Whole Foods has been gracing the news and the gossip columns apace in the last couple of weeks and sadly not for the quality of its wares.

WF CEO John Mackey has angered a huge number of the eminent organic chain’s formerly loyal customers by expressing his ‘anti-health care reform’ views in an article in the Wall Street Journal. Given that the vast majority of WF’s supporters consider themselves to be (somewhat lefty) liberals, Mackey’s ’survival of the fittest’ capitalist stance didn’t sit too well with them, unsurprisingly. Opening the op-ed piece with a quote from notorious capitalist-conservative Margaret Thatcher wasn’t likely to go down to well, for starters! Not only does Mackey dismiss what he calls ‘ObamaCare’ but he also suggests that US citizens are no more entitled to health-care as they are to food and shelter.

The article has had a very divisive effect. In an attempt to exact some damage control the WF’s PR department has tried to insist that Mackey’s views are personal and the company will not take an official position on the topic of health reform. It has also initiated a forum on its own website for people to provide feedback and more than 17,000 responses have been posted so far. And, for every complaint and invitation to boycott the chain, there is a post from a Mackey supporter, insisting the article echoes his or her own views and has compelled them to start shopping at WF…

One particularly angry former shopper is Massachusetts-based playwright Mark Rosenthal who is calling for John Mackey to be fired and has created a Boycott Whole Foods blog and Facebook group. The Facebook group already has 28,145 members and counting.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods co-founder (and Mackey’s former girlfriend) Renee Lawson Hardy has issued her own response to his article in which she clearly distances herself from his views, saying that while she agrees with the pursuit of individual wealth and a free market economy she also believes in a publicly-funded health care option for all.

So, it remains to be seen whether Mackey’s comments have done irreversible damage in turning off former supporters who bought into Whole Foods’ convincing mantra about having a ’social conscience’.

What do you think? Have Mackey’s comments affected how you feel about Whole Foods? Or not? Will you be looking elsewhere for your organic food and other products? Should it matter what the CEO believes personally? We really want to hear from you…

Since SOPHYTO Organics bioesthetician Ishtar Magally’s last post about Wakame, we’ve had a few enquiries about where to buy it and want to do with it so I thought I’d add a few words…

First of all, you can buy both the dried sea vegetable (whole) and the powdered version from Pacific Botanicals. The company ships product all over the world. If you are in the US, you can also buy powdered Wakame from Healthy Traders.

As for what to do with it, if you are going for the dried veg version, you can hydrate it and put it in soups or salads or stews and all sorts. The Japanese tend to whack it into all kinds of Miso soups and broths. Seaweed salads are also really tasty. I found the following recipes on Black Moon which sound great:

For Miso soup, “Simply soak a teaspoon of the dried seaweed in water and after it swells up (20 minutes), squeeze out the excess water, chop into bite sized pieces and place into small bowls. Ladle the miso soup over the seaweed and serve.

The following recipe is for one of the most delicious salads that I know of, in any cuisine! It’s made from wakame seaweed and kyuri (Japanese cucumbers).

In a serving bowl, combine the chopped wakame with the cucumber slices and mix well. Pour the chilled dressing over the vegetables and toss. Serve in small bowls topped with some white sesame seeds.”

I love wakame salad with sushi and I have also had it with ordinary cucumber which is delicious too so don’t worry if you can’t get hold of the Kyuri mentioned above.

Kate Heyhoe, author of Cooking Green, has also published her own version of wakame salad, which includes red pepper flakes…

Hope that helps… happy wakame cooking and if you discover any other great recipes, do let us know

Even if you have the best of intentions, living ‘green’ in the modern world is really hard. How do you know if your favourite restaurant cares about having green credentials? Where do you get ethical teas from? So many questions, so few reliable sources of info. Well, one company hoping to steer you in the right direction is The Green Connoisseur - a website filled with green ideas for body, mind, and soul.

The Green Connoisseur has listings and mini articles on everything from eco-friendly cars and architects to fashion and spas. It was actually the article about Babycakes NYC - a bakery dedicated to allergy sufferers - eg. no gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts etc that led me to the site in the first place… definitely somewhere to keep in mind when visiting the big apple. Mmmm. Michael Stipe is even reported to be a fan!

I only have a couple of complaints about the site… firstly, with so many freelance writers on hand, it’s a shame the site isn’t updated more frequently with new features; and the eco-body section is rather thin on the ground… perhaps they would be interested in an article about SOPHYTO… after all, we’re sure they would approve of our green credentials!

The site is nicely put together though, and, even if you don’t have the means to just jet off to Richard Branson’s new eco-friendly Virgin Island, it’s definitely worth a look… www.thegreenconnoisseur.com.

I always dismissed food combining or ‘The Hay Diet’, as it was known after New Yorker William Howard Hay, as just a-another weight-loss plan and so never bothered to give it much credence. But, thanks to SOPHYTO’s lovely and knowledgeable bioesthetician Ishtar Magally, I have now seen the light.

The modern diet is unhealthy, not only because of the sheer volume of artificial additives and preservatives contained in the food you’ll find in the supermarkets and restaurants, but because of the way the food stuffs are mixed together.

For instance, a sandwich - something most people eat every day for lunch - typically contains bread (which is in itself a mixture of flour, yeast, fat, sugar), butter, meat/fish/cheese and salad. And the problem with that, is even if you can tolerate gluten, dairy and yeast, no-one is able to digest them properly in combination - because the enzymes needed to break down each food group all work at different times and different pHs. Hence the countless purchases of antacids and other digestive aids many of us make every year…

So, what is the solution? To eat foods in specific combinations only. To understand why you should do this, try and get hold of Food Combining Made Easy by Herbert M. Shelton, a doctor from the 1950s (the theory still applies!). Or check out one of the modern versions, such as The Complete Book of Food Combining: A New, Easy-to-Use Guide to the Most Successful Diet Ever by Kathryn Marsden; or her other books, Food Combining: In a nutshell and Food Combining: A Step-By-Step Guide.

But, in the meantime, here are the main rules to follow:

1. Eat acids and starches at separate meals. eg. Don’t eat lemons or tomatoes with rice.
2. Eat protein and starches at separate meals. eg. Don’t eat bread or potatoes with meat/fish/cheese.
3. Eat ONE type of protein at any meal. eg. Don’t do surf and turf, even if it’s just with salad.
4. Eat protein and acids at separate meals. eg. Don’t eat lemons or oranges with meat/fish.
5. Eat fats and proteins at separate meals. eg. Don’t eat cheese/butter/oil with bacon.
6. Eat sugars and proteins at separate meals. eg. Don’t eat sweets after a steak dinner.
7. Eat starches and sugars at separate meals. eg. NEVER eat cakes or cookies or sugary cereals.
8. Eat melons alone.
9. Drink milk alone.
10. Eat fruit at a fruit meal - not with other foods, except salad greens.
11. Don’t eat avocados with other proteins or sweet fruits.
12. Beans/peas are starch-protein complexes which should be treated as proteins and only eaten with greens.

So, where does that leave us? Well pretty buggered in terms of modern cuisine… as I discovered this past week while dining out and about.

Essentially, that means it is best to have fruit for breakfast if you are going to have it, and then a big salad with a protein and veggies for lunch and salad, veggies and a starch eg. sweet potato, rice, quinoa for dinner. Or the other way around.

It’s not easy. In restaurants, salads come with a dressing (acid) unless you state otherwise, proteins are often mixed, as are starches and sugars… so you have to be very vigilant and specify what you want. And so many foods are off limits - ie. anything remotely processed.

However, I have to say it works. I had a bit of a cookie dough blip this weekend but aside from that I have been combining my butt off! Breakfast is a green smoothie - carrot juice, spinach, spirulina, chlorella and lemon juice (this cuts the green taste making the smoothie pretty palatable), if I can make it though to lunch without eating I then have a big salad with veggies and either fish/avocado/quinoa - otherwise I chomp on lightly steamed veggies mid-morning. And the same again in the afternoon/evening. And if I need it, I’ll have a little bit of chocolate in the evening to stave off insane sugar cravings.

Apparently, a typical modern meal - say, chicken curry with rice, followed by apple pie and ice cream - can take up to 9-12 hours to digest, but if you, like most of us tend to, eat again in that time, it will take even longer and then, if you don’t eliminate it efficiently (because constipation is another common predicament) undigested food will putrify in your intestines… for days, months or even years. Ewwwww! However, a properly combined meal should journey through your system in 3 hours or so… and clear out before the next meal.

It’s not surprising people tend to lose weight eating in this way. Aside from all the healthy greens, giving your body the right combination of foods means it doesn’t have to store undigested foods, which stagnate the system and slow down metabolism.

After 4 days of food combining my skin was glowing and I had more energy than I’d had in years. I’m not sure I will always be able to eat like this - eating out or at others’ houses is tricky, for instance - but I will certainly aim to make it the default stance for feeding myself.

If you have any questions about food combining, drop us a line and we’ll get Ishtar on the case.

So said The Times reporter Dominic Lawson last week in response to the FSA’s recent ‘findings’ about the absence of any nutritional benefit to eating organic food. This is a controversial issue, of course, upon which there are very opposed views to be held.

I wholeheartedly concur with using science as a basis for all theory, but the FSA failed to consider all the variables which influence why people choose organic - as well as their own findings about benefits!

What irks me is that there is no mention of the benefits of organic/adverse effects of chemical-laden food to people whose health is already compromised. Having met fruit and vegetable producers from Senegal begging for legislation to prohibit the enforcement of pesticide use after having witnessed fellow producers - often, friends and family - suffer from ailments ranging from gastric ulcers to death by various cancers, being told that small amounts of pesticide residues are harmless is harder to swallow.

Lawson argues that the ‘organic’ pigeon droppings his wife used on their veg patch nearly killed him when he contracted atypical pneumonia - which of course is a terrifying consequence. Exposure to bird faeces is always dangerous - so it is probably wise to request a little guidance from professionals before embarking upon home-growing, no? But calling the organic movement, along with homeopathy, ‘cults masquerading as science, rather like the creationists of America’s Bible Belt’, seems rather far-fetched!

An interesting article though to be sure - the comments at the bottom are definitely worth a look - if only to confirm just how dichotomous this subject has become.

Not only has SOPHYTO Organics founder Karen Sinclair Drake been involved in planning the forthcoming Green Beauty conference (while quietly plotting to take over the world on the side :)) but she is also giving the opening address and overview at the illustrious event.

The Green Beauty conference - Buyer’s Guide to Cosmetic Standards and Ingredients - is taking place on September 14 in Times Square, NY, and will feature presentations by Yes To Carrots CEO Ido Leffler, The Soil Association, Estee Lauder, Walmart, Green Spa New York & Wellness Center founder Sheila Brody and esteemed physicians David Perlmutter (Perlmutter Health Center) and Scott Hernberg (Tomorrow’s Wellness Center & Medical Spa) - 2 great friends of SOPHYTO.

The event has been designed to highlight the benefit and logistics of green beauty practices to purchasing representatives from retail, spas, home shopping, dermatologists and skin care professionals, including: quality control and legal departments, PR, marketing personnel and beauty writers.

There are still places available, so if you are in any of these fields and think the conference may be of interest, email: brian.santos@pira-international.com.

And, of course, we will be sure to give you the highlights on here as well…

Karen is also due to present info about the new COSMOS standard the very next day at the HBA Beauty Expo - the place to discover the latest trends and NPD. So, if that sounds of interest to you, be sure to sign yourself up sharpish.

Turning someone onto the magic of SOPHYTO Organic skin care never gets old. We know this stuff is perfect for your skin, so it thrills us to learn that other people have discovered this, too.

As such, you can imagine our delight when the following testimonial arrived at SOPHYTO HQ from none other than one of London’s hottest makeup artists, Dani Guinsberg. Dani runs makeup and hair school, the session school so she sees faces of all colours and textures and clearly knows great skin when she sees it.

She says: “I have been using SOPHYTO for several months now and I have to say in all my years as a professional makeup artist, this is by far the greatest skincare I have ever used! I am amazed how many people have commented on how young I look for 40 and even dare to ask whether I have had botox! No I say… it is SOPHYTO! It has changed my life! My skin is glowing all the time and I love the fact that it is so simple to use! I am very very fussy about skincare and always have been from a very young age … I spent years on expensive creams and now there is absolutely no way I would even dream of using anything but SOPHYTO! I have got my whole family and all my friends onto it and I am sure once word gets around these products will become cult products! As I now run a very successful makeup school The Session School.com I am actually going to put SOPHYTO into the students’ makeup kits so that they can amaze models and clients too!”

So there you have it. We love hearing from people who have seen the SOPHYTO Organic light. So, if you’ve had a good experience and/or shared some SOPHYTO love, do tell us, won’t you…

Apparently beetroot juice improves stamina, allowing you to run, dance, or whatever else you do that raises your heart beat (wink, wink) for 16 per cent longer!

UK researchers have discovered that the nitrate in beetroot juice leads to a reduction in oxygen uptake, which slows the rate at which you become exhausted. They also discovered that in healthy volunteers, blood pressure was reduced within an hour of drinking beetroot juice… so two great reasons to get hold of some organic beet juice.

The only slight side effect they detected was a phenomenon apparently known as Beeturia - pinky-red pee! But, most asparagus lovers will have already endured worse than that!

So, now I just need to find somewhere that sells organic beet juice? Any ideas?

The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has released a report on the health benefits of organic food largely and concluded that there aren’t any.

Dr Dangour, of the LSHTM’s Nutrition and Public Health Intervention Research Unit, and the principal author of the paper, said: ‘A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance. Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.’

However, this is not entirely true because in the paper’s appendix, it finds that some nutrients, such as beta-carotene, are as much as 53% higher in organic food, but the author chose to ignore this in his conclusions for some reason…

Unsurprisingly, this report has sparked a barrage of responses - diverse in content. While those who already think the organic pundits are just trying to scare people into spending more money on their food, pro-organic bodies such as the Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers are concerned that this report will dissuade undecided customers.

The SA highlights that the FSA failed to include recent findings from a European Union-funded study involving 31 research and university institutes and the publication, so far, of more than 100 scientific papers, at a cost of 18million Euros, which ended in April and concluded:

• ‘Levels of a range of nutritionally desirable compounds (e.g. antioxidants, vitamins, glycosinolates) were shown to be higher in organic crops’
• ‘Levels of nutritionally undesirable compounds (e.g. mycotoxins, glycoalkaloids, Cadmium and Nickel) were shown to be lower in organic crops’.

Also, the FSA makes no mention of the potential health risks of pesticides which is of great concern to people who choose organic. Organic consumers don’t necessarily think organic food is healthier as such - rather, they choose not to buy conventionally grown/reared produce which may come with an added dose of toxic pesticides and/or antiobiotics - not to mention an adverse effect on the environment as a bi-product.

Check out the full report as well as The Ecologist’s response for more info. Then, tell us - what do you think about these findings??

Looking into SOPHYTO’s conclusions on the importance of skin pH got me interested in the importance of maintaining the right internal pH as well and for the last couple of days I have become rather obsessed by The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health by Christopher Vasey, N.D.

Don’t get me wrong, there are loads of interesting websites on the subject, but I started to get confused by conflicting information about which foods are acid/alkali-forming… and as Vasey is widely considered the leading authority on pH balancing I decided to give him a try.

What Vasey explains - which I didn’t come across anywhere else - is that there are certain foods, which while to someone with a healthy digestive system will be alkalizing, to someone (like me) would be acidifying. So, there are foods which are acidifying for everyone - eg. meat, fish, most cheeses, peanuts, bread, cereals… and there are foods which are alkalizing for everyone - eg. potatoes, green veg, chestnuts, bananas, milk… there are also foods - known as weak acids, which are alkalizing to healthy people, but acidifying to people with compromised digestive systems.

Weak acids include: whey, yogurt, unripe fruits, acid fruits - berries, citrus, some apples, tomato, rhubarb, watercress, honey, vinegar…

Finally, I have discovered what it is about all these foods that causes me to feel unwell - fatigued, bloated, snotty(!) etc.

Vasey explains in a very comprehensible manner, the problems that can ensue from acidosis, which is caused by the acids that form when the body tries to break down acid-forming/weak acid foods. If the body doesn’t have enough alkaline minerals in the food intake to neutralise the acids into neutral salts that can be excreted safely - either through the skin, lungs or urine/stool - it has to leech them from the body’s organ tissue which can then result in a deficit. When this deficit builds up over time, the body’s pH acidifies and it can no longer function optimally - so various health problems can occur - from painful teeth and muscle pain to osteoporosis, fatigue and insomnia.

Amazingly, you can turn your internal pH around extremely quickly. According to my urine pH tests, I was operating at about 5.5 a couple of days ago but by this morning it had reached 7 (pH7-7.5) is considered optimum.

Basically you just need to eat a ton of green veg with every meal (we all know we should do that anyway), cut down on the meat and bread and eliminate sugar (again, not rocket science) and consider taking alkalizing minerals if that isn’t enough. Interestingly, while we tend to think water is around pH7 - ie. neutral - by filtering it, we remove the alkalizing minerals with the potential toxins and the result - acidic water. I did a pH test on the filtered water I’ve been drinking and was shocked to discover it is pH5.5!

As a result I have ordered some alkalizing mineral drops to add to my water so that I know that the water I’m drinking isn’t acidifying my body along with the acidifying foods I eat.

Anyway, The Acid-Alkaline Diet is a fantastic read. It won’t take you long, but it might just contribute to improving your health in a major way.

Seeing as I’m still experiencing digestive problems, despite eliminating the fore-mentioned weak acids, SOPHYTO’s lovely Bioesthetician Ishtar Magally has suggested I consider food combining. More on that to follow…