"2010, diet surpassed smoking as the No. 1 risk factor for disease"

[digitS']

Really?!

I guess we knew this . . . sort of. Are we really paying attention, tho'? And, what are we doing about it?

"Broccoli's Extreme Makeover" (link)

Who you callin' a Side Dish?

Steve

 

[journey11]

How clever! When my stomach isn't so queasy anymore, I think I will have to have some broccoli with cheese now.

I've always thought that juice is nearly as bad as soda... I've never given my kids juice on a daily basis, only when they were sick and then I mixed it half water/half juice, so they'd get a little extra vitamin C and be encouraged to stay hydrated. But now I might have a problem with them eating too much fruit... My DD6 would eat 3 apples in a day if I let her.

I don't know how even with subsidies that they can get the price of fresh veggies low enough to compete with junk food. Frozen veggies are a little more budget friendly while still maintaining a lot of nutritional value. It's sad really, how stacked the deck is for junk food/processed food...price, the crave factor, quicker and all. It comes down to people consciously taking accountability for their own health.

 

[digitS']

Journey, I was just reading that 2/3rds of the world's food calories come from 3 grains - wheat, rice and corn.

If we add in the meat calories, America doesn't look so good.

Along with just a few more, those grain crops are the ones subsidized by the taxpayers. Fresh vegetables and fruit can compete only if there is some taxpayer $ going into them or if we raise them on our own.

I must be the only person in the neighborhood who grows vegetables on a piece of ground larger than a kitchen floor. These are small lots but generally, the houses take up no more than 1/5th of the lots. Out where I have the big veggie garden, acres and acres are mowed once or twice a year to keep the weeds down. Nothing more is done with that ground.

Steve

 

[journey11]

When we were house hunting a few years back, I passed over a couple of otherwise good houses because they didn't have a level or sunny garden spot. Really that's the best control you can have over it is to grow your own. Or be really, really thrifty and shop the surplus of what's in season and put a lot away. Aside from lack of garden space, many people won't have storage or pantry space either. Much less commit the time and effort to it? That leaves most Americans right back at the grocery store... You think about that extra money some folks are willing to pay for organic, but truly so many people would do well just to put the extra toward any fresh fruit and veggies at all. :/ Meat is probably the most expensive grocery item, but it could be reduced greatly by substituting beans...there's some extra money for healthy veggies!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i've noticed a lot since my dh had his stroke when it comes to the grocery bill. when i go to the grocery store to pick up stuff and come out with mostly fresh veggies and fruits and limit any junk, i'm usually coming out with about 7 bags full of goods that total under $50. when i go and combine those fruits and veggies and have to buy meats and his somewhat healthy snacks the following week my bill comes in around $100. i don't buy eggs since i get them for next to nothing from my chickens, so i can stretch out the protein and veggies by making quiches or omelets. and all those people i hear that don't eat eggs because of the cholesterol issues, my dh when he got out of the rehab hospital was mostly having eggs for breakfast actually reduced his cholesterol levels. but that could have been because he was taken off his junk foods and started eating healthy veggies and more fruits.

 

[so lucky]

I have found that if a person cuts empty carbs out of their diet (white flour, potato chips, sugar, corn syrup) they will not feel hungry nearly as soon after a meal, thus cutting out the need for the pricy empty carb foods.

Beans are still the best bargain around, and I recently read in a new book (I can't recall the name but will try to find out if anyone is interested....something like "Eating Wild"...it was comparing nutrition in new versus ancient foods) that canned beans are even more nutritious than dried beans. Something about the high heat/pressure increases availability of certain nutrients. So according to this author, the best thing to eat for food value is canned chickpeas and kidney beans.

I had a co-worker who decided to go on a bean diet, of sorts. She had a can of beans every day for lunch. She just ate them out of the can, which didn't appeal to me, but she stuck with it and lost about 15 lbs in a few months. Didn't change her other eating patterns much, if I remember correctly, except having a can of navy beans for lunch would sure keep her full through the afternoon.

 

[digitS']

Some of the grain legumes are quite high in antioxidants, as well. Altho', I don't know if they are the good antioxidants or the inconsequential ones.

People have negative attitudes towards beans. I am determined to learn if I can actually increase the enzymes needed for proper digestion this winter. One thing I do know is that dry peas are easier on my digestive system. I think that's probably true with lentils, too. Honestly, a high-sugar day seems worse than most anything else I can be eating . . .

It was a little hard for me to justify growing chickpeas and lentils after I tried them many years ago. Seedcorn had a question about English peas, yesterday. Probably, all of these plants are not very productive. I've wondered if there are larger varieties of chickpeas & lentils. The vines are so tiny that one can't really expect much out of them. In good soil and with regular water, there could be much more robust garden varieties.

It was eye-opening for me to again grow Soldier Beans. I suspect that there are probably a variety well suited for every garden but that one sure could kick out the pounds of good quality veggie protein for me! It is a good thing since my edamame soybeans did so very poorly this year.

I guess I should finally search out the edamame in the soopermarket freezers. I'm fairly sure they rate high in antioxidants since the dry soybeans look good in that regard. They don't have them on this list but here are several thousand foods with their antioxidant content. The researchers did not use the ORCA test but I don't know if it makes a whole lot of difference. It would probably make sense to look at vitamin content rather than antioxidants to judge health benefit, especially since vitamin A & C have antioxidant properties and beta-carotene is on its way to being Vitamin A and acts as an antioxidant.

The PDF file list: (lots of pages but it is a text file and downloads quickly.)

The research behind the list (link)

Steve
who suddenly realizes that he has drug the antioxidant story onto this thread!