Don't throw out your Microwave just yet!!!

I have felt a little uneasy about using my microwave for cooking and reheating food ... but I found some other uses for this controversial kitchen machine on www.realsimple.com:

Sterilize sponges. Your dish sponge smells like last night’s dinner, and detergent won’t help. Time to toss it, right? Wrong. Pour a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice in a bowl of water, soak the sponge, and then heat it in the microwave on high for a minute. The heat will deodorize and disinfect the sponge—even after wiping up raw egg or chicken.

Clean the cutting board. How can you tell if you’ve washed the cutting board thoroughly enough after preparing raw meat? Eliminate the guesswork by sterilizing it in the microwave. Wash it first, rub it with lemon, then heat on high for one minute.

Soften sweeteners. Hardened brown sugar and crystallized honey don’t need to be thrown away, they just need to be heated. Sprinkle a bit of water into the brown sugar bag and heat the whole thing on high for 20 seconds. To return honey to its liquid form, remove the lid and heat the jar on medium for 30-60 seconds.

Speed up bread baking. Bread bakers know that yeast dough can take at least an hour to rise. Cut that time down to 15 minutes by proofing the dough in the microwave. Put the dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Position a cup of water at the back of the microwave before placing the bowl inside. At a low temperature, heat for 3 minutes, pause for 3 minutes to let the dough rise, then heat for another 3 minutes. Allow the dough to rise for another 6 minutes or until it doubles in size.

Relieve aches and pains. Warm up gel or herb-filled heating pads to soothe sore heads and tummies, and to reinvigorate tired muscles.

Another Dangerous Wave Arriving from Japan

The U.S. Northwest was relieved when tsunami threat from the Japan earthquake was not as devastating as predicted.  Now we hear that we are about to be bombarded by another, even more dangerous wave from Japan this weekend.  This wave is from the nuclear fall-out due to reactor failures in Japan. 

  



Picture by Alfredo Rivera, 2009 on Flickr

 

 Last night I heard a discussion by Dr. John W Apsley, MD(E), DC.  He outlined the dangers from the initial radioactive fall-out and the other stages of radiation threats that will follow. 



Dr. Apsley states that the initial threat is airborne which will contain particles of radioactive metals uranium, plutonium, cesium and strontium.  It will fall on us as a normal part of rainfall, dust particles, etc.  The next stage occurs when the radiation toxins get into our water supply and food chain.  The second stage leads directly to the third stage of danger.   At this stage our bodies are being exposed to extremely low levels of radiation over a long period of time.  Many scientists believe that the third stage is actually the most dangerous.



In his book, Clean, Green & Lean, Dr. Walter Crinnion says that your body stores up environmental toxins like a bank.  And you carry around these toxins sometimes for years.  The liver and other organs designed to cleanse these toxins from our systems are simply overwhelmed by the amount of toxins we consume every day from just ordinary exposures like eating dinner or drinking water.  (This doesn’t take into account a big blast of radiation coming from the Far East.)  One day, the toxic burden in our bodies becomes so great that we get sick.  We go to the doctor and try to find the cause of our “sudden” illness not realizing that the true cause of the illness has been building for years. Lots of doctors and medical people are beginning to recognize the impact environmental toxins have on our bodies. 



Dr. Apsley recommends a protocol of products to combat the radiation exposure.  One of the main elements he suggests is the use of kelp or blue-green algae.  I have some concerns about using these products.  As Dr. Apsley states on his website, the radiation will be getting into our water and our food chain.  If this is the case, won’t the kelp be affected by this radiation too?  And by taking large doses of kelp, aren’t we still exposing ourselves to radiation?  I don’t know … he’s the doctor.  I am just concerned.  I don’t eat fish or sea food because of the mercury they are finding in those products.  I’m not sure I will take the kelp either.

Personally, I deep cleanse my body of toxins every week, and take a little extra cleanse every day.  I am not talking about an organ cleanse such as liver or colon cleanses.  I take a gentler cleanse that works at the cellular level to get rid of the environmental toxins that constantly bombard my body.  I am going to continue this practice and also looking into some of the recommendations from Dr. Apsley to see what I might add during the initial stages of this radiation threat.

For more information on this topic, check out the MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub web site.