The case for heirloom seeds

[Trellum]

If you've ever debated whether to go with heirloom seeds or not, watching this video might help you decide. I will use only heirloom, non gmo seeds. You can buy the full movie for $20 or rent it online, or if you shop and amazon.com you can get the movie geneticroulette for a few dollars less.

Woah... Cancer! I knew GMOs could cause that. Scary to think most of the corn we consume in my country is GMO. I had a debate with a strange woman a while ago, she apparently thinks GMOs are heaven sent. Wow! It sounded like she was bring paid to write all the things she wrote.

 

[Meowmie]

The only thing that is sugar free that ends up in my cart is something with stevia in it, but most of my stevia comes from my garden.

Many people think GMO's will save the world, they will stop hunger. NOT SO. It's all propaganda, but they repeat it enough and many believe it w/o bothering to see what it really means to be GMO. We aren't just talking hybrid plants here.

More likely GMO's will be the end of the bees, and the human race.

 

[Trellum]

Awesome!!! What you mean with: ''most of my stevia comes from my garden''? Just curious, I used to buy Stevia from the store, but now I'm considering to switching to virgin honey to sweeten my things, I don't like artificial sweeteners might be taxing my adrenals and making my sugar cravings bigger. I really need to find a better option

Meowmie, I've been saying the same: GMOs can't be good. That woman acted like I was crazy! She actually said GMOs will salve people from hunger and bla blah blah... delusional bigot! scary to think there are a lot people like that out there... repeating that over and over, so people who don't have a clue assume it's true, then they start preaching that in any GMO debate. Scary...

 

[R.R.]

I only use sugar when I bake, we don't sweeten our beverages here at home, and I've always tried to bake with good ingredients. Years ago I started using brown sugar instead of white sugar, because I thought it was healthier than white sugar, but it isn't. Then I tried Stevia but I don't really care for it. Finally, I tried coconut sugar. I like it for baking, and a friend of mine who tried it in her coffee loved it, too. Why don't you give it a try, Trellum?

 

[Trellum]

Thanks, R.R!!! To be honest this is the very first time I heard about coconut sugar! I will give it a try for sure if I manage to find it! I no longer want to continue using Stevia. I swear I am actually gaining weight, all because I can't seem to beat my sugar cravings... funny, because before I started using Stevia I didn't drink sugary things during the week... just plain water :O Now I know why they say that diet sodas can actually make you gain weight! No freaking wonder! I knew artificial sweeteners could make your sugar cravings worse, but this is crazy!

 

[Meowmie]

Stevia isn't an artificial sweetener. I grow the stevia plant. The leaves taste like sugar, no bitterness. When you buy it in the store it has been extracted, and is extremely condensed, which can leave a bitter taste.

I do use some stevia drops, I find it has more the flavor of the stevia leaves, but my preference is to use the leaves from the plants I grow. Any time you use a stevia extract you need to use only a small amount.

I prefer my coffee black but because of medical reasons I can't drink it that way now. I have to mix it half and half with milk. The only way I like it then is if I sweeten it just a bit. I use 3 drops of liquid stevia, toffee flavored. It doesn't make it taste sugary, just slightly sweet.

They've been using the stevia plants in asia for over 2000 years. I have been using it for over 10.

Many things contain sugars. It's just a matter of extracting those sugars. Sugar from sugar cane isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's the sheer amount that they put in things, like a can of pop, that is really bad. The more sugar you eat the more you crave sweets. If you use less sugar you will become accustomed to things being less sweet.

Much as the same with salt. The more you use, the more you crave it. If you use less you will get used to the flavor of foods more, and won't need the salt so much.

Corn syrup, unless it is certified NON GMO is bound to be from gmo corn. Nearly all the corn grown is gmo corn. Organic corn, from heirloom seeds, if grown within 5 miles of gmo corn, will be contaminated with the bees pollinate it. Beet sugar, unless specifically labeled as NON GMO is gmo.

Cane sugar, as yet, has not been genetically modified, but they are working on it.

It is not hard at all to train your taste buds to like things a little less sweet. Just slowly cut down on the sweetener you do use, and you will stop craving it so much.

 

[zigs]

I've got so fed up with having to check the lables on drinks in the supermarkets to avoid sweeteners that I usually just buy pure juice cartons or just water these days.

 

[R.R.]

I hope you like it, Trellum. Here in Texas you can find it at grocery stores, and it's actually labelled "coconut palm sugar"

 

[Trellum]

Thanks, R.R. I will definitely give it a try! It sounds like a wonderful alternative and will definitely look for it next time we go grocery shopping, which should be quite soon!

 

[R.R.]

You're welcome!

 

[Trellum]

Stevia isn't an artificial sweetener. I grow the stevia plant. The leaves taste like sugar, no bitterness. When you buy it in the store it has been extracted, and is extremely condensed, which can leave a bitter taste.

I do use some stevia drops, I find it has more the flavor of the stevia leaves, but my preference is to use the leaves from the plants I grow. Any time you use a stevia extract you need to use only a small amount.

I prefer my coffee black but because of medical reasons I can't drink it that way now. I have to mix it half and half with milk. The only way I like it then is if I sweeten it just a bit. I use 3 drops of liquid stevia, toffee flavored. It doesn't make it taste sugary, just slightly sweet.

They've been using the stevia plants in asia for over 2000 years. I have been using it for over 10.

Many things contain sugars. It's just a matter of extracting those sugars. Sugar from sugar cane isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's the sheer amount that they put in things, like a can of pop, that is really bad. The more sugar you eat the more you crave sweets. If you use less sugar you will become accustomed to things being less sweet.

Much as the same with salt. The more you use, the more you crave it. If you use less you will get used to the flavor of foods more, and won't need the salt so much.

Corn syrup, unless it is certified NON GMO is bound to be from gmo corn. Nearly all the corn grown is gmo corn. Organic corn, from heirloom seeds, if grown within 5 miles of gmo corn, will be contaminated with the bees pollinate it. Beet sugar, unless specifically labeled as NON GMO is gmo.

Cane sugar, as yet, has not been genetically modified, but they are working on it.

It is not hard at all to train your taste buds to like things a little less sweet. Just slowly cut down on the sweetener you do use, and you will stop craving it so much.

Wow, thanks a lot for that info! Sad to hear about the corn, back when I was just a little girl they were still discussing over here if using GMO corn was a good idea. I guess they went for it since they don't even talk about it anymore.

So... do you recommend the extract over the powdered version? I wish I could grow my Stevia plants, sadly no space or time for that. Did you have a hard time finding that plant? Are they hard to take care of?

I starting sweetening my lemonades with Stevia some weeks ago, but ever since that I crave sweet badly! I'm thinking of going back to drinking plain water for lunch and leave Stevia for special occasions only

This GMO trend is like a plague, sad to hear organic crops can be contaminated by the bees pollinating the GMO crops... Jesus. I don't want to imagine how this will affect us in the future. We will surely have to pay for all this, I bet! Funny how they sound so convincing when they claim GMO's are safe... as if this ind of things didn't come with a huge price tag that isn't even a monetary one...

 

[Trellum]

I've got so fed up with having to check the lables on drinks in the supermarkets to avoid sweeteners that I usually just buy pure juice cartons or just water these days.

Same here, Zigs, I might start drinking plain water once again, at least we know that one isn't loaded with sugar or any other ''forbidden'' sweetener!

 

[Meowmie]

If I can't use the actual leaf, I do prefer the sweet leaf extract. I get the toffee flavor. 3 drops per mug of coffee, with skim milk, and I have a fancy coffee drink. Tastes as good as anything from starbucks for pennies, and hardly any calories. Stevia doesn't make me crave sweets, but I don't use a lot of it. usually just 6 drops a day in my coffee. I prefer black coffee but can no longer drink it and have to add milk, and just don't like the taste of coffee and milk plain. I think if it made me crave sweets, I wouldn't use it hardly at all.

Nutrasweet used to make me crave sweets. The #1 side effect of it is weight gain. Pretty ironic, huh? Be certain if you are using some form of stevia that it really is just stevia. The fact that it makes you crave sweets makes me worried that you have stumbled upon a mixture of nutrasweet and stevia, but then nobody's bodies handle things just like another persons. Many times they leave the nutraweet off the label now, but they still have to put the PKU warning on the product. Always check for that "phenoyketonuriac warning" if it's on something, there is nutrasweet/aspartame in it even if it isnt' listed.

But the fresh leaf is preferable. The plants aren't hard to grow, and the seeds are getting easier and easier to find. I keep one growing in the house, that way when I need to I can just grab a leaf or 2. It's rare, because I drink my tea black, but there are a few teas (medicinal) that do need something added so I mash up a few stevia leaves with a pestle in my cup then add tea. The flavor of the actual leaf is just so gently sweet and nice.

I bought a Berkey water filtration system. There is so much garbage in the water, even city water, that I won't drink it if it's not filtered anymore.

If it weren't for my garden and heirloom seeds, I'd starve to death!

 

[Trellum]

Awesome info Thanks a lot for sharing! Uhm, your post made me ponder about all those products that might have all the chemicals I'm trying to avoid, but I still use them because they don't even list what chemicals are in there. Now I understand how those folks who are allergic to peanuts and similar things feel with the ''it might contain pecans/peanuts'' blanket. Uhm, yes, I feel like really quitting processed foods at this point D: They lie to us way too much, not sure whats safe anymore.

I thought I'd be safe avoiding light products and that kind of things... but sigh, companies lie to us. I was reading about a cereal (can't remember name) the consumers had request that this cereal was GMO-free. Well, the packing states that now, but they say companies are free to print whatever they want in their boxes... true or not. It's apparently legal, or it was one year ago.

 

[Meowmie]

Look for the certified GMO free label. While there are many things that are gmo free, and companies are slow to get the GMO label do to extensive proof and testing before they are awarded the label, if it has that you can be very comfortable. I look for certified GMO AND Organic.

The FDA rules are BS, so I look for those independent certifications.

Watch out for 'light' foods. Many of them are made 'light' but putting in chemicals instead of fats and sugar, others are just ones they reduced the calories from 250 per serving to 245. Light can be used many ways, no regulations on that term.

Same for 'low fat" or "fat free" Just how much fat was removed, for that matter, was there even fat normally in the product? Yes, I have seen a package of carrots that were labeled "fat free" and "cholesterol free". Completely honest, but all the other carrots there that cost less because they didn't use that gimmick were also fat and cholesterol free.

Also, many foods labeled "fat free" have just as many calories or even more because they added extra sweetener to it, to make it taste "better" when they took out the fat.