Category — Tuesday Tidbits

Betcha didn’t know that October 1 is World Vegetarian Day 2010, and that the event kicks off the Annual Vegetarian Awareness Month?!  True true . . . and isn’t veg awareness so much more fun to celebrate than that other awareness month that occurs every October (<shudder>)?  For those of us who’re not vegetarians, let’s celebrate by going veg at least once per week in October . . . or maybe try for the entire month? 

Why?  Compared to the general population, the typical vegetarian has a lower body mass index, lower cholesterol, reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, and reduced risk of coronary artery disease.  One reason: a vegetarian diet boosts your intake of phytochemicals. These are compounds found in colorful fruits and vegetables, such as the lutein in broccoli and the lycopene in tomatoes. Phytochemicals are powerful antioxidants and may help protect against cancer.  Reluctant to go all the way?  You don’t need to be a vegetarian 24/7 in order to to reap benefits. Going meatless one or two days a week can reduce your intake of saturated fats and cholesterol and fill your body plenty of beneficial plant-based nutrients.

C’mon . . . you can do it – just one day?  Click here for some tasty veg recipes on Semi-Sweet to get you started.

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You keep hearing it – fiber’s good for you.  Natural sources of dietary fiber can help your body in myriad ways, and now soluble fiber is being touted for its positive effects on the immune system.  According to a recent study in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, mice that ate a diet rich in soluble fiber for six weeks recovered from a bacterial infection in half the time it took mice who ate meals containing mixed fiber.  Turns out, the soluble fiber found in citrus, apples, carrots, beans and oats helps fight inflammation.  Insoluble fiber (in wheat, whole grains, nuts and leafy green veggies) doesn’t have the same impact. 

What to do? Strive for 25-30 grams of total fiber daily, and pay attention to getting soluble fiber in particular.

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You’re trying to clean up your act, right?  Eat less meat?  More veggies?  And maybe part of your plan was to incorporate more soy-based products into your repertoire . . . after all, you’ve gotta get some protein, right?  Well, you might want to consider splurging on organic.  In a recent report by the Cornucopia Institute, a research and advocacy group for small-scale farmers, a “dirty little secret” of the natural foods business is exposed.  Turns out, there’s widespread use of a toxic and environmentally damaging chemical, hexane, in the manufacturing of “natural” soyfoods such as veggie burgers, nutrition bars and protein shakes. Hexane (a by-product of gasoline refining), is used to separate the whole soybean into soy oil, protein and fiber.  The use of chemical solvents like hexane is prohibited in organic food processing, yet its use is widespread in the “natural” soy industry, including in some products labeled as “made with organic soybeans,” such as Clif ® Bars. Hexane is a neurotoxin, and is listed as a “hazardous air pollutant” by the EPA.  The health effects of consuming hexane residues in soy foods haven’t yet been thoroughly studied and are not regulated by the FDA, but the test results obtained by the Cornucopia Institute indicate that residues—ten times higher than what is considered normal by the FDA—do appear in common soy ingredients.

Not so healthy. 

What to do?  If you’re freaked about this, look for soy products like veggie burgers and nutrition bars that are labeled “organic.”  You probably don’t have to worry about tofu or soymilk, because the soy protein in those doesn’t need to be isolated from the soy oil and fiber . . . hence, likely no hexane.  Of couse, if you don’t choose organic soymilk or tofu, you might end up with genetically engineered foods, which is a whole ‘nother can o’ worms.

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I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!  The weather was glorious here in the Boston area . . . we indulged ourselves with two cookouts, some lounging on the patio, a looong bike ride in Boston and a lot of Ikea shelving assembly (well, that last one wasn’t so much of an indulgence, was it?).

But now we’re back to work and school and I’m introducing a new weekly feature @Semi-Sweet, the Tuesday Tidbit.  Every Tuesday I’ll highlight a resource, food fact or health tip that’ll help you live a healthier life.  

Today’s Tidbit features the GoodGuide.  GoodGuide provides manufacturers, retailers and consumers with the health, environment and social responsibility information they need to make better purchasing decisions. The site rates over 70,000 consumer products according to their health, environmental and social performance. And GoodGuide even provides a free iPhone app so that you can scan product barcodes and receive instant ratings on products.

GoodGuide ratings range from 0 to 10 (10 being the best) and indicate how a product performs on a comprehensive set of health, environmental and social metrics. If you are looking to switch to a better product, GoodGuide’s summary rating can be used to easily identify the best products in a category. If you are looking for more refined ratings, drill down from the summary rating to focus on a product’s health performance, or a company’s environmental or social performance.

However you choose to use it, the GoodGuide is a quick way to find non-toxic, environmentally friendly products from companies with good social and safety records.

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