I was hooked after watching this trailer and did my usual search for the title at the library.  Not there.  Then I checked with Blockbuster and they had it.  Luckily, I looked around the site a little longer because I found that on the Food Matters website under the movie section, you can order and watch this documentary right on your computer for the same price as driving to Blockbuster and renting it.  Score!  Not only that, but there are some movies that are free to watch - titles such as "The World According to Monsanto" and "Homegrown."  Check it out!  Link to online movies

So I ordered the online movie and really enjoyed watching this documentary.  I feel it is well done with good nutritional information and a good look into the problem with our current health care system as it relates to nutrition.  Anyone wanting to understand a little more about why to eat more raw foods in your diet should get their questions answered in this movie.  They go into a wide arrange of connected issues: nutrient loss in our produce, vitamin supplementation, pharmaceuticals, our health care system, and government regulation.

Here is some information that you are probably not aware of:
LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH 
#1. Heart Disease             631,636
#2. Cancer                       559,888
#3. Modern Medicine         225,000

Now you aren't going to see number three on the chart with the center for disease control, but that number represents the number of deaths each year from unnecessary surgery and other hospital errors, infections obtained at the hospital, and medications. (and that is only medication that is prescribed by a doctor and taken as directed)  It comes in number three - isn't that really a staggering reality?  It comes in above stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, accidents, and diabetes.  That number should cause concern.

On a more positive note, David Wolfe gave some great information about raw cacao beans and their nutritive quality.  Raw cacao are the highest natural source of magnesium, chromium, zinc, and copper.  It is likely the highest natural source of iron and manganese, has all the cofactors necessary for a healthy metabolism, is high in vitamin C and has the highest antioxidant content of known foods.  Ever heard commercials touting the high antioxidants in blueberries?  Here is how they stack up:

ORAC values per 100g
Raw Cacao                      26,000
Acai Berry                       18,500
Prunes                             5,770
Raisins                             2,830
Blueberries                        2,400
Blackberries                       2,036
Strawberries                      1,540
Spinach, raw                      1,260
Broccoli florets                     890
Red grapes                          739

And can I say, I just love David Wolfe in this show?!  He talks about things no one wants to talk about in polite society, but he is right on. :)  For those of you who aren't familiar with David Wolfe, he is a leader in the raw food movement and wrote one of the classics, The Sunfood Diet.  Just listening to him and all the speakers in this documentary really inspires me to keep eating lots of raw food.  I have slacked off in the last couple of weeks and have been eating more cooked food. (the cold weather didn't help!)  And just so you know, in this film he highlights eating at least 51% raw food, not all raw, so there is no excuse not to try.

What this movie really has done for me is bring me full circle to the initial thought - you are what you eat.  Americans have gotten away from eating based on what your body needs to function and be healthy, and moved to eating what tastes good.  Unfortunately, with MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, caffeine, and lots of salt, we have learned to create desire for foods that are extremely nutritionally deficient.  We are a society that is fat and happy, but slowly starving our bodies to death and we see this playing out in the increase of disease and death due to our lifestyle choices.

And since you will learn that you need to be supplementing your healthy diet with vitamins, I want to recommend a source of really good ones - Optimal Health Systems.  I used to work for this company and I know that their products are of the highest quality.  You can get a great wholefood vitamin from them.  Here is the ingredient list:


Whole Food Vitamin Blend Includes:
Carrot, Green Peppers, Oranges, Alfalfa, Nutritional Yeast, Acerola Cherry, Broccoli,
Wild Yam, Rice Bran, Spinach, Wheat Germ, Cranberry, Garlic, Papaya, Soybeans,
Molasses, and Beet Fiber.

Antioxidant Blend Includes:
Grape Seed Extract, Grape Skin Extract, and Pine Bark Extract
Opti-Blend (tm) Delivery System Includes:
Amylase, Protease I, Protease II, Lipase, Invertase, Maltase, Cellulase, Lactase, Hemiseb,
Zinc Amino Acid Chelete, Copper Amino Acid Chelete, Manganese Amino Acid Chelete, and Molasses.


Take time to read the research/education information on their site.  It is a great resource.

Now, watch the movie and go eat something raw! ;)

Posted in: health, raw, raw chocolate, Raw_Vegan Lane, videos on Friday, May 14, 2010 at at 9:02 AM 2 comments    

Posted in: Chickens, country living, rooster on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at at 9:38 AM 2 comments    

It's kombucha time at our house again.

So here is a little bit about kombucha if you haven't heard of or seen the stuff before.  This is an empty bottle of GT's Organic Raw Kombucha in original flavor. (i.e. unflavored)  You can actually use the store bought to start your own culture, but if you can get an already grown scoby, I recommend that for beginners.

Scoby?  What's that?
Glad you asked.  I originally learned that it stood for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, but have also seen it as symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.  You will also find the scoby called a pancake, mushroom, or baby.  The scoby feeds off the sugar in the tea and it slowly ferments the tea, giving off probiotics, organic acids, enzymes, and vitamins.  It is a conglomeration of good stuff for you - especially for intestinal health.  After the tea is ready, if you bottle it, it will get fizzy and is a great substitute for fizzy pop which has NOTHING good in it for you. (just a little passionate about that - as an ex-Mt. Dew addict!)

You can look it up on the internet and find people claiming that it has done all sorts of miraculous things for their health.  The thing that jazzes me the most, besides being a great source of probiotics, is one of the organic acids it produces - glucuronic acid.  In a day when we are getting all sorts of toxins in our system, whether it be pesticides in foods we eat or BPA residue from plastic containers and commercially canned foods, this is one powerhouse little acid you don't want to be without.  It's main claim to fame is it's ability to grab those toxins in the liver and take them out of your body.  This stuff will keep you clean!

Now I have heard that you should start in small doses, like 2 oz. a day, and let your system get used to it.  But I didn't read that until I had been downing 16 oz. a day for quite awhile.  I didn't have any problems with it, but don't say I didn't warn you!

Now here is the great part.  Instead of paying roughly $4 a bottle for this stuff, you can make it at home.  We started brewing kombucha back before we moved to Iowa.  We drank so much we purchase a giant 5 gallon glass container with a spigot at the bottom from Costco.  The box it came in pictured lemonade, but I knew it was the perfect kombucha brewer.  :)

To make kombucha you heat 3 quarts of water (purified - you don't want to use chlorinated water) til it is hot but not quite boiling.  Then you steep 5-7 teabags in the water for 15 minutes.


I use generic black tea.  Green tea is also supposed to be really good.  There are a couple other varieties of tea you can use, but these two are the basics.  After you remove the teabags, dissolve 1 cup of sugar in the water.  Now put the lid on the pan and let it come to room temperature.  I like to do this before going to bed and let it sit on the stove all night.  In the morning you are ready to proceed and don't have to worry about it still being too hot.

You preferably want to use a glass container that will hold 1 gallon. (unless you are kombucha junkies like we are and then you can trade up to the 5 gallon jar!)  Again, there are other types of containers that can be used, but glass is the best, and you can easily see how your scoby baby is doing.  Make sure that both your hands and the container are clean.  Pour the tea in the fermenting container and add your scoby and 2 cups of starter. (previous kombucha tea)  Now cover the container with a paper towel, coffee filter, or clean towel.  Secure it with a rubber band and find it a spot out of direct sunlight where it can sit undisturbed.

Here is our little baby that I just started today.  We haven't had kombucha since we had a batch grow mold on it, which means you have to throw it out and start over.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the recommended back up scoby and starter hanging out in the fridge for just such emergencies.  So we have been without because I couldn't find anyone local who would give me a starter. (like I was able to find in AZ)


But I bought the previously pictured bottle of plain organic kombucha and have let it sit in the fridge for awhile.  It already started growing a little baby inside the bottle.  I made up a mini batch of tea (2 cups, 2 teabags, and 2 Tbs. sugar) and combined the room temperature bottle of kombucha with the tea.  I will post pictures of the process as it grows.  Once this scoby has grown, I will have enough starter to make a full batch of kombucha.  We like it flavored with an ounce or two of grape juice (that includes the kiddos!) and have saved a bunch of bottles so we can make our own delicious fizzy kombucha drinks.

Now I'm getting impatient.  Grow, baby, grow!!

Posted in: kombucha, raw, Raw_Vegan Lane on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at at 5:22 PM 0 comments    

Today was one of those serendipitous days that you just couldn't have foreseen.  I've been working on cleaning, organizing, and decorating the girls' rooms upstairs.  I have my heart set on finding an old beat up chandelier, making it beautiful again, and hanging it in their bedroom.  The weather was supposed to be nice so I thought we should go yard sale shopping.  I told the girls they could each have $1 to spend and they were pretty excited to get shopping this morning.  I did a quick check on craigslist to see if there were any hot spots we should hit.  Looked like Norwalk would be the city we would check out - another nice little town (although much bigger than our town!) south of Des Moines.  If it really bombed we could just head north into Des Moines.

There is nothing worse than heading out with anticipation of that great find, and coming home empty handed. But no fear of bombing today.  What I didn't realize (only because I hadn't checked my list from Des Moines ReUseIt group) was that April 30-May 1 are the spring clean-up dates for Norwalk.  That means you can pretty much put anything out on the curb, and they will come haul it away, saving you a trip to the dump.  It also means a lot of great curbside shopping.  Plus, to take advantage of the clean up, a ton of households were having yard sales, and by late afternoon, what hadn't sold was now sitting in the pile on the curb.

Here are some of our free finds today.  We will start with the biggie... a lovely new grill just in time for Mother's day....hmmmm....okay, a month early for Father's Day!  (I don't grill!)  The grill we have we paid $10 for at a yard sale three years ago when we moved here.  It was pretty old and ugly, and we had to replace some parts, but it has gotten the job done.  This one is definitely an improvement and even has a rotisserie attachment.  I'm pretty excited about that!

Posted in: curbside shopping, yard sale on Saturday, May 1, 2010 at at 10:59 PM 1 comments