I have known that the essential oils in natural herbs can effectively kill bacteria, but it's nice to see and share independent studies that support that. After reading this article on MSNBC.com, I decided to see if I could find any recipes for a homemade cream using thyme. I happened upon a site called, "All Natural Beauty" which had a page with recipes for skin and hair care. There are all different kinds, but one I really liked was the Fennel and Thyme toner. I plan to try it with fennel and thyme from my own garden. It would be nice to avoid the extra, unhealthy, and potentially allergy-inducing ingredients that are in so many over-the-counter products. I believe that there are other factors that play into having good, clear skin such as proper diet and exercise. If you have more information that is helpful, please feel free to share it.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Say Heck No to GMO
The message I want to share with you today is from Mercola.com. I've read about the hazards of Monsanto's "Roundup" and the Genetically Modified food crops they are engineering to be able to survive its application. You can get more complete details here. It is frightening, and as I look to the health defects and issues my kids have, I feel so TOTALLY helpless to change what is.
Several times over the past few months and I have made an effort to begin to switch to organic foods. But it's hard out here where we live. Not only is there limited access to organics at the nearest stores (WalMart & Smith's), but our home is directly next to a field that is subleased to a local farming business, and which is then subleased to some guy who usually lets his crop rot in the field, perhaps preferring to take the government subsidy for a "failed" crop? It is tilled, planted and generously sprayed with heaven knows what. Probably whatever's cheapest. They have no long-term interest in the health of the land they are renting. In some ways I feel bad for the farmers. I understand that farming in today's world is no picnic. It's hard to make a living. It's expensive to do it in a way that is healthy. And I believe farmers are fed untrue information about the safety of the chemicals and genetically modified seed they are sold. I think outright lies are told. So, in the case of a double-subleased field, it's easier to just go with the flow.
But why switch to organic? Dr. Mercola makes a case for it being the only way to get environmental assassins like Monsanto out of the Roundup and GMO business. Organic foods do not support that chemical-dependent cycle. They don't pay fees and royalties that support the GMO system. They don't depend on those chemicals for a successful farming practice. A great video about that can be found here. It was free for a while, but it's totally worth supporting with a purchase of $15.
So. How to shop GMO-free? Is it more than simply buying organic? Dr. Mercola has published a Non-GMO Shopping Guide to help with that. It is also available as an iPhone app. Go to the app store and search "ShopNoGMO".
Related Videos
All about the problems with Herbicides and GMO's
Several times over the past few months and I have made an effort to begin to switch to organic foods. But it's hard out here where we live. Not only is there limited access to organics at the nearest stores (WalMart & Smith's), but our home is directly next to a field that is subleased to a local farming business, and which is then subleased to some guy who usually lets his crop rot in the field, perhaps preferring to take the government subsidy for a "failed" crop? It is tilled, planted and generously sprayed with heaven knows what. Probably whatever's cheapest. They have no long-term interest in the health of the land they are renting. In some ways I feel bad for the farmers. I understand that farming in today's world is no picnic. It's hard to make a living. It's expensive to do it in a way that is healthy. And I believe farmers are fed untrue information about the safety of the chemicals and genetically modified seed they are sold. I think outright lies are told. So, in the case of a double-subleased field, it's easier to just go with the flow.
But why switch to organic? Dr. Mercola makes a case for it being the only way to get environmental assassins like Monsanto out of the Roundup and GMO business. Organic foods do not support that chemical-dependent cycle. They don't pay fees and royalties that support the GMO system. They don't depend on those chemicals for a successful farming practice. A great video about that can be found here. It was free for a while, but it's totally worth supporting with a purchase of $15.
So. How to shop GMO-free? Is it more than simply buying organic? Dr. Mercola has published a Non-GMO Shopping Guide to help with that. It is also available as an iPhone app. Go to the app store and search "ShopNoGMO".
Related Videos
All about the problems with Herbicides and GMO's
Friday, March 9, 2012
Backyard Sweepstakes to enter
Occasionally I post links to cool sweepstakes I find so that you can enter too...Here's one I'm really hoping for. My kids have always wanted a swingset, and I would love the raised bed garden to help with our goal of organic eating.
You can enter here http://www.swingsetsonline.com/backyard-ideas/backyard-blog/playsets/January%202012/Double_the_Prize_Double_the_Fun_Sweepstakes
You can enter here http://www.swingsetsonline.com/backyard-ideas/backyard-blog/playsets/January%202012/Double_the_Prize_Double_the_Fun_Sweepstakes
Friday, March 2, 2012
Organic Food, Why I'm Going There
I recently saw the following video on Mercola.com that both inspired and horrified me. The inspiration part came from seeing what some farmers are doing to create polyculture on their farms while maintaining a healthy growing environment and providing food that is healthy for you. The horrifying part was seeing the way mass industry grows and produces the meat that I've been eating nearly every day for years. The video is free to view until tomorrow, so hurry on over and see why eating and living organic matters. http://bit.ly/xjFG0o
In addition, as you probably know (if you've ever visited this site before), my husband and I have a child with severe food allergies. I saw this video posted to Facebook today and ended up transfixed while my kids were supposedly getting ready for school without my help. I find it highly interesting the kinds of research Robyn O'Brien cites about the years in which the new genetically engineered proteins were introduced into our food system. There has been an explosion of disease since that time...from autoimmune, to food allergies, to rising rates of cancer here in the United States. The foreign proteins are so ubiquitous that they almost can't be avoided, even by the most conscientious of customers. One bit of information that I found particularly interesting was that it was in 1994 our milk supply started containing these foreign proteins (do to soy-based feed for livestock), not to mention high levels of anti-biotics. That was the year I left the country and served a mission in Portugal. When I returned from Portugal in 1995, I immediately started having severe reactions to milk and any dairy product. A doctor would have called it Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but now I can't help but wonder if it was simply an adverse reaction to the "new" milk proteins and chemical cocktail that my American food source contained. Robyn O'Brien gives more detailed explanation of what happened in this video: http://www.wimp.com/realfood/
In addition, as you probably know (if you've ever visited this site before), my husband and I have a child with severe food allergies. I saw this video posted to Facebook today and ended up transfixed while my kids were supposedly getting ready for school without my help. I find it highly interesting the kinds of research Robyn O'Brien cites about the years in which the new genetically engineered proteins were introduced into our food system. There has been an explosion of disease since that time...from autoimmune, to food allergies, to rising rates of cancer here in the United States. The foreign proteins are so ubiquitous that they almost can't be avoided, even by the most conscientious of customers. One bit of information that I found particularly interesting was that it was in 1994 our milk supply started containing these foreign proteins (do to soy-based feed for livestock), not to mention high levels of anti-biotics. That was the year I left the country and served a mission in Portugal. When I returned from Portugal in 1995, I immediately started having severe reactions to milk and any dairy product. A doctor would have called it Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but now I can't help but wonder if it was simply an adverse reaction to the "new" milk proteins and chemical cocktail that my American food source contained. Robyn O'Brien gives more detailed explanation of what happened in this video: http://www.wimp.com/realfood/
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