Tuesday 6 December 2011

menu mailer give-away

Due to time constraints its been a bit quiet on the blog here, but this is something I would like to share.
Cheeseslave is doing a give-away - quite often actually - but this time its about a menu-mailer. I think this could be a really good one. In the past I have tried some, and some were downright disappointing, but Ann-Marie from Cheeseslave is someone who is with the Weston A Price Foundation and has some real good sense on healthy food. So therefore I am sure this one will be good.
Here is the link:
http://www.cheeseslave.com/giveaway-cheeseslave-menus-by-mail-85-value/comment-page-2/#comment-172362

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Traditional food preparation

I have run into a blog and e-course fairly recently which I have come to enjoy. The website is http://gnowfglins.com/
The good thing about this website and their e-course is that they teach traditional food preparation, which is what is the only road to keep people healthy.
I do think the emphasize on grains is too high as I do consider grain consumption somehow that must be kept to a minimum. However, the way the lessons teach how to prepare the grain dishes is really really good. They are sourdough, cakes and cookies and also pancakes, which is basically the only way to eat grains, as else the anti-nutrients will wreck havoc on your system and will leave you with deficiencies.
Anyway have a read and see what you think, I like it

Wednesday 26 May 2010

holiday and ordered food

The case is:
A family is on holiday, father, mother, teenage son and teenage daughter. While being on holiday for 3 weeks on a nice camping there is a visit to a nearby historical town.
There they decided to have a drink in a nice restaurant. The daughter asks if she can also have a sandwich as she is also hungry. The parents agree. The daughter picks a sandwich that sounds good to her.
When they bring it, it is pretty large. The daughter seems to get distressed by the mere sight.
After eating it halfway, the daughter is full and cannot eat it any more and tells her mother that. The mother insists she eats it all as she has ordered it. The daughter continues eating.

So, what is wrong with this case.
Quite some things actually. It seems the "normal" way to go when parenting, but why? Would you do that to your partner? He or she is full, would you make him or her eat it, even though he or she basically cannot any more?
So why would you do it to your child? Out of the principle that one has to finish what one orders? Why would your child have to do that when your partner does not?
I am convinced that type of parenting is creating at least obesity and likely also eating disorders.
Just imagine the feeling of being full and then having to add about the same amount to that? Wouldn't you want to throw up? I can certainly see how a parenting style like that can create bulimia. Actually I am convinced that forcing children to finish their food, especially when they are already teenagers, and especially girls, where there is already quite an emphasise on looking good, will create that.
And who is to say that this teenage girl did not go to the loo afterwards to throw it all out again. It would certainly be relieving to her.
Another part of this picture that bothers me is another of one health. Overeating disrupts the digestive system. Its overloaded. An overloaded stomach cannot properly work with the food. One should never eat more than about 80%. And then this halfway worked on food ends up in the gut. Count your blessings.
The other thing that concerns me in this picture is the fact that there is no respect for the child. The child is full, that should be respected, nobody should be forced to eat or drink more than they can. This is simply mentally and emotionally unhealthy parenting. I cannot understand how parents can do this to their children.
It is emotionally also disrespectful to the child. This child, even though its a teenager, ended up eating the whole baguette (out of fear?), eventhough the child was full and already obese. What will this action of the mother tell the child. That its worthless, that her mother does not care about how she feels or her health or the way she looks?
To be honest from what I have learned about this family and their behaviour during the vacation it was quite clear that both the son and the daughter were not taken serious. Their emotions were not taken serious. This was not the only incident.

So, how should one deal with these type of issues?
First of all relax. There is no need to force food into a child.
The best way to consider how to deal with a situation like that is ask yourself how you would want to be treated yourself in that situation.
I know that I would prefer being respected. I would like it if I would be able to share my food with someone else or take part of it along for later. I would also like it that if I ordered something that I think is small, but turns out to be large that I could discuss this with my parents and see if we can find a solution together that does not incur throwing away food.
I personally also do not like to throw away food, so I can understand other parents having an issue with that. But be relaxed and creative and find solutions with your child that are respectful to the child. If need be, throw away part of it. Its less important than your child's physical and mental well-being.

Forcefeeding is consider abusive when done to animals (except for geese in France), but it seems fine when done to children.
I personally do not see any need in anything like that, its punishment, and for what? The sandwiches in the country of origin of this child are usually not large baguettes, usually they are more like English sandwiches, I am sure this is what the child had in mind. The country where they were on holiday obviously tends to serve baguettes. And there is quite a size difference in that.

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Independent thinking

Today I had quite a few thoughts on how independent the majority of people really are. I noticed that the majority is actually following "the crowd" or "a guru" or "an expert". In general people do not read up on the research themselves.
This is something most people were taught as children. We were shown that adults were right, teachers were right, doctors were right, experts were right. We were taught not to question the people who were right. But were they always right?
I am teaching my children not to take my word of it, or anybody else's word for it. I want them to think for themselves. If the topic is not very easily thought through I want them do their own research and make up their own minds.
I offer them books and internet pages on the topic from different angles.
I myself dig through things that way as well.
One thing that recently came up in our family was veganism or vegetarianism. We know quite a few families who eat that way. The kids wanted to know why and whether it was in the best interest of the environment and whether it was possible to eat that way without jeopardizing their health.
So together we went on a search. I have my mind made up based on my reading, but it never hurts to dig through things again to see if I could change my mind on it.
There were some news books on the market on the topic, so we read them and discussed them.
We also found some interesting new research had been done.
Anyway after reading together, and also looking at traditional way tribal communities ate we came to a couple of conclusions:
1. We need animal foods to stay health, to have a normal dental arch, to have healthy teeth and bones. No indigenous community is without animal products in their diet. Some take mainly milk products, others take mainly meat products, some take milk, meat and blood products. We therefore think that vegetarianism might work for some people, but it requires very serious thought and very serious work.
2. An abundant supply of fruits and vegetables are not necessary for good health, as various tribal communities in Africa have shown. Those communities live (have lived) mainly on meat, milk products and blood and they are (were) very strong and healthy and have no dental caries.
3. Environmentally speaking its not helpful to only eat plant based foods. There is no use in it for the following reasons: plants need to be "fed" animal based foods, else they will not grow well. Pure compost from only plants will in the end exhaust the soil. There is quite a need for bone and blood meal, if you want to do it environmentally friendly. Though there is always artificial fertilizer which is made of fossil oils, we all know that is not the best of "foods" for our soil and plants. So nobody can really truly be a vegan, when you start looking at where the plant foods come from.
We found more reasons which make it clear that animal foods are really necessary for humans.

Another interesting one is dog food, most people buy the rubbish in the shop, but that is food that is plant based. The main component of commercial dog food is grains, then some vegetables and then to make it taste a bit some meat like bits. But when you look at what a wolf - the ancestor of a dog - eats, that has nothing to do with commercial dog food. A wolf eats raw meaty bones. A wolf does not cook its food, nor does it go out and eat grains or vegetables or fruit. A wolf may get a bit of predigested plant based foods from the stomach of his / her prey, but that is really where it ends. Oddly enough even VET's are often convinced that commercial dog food is better, but why then are so many dogs suffering from degenerative diseases? That would not happen if they were eating biologically appropriate food.
Its all propaganda.

Next on my list of thoughts is Gardasil.
People send their daughters to get vaccinated, but how many of these people are read the insert leaflet of Gardasil? How many people have followed the money trail to see who benefits? How many people have read up on the studies done with Gardasil? How many people actually really know that Gardasil was fast tracked through and there is no evidence at all it is safe?
But most will just be good sheep and simply follow the guidelines they have been told to follow and get their daughter that very dangerous shot.
And I personally have not found a vaccine yet that is safe and that is really doing what it promises to do.

Another one of those topics is birth. We are told that birth is painful. We all believe it and therefore are frightened and stressed beforehand and of course, then it does become painful. Stress hormones interfere with the birth process, that process needs a relaxed woman, under those circumstances dilation happens smooth and easy. But we are all told birth is dangerous so we "need" to be in a hospital. But a hospital is usually the place where people get stressed, as they are monitored and all has to go to the minute that is prescribed. Pity that the female body has not "read the book with the schedules" that are used by doctors.
So a lot of women simply end up with a C-section, purely because they are stressed out as they cannot think of birth as a pleasant experience or it being a normal human process that is in itself safe.
So what if a woman does know its safe and does know it can be pleasant.
Well.... then that woman would feel secure enough to stay home, where she feels comfortable and safe. That woman may have a midwife, if she feels like it, but if she doesn't, she has educated herself on the topic and knows what the variations of normal are and will act upon those.
The baby will not be drugged, nor will the mother and in most of the cases all will be smooth and painless (when you know its not supposed to hurt it won't), breastfeeding happens easy and mother recovers quickly.
In the other cases mother knows something is not completely right and gets herself some help quickly. Even in those cases a normal birth is in most cases still possible.

And then we get pregnancy. How many women know that pregnancy is a normal physical state of being for the female body. Very few, most feel they need medical assistence. That is a shame as with that you set yourself up for intervention which is really not necessary most of the time.
There has actually been a study done which shows that prenatal care does not change the outcome.
With knowing that, why bother with all the stress of prenatal (s)care.

And then to my last topic. Education.
Kids are really not taught to think for themselves. Its amazing that some people do end up being independent thinkers as that is really not what they are taught.
At university they start expecting you to be independent and do your work and studies and research. I have however seen that there are people who are completely incapable of doing so at that time. Their education has consisted of being kept busy and being told what to do. How on earth are you going to do stuff independently then.

Well... that is all for now.

Friday 26 June 2009

education

So.... today I feel inspired. I need to write about education.
What is education and how does it happen.
Obviously not necessarily in a school setting or just on paper.
I find that a school education is inferior to a home education, the reason is that one on one education brings much more than education in a group setting where there is the same stuff educated by one person to a group of on average about 30 children. I do think that that will not bring the best of results.
We educate a group of 4ish children. Our youngest is 1 and is learning on her own, she does not need any help. Which is the way the majority of people let a 1 year old learn. Nothing wrong with that right? So why does it all of a sudden become wrong when they become 4, I find that amazing as a child learns more the first 4 years of their life, than ever after.
Now how does learning work you might wonder.
With having 4 children and the oldest being 14 I have seen from upclose how learning works.
Nor really on paper. Doing things makes it a lot more clear to kids.
Maths for instance is learned much quicker and faster in the real world. This involves shopping and cooking.
Biology, outside looking at the plants, going to the zoo, brings so much more than just pictures in a book.
Chemistry, love that, experiments, that really gives a clear picture :)
And then geography. There I have a wish, traveling the world, okay, not reasonable for us, so we just learn a lot from films and going outside checking out how the land has been used and what uses are for what, that is really working out superb, for lack of traveling the world :)
So what else do we have for things to do.
There are great projects to do with the kids once they express a certain interest in for instance a certain country. That is just totally cool.
What we love doing is picking a country and then working through it in various ways.
We go for the history and the present and th future, we discuss it and read about it, watch DVD's about it etc.
Then we go for the food from that country, make it, and eat it, not just the present food, but also the old stuff. F.i. the Roman food was really really good.
And then we check out the plants and animals from that particular country, that can be amazingly interesting, also the past if we can find it,as in some countries there have been animals going extinct. When possible we go look at those in a museum, or check out the alive ones in the zoo. A botanical garden is great for looking at the plants actually originating from that particular country.
What else is there, there is music of old and new from the country, the language, the perfumes, the scents of flowers, the religious of old and new, etc.
I am sure this gives a good picture of how I feel education works.

So what did we do with the Italy:
Latin (and we have continued as its a great language) and compare it to Italian and other langauges.
the food of then and now and ate it.
the animals of then and now
the religion of then and now including the etruscan
how the romans conquered europe, where they went.
the culture of then and now, including the etruscans
the contacts with the greeks and egyptians
we went to musea to see things

This is a similar way that young children learn, touch, feel and try, so why all of a sudden work only on boring paper, and take the fun out of learning.
Learning needs to be fun, as it needs to last a life time. When I look at kids in school its amazing how bored they are with learning. Most will not touch anything that has something to do with learning as soon as they are done with it. I find that sad and do not want that for my children.
I also do not want them to think that I have the ultimate wisdom, or a teacher has the ultimate wisdom. I want them to question me and things, so they learn. There are so many things that I learned in school as a child that really are not a given fact, but it was presented that way.
Even history, you'd expect that to be factual, but unfortunately with new research and different researchers with different thoughts and opinions plenty is really not a given fact.
Take for example the dark ages, those are taught in school as a given fact, but then there are researchers who have w written books with very good arguments that the dark ages have not happened, as in the dark ages there was no progress, this is not the way humans live. They argue that the dark ages were an invention by an emperor who wanted to base his right to the crown on ancestry, which wasn't there.
That kind of questioning is very important for children to learn to do, it keeps them inquisitive and curious.
I also do not believe in grades or rewards or so.
This does not bring a child an interest in the topic, but only in getting the reward or the grade, so they will not look into the topic in dept, just in fixing the score and then forgetting the lot again. Counterproductive I'd say.

Well folks, this is all for now, I take it you enjoyed the read :)

Tuesday 23 June 2009

7 secrets for a happy child.

I liked reading the text in the following link.

http://zenhabits.net/2009/06/7-secrets-to-raising-a-happy-child/


Have a read, its interesting.

Saturday 7 March 2009

Quote by Dr. Mendelsohn

Because routine immunizations that bring parents back for repeated office calls are the bread and butter of their specialty, pediatricians continue to defend them to the death. The question parents should be asking is: ‘Whose death?’” -----Robert Mendelsohn, MD