Eating Seasonally

There are certain fresh fruits and vegetables that I always have in my house. Apples, bananas, grapes, carrots, onion, garlic. I think I am doing pretty good providing my family with the fruits and veggies that they need to be healthy. But, I’ve been thinking, I haven’t seen a banana tree anywhere near me. And, I’m pretty sure that apples are in abundance in the Fall, and this is the end of Winter. So, where do these come from and how do they get to my grocery store?

Once again, off to do some research. Produce that is picked at the peak of ripeness is always the healthiest, not to mention the tastiest. In order to get out-of-season produce to us, it must be grown somewhere else and shipped. This means a couple of things. It must be picked before it is ripe and it must be shipped a long way. Of course, they lose nutritional value during long trips and they don’t taste too good because they are not picked ripe. In fact, many growers have developed varieties of fruits and vegetables that are sturdy and shippable, but not necessarily nutritious or tasty.

So, in order to have healthy fruits and vegetables that aren’t shipped all over the world, it is important to eat both locally and seasonally. Right now in California, every citrus tree is loaded with fruit, including those in my backyard. Right now, I am eating more citrus because it is both in season and local. I wondered what else is in season right now. Because my local farmers market doesn’t start until May, it’s hard to know. I did find a good website that tells which fruits and vegetables are in season. Then you can decide if you want the benefits of eating locally.

Of course, if you want to eat really locally, you could always plant a garden.

Artificial What in My Child's Vitamins?

I have written before about being a label reader when it comes to cleaners. Many of us read the label on our food. Have you ever read the label on your kid’s vitamins? I switched almost a year ago to a kid’s vitamin that I like for lots of reasons. The other day, I took out my old grocery store vitamins my son used to take and read the label. I was expecting to see artificial sweeteners. Here’s what I was not expecting: Blue 2 Lake, Red 40 Lake, and Yellow 6 Lake. What? I did some looking into this. Here’s what I found. In 2008, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban many food dyes from being used, something already being done in the UK. In fact, many food companies are already selling food in the UK that contain no artificial colors. The British versions of Starburst Chews, Skittles, and M&M candies contain the full spectrum of artificial colors in the U.S., but not in the U.K., where the company uses natural colorings. In Britain, the color in McDonald's strawberry sauce for sundaes actually comes from strawberries; in the U.S. it comes from Red 40.
So, why is this important? Synthetic food dyes have been suspected of disrupting children's behavior since the 1970s, when Dr. Ben Feingold, a San Francisco allergist, reported that his patients improved when their diets were changed. Numerous controlled studies conducted over the next three decades in the United States, Europe, and Australia proved that some children’s behavior is worsened by artificial dyes.
Aside from the fact that many foods contain artificial colors, why would you want them in the vitamins we give our kids, supposedly to improve their health?
After all of this, it is good to know that the vitamins I have been giving my son for almost a year have no artificial colors. They are colored with vegetable juice, such as beet juice concentrate and red cabbage extract, annatto and turmeric extract. No mysterious names including numbers. No worries of possible chemical side effects. One less thing to worry about.

Here is a link to the vitamins my son takes.