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Monday Mornings with Claire: Fieldstone Granary
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
I am going to be embarking on a series of blogs that focuses on the local producers that we have in our area. Each spring and summer we are so lucky to have fresh, delicious, local produce coming right from our backyard. To celebrate this, I will focus on one local producer each week. To kick things off, I am starting with Fieldstone Granary, British Columbia’s only certified organic grain handling facility, located in Armstrong. Fieldstone’s mandate is “to provide wholesome, accessible, organic whole grain products and services for consumers and businesses alike.” What began as a local cooperative started by Tony Van Den Tillart and Willem Roell has now joined forces with local growers to become a group of individuals determined to grow additive free, non GMO, organic crops and produce and prepare them for market. Fieldstone is committed to reconnecting the bond between the land, its yield, and the people who depend on both. As strong supporters of local based business, the people behind Fieldstone decided that all grains must be grown exclusively in Western Canada, and preferably British Columbia.
They are constantly sourcing rare ancient grains and seeds to add to their already expansive list of products. Fieldstone takes in the grains, seeds, and legumes for cleaning, de-hulling,...
Monday Mornings with Claire: The Superbug
Monday Mornings with Claire
The Superbug: Antibiotics, and Natural Alternatives.
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
I read an article today about the lack of new antibiotic creation in Canada and the United States. Apparently we are in great danger of contracting bacterial infections due to the growing strength of superbugs and without new antibiotics there may be many lives lost as a result. According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, only two new antibiotics have been created since 2009. My thought on this is that the overuse of antibiotics led to the creation of the superbug in the first place, so will the manufacture of even more drugs really solve the problem? Not only have antibiotics been overused for treating human conditions, but they have also been widely misused in farming for reducing the number of bacterial infections in animals. As a result we have found ourselves with bacteria that are now super resistant to any type of drug that we throw at them. A recent study conducted by the United States government found that doctors in the US are prescribing enough antibiotics to treat 4 out of 5 Americans each year. Although its true that antibiotics have proven to be successful at treating a number of ailments in the past, it is the recent over prescribing of these...
Monday Mornings with Claire: Mouth Feel, Maximum Bite Force, and Sensory Specific Satiety: Food Industry Methods to Keep Us Coming Back For More
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
It’s no secret that refined foods are bad for us. The same is true for excessive salt, sugar, and fat. Regular consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugars is linked to obesity and diabetes, and eating too much salt and fat is linked to heart disease, stroke, and cardiac arrest. Since we know the dangers, one might wonder why we are still tempted to consume large amounts of these foods. It may be because the food industry is silently manipulating us to consume more and more. Food industry scientists are toiling away to determine the exact ratio of salt, fat, and sugar that will trigger a craving response in our bodies. Its not as simple as adding an extra teaspoon of salt to a recipe, or an extra dollop of butter, it is a complex science that is aimed to ensure that consumers continue to want more and more and more. Food industry experts use regression analysis, math techniques, and advanced science to determine the exact combination of ingredients that will keep you craving more. More is the operative word in this case, as the more consumers eat, the more they will crave, and the more products they will buy, which along with lining the pockets of large food companies, also...
Monday Mornings with Claire: Dentist uncovers Sugar Industry’s Secrets
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
I read a very interesting story on CBC this morning about a dentist who has dedicated a significant amount of time to exposing how the sugar industry has used tactics similar to those used by Big Tobacco in efforts to manipulate media coverage and health reports. Cristin Couzens first began to question the sugar industry’s motives at a dental conference where a key speaker indicated that sugary drinks may actually be a healthy choice for those with diabetes or gum disease. Her disbelief caused her to begin her research, which consisted of searching library documents for over 15 months. She finally found her break at the Colorado State University library – a swath of cofidnetial documents detailing how the sugar industry’s public relations representatives would handle confilict of interest with the press. The documents also described industry lobby efforts to support scientific research, silence critical reports, and block dietary guidelines for sugar intake. Couzens also discovered documentation of the sugar industry’s board of directors, which included members of prestigious universities like Harvard, Yale, and M.I.T, all of whom received sugar industry money. Funds for the public relations campaigns and for funding scientific research came from large companies like Coca-Cola, Hershey, General Foods, General Mills, and Nabisco, all of which would...
Monday Mornings with Claire: L-Carnitine in the news
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
It’s come to my attention that there has been some recent negative press surrounding L-carnitine, an amino acid present in red meat. A study was published in a prestigious medical journal, Nature Medicine, which discussed a possible link between l-carnitine and cardiovascular disease. The research was undertaken to show that long term ingestion of l-carnitine shifts the metabolism of cholesterol and causes more cholesterol to be deposited on artery walls rather than being removed from the body. The study’s researcher, Dr. Stanley Hazen, head of preventative cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, recommended people reduce the amount of red meat consumed on a daily basis, and reconsider supplementing with l-carnitine.
Obviously this type of research is of extreme importance to everyone here at Nature’s Fare, so we contacted one of our suppliers to get a second opinion. They agreed that the study thoroughly showed that higher levels of TMAO are linked to cardiovascular disease, (by the way, TMAO is a compound that is formed from the digestion of certain nutrients, including l-carnitine). That being said, there have been opposing studies and clinical trials that have shown l-carnitine to be extremely efficient in a number of areas, including:
- Increased survival after heart failure
- Increase exercise tolerance for those patients with angina
- Increased conditioning...
Monday Mornings with Claire: Globe and Mail Article Links Low Melatonin Levels to Type 2 Diabetes
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
My dad sent me an interesting article today from the Globe and Mail that investigates the link between type 2 diabetes and low melatonin levels. For anyone that has tried melatonin, you know that it is a naturally secreted hormone that regulates our bodies’ sleep cycles. Personally, I love melatonin. It is a great option for me when I am lying awake at night, silently obsessing about something and feeling sleep slip further and further away. Natrol makes my favorite melatonin because not only does it shut off my mind and helps me sleep quickly, it tastes like delicious berries and cream. But I digress…
The study was published on Tuesday in the journal of the American Medical Association and was based on the findings of women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study. The Study is an ongoing project dedicated to identify different factors that influence overall health. Within the group of participants was a subset of 370 people who developed type 2 diabetes. To serve as a control group, the facilitators of the study also selected 370 people who did not have type 2 diabetes. Both groups were of the same age, race, and gender. Each night the researchers collected urine samples from both groups to determine how much melatonin...
Monday Mornings with Claire: Personal Care
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
Right now I am writing a piece for our The Good Life magazine that explores the difference between natural and conventional makeup. As a makeup wearer myself, I was interested to do some research and find out what my makeup contains and where natural and conventional makeup products differ. To say that the information I found changed my viewpoint would be an understatement. I was shocked to hear what I had been slathering onto my body for the past decade or more. Previous to writing the article I had used a mixture of natural products and conventional makeup products, and although I like the idea of a lot of natural products, my tried and true conventional staples did their jobs and as such I wasn’t that interested in changing. Let’s just say that after my research I was more than ready to exchange those conventional items for natural substitutes. I even went as far as to buy myself a natural deodorant stick and natural mascara!
When I say makeup I am also including personal care products like body wash, shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, shave gel, etc. When you boil it all down, these items contain a cocktail of chemicals that are linked to hormone disruption, allergies, skin disorders, and cancer. They are also suspected...
Monday Mornings with Claire: Canadian Organic Certification and COABC
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
I have been notified by a conscientious reader that I made a significant omission in my blog detailing organic certifications. I failed to mention the Canadian Organic certification and the certifications made by the Certified Organic Associations of B.C.
The Canada Organic symbol looks like this and is used as an assurance that the product bearing the logo meets the
regulations for organic products set forth by the Canadian government. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency accredits other certifying bodies to ensure that the products that are being imported into Canada are made in accordance with Canadian organic standards. There a number of accredited certifying bodies, including the two that I mentioned in my previous blog, those being the USDA and QAI. Other agencies include PACS, Pro-Cert, CCOF, and Global Organic Alliance, just to name a few. Products must contain 95% or more organic ingredients in order to bear the Canada Organic logo. The organic ingredients must be certified organic and the name of the certifying body must be present o the label. Products containing 70%-95% organic ingredients can claim “x” amount of organic ingredients, and products containing less than 70% organic ingredients can only make organic claims in the ingredient list. Only those products that are made up of 95%or more organic...
Monday Mornings with Claire: CTV releases story questioning organic certification:
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
CTV released a story this weekend regarding organic farming practices. It focused on a topic that I have blogged about before, which is the organic certification process in Canada. The story was a buyer-beware stating that the organic standards in Canada may not be as rigorous as they should be. The issue raised by the story is that some producers are calling their produce “non-certified organic” meaning that they potentially are not using pesticides, but have not taken the time or spent the money to gain a certification that guarantees their produce conforms to organic regulations. There are also some manufacturers that do not use independent third party certification bodies. This means that the products they sell are being certified by an in-house agent, which could mean the standards by which they are judging are not as meticulous.
It is important for consumers to use caution when making all types of purchases, from cars to clothing to food, as this is the best 
way to ensure that we get the most for our money. Unfortunately there are a number of ways that 
uneducated consumers can be taken by a slight play on words or a claim on a label. The best way to ensure that the food you are buying comes...
Monday Mornings with Claire: The Coconut Oil Myth
Monday Mornings with Claire
My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!
There has been much debate over the health effects of coconut oil. Naysayers claim that coconut oil contains saturated fats, and as a result, can cause problems like heart disease and obesity. Others claim that coconut oil is composed of medium chain triglycerides that can actually increase good HDL cholesterol and lower bad LDL cholesterol levels. As a consumer it can be difficult to determine what the truth is regarding this highly controversial food.
Coconut oil was actually used regularly in North America before the Second World War. Unfortunately due to conflict with Japan, supplies of the product became hard to come by, and substitutes like corn, canola, and soy oil became more popular. With the rise of these types of oils came an increase in obesity and heart disease and along with greater awareness of problems associated with high cholesterol came the belief that any food containing saturated fats could cause heart disease. Past research conducted on coconut oil was conducted on hydrogenated forms of the food, a state that is now well known as dangerous. Hydrogenation isn’t only limited to coconut oil. Soy, corn, and canola oil are often hydrogenated and added to a number of processed food items. The process of hydrogenation adds hydrogen molecules to the oil,...
