Honey, not just for bears

I used to eat a lot of honey as a kid (explains why I’m so sweet! Ha!). My dad would buy a big 10 pound tub of wildflower honey every so often from the health food store. It would go on toast, in smoothies, and over yogurt. Ten pounds of honey seems like a lot (and it is) but my dad and I did our best to get through it!

While technically still a sugar, with nearly as many calories (21 cal vs 16 cal) and grams of carbs (6g vs. 4.2g) as table sugar, honey is far better for you than most any other sweetener.

From a chemical standpoint, honey is a monosaccharide, comprised of a single sugar molecule. Because of this, honey is easier to digest than sugar. Sugar is a disaccharide and starches are polysaccharides. These require additional splitting in order to be transported from the intestines into the bloodstream and can often create intestinal problems for those of us who are sensitive. Other monosaccharides are fruit, lactose free yogurt, and certain vegetables.

Even if you don’t have digestive concerns (unless you’re diabetic, battling a candida (yeast) problem, or on a low-carb diet to reduce your weight) I recommend eating more honey and less refined sugar for a number of reasons. (For sure we should all be eliminating artificial sweeteners, which are just simply poison.)

Honey is a natural product, offering enzymes and minerals that sugar cannot.  Sugar has gone through a refining process and is no longer natural. Honey is simply a more natural way to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Eating honey local to your area can benefit those with allergies. By eating honey produced by bees near where you live, you are building your immunity from local plants. A resource for finding local honey producers by state can be found here: www.honey.com. Other good sites are www.beeculture.com, and www.localharvest.org.

Certain types of honey, such as Manuka, have been shown to be more effective than antibiotics in the treatment of serious, hard-to-heal skin infections. The only types of honey you should ever attempt to use for wound care are Manuka honey or raw (unprocessed) honey. Conventional “Grade A” type honey found in most grocery stores may actually worsen infection and should never be applied to wounds. Clinical trials have found Manuka honey can effectively eradicate more than 250 clinical strains of bacteria.

Purchasing honey is also a great way to support beekeepers, who often struggle financially to make ends meet. While buying honey at your local market, Trader Joe’s or health food store is better than buying their sugar, go to your farmer’s market or neighborhood beekeeper directly and buy honey from them. They will be happy to let you taste the many varieties of honey they offer so you can decide which flavor you like best.

A few months ago I did just that. We were driving the back roads to a little mountain town northeast of San Diego called Julian for the weekend and came across a roadside shack selling local honey. They had some really interesting flavors: avocado, habanero, and cinnamon honey to name a few. I bought 2: desert sage, and cherry; cherry being particularly good over blueberries and whipped cream!

A few weekends ago we were in Ojai and our friends noticed a sign on the main street advertising a honey tasting nearby. Heavenly Honey offered samples of the 6-8 varieties they produce. I again bought the sage (it’s one of my favorites) and also this time a little darker honey variety than I usually get, Buckwheat, which was also really tasty. I tried it on my nutty pancakes I made last weekend and it was perfect.

But there are so many flavors to choose from. Another one I really love is orange blossom.

Embrace your inner bear and eat more honey, especially from beekeepers at your farmers market. You’ll be supporting our endangered bees and hard-working beekeepers by investing in Nature’s purest sweetener.

This recipe is particularly good when peaches are in season and we’ve got the grill on half the time anyway.

Grilled Peaches with Cinnamon Honey and Whipped Cream

One ripe peach per person, cut in half, seed removed
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream*

Turn on your grill to low.

Wash, dry and cut in half one ripe peach per person.

Melt some butter in a small saucepan, to which you’ll add a little honey and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Using a pastry brush, brush the entire surface of each peach half with a little coating of this mixture. Place the peach halves face down on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes until nice grill marks are achieved. Turn over, brush with a little more honey butter and cook another 5-8 minutes until the peaches are warm.

While the peaches are grilling, get out your Kitchen Aid mixer or hand held mixer and whip some fresh cream, sweetened with a little honey or a few drops of stevia, if you like.

Remove peaches from grill and serve alongside the whipped cream for a delicious, easy, summertime dessert.

* Alternatives to whipped cream or ice cream: ricotta cheese, mascarpone, chèvre, Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, or cream cheese. Any of those would be great with a little cinnamon, ginger,  and / or nutmeg, and of course sweetened with a little honey!

Eating Locally

We hear a lot about eating locally, but why should we do it?

Here are a few good reasons.

• Local food is fresher and tastes better. It hasn't been trucked or flown in from thousands of miles away. If you don't think there's a taste difference between lettuce wrapped in plastic for a few days and lettuce picked fresh that morning, with some of the dirt still on it, think again!
• Local foods are seasonal and taste better.  We have become used to seeing foods at the supermarket that wouldn't ordinarily be there because they aren't in season where we live. Usually these items come from the other hemisphere where they are enjoying the opposite season, so the foods are in season THERE, not here. Why not wait until next summer when we yearn again for the sweet taste of apricots or nectarines? They will taste even better if we wait. (You've heard the saying: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder").
• Local foods have less environmental impact. Look for farmers who follow organic, or at least, sustainable growing practices and energy use to minimize the food's environmental impact. And again, trucking or flying it in from somewhere else is an enormous waste of fossil fuel. With current gas prices, think what this will do to the price of food! Eat from your local farmer!
• Local foods preserve green space and farmland. Isn't it lovely to see some bits and pieces of agriculture in between the cities where you live? Help support that. Green is beautiful!
• Local foods promote food safety. The fewer steps between your food's source and your table, the less chance there is of contamination. Most of those e.coli outbreaks were from mega-food producers, not the little guys.
• Local foods support your local economy. I'd rather hand over my hard-earned dollars to my  local farmers instead of some food corporation in another city, state or country.
• Local foods promote variety. Corporations are only interested in growing what can withstand a long truck haul with minimal bruising and damage. The local grower cares about variety. My local fruit guys sell at least 8 different kinds of plums in the summer, each one unique in color and flavor. You're not going to see that at the supermarket.
• Local foods create community. Knowing where your food is from connects you to the people who raise and grow it. At the farmer's market you can usually look the farmer in the eye and get to know him or her. You don't get that at the supermarket either.

Am I down on supermarkets? You betcha.

For a great list of how to eat locally, check out this link.

Where I shop and why

I think it’s important to consider where we shop for foods. I choose stores by the quality of the products they carry and determine if they are worthy of my visit. That may sound snobbish, but if you’re interested in not only your health, but in supporting businesses that are committed to carrying quality food, I think it makes a difference where you shop.

My favorite places are Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, Mother’s Market and my local farmer’s market. You may have noticed that I didn’t list a single supermarket chain. That’s for good reason. I rarely shop at one, simply because I don’t want to support the consumption of the vast majority of what is stocked on their shelves: highly processed foods, foods that contain genetically modified ingredients (estimates put that at 70% of what you find at supermarkets), preservatives, chemical additives and sugar in its various forms in addition to things with unpronounceable ingredients, high fructose corn syrup, food dyes, and artificial sweeteners.

Even if you, like many health experts tell us to, shop along the perimeter of the store, where you find produce, dairy and meat (purportedly the healthiest and least processed foods) and avoid the center aisles, you’ve made some improvement. But those foods are questionable as well, given the pesticides on conventionally grown produce and hormones in most conventionally produced meat and dairy. Though a few supermarkets (like Pavilions) carry a line of organic foods and have a small “health food” section, most of those foods are totally overpriced. These can be found much more reasonably at the health food store, so what’s the point in shopping there?

Trader Joe’s celebrates 45 years this week and it’s come a long way since its early beginnings when it was mostly a wine and cheese shop. The store has evolved - you can now buy a good selection of produce, and a wider range of meats, many of them organic or naturally raised and without hormones. Lately, gluten-free options have been on the rise. The manager of my local store said Trader Joe’s is against genetically-modified products so none of their products contain them and for this I applaud them. Plus, I find their prices are great, so I buy a ton of stuff from them. They also welcome emails from customers and take comments and suggestions very seriously, often bringing back items that might have been discontinued because people miss them.

Sprouts is another great store, offering a few things that TJ’s doesn’t, namely a meat department and sandwich counter, a vitamin and cosmetic department, and a bulk section where you can buy nuts and seeds, granola, grains, beans and snacks. Bulk items can be a good value, and require a lot less packaging. Sprouts has weekly specials that run Wednesday-Tuesday and sometimes great deals can be had. Unfortunately, I find their organic produce section to be lacking but they are expanding it, hopefully due to consumer demand. What I like best is that I can get freshly made sausages that they make themselves without any artificial ingredients. Since they have a butcher on site, I can also get bones and other meaty things for my dog. They are also very happy to order items for you and call you when they come in.

Mother’s Market is a chain of 7 health food stores in my area. Their staff is knowledgeable and helpful and many of the faces I’ve seen over the years are still there, and that says something about a store. Mother’s offers a smaller, family-run, shopping experience than what you’d find at a huge (although fabulous) store such as Whole Foods. While WF is awesome, it’s expensive and frankly my smaller health food store has what I need. I can find all my supplements and natural cosmetics there, and can enjoy their deli, juice bar and restaurant in addition to all the healthy stuff you’d normally find. Several of the stores offer informational seminars from nutritionists and health professionals on a variety of subjects from time to time.

And though I list it last, I think it’s actually the most important, and that is my local farmer’s market. This is the only place you can look the grower directly in the eye. You don’t get that at a supermarket. The people selling you their wares are happy to discuss them with you. If you don’t know how to prepare (or even pronounce) a vegetable, you can ask them. I love this direct contact with the people who are responsible for growing the food I eat and I believe in supporting them. Farmers are some of the hardest working people there are and they don’t get enough credit for what they do. Some markets have even gone beyond the usual produce and bring in vendors that sell everything from local honey, farm-fresh eggs, meat and fish, and bread, to pita and hummus and even tea. The larger markets often have food trucks where you can catch lunch, or crafts people selling knitted caps and embroidered things, jewelry, etc. Some markets hire musicians to entertain, and others even let you bring your dog (but check this carefully. Most do not allow them)!

So that’s where I shop and why. I encourage you to look at where you shop and why and realize the importance of your choices. Do your stores support the beliefs you have in taking care of your health? If there are tons of things at your market that are full of crap and don’t support health, why are you still shopping there? We have an incredible amount of power in how we spend our dollars. Where we shop, and what we buy, makes a difference.

Farmer's Markets

Today I visited my local farmer's market looking for fruit. Naturally, I ended up with much more than that, which inevitably happens when I go. It started innocently enough: "Oh, I need onions". Then, "Wow, look at those green beans". Then, "Mmmh, that squash is unusual - think I'll try it". Pretty soon I had two canvas shopping bags brimming with all sorts of stuff. What can I say: farmer's markets are intoxicating to me. I can't pass up fresh vegetables - I am addicted to them - so it's good that there is a farmer's market nearly every day of the week somewhere in my county.

I highly recommend seeking one out and going on a regular basis if you're not already doing so. Not only will  you support your local growers, who are being squeezed by corporate farming in this country, but you are more likely to eat "locally", which means that your food has not travelled great distances to get to you, adding to pollution and our dependence on fossil fuel.

Supermarkets might be convenient, but there are downsides. They are not typically buying the majority of their produce locally and since they have so many stores and buy in such volume, imagine all the trucking going on! Fortunately there are more signs up in the produce departments of the supermarkets I've visited that say "Grown Locally", but it's usually a small section, not the bulk of what they have out, which means that what they're buying has been shipped from all over.

So, why does so much produce come from areas that are not local to us? We aren't we eating what's in season where we live? I think there's something exciting about anxiously awaiting a fruit to come back into season. For instance, when I went on Sunday I was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of all the stone fruit: plums and nectarines for example (which ended up in my bag). And I personally don't want pumpkins at any time other than in the fall. I can wait!

Another reason to love farmer's markets is that many of the farmers, though they may not have received organic certification, do not use pesticides and toxic chemicals. Just ask.

Lastly, the supermarket is simply not as fun as going to the farmer's market. There you are, outside in the fresh air and sunshine, meeting the growers, asking them questions about their produce, like how to prepare something you haven't tried before. That's what intrigues me the most about farmer's markets: feeling a personal connection with the people that are growing the food I eat.  You're not gonna get THAT from your supermarket!

For a list of Farmer's Markets in Southern California, I've included a link for you to find one. http://www.farmernet.com/events/cfms. For Orange County, try this: http://orange.cfbf.com/cfm.htm.

So, get out there and buy something fresh, preferably organic and in season, local to your area, support your regional farmers, and most of all, have fun!

For the recipe of the Green Bean and Fingerling Potato recipe I created from the well, green beans and fingerling potatoes I bought at the farmer's market on Sunday, click on the Recipes page. Let me know if you prepared it and how you liked it.