Category: Interesting Information

Information I want to share in a non-essay form

Interesting Information: Table Salt vs. Sea Salt by Food Renegade

Interesting Information:  January 6, 2015

Table Salt vs. Sea Salt

I love salt.

Good salt.

Good salt is sea salt that has been air dried and that is, even, a moist grey in nature–like Brittany, France, salt, aka Celtic salt.

Up here in Maine, we can get really good locally dried salt.  Some of it is the moist grey variety.  Some is much whiter and dry.

Food Renegade recently did this blog entry on her recommendations for a good salt.

The one she likes is also one I buy when I can’t get our local salt.

Take a look?

Table Salt vs. Sea Salt | Food Renegade.

Also, I addressed our need for salt in one of the Mainely Tipping Points essays–No. 38.  There are other blog entries on salt myths.  If you are interested, use the search button and the word “salt.”

Also, also, you need to think about getting enough iodine if you are just using sea salt.  I supplement and eat a lot of seaweed products.

Interesting Information: Healthy Nation Coalition Letter

Interesting Information:  January 6, 2015

Healthy Nation Coalition Letter

I hope that my blog readers are recognizing that our government’s dietary recommendations have been and continue to be seriously flawed.  These recommendations are not made using the wealth of good science pointing to what we should be eating for human health.  These recommendations are being made for political and market (the good of industries) reasons.  The history of these guidelines and its outcome (rampant bad health and obesity) is both fascinating and sad.

Healthy Nation Coalition has sent a letter to government officials asking that these flawed guidelines, which are about to go even further in this wrong direction, be revamped.

Actually, nutritional advice needs to be taken out of the USDA and moved to an objective organization that has ONLY human health as its concern.

In any case, I hope that you are aware of this huge problem and that you will take a moment and read this letter as it’s instructive.

Healthy Nation Coalition Letter.

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Interesting Information: The Weston A Price Foundation 2014 Membership Drive

Interesting Information:  December 28, 2014

The Weston A. Price Foundation 2014 Membership Drive

 

I spent some time today balancing my check book, paying bills, and making year-end donations.

I cannot recommend The Weston A. Price Foundation highly enough.

They have “no dog in the hunt” to sell to you.

They work to educate, educate, educate.  And their science is the work of biochemists and others with appropriate credentials and research backgrounds.  These scientists specialize in the chemistry of the human body with an emphasis on what we eat every day.  How can any “healer” heal without taking into consideration what people are eating?  Those are chemical reactions.

They have a legal defense fund which comes to the aid of farmers who are being attacked inappropriately by misguided government officials working from either unscientific belief systems or…from outright corruption at the behest of industry.

The WAPF has a terrific quarterly journal–I often try to guide you to articles from that journal.And, so, today I put some of my money where my mouth is…

My theory is that we have to support small farms and real, clean food.

The current membership drive information, itself, has some nice links.

Take a look?

Membership Drive | Weston A Price.

Interesting Information: A Thanksgiving Family Retreat 2014

Interesting Information:  December 16, 2014

A Thanksgiving Family Retreat 2014

Going to Camp St. Christopher near Seabrook, SC, was Tami Enright’s idea.

The Montessori charter school that Mike and Tami’s children attend uses this camp in the fall to immerse children in nature, and Tami has been a chaperone every year.

When she discovered that the camp sponsors a family Thanksgiving retreat, she asked if we all thought it might be a good idea.

We did, and it was.

What I most loved about it was that we really did spend quality time with each other, rather than working ourselves to death to prep, serve, and clean up for a Thanksgiving feast.  We were 11, and next year we will be 12 in number–and that’s without all the other family living in the area whom we all love to see as well.  The people who really get lost in the Thanksgiving hub-bub, I think, are the children.  I, for one, feel I have limited time with my family, and I loved spending it BEING WITH THEM, not just being in the same geographic area that they are while we all shop, cook, and clean up.

The time we spent together at Camp St. Christopher was spent really being together, and it was lovely.

Ailey is our Thanksgiving baby–and this year she was FOUR.  So, Corinne and Bryan hosted us the night before we left for Camp St. Christopher for a dinner to celebrate Ailey’s birthday:

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Here are my grandchildren on the porch of the big cottage filled with bunks where we “camped” out.

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There was a beach to walk–the camp sits on the mouth of the North Edisto River as it enters the Atlantic:

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This littliest one, Cyanna, was pretty exhausted by Saturday morning from trying to “keep up” with all the action.

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Mike and I enjoyed the spectacular sunset one night:

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There was a herpetarium and a man who loved sharing his knowledge of snakes.  Here’s Kelly with a corn snake.  There was, also, a coach whip snake.  I’ve always wanted to see one, and now I have.  They are very long, very fast (hence the name) and night hunters.

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There was a gym with all sorts of balls:

And, a climbing wall that ALL the children tried, but Cyanna:

Bowen and Kelly made it to the top

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As did Talula, after Wilhelmina succeeded in going higher than Talula did on her first try:

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Here’s Wilhelmina getting ready:

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And, Ailey, with Dad Bryan:

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Both Talula and Wilhemina began to learn to knit this trip:

Here’s the scarf Talula and I made for her–I sent the Noro silk/wool/nylon yarn to her for her birthday in September.

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Here’s Bowen showing us the dining room where we ate three meals a day:

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There were so many special moments around our two tables, like this one between cousins:

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All the children LOVE Uncle Joey (Tami’s gorgeous brother) and Aunt Megan (Joey’s gorgeous wife).  That’s their son Meyer with the green ipad next to Ailey.  They came down to us for Thanksgiving day.

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I posted earlier about the resident alligator.

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Fortunately (or not) it was a bit too cold for us to kayak, but we would have been fine in the river, as you can see from the beach picture above.

Next year, maybe…

But, in any case, I think taking time for a retreat as a family is time well spent.

Thank you Camp St. Christopher.

PS:  Don’t you love the way ferns and moss grow on the live oaks in the Low Country?

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Interesting Information: An Aphorism

Interesting Information:  December 15, 2014

An Aphorism

A dear friend here recited this little aphorism the other day, and I thought it especially appropriate during this season that can get more than a little crazy if allowed:

 

“Yesterday is history;

Tomorrow is a mystery;

Today is God’s gift,

That’s why it’s called ‘The Present’.”

▶ Interesting Information: Gretna Green Starling Murmurations – YouTube

Interesting Information:  Starling Murmurations

 

Starling Murmurations

Judith Brill sent me this video–taken in Ireland along a river.

▶ Gretna Green Starling Murmurations – YouTube.

I had no idea what starling murmurations were…

Apparently the video has had millions of viewers…

Thanks, Judith.

Interesting Information: Toaster Death Rant

Interesting Information:  November 18, 2014

Toaster Death Rant

Here’s a picture of the Cuisenart toaster I bought about three years ago and no more than four years ago.

I paid about $70 for it, thinking that buying a “good” toaster was more reasonable than buying a cheap one that would wear out quickly.

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This toaster died this week.

There is one person using it.  One person who does not toast every day.

Can I tell you that I’m pretty sure that my mother had the same toaster for about twenty years.  Maybe longer.

Look at this big honking thing that is now going into the dump.

I will never buy Cuisenart again.  Never.

And I won’ t spend $$$ on a “good” toaster either.

There isn’t one, apparently.

We are now living in late capitalism–where we are at the end of the chain in terms of quality products.  Manufacturers have cut so many corners that they’ve ruined their products totally.  And, these products are using up valuable resources and filling up land fills.  Meanwhile, these products cost the same or, even, more.

It’s INSANE!!!

It’s unsustainable!!!

All the money in the world won’t compensate for a fouled earth.

 

 

 

Interesting Information: The Nine Ingredients For a Healthier America

Interesting Information:  November 17, 2014

“The Nine Ingredients For A Healthier America”

Friend Gina Caceci mailed me The Washington Post‘s copy of this opinion piece by Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador, and Olivier De Schutter.

The article is all over the web now.

This piece is a call to action to change national food policy so that it is aligned with human health, not industry profits.

At the most basic level, we need the government to separate the USDA from healthy food policy as these goals are massively in conflict.  What has resulted is that, in a nutshell, we are subsidizing soda while “paying for insulin pumps.”  And, too many of us are sick.

This issue has to be viewed from above political party lines–not across or through them.  Surely our health, the health of our loved ones, and the health of our soil and planet will allow us to come together on this issue.

Please, please read this article.  Every word.

And, maybe, email the President and your congresspersons noting the article and asking for meaningful change.

I will.  Today.

Commentary: The nine ingredients for a healthier America | masslive.com.

Interesting Information: Prediabetes/Diabetics: Foods to Avoid

Interesting Information:  November 10, 2014

Prediabetes/Diabetics:  Foods to Avoid

 

Dr. Sarah Cimperman, ND, has assembled a food list for those diagnosed with prediabetes or, really, with diabetes.

I have to say that these are foods that I avoid, and my blood sugar is great.

(And I had my dental check-up this morning this morning:  very health teeth and gums with no bleeding–all of which is due to diet.)

Note:  I totally agree with Dr. Cimperman about COMMERCIAL milk, which is, in my opinion, just imbibing wasted calories.  Commercial milk is a dead food and often contains dangerous additions.  If I could not get my lovely and healthy RAW milk, I would fall back on the raw-milk cheeses, like those from Organic Valley.

Here’s Dr. Cimperman’s list:

A Different Kind Of Doctor.