Put Down that Bottle of Soy Sauce!

I caught you!  Did you know most soybeans are genetically modified and your soy sauce is most likely made from those beans?  Also, the soy sauce you're using might also contain a preservative called Sodium Benzoate which is suspected to have skin or sense organ toxicity hazards.

As a FANTASTIC alternative, use Bragg's Liquid Aminos!

Here is some info from their site:

Bragg Liquid Aminos is a Certified NON-GMO liquid protein concentrate, derived from healthy soybeans, that contains the following Essential and Non-essential Amino Acids in naturally occurring amounts:

16 Amino Acids
Alanine Arginine Aspartic Acid Glutamic Acid Glycine Histidine Isoleucine Leucine	Methionine Phenylalanine Proline Serine Threonine Tyrosine Valine Lysine

Great on Salads & Dressings, Soups, Veggies, Rice & Beans, Tofu, Wok & Stir-frys, Tempeh, Casseroles, Potatoes, Meats, Poultry, Fish, Jerky, Popcorn, Gravies & Sauces, Macrobiotics. Ingredients: Our Bragg Liquid Aminos are made from health-giving, NON-GMO soybeans and purified water. They are an excellent, healthy, gourmet replacement for Tamari and Soy Sauce. Not fermented or heated and Gluten-Free. Bragg's has a small amount of naturally occurring sodium. No table salt is added. If less sodium is desired use a 6 oz. Bragg's spray bottle and dilute with 1/3 distilled water or to taste and then either add in or spray on food.
Health Benefits: A source of delicious, nutritious, life-renewing protein. Taste you'll love - Nutrition you need. Great on salads, veggies, dressings, soups, rice, beans, Wok foods, tofu, gravies, jerky, poultry, fish, popcorn, meats, casseroles, potatoes, etc Contains important healthy amino acids		Bragg Liquid Aminos contains: no chemicals no artificial coloring no alcohol no preservatives no Gluten Certified NON-GMO

Health Magazine

When we ordered our latest bulk food order, we were given a copy of a magazine the company puts out.  I have read quite a bit of it and it’s very interesting.  Did you know the top two killers in the U.S. are heart disease and cancer?  Could this be due to the American diet?  I don’t see why not.  Most Americans eat a diet high in fat, preservatives, additives, hydrogenated oils, etc.  How much processed food is in your cabinet?  Heart disease and cancer are not diseases you get just because of age.  I believe, for the most part, they are diseases you get because of poor lifestyle choices.  You cannot expect your body to remain healthy when it is fed junk and never exercised. 

According to Dr. Esselstyn (a doctor and researcher featured in the film Forks Over Knives), 

“Cardiovasuclar disease is a benign, food-related illness that can be halted.  Cardiovascular disease is almost non-existent in China, Papua New Guinea, central Africa, and the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico.  These are largely plant-based cultures.”   

Now, I don’t believe your diet has to be completely plant based, however, most Americans don’t eat very many plants at all.  The sauce on your pizza should not be your only vegetable! 

“Eighty-five percent of common, chronic, killing diseases in Western civilization are diet-related,” Dr. Esselstyn says.  “The single most important thing is what goes through your lips.  That determines whether your disease progresses or regresses.  If everyone started eating to save their heart, we’d really empty out the hospitals.  This same approach doesn’t apply only to the heart.  It applies to other organs as well.”

This is my kind of magazine!  I am amazed at what people eat and consider it to be healthy.  Most of the time, they just don’t consider it at all.  They don’t think it’s a big deal to eat all that junk.  Changing your diet and lifestyle happens one step at the time.  You can’t do it all over night but you should try as hard as you can.  Make significant changes.  Follow the baby steps I have outlined to get you started. 

I’ll be honest.  The hardest part about it is the outside world.  People will look at you funny or even give you a hard time because you won’t eat everything at the potluck.  They may criticize you or call you weird.  We have been through it all…sadly.  Most of it came from people we are closest to.  Why is it that when you make a better choice for your life, like eating right, people get so worked up about it?  They are actually the “weird” ones because they choose to fuel their bodies with chemicals and nothingness then expect a doctor to fix it all later. 

No matter what, take the leap.  Do what is right and you will feel much better.  Your body will feel great and you will get tougher over time as your loved ones question you.  Stand strong and do it.

By the way, just because a food is healthy doesn’t mean it’s nasty.  We don’t eat lettuce and tree bark for supper.  (Just check out some of the recipes on this blog.)  In fact, we think our food is much tastier than traditional American food!  Maybe that’s because our taste buds are awake and not coated with additives and chemicals?!

Clean food is fulfilling

Clean 15

After you review the Dirty Dozen, check out this list of the Clean 15.  These are vegetables and fruits that are the lowest in pesticides.  They are safe to buy non-organic.

Here they are...

1. onions
2. sweet corn....as long as it's not GMO
3. pineapples
4. avocado
5. asparagus
6. sweet peas
7. mangoes
8. eggplant
9. cantaloupe- domestic
10. kiwi
11. cabbage
12. watermelon
13. sweet potatoes
14. grapefruit
15. mushrooms

Mmm...sweet potatoes

Why We Use Coconut Oil

We gave up vegetable oil years ago then started using olive oil.  I learned that olive oil isn't good for frying (a person has to have some fried potatoes every now and then!), the oils we were using came from GM sources, most oils are not natural and also contain trans-fat (unlike naturally occurring coconut oil).  So, we switched.

There are many benefits to using coconut oil.  For example, coconut oil is naturally occurring unlike some of the oils sold that have been factory created into a nasty, oily, rancid substance.  Not to mention, most of them are manufactured from genetically modified plants (corn, soy, canola) which gives them a terrible start anyway.  You should know now that anything naturally created is better for you than a manufactured food product.

 Not all fat is bad.  Actually, natural saturated fat is good for you!  I've read before about all the "low fat" fad diets that went around in the 90s and how obesity actually rose during this time.  Aside from the fact that natural fat is good for you, "low fat" frozen dinners contain all kinds of unnatural nastiness.  But that's a rant for another day.

Back in the 1930s, Dr. Weston Price found South Pacific Islanders whose diets were high in coconut to be healthy and trim, despite high dietary fat, and heart disease was virtually non-existent. Similarly, in 1981, researchers studying two Polynesian communities for whom coconut was the primary caloric energy source found them to have excellent cardiovascular health and fitness.  (emphasis mine)

 *If you have never researched Dr. Weston Price's studies, you should.  He did a mass amount of research in people groups and basically discovered that Americans have it all wrong.  Here is his Wise Traditions website.

There are many health benefits to coconut oil.  For example:

• Improving your heart health.(3)
• Boosting your thyroid. (4)
• Increasing your metabolism.
• Promoting a lean body and weight loss if needed.
• Supporting your immune system. (5)

...Coconut oil is incredibly good for your heart. The truth is this: it is unsaturated fats that are primarily involved in heart disease and too much sugar and processed foods, not the naturally occurring saturated fats, as you have been led to believe. 

Coconut oil also has a high smoke point which means you can use it to fry those potatoes without smoking up the house and saturating your food in an oil that has been heated to an unhealthy, unnatural degree.

We have also found another use for coconut oil....lotion!  We don't use any store bought lotions because of the ingredients and coconut oil is sooo much better anyway.  In fact, I have read that some studies show coconut oil to have some anti-aging qualities and that's never a bad thing...

We pay roughly $82 for 50 pounds of pure coconut oil.  We buy it in a big, metal bucket.  It lasts us a full year and takes care of all our cooking and lotion needs.  It is solid at room temperature so it's easy to scoop some out of the bucket and melt it in your skillet for cooking.  I've also found that it substitutes nicely for Crisco in pie crusts!

You don't have to buy 50 pounds but we have found it to be most economical this way.  It also comes in varying qualities.  We don't buy the super expensive stuff because ours is still pure coconut oil.  As a result, it does not have a coconut flavor so you don't have to worry about everything tasting like coconut.

When you consider everything discussed here, coconut oil is the best option.  No other oil is ever worth considering.  Most other oils are unnatural and unhealthy.  They also contribute to bad health and weight gain.


All quotes referenced from here. (great article)

GMO Corn and Other Crops

"Genetically modified foods (GM foods or GMO foods) are foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques.  GM foods were first put on the market in the mid 1990s (1996). Typically, genetically modified foods are transgenic plant products: soybean, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil.  Critics have objected to GM foods on several grounds, including safety issues,^[7] ecological concerns, and economic concerns raised by the fact that these organisms are subject to intellectual property law."

Huffington Post

It's very dangerous and tricky when companies start changing the DNA make-up of crops for profit.  Corn (like other crops) was changed to be stronger and withstand pesticides.  With GMO corn, Round-up can be sprayed on the entire field, killing pests but not the corn.  So, now, not only do you have a vegetable that has a new, engineered genetic make-up, it is also covered in Round-up.

"In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
According to the study, which was summarized by Rady Ananda at Food Freedom, "Three varieties of Monsanto's GM corn - Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 - were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities."
Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however."  From here, bold mine

 The Wikipedia definition at the beginning of this post stated concerns, one being "the fact that these organisms are subject to intellectual property law."  What is the intellectual property law?  I knew you would ask...
Intellectual property is any innovation, commercial or artistic, or any unique name, symbol, logo or design used commercially.
Intellectual property is protected by
•  patents on inventions;
•  trademarks on branding devices;
•  copyrights on music, videos, patterns and other forms of expression;
•  trade secrets for methods or formulas having economic value and used commercially
Definition found here.

So, why is there concern "that these organisms are subject to intellectual property law?"  Because of the issue of putting a patent on life.  Is it right to patent a seed?  That depends on who you ask.  Now that corn is genetically modified, one company can own it.  They can govern who grows their corn.  This also means that if you are farming your own corn next to their GMO corn and their seeds blow over into your field...your operation can be shut down, sued, etc for "stealing" their product.  You didn't want their GMO corn in the first place.  That is a huge economic concern.  A large company can shut down a small farmer because of seeds that blew onto his property and took root.  Now the farmer has a choice, either work for that company and grow their GMO corn or stop farming crops. 
This Supreme Court ruling is responsible for allowing companies to patent life.

"With the biomedical revolution in full swing, academic scientists who lack industry ties have become as rare as giant pandas in the wild. But as Congress begins to investigate lapses in federal oversight of gene therapy experiments, lawmakers, bioethics experts and federal regulators say they are troubled that so many researchers have a financial stake in companies testing their discoveries -- companies whose fortunes, with those of the scientist, can rise and fall on a single product.
The fear is that the lure of profit could color scientific integrity, prompting researchers to withhold information about potentially dangerous side effects or push for experiments that might not be quite safe."  New York Times

If this is a concern in the medical field, it can also be true in the food industry.  Scientists creating these GMO products could also have their integrity "colored" by the "lure of profit." 

"The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients. They cite animal studies showing organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility. Human studies show how genetically modified (GM) food can leave material behind inside us, possibly causing long-term problems. Genes inserted into GM soy, for example, can transfer into the DNA of bacteria living inside us, and that the toxic insecticide produced by GM corn was found in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn fetuses.  Numerous health problems increased after GMOs were introduced in 1996. The percentage of Americans with three or more chronic illnesses jumped from 7% to 13% in just 9 years; food allergies skyrocketed, and disorders such as autism, reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and others are on the rise. Although there is not sufficient research to confirm that GMOs are a contributing factor, doctors groups such as the AAEM tell us not to wait before we start protecting ourselves, and especially our children who are most at risk.

The American Public Health Association and American Nurses Association are among many medical groups that condemn the use of GM bovine growth hormone, because the milk from treated cows has more of the hormone IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1)―which is linked to cancer."  Institute for Responsible Technology

The article cited above is a great read.  Click on the link for more information.

In conclusion, if you consume most cereal, candy bars, condiments, fruit juice, popcorn, sodas, chips, tomato based sauce, jelly, etc. (the list is endless) you are consuming GMO corn (along with several other GMO crops). 

Don't be a test pilot.  Be informed.