I left Strathalbyn today for a change of scenery. I travelled about 45 minutes away to Goolwa to continue living the idyllic lifestyle. The only disappointment today was that Woolworths had no grape fruits or blue berries but I got them at Foodland near by.

COINS - STORY 7

A little story for you today from my round the world travels of twenty years ago. It was 1993 and I was in Hawaii. I had never been to the USA before and wasn't used to their money. All the bank notes are the same size and colour and some of the coins just have names with no reference to how much they're worth. Anyhow we were on our first day in the USA and had to get a bus into Honolulu. First of all as they drive on the right you really have to think and concentrate hard as to which side of the road to wait on. Anyhow the bus pulled up and on the buses there you just threw your coins into a metal contraption that counted them, a bit like those coin machines at road toll gates. I had all this change and some were dimes and some were nickels. I had no idea then how much dimes and nickels were worth. So I asked the driver how much a dime was worth. He just looked at me like I was an idiot and simply said 'A dime's a dime'!!!! He wouldn't elaborate upon this. I just chucked the coins in the contraption and hoped for the best! I did find out later a dime is 10 cents.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Avoid sugar,margarine and vegetable/seed oils as they are toxic substances. They are poisons. Always read ingredient labels as so many foods that you wouldn't expect have sugar added like burgers, sausages, coleslaw salad etc etc etc. As for vegetable oils they are added to loads of things, so be careful.

**Sugar is a poison and its sale should be as tightly regulated as cigarettes and alcohol, scientists say.They warn that sugary foods and drinks are responsible for illnesses including obesity, heart disease, cancer and liver problems. And they claim it contributes to 35 million deaths a year worldwide and is so dangerous it should be controlled through taxation and legislation.

**Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings.... DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter? Read on to the end...gets very interesting! Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine. Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study. Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added! Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods. Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years . And now, for Margarine.Very High in Trans fatty acids.Triples risk of coronary heart disease.Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol), Increases the risk of cancers up to five times,Lowers quality of breast milk,Decreases immune response,Decreases insulin response. And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING! Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT. These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance). Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things: * no flies will go near it (that should tell you something) * it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?


The process of extracting vegetable oil from oil seeds is not for the squeamish. Take a look at the steps and decide for yourself if this is a "food" you want to consume:

1. Oil seeds such as soybean, rapeseed, cotton, sunflower are gathered. Most of these seeds are from plants that have been genetically engineered to resist the huge amounts of pesticides applied to them.
2. The seeds are husked and cleaned of dirt and dust, then crushed.
3. The crushed seeds are then heated to temperatures between 110 degrees and 180 degrees in a steam bath to start the oil extraction process.
4. The seeds are put through a high volume press which uses high heat and friction to press the oil from the seed pulp.
5. The seed pulp and oil are then put through a hexane solvent bath and steamed again to squeeze out more oil.Note: Hexane is produced by the refining of crude petroleum oil. It is a mild anesthetic. Inhalation of high concentrations produces first a state of mild euphoria, followed by sleepiness with headaches and nausea. Chronic intoxication from hexane has been observed in recreational solvent abusers and in workers in the shoe manufacturing, furniture restoration and automobile construction industries where hexane is used as a glue. The initial symptoms are tingling and cramps in the arms and legs, followed by general muscular weakness. In severe cases, atrophy of the skeletal muscles is observed, along with a loss of coordination and problems of vision. In 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued regulations on the control of emissions of hexane gas due to its potential carcinogenic properties and environmental concerns.
6. Now the seed/oil mixture is put through a centrifuge and phosphate is added to begin the separation of the oil and seed residues.
7. After solvent extraction, the crude oil is separated and the solvent is evaporated and recovered. The seed pulp residues are conditioned and reprocessed to make by-products such as animal feed.
8. The crude vegetable oil is then put through further refining techniques including degumming, neutralization and bleaching:
   • Water degumming: In this process, water is added to the oil. After a certain reaction period the hydrated phosphatides can be separated either by decantation (settling) or continuously by means of centrifuges. In this process step a large part of water soluble and even a small proportion of the non-water soluble phophatides are removed. The extracted gums can be processed into lecithin for food, feed or for technical purposes.
   • Neutralization: Any free fatty acids, phospholipids, pigments, and waxes in the extracted oil promote fat oxidation and lead to undesirable colors and oders in the final products. These impurities are removed by treating the oil with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) or soda ash (sodium carbonate). The impurities settle to the bottom and are drawn off. The refined oils are lighter in colour, less viscous, and more susceptible to oxidation. Hmmm, lucky for us.
   • Bleaching: The major purpose of bleaching is the removal of off colored materials in the oil. The heated oil is treated with various bleaching agents such as fuller's earth, activated carbon, or activated clays. Many impurities, including chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments, are absorbed by this process and removed by filtration. However, bleaching also promotes fat oxidation since some natural antioxidants and nutrients are removed along with the impurities.
9. Deodorization is the final step in the refining of vegetable oils. Pressurize steam at extremely high temps (500 degrees or more) is used to remove volatile compounds which would cause off odors and tastes in the final product.The oil produced is referred to as "refined oil" and is ready to be consumed or for the manufacture of other products. A light solution ofcitric acid is often added during this step to inactivate any metals such as iron or copper present in the final product.

The process of refining vegetable oil damages the fats and makes the oils very unstable and prone to going rancid quite easily. Rancid oils in any form are particularly bad for your health because they introduce cancer causing free radicals into your body, without the benefit of including an antioxidant like vitamin E.