5 Interesting Websites with Tools for Better Health

I stumbled across these 5 websites the other day & thought it might be worth sharing. I've listed the website and article name as well as my brief synopsis & link to the article. Any interesting articles can be submitted to cornucopiaefds@gmail.com 

With the BuyCott app, a product's history is at your fingertips.
Find out about the quality of ingredients, where the ingredients come from,
research associated with the product and the company producing it
- just by scanning the barcode or searching by name. 

Favorite Article: Mike Adams' Article: 10 Worst Toxins Hidden in Foods & Supplements

I was recently sent a great article that's worth checking out, 10 Worst Toxins Hidden in Vitamins, Supplements, & Health Foods written by Mike Adams, editor of NaturalNews.com  

The article discusses important information we should all be familiar with when buying food & supplements such as maltodextrin, GMOs, MSG, & other additives that can be easily overlooked but do great harm to our bodies. An investigative journalist & activist in the natural food industry for over a decade, Mr. Adams routinely runs laboratory tests on products to ensure the quality of the product meets with the information on the labels, government guidelines, etc. Mr. Adams also spot checks product formulations & certified organic food production, interviewing companies as a supervisor of a USDA-certified organic food production & packing facility.

Favorite Tools: Great New App to Help With Making Healthy Choices

Nota Bene: I apologize for the lapse in articles these past two weeks as I have not written as many I would've liked. Sometimes it takes me longer to write these when I'm feeling under the weather, so stick with me- Thanks for your patience!

I stumbled across this app for my iPhone & was pleasantly surprised at how helpful it was in educating people about healthy food choices. With food manufacturers using tricky language & inventing new names on a daily basis (all with the FDA's & USDA's support, mind you), it can be more than baffling attempting to decipher packaging on foods. Many people see the words 'all natural', 'healthy choice', 'reduced'-this-and-that, etc. & think that they are making wise & thoughtful choices in regards to their health when in fact it is just not that simple.

Fooducate is not just for the iPhone, but for Android & online use as well. It works by scanning a barcode or searching for a product, the user is instantly able to see information about the product (good & bad) whether its present on the label or not. This information is gathered by requesting it from the manufacturers & also gathered research by the creators of the program (with the help of the users too!).

Favorite Blog Posts: Excerpt of "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" by Peter Menzel

I stumbled upon this website blog which posted pictures from a book of photographs CHRONICLING lifestyles & dietary habits of people around the world. I found it fascinating to see the types of foods being eaten by families. The excerpts compare not only foods bought each week but also how much money these families spend. Each family is photographed in their homes; for one family of nine that means a one room hut & another family of six a tent in a refugee camp. 

This post will really put things into perspective- not only for your country, homes, & food but also the amazing opportunities & things available to us living in more affluent countries. This is a chance to make sure we do not take for granted what blessings we have & also to take the chance to help others less fortunate. Make sure to send this photo diary to others & SPREAD AWARENESS!

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MON MAY 26, 2008 AT 07:24 AM PDT

Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary

byAsinus Asinum FricatFollow

In an increasingly globalized world, it’s still sometimes shocking to see just how disparate our lives are compared with other human beings around the world. A book of photographs by Peter Menzel called "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" ("©Peter Menzelwww.menzelphoto.com. Ten Speed Press, published in 2005) makes a relevant point with great irony: at a time when hundreds of millions of people don't have enough to eat, hundreds of millions more are eating too much and are overweight or obese. In observing what six billion eat for dinner the authors note,

"Today, more people are overweight than underweight."  

It is these cultural differences, emphasized and reinforced by the author, which exemplifies the lifestyles and dietary habits of people around the world. In the United States, processed foods are par for course. In the Philippines, fresh fruit and vegetables play a far more significant role. In the  harsh Chad sun, a family of six exists on a measly $1.23 per week.

You can buy the book here.


You may have seen some of these photographs from the book as it been widely circulating on the net, if not, I urge you to purchase it and as one of my friends said via email: "I don't know about you, but I'm counting my blessings." Traveling to 24 countries, from Greenland, Chad, and Japan to Germany, Guatemala, and the United States, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio photographed 30 families accompanied by a careful display of a week's worth of food. Chronicling the enormous differences in eating habits between industrial and developing countries, each section includes a family portrait, along with their groceries, and a listing of how much was spent in each food group. In the tradition of MATERIAL WORLD, this timely, fascinating photography book illustrates not only the growth of fast food consumption worldwide, but also the transformation of diets across the planet. One notes that except where poverty is the most extreme, packaged cookies and candies have gripped the world as have soft drinks, primarily coca-colas. I found it both encouraging that there is so much local food culture left in the world, and deeply depressing that our processed food culture has spread so far and wide. If you look closely at the types of food being purchased you can see the difference between "eating to live" and "living to eat."

Meet the The Manzo family of Sicily. Their weekly expenditure is 214.36 Euros or $260.11. Note the copious amount of bread. 

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide 
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07. 

Pink Slime...

   I had heard of the controversial meat additive that is referred of as 'pink slime' long before the media frenzy these past few weeks & the long over due public outcry calling for the manufacturers to stop adding it to our meats. As I was watching the news last night, there was a short story about the pink slime additive that caught my attention. So when I heard on the news that Texas governor, Rick Perry visited & toured a Nebraska meat plant that is responsible for making the pink slime, I was rather shocked. Perry along with 2 other governors toured the facilities to support the company & their pink slime product. Governors of Texas, Kansas, & Iowa, three of the top 10 beef producing states in the nation- #1 spot going to Texas, stated that beef containing the additive was "leaner" & therefore healthier. The governors ended their press conference by eating hamburgers made from Beef Products, Inc. or BPI's  beef.

A Beef Products Inc. processing plant in South Sioux City, Neb.
The company injects fatty beef trimmings with ammonia to remove E. coli and salmonella.

   This controversial product has been called "safe" by the company who makes it, Beef Products, Inc. & the USDA has agreed with them. For decades, 'lean beef trimmings' or its informal name pink slime, has been used as a processing agent to kill bacteria in meats. The ammonia solution first came about in order to use other parts of the cow that otherwise could not be eaten by people.These fatty trimmings & connective tissues harbor significant bacterial growth & so where used in things like pet food rather than meat for human consumption. By soaking these trimmings & riding them of deadly bacteria like E coli, meat factories were then able to produce more meat, more cheaply which ultimately leads to more money!

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein=MSG

"What could be better for us than protein? And everyone knows that vegetables are good for us. Thus, 'hydrolyzed vegetable protein' sounds safe and even wholesome. However, this is the chemical method of producing monosodium glutamate. A mixture of hydrolyzed proteins contains the salts of other proteins as well, and monosodium glutamate may comprise as much as 20% of hydrolyzed vegetable protein (the usual range is 12-20%). The flavor enhancement produced by this mixture is almost entirely dependent on MSG. Few people are aware that products containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein frequently are advertised as "all natural". While MSG must be specifically listed on food labels, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, which contains MSG, may be designated simply as 'natural flavorings'."

 --George R. Schwartz, MD  In Bad Taste: The MSG Syndrome

   Oh my. Where do I even begin?! My crusade against MSG started years ago & is ever strengthened when I run across someone who is unknowingly ingesting such a harmful chemical. I definitely know what its like to suddenly realize that my carefully selected diet was not as scrupulous as I had thought. My MSG epiphany occurred in Whole Foods when I was about to put 'organic black bean soup' in my shopping cart when just for the heck of it decided to read the ingredients. Much to my dismay it contained the chemical I had been trying to avoid. As I went through my kitchen, it dawned on me that I had been eating products containing MSG for years. Even products that appeared healthy, had the words organic or 100% natural were in fact not good for me whatsoever! 

   The excerpt above from Dr. Schwartz explains the problem precisely. If it says "No MSG"on the product, then we want to assume that the manufacturers are producing something healthy. A good example: In an attempt to select healthier foods, a friend of mine came back from the grocery store with sea salt & lime tortilla chips. The bag even said no MSG on the front. We were about half through the bag when I happened to look at the label & saw yeast extract. 
   I soon discovered that the FDA requires a product to clearly label monosodium glutamate on its packaging. However, food manufacturers can use up to 20% of MSG in another ingredient without having to label it as monosodium glutamate. So names like hydrolyzed plant protein, yeast nutrient, & hydrolyzed oat flour which contain MSG get overlooked on the label because of healthy sounding names. 

   It seems as if people are either 1) naive in assuming a product is healthy since it has 'natural' or 'organic' on the label or 2) would rather remain blindly ignorant just so they can continue eating a favorite snack. How have people become so impervious to labels? We check the fine print on everything else, so why can't we take the few seconds to check our food?

There are more than 40 different ingredients that always contain the chemical MSG & even more ingredients that often contain it. I challenge you to look through your pantry & find these synonyms for MSG: