Organic-that's Greek to me!

Organic. 100% organic. Made with organic ingredients. Cage free. Hormone free. Happy cows. Thanks for further complicating my life, food industry. Just when I finally got a grip on health care reform and now there is whole new slew of food jargon for me to figure out.

Not to worry. Super Nutrition Student is here to save your confusing grocery trip with a break down on the lingo; but before I do, I would like to point out that there has been NO evidence to support the fact that organic foods are any better for us than the stuff grown the old-fashioned way. And by old-fashioned, I mean using genetically modified seeds to grow crops protected by toxic pesticides picked before maturity, then gassed and transported to the grocery store which is usually thosuands of miles away.

"Organic" does not mean better for you. What it does mean is that the farming practices used are within a certain set of standards outlined by the USDA. Amongst other things, the crops cannot be grown on soil that has been treated with pesticides in the last 3 years, water is recycled, crops are rotated, no conventional fertilizers, pesticides, biotechnology or irradiation is used. As stated by the National Organic Standards Board “Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony". Animals raised on an organic farm can have no antibiotic residue either. If the animal gets sick and needs them, they must be treated but then the animal is no longer organic. Sound strict? It is. It's also expensive, which is why we end up paying more for organic food at the consumer level. I'll save my advice on which foods you should actually buy organic for the next post on this subject, but suffice to say it's my opinion you don't need everything organic.

So back to those terms.... Now that we've defined what organic means, let's define how the food industry is using the term to grab our grocery dollars.

Organic fruits and vegetables: Grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or sewage sludge and have not been genetically engineered or irradiated.

Organic beef and chicken: animals were not the offspring of cloned animals. They were fed 100% organic feed, never given growth hormones, antibiotics or other drugs and meat was never irradiated.

Organic milk: for the last 12 months, these animals had 100% organic feed and were not given antibiotics or growth hormones.

Organic eggs: hens had 100% organic feed and never had growth hormones or antibiotics.
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Organic seafood/fish: Ha! doesn't exist. USDA hasn't defined it.

Cage-free eggs: hens were not confined to cages. Doesn't necessarily mean organic and doesn't necessarily mean they had access to the outdoors.

Free-range/free-roaming poultry: had access to outdoors for but who knows for how long. Free range could mean they went outside for 30 seconds.

Cage free poultry: doesn't mean a thing, most chickens are grown indoors but outside of a cage, at least until they get caged up before their beheading.

No hormones administered: means and animal was raised without hormones- not to be confused with hormone FREE-which is illegal-all animals produce their own hormones!

No antibiotics added:animals were raised without antibiotics.

Natural or all-natural: these should contain no artificial ingredients and are minimally processed. This term is almost impossible to define.

Access to outdoors: organic animals are all supposed to have it but the rules on this are pretty vague and many people charge that big organic operations aren't allowing their animals enough time outside.

100% organic:all ingredients are completely organic (except salt and water, which are exempt)

Organic:95% of ingredients are organic

Made with organic ingredients: at least 70% of ingredients are organic

So there yo have it. Muddy organic waters cleared a bit, I hope.

Vitamin D, not just your average vitamin.

Hello there! Man does it feel good to be done with finals! My hard work paid off and now I am figuring out how to piece back together my broken friendships that I neglected for the last four months and attempt to enter back into the world of current events. I've heard something about an oil spill??....

Anyway, one of my favorite topics we covered recently in class was vitamins. Vitamins (and minerals) are micro nutrients for our bodies meaning we need them in far less quantities than we need macro nutrients-carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water. Vitamins are-for the most part-not made in our bodies. An exception to this are Vitamin K, Vitamin A, niacin, biotin and wonderful, wonderful vitamin D.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that means unlike water soluble vitamins (which get peed out in high quantities) this guy gets stored in our liver. The Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) for vitamin D is about 200 IUs a day. You can find this stuff in things like fish liver, fatty fish (salmon), eggs, butter, fortified milk and margarine. Pretty much everyone knows you can get vitamin D from the sun, well acutally you make vitamin D from UV light which triggers a series of reactions below the skin and Vitamin D is synthesized. We need vitamin D to help maintain calcium levels in our bodies and also to absorb calcium. What some people don't know about vitamin D is that is has also been investigated lately-with some strong scientific evidence, I may add-that says vitamin D may also prevent some types of cancer.

Now there are a few different theories on how vitamin D actually does this (and I quite honestly don't fully understand all of them) but it does appear to play a role in cancer prevention. One theory indicates that a hormone called calcitriol (the active form of vitamin D) gets produced by macrophages. A quick immunology note here-macrophages are the "pac-mans" of our immune system which eat up all the bad guys in our bodies. Since macrophages produce calcitriol, it got some attention. It looks like vitamin D might kick our immune system into high gear and also inhibit production of those nasty inflammatory agents which have been known to cause cancer. I'm oversimplifying all this, of course, but I should mention there is some astounding evidence-and lots of it-to support this notion. Well I had better correct myself, perhaps not this exact theory, but the fact that vitamin D does indeed help prevent cancer. In a particularly convincing presentation, evidence suggested that higher levels of vitamin D were effective in preventing colorectal, renal and breast cancer-especially breast cancer. The studies which were presented showed that the higher a person's level of serum calcium was, the lower their risk for cancer. Even more interesting was a series of studies which showed that high serum levels also actually helped cancer patients remain cancer free for longer. The best results were for those that had high levels of calcium AND vitamin D. The studies also showed that in all cases where patients had cancer and did not remain cancer free, vitamin D levels were low.

Vitamin D has also been reported to have a role in regulating blood pressure and preventing autoimmune disorders (Crohn's, MS, Type 1 diabetes). Now I know it seems pretty crazy that with the DRI being just 200 IUs that you could reap all these amazing benefits. That is because at these levels, you probably will not. The fact is, the current DRI is way too low. An article I read at the hospital recently-which was taken down before I could get the citation information for it so you will just have to take my word for this-said vitamin D was actually the vitamin found to be the most inadequate in people. They attribute this in part to the increased use of sunscreen but most people in the nutrition field agree, vitamin D requirements need some updating.

As I mentioned earlier, fat soluble vitamins get stored, which makes them potentially toxic. Vitamin D has been said to be highly toxic BUT that claim has come under quite a bit of scrutiny as well. It's beginning to look like it may not be as toxic as we thought and the fact that it can be stored can work to the benefit of those choosing to supplement since it can be stored for a week you can take a week's worth in a day. A fellow student does this with the oral supplement drops and claims this works for her, which doesn't necessarily mean it will work for everyone. An RD in my class says she recommends about 75 IU/per kg/per day. To give you an idea of how much that is, for my body weight (which will remain anonymous-sort of) that would be 3,750 IUs a day-18 times the current DRI! This may be a tad extreme, but you get the idea that the current DRI is pretty ridiculous and professionals in the field are comfortable with recommending quite a bit more than that.

How much vitamin D is safe and effective for cancer prevention will probably be in debate for awhile and I am in no way pretending to understand the complex processes behind vitamin D's obvious beneficial mechanisms, however, I will say the current DRI is entirely too low. About 15 minutes of unsuncreened sun love a day is supposed to be adequate but for those of you not living in San Diego or for some elderly folks, supplementation appears to be quite safe and possibly extremely beneficial even for those able to get daily dose from food and sun.

Drowning...

In a 20 page manuscript due tomorrow, finals and group projects. Stay tuned I've been compiling all sorts of neato stuff! Check back!