Herbicide: Roundup versus Vinegar

Dandelion

Monsanto, the maker of Roundup and other weed killers, says their product is “a perfect fit with the vision of sustainable agriculture and environmental protection.”

Sounds pretty good. Even the four landscapers I contacted for suggestions to remove four hundred square feet of weeds suggested using Roundup. They said the product broke down quickly, so I could plant new grass ten days later.

Vinegar is an organic solution for getting rid of unwanted vegetation, but I was concerned that it would leave the soil’s pH too acidic for grass to grow. And Roundup seems pretty innocent according to the experts in my area and, of course, according to Monsanto. Then again, anything Monsanto says is worth looking into—to be fair, anything touted as truth from all sources is worth investigation.


Roundup

The main ingredients found in the herbicide Roundup are as follows:

• · Water
• · Glyphosate
• · Ethoxylated Tallow Amine Surfactant

Water is used to dilute the glyphosate—the substance responsible for killing the unwanted vegetation.

Glyphosate is a toxic substance, but according to several studies, only slightly. I was surprised to find research claiming glyphosate wasn’t all that bad. Sure it irritates the eyes, but it “produced no visible skin changes or sensitization” during human patch tests. And tests for chronic toxicity, such as nerve damage, blood chemistry changes, cellular harm, or organ dysfunction, found no negative impact from glyphosate.

This got me thinking, Roundup may have gotten some unwarranted bad press. That’s when I explored the surfactant being used and found the combination of both the glyphosate and the tallow amine surfactant causes more damage.

Upon further digging, I located recent research that directly contradicted previous studies. The latest news is that “Glyphosate is likely to be pervasive in our food supply, and, contrary to being essentially nontoxic, it may in fact be the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment.”

One thing is for certain: this is a heated issue with science claiming to back both sides. With so much uncertainty, it’s worth taking a look at an organic route: vinegar.

Vinegar

Full strength vinegar pulls water from plants causing the leaves to shrivel up and die. But this organic gardening technique is not selective; it, like Roundup, can damage grass and flowers, along with the weeds. Unlike Roundup, vinegar affects the surface and doesn’t soak into the roots.

Due to vinegar’s acidic quality it may be used to condition an overly alkaline soil. Some organic gardeners apply a highly diluted solution to alter soil pH. The change, however, is only temporary.

Even with full-strength vinegar, the acid affects the soil for only a few days, making it possible to replant less than a week later. If you’re still hesitant, like me, just water the area thoroughly after the weeds have died back and then replant. This way any residual vinegar will be so diluted it won’t impact the soil pH.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for an environmentally friendly choice, vinegar is the way to go. It doesn’t, however, tackle the roots. Older plants may wither on the surface initially, only to re-sprout a week later.

Roundup works on the roots and kills the entire plant, but there are potential environmental and health concerns with this product.

You could take the approach of using vinegar on younger plants and reserve a stronger herbicide for tough jobs.

Ideally, we can tackle weeds while they’re young or learn to love them!

The Paleo Diet: Fad or Fact

 
You can find over a hundred books on the newest diet: The Paleo Diet. This plan suggests we return to what our ancestors ate—all the way back to the Paleolithic times. During this era, the first homo sapiens, the modern day species of humans, evolved. Some of the ideas seem like good common sense—stop eating processed food, additives, and preservatives. But is it even possible to truly turn back the hands of time regarding food?

Via Wikipedia

Paleo Diet Claims

Proponents of this diet—also known as Caveman, Stone Age, Primal, and Blueprint eating—advise us to stop eating all grains and processed food. Remember, sugar is a processed food and grains include staples such as oatmeal and one-hundred percent whole wheat—what we typically think of as health food. Instead they recommend eating animal protein, vegetables, and fruits. The amounts of each depend on which of the hundred books you choose to purchase.

However the overall basics are the same, regardless of how the details may vary:

1. The agricultural diet is creating disease.
2. We must stop eating based on agriculture and return to eating like humans did during the Stone Age.
3. This ancient diet was high in meat, especially red meat, in addition to some vegetables, fruits, nuts, and oils. 
4. Avoid Grains, legumes, and dairy.
5. To improve health and longevity, we should return to this diet.

The entire foundation of these recommendations rest on what the first homo sapiens ate. Yet the Paleo diet has “no basis in archeological reality,” according to archeological scientist Christina Warinner.


A Real Caveman Diet

Even if the types of foods allowed on this new diet were accurate, there are a few concerns from the start.

• · These people lived over two million years ago. They had to hunt and gather, not hop in their SUV to the nearest grocery. While we have desk jobs and orthopedic beds, they squatted and slept on the ground. With such different life styles is it fair to say the fuel we ingest should even be the same?
• · Today 97% of our beef comes from feedlots where cows eat grains and are injected with antibiotics and many of these also have been given growth hormones. This is a far cry from the meat our ancestors enjoyed.
• · Most of the foods in existence today weren’t even around two million years ago or their form was quite different than what you’d find today: bananas, carrots, salad, tomatoes, avocados, olives, blueberries, eggs, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, almonds, apricots, and that’s just the short list!
• · There was no one diet. Cavemen were nomads traveling from place to place and eating what they found there. If they weren’t moving, they had to adapt their diet according to the season: during winter meat was the main source and during summer plants.
• · Food combinations that are available in our global environment weren’t possible in the Stone Age. For example, blueberries were from New England, avocados from Mexico, and eggs from China. You never would have found these foods on the same plate—not to mention the fact that wild blueberries were far smaller and more tart than the hybrids we get today.

Archeologists have uncovered evidence to prove what foods were really eaten during the Paleolithic period (still bear in mind not everyone had access to the same foods):

• · Bone marrow
• · Animal organs
• · Meat
• · Plants
• · Barley, yes that’s a grain
• · Legumes and tubers
• · No oil

Not exactly what the diet fad claims.



To Paleo or not to Paleo

The modern day Paleo diet might not be a real representation of what was going on two million years ago, and frankly, you’d be hard pressed to even find the actually foods that were truly being eaten back then, but that doesn’t mean the recommendations are all bad.

People following the suggestions outlined for a Primal diet are claiming huge benefits in health, energy, and appearance. Some even claim to have gone from chubby to muscular.

Via Wikipedia

Okay, you probably won’t end up looking like Mr. Olympia Frank Zane from a bit more red meat or cutting grains, but the jury is still out on if the newest diet on the market is as healthy as it claims.

If you choose to follow this regimen, just don’t buy into the notion that you’re truly returning to what your ancestors ate.

Less Stress with the Breath

Finding Calm in Our Lives

Just as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz had the power, all along, in her glittering red slippers, you have always had power to cope with stress and to relax your body--only instead of finding it in a pair a shoes, you’ll find it in your breath.

Yogis have known for thousands of years that breath is the key to vitality and health, and in the last few decades, Western science has begun to catch up. Studies have analyzed the impacts of focused breathing, and scientists now realize that the yogis were on to something.

We can alter our breath to release harmful reactions to stress and to stimulate the relaxation response. And we don’t have to escape to an ashram or undergo years of intense training to reap the benefits of breath work. Dozens, if not hundreds, of methods exist, ranging from extremely simple to complex and intricate. Some you can do while driving your car and others involve hand positions known as mudras. Either way, the effects (big or small) are immediate.

Learning How to Breathe

Thirty years ago, if someone told me they were going to teach me to breathe, I would have asked what they’d been smoking. But today I realize just how poorly many of us breathe and how few of us understand the power that is literally under our noses. I’ve had students, after just a few classes on breath work, tell me that they were able to lower their blood pressure or fall asleep at night or walk calmly into stressful meetings at work.

To give you a sample of how quickly just a few minutes of breath focus can change how you feel, try the following by spending several breaths for each step.

• · Notice your breath. Do the inhales and exhales differ in length? Is the pace constant or does it fluctuate? How far down do you feel the breath? Where to you notice it most?
• · Let out a few sighs, exhaling through the mouth.
• · With lips closed, maintain a long out breath.
• · Repeat this phrase silently in your mind, “My breath slows and grows long.” Take your time.
• · Mentally count the length of each inhale and each exhale. Adjust the exhales so they are longer than the inhales.
• · Lengthen both the exhale and inhale, so both are a bit slower. But do not strain, maintain a comfortable breathing pace. Take several breaths to find the longest cycle that you can maintain while staying relaxed.
• · Steady your breath by maintaining this pace for at least five breaths.

How do you feel? Hopefully more centered and relaxed. Just from typing out these steps and thinking about them, my breath has steadied and slowed.

It feels good to focus on the breath, and it seems to carry with it a sense of calm, but can we really alter our health by changing the way we breathe?

The Science Behind the Breath

While there are more studies regarding meditation than breathing, meditation and breath work are interconnected. Meditation involves focusing on an object, which is frequently the breath. Breath work takes this focus one step further by altering the breath. Focusing on any object, be it the breath or a phrase or an image, steadies the mind and releases stress. Breathing exercises do even more than that, they change the breath and thus have the potential to impact the physical body even faster than meditation.

We know that manipulating the breath can decrease your heart rate and your blood pressure. Additionally, it can increase the theta waves in your brain, which is another way of say you’ll feel more relaxed.

While some researchers look at hour-long daily breathing practices, I found, during ten years of teaching breathing, that students benefit from conscious breathing in as little as ten minutes a day.

And that’s just the beginning of what breath can do. As magical as it may sound for the inhale and exhale to hold such power, it’s based on an intimate connection between our nervous system and the breath.

The Nervous System and the Breath

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the question: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Today, I’m more interested in the question: What came first, erratic and shallow breathing or stressful thoughts?

When you are stressed the sympathetic nervous system, which can stimulate a fight-of-flight response, kicks in, causing a rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, and faster shallow breathing. This is fine—even useful—for short periods of time, like when you need a burst of energy to catch a child heading toward a busy street.

On the other hand, when you are relaxed—really relaxed—the parasympathetic nervous system takes over, thus lowering the heart rate and blood pressure, as well as slowing, steadying, and deepening the breath. This is a time for food to be digested and healing to take place. So what does that have to do with consciously altering the breath?

Let’s return to our original question: What came first, erratic and shallow breathing or stressful thoughts? Most of us think the stressful events or thoughts rule our breath—okay, most of us don’t think about the breath at all, but if we did odds are we’d be blaming stress on its changes. And for the most part, we’d be right. A body’s reaction to stress does alter the way we breathe (as described above). However it’s a two-way street.

Changes in our stress level affect the breath; changes in the breath affect our stress level. In other words, we can choose to alter the way we breathe in order to lower the stress in our bodies. This is so important, it bears repeating: Change your breath to lessen your stress.

Conclusion

While therapy, aerobic exercise, and medications may have their place in helping to reduce harmful impacts of leading a stressful life, the simplest and quickest way to alleviate symptoms of too much stress can be found in the very air we breathe.

How Much Exercise is Enough?

 

If you love going to the gym and could think of no better way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon than working out, this article is not for you. For the rest of us, still trying to fit exercise into our daily schedule, read on!

How does exercising only a few minutes a day sound? Probably, too good to be true. Yet, research, at the University of Nottingham and Bath in England, says you can.

No need to purchase any fancy exercise equipment. I do it in my bedroom in less time than it takes to brew a decent cup of coffee. Best of all, it’s free.

How to Exercise Smarter, Not Harder

The system is called High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). It’s similar to interval training, but better. With HIIT, you only have to do three thirty-second bursts of high intensity exercise. And, no, that’s not a typo: HIIT advocates thirty seconds not minutes of movement. Better yet, you only need to do this three times a week!

The key is the movement must be intense. You must push yourself to about 85% of your maximum heart rate; for most of us that means give it your all, so HIIT is not recommended for folks with heart issues. And if you haven’t exercised in a while, check in with your doctor.

Benefits of Shorter Intense Exercise

After following a HIIT exercise program, if you can call less than ten minutes a week a program, participants experienced reduced glucose and insulin levels. Additionally, HIIT has been shown to improve aerobic fitness. However, as with almost anything, people’s bodies respond differently. I like to measure my heart health to see how a routine is affecting me.

To measure heart health, I use a fast, easy method by checking my heart rate before getting out of bed. If after a few weeks of HIIT my resting rate decreases, then I’ll continue to pant and jump around like crazy for brief stints—no matter how nuts the neighbors think I am.


Conclusion

If you’re trying out for the Olympic swim team or want to build six-pack abs, then a couple of minutes of high impact movement a few days a week won’t cut it. But if you don’t like exercise and find it difficult to stick with a program, then HIIT might provide you with a level a fitness you didn’t have before. Science backs this up. For example, here are few findings from the National Center for Biotechnology Information:

• “This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.”
• “Recently an extremely low volume high-intensity interval training paradigm (HIT), consisting of no more than 7.5 minutes of exercise per week, has been proposed as a novel, time-efficient exercise regime for improving aerobic fitness [4,14]. We speculated that it should be possible to substantially improve insulin action using HIT despite a negligible contribution to total energy expenditure as this training model would substantially reduce muscle glycogen stores.”

I try to live by the adage “Work smarter, not harder”, not always successfully, but I try. And HIIT is definitely working smarter.

Coconut Oil: Is Saturated Fat Good for You?

 
Could coconut oil, a major source of saturated fat, be part of a healthy diet? A dietitian friend of mine says Yes. Yet, when I was in college, the fat-free craze was in full-swing, and the answer would have been a resounding No!
Bakeries pushed dozens of fat-free products. Butter became low-fat margarine, chicken became the new meat of choice, salad dressings became low-fat, and even bags of pretzels—an already fat-free snack—had large bold letters announcing the lack of this vile substance. Evil fat was being blamed for America’s health problems.Those who cared about their health cut down on red meat. We started cooking with less oil and devoured the zero-fat bakery items. I remember thinking one more slice of fat-free cake wasn’t so bad—without the fat, how bad could it be? What I hadn’t realized was that insane amounts of sugar were being added instead.
Studies Explore Saturated Fat
Today, researchers are questioning anti-fat thinking, and they have the science to back them up. Fat used to be the devil and was to be avoided at all costs. But now the question has become: Is saturated fat really bad for you?
At first glance, scientists can’t seem to agree: some studies claim yes, and some no. But more and more, we’re realizing it can be part of a healthy diet as long as moderation is used. More interesting is that all saturated fat is not the same.
There are twenty-four different types of saturated fat! Each type affects your body in diverse ways. There are even beneficial types:
· Stearic acid, found in chocolate, lowers LDL (the “bad” cholestrol).
· Lauric acid, found in coconut oil, may improve our cholesterol ratio and have an antibacterial and antiviral effect.
Studies seem to contradict each other. Upon taking a closer look, you have to consider what form of coconut oil is being tested. For example, one study tested hydrogenated oil—a far cry from virgin organic oil: they are like two totally different substances. Past studies are being seriously questioned.
New data points to the benefits of saturated fat. In the past few years, twenty-one studies concluded that saturated fat had been falsely accused. It may not be so bad after all.
Fat Found in Coconut Oil
· Coconut Oil: 12 grams saturated fat/1 tablespoon
· Olive Oil: 2 grams saturated fat/1 tablespoon
Okay, even if new research implies saturated fat might not be the devil, I’m still cautious. Ten years ago, looking at the numbers above would have been enough to keep me as far away from coconut oil as possible. But today, it’s worth adding some to our diets.
Science has discovered two healthy acids in coconuts: ferulic and p-coumaric acid. Both of these acids fight free-radicals—molecules responsible for aging and tissue damage. Coconut oil, in moderation, could help us stay younger.
Conclusion
Coconut oil can be a healthy addition to your diet, even though it’s loaded in saturated fat. The key is moderation, moderation, moderation.
Chris Cosentino, chef at Incanto in San Francisco, says it best: “Excess in anything is bad for you. But a good balance of animal fat with protein is actually good for you.”