Just a week before we heard about more food recalls and the continuing obesity crisis, the documentary “Food, Inc.” opened in the United States, warning us of those hazards and more from our current industrialized food system. The movie is now showing in select cities across the country. Readers of this blog already are in the know about many problems in our commercial food supply, but director Robert Kenner wanted to make a film that brought the subject to people who haven’t thought about the food they are eating and what we all can do about it.

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What they say about people burning out from writing a blog is true! It’s even more true when someone writes two blogs, writes a monthly magazine column, speaks, and nutritionally counsels and coaches clients. Because of that, I wanted to let you know about a few changes I have made to two of my services.

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Cutting back on purchases because of the recession? Most everyone is. But don’t neglect your health. Medications and doctor and hospital bills drain financial resources worse than virtually anything and certainly more than the small investment and preventive care of learning to eat right. When you spend a little upfront to learn the nutrition information and skills that will help you best, you end up reaping the reward of long-term good health and protection from the astounding costs associated with conventional medical care.

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Ready to take another step in eating for optimal health? Take the No GMO Challenge.

Five days ago, on April 22, Earth Day, co-sponsors Real Food Media and the Institute for Responsible Technology started a campaign urging consumers to take the No GMO Challenge to protect themselves from one of history’s greatest man-made health and environmental threats – genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It is a rolling challenge, meaning you can join at anytime. Begin by cleaning out your cupboard and make a 30-day commitment to eating as many non-GMO meals as possible. This challenge is particularly important for people who have switched to eating more corn after starting a gluten-free diet.

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SPECIAL REPORT

By Jeffrey M. Smith

If you eat lots of corn, be careful. Most US corn is genetically modified (GM), and most is engineered to produce its own toxic pesticide. When certain insects such as European corn borers take a bite, the toxin from the plant splits open their stomachs and kills them.

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Many people who begin eating gluten-free replace wheat products with corn products and are completely unaware that corn has several dark sides. Not only is corn a high-carbohydrate, high-glycemic food that packs on the pounds and elevates blood sugar and insulin levels, but most corn grown and eaten in the United States is genetically modified (GM), also called genetically engineered, which carries with it many potential health risks.

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When the most widely read magazine in America asks, “Should doctors be writing prescriptions for arugula salad?,” you know that progress is being made in spreading the word that diet is key in protecting us against disease and reducing health care costs.

In “How America Can Eat Better,” which was published this Sunday, Parade magazine explained that new efforts are under way to get people to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables to prevent obesity, heart disease and diabetes. For example, Kaiser Permanente has helped coordinate farmers’ markets at more than 30 hospital locations. At one of those farmer’s markets, a 53-year-old man started buying lots of fresh vegetables eight months ago. By emphasizing vegetables in his diet, he has now lost 63 pounds.

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On the first day of spring, first lady Michelle Obama planted seeds of change on the South Lawn of the White House. With the help of Washington D.C. elementary schoolchildren, she broke ground on a new organic White House “kitchen garden” that will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners as well as a nearby soup kitchen. But the garden’s most important role is to educate the public about healthful, locally grown fruits and vegetables to help prevent obesity and diabetes and save costs.

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Last week Natural Products Expo West, the country’s largest natural, organic, and healthy products trade show, was marked by gluten-free products at virtually every turn and an astounding array of new products sweetened with agave nectar. The trends toward more gluten-free and agave-sweetened products both sound like positive developments, but consumers need to beware of the unadvertised pitfalls of these foods.

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A follow-up to my previous post: Improvement in a wide range of health indicators was documented in nine sedentary, non-obese people with no known health problems who ate a grain-free, dairy-free, hunter-gatherer-type diet for ten days. These people were supposedly healthy to begin with, but they still, on average, saw these large improvements in health:

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