Product Reviews

Good News, Meat Lovers!

We have finally found a non-meat substitute your taste buds won't reject. The Field Roast Grain Meat Company makes delicious, high-protein, grain "meats" from whole grains, vegetables and legumes. They're free from genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), high in fiber, low in fat, and, best of all, have a very meaty texture. The patties, for example, have a similar texture to a slice of ham.

We sampled two non-meat "meats": Smoked Tomato Grilled Patties and Lentil Sage Loaf. Both are made with tomatoes, onions, red wine, mustard, lentils, garlic, and natural herbs and spices, and wrapped in cotton netting like meats in an old-world deli. They also have Sunflower Country-Style Cutlets and Mushroom Onion Loaf.

If you are not a meat eater, you will be delighted at the new vegetarian alternatives. If you are a meat eater who is not easily fooled, expect to be pleasantly surprised.

Glow. Sweat. Glisten. Perspire

No matter how you look at it, we all have to "sweat it out" to flush toxins from our bodies. Unfortunately, that sweat tends to come with an odor, caused by bacteria being released through our skin pores via our sweat glands.

Even more unfortunate, new research indicates that commercial antiperspirants and deodorants can be deleterious to our health. Science is now linking aluminum to breast cancer and Alzheimer's Disease, and commercial antiperspirants typically contain aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium.

The answer? Natural Crystal Deodorants, which use naturally occurring mineral salts. Don't be confused by the label. Yes, it notes that “alum” is one of the mineral salts used, but alum is not the same as aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium. The molecular structure of alum is much larger than the structure of our cells, so it cannot be absorbed through the skin.

Here's how it works: when you apply one of the Natural Crystal Deodorants, the mineral salts kill the bacteria on the surface of the skin. A thin layer of mineral salts then remains on the skin's surface and helps inhibit further bacteria growth. Healthy, normal body perspiration—or, you're a woman, "glowing”—continues, but you stay as sweet-smelling as when you stepped out of the shower.

The roll-on hemp-oil deodorant with natural lavender fragrance is soothing and leaves skin feeling soft. Men often enjoy the spice hemp-oil deodorant, which lets you still smell good even after a 12-hour day of sweating outdoors in the sun on a construction site. For a bit more invigoration, try the "active" formula, which has a fresh herbal scent. Even after shaving, these deodorants feel soothing.

There is also a nice deodorant stick for people who like a drier application. If you're looking for a fragrance-free deodorant, try the pump spray with aloe vera and MSM. The aloe has numerous health benefits, and the MSM helps treat chronic pain and problems associated with injuries or skin disorders.

To keep your largest organ as pure and free from bacteria and chemicals as possible, try natural, organic products both inside and outside. Put it on your calendar: Take care of you every day. Eat right. Don't sweat the small stuff. But when you do sweat, help eliminate your surface bacteria with all-natural Crystal Deodorants.

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Alpha Hydroxy Acid Formulas

Oily skin may keep you from wrinkling, as so many of our mothers promised us, but it sure doesn't keep us from breaking out. We start early learning to hide our blemishes with a cover-up. What we don’t realize is that the cover-ups only cause further breakout!

It seems everyone has skin issues. We either want to retain our youthful, healthy skin, or get rid of acne and blemishes. Of course, we can certainly find enough products lining the store shelves that promise wrinkle-free, blemish-free, spot-free, line-free skin. The problem is, a lot of those commercial "beauty-in-a-jar" products are not cruelty-free—they were tested on animals in painful, unnecessary experiments.

And the ingredients—most of which we cannot pronounce—often consist of various rancid animal byproducts. Even worse, an amazing number of the creams and lotions advertised on television and in "finer salons or department stores" are petroleum-based! You know petroleum—it’s the stuff you put in your car tank!

Healthy, radiant skin needs to breathe. Read the label on the creams and makeup you purchase. Natural ingredients are organic, like our skin and bodies. Synthetic ingredients, obviously, are not--they're chemicals that can harm our delicate skin.

Some of the more commonly used synthetic ingredients found in brand-name products are:

• Propylene Glycol: used in cosmetics as a humectant, surfactant, and solvent; used in cars as antifreeze and hydraulic brake fluid. Petroleum based, it can cause allergic and toxic reactions, and is being studied for its link to cancer when applied topically.
  

• Mineral Oil: used in place of fruit and vegetable oils such as avocado or apricot-kernel oil, because it is cheaper and more stable, it acts as a solvent on the skin (making it inappropriate for dry skin) and clogs the pores (making it inappropriate for oily skin). Applied topically to "normal" skin, it prevents the large organ from breathing.
  

• Isopropyl Alcohol: a synthetic alcohol produced by the hydration of ethylene—usually petroleum based SD Alcohol: "SD" stands for "specially denatured," meaning chemicals were added to render the alcohol poisonous to drink. If you can't drink it, it shouldn't be applied to your skin. The number following (i.e., SD Alcohol "40") refers to the particular chemicals added to determine in which products the alcohol should be used:

• Paraffin Wax: a petroleum byproduct. Think candles

• Triethanolamine: used to create emulsions. Toxic due to over-alkalinity

• Methylparaben, propylparaben: synthetic preservatives that can produce allergic reactions

• Stearic Acid: usually an animal byproduct, which can cause allergic reactions

• Sodium Stearate: 92.82% stearic acid. Used in creams and lotions

• Sodium Laurel/Laureth Sulfate: used in hair-care products, this synthetic detergent that strips the hair and scalp of moisture can make dandruff and oily hair worse!

You won't find any of the above-listed bad ingredients in Nonie of Beverly Hills skin-care products. Instead, you'll find botanicals such as tea tree oil and grapefruit seed oil and alpha hydroxy acids taken from bilberry, apple, orange, lemon, grapefruit and sugar cane that help exfoliate dead skin cells very gently.

You’ll also find essential oils of lavender, cypress, orchid, chamomile and peppermint as well as many other wonderful, natural ingredients in these moisturizing, cleansing, soothing, delicious-smelling, feel-good (and good-for-you) products.

Men will enjoy HIS!, Nonie's Shave Cream, HIS! After Shave Tonic and HIS! Skin Conditioner. The entire line is preserved with apple cider vinegar and grapefruit seed oil and housed in beautiful glass bottles.

Nonie of Beverly Hills does not test on animals or use animal byproducts.

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Tinkyáda's Organic 100% Rice Pasta

More and more people are discovering they have a wheat problem. If you find yourself feeling tired and lethargic, try to avoid that particular grain for a while. Of course, it isn't easy. If you read food labels, you know that wheat is in almost everything, even though many people are allergic to it.

How can that be? Isn’t wheat one of the staples of life?  Yes, it certainly used to be—before we all got over-exposed to cheap varieties grown with dangerous pesticides and added to most packaged foods.

If you are one of those who have discovered your system does not work as well when you eat wheat, you may miss eating one of your favorite dishes: good, old-fashioned spaghetti with home-made marinara sauce.

Oh, there are plenty of substitute pastas: corn, rice, quinoa, soy. Yech! Awful texture, and not much better in the taste department.

Thank heavens for Tinkyáda rice pasta.

Tinkyáda is made from 100% organic brown rice. Nothing is added except water. It's wheat-free, gluten-free, egg-free, cholesterol-free, fat-free, sodium-free, and an easy-to-digest, healthful source of fiber. Perfect texture and delicious—better than many wheat-based pastas. And it doesn't fall apart! Try their spirals and macaroni, too. They were all excellent in every way, and you don’t have to sacrifice anything or have to deal with that tired, lethargic, wheat-laden feeling.

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Beeswax Candles

Beeswax candles?! What do candles have to do with complementary and alternative medicine? And why with so many other, cheaper, oh-so-good-smelling varieties available, use beeswax candles?

It has to do with controlling the quality of the air you breathe. Most of us don't even realize that when we breathe in those oh-so-good-smelling candles, what we're actually breathing in is petroleum. Yup, there it is again—the stuff that makes our cars go.

The fact is, paraffin candles are made of ... well, paraffin, which is a byproduct of petroleum. Petroleum, as every gas pump warns, is dangerous to inhale. How did petroleum get into good, old-fashioned candles? Well, those sweet-smelling paraffin jobs are not the good, old-fashioned wax drippers they made in Colonial Days. If you want the real low-down about today's regular candles, just ask the Santa Fe Beeswax Candle Company.

They'll tell you, in rather graphic detail, how most petroleum-based candles include bleached residue sludge mixed with animal byproducts that, when burned, "spew choking toxins and black soot, as harmful as second-hand tobacco smoke." Stuff that coats your walls, your art, and your lungs.

Regular candles give off positive ions, and that's not good.

Beeswax candles, on the other hand, smell clean and delicious, like honey, and give off negative ions.

What that means: in the world of ions, positive is bad ("I'm sorry, the blood test came out positive), negative is good ("The results were negative, you don't have cancer!"). Negative ions are not only gentle on our lungs, they energize the air and clean away odors, dust, pollens, allergens, smoke and even dust mites.

What's more, beeswax candles are more cost efficient, burning brighter, hotter and longer than paraffin candles. Plus, their negative ions help us sleep better, which, in turn, helps build our immune systems. Do you have allergies, asthma, or chemical sensitivities? Obviously, beeswax is the only way to go.

Look for beeswax candles that are smokeless, dripless and 100% beeswax—very important, since candles that are only partially beeswax are, by default, partially paraffin.