What’s the Difference Between Sulfured and Unsulfured Fruit?

Dried fruit has many health benefits and provides a nutritious option when you’re looking for a sweet snack. But have you ever wondered why some dried fruit is sulfured and some isn’t? Read on to find out the pros and cons of sulfuring fruit, and what other choices you have.

WHAT IS SULFURED FRUIT?

Sulfured fruit has been dried using sulfur dioxide as a preservative. This should be listed in the ingredients on a dried fruit’s package, so you can check if a fruit has been sulfured before buying it.

Sulfur dioxide prevents dried fruit from spoiling and turning brown. It’s often used for brightly-colored fruit to keep them more attractive. Some of the most commonly sulfured fruits are dried apricots, peaches, apples, pineapple, papaya, mango and golden raisins.

Sulfur dioxide is a gas. It’s typically produced by burning elemental sulfur, which is a byproduct collected from burning natural gas and oil in industrial operations. Sulfur dioxide is also used in wine making, as a disinfectant or fumigant, in bleaching agents and processed into sulfuric acid.

IS SULFUR DIOXIDE BAD FOR YOU?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers sulfur dioxide safe to consume when used as a food additive. Dried fruit contains very small amounts of sulfur dioxide, which are well below recognized toxic amounts.

Despite this fact, there is reason to be cautious about eating sulfured fruit. Sulfur dioxide can induce asthma when inhaled or ingested by those who are sensitive to it, even in small amounts.

Another concern is that sulfur dioxide is a type of sulfite. This means if you have an allergy or sensitivity to sulfites, avoid anything containing sulfur dioxide. It can cause symptoms like difficulty breathing, hives, skin rash or facial swelling.

In addition, sulfur dioxide is considered one of the top six most harmful air pollutants in the world. It’s a primary component of acid rain and causes many health problems globally. Sulfur dioxide gas in the atmosphere is primarily created by burning fossil fuels like coal and gasoline. This may not relate directly to your consumption of dried fruit, but using less of this chemical will only help the environment.

Inhalation of sulfur dioxide pollution can cause a burning sensation in your nose and throat or difficulty breathing, especially in people with asthma. Short-term exposure to high levels of sulfur dioxide can be life-threatening. And long-term exposure can lead to changes in lung function and worsen existing heart disease.

Also, exposure to high amounts of sulfur dioxide in air or food can harm the development of a baby during pregnancy.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

The natural alternative is unsulfured fruit, which has been dried without using preservatives. It’s usually dried by sun exposure, a commercial dehydrator or simply air drying.

You can look for unsulfured dried fruit in your local health food or other grocery store. The label will often state that the fruit is unsulfured. Another benefit of unsulfured fruit is that it usually won’t have any added sugar, which you can often find in sulfured fruit.

Organic dried fruit is guaranteed to be unsulfured as organic regulations don’t allow the use of sulfur or other preservatives. Organic dried fruit may not last as long because of this, but you can always freeze dried fruit to make it last longer if needed.

If you have an abundant source of fresh fruit, another great option is to dry your own fruit. That way you’ll know exactly what’s in it. Penn State Extension has a great overview of how to dry your own fruit and vegetables.

How the Industry is Making Money Off of Your Health

The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts. How, then, do unscrupulous marketers use evidence that ties high blood levels of phytonutrients with superior health to sell dietary supplements that may do more harm than good?

In my video below, I discuss a famous study that started so many down the wrong track. Thousands of men were followed for 19 years, and there was a stepwise drop in risk of lung cancer for smokers who got more and more beta-carotene in their diet. Researchers estimated this simply by adding up how much fruit, vegetables, and soup the men ate. So, did they start treating smokers with fruit, veggies, and soup? No, they gave them beta-carotene pills. However, those taking the pills got more lung cancer than those who didn’t, and there were more deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, and a shorter average lifespan overall. This didn’t stop them from trying it over and over again, though. Six more studies were performed, and beta-carotene pills continued to increase mortality. In a compilation of 20 other studies in which they gave beta-carotene and other antioxidant supplements, mortality was significantly increased.

As one study pointed out, “An obvious conclusion is that isolated nutrients are drugs, but not studied or regulated as drugs, and perhaps they should be. Food, on the other hand, needs to be treated in a different way, cognizant of the food synergy concept.” The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts.

Yes, low beta-carotene levels in the blood increase the risk of heart disease mortality, but that’s basically just saying low intake of carrot, pumpkin, collard greens, and kale increases the risk of heart disease mortality or that there is a carrot, spinach, and sweet potato deficiency in the United States.

It is true that the more carotenoids we have in our blood, the healthier we may be. However, we should consider the following cautionary advice: “Though unscrupulous marketers may use the carotenoid health index for selling dietary supplements, responsible scientists and food producers need to emphasize the use of foods and whole food products to improve [blood] carotenoid concentrations.”

Indeed, “[w]e can now see that giving supplements of [beta]-carotene was a misguided way to prevent cancer. Instead, researchers should have sought to determine which foods have the most convincing negative association with cancer” and then put those fruits and vegetables to the test in randomized controlled trials.

“‘Science’ tends to be reductionist, looking for discrete causes and effects. It is hard to get food studies past peer grant reviewers unless they take the food apart, which seems to us to miss the point.” “The key is to encourage consumers to increase the total amount to 9 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables” every day.

“The past 30 years have seen the development of an enormous body of evidence on the importance of plant-based foods in preventing or reducing the risk of chronic disease.” However, “despite broadly disseminated public information programs on how to eat healthily…it is extremely difficult to get people to change their diets.”

One proposed solution is to add back the health-promoting phytonutrients that are missing from many convenience foods. By eating more fruits and vegetables? No, silly, by genetically engineering phytonutrients into fast food.

People eat ketchup, not kale, so who needs greens when you can genetically engineer high-folate tomatoes? Why buy berries when you can make tomatoes purple by stitching in two genes from snapdragons to make transgenic tomatoes? Instead of soybean burgers, we can have soybean genes in the ketchup on our burgers. And you’ve heard of grape tomatoes? How about really grape tomatoes?

Pills are more profitable than plants, but when pills don’t work, industry will try patenting the produce itself.

8 Delicious Ways to Eat Less Salt

Most Americans eat far more than the recommended limit, but cutting back on salty food can be tough, especially if your palate has adjusted to a high-salt diet. Here are some ways to reduce the salt in your diet without sacrificing flavor.

Here in the U.S., we chronically oversalt our food. Whether we’re eating salty, processed foods or reaching for that salt shaker too often, all of that excess salt adds up. Too much salt makes us eat more and drink less water, and it puts us at risk for heart disease.

The recommended limit for salt is between 1500 mg and 2300 mg per day: between 3/4 and one teaspoon. The average American eats 3400 mg of salt per day, more than one-and-a-half times the highest recommended limit.

I cut way back on salt when I was pregnant to help ease pregnancy-related swelling. It was not easy at first, but over time I came up with a strategy and some tricks to make the transition more smooth. These are the things that helped me learn how to eat less salt.

1. Cut back gradually.

If you’ve been eating a lot of salt for a long period of time, your palate has likely adjusted. If you just cut the salt out of your food right away, it’s going to seem flavorless. Instead, try tapering the amount of salt you’re eating over a week or two until you reach your goals. 

2. Hide the salt shaker.

This is a great first step when you’re tapering. Try not salting your food once it’s prepared. Almost all recipes already call for salt in some form, and shaking on even more salt isn’t doing us any favors.

If you really don’t feel ready to do this right away, try limiting how much salt you shake on. If you usually do three shakes, see if you can get by with two for a few days, then one, then get that shaker out of there.

3. Choose low-sodium soy sauce.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to use soy sauce more than table salt to add sodium to my dishes. We don’t always think of soy sauce as salt, but if you’re trying to get down to 2300 mg or less per day, soy sauce can be a big contributor.

Low-sodium soy sauce has about one third less sodium than traditional. Just make sure you’re not adding more low-sodium soy sauce to your food. Like the salt shaker, don’t reach for the soy sauce after you food is plated.

4. Cut back on processed foods.

Processed food tends to be high in salt for two reasons. First of all, salt is a cheap way to make things taste delicious. Salt is also a good preservative. Cutting out all packaged foods isn’t realistic for everyone, though, and that’s okay!

When you do buy packaged food, look for ones marked low-sodium or reduce sodium. And don’t let front-of-package labeling fool you. Turn that bag of chips over and read the nutrition label to see what percentage of your daily sodium is in that bag.

5. Cook at home.

You don’t have to give up all take-out forever when you cut back on salt, but cooking at home definitely helps you control how much salt is on your food. Restaurants love salt, because salt makes food taste good without adding much cost to a dish. The good news is, you can make home-cooked meals taste good with less salt!

6. Reach for the herbs.

Salt enhances your food’s flavor, but you can also add flavor by adding more fresh or dried herbs to your dishes. Try upping the herbs and spices in your favorite recipes while cutting back on the added salt. You may find that you didn’t need that added sodium in the first place!

7. Drop some acid.

Into your bowl! A squeeze of lemon juice or dash of vinegar was one of my favorite ways to compensate for the “missing” salt when I started cutting back. Acidic foods like citrus add a similar bite to your dishes, no sodium needed.

8. Choose low- or no-sodium broth.

Broth is a major culprit when it comes to added salt, but it doesn’t have to be! One of my favorite tricks for keeping the flavor while cutting the salt in my soups was to use no-sodium broth cubes, but use twice as many cubes as the package called for.

You can also use broth to add flavor to your grains, beans and stews. Almost any time you see water in a savory recipe, you can sub no-sodium broth for a flavor boost. This is really just a cheater’s way to add more herbs without having to chop more herbs.

7 Ways To Avoid Gas from Beans

There are hundreds of varieties of legumes, and every one of them is good for your body in some way. Some of the varieties include peas, lentils, garbanzo bean/chickpeas and peanuts (yes, peanuts are a legume).

WHY EAT BEANS, PEAS, LENTILS AND PEANUTS?

• High in protein: 1/2 cup (4 ounces) of beans is equivalent to eating two ounces of lean protein. Nutritional guidelines recommend that most adults eat about 5 1/2 ounces of lean meat a day.
• High in fiber: ½ cup serving of cooked dry beans has 4 to 10 grams of fiber.
• Rich in complex carbohydrates.
• Good source of iron, zinc, calcium, selenium and folate.
• Rich in antioxidants.
• Low in fat.
• Provide a low glycemic index.

Research has shown that the legume family may help to reduce chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes mellitus, inflammatory diseases, osteoporosis, depression, obesity, cancer and stroke.

In some Eastern cultures, legumes are and were a basic dietary staple that can be traced back more than 20,000 years.

So why don’t we eat more beans? GAS is the short answer!

The jokes about gassy beans are just as common as the experience! The truth is beans do cause many people to have gas in the intestines for a very real reason.

Beans contain a triple sugar, stachyose; a quadruple sugar, raffinose; and a five sugar, verbascose that we cannot digest. We are missing an enzyme that is required to break down these sugars. When the beans get to the colon, the bacteria in the colon begins to ferment these sugars producing gas in the process.

If you gradually increase the amount of beans you eat over several weeks most people will overcome flatulence, provided you do a few simple things in terms of how you cook them and what combinations you eat. The benefit of eating more of these sugars in beans is that it promotes the growth of intestinal bacteria, and these bacteria create an environment in the colon that lowers the risk for cancer.

HOW TO DECREASE INTESTINAL GAS FROM BEANS, PEAS, & LENTILS

1. Learn how to cook beans: see my recipe. It is easy to cook beans but it requires planning ahead of time.

2. Eat lots of vegetables, particularly green ones, with your beans (75 percent of the meal should be vegetables).

3. Since beans are slow to digest, follow these guidelines:

• Eat fruit or sugar foods 2 – 3 hours away from a meal with beans.

• Only eat one protein in the same meal, as each protein requires a specific type and strength of digestive juices.

• Potatoes conflict with digestion of the beans–so avoid eating them in the same meal.

• Eat a whole grain with beans to compliment them.

4. In Japan and far East Asia they add a piece of seaweed (Kombu or Wakame) after the beans have been cooked as it makes the beans more digestible, more nutritious and tastes great! Read more about seaweed.

5. Use digestive spices: in India they cook ginger, turmeric and sometimes fennel and asafetida with beans to make them more digestible.

6. Chew and savor your beans! Digestion starts in the mouth. Savor bean soup in the mouth before swallowing to begin the process of digestion.

7. Start with mung beans, adzuki and dhal, as they are easy to digest because they are low in the complex sugars that are easily broken down by the human digestive enzymes. Even invalids can digest these ones. If you’re new to beans, start with a small amount and increase gradually by eating them once a week then twice a week, etc. Do keep up eating beans regularly so your system learns how to digest them.

Ways to include beans, peas and lentils to your diet:

• Add beans to your favorite vegetable soup or stew.
• Add beans to your salads.
• Instead of meat in chili and stews, add beans.
• Add beans to your favorite rice dishes.
• Consider making at least one day of the week a vegetarian day.
• Plan meals ahead for a week, adding beans to the daily menus.
• Try a new legume each week.

7 Benefits of Artichokes You Didn’t Know

Pop quiz: Which of these two foods has more fiber, oats or artichokes?

If you thought oats have the highest amount of fiber, you’re incorrect! Artichokes have more dietary fiber than any vegetable or grain. A medium-sized artichoke has 7 grams of fiber – 28 percent of daily recommended fiber.

But the benefits of artichokes don’t end there. Here are 7 reasons you should eat artichokes or take artichoke leaf extract.

1. Regulate cholesterol levels

Artichokes contain cynarin, an acid that increases bile production in the liver and consequently lowers cholesterol levels in the body.

It’s also worth noting that fiber helps remove bad cholesterol from the body. According to this study, cholesterol levels of participants who took artichoke leaf extract (ALE) for 12 weeks were reduced by 4.2 percent.

2. Improve your digestion

Artichokes will improve your digestion, thanks to fiber and cynarin. For one thing, cynarin eliminates bloating and helps relieve digestive pain.

Fiber improves bowel movement thus preventing constipation and gas. But for fiber to work, you have to be properly hydrated.

3. Improve liver function

Artichokes will improve liver health due to their strong antioxidant properties. In fact, they can lower risk of liver cancer. In this study, researchers found that artichokes slowed down activity of liver cancer cells.

4. Lower blood pressure

Artichokes contain potassium which helps offset the effects of high sodium intake. And as you may know, high sodium intake increases blood pressure. It’s also worth noting that potassium helps reduce water retention and bloating.

5. Fight free radicals

Did you know that a medium-sized artichoke contains 25 percent of daily recommended vitamin C? This vitamin has antioxidant action that stops free radicals from stressing and damaging your cells. Vitamin C also helps wounds heal fast and strengthens the immune function.

6. Lower risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia

Artichokes contain vitamin K. This vitamin is widely known for helping blood clot, but it can also improve brain function and consequently lower risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Vitamin K regulates calcium levels in the brain (and bones as well). Research shows that people with low levels of vitamin K have dysregulated calcium in the brain and this can cause Alzheimer’s.

7. Boost metabolic function

Artichokes will boost your metabolic function because they contain manganese. This nutrient is used in the metabolism of fatty acids, cholesterol and amino acids. Your body absorbs nutrients optimally when it gets enough manganese.

What’s the Best Sleep Position?

It makes sense that your sleep position can have an impact on your overall health, right? We’ve all woken up from time to time with a crick in our necks or a weird leg cramp, and it is no fun at all. Spending eight hours on your side or on your back puts pressure on nerves and muscles, and we can feel the effects of a wonky sleep position the next day.

 If you deal with chronic pain or conditions like acid reflux, your sleep position can have an even more powerful impact on your comfort. Finding the best sleep position can make the difference between restorative rest and a night of tossing and turning.

So, what’s the best sleep position? It depends. 

To alleviate back and shoulder pain, you can combine a beneficial sleep position with some strategic pillow placement to give your body extra support while you snooze. Pillows can help you sleep through bouts of acid reflux, too. And if foot pain is keeping you awake, just tucking your sheets more loosely can make a difference.

The graphic below looks at a handful of aches, pains and conditions that can keep us from getting a good night’s sleep along with tricks to overcome them. You can click the image to view a full-sized version, if you’re having trouble reading the small text. You can also scroll down for a summary of this infographic’s helpful sleeping tips.

NECK PAIN

Keep the neck in a neutral position. Avoid sleeping on the stomach. Too many pillows can put your neck in a bent position. Keep your pillow above your shoulders. Some experts suggest using a rolled up hand towel to support the neck.

OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA & SNORING

Sleep on your side or stomach to avoid impaired breathing. One way to keep from rolling onto your back is to sew a tennis ball into the back of your pajama top.

ACID REFLUX

Use pillows to elevate your head or use bricks to elevate the front legs of the bed. Otherwise, sleep on your side.

SHOULDER PAIN

Don’t sleep on the shoulder that causes you pain. Or, if you do, place a pillow next to you and place your arm over it—almost as if you’re hugging another person.

BACK PAIN

The best sleep position for back pain is generally on your back with a pillow under your knees or a rolled up towel under the small of your back.

On your side, put a pillow between your knees for extra support. This is also good for people with hip and knee problems. A fetal-like position can help with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Sleeping on your stomach can be hard on your back and neck. But if you must, put a pillow under your back and lower abdomen to relieve strain.

PLANTAR FASCIITIS

Plantar Faciitis is an inflammation of the tissue on the bottom of the foot caused by running or poor arch support. Keep your ankles and feet in a relaxed position. Avoid tucking in the sheets too tightly.

The Healthy Fat You Should Eat Daily. It fights cancer and diabetes

The deeper one looks into nutrition, the more complex it becomes.  Balancing the numerous priorities we are told we should have, such as eating foods that are high in antioxidant levels, they need to have the right fats in the right amounts, they need to provide us with energy but also help us recover from workouts, etc.  It is very hard to pinpoint the right foods to cover all these bases, however, there are a couple of basic principles you should ask yourself in order to determine if a particular food should be consumed; does it have a TV commercial and/or would my great-great grandmother recognize it?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, stay away!  If you apply this test to Lard, it passes!  But haven’t we all heard it’s bad?  The name itself sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen.  Why?  It’s a interesting story.  In the early 1900’s the major U.S. company Procter & Gamble was in the business of growing cotton… it was very profitable for them.  However, there was a bothersome by-product, cottonseed.  Procter & Gamble made the smart business decision to investigate if they could do anything with cottonseed to turn this by-product into a revenue stream.  They found that after intense processing they could extract an oil from the seed (it easily turned rancid and was a very unstable fat)… so they hydrogenated it and found that it now had a long shelf life and when it cooled it looked and acted like lard.  They decided to call it Crisco.  Unfortunately, Crisco is not lard but got lumped into it an became synonymous (very undeserved).

Lard is simply pig fat taken from any area of the pig that has a high concentration of fatty tissue.  Lard (in its natural form) has no trans fats, is high (50%) in mono-saturated fat and contains (40%) saturated fat.  Saturated fat was once the enemy of nutritionists, however, more recent study’s have turned that on its head with modern research pointing out that saturated fat (when combined with a low carb and sugar diet) can raise HDL cholesterol.  If cholesterol is still a concern of yours, the amount of cholesterol in lard should be put into perspective; lard contains about one third the amount of cholesterol as butter.  You would need to consume a whole cup of lard to equal the cholesterol from just one egg.

The below chart compares the level of Saturated fat, Mono-saturated fat and poly-saturated fat in Olive oil, Lard, Butter and Coconut oil.  You will notice that two of the most fashionable oils right now in nutrition are polar opposites. Olive oil is almost all saturated fat with almost no mono-saturated fat.  Conversely, Coconut oil is almost all mono-saturated fat with almost no saturated fat.  Lard is the only one to offer both of these healthy fats in moderation.

One of the biggest benefits of lard verses other oils is its high smoke point, creating lower levels of aldehydes (which are a concentration of chemicals that are produced when oil is heated up an starts to break down).  This high smoke point results in less free-radicals being consumed into our body.  Lard is also a good source of vitamin D, which about 42% of U.S. adults are deficient in.

One important thing to remember is how to identify real lard from the imitations: Lard that is solid a room temperature and/or does not need to be refrigerated DOES have trans fat and does NOT have vitamin D.

Most farmers who raise pigs can help you get lard, but if you don’t happen to live next to pig farm, lard is easy to make!  Ask your butcher for some back fat, leaf lard or simply use any pork bacon or pork belly, cut off the fat and render it by cooking it slow over the stove (very low temperature) or in a 250 degree oven for about 6-7 hours.  Strain and chill.  You now have lard!