The Rural Voice, 2006-08, Page 10"Our experience
assures lower cost
water wells"
106 YEARS' EXPERIENCE
Member of Canadian
and Ontario
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• Farm
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• Municipal
Licensed
by the Ministry
of the Environment
DAVIDSON
WELL DRILLING LTD.
WINGHAM
Serving Ontario Since 1900
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* Skirted Fleeces
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For more information contact:
WINGHAM
WOOL DEPOT
John Farrell
R.R. 2, Wingham, Ontario
Phone/Fax 519-357-1058
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Jeffrey Carter
Foods, fads and functionalitb
Jeffrey
Carter is a
freelance
journalist
based in
Dresden,
Ontario.
1 try not to get too excited when I
hear about the latest diet fad. After
all, diets are seldom effective in the
long-term and the things you hear
advertised on television are typically
a waste of time.
The same people who advocate
weight -loss plans are also food
pushers. Just look at any popular
women's magazine. Alongside the
various articles and advertisements
telling your how to get thin, are
recipe suggestions and advertise-
ments that can only have the opposite
affect.
There is similar hype surrounding
functional foods, foods that are
promoted for having a specific health
benefit, everything from red wine to
eggs rich in Omega-3 fatty acids.
The red meat people are among the
latest to climb on board the functional
food train. For instance, there's a
considerable amount of excitement
concerning the presence of
conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in
beef and lamb and the fact
that these beneficial and naturally -
occurring fatty acids have human
health benefits. When consumed by
humans, there's evidence CLA does
everything from preventing
cardiovascular disease to reducing the
risk of cancer.
The content of Omega-3 in eggs
and both CLA and Omega-3 in beef
and lamb can be increased by feeding
the livestock involved with the
appropriate diets. With laying
chickens, feeding flax seed is the
strategy being promoted. With cattle
and sheep, a variety of oilseed crops
are being suggested, including flax
and sunflower seed.
There is little doubt that the
scientific findings have validity and
the effort should be applauded. Still,
if you investigate further and give the
situation a little thought, you may
soon come to the conclusion that the
livestock industry is only fixing
something that they broke in the first
place.
The natural diet of chickens is just
about anything they can get their
beaks into, including plants and the
insects that eat plants. I know — I
have six laying chickens in a cage
that I move around the backyard.
By asking one of the experts at the
Functional Foods conference in
Stratford earlier this summer, I
learned that my chickens will lay
eggs that are rich in Omega-3, at least
as long as the grass holds out.
There's a similar story for cattle.
Cattle finished on green and growing
pasture will produce beef with
significantly higher levels of both
CLA and Omega-3 fatty acids.
It seems that by fitting our roundish
animals into squarish boxes of
human design, some of their value as
food for humans has been lost.
The same kind of logic fits when it
comes to growing plants for human
consumption. If one discounts the
propaganda funded by the
agricultural input industry, there is a
significant amount of evidence that
shows organically -produced fruits
and vegetables are often more
nutritious compared to those
produced conventionally.
There's a couple of reasons.
Organic fruits and vegetables tend
to have higher levels of vitamin C,
even when comparisons are made on
a dry matter basis. Other nutrients in
organic fruits and vegetables are
often more concentrated, but only
because organic fruits and vegetables
generally contain far less water.
Secondly, the levels of plant
chemicals in organic fruits and
vegetables are often higher because
plant defence mechanisms under
organic practices are regularly
activated to fight off weed, insect and
disease pests. These same plant
chemicals are being shown to provide
a variety of health benefits
when consumed by people.0