Years ago, when I first came to this country, I still had my long-handled Spanish shopping baskets with me.  I remember well the suspicious looks the local bagger at our Midwestern supermarket cast on me, as I deftly intercepted his efforts to put my purchases into his plastic bags.

I can't really claim to have understood in totality the consequences of our reliance on plastic at that time, it just didn't feel right.  And people are finally beginning to come to the same conclusion - San Francisco, for example, has completely banned the use of plastic shopping bags.

It may be just in time, as this Captain discovered when he sailed into a filthy, trashy area of the ocean about the size of Texas, contaminated throughout by plastic.

But it will be too late for some birds.

And we may already be eating plastic fish.

With untold consequences for our future - may there be enough of us left to turn this thing around!!

Give up plastic - buy yourself a beautiful handwoven basket from Africa, made by striving artisans   - and do good while helping the environment.

Just a quick note to say I am back safely, full of new imformation which I will be sharing over the next weeks and months.

My granddaughter and I are off to Tempe, Arizona today Monday May 14th, to attend the d'Adamo Conference  "Metabolically Profiling the Individual".  Well, more accurately, I will attend, she will swim and lie out!

So, the vtmn ldy-mobile will be on the road again.  Wave if you see us.  I will be back next week, so would appreciate your holding any complex questions until I return though I will have my computer with me.

I remember reading once how practical Italians kept a form of miniature pig on their balconies in towns right after World War 11, to provide them with "free" meat.  Made perfect sense to me.

Killed by a falling pig

Now it seems that many municipalities are making it possible for people to keep hens - not roosters! - as pets in cities, and coincidentally benefit from the fruits.  What an excellent idea.  I think I am going to have to see whether this is possible where I live.  They are pretty good at keeping insects down, too.

Chicken in the City

Throw away the grill, ladies!  A new study estimates that eating smoked and/or grilled meats regularly, may double your risk of breast cancer. 

Combine all that meat with a low intake of fruits and vegetables, and the risk climbs to a plus 74%.

And to think, I can remember the days when the American Cancer Society held the position that diet had nothing to do with cancer.

A Healthy Diet

Smoked, BBQ meat linked to breast cancer 

Black Cohosh halves risk of breast cancer

A Clerihew

Lad or Lassie,
How declasse!
To public wayfare
In private sleepwear.

In China, cancer rates are rapidly rising as smoking, the westernization of the diet, and pollution take their toll.

In China also, there is a tradition of paying a Doctor to keep you healthy. What a quaint idea.

So nowadays, when a family has sold all their assets, to include the family cow, to pay for expensive cancer drugs and guess what, the patient dies - they are angry with the Doctor for his perceived failure.

In the US, we may not pay directly for these drugs, but we certainly pay indirectly as insurance rates soar - I think we should ask whether the millions are worth it for drugs which ARE NOT EVEN A CURE, but which add at most a few painful months to a patient's life.

Attacks by angry patients and family members on China's medical personnel almost doubled last year

I am well qualified to comment on this, since as some of you know I was diagnosed with lymphoma in September 2005.   I would certainly not opt for ruining my family financially, just to live a few extra short months.

Sometimes I laugh at myself, wondering whether, if I had been alive during the transition to electricity, I would have insisted on keeping my old wood-burning cook stove.  In actual fact, as you can see, I keep up with technology fairly well - but for some reason, the micro-wave oven alarmed me.

I know we don't often look to the Soviet Union for guidance on health issues, but when I saw that at one point they BANNED  micro-wave ovens, I was intrigued.

To mis-appropriate one of their own sayings - I banned it first!

The effect of the microwave oven on your family' health

Safety of Micro-wave Energy

The alarming effects of Microwave apparatus on food and humans

Fact versus Fiction - an opposing view-point