Tag Archives: organic

Alter Eco Giveaway, Prop 37, & My Latest Investigation

...by Food Babe

I’ve got three very important things to share with you this Halloween!

#1 – An Awesome Organic Chocolate Giveaway

If you have never tried Alter Eco Organic Chocolate before – here’s your chance! Alter Eco is hands down my favorite indulgence right now. I like it so much that I cannot keep it in the house because it will be gone in a matter of minutes!

Alter Eco Chocolate is sustainable, fair trade, organic and Non-GMO project certified. Their chocolates do not contain added fillers like “soy lecithin” and other junk you find in typical popular chocolate brands.  I like every single flavor I’ve tried so far – but the Dark Coconut Toffee, Dark Mint and Dark Quinoa Crunch are tied for the win.

I reached out to Alter Eco last week because our next vacation is taking us to Peru & Ecuador in South America where they harvest and produce many of their products. I am hoping to spend part of my vacation to learn more about superfoods like Quinoa (which Alter Eco also makes) that I eat every week. And I wanted to thank them personally for supporting and donating to the Yes on Prop 37 - the campaign to label genetically modified foods in California.

During our conversation – I asked if they would be willing to host a giveaway…. they were more than thrilled and generously accepted!

Alter Eco will be sending a gift basket with an assortment of all their chocolates to 10 readers!  I absolutely can’t wait to hear what you think of all of the different variations and if they will become your favorite too.

You can enter to win up to three times:  (Deadline: Midnight on November 5th, 2012)

1. SUBSCRIBE to Food Babe and leave a comment below

2. Spread the word on Facebook or Twitter and leave another comment. (Optional)

3. Sign up to call California voters to vote Yes on Prop 37 Ballot Initiative to label genetically modified foods. If you sign up – please just leave another comment. (Optional)
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Choosing Your Coconut Water Harmlessly + A Fashionable Giveaway

...by Food Babe

Listen up Hot Yogis, Athletes, College Beauties, Moms, Dads, Fitness Fanatics, and Coconut Water Fans – If you haven’t switched over to Harmless Harvest Coconut Water yet and are still drinking the “other” brands…I’ve got some compelling information about why you should, plus there is an awesome fashionable give away at the end of this post.

I realize that some of you may have never tried coconut water before, so all of this may be a bit intense… Hopefully this post will spark your curiosity in an amazing powerful drink that can be actually be good for you and your family if you choose carefully.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure to meet the founders of Harmless Harvest Coconut Water, Justin Guilbert and Doug Riboud. Besides just being really cool guys they are doing something absolutely remarkable. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to meet the founders of a food company before. I became smitten with their coconut water late last year, after my friend Rian who is a raw food chef and yoga teacher introduced it to me.

I had no idea that a company could actually bottle coconut water in the raw form. If I had closed my eyes, I could have sworn I was drinking straight from a coconut. I knew this at the time, because I had just returned from a month in Asia, where I drank a coconut almost everyday. Ever since finding Harmless Harvest and learning more about how coconut water is produced, I’ve never bought another brand of coconut water. Harmless Harvest coconut water is the only coconut water I recommend on my Food Babe’s Pantry Staples List.

SAM 4295

Seeing other coconut water companies take advantage of the healthy benefits of coconut water for profit has become a serious issue. The issue can be seen in the latest attempts to “flavor” coconut water with “natural flavor” to cover up the source of their coconuts and/or including carcinogenic substances like the ingredient “carrageenan” (e.g. Zico’s latest chocolate flavor). Many coconut waters out there are made from concentrate, which means the coconut water is heated down to syrup and then reconstituted with water. Do you see something wrong with this picture? No wonder there is a huge discrepancy between different coconut water brands and why Harmless Harvest tastes better than the rest.

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Eat With Your Dollars – Chocolate

...by Food Babe

Oh the joys of a piece of chocolate … so delicious, so simple, yet so complicated. Milk, dark, white, bittersweet, semisweet, 50%, 60%, 87% cacao, or raw? What do you choose?

Fearless Chocolates

Let me help make the decision easy for you. After all, your choice has a profound impact on your health, the environment and social economics. Look for “Organic” and “Fair Trade” the next time that chocolate craving hits and here’s why: To continue reading click here

Full List of Non Organic Ingredients Allowed in Organic Food

...by Food Babe

Today I posted an article my cousin sent me on my Facebook wall. She had just read my post about Cornucopia Institute’s recent investigation dubbed the “Organic Watergate” (rightly so) and the harmful ingredient carrageenan that is allowed in organic foods. The article I posted was entitled 38 Non-Organic Ingredients Found in USDA Organic Foods. Although dated 2007, I found the reasons for allowing these ingredients to be fascinating. A majority of the foods were allowed because no other substitute from an organic supplier was widely available or for economic reasons. Majority of the foods were allowed only after companies submitted specific petitions to the USDA to include them.

Because the article was outdated a bit, I thought it would be prudent to easily make available the whole list of ingredients that are currently legally allowed in organic food. While most of the agriculture and non-synthetic substances are not harmful to your body – some of them along with synthetic ingredients do alter your body’s alkalinity, making you more acidic. This matters, because an alkaline body avoids disease, repair cells, and removes free radicals/toxins more effectively.

I could spend days discussing each ingredient, but one synthetic ingredient that jumped out at me is cellulose – otherwise known as wood pulp. The amount of cellulose food companies can put in your food is not regulated by the FDA. Cellulose is used as filler to processed foods because it doesn’t contain calories or fat content and is cheap. Some common products that contain it are frozen waffles, shredded cheese, and salad dressings. Your body simply cannot use this ingredient at all nutritionally and lacks the enzymes to digest it. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to eat things that my system can’t process. I can’t believe companies are allowed to sell food we can’t even digest as humans!

This list hopefully serves as a reminder why it is so incredibly important to avoid overly processed foods even when they are certified organic and to check every single label on everything you buy. The products I share and support on my shop and the ones I use on a daily basis rarely if ever contain any of the below ingredients. And for the record I will ALWAYS choose an organic product vs. a conventional one.

I obtained this list from the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations ECFR and is current as of May 22, 2012. Please feel free to share it how ever you like.

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Watch Out For This Carcinogen In Your Organic Food

...by Food Babe

I really wish I wasn’t writing this post right now. The information I am about to share with you will likely make you pretty angry and it should.  Do you consume any of these brands in the picture below (Silk, Starbucks, So Delicious, Horizon, Zico, Blue Diamond, Pacific, Carnation and Tempt)? My guess is that you probably do.

A few days ago, the Cornucopia Institute released a Video by it’s co-founder and Senior Farm Analyst, Mark Kastel and a full PDF Report that shares some very startling practices between the USDA and the NOSA “National Organic Standards Board”- the agency that regulates organic food. This report explains the details behind several allegations of corporate corruption that has allowed several agribusinesses to use chemicals in organic products without sufficient regulatory oversight.

One of the findings has to do with a carcinogenic ingredient all these products have in common, a substance derived from red algae called carrageenan. Carrageenan can be found in most milk substitute products, infant formula, cottage cheese and some flavored coconut waters regardless if the product is certified organic by the USDA. I know so many people who get soy lattes from Starbucks to avoid having to consume conventional milk products, so I thought it would be pertinent to include them here on the list below, since they and many other coffee shops use soy milk that contains carrageenan.

Organic Watch Dog Common Brands

I’ve had my doubts about carrageenan for a long time – it started last year when my cousin from Ohio sent me a Facebook message asking about whether or not it was ok to feed store bought almond milk that contained this additive to her toddler aged son. Since I didn’t have all the facts, I erred on the side of caution and suggested she make her own almond milk from scratch only.

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