tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90222396555418001402024-03-14T19:38:51.317+11:00The Ingredient Detective...choosing health and vitality...Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-57657537056396615892011-10-31T20:20:00.001+11:002011-10-31T20:21:09.317+11:00Margarine vs Butter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/MdOMwx" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116px" ida="true" src="http://mrg.bz/MdOMwx" width="200px" /></a></div>It seems that margarine is the master of re-invention. <br />
<br />
Whatever the latest health buzz is, you can be sure margarine is re-formulating to take advantage, whether it's "cholesterol free" or "added plant sterols for heart health"...<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, butter is still...well, butter.<br />
<br />
But which one is the healthiest, I hear you ask? Isn't butter full of that dreaded saturated fat? Don't doctors recommend margarine?<br />
<br />
If you go to the website below, you'll be able to see how both butter and margarine are made...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/02/17/butter-vs-canola-oil-spot-the-real-food/">http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/02/17/butter-vs-canola-oil-spot-the-real-food/</a><br />
<br />
I know which one I'd rather be eating...<br />
<br />
Don't you?Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-40539511245421869392011-10-21T07:00:00.001+11:002011-10-21T07:00:03.777+11:00Update: Raw Food Challenge<p></P>It's been over a month since I started my <a href="http://thelifeandtimesofanordinarygirl.blogspot.com/2011/09/pasta-lovers-raw-food-challenge.html">Raw Food Challenge</a>. In the beginning, I was doing terrific and reaching my goal of eating at least 70% raw. But then...<br />
<br />
I was REALLY busy, had visitors, and the weather turned cool, and...<br />
<br />
[insert any other excuse that comes to mind] and I got a bit distracted.<br />
<br />
BUT...<br />
<br />
The good news is that I'm still eating more raw than I normally would. On any given day, I estimate that I'm eating about half raw, half cooked, which is still an improvement, though not quite where I'd like to be.<br />
<br />
As for my skin? Hmmmmmm.<br />
<br />
As I type, every spare millimetre of chin and cheek area on my face is covered in break-outs. Worse than ever!! I am trying not to be disheartened by this turn of events. It is my experience that when making healthy changes, things get worse before they get better as the body cleanses itself.<br />
<br />
After I started the raw challenge, I began oil-pulling (read <a href="http://thelifeandtimesofanordinarygirl.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-experience-with-oil-pulling.html">this post</a> if you are feeling thoroughly confused right now), and also drinking raw apple cider vinegar twice a day (mixed with water and a pinch of stevia), PLUS I'm due to give birth in the next week or two, so any or all of these could be making a contribution to the pimple problem.<br />
<br />
On second thoughts, the skin breakouts might be caused by my guilty little secret!! My sugar-free diet has been hijacked by those little green packets of Aussie Drops hard-boiled eucalyptus lollies. Aaaarrrgh. My pregnancy cravings for these babies is bordering on obsession!!<br />
<br />
Never mind. The other bit of good news is that I'm broadening my horizens in the kitchen. Some of the new recipes I've made so far:<br />
<br />
- <a href="http://www.raw-food-living.com/nut-milk.html">Raw Almond Milk</a>. The leftover nut meat that I strained out was turned into honey and almond muffins. Not raw, but my boys loved them for a mid-morning treat.<br />
<br />
- <a href="http://www.hacres.com/recipes/cards/raw-home-made-rice-milk">Raw Rice Milk</a><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://therawtarian.com/raw-cashew-milk-recipe/">Raw Cashew Milk</a> (my favourite so far)<br />
<br />
- Raw Almond and Sesame Balls. (These tasted just like those yummy, sticky sesame bars you can buy in the shops. I did take a photo, but some helpful little person seems to have erased it from my camera...)<br />
<br />
- <a href="http://therawtarian.com/raw-lemon-bars-recipe/">Raw Lemon and Coconut Slice</a> (this one is currently setting in the fridge so can't say how it turned out.....but it tasted pretty darned nice when I was licking the "dough" off my fingers...)<br />
<br />
- Raw Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies. <br />
<br />
Oh. And I've also been dipping my spoon into this jar... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-97pQzoyHYAE/Tpeyy7epPMI/AAAAAAAAAOE/RtAr2kAsRbM/s1600/DSCF0012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" oda="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-97pQzoyHYAE/Tpeyy7epPMI/AAAAAAAAAOE/RtAr2kAsRbM/s320/DSCF0012.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">of raw chocolate on a regular basis, too. Very yummy, and no cane sugar either. </div><br />
My next projects are making some of these <a href="http://therawtarian.com/raw-brownie-recipe/">divine-looking raw brownies</a>, and also this <a href="http://therawtarian.com/raw-chia-tapioca-pudding-recipe/">raw chia pudding.</a><br />
<br />
By the way, I've only just discovered <a href="http://therawtarian.com/">The Rawtarian site</a>. As a complete bumbling newbie at raw food "uncooking", I absolutely *heart* this girl! Her site is full of easy, fuss-free recipes, and I can't recommend it highly enough. <br />
<br />
Since stumbling across her site, I've had a renewed enthusiasm for my raw food challenge. Today I went and bought my first ever jar of agave syrup and my first ever packet of nutritional yeast. There is no stopping me, now!<br />
<br />
I am soldiering on, pimples and all...Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-32786795043629624492011-10-12T15:25:00.000+11:002011-10-12T15:25:04.562+11:00The Convenient Myth<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">In the beginning, I made changes to our lifestyle, purely for health reasons.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the benefits were so noticeable and remarkable, that I stuck with it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But over time, I've started to realise the other implications of our new simpler, less materialistic lifestyle. Every time I make something from scratch, instead of buying it pre-made and pre-packaged, I have taken a stand for the health of the Earth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Think about it this way:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For every unnecessary item I buy, resources have been used up in order to make it, package it and ship it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - Chemicals have probably been used in the production. Those chemicals and other waste products have to go somewhere - most likely leaching into the soil or waterways downstream of where they are produced, or simply dumped into the ocean.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - Energy has been used to produce it, and probably from coal-fired power plants, which happen to be the world's largest emitters of mercury air emissions. Mercury is the second most toxic substance known to man, and a human carcinogen, not to mention all it's other effects on the brain and vital organs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Coal-fired power stations also emit arsenic and other toxic metals, acid gases and dioxin. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - Transport has been used to get the product from the place of manufacture to the place of sale. In today's global marketplace, and with our obsession for cheap, foreign products, this often means the item is made in China, then shipped to Australia - a distance of roughly 8500 kilometres. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - And then when I get tired of the product/use it up/break it/no longer need it, it ends it's life in landfill. One estimate is that every Australian produces an average of 3kgs of waste every day. I am not overly good at mathematics, but by my calculations, with a population of around 22 million, this equates to 66,000 tonnes - or 66 million kilos - of waste EVERY SINGLE DAY. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/Th4FYA" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244px" kca="true" src="http://mrg.bz/Th4FYA" width="320px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apparently we are the second most wasteful nation on earth, coming in behind the United States. Hardly an achievement to be proud of...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The figures are just mind-boggling. And so obviously unsustainable. How long can we keep this up???</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And when did humans start being referred to as "consumers", anyway? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The more I think about it, the more I believe that without a healthy planet, it is impossible to have healthy humans. It's all inter-connected. WE are all inter-connected. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so...although I am only one amongst billions, and my contribution may seem small...I will continue to live as simply as I can, and not purchase things based on that notion we call "convenience".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After all, polluted water and soil and air are anything but "convenient"....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"Only when the last tree has been cut down, and the last river poisoned, and the last fish been caught, will we realise that we cannot eat money"</em> (Cree Indian Proverb)</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-86143331320404226562011-10-04T08:34:00.001+11:002011-10-04T08:37:41.561+11:00An Octogenarian's Secret to a Long, Vibrant Life<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">I have a great-auntie who is an amazing, inspirational woman.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">She is in her 80's now, takes no medications, lives on her own in a big house, bakes her own bread and tends a large, enviable garden of herbs and vegetables and flowers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/bfshFt" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" kca="true" src="http://mrg.bz/bfshFt" width="233px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the thing that everyone notices and comments on, is her zest for living, her seemingly boundless energy and love of fun. She is a little powerhouse of energy and fun! Everyone I know adores her. She is a surrogate "nanna" to a number of young people who admire her, and love to visit her.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One day, a few years ago, she was visiting and helping my brother do some renovations on his house. I was in my early 20's then, and struggling to keep up with her, as she washed and cleaned walls in readiness to paint</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I asked her what was her secret for having so much energy and spark.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Her reply?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"Every time I eat a meal, or make a sandwich, I go into the garden and pick a whole heap of herbs to eat with it. My sandwiches are nearly all green."</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I didn't appreciate the logic at the time, but as I've become more health-conscious, I've thought often of her words, and how some herbs, like parsley, are true super-foods, rich in all the nutrients that humans need to survive and thrive. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Parsley has more vitamin C than any other vegetable, and rich in folic acid, iron, Vitamin B12, Vitamin K, chlorophyll and beta-carotene, along with smaller amounts of just about every nutrient currently known to man....A true superfood, and <em>not</em> just on your plate for decoration!!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Food for thought....</div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-78578611098213947802011-09-29T07:00:00.003+10:002011-09-29T15:35:02.268+10:00My Experience with "Oil-Pulling"<div style="text-align: justify;">Recently, I was on a natural remedies website and someone mentioned "oil-pulling". What on earth?!?! I'd never heard of this before...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My curiosity was too much to bear. I had to know all about this practice of "oil-pulling".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/6lBZgW" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kca="true" src="http://mrg.bz/6lBZgW" /></a></div>Turns out it's an ancient Ayurvedic practice, where you swish oil around in your mouth for 20 minutes - first thing in the morning, and apparently it "pulls" toxins out of the bloodstream, helps your body detox by stimulating the meridians of the major elimination organs, as well as killing harmful bacteria in your mouth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was still early in the morning, and I hadn't yet had breakfast, so I was keen to give it a try. I suspected that my body was trying to fight off some kind of virus as my stomach had been feeling "off" and for a few days I kept getting severe muscle weakness in my arms and legs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The only oil I had was cold-pressed Sweet Almond Oil. I put a tablespoon in my mouth and swished it around gently, for 20 minutes, and then spat it into the toilet. (Note: Do NOT swallow, as it is now full of toxins and bacteria.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The colour had changed to white, just like the instructions said it would.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Almost immediately, and for a few hours after, I could feel gunk (that's mucus to the faint-hearted...) coming down the back of my throat. Could it be, the oil was clearing out my sinuses???</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All day, I felt unusually thirsty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That night, I woke up no less than three times, and each time I was bathed in sweat. But I wasn't hot. I was just sweating like crazy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The next day I noticed a definite improvement in the muscle weakness symptoms. That night, I again woke up sweating. By the third day the muscle weakness had gone. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've continued to "oil-pull" each morning (about a week), and I aim to continue long-term. I've now got my eyes peeled for other changes. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some of the testimonials online are really intriguing. Many people listed dental and gum problems improved, eyesight improved, sinus problems improved, and arthritic conditions improved although many had to persevere for a couple of months before joint problems eased. Several people said that their hair started to grow back as their original colour, instead of grey. And one woman said her husbands eyes became noticeably bluer!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Isn't that fascinating?!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I do not know <em>HOW</em> it works, from a scientific perspective, but then again, I've never belonged to the school of thought that says if it cannot be explained, then it cannot possibly work. I prefer to judge by results, and oil-pulling most definately caused a reaction for me....and I wasn't even using the oils that are generally recommended as most effective (sunflower or sesame). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to learn more about this little-known practice, <a href="http://oilpulling.com/oilpullingmethod.htm">see here.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And if you decide to take up oil-pulling, do leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what others experience from it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-69109084986842025522011-09-27T07:04:00.002+10:002011-09-29T14:12:49.565+10:00Why I Chose To Get Rid of The Microwave...<div style="text-align: justify;">For a while now, I've felt uncomfortable about having a microwave in my kitchen. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not only did it clutter up my small kitchen, and take up valuable bench space, but on the odd occasions I used it to reheat leftovers, it just didn't "feel right". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/wkvniv" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" nba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/wkvniv" width="320px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because, all the while, I was thinking about how it works - by making water molecules in the food vibrate at high frequencies, turning it into steam, and thereby heating the food.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it also changes the chemical structure of the food, by distorting and deforming the molecules. One scientist even proved that it can destroy DNA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I couldn't help wondering what that food would do inside my body? Inside my children's little bodies? <br />
<br />
If the structure was changed, could our bodies even recognise that it was "food"?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was remembering how one independant organisation (Powerwatch) says that even when a microwave is working correctly, the radiation levels in your kitchen are likely to be higher than those coming from the local mobile phone tower.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(See <a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/microwave-hazards.aspx">Dr Mercola's article</a> for more info.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And then there were those studies that showed a decrease in white blood cells after people ate microwaved food. Less white blood cells equals less immune function - not exactly something I aspire to...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And even though I used it less and less, I still held onto it...."just in case"....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But with our house going up for sale, I decided to take the plunge. The microwave with the chipped paintwork inside (who knows what fumes it was depositing into our food?) is gone! For good...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so far, I haven't missed it at all. And I'm revelling in the extra bench space and lack of clutter!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have reached the conclusion that there is nothing which cannot be heated by placing under a grill, put into boiling water, or warmed in the oven. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I rarely used the microwave for defrosting, but if you do, it just takes a little forethought to get around that issue. Simply take the food out of the freezer a day or two in advance, and defrost in the fridge. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I figure that we are already being bombarded with radiation from every angle, so any changes which equal less radiation inside our own home, can only be positive...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-48869065060766239902011-09-25T17:22:00.001+10:002011-09-25T17:23:31.629+10:00The Really Easy "Use-Up-All-Your-Leftovers" Quiche<div style="text-align: justify;">This recipe came from my mum, who got it from someone, who got it from someone else...(You know the kind!!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have made so many variations of it, using whatever veggies I have on hand, and it has never failed me. I've made all kinds of substitutions, too, such as replacing milk with oat or rice milk, replacing flour with spelt flour plus 1 tsp of baking powder, replacing cheese with goats feta. They've all turned out fine...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Ingredients:</u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">3 eggs</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1/2 cup self-raising flour</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup milk</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 tbsp melted butter</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Salt & Pepper, to taste</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 chopped bacon rashers (nitrite free, if you can get it)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 chopped onion</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup grated cheese</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(You can make as above, or add in whatever veggies you please. Leftover cooked vegetables or meat, grated zucchini, chopped spinach, roast diced pumpkin, chopped capsicum, semi-dried tomatoes, tinned corn, whatever...!!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Method:</u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mix well. Pour into greased pie dish. Bake 30 - 40 mins in moderate oven, until slightly browned on top.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, enjoy. Hot or cold. :-)<br />
<br />
A great way to use up leftovers, or clean out the fridge...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-47720263973575898382011-09-21T14:43:00.002+10:002011-09-21T15:08:22.631+10:005 Easy DIY Fertilisers To Help Your Garden Thrive.<div style="text-align: justify;">I can't remember the last time I bought a commercial fertiliser for my garden. Why pay for it....when there's so many ways you can recycle nutrients right back into your garden?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You probably already know about compost, worm juice and animal manures, but here's a few more tricks to get your garden healthy and blooming. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/o1JPML" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; height: 236px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; width: 306px;"><img border="0" height="228px" rba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/o1JPML" width="320px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>1. Weed Tea</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next time you weed your garden, put young weeds (not those with seeds) into a bucket, cover with water and let to sit for 3 - 4 wks. You may not need this long in hot weather.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When you go back and take the lid off....remember to hold your nose! Yes, it will smell pretty funky, and look gruesome. That's ok. The weeds have broken down all their nutrients into the water. Strain, or put some gloves on and collect out any weed pieces , and put those into the compost. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then use the weed tea as a liquid fertiliser, mixing 1 part tea, to 10 parts water.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>2. Egg Shells</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next time you use eggs, keep the eggshells and allow to dry. Crush them into a course grit (just using your hands is fine), and sprinkle around the garden. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not only will they break down over time, and add their calcium to the soil, but they help to deter slugs and snails. These slithery little creatures do not like sharp eggshells on their soft underbellies....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>3. Banana Peel</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don't toss the banana peel! Next time you enjoy a banana (which, sadly, is a rarity for those of us in Australia recently, due to sky high prices) tear the peel into small pieces, and sprinkle onto the soil around your garden. They will break down and add their phosphorous and potassium to the soil. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roses, in particular, seem to benefit from this. You can also dig the peel into the soil, when adding new plants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>4. Seaweed</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next time you're at a beach, collect up some seaweed to bring home. Once home, rinse thoroughly in fresh water, then add to a bucket of water. Then follow the same process as for the weed tea listed above.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Watered onto plants every couple of weeks, it will help to green plants and stimulate root growth. The diluted mixture can also be sprayed directly onto the foliage of the plant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>5. Lawn/ Grass Clippings</strong></span>. Allow to dry in the sun for a couple of days, then sprinkle around your garden. They'll give your garden a nice boost of nitrogen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apparently, blackstrap molasses when used as a soil drench or foliar spray is great for conditioning the soil and feeding beneficial organisms, but I haven't personally tried it out yet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If all else fails, and your plants are still looking lack-lustre, try doing a soil test which should give you an idea if any specific nutrients are lacking, or there is an over-supply of a certain nutrient which can impede the absorption of others.</div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-75499571526019110282011-09-16T15:52:00.000+10:002011-09-18T18:03:37.262+10:00A New, More Positive, Direction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/ljtFYS" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235px" rba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/ljtFYS" width="400px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recently, after some soul-searching on my part, I made the following statement on <a href="http://www.thelifeandtimesofanordinarygirl.blogspot.com/">my personal blog</a>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>"I choose not to fight against all that is wrong with the world. Instead I choose to encourage all that is right with the world."</em><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the past year or two, I've really devoted myself to learning about how food affects us, the tricks that big business use to make us buy their products (at the expense of our health), etc etc, and all of it made me so indignant, I just had to do something about it. I had to fight this!! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I threw myself into teaching others, building this website, raising awareness on social networks, researching, becoming involved in various social and political causes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it's taken me quite a while to see, that this approach has not only taken it's toll on my health, it also seems to have taken away my positive spirit. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I began to see the world in a cynical, critical way. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, after a visit to a wonderful kinesiologist who put me back in touch with myself, and a recent serious medical situation with my husband, I began to feel that this just wasn't right approach for me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I wanted to see the beauty in things again. To feel hopeful. To be an encourager.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don't want to be the person who is constantly criticising the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, the government, necessary though it is at times. There's plenty of people already doing that, and doing a fine job of it, too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to be the person inspiring others to make the changes they need to, in order to be truly healthy. I want to be the person who is so high on health and full of life, that others around me will naturally want what I have. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the lightbulb didn't really go on, until I read this article by the Raw Chef, where he so beautifully expressed what I wanted to change in my own attitude: <a href="http://therawchef.com/therawchefblog/5-things-i-learnt-by-opting-out-of-an-airport-body-scan">5 Things I Learnt by Opting Out of an Airport Body Scan</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, I'm going to be taking this website into a new direction. I'll still be researching ingredients because I feel that awareness is the first step in the journey. But I don't want to stop there. I want to help my readers make better choices, which will then result in them feeling and <em>being better</em>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After all, true health is about so much more than food (although that is important). It's about our mental wellbeing, our zest and vitality for living, and our spiritual health. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps you have already noticed this new approach in my last couple of blog posts...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Funnily, this change in focus has really given me a lot of inspiration and enthusiasm. I'm filled with ideas for blog posts and website updates. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stay tuned!!</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-53658851479266242792011-09-10T20:55:00.001+10:002011-09-26T17:33:34.231+10:0010 Tips For Staying Healthy On A Budget<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's just no two ways about it...</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Organic produce costs more than conventional. Good quality natural bodycare products are more expensive than those off the supermarket shelf, and avoiding fluoridated tap water can be a costly business. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/2hSbIB" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320px" nba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/2hSbIB" width="300px" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, how can you stay healthy by buying good quality products, while sticking to some semblence of a budget?</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Below are my best 10 tips for doing just that!</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. <span style="font-size: large;">Plan, Plan, Plan!!!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I really can't stress this highly enough. A weekly or fortnightly menu plan is one of the best time and money savers you can utilise.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, it takes some time and discipline to get into the routine, but the savings are so worthwhile. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before I do my grocery shopping, I go through my fridge and pantry and see what I already have.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then I sit down and write out my main meals for the next week. Any ingredients needed for those meals, that I don't already have, gets written on my shopping list, along with fruit and snacks/nuts/seeds.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During busy times when my routine has gone out the window and I don't bother planning the menu, I find myself rushing to the shops for one or two items (but leaving with 5 or 10...) because I don't have what I need to make dinner.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It will save you so much time, and eliminates those evenings when you stand, staring into the depths of the pantry, dithering over what to make for dinner. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On my menu plan, I also list jobs that I need to do on a certain day, in preparation for the following day(s). For instance, today when I'm cooking the fish, I need to bake some pumpkin for tomorrow's roast pumpkin salad. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. <span style="font-size: large;">Grow Your Own.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/jBmB2D" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="139px" nba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/jBmB2D" width="200px" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is really the ultimate in saving. Not only is tending a garden great exercise, a source of relaxation and interest, uses less fossil fuels and resources, there really is no better feeling than picking straight from the garden and onto the plate. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am far from being a green thumb, and where I live has cold Winters, and hot Summers. Not exactly ideal for growing things, especially leafy greens. But there are some things that are so easy to grow, that <em>even I cannot screw it up!</em> These are: potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, zucchinis, rosemary, lavender, aloe vera and silverbeet. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even if you don't have a backyard, a sunny windowsill will grow herbs and sprouts. You can grow a batch of wheatgrass on the windowsill quickly, easily, and for less than a dollar.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. <span style="font-size: large;">Make Your Own</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You pay for convenience. If you're willing to make things from scratch, there are so many savings to be made. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A yoghurt maker costs about $20, and making your own yoghurt is so quick and simple, it will pay for itself in no time. You don't need to buy the special yoghurt starter packs, just use a few tablespoons of a previous batch of yoghurt as a starter, then add 1 and 1/3 cup of milk powder and add water as per usual.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rice and nut milks can be expensive if you use a lot, but they can be made at home, if you have a blender. There's plenty of instructions on the Internet for making your own.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Facial scrubs can be made with a little oil and sugar (or salt), with a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil added. Hair treatments which cost upwards of $5 in the shop, can be made using eggs or yoghurt (Wash the eggs out with lukewarm water only, or you may end up with a head full of scrambled eggs...Not pretty.). Face masks can be made using mashed up strawberries, or raw honey. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. <span style="font-size: large;">Make Use of Left-Overs.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you know that Australian homes and businesses <strong>throw out 7.5 million tonnes of food waste every year? </strong>That 7.5 million tonnes of food - quite apart from taking up vast areas of landfill - cost us about $7.8 billion. What a waste!!! </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you follow a menu plan, you should eliminate some of the food waste, as you will not be buying food on a whim, with no real plan for how you're going to use it up. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Spend your money on quality food, not quantity that will end up in the garbage.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Twice a week, go through the fridge and pull out anything that is going to be soon past it's prime, then work out how to use it up. Vegetables, both raw and leftover cooked vegetables, can be used up in quiches, pies, savoury muffins and fritters, stews, soups, fried rice, and casseroles. (See my <a href="http://blog.the-ingredient-detective.com/2011/09/really-easy-use-up-all-your-leftovers.html">"Really Easy Use-Up-All-Your-Leftovers Quiche"</a>)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On my weekly menu plan, I leave two meals for "easy" meals or leftover recipes.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fruit and vegetable pulp left over from juicing can be used in muffins or desserts. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I recently discovered a great little product called "Forever Green" bags at my local market. Apparently these bags absorb the gases released from food, so that food stays fresher for longer. I bag all of my leafy greens and herbs in these bags now, and they last more than twice as long, so I rarely have to throw any out now. (I think they cost about $7 or $8 for a pack of 16 re-usable bags. They've more than paid for themselves already, with the added bonus that I now eat a lot more herbs because I can now buy herbs knowing I'll use them up before they spoil.)</div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you steam vegetables, don't throw out the water underneath. Let it cool and either turn it into vegetable stock, or pour it onto your pot plants or herbs. They'll appreciate the nutrient boost. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another thing never to throw out is banana peel. These are great little garden fertilisers, especially for roses and ferns. Rip them into pieces, and sprinkle on the soil. They will decompose and leach their minerals into the earth.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And lastly, invest in a compost bin or worm farm. Not only will you never have to buy garden fertiliser again, you'll be amazed at how much less waste ends up in the garbage. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5. <span style="font-size: large;">Find Other Uses for Things</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Coconut Oil is an awesome cooking oil. But it's also a wonderful face and body moisteriser, lip balm and hair conditioner. I never buy body or facial moisterisers. I just use my organic cold-pressed coconut oil from the pantry. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/4ZC8hx" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="220px" nba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/4ZC8hx" width="320px" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vinegar is not only great for salad dressings, it's the only thing I use for cleaning the house and the windows(along with a microfibre cloth). I use it in the washing machine, along with bicarb soda. I use it in hot water, to wash the dishes if I've run out of detergent. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not only that, but you can double your amount of vinegar for free. Mix it half and half with water, and leave in a warm place for a day or two, and you get double the vinegar for the same amount of money. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I really cannot see the point in paying high prices for all-natural cleaning products or beauty products when you have all the ingredients in your pantry, for a fraction of the price. The only individual products I do buy are organic shampoo and natural dishwash detergent, because I still have not figured out how to make my own with satisfactory results.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. <span style="font-size: large;">Less Meat, More Vegetables</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a general rule, vegetables are a lot cheaper per kilo, than meat. Especially if it's good quality, grass fed, organic meat. Use the meat sparingly, but fill out the meal with plenty of vegetables.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not only that, but most vegetables can (and should) be eaten raw, and further save you money on energy costs.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. <span style="font-size: large;">Experiment With Different Grains and Pulses.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pulses and grains like lentils, chickpeas, split peas, barley, and broad beans are not only cheap, they are highly filling and nutritious. Once or twice per week, replace a meat meal with a meal based on one of these.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you've never tried rolled oats for breakfast, give it a go. It's just about the cheapest breakfast you can eat, and far better for you, than any of the sugary, highly processed boxed cereals. Sprinkle with ground nuts, cinnamon, sultanas, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, add some raw honey, or whatever takes your fancy. If you add the sultanas at the beginning of cooking, they swell up and become deliciously juicy.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Soak the oats overnight in water, then you really only need to warm it up in the morning, as the oats will have already absorbed the water. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">8. <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Pack a Snack</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/pC4EYX" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151px" nba="true" src="http://mrg.bz/pC4EYX" width="200px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Any time I step out of the house, I throw into my handbag a.) a bottle of water b.) a piece of fruit and c.) a little container of nuts. Even if I'm only planning on going out for a little while. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You never can tell how long you'll be, and expensive fast food or packaged snacks are hard to resist when your stomach is grumbling. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When heading off to work for the day, I got into the habit of packing more food than I thought I needed. It was better to bring it back home again, then be caught out hungry and sneaking to the vending machine for a packet of chips. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">9. <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Always Keep a Little Bit of Convenience Food Handy.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but it actually works (for me, anyway). I don't mean keeping choc-chip cookies in the pantry, where your hand can keep sneaking in whenever you get the urge. No, that's not what I mean. I'm a big believer in winning the battle at the checkout. Once the junk food is in your house, the battle is all but lost.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But I have found that keeping things like some frozen fish and wedges, or tinned tuna on hand is a good idea. Unexpected things come up, people get sick, you run late, and let's face it....sometimes you <em>just don't feel like preparing a meal.</em> If you are running late with hungry children it is too easy to simply go to the nearest drive-thru, if you know that you still have a time-consuming dinner to prepare when you get home. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's easier to resist the fast (but expensive) junk, if you know that you have a back-up at home, that can be on the table within 15 minutes. Sure they're not the most healthy thing you can eat, but it's gotta be better than KFC....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">10. <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Take Advantage of Discounts.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know it sounds like a mute point, but a little bit of organisation (see Point number 1!!!) can save you plenty of money. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My local health shop has 25% discount on the first Monday of every month, so during the month I make a note of any supplements and superfoods we need, and I wait to buy them on that Monday. (By the way, this discount is not advertised, I found out only by asking instore. It pays to ask!!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes you can pick up good bargains in the last hour before closing at the local fruit and veg, or farmers markets. It can be mutually beneficial for you and the seller. You get a discount, and they would rather sell the produce for less, than taking them back home again, or having to throw them out. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Get together with friends to make the most of bulk discounts, or when buying products online. Many online stores offer discounts or free postage on orders over a certain amount.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">***</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please feel free to leave your money-saving health tips in the comments section below. I believe that good health should be available to everyone, no matter what their income. Our current food system sometimes makes this hard to do. (Why, oh why, are imported 2-minute noodles cheaper than the fresh vegetables?) Let's see to it that good, nutritious food are within reach of everyone, including low-income earners.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-71564479758724152672011-08-31T21:00:00.000+10:002011-08-31T21:00:57.039+10:00The Raw Food Challenge<div style="text-align: justify;">Not long ago, while holidaying on the Gold Coast, I stumbled across a gorgeous little <a href="http://fromearthandwater.com/">raw-food restaurant</a>. I was meeting up with an old friend for lunch, and we were both keen to try it out. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Now let me just say that I have never been a huge fan of salads or sprouts. I love cooked carbohydrate foods, like pasta and breads. But for a while now, I've been thinking that I really need to increase the amount of raw foods I eat.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So we tried it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it was awesome!! I loved it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I had these spiced sweet-potato "pancakes" topped with avocado salad and macadamia feta, all displayed to perfection with tiny edible flowers and pomegranate seeds strewn over the plate. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then we shared a raw choc-orange cheesecake for dessert.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I came away inspired to try out more raw food recipes at home. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, working five days a week, studying part-time, with two young children and another on the way, while getting your home ready to sell, and - more recently - a husband in hospital, does not exactly lend itself to researching and trying out new recipes!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But...I am now finished work, my husband is home from hospital, and our house is just about ready to go on the market, so....I am back with a vengeance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last few days, I've been having a look around at some of the raw food blogs and websites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/r3kVC8" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192px" src="http://mrg.bz/r3kVC8" width="320px" xaa="true" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And if I wasn't already inspired to be more raw, I certainly was after reading through <a href="http://www.beautifulonraw.com/raw-food-blog/">this raw-food blog</a> by an absolutely stunning woman, radiating health and vitality at 53 years young.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to glow like that!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I discovered the Raw Chef's thoughtful blog, and his divine-looking <a href="http://therawchef.com/therawchefblog/raw-recipe-chocolate-torte">Choc Torte with Whipped Cashew Cream</a>. He's even released his inner hippy, and is offering his full collection of e-books for whatever price you can afford. I'm terribly tempted to take up the offer...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So. I've come up with a challenge for myself (and for any other pasta lovers out there) to increase the amount of raw foods I eat. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, on an average day, I eat probably 20 - 30% raw, mostly as snacks, such as fruit or raw nuts and seeds, and an occasional salad served with dinner, or on a lunchtime sandwich. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is simply not good enough, for someone who wants to radiate with health!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">While I consider my diet to be an improvement over the "Standard Australian Diet", there are still a number of changes that can be made, including more raw and fermented foods in my diet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My challenge is to increase the amount of raw foods in my daily diet, to around 70 - 80%. That's roughly all but one meal per day. Some of the things I'm really keen to try are: making kefir and rejuvelac, making nut cheeses, experimenting with sprouted essene bread (I tried it once, but it wasn't really to my taste. I'm keen to experiment and find ways to make it enjoyable.), making a raw cheesecake, and experimenting with different salads and dressings. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm giving myself 12 months to achieve my goal of 70-80% raw, seeing as there is a lot of major changes happening in the next 6 months, including a new baby and moving to a new town.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have three conditions for my challenge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. I'm a busy mum, with a lot going on. I simply do not have time for food that requires a lot of fiddly preparation. Not on a regular basis anyway. The food must be relatively simple and easy, and won't keep me in the kitchen for hours on end, while hungry children hang off my legs, whining for dinner. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. Since making the switch to healthier, better quality foods, our weekly grocery shopping bill has roughly doubled. Given our current situation, I really cannot stretch that budget any further. But eating more raw foods is probably going to cost a little bit extra, (especially with all those nuts). So, I'm going to need to be creative, and find other ways to save money. I'm going to be thinking over this, and my next post will be some of my ideas for being healthy on a budget. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">3. Until I'm settled into my next home, which won't be for a number of months, I won't have a dehydrator, so recipes that require dehydrating are out. I know that you can use an oven on low temp with the door partly ajar, but a gas oven running for 8 or 9 hours seems like an awful waste of energy to me, so I'd rather prefer just to wait until I have a dehydrator.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'd be thrilled if there are any cooked food lovers out there, who might join me on the challenge. You can amend it in any way, to suit your own circumstances and goals. Your goal might be to simply eat one salad every day. Or you might wish to become 100% raw. Whatever takes your fancy, as long as it gets people eating more raw foods, I'm happy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And if you're not convinced that eating raw foods can take you to new levels of health and vitality, then just take a look at these unbelievable <a href="http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?33280-My-Before-and-After&highlight=1%20year%20raw%20photos">before and after photos</a>. Actually, when I re-charge my camera, I'll add my very own "before" picture to this post, to keep me accountable, and give me a reference point. </div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective.website</a></div><br />
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Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-16017662386125727122011-08-02T18:41:00.000+10:002011-08-03T07:34:57.717+10:00The Cure For Cancer.....Is In Your Pantry???<div style="text-align: justify;">About three months ago, my uncle was diagnosed with Stage 3 prostate cancer. His doctor urged him to have surgery, before it spread to other parts of the body.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He refused. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">His doctor warned him that if he did nothing, he would simply "walk off into the sunset".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As luck would have it (or perhaps, as God had arranged it) just a week or two before he was diagnosed, someone had passed along information to him about using bi-carb soda (yes, baking soda) to cure cancer. The friend who had passed on the information, had used baking soda to treat kidney cancer, after being sent home from hospital to die. One year later, she is still going strong.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He decided to try it first, before submitting to surgery. One teaspoon of (aluminium-free) bi-carb soda in a glass of water, morning and night, and each morning he tested his urinary pH level. His aim was to raise his pH level to 8.5 for 5 days straight, as cancer simply cannot thrive in such an alkaline environment. Meanwhile, he continued on with his daily life, as normal. He was not in any pain, in fact, he began to feel better than he had in ages.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a month, his PSA (Prostate Specific Antigens) reading had come down by one full point.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another month later he went for scans, which showed that the cancer had shrunk, but not completely.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another month later, and his doctor has just given him the "all-clear". The ultrasound performed last week could find no evidence of any cancer. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Contrast this, with two of our other family friends and their recent battles with cancer. One recently passed away, after a couple of years of treatments - both conventional and natural - an unrecognisable shadow of her former self, aged just 54. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our other friend, also in her 50's, began with lymphoma about 3 yrs ago. After some months of chemotherapy she went into remission. But last year, the cancer was back again, this time it was leukaemia. Her doctors admitted that this new cancer was caused by the previous chemotherapy treatment. Back down to Sydney she went, for more months in hospital, attached to a tube. She survived it, and came back home again. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sadly, she is now in hospital again, fighting for her life. The leukemia is back again, and on top of it, she contracted swine flu while in hospital, which has now developed into pneumonia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, can we say that my uncle's cancer won't come back? No. Only time will tell, if he has been cured permanently. But it does beg the question....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>After decades of research, and over $200 billion in funding and public donations, the medical establishment can offer no better option, than A.) to cut you open B.) to burn your insides, with radiation, or C.) to poison you with chemotherapy?</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Are we in the Dark Ages of Medicine, or something???</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Where is the funding and research into something as cheap, and harmless, as bicarbonate of soda? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Italy, <a href="http://www.winningcancer.com/txt/the-simoncini-treatment-of-cancer/"><span style="color: #6f7a13;">Dr Tullio Simoncini</span></a> treats cancer patients - many of them classified as "terminal" - by injecting bi-carb soda directly into the site of the cancer. His theory is that cancer is actually a fungus (quite possibly candida, which I've written about before), and bicarb soda is a very potent anti-fungal. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">His success rate is somewhere around 90% (remember that many of his patients are "terminal", in other words, there is no hope for them...). Some cancers have a better success rate than others.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There's <a href="http://sodiumbicarbonate.imva.info/"><span style="color: #6f7a13;">another school of thought</span></a> which also helps to explain why baking soda is effective against cancer. Baking soda is highly alkaline. Cancer thrives in an acidic environment. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately for us, today's diet and lifestyle promotes acidity. Stress, medications, antibiotics, processed food, yeast, dairy products, sugar, red meat, alcohol, smoking, chemicals and toxins - all of these make your body acidic. The ideal ratio of alkaline foods (fresh vegetables, whole grains) to acidic is about 80:20. Most of us are eating the opposite - 20% alkaline to 80% acidic, and wondering why we have aches and pains, low energy, hormonal disturbances, bad skin, digestion problems....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I do believe that the food you choose to eat has the potential to kill you. It also has the potential to heal you. Which is why I suspect that the cure for cancer, can indeed be found in our pantries....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are some natural health practitioners that believe NO DISEASE KNOWN TO MAN, can survive in an alkaline environment. Do you realise what the ramifications of this could mean for society? The elimination of disease, cheaply and safely, without unnecessary procedures, vaccines or medications? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just imagine...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-32387583644893556512011-07-22T17:26:00.000+10:002011-07-22T17:26:48.479+10:00Illness....is the new "Normal"?<div style="text-align: justify;">Recently I was having a conversation with a work colleague which drifted onto the subject of hair dyes, and I mentioned to her (a frequent user of hair-dyes) about the link between cancer and permanent hair dyes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Her reply: "Oh, well.....Everything gives you cancer these days..." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another reaction I hear sometimes, is: "Oh well, I've got to die from something, I may as well enjoy myself while I can..."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I cannot help but wonder if they would say the same if their loved one was struggling with a disease that made life so painful, it was anything but enjoyable? Would they say the same if they were watching their child go through that horrendous torture they call "chemotherapy"?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Would they say the same if they realised how good they could feel without the constant bombardment of toxins and junk food? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've started to think that our society's mindset - when it comes to health - has become terribly skewed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since when did illness and dis-ease become the new normal?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When did we come to accept that cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and a whole host of other disorders were a "normal" part of ageing?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since when did childhood allergies and asthma become commonplace, and learning and behavioural disorders reach such epidemic levels that we have to come up with new names to label them?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since when is a bout of influenza, and coughs and colds just something to be expected and endured every Winter? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I suspect we've forgotten the meaning of true health! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our new version of "healthy" is a watered-down, diluted version where it is expected that a "healthy" person will get colds and flus in Winter, probably have some form of allergies or hayfever issues, and be on medication for blood pressure or diabetes by the time they are 50. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not true health.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I challenge you to list 5 people who:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">a.) do not suffer from allergies or hayfever</div><div style="text-align: justify;">b.) rarely, if ever, suffer from colds or flus</div><div style="text-align: justify;">c.) do not need medication of any kind</div><div style="text-align: justify;">d.) have clear and glowing skin, clear eyes, and thick, shiny hair</div><div style="text-align: justify;">e.) maintains a healthy body weight without the need for "diets".</div><div style="text-align: justify;">f.) is energetic and active.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Out of all the people I know, or have ever known, I can think of only one who ticks<strong> <span style="font-size: large;">all</span></strong> of the above boxes. (Sadly that person is not me...but I'm working on it!!).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">She was so unusual, that she stands out in my mind, when thinking about health, even though it's been 6 years since I last worked with her. You know those pictures in magazines that feature women with gorgeous white teeth, flawless glowing skin, and thick shiny hair, just bursting with (photo-shopped) radiance? Well, she was actually like that in real life - without the help of make-up. Glowing, happy and energetic. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(On a side note, she also drank more water than I've ever seen anyone drink, which kind of adds up now, since reading "Your Bodies Many Cries for Water" by Dr Batmanghelidj. Eye-opening book. Read it if you can get hold of a copy.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps such a glowing state of health is not achievable for everyone, but I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of people are living far below their health potential, and many are suffering needlessly because of it, and that saddens me. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to see a completely new paradigm develop about health. Real health. Let's stop mis-using the word, because truly healthy people in the Western world are - sadly - a small minority. Our diets and environment full of toxins and poisons, has seen to that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to see people start asking the question...<em>why</em>? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We now have a cancer rate of almost 1 in 2.....<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Why</span></em></strong>? Childhood asthma has reached epidemic proportions.....<span style="font-size: large;">W<strong><em>hy</em></strong></span>? Heart disease is the number one killer of women, even though we're eating more "low-fat" foods than ever.....<span style="font-size: large;">W<strong><em>hy</em></strong></span>? Autism and it's associated spectrum disorders have risen by 173% in the past two decades......<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Why</span></em></strong>? In Australia, 61% of all adults are overweight or obese, even though we are spending more on diet programs and gym memberships than ever before.....<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Why</span></em></strong>?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aren't we doing our children, and our children's children, a disservice if we fail to ask these questions? We are clearly on the wrong path, when it comes to so many aspects of "health". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Illness is not normal. Anyone who has studied Anatomy and Physiology must surely marvel at the amazing way the human body is designed. Every system, and every system within the system, is intricately designed to keep you healthy - to ensure a state of "homeostasis". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet it's clear, that even the human body - so astounding in it's detail and design - cannot compete with the onslaught of toxins that we are eating, and rubbing onto our skin, and breathing into our lungs, and radiating through the atmosphere. </div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-20407898943542206622011-06-12T12:20:00.000+10:002011-06-12T12:23:20.875+10:003 Ingredients For a Clean & Green Laundry.<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/Y0uDgk" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180px" src="http://mrg.bz/Y0uDgk" t8="true" width="400px" /></a></div>I'll tell you a secret. <br />
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I have only 3 ingredients that I use in my laundry. <br />
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All of them are cheap. <br />
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And none of them are found in the cleaning aisle of the supermarket...<br />
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1. White vinegar<br />
2. Bicarbonate of soda (bicarb soda)<br />
3. Lavender Oil. (Or eucalyptus oil)<br />
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I have a top-loading washing machine. I put vinegar in the "wash softener" compartment, sprinkle approx 1 - 2 tbsp of bi-carb soda on top of the clothes, and then add a couple of drops of water-soluble lavender oil to the clothes. <br />
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That's it.<br />
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For persistent stains, a paste made from bicarb soda and water, and dabbed onto the stain for a while before washing. Or simply leave the garment in the sun for an hour or two.<br />
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A couple of months ago, I was sorting out some boxes and discovered some brand-name wash softener and washing liquid that I had been given for free, and decided to "use them up".<br />
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The first thing I noticed, was the lint and gunk filter in my washing machine needed cleaning a lot more. Almost every wash. (With the vinegar and bi-carb, it only needed cleaning every couple of weeks.)<br />
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The other thing I noticed, but did not link to the change in washing liquids, was that we had a "flea problem". I started breaking out in "bites" all over, but most especially in the areas where the hem of my clothing sat. Around my ankles, around my hips, around my chest and around my wrists and hands.<br />
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I went on using my fancy-smelling wash liquids (being the frugal soul I am, I didn't want to waste them!), while cursing the "fleas" in our house. The salt-in-the-carpet trick did not seem to work on the "fleas", so I repeated another application of salt. Still I scratched. No-one else in the family seemed to be affected.<br />
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Thinking about it one day, I was pondering how it seemed to be linked to my clothes. <br />
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Ah. Lightbulb moment!<br />
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The change in washing liquid. Of course! Why didn't I think of it?! The "fleas" only arrived after I changed my washing liquid.<br />
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The vinegar, bi-carb soda and lavendar oil were promptly restored to their rightful place on the laundry shelf.<br />
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That was a week ago. Our "flea problem" seems to be on the mend, already...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-86489618715417904222011-05-28T13:44:00.000+10:002011-08-31T21:13:10.169+10:00How To Stop Excessive Sweating.<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/TPw6Eh" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244px" src="http://mrg.bz/TPw6Eh" t8="true" width="320px" /></a>This is rather embarrassing.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">For almost all of my adult life, I have been a <em>sweater.</em> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">You know, one of those people who constantly have damp patches under their arms, even when it's not hot?? </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Well, that was me. Except I was careful to wear clothes that hid my humiliating problem. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I first started to notice it as a problem when I was about 18. I thought it must be hormonal, and covered it up with anti-perspirants. After a while, they no longer did the trick, and I found out they contained aluminium so gave up using them anyway.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the time I was around 20 or 21, it was impossible to wear a white shirt in Winter, much less Summer. Even when I was cold, I was still sweating, but only under my arms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I even turned down a job once, because the uniform was a red fitted shirt and I just knew it would be disastrous. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I trawled the internet looking for the causes of excessive sweating and the cure. I even bought an e-book, which promised that the problem would eventually go away, if I just exfoliated under my arms every day in the shower.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Which I did. Faithfully and vigourously.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But still I sweated like a polecat...with exfoliated underarms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I noticed that I sweated more during social occasions or when I was out of my comfort zone. Perhaps it was a self-conscious thing. That must be it!! I worked hard on gaining confidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But still I sweated on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I asked my doctor if I might have an over-active thyroid. My doctor assured me I did not.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After 10 years of sweating, I resigned myself to wearing black shirts for the rest of my life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year, when I started to research food and health issues, I made a commitment to cleaning up my diet. The sweating was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to get healthy and have more energy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I stopped drinking fluoridated tap water, cut out sugar, cut out white flour and processed food almost entirely, cut down on yeast products, switched to completely natural skin and hair care products, swapped the table salt for Himalayan Crystal salt, and swapped the vegetable oil for pure unrefined coconut oil.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a few months I was feeling so good and so mentally alert, I knew that these eating habits were something I wanted to stick to for the rest of my life. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It wasn't until Summer arrived, when I realised with a shock one day, that I wasn't sweating!! I checked under one arm. Nope. Nothing. Under the other arm. Nothing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I could not believe it!! I could not stop checking under my arms, and revelling in how dry and how....<em>normal</em> they were.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The day I wore a white shirt and didn't get any damp patches was the best feeling!! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Looking back, I can see that the problem began after I moved away from home to study. I was brought up on a farm drinking rainwater, and eating home-cooked food. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I moved to the city, I began drinking tap water that contained fluoride and chlorine (both toxins) and eating cheap packaged food. In fact, I recall living on white bread and margarine for one fortnight when there were too many bills to pay.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My only theory is that, while I was busy feeling rotten and hating my damp armpits, my body was desperately trying to rid itself of toxins, via the skin. Now that I have less toxins going in, there's less to come out.<br />
<br />
It took around 4 months from the time of changing my diet, before I noticed my sweating had eased. No, it's not a quick-fix. It's not meant to be. It's meant to be a permanent solution and a permanent lifestyle change.<br />
<br />
I hope that any others who undertake the changes, will feel so good after a couple of months (the first couple of weeks you'll probably feel worse), and see so many other benefits such as increased energy, thicker hair, healthier skin, increased mental alertness, that you simply won't ever want to go back to your old dietary habits.<br />
<br />
I have no special washing routine. I wash under my arms with pure Sunlight soap, and after showering and drying, I apply an all-natural, roll-on deodorant and get dressed and get on with my day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you know anyone who suffers from the same embarrassing problem, I encourage you to pass this article along to them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I would be most interested to hear feedback or comments from others who have experienced this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please note: The aim is not to stop sweating altogether. It is natural to sweat when exercising, when sick, or nervous/ stressed. It is our bodies natural protective mechanism. The aim is to reduce <em>excessive</em> sweating, by reducing the amount of toxins entering your body. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-58261268389313503472011-04-30T21:35:00.000+10:002011-05-03T19:35:10.305+10:00Uncovered: The Secrets That Allow Dodgy Foods and Additives Onto Our Shelves<div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Ever since I began to investigate food and food additives, I've been puzzled over how some of these things were allowed into our food supply. Who on earth decided they were safe? And why? </em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>After all, you don't need to be a genius to track down the nasty side-effects of some of these products, like MSG, or sodium nitrite, or aspartame.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>So, how did they ever come to be approved?</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>I've been digging up some dirt on how the Australian approval process works, and I can't begin to tell you how thoroughly disgusted I am.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Which is why I'm writing it on my blog. I want the world to see this and be disgusted, too. This is my protest....</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Australian government body in charge of approving new foodstuffs, and ensuring the safety of our food, is called Food Standards Australia New Zealand (Henceforth referred to as FSANZ).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/">Their website</a> reassures us that their vision is to ensure a safe food supply and a "well-informed" public.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Yes! I agree! I am about to do my bit to inform the public.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It may surprise you to know that when a company applies to get approval for their food/additive, FSANZ are allowed to accept a "fee" from that company to "expedite the approval process".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their 2009 - 2010 budget estimate (which is available online if you do some digging around) reveals almost $1.5 million income from sources listed simply as "Other".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When questioned via Twitter, they conceded that companies may pay between $50,000 - $125,000 to "speed up the application process". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, $125,000 is probably peanuts when compared to the expense of developing the product, and the expected revenue once it hits the market, but...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How much pressure does this place on scientists to rule in favour of a company? Can they, in all honesty, claim to be "independant" when they are recieving funds from entities with a huge vested interest in their decisions?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, you would think that an organisation charged with the safety of our food supply, would be interested only in....the safety of our food supply!! But for some reason that I have yet to fathom, FSANZ must take into account World Trade Organisation obligations, such as "Barriers to Trade" when considering whether to approve novel foods (like Genetically Modified Foods) or food additives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, lets think about this for a moment....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The World Trade Organisation's aim is to promote international trade, and to make sure that member countries do not "put up barriers" to trade from other member countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Right. So, when huge international corporations like Monsanto, apply to get their genetically modified crops approved in Australia, which is more important?? The safety of those crops, or worrying about whether we are "putting up trade barriers"....?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apparently, refusing a product on the grounds that the public opposes it, is not a good enough excuse for the World Trade Organisation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The body in charge of food safety needs to concern itself with food safety!! Please. Let someone else worry about WTO "obligations". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the thing that infuriated me the most, was reading through their assessment for products currently seeking approval into Australia (At the time of writing, this includes two lines of genetically modified soybeans to be grown here in Australia, genetically modified corn for import, and a new artificial sweetener). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have never taken it apon myself to read this literature before (but you can be assured that I will be, from here on in...) and I was shocked to discover that their assessment read more like a marketing proposal, than the unbiased, scientific assessment that I was expecting. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just to give you an idea, here's a few things that I picked up from the application for the new artificial sweetener (it is no longer open for public submissions, but the Risk Assessment can still be found <a href="http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/A1034%20Advantame%20SD1%20Risk%20Assess.pdf">here.</a>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This new artificial sweetener, called Advantame, comes from the Ajinimoto Company (one of the world's largest suppliers of aspartame and MSG), and doubles as a flavour enhancer (how convenient.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Advantame is 100 times sweeter than aspartame, and 20,000 times sweeter than sucrose. (Remember aspartame? The neurotoxin? You can refresh your memory <a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/aspartame.html">here</a>). It has been synthesised from aspartame and it's real name is: (Brace yourself...) L-Phenylalanine, N-[3-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl) propyl]-L-alpha-aspartyl-, 2-methyl-ester, monohydrate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> "According to the Applicant" there were several "related substances" that have been identified in the final product as "manufacturing impurities...These appear to include lead and arsenic. But only in trace amounts. (That's comforting.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The toxicological database for Advantame is "extensive" and consists entirely of "unpublished studies sponsored by the applicant" (Even more comforting). In other words, the company did all the studies themselves, and have not published any, so none have been subjected to peer-review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the issues brought up in the various animal studies, there was </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - lowered blood counts (including lowered Red Blood Cell count and T lymphocytes - possibly related to the point further down regarding the thymus gland - the site of T-Cell maturation), </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - mineralisation of the kidney's in females, </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - smaller weight of thymus gland (the thymus gland plays an important role in immune function - this sounds alarm bells to me...)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - congestion of the lungs in males, </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - higher water consumption but lower urinary output (??? More alarm bells...)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - lowered prothrombin times (this indicates how long it takes for blood to clot - an abnormal prothrombin time can be an indicator of liver disease).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">- lowered spleen weight, and uterus and cervical weights in female dogs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - enlarged livers in male mice</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - rabbits appeared to be particularly sensitive to Advantame with female deaths reported, decreased ovarian weights, and also miscarriage. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alarm bells getting louder and louder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many of these issues came up in several different studies involving different animals. The smaller thymus in males, for instance, was observed in studies with rats, and also with dogs. In fact, the male dogs being treated with high doses of Advantame, had thymus glands that were approximately half the size of the dogs in the control group!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Are you disturbed yet? I certainly am.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But here's what's even more disturbing....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For all of the problems mentioned above - <em>every single one of them</em> - there was an excuse for why these problems were not caused by the "treatment" (ie. feeding them Advantame). One of the excuses listed several times, was that the problem mustn't be treatment related, because it did not show up in both males AND females. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am no scientist, but do we not make any allowances for differences between the sexes? Males and females are different! Some things may affect one sex more than the other, due to differences in body weight, metabolism or hormones.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, maybe they are right. Perhaps all of the problems mentioned are entirely coincidental...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But what if they're not...? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This product is proposed for use in flavoured milk products (among other things)....which are especially attractive to children. Would you take the risk? (No. Not me!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The assessment concludes by saying: "There are no public health and safety issues associated with the proposed addition of Advantame to food". (Are you sure about that?!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The assessments put forward for the genetically modified foods are no more reassuring, I'm afraid. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">FSANZ does not take it apon themselves to perform any safety or toxicology studies. They rely apon the information given to them by the applicant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And not only that, but once approved, FSANZ relies apon the applicant to inform them if any problems or health issues come to their attention. (Yes. Good luck with that!).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am so outraged by this!! I believe this is too important to be taking risks with - we're talking about our food here, the very thing that sustains us - and it infuriates me to see our regulatory agencies glossing over problems. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I rang FSANZ and requested a meeting with their scientists. They told me this was not the "done thing", but changed their minds apon learning that I was planning to stand outside their building with a large sign.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After several attempts to organise a meeting, after which they did not return my calls, I decided I needed a new strategy. (I have since returned to work, so the standing out the front with a large sign plan has been put on the back-burner)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At first, I had a good mind to go to the Health Minister, however I've heard from several sources recently, that getting a hearing with the Health Minister is like "pulling hen's teeth".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am now wondering if it would be more effective to go to my local Member of Parliament and voice my concerns. In my opinion, FSANZ needs a complete overhaul, not to mention more funding. It is embarrassing (not to mention puts them in a compromising position) that a government department needs to take fees from companies in order to run their agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not good enough!!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-654355862879344862011-02-15T16:42:00.000+11:002011-02-15T16:42:15.938+11:00Coconut Bread<div style="text-align: justify;">This is a real stand-by in our house, since it only takes a couple of minutes to mix up. It can be made wheat-free, milk-free and sugar-free if you wish. Really nice when served warm with butter. Also can be used in school lunch-boxes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The original recipe goes like this:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup self-raising flour</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup dessicated or shredded coconut</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup milk</div><div style="text-align: justify;">3/4 cup sugar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mix all together. Pour into greased loaf tin. Bake in moderate oven for around 25mins, until centre springs back when lightly pressed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Too easy!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is my wheat-free, milk-free and sugar-free version:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup wholemeal spelt or barley flour</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 teaspoons baking powder</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup dessicated coconut </div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 cup oat milk</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pinch of stevia and one and half tablespoons of xylitol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mix and pour as per above instructions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-32836571953415273202011-02-11T13:02:00.000+11:002011-02-12T18:26:07.760+11:00Make Your Own: Croutons<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Making your own croutons is far cheaper than store-bought ones, you know exactly what's in them, AND it's a great way to use up bread crusts or bread that's gone a bit stale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Take the bread (preferably sourdough) and thinly spread with butter. Then sprinkle generously with flavourings you like. Dried herbs, garlic salt or grated parmesan work well, but...<em>whatever takes your fancy.</em></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ot4I8XL8jJ0/TVNNqQkJgGI/AAAAAAAAANg/nLM4I8rvGmc/s1600/DSCF0033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ot4I8XL8jJ0/TVNNqQkJgGI/AAAAAAAAANg/nLM4I8rvGmc/s200/DSCF0033.JPG" width="200" /></a>Cut into small squares, about 1.5 cm, spread onto baking tray and toast in the oven until crunchy. (About 10 mins - I normally stick them on the bottom rack while I'm baking something else.) </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Allow to cool, then store in air-tight container in pantry.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">That's it! Yummy, crunchy croutons for your salad... </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-16676800848534908132011-02-07T12:15:00.000+11:002011-02-07T12:27:42.378+11:00The Rise and Rise of GMO's in Australia.<div align="justify"><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>More than 90% of cotton grown in Australia, is now genetically modified, and around 50,000 hectares of GM canola is now being grown in Victoria and Western Australia.</em> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Bio-tech giant, Monsanto (the same company that gave the world Agent Orange) owns the patents on 90% of the world's 134 million hectares of GM crops. They are currently seeking approval to release GM soy in Australia.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>The latest news out: researchers in the U.S are developing a GM corn that will contain swine flu vaccine...</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.sl-webs.com/custimages/dd395-Franken%20(site).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="http://www.sl-webs.com/custimages/dd395-Franken%20(site).jpg" width="320" /></a>It appears that GM has arrived, whether we like it or not. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Despite the questions over safety (animal studies in which rats were completely infertile after just 3 generations, increases in the amount of offspring who were stillborn or died shortly after birth, pigs giving birth to bags of water, etc, etc.).</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">And the issue of cross-contamination (that happened recently to an organic farmer in Western Australia, who can no longer be certified organic, because his neighbours GM canola escaped into his crop), it seems that the bio-tech companies are going to push this technology on us, and our governments are going to let it happen.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">The vast majority of Australians would be shocked (and probably appalled) to discover that they are <strong>already eating</strong> genetically modified food. It is NOT on the label, nor will it be put on the label anytime soon. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">The current labelling laws say that highly refined food (such as oils), GM food additives and flavours where the gene is not present in the finished food, less than 1% "unintended" contamination, meat/dairy that have been fed GM feed, and food prepared at point of sale <strong>do not have to be labelled.</strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">(Basically, the vast majority of GM ingredients can get away with not being labelled.)</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">American estimates put GM ingredients in 70-90% of processed food. I'm not sure the figures would be that high in Australia, but I'm betting the numbers would still shock most people.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">If you are one of those people and this is all news to you, don't feel guilty. The mainstream media have failed miserably to make the public aware of this. Apparently Charlie Sheen's partying habits are of more importance than the future of our food supply...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">If YOU care about the future of our food supply (and I hope you do) here are 3 things you can start doing today.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">1.) Learn how to grow some of your own vegetables, even if it's just salad greens on the windowsill and SAVE your seeds. Monsanto has been quietly buying up seed companies all over the world, and if the public stays apathetic about this issue, the day is going to come where you will not be able to buy a seed except a genetically modified one from Monsanto...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">2. Download a copy of <a href="http://www.truefood.org.au/truefoodguide/">The True Food Guide</a> (it's free) and then send the link to everyone you know. We are never going to make a difference on this, whilever so few people know what's really going on.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">3. Watch <a href="http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/">The World According to Monsanto</a> documentary. It goes for almost 2 hours so it takes a while to download but oh, so worth it! It's very hard to grasp the scale of this, or the corruption and arm-twisting going on behind the scenes, until you've watched the whole movie. I was in tears by the end.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Surveys consistently tell us that most consumers want proper labelling so that they can make an informed decision about the food they buy. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Recently, FSANZ (government body in charge of food safety and labelling, etc) handed down their Food Labelling Review Report, otherwise known as the Blewitt report. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">(Or should that be the Blown-It Report...?) </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">After months of submissions by the public, and interest groups, they conceded that the issue of genetically-modified food had recieved the greatest number of submissions of any other topic...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Yet their new recommdations hardly differ from the current guidelines: </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">- Meat and dairy that have been fed GM feed will still not need to be labelled. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">- Highly refined products will still not need to be labelled. (It would be too much burden on the food industry and too hard to police, so they say.)</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">- There is still the 1% "accidental" loophole, although they now recommend it be followed up with testing (which at least might stop one certain company, who was now been caught out <strong>10 times</strong> with "accidental" contamination in baby formula.) </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"> - Restaurants will need to advise customers if their food contains a GM ingredient that would have been labelled, but most ingredients still won't be labelled, so it kind of defeats the whole purpose....</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">The other issue that bothers (annoys?) me is that when considering an application to allow a GM crop into Australia, the FSANZ do not conduct any of their own studies. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">They rely on the <em>company seeking approval</em> to provide the studies (this is craziness, when you are dealing with companies who have <em><strong>wilfully and knowingly</strong></em> fudged studies and stooped to corruption and cover-ups in the past)...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">AND they generally <strong>do not require any animal feeding studies to be done</strong>. Apparently, FSANZ can assess the safety of GM foods without the help of animal feeding studies, thank you very much! </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">(It says so <a href="http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumerinformation/gmfoods/roleofanimalfeedings3717.cfm">right here</a> on their website. Straight from the horses mouth. <span style="font-size: x-small;">Pardon the pun</span>.)</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">So the rats who were completely infertile after 3 generations don't count. Neither do the pigs giving birth to bags of water. Or guinea pigs with hair growing inside their mouths. Or the chickens and sheep who died after eating GM feed. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">And...well. You get the picture..</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Please, people. Do me a favour. Educate yourself on this issue. And everyone you know. Our governments have shown that they will not protect us when it comes to food safety. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">FSANZ still maintains that if it's in our food supply it's safe to eat. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">I beg to differ.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-14307554779687586142011-02-05T17:56:00.000+11:002011-02-06T19:41:20.785+11:00The Madness of Our Modern Lives<div align="justify">It was at the checkout, that I had a real epiphany about the madness of our modern lives. The woman in front of me (who was probably in her 40's) was complaining that the stain remover was out of stock. </div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/0gGgKL" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://mrg.bz/0gGgKL" width="320" /></a>By the way she carried on, it seemed to be a matter of utmost importance. The young guy behind the counter didn't seem overly fussed.</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Eventually I said to her: "Just make a paste with bi-carb soda and water, then apply to the stain and leave for a while."</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">She looked incredulous. She repeated it slowly back to me. "Make..a..paste..with...bicarb...soda...and....water" </div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I was feeling a little incredulous too.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Her own mother, or her grandmother, at the very least, would have known this. She would not have relied on packages of fancy-marketed chemicals, but used her ingenuity and the basics that were available to her.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">In just <em>one generation</em>, a whole wealth of knowledge and wisdom has been lost. </div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">In our haste to keep up with the times, we have embraced all things new, and if we are to be honest with ourselves, it has led us straight into a state of dependance. </div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Scores of my own generation do not even know how to cook a meal for themselves, much less grow their own food or make their own clothes.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">I certainly don't advocate going back and living in the 1930's. I love modern technology as much as the next person. But turning our back on the lessons of the past is a very unwise move.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">And being completely dependant on big corporations (which is where I see us headed, unless we pull our heads out of the sand and make a conscious effort) for the very food that sustains us, is nothing but a recipe for disaster. For our health, and for our society.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Case in Point: In the past, we would have saved bones, and boiled them to <a href="http://blog.the-ingredient-detective.com/2010/12/make-your-own-liquid-stock.html">make a rich and nutritious liquid stock</a>, and then fed the leftovers to the dog.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Today, we throw away our leftovers, then drive to the shop to buy powdered stock (which has very little nutritional value - if any - and contains all kinds of junk like MSG), and packets of dog food which contain all manner of questionable things that dogs in the wild would not touch.</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Meanwhile we work longer and longer hours so that we can afford the stock powder and the packets of dog food...Both of which are probably contributing to dis-ease and premature ageing in both ourselves and our canine friends. (Which of course, costs more money...)</div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Does anyone else think this is sheer madness? </div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-47439039313895716052011-01-20T17:27:00.000+11:002011-01-21T09:22:18.166+11:00Why We DON'T Pay Enough For Our Food.<div style="text-align: justify;">I've got a confession to make...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/hJl1Pe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="http://mrg.bz/hJl1Pe" width="288" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Up until last year, I did all my shopping based on price. I was completely proud of what a bargain-hunter I was, and that I could manage to feed my family of 3 (at the time), on $100 per week, including meat, fruit, vegetables and nappies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This equated to roughly 1/10th of our total weekly income.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I bought 99c packets of white pasta without a smudgeon of a second thought, grabbed loaves of 99c bread. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I knew they weren't exactly healthy. But I didn't think they were overly <em>un</em>healthy, either...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I've read more and "educated" myself (None of this stuff was taught in school. Why, oh why not?!) I've had a change of heart about being a bargain-hunter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've come to realise that the shelf price in the supermarket doesn't reflect the true price of a product - not even the half of it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cheap food does not reflect the huge loss of biodiversity that intensive farming methods have caused, or huge swathes of rainforests - home to native tribes for thousands of years - lopped down to make way for those awfully useful soybean crops, that seem to end up in just about every processed food on the shelves, in some form or another.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Or the soils, completely destroyed of nutrients because the ground is forced to produce three harvests a year, instead of one, to maximise output. When that soil cannot produce any more, it is simply excavated out, and a new lot brought in. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It doesn't take into account the millions of illegal immigrants around the world, exploited and used to prop up the system, working long hours for pittance (if they're lucky), and living in absolute hell-ish conditions. If you doubt me, go and read Felicity Lawrence's book "Not On The Label" and be horrified over the injustice going on right under our noses. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The international slave trade is alive and well. It just has a different face now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It gives no hint to hens living (existing) in less than an A4 page amount of space, fed a constant of supply of antibiotics and hormones in their drinking water, and never seeing the light of day, or feeling the grass beneath their feet. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Or hens bred specially to have breasts that are so disproportionately large (because we all want to eat chicken breast) that by the time they are killed, most birds are lame or cannot even hold themselves up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nor does it tell of intensive farmed livestock, like cows, being fed other ground up animals for protein, to make them grow as quickly as possible. Or standing knee-deep in their own urine and faeces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not so much as a newspaper headline, of third-world countries forced to open up their markets in the name of "globalisation", only to see their livelihoods and land swallowed up by giant transnational conglomerates who use up the resources, wreak havoc, send local farmers out of business and when the land can no longer cope, they pack up and leave. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don't be fooled. <em>Free trade does not equal fair trade</em>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shelf price doesn't reflect the millions of tonnes of sugar and coffee dumped on the world markets by European countries, or corn and soy from the U.S, at artifically low prices because they've been produced with the help of massive government subsidies. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nor does it reflect the third world farmers who grow those same products (without any subsidies) on land that is often better suited to those commodities, yet are gradually forced out of business because they <em>simply cannot compete.</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It certainly doesn't hint at the explosion in health-care costs due to "affluenza" diseases like hypertension, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and the likes. Or the parents who are continually struggling with hyperactive and difficult children, because of additives and colours in foods.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The point I'm trying to make is: the shelf price rarely (if ever) reflects the true price of a product. If we want to continue buying cheap food, you can be sure we are going to be paying for it in other areas. In higher taxes, loss of languages and cultures and biodiversity, loss of small businesses and family farms, loss of soil quality, loss of nutrition, loss of communities...Some of these are priceless!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only a few decades ago, we spent one third of our incomes on food. Today, we spend just 10%. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As our incomes have grown, we've preferred to spend our new-found affluence on leisurely pursuits, entertainment and technology, rather than what sustains us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ironic part is that consumers hold enormous power - probably much more than a voter does, and most people seem blissfully unaware, that each time they buy a product, they are effectively casting their vote for that company and their practices and ethics. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The simple fact of the matter is, that companies will go where the money flows. Whilever we focus on buying cheap food, they'll use cheap means and cheap labour to produce it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If we, on the other hand, prove our willingness to pay more for food that is better quality and has been produced ethically and responsibly, then companies will provide it. It's not rocket science!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fact that we now have organic food in supermarkets is testament to the power of the consumer. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please. Make an effort to learn where your food comes from and how it's been made, and if you don't like what you learn, then vote with your hip pocket. And even better, contact the company and tell them why you will/or will not be buying their product in future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">They'll soon get the hint. Their shareholders will see to that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-86879103070561284082011-01-18T15:59:00.000+11:002011-01-18T16:03:25.584+11:00Make Your Own: Air FreshenerThe term "air freshener" is really a paradox.<br />
<br />
How can spraying chemicals around the room possibly freshen the air?! <br />
<br />
It can't. <br />
<br />
But it CAN affect the smell receptors in your nose, making you unable to sense odours. There now. Problem solved! Er...that is, if you don't mind harmful gases entering your lungs and into your bloodstream...<br />
<br />
Here's a better idea...<br />
<br />
Make your own! All you need is:<br />
<br />
20-30 drops of essential oil<br />
1tsp methylated spirits<br />
1 ltr distilled water<br />
<br />
Dissolve essential oil in methylated spirits. Mix with distilled water, store in airtight container or glass bottle.<br />
<br />
Can also be used as disinfectant, if using essential oils with disinfectant properties ( cinnamon, clove, pine, tea tree, thyme, bergamot, peppermint, rosemary, juniper, sandalwood.) <br />
<br />
Be cautious if you are pregnant. Some essential oils are not recommended during pregnancy.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-86320538678035774062011-01-11T14:58:00.000+11:002011-01-11T15:02:09.164+11:001.5 Million Reasons to Support Breastfeeding Mothers.<div style="text-align: justify;">We know that "breast is best" when it comes to feeding babies, but it seems the message still hasn't reached many parts of the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">UNICEF estimates that breastfeeding could prevent <a href="http://www.unicef.org/programme/breastfeeding/challenge.htm">1.5 million babies</a> dying every year.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Here....let me say that again.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Breastfeeding could prevent <span style="font-size: large;">1.5 million</span> babies from dying every year</strong></span>.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/bPNWVR" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" n4="true" src="http://mrg.bz/bPNWVR" width="175" /></a>Breastfeeding provides antibodies and is known to help prevent many illnesses from meningitis to acute diarrhoea and ear infections, not just during infancy, but long after breastfeeding has finished. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Not only that, but some infant formulas also contain MSG and aspartic acid, according to tests conducted by the good people at <a href="http://www.truthinlabeling.org/formulacopy.html">Truth in Labeling</a>. (Neither of these are listed on the label. They are a by-product of processing.) </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Other tests have shown up <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7242880&page=1">chemicals that are used in rocket fuel</a> and <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2007-12-04/health/bpa.formula_1_formula-makers-infant-formula-bpa?_s=PM:HEALTH">bisphenol-A (BPA) in formula cans.</a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">And just to add insult to injury, Greenpeace recently discovered that <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/news/GE/labelling">one brand of soy infant formula</a> sold in Australia contained genetically modified ingredients. The manufacturer claims it is "accidental" contamination (this is quite legal due to our crazy labelling laws). That argument might work the first time...but this is the <strong>TENTH</strong> time their baby formula has tested positive for GM contamination...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Ironically, poorer third world countries have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. For example, in some poorer countries, less than 20% of babies are exclusively breastfed from birth. <a href="http://www.unicef.org/programme/breastfeeding/facts.htm">(Source: UNICEF)</a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">But this has not stopped a certain large corporation (whom we shall publicly name and shame here....Nestle) from aggressively marketing their "gold standard" in infant nutrition. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Not just in Western countries, but in poor countries, where it is <strong>more important than ever that mothers be encouraged to breastfeed. </strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Where not only is money scarce and could be better spent on medications or clothing or housing, but many times there is limited access to clean water to make up the formula. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">High illiteracy rates mean some mothers cannot read the instructions correctly, often do not have the resources available to sterilise or clean equipment properly, and formula is sometimes "watered down" in an effort to save money, which can lead to malnutrition.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">In Bangladesh alone, baby milk and baby food imports are worth 16 million British pounds per year. 16 million pounds! In Bangladesh alone!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I may go on and on, but I think this article from The Guardian makes the point very clearly: </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/may/15/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Milking It</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. While you're at it, check out the </span><a href="http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nestle boycott</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, now an international movement.</span></span>Lets not make any mistakes here. We are not talking about making infant formula unavailable. We are not talking about singling out mothers who use it - many have medical and personal reasons for formula-feeding.</div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">We are talking about a HUGE company, making a handsome profit out of the people who can least afford it. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Shame on you, Nestle. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">And you haven't heard the last from me. I have not yet got started on your clever business strategy of making people fat with your junk food (cleverly designed and packaged with all kinds of nutritious claims), and then offering them the perfect solution to their problems with one of your "diet" programs through Jenny Craig. (Yes. They own Jenny Craig, too.)</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-57281757434173500852011-01-05T14:18:00.000+11:002011-01-05T14:18:44.525+11:00Make Your Own: Body Scrub<div style="text-align: justify;">A weekly body scrub is great for the skin, as it helps remove dead skin cells, and gets the circulatory and lymphatic systems moving.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But you don't need to buy expensive scrubs from the shop. Not only can they contain questionable ingredients like Methylparaben and "<a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/fragrance.html">fragrance</a>", but you can make your own quickly and cheaply, and you probably have the ingredients in your pantry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just make up a batch as needed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You need:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - 5 teaspoons of sugar or salt (I prefer sea salt for it's healing/antibacterial qualities)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - 1 teaspoon olive oil</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> - 1 drop of your favourite essential oil </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mix it up (it should be damp and a bit "clumpy") and use in the shower. I also use this on my face, but try a little amount first, until you know it's not too harsh for your skin type.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a></div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022239655541800140.post-43181808400732117252011-01-01T16:58:00.000+11:002011-01-03T17:30:20.291+11:007 Healthy Changes That Your Body Will Thank You For...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/bbz3EA" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" n4="true" src="http://mrg.bz/bbz3EA" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Happy New Year!!</em></div><em></em><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><em>Have you made a New Year's Resolution to lose weight, or to get healthy? You wouldn't be alone. Losing weight and getting healthy seem to be top of the list every year. But how many people really do?</em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Below are 7 changes to get you started. Take them at your own pace. Some are quick and easy, others are not so much. But all of them are well worth the effort. I say that from experience. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I feel like I am only just starting to fulfil my potential, after years of taking "nanna naps" in the afternoon, a couple of bouts with depression, and working in jobs that were below my true capabilities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have made huge changes in the last year. <strong>In the beginning I felt worse</strong>. But after about 3 months, I noticed more energy, less hair falling out, greater mental clarity and felt more "switched on". Nowadays I feel as though I can surely take on the world. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Below are what I believe are the 7 most important changes I have made:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>1.) Stop drinking fluoridated water.</strong></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are currently drinking Pureau brand of water, which is available in Australian supermarkets in 10L casks for around $7. This water tastes SO good! However, this is not really a long-term solution, from a cost perspective, but also because this water has been filtered, any minerals and trace elements have also been removed. <br />
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Be aware that most filters do not remove fluoride. Neither does boiling the water. <br />
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Reverse osmosis filters and distillation filters can remove fluoride but these are both quite expensive. The other option is a rainwater tank, if you don't like in an area with heavy pollution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After drinking pure water for a while, try a mouthful of tap water, and it will taste like you are drinking chemicals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>2.) Get rid of table salt.</strong></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Table salt is just rubbish - plain and simple! - and has absolutely no positive effects on the human body. Pure salt from the earth, is rich in minerals, but after processing all the minerals out (which are then sold off elsewhere, to be added to things like breakfast cereals), you are left with a product that is foreign to the human body. Iodised table salt is hardly much better. Still rubbish...with a bit of iodine added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Replace it with Himalayan Crystal salt. This salt is a pinkish or gray-ish in colour, rich in trace minerals, and can be found in good health food shops. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second best option is Celtic salt. And if you can't get either, get natural sea salt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>3.) Change your cooking oil.</strong></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/qILLFW" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="http://mrg.bz/qILLFW" width="243" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Did you realise that coconut oil is the only known cooking oil that does not go rancid at high temperatures? This means that vegetable oils and olive oil are not suitable for cooking. Rancid oils have the potential to turn cancerous in the body. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Coconut oil is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-oxidant, and anti-microbial. This means it is great for the immune system and the digestive system, has anti-aging properties, and people have testified that coconut oil has helped with all manner of problems from obesity and high blood pressure, to diabetes and HIV. It can be used externally as a moisteriser and massage oil, and is a wonderful wound healer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Use cold-pressed unrefined coconut oil for cooking. It is solid at room temperature, just scoop a little bit out on a spoon and add to the pan, and it will turn liquid as it heats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Olive oil is suitable for salad dressings or any purpose where it won't be heated at a high temperature, but only buy in small amounts as it will turn rancid if left on the shelf for months. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>4.) Cut out MSG</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not easy, seeing as MSG is in every aisle of the supermarket, even in the "health" food aisle. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This will probably mean giving up most savoury-flavoured snack products, gravy powders, stock powders, nearly all take-away food and frozen convenience food. Your tastebuds might protest for a little while, but your body will be much happier without these non-foods. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In case you need convincing, here's more on <a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/msg.html">MSG</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>5.) Quit sugar</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This one is not easy - I won't pretend. Chances are that you are addicted to sugar without even realising it. Most people don't realise how much sugar they consume in a typical day, and sometimes from surprising sources. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For instance, in a typical day, the average person could easily consume sugar more than 20 times in a day, from things like breakfast cereal, hot beverages, fruit juice, biscuits, cake, flavoured yoghurts, tomato sauce, frozen ready meals and convenience food such as pizza, pasta sauces, savoury flavoured chips or snacks, ice-cream, soft drinks, muesli bars, pastries, and some breads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Every single person I have known who has quit sugar has also lost weight in the process. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>6.) Avoid aspartame at all costs</strong></span>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've never been big on diet soft drinks so avoiding aspartame wasn't a big deal for me. But if you use artificial sweeteners or drink diet or "zero sugar" soft drinks or desserts, etc then please do yourself a favour and get this nasty toxin out of your life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've picked on MSG and aspartame in this list because I feel that they are possibly the two worst food additives, and they should not be allowed in our food supply. They are neurotoxins and their effects can be devastating. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">More on aspartame <a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/aspartame.html">here.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Experiment with stevia, xylitol or raw honey as alternative sweeteners. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mrg.bz/Li6QlV" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" n4="true" src="http://mrg.bz/Li6QlV" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">7.) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Switch</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> to sourdough bread products</span></strong>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commercial breads are churned out as cheaply and as quickly as possible, and while it suits us to pay bargain prices for bread, it's not really in our best interests to do so. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bread that is made quickly and cheaply, usually needs additives, and enzymes (which are probably not listed on the label, and may be genetically modified), emulsifiers, fats and conditioners to make it soft and fluffy, AND stay that way for a week. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The adulteration of bread may turn out to be the culprit in the explosion in coeliac disease and wheat allergies. Commercial bread may also contribute to yeast infections like candida. If you suffer from bloating and gas, you may find it eases after switching to sourdough products. (I did.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sourdough breads are made in the ancient, time-honoured process of leaving the dough to ferment and mature, making the dough more easily digested. (In case you're wondering, no it doesn't taste "sour".)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But be aware. Some commercial brands produce a "sourdough" bread, but apon further inspection of the ingredient label, it becomes apparent that there is still a significant amount of baker's yeast used, and very little sourdough.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A true sourdough bread only needs a few ingredients: flour, sourdough, olive oil and salt. Look for stoneground or wholemeal types.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You may need to try your local health food store or whole foods market. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the beginning, some of these changes will seem all-too-hard. You'll feel you are being deprived. Stick with it. After a while you start to feel so much better, that it becomes easy. It's simply not worth going back...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.the-ingredient-detective.com/">Return to The Ingredient Detective website</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01657019147960067075noreply@blogger.com2