BEWARE OF ORGANIC FOOD RIP-OFFS!

Last night, I felt a little scratchiness in my throat and my nose was getting watery. In hopes of warding off a cold, I went to the cupboard and pulled out a carton of Swanson's "CERTIFIED ORGANIC" chicken broth. I poured some in a cup and laced it with a bit of cayenne pepper and nuked it. I drank it down with a bunch of Vitamin C capsules. WOW! The only thing I could taste was the cayenne pepper. The overall experience was the same as if I had done the same thing with water. Going to the "broth" container, this is what I found under ingredients:

> Fat: 1/2 gram
> Protein: 1 gram
> Sugars: 1 gram
> Salt: 1.3 gram

This was for 1 quart of "broth". One quart of broth that I would make would have about 280 grams of protein, 140 grams of fat, no sugar, and about 2-3 grams of Norwegian sea salt.

Not to put all the blame on Swanson's, I checked Pacific brand Organic Chicken Broth and it had the same contents as Swanson's. A concentrated 10 1/2 oz. can of Campbell's chicken broth had the same protein and more salt at about 1/3 the price. THEY ARE ALL RIP-OFFS AND TOTALLY USELESS!

They are nothing more than flavored water. You'd have more nutrition in a cup of dishwater! As an aside, what were they calling "ORGANIC"? . . . the water? . . . the salt? . . . the sugar?

. . . The "ORGANIC" label for meat or poultry containing products allows the use of "UNNATURAL" feed, i. e. feed that's convenient for the producer, but unhealthy for the animal. Beef, lamb and buffalo should be grass fed and hormone free to be healthy. Poultry should be free ranging in a wide open area and free of hormones to be healthy and nutritionally balanced and rich. Thus, meats and poultry should be labeled, "NATURAL" and from a trusted producer.

I made a pot of chicken soup from scratch today using about 2 quarts of water, 8 skinless naturally raised chicken thighs, 24 oz. of frozen organic mixed vegetables, 1/4 onion, 8 cloves of garlic and about 1/3 tsp of Norwegian sea salt (the real deal) and barley. I braised the chicken seasoned with Italian seasoning, turmeric, cumin and pepper in a Woc in olive oil. Next, I brought the frozen veggies with salt to a boil and added the onions and, finally, the garlic. Then, I added the chicken and all the cooking liquids to the veggies. To this, I added about 1/2 cup of organic barley. I stirred and let the whole mix boil for 10 min. and then let sit for an hour.

The result was a thick, rich and flavorful soup! Mahlzeit!!!