Coconut Elvis Granola and Evil Canola Oil

You may already know this, but I am not a superfan of cereal.  Most of the time I feel like it is a little bit of a worthless thing, but that is because it is mainly marketed as something you eat for breakfast and it is (usually) loaded with sugar.  I am a strong advocate for eating something savory in the morning (after your 16 ounces of water, obviously) as it sets the tone for your palate for the rest of the day.

But.

Sometimes you hear something that just inspires you.  I used to eat cereal.  Growing up, that was breakfast.  If I was lucky, it was going to be Lucky Charms (with as many marshmallows as I could possibly get).  As I got a little older, I thought I would refine my tastes with muselix or granola.  You know how that is - it's the fight in your mouth.  The challenge of the hard clumps that cut the top of your mouth - really, I've heard it said that there's nothing like it to wake up to (except maybe a good set in the chlorine).

Because I never buy it, my children think that it is Christmas, their birthday, and Superbowl Sunday all in one if we have cereal in the house and they end up acting like they are some kind of deprived and starving animals and eat it for dessert and the $6 box is gone in a day and a half.  (Well, that was worth it.  Not.)

Today is some sort of snowpocalypse and everyone is out of their minds.  People aren't going to work; children aren't going to school.  Instead, they are playing video games, skiing, and going to trampoline parks. 

This was the day that the granola was destined to be made.

I had a recipe from a friend that was called "Elvis Granola".  Out of all of the people I know, this friend is the all-time world champion of granola eating, so I knew that it was going to be legit.  This "Elvis Granola" contained peanuts and chocolate, so even though it was basically dessert, I figured it was worth a try, even if that try was going to actually be dessert and not breakfast.

There was only one problem.

The original granola recipe called for canola oil.  Excuse me?  Canola oil?  No.  No way, José.  As if I would use poison in my recipe! 

What's my problem with canola oil?  Well, first of all, approximately 90% of canola oil is made from genetically modified ingredients and sprayed with Roundup (glyphosate - made by Monsanto).  Glyphosate is a known carcinogen.  That looks like a bunch of cancer all over the place.  I'll pass, thanks.

The other problem that I have with canola is that it is inherently modified.  Canola oil wasn't invented until the 1960s in Canada, and it was invented because of a demand for a cheap oil (olive oil had a price point that was too high for manufacturing of faster foods).  It was derived from the rapeseed plant (within the mustard family).  Using it as rapeseed oil without hybridization led to a host of issues mainly because of its toxic levels of erucic acid (which can also be found in other members of the Brassica family, but has high concentrations in rapeseed and canola), like blistered lungs and skin. 

Good news, though.  It is used to make paint because it will adhere to wet metal, which is great for ocean vessel applications.  Mmm, practical AND tasty.

By 1978, chemical companies figured out how to get the erucic acid levels lowered a bit so that we could escape the pesky business of lesions on lungs and other problems, and so they could market it to manufacturing as a cheap alternative. 

In 1995, the brilliant scientists found a way to inject the DNA with a bacteria so that it could be resistant to Roundup, making it possible for farmers to spray mass amounts of Roundup on their fields, killing all of the weeds, but the canola plant would survive.  Genius?  Yes.  Diabolical?  Probably.

Canola oil is highly processed and also very reactive to heat, light, and pressure, causing oxidation.  (That means rusting in your body.  That means premature aging and degenerative diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, dementia, and WRINKLES.)  When canola oil is heated, it produces high levels of butadiene, benzene, acrolein, formaldehyde and other related compounds.  Have you heard of any of those?  Yeah.  Poisonous carcinogens.  Awesome.

This study shows the unfortunate side effect of how canola oil decreased levels of vitamin E so drastically that some animals died.  (They supplemented vitamin E to see if and how that would help.)

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I decided that I would sub out the toxin for coconut oil so that when my offspring saw homemade granola and decided to go on a wild binge, I wouldn't be contributing to their early deaths.

Here is what I did instead.

Coconut Elvis Granola

Preheat oven: 275 F.

 Mix these guys in a pan: 1/4 cup organic coconut oil, 1/3 cup maple syrup, 1/4-1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter,  1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  Stir.  Cook a few minutes until you think it isn't going to do anything different.

 While that is simmering, get a big huge bowl (Pyrex for vintage feels) and dump in: 4 cups organic oats, 1/4 cup ground flaxseed, 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds.  Mix it all up.

Dump the warm liquid into the dry crunchy.  Mix all over until everything looks so happy.

Pour onto two stainless steel (seriously, do not give yourself Alzheimer's with the aluminum baking pans) baking sheets and spread out.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotate pans, bake for 20 more minutes.  You may need a little longer than that, but check it at the 40 minute mark.

Let it cool.  Add a bunch of non-soy dark chocolate chips.  I like Enjoy Life brand because they don't have any allergens.  This is how I made it the first time, but I would add shredded coconut to the final mix because dark chocolate and coconut are bae together.  It would benefit the overall flavor to double the peanut butter and make it 1/2 cup instead of a wimpy 1/4.

I did not eat this for breakfast, and I won't because I am an egg and toast kind of girl, but it is an amazing dessert.  I poured it over my organic, grass-fed, whole milk plain yogurt and ate it until I thought I might make myself throw up.  Moderation?  I doubt it.

If you try it, let me know how you like it.

Peace, love, and actual granola,
Ms. Daisy

 

 

Poison, I mean, cereal.

I pretty much grew up on cereal.  It was what was for breakfast.  My brother ate the crazy ones - Fruity Pebbles, Froot Loops, Reeses, the list goes on and on.  Pretty much if it was bright blue and fluorescent orange, it was his fave.  Note: my brother may or may not have two heads, five eyes, and three arms.  My mom also fed him hot dogs when he was like five days old, so no further explanation necessary, your honor.  He actually LIKED it when his cereal milk turned pinkish orange.  Gag. me.
 

May not contain "froot".

I ate cereal too, but didn't go that route as much.  I liked granola and ones with sliced almonds in them.  Ooh, yummy.  And then Costco had a blip of time where they sold chocolate Love Crunch and I think I ate that for about four hours a day until it was gone (good thing Costco sells really huge bags).  

Mmm, Love Crunch is good.  
 
And then I read Nourishing Traditions (by Sally Fallon).  It changed how I felt about cereal.  I thought I was good - I was eating organic cereal!  (So health conscious!  I probably deserve a shiny gold sticker.)  And then I realized it was pretty much an anti-food quasi-foodlike substance and felt kind of disturbed about my life.  Aw, man!  

Here's the deal.  Grains are so much more nutritious and bioavailable if you soak them (or sprout them).  When you pour milk on pretend grains and eat it for breakfast, it kind of counts the same as punching yourself in the face with a blowtorch...but worse.  

In 1960, a researcher named Loren Zanier at the University of Michigan conducted a very crae crae experiement.  He selected different groups of rats and fed them the following things:  

Group 1 - rat chow (yummy) and water (= control group)
Group 2 - cornflakes and water  
Group 3 - (I kid you not) cardboard and water (Umm...basically testing if you should eat your cereal or your cereal box, I guess...)  

Why did Zanier do this?  He wanted to check out the extrusion process on grains.  Basically, extrusion is when the grains get all gushed up and smashed, then fired through a fast and furious squirter (these are all very scientific terms, I can assure you) into little O shapes (or whatever groovy shape the cereal maker wants), sprayed with sugar, and baked to your crunchy perfection.  

So what were the results?  

The rats who ate the cornflakes died BEFORE the rats who were eating cardboard.  Seriously.  Read up a bit more on it here.  That is inexcusable.  This is the testing that has been done, and it is showing it is better to eat the cereal box than the stuff inside the box.  I'm just going to come right out and say that is kind of scary.  You make your own conclusions.  Paul Stitt, in his book Fighting the Food Giants, talks more about this and other such studies if you are interested in further information.

In another interesting article called, "Cereal: The Breakfast of Toxins", the author posits that extruded grains are toxic to the neurological system.  The extrusion process destroys the good fatty acids within and even the chemical vitamins that  they add to try to make it have something in it ("Fortified with 9 vitamins and minerals!").  That doesn't sound like what you want to serve up to your offspring before you send them off for their statewide standardized tests, now is it?!  

On the wikipedia page (I know, totally not a great source, but anyway), it describes the process of extrusion and makes the following comments: 

It [extrusion] may also cause the fragmentation of proteins, starches, and non-starch polysaccharides to create "reactive molecules that may form new linkages not found in nature". This includes Maillard reactions which reduce the nutritional value of the proteins. Vitamins with heat lability may be destroyed. As of 1998, little is known about the stability or bioavailability of phytochemicals involved in extrusion. Nutritional quality has been found to improve with moderate conditions (short duration, high moisture, low temperature), whereas a negative effect on nutritional quality of the extrudate occurs with a high temperature (at least 200°C), low moisture (less than 15%), or improper components in the mix.  

So, basically, it's a freak of nature, reduces nutritional value, and it's near totally untested.  Awesome.  Sounds good.  Let's do this.  

Over at Nourished Kitchen, she hits it home hard.  She pleads with you in her article called, "Boxed Cereal is not Food" (as she should, and as I will) that you cook a real meal for breakfast, and not fall back on cereal (as tempting as it is to do).  In fact, she suggests that the organic cereals, because of their generally higher protein content, are actually worse for you than their Froot Loopy counterparts.  (No, people eating Froot Loops, you do NOT get to rejoice.  It's still an epic fail.)  She even has a recipe or two at the bottom for you to try instead.  

Soaked grains are the best way for us to be able to digest food, and it is no wonder that there are so many digestive issues going on now (we kind of skipped that step because it takes too much of what we think we are saving by eating cereal - time).  

Personally, I am not a superfan of grains for breakfast.  I am more of the free-range, local, egg cooked in grass fed butter (on a cast iron pan, of course) - add celtic grey salt and a crazy amount of cracked black pepper to help my turmeric absorb - with some spelt/olive oil/rosemary homemade toast with half a gallon of butter kind of person.  Kids add ketchup.  Otherwise, if I'm going to make oatmeal, I try to soak it at least from the night before.  If not either of those, French toast is just fine.  If it's Saturday, well, bring on the pancakes (flour from the grain mill).  That's how you get muscles, you know.  Pancakes.  Please do eat that with some real maple syrup and don't get the toxic fake stuff.  Your muscles (and brain) will shrink.  

So why would it be hard to break away from the habit?  Here are a few (very scientific) answers I've come up with from a poll (also very scientific) I put out.  

People have the following reasons for eating cereal:  

1.  They like it.  Okay, I really have nothing to say about this.  I think if you want to eat it as dessert, you go on with your bad self.  I agree.  Love Crunch is pretty freakin' amazing.  But I'm not going to eat it anymore.  Unless it's for dessert on an amazing glop of yogurt with some berries, but I digress.  (But, if you are eating it as your main start of your day, you might want to ponder that deeply.)  

2.  It is fast and easy.  So is not wiping after you go to the bathroom, but(t) that's not super recommended.  

3.  "It's easy and I like eating ground up bugs/mice/rats."  These are the people I call my friends, if this is any indication to you on anything at all.  I have literally no comment at all except for loud laughing.   

4.  I need fiber.  (So that whole cardboard thing...)  Garden of Life, Raw Fiber.  1 scoop and stay in for the next 24 hours, gather plenty of reading material and put it on your bathroom counter.  Otherwise eat tons of raw fruits and veggies.  You can overdose on some spinach salad, too.  If there are digestive issues, perhaps soaking your grains would help, and I'd douse in some probiotics and tons of water, too.  

Rays of glorious sunshine descend upon the magical treats...

Cereal in this hiz-ouse is a dessert-like treat.  I buy it once in a never.  I will confess something to you, though.  I am buying it for an Easter present for the littles.  Chocolate bunnies ain't got nuthin' on a box of cereal around here.  Yes, it is Cascadian Farms organic fruit and nut granola, but it will be a bigger hit than crack Peeps.  (Don't tell!  It's a secret!)  

Peace, love, and crunchy granola as an adjective for people should maybe be renamed to soggy soaked grain or something,  
Ms. Daisy

My secret chemical of choice

I have a little secret.  You know that I'm all organic-y, crunchy, kombucha-ey, granola, making my own deodorant and avoiding chemicals like the bubonic plague...except for one thing.  

I have had many people ask me (and my hubby about me, since they think I am lying?) what my secret little treat is - as if I secretly make organic homemade hummus, but then secretly go scarf down Taco Bell (and Fun Dip).  (Yuck.  I don't.)  I really am not tempted by any quasi-food like substances (they actually give me a migraine and intestinal explosion if I accidentally/unknowingly eat them - yeah, wow, TMI, I know.).  No candy bars, no baked goods, no fast food - nope, none of it appeals to me.   

It's like how most people feel if there was a can of paint or a pile of electronics on your kitchen table.  You would not become hungry at the thought of eating it (well, I mean, I hope not.  If you do, dude, you're messed up.  Might be needing some vital nutrition there somewhere...).  When I see such things, I do not think of them as food, since they are mostly some kind of adulterated chemical substance.  

But it looks so yummy!

I won't even drink normal tap water because of the heavy metals and prescrption drugs that are in it.  Sorry, bro, but I don't want to drink your chemo and hepatitis drugs.  I have a reverse osmosis filter that gets remineralized so I don't strip myself of minerals (since that is what happens to you if you drink R/O plain.).  

I won't use normal cleaning products since they are pretty much guaranteed to be carcinogenic, allergenic, mutagenic nightmares.  I hang out with my awesome Norwex microfiber cloths (with silver) and use just water and clean nearly everything in my house.  

So what on earth could possibly tempt me to the dark side?  

I'll tell you.  It is nearly a lifelong addiction, so you're going to have to just understand.  People have their downfalls, you know.  I can't help it.  You didn't expect me to be perfect, I hope.  Well, good.  

Because I love...well, I love...chlorine.  

Yes, Mr. Hazmat, I know it's dangerous.  I know that the world could pretty much blow up from all the chlorine they store in the dungeons of swimming pools.  But I don't care!  I went swimming today and when I wash my hands and the pleasant and faint scent of chlorine drifts up to my nose, well, I am just going to say it, I like it.  If you have anything to tell me about the horrors of it, well, I'll thank you (very much) to just keep that information to your. self.  When I get in the shower after being in the pool, the whole shower smells of lovely chlorine.  

Swimmers are special.  (Yes, in every special way you can specially think of.)  Sometimes they even take extra crazy pills in the morning and do butterfly after a no breather.  (Seriously?)

Maybe this is slightly confounding.  But maybe you don't stare at a black tiled line on the bottom of the pool for a few hours a week, either.  If you did, you would get it.  Maybe you're the type who thinks that swimmers wear caps to keep their hair dry (um, no.).  If so, maybe you just won't feel me on this one.  

But if you swim because it's in your blood, or if you crave that feeling of all over body tired wonderfulness at the end of practice, or if you race the person in the lane next to you at all times, or if you have strong opinions on no breathers/SKIPS/IM sets/breastroke/200s, or if you've eaten an entire pizza yourself after a good practice (and were still looking for more food - and practice was at 5:30 a.m.), or if you've ever counted over and over again in your head (1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3...), or if you've ever felt exuberant joy at the words, "8 x 25s" at the end of practice, and/or if you're just straight up awesome in general, there is a good chance you are a swimmer and you know what I mean.

Viva, swimmers!  And viva chlorine.  It comes with the territory and I don't want to give it up.  

Plus, I think it really brings out the green in my hair.  

Peace, love, and 100 breastroke 4eva, 
Ms. Daisy

Don't be like so 1990! As if! Toxins that are like, so totally, like five minutes ago.

90's marketing. Still amazing 20 years later.

You remember 1990, right?  Yes, some of you were like 2 years old.  (That goes out to my seester and her peeps.)  But for the rest of us, we remember it like it was just yesterday.  We rocked the hair, the neon hypercolor t-shirts, pretended to know what Nirvana was saying, and belted out, "Noooothing compares, noTHING com-pares toyouuuuuu..." while wearing your Z Cavericci's.  Can I borrow your I.O.U. sweatshirt, BFF?  LYLAS!  You can use my slap bracelet.  Those were the days, eh?

Well, the world has changed quite a bit from those good ol' days.  No longer is it fashionable to wear clothing that shows off in gloriously wild different colors when you are sweating.  (No seriously, who THOUGHT of that?)

There are a few other bits that have tried to hold their grip in the realms of today, however, and they are naughty and don't belong here.

These belong to the dark side of 1990.  We are like so totally over them, as if.

However, although they may not be welcome, some of these may even be lurking in your home.  These are way worse than the pictures of your hair with two gallons of Aqua Net on it.

What, pray tell, may these be?

Let's start off with one that is a prevalent pestilence of today's world: the fad of anti-bacterialism, specifically in the form of anti-bacterial soap.

"Wha?!"  You say.  "A pestilence?  Surely you jest, dear Ms. Daisy!"

Oh, I wish, my darling, I wish.  But a pestilence I mean, nonetheless.  Maybe you're familiar with the active ingredient in anti-bac soaps - it's called triclosan.  If you've got a bottle in the house, check yours.  It is likely it's there.  Let me give you a heads up - this is NOT good - for you, your family, your friends, the earth, the animals...you're pretty much killing everyone and everything.  Great job.

Triclosan was marketed to be a murderous agent on the bad germs.  Right?  Isn't that what you thought?  (What else would I wash my hands with after touching uncoooked chicken?!)  When you go out and buy something that says "anti-bacterial", it is likely you're thinking, "Like oh my gosh! (Valley girl accent, please.)  I am so killing these yuckies!" 

Permit me my drama while I say that they are rather quite killing you.

Besides the whole gigantic thing about killing off your natural responders that are on your body to fight evil invaders in the first place (which is highly dangerous and comes with an entire host of issues), we've got a darker and even scarier side of it - new studies are showing that triclosan is something that mimics estrogen in the body.  This throws off your endocrine system (pituitary, ovaries, testes, thyroid, pancreas, hypothalamus gland, gastrointestinal tract, adrenals, pineal and parathyroid: a.k.a. stuff you don't want screwed up).  This leads to abnormal cell growths - ever heard of abnormal cell growth?  Maybe...um...tumors?

When this was studied at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, they found that this looked like an increase in breast cancer.  Breast cancer cells looooooooooooove triclosan.  They are sorority girls and triclosan is a frat party.  They think they're at the beach when they hang out with this stuff.  They thrive on it.  Oh!  And good news for the breast cancer cells - triclosan bioaccumulates.  Yep.  It goes in and stays.  Not good news for humans, however.  

There is another compound called octylphenol (the lesser known antibac ingredient) that is best friends with triclosan.  They work together and octylphenol increases the amount of cancer cells while triclosan gets them going.  Not the chicken soap you were looking for, I'd imagine.

In this study, triclosan was found to be in the urine of 75% of all those studied.  (According to sciencedaily.com)  This is so not cool, dude, not cool.

Do some further reading here:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx5000156

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140423102756.htm

Triclosan isn't just hiding in the antibacterial soap.  Nope, glory hallelujah, you can find it hanging out in your Colgate Total toothpaste.  What a relief.  I was wondering how I could directly put it into my mouth!  If you want to check out a longer (and more ridiculous) list of some products that contain triclosan, check it out here. 

What to do?  Personally, I avoid that stuff like the plague.  I use the soap that is made by Dr. Bronner.  There is a liquid variety if you are so inclined, and there is also the traditional bar types should that fancy strike you.  The liquid stuff is so concentrated that it may be diluted 50% with water.  I believe it is sold usually in one liter bottles (and it costs about $10 at Trader Joe's).  This means you can get about 2 liters of soap for ten bucks.  Yeah.  Cheaper and doesn't contain poison and cancer candy.  Double bonus.

Hang on, baby, I've almost made your dinner...

What else ought to be the passing fad, you ask?  Are you ready for this shocker?  Your microwave.  Think about it for two seconds.  You totally take for granted that you are heating up your food with RADIATION.  No glaring danger, eh?  Yes, it may be part of the social norm, but it doesn't mean 1) it ought to be and 2) that it is safe.  

Microwaving food heats up the food from the inside out - making those insides quake and shake with heat while other bits of it remain cold.  Have you ever experienced that?  You have to mix it up to warm it all?  You are already familiar with the warnings about heating up bottles in the microwave (hot spots, distorting the makeup of the milk on a cellular level) - you know, you may as well be punching your baby with a blowtorch?  

Dr. Hans Hertel explains it like this: "There is extensive scientific literature concerning the hazardous effects of direct microwave radiation of living systems...it is astonishing therefore to realize how little effort has been taken to replace this detrimental technique of microwave cooking with technology more in accordance with nature...of all the natural substances - which are polar - the oxygen of water molecules reacts most sensitively.  This is how microwave cooking heat is generated - friction from this violence in water molecules.  Structures of molecules are torn apart, molecules are forcefully deformed, called structural isomerism, and thus become impaired in quality.  This is contrary to conventional heating of food where heat transfers convectionally from without to within.  Cooking by microwaves begins within the cells and molecules where water is present and where the energy is transformed into frictional heat."  (quoted in Search for Health)  


Basically, you are living through a social experiment.  The microwave is the question, and you are the guinea pigger.  How does that wheel feel, Pikachu?  

What do you do?  How often and for what do you use your microwave?  Are you a person who just uses it to heat your coffee/tea for the fifteenth time (since you didn't get a chance to sit down and drink it all yet)?  Or do you defrost your meat in it?  Or do you cook your child's breakfast in it?  Or do you sleep in it?  Er, wait.  Maybe (hopefully) not that one.

I have a challenge for you.  Try just for this week to not use your microwave.  Put a big old sticky note on it to remind you.  Cold coffee?  Heat it up in a pot on the stove.  It takes about the same amount of time.  Need to defrost meat?  Plan ahead, sista!  Get that stuff out of the freezer the night before.  I think you'll find you appreciate the taste of things that are not cooked in a radiation box.

(Call me a foodie, I know!)

These two big pieces of our culture came into the norm in these United States and we adopted them without much thought.  We're smarter now and I'm encouraging you to think about what you're putting in and on your body.  Be aware, and do your due diligence.  

Would you give it a try?  Would you switch to a non-anti-bac soap?  Would you try to cast off the microwave for a week and see how it goes?  Maybe you'll find your new (yet extra vintage) ways are like so totally gnarly dude, that you won't like want to ever go like back.

Peace, love, and be radical,
Ms. Daisy

An Incredible Display of Incompetence: Trugreen = True Buffoonery

The scene: a spelling bee world championship.  
The players: three homeschooler finalists and a panel of judges.

Judge #1:  Please spell incompetence. 

The very definition of incompetence.

Homeschooler #1: Might you use it in a sentence, please?
Judge #1: The company Trugreen lawncare shows nothing but extreme and wild incompetence in all of its transactions.
Homeschooler #1:  Could you please tell me the definition?
Judge #2:  Let me explain it to you, sonny - it's a little story and it goes something like this...

One day a salesman came to my house.  He was a Trugreen salesman.  Now we already had a lawncare service - an all organic service that used nitrogen on our lawn and made it nice and healthy and not made of World War II bomb products.  But Mr. Trugreen Salesman promised us that they too had a wonderful nitrogen organic treatment that they would be happy to apply to our lawn - for the fraction of the price!

Well, alrighty.  I suppose we could give it a try.  We're always looking for ways to save money when we can, right?

Mr. Trugreen Sprayer Man comes, yes, he has a snaggle tooth and a molester mustache and looks at women like they are grass-fed T-bone steaks, and yes, besides spraying toxic chemicals all day long, he also chain smokes.  Well, this should prove to be interesting, no?

Spray #1 happens.  Nitrogen applied.  Hooray.

Spray #2 happens.  I talk to Snaggle Tooth and he says he "added a little extra for me", some grub control.  I wonder if my hubby ordered that, and go promptly inside to discuss my horror at such a thing as it is 100% pure toxins.  Hubby says he did not order it.  How did we get it then?

Call the company.  They don't know.  

Spray #3 happens.  Snaggle tooth has sprayed toxic chemicals.  You know, the kind that I would boycott with signs on the side of the road in a protest?  I call the company, concerned, perplexed, and freaking out.  They have no idea how this happened.

We are now totally fed up.  The grass is dead.  We have chemicals on our lawn.  MY lawn.  You know, the organic, hippie, compost bin, permaculture gardener, non-toxic to the all the way max lawn people?  And crazysauce sprayed WWII bombs on it.  My blood begins to boil.

I call with flamboyant words to share that express the very depths of my raw emotion, and although it is not the fault of the woman on the phone (I repeat to her a few times) I am beyond irate and consider making up new swear* words just for the occasion.

Hubby calls and tells them we have to break up with them and we'd like a refund for killing our grass, spraying it with death chemicals and not giving us the service that we were promised.  They agree.

They mail a check for the wrong amount.  A much smaller amount than it ought to have been.

We call again to straighten it out.  We ask to speak to the manager five times.  Manager never calls back (still hasn't).

We cancel the account and try to put it behind us.

Until today.

Oh no.  Please no.  What is this?  I drive up to my house.  There is one of those little plastic signs in the corner of my grass.  Oh sweet sandwiches and cheese, for all that is good and decent, please tell me that is NOT a "I just sprayed your lawn with a carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic chemical of death again" sign.

It is.

Phone call.  Hi customer service person, I am calling because I have a tiny little (uber-sarcastic tone) problem.  I have cancelled my service with your company because they are total nincompoop buffoons who keep spraying toxic chemicals when I ordered organic nitrogen and for some reason YOUR SNAGGLETOOTH MOLESTER came back and sprayed my lawn today.  I am going to lose my entire mind right now.

Customer Service Rep: Um, I am not sure how this happened.  Your account is closed.

Me: How on earth is it possible that Mo Lester sprayed my lawn again today?  Is this for real?  Not only did you NOT give me what I wanted, but you gave me something I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever want in one zillion million billion trillion years.  THREE TIMES.

Customer Service Rep:  I don't know.

Me: For the love of all that is good and decent, please send a personal message to Mo Lester that if he comes back to my property, I am going to go ape.  Have you processed our refund?

Customer Service Rep: Um...it looks like they submitted a request.

Me: Thanks.

Homeschooler #1: I-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-c-e.  Incompetence.

Judge #1:  Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

Peace, love and for your homework, please discuss at what point it is ethical to put landmines in your front lawn,
Ms. Daisy

*p.s. When I say swear words, I do mean words like "stinky blinky waggle baggle moo muffin!"  Just in case you thought I was a sailor.

Aluminum detox

Last week I wrote about the disturbing topic of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering and how we are unwilling participants in an ongoing science experiment.  I can't just drop off with this disturbing information without giving you an idea of how to possibly detox the crapola out of your beautiful system. 

So I went on a bit of a researching rampage of how to specifically detox aluminum from your body.  As you've seen, having excessive aluminum in your body can cause severe problems like Alzheimer's disease, is linked to autism and accumulates in tissues and in the brain.  This isn't anything anybody wants to mess with.  On the MSDS sheet, it lists a host of problems.  

Here they are:

"Chronic ingestion of aluminum may cause aluminum related bone disease or aluminum-induced osteomalacia with fracturing osteodystrophy, microcytic anemia, weakness, fatigue, visual and auditory hallucinations, memory loss, speech and language impairment (dysarthria, stuttering, stammering, anomia, hypofluency, aphasia, and, eventually, mutism), epileptic seizures (focal or grand mal), motor disturbances (tremors, myoclonic jerks, ataxia, convulsions, asterixis, motor apraxia, muscle fatigue), dementia (personality changes, altered mood, depression, diminished alertness, lethargy, ‘clouding of the sensorium’, intellectual deterioration, obtundation, coma), and altered EEG.  In simple terms, the most notable symptoms of aluminum poisoning are diminishing intellectual function, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate and, in extreme cases, full blown dementia and Alzheimer's. Aluminum toxicity also causes bone softening and bone mass loss, kidney and other soft tissue damage and, in large enough doses, can cause cardiac arrest."

Yeaaaaaah.  I'm thinking we might want to avoid that.  It is in things like deodorant, vaccinations, baking powder, makeup, aluminum cans (pop as well as canned veg and fruit or meats), antacids, aspirin, groundwater, the soil and as a result, pretty much everything.  Time to detox, homeboys (and girls).

I looked specifically to find something to remove it and here's what I've got for you.  Apparently high silica content mineral water is very efficient at grabbing the aluminum and purging it out of your system.  There are a couple companies that sell such things (one I saw is called Volvic).  I haven't tried that water, but if you want to, it's been tested to remove aluminum well.  

It totally looks like a horse's tail!

If you want to go the herbal route, horsetail herbs are good at detoxing aluminum.  As with any herbal medicine  and treatment, you need to know what you're doing and in what amount.  I saw that a common form for horsetail was to have it in a tincture (which can be purchased at your local health food store or online).  You could learn to make your own tinctures if you want to do it a bit more cheaply.  I did read that you ought not to take horsetail for extended periods of time, so keep that in mind.

Deeeeee-licious!

If you are more into the very bioavailable route through proper food, organic cucumbers are great for removing aluminum.  Tasty and healthy. 

If you are interested in detoxing all heavy metals, there is something else you can try that is called Liquid Zeolite.  I have personal experience with this product and I really like it.  Zeolite is from volcanic sedimentary rocks.  You take it by squirting a brownish and gross looking liquid into your good clean water and then drinking it.  It's kind of weird at first, but as it has no taste, after you've done it a few times, you pretty much feel like you are a boss because it looks so gross yet you are so tough that you are seemingly unaffected.  The crowd looks on in amazement at your impressive tricks. 

Er, well, something like that.  Or that's what I pretend is happening while I take it, anyway.

So don't despair!  You're not destined for ill health!  If your brain is a bit cloudy, perhaps you are a bit overloaded in toxins.  But you don't have to be.  Pick your aluminum detox and feel better!

Peace, love and clean it up!
Ms. Daisy

Pack up, time to live on Mars.

Have you been thinking you just need to get away lately?  Maybe this season is rather tedious or you're really stressed out.  Perhaps you are wishing you could just swish off to Fiji.

Well, perhaps you're looking too close.

Soon we may have to jump ship and go live on Mars.

I wish I were kidding.

What I'm about to tell you is so utterly disturbing that after reading this information, you may never think of your life the same way again.

Have you noticed lately (let's say, in the last five to ten years) that some of the airplanes have trails that just won't go away?  They leave trails in the sky long after they are gone.  Have you ever wondered about that?  Have you thought, "What the heck?  Did they change their rocket fuel or something?"

Short answer: yes.


Why?  What is that up there?

Short answer: particulate matter, mostly aluminum.

Why would they put aluminum into the stratosphere?  Isn't that somewhat problematic being that aluminum is completely TOXIC to humans?  At this point, you have this resisting mechanism going on - why the heck would anyone spray aluminum into the atmosphere, knowing that it can hurt people?  Nobody would do that!  C'mon, Ms. Daisy, you're like so totally overreacting!!

Actually, you're right - you wouldn't do that.  That's because you have a freaking soul.  But you're assuming that all others adhere to the same moral and ethical standards that you do.  And that is where the sadness begins.


Evil sickos sitting in a lab somewhere have decided that the way they're going to solve "climate change" is to reduce sunlight getting to the earth (Note: This is my interpretation.  This may or may not have actually been the actual scenario.   They may have been sitting at a restaurant or in a cave or in a nice hotel.  We aren't really sure yet.).  How can this be done?  By artificially manufacturing clouds by spraying crap out the butts (pun intended) of F-15 airplanes in the stratosphere.  What?

Yeah, really.  It's something that's on the agenda for the CFR (the Council on Foreign Relations) and in the U.S. government's list, too.  Your search for the phrase "stratospheric aerosol geoengineering" will bring up more than you ever thought possible on the subject.  They're making earth darker (as in, let's have even MORE cloudy days) and changing the weather on purpose.  They have succeeded at making it 20% darker so far.  You know, having a grand old time pretending they're God.  I wonder if they hang out with Monsatan.  That would sure shock you, huh?

 

Now, if you can remember ANYTHING from earth science and learning about clouds and all of those spheres up there, you know that clouds are warm little blankets for the earth.  So, according to them, the best way to cool down the earth is to put more blankets on it.  That's what I always do when I'm hot, anyway - go cozy up under fifteen blankets.  It cools me off every time!

What. The. Crap.

I am not speaking here in scientific language (as you can plainly see), but I am about to introduce you to someone who will explain all of the horror to you in plain but scientific English.  He is a photographer by trade (and a researcher now that he had this issue dumped onto his lap) and one day set up his cameras to the sky to do some camera-ish thing and accidentally came across this discovery that these clouds are not normal, are not natural, and were created by the stuff coming out of planes.

He put together a documentary to scientifically explain what is going on, why it is going on, and what we can do about it.  (He also made an app to report the stratospheric spraying and the geoengineering to send it to your political representatives.)  The documentary includes people who specialize in different weather areas as well as footage from the meeting where a panel decided that they thought this was a good idea and they want to implement it.  It also includes photos of the modified aircraft that does such things.

Some people use the negative slang term "chemtrails" for the stratospheric aerosol geoengineering (I don't know why, I mean, "Stratospheric aerosol geoengineering" just rolls off the tongue like butter...).  If you see that, now you know why.

My concern about this has many facets.

First - aluminum.  Dude.  You don't want aluminum in your body.  You don't want to inhale it (which you will since the size of the particulate matter is so infinitesimal).  Many people are bringing up concerns outside of the stratospheric aerosol geoengineering sources of aluminum and pointing also to other aspects of our lives where we may be subjected to the toxin.  One main example is obviously within vaccinations, use of aluminum cookware, aluminum cans, makeup, baking powder, processed cheese, bleached flour, antiperspirants, over-the-counter medicine, antacids, aspirin, sunscreens, dry skin products, anti-itch products, and more.

This governmental website report includes information on common sources of aluminum, the toxic effects of being subjected to it and various studies that have been done on animals and their results.  Check it out here.  This report shows that the most common problems associated with aluminum exposure is damages to your lungs and nervous system.  Here is a quote from the article:

"Dialysis encephalopathy syndrome (also referred to as dialysis dementia) can result from this accumulation of aluminum in the brain. Dialysis encephalopathy is a degenerative neurological syndrome, characterized by the gradual loss of motor, speech, and cognitive functions. Another neurological effect that has been proposed to be associated with aluminum exposure is Alzheimer’s disease."

They also mention offhandedly that perhaps aluminum may be a carcinogen, but people haven't really bothered to figure that out yet (or so they report).

This article is written by a doctor who lists the negative effects of aluminum exposure, especially in the area of vaccinations.  (He does have a few random capitalizations in there, so if you have a weak stomach for such things, you've been warned.)  Here is a summary of the negative effects aluminum has on the human body according to this article:

Aluminum is involved in the following:

• Impaired memory, cognition, and psycho-motor control
• Impaired communication between nerve cells
• Damages blood, brain barrier allowing toxins to enter the brain
• Causes formation of free radicals (pro oxidants)
• Increases brain inflammation
• Decreases brain glucose metabolism
• Impairs DNA / RNA function
• Increases nerve damage
• Increases plaque, brain formation  (Alzheimer's Disease)
• Increases autoimmune reactions

Well.  That doesn't seem like the grocery list you want to pick up.

Secondly - this crapola is raining down onto our ground.  It gets in the groundwater, it gets into the soil that you have in your backyard where your organic vegetables are growing and pours all over your animals.  I bet that is pretty good for everything.

Thirdly, what the heck do these people think they're doing screwing with the stratosphere?  There are NO studies for how this may cause issues in the future.  What will the excess clouds do to this world?  WE HAVE NO IDEA!  Can you remove it if we see that everything is dying because of it, the ice caps are melting and aluminum rain has poisoned the entire earth and all of our oceans?  Pretending that you're God always works out well, I'm sure.

Let me get real with you.  I am not really a "Save the Whales" kind of person.  I don't have anything against them being saved, if I may make myself clear.  But I'm not earth granola.  I'm human granola.  But if you have any brain fragment going on inside that head, you know that if you screw up the ecosystem of the world, there's about a 100% chance that you are going to get hit.

And mentioning that, let me go off on a soapbox tangent here for one second: I know a lot of people who say that they are followers of Christ but who utterly neglect what he has created and think it is unimportant.  If that is you, may I encourage you think about truly being a good steward of the resources that he has given you and to prevent them from being utterly destroyed by people who want to pretend that they have a better idea than the one who created it.  It just doesn't make sense.  I'm not suggesting for you to worship the earth, but you've got a job to do, homeboy.  Do it well.  It ain't yours and you better take care of it.

Okay, okay, okay.  Enough of that.

Let's do something.  We can't just sit here and shrug and say, "Oh well.  Whatever.  It's probably fine.  I mean, look at all these people who are exposed to it.  I bet it's not that much.  No big deal."  Think about what you can do if this is disturbing to you.  Would you write to someone in government and urge them to protect you and your family from environmental toxins?  Are you someone who would put on a march in your city to bring attention to the issue?  I don't have the answer as to what you should do, but I do think we ought to do something.

Peace, love, and sunshine,

Ms. Daisy