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03/12/2015

5 Health Benefits You Never Knew About Organic Food

Jonha Revesencio
Posted: 03/11/15 06:12 AM ET Updated: 03/11/15 10:59 PM ET

The term 'Organic Food' conjures up images of alfalfa sprouts, mixed greens, and bland, tasteless vegetables that seem about as appealing as eating dirt. With only a cursory thought, it would seem to be logical to assume that simple, natural foods might actually be better for us than mass-produced, processed, altered foods would be.

But what if there were benefits you hadn't even considered? Would those convince you to give organic foods another try? Consider these five points, and see if you don't agree that organic foods are the way to go.

Organic Food is filling

Health-conscious stores like Whole Foods or organic meal delivery services like Fresh N Lean, are dedicated to ensuring the fruits and vegetables they offer are 100% fresh, never frozen, and free of anything that could come between your body and the nutrition.

Farm-grown, natural food, from free-range steroid-free chicken to vine-ripened tomatoes, make the difference between food that offers nutrition, and processed junk that actually can leave you unsatisfying and hungry.
Traditional meals and processed foods have ingredients added that leave us unsatisfied, even feeling hungrier than before we ate.
Sugar substitutes, MSG and other additives actually trigger the hunger mechanisms chemically. You are still left unsatisfied, meaning you'll eat more.

Organic foods need no preservatives

Organic foods, of course, have no processing or additives. These foods tastes better, and even the most basic food products like fruits and vegetables have natural resistance to bacteria and decay, meaning they usually have a shelf life of usually about a week. For many fruits, those additional days can actually result in the food tasting even better!

What is surprising is even the savings in terms of such things as sodium. Consider fresh, organically grown free range chicken, compared to frozen chicken shipped into a mass market grocery chain. The sodium level can be hundreds of milligrams per serving for the frozen, while the organic chicken may have absolutely no additional sodium content.
And this is not even mentioning the variety of additives that affect texture, color, or consistency, such as questionable food colorings or the much-maligned protein, gluten. Organic foods may vary in such characteristics, but more than make up for the variances with more consistent food and nutritive values.

Organic food is 'fast' food

The big fast food chains claim to provide hot, ready to eat foods quickly. The challenge is that for their food to remain safe over the longer periods of time, more additive and preservatives have to be included. Conventional fast food, with all those additives, actually leave you feeling bloated, uncomfortable; with the excessive levels of sodium and sugars, they're downright unhealthy.
Even those organic meats and certain veggies that need preparation time actually deliver their nutrition into your system faster, more easily than their more processed "Fast Food" replacements. For most vegan meals, time of preparation is actually far less than other diets. Now THAT is good 'Fast Food'!

Organic food is precisely what our bodies were designed to eat

Our bodies are designed to digest foods that are natural, just as we ourselves are natural. By eating the foods that carry necessary nutrition, and nothing else, we allow our system to get what it needs directly from the source, not needing to break down or digest unnecessary additives or preservatives.

Many of the food additives are considered by the FDA to be "GRAS" - Generally Recognized as Safe. It isn't particularly encouraging, but the term means they have not yet been proven a health hazard. Further, many of them were created by corporations as proprietary, and may have even been made of petroleum products or by byproducts.
Far better for you are the organic foods, not just GRAS, but completely healthful and containing the nutrition and food value you need.

Organic food is complete

Our lives are an interaction with our environment. There are no 'additives required' for organic food to be useful to our bodies. Taking in the right proportion the foods your body needs means you get exactly what you need, without requiring fillers, preservatives, or flavor enhancers that processed foods require.

01/12/2015

Few tips for a healthier 2015:

Our Weight Reflects Our Lifestyle Choices
Posted by: : Paul EbelingPosted on: January 10, 2015

Our Weight Reflects Our Lifestyle Choices

By just eating fewer calories and exercising more usually does not work very well when trying to lose weight because not all calories are alike.

By now we should all know that processed fructose in particular causes leptin resistance far more effectively than other sugars, with refined sugar coming in close second. Glucose is not nearly as harmful in comparison.

Fructose also blocks the burning of fat.

So, instead of focusing on calories, we need to address the quality of the foods we eat, and avoid chemical exposures. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as BPA and phthalates, for example, can cause or exacerbate weight gain.

Below is a short list of proactive, easy-to-remember guidelines that can go a long way toward improving health, nutrition, and body weight, as follows;

1. Exercise regularly, and stay active all day long.

Engage in high-intensity Peak Fitness exercise to burn fat and increase muscle mass (a natural fat burner). Also, strive to sit less meaning much less. Ideally no more than 3 hrs a day, and walk 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day in addition to a regular exercise program.

2. Consider intermittent fasting

If insulin/leptin resistant and/or are overweight, boost the body’s fat-burning potential by incorporating intermittent fasting. This is 1 of the most powerful approaches to reverse insulin resistance. It is only necessary to do until your insulin resistance resolves.

3. Buy real food, preferably whole organic and locally grown, and cook from scratch.

Avoiding processed foods will automatically reduce your sugar consumption, which is the root cause of insulin resistance and weight gain. Buy organic produce, that cuts exposure to pesticides and GMO (genetically engineered) ingredients, and in avoiding processed foods, we automatically avoid artificial sweeteners and harmful processed fats like trans fats and vegetable oils such as peanut, corn, and soybean oil, the latter of which actually degrades into oxidation products when heated that may be more harmful than trans fat.

That said, most of us need 50-85% healthy fats in their diet for optimal health.

Sources of healthy fats to add to your diet include avocados, butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk, raw organic dairy, coconuts and coconut oil, unheated organic nut oils, raw nuts and seeds, organic pastured egg yolks, and grass-fed meats.

Always opt for organic grass-fed meats to avoid GMO...

To see the full article please visit:
http://www.livetradingnews.com/weight-reflects-lifestyle-choices-91369.htm #.VLOkPnuAlCs

12/03/2014

The Latest Superfood? Peru’s Maca Root

Prices Leap as Buyers From China Swoop In, Looking for Burst of Energy
By Kris Maher and
Robert Kozak Dec. 2, 2014 7:40 p.m. ET

CARHUAMAYO, Peru—Natural-products companies based in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere have steadily built a market for maca, a small turnip-like root that grows in high mountain areas, and that is believed to give a burst of energy, especially as a sort of natural Vi**ra.

This year a flood of buyers from China swooped into the Junin region of central Peru to buy up as much of the root as possible. That led to a tenfold increase in the price of maca, and in some cases even more, growers say.

Peruvian exporters say the frenzy to find maca has led to broken long-term supply contracts. Global natural-products companies say they are in danger of being pushed out of the market. Police say the aggressive demand has led to sometimes violent thefts of sacks of maca in Peru.

Sales of semiprocessed maca, dried and ground up on small farms and processing plants in the area, have boomed. The government of Peru has sounded the alarm bell that raw maca is also being smuggled out. Officials say the Peruvian maca is used to improve lesser-quality maca grown in China.

Peruvian regulations prohibit the export of unprocessed maca. Peru’s tax agency confirms it seized tons of unprocessed maca before it was smuggled out this year. Some of that was being sent to Asia alongside other prohibited products like sea horses and shark fins, officials said.

“They are not complying with export regulations,” Jorge Tejada, a maca specialist with the regional government in Junin, said of many foreign buyers. He estimates that 4.4 million pounds of maca was smuggled out this year.

Through September, the value of legal maca exports to China rose to $6 million, compared with $540,000 for all of 2013, according to Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism. Exports to the U.S. were $5.5 million through September, versus $6.8 million for all of last year. An official with the Chinese embassy’s commercial section in Lima declined to comment on the rising demand for the root.

More than a decade ago, the price for maca was so low that farmers might not even bother to harvest it. Now growers say they can sell a pound of maca root for about $13 or more, 10 times more than at the beginning of the year. Most maca is cream-colored. Growers say the coveted black maca can fetch about $45 dollars a pound.

For some companies in the U.S., there will be little or no maca available until next year’s harvest begins around midyear. Even then, local growers say that some of next year’s crop has already been bought by buyers from China.

Some maca is being grown in China, but buyers covet Peruvian maca, which has been grown for thousands of years in the virgin soil about 13,000 feet above sea level in the Junin region. Smaller amounts are grown elsewhere in Peru and in neighboring Bolivia.

In China, maca is being marketed as an alternative to ginseng, another highly prized root that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a health tonic and cure for male sexual dysfunction but has become increasingly scarce in the wild.

Consumers are already feeling the pinch in the U.S., where many people add maca powder to drinks or food. It is also commonly available in capsules or as a liquid extract used as an additive to tea or chocolate.

“The price of maca may have crossed a line. The extract market could collapse,” said Chris Kilham, a consultant with Naturex, a French health and nutritional ingredients provider.

Sevananda Natural Foods Market in Atlanta was out of bulk maca powder for most of September and October, said Betsy Abrams, a buyer for the food co-op. Ms. Abrams said she normally buys 25 pounds a month from distributors in the U.S. to keep up with customer demand, but she couldn’t find any recently.

Full article at: http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-latest-superfood-perus-maca-root-1417567226

11/25/2014

Young Italians finding prospects on the farm
Shunning white-collar jobs, young entrepreneurs are reclaiming and rebuilding the country's agricultural sector.

Alberto Mucci Last updated: 23 Nov 2014 13:21

Milan, Italy - Confronted by the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, and with little support from a debt-burdened government, an increasing number of Italy's young people are returning to the land for agriculture production - a sector the generation before nearly abandoned.

Piergiovanni Ferraresi, 23, is one of these new Italian farmers. After graduating law school, he decided to return to his family's farm instead of practising law. In the countryside just outside of Verona, in northeast Italy, Ferraresi transformed the farm into a modern agribusiness that produces milk, soya, and different varieties of grains. He has since hired two employees, including his younger brother Mario.

According to Italy's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, 11,485 new agribusinesses were established in 2013 - a 2.6 percent increase from 2012. About 17 percent were started by individuals below age 30.

Despite a biting recession that has pushed most of Italy's economic sectors into negative growth, agriculture grew 0.6 percent in 2013, according to ISTAT, Italy's National Institute of Statistics.

A report from the INEA, a public research institute with a focus on agriculture, said in 2012 more than 800,000 Italian businesses linked to the farming sector employed about 849,000 people out of Italy's population of about 60 million.

"It's hard to find one single explanation for the phenomenon," Raffaele Maiorano, president of Italy's Association of Young Farmers, told Al Jazeera.

"First and foremost, it's of course the economic crisis. But if I had to better articulate my answer, I would underline two other factors: The growing potential of the agricultural sector, and a change in attitude of Italy's younger generations."

Back to the land

Maiorano pointed to the results of a recent survey by Coldiretti, Italy's association of direct farmers, which says that 54 percent of Italians under 35 would prefer to manage an agri-tourism business than work for a large multinational (21 percent), or be a bank employee (13 percent).

These results might also help explain this year's 45 percent boost in students choosing a university degree in agriculture, and the 12 percent increase in teenagers opting for an agrarian institute over a traditional high school programme.

"When I studied agriculture at university, there were maybe 20 of us attending the course," Pietro Luchini, 28, a Tuscan honey producer, told Al Jazeera. "Today I think there are more than 100 students. It's absolutely incredible."

But despite the general enthusiasm and business opportunities in agriculture suggested by economic indicators, starting an agribusiness is not always an easy task, especially for those unable to rely on family know-how and tradition.

In 2011, Luchini, the son of a doctor, began growing fruit and vegetables with two of his former classmates following graduation. The venture didn't last long. Just a year after they started, they were forced to close because of low revenue and 14-hour workdays.

Of the three former colleagues, Luchini is the only one still working in the agricultural industry, and despite his first failure, he said he is happy he decided not to give up.

"Our honey is slowly finding its way, we are selling it all over Italy and thanks to our quality, we are starting to be noticed abroad," he told Al Jazeera. "If everything goes as planned, we will soon be sending our first boxes to Australia. It's pretty exciting."

Coming home to roost

Other young entrepreneurs have decided to come back from abroad to seize the new opportunities in Italy's growing agricultural sector. Guido Pallini, 28, worked in London at Nomura, Japan's largest investment bank, for more than a year before deciding it was time to start a new life outside of Grosseto, a city on the border between the Tuscany and Lazio regions.

Now, Pallini breeds female buffaloes. With the milk he produces a plethora of different cheeses - ranging from mozzarella, to ricotta, to taleggio - that he now sells all across the region.

"Starting was hard, especially convincing Italian banks to give out loans in times like these," he told Al Jazeera. "But things are slowly starting to move forward and the company is growing."

When the business began to turn a profit, Pallini built an on-site renewable energy plant. Now, he is able to power his production line and sell the extra electricity to Italy's largest electric utility company.

"Inno al Sole will soon be a zero impact farm," he said proudly.

Environmental concerns is one of the reasons that prompted Maria Serena Minunni, 26, to start an agricultural business, while studying economics at the University of Bari, in Italy's deep south.

"When I was a child, my parents always brought me to the countryside, and I enjoyed being surrounded by flowers and trees instead of iPads and computers," she told Al Jazeera. "Today, my office is a field and I could not be happier."

Untapped potential

In Contrada Capopietro, just outside of Bari, Minunni grows organic fruit and vegetables, and produces olive oil and wine, as well as natural pigments that are used by a local fashion designer to colour her natural clothing line.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/11/young-italians-finding-prospects-farm-20141123121547666768.html

11/17/2014

Big Ag Indeed: Organic Food Expected To Reach $105 Billion Next Year
Organic marketing may like to portray itself as small mom-and-pop farmers standing up to Big Agriculture and corporate food, but they have a business juggernaut that would be the envy of anyone in any business.

And it's going to get better.

The report new “Global Organic Foods&Beverages Market Analysis by Products, Geography, Regulations, Pricing Trends,&Forecasts (2010 – 2015)” analyzes the organic food, beverages, and supplements market by products and geography and studies the major market drivers and opportunities for organic food and beverages in major geographies of North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest Of the World (ROW). They forecast that the global organic food and beverages market will grow from $57.2 billion in 2010 to $104.5 billion in 2015 - 12.8% growth per year and almost 100% in 6 years, even during the ongoing economic malaise.

That is smart salesmanship.

Obviously marketing deserves much of the credit; the target customer willingly embraces implied and overt claims that organic food is more nutritious, ethically superior and even outright falsehoods like that it used no pesticides. As a result, the giant retailers that organic farmers supposedly dislike, such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, and Safeway, are selling organic products. The organic food and beverages market is also expected to benefit from subsidies, financial aids, and R&D programs conducted by different government and non-government organizations such as FiBL (Switzerland), APEDA (India) and USDA (U.S.) to support conventional farmers to switch to organic farming.

North America is expected to witness to have had an average growth rate of almost 70% between 2010-2015 (11.9% CAGR). The rest of the World (ROW) segment (which includes Latin America, Australasia, and others) is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 16.2%. In 2010, Europe had the largest share in the global organic food and beverages market with revenue of $27.8 billion. Germany is the biggest consumer in Europe with a share of 32% of organic food and beverages in the region.

Asian organic food market is expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 20.6% from 2010 to 2015. Japan leads the Asian countries in terms of organic food consumption with nearly 54% of the share in 2010. Fresh produces (fruits and vegetables) are the highest selling organic food categories with 37% of the organic foods segment in terms of revenue. Organic supplements are the fastest growing segments in the organic industry with an estimated CAGR of 22.3% from 2010 to 2015; with Europe expected to continue its dominance in the segment for the same period.

11/13/2014

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Has this ever happened to you?

You walk into the local supermarket, shopping list in hand, and find yourself in the colorful produce section. You snag a plastic bag, and start picking out some shiny conventional apples. Just as you think you've selected the right ones, you notice another display of similar looking apples (maybe even more odd shaped and of various colors) in a fancier rack with a sign that reads, "Organic," in bold letters.

The first thing you'd notice is the difference in price, and you say to yourself: Is it worth paying more?

It's true that organic foods tend to be more expensive --sometimes 40%-50% more-- but that's often because of the higher cost of organic farming practices.

What is the difference between organic and non-organic foods?

The Mayo Clinic says the word "organic" refers to the way farmers grow and process agricultural products, designed to encourage soil and water conservation and reduce pollution. Examples of organic farming practices include the use of natural fertilizers to feed soil and plants, and using crop rotation or mulch to manage weeds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires all organic foods to meet strict government standards which regulate how foods are grown, handled and processed. The three factors the USDA considers include pesticides, food additives, and the environment.

Pesticides: When farmers spray pesticides, it leaves residue on the produce that we later consume. Organic farmers use insect traps, careful crop selection, predator insects or even microorganisms in place of pesticides to control crop-damaging pests.

Food Additives: Organic regulations also ban or severely restrict the use of food additives, processing aids and fortifying agents used in non-organic products like preservatives, artificial sweeteners, coloring and flavoring, as well as monosodium glutamate.

Environment: Organic farming practices benefit the environment by reducing pollution and conserving the quality of water and soil.

Although non-organic foods may have the same amount of nutrients than organic foods, they also can have synthetic pesticides, hormones and additives, none of which may be good for our bodies.

Check out this list of the 10 foods you should only buy and eat organic..

If the cost of buying all organic isn't within your budget, we make it easy and show you the 10 best foods to buy organic.

08/25/2014

What is a “Superfood”?

A healthy diet is the essential core of a healthy life. Superfood is a term sometimes used to describe generally whole food (a list of Superfoods is reported below) with high phytonutrient content that may confer health benefits as a result (like lowering total cholesterol or lowering blood pressure).

Why it should matter to you”?
As a consequence, these varied group of food is attracting enormous attention from consumers also...

To see the full article please visit: http://sabioq.com/services/index.php?id_cms=19&controller=cms&id_lang=1

07/12/2014

(Great interview with the founder of Earthbound Farm Organic published by takepart.com)

How a Small Raspberry Farm Transformed the Organic Food Industry

Myra Goodman talks about founding the company that made bagged baby salad greens a supermarket star.

July 11, 2014 By Kristina Bravo

Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Myra Goodman didn’t eat a lot of greens. Just like the typical American household, her family had a diet largely comprised of takeout and microwavable foods.

All that changed later in her life. Goodman and her husband cofounded Earthbound Farm Organic, one of the biggest growers of organic produce. The couple sold the company in 2013. Now Goodman has released her third cookbook, Straight From the Earth, which features vegan recipes she refined while living on her farm in Carmel Valley, Calif. The author and organic pioneer talked to us about TV dinners, forgoing pesticides, food labels, and why eating vegan might be the cheap and easy way to a healthier diet.

TakePart: What did you eat growing up?

Myra Goodman: My parents are both immigrants. My mom’s from Hungary, and she totally bought into the American, convenient processed foods. I was raised on TV dinners most nights, buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and once in a while we had a homemade meal of these things called minute steaks. My mom would season these thin slices of beef with Accent, which was basically a hundred percent MSG. I grew up without any connection to healthy food or where my food was grown. I lived on the 11th floor in Manhattan, and I’d look out my window, and I craved greenery, and I didn’t know how to get it.

TakePart: How did you finally get your fix?

Goodman: I went to college at the University of Vermont. I needed fresh air and trees, and I was just so happy in the country. Then I had this big experience in India and decided that I was going to change the world. I transferred to Berkeley, and I was going to go to school for international relations and get a job at the U.N. and live in the city. I had this year where I had to decide which graduate school I wanted to go to and prepare for the GREs. But me and my boyfriend at the time, Drew, had this opportunity to move onto this little heirloom raspberry farm in Carmel Valley that was pretty dilapidated. We fixed it up in exchange for paying rent.

TakePart: Why did you decide to go the organic route?

Goodman: Drew and I didn’t know much about farming. It was a conventional farm, and we were kind of given a crash course in how to use the chemicals. When it was time to use them, we just really felt like we didn’t want to apply them.... We had no idea that farming uses so many toxic chemicals. It was really an instinct of self-preservation. We didn’t want to handle and apply them in our backyard. We didn’t want to eat food grown with them. We didn’t want to sell this food to our neighbors, and so we taught ourselves to farm organically.

TakePart: When did Earthbound Farm start to really grow?

Goodman: Our first really big customer was Costco, who started buying from us in 1993. In the beginning Costco didn’t want to put “organic” on the package because they thought it was a turnoff to consumers. Back then, organic was just shriveled apples and wilted vegetables in these teeny little dark health food stores. There were no Whole Foods; there were no big natural food markets. So Costco originally didn’t want it to have organic on it. But by the late '90s we started putting “organic” on the label. I think organic has hit the mainstream, and that took a lot of time, for its reputation to change.

TakePart: Why do you think people started embracing organic?

Goodman: When the USDA started regulating organic, which I believe was in 2002, that really changed the industry. Having the USDA-certified label legitimized organic. Before then, different states had different requirements for what was organic. Consumers never really knew what they were getting. Once the USDA regulated it and there was a seal, it gave consumers a lot more confidence. It gave retailers more confidence that what they were selling was organic. For farmers, it gave them an impetus to start transitioning some of their crops to organic. That was a very big step for the organic industry.

To see the full interview please visit: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/07/11/earthbound-myra-goodman

06/10/2014

More British Organic Products Soon to be Found in China’s Supermarkets
By: Sarah Klewes

UNITED KINGDOM — British export of organic produce will increase following a deal between the U.K.’s Soil Association and China’s Organic Food Development Center in mid-April that simplifies the entry of British contractors into the Chinese market.

Currently, Chinese authorities follow only their own organic regulatory system for goods imported into China, and organic products have to be inspected and certified with respect to Chinese organic standards.

“This new partnership has been set up to make it easier for Soil Association-certified licensees to obtain Chinese certification for their products,” says the Soil Association.

Before the agreement, applying for permission to export organic produce to China was a complex procedure. Prospective exporters had to go through and pay for the whole process on their own. Therefore, the range of imported organic products in China has been smaller than it could have been.

But the Chinese demand for high-quality organic products from abroad has been growing steadily since the mid-2000s. “Chinese consumers are prepared to pay a premium for products they consider to be healthy, high-quality and safe,” says the China-Britain Business Council.

Now the U.K.’s Soil Association, which grants organic licenses to British suppliers, is offering to handle contact with the Chinese authorities on its members’ behalf.

“Working with OFDC will make the process of certification for our U.K. licensees wanting to export to China both efficient and cost-effective,” says Emma Yeats, the Soil Association’s senior certification manager. “We are delighted with this partnership, which helps develop an important export opportunity.”

http://studentreporter.org/2014/06/more-british-organic-products-soon-to-be-found-in-chinas-supermarkets/

05/12/2014

Has the chia seed craze really hit big in Chicago?

May 12, 2014, 11:10am CDT
Lewis Lazare Reporter- Chicago Business Journal

This may be the Midwest. But hey, trendy happens here too. Apparently quite a bit in the food sector. GrubHub — now that its IPO is more or less behind the Chicago-based online ordering company — has gotten back to the fun, data-driven part of the massive online food ordering apparatus it operates.

And one of the first data analyses GrubHub has done concerns the hottest health food fads in the takeout realm and the cities where those fads — however fleeting they may be — are most popular.

But before we get to the cities — and the big surprise there — let's talk what's trending in health foods. Would you believe chia seeds tops the list? Those little black seeds, so rich in Omega 3, saw a 140 percent spike in orders in the past year at GrubHub.

Just below chia seeds on the list was quinoa, which saw a 110 percent spike, with almond milk (110 percent), kale (99 percent) and "raw" foods (a more generic sort of order) rounding out the top five items with a 59 percent spoke in orders.

Everything considered, the top health food fad items may not seem that startling when bunched together.

But when it comes to the cities where these trendier health foods are being ordered, there's a much bigger surprise in the GrubHub data. Yep, Chicago is right up there in the No. 2 spot among cities with the highest percentage of orders for trending health foods. Chicago landed behind No. 1 Boulder, CO., which is probably exactly where Boulder should be on the list. If Boulder is known for anything, it's a penchant for healthy living.

But Chicago? Excuse me. Here pizza, burgers and steak are what the local residents are known to crave. Not healthy food.

Los Angeles and Seattle made the GrubHub list in the No. 3 and No. 4 slots respectively, followed by New York. Again no big surprises there. Those cities are sort of known for being big and trendy— and health conscious — markets.

GrubHub said it's pretty confident of its health food trend findings because the company works with more than 29,000 mostly independent restaurants. Healthy food trends are much more likely to take seed, as it were, in indie restaurants than they are in chain restaurants because trends can be readily tested and quickly added to menus. Added GrubHub President Jonathan Zabusky: "Menu flexibility like this is a luxury, and it puts our restaurants at he forefront of industry trend-setting."

http://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2014/05/12/has-the-chia-seed-craze-really-hit-big-in-chicago.html?page=all