Trading Up Downtown

Remember when I professed my love for almond flour last week? Well, I’m still in love with it, so I thought you guys might want to see what it’s all about– and maybe you’ll fall in love with it, too?

Here’s your chance to win a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Finely Ground Almond Meal/Flour, which scores a 77 on the NuVal scale.

To enter: Just leave a comment on this post about your favorite way to trade-up the nutrition of your baked goods. I’ll randomly pick a winner tomorrow morning.

Good luck!

My husband and I were superstars with meal planning this week. On a whim, we stopped by Trader Joe’s yesterday afternoon to do our grocery shopping for the week. Usually, we sit down and plan out our meals with the help of coupons, in-store sales, recipes, etc., but this week, we got it together in about 60 seconds while standing in the bread aisle of Trader Joe’s. I’m still impressed. We had quite a bit of food leftover from last week’s trip, so our shopping wasn’t all that big.

In this week’s cart:

• Bananas (NuVal score: 91)
• Dry Roasted Pistachios (NuVal score: 67)
• Butter (NuVal score: 1)
• Romaine hearts (NuVal score: 100)
• Avocados (NuVal score: 89)
• Eggs (NuVal score: 33)
• Frozen shrimp (NuVal score: 75)
• Frozen edamame (NuVal score: 91)
• Rib eye steak (NuVal score: 30)

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Our grocery shopping trip was last-minute this week, so we shopped for in-store sales and used our reusable bags to save as much money as we could without planning ahead of time. We still managed to come in under our weekly grocery budget, but I think if we had coupons and really paid attention to the in-store sales and planned our meals around them, we would have saved even more. Oh, well. There’s always next week, and I’ll be sure to get my save on big time!

Do you tend to spend more when you don’t plan out your meals? How much more would you say?

Many of us would love to buy all organic foods, but we simply can’t afford it. However, some organic foods offer more benefits than others. Here are the top 10 foods that you should consider buying organic.

1. Meat – Organic meat comes from cows, chickens, and other animals that were fed grain free of pesticides and antibiotics. They also had access to the outdoors for some period each day. Organic meat will also be free of growth hormones that may have negative effects in humans.
2. Milk – Conventional milk is made from cows injected with lots of antibiotics and hormones. Studies on one of these hormones, recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), have shown possible links to early puberty and other hormonal abnormalities. On the other hand, studies on organic milk have shown that it contains more vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants than milk made from high-yield cows.
3. Eggs – Similar to conventional milk, the typical eggs you find in the grocery store have been made by chickens who were injected with lots of antibiotics and hormones and had to sit in a metal box for their whole lives. Eating organic eggs will mean fewer abnormal hormones and chemicals in your body,
4. Coffee – Coffee comes from many exotic parts of the world, many of which don’t have regulations about fertilizers and pesticides. Buying organic coffee keeps you from drinking these chemicals, but it will also likely support fair trade practices which ensure that workers earn a fair wage.
5. Potatoes – A pesticide commonly used on potatoes call chlorothalonil can be particularly harmful to children. It has been linked to asthma and other health problems.
6. Fruit – Certain fruits may contain lots of pesticides, both on their skin and absorbed into the inner parts. Peaches, apples, strawberries, cherries, and grapes tend to have the highest levels. While washing and peeling fruit may help, it certainly won’t get rid of all those chemicals. Fruits with tougher skins, like bananas, kiwis, mangoes, and pineapples are safe to buy without going organic.
7. Soft-skinned Veggies – Similar to fruit, soft-skinned vegetables are particularly susceptible to absorb pesticides. Peppers, green beans, and tomatoes are the worst. Tougher vegetables like onions, broccoli, and asparagus are fine to buy normally.
8. Leafy Greens – The tender leaves of leafy greens like spinach and lettuce are a favorite for pests like worms and slugs, and so they are sprayed with lots of pesticides. In fact, spinach was the vegetable with the highest number of pesticides when tested by the Environmental Working Group.
9. Baby Food – Since it’s processed, many of us don’t think about the harmful effects of non-organic baby food. However, it’s made with concentrated fruits and veggies, which only intensifies the pesticides they might contain. Babies are especially susceptible to the harmful effects of such chemicals because they can interfere with natural development.
10. Foods You Eat Frequently – While most of us can put up with some chemicals in our bodies, but too much can have serious effects. Lots of other foods, from corn chips to peanut butter, may contain pesticides or other harmful chemicals. If you or your children eat a lot of a certain food, you may want to research whether it has a risk of containing chemicals and consider buying an organic alternative.

Brenda Lawrence is a physical therapist whose interests include sports rehabilitation and nutrition. She owns the site Physical Therapy Aide for students interested in a career as a physical therapy aide.

This blog post is written by a guest blogger and does not necessarily represent the views of NuVal LLC or Topco.