(Photo courtesy of Green America)

For many of us when we eat a piece of chocolate, our biggest concern is how many grams of sugar we are consuming.

Yet, how often do we ask ourselves — was this chocolate bar made with the help of child labor? Or, was the cocoa produced in a way that resulted in deforestation to the environment?

The truth about cocoa – the main ingredient in chocolate – is quite grim. Read more »

Several days a week, I make smoothies for breakfast.

For the base of the smoothies, I often use Brazil nuts or black sesame seeds to make the milk.

However, when I am in the mood for something a little lighter, I’ll substitute nuts/seeds with tea. Yes, tea.

While I am completely sold on the medicinal benefits of tea, I am just not a (hot) tea drinker. So, in order to get the huge amounts of antioxidant benefits of tea, I’ll use it in my smoothies. Read more »

I am in Nantucket now and one of my absolute favorite things to do out here is to make a visit to Pumpkin Pond Farm, a certified organic farm.

Yesterday, I went over to Pumpkin Pond Farm and found some amazingly gorgeous food – lacinato kale, lettuce, tomatoes, and, yes, chocolate mint. Read more »

Normally, I cringe when I hear the words “artisinal” or “specialty” to describe a food.

I just feel that they are overused terms that have been exploited for marketing purposes, similar to how all of the industrial food companies slap “natural” on so many of their products. And as we know, “natural” doesn’t mean anything.

Yet, when I tried out the cinnamon red maca almond butter by Jem, the first thought that came to my mind was “Wow, is this different. I guess this is what an artisinal or specialty product is supposed to taste like.” Read more »

For someone who loves organic food so much and cooks so often, my refrigerator is surprisingly empty. How could this be?

Well, I go food shopping A LOT and pretty much only buy whatever I need for the next meal that I’ll be eating. I have the good fortune of being able to do this because an amazing organic market is literally less a one minute walk from my apartment

Plus, I LOVE going food shopping and making multiple trips to the market in one day is not exactly a burden. Staring at all of the amazing fruits and vegetables in the produce section is one of my favorite things to do.

Even though I do tend to “buy on demand”, you’ll pretty much always find these 10 organic foods in my kitchen:

COCONUT OIL I am a huge fan of coconut oil.  Not only is it high in lauric acid and great to use after a workout but it is one of the few oils that you can safely heat and cook with. (Olive oil is not one of them.)

Aside from using organic coconut oil in my smoothies, I use it as a moisturizer as well. Read more »

Bottles of Rawtella have been staring me in the face for months already. I see them all of over NYC but never took the plunge to try it until the other day.

Normally, I am incredibly curious about any new organic product, especially one that has chocolate in it and is raw. However, it must have been the product’s association with Nutella that gave me real pause.

Yes, I may be one of the few people in the country who hasn’t tried Nutella. Aside from the fact that it is not organic, Nutella doesn’t appeal to me in the least.

If I want chocolate, I am going to eat an organic chocolate bar, buy organic chocolate ice cream or put raw cacao into a smoothie in the morning.

Clearly, I am in the minority here with never having tasted Nutella. Read more »

When I go to the organic trade shows twice a year, I see hundreds and hundreds of products.

Many of the products I am already familiar with but some are brand new. And in this category of brand new products, there are always a few that make a long-lasting impression.

Fearless Chocolate happens to be one of those organic products, which I encountered at the 2011 Expo West show in Anaheim, CA, and I vividly remember not being able to stop eating it.

While I favor raw chocolate over non-raw chocolate, because it tastes so much more light and healthy, the Fearless Chocolate Matcha Green Tea Peppermynt was something special.

The combination of green tea and peppermint, both of which I am a huge fan, was what made this chocolate bar so refreshing, compelling and unusual. Read more »