Earlier this year, I wrote a post talking about the tremendous health benefits of black sesame seeds.

I love putting them on quinoa, millet, and on my salads, and they add a whole new dimension to whatever food that I am eating.

Since Brazil nut milk and cashew milk are two drinks that I make quite often, I started asking myself “What if I made a milk out of organic black sesame seeds?”

My immediate thought was that the taste would be too harsh or too strong, and that I would need to use a lot of honey or organic palm sugar to even it out.

Over the past week or so, I have been experimenting with black sesame seed milk and much to my surprise, I have been thrilled with the results. Read more »

I cannot tell a lie. I have a real soft spot for root beer.

It brings back memories of when I was a kid (decades before my organic days) and would have root beer floats in the summer. The taste just really does it for me.

Except for the occasional glass of Sipp’s ginger blossom, which is nearly impossible to resist, I don’t drink any soda.

So when I tasted Cell-nique’s root beer flavor at Expo West recently, I kind of flipped out.

Cell-nique is not a carbonated soda but a juice made of many of the world’s best superfoods. And that is what makes this beverage so impressive.
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I see a lot of products in the organic food world but there is a buzz about Harmless Harvest and its coconut water that I have never seen before.

This tends to happen when you are in a super-hot category and you are the best tasting, healthiest product in that category.

Harmless Harvest’s raw organic coconut water is made by using a technology called high pressure pasteurization (HPP), which I named one of my top 5 organic food trends for 2012. Read more »

One of the things that I love to do when traveling is to stop by local organic supermarkets because each part of the country has a slightly different product mix.

While the well-known products can be found coast to coast, there are many regional organic brands that do not yet have national distribution and are only available close to where they are produced.

And there may be nothing more that I enjoy doing than discovering organic products, both new and established, that I have never seen before.

When visiting San Francisco this past week, I came across several interesting products (thanks Stephanie!) and one that I wanted to talk about today was a drink called Wellness Tonics D-Tox.

I discovered it in the Whole Foods – South of Market location, and the packaging and ingredient list immediately grabbed my attention.
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Organic beet kvass isn’t exactly a household name, similar to a coconut water or even kombucha.

And I don’t believe that it will ever come close to having the same name recognition as these other two drinks.

Yet, its health benefits and utility may surpass them both.

A lacto-fermented beverage of Russian origin, beet kvass provides the body with beneficial bacteria and aids in digestion.

It is also touted as a blood purifier and an excellent way to cleanse the liver.

Unlike kombucha, which uses sugar in the fermentation process, the beet kvass from Hawthorne Valley uses no sugar at all. And because it is a raw drink, all of the vitamins and minerals remain intact.

While I tend to drink it straight, the other great thing about beet kvass is that it can be used as a base for soups, salad dressings or marinades. Read more »

For people who are new to organic or have very limited financial means to buy organic, the one thing that I always say is the following:

The absolute number one priority in your household should be organic milk for your kids.

Even if a family thinks that organic food is out of their budget, organic milk cannot be compromised under any condition.

Organic milk is about the health of the kids, and that comes before everything else.

THE SERIOUS HEALTH RISKS OF HORMONAL MILK

Approximately 20% of the milk in the U.S. is hormonal milk. But what exactly is hormonal milk? Read more »

When I was first contacted by Whole Foods to learn about its new program to help raise money for kids in Africa, I didn’t have any idea what to expect.

I was very aware that the company, through its Whole Planet Foundation, does a lot of great work around the world, but the video below really blew me away. And I knew immediately that I had to write about it and spread the word. Read more »