Featured Website of the Week

I know this is the second time Featured Website of the Week (FWW) I posted, but this is a really important site, and I feel that it can help many people.

This week, since I have independently researching natural beauty, I felt it necessary to mention this website, Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database, because it can help people really see what they put on their skin, their hair, and what is essentially going into their bodies.

As an avid skin care enthusiast, I found it quite useful in helping me convert from chemically-filled, carcinogenic creams, lotions and personal care products that were harming me. I encourage all reading this passage to really take into account what is put on your skin. This site will definitely be a great help!

Monsanto: Monopoly on All Food

This is absolutely outrageous! I cannot believe that this company is doing this! How can you patent life? This video, and others, expose how sinister this company, Monsanto, really is. The video exposes the plans of Monsanto to patent genes and life.

It is long, but a must for everyone to see. Remember, keep informed, you never know when information like this will become unavailable.

Featured Website of the Week

discountjuicers.com

This website has made the Featured Websites of the Week list simply because it offers great deals on juicers, sprouters, dehydrators and water purifiers that will make going natural and raw an easier step.

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog on going raw and its importance. Well, if you are looking to start consuming raw foods more, this is a great place to get discount prices.

Of there wide selection of juicers, I think the champion juicer looks pretty good, and it is only about $199 (a steal if you are looking for a good juicer!).

Summer is almost here, so if you looking to lose a few, get rid of that un-sightly cellulite, clear up your acne, or just get healthier overall, this site is definitely a great place to start!

This site will be added to the links.

Birth Defects and Antidepressants

I was reading this article on the Science Daily website, and honestly, I found it to be quite unnerving. I can't be certain, and this is merely conjecture;however, I think this study was cooked up to help pass the MOTHER'S Act.

In a attempt to curtail postpartum depression numbers, the mainstream medical industry came up with the bright idea of drugging newly pregnant women with dangers Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs. This is a pretty bad idea, given the history SSRI drugs have (Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc.). My problem is, we don't yet know the effects these drugs have on the fetus and frankly, I am not for treating women and fetuses as guinea pigs. Here is an example of what SSRIs have done and what they can do:

By Michael Ollove
Sun Staff
Originally published May 22, 2003

ALTOONA, Pa. - Those who love Mitch and Cookie Grace are bleakly consistent in the metaphor they use to describe the couple's circumstance this past year. Invariably, they turn to the imagery of death.

"I see them dying right before my eyes," Sharon Mock, Cookie's younger sister, says in the back room of the Graces' cheery scrapbook store.

"It's like an ongoing funeral," is how Sam Ebersole, a longtime foreman in Mitch's contracting company, puts it outside the Graces' Tudor-style home in adjacent Hollidaysburg.

Other old friends, the Lingenfelters, for example, and Dan and Bonnie Bartley, also perceive the Graces among the living in literal terms only. A year ago, Mitch and Cookie, both in their mid-50s, were on the same track as most of those in their circle, contentedly advancing toward old age while enjoying the returns on lives earnestly lived. Many of those rewards they expected would come by way of their proudest project, their only child, Erika.

Even the Graces don't believe those blessings will arrive now. Contentment, fulfillment, pleasure - no one realistically believes those will be part of a future belonging to Mitch and Cookie. Their lives, Fran Lingenfelter says mournfully, seem only a slight variation on death itself. "I don't know how I'd go on," she concludes. "I'd be dead."

Maybe it should be expected that death would be the operative language in regard to the Graces. Death - or murder, more precisely - is what has sundered their lives. The homicides of two people they never met, never laid eyes on, had never heard of, marks their ruination. The remaining defendant arising from those murders awaits trial in a Maryland jail cell two hours to the southeast. She weighs barely 95 pounds, almost too frail to lift the chains she must wear when she is outside her cell. For these last 25 years, this wispy figure has been the be-all, the end-all in the once providential lives of Mitch and Cookie.

Not so long ago, The Altoona Mirror regularly heralded her unflappability on the basketball court as Hollidaysburg High's star point guard. Over the last year, Erika Elaine Sifrit, nee Grace, has moved to even more prominence in her hometown newspaper. She is accused of helping to perpetrate one of the most gruesome crimes in memory in Ocean City, Md., where she and her husband, Benjamin Sifrit, traveled last Memorial Day weekend for 10 days of relaxation....

The rest of the story can be found here.

For the next few weeks, I am going to post a special link that I urge all MUST sign! Click here if you are against this proposal.

Also, this is a good complementary article.

Featured Website of the Week

I was browsing the articles of www.naturalnews.com when I came across a link for this website,
http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com/

Okay, I watched their video on composting and read their instructions on how to milk a goat and I am really impressed with their information. After watching their composting video, and I went out to work on my own compost pile.

What I got from the video was that in order to create your own compost pile, you need 3 parts green to 1 parts brown. Green parts would be grass clippings, banana peels, apple cores and other food scraps; while brown parts would be hay, wood chippings, leaves, etc. Another thing you need is soil because it has microorganisms that break down the green and brown parts. If the compost pile is dry, just add some water.

With all the ingredients, turn pile to speed up decomposition process. The pile is ready for gardening once it looks like potting soil.

Basically, put all these ingredients together, and you are on the way to organic gardening!

Should Raw Milk be Illegal?

The other day, I was reading an article from nbcnews.com that begged the question “should raw milk be illegal?” To me, that seems like such a dumb question to be posed because, as a U.S. citizen, I should have a right to choose which services I will use and which products I will buy. Limiting that is limiting my and others constitutional rights.

Another reason why that is a silly question is because as harmless as raw milk is, why would anyone waste money and resources trying to outlaw it? With skyrocketing gas prices and a seemingly never-ending war of injustice, you would think that there would be things higher on the food chain than banning raw milk. But I guess if congress can ignore the soaring monetary deficit in favor of baseball proceedings, they can do something else that is completely unnecessary and cave to FDA lobbyists.

Raw milk should NOT be made illegal because it helps so many people. I know the fat cats at big pharma and agricultural business do not want people to have access to this wonderful asset, but many people need it. I used to be a pasteurized milk enthusiast, but that was until I came across health sources that pointed me in the right direction. As a pasteurized milk drinker, I used to get bad stomach aches several times a week, and I kept gaining weight. When I switched to drink raw milk however, I felt healthier and better. My skin got brighter, I lost weight, I slept better – overall, I was healthier! And then I started to make kefir from raw milk, and now I am healthy as a horse!

Now, I know some people have not experienced such stellar from drinking raw milk results as I have; however, I think that people should still be given the option to be free and choose whatever they want.

To sum up, I <3>

Going Natural: Keeping Hair Natural

With so many harsh detergents in hair products today, I decided a few weeks ago to go natural. So far it has been an interesting experience to say the least. Since I am so used to perming, frying, relaxing, flat-ironing: basically just destroying my hair, I have decided to really just cut it out. But, my hair is beginning to adjust to being in its natural state, so it is starting to look good.

I have curly hair, and I should embrace it, not tease it into something its not. God gave it to me for a reason, so I will do what I can to make it look right. That was my reasoning behind going natural. Plus, I like the way I look with curly hair more than straight hair.

Now, I discovered something called the Curly Girl Method (not to worry guys, it is really a unisex kind of method). In this method, from what I understand, you begin to retrain your hair -- if your like me, you used the above methods to straighten your hair.

Before I go on, if you decide to do this, you have to be committed to doing it. It cannot be like a one-time thing, it has to be important enough to you that you want to stick to it.

Continuing on, you need to do the following things:
*Stop brushing hair
*Stop combing hair when it is dry
*Stop using shampoos with sulfates in them
*Stop using conditioners with silicones(Dimethicone) in them
*Stop drying hair with towels (unless it is microfiber)
*Air dry most of the time
But before these steps are taken, you must clarify your hair by using your sulfate-full shampoo one last time (to remove silicones) but never again -- at least not for a long time.

Another thing to do is to whenever possible, use as many natural products as you can. Apple Cider Vinegar is good for cleansing the hair, and many swear by Aloe Vera Gel (I love the stuff!). Many also use honey, raw shea butter, Expeller-pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil; really, you are not as limited product wise as you think. Henna is a wonderful natural product. It is a great conditioner and coloring agent, and is far superior in coloring capabilities than commercial products.

There is a ton of information on this here. Also, if any of the people on that site are reading, I would just like to say publicly that they have helped me a great deal. I would still be lost hair-wise without their help!

So, embrace your God-given gifts, and embrace your hair. It is for your health and peace of mind. You might get ridicule because you are trying something new, but in the end, it will be well wort it!

Raw Foods How-To

Raw foods are very important to maintaing good health because they contain substances(antioxidants and phytonutriets) that are essential to preventing certain diseases. For example, broccoli and tomatoes both have phytonutritients in them that assist in preventing cancer. These vital nutrients are often lost in the cooking process, and the food is, if it is over cooked, lackluster because it really does not have any nutritional value.

Raw foods in addition to phytonutritents contain vitamins and minerals that are destroyed in the process of cooking. Important vitamins such as vitamin A, E, C, K are all sensitive to the high heats they are often exposed to. But once you take heat out of the picture, you are left with vitamin-filled foods that will aid you in many of your health problems.You may even find that once you begin to juice and consume more raw foods, issuess such as sleep disruption and pain, to smaller issues like acne and skin rejuvanation, and most certainly weight loss can be assited by these necessary vitamins.

So, it is important to consume as many raw, nutrient-dense foods as often as possible. Though going totally raw is something that would probably be most beneficial, most of us don't want to do that--me included. To remedy that, going totally raw is not a necessity; however, eating more fresh salads and juiced vegetables/fruits, would be a great way to start! I plan on starting my own raw food diet sometime this summer, so I'll keep you posted on that. If you have decided to go raw, you will need to know a few things.

If you want to do all your food preparation with raw foods, there are somethings that are not necessarily a must, but it would be helpful to have them. Purchasing a dehydrator and a good quality food processor/juicer. Without these tools you can certainly be a raw foodie, but these things make the food a lot more similar to the kinds of foods you used to eat, except they have the nutrtional value that would have been lost during the cooking process.

What makes a good quality food processor/juicer. Well, for one thing, it has to have low RPM (meaning it has to be slower machine) because the higher speed juicers frequently get too hot and destroy enzymes necessary for digestion of the food. This is particularly true for juicing carrots and apples. Food processors/juicers tend to be on the expensive side; so, it isn't for those who can't afford it (quality juicers run anywhere from $235-$2,000).

Finally, the best foods for going raw would be beans, alfalfa, milk (raw milk is a must!), nuts, broccoli, leafy vegetables, carrots, apples, watermelons, just about any fruit or vegetable!
Note: if it isn't apparent, you shouldn't try to juice bananas (duh! right?). Seems like a stupid precaution, but it is surprising how often such mistakes can be made.

Those are the basics. There is a wealth of information on this topic on google as well as here.