Why the SOLE Food Movement is Failing

Tue, Oct 12, 2010 | By: nutrition

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friend of mine sent me an article from a publication called Zocalo that reviews American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen. A good book but it only makes things harder I’m not going to review this title (you can read the one from the Zocalo here) nor am I going to…
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Neurophotonics Coming to a Human Being Near You

Mon, Sep 20, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Neurophotonics, up close Researchers at SMU are working with DARPA (the US hyper-advanced military research group that initially developed the internet) to create an artificial fiber optic signaling system that will directly interface with your body’s central nervous system.  This technology, called neurophotonics, would allow bidirectional communication to and from the brain, giving amputees with prosthetic arms…
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Food Safety Legislation S.510 Stalled by One Senator

Fri, Sep 17, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Ezra Klein’s excellent blog on the Washington Post website highlights a Politico story today about the status of the long awaited food safety legislation (s.510).  It is currently being held up by one senator, Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma.  Here is the latest: Coburn’s office confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday that the Republican is objecting to moving forward…
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Winds of Change: Antibiotics in Livestock

Thu, Sep 16, 2010 | By: nutrition

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The New York Times has a really good piece on the coming rules regarding the amount of antibiotics that can be given to confinement livestock. Now, after decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration appears poised to issue its strongest guidelines on animal antibiotics yet, intended to reduce what it calls a clear risk to…
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Entering the Genetic Age: Enviropig and GMO animals

Wed, Sep 15, 2010 | By: nutrition

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The October 2010 edition of Popular Science landed in my mailbox today with a brief overview of the genetically modified Enviropig.  I would give you a direct link but, for some reason, Popular Science does not publish its magazine articles online.  It’s not that big of a deal because the article isn’t even good enough to carry…
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Corn Sugar: HFCS by a different name?

Tue, Sep 14, 2010 | By: nutrition

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There was an article in the Cleveland daily today about The Corn Refiners Association, the lobbying arm of corn agribusiness, petitioning the FDA to rename high fructose corn syrup, ‘Corn Sugar’. From the article (emphasis mine): The bid to rename the sweetener by the Corn Refiners Association comes as Americans’ concerns about health and obesity have…
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Nutrition Wonderland moving towards v2.0

Thu, Sep 2, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Over the next couple months, I will be rolling out a new version of Nutrition Wonderland.  This update is substantial and will significantly effect this site – for the better I hope.  I have taken into account everyone’s suggestions on how to improve what I started here and think I have come up with an even…
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Having trouble cutting down your salt intake? May be your genes.

Sun, Jun 27, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services issued their new preliminary guidelines for improving the nation’s diet. The major recommendations haven’t changed since the last ones issued five years ago, and include limiting sugar, saturated fats, and salt. Many people find it somewhat easy to cut back on sugar and saturated…
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Organic Food Isn’t For The Birds

Thu, Jun 3, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Organic food sales have increased exponentially over the past decade, largely due to consumer perceptions of improved nutritional quality and taste. However, as I’ve explained before, there is scant scientific evidence that growing food organically improves its quality on either front. Since people have a wide array of intellectual biases, some scientists have decided to ask…
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Understanding Our Bodies – Fiber!

Mon, May 24, 2010 | By: nutrition

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ost of us already know that we should be eating fiber – according to the Institute of Medicine, adults should be eating 20-35 grams of it per day. But why? What’s so important about fiber anyway? What does it do for us physiologically? And does it matter what kind of fiber we eat? I can hear…
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Understanding Our Bodies: Insulin

Thu, May 13, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Almost everyone has heard of Insulin. You probably know that people with type 1 diabetes need to inject themselves with insulin to survive, and must constantly monitor the amount of sugar they eat. But what do you really know about insulin? What is its purpose in the body, and why do we need it? How does…
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When Cutting Calories Doesn’t Cut It

Wed, Apr 28, 2010 | By: nutrition

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The most common advice as to how to lose weight given my doctors to people that are overweight or obese is to cut calories. Reduced caloric intake has been lined to all kinds of health benefits, from extended life span to reduced risk of heart disease. But the primary goal of people who slice their…
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Why Don’t We Just Eat Better?

Wed, Apr 21, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Why Don’t We Just Eat Better? It’s estimated that ninety-eight percent of attempts to lose weight fail. Ninety-eight percent. That’s a sobering statistic, especially in a country where sixty-seven percent of adults and almost twenty percent of children are overweight. It’s even more shocking to think that the secret to losing weight and getting healthier isn’t a secret…
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Book Review: The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson

Wed, Mar 24, 2010 | By: nutrition

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“Pain in the abdomen. Splitting Headache. Nausea and vomiting. Choking and couldn’t get their breath. Coughing up blood.” Phone calls like these broke the dawn of a fall day in the mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania back in October, 1948. Already two had died and another 18 were soon to follow. The death toll would…
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GMOs: Does Regulation Ensure Safety?

Wed, Feb 17, 2010 | By: nutrition

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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…
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Where are Africa’s Farming Superheroes? A Look at African Child Malnutrition

Mon, Feb 15, 2010 | By: nutrition

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My first article on Nutrition Wonderland focused on the food crisis in East and Sub Saharan Africa and how the use of better agro technology and programming could enhance regional food production, through programs like the Backpack Farm Initiative I’m involved with. As this series expands, I want to shift your perceptions of a food crisis away from…
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Nutrition Wonderland Launches Mobile Site for iPhone, Pre and Droid

Fri, Feb 12, 2010 | By: nutrition

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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.  The site’s new URL is….drum roll please: http://nutritionwonderland.com The mobile site works like…
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GMOs: Frankenfood or Evolutionary Advance?

Wed, Feb 10, 2010 | By: nutrition

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While many GMOs are used for other purposes, the most talked about ones are those that end up on our plates. These are the Frankenfoods, the plants and animals being modified for human consumption. Why are crops and animals being modified? What GMOs are currently on the market? What new GMOs are being created? Good…
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Genetically Modified Organisms: The Back Story

Tue, Feb 2, 2010 | By: nutrition

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The Publishing Journal 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.  This study was widely proclaimed to be the first…
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Is Child Obesity the Parent’s Fault?

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 | By: nutrition

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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? Ice…
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California First State To Ban Trans Fats

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 | By: nutrition

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Effective January 1st, 2010, California became the first state to ban restaurants from using trans fats in restaurants. While similar bans have been enacted in New York City and a few other cities in the US, this is the first time that trans fats are being banned from an entire state.   Schwarzenegger Acts... The legislation…
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The Truth About Organic Farming

Tue, Dec 22, 2009 | By: nutrition

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When I reviewed FoodSmart, I made a quip about how organic food might not be as good for you as you might think. I promised I’d explain myself, so I am doing so. Just what does organic really mean? In the past year or two, certified organic sales have jumped around 30% to about $52 billion…
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Deja Vu? FTC Sizes Up Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity

Fri, Dec 18, 2009 | By: nutrition

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The breath of the obesity epidemic being witnessed in the United States is troubling.  Some states now show that over 30% of their respective populations are obese, with many of these metrics still growing.  Worse, the epidemic’s fastest acceleration has been in its youngest demographic: children (although that may finally be slowing). FTC Sizing Up Conference…
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Seafood Watch Super Green List

Thu, Nov 19, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Tuna, swimming - thanks to Flickr user Canales Seafood is such an important part of a nutritionally sound diet that it cannot be overstated. Countless studies and articles on this site attest to that fact, almost daily. There is, however, grave concerns over mercury bioaccumulation pollution in big fish in tuna and shark, PCB contamination…
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Understanding Our Bodies: The Role of Antioxidants

Mon, Oct 26, 2009 | By: nutrition

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It seems like every day there’s a new super-food that is chock full of antioxidants and ready to cure everything from the flu to cancer. Antioxidants are touted as a nutritional panacea, but I would bet that few people really understand what antioxidants are, how they function in the body, and how including them in…
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Does Sugar Make You Violent?

Tue, Oct 6, 2009 | By: nutrition

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If you read the nutrition science headlines, you might have seen these: “Giving in to pester power can make your child a thug” or “Daily sweets ‘linked to violence’“. They refer to a new paper that just came out which claims that eating sugary snacks every day as a child has an impact on your…
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Nutrition Wonderland Travels to the Intermountain West

Mon, Oct 5, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Nutrition Wonderland marches eastward towards Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado after an incredibly interesting time in California learning about development + agriculture in Oxnard, food safety in Monterey, sustainable farming in Watsonville, and a few other stories we are still putting together. As we enter the intermountain west of Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, our topics shift a bit.…
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Book Review: The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

Wed, Sep 30, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Book Review: The Botany Of Desire   Quick Facts on The Botany of Desire When looking for books about nutrition and eating, it’s hard not to stumble up Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. But this is not a review of those books. While both interesting and worth the a read by anyone nutrition-conscious, it…
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Can Biodiversity and Agriculture Coexist? How Super Metrics Made Wildlife Enemy #1 on the Farm (Day 4)

Tue, Sep 29, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Think back to a time before agriculture existed. Hawks pounced on squirrels, coyotes chased field mice and bison roamed the Great Plains. Thousands of insects randomly pollinated umpteen numbers of plants, all scattered around having developed specific adaptations to their little hobbits. It wasn’t always a happy place – plenty of ruthless natural selection was…
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Food Safety as a Marketing Tool: USDA Monterey Hearings on NLGMA (Day 3)

Fri, Sep 25, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Nutrition Wonderland is now up in Monterey, CA as part of our Tour of America and today we are attending the first of the USDA’s hearings on nationally adopting the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA). This new proposal, dubbed the NLGMA, would extend the existing agreement that covers California and Arizona across the entire nation – even extending into Canadian…
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David vs. Goliath: A Maasai Warrior, Regional Food Crisis & Agricultural Innovation (The Backpack Farm Program)

Wed, Sep 23, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Welcome Rachel Zedeck of the Medea Group who explains to a Western Audience some of the problems going on in Eastern Africa, specifically how an inadequate agricultural system fails its own people.  She puts forward a new solution – the Backpack Farm Program – and explains how it could help the people.  Rachel will be regularly contributing her advice…
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Is the Strawberry the Future of American Agriculture? (Day 1)

Tue, Sep 22, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Nutrition Wonderland’s first stop of the journey is an exceptionally beautiful place called Oxnard, California. It anchors a rapidly growing area but more importantly, it is the principal city in the Oxnard Plain – one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. Known as the Strawberry Capital of the World, Oxnard also grows…
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When You Should Eat

Thu, Sep 17, 2009 | By: nutrition

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More often than not, dieters focus exclusively on what’s going into their bodies. They cut out food groups, add food groups, count calories and create meal plans. But research has found out that while what you eat does matter, when you eat has a big impact, too. According to new research from Northwestern University published in the…
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Plastic Troubles: Brominated Flame Retardants (PBDEs)

Thu, Sep 3, 2009 | By: nutrition

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In general, we think of plastics as non-flammable. Sure, the pyromaniacs among us have put a lighter to picnic cutlery to see what happens, but for the most part we know they melt, not burn, and are not exactly the best source of tinder or firewood. But that’s not actually true. Almost all pure plastics are…
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Plastic Troubles: Phthalates and Plasticizers

Mon, Aug 31, 2009 | By: nutrition

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Plastic is a buzzword lately but mostly for the wrong reasons.  Medical studies have lined up against the ubiquitous substance and the seas have filled with the jetsam and flotsam of our plastic society.  Yet, if there was one compound responsible for this situation more than any other, phthalates might just wear the crown. Chemistry…
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Book Review: Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink

Wed, Aug 26, 2009 | By: nutrition

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pon searching for research for my last article about the social aspects of eating, I stumbled upon a book with a very intriguing title. It’s called “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think“, and is written by a nutritional scientist by the name of Brian Wansink. He studies the psychology of eating, and has…
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