Excuses

This post will be about excuses. I have a variety of excuses for not posting since November, but I won't bore you with them. I'm back now, and that's what matters, right? :) Spring has arrived and it is traditionally a time of rebirth, renewal, and new starts. I've always thought that the New Year should start in Spring, in fact, because it is so hard to have that new start mindset when everything is dead and cold all around you. I reserve most of my goal setting for the Spring time, because it is the time I feel most inspired. This year, I want to make less excuses for not doing things and just DO them.

So let's talk about excuses vs. inspiration. I am the Queen of excuse-making and procrastination, so I feel like an expert on this topic (haha). I often make excuses for why the house isn't clean, why I'm late, why I still haven't done x, y or z even with plenty of free time, and yes, I even make excuses when it comes to my health. (You knew I'd bring up health eventually, since this blog is about health and all...) WHY do we make excuses when it comes to our health? Even though I love to eat healthy, I often "forget" that exercise is important to staying healthy too. I make various excuses why I can't exercise today, tomorrow, right now. Sometimes the excuses take up more energy than would actually getting up and going for a run/walk. To help myself get more exercise in, I recently bought a used elliptical machine and I LOVE it. I can exercise in the privacy of my own bedroom and it's wonderful when the weather is yucky outside (in Humboldt, that constitutes about 80% of the year). So no more excuses for me (haha)!

When it comes to our health, we are a nation of excuse makers. Here are some stats:

• 58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
• Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
• 78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations
• 25% completely Sedentary
• 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990

SOURCE: Wellness International Network Ltd - http://web.winltd.com/

This is scary! Our bodies, the organism that we depend on for our very life, are often the most overlooked part of our lives. We rush around getting to work, to school, to a party, to vacation, and often just eat the quickest, most convenient thing. We don't "have time" to cook, to shop, to plan and prepare meals from scratch, to exercise, we "can't afford" good food, we "don't like" healthy food, we "feel fine" right now, oh the excuses go on and on. Let's take a minute to examine these common excuses and why they are harmful to your health and just plain silly (sorry).

1. I don't have time

You will have lots of time someday when you're retired, but will you feel well enough then to enjoy yourself? If you take the time NOW to learn how to shop for whole foods and prepare them from scratch, your quality and quantity of life will increase dramatically. When you plan out your weekly meals and buy the ingredients that you need, you will no longer find yourself grabbing a burger on your way home from work because you already invested the money in all that wonderful, healthy food sitting in your fridge. You can cook a big pot of soup on the weekend and have meals ready ahead of time for weeknight dinners. Filling time is really a matter of prioritizing and when you start prioritizing your health, you will make the time you need. In a future post, I will put a few recipes on here that are easy to make and can be re-heated later. But the motivation has to come from within. You have to value yourself enough to make time for your health. Don't put it off. Your body needs you NOW.

2. I can't afford good food

This is an important one, as the level of poverty is increasing in our country rapidly. It is hard enough to make house payments, car payments, credit card payments, put food on the table, pay for health care, especially when you're worried about losing your job. Again, I want to emphasize the importance of looking ahead and prioritizing. If you keep eating the way that you are, most likely you will be paying lots and lots of money to cover hospital bills, medications, and other medical expenses that come from being unhealthy. If you are truly honest with yourself, there are a couple unnecessary things you could cut out of your budget to allow more money for healthy food. You have to decide whether that new purse or new Ipod is more important than your health. What if you're below poverty level (as defined by the government) and don't buy any of the luxuries but still can't afford healthy food? I will address this in more detail in another future post, but for now, let me say that buying whole grains and legumes in bulk, as well as fresh vegetables and fruits, is cheaper (for the most part, there are exceptions) than buying pre-packaged foods. In addition, MEAT is a very expensive item on the grocery list that is also very unhealthy (it's filled with pesticides and synthetic hormones, not to mention it is a key factor in heart disease and other ailments). I'm not saying cut it out altogether, but just cut it back to a couple days a week and you will have more money to spend on vegetables and fruits. Dairy products are another pesticide-hormone laced food item that can be costly to both your pocketbook and your health. Like I said, I will cover this in much greater detail in a future post.

3. I don't like health(y) food

If you ever come over to my house for dinner, I don't think you would be saying that. However, this excuse is more grounded in reality than subjective likes or dislikes. We can and do get addicted to certain foods and it is very hard to break free from these addictions. The biggest culprits are sugar, processed flour, caffeine and salt. These actually cause chemical reactions in your body that are similar to those of some drugs, giving you a "high" and then a "low" which feels like withdrawls, leading you to crave the food to feel better again. Pretty soon, you can't function normally without this particular food because you feel fatigued and stressed until you consume it. The reason this whole cycle happens is because there is an imbalance in your body. You need to correct the imbalance and eliminate these foods from your diet. Eventually your body chemistry will change enough so that you will start liking whole fruits and vegetables, because your body inately knows what is good for it. Again, I will write a more detailed post on this topic later.

4. I feel fine right now

Wonderfully made organisms that our bodies are, they will take quite a bit of abuse before we become truly sick. I've always been super-sensitive to my body and it lets me know right away if I've eaten something that isn't good for me. For instance, if I eat dairy ice cream one night, I will wake up with an intense sinus headache and sometimes I will have a large pimple that wasn't there before! Some people are able to eat things I can't and not have any adverse effects. Do I consider them lucky or unlucky? I am actually very thankful that my body is able to cleanse itself in little ways (a cold, or even a breakout) to get the toxins out, because I know it is still working. When your body becomes so overwhelmed with toxins that it can no longer cleanse them out, more serious health problems result, like cancer. Many of the health problems that we attribute to old age are really just the results of years of toxic overload. That is why (until recently) people in Japan were free from many of the ailments that commonly plague our society. Their diet was vastly superior to our diet but when they started eating more Western foods (like McDonalds) their national health started to decline. Coincidence? I think not. There is no time like the present to examine your lifestyle and diet choices. Do you really want to take chances with your health?

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I realize that I've probably left you with more questions than I've answered. I hope I've at least gotten you to examine your own motives a little more closely. I will be following up this post with more detailed "advice" in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then, let's think a little harder about our own excuses and maybe apologize to our bodies for not making them a priority.

Thankfulness

I'll be honest; sometimes it's hard to remember to be thankful. Even though you tell yourself that there are so many people out there that are living in awful conditions and you are lucky to have food to eat, a warm house and safety, sometimes your mind comes back to what you don't have. I realize though, that life isn't perfect and that even if it's not going how we want, we still have a loving Creator who is with us through everything and who sacrificed His own life for us, so we could have life. The Bible has a lot to say about praise and thankfulness; here are a few verses:

Psalms 69:30 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

Psalms 95:2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

Psalms 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Psalms 136:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His love endures forever.

Phillipians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Colossians 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So today and every day, I try to remember things to be thankful for, like my family, my partner David, my friends, my dog Sasha, my health and the health of my loved ones, and all the material comforts that we enjoy here. I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!! And here's something else to think about:

haha

Sickly Sweet: Deceptions From the Corn Industry

Lately, there have been some very disturbing commercials on T.V. I was in shock when I first saw one, thinking it was a hoax. But it was very real. The commercials I'm referring to are backed (financially, that is) by the corn industry. SweetSurprise.com is run by The Corn Refiners Association, which recently launched a major advertising and public relations campaign to the tune of $20-30 million, designed to rehabilitate the reputation of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They claim, erroneously, that: “Research confirms that high fructose corn syrup is safe and no different from other common sweeteners like table sugar and honey. All three sweeteners are nutritionally the same. Though the individual sugars are metabolized by different pathways, this is of little consequence since the body sees the same mix of sugars from caloric (nutritive) sweeteners, regardless of source."

You might have even seen a few of their commercials on TV recently. They attempt to fool the average consumer by claiming that high fructose corn syrup is just the same as any other sweetener, and is ok in moderation. Lies, all lies. A few points about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS):


1. HFCS is a highly processed sweetener:

"High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It all sounds rather simple--white cornstarch is turned into crystal clear syrup. However, the process is actually very complicated. Three different enzymes are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.

Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top.

The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity.

There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose--what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport--it's just piped into tanker trucks. This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers." http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html

In addition to being highly processed itself, HFCS is added to highly processed, packaged foods to extend their shelf life a long time beyond what it would otherwise be naturally.

2. High fructose corn syrup is bad for your health:

"HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this fructose is more immediately available because it is not bound up in sucrose. Consumers may think that because it contains fructose--which they associate with fruit, which is a natural food--that it is healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field, has discovered that this is false.

Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. When sugar is given to rats in high amounts, the rats develop multiple health problems, especially when the rats were deficient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers wanted to know whether it was the fructose or the glucose moiety that was causing the problems. So they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy--that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field explains that fructose in combination with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with collagen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.) In a nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The females were not so affected, but they were unable to produce live young.

"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr. Field, "but every cell in the body can metabolize glucose. However, all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."

http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html

In addition, "researchers have found new evidence that soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children. In a laboratory study of commonly consumed carbonated beverages, the scientists found that drinks containing the syrup had high levels of reactive compounds that have been shown by others to have the potential to trigger cell and tissue damage that could cause the disease, which is at epidemic levels. They reported this at the 234^th national meeting of the American Chemical Society." http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/acs-swn081007.php

"There are a number of relevant studies published in peer reviewed journals suggesting a link between high fructose diets and adverse health effects. For example, studies on the effect of fructose, as reviewed by Elliot et al.,^[18] implicate increased consumption of fructose (due primarily to the increased consumption of sugars but also partly due to the slightly higher fructose content of HFCS as compared to sucrose) in obesity and insulin resistance. Chi-Tang Ho et al. found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control.^[19] Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage;^[20][21] Furthermore, a study in mice suggests that fructose increases obesity.^[22] Large quantities of fructose stimulate the liver to produce triglycerides, promotes glycation of proteins and induces insulin resistance.^[23] According to one study, the average American consumes nearly 70 pounds of HFCS per annum, marking HFCS as a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity in the last generation. ^[24]

A 2007 study also raised concerns of possible liver damage as a result of HFCS in combination with a high fat diet and a sedentary lifestyle.^[25]

In contrast to the above studies other papers (often funded by corn refiners and/or the American Beverage Institute) suggest HFCS has no ill health affects. A review supported by Tate & Lyle, a large corn refiner which makes a significant profit from the sale of corn-based products, concluded "that HFCS does not appear to contribute to overweight and obesity any differently than do other energy sources."^{[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup}

So maybe both high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar lead to poor health. A good reason to avoid both!

Finally, "HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns": http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/08/enjoy-pesticides-in-every-bite-of-gmo-food.aspx.

GMO corn will radically increase your risk of developing corn food allergies. The problem with corn allergies are that once you have a corn allergy from GMO corn you will have an allergy to even healthy organic corn products.

3. High fructose corn syrup is everywhere (almost)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the consumption of high fructose corn syrup was just over 40 pounds per year, per person, as of 2007. It accounts for roughly 41 percent of all caloric sweeteners consumed in the U.S. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/09/23/dramatic-example-of-how-the-food-industry-lies-to-you-about-corn.aspx?source=nl

In conclusion, avoiding high fructose corn syrup is one of the best things you can do for your health. While the corn industry will try to lie to the average consumer in an attempt to increase their profits, they do not care about your health. Only you have control over that. Be on the lookout for high fructose corn syrup on the ingredients labels of the foods you buy, especially soda and other "sweet" products. The truth is not so "sweet" after all; it is making you sick!

** I quoted mostly secondary sources in this post, because they were well-researched articles. They all quote primary sources themselves, so go check them out!**

It's Been Awhile

So we've been pretty busy lately, although with what I'm not exactly sure. On October 31st, it started raining, like it does every year on that EXACT day. Humboldt County is fairly predictable, which can be nice (for prepared people) or frustrating (for people hoping against the odds that it won't rain for whole weeks at a time).

We have been pet-sitting a friend's dogs, two male Husky, Malamute, Shepherd, Chow mixes. They are super sweet, very intelligent, and like to dig cavernous holes in the backyard. hmmmm We went hiking up north (Lady Bird Johnson Grove) last weekend with a friend we haven't seen for years and it was beautiful. Notice all the fall leaves on the ground!

I've also been baking my own bread lately, for a change of pace (mostly the pace of the dollars flying out of my bank account). One loaf of spelt bread costs $5.50!!!!!!!!!! I can bake two for about that price or so. I also made two pumpkin pies from scratch (real pumpkins) last week. I steamed the pumpkin until it was cooked and then threw the flesh and peel in the Vita-Mix. It pureed it so fine, no one could tell it wasn't from a can!

Yummy!

And finally, we brought all our wood in for the winter. We had our first fire last night and the house got HOT and stayed that way for hours without us having to feed the fire log after log. The insulation that we put in the walls and attic really seems to be paying off. It was environmentally friendly insulation, so that's a double bonus.

On a final note, change has come to America! I am very excited, and I can't wait until January 20th!

Hint: It's Not A Mushroom

So what is Kombucha? I've been drinking it for a few years now and just recently learned that the culture that ferments the beverage is actually NOT a mushroom. It is actually is a combination of a microorganisms that form a kombucha colony, consisting principally of Acetobacter-species (acetic acid bacteria) and yeast cultures, clinically known as a fungus (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha). The Kombucha colony ferments in a batch of black or green tea, sweetened with sugar. The bacteria and yeast eat the sugar and produce probiotics, antioxidants, B-vitamins, and glucuronic acid, among other things. The fermentation process takes anywhere from 7 days to 14 days, depending on the air temperature and other factors. We let ours go for about 9 days, since the ideal temperature for the Kombucha is from 70-85 degrees and it only just maybe makes it to 70 inside the house, next to the stove. Because it is getting colder now, I covered the jar with a paper bag to hopefully keep it insulated.

The above picture is not mine but looks very similar and was taken from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Kombucha.jpg

We just finished our second batch of Kombucha a few days ago and it turned out great! It is slightly vinegary in taste, but also tastes pleasantly like the black cherry tea we used. So far, neither of us are dead. haha The very first batch of Kombucha that I attempted a couple years did not come out, probably because it was the middle of winter and the poor thing froze to death. However, with a newly insulated living room and a healthy starter culture, I think we will make it work this time.

The health benefits of Kombucha (not recognized or tested by the FDA, but who needs them?) are many. They include: better gastrointestinal health, better liver and gall bladder health, immune system boost, detoxification, more energy, weight loss, cancer prevention and cure, just to name a few.

Is Kombucha dangerous? I would say just as much as any other fermented food is dangerous, when produced in unsanitary conditions. If you take care to wash your hands and all utensils that touch the Kombucha very thoroughly, there shouldn't be a problem. I personally know LOTS of people that make and drink Kombucha, with no ill effects.

Here is a good link to a simple Kombucha recipe that I use: http://www.kennebechomebrew.com/kombucha.htm

Kombucha is a very old beverage (dating back to 250 B.C.) and like many things that were around, forgotten, then re-surged, is a very basic tool for health. Not to mention it tastes good!

Upcoming Posts

I haven't posted in a little while, but never fear, there are several new posts in the works. They are:

->Biblical Nutrition or the Roots of Nutrition

->What is Kombucha and How to Make It.

->The Lies of the Corn Industry, Especially Involving High Fructose Corn Syrup.


Keep your eyes and web browsers open for these new posts. They will be very informative (I hope).

:)

Handmade Clothes

I have finally overcome my fear of sewing and turned my "creative potential" into something tangible. I made this tunic top/dress a couple days ago and I am happy with the way it turned out! I got the main body material from an xl white t-shirt that David let me cut up (with horror on his face). I got the side panel material from a garage sale, and the lace from another garage sale. The applique material was from my mom, and the brown button from yet another garage sale. (Garage sales are the best!)


Yes, the applique is a little "off" but Dave helped me sew it on haha and we thought it had a kind of nice shadowing effect. My next project is a couple of bleached (or discharged) black dresses. If they look nice, I will post them here!