Looks like we're not the only ones who think real food stands a fighting chance at making it back onto the American plate. Our friends at Change.org have put "mainstream concern about cheap food" at the top of their list of sustainable food trends to watch for 2010. "We eat unhealthily largely because our industrial food system processes subsidized corn into food-like stuff that we place at the center of our diets where fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains should be," writes Katherine Gustafson. "To the health-conscious or those active in food politics, that statement will come as no surprise."

Surprised? Not us. We've lent our voice to the growing chorus all year long. Get the big picture by scanning our list of the best 20 stories on what we call "real food" from the past year.

1. Can Big Beef censor the sustainable truth?
2. Safer bottles haven't canned BPA problems
3. Big Ag's growing appetite for lobbying
4. Top 10 riskiest FDA-regulated foods
5. Obama's health plan: the missing element (it's food!)
6. Unlock the facts on GM seeds
7. Demand for organics reaches all demographics
8. Cheerios are a drug, says the FDA
9. Fast food chains riding the green train
10. Nastiest junk food ingredients
11. The unexpected influence of biofuel on pest control
12. Whose fault is elite meat?
13. Vilsack leads changes in food politics
14. The oxymoron of organic junk food
15. Pork industry breeding superbugs?
16. The dirty dozen: Know which produce is heavy on pesticides
17. Artificial sweeteners: Sweet and lowdown
18. The industrialization of organic food
19. Go organic when it counts
20. Eat locally everywhere: Locavores go mainstream
21. Can you name 3 foods high in trans fats?
22. Recalls point to processed food pitfalls
23. Can organic survive the economic downturn?
24. Mercury found in high fructose corn syrup

Ok, you're right—that was 24 stories, not 20. We couldn't find four stories to trim from the list that we didn't think you need to read.

What can you do to serve up real food? Unfortunately, we're still at the "let the buyer beware" stage—so let Super Eco show you how. Here's to taking heart, taking action and eating healthy in 2010.

(Photo credit:ckforjc, SXC)

Glug, glug, glug ... Ahhh. Nothing like a nice, cold glass of slimy, frothing fat globules.

Thus ends New York City's appalling new anti-soda video, which shows a man guzzling down what turns out to be a graphically realistic glass of fat. The city's "Are You Pouring on the Pounds?" campaign, which launched print ads earlier this fall, connects the dots for soda-guzzling consumers: drinking just one can of soda a day can add up to 10 pounds of weight in a year.

Americans are gobbling 200 to 300 more calories a day than we did 30 years ago, and nearly half of those extra calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. It's clear that consumers' perspective on what constitutes a beverage worth drinking may be more than a little askew. Adding to the confusion is a clamor of prepared teas, sports and vitamin drinks, many of which appear to be healthy choices yet are as packed with sugar as soda.

So maybe it's about time for a graphic representation of the fizzy failure that is soda. Take a look for yourself, and let us know if your craving for an ice-cold Coke has let up a little.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene suggests replacing soda with water, seltzer or milk and offers these tips for healthier drinking:

• Drink plenty of water.
• Choose fat-free or 1% milk.
• Switch from juice to whole fruit.
• Skip sports drinks and "energy" drinks.
• Watch out for coffee and tea drinks and shakes.
• Downsize drinks.

(Photo credit:New York City Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene)

The problem with Halloween for families who are trying to live more sustainably, responsibly and lightly on the earth isn't only the candy. We've already talked about ideas for healthy, eco-friendly Halloween treats—but how do you make sure that's what ends up in your child's goody bag? How do you remove the emphasis on "gimme, gimme, gimme"? And how do you handle Halloween for older kids and teens who are still young enough to get excited about trick-or-treating but old enough to get glares from neighbors who'd prefer to reserve goodies for cutie-patootie preschoolers?

Flip tradition on its head with reverse trick-or-treating. The trendsetter is Global Exchange's third annual Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign. Trick-or-treaters go door to door, handing out information about fair trade, certified chocolate—plus (of course) a delectable sample. Signups for this year's campaign are already closed, but you can follow the same ideas on your own.

• Help kids create information cards and samples on anything that matters to you: fair trade chocolate, phthalates in plastics, environmental and health concerns over high fructose corn syrup ... Let them do the research, then design and write the cards.
• Ask local stores to donate samples or coupons for healthy, sustainable treats.
• Shepherd your gang of eco-activists throughout your neighborhood on Halloween, giving out your goodies.
• Surprise trick-or-treaters on the go by posting your handout station at a busy neighborhood corner.
• Keep reverse trick-or-treating at home and give out your packets from your own door. Enlist kids to dress up and help greet trick-or-treaters and distribute goodies.
• Treat kids at the end of the evening with a pizza party and treats all their own (fair trade sweets, an organic T-shirt—anything green and sustainable that mirrors the theme of what they've chosen to give out for the evening).

(Photo credit:kevindooley, flickr)

If it weren't so tragic at the core, it might prove somewhat amusing to watch the politicians and special interest groups scramble over putting together a cogent health care plan for U.S. citizens. Obviously, Americans do need access to health services—but we have to acknowledge that healthcare wouldn't be such a drain if we could stem the drain of epidemics caused by the products we use and the foods we eat.

When will we change our policies on suspected carcinogens and toxins to "guilty until proven innocent" instead of "innocent until proven guilty"? When will we realize that it's the cumulative effect of so many toxic influences that are chipping away at our health, and not a single chemical we can damn with definitive studies so that we can bumble blithely on with our lives? When will we finally admit that prevention trumps cure?

We're not the only ones who think focusing on the things that actually influence our health as a nation should take center stage. Natural News recently posted a list of areas for real change and progress, with a handful that we think deserve immediate national attention.

• Supporting FDA review and approval of natural cures and safe, effective nutritional supplements
• Banning dangerous chemical ingredients that cause health epidemics (aspartame, MSG, sodium nitrite, etc.)
• Improving school lunches to serve food that's nutritious instead of food that's cheap and convenient
• Ending food subsidies on crops like corn that end up making high fructose corn syrup the cheapest sweetener for manufacturers to use
• Requiring honest food labeling, including irradiated and GMO products

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Americans could open a dialogue about health care that actually centered on health?

(Photo credit:Dan4th, flickr)

Is the very food we eat making us sick? Mother of four and food allergy crusader Robyn O'Brien thinks so. In The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick—and What We Can Do About It, she lays bare the largely unregulated tie between Big Food and Big Money here in America. It's a shocking revelation—and one we think is so important that we're giving away three autographed copies to Super Eco readers.

A Houston native from a conservative family, this MBA and married mother of four was not someone who gave much thought to misguided government agencies and chemicals in our food—until the day her youngest daughter had a violent allergic reaction to eggs, and everything changed. O'Brien's research digs deep:

• What every American consumer needs to know about genetically modified foods (and what consumers around the world already know)
• The truth about so-called "government" and "university" studies on the effects of food production methods (largely unregulated studies that are often funded by the food industry itself)
• Substances (from artificial colorings to high fructose corn syrup) that are banned in Europe but rife in the American food supply
• Recipes and an action plan for weaning your family off dangerous chemicals one step at a time

Get your own signed copy directly from the publisher. All you have to do is make a comment on this post, below, using a valid e-mail address by 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Giveaway for U.S. residents only, please. We'll choose three commenters via Random.org and contact the winners via e-mail. Good luck—and here's to healthier foods!

(Photo credit:Random House)

I'm a big fan of cheat sheets. People seem to think of writers as people who become experts in their fields of specialty, soaked in all those interviews and explanations and facts and figures. While it's true that we do soak up a lot when we're immersed in one field or topic for any length of time, I tend to think of us more as librarians. It's our job to put our fingers on the facts our readers need. For me, if I move on write about similar material, it's all good—but if I shift to a different topic altogether, it may not be long before I can no longer rattle off those top 10 lists from memory.

Enter cheat sheets. Cheat sheets help you make savvy choices even if you can't remember all the details. It's like being a librarian: you don't have to know all the information in the world, just how and where to find it. And with cheat sheets—wallet and cell phone tips for buying eco-safe fish, pocket guides for which produce to buy organic and which is safe to buy conventional, even the best green books for kids—you're not stuck flopping about in front of store displays, desperately trying to remember which product is the healthy choice and which one is made with the nasty stuff.

If you're like me, you need something fairly global for the grocery store, something that steers you around the vicious labeling tricks. Here's some ammunition: Super Eco's list of the Top 20 food additives to avoid.

1. acesulfame-K
2. artificial colors Blue 1,2; Red 3; Green 3; Yellow 6
3. artificial flavorings
4. Aspartame
5. BHA
6. BHT
7. brominated vegetable oil (BVO)
8. high fructose corn syrup
9. hydrogenated oils and trans fats
10. monosodium glutamate (MSG)
11. Olestra
12. potassium bromate
13. propyl gallate
14. propylene glycol
15. saccharin
16. sodium nitrate and nitrite
17. sulfites
18. sulfur dioxide
19. THBQ
20. Xylitol

(Photo credit:Matthew Bland, flickr)

Eco-friendly fast food. There's an oxymoron for you! But fast food chains are paying attention to the rising green wave all around us and are finding that green sense makes economic sense as well.

Chipotle marks a rising trend in fast food, serving up fresh offerings of "food with integrity" in locations across the U.S. using mostly local, seasonal, family-farmed, naturally raised, hormone-free and/or organic ingredients. In addition, the packaging is recyclable; the energy is renewable.

Pizza Fusion ("fresh, organic, earth-friendly") in locations across the south from east to west as well as in the mid-Atlantic and Midwest uses fresh, organic ingredients (including gluten-free offerings) while paying attention to green details like LEED-certified buildings, biodegradable spudware utensils, recyclable pizza boxes (and discounts to customers returning old boxes), renewable power offsets for 100% of its energy use, using green cleaners, and more.

Better Burger (NYC only) uses meat and poultry that is antibiotic, hormone & nitrate free, and often organic, served up on organic buns with a side of baked "fries." Smoothies are mostly-organic.

Burgerville, ("Fresh.Local.Sustainable.") is a point of iconic local pride in Oregon and southern Washington state, serving up burgers made from local, seasonal, organic, antibiotic-free, cage-free ingredients, by happy employees who get real benefits (health care!) even in part time positions. And ditto on using post consumer-recycled products and renewable energy credits: those things come with the territory.

And the big boys? Sure, it's greenwashing (McDonald's high-fructose corn syrup soda in a biodegradable cup made from corn is still McDonald's, blamed for rainforest deforestation and spreading obesity), but there's a huge push toward sustainability in business these days and even the big boys are jumping on the green train. Slowly, but it's coming.

One bite at a time.

(Photo credit:ebruli, flickr)

The peanut butter scare, the pistachio scare, the ground beef scare ... People seem awfully scared of food these days. Yet a potentially even more alarming food scare has been building for years, rarely reported and often dismissed as too "radical" to be true: Is there a link between the dramatic rise in childhood allergies and our increasingly "engineered" approach to food production?

Robyn O'Brien, a mother of four and food allergy crusader, thinks there is—and she exposes how and why in her new book, The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick—and What We Can Do About It. The Unhealthy Truth is both the personal story of how O'Brien learned to cope with life-threatening food allergies in her children and a larger exposé of the largely unregulated tie between Big Food and Big Money.

• What every American consumer needs to know about genetically modified foods (and what consumers around the world already know)
• The truth about so-called "government" and "university" studies on the effects of food production methods (largely unregulated studies that are often funded by the food industry itself)
• Substances (from artificial colorings to high fructose corn syrup) that are banned in Europe but rife in the American food supply

I first met O'Brien last year when I was researching an article on the effects of chemical exposures on children. Many might describe her as "savvy, "whip-smart" or a "firecracker"; I think those terms just might be a polite understatement. O'Brien began investigating the truth about what's in America's food supply after her youngest daughter nearly died from an allergic reaction to eggs. I found it telling that while she's been hailed in the media as "the Erin Brokovich of food," the real Erin Brokovich has actually weighed in: "You don't have to be a doctor or a scientist to look into whether our food supply is safe, and Robyn O'Brien's courageous pursuit of The Unhealthy Truth is an example of how we can all do our parts to protect the health of our families."

Read more about food allergies at O'Brien's web site, Allergy Kids. The Unhealthy Truth goes on sale May 5.

(Photo credit:Random House)

It ain't easy being sweet. On the list of not-so-healthy sweeteners? High fructose corn syrup leads the charge, closely followed by refined sugar and artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Neotame, Splenda and Saccharin. That doesn't leave many alternatives: fruit juice, rice syrup, date sugar, maple syrup, Sucanat (natural sugar cane with the water removed) ... oh, and agave nectar.

Made from the sap of the desert plant agave, agave nectar is gaining popularity in the United States. Last year alone, it popped up in 29 new products, according to market research company Mintel.

• Agave has a low glycemic index—about five times lower than table sugar—meaning fewer blood sugar spikes and crashes.
• Although it has more calories per teaspoon than granulated sugar, agave tastes sweeter, so you need less agave to sweeten your treats.
• Light agave nectar features a light, neutral flavor that makes it perfect for sweetening food and drinks. (Darker types have a more caramel flavor.)
• Agave nectar has a long shelf life and will not crystallize.
• Agave makes the perfect vegan alternative to honey.

One caution about agave nectar: you do need to choose USDA-certified organic varieties. According to Eating Well magazine, nearly all agave sold in the United States is imported from Mexico, and the FDA has refused some shipments due to excessive pesticide residues.

(Photo credit:All About Agave)

Avoiding sweets so the kids won’t climb the walls? Don’t blame sugar. Numerous studies show that sugar won't bring on hyper or aggro behavior in the average child. “While it is a common belief that high sugar intake causes children to be more active—even ‘hyperactive’—there have actually been controlled studies done which dispute that belief,” explains Dr. LeAnn Kridelbaugh, a pediatrician and physician nutrition specialist at UT Southwestern and medical director of the Dean Foods LEAN Families program at Children's Medical Center Dallas.

Mary Poppins was right: A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Sometimes sweetening things up makes it easier to get the good stuff down the hatch. Chocolate or strawberry milk contains less sugar and more nutrition than many juices, fruit drinks or sodas, notes renowned pediatrician and author Dr. Alan Greene. And a University of Vermont study published in the June 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that children who drink flavored milk are more likely to meet recommended daily calcium requirements than their peers and are no more likely to have higher sugar or fat intakes.

It's all in the balance. While you shouldn’t avoid sugar solely based on fear of cranking up your kids’ behavior, and while some sugar can help you sneak in more nutrition to your kids' diets, there are good reasons to avoid artificial sweeteners. Choose natural alternatives, if you want to avoid refined sugar. And be wary of adding empty calories. “The main reason to use simple sugars in moderation at any age is the high number of calories these foods contain that can lead to weight gain over time,” Dr. Kridelbaugh cautions.

(Photo credit:BohPhoto, flickr)