Tag: <span>fresh food</span>

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What Does Organic Mean?

Agricultural products that are naturally grown and processed are termed as organic foods. The organic crops, in general, are grown without the use of chemicals, synthetic pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, bioengineered genes or sewage sludge-based fertilizers. Even when it comes to dairy products, meat or eggs, the livestock will be given access to organic feed. Antibiotics, by-products, and growth hormones are rigidly not encouraged.

Why Choose Organic?

A maze of foods labeled organic will claim to be beneficial but is it really so? Does the popularity of organic food outweigh the advantages? If you’ve ever wondered about what is essentially good for your physical and mental health, you’re on the right path. Organically grown foods often contain more nutrients in the form of antioxidants and prevent or reduce allergies when compared to conventionally grown counterparts. It is free of harmful chemicals, contains more taste and sustainable sustenance while being a great choice for personal and planetary well-being.

Why Is It Important?

Organic foods contain fewer chemicals and pesticides but consumption of organically grown food is one of the ways to avoid the chemically intoxicated foods in the current market. Over 600 active chemicals are registered with heavy pesticide exposure that can contribute to serious ailments, impairments, malfunctions and neurological issues. Organic meat and dairy contain synthetic hormones that have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. Alternatively, due to zero pesticide levels, the fertilization techniques are less likely to cause toxic heavy metals that usually accumulate in the kidneys and liver.

Advantages of Organic Food

• Organic products such as meat and milk contain 50% of omega-3 fatty acids which is a type of unsaturated healthy fat that does not increase the overall calories.
• Sustainable practices for growing crops yield foods with more nutrients including minerals, vitamins, micro-nutrients, and enzymes.
• Organic foods grown in a well-balanced soil automatically taste better than conventionally grown crops.
• No synthetic hormones or antibiotics are fed to livestock making organic foods intrinsically safer to consume.
• Organic products have higher antioxidant content and pose no risk of harmful pesticides or other potentially harmful chemicals.
• They contain essential nutrients as soon as they are harvested and must be consumed relatively quickly
• Lower risk of water or soil contamination brings a positive effect on human well-being as well as the environment.
• Organic foods cannot be altered from the point of their DNA in order to be pesticide free or produce insecticides. It is free of (GMO) genetically modified organisms or in other words genetically engineered
• Organic farming plays a positive role in the environment as it reduces pollution and soil erosion, increases the soil fertility, conserves water and uses less energy

It is hard to overlook the problems arising from toxic exposures of conventionally grown foods. The wake of factors such as birth defects, obesity, learning disabilities and water pollution is stimulating a valuable change for delivering organic labels to the market. The growth in this dynamic sector can be contributed to protecting the environment and stabilizing health living.

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Source by Daisy Bell

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There are a variety of factors that affect our eating habits.

Our food preferences begin when we are children, so our food choices are governed by our experiences with the food served to us by our parents – and how are parents (typically the mother) prepared that food, and how much they knew – and incorporated into the menu – about nutrition and health. (And once we started school, the food preferences of our parents were also overlaid with what was on the menu in the school cafeteria!) The influences of our peers at that young age can also not be denied.

Our food choices are also controlled by our personal preferences as far as flavor and texture are concerned, as well as our lifestyle, our health, and of course the economic factor.

Another factor affecting our eating habits is education. Typically, the more people know about nutrition, the more careful they are about what they eat.

One’s knowledge about nutrition may do little good, however, if one doesn’t have the money to purchase healthy food. Pre-packaged and frozen foods are typically less expensive than fresh food, and so are purchased most often by those who have neither the money nor the time to prepare daily meals themselves. (On the other hand, businesspeople who have to travel also have a hard time getting fresh cooked, healthy meals, as they dine out in restaurants on a regular basis, and may consume more alcohol than is healthy during social rituals.)

Our eating habits may be constrained by our health. Individuals with diabetes, for example, must follow a certain regimen regarding sweets, whereas people with heart problems need to avoid salt. (Those individuals who do not follow their dietary regimens generally don’t live to regret it.)

Other factors include the convenience of food – stopping in at a fast food restaurant is so much easier and quicker than spending an hour or so cooking dinner, one’s sense of taste (adding salt to make food taste better can also add too much salt to the diet), and of course ever-present advertising on television or passing billboards that stimulate the appetite.

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Source by Zari Alipour

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Having a barbecue is indeed a lot of fun – it’s a time to spend quality time with family and friends while enjoying god food fresh off the grill. But the best part is that eating grilled food is actually beneficial to your health!

Cooking food on the grill is healthier compared to food cooked using an oven or a stove. Find out why – here are the top 5 health benefits of grilling your food:

Vegetables retain more vitamins and minerals

Vegetables, especially those that have a low water content, retain more of their vitamins and minerals when cooked over a fire on a grill. Also, during a barbecue, the vegetables you cook are usually fresh and in season, which is better than the canned variety.

Just be sure to wrap the produce in tin foil or use a grate so that they remain moist and don’t burn to a crisp, drying them out.

Meats retain more nutrients

Just like fresh produce, any type of meat cooked over hot coals also retains most of their moisture and nutrients. Meat cooked over fire helps preserve their riboflavin and thiamine content, both of which play an essential role in a healthy diet.

You use less oil or butter

In frying or cooking using an oven, we use oil or butter to help keep the food moist while exposed to heat. And because food cooked using a grill locks in more moisture, you’ll less likely add oil or use butter and other condiments to cook your food. This not only means that you lower the number of calories of the dish but you also put less unhealthy stuff in your body.

You consume less fat

Think about cooking a fatty piece of meat – one on the grill and one on the pan. Excess fat drips off the grates when you grill, but in a pan, the fat has nowhere to go and is eventually re-absorbed by the meat.

You get fresh air

Everybody knows that getting sunshine and fresh air have plenty of benefits for the body. The simple act of spending time outside, even just in your backyard, will do you good. The fact that you’re outside, especially with friends or family, encourages physical activity – a lot of parents toss a ball or play games with their kids while working the grill.

Keep in mind these top 5 health benefits of grilling the next time you can’t decide what to cook for dinner!

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Source by Adrian T. Cheng

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When I originally left Australia to work on one of Fiji’s iconic island resorts, I thought I’d be here for no more than 12 months. Train the locals, install new menus, sample the local cuisine and move on to the next assignment – probably to a more food-oriented Asia, as Fiji has never been known as a culinary hotspot. I really did not intend on getting so absorbed by an ancient culture or be so fascinated by their fresh foods and wild diet. We have plenty of world-class produce back home in Australia, but I quickly learned that Fiji’s culinary delights were unlike anything we have seen in Western kitchens for many decades. The local produce is majority organic, has not been genetically-modified, and the fresh food tastes like it used to in years gone by for people living outside Fiji. Fijian’s are surrounded by this abundance of unadulterated food fresh from the sea, the land and its rivers. Its mineral-enriched soil from its volcanic landscape provides for fertile ground that is the envy of the world, and with minimal commercial fishing, its oceans still provide an abundance of wild fish for both the local market.

The other incredible contrast with the West is that there is virtually no food allergies here in Fiji. Unlike the growing health epidemic across the world, most Fijians can eat everything and anything. The native Fijians are descendants of a different lineage of hominoids to Caucasians, and so their unique genome excludes the key genes that trigger Coeliac Disease and other food related allergies, caused in part by the genetic and synthetic changes in the food chain. So it was with little wonder that when I arrived in Fiji, most of the local cooks had no understanding of why tourists ask for gluten-free meals. And beware of MSG, or monosodium glutamate in your Fijian food. Banned in most countries because of its link to asthma and breathing difficulties, MSG is affectionately called “Chinese Salt” here, and used by the handfuls by local cooks to enhance flavour. I am highly sensitive to MSG, but the Fijian heavy handedness with MSG is quite common as their traditional cooking lacks the use of herbs or infusions to create depth of flavour.

I have been very fortunate to gain a cultural experience beyond what many tourists or foreign workers in this country are able to realise. The Paramount Chief of the Mamanuca Group of Islands, the home to many of Fiji’s top island resorts, has seconded me as his cultural ambassador to educate tourists on his ancestral traditions and history, and to share modern experiences with his people. Not since the pre-colonial days of Fiji has a foreigner become so close to a Fijian chief, and for that I am eternally humbled and grateful, as it has allowed me to understand and capture the essence of their food and culture in my modern interpretations of their cuisine. Watching how the women in the villages prepare their tradition foods, with recipes passed for generations, is like experiencing an ancient culture right before my eyes. But the recipes are basic and limited. Without the same level of food history, culinary influence or exposure to food in the media as other cultures, Fijian cuisine has essentially remained unchanged for many decades.

Through my weekly food column in the country’s biggest selling newspaper, I’ve had the unique opportunity to teach a nation new ways to cook their local produce at home. I recently returned from a Fijian Food Safari of the outer islands, visiting villages in the middle of dense rainforests and on distant islands, and was shocked they would even know or care who I was. “You’re that chef in the newspaper! We cut your stories and recipes out every Sunday!”. So how gratifying and personally rewarding it is for me to share my knowledge with a people who have taught me about humanity, respect and how to be happy.

Whilst traditional Fijian cuisine in the villages is simple, it is refreshingly organic and fresh. The humble coconut, or the Tree of Life as it is known throughout the South Pacific, is dominant across Fijian dishes. Coconut oil is squeezed out from grated coconuts and infused with water to produce a creamy milk that cannot be compared to tinned coconut milk. Lolo, or coconut milk, is used as a poaching liquid, salad dressings and in a lot of Fijian desserts. It is the basis of miti, an accompaniment to fish, chicken and vegetables, with onions, tomatoes, chilli, lemon and salt added to create a silky coconut salsa. On my Food Safari tour of Savusavu in Fiji’s north, I adapted the miti for a new Kokoda salad I was serving for a VIP dinner presentation. Kokoda is the classic Fijian salad of citrus-cured walu mackerel mixed with miti, and similar to a ceviche. I wanted to use the sweet slipper lobsters and clamshells I bought from the local market, and so added freshly squeezed wild ginger and local oranges to the miti to give the dish a subtle heat and citrus tones. The local cook had never seen this done, and when her eyes lit up after trying it, I knew I had kept the essence of the dish without destroying tradition. But another classic Fijian fish dish recipe I have not changed is Ika Vakalolo, pan fried fish poached in miti. The flavours and balance in this tradition dish are perfect for me, and it is a dish loved by young and old in every Fijian home and roadside cafe.

Many foreign chefs make the mistake of trying to reinvent Fijian food, but there is nothing wrong with the culinary wheel here. The basic flavours and techniques are there, you simply have to add some shine and flair without losing the essence of the dish. The challenge for Fiji’s resorts is to balance the expectation of a good steak or seafood platter, with the adventurous palate of the gourmet traveller who is looking for a culinary experience of the culture as well. Fiji is on the precipice of embracing food tourism, but tourists don’t necessarily want the same food they can get back at home. Singapore has its signature chilli crab, Hong Kong has its dim sum and Europe is steeped in the classics, but with more advanced training of the local cooks, Fiji can one day hold its own in the region as a culinary hotspot for organic, tropical island cuisine.

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Source by Lance Seeto

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While most people know about Thermos, when they think about that brand they think about the beverage containers that people use to carry around hot coffee and keep it fresh. These are great products, but Thermos has many other useful products in their lineup as well, and right at the top of that list is the Thermos food jar, which provides many benefits.

You’ll quickly find for yourself that a Thermos food jar has near endless possibilities in terms of how it can be used. Below, you’ll see some of the specific benefits and usages of the product, and you’ll probably want to pounce on getting one so you can start taking advantage of what they have to offer too.

No matter where you’re going, a Thermos food jar can be used to bring your food with you on the go. That means you can pack up your child’s lunch for school, or you can bring your own lunch to work, or even a meal or snack as you’re doing errands all day and running around. A thermos food jar makes use of a double layered, vacuum insulation design, and this provides top notch temperature retention. Translated into easier language, that means your food stays fresh and ready to go no matter what it is and no matter when you plan on enjoying it later.

For cold foods, you’ll find that these jars can maintain that fresh, chilled temperature for up to 7 hours. They can do this without even having condensation on the outside of the container. But a Thermos food jar isn’t just for cold foods, it’s also for hot foods. That means any meal that you can have at home you can have on the go, and nothing is out of range. Plus, you won’t need to worry about heating things up later and needing a microwave or anything else. Just get your food ready, pack it up and it can stay piping hot and fresh for up to 5 hours, ready to eat as you please.

Clearly, these are useful and beneficial products that anyone can make use of. On top of all of the above, they also are lightweight and small in stature, making them simple to carry with you anywhere without hassle or stress. Not only that, but many Thermos food jar designs have wide mouth openings, which mean that you can eat directly from them without any extra dishes or plates to pack up and then clean up later. Plus, they come in many different styles, sizes and even shapes, ensuring that you can find one that’s a perfect match no matter what you’re looking for.

The Thermos food jar is a wonderfully convenient product and it’s filled with benefits and advantages. Ultimately, you’ll be able to enjoy tasty, delicious and fresh food all day long in ways that were never possible before, and that will make things much more simple and enjoyable for you and your family.

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Source by Thomas Wilder

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If you are on a tight budget, finding healthy foods at the grocery store may seem like a challenge, but there are healthy and economical choices in every aisle of the store. As tempting as all that junk food out there may sound, it really can be cheaper to eat food prepared at home. And with a little imagination and experimenting with herbs and spices in the kitchen, it will taste better as well. The first key to healthier eating is to have more healthy foods available to eat at home. So stop going to the drive-through and don’t buy any more pre-packaged, over processed foods that you probably have in your kitchen now. Get yourself organized by creating a meal plan and a grocery list for the foods you need to prepare those meals. The next step is to go to your local grocery store and start buying whole foods that you can prepare at home with whatever kitchen resources you have there.

Increasing your consumption of whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables, will actually make your food selections in general much simpler. If the foods you are chosing contain more than 5 ingredients and include a lot of unfamiliar, unpronounceable items, you may want to reconsider buying them. Counting calories, carbs, or fat grams won’t be as necessary when you select foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry. Finding healthy foods to eat at the grocery store is pretty simple. They are found in the “fresh food” sections like the produce and refrigerated meat and fish departments. The frozen and dry aisles also contain good healthy foods, although there are many unhealthy distractions there as well.

Healthy foods you should have available at home to cook with include whole foods (food in its most natural state), fruits and vegetables, dairy products (low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese and eggs), seafood, lean cuts of pork, beef and chicken, naturally sweetened whole juices and lots of water.

The kind of foods to avoid include refined grains (white flour or white rice), refined white sugar, any form of corn syrup and anything out of a box that contains more than 5 ingredients.

Making the switch to eating healthy food does require a change in mindset, along with some imagination and preparation. It will help to make a weekly meal plan, and from that a good, organized grocery list to take to the store with you. This will help keep you focused and cut down on the number of trips you make to the grocery store.

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Source by Blake Bowie

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Nowadays, everyone is trying to lose weight. A common complaint is that it is too expensive to keep fruits and vegetables at your house. The shelf life is so short that the product often goes bad before you get a chance to eat it. Then you have to throw it away and buy new stuff, but it’s discouraging and can often feel like throwing away money. Most people just head to the junk food aisle and settle on unhealthy snacks that promote weight gain and heart problems instead of learning ways to preserve the healthy, fresh food.

So how can you preserve those ‘farmers market’ foods so that you can keep them on hand for a healthy lifestyle? One popular method is ‘canning’. Canning food is a great way to keep your products for a long time, neatly organized in your food cabinet. There are two ways to can: The boiling water method and the pressure canning method. Both are safe, and the method used will depend on what food you’re canning. Low acid foods can be preserved by pressure cooking because of their pH levels (under 4.6). Higher acid foods (about 4.6), need to be preserved using the boiling water method. Here’s where it gets tricky. If you have a food that is close to a 4.6 pH level, you will need to add acid to it. The reason high acid foods can be preserved simply by using the boiling water method, is because they have enough acid so that Clostridium botulinum spores can not grow their harmful, often deadly, toxin. Foods like tomato and figs need extra acid so that the shelf life can sustain an environment without harmful growth on the food.

I’ve found citric acid to be the best additive to prevent bacteria growth, both in canning and simple preservation of fruits, vegetables and other foods. Whether or not you prefer to can is irrelevant. That is just one of the ways to keep your food fresher, for longer. If you are just looking to add days to the shelf life of your fruits or vegetables, you can add the citric acid directly, not needing any special type of processing or cans to keep the food fresh.

Many stores and websites sell citric acid to the average consumer. Oftentimes it is packaged under the name ‘sour salt’. It can come packaged looking like a spice in a shake container, or by the bag. Some companies sell it by the pound, so you can get the biggest bang for your buck. Buying by the pound will save you money and allow you to use it for various things. Do your research and you will find citric acid has multiple benefits, far beyond food preservation.

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Source by Daniel Pellegrino

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It is estimated that over 33 million households have a vegetable garden in their yard 2 million more grow at a friend, neighbors, or relatives. There are also 1 million households that grow in a community garden plot. That is a lot of vegetables being grown. The number one reason given by most vegetable gardeners is they grow for taste, followed by saving money, better quality food, and finally safety of the food. There seems to be a direct correlation between economic health of the nation and the number of households growing vegetables at home. When the economy is bad it is estimated that there are 20% more households growing vegetable gardens. This is not surprising as the average backyard garden costs about $80.00 to put in and returns a little over $500.00 in produce better than 5 times the cost.

Food gardening is a huge business and is one of the biggest outdoor activities of most Americans. Gardening in general is consider the number one leisure time activity. So it is no wonder that so many people are enjoying the fruits of their gardening activity. On average the typical home vegetable gardener has been growing their own vegetables for 12 years. It is an activity that seems to continue long term and for good reason, especially if you have ever tasted a ripe red tomato just off the vine on a summer afternoon.

If you have been thinking about starting a vegetable garden of your own it is really not too difficult and will pay you back many times over for the amount of effort you will need to put into it. On average the typical home gardener spends about 5 hours a week tending the family vegetable plot. Considering the number of people that spend at least this amount of time everyday watching television, you can see this is not a big drain on your leisure time.

The average size vegetable garden is 20 feet by 10 feet and can produce enough fresh vegetables to supply a household with 6 months of fresh vegetables. If you can or preserve some of your produce you can even stretch the amount of produce to 8 or 9 months. The best part is that you know where this food is coming from and that it is safe from chemicals and pesticides. As an added benefit you are helping to reduce the amount of pollution and greenhouse gas produced by transporting the food you would buy at the local store that would have been transported fro more than 500 miles away.

These are just some of the facts about growing your own but it is interesting to see how many Americans are actually involved in producing their own fresh food for themselves and their families.

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Source by Glenn Bronner

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The modern U.S. army has a wide array of food products available to them in base camps and in the field. There are a large number of MREs (which are actually quite tasty) and other portable foods available to them when on missions and when stationed in hostile terrain. And when posted at an established base camp, the food that is prepared is also quite good. A large part of this is of course the ready availability of large quantities of any sort of food imaginable in today’s modern environment. In fact, today’s soldiers have the best food ever made available to a fighting force.

But it wasn’t always that way.

Take the Civil War. Civil War food kept the soldiers fed and not much else. Lets take a look at the diet that comprised the typical Civil War food ration. There were several issues that affected the food that was supplied to the Civil War soldiers. These include the organization of the Commissary Department – which was tasked with the acquisition and distribution of food to the soldiers in the field, the season which determined if fresh food was available or if it was preserved in some way and the ability of the food to stay good for long term storage and transportation.

Prior to the war, the concentration of Commissaries was in the North so when the Civil War began, the North had a great advantage as they already had an existing Commissary Department that was already trained in how to acquire and transport food to soldiers in the field. Their job was to work with the troop numbers and schedules and keep a constant supply of foods going to each area where troops were stationed so that the soldiers could keep on fighting without worrying about where their next meal would be coming from. It took the Confederacy several years to develop a working Commissary so being a soldier of the South was more difficult. It required real dedication to be fighting when you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from. Because of this lack of infrastructure, the South had to do a lot of foraging for food between battles until the supply lines were up and operational.

Civil War soldier food was typically very simple fare – often consisting of meat, coffee, sugar and hardtack – a type of dried biscuit. The meat was often salted or dried so it would last a bit longer and fruits and vegetables were rarities on the battlefield. Because the soldiers were often in the field, they needed to carry rations with them. They had a special bag – called a haversack – which was made of canvas with an inner cloth bag that could be washed to get food debris cleaned out once in a while. But even with this design, the bags were often quite contaminated and foul smelling. Cleanliness was typically not high on the Civil War soldiers priority list.

Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers typically had a different mix of rations. A Union soldier might have salt pork, fresh or salted beef, coffee, sugar, salt, vinegar, dried fruit and vegetables. And if it was in season, they might have fresh carrots, onions, turnips and potatoes. A Confederate soldier typically had bacon, corn meal, tea, sugar, molasses and the very occasional fresh vegetable.

The other difference in Civil War food between the Union and Confederate armies was the type of bread product they had available to them. Confederate soldiers had something called “Johnnie Cake” that they made in the field from cornmeal, milk and a few other ingredients. The Union soldiers had hardtack, also referred to as “tooth dullers” or “sheet iron crackers”. Hardtack was manufactured in large factories in the North and was a staple food for the Union soldiers. Hardtack got its name because it was often not used until months after it was made and during that time, it hardened rock solid which is how it got its nicknames.

As you can see, food has come a long way due to the advent of technologies that allow for better preservation of a wide variety of foods. Gone are the days of weevil infested hardtack. They have been replaced with modern vacuum seal technologies that allow foods to stay fresh and tasty years after they have been packages. And since they say an army is run by its stomach, it is no surprise that the modern soldier is the best the world has ever seen.

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Source by Steven Chabotte

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As catering food service provider you have all the knowledge of these various attributes to be considered while listing a good menu. You have the list of all the cuisines and culinary skills to tweak all kind food to the sensitive palate.

As a provider of the basic need of children you have to meet their nutritional demands and should have motivating taste to developing liking for the dishes you prepare with all skill endowed and developed over time of serving their needs. But even then today food wastage is a major issue and you still have the challenge to continue meeting their basic demands by narrowing the gap.

We have nutritionist in most schools who have a well laid out recipes to cater to the growing physical needs of children and make them understand the importance of taking a balanced food without developing to fetishes or addiction of foods that can only taste well but in turn contribute nothing to their metal or physical growth, or in turn become harmful in the long run in developing a balanced health in the initial stages of their life.

Healthy food habits like any other habits are best developed in the early stages of childhood rather than any other stage of life. Children who develop tastes for food at early stages retain these habits for their lifetime. Also, little change or tweaking for healthy food is possible at later stages of life to set them right and keep you healthy and life full of vigour which a compelling requirement for your development in the other areas of life.

School lunch programs in New Jersey have gathered greater importance from the objective of developing healthy future citizens who understand the nutritious food to be taken and developing tastes for that kind of healthy food rather than that which only satisfies their tastes of their sensitive tongue.

Most school lunch programs in NJ are catered through the contract food service provider who has the requisite expertise to meet the school children healthy needs and can subscribe to the nutritional list provided by school nutritionist and the management and tweak everything within the stipulated budgets. The food service provider should be able to provide the grub within all his means to meet all these demands and also ensure the palate satisfies the children’s taste and provide them with the required nutrition.

But catering food service providers like Karsons Foods serving within all these boundaries do not overlook the opportunity to develop new tastes for the age group which will relish something novel and sumptuous to eat if there is a new dish entirely different which can help them enjoy. Similar to accepting new ideas this age group would like to try and experiment and take pride in something novel even if they are simple and can provide them with the requisite nutrients of health. Simple foods are much liked if they are prepared well and served on time is a belief at Karson foods http://www.karsonfoods.com/index.html.

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Source by John Smith