Is Agave Nectar Better Than Sugar?

Is Agave Nectar Good For You?

Is Agave Nectar Safe For Diabetics?

No! Agave Is Not Healthy!

Agave Nectar is highly concentrated fructose.

Now, many readers may believe that since fructose is fruit sugar, it is “healthy sugar”. It isn’t. Refined fructose is no better than refined glucose.

Consuming fructose naturally from whole foods is different from consuming concentrated agave. In its natural state, fructose is part of a whole food which includes enzymes, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. But refined sugars, sugars that have been stripped of their nutrition through processing, are never healthy.

Refined fructose lowers circulating insulin and leptin levels and raises ghrelin levels after the meal. Since leptin and insulin decrease appetite and ghrelin increases appetite, some researchers suspect that eating large amounts of fructose increases the likelihood of weight gain.

Refined fructose puts an enormous strain on the liver. Dr. Meira Field says, “;…the liver goes bananas and stops everything else to metabolize the fructose.”

Large amounts of fructose in the diet rapidly turn into fatty acids, which are stored as fat or released into the bloodstream as triglycerides. These fatty triglycerides are insulin resistant and cause a host of problems. Overwhelming the liver and producing insulin resistant fatty triglycerides is the road to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases.

This is another example of marketing magic. Agave is sold as the healthy alternative to refined sugar. But it is refined sugar. Avoid it like you avoid white table sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Good alternatives for sugar are stevia, raw honey, date sugar, or sugar cane juice. To understand more about sugar, please read Healthy Sugar Alternatives.

Sunlight – Letter from the Editor

Sunlight and Vitamin D

Sunscreen Dangers

Keeping Your New Year Resolutions

Carebags Reusable Produce Bags

Sun Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder

Why Grow Your Own Organic Food?

Urban Gardening

Planning Your Organic Garden

Raw Food Diet

Health or Pills

Spices

MJ’s Herbals Salves Review

I don’t tend to wear sunglasses, and I never wear sunscreen. I do burn easily if I have not taken the time to acclimate myself to the sun, so I will either wear long sleeve shirts and a hat, limit my exposure until my skin builds tolerance, or, more often than not, I’ll just burn.

I’m not recommending you go out and get sunburned, but I don’t think people should be so afraid of it. Sunlight is so important. It’s better to get burned a few times a year than to not get enough sunlight.

I work at my computer a lot. Sometimes I realize that I have gone more than a week without any significant sun exposure. Other times, I notice I am feeling depressed or I’m having trouble sleeping, or I’m irritable. My prescription: light sunbathing. I feel so much better after I spend some time soaking in the rays.

Dr. Holick wants us to get some sunlight and then put on sunscreen. I respectfully disagree. I don’t want to put toxic creams on my skin only to cook the ingredients in the sun. This seems like a recipe for skin cancer to me.

Sunlight is natural. When in doubt, go with what’s natural. It’s what we humans are programmed for. Almost every time, the natural choice is the healthy choice.

Michael Edwards

Editor in Chief

For years we’ve been told to stop sunbathing, to stay out of the sun. We slather sunscreen on our children. We buy make-up, lip balm, and hair care products that contain SPF 15 protection. And what is the result of this anti UV ray vigilance? Skin cancer is on the rise.

SPF 15 works very well. It blocks 99% of the UV rays. The problem is that we need UV rays in order to make vitamin D. Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, strengthens and builds bones, wards off multiple sclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, and periodontal disease. It regulates cell growth, and protects against lymphomas and cancers of the colon, prostate, lung, and skin.

Yes, Vitamin D, gained through exposure to the sun, helps prevent skin cancer!

“There are two types of skin cancer,” says Dr. Michael Holick, one of the world’s leading authorities on vitamin D and vitamin D deficiency. “There’s what’s called non-melanoma skin cancer and there is no question that excessive exposure to sunlight and sunburns will damage the DNA and induce skin cells to become cancerous. That is non-melanoma squamous and basal cell cancers. They are typically easy to detect, easy to treat. They’re not lethal, for the most part.

Melanoma is a different story. Most melanomas occur on the least sun exposed areas. Occupational sun exposure decreases your risk of malignant melanoma. We believe that if you have a large number of moles, a number of sun burning experiences, bad genetics, and red hair color—that is very light skin—they will markedly increase your risk of malignant melanoma, and that’s deadly. About 8,000 people die a year of malignant melanoma. But there is no evidence in my opinion that sensible sun exposure increases your risk of that deadly disease. In fact there is good evidence that it decreases your risk.”

Where you live and the color of your skin are significant factors in determining your risk for Vitamin D deficiency and correlating diseases. So is your weight. Though vitamin D is stored in fat cells, obesity inhibits its release. If you live at a latitude above 33 degrees (north of Atlanta, Georgia), you cannot get enough UV rays in the winter months to make vitamin D. And the darker your skin, the more sun exposure you require, no matter the season. Geographical and racial statistics do correlate to higher incidences of all diseases linked to Vitamin D deficiencies.

Unfortunately, not all medical doctors are aware of these links. Dr. Holick is finding many of his patients who come to him with a prior diagnosis of fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome with symptoms of muscle weakness and throbbing, aching bone pain are actually suffering from osteomalacia, a bone disease directly caused by vitamin D deficiency. The good news is treatment with vitamin D supplements and/or sunlight exposure quickly reverses this disease.

Vitamin D is not, in fact, a vitamin. It’s a hormone. “By definition a vitamin means that it has to come from an external source,” Dr. Holick explains, “but when you’re exposed to sunlight, you make it. So by definition, it’s not a vitamin. And more importantly, once vitamin D is made in your skin it goes to your liver and kidneys to get activated. And so again by definition, it’s being generated in one organ system and going to a different place to have a biologic effect and by definition, that’s a hormone.” Dr. Holick suggests using sunscreen in moderation. “People need to be aware that a sunscreen SPF of 15 reduces your ability to make vitamin D in your skin by 99%. So if you’re putting a sunscreen on all the time before going outside, you are definitely going to put yourself at risk forVitamin D deficiency.”

He suggests you start with 5 or 10 or 15 minutes of sun exposure depending upon time of day, season of the year and the latitude, 3 to 4 times a week. Remember, the darker your skin, the more exposure you need. The opposite is also true. The lighter your skin, and redheads know this from experience, the more likely you are to burn.

Sunburn can damage your skin, and does put you at higher risk of skin cancer. So Dr. Holick suggests that if you go to the beach for an hour or two, put on sunscreen after 15 or 20 minutes. “Take advantage of the beneficial effect,” he says. “Then prevent the damaging effects due to excessive exposure.”

Start off slow and don’t expose your skin for too long. Our bodies do have built in protection; we tan. Most of us do, anyway. When it’s time to get out of the sun, put on a hat, get under an umbrella, find some shade, or cover up if you want to avoid sunscreen all together. But don’t avoid the sun. It’s summertime. Go out and make some Vitamin D.

Many companies make “organic” sunscreens that contain synthetic chemicals. But that’s not the worst of it. According to our research, sunscreens give users a false sense of security in that while they effectively prevent sunburn, they do little or nothing to prevent skin cancer or the accelerated aging of the skin caused by sunlight.

There is a substantial body of evidence that shows there is an increase in cancer when sunscreen products are used. We’ve done a lot of research into sunscreens. The bottom line is this: we have found no sunscreen ingredients which we consider to be safe. So now you’re thinking that the chemicals titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are natural and might be “safe” sunblocks, right? Isn’t that what “natural” personal care products manufacturers have suggested?

The shocking truth is the fact that both petrochemical sunscreens (avobenzone, methoxycinnamate, padimate-o and the like) and physical sunblocks (chemically-reacted synthetics titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) are not natural and have been found to generate free radicals when exposed to sunlight, which then can attack the nuclei of your skin cells and cause mutations. That’s right, they can cause skin cancer. Furthermore, sunscreen chemicals have been found to pass through the skin and mimic the effects of estrogen, which may disrupt the delicate balance of the body’s natural hormones.

The following excerpt is taken from a book called Sunscreen Photobiology—Molecular, Cellular and Physiological Aspects:

Illumination of titanium dioxide suspensions with sunlight can degrade organic materials and purify drinking water, while illumination with short wave UV kills human cells. This work shows that the distinction between “chemical” sunscreens and “physical” sunscreens, attractive though it may be to those who market them, is not based on any significant difference. Both varieties have the potential to produce reactive species that can attack biological materials (human skin cells) when they are exposed to normal sunlight…

What is established is that particles of titanium dioxide as large as 220 nm can enter human cells in culture, and so it seems entirely plausible that if titanium dioxide does pass through skin it could enter cells under the skin (carrying with it the absorbed UVA and UVB radiation and hydroxyl radicals).”

Titanium dioxide is now being used as a new treatment for window glass because it attacks and degrades anything that touches it, thereby helping to keep windows clean. You probably don’t want to have anything attacking your skin! Small amounts of sun are healthy; overexposure is not. Instead of using sunscreens to prevent sunburn, we recommend loose fitting clothing, shady trees, and big floppy hats. Organic cotton is a good way to go!

Mention dumpster diving and it’s likely that the first image people envision is a male in tattered clothing, a wool hat, torn black jeans, boots that have no laces and a red-cheeked, drunken face jumping head first into a big pile of garbage to come out with half chewed apples, rotted eggs, and spoiled milk.

I’m here to tear down that stereotype. Yes, I’ve gone dumpster diving myself. OK, it wasn’t actually in a dumpster – it was plastic garbage bags that were placed on the sidewalk, but the concept is still the same.
I was first turned onto dumpster diving by a friend of mine who said he regularly used to go and get all sorts of fresh food and produce for free. When he told me this, I looked at him with the same head cocked and scrunched up eyebrows with which you are reading this.

He told me that he would go and get heads of fresh kale, bottles of juice, apples, bananas, and loaves of bread. After some minutes, I was definitely intrigued. Not only by getting free food, but also by the fact that these stores literally throw away all of this food. I thought that we were in a recession and there was a food shortage, which cause people to live on the streets and starve.

After hearing his stories, I promised myself that I would one day take the voyage into “dumpster diving.” I’d do it for no other reason than curiosity as to what is being tossed out and what I could find.

The night finally came. My alarm went off at 1a.m., and I got myself dressed. I was all prepared with my black sweatpants, black hooded sweatshirt, black wool hat, head lamp and a bandanna to cover my face. I couldn’t possibly let anyone see me rummaging through the trash now, could I?

I took my reusable bags and made the trek down the street to the store. There were about a dozen or so large black garbage bags piled on the sidewalk. I put my workout gloves on, lifted up my bandanna, flipped on my headlamp and started to untie the first bag.

The first bag had some tomatoes that were a bit squishy, red peppers and rotted pears. This is exactly what I thought it would be. A bunch of old rotting produce in a bag. I went through two more bags before I hit my first jackpot.

I came across a bag that had a few dozen bananas that were browned. When I buy my bananas I let them sit on my counter for a week until they start to brown. They were perfect. I packed them into my bag along with some tomatoes and peppers.

After going through only two or three bags, I called it a night. I just wanted to see what this was all about and how much food really was wasted.

It wasn’t until I got back to my apartment, shortly before 2a.m., and laid all the produce out onto the table that I realized how much that I had taken. In front of me were about two and a half dozen bananas, three or four tomatoes and a few red peppers.

They all weren’t perfect looking, but they were all totally edible and usable. The ones that weren’t I set aside to bring to my community compost center. The rest I planned on using and did.

I thought this would be a one-time event, but it’s something that I have since done about once a month. I even once did it in the rain. Instead of setting the alarm I was already up and decided to go. About half way there it started to rain. I wasn’t turning back. It wasn’t the most enjoyable experience. I mean, come on, I was going through garbage in the rain. Not so much fun.

Here are some things that I was able to score during my other dumpster diving adventures: two packages of portabello mushrooms, a box of organic crackers, three pounds of dried cherries, five clamshells of Earthbound Organics salads, organic carrot juice, two boxes of organic creamy tomato soup and bananas. I always score at least a dozen bananas.

Some of these items are blemished and some just have dented packaging. Regardless, they are still perfectly fine for human consumption.

If I had shopped at the store one day earlier, I would have spent somewhere in the range of $40-60 at the low end for all that. The salads alone would’ve been at least $20.

So what would’ve happened to all that food if I didn’t save it from being tossed out? It would’ve gone straight to the landfill to rot away and potentially do harm to the environment and our atmosphere.

Not only is the food being tossed, but it’s traveling a few thousand miles all the way from Peru to be tossed out. From a common sense and environmental aspect that doesn’t make much sense to me. The bananas are probably spending more time in transit from South America to New York than they did on the store shelves.
Instead of being tossed, I was able to save them from landfill and put them into my belly where food belongs.

This got me thinking even more. I’ve been doing this at one small store in New York City, and have seen the amount of food that’s wasted and sent to landfill. There are hundreds of stores throughout the city and the world; how much food is being tossed on a daily basis?

In my opinion this isn’t really an issue because the problem is out of sight, out of mind. The food gets tossed and we never “see” it again, so it just goes away. With all of the problems we have with homelessness and the recession, I’m not sure why we’d want usable food to get thrown way.

In talking to friends about this, most of them think that dumpster diving is gross and don’t understand why I do it. To them, I say that wasting food is gross and I don’t understand how we can be so irresponsible.

People who live an organic lifestyle tend to care about our environment.  People who live an organic lifestyle also purchase a lot of fresh produce. That’s where Carebags Re-useable Produce bags come in.  One Carebags pouch contains 4 reusable drawstring produce bags for $12.49CDN. The bags we tested were see-through, strong, and plenty large enough for us to stuff as much produce into each bag as we desired. We will not go grocery shopping without them. www.carebagsonline.com.