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Study Finds Produce Can Better Protect Us Against Disease When it's Grown in Natural Day/Night Cycle

6/21/2013

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PictureJessica's Organic Farm in Sarasota, FL
A new study shows promising developments in protecting plants from insects without having to use pesticides or introduce genetically modified organisms, and finds that produce in markets is still alive. In addition, the study shows that growing cabbage in a natural cycle of day and night appears to triple the number of anti-cancer chemicals it contains.

As Jane J. Lee writes for National Geographic:

The next time you wander amongst the produce in your local market, think about this: Those fruits and veggies are still alive. Though they may not be able to jump up and move, new research shows that some vegetables and fruits exhibit circadian rhythms, and can adjust their defensive compounds and nutrients accordingly.

A study published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology found that various vegetables and fruits bought from stores respond to light-dark cycles up to around one week after they are harvested. The ones the researchers looked at included cabbage, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, and blueberries.

Janet Braam, a plant biologist at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and a researcher in the study, told National Geographic that circadian clocks tell plants when the seasons change due to changes in the length of days. The circadian clocks also help plants stave off attacks by insects. Plants know when the insects eat, she added.

In one plant, called Arabidopsis, compounds called glucosinolates that protect them against pests are under the control of the circadian clock. As Andy Coghlan writes for New Scientist,  "These have been found to inhibit some cancers in rats and mice, and there has been some suggestion that they reduce cancer risk in humans."

The researchers found that cabbages on the same day and night schedule as cabbage looper moth caterpillars were the least damaged by the insects, as compared with cabbages whose schedules were out of synch with that of the moths. (By contrast, those cabbage samples in the study that experienced "daylight" hours when the caterpillars were experiencing "nighttime" hours lost 20 times more tissue when attacked by insects.) "What's more, levels of 4MSO, a glucosinolate with enhanced anti-cancer properties, was two to three times as high in cabbages kept to their cycle as they were in vegetables whose circadian rhythm had been disrupted," New Scientist writes.

The researchers then moved on to other fruits and vegetables, and found that lettuce, spinach, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, and blueberries showed the same resistance to the cabbage looper mother caterpillars as long as they were on the same 12 hour light and 12 hour dark cycles as the insects. And this was true even though the researchers did not discover what chemicals in those plants are helping them to repel predators, New Scientist writes.

Braam suggested to New Scientist that retailers could offer customers extra health benefits by keeping freshly harvested produce to its natural circadian cycle rather than transporting and shipping them in the dark. "Perhaps we should be storing our vegetables and fruits under light-dark cycles and timing when to cook them to enhance their health value," she said. In the raw foods community, since we don't cook the produce, a better question might be: Will manufacturers redesign refrigerators to ensure that the stored produce is exposed to light and dark according to circadian rhythms, instead of keeping them in the dark all the time?

Mike Covington, a plant biologist at the University of California, David, who was not involved in the study, told National Geographic: "This is an approach that you can take to increase the post-harvest health of the crops without having to spray them with pesticides or introduce genetically modified organisms."
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Raw Vegan Food Truck Seeks Crowd Sourcing

6/19/2013

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Chef Matthew Daniels and Jane Howard Crutchfield in their Triangle Raw Foods food truck
July 9, 2013 UPDATE
Jane and Matthew not only met their goal; they exceeded it!
Let's hope this inspires more raw vegan chefs to open more restaurants!

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Jane Howard Crutchfield and Chef Matthew Daniels, the owners of Triangle Raw Foods, have their customers in mind regarding their IndieGoGo campaign to raise money to open a raw foods cafe. The Raleigh, North Carolina duo have been making raw vegan meals and selling them since 2011, first in a van and then from their food truck. They're crowd sourcing for funds because they want to keep the costs of their food down. 

Triangle Raw Foods' recent pop up restaurant events have been sold out, as Kathy Hanrahan reports for WRAL.com. She notes that everything on their menu is dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan and locally sourced. And it's also all-raw.

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Triangle Raw Foods' curried crepes with cashew "yogurt"
Crutchfield and Daniels say on their IndiGoGo page that they use as many organic ingredients as possible, and that they value supporting the local economy. As of 3:28 p.m. Wednesday, June 19, their campaign had raised $7,882 of their $25,000 goal, with 19 days left for people to contribute. The page says that the campaign will only receive the pledged funds if they meet their goal by Sunday, July 7 at 11:59 p.m.

The pair are open about their need for crowd sourcing. They write:
As two people with less than perfect credit histories (based on poor financial decisions and mistakes we made when we were younger), getting loans from banks is pretty much out of the question.

Also, organic prepared raw food can be very costly and time-consuming to make, and we don't want to charge a fortune for it just so we can make money to pay back big loans. We want to charge just enough to cover the food cost and our time/labor.
If they reach their target goal, the money will go towards kitchen equipment, building the space and essentials such as tables chairs and dishes. If they don't reach their goal, they will forge on. As they write:
As a very small business, we really only make enough money to make ends meet.  We could wait until we can afford it ourselves, but our friends and customers have encouraged us to at least give this a shot.  If it works out, awesome; if not, we'll continue on the road we are currently on :)



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Look Who's Eating Raw Food!

6/17/2013

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On Season 8, Episode 4 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, "Enough is Enough," in the kitchen of her California house, Brandon Jenner's wife, Leah Felder, makes raw almond milk and gives a glass of it to Bruce Jenner. Bruce takes a sip and makes a face like it went down the wrong pipe. Leah quickly responds, "Shut up, Bruce. You know you like it!"

After Bruce has a long talk outside with his son Brody, he goes back into the kitchen and wines to Leah and Brandon, "I need some almond milk!"



Making almond milk photo
courtesy of Amelia Crook
(simpleprovisions)

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    Your Blog Writer

    This site's editor and founder, Judy Pokras, has written for many publications, including The New York Times. She's the author of The Little e-Book of Raw Vegan Holiday Recipes (for the Kindle), The Little Book of Raw Vegan Holiday Recipes (a paperback), and the experimental novel, Artist Girl's Cambridge Daze. Judy is also the editor and publisher of Thanksgiving Recipes by Great American Raw Chefs. and writer, producer, and director of the comedy video Anomalies. When she's not working online, Judy loves to dance to disco, decorate in mid-Century modern, and make her amazing raw vegan chocolate ice cream for family and friends.

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