Freshness and Health

Ten years ago Saveur Magazine (March ’97) ran a story that to me seemed to sum up the missing link in our eating habits and issues around health and nutrition - what should we eat, what shouldn't we eat, what is the current diet fad or trend. Without meaning to, the article pointed out how we suffer from "shelf-life syndrome." The following synopsis of the Saveur story illustrates this.

The author of the story, William Murray, starts off by recounting a conversation he has had with an Italian friend about fresh mozzarella cheese. Murray proudly describes the cheese he buys - freshly made the day he buys it and consumed the following day. His Italian friend replies, with a pained expression, that having grown up in Italy it is difficult for him to eat mozzarella that is more than 2 1/2 HOURS old!

As if this part of the tale weren't telling enough - Murray goes on to describe the mozzarella producing areas around a town called Fondi, and particularly one factory, known for its exceptional cheese, owned by Signor Giovanni Buonanno. By 1:30 every afternoon, a few hours after it has opened to the public, all the mozzarella made that day - about one ton - has been sold. Signor Giovanni, as he is known, is 73. He owns about 170 acres of land, and 800 plus water buffalo (whose milk is used for the mozzarella). His operation is computerized and impeccably clean. He knows each of his water buffalo by name, not number.

Here's the punch line: When someone approached Signor Giovanni about selling his mozzarella in the United States, he figured out that it wouldn't be for sale here until three days after it was made. Signor Giovanni said no to the deal. He said, "Mozzarella is not something that you eat after three or four days. No. You come to Fondi and you eat it fresh!"

We can learn a lot from Signor Giovanni.

While we all have different biochemical nutritional needs, we share some common needs - one of these being FRESH, whole foods. The focus of our food system here in the United States is not freshness, but shelf-life. I feel the quest for the ever-longer shelf-life is what has undermined basic health - creating "shelf-life syndrome."

We're so fortunate in Vermont and New Hamshire to have farm stands and markets in the warmer months where we can get hours-old harvested food. You can purchase fresh, hours-old (not days or weeks) food picked when it's ripe (not picked green and gassed to appear ripe later in the store). You get to meet the people that grew the food; you support their hard work, keeping beautiful land open and working. You consume food, which is full of natural antioxidants, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and other phytonutrients. It is a complete cycle of life and support - your health benefits; your environment benefits; and, your local economy benefits.

Since the hard frost has held off this year, we can all still eat beautiful, fresh vegetables and fruits. As we enter the winter months you can still make fresh food choices - buy locally produced meats, eggs and dairy products. Frozen organic vegetables and fruits are usually frozen at the peak of their ripeness and freshness. Eat naturally fermented fresh sauerkraut and vegetables - and stock up on local produce that keeps well like root vegetables and some apples.

Next time you're purchasing food or sitting down to a meal, think less about what you are eating and more about how fresh it is. If it's truly fresh, your health will follow.

For a list of local farms and markets see Vital Communities Annual Guide to Locally Grown Food - Farms, Farm-Stands and more - www.vitalcommunities.org
For naturally fermented vegetables see the sidebar, "Naturally Fermented Foods" with links on the right of this blog
For Vermont & New Hampshire Food Coops and health food stores see the Community Resources page at: www.thealternativehealthguides.com

For those traveling to Italy you can go to Fondi and have the fresh mozzarella!
Caseificio Buonanno
Via Mola della Corte N° 7/9
04022 Fondi (Between Rome and Naples)
Lazio, Italy; Tel: +39-0771-513011
http://www.caseificiobuonanno.it

Health News of the Week

ACUPUNCTURE FOR BACK PAIN

Researchers in Germany have released a study demonstrating the benefits and effectiveness of Acupuncture as a treatment for back pain. The study showed that almost fifty percent of the 1100 patients taking part in the research had sustained relief with Acupuncture as opposed to only twenty-seven percent finding relief with drugs and other Western therapies.
The BBC News web site has a more in depth article about this study as well as relative links - http://news.bbc.co.uk (As a side note, I find the BBC news to be an excellent source of world wide news not always covered by the American Press, especially with health related stories - check their Health, as well as Science/Nature pages.)

At the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, Dr. Helen Langevin a research associate professor of neurology, is conducting a six-year research project into acupuncture and its effect on connective tissue. For information about Dr. Langevin’s work, check out the UVM web pages below:

“Research to Investigate Response to Acupuncture” article at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/theview/article.php?id=612

“Acupuncture Needling Gets the Picture” article at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/theview/article.php?id=1151

Codex: Europe and Beyond

Switzerland, like much of Europe and Asia, has a long history of using natural remedies for health care. This is evident when traveling through Switzerland where drugstores and pharmacies throughout the country sell both natural and pharmaceutical products, often side by side. Switzerland is a highly developed, wealthy country complete with its own pharmaceutical giants, who would like consumers to buy their pharmaceutical products over long-standing, successful, natural remedies. But cultural heritage and attitudes run deep. In Switzerland, druggists and pharmacy owners must go through years of education and apprenticeship, including not only the study of pharmaceutical products but also of herbal and homeopathic remedies.

Natural remedies of the highest quality are made in Switzerland, Germany, France and other European countries. These natural products and medicines are displayed in pharmacy windows often with equal or greater representation than conventional products.

There is a threat to this balanced presentation of health options and to consumer choice in Europe – and soon the world. The European Union and parts of Switzerland, not withstanding their long tradition of natural remedies and health care, are implementing laws concerning supplements and herbs that are extremely restrictive in terms of availability, and allowable vitamin, mineral and herbal potencies.

CODEX – Neither a Camera, Nor from The Da Vinci Code

The European Union has accepted a devastating set of guidelines known as the Codex Alimentarius: Guidelines on Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements. The controversial Codex guidelines are connected to the World Trade Organization (WTO), in itself a controversial conglomerate of multinational interests. Under the guise of consumer best interest and free trade, the WTO is aggressively pursuing global standards of commerce favorable to large industries such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture and other products. Free trade does not equal Fair trade, nor does it guarantee the best interests of people around the world involved with small-scale, sustainable, local and Fair-trade enterprises. In the Codex, the focus is on global standards for nutritional supplements and herbal remedies.

The official line is that of public safety - a thinly veiled cover-up for market control. In countries where the Codex is being enacted or will be enacted, there are restrictions to consumer choice and availability. In brief, the Codex is limiting the allowable maximum potencies to minimum levels. Pharmaceutical companies will be allowed to sell certain high potency vitamins and minerals, requiring prescriptions. Some currently permissible vitamins and minerals will be eliminated all together. Some herbs will be restricted or no longer available. Product information, crucial to consumer empowerment and choice will be limited. Synthetic instead of natural sources for supplements will be utilized. With the broad control of supplements and herbs comes more possibilities for patented products, further limiting access and driving up costs.

Norway and Germany have already adopted these standards so Vitamin C potency is limited to 200 mg and Vitamin E at 45 IU – over these is considered illegal. As a reference point, in the United States the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine has set upper tolerable dosage limits for Vitamin C at 2,000 mg for adults and the upper tolerable dosage limit for Vitamin E at 1500 IU.

Some governments are opposed to the Codex guidelines noting that traditional medicines, homeopathic remedies and other alternative medicines should continue to be available to people building on rich cultural and historical knowledge, and should not be analyzed the same way as pharmaceutical drugs.

A sustainable future includes true accessibility of nutrients and botanicals, and building on a millennia old knowledge base of traditional healing, not on the ultimate control of natural healing substances by multinational, pharmaceutical corporations whose real goals have to do with profits not individual or planetary health.

For more information about Codex:
Natural Solutions Foundation – www.healthfreedomusa.org
American Holistic Health Association – www.ahha.org
Official Codex site - www.codexalimentarius.net
Food Supplements: The EU Threat - www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/articles/foodsup.html
For more Information about the World Trade Organization (WTO):
Public Citizen Global Trade Watch at: http://www.citizen.org/trade/

Blog Beginnings

The Alternative Health Guides is venturing into the world of blogging. The tried and true print directory is exploring this fun and user friendly format of information exchange. We hope that the links and book lists will make accessing information about alternative and traditional healing easier for everyone.

Stay tuned for news updates and commentary. To your health! Dorian