Milk, and other such nourishment...

So a few weeks ago, I became acutely aware that my food choices have not always been the best for me. I was reading about the Rawesome Food Raids, and was inspired to actively seek out better nourishment for myself, my fiance, and our dog. Among all of the chemically processed junk, antibiotics, cancer-causing compounds, and added hormones that I read about, the addition of hormones caught my eye the most. Having dealt with infertility for a number of years now, and knowing that hormones do all kinds of nasty things to a person if they are out of whack, I started thinking about how to eliminate unnatural hormones from our diets.  One thing that really stood out to me is how much dairy we consume, and how many different types of hormones must be circulating in our bodies.  Inspired by the fine folks at Rawesome, I got it in my head to search for raw milk in my community so that we could give it a try. Nothing. I'm not sure if there really isn't anything locally, or if people are more afraid of their names being out there these days because of the recent milk drama. So, while the search continues for a source for raw milk, I took a half step in that direction and decided to switch all of our dairy to organic products. That included milk, yogurt, butter, and cheese for us. It's been almost a month since we made the switch, and I've noticed several differences (just my observations, not science...yet) in myself and J. First of all, I've noticed a huge difference in PMS symptoms. The emotional ups and downs were still there, but in a more controlled and normal-seeming way. Were excess hormones having an effect on my emotions? Second, Jerimy seems more...Manly. He has a more *ahem* manly smell to him, and his voice seems to have deepened just a hint (and no, he's not getting sick). Most interesting of all though, is our tastes have changed. A lot. Today, we were given a small amount of fridge groceries from a neighbor who is moving, included in the package was 1 stick of butter, some name-brand cheddar cheese, and a half-gallon of what we used to think was the best milk on the market before the switch to organics. With dinner we had baked potatoes with the butter and cheese, and at some point during the day, we each had some of the milk. Neither one of us was a happy camper, and it wasn't all in our heads (namely because he didn't know that the food would be different, and I had no clue that it would be this different after only 3 weeks!). The milk, from a classic plastic jug looked good, but upon first taste I wondered if it was going bad. It wasn't, it was almost fresh from the store. It tasted watery, and somehow not real. Jerimy dumped his down the drain and promptly asked when we bought that milk. At dinner, as we busted into our potatoes, it was obvious that something was amiss. The cheese had a funny texture, the butter had a funny smell. It became glaringly obvious that I would have to go grocery shopping tomorrow. Neither one of us expected that we wouldn't like these things, after all, it's what we had both been eating for years. It's amazing how the body knows when you feed it something good, and how it rebels when the quality changes for the worse. After 3 weeks, I'm ready for a lifetime of healthy, whole, nourishing food, and my tastebuds agree. Not only am I doing better things for my body, but I'm pleasing my senses as well. If you haven't tried organic foods before, you should definitely give it a whirl before you write off the concept, you just may be amazed at what changes for you! 

Foreskins belong on penises, not faces!

Recently, brought to my attention by my many intactivist friends, I learned that neonatal foreskins are being used in both the testing of many cosmetics, as well as being used as an ingredient in others.


So, let me get this straight... In the name of "health", "beauty", and "religion", we are chopping off the most sensitive parts of our little boys, giving them over to facilities who sell pieces of our children, and then rubbing them onto our faces all for more "beauty"? How does that even begin to be ethical? If someone wanted me to rub foreskin on my face, it had better be attached to my husband; this is wrong on so many levels. First, why are we harming our children in the first place? Second, since animal-testing is so taboo, why was the next logical choice pieces of our sons? Third, why are companies allowed to use names of ingredients specifically formulated to confuse the consumer? If you think that your customers would have an objection to an ingredient, the answer would be to not include it; NOT to change the ingredient's name to something unrecognizable and sell it to the unsuspecting masses!

Here's some references to obsess over if you're as sickened by this as I am (and you should be!)

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/719533/HUMAN_FIBROBLAST_CONDITIONED_MEDIA/

http://www.thecaseagainstcircumcision.com/index.php?topic=314.0

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/146761/human_foreskins_are_big_business_for.html?cat=69

http://lisarussell.suite101.com/human-baby-foreskins-in-cosmetics-a199033

http://www.blogher.com/babies-foreskin-used-make-cosmetics-ethical


Comments and questions welcome, and if you know of companies who use foreskins for either testing or ingredients in their products, and can provide documentation of it, I'd love to hear from you. I'll be working on a list of companies to avoid if you want your face to be foreskin-free!