Photo courtesy of arch1design.com.

The shopper’s guide updates information on 53 fruits and vegetables, highlighting the worst pesticide offenders with its “Dirty Dozen” list and the cleanest conventional fruits and vegetables with its “Clean 15” list.

The six worst offenders of the dirty dozen (from highest pesticide levels to least) are: apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, and imported nectarines.

The rankings were synthesized by analysts at the EWG and based on data collected from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 2000 to 2009.

The produce was ranked on a composite score, weighing factors including: the percent of individual produce tested and found to have detectable levels of pesticide on them; and the percent of individual produce with two or more pesticides on them.                                        

Of the apples tested, 97.8 percent had detectable levels of pesticides on them, and of those with pesticides on them, 92 percent contained two or more pesticide residues, according to the findings.

To make matters worse, most samples were washed and peeled prior to testing, so the rankings reflected the amount of chemicals likely present on the foods when eaten.

Celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, lettuce and greens (kale and collards) were the vegetables most likely to retain pesticide contamination.

Image courtesy of healthmango.com.

Some of the best natural sources of vitamin D are found in fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel. Smaller amounts of natural vitamin D are found in foods like beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks. It’s a little less known that mushrooms also contain some natural vitamin D.

Vitamin D is so important that other foods are fortified with it. These include some breakfast cereals, orange juices, and dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt.

People also naturally make vitamin D when their skin is exposed to the sun, but today’s largely indoor lifestyles are making it harder and harder for people to get the necessary benefits of sun exposure, especially during the wintertime, according to research from the Medical College of Georgia (MCG).

We use to only associate vitamin D deficiency with rickets (a softening and weakening of the bones) and osteoporosis (the thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density over time).

New research is now also showing a correlation between low levels of vitamin D in a body and the presence of heart disease and high blood pressure.

A typical supermarket meat department. Photo from the Orange County Register.

Meat is a delicious part of most people’s diets, providing the body with a lot of high quality nutrients, like iron and protein.

The downside is that the high fat in some meats can be a real problem for anyone trying to lose weight or who has health issues, including: high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, or diabetes.

The connection between diabetes and saturated fats is less obvious and has only gained attention over the last few years. People with diabetes are told cut back on refined sugars, breads, and other carbohydrates, but a few years ago, the American Diabetes Association did a study, which also found that “certain types of fat from red meat may play a major role in the development of type 2 diabetes.”

To help people make healthier and more informed choices when buying meats, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) made a decision – going into effect on January 1, 2012 – that will require major cuts of meat and poultry by large producers to have nutrition labels either on the products or signs nearby.

Photo courtesy of The Tehran Times Daily Newspaper.

We all know that adding more fruits and vegetables to our family’s diet is important, but it’s good to remember why. Besides improving our own health, we also teach our kids healthy eating habits that will benefit them for a lifetime.

Between lives that run at a frenzied pace and media marketing of high fat meals, in recent decades healthy eating has dropped dangerously low on people’s priority lists. And, there’s a price for this.

Around the world, and especially in America, people are getting heavier and heavier, developing more and more health problems, and teaching their children the same bad eating habits – consequences are children developing early risk factors for heart disease by the time they reach puberty.

Heart disease is when enough blood can’t circulate to the heart muscle, which slowly damages its ability to function.

In Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, a study was just published which said that children as early as nine years old were showing precursors to heart disease, including  obesity, elevated blood pressure, and high Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which is the bad kind. Teen smoking was also considered a risk factor.

Graphic courtesy of Oregon State University.

In an effort to eat as healthy as possible, many of us have turned to buying an increasing number of products labeled as organic, whether they’re meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, grains, and so on. The question is: Are we always getting the quality of product that we’re expecting?

“Unsuspecting consumers by the tens of millions are being allowed to purchase and consume unlabeled genetically engineered foods, despite a finding by U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists that these food could pose serious risks,” according to the Center for Food Safety.

“New genetically engineered crops are being approved by federal agencies despite admissions that they will contaminate native and conventional crops and pose other significant new environmental threats,” adds the CFS.

In February, Consumer Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, released the results of a national telephone poll finding that, “A majority of respondents (58 percent) expressed some level of concern with contamination of organic food crops by genetic engineering.”

Grilled Salmon. Stock photo.

Earlier this year, out of 6,012 respondents to a survey by ConsumerLab.com, 74 percent said they were users of “fish oil/omega-3 supplements.” ConsumerLab.com provides independent test results and information on health, wellness, and nutrition products to consumers and healthcare professionals.

So, some questions. What are omega-3s? Do they all do the same thing? And, are there any health risks associated with them?

An omega-3 is an unsaturated fatty acid found mostly in certain kinds of fish (salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel, lake trout, and albacore tuna) and plants (flaxseed, butternuts, hempseeds, walnuts, soy beans, and canola oil).

Before synthetic modern medicines (and some of them work wonders), millenniums of people stayed in great health by the foods and medicines they derived from nature.

Turmeric has anticancer chemical. Photo by sallybernstein.com.

Well taking some lessons from the past, many researchers in highly respected institutions of medical science are starting to re-examine the properties of the foods and spices we get from nature. They’re finding some promising chemical compounds with properties capable of both contributing to the prevention and fighting of many serious conditions and diseases, such as cancer.

Most recently, a study was published in the British Journal of Cancer, found that certain molecules found in a curry spice have been shown to kill oesophageal (also spelled as esophageal) cancer cells in laboratory tests.

Scientists at the Cork Cancer Research Center, in Ireland, treated oesophageal cancer cells with curcumin, which is a chemical found in the curry spice turmeric. They found that the curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.

Image courtesy of www.ecoliblog.com.

As a precaution, National Steak and Poultry is recalling approximately 248,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7. This form of the bacteria is among the more dangerous ones, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bloody diarrhea and stomach pains are the most common signs of this form of the bacteria, according to the CDC, but adds that people shouldn’t except it to be accompanied by a big fever, if any at all.

The greatest concern is for children under five years old and the elderly. In especially vulnerable people, this form of the bacteria can cause damage to red blood cells and kidneys. This only happens to about one-in-50 people, says the CDC, but without hospitalization, they can die.

This recent outbreak came to light through an investigation by the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Foods and supplements rich in omega-3. By Medindia.com.
• Slightly lower blood pressure.
• Reduce the likelihood heart attacks.
• Reduce the likelihood of dangerous abnormal heart rhythms.
• Reduce the likelihood of strokes in people with known cardiovascular disease.
• Lower triglycerides (the chemical form in which most fat exists in food as well as in the body).
• Reduce inflammation related to rheumatoid arthritis (a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks the joints), and Crohn’s Disease (an inflammatory disease of the intestines that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract).

Courtesy of healthhype.com

Most of us can’t start the day without at least one cup of caffeinated coffee. The obvious reason is that it wakes us up and makes us more alert. The International Food Information Council calls caffeine in low doses “a mild stimulant to the central nervous system.”

The council suggests that “moderate caffeine consumption for the general healthy population is about 300 mg per day, or about three eight-ounce cups of coffee.” So! Are their any benefits to consuming caffeinated drinks besides making us more alert? The answer is a huge ‘yes,’ according to a report by WebMD, which finds that beyond improving mental alertness, in moderate amounts, caffeine can alleviate the symptoms of conditions such as asthma and low blood pressure.

It appears that caffeine can improve the airway functions ‘somewhat’ in people with asthma for up to four hours. Caffeine has also been shown to elevate low blood pressure in older people, which can help alleviate problems such as dizziness when standing up.

WebMD also found that caffeine can contribute as an inhibitor to the development of certain medical conditions, such as:

• Gallstones
• Type 2 diabetes
• Parkinson’s Disease