Because most conventionally-grown zucchini and yellow squash are GMOs, genetically modified to be virus resistant.
It’s safest to only buy organic zucchini.
Why You Should Always Buy Organic Zucchini
Soothing Throat Coat Tea for Sore Throats
With all the highs and lows we’re se
eing in our weather this month, perhaps its no surprise to see lots of kids with coughs and scratchy throats. In my experience, nothing soothes a scratchy, irritated throat like a nice cup of Throat Coat tea from Traditional Medicinals.
The Just for Kids line by Traditional Medicinals offers a delicious brew of six organic herbs to bring relief to little necks. Each bag contains marshmallow root, sage leaf, calendua flower, licorice root, cinnamon bark, and wild cherry bark for a blend of healing herbs long known to be helpful for sore throats.
Be sure to cover the bag in hot water and then with a lid and let steep for at least ten minutes to allow the herbs time to release their healthful components. Sweeten with honey as needed to make it appealing to little palates.
Be sure to check out these natural remedies for croup!
Whole Foods To Require GMO Labeling
It warms my heart when I see big corporations stepping up to do the right thing.
Whole Foods Market just announced that every GMO product in their stores will need to be labeled by 2018.
Hooray! This is a step in the right direction and hopefully it will start off a domino effect that will ripple through our food system. Once you are labeling food for one outlet, it’s cheaper to have continuity in your labeling across all outlets.
Really, all this does is allow you, as a food consumer, to know if there are genetically modified ingredients inside this product. You will soon be able to choose for yourself if you want to eat those foods. And now, at least, you will have the information to make an informed decision.
Genetically modified foods and your health
In a recent cooking class, a student raised his hand and asked: “What is so bad about genetically modified foods?”
Everywhere I go I hear variations on this question, and in some ways, it has become one of my missions to open our eyes about the dangers of GMOs.
Why are GMOs so bad?
Let’s just start by pointing out that we have been unwittingly made part of the largest experiment on the public health in the history of this planet. Twenty years ago, when the FDA approved the first genetically modified seeds for planting and introduction into the American food supply, all of the scientific research was presented by staff scientists for the chemical companies applying for the permission: Monsanto, Cargill, and others. Research had been limited to experiments of weeks and done on rodents, not humans. Despite these companies’ track records of assuring public safety with products like Agent Orange and DDT (Monsanto), the FDA took a “safe until proven otherwise” stance.
Did anyone ask you if you wanted to opt out of this experiment?
Current studies are linking GMOs to tumors and infertility, but the truth is that we really don’t know how bad they are for us. GMOs have infiltrated our food supply to the point that, unless you are very careful, every time you cook with canola oil or eat a corn chip or drink milk or have a soda with high fructose corn syrup, you are ingesting GMOs.
Genetically modified corn is designed to burst open the bellies of insects as a pest control method; our society is riddled with chronic ailments stemming from inflamed, leaky guts like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), acid reflux, chronic fatigue, migraines, and more. Could there be a link? Maybe.
The FDA says the jury is still out about the health effects of GMOs. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to wait for them to make up their minds when it comes to my health. My goal is to avoid GMO foods whenever possible by buying organic and looking for the Non-GMO Project Verified Seal on packaged goods.
Antibiotic Exposure in Infancy Linked to Food Allergies
A new study shows that children who were given antibiotics in babyhood are almost twice as likely to grow into kids with food allergies. The authors, from South Carolina College of Pharmacy in Columbia, theorize that the early disruption of normal flora and fauna in the digestive tract by antibiotics lead to a loss of oral tolerance levels and development of allergies as the child grows.
I can’t say I was shocked to see this information, though it’s always good to see clinical results in a scientific study like this to convince people.
When we take antibiotics, the drugs kill all the bacteria in our body – the good along with the bad. Good bacteria assist us in normal digestive processes and are necessary for complete digestion and assimilation of nutrients into our bodies. We can replenish good bacteria by taking probiotics, but they are limited and unfortunately cannot precisely recreate the complex biome that should be inside our guts.
In Chinese medicine, it is taught that the digestive system in children is not fully developed until they reach six years of age. The Chinese realize that it takes time to build up the bacteria and other life forms in our guts that help keep us healthy.
The study noticed that many of the study participants where given multiple rounds of antibiotics as babies to treat infected eczema. Eczema can usually be controlled with dietary changes in either the breast-feeding mother or the type of infant formula. Babies battling eczema should be tested for food allergies and food sensitivities before they get to a point of multiple infections and repeated rounds of antibiotics that set them up for more food allergies and sensitivities.
The reason I was not surprised to see the results of this study is that I believe a pre-natal course of inter venous antibiotics administered during the ninth month of my pregnancy to address an infection of listeria resulted in my baby’s 41 food and chemical sensitivities. I know it was a necessary action because listeria likes to take up residence in the placenta and cause stillbirth, but none of my medical caregivers ever mentioned how it might affect my baby’s life once he was born. The entire focus was on getting him born alive, and as a result of the infection and treatment he suffered terribly in constant pain and discomfort for the first six years of his life.
If your baby is suffering, it may be due to what he is eating. There are things we can do to help ease his pain and heal his body even if he is still breastfeeding. Feel free to contact me for a free consultation about what can be done.
