Want True Food Freedom? Then Repeal The Drinking Age!

Want True Food Freedom? Then Repeal The Drinking Age!

A Better Alternative to Toothpaste

Thank you, Sarah Pope, Chapter Leader of the Tampa Bay Weston A. Price Foundation for sharing this with me.

It's a rather well known fact that regular toothpaste from the store contains a variety of dangerous ingredients. After all, the toothpaste labels themselves say "Poison"!

The most well known of toxic toothpaste ingredients is sodium flouride. Sodium flouride is so toxic that ingesting more than a pea size of toothpaste requires an emergency call to Poison Control. Ingestion of too much sodium flouride can cause a variety of symptoms within minutes including abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, tremors, muscle spasms, seizures, and in severe cases, multi-organ failure.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel at all comfortable brushing my teeth with poison. Even if you don't swallow the toothpaste, the chemicals in it easily get into the blood via the very thin gum tissue. If you don't believe that chemicals can get into your blood via simple contact with gum tissue, then try putting a tiny pinch of chewing tobacco between your bottom lip and your gums. I guarantee you will be dizzy, nauseated and ready to vomit in about 30 seconds (unless you happen to be a professional baseball player who chews tobacco regularly!)

Another really bad chemical in many conventional toothpastes is triclosan. Triclosan is an anti-bacterial chemical that is increasingly linked to hormone disruption among other things. I blogged about the dangers of this chemical in a blog post a couple months back titled "Danger Lurks in Your Antibacterial Soap".

You should NEVER put chemicals in your mouth that you don't want in your blood. You don't need to swallow to be damaged by them.

Even Healthfood Store Toothpastes Not a Good Idea

What is less well known is that even toothpaste from the healthfood store should be avoided. While the ingredients may not be as toxic, the ingredients may hinder overall tooth and gum health.

For example, nearly all nontoxic toothpastes contain glycerin. Glycerin is a sticky, sweet tasting, clear, thick liquid that is a byproduct of the soap making process. When you brush your teeth with toothpaste containing this chemical, some of the glycerin stays on your teeth due to its extreme stickiness. This impedes remineralization of your teeth as you sleep and can lead to cavities in the long term.

In addition, be aware that a number of healthfood store toothpastes shockingly contain sodium flouride! There is simply no substitute for reading labels either for the food you buy or the cosmetics you use!

What to Use to Brush Your Teeth?

I have not used either conventional or healthfood store toothpaste for a number of years. I first got started using a simple, homemade mixture of baking soda and sea salt (3:1) after attending a fantastic, eye opening lecture by Dr. Ray Behm DDS back in 2005. He has a website that details how to make your own tooth powder at home and the benefits of doing so at his website Save Your Teeth.

If making your own tooth powder is not your thing or you would rather buy one that is juiced up with some wonderful herbs that benefit tooth and gum health, then I would suggest taking a look at a product called Good-Gums. I tried this product a few months back at the suggestion of a friend who knows the owner of the company and I have been delighted with it.

Good-Gums contains baking soda and sea salt, the primary ingredients of tooth powder dentifrice as recommended by Dr. Behm. It also contains beneficial soothing and antiseptic herbs such as myrrh, tea tree, peppermint, cinnamon, and cranberry. In addition, Good-Gums contains a whole food form of vitamin C. Vitamin C is known to be critical to gum health and the avoidance of periodontal disease.




*Let me know when you are ready to try it. I always have extra on hand!

How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet

Wow, I was so pleased to see this article in TIME no less! At last grass fed is touching the lines of the mainstream!

How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet

Homemade Sunscreen

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the wisdom of using sunscreen. Does it causes more skin cancer than it prevents? Don't we need the Vitamin D from the sun to PREVENT cancer?

My approach to the sun is to get tan slowly...15-20 minutes for the first exposure and then add 5-10 minutes each time after. I get nice and brown and don't have to worry about frying my skin. I am getting Vitamin D while NOT loading my system with sunscreen toxins.

However, that said, I have found that a change to a diet high in Omega 3 fatty acids seems to protect the skin from burning. I know of several folks that no longer get sun burned after changing their diet to one rich in traditional fats like grass fed butter, lard from pastured pigs and coconut oil.

Melissa Hull in Tampa shared here homemade recipe for sunscreen on that WAPF Yahoo message board. Here it is to share:

Lotion:
48 g liquid oil (can use olive, sweet almond, etc)
52 g coconut oil
20 g emulsifying wax (to mix water and oil)
10 g stearic acid (to thicken)

380 g water
10 g vegetable glycerine
35 g zinc oxide

Heat first 4 ingredients in a double boiler until incorporated. Then, with a stick blender, mix oil mixture into water until creamy and thickened. Add glycerine and zinc with blender. You can also add essential oils of your choice for fragrance (about 5 g for this recipe).

www.SoapGoods.com had all the supplies, or you can look for a local soap supply store. www.fssoapworks.com is one store in St Pete.

If you have a favorite lotion, just use that and add 25% zinc oxide to the bottle- it's that easy! ( for an 8oz bottle, that would be 2 oz zinc oxide)

My Home Medicine Cabinet – What I Use to Remedy Ailments

Well, here I go again sharing instead of writing.  I love this article and can vouch for many of the remedies listed as being safe and effective.  Enjoy it, print it, source the items, file it, share it.  And let me know if I can help you find anything.

Click here to read all about it...
Home Remedies

What Veg*ns Can Learn from Traditional Foods

I loved this post from the Nourished Kitchen blog. If you are a vegetarian, please read it. If you know a vegetarian, please pass it on.

Click below to read all about it.

What Veg*ns Can Learn from Traditional Foods

Kefir Grains | How To Make Homemade Kefir From Kefir Grains

Place them in a glass jar (pt, quart, 1/2 half gallon).
Fill with milk.
Place a paper towel or thin cloth over the opening and secure with a rubber band (or the ring of the jar lid).
The purpose is to let the milk and grains breathe and give off the gas that forms during the culturing process while keeping little critters out.
If you can, give it a little twist or two once in a while. The grains like the gentle action.
After 12 hours put a lid on the jar and give it a shake good enough to distribute the cream - not violent, or you can stir it with a plastic spoon.
Take the grains out and put them in another jar to start over.

After your first couple of days you can start letting it culture up to 24 hours. I recommend 12 to start for 2 reasons: 1) so you can get used to the sour taste and 2) so your gut can get used to all the beneficial bacterial.

If you get bloated or gassy they just drink less the next time until you can built up to the amount you want.

One rule of dealing with grains is to not use metal.

This site has more info...


Kefir Grains | How To Make Homemade Kefir From Kefir Grains