Dirty Dozen, Cleanest 12

Buying organic produce is very important to me and my family. And it should be to you and yours too. We don't need any sort of toxic residue, film, coating, or gunk covering the produce we eat. Simple. Eat the fruit & veggies plain & simple!

Click the above "photo" to view the short lists in pdf format. And for more details [i.e. did you know that peaches carry 100% load of pesticides? Bad news if you eat conventional peaches folks!], click the link below. 

PESTICIDES IN PRODUCE

I know that 100% organic isn't always easy or even possible for all of us, so I want you to know which foods you definitely want to buy in organic and which one you can get away with buying the conventional variety--only occasionally.

Here is a simple way to think about buying conventional produce...ask yourself this question. Would you take a spoon with you to the stinky, gagging, overwhelming, chemical control area of your local garden store? A spoon? 

Yes, would you take a spoon and ask the sales clerk to pop the top on the assorted poisonous pesticides and/or herbicides? Just so you could get a good taste of what will coat your produce if you use those chemicals on your own garden or purchase conventional produce in your marketplace. Would you go to a taste-testing party at your garden store's chemical section?

Uh, no, not likely. Think about that the next time you are strolling through or looking over fruits & veggies at your farmer's market, grocery store, produce stand, or your very own garden. 

Would I like a spoonful of poison to make the produce go down?!

Toxic Sunsceen

Sunscreen. 

If you are like me, you grew up slathering the stuff all over yourself once you were old enough to do it on your own. And before that, your mamma gave you a thick coat outta the brown bottle every time you ventured into the sun's rays.

If you are like me, you heard from many (media, doctors, and your mamma!) that you must wear it. 

To prevent cancer. To prevent burns. To prevent wrinkles.

If you are like me you would scrunch your brow, shake your head, and say "uh, whatever," if someone told you that sunscreen is actually doing more harm than good, that it actually promotes cancer, and that it doesn't do a whole lot for the wrinkle thing.

As always, I am on a mission to find information in order to provide education for those around me and for those connected via the technology of the internet. The first I heard of the negatives of sunscreen was late last autumn when my doctor (from Austria) took a look at my blood tests and a look at my skin. He asked if I wear sunscreen. Expecting a "good girl" I proudly said "oh, yes." He simply said, "don't." It was at that time that I did the scrunch-shake-whatever reaction.

Since that day, I have wondered what in the world he was talking about as he didn't linger on the topic. Since last fall the horrors of sunscreen has been brought to my attention. Thank you Lord! Instead of re-writing the articles and information, I will put a few links here for you to educate yourself.

Just know these factoids...

- countries that have a high use of sunscreen (like America) have a high incidence of cancer (there is a correlation between increased sunscreen use and increased cancer rates)

- chemicals in the sunscreen actually cause free radical damage (which is very BAD--cancer-causing etc.)

- when you add heat to the chemicals, you cause an intensification of those nasty chemicals

- health problems related to defunked estrogen (there are many) are linked to sunscreen use

- tropical climates use coconut oil, aloe vera, and/or mashed berries for their "sunscreen"

Sunscreen Myth

Sunscreen Harmful

Top Sunscreen Stories

Sunscreen Disaster

I have to tell you that I used to be a big proponent of sunscreen. This was the only area that I would negate my rule for food, personal care products, and cleaning products...if you cannot pronounce the ingredient or you don't know what it is, don't eat it, slather it on, or clean with it! I trusted that "they" knew better and would not mislead me. Oh, I trusted wrong. And I have been having a bunch of those "duh" smack my forehead moments...

Now I must relay my personal test of this newfound information. I never ever bare my shoulders to the sun because I was burned to the point of blisters as a teen one time. And I would buy the highest number SPF, mostly intended for babies, and apply and reapply and reapply. When I had a son, I made sure to buy the health food store brand and do the same to him. I thought I was doing a good thing.

So far this year I have not applied sunscreen to my 30-something-year old skin, nor have I applied it to my son's 4-year old skin. We are getting a tan, not a burn. And when it has been really sunny, we wear long sleeves and avoid the intense mid-day rays. So far so good. Last weekend was sunny and we needed to be outdoors working in the yard and garden. This proved to be the ultimate test.

We started out with some of that raw coconut oil (see previous post about this) rubbed in, long sleeves, and wide-brimmed hats. He kept his long sleeves on all day. Not me. I took mine off and had a sleeveless shirt on. Long story short, time got away from me and we were out there for six (6) hours. I came in wondering what I had just done to me and my precious boy.

After showering and getting a good look at things, he had some pinkish color to the back of his neck. I had some pinkish color on the soft almost underside of the back of my arms...that delicate area that hadn't seen the light of day in years. I immediately put on some more coconut oil. And then at bedtime I put some more on. By morning, nothing. You could barely see a tan line!

Now, that is amazing. I know me and my skin. Had this been last summer I would have fried, even with the toxic sunscreen slather ritual. My interest was peaked even more...

Some more factoids I discovered doing more research:

- green smoothies help put a natural barrier into your system for "sunscreen"

- coconut oil used properly has been used for years as "sunscreen" and moisturizer

- healthy eating makes for healthy skin with a healthy reaction to the sun's rays

- "sunscreen" screens out the valuable vitamin D that is only formulated via the sun (that is why my doc asked me about sunscreen as my vit. D levels were sooo low while all the others were off the charts high)

Some more factoids about the goodness of sun:

- God made it! 

- plants need it to live

- we eat the plants that need it to live

- we need it to live a healthy vibrant life

Sure, you can be foolish about the sun and get burned. You can stay out too long. Or you can go out at high-noon (about 11am-2pm) and soak up more intense rays. Just think. Stop and think for a minute or two about what I have written.

An educated friend with the inside scoop of health food stores told me today that the "natural" brands are re-formulating their products right now. Word is getting out, pocketbooks are feeling it, and change is coming! They are taking out the nasty chemicals. Finally. Yahoo.

Another friend grew up without sunscreen. It simply wasn't available in her country. She has awesome skin. And she cited the basics facts I listed about not being foolish.

Now, I know that for years and years you may have had "use sunscreen" drilled into your brain, just like me. Although you may not be ready to forgo the lather altogether, you must toss your tubes and bottles and switch to something better. I found a couple brands that I would give an "okay" for use.

- Caribbean Blue (google search it)

- Badger (found at REI, Whole Foods...this is what I bought for the times we have to be in the sun for great lengths and/or at high-noon)

- MexiTan (google search it)

As summer is upon us, please educate yourself. You do not want to boil up a batch of free radical damage that will get baked into your skin, or the skin of your precious little one. You now have the knowledge, it is your choice what to do with it.

I am sticking to my mantra...for all things connected to me, my health, and the health of my family. 

If you cannot pronounce the ingredient 

or you don't know what it is, 

don't eat it, 

slather it on your body, 

or clean your house with it!

Oh dear, just wait for the post about bug repellent...

Let's Go Crazy!

Lately it seems we have been inundated in our home by disease. We have been touched by family and friends and church-family suffering from various states of disease from 4 different forms of cancer to cardiovascular disease to many other states of ill-health. Of course we are saddened, we pray, and we reach out to these people, our family and our friends.

What makes me so sad, and I'll admit it, even a little mad, is that most of these conditions could have been prevented, the symptoms minimized, and/or the causative factor obliterated. Folks, do this, think about every single thing that goes into your mouth. Does it have the potential to heal or to harm? Is it life-giving or life-taking?

We spend more time worrying about the brand of fuel we put into our cars and trucks than we do worrying about the fuel we put into our bodies! That is crazy. 

We groan and moan about the rising cost of gasoline and diesel, but we empty our wallets at the pharmacy counter for yet another pill to mask a symptom, or worse yet, cause a side-effect that needs another pill! That is crazy.

We take our autos in for oil changes and tune-ups, yet we ignore the red lights and warning signs flashing on the driver! That is crazy.

Please, reconsider your dietary intake and realize its importance in your very life. You need to take control of what you put into your mouth. Spend as much (or more!) time reading the label of a product before you buy it as you do reading the price boards at gas stations.

Join me in getting crazy for good, wholesome, fresh food. Join me in doing the "let's get crazy dance" in the produce isle. Join me in getting crazy dirty in the garden growing your own fruits & veggies. Let's go crazy for something worthwhile, something awesome, something God created--YOU!

And while you're at it, please go check out the blog 

"Eat Healthy, Be Happy" I have linked over there 

to the right side of the page. 

Elena has beautiful photos, scrumptious recipes, 

wonderful insight, a kind heart, 

and a she shares my quest 

for increasing the health & vitality of God's children!  ;-)

Coconut!

What a wondrous drink, food, moisturizer! Especially since walking along the raw food path, I have heard and read plenty talk about coconut water, coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut "meat."

I only knew mister coconut in the Asian food section of the grocery store in a tin can, referred to as coconut milk. That stuff is processed using heat, thus not very nutrient dense. Many foods are healthy in their natural state, but once they get tossed into an assembly line, heated, and canned, they lose their high-ranking health status and become another component to America's SAD (Standard American Diet) way of eating.

Okay, let me share a line with you to remember as you go shopping for food or as you pick out a snack for your kids, CLOSER TO THE VINE IS DIVINE!

Simple. Eat the food in its most pure and raw form for the highest availability of its natural goodness.

Back to the coconut... I put a link over on the right side bar to a web site that has in-depth information on the ole coconut. And there is a catchy tune that plays in the background as you read. What fun! Go to the "articles" section and read the long one at the end...pretty informative and enlightening.

Nutiva Coconut

I will give you a basic run down on coconuts:

- Coconut water: the clear liquid in a coconut. This water is life-giving in more ways than one. The water is full of electrolytes. Drink it after a work-out. Or anytime. The electrolyte balance are the same in a coconut as in our body! 

"...during WWII, doctors discovered the water in young coconuts could be used as a substitute for blood plasma, because it's sterile, cool, easily absorbed by the body, and doesn't destroy red blood cells."  (p. 137 "Ani's Rawfood Kitchen" by Ani Phyo) 

Amazing! Imagine a liquid that has been sucked up a palm tree's trunk from deep within the earth and the deposited into a perfectly sealed package. As Ani points out in her book, it takes nine months for one liter of mineralized water to be sucked up from roots to the coconut.

- Coconut butter: 75 degrees and lower, it is a white solid a.k.a. "butter." 

- Coconut oil: above 76 degrees, the coconut butter melts and is in the liquid state a.k.a. "oil." 

*make sure to buy a raw, cold-pressed, organic coconut oil*

Uses for the coconut butter/oil are many. Topically, I use it as a  moisturizer. I like to keep things simple. So a small jar of it sits in my bathroom. In the winter/spring/fall I need to scrap it out as it is in the "butter" state, but it immediately it melts from the warmth of my hand. And in the summer, it is liquid and a little more messy. 

I use it in place of lotion. And just two weeks ago I started to use it on my face instead of my high-end, expensive health food store facial lotion. Wowzer. It is amazing. And contrary to your first reaction, it does not oil up or clog-up your pores. It has something to do with the fatty acid structure being small... Anyway, it works wonders. I even put it on a break-out area and by the next morning, it was nearly cleared up! I imagine that was because it does have anit-bacterial properties in it too.

Go ahead, slather some on yourself. Just steer clear of the dogs for a few minutes until it absorbs! Otherwise the pooches think you are a walking lick-stick for them!  ;-)

When I was a huge popcorn-eater, I melted it and added some sea salt and a dash of garlic powder and drizzled this over the warm popped corn. Yum. So if you are looking to make a movie night snack that is healthy, toss the butter junk! 

Nowadays I like to add it to my raw food cookie and pie crust recipes. It is sooo good. Here is a simple recipe. You will need a food processor for this one.

2 cups of almonds (pre-soaked overnight and rinsed)

1 1/2 cups of dates (pitted) (or any combo of dried fruits)

1 TBSP raw coconut butter

honey or agave nectar (to taste)

flavoring (lemon juice or raw carob powder) if desired

Process it all with the "S" blade. It will sound like you are whizzing up gravel, but stay with it. When you have a crumbly texture, it is done. You can press it into a greased pan (use coconut butter) and cut out of chunk as you desire or make it into balls and flatten them into little cookies. I like to do this and then store them in the freezer.

Mess around with the ingredients and amounts of each.

I will talk about more coconut uses and aspects later on...gotta go for now. Don't forget to click on that link and learn some more about coconuts!

Spring Cleaning

Spring. A time for new life and growth. And cleaning.

I do hope you have tried a green smoothie or two since last week! They are easy, fun, yummy, and oh, so good for you! I keep experimenting and finding interesting combos. Last night I zapped some flax seeds in the blender before adding the produce and water. If you don't have a K-Tek blender, then make your flax meal in a coffee grinder. Next, I added in some frozen mango (after cutting up a mango, I just put the mango in the freezer for a couple hours), a giant wad of kale and a cup of water. It was nice and cold and fluffy. Yumm-yumm. The husband even liked it.

For the kiddos or the not-so-sure, add in some more frozen fruit. Blueberries, strawberries and raspberries are great. But do not forget to peel some bananas, break them into pieces, put them in a giant baggy and place in the freezer for some handy frozen additions. Also, try doing the same with mango, pineapple or kiwi.

Okay, now that you are starting toward a new and clean body, you may want to tackle the house. Since this is a healthy eating blog, some may wonder why I would be putting information about home cleaning here too. Hmmm, read on to see why. (And yes, I snagged this blog from my other one, so if it looks familiar to some of you, that is why!)

Some of you may know that I am a health nut -- to put it lightly. I not only watch everything that goes into my mouth or gets slathered on my body, I also am keenly aware of the products I use in my home for cleaning. Since spring is in the air, the innate cleaning machines in us all usually fire up their engines right about now too. Please take heed and don't use the things your body doesn't need!

By the way, my health conscious lifestyle all started in college when I was introduced to a food co-op and its organic eating faire and as I studied Health Education, it all made perfect sense. We must take the time and effort to monitor what we eat, breathe, drink, put onto our bodies and our homes. Some call me a "closet hippie" while others think I have been swimming around in the deep end too long. 

Let me put this test to you to prove a point. Before you finish reading, go and cut a slice of an onion, you know, the sort with all the rings tight together. Now, put it under your bare foot (like in your sock or slipper or sandal) where you will have direct contact with it. Stand on it or press on it while you finish reading...go, go, go.

After years of researching this topic and trying many, many products and homemade concoctions, this is what I have found to work the best... SIMPLICITY and ELBOW GREASE. 

- baking soda:  Use it where you want to diminish a stink and/or for a scouring action.

-lemon juice:  Add it to the baking soda. This will create a chemical reaction that results in some heat and foaming. So, just because it is natural doesn't mean you can set aside your common sense here! Wear some gloves, don't get it into your eyes and so on. Take a quart jar and add a cup of baking soda, then pour in some lemon juice to the consistency you like. 

Now take this foaming paste on a sponge or rag and scrub away. You will be amazed. Don't forget to rinse (lather and repeat next week). I use this in the tub, sink and toilet bowl.

This combo also works great to keep drains clear. Just pour the remaining down the drain and follow with some boiling water! No nasty chemical down the drains either, please. Those fumes are toxic. Bad, bad, bad.

-tea tree soap: Now there are many recipes for each sort of cleaning project, but the above is about all I like to do for the deep &/or heavy duty jobs. So for everyday cleaning, just get yourself a bottle (comes in different sizes) of Dr. Bronner's Tea Tree soap. I use it for counters, floors, sinks, tubs, toilets. It is anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-viral due to the tea tree oil. 

Tea tree oil is an essential oil from an Australian plant that has been used medicinally for a long time. We use it for ourselves and our animals (minor wounds, scratches, infections--basically anytime you need an antiseptic). So, if it does all this to the funky things growing on us, why not use it in the soap form to clean all the funky stuff around the house?

Now just put a couple drops on your cloth or sponge and clean away. Of course you have to rinse the sink or flush the toilet or spray the shower walls to get the soap off!

* This soap is formulated for washing your hands/body with, but I do find that the tea tree oil soap is a little harsh for everyday use straight as a hand soap because it can cause some drying, that is why I reserve it for cleaning. I do add a few squirts of it to the liquid soap dispensers (along with the Dr. Bronner's peppermint or lavendar soap) though--for the germ-killing effects.

By the way, Dr. Bronner's liquid soaps can be purchased at your local health food store or ordered on-line. The labels are full of all kinds of rhetoric. Dr. Bronner may have some oddities to say, but health and cleanliness are found inside the bottle, not on the label.

That's it folks! Simplicity and elbow grease will take you far. The nice thing about using ingredients like this, you can use the same wash cloth for washing your face as you do for washing the sink and counter. Just put it in laundry after you de-gunk your bathroom surfaces. Why would you want to use some nasty, chemical cleaner that isn't fit for use on our around you or your family?

Okay, do you taste onion yet? Lovely, isn't it? It should take under 20 minutes before you taste it from your foot! Now, how did that onion taste get from your foot to your mouth? Our skin is the largest organ of the body. Our bloodstream flows throughout the body. Hmmm? What happens when we clean with bleach or ammonia and we touch it or smell it as we scrub? If mister onion goes from foot to mouth, where else is it going in your body? All of your other organs and tissues, my friend, are served by the same bloodstream. Yikes. 

Are those nifty, containerized, chemically-doused wipes worth it? Is your health and the health of your family worth it? Yep, in my house health is important enough. 

I will have more information on soaps, shampoos, laundry detergents and the like, but for now, this has been your health lesson for the day. And please think of me, your friendly, neighborhood, closet hippie, as you try to get that onion taste out of your mouth!