Blog-Land Not Just Mystical & Self-Indulgent

It’s a beautiful morning in blog-land.  While blog-land is usually just the mystical region in my head where I imagine reviewing a new, and currently nonexistent, calorie-free trail mix, today blog-land is totally legit and meaningful.  Why, you ask?  Because blogging provides an open forum for consumers to voice questions and concerns to other consumers and to companies themselves.

In my review of Amazing Grass products here, I brought up the fact that AG statements regarding their products had not been FDA approved and wondered if anyone knew what that actually meant (I’ve read before that FDA approval is a load of B-S, but I always concede to my ignorance.  I’m not a scientist, I’m not a politician, I’m not a lot of things.  I am curious and just as hungry for knowledge as I am for food).  Anyway, Brandon Bert, president and co-founder of Amazing Grass, sent me an e-mail addressing my concern, and you know what? he gets 5 gold stars and 2 thumbs up in my book for that.  From Brandon:

“BTW, I read your question about FDA compliance.  Essentially any supplement making claims on their packaging has to have the FDA disclaimer included on it…which is why we have it listed.  We are really not making any claims that aren’t substantiated through years of scientific research and consumption. All our products contain whole foods and provide essential fruit and vegetable nutrition…and nearly every nutritionist would recommend that getting more fruits and especially veggies in one’s diet is beneficial for their health.  All our products are certified organic under the USDA National Organic Program, which is a consumer’s assurance that what we put in every bottle has been tested and we can provide proof that it is grown, processed and packaged in accordance with the national organic standards” (Brandon Bert, via e-mail, 5/4/09).

Brandon, thank you. It’s inspiring to know consumer questions don’t just end up in a void in blog-land.  Even more so, it shows me your company really walks the walk in supporting a healthy, informed lifestyle.

Now on to something a bit silly, I want to make myself publicly accountable to a little goal of mine…

My twin brother has a pull-up bar hanging on his bathroom door, right in front of a mirror.  I don’t have a mirror in my room (is that weird?), so I use his and always feel compelled to try doing a pull-up.  This results in me making a fool out of myself as I swing like a monkey in high heels and work clothes.  But no more will I be the fool.  Oh no, I am going to slowly train myself to do a stupid pull-up. That brings me to this topic: small goals.  We can fill our lives with the big goals – a lot of gals I know have timelines with goals plotted out (e.g. marry, buy house, bear children, yadda yadda yadda) — but I just want to do a darn pull-up.  Oh and more push-ups!  Since I’ve been on my running hiatus, I’ve gone from being able to do 2 “boy” push-ups to 10.  I’d like to up it to 20 and so on.  There are no small goals, I guess.  Every goal towards self-improvement is worthy of standing alone without the “small” attached to it. Boy, I’m corny today huh?  Must be from all the corn bread.

Anyone else have any goals like these? Tips for doing a pull-up?

Tags: amazing grass, consumer concerns, corn bread, FDA approval