Change the World Wednesday – 10th Dec

Running a bit late today.

Small is still away and will be until mid-January, but I will try to keep the CTWW idea afloat.

But here’s a CTWW for you for Christmas celebrations.

Avoid all softdrinks and soda this Christmas, no Coca Cola, no Pepsi, no processed fruit drinks in a box, no diet, no lo-cal, no zero.

Instead buy fruit and make your own juice, and offer sparkling mineral water.

This challenge doesn’t apply to Christmas cheer for adults. They’re not the issue. The issue that we’re fighting is HFCS and artificial sweetners like sucralose and aspartame.

You can have a Happy Christmas without these beverages.

You do not need these additives in your, or your kids’ diets; they are the principle reason for obesity and other health problems.

See you next week.

Make you Fink on Friday

I read an interesting article on The Guardian the other day. Besides being propaganda for Michelle Obama, it told of an experiment with pandas.

Pandas, apparently, like sweet stuff, although sweet is not in their diet; they prefer the more mundane bamboo.

They tested Pepsi against Pepsi Max.

Guess what?

The Pandas didn’t like the Pepsi Max.

Pandas don’t like aspartame, the sweetener in Pepsi Max.

Doesn’t that tell you something?

It sure rings alarm bells for me.

If pandas don’t like the taste of aspartame, incidentally neither do I, then there must be something in it that tells them it’s not good for them.

From a personal level, ALL artificial sweeteners set my teeth on edge so I stay away from them.

Similarly, now that most soft drinks (sodas) contain HFCS instead of sugar, I stay away from them all.

So should you!

Make you Fink on Friday

I used to buy fruit juice, I used to drink Coca Cola and other softdrinks and soda, I used to make cordial…

But then I discovered some facts about the ingredients used in all these drinks, ugly facts.

They have shit in them like aspartame, sucralose and high fructose corn syrup instead of suger. All of the above are pure poison!

So I switched to water, good old tap water. For a fizzy beverage sparkling mineral water became my drink.

But water can be boring…

So, spice it up a little.

fruit infused water

Image: Flux and Flow

Some interesting recipes to spice up your water. Homemade is better than commercial poison. Use your fruit and vege, scrapes can be used too. For example, when I have pineapple, the skin goes to make pineapple water.

Check out Flux and Flow for more ideas.

Update

Parents are warned to steer clear of sugar-filled ‘healthy’ drinks

Parents’ efforts on healthy eating ‘undermined’ by marketing campaigns and lack of government interest

Many ‘healthy’ drinks for children contain nearly as much sugar as Coca-Cola. Photograph: Melissa Lomax Speelman/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Nutritionists and health campaigners are calling on parents to avoid supposedly “healthy” fruit drinks during the hot summer – asking them to give thirsty children plain water or milk instead.

The calls come as new health research puts sugary drinks, and particularly the fructose in them, at the heart of the “diabesity” epidemic affecting young people in Britain. Some 67 health charities, medical royal colleges and public health bodies are asking the government to consider a health tax on sugary drinks, along the lines of those already successfully introduced in France and four other European countries.

Read more

Opinion…

And the governments are just not interested; too much money to lose in corporate donations.

More Corporate Bullshit

Coca-Cola’s New Fruitwater Contains No Fruit, But Will Anyone Care?

As soda sales dip, Coke hopes Fruitwater will pick up slack.

You may be celebrating the fact that soda consumption has been fizzling out, but don’t expect the beverage industry to walk away from you (or your wallet) so easily.

Yesterday, soda giant Coca-Cola confirmed it’s launching a new line called Fruitwater. Just don’t look for any real fruit in the dazzling, bubbly drinks. There isn’t any. But it will contain the artificial sweetener Splenda, also known as sucralose, and will come in zippy flavors like black raspberry, watermelon punch, strawberry kiwi and more. The new beverage line, launching April 1, will fall under Coke’s Glaceau unit, which produces Vitaminwater and Smartwater.

“Such an ‘unsoda,’ fizzy and sweetened but packaged like bottled water, could lure people who are looking for an alternative to sugary carbonated drinks,” writes Candice Choi for the Associated Press.

In the midst of our nation’s obesity epidemic, beverage companies are hoping low- and zero-calorie soda alternatives will be the next robust market. Choi notes that the company’s Vitaminwater sales were up four percent, while Smartwater was up 25 percent.

But it hasn’t all been calm waters for Coca-Cola. Despite Vitaminwater’s nutritious-sounding name, the Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a class-action lawsuit in 2009, claiming the product used deceptive health claims in marketing the drink. Coca-Cola’s defense countered that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage or was composed only of vitamins and water because the sweet taste of Vitaminwater puts consumers on notice that the product contains sugar.”

For fruitless Fruitwater, an emerging environmental concern may cause the most waves.

Source: Take Part Read more

Opinion:

I have a heap of issues over this.

Using names like Smartwater, Vitaminwater, Fruitwater, H2OH, etc, should be banned because they are misleading.

What’s next eWater?

OMG! I just googled it expecting to find some humorous images and I find the stuff already exists; revitalising units and lotions (with gold no less).

Anyway, back on the subject.

Coca Cola’s assumption (defence) that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage…” is bullshit, the majority of consumers are hoodwinked by advertising and believe everything that is dished out to them and never think to question claims, even if the claim is built into the product name.

The use of ‘fruit’ for something that does not have fruit in it is misleading in the extreme. Coke is battling for market share and they will use every dirty trick in the book, and some that aren’t yet there, to increase profits.

Consumer interest and protection groups should be jumping on the bandwagon and proclaiming, denouncing, and prosecuting, not only Coke, but all these bastard corporations.

By using the name Fruitwater they are misleading a gullible public. A public that needs protecting from the corporate wolves.

Just because Fruitwater uses sucralose, in place of the poison aspartame, doesn’t resolve the issue. Sucralose is a chlorinated form of sucrose (sugar). It is not processed by the body, once it does it’s sweetening act, 90% passes right through your system and into the toilet.

Great, it’s gone!

But has it disappeared?

Not on your life. It remains in the sewerage, it bypasses the sewerage treatment because it is not affected by the sewerage system and passes on into the planets water supply.

Scientists have already detected elevated levels and admit that they don’t know what the effects are, or are going to be.

Are we putting our fish and seafood on a crash diet? No-one knows. People use this stuff to lose weight. Will it have the same effect on our aquatic life? Are we dooming all aquatic life to become anorexic, just skin and bones and no meat for humans to eat? Are we destabilising the one remaining food source on the planet?

Once again, we are paying scant regard to the environment.

Change the World Wednesday – 20th Feb

Passionfruit juice, although I usually skip the decanter and serve straight from the blender, the advantage of living alone – image: Green Kitchen Stories

The year is marching on. It does so relentlessly.

The house has returned to normal, the dishes done after three attempts to clear the bench. BBQs do seem to make more than their share of dishes.

My passionfruit vines have produced more fruit. Tons of flowers, but so many failed to be pollinated. But there will be enough for a couple of big juices (2x ingredients- juice & sugar; does ice count as an ingredient?).

So, I had a good fridge clean out.

I must thank Small Footprints for the Monday Moaning post that got selected for mention-in-despatches last week, very much appreciated.

Click for the full post

On with this week’s challenge.

This week, buy only foods with 6 or fewer ingredients. Here’s a tip … shop the perimeter of the store rather than the center isles … you’ll find more options. Want to kick this challenge up even further? Be sure that high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils aren’t in the food you choose … they are really “bad for you” substances. And if you have access to the information, choose non-GMO foods.

I rarely buy prepared foods, sometimes a bottle of ketchup or my beloved Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce, which certainly have more than six ingredients. I have been known to slip the odd frozen lasagne in for the freezer. I like to have one on hand to heat in the oven if I arrive home late from work; who wants to begin cooking at 9pm?

I mainly buy meat, fish, etc and veges and cook them at home in preference to ready made stuff.

I don’t use cooking oil, rather I use banha (lard) and I prefer butter to margarine, although I have both in the house; the latter for convenience is used rarely.

HFCS and GMOs are on mylist of pet hates. It goes without saying that I have no ‘diet’, ‘light’, or ‘low cholesterol’ things in my house, therefore there is no aspartame either. I have in the past bought syrups to make cordial, but I have stopped that, because they have HFCS. The only drink that I buy now is agua com gas (sparkling mineral water). I refuse to buy water without gas, because that is ‘free’ from the tap in the kitchen via the freezer. So drinks like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, etc are also a no-no for me.

I am sure beer has more than six ingredients, but asking to give that up for an entire week would be like purgatory, and I’ve been a good boy, mostly.

Besides the weather here has been so hot and we’ve had no rain for more than a month.

So this challenge is not so much a challenge to me, more like my regular shopping.

Blogging right along, I’ll see you next week.

Monday Moaning

Hypocrisy

This post is about hypocrisy.

The governments of the world have taken it on their backs to warn people about the ills of smoking.

My question is, when are those same governments going to demand labeling for products that contain aspartame and HFCS?

 

 

This product contains ASPARTAME which can cause slower learning in children!

or…

This product contains HFCS which is a major cause of childhood obesity!

These and many other variants are possible.

Shocking Fact

Last night on the news I was somewhat disturbed to hear that 8 – 10% of Brazilian school children suffer from enxaqueca (migraines). I have no doubt that this statistic is not limited to Brazil.

So, I ask myself, what has changed from my day when school children and migraines were never heard about to today where approximately one in ten school children have become sufferers?

I immediately made a connection. It’s not new, I have posted on it before.

Aspartame

This chemical that we feed to our children 24 hours a day in sodas, sweets and seemingly healthy foods is the culprit.

Anything you eat or drink that is ‘light,’ ‘diet,’ ‘sugar substitute,’ or ‘zero,’ contains aspartame.

.

Aspartame consumption strongly associated with migraines and seizures

You can’t walk into a convenience store, grocery store or restaurant without being offered a dose of aspartame. You can’t buy a stick of gum or a box of mints without having to read the label like a hawk, because it’s not always obvious that a product contains aspartame. Restaurant condiment caddies are filled with white packets of sugar, which is unhealthy in its own right, alongside pink and blue packets of NutraSweet and Equal, both of which contain known excitotoxins. Would you like some excitotoxin with your coffee?

Do you know what excitotoxins even are? Most people don’t. They’re chemical substances, such as aspartame, that cause neurons to fire spasmodically. This eventually burns out, or damages, the neurons. Decades of research studies support the increasingly held belief that aspartame causes these painful, often debilitating headaches.

If you’re one of those people who drinks diet soda like water, you could argue that you’ve been drinking diet soda for years and you’ve never gotten a headache from it. Your experience might change, however, if you were to stop using aspartame for a period of several months. Then, your sensitivity to the chemical would probably be heightened and consuming it again would more likely cause headaches.

Dr. James Braly, an allergy expert in Hollywood, Florida, says that 90 percent of all migraine headaches are caused by food allergies or reactions caused by additives. Furthermore, according to Michael T. Murray, ND, in his book Natural Alternatives, “There is little doubt that food allergy/intolerance is the major cause of migraine headaches … Aspartame is among the most common allergens.” Just as some people may develop hives from eating peanuts, some people may develop migraines from consuming aspartame
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/008797_migraines_migraine_headaches.html#ixzz28zoE7097

Who makes aspartame?

Monsanto!

I say no more.

Saturday Satire – Lite

LOL Cats don’t like ‘spartame

Pure Poison!

I’m having my Monday Moan… today.

Pespi Next

What you need to know:

Here is Pepsi Next’s ingredient list:

CARBONATED WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, NATURAL FLAVOR, PHOSPHORIC ACID, SODIUM CITRATE, CAFFEINE, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVES FRESHNESS), ASPARTAME, CITRIC ACID, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, SUCRALOSE.

Note that while sugar content has been reduced, it is still the second ingredient after water (in the form of high fructose corn syrup). There are still 4 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 ounce can!

True, about 6 teaspoons worth were removed. But unfortunately, Pepsi Next has simply replaced the missing sugar with artificial sweeteners, same as those used in its diet drink. And not just one or two, but a thoroughly sickening triumvirate including aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose.

Each of the three has its related health concerns, and artificial sweeteners in general mess with the body’s capability to deal with sweet. The dissociation between sweet taste and calorie intake may put the regulatory system that controls hunger and body weight out of sync, thus sabotaging weight loss plans.

Source: Fooducate Blog Read more

The ‘secret formula’ for high fructose corn syrup that really lives up to the name

Of all the things you hear about high fructose corn syrup, especially from the Corn Refiners Association (CRA), there’s a little something with a whole lot of fructose that doesn’t get much attention.

The CRA has spent big bucks on a campaign to try and convince us that high fructose corn syrup is the “same as sugar” since it contains either 42 or 55 percent fructose (called HFCS 42 and HFCS 55). Natural sugar, or sucrose, is comprised of 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose.

The main mantra from the CRA,  the one behind its attempt to have the high fructose corn syrup name on food products “officially” changed to “corn sugar,” is that HFCS really isn’t high in fructose after all, and naming it that when it was introduced back in the late 1960s was a really dumb idea they hope to correct in order to clear up consumer “confusion.”

But there’s another formulation, one that never enters into the picture being presented to consumers. It’s called HFCS 90, and it’s a high fructose corn syrup formulation that’s 90 percent fructose.

HFCS 90 isn’t new; it was developed in the 1970s, and you won’t read too much about it unless you know where to look. One of the most interesting references to HFCS 90 comes from a leading manufacturer of this unnatural, laboratory-created sweetener, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), which has a page on its corporate website about its trademarked version of the product called Cornsweet 90.®

“Cornsweet 90 ®,” it says, “containing about 90% fructose, is ADM’s sweetest high fructose corn syrup. Its high sweetness makes it the ideal choice for reduced calorie foods such as beverages, jellies and dressings.”

From my research, it’s quite apparent that both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration know about HFCS 90 and its food uses. Numerous studies, patents (including a method  for using HFCS 90 to produce a reduced-calorie beverage that was assigned to PepsiCo) and journal articles mention HFCS 90, and all the different foods that can be sweetened with it. So why don’t we consumers ever hear about it?

Source: Food Identity Theft Read more

Opinion:

These companies are running amok. It has to be stopped. Their advertising makes these poisons sound wholesome and healthy, it’s nothing but bullshit!

Society is also to blame. People today are so concerned with ‘brands’ and being seen to buy the expensive options, it’s really pathetic.

“High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a sugar made from cornstarch. It is heavily used in processed foods. HFCS can be found in hundreds of foods, such as breads, cookies, crackers, juice drinks and sodas, and dairy products. Even some cough syrups contain HFCS. The issue of how healthy HFCS is for our bodies is highly debated. Some studies suggest a link between HFCS consumption and obesity. Other studies suggest the effects of HFCS on the body are no different than that of other sugars.” – From: Villadeguardarrama

It is my experience that the studies that warn us of the dangers of this toxic sugar substitute are made by independent assessors, whereas the studies that favour it have vested interests in the production and sale.

HFCS in whatever variant is in almost everything you buy today. Even if you try to avoid it, you can’t.

Homemade bread not only smells delicious, it's essential for your families health

The only way to rid ourselves of these abominable substances is to begin cooking and baking at home. Making our own juice, cakes, sweets, snacks, cookies, bread, ketchup, jams, etc. Starting from the ground floor (flour & sugar) up, not with pre-mixes.

Only by going back to our roots can we avoid being poisoned for the sake of profits.

I hate to say it ladies… but a woman that has kids belongs at home in the kitchen. It is only the pressure of working/career  mothers that has allowed these companies to poison our kids.

The future of the human race depends on it. Being emancipated is great, but the effect on the future is detrimental.

 

Monday Moaning

Six years ago

The Latvian government banned the selling of unhealthy foods and beverages (especially sodas, including Pepsi and Coca Cola) in schools and kindergartens in order to promote healthier snacks for pupils. Anything that is not natural and contains artificial ingredients, food additives, preservatives, flavours, colouring, sweeteners, caffeine and a high salt/food ratio are considered to be an unhealthy food or beverage.

That was in 2006.

.

Today…

Fast-food ban near schools proposed to fight child obesity

THE GOVERNMENT is considering introducing a ban on fast-food outlets near schools, following the publication of a report on obesity in nine-year-olds.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said yesterday she was in discussions with the Department of the Environment to see if planning regulations could be introduced to control the proximity of fast-food businesses to schools.

“When you walk out of a school, if the first thing you see is a fast-food shop, clearly that’s not in the child’s best interests.”

Source: IrishTimes Read more

Opinion:

Is the tail not trying to wag the dog here?

Are we not barking up the wrong tree?

To me the answer is logical. Ban the production of problem foods!

…or, the alternative: Tax them beyond the reach of those most affected.

There are many answers to the problems, the prohibition of ingredients known to be prejudicial to health, HFCSs, artificial flavours and colourings for example.

Aspartame this, aspartame that

The main problem cited in the countries like France, Canada and Russia where the bans are in place is obesity; but it goes way beyond just obesity. The problems stem to behavioural patterns, cognitive development, social interactions, bodily growth and functions, neurological disorders and more.

The problem affects our very being; and yet that is not important, as long as the corporations can make a profit, the health and welfare of the people is of no concern.

Since the 1960s we have abdicated our responsibilities as parents. Each generation is abdicating more and more.

An now we get responses like this when kids are asked about junk food restrictions: “I think that’s mean because junk food is pretty good”.

The kids have no idea anymore, less idea than their parents had no idea about. Parental control is gone, the kids have been brainwashed by more and more corporate advertising, so much that they don’t know what the facts are any more than their parents did.

One of two things has to happen; firstly parents have to get their shit together, second, if that doesn’t happen, then the state has to become a nanny.