post said of this movie, “Everyone should see Food, Inc.”

Oprah Winfrey said, “It might change your life.”

I say, “Watch Food, Inc. and it will change your life.”