If you can bake cookies you can make this tasty treat.

We have family members on both ends of the age and allergy spectrum, and these cookies (or bars if you prefer) make the grade for both ends of the curve. They can be a satisfying start to the day, or a healthy “tide you over till mealtime,” snack. Suitable for anyone that does not have peanut allergies. This mixture is not as sweet as some cookie or breakfast bars, but it packs a good bit of protein and does a great job of providing a little boost without the sugar spike and drop off of some other snacks.  Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350

Combine:

• 1 cup of Wild Oats Organic Peanut Butter
• ½ cup of organic butter
• ¾ – 1 cup of organic honey
• 1 free range or organic egg
• 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract

Blend the wet ingredients together with a mixer until smooth.

In a separate bowl combine:

• 1/3 cup of coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of organic rolled oats

Blend all ingredients together to uniform consistency. Batter will be sticky.

You can either press the batter into a pan that has been greased and floured, or drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper.

Note: Batter takes a while to set up. Cookies can take as long as 20 minutes to bake if they are large and will be crumbly when removed from sheet.  – They firm up with cooling.

If you use a pan, wait till the batter is cooled completely before cutting. Divide at three inch sections to prevent breaking.

Except for pumpkins, no fruit or veggie celebrates the arrival of autumn and the bounty of the harvest more than cranberries.

Native to the bogs and swamps of the Northeast, these tart tasting, cheery red berries were introduced to the Pilgrims shortly after their arrival on the Mayflower by the local Indians, who used them as both a food commodity and a source of dye, as well as for medicinal purposes. So, naturally, no Thanksgiving table is complete without cranberries, in some form, usually as cranberry sauce (although a lot of commercial canned cranberry sauce is unfortunately corrupted by the addition of high fructose corn syrup, an unhealthy sweetening agent that was found neither at that fabled first Thanksgiving at Plymouth nor in the traditional American feast so famously depicted in that classic Norman Rockwell scene).

According to the University of Maine, the first cranberry juice was made by settlers around 1683, but it wasn’t until 1816 that cranberries began to be commercially cultivated on Cape Cod by Capt. Henry Hall. By the following decade, their popularity had grown to the point where they were being offered for sale in Europe, and by the 1850s, these vitamin C-rich berries were being used to prevent sailors from developing scurvy.

But as it turns out, cranberries have a whole lot of health benefits.

For one thing, they contain a potent combo of antioxidants, flavonoids and phytonutrients (including resveratrol, the rejuvenating compound found in red wine), and anti-inflammatory compounds that interact with each other to provide various forms of protection against both heart disease and cancer. They also are known to reduce the risk of developing periodontal disease and stomach ulcers, bolster our immune system and reduce the frequency of cold and flu symptoms, and protect against urinary tract infections.

Here in South Jersey, cranberries are a major crop. There is even an annual cranberry festival in the town of Chatsworth, which is known as “the capital of the Pine Barrens.” In fact, we used to pick cranberries every fall at a bog in a county park, where they grew in wild abundance, and freeze enough for the entire winter. But recently, that bog was leased to a commercial operation, and will probably be “flooded” making hand-harvesting a big difficult!

But cranberries should be consumed for a whole lot of reasons – and whenever possible, in “whole berry” form, where you derive the maximum benefit from the hidden synergistic power of their disease-fighting components.

As world leaders convene in NYC to discuss Global Issues today (first up: Climate Change), let’s take a look at some of the community-driven events that are taking place.

On Saturday, the People’s Climate March sent a resounding message of international demand for a more sustainable future, with attendance estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Partner events were held in 166 countries, including Canada, Australia, the U.K., India, Tanzania…it’s a very long list.  With hundreds of surrounding events running the week of September 22-September 28, many of which are free to attend for those of you in the area, this incredibly organized march has created a platform for solution-based dialogue and education. (I, for one, will be ‘attending’ tomorrow’s inaugural meeting of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, available free online with registration).

As ever, when people get together to discuss environmental issues, organic farming comes up. Since the April release of The Rodale Institute’s white paper on Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change, extra eyes have turned to the low-cost methods to cut carbon emissions that these methods offers. As the Organic Industry struggles with how to keep supply apace of demand, with the percentage of people who buy organic products at 75% of the U.S. Population, this conversation could not be more timely.

On Monday, another eco-minded march sprang up- #FloodWallStreet. Beginning in Battery Park and ending (with rather a lot of police barricades guiding the way) at Broadway & Wall St. Perhaps given the anti-capitalism slant and memories of the protracted Occupy movement, the police presence was tremendous- it felt as though they easily numbered all estimated 1,000 of the marchers themselves. There were a scuffles throughout the day, a few pepper-spraying incidents included; on-site medics (denoted by red duct-tape crosses) came prepared. Despite some such instances, the crowds on both sides of the barricades were, overall, rather well behaved. During the day, arrests were few; after dark, however, the numbers rose steeply as police moved in to clear the streets, with reports of 104 arrests made in total. While I admittedly left shortly before the mass arrests, I found the reigning vibe during the day was one of tolerance (if uneasy).

While the manifesto for this march had a slightly different agenda, the common threads of organization, activism, and conversation held true.  Social Justice was a unifying force, uniting protestors across generations and cultures. Here, too, people were looking for better practices to put us on more solid ground.

So then, what is the organic solution? As the Rodale paper cites, “Regenerative organic agriculture improves the resources it uses, rather than destroying ordepleting them. It is a holistic systems approach to agriculture that encourages continual on-farm innovation for environmental, social, economic and spiritual wellbeing.” (Original source here) Touted as “the short term solution to climate change,” the white paper also states that organic agriculture addresses issues of yield and weather resistance, having been shown to “outcompete conventional yields for almost all food crops studied including corn, wheat, rice, soybean and sunflower.”

With record droughts in California (where much of the nation’s crops are grown), record ocean temperatures (where much of the world’s protein comes from), and a growing awareness of the need to equip farmers to deal with these new conditions, world leaders have received great support these past few days. Let’s hope the people are heard and solutions agreed upon during this week of global focus.

Our bodies are so remarkable.  Made up of some 50 trillion cells, it is like a swirling universe of cell communication and interactions.  One simple change can have a domino effect, good or bad.  In that swirling universe, we know that low adiponectin levels are associated with several health issues, including an increased risk of breast cancer.  We know that decreasing the risk of developing breast cancer is good, and that many things (including improving adiponectin levels) can be helpful.  We know that eating tomatoes is a good idea, and that tomatoes (or tomato products) have many health benefits.  Now, thanks to new data, we know that tomatoes can help to increase adiponectin!

I’ll get to the study in a minute, but first, let me explain a bit about adiponectin.  Adiponectin is a hormone produced in our bodies by our fat cells.  When we are carrying too much fat, the fat cells make less adiponectin and less adiponectin is not a good thing.  Adiponectin helps control how our body uses sugars and fats in our diet, helps reduce inflammation throughout our body and decreases the build-up of cholesterol in our arteries.  The anti-inflammation component of adiponectin is thought to be its link to reduced risk of breast cancer.

OK, so, on to the study!  It was done jointly by Ohio State, Rutgers and Wake Forrest Universities.  The research group looked at the effect of two different diets on post-menopausal women at increased risk for developing breast cancer:

• One diet was tomato-based and contained 25 mg of lycopene, an important carotenoid found in tomatoes
• One diet was soy based and contained  40 grams of soy protein daily for its isoflavone content.

A total of 70 women participated in the study.  They were all patients at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.  For 10 weeks they received the tomato-based diet and for 10 weeks they received the soy-based diet.  There was a 2 week break (called a “washout period”) between the two test diets.  The researchers specifically looked at the hormones produced by fat cells, including adiponectin.   The results showed:

• After the tomato intervention,  adiponectin levels were increased for all 70 women
• After the soy intervention, adiponectin levels decreased for the majority of women and none of them experienced an increase in adiponectin

The study conclusion – “Increasing dietary consumption of tomato-based foods may beneficially increase serum adiponectin concentrations among postmenopausal women at increased breast cancer risk …”.

Eating 25mg of lycopene in your diet is not too difficult.  Eight ounces of tomato juice has about 25mg, two tablespoons of tomato paste has about 14mg, one cup of raw tomato has about 4mg.  You can get lycopene in other foods too .

So, what about the soy diet?  The adiponectin went down, so clearly using soy to increase our adiponectin levels would not be valuable.  Yet, there is good evidence for soy being protective for decreasing risk of developing breast cancer.  Read my post on this topic for my take of the soy-breast cancer question.

Since low adiponectin is linked to increased risk of breast cancer, eating tomatoes can help. There are any number of good reasons to help your body increase the production of adiponectin.  If eating tomato-based products can do that, then I give it a hardly thumbs up!    And, eating organic is so much better.  I love all the great Wild Oats Organic Tomato Products  –  so many choices!!  Tomatoes are good for us  –  nice!!

Additional Resources:

Low adiponectin linked to breast cancer risk

Health issues associated with low adiponectin

If you’ve ever spent any time in the South, you’ve seen kudzu, a vigorous climbing vine that can cover entire trees, fences and power poles. It will overtake even the most conscientious gardener in a matter of days, and is nearly impossible to get rid of once established in your yard.  But I think there’s real beauty in this much maligned and decidedly iconic southern plant.

Driving through the South, especially along roads through Georgia, Alabama and  Mississippi, you’ll find rolling hills resplendent with layer upon layer of kudzu — the so-called “vine that ate the South.” Its shiny leaves and sweet blossoms covering nearly every inch of available space and every type of vegetation.  Monstrously relentless, yes, but also soothingly appealing, especially in the early morning, when touched by frost. In his poem, Ode To Kudzu, James Dickey wrote, “In Georgia, the legend says that you must close your windows at night to keep it out of the house.”

But there is so much more to tell about this prolific vine. For one, kudzu grows so fast and so abundantly in the Southeastern United States, you’d think it’s a native plant. Actually, it crossed many oceans before it got to where it is now.

Like my own ancestors, kudzu came to the U.S. by boat.

In 1876, several countries were invited to join the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to celebrate our nation’s 100th birthday.  As a special guest, the Japanese government constructed a beautiful garden which they populated with plants native to their country. Kudzu, with its large glossy leaves and beautiful blooms, held center stage among these plants and managed to attract the attention of many. American gardeners were delighted by the plant’s amazing appearance, and began to adapt the plant for ornamental purposes.

Kudzu is in fact an ancient plant. Chinese herbalists, who know it as ge-gen, have used the root of the kudzu to treat everything from mild fever to thirst and headache for centuries. It is first mentioned in an ancient text called ShenNong, which dates to 100 A.D.  In it, a drink made from pounded kudzu root was recommended for allergies, migraine headaches, and diarrhea.

But in the U.S., kudzu was prized only for its appearance. So much so, that it became the ornamental plant of choice for gardeners around the country.  But in the southern states, kudzu found a home like no other. Temperate weather, fertile soil and lots of tall trees on which to climb.

In the 1920s, Florida nursery operators, Charles and Lillie Pleas discovered that animals would eat the plant, so they began selling it for forage by mail order. A decade later, during the Great Depression, the Soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu for erosion control. This led many farmers to cultivate the plant in plots in order to save the soil.

Not long after that, however, kudzu made its escape and began to take over. The plant can reportedly grow about 60 feet in a single growing season.  It grew to such an abundance that in 1953, the U.S. government stopped advocating its use.  Kudzu was declared a weed in 1972.  But by then, kudzu had established itself as firmly as the colloquialism y’all.  The rest, as they say, is history.

You might consider kudzu a nuisance, and I can see that.  But I like to think of it like I think of all quirky Southern things (hats, humidity, southern witticisms, weird kinfolks, blue ceilings and sweet tea) it’s just part of who we are.  And whether you admire kudzu or not, one thing’s for sure, it’ll grow on you.