Monday Mix Up - Have we lost our sense of humanity?

Our country is being caught up in a terrifying wave of Xenophobia as we speak. People are being killed for the "unspeakable sin" of being born in a country different to ours. It would sound completely crazy if it wasn't so horrifyingly real. I feel ashamed to call myself South African right now.

What is it that makes one human being hate another human being with such passion? Especially if they don't take the time to know a person. How is it possible for us to look at someone and see only their nationality, colour, religion or sexual orientation? What is that makes us look away from a person in a wheelchair, or someone who is hard of hearing or visually impaired? We treat clinically obese people, homeless people and people who, by society's standards, don't have the "correct" look about them, as if they are anathema to the human race.

Right now, a lot of South Africans are hating foreign nationals simply because they're here, in our country. Hitler hated the Jewish peoples simply because they existed. In apartheid days, the whites hated the blacks simply because they existed. All of these things started with one or two people filled with hate, and they spread that hatred every chance they got. But the hatred didn't just end there. It manifested into crimes so brutal, one wonders how any human being could stand it and how any human being could DO it. What inspires such hatred in people?

Well I have my own opinion about that. But you're wondering what this has to do with Mellow Health. Well, I believe that everything around us, and everything that we are, is connected. I'm not a religious person. In fact, I personally think religion is to blame for a lot of the world's problems and is responsible for a great deal of the heartache in the world. I don't believe in any god. I believe in the power within all of us and the connectivity of that power to the universe as a whole. I am a firm believer that nothing happens by accident. I don't believe in coincidences. I think this is very relevant to what my blog centres around, and that is an awareness, and a consciousness, not only of ourselves, but of the world around us and every living creature in it.

Why else would you want to live consciously if not for the sake of Mother Earth and all the creatures that depend on her to live? Why would we bother to recycle, buy free range and organic and use environmentally friendly products if NOT for the sake of the Earth and all her inhabitants?

The sad thing is that most people DON'T do any of the above and it would never enter their heads to even start. In fact, most people are so focused on their own needs and wants that they can barely focus on the person in front of them, never mind the Earth and everything else on it.

Unfortunately, it's this attitude, this total lack of awareness of each other, that starts having a ripple affect on everything around us. This is what we teach our kids and, the more this lack of awareness spreads, the less people seem to care about anyone but themselves.

An example of this is when GLM and I decided to go for a road cycle around our area and do some exploring. I quickly became very aware of how vulnerable I felt on my little bike, with just a plastic helmet for protection. Motorists actually pay little to NO attention to anything other than themselves, on the road. Cars would come speeding up behind us and then skim past us with barely enough space to miss us, going at over 80kms an hour. Rest assured, we took back roads to try and avoid too many cars AND we hugged the shoulder of the road everywhere that we went and never cycled 2 abreast.

That made no difference to the cars. The general behaviour and reaction to us suggested that we were very much in their way and keeping them from their very important lives and, if they had to run us down to get to their very important lives, they would. Can I just stress that not one of these was a taxi. These were young guys and girls, people with families, (and kids without seatbelts which I will NEVER understand!??!!!) elderly people, people of all races, shapes and sizes.

I've lived in Johannesburg for about 8 years in total, and I know how crazy the roads are. It's every person for themselves. But has it occurred to anyone just how selfish that is? It's almost as if being in a car gives someone the right to strip any humans inside the other cars of ALL that makes them human. They just seem to see them as an annoyance that needs to be moved aside as soon as possible.

It reminds me of the way we treat ants. We stomp on them, pour water on them, spray them with poison, anything to get them out of our space because they are an inconvenience. We don't think about what they might be feeling shortly before death hits them unawares. We are so focused on our own needs and wants. When you are speeding along a residential road, you aren't thinking about what might happen if you hit someone. You are only thinking of where YOU need to be. But, if you hit a cyclist or runner, that will change in an instant. And yet, I bet your first thought will still be how this will affect YOUR life, not, "Is the person I hit ok?"

When did we stop really SEEING other living creatures? When did we lose our sense of humanity? Our sense of empathy? Even when we do meet up with someone else, if they don't match up to our preconceived ideas of what a person should be, we brush them aside without a second thought and we've already moved on. We take that first impression and we use it to find them wanting because they don't fit the mould. They're too skinny, too fat, too ugly, too short, the wrong colour, the wrong nationality, they're gay, lesbian, black, asian, they talk too much, not enough, they don't know how to have fun, they're depressing and boring etc.

Sure, we all have different connections to people and not everyone is going to be a lifelong friend. But EVERYONE has a story, and everyone has a life that is precious to them. Most people are fighting battles in some way or other in their lives and everyone, until they prove otherwise, is deserving of dignity and respect. Even then, there is probably a reason they are the way they are. If you don't like them, move on. But do it without causing any harm.

It's part of the hippocratic oath but I think it should be something we all strive to live by. For most people it's more like, "First, let me get what I want."

I admit it: I used to be young and stupid. I'm sure most of us have been there at some point. You think you're invincible and you do stupid things without thinking of consequences. I'm not proud of it, but I also know that I wouldn't be who I was if I hadn't gone through those lessons. Despite that, I have always had a very strong sense of empathy. I hated to see people hurting. Seeing a person homeless and on the streets often brought tears to my eyes. The fact that I can't help everyone that needs it, hurts. That doesn't mean I haven't hurt people. We all hurt those we love at some point in our lives. We make mistakes that cause harm. That's how life goes. We're human and we're fallible. And the pain you feel over hurting someone is a terrible pain to live with. That is also part of being human, or it should be.

It's because we're all different that we often end up doing things like that, and that difference is a good thing actually. The world would be a dull place if we were all the same. BUT, we can be outspoken and honest without being cruel. We can disagree with someone's opinion without breaking them down in the process. We can dislike how a person lives their lives without disliking the actual person and ALWAYS, we can respect people DESPITE our differences.

It takes a lot of energy to hate a person. I often wonder why anyone would want to put themselves through that. Every day that you live on this Earth is a gift. The idea that someone could waste that gift on hatred is crazy to me. And again I come back to the question: what inspires such hatred?

My personal opinion is that hate is based on fear. We fear what we don't understand, we fear what we can't control and change and we fear losing what we have. If a person filled with fear feels threatened, and they perceive anything to be an imminent threat, they are going to react to protect themselves and their loved ones. Usually, it's not a rational reaction.

Unfortunately, I'm well aware that there are people who actively hate me. It's such a STRONG emotion I often wonder how it's possible to feel it and I wonder what inspires it in them. On my weaker days I wonder what I did to inspire that but deep down I KNOW that it isn't all on me. I can honestly say that I don't hate anyone. There are people I don't particularly like! But I feel mostly indifferent to them. I would still be polite to them if I saw them and I definitely don't actively think of ways to cause them pain. Hating them would mean I'd have to think about them consciously every day and focus on that emotion. What a waste of time and energy.

I can't imagine how draining it would be and how destructive it would be. I think that kind of fear-based hatred would be enough to drive a person insane. Look at Hitler. His fear of the jewish people caused him to hate them with such a passion that he forgot that they were even human. It drove him insane, literally. Only a man who was clinically insane could perform such heinous atrocities. That kind of hatred and fear can be contagious. He managed to spread it throughout an entire country! How scary is that? If you allow yourself to hate, pretty soon, you will affect those around you. You will forget reasoning and sensibility and it will be all about your hatred. Families have disintegrated because of it. Wars have started for the same reason.

About a year and a half ago, we lost one of the greatest humans to ever grace the earth with his presence, Nelson Mandela. If anyone ever earned the right to hate, it was him, but he never did. He taught us one of the greatest lessons a human being can teach others. He showed us the true meaning of empathy and forgiveness.

Most of us will never go through even a bit of what he experienced in his lifetime and yet we find it hard to see the person in the car at the stop street opposite us, as human. We hold on to hurts, imagined or real, as if they are the be-all and end-all in our lives and we allow them to define us and shape our lives. We allow fear to engulf us, we refuse to try and find understanding and our world becomes smaller and smaller and more insulated as we struggle to avoid anything that might change the delicate balance in our lives.

What is the worst that can happen? You will find you actually DON'T think the same as another person and that's really okay. Smile and move on. If a person hurts you, try to understand it first. Don't attack back without knowing the cause. All that will do is leave you even more hurt and full of anger. If they won't answer you, then move on and take it as a lesson learnt. Take it from someone who's learnt that lesson...

Try not to judge someone without knowing their story. If you aren't interested in their story, then just move quietly past them without adding to it. Most people don't need MORE heartache in their lives. They have enough already. They just hide it well because society demands it.

If you are going to send out a ripple in your life, make sure it's one that touches lives positively. If wars can be started from fear and hate, imagine what the power of love and understanding can do?

It starts small, with just one person. Why not let that person be you?

Monday Mix up - How do you define health care?

Have you noticed how the term "Health Care" is always associated with pictures of doctors and nurses? Seriously, google it and click on images. I have to wonder how and when medication and surgery became a part of health care? Think about what the word "health" actually means to you. When you say you want to get healthy, it conjures up images of fruit and vegetables and a person dressed in gym clothes happily jogging along a beach. What it DOESN'T conjure up is an image of you popping off to a hospital...

We DO associate health with good, clean food and exercise. Google "healthy person" and this is what you find:

So how did, what doctors do, become "health care"? I think it's that, when healthy living doesn't produce the results we want, we always know we can fall back on medication, and we do, instead of persevering with that healthy living. It's too much effort and we comfort ourselves that we tried our best and we take those pills to give us an illusion of health and we manage to convince ourselves that we ARE actually healthy again.

When did we start accepting that taking medication on a regular or semi-regular basis was part of health care? Did you know that the average person fills 11.6 prescriptions per year?! That's a lot of medication for one person and that doesn't even tell us how MUCH medication is on each prescription. Taking medication has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with sick care. If you need to fall back on medication, it's because there is a bigger, underlying problem that pills aren't going to be able to adequately fix. They are going to mask the problem, temporarily fix the symptoms and give you the illusion of health.

Health means that you don’t need medication. It suggests vitality. It means you feel good, you have energy, and you are functioning well in your day to day life. It means that you take preventative measures to stay healthy, like eating the right foods and exercising. Those are not considered medication and I have to wonder why not. They certainly are more effective in the longterm.

What does it mean to prevent health problems? Is medication a part of that? Bear in mind that we're talking about your average person. I don't mean people who have serious health problems like needing a kidney transplant etc.

Most of us are born healthy. And, from birth, our only requirements to maintain that health are:

• Water 
• Macro-nutrients (fat, protein, carbs) 
• Micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) 
• Motion (exercise) 
• Emotional support 

In case you're wondering, that last one IS a requirement. There is plenty of research that has been done on this. Think of people in longterm abuse situations and what is does to their psyche, or babies and children that are left alone, in the dark, and have their physical needs tended to, but have no contact. They show stunted growth, never learn to move or speak, and a lot of them die very young. It's a fact that people who live "normal" lives, but don’t have emotional support tend to have higher levels of stress, depression, and physical disease too.

To go back to those bullet points, it therefore stands to reason that prevention should actually focus on the things that we need to maintain our health, to prevent disease. That should be a no-brainer. To be more specific, we should be eating healthy foods, and eating ENOUGH of them. We need to exercise regularly, even if it’s just a brisk, short walk, and it also means we need friends and family surrounding us and supporting us. Each person’s needs are unique when it comes to healthy food, exercise, and support, but each person STILL needs all of them.

Now that you have a better understanding of health and prevention, I'll ask this question: Where does medication fit into a person's life? It's not a part of prevention. We aren’t born deficient in medication. We don’t actually NEED them to be healthy. Medication manipulates our bodies to do a certain thing: to kill bacteria, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure or get rid of a headache etc. They don’t correct imbalances or address underlying causes in the longterm. They make the numbers appear on paper the way they “should.” They don't create health, or prevent disease.

This goes against everything I believe in, but I know, in some cases, there may be a time and a place for medication. If you have lived an excessively unhealthy life, and there are just too many things wrong, medication may help your body move past one part of it all so that you can start fighting everything else yourself. Just remember that medication may make you “okay” but it will never actually cure you and it will always cause side effects which you'll then need to recover from. The best thing to do in a case like that is bite the bullet, take the meds, but then change your life and prevent it happening again.

I mentioned that medication causes nasty side effects that your body will need to recover from. That, in itself can make you feel just as sick as the illness. Using medication too often creates a lot of additional problems. For example, we know that antibiotics are overused - we’ve created superbugs that are antibiotic-resistant thanks to doctors giving out scripts for the common cold and the flu. Antibiotics lead to further infections, diarrhea, and lots of other nasty side effects. They don't create health. Yes, they are intended to kill the bad bacteria that is making you sick, but they don’t actually make you healthy. They make you more sick and here's why.

Most people don't take probiotics with antibiotics. They don't change their diet to help their body to get back to its former self in terms of health. That is why they get sick again and again. Giving your body the food and nutrients it needs after antibiotics is part of prevention and health. 

If you take anything from this post, I hope it's this: Medication does not make you healthy. It is not part of a healthy lifestyle. It is to be used very rarely, in the case of a serious illness, to give the body a fighting chance. But it should never be a daily habit.

Now, if you’re new here, you might still subscribe to the view that medication is normal and okay to use. If you have a headache, you think nothing about popping a nurofen, if you have a cold or flu, you probably start by going to a chemist and getting some over-the-counter medication which seldom works. That's when you head to the doctor to get a prescription. Prescriptions are probably a fairly regular part of your life.

There is another way, though.

Go through some of the archives and find alternative solutions to medication.  Over the past year 2 years, I've cleaned out all of our over-the-counter meds and we don't go to doctors anymore. Never underestimate the power of herbs and spices.  They are extremely effective AND they don’t cause side effects. They're also WAY cheaper! I haven't taken a pill in over 2 years and that includes something as basic as panado and disprin. When you change your mindset and simply accept that those aren't options anymore, you open yourself up to a whole new world of options.

When I have a heachache, I consider the possible causes and then take the necessary action. If I've over-indulged (which doesn't happen often thank goodness), water, milkthistle tea, a homemade rehydrate drink and a combination of cinnamon, ginger and cayenne pepper sorts me out. If I have period pains, I warm up a beanbag to hug and drink the same spicy concoction (Those are great natural painkillers) If it's a tension headache, I lie down and rest as soon as I can after drinking the same spicy mix. It's my go-to painkiller. I used to get headaches daily and I lived on all manner of headache tablets which, ironically, gave me MORE headaches. These days I seldom get them and I attribute it to not being reliant on pain pills anymore, or any chemicals for that matter.

I’m not suggesting that you never see a doctor again, or turn to chanting and meditation instead of medicine (although there is a lot to be said for meditating;) I’m suggesting that for minor illnesses, headaches, colds and flu etc, you try using natural methods instead of going straight to conventional medication or visiting a doctor. 

Live according to your body's needs as I listed above. Work on prevention instead of the quick fix and keep your body in a state of real health, not an illusion of health. I promise it will make a huge difference to your energy levels and to your life.

Monday Mix up - Is Coca Cola really all that bad for you?

In a word: YES. But you knew that already, didn't you? I'm sure most of you have heard the urban legends about coke. There was one doing the rounds a few years back about a tooth being dissolved in a glass of coke overnight etc. Snopes picks the story apart and explains why it isn't an issue. They say that coke has the same acidity as orange juice, probably less, and both have the potential to damage teeth so it's stupid to point the finger at coke.

Ok, so if Snopes has proven that the claim was false, why am I even blogging about this? Well, here's the thing: comparing orange juice to coke is a bit like comparing an apple to a piece of cardboard that has been dipped in mercury. While orange juice may be highly acidic, there are definitely SOME benefits to drinking it whereas, drinking coke has, oh let's see, ZERO benefits.

I find the whole argument on Snopes absolutely typical of something a doctor or a scientist would say actually. No concern for health, only for what can be proven through scientific research. What I find scary is that, even a conventional nutritionist would tell you to drink a coke light rather than a glass of fruit juice! Now, I'm not one to promote fruit juice. Unless the juice is made in a blender right before your eyes, and still contains all the pulpy bits, they're not as full of goodness as you'd like to think.

HOWEVER...

To actually CHOOSE something that is man-made, in a lab, and contains absolutely nothing natural or good, over something that grows from a tree and contains a good amount of all sorts of macro and micro nutrients (in its unprocessed form) is just plain wrong. Forget calories. People are too obsessed with their body fat and not obsessed enough with their health. A glass of coke should NEVER be your first choice, period.

I'm kind of an all or nothing girl. If I know something is bad for me, that's it. It's over and it's out of my life. But I know you get people who live according to the 80/20 rule. That means that 80% of their life is clean, which gives them room to have 20% of it not so clean. If you live like that then, having a coke now and then shouldn't be TOO detrimental to your health, although it should never replace more nutritional options.

Then you get those people who live according to the "life is short and I'll do what I want until the day I die" rule. Other people who fit into this category are the "I have absolutely no clue about health and nutrition and I couldn't tell you what food is good or bad for you because it never entered my head to think about it" people. I think the former are worse than the latter only because they KNOW some things are bad for them, they just have an "I don't care" kind of attitude. The latter are simply too ignorant to consider other options. They don't know options even exist.

The people that fall into the above category are the ones that are really in danger from something that, according to Snopes, is harmless. Let's look at the damage to teeth issue first. The excuse that you'd have to hold coke in your mouth for long periods for it to damage your teeth, is a stupid one in my opinion. If you are drinking 2 or 3 litres of coke a day, that stuff is going to be touching your teeth every time you drink it.

Let's try a quick experiment: If you have a drink nearby, grab a sip and analyse the process of sipping and swallowing. How long does it stay in your mouth? If it's a particularly hot day and I'm feeling like I need some cold liquid to cool me down, I actually hold the liquid in my mouth for a second or two before I swallow it, to really feel the effects. I'm not saying this happens every time, but it happens often enough to notice it. I'd hazard a guess that I'm not alone in doing this. Not everyone grabs a coke and pours it straight down their gullet unless they're in a coke advert. Normal people savour every sip.

I happen to know several people who's drink of choice was always coke. Over a few years, their teeth literally started to turn black around the edges. These were professional people who looked after their teeth, brushing them every day, flossing and using mouthwash etc. The fact is, your average person can't brush their teeth after every glass of coke and, when you are drinking 3 litres a day, that is a lot of exposure to something like coke.

What I find interesting is that you seldom, if ever, see people drinking orange juice by the gallon the way that some people drink coke. Funny that... Why DO people actually include coca cola in their monthly budget and stock up on in as if the coke well is about to dry up? I see families doing their monthly shop with the whole bottom half of their trolleys taken up by 2 litres cokes! Why do they choose it over just about any other drink and why do they drink SO MUCH of it? It's simple.

Coca cola is addictive. Number one: it contains caffeine and number two: it is loaded with sugar, or high fructose corn syrup, a particularly nasty invention. Both are stimulants and both are highly addictive. Your body very quickly comes to rely on the boost that your glass of coke gives you and it struggles to do without it once you're hooked. You can even convince yourself it tastes really good, simply because you're that addicted. I used to be addicted. I drank coke every chance I got when I was a teenager and I thought I loved the taste of it. I found it very interesting that, when I stopped drinking it, and the withdrawals disappeared, I suddenly couldn't even stand the smell of it, let alone the taste. Speaking of the withdrawals, they are highly unpleasant with symptoms such as headaches, nausea, fatigue, loss of concentration and an inability to focus, irritability, constipation, depression, muscle pain and stiffness, flu-like symptoms and insomnia (ironically).

Does that sound like something that is doing your body any good? Here's what happens to your body when you drink a coke:

• 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system within the first 10 minutes. In case you were wondering, this is 100% of your recommended daily intake. The only reason you don’t vomit as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavour.
• Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat 
• Within 40 minutes, your body has absorbed all the caffeine; You can tell because your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. 
• Around 45 minutes after drinking a coke, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centres of your brain - a physically identical response to that of heroin, by the way. 
• After 60 minutes, you’ll start to have a sugar crash and you'll be craving another coke, or something else sweet to give you a boost, and the whole cycle will start again.

Scary, isn't it? But why stop there? Here's another downside to drinking lots of coca cola. The carbonation itself is really bad for you. It causes calcium loss in your bones and this is how:

• The carbonation irritates the stomach 
• The stomach “cures” the irritation the only way it knows how. It adds the only antacid at its disposal: calcium, which it gets from your blood 
• The blood, which is now low on calcium, replenishes its supply from the bones. It has to because, if it didn't, muscular and brain function would be severely impaired. So your bones become weakened over time. 

Unfortunately, that's not all though. Coke contains phosphoric acid (and that's not the same as the carbonation, which is just carbon dioxide mixed with the water). Snopes will tell you it contains very little phosphoric acid. But again, if you are addicted and drinking 3 litres a day, small amounts add up fast. Phosphoric acid also causes your bones to soften and become weak and brittle. So, between the carbonation and the phosphoric acid, you are probably on your way to getting osteoporosis. A big problem is that people choose coke as their drink of choice. In other words, drinks that COULD be replacing some of the calcium loss, like water and milk, are being completely eclipsed by coke, making the effects of coke even worse.

Snopes will tell you that your stomach lining is pretty tough stuff. True story. It is. And that's why coke probably won't damage your stomach. Here's what they DON'T mention:

• Mechanical damage to cells is a huge risk factor for cancer.
• All soft drinks cause acid reflux (stomach acid rising up past the oesophageal valve). It's worse when the body is horizontal (as in sleeping), however, given the sheer volume of coke people drink, it's becoming an issue at any time of the day. Any time you drink a gassy drink, you are going to start burping, and that is going to release acid into your oesophagus. The research doesn’t tell us how much is too much. We DO know that most of us are far, far, far past the limit. 
• Stomach acid is pretty strong stuff as I said. The stomach lining is built to withstand a lot of stuff like coke. But that lining doesn't extend into the oesophagus. That means the lower oesophagus is getting damaged by acid pretty much every time you drink a coke and experience acid reflux. That's going to result in mechanical damage to the cells, which is going to increase cell mutations and that means you at a much greater risk of getting cancer. Oesophageal cancer was very rare two generations ago. Now, it’s extremely common. 

Don't be fooled into thinking that coke zero or coke light are the better option. They aren't for all the reasons set out in the above paragraphs. Sugar replacements like aspartame aren't any better for you than high fructose corn syrup. Aspartame has been linked to numerous diseases and health problems. You should also take into account the fact that whether it's coke, coke light or coke zero, they all contain food dyes and other chemical additives that are known carcinogens, in other words, they cause cancer.

A main ingredient in coke and other soft drinks is tap water. What's wrong with that? A lot, actually if you follow the link. Tap water can contain any number of chemicals including chlorine, trihalomethanes, lead, cadmium, and various organic pollutants.

There is not ONE thing in a coke that is actually good for you and plenty of things that are bad. But, if you still think it's worth it for the kick, please just try and do it in moderation, and for heaven's sake, don't let your kids near it! If it's bad for you, it's only going to be worse for a developing body. You are setting them up for all sorts of future problems.

We are already battling so many environmental toxins that are almost impossible to avoid. Why would you voluntarily add to those by pouring toxins into your body?

Monday Mix up - It's time to put our planet first

In the last couple of months we've had to adjust to load-shedding becoming an expected, and mostly permanent, part of our lives again. It got me to thinking about how much attention we pay (or don't pay) to the resources available to us and how much we take them for granted. We certainly notice when they aren't available. It's annoying when the taps run dry or when the power goes off. When YOU hear that we need to hold back on water or electricity usage, do you make a conscious decision to switch off lights and pool pumps and try not running taps for too long etc? Or are you guilty of thinking, "Someone else will do it?"

The earth's resources are finite. We know this, deep down, although we, as humans, tend to forget it often. We are the only living creatures on earth who keep taking and taking, and seldom give back. One day out of a full 365, we celebrate Earth Day, and on that day SOME of us give something back, but far from all of us. For animals, every day is Earth Day because they are always giving back. It's SO ironic that we treat animals as somehow lower than us. Yes, we have more brain cells, but it's how we use them that makes me think animals have more common sense than we do.

If you did biology in high school, you will know all about symbiotic relationships. These are relationships between living creatures that benefit both creatures. Here is an example:
Fish don't go to spas and salons. Instead, they go to "cleaning stations" which are neutral zones where small cleaner fish like catfish and gobies, wait for larger "clients". When they visit a station, the fishy client, which includes fish like parrotfish, damselfish and sharks, adopt a distinctive pose, which sends a signal that they want to be cleaned (and won’t eat the cleaner!) The cleaner fish then gorge themselves on parasites, mucous and dead tissues from the surface of their client, and that is how THEY benefit. Aside from getting a spick and span skin, client fish also enjoy a good tickle (kind of like us going to a spa for a massage!) It’s actually partly this sensation that stops the client fish from gobbling up the cleaner fish!

When the relationship is parasitic, its definite cause for concern. Here's an example:

A tick is a parasite. It attaches itself to a warmblooded animal and feeds on its blood because ticks need blood at every stage of their life cycle. Unfortunately, ticks also carry Lyme disease, an illness that can cause joint damage, heart complications, and kidney problems. The tick benefits from eating the animal's blood but the animal gains nothing and actually suffers from the loss of blood and nutrients and can get very ill.

How would you label the relationship between humans and the Earth? It's SUPPOSED to be symbiotic, as it is between other animals and the Earth, but it's not at all. This may be hard to accept but, our relationship with the earth is more parasitic, with US being the parasites. We take and take and take, yet only a very small handful of people ever give back. When we take we don't give much thought to who, or what has suffered in the process of that taking. Our only thought is what we are getting from that particular moment. The path it took to get to that moment isn't much of a thought process, is it? Think about what you bought recently. Now think about the thought process that went into buying it. A lot of our purchases are impulse purchases. We went there planning to buy one thing, and end up buying everything BUT that one thing...

There are un-contacted tribes in the Amazon Jungle who have never been exposed to civilisation, who live off the land and give back to it routinely, as part of their daily lives. Watch a video of them here.

How incredible to find humans so untouched by civilisation that it hasn't entered their heads to want more. How incredibly sad it will be when they are finally reached by civilisation, because it WILL happen. Humans are too greedy for it to be any other way. And once they know what it means to want more, how can they ever go back? Our selfish need to own and control everything will lead to the ultimate end of something so rare and special. How much longer can they be protected? And how many of these tribes have become extinct thanks to humankind's desire to own and control and ultimately, destroy? 

When we shop at a grocery store, when we walk in with our trolley and browse the aisles, all we are thinking about is what we are going to be making for breakfast, lunch and supper for the next few days and how much it's going to cost us. We are probably chatting on a cell phone and not really IN the moment at all. We don't think about how that stuff got there and what it involved. If we buy meat, we don't think about the animal that gave up a very traumatic, fear-filled, poor quality life so that we could have meat at our fingertips whenever we need it, at the cheapest cost available. When we are browsing for the best apples, tomatoes or bananas we never think of how much land has been laid to waste by the bad agriculture that supplied us with that produce and the amount of chemicals that were pumped into the Earth to make them grow better, faster and bigger.

How about all of the household cleaning stuff we think we need? We buy it thinking only about cleaning our own houses. The thought seldom, if ever, crosses our minds that all of those toxins will go down our drain and be released into our environment? Once it's gone down the drain it's someone else's problem, not ours. The same lack of thought applies to beauty products like shampoo, conditioner, soap or bubblebath etc.

Our way of thinking, as humans, is very selfish, but, to be honest, I think that most of us simply really have NO idea of our own culpability. We tend to think it's not a problem because no-one makes a big deal about it. We think, "It MUST be ok because the powers-that-be are selling us all this stuff and marketing it and filling the shelves with more and more of it. If there was a problem, someone would say something wouldn't they?" Think again. The sad truth is that the powers-that-be have one thing in mind really. That is to make as much money as possible. It doesn't matter to most of them, how much it costs the Earth and everything that relies on it. That means us, as well as every other living creature on it, by the way.

And, to be honest, there IS a lot of noise being made about climate change at the moment. That is because scientists have finally figured out that we have reached a tipping point and that, if something doesn't change soon, it will be to the demise of the human race. But these issues aren't reaching enough people, with enough urgency and speed and so the majority of the human race carries on as if we have an infinite amount of resources and time.

As I said, most of us just literally have no idea and that's not your fault. But, that's just changed if you've read as far as this. Once you become aware, to do nothing is selfish, irresponsible and negligent. It's like a doctor finding out that that the medication you are taking is slowly poisoning your system, and making a decision to do nothing rather than make the necessary change. You'd be well within your rights to make all sorts of noise about that. You would defend yourself. So, if you KNOW that, by using OMO and Handy Andy and other toxins in your house you are slowly poisoning the earth, how can you stand by and allow it to continue? That knowledge makes you just as negligent as the doctor, if you do nothing. How does the earth defend herself if she has no voice? Well, if you think about it, she is already. Tsunamis, typhoons, earthquakes etc. Those aren't just coincidences. Climate change is a very real threat. Just because it hasn't touched your life directly yet, doesn't mean it isn't. And one day it will but it may be too late by then to affect a change.

Sound too dramatic for you? Why? Why should any ONE person be more important than everything and everyone else on this planet? What gives anyone the right to decide that it is their right to ignore the needs of our planet if they choose to? If reading this makes you sit up and take notice then good for you. If you read it and decide it's too much effort, then shame on you. There's a small handful of people around the world who are doing everything in their power to ensure that the earth doesn't suffer and doesn't retaliate by throwing extreme weather conditions at us and, ultimately, destroy us, but there are not enough of us. It is going to take a worldwide team effort.

If you think you are just one person and it's not going to make any difference I am going to disagree with you there. EVERY little bit helps. LeadSA started with one person and now they have over 60 000 followers on Facebook alone. If you can tell just one person, who tells one person, who tells another person, you have already reached 3 other people. If THEY in turn, can influence other people, you will have reached 6 people and so it spreads. It's called the ripple effect and it's very effective.

So, what can YOU do as one person, to affect a change and positively effect our planet? Here are some things I bet you never even thought of:

• Eat closer to home: The average South African bite of food travels over 2000 kms to reach your mouth. That’s a HUGE amount of fossil fuel used just to transport your food, never mind actually growing and packaging it. Find the nearest farmer's market to you or, if you live in Gauteng, look up Timothy and Clover and order the food you need.
• Eat organic and free range: We all already know it’s better for your health. Well, for the same reasons it's better for soil, water, and air health too. Eating organic keeps the soil healthy and safe. It keeps synthetic nitrogen out of our water and prevents carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere. What’s good for your body is good for the Earth. Give back to the Earth by giving back only substances that the Earth enjoys. 
• Grow your own: It doesn't take much space to start growing your own vegetables. My veggie garden is about 1.5 x 1 metres and yet I get sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, beetroots, various herbs and tomatoes out of it. Save the seeds from veggies you buy and use them to start your own veggie garden. 
• Start a compost heap: Dig a small hole in your garden and cover it with a lid. Put a container in your kitchen that is used purely for fruit and vegetable waste. When it's full go and empty it into the hole you dug. Leave it to sit for a few weeks and you will have organic compost to use on your veggie garden, and the rest of your garden, plus your rubbish bin will be far emptier!

• Thank your food: You may think this is akin to tree hugging but honestly, how often do you even think about where your food came from? Take a good look at the plants and animals on your table. Imagine the rice or oat or lettuce leaves waving under the sun and the carrots developing underground. If you eat meat, think about every animal. Picture the cow grazing (it goes without saying that if you eat cows, eat free-range, grass-fed, not corn-fed ones), the chicken scratching in the dirt (again, make sure they led happy lives outside of cages), the fish swimming in the ocean (not in a fish farm). Think about the hen that laid the eggs and the cow or goat that gave you the milk you drink. Be conscious. You don't need to be a tree hugger to do it. Gratitude is a time-honoured way of reciprocating. Christians call it saying grace. Buddhists call it eating mindfully. It takes a few seconds to thank the plants and animals. Our lives depend on them. Literally. How does this help the earth? Well, if you know where your food comes from, you may feel less inclined to buy conventional food, that hurts the earth and animals. Also, if you teach this to your kids, you are teaching them to respect the Earth and that is something they will carry forward to THEIR kids and that is how you effect change.
• Get rid of your petrol lawn mower: A petrol-powered lawn mower emits more air pollutants than a car! In fact, it emits as much as four cars! Never mind that it's using precious fossil fuel. Get an electric one. Seriously. And while we're talking garden care, what is it with all the leaf blowers?! Never mind the noise pollution which disturbs both humans, birds and other animals but they pollute in the same way petrol lawn mowers do, AND they disperse millions of microorganisms into the air that were intended to be left in the dirt to compost and renew. Really, all you're doing is blowing the dirt somewhere else temporarily until the wind blows it back. They have got to be the most ridiculous invention ever in my opinion! Whoever told you you need one really took you for a ride...
• Use biodegradable body care: Use wooden toothpicks instead of the tiny plastic picks and brushes that many dentists’ offices are passing out to their patients. For skin and hair care, find products that are labelled "certified biodegradable". Just because they say "natural" doesn't mean that they are. Check this blog post to see what to avoid. If they contain any of the chemicals listed there, stay away! They are being absorbed into your blood stream and poisoning you but they are also going into your environment and poisoning that too.
• Use biodegradable household products: This is one of the most important things you can do for you, your family AND your environment. These things are sending unbelievably toxic poisons down your drain but they are also sitting on the surfaces that you eat and live off and you are inhaling and ingesting them. To use them is just plain crazy and irresponsible. If you aren't sure what to use, read this post.
• Teach your children reciprocity: Even small children understand fairness. No one wants to get the short end of the stick. Teach your children to give back when they receive something. They need to know that they are guests on planet Earth and that she is giving of herself as a gift and so we need to give back. Practice it yourself. If each of us gave as much as we took, the world would change, truly.
• Appreciate trees: Without them, we all wouldn't exist. They provide us with life-giving oxygen. The next time you think of cutting down a tree because it's in the way of your view, consider that we are only here because of it.  Without trees we wouldn't have paper. That's a biggie when you think about everything you use it for. Even in this digital age, we all still need toilet paper! Cut down on junk mail, get your bills emailed instead of posted. Recycle whatever paper you don't need and only print when absolutely necessary.
• Reduce pesticides in your area: I had to jump down my gardener's throat when I realised he was using weed killer in my garden!! That's a HUGE no-no. I wash my car with biodegradable soap and make my own compost. Why on earth would I use a weed killer?! Stop using conventional fertiliser in your garden. What you use directly affects the environment because water keeps working its way back to the rivers and oceans. Think BIGGER than just your little world, in everything you do.
• Buy stuff that uses less packaging: Everything you buy at a grocery store uses FAR too much packaging. If you buy something like processed, sliced cheese, there is a layer of plastic between EACH SLICE, never mind the packaging it comes in. I wouldn't recommend eating processed cheese anyway but to mindlessly add so much plastic to the environment is just crazy. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be recycled. It's going to go into a landfill. Remember that and rather go for something else, preferably something healthier for you!
• Reduce, re-use and recycle: This goes hand in hand with the previous point. I collect every container that we get from anywhere we shop and I use them for all sorts of things. You'd be amazed how much tupperware you will have if you collect and re-use. I haven't had to buy tupperware for years. They aren't fancy but who cares? It's just to store stuff and it prevents it from going into a landfill. I cook for clients on a weekly basis and they have no problem with getting recycled containers. They bring them back for me to re-use and, through this, they are learning the value of recycling. If you can't use the containers, recycle them. If you live in Jhb, look up Mama She's and sign up with them. If you aren't in Jhb, visit this post to find someone near you. If you can't find someone to pick up from your house, you will have to drop it off at a Pickit up near you but, given the situation, and this blog post, I think it's a small effort to make for planet Earth, don't you?
• Save water: I've said this before but since it's pertinent to this post, I'll put it here again. Put a bucket next to your sink and every time you need to run water for a while (eg. either waiting for it to get cool or warm), put the bucket under your tap, or put a jug there to catch the excess water. Save that water and use it to water your indoor plants, clean the floor, fill your electric steamer, boil eggs etc.
• Save electricity: This is so easy and it amazes me how people pay NO attention to it. All of the people in our lives are environmentally conscious adults and they're good people, but they still leave lights on in every room they walk in and out of and I walk around after them like the light police;) We only have lights on in the house in the room where we are. If any lights are on, they are energy saving globes. We never buy conventional globes anymore. It doesn't enter our heads to walk out of a room and leave a light on. It's a habit to turn the light off and once you train yourself, and your kids, you'll never have to worry about it again. Start getting into the habit. Maybe we can at least keep loadshedding in stage one! But more importantly, we can help our planet cope by using less fossil fuels.

That's it for now but I know there are more ways and you can feel free to post them in the comments below to give us all some more ideas.

We all get so caught up in our responsibilities within the confines of our own lives, that we forget those that don't directly affect us. Remember that, when I say you need to help your planet, in effect, it means you need to help humankind. The Earth has been here for millions of years and will continue to be here long after we have wiped ourselves out. We are doing a very effective job of it right now and the window of opportunity for improvement is getting smaller and smaller.

The idea of living consciously isn't a new one, but it's one that people tend to forget about. So here is your reminder. Yes, it comes with responsibilities. But what, in life, doesn't?

Wellness Wednesday - The dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

I've spoken about high fructose corn syrup in various posts and I thought it was worth going into more detail about the dangers of this stuff and just WHY you should avoid it. Some of you are thinking, but I don't eat that stuff so I'm good! Well, you'd be surprised what you find it in. Unfortunately, it's in pretty much EVERYTHING that isn't real food.

If you eat any of the following then you DO eat HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), you just didn't realise it:

• Soft Drinks - And just before you say, "But I only drink the "light" ones, it's in a lot of those too.
• Sauces and Salad Dressings - People generally don't realise how much rubbish goes into a salad dressing. (and you thought eating a salad was a healthy option! It IS, without the dressing.) If you use tomato sauces, barbecue sauces etc, you are eating HFCS.
• Breads and pastries - Even the so-called "health" breads contain HFCS. As long as it's on a grocery shelf, the chances are extremely good that HFCS has been used to make it. 
• Fruits and Vegetables of the canned variety. If they say it contains sugar, it's more than likely HFCS. Baked beans and pickles pretty much always use it as well.
• Breakfast Cereals and Bars - A lot of these are sold as "healthy" options. Muesli is a common one. I can tell you that if the muesli is coated with something sweet, it'll be HFCS. Even the cereals that aren't that sweet will probably still have it in the ingredients. Manufacturers just can't seem to resist using it in everything. Those popular Jungle Oats bars? Nothing healthy about them I'm afraid. The sugar they use is HFCS.
• Processed Snacks - This should go without saying.

So what IS this stuff, actually? Well, HFCS is a thick syrupy combination of weird chemicals like alpha-amylase, glucoamylase, and xylose isomerase and corn kernels spun at a high velocity. HFCS is not natural at all. It has to be chemically made but, because it's so cheap and easy to make, it's the most common sweetener use in all things "food". There is not one human being on the planet whose body won't have a bad reaction to it, and yet the FDA casually allows it to be continually used as a sweetener in our foods. I can't speak for South Africa but a scary statistic is that the average american eats about 28kgs of the stuff in a year! I'm sure we're not far behind them with our levels of obesity reaching epic proportions.

Why this stuff should be avoided at all costs:

• It will make you gain body fat - Ok, so we pretty much know that anything that is sweet IS going to make you gain body fat. However, HFCS is actually even more sneaky in that it plays tricks on your brain. It messes with the functionality of leptin, an important protein that tells your brain when it’s time to stop eating. Basically, the more HFCS you consume, the longer your body will think you’re hungry, making you eat more food than necessary. As a result, you’ll steadily gain body fat.
• It can damage your liver - Fructose is much more readily metabolised to fat in the liver than glucose which means that excessive intake of fructose can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This is a disease where fat builds up in the liver, causing inflammation, scarring, excess triglycerides, and bad cholesterol. In severe cases, the disease can progress to liver cancer or liver failure. This study and this study show that subjects who consumed more HFCS (in this case they used soft drinks) had more serious liver inflammation and scarring than those who consumed none. A good reason to stay away from soft drinks.
• It can lower your IQ - Yup, this stuff will affect your intelligence and long-term memory. A study on rats concluded that, what you eat, greatly affects how you think. The rats fed high levels of fructose navigated the designated maze much slower than the rats that were fed high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. One of the researchers, said in a statement, “Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information.” 
• It often contains mercury - In 2005, an FDA researcher named Renee Dufault posed as a fictional soft drink company and asked corn producers to ship a barrel of HFCS to her. After testing 20 vats, she found that at least 50% of them were contaminated with mercury. Another 2009 study had researchers pulling random food products off of supermarket shelves. All these products contained HFCS, and the researchers found traces of mercury in a third of them. What’s scary is that the FDA doesn’t regulate or even pay attention to the amount of mercury slipped into processed food, so there’s no telling how much mercury you might ingest by eating a donut or anything else that’s full of HFCS. Why do you want to avoid mercury? Read this post for that info. Isn't it scary to think how easily you could ingest mercury just by eating some french fries topped with a generous helping of tomato sauce containing HFCS?
• It can cause diabetes - Given that the average person consumes 28kgs of HFCS per year, it’s no surprise that one out of four people today have diabetes. Consuming high levels of fructose hinders, or can even permanently impair, the body’s ability to use or store glucose. That can, and does, lead to type 2 diabetes.
• It can fuel tumour growth - Did you know that cancer cells and tumours feed on sugar? That applies even more so to HFCS. A 2010 study showed that the pancreas, the organ that creates insulin, has a higher risk of developing cancer if it processes too much fructose. Tumour cells thrive on sugar, but fructose is like a superdrug to them. They increase even more rapidly on the stuff. This sheds some light on why cancer rates have been on the rise in the past few decades...
• It's bad for the environment - Environmentalists hate HFCS as much as food companies love it because it's terrible for the environment. It uses more pesticides and fertilisers than any other crop, and the more pesticides we spray on our crops, the more we pollute our soil and ground water. Corn is grown as a monoculture, meaning that the land is used solely for corn. That leads to soil erosion. The high demand for HFCS means we’re faced with more dead soil and contaminated water than ever.

Do you need any MORE motivation to avoid this stuff? It's tricky to avoid if you eat processed foods, baked goods, sauces etc but, if you can bring yourself to get rid of all of those things and go back to the basics, and eat REAL food, you will find you can quite easily avoid it. Most of us have eaten all those things ALL our lives and that is why we find ourselves getting ill so young, and so chronically. 

Don't you think it's time you put a stop to the abuse on a body that is basically only on loan to you for, if you are lucky, about 70 to 80 years? Guaranteed, before you reach the end of those 70 years, if you are filling your body with poison like this, it is pretty much a given that you will end up with a few chronic conditions along the way like arthritis, diabetes, benign tumours, cancer, heart disease, to name a few. Sadly, many people won't even reach those 70 years and their loved ones will have to sit by and watch them suffer through some or other dread disease. 

There are SO MANY things in this world that are dangerous and toxic to you and your loved ones, but this is ONE thing you can definitely avoid and, in doing so, take huge steps towards having a long, healthy, fulfilling life. 

I'd say that's a pretty good reason to make a few changes!

Monday Mix up - Are we in danger of teaching our kids to obsess over food?

Being a real foodist in a world obsessed with convenience isn't easy. Most people just don't understand why it's so important to avoid conveniently packaged and processed foods and to make a meal from scratch instead. For most of them, their whole life has been about packet sauces, margarine, fizzy soft drinks, store-bought yogurt and breakfast cereals. It doesn't enter their heads that there is any other option. As far as THEY are concerned, THAT is food.

Thankfully, since Tim Noakes introduced us all to Banting, people are starting to realise what real food actually is. I am eternally grateful to him. But there is still a massive part of the population that fit into the category described in the first paragraph.

When I am discussing kids and what they can and can't eat and drink, and I make a comment like, "Well, my kids just won't eat or drink that," I get horrified looks. They're always followed by the question, "How will you ever enforce that?!" Even GLM says, "How are you going to keep that stuff away from them?" The truth is, I can't really say right now because we don't have kids...YET. What I CAN say that our kids will grow up knowing, and eating real food. Whatever they eat at home will have been made in my kitchen. There are NO convenience foods in our house right now and I don't see why that should change when we have kids. I can say that with absolute certainty. I have to hope that, given that kind of foundation, they will make good choices.

I think that, how you react to food, and your relationship to it, is going to make a big difference to how a child reacts to food. They watch you all the time and they learn from everything you do. If you are on a constant diet, trying to lose weight, and you complain about eating salad all the time, do you really think a child is going to find salad appealing? If you happen to mention that you'd love to just be able to eat as many sweets as you want, without getting fat, your child is going to associate sweets with happy thoughts too. If you make processed foods out to be something yummy but untouchable, your child is ALSO going to feel the same way and they are going to be drawn to them.

As a real foodist, I definitely evaluate what goes into my mouth. I contemplate the nutritional value of it because that's important to me BUT the list of options never includes anything processed because I don't consider them options. In terms of evaluation, what I'll be considering is, "Do we need to add some Vitamin D to our diet this week? Ok then, time for some eggs!"

While I hope my kids ALSO consider the nutritional value of food, I guess there IS the fear that I might instill food neurosis in my kids. We all want our kids to enjoy food without obsessing over it; to have healthy appetites but to not feel like, once they have one piece of cake, that they need to eat the whole cake because of some kind of emotional issue or other. We want them to feel comfortable walking away because they've had enough, not because they're counting calories or nutrients.

It is so important that kids develop a healthy relationship with food. It should never be seen as a punishment or a reward because that is a surefire way of creating an emotional attachment to food. It's important to keep things neutral. There is no "good" or "bad" food. An attitude like that tends to create eating behavioural problems. Kids who have a healthy relationship with food recognise their own satiety cues and never feel a need to binge. If you are forced to finish all your vegetables before you are allowed to have ice cream you are immediately setting up a punishment/reward scenario. The child will feel the need to “make up” for times when they may have been deprived or “reward themselves” by binging on an entire packet of biscuits.

Interestingly enough, how we react to food all starts before we’re even born. Adults whose mothers were exposed to extreme calorie restrictions, during the first half of their pregnancies, are 80% more likely to be obese as adults. Our amazingly intelligent bodies will program themselves to prepare for a life of either scarcity or abundance, depending on the conditions they find themselves in. So, if you are terrified of putting on too much weight in the beginning of your pregnancy, and you hold back on calories, you aren't giving your child much of a chance when it comes to food.

As a pregnant mom, it is so essential to get a healthy balance of protein, fat and healthy carbs in your diet. In terms of fats and carbs, a lot of moms make the mistake overloading on wholegrains, seeds and nuts, thinking they're actually good for them. The truth is, when it comes to wholegrains, unless you are going to prepare them correctly, you'd actually be better off eating refined grains. I know, you're going to think I'm nuts but honestly, since people started focusing more on wholegrains instead of refined grains, even more gluten and wheat intolerances have sprung up. That's because our bodies aren't designed to digest wholegrains that aren't prepared properly and that's going to lead to a whole bunch of issues like leaky gut and IBS and malnutrition. Read up here to see exactly why they're a problem.

Seeds and nuts give you the same kind of problems for the same reasons but there is an even bigger issue with eating too many of these. Nuts and seeds are very high in linoleic acid, a type of polyunsaturated fat. Scientist will tell you polyunsaturated fats are good for you. They're not really. We need minimal amounts of them and we all get far too much in our diets already. Did you know that animals consume large amounts of linoleic acid just before autumn so that they can slow their metabolisms down enough to hibernate for the winter? Research has shown that it has the same effect on humans so, by eating lots of seeds and nuts, you are actually slowing down your metabolism.

There is a vast difference in breast milk from woman to woman, depending on their diet.  Moms who eat large quantities of linoleic acid, which, as I've said, is found in nuts and seeds (and liquid vegetable oils like corn, soy, canola, and cottonseed), not only slow down their own metabolism, but also produce a lot of arachidonic acid in their bodies and milk. Arachidonic acid is converted from linoleic acid. Arachidonic acid is highly inflammatory. If you have high levels of arachidonic acid in your breast milk, you will transfer that to your baby which will mean your baby will have a slow metabolism as well as inflammation. What you eat, and how you eat it is going to directly impact your child and their future. Yes, there is nothing more nutritious than breast milk for your baby. But remember that your body makes breast milk based on the fuel you give it to use so your baby literally eats what YOU eat.

A child with a slow metabolism is probably going to develop a bad relationship with food simply because, in this day and age, where the skinny woman and the lean, muscular man are placed on a pedestal, your child with the slow metabolism is going to feel like they don't match up. If they are overweight, then the minute you place restrictions on them, they are going to latch on to the punishment/reward scenario and, once food has lost its neutral position, that child has less chance of NOT obsessing over food. That will go with them into adulthood.

A child shouldn't diet. (No-one should in my opinion, but especially not a child) They shouldn't see certain foods as good or bad. A child should eat simply because they're hungry and not because some foods make them feel better about themselves, or because mom says they're "out of bounds". The minute you give food any kind of control over your life, you are setting yourself, and your kids up, for a lifetime of weight problems.

The simple solution is to provide your kids with what they need nutritionally. Don't ever bargain with treats, don't force them to finish everything on their plates, don't make one food seem less or more appealing than another food and allow them to set their own pace when it comes to eating food. At the same time, they need to know that the food on the table IS the only option and it's that simple. Children battle to make big decisions, so make the decisions for them and, if that is what they know, and what they've grown up with, they won't know to think some foods are "gross" or "yucky" because you've never given them that impression. Don't stock your cupboard with sweets and biscuits. If you want to give them a sweet treat, bake something and get them involved so that they see, and experience the reward of making food from scratch.

It's a great lesson for them to learn that foods don't actually magically appear on the grocery store shelf. When our 6 year old nephew came to spend some time at our house, he was enthralled by the fact that I had tomatoes growing in the garden. He was so excited he couldn't want to eat it! And he was also a little confused that our tomatoes came from the garden, but theirs came from the shop! As far as he was concerned, that's where all food came from. To learn that it might be possible to grow his own food was a thrilling thought for him.

If you lead by example, in other words, you don't pull a face at food, or get picky about certain foods, and don't let them see food as controlling YOUR life, then they will have NO reason to develop an issue with food. I think that the biggest danger to your child's relationship with food, outside of family, will come from advertisers. Children are SO susceptible to their strategies. Keep the tv off and rather let them watch a movie while they are at such a young, impressionable age. Even better, give them books to read or send them outside to play in the garden. If you inspire kids to move, they will also move as adults. Kids who eat a real food diet will have abundant energy, very few mood swings (aside from the terrible 2 tantrums!) and no allergy issues. They will be full of vitality and that's what you want for them.

They will also LIKE feeling good and they'll notice when they don't. It'll probably be after a friend's birthday party where high fructose corn syrup was in abundance;) They are smart. They'll figure it out eventually and, hopefully, make the right decisions for themselves. THAT is first prize.

Wellness Wednesday - Is your body a ticking time bomb?

It's always a shock when someone we know gets cancer, or finds out they have a chronic disease. It's difficult to process. Our first reaction is, invariably, "Why?" Our second will probably be, "How?" There is a fair amount of questioning and commenting and, almost always, one of the comments to come out of our mouths will be, "But she is so fit and healthy. I just don't understand how this could happen!"

That IS the question. How does someone who appears to be so fit and healthy, who gyms regularly, follows a healthy diet and basically follows all the steps recommended to maintain a healthy lifestyle, acquire a dread disease like cancer. It makes you realise your OWN vulnerability and it makes you wonder just how healthy you actually are... for a few weeks maybe. But then you gradually move away from that harsh dose of reality and go back to your daily life where disease isn't actually a REAL possibility for you. It's something that happens to other people. It doesn't occur to us to think that our bodies may also be a ticking time bomb.

That sounds really dramatic but it's, unfortunately, very true. From the day we are born, our bodies are exposed to things that bodies just shouldn't be exposed to. In fact, it actually starts before that, while we are growing in our mother's wombs. Whatever mom eats, or uses on her skin, breathes in, or is exposed to, gets transferred directly to her baby. It's frightening to think that, at such a crucial time of our lives, we are already ingesting chemicals and they are contributing to the cells of our tiny bodies.

After we are born, we continue to be exposed. Breast milk IS the best thing you can give your baby BUT, again, whatever you eat or drink, or use on your skin, will be transferred to your baby. If you feed them formula (and I know some mom's have no choice because they can't breastfeed) you are exposing them to even MORE chemicals because most baby formulas are processed under extremely high temperatures and that leads to the formation of AGES (Advanced Glycation End products) These nasty things build up in your body over time, leading to oxidation (think of rust on anything exposed to the elements for too long) and inflammation, which is linked to a number of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease and, of course, cancer.

Babies products, which are supposed to be safe, are NOT at all safe. Johnson and Johnson is such a well known, commonly used manufacturer of baby products like shampoos and body washes and yet they contain two, potentially cancer-causing chemicals. One is quaternium-15, a toxin which releases formaldehyde; a skin, eye, and respiratory irritant, and a known carcinogen. Frighteningly, formaldehyde exposure has also been associated with leukaemia. The other is 1,4-dioxane, a carcinogen which is toxic to your brain, central nervous system, kidneys and liver. Talcum powder is another, commonly used baby product which has been connected to cancer AND asthma.

All this happens before you can even walk. Over the span of your life you move from baby products, to toxic beauty products from soap right through to body cream. You will get sick and visit doctors who will prescribe medications, like antibiotics, that further break your body down. In between those doctors visits, you will self-medicate with various other over the counter chemicals to cure pain, inflammation, hay fever and insomnia, among other things.

The average person eats roughly 800kgs of food a year. The bulk of that food will consist of processed "foods", takeaway and, if they eat fruit and vegetables, they will be conventionally grown and pesticide-ridden. Whatever meat they eat will likely be hormone and antibiotic-ridden AND from grain-fed animals. Their diet will be heavy in processed and refined grains and low in good, healthy fats. In reality, most people DON'T eat fresh fruits and vegetables anyway. They prefer to stick to packaged and processed foods developed in science labs because it's convenient and they are taken in by labels like "low-fat" and "low-sugar" thereby exposing themselves to even MORE toxins.

In case you don't really know where all this is leading, let's think about how our bodies work. You really ARE what you eat. Everything that you eat gets used to build the body you have. Your body is constantly regenerating itself and it uses WHATEVER you give it, to regenerate itself. It won't be able to differentiate between an organic apple and a packet of crisps. Your digestive system will break it all down and send it out to be used to build more cells. You can imagine that the apple will provide some stellar fuel for your system, but the crisps? Not so much.

Did you know that you can lose anywhere from 200 000 to 3 000 000 cells per SECOND. It's difficult to get an exact answer as to how many body cells we lose on a daily basis but the atoms in your body go through a complete turnover about once every 7 years. That doesn't mean you get a whole new body as you hit the 7 year mark;) It means that, by the end of those 7 years, all the cells you started with at the beginning of that 7 year cycle, will have been replaced with new ones. When we are younger, we are making far more cells than we are losing. As we get older, or we get sick, we are making fewer cells than we are losing and that's how you notice the ageing process beginning to happen. We see the result in the wrinkling of our skin, the greying of our hair, the loss of muscle and strength etc.

Consider all that I said before about how you start your life exposed to chemicals and continue to expose it, on a daily basis, for your entire life. If your body is constantly regenerating itself, what is it using for fuel? Well, it's using all of the chemicals and toxins that you feed it day after day. That means that the cells in your body not only CONTAIN toxins, but they are MADE UP of toxins. Your body wasn't meant to be part plastic and chemical. What is going to happen with all that foreign matter in your body? It is going to transform what you thought was a healthy body, into a very sick, diseased body.

The frightening reality is that most of us are already sick. We just don't realise it. It's basically impossible to be 100% healthy given what we do to our bodies year in and year out. Most of us operate at about 50% on a really good day. We pick ourselves up with doses of caffeine in the form of coffee or coca cola. We have a daily red bull without which we likely wouldn't get through the morning. By the afternoon we are shoving refined carbohydrates down our throats to try and get through the remainder of the day. We JUST crawl over the finish line and make it home to our couch where we blob in front of a TV, too exhausted to think or move. By the time we get to bed we are shattered but can't sleep because we've overloaded our systems with caffeine and sugar all day so we pop a sleeping pill, or have a few glasses of wine, just to get some shut eye.

This isn't a NORMAL way to live. If you are battling to wake up every morning, and feel tired until about 10am, something is wrong. If you are taking painkillers every 4 hours for a constant headache, something is wrong. If you are having to rely on caffeine to pick you up and your body is craving carbohydrates and you are lagging by the afternoon, something is wrong. If you are struggling to sleep EVERY night and it's normal for you to take a sleep aid, SOMETHING IS WRONG. If you don't listen to the signs that your body is giving you, then you will likely wake up one morning and find a lump where there shouldn't be one, or blood where there shouldn't be blood and by then it will, very likely, be something that is only fixable with very toxic medication that will strip your body from the inside out and leave you with a permanently compromised immune system. The only difference between you and a person that is already living with cancer is that they have ACTUAL proof in the form of a lump. Do you actually need to see that lump to believe that you are sick? Hate to be a prophet of doom but by then it may be too late.

There is a way to try and prevent that happening:

• LISTEN to your body
• RESPECT your body. You only get the one.
• Give your body the fuel that it really needs. ie. organic produce and meat from pasture fed animals
• Get rid of ALL processed and refined foods and eat only food that will spoil. ie. REAL food
• Consider a homeopath instead of a conventional doctor. Better yet, consider allowing your body to heal naturally instead of pumping it full of medication. Stop taking pills.
• Get rid of ALL your conventional beauty products
• Get rid of ALL your conventional household cleaning products
• Drink filtered, or boiled water
• Exercise
• Do I need to say STOP SMOKING? It's a no-brainer really.
• Get rid of ALL artificial air-"fresheners" YESTERDAY!

All this may sound like hard work to you but, honestly, what's harder? To do this, or to go through 6 months of chemo and radiation and being in remission with a constant threat hanging over your head? There is no compromising when it comes to your health and that of your family. If you are stuck with how to start, follow the links I've given you. They give you loads of tips. Or just start at the beginning and work your way through. I'm not saying I am all-knowledgeable. Far from it. But I've done a lot of the research FOR you so that you don't have to search high and low. Take advantage of the fact that I am addicted to research and educate yourself;) Use what you want and leave the rest.

Cancer didn't exist just over a century ago. It's a disease of civilisation. That means you have a better chance of avoiding it if you don't succumb to the marketing and hype surrounding all the products that you are exposed to every day. You actually have the power. Don't stick your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening, because it is.

You'll be amazed what happens when you become aware. Suddenly you realise the potentially negative environmental impact you are having on the world around you and, before you know it, you are doing as much as you can to lessen that impact. Becoming aware means you KNOW the consequences. It makes you feel responsible and it makes you WANT to change. That, in turn, makes you more in touch with the world, with people, with the environment and with animals. That kind of reaction has a way of rippling all around you and touching those near you and, before you know it, your friends and family will ALSO be aware. You have the potential in you to save, not only your life, but the lives of the people around you through your awareness.

Don't give in to that ticking time bomb. It's not a given if you are prepared to make the changes. You have nothing to lose so the question is, why on earth wouldn't you?

Monday Mix up - Apathy: The deadliest weapon of mass destruction?

This post has been bouncing around inside my head for the last couple of weeks but, for some reason, it wasn't ready to come out. Last night we watched a movie called The East and it made me realise it was time. The movie was about a woman who infiltrated a group of anarchists called The East. They would target big corporations harming the environment, or exploiting people or animals, and give them a taste of their own medicine. Her job was to figure out their next move and then, ultimately, stop them to protect her clients, which were the big corporations.

Today is going to be entirely my own opinion! You can take what you want from it, or just leave it altogether. But I do hope that it strikes a chord somewhere, for someone.

The more time that passes, and the more experiences I have with people, the more I realise that our worlds have become completely insular. People are so caught up in their own, rather small worlds, that they can't seem to see further than that. Social networking has only compounded the problem. Life seems to revolve around what's next for dinner, paying bills, bathing the kids, the next birthday/anniversary, going to work/gym/the next party etc. Don't get me wrong, all of these are important in our lives and deserve our focus.

The problem is, people can't seem to see past all of that. We're all guilty of it, myself included. It's so easy to lose yourself in day-to-day chores and responsibilities and forget that there is a whole big world out there. But the general attitude these days is that, if it's not happening within my little world, why should I get involved. Most times it's not on purpose. Life just gets in the way and other things involve more effort than we want to put in. We don't mean to be so switched off, but we are. The word that springs to mind is apathy. There is a complete apathy about the way humans seem to live their lives these days.

I joined our complex committee about 4 months ago and one of the things I implemented was a monthly newsletter to create a sense of community and to keep everyone abreast of security updates, advertise services offered by various residents (for free), general complex news etc. In fact for the last 3 days, we have been doing a collection for one of our security guards birthdays today. Out of 60 residents, 5 have contributed something... The rest haven't even responded to say no thanks. Only 50% actually opened the newsletter on Friday and I have received less than 10 emails in total in response to queries or offers, since I started it 4 months ago. The last 4 months have taught me, more than anything, that even the offer of free advertising isn't enough to raise people out of their sense of apathy.

When I thought about the people that DO respond, it's usually the older age groups; which had me thinking. Have you noticed how your parents, or grandparents, never seem to throw stuff out? They still have that coffee machine/blender/toolbox that was a wedding/birthday/anniversary gift 20 or 30 years ago. The furniture is often stuck in the 70s or 80s as are the curtains and carpets.

Maybe it's because they like the stuff. I think there is more to it though. Our parents and grandparents were brought up believing that THINGS had more value. I don't mean that they were materialistic. I mean they valued the things they were given. If something broke, they didn't immediately throw it away and buy a new one. They fixed the broken one until it was beyond fixing. Clothes were worn until they outgrew them or wore them out. Things were handed down or passed on to family and friends rather than thrown away.

Let's face it, "They don't make them like they used to" isn't just a random saying. It's the truth. More effort was put into making things because people didn't buy at the drop of a hat. Our parents and grandparents didn't subscribe to our culture of "stuff". They didn't just want stuff simply because. They only purchased what they needed. Birthdays and christmas were a time when you got given stuff you didn't really need and then it was usually one or two gifts each, and they were thoughtful and meaningful.

Everything is so readily available these days, we have grown accustomed to the convenience of simply buying something new if the old one is no longer appealing. Or we buy something just because we like it, never mind need it. We seldom do. We want stuff simply because it's there and marketers convince us that we NEED them, so we believe it. We have more clothes, shoes and handbags in our closets than we know what to do with. Our kitchens are overflowing with gadgets the adverts said we "really need." We replace our cars every 2 to 3 years. How many of your parents or grandparents have been driving the same car for the last 15 years? It's probably got an immaculate service record too because it is a valued commodity that they are trying to preserve, perhaps for their kids or grandkids. The sad thing is, those kids would probably prefer the new mini cooper or equivalent.

Coming back to the beginning of the post, those big corporations are pandering to the whims and needs of people. They started off having to build this culture of stuff and, now that they have, they simply have to keep up with the demand no matter what the consequences. No-one gives a thought to what happens to that old coffee machine/blender/toolbox that they threw out because it wasn't as new fangled and technical as their new one. As I said at the beginning, most people's thoughts don't go much further than what's next for dinner, paying bills, bathing the kids, the next birthday/anniversary, going to work/gym/the next party etc. That blender is already out of their mind and somebody else's problem.

It's that kind of apathy that is getting us into trouble. While we focus on all the little things, big things are going wrong. We are running out of space to put all of that old stuff and our planet is getting infused with toxic plastics and chemicals and just far less space for nature. While we are wondering if we should buy that Guess handbag, someone we know may be at the end of their tether, suffering from depression, and wondering how to end it all. While we are contemplating a new lounge suite (because the other one is a bit out of fashion now) an entire species of animal is on the brink of extinction. Why should we worry about climate change and global warming when we have a birthday party with all our friends on Friday and we need to pick an outfit? Why should we worry about our health and the state of our environment? We're going to die one day anyway, right? Important things are slipping through the cracks because we are so busy living in our small worlds and refusing to look further. 

If you're thinking, "Well, why should it be ME who notices/responds/gives a damn", then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate things. The problem is, the majority of the world IS thinking that and that's why things get worse. I certainly have days where I think, "I really don't feel like washing up the recycling things. Washing normal dishes is enough, isn't it?!" If I did that every day, it would eventually become a habit and I'd stop caring because it'd be easier. So I don't let myself. It's not even an option.

It's tempting to just give up on things because it feels like you're getting nowhere, just as it's tempting to ignore things that aren't pertinent in your life, because it's less complicated. It's easier to buy something new instead of getting the old one fixed. It's easier to smoke that cigarette, buy conventional household cleaning products, eat conventional foods, buy, rather than grow, your own produce, take an antibiotic instead of allowing your body to heal naturally and live in a small, insular world, where nothing can touch you.

But that's not really true. Because it will touch you eventually. And if not you, then your kids, or someone close to you. We can't continue to be apathetic when so much is at stake. Sometimes you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. There is so much more to all of this then a new car/lounge suite/handbag. They are just tiny, largely unnecessary things. If you aren't sure about what I'm saying, watch the video below to put things into some kind of perspective. We are tiny and insignificant and we live in a massive universe where those "things" are so irrelevant it's actually scary. That fight you had with your best friend/mother/sister or son? Stew for a bit if you must, but then move on. In the whole scheme of things he said/she said is really not worth worrying about for the rest of your life. There is so much more.

We are here for such a small amount of time. Instead of the attitude that says, "So why should we care?" try and change it to "That's why we SHOULD care." Make the differences that will leave you feeling proud of the legacy you left behind. Just because "everyone doesn't think that way, doesn't mean you shouldn't.