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

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

RECYCLING TRASH THE EASY WAY

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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?

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

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!

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