The Ugly Truth About Food

Written by Karen Walker


At any grocery store in North America right now, there are shoppers cruisingrepparttar isles, making thoughtful choices about their family's nutrition. Armed withrepparttar 113076 latest information about health, choosing foods high in nutrition is a primary goal. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully one shops, there is often little nutrition inrepparttar 113077 foods we consume. In fact, it is nearly impossible to consume adequate nutrients through diet alone in our modern world.

What causes our foods to be devoid of nutrition? There are many causes, primarily modern farming, storage, and preservation methods of food. Let's take a look at why this happens.

First, it is widely acknowledged that soils in North America have been depleted of many nutrients sincerepparttar 113078 1930's due to loss of topsoil and reliance on chemical fertilizers. Farmers replacerepparttar 113079 nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus depleted by agriculture in order to achieve optimum plant growth. However, little attention is paid to replacing trace minerals lost in soils.

Consumer demand for attractive produce also plays a role. This demand has resulted in plant breeding for appearance and storage longevity, ignoring nutritional quality. Fruits and vegetables are often picked inrepparttar 113080 green stage, ripening in transit torepparttar 113081 store. Again, this preventsrepparttar 113082 production of nutrients which often occurs inrepparttar 113083 ripening stage while onrepparttar 113084 plant itself. One example of this is seen in fruits, whererepparttar 113085 cartenoid levels increase as fruit ripens naturally.

Produce now travels an average of 1500-2000 miles from farm to market, often in refrigerated trucks. There have been few studies done onrepparttar 113086 effects of storage on produce, especially inrepparttar 113087 area of overall phytonutrient levels. However, what we do know is most fresh vegetables steadily loose nutrients when stored in cold, dark conditions. Some types of produce are more vulnerable to these losses than others, losing fifty percent or more of phytonutrients in as little as five days storage.

Food preservation methods often play a role in nutrient depletion. When properly blanched prior to freezing, most-but not all-foods retain more nutrition when frozen as compared to canning methods. Interestingly,repparttar 113088 container used in canning also makes a difference. Foods preserved in cans often retain more nutrients than those in glass or plastic containers as many nutrients are depleted by exposure to light.

Cookie Baking Tips

Written by Michael Paetzold


Making better cookies is a lot easier if you understandrepparttar difference betweenrepparttar 113075 average commercial bakery andrepparttar 113076 home kitchen. These tips should allow you to make better cookies at home whether it be for a special party or your annual Christmas cookie baking session.

There are 4 major things that are done commercially that are overlooked by repparttar 113077 average home baker.

Number 1 is thatrepparttar 113078 average home baker does not have a stone oven. Most commercial bakeries have stone shelves and that dispersesrepparttar 113079 heat torepparttar 113080 pan in a much more even manner. Obviously, buying a commercial oven for this alone is not feasible for most of us. (I have considered putting a commercial pizza oven in my laundry room but my better half vetoed that idea :-(. Thus I settled for going out and buying an oven stone for our regular electric oven. This servesrepparttar 113081 same purpose with no loss of space in our laundry room and at a huge savings versusrepparttar 113082 price of a commercial pizza oven (evenrepparttar 113083 used one I wanted).

The second thing isrepparttar 113084 thickness and quality ofrepparttar 113085 cookie sheet. The average commercial facility uses a sheet pan or half sheet pan which is probably 2 to 3 times as heavy asrepparttar 113086 ones used byrepparttar 113087 average home baker. This likerepparttar 113088 oven stone dispersesrepparttar 113089 heat much better and makes it much easier forrepparttar 113090 cookies to bake evenly. I definitely recommend checking out your local restaurant supply house to get some half sheet pans which will definitely be better thanrepparttar 113091 cookie sheet available at your local supermarket or Walmart.

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