by guest blogger Robyn Jasko. If you’ve never had fresh fermented sauerkraut, you are really missing out. Unlike the cooked sauerkraut you get at the grocery store, which is soft and mushy, raw fermented sauerkraut has a crunchy bite that tastes delicious and is filled with probiotics, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and digestive enzymes that work to break down your food, supporting the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
Love & Family
Light and Fluffy Banana Cake
I’ve been making banana muffins for years (aka “happy cakes”) but have been craving a good banana cake that is light and slathered in butter cream icing (NOT cream cheese icing! There is a time and place for that, but it is way overdone, if you ask me—kind of like balsamic vinegar). And since it was my birthday recently, I thought I would make it myself. And it was so good!
Romantic Fantasies We Love to Hate
by guest blogger Maya Rodale. Valentine’s Day. Pop Songs. Romantic Comedies. Romance Novels. The message they often send is that it’s not enough to be in luuuurrrve, you’ve got to be Crazy In Love, which can put a lot of pressure on a couple. I asked some of my romance-writing friends about some of the worst things we all tend to celebrate in our romantic fantasies (whether on page, speaker, or screen). But are they really so bad?
5 Food Myths Debunked
by guest blogger, Nathanael Johnson. I grew up in a nature-worshipping, somewhat hippie family, and with my book, All Natural, I attempted to fact-check our idea that instead of protecting ourselves against nature with technology, people are healthier when they embrace nature. In nearly every case, I found that the answers I got when I asked, “Is nature healthier?” always depended on the way I asked the question. With the caveat that it’s possible to produce different sorts of answers, as well, here are 5 food myths debunked.
When I Was a Kid…
All parents find themselves repeatedly, incessantly, and annoyingly at some point saying to their kids, “When I was a kid…[this or that].” Since I have three kids spread so far apart in age, I’m always a bit surprised when I realize I haven’t told one of them something about when I was a kid. And with the little one, who knows what I’ll remember about those times once she’s a teenager! So here is my list of all those annoying statements so that my kids can read them over and over again (and so I can remember them later on).
Dissecting Our Health
by guest blogger Coach Mark Smallwood. The end of 2012 saw some quiet and some not-so-quiet snubs aimed at organic foods. The Stanford study, the American Academy of Pediatrics statement, Dr. Oz… All these messages claimed to be focused on “health” and whether or not certain foods help or hinder our progress toward this mystical perfection for which we are all supposed to strive. It’s time for the organic community to put the skeptics to rest once and for all!
One Small Sign of Society’s Unraveling
by guest blogger Renee James. When someone studies early 21st-century life to try to pinpoint exactly when society started to unravel, I have no doubt they’ll identify the small-appliance department in Bed Bath and Beyond, and single-cup coffeemakers. Exhibit A. Coffee used to be communal. It meant friendship, family, a kitchen table conversation.
The Bizarre Insanity of Banning Bottled Water
You may have seen the news on Facebook or heard the stories on NPR: Concord, Massachusetts, has banned bottled water, and certain “liberal” colleges in Vermont have banned it, too. I blame it on Al Gore, who spent most of his media attention after the huge success of Inconvenient Truth blaming bottled water (and incandescent lightbulbs) for our climate problems. Not GMOs, which he helped make possible. But bottled water—the ONLY healthy cold drink available for sale….
Scratch
Raised on America’s first organic farm, Scratch author Maria Rodale learned how to make everyday favorites from, yes, scratch — the way you remember them; the way they turn out best.
Order NowOrganic Manifesto
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment.
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