Zestos: Enabling life through communication of research

Fungi - keys from books

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 10:58:00 +0000

First up is some useful diagrams, pointers etc. Suggest you find one you like and laminate it. Apologies I can't remember where I got these from, so can't direct to the authors.

This is my personal favourite.

This table I found really helpful when learning about boletes / mycorrhizal fungi and what tree species to look under. EM trees are the trees which produce the visible fruiting bodies. This is from a NZ paper from memory, but doesn't include Manuka / Kanuka and NZ beech which are EM mycorrhizal.

A simple diagram

I think these are for recording samples / scientifically. I use inaturlist instead.

And those who are interested in the science side of things might like to consider the Guide to Surveying Fungi in Australia

My new interest is fungi. I have collated a number of book based keys for use by others in the community. Would strongly encourage you to purchase the books, if you are able, of the keys you find useful. At the start is NZ books / guides, then international ones. Remember names change a lot in fungi, so the older the publication the more errors it will contain. But google can tell you about the new names etc.

The best book currently on NZ fungi, is A Field Guide to NZ fungi by Shirley Kerr. Search trademe for a listing.

Crop and Food (now Food and Plant Research) based in NZ, published in 1998 Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms An Introduction. by Ian Hall and others. I got my copy from Food and Plant Research. Has the two circles:

Field Guide of Fungi by Greta Stevenson published by University of Canterbury in 1982

Note, will attempt to fix and get a straight scan sometime.

Specific keys for NZ fungi are best found over at Jerry Coopers inaturalist journal. I do have some PDF's and links for other keys not found there.

Cortinarius species book, (123 pages) can be downloaded here.

The genus Psilocybe (Agaricales) in New Zealand, paper

Magic Mushrooms of Australia & New Zealand a useful guide to Psilocybe genus and look alikes.

Some common Fungi of Auckland city, dated 1983.

I also have a PDF of this 1970's book, which I downloaded. But can't seem to find the source.

There is a book on the pink spored fungi, known as the Pluteaceae. This included the Pluteus species, of which this is the key (would love a copy of the book if you have one to donate!)

Now for the International guides.

This circle approach (big file) to ID'ing impressed me so much I went and purchased the two volume set. Would highly recommend.

Other material that I have scanned in is as follows:

the Hamlyn Guide Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Northern Europe, has excellent introduction, diagrams and such. Will attempt to put the key in here soon.

From The Color Dictionary of Mushrooms (I wouldn't recommend the book) published in 1982 has this simple key

When you want life to give you a lemon

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 05:15:00 +0000

Things to consider when deciding on a lemon type.

a) Temperature / climate would be my first point of decision. Lemons in general need more warmth than large areas of NZ can provide. So hence the major lemon in NZ is a lemon crossed with X (we don't really know, but some kind or orange), and is called the Meyer lemon. This can handle the cold far better than other lemons.

All the other lemons, like Ben Yen and such (it is the only one coming to mind). Need warmth. So unless you are in Auckland, Northland, BoP or in a warmer micro-climate I would stick to Meyer, irrespective of soil conditions.

All non-meyer lemons are actually budded onto trifoliata rootstock, so of these non-meyer's soil condition does not make any difference.

b) When do you want to use them? Most people want a lemon for cooking / drinking purposes on a semi-regular basis. Therefore you want a lemon that has fruit in all stages of development all the time. Again meye suits this, as is blossoms multiple times a year (I think it is just whenever it is warm enough). But most true lemons they call come ripe at whenever they come ripe.

You can also find more about the lemon types at Cooperfeilds web site., lemon information here.

Lastly I would not get a variegated variety (I did) these have less green in their leaves, so struggle compared to the non variegated types. So unless you have ideal conditions (which it doesn't sound like!) then better to go more vigorous.

Using prunings as fire wood

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 04:39:00 +0000

Success at last using prunings as firewood. In the past when using pruned / chopped down wood, it has been still green/wet when burned, even though it had been ageing for two years in dry conditions!

In removing trees, I would chop off the leaves, then cut the firewood to length while still in situ, before stacking. The large bits were chopped with an axe. What really perplexed me was that the large axe cut pieces would dry. But the small diameter bits would still be wet.

What I found out, is that the bark was keeping the moisture in. So with a high moisture level, and small area of ends of the wood, it was trapping in the moisture. Where as in splitting up a log, it would have at least half, if not two thirds not covered in bark. Thus lots of area for the moisture to dry out from.

Thus the greeness needs to be sucked out by the leaves first before cutting up. So I have changed my system, and it know works perfectly. It is as follows:

With pruning (mostly citrus) or cutting back nitrogen fixers and/or hedges, the larger bits are left in the sun until the leaves significantly wilt. I try not to let them go brown as then the branches are harder to cut. But it is somewhat ad hoc.

Foreground is the mostly chopped back Tree Lucerne and the back is newly felled. It takes a lot longer in winter to dry the trees out, compared to summer. As much as that is expected, it has surprised me.

Then I take loopers are trim everything off that can be easily cut with loopers / secateurs. They are then transported to a pile someplace to age a year.

This pile is then cut up, currently by daughters with electric scissor like chain saw and stacked into the shed in summer for winter us.

Tree Lucerne stacked over citrus pruning.

Close up of last Spring's citrus pruning. What you might just be able to make out is that the bark on some of these is peeling, and degrading which shows it has dried out well.This produces wonderfully dry wood, giving high burn temperatures and of course being smaller diameter highly efficient burning.

What is even better is that my slave labor aka teenage children can do a large proportion of the work, once I have done the initial pruning and selection

Gave my teenage daughter who was earning money for an overseas school trip a stick showing ideal and maximum length. She did a much better job of cutting to length than I ever do! Then stacked it for us.
Probably cost us more than say commercial production, but that isn't always the point is it !

I will upload a nice fire photo and a thermometer shot when we restart the fire, since the day hasn't been that cold.....

Photos of issues in citrus

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 10:34:00 +0000

Yellow new growth caused by lack of nitrogen

Healthy new growth with good nitrogen

Old leaves, showing both magnesium, as well as zinc / manganese deficiency

Lemon borer damage. Look in center top. Leaves are yellow and struggling

'mild' zinc and manganese deficiency

Whole shoot showing signs of zinc and manganese deficiency (sorry should be rotated 90 degrees)

Yellow leaves on Citrus

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 09:30:00 +0000

Taking a step back, there are a few fundamental reasons why citrus leaves go yellow. They all center around not having enough nutrients. The options are outlined below. A photo of the whole plant, and a close up of the leaves, would be very helpful to determine exactly what option it is:

a) The leaves are naturally dying. This is the time of year that some leaves will die and drop off citrus. It happens all year round, but more so now. These will be old leaves, and the tree is removing their nutrients, so when they fall, the tree retains as much as it can. If this is the case, it should only be a few leaves, and they are most likely be where they don't get much sun ie in the middle of the tree.

b) Lemon / Citrus borer. A NZ native, that loves to lay eggs on citrus trees. The grub then tunnels down branches / twigs. This can either cause the branch to die due to the bug chewing through the nutrient supply, or from weakening the branch, which causes it to break in the wind. If this is the case, then a sector of the tree will be yellowing, and only this sector.

c) Magnesium deficiency. This shows up on old leaves, and is a more blurry yellow, kind of like a smeared yellow paint, compared to the zinc / manganese issue in (d). As others have said, epsom salts which are high in soluble magnesium will help this.

d) Zinc and/or Manganese deficiency. This produces yellow leaves with green 'veins' which looks different to the Mag lack mentioned above. Since these two minerals are used at a high level by citrus, I would hope that it is in citrus ferts, so make sure you read the packet for what is in it. If not you can buy a trace element mix.

e) Nitrogen deficiency. This shows up with new growth. Instead of being large leaves, dark green (not as dark as the old leaves still), they are small and yellow. Hence people suggesting nitrogen fert.

The question I have is why doesn't the soil have enough mineral and biological life to supply the citrus needs. So some things to poke around at. Concrete, concrete is high pH and tends to turn soil alkaline (high pH) where as citrus like slightly acid (lower pH) soils. Thus if you have buried concrete (common if a house is a new build, and they just tip the excess wheel barrow of cement some place and it then gets covered with fresh top soil! Or close to pathway etc. If this is the case then think about getting a pH test kid (cheap) from bunnings etc. You can use iron sulfate to drop the pH. Little and often is better than a lot at once.

Also is the soil cold. Citrus like it warm, and NZ is marginal for citrus. So if you have clay soil, or water logged soils. Can you increase drainage / temperature. For example things like gypsum are supposed to clump the clay into particles to make for easier drainage. Can you prune back trees etc, for more sunlight. Think about planting on a mound if has wet feet etc.

Chemical lack. You probably not going to do a soil test, but if your citrus is lacking in zinc, it is likely your whole place is. So a trip to farmlands, for a larger volume might be wise, so your other trees / plants are not working hard to get it.

Biological. Citrus trees have mycorhizal relationships with fungi. This is a symbiotic relationship where the fungi provide the tree with minerals, in return they get carbo's for living on from the citrus. Things like round up or other fungicides kill / harm the mycorrhizal fungi. So reducing / eliminated these can help. Also having mixed species of plants growing under / around the tree ie not just ryegrass. This means that the mycorrhizal fungi can move about so to speak from plant to plant in the soil, so they can connect with your tree better.

Of course building organic matter is also very helpful for the soil biology and then tree health.

Wide shot of Meyer lemon with yellow older leaves

Close up shot shows that this is due to Zinc / Manganese

A new leaf

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 09:13:00 +0000

Funny how one grows in life. A decade ago when I started this blog, I assumed my future was in public speaking. But due to the dynamic nature of life, I know find myself living an idyllic life on a hobby orchard. And as much as I would love to be speaking, I am very content (but also frustrated as there are 2 million things that I would like to have done yesterday!) with where I am.

Want more sperm - stop watching TV and start exercising.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:15:00 +0000

You might not be aware that sperm counts are dropping throughout the western world. It is thought our slothful lifestyle could be the issue. A very interesting article just published indicates this:

Sperm concentration and total sperm count were found to be directly related to physical
activity in an analysis of 189 young American men (18-22 years). The sperm concentration in men
who participated in moderate to vigorous activity ≥15 hours per week was 73% higher than in less
active men who participated in moderate to vigorous activity <5 hours="" nbsp="" per="" span="" week.="">Men who watched >20 hours of TV per week had a 44% lower sperm concentration than men who watched no TV.

So watching TV kills your sperm. I can't help but wonder if it is also all that negative stuff on TV affecting the most sensitive parts of your body. But more likely the heating effect of siting cooks them.

Hat tip: NZ Fertility Research Review Issue 4 by Dr Mary Birdsall

Why changed my mind about fluoridation

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:18:00 +0000

In principle I don't like people adding stuff to mass medicate. For example I don't support fortifying flour with vitamins/minerals, which could seem at odds with my pro supplementation stance. However when you legislate mass medication, what you do is get the lowest cost product added into food. This lowest cost my have poor bio-availability and poor dose control. Fluoridation is especially problematic as it cannot be easily or inexpensively removed from water supply (you have to goto serious industrial water treatment to even have a chance). Therefore unlike chlorine you can't get rid of it once it is in the water.

This combined with a miss reading of analysis data (a risk being dyslexic) lead me to believe that fluoridation for water supplies was inappropriate. This was because I miss read the basal level of fluoride in the Waikato River and that dose level was higher than it actually is.

So in sitting down to write an article for a magazine about why fluoridation was wrong, I actually came to change my mind. The two key bits of information are:

The original study. This is the key study which demonstrated the effect of fluoride in water supplies. Each data point was the kids average cavities in that city. (Schutte, Trace Elements book)

Clarification of dose levels. I unfortunately got confused with units/levels, so thought that the fluoridation level was 10 units, so clearly over medicating, hence my opposition. At this high levels you could get impacts in young bottle feed infants, and older people who have spent decades accumulating fluoride into bone structures. However the NZ health regulations state the level is 0.7 - 1.0 PPM. Clearly this is the appropriate region compared to the graph.

Hence my change of heart!

So I do publicly declare that I support fluoridation in NZ water supplies. If you have data to argue otherwise I am always open to debate :) Let the data speak.......

PS for those who worry about the basal level of the Waikato river, it does have a reasonably high level, I do believe due to the geothermal power stations putting "waste" water into the river. This waste water is the condensed steam that is not pumped back into the ground, or vented to the atmosphere. (It is also a major source of arsenic which pollutes the down streams water supplies!) There is measurement systems in the Hamilton water treatment plant that monitors the fluoride level in what is effectively real time, and only doses the appropriate amount of fluoride to bring it up to the appropriate level. (For those paranoid people I have actually seen this equipment working with my one eyes)

Scientific paper backs up my book

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:31:00 +0000

Nice to see my book being confirmed by an independent source. Maybe I should submit some of my book for publication. I like the bit

The most popular term “vitamine” was introduced by Casimer Funk in 1912 and was changed to “vitamin” by Cecil Drummond in 1920.

Could have lifted that from my book! Goes on to say

These networks of dissemination still exert an influence on how scientific information about vitamins is communicated to the public today

Which is one of the central themes of my book!

Lastest American J of Clinical Nurtition

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:22:00 +0000

Unfortunately the full studies are behind a paywall. But they become free in time. But in the mean time the summaries are interesting.

Magnesium may lower HD risk. To summarize,

Circulating and dietary magnesium are inversely associated with CVD risk

So if you have more magnesium then low risk of cardiovascular disease. Can say that supplementing with magnesium lows your risk, but I am very pleased that supplement with 75 mg of highly bioavailable Mg a day! However I do need to get it to 250 mg a day (after which decrease in CVD becomes non-linear). So was thinking about getting some Mg for the trees in the orchard. Now will definitely be sourcing some.

Vitamin K1 maybe good for your heart. Turns out:

Animal studies have shown that vitamin K treatment reduced vascular calcification... A significant interaction between low vitamin K1 and antihypertension medication use was detected... Hypertension medication users with low serum vitamin K1 were more likely to have extreme CAC progression than were medication users without extreme CAC progression... lthough the point estimate of our primary analysis suggests low serum vitamin K1 is associated with greater CAC progression, the difference was NS.

NS = not significant.
CAC = coronary artery calcium

Vitamin K is hard to get in your food. It is thought to be produced in your gut by bacteria. But knowing what we should eat, and what we do. I suspect our gut flora has been changed, and not likely for the better!

Continue to supplement with folic acid throughout pregnancy. I didn't realize that the recommendation to supplement with folic acid was only in the first trimester. I know Tiffany took supplement before, during and after pregnancy (it helped her multi had the right level of folic acid in it). In summary:

Continued supplementation with 400 μg FA/d in trimesters 2 and 3 of pregnancy can increase maternal and cord blood folate status and prevent the increase in homocysteine concentration that otherwise occurs in late pregnancy. Whether these effects have benefits for pregnancy outcomes or early childhood requires additional study.

We know high homocysteine levels are bad and indicate increasing risk of CVD. So odds are that high levels in late pregnancy are not good for mum!

Vitamin D and calcium supplements can help young mothers retain bone mass in pregnancy.
Some describe a growing baby in mum's tum as a parasite or leech. Hardly endearing terms, but to some degree they are accurate. Mum will sacrifice her bodies nutrients to make sure baby has what it needs. So when it comes to calcium / bone health mums can often lose significant bone density over a pregnancy/lactation. This study found with adolescent mothers:

Calcium plus vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy of adolescents with low calcium intake results in higher lumbar spine bone mass and a reduced rate of femoral neck bone loss during lactation.

First post in a very long time

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 30 May 2013 06:36:00 +0000

Have decided to start to post again. Thanks to the wonderful people at USANA who I am doing some training for, found my blog posts really helpful in tracking down the data I knew I had read someplace. So will be posting a bit more :)

Scientific proof our tangelos are sweeter than shop produce

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:43:00 +0000

Purchased a refractometer a few weeks ago. This device uses the change in refractive index in liquids due to sugar concentration. A simple and elegant device it is very enjoyable to use.

Measured the sugar content (it has units of Brix) of two of our tangelos as we picked for Ooooby. The order was for 140 kg, so can't say that our testing was statistically valid. However both measurements came back at 16. Now commercially tangelos can be picked at 8.5 or 9.5 brix depending on country. Therefore our tangelos may have nearly double the sugar levels of products picked for the stores.

Interesting enough I also measured a grapefruit. It had a reading of 12. This means the grapefruit should be sweet. After juicing the grapefruit the juice is indeed sweet. It just has a bitter aftertaste. Paradigm shift for me, as I always thought that grapefruit were sour and needed sugar (or maybe I have tried grapefruit to early in the season).

I hope to track and measure the Brix levels to see if I can increase them via great soil/tree management.

Iowa Study and why it shows no benefit in supplementation

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:02:00 +0000

The Archives of Internal Medicine has just published a paper in which the authors look at the Iowa Women's study and analysis the results with respect to supplementation. The conclusion to this analysis was:

In older women, several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements may be associated with increased total mortality risk; this association is strongest with supplemental iron. In contrast to the findings of many studies, calcium is associated with decreased risk

As the media doesn't thoughtfully critic such articles it is highly likely that you will seen in the health section of your media headlines that scream "supplementation increases risk of death in women" or other such sensationalist, emotion creating bylines.

So lets dig a bit deeper and see if this conclusion is valid. Some background. The Iowa study was a massive study which studied 41 836 post menopausal women. This study was started in 1986 and had five follow ups over the next two decades (last follow up was 2004). The initial and five follow ups consisted of quite extensive questionnaires around lifestyle. Therefore this data gets "mined" regularly by scientists who are looking for impact of a behavior on mortality risk.

So know we know a bit about the study, why do I think that the conclusion "supplement increase mortality" isn't a valid conclusion?

[I also must confess at this point I haven't read the whole article, just the abstract. I am not motivated to purchase said article at US$30, just to more robustly critic it. I would much prefer to put this into my organic orchard that I am setting up. However if you want a more detailed analysis of the paper feel free to purchase a copy and send it to me!]

The following reasons leap out at me:

Three data points. The supplementation question was asked in 1986, 1997 and 2004. Even though the Iowa study sounds impressive, which to some degree it is, the supplementation question has approximately a ten year interval. What this means is that there are errors due to peoples memory and accuracy of reporting. For instance can you remember exactly what supplements you were taking five years ago? I can tell you what multi I took, but couldn't tell you anything else even though I now I took more than just a multi. I am rather brand loyal, but wonder if the "average" person like my mum, who is post menopausal she has taken at least three different general supplements in the last 6 years. Therefore you can see how errors in studies such as this creep in. Know due to the studies size errors such as these may "average out" so that data may be trustworthy.

Take them as sick. I got interested in various supplements as I had health issues. There must be a section of society, like me and my mum, who started to take supplements as their health was no longer optimal. I wonder if this effected the results. Being elderly something goes wrong, they try some supplements. These might help, might not, but soon they pass away. Therefore supplementation could be correlated with trying to get better once ill (which is harder to do, better to take supplementation preventativly, instead of re-actively, to stop body getting to the point were clinical symptoms are detected)

Self reporting. I take my vitamins every day, day in, day out. However many people who I have sold them to, or know take them (including my wonderful wife who I berate regularly for not taking them to schedule) don't religiously take them. Therefore if you are supplementing say once every few days, this is going to be different from twice daily.

Differences in nutrient levels. You need high enough values of a nutrient to make a difference. An example off the top of my head is vitamin C. For shortening the length of cold you need to be taking at least 1 000 mg (I think) daily before you get the cold for it to have a shortened infection time. A lot of studies in vitamin C, don't give a high enough dose to be significant ie they look at supplementing 60 mg. At this level it isn't going to make a big difference in your health. The same goes for other vitamins and some minerals. Therefore to ask "are you taking zinc?" is very difference from "are you taking 5 mg or 50 mg of zinc?" You cannot group both zinc takers as being the same, yet this study does so.

No break down of bio-availability. Classic issue. For those of you who have read my book will know that I give a couple of examples of this. Copper for instance is often not in multi's. When it is it is often in a bio unavailable form as a copper oxide. Therefore if you take copper supplement (which was one of the mineral supplements asked about) is it one that you can absorb? There is differences in bio available of nearly all minerals and some vitamins. The bio-available wasn't studied the data and hence conclusions will be suspect.

Break down of individual supplements. Saved the best to last. This is a MASSIVE concept. Let me give you an example. For some time I took a zinc only supplement to help with depression. I found this helpful in my journey to wellness. However I would never every recommend zinc to someone with depression. Why? A high quality multi is the first thing to take for any health improvement. The biochemistry for serotonin/melatonin creation is complex. Sure zinc is part of the process but first you need a high quality multi to cover the bases, so to speak, before increasing specific nutrients. Therefore without a high value multi there is no point is recommending zinc to people with depression. Now when a media article comes out "zinc helps depression" everyone runs down to the supermarket/health food shop, buys zinc. For the majority of people it doesn't really help..... from memory there is about 8 essential minerals/vitamins/ nutrients in serotonin production. So have about 1 in 8 odds of zinc helping. But anyone who is low on zinc is likely to be low in other minerals, so any improvement would be small compared to improvement with high nutrient. So breaking down supplements to individual minerals / vitamins defeats the purpose

If you have further questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

Hat tip: Keith Lightfoot Hardwick Enterprises for the heads up

Placebo effects

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:50:00 +0000

This great little clip on the placebo effect and what effects the placebo effect :)

Agrisea

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:50:00 +0000

Just had a great visit by Lindsay from Agrisea. Great guy, great product, great company. Fantastic philosophy and as an added bonus learned that our avocados are in good health. Look forward to using their product and seeing an improvement in tree health.

Our Sunday Mornings - Citrus at Farmers Market

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 07:10:00 +0000

This is what we do on Sunday mornings now, sell at the Clevdon Farmers Market. Shot this last week on my phone so apologies for quality. The people at Clevdon Farmers Market are awesome so pay us a visit :)

Sickness - where the heck did that come from ?!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 06:44:00 +0000

My family are sick! First time in a very long time, in fact I can't remember when we last had a miserable winter. Health breakdown includes:

Myself, have a nose that is off/on blocked
Tiffany has the flu, runny nose, headache, blahness
Yasmin has a nasty cough that kicks in at night in bed
Trinity has a runny nose

We are so not used to this ! Why did this happen. I can think of the following reasons:

Don't have access to garden vegetables. Being in transit and having any things todo, our gardening efforts consist of a bucket growing rainbow beet and a bucket of mushrooms (both buckets purchased at Clevdon Farmers Market). So we have to purchase our vege's and they aren't the same as home grown
We eating less vege's. I hate waste, so if I plant something in my garden I will find a way to use it. Also when cooking dinner I used to look in the garden to see what I could base a dish around. As we are shop purchasing we have found we eat less vegetables
Poor meal choices. Due to the stress of everything, from not having p[laces/systems for food, through to the frustration of dealing with a bureaucratic process, our meals have taken a turn for the worst. So we have regularly purchased bad food, ok food and convenience food.
Cool and damp house. The house is very damp. So much so that our salt and sugar have gone all lumpy. As much as I ran around digging trenches away from the house, water still flows under it when it rains. And any heat we trap in the house soon dissipates. So this a very cold, drafty and damp house. Healthy house, healthy life, well this is the opposite.

So hopefully as spring kicks in, and our house project comes together we will rectify the above issues and no more winters with sickness in our house thank you very much.

Oooby - what a great concept

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:36:00 +0000

Very tardy in getting some photos and footage of the happenings that are keeping me from blogging, they will appear soon. Delivered second batch of organic sweet navel "Washington" oranges to Ooooby today. Brilliant idea, Ooooby stands for Out Of Our Own Back Yard. Very clever scheme where they take small volumes of produce that people grow - in their back yards - and then create fresh fruit/vege boxes that are delivered to households. So that way the people with excess can supply local people.

We appreciate the business, and they appreciate having great tasting fruit

Lessons from the cold

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:56:00 +0000

These things I have learned from the brutally cold weather:

A cold house is....... well cold. We had three heaters and a coal fire going and still the house was cold
Even though got no insulation afternoon air temperatures are often warmer than inside air temperatures
That coal burning heaters, designed to heat hot water, produce very hot water
Said how water however will be deep brown color due to the rust from wet back not being used in over a year
Said water heater, does a very poor job of heating the room
Coal is dirty and not very efficient fuel in old fires
That burning coal in heater brings a smile to my face as it smells like a steam train

Hope that you have found enjoyment in the unusually cold weather

PS hope to load a video over the next week showing all the work at the orchard that has been keeping me more than busy!

Robbing elderly of nutrients because we don't know basic botany ?!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:44:00 +0000

Our elders are most loved and we want the best for them. We all know that heart medication, along with other medication, is strongly affected by grapefruit. So they are instructed not to eat grapefruit.

As you also likely know that we have purchased part of a citrus orchard. This does not contain any grapefruit trees. However in reading books about citrus i have come across the fact that NZ grapefruit may not be grapefruit at all.

So it could be that doctors and other "medical experts" have been telling people on medication to cut nutrients out of their diet without any justification! I will however look into this more and make sure that this is actually correct, so don't change anything yet!

Elderly people - keep taking your supplements

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:11:00 +0000

Calcium and vitamin D supplements are known to increase bone density in elderly people. A study published in year 2000 looked at elderly bone density when they stopped supplementing for 2 years found that for woman there was a loss of all the bone density they gained through the calcium and vitamin D supplementing. For men most, but not all of the gains were lost.

Conclusion: Keep taking your calcium and vitamin D supplements when you are aging....... personally I would reccomend that you take them throughout your life.

Minerals deliberately removed from unsaturated oils

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:38:00 +0000

Due to a number of reasons the Western diet is low in minerals. Found buried in a paper that to increase shelf life tranisition minerals are deliberately removed from unsaturated oils. Transition minerals are a large group of minerals lower down in the periodic table. This group contains a lot of important trace elements/minerals that humans need. For example zinc, copper, manganese, chromium, iron and cobalt among others.

Unsaturated oils are the liquid oils that you purchase in the supermarket. Oils such as canola oil, "vegetable" oils, sunflower oil, etc. etc

So people wonder why I champion taking a supplement with a large range of trace elements. Its cause our food is deficient !

Knowledge without wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:53:00 +0000

I see yet another article linking gum disease to Western disease in NZ herald today. This time it is gum disease and difficulties getting pregnant. In the last paragraph they list that "Periodontal disease [gum disease] has been associated in previous research with miscarriage and premature birth, as well as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, respiratory and kidney disease"

This is a classic case of knowledge without wisdom. If you look back to the start of the vitamin discovery Albert Szent-Györgyi who got the Nobel prize for his vitamin C research

always believed that vitamin P, P for permeability, was more important. This is because this vitamin stopped gum disease (gum bleeding) were as pure vitamin C wouldn't. It turned out vitamin P were bioflavonids (plant compounds) and they were not essential to human life, so never became a vitamin. However we know know that the "extra plant goodies" are very powerful and helpful in maintaining health.

Therefore in my mind, if you eat poor levels (or quality) fruits and vegetables your body becomes weak. This either causes bleeding gums, which bacteria then colonize or weak body allows bacteria in your mouth which then causes bleeding gums.

Either way bleeding gums is a sign of poor nutrition. Therefore it is not a surprise that bleeding gums is associated with Western degenerative disease.

To make the statement that:

if they've got gum disease, that should be treated

In the belief that treating gum disease will help you not get Western disease (or in this case help you get pregnant) is total stupidity and shows the lack of wisdom that researchers have. It's not going to help if you get pregnant by treating gum disease with some medication! It is changing your lifestyle so your gum disease self heals, and in that process your whole body will benefit.

Glad I have copper in my supplement

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:07:00 +0000

Copper is one of the minerals you don't hear much about. However it is important to have it in your diet/supplement. If your multi has zinc in it, but no copper then stop taking it! Zinc and copper interact together so you need to take both of them.

Reading a 1998 review paper. Turns out that lack of copper can cause / exasperate:

Heart disease
Osteoporosis
More copper is needed when females (and likely males) loose weight
Reduction in the bodies tolerance for glucose (type two diabetes)

Two rather important issues in the Western world !

It also turns out that we are overestimating copper levels in our diet, thus our actual intakes are lower than nutritionists / dietitians estimate. This is ontop of a diet that is typically low in copper anyway.

Also on the up side beer contains an unknown substance which increases the absorption of copper. So given that beer is higher in B vitamins than wine, and a pint has the same antioxidant level as a glass or red wine this is a great reason to take your supplements with a [small] beer.

So in the future I think we will be hearing a lot more about this mineral.

Fresh fruit and vegetables don't cost that much - its a character issue

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:26:00 +0000

I often hear in the media (though don't hear it from my friends) that fruits and vegetables cost to much. I went to the supermarket today, shopping for some basics and some meat that I enjoy cooking so I can get back into the rhythm of cooking healthy dinners. (I don't often shop as Tiffany is a walking computer who knows the special prices, when the occur, what is a good deal etc. etc - I on the other hand have no idea of such details).

I wondered though the produce section of the supermarket, which is typically quite a bit more pricey than the local fruit shop, and was struck by two things. Firstly that broccoli was small, looked like dwarf broccoli ($1 each), and that leaks were cheap as they were cheap, being in season (between $1.50 - $2).

As I walked from the check out to my car, I got a thinking:

My chocolate fix was equal to five broccoli. That would feed a lot of servings

I purchased some pork chops as it is one of my favorite cuts of meat. We don't buy much pork as they are factory farmed (ironic that we don't mind factory farmed chicken) so this was a treat. Got me thinking though, I could have purchased five leeks instead.

So thinking again. If I was broke as broke can be, one could eat kind of ok.

A sack of potatoes (better than white bread if you leave the skins on)
A sack of onions
A pile of in season vegetables
Topped off with what I would call "goodies" little things that go a long way, and add variety, for instance some bacon, cheese, a sauce or a chutney, olives or sun dried tomatoes. You get the picture

However when I look at what I purchase, and what others in this wider community, which has a large lower socio-economic group, this is what I would say people purchase from the supermarket:

Beer
Potato chips
Breakfast cereals
Cheap / white bread
etc

So why do we, why do others purchase such poor food choices. I would suggest the following reasons.

Humans are inherently lazy. Why do we choose as a family to purchase fast food, instead of cooking a vegetable full meal? Because we can't be bothered planning, preparing, cooking... its just easier when it all goes to custard to buy something. It's easier when rushing home to grab a simple semi-ready made dinner, rather than question why are we rushing home in the first place. Thus this is a character issue.
Habit / Routine / upbringing. I remember the horror at when Tiffany said her mum used to pop into the butcher on the way home to pick her meat for that nights dinner. My family purchased in bulk, half or whole beasts at a time. Mum would plan out the week in advance. This was the right way to do it ! (LOL) In reality each way has its own strengths and weaknesses. However if you were brought up on low fruit and vege, high convenience, then you wouldn't know anything else. It has worked out well for us, Tiffany knows how to cook a gastronomic experience, I know how to quickly whip something up that feeds the masses, so our strengths complement each other (thanks parents). It takes a lot of sustained effort to develop a new habit that is counter to our upbringing. This effort, or lack of, is a character issue.
Body used to high fat, high sugar. If you have ever been on a low sugar diet and then purchased a chocolate bar or a soft drink. Isn't the bar sickly sweet or the soft drink overwhelmingly sugary. Same with fatty foods, on a high fruit and vege diet after some fish and chips one feels really gross, ill in fact. However if you are used to a high sugar diet then it is only after the 5th bit of KFC that you start to think had enough. Or need some soft drink cause the water doesn't taste good. As a family, for multi reasons, we are in a poor diet phase. My body has adapted really fast to high flavorings, high sugar and high fat. Vegetables, unless they are covered in a sweet dressing or sauce, taste gross. Hence I would naturally stay away from them. It takes effort and determination to de-tox from the sugar and fat. So my lack of de-tox is an issue of character.
Short term focus. I struggle with this a lot. The feel good factor of a chocolate fix, or my long term health. Unfortunately in my bad days the chocolate looms much larger. True I know that it is a slow suicide, yet I still do it. The stupidity of my own behavior amazes me. I am sure if you asked someone what they should purchase at the supermarket, they would tell you the right answers. However it is the implementation which has issues (the same goes for weight loss, everyone knows how, we just have the problem with implementation). Short term gain, or long term gain..... this is a choice of character
Having no money. This is the problem of paid on Wednesday, broke by Friday. Often people can fall into the trap of hire purchase or overspending. Therefore we cut what we can. Often this is the food budget. These purchases may have to be deferred or eliminated to generate the cash needed to purchase healthy food. Again this is a lack of planning or impulse purchasing, both of these are character issues.

So to blame the problem on high fruit and vegetables is to me a straw man. A smoke screen that hides the real truth and doesn't help anyone. I say that real reason we don't eat more fresh fruit vegetables is that we lack character. Until we address this issue, nothing we do will change our behavior. There are many things that can help, having a coach or mentor, a buddy to encourage you, focus on long term outcomes eg playing with grandkids........ Once I find my reason and success I will definitely share it here!