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Valuable foods for a CRON-diet (types/brands/retailers)


AEN

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Personally I would love to see a topic with a discussion about sources/retailers/brands to buy items from that may potentially be a valuable addition to a CRON-diet. (Although the latter could be topic of discussion too, obviously).

 

Phenolic content, catechin content, ORAC-values are things I ideally would like to have some insight in when picking a product (or brand/retailer). And for some products, such as green tea and cocoa beans, also potential heavy metal contamination. As well as the 'type of' green tea or cocoa product (beans vs nibs, etc) that would be recommended.

 

With that in mind, I would love to learn where most members buy their:

* green tea

* cocoa beans

* (and if so ;)xyz ) Peruvian olives

* curcumin powder

 

Personally I'm also looking into:

* Ceylon cinnamon sticks

* hibiscus tea

* perhaps white tea

* lucuma powder

since these are items I enjoy very much and that make my diet more interesting and easier to stick to. (Although they might be a less valuable addition to any CRON-diet - and lucuma powder probably even moreso given its GI-ranking amonst others.)

 

On the other hand, if it is not recommended to add some of these items to a CRON-diet (to eat daily in small/moderate amounts) I'd be very interested to hear too of course. Thank you for any input!

 

 

 

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Anne,

 

After just telling us that it isn't possible (or affordable) for you to buy from American on-line retailers, I'm not sure how helpful such a discussion would be for you since most of us (except Brian) are in the US. But here are a few of my retailer choices for some of the various foods you list.

 

For green, white and hibiscus tea I buy Davidson Organic teas via Amazon, although I learned recently their green tea at least is from China, so I'm a little leery of lead contamination, despite its organic status and alleged meeting of the strict California safety limits (via self testing...).

 

For cacao beans - I buy raw, unfermented beans from Nuts.com. For fermented beans, and fermented+roasted beans, I buy them from Chocolate Alchemy.

 

I buy curcumin as turmeric (to get a wider variety of curcuminoids) from either my local Indian food market, or from Amazon (no particular retailer). 

 

For Ceylon cinnamon sticks (to avoid the warfarin in regular cinnamon) I buy from Nuts.com.

 

I don't eat olives or lucuma powder.

 

Hope this helps you, or perhaps someone in the US!

 

--Dean

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Great, thanks Dean. You're right of course, but I thought I might be able to get some products via Amazon or whenever I'm in the US (since I travel there quite regularly and taking some cinnamon with me should be less of an issue than taking 12 bottles of olive oil with me ;) ). Moreover: sometimes brands are sold in Europe too.

And I figured the post could be of interest to US members too - and that perhaps some European members might chime in in addition.

 

Either way, helpful info, thank you very much for sharing!

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Anne, you raise some important, though tricky questions. I'll leave aside the retailer question for now.
 
But as far as good brands/producers are concerned, I usually begin with ConsumerLab.com. It's a subscription service, but it's well worth it. There, one can get an idea of the contamination of particular products, but one also begins to learn general principles (like: don't buy tea, or, heck, to be safe, anything, from China).

 

About two of the particular items you mention:
 
All cacao products:
- Anything 1) organic, 2) from Bali (less likely to be heavy-metal contaminated) is fine by me.
- Exception: Baker's baking chocolate (which came out best at ConsumerLab, with regard to bennies:cadmium ratio).
 
Curcumin powder:

Life-Extension brand curcumin, from iHerb.

 

- Brian

 

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Anne, you raise some important, though tricky questions. I'll leave aside the retailer question for now.

 

But as far as good brands/producers are concerned, I usually begin with ConsumerLab.com. It's a subscription service, but it's well worth it. There, one can get an idea of the contamination of particular products, but one also begins to learn general principles (like: don't buy tea, or, heck, to be safe, anything, from China).

 

About two of the particular items you mention:
 
All cacao products:
- Anything 1) organic, 2) from Bali (less likely to be heavy-metal contaminated) is fine by me.
- Exception: Baker's baking chocolate (which came out best at ConsumerLab, with regard to bennies:cadmium ratio).
 
Curcumin powder:

Life-Extension brand curcumin, from iHerb.

 

- Brian

 

Thanks Brian, helpful advice. I will see if I can subscribe with Consumerlabs - sounds like a great idea. And thanks for the product recommendations!

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Hi Anne. I can't provide a ton of advice here since I've progressively simplified my diet and supplement intake, partly so I wouldn't have to rely on special, difficult to find, or expensive products. Even so, I might benefit from looking into the quality of certain products like rice/grains, various canned foods, etc. Otherwise I eat a lot of produce for which there isn't much option beyond organic/conventional, which probably doesn't matter too much given our current agriculture standards.

 

I do consume a lot of spices and I've been buying these in 1-lb bulk bags from either Frontier or Starwest Botanicals via resellers. I use Vitacost but these products are widely available, even on Amazon. Spices are extremely expensive in stores and in small containers, but these are very reasonable. I do buy the organic versions of spices, and I've emailed the companies inquiring about their products and they're very good about providing info about quality, sourcing, etc.

 

Not a food, but I would recommend the Escali Arti food scale. It's relatively inexpensive, has a 15-lb capacity, and measures food to single gram accuracy. I've had two of these and both have lasted years (I still have my original two, the wife and I each have our own), and the battery life is fantastic. The solid glass top is essential for quick and easy cleaning, and the buttons are under the glass so there's no crevice for food gunk to build up. Their customer service seems pretty good too.

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James,

 

Not a food, but I would recommend the Escali Arti food scale. It's relatively inexpensive, has a 15-lb capacity, and measures food to single gram accuracy. I've had two of these and both have lasted years (I still have my original two, the wife and I each have our own), and the battery life is fantastic. The solid glass top is essential for quick and easy cleaning, and the buttons are under the glass so there's no crevice for food gunk to build up. Their customer service seems pretty good too.

 

I too have one of those Escali scales. I like it because as you said, it is sealed without any cracks or seams where food can get stuck. The one complaint I have (and the reason I use it as a backup) is that the buttons seem sort of finicky. For example, when I hit the power button, it doesn't always come on when I expect it - as if I'm not hitting it with the right timing, or pressure or something. Have you noticed anything similar, or is it just me?

 

--Dean

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James,

 

I too have one of those Escali scales. I like it because as you said, it is sealed without any cracks or seams where food can get stuck. The one complaint I have (and the reason I use it as a backup) is that the buttons seem sort of finicky. For example, when I hit the power button, it doesn't always come on when I expect it - as if I'm not hitting it with the right timing, or pressure or something. Have you noticed anything similar, or is it just me?

 

--Dean

 

I don't seem to have this issue with either of my scales. In fact, I'd almost say they're sometimes too sensitive in that I accidentally tare or turn off the scale brushing my hand against the buttons. This really isn't a big deal though.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Anne. I can't provide a ton of advice here since I've progressively simplified my diet and supplement intake, partly so I wouldn't have to rely on special, difficult to find, or expensive products. Even so, I might benefit from looking into the quality of certain products like rice/grains, various canned foods, etc. Otherwise I eat a lot of produce for which there isn't much option beyond organic/conventional, which probably doesn't matter too much given our current agriculture standards.

 

I do consume a lot of spices and I've been buying these in 1-lb bulk bags from either Frontier or Starwest Botanicals via resellers. I use Vitacost but these products are widely available, even on Amazon. Spices are extremely expensive in stores and in small containers, but these are very reasonable. I do buy the organic versions of spices, and I've emailed the companies inquiring about their products and they're very good about providing info about quality, sourcing, etc.

 

Not a food, but I would recommend the Escali Arti food scale. It's relatively inexpensive, has a 15-lb capacity, and measures food to single gram accuracy. I've had two of these and both have lasted years (I still have my original two, the wife and I each have our own), and the battery life is fantastic. The solid glass top is essential for quick and easy cleaning, and the buttons are under the glass so there's no crevice for food gunk to build up. Their customer service seems pretty good too.

James, thanks a lot! I had not looked on the forum anymore, but this is great info. Certainly with regard to the spices and the Escali Arti food scale.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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