HOListic

Very Disturbing News

2010-11-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

This cartoon came from:
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/gm-foods-and-senate-bill-s510/

The Senate has just passed Senate bill S510... this is very dire news for health advocates, and most importantly for small farmers.

Here's what Michael Pollen has to say about Senate Bill S510:

Michael Pollan on the food safety bill

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/11/michael_pollan_on_the_food_saf.html?sid=ST2010112903965

By Ezra Klein

The Senate might get to the Food Safety Modernization Act as soon as tonight. Though I'm interested in the subject, I haven't been able to spend much time looking into the bill. But Michael Pollan, author of the Omnivore's Dilemma, has. His summary judgment? It would be "a tragedy" if it didn't pass.

Ezra Klein: What's your bottom line on this bill? Is it good? Bad?

Michael Pollan: It's very interesting that the consumer groups and the people representing smaller producers and farmers have come together. It didn't look like that was going to happen a few weeks ago. The bill as originally written basically treated all farms and food producers the same. It was one-size-fits-all regulation. This was a problem for smaller farmers and processors because the regulatory burden was going to make life difficult for them. They felt they weren't the problem, and to suffer as part of the solution to the problem was an undue burden.

So Jon Tester, an organic farmer himself, came up with an amendment exempting producers according to three criteria. If you sold half of your food directly to consumers or retailers, had sales under $500,000, and sold within 400 miles of where you were producing, you'd be exempt from the provisions of the bill. The consumer groups didn't like this because they felt there was a risk to food safety no matter the scale. The e coli outbreak a few years ago was a small producer feeding into a big wholesaler, for instance. So they came out against the amendment. And there were many small farmers willing to see the whole bill go down if the Tester amendment wasn't there, which I think would've been a tragedy.

But they managed a compromise?

Tester made some changes. The 400-mile radius struck a lot of people as very large. You could be near the Mexico border and sell in Los Angeles. But 400 miles is apparently an official USDA definition of local. So Tester shrank it to 275 miles and made some other tweaks to satisfy the consumer groups. So now the small and local food advocates and the consumer groups are together on this, and the Tester amendment will be in the managers amendment, which means it won't require a separate vote.

To back up on the bill a bit, what do you think of its overall thrust? There's obviously a lot going on in the legislation, but what problem is it basically aimed at solving, and does the solution make sense?

The big thing will be to give the FDA more authority and resources. The FDA has not until this bill had the authority to recall tainted food. This gives them that power, and more resources for inspections. It also pushes producers to write plans showing their points of vulnerability that the FDA can use. Now, it's essentially a voluntary system, and there are good critiques of that. But it's the best thing we've got going now. What this doesn't deal with is hamburgers and things under the USDA, which is where a lot of the risks are. But it could be a template for how we do it in the future.

This bill doesn't affect the USDA? That leaves a lot out, no?

In a better world, we'd be debating the creation of a food safety agency that doesn't separate meat from poultry. That balkanization is one of the biggest problems in food safety. FDA has fresh produce. They have eggs. But they don't have chickens. USDA has chickens. But once the egg is cracked and turned into Egg Beaters or something, it's back to USDA. It's completely absurd. And unfortunately, we're not addressing that.

Where do you come down on the safety of the small producers? It seems to me like leaving them unregulated could also endanger their business: If an artisinal cheese producer, or a farm with heritage pigs, ends up making a bunch of people sick, the resulting backlash and outcry could put all small producers at risk, or turn a lot of people off of local food.

It's an enormous danger. If there is a problem with a small producer, the FDA then gets authority over them -- they lose their exemption. But that's obviously after the fact. But look, there can be a food safety problem at your house or at a church supper or on a small farm. But the scope can be contained. It won't affect hundreds of thousands of people in 50 states, as is true with larger producers. That's little comfort to the people affected, of course. But there is some risk in eating and always will be. If we were to choke off the renaissance of small farms and local food, we'd be losing one of our alternatives to a highly industrialized system that has special risks of its own.

Back when I reported more on this stuff, I thought that industrial food was similar to the financial system. It had made a lot of changes that got rid of smaller, more routine risks, but in doing, had opened itself to catastrophic risks where the system can break down in enormous, extremely harmful ways. So rather than a few people getting sick semi-regularly, outbreaks are rare, but they can affects millions of people at a time.

There are quantum differences when you're producing for a small firm and a major producer. When you mix spinach or lettuce from 50 different farms and one is contaminated, you're contaminating all of it. There's more traceability and accountability when there's what Tester calls "eyeball-to-eyeball" contact between producers and customers. The industrial systems are brittle systems. They lose a certain resilience. And that leads to risks of another kind.

I think he's being too kind. The reality is that the big corporations (Monsanto) are VERY threatened by small farmers... small ORGANIC, NON-GMO farmers and they are going all out to shut them down. This bill fits perfectly into their plan...

Fair Trade Chocolate Giveaway

2010-11-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

My friend Tamara is giving away a bunch of delicious Fair Trade chocolate on her blog and I want to win it! Also she has some great information about chocolate and the working conditions of people that produce chocolate for us. Now is the time that we typically start thinking about Christmas presents and I have been trying in the last few years to make my own gifts for people and to only buy gifts that are locally made in fair working conditions. I also like to buy gifts whose proceeds benefit a good cause, that way everyone wins! So check out Tamara's blog and enter to win the chocolate... or not, that way I have a better chance! lol j/k!

Being in the moment

2010-06-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight I realized that when I cook, I am truly in the moment. I am living as if there is no tomorrow. I put all my intention and energy into the food I am preparing and the past and future melts away. I made a picnic dinner for some friends and from the time I started cooking until the time we left for the beach everything was a blur. My conscious mind was resting while my subconscious mind directed my actions and I prepared food in a relaxed, natural way. I used to feel this way doing during my ceramics class; as soon as I would arrive to class and get started on my project, time and worries would melt away and I would be single-mindedly focused on the task at hand. I think this is so important for our mental well-being and is a cornerstone of Buddhism; to be in the present moment only.

So much of the time we are reflecting on the past or worrying about the future, instead of enjoying the present moment. The present will pass quickly enough, friends move on, food is eaten, but to fully enjoy it is to get the most out of it. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-8), Jesus said, "don't be anxious for tomorrow, look at the lillies of the field, they don't spin and yet even Solomon was not robed as beautifully as they." To be in the moment is to be fully trusting God and to be fully involved in your role here on earth. We spend so much time worrying about how we can change the future when we could be focusing on how to enjoy and fully experience the present. Certain hobbies can help us to do this, and also it is important that we find interests that we can put our whole heart into. It is so sad to go through life half-hearted about things that we do, when God has a destiny for each of us that calls out the best parts of us.

Day 2 of Raw Food: Back to Work

2010-05-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today was a bigger challenge because I went back to work and wasn't at home all day like yesterday. For breakfast I had some more raw granola with some raw goat milk (only I'm drinking goat milk because Dave doesn't think it fits with the raw food "challenge.") It was really filling and satisfying and I ate a banana a few hours later. For lunch I had the leftover cabbage salad from last night along with some carrots and celery and raw sun-dried tomato dip. I shared a bowl of the salad with my co-worker and she loved it. We also had a good conversation about her uncle, who is a Naturopathic Doctor living in Panama and has been a raw foodist for 12 years. I did drink a little coffee, because I got up at 5 am and my energy was lagging. I also ate a raw chocolate fruit/nut bar when I got home... not the healthiest choice but we're still in transition haha For dinner, we had some marinated veggies with pineapple bbq sauce that we prepared yesterday and dehydrated all day today. We served it on a bed of cauliflower "rice" flavored with coconut aminos, toasted sesame oil and salt. David thought it tasted like "real food" lol For dessert I had some pineapple and coconut butter. Both of us are feeling like our digestion is good and we are feeling good so far.

Yes, that's right, FINALLY a new post!

2010-05-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

So to jump right into this post, we are going raw for a week! We have been inspired by a few things, including a DVD we just watched called Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days about 6 people that are able to get off their insulin and medications after eating a 100% raw diet for a month. Also the seasons are changing from spring to summer and it seemed like a good time to start a cleansing raw diet. I casually mentioned the idea to Dave a couple weeks ago and he wanted to do it right away! Today is day 1. We planned out a schedule for our whole week, bought all our groceries yesterday, and I've spent the whole day doing food prep. Today we had a fruit bowl for breakfast, with strawberries, bananas, mango, coconut and kiwi, topped with cashew cream and raw buckwheat granola. Right after breakfast, we started soaking garbanzo beans (for raw hummus), oat groats, barley and spelt berries (for raw carrot muffins and raw oatmeal cookies). We will sprout the garbanzo beans, oat groats and spelt berries for 2 days! Then I made raw tahini with sesame seeds, along with some spicy yam chips and carrot pulp flax crackers that went in the dehydrator. For lunch we had flax crackers with avocado, tomato, sprouts and cucumber and a raw food fruit/nut bar for a snack. Then we made a huge cabbage, apple, raisin, carrot salad for dinner, with some carrot, apple, ginger and celery juice. Tonight we will drain our grains and prep tomorrow's entree, since I have to work very early tomorrow morning! It's been a lot of work so far today, but this is a grand experiment! When we stop eating 100% raw, I would still like to continue eating 60-70% raw because it is so healthy and a great way to eat lots of unprocessed fruits and veggies.

Excuses

2009-04-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

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?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

2008-11-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-06T14:03:00.001-08:00

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

2008-10-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-16T17:02:00.001-07:00

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!

Blackberry Pie!

2008-09-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the title says it all. Today I made a yummy raw blackberry pie, sweetened with dates. Here is a picture of it before it was devoured by David, a friend and myself.

And here is the recipe, which I got from http://www.farnellfamily.com/health/rawrecipes/display:8-2006.month.html.

Northwest Raw Blackberry Pie

Crust
2 cups almonds
1/2 cup dates

Process almonds and dates through Green Power juicer, food processor, or something similar. Knead and press into pie pan.

Filling
8-10 dates
blackberries
juice from small lemon
2 spoons psyllium husk powder

Alternate one date with 2 or 3 blackberries through Green Power juicer or food processor until all dates are used. Make a thick gooey substance and stir in lemon juice and the remaining blackberries (the amount of ingredients depends on the size of the pie). Taste the mixture and add ingredients to taste. Stir in psyllium husk powder and pour into pie crust. Chill and serve.

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved!

2008-09-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, David and I went to a workshop called, as the title references, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. Ironically, even though I linked to the book (above) the workshop didn't really discuss the book per se. I'm sure certain ideas came FROM the book though. So what was it about then? The workshop was held at Redwood Roots Farm, an ideal backdrop to a workshop on food systems, local, national, and global.

We discussed, in the course of the workshop, food histories and where our food comes from. My small group had a banana from Ecuador to discuss. We speculated that it had not only come a looong way, but had been in many hands before reaching us up here in Humboldt County. Then we discussed the roots of our food system, starting from when our country was founded up until the present. In a nutshell, 90% of our labor force in the 1790's were farmers... today, they are less than 2% of the labor force. And that's not all! With the increased use of technology and centralized processing, larger (inCORPORATED) companies took over most of our food processing and distribution. Then, with the advent of genetic modification, those corporations (i.e. Monsanto) took over our food production as well, going so far as to patent ("own") the genes of fruits and vegetables (what arrogance) while the government glibly passed amendments allowing them to do so.

Where does this leave us today? With a food system that is largely out of the hands of the people (that's us), a very UNdemocratic food system. However, all is not lost!! We do still have control over what we eat (well, a lot of us do). For the second half of the workshop, we discussed how we can take action, and how people are already taking action. We have to create an alternative system to live within. Part of this alternative system includes eating locally produced, organic foods as well as growing your own produce. Another part of this system involves realizing that not everyone has the luxury to shop at the Co-Op and starting community gardens, or starting a garden for a family in their own backyard, or helping farmers to share produce with poorer families in urban areas. One of my favorite ministries, The Simple Way, lives in the inner city of Philadelphia and started a garden for the community where all different ethnicities and classes of people can come together, garden, share recipes and enjoy community: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30137165@N06/.

All in all, it was an energizing workshop and it was fun to meet different people and hear their stories. A couple of our goals for this next "season" (if you can call it that in Humboldt County where we don't really have seasons haha) is to start a fall/winter garden, give any extra that we harvest to the Food Bank, and attend the local foods potluck on September 28th.

Eat Local, You Say?

2008-08-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

What you are seeing here is a plate of (mostly) locally grown food, the majority of it picked from our own garden. We grew the potatoes, the tomatoes, the lettuce, the green beans, and Reuven grew the garlic. How much more local does it get?? :) We do try to buy produce from local farms as much as we can too. On Saturday, we perused the Arcata Farmer's market for onions, carrots, red peppers, strawberries, pears, apples, and peaches. Why all this fuss and what does "eating local" mean?

According to http://www.eatlocal.net/why.html; "When you buy directly from local farmers, your dollars stay in the community and strengthen the local economy. More than 90¢ of every dollar you spend goes to the farmer, thus preserving farming as a livelihood and farmland. This is important because as mergers in the food industry have increased, the portion of your food dollar paid to farmers has decreased. Vegetable farmers earn only 21¢ of your dollar; the other 79¢ goes to pay for marketing, distribution, and other costs." The lack of financial income for small-scale, local farms leads to large-scale, mono cropping farms getting the lion's share of the money. Mono cropping is dangerous because it leads to a loss in biodiversity which may never be redeemable, as well as many food crises. This article gives a thorough explanation of mono cropping and its dangers, among other things: http://www.straight.com/node/141020.

So back to the solution: eat local. Local is defined as a 100 to 150-mile radius. For Humboldt County, that includes Humboldt County, Del Norte county, Trinity County, and Mendocino County. On average, "from field to fork, an average dinner travels 1,500 miles!" (Also taken from http://www.eatlocal.net/why.html). So eating local not only supports the local economy but helps reduce the impact on the environment.

Which brings me to my final point: September is Eat Local Month in Humboldt County, but this is a great time to enjoy your locally grown produce anywhere. The end of the summer is bursting with a veritable rainbow of fresh fruits and vegetables. So here's an idea on how to start (again, from http://www.eatlocal.net):

For one week, commit to the following:

Spend 10% of your grocery budget on local food
Try one new fruit or vegetable each day.
Preserve food to enjoy later in the year.
If you can, find some local fruit to pick like blackberries (my addition)

Oregon Exploration

2008-08-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures from our trip to Oregon; more about the whole story later! For all the pictures, click on the title link.

Exploring the Oregon Caves

Crater Lake framed by pine trees

Biking 11 miles around Diamond Lake

I was touched by this song today...

2008-08-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

Artist: Natalie Merchant
Album: Ophelia
Year: 1998
Title: My Skin

Take a look at my body,
look at my hands
there's so much here that I don't understand
Your face saving promises,
whispered like prayers
I don't need them.

Cause I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long as if I'm becoming untouchable...

Well, contempt loves the silence
it thrives in the dark,
the fine winding tendrils that strangle the heart
They say that promises sweeten the blow
but I don't need them... no I don't need them.

I've been treated so wrong,
I've been treated so long as if I'm becoming untouchable
I'm a slow dying flower
I'm the frost killing hour
sweet turning sour
& untouchable.

ooh I need
the darkness,
the sweetness,
the sadness,
the weakness,
ooh I need this.
Need a lullabye,
a kiss goodnight,
angel, sweet love of my life
ooh I need this

I'm a slow dying flower
frost killing hour
the sweet turning sour
& untouchable

Do you remember the way that you touched me before,
all the trembling sweetness
I loved and adored...
Your face saving promises
whispered like prayers.
I don't need them.

I need the darkness,
the sweetness,
the sadness,
the weakness,
ooh I need this.
I need a lullabye
a kiss goodnight,
angel, sweet love of my life
ooh I need this
Well, is it dark enough,
can you see me?
do you want me?
can you reach me?
or I'm leaving...
you better shut your mouth
and hold your breath
you kiss me now,
you catch your death
oh I mean this...
oh I mean this..

Blueberry Fields Forever

2008-08-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we rode our bikes to the blueberry farm down the street, where you can pick your own organic blueberries!

Me picking berries

The berries pose for their close-up

David with the bounty of our harvest
(it was about 2 pounds)

Pretty horses grazing near the farm

This morning we had some blueberries in a smoothie, but my favorite blueberry recipe is........... these blueberry cornmeal pancakes from Cook's Illustrated that always come out perfect:

The Best Blueberry Pancakes (I know, everyone says that)

**To avoid a tough, rubbery pancake, a less thorough mixing is needed here, just until ingredients are blended. A few lumps or streaks of flour here and there and you know you've done it correctly.**

1 Tbs juice from 1 lemon
2 cups milk

1. Whisk lemon juice and milk in medium bowl or large measuring cup, set aside to thicken while preparing other ingredients (OR use 2 cups buttermilk).

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour OR 1.5 cups stoneground yellow cornmeal and 1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs sugar

2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to combine.

2 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
2 tsp grated lemon zest (optional)

3. Whisk egg and melted butter into milk until combined. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients bowl; pour in milk mixture and whisk very gently until just combined. Do not overmix!

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, rinsed and dried
1-2 tsp vegetable oil

4. Heat a 12" nonstick skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Add 1 tsp oil and brush to coat the skillet bottom evenly. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto 3 spots on the skillet. Sprinkle 1 Tbs blueberries over the top of each pancake. Cook pancakes until large bubbles start to appear, 1.5 to 2 minutes. Using a thin, wide spatula, flip pancakes and cook until golden brown on second side, 1.5 to 2 minutes longer. Serve immediately and repeat with remaining batter.

Yummy!

Children targets of $1.6 billion in food ads

2008-07-29T17:53:00.001-07:00

And we wonder why kids seem to be getting dumber!

Here is the link to a proposed campaign to stop obesity marketing to children.

Healthy Ice "Cream"

2008-07-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

I never said that I was going to make up all the recipes on this blog, but I do modify most all recipes I come into contact with. :) This recipe came from a discussion board on vegsource.com and it is one of my favorite recipes ever, especially good for summer. It is ice "cream" that is dairy free, low sugar, and delicious. The recipe is intended for a Vita-Mix, but can probably be made in a sturdy blender.

1. Cut up a couple bananas (or other favorite fruit!) into 8 pieces or so each and freeze them until hard (at least 24 hours).

2. Combine the pieces of frozen banana (fruit), 1/2 cup vanilla soy creamer or raw vanilla almond milk, and 1 oz of walnuts or almonds in the Vitamix (blender). You can add a little sweetener at this point if desired.

3. Run on the lowest speed for awhile, then gradually increase up to 3 or 4 to get it all blended up into a nice ice-creamy texture.

I usually have to push the ingredients down into the blades with the rubber pusher-thing that came with the Vitamix. The important thing about this recipe is to keep the proportion of the solid fruit to liquids the same so that the ice "cream" doesn't turn into a smoothie.

David and I made a big batch of this at a party and it was a total hit with everyone!

Growth Happens

2008-07-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Left garden bed before (around mid-May)

Left garden bed after (yesterday) There was a bunch of spinach growing in that blank spot, but we took it out because it went to seed. We planted cilantro there and it should be coming up soon!

Right garden bed before (mid-May)

Right garden bed after (yesterday) Those little tiny things at the front are carrots.

Snap peas and snow peas growing on the trellis (yesterday)

Our potato patch (today)

Lilies!! My favorite flowers

Sunshine and scams

2008-07-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

The sun has finally come out! To celebrate, David and I rode our bikes to town to do a couple errands and we both made it back up the steeeeeeeeeeeep hill for the second time. This is how I know we are getting into shape. We met a couple last weekend who rode their bikes from Alaska to Argentina!!!!! What an adventure! I don't think we'll be doing that anytime soon, but we are talking about riding down the Avenue of the Giants. We did a short ride there a couple weeks ago and it is so beautiful and refreshing. The road is lined with magnificent redwood trees and even though it is narrow, there is definitely enough room for bikes and cars to co-exist.

When we got home from our lovely bike ride, and were looking through the mail, we discovered a reminder from our Juice Plus representative. This is the scam part of the post, because it reminded me of our unexceptional Juice Plus experience. Juice Plus is supposedly whole, raw juice powder in capsule form, "the next best thing to fresh fruits and vegetables" they claim. I had heard of its benefits from various people, so we decided to give it a try. We paid $150 for enough Juice Plus capsules for both of us for two months. Well, neither of us felt any of the benefits. I know that there are quite a few people out there that endorse it (I only give credibility points to the people that aren't also selling it) but I've decided, based not only on my experience, but also on a large number of articles, that it is a SCAM. There is no such thing as "the next best thing to fresh fruits and vegetables." Just eat them already and stop trying to get around it. haha Here is one of the more convincing articles I read: http://www.thedietchannel.com/Dietary-Supplements-Facts-About-Juice-Plus.htm and here is a blog with the latest on news to expose Juice Plus, along with other interesting articles: http://juiceplusresearch.blogspot.com/ (Not to mention that Juice Plus doesn't even use organic fruits and vegetables, so if you ordinarily eat all or mostly organic, you are possibly intaking pesticides with your juice powder capsules.)

The easiest way to get more REAL fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet is to grow a garden! Our garden is healthy and overflowing with things like chard, mixed greens, broccoli, spinach, bush beans, peas, potatoes, blueberries, blackberries, and apples. In the next post I will include "before and after" pictures to document our success! :) We also made a great investment in buying a Vitamix, which we use almost every day to make smoothies and "ice cream" with frozen fruit.

Definition of Holism as defined in Wikipedia

2008-07-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Holism (from ὅλος holos, a Greek word meaning all, entire, total) is the idea that all the properties of a given system (biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.) cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave.

The general principle of holism was concisely summarized by Aristotle in the Metaphysics: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts."

Reductionism is sometimes seen as the opposite of holism. Reductionism in science says that a complex system can be explained by reduction to its fundamental parts. Reductionism essentially claims that chemistry is reducible to physics, biology is reducible to chemistry and psychology and sociology are reducible to biology, etc. Some other proponents of reductionism, however, think that holism is the opposite only of greedy reductionism.

On the other hand, holism and reductionism can also be regarded as complementary viewpoints, in which case they both would be needed to get a proper account of a given system.

2008-07-17T13:47:00.001-07:00

This is where I'd like to be right now

But instead, this is where I am:

That is a picture of fog, in case you didn't recognize it.

Where's the sunshine????

My 1st Post!

2008-07-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! I finally have a blog! It's about time, considering everyone else has been blogging for years. I figure better late than never, though. My idea for this blog is to help myself, and anyone who reads it, explore what healthy living means. I know it's not the same for everyone, but maybe we can come to some sort of conclusion. The basics of my life include eating lots of organic, fresh and ideally raw fruits and veggies, exercising on a daily or at least every other day basis, and getting enough sleep. I have been interested in health for years, but I never realized I could make a viable lifestyle and perhaps even career out of it until I came to Humboldt County. What we lack in nice sunny weather here, we make up for in a gorgeous natural environment and plenty of natural food stores, not to mention tons of yoga studios and alternative health practioners. I feel so blessed to live here. In future posts, I will share many many of my favorite recipes, pictures of foods that I have prepared, and other events that are as yet, undisclosed to me.