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Dear Reader, We have created this blog as a project for school, and we intend on updating with the most current news updates in the organic food industry.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Plant Based Diet


http://www.forksoverknives.com/

In hopes of getting more information on the effects of processed food I watched the documentary "Forks over Knives." Although the movie did not end up being focused on organic vs. processed food, I found the information it contained highly important. "Forks Over Knives" gives us information on the importance of a plant based diet vs. our cultures normal eating habits.
             We are introduced to the film with information on how unhealthy we are as a nation. The average American is 23 pounds overweight which has lead to over 460,000 deaths of American woman by stroke or heart disease. Our nation is over drugged to alleviate the symptoms of our poor eating habits. Fortunately, the good news is that a growing number of researchers say if we reduce or eliminate refined, processed and animal-based foods we can prevent and reverse several of our worst diseases. The film informes us how these highly processed foods, especially fast food, act like a drug. Fast foods do this by containing what is referred to as "highly dense food." these foods are extremely dense in calories so that we are able to fit far more calories in our stomach without becoming full. Not only that but fast food does a great job at containing high amounts of fat, oil, salt, and sugar, which act as a drug to our pleasure sensors.

                 This video goes into misconceptions on healthy diet that have been taught to us at school, TV, and other places. A few of these misconceptions include dairy being good for you(your bones), and meat being necessary for high protein intake. First off, studies have shown that the areas of the world with the highest dietary intake have higher concentrations of osteoporosis. This is because high levels of dairy create a more acidic system. Because of this higher level of acidity, the body uses its most readily available acid buffer, calcium. We also find out that plants offer the correct amount of protein to sustain a human. In-depth studies in Asia made serious connections between high levels of animal based protein and cancer. It is astonishing how closely connected meat intake and incidences of cancer truly are. There was a study done on rats that were given animal protein, and fluctuated the amount every three weeks. Tumor growth rates increased and decreased with the amount of dairy protein being fed to the rats. It seems that cancerous cells grow much better in an environment containing meat based protein.


This image shows how dairy protein consumption correlates to cancer clusters. It proves that not only were cancer cells more prevelant with more dairy protein but less prevelant when lowered.

                 The information in the video "forks over knives" was eye opening to the importance of taking responsibility over diet. A diet rich in whole foods has extremely positive effective across the board including, lover cholesterol, weight loss, higher energy, better mental state, reduce the risk of disease such as cancer and diabetes, strengthen your immune system, and so on. Let’s take responsibility for our own health and start to eat to live rather than living to eat.

-Tom Gillespie

Friday, January 27, 2012

First post!

Hello Reader,
We have begun this blog for a project for a class at Salem State University, located 30 minutes from Boston, MA.  We are all prospective teachers, as we are enrolled in the Elementary Education Licensure program here at salem.  Each of us, too, has a second major. Below you will find a quick introduction to each blogger on this blog!

Rachel: I am a psychology double major (with elementary education), and also working towards a specialization in applied behavior analysis.  I have been interesting in the topic of organics for the last few years.  It wasn't until recently where I was actually asking myself, "What is really organic?"  How do we know what organic food is?  If it's something we should be indulging in, why is it so expensive?  How do we know what actually is organic?  Is it really worth the money?  All of these questions I hope to answer for myself as well as the reader.

Autumn: I am a sociology double major to elementary education.  I was introduced to organics at a young age, and have connections to the organic production.  I am very much so in favor of organics, but there are a lot of questions to be asked now that there are so many people against it.  I would specifically like to know a little bit more about the business's that carry organic selection.  Where are they getting this from? Why did they chose to sell it?  I would also like to know a little bit more about where they got i from.

Tom:  My majors are elementary education and physical education here at Salem State.  I am looking to gain knowledge on organics in multiple areas.  One of my biggest questions is what is so good about organics?  Why is organics actually preferred over processed?  To some that may seem like an outrageous question. But the fact of the matter is, we don't really know WHAT to consider organics, and that seems to be the huge question right now.  What actually qualifies a food to be "organic"?


http://www.alternet.org/health/81773
Here is a great article we found on organics.  It's more so just a general article describing some issues with organic foods currently.  It focuses on whether or not organic food is actually better for us.  We chose this article because we are still trying to find a specific route to follow in the organic topic.