Food for thought

By Laurin Evans Christmas means cookie time! Okay, it means a little more, but nearly everyone has that special cookie that reminds them of their favorite Christmas memories. Cookies are everywhere as it gets closer to Christmas – at work, school functions and, of course, all of the parties. What is it about the holidays that inspires people to pull out their mixer and get baking? Although cookies have the advantage of being mostly bite-sized, they can fool you because they are usually high in calories and low on nutrition. If you take every cookie offered to you in December you'll be forced to make some serious resolutions by January 1st. I'm amazed at how mostly flour, sugar and flavorings can morph into every imaginable type of tasty treat. With some minor tweaks, you can reduce the fat and calories while upping the nutritional punch of nearly every cookie recipe. I don't try to make a 100% healthy cookie, just one that is a little better for you. White flour, white suga...

This is my view. The number one problem facing our world today is overpopulation. Over 63 million people die each year from starvation related diseases. A professional sports star brings in millions per year while a buffet to these 63 million starving people would be bread and water. Anyone see something wrong with this picture? It is projected that the world food and water shortage problem is only going to get worse. The more people on the earth the more resources are needed. To meet some of this demand rainforests are being cleared at an alarming rate of 1 football field per second, 60 football fields per minute, 3,600 fields per hour and so on. If this keep up all our major rainforests in 50 years will be gone. Rainforests are considered to be the "lungs of the earth" because of all the oxygen they provide. Rainforests soak up CO2 emissions. As we clear rainforests, animals lose their habitat/are edging closer to extinction. Where are we headed folks? Solution #1: Zero Po...

From Michael Klaper, MD "To arm oneself with a sword of knowledge, a little sweet chemistry understanding is called for. Sugars do taste good, and there is no problem in enjoying the naturally occurring fructose in whole, fresh fruits. The problem is in eating sugar as a food! When you are holding a cookie in your hand, a piece of cake, a candy bar, you are holding a chunk of sugar in your hand. You would not consider going over to the sugar bowl and shoveling in tablespoons of the white stuff, but here you are, actually considering eating this large chunk of sugar as a food. If you do eat it, within minutes, your bloodstream is flooded with sugar and your pancreas is on high alert. Soon, the structural proteins in all your tissues – the elastic fibers of your skin, the hemoglobin in your blood, the filter membranes in your kidneys, the inner lining of your blood vessels, the lenses of your eyes – all get “sticky” with sugar (the chemists say they become “glycosylated.”) In the 98...

A Bloomberg Businessweek article on powerful people changing their diets to save themselves and the planet. Steve Wynn, Russell Simmons, Bill Clinton and a comparable cast of heavies are now using tempeh to assert their superiority. A look at what gives. On quitting meat, dairy, and eggs: "It's pretty clear the benefits are undeniable and many." http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_46/b4203103862097.htm

From The New York Times, this is a very important article. It just may make you think twice about eating cheese. If you would stop eating cheese, it would do you, the earth, and cows and goats a world of good. While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07fat.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

http://www.funnyordie.com/stories/4e561641f4/the-funniest-signs-from-the-rally-to-restore-sanity-and-or-fear?playlist=featured_documents

How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change. This is quite an article from the New Yorker magazine. go to http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza This is a very long article, at 10 pages. It's very informative if you can make it through the whole thing. If you don't want to have to click each time you go to the next page, at the bottom of the first page click on "View As A Single Page", then just scroll away. The article does not paint President Obama in a positive light when it comes to climate change. He had his chance to follow through on a campaign promise to do something about climate change, but under pressure he dropped the ball- in this case the ball representing the Earth. To me it doesn't mean it's too late, but lawmakers have to pull their heads out of the sand and do something NOW, before it IS too late. In the meantime, we can each do something to help. How we each eat, and how ...