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I am the first to admit that anything convenient I like. I am personally having a very hard time keeping up with my own life right now, so anything that can save time is much appreciated. I bet many of you feel the same way. I’m willing to pay more money for pre-washed organic mixed greens and I buy organic nugget potatoes instead of the big ones so I don’t have to peel or chop. A few years back, I insisted on getting a microwave to defrost meat and to reheat snacks. We still have that microwave, but now it is relegated to rag duty – I zap my kitchen rags for 3 minutes to kill every living bit of bacteria on them before wiping down the counters.

Since the microwave is so good at killing bacteria, it becomes obvious that it also will kill anything alive in our food. All those vital enzymes that help us digest our food, all the B, C and E vitamins and most trace minerals are destroyed in the microwaving process. As opposed to conventional means of cooking which heat the food from the outside in, microwave ovens heat from the inside out by hurling out high-frequency alternating power fields which forces the molecules within the food to align themselves with the rapidly alternating electric field and sends the molecules flying back and forth at the dizzying pace of about 5 billion reversals per second. This causes a great deal of intermolecular friction which creates heat to heat the food, but it also destroys the cellular structure of the food, and it can change the chemical composition of the food into something that the body no longer recognizes. And if the food was cooked in a plastic container or with plastic wrap on top, plastic molecules are now imbedded into the food, which creates a whole other disaster for the endocrine system. So eating microwaved food frequently, is a problem because not only have the micro-nutrients (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phyto-nutrients) been destroyed, but also the macro-nutrients (proteins, carbs, fats) have been molecularly damaged rendering them virtually useless to the body. You can even detect the compositional changes yourself. Don’t microwaved eggs seem rubbery to you, too? Physicians tell new mothers never to heat the baby’s milk in the microwave, as it denatures the proteins in the milk. If something is not good for baby, surely it is not good for adults either.

More and more evidence is coming to the fore that electromagnetic fields are damaging to human cells, and the higher the frequency the bigger the problem. Food that is nuked at a rate of the typical 2.45 gigahertz frequency in the microwave has been “energized” and the food gives off that energy to the nervous system, which may cause a stress response of high blood pressure, anxiety, headaches, and dizziness. Eating zapped food can cause abnormal changes in the blood and in the immune system. The Russians, who did most of the research on microwaves, found that there were higher incidences of stomach and intestinal cancers, digestive disorders, and higher rates of all cell tumors in those that ate microwaved foods frequently. Microwave ovens were banned in Russia from 1976 until Perestroika.

So, how does one live microwave free? The biggest thing is to get organized and get into the habit of taking out the frozen meat, poultry or fish in the morning, or to buy fresh on the way home. As for cooking, I love my folding electric grill, as it cooks really fast because the grill folds like a waffle iron and grills both sides of the meat at once. I either steam some fresh organic veggies or make a salad, and along with the help of a healthy sauce or dressing that I made up on the weekend, voila, I’ve got a simple, nutritious meal in less than 15 minutes. Much tougher is eating out at restaurants, where we are not always aware of the cooking methods used. So ask the necessary questions and do what you can to protect your food and your health.

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In the interest of providing my plants with the nutrition they need without using chemical fertilizers, I went to worm school yesterday, to learn how to compost properly. 

I feel good about no longer having to throw out my food waste, and I can even feed the worms newspaper, computer paper, paper towels etc, so I will be putting less into the recycling bins. 

Our instructor told us that worms eat anything made from organic material, and she knew of a fellow that put an old running shoe into his compost bin, and the worms ate everything but the rubber sole and the metal eye-rings for the laces.  Call me weird, but I find that hopeful and exciting!

I came home from class with a plastic bin about a 1.5 feet by 2 feet by 1.5 feet deep (45cm by 60cm by 45cm deep) with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage, and air vents along the walls just under the lid.

We had filled the bin about half full with shredded newspaper and straw, moistened it with water, put in a handful of old dirt to introduce bacteria into the bin (not new potting soil from the store, as that doesn’t have bacteria), and then we put about 32oz or a litre of chopped raw vegetable waste, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags etc. into one corner of the bin, covered it with the bedding of newspaper and straw. 

Then we added our red-wiggler worms, and put the lid on so they wouldn’t dry out.  Because the bin is small, it is perfect for an apartment or condo – I can keep it outside on my porch most of the year, and when it gets cold, I can put it in my storage room so the worms don’t freeze.

Each week now, I will add my litre or two of raw vegetable waste to a different corner of the bin, cover it with brown, dry leaves and/or newspaper shreddings, make sure the mix is moist without being soppy, and in about three to six months, I’ll have beautiful compost, full of the nutrition plants need. 

Check your municipality for composting programs – many will subsidize bins to make it easy for you to get started.

If you have a big backyard compost bin and are finding that it is becoming a smelly mess, make sure that you are layering dry brown material which provides carbon, with moist green material which provides nitrogen.  Grass clippings alone won’t work.

Save a bag or two of those brown leaves that you raked, poke a few holes in the bag so the leaves stay dry, and layer the leaves in with the grass.  This will help keep it aerated too, although mixing is also beneficial.  Adding some red-wriggler worms may greatly speed up the process as well. 

Even though worms will eat meat and dairy, those items will make your compost smell, and will attract rodents.  You don’t want to compost grain or flour products like bread or pasta.

Soil that is alive, full of humus, good bacteria and fungus is what pest resilient, healthy plants are made of.  Compost can greatly improve the quality of the soil, and therefore the plant. 

As human beings, we are just as much a part of the food chain as every other animal or plant, and our health depends on the quality of the animal products and vegetable matter that we eat.  Eventually everything comes down to the quality of the soil that grows the plants that we eat, or feeds the animals that we eat. 

Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides kill the good stuff in the soil, rendering it sterile, which makes it tough for the plant to be healthy. The pesticides etc. add toxins to the soil, which are then taken up by the plant, and then eaten by us.  (Not good.) 

Unhealthy plants attract pests, and so the downward spiral goes, with more and more sprays being needed, which further destroys the nutrition in the soil, which increases the need for watering, and chemical fertilizers to feed the plants.  Using chemical fertilizers on plants is like relying on a multivitamin for your nutrition.  It doesn’t work for long. 

This conventional method of farming is not sustainable and should not be encouraged, so have fun making compost, growing your own food chemical-free, and with your dollars, please choose local organic plants, and pastured animals and animal products to encourage a sustainable world.

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Organic vs. conventional meat, poultry, eggs and dairy

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You may think this topic is the stuff of science fiction, and it has nothing to do with your life, but it is very likely that you are interacting with nanotechnology on a daily basis without even realizing it.

A nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter in size, and nanoparticles are by definition anything under 100 nanometers in size. For comparison, a red blood cell is 7000 nm and a bacteria is in the neighbourhood of 1000 nm. Nanotechnology involves manufacturing these miniscule particles for various purposes, including industry, household goods, electronics, medicine, food additives, cosmetics and skin products, and as such they have been in the market place for some time without any requirement for labeling and thus without our knowledge. Any nanoparticle under the size of 50nm is so small that it no longer obeys the laws of classical physics, but rather, quantum physics, and can therefore assume optical, electric or magnetic properties. Also, as the particle gets smaller, it has an increasingly large surface area in relation to its mass, which makes it more reactive and less stable, thereby increasing its influence on its environment. With the increased reactivity, it is possible that a harmless substance may become more hazardous to our health.

Nanoparticles can get into the body through inhalation, ingestion, absorption through the skin, and possibly injection in the case of medicines. It is clear that products that are inhaled get into the bloodstream, and therefore have direct access to every part of the body. Because these particles are so small, they even pass the blood-brain barrier and get into the brain. Air-fresheners and other sprays may be a source of nanotechnology in your home that can be inhaled. Nanoparticles that are eaten may come from food additives, drinking water, dust particles that settle on food, toothpaste that is swallowed by accident, teeth fillings that have nanotechnology manufactured into them, for example, and they are absorbed via the “Peyer’s plaques” in the intestine, which is actually part of the immune system. The particles get into the lymph and then the blood, which gives access to the entire body. Some very tiny particles can actually be absorbed directly by the organs themselves. Because nanotechnology is common in cosmetics, skin creams, sunscreens, deodorants, shampoos, and baby products, absorption through the skin needs to be studied more thoroughly. As of now, some suggest that skin absorbed nanoparticles get into the bloodstream and others say they don’t. Hopefully soon the evidence will be more conclusive, as these have the potential to have a big impact especially on babies and small children, who have a large surface area of skin in relation to their body weight. You may want to check the ingredient list of your sunscreens, looking for titanium dioxide or titanium oxide, which is now commonly used in nanoparticle form to better absorb ultraviolet rays. As of now, with skin products it is hard to know whether the benefits out way the risks. Part-way through this article is a list of skin-care products that contain nanotechnology, so you can at least make a choice.

In medicine, nanotechnology in combination with flash-memory technology is being developed to create sensors that can be put into the body to monitor everything like blood pressure, temperature, levels of certain compounds etc. It should be noted that the body is already very good at doing this through hormones, peptides and neurotransmitters for example, but this technology will provide a way for scientists and doctors to see what is happening at microscopic levels, which is intriguing.

I don’t know whether or not nanotechnology is safe. It seems to me that something that can so easily access our cells including our brain tissue has the potential to wreak havoc, and it is likely the effects would be cumulative, so we may not know for a long time whether or not we are being harmed. There are warning signs out there now, just as there was when DDT was first introduced. I would prefer as a consumer to be able to choose products that don’t include nanotechnology, and as in the case of genetically modified foods, would like to see mandatory labeling requirements.

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How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work
GMO – Crossing the Species Barrier

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