Let me be clear about the question I’m trying to answer: Which nutrients—and precisely how much of each nutrient—do I need to be healthy? Because the FDA is in charge of food labeling, they were my first stop. My immediate focus fell upon the DV (Daily Values) and RDIs (Recommended Daily Intakes), both of which have everything to do with the information presented on food labels.

Then I found this statement, attributed to Christine Lewis, director of the division of technical evaluation in the FDA’s Office of Food Labeling: “They’re not recommended intakes. They’re really just reference points to help people get some kind of perspective on what their overall daily dietary needs should be.” Continue reading

So today I decided to find out which nutrients I need to stay healthy, and exactly how much of each I should be getting. I mean, I know by now that there are doubtless scads of unlisted (and unsuspected) nutrients I should be getting (or would be, if I ate a halfway natural diet)—but I’ve got to start somewhere, right? Besides, I’m a professional researcher. How hard can this be? Continue reading

The search begins. The first thing I need to do is get out of the supermarket, as there’s really very little food of any kind there, much less real food—which (when present) seems an afterthought. The first places I discover are Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Continue reading

Yet another Michael Pollan book, The Botany of Desire also has a “companion” PBS Botany of Desire documentary. Subtitled A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, both volumes approach things from an unconventional perspective. Being masters of the universe, we tend to think of ourselves as manipulating the world around us—but what if we (and other creatures) are the ones being manipulated, by everything from potatoes and marijuana to tulips and apples? That may seem absurd. After reading this book, or watching the dvd, it won’t. Continue reading

I step outside to harvest a few more of those wondrous peaches from the tree in my yard, and discover to my horror that some unprincipled perfidious neighbor has pilfered my peaches. There’s not one left. Not one. Which means they even took the ones that weren’t yet ripe. What kind of psychotic neighbor pilfers unripe peaches, right off the tree? Continue reading

Veering into the natural foods world with Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (FSB post), and then into the industrial food system with Food, Inc. (FSB post), I thought I’d venture farther down the rabbit hole and look into these GM (genetically modified) foods (sometimes called GMOs for genetically modified organisms) everyone seems to be complaining about. I mean, after reading about all the other crap we put in our bodies—can GM foods possibly be any worse? In a word, yes. In three: Holy f@#$ing s%&*t! Continue reading

I’ve always been one of those people who throws food away one day after the date stamped on the container. (Well, okay—sometimes it’s more like a month after, but only because I didn’t find it until then.) It wasn’t something I really thought about, unless I desperately wanted whatever-it-was that had expired (hopefully recently) and the stores were all closed. A recent article made me rethink this. Continue reading

Suspicions aroused by the works of Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food reviewed here; thoughts on The Omnivore’s Dilemma coming soon), I decide to delve deeper with an Oscar-nominated documentary called Food, Inc. The effect is…enlightening. Continue reading

Given the apparent influence of fruits and ice cream on workout performance (not to mention weight; I’m up half a pound since yesterday), I want to test my theory. Instead of more ice cream, I have a peach today, a few hours before my workout. I’m still feeling the pulled back, so I skip the warm up again and get right to it.

Forwarding my Heroic Soundtrack past the… Continue reading

Call me twisted, but I thought it might be interesting to read up on the leading causes of death among Americans, just to see how many of those are food related. The latest complete figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveal that 81.4% of all Americans who checked out in 2007 (the latest year for which figures are available) did so in one of the following ways: Continue reading