On my Facebook page the other day, I posted a link to The New York Times story about the incredible growth of organic baby/kids food in squeezable pouches and how these convenient products have impacted the family dynamic. This article generated some questions from a few of you, and I thought that I would address them here.

First off, the article is not an indictment against organic. (Many parents know that organic is much, much healthier than conventional food, and that is one reason why organic pouches are booming in popularity.)

Rather, the NYT article discusses how our lives have become so busy, so scheduled, and so hectic that organic food in a pouch is slowly becoming the de facto way to feed our kids.

As a result, the family ritual of dinnertime is going by the wayside, a very sad commentary.

Even though parents may be buying these organic food pouches for themselves or for their children because of time constraints, there is something very important to keep in mind here. Read more »

If you ever go to a talk by Dr. Brian Clement, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute and the person in this video discussing the merits of Green Juice vs. Green Smoothies, you can be guaranteed to hear this: eat and juice sprouts.

The reason that he is saying this is because sprouts have incredibly important health properties.  They have very high levels of nutrients and enzymes, which provide the body valuable energy to detox and strengthen the immune system.

According to the Hippocrates Health Institute, the other key benefits of sprouts include: Read more »

I have been doing A LOT of juicing lately, some apple/carrot but mostly it has been green juice.

When I make green juice, I always try to mix it up so I am not using the exact same green vegetables every single day.

I’ll either use celery or cucumber as my base and then put kale, collards, swiss chard or some other type of leafy green in there. I’ll also throw in sprouts, if available, but will rarely juice spinach because of its high oxalic acid content.

One green that I used today was organic dandelion. Read more »

I got a comment from someone the other day who said “Why should we care about GMOs (genetically-modified organisms)? Let them grow what they want. It doesn’t impact the people who eat organic.”

Unfortunately, this individual could not have been more wrong.

GMOs impact everyone, including people who eat 100% organic, and a recent study from the Pesticide Action Network confirms this.

Water sampling results from communities across four Midwestern states — Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota — indicate Atrazine is present in drinking water at levels well above those linked to birth defects and low birth weight.

WHAT IS ATRAZINE AND WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT

Present in 94% of our water supply, Atrazine is a toxic weed killer and 76 million pounds of it is dumped onto our farms each year, mostly for corn.

And the health effects of Atrazine?

– The Pesticide Action Network reports that it has been linked to endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, and cancer. Read more »

I just got out of my Ashtanga yoga class and came home to make some medicine.

I believe that food is medicine, and the best medicine we can put into our bodies is fresh, organic juice. What you see above is living and curative nutrition.

Juicing takes time and effort, but your body and mind will thank you for doing it. Read more »

In a previous post, I wrote that milk is the most important organic product that a family can buy.

But milk is by no means the only item that people should be concerned about.

The worst offender on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list are apples.

Forbes magazine recently did an excellent piece talking about five reasons to eat organic apples, and I wanted to share the highlights with you and provide commentary. To read the full article, click here.

Reason #1 – The average conventionally grown apple has more pesticide residue on it than any other fruit or vegetable.

Data from the Environmental Working Group showed that 98% of 700 apples tested had pesticides on them and that 48 different pesticides appeared. WOW!!!! Read more »

When you go into the produce section of Whole Foods, you’ll notice signs that say “ANDI Score” with a number associated with that respective food.

Created by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, ANDI stands for “Aggregate Nutrient Density Index” and ranks a food’s nutrient density on a scale from 1 to 1000.

The ANDI scores are calculated by evaluating an extensive range of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidant capacities, and by dividing the nutrient level of a food by its caloric content (N/C). Read more »