the trouble with truffles

Locally available corporate supermarkets Whole Foods and Earth Fare have stacks and stacks of "organic truffles" for sale. Let's check out the two brands' ingredients:

Whole Foods: Organic Cocoa Mass, Organic Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Cocoa Powder, Soy Lecithin.

Earth Fare: Organic Cocoa Mass, Organic Vegetable Oil (Copra), Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Cocoa Powder, Emulsifier: Soy Lecithin.

Déjà vu all over again. Almost.


What is Copra, from which the EF truffles source their Organic Vegetable Oil?

Here is what one website has to say:

Conventional coconut oil comes from dried coconut flesh, called copra. Copra is dried in a wood-fuelled kiln, or in the sun, over a period of a few days. It is time-consuming, dirty, lonely, arduous, fuel-intensive and low-paying work. Many farmers consider it a form of slavery.

Copra is bulked up at an export port and shipped to a large industrial oil mill — often in Europe or Asia. Unhygienic drying, humid tropical conditions, bulk shipping and long distances, result in lengthy delays and the growth of moulds on the copra. Sometimes this leads to aflatoxin contamination.

Copra oil extraction requires large-scale, high-pressure, expensive, energy-intensive equipment. Unhygienic copra means that the resultant oil is normally of low quality with a Free Fatty Acid (FFA) level of 3% or more. (FFA is one measure of rancidity of oil).

Thus copra oil requires refining, bleaching and deodorising (RBD) to create a commercially acceptable product. The refining process uses hydrochloric acid, solvents and steam to strip out the contamination. Some residual solvents remain in the oil. The process also removes the natural volatiles and anti-oxidants that give pure coconut oil its unique flavour and aroma. The total process from farm to refined oil can take many months. The residual copra-meal is only suitable as animal feed but, even here, care is required because it can be contaminated with carcinogenic aflatoxin.

The tropical world has over one billion coconut palms, producing over 50 billion coconuts each year. And yet, because of the low income earned on the world market from coconut products, many coconut groves are run down, with nuts and old trees lying where they fall, encouraging plant disease and insect pests.

With fluctuating copra prices, farmers only harvest their nuts when prices are high or when they are in desperate need of cash. For many remote islands with plenty of coconuts, copra is still a risky venture because of the infrequency of shipping services.

So you think you're buying something healthy. Hey, the label says it's organic. Maybe the antioxidant content of the chocolate will offset the damage wrought by the rancid copra fats.

Might I also point out that both brands use non-organic soy lecithin. Soy, the cheap. Soy, the ubiquitous. Soy, the genetically modified. At least they could choose organic soy, right?

from the horse's mouth

Last year I wrote about a natural food store's "house" ice cream. Today I learned it is truly rBGH-free. Glad I questioned, glad to learn it is legit, and glad to set the record straight.

true stories

from my night at ye olde corporate healthe foode store:

1.
Very annoying lady with whom I have spent the last 20 minutes approaches me for "one last question". The kind of customer who asks me to read to her how many tablets are in each bottle, which colloidal silver is strongest, how many ounces are in each bottle and which is a better buy per ounce, and which book on Acid-Alkaline Theory I suggest she purchase. Until I reveal I think that theory holds no water.

Now she holds two cartons of cookies.

"Which one of these should I get?"

"I don't know, what do you like?"

"Well, I'm a diabetic."

"Then you probably shouldn't be eating cookies."

"Oh it's ok, I take insulin. But see here this one says Spelt."

"Spelt is a relative of wheat. Some people eat it because they digest it better than wheat."

"So it's for digestion."

"Well, it's a grain..."





2. Phone call with a male caller:

"I wanted to ask you if I can take some things together."

"Sure, what are you taking?"

"Advanced Enzyme complex. and these probiotics, it says 'Aci...' I can't pronounce it."

"Acidophilus?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Those two should be fine together."

"No, I want to know if I can take them with something else."

"With what?"

"Flintstones vitamins; I take them for energy."



I kept wondering if it was a prank call.

errata

1. My sister, the educator, pointed out a misspelled word on this here blog. Duly noted, and corrected. Thank you.

2. Months ago I questioned the meaning of "natural" on a natural food store's in-house line of ice cream. This small chain is advertising its dairy to be rGBH-free. Yet the ingredients of Vanilla Ice Cream are Milk, Sugar, Cream, and "natural vanilla flavor". Ingredients of Chocolate are Milk, Sugar, Cream, and Cocoa. Ingredients of Strawberry are Milk, Sugar, Cream, and Strawberries. Nowhere on the label does it say anything about rGBH. I would love some clarification.

"natural" ice cream?

In a bid to become competitive with other grocery stores, a certain healthfood store chain has begun to sell its own line of foods, including canned beans, pasta, olive oil, and "natural" ice cream. The ice cream ingredients are on par with haagen-dazs or breyer's: milk, cream, sugar, maybe some carrageenan. Because there are no additives or colorings or artificial flavors, it gets to call itself "natural".

Is this misleading the masses?

The company's overall product philosophy reads quite pristine.

So what's the truth with this ice cream?

I wonder where the milk and cream comes from, if the cows have been given rBGH, antibiotics, GMO and pesticide-ridden feed, or cardboard for dietary roughage. I wonder if the cows are factory-farmed under fluorescent lights, if they stand upon hard concrete floors in their own excrement all day long, if they ever feel the breeze, get rained upon, eat anything fresh and green.

Blowing the lid off Agave Nectar

Health foodies and diabetics beware! The short version: Agave Syrup/Nectar is NOT a health food item and is NOT good for people with impaired insulin & glucose metabolism.

Here's the longer version:
Agave syrup/nectar is 90% fructose and 10% glucose. (For some companies it's 97% fructose.) High fructose corn syrup contains anywhere from 55-90% fructose. Table sugar, or sucrose, is a dimeric molecule comprised of 1 glucose monomer plus 1 fructose monomer.

Fructose is the sugar molecule found mostly in fruit and a little in honey. When you eat fruit, you get vitamins and minerals, plus fiber which slows down the absorption of sugar. When you drink pasteurized fruit juice, you are drinking a pretty-colored fructose cocktail, perhaps with a few nutrients that survived the pasteurization process (Vitamin C is destroyed by heat). Sugars consumed without their associated minerals actually pull minerals from our bodily stores during their metabolism. Zoikes, scoob!

For thousands of years, human biochemistry evolved to process relatively low amounts of fructose. Fruit was consumed in season, when available, and as a whole food. Honey was a rare treat, not a pantry staple.

Onto the glycemic index. Agave syrup is often touted as healthy due to its coveted low-glycemic status. The glycemic index is a measurement of how a food affects blood glucose levels in comparison to glucose, as measured 2-3 hours after consumption. Glucose has a glycemic index measurement of 99 or 100, and is the sugar molecule our cells use most effectively as a direct energy source. Sucrose (table sugar) has a GI of 58-68. Fructose is anywhere from 11-25, and Agave Nectar about 10-11. So yes, Agave's fructose is considered low-glycemic when measured in this fashion. Because it cannot be processed by most of our body's cells, it doesn't immediately affect blood sugar metabolism.

Instead fructose must be catabolized by the liver, where it is turned into smaller molecules which bypass the body's glucose-regulating mechanisms. The fructose breakdown molecules readily enter the glycolysis (glucose metabolism) and lipogenesis (fat-producing) cycles. One result of this is an over-production of triglycerides (indeed this is the favored pathway--no other sugar converts to fat as readily as does fructose). Another result is the conversion of fructose into glucose. Interestingly, fructose also activates glucose uptake and metabolism.

Consuming regular, large amounts of isolated Fructose raises serum Triglycerides and Low Density Lipoproteins (and Very Low Density Lipoproteins). This also raises total cholesterol and adversely affects the HDL:LDL ratio. Not only does it alter blood lipids for the worse, fructose consumption also causes cells to be insulin-resistant, sending a message to the pancreas to pump out even more insulin! What happens as a result of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia? The body stores fat, primarily around the abdomen. And you crave more sweets--an addictive, vicious cycle. This condition is called the Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X, AKA Pre-Diabetes.

What other hidden effects does Fructose have?
-elevates uric acid. In one study, two servings of fruit juice per day increased a person's chances of developing Gout almost twofold over the placebo group. (Underwood BMJ 2008 336: 285-286) Elevated uric acid is also related to heart disease.
-especially contributes to insulin resistance in women who take oral contraceptives or HRT
-does not raise leptin levels comparatively to other sugars, so you don't feel satisfied after eating and may overeat.
-makes you lose minerals! Fructose consumption increases urinary output of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous and intestinal (fecal) output of magnesium, iron, and zinc.
-may cause gastrointestinal upset and diarrhea
-raises levels of C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation
-raises levels of homocysteine, an amino acid associated with cardiovascular disease
-contributes to atherosclerosis
-long-term use contributes to cirrhosis of the liver
-inhibits copper metabolism. copper is essential to connective tissue health, including collagen, elastin, bone, and arterial strength. it also plays a role in blood sugar metabolism. hmmm...
-between 1/10,000 and 1/50,000 people have hereditary fructose intolerance. Fructose jams up their glucose pathways and severe hypoglycemia results.
-Fructose may be especially problematic for people with high blood pressure, insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, bowel disorders, and postmenopausal women.

Now my brain is spinning from processing more biochemistry than I've read in 15 years! I think I need a shot of fermented Agave...

B***y Bars

Local healthfood store (that term gets looser & looser all the time) now carries a certain nutrition bar designed for pregnant/ postpartum women. They claim to be "natural" and are even endorsed on the Today Show by a nutritionist and a celebrity "chef" (again applying the term loosely to a lovely woman who cooks with store-bought tomato sauce. So do I, 99% of the time, but I don't purport to be a chef. but I digress).

Let's take a look-see at the nutritional content:

Brown Rice Syrup SUGAR. The number one ingredient. Cleverly disguised as a whole food and touted as being "healthier than sugar" but once you isolate and purify it, it's maltose + glucose!

Toasted Oats, (Rolled Oats, Honey, Soybean Oil) Oats alone ain't so bad. Cooked honey (more SUGAR) creates toxic accumulations in our bodies, according to the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda. Soybean oil is high in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids, and is a new item in the long history of human food consumption. Like most vegetable oils, highly processed and not heart-healthy.

Soy Crisp (Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Calcium Carbonate) Calcium carbonate is chalk. It also neutralizes your stomach's hydrochloric acid, making protein digestion and mineral absorption damn near impossible. Ironic, yes? Soy protein has a whole host of issues: highly estrogenic, goitrogenic (affects thyroid activity), inhibits trypsin (protein-digesting enzyme), binds to minerals making them hard to absorb, and since it's not organic, the soy is probably genetically modified and doused with pesticides. Yum. We need all the nerve and endocrine-disrupting chemicals we can get when gestating our babies, gals! Visit The Weston A. Price Foundation for information about Soy that just might rock your world.

Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Malt Extract, Rice Bran, Calcium Carbonate) rice elements have been separated, treated with high temperatures and pressures (destroying any nutrients), and then sprayed with malt extract to replace missing fiber and more chalk (calcium carbonate)

Almonds a whole food, yippee!

Soynuts (Soybeans, Sugar, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Oil, Salt, Caramel Color) more sugar. "natural" flavors are anything but. Soy: see above.

Graham Pieces (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Canola Oil, Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate) More sugar and inflammatory, highly processed omega-6 oils. Canola oil is NOT healthy, folks. Dump yours out and don't look back. Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. Like calcium carbonate, it neutralizes hydrochloric acid. Now you can't digest whatever nutrients your body can find in this product.

Nonfat Milk Powder Note this is not organic milk. It likely contains antibiotic and pesticide residue, as well as recombinant bovine growth hormone. Milk that is dried and powdered via high temperature processing is also oxidized, creating rancid compounds that wreak havoc on our arteries. Nitrites created by high-temperature drying are potential carcinogens. Read your yogurt labels: if they contain "powdered milk", put the yogurt down and very slowly back away.

Palm Kernel Oil Plant-based saturated fats supply energy and are not stored as body fat. Plus they contain fat-soluble vitamins. Traditional peoples around the world feed their pregnant mamas delectable fatty treats such as fish eggs because they know this helps grow a healthy baby.

Milled Flaxseeds Fiber, a little omega-3's, all right.

Vitamins & Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, (Calcium), Magnesium Carbonate (Magnesium), D-Alpha-Tocopheryl, Acetate (Vitamin E), Elemental Iron (Iron), Sodium, Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Ascorbic Acid, (Vitamin C), Folic Acid (Folate), Beta Carotene 10% (Vitamin A), Zinc Oxide (Zinc), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, (Vitamin B6), Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).

The minerals calcium, magnesium, and zinc are bound to cheap compounds and are very hard to absorb in this form. Elemental iron isn't bound to anything--I am wondering how our bodies will know it is food? We don't have receptor sites in our intestines for rust. In general these vitamins and minerals are USP, isolated, synthetic, lab-created molecules. Not organic molecules which are found in living tissues, and which sustain life.



So what we have here is essentially sugar, sugar, and more sugar; highly processed hard-to-digest protein, highly processed fats, and synthetic isolated "nutrients" wrapped in plastic. And we are supposed to grow LIFE from this toxic amalgam? "Baby wants chocolate"? Please!