I've always loved BBQ beef. I'm not a red-meat eater anymore, though, so BBQ chicken will be my new love. Here's a recipe for either option. My mouth is watering already.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds beef brisket (or other lean cut) or boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 sliced onion

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients in a crock pot
• Cook on low heat all day
• Before serving, shred the meat using two forks in opposing fashion across the grain of the meat
• Serve on whole grain bread, buns, or tortillas
  

I didn't think much about it when I read the invitation. Sent by an old co-worker, it urged me to participate in a fundraiser for breast cancer. For $15, I could enjoy a huge steak dinner and some alcoholic beverages while supporting a worthy cause. I couldn't make it but thought it was a good idea anyway.

But this article made me think about it further -- an unhealthy meal to support a health concern? Eating something that's been linked to cancer to raise money for cancer? Isn't that a little backwards? Isn't that like having a smoke-off to support the lung association? Okay, that's a bit of an extreme example, but I think you get my drift.

I don't blame the co-worker -- she's on a feverish quest to raise funds to support her in a walk--but the idea is a bit backwards. How about a delicious salad smorgasbord to support cancer? Or a sushi-fest? What do you think?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, says conventional wisdom. But if it is broken, then by all means -- fix it.

Many of us have broken pantries. Pantries full of chips, cookies, candies, oils, sugars, and well, let's just name it: junk. Our pantries are broken because they don't work in a world where health and wellness and prevention should be on everyone's menu. They are ineffective, insufficient, and downright bad for us.

My pantry has been in disrepair for a long time. Now, however, thanks to a build-your-pantry cheat sheet I brought home from Canyon Ranch, it's on the mend. Yours can be too. Just borrow from this abbreviated list next time you're in the grocery store and in no time, your pantry will be lookin' good. So will you.

Garlic is superb for its antioxidants and aiding in the fights against colds, losing weight and fighting cancer. A host of studies provide compelling evidence that garlic and its organic allyl sulfur components are effective inhibitors of the cancer process.

Vicki's Garlic Soup

50 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups sliced red onions
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
3 cups beef broth (can substitute vegetable broth)
1 cup whipping cream
zest from one lemon finely minced

1/2 cup fresh finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 50 garlic cloves in small glass baking dish. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss cloves to coat. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes and then let it cool. Squeeze garlic between fingertips to release cloves into a bowl.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat and add onions and thyme and cook until onions are translucent. About 4 or 5 minutes. Add roasted garlic cloves and cook 3 minutes. Add beef broth and cover and simmer about 15 minutes. Working in batches depending on the size of your food processor or blender, puree the soup until smooth. Return soup to saucepan and add cream and bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle soup into 4 bowls and sprinkle fresh grated Parmesan cheese over top. Garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme and a lemon wedge to squeeze. Great served with toasted French bread.

Children and teenagers -- mostly girls -- need zinc, a mineral important for maintaining healthy immune systems and healthy skin and for preventing colds and infections. Yet half of all teenage girls have zinc deficiencies.

Red meat is the most effective way of channeling zinc into the body. Perhaps these young girls are eating red meat less than two times per week -- a practice research shows can contribute to zinc deficiencies.

Iron is vital for good health. Menstruating women need it. The elderly need it. Pregnant women need it. And children need it too. But many lack healthy levels of iron.

Red meat contains a lot of iron. And while iron also comes from vegetable sources, meat contains more iron than most foods and is best utilized by the body in this form.

Red meat also contains B vitamins, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, selenium -- and protein, critical for muscle and organ health. Protein from red meat is complete, meaning it contains all the amino acids the body cannot make on its own. Protein helps the body repair and renew.

There is definitely a good side to eating red meat. There is also a bad side.

Red meat has been linked to incidences of bowel cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, high cholesterol, clogged arteries, and food poisoning.

Experts say the controversy surrounding red meat comes down to the type of meat we are eating -- and how we are eating it.

There are three official red meats -- pork, lamb, and beef. Pork is the leanest, lamb is the fattiest, and beef is the most nutritious. Red meat is typically high in saturated fats and bad cholesterol. But lean beef is fairly healthy -- if it's not treated with hormones and is truly free from excess fat. The more white you see, the more fat you get.

So here is the trick for all meat-eaters out there -- choose lean meats, seek nutritious cuts of meat, avoid hormone-treated products, steer clear of processed meats (these include more additives and fats than simple cuts of pork, lamb, and beef), read labels carefully, make meat just one component of a balanced diet, and brace yourself for more research and study and discussion that will undoubtedly conclude that meat is good for us. And bad for us too.

Let's start this out by saying that Richard Young of the Soil Association, which opposes the use of hormones in farming, is not saying that British consumers are eating dangerous meat -- but he is calling for an updated and reactivated testing program that will ensure imported beef does not contain hormones linked to increased cancer risks. While the European Union has banned the use of growth or sex hormones in cattle for 20 years, cattle from many countries outside the EU, including the US and Canada, are given both naturally occurring and synthetic hormones to boost the quantity and quality of beef produced for human consumption.

The safety of hormone-treated beef that can lead to sexual abnormalities and raise the risk of hormone-driven cancers, is disputed by some in the scientific community -- and according to the Soil Association, there might be an additional business and political element at work when it states that, "The EU imposed a ban on the importation of hormone-treated beef, but under pressure from the US and Canada the World Trade Organization ruled that the ban was not based on sound science and therefore an illegal barrier to trade. As a result the EU is forced to pay more than 120 million US dollars a year in compensation."

To read detailed background information on the issue of hormone-treated beef and the concern over imported beef not being tested for growth or sex hormones, go here. We'll say it again. Young is not saying that the beef presently sold is unsafe, only that the Soil Association is calling for a testing program to ensure the safety of imported beef sold and consumed.

The Soil Association is the UK's leading campaigning and certification organization for organic food and farming.