Day: July 13, 2011

Interesting Information: Healthy 4 Life and Please Don’t Eat the Wallpaper.

When someone asks me how to start changing their food consumption habits, I usually recommend NOURISHING TRADITIONS, Sally Fallon Morrell and Dr. Mary Enig, both of the Weston A. Price Foundation–which also has a really good web site.

But, this past year, the WAPF came out with a very short little book–their answer to the travesty of the USDA’S food guide, whose formation is driven by the market–not science–and which is guaranteed to make you sick.  I really like this little book.  It’s an excellent and easy guide to changing your life.  NOURISHING TRADITIONS is an amazing book and is chock full of information, so that would be the next place to go in your journey.

WAPF will send you HEALTHY 4 LIFE for about $12.   They also have a great shopping guide and lots of informative pamphlets on soy (really bad), raw milk, and so forth.

In addition, Dr. Nancy Irven, after working with high school students, published PLEASE DON’T EAT THE WALLPAPER, available at amazon.com at least for about $14 as I recall.  Irven’s goal is to get students to own their own health and diet by first understanding why high fructose corn syrup, white flour, and trans fats are really bad sugar, glue, and plastic.  Get those three out of the diet, she explains, and the other bad additives, etc., drop out with them.  Irven has a light touch and funny sense of humor, and the high school program she’s been working with on diet has been highly successful.

In short, there’s so much really bad information out there that teenagers, who are often adrift on their own in terms of food anyway, don’t know what to eat.  Since this same condition is true for many Americans, Irven’s little book is useful for all ages.

Turkey Tracks: Maine Summer Pictures July 2011

Turkey Tracks:  July 13, 2011

Maine Summer Pictures July 2011

Time is flying by so fast.  We have hit our summer groove.  Up early.  Breakfast.  Chores (pick the garden, pick the strawberries and raspberries, water plants, change sheets, organize food, wash clothes, etc.).  Fun activity (swimming most days now, hiking, a trip to somewhere fun).  Lunch.  Quiet time.  More play.  Dinner.  More play.  Bedtime rituals (baths, stories).  Sleep.

Here are some pictures I’ve been too busy to post:

On July 4th weekend, we all went to a charming outdoor bell concert, courtesy of the St. Luke Concert Handbell Choir, from Gales Ferry, CT.  The choir was made up of high school students.  They let our kiddos try out a small hand-chime each.

Here are Kelly and Wilhelmina listening to one of the choir’s selections:

Here is a picture of one side of our amazingly beautiful Camden Library amphitheater where moss and wild strawberries grow in the cracks of the steps:

Here are two girly indians and two girly dogs hard at play:

Pop and “the crew” took apart the garden bench and repainted all the metal:

Tami took this picture of “the hikers,” most with a walking stick from the woods:

We got rhubarb in our CSA the first week, so I saved it for when the kiddos came.  We made a rhubarb cake that was delicious from a recipe in RUSTIC FRUIT DESSERTS, Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber:  http://www.amazon.com/Rustic-Fruit-Desserts-Crumbles-Pandowdies/dp/1580089763.   (A book suggested by Tara Derr.)  I don’t mind making a cake like this one upon occasion when I’m using fruit, real butter, really good eggs, and a limited amount of sugar and white flour.

Finally, here’s a picture of our sugar snap peas putting out the goods.  Often, the children eat them raw as fast as I can pick them.

Interesting Information: “Why Go Organic” video

This little video, done by a child after an experiment, speaks to why you do not want to eat commercial potatoes in any form.

Do take a look?

http://www.geekmom.com/2011/06/a-sweet-potato-experiment-why-go-organic/

 

Here’s a site discussing the video and chlorpropham, the chemical at issue.  According to PAN (Pesticide Action Network), it is toxic to bees and retards growth in animals–and can kill them.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/girl-discovers-the-importance-of-eating-organic-video.html