Foods to avoid

It’s almost time for New Year’s resolutions.  According to my latest issue of Sierra (Jan./Feb. 2014, pp. 6-7), here are five foods to avoid in 2014. 

Bluefin Tuna.  They are long-lived and don’t reproduce easily.  They are overfished and declining fast.  If we don’t stop eating them now, in a few years we will all stop eating them because they will be extinct.

Conventional coffee.  Buy organic coffee and choose shade-grown coffee.  And get off your fancy kick.  A cup of black coffee at Starbucks has a carbon footprint of about 30 grams; a venti caramel latte has one of about 420 grams.

Burgers.  If you must, and some of us must, try to eat grass fed beef.  And not so much.  And not so often. 

Genetically modified corn.  Do you really need high fructose corn syrup?  GMO corn is depleting bees, uses more pesticides, requires more fertilizer, and reduces biodiversity.  

Palm oil.  Some of these foods sound so benign, but 8 million acres of rain forest have already been cleared and burned to grow palm trees.  In Indonesia deforestation-related carbon emissions--most of which are from expanding palm plantations--annually surpass the amount of pollution from ALL U.S. cars, trucks, planes, and ships. Palm oil use in this country has increased by about 500% in the past ten years.