Tag: food

Fee Writes

Really? Bacon is Good For You?

Now I’m probably going to upset a few people … I know many of my friends love bacon. But there’s a difference between saying you like eating bacon to saying that it’s healthy.

So here’s the deal:

I came across a post the other day which declared that bacon was good for you, in fact it said it was a “Miracle” Food

8 Reasons were given.

With the World Health Organisation coming out last year saying that processed meats rank alongside smoking as a cancer cause, I thought this wee article on the bacon interesting enough to have a read.

So what are the 8 reasons?

Well the first 5 are plainly just “clutching at straws” type of reasons:

1. Good for a hangover
2. Has a “seducing smell”
3. Fights bad breath
4. Improves the taste of everything
5. It will make you feel good.

By this time I thought, perhaps the whole article was just a send-up. But then I read the next 3 reasons and realized that it was a genuine piece.

Here are the final three with my comments below each one.

6. It helps your memory.
In this it talks about bacon being rich in choline. Well, my dear reader, maybe it is, but so are collard greens, Brussels sprouts, Broccoli, Swiss chard, Cauliflower and Asparagus.

7. It’s healthy for your heart.
This one caused me to chuckle and say out loud “really? ya think?”. Their reasoning is that it has Omega-3 fatty acids, but the fact that bacon is considered a processed food and it contains so much animal fats along with preservatives, I beg to argue that it’s not a heart-healthy food at all.
Best source of Omega-3 in a plant based version is flaxseed. See my Nutritional Book for more.

8. It’s good for your muscles.
Really what this is saying is that it has protein and protein is a muscle builder. Hahaha – protein is in so many foods that are way healthier – try nuts and seeds, tofu and tempeh, quinoa and beans and legumes. You sure don’t need bacon to become a muscle iron man or woman!!!

Aside from the fact that it is totally cruel to animals – it is NOT healthy!!! And that’s the part that annoys me, when it is advertised as being a health food. Keep eating it if you want, but at least take the time to know exactly what you are eating. If it’s a home cure then maybe it’s okay (personally wouldn’t risk it), but if it’s store bought, then reconsider.

So how many of you agree …. disagree …. Please let me know below in the comments.

Source: 8 Reasons Bacon Is Miracle Food

Fee Writes

Environment | Rants

What Do You Put Your Energy Into?

I know I say that I am “vegan”, but in actual fact, I’m more vegetarian than a vegan.

But if I say that then the assumption is that I eat dairy and eggs. By definition, a vegetarian only eats plant foods, no animal products at all. Think about it – the word itself should give you a clue – vege-tarian …. vege as in vegetables – I don’t see “dairy” or “egg” anywhere in that word at all.

The problem is that the food industry has cosied up to the corporations and have indoctrinated the public into believing that a vegetarian is someone who eats plant foods, dairy products and eggs, hence the animal food industry still is able to make money from this ever-growing portion of the public.

Even the medical fraternity is on board with this, by declaring that one must have dairy in order to get the right supply of calcium – Doctors, who have never had a decent lesson in nutrition at all.

The word “vegan” is taken from the first three and last two letters of the word vegetarian. Being vegan is a lifestyle. One that is totally devoid of animal products. For example not wearing leather.

So even though I say I am vegan, my reason for eating a plant-based diet is first and foremost, the environment. Yes, I abhor animal exploitation in any form and I do choose products I know to have no animal content nor have they been tested on animals.

But, because my number one reason is the environment, I do recycle. Which means I do visit op-shops (thrift stores for my American friends), and I do purchase leather items. The reason is that leather is one of the hardest things to break down, and then, when it does, it is so full of chemicals that it contaminates the ground.

This is where I come into odds with Vegans. Vegans don’t wear leather at all as their argument is, (and I have to concede they have a point), it doesn’t matter if you have recycled it, wearing it still says to the world that you condone the use of leather.

What a quandary. But in a round-about way, this brings me to the title of this post. If you try and take on too much … it just messes with your head! Well, it does with mine. So out of all the BIG issues – environment, animal welfare, poverty, world hunger, world peace etc etc etc
I have chosen the Environment. My reason? Simple logic – if we don’t have an environment, we don’t have anything else.

I’ve just spent 5 weeks in the home at Papamoa and in that time I only needed to put the rubbish out once which was on the last day…and even then the bag was not full. The home I was in had a compost (in fact had both normal and worm farm types), had the recycle buckets for glass, plastic, paper and cans and the rest went into the council bag to be put out on the curb.

I’m also very realistic. I am fully aware that here in N.Z. our recycling efforts (paper, plastic, glass etc), are just a token gesture, most of the stuff goes to landfill or gets shipped offshore. We actually have a poor record of encouraging the recycling industry. But that is something I really don’t have control over. What I do have control of is what I can personally do for the environment.

Like:

I re-use plastic bags (like bread bags) as often as I can … these odd plastic bags come with me to the supermarket and I put the fruit/veggies into them rather than get a new one.
The bags for nuts I’ve recycled so many times it’s hard to find the space to write the number on as there are so many numbers now crossed out.
Naturally, I have the canvas/jute reusable bags. Lucky for me I bought several of them in America, they’re big and sturdy and go through the wash like a pro.
I compost where I can, use a garbage disposal unit (the one in a sink) or boil up my peelings which I freeze to use as stock/soup.

I don’t like to label myself an Environmentalist, nor a “Greenie” – I think those titles are reserved for the more wealthy who are able to go the whole hog, and the only reason I say I’m a vegan is so my food choice is understood in this warped society. I just live the best way I know how and try to “do my bit” for the environment that I am currently living in.

What do you put your energy into?

2021 Update

I now classify myself as vegan, although the environment is uppermost. My health has put me on a whole food plant-based way of eating. I do some activism with Anonymous for the Voiceless group. You can find more information about all things Vegan and Plant-based at my resource website: Gold Card Vegan

Fee Writes

Health | Rants

Let Me Grab My SoapBox

Last year Dr Lance O’Sullivan, 2014 New Zealander of the year, came out saying that the Welfare Benefit should be cut from parents who do not vaccinate their children.

Note: I am a huge admirer of this young Doctor and the work he has done in the far North, however, I disagree with his argument on this issue as pointed out below.

Regardless whether you are for or against or in the middle on vaccinations – to me this is a violation of rights. It appals me that both the USA and Australia have laws now that make vaccination compulsory for all children, the pregnant mother and grandparents etc. I sincerely hope N.Z. will not follow suit, although it is highly likely that they will as they will be lobbied by well-meaning but misguided doctors and money-hungry drug companies.

But back to the parents on benefits. On further reading from this doctor (and others), it appears that it is mainly the children from the lower socioeconomic group who get any of the diseases far worse than those from other groups. In other words, the poor kid’s whooping cough is far worse than the rich kid’s one. (Generalization, but you get the picture).

In my opinion, it is because the poorer areas do not have the ability to provide healthy, nutritious foods that help to build the immune system.
Show me a solo mum on a benefit who is able to buy organic food? Or, for that matter, even a family who are not on benefits but are still struggling to balance the money coming in with the money that has to go out – and that’s a good majority of New Zealanders.

What is cheaper – McDonald’s or a homemade burger made with organically, nutritious ingredients?

Where’s the education on sugar?
Processed foods, which appear to be cheaper, are riddled with sugar which is known (researched and documented) to feed cancer cells, promote tooth decay and damage the immune system.

Note: there are many “rich” kids whose nutrition is also sorely lacking.

It’s not the Doctor’s fault … I realise that doctors are only doing what they believe is the right thing going by evidence presented in medical journals and told to them by drug companies. It’s documented that a lot of what is written for those journals are slanted and biased and quite often not even written by the name that is assigned to the article.

Doctors do not receive any, well, maybe a few hours if they’re lucky, tuition on nutrition at any of the medical schools. They receive far more teaching on drugs, hence the reason they poo-hoo any ideas that food and natural remedies may be far better medicine than any of the chemicals drug companies bring out.

Go back in history to who really started the monopoly of the drug companies – Carnegie and Rockefeller … Rockefeller in particular. See, he made heaps of money with oil but then started looking for ways to use it. He came up with the idea of using coal tar (a petroleum derivative) and made drugs which affect the human mind, body and nervous system. Hey, an excellent way of masking or stopping symptoms, but not a cure.

To keep this history lesson short – Carnegie (and other industrial giants) came up with a plan and between them, they managed to get all the natural practitioners ousted (e.g. herbalists, homoeopaths etc) and “standardise” the teaching and clinics for their own gains. Rockefeller wanted to control the whole medical field, using the only remedies allowed, patented synthetic drugs. And he got it.

It’s a fascinating history and worth reading about because it gives a much clearer understanding of how Big Pharma has so much power and has influenced the way we have been brainwashed into this style of medicine.

I believe that modern doctors should not be taking the Hippocratic oath at all …. it’s hypocritical. They DO NOT follow the teachings of Hippocrates whose famous quote is:

“Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.

and one more to end on….

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”

Whether one agrees with vaccinations is not the issue here. It is using threatening and bullying tactics that I don’t believe in and certainly hope it never comes to that here in N.Z.

Fee Writes

Environment | Quick Post

Awesome Afternoon

What an awesome afternoon spent at the food fest put on by Envirohub at the Historic Village (Tauranga).

The weather could not have been more perfect.

My sweet friend, Marielle, who runs the Envirohub ship, asked if I’d lend a hand. Not that I was that much help because I spent a great deal of time talking to lots of different peeps that I met. But I did sell a few raffle tickets, got some donations and even managed to encourage those fit enough to have a crack at the biking smoothie machine.

The day was about sustainable backyards with talks on growing, eating and composting food e.g. worm farming, edible weeds and clean eating (right up my alley). There was music too and the day ended with a great percussion group, (sorry, can’t remember the name of them but they were great fun).

I’ll let the rest of the photos do the talking for me ….

cd_56dbc9a1ec96a — A great family day out

cd_56dbc9f932004 — What have you got there?

cd_56dbca3bae00e — Yup, they’d nicked the sign … such fun!!!

cd_56dbcc41b4173 — There’s that sign again

cd_56dbcc92cf165 — A great colour filled day!!!!

This is a great organization and one to support – check out their website: Envirohub

Fee Writes

Food | Random

Will They Ever Get It Right?

Oh Pill-ease, you have got to be kidding me!

McD’s are at it again with their attempt to disguise the fact that their food is just plain and simply unhealthy. Hell, even when they try to be healthy, they mess it up.

They are now jumping on the food fad of kale. Don’t they know, kale is so last year as 2016 heralds foods from turmeric to seriously upgraded oatmeal and the real “new” is Koji (koh-jee) which is just rice that’s been inoculated with the koji mold, (this is what’s used to make miso and soy sauce).

But before you dash out to your nearest golden arches, be warned because it transpires that the new salad, with all its trimmings, has more fat, more calories, and less protein than a Big Mac.

How can they get it so wrong?

Thanks for dropping by, my name is Fee O’Shea. I’m a mother and grandma, an author and an Improver. I’ve got a resource website to help peeps go plant-based, I’ve scribbled six books centred around veganism, and have helped others write and publish their own stories.
But this blog is for my thoughts, my rants, raves, reviews and things that have grabbed my attention. From politics to social media to beauty, health and the environment. Fee’s Ramblings Over Coffee is written to bring you a smile or get you thinking. Enjoy.

Tag: food

Really? Bacon is Good For You?

Now I’m probably going to upset a few people … I know many of my friends love bacon. But there’s a difference between saying you like eating bacon to saying that it’s healthy.

What Do You Put Your Energy Into?

I know I say that I am “vegan”, but in actual fact, I’m more vegetarian than a vegan.

Let Me Grab My SoapBox

Last year Dr Lance O’Sullivan, 2014 New Zealander of the year, came out saying that the Welfare Benefit should be cut from parents who do not vaccinate their children.

Awesome Afternoon

What an awesome afternoon spent at the food fest put on by Envirohub at the Historic Village (Tauranga).

Will They Ever Get It Right?

Oh Pill-ease, you have got to be kidding me!

Search

About Me

Categories

DROP ME A LINE

A Trusted Site