One of the things that people often ask me about is what do I do about eating organic when I travel.

For those of us who are very conscious of what we put into our bodies, we don’t want to change how we eat simply because we get on a plane or go to a different city.

In this second video with my friend Jennifer, we talk about this very subject and I share how I continue to eat my treasured organic food whenever I go on the road.

If you are like me, a lover of young Thai coconuts, then you are probably having some withdrawal as of late. Due to the political unrest in Thailand, getting coconuts has been next to impossible.

Every juice bar, supermarket or store I go to in New York City tells me the same thing: they can’t get any and don’t know when they’ll be back on the shelves.

The only thing that I have seen is a brand of water called Exotic Superfoods Organic Young Thai Coconut Water. It is shipped frozen in a plastic bottle and gets defrosted once in the U.S.

In Manhattan, both Integral Market on 13th Street and One Lucky Duck in Gramercy have been carrying this product over the last few days. For how much longer they’ll have supply is anyone’s guess.

Young Thai coconuts have been a staple in my diet for many years.  I love cracking one open and drinking the water. It is supposedly the best post-workout drink available because of its electrolytes. The coconuts are also great for breakfast smoothies (coconut milk) and raw ice cream (coconut meat).

Despite the fact that New Yorkers love Young Thai coconuts and we miss having them, I hope things get squared away in Thailand soon. Lives have been lost and that matters a lot more to me than not having one of my favorite fruits.

Practically every single day, people ask me some question related to organic food. Given that it is one of my passions and having eaten organic for the last decade, I love to share what I know with others.

When my friend Jennifer and I saw each other recently, the topic quickly turned to organic food. So, we decided to film our conversations in case other people had similar questions.

For the next six Thursdays, she and I will sit down and talk about a different organic food issue.

In this video, we talk about specific strategies for maintaining an organic food lifestyle as a busy professional. With a hectic work schedule in New York City, Jennifer would like to be eating more organic but is having trouble doing so. Here, I give her some easy and practical tips on how to change that.

Is there a topic that you would like Jennifer and me to discuss in a future episode?  If so, please leave a comment below.

At the recent 2010 Natural Products Expo West Trade Show, I interviewed Kris Fillat, the founder of The GoodOnYa Bar.

During our conversation, Kris gave me a really interesting explanation about the safety of peanuts as it relates to salmonella. If you are like me and have been nervous to eat peanuts because of the health scares in the news, this is one video that you will want to watch.

Kris also gives us some background on her company and her amazing Breakfast Bar. It is one of the best bars that I have tasted in a long, long time.

In this video, I talk to my friend Taylor Wells and she gives us an overview of the raw food lifestyle — what it is, the benefits, how someone can get started eating this way.

I’ve gotten to know Taylor over the last year, and I can honestly say that she is one of the most incredible and inspirational people I have come across. Along with her husband, she owns four yoga studios, has a nationwide consulting business, runs super-mom.com, recently launched pranaraw.com and opened last summer The Prana Café.

Furthermore, she home-schools her six year-old daughter and three year-old son. If that is not enough, Taylor, at 44 years old, just gave birth to two twin boys. She now has five kids in total, including her 12 year-old daughter.

Never once have I heard her complain how tired she is, something she attributes to the raw food lifestyle.

A few days ago, the President’s Cancer Panel, a group of independent doctors and researchers, released its annual report called “Reducing our Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now”. Needless to say, the connection between the amount of chemicals/harmful toxins in our environment and the high incidence of cancer is incredibly strong, and decisive action needs to be taken.

In its letter to the President, the Panel “urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate lives.”

The report recommends that in order to decrease exposure to pesticides, individuals should choose “food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers” and “exposure to antibiotics, growth hormones and toxic run-off from livestock feed lots can be minimized by eating free-range meat without these medications.”

Essentially, they are saying to eat organic food because conventional food is laced with dangerous chemicals that increase our chances for cancer.

And, this is coming from an independent panel not paid for by special interest or industry groups.  The two main authors are LaSalle Leffall, Jr., M.D., from Howard University and Margaret Kripke, PhD, from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

It is a long report and covers many areas (not just food) so I will give you some of the most salient points/information. Read more »

For those who didn’t see it, there was an excellent piece in the New York Times the other day about Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops.

Monsanto created these genetically-modified crops called Roundup Ready. The claim was that pesticides (Roundup) would cause no harm to the crops but would kill all the pests and weeds surrounding the crops.

So, Monsanto not only sells seeds to farmers but they also sell farmers the pesticides.  If you think Monsanto is just a seed company, think again. It is a chemical company.

The claim that Monsanto made was that these bio-engineered crops would kill all the weeds and require minimum-till farming.

After many years, two things are happening.

1) Farmers sprayed so much Roundup that new super-weeds have emerged, which are uncontrollable and resistant to Roundup.  They are now combatting the problem with more herbicides, which increases the amount of chemicals they have to use.

2) Roundup was supposed to prevent minimum-till farming — good for the environment. However, with these new super-weeds growing, farmers are having to abandon minimum-till farming.  That means more fuel spent to get the soil ready.

The bottom line: These GMOs are not working.  They are creating more harm than good.

Is any of this a surprise? To me, not at all.  When you try to fight Mother Nature, you don’t win.