Friday 10 July 2009

Fluoride


It's not new...but it does seem to need some clarification. This week a PR woman said to me ' yeah, botox is really safe, I mean, it's safer than flouride'. To which I replied, ' you may want to change your comparison because fluoride is scary, bad stuff'. So here is the skinny on fluoride...

Thing is, like this picture of 'Darkie' or re-named 'Darlie' toothpaste, we once thought that was acceptable. We now look back at that with disbelief. We are just a moment away from thinking the same about toothpastes which say 'with Fluoride' as though THAT is a good thing.

It's about 60 years since they started adding fluoride into the water supply and it was in the 1930's that a whole new ad campaign made the populations of the Western World think fluoride was something we needed to make our teeth strong and white.
WHY?
It was a new time of industry and the copper, iron and aluminium smelting plants were big business (if you recall all our pans used to be made of aluminium until they connect it with alzheimers and it is now noted that alum in deoderants has all kinds of bad side effects...aluminium and human ingestion are not happy bedfellows!) but they didn't know what to do with all the by-products of the process and after using it as rat poison and insectacide, some good PR and a goverment incentive created...Fluoride - good for cavities, good for your teeth...pictures of happy smiling kids and voila!

The masses of scientific research over the years show the link between fluoride and all kinds of health problems. Once example was in 1990 when a National Toxicology Program (NTP) study determined fluoride could be a cancer-causing agent. The NTP study “supplied a detailed description of the toxicology of fluoride, not only in terms of osteosarcoma, but also lesions in the oral mucosa, thyroid gland, skin and uterus…(which) prompted us to re-test the hypothesis of an epidemiological association between water fluoridation and cancer incidences…”, they found fluoridation status positively correlated to cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, colon, rectum, hepato-bilary & urinary organs and bone cancer.

The good news is that we have the benefit of almost 70 years of research so armed with this knowledge you can now get decent water filters and also fluoride-free toothpaste... so don't be scared, be pro-active, read the ingedients and vote with your wallet.

Say cheese....

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Old Fashioned Flavours are Back!


The chocolate bar wasn't invented until the 1920's but from the early 1820’s, the UK had developed quite a unique chocolate taste, initially refined by the Fry family and their company (Fry's Turkish Delight!? etc etc) and special flavors. Chocolate was a pricey comodity and came in individual units of dark chocolate, very often combined with strong, pronounced flavors like mint cream, rose & violet cream and ginger. The history of chocolate in Britain is very closely related to the royal family, as it was Queen Victoria who appointed companies like Charbonnel & Walker (1825), Ackermans Chocolates (1919) and Bendicks of Mayfair. Even today, some of these companies remain under royal appointment and still produce the same traditional UK chocolates.

Rose and violet creams with crystalised rose or violet petals on top, seem like an old ladies delicacy of years gone by but such victorian flavours are back and once again becoming best sellers. Fortnum and Mason and Charbonnel and Walker and even newby company Kshocolat are selling they floral morsels.

As the afternoon tea is once again vogue; these chocolates are the old/new sweet treat and the best new gift.
I predict that the wearing gloves and day hats will be back very soon...

Teechino


You may not want to give up coffee and the thought of a chicory root beverage may fill you with unsavoury retching...but oh my goodness Vanilla Teechino is like drinking hot vanilla ice cream with the added benefit of being super healthy. It is caffeine free, helps mineral absorption, alkalinises the body and is full of potassium. So yummy!

I found my bag of loose teechino in a large US supermarket and first tried to use it like instant coffee...then all the bits ended up floating on the top of the cup...it doesn't disolve. THEN, I used a tea strainer to make it the second time and the bits were so small that they escaped through the holes. Third time lucky...put in individual teabags...it works. Looks like tea, tastes like sugar-coated heaven nectar!

Ok so you like coffee? or even think decaf is better? but just so you know:
Decaf Coffee increases acidity - so people with heartburn, joint pain, arthritus might want to make some changes. Metabolic acidity contributes to demineralization of the bones. The high acidity of decaf coffee increases the risk for developing osteoporosis.
Studies demonstrate that decaffeinated coffee use may be linked to an increase in homocysteine and inflammation, which are all risk factors for heart disease.
Decaf coffee has been linked to increased cholesterol levels, especially in those people who have switched from caffeinated to decaffeinated coffee. Decaf coffee has been shown to raise the LDL cholesterol or so called “bad” cholesterol 8-10% in 3 months.

Seems like a few US supermarkets are selling it in various flavours and maybe even in ready made sachets...
Hope you get to try it!