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CURATED LUXURY LIFESTYLE FASHION ART and WELLNESS magazine NYC curating good vibes by BRIGITTE SEGURA

FOOD FOR THE FASHIONISTA ON THE RUN

FDM feel GOOD series: For all of you fabulous fashionistas who want to stay fabulous, here is a short list of “on the go” food options to put in your bags that won’t weigh you down… 

In NYC where the Union Square Farmer’s Market sits not more than 14 blocks from my private office and where there is a dizzying array of pure organic foods, we are still a city and a nation on the run and finding healthy processed foods leaves us with little alternatives in avoiding some bad food and drink choices.  6 easy + healthy choices selected for FashionDailyMag by Dr. Susan Eisen:

1 Water – Fiji / Evian – water is your best skincare friend!
Almonds – full of protein and sugar stabilizing!
3 Organic Apples – a yummy treat that you can throw into your bag,
(Stick with organic since they are #2 on the list of Dirty Dozen for high pesticide content!)
4 Organic Dark Chocolate – it’s chocolate and it’s healthy. Need I say more…?
5 Clif bars – Organic Energy Bars that are available everywhere!
6 Vitamins! – Make sure they have plenty of B complex for stress reduction!
Dr. Susan Eisen, D.C. is a holistic chiropractor practicing in the Flatiron District of NYC. She has been writing about food and holistic health concerns for three years for various national blogs. She is also the most googled chiropractor in NYC. www.drsusaneisen.com

more about FOOD for the FASHIONISTA

In 2009, I went on a road trip complete with speedy car and coffee (organic thank you) to the Natural Foods Expo in Boston MA. If the truth be told, my interest in going from the start was to do a little more investigating on the natural foods market. What I saw there was in some ways disturbing and now in February of 2011, some of what I saw has made it to the market.

In my own practice, I have become a huge champion of food and our rights as citizens to be able to eat, enjoy, and purchase good nutrient dense food that will sustain us in a healthy way. In NYC where the Union Square Farmer’s Market sits not more than 14 blocks from my private office and where there is a dizzying array of pure organic foods, we are still a city and a nation on the run and finding healthy processed foods leaves us with little alternatives in avoiding some bad food choices.

My deeper study has found some disturbing things. Expensive foods that we think are better for us than others are just as chemically laden as the salty junk food snacks that we know are bad for us. So for the foreseeable future, my column will be all about food. Food that is healthy for you, food that is unhealthy for you, and foods that are deceptively unhealthy for you.

Clearly, we all have a pretty good idea of what foods are good and bad for us. A daily dose of fried foods, trans fats, heavily processed foods and foods high in fats – we know these to be bad for us. Many of us do make the extra effort to get more fruits and vegetables. So you ask, “What is the problem?” The problem is that most of the food that we purchase in the supermarkets, the local food marts, and even the largest national donut chain down the road is genetically modified. I will hope to explain to you what this means and how it can negatively affect your health and the health of your family and loved ones.
Genetically modified foods in a simple definition are foods that have been gene-spliced in some way to make them stronger or more resistant to drought and to pests. You say, “Ok, what is so bad about that?” The problem simply is that our digestive systems have not been hardwired to recognize some of these new fangled foods and we are not digesting the food in the way that nature intended.
I personally feel that genetically modified foods or GMO foods are the new scourge of our country. It is an insidious one which is deceptively difficult to recognize. So I will repeat what you have all heard before… READ YOUR LABELS. The less the number of ingredients in your food, the better it is for you. This sounds like good advice, but… unfortunately, there are many items on the store shelves that fit this description and can still be very unhealthy for you. Am I the only one who has noticed that no matter how hard we try to improve our diets and exercise more, we as a nation are just getting fatter?
To make this easier for you I am going to give you a list of ingredients that I want you to avoid like the plague for your ultimate WELLNESS!

INGREDIENTS IN YOUR PROCESSED FOODS TO AVOID!

1 CORN SYRUP DEXTROSE: THE NEW HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP: Sadly since my first run of this article, the FDA and some of your hard earned tax dollars have been hard at work to pull the wool over your eyes. High Fructose Corn Syrup was on everyone’s radar last year including the agencies who are in control and demanding unfair consideration. It should be no surprise to you that the FDA actually swayed under lobbyist pressure by the Big Agra companies to change the name of HFCS to Corn Syrup Dextrose. Most people are uneducated when it comes to ingredient names and understanding and Madison Avenue Marketing – yes them – still wants to make the old mighty buck and will do anything to continue keeping down the cost of food production. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a chemical which was designed to extend the shelf life of foods. It helps to give the Twinkie a one thousand year long shelf life. Stay away from it. It causes inflammation and probably worse. It is also made from GMO corn. Corn Syrup Dextrose is exactly the same product. No chemical change whatsoever. The difference only is in name and that most people don’t associated those words in a bad light. The lesson here is that this product also causes obesity and diabetes.

2 SOY: I regret to announce that the soy crop in our country is almost entirely GMO. Genetically modified foods do not digest well with symptoms like bloating and diarrhea. Another important consideration is that soy can destroy your thyroid which is a very important organ in your body. It sort of keeps everything running if you will. Too much soy will harm your thyroid. Stay away from it!

3 SOY LECITHIN: Just another form of soy which is a stabilizer. In other words, it helps to bind things together which you may say is ok, but in culinary schools they never use this product. Nature has provided us with a natural binder – egg whites. It bears repeating, soy lecithin is produced through a lengthy and in my mind questionable process which makes any food it is in highly processed. It is also made from GMO soy crops.

ANY THING THAT IS GMO or GENETICALLY MODIFIED!
Readers, if you do nothing else nutritionally for yourself this month, please try to avoid any foods with the ingredient list above. I know that you have heard it all before, but the only foods which are consistently anti-GMO are organic. For example, next time you are in the food store, pick up a container of ice cream – the expensive ones! You will be shocked to find the above listed ingredients. The only national organic ice cream company that is readily available (even in Wal-Mart) is Stonyfield. Another brand which is excellent is called Julie’s Organic Ice Cream. It comes in bars, sandwiches and any flavor you like. If you don’t see this brand in your store, ask the store manager to start carrying it. I have said this before, and it bears repeating, WE THE PEOPLE do have power.

One last thing, for all of the mothers in the house, Cows that eat GMO corn produce milk that is GMO which you are giving to your growing children. The only way to avoid this is to buy organic milk. You may shout out that it is too expensive! Organic milk does not go rancid. How many times have you had to pour a half a gallon of milk down the drain before it was used up? You will NEVER need to have that worry if you buy organic milk… so believe it or not, you will actually SAVE money if you buy ORGANIC MILK!  My next post will be about something positive that one of America’s corporate food giants is doing right! Eat well! www.drsusaneisen.com

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