Go Organic When Buying These Four Foods

Before you take a bite of that onion or apple, is it clean? I don't mean scrubbed of dirt, but free of dangerous pesticides, hormones and other chemicals.

AARP has a "top ten" list of suggested organic purchases, and Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a "Dirty Dozen" list (and clean list) of foods affected by hormones, pesticides and other chemicals.

Whether you go "organic," "hormone-free" or choose other other "-free" foods, know what you're purchasing. Know what "organic" means (and seek guidance from reliable sources, such as the U.S.D.A.) AARP offers an easy-to-understand definition:

organic standards prohibit use of most conventional pesticides, irradiation, sewage sludge, synthetic fertilizers and genetically modified materials, while animals must be given no antibiotics or growth hormones.

Don't be afraid to ask questions of vendors at farmers markets (or even grocery store managers with "local" food sections). Know your definitions, whether something is "spray-free" or "hormone-free."

• Apples — EWG notes that 98 percent of conventional apples contain pesticide residues.
• Milk — Consider milk from dairy cows not fed rBST, a manufactured hormone that boosts milk production. While there's no solid evidence that rBST causes cancer in humans, it does cause udder infection in cows — which, in turn, are treated with antibiotics — which, in turn, are passed on to the human drinker. If you're trying to avoid antibiotics in your food, keep this in mind.
• Canned tomatoes — Chances are, your canned tomatoes contain Bisphenol_A (BPA). The Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and  U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) all worry about BPA's effect on the developing brains of fetuses, infants and young children.
• Celery — EWG lists it as number two on its "Dirty Dozen" list with nearly 96 percent tested showing evidence of pesticides.

What foods would you add to this list?

— Chris

Food Swaping: Choosing The Lesser of Two Evils

For fun, I picked up Eat This, Not That from a used bookstore recently. It made sense to encourage choosing healthy foods for unhealthy ones, and I wanted to see what kinds of suggestions they offered in this self-professed "no-diet diet."

I was surprised to see the editors steering people not to what's healthy, but what's less unhealthy, based on changing criteria.

Let me give you an example:
Don't eat Lay's Classic Potato Chips. Eat fried pork skins instead.

I kid you not.

The rationale for eating three extra grams of saturated fat and more than triple the sodium? Why waste calories on nutritionally void chips when you can get 16 extra grams of protein for the same amount of calories?

Some of the suggestions were not as jaw-dropping as this, but they weren't much better: one trail mix has "less chocolate," go for the smaller, baked cracker — oh, and try the pastry with less pudding crammed into it.

I understand the philosophy: swapping out "better" food with little effort chips away at bad eating habits. Next thing you know, you're eating fried pork skins and Goldfish every time you stop for snack food at the gas station.  And that's not a bad thing.

While that kind of life change isn't a bad thing, it isn't the best thing.

We live in a land where processed food is cheap and plentiful and requires no thought at all, where every day is a splurge. Swapping a pudding pie for a cake may be a good choice, but it's not the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.

Maybe if we put more thought into what we put in our mouths, we can eat better and feel better. String cheese may be available at that same convenience store. Sunflower seeds, sugar-free juice, even an apple or banana are available at convenience stores these days.

In a world where our entire lives are splurges, let's choose to splurge less, so our decisions are easier to make.

— Chris

Exercise: An Important Lifelong Practice

Being a 50-year-old father of three, I can tell you the world now is a much more competitive place than it was when I was in school.  

There are high school students with 4.3 and 4.5 grade point averages not being accepted to their first choices of college. Back when I was in school, there was no such thing as an above 4.0 grade point average.

We need our children to remain focused and stress-free throughout their day in order to keep them on the road to success. As parents, we can help by ensuring our children receive proper nutrition, sufficient rest and daily exercise.

If we can do these things for our children, here are some benefits they receive as a result:

• Nutrition: vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals are essential for proper physiological body function. This aids in cleansing the liver and kidneys and holding proper hydration levels in our cells -- plus, they provide cancer-fighting abilities and build healthy immune systems.
• Rest: repairs the body from the daily grind we call life. This allows the body to manufacture amino acids for muscle repair. Proper rest also aids in keeping us alert and dexterous.
• Exercise: burns more calories to help maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI). Create better lung capacity for better blood and oxygen flow. Exercise also makes the heart strong and healthy.

Aside from these immediate benefits, our children also get healthy life style habits that will carry on to adult hood.

We are responsible for bestowing upon them these practices for a healthy lifestyle, so let's do it right.

Label Education

While shopping with Chris at Trader Joe's, I stopped to look at the canned tuna fish on the shelf.

The Trader Joe brand was lower in sodium and higher in protein than most name-brand manufacturers.

Some of the larger manufacturers of tuna, pre-cook there tuna before canning it. Salt is then added in the process. There is 250 mg of sodium and 13g of protein in a six ounce can of Bumblebee tuna packed in water.

In contrast, Trader Joe's solid white tuna in water has 16g of protein and 45 mg of sodium. The package touts "no salt added."

No matter how healthy you think you are eating, you should always check the nutrition labels ("nutrition facts") to make sure you are getting the best product available.

Also, compare the labels of different brands of the same product because they can contain very different amounts of the same ingredients.

Chris always checks the labels to make sure there are no hidden ingredients. She is constantly amazed at what has meat products in it, like most Hostess products. (Vegetable and/or animal shortening, anyone?)