Information Overload: #howdoesthisworkagain?

I'm still trying to figure out this whole Twitter thing. After obsessing over what my handle should be (and for those of you who forgot and have not yet started following me.. *ahem cough*... it is @AuNaturaleFood) I then decided to sign up for a personal account (@Jor_Cohen, in case you wanted to follow me there, too, but I find that I'm mainly sticking with @AuNaturaleFood). And to date, I still haven't quite totally mastered how/when to use hashtags or how to write in only 140 characters. Hey, I'm verbose.

One thing I did jump on was finding others to follow. It's not that many yet, per se, but seeing what Slow Food USA or Michael Pollen has to say is fun. It can also be a bit of a mind screw, though, when you sign up for things like FDA recalls.

I chose to follow that particular account because in my Au Naturale world I have become keenly interested in how things like conventional farming and overprocessing endanger our health. Especially since I found the below article:

A Second Chance for Faulty Food? FDA Calls it 'Reconditioning'

Um... ew? I don't think I can ever look at a carton of chocolate ice cream the same way again.

I thought it best to have a head start on FDA recalls so I could analyze and post as need be... but I never realized how many would show up in my twitter feed on an almost daily basis. At one point, I had 6 FDA recall alert posts in just 24 hours. In those particular examples many of the recalls have to do with the occasional peanut or other allergen showing up in a food that isn't supposed to contain it. But it's all a scary reminder that mass processing and toying with nature can have some unintended consequences.

Speaking of unintended consequences... the information overload continues for me outside of the Twitterverse as I now read any and every article that smacks of processing. Join me! It includes such articles as:

Microwave Popcorn Bag Chemicals Ruin Vaccine Efficacy

Whoa. I've read that the chemicals will leech into the popcorn itself while microwaving, but this is a new twist. It also brings up the general issue of PFCs in our food and in our bodies.... but as I like to say, that's another post for another day. Also another post for another day? An alternative to buying microwave popcorn: a recipe just as easy and equally as delish! Stay tuned for a recipe alert... although I don't know that it is so much a "recipe" as a technique.

Ooh! How about another fun (fun=scary) article?

CDC: 9 out of 10 Americans Eat Too Much Salt

While that statistic is hardly news, what I found most interesting is how salt ends up in so much processed food, and especially in foods where you don't expect it to exist at all. In the past I, along with many others, used to think that we Americans simply had a heavy hand with the salt shaker. But it explains so much to know that even when you're not manually adding it yourself you could be ingesting an overload. It could explain the continually high blood pressure rates in people who try to watch what they're eating. And it could certainly explain why, after cutting out the processed foods, I've noticed the changes in my own body that I wrote about in this post.

So in a post originally dedicated to my Twitter travails, I apologize for including you in my subsequent information overload. Unless, that is, it inspires you all to go on an information, fact-seeking mission yourselves. In that case: you're welcome!! Enjoy. Become smarter.

P.S. After all of this, please don't forget to follow me at @AuNaturaleFood. Do it now! Seriously, my self-worth is getting wrapped up in how many followers I have. It's the equivalent of getting excited when people "like" your Facebook posts. Sad, I know.