La Vita e Dolce, Part Three: How to Eat Your Sugar

III. Does HOW You Eat Sugar Make a Difference to Your Body?

Orange juice or an orange? Soda or chocolate-covered raisins? Cream of wheat or oatmeal? To make smart sugar choices, it helps to understand what happens inside the body after that sweet, creamy or starchy bite passes over our taste buds. No interest in the science behind it? Scroll down to “Our Friend Fiber: Delivering Sugar in Moderation.”

Blood Sugar Becomes Stored Sugar Becomes Fat

The body’s goal is to break down all digestible carbohydrates into simple sugar (glucose) molecules, which are the only ones small enough to cross into the bloodstream. Glucose (aka “blood sugar”) is called the “energy of life” because it is the basic fuel for living organisms, from bacteria to humans. Glucose gives our cells energy to move, grow and repair, and is also the primary energy source for the brain.

When we eat carbohydrates (aka sugars and starches), whether:

•  Simple (i.e., fructose, glucose, galactose) or
•  Complex (i.e., starchy vegetables, grains, legumes - think “FIBER”),

enzymes in the saliva, pancreatic juice and lining of the small intestine break down food to derive glucose (fructose is an exception, read on). As glucose entering the bloodstream elevates blood sugar levels, the pancreas releases the hormone insulin into the blood, which tells cells to absorb blood sugar either for use or for storage.

In the liver, surplus glucose is converted into glycogen to store energy for use in between meals, while the rest is sent to muscles and peripheral tissues for an immediate energy boost. Glycogen is the body’s short-term energy storage package, easily converted back to glucose when we need it. If the body is already storing enough glycogen, surplus glucose is changed into fat.

Conversely, when we need energy, like while exercising, our body extracts glucose circulating in the bloodstream and breaks down stored muscle glycogen into glucose, burning it; next signals the liver to start breaking down its glycogen stores, releasing more glucose into the bloodstream to be burned; and finally, oxidizes its fat reserves as glycogen stores become depleted. So if we regularly overdose on sugar, the body never need burn its fat.

In addition to keeping the body fatty, a high sugar diet induces the pancreas to pump out high levels of insulin. This stresses the pancreas and bombards body cells with insulin to the point that they may become insulin resistant:  unresponsive to insulin and thereby unable to get glucose out of the bloodstream. As an example, whereas normally 1 unit of insulin might be needed to help 10 mg of glucose go into the cell, in a hyperinsulinemic person, 10 units of insulin might be needed to get the same 10 mg of glucose into the cell.  The result is glycation: glucose molecules, unable to enter the body’s cells, glom on to proteins in everything from red blood cells to blood vessel walls to nerves. If glycation becomes severe, "it can damage cell membranes and corrode virtually every major system in the body." Jim Thornton, "The House That Snacks Built" Best Life Magazine

Meanwhile, glucose is the only fuel normally used by brain cells, which cannot store it, relying on the bloodstream to deliver a constant supply of fuel (glucose) to the brain. As your body tries to compensate for a high sugar diet, insulin levels are higher when you eat and between meals (aka "fasting insulin level"). Until the liver filters the insulin out of the bloodstream, circulating insulin keeps pulling glucose out of the bloodstream and “locks” your fat cells, preventing your body to burn fat for fuel. Your brain may experience an energy crisis, feeling spaced-out, weak, confused, nervous, unable to focus. Called “hypoglycemia,” these dips in blood sugar bring on the sugar cravings, as the brain calls for more glucose, stat!

See a cycle forming? If this cycle is so destructive to our bodies, why do we keep putting more and more sugar into our mouths? To pinpoint one culprit would be oversimplifying the complex workings of the body, but here are some possibilities:

Leptin-Resistance, Fructose, and Food Rewards

“Are You Leptin’?” (Uncle Tommy’s coined phrase for eating that causes your leptin to surge)
We understand part of the story of insulin gone awry, but let’s back up a step to examine how a person becomes a chronic sugar overeater. Neurosurgeon Dr. Jack Kruse asserts,

“Chronic leptin elevation leads to eventual leptin resistance and usually occurs 5-7 years before someone becomes insulin resistant.”

Leptin is what a Whole9 article dubs the “kingpin hormone” because it controls all of the body’s energy metabolism.  Your stored fat cells (adipocytes) make leptin and secrete it into the bloodstream to inform your brain about your status of energy reserves (how much fat you have). When this system is working, your brain uses this information to decide that you need to gather more energy (you feel hungry), that your energy needs are met for now (you feel full) and that you do or do not have enough energy to undertake some activity (you feel drained, tired or energized). Accordingly, leptin controls your appetite, fat placement and usage.

Many Americans have however become leptin-resistant, which much like insulin resistance, occurs when high levels of leptin are repeatedly secreted into the bloodstream, until our cells become deaf to its message. Given that the more body fat you have, the more leptin is secreted, what causes chronic leptin elevation in the blood?

• Overeating. From infancy, many Americans overconsume sugar, increasing inflammation and body fat. As sugar gets metabolized in fat cells, they release surges of leptin.
• Chronic Inflammation. When SOCS (suppressors of cytokine signaling) go to work to calm inflammation in the body (an overfed or fat body is an inflamed body), they block the brain’s leptin receptors, so the message to stop eating doesn’t get through to the brain. What to do? Eat more!
• Snacking and Drinking Sugar. Processed snacks and sugary drinks cause insulin levels to spike repeatedly throughout the day, causing frequent leptin secretion.
• Exercising without Recovery Time. Similar to overeating, overtraining without proper recovery time keeps the body perpetually inflamed. (See Chronic Inflammation above).
• Stress. When cortisol levels go up, fat cells release more leptin.
• Breastfed? This process could kickoff on the day you’re born:  “You first get leptin from your mother when she first breastfeeds you. So if you were not breastfed you may have started life off on the wrong foot from an energy metabolism stand point. In fact the latest research is showing that not getting leptin from your mother’s colostrum has huge implications right away for your DNA...This is one way we know obesity can be transmitted across generations. There are others.” -- Dr. Jack Kruse, jackkruse.com [For more about the wonders of breastfeeding, see this previous post.]

Have you become a “Sugar Burner”?
Are you craving sugar in some form (drink, dessert, carbs, dairy) all day every day? Can you work out many days a week and seem to hardly lose a pound? Are you tired or ravenous after a workout? Do you have an eternal “beer belly” or “paunch” (fat below where your six-pack would be -- called “visceral fat”)?

Many of my friends and family would answer yes (I did). These are signs that you are leptin-resistant, and as such, have become a “sugar burner.” Your broken energy controls think you are in a famine, overlooking your fat when you need energy, and instead burning what sugar you have circulating in your blood stream or have stored in your muscles. This is why when you workout, you experience extreme fatigue and hunger, and minimal fat loss. It’s also why your body tells you to eat more often, especially at night, even though you have plenty energy stored in your belly, or hips or thighs, etc. After all, the brain needs blood sugar to operate, and if the body isn’t tapping its sugar reserves (fat), the alternative is to keep putting sugar in your mouth.

“Also lost is the knowledge of where to put that fat, so a preponderance of it is stored in the viscera [lower belly]...Some of that fat permeates the liver, impeding the liver's ability to listen to insulin and further hastening diabetes.” -- Dr. Ron Rosedale

Meanwhile body-wide inflammation from overeating blocks your satiety signal from registering in your brain. The vicious cycle forms:

The Fructose Loophole
Fructose, unlike other simple carbs, is metabolized in the liver where the body stores it as more glycogen. Also, because fructose does not stimulate insulin production, insulin doesn’t go up and therefore leptin doesn’t surge to signal the brain that you ate. Because it doesn’t spike insulin, fructose is sometimes recommended by health professionals as a better source of sugar, but several doctors running obesity clinics disagree.

Overdosing on fructose taxes the liver, which forms toxins in the body, stores more visceral (belly) fat and tricks you into overeating. Consider: a can of Coke with 40g of sugar sourced from HFCS (55% fructose, 45% glucose), gives you 22g fructose -- 3 times as much as one apple (about 7.5g fructose). Drinking sugar (regardless of the source because white/brown sugar, HFCS, fruit juice and evaporated cane juice all contain high levels of fructose) is one of the pillars of what Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UCSF, calls the “fructosification of America.”

“Before food processing we got fructose from fruits and vegetables, and consumed about 15g of fructose a day. In 1994, American adults were consuming 54g of fructose daily.” -- Dr. Lustig

“Fructose is a special carb that makes more sdLDL [Small, dense LDL - heavy, “bad” cholesterol] than any other sugar we have because of how the liver has to handle it biochemically. The large amounts of these particles causes the liver to make a ton of triglyceride particles to store all the sdLDL’s for storage in the bad places like are arteries, viscera, heart or liver.” -- Dr. Jack Kruse

Sugar is not evil, but concentrated liquified doses of fructose may be. Check out this parody of the HFCS ads.

Misled by Our Survival Instincts -- Food Reward
In its 2009 statement, the AHA described how the quick hit of glucose and the palatability of processed/sugary food and drinks alter the pleasure center (aka limbic system) of the brain such that: you eat more regardless of whether or not you need to, hard-wired pathways are established to crave the sugary food, and you feel pleasure even as you overeat. They called it “The Hedonic Pathway of Food Reward.”

The limbic system is meant to help us survive by influencing our emotions and motivations related to many things, including eating. When something pleasurable or rewarding happens (like getting a surge of glucose from a soda while watching a great movie in the theater), the reward system is engaged to make sure the brain remembers to repeat that action.

“The brain uses input from smell, taste, touch, social cues, and numerous signals from the digestive tract to assign a reward value to foods. Generally, we are born liking the following:  fat, starch, sugar, salt, meatiness (glutamate), the absence of bitterness, certain textures, certain aromas, calorie density (rich foods). Over time, aromas and flavors associated with these qualities also become rewarding. For example, beer tastes terrible the first time you drink it because it's bitter, but after you drink it a few times and your brain catches wind that there are calories and a drug in there, it often begins tasting good.”

“Your brain is pretty simple in some ways. It has these very basic hard-wired associations, like ‘sweet is good’ [remember the brain needs a stable level of blood sugar to operate]. If your brain likes a little bit of sweet, then it really likes a lot of sweet. ..Our brains are wired to respond to the stimuli with which they evolved. For example, our natural taste preferences tell us that fruit is good. But what happens when we concentrate that sugar tenfold [i.e., juice]? We get a superstimulus. Our brains are not designed to process that amount of stimulation constructively, and it often leads to a loss of control over the will, or addiction.

Our bodies are finely honed to seek out healthy food, but only in the context of what we knew when our tastes developed during evolution. If all that's available is grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts, your appetite will naturally guide you to a healthy diet. If you surround yourself with superstimuli such as sugars, refined grains and MSG, your body will not guide you to a healthy diet. It will take you straight into a nutritional rut because it's not adapted to dealing with unnatural foods.

It's a very similar process to drug addiction. Addictive drugs are able to plug directly into the brain's pleasure centers, stimulating them beyond their usual bounds. Food superstimuli do this less directly, by working through the body's taste reward pathways.

Why would your body deliberately encourage you to damage your health? In our hunter-gatherer state, it didn't. In this age of processed food, our technology has outstripped our ability to adapt. Any taste that's extraordinarily concentrated by some industrial process, relative to what we could have foraged, should be seen with suspicion in my opinion.”- Biochemist and Neurobiologist Stephan Guyenet (wholehealthsource.blogspot.com)

Thank you, Mr. Guyenet, for explaining food rewards so well. I discovered his blog serendipitously just as I was in week 3 of a candida diet (no dairy, refined grains, alcohol or sweets), and it made me understand why I felt SO ANGRY! At the heart of my anger was a feeling of deprivation. I tried to cut deals with myself (“Maybe just a taste of the mac-n-cheese at Thanksgiving?” “If I could only have ONE of these foods, it wouldn’t be so hard to stick to the diet”). I complained to my husband about how I never get to do anything for myself. I ranted to my friends about how I was starving, until finally one of them commented, “you sound like an addict.” And so I was.

Now, just what is a hypoglycemic, leptin-resistant, pre-diabetic sugar addict to do?

Our Friend Fiber: Delivering Sugar in Moderation 

“The best carbs are those that not only provide a steady supply of energy, but also bring other nutrients the body needs.” - Dr. Sears

“Complex carbohydrates are like time-release capsules of sugar because their fiber resists digestion, slowing the breakdown and subsequent release of sugars into the bloodstream. Simple carbohydrates contain glucose that is absorbed directly through the stomach wall and rapidly released into the bloodstream, almost as quickly as if delivered by syringe.” -- The Franklin Institute Online, The Human Brain

“When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote.” - Dr. Lustig

Nature limits our sugar intake by encapsulating glucose and fructose in fibrous and nutritious grains, fruits and vegetables, aka Complex Carbs. Dr. Lustig asks you to imagine chewing a sugar cane. Without processing, you’d never be able to extract the amounts of sugar we consume everyday. Think about how many oranges you would eat for breakfast - three or four? That’s how many goes into an 8 fl.oz. glass of OJ.

Because our bodies cannot digest fiber, fiber-rich complex carbohydrates (legumes, unrefined grains, vegetables, etc.) move through the digestive tract slowly, regulating absorption of the food’s sugar content, reducing insulin response and giving your brain time to receive the signal that you are full. Equally valuable are the nutrients contained in the fiber (i.e., pulp, peel, seed coat, etc.) that enhance the absorption of the nutrients we want (i.e., Vitamin C).

“While it is true that the sucrose in an orange is chemically the same as the sucrose in the much-maligned table sugar, the fact that the sucrose in the orange is packaged along with other nutrients [like flavonoids found in pulp] makes it behave biochemically more friendly in the body. When you eat sucrose as naturally part of fruits or vegetables, you get not only vitamins and minerals in the package, but you get fiber and other complex carbohydrates that steady the absorption of the sugar. Yet, take the sugar away from the rest of the fruit and vegetable and refine it into a powder [or a juice or fruit juice concentrate], and it's this processing that downgrades sucrose from the healthy to the junk food category. So, it's the company the sugar keeps with other foods that affects its absorption from the intestines and its consequent behavior in the body.” - Dr. Sears

In 2008, The Nurses’ Health Study which followed a group of more than 70,000 women over 18 years concluded that fruit juice consumption increases the risk for diabetes:

“The positive association between fruit juice consumption and diabetes risk may relate to the relative lack of fiber and other phytochemicals, the liquid state, and the high sugar load. The rapid delivery of a large sugar load, without many other components that are a part of whole fruits, may be an important mechanism by which fruit juices could contribute to the development of diabetes. Fructose consumption has also been implicated in the development of many manifestations of the insulin resistance syndrome.”

Revisiting this section’s opener (“Orange juice or an orange? Soda or chocolate-covered raisins? Cream of wheat or oatmeal?”), it’s the latter!

Read IV. How Does the Body React to a High Sugar Diet? to see which ailments could be prevented or cured with diet change

Revisit II. Is Sugar by Any Other Name (like “HFCS”) The Same Thing? to identify sugar in all its forms
Revisit I. How Much Sugar is Too Much? to quantify a moderate amount of added sugar

La Vita e Dolce, Part Two: Sugar by Any Other Name

II. Is Sugar by Any Other Name (like “HFCS”) The Same Thing?

The short answer is no, not in how it’s processed, or in how sweet it is. True, HFCS and Corn Sugar have about the same glucose:fructose ratio as white sugar (aka “sucrose,” which is 50% fructose, 50% glucose)). The corn refiners’ industry spins this fact into, “HFCS is as natural as sugar, it acts no differently inside your body.” A truthful description goes more like this:

“HFCS is as bad as sugar is for the body, and worse, it’s made from genetically modified corn that has been grown and processed with synthetic chemicals.”

HFCS may be on your radar, but “sugar” has many aliases these days, and if you want to reduce your sugar consumption, you have to be able to identify it in all its forms in the ingredients list. As I researched sugar types, I also investigated from whence they come. (This was a very long process, as the manufacturers of highly processed sugars don’t very much want to talk about the sulfuric acid, genetically modified enzymes and bleach they use. )

Because I most trust foods that are as close to their natural state as possible, I thought that honey and maple sugar were the best added sugar choices. (Honey does contain micronutrients, but I learned needs to be used sparingly because a little honey contains a lot of sugar). I would still choose it and other “minimally” processed sweeteners (highlighted in green in the chart below). Avoid the others and send a message to the sugar industry that we are not interested in eating genetically modified, bleached, chemically-bathed substances (and ultimately to our government representatives that we do not support our tax dollars subsidizing this industry.

Points of Interest:

• “Pretending that soda made with high fructose corn syrup is ‘all natural,’ is just plain old deception,” said Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “High fructose corn syrup isn’t something you could cook up from a bushel of corn in your kitchen, unless you happen to be equipped with centrifuges, hydroclones, ion-exchange columns, and buckets of enzymes.” 

• “Brown Sugar” (dark, light) and Natural Brown Sugar (aka Evaporated Cane Juice, Barbados, Cane Sugar, Demerara, Muscovado, Panela, Raw Sugar, Sugar in the Raw, Turbinado) may look the same, but are different. The former has gone through the entire chemical process to become white sugar, after which molasses is added back in; while the latter is only processed through the first crystallization stage. Try Sucanat as the least processed option when a recipe calls for brown sugar.

• While their molecular structures differ, HFCS, sugar and honey similarly contain about 50% glucose, 50% fructose. What differentiates them is their processing and sweetness.  Unlike highly processed HFCS and sugar, unpasteurized honey contains trace amounts of vitamins, minerals, local pollen and anti-fungal propolis; but honey is sweeter than sugar (1 tsp. honey = 17 g sugar; 1 tsp white sugar = 4g sugar). Using small amounts of honey respects body and planet.

• Not all agave is created equal (or has the same amount of fructose). As you’ll read later, agave nectar with 90% fructose can be toxic to your liver. Look for organic or white agave nectars, which claim to be less processed and lower in fructose.

• Though the AHA doesn’t count milk as a source of added sugar, possibly because it is naturally occurring as lactose, I included it in this chart because I think it should be viewed as such. As is the case with fruit juice, consuming sugar in liquid form causes insulin to spike. When considering whether or not to minimize your dairy intake, consider that our country has a powerful marketing machine (“Got Milk?” posters hang in our public school cafeterias) whose goal is to convince us that cow’s milk is integral to a healthy diet. Others, like Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, understand that after we wean off our mothers’ milk, our bodies are not designed to continue breastfeeding throughout our adult life, let alone from a cow. “We’re all hailed with a steady song and dance about how we ought to be drinking tall glasses of it every day. And we believe it, we want those strong bones and teeth. Oh, how we try to behave like baby cows. Physicians will tell you, the great majority of lactose-intolerant Americans don’t even know it. They just keep drinking milk, and having stomachaches.”

Read on: III. Does HOW You Eat Sugar Make a Difference to Your Body?

Revisit I. How Much is Too Much? to quantify how much sugar is too much, and compare that to the sugar content of common foods/drinks.

La Vita e Dolce, Part One: How Much Is Too Much?

“Anything in Moderation is Fine”

Nicely timed with Sugarfest Trifecta (Halloween-Christmas-Valentine’s Day), my kids are listening to the soundtrack from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Stella the Baby requests the Oompa Loompas' songs every time we turn on the radio (“doo-pa-dee-doo!”). And Michael (3yo) tries to learn the lyrics, which, though super blunt, point out a legitimate concern:

Is Wonka's Chocolate Room a fantasyland?

"What do you get when you guzzle down, SWEETS,

Eating as much as an elephant, EATS?

What are you at, getting terribly, FAT?

What do you think will come, of, THAT?

I don't like the look of it."

Sugar Confusion

For some time I've wondered if "sugar" by any other name is really the same thing in the body. I want to understand sugar choices both for myself and to make sure I am giving my kids good advice.

What finally motivated me to research sugars -- excepting artificial sweeteners, which due to their very name, are instantly outside the purview of this blog -- was the launch of the Corn Refiners Association's $25 million marketing campaign. Its ads depicted high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) objectors as tactless, arrogant and uninformed.

The commercials built a fire under me, but it was lit by an individual: the day I asked if the syrup used to sweeten their iced tea was HFCS, and the lady at the Dunkin' Donuts drive-up window quoted these ads, "I'm not sure what kind of syrup, sweetheart, but even high fructose corn syrup is fine in moderation."

That was IT! That one of Grandma Reina's favorite adages should defend an ingredient that didn't even exist when she was teaching her own children, "everything in moderation" is preposterous. And demands investigation - subito!

I set out to discover:

1. How much IS a moderate amount of sugar for an adult, and for a child?
2. Is HFCS as “natural” as white sugar? Isn’t honey better than refined sugars?
3. To the body, is there any real difference between eating a whole fruit versus a glass of juice, a sweet tea, a soda, etc..?

To Clarify: 1. Because our bodies can derive all the blood sugar they need from whole foods alone, there is no such thing as a “normal” or “required” amount of added sugar. All added sugar is superfluous to a healthy diet.
2. “Overeating sugar” or "sugar overdose" refers to consuming any food or drink that causes blood sugar to spike quickly, and/or the liver to be overloaded with fructose (i.e., sweetened foods, sugary drinks and refined grains - aka things made of flour).

After two years of research, here’s what I’ve learned and will share in this series:

1. Sugar is not evil! The human body needs about one teaspoon of glucose circulating in the blood, to support brain function among other things. But too much blood sugar can result in coma or death. So the body aims to regulate blood sugar when we eat by breaking down carbohydrates into glucose and storing any excess for later. (Blood sugar aka glucose should not be confused with white/table sugar aka sucrose, which is 50% glucose, 50% fructose).
2. Americans drink and eat too much sugar every day, largely because we have no idea how much is too much, and how often we are consuming it in a day.
3. A high sugar diet is an addiction, which doesn’t just create diabetes, it also creates heart disease, infertility, newborns predisposed to sugar addiction and...
4. ...Maintaining a sugar surplus in your body keeps you fat (specifically in your belly).
5. Drinking juice, soda and other sweetened beverages forces the liver to digest unnaturally high, toxic amounts of fructose (whether from HFCS, white sugar, or fruit concentrate).
6. Minimally processed, organically grown sugars contain trace amounts of beneficial nutrients and vote against genetically-modified, synthetically grown and chemically-processed ingredients (better for planet and body).

My cousins Crystal and Alex pointed out it’s hard to accept that something so commonly consumed can possibly be a killer (like smoking in the Baby Boomer generation). That’s exactly the kind of paradigm shift we need again.

Towards the end goal of making smart sugar choices, this series will:

• Quantify a moderate added sugar intake for man, woman, child (I. How Much Is Too Much Sugar?)
• Identify and differentiate sugars (II. Is Sugar by Any Other Name The Same Thing?)
• Describe how processed sugar alters the body's healthy functions (III. Does HOW You Eat Sugar Make a Difference to Your Body?)
• List some of the most common ailments that may be cured or prevented by diet change (IV. How Does the Body React to a High Sugar Diet?)
• Share ideas for enjoying the pleasures of eating and drinking without relying on sugar (V. Sugarwise Ways, also includes this series' list of resources)

I. How Much is Too Much Sugar?

Take a gander at the average American man’s, woman’s, teen’s or child’s sugar consumption any day of the week, and there’s how much is too much sugar.

This table compares Americans’ average daily sugar intake to the recommended allowance published by the American Heart Association (AHA) in the 2009 journal Circulation. Find it strange that a heart association would set sugar intake guidelines? Read onwards to see why.

Using the AHA’s guidelines as a reference point, we see that Americans are nowhere near consuming sugar “in moderation.” American adults consume more than 2 days’ worth of sugar in one day, while our children consume more than 4 days’ worth of sugar in one day. If the AHA’s sugar allowance seems small, remember we are discussing added sugars, which we can literally live without altogether, because we are designed to get all the sugar we need from whole foods (more about this in Part Three).

How much sugar do you consume daily?

How many sugars do you take in your coffee or tea? How much sugar is in your creamer?

As is ever more often discussed in our media, added sugar is ubiquitous in our country. Of course you expect to eat sugar when you have dessert, candy or soda; but are you checking labels and calculating your sugar intake from your juices, sports drinks, bread, pasta sauce, cereal, salad dressing, prepared meals, yogurt, flavored milks, frozen dinners, canned vegetables, or any other “food” that comes from a factory?

Do you consume any of these products regularly? Here’s a sampling of the sugar content in some common foods and drinks, with the percentage of the AHA’s recommended daily added sugar intake each represents.

Sweetened drinks certainly defy the AHA’s concept of moderate added sugar intake. To follow the Dunkin’ Donut lady’s advice, I’d need to drink less than half the 16 oz. cup of sweet tea -- which alone delivers more than 2 days’ worth sugar -- and have no other sugar that day. Are you shocked too, to see how many of these items are highlighted in red, indicating that one serving contains more than a day’s worth of sugar? Like the flavored milk our kids drink every day at lunch? Check out this article on HealthyChild.org to see how you can get involved with campaigns to change this.

Why doesn’t the Nutrition Facts Label tell you what percentage of your added sugar “daily value” one serving contains?

“Sugars: No daily reference value has been established for sugars because no recommendations have been made for the total amount to eat in a day.” - FDA Website “How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label"

Uh oh! Sounds like the people at the American Heart Association need introducing to the FDA. Or that the FDA has overlooked this petition submitted to them by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in 1999: “Petition for Proposed Rulemaking to Establish a Daily Reference Value for 'Added Sugars,' to Require Nutrition Labeling of 'Added Sugars,' and to Make Corresponding Changes to Nutrient Content and Health Claim Regulations.”

Would you keep buying these products and feeding them to your children if you could see on the label that 3 days’ worth of sugar is in one serving? Will you now?

Read II. Is Sugar by Any Other Name (like “HFCS”) The Same Thing? to identify sugar in all its forms

Yummy Local Eats Under $10-15

When eating out, here's what I like: a locally-owned place that makes its food from scratch, using whole/unprocessed ingredients, which are if possible, locally and/or organically grown, and not at gourmet prices. Do such eateries exist? Yes! I am constantly on the lookout for these mouth-watering oases, in my city (Atlanta) or yours (because one day my children will be old enough to join me on a foodie roadtrip across the US) so please add your local recommendations as comments below.

In the meantime, check out Cooking Channel's "Unique Eats", which spotlights "casual neighborhood treasures" across the country. Here's my running list for Atlanta by area:

Multiple Locations
Alon's (Bakery/Deli) - Since 1992, European-style market serving hot sandwiches, salads, prepared foods, breads, desserts, cheeses, wines. Where? Virginia-Highlands, Dunwoody (www.alons.com)

Try...the fresh breads, ginger scones, Tuscany sandwich - goat cheese/arugula/eggplant; gelato (Dunwoody only); ordering ahead online; and checking out the soon-to-be restaurant in 2010 (Dunwoody)

Caribbean Fiesta (Caribbean) - Since 2001, serving a daily-changed array of authentic caribbean and other less-spicy options cafeteria-style, with several staples as constants. Where? Norcross, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta

Try...Coco bread around a beef patty, peppery/creamy mac-n-cheese, rice and peas (beans), fried plantains, a combo dish (for less than $10, choose up to 2 meats and 2 sides)

Eclipse di Luna (Tapas) - Small plates of specialty foods, fun drinks, live music and artsy, lush decor make this a great place for a small bite to eat, or party time. Menus differ at each location. Where? Miami Circle, Dunwoody (www.eclipsediluna.com)

Try...$10 Bottomless Sangria Sundays; $15 All-You-Can-Eat Mondays and BOGO Mojito Mondays (Miami Circle only); Pan Catalan (crusty bread with tomato sauce), Roasted Beet Salad w/goat cheese, Pimiento Peppers Stuffed w/goat cheese, the Spanish cheese plate, Grilled Chicken Breast, Empanadas (all of them)

Figo (Pasta/Italian) - In 2002, native Italian Sandro Romagnelli brought authentic Italian pasta and sauces to Atlanta, many of them family recipes. Since then, both Figo's Atlanta presence and its menu has grown; now they serve sandwiches, salads, appetizers and desserts. You choose which pasta and sauce to pair - try them all! Where? Howell Mill Road, Little Five Points, Virginia Highland, Decatur, Buckhead, North Point, Dunwoody (www.figopasta.com)

Try...Zucca for $9 - butternut squash/amaretto ravioli with mascarpone/Italian red chicory radicchio sauce; and the Lunch Special for $5.95 = an iced tea and 2 items (soup, salad or panini)

Mediterranean Grill (Middle Eastern/Greek) - Family-owned Mediterranean Grill serves fresh, homemade Mediterranean specialties, cooked to order. Where? Marietta, Midtown, Decatur (www.mediterraneangrill.com)

Try...the hummus, the Falafel Plate; the Business Lunch Combo Special for $6.49 = shish kabob, kufta kabob, gyro slices, rice pilaf, salad, pita and a drink

Buckhead
Souper Jenny (Soups, Salads, Sandwiches) LOVE THIS PLACE for the creativity it oozes and a daily-changing-freshly-homemade menu of 6 hot soups, 2 sandwiches and a few salads, served cafeteria style. Open for lunch 6 days a week, and now dinner on Tuesdays and Thursday nights, Souper Jenny is founded and operated by local theater performers, who add vibrant service to the already colorful, cozy decor, outdoor garden seating area, and take-home words-of-wisdom. Cash or check only! Where? 56 E. Andrews Drive, Buckhead, 30305 (www.souperjennyatl.com)

Try...the $12 lunch deal = 2 each (soup, salad, sandwich), cookie, roll and drink; and joining the email list to be notified of the day's menu

Chamblee
Maison Robert (Bakery/Chocolatiers) - Maison Robert was opened in 1977 by the Reeb family, natives of France, and third and fourth generation patissiers-confiseurs. They have recently moved to a larger location in Chamblee, where they handcraft confections, pastries, breads, sandwiches and salads to-go. Where? 5256 Peachtree Road, Ste 110, Chamblee, 30341 (www.maisonrobertchocolates.com)

Try...the rich and perfect quiches (any flavor), the Roast Beef/Swiss sandwich on French bread, all of the chocolates (i.e., the Vanilla Marzipan in dark chocolate)

ZenTea (Tea Bar) - What was once the Chamblee town hall is now one-year-old ZenTea, where more than 100 assorted high-quality teas are served hot, cold, in spritzers and lattes. In addition to an assortment of sweets and savories provided by Maison Robert, ZenTea has recently expanded its food offering with locally prepared light fare. Where? 5356 Peachtree Road, Chamblee, 30341 (www.ezentea.com)

Try...sampling the 2 featured teas of the day; the matcha latte with soy milk; Friday-night $10 tea tasting = taste 4-5 teas with pastries; Saturday-night $6.50 tea flights = 3 9oz pots of hot tea; drumming, yoga and meditation classes; sipping tea while you work at ZenTea (free Wi-Fi); reserving afternoon tea

Decatur (also see Mediterranean Grill listed above)
Duck's Cosmic Kitchen (Bakery/Bistro) - Everything at Duck's is made on-site with all-natural, seasonal ingredients, from fresh breads and desserts, to sandwiches, soups, salads and pizzas. Where? 111-D New Street, Decatur, 30030 (www.duckscosmickitchen.com)

Try...the cinnamon doughnuts, the cupcakes, the James Calvin - slow roasted pulled pot roast/horseradish sauce/Dijon on walnut leek bread

Southern Sweets (Bakery/Sandwiches) - Family-run bakery open in 1992, they home-make sweets, sandwiches and soups according to their motto, "Perfect Ingredients, Simple Preparation." Where? 186 Rio Circle, Decatur, 30030 (www.southernsweets.com)

Try...all the desserts, especially the freshly-baked warm fruit pies, the Grown Up Grilled Cheese - choose 2 cheeses and add Smithfield Baked Ham; the Greek Turkey Wrap - roast turkey/feta/Kalmata olives/vinaigrette/horseradish sauce

Your Dekalb Farmers Market Restaurant (International) - Serving freshly prepared foods cafeteria-style, made with the market's organic and natural ingredients, with a heavy emphasis on fresh vegetables. Pay by weight, including a salad bar and daily specials of fish, meat, chicken, and vegetarian dishes. CASH ONLY. Where? 3000 E. Ponce De Leon Avenue, Decatur, 30030 (www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com)

Try...the seasonal vegetables, the samosas; bringing your recycling to drop off at YDFM's recycling center

Dunwoody (also see Figo, Alon's, Eclipse di Luna listed above)
E. 48th Street Market (Italian/Deli/Bakery) - the Augello family opened E. 48th in 1986, transplanting their New York - Italian - restaurateur -baker roots to Georgia (thank God for the rest of us transplants that they did!). Here they make available traditional Tuscan, Piedmontese and Sicilian delicacies and staples, preparing their own fresh mozzarella, sausages, fresh pasta, breads and sauce among other things. Serving as a neighborhood Italian grocer, deli (hot and cold subs) and caterer, they stock the shelves with imported Italian wines, pasta, cookies, cakes and candies. Where? 2462 Jett Ferry (at Mt. Vernon), Dunwoody, 30338 (www.e48stmarket.com)

Try...the Eggplant Casserole, the cannolis, the marinated artichokes with stems, the tiramisu, the Greek salad, any of the deli sandwiches on fresh bread

Midtown (also see Mediterranean Grill listed above)
 R.Thomas Deluxe Grill (American) The only 24-HOUR healthy restaurant in Atlanta, R.Thomas has been using high-quality, at times homegrown ingredients, since 1985 (before "organic" was in fashion), to offer carnivores and vegetarians equally interesting menu choices, serving all meals all day long. Where? 1812 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, 30309 (http://rthomasdeluxegrill.net)

Try...Visiting with R.Thomas' pet birds outside; the Warm Chicken Supreme salad, the Magic Quesadilla, Hot Sweet Chai Yerba Mate, or any of the fresh juices and smoothies (i.e., Donkey Kong - strawberry, oj, coconut, banana, honey)

Norcross (also see Caribbean Fiesta listed above)Bleu House Cafe (Sandwiches, Wraps) Family-run catering business also opens for lunch weekdays, serving generous portions of inventive hot and cold sandwiches, freshly-made salads and soups, and home-baked desserts. Where? 108 Cemetery Street, Norcross, 30071 (www.bleuhousecafe.com)

Try...the Bronx Bomber - prosciutto/sopressata/salami/fresh mozzarella/roasted red peppers; the Roman Muffaletta - turkey/prosciutto/eggplant/fresh mozzerella/olive spread/pesto mayo; the Funky Chicken Melt - grilled chicken/cheddar/honey mustard; the Spicy Chicken Wrap - grilled chicken/yellow rice/cheddar/onions/spicy ranch

Mojitos (Cuban-American) - the Fernandez-Cortes family opened this bistro a couple years ago, where they prepare authentic Cuban food and delicious drinks, as well as the live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights. Where? 35 S. Peachtree Street, Norcross, 30071 (http://mojitosbistro.com/)

Try...the Stuffed Plantains with avocado-cilantro sauce, the yuca fries, the Guantanamera Salad - greens/baby spinach/caramelized Charleston pecan halves/diced pears/fresh goat cheese/champagne-guava vinaigrette, black bean soup, Guava BBQ baby-back ribs, the Mango Pie, the mojito (of course)

Zapata (Mexican) - recently moved into downtown Norcross, Zapata serves authentic Mexican dishes, a refreshing alternative to the ubiquitous "Mexican" On-the-Border-esque chains. Where? 15 Jones Street, Norcross, 30071 (www.zapata-atl.com)

Try...Crema de Chile Poblano (creamy poblano soup), Fantasia Olmeca - flank steak/roasted poblano peppers/onion/au gratin, the margaritas; generous kids portions for less than $6

Roswell
Roswell Teahouse (Sandwiches/Salads/Afternoon Tea) - Native Belgian owner and chef Carine Bourgeois prepares "food from scratch every day with the best possible ingredients using organic as much as possible." International flavors of Europe and Asia inspire the menu of sandwiches and soups. Where? 108 Magnolia Street, Roswell, 30075 (www.roswellteahouse.net)

Try...ordering off the extensive tea list, hot or cold; the Chicken Spinach Wrap Panini with goat cheese, the Vol-au-Vent - Belgian style chicken potpie, the apple strudel; reserving afternoon tea

Sandy Springs
World Peace Cafe (Vegan/Vegetarian) - Built with donations and by volunteers, World Peace Cafe is owned and operated by the Rameshori Kadampa Buddhist Center, which puts all profits towards meditation classes and special events designed to help others find peace of mind. The entire menu -- including breakfast all day, sandwiches, salads, soups, "peace burgers," entrees, and desserts -- is organic, and whenever possible, locally supplied. Take-out packaging is biodegradable, non-toxic cleaners are used, coffee comes from Atlanta-based JavaVino, desserts from Southern Sweets (see listing in Decatur above), groceries primarily from Dekalb and Buford Farmer's Markets. Where? 220 Hammond Dr., Suite 302, Sandy Springs, 30328 (www.worldpeacecafeatlanta.com)

Try...the Mock Mint Julep - organic ginger ale/lemon juice/fresh mint, Grilled Polenta Cake with Eggplant Caponata, Mushroom Stroganoff, Sun Salad - avocado/sunflower seeds/dried cranberries/and raisins, $4 kids menu, 2 items for $4.99 specials

Speaking as a Mammal...

If you are a man realizing this post is about breastfeeding, please keep reading! You are essential to the success of breastfeeding.

According to National Geographic's Encyclopedia of Animals, mammals -- evolved from reptiles more than 195 million years ago -- have two things in common: 1. they have hair and, 2. they "all have mammary glands that produce milk to nurse and nourish their young." Yet somehow, in American society, we find ourselves debating whether 195 million years of evolution can compare to the invention of formula.

Do we believe we can concoct something in a laboratory that rivals the sophistication of the human body? Indeed we do, evidenced by our low breastfeeding rates. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that in 2005, only 3 out of every 4 American babies were breastfed at birth, and by 6 months of age, only 43.4% of our babies were still being breastfed. Boundless technophilia, clever marketing and a misguided trust that any product available in national chains must be harmless, actually make many new mothers see breastfeeding and formula as near equals. While formula has played an important role in many special circumstances, in the United States, formula-feeding is not the exception, but the ruling method of nourishing our infants, with more than half of babies on formula before they are 6 months old.

Though the American Acadamy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Family Physicians, Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, United Nations Children's Fund and World Health Organization (WHO) "strongly recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and that other foods should complement breastfeeding for up to two years or more," only 13.6% of American mothers were still exclusively breastfeeding their 6-month-old babies in 2005 according to the CDC.

What Discourages Breastfeeding?
Is 1 out of 4 mothers (who never begins breastfeeding) prevented by special circumstances? There is a wide range of personal reasons American mothers cite for not starting or continuing to breastfeed. Debating the motives of mothers who do not breastfeed will only further polarize us, and distract from the indisputable superiority of breastmilk (see Breastfeeding vs. Formula below for the unparalleled benefits of breastmilk).

"Human milk is species-specific, and all substitute feeding preparations differ markedly from it, making human milk uniquely superior for infant feeding."
-- AAP Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk, 2005

Rather, let's focus on changing our mindset as a community, so that breastfeeding is accepted as imperative to the well-being of our species. Certainly today's American society does not expect mothers to breastfeed for 6 to 12 months. Just think of our maternity leave policy (check out the 2004 Harvard study comparing worldwide maternity policies), which separates mothers and babies too early, at three months or sooner, making the continuation of exclusive breastfeeding difficult, as mothers try to pump a full supply of milk without their baby at the breast to stimulate let-down. Or, think of the pediatricians who, contrary to the AAP's recommendations, encourage mothers to supplement their breastmilk supply with formula, which in turn will reduce the mother's supply and lead to more formula feedings. Or think of the subtle endorsement for formula-feeding made by both my obstetrician's office and hospital, when they distribute free formula samples to new mothers, despite the WHO's policy on formula marketing:

Adopted in 1981, the international code to regulate the marketing of breast-milk substitutes calls for:

• all formula labels and information to state the benefits of breastfeeding and the health risks of substitutes;
• no promotion of breast-milk substitutes;
• no free samples of substitutes to be given to pregnant women, mothers or their families; and
• no distribution of free or subsidized substitutes to health workers or facilities.

Just as a birthing mother will slow or reverse her labor if she senses danger, a breastfeeding mother will have trouble with let-down if she feels afraid, nervous or intimidated. This is our natural biological response when we feel threatened. American society must accept breastfeeding as normal, good and necessary, and accordingly support and honor mothers who do so, in order for our situation to improve.

How many times has a new mother wondered if she "will be able to breastfeed?" That doubt alone can be enough to undermine her efforts. Without other experienced women to guide her, she may not feel confident enough to continue, or know the simple tricks that can help in the first months as mother and baby are learning.

Isolation is one of the most powerful enemies post-partum mothers face. On top of possibly not being connected to a group of women with a wealth of breastfeeding know-how (try La Leche League or kellymom); many new mothers may instead be influenced by other mothers (past generations and present) who boast what they consider the advantages of formula-feeding. Compounding a shortage of breastfeeding peers, many new mothers also feel isolated when in public, where they may undergo the disapproval of men and women who are uncomfortable knowing a breast is being bared for a baby to suckle.

How can our sons, husbands and fathers see breastfeeding as a natural part of life if we closet ourselves away -- in public restrooms, our cars, our bedrooms -- fearing others' cruel remarks or condemnation for an act they deem private. Why do we sexualize breastfeeding?

I am proud of my father. He snapped this picture of me with my mother and eldest daughter as I breastfed my newborn son.



While this sight in public stirs discomfort in some Americans, this GQ cover appeared in newsstands everywhere in January 2009. I don't think I'm winning any sexy or indecent-exposure contest here.

Breastmilk vs. Formula? No Contest!

Why is mother's milk best?

1. ...It is perfect nutrition that adapts. Breastmilk is 80% soluble nourishment, an ever-changing daily blend of more than 200 components: "water, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, trace metals, growth factors, hormones, enzymes, antibodies, white blood cells and more, each in ideal proportion to one another. This precise biochemical balance-virtually a 'symphony of ingredients'-cannot possibly be duplicated artificially." (Dr. Mom's Guide to Breastfeeding by Marianne R. Neifert, 1998) Breastmilk even changes during one feeding, at first thirst-quenching, then changing to the richer, creamier hind milk, full of essential fatty acids (EFAs) and lipids. Mother's diet also alters the taste of her breastmilk, helping diversify Baby's palate. Breastmilk content and supply also change as baby develops and goes through growth spurts.
2. ...It gives Baby the best chance of survival and wellness. Breastmilk contains growth factors that ensure the best development of baby's organs, as well as enzymes, white blood cells, and antibodies. In fact, shortly after Mom is exposed to a germ, her breastmilk includes the antibodies to protect Baby from that specific infection. Breastmilk decreases the incidence and/or severity of a wide range of bacterial and viral infections, including ear infections, bacterial meningitis, urinary tract infections; and diarrhea and pneumonia -- the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide. Breastfeeding has also been linked to a decrease in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), allergies, chronic immune system disorders, and digestive disorders. Postneonatal infant mortality rates in the United States are reduced by 21% in breastfed infants.
3. ...It makes Baby a healthier adult. Adults who were breastfed have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and lower rates of obesity, diabetes, lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin disease, and asthma.
4. ...It makes Baby smarter. A growing body of evidence suggests that people who were breastfed perform better in cognitive tests, understandable because breastmilk contains fatty acids that optimize brain development.
5. ...It reduces your baby budget. Aside from investing in nursing bras and/or pads, breastfeeding is free!
6. ...It is less work. No sterilising, cleaning and carrying bottles, mixing powder, keeping formula chilled, warming formula for feeds. "Have baby and breast, will travel."
7. ...It protects Mom's long-term health. Moms who breastfed have lower rates of breast and ovarian cancer, as well as bone fractures and osteoporosis later in life.
8. ...It returns Mom to pre-pregnancy weight and uterus-size faster. Calories burned and hormones released at each feeding help Mom shed pounds, and contracts the uterus to reduce its size.
9. ...It strengthens mother-child bond. Hormone oxytocin released in Mom during each feeding, combined with skin-to-skin contact, promote mothering behavior and bonding with Baby.
10. ...It delays the return of Mom's menstrual cycle. While not a foolproof method of birth control (hence my little brother's conception when I was 5 months old and breastfeeding), exclusive breastfeeding can postpone Mom's first postpartum period for up to or more than 12 months.
11. ...It has no environmental footprint. Breastfeeding eliminates the need to dispose of formula cans and bottles; and to use energy for production and transport of artificial feeding products.

Healthy, free and made in the USA, American mothers' milk is the best way to feed our babies. After all, we are mammals. We were made to breastfeed.

Eating Well, Part Two: Cheap Food Nation

"I pay more for my chickens than I would for store bought, mass-produced ones, but I don't pay too much. The farmer charges me only what it costs him to raise and dress my chickens plus a reasonable profit. He is a farmer who endeavors to operate in an environmentally sound, ethical way. Buying from this farmer, I support a food system that embodies my values---one that provides wholesome food, cares for creation, and provides a living wage to family farmers."
--
Marta Cleaveland, “You Should Pay More for Your Food,” Salt Magazine

At first glance, it seems like quite an achievement that Americans today spend less than 10% of our disposable incomes on food, especially compared to 1933, when spending was at 25%.
During the depression era, U.S. government hatched a relief program to encourage farmers to produce food as cheaply and abundantly as possible. Oil was cheap then, as were the pesticides derived from it, and as the chart above shows, we began to feed our families for less.

Perhaps that system fed our hunger sufficiently to allow us to focus on the specifics of how we have been feeding ourselves, and at what real cost to our long-term health and environment.

For generations, Americans have been offered food -- and consumer goods -- at artificially low prices. A fast food value meal may feed you for less than $5, but it didn’t cost $5. Your tax dollars already paid subsidies to the agricultural conglomerate who produced it, allowing them to remain profitable while selling you that meal at a dirt cheap price.

Even though our receipt totals don’t tally the real cost of our food, which also includes climate change…

“the way we grow, process and transport food uses more fossil fuel and contributes more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than any other industry (17-34%)…”

and rising healthcare costs…

“Spending on healthcare as a percentage of GDP has risen from 5% in 1960 to 18% today. Of 2 trillion we spend on healthcare, 1.5 trillion is going to treat preventable chronic disease linked to diet.”

- Author Michael Pollan, keynote speaker, Georgia Organics’ 2009 Annual Conference

…we get what we pay for, whether it’s obvious to us or not. In Americans’ case, we pay with our tax money via farm bill subsidies to make processed food cheaper than real, whole foods.

“The real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (aka liquid corn – [made with high fructose corn syrup]) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.”

“Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies, to take one iconic processed foodlike substance as an example, is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget. So how can the supermarket possibly sell a pair of these synthetic cream-filled pseudocakes for less than a bunch of roots?”

- Michael Pollan , “You Are What You Grow,” April 2007, New York Times Magazine

“Nearly 90% of all federal farm payments go to only five favored crops that include corn, wheat, cotton, soybeans, and rice, while fresh fruits, vegetables and organic agriculture receive little.” -- Environmental Working Group (EWG)

Then, many of us gravitate towards these heavily marketed products of industrialized agriculture, perhaps for “great value” or “great taste.”

“Energy-dense foods, many of them nutrient poor, are good tasting, readily available, and cheap...Simply put, as incomes drop and food budgets shrink, food choices shift toward energy-dense refined grains, added sugars and fats.”

– Adam Drewnowski, Director of Center for Obesity Research, University of Washington professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 18, 2008

Sometimes we pay again, to treat the health problems we develop (i.e., obesity/heart disease, type II diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), etc., etc.) from our refined-grain, added-sugar, partially-hydrogenated-fat-filled diets .

“Americans are becoming more obese while spending a lower share of disposable income on food.” – Adam Drewnowski, “Fat and Sugar: An Economic Analysis”, American Society for Nutritional Sciences Journal of Nutrition, 2003

Good Intentions…

“While initially meant to protect farmers from the vagaries of weather and the fickleness of the free market system, the subsidy system now often rewards big growers over small- and mid-sized producers. Moreover, in recent decades it has tended to consolidate government payments in the hands of a few. Between 2003 and 2005, for example, American taxpayers paid $34.75 billion in crop subsidy benefits to farmers, but only the top one percent of farmers received nearly one-fifth of that amount.”

WATCH: “King Corn” http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/

“EWG data shows that the largest 10% of farms receive almost 70% of total farm payments. Often, the large plantation scale operations use the increased capitol to outbid smaller family farmers for land.”

READ THE TRANSCRIPT: Farming Out Billions of Dollars, CBS Miami I-Team http://miami.cbslocal.com/2008/07/14/i-team-farming-out-billions-of-dollars/

“The [farm subsidy] payments are very concentrated in the hands of a narrow slice of agriculture. And it's important to remember that two-thirds of the farmers in this country are not on the programs at all.” - Ken Cook, President, Environmental Working Group (EWG), July 2007 NPR Interview

LISTEN: Groups Push for End to Crop Subsidies, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12309276&ps=rs

Real Food Revolution
Baby, who loves you? The owner of a huge industrialized farming operation, or a fourth-generation farmer who appreciates your patronage in helping sustain his family business? The system needs changing, and I’ll write a future post about political involvement, but in the meantime, we can vote with our dollar, and support food systems that are good for our families and our future. How about…

1. We choose to pay more for real, whole foods, grown sustainably without synthetic chemicals. We frequent local farmer’s markets, co-ops and CSAs for affordable alternatives to supermarket natural food chains.
2. Whenever possible, we buy from a local provider to keep responsible family farms in business, to reduce cross-country transport emissions and to ensure that our produce, meats and dairy are truly organic, free-range, and grass-fed.
3. We make sure we know what is in our food. We read ingredients or ask about them (“What kind of sweetener is in your sweet tea?”).
4. We make home-cooked meals a priority. We learn how to make quick fix meals from scratch, as well as stretch one cooking stint into several meals (check out Food Network’s Robin Miller’s Quick Fix Meals). We substitute real ingredients for the processed ones in a favorite recipe.
5. When we eat out, we pay a little more at locally-based eateries that make their food from scratch with fresh, whole ingredients. Look for a future post on local scrumptious meals for less than $10-$15.

Take inspiration from Georgia Organics’ 2010 conference keynote speaker, Slow Food non-profit organization founder Carlo Petrini of Piedmont, Italy. Petrini founded Slow Food in 1989 to “counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat. We consider ourselves co-producers, because by being informed about our food production and making choices in support of good, clean and fair food, we become a part of the process.”

The time, energy and money we spend to eat well is worth our families’ health and future.

Eating Well, Part One: Local and Organic Rules

“You pay now or you pay later.” Mary Ann Salas said this, years before the organic debate reached the national stage. Not as renowned as some of the experts below, Mary Ann was nonetheless a luminary amongst all who knew her. She was my mother’s sister and best friend, my Godmother, and my husband’s boss and mentor; and she was dying of breast cancer. I write these “Eating Well” segments in her honor.

Mary Ann was saying what is now more widely acknowledged: the true price of conventionally farmed food is our health and well-being. If you don’t need convincing, skip to the “To Market, To Market” portion below to get hooked into your local, organic community, and start eating well!

What is Organic?

What exactly is the difference between “organic” and “conventional”? Check out this sidebar from Go Organic! for Earth Day. and this one-page rundown from the Center for American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/09/organic_green.html

Need a selfish reason to eat locally-grown organic? Here are 5:

1. Pesticides are designed to kill living organisms. You are a living organism. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) warns, “every year, new research is published demonstrating the toxicity [to our nervous and hormone systems; as well as carcinogenic effects] of pesticides…often at doses previously declared ‘safe’ by the pesticide industry and our government.”
2. You want healthy children. Your unborn child, your newborn infant, your tiny toddler, with rapidly developing and immature systems, cannot metabolize and filter out toxic chemicals like an adult can, making our young the most vulnerable to pesticides’ physical damages. Note: the placenta does not protect the baby from toxins.
3. Antibiotic-resistant bugs (like MRSA) scare you. Animals raised in “factory farm” operations where they are packed together, fed unnatural grain-heavy diets and given synthetic growth hormones to increase their milk production, are uniformly given antibiotics to prevent the disease these conditions encourage. As the World Health Organization (WHO) has decried for more than a decade, this widespread use of antibiotics causes the rise of new antibiotic-resistant microbes that can infect humans. http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/press_release/en/index4.html
4. You want the nutrients you think you’re getting when you bite into something. Whether we’re talking antioxidants and vitamins in our vegetables and fruits, or Omega-3’s and minerals in our dairy and meat (http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=100755362&m=100754237), though trade organizations on both sides are still paying for research to argue the issue, the U.S. government ultimately concedes that organic food is more nutrient-rich than conventionally farmed alternatives (see the next point for why). (http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/faq/BuyOrganicFoodsB.shtml#BuyB7).
5. Organic tastes better for scientifically-proven reasons. As recently published in the Journal of HortScience, U.S. conventional produce tastes worse and contains up to 40% less minerals than in our grandparents’ day. Why? Veggies bred to increase crop yield and vegetable size have high carbohydrate content, rather than increased phytochemicals (which give the plant its taste and nutrition). Also, chemically altered and non-rotated crops are produced and harvested faster than ever, which results in veggies that have had less time to absorb nutrients from photosynthesis or the mineral-depleted soil. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1880145,00.html?imw=Y

Seeing the interconnection amongst all life and ecosystems on the planet? Motivated to create a better future for the next generation? Then you may appreciate these ideological reasons to buy organic, local food:

1. You support fair and reasonable compensation for the farmer who grows your food, and can interview him directly to assure yourself that his farming practices are safe and conscientious.
2. You eat whatever is locally growing to reduce the fossil fuel typically consumed when farmers: a. heat greenhouses to grow veggies out of season and b. ship food to you from another part of the world where it is in season. The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (www.cuesa.org) in San Francisco reports that the average American meal travels about 1500 miles to get from farm to plate, putting almost 10 kcal fossil fuel energy into our food system for every 1 kcal of energy we derive as food.
3. You vote with your dollar against, and eliminate the demand for cloned, genetically-modified, gassed or irradiated food designed to withstand long-distance transport well.
4. You protect the long-term health of worldwide climate, air, water, soil and wildlife that are hurt by pesticides, and by CO2 emissions from shipping.
5. You uphold the community that preserves the animal breeds, heirloom fruits and vegetables, handcrafted wine and beer, and other artisanal products, which generations of Americans have cultivated.
6. You require humane animal management of livestock that promotes animals’ well-being and allows them to engage in their natural behaviors.

To Market, To Market

If not for the pesticide factor, purely eating locally is the way to go for the reasons outlined above. Also, we will happily welcome the day when our tax dollars subsidize our local, organic farms rather than industrialized conglomerates of farms – thus making local, organic produce as affordable as conventional. (Part Two of Eating Well will delve into the U.S.’s “Cheap Food Policy”).

In the meanwhile, what to buy, and where to buy it?
Here are two great resources for understanding the USDA’s labeling of organic/natural foods. It gets a little tricky (‘gotta love those marketers), but these sites help you decipher the labels:
a. Navigating Food Labels (see inset by scrolling down): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90914182#90910901
b. Consumer Reports' GreenerChoices Eco-labels: http://www.greenerchoices.org/eco-labels/

If you’re not ready to switch to all organic, at least avoid what EWG defines as “The Dirty Dozen” – the 12 fruits and vegetables you should always buy organic due to their high pesticide content. http://foodnews.org/methodology.php. The most recent dirty dozen lists peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots and pears.

When my father buys conventional, he uses citrus-based Veggie Wash to scrub away pesticide residue. A good protective measure, and vinegar will do the trick too.

Wanting to dive into the local, organic food movement?

1. Become a member of a local organic or slow food organization. For example, for us Atlanta folks, Georgia Organics (http://www.georgiaorganics.org/) produces an annual local food guide, online directory to farms and restaurants, periodic newsletters, and now, best of all, I can follow them on Twitter where their postings help connect me to the day-to-day local organic food scene in Georgia. Also, check out Slow Food USA for a chapter near you: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/.
2. Join a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). You pay for a share in a local farm, sometimes also helping work the farm, and you usually go to a designated pick-up spot weekly to get a box of whatever is in season. Find one here: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
3. Shop or join a Co-op: http://www.coopdirectory.org/index.htm.
4. Go to Farmer’s Markets. These are always fun to explore because more than fruits and vegetables, you may also find organic, locally grown flowers, eggs, milk, honey, baby food, and personal care products. Go here for full farmer's market listings:

http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/

http://www.georgiaorganics.org/OrganicDirectory.aspx.

Throughout the year, we supplement our CSA boxes with trips to Your Dekalb Farmers Market, which is a standing indoor warehouse-esque international market, with a very complete organic selection (though not all local). http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/

As we walk through the front doors, we pass their mission statement etched into the front of the building: “We declare the world is designed to work. We are responsible for what does not work. We make the difference. No matter how technologically advanced we become, we cannot escape our fundamental relationships with food and each other.” Yes, I agree. That is why to be well, we must eat well.