Why Organic?
Several factors make organic important. It's widely known that conventional produce is coated in harmful chemical pesticides. They’re designed to kill living organisms after all, so they certainly shouldn’t enter our bodies. Chemical pesticides not only deplete the nutritional value of our food, but they also contaminate it. Research has consistently linked several ailments like cognitive impairments in children, reduced male fertility, autism, and diabetes to the ingestion of chemical pesticides. Not to mention the environmental pollution of their use. However, pesticides are only half the issue.
Our fruits and vegetables get their nutrients entirely from the soil they’re grown in. Did you know that conventional soil contains only a fraction of the nutrients that organic soil does? In fact, every single nutrient is between 10-90% less prevalent in conventional produce than in organic.
What all of this adds up to is that when we eat conventional fruits and vegetables, our bodies receive and process much less nutrients than we think we’re getting. Both from the reduced percentage in the soil to begin with and the nutritional damage from chemical pesticides.
A helpful thing to imagine is that your organic cup of broccoli is a cup of broccoli, with its 6 grams of protein and 19 mg of omega-3 fatty acids, while its conventional counterpart is merely the idea of a cup of broccoli. Looks the same, likely even tastes quite the same, but it’s leaving your body un-satiated and needing more of the wrong foods
to feel full.
Are whole grains healthy?
Whole Grains are a food group that there is much confusion around. They are generally promoted as healthful. However, if they aren’t prepared properly, they can be quite dangerous on the body.
All grains including seeds, beans, nuts, and legumes contain enzyme inhibitors to keep them from prematurely sprouting. Additionally, they contain a little booger called phytic acid which chelates vital nutrients out of our blood stream. Again, we are faced with the nutritional depletion that convenience foods causes.
When whole grains are prepared traditionally, like our not so distant ancestors did, buy soaking or fermentation, the enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid are washed down the drain and what is left is a clean, whole food, with maximum nutritional yield.
Why is grass-fed meat, poultry, and dairy healthier?
Just like we are what we eat, animals are what they eat. When cows and chickens are fed grains (corn, cottonseed, sorghum, and soy) even organic grain, their muscle and fat contain a different nutritional composition than those who are fed primarily fresh grass and insects.
Grass fed meats are higher in vitamins A & E, oleic acid (the “heart-healthy” fatty acid in olive oil), and omega-3, therefore reaching a better omega 6 to 3 ratio.
Additionally, grain-based feeds are not a species-appropriate diet for these animals so digestive issues and bacterial contamination is more common.
What is safe seafood?
Much time has been spent discussing the differences between farmed and wild caught fish, and the consensus is that farm raised fish is fattier than wild caught. From a health standpoint, fatty acids are the best reason to eat fish! But, somewhat confusingly, this doesn’t mean that farm raised fish are better for you.
The fatty acids in tilapia are primarily omega-6s and an excess of those are more likely to increase cardiovascular risk than boost brainpower. Farmed fish are also fed a completely unnatural diet from grain to chicken meal to other fish meal and animal waste products.
This often results in fattier, less nutritious seafood with more chemical residues than wild caught fish (though wild caught fish does have high levels of mercury).
Neither option is a slam dunk, but farmed fish are more likely to cause long-term health issues. The ideal choice is likely something smaller, wild caught, and from fisheries in the Pacific. This can be hard to come by in our area, so we stick to the few safe options we can obtain locally.
What about cooking fats and seasoning?
Our commitment to creating a safe and nutritionally superior product goes all the way through to the cooking fat that permeates the dish.
We use exclusively clean, “heart-healthy” fats rich in oleic acid like avocado oil, grass-fed ghee, coconut oil, and olive oil - first-cold pressed, unfiltered, extra virgin and never heated above 250°.
Salt is another ingredient present in nearly everything we consume that can have drastic effects on our body’s ability to absorb and use vital nutrients. Common table salt is bleached and dried in factories under harsh lights, depleting it of its vital trace minerals (of which salt is the only food source). So again, this pervasive ingredient leeches nutrients right out of our blood streams so that our bodies can’t use them. Se la vie to the 540 mg of potassium in your filet if its been seasoned with Morton’s.
We exclusively season our dishes with real, sun-dried, sea salt with all of its vital trace minerals in tact and no ability to leech your precious potassium!