Ever Wonder.........???

This is a minor rant and feel free to share your own. I've been interested in learning about Super Foods. One of the latest are Goji Berries and I wonder why it's so expensive? It's so irritating the way once a food is rated "Super Food" it's automatically expensive. When looking online, it conveys these are a mysterious Himalayan berry and along with that, comes scams......like one container of Goji Berry juice costs $50.

So I look at my local grocery store and I found them dried like raisins. Raisins are $3, but the same size whoopty doo goji berries are $8. Now I can buy an already roasted chicken for $5.99. I would like to buy them frozen but they're only available online(don't buy things online). The dried ones are chewy, similar to a piece of leather. In fact I'm gnawing on some right now, reminding myself they're supposed to be good for me. I hated them at 1st but they're starting to grow on me.

So lets hear about your 'ever wonder' or scratching your head saying "Whattttt" concerns. I would also like to know if anyone has tasted a fresh Goji Berry?

Yikes, $50 for Goji berry juice! I can't imagine that fits into too many people's budgets these days.

I can't think of a specific "What???" concern right now except to slightly expand on the topic you brought up, lynn: Why is the healthy food so darn expensive? My husband and I try really hard to eat a healthy diet, but the healthier foods are SO much more expensive, almost prohibitively so -- for example, those small plastic containers of blueberries/blackberries/raspberries are about $3 to $5 or more in my neck of the woods.

Tofu, at least, is cheap.

Most Goji berries are not Himalayan, but home grown. I doubt they have the same nutritional value when grown in rows in overused depleted soils pressed into maximum production and maximum profits. They are known also as wolfberry and can be found in that most productive pieces of land called hedgerows. Each bush would have a handful of them and I bet they would then equal the nutritional value of the Himalayan berry. I have eaten them dried out of curiosity, found them tasty, but I don't buy them anymore. I plan to find some wolfberry bushes and let them grow on the permaculture "farm" I am dreaming up, along with other wild foods.

There are cheap super foods. Grow your own wheatgrass for pennies. Organic sprouts of any kind, cost next to nothing to grow yourself and pack a wallop of nutrtion. But if you go to a store to buy them they will charge a premium. A tax on cluelessness I call it.

My rant: Celtic Salt. Popular. Expensive. Comes from evaporated pure sea water. Where did they find that "pure" water? Do they have a time machine and pump it from some oceans before we started dumping all the industrial crap in? Alternative: Redmond Real Salt (Ancient All Natural Sea Salt). MUCH CHEAPER!

Yup - as soon as blue berries were included in the super food list - they went up in price. They're expensive here too - I buy mine frozen in the off season.

Ever wonder why your favorite product looks smaller.......that's because it probably has shrunk. Companies would rather shrink the products we buy, rather than raising the price in this bad economy. Or they'll put new and improved but it really has shrunk. Thanks AvidReader.

Thanks Sunna - can I buy the wheat berry at a bulk food place and plant them or where/what exactly do I buy to grow my own wheatgrass?

Fresh Goji berries, I read, can be found in Chinese grocery stores; I hope you aren't in the wilds of Saskatchewan, Lynn

I don't do Super Foods, occasionally do foods I haven't tried before but don't believe there's any benefits to any one food that makes it worth paying extra or going overboard for and probably throwing off my diet in other ways. They rarely have had any published studies done on them and often have side effects or interfere with meds one may be taking (Goji berries mess with anticoagulants if you're taking them) and that's rarely thought about until one has a mysterious problem and has to pay a doctor too much to figure it out. Goji's are high in beta-carotene but so are carrots and they're cheap :-)

I assume Goji berries are expensive because there is more demand than product (or the opposite, so growing/production costs are high too). I'm getting very tired of food, "health" food, prescription medicine, and OTC stuff all running together into one big barnyard mess of a clamor. We've been eating for a zillion years and have all that cultural history of how/what to eat and no diet causes illness or is better/worse. I look at what my grandparents ate 125 years ago and they lived to be in their 80's and that's good enough for me. I'm reading Near A Thousand Tables, http://www.amazon.com/Near-Thousand-.../dp/0743226445 and I find it's helping me put things into perspective and feel better about how "healthy" I already am.

Ugh... please don't eat tofu. Make sure soy is fermented first, like tempeh and natto (you can make your own for cheap). Miso is good too, and if not pasteurized also a good probiotic food. But tofu only with foods naturally high in minerals, and only if your thyroid doesn't mind some heavy suppression and you're the gender that is ok with large dose of phytoestrogens (i.e. they can't tell us that menopausal women benefit from eating soy for phytoestrogens and in the same breath suggest MEN eat it too, they are males, for crying out loud, their lack of period is not caused by drop in female hormone levels - that's mine "Ever Wonder...??" moment)

Disclaimer: I know it's controversial topic. Do your own research. Or not. I LIKE tofu, and I LOVE the taste of soy milk (but 2x 6 oz cups a day drains all my energy in a space of a week) and my male friend who stopped eating it, misses it (since he can't digest meat)

Here are basic instructions on growing it
http://www.hippocratesinst.org/growing-wheatgrass

You need to buy organic wheat berries (winter wheat/hard wheat or red wheat). Where I live I have at least 3 stores that sell them. Some seed work better than other, and if nothing else, try online seeds for wheatgrass growing, they usually have some proven performers.

Also some growing trays (at least 2), potting soil, peat moss.

You'll also need a type of juicer that will squeeze the juice out of wheatgrass (unlike sprouts, wheatgrass has to be juiced to get at the goods, unless one is a ruminant moooo ). There are good manual juicers for grass, also any electric single-auger type works. If you start on wheatgrass juice go sloooow. It packs nutrients, but it's also a detoxer that can cause a rapid release of toxins from tissues into bloodstream making you sick like a proverbial dog. Also, many, me too, dislike the taste and smell of it, but want to stick with it, so I juice it with a green apple, to take the edge off.

With sprouts I found the easiest way with "Easy Sprout" sprouter. Health food stores often carry some sort of kit and starting seed mixes for sprouting. The initial investement pays itself off after you work your way through first bag of seed.

Thanks Perna for the tip - we have a Chinese store are in the city next door, so I'll check if they sell them.

Thank you Sunna for the wealth of info about growing your own wheatgrass and the link. Most health food store sell this Greens powder that you add water to. I don't know of this is similar in taste, but I have to plug my nose while I drink it lol. There a juicer place at our local mall that has wheat grass and they charge $5 for a shot.

There's this Arabic Salad called Tabouli and it's made of chopped parsley - most of use parsley sparingly in dishes or just for garnish. I wonder if this packs a similar chlorophyll punch like wheat grass?

Yikes -- thanks for the heads-up about tofu, Sunna!

The way I look at it "more greener better". There is this whole Victoria Boutenko thing "Greens Can Save Your Life". Oh, but parsley I loooooove.

http://health.learninginfo.org/parsley-benefits.htm

Very interesting link - I knew parsley was nutritious by didn't realize how packed full of vitamins it is...thank you Sunna. Tabouli takes a lot of chopping but it's a refreshing salad and has bulgar in it as well. It's meant to be scooped up onto romaine leaves.

For me I grow and preserve (can, freeze, dry) a lot of my own foods. Anything I don't grow or grow in enough quantity I source from local farms or from the wild when in season. There are plenty enough super foods that are indigenous to my area to not need something imported. I grew up that way and waiting for that first taste of fresh berries, tomatoes and corn etc are the highlights of my summer.

I also have fishers and hunters in the family so they stalk the freeze or I can alot of it every year. Other meats like chicken and turkey, lamb or beef I source locally. Same with eggs, cheeses, milk etc. For anything I can't source local I will first choice things grown,raised or processed closest to home. I buy most dry ingredients like spices and flour in bulk. This way I can save my pennies, support my local and regional farmers and economy, ensure no slave labour or animal abuse is involved, no dangerous chemicals are used and lower my carbon footprint.

I think there is way too much hype about certain foods that come from other parts of the world that can be found in my own back yard of equally or even more nutritial value. So many of the ills of today can be traced to people getting further and fruther away from their adapted indigenous food supplies. A case in point is the hugely dispreportional number of native North Americans with diebeties because their diets have been compromised by assimilation. There are lots of other examples among people groups who live far away from their ancestral homes. It takes many generations to adapt to diet change and even than there are health conseqences.

The rapid increase in super farms is what concerns me the most. Acres and acres of the same thing means the natural process of pest control is compromised thus the need for pesticides, early harvesting, the risk of things like samanila and the loss of nutritional value. Same with how beef, pork, chicken etc are raised on those corporate owned assembly line facilities where animals have no room to move.

I saw a recent documentary of one of those super facilities. They actually cut a hole in the side of the beef cattle and feed them directly into their stomache. No lie! It is disgusting how thiings are being done these days. None of those cows are allowed to leave their small stales. They are never let from their head lock bars to ensure not an ounce is lost by the cow expending any more energy than it takes to stand up.

That is my 'What the &*&%' food related rant. Buy local anything that can be sourced local and otherwise be concious of where it comes from and how it is produced.

Long winded per usual.

And the fresher the better too.

Very important points you made sanityseeker. In Ontario we have many farms and lots of produce available in the summer. I agree that's a very sad and gross way of raising a cow. It's also sad the way egg farms are, exception being free range farms. We buy from a local butcher who happens to be of a certain religion where the animal has to be killed in the least cruel/painful way. He does it himself so there's no assembly line.

Most people know there's typically a low incidence of breast cancer in some parts of the Orient. They compared this to 2nd generation families that moved to N. America and found they now are dealing with the 1st cases of breast cancer in their families. It was linked to a change in diet and probably some other environmental reasons. Very wise advice you gave and I admire your way of dealing with food.

That is interesting what you mention about breast cancer differences for oriental immigrants. I have heard similar research about 2nd generation people from India who eat less and less of their traditional foods. Not to mention the access to NA junk foods.

As money has gotten tighter and tighter for me I have started to find ways to barter and trade for food and services that are mutually beneficial. I also help out with community gardens where people who don't have their own garden spaces can grow food for their families. We have plots we grow for the food bank too.

With the rapidly rising cost of food it makes you think about ways to manage when money is getting tighter and tighter at the same time. It is getting harder and harder to have a balanced and healthy diet day in and day out. Think outside the box is not just a good idea but a necessity.

I guess I have gone off topic haven't I?

Thanks SS and those are great ideas. No I don't think you're off topic. We can just say - "ever wonder how we can eat well on less money". This thread is for gripes or solutions to everyday problems.

I have been wondering lately about coupons. I cut coupons for the products that I buy but then when I get to the store, I have been seeing that the price is actually higher those weeks. This may be old news to some but is news to me.
It seemed to me they were making up the difference for the coupon that was being offered; it brought the price back to what I originally paid for it the week before that. Buy one get one free is still a savings. However even the doubling of the coupon has been made up by the price on the shelf back to the original price at times. I thought it was just the one store so I tried another last week and saw the same thing. It is not all products but some. So sometimes the coupons are and are not a deal, be wary.

Good point Fresia. I also find a name brand product might be on sale, but the 'store brand' is cheaper than the sale price of the name brand product.

Oooh, you're observant, Lynn; I use to use coupons and never noticed that, would get annoyed when my husband wouldn't use a coupon I gave him and he had to point that out to me! Another thing worth noticing is that the "large, economy size" is not necessarily cheaper per unit!

I really hate the fact that nothing is really bred for flavor and nutrition; it's all bred to be immune to insects, machine harvested and shipped. I mean, if bugs can't eat it, why am I? Everything that's a "superfruit" is just a fruit that hasn't been bred away from nature. Nothing in the store is really sustainable either; everything is sterile or is an extreme heterozygote. It's mindboggling to see what is available in the store verses what's available if you grow it yourself.

It wouldn't be as bad if everything wasn't so damn processed and full of salt/sugar etc.

You know where xanthan gum comes from? The plant bacteria that causes blackroot.