Wicked Cool World of Organics - Edition 8 | Use Celsias.com

This week's dose of organic headlines, updates, resources, goodies, and recipes courtesy of Doug Snodgrass...

This is totally appropriate.

Hospitals adding fresh, organic food to the menu

The days of bland chicken, reconstituted potatoes, frozen peas and a side of syrupy, canned peaches appear to be coming to a close at a growing number of hospitals across the U.S.

Spurred by patient demand, concerns about setting a healthful example and a desire to make notoriously bad hospital food nutritious and appetizing, more hospitals are making strides in serving their patients fresh, organic and local produce alongside meats and dairy foods that are hormone- and antibiotic-free, as well as minimally processed.

[...]

"In the general population, people are becoming more conscious of what's in the food on their plate, where it came from and its overall impact from a financial, health and economic perspective," says Hagen-Flint, who is also on the board of directors of the Assn. of Healthcare Food Services.

But some of the changes are also prompted by a realization that hospitals can be a model of healthful eating, says Jamie Harvie, food coordinator for the Arlington, Va.-based advocacy group Health Care Without Harm. Some hospitals are eschewing antibiotic-treated meats over concerns that antibiotics given to livestock generate drug-resistant bacteria. Others are eliminating deep-fried foods and foods containing trans fats, which have been linked to heart disease.

I'm always happy to recommend anything that comes from the keyboard of the writer who goes by the name Asinus Asinum Fricat.

Organic Apples Beat Conventionally Produced Apples

Organically produced apples have a 15 per cent higher antioxidant capacity than conventionally produced apples, says a new study from Germany.

Findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry add to the on-going debate over whether organically grown produce is more nutritious than conventionally grown produce. A report published in March 2008 by the Organic Center at America's Organic Trade Association argued that organic produce is 25 per cent more nutritious than conventional foodstuffs. I guess they were right! Well, we knew that.

However (there's always a party pooper) these claims were countered by Joseph Rosen, emeritus professor at Rutgers University and scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) who said the data was selective, and that, when recalculated, the data used in the original report showed that conventional products are actually 2 per cent more nutritious than organic varieties. Stroke me with a wilted lettuce leaf! Are these guys for real? And how do they come up with such calculations? We might never know, they haven't explained.

Uh-oh, sounds like congressman grumble-buns was having a bad day.

Grassley On USDA Deputy Secretary: ‘Whatever Her Name Is, I Have Read Some Things’ That Concern Me

During a teleconference today with reporters, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), expressed "caution" about Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan. The Des Moines Register asked Grassley if he had any response to Obama's recent subcabinet appointments at the Agriculture Department. He responded by saying that he believed that most of the nominees where "well qualified" except for -- referring to Merrigan -- "the woman from Tufts":

GRASSLEY: I think everybody's well qualified to do what they're doing, and there's only one that I would raise a question about. And I probably shouldn't be raising a question except some things that I've read about where she's coming from, and I don't remember her name, but the woman from Tufts.

QUESTION: Kathleen Merrigan.

GRASSLEY: What's her name?

QUESTION: Kathleen Merrigan.

GRASSLEY: Yes. Whoever - whatever her name is, I've read some things that would make some caution -- cause me to be cautious about her, but I need to get acquainted with her because it's not fair just to read third-party points and know exactly where she's coming from.

Here's yet another argument in favor of organics.

Together, two common pesticides may increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease

A recent study conducted in California’s Central Valley found that people who lived near fields sprayed with a combination of pesticides used on crops such as potatoes, dry beans and tomatoes had an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease.

This is the first study to evaluate associations between exposure to a combination of pesticides and the risk of Parkinson’s disease.

These results add to the growing literature suggesting that exposure to multiple chemicals may be more harmful than exposure to individual chemicals and contribute to the debate of evaluating chemical safety one at a time rather than in combination.

The cause of Parkinson’s disease is still a mystery to scientists but reports of higher risks of this ailment in farmers and in rural populations have lead some to hypothesize that exposure to pesticide mixtures may be a contributor.

The scientists found that people who live within 500 meters of a field sprayed with the pesticides maneb and paraquat in combination, but not individually, had a 75 percent higher risk of Parkinson’s disease relative to controls. Being exposed to the mixture at a younger age resulted in an even higher risk. Individuals potentially exposed to these pesticides when they were 60 years old or younger were 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

In closing, and offered without comment;