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Friday, June 7, 2013

Why GMOS make you worse than sick

Medical disclaimer. This blog and my posts are my own personal views about a broad range of subjects, from health, to fitness, to life, to cooking, ranging from vegetable, animal, to mineral. I am just a human writing about my life, and what has helped me. Anything you read is blog is just my personal book of revelations. Anything you may glean from my writing question is for your entertainment only. Never take my word for it. Ever. Research, study, ask questions, consult with those who are experts in their field. I try to provide accurate information to the best of my knowledge. But I am totally human. I'm not a medical authority. I am learning life as I go. And writing about my personal views and experiences. Never rely on my content in place of professional advice, if you do, you do so at your own risk. I assume no liability for your use of this blog's content. So please note that if you or any other person has a medical condition, you should consult with your health care provider and professional medical treatment immediately. Always seek professional medical advice. Hi ya all,

I had a friend who was interested in learning more about GMOS aka (genetically modified foods) and their health ricks, and how they affect us. So I decided to knuckle down and finally write this post.

First, before I say anymore, I'm posting the link to the video that totally convinced me how bad gmos are. This video keeps on being taken down on youtube. So if this link goes bad, do a google search for the movie, Genetic Roulette. 
I found another functioning video via this link. http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/12340/Genetic-Roulette
If you still have any questions after watching those videos, just do a google search about gmos, and you'll find plenty of information about gmos. The video below is another important video called Seeds of death.

, First off  for all you out there who don't like to hear unpleasant things, what I am about to say will probably make you feel irritated, angry,  a bit confused, offensive, and if you actually believe what I say, you will probably feel depressed, and overwhelmed. All the emotions I felt when trying to swallow this bitter paradigm shift, that GMOS are bad. It's a horrible awakening because most of what we eat is filled with gmos.

If you haven't taken the time to watch the gmo videos I posted, you're probably drumming your fingers on the desk and wondering, "okay, why are Gmos bad, and what are they anyway?"

First, you must understand that Gmos are foods, seeds, and other natural God given sources of food that have been altered at their core, their DNA.

Have you ever heard about the potatoes that glow when they need watering?  Potatoes crossed with Jellyfish = Frankenstein  food. Sounds cool in theory, but would you want to eat something like that?

That's one example of genetic modification.

Another modified food more close to home and probably in your pantry, fridge, and cupboards, is corn, corn starch, your vinegar (some is actually made from corn) corn syrup, corn chips, etc. The point is, corn is practically in all the foods you eat on a daily basis.

What do gmos have to do with Corn?

Plenty.

You see, Monsanto (the biggest most vial nasty toxic chemical corporation I can think of) has been altering our food for some time. This company manufactured agent orange, and a host of other toxic chemicals, and is creating frakin foods for our table.
  
They have been altering corn for some time. Now more recently, they have altered it once again to make it roundup ready.

What does that mean? Well, besides altering it's genes (which is a chemical soup for cancer/tumors) they have made these corn seeds so that they produce their own pesticide that cause bug's stomachs to explode when they eat it. Yeah, that sounds nice, doesn't it?

But bugs are different than humans right?

But our stomachs react very much the same way. These gmo producing seeds cause inflammation in the gut, and make it so you get little holes in your stomach, so that the food goes into your system undigested. They also cause allergic reactions and all sorts of inflammatory problems, and make it so you can't absorb important vitamins and minerals your body needs.

Not to mention it can cause birth defects, and all sorts of hormonal related problems. I also read an article that showed how they have inserted genes of sterile women into the corn to make it play into the plan of global population control. So, if you ever plan on having kids in the near future, I suggest you stay away from gmos.

Oh yes, gmos can cause you to get fat. Studies on rats showed the ones eating gmos ate more, and became obese, probably because the gmo corn is far more mineral deficient than regular corn.  

Also when animals are given a choice between gmo and non gmo corn, they will always go for the natural, non gmo stuff. See, animals know best. 

Another important thing to take into account is that Gmos especially effect your kidneys and liver negatively because they act as toxins, and poisons.  

When I first began researching gmos I was curious about the long term effect they had on humans vs rats, and other animals. I had watched the video that showed how, in only a couple days the animals grazing on gmo soy, or corn died in a matter of three days or so. Crazy. 

I came across a article that talked about how the Hispanics are eating a high amount of Gmos, and how it is effecting them because of their heavy consumption of gmo corn, tortillas, soda etc. It talked about how they are becoming larger, and having more diabetic problems, and how they are some of the first victims of gmos. Although I think that's true, I think that everyone are now victims of gmos. Just look around you. People with all kinds of health problems that were hardly in existence years ago, are now everywhere.

When I first found out about gmos I was very skeptical. I mean, how could something so innocent,  like corn, or soy be so toxic?

Me and my family pretty much had been eating all Mexican diet, corn, corn corn. It was a huge paradigm shift to change.

Even after learning about gmos, we picked some sweet corn that had been roundup ready gmo, and put it up in our freezer.

That was when we started getting educated, and learned just how bad gmos are. We decided that we should throw all our hard work out. Yes. I know it sounds wasteful. But once you become educated about something, if you don't act on what you know, it's like you're lying to yourself.

Plus you have to think of it this way. Do you want to eat poison? 
I don't.

But the truth is, if you give up a food, or anything in life, you have to fill that empty space. You have to find something to replace that hole, or you'll end up going back to your old habits. Empty space always pulls something into itself, good or bad. So find good things.

The hardest part was giving up corn chips. I love corn chips. They were my main staple. But blue corn chips haven't been modified, so that is my replacement.

Then there was ice cream, it's all full of corn syrup. But a few brands have sugar. So, I'm hoping that the sugar brand is non gmo.

Then there is soda. But there are a few brands that have sugar.

I love marshmallows and they're chock full of corn syrup (So I went out and earned how to make my own with non gmo sugar aka Zulka)

Then there was the question of corn starch. I searched around and found a brand that isn't gmo. Bob's red mill.

I also wanted to find a pure brand of  masa. The answer again, Bob's Red Mill has nice non gmo masa.

I could go on. But you get the point. I'm still on my quest to eating healthy, and finding food that is pure and organic, or at least hasn't had it's genes tampered with. But I am still human. I still backtrack. But the point is that I'm trying, that I'm aware of what I'm eating or at least trying to be.

You might be wondering what other Gmos are out there besides corn?
Well the other culprits you need to watch out for are,

 http://theorganicmomma.com/the-top-10-gmo-foods-to-keep-away-from-your-table/
 For the full list, visit the link above.

Soy
Certain times of rice ( I heard that jasmine rice from Thailand is safe, still not sure though)
Corn, Cottonseed oil,
Canola
Hawaiian papaya
zucchini and yellow crook neck squash,
 GMO sweetener aspartame, NutraSweet and Equal. 
 Meat, dairy products.  
Honey and bee pollen may have been gathered from GM plants.

Besides this list, I've recently heard that grain has been gmo'd, but not to the same level as the corn, hence the many wheat intolerance breakouts. (Which is very depressing for obvious reasons)
 I haven't done very much research on the wheat gmo subject, but if I find a organic source of wheat, I'm going to go buy some.

So what do you do with all this cheery information?

I'm not sure. Cry maybe. I felt like it. 
It's daunting, feeling like you have to change so much. Food is personal, it brings people together, and is a huge part of our culture. It makes you feel separated if you have to eat something different than everyone else, almost lonely.   It makes my chest tight, and something inside me feel so angry that so much of what we eat has been tainted in the name of money, and corporate greed. Those are my feelings. But the truth is, do you want to eat something mixed and polluted, or something pure? 

When I go to the grocery store I have to tell myself nope, can't buy that because it's full of poison. I guess I'm trying to reprogram my thinking, but it doesn't really work all the time.  It is very frustrating, and disturbing. But at the same time, I'm glad I'm more educated than I was.

For the past year I'd been eating way too many corn chips, and my stomach was having some serious issues. I didn't know why. But now I know. So now I know what to do.

 I'm glad to report that having been off corn, my stomach feels lots better. Sometimes if I fudge I can feel it, but so far, so good. I know certain wheat items give me stomach problems, but I'm still working on self control, and looking for healthy sources of non gmo foods. It sure is hard. But I'm doing the best I can.

Also I'm happy to report that having been off corn, my monthly cramps that usually feel horrible, were lots better. I'm also thinking it has something to do with me getting off calcium, and taking more magnesium. I also recently learned that the body can reuse calcium, and doesn't really need that much. However the body does need magnesium, and lots of it. And without magnesium calcium can actually do more harm than good, calcify your arteries, and cause all sorts of problems.

So take your magnesium folks. I used to take one a huge calcium pill every day, or even twice a day. I know that's a lot. But I thought it was super good for you.  Now I just take up on the magnesium. Drink my goat milk, and try to eat some greens.  I injured my knee last year, and since I've cooled it on the calcium, and uped my magnesium, it has really helped!

Well that's my health rant. There's so much more I could say, but I wont. I'll leave it at that. 

You don't have to believe it.  It doesn't hurt my feelings if you don't.
The truth is, that the truth can function on it's own with our without us.

I'm just giving you information that I've researched and cross researched. This information is not pleasant, because it is disturbing, and affects everyone in a personal level. Food. It's so basic.  And it isn't fun to learn that something you love to eat is slowly killing you.

What you do with his new found information is your prerogative. 

I for one want to be healthy.

If you are interested in shopping for non gmo items, a good place to start is this site, good luck: http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/tips-for-avoiding-gmos.html

Another important label to look out for is project non gmo verified. They guarantee that no gmos are in their products.



Saturday, June 1, 2013

The Amazing ATM Dryer



Okay!

I'm back. Not that I left. I just got busy. I put "write in blog" on my to-do list almost everyday this week.

But somehow it got put on the bottom of the list---you know how it goes.


 It's nearly three O' clock in the afternoon, and I'm finally here, exclusively talking to you. I'm still in shock. Since summer hit, I've been living outside, working my fingers off. It's nice to just sit and write for a bit.

  A cool, sun-soaked breeze is blowing through my window. I can see all the trees surrounding my window dancing with the wind, their heavy covering of leaves reminding me, once again, that all things renew themselves and can become beautiful once again.

Now that I'm here, I'm at a loss for words. Today is one of those start something, don't feel like finishing anything days.
I sat down to work on some illustrations. But my heart wasn't really in it. I hovered over the painting for my book cover, touched the nearly dry paint, and then concluded that if I painted on it today, I might do more harm than good.

I'm in one of those exhausted moods, where being too creative might result in unhappy feelings of inadequacy later. I'm sure you all have had those days. Where your inner Olga comes out, and you feel like you are defeated even before you try.

It's terrible to say, but the truth is, my inner self critic, Olga is alive and thriving. She makes it her special duty to make me feel like whatever it is that I'm doing isn't good enough, and will never be.

I've chatted with her several times, trying to get her to listen to reason. But she does make several good points. So I listen quietly, then when she's had her I say, I try to counter her.

Sometimes she quiets down, that's when I feel good, and roll up and get to work.
Other times, she wins, and that's when I crawl inside a hole, and wait for it to fall in.

:) Today I think Olga is just having a good time because she knows I've been working my buns off all week, and I'm too tired to counter her constant nagging.


Perhaps I should send her on a vacation. I think it would do her and me some good.
Yes. That is a good plan. With her gone, I could get ever so much more done.

So what have I been doing all week? Well, fixing the dryer among other things. Yes, me and my sister fixed the dryer. It died, and we decided to pull it away from the wall, and give it a closer look. My brother had diagnosed it as dead, and ready for the graveyard of junk.

But the detective in me wanted a closer look.

So Sherlock Stephanie, and her sidekick Bessie, went and did a close analysis of the whole scene.

Not knowing very much about dryers, and how they worked, I did a youtube search, and learned about all things repairing dryers.
It was most interesting. (Not really)  After careful thought, my sister and I pulled the dryer away from the wall and peered into the cavern behind it.

Spiderwebs, lint, and other dust coated items met our eyes. It was a crypt of forgotten socks, teddy bears, towels, clothespins, and other forgotten items corroding into the lint and dust lay like mummified corpses of a later period of time.  

The scene was frightening.

Gathering my courage I squeezed myself behind the dryer, and found myself standing in the the graveyard of berried  rags, and untouched spiderwebs.

I grabbed the pipe that let the linty hot air out of the dryer out of the house, and detached it from the wall.

"Ugg," I moaned peering inside the pipe. "Yep it's clogged, look at all that stuff."

Bessie, grabbed the pipe and took it outside to empty it.

Hmm...

"Maybe the clogged pipe was making it so it didn't work," I mused.

We started up the dryer just to check if the problem had been solved. I bent down, feeling the cool air pumping out of the dryer.

It did not heat up.

"It's not working," I moaned.

I unplugged the dryer and peered down at the dusty pipes wondering which one turned off the gas to the dryer. There was a little red nob that looked as if it was the one.

After careful consideration, we turned the nob, hopefully off. 

Then we got a wrench and tried prying the gas pipe off the dryer, but it wouldn't budge.

I held my breath as I pried the pipe with the wrench. I was a little afraid that I might blow myself up because I was still unsure if we had really turned off the gas.

But luckily, with a lot of trying, and woman power we got the job done, and we didn't blow up. Thankfully.

After we got the dryer disconnected from it's umbilical cord, we felt pretty good about ourselves.Now we could really take a closer look and discover what was wrong with it. 


But nothing is as easy as it seems.
The screws on the back were weird looking, and not your normal screws with X's in the back. They looked more like hexagon shapes.

But my sister, Bessie is very clever, and she knew what kind of screwdriver we needed. So we went out into the shop and brought back a whole bunch of screwdriver heads, hoping one would fit the size of screw.

After searching for awhile, we found the right screwdriver to fit the screws.

I had a blond moment, and we started unscrewing a screw that didn't need to be unscrewed.

Shrugs. 

I eventually unscrewed the right screws.

But I was unprepared for what we would find.

As I pulled the back away from the dryer, dust, dirt, riches and derbies of great magnitude, fell around my feet.

Somehow the dryer vent had siphoned great treasures into the back of the dryer. Seriously. Hair clips, pens, marbles, paperclips, pins, doodads, and dimes, quarters, pennies, dollar bills, and even a twenty dollar bill.

When I pulled out a twenty dollar bill I was feeling pretty special. Gosh, I thought, it's a regular ATM.

I shan't mention the heaps of dirt clod dryer goop poop that I had to wade through in order to excavate my new found riches. My sister and I tipped the dryer sideways in hopes of more monies coming out.
Sure enough another dollar bill fell out. A second time of shaking the dryer got out a quarter and two dimes.

This was kind of fun. I felt like a little kid reveling in booty I'd found beneath couch cushions.

 All in all I'll bet we made about 26 dollars. I'm seriously thinking about buying up old dryers, and peeking in the back and seeing what goodies I can find. (Laughs)

We even found a silver dime. Peering through the heap of odds and ends, we were thrown into the past. It was the ultimate timescale, complete with dust and dirt from years past.
 
Items that we hadn't seen for several years were brought back into our view. 
 Dust that could have formed a man lay strewn around me. My fingers felt grimy and sticky. But I smiled nonetheless, picking out quarters and lost items like they were golden eggs amid the dryer poop I had to wade through.

After locating the fuze behind the dryer, I went back to the youtube video and watched how to test fuses in a dryer. I got a battery tester thingy, and after trying to decipher what everything meant, I tested the dryer fuse.
If it was a working fuse it was suppose to read zero, the same reading I would get if I touched the two wires I was testing it, together.

Nope. It read one. That is supposed to mean that your the fuse.  isn't letting electricity go through it.

I unscrewed the fuse, and my sister took it to town and bought a new one. Note that the fuze looks like a dollar piece of junk. I really didn't think that that little fuze was the problem.

Yet, when my sister returned she said that the guy she bought the new fuse from said that the old one was toast. But there also might be something else wrong with the dryer.

I smiled, still feeling pretty good that we had uncovered a problem that my brother hadn't seen.

"How much did the new fuse cost?" I asked my sis.

"$17.00," came the reply.

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

My face fell. "Oh boy. There goes our prize money. I guess the dryer kept enough money inside it to fix itself---I hope."

I took the new fuse and attached it to the dryer, and then screwed it back into place. Then with the help of my sister we attached the gas, and plugged it back into the electricity.
  
 And what do you know? IT WORKED!

It actually worked.

Girl power triumphed yet once again. 

Then, after careful consideration, I decided I needed to seriously clean out the washroom.

The irony of the room bothered me. It was the wash room, the place where we clean our clothes, yet it was the depository of our house. The room no one liked to speak of, or take people into.

If you're anything like my family, you have one of these rooms.
A room that collects old junks, boots, and derbies that nobody wants to think about or figure out where to put.

So gathering momentum, I went to work. I had cleaned this room before. But never with the intent of moving the dryer, and washer. Somehow moving the dryer gave me courage to face the spiders, and dust. 

You know how one thing leads to another, and pretty soon my sister and I moved the freezer. We even moved out a huge old cabinet and, then I started sweeping the cobwebs off the walls, and then I started contemplating painting the room.

The room is still torn apart. But there is progress in the air.


Whether it's cleaning out old room, or painting a picture or writing a book or doing anything. It's one small step at a time.

The progress might be undetectable to the human eye. But with a little effort, a lot of dedication, and a drive that is motivated from within, you will move mountains, even if these mountains are as simple as moving a dryer and trying to fix it yourself.

Today I finished shoveling out a bin of coal.

I'm pretty proud of that.

Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'll move.

I guess that's the mystery.

I hope you are doing well.

I've missed chatting with you. 

We should do this again soon. 
Take care. 

Oh, by the way, I'm nearly done painting the cover to my next book, The Shade's trees. I'm also working on illustrations for both the Shade's Trees, and The Last Summoning. I have both books pretty much written, they're about 700pg each. So I'll have a lot of proofing to do. (Lucky me)




Starting the painting.

A little progress.




A little more progress. I changed it quite a bit. Not it's there yet, but it's getting closer. Don't mind my messy hair!

Working on illustrating my books.


If all goes well, I hope I will have both books out this year. 

Progress. As one series ends, a new book begins.

The artists life never ends, but continues.
There will always be one more book to write, one more picture to paint, one more dance to dance, one more song to sing.

We may not know where our path will take us, but we know where we want to be.
And that is what guides us.


Oh and as a side note, my book "The Canvas War" is free today until the fifth of June. So if you haven't gotten a copy, now's your chance. 

Cheers, 

Steph

 
http://www.amazon.com/Canvas-Andrew-Quest-Orions-ebook/dp/B00AKGF838/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1355179263&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Canvas+war