Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Activity & Essential Foods

I was in a Vons store out here in Southern California earlier this week and overheard a young mother's reply to her child's comment about a certain food being good for your mind.  And it struck me because there is so much press, propaganda, reports, all sorts of information that tell us which foods are good for us and which are not.  I do the same thing here.  But what is good for one person is not necessarily good for another person.  And what is good for us one week or month is not that important for us the next month or week.  

Though food is important for our health and well-being, so is activity; perhaps equally so, if not more so.  Activities like thinking, figuring things out, assembling things, and so forth--these are excellent activities for your brain.  Learning a new language is great.  A new sport or activity, like dancing.  Something that requires finesse and not brute strength or force.  Swimming requires some strength.  80% of the balance in swimming is taken care of by the water.  Okay, that's one thing I wanted to say.

Another is that there are certain foods that work as valuable staples in an economy where prices are making certain goods more scarce.  One food product that I really like and rely on is virgin olive oil.

I consume this California Estate Olive Oil from Trader Joe's.  The cost is $5.  But as you commit to some challenging and vigorous activity, the power of these foods is increased.  The health benefits of healthy food is maximized.  Anyway, on the olive oil, I really like the peppery bite in the good olive oils.  Mark Sisson made a great point that you should buy local whenever possible.  We tend to think of really great olive oil coming from Greece or Italy, but oil from locally-grown olives is best.

As the economy gets tighter, it is important to have healthy foods around.  Almost everyone I read says stay away from canned goods because of the BPA in the containers and other nefarious ingredients.  For the most part, I like this advice.  But there are times when I crave a canned food item.  But there are some products whose nutritional benefits outweigh the caveat.  Liver pate is one such food.  Liver pate is high in Vitamin A.  The Vitmain A in carrots and other vegetables is beta-carotene.  But the Vitamin A in animal meats is Retinol A, which is really good for immunity and differentiated cell growth. There are lots of pates on the market.  Some stores sell only one or two, so I get what is available from them.  Here is one:


The other food to consider is grapes.  Not everybody likes grapes because they are a diarrheatic.  Let that be a lesson to you--raisins and grapes are great constipation-fighters.  But grapes certainly do activate your gut.  That's a good thing in my opinion.




Finally, the last thing that I wanted to talk about was GMOs.  Below is an example of how the GMO industry and Monsanto are able to influence kid opinions in US schools, circumventing parental consent.  The sample below is a grammar and spelling worksheet or test.  Here I've retyped a few of the sentences:

#1: These foods come from organisms that have purposefully altered DNA fore a variety of reasons.  Sum plants have been made moor drought resistant, which means life or death in some parts of the world.

#2: Other plants are now more pest resistant sow that fewer chemical pesticide applications are necessary.

#3: Buy inserting an antifreeze gene from fish into potatoes, scientists have created potatoes that can withstand colder temperatures.

Based on the final question about reasons strengthening the paragraph, the task seems to focus on grammar only.  But why use reasons that advocate for GMOs?  It assumes the legitimacy of GMOs.  It assumes that scientists are clever tinkerers who work only to benefit mankind.  Ha!!

Here is the original.  The above page comes from an elementary textbook published by Evan-Moor Corporation

Check out the following:

Direct message posted yesterday by CEO of the textbook company.
https://www.facebook.com/evanmoorcorp/posts/10151842992454158
A message from the CEO of Evan-Moor:

It has been brought to my attention that one of the activities in our Daily Six Traits Writing books contains a biased article about GMO foods. After reading the article, I must agree completely. I want to thank the parents and educators who brought this to my attention.

It was an error in our authoring and editing processes. The article was intended to present both sides of the issue and did not. Normally this would have been caught by our fact checking processes. Please accept my apology for the error.

I have directed our editorial staff to replace the article when the book is reprinted and to make the new article available on-line free of charge. Those of you who have e-mailed us will receive personal notification when the article is available. We will also post the availability on FaceBook.

On a personal note, my wife and I have contributed to a number of organizations that are campaigning for labeling of GMO foods: Organic Consumers Association, Food Democracy Now and Yes on 522 in Washington State. We do not allow GMO foods in our home, and we would certainly never do anything to promote them in our publications.

Sincerely,
Bill

William E. Evans, CEO
Evan-Moor Educational Publishers

No comments:

Post a Comment