1. dingy means:
2. shabby
3. improvised
4. outstanding
5. representative

You have now donated
290 grains of rice.

I just remembered about a sit that I used to use to relax & exercise the mind.

www.freerice.com You have a word, with a miltiple choice of  answers to match the words definition. For each word you get correct they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Programme.

Why not try it next time you have you find yourself next time your randomly surfing the net or updating your facebook status & get some food given to someone who badly needs it.

The article below was on Yahoo news last week. It is not the first time I have come across the theory of seaweed being added to foods to aid weight loss. Apart from the fact that seaweed is a highly nutritious natural ingredient to add to your diet anyway.

As this report below has said that scientists have tested the effectiveness of 60 different natural fibres with an ” artificial gut “, I decided to try it on myself.

I sourced a supplier of dried bladderwrack & I have been adding 2 teaspoons of this + 1 teaspoon of lemon pepper to my basic bread mix.

It is thorougly delicious & all friends that have tasted it so far are in total agreement with me regarding how good it tastes.

As from today:-

I will be eating 1-2 slices of this bread every day for 1 month & sharing my results on this blog. I do not own bathroom scales, as I do not think it is healthy to weigh yourself too regularly.

I weighed in at 150 kilo, at my friends house on Sunday evening & I had been eating seaweed bread then for 4 days.

One observation that I have made so far on this, is that if you are constipated. eating seaweed bread may help to wake up the bowels. Nothing extreme you understand. But if you are an irregular person, eating a slice a day may make you function on a daily basis.

Seaweed bread ‘key to obesity’

Seaweed bread could be the answer to the obesity epidemic, scientists have said.Skip related content

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Researchers found seaweed fibre could reduce the body’s fat uptake by more than 75%.

A fibrous material in Sea Kelp called alginate was better at preventing fat absorption than most over-the-counter slimming treatments, laboratory tests showed.

Dr Iain Brownlee, who co-led the University of Newcastle team, said: “This suggests that if we can add the natural fibre to products commonly eaten daily - such as bread, biscuits and yoghurts - up to three quarters of the fat contained in that meal could simply pass through the body.

“We have already added the alginate to bread and initial taste tests have been extremely encouraging. Now the next step is to carry out clinical trials to find out how effective it is when eaten as part of a normal diet.”

The scientists used an “artificial gut” to test the effectiveness of 60 different natural fibres by measuring the extent to which they affected the digestion of fat.

They presented their findings at the American Chemical Society’s spring meeting in San Francisco, US.

Dr Brownlee said the aim was to see if the same effects modelled in the laboratory could be reproduced in living volunteers.

“Our initial findings are that alginates significantly reduce fat digestion,” he said.

The research is part of a three-year project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

I tried making this for the first time tonight. It’s quick, tasty & nutritious plus has the added theraputic benefit of a forrage in the woods to pick the nettles.

Ingredients:-

About 6 oz stigging nettles

2 big cloves of garlic

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 cup pine nuts

approx 100ml olive oil

salt & freshly ground black pepper

Method:-

Rinse the nettles, then blanch in boiling water for about 1 minute.

Strain the nettles, decant ont a chopping board & roughly chop.

Put the nettles, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil & seasoning into a bowl & blitz with a hand blender or put all the ingredients into a food processor & blitz away.

Simple, tasty dressing for pasta, fish or salad & ready in 2 minutes.

Ever faniced a BLT for lunch but didn’t have a lettuce?

What to do then /  Go and buy a lettuce or some limp, tasteless, clinically bagged salad.?  And how much is a little gem or lollo rosso down the shops these days? Anything from 60p - £120 at a guess.

Why not… ( at this time of year ), step into the garden and pick a few, young dandelion leaves. They are free, they have a taste, you just pick what you need, saving on unnessesary waste. At the same time weeding your garden.

Dandelions whip the pants of most supermarket bought lettuces nutritionally too!

You might as well pick a dandelion flower too, put it on the side of your plate for a garnish & feel pampered & extravagent by swerving commercialism and enjoying the riches of your garden.

I have never been as disgusted with the food industry as I have been during the last 24 hours.

I saw a DVD.  ASPARTAME  SWEET MISERY and was not overly surprised but I got progressively concerned.

What is Aspartame:

Aspartame is a chemical sweetener which is used massively by the soft drinks companies.

It is made up by  aspartic acid, phenylalanine & methyl ester. Methyl ester is meth alcohol i.e wood alcohol which is a very serious poison. When the body breaks down methyl ester it turns to formaldahyde ( used as an embalming fluid).

Major rise in brain tumours:

In the US in 1984 6,900,000lb of aspartame was comsumed and this amount doubled by 1985.

Between 1983-1984 brain tumour were up by 10% in the US. Diabetes up by 30% and brain lymphoma up by 60%.

Aspartame also causes MS, & seizures and much much more including ( as shown in a research study ) occular bleeding i.e bleeding from the eyes.

GRAS:

Aspartame is listed as being  a GRAS product. GRAS meaning generally recognised as safe.

When something is classified as “generally recognised as safe” it means that it only kills 1 in 1 million people!

The FDA claim that Aspartame is the most thoroughly tested foodstuff, although there has been an awful lot of testing on this product the test results are very freightening. And bear in mind that a lot of the research on this produt has been funded by Nutrasweet and soft drinks companies.

In one study conducted on monkeys that consumed the aspartame in milk 1 monkey died and 5 had gran mal seizures.

MSG:

MSG, monosodium glutamate was removed from baby food as it was shown that MSG caused holes in the brains of rats that were being tested. It has been shown that Aspartame does the same thing!

A quick trip to the corner shop:

I was telling my dad the other day what I had come accross and told him a little about Aspartame and the dangerous effects it has on the body. He asked if it was on the label so I went to my corner sho & within 5 minutes I found Aspartame in the following:

Diet pespsi, diet coke, pepsi light, robinsons fruit shoots ( this is designed for kids!), edbull, fanta, powerade isotonic drink ( made by coca cola), nestle milk straws,trident splash gum, wrigglys extra, wrigglys airwaves, hubba buba bubble tape and muller light yoghurts. This was in just 5 minutes.

Last night I was even more angered when I saw the official FDA list of what Aspartame can cause and what foodstuffs contained it.

Official FDA list: Coutesy of www.dorway.com

When I saw this list and read at the bottom of the table that Aspartame is used in chewable vitamin tablets I went to look at my bottle of vitamin C and read label. IT DID contain Aspartame. How angry was I.

Methyl Ester in nature:

Methyl Ester in nature is found in larger quantities in fruit but, in nature methyl is bound to pectin. Humans lack the enzyme to break down pectin so the methyl the naturally occuring Methyl can pass through the human body doing no harm whatsoever. Nature is so clever like that but Methyl ester on its own is highly dangerous.

Death by methyl ester:

Diane Fleming got a 50 year jail sentence for murdering her husband by methylanol poisoning. You can see her interviewed in the film Aspartame sweet misery.

Her attorney neglacted to mention that her husband was a big consumer of aspartame products. It does look very likely that consuming these products did cause his death.

Where can I find out more?

There are many sites on aspartame but a good one to chect out is www.dorway.com

Watch the film:

Here is a link to watch the film.  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-566922170441334340

Melatonin is a natural hormone made by your body’s pineal gland - a pea-sized gland located just above the middle of the brain. During the day the pineal is inactive. When the sun goes down and darkness occurs, the pineal is “turned on” and begins to actively produce melatonin, which is released into the blood. Usually, this occurs around 9 p.m. As a result, melatonin levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert. Sleep becomes more inviting. Melatonin levels in the blood stay elevated for about 12 hours - all through the night - before the light of a new day when they fall back to low daytime levels by about 9 a.m. Daytime levels of melatonin are barely detectable.

What foods contain Melatonin:

Melatonin is found in oats, sweetcorn, rice, and in dark fruits and berries.

Grapes:

source cbsnews.com:
(WebMD) Scientists in Italy have uncorked a new finding about grapes: The juicy fruit might be packing melatonin, a sleep hormone.

In humans, the brain’s pineal gland makes melatonin to help regulate cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Melatonin levels rise in the evening as a cue for sleep, and ebb as dawn approaches.

News about a possible link between grapes and the sleep hormone appears in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture’s early online edition.

Researchers included Marcello Iriti, Ph.D., of Milan’s Istituto di Virologia Vegetale (Institute of Vegetable Virology).

They tested extracts from eight types of grapes — Nebbiolo, Croatina, Sangiovese, Merlot, Marzemino, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Barbera — for melatonin and found evidence of the hormone.

Cherries:

Source choose cherries.com:

It takes mere seconds to reset our watch to a different time zone after an international flight, but it takes longer for our body’s internal time clocks to adjust.  Frequent travelers often stash a bottle of melatonin in their carry-on bag to help fight jet lag, but now they may have a more natural and tasty way to prepare for the trip: cherries.

Cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, a potent antioxidant produced naturally by the body’s pineal gland that helps regulate biorhythm and natural sleep patterns.  Scientists have found melatonin-rich tart cherries (commonly enjoyed as dried, frozen, juice or concentrate) contain more of this powerful antioxidant than what is normally produced by the body.  Eating cherries can be a natural way to boost your body’s melatonin levels to hasten sleep and ease jet lag.

Interesting:

What I found interesting, on hearing tonight about Melatonin and sleep patterns, is the fact that since I started taking Juice Plus, my sleep is deep and my initial waking is a lot more focused that before. Juice plus is a wholefood nutritional suppliment containing raw fruits and vegetables, including cherries. ( see my post dated August 28th ). My friend who introduced me to this nutritional suppliment commented that better sleep was ( for her also ) very noticeable also within just a few days.

Goodnight & sweet dreams x

I have watched a film recently which has changed how I would react if either myself, or anyone who is emotionally close to me is ever diagnosed with cancer.  As 1:4 people develop cancer at some point in their life, and many people that I had the pleasure to know have passed already, I hope to be able to share this information with anyone who is not determined that only conventional means of medicine, can or should be tried as a  treatment or cure.

The film is A WORLD WITHOUT CANCER narrated by G.Edward Griffin in 1974. Please note though that Griffin is a film maker and it is Ernst T Krebs who advocates the use of Laetrile as a cancer therapy.

About Ernest T Krebs  http://www.karlloren.com/biopsy/p76.htm

In the book & film G.Edward Griffin exposes the politics involved in cancer treatment and it remains as controversial today as it was when it was first written.

This treatment is NOT FDA approved, which is no surprise as they are in such cohoots with the government & Monsanto to name just one company who’s conduct is a disgrace.This is a company who wants all our lettuce and spinach to be irradiated !! It is actually ILLEGAL to use this treatment in America and the FDA have had people arrested for holding meetings on this controversial way of treating cancer patients. So what is this radical treatment that worries the FDA so much ………. VITAMIN B17 or Leatrile, also known as Amygdaline.

Yes, it is just a vitamin but hey, if you look into the logic, and the history of medicine and the way that the health system operates you may think of cancer treatment as a total farce and believe that nutrition is the answer to our world wide cancer problem.

In this film he  portrays cancer as being a deficiency disease unlike conventional medicine explaining cancer to be a chronic metabolic disease. He uses a prime example of how cancer is a defficiency disease by reminding us of scurvy. It took 200 years for it to be commonly noted that scurvy was a Vitamin C defficiency. How many people died unnessesarily due to the medical professions disbelief or unrecognition that a lack of Vitamin C could cause the body so much harm.

Griffin was first given an insight to the use of vitamin treatment for cancer whilst on a fishing trip with physician John Richardson. Richardson had told Griffin how he had seen great results when treating cancer patients with Laetrile,  but  he faced oppostion from local medical authorities because his treatment was not FDA approved.

The FDA even went to great lengths to show Laetril in the worst possible light by running a campaign involving the putting up of 10,000 posters in post offices and issuing bulletins to the medical community. So no wonder that today the mainstream consider Laetril to be toxic.

1953 California report

In 1953 a report written by Dr Henry Garland and Dr E. M. McDonald of the California Medical Assiciations Cancer Advisory Commission, claims that no proof exists that Laetril is an effective treatment for cancer. These same two doctors also clamed that there was no link between smoking and lung cancer!

I read earlier that Dr E. M. McDonald died in his bed when a fire was started by a cigatette. ( I have no idea if this is true, but if it is, it’s quite ironic.)

Laetrile versus conventional treatment.

Laetrile will only act on malignant cells, leaving any tumor intact but radiation therapy can blast the cancer into other parts of the body greatly increasin the risk of secondary cancer growth.

Cancer free societies

In the film it is mentioned that the Hunzakuts, peoples native of Hunza ( an area north of Pakistan ) often live to the ages of 100 even 120.

In Hunza society there is no cancer. Not one case of cancer exists within these people who are living in their native environment. The major factor for this seems to be that they consume so much nitrilocides including Vitamin B17 in their diet. One of the foodstuffs with the highest content of Vitamin B17 is the apricot seed. In Hunza a mans wealth is measured by the amount of apricot trees he owns.

http://longevity.about.com/od/longevitylegends/p/hunza.htm

What foods contain Laetrile

There is a good table on the link below showing foods that are high in Vitamin B17 and also atthe bottom is good guidelines as to how much of these foods is sensible to eat.

http://www.laetrile.com.au/copy.asp?sect=q2&page=foods

The above table was from a site by Angelo Rodriguez & if you click on the above link there can be found his and other peoples testimonials of their cancer treatments using Vitamin B17.

You will see, if you have read this and want  like me,to look into the controversy around this issue a little deeper find that Laetril contains cyanide. The film, A world without cancer does explain how this is not scary at all, but  that the cyanide is an important part of the Vitamins structure. Here is how Angelo explains things  …………………..

Hydrogen Cyanide must be FORMED!! There is no free Hydrogen Cyanide in laetrile floating around freely in our body waiting to harm us when we eat apricot seeds or take laetrile. The enzyme Beta-Glucosidase, and only that enzyme is capable of manufacturing and forming the Hydrogen Cyanide from Laetrile. If there are no cancer cells in the body, there is no beta-glucosidase. If there is no beta-glucosidase, no hydrogen cyanide will be formed from laetrile. Even if there were some other way to manufacture cyanide from laetrile in the body, the amount would be so minute it would have little, if any toxic effect. (see How does B17 kill Cancer?)

Laetrile does on the other hand contain the cyanide radical (CN-). So does Vitamin B12 , Cassava and strawberries and a host of other foods we consume. You never heard of anyone getting cyanide poison from vitamin B12 or from eating strawberries because it just does not happen. Lets also look at table salt which is made up of sodium Chloride (NaCl) and is very common in most households. Yet, did you know pure sodium (Na+) is one of the most toxic substances known to man? Yet in their form locked together they are not toxic. Any good toxicologist will tell you sugar is 20 times more toxic than laetrile and salt is also much more toxic.

All I can suggest is that you do more research yourself and keep an open mind.

On googling stinging nettles, I found it a bit of a shame to see that there were as many sites on how to get rid of stinging nettles as there was on their many uses.  But one thing  came up on google that was amusing news to me was the world nettle eating championships, here is the link to BBC story  http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2005/06/17/nettle_eating_feature.shtml

Medicinal uses:

For centuries nettles have been used in medicinal use in the forms of a tincture, ointment, compress, tea or powdered form.

They are packed with vitamin C and also contain vitamins A, B1, B2, vitamin E and Vitamin K as well as containing Iron and calcium and magnesium.

Gout:

Gout is caused due to a build up of uric acid in the blood which leads to join inflammation. Taking nettles can help to flush out excess uric acid from the blood.

Bronchitis and pleurisy:

As nettles have anti-viral  and expectorant properties and are said to be good to clear the chest of mucus.

Asthma:

The antihistamine properties make nettles good for those suffering with asthma.

Colds and flu:

Nettles can help to fight off signs of colds and flu, due to the anti viral properties and the levels of vitamin C.

Depression:

Vitamin B levels in nettles can help to elevate mood.

Hayfever.

The anthisthamine in the nettles will help to give a resistance to hay fever symptoms.

Uses in the garden:

Nettle leaves are used by ladybirds to rear their larve on so giving your garden help against aphids from your fruit and vegetable crops. Other uses are as a fungicide and insecticide.

There is a great book, 101 uses for stinging nettles by Piers Warren. For more detail of the many wonderful uses of this fantastic plant

click on this link to view the cover , or to buy the book http://www.wildeye.co.uk/stinging-nettles/

I was given this book for Christmas a couple of years ago, and it still surprises me when I look at the book to see just  how many ways nettles can be good for our gardens and our bodies.

Spring treat:

One of my favorite spring activities is the first time in a year when I go into some woodland to find the early, small, young nettles. I now keep a pair of thick rubber gloves and a carrier bag in the glove compartment of my car ready for nettle picking. With most things that I pick I do not bother donning gloves,  as I do not mind a little staining from berries etc, but nettles are a different matter completely when it comes to the consequences of picking to make a big batch of my nettle soup.

My nettle soup recipe:

Gently fry a couple of large onions and a couple of handfulls of green lentils in a little butter and oil. This is best done in the biggest pan you can find in the kitchen.

Add a couple of large potatoes ( diced ) and fry for a couple of minutes.

Vegatable stock then needs to be added and when the potatos have softened add your nettles.

This is why I suggested using the biggest pan as they will overflow if the pan is not gigantic, but they very quickly wilt so push the pile of nettle into the liquid quickly.

The amount you will need is about 1 carrier bag full. These need of course to be washed well, and can be done by tipping out the bag into cold water and with gloved hands, moving the water around to rinse. Repeat this and drain the water and any little bugs that are left will be killed in the cooking process, adding a bit of extra protein!

The nettles cook quickly so there is no need to simmer for very long.

Season with a good amount of grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and blitz using a hand blender.

The finnished soup will be thick in consistency and be a lush green in colour & is  good served with a little swirl of double cream. Nettle soup is an especially  comforting luch when served with a good wholemeal bread, cheese sandwich to dunk into the funky green, vitamin packed soup.

This post is hopefully going to spread the word a little about information on a section of the film Foodmatters. If you click on the link below you can either watch a trailer of the film or pay $4.95 for a one off, online viewing or buy the DVD. The film makers James Colquhoun and Laurentine Ten Bosch welcome the information in this film to be passed on due to it’s importance to peoples health, and the reasons why some of the content in their film is not commonly practised.

http://www.foodmatters.tv/?gclid=CJH6kPqCtJUCFQs2QwodwE0FQQ

I would like everyone I care about to see this film, but even if they did would all of them change the way they eat or the way they approach treatment for an illness? Most probably not.

One person in particular in the film gave a couple of stories to grab my attention. That was Andrew W. Saul Ph.D who is a theraputic nutrition specialist & author.

He tells how he learnt of William J McCormick and Fred R. Klenner MD and their knowledge of using high dosages of Vitamin C to cure illness in the 1940’s.

Andrew W. Saul did not learn about this in med school, why would he ?

Would there be much more need for medical school in the future if healthcare was nutrition based ?

What I just found:

I just gooled Mc Cormick and Klenner to see if there was a newspaper article that could be referred t;o. I did not get that far as I found that the top article was entitled ” The pioneering work of Frederick Robert Klenner MD ” written by guess who? Andrew W. Saul

Here is the article http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerbio.html

Niacin, alcoholism and depression:

Andrew Saul talked about Bill Williams the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Bill Williams worked with Dr Abraham Hoffer MD.

Hoffer and Williams became good friends. But Bill Williams suffered from severe depression.

Dr Abraham Hoffer suggested to his friend that he took 3,000mg of Niacin ( Vitamin B3 ) a day and it helped him feel better.

Bill Williams then suggested to alcoholics, that they took niacin for the depression and addiction and the majority who tried the niacin treatment experienced great improvements.

Williams then wanted Alcoholoics Anonymous to use niacin and vitamin therapy.

The medical profession rejected that idea, and so  to this day the AA to this day does not recommend vitamin therapy.

Phychiatrist does not recommed vitamin therapy:

The other story Andrew W Saul gave to express the effective use of Niacin for depression was this:

There was a suicidal lady in her 50’s who lived with her family.  She was severely depressed, always sitting alone, eating alone and spending most of her time just sitting in the corner in an uncommunicative state.

Her family asked about nutrition and Andrew W. Saul mentioned Dr Hoffers work with Niacin. Saul said that 3,000mg per day was Hoffers dosage, but  their daughter should have ” as much as it takes to make her  better”

At 11,500mg of niacin a day, the lady was sitting eating with the family as if nothing had happened. They took her to the psychiatrist so that he could see her in her ” well state” and the pshychiatrist said that the levels of niacin they were giving may be harmful, and to stop the vitamin treatment that had made her better.

Zero death toll:

There are not even enough deaths from niacin intake to equate to even 1 death per year.

Which would you feel safest with, for treating depression?

Taking 11,500mg of Niacin, or the usual prescribed doses of amitriptalyne, or prozac . Both drugs can cause suicidal tendancies !

On the top left corner of my blog page there is now a link to a website for a wholefood nutritional suppliment called juiceplus.

As I have mentioned earlier in my blog I do have some damage to my spine from an old & stupid accident. For the last 7 years I have been trying so many different suppliments and treatments from the medical profession. I’ve had, so many trips, at so much expense, at alternative health care clinics that when my friend Karen told me about Juiceplus ( and knowing what I know these days about the importance of getting the right foodstuffs into your system for the body to be able to heal itself ) I ordered some right away. My initial results have been so good that when I was told that I could also become a distributor I did not hesitate, since I had also seen the visual results in my friend with her having only been taking the suppliment for about 4 weeks.

What is juiceplus?

Well the website will tell you what it is and how it is produced but basically it is 17 RAW fruits and vegetables amounting to a cost of £1.10 a day.

My peace of mind:

I have mentioned many times during the lifetime of this fairly new blog, the importance of photonutrients ( nutrients from plants ) and I know that the fruit and vegetables in juiceplus are grown in a controlled environment free from pesticides and other chemical interference.

I also know that as a top up to my diet, I am getting all the nutrients my body needs to be fit & well.

I have a major challenge comming up in February when I will be cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia for a landmine clearance organisation. By then my body will have been getting 17 plus raw fruit and veg a day for 8 months. I say 17 plus as I am eating more and more raw foods in my diet nowadays aswell.

World Health Organisation:

Way back in 1972 the World Health Organisation recomended that we need 5 fruits and vegetables per day.

Now ( WHO ) are saying 7 -9 a day as a minimum requirement, and remember these are fist size potions.

I could not affords to buy that amount of fresh friut & veg ( certainly not from organic local farms ) and juiceplus capsules also contain spirulina and kelp which would not otherwise be part of my daily food intake.

Any question just ask:

If you choose to look at the link http://www.tracy4juiceplus.com

I would like to hear form you if you have any queries at all. If I don’t have the answer straight away I will damn well find out for you.