Category: Health

If yes, read on…..

Being a perfectionist is just plain tiring.  You live life constantly judging everything around you by your standards.  When things don’t measure up to being good enough in your eyes, you start criticising what you are judging and trying to make it better.  The problem is, you are judging yourself by these standards too.  For example, let’s say you have a client and the session has not gone the way you would have liked.  You start beating yourself up about it and thinking about how you could have made it even better.  It doesn’t even occur to you that your client has to take responsibility for their success of the session.  Maybe they needed to take more action to make the session work for them, but instead they just sat back and let you do all the work.  Or worse case scenario, they were a perfectionist too and whilst you were judging them, they were judging you!  Who is right in this case!!

The problem is, the more you are judging others and yourself, the more you are putting out vibes that you are not good enough and also putting people off around you as they feel that they just can’t live up to your standards.  This has certainly been a problem for me in the past.  I loved cooking for my friends and having dinner parties, but when it came to my friends returning the favour, they were afraid to cook for me! In the end, I had to always host the party and my friends would pay for ingredients!!  The sad thing is, I love being cooked for and I never expected anyone to cook to the same standard I did.  (Me judging them, without realising it) I had been professionally trained which is why what I presented for dinner looked fab but the fact is, my friends were comparing themselves to me and telling themselves they were not good enough.  I never believed this to be true, but no amount of coaxing would change their minds.

When you are comparing yourself or others to anything, this is a recipe for disaster and leads to unhappiness!  The key thing to remember is that there is no such thing as something that is perfect.  If a group of people were looking at a person at a network, or at the work of a colleague, or even the school play, what each person sees will be different.  They are filtering the information they are seeing based on past experiences and events.  Have you ever been to an event with someone, where one person thought it was fab and another thought that it was awful.  This is because they are filtering information through their minds and making a judgement.

So what are you judging and how are you judging them? How hard are you judging yourself? Are your standards just too high, so no one, including yourself can meet them? Are you isolating yourself by how you are reacting to life?

The key to happiness is to compare yourself and things/people around you to nothing.  See things for what they are and purposely act non-judgmentally. Learn from everyone you meet. Smile at everyone regardless of whether they have a posh car, are fat or thin, big or small.  Remove the prejudices of the past.  Live in the present and enjoy every moment as if it is your last.  Life is for living, not worrying about whether you are good enough.  Celebrate you and keep learning and growing and you will have a happier life.

Liz Almond

Health and Wellbeing Coach

Insightful Minds

liz@insightfulminds.co.uk

07815 904848

www.insightfulminds.co.uk

• Devious practice by those we trust is putting lives at risk
• Here’s the case for real food, rather than superfoods
• Revealed the harsh truth of corruption that goes right to the top

We are being conned by the food industry.

It’s a drum I keep banging in the hope that somewhere, somehow it will make a difference.

But those who make billions of pounds each year from providing us with our daily sustenance just aren’t playing fair, and they control the media…or so I thought.

In last Saturday’s Guardian magazine I was heartened to read that I’m not alone in my quest to have simple, honest and unadulterated food back in our shops.

One of their journalists, Joanna Blythman, went undercover in the food industry and discovered that even something as simple as a fruit salad has been messed around with to help bring a greater return to those who sell it.

You can read her full article here but one thing that really caught my eye was a brief translation of what the food label says, and what it really means, for example:

Added vitamins One-dimensional factory versions of natural vitamins found in whole foods: ascorbic acid (man-made vitamin C) is usually synthesised from the fermentation of GM corn, while artificial vitamin E is commonly derived from petrol.

Soluble fibre A healthier-sounding term for modified starch, which is widely used to reduce the quantity of more nutritious ingredients in processed foods, and keep down manufacturers’ costs.

‘Packaged in a protective atmosphere’ Food that has been “gassed” in modified air to extend its shelf life. It delays what food manufacturers call “warmed over flavour”, an off-taste that occurs in factory food.

Beef/pork/poultry protein Collagen extracted from butchered carcasses, processed into a powder and added to low-grade meats. It adds bounce, increases the protein content on the nutrition label and, combined with water, is a substitute for meat.

The sharp practice of inventing positive sounding phrases for some of the most heinous food crimes is nothing new, but when you consider that minced up goo is legally being added into premium branded meat products to increase the profit margin such fairy tales have to be stopped.

Who could ever believe this to be a good idea?

Clearly no-one with the health of their customers in mind; am I alone in asking for a return to good old-fashioned food preparation and retailing, a degree of honesty in the way the ingredients for our daily meal are presented to us?

I just want some unsullied carrot, a bold bright potato or two and a clean local lamb chop so that I can be healthy and happy too.

Real foods not superfoods

Back in the early 1990s an author called Michael Van Straten published a cookbook called “superfoods” and probably coined one of the most overused terms in food marketing.

Everywhere we look there are claims of some strange berry or fruit being the elixir of life itself and that a daily dose will cure us of all ills.

Over time many such foods have been placed upon a pillar of health, and rampant claims for their power bandied across the media, often with a shrill endorsement from a tame actress or health guru.

I have always been deeply suspicious of all of these claims and endorsements as I don’t believe any one thing can be that good for us.

Balanced and varied meals are the key to good health as they provide the full range of nutrients and natural stimulants that our bodies need.

When I wrote the Natural Food Wisdom pack I did so to celebrate normal food.

I wanted to show that all food is good, but only if it is pure, natural and in as raw a state as possible – so I listed out 56 individual everyday food items and showed how they contributed to a healthy life.

There were no wild and wonderful berries, just plain old broccoli, cabbage and a very surprising overall winner for the healthiest food to eat (if you haven’t already got a copy make sure you complete your home health library here).

I think it is about time that truly healthy, local produce is given the respect it deserves.

For too long we have been subject to big corporations messing with our food, hiding potentially harmful ingredients within it like high fructose corn syrup, or just adding in goo and garbage to boost their profits.

Why isn’t more being done to stop this?

The harsh truth about those we trust to protect us

The Times was one of the newspapers which broke the scandal earlier this month of how government health advisers are actually on the take from food companies.

They reported how scientists on the board which provides guidance to ministers receive hundreds of thousands of pounds each year from brands such as Coca-Cola and Mars.

One of these corrupted experts, Frances Rawle – head of policy at the Medical Research Centre – tried to placate investigators by saying “We ensure that all research we fund is free of any influence from those with whom we collaborate”.

Well, I for one do not believe you. I think you are up to your stinking necks in collusion, sleight of hand and misdirection. And the nation’s health is all the worse for it.

And nuts to everyone… is this the true language of politicians?

On Valentine’s Day the Independent carried a report that a new food scandal was about to hit us which was more serious than the horsemeat crisis.

The story said that peanuts and almonds were being used in place of cumin seed and other aromatics to bulk up commonly eaten pre-prepared foods…

…a tactic that could have dire consequences for any unsuspecting allergy sufferers who consume the finished product.

A failed cumin harvest has made the spice more expensive, and this is being used as a justification for mixing in other ingredients to keep the food affordable.

But once again it has nothing to do with consumer demand and everything to do with bumping up the profit for business and retailers.

A report published this week about how peanut allergies could be countered by feeding nut extracts to babies as young as four months, made me think.

Whilst I suspect that this would prevent too many people getting allergies nowadays you have to ask why peanut allergies are becoming increasingly common – I don’t remember my mum cramming a bag of KP’s finest into my mouth as a kid, yet I don’t have the problem.

Rather than the issue being one of underexposure for infants could it be that the rest of our lives sees an overexposure?

For how long have unscrupulous manufacturers been using peanut products to bulk up their wares? I suspect for the last 15 years, which would tie up with the rise in childhood allergies.
By phasing in exposure from a very young age they hope to counteract the issues later on.

I suspect this to be yet another example of profit centred meddling in our diets.

A crying shame that no government has got to grips with it – because there are too many of those in power who have their snouts firmly in the trough.

Yours, as always

Ray Collins

Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter

www.shop.goodlifeletter.com
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• How do you make a woolly jumper?
• Discover the role played by a monk in the story of genetics
• The real dangers of genetic engineering

Dear Sun City 50 Plus Club members,

We are surrounded by a new breed of mad scientists who have the opinion that anything they want to do is fair game, no matter how abhorrent the outcome.

For anyone who is worried that I might have found out that we are about to see strange new creatures walking in our fields, please rest easy – but don’t think it might not happen.

You see they have already begun to mess about with plants in similar ways that would make a cross between a sheep and a kangaroo seem sensible.

Last weekend I woke to the radio telling me that I would soon be able to buy a tomato with the antioxidant properties of a blueberry.

I was genuinely interested as I have long been a fan of the health benefits of tomatoes and blueberries, and thought they might have discovered a traditional old variety with hidden properties.

But, no the next speaker was a scientist who told me that they had succeeded in changing the genetic code in a tomato so that it accepted inserted genes from a blueberry.

I began to imagine a version of Dr Frankenstein laboratory with a tomato and a blueberry strapped to a bench with curly wires running between them, and the mad cackling of a wild haired madman as he throws the huge power switch that sends genes from one to the other…

…I used to watch a lot of Hammer Horror films as a kid!

Despite the image such genetic meddling gives me, I happen to believe that by affecting the way organisms work can only have catastrophic effects.

Let me explain why.

Sweet peas and ancient monks

The father of modern genetics was no scary scientist but a gentle old monk.

Back in 1865 Gregor Mendel was to be found in his greenhouse and garden with a fine haired brush lifting pollen from one sweet pea plant and using it to fertilise another.

He was acting like a bee in carrying the male gamete from the stamens of one plant to the female carpels of the next – a completely natural intervention.

From his work he identified how inheritance worked and how some traits are dominant and others only express in certain circumstances – all from chronicling how his pollen transfer affected the colours of the flowers on the plants.

Mendels work was gentle, natural and devout. The science he used was basic and completely safe to the plants, him & other humans and the environment of the planet.

He would never countenance trying to place sweet pea pollen into a tomato plant, because he simply knew that interspecies reproduction didn’t work, that was how nature intended it.

It might seem a little picky of Mother Nature but each species is designed to breed only within itself, or with very close relatives.

So, in the wild it has been reported that Donkeys and horses interbred, and this was encouraged by humans to create stronger and faster pack animals – but that should really be it.

Other close relative crosses have seen tigers and lions mix (Tiglon), camels and llamas (Cama) and even a disastrous attempt to create more manageable bees by crossing those from Europe with an African species… the result was killer bees – really aggressive bees that attack on sight!

And that alone should be a warning to the scientists involved with interspecies work.
I’m not suggesting that crossing a tomato and a berry would result in a salad that wanted to rip your throat out, just that the outcomes are not predictable and often are an affront to nature.

The growing risk

In the development of all species there have been jumps in evolution, even our own where the latest evidence shows that Homo sapiens (modern man) met with and bred with the Neanderthals.

Imagine the scene…

…it is a serene and warm night on the savannah, a rich mammoth stew is bubbling over the campfire, the effects of fermented fruit juice is beginning to make the atmosphere heavy. Urgs face was softened by the soft light of the fire as it played across his rugged features and incredibly high forehead, Naarg lay her head onto his hairy shoulder and…

Enough of the Mills and Boon I think!

The problem is that the introduction of a ‘new’ species into the gene pool created issues for the children of this coupling.

They were less fertile, they had problems with their digestive tract and suffered from debilitating fatigues (so suggest the anthropologists and psychologists who have been working on the project – I don’t know how they discovered this as diaries from the period are somewhat lacking!).

There was a benefit though, it seems that our forebears had an improved immune system which protected them from the pestilence that eventually wiped out the Neanderthals themselves – strange thing genetics.

And here lies the crux of my concerns. If we start to mess about with genetics either by naturally crossing species which have some affinity, or worse by forcing genes into places they shouldn’t be we run the risk of creating much bigger problems than a few bees that like a bit of aggro.

At the start of this letter I said I was excited by the prospect of an old variety of tomato being discovered that was rich in antioxidants, but in reality why shouldn’t I just have a beautiful tomato salad, maybe with a nice piece of grilled mackerel, and then follow it up with a bowl of fresh blueberries (if they were in season at the time)?

What is the obsession with ‘fast food’ and ‘one stop’ nutrition, the joy of food is in variety and difference.

Yours, as always

Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter

www.shop.goodlifeletter.com
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You can receive Ray’s ‘The Good Life Letter’ regularly by contacting him on his website.

• Discover why outrage from a daily newspaper is misplaced
• Here is the truth about the horror within your sandwich
• Are you happy living where even cheese isn’t really cheese?

Oh for pity’s sake people let’s get a bit of realism here can’t we?

Last week the Daily Mail had an expose of a factory in Nottinghamshire where pre-packed sandwiches are made – and the horror that the workers didn’t wear gloves.

Rather than have the workforce donning plastic or rubber coverings the owners insisted on clean bare hands.

Amazingly there was an uproar about this, with claims that no-one should be eating sandwiches that were being made in such unhygienic conditions…

…really, that’s the reason not to eat a shop bought pack of sandwiches!

Back in 2005 I told you about the anti-salt campaigners, CASH, declaring that these products should carry health warnings for the salt content alone.

The advice is that an adult should eat no more than 6g per day, yet the Waitrose sausage, egg and bacon pack contained 4.17g, the Tesco all day breakfast not far behind on 4g and even the nation’s favourite cheese ploughman’s from Boots wading in at 3.5g.

Surely this was something to get upset by rather than the potential state of someone’s fingernails.

The health risks from pre-packaged sandwiches have been highlighted in several newspapers, with The Times featuring the headline ‘Cheese and pickle sandwich and a heart attack’ in 2009 and a Which statement from the same year reporting that ‘apparently healthy options’ such as chicken are not as good as they seem, with a herb chicken and rocket sandwich from Pret A Manger containing the same levels of fat as a Big Mac burger.

Again the level of public outrage was barely more than a tut and shake of the head.

As a nation we consume over 2 billion shop bought sandwiches each year in the UK amounting to around £4 billion of revenue (interestingly the revenue from the sales of cookbook and recipe books accounts for a mere £90 million by comparison).

Now that is big business, and it is growing as more of us seek out a quick and satisfying lunch that we eat at our desks.

The lunch hour is a thing of the past, and even making your own sandwiches is less popular now than it has ever been.

But you really should know what it is that you are eating.

The horror within

Once you begin to look into the factory-made sandwich business you realise that a grubby fingernail and too much salt are just the tip of the iceberg.

How does blood gel, wheat starch and chemical colourants sound as a filling for you?

Understandably you might not choose that over a nice ham sandwich, but guess what, they are one and the same thing.

By combining blood plasma proteins, starch, flavourings, colourants, a raft of preservatives and shredded pork fat, allowing it to set then slicing it really fine, you would have ‘reconstituted meat’.

This is what you will see on the ingredients panel of a pack of sarnies.

The British Sandwich Association (who else would you turn to for the statistics!) say that the most popular sandwich filling in the UK is chicken, followed by cheese and with egg a distant third.

If only we could rely on them being what they say they are.

WARNING: If you love a chicken sandwich look away now!

Most cheap chicken is of the reformed type. By that I don’t mean it was once a chicken who made bad life choices then found its place back in society…

…I’m talking about birds (including guts, bones and feet) being minced, pushed through a sieve, slaked with salt, steamed to plump up the mixture then placed into moulds to ‘form’ a breast portion.

This is then sliced and mixed with a gloop containing yet more salt, high fructose corn syrup and starch to make the popular coronation chicken filling.

Mmm race you to Tesco’s for that one!

Even cheese isn’t safe

You would think that a nation of artisan cheese makers like Britain would be fiercely proud of our industry…

…but the quest for increasing profits overrides national sentiment!

Rather than use whole milk to make curds that are then left to mature for weeks and months, the alternative is to mix oil in with the milk, add yet more starch and compress the mixture to make processed ‘cheese food’ in a matter of hours.

None of this sounds appetising when laid out in this way, but pack it up in a pretty box, sit it in a refrigerated display case and hear the tills ring.

We should be thankful that there are no rubber gloves in the sandwich factory because the chances are they would end up in the mix as well – perhaps the most authentic and tasty part of it!

Sadly our society now seems to accept poor quality food as standard and is happy to fork out the huge prices for it.

Rather than get up a little earlier and cut up a nice box of fresh salad, pull together a proper ham sandwich and an apple for the grand price of about a pound, many folk prefer to queue at a shop, pay five times as much and get ‘meat gel’ and salt laden starch.

Daily Mail readers I encourage you to be reviled by the sandwich factory, but maybe not for the reasons you thought you were.

Yours, as always

Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter

www.shop.goodlifeletter.com
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• Don’t miss out on this simple home solution to getting the best food
• Have you been a victim of food fraud and fakery?
• Why you should NEVER trust a label

After a few days in Devon with friends and family I was pleasantly surprised when I returned to Chez Collins.

Over the weekend much had happened in the garden.

My potatoes were breaking through the ridges, the summer cabbages had flourished and the broad beans were racing away after just a few warm n’ wet days.

A sight to behold.

I don’t care whether you have a full sized allotment, a few places amongst the flower borders or a window box, there is no joy greater than seeing healthy vegetables growing.

Well, actually the greater delight is the one where you pick your crop and eat it fresh from the soil…

…there truly is no better feeling.

Knowing that the minerals and vitamins are at optimum levels, taste and texture maximised and vibrant colours adding to a visual feast on the plate make a few hours of caring all worthwhile.

Of course we shouldn’t overlook one other major benefit.

I am a man who works hard for my pennies (believe me these letters don’t just write themselves you know!) and I like to keep them in my pocket for as long as possible.

Handing over my hard earned cash at a supermarket till fills me with dread – and it looks like thousands of us have been seriously ripped off when we do so.

Let me explain how our big shops are offering discounts but still earn more than they would normally, plus are destroying our countryside in the process.

Misleading Multibuys & Shameless Shopping Subterfuge

The consumer magazine Which? has revealed that shoppers who think they are being savvy by seeking out special offers are more likely being ripped off than saving money.

Supermarkets advertising huge savings are actually breaking the law by creating the illusion of thrift, and I hope the full weight of the law is brought to bear.

A few examples featured in the Times on May 19th such as Hovis bread being sold by Asda at a special price of £1… the problem is that before the price offer was announced the loaf cost £1 anyway!

Others such as Tesco selling a box of 100 Twinings Tea Bags for £4.40 then putting the price up to £4.49 when they reduced the pack size to 80 bags.

Two for one offers featured a lot in the rip off list, especially when the sellers claimed that the goods were priced at a much higher level than they were before the offer period, for example our friends from Asda again with a Robinsons fruit squash previously available at £1 each being sold as two for £2.50 (as they claimed it was previously available at £1.59 each!).

It shows that the general public is being dupped at every turn by the big businesses that now control food supply in the UK.

There is legislation to prevent this type of retailing fraud but it rarely gets applied due to the complexity of enforcement – and that is why they get away with it.

But the lengths they go to in their drive for profits don’t just stop at straight fraud, they think nothing of forgery either.

Why you should NEVER trust a label

It seems there’s been an upsurge in fake “organic” meat, fish, fruit and veg across the country.

Labels changed… big black marker pens used to blatantly lie on market stall packaging… sneaky loopholes exploited to bend the truth… that kind of thing.

And this criminal deceit is everywhere.

Shoppers have been duped into buying fake free range eggs that were actually factory farmed. This means we pay double what the Continent pays for similar eggs.

Organic Scotch Beef was found to be poor quality beef from South America… “wild” salmon was found to be as wild as a pet gerbil… “corn fed” chicken was found to be nothing of the sort.

But you can see why the rogue traders have moved in.

A chicken worth £2 can fetch £10 when you stick on an organic label. Steak that sells for £10 per kilo can fetch as much as £29.59 if it’s “organic”.

A lot of people are making a lot of money by taking advantage of our desire to eat good food.
It’s not easy to find a solution, either.

I usually come up with a specific tip for you to follow though when I moan about a big health issue.

But in this case it’s tricky.

I mean, what can you do when food manufacturers lie to you on the packet? How can we tell?

All I can say is that, if you can, try and buy fresh British produce from farmers’ markets, bona fide organic retailers, and good, traditional markets.

I realise this is sometimes hard for people to do. But check out this email I got from a friend of mine who reads the Good Life Letter and whose father is in the farming business.

“Supermarkets are bleeding farmers and producers dry. In a few years our dairy farms will be broke and we’ll be net importers of milk.

“We should stop buying fruit, veg and meat from the supermarkets, use farmers and normal markets instead.

“In many cases, I think it’s cheaper and a whole load tastier than supermarket stuff and when you get home there’s none of that packaging to get rid of so it’s much better for the environment too.

“It’s really satisfying to sit down to a meal knowing that more of the money is going back to the farmers and producers as opposed to lining the pockets of monopolistic supermarkets.”

Do your own thing

What all this adds up to is quite a shocking level of blatant profiteering by the food retailers.

Right now they are driving farmers and growers out of business, promoting poor quality and fake foods and then charging us a premium price by sleight of hand.

Looking out over my growing crops I feel strongly that we should all do more for ourselves.

Take any chance to grow a few salad leaves, a fresh tomato or two, even just a bit of cress on damp blotting paper will make a difference.

I wrote the two books that make up Natural Food Wisdom because I passionately believe that we have to regain the control over our food – I urge you to take a positive step today.

Yours, as always

Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter

www.shop.goodlifeletter.com
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