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Our food is becoming more toxic, our food traditions that are passed down are  toxic.  These food traditions that are passed down, are toxic choices that need to stop.  It is NOT ok to eat a candy cane with red 40 in it, it is NOT ok to eat a valentines day cup cake with Red 40 in it, it is NOT ok to eat marshmallow throughout the summer on your camping trips, they are full of GMO ingredients and toxic food coloring, it is NOT ok to eat at the sports snack shack, it is NOT ok to eat the candy thrown to you at the parades, it is not OK to eat the Little Debbie Snacks with a Capri Sun after soccer practice, it is not ok to eat at Izzy's pizza, it is not OK to eat elephant ears, it is not OK to eat the Halloween candy, It is not ok to eat the Thanksgiving Turkey that is injected with toxic substances, it is NOT ok to eat colorful Christmas candy, It is Not ok to eat the yellow and pink marshmallows for Easter or the Easter candy that is full of dyes and GMO's, it is NOT ok to eat that fourth of July red and blue food coloring.  As you can see this is a big list and I could keep going.  

I made this partial list because I wanted to show you how we go from one fat food fest to the next.

This list is 12 months of many once in a whiles, now add the birthdays in there.  As you can see by this list. that telling a child or teen that it is OK to have a toxic food once in a while, is far from being once in a while.  

American lives are fast and split up  and because of this once in a while becomes almost all the time. 

Mom says it is OK to eat that once in a while, since we have a high divorce rate we have Dad says it is OK to eat that once in a while, grandma said it is OK to eat it once in a while, Auntie said it is OK to eat that once in a while, at my sleep over little Suzie's mom said it was OK to have that once in a while, my coach said it was OK to have that once in a while, my baby-sitter said it is OK to have it once in a while, my teacher said is is OK to eat that once in a while and so on and on and on.  Guess what eating something that is not so healthy has become a (almost) 7 day a week theme.   If you look around like I do you can see it.  The obesity rates are skyrocketing and you see a lot of children that are just not strong like they used to be.  

I just love the voice of "It is only once in a while" or that person who tells you, you can eat a bad food once in a while.  Now days we are so busy and so split up in our lives that  just once in a while is becoming toxic and has become a sorry excuse that we use more than once in a while.  

This toxic saying is allowing us to justify in our minds to do unhealthy things weekly and  now daily that we should not be doing at all.  

Here is my first example that I hear a lot parents, grandparents and most adults who talk to children do.  The child hears that their fruity pebbles, red licorice,  snow cones with red syrup, red frosted cupcakes, valentines day candies are unhealthy.  They share this information with the adult about what they learned.  What happens after that, is that 98% of the adults that are talking to those children tell them, "It is OK to eat it once in a while".  

First, I want you to think about this, how is it OK to let child eat something that has toxic ingredients in it?  Just because they are not being rushed to the emergency room does not mean that the food ended up being safe.  Let me remind you that the cancer rates are at their all time highest.  Diabetes is at an all time high and America is getting more obese by the minute.  

Little Suzie is at a community event and someone is selling snow cones and she wants one.  The adult in charge say's OK, it is only once in a while.   That adult just told her that it is OK to eat unhealthy food.  The once in  a while does not matter in her mind and there was no consequence on the parent or child for eating that toxic food.  Little Suzie feels pretty good, so it can't be bad.  But, here is where all parents,grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult friends, adult cousins went wrong.  That food did affect her.  It is toxic because it has carcinogens  in it.  The worse part about it is that Little Suzy will keep eating those types of foods over and over again into adult hood.  She has been educated wrong by the Adults who could not stay away from toxic food themselves.  These same adults are struggling as adults with their health.  Little Suzie grows up and some day gets cancer from all the once in a whiles that were to many in her life time.  

We have to start thinking about what we are really teaching our children about health. You can't use the parenting style of consequences and making choices when it comes to food.   If you tell the child that a snow cone with red flavored syrup is bad for them and you give them a choice to have it or not, they will eat it and there is no consequence for eating it.  They feel fine. But it is affecting them deep down in their bodies.     As of right now  the children and teens of America are being taught that it is OK to cheat and eat bad food and that they are supposedly to busy to exercise.   It deeply saddens me to hear that most high school kids have no PE and the rest only have it twice a week if they are lucky.  

If you as the adult do not change your habits, and you keep the cheating going on, with "It is OK eat that once in a while",  on the toxic food then you are doing a dis-service to your family, yourself and this world.

42% of us will be obese by 2030 (actually, I think we are already at that percentage), our children are expected to have a shorter life span than us and 41% of us are going to inevitably get cancer. .

We are becoming a Wall-E World (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU).  I do not want this and I am pretty sure you do not either.  But, we all need to change.  It is time to get rid of this thought process that was introduced to us many years ago, (I bet by a corporate commercial) because it has caught up to us.  To many kids with adhd, add, autism, obesity are everywhere and at an all time high, cancer is at an all time high, diabetes is at an all time high.  We can alter this trajectory if we spread as much information about the chemicals in food as possible – specifically the chemicals that can be directly linked to obesity and cancer and that are slowly poisoning us and making us suffer as a society. 

The most widely used dyes, Red 40, Blue 1,  Yellow 5 are contaminated with known carcinogens, linked to cancer and known to cause hyperactivity in children.   “Carmel coloring”  sounds natural,  and is anything but! Caramel color is often manufactured by heating ammonia and sulfites under high pressure, which creates carcinogenic compounds that are also linked to cancer.

More information on Food Coloring: 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/24/are-you-or-your-family-eating-toxic-food-dyes.aspx

Just Have To Stop, No More Once In A While: 

McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's,Taco Bell, KFC, Soda, hot dogs, non organic candies, deserts with artificial colors and artificial flavorings, frozen food, foods with artificial coloring and artificial flavors, the snack shacks at sports events and packaged process foods.  This list is just a small list of foods to say NO to.  

Remember,nothing is going to change until we realize, that healthy food, food without toxins with absolutely no fudging is what we need to be eating. This world is either going to become a Wall-E world or a healthy world.  We are at the tipping point for this.

Wall-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU

Parents be parents, protect your children.  There should be no choices when it comes to eating a food with toxins or not eating it.  It is your job to protect their health and safety, so this decisions is yours,  Be strong and say NO

Americans 'Just Have To Stop"  this is what is going to change their health, their families health, the future generations of America and it will help our oceans, land and air become toxin free to. 

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome tha the most luxurious Persian rug.

 “The woods are  Ritalin. Nature calms all, focuses all, and  excites your  senses.” 

“If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it's even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun.” 
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Di...

Because I have towed the line between life and death, lately, I find I struggle with being responsible. I want to play and take every moment in. I want life to feel slow. I want time to slow even stop while I sit up in the mountains and have tea with my husband, I want to sit with my kids more outside in the forest or on a beach. I want to go backpacking high up in the mountains with my family and get lost in its silence... I want to drive and experience more of this worlds beauty.
Today, I was reading a friend of mines blog, (Growing Wild Farm), I am very proud of her for realizing what is important in life, which is learning to "pause". No matter how hard you work, work never goes away, the lists are always lists. What is important in life is taking a pause, taking moments, and put play back in your life.
I love what my daughter Sophia's says, "What stories are you creating that you can share" What is your story? Is your story of staying inside, playing video games, watching movies, eyes glued to your cell phone? What story's are you going to be able to tell from that?
I will ask you again, through my daughters words (who will be 17 tomorrow) What is your story?
Here is a quote a friend of mine used in her blog. It is totally how I feel on a daily basis, even more so these last few months. ...
“I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” -E B White
So, outside I go, to work, pause and then play.....

Why I choose to exercise and play outside....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blmv6gb9m64

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Recipe from the Country Cookbook, 1937

POSSUM

 Possum and woodchuck should ha e the glands or kernels taken out from under the forelegs and the small of the back.  many people also remove some of the layer of fat that lies under the skin.  If the animal is to be baked a favorite stuffing is equal parts of boiled chestnuts, apple sauce, and breadcrumbs.  The best possum we ever ate was left unstuffed, but its outside was stuck full os sassafras twigs until it looked like a porcupine.  An Ozarks woodsman roasted it for us before an open fire, in sight of its skin which eh had tacked up on the wall to dry.  There is an old recipe from teh deep South, however, which is the classic.  "Place an ax handle across the possum's neck, hold the tail and pull until the neck is broken.  Meanwhile have ready a pot of boiling oak lye, made of a quart of oak ashes and a gallon of water.  As soon as the neck is broken, put the possum in this, for a minute; take out and scrape clean, open down the breast, remove entrails, and wash thoroughly.  Hang in a cool place.  Rub inside and out with salt and black or red pepper; place in a roasting pan, with a teacup of boiling water, one of vinegar, a tablespoon of butter and a half dozen or more small peeled potatoes (sweets, of course).  Baste the meat frequently.  When tender remove to a dish and garnish with potatoes and parsley." 

Porcupine

Toss into fire and leave it there until quills burn off, wipe clean, split skin down the stomach and take it off, chopping off the ends of the legs; empty and season lightly, for the flavor is delicate.  Stew or roast, whole or cup up.  The skin is considered the best part if the beast be first salted, peppered,, and marinated for a day and then broiled.  

COOKING IN THE ASHES 

The simplest way of cooking in the world, coming down from the earliest use of fire by the human race, is that done without benefit of any implement; but just by the heat itself.  And it is a mighty handy method for the sportsman in camp, for he can bury his Irish potatoes or sweets deep in the ashes of an old fire that has well heated the earth and they will be ready when he comes back with the fish or game that is to go with them.  

Chestnuts, onions, acorn squash, and apples keep good company with the potatoes.  A small cross should be cut in each chestnut shell at the stem end so the nuts will not explode when heat expands them, and also to facilitate shelling; but the skins of onions, squash and apples should be unbroken.  

Both sweet and field corn are at their best roasted in this manner-- just pull off a few of the outer husks, be sure to take the corn out of the ashes as soon as it is done, and you will have th real roasting ears our forefathers gnawed so lustily. 

Bananas follow an old tropical tradition when baked thus in their skins.  They cook in short order, and after the ashes are dusted off they-re just slit open crack so the flesh can be sprinkled well with sugar and cinnamon and dug out with a spoon without letting the contents get cold, for only a cold potato tastes as soggy as a cold cooked banana.  

ROASTED EGGS IN ASHES 

Roasting is a hearty pioneer hearthside method of cooking eggs, probably  brought by the Dutch to these shores.  You need two iron frying pans for this, and first heat them both.  Then partly fill one of them with hot ashes, being careful not to include any glowing coals.  Place the eggs on these ashes leaving plenty of space between them.  Cover with more hot ashes and then with the other frying pan.  The eggs should be done in ten minutes.  Eat hot with butter, salt and pepper, while munching crisp toast.   Duck eggs are especially good baked in the ashes and of course turkey eggs would be swell. 

After reading through just a couple of these recipes can you see why it would be important for you to put away?  It would be a big bag of salt and have some cast iron pans for emergency storage.    A cast Iron dutch oven would also be important to add to that storage.   

Do you know why you would need lots of salt?  Post your comment below