Category Archives: ecology

More adventures on the GAPS diet, and more…

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Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride recommends making your own homemade yogurt because the commercial stuff is inferior, with less active live cultures.  So, I’ve been experimenting with using organic Kefir with this wonderful locally made milk, from Trader’s Point Dairies here in Indiana.  It’s pasteurized (since raw milk will kill you/snark) but it is not homogenized, which is only a cosmetic, not a health concern.  Dr. Campbell-McBride says that the process to homogenize changes the fat molecules.  I suppose the body cannot recognize it in the changed form?

Anyway, I’ve decided that my homemade yogurt is like a box of chocolates…I never know what I’m going to get. 🙂  It’s either runny or lumpy….although I have to admit the times when it’s been more of a solid, I’ve added more Kefir to it, so maybe that’s the cause.

Homemade sauerkraut is totally under-rated.  The commercial stuff has this bitterness to it, but the homemade stuff doesn’t.  It has a kick to it, for sure.  The only problem is that you have to wait 5-7 days for it to ferment.

I’ve also tried fermenting carrots.  I thought I might get the sweet-and-sour thing….yeah, that didn’t work out so well…but they’re still edible.

There’s also a recipe for homemade ice cream, using real cream that’s also been fermented into sour cream, adding eggs, honey, and whatever ingredient you want…sounds delicious.

Dr. Campbell-McBride encourages certain ripe fruits on the diet–I’ve tried some, but still have strong reactions to them, so I’m back to ripe bananas (brown spots on the skin) and apples.  I mashed a ripe banana and threw it in the pan with the eggs in the morning, and oh.my.god, it was like eating pancakes! Yum…pancakes are something I’ve been missing.

I’ve been pretty good at sticking with the diet, although I have to admit I cheated last week…succumbing to the call of M&M’s.  But I’m still proud of myself for sticking to it.  I’ve now lost 20 pounds.  Amazing.

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Fort Wayne has free firewood, if anyone’s interested…you’ll have to drop by and pick it up yourself. 🙂  Just a little storm humor.  Geez, it still amazes me how powerful that storm was…I was walking home from the grocery this morning (haven’t been able to walk anywhere because of the heat), and there were trees with major damage on each of the six blocks I walked.  One guy passed by and said his friend’s car was demolished by a tree.  I don’t think insurance even covers that–nice out for them, eh?

Oh, and a minor correction–I don’t think the picture I linked to with the tree in the street was the actual one in front of the library.  I’m still not that familiar with the streets, not being that mobile.  I think the tree down was actually about a couple blocks over.  Anyway, wanted to clear that up.  Truth in reporting and all that 🙂

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Dept of the Interior Not Releasing Data

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Indian Country has this up on the Dept of the Interior refusing to release data on a survey of employment and poverty of the Native Americans.

Okay, if there’s a problem with the methodology, why not release the information and point out those problems to the reader?

Or is this a case of they didn’t like the answers they got and want to rephrase the questions? A red flag is the statement in the story that they want to revise survey questions.

I took a statistics class (political science class, no less) and the point that was stressed was that you could phrase questions to get the answers you were looking for–if your goal was to skew something to your viewpoint. When the data was entered into the computer program that tallies the answers, it will show a skewed view.   Never trust a “survey” or “poll” that is more than 2 percentage points + or –  because it means the questions have been phrased to obtain a desired result.

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More from Indian Country.  This makes no sense to me…the wolf population has recovered, so let’s shoot them??  They say the reason that the deer population has swelled so much is because the wolf was nearly hunted into extinction.

I’ve been back and forth with the hunting thing–I’ve never really liked it, but when I became vegetarian, I despised hunters–mainly because the ones that I knew seem to get off on killing living things.

But then I read of the American Indian’s view of reverence for animals and how they took only what they needed and thanked the animal for its sacrifice.  That made a huge difference to me.  It especially helped me when I was told that I needed to start eating meat again because of severe anemia.   I could live with it as long as I gave thanks to the animal for its sacrifice.

What’s needed here is balance–and humans to stop messing with the populations and their habitats for their own gain.

Supreme Court passes Affordable care

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You know, I’m probably the only moderate progressive who disagrees with this Act.  Not for the same reasons the far right does, but because of the mandate for private insurance, instead of Medicare for All.  Unlike those in this article, I don’t see this as a step in the right direction–as a way to get single payer in the door.

However, I do agree with the right on the issue of gov’t control of healthcare.  They already are violating the Fourth Amendment, so what will hold them back in violating a person’s right to privacy with their health records?  If it were a separate agency, such as Medicare–a well run agency–I would trust it more.

And then we have the growing lack of privacy for employees for everything, including medical.

Here’s a site that answers questions on the rights of employers to ask for medical history:

The HIPPA privacy rule does not prevent your employer from asking you for information about your health if your employer needs the information to administer sick leave, workers’ compensation, wellness programs, or health insurance.

Read that again.  They have it couched as “necessary” for the employer to obtain your private information to buy health insurance or administer wellness programs…

And people won’t refuse this especially in this economy—they don’t want to make waves and will agree to it even if they disagree strongly in handing over private information.  This opens the door for an employer in dismissing someone because of a health reason. Actually, as the lawyer points out, they can fire you for any reason if you live in an “At Will” state.  There’s just no rights of the employees in this and that bothers me a great deal.

Again, if there was a Medicare for All, the employers would not have such monumental power over their employees’ lives.

For me, however, I’m less and less likely to seek out the medical profession for issues, and find the natural plants and organic food that will help me regain my health.  Thank God for doctors like Natasha Campbell-McBride who think outside the box and use that wonderful intuition to come up with solutions that aren’t a) making the pharmaceutical companies rich; and b) aren’t ignoring diet  and the environment as a major factors in health.

The medical profession is set up to try to rein in the horse after it’s left the barn, instead of fixing the gate (diet and healthy environment).  That makes no sense to me at all.

 

Natural Shampoo

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I’ve been searching for a natural shampoo, without chemicals, as most of the chemicals they put in shampoos have been shown to be carcinogenic or endocrine disruptors.  Here’s a list of the stuff they put in personal care products.  I found propylene glycol on the label of a package of shredded coconut!  Good Grief.

I found a recipe for no-poo shampoo, where you put baking soda on your scalp and then rinse with vinegar.

Yeah…that didn’t work out too well…although it did help remove some of the buildup of the shampoo product I now use, leaving my hair bouncier.  But it’s not something you can use instead of commercial shampoo–your hair starts to look like it does when you’re sick for three days with the flu.  Not a pretty sight.

I found this helpful site on yucca as a shampoo.  Another site said you could also use it for a natural laundry soap.  Interesting.

It’s good for you, the wildlife, and the environment.  Woot.

China Syndrome

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… they lied…as DN reported before.

I wonder how much of that radiation made its way to the U.S. via the ocean and the air currents?

Here’s a link on the subject…if they detected it as far as Massachusetts and North Carolina, you can bet there was much more radiation over the western half of the States than is being admitted.  I wonder how many folks have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since the accident?  And if they are diagnosed, how many doctors are doing detective work to find the cause?  My bet is that they will blame the patient or will not even recognize thyroid issues and instead diagnose the patient with psychosomatic illness?  Nah, that can’t happen…/snark.

 

California GMO Ballot

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…as California goes, so goes the Nation  (she says hopefully)… (hat tip to organic consumers)

I wasn’t as impressed with this article as Ronnie Cummins.  It failed to note the Purdue University scientist, Dr. Huber, who sent a letter of concern to Vilsack.  But it was sure to get in GMO advocates that have nothing to back up their assertions that this *stuff that resembles food* is safe.

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By now, you have heard of the *cough* research that says people who buy organic food are….jerks.  Um-hmmm…

Organic Consumers states that reason.com is a part of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian “think tank”, which is…wait for it…a member of ALEC.

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Another link organic consumers had was to a movie trailer about the coming water crises.  However, it was made by the folks who brought us “Waiting for Superman” a smear piece on the public school system that was used as a prop to promote charter schools…so yeah, I’m not linking to it.

GAPS and the sustainable environment

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While I was out jogging this morning, I was thinking about the GAPS diet and how Dr. Campbell-McBride advocates nuts in the diet…and it flashed in my head about how much land is used to grow wheat and corn and soybeans…and I wondered about how much more food, as in nuts, could be grown and if that was more ecologically sound?

I found this page advocating that very idea–it says that nut trees require very little chemical intervention, if any at all…not to mention the benefits of increased oxygenation by the trees and providing a home for the birds and squirrels.

I also found this resource for the re-foresting agriculture.

I also found this dedicated to permaculture.  I really like the Vajra farm–I could picture myself taking a stroll through there…I could just feel the cool breeze and the serenity of the forest.  It doesn’t look like any farm that I’ve been acquainted with…

I’m looking at that and thinking about the dry, windblown fields in Indiana, and how much better having this type of agriculture would be for the Earth.  And it would be better for us, as well, with eating nuts and berries again instead of stuffing our faces with bread, cakes, and the like…

Here’s yet another take on growing trees  in “alley ways” along with the usual.  I don’t get a good feel for this–I’d have to see it in operation.  My thinking is that the trees will eventually grow enough to block most of the light for the other crops…unless that is the purpose–to grow crops between them until they are large enough to use for lumber?  The site doesn’t really explain the process very well.

Anyway, there you have it.  I think this would really take off if it were promoted as a healthier alternative for diet, for the Earth, for the animals…

…but that’s just crazy talk 🙂