There are many ways to get the best value for your health-conscious dollar.  For instance, if you have to choose which fruits and veggies to buy organic, start with those that have thin skin, apples, peaches, berries, potatoes.  Also, leafy greens are hard to wash thoroughly and  tend to be sprayed with a lot of pesticides, so go organic with those too.   This list is getting long, and since we are all encouraged to eat as much leafy greens as possible, the list is also expensive, which begs the question, is there a middle ground between organic and conventional foods? The answer is yes.   Lets take a look at some alternatives.

First, know where your foods come from.  If you have your own garden, you have the ultimate control over pesticide use.  Don’t have time/space/inclination to garden? you could join a CSA, community supported agriculture, to pick up fresh seasonal foods. This is a way to establish a direct relationship with the people who bring you your food.  However, it also takes more time and effort than going shopping at a store. Luckily,  Meadowsweet Market has been working for 12 years on our relationships with local producers in order to bring you the freshest, healthiest foods we can, with a great variety all under one roof!  Most of our producers would be considered “transitional”, which means that they are either in the process of becoming USDA certified organic, or they simply do not use pesticides.  It’s easy to forget that organic standards are synonymous with the way crops were produced long ago, without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and genetic modifications. On small farms, by families who considered themselves stewards of the land. We are proud to offer not only organic products but also a variety of local foods from producers who are taking this “back to basics” approach to farming.   Their dedication makes healthy foods economically accessible to more people!

Meadowsweet Market has been getting a lot of requests for passionflower lately because it was featured on an episode of Dr. Oz on stress and weight gain.  Passionflower is an herb that has been used since the time of the Aztecs as an antispasmodic and mild sedative.  Today it is a common ingredient in natural relaxation formulas like Traditional Medicinals’ Nighty Night tea.  Passionflower (and the many other effective herbs for relaxation) may assist the body’s management of the physiological symptoms of stress such as muscle tension, sleeplessness and increased cortisol production.  Relief from these symptoms helps set the stage for  loss of excess body weight.  It is important to remember that weight loss, like stress management, is a process that requires a holistic approach for lasting  results.  When you work toward consistently giving your body the nutrition, rest,  and exercise that it needs, herbal supplements may be a very effective way to assist your weight and stress management efforts, by helping to bring balance to body and mind.

There are many options when choosing gluten free/casein free thickeners to use in sauces, gravies, and baking.  This series of articles will discuss a variety of choices and Meadowsweet would like to invite you to join in the discussion by posting comments about what has worked in your kitchen.  We’d like to talk about arrowroot first because it is a popular product and works very well in recipes that are both gluten and casein free.  In fact, my research shows that it does NOT work well with dairy (for milk-based gravies, you’ll want to choose different thickeners which we’ll discuss in later articles).

Arrowroot is derived from the roots of a tropical plant. Since it is less gritty than rice flour, some cooks use it exclusively to  replace the flour that recipes require. Many people also prefer to use it as a thickener over cornstarch because it blends better with the flavors of recipes.  Note that when used as a cornstarch replacement, you will need to use more arrowroot.

It appears that arrowroot’s best use may be in baking when it is combined with other flours.  Add it to baked goods with gluten-free flours like buckwheat to help bind the flour. Try Arrowroot for something different today!

If you haven’t cut trans fats out of your diet yet, now”s the time!  Mainstream medicine, restaurants, and even city governments are warning to stay away from trans fats completely for a healthier diet. Trans fats are now known to boost bad cholesterol, decrease good cholesterol, gum up arteries, and set off inflammation throughout the body, which can trigger a host of problems, from stroke to diabetes (It’s not only sugar, but other poor diet issues that cause type 2 diabetes).  Simply put, eliminating trans fats from your diet now will improve your health.

To start:  check the labels of all processed (packaged) foods in your kitchen, including chips, crackers, cookies,  microwave popcorn, candy peanut butter and snack bars. If the ingreidiants include hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated oils, the product contains trans fats EVEN IF the label says 0 grams trans fats (zero can mean less than 1 gram. This is a deceitful labeling practice that is employed to get around labeling laws that require trans fats to be list on the nutrition facts of all products).

Luckily, giving up trans fats does not mean giving up your favorite snack foods.  Meadowsweet Market offers a variety of great tasting snacks that are truly free of trans fats.  And browse juniperfoods quick and easy snack items that are free of gluten and other allergens.