Do you want some neurotoxins with your greens?

Well you might just get them whether you like it or not.

We all know that fresh is best but when it comes to frozen vegetables, I've always been confident that the difference between the two in terms of their vitamins and mineral content is negligible.

However, my sister, bless her, just destroyed that fanciful notion.  

Clearly I must be the last to know or was too busy eating rubbish to pay attention.

I was opening up a bag of frozen spinach a couple of nights ago when my sister rang. I told her what I was making and she asked me to look on the back of the packet and see where the spinach was produced.

It said, Made in New Zealand using local and imported products.

She then asked me the brand and I said McCains (founded in Canada, has 55 production facilities in 12 countries, and sells in 110 countries).

I felt kind of smug thinking how could the combination of McCains and NZ be wrong. It wasn't a no name brand after all.

She then told me to throw the bag in the bin. 

As if.

When she uttered the words likely carcinogen I decided to rethink my dinner plans and ask a few more questions.

The fact is, I was not going to be eating New Zealand produce.

 
If you look at most frozen food packets (anywhere in the world) you have no real idea where the food comes from. It doesn't say. In most cases companies bring the product from China, repackage it, in this case New Zealand and then put it on our shelves with no testing required.

It gets to us via the back door because New Zealand has lax laws. And with no testing we do not know what we are really eating.

Unfortunately,  China appears to have some very questionable growing practices. In fact you can google the horror stories slowly filtering out of China - vegetables being grown in human excrement and watermelons exploding after being sprayed with a growth accelerant. Even the Chinese middle class have started growing their own vegetables, because they don't trust the mass-produced produce.

So, if the Chinese won’t eat the food why are we?

A recent study done by the National Toxics Network tested bags of frozen vegetables from McCains, Heinz and Birdseye, plus Coles and Woolworths home brands. Most were imported from China or New Zealand, and a few were Australian home-grown.

Twenty percent of them came up positive for four nasty chemicals.

The four chemicals found in the vegetables are all pesticides that have been banned.

The worst chemical found was procymidone in the McCain’s Winter Vegetables - a product made in New Zealand from local and imported products.

This chemical has been shown to cause birth defects. The regulator recently updated label instructions to make sure that pregnant women, or women of child-bearing age, don’t come into contact with the chemical. They’re worried about the fact that it can actually stay in the food.

Even more worrying is the fact parathion methyl, an organophosphate, was also found in the same bag of vegetables. It was banned in Australia from July this year, with a two year phase out.

The fact that parathion methyl was found in the same food with the procymidone is concerning because with food residues it’s not necessarily an additive effect - one plus one doesn’t necessarily equal two. Here one plus one can equal ten.

In the Heinz chopped spinach, clearly marked as a product of China, omethoate was found – it’s an organophosphate and is under investigation here.

That’s an extremely dangerous group of chemicals that work by poisoning the nervous system.  

The chemical Permethrin was also found on an Australian product Birdseye Broccoli Florets. Permethrin is a neurotoxin. The US Protection Agency has said it’s a likely carcinogen. It’s also turning up on the international list for concern on hormone disruption - its toxic effects are more profound in children than in adults.

Both McCains and Heinz have left Australia for New Zealand. In fact the only processor of frozen vegetables left in Australia is Simplot - they make Birdseye products. So why have they all left?

Apparently in order to remain competitive their production facilities have to move overseas. Many of the Woolworths Home Brand and Select labels and Coles Smart Buy products are all clearly from China.

At the end of the day these foods are coming onto the Australian dinner tables and people just like me do not even give it a second thought. It's probably safe to eat poison in small quantities right? I am sure that is what these companies and even the regulators would tell us.

Going to the supermarket and buying anything is a leap of faith these days.

In fact it's a lucky dip.

I better work on extending that vegetable garden and putting into practice everything my parents and grandparents have been preaching for years (and out of convenience and supposed lack of time, I ignore) - join the slow food movement and stick to eating food grown in your own local community or better still in your own backyard because at least you know how its grown and that it is actually food.

What do you think?  Are you careful about where you buy your food from? Love to hear your thoughts as this is a problem which affects us all and not just contained to frozen foods.

Have you seen Food Inc - well worth watching - you can see the trailer here.

Sunday Life - Sea Murals

My daughter sent me those photos on her Iphone today - she was visiting Melbourne Aquarium.

Looking at them made me want to go there and dive into the abyss and enjoy the enchanted underwater scenes myself, except for the fact there would bound to be a whale alert and all get rather awkward...

What great art nature makes!

So relaxing and a reminder that Summer is fast approaching.

I hope you had a relaxing Sunday, doing whatever it is that makes you happy.

Come back and visit on Tuesday to find out what my sister told me about frozen vegetables just when I was opening a packet of frozen spinach this evening (she always had unfortunate timing)...yes, another opinion post and something we all should be aware of now most of our food is produced in foreign countries ie China. I won't be going near a packet of frozen vegetables in a hurry without some careful reading. Or I might just expand my vegetable garden instead. Love to hear your thoughts and what you know as well.

This is my opinion, what’s yours?

For as long as I can remember I have hated drugs.

Hard core illegal ones, legally prescribed ones and even the more innocuous ‘over the counter’ ones.

We all see the ravages of drug abuse and if you live in an inner city area like me, you are reminded of this daily.  I get off the tram on occasion and see police searching people looking for drugs or paramedics tending to an injured person lying in the gutter. No, it's not really palatable but it's a fact even in this most liveable city in the world.

However, while illegal drugs are one thing it's the legally prescribed drugs and their abuse that terrifies me the most.

My fear of prescribed medication started when I was about 10 and my  grandmother was given some new pills by a doctor who was filling in for her regular practitioner. After she took the pills for a couple of days she started to hallucinate and shake uncontrollably and had to be hospitalised. The doctor had given her the wrong medication.

It scared the hell out of me.

So much so it takes a lot tooing and froing for me to take anything whether it is a cold tablet or something stronger. It is a last resort only.

For ten years I saw my father take a cocktail of drugs, one pill after another, mostly prescribed to counteract the side effects of an earlier prescribed drug.  

But just like my grandmother and my father thought, the medical profession knows best. Right?

I wonder. I really do.

A couple of years ago my sister was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at way too young an age. We have recently learnt that she acquired this disease as a direct result of the prolonged use of another prescribed drug she has taken for another illness she has. Just bad luck the doctor said. Was she warned ever? No, but maybe there was a warning on the small print somewhere.

Then in the last 12 months the young adult son of one of my friends became addicted to his prescribed drugs and developed horrific side effects. He was feeling anxious so his doctor’s immediate course of action was to prescribe antidepressants, anxiety drugs and sleeping tablets. One of the side effects of one of the drugs, which no doubt was written in small print on the leaflet, was that he may suffer from addictions. Well sure enough he was one of the unlucky few that, as a direct result of taking this drug, he became addicted not only to the drugs but also to gambling and alcohol and goodness knows what else. He had absolutely no prior history of addiction. It took a long time to establish and then accept the link between the drug and his other addictions. And then an even longer time to try and get him off the drugs that he had become addicted to and to start treating the real causes of his anxiety.

I could go on with horrific examples just like these as they are littered everywhere. And I mean everywhere.  But somehow the side effects and damage from taking legally prescribed drugs is more palatable for some reason. How bad could they be when we are taking them for our health and well being. Right?

Of course it goes without saying that there are a lot of people who have to take medication in order to live quality lives or in fact, live a life. I get that.

However, there are a lot of people who take medication to either mask symptoms with no real regard for the primary causes of their illnesses or those whose quality of life completely diminishes.

Yesterday I watched a documentary called Cut, Poison, Burn which has just reignited my loathing for drugs and drug companies even more so.

It clearly outlines many reasons for the MASSIVE failure on the war on cancer. The film follows the struggles of Jim and Donna Navarro, whose young son is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The conventional treatment methods, which included potent chemotherapy drugs and radiation, offered virtually no hope. Even if their son survived the treatment, side effects included hearing loss, brain damage, cumulative reduction in IQ and other cancers, just to name a few.

Cut, Poison, Burn is available for viewing on Vimeo for free only up until September 24 and I have posted it below. Given two out of three women and one out of two men will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, it is relevant to us all.
 
I know that when we get sick we often don’t get a choice in our health care for many reasons but we need to be as informed and educated as we can about what we are being prescribed and our treatment. It’s scary, not palatable, not nice and easier to bury our heads in the sand sometimes but quality of life is incredibly precious and worth fighting for wouldn’t you say?

Our health or our lack of health results in BIG BUSINESS for some. Could keeping people sick be more profitable then keeping us well? Unfortunately, I think so.

What do you think?

Cut Poison Burn from Nehst Studios.

Web Cam 101 for Seniors

Just adorable!  

Elderly Oregon couple Bruce and Esther Huffman (both 86) were trying to figure out how to take a photo using their laptop last month, not realising they were actually recording their endearing attempts to use technology.

Their grand daughter found this as put it on You Tube and it has spread like wildfire.

The pair said they are pleasantly surprised at their new found fame.

While the couple are still grappling with technology, Esther says she has learnt one thing - to stop chewing gum.

"I guess I have to quit chewing gum. I look like a cow chewing gum so quickly."

Warning, a whole weeks post in one....

I am an all or nothing kind of blogger it seems....so you might want to come back and visit a few times to read them all....or just read one or two....

Designated driver

Yes I know your kids, step kids, grand kids, nieces and nephews are clever but are they this clever? I was fascinated to see this video of a cute 4 year old Chinese girl apparently driving in traffic in Shandong Province while her parents are in the car.

In the video, posted on YouTube, the child can be seen calmly overtaking other cars. After a couple of minutes her father is heard apparently saying: “Jia Zheng, stop the car. Let daddy drive.”

Once the car is pulled over, the man gets out, walks around to the driver’s side and gets behind the wheel as the girl moves onto the back seat.

He is seen removing some sort of implement from the driver’s foot that appears to have been used by the girl to operate the pedals.

I am not sure whether it’s a fake or not but its a little bit risky given China’s one child policy isn’t it? It’s not like they have a spare...if something goes pear shaped.

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Edward Scissorhands....

 

Is as bald as a badger...I kid you not...

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I saw the light

and unfortunately not much else.

Recently I had to change my licence and car registration to a new State and only had one day left to do it because I’ve been travelling and was running out of time. Unfortunately to make matters worse this was also the day that I was expecting furniture to be delivered to my house.

As I could not be home when the removalists came my daughter’s lovely boyfriend volunteered to be there to let them in.

Sweet, right? All easy.

When I left home it was pouring rain. I arrived at the Motor Registry in plenty of time for my appointment. I took a ticket and went to sit down. My mobile rang. It was the removalist.

“Where are you”, he growled, “no-one is answering your door.”  I said, “My daughter’s boyfriend is there so keep pressing the intercom and yell loudly as he might be listening to music or the TV and can’t hear you. I will try and contact him by phone as well”.

I tried. Nothing, Nada. Oh, great!

Meanwhile, my name is called out and I walk up to the counter only to be greeted by Mrs, I hate my job so I am going to make you suffer”.  For expediencies sake I will just refer to her as Mrs IHMJAIAGTMYP  from hereon in.

“Have you got your number plates?” she barked at me. “Yes, I have”, I calmly reply,“they are still on the car. Do you want me to take them off now?” ” Yes”, she said. “NOW”.  So I go out in the pouring rain, get my screw driver out of the car (like everyone has one in their car right?) and try and get the plates off.

My phone rang as I was in the middle of it. It was the now very disgruntled removalist telling me that he could not make any contact with my daughter’s now totally irresponsible, deaf boyfriend.  He said he was going to wait another 10 minutes and then would have to leave and I would have to make other arrangements.

After futile attempts to contact my daughter (who was in meetings) and her boyfriend (who was god knows where), I ran back into the registry office. Dripping wet but with the plates in hand.

Mrs IHMJAIAGTMYP called me over. I handed her the number plates and she said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I should have told you that before I can process the registration we need to check the chassis number of your car. Now to do that we need you to jump through six million more hoops. So, how about you go and get your car and drive up the hill and round and round in circles until you find the depot where one of my colleagues will check the engine".  I pointed out that she only had to look at my previous registration papers to see the number. She glared at me and said through gritted teeth, “No, that is not the way we do it here. We need to check the number and it will cost you an extra $40 for us to do this.”

“Right.” I said. And off I run out in the pouring rain again like some stupid competitor in the latest reality show, Red Tape Survivor.

On the way I rang the removalist. A development. My daughter’s boyfriend managed to wake up after falling asleep on the couch. Just in time. Bravo!

I drove up the hill and pulled up sharply at the pit stop just avoiding the toes of Mrs IHMJAIAGTMYP’s colleague. “Open the bonnet”, he yells over the pouring rain. He stuck his head under the bonnet for two seconds, got what he needed and yelled, “Fine, you can go back to the car park now.”  Jesus, Mother Mary and Joseph. And that was a prayer folks not blasphemy.

I parked the car and ran into the Motor Registry. Mrs IHMJAIAGTMYP looked over at me in a rather sad, pitying way and said, “Aww, you’re soaking wet now. That’s a shame because now we have to take your licence photo”.

My hair was stuck to my head like glue. Just beautiful.

"Smile", she said. “I am trying”, I replied.

The photoshoot finished and I made a promise to myself that I will bury that licence in my wallet and never let it see the light of day. Even if the cops stop me I will just hand over my wallet and tell them to find it for themselves because I am never going to look at that photo. Ever.

Mrs  IHMJAIAGTMYP then announced that I needed an eye test. “Read the third line please”, she said pointing to the chart behind her.

I was seriously lucky even to see the chart behind her let alone the third line. It was a complete blur. And I do not even wear glasses.

Mrs IHMJAIAGTMYP’s day was improving as mine got worse. I could swear she was enjoying the moment. “Well, unfortunately”, she said,  “if you can’t read it properly you are not going to get your licence today you realise that, don’t you? And, if you can’t get your licence today you are not driving anywhere as you have no licence.”

Of course her voice, like a megaphone, bounced off all four walls making sure that every other person in the vicinity all knew that they had a blind person in their midst.

“OK, last chance” she said, “come up to this chart as it has a light shining on it and that might help you”. I started reading out the letters and clearly got one wrong. “Are you sure that’s an X?, she said. No, I am bloody not I thought. So I went through every letter of the alphabet until I got the right one and she finally......let me have my new licence.

Yes it was humiliating but not for a blind person who was not even aware of their disability.

I went to get my eyes checked the next day. There was nothing wrong with them. Stress perhaps? Non waterproof mascara maybe?

And thank goodness I don’t have to do that again for another five years....because next time I am hiring a 4 year old Chinese girl to take my place.

I just cannot do red tape, truly.

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I was walking in the mall yesterday and overheard a teenage girl saying, “Mum won’t let me go. She's such a bitch now all the time. She reckons it’s because of menopause or something. Honest, she needs to be locked up until she gets over it and she’s back to normal. “ I didn’t really want to burst her bubble and tell her that it might take years for that to happen....just like adolescence ha ha!

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Wise words

Melbourne graffiti spotted today: "Fight Apathy.. Or don't.. Whatever..

                                        

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And to Lisleman, you bet it's Spring over here and our turn to have the sunshine.