12. I think eggs are good for
you. But buy organic and farm-fresh, if
possible. Man, I wish more of us had
chickens so that farm-fresh eggs were nearby for all of us! We are not allowed to have chickens where I
live because our mayor thinks it’s too hillbilly and backwards and that it will
hurt our housing prices. But I think
it’s a future trend, that more and more people will want the right to have
chickens. I’m still praying about this
one, for the right to own a couple chickens.
There are dogs in my city that are big aggressive breeds, that poop all
over, that bark like crazy when you walk by, that have bitten people . . . but
having a couple of small chickens is “bad”!?!
When was the last time you saw someone mauled by an aggressive
chicken? Seriously!
13. As much as possible, buy organic
meat and antibiotic-free poultry. From
what I can remember, poultry meat containing antibiotics is less resistant to
the harmful bacteria that can make us sick.
Do you really want to eat that or serve it to your family?
14. Whenever possible, support your
small, local farms and businesses. These
people are being swallowed up by corporate giants. And the food/product quality is going
down. Support the little guys who are
doing it right. They add charm and
quality and character and flavor to a “Wal-Mart/McDonald’s world.” Don’t think you can afford it? Just buy less of that low-quality,
mass-produced, cheaply-made junk, and buy a smaller amount of higher-quality,
USA-made or locally-grown products. You
can better afford to do it right if you weed out all the junk you don’t need to
buy.
15. Use sea salt instead of the
processed, stripped table salt. Don’t
think there’s a difference between salts?
Dilute a bunch of sea salt in one glass and the same amount of table salt in
another glass and let both evaporate.
Then see how different the crystals look. There is a huge difference. When I did this, the sea salt grew translucent cubes on the
bottom, while the table salt grew mounds of powdery “snow” all over. And there seemed to be way more table salt left over than sea salt. I couldn't help but ask, "What happened to all the sea salt? Where did it all go?" Personally, I think we don’t have a “too much
sodium” problem in our country as much as we have a “too much table salt”
problem. Go for sea salt.
[I did the crystal-growing
experiment with sugar, too: Sucanat in one glass, cane juice crystals in
another, and table sugar in the third.
The Sucanat water began to grow mold rather quickly, followed by the
cane juice crystals a bit later, but the table sugar never rotted. This tells me that there are nutrients in the
first two that can support life. But the
table sugar is devoid of anything that can grow or support living
organisms. Interesting!
This is the table salt:
And this is the sea salt:
And speaking of sugar. On behalf of the poor little hummingbirds, please do not feed them that artificially-colored sugar-water that we put in hummingbird feeders. It can’t be good for their little bodies to eat that stuff. Grow plants that attract and feed hummingbirds instead. They need the real stuff as much as we do.
I can only imagine the kinds of news stories we will hear soon: “We don’t know why the hummingbirds are dying off and failing to reproduce properly.” I bet it will sound just like the “We don’t know why the honey bees are dying off” bull-crap that we hear from those who adamantly deny that pesticides are hurting the bees. Oh, don’t get me started on this! I get so mad just thinking about it, about our deliberate ignorance, about choosing to cover our eyes to truth and make up any other excuse or explanation just so we don’t have to change our ways or admit to the problems we have caused. Oh, don’t get me started!]
16. Speaking of pesticides: Don’t put chemicals on your lawn. You don’t need it. So what if there are some dandelions there! Wouldn’t you rather have dandelions than
life-killing chemicals? Personally, I
get disgusted when I see lush green lawns, devoid of anything but perfectly-straight,
identical blades of grass. Because I
know that they have saturated their lawn in chemicals to get that look. It makes me mad because we have to share this
space, and those of us who don’t spray have to deal with the consequences of
those who do, while at the same time getting criticized for the messy look of
our lawn and for the dandelion seeds that spread from it. Yeah, well, at least we are not poisoning our
eco-system and the creatures that depend on it. (Oh, don’t get me started!)
17. Buy aluminum-free cornstarch. Organic, if possible, unless you want to risk
getting pesticide-laden, GMO corn.
18. We, personally, don’t believe in
fluoride. I have researched it enough to
think it’s more harmful than helpful and that it’s a great big “I’ve got some
snake-oil to sell you” scam. (I research
EVERYTHING, excessively. It’s why I have
such strong opinions on things. They are
very researched opinions.)
Unfortunately, our city adds the
highest amount of fluoride it can to our city water and there’s nothing we can
do about it (short of getting a really expensive, whole-house filter that takes
fluoride out). So knowing that we are
being medically-treated against our wills, we do not buy fluoride-toothpaste or
get fluoride-treatments at the dentist.
And I would never buy fluoride-treated water for babies. (But I do recommend always having some sort of a water filter if you do have city water, at least to get out the heavy metals, bacteria, and chlorine. We have a PUR attachment on our faucet and a filter for the fridge water. I once got an unfiltered drink at night from the bathroom faucet, and I had an upset stomach all night. Maybe it was in my mind, but I would never drink straight from the faucet again.)
I respect doctors and the work they do and the advances they have made. But I do not think that they or the medical organizations or the pharmaceutical companies are gods. They are human. And I have heard about plenty of mistakes that they have made over the years.
From things I have read and studied: Polio vaccines ended up becoming the very thing that caused polio. And the measles strains that were going around during the recent measles outbreaks were “vaccine-induced” strains, not wild ones. And during outbreaks, the majority of those who contract measles, mumps, whooping cough, or whatever are immunized. You hear stories of doctors amputating the wrong limbs, leaving scissors or rags inside of people, being unable to identify certain illnesses or diseases, and prescribing the wrong medicines. One doctor approved and prescribed a drug for my breastfeeding cousin, while the next doctor was horrified she was taking it, condemned her for using it, and told her she would hurt her baby. I have read about doctors prescribing certain antibiotics to children, yet they were unaware that those drugs should not be given to a child like that who has reacted to certain other drugs.
My point is: Doctors are human, just like the rest of us. Do not put your faith in them as though they are gods. I believe that medical knowledge (and our medical system) is not perfect or flawless ... and that the governmental agencies that govern medical decisions and research are biased and are "in bed" with Big Pharma so that they all profit from pushing their agendas on people ... and that many of the research tests done by the government and big companies are flawed and biased from the beginning and can't be trusted ... and that the media is incredibly biased and will only report what the governmental agencies and big companies want them to report. You need to be an advocate for yourself. Research your symptoms, research what the doctors tell you, research any treatments or drugs they prescribe or procedures they want to do.
I used to trust that the government was looking out for our health and our best interests and that they would never put us at risk . . . until I did my research.
Research for yourself some of the unethical ways that doctors, the government, the medical organization, and the pharmaceutical companies have joined hands in an effort to push through their agendas and to bully the common citizen into falling in line.
I have read of how some people on the “medical expert” boards – the ones who make up the medical guidelines for the country – have stocks in the companies who make the products that they are pushing on the country.
I have read how the researchers who have the guts to question the skewed results and flawed studies and who try to bring to light all the things that the big company is trying to hide end up getting fired, have their reputation destroyed, and lose their licenses and credentials.
I have heard how a person would work for a pharmaceutical company to make a product, and then they would go work for the government agency that approves that product.
I have heard how medical tests on the safety of certain products are cut short and yet the product is approved anyway, how pharmaceutical companies are allowed to police themselves when it comes to testing the safety of their product, and how vaccine makers are “above the law” and cannot be held accountable for if their vaccines hurt people.
From what I remember, certain vaccines that were shown to hurt people were immediately stopped over in Europe somewhere. But here in America, if you dare to voice a concern against vaccines, you are demonized and called “uneducated” and told that you are just giving into fears and have no basis for your concerns. And the media and government keep asking “Why do people still question vaccines?”
Maybe it’s because these “uneducated” Americans have actually done the research ... or they have experienced a reaction ... or they have finally realized how “big business” can’t be trusted with our health because they are more concerned with their profits ... or they are using their God-given common sense to determine that injecting a “witch’s brew” of toxic, unnatural ingredients straight into a tiny baby’s bloodstream is not good. And no amount of shaming or name-calling or trying to pull the wool over their eyes will work. Knowledge is power!
Do not be afraid to do your research, to ask the hard questions, or to seek another opinion. This is your health and your family that we are talking about. Make educated decisions and do what’s best for your family.
To be clear, my point about vaccines is not “Don’t do them.” It’s “Make an educated decision.” Don’t let some doctor or government agency make the decision for you or shame you into doing something you don’t agree with. I have researched this issue so much, and there are risks on both sides and lots of stuff to be afraid about. It’s enough to cause a panic attack. And the only conclusion I can come to is this (and it applies to other decisions as well):
“It’s up to you, the parent, to make the decision that is best for your family because you are the ones who have to live with the consequences of your decisions. Not the pharmaceutical companies, not the doctors, not the government, not your neighbor or family member who is being critical of you. You and your family are the ones who will have to live with the decisions you have made. And, therefore, you and your family alone are the ones who should be allowed to make the educated, researched decision that you feel is best.”
And no one should disagree with this. If you do, you are simply asking to have your right to make your own decisions taken away also. I just wish the government and medical agencies and doctors would also agree that people should have the right to make educated decisions, instead of acting like they are gods and like they know best, trying to buffalo everyone into doing whatever they think should be done and criminalizing those who don't fall in line.
Sure, you might think that they are basing their views on solid research, but you might be surprised. I think everyone should research the history of vaccines and what’s in them. Look up The Vaccine Debate by Randall Neustaedtler and Neil Miller’s books on vaccines. They are older books, but worth the read. The Vaccine Debate gives great info about each vaccine, the risks of each and those who should consider them. It also shows the timeline for each disease and when the vaccine was introduced. And what surprised me is that, generally, the vaccine wasn’t introduced until the tail end of a disease, after the disease was nearly done running its course, after people had gained a natural herd immunity by experiencing it (an immunity that would be passed down through breastfeeding. Thank you, Formula Makers, for interfering with public health and the natural processes that make us healthier as a whole!) And yet, when the vaccines were introduced after the disease had almost worked its way out of the population naturally, they claimed that it was the vaccines that eradicated the disease. However, I believe they simply interfered with our natural immunity and that we have yet to see the real consequences. (Want to read some interesting things? Go to naturalnews.com. It's full of the stuff the government won't tell you or admit to.)
Be your own advocate! Medical advice and “expert” opinion changes all the time, so don’t just trust what’s popular now. Do your research. Make a decision you can stand by.
[I wonder, do you think that our country would ever be able to be like Europe, stopping the use of vaccines and admitting that it made a mistake if they were ever proved to be harmful? Or has our government so steamrolled people into using them – tying hands with the doctors and schools and pharmaceutical companies – that they could never admit they were wrong now? Because it would cause mass hysteria and multitudes of lawsuits? Are we simply continuing to push them and to silence any opposition because we are in so deep that we can’t ever admit we were wrong to begin with? Could you imagine the fallout if that ever happened!?!
And here are a couple things that don’t make sense to me …
People complain that those who are not immunized are putting the health of the immunized at risk. But if vaccines are as effective as they say then you shouldn’t be worried about your immunized child. It’s the non-immunized that have to be concerned, not those who have supposedly been protected from the disease by getting shots.
And if your immunized child can still get the disease anyway, then aren’t you knowingly taking a double risk - one from the vaccine and two from the fact that you still could get the disease anyway?
And how many of these diseases happened historically because of poor hygiene and lack of proper medical knowledge? And not that we are cleaner and understand germs more, the diseases might not be as severe as they were back then and could be treated much easier? And yet we continue to claim that it’s the vaccines that are keeping the diseases away, even if it might be more about our advances in hygiene and germ management? (And speaking of germ management, our overuse of antibiotics has led to some super-strong germs that are resistant to antibiotics. Could it also be possible that our use of vaccines is simply leading to advanced viruses? That it’s not that vaccines are eradicating the diseases but that they are leading to stronger diseases? Just wondering.)
And then during outbreaks, we’re told by the medical establishment that even though there are risks with taking the vaccine and even though the vaccine didn't work for most of those who got the disease, you should still go out and get vaccinated, maybe even getting another dose of one you already got ... to help ensure that you don't get sick. Doesn’t this sound backwards to you?
I’m all for treating illnesses that my family has. I’m just a little shaky about treating an illness that we don’t have. I don’t think we as a society understand the long-term effects of these “preemptive” measures. And I think we have yet to see the hidden consequences of injecting babies with foreign substances. We have yet to make the connection between vaccines and some of the public’s health problems (such as attention disorders, allergies, auto-immune disorders, cancers, etc.). I believe that the whole picture is way too complex for us to be able to say without a doubt “vaccines are totally safe.”]
Plus, here’s what my natural-minded doctor simply told my husband, “Don’t get a vasectomy. In twenty years, you won’t be able to get it up anymore. It leads to impotency.”
Oh, how I am sure many of you are hating me right now. But remember, I told you not to read it.
20. Here’s something we can all agree
on: Exercise! Do something active, regularly. My favorite way to exercise is to simply put on
my headphones and take a walk. I wish I
could do this every day, but with homeschooling four kids and having a husband
who leaves for work before 6 a.m. and living in the Midwest where we get a lot
of deep snow and freezing temps, I can’t get out more than a couple times a
month. But when I do, I walk for about
an hour. It relaxes me so much. Maybe someday I will be able to do this daily,
but until then, I am contemplating a treadmill or stationary bike. Exercise is relaxing, it feels good, and it
helps keep you healthy.
Any tips of your own? (No fighting over vaccines, though. We all know how that ends.)
Any tips of your own? (No fighting over vaccines, though. We all know how that ends.)
