By Cheryl Tallman and Joan Ahlers

www.FreshBaby.com

We all know buying fresh is best, but when it comes to shopping for fresh produce, it is not always easiest. In fact, it is a little tricky and can be time consuming. Here are a few of our secrets to shopping smart for the fresh stuff in the produce aisle.

By Elizabeth Yarnell

www.GloriousOnePotMeals.com

The other day I went to buy some of the individual bags of flavored waters for my kids. I was thinking that they would be preferable to the no-sugar-added juice boxes I normally offer to hydrate them in the car. Water, I reasoned, is always a healthier choice than juice.

What a surprise, then, to see that one of the most popular brands of these water bags listed high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient and sucralose as the fourth!

Some believe our current epidemic of obesity and skyrocketing health problems including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer can be directly traced to the abundance of high fructose corn syrup in our packaged foods. It is a highly processed sweetener, one of the many synthetic sweeteners available that fool the body into secreting extra hormones and packing on the pounds.

Reading current magazines, we learn there is a new awareness regarding British food amongst the more educated public. I will let you into a secret, we had all those foods and chefs back in the 50's, we just did not go public and being our nature to keep quiet about things, we did not share our good fortune. However, in these techno times, publicity is important.

Since the time of William the Conqueror in 1066, cheese has played an important part in both the diet and economy of the British. But over the past two decades there has been an upsurge in the making of cheese and being a Brit, I am in the process of writing about the great variety of farm cheeses produced across the British Isles by cheesemakers who are passionate about what they do. In fact, Wales, Scotland and England can boast over 450 unique Farm cheeses.

Cheese can be split into two types: Traditional and Modern and those into three distinctive groups. The first group in the Traditional are Cheddar, Double Gloucester, Single Gloucester and Red Leicester- all mostly handmade, wrapped in cloth and left to mature for months, even years. The second group is the Crumblies which have a higher moisture content and are crumbly in texture. This group consists of Caerphilly, Cheshire, Lancashire and Wensleydale. The next grouping is Blue Cheese with Stilton and other less known blues - Shropshire Blue, Blue Cheshire, Blue Wensleydale, Blue Vinny and Yorkshire Blue.

Scientists link food pyramid changes to declining nutrients in fresh produce.

Since the birth of agriculture, farmers have typically measured their farming success by the size of their crops. Many methods can increase crop yields like irrigation, fertilization, chemical weed and pest control and cultivated breeding. Significantly increasing yields of wheat, rice and maize, resulted in the “Green Revolution” of the sixties and seventies. Unfortunately, we have learned that increased yields may reduce concentrations of some nutrients. There can be trade-offs between yield and nutrient concentration. This is known as the “dilution effect.” In the dilution effect, yield-enhanc­ing methods like fertilization and irrigation may decrease nutrient concentrations as a result of environmental dilution. In plain English, when plants are made to grow bigger and faster, they are not able to draw as many nutrients from the sun or soil. Essentially, crops that grow larger and faster are not able to absorb nutrients at that same rate from the soil or by photosynthesis.

Having trouble buying the highest-quality seasonal organic produce? Unable to find a wide variety of natural and organic fruits and vegetables to bring home? Lack the backyard space to grow your own natural and organic foods?

If you live in an area where shopping for organic food poses a challenge, don't throw in the all-natural kitchen towel! Many Americans in similar circumstances have found the perfect solution: community supported agriculture, or "CSA." First popular in Japan and Switzerland in the 1960s, the CSA movement has -- pardon the pun -- taken root with a vengeance in the United States, where it is sometimes referred to as "subscription farming."

How, exactly, does a CSA work?