Spies abroad and in our home country; are we not safe anywhere.  Bombings, threats of bombings and now neighbors next door that are far from who they seem.  Spies among us, especially those apprehended are far from our biggest troubles.  Culvert activity is alive and well in many countries including the United States.  It is not from foreign countries or traitors among us.  At least they do not see themselves as traitors to the great economic experiment.  Economics is all about supply and demand and driving business to near fanatical limits.  Our banking system collapsed because of corruption within and lies told to the public.  Sure you can afford a $300,000 home on a $30,000 income.  The criminals not only got away with what they did, they received bonuses for their dirty work paid by our government!

Now you think an economic collaspse is the worst thing that can happen beyond spies.  There is a lot more beneath the surface that you will find so hard to believe; you will deny its existence.  And yet it is as real and factual as the problems of the banking industry.  Remember the Weapons of Mass Destruction WMDs when we went after in the Middle East, it was the excuse for invading another country.  None found, it was a simple White lie told by a couple of our leading government officials.

We want to share a lie that has been perpetuated, that is personal to you and your family.  This is not someone elses child killed in combat, it is not someone else losing their home, it is not a series of inept spies somewhere else.  This is a story that is happening to you right now, every day in your state, city, neighborhood and home.  You are accepting it simply because it is the easiest thing to do; complacency.  It is the path of least resistance.  Besides why would big government and large money hungry companies ever want to deceive you?  Could you and your family be less important than a major corporation’s profits?  Could major manufactures sell your health for money?  Just because the lied about polutting our soil, water and air for profits and cost savings is no indication they will lie again.

Our most recent spy Anna gets so much attention for her looks people discount her actions.  No one doubts or sympathizes with the other spies or even our spies being returned.  Anna in fancy cloths and makeup knows how to flirt and uses it to get what she wants.  She is not the first nor the last ‘femme fatale’ to cross history’s path.   Marketing is much the same, it is about appeal, putting the best foot forward and sometimes selling what does not exist; or hiding what no one should see.  Anna shows us we should be careful of anything in fancy packages.  Healthy, organic, natural, low cal, light and a dozen other names and pitches have been used to sell just about every food on the market. 

Remember Olestra the silicon that made potato chips slide through your intestines before you could absorb many nutrients.  Were they nuts?  They did tell you what you wanted to hear and seemed to forget to tell you what you need to know, just like a secret agent working her mark.  Just like Anna so sweet and innocent, we openly trust these corproate giants as if they were loving parents, even when told they are dangerous!  Can Anna really be a spy?  Can corporate giants really be focus only on profits, money?  Could they be using words and word games to manipulate us?  Might they like the great magicians draw our attention to one thing while doing another to keep the illusion of caring alive.  Duplicity the world of spies and culvert activity.

Have you or a friend, relative or neighbor ever experienced:

Migraine headaches, nausea, vomiting, unexplained anxiety paranoia and depression are symptoms of chemical poisoning.  No it is not arsenic or some other well know poison, it is a combination of chemicals: synthetic Mono sodium Glutamate (MSG), synthetic Carrageenan, Aspertame some food coloring and the nitrates in processed meats are major culprits.  Eliminate those and more than likely symptoms will completely disappear.  Other symptoms are more serious causing temporary and long term mental disorders and cancer, including resports that brain cells are being destroyed on a daily basis.

Here is our story and what you can do to protect yourself from real, current, everyday danger that is in the food you eat and that you feed your family and friends.  You are being manipulated and it is all about money, yours or should I say theirs since you are paying numerous companies in the food chain to provide you chemical laden food.  This is not what is found in the fields and crops grown.  That is bad enough.  This is about chemicals introduced intentionally in the food chain to lower operating cost and improve profits.  One chemical is actually used to alter the consumption and buying patterns of customers.  Sure it is hard to believe, so was 911/the economic downturn, the Middle East war, the Vietnam war, fixing of elections and so much more.  Evidence on the Kenndy assination sealed for 50 years is still locked away for “our own good.”  We all have seen the video of the actual assination many times what will we learn that is so harmful to the general public?  We might uncover corropution in politics, impossible.  It is time to take the blinders off and make some serious decisions.

We are not alarmists, right or left wing, we are normal everyday people among that have stumbled across the truth.  Only after serious illnesses drove us to research and investigate issues did we find the truth and it was hard to believe.  Still today we cannot believe the massive cover up and how groups of people could be evil enough to perpetuate it.  I have no doubt we are a land of the free and the brave.  We are a land where opportunity prevails.  But we are also a land of the manipulated.  Our belief in the system is so ingrained that we blindly accept and excuse behaviors that would be criminal elsewhere.  Where money is concerned, big money; ethics often has no place.  A country built on the dream of free and open economics leaves room for plenty of corruption and it is all done without firing a single weapon.

Over five years ago we discovered the source to health problems in our family and once identified completely eliminated the problem.  Well, I may need to restate that to be honest.  As long as we stay away from almost all processed foods and do not try anything new all symptoms are gone.  My wife went through MRI’s upper and lower GIs and numerous tests to determine the cause for her serious health issues which spanned 17 years!

The problem was clouded by the fact that no one food could be identified as the source.  This was do to the growing number of processed foods that were using synthetic MSG and Carrageenan.  Prior to the inundation these products the symptoms were not as frequent.  In the seventies the problem grew, by the mid 80s the problem was enormous.  When she became sick she could not eat and when she felt good enough to eat she un-intentionally re-poisoned herself.  At three weeks of non-stop headaches and vomiting she was too exhausted to eat anything except soda crackers, rice and mashed potatoes or fresh fruit.  By accident she had eliminated the chemicals and her problems. 

A week into improvement and we would have bacon or sausage for breakfast or we would have chips or ice cream.  Back into the illness she would go.  We stopped eating candy, ice cream, bacon and sausage, and still the headaches came.  We stopped eating nuts and still the headaches persisted.  We stopped eating any number of products while re-introducing those that appeared not to be the culprit.  Without know it we were re-introducing products with Carrageenan and synthetic MSG.  We did not know they were the cause especially when we eliminated products that listed MSG.  She still got sick with products that did not clearly disclose synthetic MSG as a content.  Articles about MSG from food producers contested any harm from the natural MSG (even though they were using synthetic MSG).  If you ask some manufactures about these chemicals even today is it a word game to pin them down, but most manufactures when questioned will responed openly even though they are not so open on the packaging.

This was a case for the best crime investigator, we needed a specialist, a Sherlock Holmes, and yet all of the doctors we visited gave up in frustration.  Can you imagine 17 years of headaches lasting weeks at a time with little more than a week reprieve in-between?  Early on there was no Internet and the Internet in its infancy had little to offer as a knowledge base.  But as the knowledge base and communications channel of the Internet blossomed we found evidence that greatly advanced our research.  Other writers had posted their experiences and research.  Some invested enormous time finding valuable tidbits of information and did not give up.  To them we owe a great deal.  They confirmed what we had suspected for a number of years, but could not confirm.  We learned that Asprin, Buffrin, Excedrin and any other medicine for headaches were actually irritants to the brain offering short term relief and making the next headache even worse.  Trying telling someone with mind numbing headaches lasting weeks they cannot have a headache relief medicine.  There was little to no relief found in these drugs.

We had removed what we thought was MSG products and as we learned we removed products that used MSG under alternate names.  We learned synthetic Carrageenan has synthetic MSG as a common component and we found a few other chemicals that created the same symptoms.  In time we found that Artificial Flavoring was a home for synthetic MSG a chemical with no flavor.  It is also not a preservative as some think.  Like the best James Bond, Double 007 movie, synthetic MSG is a chemical that tricks, manipulates, controls the thought processes of the brain into liking a food and wanting more.  And you thought mind control was just in the movies, bet you can’t eat just one! 

Synthetic MSG is a marketing ploy that manipulates consumption through chemically induced behaviors.  No subliminal messages here, once considered illegal in television commercials.  Now they just use drugs on us by-passing our senses and our logic, eliminating our priviliage to choose.  Even though this overload to the brain by synthethic MSG is reported to kill brain cells (yours) isn’t it worth it for corporate market share and profits, after all it is your brain we are talking about not theirs.  Do think they eat the junk they sell?  And as we speak, according to Scientific American Journal, scientists are coming up with new food modulators that trick us into thinking food tastes sweeter, salter, better in some way.  They are doing this for our benefit so that they can put less salt and sugar in manufactured foods, so that we will be healthier.  Or is it to save them money and increase profits?  Remember the saying, “It’s all in your mind.”  Well that is fast becoming a reality for the taste and quality of most foods, just a mind game where you are being culvertly manipulated.

Five years down the road and with lots of experience we still stumble across a product that says NO MSG, Organic, healthy choice or all natural that has traces of synthetic MSG.  Our only real safe guard is what we make at home and a number of outstanding companies that care more about their customers than profits.

The lessons we have learned over a five year span amazes those around us and even we are amazed at how far we have come.  We do not limit what we eat only were it comes from.  Many processed foods are forbidden.  Fast food restaurants out of the question and restaurants of all classes are just too risky since they have no idea what is in the foods they use.  Spices, cheeses, dairy products, nuts and base products like peanuts, onion or garlic powder and tomato puree can contain synthetic MSG.  One diligent up scale fast food restaurant boosted an MSG free menu.  After my wife got sick on a cheese burger at the restaurant we contacted the company.  The corporate head chief called us and was very nice; he was shocked to learn about the cheese.

Avoiding synthetic MSG, Carrageenan and Nitrates in processed meats is tricky.  Jell-0 puddings have synthetic Carrageenan.  Planter’s nuts have MSG, Campbell’s soups still have MSG in some of their products.  Kraft uses MSG and Carrageenen in a large number of their products.  Name brands are not house hold words you can trust.  Most snack foods are a problem, most processed foods including diet foods, low cal foods and yes even the “health” foods are questionable.  And for you Vegetarians soy products often contain Carrageenan.  Want some yogurt, think Carrageenan.  Lectin a new entry to the chemical food chain now makes products like Miracle Whip and mayonnaise creamer.  Had they ever not been creamy.  Lectin allows the manufacture to eliminate more expensive components of the product increasing their profit while charging you the same price as the better product. 

The makers of M&Ms paid attention when Europe told them to either eliminate certain food colorings or not sell in the EC.  The makers of M&Ms immediately shifted to a slightly more expensive, but safe food coloring and Europe is now free of risky chemicals in their M&Ms.  Americans evidently made of stouter stock still consume the riskier chemicals or is it the makers of M&Ms just don’t care?

When several states on the East and West coast threatened to ban the sale of Crisco unless the product was modified; Crisco quickly modified the process and product.  Strangely other states that did not complain still get the same old junk!

High Fructose corn syrup a component of many foods cannot be digested as food, but instead is stored directly as FAT, no that is not an acronym.  Want to lose weight stop eating all foods with high fructose corn syrup for a start.  Reduce your cravings for more by eliminating foods with MSG, it drives you to eat more.  Then you can slow done the consumption of sugar and flour based products.  A little exercise  to burn oof the stored fat from eating fructose and the weight will come off.

Prior to Karo Syrup people made sugar water and added brown sugar or vanilla to to make similar products.  Sugar water is 50/50 sugar and water.  It only takes minutes to make, but in the 1920’s Karo syrup was sold as a miracle and sold as a real time saver.  More recently it is relied on because it does not crystallize like sugar will when heated.  Add a little acid to your sugar syrup and there will be no crystals (lemon, lime, vinegar or cream of Tatar).  Mayonnaise is just oil, egg, mustard and a few spices, it only takes minutes to make and is much better than the store junk.  Crisco replaced lard because it was more convenient and lately considered more healthy.  Well it is not more healthy and lard is probably in the long run far better for you than Crisco and the other chemical wonders.  Artificial butter is just as bad and was sold as a better choice to butter.  Don’t eat two pounds of butter with each slice of bread and butter is far better then the chemical wonders.

Marketing is about market share and sales.  Sales create revenues and profits just what companies need.  Do you get the feeling that maybe the marketing of commercially produced foods has become a little to aggressive in their drive for sales and profits.  Lies by omission, lies by deception and lies, just downright lies are alive and well in the food chain.  There are good companies, but how do you know who they are?  How can you tell the difference between truth and lie.  The FDA is not a government body regulating the health of food, but a tool to ensure economic health in the food industry.

Thankfully we have the Internet and people that are willing to share and speak up about the bad companies and are ready to boost about the good ones.  Your neighbors now span the globe and are posting lots of good information about what is and is not good for you.  Some companies actually hire people to spread false material and to deny any harm by the chemicals they use.  This is big money to them, if they earn just $100M a year a 10% drop would cost them $10M and they are looking to grow by at least that much.

The customer truly holds the reigns, believe it!  Lobbyists can talk to congressmen until they are Blue in the face.  Companies can court the FDA and change the definition of words like ‘organic’ to include unsavory chemicals.  If we do not buy theri bad products these companies will lose business as their chemical laden foods lay on the shelf, idle in supply chains and in overflowing warehouses.  They will go out of business unless they change their behavior.  Crisco changed when the demand was felt, M&M manufactures know how to change, and Old Coke was brought back despite being completely removed from the market.  Companies may not care about us, but they do care about our money. 

If enough of us, and far less then you think, decide to buy only healthy products from great companies that respect us we can change the tide.

If we decide to make many of the products we buy from scratch, companies will realize they are no longer in the drivers seat.  It takes to long to cook from scratch you say, nonsense you are listening to the marketing once again.  There are strategies for cooking just like there are strategies for navigating the grocery store.  Were you aware that most trips to the store take at least one hour and often sever hours. 

Next time you head out for even one item start the clock from the moment you decide to go.  Include the time to get the keys, wallet, purse, make-up, shoes and out the door and stop the clock when the shoes come off.  Our store is less than a quarter mile from us and still takes ten minutes to get to the store if you include getting ready to go.  Am I being petty, not really since that is the time that could be used to get ingredients out of the pantry.  Drive time might be the mixing of the ingredients.  Time in the store may be what is needed to cook it and the drive back could be the clean up time. 

Instant pudding is instant because of the modified corn starch (corn starch that has been pre-cooked).  Preserves take an hour to cook, but you do not have to stand there waiting for them to cook.  Cook three types of preserves at the same time, cook them while making a meal.  The actual time in making preserves is minimal and you get to lick the spoon.  It takes less then 3 minutes to make three different yogurts from milk and a culture starter.  Time yourself from the front of the store to the yogurt and you will find you take at least a minute to get the yogurt.  Now you have to pay for it and sack it or un-sack it.  Most soft cheeses take 10 minutes or less to make, some less than a minute.  Again planning is everything, you can be heating the milk to make the cheese while doing something else.  Every try doing the dishes, playing with the cat or reading a story to your child while driving to the store or shopping.

The shift to making foods from scratch is at first a little awkward since you are not familiar with the experience, but with just a very little practice you become adapt and know what to expect.  The aroma of home made bread, cookies, sausage, salami, pepperoni, jellies and jams wafting through your house is a wonderful experience.  Place some heated sugar water in a mixer with a little vanilla, hold a sandwich bag of ice against the mixing bowl and turn it on (slowly at first).  In a few minutes you will have marshmallow cream or marshmallows depending on when you stop.  Roll the marshmallows in powdered sugar and you are a real hero.  The kids love to watch and its not bad eating.  How much fun is opening a bag of marshmallows?  Now what flavor marshmallow might you like, mint, vanilla, chocolate, rum, orange, lemon; vanilla is the only one sold in the store. 

We have researched what commercial products are made of and what processes they use.  Much of what they do can be replicated with ease at home.  It is always going to be better and healthier since you don’t need the preservatives they need for extended shelf life.  Commercial products often forgo flavor because it simply costs too much.  Making it at home you avoid the cost of labels, shelf space in stores, national advertising, distribution channels, lawyers and all the other extras.  You can either make it for far less or make it far better, either option is a winner.  In most cases it cost less to make and also tastes much better.

How much can it change your life?  We have gone from a full recycle bin once a week to a recycle bin half full once a month.  Our shopping cart is basic products like flour, sugar, butchered meats, fresh vegetables and fruit.  We make our condiments, catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, salsas, cocktail sauce, chili sauce and a host of salad dressings I bet you think you can’t make.  We make sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles and Kosher dills.  We make puddings and cakes from scratch along with icings and pies.  We make our bread, noodles, crackers and even make our graham crackers.  Chili powder, taco seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder and a number of barbecue rubs are also within our scope.

With the right basic ingredients at home there are few things you cannot make.  We buy olives since in our area it is not economically feasible to grow them.  We buy dried bean in bulk, flour, Irish oats, yeast, baking powder, Cocoa powder and nibs, Safflower oil and a number of ground spices in bulk as well.  We also buy Green ham, pork belly and lard in bulk.  We smoke a number of meats including ham, bacon, chicken and sausage.  We make our own hot dogs and cold cuts.  Jellies, jams and puddings, there is no limit to what you can do.  None of it is difficult to make.  Yes it takes a little time, but does it really take more time than what you invest in shopping.  We go shopping once may twice a month now, a number of goods are delivered to our door at far less than we can buy the in town.  Our grocery bill has dropped to half of what it use to be and we have all the food we can eat, good rich, moist mouth watering food.  Without the chemicals poisoning us our doctors bills have almost disapeared.  If these chemicals are not making you sick now, how long will it be before you are forking out money to cover medical bills you could have avoided by avoiding the hidden chemicals in processed foods.

Through our research of commercially produced foods and very old cook books we have created over 400 recipes that not only give you a great starting point; we also through examples and clear explanation show you how to move forward on your own building other recipes that are favorites of yours.  We have modified old recipes to incorporate modern equipment and have modified new recipes to eliminate harmful chemicals.  Did you know if you add a flavor to sugar water like strawberry, add some corn starch and bring it to a boil and then as it begins to cool incorporate flour until it is very thick you have licorice candy?  Did you now Black licorice sold in the United states rarely has any real licorice.  It tastes bad and tastes nothing like real licorice.  Real Black licorice comes from a plant not a chemists lab and is good for you.  The sticky substance of marshmallow came from a mallow plant in the marsh.  Cooking and research into ingredients is a fascinating topic.  

A chief is one who heads a cooking facility and may or may not have a formal education.  You are the master of your kitchen and can indeed take the title of chief as many cook book authors have.  But do you go beyond chief to home scientist as you learn how different products work together.  What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?  Why use dry or cake yeast?  Where does sugar come from, not just sugar cane?  What is the source of molasses and what is Black strap molasses.   Can you pre-cook corn starch and freeze it to later use in making instant pudding?

Looking for a new hobby that tests you skills and stimulates your brain  Don’t have the money for a team to scale the alps or the indurance for the Iron Man.  It is time to exercise those taste buds, your challenger the chemical laden corporate food chain.  Need a new goal for your children.  Cooking from scratch is creative, inventive and innovation that tastes good.  Every try to make a hot decadent chocolate souffle with a cherry glaze topped with real whipped cream.  Souffles look challenging, but are really quite easy.  Just how many chemicals can you remove from your families food supply without missing the treats they love.  The only thing we can’t make that the food chain can is the harmful chemicals and that is because we lack the desire.

Maybe one family member hones in on baking while another enjoys curing and smoking meats and another likes to work in candies or deserts.  Each becomes a specialist and an expert.  Each person in-turn takes on the role of Seu Chief helping collect ingredients, slice and dice or clean.  As the Master Chief does their magic the seu chief acquires the knowledge and skills of the master.  Of course the Seu Chief samples the goods before anyone else, not a bad position.

Cooking does not take a lot of pots and pans, but requires wise use of them.  Teflon coatings are not the best choice.  Try this for non-stick, a well seasoned iron skillet.  Or a little butter in a hot stainless steel skillet.  As the butter melts and coats the surface, drop a cup of scramble egg into the skillet and lightly begin to swirl the skillet, the egg will not stick to the pan and will easily slide out with no residue.  Walk away from a pan and burn food to the bottom, simply add water to the pan and bring to the same temperature to release the baked goods.  Any brown bits in the bottom of a pan from browning will easily release with any liquid like wine, vinegar, broth, lemon juice, tomato juice or just plain water.  Browning vegetables adds depth to vegetables, spices and even adds a nutty flavor to flour. 

Never, never, ever use metal scouring pads on your good pans, they leave tiny scratches that cause food particles to stick to the pan.  Then you have to buy more metal scouring pads to get the food out of the scratches.  Pans from the manufacturer are highly polished to minimize microsopic groves and sticking.  Watch the oils you use, the temperature you are cooking at and do not walk away from food while cooking.  Sticking ingredients can become a thing of the past.  Leaving dishes staked for later, is a simple way to convert food starches to glue and a 15 minute effort than becomes a one hour battle.  Clean up can be much easier when you plan and control what you are doing.  Ask for help from a friend or family member, good samples, good conversation and some interesting experiments will keep them coming back.

I always hung around my grandmother’s kitchen, looking forward to the occasional treat.  I also remember snapping peas, pitting cherries, cutting corn off the cob, stemming strawberries and a number of other things as we talked.  Great memories and some very tasty treats from an excellent cook.  Pretty smart about soliciting help from a young active boy as well.  Face it I will do just about anything for a fresh cream puff or hot cherry pie.  Of course there is home made bread, cakes, puddings pickles …