In Women We Trust

Promoting healthy eating causes the corn syrup folks to come-a-calling...

Over the past three years, this blog has connected me to many world-changing women.  One of my favorites is Taiha Wagner who lives near Minneapolis. Like many of us, she's tried on several business projects centered on helping women have better lives and found her biz-soul-match with www.Just One Bite.net.  Even the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently took notice with this article including Taiha and other local women on the same track.

Taiha's a nurse by education and a caretaker by choice. Just One Bite is the blend between her profession, her mission and her passion - organic food. She's seen first-hand how spending the cash up front on organic food has made big changes in her family. For one, her son no longer struggled with seasonal allergies when she introduced him to locally made organic honey. Second, she and her sister's family switched to organic meat and found that their headaches went away. That took her on a quest to see what other common ailments could be healed through better eating and share it with others.

.

The Star Tribune article is all about making better choices. Taiha says nothing bad about corn syrup, but the corn syrup-ees came-a-calling shortly after the article hit the streets anyway. They wanted to make sure that Taiha understood that corn syrup isn't any worse than regular sugar. We had to laugh at the speed in which business now reacts to any kind of press and if corn syrup isn't bad, then why the rush to say it was fine? She shared their letter with me. Download Corn 

.

She also sent me this information from the University of Colorado:

 

Science finding high fructose corn syrup is detremental to health

• Use of HFCS is linked to diet induced obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance 1.
• The rise in prevalence of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and fatty liver disease has been linked to increased consumption of fructose-containing foods or beverages. 2.
• High Fructose Corn Syrup has been proven to contain mercury. 3.

1. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2009 Nov 13. [Epub ahead of print] Multiple abnormalities of myocardial insulin signaling in a porcine model of diet-induced obesity. Lee J, Xu Y, Lu L, Bergman BC, Leitner JW, Greyson C, Draznin B, Schwartz GG. University of Colorado H.S.C

You can make your own decisions. All I know is that if business watched out for families as well as Taiha and her kind do, we'd all be a lot healthier. Thanks for changing my world Taiha. 

Recycling never looked so good on our countertops

Today is America recycles Day. It couldn't be more timely. I just returned from Greenbuild which is the US Green Building Council's once-a-year conference. 

Last year the showroom floor had only a couple of recycled glass counter tops, this year it seemed like they were everywhere and in every form - small single color quartz like tops, large arty mixtures, and mono-toned glass with brightly colored grout. What was a novelty has become an industry sector. 

But it didn't stop at glass. If sparkle and shine isn't your thing you could also select from a multitude of colors in 100% recycled paper turned into what felt like stone. (aptly named Paperstone) It was heavy, cool-to-the-touch and apparently impervious to knife cuts or heat. For more sustainability info go here.

Admittedly both options are expensive, but so is granite and that doesn't seem to stop the world from buying it up by the strip mine full... At least when you buy recycled products as stunning as these not only is your home a better place and you're helping to co-create a new sustainable marketplace.