12.29.2009

Toxins, Toxins, Everywhere!

Cancer From the Kitchen. We all know by now that non-stick is bad, right?? But how about your food containers. Are you still using plastic? I have transitioned to mostly glass for anything hot. I store items like cookies or cold things in plastic, but anything warm goes in glass. Click through and read the article, it's worth it.

Here's To a Healthier New Year

I thought I would pass on what I read in one of Dr. Mercola's email alerts today, mostly for the benefit of my family who won't click through to a link. You know who you are :) Also because I want to keep it where I know where it is. It assumes you realize that doughnuts, chips, and fries are on the "No" list :) They are talking about real foods that we may not consider to be health risks. It is taken from an article on Yahoo Shine and it's worth clicking through to read the whole thing. It's titled:

Avoid These 7 Foods and You're Off To a Healthier New Year

  1. Canned Tomatoes. Whoda thunk!! Item number one prompted this post. I would not have dreamed that a top food to avoid would be canned tomatoes. Apparently "the resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Acidity -- a prominent characteristic of tomatoes -- causes BPA to leach into your food."
  2. Corn-Fed Beef. No surprise here. We have been eating grass-fed beef for a while now but our proclivity for eating in restaurants is like shooting ourselves in the foot. The article says, "A recent comprehensive study found that compared with corn-fed beef, grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium."
  3. Microwave Popcorn. Yep, knew this one too. It's the stuff that lines the bag the gets ya. It's linked to infertility, as well as liver, testicular and pancreatic cancer. It vaporizes with the heat and leaks into your popcorn.
  4. Non-Organic Potatoes. "Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes they're treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they're dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting." I was struck by this comment in the article, "I've talked with potatoe growers who say point-blank that they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.
  5. Farmed Salmon. "Farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT."
  6. Milk Produced With Artificial Hormones. "rBGH or rBST increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It also leads to higher levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor in milk. In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers." I would go further and say that only organic raw milk should be consumed. Cheese is another issue, you need to search out cheeses that use clean milk. I think Tillamook is still good.
  7. Conventional Apples. "If fall fruits held a "most doused in pesticides contest," apples would win."
Mercola then adds his additional input. I knew canned foods were the least healthy choice when compared to fresh or frozen, but I didn't realize that one can of some items contains more than the current US guidelines for "safe" levels of BPA. Look for glass jars! He includes the following facts:

Non-organic meats have up to five times more pesticides than non-organic vegetables.

Non-organic butter can have up to 20 times as many pesticides as non-organic vegetables.

So when prioritizing your purchases, look for organic meats, eggs and dairy products before anything else.

And he adds that we should never consume unfermented soy. Soybean oil...Bad. Strongly linked to thyroid issues and various cancers.

We should make our own choices about what we eat and feed our families. I just think we should have the facts about what is being done to our food. I don't know why it has to be so hard to get through the grocery store!

12.01.2009

Randomness

My internet connector thingy mabob died. Again. At our last house we couldn't get dsl and opted for one of those wireless cards that lets you connect anywhere. Sort of. Unless it's cloudy, or raining, or Tuesday, or a full moon. You get the picture... It's been really frustrating. And my laptop is pretty new and I always wondered if it was really that slow or if it was just the connection. Because it would take me 30 minutes to load a 3 minute U Tube video, if I could download it at all.

But yesterday the little connector card died and I am without access until I figure something else out. But I needed to balance the bank account and pay a few bills so I headed to Starbucks. I'm not really supposed to be blogging. The baby is at home. But I just had to share...IT'S NOT MY LAPTOP!! Web pages are flying open, there is no waiting. I bet I would watch a whole concert on U Tube. Anyway, I'm pretty excited. Just wanted to share :)

Oh, also found about $500 of charges from someone who is not me. Looks like my information has bee stolen, so I'm off to the bank :(