I Deserve Better Food

Well today was just a catching up day for me - I did not really cook anything much because I spent part of my day walking around Fota Wildlife Park with the children. It was a lovely day and the place was really pleasant and busy.

However, being ever vigilant and by now used to reading all the adverts I was quite surprised by the pushiness of it all... I mean outside the toilets there were strategically placed ads for ice cream. Just in case you missed them on the way past the little shop or the restaurant. 

Oh well. It all seems to be a bit too much in your face at times - these fast food, junk and sweet makers are a lot like drug pushers. I remember walking in big cities such as Toronto or Rome many years ago and passing someone who would mention under their breath the name of some drug they were selling...

An advert placed outside a toilet is a bit like that memory for me. The sign sort of yells 'Hey buddy, want to eat some sugary high fat chemically processed junk before your dinner?' And of course it is aimed at the little ones.

So, back to my day - I thought it was time I had a re-evaluation day because I think I have reached yet another milestone here. Without even realizing it I am no longer even carefully considering what to make, how to make it or dragging my feet in any way - I am just jumping in and making something on the run so to speak.

Yesterday we wanted to go to the cinema (this is still a big deal here as we only go about 3 or 4 times in a year) and needed something to bring in the car for a treat. With only an hour to get everyone ready and out the door - I dropped everything and whipped up a batch of flapjacks.

Then today, I did it again - someone said treat and I jumped into action and within a few minutes I had a pan of cashew cookie bars chilling in the fridge. It is that easy! And I was very pleased to find I had crossed over yet another form of reluctance.

You must know what I am talking about, the sense that you want to make something, but have a hard time either getting started or you end up giving in to the thinking it is too much trouble. Then time will go by and the task never gets done. 

It must be a form of procrastination tinged with self sabotage. 

When I came home this afternoon we wanted bean burgers and onion rings - both of which are easily enough made. The catch was, these taste loads better with mayonnaise - so I did it once again. In no time flat I had a bowl of fresh mayo on the table - and it was the nicest one I have made so far.

If I was to bring these two experiences together at the end of the day I would say to the junk food pushers - I am way ahead of you, I can do far better. And you know what? I deserve better too.

April

Black Swan at Fota in Cobh Cork 

The Scary Part of Halloween, the Sweets

I remember a few years ago when I was completing a diploma course in Nutrition, one of the many things we learned during those years was some of the specifics about Halloween candy. Yes, apparently there are brands of sweets that you might only see around this time of year and they are nasty...

Actually I think I can remember some of them... not that there were many sweets in the house where I grew up. However, at Halloween it was expected, right? I mean children come around to your door and you provide them with the material to degrade their gut bacteria, rot their teeth and otherwise cause harmful effects on their health. 

It's a great time of year all around. 

Of course, if we really stop and think about it - no one wants to be party to any of these negatives listed above. We would all like to think that we know better, so we can do better. But how many of us really do - or do we still choose to take the 'easy' way out?

And for the life of me, I am not certain why caving in to the marketing campaign, then handing out sweets to unsuspecting little children is an easy way out... who wins in the end? Parents putting hyper strung out sugar drunk children to bed or the children themselves with sore tummies and worse?

The interesting thing is it doesn't have to be this way. We all know by now you can have your cake (sugar free) and eat it too....What better message to send to children then to be, act, live and do - in as responsible manner as possible. 

Perhaps here is as good a time as any to remind you of some basic energy laws - it's never about them, it's always about us. So, if we feel the need to cave in and fill up our families with sugar or any manner of rubbish - what need in us are we filling? 

And who is really in charge here, of you and the foods you choose to eat? 

April 

Pumpkin vines in the garden...

What’s Wrong with the Bees?

I have pondered this one for awhile and have gone back and forth trying to understand just why honey did not feel right. It is not an animal product per se, as it is produced by bees and does not come from their bodies such as milk would from a cow. 

We can safely remove some honey from bees and not kill or harm them, and honey has many beneficial healing properties. It was only after I became a beekeeper myself and got involved in the industry that I discovered the problem with commercial honey and perhaps the problem with the bees. 

Commercial honey producers supplement (there is that word again) their honey bees with white sugar made into a thick syrup. In a wet rainy summer like we have had for the past fews years in Ireland, the bees may be supplemented with this ‘food’ several times. 

This does a couple of things, it allows them to continue producing honey no matter what the weather, and it must also make them sick. As these are the bees that farmers are losing.

A commercial hive is bigger then a traditional one, housing more bees, feeding them is a common and expected practice, and then producers harvest all of the honey produced only to leave the bees with more sugar water for the winter and none of their own real food. 

This is a recipe for disaster- I finally knew what was wrong with the honey I bought in the shops, it was made from sugar, and not entirely from the pollen of various plants. Therefore with the energy and vibration of sugar, it aided in the depletion of the immune function (for the bees) and no longer acted in a therapeutic manner (for the humans). 

So we crossed commercial honey off our lists and now hopefully we will eventually produce our own from gently handled bees who are not fed anything other then what they can forage and they live in small eco friendly hives. 

I keep a herb and bee garden as well with many herbs and flowers that they like and hope to expand it from year to year. I would urge everyone to get some bees, and get going with bringing back this wonderful creature into its natural state - treat them right and nature will reward you. 

Have a healthy day,

April

The boys with the bees in the back garden

Food Revolution

**This is an article I wrote some time ago to get people to come around to the thinking - they can do something positive, even wonderful for themselves, their families and the planet, right from home. All change in this world starts with us, all it takes is just one person to stand up and say 'enough' and then act on it.

If you can't, who can?

Food Revolution

For those of us who are watching and supporting the many revolutions that are taking place around the planet but are unable to physically be there- there is so much else that can be done. And perhaps even more important work that must be done to start to break down these monopolies who control our money, economies, food, water, media, and ultimately our minds.

We see it often during some of these protests, ‘access to better health care’ written on placards and it has left me feeling perplexed. There are some basic tennents that every human living on this planet needs to get back to- and the fundamental one would be food. How to feed ourselves so that the body and mind is well nourished and in a healthy state has been eroded in less then several generations. We have been duped into thinking that we actually ‘need’ health care- what we need is self care in the form of fresh whole food and clean water.

Control of the people doesn’t stop with these Big Food, Big Agri, Big Seed and Big Market corporations either! Perhaps it only begins there, because control of the people spills over into Big Pharma, Big Gov and Big Bank. So, each of these mega corporations has a stake in how well you feed yourself and the general health of your body. This is a fact because ‘they’ have an insatiable desire to control and you cannot be controlled if and when you are eating, drinking and living in a state of natural health.

In a short period of time, you will rebuild your mind (and body) and start to think for yourself. It is so simple- all you need is real food, that is clean, fresh and simply prepared.

All this food is out there- there is NO food crisis in terms of supply, there is only a crisis in methods of marketing mass hysteria to get you to believe that the crap on the shelves in the Big Supermarket has any thing to do with food. If you walk into any modern shop you will see that only about 5-10% of the available food is fresh, unadulterated, and next to nothing is unpackaged!

In order to get your body on the road to a better way of being, you must change the food that you are eating and the water you are drinking. And for some that will mean a fundamental shift in thinking and perhaps a move out to the country where you can access well or spring water and grow a garden.

You best defence against the systems that need to control you and for you to cooperate with them, is your health- clean healthy body and clear mind. We are conformists as long as we eat what is put before us and spend our days in a spaced out haze because this food clogs up our internal processes and keeps us down.

Feeding yourself packaged, drugged up and chemical laced ‘food’ has your body tissues toxic and your mind unable to think clearly. Eating this way then gives rise to fear, depression, irritable bowel type issues, and a down regulated immune response (or call it passivity) which proceeds on to disease and dysfunction. Of course, this then requires treatment in the form of more packages of drugs and chemicals and more fear!

Can’t you see the pattern here? Eat their food, drink their water, spend your life wandering through life and not thinking beyond what the box tells you, become unwell and end your days eating tablets that only add to the misery. Is this what we have come to? Or is this what has been made of us through the extensive use of mind control, mass marketing, economic debt and poor food/water?

Today you can ask, So where to start? If you want to join a revolution, start here- with you and your family. Pick the three most toxic items in your diet (life?) and remove them. It is that simple. For some it will be sugar, caffeine, alcohol- toxins which slow down the liver and wreak havoc with our immune function. For others it will be a food that you eat far too much of- packaged cereal, take aways, chocolate.

I know that some may be thinking- well how do I live without this or that? It can’t be all that bad- no? We have been so manipulated into thinking that just because something is on the shelf in a supermarket 365 days a year that it should be consumed as such. Never before have we had access to sugar, caffeine, alcohol, packaged foods, chocolate, boxes of processed stuff- all the time.

Your body is designed to eat fresh, whole veggies, fruits, some grains, some fish, little meat and clean water. Anything else is a stress on the digestion and clogs up the nutrient pathways. And we haven’t even gotten to detoxification and the function of the rest of the body!

Choose 3 ways that you can change and start to implement them today- you will feel better tomorrow and every day that follows as you wean yourself off of an entire system that has been cleverly designed to manage the people. Refuse to be controlled, don’t conform, and do not under any circumstances eat their food or drink their water.

Join the Revolution- we shall fight, we will win!

Have a healthy day,

April