Hershey to Remove HFCS from Some Products

We are winning, well, sort of. Reported on my local news this am, "Hershey to remove 'some' high fructose corn syrup from their products and replace it with sugar." We know this a huge improvement, but how much of an improvement is it?

BUYER BEWARE: 'sugar' now means beet sugar which might come from GMO beets. According to Imperial Sugar, "Beet sugar can be derived from genetically modified plants. The U.S. does not require labels to designate whether the sugar is derived from sugar cane or beets. If you are concerned about avoiding beet sugar, be sure to look for "Pure Cane Sugar" on the package." Evaporated Cane Juice is another term to look for, to be certain you're getting  cane sugar.

So we know that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is bad. We don't know the effects of beet sugar or GMO beet sugar. Evaporated Cane Sugar, in my humble opinion, is the best choice if Jaggery or Muscovado are not available.

If you still think that fat is the culprit making our cholesterol go up, think again and please let Dr. Hyman's words (talking about HFCS) sink in:

"Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol) this is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called "fatty liver" which affects 70 million people."

UPDATE: Sadly, I've recently learned that sugar cane, too, is sprayed with glyphosate to hasten ripening. National Institute of Health - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/


SOURCE:

http://www.imperialsugar.com/sugar-101/cane-sugar-vs-beet-sugar

http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/05/13/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you/#close

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article4243355.html

Do You Add Chlorine To Your Fruits and Vegetables?

Please be careful about what you use to wash your fruits and vegetables!

Post by John Fronis.

This video is disturbing. Drinking chlorinated water is bad enough, but adding extra chlorine to our fruits and vegetables is probably an even worse idea. Although, I wouldn't be washing my apples after I cut them.

Perhaps a better idea might be to purchase a commercial vegetable spray or to make our own. If I don't have any commercial spray on hand, I make my own with GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract), a non-toxic dish soap and distilled water and place in a spray bottle. I have a well, so I don't think I have to worry about my rinse water containing chlorine.

Click for another way to wash fruits and vegetables.

Remembering Why We Celebrate Christmas

Post by Carman Licciardello.

Do you rinse YOUR poultry?

For years I've wondered why people rinsed their poultry. Rinsing obviously won't remove salmonella or other bacteria. Cooking poultry to the correct temperature should destroy any worrisome bacteria. There are different types of meat thermometers. This is the one that I use, that is also handy for the BBQ:

(Affiliate Link:)

So to wash the poultry or not? What do you think? If you're not sure of the right answer, please watch this video:

Perhaps if you watched the video, you will agree with me - "Ewwwwww!!!"

What's the Deal with Probiotics?

Probiotics - the Good Bacteria and the Bad Bacteria

It seems people are doing a lot of talking these days about probiotics. Scientists have discovered that our gut is 80% of our immune system and that our immune system contains trillions of good bacteria, also known as probiotics.

Those of us with Chronic Lyme Disease know the importance of taking probiotics along with antibiotics. Well, here's what happened to me...

My daughter introduced me to Kombucha. In case you don't know, Kombucha is a fermented, sweet tea that was brought to the United States from Asia (China, I think) in the 80's when President Reagan developed cancer. At least according to legend, that's how it came to the US. And when I say legend, I mean 'the Internet.' When I first tasted it, I wasn't impressed. It has a tart, vinegar-like taste. Actually, it's easy to over-ferment and turn it into vinegar.

While I was on high-dose antibiotics for Chronic Lyme, I suddenly loved the taste of it and somehow couldn't get enough of it. At the same time, I continually forgot to take my high-dose, high-end, expensive, probiotic capsules. Surprisingly, I didn't have symptoms that taking antibiotics can cause - mainly diarrhea.  Occasionally, I would remember to take my capsules.

I never felt taking all those antibiotics was the right thing to do, yet I had to do something as I was failing quickly.

A friend of mine developed C. diff. after a course of high-dose antibiotics for Chronic Lyme. If you've never heard of it, c. diff is short for Clostridium difficile, pronounced 'klos trid ee um ~ diff uh seel.'  It's a nasty infection that occurs when we do not have enough good bacteria in our guts. This typically happens during or after a course of antibiotics. It can also be deadly!

According to NHS Choices,"C. difficile does not usually affect healthy children and adults. This is because the bacteria normally present in the healthy bowel keep it under control." Sounds simple to me.

C.diff lives in our guts harmoniously until we kill off the good bacteria, which allows the bad bacteria to take over. When my friend told me this happened to her, I felt lucky it hadn't happened to me, especially since I kept forgetting to take my probiotics. My friend also told me that her Naturopath prescribed something called sachromyces boulardii (also known as s. boulardii) to help combat the C. diff.

Later, I learned that s. boulardii is the yeast that combats and keeps C. diff in check. And WHAT a surprise to find that Kombucha is full of s. boulardii! In fact, G.T.'s Kombucha lists that it contains two billion in their 16 oz. bottle! No wonder I was so lucky! I was drinking about 32 ounces of Kombucha per day. I just couldn't get enough of the stuff.

But wait - there's more! I purchased a wonderful, informative, politically incorrect book - Nourishing Traditions. Much of the information contained in it I already knew - like the fact that humans were made to eat REAL food rather than processed, man-made foods i.e. saturated fats, eggs WITH the yolk, raw milk, etc.

What I didn't know, and had never thought about, is the fact that we are supposed to be eating fermented foods. Fermented foods are the foods that contain good bacteria - PROBIOTICS. Capsules are a good backup, but we are supposed to be eating fermented foods. Reading about this in Nourishing Traditions, I felt a light bulb go off (as it has so many times along my food-learning path). When canning came into our picture, good bacteria for our gut went out the window. We are supposed to be eating fermented foods on a daily basis. Foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir and fermented vegetables in general. There was a time this was our only way, aside from salt, to preserve foods.

We have at least 500 different bacteria in our guts and a probiotic capsule contains, at most, a few different strains. I had to ask myself, if I've taken antibiotics and most of these bacteria are killed, how do I put back those 500 different bacteria? And how do I put them back in a high quantity? Even yogurt only contains about five transient bacteria strains at most - needing to be replaced daily.

It turns out that we have transient bacteria (that stay only for a short time) and we have bacteria that can colonize the gut.

According to Cultures for Health, "The beneficial bacteria found in yogurt help keep the digestive tract clean and provide food for the friendly bacteria found in a healthy gut. They are called transient because they pass through the digestive tract. The bacteria in milk kefir, on the other hand, can actually colonize the intestinal tract." 

Dr. Mercola writes that our bodies have 100 trillion bacteria. I don't want to do the math, but it seems if we take a capsule containing a couple different strains and a total of 15 billion, it takes A LOT of capsules to re-colonize the gut.

If we need to keep our gut colonized, we need to be eating/drinking fermented foods on a daily basis. When we take antibiotics we need to re-colonize even more because of what was killed off by the antibiotics. Plain and simple - fermented foods! Once I started drinking milk kefir, it was just like with the Kombucha -  I couldn't get enough. I've now leveled off, but will continue to drink and eat fermented foods of all kinds on a daily basis. 

Nourishingplot.com reported in an article: "Dr. Mercola sent his sauerkraut off to a lab and reported the finding of probiotics saying, 'We had it analyzed. We found in a 4-6 ounce serving of the fermented vegetables there were literally ten trillion bacteria.' "  

PLEASE NOTE that I am not a doctor and none of my statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. None of my statements or anything on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. 

PLEASE do NOT eat any foods that don't taste right!!!

One of my favorite books!   My affiliate Link:

Sources:
http://nourishingplot.com/2014/06/21/sauerkraut-test-divulges-shocking-probiotic-count/

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Clostridium-difficile/Pages/Causes.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/24/one-of-the-most-important-steps-you-can-take-to-improve-your-health.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/18/probiotics-the-case-for-healthy-bowels.aspx

Great Price on Banderol!

If you have Lyme Disease, or especially if you have Chronic Lyme disease, you're probably familiar with Banderol. This is a great price! Affiliate link:

Lighted Planters

I love these lighted planters and would love to line them up on my deck!