I am very excited about this change and want to thank Mark Kawabe, the marketing maven behind www.thewebforbusiness.com, for his help and support.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing from you in my new digs!

Marci

The recipe is adapted from the Yummy Choco-coco Mousse recipe in Carol Alt’s Raw 50 cookbook.  She adds numerous additional ingredients like wild propolis extract, which are all super healthy, but I didn’t have them so went ahead with the basics.   

It works!

1 ripe avacado

3 tablespoons raw agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons coconut butter

4 teaspoons raw cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon Himilayan salt

Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until mixed.  I use 2 tablespoons maple syrup in place of the agave.  You can also substitute 3 teaspoons of carob for the cocoa powder but only if you enjoy carob – they are NOT the same and carob does not have that decadent chocolate taste.  It does have more calcium however and if you are doing a spring cleanse and can’t have chocolate you can still have your puddin’.

The first time I made this I put it in the blender but now use the food processor because clean up is much simpler.   

Enjoy!

Atop that list is the genetic modification of our food.  It is an important subject. It is also a big subject that I have long wanted to address but didn’t, frankly, because I wanted to find a positive way to do so.  Along came Kelly, a fellow food co-op member who sent me a link to the Greenpeace Shoppers Guide to avoiding genetically engineered foods.  Thanks to Greenpeace and Toronto's The Big Carrot Natural Food Market, we now have a concise document that explains the acronyms GMO (genetically modified organism) and GE (genetically engineered) food along with lists of companies that do not use gmos as well as those that do but are committed to stopping and those that apparently intend to continue.      

One of my husband’s favourite phrases is ‘vote with your dollars’. Nowhere does the sanity of that approach make more sense than with respect to buying food.  Simply put, the more organic and gmo free food we buy, the stronger the message to growers and manufacturers that ge food is not acceptable to the consuming public (pun intended). 

So please have a look through The Greenpeace Shoppers Guide and see where you can make a difference simply by buying the foods you are already buying.

The nutritionist asked him to go home, find every packaged food with sugar, fructose etc. listed as an ingredient and get it out of his house post haste. Our intrepid eater reports that by the end of this exercise he literally had no packaged food left!  This is a shocking but telling result and one that I suspect would be repeated over and over if many of us undertook a similar mission.

What can we learn from Howard's experiment?  First and most obvious is that we need to be vigilant about reading labels.  Second is to remember that whole foods are what our bodies know and crave and that eating a whole food diet is the only way to be sure we are getting real nutrition and not some conglomerate's impersonation of same.

Howard has shifted his diet to focus more on fruits, veggies, low fat proteins like eggs, meats and fish.  He is off sugar for the time being - except for a little brown in his morning coffee - but has been promised he will be able to work in honey, maple syrup and the like in time.  He is enjoying nuts, seeds, avacado and other healthy foods that he previously considered fattening.  He has learned that that there are fats and then there are healthy fats that are actually good for the body and have the added bonus of keeping him sated so he isn't reaching for the nearest candy bar all the time.  

Seems to be working.  The sugar purge was over 3 weeks ago and he has easily lost 12 pounds since...

Savour the fruits of your labour, Howard!  You are indeed an inspiration.  

Way to recycle that ring!

What is a cheese lover to do?  Try Daiya cheese.  Daiya is vegan (no animal ingredients) 'cheese' that does not contain soy, gluten, dairy, eggs, tree nuts (although it does contain coconut), cholesterol or transfats among other things.  It also contains pea protein which actually surprises me because peas are not an uncommon allergen. 

Daiya shreds and it melts.  It comes in cheddar and mozarella flavours.  And, while it won't make you forget the real thing, for those of us who can't stomach dairy, Daiya is a digestion-friendly option.  I like to make pizza with it:  Cover a brown rice tortilla with sliced steamed mushrooms, pile on mozarella Daiya and broil till the cheese melts.

Enjoy!   

This is a blog so I don't have to be objective.  That's good because I am not. 

I visited the Region's web site. Their backgrounders say that there is not enough Fluoride in the water to affect our oral health ie to prevent cavities.  Why bother on that basis alone?  Nevermind the fact that there is a strong bank of research that says that fluoride does not prevent cavities at all.  For those who are disinclined to believe this research and want Fluoride on their teeth, the dentist will be glad to apply it.  He or she will (even though their fluoride is not the same as the hydrofluorosilicici acid (HA) the Region adds, caution you not to swallow it.  

The Region's backgrounders also say that although the Region's water, courtesy of the HA with which it is fluoridated, contains measurable levels of arsenic and lead, those levels are well below the maximum allowable levels.  Arsenic is a known carcinogen.  It causes cancer.  How can there be a safe level of arsenic?  Lead is also known to wreck havoc with the human body and is thus noticeably absent from the recommended daily doses of vitamins and minerals.  

According to waterloo watch and fluoride alert, HA also contains mercury and other contaminants and is deemed to be a pollutant if it reaches the air or natural bodies of water.  Why then would be want it in our drinking water?

But let us leave the chemistry aside for a moment and consider that those jurisdictions - much of Europe for example - that do not or no longer fluoridate their water, have similar tooth decay levels as we in the North American areas were fluoride is added.  

I encourage you to do your own research.  See what both sides are saying and especially look at the variety of risks associated with fluoridation ie fuoride senitivity, thyroid disruption, reduced IQ, dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis and several more) and then decide if the risks are worth it.

Please think about if you want the Region deciding if you and your children will take these risks.    

I apologize to my regular readers.  I usually to try to keep this blog upbeat and hopeful. I like it that way.  It's more fun to write.  Unfortunately there is nothing upbeat and hopeful about having other people tell us that our water must contain a dangerous compound.

I hope you will go out and vote on Monday, October 25.  

Commonly used to create clear hard plastic and the liners of food cans, there is strong scientific evidence to support the fact that BPA is an 'endocrine disruptor' which means it can harm the human reproductive system, causing malformations, infertility and cancer. Two years ago the Canadian government banned producers from adding BPA to bottles and other items used by infants.  The ban had far reaching effects however and water bottles containing BPA were yanked from store shelves faster than you can say 'bad karma'.

Almost every time I see him, my brother-in-law, Ward, asks me how BPA can still be present in the liners of food cans.  Well Ward, you may be able to stop asking that question soon.  My hope is that with this new designation the media hailstorm that led to the now ubiquitous 'BPA-Free' labels on most adult water bottles will yield the same results for food cans and other packaging.  

The designation of BPA as toxic is wonderful news and, unfortunately, only the tip of the ice berg. There are so many chemicals that come into our homes and air through cleaners, furniture and personal care products.  The fact that our government stood up to what I can only imagine was a vigorous and VERY well financed chemical lobby to make this pronouncement has me, well, almost speechless.  And very hopeful. 

Signed, One Proud Canadian