protect your health

Well I am going o natural from now on.

I just got my sega games in the mail (I played them all and was sort of disappointed) so now my focus has shifted 100% to finding and buying more health-friendly cosmetic products and drinks and foods - primarily soft drinks and gum.

I can obtain these products from the health food aisles at Loblaws and Wal-Marts as well as natural health food stores if need be. The cost in obtaining these products will not be insignificant but I believe it to be well worth it for the sanctity of the body and for guarding against future cancerous diseases. After some extensive research, I discovered a host of unsavoury benzoates, sulfates and other ingredients in my toothpaste, mouthwash, face scrub, shampoos, skin scream, shaving cream. I am attempting to convert to such brands as Tom's of Maine, Jason Natural Cosmetics, Aubrey Organics and if I really open up the wallet, Anthony Logistics For Men. A good source to identify what sort of products you are using is cosmeticdatabase.com. Many products have been rated. I am quite suspect of the Body Shop as they do not list out all their ingredients on the website.

The other arena I will be making a big change in is soft drinks/gum/breath mints. All commercial brand (regular) soft drinks contain High Fructis Corn Syrup, known here in Canada in the ingredient list as Sugar/Glucose-Fructose or Sugar and/or Glucose-Fructose. This is the sweetener used in the place of sugar. In the early 1980's, soft drink manufacturers switched from sugar to this liquid form of refined sugar, HFCS. Of course all sucrose that we know in our households is refined but the difference apparently happens in the metabolization process. The composition of Sugar vs. HFCS is quite similar but there is an inherent difference. Sugar from sources such as cane or beet is known to be absorbed by the pancreas and as such, it liberates insulin which accompanies the glucose to the body's cells.
In contrast, HFCS is known to be fully absorbed by the liver, and thus the body is tricked because it skips the natural insulin process. (It is said that the use of HFCS as a sweetener in virtually many products has contributed to a drastic increase in Type II diabetes; this should be more pronounced in the U.S. since a greater number of their products are sweetened with HFCS or as known here Sugar/Glucose-Fructose). However, Canada is not immune to the use of HFCS and it is most apparent in beverages (soft drinks), low priced snack cakes, certain cereals etc. Why did the use of HFCS become so prevalent starting in the 80's? Economics my dear Watson. The U.S. imposed high sugar tariffs resulting in an inflated price for sugar. As a result, producers who relied on sugar as a main component in their food products substituted towards the relatively cheaper - much cheaper actually given that corn was subsidized in addition to the inflated sugar price - sweetening ingredient. So what does this have to do with Type II diabetes? Well Type II is closely linked to obesity, and people are getting bigger by drinking HFCS. Two reasons for this: first, the body is storing all the fat content from the HFCS rather than it being delivered as energy to the rest of the body by being burned; second, HFCS also plays a trick with the mind whereby the signal is not being sent from the body that fat is being stored. Thus, people are said to over-indulge when drinking HFCS sweetened beverages.

And why do Canadians have to worry about U.S. sugar prices and the use of HFCS in products? Because many of our imported food products come from the U.S. Even if soft drinks are bottled here, the mixing syrup certainly comes from down South.
Anyway, I will have more updates on this as I learn more. I can say though that I will be buying Blue Sky Natural Soda (w/ cane sugar). Be careful because Blue Sky also makes a version with HFCS. These are at Loblaws but cost $1 each so I am trying to find a cheaper source.

As far as the gum, that is a separate nightmare altogether. The problem here is that most all gum is sweetened with Aspartame, aka, rat poision to humans. This is a pure chemical compound that was discovered by complete fluke. It never should have been passed by the FDA in the 1980's and there is a complete controversy surrounding this. Monsanto ended up acquiring G.D. Searle (who held the patent to Aspartame) but the man who was appointed to Searle in order to get the job done of getting aspartame approval was Donald Rumsfeld, the neo-con asshole among all assholes. He lobbied the FDA hard and was even able to overturn the board of independent FDA scientists who had voted 3-2 in favour of rejecting the sweetening agent. Aspartame has a host of problems associated with its regular use, including headaches, vision blurring, diabetes, symptoms of Parkinsons and multiple sclerosis etc. Others don't immediately feel these effects but may experience serious consequences down the road. You will find aspartame in all diet soft drinks and many yogourts and most gum. I have already noted my suggestion for the soft drinks and will let you know on the gum. I have some prospects such as Glee and Dr. Ken, and now it is a matter of tracking them down. I am almost finished with my horrible supply of Dental Care gum (which I thought was ok) that contains Acesulfame Pottasium, an awful sweetener. I ordered it from ebay more than a year ago and am down to only 4 packs left. As some of you know, I traded the last carton for two Dirienzio sandwiches.
For yogourt I eat a hearty balkan yogourt every day. Beatrice Fruit Bottom (175 g). Astro also makes a similar yogourt at 113 g. I have reviewed all the ingredients for Beatrice lately and approve.

Miscellaneous -

-Things really hit the fan with the ebay seller. I now opened a dispute with Paypal. I think the fact that this is all online has made me more tense. I don't like the direction this new fangled world is taking us. Regardless, I have a beat on another seller of sega games in Missouri and it is an actual store and not just an ebay seller. They will ship here. I am quite excited to order some games. I think at the 5week mark, it is safe to say that the item will definitely not come.

As for my money? Well I may get it back through Paypal. I just will never use ebay again for anything. A lot of horror stories abound the forum discussions and the whole thing is incredibly stupid. Craiglist and Kijjii is where its at bc you can pick up your item yourself in your city.

-What happened to the old proud logo of the Ottawa Senators. When did they adopt that weird 3rd jersey logo of the annorexic long-faced Senator. Blasphemy! How boring that they only wear that logo in different colours. In general as I've stated to Mark many times, I hate most of what the NHL does with its merchandising and this is no exception. To force NHL teams to start wearing their away jerseys at home for permanently really bugged me. It shows how desperate franchises are for cash that they are relying on fans to now buy the road jersey (now the home jersey in effect) to attend home games.

-I don't know how much longer I can go with these old glasses. I can barely see anymore since the lenses are all scratched up.

-The extension of warm weather in November has literally given me a new lease on life. With my ratty old brown shoes (cracks in the sole with water seeping in), my light windbreaker, and my torn Dockers pants, I faithfully trudge through dog s*%# every day to get to the Lincoln Fields transit station so I can crowd onto a bus with a bunch of other sardines and hope the bus doesn't crash.

-On that note, we have the city of Ottawa trying to finalize its budget for 2009. So far this is what we know: even with a hike of 4.9%, there will need to be 35 million cut out of the budget. Of course it is the usual suspects for cutting money: OC transpo fares going up (again…), OC transpo service going down (again…), recreational user fees for hockey time and other activities going up. The stark irony that OC transpo is engaging in a huge new marketing campaign to attract new riders with benefits such as low price, "convenience" is lost in all this. I guess convenience is never getting a seat and molesting accidentally all those around you.

-I am slowly weaning down my supply to dental gum and have traded the last carton to my supervisor for 2 Dirienzo sandwiches, one of which I already received.

-I delivered some donuts to the Willy's boys yesterday and their faces lit right up. Then the garlic sauce I paid for was forgotten…Oh well. I really like delivering donuts to people. I wonder if Jesus felt the same way..

-Love that Kylie Minogue (Locomotion) song. For some reason, waking up to it on Magic fm is much better than just listening to it repeatedly on youtube.

-Saw a scary documentary on cbc website about the Disappearing Male. How births of boys have been outnumbered by girls in heavily industrialized coutries since the 1970's. Also boys are at risk for genital defects and other problems. The source? Basically every household product we use made from polycarbonates (plastics) and other chemical compounds produced by the petrochemical industry. (This is also the suspected culprit behind high cancer rates too but that wasn’t included in this documentary.) It appears that these compounds negatively effect the hormonal balance of male fetuses but not females.

-CosmoTV has a free preview until August 2009 on channel 262 with Rogers digital cable. Don't ask me how I know that..

-Baseball and biking season (I went maybe 3 times) appear to be over for this year. I had trouble rounding up the troops this year and next year will be seeking out players through platonic ads on craigslist.

-I have really neglected my computer situation and wardrobe situation. In budget talk, I have slashed spending on these items. I just hope it won't be too late to play catch up and suffer the same fate as the province of Ontario when cuts were made to nursing and doctors' spots.

-As I am a price conscious consumer I often cast places of business in a negative light when they try to appeal to all your dreams and aspirations and then say the price is ONLY this, as if they are doing you a favour. I got a brochure for Winner House Chinese food and noticed that 12 eggrolls run 12.50, while one is 1.15, hardly a volume savings for the customer. I remember no more than 10 years ago, I was able to obtain a dozen for 7.00 at Lotus.

The worst offender in this category is definitely Good Life Fitness. Only 60$ a month they say. Nuts to that. So you may make it out maybe twice a week or 8 times a month. $7.50 per workout? Yikes. I would rather get fat and unhealthy.
Charge what you will but don't be a d%?# about it and try to appeal to me about how great a deal this is for me.

-I really enjoy the newish show The Big Bang Theory. It is relatively funny and features two up and coming actors in the people who play the characters Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Penny (Kaly Cuoco). They really shine on this show.


This is the kind of vigilante justice I'm craving!

Customers grab holdup artists

Two would-be robbers were taken out after customers of an east end fast food joint wrestled them to the ground.

Police said two men walked into the Burger King at 1804 St. Laurent after 9 p.m. with their faces covered and a knife demanding money. They were told no, and on their way out were wrestled to the ground by a group of customers who confronted them.

An off-duty officer happened to be in the area and assisted. Two suspects were arrested.