Are Organic Foods Healthier Than Conventional Foods?

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." - World Health Organization

Natural food in my opinion is a healthier choice. I will share with you why I feel eating natural food will provide better long term health benefits. When I say natural food, I mean food that is not man made. Natural food does not have chemicals, additives or growth hormones. Natural food is simply food grown organically the way nature intended.
Why are we experiencing so much sickness today, particularly in the western world? I strongly believe it is because of the lack of knowledge when it comes to proper nutrition and not incorporating natural and organic foods into our diet.
It seems as if the system is treating us like cattle, fattening us, then leading us to the slaughter. We are a society bred for disease solely to sustain the food and pharmaceutical conglomerates. If drug companies invented a cure for disease, they would be out of business. Realize that your body is a remarkable piece of machinery. It has the capability to heal itself. But upon the first sign of pain, we reach for a prescription or non-prescription drug.

This may provide temporary relief, but does not change the cause of the problem. This is why I choose to eat natural food and live an organic lifestyle. Let me give you another example.

Food manufacturers are pressed against time and have a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. They need to mass-produce large quantities of their fruits and vegetables. How do they do this? They grow their fruits and vegetables faster and in huge quantities with the aid of chemicals. So the fruits and vegetables you buy at your local supermarket are laced with toxic chemicals. Over time these toxins can make you sick. For this reason, it is better to eat natural food that is organically grown. Are organic foods healthier than conventional ones? I think you may say yes.

In the meat industry they also need to mass produce, so they feed their livestock chemicals and growth hormones, this way the animals grow bigger and faster. Could this be the reason our children are becoming obese at an earlier age? It is quite possible. The meat industry also uses sneaky tactics to trick consumers into thinking the meat is still fresh. You may have read recently about carbon monoxide being put into meat to keep that fresh rosy look. You can experiment by placing meat on your kitchen counter, leave it exposed for a few days and notice it will still have that "fresh" meat look. They add the carbon monoxide in small quantities through a procedure called "modified atmosphere packaging" and it's approved by the FDA.

This is not natural food and the practice is deceptive. Again are organic foods healthier than conventional ones? It would seem so.
It is important to get educated when it comes to health. Today with the internet and the information age, there is no excuse.

When it comes to our health, ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance can be hazardous to one's health. Have more control of your health and your diet.

Source: Samantha Fisher, http://www.organicfoodinfo.net/Are_organic_foods_healthier_than_conventional_foods.php

Meeting in Oristano - and Sarmale

The meeting in Oristano was an excellent opportunity to catch up with the latest achievements every member accomplished, concerning the activities in the project. The presentations sustained during the working sessions at Centro CREA showed that every member takes the project extremely serious, as it should.

Our host, Italy and Centro CREA amazed us with their hospitality and with a very well organized schedule that displayed a very interesting page of Oristano’s history, culture and traditions. We, the Romanian group, salute Oristano, every country member of the project and we salute Sa Sartiglia.

Sardinian cuisine impressed us with sophistication and good taste, now we are presenting a traditional Romanian recipe that is appreciate by all tasters.

SARMALE

Ingredients:
1 kg minced pork (or pork and beef, equal amounts)
110 g rice
3 bay leaves
2 dried onions (medium size)
two tablespoons oil
broth / tomato paste 100 grams
sauerkraut
pepper
salt (a tablespoon)
Preparation:
Choose fatty pork meat (leg, ribs, neck) and pass once through a meat grinder. Another option is to chop both pork and beef, in equal amounts. Ground meat is mixes with rice clean and wash in several waters, small diced onion, pepper, salt, bay leaves and chopped 100 ml of water. It is very important in filling the addition of water.
Cabbage leaves are cut into pieces and we select the pieces in which the meat can be packed easily. In the left hand is placed cabbage sheet, near the wrist sits less meat and cabbage we roll sheet whit right hand. Left hand clamp is tightened to leave the tube to open up the cabbage and the fingers of his right hand pressed to the inside edges of the cabbage and such forms sarmaua. Stuffed cabbage cook in large containers lined with cabbage leaves, which are disposed concentrically in layers in the spiral. Over the last layer of wire is put water (so as to cover the cabbage rolls), tomato paste and two tablespoons of lard. After they gave the first boil, boil the cabbage rolls are allowed to simmer for 2 hours. Optionally, two hours after cooking on the stove, stuffed cabbage can still leave 20 minutes in preheated oven to 180 degrees.

Zumba fitness - a trend reached Graz

Are you ready to dance yourself into shape?

The Zumba® programme was created in the 1990s by Colombian native Alberto "Beto" Perez, a celebrity fitness trainer and choreographer for international pop superstars. Inspired by the traditional cumbia, salsa, samba and merengue music he grew up with, Beto paired his favourite pulsating Latin rhythms with the red-hot international dance steps that his clients loved and created the Zumba® Fitness-Party.

Since Beto brought the Zumba® Fitness programme to the U.S. in 1999, it has become a huge fitness success, with people of all ages falling in love with its infectious music, easy-to-follow dance moves and body-beautifying benefits.

More information: http://www.zumba.com/ 

bit and its initiative fit@bit organize a course with 10 weekly sessions starting on March 20, 2012. 


 

as promised - some salads

One of our project topis is healthy food.

Well, in the last meeting in Oristano, Sardinia, we went ONE time to a pizzeria. Quite fair in Italy, hum?
As a picture of myself pretending to help baking pizzas got quite popular on Facebook I had promised to publish some salad recipies. Well - not really recipies, for this I would need to be professional and I am not, it's more a description of self-experience.
Once my wife helped, but two times it was just me!

Here we go:

We start with green salad, washed and picked in parts by hand.

Olive oil and some garlic give a nice base for shrimps.

And now all together with some (bought ready made) salad of celery. Delicious!

Number two: now me alone:

The salad is a combination of (okay, same package of bought ready made) celery salad, together with cleaned and cut pieces of two oranges and raisins.
The fish is a "Sarda", a blue fish, with lots of those Omegas. 3 or 6 of them. It got some slices of lemon into its belly before it went in the grill-pan.
The green side dish is cabbage, which entered a pan where I had roasted onions and garlic in olive oil, calmed down with some white wine (it's the one visible in the picture, in fact a "green wine" Quinta da Aveleda from the north of Portugal). I still had a piece of ginger, which I cut and added.
Well, this happens if the boy is alone at home :-)

And number three: A sign that I did not forget my Austrian origin, very simple, but really healthy and perhaps a little exotic for some of you: green salad with pumpkin seed oil from Styria.

Please have a look for this oil when you visit Austria, especially Styria (Graz is the capital of Styria). If you cannot come, please ask somebody to bring some of this very special oil. It's made of the seeds of pumpkin which are cleaned, roasted, and pressed to relieve their "green gold". (just one example without meaning it as advertisement or advice: http://www.pumpkinseedoil.cc/ )

Two practical advices:
- it might happen that your lips get a little green after enjoying this oil, don't forget to use your napkin ;-)
- if you get a spot of pumpkin seed oil to a piece of your clothes, washing will perhaps not help. But the spot will disappear if you let the piece of cloth in sunlight for a while.


Well, as you see I am not a professional cook (trying to use what I have, not providing real recipies, perhaps comitting big sins in cooking, etc.). I don't know, and - to be honest - I don't care too much :-)
I just try to cook some healthy things (and eat a pizza all 3 months) and I want to encourage you, dear reader, to try to cook some healthy things, too.

And - please - if you want to publish your creations here, please don't hesitate to ask me for a author's permission or send me the article (with at least one picture! :-) )

Project meeting in Oristano, Italy

Agne Banaitiene made a video presentation about the meeting in Italy mainly for their school in Lithuania.
Maybe you'll enjoy seeing it too! (please click on the image to start the video)

 

Tea time - Oristano

Rosemary and lemon tea

Boil the water and then add the fresh rosemary and lemon scoze for 7-8 minutes.Strain and add honey to sweeten.

ROSEMARY

Rosemary is a stimulant which helps in cases of general weakness and fatigue. It is employed to relieve stress from overwork, both physical and intellectual. It’s an antineuralgic and it also has antiseptic properties. It helps recover from flu and fever and soothes the respiratory tract in people suffering from asthma and cough. Futhermore it is beneficial to the digestive system, in fact it is a cholagogue (it helps the production of bile), a stomachic (it aids digestion) and a carminative (it relieves colic and helps bowel movements). Finally it helps bone problems such as rheumatism.

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Bay leaves and orange tea

Boil the water with the bay leaves and orange peel for 10 min. Strain and serve with honey to sweeten.

BAY LEAVES

Bay leaves are mostly used to flavor dishes such as stews, soups, roasts and fish, but also have many beneficial properties that make them even more useful. Its oil is useful for the treatment of the nervous system, rheumatism and sprains. Above all bay leaves are good for the stomach. They help digestion, alleviate pain, and they reinforce the walls and protect the gastric mucosa.

The intercultural understanding

I have always been expressing that the LLP project is the greatest gift to Europe and the European Union. It is a kind of medicine against racism and xenophobia when they are dramatically in the community. This video shows that an important adialogue and a good friendship among the different cultures. I hope our project will become a shining star of the city and the most recent example of this .. by Mustafa Can HİÇYILMAZ