This post should actually be called “The Politics of Nutrients.”

The reason for that is that food isn’t considered food anymore, so far as the media or governments or nutritionists are considered. At least that is what In Defense of Food states. Food has been deconstructed down to the point that oranges aren’t oranges anymore. Rather they are a source of Vitamin C. And tomatoes are a source of lycopene.

This technical terminology is used for a very important reason. The reason being that food, especially meat, can never been accused of hurting someone.

For example, cookies and crackers don’t cause cancer and heart disease. Oh no, it’s the trans fat in them. It’s a way of diffusing the blame.  Like, “that murderous thief isn’t bad, they just have a hard heart.”

In Defense of Foodstates that this all started in 1977 when a Senate Select Committe on Nutrition put out a report on health and diet. The research team had recommended that meat consumption be reduced since they had found that meat was the cause (at least a significant cause) of heart disease and other chronic diseases and cancers.

Senator George McGovern decided that this recommendation could not be released (he was, of course, highly influenced by the many meat farmers in his constituency) and formed his own reviewing committee that consisted of lawyers and journalists.

The report was retooled and released with the recommendation to reduce meat intake replaced with a recommendation to limit Saturated Fats.

Frankly, as well read as I am, I can never keep the fats straight. Polyunsaturated, trans, mono saturated, hydrogenated… it’s enough to make the head spin. So now consumers hear that saturated fats are bad for you but where do you find those? How do you keep them straight?

Wouldn’t it be easier to just say ‘meat causes heart disease” or “tomatoes help iron absorption”?

But that’s what those invested in meat or margarine, or Kraft Diner or whatever want you to think. If you are confused then you keep buying what you used to buy. Plus they use that ploy in another way. Have you ever seen eggs enriched with omega fatty acids? Or cheese with probiotics? Enrich something and the public will think it’s good for them. You could enrich cola and see “health conscious” people start drinking cola.

The benefit is never the same from eating an enriched product than from eating the real deal. If you want real vitamins etc. then eat your damn veggies. And, remember that there is nothing that our bodies need in meat. It is a nutritionally void food that raises the pH of your body and makes you more likely to get cancers or diseases. If you think that protein is an important enough reason to keep eating meat than keep eating yourself into a coronary! Cultures and countries that do not eat meat are much healthier and do not not suffer from heart disease and other diseases of affluence.

Another interesting factoid from the book was that in the last world war there was a ration on meat. When that happened the rate of heart disease and stroke etc. went down. Then when the war was over and meat consumption returned to normal the rates went back to their usual trend.

Food for thought…and only that! I certainly wouldn’t consider meat to be food for the body!

I can see how confusing it is when you get thrown all sorts of gargle at you. Everyone has ideas about how to get this mineral or vitamins or how to combine foods to get the best phytonutrient absorption. For Pete’s sake, just relax!

Here are what I think are the most basic of health principles.

1. The closer the food is to it’s original form the more healthy it is for you. When you eat whole foods you give your body the maximum nourishment available. Even eating more raw food will help you reap the total benefits of the food you eat. Heat can often times kill or deactivate enzymes in our food.

The bottom line is: when you are adequately nourished you will consume less and maintain a healthier weight. So make your meals from scratch and stop eating out of a can or a box!

2. Artificial sweeteners etc. do not stop you from losing weight. Studies show that artificial sweeteners actually cause weight gain. When you eat garbage like diet pops you are assaulting your digestive system and that affects how your metabolism works. You will gain weight and could cause damage to your body. There have been studies that show that when rodents are exposed to artificial sweeteners they develop tumours and have babies with birth defects.

You can read the article and view the comments on my artificial sweeteners article for starters.

3. Try to eat less sugar (even natural sources of sugars (not including fruit)). Sugar suppresses your immune system and makes you more likely to get sick. It also affects your mood in a negative way. You’ll be happier without that box of chocolate chip cookies. Trust me.

Cut out all forms of sugar for a week or two and you’ll be able to eliminate the craving. If you choose to do that just be aware that there is sugar in all  sorts of items you wouldn’t automatically think of…like bread for instance.

4. Watch your portion sizes. Meat is one of the items that is often over eaten. I am quite serious when I say that meat will kill you. You would be better off switching to plant sources of protein. These help fight disease instead of encouraging it’s growth and will help keep your digestive system more regular and healthy. Try to incorporate more vegetables into your diet. These are your disease fighters! Plus they keep you regular and that is a major component to good health.

5. Make better choices by reading labels. Let’s say you really want a salty treat. Potato chips are out. See my post on MSG. You can substitute with some tortilla chips (I choose one that uses organic corn because I try to avoid GMO when I can) and some homemade or organic store bought salsa or guacamole. I really try to advocate for making your own food but certified organic can be almost as good since they can not use chemical preservative etc. When it’s organic it has to be food! You can’t have organic chemicals.

Just find a better alternative to your craving. An organic dark chocolate bar instead of a Snickers, a cup of fruit juice instead of pop.

6. Get some fresh air and sunshine. This will make you happier and therefore healthier.

7. Try to use less chemicals in your home.  I have been cleaning with lemon juice, baking soda, vinegar and cream of tartar for over a month now and it works just as well. If you clean with vinegar though, make sure you air out the room before you have company over. The smell does linger a bit. But it’s still better than that stinging Windex smell to me.

But most importantly, just enjoy your food. Don’t get frustrated that you don’t know which salad to eat. Just take it one day at a time.

First off I want to apologize. I have a pretty bad headache today so I can’t guarantee that my blog entry will make the most sense.

Earth Day is almost here and there are some of us who actually do care.

I wanted to talk about a couple of changes that someone can make to their lifestyle that will greatly reduce their carbon footprint.

When you stop eating meat you reduce your contribution to global warming.

Think of all these wasted resources associated with meat:

1. Ten times the land is needed to grow food for cows than humans would consume. Without out all that land being used to feed animals we could easily have more than enough asparagus to go around. That is a great misappropriation of resources.

2. The by-products of feedlots and slaughterhouses pollute water supplies. I am pretty confident that with less meat farms there would be less e-coli contamination etc.

3. And as Al Gore was so brilliant in pointing out, cow farts yield greenhouse gases. Personally I think gas shouldn’t count but it’s a point regardless.

3. Then there is the transportation of cattle from fields to fields to slaughterhouses to grocery stores to your home. There is a pile of greenhouse gasses just in emissions from trucks.

Even Al Gore (Al Gore pff!) mentions it on his Inconvenient Truth website. Granted he slips it right in there along with using energy efficient light bulbs. But can you blame him? Cattle ops are in his family.

As a bit of an off topic, I really resent someone when they get paid thousands of dollars per engagement for sharing something that is supposed to be of critical importance. It detracts from the message if you ask me. If Saint Gore was truly worried about the earth you’d think he’d be more worried about getting the message out there and less worried about padding his wallet. But whatever…

There are other ways to reduce your carbon footprint. You can try to buy food locally grown (and it would be healthier too. Not just because the food is riper but because the U.S. and Mexico use more chemicals than we do and they use ones that are banned in Canada).

That leads me to point two, buy organic. You’ll be supporting farms that are sustainable and are gentler on the soil as well as food that is not covered with cancer causing chemicals.

And one more thing, eat whole foods. The more processed a food is, the less nutritious it is and the bigger the carbon footprint.

Anyways, this Earth Day, be green and make yourself a tasty, whole foods vegan dish!

Yesterday I was out and about and managed to snag myself some nifty green deals.

The first was a green cleaning book from Chapters. It was in their clearance section for about six dollars. I have been wanting something concrete with recipes (since I make notes from websites and magazines but it is such a pain in the butt to look for them that I just keep reaching for my Seventh Generation all purpose cleaner) for all sorts of cleaning  needs. They cover everything from floors to pests to shoes to tubs to pans.

These recipes are made with baking soda, citrus juice, borax, vinegar and other natural substances. Even with the natural/eco-friendly cleaners you still get far to many chemicals. Granted they are worlds better than Windex and Mr. Clean but they still aren’t the safest!

I am looking forward to replacing all of my cleaners with homemade ones!

The next green deal I found was a ceramic coated frying pan made by EarthChef. It’s non-stick like Teflon pans are but made from non-toxic ceramic.  Teflon is notorious for being toxic. Especially if it gets too heated. But who wants to cook something delicate like polenta in a stainless steel pan? Enter ceramic cookware.

I have had a chance to try mine on something very sticky and it was just as good if not a bit better than Teflon. Yay to non-toxic food!

I can’t say if it’ll stand up as well as my Lagostina pans but I can’t imagine that the ceramic would start to wear faster than the Teflon. The EarthChef pans come with a lifetime manufacturer’s warranty so I would infer that the ceramic is pretty resistant.

Plus, they are quite inexpensive. I bought a small pan for $7 or $8 at Sears! The big ones were a mere $30.

So here’s to healthy eating and non-toxic homes!

1. Reduce the amount of unnecessary items we purchase. Every few months I go through my whole house and send about two bags worth of stuff to my sister or Goodwill. This is a clear indicator of how we consume too much stuff. In many places of the world there are people who are barely surviving on less than what would be allocated for one person. Yet in the U.S. (Canada ranks a tiny bit better) people consume ten times what is allotted per person. I am sure that if you just take a look at your house you can see thousands of dollars of worth of rarely used items. Not only that, but most of those items are likely purchased using credit. This is a very unstable existence!

2. Borrowing more books/movies etc. from the library instead of buying them. Same premise as #1.

3. Reducing the amount of dining in/take out we participate in. Take out food is over-packaged with materials that aren’t always recyclable. This contributes to overfilled landfills. Also, any form of eating out is often unhealthy (especially compared to home cooked wholefoods meals) and far more expensive.

4. Trying to unload my plastic junk. Now this one requires some buying but it is a long term investment that is good for the family. Plastic is horribly toxic stuff and the sooner I can get it out of my home the better.

5. Using my computer and TV less and lowering my heat in the winter. This little effort can save hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. It’s funny that what benefits the environment often benefits my budget. I can’t lower my heat too much with a new baby in the house but I do try to lower it during the day. I also plan on spending much more time outdoors when it gets warmer out and that will mean a lot less time when the TV is on. We don’t have cable but we use it for watching movies and as a CD player these days.

6. Going fully vegan. The only vice left is cheese! We have given up all meats, eggs and all dairy except cheese. This will need to be a slow transition if we are going to stick to it but we will get there, so help me, by the end of 2009. The meat and dairy industry uses up piles of land and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions tremendously through all the different attributes of farming (from cow farts, to transportation of goods, to processing, to packaging).

7. Not eating any processed food. This is one that won’t be very hard for us to acheive. We didn’t eat much before. The processing of food often exposes it to chemicals and other garbage. It also reduces the nutritional value of many food items and makes them higher on the Glycemic Index scale. This means you aren’t nourished adequately and your body sends you signals to nourish it causing you to overeat and gain weight. Eating fresh foods means less packaging and less of a carbon footprint from all the over-packaging and processing.

8. Eating/buying items locally. Also buying organic food. I already boycott anything from Mexico (because of the pesticides) and try not to eat things from the USA either because of the GMO. The hardest will be giving up avocado but, I will likely allow myself to indulge in the healthy fruits and veggies. I want to start shopping at the Farmer’s Market more often too.  This also means that I’ll have to stop shopping at Wal Mart. Ha ha ha. I have hated shopping there but it is the closest store to my house and the prices are often what we can afford as a family of five living off of one income. But I am hoping that we can save a lot of money by changing our buying habits and can afford to shop in more local shops. Organic farming is much easier on the environment and the fruits/veggies from organic farms are often more nutritious and contain less pesticides. Another perk is that they cannot contain any GMO’d products.

9. Getting back to using cloth bags instead of taking plastic ones. We are pretty good about this one. When we do forget and are only buying a few, easy-to-carry items we often decline a bag and then just bag it in the car with one of our reusable bags. My goal for this year is to stop forgetting to bring the bags!

10. Streamlining our errands (ie. wasting less fuel because we go out to go get one container of soy milk).

Other, more personal goals:

1. Cheap dates. There are so many activities that are considerably cheaper than a dinner and a movie. We have thought of going swimming, going for walks on walking trails and playing tennis. There is also dancing at a latin club (we are taking lessons in the spring). These activities have the added benefit of offering quality time together and making our bodies healthier.

2. Exercising regularily and losing my baby weight.

3. Clearing out debt and not buying any large items with credit. Learning to have patience and save for the items we need.

4. Being more involved in my children’s education (see last post for details.

I started looking up some of the online stores that sell Waldorf toys a few days back. There are some great ideas that would be simple enough for us to make ourselves.

My husband is a cabinet maker and would be more than capable of doing some of the projects on these sites. Things like building castles, lace-up cheese, teethers etc.

I can sew and would be able to make dolls, dress up clothes, play scarves etc. I have even been fortunate enough to find instructions for making Bambolettas. They are so beautiful but quite pricy (which is fair considering the price of the materials (wool batting etc.) and the time required to make them.

The upside to making my own, besides saving money and personal pride in my work, is that I can make it out of cotton instead of wool and make it vegan-friendly while still staying true to the doll.

Anyways, I am having so much fun making toys and planning for the next ones. I can’t wait to make it to the wood shop soon and buy some more wood trinkets for my next project!

Who knew that making my own toys could be so much fun for me and for the kids? Not to mention how much healthier these toys are for their bodies and minds.

I apologize for being so long without writing. I had a baby on November 30th and haven’t really found the time to sit down since then.

Lately I have been thinking more and more about the fact that my kids have way too much plastic in the house. And I have made it clear to my family that if they buy plastic toys for our new little one I am not giving them to her. It makes me sick that people give their infants plastic teethers and let t hem drink  warm formula from plastic baby bottles.

I watched a documentary by CBC called “The Disapearing Male.” It explored the horomone disrupting capabilities of  the chemicals in the toys we give to our children. Not to mention the crap we spray on our countertops or the stain resistant finishes on our clothes and furniture.

The result has been a lowering male birth rate and an increase in male reproductive problems. Things like low sperm count, testicles that get stuck in the body (raised testes) etc.

So I have been talking to my husband about downsizing the kid’s toys. He feels somewhat bad because most of that toxic plastic were gifts from well-meaning people. But he has agreed to let me get rid of anything that doesn’t have an educational value since he thinks they have way too many toys anyways.

We are going to replace them with cotton and wood.

I asked my mom to buy toys made from natural fibres. So she spent extra time looking for a doll for Anna. It said on the box that it was safe for asthmatic kids. So she assumed it was made from safe stuff. It’s made in China (Boo!) and has a soft plastic face (read Phalates) and a polyester body (read synthetic fibre). Why is it so hard for people to get the wood and cotton thing???

Anyways, not that I have been much better. So far I have bought just a few things for Anna. A fleece (made from recycled pop bottles (read plastic)) sleeper, a fleece blankie and some cotton socks. It is hard to break bad habits but I am trying very hard to stick to natural fibres and wood toys. Not only as these healthier but they are also better for brain development. Generic toys (which are common in wood toys) encourage children to use their imagination. We are learning more about Waldorf learning these days and finding that we like the theory of  it.

Sure, wood blocks may harbour bacteria better but we aren’t scared of dirt. Just hormone disrupting toxins! 

We are also replacing their sippy cups and plastic food storage containers with stainless steel ones. We are trying to make the change all over the house. Most people are well aware that even if you live in downtown Toronto that the indoor air pollution is worse than outside. The reason is because of plastics and foams and cleaners and all that other crap in our homes that leeches toxins into the air. I spend most of my days inside and I want that environment to be as healthy as possible.

Ok, I was bored tonight so I went on the PETA website. If truth be told I was actually going on there to see if it was time to vote for the sexiest vegetarian of the year. Alas, it doesn’t seem to be. This is the only time I even do anything remotely close to this. I just like seeing the long, long list of names for veg*n actors, athletes, singers and all the other famous people.

But while I was there I started checking out the newest animal rights issues.

PETA is taking on the Canadian Fur Council right now. I wrote to the CFC a while back because I was appalled by their full page ad in the National Post about how fur is the eco-friendly choice for winter wear. What?!?

They wrote back to me (enough to fill a book by the way) about how it is eco-friendly. Cause you know, synthetic, cruelty-free fabrics are made from petroleum products. Well, maybe they are overlooking a major fact. To condition fur or leather so that it doesn’t rot (as all animal remains naturally do) they have to be conditioned with very potent, very toxic chemicals. These tanneries aren’t even allowed to exist within communities because they pollute water supplies and the environment around them. After I found out what they use to tan leather I really felt sick about the leather couch we bought before we became vegetarians. Ever since we became veg I felt guilty about owning a big leather couch (I thought about getting rid of it but I couldn’t see how that would atone for those cows anyways) and then when I found out the toxins on the leather I felt contaminated!

So the eco-friendly (socially responsible) choice for fashionable wear is dead animal skin? Just so we are clear, there has been a group of Canadians that have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau on the grounds that it’s wrong for the CFC to use the eco-friendly claim to bolster sales when that claim is far from true. That is what the campaign is really addressing.

I am so glad that PETA is taking these jerks on! You can see some of what they’re up to here: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/04/is_the_canadian.php

You can send a letter of protest here (just fill your name in): http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/fur_council_canada

PETA has also been working hard on the animal testing front. I have a blog entry from a while back where I address animal testing. You can check that out if you are unsure about the controversy of animal testing, mainly about how it is often unnecessary because it doesn’t affect outcomes or drugs, products etc. Another reinforcement of that idea would be the countless rodents who died in lab tests to prove that aspartame is indeed not safe and yet it’s in everything! Same thing with cosmetics. Anyways…just read it if you want to get the scoop.

Before I started worrying about animal rights I worried about the health of my kids. I started reading and watching documentaries and soon realized that there is no regulatory body that regulates the safety of products sold in stores. Not only are our home cleaners, shampoos, soaps and laundry detergents increasing our rates of cancer, asthma attacks and other respiratory problems, it is also destroying our environment. You know that disgusting sterile smell you get when you clean your house? I don’t get that. Mine smells like tea tree oil! It’s a fresh smell that gives me peace of mind about what is being inhaled by my kids. We have anything chemical stored outside of the house (as is recommended Canadian Medical Association).

I could write a well referenced book on this but here is an ultra basic intro to the topic.

Whenever we let chemicals like Tide, Clorox, Windex and so on  run down into our sewers (and unless you clean EVERYTHING with paper towel you do. Except then it ends up in the garbage which is no better) we are contributing to dead lakes, acid rain and other water and plant problems.

But what if you could use a eco-friendly cleaner which, as a bonus, won’t poison your kids? There are many options out there. Some grocery stores are starting to carry green products and there is usually a wide variety of these products in health food stores (HFS). Here is a list of what I use:

Dish-soap: Seventh Generation (HFS, Save On) 

Dishwasher soap: Ecover tablets (Save On)

Laundry soap: Biovert (HFS)

Fabric softener: I have one of those reusable fabric ones. It’s pretty good (HFS).

Stain remover: I don’t know how natural this is but it’s a bar of soap in the laundry isle called Sunlight (not the same brand). Anyways it works well and I get it at Save On

I still have some products from Melaleuca left. They make pretty decent stuff.

Cosmetics (and other personal care products) contain a variety of bad chemical compounds such as formaldehyde and many known carcinogens such as parabens. There is a website (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/splash.php?URI=%2Findex.php ) that lists the potential dangers of the various brands of mascara, lipstick etc. They rate them on scale of which are potentially more harmful than others.

Natural cosmetics (although not always vegan) are made from natural mild products such as beeswax and herbs. The colours come from natural sources too. You often have to try a few before you find one that works for you.

Here are the ones I like:

Toothpaste: Auromere -Herbal Ayurvedic formula. The JASON brand is good too and the Beaver one (green apple is pretty good too) (HFS)

Shampoo and conditioner: Prairie Naturals (HFS)

Deodorant (his and hers): earthscience liken plant unscented (HFS)

Mascara: Ecco Bella -flowercolor (HFS)

Facial cleanser: derma e Vanilla Bean Cleansing Mousse (their Microdermabrasion is really great too) (HFS)

Shaving (for men): Herban Cowboy (pucks) (HFS, Superstore)

Most of my makeup, moisturizers and so on are residual from my Melaleuca days. I haven’t had the need to find replacements yet.

I also make my own bug spray. It’s made with water, a variety of essential oils including citronella and eucalyptus. I can post the recipe if anyone wants it.

Cosmetics etc. are heavily reliant on animal testing. Did you know that they will smear products on the eyes of mice just so they can write “to avoid contact with eyes” on the label? Did you know that these rodents and dogs and whatever other animal they choose to test upon will spend weeks in pain from the blistering caused by products placed on their bare skin for hours on end? Did you know that this is vain? If a bad reaction is found in animals it doesn’t make the product unsuitable for the marketplace but rather just forces them to put a warning on the label? Animal testing in cosmetics and personal care products save no human lives! The products pass regardless. Why couldn’t we allow testing on humans instead? I would be willing to give my arm up for a skin irritation test so that animals didn’t live everyday of their unusually short lives in pain.

Buying products that have natural products and that has not been tested on animals is not only healthier but also more compassionate. Although it is still a grey area as some companies (like the Body Shop (which is not even considered a natural product)) will not test their products on animals but will buy materials that have been tested on animals by the seller. That doesn’t make a product humane if it’s ingredients were involved in the suffering of animals. Also the Body Shop is owned by Loreal and they do test on animals! Peta.com has a list that you can print off and leave in your purse. It lists the companies that have adhered to Peta’s restrictions on animal testing. http://caringconsumer.com/resources_companies.asp

Babies are a major source of waste. Diapers and wipes alone make up an astronomical amount of waste! Not only that but the safety of diapers are still up for debate. I never buy wipes (even when we go camping). I buy packages of those baby bath cloths and use those as wipes. I have a container filled with water and I just moisten them before use. They actually work better than the wipes because their texture allows them to grab and scrub much better than those soft wimpy wipes. And there are no chemicals as I wash then in all natural, eco-friendly detergent. 

I like doing cloth diapers but they are becoming more and more work. My kids are getting bigger bladders and that means I am dealing with a lot more leaks than I used to when they were smaller.

However, cloth diapers are the best eco choice (coupled with a eco-friendly detergent).