The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins, supplements and health foods

We are getting more aware of having  "healthy","natural" food and supplement for our wellness. And we see more front labels of food saying "natural" "healthy" as their marketing term, which actually TRICK us to make us feel these products will help improve our health. That front label is not necessary so until we read the actual ingredient. Some are TOXINS ! Read this.
 
The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins, supplements and health foods

Best Simple French Toast with Whole Grain French Loaf

Here is the super simple,yummy, chewy, healthy way to make my favorite Sunday treat. After literally one day of purchase of French loaf, the bread gets dry and crust is no longer crispy and does not taste as good as freshly baked. This is the best way to use days old french bread. You can also use Italian loaf, but I like French loaf with thicker crust. Try to find the dense whole grain bread with crispy crust.

French Toast with Whole Grain French Loaf
( Serving: 2, Cooking time: less than 10 min.)

Ingredients

1. Whole Grain French Loaf: 4 slices (in 3/4" thick)
2. Egg: 2 extra large 
3. Soy milk: 1/4 cups
4. Pure Vanilla Extract: 1/2 teaspoon
5. Butter: 1 tablespoon
6. Maple Syrup ( Grade B) to taste

Direction:

1. In the bowel, beat eggs, add soy milk and vanilla extract.
2. Soak slices of bread into the mix until all the mix is soaked in.
3. In the pan with medium -low heat, melt butter and cook till surface gets slightly brown both side. 

My Shopping List:  Whole grain loaf  from LaBrea Bakery , Soy milk: Kirkland Original soy milk
Where: Costco

Potassium Bromate in bread: Cancer causing food additive

I was making french toast this morning. I was making with omega 3 packed brown egg, organic soy milk and organic vanilla extract. All sounded good (however I heard there is no health benefit difference between brown egg and white egg even the color of egg yolk is different). But I was using white bread to the healthy dip to make actually potentially risky food! I love bread and I usually stick with bread made with whole wheat unbleached flour with no or less preservatives. But once a while I buy white bread for the taste (smooth, fluffy, less grainy). Especially for french toast, I like using thick white bread over anything else.

But I was shocked when I saw the ingredients of the white bread I bought from particular store, it contains "potassium bromate". This additive is used to strengthen bread dough to increase the volume and to produce bread with a fine crumb. That's why the bread is fluffy and has fine texture. Most bromate breaks down with heat, but when bread is not cooked with high enough temperature, small amount of bromate may remain.

Potassium bromate is known as cancer causing additive. Lab found kidney cancer on mouse. It is banned to use in most of the country, but is it not banned in US. In California, under proposition 65, the law requires to put warming sign on the labels. I see these signs sometimes on the shelves but I find stores and packages made us uneasy to find out the little label.
The list of current proposion 65 has 22 pages long (!) of all the chemicals to cause cancer. Is it very important to read all list of ingredients on the label and avoid to consume these chemicals. It is said the amount and risk to cause cancer is small and it is safe by FDA, but imagine if we eat this small amount of 'said to be non- risky' chemicals every day every meal for entire life, which most likely we do in some degree, the amount is no longer small amount as they say. Please be responsible with your health!!

Pizza in Milan

My newest obsession: Milan, Italy ! I absolutely love almost everything there that I can find. Stylish people, amazing food, great coffee, beautiful details, fabulous shops, even the crazy traffic that will take you 30 min via 18 different streets to go to one small block away on the map by car around Milano Centro. It's like in the movie.

I thought it's amazing that, from my opinion, the food looks to be cooked simply using good raw ingredients and good olive oil in Milan. The taste is yet amazingly rich and deep.

And pizza they have is something you can't find in US unless you find the fancy restaurant on fancy street.  Shrimp, prosciutto and arugula on thin crust !! It is sooooo good. And the salad is simply served with no dressing. Only dressing is extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar on the table! And it tastes so good ! Now I am not so interested in blue cheese dressing anymore.

Sunscreen Ingredients we should avoid

 Summer is now almost here. I also take skin care seriously as much as food I eat. It got me attention when I know the truth about sunscreen. I used to only care about the number of SPF and the title of the sunscreen. But there are more important facts to know about the ingredients. According to EWG (environmental working group), lot of sunscreen lotion contain ingredients may damage DNA and skin cell and disrupt the body's hormone systems, some even may speed the development of skin tumors.

Some of ingredients used for 'chemical' sunscreen to avoid:

• Oxybenzone (notorious hormone disruptor)
• Octyl methoxycinnimate (hormone disruptor)
• 4-MBC (hormone disruptor)
• Retinyl Palmitate or Retinol * ( form of vitamin A = when applied to the skin in the presence of light, it can form free radicals that damage DNA and may develop skin tumors and lesions)

Better choice of ingredients for sunscreen:

• Mineral sunscreen contains UVA protection, which does not appear to penetrate the skin
• Zinc oxide (mineral sunscreen)
• Titanium dioxide (mineral sunscreen) **
• Avobenzone (3% for the best UVA protection)
• Mexoryl SX (ecamsule) (European chemical sunscreen formula)
• Tinosorb S and M (European chemical sunscreen formula)

Sunscreens Exposed: 9 surprising truths | EWG's 2011 Sunscreen Report | EWG's Skin Deep

*  Contradicting to the fact that Retinol or Retinyl palmitate is used in anti-aging cream to reduce wrinkles and sun spots and increase collagen to regain elasticity of your skin. However, it can't be used in the presence of light even with sunscreen. If you are using Retinol skin care product, use only at night and have very good sun protection during the day.

** Titanium dioxide controversy: although Titanium dioxide is listed as safe mineral, the form of ultrafine or namo particles (less than 0.1 microns = 100 nanometers(nm)) can penetrate the cells, leading to photocatalysis within the cell, causing DNA damage after exposure to sunlight. Coarse (less then 10 microns = 10000 nm) or fine (less than 2.5 microns = 2500nm) particles are safe and effective at deflecting and absorbing UV light, protecting the skin.

 This one is what I start to use this summer. Aubrey Organics Natural Sun SPF 30+ Unscented for sensitive skin and children 
So far, the coverage is very good. There is no typical sunscreen smell that I don't like. Lotion is kind of heavy. If you apply on your face and take picture with flash, I think the face will show very white......
There is same thing with SPF15. It is little more creamier than 30+ and less paste like.

Ramen Noodle Recipe with Vegetable: 1

Even I try to eat so called 'healthy', it's not like I eat salmon, broccoli and brown rice all the time. I sometimes even eat instant ramen noodle for convenience! But every time I do this crime, I add or avoid little to the package and suddenly it will make meal not so bad. Just find any kind of hard leafy vegetable in the fridge and cook and add. Also, one very bad thing about instant ramen is the soup base comes with it. It contains amazingly high amount of sodium and long list of chemicals. For instance, the one package of Sapporo Ichiban Miso ramen shows sodium of 663mg per 1/3 block of noodles with soup. It looks like one package contains that much, but actually three times more. That means, if you drink all the soup base, you will consume 1,989 mg of sodium by eating 1 pack. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day — or 1,500 mg if you're age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. I know the soup is what ramen makes good, but when I cook, I don't eat soup.
  
Miso Ramen noodle with Vegetables
( Serving: 1, Cooking time: 10 min.)

Ingredients

1. Instant Miso Ramen noodle: 1
   
2. Kale: 2
3. Broccoli crown
4. Organic carrots: 2 sliced
5. Shiitake Mushroom: 1 sliced
6. Organic green onion: 1 chopped
7. Sesami Oil (or Olive Oil): 1/2 table spoon

Direction:

1. Cut all vegetables and saute (except for green onion) with sesami / olive oil for 2 min with medium heat till some part of the surface of some vegetable (carrots) gets light brown. Cover and cook for additional 3+ min till vegetable is cooked. Don't cook to long. Cook vegetable as much as you desire if you like. Don't add salt when cooked. For less fat version, steam vegetable instead of sauteing.
2. Cook Ramen noodle as directed on package.
3. Add cooked vegetables and chopped green onion on top of noodles.

Carrot Cake after making Carrot Juice

After making carrot juice, I made carrot muffin using grated carrot bits left over from juicer. Even all the juice was sucked out from carrots, it was surprisingly very good. Since there are lots of left over carrot bits from making 2 litters of juice out of 3 kg of carrots. Here is the carrot cake I made using cast iron skillet. It's crispy at top and soft inside.