Month: April 2014

Hearty Quinoa and Bean Soup

Roberto CarusoRoberto Caruso from Chatelaine

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp vegetable broth
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1  carrot, diced
  • 2  garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp tumeric
  • 1/3 cup dry quinoa
  • 1/4 cup of barley
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 540 mL can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can of tomatoes crushed
  • 2 cups baby spinach

Instructions

Heat a large saucepan over medium. Add oil, then onion. Cook until onion is soft, about 3 min. Add carrot, garlic, cumin, coriander. tumeric and Quinoa. Cook for 2 more min. Pour in broth and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, partially covered, until Quinoa is cooked, about 15 more min.

  • Stir in beans and spinach. Cook until beans are hot and spinach is wilted, 2 to 3 more min. Serve immediately.

Prep Tip:

No need to chop the spinach . Just toss it into the simmering soup and it wilts perfectly.

Advertisement

The War On Food: New Government Report Wants Meat And Dairy In Europe Halved

A new executive summary of an upcoming report adds to vegetarian claims that a normal human diet affects pollutant nitrogen emissions, climate change and land-use across Europe.

The executive summary of the European Nitrogen Assessment Special Report on Nitrogen and Food, ‘Nitrogen on the Table’ wants Europeans to decrease their consumption of meat and dairy products.

It estimates how much cutting down on meat and dairy in European diets would reduce nitrogen air, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, while freeing up large areas of farmland for other purposes. It also attempts to make a case for the health benefits of reduced meat consumption. The actual report will be published next month but health food sites love to use media talking points as data so this should be prominent.

Lead author Henk Westhoek, program manager for Agriculture and Food at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency says, “The report shows that the nitrogen footprint of meat and dairy is considerably higher than that from plant-based products. If all people within the EU would halve their meat and dairy consumption, this would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 25 to 40%, and nitrogen emissions by 40%. The EU could become a major exporter of food products, instead of a major importer of for example soy beans.”

The work has been conducted by the ‘Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen’ of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In 2011 the Task Force produced the first ‘European Nitrogen Assessment’ (ENA) which showed that better nitrogen management will help reduce air, water and soil pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, simultaneously reducing threats to human health, biodiversity and food security.  The UNECE Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen was created to give policy makers in the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution data to support environmental policies related to reducing agriculture in Europe.

Co-author of the report Prof Mark Sutton, an Environmental Physicist at the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said, “Human’s use of nitrogen is a major societal challenge that links environment, food security, and human health. There are many ways in which society could improve the way it uses nitrogen, and this includes actions by farmers and by ourselves. Our new study shows that adopting a demitarian* diet across Europe would reduce nitrogen pollution levels by about 40%, which is similar to what could be achieved by adopting low-emission farming practices.”

Sutton said, “As the EU now starts to renegotiate the National Emissions Ceilings Directive, it is an open question to what extent countries will emphasize technical measures or such behavioural changes. One of the major barriers to action is the international trade in food commodities. The result is that countries fear that tackling nitrogen pollution will reduce their international competitiveness. The present study shows that there is huge power for pollution control in simply reducing our meat and dairy consumption.”

Dr Alessandra Di Marco, a co-author of the study and researcher at the Air Pollution Unit of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, said, “The school food pilot projects in Italy have shown added value environmental benefits and health benefits associated with ‘smart food’. This is a new concept in Italian schools where children are informed about health principle of nutrition, but it still misses the connection with environmental co-benefits of the healthy choice. Increasing the awareness of dietary choice in children is the starting point for cleaning the environment.”

Source: Centre for Ecology&Hydrology

FDA Finally Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic

By Global Research News

Global Research, October 06, 2013
Intellihub.com and World Truth TV 7 July 2013
Region: 
Theme: 
US Pushing Drugged, Vaccinated, Chlorinated Chickens on the World

After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that’s fatal in high doses.

But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It’s added to the chicken feed on purpose!

Photo: World Truth TVEven worse, the FDA says its own research shows that the arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat where it is consumed by humans. So for the last sixty years, American  consumers  who eat conventional chicken  have been swallowing arsenic, a known cancer-causing chemical. (http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/loc…)

Until this new study, both the  poultry industry  and the FDA denied that arsenic fed to  chickensended up in their  meat.  The fairy-tale excuse story we’ve all been fed for sixty years is that “the arsenic is excreted in the chicken feces.” There’s no scientific basis for making such a claim… it’s just what the poultry industry wanted everybody to believe.

But now the evidence is so undeniable that the manufacturer of the chicken feed product known as Roxarsone has decided to pull the product off the shelves (http://www.grist.org/food-safety/20…). And what’s the name of this manufacturer that has been putting arsenic in the chicken feed for all these years? Pfizer, of course — the very same company that makes vaccines containing chemical adjuvants that are injected into children.

Technically, the company making the Roxarsone chicken feed is a subsidiary of Pfizer, called Alpharma  LLC. Even though Alpharma now has agreed to pull this toxic  feed chemical off the shelves in the United States, it says it won’t necessarily remove it from feed  products  in other countries unless it is forced by regulators to do so. As reported by AP:

“Scott Brown of Pfizer Animal Health’s Veterinary Medicine Research and Development division said the company also sells the ingredient in about a dozen other countries. He said Pfizer is reaching out to regulatory authorities in those countries and will decide whether to sell it on an individual basis.” (http://www.usatoday.com/money/indus…)

But even as its arsenic-containing product is pulled off the shelves, the FDA  continues its campaign of denial, claiming arsenic in chickens is at such a low level that it’s still safe to eat. This is even as the FDA says arsenic is a carcinogen, meaning it increases the risk of  cancer.

The National Chicken Councilagrees with the FDA. In a statement issued in response to the news that Roxarsone would be pulled from feed store shelves, it stated, “Chicken is safe to eat” even while admitting arsenic was used in many flocks grown and sold as chicken meat  in the United States.

What’s astonishing about all this is that the FDA tells consumers it’s safe to eat cancer-causing arsenic but it’s dangerous to drink  elderberry   juice! The FDA recently conducted an armed raid in an elderberry juice  manufacturer, accusing it of the “crime” of selling “unapproved drugs.” (http://www.naturalnews.com/032631_e…) Which  drugs  would those be? The elderberry juice, explains the FDA. You see, the elderberry juice magically becomes a “drugs” if you tell people how it can help support good health.

The FDA has also gone after dozens of other  companies  for selling natural herbal products or nutritional products that enhance and support  health. Plus, it’s waging a war on raw milk which it says is dangerous. So now in America, we have a food and drug regulatory agency that says it’s okay to eat arsenic, but dangerous to drink elderberry juice or raw milk.

Eat more poison, in other words, but don’t consume any healing foods. That’s the FDA, killing off Americans one meal at a time while protecting the profits of the very companies that are poisoning us with their deadly ingredients.

Oh, by the way, here’s another sweet little disturbing fact you probably didn’t know about hamburgers and conventional beef  : Chicken litter containing arsenic is fed to cows in factory beef operations.  So the arsenic that’s pooped out by the chickens gets consumed and concentrated in the tissues of cows, which is then ground into hamburger  to be consumed by the clueless masses who don’t even know they’re  eating  second-hand chicken crap.

Ten servings of fruit and vegetables a day — not five — needed for good health, researchers say

Five a day won't cut it: Researchers now say 10 servings of fruit and veg are needed per day for optimum health.

FotoliaFive a day won’t cut it: Researchers now say 10 servings of fruit and veg are needed per day for optimum health.

A healthy diet should include 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, doubling the five-a-day official advice, say British health experts.

The research, which involved a 12-year study, also found that vegetables were four times healthier than fruit.

The study, by University College London, found that eating large quantities of fruit and vegetables significantly lowered the risk of premature death. People who ate at least seven portions of fruit and vegetables each day were 42%less likely to die from any cause over the course of the study.

Prof Simon Capewell, of the department of public health at the University of Liverpool, said the advice should be 10 portions a day. “Humans are designed to be omnivorous: a handful of nuts, seeds, fruit and the occasional antelope. We’re not meant to be eating junk food.”

Researchers examined the eating habits of 65,000 people in England between 2001 and 2013.

They found that seven helpings a day of fruit or vegetables could reduce a person’s overall risk of premature death by 42% when compared with people who ate just one whole portion.

People who ate between five and seven portions a day had a 36% reduced risk of death, those who ate three to five portions had a 29% decreased risk and those who ate one to three helpings had a 14% reduced risk.

Those with the highest intakes were also 25% less likely to die from cancer and 31% less likely to die from heart disease.

To implement a seven-a-day message would be really challenging for many in society and would require governmental support

“We need to urgently examine seriously the proposal to increase recommended intake to seven a day,” said Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow. “To implement a seven-a-day message would be really challenging for many in society and would require governmental support such as subsidising the cost of fruitand vegetables, perhaps by taxing sugar-rich foods.”

The study also found that vegetables were far more beneficial than fruit. Each portion of vegetables lowered the risk of death by 16 per cent. However, each piece of fruit only lowered the chance of death by 4 per cent.

The authors said the findings lent support to the Australian government’s advice of “two plus five” a day, which encourages people to eat two helpings of fruit and five of vegetables. Dr Alison Tedstone, the group’s director of diet and obesity, said: “Our focus remains on increasing overall consumption of fruit and vegetables to meet current recommendations.”

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.