Activity & Essential Foods

I was in a Vons store out here in Southern California earlier this week and overheard a young mother's reply to her child's comment about a certain food being good for your mind.  And it struck me because there is so much press, propaganda, reports, all sorts of information that tell us which foods are good for us and which are not.  I do the same thing here.  But what is good for one person is not necessarily good for another person.  And what is good for us one week or month is not that important for us the next month or week.  

Though food is important for our health and well-being, so is activity; perhaps equally so, if not more so.  Activities like thinking, figuring things out, assembling things, and so forth--these are excellent activities for your brain.  Learning a new language is great.  A new sport or activity, like dancing.  Something that requires finesse and not brute strength or force.  Swimming requires some strength.  80% of the balance in swimming is taken care of by the water.  Okay, that's one thing I wanted to say.

Another is that there are certain foods that work as valuable staples in an economy where prices are making certain goods more scarce.  One food product that I really like and rely on is virgin olive oil.

I consume this California Estate Olive Oil from Trader Joe's.  The cost is $5.  But as you commit to some challenging and vigorous activity, the power of these foods is increased.  The health benefits of healthy food is maximized.  Anyway, on the olive oil, I really like the peppery bite in the good olive oils.  Mark Sisson made a great point that you should buy local whenever possible.  We tend to think of really great olive oil coming from Greece or Italy, but oil from locally-grown olives is best.

As the economy gets tighter, it is important to have healthy foods around.  Almost everyone I read says stay away from canned goods because of the BPA in the containers and other nefarious ingredients.  For the most part, I like this advice.  But there are times when I crave a canned food item.  But there are some products whose nutritional benefits outweigh the caveat.  Liver pate is one such food.  Liver pate is high in Vitamin A.  The Vitmain A in carrots and other vegetables is beta-carotene.  But the Vitamin A in animal meats is Retinol A, which is really good for immunity and differentiated cell growth. There are lots of pates on the market.  Some stores sell only one or two, so I get what is available from them.  Here is one:


The other food to consider is grapes.  Not everybody likes grapes because they are a diarrheatic.  Let that be a lesson to you--raisins and grapes are great constipation-fighters.  But grapes certainly do activate your gut.  That's a good thing in my opinion.




Finally, the last thing that I wanted to talk about was GMOs.  Below is an example of how the GMO industry and Monsanto are able to influence kid opinions in US schools, circumventing parental consent.  The sample below is a grammar and spelling worksheet or test.  Here I've retyped a few of the sentences:

#1: These foods come from organisms that have purposefully altered DNA fore a variety of reasons.  Sum plants have been made moor drought resistant, which means life or death in some parts of the world.

#2: Other plants are now more pest resistant sow that fewer chemical pesticide applications are necessary.

#3: Buy inserting an antifreeze gene from fish into potatoes, scientists have created potatoes that can withstand colder temperatures.

Based on the final question about reasons strengthening the paragraph, the task seems to focus on grammar only.  But why use reasons that advocate for GMOs?  It assumes the legitimacy of GMOs.  It assumes that scientists are clever tinkerers who work only to benefit mankind.  Ha!!

Here is the original.  The above page comes from an elementary textbook published by Evan-Moor Corporation. 

Check out the following:

Direct message posted yesterday by CEO of the textbook company.
https://www.facebook.com/evanmoorcorp/posts/10151842992454158
A message from the CEO of Evan-Moor:

It has been brought to my attention that one of the activities in our Daily Six Traits Writing books contains a biased article about GMO foods. After reading the article, I must agree completely. I want to thank the parents and educators who brought this to my attention.

It was an error in our authoring and editing processes. The article was intended to present both sides of the issue and did not. Normally this would have been caught by our fact checking processes. Please accept my apology for the error.

I have directed our editorial staff to replace the article when the book is reprinted and to make the new article available on-line free of charge. Those of you who have e-mailed us will receive personal notification when the article is available. We will also post the availability on FaceBook.

On a personal note, my wife and I have contributed to a number of organizations that are campaigning for labeling of GMO foods: Organic Consumers Association, Food Democracy Now and Yes on 522 in Washington State. We do not allow GMO foods in our home, and we would certainly never do anything to promote them in our publications.

Sincerely,
Bill

William E. Evans, CEO
Evan-Moor Educational Publishers

Avoid BPA: Get Glass

Food is important to me because it is the difference between health and sickness, between strength and weakness, and between power and control.  I read a lot of articles, many of them are disaster stories and for this reason I prefer not to share too many of those.  But there is this one story I read yesterday by Ethan Huff, a staff writer over at Mike Adams' Natural News.  It was an article on how pervasive BPA, the chemical of which plastics are made, is.  Plastics are ubiquitous.  If you drink bottled water, there's BPA in the bottle.  And you know from personal experience that those bottles sit during transportation for hours in sweltering heat across desert terrain.  When we see them on the store shelves, we don't see them inside 18 wheelers making their way across the deserts of the Southwest.  That plastic softens and melts, leeching chemicals into the water.  The waistband of our pants contain plastic.  Shoe parts are plastic.  Plastics are everywhere.  They're in your car.  In your bus ride.  Everywhere.  Not to mention the hallogens that appear in your living room furniture.  This is one of the reasons I prefer to drink water out of a glass bottle.  Not easy to find, which is why I do drink Perrier out of a glass bottle.

It's not for everybody.  But I like it.  The more I drink, the more I find myself dehydrated.  What's weird is that I found myself smelling like vinegar the other day.  My nurse friend of mine told me that it is probably me detoxing with water.  Okay.  I can live with that. 

The Huff article focused mainly on fetal exposure to BPA.  But it's in adults too, complicating hormonal and chemical processes.  Choose glass when you can, if you can.  Though the article was disheartening, you still have choices.  Choose glass.

BPA has a disastrous track record on sperm count and activity.  Does it threaten our species?

Raw Milk: The Only Milk to Drink
 
The only milk you should drink is raw milk.  And I like Claravale's raw cow milk.  I love the fat that is in this milk.  And I don't say this to be a snob.  I say this because apparently not only has the FDA, a federal government agency, given permission to milk producing farms to add aspartame to their milk but it seems as though they've incentivized it, encouraged it, maybe even mandated it.  The last one sounds extreme, I know.  But why would milk producers suddenly begin to add aspartame to milk?  Were they getting complaints from parents, "Oh, your milk isn't sweet enough?"  I seriously doubt it.  Just last night I saw aspartame in a tea product at VONS in California.

 The Power of Turmeric

I've written on tumeric before, but I have never tasted raw tumeric root.  It is as you see pictured below, maybe even a little more orange inside that what is presented here.  Initially, it tastes like a carrot, but a carrot with a zing.  If you're tired of eating carrots, then try raw tumeric root.  It's tastier, and it helps to reduce inflammation on your liver.  

If you want to learn of all of the benefits of turmeric, then check out this list and this post.  It inhibits Alzheimers, so if you are concerned for yourself or loved ones, you might want to read this short paragraph. It's a great brain tonic.  The trick is to find a way to get the spice into your system that makes it easy.  I consider this spice the most important also for liver health.  So don't miss it.  Find a way to get this into your system--a fruit smoothie, a vegetable smoothie, something tasty with a plain yogurt. 

COCONUT BUTTER IS HEART ENERGY

Coconut Butter: Heart Energy

Everybody finds their own path to 5 or 10% more health, more vim and vigor and vitality. Vigorous, competitive exercise achieves this goal pretty quickly.  Beyond vigorous exercise, there are some foods that help you reach this goal. Generally, it is functional foods that do this best.  We all pay attention to the effects of foods.  For me, raw milk has an excellent effect on boosting my immune system after a particularly stressful week.  Eggs sunny-side up also have a fortifying effect.  When it comes to heart strength, I reach for raw coconut butter.  I take 2 tablespoons on the recommendation of Dr. Donald Miller.

Not only is the food functional in that the energy is directed straight to my heart but the butter, which is more like a lightly sweetened paste, also tastes delicious.