LK's Grab Bag

Tuesday Cosmetic Clean Up:

If you remember, in weeks past, we discussed “fragrance” in cosmetics and the dirty little secrets they often contain – like phthalates for staying power. A number of you wisely inquired, “Well, what about perfume?”. Yes, Virginia, there IS a boogey man in your perfume bottle, unless you are using one of a handful of hand-made fragrances that use only essential oils and absolutes. 

To save you a little time, here are a couple of phthalate-free options I have found. Click on the pictures for links to their sites. For Santa Barbarians, these are available at Lazy Acres.

Nuts Cream Perfume

It is my understanding that the 5 ORGANIC scents (there are others that are not organic) contain nothing synthetic. I found some of the regular scents at Sephora, but none of the organic ones. That may change in the future.

Auric Blends Naturals Roll-on Perfume

They make 4 scents in their “Naturals” line (they do other scents, but these 4 seem to be the only 100% natural ones).

Tuesday Game Changer:

Have you ever run across something and immediately known the “rightness” of it in your bones? Maybe your spouse when you first met? Maybe the moment you discovered your life’s calling? I had such a moment last night reading the first 75 pages of a new book called The Ultramind Solution.

Author Mark Hyman was co-medical director of Canyon Ranch, Lenox, for nearly 10 years before going out on his own. He is highly regarded in this field of Integrative Medicine and his own tale of  “broken brain” will have you sitting up and taking notice from the first few pages. The stunning but head-cocking beauty of his approach is to move away from the “one disease, one drug” method so prevalent in today’s health care, and to instead regard the symptoms as dysfunctions of an entire system.

Chances are you have, or know someone with: depression, anxiety, ADD, autism, dementia, or Alzheimer’s. If you think not, think again…. 1 in 10 Americans takes or has taken antidepressants, a rate that has tripled in the last 10 years. Throw in all the other folks who complain of one or more of the above issues, and you have nearly 1 in 3 Americans suffering from compromised brain function. Those are epidemic proportions. And, as Hyman states, “depression is not a Prozac deficiency”.

The stunning and head-nodding beauty of the fix for this gray-matter meltdown is that it employs all the basic principles for optimum health, and then some. On your way to a thinner, fitter, more energetic you, you will cross paths with a quicker-minded, more alert and happier you, too. The two of you will hold hands and walk off into the sunset together for years and years to come 🙂

As a teaser, allow me to share the 2 tips Hyman feels are essential for anyone hoping to have a healthy body and its concomitant functionally optimum mind in later years:

1) Do not eat ANYTHING with high-fructose corn syrup…ever.  Check EVERY label of EVERY package you open (it lurks in packaged foods that aren’t even sweet).

2) Eliminate ALL trans fats from your diet… ANYTHING FRIED (I am smiling right now… because my friends think I’m nuts when I equate french fries with cigarettes as far as the “bad for you” factor goes…. told ya so) and basically any carbohydrate-rich food in a package. These will have hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats for shelf-life stability. Crackers, chips, cookies, candies, processed cheese…..  READ INGREDIENTS ON YOUR LABELS, because the USDA allows just under half a gram per serving (and many consume WAY more than a single serving of this crap) and still claim “Zero trans fats!” on the label.

Questioning this theory? You’ve really GOTTA READ THIS BOOK, as it is FILLED with chemical breakdowns and scientific back-up that will have you a believer. 

I’ll back away from the soap box now….

Tuesday Nutrition Tip:

Interesting find from Real Age…

3 Ways to Dress Your Veggies

Your veggies don’t like to be naked. And what couture do they prefer? Try a little healthful-fat finery. 

A bit of unsaturated fat can help your body better absorb the fat-soluble nutrients in your vegetables. Here are three different looks to try:

1. Skip the fat-free ranch dressing. Instead, toss your greens with an olive-oil-based dressing like balsamic vinaigrette.
2. Make your fat crunchy. Season peppers, corn, carrots, or squash with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, and then top with slivered almonds or toasted sesame seeds.
3. Go Thai. Create this Spicy Peanut Sauce for dipping lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

Spicy Peanut Sauce
2 tablespoons smooth natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons “lite” coconut milk
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste
Whisk together peanut butter, coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, and crushed red pepper in a small bowl until smooth. Per tablespoon: 50 calories; 4 g fat (1 g sat, 0 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 0 g carbohydrate; 2 g protein; 0 g fiber; 97 mg sodium. 

In a recent study, people who tossed their salads with a dressing that had some fat in it absorbed more carotenoids from the vegetables than the people who used a nonfat dressing. 

Carotenoids are potent antioxidants found in brightly hued produce — think red, orange, and yellow. But the small intestine needs a little fat to absorb these power nutrients. So do several other fat-soluble vitamins, including:

• Vitamin E (found in spinach and broccoli)
• Vitamin K (found in cabbage, cauliflower, and turnip greens)
• Vitamin D (found in some fish and in fortified dairy)

When you’re dressing your veggies, remember the Brylcreem jingle: “A little dab’ll do ya.” You can nearly undo all the good in veggies by turning them into high-calorie, high-fat side dishes. So don’t drown them in sauces and oils. Think lightweight summer ensembles — a little dribble of olive oil on a sliced tomato or a smattering of chopped walnuts on your spinach salad. Or a bit of Thai peanut sauce on your steamed broccoli.

Tuesday Cool Site of the Week:

Many thanks to Dolly G. for sending this along. Pick any world area tab on the home page of this site and a map shows cities you can click on to see today’s front page of that local newspaper. Brush up on your German with Die Welt. Most definitely check out the English language paper of Dubai, Gulf News. Coffee and the paper just got very international. Newseum Front Pages

Tuesday Brain Maze:

After opening the new page, scroll down until you see the Silversphere game and play

Every Tuesday Matters:

From the Every Monday Matters book and website:

The amount of pollution equivalent to the emissions of two million cars can be removed from the atmosphere if every household replaces one lightbulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified CFL bulb. One bulb. Will you do it? How about five?

Tuesday Funny Stuff: 

Thanks to Corinna G. for this fine submission

BARBIE TURNS 50!