Dining Out: What are you really paying for?

I've asked myself this question many times over the past year when we we get the wonderful opportunity to have "date night" together. We've been finding ourselves more and more drawn to small, organic restaurants. There's something about going out and knowing you're being pampered and NOURISHED at the same time. We are so lucky here in the Northwest to have a nice selection of natural, sustainable, organic restaurants. We've been to several over the past year and really enjoyed the experience. We've also found ourselves being choosier where we take the whole family out for meals (we usually eat at home) when we go out - opting to eat deli or prepared foods at PCC or Whole Foods... or a quick dinner at Chipotle's Mexican Grill (LOVE that place!).

Last weekend for date night, we chose a fabulous restaurant called Bennett's Bistro on Mercer Island. They filter their own water (in a huge, 3-chamber filtration process), serve vegetables and fruits from local farms, RAW cheeses from local dairies, Sunshine Dairy (the brand I buy) products and sustainably farmed meats and seafoods. The meal was absolutely fantastic.




We ordered the salmon poki appetizer (raw salmon on top of avocado with a poki sauce), which was to die for! Then I ordered their "Tip of the Iceberg" salad with a blue cheese-lemon vinagrette, Oregonzola raw cheese, toasted hazelnuts and tomatoes - I substituted the iceberg lettuce for romaine. Horus ordered their turkey burger with Beecher's (local cheese company) mac-n-cheese and chipotle cilantro coleslaw. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

I'm so proud of how natural and organic my own kitchen has become... It's already expensive to SHOP for organic and natural grocery items... I guess part of me just can't get over thinking - why pay extra money for food that I wouldn't serve my family at home? At least when we're home, I know (for about 95% of our food) WHERE it came from, EXACTLY what's in it and HOW it was raised/farmed.

How do you feel about this? What does a fancy dinner really mean to you? Does it mean just simply spending a lot of money? Does it mean getting the absolutely best, most expensive food available (like a mouth-watering, well-marbled, fifty-dollar, corn-fed steak or the most beautiful, bright-orange fillet of salmon), regardless of where it came from and how it was "farmed?" I ask myself this question constantly when we go out to eat - anywhere. ...and if it's not the greatest restaurant, I try to pick the most natural item on the menu.

Do you think about this when you eat out AT ALL or am I just a weird-o? :)

Zevia!

So as I was poking around at PCC the other day, I stumbled upon a new soda pop. I never buy soda pop, for many reasons. Most companies think pure cane sugar is a good sweetener in a natural soda, but it's still terrible for you. It still rots your teeth and the artificial carbonation (phosphoric acid) is horrible for your teeth, gums and digestion.

This wonderful new product I found is called Zevia and it's made by a small company here in Seattle, WA. They make three flavors and all three are absolutely fantastic. Their cola flavor tastes like REAL cola, not diet cola. The orange flavor and lemon/lime twist flavor are both caffeine-free and also just as delicious. I'm sipping the lemon/lime right now. :)

And here's why I like this product:

1. No artificial sweeteners or preservatives. They use stevia and erythritol (sugar alcohol found in fruits & veggies) to sweeten their drinks.
   
   


2. No phosphoric acid! This is what most cola companies use to give their drinks that carbonated zing, but it's horrible for your body. It softens your bones and teeth enamel as well as it neutralizes stomach acid so you don't digest the nutrients in food properly.
   
   


3. Real citric acid! According to the Zevia website, their citric acid comes from oranges, grapefruits, pineapples, lemons and limes. Most citric acid in the food industry is not extracted from citrus fruit, but fermented by mold from scrap molasses, waste starch hydrolysates and phosphoric acid. NASTY!
   
   


4. Triple filtered water! Most cola companies use regular tap water. I don't know what kind of filteration they use, but any filtration is better than none. My preference would be reverse osmosis. :)
   
   


5. Natural colors - the company worked very hard to find natural colors for their products. The orange soda is BRIGHT ORANGE, but it uses all natural annatto, from the achiote tree. Their cola flavor is colored with natural caramel color and their lemon/lime twist flavor is clear.

I just stopped by Whole Foods on my way home today and they don't carry this product. So I talked to the employee working that department and she was THRILLED. She immediately went to her computer and pulled up the Zevia website, brought up their wholesalers list and ordered the product! Yay! So if you live near a Whole Foods, stop in and request the product. Otherwise, you can find it at most PCC stores and small natural thrift stores. The Zevia website has a partial list of where it's available.

Sea Salt - Iodine

A while back, I wrote a post on Sea Salt. Make sure to read that one first since this post won't go into the details of why it's so good for you.

While on vacation in the midwest, we almost bought some sea salt for hubby's grandmother... But we decided against it when we realized that was probably her main source of iodine since she very rarely eats fish or seaweed and who knows if she takes a good quality daily multi. At a MINIMUM, people should get 50 mcg of iodine per day. Recommended is 120-150mcg for proper thyroid function (improper thyroid function causes an enlarged thyroid - goitre). Worldwide it’s the #1 cause of mental retardation in children.

We don't worry about that in our household for several reasons. First, we take an extremely healthy liquid multi that contains 160mcg (106%) of iodine, cultivated from 9 different types of seaweed. We also eat fish at least once a week, either cooked or in the form of sushi with seaweed.

With everyone’s current “fear of salt”… many people are probably not getting enough iodine nowadays. I’m guessing most of America doesn’t eat as much fish or seaweed as we do. I was reading online last week... and it’s really sad… If a person is getting some iodine in their diet, but not ENOUGH, they won’t get goitre… they’ll just slowly develop hypothyroidism, causing dry skin, hair loss, fatigue and slow reflexes.

Pay attention to where your iodine comes from in your multivitamin and make sure it's not overprocessed. The less it's processed, the more "bio-available" it will be for your body to absorb. Although the overprocessed kind will still meet the recommendation for proper thyroid function. This is why I like the Liquid Health brand liquid multivitamins because the nutrients are more bio-available and it doesn't contain any sugar, starch, salt, wheat, gluten, casein, yeast, corn, milk or soy derivatives. Just vitamins, minerals and EFA's. :)

So when you make the switch to PURE sea salt (ingredients list should show ONE ingredient), be sure you're getting enough iodine from other sources. :) Those other sources are a much healthier way to get your iodine anyway!