claire_58: (Default)
 

Americans know they are the greatest people of the greatest nation on earth. They may not know it innately but they are told from their very early years and they internalize this truth at a very early age. They tell themselves this constantly and they tell each other just as constantly. It is the air that they breathe and the water they drink. 

 

It is so obviously undeniably true that it seems like the world must be made up of 2 kinds of people: Americans and people who wish they were Americans. I mean why wouldn’t everyone else want to be American? They are the greatest people in the world. Everybody agrees. Everybody says so. Except . . . Canadians.

 

Canada is a conundrum in this respect. Here are people who live close by. Who are more like Americans than any other people on earth. Who speak the same language and share many of the same cultural traits. People who should know how great America is and how great it is to be American and yet  . . . and yet they don’t. Or maybe they just won’t admit it.

 

Canadians don’t want to be Americans. This is perplexing. Of all the people in the world they should be the most envious; the  most desirous of all the blessings of being American and yet they are not. They are not Americans and they seem to be quite happy about it. They are happy to not be Americans. And they are all kinds of other things things just as improbable, and suspicious. 

 

They are polite. They take pains to be polite and inoffensive. How weird is that? They are polite, helpful, and hospitable. In 2001 when the World Trade Center went down, Gander Newfoundland, a town with a population of just over 11,000, took in 6,600 stranded travellers from 38 American planes for 6 days and asked nothing in return.

 

They take care of each other too. They have free health care. They all pay so that even the poorest Canadians can go to a doctor any time they want. No one in Canada goes bankrupt because of medical expenses. No on has to start a Go Fund Me if they break a bone. Medical care for everyone comes out of their taxes and they are okay with it.

 

They believe in fair play. It was a Canadian, Brad Katsuyama, who figured out that high speed trading had effectively created a rigged Wall Street stock market. Rather than using the system to his own advantage, Katsuyama, an advocate for fair trading, set up a new Wall Street trading platform that simply eliminates the problem.

 

And yet for all of that they are deadly in war and fierce in defence of their sovereignty. The last time (first, last, and only time) the USA invaded Canada (The War of 1812) they came and burnt the Whitehouse down and then went home! 

They are incomprehensible. They don’t want to be Americans. They’ve never wanted to be Americans. During the Revolutionary War Canada, a British colony, was the refuge of the United Empire Loyalists. Canada was made of people who left the newly independent states because they didn't want to be Americans. 

They don’t want to be Americans at all.
They never have.
And they are happy about it.

 

 

 

claire_58: (Default)
The conversations on this week's Frugal Friday started some interesting reflections for me. Am I really as frugal as I think I am? Are there places where I will spend and will continue to spend until the product or service becomes unavailable to me? Where are the boundaries of what is "worth it" and what is just habit left-over from a lifetime of not thinking about those expenses? Do other values take precedence over thrift? Are there places where being extra-thrifty can make up for a few indulgences?

The two conversations where Deringolade's comment about using margarine for baking "Blackest of All Black Heresies" https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/303365.html?thread=52158469#cmt52158469 and the other was the conversation about dropping the smart phone or out of the cell phone system altogether. "Alternatives to Cell Phone Culture" from Dylan https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/303365.html?thread=52168197#cmt52168197

Both conversations caught my attention because neither are things I'm willing to consider in my own life. I chuckled at Deringolade's title because for me, as a life long granola-head, switching to margarine is indeed "heresy." In this case I value my health over my money. I'd rather skip the cookies altogether than use margarine in baking. There may still be debate about which is healthier but I made up my mind long ago. Butter is a natural product and margarine is high tech manufacturing process that damages the fat and leaves lots of chemical residues I don't want in my food.

I have adopted other thrifty strategies to reduce my need for butter. First, I don't bake very often, mainly because eating too much sugar is very bad for me and if I bake cookies I will eat them. I try to keep the baked goods for special occasions: Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays. Second, I'm extra-frugal about saving any animal fats from the meat we eat. I pour it off into jars and store it in the freezer until I need it. Almost all my cooking is done with animal fats that would otherwise be wasted. I do still use a bit of butter for sauces and veggies and even more rarely I use a bit of coconut oil. Deringolade's post has made me want to try "Maple Bacon Oatmeal" cookies with bacon fat but otherwise I will still be using butter when I'm baking.

The second conversation, about ditching your cell phone, also caught my attention, because it's another one I'm not willing to consider right now but have thought about many times in the last several years. Until recently I always got hand-me-down cell phones from relatives who were up grading. The last two were refurbished phones I bought from a company that specializes in repair and resale of personal electronics. Both were very affordable older models. I trashed the first one pretty quickly. I can't remember how but it was definitely phone abuse not faulty equipment. The second has lasted for a long time and I will probably buy another one from the same company when it dies if I can.

I don't use a phone as a hand held computer. I refuse to download apps most of the time it's just an expensive pocket watch. So I have to ask myself why I keep it. I could probably get along without it. I like the map function. I've never been very good about finding my way around. I know there are work arounds. I used to look up the route on the computer and make notes of the important cross roads etc. I could go back to doing that but I've also found that having maps available to me while I'm out has saved me lots of distress. Approaching strangers and asking for directions seems to have gone from a fairly normal thing to do to an unwarranted imposition.  As others have mentioned being able stay in contact with home when I'm out is certainly a plus. About the only other things I do are take pictures and use the timer/alarm/stopwatch functions.

So the question remains. No answer yet but we'll see.
claire_58: (Default)
These are all the variations on the theme contributed in response to Clay Dennis' comment (#84) on  the August 4 essay on ecosophia.net . I'm sorry I didn't record the names of the commenters.
https://www.ecosophia.net/the-nibelungs-ring-5-the-early-philosophy

The original from Clay Dennis:
Science is Real

Black Lives Matter

No Human is illegal

Love is Love

 

Faith is real

What lives matters

No law is human

Talk is talk.

… or …

Science is religion

Colours are constructs

Law is not morality

TSW

… or …

Wotan is real

The ring matters

No opera is a put on

Wagner is Wagner

 

Cthulhu is Real

Eldritch Lives Matter

No Shoggoth is Illegal

Madness is Madness

 

Peak oil is real

Resource limits matter

No civilization is immortal

Decline is decline


In This House We Believe
Philosophy Begins In Wonder
The Soul Is the Form of the Body
A Friend Is Another Self
Metaphysics Is Real
Virtue Is Everything

Tautologies are tautological

 

Philosophy begins with Love

Wisdom recognizes its ignorance

The Truth is beyond mans understanding

But ideas can still be useful

 

In this narrow house we believe

*Undead lives matter

*The blood is the life

*Science is what the Master says

*Freedom is obedience

*Don’t buy the lie: not all must die

*They travel fast who travel with the dead.

 

In this house we believe

Bigfoot is real

I am going to kiss him

He will be my lover

I will be the little spoon

Me and Bigfoot will f***

And you can’t stop us

 

 In this house we believe that:
simplistic platitudes
trite tautologies
and semantically overloaded aphorisms
are poor substitutes
for respectful and rational discussions
about complex issues.

In this house we believe

Trump won the debate against David Muir

Kamala Harris was a terrible moderator

 

In this house we believe

Whatever Mama says

Go on

Ask her

Politely

claire_58: (Default)
 "Sleep" is coming up on my list of topics but in the meantime I'll leave this here. I'm not a user of pharmaceuticals so I have no comment on the drug that's being recommended but the other information and suggestions are good.
Sweet dreams.

A Midwestern Doctor on Sleep
www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-fdas-war-against-sleep




claire_58: (Default)
 The culture of sun-phobia that has developed in WEIRD (Western Educated Industrial Rich Developed) countries in last few decades is a case study of the failure of reductionist science. Sun avoidance has a huge negative impact on health and immunity. The conventional wisdom on how to protect ourselves from “sun-damage” has only compounded the problem.

 

In their book “The Hunter-Gatherers Guide to the 21st Century” Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein make a compelling case that “hyper-novelty” is the predominate experience of life in the WEIRD world. (There are many things that support this. The levels of industrial pollutants we have to contend with is a case in point. claire-58.dreamwidth.org/6654.html) One of the most ubiquitous and unregarded instances of hyper-novelty is our habit of spending the vast majority of our time indoors.

 

Near Infra-Red Radiation

 

The upward ticks in the chronic health conditions that are so widespread in the modern world closely follow the shifts to indoor work and especially the changes in artificial lighting. Tracking the early changes is difficult. The early industrial period is fraught with public health issues as people where forced off the land and into urban slums with absolutely appalling living conditions. (See Dissolving illusions : disease, vaccines and the forgotten history / Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk.) The development of artificial light that made shift work possible, introduces another variable. A quick internet search shows that the negative impacts of shift work on health are widely recognized.

 

However the correlation between indoor work/artificial light  and chronic health problems remains strong. Upticks in chronic disease mark the shift form incandescent lights to “cool” florescent light and the subsequent shift  to LED’s. The widespread conversion to florescent lights (despite the toxic mercury that makes the end of life disposal problematic) and eventually LED’s was spurred by the drive for “greener” lighting. Energy and cost are still the main drivers of the shift to LEDs.(https://www.lightingtutor.com/pros-and-cons-of-led-lights/)  

 

Incandescent light bulbs are less energy efficient because they produce heat and light. The “waste” heat is Near Infrared Radiation (NIR). NIR is outside the visible spectrum but it has a myriad of health benefits. For more on this see Heather Heying’s Natural Selections “It’s Dark Inside Your Head” (https://substack.com/@naturalselections/p-115513014)   Sunshine; firelight, and incandescent light bulbs are all sources of NIR. Unlike the UV light that stimulates vitamin D production on our skin, NIR can penetrate clothing and body tissue. The fabulous feeling of soaking up the winter sunshine familiar to Northerners is NIR not Vitamin D. 

 

Ultra-Violet Light

 

The driving factor of our current sun-phobia is ultraviolet light. UV light, also invisible to our eyes, is at other end of the visible spectrum. The two forms that are of interest are UVA and UVB. The third type, UVC, is blocked by the ozone layer*. Both forms stimulate tanning; the activation of melanin in the skin to produce your own sunscreen. 

 

Internet sites that dispense medical wisdom for laypeople grudgingly admit that UVB stimulates Vitamin D production on the skin and that this has some health benefits while endlessly repeating the conventional wisdom about the necessity of chemical sunscreens when strict sun avoidance is impossible. These same medical experts vigorously debunk the idea that sunscreen can block vitamin D producing UV rays. Meanwhile the lists of vitamin D deficiency symptoms itemized in other popular health sites read like a litany common chronic health issues from low mood and lack of energy, to binge eating and sleeplessness, to brain fog and persistent weight gain.

 

Unfortunately the almost ubiquitous use of chemical sunscreens in the last several decades has had no beneficial impact whatsoever. Skin cancer rates have risen steadily since the 1970’s. Search “increase in skin cancer over the years” and go to “images” and you will find a variety of graphs that show the rise.  You may also come across a graph that shows the death rate from skin cancer compared to the diagnosis of skin cancer. The death rate, alway low, has been dropping slightly. The diagnostic rate has risen precipitously. 

 

The jump from UV exposure to skin cancer that concludes with “must use sunscreen” is another failure of reductionist science. The rise in skin cancer correlates with the increase in time spent in indoors under artificial light and to the shift to nutritionally poor highly processed chemically laden foods and to many of the other changes in how we live that have happened since the early 1970’s. Not only has none of this been investigated, there is a complete lack of concern, or even curiosity, about the effects of repeatedly dousing ourselves in a variety of novel chemical cocktails to protect ourselves from the evilly, evil sun.

 

My personal approach has been to adopt a style of dress that mimics the traditional dress of people who live in hot countries: good coverage with loose cool clothing and a broad brimmed hat. I avoid being out in the heat of the day if I can but I also try to get some actual UV exposure when the sun is not at it's apex. Sun exposure early in the season stimulates melanin production. Later in the season when the sun isn't so intense I try to build up my stores of vitamin D. I live in a cold temperate climate. I know my approach might not work for those who live in more sun-drenched places.

 

Natural Sun Products and Skin Care

 

It’s best to keep some kind of after sun remedy on hand. The absolutely worst thing to do if you have sunburn is reach for a commercial moisturizer. Applying a potentially toxic chemical brew to sun damaged skin cells is like a one-two punch that may have disastrous consequences.

 

Aloe vera gel is a well known remedy for burns that works great as an after-sun moisturizer. There are many other botanical body care products that have sun-protective properties as well. You won’t necessarily find them labelled as such. I don’t know about other parts of the world but in Canada there are a few officially recognized chemicals that are given an SPF rating. The restrictive regulations governing the sale of “medicinal” products a huge disincentive to making health claims for skin creams and lip balms. (Note: “natural” body care products may contain some of the same sketchy chemicals as their mainstream counterparts.)

 

Antioxidant rich botanicals like calendula, rose hips, sea buckthorn, and pomegranate are easily identified by their deep, rich, vibrant colour. They can be made into simple oil infusions or combined with aloe vera and a few drops of lavender essential oil to make a DIY combo for both before and after sun exposure. A little added Vitamin E will keep your blend shelf stable and add a bit of extra antioxidant protection.

 

Enjoy the Sun

 

There is every reason to reject the idea that the sun is dangerous. If you have fair skin and live in a hot country you will need to be more careful.  White skin is an adaption that increases Vitamin D production at low UV levels and it can’t take the intensity of the tropical sun. If you have dark skin and live in the temperate zone the challenge may be getting enough sun. Dark skin is an adaptation to intense sunlight. The low light levels in the temperate zone can cause serious problems with Vitamin D deficiency. No matter what your situation getting outside is good for your health and there are simple strategies and practices that will net the most benefits and minimize the risks. Enjoy!

 

*If you live in the southern hemisphere the thinning of the ozone layer may be a real concern. We have never previously been exposed to UVC and have not evolved any natural defences against it.

 

claire_58: (Default)

I’ve had the Cobb cooker (https://mycobb.ca/) for close to 3 months now but I haven’t cooked on it very much. We have a solar oven, we’ve had for several years now, and it really is our go to cooking method when it’s sunny. 

 

I’m not an experienced barbecue/grill cook. I briefly had a hibachi grill in the late 1990’s. Other than quite a bit of campfire cooking, I’ve only cooked with electric stoves and small appliances. Not many of recipes in my repertoire are a good match for cooking with charcoal. 

 

Charcoal starts with a blast of high heat that has a long slow cool down. There is no easy way to control or adjust the heat. Figuring out how to use that pattern has been a challenge for me. It’s been difficult to find information for using it to cook the way I do, i.e., starting with ingredients rather than packaged food. I would appreciate any tips or recipes anyone wants to share.

 

The Cobb isn’t really a grill or a barbecue although you can certainly do both with it. It has a grill rack and a shallow teflon frying pan as well as a deep dish stainless steel frying pan/wok and a non-stick cake pan for baking. So far I’ve mostly used the deep dish frying pan for cooking and the cake pan for quick bread.

 

What I’ve learned so far:

 

  1. Use much more charcoal than you think you need. Charcoal is a relatively affordable fuel. For longer cooking, add more charcoal as soon as the fuel is well started and you are ready to cook. It’s fairly easy to add charcoal while cooking but it’s difficult to judge when to add it to make sure it catches. I expect I will become a better judge of how much I need in time. Note: As long as it’s not “self lighting”* spent charcoal can be added to compost or dumped directly into a garden bed.
  2. Have all ingredients completely defrosted and close to room temperature. Cooking with the lid off really drops the temperature of the cooking surface (see point 1 above), using partially thawed food without being able to crank the heat as you can do on an electric stove drops the temperature even further and slows down the cooking drastically.  
  3. Give yourself some flexibility on when dinner will be served. There’s a reason why barbecues tend to be social events with everyone sitting around drinking and chatting. The cooker needs constant attendance (this will also likely be less of an issue as I become more experienced) and timing depends on too many variables (outdoor temperature, wind, cloud cover, volume of fuel etc) to really be predicable.
  4. When baking,  follow recommended baking times and monitor it closely. Putting the baking in right away, when the charcoal is hot, can get the bottom and sides cooked more than you’d want. As far as I can tell this is due to the fact that, unlike an electric oven, it’s strictly bottom heat. I haven’t yet tried baking with the residual heat after I’ve cooked something else. That will be my next experiment.

 

For now the solar oven will still probably be our preferred outdoor cooking method in sunny weather. It’s not as flexible as the Cobb but it can be set up and left to cook while we do other things. It only needs periodic checks and adjustment.  

 

The Cobb is a redundancy that will allow me to cook outdoors in cloudy weather and in power outages which typically occur during the winter when it’s rainy and overcast. The variety of cooking styles possible on the Cobb are also appealing. Expanding my cooking repertoire is always inspiring. Cooking can get boringly repetitive sometimes. I haven’t yet tried “potjie”, a traditional African method of making one pot meals that seems to be well suited to cooking with charcoal.

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(Water is an enormous topic; a powerful elemental; a relentless force of nature; and the limiting factor in all biological systems. There is no one thing that shows the inextricable connection between our health and the health of our planet. Nothing that demonstrates how much we are one small piece of a gigantic whole system. Nothing that shows so clearly how anything we do to our world we do to ourselves. 

 

Confining the discussion to the context of physical health and immunity, as I have attempted to do here, has been a challenge. Water is bigger and more important than any container we can use to confine it. This is just one tiny portion of subject that can easily fill and overflow numerous essays, books, and even libraries.)

 

Getting enough clean water to maintain good health and strong immunity presents more than one unique challenge. Apparently, human beings have a very poor sense of thirst compared to other animals. Talking, our uniquely human communication strategy, requires a well lubricated throat and mouth. This means relying on our sense of thirst is not practical. By the time we feel thirsty we are probably already dehydrated. Additionally, thirst is often misperceived as hunger or, sometimes, even sleepiness. 

 

The ultimate challenge is there is no source of “clean” water.* The water quality available to us today is a clear indiction of the slide down from peak industrialization. In the 1960’s and 70’s when I was growing up, it was taken for granted that you could turn on the tap anywhere and get potable water. Murmurs of concern about water quality started circulating in the late 70’s. Chlorine, at first, then in the mid 80’s, seemingly endless referenda on fluoridation abruptly ended when they finally returned a “yes.” 

 

Today, in many places in North America, the tap water is absolutely undrinkable. In most others the “potable” water is a toxic stew of chlorine, fluoride, and water soluble plastics used as clarifying agents to precipitate particulate matter. If you are fortunate enough to live at a high elevation the rainwater is likely as good as it gets anywhere on the planet. Not clean but cleaner. 

 

No matter where you are, if you are setting up your own water supply, rainwater is a better choice than surface water or ground water.  However wells are still the easiest and most common method of providing water in rural areas. Setting up a rain catchment system is likely to be a DIY project and in some areas there are legal barriers that limit this option. 

 

If you are dependant on municipal water, as most of us are, getting a domestic water purification system is one of the best investments you can make in your health. Domestic systems, especially those that include comprehensive multiple filtrations required to eliminate both chemical and biological contaminants are expensive but in terms of maintaining personal health they are well worth it. 

 

There are multiple options available and the internet is full of information about systems ranging from high tech to primitive, including many DIY options. Low tech systems typically address the sediments and biological pathogens but have limited effectiveness against industrial pollutants. Some of the tests using living plant materials have shown amazing results for clarifying and eliminating pathogens. Unfortunately they haven’t done the tests for chemical contaminants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSBwJNDDUfc&t=34s

 

Boiling water, the simplest purification method, is problematic in the context of industrial toxins, because the water, and anything with a higher evaporation point, boils off while pollutants with a lower evaporation point become more concentrated. Distillation catches the evaporated water but any pollutant that evaporates sooner also likely condenses sooner as well and it will be reincorporated into the “pure” water. 

 

Distilled water is devoid of minerals and drinking water that is too pure can have a devastating effect on your electrolyte balance. Sugary electrolyte drinks are not the best solution if strong immunity is the goal; sugar is an immune suppressant. Fruit juice isn’t ideal either. Juicing concentrates the fruit sugars; the fibre and other important nutrients are lost in the pulp. Making lemonade and using diluted fruit juices, or herb and juice combinations, in summer coolers works well.

 

Teas and broth soups are much better choices. Drinking “tea”, real tea from the tea plant has many well documented health benefits. Other “teas,” infusion of herbs or herb combination, are not as well documented and each herb and herb combination has it’s own properties. Mint is extremely common and popular and there are many other widely used herbal teas. The trick is to avoid the ones that rely on heavy doses of added sugar (real or artificial) to make them palatable.

 

The amount of water you need to stay hydrated and maintain effective detoxification and elimination is going to vary depending on your  size, your activity level, and the ambient temperature. Obviously if you are working hard in the heat, you’ll need more water. Many other things, even how much talking you do, can vary your water requirements.

 

You’ll need more water if you are eating heavy, concentrated food. A meal of meat and potatoes or pasta and cheese is going to require more digestive fluids to process than soup, salad, or stir fry. A diet that is heavy in sugar, salt, coffee, alcohol, and processed food is going to increase the need for water.

 

Sugar, salt, and fat are ubiquitous in processed food. The evolutionary reward system that makes us crave them has been subverted to sell us nutritionally deficient chemically laden fake food. This reward system has no “off switch” and when the reward is delivered without the nutrients it is intended to flag, it  leaves us wanting more and more.

 

Refined sugar whether it is cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup contains none of the nutrients our bodies need to process it. It has an immediate detrimental effect on the immune system and, since it also causes a immediate spike and subsequent drop in blood sugar levels, just about the time your immune system is recovering the craving for another sugary snack sets in.

 

Alcohol is liquid sugar as far as the immune system and blood sugar are concerned. It’s also an extra burden on the liver. In the context of  the toxic overload we carry and it’s impact on the immune system, overloading the liver is the worst thing to do. 

 

Alcohol and coffee are both diuretics too. More water will be needed to dilute them and to make up for the extra water losses. The “need” for an afternoon coffee is deceiving. Early afternoon naps or siestas is a universal behaviour pattern among non-human primates and among most humans as well. 

 

Salty snacks also mess with the body’s water requirements. The kidneys respond to hormones signalling too much salt by reabsorbing water. Reabsorbing water increases the probability that water soluble toxins will also be drawn back into the system. Water lost sweating or talking can also trigger the kidneys to increase water conservation. 

 

The need for water increases when the dietary salt is excessive but a consistently high salt level in food reduces our ability to detect salt. The tastebuds become less sensitive and more is needed for food to register as salty. Obviously, salt consumption adequate for working in the heat will be excessive when you are sitting and relaxing but your tastebuds won’t be able to track that easily when your overall salt consumption is high.

 

So how much water do we need? Tricky. The standard recommendation of 8 glasses of water a day is probably a good baseline for people in the temperate zone: about 2 litres with additional water from food and other beverages. If your urine is darkly coloured or has a strong smell, drink more water. If your joints are creaky in the morning, drink water. If you feel thirsty or have a salty taste in your mouth, drink water. 

 

Make water your beverage of choice. Toast your good health and immunity; drink water.

 

 

 

* There is a wealth of information about using biological systems for bioremediation and restoration of water. The work of John Todd https://www.toddecological.com/ and his former wife Nancy Jack Todd https://www.oceanarksint.org/ have documented an abundance evidence of the effectiveness of biological systems for repair and restoration. Todd’s work, a lifetime of active development and deployment of biological systems for municipal and industrial waste water treatment, is inspirational.  

Premier mycologist Paul Stamets, author of  the book “Mycelium Running,” has developed fungal filtration systems for point source pollution from agriculture and investigated the myco-remediation of oil spills and toxic waste dumps. 

Another excellent resource on bioremediation is the book “Earth Repair: a grassroots guide to healing toxic landscapes” by Leila Darwish.

claire_58: (Default)
 

A question on JMG’ covid open post about how to address bird flu using herbs and alternative health practices started me on a series of posts about the basic practices for building and maintaining a strong immune system. Having finished my musings on food, I was going to moving on to water this week but a few comments on the Covid open post https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/287066.html?thread=49752922#cmt49752922 has made me decide to shift gears a bit and talk about the immune system. 

 

To be clear this is for those of us who glaze over when the conversation shifts to IgG4 and ACE receptors. It’s a simplified overview of how it works and what it needs to do. If you have better information or can offer a clearer explanation of anything I mention I’m happy to refine my understanding. Please share it in the comments.

 

A couple of points before I begin. First, I don’t like mechanist and militarist metaphors for the living world but I do use them. They work because they take systems that are mind bogglingly complex and reduce them to simple ideas that are easy to express. They are metaphors not realistic descriptions. 

 

Second, it is impossible to actually separate the “immune system” from the “digestive system” or the “circulatory system” of any of the other systems that contribute to the functionality of a living body. This separation is entirely artificial. It’s another way to simplify talking about a complex, interrelated, and indivisible whole. 

 

Many other organs and systems are involved in maintaining good immune function. All the body surfaces inside and out have ways of defending us against pathogens, allergens, and parasites. The digestive system keeps pathogens and incompletely digested food particles that trigger the allergy response out. The lungs and sinuses physically trap pathogens in mucus and coughs and sneezes get them out. The  muscles, bones, and thymus are involved in producing immune cells. The liver, the blood  . . . it goes on and on.

 

Fighting off pathogens, that is, mounting a defence against infection, is only the immune system's most obvious function. It also responds to external damage like cuts and scrapes or burns. It controls the inflammation response in sprains and strains and other soft tissue injuries. It mops up and disposes of cells, including immune cells, that have been damaged by toxins or pathogens. 

 

Immune cells constantly circulate through the blood to every part of the body looking for viruses, parasites, and body cells gone wrong. They signal other specialized immune cells to come and deal with the problems and they signal when the problem is solved and the special forces can be dispersed. Immune cells remember invaders and can match newer versions of common pathogens to the older profiles for a quicker response.

 

The high toxic loads we carry means there are little fires everywhere. The toxins themselves need be neutralized and eliminated. The damaged cells need to be destroyed and the toxins released in this process must be mopped up, neutralized, and eliminated. Then the neighbouring cells must be evaluated for damage and processed if necessary.

 

The sheer volume of xenotoxins we have to deal with on a daily basis creates havoc in our bodies (literally; many are hormone disruptors) and reduces the effectiveness of our immune response. The signals become confused because there is so much going on; inflammation doesn’t resolve and becomes chronic; things that should get attention are missed and pre-cancerous cells are able to proliferate; or the immune system becomes hyper-reactive and starts attacking healthy cells. In this chaotic situation the resources available to fight off infective agents are reduced; the immune response is sluggish and poorly coordinated.

 

Clean water and foods are important firstly, because we want to minimize the toxins coming into the system. Secondly, good food provides the valuable micronutrient resources needed for all these operations and water plays a central role in the process of detoxification. 

 

The liver is the central processing unit for all substances coming into the body and a variety of micronutrients are needed to keep the system going. Anything that comes through the intestinal tract is conveyed to the liver via the bloodstream. The liver produces glutathione from specific micronutrients. The sulphur rich amino-acids cysteine and methionine and the mineral selenium are essential here. Glutathione is our main internal antioxidant (we produce it rather than getting it from food.) It protects our cells from being damaged by a variety of toxic substances. The liver also makes “decisions” about what to do with toxins that need to be processed.

 

The process of detoxification has two phases. In Phase 1 water and specific micronutrients are used to break down the toxins. In Phase 2  they are bound to other specific nutrients in order to neutralize them. This is why water fasting is dicey in the modern world. Water supports Phase 1, the break down of toxins, but some of the chemicals produced are even more reactive and dangerous than the original toxin. Without the glutathione to protect the surrounding body cells and the additional nutrients needed to neutralize these toxic by products (Phase 2) and extra support for elimination you can make yourself quite sick. 

 

The other issue is that many of the most dangerous and difficult toxins are fat based not water based. Some xenotoxins  are impossible to deal with effectively especially if elimination is sluggish. They get packed into lipids and stored in body fat. Persistent belly fat that just will not respond to diet and exercise programmes likely contains toxins that are easier to store than process. Body fat that is storing toxins is the absolute last resort for energy demands.

 

There are four ways to get the toxins out: the bowels, the urinary tract; the skin; and the lungs. The role of water in the urinary system is obvious. The kidneys specialize in filtering water, water soluble toxins, and excess minerals out of the blood and accumulating them in the bladder for elimination. Kidney stones form when there isn’t enough water to keep the minerals in solution. They can result from excess mineral consumption, chronic dehydration, or poor kidney function. Nettle and parsley, mentioned in my posts on superfoods are good sources of minerals and kidney tonics. Both are very safe herbs for daily use and prevention.

 

The bowels are the main elimination channel for fat-soluble toxins. The lower bowel reabsorbs the water from food wastes. Any water soluble toxins that haven’t been fully processed are send back into the blood stream for a second pass through the system. Insufficient hydration or lack of dietary fibre can slow bowel transit time, increasing the possible reabsorption of fat soluble toxins as well as giving parasites a chance to take hold.

 

Parasites are a drain on the system and they contribute the toxic by-products of their own metabolism into the system. Hot peppers, native to S. America have become ubiquitous in cookery throughout the tropics in the last few hundred years because they provide an adaptive advantage in reducing parasites. The capsaicin in hot peppers is anti-parasitic and eating them increases bowel transit time decreasing the chances that parasites will be able to settle in. If you live in the world, even if you aren’t anywhere in the tropics or sub tropics, you likely have parasites.

 

The lungs and skin are a secondary pathways for eliminating toxins. (More about lungs in the post on Fresh Air.) The skin is capable of both absorbing and excreting toxins and sweat is unique in conveying both water based and fat based substances out of the body. Chronic acne that persists beyond the hormone rollercoaster of puberty, or affects the back and arms as well as the face, persistent body odour, and bad breath are all signs of toxic of overload and/or sluggish elimination.

 

One more comment on skin and sweat. If you wear synthetic exercise clothes, it’s a good practice to strip them off as quickly as you can once you’ve finished your workout. Like pesticides and herbicides, the plastics in clothing  are hormone disruptors. You body heat speeds up the outgassing of these xenotoxins from the clothes and the open pores on your skin will readily absorb them as you cool down. 

 

So that’s it. We live in toxic soup. Doing the best you can to avoid additional toxins and supporting your body’s natural detoxification processes is one of the ways maintain a high functioning immunity, increase your resistance to infective agents, and free up resources for your immune defences. 

 

Next time, water.

 

 

 


claire_58: (Default)
 A comment about multi-generational living on the Frugal Friday post ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/286498.html sparked another line of questions for me. The commenter, Maxine, mentioned the family compound idea had been tried several times on the island where she lives. The ones where everyone had their own kitchens worked out while the ones where everyone had bed/sitting rooms with a breakfast nook and shared a kitchen didn’t. Other threads about insta-pots, solar ovens and cooking out doors going on at the same time got me thinking. What are the minimum kitchen facilities needed to make it work. 

 

A full kitchen, stove, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, microwave etc and all the assorted smaller appliances for each household is expensive. As JMG has pointed out most potential eco-villages never get off the ground because most people can’t imagine anything less than the full comforts and conveniences of a middle class life in an era of abundance industrialism. If you, like me, have been “low tech hobbyist” (thanks to Misty Friday for the phrase) you probably can imagine living with less, maybe even much less.  

 

So here we go. Imagine there is a full communal kitchen available to you. Your large volume food processing and cooking for large gatherings and parties can be done there. You also have your own private kitchen. What are the facilities you need to make your small kitchen complete? 

 

Let’s assume that they all have running water at least. Electricity is also an option. What do you need for daily food prep to make it work? What are your must-have tools and appliances? Are there alternatives that might be viable? What could you easily do without? What modern conveniences would you most appreciate having? Do you want them all or could you make it work with less?

 

This is a brainstorm. Anything goes: high tech, low tech, modern, retro . . . What would you need? Curious Collapseniks want to know.


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This the final post on food for health. I'm moving on to water next. Just a reminder, these are my own thoughts and ideas. None of these should be eaten to excess. If something catches your interest do your own research. If you have a better understanding or can add clarity to the discussion please chip in. 

 

1) The chlorophyll alone would earn Leafy Greens a place on this list. (If you haven’t seen the short video clip Scotlyn linked in the comments of last post check it out.) But chlorophyll is extremely fragile and leaves are packed with antioxidants to protect it. When it breaks down the green fades and you can see the yellow or red  pigments underneath. 

The ratio of surface area to volume tracks the nutritional value of foods very well. Kale is more nutritious than broccoli for example (apparently broccoli leaves are the most nutritious part!) Eat them fresh or lightly cooked. Light cooking can make some leafy greens more digestible and some nutrients more bioavailable. Avoid overcooking, when veggies go grey the chlorophyll has broken down and you’ve lost the antioxidants too.

 

2) Kale usually tops the list of nutrient dense veggies. Like parsley and nettle, it’s a great antidote to a SAD diet. The whole Cabbage Family is a powerhouse of nutrition that goes far beyond the green. The white in cabbage and cauliflower is another antioxidant flavonoid, more stable and with similar benefits to the other colours. 

The cabbage family contains a group of powerful anti-cancer chemicals called sulforaphanes. Sulforphanes, like other anti-oxidants, are part of the plant’s defence mechanisms. They are the source of that distinctive cabbage odour and they are activated and released when the plant is damaged. Chopping, chewing, or massaging (as is done for kale salads) is needed to get them going. Sulforaphane is also easily damaged by overcooking but is remarkably stable in ferments.   

 

3) Garlic, discussed last time, is the most potent of the Alliums and the other members of that family, onions, leeks, shallots, and chives, all share some of the same medicinal properties. Allicin, that distinctive onion scent and infamous tear-jerker, and it’s metabolites, are sulphur based molecules. Antioxidant, anticancer, and anti microbial, garlic also supports both heart and brain health.

 

4) I covered Mushrooms in part 2 of this series. Here I will just say that studies of health outcomes for people who work in mushroom production in Japan (and presumably eat more than average amounts of mushrooms) have confirmed the health benefits of the many kinds of mushroom popular there. Unfortunately, there are no studies of the button mushrooms and portabellos popular here.  Unlike veggies, mushrooms benefit from being well cooked with some sources recommending cooking them in both fat and water.

 

5) Oil rich Nuts and Seeds are top sources of fat soluble vitamins and anti-oxidants. Sunflower seeds top the list for Vitamin E; Brazil nuts are number one for selenium. Selenium is a precursor to glutathione the primary antioxidant our bodies produce. 

Nuts and seeds also contain lipid micronutrients called phytosterols that have immune modulating properties. They calm down overactive immune systems. Extracts of beta-sitosterol,  from sunflower seeds, are used therapeutically for auto-immune conditions.

Nuts and seeds are best eaten whole and fresh. They go rancid quickly once their antioxidants are depleted. Apparently our tastebuds can detect rancidity levels as low as 2%; an indication of how bad rancid fats are for us. Seed oils can go rancid in our bodies if we don’t have the antioxidants to protect them. Flaxseed, hempseed and walnuts are the most fragile as they have the highest content of desirable polyunsaturated fats. 

 

6) Cold Water Fish and Seafood contain another kind of polyunsaturated fat that is essential for heart and brain and a myriad of other things. Deficiencies of “essential” nutrients will have an impact on all kinds of body functions. They are also packed with antioxidants to protect those fragile fats. The pink in salmon (and flamingos) is a carotenoid derived from krill and other plankton that need the polyunsaturated oils to function in cold water and a way of protecting from sun damage.

 

7) Fermented foods are hugely popular these days and for once I’m all in with promoting the trend. Fermentation is the only food preservation method that increases the nutritional value of food. Every other technique involves some loss of nutrients. Ferments add probiotics and enzymes; they make fibre more digestible and they release nutrients that would otherwise require long chewing or long cooking. Regular consumption of fermented foods increases the proliferation of gut flora; your best defence from ingested pathogens. A strong intestinal microbiome is a key support for strong immune function.

Fermented foods are good for digestion; they are anti-inflammatory; anti-toxin; anti-cancer. The strong flavours may be unappealing to some but the value to your body is so great that, given the chance, your tastebuds will  adjust.

 

8) As well as the flavonoids that give them colour, organically grown grapes produce anti-fungals on their skin which have specific anticancer properties. Commercial growers use carcinogenic anti fungal sprays that eliminate the need to produce these protective chemicals. Grape seeds, crushed in your molars when you eat grapes, are the primary food source of the immunity enhancing anti-cancer flavonoid resveratrol. Grape seed oil, often recommended for high temperature frying, has a high smoke point because it is so rich in antioxidants. The oil doesn’t burn until they’ve been destroyed.

 

9) Brown Rice is similar to the rice that was available before the advent of mechanical polishing. In addition to the insoluble fibre which feeds the intestinal flora and has a critical function in scouring the lower bowel, rice bran provides several of the  B-vitamins and contains a substance called gamma oryzonol which has a myriad of health benefits including immune support . 

Other whole grains also have some of these benefits. Oats, either whole, steel cut, or slow cooking rolled oats, has many similar benefits as well as specific benefit for heart health and weight management. But grinding grains into flour changes the picture considerably. Even quick cooked oats don’t seem to deliver the same results. Finely ground flours go stale (or rancid in the case of an oil rich grain like oats) quickly and the fast absorption of easily digested carbs can play havoc with blood sugar levels leading to food cravings and binge eating.

 

10) Bone Broth is specific for boosting immune function. The quasi-mystical reputation of chicken soup for colds and flu is well deserved. Immune cells are produced in bone marrow. Broken bone broth is easy to make and well worth the effort especially if you are paying the premium for free-range or pasture raised animals products. (Save the fat too, every scrap has value). Freeze the bones with vegetable scraps (except cabbage family) until there are enough to make a pot of stock or add the bones directly to long cooking soup, stew, and chilli.  Soup bones are often available at a very reasonable price from local meat producers or butchers.

 

More could be said about all of these and many more could be added to the list. But I’m stopping here. I will end with a saying from traditional Chinese medicine from the book “Healing with Whole Foods” by Paul Pitchford: “Taking medicine when you become sick is like planting a garden when you get hungry.” 

 

That’s it. Eat, enjoy, stay well.

 

 

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The topic of multi-generational living sparked several comments on the open post https://www.ecosophia.net/june-2024-open-post/ and even spilled over on to my journal here in my Trade Goods for the Long Descent Post claire-58.dreamwidth.org/4168.html  There has also been considerable discussion of inter-generational conflict on the covid open post last week. ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/285650.html see "Vexxing Grandparents"

I had already considered posting on the topic of multi-generational households because I have given it considerable thought over the years as I contemplated my own aging. It is clearly a topic of interest to others, as is  the related topic of inter-generational conflict over our approach to health and wellness. I'm re-opening the discussion here partly because the format on this platform is much more conducive to a coherent conversation than the ecosophia.net platform.

Despite the many barriers discussed in the open post I believe multi-generational living is an important adaptation with proven benefits throughout known history and around the world. Dimitry Orlov's discussion on the advantages of multi-generation households in "Reinventing Collapse" is worth reading if you have doubts about this. As the commenter on my Trade Goods post pointed out it may not be intact family groups that form these households. That generates it's own challenges that are also worth discussing.

From the perspective of elders who have worked to adopt sustainable living practices and have spent a lifetime accumulating skills  the advantages of multi generational households are both in having younger people around to help out with more physically demanding tasks around the place and being able to pass on the skills we see as increasingly valuable to future generations as things unravel. Multi-generational living is also great for the children as more adults in the household means more interactions with close relations who have different gifts and perspectives and skills. Grandparents are more likely to let children help out too since they have more time to do things at a child's pace and less pressure to move on to the next task. Children love to do real things and they get a real sense of accomplishment from being able to contribute. Preindustrial households required the contributions of both elders and children and that necessity is likely to be part of life in the post industrial world too.

The real challenges as more than one person pointed out on the open post is the relations between the parental generation and their parents (the grandparents). There are lots of aspects to this. As the conversation on the Vexxed Grandparents thread showed, lack of shared values and different world views are huge. Personality conflicts and the lack of interpersonal skills for conflict resolution; changes in personality brought on by age related cognitive decline; and the fact that money, mobility, and the sheer abundance of industrialism, has meant that we've forgotten how to treat each other well. All play into our mixed feelings about living with our aging parents or our adult children. 

The mismatch in childrearing strategies is also a big factor in the hesitance of many parents to involve their parents or step-parents in raising the children. As my daughter pointed out we are only a couple of generations away from the time when NOT spanking you kids was considered bad parenting. One of the things we don't have as a multi-cultural society that has gone through 2 or 3 generations of rapid cultural change is shared expectations. Almost every aspect of family life has been criticized, rejected, remodelled and run through a gauntlet of conflicting expert opinions. Childrearing practices, of the highest importance to both parents and grandparents, are likely to be contentious.

So, if we agree that there is a value to multi-generational living and that it is worth revisiting as an adaptive strategy for the long descent, the question become how to resolve the conflicts and overcome the barriers. 
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 This is the third in a series of posts on a natural approaches to strengthening immunity. This is not the final post on food. Once again I’ve gone too long and had to break it into 2 parts. Next week will be the last one on food. I promise (fingers crossed).  I’ll move on to water and the other topics. I have much less to say about them.

 

The word “Superfood” has become a marketing buzz word for any new or exotic food that hits the market. As you will see my list is much more prosaic. You may find that many of the items are things you are already eating, If not I encourage you to consider how you could add them into your diet.

 

Superfoods are nutrient dense foods that fall into the space between ordinary food and medicine. Tonics herbs, the medicinal herbs that strengthen and tone the system, straddle the line between food and medicine as well. They are medicinal herbs that are safe for and recommended for long term use. Tonics are medicines that can be used as food. Superfoods are foods that can be used therapeutically. The categories are blurred and overlapping. A couple of examples will help.

 

Nettle is possibly the best example of a tonic herb/superfood. It is not commonly used as a food but it is a popular spring tonic and people have found a number of creative ways to cook and consume it. Normally taken as a tea, this is a nutrient dense herb that is a perfect antidote to the nutritionally deficient modern diet. 

 

Historically used by pregnant women and nursing mothers as a tonic and nutritional supplement, it specifically benefits the urinary tract and is one of the best western herbal anti-histamines. The young leaves are generally wild harvested in the early spring just in time to prepare allergy sufferers for hay fever season.

 

The other example is garlic. Garlic is a strong flavour. It’s food but we don’t normally eat much of it. Used in higher doses it’s a medicine for a variety ailments. In really high doses it’s anti-parasitic. In the quantities we normally consume it is a mild antibiotic and heart tonic. Increase the dose to ward off colds and flu or to use as a mild blood thinner like baby aspirin.

 

Most of the herbs and spices we think of as “culinary” are medicinal herbs. The ancient Greeks had a saying “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” I believe the practice of including small amount of medicinals in food was widespread in the ancient world but I’m most familiar with the European ones.

 

Herbs and spices are used as flavouring agents because they are stronger flavoured and more potent than superfoods. Sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano all have specific micronutrients and phytochemicals with medicinal properties. All of these are used in marinates, and for seasoning meats not merely for flavour, but because they contain antimicrobials that prevents putrefaction. 

 

Oregano is well known medicinally as a antiviral but all of these have medicinal properties. The oil of oregano that you buy is much more potent than the oregano growing in your garden but being a bit more heavy handed when using herbs in cooking is a good strategy for protecting yourself from pathogens. I could go on endlessly: Thyme and rosemary clear congestion; cloves is the best for breaking up heavy mucus. Horseradish, traditionally eaten with beef as an antimicrobial and antitoxin, is a powerhouse against sinus infections.

 

Parsley deserves a special mention because it is the culinary herb that most neatly fits the “superfood” definition. It’s mild enough in both flavour and medicinal action to be used as a food not just as a flavouring agent. Parsley is the main ingredient in tabouli (or  tabouleh) a middle eastern salad. A close relative of carrots, it’s deep tap root draws up minerals from the subsoil into the stems and leaves. It is nutrient dense and, like all greens, is rich in chlorophyll. 

 

Chlorophyll, the green colour in green plants, is one of the most important of the plant pigments I mentioned last time. It’s a blood cleanser; it’s good for the skin (used for both acne and sun damage); and it reduces body odour and bad breath (skin and breath are both pathways for eliminating toxins). Parsley defies categorization; it’s a perfect example of a tonic herb too. It is nutritive and revitalizing. It’s also a mild diuretic and is specific for toning the urinary tract.

 

I mentioned colour last time. Pigments are produced by a variety of chemicals from several different chemical groups. Each one has a variety of uses in the body. They are significant here because they are antioxidants; anti-inflammatory; and have anti-cancer properties. There is even some evidence that they are anti-bacterial. This means support for all kinds of immune functions from detoxification to mopping up cancer cells. 

 

Chlorophyll mentioned above is huge. Beta carotene in carrots, squash, was in the last post, but there are many different carotenoids. The orange in calendula blossoms and hiding under the chlorophyll in greens is lutein. The red in tomatoes and watermelon is lycopene but the red in raspberries, ellagic acid, from a completely different chemical group. The purples and blues, and some other reds are from flavonoids called anthocyanins. Blueberries, blackberries, grapes, red cabbage, and purple carrots and potatoes are all anthocyanidins but the purple in beets is a completely different chemical: betalains. 

 

Fruit and vegetables aren’t the only source. The pink in salmon, shrimp, and other cold water sea creatures is from some of the same antioxidants. And vegetables contain a range of other beneficial micronutrients as well.

 

The point here is that if you look down at your plate and see nothing but white, beige, and brown, you are missing out and so is your immune system. Colours are also flavours. The deeper, darker, richer colours are the most nutrient dense and delicious. Not that white and beige foods are bad. There are a few less colourful foods and particular veggies and plant families that deserve a place on the list.  Next time .  . . 

 


claire_58: (Default)
I found this a  list as I was going through my paperwork looking for the notes I had made on Trade Goods for the Long Descent. I have a printed version of just the list and I have no idea where I got it. I went looking for the original to share here and found this post by Jeffery Green. His name and website, countercurrents.org, were on the paper. The article is from 2010. I have only skimmed the preamble to the list and he is definitely talking about fast collapse. The original title is "10 Skills Needed To Thrive in a Post Collapse World."

https://www.activistpost.com/2010/11/10-skills-needed-to-thrive-in-post.html

IIRC there was a flurry of fast collapse stuff written in the last days of the peak oil movement. Most of it had useful info but all of it was pretty apocalyptic. Still, it's a good starting place. For those of us who understand JMG's theory of catabolic collapse the gaps become apparent. I bet we could add a few more skills to the list. 

I decided to post this as a companion to my post on trade goods. Thinking about trade goods is an interesting speculation and there is certainly some value in trying to preserve the abundance available to us for the benefit of future generations, but skills are a solid investment not a gamble. It's well worth considering how many you have, or could easily acquire, or are interested enough to master. 

I count #1 Organic gardening and seed saving  #2 Food processing and Preservation as skills I have. Although I'm still a newbie seed saver.  #8. Basic First Aid and Natural Medicine is one I could brush up on and could be reasonable skilled though not expert by any means. I used to have a first aid ticket and I have always done herbal home health care. 

I'd love to hear comments on skills you have or ones you think should be added to the list.
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 On the most recent Frugal Friday (June 21, 2024) there was a post by  [personal profile] mistyfriday titled Durable Replacements For Limited Use Items

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/284778.html?thread=49359210#cmt49359210

 

Her intro was “As we are quickly leaving the era of easy abundance, I think it’s time to acknowledge specific durable goods that will make that transition easier.” and as that conversation unfolded I was reminded of a thought experiment we did a few years ago and have revisited from time to time since; an exploration of trade goods for the long descent.

 

The parameters for suitable goods we established are: 

  1. Products of industrialization;
  2. readily available and useful now (or in the near future); and 
  3. likely to still be in demand as things unravel.
  4. Not easy to recreate by hand using low tech tools and resources;  
  5. nor easily substituted with something that could be easily made by hand with low tech tools and resources.
  6. Non-perishable/durable enough to last into the time where industrial supply has either run out or become prohibitively expensive.
  7. small/compact/easily stored (some exceptions could be made here.)

 

We spent some time brain storming items that might fit the criteria. Laser cut steel tea strainers didn’t make it because even though they are nice to have they aren’t really necessary and low tech substitutions (#5) are pretty easy. If you have to have one, a bit of cloth or a basket style bamboo strainers could be used.

 

Number 6, non perishable/durable is a stumbling block for some things that might otherwise fit. The question to ask are: How durable does it have to be? When is it likely to be needed? Is it possible to extend the useful life with low tech storage methods? 

 

I’m thinking about sewing machine thread here. It’s the weak link for maintaining the useful life of treadle sewing machines. Spinning thread for hand sewing is hard enough; getting a thread fine enough and smooth enough to run through a sewing machine without getting fouled up takes some serious skill. 

 

Any natural fibre thread deteriorates. I still have some cotton thread I bought in the early eighties that still seems strong enough to run through the machine but lately I have noticed seams in stress points giving away. I wouldn’t expect any natural fibre thread bought now to last long enough to still be useful once there is a shortage. Synthetic thread lasts longer so there is a slightly different equation there. The point being that there’s a balance between how durable something has to be and when it might be needed.

 

As for sewing/mending/textile repairs, needles for both machine and hand sewing; pins; all-metal (the plastic handles just break) scissors (snips and shears) are good choices. I’m not sure about rotary cutters. Although the blades certainly match most of the criteria and they may be in demand for a while after they are no longer being manufactured, I don’t see them lasting. As far as I know they are disposable once they are dull. How durable are the mats? They aren’t easy to reproduce or substitute (#4 and 5) but I suspect that whole technology will fade away as industrialism falters and fails. 

 

That doesn’t mean they aren’t good trade goods. Any investment of this kind is a gamble. Some are riskier than others. In this case you are betting that people will still want to use rotary cutters and mats for some time after they are no longer readily available or affordable. If you can get your stash to the people who want it at the right time you win.

 

Hand tools for gardening, in contrast, are readily available and useful now (#2) and likely to still be in demand as things unravel (#3) and for a long time to come. High quality garden tools are expensive but keeping tabs on what turns up in thrift stores and yard sales is well worth it even if you are just after back ups for your own use. As is the case with all tools, knowing what is worth having is key to making good investments in anything you are considering as trade goods.

 

Hand tools for carpentry are another example. Right now they are a niche market. They only marginally fit #2 but they are certainly likely to be in demand as things unravel (#3). Certain items, like hand saws, are not easy to make (#4, not impossible just highly skilled work) and they will certainly last until the power to run the alternatives is gone. Is it worth keeping them until they are needed? Your call.

 

Tools for working metal, especially files and stones for sharpening and maintaining other tools, are definitely in on almost all counts. Foraging a whetting stone is easy enough if you have the skills to use them; finding a nice flat one that is easy to use if your skills are marginal might be more of  a challenge (#5). Grindstones are useful now as are the skills needed to use these kinds of tools. Grindstones can be easily converted to any source of rotary power. They will continue to be useful with minor modifications but are they good trade goods? It might be better to hone your skills and offer a tool maintenance service. 

 

Other possibilities abound. These are just some examples to get your brain cells clicking. I’d love to hear your comments and feedback.

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This is the second in a series of posts on a natural approaches to strengthening immunity. Next week will be the third and final post on food.  

 

Much of the conventional advice on eating well defaults to the facile “eat a balanced diet.” The idea is that if we eat a mix of grains, meat, veggies and fruit all will be well. At first glance many traditional diets contain a balance of plant and animal foods: combinations of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. If we look closer it becomes clear that all cuisines, all around the world, make choices about how to “balance” these macronutrients. 

 

Weston Price’s monumental survey of food-ways around the world showed traditional diets that ranged from mainly meat with very little plant foods, to mainly fish with a few vegetables and no grains, to mainly vegetables and rice with very little meat/fish.  The only commonalities were that the food was fresh, local, and seasonal.

 

The people surveyed had been eating the same things all their lives and for many generations. All of them were healthy. Their diets were determined by what was available and were shaped by the demands of making a living in their environment. Degeneration didn’t set in until they started switching to modern industrial food.  

 

It’s worth taking some time to contemplate the journey of our modern industrial food from it’s source to our plates. As Scotlyn mentioned in her comment on my first post, this is a “spiritual and etheric journey” as well as a physical one. The food on our plates is an accumulation of the energies from the place it was grown or raised; the handling and processing it has received; and of the people who grew and processed it.

 

Scotlyn also pointed out the relationship between between the eater and the eaten and between the eater and the environment. These relationships are weakened by the long links of connection and damaged by the harms done in industrial production. Our relationships to the places we call home are strengthened by eating what is locally produced and seasonally available.

 

The value of a food can never be reduced to a single component or a single parameter. Food and eating has social and emotional elements as well. Even focussing on the physical aspects of food, as we are here, reveals many complexities. 

 

Whole foods always contain combinations of macronutrients. Animal products are high fat proteins; legumes are high protein carbs. Oil rich nuts and seed are a mix of fat, protein, and carbs. Vegetables foods tend to be mainly carbs (including both soluble and insoluble fibre), but also have more or less protein and fat. All of them also contain specific  micronutrients that have specific roles in maintaining health and immunity.

 

As I mentioned last time the focus throughout human history has been on getting enough food; calories not nutrients was what mattered. The modern world contains unique nutritional challenges. We live in toxic soup. Our bodies need vitamins, minerals, bioflavonoids, and other specific micronutrients in sufficient quantities to to cope with the load. The micronutrients are the key to maintaining strong immune systems in our toxic world. And yet this is where our industrial food systems and the confusion of mis-information about nutrition really fails us. 

 

“Fresh” vegetables lose vitality in the long journey from field to plate. Oranges picked green to facilitate handling ripen en route and arrive at the market without any detectable Vitamin C. Depleted soils fortified with chemical fertilizers don’t provide the trace minerals needed for healthy plants or people. Water soluble vitamins are lost during food processing. Animals in feedlots don’t get the nutrients they need to be healthy or produce high quality fats and proteins.

 

Nutritional fads and diet “wisdom” also take a toll. Animal fats, demonized as unhealthy for many years, are an important source of the fat soluble vitamins A and D.  Butter and body fat from grass-fed dairy and beef cattle contain Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) converted from omega 6 oils in the grass. CLA is beneficial for weight management and is thought to be protect the heart and have anti-cancer properties.

 

Animals, pastured in areas unsuitable to field crops, or as part of a field crop rotation, convert grass and other non-edible plant matter into high quality humanly usable food which provide micronutrients that have already been converted into forms our bodies can use. (Animal products are currently being demonized as contributors to climate change and I could go on at length about the fallacies involved there, but that’s a whole different topic.)

 

The chemicals that give fruits and vegetables their colours are specific micronutrients. Each colour group has its own unique role in promoting health and strengthening immunity.  Beta carotene, for example, the orange in carrots and squash, is a water soluble precursor to Vitamin A. It is used for one of a series of steps that breaks down toxins and neutralizes them so they can be eliminated. Other vitamins, particularly C and  E,  and the minerals, selenium and zinc, are needed to make sure this process doesn’t stall out while the toxins are not yet fully neutralized. All of the colours in fruits and vegetables enhance immunity. Each different colour group has different  benefits. 

 

Other plant foods have other micronutrients that work in other ways. Nuts and seed, rich in Omega 6 oils  produce sterols and sterolins that are immune modulators. Omega 6 oils are the most recent addition to the list of nutritional “evils” but as part of whole food, complete with the anti-oxidants that prevent them from becoming damaged, they also contribute to healthy immunity. 

 

Edible mushrooms are another source of immune supportive micronutrients. Mushrooms and other fungi are a unique life forms, more closely related to animals than either fungi or animals are to plants. (Technically “mushrooms” are the fruiting body of a massive underground creature called “mycelium”. The mushroom is the apple; the mycelium is the tree.) They produce a class of complex carbohydrates called “polysaccharides.” These ultra long chain sugars tune up our immune systems and improve immune function. They also produce many other  complex chemicals with a range of benefits to human health.

 

In the next (and, I hope, final) post on food and health I will go into specific foods for immunity and the micronutrients they offer. Fair warning though, my list bears only a slight resemblance to the lists of exotic foods usually classed as “superfood.”

 

claire_58: (Default)
 A couple of weeks ago there was a question on JMG’s covid open post about how to address bird flu using herbs and alternative health practices. My response was: “The best way to address any infective agent is to strengthen the immune system. If you are already eating good food, drinking clean water, getting enough sunshine, fresh air, sleep, and exercise, the best thing to do is reduce your stressors (especially those that cause relentless anxiety), and build up your muscle mass (immune cells start there).” 

 

What I have in mind here is a series of posts that goes into more depth on each of these things. To be clear these will be summaries of my thoughts and ideas. If anything catches your attention or sparks your curiosity you must do your own research. Questions and comments are welcome and if you can contribute better information or a clearer understanding please chime in. Enjoy.

 

It is impossible to over-stress the importance of each of the things I listed above. It is just as impossible to say which is the most important. That's like asking whether your heart or your lungs are more important. That said, we must start somewhere and food is as good a starting point as any. Arguably, learning to cook whole foods from scratch with is one of the best things you can do for your long term health. (Humans are uniquely evolved to eating cooked food. In his book Catching Fire: how cooking made us human, primatologist Richard Wrangham, makes a compelling case that it was learning to cook that allowed us to develop as modern humans. As modern humans we are “obligate” cooks. We can survive on raw food but women on a long term raw food diet lose too much body fat to maintain fertility.)

 

Throughout most of human history getting enough food, quantity, has been the biggest challenge. For most of us in industrial nations today the problem isn’t quantity it’s quality. The Standard American Diet (SAD) typically provides has an over-abundance of calories but it is nutritionally weak. Getting enough of the micronutrients to support a high functioning immune system is very difficult when your food is SAD. Fortunately, decisions about what to eat must be made everyday and every meal is a opportunity to make a better choices.

 

I’m not going to advocate a particular diet program or regime. Working in natural food stores for as long as I did I saw too may diet fads come and go and met too many people with “holier than thou” attitudes to those who didn’t follow their particular dietary choices. What I would like to do instead is work from first principles and try to establish a set of guidelines that can help us get more good food into our diets. Please note: “good” and “bad” are not moral judgements in this context. “Good” food is delicious, nutrient dense, satisfying. “Bad” food is not.

 

Diet fads have a habit of demonizing particular foods or food groups. Although the details have changed the approach seems to be fairly persistent. Fats, meat, carbohydrates, and even cooked food have all been targeted.  That approach is not only unhelpful it can actually cause health problems. To be very clear all the macronutrients, carbohydrates, fats, and protein, are all essential to a healthy diet. 

 

You may have noticed that I haven’t included fibre on this list. That’s because fibre is a carbohydrate. Fibre is important; it’s considered an “essential” carbohydrate.  Nutrients are deemed to be “essential” if the body has to have them and cannot produce them itself. Polysaccharides are another kind of carbohydrate. They are also essential and they have a specific impact on immune health. (More on that later.)

 

My point here is that it is the quality of the nutrients that matters. Any food can be good (delicious, nutrient dense, satisfying) or bad ( damaged, chemically laden, and devoid of nutritional value). As I noted above most of the foods that make up the SAD are poor quality nutritionally deficient and usually rely on too much sugar, fat, salt, or MSG to give it flavour. The Standard American Diet cannot support good health and strong immunity. 

The two things that determine food quality are freshness and the amount of processing that has been done. The process of deterioration starts as soon as the food is harvested. How it is handled (processing) once it has been picked or killed  and how long it takes to get from the point of harvest to your plate (freshness) will have the greatest impact on the concentration of nutrients it provides and it can also have an impact of the amount of nutritional stress it causes. 


Nutritional stress is the  cost to your body of digesting and absorbing the nutrients and processing and eliminating the wastes. If your food has a high toxic load from agricultural chemicals or environmental contaminates the costs go up and nutritional stress increases. If your food has not been properly handled or processed it may contain “anti-nutrients” that cause nutritional stress. People around the world have consumed many “foods” that are toxic, even deadly, if not processed properly. Think of green coffee beans. 


Another example is dried beans. Most varieties of beans and lentils contain a substance called phytic acid. This is a chemical that reduces the digestibility and helps to reduce predation on these protein rich seeds. Without proper preparation, which can include soaking with many changes of water, sprouting, fermentation, and long cooking with a variety of additives depending on the cuisine involved (kombu, epazote, fennel, etc) beans can cause digestive problems ranging from mild discomfort to agony.

 

Processing food, whether it’s cooking or preserving (with one notable exception) alway involves some loss of nutrients. The advantages of cooking fresh whole foods far out weigh the loss of nutrients. Cooking has made a whole range of foods that are otherwise indigestible accessible to us. However, the more a food is processed the more nutrients are lost; the more a food is refined the more it is denatured. It becomes tasteless, added sugar, salt, fat and other flavour enhancements are needed in order to make it edible. These things all make more demands on your body’s ability to process and eliminate excess. They become anti-nutrients that  contribute to nutritional stress. They are also unsatisfying. They don’t give us the nutrition we need. They fill us up without assuaging our hunger. Craving real nutrition we overeat. 

 

This has gone longer than I had planned. I was hoping to move on to water next but that will have to wait. The next post will continue with food. I would like to share some general ideas about a good diet for human health and immunity. 

 

 

claire_58: (lavender)

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claire_58: (lavender)

[image: 0761DBE4-8553-4A87-B69E-24817783F39F_1_105_c.jpeg]a[image: 53DC708C-F4DF-4B87-96DE-2A0A51D8D77E_1_105_c.jpeg] beach cover-up; thrift store fabric; hand woven; fabric detail below [image: 516AA0A4-0F55-4ED6-915D-2224372FDD76_1_105_c.jpeg]


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