10/3/11
I feel uneasy, even a bit twitchy. There seems to be so many global disasters. There’s more than normal isn’t there? Floods,
quakes, pestilence, famines and wars. It’s an ever increasing merger of madness and mayhem….or is it just me and it seems
that way? It’s going to take more than vitamins to fix this!
Of course it’s not easy being positive when faced by tidal waves of bad news. I’m an addict and watch CNN, BBC and begrudgingly
local news which often leaves out the juicy bits. Charlie Sheen, that all encompassing philosophical mastermind of modern tragedy
has it all. Quite profoundly he stated today “Can’t is the cancer of happening”. So gems of wisdom in amongst the gunshot ramblings
he fires off in a heartbeat. He’s gone from amusing to sad, riding a wild media roller coaster to self-destruction. But over 2.5m
people are following him on Twitter. What’s the intrigue? Well, he has two girlfriends – maybe he plans to start up a new
polygamous cult and move to Utah?
Of course while in this frame of mind my eyes fall on any snippet that contributes to the expanding madness around me. It’s
like when you’re pregnant, you suddenly notice that everyone is with child. How dare they! Or you get a new car and every
other sod has one too. They steal the limelight stunting your short-lived delight. It is worth noting that God works in
mysterious ways – to remind you of your miniscule unimportance!
Did you know that 20 years ago 1 in 20 women got breast cancer and now it’s 1 in 8. I’m not great with statistics but I know
that’s really bad. Is it pollution, too many hormones in our food chain, too many toxins consumed and I’ll have fries with
that too! I was listening to a finance guy talking this morning about a NZ Treasury report showing people between the ages
of 45 and 55 in 2003 will have on average, a total net worth of $216,000 by the time they reach retirement age. Pollution
is the least of our worries!
Feeling an element of disquiet? You can’t even get half a house for that money in cities these days. What if you invested it
and lived off the returns? Are you weeping from laughter or are your eyes watering at the thought of destitution and living
under a bridge? I bet you are doing the other thing – the thing teenagers do – “it won’t happen to me”. That explains the
ever-increasing abortion rate and alarming epidemic of STD’s. All the education in the world hasn’t helped!
One thing we all share in common is hope – it makes most of us bullet-proof. It’s what makes us press on in the eye of the
storm. It’s our saving grace. Well temporarily, facing up to retirement is when the proverbial chickens….I hope I haven’t
gone too far with too much reality in one blog? So maybe Charlie Sheen has the answer? Obliterate yourself with stimulants
and exit young and have a good looking corpse! Who needs a future plan with tiger’s blood running in your veins!
3/3/11
This is just brilliant for the busy working parent in the house! You throw all the ingredients in a bowl, beat them together and
pour into a hot, oiled glass dish or in muffin tins for small savory snacks for lunch or a light meal with salad.
Mix the following ingredients together:
- 1pkt of frozen chopped spinach 500gm (or blanche fresh spinach, drain water off before mixing in with the other ingredients)
- 4 eggs
- Half Cup of self raising flour
- 1 cup grated cheese (I use about half Cheddar to lower the fat content, and sometimes add some chopped cows feta)
- 1TBspn oil (I use organic olive oil)
- 1.5 cups of milk
- 1 finely chopped onion (I use half an onion or spring onions – they look prettier too)
- Salt and pepper
Beat the whole thing together - or shake in a jar. It is quite a loose mixture so don’t panic its not thick like a cake dough.
It’s very versatile so you can change vegetables or add other tasty treats. None need to be pre-cooked.
Oil a glass or porcelain dish (or muffin tins) You don’t need to flour them. BEFORE you place the mixture in the dish of muffin tray place it
in a hot oven – about 200C for 10 – 15 mins until its hot and smoking. Remove from the oven and pour in the mixture. Turn the oven down to
180C and place them back in the oven to cook for 30-45mins. By heating the oiled trays before hand you don’t need a pastry crust. The mixture
instantly seals and pulls away from the heated tray mould as you pour the mixture, making it easy to remove once cooked.
This will make a great tasty and healthy Quiche or savory tartlets. You can substitute the spinach with tuna, mushrooms, or last night’s leftover
vegetables. Add parsley...experiment with the flavours you like. It freezes well too and ideal for everyone’s school or work lunches!
ENJOY!
1/3/11
If you’re buying vitamins online there are a couple of things to be aware of. If the list of ingredients is a scanned label on the website and it’s
hard to read then this should raise a few warning bells. Watch out for strange contents like sea salt, bicarb of high doses of different kinds of
Calcium – often used as fillers.
You may see a list of ingredients but NOT the weights/measures – so you can’t really tell how much of each vitamin is in each capsule. The
alarm bells should be ringing a bit louder! NZ law requires that reputable vitamin labels and websites spell out the ingredients and the
exact volumes. Some use RDA and RDI, recommended daily vitamin allowances but these are fraught and are being currently reviewed globally.
You want to see the gram weights per ingredient so you can at least determine if the vitamin has the combination that will help you. Health Script believes
in the clever combining of vitamins and minerals and high volumes of certain vitamins are not necessarily always good for you. But a moderate
balance that supports your own diet and avoids any vitamin deficiency is our objective. Minerals that trigger your own body’s ability to absorb
more of particular nutrients from food ie: boron helps absorb calcium from dairy products for instance.
If you’re looking for an energy boosting multi-vitamin you would expect to see the full Vitamin B range and you would want to see
antioxidants to mop up free radical damage too. Also the A,C,E and D and in NZ you would want to make sure you have selenium, which is
missing in our food chain. Trace elements and minerals should also feature in a quality multi-vitamin.
If you look at the “About Us Page” on the websites you are surfing, and the Directors or Owners don’t have pictures of themselves or
explanations about their qualifications – then this should also raise doubts. If the content on the website refers to medical professionals
on their team but does not name them or specify qualifications, well this has to raise a few eyebrows. A Dr can be a Dr of toe nail clippings!
Which is pretty handy – when you realize that most capsules are made out of Gelatin – animal hooves and by-products.
Sometimes it will say “May contain some animal byproducts” – be wary.
Speaking of which when you take vitamins you want the quality to be the very best for your body. You need to check that the supplements are
GMP approved (good manufacturing process) which means they have Medsafe (through the Ministry of Health) certifications for highest quality
standards and purity of the ingredients. Also on the labels of the bottles they should have a TAPS Therapeutic Advertising Pre-vetting System
approval number as proof of a credible content around the wording on the label and in advertising etc.
Many products are imported from overseas and don’t fulfill our NZ quality standards. A lot are produced overseas – without declaring contents or
volumes in each capsule and without much more than a huge global marketing and advertising budget. You end up paying a premium for currency exchange
and freight. Next time take a closer look and consider the quality supplements from www.healthscript.co.nz
we fulfill all these exacting standards.