According to a survey, conducted by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, Americans trust food more when it is grown closer to home.

Based on the report, respondents felt that food grown regionally is the safest, whereas food grown in Africa is the least safe. A summary of the survey report breaks down like this ...

• 12% of respondents feel that food grown globally is safe
• 10% of respondents feel that food grown in Africa is safe
• 14% of respondents feel that food grown in Asia is safe
• 34% of respondents feel that food grown in South America is safe
• 50% of respondents feel that food grown in Europe is safe
• 74% of respondents feel that food grown in the U.S. is safe
• 85% of respondents feel that food grown locally is safe
• 88% of respondents feel that food grown regionally is safe
• 49% of respondents feel that food grown locally and conventionally is healthier than non-local organic food

In Medieval times, peasants lives relatively short lives compared to us -- elderly people were those who lived into their 40s, 50s and 60s. So the news that the Medieval diet was much healthier than ours should come as a shock, shouldn't it? Well, not really. Truth is, the Medieval people probably would have lived longer than most of us if they'd had our access to modern medicine and farming technologies.

Here's the thing: Medieval people ate much better than us. According to the BBC, they typically ate 8 oz of protein, a variety of fresh, organic vegetables and two loaves of whole wheat bread per day. Nothing was processed, and nothing was refined. Any sugar they got was typically from the fruits they grew. And they didn't go to the gym, but couple that with a day of physical labour and you've worked off those calories easily. They were fitter, and the reason they lived shorted lives than us was typically due to illness, starvation, pestilence and so forth.

Doesn't it seem odd that we have all this technology and yet we're going backwards in terms of life expectancy? It seems about time we started going back to basics. What do you think?

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Milk does a kid's body good, according to a Penn State study concerning American children and their consumption of the dairy drink. Yet the only youngsters reportedly drinking enough milk are 2 and 3 year olds. All others are falling short on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's My Pyramid dairy recommendations which suggest two cups of milk for 1 to 3 year olds, two to three cups for 4 to 8 year olds, and three to four cups for 9 to 18 year olds.

Also noteworthy per the same study, published in the online Journal of Pediatrics, is that children are consuming more of the highest fat varieties of cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and dairy-based toppings. It's not smart to make up for missed calcium from milk by stocking up on high-fat dairy sources, says one researcher who notes these additional calories will only add to the current problem of childhood obesity. So stick to good old fashioned milk for your kids -- and make it low-fat while you're at it.

Although physicians once recommended that children receive whole milk during the first year of life, that recommendation has changed. Doctors now recommend baby formula if the child is not nursing. And for the second year of life, reduced-fat or fat-free milk is appropriate.

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[In our regular feature, Home Cooking, That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown encourages us to explore with her the challenge of eating and cooking with local foods. No matter where you live or what local products are available to you, we all can benefit from the creative and healthful mindfulness of choosing to take advantage of our local resources.]

Goodbye shopping cart, hello adorable collapsible canvas basket.

As part of an "eat local" movement that is beginning to sweep the United States and the blogosphere, I'm going to focus on getting my groceries and meals as much as possible from sources within a 100-mile radius of my home. In the past year, hundreds if not thousands of bloggers have challenged themselves to do something similar.

Some eschew all corporate groceries -- a wild dare if you ask me. Just think about trying to find locally grown coffee, local baby formula, or local soft dark licorice! Others commit to preparing one entirely local meal per week for the course of the summer, which in my neck of the woods -- where there are more than a dozen farmers' markets and one operates through December -- seems too easy.

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