Chef Jamie Oliver is the newest recipient of the TED Prize, “One wish to change the world.” After recieving $100,000 to strengthen his battle against America’s obesity epidemic and dietary-related disease, Jamie says:
I wish for the TED community to create a movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and bring people together everywhere to fight obesity…..My hope is that millions more people will learn, as so many have already, that it is a happier, healthier life that is built around eating good food, together with family and friends.
With all my heart, I couldn’t agree more. Take a moment and watch Jamie’s impassioned acceptance speech, and his simple call to action. We are responsible for re-teaching one another the benefits of a natural diet, empowering the next generation with the fundamental knowledge of whole foods and organic cooking. Help others embrace responsibility of their health, and share the power of good food with those you love.
Not that I ever really need an excuse to eat chocolate, but I have to admit the recent media blitz regarding cacao’s “extreme vitamin C content” had me reaching for an extra piece or two. Night-time newstations buzzed, and highly trafficked websites such as MSNBC featured special reports touting raw cacao as a food with “extraordinarily high [levels of] vitamin C.”
Extraordinarily! Well, perhaps just ONE more bite then . . . (but last one for real FOR REAL this time) . . .
Yet despite this popularized news, superfood company and cacao manufacturer Navitas Naturals has just released what they consider “the honest truth” — exposing that even when processed at low temperatures (i.e. “raw”), there is actually no vitamin C (ascorbic acid) present in cacao.
Oh.
Since 2004, Navitas Naturals has meticulously conducted lab tests directly looking for vitamin C content in raw cacao — each test coming up consistently negative. Always seeking new exciting health advantages of the natural foods they sell, having a firm grasp on nutrition is an important part of the company’s platform. Yet with the current media claims on cacao’s high vitamin C content pointing directly against their own findings, the Northern California-based company decided to let science settle the score.
The multi-platform test performed included using two separate laboratories and three different analytical methods: High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Capilary Electrophoresis (CE) with UV detection, and Titration. Though all three methods have their place in the scientific community, Titration is the most commonly used method in the food industry when determining vitamin C (ascorbic acid) content. However, there is a critical detail within the Titration method which is easy to miss when testing raw cacao’s vitamin C content: Titration is unable to differentiate the vitamin C (ascorbic acid) from the vitamin’s analogs. Consequently, many companies experience test results known as a “false positive.”
Navitas Naturals has a different preferred method – HPLC – which looks directly for vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and not just the analogs. And although the analogs in the Titration test predictably showed a “high vitamin C” false positive, the HPLC method clearly documented a negative vitamin C reading. After utilizing the CE method for a third round of testing, the reports again returned consistent with the negative HPLC results.
To cross all their t’s and dot all their i’s, Navitas then tested their cacao products against one of the largest raw cacao brands in the United States using the Titration and HPLC methods. True to all previous findings, the results confirmed raw cacao, regardless of source, has no vitamin C (ascorbic acid) present.
So here’s the honest truth: cacao is a tremendously beneficial superfood — serving as a rich supply of antioxidants, one of the highest natural dietary sources of magnesium, and containing an impressively high iron content alongside many other essential minerals. Navitas Naturals’ raw cacao powder, for example, has a documented score of a 950 ORAC units per gram (95,000 per 100g) — which is huge! You only need 6g of this organic raw cacao powder to exceed your daily ORAC need as per USDA recommendations. This “real chocolate” is 100% a health food. But as nutrition is a quantifiable science, it is important to be clear on one thing: vitamin C is one benefit cacao does not provide.
And now, yes, back to your regularly scheduled chocolate consumption.
No doubt, there’s been plenty of backlash against High Fructose Corn Syrup. And the Corn Refiners industry has been feeling it where it hurts: its pockets.
The guys and gals over at the Corn Refiners Association need to turn this idea of “bad” around. So rather than change their crappy product, they’ve hired a fancy marketing team to help give them a new, fresh spin. Hence, the birth of the ad campaign: “Sweet Surprise . . . providing factual information about high fructose corn syrup – an ingredient that’s more than just a natural sweetener.“ Because, you know, that really explains a lot. Enjoy your 30 seconds of greenwashing:
Let’s look back in time for a moment. In 1882, America saw the invention of corn syrup. Corn syrup is made through an enzymatic conversion of cornstarch, into a syrupy concoction that contains primarily glucose – the form of sugar the body uses as energy. Because of its relatively inexpensive cost, tastelessness and potent sweetness, corn syrup quickly became a vastly popular sweetener in foods throughout the world. Just about every product imaginable began to include it – from energy bars and bread, to soup and drinks.
In 1958, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) was invented using different enzymes that converted the sugars into fructose instead of glucose. The advantages to this version included further inexpensiveness, and its ability to prevent drying and also preserve the product in which it was used as an ingredient. By the 1970’s, now notorious HFCS was the corn syrup cousin that had taken over the market.
Sweet Surprise claims that HFCS contains that same calories as sugar, and is a “natural” product derived from corn. Since that’s really all the good things they could come up with, the rest of their campaign is more an attempt to portray non-HFCS consumers as idiots.
Although Sweet Surprise attempts to make the product sound harmless and silly, High Fructose Corn Syrup is potentially an incredibly toxic ingredient. One of the reasons for this health hazard status its “high fructose” content: 42%-90% according to sources. Author and nutrition guru Dr. Weil explains, “Never before in history have so many people been consuming so much fructose. I am concerned about its possible disruptive effects on metabolism, including its potential to cause insulin resistance. Along with a growing number of experts, I believe that HFCS is a chief driver of the obesity epidemic in this country, particularly of childhood obesity. I deplore our government’s role in making HFCS so cheap through federal subsidies of corn production.” With sugar metabolism diseases like diabetes at an epic high (and rising), I’d say Dr. Weil is onto something.
Additionally, “natural” high fructose corn syrup was recently found to be contaminated with toxic mercury. Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported, “Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.” Although I wouldn’t tout cane sugar as “good,” it certainly does not contain mercury.
And of course, Sweet Surprise’s claim that “everything is ok in moderation” is ridiculous, as it’s very difficult to achieve moderation when HFCS is in just about every packaged food imaginable. The American consumer continues to enjoy an average of 12 teaspoons a day of HFCS syrup, with teenagers averaging up to 80% more.
I have nothing against the corn industry (when the corn grown is organically and non-genetically modified). What I take issue with is the refined and nutrient-void foods that are a result of the industry . . . and their damaging effects on our body. Meanwhile, there are a plethora of delicious, healthy, truly natural sweetener alternatives to be enjoyed — including agave nectar, stevia, palm sugar, and yacon syrup, just to name a few. They may cost a tad more than high fructose corn syrup, but they also come without the tax of long-term degenerative disease.
At the end of the day, I’d rather have my sweet WITHOUT the surprise.
Crammed amongst a long but patient line outside of the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles, we stood and waited to view the new documentary FOOD, INC. I was excited to see a film chronicling the business-side of the food industry, and its relationship with the true benefit of what ends up on the fork.
My dear Food, Inc: you do not disappoint.
Tackling some familiar concerning concepts — the inhumanity of factory farming, the danger of pesticides, the fears about genetically modified seeds — Food, Inc. connects all the dots: composing a compelling narrative regarding the loss of Americana agronomics through the introduction of corrupt business, and its consequence of destroying our health for the sake of profit. But doom and gloom is not the only message here, and the film also does an excellent job in offering simple solutions, which can promote positive change in food safety, personal health, industry economics and environmental security.
Since its opening, the film has quickly become the darling of news outlets across the US — one after another praising the message as exceptionally relevant and compelling, while packaged in a well organized, researched, and grounded medium. Food, Inc. speaks our language: It’s pretty clear we want change. It’s pretty clear we want to feel good. And we obviously want to do the right thing.
But there’s one place this love-train doesn’t run, and wouldn’t you know it, that place is Monsanto’s blog. In fact, they’ve developed a whole section of their website to trash-talk the film and the ideas of organic, local, and natural farming that it promotes. In Monsanto’s words:
Food, Inc. is a one-sided, biased film that the creators claim will “lift the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer.” . . .Throughout this film, Food, Inc.:
* Demonizes American farmers and the agriculture system responsible for feeding over 300 million people in the United States.
* Presents an unrealistic view of how to feed a growing nation while ignoring the practical demands of the American consumer and the fundamental needs of consumers around the world.
* Disregards the fact that multiple agriculture systems should – and do – coexist.
Thank you Monsanto. I do believe you have just defined hypocrisy.
Food, Inc. is a documentary that provides a crystal clear understanding of what’s really behind what we are putting on our plate and inside our mouths. Though some of the information may be hard to swallow, the “feel good” part of this flick is clearly in our choices.
Live Without Type 1is a wonderful organization that offers valuable information on natural solutions for those with Type 1 diabetes. And with one in three Americans having diabetes or the precursor to it (according to the American Diabetes Association), this kind of healthy solution is a true revolution just begging to hit the spotlight.
At just three years old, little Kylie was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. As diabetes is an “incurable” disease, her family was absolutely devastated. Yet rather than accepting the lifelong fate of insulin shots and drugs, her mother Kim was determined to find a better road for Kylie’s treatment. Amidst a crisis situation, Kim discovered that following a natural diet specifically designed to stabilize insulin levels — including low glycemic, grain-free, and cow milk-free foods — served as a profoundly effective method in combating the disease. Kylie’s blood sugar levels have been treated solely through a natural diet plan. The results have been so great, the family now celebrates “We LIVE WITHOUT TYPE 1.”
Today, Kylie enjoys a healthy, normal lifestyle without having to rely upon insulin shots or drugs – an achievement that most diabetics can only dream about! Having founded Living Without Type 1 in 2008, Kim now helps others effectively fight diabetes naturally.
Both Kim and Kylie stopped by on their recent trip to Los Angeles to make an easy healthy recipe that would be good for Kylie. Watch us make it HERE!
For more information about natural diabetes care, please visit LiveWithoutType1’s blog.
In light of the fact that we’re talking about that pesky little issue of, oh you know, just worldwide food safety, I can’t help but laugh at this: multibillion-dollar Goliath corporation Monsanto has taken up blogging.
You know Monsanto, right? The world’s leading producer of genetically modified seeds?
From Monsanto’s blog:
“Today totally rocked! First we bought up a bunch of new patents on nature-made, heirloom seeds — haha, you can’t plant them anymore ‘cuz we OWN them now! Then we funneled a couple hundred thousand “supportive” bucks into various pockets on Capitol Hill just to make sure we’re all on the same page. Oh, and then we had our scientists work on splicing DNA from a new strain of virus into strawberry genes. Those should be hitting the market soon. And before the day was through, we also destroyed as many farmer’s lives as we could by serving up some massive lawsuits against them. Seems that the wind blew our GM seeds from a nearby farm onto their land and those seeds grew into plants. But! Since the farmers didn’t BUY our seeds they’re infringing on our patent. LOL! (Side note: can we sue nature too?) OMG it was seriously the best day ever!!!!”
You’re right. This wasn’t quite word for word from their blog. And that’s because the blog is called “Monsanto According To Monsanto.” Exactly.
Not that I ever really need an excuse to eat chocolate, but I have to admit the recent media blitz regarding cacao’s “extreme vitamin C content” had me reaching for an extra piece or two. Night-time newstations buzzed, and highly trafficked websites such as MSNBC featured 
From Monsanto’s blog:
`
Subscribe in a reader
Questions of breakfast
Jamie Oliver: Teach Every Child About Food
Buckwheat Graham Crackers
Organic Cleansing