Monday, August 22, 2011

NO!!! Not My Orange Juice, Too!!!


Is NONE of my Food Sacred?!

Ah, orange juice. So pure. So natural. So refreshing. Or so I thought until I found out the industry's dirty little secret.

I drink orange juice everyday. Let me rephrase. I DRANK orange juice every day. In fact, I was beginning to think something was wrong with me. I drank it A LOT. Almost addictively. It was becoming an expensive habit. But I never gave myself a hard time over it because it was orange juice...what could be so wrong with drinking a lot of orange juice, right? (Besides the fact that it is pasteurized, but I digress.....) Afterall, I wasn't buying it from concentrate, which is way worse for you.

Well, now I know why I was drinking it so incessantly.

  • There's a reason why your orange juice always tastes consistent i.e. the taste never changes.
  • There's a reason why Tropicana doesn't taste like Simply Orange.
  • Besides pasteurization, there's another reason why the shelf life is really long.

Hey kids, an you say 'Aseptic Storage' and 'Deaeration'? These words of the day are brought to you by the orange juice industry itself and should replace 'Fresh Picked' and 'Natural'.

Most, If Not All, Store Bought Orange Juice is Made the Following Way

What I thought was a product that was merely grown, picked, squeezed, pasteurized and then put in a carton is not that simple of a process. The step between pasteurizing and packaging is an open secret in the Orange Juice industry and is standard industry practice.

After juicing the oranges, the juice goes to giant holding tanks and the oxygen is removed from them. This means that it can safely sit in there for up to a year. This also means that the liquid is now tasteless. What gives orange juice its flavor has 100% to do with the oxygen in it!

Flava Flave....Packets

So how come your orange juice tastes like - well - orange juice, then? Ah....the company add in flavor packets.

When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature. The packs added to juice earmarked for the North American market tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered, Americans favor. Mexicans and Brazilians have a different palate. Flavor packs fabricated for juice geared to these markets therefore highlight different chemicals, the decanals say, or terpene compounds such as valencine.

Flavor and fragrance packets! That means that 'they' have targeting specific neuro pathways and receptor sites in my brain that do set up addiction.

You have no idea how upset I am. We have all been duped. But maybe I should be grateful for finding this out. It has motivated me to finally buy that juicer I've been meaning to.

On the Hunt

So, I am currently on the hunt asking questions of various juice companies about this. So far, here's some good news:

From Naked Juice:

ConsumerRelations@nakedjuice.com to me
show details 11:15 AM (4 hours ago)



Amy:

We're always glad to answer questions about our totally unfooled around with juices and smoothies.

Naked Juice OJ does not contain any flavor packets. Our all natural juices and smoothies are made from the best bare-naked fruits, with no added sugar, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors, and over 3 servings of fruit in every 15.2 oz bottle, just for you.

We hope this information is helpful, Amy.

Michael
Naked Juice Consumer Relations



Source: Squeezed. What You Don't Know About Orange Juice

Thursday, April 21, 2011

US meat and poultry widely contaminated with bacteria including superbugs


So, here's the bottom line.....

Most of America is apparently suffering from a self esteem problem.

How do I know this?

Because we accept this kind of stuff in our food chain and into our bodies.

Proof that we don't think much of ourselves.

Nasty, horrible, sickly substances that greedy men try to pass off as food.

The simple fact is that the ONLY reason why this goes on, is because we let it.

Stop buying the grocery store garbage, people! If you do, THEY WILL CHANGE.

I wanted to also do a post on 'Meat Glue', but I was too nauseated thinking about it to follow through.

Your body is a temple, treat it like it is.

end of rant.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

2011 LDS Holistic Living Conference Speakers and Classes Announced!

We couldn't be happier to let you know that our new site is up!

Please visit www.LDSholisticliving.com to view our speakers and classes.

Please note our domain and name change from last year (Holisticldsliving.com) and update your bookmarks.

Registration opens on March 1, and the schedule of classes will be posted by February 16. Additionally, vendor registration will also open on February 16. Please spread the word!

The 2011 Conference is going to rock!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Tip of the Day: Spaghetti Squash

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/kitchen/2009_12_15-sprouts.jpg

When you cut open a spaghetti squash, if the seeds have sprouted, just count on the thing being very bitter when you cook it.  Learned that the hard way today.  Yuck.

Friday, December 31, 2010

My New Most Favorite Place: Mountain Town Olive Oil Co.


In the past 15 years of marriage, it has been the rarest of treats for my husband and I to have a getaway. If it wasn't lack of money, lack of overnight babysitters, or a reliant breastfeeding baby it was something else. Needless to say we've only had 3 one night over-nighters in 15 years.

Which is why I eek every ounce of entertainment and fun out of the events. My brain shifts over into multi sensory mode and everything I eat, smell and see is magnified...it's like being newly postpartum all over again and I love it!

We were staying right next to the Gateway Mall in downtown SLC, and so we had a nice meal at the Gateway and proceeded to walk towards the movie theaters to catch a movie. Luckily, we had a 25 minute window in which to make it in our seats.

We passed by this very classy, minimalist looking store. I stopped, took a step back and studied the signage:

Mountain Town Olive Oil Company


I brought my eyes down at which point I saw copper colored vats, lined up in 4 different rows and that was about it. I was intrigued. No flashing lights, no signs shouting 'sale', nothing that would really draw you in, except its simplicity and clean lines, not to mention it was dedicated to my favorite oil...Olive. I did, after all, name one of my children Athena, the Goddess that
caused an olive tree to spring up on the citadel of Athens, thereby becoming the city's patron deity.

So, I gasped, looked at my husband and said, "We HAVE to go in...do you mind?"

I didn't wait for his answer, grabbed his hand and marched in.

I really didn't know what to expect out of this store. The young man behind the counter was clearly a Park City snowboarding transplant, and in fact led off the conversation with his year to date opinion of this year's snow fall in relation to his snowboarding success (not good, by the way).

When he saw that we had a true interest in olive oil, he said, "Well, if you really want to taste a good one, try this." He took a little plastic sample cup and proceeded to open the spigot to one of the copper vats. He started going on about how long it's been aged, where it was sourced and the season the olives were picked. Turns out this guy is an olive oil snob and genius. Loved him.

I Took a Small Sip...

and I was hooked. The olive oil was smooth, not too thick, very subtle undertones of something or rather and I could just imagine it going nicely over a coleslaw for sure. Never in my life have I had tasting an oil bring to mind any of these thoughts before.

I asked him if I could just start tasting all the different varieties? It seemed like there must have been about 100 vats in the store. He said, "Sure, man...that's why the vats are here!"

He then goes on to inform me that the balsamic vinegars are along the back wall and that the infused oils are on the opposite side of the store. There was some dipping bread there, but I decided that that might cloud the full effect of the oil and just went for it.

The Mormon Version of Wine Tasting

All of the sudden I turned in to some wanna be wine taster.
The Natural Butter EVOO? Um, yeah...I will bathe in that one please. The Organic Phoenician....that is something no one who loves nuts should be without. The Australian olive oil?Not so much a fan - tasted too strong of grass and pepper. But all the infused oils - I loved every single one, I can't even tell you.

But the Leccino Olive Oil...that's the one we bought. Yum. I was blown away by how different and complex this one little olive could get. I don't know if I can ever ever buy olive oil off the shelf anymore.

But wait! There's more. The vinegars. Get out of town! They were awesome. Pomegranate, raspberry, strawberry, lavender, blackberry, chocolate, vanilla, coconut. No, I'm not joking. Drinking them straight was a pleasure.

My husband and I walked out of there $15 poorer but with this simple sensory experience we will never forget. I appreciated olive oil before, but will never look at it the same again.

Should you ever find yourself in Salt Lake (or Park City), this is one store not to miss. In fact, make a date night of it, you won't regret it. Mountain Town Olive Oil Co - go to there. One of the coolest places ever (and, I'm not even getting paid for saying it).