You are What You Eat

I just finished a bowl of cereal.  Why is that worth blogging?  Because it's the first time I've had organic milk.  I guess I didn't really differentiate organic milk from raw milk in my head before, but organic is pasteurized, or, in this case, ultra-pasteurized.  It is milk produced from cows fed without added antibiotics, pesticides or added growth-hormone (I assume the "added" is there because cows already have their share of growth hormone, as do we.)  They utilize milk from small farms, and the animals are treated better (how could they be treated worse?).

Anyway, I was talking with Kim at work recently, and, apropos of I don't remember what, she mentioned that she bought organic milk.  Her reason was that being a single lady, she often threw out milk, and hated waste.  The organic tastes creamier, and lasts much longer, she said.  She feels it's economic to buy this milk, since she won't throw any out.

Next time I was at the store, I checked the carton.  The sell buy date is May 7, over five weeks away.  No surprise.  I've bought ultra-pasteurized heavy cream before, and it is edible for months.  So I know I'll be able to drink  this whole half-gallon of milk.  It's pricey, though.  I don't think I'll really save money.

So why will I continue to buy organic milk, and probably organically raised meat as well?

I've commented recently on the large number of personal friends I have who have battled breast cancer.  I work in a hospital, so I see a lot of it anyway, but to factor that out, just focusing on my personal friends, well, it's been a bad year for mastectomies.

Breast cancer is on the increase.  There are a lot of possible reasons, including that we live longer, and things that come as we age are manifesting more just because more of us reach that age.  I think there's more to it than that, though.  I think it has a lot to do with hormones.  We are in the generation that first used birth control pills, initially marketed at much higher doses than currently.  We just finished an era when all women were put on hormones post-menopausally, before finding that the gospel that it helped against heart disease, was false, and that it probably increased the risk of breast cancer.

Finally, we are in the era of food treated with growth hormones.  These have a huge effect on the human body, and may well be an important factor in a number of cancers (breast, colon, prostate).  Plus, have you wondered how it is that teenagers are so big, that guys sport significant facial hair in junior high (a far cry from my school days...long ago, but not in human cycles), that girls still playing with dolls may wear a "B"-cup bra? Think that growth hormone they're eating might have something to do with it?  Yeah.  I sure do.

That's why I'm goig organic.

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  Sandy sent me a DVD of a safari she wants to go on this fall.  I tried to watch it on my DVD player and couldn't get it to work.  Worked fine on my computer, though.  It looks great.  Minor things that give me pause are that you see the wildlife from open vehicle, canoe or foot.  The shots of the open vehicle are really open, passing by lions and elephants and leopards and hippos and boar.  If one of those animals decides to go wild, there's not much between you and them.

Speaking of wild animals, the last few days of the safari are at Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe.  There are lots of game parks and wildlife there.  However, the wild card may actually be President Robert Mugabe.  Hope he doesn't decide to make one of his murderous points while we're there. 

The trip sounds great.  I still may try to go, depending on how things look at work in the next few weeks.

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Hoping to have a new boss soon.  Cross your fingers.  We've been interviewing.  There's one candidate I really hope takes the position.  Naturally she is being pretty blase.  We'll see.

And, in two weeks, we move to a new hospital.  We sold the one we were in, bought a new one, and it is about completed.  It is newly equipped, state-of-the-art everything, beautiful and spacious.  As we approach the date, the stress mounts.  It will be worth it when it's done, though.  This might be an unprecedented type of move, as we are relocating all the patients in one day.

[Image from Reliable Answers]

Comments

[Juanita La Salle]

I understand the animals ignore the vehicles. On the other hand, if you are on foot, there is a guard with a gun with you.

[Joan]

I've lived through a hospital move. Chaos but so worth it.