OMG GMOs!

Just came across this video: Pando House Rock: OMG GMOs!  It's kind of a cute way to share the story on why GMOs were started by big food corporations, but ultimately, GMO crops can't be the solution to solving world hunger.  The nutritional value of GMO crops are just not proven and the results so far as we look across the USA, Americans have access to so much food, yet they are starving for the nutritional value that they need, and obesity is the result from what I am calling the 'GMO starvation'.

This summer, we did a little experiment, and the results were scary.  We tried growing crops by a field that was sprayed with pesticides for the corn on the field.  I have walked through this corn field, and nothing grows on the field except for this pesticide resistant GMO crop.  Not even one tuff of grass - just dirt and corn (the pesticides kill everything else).  We planted some of our precious non-GMO squash seeds a few feet away from the field.  The squash plants started to grow in early summer, but right after the fields got the pesticide, all the squash plants started to grow stunted, none flowered, and none developed fruit.  The squash plant looked like it was dieing from non-natural causes (it didn't look like it was dried out by no water or yellow from no sun).  It looked mutated and stunted.  If this is what pesticides are doing to real, natural plants, then my question is, what is it doing to our bodies??!!  And, think about the GMO crop that seems to thrive with the pesticides, what is it really?!  I can't believe this is what food corporations are calling food.

It's this kind of stuff that gets me riled up.

Pando House Rock: OMG GMOs!

 

New Baobab Superfood Supplement: powbab!

I started out as a blogger about healthy food and healthy relationships back in 2009, and can't believe that the years have flown by.  But, as I started out looking for my passions in life, I have discovered that healthy living and healthy eating are what I love and have become passions of mine.  Wholly mine.  I desire so much to be healthy.  Without good health, I cannot enjoy this life or the fruit of my labor.

So, with my past posts on Baobab and More About the Baobab Tree, I have become seriously convinced about eating superfood, and baobab is at the top of my list.  I have made it into a supplement - and my brand is called powbab.  The product is the baobab superfruit chew.

Many people have tried the chews - and really like it!  It has fruity and tangy.  Chewy and natural tasting.  Each chew delivers 100% of your antioxidant needs, Vitamins C, E & A, and is way better than other synthetic immunity brands out there.  The raw and unprocessed fruit make a difference.  I take them traveling, eat them when I am busy, and like how convenient they are.

powbab is more than just a product - it is an extension of how a person found her life in hopes of helping the world become a healthier, happier and a more whole place.  Pursue your dreams, don't give up when times get tough. You never know what might happen if you can just hang in there and don't stop believing.

 Visit www.powbab.com to check out the product!

Yellow Watermelon!

Fourth of July is coming up, and I love watermelon.  Last year I also wrote about watermelon around this time.  This year, the message remains the same - gentlemen, eat your watermelon!  It has lots of lycopene which helps to prevent prostate cancer.  Ladies, eat your watermelon because you need lycopene too!

However, the surprise I have for you is that from our garden, we tried to grow heirloom yellow watermelon.  Check out my pictures!

Sliced Yellow Watermelon

There it is, it's really yellow!  It does taste like watermelon, this one was not as watery but still tasted just like watermelon!  I would think the nutritional qualities are slightly different, but otherwise, tastes like watermelon!  Though when I eat it, I am thrown for a loop, I must say...

Yellow Watermelon

In case you feel unsettled and you just need to see the familiar red watermelon, I have included a picture of our 'mini' watermelon from our garden.  You can't really tell it's minature - but the size of the seeds are kind of big for the fruit, and there is a slight rim around the right, along the peel.  It fit perfectly in a bowl :).

Seeded Watermelon

Michael Pollan's 'Food Rules'

An interesting animated video when it comes to the production of our food and the fossil fuel we need to do it.  Let alone the unspoken impact agriculture has on our environment.  We in the US really need to rethink how companies are growing our food and not let our current agriculture food framework dictate how we grow, eat and use energy going into the future.  Individual gardening is the first step in my opinion.  One can be very productive on even a plot of land the size of a car or two.  Turning this land that is currently mowed by gasoline and laden with pesticides into productive land to feed our mouth and our family's, organically.  Something to think about.

Michael Pollan's 'Food Rules' In Stop-Motion (VIDEO)

More on the Baobab Tree and Fruit

The baobab tree is an unusual tree found in Africa.  Perhaps the next big touted superfood, which is why it has peaked my interest.  From a healthy food perspective, baobab is a mainstay in the local African's diet, and has interesting medicinal purposes that people use it for in that part of the world (discussed further in this post).


Over generations, many names have been given to this mystical, HUGE tree.  In the desert, people can even stay inside the tree for shelter, at the base of the tree.  Adansonias trees can reach heights of 5 to 30 meters (16 to 98 ft) and have trunk diameters of 7 to 11 meters (23 to 36 ft).  20+ feet diameter for a trunk?!  The typical common name for this tree is baobab.  However, it also possesses other names including boab, boaboa, bottle tree, tree of life, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree.  The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described A. digitata.

In terms of medicinal purposes, the ancient Egyptians used it for treating fevers, dysentery and bloody wounds. For generations in Africa, Baobab is often given as a calming agent for those with a fever, but is also used to combat diarrhea, dysentery, small pox, and measles.  My friend who is from Togo says that her mom uses it as part of the post pregnancy recovery diet.  The baobab, like many other cultural traditional medicines, have been 'tested' by humans for 1000s of years.  No current day 'clincial' study can match that kind of dataset!

When talking about baobab fruit's nutrition, it seriously beats out most fruits that we eat in the US.  Baobab has 5x more potassium than bananas.  3x more antioxidants than blueberries.  Baobab is high in antioxidants, which slows oxidative damage and helps decrease inflammation.  It also has 2.5x more calcium than milk.  Baobab is super high in dietary fiber, especially pectins.  Half of the fruit is fiber. 

Source: Wikipedia, baobab.com