Thursday, September 17, 2015

One Degree of Change #28

One Degree of Change #28



The early morning is my most favorite time.  I go to the gym around 4 am.  I come home and go for a short run.  Prepare my favorite cup of joe and sit by our beautiful pool.  It is my meditative time, my creative time and my writing time.  I look forward to start each day just to see what I can create and make come true.

 As daylight ensues, the animals and birds come alive.  Not unusual to have a gator swimming in the canal and an osprey fishing next to it.  I have a bird feeder and a hummingird feeder which begin to serve breakfast at the first hint of sunlight.  My bees in my hive begin to forage the local area, jetting in and out of the hive.  Our cats begin the hunt for lizards that they will never catch.  The dogs come out every once and awhile to check in, making sure they are not missing anything.  All of this is done with may sacramonial cup of coffee.  It is not that I even "have" to have it.  It is just part of my morning.

One Degree of Change #28: Drink Organic Fair Trade Coffee!  When I was a kid, I remember the commercial with Juan Valdez going to the mountain top to pick the coffee beans.  The tag line for Folger's coffee was "mountain grown, the richest kind". I thought to myself, wow, that is some special coffee.  After all my grandmother drank Folgers coffee every morning.  Then I took a geography class and learned that all coffee is mountain grown.   There are two types of beans, Arabica and Robusta.  Arabica is grown in high elevations and is known to have a stronger and better flavor.  Robusta is grown in elevations of 2000 feet or less and produces more beans, but not the flavor.  Most coffee are a mixture of both to keep some coffees more affordable.  I don't drink coffee because it is cheap, I enjoy the flavor.  So I love the quest to find those coffees to enjoy.  Sorry, Juan Valdez!

In order to continue with my responsible ways, I select coffee that is organic and fair trade.  What's the difference? Since so many people start their day with coffee and also self medicate with it in the afternoon, the demand is great.  The goal for the big producer is to produce maximum amount ant the lowest cost.  The land is cleared on the mountain tops so the genetically modified coffee plants can grow in full sun.  The crops are sprayed with chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides.  The runoff from the stripped land contaminates our water sources.  The farmers that have to spray the crops are exposed to the chemicals, as well as the workers who actually handle the crops.   And then we get to enjoy the contamination in our cup each morning.  And might I add that the workers in the big production companies are paid poorly as well as the farmers who had to grow all those contaminated beans.  Enjoy!




How can you have a cup of coffee now, without thinking of all that.  Sorry for ruining the java experience for you.  So to convince you to select  and drink organic, fair trade coffee, here are 10 benefits of organic coffee!


  1. Coffee beans have important organic minerals and nutrients, which include naicin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, magnesium, manganese and potasium.
  2. Protects cognitive health and prevents mental degradation as we age.
  3. Reduces the risk of stroke and in females, reduces heart disease.
  4. There is a 23-50% lower chance of developing diabetes.
  5. Helps to optimize our metabolic efficiency due to the vitamin B sources in the coffee beans.
  6. Caffeine speeds up the metabolism and causes the burning of calories at a higher rate.
  7. Caffeine helps to maximize fitness goals by energizing the body to push through fitness routines a little harder.
  8. Research is still underway, but liver protection is noted in many of the studies that I researched.  An 80% reduction in the chance of developing liver cirrohsis was a noted effect.
  9. Acts as an anticarcenogenic by protecting against two types of cancer: liver and colorectal, which happen to be the 3rd and 4th deadliest types of cancer.
  10. Acts to energize the body and mind which decreases depression, anxiety and mood swings.
Convinced? When shopping for organic you need to look for these terms, 100% USDA Certified Organic and 100% Fair Trade.  Here's a source for fair trade products: http://fairtradeusa.org. Now you enjoy your cup of black gold (mine is with organic half and half and stevia, so its more like creamy, brown gold) with a clear conscious.

It's just one degree of change!  
Make that coffee clatch an organic, fair trade one!  
And don't forget to compost those coffee grounds,
they are the richest kind!
And please remember to drink responsibly!

Friday, September 4, 2015

One Degree of Change #27

One Degree of Change #27


It is still summertime for us in Florida.  Also hurricane season is in full swing.  I chuckle as I watch water and canned supplies fly off the shelves at the grocery store.  Not because I don't think people should prepare for a possible hurricane, but that it is a great excuse to stock the pantry and cabinets with junk food!  It is not like we are going to starve to death if we don't have power for a few days.  I imagine since we don't have "snow" days in Florida, our "hurricane" days equal the same experience.  So we just prepared for Hurricane Erika, which fizzled into alot of rain.  I watched the weather forcasters excitingly predict the possible harm.  The governor of Florida declared a state of emergency.  The frenzy began and then diminished.  Now our state of emergency is a state of increased obesity, diabetes and heart disease, because now the state of Florida has to eat all the junk food they bought to survive the storm!  I guess I should just consider it job security!

One Degree of Change #27:  Try raw milk!  So if the hurricane knocked out our power and the commercial diaries in Florida couldn't produce milk, what would you do?  Try raw milk of course.  If you remember a few degrees of change ago (One Degree of Change #23), 
I talked about commercial milk and the standards by which it is produced.  It is so interesting that the FDA allows high fructose corn syrup and trans fats in our food, but they have a fit when a local, organic farmer is selling raw milk.  Most people have never even tried raw milk.  As a kid, a grew up in Dayton, Ohio.  I had a school friend whose family owned a dairy.  I would wish every night that on Thursday, she would ask me to spend the weekend.  That meant we got to get up early Saturday morning and do the milking chores.  She hated it, I was so excited I could hardly sleep!  But it was all worth it to milk the cows by hand into the stainless steel buckets.  I admit to drinking several weeks worth of the creamy, rich nectar.  My mom feed us Carnation Instant milk that she would make the night before and put it in a gallon milk jug.  We never knew the difference, but after that first weekend at the dairy farm, mom's gig was up!

So what are the benefits of raw milk? Here are 10 benefits of drinking raw milk from healthy grass fed cows.

  1. It is an incredibley complex whole food.
  2. It is complete with digestive enzymes, antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitic properties.
  3. It is chock full of both water and fat soluable vitamin complexes.
  4. It has a wide range of minerals and trace elements.
  5. It has all of the eight essential amino acids we need and do not make ourselves.
  6. It contains more than 60 enzymes.
  7. It contains CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) which is an Omega 6 Fatty Acid that has positive effects on insulin resistance, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
  8. Numerous studies show that raw milk is effective in decreasing allergy, eczema and asthma symptoms.
  9. Protects against infection, diarrhea, rickets, tooth decay and TB.
  10. Over 80% of patients that were advised to be lactose intolerant were able to drink raw milk.
Of course, just like anything in this world, you must take care to get a great source of raw milk.  Know how the cows are fed, if they are given antibiotics and how the milk is collected and stored.  The sources are out there.  Locally in Florida we have access to both cow and goat milk.  Go to this website: http://www.floridarawmilk.com/ and get some information for yourself. 
 

 
Now go out and get a milk mustache!
Moooove over pasteurized milk, the raw revolution is coming!
    begins September 28th and 29th! 
    Call TODAY to reserve your seat!