Simple, whole foods

A lot of posts about simple living focus on food. How to grow it, how to prepare it. I mean, it's one of the most basic necessities, and one that I think has been most interfered with. Just about every product you look at on the supermarket shelves has been modified in some way, usually by the addition of many synthetic chemicals. Although probably many of these do no real harm, I don't think that the continued consumption of these can have any long term benifits.

I'm still working on the food around here. I have a house full of very picky eaters (me included!), and DH's gluten intolerance to take into consideration, so finding things that everyone will eat and enjoy is a challenge. We generally stick to very bland, plain meals, making it very easy to try to keep to whole, unprocessed foods.

This is how I started my day at 7:30am this morning. DD had a similar, but smaller plate. All of it fresh, from the markets, with the passionfruit being picked from our own vine yesterday afternoon. I went a bit overboard here, and wasn't sure if I could eat it all, but in the end I did. I find that getting this fruit in early in the day is the easiest way for me. I used to eat a lot of fruit, but since DD was born, I've found myself eating less and less, while encouraging her to eat more! Far better to practice what I preach, and eat it myself. However, I often find I'm too busy to stop and eat much during the day. Doing it first thing means that I don't forget.

Of course, while fruit is full off all those great vitamins and minearls, I find that even after a huge plate like that, I'm hungry again by about 9 or 10 (10 in this case!), so that's when I have some nice, hot, filling poridge, covered in wheat germ and brown sugar. (I do need to cut down on the sugar a little, I admit, I'm working on it.) That lasts me a lot of the rest of te day, and the chickens love eating the leftovers (because I always make too much, these days on purpose!)

So there you have it, a nice healthy breakfast, and delicious as well!

Artificial Sweeteners

As part of my aim to get DD out of the house and socialising more with kids her own age, we've been attending a local playgroup for the last couple of weeks. Today was one of the kids 4th birthday, and of course there was cake and lemonade. Pretty normal for a preschoolers birthday celebration. I was casually watching the preparations, absently reading the label on the lemonade bottle. "No artificial colours or preservatives", oh good I though. Next line, "No sugar". The warning lights went on, and I came over to ask, "Does this have artificial sweeteners in it?" The mum looked at me in confusion. "I don't know?"

I checked the label, and sure enough, it listed artificial sweeteners. DD had water. I bought her a can of real lemonade, with real sugar, on the way home.

I would like to say that it amazes me that people don't even question what is in their food, but I only have to look back five or so years to know that I was like that. Luckily, I've never eaten any of those 'diet' foods simply because I don't like the artificial taste, but otherwise, I was just as ignorant as that mum.

I first researched the dangers of artificial sweeteners when I was pregnant with DD. I have no recollection why at this stage, since as I said, I've never eaten them, but something sent me searching. And let me tell you, most of what I found wasn't pretty. Nearly every artificial sweetener on the market is associated with cancer in some form. Laboratory tests of all of them have shown the formation of cancer in rats at far above normal rates, but yet, recommendations to have them banned have been overruled, and they have been allowed to continue to be used, often in food marketed at children!

Perhaps the dangers of artificial sweeteners can be summed up by the first artificial sweetener, used by the Ancient Romans, Sugar of Lead. I don't think I even need to explain what the side effects of that one were.

Ironically, most of them have not, in fact, been shown to help people lose weight! It is hypothesised that the sweet taste, without the calories, actually causes the body to demand more sweet food, thus leading to more eating. The latest research from the University of Texas has confirmed that artificial sweeteners are not helping people to lose weight, in fact, they are still gaining.

I could go on for hours about this one, and if you do a quick search on artificial sweeteners, you'll find plenty more information, especially about the worst culprit, aspartame, which is believed to cause brain tumours.

Please, read up on this topic before eating artificial sweeteners in any form, especially if you have children or are pregnant.