Fresh food all year round…

Hi,

I was scrolling my old pictures and found this one. These were vegetables that I got in May in my organic package.

If you see that photo you may indeed link these vegetables to that period of the year. How misleading that is… Nowadays with all greediness for highest revenue, food became a part of intense, unhealthy manufacturing industry. I do not write about processed food, there is no doubt this kind of food is produced with purpose to make the manufacturers, brand owners richer and more influential. I am writing about unprocessed food, such as fruits or vegetables.

Expensive marketing tricks made people believe they need to eat a strawberry or a tomato in winter. Do you really need that food in winter? No you don’t. What you need are products that provide lots of vitamins and minerals, food that is as little processed as possible, food that will grow during the season, it will be cultivated outside in soil, not coming from hot-/greenhouse farming.

The hot-/greenhouse farming creates food that in fact will never grew in winter. If you have your own garden you will know it is not possible to cultivate strawberries or tomatoes in winter. At least, not in northern Europe… I am sure, in fact I saw it myself today, despite it’s just February I could buy all these vegetables/fruits in my supermarket. This makes me really sad. The availability of the same products all year long make life so boring and so unhealthy. The truths is, food that does not grow in your garden at that time of the year, is either coming from hot-/greenhouse farming or from warm country far away. In result, it’s either low quality or has big impact on our environment due to transportation. Therefore, once again – please eat local, think global. Even little adjustment to the season will be beneficial to you and the environment…

Greetings,

OnMyDish.wordpress.com

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Organic food and health

Hi,

It’s been a while since I’ve read an interesting article.

Since I buy organic vegetables, I found this topic particularly interesting.

According to Stanford University in United States, organic food is not healthier than a regular food. The director of Dutch Louis Bolk Institute, Mr. Jan Willem Erisman, didn’t agree and responded that above 90% from 237 researches has been concentrating on just a few components such as vitamins or proteins. He underlined that many other components, which obviously have also important role in human health, were not inspected yet. Summarising, according to Mr. Erisman, effects on human health have not been fully researched yet and it is too early to make a general final statement about organic food and its health effects [1].

Louis Bolk Institute has performed many researches, i.e. on effects of conventional vs. organic dairy products on children. Together with Maastricht University in the Netherlands and Swedish Paracelsus Hospital, came to a conclusion that women who ate organic dairy products in their lactation period, produced more favourable fatty acids than the ones who ate conventional dairy products. Further, the first group had less trans fats. It was stated that up to 30% of two years old children had less eczema than kids eating conventional, regular milk products [2]. This is just one of many examples.

There are speculations that lack of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in organic food is the reason of making organic food healthier. Still, making a statement that organic food is healthier than the regular one, can lead to overuse in marketing [3] and it requires further research [1].

You may ask: “Am I healthier by eating organic food?” I would say: it doesn’t really matter. It is not only that you eat organic vs. conventional food. People who eat organic are more interested in eating healthy and being healthy. I doubt if you see many people buying organic and then drinking an excessive amounts of sodas, alcohol, eating fast foods, sweets, or smoking. Many of them are so self-conscious and have healthier lifestyle. Sport is one of the factors to be healthy.

So… don’t think too much about what you should eat and what you shouldn’t. Why don’t you go just now and do some simple exercises for a couple of minutes?!?!?!?

It’s a good start …:)

Greetings,

Anna *OnMyDish.worpdress.com*

Source:

[1] “Voeding Nu”, Te vroeg voor conclusies over effecten biologisch voedsel, http://www.voedingnu.nl/te-vroeg-voor-conclusies-over-effecten-biologisch.173871.lynkx?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=utcam&utm_content=Te+vroeg+voor+conclu&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_name=Te+vroeg+voor+conclusies+over+effecten+biologisch+voedsel, 5 September 2012

[2] Louis Bolk Instituut, Biologisch-dynamisch melk gezonder, http://www.louisbolk.org/news/114/160/Biologisch-dynamische-melk-gezonder/, 22 September 2011

[3] Louis Bolk Instituut, Koala: onderzoek naar biologisch gezonder, http://www.louisbolk.org/nl/onderzoek/gezondheidszorg-en-voeding/voeding/koala-onderzoek/