A couple interesting blog posts at Hunt Gather Love

Here is the first link  to the post, Don't be too quick to write that autobiographical cure book, which basically has a very balanced perspective on specific cures. Here is a quote:


...If there is anything I've learned from blogging in this sphere, is that one person's cure is another person's poison and I've certainly encountered people for whom her extremely vegetable-rich diet would be harmful. I know from experience that I cannot consume such a diet as it causes immense gastric distress. I've gotten more tolerant of things like brassica vegetables over time, but I still have to be careful.
My own advice is to try a variety of things, but don't expect them to work for you just because someone else has a miracle-cure story.


Here is the second link  to the post, Just Kale Me: How your Kale habit is slowly destroying your health and the world. After demonizing kale in a really funny satire she says just kidding and adds the following comments (here in part):

Yes, Kale does contain chemicals, all foods do. In very large amounts or in certain vulnerable people could cause problems. Many of the studies I chose involved animals with a diet almost completely based on kale, which I think anyone will agree is a bad idea. Most also involved varieties not sold for human consumption and consumed in ways that humans might not consume- uncooked, un-marinated, etc. A lot of the rest involved just scary language about various chemicals and studies involving isolated chemicals.

I do think that the point about antioxidants being overrated is valid, but overall I don't think kale or most other foods (barring actual intolerances or allergies) are going to cause problems as part of a diverse diet. Maybe you shouldn't juice a pound of kale and drink it for breakfast every day though. Sadly to say, I have met people who do things like that. You have to respect that leaves have to protect themselves from herbivory or these plants would not have survived...Some of those chemicals to deter consumption can be healthy in small amounts, but unhealthy in largely amounts. 

I will say the issues regarding leafy green production being destructive are worth thinking about, but you can certainly find responsibly-produced kale in season at your local farmer's market. I brought them up because people rarely think about the environmental effects of things that have a moral halo around them like greens, including people more than willing to tell you about how bad meat is for the environment...

But when you see an article that demonizes a food, think about whether or not there are citations and follow those citations. Ask yourself whether they apply to human beings eating a diverse diet with adequete calories. Or whether they involve very high concentrations no human being eats, isolated chemicals, or preparations that no normal human would put on their plate. I see narratives like this, not as satire, in many diet books and on a lot of diet blogs. I have been guilty of this in the past, when I took a lot of stuff seriously that I no longer worry about. Like phytic acid in foods– most of the studies that show this is a problem involve populations of people who are malnourished. I suppose some people get to that point while dieting though. 

Antibacterial madness could be killing us...

These are excerpts from a newsletter from William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. 

"Triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in soaps, detergents and even clothing, has been sucking the human endocrine system dry. And as it goes to work on your body, it's also helping to kill off common bacteria... while allowing powerful new ones to rise."

Common chemicals linked to early puberty

...The latest study found that young girls around the country have alarming levels of three frightening hormone-like substances that I've been warning you about: phenols, phthalates and phytoestrogens.

When researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine studied urine samples from 1,151 girls between 6 and 8 years old from New York City, Cincinnati and northern California, they found high levels of all three of those "p's" in the pee.

I'll throw in one more "p" -- poison, because these awful chemicals will harm you and your family, especially your children and grandchildren.

...the troubling trio is everywhere. Phthalates are in plastics -- even toys -- as well as cosmetics. Phytoestrogen is the key hormone-like substance that makes soy so dangerous. And the most common phenol, BPA, is in just about everything -- including plastic bottles and can linings.

...phthalates are even helping boys to grow their own breasts -- to the point where some of them practically need bras themselves. (Read, "Why some boys have breasts.")

I've also told you plenty about BPA -- it's been linked to heart disease, cancer, obesity, asthma and all manner of sexual dysfunction in males and females alike. Soy is quite simply the world's most dangerous substance disguised as food.

There's no room for debate on this, and no time to wait for the feds to act. Avoid soy, plastics and cans as much as you possibly can.

And those aren't the only dangerous chemicals turning up everywhere. Keep reading...
Antibacterial madness could be killing us

We're so clean we're filthy. In fact, we're washing our way towards illness and death.

Triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in soaps, detergents and even clothing, has been sucking the human endocrine system dry. And as it goes to work on your body, it's also helping to kill off common bacteria... while allowing powerful new ones to rise... it's actually a pesticide, not a soap.

You've probably been washing with it for years, then eating with your "clean" hands.

The feds now say they're concerned about this chemical... but don't wait for them to save your skin. The FDA has been working on rules for the use of triclosan for 38 years -- so if they haven't figured it out by now, you're on your own.

Here's what you need to know -- what even the feds already admit to: This stuff is so dangerous it kills fish when it gets into the water.

And it's in the water -- because it's literally everywhere. Triclosan can be found in everything from clothing to cutting boards. Pretty much anything with the word "antibacterial" screaming from the label has triclosan in it.

It's so common it's in the urine of 75 percent of the population.

And yet people keep buying up that antibacterial soap in the mistaken belief that it must be better. After all, it costs more... so it must be good, right?

Wrong!

Studies have repeatedly proven that antibacterial soaps are no better than ordinary soaps.

That shouldn't surprise anyone past a certain age. We grew up without this stuff, and didn't face anything like the bacterial threat running rampant today.

So if you're looking to stay clean, just do what we did -- warm water and plain old soap.

99 and 44/100 percent pure,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

suffering is part of the truth of our life

"Even suffering is part of the truth of our life. Thus, trying to 
shield the youngest from every difficulty and experience of 
suffering, we risk creating, despite our good intentions, fragile 
persons of little generosity:
The capacity to love, in fact, corresponds to the capacity to suffer, 
and to suffer together." Benedict XVI

The Horrors of the 20th Century and Divine Mercy

Excerpts from:

Where the 20th Century Happened

September 18, 2013

George Weigel   

emphasis added
  

John Paul II had a keen insight into the way in which the two totalitarianisms of the 20th century had shredded the moral and spiritual fabric of humanity. The Gulag and the Nazi death camps, the Ukrainian terror famine, the genocide of the Chinese “cultural revolution,” the Cambodian genocide—all of this, and more, had left 21st-century humanity with a terrible burden of guilt. And to whom could those terrible crimes be confessed: those sins that had made an abattoir out of a century imagined, at its outset, to be one of unlimited human progress? How could the guilt piled up by so many crimes be expiated? 

According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, another man who read history through Slavic cultural lenses, the unique horrors of the 20th century had taken place because (as the Russian novelist and chronicler put it in his 1983 Templeton Prize lecture) men and women had forgotten God: “The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century.”French theologian Henri de Lubac made a similar point in The Drama of Atheist Humanism: The 20th century proved that men and women could indeed organize the world without God; but without God, they could only organize it against each other.

John Paul II knew all of this. That is why he wanted to “universalize” the message of the divine mercy that had been given in Cracow as the answer to the anguish and despair caused by the horrors of the 20th century. The God of the Bible, a God of infinite mercy, was the One to whom the burden of the 20th century could be brought for expiation.

to read the whole article:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/09/where-the-20th-century-happened

Francis' Message on Church's Concept of Family

 "The future of society, and concretely of Italian society, is rooted in the elderly and in young people"

Here is and excerpt (emphasis added):
The theme of this Social Week is “The Family, Hope and Future of Italian Society.” I express all my appreciation for this choice, and for having associated to the family the idea of hope and future. It is indeed so! However, for the Christian community the family is much more than a “theme”: it is life, daily fabric, and the path of generations that transmit the faith to one another together with love and with fundamental moral values; it is concrete solidarity, effort, patience and also project, hope, future. All this, which the Christian community lives in the light of faith, of hope and of charity, is never held for oneself, but becomes every day leaven in the dough of the whole society, for its greater common good (cf. Ibid., 47).
Hope and future presuppose memory. The memory of our elderly people is the support to go forward on the way. The future of society, and concretely of Italian society, is rooted in the elderly and in young people: the latter because they have the strength and age to carry the history forward, the former, because they are the living memory. A nation that does not take care of the elderly, of children and of young people has no future, because it mistreats the memory and the promise.
This 47thSocial Week is placed in this perspective, with the preparatory document that preceded it. It intends to offer a testimony and to propose a reflection, a discernment, free of prejudices, as open as possible, attentive to the human and social sciences. As Church we offer first of all a conception of the family which is that of the Book of Genesis, of the unity in difference between man and woman, and of fecundity. In this reality, moreover, we recognize a good for all, the first natural society, as accepted also in the Constitution of the Italian Republic. In fine, we wish to reaffirm that the family, understood thus, remains the first and principal subject builder of the society and of an economy to the measure of man, and as such merits to be actively supported. The consequences – positive and negative --, of the choices of a cultural character, first of all, and political regarding the family touch the different realms of the life of a society and a country: from the demographic problem – which is serious for the whole European continent and, in particular, for Italy, to the other questions regarding work and the economy in general, to the upbringing of children, to those that concern the anthropological view itself which is at the base of our civilization (cf. Benedict XVI, encyclical Caritas in veritate, 44).
These reflections do not just interest believers but all persons of good will, all those who have at heart the common good of the country, precisely as happens with the problems of environmental ecology, which can help very much to understand those of “human ecology” (cf. Id, Address to the Bundestag, Berlin, September 22, 2011). The family is the privileged school of generosity, of sharing, of responsibility; school that educates to overcome a certain individualistic mentality that has gained ground in our societies. To support and promote the family, valuing its fundamental and central role, is to work needed for a just and solidaristic development.
We cannot ignore the suffering of so many families, due to lack of work, to the problem of housing, to the practical impossibility to act freely in their educational choices; suffering due also to internal conflicts in families themselves, to the failure of the conjugal and family experience, to the violence which unfortunately nests and causes damage within our homes. We want to be particularly close to all, with respect and with a true sense of fraternity and solidarity. However, above all we want to recall the simple but beautiful and courageous testimony of so many families, which live joyfully the experience of matrimony and parenthood, illumined and sustained by the Lord’s grace, without fear of facing also moments of the cross that, lived in union with that of the Lord, do not impede the way of love, but can even make it stronger and more complete.
May this Social Week contribute effectively to make evident the bond that unites the common good to the promotion of the family founded on marriage, beyond prejudices and ideologies. It is a duty of hope that all have in addressing the country, particularly young people, who must be offered hope for the future. To you, dear Brother, and to the great assembly of the Social Week of Turin, I assure my remembrance in prayer and, while asking that you pray also for me and for my service to the Church, I send from my heart the Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, September 11, 2013

Why and How to Soak Corn

This is an excerpt from Sara at The Healthy Home Economist here. She has a video on it too.

"Soaking corn or cornmeal overnight in limewater releases the Vitamin B3 and improves the amino acid profile of the corn making for easier digestion.
"If corn is a staple in your diet, then soaking in limewater is a must as the disease pellagra is caused by Vitamin B3 deficiency.  Symptoms of pellagra include sore skin, mental problems, and fatigue.
"Even if you don’t eat corn that frequently, limewater is so easy to make and lasts for such a long time in the pantry ..."
"I use 1 cup of limewater for every 2 cups of corn or cornmeal when I am making cornbread, corn casserole and other corn based dishes. Pour the limewater out of the mason jar carefully – you don’t want to use the lime that has settled at the bottom, only the limewater. Soaking for 12-24 hours is sufficient to release the nutrients but cornbread in particular will rise better if soaked for 24 hours."

To make limewater get dolomite powder (brand KAL is recommended for purity). Put 1/2 inch in the bottom of a quart jar or 1 inch at the bottom of a 1/2 gallon jar, then fill the rest with purified water. Put the lid on, shake a couple of times and let it sit. Can keep it in the pantry or in the fridge (if it is warm).

"The Only Possible Catholicism in the 21st Century"

  [ Excerpt from the article by George Weigel, The rise of evangelical Catholicism here ] 

"The challenge can be defined simply: throughout the western world, the culture no longer carries the faith, because the culture has become increasingly hostile to the faith. Catholicism can no longer be absorbed by osmosis from the environment, for the environment has become toxic. So we can no longer sit back and assume that decent lives lived in conformity with the prevailing cultural norms will, somehow, convey the faith to our children and grandchildren and invite others to consider entering the Church. 

"No, in our new situation, Catholicism has to be proposed, and Catholicism has to be lived in radical fidelity to Christ and the Gospel. Recreational Catholicism—Catholicism as a traditional, leisure-time activity absorbing perhaps 90 minutes of one’s time on a weekend—is over. Full-time Catholicism—a Catholicism that, as the Second Vatican Council taught, infuses all of life and calls everyone in the Church to holiness and mission—isthe only possible Catholicism in the 21st century."

To Graduates of Ivy League Schools

This quote is from an excellent mock commencement address to an ivy league school by Michael Pakaluk, from: here.

"But worse than the damage that has been done to you is the damage you are prepared to inflict on society, because great care has been taken to see that you continue to view violence against unborn children as the expression of a fundamental right, and you have been successfully trained to view marriage (which exists in reality only between a man and a woman) as an intolerable and insufferable discrimination.  So you are about to go out into society thinking that you are doing good while you do everything in your power, in those domains closest to you, to tear down human dignity and the dignity of spousal love and the family — no doubt remaining fully convinced that you are a great champion of human rights and that you love humanity.
If I were Socrates I might speak even more bluntly and say: Refute me if you can: You are not merely hobbled for happiness as regards all the ordinary means of happiness, but, worse than that, because you are about to work in ignorance to promote injustice and to tear down that which is necessary for society, you are miserable–I say–and have been made even more miserable by this institution that is now graduating you."

twenty centuries in perspective

I was just reading an article in which the author was talking about looking at something from the 19th century from a 20th century perspective, and I thought, 'it is now the 21st century.' We are actually 13 years into the 21st century. How time flies! Then it occurred to me that if you had only twenty people who lived 100 years you can go all the way back to the time of Christ! Only 20 people! It sure makes those 20 centuries seem like it wasn't all that long ago.