Apparently, anyway. An article came out today saying the research shows that:

A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance, said Alan Dangour, one of the report’s authors. Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.

It really amazes me people like this call themselves journalists or even researchers. I don’t believe anyone who knows anything has touted organic produce as having more nutrients than regular produce. I mean, a tomato is a tomato.

Our My biggest concern is from the junk that is sprayed on them. Pesticides can and will cause harm over the long term, and there are reports and studies to prove this. So, I am not eating organic carrots because they have more nutritional value in them. I eat them to eliminate at least one of the many ways people can get cancer.

I found this article, The Pesticide Picture, that can give you some more information on this topic.

You see there are 2 problems with this original study saying that organic is not healthier than conventional.

1. We actually paid someone to come up with this garbage. I would like to know how much of someones tax dollars went into this study?
2. More ignorant people who do not know any better or who do not think for themselves will think this is gospel. They will now go around and tell other ignorant people this very statement, and make it to be fact.
   (Trust me, I have family members that actually believe your heart only has a certain number of beats in a life time. And, if you use it up too fast, via exercise, then you will die sooner – honestly, I can not make this stuff up)

Please do the research yourself, and see where all of the arrows are pointing. Do not just follow some story by some yahoo that has no evidence of this being true. It is also bad journalism to even report this as fact. There is no other side to the story, so it makes it seem as this is fact.

Just stick to what you know is true and you will be just fine.

The biggest transformation with us during this raw food venture is we hate to waste anything. It seems every other day we are juicing something, making milk out of something, or dehydrating something. And, it does not matter what it is. Well, our latest venture is with cantaloupe.

It drives me crazy to scoop out a bunch of seeds and just throw them away. I mean, this is where life comes from. We have been blessed with 1 fruit or 1 vegetable, and there being more than just one seed in each item. It is at least a 2 or 3 to one ratio. We eat one apple, and then have enough seeds from that one apple to grow 10-15 apple trees. Think about it. There is no way anyone should starve ever. So, imagine how much I hate to throw out cantaloupe. Have you seen how many seeds are in one of these guys? There must be like 200 – 300 seeds (I am just guessing).

Me being the way I am, I know I can find a use for them. And I did: Cantaloupe Milk (or juice). Here is all I did.

1. I scooped out the seeds like normal, and placed them in a bowl.
2. I then added 5 cups of purified water from our Brita pitcher to our blender.
3. I added the seeds, a couple chunks of cantaloupe, and about a 1/4 cup of agave nectar (I love this stuff).
4. Then, blend for 4-5 minutes to get the seeds all ground up nice and good
5. Then, pour the juice from the blender into a mason jar (or pitcher). Just make sure you strain this as you go.

And that is it my friend. Make sure you stick it back in the fridge and get it nice and cold. This is a nice, light, and refreshing drink, especially on a hot day. Just think, you managed to not just throw these away. The blending will extract some of the good stuff from the seeds, and your body will appreciate it. Also, it is a raw drink, so it will help you have something else raw to drink in the fridge instead of water

We have a fig tree in our backyard. Nothing we actually planted, it just came with the house. And, for the past 3 years we did absolutely nothing with them. I mean, the kids would walk around the tree and eat them right off of it, but as for us, there were of no imporance. Since we have been educated about the benefits of raw food, figs seemed like something we should investigate. Afterall, they are free!

You can eat them raw like this. And, there is nothing wrong with them. They are actually pretty good. But, I mean, who can eat a bucket of figs? And, I am not too sure about freezing them. So, we looked into dehydrating them. This, my friend, is the ticket to eating figs.

All I did was pick as many as I could (that were ripe). I washed them all pretty good. Birds love figs, so this means they are all around the tree and around the good figs. So, wash them pretty good. Then you just slice them up. As you can see by the pictures, I sliced them inquarters and in flat slices. Just to see how each one turned out.

Here art the ones I sliced into quarters:

And here are ones I sliced into, well, slices:

Notice I used the parchment paper on the slices. After you have them all sliced up, then just dehydrate them. Depending on how long you want to listen to a dehydrator will determine the settings of your dehydrator.

Now, once they are done, just store them in an air tight container. We store all of our stuff like this in mason jars.

The kids can come and eat the figs as much as they want to. And, they are still considered a raw food. Also, they are delicious when added to granola instead of raisins or dates.

I always love this comment. You finally decide to take the plunge into being a vegetarian, and even one more step and going with raw foods, and people act like you are going to starve to death. You hear all of the dumb statements and questions about calories, what will you eat, I hate carrots (as if we only eat carrots all day), and especially this one: You need meat for protein.

I even spent the last weekend attempting to explain the different sources I use to get protein, and I would even bet I get more protein in a day than this person. They would hear none of it. Mainly because of the thought of them being wrong, which of course, they are. So, this got me thinking. You need to be prepared when going into battle every now and then. And, more importantly, you need to firmly believe in what you are doing. If you are not, you can easily be persuaded in another direction. So, I came up with a list.

I have compiled the “needed food items”, according to the meat eaters and the SAD guidelines, and placed it up against the raw food sources. Now, there are plenty more sources for protein out there, but these are the staples always in our house. Especially, since Whole Foods just added all of their own label raw nuts. My shelf is very colorful right now. But, anyway, here is a quick list:

If you want to print it, just hit the print button at the bottom of this post, and you can keep this little list handy. After looking at it, I almost guarantee I get more protein in my diet than most others. Plus, it is not filled with the antibiotics and the saturated fat and the cholesterol.

Hope this comes in handy for you.

Yucca Root

First off, let me say I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July. We went to a fireworks show at one of the local wineries here in Alabama: Morgan Creek Winery. They had wine tasting, a tour of the winery, blueberry picking, live entertainment, and of course, the fireworks show. It was a very good time.

We have had our first shipment from Angel Food Ministries for about a week and a half. WE have gone through most of this already, but there was one item in there I had no idea what to do with. It was a yucca root. So, last night, we decided it was time to find out how to eat this thing.

We did some research on the internet, and found many items, and recipes. But the one thing they all seemed to have in common was the fact you had to cook this root first. Which, for us, is not a sticking point. I have said we try to stay about 75-80% raw, so there is a wiggle factor in there for us when it comes to stuff like this. And, trying stuff like this helps to make the diet a little more lively, and versatile. So, yucca root for dinner it is.

Here is what I came up with : Yucca French Fries

The other thing I found out is this root is easily substituted for potatoes. The way to cook it is as follows:

1. Peel all of the skin off of the root. The root will be bright white underneath the dark exterior.
2. Cut the roots into 3-4″ sections
3. Boil the roots for about 30 minutes. This will be long enough to just soften them up.
4. Remove the root pieces, and cut the roots in 1/2 longways.
5. You will see the small root that runs along the center of these pieces. Remove this (it looks like a little piece of rope).
6. Then, slice these 1/2 pieces into french fry type sections. I just cut mine about 1/4″ strips.
7. Now it is time to cook these guys. There are 2 ways to do this: You can fry the pieces, or you can bake the pieces. I did both
8. If you fry the, just fry them until they get a brown and crispy texture.
9. If you bake them, place them into a non stick pan, or parchment paper, and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
10. Once they are done, by frying or baking, just season them to your desired liking. We used organic garlic powder, sea salt, and a little extra virgin olive oil.

That’s it. If you just use it as a potato, then you really can not go wrong.