When the Option of Eating a Healthy Diet becomes a Necessity

Thyroid - Mayo Clinic

Well, it's official. Getting old sucks! Sigh.

I went to get some routine lab work done in March and my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) levels were a bit high but my T3 and T4 levels were still good. Some follow-up tests revealed that my Thyroperoxidase Ab levels are elevated. All of that basically means that I am likely heading for hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) due to an auto-immune disorder called Hashimoto's Disease. 

Bugger.

This is not all that surprising. My mother has Grave's Disease (an auto immune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism - an overactive thyroid). I have two first cousins who have Hashimoto's Disease (both on my maternal side). My grandmother and one of her sisters also had thyroid issues. So, I've been getting my TSH levels checked regularly for several years and they've always been good. But no more.

Hypothyroidism symptoms can include: loss of appetite, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping, reduced motivation, mood swings, a short temper, depression and excessive stress. And yes, I'm ticking a bunch of those boxes already. I was putting it down to the pandemic but... perhaps there is more going on than just the pandemic blues and blahs.

My doctor wanted to put me on synthetic thyroid meds but I wanted to hold off and see a naturopath first. She's already got me eating two Brazil nuts a day (Selenium), making sure I get enough iodine (iodized table salt or seaweed nibbles), Omega 3 oils (algae oil) and a few other things. I'm sure that there's more that the naturopath is going to recommend, now that we've got the Thyroperoxidase Ab results...

In the meantime, I'm going to be picking the brains of my cousins as to what I can do to slow the progression. And... doing a tonne of research on the internet.

As it turns out, diet plays a huge role in controlling Hashimoto flare-ups. Things like gluten, sugar, dairy and processed/refined foods should be eliminated. That includes chocolate.

***crickets chirping***

Noooo... not chocolate! Yup, chocolate... sigh. I know that my cousins are on a pretty strict diet - no gluten and no dairy. But I missed the memo on sugar. And processed/refined foods.

Luckily, our mostly whole food, plant based diet aligns quite nicely with what dietitians recommend for Hashimoto sufferers... Still... some people go for a gluten free diet (no wheat, rye, barley). Others go for a grain free diet (no oats or buckwheat or amaranth or millet). Some go dairy free. Some go sugar free. Some go Paleo.

Others opt instead to focus on eating as healthy and nutrient dense of a diet as possible:

• leafy greens, such as kale and spinach
• fatty fish, including salmon
• a variety of coloured vegetables, such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, beets, and red, yellow, and orange peppers
• fruits, including berries, apples, and bananas
• healthful fats, including avocado and walnuts
• lean proteins, including tofu, eggs, nuts, beans, and fish
• fibrous foods, including beans and legumes
  

Healthy vegetables
(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)

We're holding to that pretty closely, except for the fish and eggs. We also eat a variety of whole grains sooo.. .time will tell if I get to keep those in my diet or not. Right now, I'm more concerned about the sugar. We've been on a bit of a junk food kick lately (chocolate and chips and cookies) which (a) has not done much for my waistline reduction project and (b) does not adhere to our "whole foods" plan. But maybe this thyroid stuff is just the sort of thing that will encourage me to kick refined sugars and processed foods to the curb for good.

Avoiding Toxic Store Receipts

You've likely heard about BPA - Bisphenol A. It's a type of plastic that has been (and sometimes is still being) used in canned food, baby bottles, plastic water bottles and store receipts (those thermal paper ones).

BPA is incredibly bad for humans and is a known endocrine disruptor. Research indicates that BPA is linked to an increased risk of breast and prostate cancers, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive and brain development abnormalities. New studies even suggest it may be connected to autism spectrum disorder.

Pretty much everyone agrees that BPA is Bad News!

So what can we do about it? One option is to only buy plastic consumer goods that are labelled BPA-Free... although that is no guarantee that the item is actually free of BPA. Another option is to use glass and metal containers instead of plastic containers... good-bye vintage Tupperware. And definitely never ever microwave food in plastic containers... ever. BPA leaches out of plastic even faster when it's heated up... one of the reasons why plastic water bottles should not be left in the sun.

These are all good options but... one scientist noted that the really bad culprit is... thermal paper receipts. Apparently, “there's more BPA in a single thermal paper receipt than the total amount that would leach out from a polycarbonate water bottle used for many years" (see 2014 Consumer Reports).

This is bad news for store cashiers but also anyone who needs to handle receipts for accounting purposes. And it's not just store receipts. Thermal paper receipts are used for:

• airline boarding passes
• airline luggage tags
• train tickets
  
• movie tickets
• sporting event tickets
• amusement park tickets
• prescription bottle labels
• packaged supermarket items such as deli meats and cheeses
• fax paper
• lottery tickets

Yikes! So what is the solution? Well... there are a few options:

1. Wear those blue nitrile gloves when handling receipts.
2. Decline paper receipts wherever you have the option of getting an emailed receipt.
3. Don't carry receipts loose in your wallet, where the BPA can rub off on other things. Store them in a plastic bag.
4. Wash your hands (with soap and water) as soon as possible after touching receipts.
5. Don't use alcohol-based sanitizers before or after handling receipts since that just increases the skin's ability to absorb BPA! Well... that's fun in the age of Covid when we are all using hand sanitizers like mad.
6. Don't handle thermal paper if you are pregnant... and keep it away from kids too. Prenatal and early life exposure to BPA poses the greatest potential health risks.
   

This sudden interest in BPA was triggered for me by a receipt that I received from a local grocery store.

The backside of the receipt is not typical of other receipts. See... it's made by EcoChit and states that the paper is (a) sustainably sourced, (b) 100% BPA and BPS free and (c) One tree planted for every case of paper used.

Loud kudos to Country Grocer for going this route! I had a look at a stack of other receipts on my desk...

• Lowes
• Superstore
• Mobil Gas Bar
• Shopper's Drug Mart
• Winners
• Home Depot
• various credit card machine receipts

Out of all of those, only Winners has a note on the back of their receipt saying it is BPA-Free. Home Depot has an FSC notice - that the paper is from responsible sources, but nothing about BPA.

There is a call to ban toxic thermal paper receipts in Canada, particularly from the UCFW union. I did find news that Loblaws (Superstore & Shopper's Drug Mart) plans to ban all Bisphenols (BPA, BPS and others) from their receipts by the end of 2021. So that is good news. But isn't it about time that this went Canada-wide...

Canada banned BPA from baby bottles in 2010, declaring it a toxic substance. But Canada did not ban it from all food and consumer products. Due to consumer concern, however, many companies did voluntarily remove BPA from their products. Home Depot receipts. for example, have been BPA free for over 10 years. So is all of this just a moot point?

Nope... you see, many companies just phased out BPA and used BPS or other Bisphenols instead. Sigh. All of which are just as toxic as BPA. Seriously...

So, I went and had a look at the EcoChit site which produces the Country Grocer receipts. Those receipts are completely phenol free but do use a chemical called Pergafast instead of the phenols... What is this stuff?

Well, Pergafast is also a chemical but... it would appear that it is much less easily absorbed into the skin than BPA and BPS... at least according to a 2015 study.

All of this does make me wonder why Canada doesn't just ban all phenol products... In the meantime, maybe it's time to praise the likes of Country Grocer and Loblaws and start poking at places like Home Depot...

The Misunderstood Rule of the Woods - Leave No Trace

Sooo... we had a gorgeous warm, sunny weekend a few weeks ago Folks were out in the woods and parks in full force.

Actually, I didn't see them there... I just came across their remains. Well, not "their" remains... but the stuff that they left behind.

There's a rocky bluff up by the local lake and it's a popular hangout  for the younger crowd in the warmer months, particularly on the weekends. Last summer, I made it a regular weekend stop because there always seemed to be remains...

On that sunny weekend, I decided to walk through the woods to the bluff on Sunday morning because it is a beautiful spot, overlooking the lake with the mountain in the background. I can get some gorgeous photographs there...

As I came to the top of the bluff, I had a sense of what I would find down by the shore. Off to the side of the trail, down the slope was a spilled bag of beer and cooler cans. I decided to pick them up on my way out...

And... sure enough... once I got closer to the water... scads of garbage - towels, chip bags, drink cups, pizza boxes and various miscellaneous crap. Clearly, the younger folk had a good time here Saturday evening. They just neglected to clean up after themselves.

There were a couple of early fishermen down by the water, and one of them called out that he had cleaned up a similar mess on Saturday morning. And yet, here was more. Sad. Disgusted.

I didn't have a large garbage bag in my pack, just a regular plastic bag. I debated my options. It was a good 15 minutes back to the truck... And there was a lot of stuff there...

In the end, I used one of the towels as a make-shift tote and gathered everything together. It was bulky, unwieldy and moderately heavy... damp towels aren't lightweight. But... I made it back to the trail head and shoved everything into the garbage can there.

I had several debates with myself during this process:

Tossing the Towels

Should I have taken the towels home, washed them and then donated them to the SPCA? That would seem to be the most eco-friendly thing to do and yet... we are living in the time of Covid and I didn't really want to bring this pile of damp towels back to our home. I took the route of least resistance and just dumped them... but I felt bad doing that.

Not My Monkeys, Not My Circus

Should I have just left the mess there for the "kids" to come back and clean up on their own? Am I just enabling this sort of mess-making by cleaning up after them? After all, it's not my mess... not my job to clean up after slovenly youth!

I decided "No"... if these kids were raised right by their parents... they'd already know that they should clean up after themselves. This isn't so much about the youth... it's about the parents...

Some people excuse this sort of behaviour by saying that it's hard to clean up after a party in the dark, particularly when the scoundrels are drunk as skunks. Perhaps... but the bigger question then is... if they are too drunk to clean up after themselves... who's driving everyone home? And who had the common sense to pack all the cans into a bag? Admittedly, a bag that got dropped down a slope and left for someone else to clean up...

Trash Begets Trash

But here's the thing... they've done studies on trash and litter. If it starts to accumulate somewhere... say along the side of the road or at a park, guess what? People apparently feel it's OK to toss their own litter and trash there. This is why graffiti gets painted over quickly... if it stays up, it tells other graffiti-ers that it's OK to add their own creations to that building or bridge. Cities have to stay on top of graffiti... and it's the same with trash. And there is no way cities can stay on top of the amount of trash that gets routinely tossed along roadways and trails... It's up to civic-minded citizens to step up... that's you and me folks...

If you go out into the woods or a city park or the beach... there are some rules of the trail that you might have heard of...

Pack it In, Pack It Out

There is a pretty well-known rule of the hiker crowd... if you pack it in, you pack it back out. This applies equally well to the folks walking in city parks and local woodlands. What it means is this...

If you bring a granola bar to eat on your walk... you pack out your granola bar wrapper. You don't just drop it on the trail. This is why seamstresses gave us pockets! 

If you bring your cup of Timmies along for the walk... you carry that cup the whole length of your walk. You don't just toss it in the woods. Drink cups are lined with a thin film of plastic and that stuff never ever decays. Trust me... I've seen the various stages of disintegration of a Timmies cup... the plastic liner is still lying in the woods months after you tossed your Timmies cup there. Or Starbucks cup... or McDonald's cup.

If you scoop your dog's poop while on the trail, good for you!!! Excellent... but that's only the first step. You have now committed to carrying that poop bag the entire way back to your vehicle... or the nearest garbage can, whichever comes first...  And no, a hollow stump is NOT a garbage can. I can't tell you how many poopy bags I've found in the woods, tossed off the trail by some half-assed "responsible" dog owner.

Leave No Trace

This is another well-known rule of the woods, particularly the back-packing crowd. It includes the "pack it in, pack it out" rule along with a few others. But here's the thing... it's not just about me or you leaving no trace... it's about taking it a step farther and leaving a negative trace.

Great that you tuck your granola bar wrapper into your backpack or pocket. But now... here's the question... what do you do when you see a granola bar wrapper on the trail? It's not your wrapper... not your monkeys... not your circus. What do you do?

Leave it for the owner to come back and clean up?? Come on... that ain't never gonna happen! Maybe they dropped it on purpose... maybe it fell out of their pocket by accident... Doesn't matter, they ain' coming back for it.

Leave it for the park patrol to clean up? There ain't no park patrol!

Actually there is... you are the park patrol. You saw the wrapper on the ground... now it's up to you to leave no trace. Just pretend it's your granola bar wrapper that fell out of your pocket accidentally on your last walk. Pick it up and put it in your pocket or pack or perhaps... the plastic bag that you could start carrying to collect trash along the trail...

Leave it Better than You Found It

Which leads me to the last rule of the trail... leave it better than you found it. Yes, you can be responsible for your own trash but... we are all citizens of a larger community, a larger world. We are all caretakers of the Earth... of our forests and trails and waterways. Someone said I could have just left the garbage for the "kids" to clean up. Maybe... but in that time, the wind might have blown some of it into the lake where it would drift around, perhaps harming fish or birds in the process. We all know that six-pack rings are NOT eco-friendly.

Sooo... even though these aren't my monkeys or my circus... I can see that I will need to be stocking my pockets and pack with plastic grocery bags. And if you see a person on the trail carrying a bag of garbage or cans... give them a smile and a thank you! And... consider carrying our own stash of bags...

Post-Script

Soooo... I did a pass through of the bluff on my Monday morning walk and found a good two dozen cans and bottles littering the rocks. Not much actual garbage though. I was prepared with a number of bags and came out of the woods with a half-bag of garbage and a bag and a half of cans...

Cooking with Kitchen Scraps

We hate to waste food and yet, somehow, it always seems to happen. This feels a bit like a repeat of last week's blog post and yet... it's not. You see, we have a compost bin and so, can convince ourselves that our food waste isn't the worst thing in the world... after all, the wilted celery will go into the compost bin and then fertilize our garden, right? And the dead cooked stuff will end up in the city recycle bin where it too will be turned into compost. Good, yes?

Well, yes and no... I can hear my mother now... and maybe your mother too... back when we were kids. "Some starving family in Africa would love to eat that...". And it's true... we toss away an enormous amount of food. Apparently the Canadian kitchen is on of the worst places for food waste.

 Which brings me to... IKEA. Strange leap, I know but... they just published (and it's available for FREE) The ScrapsBook - a cookbook for your kitchen scraps. Sayyyyyy whaaaat???

Yes... it's true... all of those things that we righteously toss into the compost bin could actually be used to cook something delicious... And not just soup broth... See the scraps below? Bruised apple cores and skins, carrot ends (including the green bits), old black beans, overripe beets and leftover ginger... all of that can be turned into...

 

This... a scrumptious veggie burger... out of kitchen scraps... crazy!

Apparently all of this is part of IKEA's wider pledge to become a circular, climate-positive business by 2030. Their head of marketing (Johanna Andren) said that "Seeing how much waste is created in one of the most important rooms in the home, we set out to inspire Canadians by giving food scraps another look and offering new, creative ways to reduce food waste at home”.

I've downloaded the pdf version of their cookbook and we might just have to try some of these - like maybe Corn Cob Soup... or Pesto made from kale stems... whoa... 

Some cool ideas and a great way to eek every bit of nourishment out of our produce (and there are meat recipes too) before it hits the compost or green bin...