Wow- what a read!

I have been reading an amazingly interesting book, available online- for free! A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets
and Their Effects by Weston A. Price. For anyone interested in the paleo diet, or in visually comparing the effects of modern diet on mankind, this is a must read. The pics speak for themselves.

And- it is available for free online, including illustrations!

Enjoy: http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html

On eating out organically.... is it possible?

I am really fed up with the lack of restaurants that offer affordable, quality organic food. In fact- i dont know of really any. There are a bunch of great eateries in my area, but within a 20 mile radius of my town, most, if not all of the eateries that offer organic cuisines are really pricey. Hence- another reason that I will continue to boycott traditional, chain linked, fast food, mass produced toxic crap. Wont you join me?

To find organic eateries near you, visit: http://www.eatwellguide.org/

Lets give them a reason to change. ..... remember - its basic economics. Supply must meet demand!

When life hands you lemons.....

squeeze into a glass of water (or seltzer) and drink up! Wow- after researching the acid-alkaline diet over the years, I have begun to drink lemon water instead of my regular water (i drink 4-6 glasses/day) .. as its supposed to have an alkalizing effect (for more info and debate on the acid-alkaline diet click here: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?threadid=324519. Just because one is on a low carb diet (or moderate carb), or other diet, it doesn't mean we cant incorporate other health tid bits which might help us along the way. That being said- here is some interesting info on lemon water (which is low carb, low fat and high on health benefits)! (from: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/lemon%20water.htm)

The value of eating lemons is reported by Jethro Kloss in his book Back to Eden:

“The medicinal value of the lemon is as follows: It is an antiseptic, or is an agent that prevents sepsis [the presence of pathogenic bacteria] or putrefaction [decomposition of tissue]. It is also anti-scorbutic, a term meaning a remedy which will prevent disease and assist in cleansing the system of impurities.”

Due to the digestive qualities of lemon juice, symptoms of indigestion such as heartburn, bloating and belching are relieved. By drinking lemon juice regularly, the bowels are aided in eliminating waste more efficiently thus controlling constipation and diarrhea.

On page 659 of Back to Eden, Mr. Kloss points out that, “The lemon is a wonderful stimulant to the liver and is a dissolvent of uric acid and other poisons, liquefies the bile, and is very good in cases of malaria. Sufferers of chronic rheumatism and gout will benefit by taking lemon juice, also those who have a tendency to bleed, uterine hemorrhages, etc.; rickets and tuberculosis. In pregnancy, it will help to build bone in the child. We find that the lemon contains certain elements which will go to build up a healthy system and keep that system healthy and well. As a food, we find, owing to its potassium content, it will nourish the brain and nerve cells. Its calcium builds up the bony structure and makes healthy teeth.

“Its magnesium, in conjunction with calcium, has an important part to play in the formation of albumen in the blood. The lemon contains potassium 48.3, calcium 29.9, phosphorus 11.1, magnesium 4.4. Lemons are useful in treating asthma, biliousness, colds, coughs, sore throat, diphtheria, la grippe [flu or influenza], heartburn, liver complaint[s], scurvy, fevers and rheumatism.”

Personally, in conjunction to adhering the the acid-alkaline diet principles, combined w/ (organic) low carb WOE, lemon water has played its part. I have eliminated my heart burn (when the ENT wanted to put me on those prescription heart burn drugs, I threw the prescription in the garbage after researching the reality behind heart burn), gives a overall cleansing feeling, freshens breath, and helps many other issues mentioned above.

From http://www.energiseforlife.com/wordpress/1002/lemon-water-alkalising-superstar, Almost as cunningly simple in its title as ‘green drink’ - lemon water is quite blindingly straightforward in its makeup: it is water with lemon squeezed in. Could it be any easier?

The beauty of lemon water is that it is tasty, refreshing and best of all, alkalizing. The lemon juice raises the alkalinity of the water so even with standard tap water you can make your drink pH neutral.

Also, and more importantly, unless you have REALLY washed the lemons or have bought organic then the pesticides and chemicals could leach out of the rind and into your water if they are left soaking for too long.

PPS - yes, it is fine to add some cayenne (cayene) pepper to your lemon water for a bit of a kick, but PLEASE DO NOT ADD MAPLE SYRUP - this will make it have an acidic effect on the body!..... (i have researched this and could not find evidence to support it, but left it in here for you all to research. Plz let me know what you find out, and I will email the original author to see where she obtained it from)

I want to add that I ONLY purchase organic lemons/limes (limes also have the same effect!)

Limes are just as alkalising as lemons and give a totally different taste. Variety is the spice of life after all!

Photo thanks to: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Lemon-edit1.jpg

Low carb is a perfect way of life ( with an Organic Twist )

I am really proud of a cookbook, that i self published in late 05, Full Flavored Low carb Favorites, available on ebay (http://myworld.ebay.com/rnrcorners). I will admit though after the book being published, I almost fell to the media hype from my diet that I adhered to so closely for 5+years. This past year was a rough one for me for a number of reasons, but i have to say- eating out, fast food etc- made me feel so incredibly unhealthy as of late. I have decided to spice up the low carb lifestyle with an organic twist. I am basically eating really simply and clean and it feels great! organic eggs, meats, teas, lots of nuts, veggies (all but starchy ones), soups (yes -organic <10 carbs/serving do exist) and dark chocolate (see my article on dark chocolate)...(oh, and occasionally a small portion of dreamsfields pasta- i dont know what exactly is in it, but its got more fiber for slower digestion) but that can be a frankenfood for some. lately- i mean in the past week, have dropped 5lbs, and feel amazing. For those who think low carb is out- you are wrong. It will never be out. It might have fallen out of popularity temporarily, but - you can easily google many recent articles, independent studies, forums sites that attest- it is still a thriving way of life/eating. That being said- i am an advocate for healthy eating via organic foods, research and listening to your body and nourishing it how you deem appropriate. I dont like the push the low carb diet on anyone- but i gladly educate anyone who would like to listen...but i realize that some people dont need low low carbs. Some people (my mother) do just fine on a diet of whole grains, low fats, starches, bread etc... After learning how dangerous meats, and many other proteins can be if they come from the wrong sources (namely diseased animals and those who dont take care in the meat raising/processing/packing plants), and that our Government is going to do basically nothing about that problem (see my articles on Mad Cow/CJD) I have been enlightened. However it wasn't convincing enough to scare me "vegetarian"... as i have tried that route- and it wasn't for me- and there is evidence that some vegetarians had fallen ill to CJD in the past, showing that no one is really safe from the disease. (Geletin in pills, supplements, tainted dairy etc could be to blame)... I do believe that humans are omnivores, and we were designed for eating a diet of plant matter and meat (note the human jaw and dentition structure). However we need to be so careful of those food sources. I dont want to make anyone paranoid, but i think we all have become compliant on systems that are just expected to "work" but i must tell you- such complacency is really lethal to society as a whole. All this stuff, this research, has lead me to find, for now what i feel to be the perfect diet. I cant say how much better I feel- it is amazing, after ridding all the toxins, hormones, etc from my food. So- while i dont know that we literally "Are what we Eat" i certainly feel "We fall ill from the effects of what we eat and drink" that is a fact.

Happy low carbing! :)

Whats in gum anyway?

After going "organic" and having a bunch of good days of 'clean' eating, (and a darling husband trying to comply- after cutely suggesting that we solely exist on water once i told him what was in his food....) ..I admit- i am really really feeling good, and well- cleaner! This must be what my sister was talking about when she spent the summer in Italy a few years ago. I went into a gas station to pick up a lottery ticket tonight, and decided to grab a pack of Trident gum, along with some brownie coated walnuts (yeah- it wasnt meant to be read on..). So, I get in the car, and while DH is pumping the gas (such a sweetiepie), i started reading the ingredients. Well, first off, I notice- the date on the Walnut pack reads: Sell by: June 23, 2006.!? OK, well thats old. And nuts have a short shelf life to begin with- so I brought those back in to exchange for some honey roasted cashews b/c the date on ALL the nuts was bad.
On the ride home, i popped in a piece of this new Cool Colada Trident white gum- yummy at first, but then, I started having a funny reaction..i felt panicky, and felt like i was having an anxiety attack. So i spit out the gum, and looked at the ingredients. A nice cocktail of wax, rubber and chemicals, oh and dont forget the laxitives to boot. mmmm good. ....and then i notice that it has this "milk derived" ingredient Calcium casein peptone stuff... Hm.... Milk? in gum? Then, it it says its to check the website to see how it magically whitens teeth. Wow- basically- its calcium casein.... a highly allergenic milk protein/binder. So- i check the website to see how amazing these claims are (www.tridentgum.com to see for yourself how magical) i didnt find much info there, but i did go to: http://www.tridentoralcare.com/faq.html which they are bragging about the amazing ingredient that supposedly cleans and strengthens teeth. Hm- how much of this stuff is actually in this piece of gum. and is it going to really strengthen teeth, that little bit? But the negatives of course, are that casein. Which is a cheap way to incorporate calcium into the gum- but Here is some interesting info i found on casein in whole milk:

  MILK: 87% of milk is water.  That makes it VERY expensive water.

Broken down into its basic groups... WHOLE MILK is:

WATER   FAT   CASEIN    OTHER     OTHER
                      PROTEIN
87%    3.25%    4%       1%       4.75

(note: that is 3.25% "milkfat" which includes the 87% water.)

80% of the protein in milk is casein.  Casein is a powerful binder... a
polymer used to make plastics... and a glue that is better used to make
sturdy furniture or hold beer bottle labels in place.  It is in
thousands of processed foods as a binder... as "something" caseinate.

Casein is a powerful allergen... a histamine that creates lots of
mucus.  The only medicine in Olympic athlete Flo-Jo's body was Benedryl,
a power antihistamine she took to combat her last meal... pizza.  (1)

(1) http://www.dorway.com/milkinfo.txt

So I then decide to research this amazing trademarked product-

What is Recaldent^® ?
Recaldent^® is an ingredient derived from casein (pronounced kay-seen), part of the protein found in cow's milk. Its technical name is casein phosphopeptides-amorphous calcium phosphate, or CPP-ACP.

How does Trident White^® whiten and strengthen teeth?
Trident White is made with a proprietary whitening technology and Recaldent^®, a milk-derived ingredient that strengthens teeth.

WOW- its amazing, and magical!!!!! You should try it sometime (at your own risk of course).

So- that is whats peeving me tonight. Im trying to eat clean, and I end up ingesting enough poisons and crap to undo all the good eating over the past few days. Its amazing how hard it is to avoid the crap- its literally oozing out of the stores, markets, gas markets, handistops- its all around us.

What can we do? Boycott Boycott Boycottt!!!!!!!!!! If there is something i learned from College- Supply must meet Demand to stabilize an economy. If enough of us DEMAND that we are not fed these poisons and that we actually have standards for what goes into our bodies, they must change their cocktails to better stuff that wont kill us.

So- its your call, but - we can make a difference- one by one- if we convert to organic, natural foods, they will have NO CHOICE BUT TO CHANGE- even if it is more expensive. They are just being GREEDY- dont feed into it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:) enough for now.

Dark Chocolate

Lately- ive been watching my carbs (ive tried just about everything else, that is the only thing that seems to work for me- plus strangely- i enjoy it... (www.lcarb.com for proof). Anyhow- i love dark chocolate! I read that it has more flavonoids then most other foods which improve circulation and prevent disease. Yeah. And even better, a whole bar (i dont eat a whole bar) but a whole bar has like 22 carbs net- yes- i know there is sugar, but a small piece has about 2-3 carbs/square. YUM, healthy and on my diet. Yeah!

(thought id post something positive for once if anyone actually reads this LOL) :)

AND ~ if you really want to be good- you can buy organic dark chocolate (i prefer 70% cocoa or more) and they have all different kinds. I tried the one w/ espresso beans ground into it, it was OK, but alittle harsh- even for this coffee lover.

Suggested Read: A Dark Chocolate a Day keeps the Doctor Away
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/88/99702.htm

pic thanks to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minouzers/191020564/

Join tens of thousands of citizens and sign the Mad Cow USA-Stop the Madness petition NOW!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.cfm

"Energy and persistence conquer all things".
- Benjamin Franklin

Scientists Say Milk from An Infected Cow Could Possibly Spread Mad Cow Disease

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3826.cfm

The Mad Cow Epidemic that YOU NEED to know about. Could it really be this huge?

Mad Cow Disease- (BSE)- is the Government covering up an epidemic?(1)

Some of my motivation in starting this post stems from losing my Grandfather, a vibrant, 58 year old man, who died from CJD in 1998. It is a horrible disease with a horrible outcome, a death sentence, as there is no cure. We don’t know how he contracted it, as it was labeled “sporadic”, essentially that the cause is unknown. In an attempt to find answers to many questions I have had over the years, I have done my share of research, and found- I am not alone. People- Our lives are all at jeopardy here- and that could be an understatement.

CJD, or Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease is not a reportable illness in many states in the USA. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does not actively monitor this disease in the US, therefore it is not improbable that a rise similar to the ones in other countries, namely Britain could be completely missed (1).

For those of you who don’t know, CJD is the human variant of Mad Cow Disease, or BSE. It is a disease which results after infected prions literally eats holes in the brain, leaving it like a sponge.

If you thought concern was only limited to beef (cow) consumption, you may be wrong. Pork is also a potential source of infection, but have any of us heard of that in the news? Cattle remains are still boiled down and legally fed to pigs (as well as chickens) in this country. The FDA allows this exemption because no "naturally occurring" porcine (pig) spongiform encephalopathy has ever been found. But American farmers typically kill pigs at just five months of age, long before the disease is expected to show symptoms. How safe is pork really? Don’t we have the right to know? (6)

In addition, there is reason to believe that many Americans are misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia, who are actually suffering from CJD. That means potentially hundreds of thousands of misdiagnoses per year !(8) Young CJD Deaths seem to also be on the rise, in US (3), and other Countries (4). What is the explanation for this? Their answer is to hide it- and provide none, or a misdiagnosis of MS (multiple sclerosis), or a Virus. We will never really know, and the public has a right to know.

If more states made CJD a reportable illness, there would most definitely be more clusters detected across the United States. And their have been clusters in recent years, that you may not have heard about. CJD clusters have already been found. In the largest known U.S. outbreak of sporadic cases to date, five times the expected rate was found to be associated with cheese consumption in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. A striking increase in CJD over expected levels was also reported in Florida and New York (Nassau County) with anecdotal reports of clusters of deaths in Oregon and New Jersey. (1)

We need to demand for much more testing, as well. This quote is from a woman in the USA who lost her mother to CJD “No BSE in the U.S.A.? I would not be so sure of that considering that Since 1990 the U.S. has raised 1,250,880,700 cattle; the U.S. has ONLY checked 8,881 cattle brains for BSE, as of Oct. 4, 1999” (5). To those of you who don’t know what that means, that is only .00071 % THAT IS NOTHING!! Actually, That is less than Nothing. That is only seven ten thousandths of 1 %. That is a minute number for all of us who have taken basic math, one might even ignore such a number in many instances, as an irrelevant margin of error.

Who are they trying to kid?

We deserve, as the British, Canadians, - Japanese, Koreans are still very concerned about importing non-organic US beef… The USDA is actually preventing US Meatpackers, who want to perform volunteer testing, the ability to do so (7)(9) This is outrageous. We went to war over a loss of 3000 precious lives on 9/11, but we have our own war waging here, right in our own country, possibly killing hundreds of thousands of Americans annually. Where are their priorities?

So- what can we do?

We need to encourage every single state in the US to change their laws demanding that CJD become a “reportable illness” so there is some way to track it. That is very important.

We need to demand that their be more testing done, on all animals, for all forms of BSE variants. And, the testing must be in accordance to the WTO (World Trade Organization).

The US actually had the audacity to DECREASE testing by 90% READ HERE: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_1207.cfm - THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!!! The Agriculture Department still prohibits companies from doing their own volunteer tests.

The U.S. should immediately begin testing all cows destined for human consumption, as is done in Japan, should stop feeding slaughterhouse waste to all farm animals (see http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm), and should immediately enact an active national surveillance program for CJD.(1)

To read more:

(9) http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3481.cfm

(8) http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_2142.cfm

(7) http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_2395.cfm

(6) http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/pigs_chickens.html

(5) http://www.freedomtocare.org/page142.htm

(3) http://www.prwatch.org/node/1161

(4) http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/cjd52104.cfm

(1) http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-07.htm