Eat more cassava chips.
And tell us about it.
Chow.com's blog, The Pick, gave kudos to Arico's Cassava Chips in a post on Friday.
“The Ginger on Fire flavor has a spicy, slightly sweet tang that doesn’t disappoint,” said chow.com blogger Emily Hobson. “The Sea Salt Mist flavor is cleanly salty without being greasy.”
“With less fat than potato chips and twice the fiber, it’s tough to feel entirely guilty about hogging the bag.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Just discovered Arico's Cassava Chips? Tell us about it!
Living Gluten Free
Arico’s whole grain cookies and all-natural cassava chips were on hand at Lakewinds Natural Foods, a member-owned cooperative store in Minnetonka, MN, as they celebrated 31 days of Living Gluten-Free this month.
According to our very dedicated food demonstrator, Linda, the cassava chips were a hit with the gluten free customers! One shopper, who said she hadn’t had a snack chip in 12 years, was so impressed with our cassava chips that she filled her cart with four bags. Arico Original Cassava Chips took the lead as the favorite chip flavor on demo day.
What’s your favorite flavor?
A Healthy Diet = Better Grades
Children with healthy diets perform better in school than their poorly fed counterparts, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of School Health, a publication of the American School Health Association.
The study surveyed the diets of 5,000 Canadian fifth grade students and administered standardized literacy assessments of the children. Less healthful dietary components included saturated fat and salt, while healthy foods were classified by fruits, vegetables, grains, dietary fiber, protein, calcium and moderate fat intake.
Relative to the students in the study whose diets were deemed unhealthy, the students with healthier diets rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains were 41% less likely to fail the literacy assessment.
According to the authors of the study, the findings support the need for additional investment in school nutrition programs to improve the diet, health and academic performance of school children.
Read more about the study here. Learn about Arico’s philosophy about how good foods impact health.
Expo West 2008
Arico's "mindful snacking" display at the country's largest natural foods trade show, Expo West, held March 14-16th in Anaheim, CA:
Food for Thought
Consuming foods with a high glycemic index (GI) can lead to a higher risk of certain health problems, according to research published in the March 1st issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The glycemic index ranks carbohydrates based on their effect on blood glucose levels. Foods with a high GI – like sugary cereals or sodas and refined flour products like white bread – are rapidly digested and absorbed, resulting in marked fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Low GI foods, which include high fiber fruits and vegetables, legumes and whole grains, like oats and quinoa, are more slowly digested and absorbed and, thus, produce more gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels.
According to the study, which followed the diets of nearly 2 million healthy men and women worldwide, a high GI diet may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It also shows there is good evidence for links between high blood glucose and gall stones and some types of cancer.
‘'Low GI foods have benefits for everybody - they can keep you feeling full longer, help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight and provide you and your brain with more consistent energy throughout the day. They can also have a major effect on the way the body functions and whether or not you develop health problems,” said the study’s lead author, Alan Barclay of the University of Sydney, Australia.
Read more about the study here or search the University of Australia's GI database.
Learn about Arico's philosophy on mindful snacking.
Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, try this gluten-free version of classic Irish Soda Bread.
Originally featured on the Whole Foods Market web site, the recipe was brought to my attention by a poster on a celiac listserve. Described as "flavorful and crumbly, rather like an oversized scone," it's best eaten within a day or two of baking.
Irish Soda Bread
Yield: About 10–12 slices
Dry ingredients:
* 2/3 cup rice flour
* 1/2 cup potato starch
* 1/4 cup almond flour
* 1/4 cup tapioca flour
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* pinch cardamom
Wet ingredients:
* 1/3 cup currants (soaked in hot water overnight and drained)
* 3/4 cup buttermilk
* 3 ounces (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
* 1 egg
Preheat oven to 350°F. Measure dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, and stir together. Combine wet ingredients into a second bowl; stir them together, too. Now pour the wets slowly over the dries. The batter will be sticky and thick. Spread it into a greased and rice-floured 6-inch pan, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
Sack That Plastic Bag
Paper or plastic? The answer to that question is no longer so simple.
Introduced to grocery stores in the 1970s as a cheap alternative to paper bags, plastic bags quickly became the bag of choice for consumers.
Today, they’re known as an environmental scourge - clogging up landfills, choking marine animals and doing their eternal dance across the landscape.
Manufactured from crude oil and natural gas, both nonrenewable resources, plastic bags are not biodegradable and take nearly a thousand years to break down in landfills.
And paper bags aren’t much better. Even though they’re biodegradable, recyclable, and made from trees, a renewable resource, it takes a lot of energy to manufacture and recycle them. And that means more air and water pollution.
Whole Foods Market is aiming to end the use of disposable plastic grocery bags at the checkouts in all of its stores with the goal to be plastic bag-free by April 22. Yes, that’s Earth Day.
Most grocery stores now offer their own branded version of the reusable shopping bag, usually costing little more than 99 cents apiece. There are also numerous options for the more stylish eco-conscious among us. Reusablebags.com offers a large selection.
I recently bought a reusable ChicoBag at my local co-op store. It holds up to 20 lbs worth of stuff – whether it’s your groceries, your new shoes or a whole slew of paperbacks. It folds up into a tiny pouch that fits into your pocket or purse, making it that much less difficult to forget. And it’s cute. No fewer than three grocery store clerks admired it when I pulled it out of my pocket - unraveling it from its pouch with a flourish - and used it to bag my groceries the other day.
So the next time you go to the store to stock up on Arico’s delicious cookies and cassava chips, don’t forget to do your part for the environment and bring your own bag. Extra points for style.
How Big is Your Footprint?
Ever thought about how just how much energy you use in a day? It could be more than you’d think.
There are lots of tools out there to help you calculate your personal carbon footprint. You should try it; it’s fun! You might be surprised (or should I say frightened?) to discover how much everyday actions like heating your home, commuting to work, and disposing of your trash contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
Al Gore offers a handy calculator at his Inconvenient Truth website.
EPA offers an even more detailed analysis here. It also walks you through the small steps you can take to reduce your footprint, like switching to energy-efficient lightbulbs or replacing your old refrigerator.
At Arico, we think about these things. We care about the legacy we leave on this earth. That’s why we take steps to offset the emissions inevitably created by our everyday business operations.
We are working with Green Mountain Energy Company to offset 100% of our annual emissions by purchasing BeGreen carbon offsets. By investing in offsets such as forest sequestration projects, we’ve helped to avoid about 17 metric tons of CO2 pollution annually.
As a result of these efforts, we’re proud to report that we are the first carbon neutral gluten-free snack company in the world!
What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?