Nutrition Wonderland

It would be great if we could just stop eating meat all together. But there's one problem - we need complete dietary protein, and about 60 grams a day of it. This is what I call the Protein Problem: the problem is that we need a lot of protein, nutritionally speaking, but producing it is an ecological nightmare. If you've read my post about why protein is so nutritionally important, you know that meat is simply the best source of complete dietary protein. But is becoming vegetarian and eating tofu the solution to our protein problem? Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

The public's biggest concern when it comes to GMOs is their safety. There are a lot of misconceptions about genetic engineering. When pressed on science of GMOs, I have often heard people fear that the genetically modified material in the foods they are eating will somehow mutate their DNA too. While logically it sounds like that makes a bit of sense, scientifically its nonsense. So how do we test for and ensure that GMOs are safe? Allow me to introduce you to the complex world of genetic technology regulation. Image credit: kevin dolley on flickr.

As a part of her African agriculture series, Rachel Zedeck of the Medea Group wants to shift your perceptions of a food crisis away from the image of the starving child (above) to that of new opportunities crucial in changing the way we respond to childhood malnutrition.

Nutrition Wonderland fans - great news for those of you on the go and want to read our information. We have recently launched a completely new mobile site, optimized for touch-enabled devices like the iPhone, Palm Pre, Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One.

Why are crops and animals being modified? What GMOs are currently on the market? What new GMOs are being created? Good questions... (thanks to klar!! on flickr for that cool art.)

If you ever wondered about who owns your favorite organic brands, look no further. Our comprehensive list covers most of the brands you will find in the grocery store as you shop - and our list is up to date. (Thanks goes to Nicholas_T over at Flickr for that killer preview photo)

Recently, a reinterpretation of an original Monsanto GMO study was published in the International Journal of Biological Studies which appeared to demonstrate that some aspect of Monsanto's GMO corn – potentially just additional pesticides – was causing kidney problems in their reexamination of the data. But what do most people really know about GMOs? This subject is complex – so complex I have prepared a three part series that helps explain what is going on underneath the heated debates.

Childhood obesity is becoming a hot topic in health circles, even to the point of being called an epidemic. Experts estimate that 20% of children between the ages of 6 and 17 are overweight, predisposing them to terrible diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Why have the world's children ballooned over the past hundred years? (photo by photomequickbooth from flickr).

In animals, cell get energy by directly eating foods with sugar, or by digesting more complex starches, such as the carbohydrates found in pasta and rice, into the simpler sugar, glucose, which is then easily absorbed into the bloodstream. But how the body handles those sugars - and how many sugars you bombard yourself with - can have wide ranging implications. Let's take a closer look at exactly how glucose gets into cells - and how that could eventually lead to alzheimers. (Thanks to flickr user alain_boucheret for the shot)

Effective January 1st, 2010, California became the first state to ban restaurants from using trans fats in restaurants.

Certified organic sales are now $52 billion/year, worldwide. The large market is fueling a lot of myths out there about organic foods and there is even more propaganda supporting these organic methods that is rarely understood. It's like your mother used to say: just because everyone is jumping off a bridge doesn't mean you should do it, too. I only want to point out that not everything is as it seems. So here are some of the myths of organic produce, and the realities behind them.

The breath of the obesity epidemic being witnessed in the United States is troubling. Theories have been entertained to determine what is causing the obesity problem in children. Sedentary activities like video games and television regularly are brought out to the whipping post as the cardinal reason for the rapid rise but another view, that of food marketing to youth, has received increasing attention. That attention culminated in a summit put together by the FTC called Sizing Up. We attended - check out what happened.

The book FoodSmart: Understanding Nutrition in the 21st Century is a new title from award-winning author Diana Hunter that is designed to help navigate the complex world of nutrition. It explains basics like terminology and types of food with ease and, yet, is still able to present the various sides of much more complex topics like of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and what it means to be "organic" to a nutrition newbie. All and all, it's not a bad book, especially if you're just starting out in the world of nutrition and want a strong understanding of what is being talked about by everyone else. For me though, this book had its ups and downs.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has released a new 'super green' list of the best seafood choices you can make as a consumer. We have the list annotated here for you.

You have a lot of choices as a consumer. Those choices alter the marketplace. You influence what kind of movies Hollywood produces when you stand in line to buy tickets, debating between an action thriller and a romantic comedy. And the choices you make when it comes to your dinner, particularly which fish you pick for the 16 pounds of seafood the average American eats every year, drive the fisheries hauling in over 11 billion pounds of fish annually. Choices make a difference, not only from an economic perspective, but from a nutritional and ecological one.