You know how reading one thing on the internet often leads to something else, then another thing and on and on until your head is filled with information (useful or otherwise) and suddenly hours have blown by?
Yeah, well, that's me while nursing these days. You can't do a whole lot while nursing. I can't really hold a book since I often have to stop everything and readjust someone's latch or burp them or wipe up spit up. Surfing the web, however, is just a lackadaisical click here and there to get to gobs and gobs of new info or fun blogs.
While I was looking for info on thrush, I went to the Crunchy Domestic Goddess because I knew she'd have all kinds of links on lactation issues. While there I noticed her article on Halloween candy and the horror that is artificial coloring in food. Petroleum products and coal tar, anyone? That got me wondering about my migraines and the chocolate covered cherries I'd been eating in mass quantities and I wondered if the Red Lake #40 was affecting me instead of the chocolate itself which brought me to an article on food colors. I'm not certain if I've found the cause of my migraines, but it doesn't look good.
The fact that we continually allow chemicals in our food, clothing, homes, makeup and toys and into the bodies of our children, chemicals that are banned in Europe, does not bode well for the American society. Why do we continue to let this happen? Is there anything we can do?
As usual, it comes down to voting with your wallet and voting at the polls. Agitate for change. Make changes in your own home for your family's health.
Do you really want to eat those blue M&Ms now?
7 comments:
i hope you find the source of your migraines. i used to get awful debilitating ones too that have (thankfully) lessened a lot since i had kids.
btw, i tried the natural version of M&M's, called sundrops, and they are just as tasty, if not better. :)
I second the crunchy domestic goddess on that - Sundrops really do taste better. Plus, they're relatively cheap.
Which brings me to my next question - why do we allow all those chemicals into our lives, but also: why are we willing to pay more for the privilege?
Could it be classism?
Growing up on the farm wearing her brothers' second-hand boots each winter, my 'gramma' felt that "store-bought" was always better. As a special treat for our (infrequent) visits when I was a kid, she saved an ancient box of store-bought sugared cereal for us, trotting it out each Christmas with a hardened sparkle in her eye. My sister and I were forbidden to eat sugared cereal at home so of course we wolfed it right down while my furious mother stood mutely by, swallowing something equally poisonous, if not more so.
Did you know that confectioner's glaze - which is almost every candy made - is from the beetle secretions? The lac insect, to be specific. Technically it's recognized as a "safe, edible ingredient" but I can tell you right now I'll never eat a box of Junior Mints again.
(Um, I think I was drinking during that first paragraph. It was supposed to say that confectioner's glaze, which is in almost every candy out there, is made from beetle secretions.)
Oh no! Not Jr mints! I used to love those things.
Then again, I used to love Pixie Stix and Booberry cereal. I don't eat those anymore, either. Oh well. These days I liked my chocolate expensive and have been snarfing down Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory chocolates.
Oh and Amy, I generally know what to avoid, although one item - barometric pressure changes - I can't avoid. The twice in one day migraine without a big weather shift is what made me think of those chocolates. Phooey. Thinking about them makes me want them.
Red: Sticking it to the Mom with a box of sugared cereal. Hah!
that's good that you figured out most of your triggers. sucks about the barometric pressure thing though.
there's got to be a good natural alternative for your chocolate covered cherries.
Amy: you know one thing I've noticed regarding migraines? Ever since I started taking thyroid meds the number of migraines I get has dropped significantly. Apparently if your thyroid levels are out of whack, it produces migraines. Between that and avoiding MSG, I'm usually pretty good.
The weather changes, however, are out of my control. Unless I could build a hermetically sealed chamber in my basement....
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