It’s been a long day, so this will be brief. On my way home from teaching, I stopped at the organic supermarket located near my neighbourhood in Florence (there are two of these supermarkets, actually, in addition to various health food stores not too shabby for a city with only about 400,000 inhabitants, eh?) and bought some gluten-free organic pasta. I decided to try out three different pasta brands. My first step in the direction of my 2008 gluten-free test. 😉
I have a follow-up to my toxic wrappings piece. It always thrills me to bits to find that things we use everyday without thinking twice could be killing us slowly perhaps but steadily. Indeedie! I recently became a member of Cancer Compass, and now receive its weekly newsletter. This week’s featured article just happens to be on, you guessed it!, the toxic chemicals contained in plastic products and even in the lining of food cans (drat, that means I will no longer be able to use organic cooked and canned beans! Major bummer, I will have to go back to the old time-consuming system of boiling beans for hours). There are toxic chemicals in CDs, DVDs, medical equipment and BABY BOTTLES. Baby bottles!?! Words simply fail me. Okay, to be honest, I am not THAT surprised sigh! My blog reader Cathy is sooo right. Use glass, avoid plastic. Period. You can read the Cancer Compass article here: http://tinyurl.com/2ogblf I did a quick check and found thousands of online references to the possible and real cancer connections of the main chemical discussed in the article, i.e., bisphenol-A. It’s been linked to breast and ovarian cancers, prostate cancer well, you get the picture. It’s one of those estrogen-mimickers that I discussed in my Curcumin and Pesticides Page, by the way. And, quelle surprise, Bisphenol-A is produced in massive quantities: six billion pounds a year. As usual, profit is the name of the game, no matter what the toxic consequences for us.
Well, thank goodness for gluten-free organic pasta, I guess.
To end this piece on a cheerier note, for the first time ever! my tall dark brilliant sweet and handsome husband left me a blog comment today. I just wanted to mention how thrilled I am. Un bacione! 🙂
Margaret,
No need to slave over the stove cooking beans when you can cook them at 275 degrees in the oven while you sleep! After soaking the beans during the day, with a strip of kombu (Japanese sea vegetable), if you like, to make them more digestible, put the beans into a covered casserole before you go to bed. The next morning, they’ll greet you with their pleasant scent. OK to add garlic and whatever else you like. This recipe assumes that you sleep for about eight hours!