Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I knew it!

Over the course of the past year, I've been replacing white sugar with honey or maple syrup whenever possible, partly because sugar's not local and partly because of that diet I've been on.

When my partner invited me to try some Stevia, I protested saying I don't want food to taste sweet, I want it to be sweet. It turns out that my body and subconscious might have known something that my conscious mind did not. According to a study at Purdue University, when the tongues tastes sweet, the body is looking for the caloric reward and may compensate by eating even more to make up for the input mismatch.

Wooo hooo! One for food. Zero for edible food-like substances.

Makes you wonder about the other deconstructed/reformulated ingredients on any given label.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Raw Milk

I finally tried raw milk. I read a few articles, like How Raw Milk Got a Bad Rap, The Raw Deal (Washington Post) and What is Real Milk? According to this last reference:

Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.

In my 100 mile radius, raw milk is legal in Connecticut, New York, Massachussets, and Vermont. It is not legal in New Jersey or Rhode Island.

I decided that the health benefits were significant enough if I mitigated the risks. All articles agree: know where your raw milk is comes from. I got mine at Holbrook Farms, a reseller I trust. They get raw milk from Deerfield Farm in Durham, CT.

I understand that Caraluzzi Market in Bethel, CT will begin carrying Deerfield's raw milk in addition to raw milk from Grassy Hill Dairy in Woodbury, CT.

I'm not much of a milk drinker--you generally won't find me pouring a tall glass of ice cold milk. I do however take milk in my coffee and on my cereal. Pasteurization occurs at 161 degrees F for 15-20 seconds. My coffee is 160 from the machine and drops instantly to 105 when I add the milk (from the refrigerator). I don't know if I'm killing my raw milk in my coffee, but I am fairly certain that I'm not doing any worse than I would be with the pasteurized kind.