Everyone should see this film. Take the red pill, and pass it to everyone you know.

Link

Things 1-50

Things 51-100

I think I just found my new favorite show.

If you have an emergency, such as company is coming over, the absolute quickest way to clear a swarm is to use a vacuum with a hose attachment, or a Dustbuster.

But for more passive, lasting maintenance, make a trap:

1. Put a little apple cider vinegar in a shot glass.
2. Cover it tightly with plastic wrap.
3. Poke a few holes in it, large enough for them to fit, maybe a little bigger.

They fly in and can’t get out.  This trap will last a while too, mine has been up for a week.  You can “freshen” it by giving it a good swirl.  Yummy.

You can also use wine, beer, OJ, or regular vinegar I guess.  I chose ACV because I have a bottle of it which I no longer use.  I’ve also seen mention of adding a drop of dish soap, but I didn’t find it necessary.  The idea there is it removes the surface tension on the liquid and they get stuck easier.  Probably only necessary if not using the plastic wrap.

(I don’t take credit for this trap, it’s on the net in various places)

Many tips and infos on fruit flies here.

Update: I tried mixing a good-sized drop of dish soap in with the ACV.  The soap breaks the surface tension of the liquid so as soon as they touch it they drown in seconds and sink to the bottom shortly thereafter.  This is now my preferred method, the plastic wrap isn’t even needed, which attracts them better as well.

What’s on my Food?

Pesticide Action Network – Pesticide Database

Food Additives ~ CSPI’s Food Safety

Foods to always buy organic (aka Dirty Dozen)  -  Foods you don’t need to buy organic

Subway ingredients list

Wow. And I thought Carl’s Jr. flew in the face of health.

Just learned about this site iHerb.com.  No it’s not just herbs, they have all kinds of supplements, health care products, toiletries, etc.  Good deals, check em out.  Their prices on some stuff pretty much blows away anywhere else.  Free shipping >$40, otherwise a $4 flat rate UPS ground.

Deals I especially recommend (big bottle=great deal):
SweetLeaf Stevia extract. It’s alcohol-free unlike most other stevia extracts. 0 cals, no glycemic, natural sweetener. Use it in tea, smoothies, cooking, whatever.
Singing Dog Organic Vanilla Extract: This price is unreal.  I paid this much for a tiny bottle of it at the grocery store.  Good stuff, I like to use it in my morning banana cacao sorbet concoction.
Dr. Bronner’s Almond 18in1 Soap: This soap is pretty amazing. I’ve only recently got into it, but I guess it can be used for all kinds of things, even in the dishwasher or clothes washer.  Little bit goes a long way. The almond scent is pretty delicious.
Earthrise Spirulina: I can’t speak for this product as I haven’t used it yet, but the price is very hot. Spirulina has many purported health benefits, it can be sprinkled on a salad or used in a smoothie.

Use Coupon Code GOT930 for $5 off:
iHerb.com

Trans fats: The scary thing about trans fats is that even if it says 0g on the label, the FDA allows it to be up to 0.4g and it’ll be rounded down to 0 for the label.  You very rarely see anything containing any grams of trans fat according to the label, but I’d be willing to bet that tons of products have it snuck in there and they get to round down to 0.  They probably lower the serving size to accomplish this too.  A person could eat 6 servings of such things in a day, that could be over 2g of trans fats all the while the label said 0.  Again it could also come at a restaurant and you’d never know it.  “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oils.  Avoid them!  It’s a shame that whole cities (like NYC back in 2006) place bans before the FDA even thinks of it.

MSG: The scary thing about MSG (other than of course how bad it is for you) is how it’s disguised so innocuously as other things in ingredient lists.  Like “hydrolyzed vegetable protein”, “autolyzed yeast”, “hydrolyzed yeast”, “yeast extract”, “soy extract”, “protein isolate”, even just as “spices”, or “natural flavorings”.  Be deligent with your label reading, or better yet avoid that processed crap all together.  But it’s ALSO served up in restaurants, you gotta be diligent.

(watch parts 2a, 2b, 3, 4)

Aspartame:  This vid series is called Aspartame and MSG are Poisoning Us, but it’s really just about aspartame and how it causes brain tumors and various other things.  It’s kinda long but near the end is a pretty sad story about how a woman was convicted for poisoning her husband who died of methanol poisoning, the actual suspicion being that it was from the component of aspartame.  Stevia gets mentioned in the credits; it’s a joke how aspartame is still approved for food use but stevia isn’t.

(watch parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Or this 60 Minutes piece which kind of sums up the above aspartame material in 10 minutes.

It has a pretty large database of foods, but if you don’t find something, you can also add the food manually.  Keep in mind that if the food is not in the database, it may be a sign that you shouldn’t be eating it (i.e. processed crap).

You can also group a set of foods into a custom recipe for ease of adding later (but be aware that if you alter the recipe later it alters it in your previous days also).

You can alter your nutrient goals if you don’t like the predetermined RDA’s for you.  (Some RDA’s are BS, as influenced by the meat and dairy industries.  For instance the protein and calcium recommendations are too high in my opinion.)  It will show you what proportion of your calories come from Protein/Carbs/Fat.  You can alter this target ratio.  You can track your weight or other parameters on the Biomarkers tab and use it to graph them over time.  Remember: to lose a sustainable pound per week of fat, shoot for a daily 500 calorie deficit.

There are on-line solutions for this kind of thing as well, namely fitday.com and nutridiary.com, which I admittedly have not tried.  I like CRON-o-meter because it’s light, snappy, simple, powerful.  I don’t feel the need for any extra functionality.

Remember it’s best to eat whole fresh ripe raw organic fruits and vegetables, and not rely on supplements.  It’s best to avoid refined sugars and starches, processed foods, and dairy.

http://spaz.ca/cronometer/

This is a French documentary entitled The World According to Monsanto. It reveals how “the gigantic bio-tech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.” Please watch the whole thing, and pass it on. And just say NO to GMO. Trouble is that Monsanto fought hard so that GM products don’t have to be labeled as such, so the only reliable way to know your food is GMO-free is to buy organic.

Support local farmers at farmer’s markets, join a CSA, start a garden. Stop drinking milk, cut way back on or eliminate your red meat intake, and stop being so fat. Wake up America!

Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 classic Super Size Me is up on Hulu for free right now.  In it he eats McDonalds three meals a day for 30 days. The experiment is interspersed with tons of shocking documentary bits highlighting the growing obesity epidemic in America. It’s a must watch if you haven’t, and probably worth a re-watch if you have.   Click here to go to the Hulu page, where it’s a little bigger, you can click HD, lower the lights, pop out, whatever.  Love you, Hulu!

edit: it’s now up on YouTube as well:

H.R. 875 entirety and S. 425 entirety (www.govtrack.us)

Change We Can Believe In: How About the End of Farmers Markets? Say Hello to H.R. 875: Food Safetly Modernization Act of 2009

Stop Federal Takeover of Food Regulation in H.R. 875

Please Stop H.R. 875 and S 425 in their current form

HR 875: The End of Organic Farming?

Scary videos after the jump.

edit: here is this entire talk ^^

Codex Alimentarius website

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, stopped by the Google headquarters in California last year and delivered this talk.

See also my earlier post featuring an interview with this man.

(see other posts featuring Michael Pollan)

edit2: here it is on Hulu.

Parts 2-9 after the jump Edit1: Here is only the first part remaining on youtube.. the pirated one got pulled.  buy the dvd or see it elsewhere but watch it!

Part 1:

(Watch parts 2-5 after the jump..)