How to: life without a microwave

I asked around to see if I could discern the top uses of a microwave (and thus, try to find what would be most helpful to find substitutions for) and here's what I found:

1.  Heating up leftovers  
2.  Zapping coffee for the 3,000th time  
3.  Making popcorn
4.  Lunch at work
5.  Melting butter or chocolate

Let me address these one at a time.  

Numero uno: heating up leftovers. 

Let's say you've got some delicious spaghetti with plenty of homemade veggie sauce in there (you know, you were sauteing some zukes, some tomatoes, a little garlic, onion, carrots for sweetness in your organic olive oil on low heat for ninety minutes to get all of that sweetness pulled out of each veg) that spent the night in the fridge.  You're hankering for a sweet blob of spaghetti with some of that shaved parmesan but, HOLY MOLEY, you don't have a microwave!  What to do, what to do?


It's like-a this, Mickey, you putta the espaghetti into the pot on the estove with a little watta so's we don't scorch it, eh?  Turn on the a-fire and warm it up real nice, capiche?  Putta the espaghetti into your bowl and viola, you got some hot espaghetti.  Whatsa matter?  You not gonna wait five more seconds for perfection, Mickey?  I think you betta change-a your mind if you know what's good for you, Mickey.  Now dats more like it, Mickey.  Be a good boy, now.  Glad we understand each other.  

Leftover burgers or pizza - put them in the toaster oven (minus the bun, the lettuce, etc.) and walk away, come back - delicious burger.  And heating it up like this keeps the heat.  Or if you're desperado, put your cast iron pan on the stove, put your patty into the pan, add a few drops of water, turn that baby on, cover it up and in two minutes you'll have that thing sizzling.

Soup?  Put it into a pot, obvs!  Heat it up on the stove.

I don't have anything plastic that touches food (minus a cutting board, the Pampered Chef slap-chop, and the handles of one of those little tiny sharp knives.  OH!  And the lid to my Mason jar water bottle.), so this is a gigantic bonus when I want to heat something up in the oven (or toaster oven).  I just pop the Pyrex in (and yes, I do collect the Crazy Daisy and Spring Blossom Pyrex) the oven and food can be warmed and served (and stored) in the same dish.

Issue #2: Reheating coffee for the 3,000th time

Personally?  I don't drink the stuff.  Give me my tea and I'm all set, but I can understand your problem.  But the problem is in your solution.  Do a test.  I don't know why, but if you heat up a cup of coffee in the microwave and heat up another mug of coffee in a pot on the stove, the one from the stove stays hotter longer.  If someone can figure out why, please feel free to share.  So by heating it on the stove, you can cut down on the amount of reheating times needed (for one thing), and the amount of cancer you're probably ingesting (on the other hand).  Bonus.  And then just rinse out the pot (that would be a stainless steel pot, not a Teflon-coated cancer pot) and wipe it dry and you're all good.

Issue #3:  Making Popcorn

You're joking, right?  Microwaved popcorn tastes like troll feet compared to popcorn in a pot on the stove and it takes the same amount of time.  I use 1/3 cup of organic (non-GMO!) popcorn kernels in 1 or 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, put the lid on, shake it like that QVC Shake Weight and in 2 or 3 minutes you have glorious popcorn.  Add some full spectrum salt (pink himalayan or celtic grey) and a blob of glorious melted Kerrygold butter and you will find yourself instantly snuffling happily in  your trough.  You're welcome.

Issue #4:  Lunch at work

See, this is where we need to turn the world around, my friends.  Workplaces have microwaves but rarely have traditional heating mechanisms.  What a dumb thing!  Kill all of your workers, boss man, kinda not a good plan (unless they are bad workers.  But why did you hire them in the first place?   Yep.  Still all your fault.).  

Here are a few of my wild (but totally serious) suggestions:

a) buy your work a toaster oven (bonus: you can save your fellow workers lives after you reform them to your healthy ways)

b) sneak in one of those 1990's George Foreman grills (panini day? Hello!)

c) get one of those hot water plugger inner thingies for your tea and add hot water to your soup (it might work, right?) - or you could get one of those double walled stainless steel canteens that promise to keep things boiley hot for like fifteen hours

d) eat salads, sandwiches, gazpachos and other things that do not require heat

Issue #5: Melting butter or chocolate

I really must say, "f'realies??" to this one, too.  Maybe your microwave is different, but when I used to heat up butter in the microwave, I would stick it in a measuring cup.  When the minute (or 30 seconds, whatever) was up, I would pull out a slumped stick of butter with a giant hole in the middle of it.  DOES THIS SEEM LIKE IT IS A LITTLE WEIRD AND UNNATURAL TO ANYONE ELSE?  A hole.  In the middle.  

Yeah, that was probably good for me.  

The alternative method is just as easy (to say nothing of omitting the radioactive butter experiment.  Cookies?  I made them myself!  What do you mean they glow in the dark?).  Teeny cast iron pan, put in the butter, turn the heat on all the way low and come back in 90 seconds and it will all be melted.  And if you do it this way, you can see the two different "parts" (?) of butter - this lovely clear liquid, and the creamy opaque part.  Or maybe I have weird butter.  But that's how I roll.

As far as chocolate, I put it in a Mason jar, put the Mason jar into a pot of hottest water on the stove, turn it on medium and stir it with a spoon until it melts.  It's really not a big deal.

Honestly, it's not really that hard.  I know you have to push your brain in a different direction to avoid the microwave habit, but besides that, I have to tell you it's really no problema.  Your two minutes of patience will result in 1) a better character in yourself and 2) better tasting food.

(Not to mention the whole avoiding carcinogens and EMFs.  No bigs.)

So let me know.  Is it do-able?  How are you coping?

Stand strong, mis amigos!  You aren't a sheep following the masses blindly, you're cutting a path for yourself to better health and a happier body.  Now that certainly may be counter-cultural, but I think it's worth it.

Peace, love, and I need to go wash my face after my trough-episode,
Ms. Daisy

Hans Hertel: Microwaved food screws up your bloodwork

Hey peeps!  How's it going?  So, have you lived without your microwave for 48 hours?  CAN YOU EVEN BEAR LIFE??!  Did you put a sticky note on it with a reminder saying "Do Not Use" on it?  Send me a picture if you did!  (justonethingchallenge {at} gmail.com)

So, I want you to have some science behind this earth shattering lifestyle change and here it comes - in the form of research done by Hans Hertel.  Hans and a group of researchers lived in a quarantined like fashion for 8 weeks - no drinking, no women-ing, no drugs, just being lab rats - all for us, so that we might have some knowledge about what microwaved food does to our bodies.  (Everybody say, "Thanks, Hans!") 

Hans and seven of his best researcher buddies had their blood taken upon rising (to get a baseline), fifteen minutes after eating and then two hours after eating.  They wanted to see if there was anything going on in their blood differently when they ate conventionally heated food, raw food, and microwaved foods.  They tested different things like milk (raw, cooked, microwaved), and veggies (raw, steamed, frozen but defrosted in a microwave and cooked straight up in a microwave).  

What they found won't really surprise you.  

(What happened when they started to publish their results won't surprise you, either.  Go against status quo and you almost always are going to get marginalized, threatened, discredited or all of the above.)

What they found was the following:

Those who ate microwaved foods had a decrease in all hemoglobin (that's a red protein responsible for transporting oxygen...kind. of. important.) 
Those who ate microwaved foods had their "good" cholesterol lowered and their "bad" cholesterol raised.  (The makers of Lipitor encourage you to keep up your microwave use, I'm guessing...)

Lymphocytes (those are white blood cells, remember? Oh, and that is a marker for your immune system, just ask any cancer patient going through chemo about their WBC - they know all about it!) took a downhill turn in the blood of those who ate microwaved foods immediately after eating them.  Leukocytes showed an increase over progression of time, showing a marker for stress in the body.

You'll not be surprised things got worse as they went along.

There is more detailed information for you to read about regarding this study here at Dr. Mercola's website.

Yes, I can assure you that most people will think you are just a crazy health freak for not using your microwave, but we are not those who shrink back at being different.  When you know that there will be a difference in your health from not using it, it is not hard to adopt, although the habit of it may be mindless and have to be put in to the front of your brain to break initially.  I know this seems like a huge thing on the one hand, but I really encourage you to just try it - just a try - for two weeks.  See if you can do it, see if you could picture yourself going for three weeks, and then making it a normal way to interact with your food.

Being someone else's weird and dangerous science experiment is not on my bucket list, perhaps you feel the same way.  The age of the microwave oven is not proving to be an era saturated with robust health, is it?  I say we bow out of this one.

Not only are you open to the health benefits, but if you're a person who wants instant gratification, at the very least just think of how much better your food will taste.  Think of slow cooked meals - the smell of simmering things on your stove, the coaxing out of natural sweetness in various delicious veggies that only comes about with patience.  

One question I want to answer quickly that keeps coming up - "What do I take to work to eat?"  (I am guessing that this means your work does have a microwave, but not a proper kitchen with a stove in it, thus the quandry.)  What about a wonderful, organic, crunchy, happy salad with your homemade dressing?

Delish picture from lunchboxbunch.com

Whut?  Homemade dressing?!  Yeah, something difficult like your custom proportion of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  You can do this.  You have skillz to pay the billz.)  What about a peanut butter (invest in Naturally Nutty's gourmet nut butters and you won't be sorry) and raw honey and banana sandwich?  Yeah, it's kind of like eating dessert, but it is a suggestion.  What about a turkey sandwich with your homemade mayo?  What about sliced up grilled chicken (organic, free range, that you cooked over wood) and some quinoa?  That doesn't have to be hot.  What about gazpacho?  What about some funky noodle and veg and chicken salady thing with your homemade Italian dressing?  Take fruit to eat along side of it.  Maybe some almonds and a square of 72% dark (organic fair-trade, non-soy lecithin) chocolate for dessert?  NOW WE'RE TALKIN'!  If none of that will do, buy your work a toaster oven and heat it up in that.

You can do this.  I am pretty sure your life was filled with slightly harder challenges, no?  Let me know what you're trying, what's working, what questions you have.  And don't forget to share the love with others!  Most likely they don't know they're screwing up their bodies.  Get out your cape, homies!

Peace, love, and step up!
Ms. Daisy

The who's who of non-microwave users, plus engineering extra credit

I mentioned before that with the reduction or elimination of microwave use, there is a tendency for others to...umm...how shall I say this?  Ah, yes.  Treat you like a total health freak (or just a freak in general who wears tin foil headgear - mine totally like matches my new tin foil dress!!).

BUT!

You are not alone (although you may feel you are - you aren't!).  If nobody else you know in the entire world seems that they are avoiding a microwave, there really are people out there who are on this bus with us.  According to the available facts and figures out there, about 90% of American homes own a microwave.  Do you know what this means?  It means that a whole 10% of people (or more - maybe some have them in their homes and don't use them) are NOT using a microwave.  

That's right.  We can't all be cool, you know!  

Well, here's a few others who are outspoken about their NON-microwave use.

1.  Vani, a.k.a. Food Babe.  Here is her article and advice on the subject: Why It's Time To Throw Out Your Microwave
 
2.  Stephanie at Keeper of the Home.  Here is her article: The Microwave: Why You Should Avoid It and Other Options

3.  Katie at Wellness Mama.  Check this one out, too: Not Using A Microwave

4.  Dr. Mercola!  Microwave Hazards

There are more, but these are some people who are outspoken about avoiding their use. 

If you're inclined to the science side of things, I'm going to share a video with you about how the engineering behind the radiation box.  To be sure, it is a creative thing...it's just not something I want to use to heat up or cook my food.  As you watch, actively think about the wild contrast between heating something up traditionally via convection.

 
 Think about it.  Doesn't really remind me of back to nature, cooking over an open flame.  I guess that whole metal thing with the ball of electrons shooting out of it kind of gives it away...


Peace, love, and welcome to the cool peeps club, 
Ms. Daisy

Challenge 1: Dump your microwave

Welcome to the Just One Thing challenge!  If you're wondering what you are getting yourself into, let me lay it out for you.

As you know, a few posts back I talked about the myriad of things that you can possibly do to be healthy.  Sometimes it feels that there is such an ocean of choices and decisions to make to walk toward becoming healthier that it can become overwhelming.  A common response to being totally overwhelmed is to throw your arms up in the air and give up.  This is where this challenge comes in.  I am going to introduce one thing at a time (approximately every two weeks), focus on it, challenge you to change it for a couple weeks - with the hope that you will think it worth it to adopt into your lifestyle.

I will tell you the science behind the why, how to adapt it into your lifestyle, answer common questions (or complaints) about adopting that issue and stand behind you cheering you on as you do it.  If you want to comment below or email me to ask a question, I am happy to help.

And now, the first challenge: dumping your microwave.

Scene one: your kitchen

You: So, uh, well, I don't know how else to say this really...
It: What.  What are you trying to say?  Just say it.  Don't try to beat around the bush.  You're seeing someone else, aren't you?
You:  Um, no, it's just that...well, um...
It: It's WHAT?  WHAT?!
You: We need to break up.
It:  You cannot be serious.  You cannot live without me.  What are you going to do? Heat your coffee up over a fire outside?  Give me a break!
You:  It's...um...it's not you...it's me...
It:  I'll give you "it's not you, it's me"!  I INVENTED "it's not you it's me"!
You:  You're right.  It's you.

(Warning:  In the following clip, George says the "D" word.)

Can you even wrap your brain around it?  Can you imagine NOT using your microwave for two weeks?  Of course you can.  You're tough.

So here's the thing.  We totally take for granted that we are RADIATING OUR FOOD every day.  Do you know how a microwave works?  A microwave shoots energy into the water molecules of food and makes them shake back and forth 1 to 100 billion times PER SECOND.  You know that friction heats things up, and this is what this does.  (Sounds totally natural, doesn't it?  OH I KNOW!)

When you take that microwaved item out of the radiation box, you've got free radicals just flying all over the place (you know about free radicals, don't you?  Yeah, that's speeding up you looking like a wrinklebag and sending you presents in the form of carcinogens.  Thank you, microwave.  This is just what I wanted along with my coffee...).  If you are using plastic in your microwave, heaven help you.  You might as well punch yourself in the face repeatedly.  

This says nothing of the screwed up proteins, the reduced nutrient value of your food and veggies, and all the rest.

So here's what I want you to try for two weeks - choose to use a different method of heating your food that is not a microwave.  Your coffee?  Heat it up on a pot on the stove.  Your leftovers?  Toaster oven.  (Or regular oven if you don't have one.)

Hi!  I'm a stove!  Let's be friends!

I am going to tell you about a very interesting study done by Hans Hertel this week that will help you rethink your microwave use.  For now, I'm going to leave you with a very disturbing thing that happened since the inventions of microwave ovens - a woman named Norma Levitt was killed when after she had a blood transfusion (after her hip surgery) when the nurse heated the blood up in the microwave.  Makes you think of (well, a lot of things - like that was a really dumb nurse, but...) how the microwave changes your food - it's not just "hotter".  We've got crazy reactions going on in there.

What do you think?  Are you freaking out right now at the thought of it?  Email me and let me know if you can stand it.  What will you miss most about it?  (I mean besides the cancer.)  What do you use your microwave for?  

Peace, love, and wait, what's a stove?
Ms. Daisy

Just one more day until...the JUST ONE THING CHALLENGE!

Did you notice I was yelling there in the title?  Yeah, I was.  I'm excited.

So are you ready for it?  Are you wondering why I'm freaking out and yelling?  

Well, you know, I like to get excited about things.
  
Duh.  So, let me give you a sneak preview - we're staring with something that is going to cost you ZERO dollars (or pounds, or lira, or euros, or cacahuetes).  And it is going to be something that is going to boost your immune system (yes!), save you money (aww yeah!), and make your food taste better (whuuuuuuuuuuut).

Are you ready for it?

Okay.  I have to say that when I said it to my sweet mother-in-law, she may have reacted as if I said, "For the next two weeks, you need to live without your arms."  But we are strong people, aren't we?  Aren't we determined?  Are you the kind of person who could do anything that would yield you positive results if you wanted to step up to the challenge for a mere two weeks?  We are not wimpy little wussbuckets, no, no.

We're starting our challenge - the first two weeks - in living without using...a microwave.

(I paused there in case you were screaming and falling out of your chair.  I'll wait.  Climb back up.  It's gonna be okay.  I'm not sure if you knew this, but humanity lived without microwaves for like maybe six thousand years.  I think we might make it for these next two weeks.)

What do you think?  Are you freaking out?  Well, don't. JULIE!  Don't freak out!  Mama Jo, we are going to get through this.

Tomorrow I'll tell you more about it.  

Peace, love, and get on my bus, baby!
Ms. Daisy

I repeat: do NOT get a dog. Part 8,000,000

Let's say you've got company coming over tomorrow night.  Let's say they've not been to your house before.  Let's say they live in Nicelandia and you live in Raton Rouge.

What, pray tell, will happen?  

a) your dog will poop all over the kitchen floor on Saturday morning (before anyone is awake)
b) your dog will poop all over the basement steps and they are carpeted  
c) your dog will poop up the walls and on your stove
d) your dog will poop 100% pure liquid
e) your dog will poop only on carpeted areas avoiding the 80% uncarpeted, 50's vintage tile in the basement (because that would be too easy to clean up)
f) your dog will poop a smell that no human has ever smelled which makes your husband run, screaming, far far away in the other direction, where he goes and gets a mask to even be in the house
or
g) yes, I am going to include it: all of the above

Guilty.

If you guessed "g", well, by golly, you're right!  Tell them what they've won, Johnny!  

Johnny: a newwww DOG!!

Feel free to come pick her up anytime.

Peace, love, and I've washed it 4 times and I can still smell it,
Ms. Daisy

Join the Just One Thing challenge!

So, did you think about it?  Do you want to take on the get healthy, Just One Thing challenge?  Oh, you so do.  I know you do!  Let's rebel against this unhealthy, sick, crazy society and take steps toward being healthy, strong, and clear-headed.

As I said, we'll start up on September 1 - I'll post the deets that day.  You can be thinking about getting your game face on and starting fresh for the school year.  

I am here to encourage you toward healthy, manageable steps - one step at a time.  We're not swallowing the whole camel here, just taking one bite at a time.  This challenge is not some wild thing that will cost you loads of money or insane brain power, it is intended to make a lifestyle change for the better until each thing becomes your natural way of life.

So many people feel the gamut of what you could possibly do to become healthier is totally impossible because there are gajillions of things to do - that's why this is awesome.  You don't really have to think about it too much and you only have to do one thing at a time.


Join me!  Let's rock this!

If you want, you can send me an email to let me know you're on board.  It kinda helps with accountability and you can ask me questions.

The email for this challenge is: justonethingchallenge {at} gmail.com

Peace, love and camel soup,
Ms. Daisy

The Just One Thing Challenge

some things people often want to change...but don't...

Good morning, peeps!  I am super excited to share the (bum ba da baaaaaaaaaaa!) Just One Thing challenge with you.

And you're like, "Wow, yeah!  That's great!...um...what's the Just One Thing challenge?"

So here's what I'm thinking.  A lot of people want to be healthy, they really do.  But the problem lies in that there are sooooooo many things that you could do that it kind of gets down to being totally overwhelmed and when you hit that stage, you go in to the I Am Totally Giving Up mode.  You think about high fructose corn syrup, GMO's, partially hydrogenated oils, pop, microwave use, toxic tap water, household cleaners of death, toxic personal products, pesticides, and the list goes on and on - and as each thing is added to the top of the pile, you feel the sinking and drowning feeling that subdues you into passive exasperation, which makes you throw up your hands and say, "Forget it!  It's all going to kill me!  Why am I even going to try?!  I might as well enjoy my McDonald's burgers and forget about it!"  

No, my dears.  Do not give up.  I want you to live, dang it, LIVE!  An existence filled with prescription meds, unsatisfying quasi-food substances, a cloudy brain due to toxins, obesity, and cancer is not the optimal life.  It is the easier way, to be sure, but is that the life you're going to consider that you lived to the fullest when you get to the end of your story?  Don't you have a bucket list?
    
You can't do it all - all at once.  That makes people go nuts.  Change doesn't last. You've got to make change you can deal with, one step at a time.  That is how success happens.  (Unless you're my friend Nikki.  She cut everything cold turkey.  Side note: you have to take into consideration that Nikki won that Alpha award at Lifetime Fitness.  She's a little Type A and I appreciate that, cuz I am too, but most people find success down a slow, manageable path.)

That's what I'm here for today.  The Just One Thing challenge is just that.  Changing one little thing at a time, until it becomes an easy part of your routine.  I walked down this road and I can tell you, it works.  You can gain support knowing that other people are doing it, too.  You're not alone.  I'll help you through it.  I'll give you the why - which fuels the reasoning behind doing something to help it stick.  

So, what do you say?  Do you want to try it?  Want to jump on board?  Everybody's doin' it...  Spread the word.  Get your friends onboard, encourage them to be healthy, too.  Make a competition among yourselves to fuel your passion, which will optimize your success!  I won't ask you to do anything that I'm not doing, too.  

What do you think? Jump aboard, we're starting September 1.  More info to come.

Peace, love, and let's do just one thing,
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.