Tag Archives: GMO

Regulation Nation: What Consumers Really Think About the Feds in Our Food

The question of whether or not the government should regulate the food industry seems like a simple one, but it’s really an incredibly complex topic. Variables like price, availability, variety of offerings, and quality of products are all involved. Also, there’s the issue of how much regulation the food industry should have. Should it all be regulated? None? Or maybe somewhere in the middle?

To help us make sense of the issue, Sullivan Higdon & Sink (SHS) has produced its latest White Paper, Regulation Nation. Through their research, they’ve learned the issue of food regulation comes down to a lot more than a simple yes we should have it, or no we shouldn’t.

Regulation Benefits: Food is safer, healthier, better-quality.

Regulation Negatives: limit choices, restrict freedoms, and ultimately drive up costs.

(more…)

Posted on November 28, 2023 by Elizabeth

Kirstie Alley’s Organic and GMO Food Beliefs Don’t Align With New Jenny Craig Partnership

Kirstie Alley is back at Jenny Craig. That’s the big celebrity diet news of the week, and Kirstie is loud and proud about it. Would you expect anything less from her?

She’s “excited” to be back at Jenny Craig, saying she missed her consultant. It’s undoubtedly her most lucrative partnering with the brand yet. She spent much of the early part of the decade as the spokeswoman for Jenny Craig, losing a lot of her highly publicized weight. She left in early 2024, citing a desire to create her own brand. Today, that’s known as Organic Liaison. Today, it’s also no longer her brand.

Jenny Craig’s mother company, CI Holdings (which bought Jenny Craig from Nestle recently), not only signed Kirstie to rep the brand once again, but bought her company. Now the program is what Kirstie is calling “a hybrid approach,” as it will “very, very soon” be incorporating her Organic Liasion weight loss products in to the Jenny Craig menu of offerings.

“I can get to millions [of new customers] with this,” Kirstie told us in an interview yesterday. Initially, Jenny Craig customers will be offered Rescue Me, the most popular product in her supplement line. It’s something the actress has told us she drinks every day, throughout the day.

“If I wasn’t drinking Rescue Me, getting these specific nutrients and specific antioxidants, it would be two weeks and I’d be back to craving sugar and heavier foods,” she told us in an interview last January.

In that same interview she told me that she “worships energy and organic eating,” and that, at least to me, is where the plot thickens. Kirstie and I spent about an hour in her comfortably beautiful home in Wichita, Kansas last January, where the bulk of the conversation revolved around organics, GMOs, and other aspects of clean eating in the name of health. Something quite amiss from Jenny Craig foods. (more…)

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Natalie K

Vermont Set to be the First State to Label GMOs

We’ve got to start somewhere and why not start in Vermont? Start labeling GMOs, that is. A new federal bill, the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know-Act, was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR). The bill mandates the labeling of GMOs and this one might actually pass in Vermont.

RT.com reported on this issue as the bill passed through the state house last week. The report stated that more than 90 percent of Americans want GMO products labeled. Senator Boxer presented these numbers. RT.com also followed that up by reminding us that right now the Food and Drug Administration still does not consider a GMO to be “materially” different. This means the products cannot be tasted, smelled, or identified. Because of this, the FDA does not require labeling. More than 60 countries in Europe require such labeling; maybe soon, this will change in the United States. (more…)

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Lacy

Moms Petition Similac to Remove GMOs in Infant Formula

“They say that moms with children with food allergies do more research than the CIA, and I think that’s true,” quips Leah Segedie at the opening of a three-minute video she’s using to get the attention of moms and and baby formula giant Similac. She wants the company to get rid of the GMOs they put in their line of formulas, something Similac (Abbott Laboratories) decided not to do at their recent annual shareholder meeting.

To join Leah’s fight and let Similac and its competitors know you won’t stand for this, sign this petition at Change.org. Also, join us on the #SimilacNoGMO Twitter party Wednesday, May 22nd from 8-9:30pm EST, where you’ll join host Leah @BookieBoo and @DietsInReview as a panelist. (more…)

Posted on May 21, 2023 by Natalie K

Boycotting Monsanto? You’ve Got the Buycott App for That

Are you one of the millions of Americans hell bent on putting this monster of a company, and its peers, in their place? There’s now an app for that. In fact, Buycott, which launched this month to much consumer excitement, will help you boycott products from brands you’ve no interest in supporting. So many consumers want to vote with their dollars, but because of the tangled web weaved by mergers and company ownership, few people know that when they innocently buy a box of Duncan Hines cake mix that the brand is owned by Monsanto.

Now with Buycott, you can simply scan the bar code of any product at the grocery store and find out which company is behind it. The idea is certainly not to complicate your grocery experience, what with the reading of ingredient and nutrition labels, too, but rather to arm you with more information to make a most educated decision. If this is your thing.

“A buycott is the opposite of a boycott. It is an active campaign to buy the products or services of a particular company or brand,” they say in the introductory pages of the app upon download. This suggests that while you may scan one brand and learn of its corporate heritage and choose not to buy it, you’ll likewise scan a different product and choose to support that brand instead. The Buycott app can work either way, obviously. (more…)

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Natalie K

Genetic Roulette: How the Food Industry’s GMO Love Affair is Endangering Us All

The market is saturated with food documentaries. A new one is about to surface, yet this one doesn’t seem to be filled with the same information told in a new way. This one rarely mentions obesity, doesn’t really get into what vegetables you should be eating, and I don’t think there’s much mention of fast food. This one is different. It’s bringing to light an important issue that has been hidden in the dark for too long. Genetic Roulette, The Gamble of Our Lives will be released soon and so will many frightening yet true facts about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

GMOs have become a hot button issue in the food, health, and related industries. Grassroot efforts are rising up as Non-GMO advocates try to get ears to hear the hard truths about the food we’re being fed and the food we’re feeding to our kids. This film may be the voice advocates need. There are many details that compelled me to listen closer and research more about this topic. One of the harshest truths was revealed early on in the film – we are all likely eating food that causes insects’ stomachs to explode. Stomachs explode, yes, you read that right. (more…)

Posted on April 24, 2023 by Lacy

Boy Scouts Sell GMO-Free Popcorn for a Healthier Food Fundraiser

If you haven’t noticed, The Girl Scouts have hit the streets with their cookies this month. They’ve opted for a throwback twist this year as many girls are pulling wagons with cookies ready to deliver on the spot. It may become their biggest sales year yet. Cookies on demand, at your door? Pretty tough to say no to a Thin Mint when it’s literally in your face. Unless of course, you’ve been reading more about what’s actually in those cookies. That may scare you off of Carmel Delights for life.

But, what about the girls’ counterparts? The Boy Scouts sell popcorn every fall. Is their product any better? They are, after all, selling corn, the biggest genetically modified (GM) crop in this country. And the law states no one has to label whether or not a product contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs). And if you search a package of Boy Scout Popcorn, the Trails End Brand, you’ll see no mention of GMOs on the labels. Are our girls getting an unfair rap? Are the boys being just as irresponsible with what they’re selling to the public?

It appears not, at least on the GMO front. Elizabeth Weaver works with Weaver Popcorn Company, Inc. They are the distributor and producer of Trails End Popcorn, the exclusive Boy Scout brand. Weaver explained what’s in the popcorn and why the packages do not indicate that the snack is GMO free. (more…)

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Lacy

Kirstie Alley Prioritizes Energy Over Weight as the Measure of a Healthy Lifestyle

Kirstie Alley approached the new year like a lot of us, by making resolutions. But unlike most who just whisper them in to the abyss of new year’s night, Kirstie puts pen to paper.

“I always sit down with a little notebook and I make many resolutions,” she said. She won’t name them because of superstition, but makes them regarding every aspect of her life. She lives by them for the year, but more than resolutions, Kirstie says, “I map out a game plan for everything I do.”

I recently sat down with Kirstie in her luxuriously comfortable home in the heart of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Wichita, Kansas; her home away from LA. We spent just over an hour casually talking about childhood obesity, her healthy lifestyle, chemicals in our foods, and of course her company Organic Liaison. To answer the question on most people’s minds – yes, she looked fantastic!

“I’m not skinny minnie, I look good if I’m wearing stretchy sixes or a genuine size six (which 20 years ago would have been a genuine size 8),” she told me.

She celebrated her 62nd birthday last week during a special appearance on Entertainment Tonight looking younger and better than ever. Of course, I had to ask, how does she do it, because it wasn’t just the cameras!

“I’m really happy, and that’s sort of the biggest key,” she said. Kirstie noted that she’s not a drinker, she thinks alcohol can really age a person, and that she’s always taken really good care of her skin, having stopped being a “total sun worshipper” at 25.

Now she worships energy and organic eating, and there’s no doubt that’s playing a role in slowing the aging process for her. (more…)

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Natalie K

7 Hot Health and Fitness Trends That Will Own 2024

As we end the first week of 2024, it seems appropriate to look ahead and forecast what will be the hot fitness and health trends of the upcoming year. It’s always fun to not only look back to archive a year, but seeing which trends will be big and make a mark this year is, too. We’ve rounded up the seven things we think everyone will be chatting about this year and in to 2024!

1. Fitness and Health Smartphone Apps. Last year was another big one for fitness apps. Just this week Consumer Reports noted that MyFitnessPal was at the top of their list for “DIY Dieting.” There are so many useful and effective programs available that, according to Huffington Post, it’s expected that even health professionals will start advocating for and recommending these apps to help keep their patients on track.

2. Crossfit and Women in the Weight Room. The popularity of Crossfit has yet to wane and as a result more women aren’t getting scared out of the weight room. It’s assumed that more women will take up these classes and practices this year. The benefits of heavy lifting are being revealed as social media has proven a great way to show off the results many women are seeing. Nevermind the internal benefits such as bone and heart health. (more…)

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Lacy

Health Buzz: 2024’s Biggest Health News, Food Trends for 2024, and Our Most Pinned Recipes

It is Friday, December 21 and the Mayans were wrong! Since the world didn’t end, it is time for you to get a dose of healthy news from us and our friends! As we slowly approach the new year, we’ve compiled 2024’s most buzz worthy healthy stories. In addition, we have our most pinned recipes of the year with a new healthy donut recipe.

California’s Push for Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods

You couldn’t get around the web this year without seeing news about Genetically Modified Foods (GMO). Earlier this year people in California wanted their food packaging to be labeled with a GMO stamp, letting them know if it had any genetically modified ingredients. It was the people of California versus giant food industry companies, like Kelloggs and General Mills. However, Californians going up against the multi-million dollar food industry companies is easier said than done. The initiative may have failed on the ballot, but expect more big action from this movement in 2024.

The 6 Miracle Diets Dr. Oz Tried to Sell Us in 2024

Looking to lose weight without the hard work? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, if you watch the Dr. Oz show the doc will try to sell you a miracle weight loss diet in what feels like every episode. Check out the six miracle diets that Dr. Oz tried selling to the masses this year, that we debunked! We can’t wait to see what kind of miracle diets Dr. Oz will have up his sleeves for 2024.

Jillian Michaels Announces Return to Biggest Loser With a Big Twist [VIDEO]

Biggest Loser season 14 will be return with new faces, new cast members, and old faces, like Jillian Michaels! Her announcement to return to Biggest Loser was all the buzz this fall. Not only will she be motivating and training overweight adults, but she will be helping overweight children tackle their weight as well! Biggest Loser returns January 6, and the show’s new concept will surely have Americans watching, since childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in America.

New York City Soda Ban Passes; Soda Industry Plans to Fight [UPDATED]

Earlier this year, Mayor Bloomberg proposed a soda ban in New York City. Any sugary beverage over 16 ounces could not be sold in New York City. The proposal was a way Mayor Bloomberg could help fight the obesity epidemic in his city. On October 12, 2024 the soda ban was passed and now the soda industry plans to fight back. Do you think the ban will help fight obesity? Tell us what you think!

The Obamacare Vote and How it Affects the Health of Americans

Besides the 2024 presidential election, Obamacare was one of the most talked about issues in America this year. The Affordable Care Act, commonly known now as Obamacare, requires Americans to carry health insurance. For those who cannot afford health insurance the act makes it more affordable for them. There are many pros and cons to Obamacare, take a look to see how the act will affect your health. (more…)

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Samantha

Empty Calories Comic: Giving Thanks for a Non-GMO Holiday

See these related articles:

GMO Labeling Didn’t Win the Battle in California, but We Haven’t Lost the War

What is a GMO?

Best Healthy Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes

Posted on November 21, 2023 by Health Buzz

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