I (Sue) have been following a detox diet for some months - well, three and a half to be exact, and have not only lost weight but feel great too. One of several reasons is that I'm boosting my immune system so that I don't suffer from the usual horrible allergies that normally beset me at this time of year. Red, swollen, itchy eyes and a streaming nose are a real bring-down. So far, so good, even though we've been out walking on windy days when the willow and poplar fluff are flying around all over the place and other pollen is in the air.
With the detox diet in mind, we have added some more products to our range for those who might like to try them. They include amaranth and chickpea flour, gluten-free muesli and green tea. We also have fine unrefined Atlantic sea salt and rice/buckwheat cakes.
Some of you may have noticed that last month we added seaweeds - Nori, Dulse and Wakamé, as well as quinoa, buckwheat and millet flakes. The seaweeds are full of useful minerals and featured in a recent Food Programme on Radio 4. The flakes, when combined, make a great gluten-free porridge. Gluten in the diet is no help for those with allergies.
Gluten-free Buckwheat and Rice Flour Bread
I find the shop-bought gluten-free breads unpleasant, so I make my own with a combination of buckwheat and rice flour along with sunflower seeds. See recipe below.
For those who don't know what to do with seaweeds, here's one tasty suggestion: combine a heaped tablespoon of each of the flakes with a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of lemon juice and a large, crushed clove of garlic. You can adjust amounts to suit - great on toasts or with salad. There are lots of other ideas on the net, so go Googling if you're interested.
Sugar in all its forms inc. fruit and fruit juice (!), is a no-no on a serious detox diet, so I've taken to using Stevia, even in baking. It's available in the supermarkets.
For determined detoxers, avoiding black tea, coffee and alcohol is important. Tough, I know, but really worth the sacrifice for a while. All infusions are good and I enjoy lemon in green tea.
Anyone who is on my Angloinfo blog mailing list, or who reads it anyway, will have seen posts with reference to some of the above. Have a read for more info. Oh, I mustn't forget good old garlic, the wonder bulb, I've blogged about that too.
Gluten-free Bread Recipe
240g Buckwheat Flour (Sarrasin)
240g Rice Flour
90g Quinoa Flakes (Ground for preference)
3 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Sunflower Seeds
1 tbsp Flax Seeds (Linseed)
1 tsp (sachet) or 3/4 quick shakes of powdered Stevia
1 tsp Xanthum Gum (if you have it, but not essential)
120 ml Water
350 ml Milk or Soya Milk
6 tbsp Sunflower Oil
Combine all the dry ingredients well then gradually pour in the water with the oil until you have a mushy mix. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Pour mix into the tin and flatten down well using a wettened fork. Cover the top with sunflower seeds and bake at around 180˚ until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
This loaf is fairly dense and therefore pretty filling, so I suggest you slice it thin. I hope you'll try the recipe and you'll enjoy the result. Don't expect it to be like ordinary bread, it's a different experience.
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DISTURBING BUT HARDLY SURPRISING NEWS from Sue
Two issues ago, in The French Week, I noticed an article about carcinogens in food, primarily, although not exclusively, in food given to children. The results of a collaborative Franco/Belgian study are a serious indictment of the food industry. As organic food sellers, we naturally have to do our nutritional health homework, which entails a lot of reading and research. We are not in the least surprised at these findings but very glad they are being brought to attention of the public. Here is the link to an article on the study in The Guardian - perhaps the most reputable and honest of the British papers these days. I could go banging on forever about the desirability of eating organic, but with articles like these, I shouldn't need to. However, I can't pass up the opportunity to emphasize that food grown in degraded soil (i.e. full of herbicides, pesticides etc) will be degraded too. It might look great but it will inevitably be lacking in nutrients. 'We Want Real Food' by Graham Harvey is particularly interesting on this subject. Likewise animal products from industrially-farmed livestock fed the wrong food, treated regularly with anti-biotics and hormones to 'cure' their ailments and speed up growth are likely to be as bad for the humans eating them as for the poor animals themselves. Food processing is what it says it is, put through a variety of processes which invariably remove the goodness - hydrogenisation for example, see this link for more info. And as for all the chemical additives listed in miniscule print on labels, not in my body thanks. Having said I could go banging on, I find myself doing just that. Sorry. The article says plenty.
This is something we've often wondered about. It's a long piece, sorry about that (I don't have the capability to page-break), however, it is interesting stuff.
So, make a cuppa, settle into a comfy chair and spend 5 minutes finding out why it's better to buy a canvas shopping bag or a basket and re-use all those other bags it's hard to avoid.
It’s an age old question, when it comes time to check out when grocery shopping: paper bag or plastic bag? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there’s an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there’s a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let’s take a look behind the bags.
Where do brown paper bags come from?
Paper comes from trees — lots and lots of trees. The logging industry, influenced by companies like Weyerhaeuser and Kimberly-Clark, is huge, and the process to get that paper bag to the grocery store is long, sordid and exacts a heavy toll on the planet. First, the trees are found, marked and felled in a process that all too often involves clear-cutting, resulting in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage.
Mega-machinery comes in to remove the logs from what used to be forest, either by logging trucks or even helicopters in more remote areas. This machinery requires fossil fuel to operate and roads to drive on, and, when done unsustainably, logging even a small area has a large impact on the entire ecological chain in surrounding areas.
Once the trees are collected, they must dry at least three years before they can be used. More machinery is used to strip the bark, which is then chipped into one-inch squares and cooked under tremendous heat and pressure. This wood stew is then “digested,” with a chemical mixture of limestone and acid, and after several hours of cooking, what was once wood becomes pulp. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp.
The pulp is then washed and bleached; both stages require thousands of gallons of clean water. Coloring is added to more water, and is then combined in a ratio of 1 part pulp to 400 parts water, to make paper. The pulp/water mixture is dumped into a web of bronze wires, and the water showers through, leaving the pulp, which, in turn, is rolled into paper.
Whew! And that’s just to make the paper; don’t forget about the energy inputs — chemical, electrical, and fossil fuel-based — used to transport the raw material, turn the paper into a bag and then transport the finished paper bag all over the world.
Where do paper shopping bags go when you’re done with them?
When you’re done using paper shopping bags, for shopping or other household reuses, a couple of things can happen. If minimally-inked (or printed with soy or other veggie-based inks) they can be composted; otherwise, they can be recycled in most mixed-paper recycling schemes, or they can be thrown away (which is not something we recommend).
If you compost them, the bags break down and go from paper to a rich soil nutrient over a period of a couple of months; if you throw them away, they’ll eventually break down of the period of many, many years (and without the handy benefits that compost can provide). If you choose to recycle paper bags, then things get a little tricky.
The paper must first be re-pulped, which usually requires a chemical process involving compounds like hydrogen peroxide, sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide, which bleach and separate the pulp fibers. The fibers are then cleaned and screened to be sure they’re free of anything that would contaminate the paper-making process, and are then washed to remove any leftover ink before being pressed and rolled into paper, as before.
How are plastic bags made?
Unlike paper bags, plastic bags are typically made from oil, a non-renewable resource. Plastics are a by-product of the oil-refining process, accounting for about four percent of oil production around the globe. The biggest energy input is from the plastic bag creation process is electricity, which, in this country, comes from coal-burning power plants at least half of the time; the process requires enough juice to heat the oil up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, where it can be separated into its various components and molded into polymers. Plastic bags most often come from one of the five types of polymers — polyethylene — in its low-density form (LDPE), which is also known as #4 plastic.
How does plastic bag recycling work?
Like paper, plastic can be recycled, but it isn’t simple or easy. Recycling involves essentially re-melting the bags and re-casting the plastic, though, according to the U.S. EPA, manufacturing new plastic from recycled plastic requires two-thirds of the energy used in virgin plastic manufacturing. But, as any chef who has ever tried to re-heat a Hollondaise sauce will tell you, the quality isn’t quite as good the second time around; the polymer chains often separate break (thanks to reader MaryBeth for noting the difference between “separate” and “break” — the former implies that the chains can come back together, which they can’t), leading to a lower-quality product.
What does that mean to you? Basically, plastic is often downcycled — that is, the material loses viability and/or value in the process of recycling — into less functional forms, making it hard to make new plastic bags out of old plastic bags.
What about biodegradable plastic bags?
Biodegradable plastic is a mixed bag (pun intended) as well; while biopolymers like polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and Polylactide (PLA) are completely biodegradable in compost (and very, very, very slowly — if at all — in a landfill) and are not made from petroleum products, they are often derived from our food sources.
The primary feedstock for bioplastics today is corn, which is rife with agro-political conflict and often grown and harvested unsustainably; because of these reasons, and because it competes with food supply, it is not likely to be a long-term solution in the plastics world.
Plus, some bags marked “biodegradable” are not actually so — they’re recycled plastic mixed with cornstarch. The cornstarch biodegrades and the plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces but does not actually “biodegrade,” leaving a yucky polymer mess (if in small pieces). The only way to avoid this? Look for 100 percent plant-based polymers, like the two mentioned above.
So, while it’s good to have the alternative (and to recognize the innovation it represents), bioplastics aren’t quite ready to save us from the paper or plastic debate.
Paper or plastic: A look at the facts and numbers
Further insight into the implications of using and recycling each kind of bag can be gained from looking at overall energy, emissions, and other life cycle-related costs of production and recycling. According to a life cycle analysis by Franklin Associates, Ltd, [pdf] plastic bags create fewer airborne emissions and require less energy during the life cycle of both types of bags per 10,000 equivalent uses — plastic creates 9.1 cubic pounds of solid waste vs. 45.8 cubic pounds for paper; plastic creates 17.9 pounds of atmospheric emissions vs. 64.2 pounds for paper; plastic creates 1.8 pounds of waterborne waste vs. 31.2 pounds for paper.
Paper bags can hold more stuff per bag — anywhere from 50 percent to 400 percent more, depending on how they’re packed, since they hold more volume and are sturdier. The numbers here assume that each paper bag holds 50 percent more than each plastic bag, meaning that it takes one and half plastic bags to equal a paper bag — it’s not a one-to-one comparison, even though plastic still comes out ahead.
It’s important to note that all of the above numbers assume that none of the bags are recycled, which adds a lot of negative impacts for both the paper and plastic bags; the numbers decrease in size (and the relative impacts decrease) as more bags are recycled. Interestingly, the numbers for paper bag recycling get better faster — the more that are recycled, the lower their overall environmental impact — but, because plastic bags use much less to begin with, they still ends up creating less solid and waterborne waste and airborne emissions.
Paper and plastic bags’ required energy inputs
From the same analysis, we learn that plastic also has lower energy requirements — these numbers are expressed in millions of British thermal units (Btus) per 10,000 bags, again at 1.5 plastic bags for every one paper bag. Plastic bags require 9.7 million Btus, vs. 16.3 for paper bags at zero percent recycling; even at 100 percent recycling rates, plastic bags still require less — 7.0 to paper’s 9.1. What does that mean to me and you? Plastic bags just take less energy to create, which is significant because so much of our energy comes from dirty sources like coal and petroleum.
The best way to go? A reusable bag, not a plastic bag. Anya Hindmarch’s wildly popular “I am Not a Plastic Bag” tote is helping give the reusable bag some sex appeal.
Paper bags or plastic bags: the conclusion
Both paper and plastic bags require lots and lots of resources and energy, and proper recycling requires due diligence from both consumer and municipal waste collector or private recycling company, so there are a lot of variables that can lead to low recycling rates.
Ultimately, neither paper nor plastic bags are the best choice; we think choosing reusable canvas bags instead is the way to go. From an energy standpoint, according to this Australian study, canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags, assuming that canvas bags get a good workout and are used 500 times during their life cycle. Happy shopping!
Article sourced from Treehugger - a worthwhile eco site.
Only popped online to check out my emails this morning and found a link to this article. Naturally it is of great interest to us and our business, but we also believe it explains clearly, if somewhat lengthily, why we are wedded to organic.
The issue of feeding the world is perhaps, alongside global warming and expanding populations, the most important challenge we and future generations have to face. Of course, they are all linked. Like most people we just want to get on with our lives and not have to think about what looks like an increasingly bleak prospect for the future, but can we afford to? It's up to each of us to decide. What we do urge is that you read this article. What it has to say seriously affects not just our planet, but our health. Secondly, we ask that your forward it to your friends. We're in this together.
Here are the first couple of paras to get you started. (Click on 'this article' (in green above) to read the rest)
Organic can feed the world
by Maria Rodale
(September 2010) — You probably buy organic food because you believe it’s better for your health and the environment but you also may have heard criticism that “organic cannot feed the world.”
Biotech and chemical companies have spent billions of dollars trying to make us think that synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are necessary to feed a growing population. But science indicates otherwise.
There’s clear and conclusive scientific data showing organic agriculture is key not only to solving global hunger but also to curbing global warming, promoting public health, revitalizing farming communities, and restoring the environment.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
We're frequently advised to reduce salt in our diets but it has a myriad of other uses in the home. If we want to get away from those toxic cleaning fluids displayed in colourful containers in the supermarket - expensive as well as dangerous - let's not forget the virtues of simple salt. Here are a few useful tips: Pour salt and hot water down your sink to prevent grease from building up. Mix salt with soda water to clean and deodorize the inside of your fridge. Keep a bag next to your cooker to put out accidental fires; it forms an oxygen-excluding crust and extinguishes the flames. Never use water, particularly on grease fires. Add a dash of salt to fresh flower water - they will last longer. Repair small holes in plasterboard walls - mix 2 tablespoons salt with 2 tablespoons cornflour then add enough water to make a thick paste. Fill the holes and leave to dry. To ease bee stings, immediately dampen the area then apply a teaspoonful of salt to reduce the pain and swelling. For mosquito bites, a saltwater soak is good and you can also use a poultice of salt and olive oil And outside: To deter patio weeds, pour salt in between the cracks, sprinkle with water or let the rain do the rest. These are just a few. There's loads more info here onThe Salt Institute website.
We subscribe to 'The Ecologist' online - and very good it is too. Here is the link to a recent article - 'Big Food will do everything to stop you talking about this'.
Hooray for the brave Michael Kenner for making his documentary 'Food Inc'. We need people like him with the courage to penetrate the industrial food giants who are hell bent on hiding the truth about their horrendous production methods from the public. I mentioned Michael Pollan's exceptional and life-changing book 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' in my June 22 post; it seems this book did much to persuade Michael Kenner to make his documentaries. I am hugely heartened to hear that he says of his film '...It became one of the most successful documentaries of all time. The amount of press we got was really incredible. For a while we were the number one selling DVD on Amazon ahead of all the Hollywood movies.'
You can scroll down the Ecologist article to find links to other important food items.
Organic food is/isn't healthier. The debate will probably rattle on forever, depending on which side the so-called 'experts' are on and who's funding them. In other words who has which vested interests in declaring themselves to be pro or anti. Britain's FSA (Foods Standards Association) may conclude that organic is no more nutritious than conventionally-produced food but, as pointed out by the Soil Association and a whole host of organic farmers and eco-orgs, two facts are inescapable: 1) Organic doesn't use chemical pesticides and fertilizers - only the most ignorant would say plants doused in toxins are okay to eat. Some of these products are so toxic those who spray them have to wear protective clothing. Wow! 2) Plants don't just pop up happily any old where, they rely on a complex eco-system. Keen gardeners will tell us that a plant is only as good as the soil it grows in (with the odd exception, of course). So, if the insects, funghi, worms, microbes, bacteria, minerals etc have been driven out of the soil by pesticides, then the plant is going to be nutritionally depleted. Stands to reason.
For anyone interested in the processes our food goes through before it reaches our table, I recommend Michael Pollan's highly readable and fascinating book 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'. Here's the link. It is about the American food industry but a good deal of it is reflected by what's going on in Europe, which, in the case of industrial food, is graphically portrayed in Nicholas Geyrhalter's disturbing film 'Notre Pain Quotidien'.
When I buy vegetables I put them loose into my basket but have to have a plastic bag for spinach and paper bags for mushrooms, potatoes etc. I re-use them until they shred then the paper goes in the compost and the plastic in the non-recyclable bin. Every time I throw a plastic bag away I think of how long it's going to take to decompose and the damage it's going to do in the process. But the paper bag ain't so good either - they may rot down quickly but they take a helluva lot more energy to manufacture - four times as much, and create 70% more air pollutants and 50% more water pollutants! We eco-freaks are scuppered whichever way we turn. I don't know the figures for bio-degradable plastic bags, but presumably they should be the least damaging. Anyone know?
Dieting is big business - the majority of women will have tried it at least once, if not many times in their lives. If it worked that one time and they've remained slim ever since, brilliant, but most of us will admit that we lost weight on some diet or other but then we put it all back on again. It's a miserable business for us and a money-maker for those who invent the latest diet packages. The best way to get on top of the weight problem is to learn about healthy eating. If your BMI (Body Mass Index) is too high (check it here) then you'll need to shift kilos and that will involve cutting down on bulk and cutting out the obvious baddies - sweets, biscuits, processed foods in general for instance. Too many animal fats are not a good idea either for health or slimming. Avoiding alcohol during the dieting process is a big help. However, the emphasis should always be on balance if you're not to put strain on your body; but what is the ideal balance? Dr. Andrew Weil M.D., leading authority on healthy eating, natural healing and holistic as well as conventional medicine, recommends 50-60% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 10-20% protein. Click here to read about his wellness diet. The most comprehensive guide to nutrition that we've come across so far is Dr. Weil's Eating Well for Optimum Health (See here on Amazon - the reviews are worth checking out too) A word about all-protein diets: too much saturated fat can put excess strain on the liver and kidneys and cause problems in later life. Only the most healthy people can get away with a short period (such as a few days, max a week) on these diets but they're not a good idea. It's worth bearing in mind that meat products can take up to 3 days to pass through the alimentary tract. In some older people the intestinal transit time can be as much as 2 weeks! Imagine the state of the meat in your fridge or larder after that length of time - doesn't bear thinking about. The meat digestion process in particular consumes pancreatic enzymes which are vital in healing and requires bile acids which are carcinogenic in the human colon. We've all heard of people dying of cancer of the colon and, in older people particularly, diverticular disease is extremely common - tiny pockets in the colon which can trap food and become infected leading to diverticulitis which has to be treated very rapidly to prevent peritonitis (a potentially fatal burst into the peritoneum). Our colons are very delicate and we'd be wise to look after them. By the way cooked meat loses amino acid benefits and produces acidic metabolites such as uric acid which can be toxic - charcuterie is pretty dodgy too. A further note on the all-protein diet. The human brain consumes 18% of our energy and that energy comes only from carbohydrate in the form of glucose. The older we get, the more brain cells we lose and we all know what can happen to brains in later life, so perhaps it's a good idea to make sure those little grey cells are well-fed with the correct food. Luckily the Atkins diet is fast falling out of vogue. There's no question it works, but at what cost in later life? And then there's the added problem of not putting all that weight back on afterwards. If you have a lot of weight to lose, it's best to consult a reputable dietician - doctors aren't trained in nutrition so can only give some general advice. A good maintenance and detox routine, if you need to shift a couple of pounds following a bit of an eating/drinking binge, is to cut out alcohol, animal products and bread for a day or two. Finally a dieting tip - chewing thoroughly reduces the amount of work required in the digestion process and eating more slowly gives the stomach time to tell the head it's had enough and to please stop. BON CHANCE!
If you've cleaned your teeth with it, used it to replace yeast in cake-making or added it to the water when boiling veg to speed up the cooking and prevent wind, you'll already be aware that bicarbonate of soda is versatile stuff. But did you know that bicarb, also known as baking soda, can brighten your white wash? 2 tablespoons should do the trick. You can sprinkle it round your sinks and hand basins and use like Vim or add a couple of tablespoons dissolved in water to a half-filled washing-up liquid bottle to make it go further. Bicarb's great as a degreaser too.If you get mouth ulcers, scoop a little of the soda onto your finger and put it directly on the spot. Calm stomach ache with 1-2 teaspoonfuls in a glass of water. I could go on but why not check out this site for loads more uses. Warning: Many people use bleach. Bleach is bad news, and not just for your fosse septique. See this site to find out why. And chlorine in swimming pools can make you, and particularly your children, more vulnerable to asthma attacks. I bought a season ticket to Lannemezan pool and was only able to use it a few times. I had an asthma attack that lasted almost two weeks. Check out this site for more info.
There are literally hundreds of uses for vinegar and here are just a few random ones :
Acts as an antiseptic on cuts, scrapes and scratches (neat on a bit of cotton wool) Soothes itching from stings and insect bites ( ditto) Preserves cut flowers and perks up droopy ones (add 2 tbs & 1 tsp sugar to 1 quart water in vase) Preserves colour, improves taste and reduces gas (later!) from boiled vegetables (add 1 tsp to water) Preserves olives and pimentos (cover with vinegar and keep in jars in fridge) Stops eggs from cracking when boiling (add 1 - 2 tbs to water) Removes labels or price tags (soak a cloth in vinegar, cover label or tag and leave overnight) Removes lime and mildew from bathroom surfaces, shower curtains and shower doors (wipe with undiluted vinegar and rinse off with water) Cleans the loo up splendidly! (add a mugful of neat vinegar to water, leave to soak overnight. Scrub with loo brush and flush)
That plain-looking bottle can save you loadsa money and is far more eco than all those flashy products in the supermakets.
For more vinegar tips from Mart, check out comment below and for others click here.
