9 Foods You Should Never Eat. Coconut Oil Outperforms. Flintstones Vitamins. Truths About GMO. Grizzly Bear’s Diet. U.S. Constitution.

 

For “Foodie Friday”:

The 9 Foods You Should Never Eat

“Studies have repeatedly shown artificial sweeteners stimulate appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, stimulate fat storage and weight gain. One recent study found both saccharin and aspartame cause greater weight gain than sugar

Processed meats increase your risk of cancer, especially bowel cancer, and NO amount of processed meat is "safe." So ditch the deli meats and opt instead for fresh organically-raised grass-fed or pastured meats, or wild caught salmon

Margarine and vegetable oils are two of the absolute worst fats to eat. Both contain heart-harming trans fats, for example. Your best alternative for cooking is coconut oil, as it’s less susceptible to heat damage

Microwave popcorn, table salt, non-organic produce like potatoes, and unfermented soy products, including soy protein isolate, are more harmful than beneficial as they all contain hazardous contaminants

Most canned foods contain BPA, a toxic chemical. Acidity causes BPA to leach into your food. Stick to fresh fruits and vegetables, or switch over to brands that use glass containers instead—especially for acidic foods like tomatoes.

Vegetable Oils

Vegetable oils are highly processed, and when consumed in large amounts, they distort the important omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Vegetable oils can oxidize good cholesterol, turning it into bad cholesterol. Coconut oil is best for cooking as it is not very susceptible to heat damage. It's also one of the most unique and beneficial fats for your body. Olive oil is easily damaged by heat and is best reserved for drizzling cold over salad.

 

Microwave Popcorn

Microwave popcorn bags are lined with PFOA, and when they are heated the compound leaches onto the popcorn. These chemicals are part of an expanding group of chemicals known to disrupt your endocrine system and affect your sex hormones. The EPA has ruled PFCs as "likely carcinogens," and has stated that PFOA "poses developmental and reproductive risks to humans."

 

Table Salt

Regular 'table salt' and the salt found in processed foods are NOT identical to the salt your body really needs. Table salt contains chemicals like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate, and added iodine, while natural salt contains many naturally occurring minerals, including trace minerals like silicon, phosphorous and vanadium. My favorite is Himalayan salt, which contains about 84 trace minerals your body needs.

 

Soy Protein Isolate and Other Unfermented Soy Products

Most soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered (GE) to be "Roundup Ready." The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, which disrupts cellular function and can induce many of our modern diseases, including autism. Unfermented soy has also been linked to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility—even cancer and heart disease. The only soy with health benefits is organic soy that has been properly fermented, at which point their beneficial properties become available to your digestive system.

 

Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame can stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain. The methanol formed in aspartame can wreak havoc with sensitive proteins and DNA in your body, as humans do not have the protective mechanism that allows methanol to be broken down into harmless formic acid. Toxicology testing on animals is a flawed model, as animals have this protective mechanism while humans do not, so the results do not fully apply to people.

 

Canned Tomatoes

BPA is a toxic chemical linked to reproductive abnormalities, neurological effects, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, heart disease and more. To avoid this hazardous chemical, avoid canned foods entirely and stick to fresh fruits and vegetables, or switch over to brands that use glass containers instead—especially for acidic foods like tomatoes.

 

Processed Meats

Deli meats are typically made with meats from animals given growth hormones, antibiotics and other veterinary drugs. These meats also typically contain sodium nitrite and other chemical flavorings and dyes. Processed should be avoided entirely as processed meats increase your risk of cancer, and NO amount of processed meat is "safe." Fresh organically-raised grass-fed or pastured meats, or wild caught salmon are healthier options.

 

Margarine

There are a myriad of unhealthy components to margarine and other butter impostors, including trans fats, free radicals, emulsifiers and preservatives, hexane and other toxic solvents. Raw milk butter, when made from grass-fed cows, is rich in beneficial conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is known to help fight cancer and diabetes.

 

Non-Organic Potatoes and Other
Fresh Produce Known for High Pesticide Contamination

Your best bet is to buy only organic fruits and vegetables, as synthetic agricultural chemicals are not permissible under the USDA organic rules. That said, not all conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are subjected to the same amount of pesticide load. Fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide load, making them the most important to buy or grow organically, include apples, cucumbers, spinach, kale and potatoes.”  From: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/10/9-unhealthy-foods.aspx

 

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Let Food Be Your Cosmetic: Coconut Oil Outperforms Dangerous Petroleum Body Care Products

“What you put on your skin goes directly into your body. Indeed, human autopsy studies have shown that mineral oil widely permeates our internal organs; major moisturizer brands have been found to cause tumor formation in treated animals. All the more reason why we need healthy "food cosmetics" as alternatives to petroleum-derived body care products.

It boggles the imagination how most mass market body care products today are almost entirely composed of petroleum-derived chemicals, whose toxicity are thoroughly established. Take parabens as an example. These endocrine-disrupting, estrogen-like petrochemicals have been found at concentrations 1 million times higher than the estrogen (estradiol) levels naturally found in human breast tissue, leading to the highly concerning conclusion that human hormones are now being eclipsed by synthetic chemicals.

When we slather these chemical concoctions onto our skin, they enter directly into the lymphatic and circulatory systems, depositing in internal organs and body fat. And unlike things you ingest orally, there is no "gate keeping" liver there to protect you from these chemicals entering rapidly into your body through your skin. This is why, of course, you should never put on your body anything you can not, or would not eat.”

More about: 

Crude Awakening: Mineral Oil Contaminates Everyone's Bodies

Coconut Oil Is Superior to Mineral Oil for Treating Dry Skin

Coconut Oil Is Superior to Mineral Oil at Protecting the Hair

Coconut Oil Protects the Scalp from Fungal Infections

Coconut Oil + Anise Beats Pesticide Spray for Lice

At: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/let-food-be-your-cosmetic-coconut-oil-outperforms-dangerous-petroleum-body-care

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Top children's vitamin brand chock-full of GMOs, aspartame and other deadly ingredients

“Do you know all the ingredients contained in the multivitamin you feed to your children? Thousands of American parents apparently do not, as one of the top selling multivitamins for children, Flintstones Vitamins, is loaded with genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), aspartame, aluminum, petroleum-derived artificial colors, and all sorts of other toxic additives that are literally poisonous to humans, and especially to children.

One would assume that because it is a "multivitamin," and one marketed specifically to children, that it contains only nutritious ingredients in the most appropriate doses and nothing more. To the contrary, the Flintstones Vitamins brand, which is manufactured by global drug giant Bayer, contains a host of synthetic additives that are actually banned in many countries due to their toxicity not only in humans but also in the environment.”   More at: http://www.naturalnews.com/040872_flinstones_vitamins_multivitamins_synthetic_additives.html

You can view the full ingredients list for Flintstones Complete Chewables here:
http://www.flintstonesvitamins.com

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The Alarming Truths About GMO

“Watch this video and discover the hidden truths about GMO, and its potential harm to the environment and ecosystems.”

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Grizzly bears may have diet lessons that can be helpful for humans

JIM SCHULZ/CHICAGO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY - “A lesson for humans: Axhi was obese until the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago gave him food that resembled what grizzlies find in the wild.

In the case of the grizzlies, the Brookfield Zoo vets understood that the bears’ physiologies and innate behaviors were out of sync with their environment — thus, their obesity. So they designed what Natterson-Horowitz called “nature’s weight management plan.”

The zoo’s nutritionists took away the processed dog food, ground beef, loaves of bread, supermarket oranges, bananas, mangoes and iceberg lettuce that the bears had been eating.

Instead, they provided plants and animal protein that were seasonal and more closely resembled what grizzlies find in the wild. (As Natterson-Horowitz pointed out, there are no banana or mango plantations in the Canadian Rockies.) They chose vegetables and fruits such as kale, peppers, celery, heirloom apples — all more fibrous and seedy than the bears’ previous diet. And they replaced the hamburger meat with whole prey, such as fish and rabbits, which the grizzlies had to work harder to disassemble and eat.

With this approach, the bears shed hundreds of pounds over the course of a year, leading Natterson-Horowitz to wonder whether a similar alterations in a human’s environment might be equally effective.”  More at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/grizzly-bears-may-have-diet-lessons-that-can-be-helpful-for-humans/2013/04/15/7879898c-7f85-11e2-8074-b26a871b165a_story_1.html

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On This Day:

U.S. Constitution ratified, Jun 21, 1788:

“New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.”

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Yesterday:

Misty and I went to get Jay, and had our walk down there.

When we got back here, Jay and Ray took the corner post out of the hole, as it wasn’t deep enough. 

We hadn’t filled in the hole when we put it in there the day before, as we knew it was going to need some fine tuning.  This ground is very hard, and it takes a bar to break it up.  Ray did that, and scooped out the dirt. Poor Ray, he was exhausted.  Then we put the post back in the hole, and screwed it to the frame at the top of the screen porch.   Still not filled with concrete or dirt, as the contractor will want to plumb and square it in his own way. 

Jay and I worked on the board fence at the end of the walkway.  It is going to be re-fenced with lattice to match the rest of it.  We are working our way back to the last post to come out.

This is the way it used to look when the RVport was there.

This was taken from my back yard, looking down the walkway towards the front door. That fence-board gate at the end also swings out to close off the walkway, when needed, and it will be replaced with a lattice gate.  When I have boarders here I stay with them in the back yard, and close that gate, so they can’t get back to the walkway to the front until they have done their duty.

Now that the RVport is gone, we will be replacing that board fence over the next few days.