FDA set Melamine Standard For Baby Formula?

US FDA Setting Melamine Standard For Baby Formula.


Jasmin says "Shouldn't the standard be zero melamine in baby formula? Why would mummies even agree to feeding their babies melamine, no matter how minute!"

Please forward this blog article to a friend who is feeding the child milk formula for them to be aware of the latest milk info.

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What another mummy says about it.

Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 10:59 PM (Yahoo Foodlab Forum)

What? a couple of days ago no Melamine was acceptable now we have a standard of 1 part in a million..

This chemical shows higher protein levels when tested but in the body just posses a threat to your child's kidney and liver..(from what I have gathered..)

I never used formula and I am angry..I hope everyone that does use it is angry and says no..maybe the formula makers will rethink this decision..

be blessed and be a blessing~

Robbin Larsonmomma to Zoey (3 yrs old)

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here's the link about the approval from the FDA
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/infant_formula



FDA sets melamine standard for baby formula

By JOAN LOWY and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers Joan Lowy And Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writers – Sat Nov 29, 11:40 am ET


WASHINGTON – Two months ago, federal food regulators said they were unable to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula. Now, however, they found a way to settle on a standard that allows for higher levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product.

Food and Drug Administration officials on Friday set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical is not present. They insisted the formulas are safe.

The development comes days after The Associated Press reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks ago.

The FDA had said in early October it was unable to set a safety contamination level for melamine in infant formula.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's director of food safety, said Friday the agency was confident in the 1 part per million level for either of the chemicals alone, even though there have been no new scientific studies since October that would give regulators more safety data. He had no ready explanation for why the level was not set earlier.

The standard is the same as the one public health officials have set in Canada and China, but is 20 times higher than the most stringent level in Taiwan.

The problem of melamine in infant formula first surfaced in China in September.

Sundlof said the lack of dual contamination was key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present. He emphasized that neither of the two tainted samples had both contaminants.

The agency still will not set a safety level for melamine if cyanuric acid is also present, he said.
Both the new safety level and the amount of the chemical found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine added to infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.

"The levels were so low ... that they do not cause a health risk to infants," Sundlof said. "Parents using infant formula should continue using U.S.-manufactured infant formula. Switching away from one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or homemade formulas could result in infants not receiving the complete nutrition required for proper growth and development."

A scientist for a national consumer group said it was irresponsible of FDA to assure the public that infant formula is safe based on tests of only 74 samples, especially since cyanuric acid is a byproduct of melamine, making it likely that they will be found together.

"This is a slippery slope of rationalization by FDA," said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist with the Consumers Union in New York. "FDA needs to get a handle on how widespread the problem is and, most important, if both these chemicals are occurring in any products. They just haven't tested enough to know that yet."

Earlier this week, members of Congress and the Illinois attorney general demanded a national recall, something FDA said made no sense because it had no evidence suggesting that the formula would be dangerous for babies at the levels of contamination found.

After saying it made an error in its data, the FDA on Wednesday produced these results: Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron found melamine at levels of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million. Three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid.

Separately, a third major formula maker — Abbott Laboratories, whose brands include Similac — told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula. Those levels were below what FDA found in the other formulas, an Abbott spokesman said, and below any national safety guidelines.

Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson make more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States

The agency had left the impression of a zero tolerance on Oct. 3 when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."

The FDA and other experts said they believe the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally. The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

Melamine can legally be used in some food packaging, and can rub off into food from there. It's also part of a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment.

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Pritchard reported from Los Angeles.
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On the Net:
FDA: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/storytext/infant_formula/30064323/SIG=11m4l7ah9;_ylt=Ag0rnpw2jH.OH1aj7eSRzVSWwvIE/*http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/melamine.html

VERY PROFESSIONAL LOAN SHARKS

Hubby and I saw a very professional looking loan shark banner over the weekend, somewhere in Manjalara, and can't believe how brazen these loan sharks are nowadays .... offering a low interest rate? .... yeah right .....

Unfortunately, somewhere out there, there's always someone desperate enough to call them, especially during this stormy economic situation.

Desperate and depressed people always have health problems. Consider this. Have you ever seen a happy desperate guy? Depression really does make a person ill. It's the stress that's killing them slowly.

Hopefully, they don't call the number on the banner because these clowns will be more than willing to help them dig deeper into trouble.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

CUCUMBER TO REDUCE COUGH AND SORE THROAT

Asians believe that the humble cucumber is good to reduce cough and sore throat.

My dad had planted a cucumber plant in his garden, and had invited his office staff to take some since there were quite a lot to harvest. Before you can say stop, ALL the organic cucumbers were snapped off.

Now, we never expected cucumbers to be very popular, especially with some of the young, 20-something bachelors. Some of these guys profess not to even like vegetables. Plus there were lots of other lpvely organic vegetables growing in the garden for their taking. There were lots of long beans, spinach, sayur manis, chillis, cekur, ulam raja, kang kung (also called water spinach, swamp cabbage, water convolvulus or water morning-glory).

Yup, dad has a huge garden, and a great part time gardener.

Anyways, back to those cucumbers, apparently, the whole office was down with a bacterial infection. People were coughing, lots of lozenges were passed around. The Malay staff believe cucumbers would help soothe their sore throats. The Chinese meanwhile believe that cucumbers have "cooling" properties.

Good to know.

I asked the guys how they eat them, and most of them just chop up the cukes into small chunks and eat them raw, just like that with rice and sambal and curry. Others like to juice it (I recommend adding a bit of raw honey for flavor and sweetness if you are not used to having raw cucumber juice. Alternatively add a pinch of sea salt and omit the honey).

Anyways, it's been two weeks since those guys harvested them cukes, and the plant has died on us. Dad said those termites are destroying his plants.

That's terrible. Now everyone has to buy them from the nearby supermarket.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

International Meatless Day

Today is International Meatless Day.

But how and why did the Meatless day came about?

In 1986, Mr Bob (Bali) Gurbani suggested that November 25, the birthday of Sadhu Vaswani, the humble, Indian holy man be observed year after year as International Meatless Day.
Sadhu Vaswani was a highly intelligent man who devoted his entire life to giving love and hope to the poor and lowly, the sad and afflicted ones. He also loved animals with passion. He believed all living things deserved dignity, reverence of life. Every little thing he did was inspired by the Vision Cosmic. His heart bled at the cruelties inflicted upon animals day after day, for food. This deep awareness of the need for reverence for all life, in whichever form it is manifest, formed a very essential part of Sadhu Vaswani's teachings and has been propagated by the International Meatless Day Campaign. Therefore, for more than 2 decades, hundreds of thousands of devotees have been observing Nov.25, as Meatless Day and Animal Rights Day. The campaign was apparently so successful that four state governments in India - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh - have issued instructions for the closure of slaughter-houses as well as butchers' shops on 25th November every year.

You know, many supermarkets in Asia keep live fish in tanks. And they kill the fish on the spot upon order by a shopper. It takes a harden heart not to be affected by the way the supermarket employee / fish monger kill the fish. They literally bash the head of the fish with a mallet. And the fish don't die instantly. The poor thing would still struggle to survive minutes after that. And if it still moves, the fish monger would repeatedly bash the head with the mallet. How do I know this? Well, I innocently bought a live fish a few months ago from Tesco, for my son, thinking a real life fresh fish would be tasty. Yes, the fish was tasty, but I could not shake the image of the dying fish from my head. My sister-in-law was shopping with me that fine day, and we both had to look away, knowing the fish was being bashed repeatedly. It was painful to look, and it was a painful lesson. I, for one, am severely reluctant to buy live fish anymore.

But here's the problem. We all get desensitized when we don't see how animals are being killed for food. It's just meat in a package.

Do I still eat meat? Yes, but not so much anymore. Do I need reminders of how they have to die so we can eat heartily? Yes. Do I eat a lot of vegetables and fruits nowadays? Yes.

I try not to waste when I eat nowdays, though yes, there are times I do throw leftovers away. Such a wasteful thing.

I try to respect the food that comes to me.

Here's to a Happy Meatless Day to you, today, tomorrow or anyday possible.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

Parts of the info was taken from http://www.sadhuvaswani.org/ and www.meatlessday.com/

I HATE YOGA!

That's it folks. The National Fatwa Council has declared that yoga is "haram" or banned due to it's Hindu elements. They fear that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

All this fuss about yoga *hrmphh* Tell you the truth. I don't really like yoga. I once accidentally farted midair into a middle aged man behind me while I struggled to do a butt-in-the-air Downward Facing Dog pose. I did try a few more times after that, but again, they all ended up in a disaster. I learnt, basically, there's no quiet method to fart while doing yoga, and with that pose, there's no way I can avoid the "gas". With that, I decided to retire gracefully.

Baby doing a similar yoga pose that made me stop doing yoga. Yes, his butt IS in midair. No lie!


Besides, yoga is too hard *whine* *whine* I have to take time off from my beauty sleep to contort my body into various poses only my husband can enjoy looking.

Having said that, I can see that yoga has helped a few of my friends tremendously. My friend Airene has been going to an exclusive swanky yoga center somewhere off Jalan Ampang, in a beautiful restored colonial house, for a few years now. She can do an impressive headstand. And she has a really healthy, beautiful, strong looking body. Her teacher has a very good breathing technique for those who breathe through the mouth rather than the nose (for people like me) due to sinus problems.


That was probably how my butt had looked like when I did the darn pose!

Isn't it amazing how small children sleep. My first born loved to sleep in this position as well. So organic, so natural, it must give them a feeling that they are still in the womb.

Little children have really amazing limbs. Yoga would probably be easy for them. However, I have come to accept that yoga is not for everyone, especially for me. Oh well. I'm going to drown my sorrows in a glass of shaken not stirred fresh, raw organic grape juice.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

ps I got this video from youtube if anyone is curious to know what the Downward Facing Dog pose is all about.

pps I'm so sorry, but my center alignment is not working again.

MY CHILDHOOD FARMING EXPERIENCE

My 2 1/2 year old son juicing a big bag of carrots for breakfast,

with mummy supervising, of course.

How adorable is this!

When I was a young kid, my cousins, brothers and I would go on long walks along the narrow dirt roads leading to small Seremban farms that rear chickens, pigs, ducks and so on. There were a few vegetable farms as well. We, kids, would casually walk right through the farms. We never even thought trespassing was illegal, and nobody at those farms said anything, and even allowed us to look at the ducks and the fish swimming in the small ponds.

Here's a little trivia people may not have known. Back in those days when the pig farms were thriving, pig farmers where I lived used to boast that Malaysia, not Thailand, not Singapore, was the biggest exporter of pork products to Southeast Asia. This was an amazing feat considering more than half the Malaysian population were of Muslim faith. It goes to show how tolerant a society we are, being multiracial and all. It's important to note that the pork industry brought in millions of dollars in revenue to our country, and create thousands of jobs for people as well.



Those days are gone now. Those that had pigs, I was told by my aunt, had closed down now, after people started dying one by one from the horrific Nipah virus from the nearby farms.


At that time, nobody knew what these victims were dying of. Everyone was afraid. My paternal grandma, bless her heart, started to grow more vegetables in her garden, for the family. She had an amazing green thumb and everywhere you looked, there were beautiful green vegetables in pots, on the ground. It was marvelous. Everyone was more careful about what they ate. Grandma or Ah Mah lived to be 92.



Many pig farms are now placed in designated areas, with hopefully, better rearing equipments. There are also one or two Muslim politicians kicking up a huge fuss as they don't want pig farms. I know some readers here are not from Malaysia, so I need to explain that pork is not halal or not kosher, if you may, to the Muslim community.

Pig farms bad for Muslim communities. Mad cows disease. Fish with high mercury content as a result of polluted waters. The solution? Eat more fruits and vegetables. Organic if you can afford it. This transcend all race, all religion.


Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/


ps there is a good article about the Nipah virus problem. Please read at http://www.mysinchew.com/node/14068?tid=52

GOOD SLEEP

Here's a picture of my first born in such deep sleep that he is still holding his favorite No 5 Elmo card in his hand.

Unlike my kids who can put themselves into really good deep sleep, I used to have difficulty sleeping.

You see, I used to be a very light sleeper. I would think about stuff that happened during the day and if I need to, I would wake up in the middle of the night and write my thoughts and reminders down in a little notebook that has been placed next to my bed. Now, I knew this is a very bad habit. I was doing a great disservice to my mind and body by not allowing myself to have a good rest.

I then trained myself, will myself to getting good sleep. And good naps in the afternoon. When I was working with my family's Land Survey firm, I always felt that I needed lots of sleep. It didn't help that I would go out at ungodly hours of the night to meet up with friends. I would feel tired by lunch time, and lunch is only an hour. What to do? What to do?

I would quickly wolf down my lunch at home (home is 5 mins away from the office) and then grab as much siesta as possible before I start work at the office again a 2pm.

I would get a nice, comfy dark cloth and cover my eyes to shield myself from any light that might disturb me. I then also will myself not to think. I find that if I clear my mind, I fall asleep fast. I can even feel my body going into sleep mode!

I would glare at anyone who would dare wake me up during my naps, cause every minute is precious and the clock is ticking!

Those were the days, when I was young, and never appreciated sleep like I do today.

Problem is, I'm now very attached to having to cover my eyes, and sometimes I see my son trying to imitate me, but he doesn't realise he's not doing it right because he covers his entire face with his blankie. That's a definite no-no.

And now that I have 2 wonderful kids, a toddler and a baby who still wakes up like 3 times a night, I really, really appreciate good rest.

By the way, the raw foodie community belief that we need less sleep if we were to consume more raw food as opposed to eating a heavy cooked meal. I'm not sure about this theory right now because I still don't have enough sleep as my baby still wakes me up a couple of times a night, and that really makes me tired during the day. I will report on this later :-)

But thinking about it, I usually feel sleepy after a heavy carbohydrate meal, like the Indian Banana Leaf rice, or a heavy pasta for lunch. I don't feel sleepy after having a large glass of juice or a plate of fruit or a large plate of salad like the Penang fruit rojak.

Hmmmm. Something to think about! Anyways, it's now 12.25am, and I need to sign up to go to bed.


Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

Here's another adorable picture of my son with the card in his hand and and his leg up against the wall. Really shiok!

CLEARING CLUTTER AND DONATING BOOKS

These are some of my children's books,

some lovingly chewed by the baby when nobody is watching him!

Last week was my spring cleaning week. Truthfully, I'm a secret rat pack, and my place has not really been purged for years.

I had lots of nice clothes I didn't wear for 3 years or more because I spent a lot of my time being pregnant. Good thing lots of people were willing to take it off my hands.


I had a lot of old books as well. Those who know me and my hubby, know we luv books. So, it's really hard to give them away. You never know when you need to refer back to them because once they are out of circulation, they are really hard to find (unless we are really desperate, I'm sure Amazon has them stocked somewhere). But you know what, clean home, clean mind, clean body.

These are my 14 year old MBA notes

which I have no heart to throw away,

taken in the dark, because the kids are sleeping

*grin*

So off these valuable books went to the nearest library. That way, I could just pop over and read my favorite books if I need them. Sharing is just wonderful.

Some of the books I'm currently reading
We have a whole room dedicated to anything that's made of paper;

files, books, whatever.

Then, there are more books in both our parent's houses.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

SHE'S GONE! AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP

Nancy with my 2nd son

My kids' nanny, Nancy has gone back to Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia ... for good .... not of her choice, but because she failed her first year medical test as subjected by the Immigration Department. This is one of the major reasons I have not been online for a few days. So many things to pack and prepare for her travel.

I feel very sad for her because Nancy had come a long way, and with much difficulty and with much cost, to finally work in Malaysia, only to leave prematurely.

I never realised how difficult it was for Indonesian girls from very poor districts to come out and work. After all, she never once complained about her circumstances, and had worked cheerfully, taking great care of my kids, which I am really grateful for.

Once we realised that she had to leave, my husband suggested we find out how we can help her and her community who lived way below the poverty line.

How poor are they?

They are so poor, they had never needed a bank account.

The girls who leave their homes to work in other countries as maids and nannies are the ones who bring in the much needed cash to their families.

Most of these women go through a lot of hardship.

Here's what Nancy and the many girls in Indonesia go through.

A "sponsor" from her area would go round the villages recruiting young girls. He would offer Rupiah 1,000,000 (barely USD$90 to us but a princely sum to them) to the parents to allow the daughters to sign a work contract with him. In exchange, he will deduct around 6 months to 8 months salary when she finally finds work.

After being recruited, Nancy was send to a big city called Kupang 6 hours away from her hometown. There, she made her passport and was subjected to a medical examination. Some unlucky girls are send to brothels to be raped by "customers" before they are sent to Jakarta. And because the family need the money, and because the community are afraid, many choose to keep quiet, and allow the perpetrators get away with it.

After 3 days in Kupang, the passports are finally ready. A few hundred girls from around this island are regularly flown to Jakarta in a large, bare boned helicopter, two girls sharing one safety belt, hanging on for dear life. The helicopter's rickety, and scary, said Nancy.

Once they arrived in Jakarta, the girls were hulled to a building, where she was told approximately 700 girls from all over Indonesia, at any one time, are locked up with intimidating, armed guards patrolling the building to prevent any girls from escaping.

They have to sleep on cement floors with no mattresses, no blankets. Since there are not enough bathrooms, as many as ten women have to bath together at a time. If you think it's one large room like what we have at our regular gym shower room, think again. It's a tiny bathroom. Even I can't imagine how they do it. Many women do not bath for days due to the inconvenience. A lot of women go crazy, since they are not allowed out of the "prison". The lucky ones leave within the month, others, like Nancy, leave within 3 months. Some, considered, ugly, unteachable, or whatever, are "locked" up for up to 6 months waiting to be chosen to work somewhere.

Nancy says the pretty ones are harassed by the guards, and if the guards are bold enough, the girls are raped. The women are constantly verbally abused and beaten by the people who work there. Nobody really value them. The girls huddle together, and form friendships to try to make the best of their situation. If they are lucky, they will be sent to kind employers. If not, well .....

Nancy striking a pose for the album


Anyways, Nancy is really a nice person. And we were really glad it was she who came to live with us. It's really too bad she has to leave.

Hubby and I really feel that we should help Nancy and her community to the best of our abilities. These girls want to work here. And they long to work in a loving environment. We don't think these girls have to be subjected to such terribly dangerous situation. So, we want to help bring them here to work, safely.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an agent, just a no name one woman "NGO" that's all.

I need your help and advise.

I would like to know what are the correct procedures to bring girls from Nusa Tenggara to work as maids and nannies for good people who will provide them with a safe and happy environment. By skipping the Indonesian agencies, they don't have to pay the agents 6 to 8 months salary. That's big savings for their family! Plus, they avoid a lot of abuses as well.

We, in turn get to know who these girls are because a lot of resumes are faked by the Indonesian agencies in hopes someone will pick these "unwanted" women quickly. By going through an unorthodox method, we hope that employers will get them faster than if it was done via a maid employment agency in Malaysia. To know why it takes so long to get a maid from the maid agency, we have to realise that these agencies get limited "bio data" or "resumes" from Indonesia. The choices are very unsatisfactory and the local agents hands are tied.

The other thing I would like to do is get to know the head of the immigration department in Putrajaya (The Pengarah). In order to get the girls to come here, they have to go through a medical examination in their home country. Unfortunately, I have searched the internet and have not found any medical facility which are approved by the Malaysian immigration department in that area. I would like to know how to get one approved because it would just be too expensive for these girls to fly all the way to Jakarta to be examined by a doctor.

I would like to have a chat with anyone who has brought in a maid from Indonesia on their own without the agency's help. So if you know guys know anyone, please ask them if they are willing to help me out.

There are ways to do this so that everybody wins. I'm not sure how, but I'm sure it can be done. It's time the people there take control of their own situation.

You see, my mum was from a poor family in Alor Setar. My great-great grandparents lived in a small wooden hut, probably just like Nancy and her family. My great great grandmother used to catch fish in the paddy fields for her dinner. When I think of Nancy's family, I think of my family. And I think everyone should be given that chance to have a better life.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps Nusa Tenggara's current date and time



pps am so sorry that the pictures are not clear and something is wrong with the alignment of the words. There's something wrong with the bloging program. I will clean up the blog nicely later.

TRY THESE UNCOOKING RECIPE

I love mushrooms. And my personal favorite mushroom is the shitake mushrooms, also known as the Chinese mushrooms.

Now, mushrooms have been found to help cancer patients in a very, very big way (read about it here http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/29068.php.

Eating mushrooms, it seems, helps cancer patients strengthen the immune system. Now, if mushrooms can help cancer patients, think of what it can do for you if you are one of those who are always tired from work, who easily catch illnesses from your co-workers and so on.

Recently, I found a new uncooking recipe that calls for raw mushrooms as the main ingredient.

Is it possible to eat mushrooms raw?

Is it tasty?

The answer is yes.

And what’s more, eating raw mushrooms has tons more health benefits than eating cooked mushrooms. Try the recipe shown below.

Raw Mushroom Steak

6 large Shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon Nama Shoyu or soy sauce
2 teaspoon cardamom powder
2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

- Mix oil, soy sauce, cardamom, garlic and onion powder in a bowl and blend well.
- Dip each mushroom slice into the sauce. Marinate for about half an hour in the fridge.

Cheeze Sauce

1 cup cashew nut
2-3 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 cup water

Blend all Cheeze ingredients in a blender until creamy.
Place some marinated mushrooms on a plate, top with finely sliced Granny Smith apples (I like the contrasting flavors) or crisp salad leaves and then pour some of the Cheeze on top.

Jasmin
Eat Raw Food Today Facebook group

FREE COOKING TOOL

Cheap and easy to do solar cooker

I have always been interested in how to stretch my dollar, and solar cooking has always held a special fascination for me. Which is why I love this article, about how a BYU professor created a low cost effective solar cooker for people. http://solarcooking.org/plans/funnel.htm.

I know a lot of you guys who are readers here do tons of volunteer work in small communities who need free cooking tools like the solar cooker; that is cheap, easy to make and does not harm the environment.

Stylish solar cooker

Please have a read, and please pass this email to anyone whom you think may be interested, like a friend who does community work or someone who loves to experiment. The set up is not big, so it's also great for apartment dwellers who has a small balcony that faces the sun.

Cutting the cardboard

Maybe one day, we will see shiny solar cookers dotting the landscape, something no longer a novelty, but a regular thing we use everyday.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

STOP THE INSANITY! GO FOR THAT CHANGE

One of my favorite quotes which I heard years ago when I was in college was "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". This was originally quoted by Albert Einstein, but I learned this quote from a 1990s loud voiced diet guru, former stripper, with a blond buzz cut named Susan Powter. Anyone remembered her? I used to love her 1990s infomercial and her catch phrase "Stop The Insanity".

What a killer sales person! You gotta see her crazy youtube video.

I always remembered her always emphasizing the fact that we can't go through life doing the same damaging things to ourselves and expect changes to happen. We must change, and I go through life with that in mind. Really. Often times we fear things, but are too afraid to change. Too afraid to get out of a relationship, because we are afraid of being alone. Too afraid to change our diet because certain food has become our familiar friend.

President Barack Obama says he wants to change things, and the American people agree with him. Change is good.

If we are looking to change our health around, for the better, may I suggest that we start with 3 glasses of fresh raw fruit juice each day. Make that a commitment. One glass for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner. Just start a day at a time. Instead of coffee, blend a glass of banana smoothie for breakfast. Instead of a soft drink for lunch, maybe you could order a glass of fresh raw orange juice. Hey, how about some fresh raw mango strawberry juice to go with that dinner tonight?

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

SNACK ATTACK!

I had a snack attack last night, but the problem was, the single apple I ate was just not so satisfying. I wanted something savory, something salty that would make me go hmmmmm.

I didn't have any meat in my freezer, mainly because my freezer is not working well. It keeps icing over. All I had was lots of fruits and some raw shiitake mushrooms. I decided to make some yummy raw "stirfried" shiitake mushrooms. I realise many people have not had a raw mushroom dish, so I thought I'd share this recipe with you.

Yup, it tastes like it's stirfried.

Here's the picture of the raw mushrooms straight out from the fridge,
with the stems removed.

I then added one part soy sauce to one part vegetable oil.

It's not necessary to add so much. Otherwise, it'll just be too soggy.
Best to add a little bit of sauce at a time. You can always add more later.
In this case, I added half teaspoon of soy sauce and half teaspoon of oil to
one one bag of shiitake mushrooms.

The mixture is then stirred vigorously to form an emulsion.

Add the mushrooms into the sauce. Squeeze the mixture with your hands like you are squeezing a sponge. Don't worry, it will all mix well, and the mushrooms will not deflate like some pitiful birthday balloon with no air.

Here's the yummy, shiny, final product.

To make it look nicer, you can sprinkle some raw basil leaf on top. I didn't because my snack attack happened at about 11pm and I was too lazy to decorate this dish, so late at night.

It's real good. Try it, and try it on your friends. Add these raw mushrooms in some noodle dish to up your intake of raw food. Believe me, most people won't even realize it's not cooked!

Have fun.

Jasmin

"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/