I'll Get Down Now

I'm going to pull out the soapbox for just a moment. And I'm going to put on the Food-Nazi hat. Because I feel a strong urge to share some things that matter to me about the stuff we eat.

Can I just say that if we are what we eat? Ewwww.

Did you know that artificial vanilla (Vanillin) is made with a by-product of paper processing and sometimes coal tar?

Did you know that margarine is processed using nickel, cadmium and bleach? I have a friend whose daughter did a science project comparing butter and margarine. She placed sticks of both on a plate in her back yard. After several days, the butter was eaten and had visible paw marks in it. The margarine was virtually untouched.

Did you know that iceberg lettuce is mostly water and offers very little nutritional value?

Did you know that unsaturated oils go rancid when heated releasing free radicals (the cancer causing ones) into our bodies. This includes canola, sunflower, and soybean oils. Stable saturated oils, like palm oils, coconut oil and tallow are much better for cooking. In other words, those Southern gals using animal lard had it right!

Did you know that growth-promoting hormones in beef have been linked to low sperm count, and that the bovine growth hormone in milk has been linked to early puberty and increased fertility in women.

And lastly, did you know that there are local, organic alternatives available almost everywhere?

I'm just saying.