I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, especially with all the reading I’ve been doing (The Unhealthy Truth, The China Study) and movies I’ve been seeing (Food, Inc.)… who is motivated to keep Americans healthy? Certainly not the drug companies, which make more money when people are sick and turn to medication for help. Certainly not the doctors and hospitals, whose livelihood depends on people being unhealthy. Certainly not the food companies, that can make as much cheap, poor quality food as they want while reaping huge profits. Certainly not the FDA, that is deeply entagled with the food and pharmaceutical companies. And not really our government either, that benefits from lobbying by all the corporations that make money on these products and services they want to keep offering the public. No one really benefits from you being healthy except you. But when you’re sick, many people profit. And many companies profit by making products that make us sick, with no true reprocussions for their decisions. In America, the corporation, its business, and its money-making power are more important than the consumer. No wonder our country is headed in the direction it is…
Filed under: Random on June 29th, 2009 | No Comments »
I recently finished reading The China Study. I got this book thinking it would be about the China study, where the health and diets of over 6000 rural Chinese were examined. It ended up being more of a summary about the life work of researcher T. Colin Cambell, Ph.D. I think a better title for the book would have been The Danger of Animal Protein.
Cambell starts off sharing some depressing statistics about America’s health. This really shouldn’t be new to any of us–we’re fat, our hearts are failing, our bodies are riddled with cancerous tumors, diabetes is more and more common, and our main solution to these problems are more and more pills, with an expensive surgical procedure or two added in for good measure. In fact, he says that half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week. I’m sure the drug companies like that.
What they probably don’t like, and don’t want you to know, is that diet can be just as powerful as medication when it comes to our health. In fact, Cambell claims that the most recent scientific research shows that dietary changes can enable diabetics to go off their medication, heart disease can be reversed through diet alone, and breast cancer is related to the levels of female hormones in the blood (which are determined by the foods we eat). Read more »
Filed under: Book recommendation, Food and Nutrition on June 26th, 2009 | No Comments »
I just saw an early showing of the movie Food, Inc. last night and it was amazing. The movie features various segments discussing the industrialization of our food. It features significant interviews from the author of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma/In Defense of Food. It shows clips inside chicken houses, meat packing plants, and farms. Here are some startling facts from the film:
- Our food supply has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.
- In 1996, 2% of soybeans grown in the U.S. were genetically modified. In 2008, 90% were.
Read more »
Filed under: Environment, Food and Nutrition on June 23rd, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I love bean dishes, as they are good for you and super cheap! This is a dish that my grandmother has prepared since I was a child and I love it. I recently tried making it with lima beans (since it’s hard to find the large beans the recipe usually calls for) and I have to say that it’s one of my favorite meals. If you liked my lentil soup recipe, you’ll love this one too. It’s amazing!
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups lima beans
- 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 onions, chopped
- 1-2 celery sticks, chopped
- 2-3 carrots, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp thyme
- 14 oz can tomatoes (or we used jarred strained tomatoes to avoid BPA)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 1/4 cup hot water
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
- salt and pepper
Read more »
Filed under: Plastic, Recipe on June 18th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Our CSA began delivering their produce this week. I have been so anxious for it to start. I am currently reading The China Study and am all ready to eat tons of plants. This week, we got 3 different lettuces, more spinach than I know what to do with, dill, parsley, cilantro, beets, radishes, and eggs. Fruit starts next month. Can’t wait!
Filed under: Random on June 17th, 2009 | No Comments »
I used to thinking that nursing a toddler was weird. It made me uncomfortable. I only planned to nurse by firstborn until he was one. But when he turned one, he wasn’t eating much food and was still nursing six times in a 24 hour period so obviously weaning wasn’t going to happen right away. I ended up weaning him between 15 and 16 months of age.
However, I was really unsure what to wean him to. I had major problems with cow’s milk (ethically and for health reasons) so I gave my son soy milk. When my second son was born, I started to have some concerns about the safety of soy milk, especially in the large doses that children tend to drink. So if my second son wasn’t going to drink cow or soy milk, what would he drink? Read more »
Filed under: Children on June 13th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
It’s not very often that I read a book that I think everyone needs to read. In fact, since I started this blog almost two years ago, it’s only happened once with In Defense of Food. However, I just finished reading The Unhealthy Truth, which came out last month, and I think that every parent should read it.
The Unhealthy Truth is written by a mother of four. Her youngest child had a severe allergic reaction to eggs and it started her on a search for answers that she documents in her book–why are so many children developing allergies these days, what has happened to our food supply in the last few decades, and why is American food not as safe as that found in other countries like Japan, Australia, and those in Europe? At first, I was hesitant to read a book written by “just a mom.” What were her qualifications? I’d much rather read a book by a scientist, doctor, or some other highly educated, qualified person. But I have to say that the author’s role as a mother made her book very accessible and easy to read. It was also great to relate to her as a parent. And in the end, I think more people will enjoy a book like this than books written by Ph.D.s and MDs, as I, a recovering scientist, do. After all, this book is about as close to a page-turner as you can get while still delivering as much information as it does. I honestly read the first half of it in about 24 hours. Read more »
Filed under: Book recommendation, Children, Food and Nutrition on June 10th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
We have been fortunate enough to have access to some eggs from my mother’s friend. She raises hens herself and they are pastured–meaning they eat a diet of greens and bugs and worms, like hens were intended to eat, rather than a diet of grains, something completely unnatural for a hen to eat. I wish everyone could see and taste pastured eggs. They are incredible. Here is a picture of an organic, high omega-3 egg from Organic Valley on the left and a free-range, pastured, “happy chicken egg,” as we call them in our house, on the right. Just take a look at that bright orange color! For more about why pastured eggs are superior, see my recent post on animals products.
Filed under: Food and Nutrition on June 8th, 2009 | No Comments »
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent Johnson&Johnson a letter last week asking them to remove toxic chemicals–such as 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde–from its baby shampoo. You can read the letter here. Scroll down to the bottom and take a look at the people who signed that letter. Also read the addendum with the concerns about the particular ingredients in J&J products.
Filed under: Personal Care Products on June 4th, 2009 | No Comments »
We just tried our first zero VOC paint. The paint base has no VOCs and the colorant is also free of VOCs. There aren’t many paints on the market that use a no-VOC colorant so I was really excited to try it. I thought the paint was great. It covered well and I was happy with its performance. It does have a bit of an odor but it doesn’t smell like usual paint chemicals. I was happy enough with it that I’m comfortable recommending it, Natura from Benjamin Moore, on this site. One of the greatest things about this paint, unlike other truly zero VOC paints, is that you can tint it to any color Benjamin Moore offers.
Filed under: Air quality, Environment, VOC on June 3rd, 2009 | 2 Comments »