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

MY CHILDHOOD FARMING EXPERIENCE

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

with mummy supervising, of course.

How adorable is this!

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

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



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


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



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

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


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


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

EATING HUMAN FLESH AS FOOD: SOYLENT GREEN THE MOVIE

Ever wondered if humans need to eventually eat dead human flesh to survive in this world? In 1973, a very interesting movie called Soylent Green addressed that issue. The movie talks about how overpopulation caused severe depletion of resources on our beautiful planet Earth. As a result, much of the population had to eat processed food rations. One of the processed food was called Soylent Green.

Unfortunately, what the gigantic Soylent Corporation didn't tell the consumers was that the special Soylent Green product was made from human flesh. Instead, they told the public that the small green wafer was made from high-energy plankton.

The movie was set in the year 2022. That's not too far away people. And today, we see all sorts of things quite relevant to the basic message in the story.

There are not enough food in certain parts of the world while rich nations have too much food. I just cringe when I read about chicken farmers burying innocent chicks alive just to create an artificial demand for more chicken meat (if there's a large demand for chicken, but not enough chicken to buy, the price of chicken will go up)

People are poisoning the food in the name of profits. The latest melamine milk fiasco comes to mind. If you haven't read about my posts about this problem, you can access it at the bottom of this post.

Companies are putting in genetically modified food into our food system, despite the fact that the majority of us do not agree to eating genetically modified food. Scientists are now reporting that genetically modified crops like corn and soy beans are cropping up all over the world. So you think you are not eating these foods? Think again. The only way to avoid them is to unfortunately buy the more expensive certified organic produce that are not genetically modified or grow your own food from seeds that are not genetically modified. It's really not a good thing when we have to look at what we consume this way. It should actually be the other way around. We should have food that are not genetically modified available to us at all times, and not even question the origin. It's like milk. We should not even worry about having basic fresh milk (with no additives, no added DHA, no added vegetable fats, no added coloring, no added sugar, and so on) and not worry if there are dangerous chemicals inside.
Lots of food has cancer causing agents used to preserve the food, and we are still eating them. Look at your food labels. You should be worried if you can't pronounce what's inside your food.

It seems like there are times we don't know what we actually eating.

So what are we to do?

Go back to the basics. Buy organic if you can. Buy local produce if you can. Plant your own food if you can like sprouts which are easy, easy to do.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group


ps if you are new to my posts, please read about how we can enrich depleted soil my making garbage enzymes
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-garbage-to-clean-your-plates-yes.html
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-garbage-enzyme.html
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/10/garbage-enzyme-photos-recycling-your.html

pps read more about Soylent Green inside http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

ppps I previously written about the melamine milk problem here.
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/dutch-lady-strawberry-flavoured-milk.html
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-china-dairy-products-to-avoid.html
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/does-your-biscuits-contain-melamine.html
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/bright-side-of-melamine-disaster.html

GARBAGE ENZYME PHOTOS (RECYCLING YOUR GARBAGE)

Dear Jasmin.

Here are some photos of the Garbage Enzyme process that we are trying out. We are just using all recycled materials namely milk bottles. We only started in the middle of September so will take some time yet. We have used orange and lemon skins, tea leaves and even vegetables or onion, garlic skins in the mix. I turn it upside down then open it for a few minutes each day. I used to stir it with a stick and then wash it but then a large army of ants came along and had a feast on the sugary stick. So I stopped using the stick and the ants went elsewhere for a free meal. It smells like oranges and lemons and I am using a mask before I open it. We used lemon skins from our lemon tree in the garden. We try to recycle as much as we can.

See ya,

Den o(~_0)o
Writing from Sydney






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Jasmin's Comments

The pictures are so cool. I have mine in round plastic containers, but I have not had the time to take pictures yet (need to get my butt off the chair and go get me some batteries). Check out Den's blog http://dentanarts.com, and drop him a note or be his friend in facebook! I'm sure he would love to know what people think of his crafts.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps if you have not read the previous eye-popping posts on what garbage enzymes can do for you, for example, zap your pimples away, clean your hair, clear dirt from your floor, improve your pet's health plus fertilize your plants then you must read about them here

http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/using-garbage-to-clean-your-plates-yes.html
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-garbage-enzyme.html