Welcome to Summer and your May edition of Healthy and Loving It! This issue delves into the True Cost of Food and how to eat healthy despite the tough economy. Also learn how to overcome emotional cravings and get our newest recipe - a healthy Chocolate Shake! We have some great testimonials below - send us yours next!

Healthy Blessings, Cindy and Jo

In this Edition

1. Wondering if you can afford organic? Find Out!
2. Emotional Cravings: How to Cope
3. A Healthy Chocolate Shake!
4. What's the Best Blender?
5. Your Testimonials!

Can You Afford the True Cost of Food?

It’s a common tempation to save money on food by shopping at discount outlets and searching for the cheapest option. The rising price of gas, food and other necessities is taking its toll on strained budgets. However, does sacrificing the quality of your food truly cost less? What is the true cost of shopping for conventional, “cheap” food?

In our modern economy, the way food is produced and eaten creates huge costs that are not reflected in your food bill. These costs include real dollars spent on subsidies and environmental cleanup paid through your taxes, as well as the hidden costs of damage to the environment and declining health.

You may be astounded to see what your food really costs! In the Sierra Club video “The True Cost of Food,” a family shopping at “Buy-it-All-Mart” is whisked away to uncover the true cost of items in their cart. A pound of conventional steak comes to $815! This price, based on factory farm practices, is broken down by the cost of oil, water, wasted feed, destroyed grasslands and pollution. A single conventional tomato costs $374 with a breakdown that includes pesticides, water pollution, and topsoil loss.

If this is the true cost, how do we manage to put food on the table? Federal farm subsidies account for most of the formula. The government spends 14 billion dollars per year offsetting the cost of farming. One might think this is intended for small family farms, but it’s not. More than 65 percent goes to the top 10 percent largest farms. The bottom half collect two percent, amounting to $266 per year for a small farm. Hardly enough to make a dent in the financial burden of keeping a family farm in business.

This tax funded support for large corporate farms is responsible for the dramatic decline in family farms. Today, seven percent of American farms provide over 72 percent of our food. This means food must be transported from centralized farms to the processing plants and retail outlets. Even “fresh” produce travels an average of 2,000 miles from farm to fork, often spending a week in a refrigerated truck. The nutritional quality of produce begins to deteriorate the moment it is picked.

So what about nutritional and environmental costs? One billion pounds of pesticides are now used per year and agricultural runoff is the number one pollutant of rivers today, killing entire ecosystems and contaminating groundwater.

The really sad truth is that the pesticides are no longer working. Chemical-immune pests wind up taking more and more of the crops as we increase pesticide use. In the 1930s, before pesticides, we lost 30 percent of the world’s wheat crop to pests. Today, after dumping 2.5 million tons of pesticides per year on wheat, the loss to pests is 37 percent. These chemicals kill the “bad bugs” and the “good bugs” leaving the soil lifeless, barren and infertile.

But the pesticides aren’t just killing bugs and destroying soil. They are killing humans too. Cancer rates linked to pesticide exposure are rising, especially in children and in areas near factory farms. Pesticides, antibiotics and hormones enter our water and food supplies, contributing to a wide range of modern health issues like birth defects, autism, ADD, and resistance to antibiotics. The processed foods in our modern diet are also contributing to childhood and adult obesity and diabetes. Because of the “cheap” food many modern people eat, we have become a society that is undernourished, overweight and spends exorbitant amounts of money on health care.

But there is hope. The organic food market is growing by 25 percent a year, even in this economy! Surprisingly, many people are choosing NOT to sacrifice healthy eating even when the budget gets tight. A recent Time magazine cover story featured a couple who embarked on a one month experiment to eat only local, organic, sustainable foods using a food stamp budget of $248. Read more here - they showed it can be done!

Buying organic whole foods may seem more expense at first. But think about how your detox plan will save you money on the things you will NOT eat. Isn’t it funny how people can look at a fat sugary pastry in the bakery for $2.50 and think “good deal” then look at a fresh, organic peach for $2 and saying “oh, that’s expensive!” Choosing simple food made by nature is often less expensive in the moment and always less expensive in the long run.

You can easily create your own Whole Body Detox Diet Plan that fits within your family budget by making discerning choices and focusing on fresh, unprocessed foods. Whole grains, vegetables and beans are among the least expensive items in any grocery store and make up the bulk of a healthy diet. These simple organic foods will significantly reduce the hidden costs of your food in terms of taxes, petroleum depedency, environmental destruction, medical expenses and your long term health.

Special Detox Tip: How to Deal with the Feelings When you BreakUp with Old Food Habits

As reliable as these comfort foods seem, they eventually will let you down by causing poor health and uncomfortable symptoms. This is when the hard choices need to be made. Whether it’s ordering out pizza, ice cream in front of the TV, or peanut butter toast before bed, it can be hard to let go of these old habits.

Replacing these rituals with fresh, new, invigorating ones is the key to a successful separation. Create new friendships with wholesome, detox foods and find new non-food ways to nourish and comfort yourself. To meet up with potential new comfort buddies, create a Nourishment Menu.

How to Make a Nourishment Menu: Write out a list of healthy alternatives to your habitual food treats. How about taking a walk, soaking in the tub, talking to a friend, playing music or reading a special book? What are the activities that truly nourish your mind, body and soul? What are some new food habits that are healthy and uplifting? Is it making green smoothies, buckwheat pancakes or wholesome granola bars? Aim for at least 10-20 fresh ideas.

Keep this list handy or post it where you’ll see it at the critical moment (how about on the refrigerator?). Then use it when you are feeling deprived or tempted to indulge in a not-so-healthy habit. With practice and much forgiveness when you falter, these new ways of nourishing yourself will slowly become so much MORE nourishing than old habits. Eventually you will naturally reach for your new comfort buddies first!

Featured Recipe: Chocolate Shake!

Click here for our Chocolate Shake recipe!

What's the Best Blender?

The Vita-Mix 5200 is the blender that we have grown to love and depend on. Regular blenders just can't keep up with the demand of all these healthy recipes. They burn out, time and time again. The Vita-Mix 5200 is endowed with 2 peak HP power, lifetime durability and superior performance. Its special design breaks open the cell walls in raw food for optimal nutrition and creates rich, creamy textures no other blender can even come close to!

We've learned this blender lesson the hard way. Years of struggling with inferior blenders has meant wasting lots of money to replace them when they blow. We know better now and we're excited to share that knowledge with you.

We have recently partnered with Vita-Mix to offer you Free Shipping when you purchase your machine directly from Vita-Mix using our link. Click through any Vita-Mix link on our site or in our newsletter to receive free shipping or use this coupon code when you purchase from them online or by phone (coupon code: 06-004146).

Click here for details on guided detox programs with Jo!

“Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have." ~Norman Vincent Peale

Your Testimonies

"Thanks so much for posting these great recipes. I am now on an allergy elimination diet and these are perfect!!!!" Cathy A., Colorado Springs, Colorado

“Just to thank you for your great contribution to mankind and being there for people like us...God bless!!!” Nayana, Mumbai, India

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