OMG, eaters, there's a new player in the genetically modified food wars: The discovery of microRNA, tiny bits of ribonucleic acid that can bind themselves to protein in your liver cells and affect your body's uptake of cholesterol from the blood. It's been linked to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. And it may reveal a way that genetically modified food could influence our health -- for very complex reasons you can read about in The Atlantic.

Does the discovery of microRNA prove that GM food is dangerous? Well, it's complicated -- and it's very controversial. But every time I hear news about genetically modified foods, I think two things: Why are we still not requiring food companies to label GM foods, and how do I find non-GM foods in the meantime?

Liya Ma, a special education teacher in Pasadena, California, thought she was treating herself to two things when she was shopping for a bag of organic salad mix at her local Costco: Health and savings. But what she got was ... a frog. When Liya picked up a plastic container of Babe Farms spring mix, she saw "two little eyes looking at her." She screamed and dropped it. But what came next is fascinating ...

Instead of threatening to sue Costco or Babe Farms or anybody she could get her hands on, like most people would, Liya asked the store if she could keep the frog as a pet.

When it comes to making a huge difference in the health and well-being of your fellow man, it doesn't get much better than Jon Bon Jovi's new restaurant Soul Kitchen. A "pay what you can" restaurant that serves up local, healthy, food to anyone who wants to give a donation or take a job working in the kitchen or gardens; it's truly a gift to the community of Red Bank, New Jersey. And proof yet again that you don't have to choose junk food if you don't have a lot of money.

Granted, the Soul Kitchen that harvests food from its own community garden and buys the rest at Whole Foods, is only in New Jersey right now. But the rocker and his wife plan to open up Soul Kitchens all over the country. I don't think I've had this many warm feelings for JBJ since the release of "Slippery When Wet." This is great news for people in need. But even if you don't have the Soul Kitchen option, there are a lot of other ways to healthy, and cheap.

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING. This is may-jor! LivingSocial is hosting an awesome deal today, $10 for $20 at Whole Foods! If you're like almost every WF critic out there and hate how "expensive" they are, this is your shot at snagging yourself some organic, fab groceries for half price. But act quickly, because the deal ends tomorrow morning!

I have a confession: I go to Whole Foods almost every Friday morning after the gym and before starting work. Call me ritualistic, but I find it calming. I always look for one out-of-the-box item to treat myself to after a long week. So I pride myself on the fact that I've become a bit of a WF connoisseur (be very, very impressed). Check out my 5 fun suggestions on how to spend your 20 buckaroos at Whole Foods.

I have a friend who used to chant "TREATS! TREATS ALL THE WAY!" every time we took a road trip together. Road trips were a golden ticket to the land of packaged junk food: steering-wheel-greasing potato chips, crumb-making cookies, and a never-ending rainbow of candy. 

And then we got older and started having babies and our metabolisms kindly informed us that the road trip smorgasbord must end. I still feel snacky when it comes to road trips, though, and sometimes it's miles and miles before you find a non-fast-food sandwich shop. So I've been compiling a list of my favorite fun but semi-healthy, travel-friendly nosh.

I'm sure I sound to some people like some entitled hippie snob when I started talking about produce. It's the only "baby food" I give my babies, for one. I used to only buy from a local, organic produce stand, and now that we've moved, I'm searching high and low for somewhere new to shop.

Grocery stores? No thanks. If you're used to other produce, most grocery stores' stock looks terrible, beat up, bruised, and scary. It also often tastes a lot worse.

See, I sound like a snob, right? But then things happen that remind me that regardless of what other people think, I'm making the right choice for my family in being selective about the source of my produce, even more than just grabbing the "organic" stick at the big chain stores.

Strawberries are under fire now, because apparently about six months ago, a toxic chemical -- methyl iodide -- was approved by California for use on strawberry crops.

Whenever my boyfriend and I mention to some of our friends that we spend a ridiculous amount of time and money at our local Whole Foods, their jokey response usually involves the expression "Whole Paycheck." Yes, we get it, ha ha, it's pricey to buy organic. But now, the occasional teasing actually has my boyfriend feeling a bit concerned. He says maybe we shouldn't be dropping so much dough there? Maybe we'd be fine just going back to the regular grocery store? It's gotta cost less, right, and then, we wouldn't be those "obnoxious" people who only shop at Whole Foods. You know, the ones who drive dueling Priuses through the parking lot and get irritated in the quinoa aisle, as featured in the oh-so-clever viral "Whole Foods Rap" video.

But every time he campaigns to stop shopping there, I say, "Hell no!" (or something like that). Why? Because I'm PROUD to be the "kind of person" who shops there.

What was the source of the massive E. coli outbreak in Germany? We still don't know. Right now German officials are no longer pinning blame on Spanish cucumbers and are instead testing sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany. But few of the people who got sick remember eating sprouts, so it's still a mystery.

At any rate, I got to wondering about the relative safety of organic foods -- and also foods from small, local farms. I spoke with food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler, an expert on food safety featured in the documentary film Food Inc. 

What Marler told me surprised me. Not only do we need to rethink the idea of organic farms being safer, we also shouldn't assume small, local farms are risk-free. And you should definitely rethink the idea of eating raw sprouts at all!