Eat Raw Food Today!

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2009-06-25T23:19:00.003+08:00

Hi Everyone.

I have moved to www.BuddingPlanet.com

Come visit me there to get more great articles!

Jasmin

Can't Get Rid Of Your Bad Acne? Read This!

2009-06-20T00:17:00.006+08:00

For the past 30 years, doctors, facialists and high school health-ed teachers alike have assured us up and down that, contrary to what our grandmothers may have believed, junk food does not cause acne. Snickers bars, soda and ice cream, they told us, might be unhealthy—but at least they didn’t affect our complexions. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, the belief that chocolate caused zits was an old wives’ tale, somewhere along the lines of “shaving your legs makes the hair grow back faster.”

As it turns out, those old wives may have been right all along. This past July, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed a measurable link between high-glycemic diets and acne. The study followed two groups of acne-plagued males ages 15 to 25 who were told they were participating in a study on carbohydrates and protein. The first group continued to eat their usual diet, which included plenty of sugar and processed grains—foods that have a high glycemic index. The other was given whole grains, lean meat and fish, fruits and vegetables—foods with a low glycemic index. After 12 weeks, a team of dermatologists determined that the subjects in the latter group had 51 percent fewer pimples than when they started.

“It all comes down to insulin,” says Neil Mann, a professor of human nutrition at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and the study’s lead researcher. Foods with a high glycemic index cause blood sugar to rise, forcing the body to bring it down with a surge of insulin. And insulin can lead to acne, both by accelerating cell growth in the pores and stimulating oil-producing hormones called androgens. This radical shift in thinking about acne challenges a stance that dates back to 1969. That was the year that three researchers published a study in the influential Journal of the American Medical Association that seemed to show that chocolate does not cause acne. Two years later, another well-known study argued that peanuts, milk and cola were also blameless. Whereas previously, medical textbooks had recommended whole-grain bread and avoidance of ice cream in the treatment of pimples, a new generation of doctors were taught that there was no connection between diet and acne.

“Those two studies, on which all our dogma on diet and acne is based, are basically full of flaws,” says Valori Treloar, a dermatologist and certified nutrition specialist in Newton, Massachusetts, who wrote a recent book on food, lifestyle and acne called The Clear Skin Diet (Cumberland House Publishing). “Frankly, I don’t think either would be published today because the standards were not rigorous enough.” Both studies, she says, were too small in subject numbers and too short in duration. More important, neither controlled any other aspect of the diet, so the researchers had no idea what else the subjects were eating.

In her book Treloar and her coauthor, naturopath Alan C. Logan, recommend a diet rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties that appear to protect against acne.

Dairy is also under new scrutiny. In 2005 researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health published a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that showed an association between consumption of dairy products and acne. Using data from more than 47,000 women followed in the Harvard-administered Nurses’ Health Study II, researchers found that those who consumed more than three servings of milk per day were 22 percent more likely to have suffered from acne as teens. With skim milk, the numbers were even more pronounced: Those who drank two or more glasses per day were 44 percent more likely to have experienced acne bad enough to warrant a trip to the doctor.

F. William Danby, an assistant professor of dermatology at Dartmouth Medical School and one of the authors of the study, cautions that while the data show a link between dairy and acne, they don’t definitively prove that milk gives people pimples. “It’s going to require a few more years of research,” says Danby, “but there are good scientific reasons to believe that it is actually cause and effect.” Milk and dairy products, he explains, might trigger breakouts in a number of ways, most notably because they contain the same hormones that can lead to acne in humans. Even organic milk contains these natural hormones.

Danby says he has been successfully treating his own patients through a combination of medication and a zero-dairy diet for more than 20 years. One milk-loving patient, he recalls, couldn’t understand why she suffered from breakouts when her milk-hating identical twin sister did not. Another patient endured four courses of Accutane without success, only to see her acne improve after nixing a 16-ounce-a-week Cheez Whiz habit.

“I always felt that diet played a role in acne, but there were no believable studies to back this up until recently,” says Leslie Baumann, a professor of dermatology at the University of Miami who has been advising her acne-plagued patients to limit sugar and dairy for two years now.

Researchers hypothesize that our increasing consumption of sugar, processed grains and dairy products may be behind a worldwide rise in acne incidence in both teens and adults. In fact, both Danby and Mann cite the same 2002 paper in the Archives of Dermatology, which showed that among indigenous cultures in Paraguay and Papua New Guinea who ate their ancestral diets and consumed almost no processed foods or dairy products, acne was virtually unheard of. And previous studies had shown that when people from similar cultures adopted a Western diet, they developed acne.

“We didn’t evolve to eat the foods we eat now,” explains Mann. “Dairy came along probably about 7,000 years ago. Agricultural grains were about 10,000 years ago. That’s like yesterday in evolutionary terms.”

Though literature from the American Academy of Dermatology still says that nothing you eat can cause acne, Wilma Bergfeld, a professor of dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who is also one of the academy’s spokespeople, says that may soon change. Though she believes more research is needed to support the dairy hypothesis, Bergfeld calls Mann’s high-glycemic load study “exciting.”

“When you chase a pimple, you want to dry it up to make it go away, but you’re not solving the problem of why it exists. This suggests that you can get at the problem by diet,” says Bergfeld. Still, not everyone is convinced that diet and acne are so directly related. “Skin reflects general health, so I tell all of my patients to eat a balanced diet, but you don’t need to avoid specific foods,” says Joshua M. Wieder, a dermatologist in private practice and an associate clinical professor at UCLA. Wieder says he might tell his patients about Mann’s and Danby’s studies, but more data is needed before he’ll go any further than that. “These are small studies which need to be substantiated by looking at larger populations across genetic groups,” he says. To date there has been surprisingly little research on the connection between diet and acne. “Nutritional studies are notoriously difficult to run,” explains Treloar. “You need to have a large enough sample group, and you need to control what people are eating.” Mounting studies is also challenging, she adds, in an age when pharmaceutical companies are the major force behind new research. “It’s hard to get funding, because it’s hard to come up with a product that somebody’s going to make money on.”

But there is one bright spot on the horizon. That 1969 study focusing on chocolate may not have used the proper methods, but the scientists did get one thing (sort of) right, says Treloar. Pure cocoa powder and dark chocolate, if it’s at least 70 percent cocoa and doesn’t contain too much sugar, may actually alleviate acne. Cocoa contains antioxidant chemicals called flavonoids that have slight anti-inflammatory effects and improve blood flow to skin cells. Bittersweet chocolate never tasted so good.

By Michelle Rainer
Photograph by Kenji Toma
Styled by Kathryn Hurni
November 2007
http://www.wmagazine.com/beauty/2007/11/the_acne_diet

Home Remedy For Painful Itchy Ears

2009-06-18T22:46:00.007+08:00

White Vinegar!! It is about 3 am and I could not sleep due to inner ear itching and pain from my ear infection. I noticed that when I get a sore throat, it is always followed by an ear infection. I used my usual, cotton swab soaked in alcohol and that provides temporary relief but today the pain and itching returned. I read this site and found to use a mixture 50/50 of alcohol and white vinegar. I am not one to 'mix' things so I got up the nerve to try the vinegar alone since I used alcohol earlier to no avail. My right ear is not as bad as the left one, so I tried that one first. I placed 3 drops of white vinegar... undiluted in my ear and left it there for 3 minutes. While it was in there, I noticed that when I swallowed the fluid moved down further in my ear canal so I continued to make swallowing motions. I let that drain out and tried the left ear. This ear hurt and itch really bad, but I put 3 drops of fluid in it and it did not burn... I could feel it moving down in the canal as I continued the swallowing motions. I let that drain out and 'immediately' felt better. I notice that the pain... itching sensation is gone. Since that worked for my ears, I got up the nerve to gargle with white vineger... undiluted! Once you get past the taste, it worked! I had to swallow about a teaspoon so that It could get all the way down my throat. I feel much better and is headed for bed. This definitely worked for me!

Taken from
http://www.myhomeremedies.com/remedy.cgi?remedyid=5990

Replies by users who tried this

Submitted by Cin at 2008-03-10 22:36:35 from 208.170.252.187
I tried this right after reading it on my 8 year old son. He was in a lot of pain. After a few minutes he perked right up and said that his ear 'felt like nothing happened.' --- Meaning like there was never any pain to begin with. He is very happy and relieved.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

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Come visit us there!

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Submitted at 2008-03-16 02:14:05 from 98.202.117.243
I tried this on my two year old who had been screaming for over an hour solid with an obvious ear ache. Within 10 seconds of dripping a couple of drops of white vinegar in his ear, he stopped screaming and fell fast asleep. Thank you!

Submitted by Missy at 2008-04-26 06:19:22 from 71.51.109.120
It is 4am and I was desperate for pain relief. I put drops of white vinegar in my ear let it sit for about 2-3 minutes. I repeated this twice. I did get some immediate relief. It really works. Thank you so must for posting this.

Submitted at 2008-05-04 07:22:22 from 72.64.49.40
I did this and felt instant relief. I was in so much pain the whole side of my face hurt. This relieved that right away about 2:30 am but I woke up at 5:00 am in pain all over again:( And right now at 7 am I am still trying to figure out a remedy that will work for me.

Submitted by jolz at 2008-06-06 10:04:59 from 69.124.131.159
Ok i tried this as soon as i read it and the minutes i put it in i heard a poping noise like my ear poped and i waited the 3 minutes and then i let it drain .. it feels great.. now lets see if it last.

Submitted by Mindy from Michigan at 2008-07-12 21:03:06 from 69.216.98.135
I just tried this and I must say my ear is feeling better. It burned a little when I put it in. I can tell that I will have to put more drops in later but right now I am actually able to get out of bed and function. Thank You. I wish I would have done it sooner.

Submitted by Hsu at 2008-07-18 12:01:52 from 99.130.4.91
It seriously worked...but with side effects.My hearing was foggy, and when I moved around a lot, the pain bit back into my ear.But overall, I reccomend it. Thanks for posting!

Submitted at 2008-08-21 01:33:04 from 99.153.219.229
nice remedy did not try it but went to the doctor and give me some ear solution and a couple of pills for the pain and itch

Submitted at 2008-08-31 23:44:03 from 76.26.190.108
This is only my second ear infection but my ear has practically swelled shut. I tried peroxide and alcohal per my doctor and that didn't do anything. I took some antibiotics earlier, and anti inflammatory and a painkiller. I tried your vinegar solution tonight but it did not work for me. I am now in even more exruciating pain but I too have no insurance and cannot afford an ER visit. I've tried ice and I've tried heat and nothing is working!

Submitted at 2008-10-05 23:46:02 from 71.56.194.113
I used this when i got a earache after not having one for years it really helped i felt the pain go away and my ear stopped bugging me after that.Thank you for posting this

Submitted at 2008-11-30 00:51:34 from 70.58.195.149
I just tried this and it totally worked. I would much rather use something natural than give my 3 year old 10 days of antibiotics. Thanks for the help.

Submitted at 2008-11-30 12:50:12 from 98.73.45.225
it did not work, it just maid things worse. it did burn but it did not stop pain or itch. I does not go in your ear canal good enough to help. IT DOES NOT WORK!!!! good luck on yours.

Submitted by Ed at 2008-12-18 12:10:39 from 24.118.60.113
Okay, so for the past few days I've been trying hydrogen peroxide in my ears with no improvement. I just read about this ten minutes ago and decided to try it out.
I didn't have any white vinegar, so I used apple cider vinegar. I poured a quarter of a cap full in each ear, swallowed a few times, and did some yawning motions. Almost INSTANTLY the pain was gone! It's actually starting to slowly come back in one ear, so I might do this a few more times every 20 minutes or so.
Now I just have a bad sore throat...which I'd much rather have than feeling like i want to stab my ears out...

Submitted by michusmc at 2009-01-21 22:16:56 from 67.240.104.179
My three and a half year old started complaining her ear hurt really bad and was crying almost hysterically after about an hour of this i looked online and came across this posting....i was very skeptical but i was willing to try anything it really did work she stopped crying and said her ear didn't hurt anymore....

Submitted by Amy (mom of three) at 2009-02-09 23:11:37 from 70.15.110.218
My,eleven year old son and I have been up all night with him in pain.We called the doctor but at this time of night there is nothing that he can due but tell use to go the hospital.Instead I looked for home remedies to see if there was any thing that would give him any pain relief.After trying this remedy he is still in some discomfort,but is not in as much pain as he was when we started this night and the jurney of looking for the right remedy for his pain so for that I thank you.

Submitted by Michelle, Rhode Island at 2009-02-20 05:50:32 from 24.250.37.201
Well, all I have to say is, this HAS to work. My 2 yr old woke up at 430 crying hysterically and tugging at her ears, I found this remedy online, mixed the 50/50 of water vinegar solution, and believe or not, she is talking again, and not screaming in pain. So, even if you are skeptical, try this. I have also been told that olive oil does the trick. Anyway, try this, and repeat as necessary for pain. Once they get over the initial nasty taste, they will be relieved you gave it to them.

Submitted at 2009-02-23 20:30:08 from 76.187.7.239
I just tried this on my 18 mth old....I was so desperate...OMG! It works. his ear infection was hurting so bad he didn't eat all day and he wouldn't drink. Now he has drank more all day and is off my lap messing my house up! Does this just relieve the pain and not cure in the infection? IDK....

Submitted by G in Memphis at 2009-03-09 23:35:40 from 66.32.69.86
Came across this remedy because my 3 year old has been crying for an hour with a terrible earache! Tylenol didn't work--tried this with a warm rice bag on her ear, and she also fell asleep within 2 or 3 minutes! Thank you! Hopefully it will last the night!

Submitted at 2009-03-20 19:45:51 from 65.60.128.225
OMG.... it works
my ear hurt so bad white vinegar works

Submitted by Hannah at 2009-03-22 05:30:53 from 79.97.185.131
My husband has got a terrible ear ache since 3 days and he refuses to go to the doctor to get cure. He is actually using a med called Tropex but the pain is still the same, on the contrary its getting worse. After having read all the comments am quite interested to use this remedy,
Can someone guarantee me if this really work?

Submitted by heather at 2009-03-24 00:16:54 from 24.78.171.53
thx so much! just tried this and the ache has totally calmed down! i didnt dilute it though!

Submitted by Scotty at 2009-04-09 19:25:19 from 98.232.155.122
THE PAIN LEFT/ I just got a ear infection this morning when i woke up. I made a apt. and the doctor gave me a antibiotic to clear it up. My ear was still pounding though almost putting me in tears. After reading some of these comments i tried a quarter of a lid full of white vinegar. I left it in for about three minutes then drained it out. It took about ten minutes to work for me but it soooo made me a believer in these kind of home remedies. My ear is still hazy but no pain and thats all i needed to get up and move about.

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Jasmin says

I thought this was an excellent remedy, which I myself have tried. I used half raw apple cider vinegar half warm water.

What you may have realized when you read the info above is I have left all comments intact, meaning all the good AND bad comments as well. I did this to show that though it worked for a lot of people, the remedy did not always work for everyone, which probably meant, either these people have a different problem or it just doesn't work for them that's all.

Inconsiderate, Selfish German Researcher With H1N1 Virus

2009-06-17T23:14:00.006+08:00

THE German researcher who returned to Singapore from the United States with flu symptoms and only sought medical treatment a week later has come under fire from netizens who called him 'inconsiderate, selfish, and downright foolish'.

The 56-year-old man, who works at Biopolis, was diagnosed with the Influenza A (H1N1) virus on Monday night, becoming Singapore's 48th confirmed case.

His actions - which included going to work, shopping, attending a function held by the French ambassador and going to a concert- were slammed as 'inconsiderate' and 'downright foolish' by many netizens who were angered that he took his condition so lightly.

Said a poster named safety123, who was among more than 20 readers who gave their views in the Straitstimes.com discussion board on Wednesday: 'Sooner or later we will see the spreading (of the flu) in the community. For some of the cases, symptoms had been developed in the flight or before coming back, and were not detected at airport. They just did not care and are still moving about. (This is) inconsiderate!'

Another reader named Misnomer stressed that contact tracing would be difficult as the man had come into contact with several people during the week he was moving around

'Now the Ministry of Health will have to waste taxpayers' money tracking down the passengers on the plane, the audience in the concert, the waiters and waitresses at Clarke Quay, his colleagues, the shoppers, the store assistants and cashers and their families', wrote Misnomer.

Agreeing, another reader, GhostRider666, wrote: 'Now, it is hard to do contact tracing. It would be almost impossible to pinpoint who were there with him, Anyone who mingled with him in a crowded shopping centre or party could now be carriers of the H1N1 virus.

'And they could infect other people in Singapore. This might be the start of the disease spreading wildly on a tiny island like Singapore.'

The Ministry of Health said in a statement on Tuesday night that a number of recent patients engaged in 'extensive community activities' such as shopping, going to work and taking part in mass activities after arriving here.

In several earlier cases, patients also went to work, attending school and social gatherings, and took public transport even though they had flu symptoms and had returned from affected areas such as Melbourne.

MOH reminded the public not to travel if they were unwell.

June 17, 2009
By Diana Othman
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_391667.html

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Jasmin says,

Recently, my husband's friends came back from Australia. Own their own accord, they had decided to take a self impose 7 day quarantine, irregardless whether they were ill or not.... just in case.

I like that. I'm down with the flu right now. Baby went to the hospital last Thursday, and caught the flu at the paediatrician's clinic after getting his immunization jab. I hate hospitals. Sigh! I caught the flu from him, and so did my 2 year old niece. This is just a simple flu folks, so imagine what the Swine Flu can do to us all.

Take care, be safe, be considerate.

ECO FRIENDLY BURIALS

2009-06-17T00:16:00.001+08:00

A bamboo coffin

Just last week, hubby showed me an interesting article about eco friendly burial methods. Apparently, there's sustainable bamboo weave coffins which are supposedly better than wooden coffins. Cheaper too. I think it's absolutely wonderful. In theory it's great, but think about it, in a lot of cases, families of the deceased may be coerced to buying a very expensive and not environmentally friendly coffin by the "coffin salesman" for fear of looking like cheapo skinflints who can't be bothered to provide the best for the loved one who have since passed.

Me? I want my healthy, working body parts to be donated to be transplanted into bodies of people in need, like my cornea, heart, or whatever that is in good condition. I have reminded hubby not to donate my body to science and any medical facilities. My dead body is still my temple, and I want it to remain that way LOL. Oh yes, and after the good docs are through harvesting my body, I wish to be cremated and my ashes dumped in to the nearest sea, just like my paternal grandparents. Still not the most eco friendly method, due to the energy needed for the cremation, but this is how I want my Buddhist body to be handled.

Slightly off topic, my granddad passed away when I was 17. After the funeral, my dad put my grandpa's ashes and bones into a cloth bag. He didn't close the cloth bag all the way before he dropped the bag into the sea. When I asked why, dad said it's so that granddad can swim out anytime he wants to. Anyhow, I always thought everything would be burned down to ashes. I mean, that's what I see on tv, but apparently, not in Malaysia. There was still half a femur bone here, parts of the rib bone there. Grandma passed away a few years back, and yes, they did not fully burn her body down to ashes as well.

Nowadays, there's all sorts of eco friendly burial products. There's bio degradable urns. But why urns when a cheap cotton cloth bag will do, since someone's going to bury the urn anyway. You can't have a biodegradable urn sitting on top of the living room mantle anyways. It would look nasty as the urn start to bio degrade. There's also special burial parks that looks exactly like parks with no burial stones to mar the landscape.

However, in my book, the best eco friendly burial is still the muslim burial. They use a simple white shroud to wrap the body, and then they bury the body in the muslim graveyard. Two simple burial stone marks the grave. Flowers and fragrant flower water is sprinkled onto the body and onto the grave. Prayers are made without much fuss and pomp.

Ever thought about your funeral? Told anyone about how you wished your burial to be conducted?

A taoist grave.
Read about it at http://foolamak.com/fooie/qing-ming

WHAT WOULD YOU BRING TO A POT LUCK PARTY?

2009-06-14T23:28:00.006+08:00

30 over pounds of cut up sugar cane sticks

Just this Saturday, my parents held a housing association pot luck dinner with the neighbors. Once of the things we decided to provide was fruits, and lots of it.

We bought 10 kilos (22 pounds) of rambutans and we cut up around 15 kilos (33 pounds) of organic raw sugar cane, right from my parents' garden. Whooohooo!

The picture above shows how the cut up itsy bitsy sugar cane sticks looks like.

I have wrote about how mum used the sugar cane sticks to help us kids strengthen our gums in my previous post. But anyways, in the old days, people use to chew on sugar cane but I've not seen anyone do this anymore. I thought it would be a fun thing to bring to the table, and I was right. It was a hit! People have commented they have not chewed on raw sugar cane for ages and chewing on these yummy sticks do bring back fun memories for lots of people!

Anyways, it's really simple to make these little babies, but there's lots of elbow grease involved.

First, we have to chop down 3 long, large stalks of the sugar cane. Next, we have to remove the hard outer skin. You know how you use a fruit peeler to peel of an apple skin? Well, we have the same instrument, except it's 10 times larger and 10 times sharper to peel of the outer skin of the sugar cane. Then, we chop these suckers into small pieces. You've got to be really fit and strong to do all this cutting, which is probably why nobody does it anymore.

Mum, dad and I also bought lots of rambutans.

Hairy little rambutans

Rambutans are in season as well right now, so we thought we'd take advantage of it.

Juicy little morsels inside

The inedible tasteless seed inside the fruit

Rambutans were a hit as well. Hubby, the fruit bat confessed he ate lots of the rambutans while keeping an eye on the happily playing kids (the pot luck was held outside, in the large yard of my parents' house). Luckily, hubby loves fruits, so having the entire family eat healthful stuff is not a big stretch!

At first, nobody touched the sugar cane, and I was a bit worried that I made a mistake serving it. However, people started to pile the little cane sticks onto their plates after the main meal. They chewed on the sticks while chit chatting with each other. And after they were done, they tossed the chewed up cane into our ever growing pile of compost heap nearby.

What I learned from this pot luck is, people love fruits. And if you don't know what to bring to a pot luck, bring fruits! You don't need to cook it if you decide to serve it raw and neat. And there's probably not much preparation involved as well. For example, there's no need to wash the rambutans before hand. Ditto for bananas. Grapes are a gorgeous fruit that goes with any barbecue. Now's summertime, and everyone looks forward to having some watermelon.Those just need to be cut up into small chunks, and that's it. No need to be fancy unless you really want it to be. Fruits are very healthful stuff. Everyone would eat it, meat eaters, vegetarians, kids, older folks.

Very rare to find people who won't touch a single bit of fruit!

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

More on sugar cane

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 More raw food at the night markets
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 McDonalds used to serve sugar cane juice

CHOOSING YUMMY MANGOSTEEN!

2009-06-13T00:08:00.005+08:00

Ah! Mangosteen. I love Mangosteen. However, the season is short, and it feels like there's an abundance of Mangosteen only once a year. The rest of the time, it's pretty expensive and hard to come by.

Here's some handy tips to choosing Mangosteen.

Tip No 1
Press the fruit lightly. It should yield. If it's hard, toss it back into the fruit bin and choose another. A soft fruit will have yummy, creamy, slightly tart and sweet segments inside.

The inner part of the Mangosteen has segments, much like an orange, but wayyyy tastier than an orange. The smaller segments has no seeds, while the bigger segments have them. So how do we choose a fruit that has less seeds?

Tip No 2
Look at the bottom of the fruit. The fruit you see in the picture has 5 "petals". Each petal represents the segment inside the fruit. The more petals you see, the more segments you will get in the fruit. And the more segments mean there's less space for a bigger segment with a large seed. This means, you will have plenty of smaller segments without the seeds. Yum!

Once you gobble up all the fruit, do consider trashing your Mangosteen skins inside a compost heap.

Remember, Mangosteen season is almost over, so quickly take advantage and buy them before they disappear! Eating lots of raw, fresh food is good for you!

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

COKE CLEANS TOILET

2009-06-11T23:57:00.002+08:00

Pour a can of coke into the toilet. Wait for an hour. Flush.

The toilet will be clean.

From Queen of Clean - Heloise

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Jasmin says:

I read somewhere that Coke is bad for the teeth as well. So, my tip of the day, do brush your teeth after drinking Coke, or at least, rinse your mouth with some water.

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

NOT THE BEST WAY TO GO GREEN!

2009-06-10T23:44:00.002+08:00

Tue Jun 9, 9:22 pm ET

AUSTIN, Texas – Going green helped a woman rob an Austin bank. The Travis County Sheriff's Office says a woman held up a bank Tuesday and apparently used a recyclable grocery bag to haul away the greenbacks.

Sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade told The Associated Press, after viewing surveillance photos of the unidentified woman with the green bag, that he's guessing "that's where she put the money."

Wade said the bag was the only one the woman has going in and coming out of the Regions Bank branch.

No weapon was displayed. Nobody was injured.

The amount of money stolen was not released by law officers.

News taken from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090610/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_recycling_robbery;_ylt=AqmSJ6XsbdU5ZiRizNmSMGhxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTMydGJhOG9nBGFzc2V0Ay9hcC8yMDA5MDYxMC9hcF9vbl9mZV9zdC91c19vZGRfcmVjeWNsaW5nX3JvYmJlcnkEcG9zAzI5BHNlYwN5bl9zdWJjYXRfbGlzdARzbGsDZ29pbmdncmVlbndv

Toilet Tissue Tips by Jason Mraz

2009-06-09T18:01:00.002+08:00

It was while camping in Costa Rica last week that I realized I needed to share this with you. When it came to the limited supply of tissue brought to the jungle, one has to be selective on how and when to use. My friend was amazed at how little paper was actually required for the job. And it has nothing to do with my raw diet, because quite honestly, I’ve been swimming in deeper waters lately, introducing my stomach to rich and indulgently devilish foods. (How dare I!)

Toilet Tissue Tips:
- Start small. Challenge yourself to use only 8 squares in your session. We’ve all been in that place where it’s close to the cardboard roll and you have to be MacGuyver to make a clean get-away. This will force you to get creative while taking good care of each square.

- Use both sides. I mean that. I bet some people are afraid to look at or get close to their own skid-marks. But I say it’s better to know how your body’s handling the business of your health. Fold the paper again and again using a clean angle from the very same square. There’s a lot of real estate wasted on each sheet when you only wipe once.

- Should you find the paper too thin and become the victim of too many breakthroughs, try using a stronger material as a backing. This worked when I was camping. The paper wasn’t holding up in the dampness of camp, so I used a leaf to give the paper more strength from behind. Plus the leaf was textured, which handled the job with far more efficiency than just the paper by itself.

Forgive me for being anal about this. I just thought I’d share the news and suggest an eco-friendly solution to one of nature’s biggest pains in the ass.

Taken from http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=4818814&blogId=492709998
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Jasmin says:

Jason Mraz just cracks me up! But hey, I have a better solution. How about just plain water and biodegradable soap? Asians have been using water and soap for eons. And really, it's the cleanest solution and so eco friendly. A butt that smells fresh and clean? Now that's a thought!

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

Mothers Cook Healthy Meals For Students

2009-06-08T20:30:00.007+08:00

Fourteen mothers came together to cook healthy meals for some 350 students of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Chin Kwang Wahyu in Parit Jawa, Muar, reported China Press.

The mothers, who have been cooking these meals since 2007, wanted the schoolchildren to get the best food and grow up healthy and only charged the students for the cost of the food.

Li Li Fen, the 42-year-old chef of the team, said she would buy fresh ingredients from the market according to the menu provided by the school.

The menu includes a main dish of fried rice, mixed rice or porridge, served with soy bean milk or Ribena drinks, desserts and fruits.

Monday June 8, 2009
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/8/nation/4070325&sec=nation

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Jasmin says:

I think it's wonderful that these mothers are doing something to feed the school kids healthy meals. When my 2nd brother was studying at University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) at Sekudai, Johor, he said a rich man had open a small restaurant serving healthful vegetarian food priced at a very nominal sum for the university students. The campus was quite far away from the housing estates, and those who stayed near the campus had a very limited menu so the tasty vegetarian fare was very welcomed. Brother says this guy wanted to give back to the society by feeding the students right. Profits is not his priority, which is why the dishes are priced very, very cheaply.

Anyways back to the ladies who make an effort to cook for the children. I really appreciate their efforts. I'd like to see more fruit or vegetable juices offered instead of Ribena, but hey, the food is served with love and care, and I can bet more hygienic than what most restaurants can offer. These women rock!

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

GET KIDS TO FERTILIZE YOUR PLANTS

2009-06-08T00:42:00.005+08:00

Here's a radical thought, get a small boy to pee in your garden or at the public park ....... discreetly, of course!

Pee makes great plant fertilizers.

Also, there's no flushing involved when the kid pees outdoors, saving the municipal and you money that would have gone to processing water to flush that toilet.

You don't have to clean the toilet as often. Bonus.

Parents save on disposable diapers or if they use cloth diapers, they won't have to wash so many. Meanwhile the public does not have to live with an avalanche of additional disposable diapers that would have choked the landfill even further.

It's win-win for everyone.

The next time a small kid pees outside and someone disapproves of it, tell them it's good for us and the environment, and tell them to lighten up. You know, granddad probably used to do it as a kid!

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

Soursop / Durian Belanda / Cherimoya

2009-06-06T01:35:00.001+08:00

Soursop fruit

My family moved a lot when I was young. Practically every two years in fact. No, we were not in the army, close enough. Dad was a government servant with the Land and Survey Department.

When I was about 4, we were posted to a small town called Sungai Petani (Farmer's River). Dad was given a huge old bungalow to live in. Right next to the house, there was a big Soursop tree. Our dog loved to sleep under that tree. We kids didn't really go out into the very large yard because there were lots of snakes out there (told you it was large, very large by today's standard).

It has a soft, creamy, almost custard like center

Anyways, mum said us kids hardly eat the fruit then. She can't remember why. But that's a pity, because it was really nice to eat.

Now that we are adults, we love Soursop. But I usually buy it from the Bandar Tun Razak Velodrome Stadium drink stall near my mum's house as they have done all the dirty work of peeling, removing the skin, and blending the fruit into a drink. And those guys sell it cheap there.

Soursop Smoothie

- To pick a ripe fruit, choose a fruit that is soft enough to yield to the slight pressure of one's thumb.
- Cut open the fruit and remove the hard, black seeds.
- place the soft flesh into a blender, add sugar to taste and ice

So simple. The other easy way to eat it, is to eat the pulp straight. No blending, nothing!

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps I went back to Sungai Petani to visit my old home when I was in my early twenties. The old house is gone now. That's such a pity because they don't built houses of those designs anymore. It's unique because it has a sheltered court yard at the back of the house. The huge Flame of the Forest rainforest trees are gone. So's the Soursop tree. They tore down everything and built two bungalows in it's compound instead. Land must have been pricey. No doubt, in the future, those two houses will go. The government may built an apartment complex in what is essentially government land.

pps one of the readers pointed out to me that it is possible to overdose on soursop. I agree. You know, just like everything, it's best to take things in moderation. Hubby once ate nothing but durian for a whole month with dire consequences.

Images taken from http://fruitspecies.blogspot.com/2007/09/soursop.html and http://srv.fotopages.com/2/15299192.jpg

How To Start On Vegetable Drinks

2009-06-06T01:06:00.000+08:00

It's really important to drink vegetable juices to keep the blood alkaline.

How to do this?

If you are not fussy about taste, the simplest way is to buy any greens from the organic shop and blend about 2-3 leaves in the blender with roughly 3 mugs of water. Sieve the leaves away and just drink the water. The water should be light and not strong tasting meaning, you should not be gagging at the sight of it! Sip this drink the entire day. Make this a habit. And if you get used to the taste, there are all sorts of yummy vegetables juices on the internet which you can try in your own home.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

My Fav Soursop Shop

2009-06-04T00:52:00.004+08:00

I regularly go to a small little drink stall at the Bandar Tun Razak Velodrome Stadium to get my Soursop fix. The lady there makes the smoothie thick, creamy, sweet and ice cold. Her shop is popular, so she makes large batches of it at one go. A very large cup (imagine 2 mugs of the smoothie) costs only RM2.50 (about USD0.70 sooo cheap). You won't find Soursop smoothies at this price anywhere else in the city. I've had them before in Thai restaurants, and it's priced at about RM7 (USD2) for a small glass of it.

I'm sorry the picture is not clear. I had to take it using my phone while carrying a heavy load of food from the highly popular food stall next door that sell Kelantanese food.

I've read somewhere that Soursop is good for breastfeeding mothers because it helps increase the flow of breast milk.

Also, it's anti parasite so it's good for you if you are active in outdoors sports, love gardening or you have pets. Let kids have regular soursop drinks as well. Kids do all sorts of things like play with sand, and then, eat stuff without washing their hands or pet dirty animals. You can bet they will get worms sometime or another.

Tomorrow, I'll show you how the fruit looks like and a very simple Soursop recipe.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

Coleslaw Bottle As A Drinking Bottle

2009-06-03T15:12:00.001+08:00

My mother-in-law now reuses a clean glass coleslaw bottle as her drinking bottle. She carries it in her handbag everywhere she goes. Though it's heavy, she knows its a lot safer to drink from the glass container than a plastic or aluminum bottle.

Good for her.

Click on the blue words to read about how one lady uses an old glass jam jar as her coffee mug.

HARD TIMES DOCTORS

2009-06-02T23:00:00.000+08:00

Times are bad, and some doctors are feeling the pinch and desperate; giving only 2 days worth of antibiotics so that you'll need to visit him again for more, so that you'll have to pay again for the subsequent visits. This is highly dangerous. What if the patient don't come back? The doctor without realizing it would have created a strain of virus resistant to the drug.

Also, watch out for doctors who insists you take medical tests that's totally not needed. If you have a gut feeling it's not needed, get a second opinion. If it's not life threatening the tests can wait a day or two.

If you come across doctors like these, it's time to change to a more ethical one.

Bad Doctor Advice?

2009-06-02T11:39:00.001+08:00

A doctor said to me just now. You shouldn't breastfeed past 6 months. After 6 months, your breast milk is only water. No protein, no fat, just water. You should stop breastfeeding now. It will prevent you from having problems like infection of the breast and so on. Anyways, I hope you are now feeding your child formula.

GRANDMA DIED OF LUNG CANCER

2009-06-01T11:50:00.006+08:00

31st May was Anti-Smoking day. It may not have a big significance to a lot of people, but it is for me.

You see, my maternal grandmother contracted lung cancer which spread and caused brain cancer all because of second hand smoke. At that time, plenty of people smoked, oblivious to the danger of smoking. Both my grand dads smoked, my mum smoked, my dad smoked. They smoked everywhere. In front of us, in front of grandma, in the pubs, smoking while shopping.

The journey from the time my grandma knew she was ill until the time of her death was a time of reflection and deep sorrow for all of us. By that time, my maternal grand dad died of kidney failure (another story for another day), so Ah Ma would ping pong from her son's house to my mum's house to be closer to all of us.

She was a generous being, and she would just give, give, give all the time. The only difference is that she was TOO generous when she was sick. One time, she gave me and my brother RM50 each, which at that time, I would bet was equivalent to a couple of hundred bucks today. My 8 year old brother promptly went off and blew his stash on nothing but vitagen (yogurt drinks) from a van that came by the school to promote yogurt. Our concept of money was pretty limited at that time.

I never remembered Ah Ma being very ill. But there was a frightening episode that happened when I was 9 that I would always remember. Grandma went into convulsion or fits, her body could not stop shaking, and her eyes just rolled backwards. I was having a nap with her that day, and you can't imagine how that felt like to a small kid. Luckily, we had a cleaning lady in the house, and she had the right mind to protect grandma with pillows and stuff, call the ambulance and my parents. I remembered crying as the ambulance personnel took my grandma away, pretty sure that was it, and that she was going to die.

Why do people still smoke?

Despite the fact that there is overwhealming evidence that smoking destroy lives, they don't stop. You can't blame the cigerrete companies for making you addicts. You can't blame anybody. The crux of the matter is to just STOP!

By the way, my dad and my mum did stop smoking. My mum said, dad had the hardest, hardest times quitting. But today, no tobacco touch their lips. And it's a good thing for everyone.

Just yesterday, my friend told me her dad died of lung cancer as well. But she could not understand why because he stopped so many years ago. There are many, many reasons. I do know that for many ex smokers the lung is like a vacuum dust bag. The bag is full of dirty stuff, and nobody has gotten rid of the junk inside.

There are treatments to clean the black lungs, but it's painful. Worth every penny let me tell you so that you will live the day to see your children happily grow up, get married and have children. There are other treatments, and the info is all inside google.

It's really important to drink vegetable juices to keep the blood alkaline. How to do this? If you are not fussy about taste, the simplest way is to buy any greens from the organic shop and blend about 2-3 leaves in the blender with roughly 3 mugs of water. Sieve the leaves away and just drink the water. The water should be light and not strong tasting meaning, you should not be gagging at the sight of it! Sip this drink the entire day. Make this a habit. And if you get used to the taste, there are all sorts of yummy vegetables juices on the internet which you can try in your own home.

Happy spring cleaning.

Jasmin

ps read about how Vigay-Indran tried to stop smoking http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2009/5/31/health/4010828&sec=health

Do You Have Too Much Iron In Your Body?

2009-05-29T00:21:00.002+08:00

I just read this very interesting book called the Survival of the Sickest by Dr Sharon Moalam. Apparently, there's this hereditary condition called hemochromatosis, which is a disorder that causes iron to built up in the body, so much so that it damages organs like the pancreas and the liver. Liver overload.

Women don't have it severe because they menstruate. Men can treat this problem though blood donations or in the ancient times, they blood let. Apparently, according to the book, more than 30% of European descendants have this genes. Most men are not aware of this problem, and they keep popping medicine to deal with their disease instead of getting to the root of the problem.

Thought it would be interesting to pass this info on. If you think you and your family have this iron overload, do get tested.

US wants to paint the world white to save energy

2009-05-28T00:14:00.003+08:00

LONDON(AFP) (AFP) – US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday the Obama administration wanted to paint roofs an energy-reflecting white, as he took part in a climate change symposium in London.

The Nobel laureate in physics called for a "new revolution" in energy generation to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But he warned there was no silver bullet for tackling climate change, and said a range of measures should be introduced, including painting flat roofs white.

Making roads and roofs a paler colour could have the equivalent effect of taking every car in the world off the road for 11 years, Chu said.

It was a geo-engineering scheme that was "completely benign" and would keep buildings cooler and reduce energy use from air conditioning, as well as reflecting sunlight back away from the Earth.

For people who found white hard on the eye, scientists had also developed "cool colours" which looked to the human eye like normal ones, but reflect heat like pale colours even if they are darker shades.

And painting cars in cool or light colours could deliver considerable savings on energy use for air conditioning units, he said.

Speaking at the start of a symposium on climate change hosted by the Prince of Wales and attended by more than 20 Nobel laureates, Chu said fresh thinking was required to cut the amount of carbon created by power generation.

He said: "The industrial revolution was a revolution in the use of energy. It offloaded from human and animal power into using fossil fuels.

"We have to go to a different new revolution that can severely decrease the amount of carbon emissions in the generation of energy."

Yahoo News Tue May 26, 3:45 pm ET

NOT SOUR STRAWBERRIES

2009-05-26T23:55:00.005+08:00

My son loves strawberries ever since he saw a Dora The Explorer cartoon. In that particular episode, Dora and her little monkey friend Boots went on an exciting adventure eating everything strawberries.

I myself don't really like strawberries. When I was in Pitt State, I bought a huge punnet of strawberries from Wal-Mart. It was cheap. And despite what my room mate said, it wasn't sweet. It was sour. But it was probably just the Asian little me who never really ate strawberries before this. I didn't want the strawberries I bought go to waste, so I actually blended the whole thing in a quart of milk with some sugar. I have to say, it does taste like those packaged strawberry milk we buy from the supermarket. But I still didn't like it.

Anyways, there's this guy who sells pretty cheap strawberries every Sunday at the flea market at The Curve. He says the strawberries come from cool hill station Cameron Highlands. And I continuously by them for Yang-Yang.

This week however, he refused to eat strawberries. I don't know why. Maybe because there's other yummy fruits in my kitchen. There's mangoes, mangoesteen, coconut, apples, pears. I could go on.

So what to do? I didn't want to throw it away, so I washed the little berries, and sprinkled some sugar on it. I left it on the countertop, and had forgotten about it. The starwberries had soaked up the sugar, and whoohooohooo, it tastes yummy.

I wish I did that years ago.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

USE TOOTH POWDER INSTEAD OF TOOTHPASTE

2009-05-25T14:23:00.008+08:00

Malaysian Colgate Kayu Sugi Toothpaste
Kayu Sugi is a type of twig from a specific tree that is traditionally used by
Muslims to clean their teeth

Recently, I have been reading about how Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is bad for our health. And that there's plenty of that chemical on our tubes of toothpaste.

Darn!

One of the things I love to do when I travel is buy toothpaste from different countries. You'd be surprised to know there are ALL kinds of toothpastes, from organic, or sublime, to herbal. Some people might find it a weird hobby. I used to collect fridge magnets, but I found it a chore to keep cleaning the dust from the magnets, and my kids keep grabbing them, and pulling them off the fridge, thereby getting them lost. This hobby is so much better. Every time I use a toothpaste from a different country, it kinda reminds me of the time I was there.

The various types of toothpastes I have in my bathroom

bottle, tubes, pump action, baking soda

Anyways, back to toothpaste. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, the chemical that causes cancer, is still used in many toothpastes because it creates a foaming action. And when a user sees foam, they think something is actually happening. However, researchers found out that no beneficial effects at all. In fact, they also think that this chemical may cause canker sore or mouth ulcers in some people.

In the old days, tooth cleaners did not contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Americans are fond of using baking soda to clean their tooth. But did you know, baking soda toothpastes are not so popular in most parts of the world. It's practically unheard of here in South East Asia. I saw my Arm and Hammer baking soda toothpaste in Cambodia, of all places, and I bought it even though it was sooo expensive because it reminded me of the time I lived in Kansas. Those who may want to try baking soda should get aluminium free baking soda. Just dip the toothpaste into the baking soda and then, brush away. It'll taste kinda salty, and slippery. But it does it's job well.

An Ayurveda tooth powder I got from an Indian store

A lot of Indians use Ayurveda tooth powder. I bought two different brands to try. I have to admit, those need a little bit of getting used to. It's, after all, ground up twigs, herbs and leaves. And it tastes exactly like ground up twigs, herbs and leaves. But my tooth feels, oh so clean, right after. And those tooth powders are cheap too. The average about USD$1.50 per bottle.

Ah, those pearly whites.

The Chinese have long believe that chewing on rough things will help clean teeth, and get rid of that dreaded Dragon Breath! When I was a kid, my mum would chop up this huge trunk of sugar cane in small bite sized pieces, and me and my brothers will sit on the floor watching tv chewing on the sugary sticks for hours on end. Ok, maybe not hours hours. Just long enough for us to sit still and watch cartoons before we got bored and run off to another adventure, out in the garden. It double duties as a thing to strengthen our gums as well and give us fresh breath.

What both the Indians and Chinese also believe in is tongue cleaners. Those are nifty, U shaped contraption you'll find at the dental section at the pharmacy. Brushing the tongue with a toothbrush does not do the trick. In fact, I have gagged a few times when I accidentally pushed the toothbrush it too far!!!!

There's an interesting article about how the traditional Chinese medicine sees the relation between the health of your mouth and kidneys. I thought it was interesting, so to read about it, go to http://www.china.org.cn/health/2009-03/10/content_17412694.htm

Lastly, did you know that you can transmit germs by sharing toothpaste as well. This is one of the reasons why, families despite being careful, like not sharing toothbrush, washing hands and so on, keep reinfecting each other. To read about it, click here http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2009/01/ridiculously-easy-way-to-prevent-germs.html, or click on the photo.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

A Day In My Life

2009-05-22T00:55:00.006+08:00

Bought tons of raw stuff the Tesco supermarket today. Lots of apples and pears (cheap), watermelon, onions, fresh chinese mushrooms, cabbages, a huge bag of cucumbers. Later, hubby bought grapes from Jusco Desa ParkCity right after his evening walk with 3 year old Yang-Yang because the small one wants to eat it NOW! He's really a cute little guy.

Meanwhile, my dad just could not stop laughing at me because I accidentally wrapped the Jambu Air flowers that looked like the budding fruit with newspaper! What I was trying to do was wrap the fruits so that the little critters won't get to eat before it even had a chance to ripen on the tree.

Dear God! I'm having a losing battle with the 2 resident squirrels. That and them wily birds. They keep chomping on my organic Jambu Air fruits and organic grapes.

Jasmin

Jicama / Yam Bean / Seng Kuang. All the same yummy thing!

2009-05-20T23:18:00.004+08:00

Jicama / Yam Bean / Seng Kuang

Here's a picture of one of my favorite root vegetable, which we, here in Malaysia, call Seng Kuang. My mum was going to cook one of my all time childhood favorite dishes called Joo Hoo Char. But before she could cook it, I swiped some of the raw shredded root vege to, what else, eat it raw. Normally, I'd just cut chunks of Jicama, put it into the fridge to cool, and eat it cold with some sugar, soy sauce, fresh and raw finely cut chili mixture.

Here's the picture of the more "advanced" version of the sauce which by the way, though not raw, is extremely yummy.

Sweet, savoury fruit and vegetable dipping sauce

1 finely chopped chili (remove seed if you don't want it too spicy)
1 teaspoon of fine grade soy sauce (meaning, use the better quality, first pressed soy sauce)
1/4 onion, sliced thinly and fried in oil until it is caramelized
3 tablespoon raw sugar
1 teaspoon pounded dried shrimp (fry in the pan without any oil until fragrant and pound the shrimp with a pestle and mortar or if you don't have dried shrimp, add a dash of fish oil)

Mix it all together, and let the mixture sit for about an hour for the mixture to meld.

The Jicama is full of water, so the Chinese believe it is an excellent vegetable to eat during hot summer months as it will help to cool the body down. The Jicama is crunchy, like an apple so it's great to eat it to exercise the gums. I let my 3 year old chew on this while he watches his cartoons to exercise his gums and clean his teeth as well.

The Jicama has no distinct fragrance. It is sweet and mild tasting. Perfect for people who don't feel well, but need to eat something to keep their strength up. In fact, Yang-Yang, my 3 year old confuses it with apples. And just like an apple, it is high in dietary fiber and Vitamin C. By the way, it is also high in potassium. Potassium is great for people who want to reduce their blood pressure. If you know anyone who has high blood pressure, ask them to eat a slice a day as one of the enjoyable ways to keep the blood pressure in check.

It's been really hot for more than month now in Malaysia and Singapore, so, this is a great food to eat raw now.

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Tips to reduce blood pressure

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Mulukkhiya The King Of Vegetables

2009-05-20T00:24:00.005+08:00

Mulukkhiya (A Favorite Egyptian Vegetable)

I just bought a HUGE bag of organic Mulukkhiya from the Just Life organic shop. I could not believe how cheap they were. Only RM2 (about USD0.60). I've never ate this vege before, so why not try it. The lady at the store suggested I add them into an omelet or add into a vege soup, but I decided to just eat it raw with my rice and curry, like an ulam. For those of you who are not Malaysians, ulam is just a side dish of raw vege that is normally served with rice and curry.

This vege did not have a bitter taste, kinda sweet for a vege and does not have any distinct fragrance. It will go well in a salad as well, I'm pretty sure. However, blending it with water to make a vege juice was just such a disaster. The whole thing came out like a goo, because, it had an amazingly curative but slimy property called Muchin. Muchin helps strengthen veins, lubricates and repairs injured mucus membranes. I hope some Egyptians reading my posts won't get a heart attack finding out how I'm eating their favorite vegetable. It's totally radical from how they eat it. It's just like when I read about how some people put Goji Berries into their smoothies or into a pie. My grandma would have turned in her grave. To her, Goji Berries or Kei Chi should only be used in soups or some medicinal dish.

The name Mulukhiya is derived mainly from the arabic word muluki which means royal. And what a right royal plant it is. The Japanese researches found out that this vegetable chock full of vitamin A, B1, B2, C, K, E, calcium, iron, potassium, protein, beta carotene and zinc. Some people have even started calling it the king of vegetables.

Check out your local organic store today to see if they stock this awesome summer vege.

Jasmin
Come join "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

THANK GOD FOR JUICE BARS!

2009-05-17T22:50:00.006+08:00

My cup of guava juice on the left
and hubby's cup of star fruit juice
(also called Carambola) on the right

Weekends can be such a drag because I don't have the time to prepare fresh raw food or make raw food for my family.

Juicing the Star Fruit at the Mid Valley food court

Don't get me wrong. I'm not 100% raw, in case your wondering. My family and I are about, hmmm, 70% raw. You see, I'm Chinese, and I thoroughly believe in the healing powers of Chinese food, like the Chinese herbal soups and stuff like that. As I look at it, it has taken the Chinese a couple of thousands of years to document the effectiveness of the food they have access to. And there are documents and documents of why they are god, when they are good, how they are good, ways to consume them and so on.

All sorts of cut fruits for sale

Anyways, I digress.

So, today (Sunday) was like just one of those days when we had to stay out of the house for almost the entire day. Good thing there's juice bars everywhere in KL (we call Kuala Lumpur, my city KL). I counted at least 4 juice bars in Mid Valley Megamall and at The Gardens (building next to it). Lots of restaurants offer fresh raw fruit juice and smoothies as well.

Aren't I lucky?

Jasmin
Come join "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps read below about the health and nutritional benefits of both Guava and Star Fruit. You'd be surprised that kidney patients can not eat Star Fruit. Some of you Malaysian and Singaporean readers may remember a story in the news in April 2008 about this Malaysian man who died in China after consuming Star Fruit. At that time, I though maybe it was because there were too much pesticides in the fruit or something. But no. Apparently, Star Fruits have a neurotoxin that can not be filtered out by people who have kidney disease. Read more about it here http://www.petertan.com/blog/2008/04/22/star-fruit-can-be-toxic-for-kidney-patients-the-star-april-22-2008/

Health & Nutrition Benefits of Eating Guava

Guava is a very good source of vitamins, fibers as well as minerals.
Being rich in Vitamin C; guava is effective in treating male infertility caused by sperm clumping, adhesion and other abnormalities.
Guava has been associated with healing of wounds, when applied externally.
Guava has general haemostatic properties and can be used for treating bleeding nose, gums and minor internal hemorrhaging.
Guava helps cure dysentery, by inhibiting microbial growth and removing extra mucus from the intestines.
Guava helps the body in combating free radicals produced during metabolism and aids in preventing age-related chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, cataract and rheumatoid arthritis.
Guava is one of the richest sources of dietary fiber and thus, is good for those suffering from constipation.
Guava strengthens and tones up the digestive system and even disinfects the same.
Guava, having high content of roughage, no cholesterol & less digestible carbohydrates, is good for those trying to lose weight.
Guavas can improve the texture of skin and help avoid skin problems. For the purpose, you can either eat it raw or make wash your skin with a decoction of its immature fruits and leaves.
Juice of raw and immature guavas or decoction of guava-leaves is known to bring relief in cough and cold.
Researches have shown that guava is pretty effective in preventing cancer and even heart diseases in people.
The presence of complex carbohydrates and dietary fibers in guava makes it effective in lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
The presence of Vitamin C and other phytonutrients, such as caretenoids, isoffavonoids and polyphenols, in guava has led to it being an effective antioxidant.

Guava has been found to be beneficial for people suffering from the following ailments:

Acidosis
Asthma
Bacterial Infections
Catarrh
Congestion of the Lungs
Convulsions
Epilepsy
High Blood Pressure
Obesity
Oral Ulcers
Poor Circulation
Prolonged Menstruation
Scurvy
Swollen Gums
Toothache

Extracted from http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/benefits-of-guava-1612.html

Health and nutritional benefits of eating Star Fruit:

Besides the known benefits of its vitamin and mineral composition such as skin health, nerve functions, healthy bones, digestion, blood oxygenation, cancer prevention, star fruits are also known to effective in hormone regulation, specifically in the thyroid gland as well as helping to regulate appetite and sleeping, making it becoming a growing member in the diets of families with small children. It is also a popular home remedy in treating fevers, headaches, and even curing hangovers.

Its "sweet and sour" flavor make it a tasty choice for natural juice enthusiasts, which surprisingly enough, can also be used to remove iron and paint stains, and also acts as an effective solution for cleaning metals. The star fruit's skin is rich in tannin, which regulates the intestine, and can be used to treat diarrhea and dysentery. The leaves and roots, if ground up in a mortar and pestle, boiled, and then extracted, can be used help alleviate symptoms of childhood diseases such as measles and chickenpox.

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Tips to reduce blood pressure

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Extracted from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1496109/health_benefits_of_star_fruit.html

BEASTFEEDING IS A GREAT DIET PROGRAM!

2009-05-16T23:52:00.003+08:00

I had just finish replying a question about eating in one of the parent forums when I realized, hey, I. EAT. A. LOT!

Dinner was 2 plates of rice with vege and meat. Not to mention 1 biggg bowl of Chinese herbal watercress carrot pork soup. Plus raw coconut water. And I also ate up DS1's leftover rice, because he was full, and didn't want to eat anymore. Can't let that go to waste now can we?

And I just had 2 large cheese sandwiches topped with 1 large raw avocado at 10.54pm because I was HUNGRY! And I also had 3 large glasses of plain water.

While I was at it, I was debating if I should move my butt and make myself a tall glass of raw pegaga vege juice sweeten with some raw honey.

I'm now 42kg, down from pre pregnant 48kg weight. When I was a teen, my weight was 60kg! 15 month Ds2's still breastfeeding voraciously, and that, my friend, is better than any weight loss program you can find in the market.

During my first pregnancy, I had warned hubby I'd probably use up his retirement fund to pay for some chi-chi weight loss program. I bet he felt grateful when that didn't materialize.

Jasmin Who's Eating Up A Storm Now Because She Can't Do So When She Stops Breastfeeding!
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Today’s Tip: Drink tap water instead of unhealthy soft drinks and sports drinks.

2009-05-14T21:55:00.003+08:00

Give your body and your wallet a rest and make it a point to drink only plain water today.

Skip all the drinks that have artificial flavorings, like soda and anything that has sugar in it, like coffee with sugar.

By doing this simple act of flushing your body with clean water, you will immediately reduce your carbon footprint because there's less plastic bottles to use and make, less sugar means less water, less electricity to produce this white gold and so on.

Your body deserves needs a break from processing all sorts of chemicals as well.

Jasmin
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ps Try not to buy bottles of water or use paper or plastic cups at the office. Instead, try to use a reusable water bottle and carry fresh, clean water from a known source (like your kitchen). For every one less disposable you don't use, there's one less disposable item that goes into the garbage dump.

Jason Mraz's Travel Tip #3: Bring a Big Fucking Knife

2009-05-14T00:50:00.005+08:00

Time zone hopping and the hyper robotic routine of touring require energy levels to be consistent and my schedule isn’t one that affords me any sick days. So I travel with a chopping knife and a cutting board. Rather than rely on room service and overpriced restaurant versions of vegetarian cuisine, I shop at local grocers and eat my own delicious homemade meals. The knife, a classic single layer stainless steel, in addition to raising concerns with airport security, is also good for shocking housekeeping staff. My DO NOT DISTURB sign is in constant use during any hotel stay, yet all maids seem to have this incredible urge to assist and clean. Thus, opening the door in bikini briefs gripping a 10-inch blade makes my point. I can make my own bed.

I also bring along a Vita-Mix blender, a powerhouse of a tool. I start each day with a crazy ass Superfood Smoothie that most people refer to as, the Green Sludge. It contains a lot of what you see in this mini-bar.

Super Greens, Hemp Protein, Goji Juice, Coconut Water, Flax Seed Oil, My own homemade cashew milk, Raw Cacao, Bee pollen, sometimes a banana, a little crushed ice, toad knuckles, agave nectar, Stevia, and/or Natural Vaginal Juices to sweeten to your liking.

All this stuff is checked at the airport in what I like to call my “Movable Feast,” a handy box that puts the kit in kitchen. I update the staples when I need to, about every two weeks. But the salad fixins are refreshed daily.

If it seems costly it’s not. I think about the cost my body pays for eating processed food and immediately I’m happy about the investment of time finding these natural alternatives. ALTERNATIVES? How did we let nature’s supply take a back seat and become so hard to reach?

You are what you eat. And since April 1st, this has been an experiment worthy of the effort. My trusty sidekick, Toca Rivera, has also been eating this way, relying only on raw and natural foods. We started this diet when Toca discovered he was Diabetic. But now, thanks to eating REAL food, his numbers are closer to normal and soon his blood tests will not reveal any sign of Diabetes.

Excerpt from Jason Mraz's blog
http://freshnessfactorfivethousand.blogspot.com

Jasmin says "Hmmmm, makes me wonder what he wore .... errr ... ate I mean, when he was touring in Kuala Lumpur on 4th March 2009?

Jasmin
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WATERMELON FROST CURES ETHAN'S MOUTH ULCER

2009-05-12T07:31:00.004+08:00

Watermelon Frost Mouth Ulcer Medicine

About two weeks ago, Baby Ethan had a nasty mouth ulcer, just below his tongue. At first, I had no clue as to why he was refusing food, but then someone pointed out he had this big white ulcer in his mouth! Duh! Really, there's nothing worse than a clueless mum!!!! *roll eyes*

The old standby mouth ulcer medicine in my fridge
Bonjela and Oral Aid

Anyways, I took him to his pediatrician and she gave him a bottle of Oral Aid to use. I like Oral Aid. I'd have to just squeeze a drop into the struggling kid's mouth to numb the mouth and presto, all done. However, after 3 days, the ulcer got worse. This time, I was really worried as he had not been eating. Keep it up kid, and you'll have to check into the kiddy ward for dehydration. I called the good doctor up, and this time, she asked me to switch to Kenalog. Most people in Malaysia, Australia and Singapore would be familiar with it. I wanted to snap a photo of the tube of Kenalog, but my 3 year old decided to flush it down the toilet before I could get to it. Apparently, it's hard to find in USA because the drug in itself is an immunosuppressant. It belongs to the category of drugs not as corticosteroids. These drugs suppress reactions by the immune system. I like Kenalog as well. I've used it before. It's like a wet sandy paste that covers the ulcer, so when I eat anything, I don't feel any major discomfort. I also have Bonjela in my fridge. Actually, the Bonjela tube you see in the picture belongs to my 31 year old baby brother. It tastes nasty as far as I'm concerned. And it kinda stings a bit before it numbs the ulcer temporarily.

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Note

We have moved to www.BuddingPlanet.com. Come visit us there!

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I knew anything in a tube that has to be squeezed out to put into Ethan's mouth would be a struggle, because as far as he's concerned, he's not eating anything that tastes bad. Besides, he's bitten my finger before and it's like a Piranha comping on it's prey. I really don't want to go there if I can help it. So, I started searching for a simpler alternative. Something that was herbal, something I could get easily at the drug store. My answer? Watermelon Frost! (see the first picture right at the top of the article)

It fits my criteria. It's herbal. It's a squeeze bottle, which delivers a puff of med into the kid's mouth without having my finger bitten off in the process, and it's cheap. It's only RM3.50 (only USD$1, can you believe it?) Perfect!

I squeezed the bottle of Watermelon Frost meds 3 times that day (after his meals, or lack of it) into Ethan's ulcer, and by the the next morning Ethan was eating and drinking like the ulcer never existed! Great stuff.

I was so excited, I could not wait to show this amazing medicine to my sister-in-law, who, get this, said she knew about it all along! Heck, my mother-in-law uses it too! Another duh! It goes to show how little I know about Chinese herbal medicine.

By the way, there's a doctor in Australia who wrote about this med, and his write up was the reason I decided to give this med a try. http://docfiles.blogspot.com/2005/12/oral-ulcers-winter-melon-frost.html

If you haven't tried it, and can get it near where you live, go out and try it. It may just be the thing for you.

Jasmin
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INTERESTING WAY TO EXPLAIN A HEALTHY IMMUNE SYSTEM

2009-05-11T21:24:00.003+08:00

One way to look at this is to imagine a jar filled with water. If you add a single grain of salt, you can still drink the water, it is healthy. But if you keep adding salt at some point the water is salt water and it is not healthy for you. Your job [if you choose to accept it] is to keep refreshing the best fresh water you can into your "jar" so that the grains of salt are never numerous enough to make salt water.

Your immune system is like that jar, it is either filled with good guys or bad guys. Which ever is in the majority determines your state of health. Basically the more good guys you have in your immune system the less room there is for bad guys. The good guys keep the bad guys in check.

It is not necessary to kill all the bad guys with drugs that over power the body. It is only necessary to have more good guys than bad guys to keep them in check.

By Reverend Alan (talking about eating good bacteria ie probiotics, yogurts and stuff)

CATS LOVE LEMONGRASS, DOGS HATE IT!

2009-05-10T21:52:00.008+08:00

And Health Benefits of Lemon Grass

Studies have shown that the lemon grass has antibacterial and anti fungal properties. Mixed with pepper, it's a home therapy for menstrual troubles and nausea. Drank as tea, it is an effective diuretic. When it comes to pets, citronella is used to neutralize excessive barking of dogs. Since dogs hate citronella, it is sprayed to dogs to prevent them from barking or just to lessen the behavior.

The Lemon grass is a good cleanser that helps to detoxify the Liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder and the digestive tract. It cuts down uric acid, cholesterol, excess fats and other toxins in the body while stimulating digestion, blood circulation, and lactation; it also alleviates indigestion and gastroenteritis. It is said that lemongrass also helps improve the skin by reducing acne and pimples and acts as a muscle and tissue toner. Also, it can reduce blood pressure. Just make a concoction by boiling some lemon grass leaves, let it cool for a while and drink the liquid.

About the author: Manolito Montala is a webmaster and one of his interests is collecting local medicinal plants information which can be found in Filipino Herbs Healing Wonders.

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Jasmin Says:

Occasionally, I just take 1 organic lemongrass stalk which grows like wild in my yard. Blend it with 1-2 cups water, keep that in the fridge. It can keep up to 2 days in the fridge. Then, I just add a little bit of the blended juice to whatever drink my family is having (usually just plain water) to increase their intake of good phytochemicals, antioxidants and vitamins.

It really taste refreshing with some sweetener like raw sugar cane or honey and some ice on a hot day, like the heatwave I've been experiencing for the past one month.

But really, I mainly just drink it plain.

The trick to drinking it plain is to be able to barely taste the lemongrass in your drinking water. If you start to gag drinking it, then, you've really added in too much!

Try it today.

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Tips to reduce blood pressure

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Image taken from http://lemongrassworld.com/media/images/lemongrass.jpg

Mother's Day Tribute

2009-05-09T20:57:00.002+08:00

Here's a lovely music video that talks about a love of a wife and mother that has since passed.

Though it's a rather old video, I love it. It's really touching. I get tears in my eyes every time I see it. You see, every time, I see this video, I think of my grandma (my mum's side). She was a really lovely lady, and when she passed away, it felt like something died in all of us that day.

Jasmin
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RECYCLING JAM JARS AS MUGS

2009-05-08T21:39:00.003+08:00

I was just reading about this lady who used her old, unused jam jars (like peanut butter jelly jars or my old standby marmalade jam jars) as her coffee mug.

I though it was an excellent idea. If I were to leave any sweet drinks on the counter, ants would swarm around in an instant. So, if I were to use a jam jar as my mug, I could just shut the lid tight when I'm not drinking, and those nasty bugs can't get to it. It'll be great for the office too. By the way, I could juice some vegetable or fruit juice, fill it up to the brim (to prevent oxidation), put the lid on, and carry the drink with me cause it's spill proof if I put it in my handbag. Perfect!

Break one, and there will be another jar to replace. I'd save money cause I don't have to by a mug. I could also use the jar to keep cookies, safety pins, and stuff when I don't need a drink.

I'm too cheap, so when my kids go to college, I'm make them use jam jars as mugs in their dorm rooms. Heck, jam jars are multipurpose so they will have plenty of ways to use them. They are smart kids. They will figure it out.

Currently, I use recycled glass jam jars to store baby food in the fridge or on the go. I can't bear to use plastic for my baby. I get the jeebies thinking about how plastic will leech into foodstuff.

So, yeah, I'm putting on my thinking cap to come out with more ways to use this versatile product.

I just love the recycling!

Jasmin
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GMO Food Making Us Sick?

2009-05-06T00:10:00.001+08:00

Excerpt from "Fruit and Vegetable Allergies Soaring" article by Dr Joseph Mercola

One thing we do know is that between 1994 and 2001 -- the same time that GMO’s flooded the market – food related illnesses DOUBLED.

GMO foods can be:

• Allergenic
• Toxic
• Carcinogenic
• Anti-nutritional

GMO’s may also create brand new diseases that we’ve never seen before, in addition to spurring on the disease rate of some we already have, such as cancer.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/02/Fruit-and-Vegetable-Allergies-Soaring.aspx

BUY RAW FOOD AND REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

2009-05-05T20:03:00.000+08:00

Highly-processed foods require a lot of energy and resources to produce. They’re also extremely wasteful in terms of nutrients. White processed sugar, for example, is missing as much as 98% of the original nutrients found in unprocessed cane juice. Taking those nutrients out required a tremendous amount of wasted energy, and that’s why white sugar has a much larger carbon footprint than evaporated cane juice.

The same is true of breads, cereals, canned soups and other processed foods. Anything that isn’t fresh requires energy for processing and cooking. Anything that’s pasteurized, for example, has a much larger carbon footprint than the same foods RAW. That’s because pasteurization requires the foods or beverages to be heated, burning up fossil fuel energy.

RAW living plants, in this way, are the most ecologically-sensitive foods you can buy, grow or consume. (They’re also the healthiest, but that’s a different article…)

Taken from the article You Are Not Green Unless Your Food Is Green
http://anilnetto.com/agrobusinessgm-food/you-are-not-green-unless-your-food-is-green/

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET CHICKEN POX EVEN IF YOU WERE VACCINATED? (Part 2)

2009-05-05T15:39:00.003+08:00

Singapore former Prime Minister Goh, 67, is down with chicken pox.

Hubby recovering from it.

Preschool called. Says, my 3 year old son, who had the vaccine is now down with chicken pox. Apparently, he caught it from another kid in school. Go figure!

I'm not worried about contagious flu (H1N1 Flu or previously known as Swine Flu)!

I think it's pox season! See my article, written last year on how to deal with it!

http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/10/did-you-know-you-can-get-chicken-pox.html

Jasmin
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No butts: China orders officials to smoke

2009-05-04T21:46:00.003+08:00

Men smoke along a street in Beijing in February. Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported.(AFP/File/Liu Jin)

By AFP - Sun May 3, 11:06 PM PDT

BEIJING (AFP) - Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported.

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.

More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others, state media reported recently.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/afp/healthchinatobaccooffbeat_20090504060729.html

SWINE FLU AND NIPAH VIRUS

2009-04-28T17:03:00.009+08:00

My heart goes out to the families who are affected by the Swine Flu.

Malaysia had a horrific period when roughly 115 people, fathers, mothers, children died, all within a very short period of time in the pig farming industry. It was terrible and so heartbreaking. Interestingly, before this incident, Malaysia, despite being a Muslim country (where a majority of people eat halal food, meaning do not eat pork) was the biggest exporter of pork in South East Asia.

Jasmin
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The Nipah Story: Pigs Can’t Fly

10 Years After The Nipah Disaster'98
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/14068?tid=52

2008-07-19 22:26

Tambun is legendary for its pomelos, which require two full hands to hold one of these giant grapefruits. Many of the pomelo smallholdings are near pig farms in the hamlet situated just outside Ipoh, the capital city of state of Perak in northern Peninsular Malaysia.

Like many Chinese there, Lee Koai Tow, worked as a pomelo farmer. Since pig waste was plentiful there, she used them to as fertilizers for the fruit trees. In September 1998, pigs in the area began to die in large numbers. The following month, Lee died too and her husband did not know why. Two days later on October 31, duck breeder Lai Mei, also died of a strange illness.

By year-end, ten workers from the pig-farming areas of Tambun, Ulu Piah and Ampang around Ipoh had died from a mysterious disease after being in coma for periods ranging from four days to a few weeks. The government identified the disease as Japanese Encephalitis or commonly known as JE. It said if no new cases were found by the following month, the government would declare that the JE outbreak had been contained.

However, less than two months later one day after Christmas, a pig farmer came down with suspected JE in Sikamat village, 270 km down south in the state of Negri Sembilan. By the first week into the new year, pigs in nearby Seremban, the state capital, began dying. Three people in the pig industry there died suddenly.

Toward the Chinese New Year in mid-March of 1999, a pig breeder of Sungai Nipah just south of Seremban, suddenly died triggering a panic. Half the population of the village fled elsewhere for fear of the killer disease. It spread like a raging wildfire out of control causing pig farmers and villagers to abandon their farms and homes in panic. By March, in nearby Bukit Pelanduk, the biggest pig farming community in Southeast Asia, had become a ghost town due to the hurried exodus.

The government then up-scaled the epidemic to a national crisis and a Cabinet-level task force was formed headed by the then Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. What happened in between was confusing. The government insisted that it was right in tagging the disease as the mosquito-borne JE while both the farmers and scientists suspected that an unknown killer has yet to be unmasked.

The outbreak was so lethal that every other suspected victim admitted into hospitals went home in their coffins. The virus had spread all over the surrounding areas to Kampung Sawah, Kampung India and Sepang, a stone’s throw from the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Stricken with fear, the farmers consulted temple mediums. They instructed the farmers to put up red banners on their door frames and fly red flags in their villages to ward off the angel of death.

After months of treating the outbreak as JE, the government decided in desperation to call in the Department of Medical Microbiology of University of Malaya’s Medical Faculty to help. Within five days the virus was isolated by Dr Chua Kaw Bing. Twelve days later it was identified as a new Hendra-like virus and tagged as the Nipah virus with the help of foreign scientists. The government then changed its strategy to combat the outbreak but still insisted that it was also partly due to JE.

At last count, the outbreak killed at least 115 people out of 265 infected cases. Over one million pigs, or half the country’s pig population, were culled. Some 36,000 had suffered the loss of employment due to the massive destruction of farms. Tens of thousands more were indirectly affected. In all, close to RM500 million of pig production was lost according to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates. Overnight, Malaysia had become a net importer of pork whereas previously it was the key supplier of the meat in the region.

The farmers and their families had since returned to Bukit Pelanduk and the other affected townships. And to uncertain days. The authorities had since banned pig farming there. The young had drifted elsewhere in search of jobs. Only the old remained to live out their days.

The farmers appealed for compensation but the government was only not willing to compensate but would give them assistance at RM50 per pig destroyed when the market price was several times that. About 500 farmers decided to sue the government in 2002 but the cases are still stuck in the courts after six years.

Meanwhile, back in Bukit Pelanduk some old farmers were sipping their Chinese tea at a local coffee stall one hot and humid morning. Asked for their comments on the court case, one just stared back and retorted: “How long more?” Another gave a disgusted look and picked up his teacup for another sip of ti koon yam.

“What are you all going to do?” The old man put down his teacup, eyeballed his inquirer and pounded his chest with his right fist:“Waiting to die lah!” The rest of the old men all laughed animatedly.

It may seem like a cruel joke on themselves but their tears have dried up so long ago perhaps they needed that comic relief however false it may be to cleanse the despair inside them. These former farmers knew pigs can’t fly. They were all dead and buried now. Soon it would be their turn. (By BOB TEOH/ MySinchew)

MySinchew 2008.07.19

LOCAL COUNCIL IS HAZARDOUS TO OUR HEALTH

2009-04-28T15:53:00.003+08:00

Just this week alone, on two separate occasions, I saw a Kuala Lumpur City Council worker (DBKL worker) spraying weedkiller on the pavement and at the side of the road.

WEEDKILLER!

Here we are trying to do our part to save the world, while these guys are spraying toxic chemicals into our environment, chocking Mother Earth to death.

Truly, I'm not blaming the very guy, who, by the way, is spraying the weedkiller without a protective gear whatsoever. The guy's just doing his job, trying to earn some decent money, while taking orders from superiors who don't care!

I'm quite alarmed, if you haven't figured this by now! You see, by taking short cuts and using cheap weedkillers, in essence, the local council is poisoning us; children, adults, older folks, animals, plants, rivers, the sea ...... Ultimately, their actions not only affect those who live in Kuala Lumpur, it affects Mother Earth. Period.

Thanks to Google, there's lots of information on how to control weeds in the city without resorting to poison. These City Council officers really need to start looking up on information on their computers because we are paying these guys to protect us.

Many councils have a website so if you have something you need to highlight to the folks at the council, you can do so online.

The Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) complain page is http://bhea.dbkl.gov.my/eaduan.cfm
The Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ) complain page is http://eps.mbpj.gov.my/index.aspx.

But anyways, everyone has a pet peeve with their local council ... in London, in Perth, in Wichita ..... If you have something to say, do inform them. If you are in the know, why, go directly to the council president, if you can, or talk to your local representative!

Jasmin
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APPRECIATING YOUR LOVED ONE!

2009-04-20T23:31:00.007+08:00

This is a very lovely video commissioned by the Singapore Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports "MCYS". Directed by the critically acclaimed and award winning Malaysian film director, Yasmin Ahmad.

The video talks about we need to appreciate our loved ones before something happens to them. Tears sprang in my eyes when I watched this video. It's so lovely and so true. We all have arguments with our spouses sometime or other. In fact, just a few hours ago, my husband and I had an argument in our car over our kids' chesty cough (childhood illnesses like a chesty cough is contagious, infecting everyone, you see). And while we were arguing, Baby started to cough and cough, so much so, he started to puke his dinner all over his car seat. Yikes!

Silly arguments have a way of manifesting over and over in the same manner. Ever had the same problem with your loved ones? Husband, wife, maybe mum or dad or brother and sister? Terrible isn't it? Unconstructive arguments are never a win-win thing. It's lose-lose for all parties.

My girlfriend, over lunch told me her German husband and wife bosses has a relationship expert named Tessie to come over to the office once a week to educate and guide the couple on how to better cope with their relationship, cope with the stress of work and so on. We thought it was a really refreshing idea. Most people are too shy to do this, or too embarrassed to accept help from an expert to make them a better person. Why? And what is wrong in trying to improve oneself right?

Once you have seen this sad but wonderful video, please see this heartwarming young kids love story. It's sure to put a smile on your face. It's also directed by the wonderful Ms Yasmin Ahmad, and it was for the Malaysian Independence Day, about how people of different races can get along. I've seen this video multiple times and it's still cute every time I see it.

Old tyres are put to good use in a building constructed with energy-saving features.

2009-04-18T23:24:00.003+08:00

Thousands of used tyres are being used to form the foundation
of new shopping complex Space U8 in Shah Alam.
This revolutionary construction technique creates a heat sink
that will help cool the interior of the building naturally

Tuesday April 7, 2009
Foundation of tyres
By MICHAEL CHEANG
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/4/7/lifefocus/3626139&sec=lifefocus

Old tyres are put to good use in a building constructed with energy-saving features.

BUILDINGS are the world’s biggest energy guzzler, using more than two thirds of the power produced and contributing to 40% of global carbon footprint, from the construction and maintainance of the building itself.

With those facts in mind, local developer Mainstay Development Sdn Bhd decided to make its new Shop Unit Mall Office development complex in Shah Alam as environmentally friendly as possible. One of the measures taken towards that goal is an unusual one – incorporating almost 220,000 used rubber tyres into the foundation of the building.

Called Space U8 to denote the spaciousness of the building, the complex will be the first ever commercial building to utilise the revolutionary Smart and Cool Homes technology invented and patented by Lincoln Lee. The system uses tyres to create a heat sink that drains the heat from walls built with autoclaved aerated concrete bricks, thus making the building interior cooler and minimising air-conditioning needs.

Located in Bukit Jelutong, the complex spans 3.2ha and consists of 58 units of four-storey shops and offices as well as two basement floors. A large 6,300sqm courtyard in the middle of the complex is the jewel of the building’s crown and the main beneficiary of the Smart and Cool Homes technology.

“The courtyard is the centrepiece of the building and we plan to use it for activities and as a community area. We want to use as little energy as possible to cool it,” said Raja Mohd Azmi Raja Razali, executive chairman of Mainstay Development.

“With this system, the temperature can be lowered by 2°C to 3°C. So there might not be a need for air-conditioning. It won’t be cold but it will be cool and comfortable, with proper wind flow taken into account.”

Lee said the technology saved money that would otherwise be spent on cooling the building. “The biggest bill a building management has to pay every month is usually the one for air-conditioning. But here, they can save 50% to 60% of the electricity used for cooling.”

Besides utilising the Smart and Cool Homes system, the Space U8 building will also incorporate a solar photovoltaic system (around 138 kilowatt peak) on the roof of the courtyard to generate electricity. “The idea is to use solar energy to power common areas as much as we can. Anything extra will be passed to the grid,” said Raja Azmi. “We are also considering the use of solar thermal air-conditioning to reduce the reliance on electricity from the grid to power the air-conditioning.”

To top it all off, the roof of the courtyard is specially designed to receive lots of natural light and provide for optimum temperature and insulation control.

Green space

When Mainstay Development began designing the building, the thought of making it green was already in the plan, though not in a major way.

“We were already looking at energy-saving solutions like energy-efficient light bulbs, energy-saving devices for our car parks that will save about 45% of our energy usage and so on,” said group chief executive officer Ang Teck Seong. Ang then caught wind of Lee’s unique construction method and decided to check it out.

Lee, the 47-year-old executive director of property developer Value Yield, has been building energy-efficient homes with cool interiors that do not require air-conditioning for over 11 years. After paying Lee a visit at his home in Semenyih (which was also built with his technology), Raja Azmi and Ang made the groundbreaking decision of adopting Lee’s technology for their shopping complex.

While the Smart and Cool Homes system has proven to work in residential homes, it is now put to the test on a commercial building for the first time.

“We had to change the entire perception of how to build a building and the engineers were not happy about it,” said Ang with a laugh. “But we know that Lincoln has done this successfully for houses, and we convinced the engineers that it is a workable system.”

When completed, the building will be the largest man-made heat sink created with used tyres in the world – with an estimated 220,000 tyres used in the building foundation, a number that will rise to half a million eventually.

The bigger picture

“We’re definitely taking a risk because it has not been done before and might have some technical issues. It is also going to cost more because of the tyres, solar panels and so on,” said Raja Azmi. “But we agreed that this is something good and worth doing, and we are willing to make sacrifices from a financial and time standpoint to accommodate this.”

To illustrate how much the company has sacrificed, he gave an example – the building foundation was already in an advanced stage of development when Lee came onboard.

“We slowed down construction to incorporate the tyres into the structure. That was quite inconvenient for us,” said Raja Azmi.

Lee estimated that if he had been involved in the project from the start, they would have saved at least RM10mil. Instead, they now will incur an additional RM4mil to RM5mil just to accommodate the tyres in the building foundation.

“Most businessmen won’t do something like this! Maybe as first-time developers, we’re naïve enough to take that plunge,” said Raja Azmi with a laugh.

Mainstay Development executive chairman Raja Mohd Azmi Raja Razali (right) and Lincoln Lee,
inventor of the Smart and Cool Homes technology,
at the construction site of the new Space U8 shopping complex.

“We could have just sold the shoplots and washed our hands of it. But we’re in this for the long term. We’ll be managing the complex ourselves and the anchor building will still be owned by us, as well as the car park and the centre courtyard. Therefore, we control the key elements of the building. That is why we are willing to invest in this.”

They also hope to create awareness that global warming is a very real threat, and to lead by example. But Raja Azmi reckoned that developers cannot fight that war on their own.

“The Government should come up with an incentive to encourage developers to do these things. Materials like solar panels can be expensive and not everyone would want to do it. So there must be some incentives for developers like us to want to do it,” he said.

Great video how we can make trash into food

2009-04-18T23:01:00.005+08:00

It's a great video on how people can use sustainable ways to create a sustainable lifestyle.

For example, the video talks about how people are trying to create Eco villages and Eco cities in China that uses cheap reusable materials to make houses, and to create an environment to encourage sustainable enterprises to get people to stay and thrive in villages instead of having to migrate to cities to look for jobs. They talk about creating farms on rooftops of buildings in China because as population increases, land for farms will ultimately decrease.

The video also talks about how Nike is trying to create a shoe that uses less raw materials to make, that is safe for the environment, and that is easily recycled when it is trashed later.

There are lots of other interesting info about how man can make a product that can be recycled safely. Designing every product in such a way that at the end of its lifecycle the component materials become a new resource. Designing buildings in such a way that they produce energy and become a friend to the environment.

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

WHY OUR GRANDPARENTS DIDN'T HAVE THAT MUCH TRASH IN THEIR TIME!

2009-04-18T21:23:00.007+08:00

Image taken from http://www.malaysiantoday.com.my/web/modules/news/article.php?storyid=207

A few days ago, I asked my mum how she and her family got rid of their trash in the old days, and she blinked at me and said, "we didn't have that much to throw away to begin with".

We could not afford many things, and plastic was expensive and hard to come by. Most bought stuff was wrapped in paper and tied with a string. Liquids were stored in glass bottles, and a man would come around on a bicycle, once a week, to collect glass bottles (Coke bottles, milk bottles, soy sauce bottles .....), metal cans and newspaper. He'd weigh and pay my mum's family for all the items sold.

All biodegradable trash would be stored in a large bin and another man would go around daily, collecting this trash for the pigs to eat. Yeah, pigs eat just about anything, but thankfully, the pigs have a better diet in controlled farms today.

Most clothes are used until they are really worn out. Hand-me-downs are the norm, and holes are patched to death I tell you. And once no one can wear these clothes anymore, they are used as rags.

Even from the time I was born, disposable diapers were not readily available. And everyone used cloth diapers. Babies were taught to pee and poo at a very young age, so that mums would have less washing to handle LOL. Today, they have a name for this type of potty training; Elimination Communication. My first son was potty trained at 9 months old, when I first learned of this technique, while my 2nd son was trained right from the start. I was surprised at how smart newborns can be. After the 2nd try, just like they said, my baby would pee on cue the moment I said "shhhhhhh". How great is THAT? You can't believe how much money I save on diapers! And even if I do have to use disposable diapers, I don't use that many.

I remembered that the Malaysian government had a campaign on tv to get people to throw their trash in plastic bags. Previously people would just dump their rubbish in the trash can and the garbage man would dump all the smelly rotting items into the dump truck. I remembered this tv public announcement very well. In the short tv clip, they showed this person putting everything into a plastic bag, and putting the neatly tied trash nicely and neatly into the garbage can. When the garbage man came by, in the tv clip I mean, he would just reach into the garbage can and grab the plastic bags, which did not emit any undesirable smell and place it neatly into the garbage truck. The campaign was probably in the 80s, correct me if I'm wrong, as I was just a kid then. But oh boy, if only the government knew the consequences of this campaign in later years. Plastics galore, and no way to get rid of it.

Recently, I read an interesting book from an Australian who encourage people to wrap their trash with newspapers instead of a plastic bag. The idea is, if you reduce, reuse and recycle correctly, you should have very little trash, so much so, it can all be wrapped up in a newspaper. I really like this idea.

Anyways, back to olden day trash. We can learn a few things from those guys way back then. But the most important thing is, we, as individuals, today, must want to start reducing our trash. Earth Hour, Earth Day, Recycling This and That, all those campaigns would be useless if we don't make a point to just reduce our trash daily, without prompting right?

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

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

ps if you know of anybody who have babies, or going to have a kid and want to save money, please tell them about Elimination Communication. It can't hurt to try. They can message me via my blog for questions about this method, or they can just Google for information on this.

PROBABLY THE BEST MOISTURISER YOU CAN USE!

2009-04-16T19:58:00.000+08:00

Probably the best moisturiser I've ever used comes from the kitchen. It's the humble cold pressed oil. Well, maybe not so humble because unlike the normal cooking oil, the cold press oil is in a class of it's own. Something like having a sexy sleek Ferrari rather than a functional 50cc motorbike.

But I swear it's really good. I've been pregnant twice, and I have been using cold press oil on my body and face, and there's no stretch marks at all on my belly. Sure it could be down to genetics, but I have stretch marks on my butt as a result of being a plump teen with a humongous butt, once upon a time (this COULD be too much info right?).

This is how I use it. I would take a shower first, but just before I get out, I would pour about a teaspoon of the luxurious oil onto my palm and rub the oil all over. Then, I take a quick rinse to remove any excess oil. Previously I have missed this step and as a result, the excess oil would stick to the towel and stain it. The end result doesn't feel "oily". My skin just feels satin smooth.

Cold press oil makes a great massage oil for everyone from adults to babies. You could pour a little bit of oil into a small dark bottle as a carrier oil, and you can add a drop of essential oil to make the oil smell nice.

Cold press oil can be obtained from most organic shops, and it can be any type of oil, from olive oil to grape seed oil which is what I'm using now to coconut oil (or sometimes called coconut butter) or palm oil. Cold press oil is raw oil because manufacturers do not use heat to extract the oil, which means all the fabulous vitamins and all the other good stuff are still in the oil. However, because the oil is not heated, the oil can turn rancid faster, so it needs to be stored in a dark glass bottle in a cool place. The other benefit of using cold press oil, and this is one thing most people don't know, is that these oil protects you from the sun, meaning it has some SPF protection.

Some oils like the coconut oil is antibacterial and antiviral. Great for using on children, but unfortunately, my husband doesn't like the coconut oil fragrance, so I have stopped using it.

Cold press oil is also good to eat, to use in your salad dressing but don't use it for cooking. If you want to cook, just stick to regular oil instead, as using raw oil would defeat the original purpose of going raw. Cheaper on the wallet as well.

Raw, cold press oil do have a strong fragrance compared to a normal cooking oil which has no fragrance whatsoever so it may not be suitable for many Asian dishes. But there's many recipes online that would taste great with cold press oil.

Do drop by your local organic store and see what type of oils they have there.

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

BEAUTY PRODUCTS SMELL SO CHEMICAL NOWADAYS

2009-04-14T21:08:00.003+08:00

I notice, the more natural products I use, the more the regular shampoo and liquid soaps I use smell unnatural to me. These products actually smell like chemicals to me.

Don't get me wrong. I love beauty products. I use to spend tons of money on them, and there was a time I had 5 different bottles of shampoo in my bathroom. And as a kid, I use to love the smell of petrol. So ok, I was a little weird kid LOL

I suspect my youngest brother is like me. A fan of fragrance. He has all sorts of liquid soaps in his bathroom. And today, I realize my whole perception of fragrance has evolved as I reached out and used his Shokubutsu Orange Peel Sensation body cleanser which says smells like fresh orange peels. Did it smell like fresh orange peel? Not even close. So then, I tried his Shokubutsu Green Tea Harmony. Nope. It didn't smell like green tea. The trouble is Shokubutsu products are said to be 100% cleansing ingredients from plants to gently cleanse, nourish and re-energize skin. It can't be 100% natural products. It didn't smell natural to me, you know what I mean? There must be other chemicals in the bottle. I tried 3 other cleansers in his bathroom and I was really turned off by the fragrance. I just didn't like the smell.

Is something wrong with me? Maybe, maybe not. I think the more I got back to nature, to use more natural products, I really start to appreciate the natural fragrance around me. I have said in my previous post that I have used less store bought beauty products loaded with artificial fragrance, and instead have invested in safe and natural products.

Try it for yourself and see if you feel the same. Use less artificial coloring, artificial fragrance and try to go for more natural products. Then after a while, see if you notice how "artificial" the fragrance added into the products you use everyday can be.

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

Stop Peeing In The Drinking Water!

2009-04-11T00:39:00.000+08:00

Stop Peeing In The Drinking Water! - More DIY How To Projects

Indian Woman Nearly Hit A Child At The Curve Pedestrian Crossing!

2009-04-04T23:42:00.007+08:00

I got so mad at this woman this morning. She didn't stop at the pedestrian crossing between The Curve shopping center and Ikea, and because of that, she nearly hit a little girl. This Indian woman, driving a station wagon with a red diplomat car number plate, never blinked an eye, and just kept cruising, nearly slamming into that little girl! Horrifying!

This really makes my blood boil!

It's a pedestrian crossing!

So, I did what I learned at Money and You program. Take a stand and do something about it.

I reached out and smartly rapped at her window to warn her (luckily she wasn't moving fast or else my fingers would have been severely injured I would think). But goodness, she had the cheek to get out of the car to yell at me.

Some people are just mean and selfish aren't they?

It's really time we share some love!

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

HEALTH FACTS ABOUT DURIAN

2009-04-01T23:06:00.005+08:00

picture taken from http://www.timwu.org

Durian, an Asian super fruit, has been used for centuries in Eastern medicine.

According to Cleo Malaysia magazine (Dec 2008), durian's creamy pulp contains protective antioxidants, hydrating oils and natural sugars which help maintain healthy moisture levels and strengthen cell membranes to prevent skin cell degradation.

Fresh, raw durian is good for all of us ..... but you know, in moderation only ........

How do I know this? Hubby once ate nothing but durians for an entire month (Soccer World Cup Year 2002!). Yup, he did!

He was working from home, so he did nothing but just go out and buy pre cut, pre packed durian meat in a styrofoam box at lunch time, and had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No exercise, no sleep, no nothing, except soccer and really painful gas. At first, he could not figure out what made him ill. Was it the lack of exercise? Certainly, vegetating on the couch and no body movement, other than to retrieve food from the plate sitting on the floor and punching the remote control with the thumb, can not be a good thing. But after a while, it dawned on him that the culprit was too much durian. Too much of a good thing, you might say.If you are curious, you can go to his blog and read about his love of World Cup and this gassy experience!

Apparently, durian is so good, Murad is now making anti-wrinkle cream from it. Murad is sold everywhere nowadays, and if you are looking for a jar of this miracle cream, you can try contacting CN Beauty as they are the main distributor of the Murad products in Malaysia.

Go out and have a bite of durian for good health and good looks!

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

REDUCE CARBON FOOTPRINT! DONATE YOUR BOOKS!

2009-03-31T00:13:00.005+08:00

Donate your unwanted books and reduce carbon footprint, yours and others at the same time.

You can help others reduce their carbon footprint because they can borrow, rent or buy second hand books instead of getting new books printed on virgin paper. You reduce your carbon footprint by not throwing them in the rubbish bin. Lots of energy is used when we throw stuff into the rubbish bin. Someone has to pay the municipal council to hire the garbage truck to come over to collect your trash. Petrol is used. Money is wasted. And while we are at it, electronic news are a good way to go, or share your newspapers instead of each and everyone buying the same thing at the office :-). It's good for the environment, it's good for us.

Have a great day.

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

SAVE MONEY WHILE COOKING PASTA

2009-03-29T16:15:00.004+08:00

I used to boil pasta for about 20 minutes or more for my babies until it's really soft because small kids can hardly chew noodles without molars, you see.

Then, my sister-in-law taught me an excellent trick that shaves off my cooking time AND save me money because I use less gas (electricity if you use electric burner).

First, boil some water. Once the water is boiling, just add the pasta into the boiling water and let the water bubble up. Turn off the gas and just go about doing whatever you need to do like housework or just play with the internet like what I'm doing now.

In about 20 minutes, you will have soft pasta. Really.

Then, just reboil the pasta to cook it. Drain the water, and add the sauce.

It's THAT simple.

Save the environment, save some money!

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

SUN GLASSES CAN CAUSE SUNBURN!

2009-03-24T22:44:00.001+08:00

Guess what happens when you are wearing sunglasses? Much less sunlight reaches the optic nerve, much less warning is sent to the pituitary gland, much less melanin s produced - and much more sunburn results. If you're reading this on the beach with your Ray-Bans on, do your skin a favor - take them off.

Survival Of the Sickest
A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
Dr. Sharon Moalem

BEAUTIFUL RAW FRUIT BIRTHDAY CAKE

2009-03-22T12:15:00.007+08:00

Who says we can't have a great tasting birthday cake made of fruits :-)

After all, there's jelly birthday cakes, there's birthday cupcakes, the sky is the limit, and it's all limited within our imagination.

I sometimes worry about cakes being served at parties.

You see, my first kid gets really hyper on sugar, and my second child is allergic to eggs, which is an important ingredient in a traditional cake.

So, when I saw a blog on a fruity birthday cake, boy, was I estatic. My kids loveeee fruits. They are fruit bats. They rather eat fruit than rice, bread or pasta!

Check out this blog http://livingfruity.blogspot.com/2009/02/party-pictures.html and see how they celebrate a birthday with clean, healthy raw food.

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

GOING NUTS OVER PEANUTS

2009-03-21T22:49:00.006+08:00

My dad's fav peanuts

My dad loves peanuts. Everyday, he would sit in his black leather chair, watching tv, and he would occasionally reach into a bag of unshelled peanuts, cracking them between his fingers and popping the nuts into his mouth. My 3 year old son loves to watch grandad do that. And when he was old enough, my dad let him join in for some fun. It's kinda cute seeing grandad and grandson sitting together, heads bowed, fully concentrating on cracking them peanuts.

My mother-in-law has reminded me a couple of times that my sons have to have their peanut soup once they reach 12 years old. It's an old tradition which my mum-in-law believes in. Apparently, this soup will help boys grow tall and strong because the Chinese believe that eating peanuts help stimulate growth.

But hey, why wait till they are 12? Why not just drown my kids with peanut soup and peanut butter as soon as they are old enough to eat peanuts assuming they are not allergic to these legumes :-)

CHINESE CHICKEN PEANUT SOUP

Ingredients:
1 piece of chicken breast meat
10 Chinese wolfberries (kei chi)
100g large peanuts with skin
1 piece dried scallop (bought from a Chinese medicine shop)
Salt to taste (and a pinch of sugar ... that's the secret ingredient those ladies won't tell you)

Method:

1. In a large soup pot, add 2 litres of cold water. Add everything except salt and sugar to taste and bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
2. Let soup simmer for at least 1 hour. Don't let the soup boil over high heat. Let the ingredients sit nicely in the hot tub. Season the soup with salt and sugar to taste only before you are ready to serve.

Could not be an easier dish to do.

Besides being a growth serum of sorts, this soup is good for people who are not feeling well because the Chinese believe any chicken soup helps strengthen the body. Chicken soup for the soul? Meanwhile, people are pushing wolfberries like they are the next cancer killing pill. Anyhow, ok. Anything that's good for the body is good for me.

Now, quite a few ladies like to boil chicken feet (minus the claws) instead of breast meat because they believe chicken feet has lots of collagen, and that's good for the skin. Frankly, I don't mind chicken feet soup. It's those dried sheep placenta that I can't imagine eating or putting on any part of my body.

Some recipe books will instruct the reader to quickly parboil the chicken and pork in some hot water before plunging them into the stock soup. The reason is to remove any blood and scum for better presentation. If the meat is washed thoroughly beforehand, I believe there's no need to do that. The scum is actually protein, and it's good ok for consumption. Stop me if I'm wrong :-)

Oh yes. How to drink the soup? My granny use to serve them in individual delicate China bowls during meals. I'm too lazy. I just scoop them into a mug and drink them as I watch tv. My granny used to love Cantonese serials. Never fails. In every episode, every time someone walks through the door, the tv mum will quickly run out of the kitchen with a bowl of steaming hot soup for them to drink as a show of love and concern. "Lay ... yum thong lah" She would say. "Come ... drink some soup please"

Jasmin
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EATING PEANUTS MAKE ME PRETTY

2009-03-20T16:03:00.007+08:00

I just bought this Chinese book on fruits and vegetables, and boy, it's chock full of information.

Says here,

Peanuts is nicknamed as "Long-Life Fruit" because it is highly nutritious. It contains fat, protein, phosphorus, calcium, iron, vitamin A and B.

Peanut is also considered to have anti-aging functions. It is indeed a nourishing yet inexpensive food.

From the book of "Cook Easy! Eat Healthy! Fruits and Vegetables.
Author To Siu Pang

The book is directly translated from Chinese, so, it's a little hard to read, but isn't this interesting?

I am assuming that they are talking about good old fresh peanuts, and not those beer nuts or any peanuts heavily sweeten with sugar and salt and oil.

Jasmin
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Garbage enzymes used to clean market

2009-03-18T22:50:00.003+08:00

By OH ING YEEN Wednesday March 11, 2009
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/3/11/central/3437086&sec=central

THE Petaling Jaya Section 17 Community and Hawkers Association has come up with an affordable yet effective way to clean the market.

Tan Yew Leong, who heads the association’s hygiene committee, said they started using the garbage enzymes two months ago.

“We saw it in the newspapers and decided to try it. It costs about RM1,000 and the jet spray, which is used to spray the market with the enzyme, costs about RM600.

Tried and tested: Lim(right) Tan with the eco-friendly garbage enzyme.

“All you need is a bin, water, brown sugar/molasses as well as vegetable and fruit scraps, which we get free of charge from the hawkers. The mix is then kept in a bin for three months to ferment.

“Only one litre of enzyme is needed to clean the entire stretch of the market. As a result, there are less flies and no odour. It also reduces litter as the leftover vegetables and fruits are used to make the enzyme.

“I hope that hawkers in other areas could try using the enzyme. We are willing to share the knowledge,” said Tan, who is passionate about recycling.

Association chairman Lim Keh Seng said there was good response from the hawkers.

“Residents can also get the enzyme from us and we will teach them how to make it. Hence, we can educate people about recycling and environment preservation at the same time.”

He added that two workers were hired to clean the market from 7am to 2pm at RM1,000 each per month.

Both of them also use the enzyme at home as it also doubles up as a natural household cleaner. It can be used as an organic fertiliser, dish wash and shampoo.

To make your own garbage enzyme, the ratio is 1kg of brown sugar and 3kg of vegetables and fruit scraps to 10 litres of water.

For details, call Tan at 013-333 0202 or browse the Internet for more information.

If you want to read my previous posts on garbage enzymes, just go to this links.
a) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-garbage-to-clean-your-plates-yes.html
b) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-garbage-enzyme.html
c) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/10/garbage-enzyme-photos-recycling-your.html
d) http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/12/garbage-enzyme-cleans-my-world.html

McDonalds Used To Serve Sugar Cane Juice

2009-03-16T00:25:00.007+08:00

Did you know, at one time, McDonald's offered fresh sugar cane juice on the menu, but they have stopped this product, and it's such a pity.

Anyone old enough to remember this?

If you must know, this was one of the reasons why I got a part time job as a McDonald's cashier when I was studying at Inti College, despite the fact they pay peanuts .... because this job came with free meals, including my favorite sugar cane juice.

I wish they serve fresh juice on it's menu. Pasteurized orange juice just don't cut it.

Fresh raw healthy juice with some burger on a bun?

Is it possible?

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

More on sugar cane

 What would you bring to a pot luck party?

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 More raw food at the night markets
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In Bali they have a day when the airport closes. The roads close. Nothing is open.

2009-03-11T22:46:00.003+08:00

Says Roger Hamilton

In Bali they have a day in Spring called "Nyepi" when EVERYTHING stops. Zero energy consumption. The airport closes. The roads close (They have patrols all over the island to stop anyone who drives). This is the end of the old year when they go back to zero. (Of course the next day there's a big party).

Zero consumption. No one cries. No one dies. Actually, it's quite nice.

I sat next to Stephen Roach, Chairman of Morgan Stanley, at an environmental panel. I commented "We're in a cold aircon room in our suits talking about saving energy by using energy. If we were serious, we'd go outside in the sun, take off our jackets and have a zero carbon conversation".

http://xlrogerhamilton.blogspot.com/2008/12/lee-kuan-yew-drops-bombshell-at-cgi.html

Trying to eat fresher tasting food

2009-03-11T07:12:00.002+08:00

I just came back from Gold Coast Australia. It was a hectic and tiring 1 week holiday.

While I was there, my mum and I noticed that the vegetables we used to make baby food like the cauliflower and the broccoli were very tasty. It tasted fresh, and it tasted sweeter than what we have back in Malaysia. (we stayed in a nice 3 bedroom apartment near the beach that came with a great kitchen you see).

During our trip, we kept discussing and wondering why the vegetables we bought tasted fabulous, and then I realise, that's because these vegetables are probably farm fresh, or at least fresher than ours. We get a lot of our vegetables flown in from China and India, yes carrots, onions and stuff. Probably only perishable leafy vegetables are brought in from the Malaysian highlands like Cameron Highlands.

So what does it say about the food we put on the table? I am pretty sure, fresh is always best, though clearly not the most convenient.

There is this movement called the 100 Mile Diet, that I think is pretty amazing. http://100milediet.org/

Read about some of their interesting quests to try to eat everything local, within a 100 mile radius http://100milediet.org/category/thanksgiving-stories

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

ps can you believe I finally tried cooked beetroot, in a steak sandwich? Nice. I've never, never had cooked beetroot before, not even when I lived in Kansas for 5 years. I've had freshly juiced beetroot mixed into my fruit juice, and I have to say, I don't like fresh juiced beetroot. Yuck!

WHY EAT RAW CHILLI PEPPERS

2009-03-03T00:00:00.004+08:00

1. High in fiber
2. Gets your metabolism burning up to 5% more calories compared to when you don't eat any chilis, so it's really great for those who want to lose weight and not exercise much.
3. Rich in Vitamin A and C. By weight, green bell peppers have twice as much vitamin C as citrus fruit while red peppers have three times as much. Chili peppers contain 357% more Vitamin C than an orange.
4. Has good amounts of folic acid, potassium and Vitamin E
5. As a topical relieving rub, it's great for sports aches and pains, and to relieve arthritis pain.

6. Kills parasites in your intestines (read about it at http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/killing-parasites-with-chilli-peppers.html)

In Asia, we regularly have the mild big red chillies that are high in beta carotene, and the more adventurous ones like my parents love the tiny explosive chili padi or red eye chillies or Thai chillies. These chili peppers are all great eaten raw.

However, if you like pickled chillies like the green jalapenos stuffed into burritos and all those yummy Mexican dishes, or the green chillies soaked in a small plate of soy sauce which is served with Cantonese fried noodles filled with yummy eggy sauce, you might want to try making your own, rather than buying them off the shelf because those are generally not raw. It's really easy to make, and it's a great way to make use of extra chillies you have in the house which would otherwise go to waste.

Pickled chili peppers
===============

1. Cut the chillies in small round pieces. Remove the seeds if you can't take the heat.
2. Put the chili peppers into a sterilized glass jar (maybe a recycled jam jar or those grape jelly jars with a metal lid or a glass lid rather than a plastic lid which the color may come out)
3. Add some rice vinegar (don't put in white vinegar, not healthy) into the jar until it covers the chili peppers. Rice vinegar is the best in my book because it is mild in flavour.
4.Add sugar and salt to taste
5.Ready by the next day

I make a batch of those if I have a bumper crop of chillies and we can't eat them fresh fast enough. I have tons of raw chillies dried as well, and they are useful if I don't have the fresh ones on hand.

If you don't like them spicy, just eat mild chili peppers. They are really good for your health.

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

10 Easy Stuff You Can Do To Improve Your Health

2009-02-27T00:42:00.004+08:00

Got this from one of the Eat Raw Food Today readers. Thanks so much to Stephanie Roundtree.

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants; eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Obviously, I love No 3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants

Jasmin
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Carry baby in a shirt! Multiple ways to use a clothing item!

2009-02-24T23:12:00.002+08:00

I promised you that I will show you how to carry a baby inside your shirt, in case of disasters.

A shirt?

Yes, a shirt!

In crisis situations following a natural disaster, contact carrying is more vital than ever. You may not have access to a vehicle, and sometimes, must hold on to a child for hours. Having a carrier will not only make the child feel safe, but it will relieve your hands to carry other essential items. If you ever had to carry a baby for more than 10 mins, you will appreciate a tool that will help you make life easier. Truly, if you have a good carrier, it will save your back, shoulders and arms from pain.

Baby carriers are always handy to learn to use.

Reuse, reduce and recycle.

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

ps please forward this email to your friends who have kids. They may be interested in seeing this video.

pps there's other videos.

Carrying a toddler using a towel

Carrying a toddler using a sweatpants

PUT YOUR T-SHIRT TO GOOD USE! MANY WAYS TO MAKE USE OF IT

2009-02-24T16:18:00.013+08:00

I just came across a blog that had a contest getting girls to come out with multiple ways to wear a simple white t-shirt. And the outcome? Awesome!

This is the way it should be. Not opening the closet and moan that there's nothing to wear.

Hope you guys have a good look at it, and maybe you too can come up with creative ways to jazz up your outfits!

Reuse, reduce and recycle

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

ps coming up next, I will show you how to carry a baby inside your shirt, in case of disasters. In crisis situations following a natural disaster, contact carrying is more vital than ever. You may not have access to a vehicle, and sometimes, must hold on to a child for hours. Having a carrier will not only make the child feel safe, but it will relieve your hands to carry other essential items. If you ever had to carry a 25 pound (11kg) toddler for more than 5 mins, you will appreciate a tool that will help you make life easier. Truly, if you have a good carrier, it will save your back, shoulders and arms from pain.

Baby carriers are always handy to learn to use.

But enough of serious stuff, please scroll down to view some really creative pictures of how to wear your white tees in various ways! These pictures were from http://projectmuffstit.blogspot.com/2008/11/contest-tee-up-results.html

MY HUSBAND DIDN'T LOSE ANY WEIGHT DESPITE PURGING FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!

2009-02-20T00:19:00.004+08:00

Most of you by now would have known that my entire family was sick, with an extremely contagious Rotavirus ... including my husband. But despite all the purging, and vomiting, and not eating any solids for days, he never lost any weight! Everyone else in my family who caught the virus did. So what gives?

The culprit? Isotonic drinks!

At that time, my husband was alone at our place while I was at my parent's house taking care of everyone else. It was a mess. While he was unwell, he drank basically nothing and nothing for days except to guzzle down cans and cans of Isotonic drinks. Rotavirus is really a horrid virus. The stomach ache, the purging, the headaches, the vomiting .... home alone ..... who has the strength or energy to go out and buy food, or buy or make healthy fresh raw juice?

So what is in the Isotonic drinks that makes people gain weight or in my husband's case, didn't lose any weight? The answer we realise was sugar, and lots of it.

Isotonic drinks are touted to be good for you, but if you are trying to lose weight, may I suggest you go slow in consuming these sugary stuff. And if you are looking for natural drinks that have the perfect balance of electrolytes for your body, try fresh coconut juice.

There's an interesting article on the Internet about how Isotonic drinks can damage your teeth. Apparently, according to the article, Isotonic drinks can soften the teeth enamel. And brushing your teeth immediately AFTER drinking the Isotonic drink can wear down the teeth. Plus the drink is acidic so it can cause dental erosion, and the sugar in the drinks can cause tooth decay. Wow! triple whammy. Click here to read about it.

AND don't forget, please show this article to your family and friends who insist on guzzling down fizzy canned drinks all day long. You will be helping them in the long run. You know, I had a dorm mate who drank Diet Pepsi all day long. She had cans and cans of those stuff in her cupboard, which she bought cheap at Sam's Warehouse. She was on a heavy side, and could not shake off the weight the entire time we were there at school. You see, even though Diet Pepsi is low calorie, she drank lots of it, and you know, it adds up, calorie after calorie. Come to think of it, I never did see her drink any water at all, not even a sip from the water cooler on our floor.

Can drink ... bad. Clean, fresh water .... good.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS TO SUPPORT THE EARTH HOUR

2009-02-18T07:41:00.006+08:00

WWF Malaysia executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius S.K. Sharma said on March 28, several iconic landmarks in the country such as the Kuala Lumpur Tower, Angkasapuri, Sunway Pyramid and Mid Valley Megamall would join hands with landmarks in 74 other countries to observe Earth Hour and they will switch off non-essential lights for an hour from 8.30pm.

Now, I'd be the first to see how that goes, because, March 28 is a Saturday, and 8.30pm is one of the busiest shopping periods of the week, so, I wonder which lights are going to be turned off.

Having said that, Earth Hour is a wonderful concept that reminds us all we need to be conservative with our electricity use. My granny used to forever remind me to turn off the lights, do not waste water, yada, yada, yada. And you know, I use to somewhat resent her nagging..... but know I seem to do the same with my three year old son *grin*

Here's a few tips for you to save electricity.

1. Change your light bulbs to those that use less power.
2. Turn off the lights if you don't use them
3. Use less electricity and consider cost saving cooking methods such as using a thermal pot. We use a thermal pot to boil food on the fire for a short period of time, and then, transfer the pot to a thermal device to slow cook further without any use of electricity or gas. The heat from the food and the container itself will slowly help the food to continue cooking. It's like crock pot cooking, minus any electricity. If you are up to it, try solar cooking as well. I have a wonderful blog article on how to make this free cooking tool
4. Don't turn on so many tvs in the house, and instead, watch tv together to bond together. I noticed that many houses have multiple tvs. Maybe because tvs have become affordable, or maybe each person got sick of waiting to watch their favourite program, and fighting for the remote. We should go back to the basics. Learn to tolerate each other's habits and learn to give and take and find common tv shows that everyone likes to watch.

There's lots more ways to save electricity. We just need to look.

Please key in this date 8.30pm, March 28 and join us all to save electricity on that hour. Get your friends to join you in doing so. Maybe it can be a fun event. An example of a fun activity is have a barbeque party at the house, turn off all the lights except the ones outside and celebrate Earth Hour. A party is great because everyone is not at their own house, and instead is sharing electricity at a common place, bonding with each other. What could be more fun! Let me tell you, my husband loves parties with his buddies because they all sit around and joke and laugh. It's very therapeutic for the soul.

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

IS YOUR ENVIRONMENT TOO CLEAN FOR YOUR OWN GOOD?

2009-02-14T00:25:00.005+08:00

Thank you for all the emails and messages I received about the Rotavirus. As of today, my sister-in-law is not feeling well. My mum and husband are recovering while everyone else has recovered. Mum was surprised to find out that her Chi Kung exercise helped her. You see, she kept having cold sweat, and she found out to her delight that certain Chi Kung movements helped "warm" the body and banish the cold sweat.

You know, I had a lot to think about when I was purging. I mean, what else could I do? I could not read in the bathroom cause the pain was so severe, words from whatever books just seem to swim in my very eyes. And I had spend a lot of time on them toilet seats.

Well, one of the things I wondered was how easily the entire bunch of us got sick and so rapidly as well. Apparently, Rotavirus is a common childhood menace. If it was so common, how come we (my family) didn't have immunity against this virus? Is our environment too "clean" for our own good? Once we are expose to a virus, over the years, should we make a conscious effort to reintroduce our bodies with the virus to make sure we always have antibodies against a certain disease? Why? What? How?

And you know what's the worse thing? When everyone is sick, there's no one to take care of the sick. I mean that, literally. Not. One. Person. What would happen to a whole community if something like the Bubonic Plague were to attack us?

I wish someone will give me a good answer to this, because being sick is no walk in the park, and certainly not fun at all. I just want to avoid all this problems. All I know is, if we were healthy as a horse from the very start, we tend to recover faster. But still, it seems we can't avoid disease now, can't we?

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

ps here are a bunch of photos of my parent's Chi Kung exercise group. The Chi Kung master has been volunteering his time and knowledge for free.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004674&id=1175245245&ref=mf

I SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY ON BEING SICK!

2009-02-12T22:48:00.004+08:00

Just before Chinese New Year, my 2nd child, Baby Ethan caught a virus and had ulcers all over his mouth. The poor kid just could not eat nor drink because every movement was just too painful. After the 3rd day, my husband and I decided to admit him to a private hospital called the Pantai Cheras Medical Center, for drips. It was an agonizing 5 days 3 night adventure at the hospital, and that trip cost my husband and I a lot of money .... BUT WAIT. The story didn't end there.

During the stay at the hospital, I did not realize that I had caught a very contagious virus called the Rotavirus. Right after baby and I had checked out from the hospital, I had severe diarrhea for like 5 days. On day 1, I remembered wondering, how the heck did I get food poisoning from hospital food? Me and the toilet were best friends those few days, and luckily, it was the Chinese New Year holidays, and hubby took over and took care of the kids.

Unfortunately, baby develop symptoms of the virus on the 4th of February. So off he went to the paeditrition who finally diagnosed the problem as the Rotavirus and not food poisoning as I originally thought I had. On his visit to the paed, baby had to be admitted to the hospital once again as he was severely dehydrated. Sigh! So far the damage has already escalated to almost RM5,000.

Within the next 3 days, wham! the virus quickly spread to my entire family. My brother, his wife and their toddler daughter all got it. My mum and dad too. Hubby as well. It was bad, really, really bad. It really reminded me of the SARS episode when the entire world was on a health alert because one Chinese guy on a plane to Hong Kong literally spread a terribly virulent SARS virus like wildfire killing so many people in it's wake. The impact was so quick and sudden. Just like the whole world had not expected the SARS virus to be so damaging so quickly, nobody in my family had time to take stock and react appropriately when we caught the Rotavirus. I am just thankfully that hubby's side of the family did not get sick as well. That would be just catastrophic.

The cost of being sick? ..... Astronomical.

Think about it. There's a lot of hidden cost to being sick. If it wasn't for the holidays, hubby would have had to take off work to take care of the kids for almost a week. And what about the cost of the medicine? What about the time lost to do something productive? What about all that water flushed down the drain. Clean, processed, piped water cost money too. What about the lights turned on at wee hours of the morning as my sister-in-law kept awake trying to encourage her less-than-2-year-old little girl to drink 3 ounces of liquids every hour? That cost money. What about all the washing all of us had to constantly do, especially when the kids' diarrhea spilled over and soiled the bedsheets, the floor and their clothes. During this period, my brother and I bought mountains of diapers as the kids kept soiling the diapers every hour on the hour.

Frankly, being sick is exhausting and so expensive.

This Rotavirus experience was so costly, imagine what a toll a cancer or stroke or something equally heartbreaking would affect a family in terms of financial cost and an emotional cost.

Let's all aim to stay healthy this year by first making a real significant change to our diets. This should be one of the changes we should make to our overall lifestyle to achieve good health. It's a good start, don't you think? Because, let me tell you, even a common thing like a flu do cost us time and money, not to mention, it's a real waste of time getting sick.

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

THE CONFLICT OF SUGAR AND STARCH

2009-02-09T22:14:00.003+08:00

Sugar, whether a monosaccharide or disaccharide, is one of the simplest foods to digest. Even water dissolves it. It requires only vitamins and enzymes and spends very little time in the stomach. Starch spends more time in the stomach; but the problem with combining these two food elements begins in the mouth. As we discussed, starch depends on ptyalin in the saliva to start its digestion. But sugar inhibits the secretion of ptyalin. The signals read by the nerve endings and taste buds on the tongue become confused in the presence of sugar. Thus, even though you chew and mechanically break down your bread and pasta, little or no chemical digestion takes place. The bread has to wait until it gets into the small intestine before amylase can complete the process of starch digestion. This is a bad combination for the sugar food as well, since its passage is slowed down by the presence of the starch food. The longer sugar stays in the stomach, the greater the chance fermentation will take place. Fermentation is the breakdown of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide causes gas and distention and alcohol robs the body of B-vitamins.

Page 47
Food Combining And Digestion
101 Ways To Improve Digestion
by Steve Meyerowitz

ONE SIMPLE TIP TO RID THAT BULGE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

2009-02-07T23:15:00.002+08:00

Here's the simplest tip anyone can do to get rid of or reduce that bulge for Valentine's Day.

Skip dinner!

But if you get hungry, and feel you need some oral satisfaction, you can try eating some fruits. Chew on the fruits slowly. Do remember that eating a piece of fruit that is sweet is not the same as drinking fruit juice.

The other thing to satisfy the cravings is to drink lots of pure, clean water and go to bed early. I find sleep really helps me forget about me wanting to eat, and the bonus is I wake up fresher in the mornings.

If you REALLY must drink something, don't touch that beer in the fridge, and ditto for milk and anything laden with sugar.

There's really about 7 days left to Valentine's Day, so do try this tip. 7 days of skipping dinner is not such a hard goal to achieve.

Good luck to those for want to take up this challenge!

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

GARBAGE ENZYMES CLEANS MY WORLD!

2009-02-03T23:33:00.002+08:00

The pulp from the garbage enzyme make really great fertilizers

So, I have talking about garbage enzymes and how it's good for everyone, and believe me, I've got tons more stuff to talk about it in my blog.

The picture you see above is the cucumber enzyme I made about 3 months back. I juiced the cucumber for my mum and the pulp was just dumped into a container with some sugar and water to stew for 3 months. (1 part whatever vegetable 3 part sugar 7 parts water)

It's really, really simple.

I separate the 3 month old pulp from the enzyme

Keep the liquid enzyme for use at home, and sprinkle the pulp on your plants

However, there are a few things to note when making the enzymes.

1) You'll need to open the cover of the enzyme bottle once a day, and when you close it, just give it a good shake to move the mix around.

You see, the whole mixture produce a lot of gas initially, and if we don't open the bottle at least once a day, the gas will compress inside the bottle and eventually explode. This happened to me, and a whole bunch of oats enzyme exploded in my face as I unknowingly opened a week old garbage enzyme I made in an air tight coca-cola bottle! The sound of the explosion was so loud, my husband ran into the kitchen thinking something really bad happened. You should have seen the look on his face! It's funny now, but man, the explosive Coke bottle cover could have severely hurt me as it flew off.

2) Do not use cooked stuff to make your garbage enzyme.

I knew that using cooked meat could really cause a stink, but Quaker Oats? But yes, apparently, it does. Hubby has been telling me to get rid of this oats batch (yes, the very same one that exploded in my face and all over the kitchen) but, you know, I really hate to see things go to waste. Sure, it smells like some funky cheap glue paste a kid would use for his art projects, but the stuff is still good as garden fertilizer, if not as a cleaning liquid.

Now, when I mean, I used cooked oats to make my garbage enzyme, you might think that I cooked some oats and decided not to eat it right? No. The porridge oats you find in supermarkets like Quaker Oats is already cooked. It is usually steamed, dried and packaged all ready for you. This was what I used. I found some old moldy oats in my cupboard and didn't want to throw it away.

Not all enzymes smell funky. I found that nice smelling fruits make nice smelling enzymes. Mandarin oranges are in season and they smell really fruity.

I usually use the garbage enzymes in my dishwasher. I still find it a little strange to wash my plates at the kitchen sink without any sudsy soap and really, that's just a mindset from way back. I found out, a lot of times, the chemicals used to make soap suds or to make whatever cleaning liquid make more bubbles is not good for us and not good for the environment. So for now, I wash whatever by hand with a biodegradable bubbly cleaner.

Really cleans plastic bottles that have a bit of oil stuck on them well.

I also use the enzyme to clean my floor.
I just use a simple, cheap and cheerful rag mop,
a little bit of water mixed with the enzyme.

I use the enzymes to wash my clothes as well.
Works pretty well, and saves me tons of cash!

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

RECYCLING TRASH THE EASY WAY

2009-01-31T00:23:00.008+08:00

This picture was taken from
http://sanctuaryofhope.blogspot.com/2007/09/xim-phou-moon-welfare-society-malaysia.html

There's a lot of gatherings and parties this Chinese New Year holiday. If it's possible, do separate your trash and put whatever you can into the recycling bin like glass, plastics, drink cans, Tetra Paks (Drinho, soy milk products, milk, etc) and paper.

I, myself, separate my trash and give it to my neighbor. She collects newspapers and other recyclables and send them to the recycling center. It's great. She gets to teach her daughter the value of money from observing how trash turns to cash. I benefit as well, because I'm so darn lazy to carry all these stuff to the recycling box or drive to the recycling center. Lazy, lazy! So it's really win-win for all.

I'll tell you what's also win-win.

The garbage men who does collection at my parent's neighborhood has been quietly separating the recyclables from the main trash. To help them out, I try to separate the trash into a separate bag for them. That way, they don't have to dig into the dirty stuff to get what they want. They are just trying to earn decent, perfectly acceptable extra cash. So, why not help them out a bit? This also means my parents don't have to drive all the way to a recycling center to dump their recyclable stuff. Recently, a NGO has placed a huge box for people to donate their unwanted goods at my parent's housing estate. Great convenience for all of us too. If you have a lot of stuff to give away, some centers will come to your house to collect them, free of charge. Xim Phou Moon Welface society is one of the groups that offer this service.

Reuse, reduce, recycle :-)

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

ps I have seen huge recycle bins in Singapore. There's still one at Marine Parade near my previous place of residence called Bayshore Park. That bin, which I believe belongs to the Salvation Army (correct me if I'm wrong) has been there for years now. Now I find out there's also a door-to-door service as well. A collector will come by about twice a month door-to-door to collect recycled stuffs. They will even pass some plastic bag to store the recycled items. You just leave the plastic bag outside the main door on collection days. This is what I call easy recycling.

DRINKING LOTS OF LIQUIDS PREVENTS MOUTH SORES AND CRACKED LIPS?

2009-01-26T21:49:00.008+08:00

Ethan trying to drink from the cup

A few days ago, Baby Ethan was admitted into the hospital because he could not eat, and was getting dehydrated. The reason was, his mouth was full of nasty, painful sores.

Funny enough, I spoke to my dentist a few days before my baby got sick, and he said, nobody really knows what causes mouth sores.....

The Chinese believe it's the dry weather. And you know what? I nearly could not get a single hospital room for myself that day because the paediatric ward was full, with many kids having similar problems. Boy! Who knew!

Ethan, playing with the screws on the pole that hoist the IV bottle to relieve his boredom
He was constantly wearing a bib, slobbering like a water fall because he can't swallow his saliva

So, anyways, for 5 days and 3 nights, the poor kid was hooked up to an IV machine. I didn't allow him to crawl on the hospital room floor because people walk with dirty shoes that went god knows where. And he wasn't allowed into the playroom, discouraged by Ethan's paediatrician who said it's full of germs .... don't want him catching something else while at the hospital. Anyone who have children will know a kid can go stir crazy stuck in a baby cot for so many days. Luckily, he's such a good kid, not much complains, except when he cries in pain when I try to feed him a little bit of solids.

Poor kid asleep. Check out hand!

Now the Chinese believe, when the body is "heaty", it's best to drink lots of liquids ... something "cooling" like coconut water, watermelon, boiled sugar cane water, boiled barley water or one of those sweeten herbal drinks, and to cut down on tangerines or one of those many Chinese oranges which are in season now. It's a little hard to avoid oranges, seeing every other person has bought a crate of these juicy fruits for the Chinese New Year holidays.

Darn! I could kick myself for not taking faster action, when I saw the first ulcer. But it's too late. The poor kid has mouth ulcers the size of moon craters, some bleeding and lots of it. My brother and his wife tells me, they have cracked lips.

Baby Ethan's out now, and safely sleeping in his familiar cot. And mummy has to get up at ungodly hours to get him to drink lots of water.

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

CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF BABY AMBER

2009-01-21T22:28:00.004+08:00

This afternoon, my mum got a pleasant surprise package; a Full Moon present from a family we have never met.

For those who don't know what a Full Moon is; the end of the full moon period marks the first month of a Chinese baby's birth. It is also the period when the mother completes her confinement period which to me is also known as the month of pampering, eating lots of meat and wine ... if the old folks have their way, and smelling like a caveman in the hottest month of July because, again, the old folks believe bathing will make a woman's body weak in the later years. Frankly, I think getting the good woman smelling like a bed of garbage just turns the husband green in the face. A man won't, in his right mind, want to do the horizontal mumbo with a being that smells faintly of rotting fish, right?

But, back to the baby.

It was a surprise for my family to receive this gift because we don't know who they are. My mum had asked the Indian guy who handed her the box of goodies if he got the right address, and he said "yup". Turns out, he is the driver for the family who lives in the big house on the hill near where my mum lives. He said, the father of the baby asked him to hand out these gift boxes to random houses around the neighborhood. It's really intriging, the reason why they did that because the usual method is to pass the gift boxes to limited friends and familes.

Different shops sells different Full Moon packages. If you want to see what my husband and I ordered for our first born's full moon celebration, just go to this webpage. http://senze.com/business-blog/viral-marketing/viral-marketing.htm. We didn't send out full moon presents on behalf of our second son because we decided to hold a party at a nearby KFC restaurant instead.

Anyways, I'd like to think, doing this act of random kindness, if you will, is a nice way of making new friends, with neighbors whom we have never got in contact with. Brings cheer to everyone who receives it as well.

Meanwhile, I'd like to congratulate the Ng family on the birth of their beautiful baby Amber.

Opps, looks likesomeone ate part of the delicious vanilla-chocolate butter before I had the chance to snap a photo of the inside of the box. There's also red colored hard boiled eggs and "angku" pastries. (go to http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/ang-ku-kueh-ii/ for the recipe)

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

SAVING MONEY ON SHAMPOO AND SOAP

2009-01-20T00:07:00.006+08:00

I luv shampoo and soaps.

My earliest memory of fragrances was when I was 10 years old. I had used my mum's Kao Merit shampoo earlier in the morning, and while I was at school, I kept pulling my long braids, and smelling the wonderful fragrance in my hair. By the way, anyone still remember using this shampoo?

As I grew up, I'd save my money to buy my own soap. At 13, I would go to the nearby grocery store and buy my own bar soaps like Camay and Lux. By the time I was working, my bathroom resembled the shampoo aisle at Watson Drug Store.

However, I started using soaps and shampoos a whole lot less these days, and it's all because of my children. You see, both of them have very sensitive skins, and my second one is highly allergic to basically most everything. He turns red and gets very itchy, and feels very miserable. So, I only use very mild cleansers sparingly and only on areas that need thorough cleaning. Throughout, I worried I might not be using enough cleaners, but you know what? It's plenty good. The kids are clean, and so am I. Fragrance free, but so what. They have that lovely baby smell. And they are not scratching like a cat hounded by a bunch of fleas.

I'm saving tons of money and this probably makes hubby real happy! I still have that very large bottle of Eucerin cleanser that I bought for my kids two years ago. My body washes are practically sitting on the bathroom shelf, untouched. I'm slowly phasing out my stuff, and switching to bio degradable, organic products.

Also, I've been reading up on manufacturing of goods, and I found out, it takes a lot of energy to produce 1 bottle of shampoo. The amount of energy to create the plastic bottle. The amount of water that goes into the production of the actual liquid shampoo. The amount of petrol to fly the goods to our destination. The petrol for the truck to bring the goods to the shopping center. And, after all that, I found out, a lot of the chemicals inside the product are highly carcinogenic, and does not biodegrade. So, by cutting down on cleansers, we are, in our own little way, helping Planet Earth, one step at a time.

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

Reduce, reuse and recycle using CD cases

2009-01-15T01:18:00.003+08:00

Most of use have CD cases whch we don't use right?

I have lots, especially after I transfered all my CDs and VCDs into folders to save space in my house.

Go to www.LovelyDiy.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/cd-case-crafts-simply-beautiful/ to find out how you can recycle these CD boxes into something beautiful and free.

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

USING CORN THE BETTER WAY

2009-01-15T00:44:00.009+08:00

If you buy ears of corn from the market, choose bright, fresh looking ones wrapped up in it's corn husks. Corn husks really do make better wrappers than plastics, keeping the corn kernels fresh, plump and juicy longer.

If you need to buy a few ears of corn, ask the vendor to wrap the ears together with a rubber band, and put it inside the grocery bag you carry instead of a plastic bag.

Also, did you know that you can eat corn raw? It tastes yummy just off the plant. Don't have to cook it at all!

You can make a succulent salsa with raw corn. Add in bits of raw chopped corn, onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped up cilantro or chinese parsley, a bit of chopped chillies is a must for flavor, salt and sugar to taste, and a squeeze of lime juice to balance the flavor. Put it all in the fridge to let the flavor sit for about an hour. Eat it chilled just like that, or if you want to, you can have it as a side dish with some roast chicken or steak.

I prefer a simple raw corn dish drizzled with some melted butter and some raw cane sugar, some chopped mint leaves and a pinch of salt, served cold.

Eating a raw salad like this is great because it's really part of sustainable living. By cooking less, we save on gas. Less energy and pollution happens when trucks transport less gas to shops and houses. And when we use less plastic bags, we also reduce less pollution because less energy is used to create plastics that can not biodegrade, plastics that pile up in waste dumps, plastic that end up in bodies of water, which kills animals that swallow the plastic bags thinking the plastic was food.

By the way, corn husks makes a biodegradable plate scrubber. My mother-in-law occasionally buys corn you see. She will tear off the husks fold the husks with a rubber band and use it to scrub plates. And when the husks start to degrade, she just tosses it away. Dead simple. What a eco-friendly way to use up something that most people would just trash. She got the idea from a Chinese tv program about sustainable living.

Happy days to you.

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

ARE YOU A CHINESE NEW YEAR SUGAR ADDICT?

2009-01-08T21:55:00.011+08:00

My parents, my younger brothers and I at my grandparent's house with our
Morris Minor car in the background

I used to always look forward to a celebration as a kid because I get to drink lots of sugary soda, lots of "air sirup" which is really nothing more than artificial rose flavored syrupy water and orange cordial.

However, this year, I plan to change things .... drink a lot less of these diabetic inducing drinks and drink more clean, fresh water and delicious raw juice. I would bet that just a simple change like this will likely help me keep my weight at bay.

So anyways, I was thinking about what drinks to serve to guests who come to visit this Chinese New Year aka CNY.

Soda?

Orange cordial?

What would you offer to your guests when they come to visit?

My two brothers. Sitting just long enough for a snapshot
Every since I was born, every CNY, my parents, me, my two brothers and practically 20 other people would congregate at my paternal grandparents' house in Seremban. We did this every single year without fail until my granny's passing a few years back. There, us kids would helped our self to granny's stash of cans of soda at the back of the kitchen and glugged down bottomless amount of choice stuff like 7 Up and Coca Cola. My brothers and I would all be so stuffed up from all that sugar in our bodies, not to mention sugar from cookies, cakes and sweets as well. Many a time, we would have a glazed look watching mindless Cantonese musical concerts on government tv channels, then known as RTM1 and RTM2. Later, my grandparents discovered the joys of the video machine, and mindless Hong Kong Cantonese serial dramas was all we could watch. To wear off all the sugar, our parents would dump us upstairs to bounce from wall to wall, maybe to play cards, scare each other with ghost stories or just whack each other until we collapse in exhaustion.

Watching tv

The TV
I have a theory why my parents allowed us to "coked up" in sugar. It's not that they want us to drink these "poisons" because, think about it, it made us hyper, it made us unreasonable, it made us little terrors who made hell seem like a fun holiday place.

No.

I think, back then, my parents were just plain too tired to stop us. You see, every year, they had to drive 10 hours from Kelantan to Seremban through small winding roads to visit my grandparents with 3 lovely but ultimately stir crazy, yapping kids in a very small car by today's standards.

Fun stuff.

And on good days, the trip may even take up to 16 hours, many times because we were stuck behind slow moving vehicles or because of the endless pee stops. Now that I have kids of my own, I can imagine what a torture it was. See, in those days, there were no DVDs in cars. No air conditioning units. My dad would crank up his favourite Jim Reeves yodeling cowboy songs to drown out our voices squirming, crying, bored-out-of-our-minds throughout that mind numbing journey.

Oh joy!

I'm surprised my mum didn't turn bonkers from all that noise and complaints. I'm surprised my dad never uttered a curse word .... right till today, though mum did once or twice finally screamed .... SIT. DOWN. NOW.

There were no seat belts then.

I suppose they just grinded their teeth and accept this annual journey through hell as their karma! Now that I have kids of my own, I understand. Even a 3 hour trip to a shopping mall feels so exhausting. If I was in their shoes, believe me, all I would do is to sleep for the rest of the holiday and not come out from the bedroom. OK, maybe come out occasionally for some air, sustenance, beer and brandy. Who wants to deal with kids high on sugar and nothing much else after a long arduous journey?

So, where was I?

Oh yes, CNY.

Sugar.

The fact was, sugar did nobody any favors. Not for the kids, not for the adults.

During CNYs, my paternal grandparents would offer orange cordial and orange squash drinks to visitors who come for a visit. It's an auspicious thing, you know, and anything out of a bottle was an easy drink to make when you have like a hundred visitors to entertain during the first week of CNY. But the problem, as we now know, orange cordial is nothing more than sugar and artificial flavorings pack full of "chemical goodness". Frankly, those orange juice packs we get at the cold food section at the local supermarket aren't that great either. Some contain high fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners as well as artificial colors and preservatives. Many of the pesticides used for growing the fruit are in fruit juice as well, and in concentrated forms. By the way, not all fruit juices sold are 100% juice. If you look at some of the juice boxes, you will notice that many use reconstituted concentrate juice. That's really complicated English, isn't it? What it simply means is that those stuff are nothing more than processed drinks. Also, 100% organic bottled or boxed fruit juice that you find in health food stores is still pasteurized and stripped of most of the valuable nutrients and enzymes of fresh juice. What's left? Sugar! And don't let me start on my childhood favorite frizzy canned orange soda like F&N Orange or Mirinda Orange. All these sugary drinks are just totally bad for everyone's teeth, and can really spike the body's insulin levels.

I'm pretty sure the answer to the above is fresh, raw juice. Alternatively, there are raw, dried herbal teas that we can all serve as fabulous, fresh tasting teas. Easy to make, doesn't really need sugar of you use quality stuff. Let the fragrance and taste of the tea speak for itself.

But in those days, nobody knew what we know today. But since I do know, I'm cranking up my new blender this month. This baby can pulverize a carrot. Really awesome! My eldest kid and my niece think they are drinking juiced carrot when in reality, they are drinking the entire carrot, with the pulp, together with some flax seed thrown in to boost the drink's nutritional value!

Cool right?

Don't think I won't drink any soda, mind you. I will, cause I love them, and it's really hard to shake off this childhood comfort food, if you may. I'll just drink it in moderation.

So what's your drinks menu during a festive holiday?

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

START OF NEW YEAR HEALTH CHECK LIST

2009-01-04T12:04:00.000+08:00

One mother on a raw food thread had an excellent health check list which she use to check the state of her child health. You could use this list for yourself, and your family as well.

Here's what she says:

There are some key indicators of an individual's health status that are quick and simple to check and help us to monitor our own health.

I've been teaching these gems of knowledge to my 7 yo son in order to help him learn to monitor his own health and teach him about the importance of eating food high in essential nutrients.

Here's a list below that I have trained him to look out for.

* Colour of wee (dark and dull means dehydrated, pale yellow and bright is good).
* Whites of the eyes (cloudy and yellow, dull, or bloodshot means not healthy, clear and white is good).
* Poo (easy to come out means good, at least once a day for poo is healthy).
* Tongue (white and furry is not good, clear and pink is good).
* Buzzy head, irritation (too much sugar, not enough sleep, need to eat something).

(Note: Some parts have been edited out for a better read)

Jasmin says:

This is an excellent, simple and effective indicator of one's health. I used to remember my mum marveling at how clear and bluish the whites of my eyes were when I was a kid. But they just look dull yellow and bloodshot nowadays. I really need more sleep and more structured exercise, which I will do once my baby is a bit older. What about your eyes?

I've also talked about poo previously. Before I had my kids, I never was into poo. We all go to toilet, and we get out of the smelly toilet as fast as possible, right? As kids, my brothers and I thought loud farts was a real fun thing to do, to aggravate adults. And the boys in the school bus used to fart, cup some smelly fart in their fists and toss the smell over to the nearest girl for kicks. But heck, now, stools are something I check on ... every single day. My eldest son went for 7 days without pooing even once as a breastfed baby, and every adult in family just went into a frenzied fear. I quote my husband's friend, "I never thought I'd be so interested in poo until I had my kid". Yup, as we grow older, poo is an important, if not fascinating, aspect of our daily lives. Of you want to know more about stools, go to this link if you have not read about it http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/identify-your-stools.html

Our tongue is also an important indicator of our diet. Certainly I have noticed that my tongue gets all fuzzy and more smelly when I eat more meat, more unhealthy food, more sugar and less raw, fresh fruits and vegetables. A little bit of fuzzy stuff is generally ok. But a very furry tongue is often not fine - especially if it's a thick and cheesy-looking white fur coating. Scrape a fingernail across your tongue and look at the path it carves. If you see a big groove, it could mean you have a serious problem. And one of the symptoms of a serious Candida overgrowth is very fuzzy tongue. Candida can cause a lot of health problems. If you think you have candida, please read 2 excellent article on this http://www.consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc096/candida0906.html and http://www.worldwidehealthcenter.net/articles-31.html. Also, please see your doctor to get a proper diagnosis, cut out all sugars, cut out food that has yeast in it and eat lots of yogurt to reintroduce good bacteria into your gut asap. Also, really important to show this email to your loved ones who have recently been battling bad breath. Let them read this, and see if they have a Candida problem.

Have a good year ahead and good health to you!

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

YOUR NEW YEAR TO-DO LIST?

2009-01-04T07:58:00.004+08:00

Year after year, at the start of the year I make it to check my new year to-do list. Stuff that I need to do once a year or once every couple of years.

At the start of the year, I will check my driver's license to see if it needs renewal. I also do the same for my passport, otherwise, I can't travel if it's expired! I look at my important documents because these puppies only get renewed roughly every 5 years, and I tend to forget about them. I tried to make reminders inside my phone calender or email calenders, but ya know, phones tend to break down roughly every few years and email addresses with calenders do get cancelled because somehow, insidious spammers will find ways to attack these email addresses, yada, yada, yada, and when that happens, all the reminders are gone. So I make it a point to just remember these stuff in my head and to tackle them head on at the start of every year.

The other thing I do is visit my dentist at the start of every year. I dislike visiting dentists, because I hate pain, and the thought of having something drilled or pulled out just make me nauseous. Luckily, I only had one teeth pulled, and that was when I was 7. My teeth has been in excellent condition, touch wood! But having said that, I like my dentist because he is really gentle. I go there, have a thorough check up, have my teeth cleaned, get rid of all the unseen, can't reach plaque and then go home and floss my teeth carefully for the rest of the year.

What's your yearly to-do list? Might as well do it now. The present time is always the best time. All the better if you are still on holiday from work.

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

ps forward this email to your loved ones as a reminder to update their to-do list as well

RIDICULOUSLY EASY WAY TO PREVENT GERMS

2009-01-02T00:01:00.003+08:00

We are always reminded not to share toothbrushes, but I have never been told not to share toothpaste. But recently, this got me thinking because the flu was going around, and I just could not figure out why my family was reinfecting each other. Luckily, with good raw food, most of us recovered quickly from this nasty flu, kids barely sneezed, thank goodness.

Anyways, back to the toothpaste, I realised, we kept touching the toothbrushes that had all those nasty germs with the tube of toothpaste shared among us all.

Eureka!

So, I came up with a simple solution of squeezing a bit of the toothpaste on my clean finger and then spreading the toothpaste on the toothbrush. Problem solved!

Try this if you have the same germ problem as my family did.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps it's advisable to soak the toothbrushes in some bleach solution every once in a while to kill the germs (I use trusty Clorox), and to throw the toothbrushes away when the bristles turn wonky.

pps I know holidays are the time lots of family members and friends come to visit and stay over; Chinese New Year is around the corner. It's really a good time to stock up on small tubes of toothpaste to share with those who stay over. The cost is way cheaper than trying to medicate you and your family if you guys get sick right?

HEALTHY GREEN NEW YEAR RESOLUTION!

2009-01-01T21:26:00.004+08:00

So, have you decided what your new year resolution for this year yet?

Whatever it is, please make your health a priority. One of the ways is to gently add more raw greens to your diet. It's really not that difficult.

One of the ways I do this is to plant an onion in my garden once a month. I take a green onion stalk and cut it into fine pieces to put into my kids' food. They hardly notice it, has a nice pleasant taste to it and it's good for them. I use up plenty of these greens which is why I plant them often! They don't take up that much space in the garden, and it looks pretty cute in an Ikea flower pot if you decide to plant it inside your home.

The other thing I do is to make chlorophyll drinks. I often take a Pandan leaf and blend it with a jug of water. I then sieve out the blended leaf. The jug of blended juice is put into the fridge for anyone to drink. One leaf is not a lot, and it has a mild sweet taste, easy to make, and easy to wash the blender components up. By the way, other alternatives are Pegaga leaf and Basil leaf. Green juice do not break down as fast as fruit juices. They can last up to 2 days in the fridge, if you don't add any sweetener to the juice. We drink them like water in my home, and we always finish them before the day is over.

Have a great new year. I know we all deserve it.

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

YOUR LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING?

2008-12-23T19:21:00.008+08:00

Christmas is just a few days away, and you STILL have not completed your shopping yet? Try this website for unique and quirky gifts AND do something good as well. Part of the proceeds from the sales will go to help the people at www.kiva.org start up their own small business and improve their quality of life.

So even if you have done your Christmas shopping, please bookmark the website and go back and buy something there in the future. These really cute gifts are great for birthdays; there's some excellent notebooks that will look nice on your office colleague's table, perhaps some pretty earrings (original works of art may I add, and unique to boot) for your sister or a girlfriend, or maybe a special painting to hang on your wall which really makes great conversational piece.

Go and see more at

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5101743

Happy holidays.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps please forward the link to your friends and ask them to buy something and help a community at the same time.

$10 OFFICE CHRISTMAS PRESENT CHALLENGE

2008-12-17T00:31:00.005+08:00

No money to buy presents? Why not make your own?

I was listening to the radio just the other day while dropping my little son at school when I heard a guy bragging to the radio DJs that he decided to be an office Scrooge last year. You see, every year, his entire office staff would each buy a $10 Christmas gift, and place all these gifts together, do a draw and people would pick up a gift based on the number they pull out of a hat .. or a box.

Anyways, instead of buying something meaningful as the office Christmas present, he decided to just grab a bag of sugar from his mother's kitchen, wrap it up in newspaper, tie it with kitchen string and dump it under the fake plastic Christmas tree at the reception area. I think that's just terrible, terrible attitude. I'm sure many of you guys have this tradition at the office so you would know how the recipient of the awful gift felt!

I believe it's better not to give, than to give in such bad manner. He could have just opt out gracefully, but nah. But ok, what if he was on a very tight budget? We all are nowadays. It IS possible to give a meaningful gift which will not cost you $10, but is worth much, much more to the other person in value.

Take the sugar present for example. He could have just put the sugar into a nice manly looking glass jar and stick a couple of Cinnamon sticks (kayu manis) inside for fragrance. Perfect gift for the office coffee drinkers who love Cinnamon flavored coffee first thing in the morning (and we know quite a few coffee addicts don't we!), and really, does not cost much at all, and is so easy to make. Great for tea drinkers who like their chai with Cinnamon and milk too!

It IS possible to bring cheer and joy, even if your budget is less than $10. The point is to find something that is practical, usable and thoughtful.

One of the great DIY gift ideas from Erica

Really, there's lots of creative ways to stretch your dollar ..... just needs that little bit of imagination. If you need some ideas to crank up your creative juices, just visit http://lovelydiy.wordpress.com/ to see how Erica does it.

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

GO ECO FOR YOUR LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY GIFTS

2008-12-16T11:48:00.001+08:00

A present wrapped in a discarded flyer.

Christmas is just around the corner. There's some great, last minute, thoughtful gifts you can get for people, and it's not hard to obtain.

Just 2 weeks ago, I bought some really super tasty, organic, natural, unheated (raw) honey from a young boy who collects honey from the jungles of Pahang with his dad. Since his family collects from all sorts of beehives, the taste of the honey for different bottles are not the same, but that's ok. Really, that's the beauty of pure food. Some of the honey are white and cloudy, others are light in color, and some are really dark. Better than some of the commercial ones out there, which are mixed with coloring, sugar and artificial flavorings, diluted with water to keep the honey looking all the same. Think about it. How do they get these honey looking uniform? Worse, much of the honey commercial honey we buy is also heated, thus destroying some health giving benefits like enzymes and vitamins.

But back to the bottles of honey I bought from Mat.

I just wrap up these awesome bottles of pure goodness like the way I would wrap bottles of wine as gifts for people who I think would really enjoy them. I feel good too because I'm helping Mat and his family earn some honest living. You see, as soon as they collect enough of this jungle honey and filter them into glass bottles, Mat will lug these heavy syrupy golden liquid (and they are extremely heavy, take my word for it), catch a bus really early in the morning and journey a few hours into Kuala Lumpur to look for customers to buy his produce at the neighborhood market.

I tried to wrap the honey up to show how it'll look like but I now realize I'm pretty crappy when it comes to decorating stuff, so I may pay a young neighbor if she would consider wrapping some of my stuff for me. She really does some beautiful pieces, so it's really win-win for us all. Mat and his family get some income from the sale of the honey. The teenager gets some pocket money to spend for Christmas. I get some gorgeous presents to give away.

Speaking of buying local and supporting the local industry, you could buy really interesting stuff if you look carefully. You could buy a wonderful rotan tikar (or a hand woven rattan mat) for a house decorating mad friend! You could buy them from some Malay markets. If you look carefully, you could also buy some bamboo woven baskets, handmade handbags or the songket (songket is a handwoven silk or cotton fabric that is intricately patterned with gold or silver threads.) .

Organic local fruits in cute local-made handwoven baskets would make great gifts. Buying local produce will reduce your carbon footprints. And going organic means you are helping the industry by not supporting pollution and farmers that use dangerous chemicals in their orchards. People love a great story, so include a little card in the basket with a note about where the fruits and the basket come from. If you know the farmer you buy the fruits from, just explain in the note who they are and how great they are to use organic farming methods. Lots of Australian organic products use this delightful method which allows the consumers to get to know who made and sell these products. I think it's really charming and thoughtful. I always wondered why we Malaysians and Singaporeans don't do it more often.

Cookies I bought from a small vendor at the Subang Parade flea market, but first, my kid has to test and approve before I can give them away as Christmas presents.

The other things most of us love are cookies, and around the holiday season, lots of women bake cookies to supplement their income. Here is our chance to help these small vendors out, and buy some delicious treats as gifts. The cookies shown in the picture above will look really festive once it's wrap it up with some beautiful violet organza ribbons leftover I'm going to recycle from my wedding decorations. The plastic packaging look a bit frosty because I just took them out of the fridge.

Talking about saving money AND reducing your carbon footprint, how about wrapping your gifts in unwanted flyers. I wrapped this gift using a McDonald's flyer I was about to throw away. Wrappers cost a pretty penny nowadays, so there's lots of savings to be made there. My camera doesn't do justice to the wrapping shown above, but it really looks cool, if I may say so myself. The idea didn't come from me. I saw a friend do this once before for her kid's birthday, and it looked really nice. She told me it really wasn't worth spending tons of money on wrapping her kid's presents because he was going to tear them to shreds in a matter of minutes. The joy he got was really from furiously tearing the paper apart to reveal the gift inside.

The next gift idea is homemade cut out coupons. They really do make excellent gifts for people on a shoe string budget. I'm really dying to receive one, especially those that offers free babysitting or free home cooked meals or free foot massages!

Go forth and reduce, reuse and recycle!

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

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

2008-12-14T21:27:00.004+08:00

Please watch this video. It's about how fur is cruelly harvested. Good to watch even if you don't wear fur, because it reminds us, out there, there are animals also in need of love and compassion.

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

ps I would like to to thank Moonshi Mohsenruddin, one of the members of the "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group for sharing this heart breaking video

BABY EATS VITAMIN C!

2008-12-10T23:49:00.008+08:00

Yummy sweet melons. Aren't they just gorgeous?

Yesterday I bought a whole big yummy hunk of honeydew melon from Tesco, and it only costs RM2.10. Feed the entire group of 5 adults, 2 toddlers and a baby. Not bad, not bad at all.

Honey dew melons are really good for everyone because it has lots of Vitamin C. I fed my baby the soft part of the melon, cut into really small pieces for him to "chew" as he has only 2 front teeth.

Honey dew melon also has potassium, good for people who has high blood pressure, and certainly good for my mum, because then she has other alternatives to cucumber that helps bring down her blood pressure. (Click here to find out how we help control my mum's high blood pressure with the help of a daily dose of cucumber juice)

Honeydew melon is a good source of folate as well, so it is good for pregnant women. Some Chinese women may not want to take it because they may believe it is a "cooling" fruit. I believe it's ok to take everything in moderation. The unborn child and the mother certainly needs the vitamins and the enzymes. I always believe a natural source of food is better than some synthetic pills any day!

Scooping out the melon seeds to be dried and eaten another day

The raw melon seeds. It's edible but gotta remove the seeds from the slimy pulp.

Here's a cool recipe for a honeydew melon milk. It's a very good milk alternative for children. It has lots of good fat in the seeds, lots of good enzymes. Good source of calcium too.

Raw Honeydew Melon Milk

- Blend the seeds from one honeydew melon with 3 cups of water.
- Strain as you would for nut milk, meaning strain the liquid in a nut milk bag, or use a very clean old pillowcase.
- Then put the liquid back in the blender with about 1 C of honeydew melon flesh, a bit of good vanilla extract (I use just a few drops for a hint of flavor), and 1 T of honey or any raw sugar (maybe not necessary if your honeydew melon is peak summer sweetness)

- Blend.

=============

Tips to reduce blood pressure

=============

Man follows sound of handphone to find dead son at Bukit Antarabangsa massive landslide

2008-12-06T21:10:00.004+08:00

Bukit Antarabangsa landslide victim Datuk Sharudin Adnan with his daughter Noreennur at HKL mortuary. Pic by AZMAN GHANI / The Star

Jasmin says: This is a classic example of greed over common sense. For years, the residents of Bukit Antarabangsa were campaigning to stop all hillside projects because the soil at this hilly area is very unstable. There has been numerous, numerous landslides. Lots of people have died in previous landslide, and now, this disaster has killed more people. What does it take to prevent the loss of life? Is life cheap?

And what's worse, a lot of people are still not moving out, maybe because they can't afford to buy another home, since they have sunk in so much of their money into this dream home of their. A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) lives at one of the apartments there said she's not leaving. She's confident that nothing will happen to her because she says her apartment is on top of a large bedrock. But the fact remains, there were a few mini landslides near her apartment, and the site of the current landslide is really too close for comfort.

Please read on

========================

Published: Saturday December 6, 2008 MYT 1:30:00 PM
Updated: Saturday December 6, 2008 MYT 8:03:45 PM

Taken from thestar.com.my
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/6/nation/20081206132932&sec=nation

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Shaharuddin Adnan had hoped for the best when he heard the ringing of his son’s mobile phone, but his hopes were dashed when all he saw was a hand sticking out from the rubble of his collapsed house holding the phone.

The 63-year-old retired businessman’s home was one of the many which were crushed by the landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa Saturday morning.

His son Shaiful Khas, 20, died in the incident. Also in his house at that time was his wife and a relative, both of whom survived the disaster.

Shaharuddin said everybody was on the top floor of his double-storey house except for his son, who was playing computer games downstairs.

“At about 3am, I heard him shout ‘Why is the house moving?’ Everything else was a blur, as the house started to fall apart and collapsed.

“When everything came to a stop, I found my wife and relative to be safe, but I could not locate Shaiful. So I decided to call him on his mobile phone and followed the ringing tone,” he said.

He found Shaiful buried under the rubble, with only his hand sticking out holding onto his mobile phone.

The rescue team came in with saws and other equipment to extract Shaiful, but he was already dead, said Shaharuddin.

Shaharuddin said he had noticed some earth movement in his housing area of late, as cracks started appearing in his fish pond.

“But they were minor, I did not think something like this would happen,” he said.

Engineer K. Thanarajah lost his wife Dr N. Yogeswary, 40, in the incident while his second son Thivesh, 10, suffered spinal injury.

Thanarajah fractured his arm, but his two other children escaped unhurt.

A relative said Yogeswary could have survived had she not rushed into Thivesh’s room to save the boy.

“Walls started crumbling, and the staircase broke, leaving them all stranded upstairs,” he said.

According to Kuala Lumpur Hospital deputy director (medical) Dr Laila Nor Ibrahim, 14 patients had been treated, with eight discharged already (as of 1pm Saturday).

She said those warded were in stable condition, including a three-month-old girl.

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========================

Published: Saturday December 6, 2008 MYT 1:30:00 PM
Updated: Saturday December 6, 2008 MYT 8:03:45 PM