Pulling the Wool over Our Eyes

Guest blogger Sally-Ann Creed, gives an informative overview of the importance of using natural laundry detergents.

Are you using a “natural” Laundry Detergent(s)? Are you quite sure? Read Your Labels and avoid products with these ingredients:

Phosphates in our Washing Powder
Phosphates are natural minerals that are important to a variety of biological processes. A key nutrient for plants and animals, these minerals were once widely used in detergents because they did two very useful things: They reduced water hardness which allowed the detergent’s soap to clean more effectively, and they prevented dirt from being re-deposited back onto the items being cleaned. But while phosphates may be a perfect ingredient for laundry and other detergents, once they’re released into the environment via household wastewater, the results are anything but desirable.

The trouble starts with an algae bloom. Simply put, algae love phosphates. For these tiny plants, a washer load of phosphate-laden detergent is an invitation to a giant all-you-can-eat feast. In response to all this sudden food, the algae feed and reproduce prodigiously, and then die off in equally large numbers as the ecosystem becomes unable to support their burgeoning population.

They destroy our Environment!
Once dead, they drift to the bottom of the pond or lake where they become food for other microorganisms. Now it’s the other microorganisms’ turn to enjoy an overabundance of food. As they feed and reproduce in growing numbers in response to the increased availability of dead algae, the microorganisms strip more and more oxygen out of the water. Eventually, if the population explosion is great enough, the waters in question become so devoid of this crucial element that they can’t support any life at all. The result is a “dead” body of water. Soon thereafter, something called eutrophication often occurs, a process by which a body of water loses all its life, fills in with solids, and becomes dry land.

In response to this once common problem, most products containing phosphates were eliminated years ago. An exception, however, was made for automatic dishwasher detergents - these products gained an exemption from phosphate bans because of the unique way dishwashers work. Responsible manufacturers now create high performance automatic dishwashers that work without using phosphates in their formulas. To keep your local waterways in healthy balance, look for these alternatives when you shop and keep phosphates out of the environment.

Sodium Carbonate
The use of large quantities of sodium carbonate in washing powder has been shown to be very hard on fabrics. Cotton fibres in particular will slowly suffer when washed repeatedly with sodium carbonate. This fraying is especially visible with dark colours, and over time can make the colours looked slightly bleached out.

Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLS)
This inexpensive detergent is commonly used in cosmetic cleansers, hair shampoos, bath and shower gels, bubble baths and washing powders - it is probably the most dangerous ingredient used in skin and hair-care products. In the cleaning industry SLS is used in garage floor cleaners, engine degreasers, car-wash soaps, etc. It is very corrosive and readily attacks greasy surfaces. What is it doing to our bodies, our children and our environment?

Sodium laureth sulfate is used throughout the world for clinical testing as a primary skin irritant (and to think some people wash their clothes and bodies with this….). Laboratories use it to irritate skin on test animals and humans so that they may then test healing agents to see how effective they are on the irritated skin.

A study at the University of Georgia Medical College, indicated that SLS penetrated into the eyes as well as brain, heart, liver, etc, and showed long-term retention in the tissues. The study also indicated that SLS penetrated young children's eyes and prevented them from developing properly and caused cataracts to develop in adults. It may also cause hair loss by attacking the follicle (but hang on - this in in a lot of shampoo too...!) it is potentially harmful to skin and hair. It cleans by corrosion.

Another extremely serious problem is the connection of SLS with nitrate contamination. SLS reacts with many types of ingredients used in skin products and forms nitrosomines (nitrates). Nitrates are potential cancer-causing carcinogenics.

Because of the alarming penetrating power of SLS, large amounts of these known carcinogens are absorbed through the skin into the body. A variation of SLS is SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate- SLES). It exhibits many of the same characteristics and is a higher-foaming variation of SLS. Boy, do we ever NOT want this in our cleaning products! Avoid it like the plague - there ARE products out there without these dangerous chemicals masquerading as "natural".

Nonyl phenyl ethoxylate
These are the published warnings:

Skin Contact: In case of contact, immediately flush skin with plenty of water. Cover the irritated skin with an emollient. Remove contaminated clothing and shoes. Wash clothing before reuse. Thoroughly clean shoes before reuse. Seek immediate medical attention. (Wow - and this is part of “natural” LAUNDRY detergent???) For skin contact wash with a disinfectant soap and cover the contaminated skin with an anti-bacterial cream.

Inhalation: If inhaled, remove to fresh air. If not breathing(!), give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen. Get medical attention.
Flammability: May be combustible at high temperature.
Routes of Entry: Absorbed through skin (and you are washing CLOTHES in it?).

Toxic Effects on Humans: Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Mist may cause irritation of the respiratory tract experienced as nasal discomfort and discharge with chest pain and coughing. May affect respiration experienced as audible respiration, and mouth breathing, and distended abdomen. Exposure to high aerosol concentrations for a prolonged period of time may result in suffocation.

Special Remarks on Chronic Effects on Humans: May affect genetic material and cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects based on animal studies.
Eyes: Causes severe eye irritation and conjunctivitis with possible chemical burns of the eye.

Chronic Potential Health Effects:
Skin: Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause irritation and dermatitis. Prolonged or widespread contact may result in absorption of potentially harmful amounts and may cause abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomitting, and diarrhea. Studies also indicate that continuous exposure to high concentrations may be toxic to the kidneys.

For more on Sally-Anne Creed, please see her website's at www.sallyanncreed.co.za and www.creeds.co.za.

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More good news about fish oil

Doctors are being advised to prescribe oily fish or omega-3 fatty acid supplements to heart attack patients.

Professor Gene Feder, Chair of the Guideline Development Group, said: "The growing evidence that cardiac rehabilitation and specific lifestyle changes reduces the risk of second heart attacks, as well as improving quality of life, is not widely recognized."

This is wonderful news – at last good nutrition is being recognized by main-stream medicine. Nutritionists have been recommending fish oil for heart patients for years – Dr Robert Buist for one, then Dr Joseph Mercola and Jack Challem, ‘The Nutrition Reporter’ were recommending it in 2003 and of course Dr Barry Sears is a great proponent of high dose fish oil to combat heart disease. Try a Google search on benefits of fish oil and heart disease, and you’ll come up with 1,160,000 links.

However, what must be clearly borne in mind is that our oceans are all contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury, and so consider this when taking high doses of fish oil in supplemented form. Any fish oil supplement must ONLY be of Pharmaceutical Grade, which indicates that the oil has had any heavy metal contamination and other toxins removed under pharmaceutical conditions

More recommendations by health professionals for high-dose, ultra refined fish oil before, during and after pregnancy will ensure good development of the brain of her unborn child, as well as sufficient omega-3 for her health

And further, benefits have been experienced in the following conditions:
Bronchitis, emphysema, high blood pressure, asthma, ulcerative colitis, Alzheimer's, MS, ADD, dyslexia, Parkinson's and more.

Read more on the BBC article Fish oil urged for heart patients.

Image source=BBC.co.uk
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The Great GM Debate

News from David Biello in Scientific American this week (May 24^th 2007) is that Genetically Modified Crops Survive Weed-Whacking Herbicide. Crops genetically altered to resist herbicides have become so prevalent that resistant weeds are beginning to appear, necessitating new forms of genetic modification.

Everyone must be aware of the growth of technology in all spheres of our lives, even where we least expected technology to have any say at all. But surely the fastest growing in the past decade must have been in agriculture, where growth in GM food has been faster than in any other since the inception of the earliest of farming tools, the plow.

Nearly 250 million acres were put under GM crops in 2006 and 173 million of those were GM altered to resist the herbicide Roundup™. Farmers are able to apply it without restraint, so cutting costs and dropping the need for cultivation between crops.

But the giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) has now evolved into varieties which have an inborn resistance to the herbicide and so researchers move on to more successfully modified crops to resist yet another herbicide.

Where will it all end?

Image source=www.internationalpheromone.co.uk

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Harvest from the Toddler Organic Vegetable Garden

Have you been ‘conditioned’ into believing organic vegetables can never look as good as regular ones in shops? Well if you have, then take a closer look at this picture. There’s a bit too much reflection coming off the packaging, but there’s no denying the cos and dark frilly oak-leafed lettuce is as good looking as any, anywhere! The only reason organic vegetables look so unappetizing is because they are not fresh. And the reason other vegetables keep their ‘fresh’ look is because of the harmful chemicals placed inside the plastic wrappers which give them a longer shelf live.

These vegetables were harvested from Squirrel’s Landing Organic Garden last Wednesday, and sold to a few lucky shoppers on Thursday. They were still crisp and beautiful and caused many ooh’s and aah’s from admirers. If you’ve been watching Cabbages and Cream since its inception, you’ll remember it all started at the beginning of March, and this is what has come out of the garden two and a half months later. You can track progress of the lettuce by clicking Organic Vegetable Garden Progress on April 22^nd.

Our beetroot doesn’t show up in this picture, but you can be sure it is utterly delicious, with strong, healthy leaves – nothing like the limp stuff in the supermarkets and big vegetable stores.

Read more on the topic: We want real food

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Fatty acids

This is a big subject, but we can simplify it by recognising the following:

Fatty acids are released when dietary fats are digested. The major fatty acids in our diet are composed of recurring segments of two carbon units making up long chains of fatty acids of 16, 18, 20, etc, carbon atoms, divisible by 2.

Almost all fatty acids in natural products contain an EVEN number of carbon atoms.

Fatty acids containing no double bonds are called saturated fatty acids and those with double bonds are called unsaturated fatty acids. Those with more than one double-bond are called polyunsaturated.

Trans Fatty Acids – This is a little more complicated, but put simply. if two parts of the fatty acid are on opposite sides of the double-bond, then the fatty acid is in the ‘trans’ form. Transfat is the common name for a type of unsaturated fat with trans isomer fatty acid(s). Transfats may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. These are the fatty acids we need to avoid in our diets as they are damaged and cause many health problems. You will find them in supermarket vegetable oils, most processed foods, fast foods, junk foods, breakfast bars, some breakfast cereals, chocolate bars and more.

Essential Fatty Acids are the ones our bodies do not produce so we have to get them from our diets. Known commonly as omega-3 and omega-6, their scientific names are alpha-linoleic acid and linoleic acid respectively. Omega-3 acids are derived from marine sources and omega-6 acids are derived from land-based sources of plants and animals. The best source of dietary omega-3 is in fresh organic fish and good pharmaceutical grade fish oil with good quantities of EPA/DHA. This is one supplement everyone could benefit from and a daily dose of 2-4g will help avoid heart disease and much more.

Watch out for more on this essential food on Cabbages and Cream.

See more from Dr Robert Buist on Nutritional Courses.

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Vegetarians from Mars - is the uproar focusing on health?

Some of the UK's best-selling chocolate bars, such as Mars and Twix, will no longer be suitable for vegetarians.

This was the announcement from the manufacturer of these chocolate bars, MasterFoods recently.

The Vegetarian Society said the company's move was "incomprehensible", and they are 'Extremely disappointed'

Within a week, 6,000 disappointed consumers set the manufacturers rushing into an about-turn with apologies for upsetting their buyers. Now there are lots of happy vegetarians and a very happy manufacturer, who has probably found sales have increased. Win-win for everyone?

Once the fuss dies down, who will ask the question ‘If vegetarians claim to be health conscious, why are they eating this product in the first place?’ Could it have something to do with wonky sugar levels and sugar cravings?

After all, in a diet that includes animal proteins, our bodies do not crave fat as much as a vegetarian diet. BUT the funny thing is that though a vegetarian may be craving fat as a result, his body can’t tell his brain what the cause of craving is, and because he or she is feeling like a pick me up, the first thing they may reach for is a chocolate bar! This will give them an immediate ‘lift’ and so incorrectly the brain tells the body – this is what you need when you get that craving

And so the vegetarian becomes a diabetic. Well, not quite as simply as that, but the principle is what counts. And another thing – chocolate bars are stacked with transfats – completely the wrong kind of fat for our bodies, which cause inflammation and heart disease. Imagine that – a diabetic vegetarian suffering from atherosclerosis! And all because of a drug induced dependency on a chocolate bar...

At least there will be no more Mars bar ads for children…

Image source= www.bbc.co.uk

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Favourite books for the Organic Vegetable Garden

Rosalind Creasy really knows what she’s talking about, and has won many book awards. This book won an accolade from The American Horticultural Society as one of the 75 best gardening books published in the last 75 years! Now that’s an achievement, wouldn’t you say?

And of course she’s so ‘organic’ that she often forgets to mention it! Her books are a real treat and will inspire you all over again to get out there and dig the dirt!

In the Toddler Organic Vegetable Garden

In a month of glorious weather the vegetables at Squirrel’s Landing have had to be almost tied down, to stop them growing so fast! These beets have only been in the ground for two months and are now ready for a full harvest, so if you visit Creeds towards the end of the week, you may just be lucky enough to nab a bunch.

The leaves are simply beautiful and are almost pretty enough for a flower arrangement, but we’ve been enjoying them in salads and as a lightly steamed green vegetable for weeks. Full of good nutrition and bursting with flavour they are truly a wonder food, stacked with beta-carotene, iron and calcium.

Beetroot have higher sugar content than most vegetables but are also rich in vitamin C (we all need more), fibre, potassium, folic acid, magnesium and manganese. Enjoy them roasted or grated raw, and if you’re brave, find a recipe for borscht! In fact, why not ask us for one?

We’ve also been having fun with the rest of the garden and have at last laid down our plans for an Edible Garden. I’m very excited about this, as I can now indulge in a passion for a flower garden as well as passion #1 - organic vegetables. Of course the flower garden will also be organic, which is just as well, because I’m inclined to put marigolds, borage, nasturtiums and more into salads. But not foxgloves! Sometimes I forget which are vegetables and which are flowers – so many plants are worth experimenting with in the kitchen

The idea for the Edible Garden came from a book I picked up whilst book browsing the other day – and what a find it’s turned out to be! By Rosalind Creasy, it’s called The Edible French Garden. Of course! She has wonderful ideas and the photographs are outstanding. Why not find a copy and sit back in a cozy chair by the fire with a cup of something hot, and indulge!

If you like the idea of starting a similar garden, look on page 19 for a sneak preview of how The Edible French Garden at Squirrel’s Landing is going to look... and keep up with the Real Food section of Cabbages And Cream for updates.

More articles on Squirrel's Landing Organic Vegetable Garden:

Organic Vegetable Garden Progress

Birth of an Organic Vegetable Garden

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Barking mad

If you’re a dog or cat lover who’s been feeding your pets with pellets and canned food since forever, you are probably tearing your hair out wondering ‘where to now?’ because of the recent scary recall of contaminated pet food in the US and in South Africa. Well, Steve Brown and Beth Taylor have been talking about healthy dog food for years and their book See Spot Live Longer has some wonderful recipes that will make your mouth water, never mind Spot!

The scare of contaminated (with an industrial chemical) pet food is far from over and it’s now reported to have affected nearly 39000 pets in America, so best we start thinking long term nutrition for our pets. The information was released by the Banfied Pet Hospital, from their records of more than 615 veterinary hospitals.

What did our grand parents feed to their dogs? After all, ‘scientific’ pet foods were unavailable then, but dogs seemed to manage pretty well as man’s best friend, and hunting dogs in particular had to be on top form to be able to find whatever they were sniffing out. Most of their food came in table scraps, with quite a lot of raw meaty bones, if my memory serves me, and that sounds a far cry from some of the stuff we hear goes into ‘scientific’ pet foods!

Do your pets a favour and prepare their food yourself – they’ll love you for it!

Image source=http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_eyeteeth_archive.html

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Sally-Ann Creed's newsletter

Sally-Ann Creed’s latest newsletter arrived on my digital desk this week, and she highlights the importance of Ester-C at this time of year in the southern hemisphere, especially if you have sensibly decided to avoid taking a flu jab.

I would highly recommend your reading the full article on how Ester-C boosts immune function, plus more on:

• Antioxidants for Chemo
• Trans fats still in the news
• Reduce depression
• Why buy organic

Sally-Ann has wonderfully relaxed but informative approach in her newsletters, and I really enjoy her no-nonsense, science-based articles. There are no fads or unproven theories on this site.

What is your skin eating?

It is a medically recognized fact that our bodies absorb significant amounts of what we put on our skin. And now with certified organic food rapidly becoming the nutrition of choice by the health conscious amongst us, why would you accept any less for your skin?

Did you know that:

- An average adult is exposed to 126 harmful chemicals per day, via the 9 or so cosmetic products they use
- There are no mandated safety studies of cosmetics in the world
- Only 11% of the known 10,500 known ingredients have been assessed for safety
- The lipstick or nail polish you may be wearing could be a danger to your health
- And so is could your deodorant, toothpaste, baby lotion and soap

Seemingly innocuous personal-care products contain a large amount of mostly unregulated chemicals and toxic ingredients. Some of them – phthalates, formaldehyde, petroleum, parabens, benzene and lead can be linked to:

- Breast cancer
- Endometriosis
- Reproductive disorders
- Birth defects
- Developmental disorders in children
- Nearly all lipsticks (including well known brand names) contain lead

Women should be particularly concerned as they have a greater percentage of body fat and fat soluble chemicals such as parabens and toluene tend to settle long term in these storage sites

Synthetic chemicals such as alkylphenols (detergents) and bisphenol A (hard plastics), can mimic the body’s natural oestrogens.

There is a very simple test you do to test if you are swallowing lead every day through your lipstick and there is at least one product available that is lead free, so it’s not all bad news

Don’t take your health for granted – learn about the products out there so you can find safer choices for yourself and your family. Find a health practitioner who specializes in organic products and use only healthy creams on your body.

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Epidurals – are babies adversely affected?

If you know someone contemplating an epidural to avoid the pain and trauma of childbirth, there are a few points of interest they may not have come across.In Lise Eliot’s book What's Going on in There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life she comments as follows:

• Every drug used for epidural anesthesia can diffuse out of the epidural space and enter the baby’s circulation
• Using more sensitive indices of infant behaviour, some studies have found that newborns are:
• Less alert
• Less able to orientate toward stimuli and
• Less mature in their motor abilities than babies of unmedicated mothers
• Greater exposure makes babies jumpy and more irritable
• The effects are most pronounced on the first day after birth, but some have been found to persist up to six weeks of life
• The most common side-effect of epidural administration is…a reduction in the mother’s blood pressure. Maternal hypotension is at least partially responsible for the fact that the baby’s heart rate of slows down for a while shortly after an epidural anesthetic is injected
• If the mother’s blood pressure falls too low for too long it can seriously compromise the blood flow to the placenta, reducing the fetus’s supply of oxygen. These serious side effects are prevented by giving the woman fluids through an IV…If this countermeasure doesn’t work, another drug may be needed to prevent her blood pressure from falling too low and compromising the baby
• Studies have show that women receiving epidural have longer labours
• This is especially the case during the 2^nd stage (pushing) of the labour
• These mothers are frequently diagnosed with dystocia, the failure of labour to progress
• Are four times more likely to require forceps
• Are two or three times more likely to end up having a C-section, than women receiving systemic or no pain relief
• Although most babies are not significantly affected, epidural anesthesia may compromise the health of babies already at risk due to illness, premature birth or a difficult delivery
• Encouraging women to have unmedicated deliveries would be best for babies, and for the mothers this would mean:
• Fewer side effects
• Shorter labours
• Easier breast feeding and bonding

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Nomination for Cabbages and Cream

We have been nominated in the Best Health and Best Food categories for the Blogger's Choice Awards!

It's just a bit of fun, but follow this link if you think we deserve your vote.

Nutritious recipe book

Nutritious is a recipe book with a difference – it contains 100% healthy recipes which are both tasty and easy to make, and utilizes organic ingredients, healthy alternatives to sugar, dairy, wheat and bad fats whilst being fun and informative at the same time.

You will find health information and funny quotations peppered throughout the book, together with cooking and general health tips. Put together by Sally-Ann Creed and Jill Fraser Halkett for Leading Edge Nutrition Centres, Nutritious has done extraordinarily well for their first effort and is published by Storm Books.

To order your copy of Nutritious, please contact us via e-mail.

You will also find it at Leading Edge outlets.

Power lines link to cancer in new alert

This is not a new idea, but its gathering speed and attention around the world and while the jury’s out on whether the anecdotal evidence will satisfy people who insist on scientific results one way or the other, I’m personally not prepared to take the risk. So I have a gizmo on my mobile, as well as on my computer, digital bedside clock and rib heaters and I keep reading the reports and as much unbiased opinion as I can find.

The choice is yours, but why not do some investigating for yourself – there’s loads of information around – but do think again about making the minimally responsible decision to protect your children’s brains by not giving them mobile phones when they are barely out of Reception class.

An extract by Nicholas Cecil in the Evening Standard highlights that "Homes and schools could be banned from being built near power lines. A secret report has raised fresh fears of a link between power lines and cancer. The confidential study, obtained by the Evening Standard, urges ministers to consider banning the building of homes and schools close to overhead high-voltage power cables because of possible health risks. It says a ban is the best way to reduce significantly exposure to electromagnetic fields from the electricity grid system."

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