DOMESTIC DEMON #1 - the hidden dangers of tinned food!

We think of our home as our sanctuary, somewhere safe to relax and hide from the outside world, but just how safe are some of our favourite things which we use on a regular basis?

For a while I have been including a “Domestic Demon” article in my newsletter so thought that I would post these to my blog.

No need to panic!!!! Just take a deep breath and read on. 

My Domestic Demons are, on the whole, things which may be lurking in your cupboards so it should be easy to change to a product which is safer and healthier for you and your family.  

So here goes.  Let’s take a look at what might be accompanying your favourite baked beans!!

DOMESTIC DEMON #1 - the hidden dangers of tinned food!  

What could possibly be wrong with good old tinned baked beans / fish / tomatoes etc?

The process of preserving foods in cans harks back to the late 18^th century, thanks to Napoleon, who offered a prize to anyone who could suggest a way of preserving food for his men during the Napoleonic Wars. At the time, there were more casualties from malnutrition, starvation and scurvy than actual war wounds! The prize was won by a brewer called Nicolas Appert, and his invention was a well guarded secret until the English got wind of it at the turn of the following century. Interestingly can openers didn’t make their debut in England until the 1850s, so getting to the foods entailed brute force - rocks, bayonets, hammers and chisels, with no doubt an array of accompanying injuries!!

Tinned food is no doubt a lifesaver. Armies have marched on them, arctic explorers have explored on them, not to mention saving lives in emergencies across the world.

And that is the important word - EMERGENCIES!!      

Most of us today aren’t travelling to obscure places, we have access to fresh produce and we also own fridges. So really, the only reason for using tinned food when you are at home is for convenience.

Sadly there is a gremlin lurking in the can.  A chemical called BPA (Bisphenol-A) is used to line cans to stop them rusting and to keep foods fresh. It is also used in some water bottles. The problem with BPA is that it is a synthetic oestrogen (or “xenoestrogen” which means foreign oestrogen) and this encourages your body to go on a gender-bending, hormone-disrupting rollercoaster of a trip. Our bodies are finely balanced creatures and when we feed them foreign oestrogens, this can overload us into “oestrogen dominance” which for a woman can manifest in such conditions as menstrual problems, endometriosis and possibly cancers; and for a man, as man-boobs and prostate problems, including cancer.     

So ask yourself - just how convenient is this convenience food? You might “save” an hour here and there TODAY, but in the long term how convenient is it when your health is under par and you cannot enjoy life as much as you would like or even worse become so ill that you spend more time at the doctors and hospital than at home?

I’m not saying, don’t ever use canned foods (I confess to having a few tins in our cupboard just in case) but don’t make them a daily staple. The problem is that these chemicals (not to mention the added refined salt, sugar and additives) push our bodies to the limit and have a cumulative effect.    

It’s always good to be “food-aware”. What’s in it? Where has it come from? 

Excessive Media!!

EXCESSIVE MEDIA

For as long as I can remember, my mother has ticked me off for not paying more attention to “what’s going on in the world” as she puts it, but I have to confess that until relatively recently  I have always kept a wary distance from news programmes as much as possible. Call it a sort of subconscious self-preservation if you like.

In my current line of work (and passion), however, all too often I get sucked into the politics of  vaccinations, GMO, alternative versus orthodox medicine and can at times find the whole thing depressing and totally frustrating!! 

So when I saw this cartoon on Facebook, I had to laugh as it sums me up perfectly!   I love Marianne Williamson’s words. “Do not be mystified about why you are depressed by noon when you start your day with angst and despair in the world, especially if you add caffeine”. How true is that? Think back to how you felt during the Olympics. My guess is you were happy. It’s not just that we witnessed daily success stories that made us feel personally that anything is possible but the general feeling of positivity – like an invisible magic elixir in the air – seemed to permeate everyone’s subconscious!! More people smiled – I’m sure of it!    And that’s just it, we are part of nature, with animal instincts, and although not fine-tuned like our wild friends, can pick up emotions both consciously and subconsciously. Have you ever walked into a room and sensed something was wrong? “You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife” is a common phrase used when the air is thick with bad emotions.  If happiness is hanging in the air, we somehow pick that up and it takes a lot more to pull us down. If there is doom and gloom hanging around like a bad smell, our antennae pick up on that too, although we might not be able to put a finger on why we feel so down or perhaps agitated.  In the age of crazy communication, we can if we choose be plugged directly into doom and gloom 24/7.  This is generated daily by media and big companies. A lot of people quite understandably feel fearful by what they see and hear, and this contributes to a collective smog of underlying anxiety, in which we can all marinade.     When we are fearful, so too are our cells, including those of our lovely creative brain! Poleaxed by “what ifs” and bathing in a soup of invisible angst, our poor brain cells do not function at their best, so we cannot make mindful decisions or move forward in life, and are more likely to accept without question whatever so-called media “fact” is given to us.  For instance, as we head into the winter months, who knows if there will be another scaremongering about the latest “killer” flu bug. All scares over recent years came to nothing, but they sold lots of vaccinations = ££ for Big Pharma. Tony Benn said that to control people you need to frighten them and demoralise them. Educated, confident and healthy people are hard to control.     So that’s why it’s best to take personal control.  1)        Educate yourself on how to eat and live healthily. If you look after your cells with health-giving sleep, food and exercise and try to ditch the stress, you are less likely to succumb to illness or any bugs doing the rounds. 2)       If our cells are in a calm healthy state, when life DOES throw a wobbly in our faces, we are less likely to be pulled right down by it, because we are stronger physically, mentally and emotionally.   3)       Note that only 5% of illnesses can be put down to faulty genes. Any other genetic “weaknesses” can be trumped by our lifestyle choices, in particular, diet. Eating correctly can help switch genes on and off. (More in a future edition). So by following (1), we no longer have to live in fear of a family trait as if it was a ticking time-bomb.      4)       Try to give yourself a media-holiday for at least a day a week (more if you can). 5)       Be grateful. In David Hamilton’s “How your mind can heal your body” he suggests writing down 50 things you are grateful for every day.  Yes, that does seem a lot, but as you get into the swing it becomes easier. They don’t have to be big things: being grateful that the sun is out, or a stranger smiled at you in the street both count. As you buy in more to life feeling positive, doom and gloom news should affect you less. 6)       If you are finding it hard to release any fear, consider Bach Flower Essences which can help to  balance you emotionally.   7)       As with everything, balance is best. I’m not suggesting you become a hermit and cut yourself off from the rest of the world, but wallowing in despair (and I know someone who does) will only add to the collective despair and not help to repair it.  Tune into positive news, spread positive news and don’t buy into everything you hear on mainstream news. 8)       Ditch the morning caffeine. Coffee in particular causes big stress to our cells. Stress = fear. No thank you very much!! DRINK MORE WATER!!