My husband took the kids to the store last night to get some groceries.  He’s pretty amazing, and brave to take a 1, 3 AND 5 year old by himself.  Anyhow, we were out of salt so he grabbed some.  We’re usually very careful about checking ingredients, but when you’ve got all three kids by yourself – all bets are off.  Besides it’s sea salt right?  Why would you add anything to it?  Apparently, if it is a packaged food product, we have found a way to contaminate it.  The specific product is Balenine Fine Crystals.  Ingredients:  Sea Salt, Magnesium Oxide and Yellow Prussiate of Soda.  A quick look at the MSDS for Yellow Prussiate told us this:

Potential Acute Health Effects:  Extremely hazardous in case of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation.

Potential Chronic Health Effects:  Extremely hazardous in case of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation.  CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. TERATOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available.  DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY: Not available. The substance is toxic to blood, lungs, mucous membranes. Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage.

Section 4: First Aid Measures

Eye Contact:  Check for and remove any contact lenses. Immediately flush eyes with running water for at least 15 minutes, keeping eyelids open. Cold water may be used. Do not use an eye ointment. Seek medical attention.

Skin Contact:  After contact with skin, wash immediately with plenty of water. Gently and thoroughly wash the contaminated skin with running water and non-abrasive soap. Be particularly careful to clean folds, crevices, creases and groin. Cold water may be used.  Cover the irritated skin with an emollient. If irritation persists, seek medical attention.

Serious Skin Contact:  Wash with a disinfectant soap and cover the contaminated skin with an anti-bacterial cream. Seek medical attention.

Inhalation: Allow the victim to rest in a well ventilated area. Seek immediate medical attention.

Serious Inhalation: Not available.

Ingestion:  Do not induce vomiting. Loosen tight clothing such as a collar, tie, belt or waistband. If the victim is not breathing, perform
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Seek immediate medical attention.

Serious Ingestion: Not available.

Uh, yeah, we’re gonna take it back.

I have to begin by admitting to being a former sugar addict.  Never having dealt with weight issues, I felt I had a free pass to eat as much sugar as I wanted, whenever I wanted.  I consumed sugar daily and more often than not, all day long in some form or another.  Dessert was a must.  A full package of cookies in a sitting was no big deal.  I wasn’t consciously aware of any guilt. I thought I was a healthy person.  I was fit, I was active and I ate what I thought was a pretty healthy diet, besides the sugar of course.  Luckily, my body finally gave me a reason to look deeper into how I had been treating it.  A lot of things have changed for me now, my life has improved dramatically and I owe most of this to what I have learned about sugar.

Sugar, it’s seemingly sweet and simple, but this kitchen staple has a dark side.  Besides fake (chemical & genetically altered) and cruel (factory farms) food, this is one of the most damaging ingredients you can consume.  I could go into depth on the ways sugar harms the body and mind, but Vin Miller at Natural Bias has already written an excellent and thorough article on the topic here, which I highly recommend.

With a history steeped in unconscionable crimes against humanity and the environment along with a present day ‘Big Sugar’ lobby in Washington, sugar has more than it’s fair share of injustices.  Sugar has it’s roots in slavery and today still relies heavily on indentured servants.  One example of the grave mistreatment of human beings in the cultivation of sugar are the Bateyes (sugar workers’ towns) in the Dominican Republic.  Haitians are often bribed to take ‘jobs’ with the promise of a better life for their families.  They are trucked into the DR and then after confiscating their documentation (so they have little means for escape) are forced to live in police states.  They are expected to work 12 hours of hard labor each day for the average pay of two dollars…per day.  The work is some of the most labor intensive still performed by humans today and the conditions are harsh.  With extreme temperatures, clouds of dust and working mostly with machetes and bare hands, illness and injury runs rampant.  The workers have no access to medical care and very limited access to food.  Families are forced to purchase food from the stores erected in the bateyes at costs double and triple that of what is available in local towns.  Families caught growing their own food have their gardens destroyed, forcing many to go hungry or subsist chewing on canes of sugar.  You can imagine the damage this causes for their bodies and teeth, especially in growing children.

Everglades and Turner River by Chauncey Davis

Environmental damage is of great concern, especially here in the US where the ecologically important Florida Everglades is being destroyed by sugar farms.  Efforts to protect the environment and place taxes on sugar production have been futile as the Big Sugar lobbies hold huge power in government.  Two years ago the governor of Florida proposed a $1.75 Billion deal to buy out the 180,000 acres of Everglades land currently owned by the sugar elite, however this deal has been dramatically scaled back during negotiations.  Just last week the state voted in favor of a plan to purchase 27,000 acres for $1.97 Million.  Even though it sounds like a small victory, it is US Sugar who benefits the most from this deal.  The acreage is made up of six disconnected parcels, much of which has been devastated by plant disease and toxic chemicals such as DDT and arsenic.  US Sugar let go of some unusable and contaminated land and gets paid far above current market value.  The Everglades are in a critical state and this purchase has actually stopped the restoration work that was in process as available funding will now be appropriated to the sale.

Seek out healthy substitutes for sugar.  Cutting out sugar doesn’t mean never having a sweet again, once you re-balance your tastes a little sweetness goes a long way and it can be achieved through more natural and nutrient rich sources such as dates, honey, stevia, molasses, coconut sugar or maple syrup.  It is time for us to cultivate awareness and take action.  We need to inform ourselves because, currently, there is a carefully placed veil between us and the most basic things in our lives.  Information is readily available on most every topic, most times at the touch of a button.  Question, explore and find more meaningful ways to find joy than the fleeting euphoria of a sugar high.

As a sidenote, with two authors of this blog the views expressed are not always shared between both parties.

Over the past several months my eyes have opened to the carefully crafted lies we’ve all bought into about our food, our water, our consumerism, our energy consumption and our ‘health’ system. Our entire culture has been brainwashed over decades by a system based on greed and suppression.  For a time, we didn’t even notice it was happening.  However, now the math is beginning to sneak into our psyches.  The calculations have been running quietly in the backgrounds of our minds, beginning to make us uneasy, even when we didn’t consciously know why.  The stuff from which our stuff is made is running out.  The soil is dying, we’re running out of forests, we’ve devastated the landscape and destroyed the water.  All of this ecology is also habitat and the life within each has been direly impacted.  The bottom line is, it’s bad, it’s really bad.  There is a reason that we are looking for sustainable answers to today’s problems, because the way we have been living is not. By definition our UN-sustainable lives, practices and energy sources [oil] are seeing their limits and, it seems, they’re just beyond the horizon.  The sun is about to set on this illusion and we are running out of daylight.

Waking up to all of this knowledge, seems overwhelming.  We feel powerless and we want to put our blinders back on.  We stare straight ahead, afraid of what else we may uncover if we begin to believe the editorials of the horrible crimes that have been perpetrated against us.  We lose hope knowing that in turn, we perpetrated horrible crimes against other cultures, innocent beings and the earth through our support of this system.  I am guilty.  It feels bad and I’m sorry, but instead of dwelling there, I want to fix it.  This is an opportunity.

I am ready to do what it takes to end this war on life.  It doesn’t have to be a difficult process.  We can have grand plans about a perfect system that seems impossible to employ, but it can be much easier than that.  We can worry individually about the things that we don’t want to do and the skills that we don’t have, but when it boils down to it if we embrace unlimited compassion within our hearts and let our egos dissolve, the world will begin to right itself.  By this I certainly don’t mean we all sit around with our fingers crossed waiting for some magic fairy to come, wave her wand and restore everything.  When we begin to rebuild from a foundation of love, things have a way coming together.  It means we all do the things we LOVE and we commit to them.  It means we put forth honest effort.  Instead of slackly doing something you dislike for someone you don’t respect (which will inevitably wrap you in a downward spiral of discontent), figure out what you love, stop worrying about money and just do it.  Do it morning and night, with passion, for days until the brilliant ideas start forming in your head.  Don’t be scared along the way by what the television says, or by what the billboard says or even by what your friend or relative says.  Just keep moving steadily forward.  Trust yourself and listen intently for your intuition.  Don’t be easily discouraged and maintain flexibility.  One of my favorite pieces of advice from the Dalai Lama is this:

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Instead of immediately complaining about how you didn’t get what you wanted, be open to the possibility that this is the best thing that could have happened.  This could be clearing a path to an amazing future.  Let go of your grasp on how things should have been and unlock your potential for progress.  Be honest and loving with others and you’ll no longer have to worry about others’ being honest and loving with you.  Drop your ego and it won’t matter what anyone else thinks of you.  You become free.  When you become free, you become happy.  When you become happy you become more productive, more creative and more resourceful.  We are beautiful spirits, capable of amazing things, all we need to do is trust ourselves.

Here are some important changes to make in your life (if you haven’t already) that can make this transition flow more smoothly:

• Look behind the scenes to see where things are originating and the processes that created them.
• Eat nutritious foods; source (non-genetically modified (GMO), no pesticide) whole foods from real people.  Talk to the farmer about how the food was grown.  Eat healthy saturated fats like coconut oil and/or grassfed butter & raw milk and avoid unhealthy vegetable, canola and hydrogenated oils.  Taste the difference and feel the changes in your body.  GMO foods do not have to be labeled.  If it’s in the grocery store, has corn or soy in it and it isn’t labeled ‘organic’ or ‘non-gmo’ then it’s a pretty sure bet that it is gmo.
• Cut as far back on sugar as possible.  This is easiest to do by eliminating all sugar (including most fruit) for at least a week.  Then stay away from all processed sugars including (GMO) high-fructose corn syrup as much a possible.
• Seek out clean water.  When fluoride is artificially added to our drinking water it is a toxic poison.  It is not helping our teeth and even if it were, topical applications would cover us – we shouldn’t be drinking it and bathing in it on a daily basis.  Harvest spring water from a local spring (check out www.findaspring.com to see if there is a spring listed near you, even if there isn’t that doesn’t mean you don’t have one locally).  Install a Reverse Osmosis filter or if well water is clean and available switch over.
• Enjoy the outdoors, take a little time each day to appreciate all the beauty and wonder that nature has to offer.
• Make more connections with people.  This can be as simple as striking up a conversation with the guy standing next to you in line.
• Limit mass consumerism to the best of your ability.  Fill the void with love instead.  When you are about to buy something ask yourself if it is really something that you want or need and how long it is going to be of use to you.  When you do shop seek out local, independent retailers.  If you need a gift for someone else consider lessons or classes, purchase them rights to a streaming movie from amazon, some used books you know they’ll love or buy or make something handcrafted  & from the heart.
• Avoid chemicals whenever possible.  Read the ingredients on everything and research alternatives.  A simple example of an eco-friendly alternative to the toxic soaps we use in the shower – try a local soap from a farmers market or Dr. Bronner’s available at many natural food stores.

virgin organic coconut oil
lots of garlic
celery
carrots
squash
zucchini
sea (Himalayan or other quality) salt
pepper
spring water (or well or reverse osmosis)
grass-fed butter (raw is a plus!)
sprouted beans (I sprouted garbanzos)
tomato

clean & rough chop veggies. saute celery, carrots, garlic in about 5T coconut oil, pile squash on top to steam a bit. fill pot with spring water. salt & pepper like wild. add about 3T butter and the sprouted beans cook until beans and squash begin to soften. taste, adjust salt, pepper, water ratio. serve hot or cold with fresh slices of tomato on top (delicious if the soup has good salt balance)

optional: most everything, get crazy

About 4 weeks ago I embarked on a new journey in my life.  Never having been on a diet before, my husband and I were looking for one that we could use to quickly shed a few pounds before walking in the Re-Vamp Fashion Show.  After a couple days of research we finally decided on the anti-candida diet.  If I was going to make this sacrifice and actually deny myself certain foods, I wanted it to be the most beneficial for our health at the same time.

I have done a lot of research on candida overgrowth over the past 4 weeks and it has been really enlightening.  It has sent me on a completely different path nutritionally and I have changed my family’s diet in many ways for life.  The best resource I have found for info is The Whole Approach .  I personally did not buy any of the supplements that they sell on the website, however, I am taking a high quality probiotic and rotating using oil of oregano, coconut oil, grapefruit seed extract, garlic and pau d’arco tea to fight the candida.  These are all available at natural food stores.

The gist of the diet is you want to re-balance your digestive flora (which takes time) by starving the candida (an opportunistic naturally occurring yeast that is normally a part of digestion).  Nearly 80% of the population suffer from an overgrowth due to widely prescribed antibiotics, birth controls and the Standard American Diet (SAD).  Within this population, range dozens of related health problems including allergies to environmental stimuli and food, behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, sinus and bronchial infections, skin conditions, digestive problems, brain fog, indecisiveness, joint pain etc.  In most cases doctors do not recognize candida overgrowth as the disorder and will attempt to treat symptoms only.  I really think that we are in the midst of an epidemic.  The rates of childhood illness, allergies and behavioral disorders is climbing at an alarming rate.  Most people have no idea that the majority of the food they consume is harmful and of little to no nutritional value, especially because of the way it is prepared.

Candida thrive on sugar and simple carbohydrates – so the first phase of the diet is eliminating those almost completely.  No sugars of any kind including fruit, honey and agave (we’ve still been eating a VERY small amount of green apple and berries from time to time), no refined flours or gluten – which means no bread, pasta, ect…  No milk (it has lactose, which is a sugar) and no alcohol.  The first phase is 3 – 4 months and then you move on to add more things back in in the 2nd phase.    The third phase is probably one that we will base more on The Weston Price Foundation and continue for life, after a couple months in this way of eating having some things that aren’t in the diet here or there don’t impact you as negatively as they do when you still have overgrowth, so it is ok at that point.

Another important factor in this new realm of nutrition is knowing where your food is coming from and how it is raised, treated and grown.  I  highly recommend watching Food Inc and Future of Food (this one is free on hulu).  The state of our nations food industry is absolutely appalling and it has really opened my eyes.  I now try to source as much of my food through organic and local sources as possible.  There are many excellent local farms in the area, many organic and even some that are biodynamic.

Chris and I have both lost more than 15lbs (and any trace of cellulite) in the past 4 weeks and it was not by starving ourselves.  It has been through consuming healthy, natural (responsibly produced) fats, such as grassfed raw milk, butter, meats and eggs, eating lots of veggies and preparing everything from scratch (no more packaged foods).  We’ve discovered lots of ways to create the tastes we used to love even within the somewhat strict boundaries of phase one.  In the process I have developed a new love for cooking and am really embracing domestic goddess-hood.

Beyond the weight loss, I have experienced a tremendous increase in energy and clarity, the dark circles under my eyes are diminishing and I’m more driven and optimistic.  I’m looking forward to seeing what other benefits the diet brings me in the future.

The current controversy over the fluoridation of public water supplies doesn’t really leave my thoughts much these days.  This is a practice steeped in deception and elaborate marketing.  Shouldn’t we all have the right to choose whether or not we want to ingest this chemical additive, without having it quietly injected into our drinking water?  A quick check of your local Consumer Confidence Report will show if your town is fluoridating like the majority of towns in the US.  If you currently have fluoridated water here are some simple solutions to get clean drinking water:

• Check out Find a Spring to see if there is a local spring where you can harvest your own spring water.
• Install a reverse osmosis home water filter.
• Install a well if you have clean water at your home or reconnect old wells after testing water.

Whatever the reasons actually are, I think we need to act now to eliminate this practice as soon as possible.  For more information on why you should oppose fluoride in your drinking water check out what these folks have to say here:

10 Fluoride Facts

50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoride in Drinking Water

To find out the levels of Fluoride in your own town’s drinking water call town hall (or go to their website) and ask for a copy of the Consumer Confidence Report.

Many people have been feeling the financial pinch this season, myself  included. We had many grand ideas of how we should spend our New Years. In the end we all decided we would feel less stress by staying close to home. It will be just as magical if not more so and we will be sharing instead of spending.

Missy and I love to throw parties. Sometimes we make advanced plans that we don’t follow, most of the time we scramble up something awesome the day before. Seeing as this is the day before it’s definitely scramble time.

The Setting:

We have a 4 bed room house, 10-12 guests including hosts, 4 kiddies to tend to and lots of random items to attempt to decorate and create a theme with. We want to make it magical. I also want Missy and Chris to feel like they aren’t just having another low key dinner party.

Supplies:

1. Everyone’s bringing food or wine

2. Lots of random left over booze

3. Missy’s craft room (crafting and herb central, this will be a big help)

4. Lots of luck

We still need a theme. It will help us transform the space. We are thinking 50′s pot luck and martini party, or Mad Hatter’s style with fancy treats and hidden treasures.

I will keep you posted on our progress. If anyone has ideas please share!

We love to party at the Cokas house and find ourselves there most Saturdays. It has evolved into a food and wine tasting extravaganza.  Last night I believe we found one of our all time favorite wines.  We headed down to Divine Wine Emporium in Niantic, CT, our go to wine shop. Ken Turcotte, the owner, has a great and ever changing inventory and extensive knowledge of everything we decide to try.  I’m a sucker for shiny things, so the red foil label grabbed me right away. Then as we poured our first round of the Pinot Noir Cava, the rich ruby color made me want to change into an outfit that would complement it. There’s nothing better than a drink that makes you feel fancy *insert cheesy grin*.

Segura Viudas ARIA Pinot Noir Brut Cava is full of light fruit flavors such as strawberry, watermelon and elderberry with a very smooth finish. It doesn’t sit on the back of your pallet the way many other sparkling wines do.  This Cava is a brut wine so it has no added sugar, though on first taste you would never believe it. This wine hits your tongue like a watermelon jolly rancher but as it rolls to the back of your pallet its crispy dryness takes over and finishes with an adult complexity and smoothness.

 A note on wine terms:

Sparkling wines are categorized by the region where they are produced.  Champagne for example, is a sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France.  Cava is Spain’s version of sparkling wine.  One of the nice benefits of Cava is that you can purchase a delicious bottle for $10-$15, a real value compared to it’s pricey French counterpart.

So pick up a bottle of Aria’s Pinot Noir and shift your party into full gear.

Building a Green Smoothie

I recently became hooked on green smoothies as a delicious and efficient way to eat raw greens.  Greens provide so many essential nutrients for every part of the body, they can even help to remineralize your teeth and reverse tooth decay.  It hasn’t always been easy to consume the recommended daily amount, especially if you are trying to get your kids to eat them.  Well, it can be easy – enter the Green Smoothie.  When I started making these smoothies for my family life became easier, my children got healthier and I felt good about the level of nutrition my children were getting.

Kai Likes to Push the Button

What is a green smoothie?  A green smoothie is really any frozen blended fruit beverage that you add greens to and no, it isn’t necessarily green in color.  It is also a great place to hide other superfoods like chia. There are hundreds, probably even thousands of combinations out there that you can suit to your own tastes, but I have a very basic recipe that I work from most of the time.

1 c frozen blueberries

1 banana

1 c plain yogurt

1 c fresh or frozen strawberries (mango, peaches, blackberries, raspberries all work great too – don’t be afraid to experiment)

3 hearty handfuls of fresh greens (i often use baby spinach, mesculin greens, kale, it’s best to rotate through your greens so you’re getting a good variety)

1/4 c chia seeds (you can also use flax if you have a powerful blender)

2-3 c orange juice (again here you can mix it up, I sometimes use pomegranate or cranberry, really whatever I have in the house)

The measurements are all approximations as I usually just dump them in and eyeball the amounts.

Ready to Blend

Throw everything into your blender (I swear by this blendtec) blend it up until smooth and you’ve got a megadose of delicious nutrients ready to go.  There is something so satisfying about drinking my smoothies through a straw that makes it almost a requirement – so keep that in mind.

Halloween is my favorite holiday to spend in New York City. The rain only added to the experience. The beauty of living in Connecticut is we are very close to Boston and New York. We can easily get out of our day to day and experience the Big City. Ed and I drove down to New Haven and took Metro North into Grand Central Station (round trip ticket $30). Taking the train means no stressful traffic, good quality chill time and no worries about finding parking. Believe me, you do not want to get towed in NYC. Plus having a couple drinks is way more fun when no one has to drive.

Arriving at Grand Central Station

Our main agenda for the night was to see Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. The subways were full of ghoulish characters. So many that the idea of trying to squeeze into the subway car gave me small heart palpitations (proof that as much as I love NYC I am not a true New Yorker). The Big Bad Wolf and I decided to grab a cab instead ($10 including tip).

Wolf and Red in the taxi

By this time we were in need of a coffee fix. We stopped into Gizzi’s Coffee shop in Greenwich Village. I had a very tasty iced americano and one of the most delicious mini cupcakes ($10.50 for 2 coffees and a cupcake). I’m a fiend for good cupcakes.

This is as close to the parade as we could get. The streets were packed with costumed bystanders. Even though I’m sure the parade was amazing(You can see pictures here), I didn’t feel like we missed out on anything. Practically everyone in NYC was dressed up, and seemed to have put thought into their costumes. We enjoyed just walking around seeing everyone. Ed had a blast freaking out the unsuspecting passers by. Beware! the old school masks will always get you. It took me hours to be able look at him and not get freaked out.

Here are some of our favorites…

As we strolled around town we found this incredible mural by OS Gemeos. You Can see more of their work here.

All that walking made us hungry. We made our way over to B Bar on E. 4th street. I definitely recommend checking this place out. Great food and atmosphere, great drinks and one of my favorite desserts ever. I would have taken a picture of it but we ate it too fast… sorry. Dinner and drinks for two at B Bar $59.00 + tip. Not bad price for dinner in NYC.

Fish tacos and a Spiced margarita - Vanilla gelato w/ espresso poured over

I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night. I don’t consider it a true night out unless I get to dance. We stumbled on a place called Puck Fair on Lafayette Street. We squeezed our way past the Grinch, Gumby, Superwoman and many other scarier characters, to a spot at the back near the DJ. Another Red Riding Hood attempted to make Ed her Wolf accessory. I decided to be a good sport and share him for a picture. Dance space was limited but on night like this it didn’t matter. After we saw Beaker win the costume contest Ed and I headed for home. ($20 for drinks)

Going home happy and we didn’t break the bank.

A night out in NYC for two – $175.00