When you look into the mirror, who do you see? Do you see someone with business smarts? Someone with potential? A savvy investor? If you see even one of these people when you look into the mirror, then you are exactly the kind of person that Yo Naturals is currently seeking. In fact, we are looking for a whole cadre of potential small business owners who are interested in investing in a change to the way Americans see snack food.

It’s no secret that there is a childhood obesity epidemic in this country. Many newspaper headlines, many politicians, and many physicians will bear witness to this fact, and that’s not even mentioning the large number of concerned parents. At the same time, there is another (partially overlapping) sector of the population that has been sounding the virtues of organic food for years and years. And their cries are being heard. The organic food industry has grown a lot in the last decade and is likely to continue growing as more is found out about the dangers of residual chemicals that are found in some of our fruits and vegetables. When these two thoughts are combined, it is easy to see that there is a practical solution that can address both problems at one time: vending machines that provide healthy (read: organic and natural) snack foods to time-strapped parents and their children.

In fact, even as you read this, the YoNaturals business is growing in prominence as a leader in the healthy vending movement. Through building alliances with school districts and the parents who enroll their children in these same school districts, YoNaturals has taken over a share of the marketplace that had previously been dominated by the traditional machines that are stocked primarily with junk food and sugary soda pops. Now, as small business owners are coming on board, YoNaturals is looking to expand their claim on the healthy vending movement and to claim an even larger share of the vending market in general by placing their products in more schools and other areas where hungry children and their parents can find them.

As we continue to grow, we are looking for potential small business owners who can help us push into these new markets. Yo Naturals has already invested the time, money, and energy that are necessary to establish the framework for success. Your role, as a small business owner, would be to help us expand into new areas. In fact, as the organic food movement continues to grow, there will be a lot of new territory available to our new way of doing snack foods.

If you are interested in investing in the future of health food vending, then visit www.YoNaturals.com today to find out how to get started.

Author: Brenda Coxe

Whenever you read the newspaper or listen to the radio or television someone is always preaching about learning how to make good choices in the foods and snacks we feed our families. The problem is they don’t give us any specifics on how to do that. On rare occasions you will see someone encouraging us to eat more fruits and vegetables or take vitamins to make up for the loss of nutrients in the food we eat. Instead of encouraging us to take vitamins and dietary supplements, they should be encouraging us to learn to eat right so that we won’t need to rely so much on dietary supplements.

If no one is giving any information on how to make good eating choices, how are we supposed to know? The best way to do that other than taking time to attend nutrition classes is to conduct some research on the subjects. The library, bookstores, and the Internet are full of information on eating for good health. Reading and surfing the net are probably the two best ways to obtain the information you need because they are the easiest sources of information.

Most of us learned about good nutrition when we were in school but as we have become adults, we have ceased to see the importance. The problem with that line of thinking is that it brushes off on the kids, and they adapt our attitude. This is especially true if we attempt to force the children to eat healthy while we continue to eat junk food and make other unhealthy choices. Like any other method of rearing our children, they will not accept “Do as I say and not as I do” for an answer nor should we as parents expect them to do so. Parents need to set the example for their children, and that begins with healthy eating.

We cannot expect our children to adapt healthy eating habits unless we instill them into them at an early age. The problem develops when we as parents don’t fully understand the importance of teaching our children healthy eating. We cannot teach them healthy eating if we don’t know what it entails ourselves. Before a parent can teach their children, they must learn themselves. YoNaturals is attempting to do something about this problem by introducing the children to healthy and organic foods and snacks. It may not completely solve the problem but it is a step in the right direction. We cannot expect the change to occur overnight, but we are headed into the right direction.

If you want to learn healthy eating, the first thing you need to do is learn the basics of the process and what foods you should eat to maintain good health. Eating healthy means no just eating foods that are nutritionally balance but knowing how much to eat and how to supplement anything that is lacking in your diet. Healthy eating also involves including all of the nutrients you need, preferably in the food you eat though supplements are not out of the question.

Healthy eating means putting into your body those nutrients that the body needs for you to maintain good health. Of course, that can also include other products such as water, a necessary element for the body. It’s important for the body to maintain a good balance of nutritious foods in order to stay healthy, and of course, drinking water is part of that balance. Many people don’t drink enough water and failure to drink enough water prevents the body from flushing out old stale water that still remains. It means the body will use the water that is available for the things that require water, and if that water is not fresh, the body can succumb to illnesses such as kidney disease and bladder infections in addition to other conditions.

Healthy eating means controlling the portions of food you eat, especially those foods that contain empty calories. Choosing to eat healthier meals and snacks will help you maintain good health and boost your immune system and metabolism. It’s important for both systems to be in high gear—the immune system prevents disease and the metabolism helps the body burn the calories you eat. You can actually eat an abundance of food as long as your metabolism is in top shape and you exercise to burn off the calories you consume.

Once you learn the basics of healthy eating you will find it easy to make good choices in the foods you eat. Adults and children both need to know how the foods they eat affect their health in order to understand the importance of eating whole grain cereals instead of pre-sweetened cereals, for example. Healthy eating goes beyond just eating foods that are good for you; it includes eating the right foods in the right quantities in order to satisfy the body’s nutritional needs. Choosing those foods that the body can utilize for all of its voluntary and involuntary functions will assure the good health of everyone. YoNaturals is working to help parents understand the importance of seeing that their children eat healthy by encouraging them to provide children with healthy and organic snacks instead of those with empty calories.

Author: Brenda Coxe

Author:  Michael Rupkalvis

Organic certification is a process of certification for organic food producers and the producers of other organic agricultural products. Any business that is directly involved in the food production process can seek certification, and this includes the suppliers of seeds and growing materials, farmers, companies that process food items, and restaurants and retailers as well.

From one country to the next you will find that the requirements for organic certification vary, but there are usually production standards in place that dictate growing, storage, packaging, processing and shipping requirements.

These production standards require the avoidance of synthetic chemicals, like pesticides, food additives, fertilizers, antibiotics, organisms that are genetically modified, the use of sewage sludge and irradiation. They also require keeping detailed written records of sales and production, and the use of farmland that has been completely free of all chemical inputs for at least three or more years.

In order to obtain organic certification, it is also required that organic products be completely physically separated from non certified food products, and every certified organic site is required to undergo periodic inspections to show that standards are being maintained.

The concept of organic certification addresses a growing demand for organic food on a truly worldwide level. Certified organic food products exist to assure the quality of the food that we eat, while promoting commerce at the same time. In the earliest days of the organic movement, organic certification was not required but as more consumers turn toward organic food products through the more traditional channels like grocery stores and supermarkets, the need for certification has grown exponentially. In many countries the certification process is overseen by the government, which means that there are legal restrictions on using the term “organic”. Certified organic food product producers are also held to the same level of food health and safety standards as non-certified food producers.

What makes these certifications for organically produced foods such an outstanding idea is that they show consumers which food products can be trusted. Because certified organic food products are held to guidelines and standards, consumers who purchase food items that are certified organic can rest assured that they are grown right, without chemicals or additives, ensuring healthy and risk free food products. The organic movement is growing at a quick and steady pace as more consumers realize the health benefits associated with buying organic.

As more and more consumers turn toward certified organic food products to feed themselves and their families, the guidelines associated with organic certification tend to grow increasingly specific. Growing and processing food organically is not a difficult task at all for most food producers, but it does require that these companies take a long and hard look at the way that they regard the production of food, especially when it comes to growing naturally without pesticides or other chemicals and additives.

Author: Carl Copeland

Farming practices used before the 1900’s are classed as organic. It was only after this that added chemicals such as urea and DDT were brought into farming - previous to this, farmers didn’t have the knowledge and simply put, were happy enough with things as they were; as most of us today would be. After all, home grown food is often the nicest, most tasty food we put on our plates.

For some reason, during the 1960’s and 1970’s the concept of organic food became a separate entity to the ‘normal’ food we were then buying. Consumers had been effectively duped into believing that what they were buying, was food as nature intended, it not appreciating that the chemicals which were added during growth of the ‘normal stuff’ were what actually made the food abnormal in the first place.

Rachel Carson, a prominent writer, biologist and ecologist established public awareness of these issues via ‘Silent Spring’, a book she wrote which basically brought about major controversy on the use of agricultural chemicals and synthetic pesticides in particular. As a direct result of this book, and the growing concern over the use of farm chemicals which consumers were suddenly more aware of, chemical regulation procedures were put into place, and when the demand for organically grown food rose, so did the need for further regulatory procedures to cut down on the ecologically destructive and toxic chemicals.

Today, organic food is finally reaching an all time high of acceptance from consumers, so its demand is increasing - more ‘organically acceptable’ agricultural procedures are gaining momentum, and it seems even though it is more expensive than chemically treated foodstuffs, it is healthier, and it is that health factor which is winning the battle against chemically treated consumables.

A creation of a whole new set of ideas about organic standards which first came into debate in 1990, took over ten years to refine to relative perfection, and they will still evolve as new practices come into force. It is by these standards now that, organic food and other products such as wool in the USA is grown/gathered.

All of this though begs the questions - why can’t farmers just grow food without chemicals at all, why does it need regulation, and why were chemicals introduced into grown food and other consumables in the first place; I think you already know the answer though, and that’s money.

In this modern technological age where farmers are in direct competition between each other to gain the bigger contracts of the supermarkets and other food retailers, they have to be cheap. They simply can’t grow the vegetables (for example) as fast as the grocery store can sell them, so they have to resort to other methods to keep up, or did do at least until the consumers voice began to ring out strong and true.

Organic food is no longer a small niche in the food desires of Americans; it is becoming what everyone wants. Everyone now wants and feels the need to eat in a more healthy fashion with the onset of so many new medical conditions which prove costly as it is; a little more expense to eat something grown without strong use of chemicals (which could ‘theoretically’ make it worse) might mean a saving health-wise instead.

The organic food trend of today is growing ever-stronger, and not just for vegetables even though at one point organic purchases totalled over 40% of all organic buys. Meat and fish which is organically produced is still at the lowest of all food purchases, but is moving up the chain too. Dairy, bread and grain, beverages and snacks are all becoming more and more popular.

Today there are more Organic supermarkets popping up everywhere, sometimes in certain areas more than others - almost as though people in one state are more ‘organic’ than others but on the whole it is more of a blanket change than just a few people trying to eat in a healthier way, the amount of people eating organically is far more substantial than most realize. Suddenly people have more choice, and this is obviously because the demand is there. The world is finally going organic, and with any luck the bigger grocery store chains will have to meet this demand, rather than flood the market with low-cost chemically treated alternatives.

Author:  Michelle Bery

One look to the grocery store shelves will tell the story of a society in search of the newest food that will take the weight off, increase energy, and maximize health. It seems that every year we are bombarded with a new health craze that guarantees us speedy results along an easy path. But, as many of us have come to realize the hard way, it remains the greatest truth of all that eating a balanced, healthy diet is the only way to achieve authentic health. It seems fitting therefore, that now, more than ever, we are discovering the health benefits of natural and organic food.

Doctors have long advised that diet – more than anything – plays the largest role in our health and longevity. In accordance, there has been a gradual shift from food products high in saturated fat, preservatives, and sugar to whole foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and lean protein. But taking this a step forward is the shift to natural and organic food – that food that is grown and raised without the addition of chemicals, hormones, and pesticides. Many think that because they are eating fresh fruit and vegetables they are making the healthiest choice. But if these fruits and vegetables have been chemically altered then you are now exposing yourself to a bevy of alien substances. While these chemicals are used quite regularly in traditional farming practices, they have not been studied thoroughly enough to know of their long lasting impact on the human body. Therefore, a switch to natural and organic food seems to be the wisest choice for our health.

Also falling under the definition of natural and organic food is organic meat and dairy. Livestock that is raised within organic guidelines are given only organic feed and are not subjected to any chemicals or hormones. Further, dairy cows that are traditionally given hormones to speed growth and increase milk production are chemical-free under natural and organic food guidelines.