Chestnuts & Buckeyes, not the same nut!

Back in the day when I first became interested in foraging for food, I got really excited about all the "chestnuts" falling around my cabin. I collected massive basket fulls, and felt like I had struck gold in the yummy nut lotto! That is until my poor boyfriend at the time ate them.
He believed me that they were chestnuts and while I was asleep one night he boiled a bunch down and began peeling and eating them - he said they tasted bitter and sick but he ate about 10 of them anyway and got really bad stomach probs the next day.
The internet was not as saturated with info as it is now, but he decided to look up more about cooking chestnuts since his were so f'en gross and discovered he'd been eating poisonous buckeyes, otherwise known as "horse chestnuts" ( they are poisonous to horses).
Poor guy. He never was right after that. He never was right before that too though.
*
So here are clear pictures for ya'll food foragers out there who might be curious about these nuts...
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This picture below is the big shiny HORSE CHESTNUT, or BUCKEYE. It is poisonous to people and to some animals too. DO NOT EAT THIS NUT!

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This next picture below is a real EDIBLE CHESTNUT! You can eat these, most people prepare them first by roasting or boiling. But HERE they say you can go ahead and eat them raw too. (I am gonna roast mine! mmmmm)

Xoxoxoxo

Heavy Metal I Can't Rock Out To

Two weeks ago I took a comprehensive hair analysis test to check for minerals which includes 9 heavy metals which are toxic - so I am all hyped up to talk about the results. This is the third hair analysis I have given my lovely locks to, each time I waited about one or two years in between - cause otherwise I would have to shave my head or look like a scraggly victim of the hair bandit! The Mineral Check Hair Analysis is really easy to do if you have someone to help you cut the hair close to your scalp but it takes a "heaping tablespoon" of hair to tip the little scale, meaning your hair may be a wee bit thinned when it's all over.

The pic above are my recent results... in all three tests I have had done since 2005 my "good" minerals always were in check (yay!), but the heavy metals played musical chairs on me. Ones associated with fire retardants on bedding etc. all got alot lower for me over the years because I switched to organic everything in my home & fridge. But by the second test I suddenly had out of range high levels of arsenic. I traced this back to the use of Ume Plums Seeds that I was recommended to crack from the pit & eat by a Chinese medicine doctor: DO NOT EAT THE SEEDS of fruits, they contain poisons because nature wants to reproduce rather then be eaten.
(NOTE TO CHINESE MED DOCTOR): *WTF???*
The third hair test (most recent) I had even worse levels of arsenic and now mercury in out of range levels too!

I would like to say that before having these heavy metals in my system I did not have the severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivities that I do now, nor did I have the convulsive seizures and level of fatigue. I investigated possible places I could have continued to get arsenic poisoning from and found out that the bottled water (Fiji) I used to brush my teeth, drink and cook with contained measurable levels of arsenic.
(NOTE TO FIJI): *Not cool Fiji, I understand ya'll want to keep the true minerals in your volcanic bottled water & you rock for not UV filtering your goods, but come on Fiji, put a filter on there for the poison please! We might enjoy head banging to Metallica but drinking it in your water makes me want to bang my head on the wall!*

So what's girl to do when she's got heavy metals she can't rock out to? How do we avoid toxins in our air, water and food - and why don't doctors in the US get with the program and take notice that these pollution problems are causing people adverse health problems. I can not imagine all the people that have heavy metals, plastics, aldehydes and other chemicals in their bodies that are causing the migrating pains, cancer, allergies, diabetes, seizures, migraines and gawd knows what else.
I am most certain that my mercury levels spiked from eating fish these last 2 years and I find it highly disappointing that humans have caused so much pollution in our oceans that to eat a natural and healthy diet comes with hazards that can ruin your quality of health. Wake up government! Wake up big pharma! Wake up medical system! And wake up chem industries!!! Do you like to lay sleeping so that you can make money off the ailments we now have due to your blind eye?

How do we come in contact with these metals?

Arsenic: "Arsenic is a very toxic substance that is found in food, water and household items. Tobacco smoke, laundry detergent, bone meal, sea food, beer and even drinking water are a few of the items arsenic can be consumed from. If you work in a job that produces any kind of pesticide, agricultural insecticide or spraying of any of these, you are at risk of arsenic poisoning. Other jobs that are at risk are copper smelting, mining, sheep dipping and metallurgical industries. Continued exposure to arsenic builds up in the system and there is an accumulated effect."

Mercury: Fish, dental fillings, batteries, light bulbs, thermometers, vaccines, landfills.

Bismuth: "Bismuth poisoning occurs primarily from the ingestion of bismuth chelate, particularly by the increasing numbers of colostomy patients."

Antimony: "Batteries, antifriction alloys, small arms, buckshot, and tracer, ammunition, cable sheathing, matches, medicines, antiprotozoan drugs, plumbing soldering, - some "lead-free" solders contain 5% Sb, main and big-end bearings, in internal combustion engines (as alloy), used in the past to treat Schistosomiasis; today Praziquantel is universally used used in type metal, e.g. for linotype printing machines, used in pewter." It is used in fire proof clothing, toys and other household products.

Aluminum: "Over the counter medications, buffered aspirin- people with arthritis could possibly take up to 700 mg of this metal each day, digestive aides such as diarrhea and hemorrhoid medicine, hygiene aids such as antiperspirants and douches, food that has been cooked or stored in aluminum pots and aluminum foil is another source, stainless steel cookware has been used for a short period of time aluminum traces begin to enter the food, there are six aluminum salts that have been approved as food additives in the United States- the salts most commonly used are sodium aluminum phosphates. They are added to cake mixes, frozen dough, pancake mixes, self-rising flours, processed cheese and cheese foods and beer (in aluminum cans), an average sized pickle contains 5 to 10 mg if it has been treated in an alum solution which is commonly done."

These are just a few examples of how these metals creep into our lives, bodies and our health. The companies that add these metals to our products will argue the point that little amounts are not harmful, and this is absolutely true. But they don't take into account that we are being bombarded everyday with products, food and water that all contain a variety of little amounts of toxic heavy metals - while at the same time not educating the public about the danger of using these products all together. Your body is equipped to filter out some metals but many are accumulative and are very difficult to safely remove through the body, making it a precarious health hazard once they are already in. Some metals do not belong in our body on any level, such as Antimony & Lead which I have in a tiny amount in my system - yet in nature I would never have come in contact with these poisons. Other metals such as nickel and arsenic are expected to be found in small amounts since they always have occurred in the natural environment, including many food and water sources.

So here is the dilemma - once I have this information in my hand that I have heavy metal levels that are out of range, what choices do I have to get them out of my body in order to resume a life free of seizures and with alot less of many other symptoms which make the quality of my life suck.
1. I cut out the fiji.
2. I am taking some homeopathic detoxifier stuff.
3. I am starting amino acid pills to chelate the metals out.
4. Fill in the blank here- cause I don't really know what to do......

xoxo

Smoking & Lead Exposure Have Similar Effects

We all know about first hand and second hand cigarette smoke causing adverse health problems such as nutritional deficiencies & lung cancer - but have you ever heard of third hand smoke? (Neither had I till I read the latest cig news over on The Canary Report!)
Adult smokers already know what they are doing is not the healthy choice for their body, but what science had not yet realized was even the particles/residue transferring from a smoker's hair, clothes and skin to their children were causing kids learning disabilities, a similar reaction as to being exposed to low levels of lead.

"When you smoke – anyplace – toxic particulate matter from tobacco smoke gets into your hair and clothing,” says lead study author, Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH, assistant director of the MGHfC Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy. “When you come into contact with your baby, even if you’re not smoking at the time, she comes in contact with those toxins. And if you breastfeed, the toxins will transfer to your baby in your breastmilk.” Winickoff notes that nursing a baby if you’re a smoker is still preferable to bottle-feeding, however.

Particulate matter from tobacco smoke has been proven toxic. According to the National Toxicology Program, these 250 poisonous gases, chemicals, and metals include hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, butane, ammonia, toluene (found in paint thinners), arsenic, lead, chromium (used to make steel), cadmium (used to make batteries), and polonium-210 (highly radioactive carcinogen). Eleven of the compounds are classified as Group 1 carcinogens, the most dangerous.

Third-hand smoke can remain indoors even long after the smoking has stopped. Similar to low-level lead exposure, low levels of tobacco particulates have been associated with cognitive deficits among children, and the higher the exposure level, the lower the reading score. These findings underscore the possibility that even extremely low levels of these compounds may be neurotoxic and, according to the researchers, justify restricting all smoking in indoor areas inhabited by children."

Personally speaking my parents didn't smoke, but my grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and everyone under the sun smoked around me. I learned early on how bad the first, second and third hand smoke was when I watched my best friend in elementary school lose both her grandparents to cancer caused by smoking. Then by the time I was a teenager my own over exposure led to cig reactions like coughing up blood, developing sinus infections, fevers, and long drawn out illnesses after spending time with a smoker. When I turned 20 my own grandfather (Pepere) who had smoked blackberry vines as a teen on the bayou and unfiltered camels most his life developed lung cancer and died nine months after being diagnosed.
As someone who now has strong reactions to even the smell of it on someone's clothes I am not surprised to hear reports of how dangerous the third hand smoke residue is. Possibly what makes the matter entirely worse for smokers is the fact that big companies manufacture this stuff with chemicals, bleached papers, additives and other substances that make it way more carcinogenic then the actual tobacco plant is to begin with. Add to the equation that they are spraying these crops with toxic pesticides and it makes for one hell of a smoke to inhale.

FIY: Second hand smoke kills 3 times more children then any other cancer combined.