Green Options » fruits

Afraid of Winter Depression? Go Mediterranean

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:06:10 +0000

The Mediterranean diet is not only good for its more well-known reasons — protecting against heart disease and cancer. According to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Mediterranean diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, and fish, may decrease risk of depression.

Popcorn Can Reduce Your Risk of Cancer!

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:26:05 +0000

Did you know that whole grain products, such as whole grain cereals and popcorn, are extremely healthy and not only for their high fiber content? These common breakfast and snack foods are rich in antioxidant substances, of which fruits and vegetables were generally considered to be our only really significant source until now. These antioxidants, called “polyphenols,” can also be found in wine, tea leaves, coffee, olive oil, walnuts, and chocolate. However, not to the same degree as in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These polyphenols may be the leading way to reduce risk of cancer and heart disease.

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Dude, What’s On My Food?!

Cate Nelson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:24:59 +0000

As a parent, you’re probably concerned about pesticides on the foods your family eats. I know I am.

Since the Environmental Working Group came out with their list of the “Dirty Dozen“, I’m more selective about our produce purchases. We even grew a few rows of kale in our raised bed gardens because we eat copious amounts of greens.

But just because a favorite veggie didn’t end up on EWG’s list doesn’t mean that it’s free and clear. Certainly not organic, in most cases!

An average American child gets 5+ servings of pesticides in their food and water per day.

Yikes! That’s why this frightening educational new database is so helpful.

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Help Your Favorite Local Farmers Market Win $5000

Levi Novey — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:07:52 +0000

It’s an experience many of us relish– taking a weekend stroll through the colors, sounds, and smells of a local farmers market and then choosing fresh items to take back to our homes, as well crafts, or maybe a cd from a local band. We know that the food will eventually fill our stomachs contently, or that another item we found will be a perfect and unique gift for a special friend or family member.

This summer you can show your support for your favorite farmers market, by helping it win a $5000 reward. Care2.com and Localharvest.org are sponsoring this great online contest. The $5000 top prize will be awarded to the farmer’s market that is voted the most popular by internet users like you.

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10 Foods to Prevent Cancer

Amy Bell — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:55:13 +0000

Every year more than 500,000 people die from cancer in the United States alone.

Many researchers and cancer specialists believe that up to 60% of those deaths can be prevented if Americans adopt healthier lifestyles.

According to Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute,

“The easiest and least expensive way to reduce your risk for cancer is just by eating a healthy diet.”

Here is an overview of ten important cancer fighting foods to include in your diet on a regular basis:

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Family Meals Create Better Eating Habits

Amy Bell — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:57:01 +0000

According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, eating together as a family during adolescence is associated with lasting positive effects on dietary quality in young adulthood.

Students surveyed as teenagers were surveyed again at twenty years old to determine the long term effects of eating family meals. Researchers found that eating family meals together during childhood resulted in adults who ate more fruits and vegetables, and drank less soft drinks.

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Have Your Health and Eat Your Cake, Too: Nutritionist Jodi Greebel Teaches You How to Splurge Responsibly

Gennefer Snowfield — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:08:03 +0000

For me, eating ‘healthy’ used to mean one stick of butter instead of two. But for the sake of my arteries (and wardrobe!), I decided to ditch fatty foods in favor of an all-natural diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and any other low calorie, high protein substance that typically had a distinct flavor, resembling cardboard.

Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I returned to the comforts of creamy comestibles, luxuriously languishing in lardaceous liquids, where I’ve been happily indulging ever since. That is, until Behind the Burner nutrition expert and author of The Little Black Apron, Jodi Greebel, came along to open my eyes to a lifestyle of healthy — yet satisfying — morsels that don’t require me to go cold turkey on tempting treats.

So, when I had Jodi captive, I picked her brain about nutrition, dining out, being a vegetarian, and how to eat healthy and delicious.

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US$ 130 Million European Union Budget to Feed Fruits and Vegetables to Obese Kids

Sam Aola Ooko — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:14:23 +0000

For a continent that has more than 22 million of its kids overweight or obese, fighting obesity may require concerted efforts of both parents and national governments within the European Union.

And the Europeans are ready to spend US$ 130 million annually to enliven the old adage - an apple a day keeps the doctor away - as well as improve their carbon footprint by promoting greener consumption.

But Europe is also grappling with weight as a serious health issue and now a strategy to fight obesity in kids is being pushed through European parliament to provide free fresh fruits and vegetables to school children.

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Edible Plant Project Pushes for Sustainable Foods

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:30:39 +0000

If you’re looking for a challenge, try growing a productive vegetable garden in Florida’s superheated summers. I’ve worked toward that goal every day for the past three months and have only a few successes to show for it: six sturdy sunflowers, one infant pumpkin and a spreading mass of strawberries in which the slugs beat me to the fruits nine times out of ten. On the other hand, daily explorations of my wooded backyard have revealed wild foods galore that grow without an ounce of effort on my part: huckleberries, wild blackberries, even Southern crabapples.

So I was happy to discover that other Floridians have reached the same conclusion I have: that it makes sense, in as difficult a climate as ours, to emphasize foods from native plants, especially tree crops.

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Avoiding the Dirty Dozen: How to Afford Organic Produce

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:09:09 +0000

In the vegan cooking classes I teach and the outreach I do, I am often asked how to incorporate "organic" food into our diets without breaking the bank. Since I rarely have a simple answer, I usually start off by saying what I think is a really important thing to keep

Keep in mind that the typical consumer is NOT paying the true cost of food. The meat, dairy, and egg industries, in particular, enjoy many government subsidies, which keep the cost of these unhealthful products artificially low. The same goes for produce laden with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Also, organic fruits and veggies are usually not grown on an industrial scale, so efficiencies aren’t as great. Also, as pointed out in a recent article on the subject, "there are also significant costs involved in switching farmland from nonorganic to organic status. And there’s a lot more manual labor involved, such as weeding by hand."

So it’s not that organic is expensive; it’s the non-organic is cheap.

I’m always struck by the fact that so many people think organically grown food is some new-fangled, trendy idea. To grow plant foods with the least amount of chemicals as possible is to return to a time before industrical agriculture. Supporting local farmers is a very old ideal. As consumers, we should be shocked that an apple from clear across the world costs less than an apple grown a few hours from our home. When you go to a farmer’s market and buy directly from that farmer, you’re paying the true cost of that food.

Buying local and organic is the best thing you can do for so many reasons. First of all, the taste is absolutely superior, because the fruits and vegetables are grown with flavor in mind. When you buy produce that has been shipped in from all over the world, that produce is grown not with taste and flavor as the first priority but rather the ability to withstand the long shipments and sit on the shelf for long periods of time.

Also, when you purchase local produce, you’re purchasing produce that is seasonal - grown according to the climate of the region in which you live. And seasonal veggies are generally cheaper than purchasing out of season fruits and vegetables. But cost doesn’t refer only to dollars. As with the health costs that comes from eating an animal-based diet, there are also environmental costs, and when you buy locally at a farmer’s market or through something like Community Supported Agriculture, it means you’re paying for food that was driven down from a couple hours away as opposed to shipped from thousands of miles away. That’s a huge savings in terms of the resources required to get that food to your table – resources that include oil and electricity.

In terms of organic produce, when you purchase organic, you’re supporting a growing system that works with the Earth rather than against it. You’re paying for sustainable growing methods that enrich rather than deplete the soil. When you purchase out-of-season produce that was shipped in from other countries, there concerns about food safety, as well. The growing standards in other countries may not be the same as those in the U.S. or more specifically as high as those of the farmers you can talk to at the markets. I mean you can find out exactly how they grow their food, and in many cases you can also visit the farm yourself.

Having said all this, as we adjust to paying the true cost of food, it’s helpful to know which fruits and vegetables are the most highly sprayed so we can make informed decisions when we simply cannot purchase organic. Certain produce, termed the "Dirty Dozen" by the Environmental Working Group, is so highly sprayed with toxic chemicals that, many experts recommend eating them only when they’re organic. These include:

Apples
Cherries
Grapes, imported (Chili)
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Raspberries
Strawberries
Bell peppers
Celery
Potatoes
Spinach

The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that even after washing, some fruits and vegetables consistently carry much higher levels of pesticide residue than others. The produce you can get away with purchasing as non-organic includes:

Bananas (though I do recommend purchasing "Fair Trade" bananas)
Kiwi
Mangos
Papaya
Pineapples
Asparagus
Avocado
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Corn
Onions
Peas

When I have the opportunity, I do tend to purchase many of these as organic anyway, mainly because I shop at farmer’s markets and also because I want to support local, organic farmers. But it’s helpful to have this list on hand (or in your memory) to help you make the best choices possible.

To make it even easier for you, the Environmental Working Group has a handy little guide called Pesticides in Produce that you can either download from their website Food News, or order a wallet-size version of to keep with you at all times.