Check this out, and then seriosly consider making your own snacks, it's not difficult. Certainly don't let your kids eat this stuff, no wonder they put on such a lot of weight. I don't understand why food manufacturers do this sort of thing to our food. I think it has something to do with the heat treated salt, and that I drank two cups of tea with very chlorinated water. I only use brown sea salt at home, which is very salty, and has a very different flavour. I am also on a well water, which is filtered, de-bugged and purified, and does not have any additives.
http://altmedangel.com/salt.htm
I think the mechanism for dealing with a lot of salt got triggered when I ate them, then having all these chemicals of my own howling out for the 'real salt' to bond to, have been crashing around trying to find some 'real salt' to scavenge. I think the same thing happens with artificial sweetners, and fats that have been messed about with too.
There is one product advertised on TV at the moment saying it has some whopping 45% of less saturated fat than Olive Oil! Since when has Olive Oil been bad for you? At about 14% natural saturated fat, that means this product has probably 8% saturated fat, (So what is it made of, more transfats?) I ask you, is this going to make a difference? (It will if you eat more transfats... which are what your snacks are produced with).
It also puts the idea in people's minds that natural cold pressed Olive Oil for salads is bad for you. Tell that one to someone living in the Mediterrainian Paradox! I wish there was more control on this type of advertising.
Check this article. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/FatsAndOils/Fats101/Trans-Fats_UCM_301120_Article.jsp
Besides, with Greece and Spain not producing as much Olive Oil, and natural products and getting them into the European Supermarkets, no wonder they can't sort out their GDP. I want proper Greek yoghurt, and Cheese for my mediterranian salad. I grow my own Cucumber and Tomatoes, but I need good Olives in Cans that I can put herbs in, not ridiculously expensive supermarket ones.
I also like proper Taramosalata, I don't like the mass produced pink stuff. If I could get the roe I would make my own. I make my own Houmos too, it's much better than shop bought as I put more Tahini in it. I think if a supermarket sells Taramosalata that is not made traditionally in Greece, it ought to be just called fish paste. You can't call a Sparkling wine 'Champagne' unless it comes from that region. Don't have one rule for rich nations, and another one for 'poorer' regions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramosalata
I want proper cork stoppers back in wine bottles too, which was a huge export of Spain and Portugal. We can't do anything with the plastic ones, and at least if you use them again for other things they are realy useful. We put ours in a jam jar with some meths and then use them as firelighters. You can't do this with plastic ones. See these comparisons for plastic stoppers and screw tops.
Once again these have to be disposed of.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_(material)
The problem happened when the Oak trees got a sickness, and the cork made the wine go off. If the cork is certified free of bugs, surely this is the better material. You can use it for all sorts of things afterwards.
Besides, I would like to buy corks for bottles that I preserve oils in. I had a set of Silver topped ones for re-corking which were lovely. My husband didn't like them, so I kept the one with the Amathyst top and gave the others away.
And another thing introducing mixi to the rabbit population is a bad idea when it is free food both for animals and locals. Another way to stop people feeding themselves when there is a food shortage, or rampant inflation. Perhaps the right thing to do is fix the problems we have created for our environments, just so we have to shop at a supermarket. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miximatosis
Why don't Australia just kill the rabbits and sell the fur, or use them for dried dog food protein if they don't want to eat them. Better than the poor little things suffering the way they do. They Australians might not need to use the fur for coats, but a lot of the rest of us need keeping warm. And don't make my dog sick with infected rabbit.
It's about time the animal rights lot realised an over population of one type of animal in an area that is not culled properly leads to something like this happening. We have now almost lost the European wild cats because there are no rabbits.
Raising our standards.
Anyway, what I was thinking about earlier was that private bond system to build local housing and services. So many people gamble their money... and then lose it. I don't have a problem with the NS&I premium bonds. So long as the bond money is definately ring fenced for infrastructure, creating building jobs and training, and not scammed off by fraudsters or Big Brother, I would be happy to put money into something that made sense.
At the moment the minimum amount you can buy Premium bonds for is £100. The maximum holding is £30,000.00. It would be easier for smaller bonds of £5 minimum investment to buy as a little fund for our kids, and give as presents. Increase the maximum holding to £100,000.00 as well, and any interest or profits not taxed. Remember, to buy the bonds we have already been taxed on the money we earned!
At least someone could choose if they wanted to buy something that was still in the spirit of a lottery, but wouldn't lose their stake. At the moment you can withdraw funds from NS&I with about 10 days notice. I wouldn't change this. However if someone did make a longer term investment, their chances of winning significantly increase. The return on these bonds is actually quite good considering the bank rates at the moment.
Also there is a 'good money' feel to them, as if we did set up something like that here in Jersey for our local economy, we know it should be sound. Our money is invested in local bricks and mortar, and local training initiatives. Obviously we govern ourselves so it would be up to our government to decide if this is a good way to raise funds.
I wouldn't be happy to do this on a national UK basis, as I think there are too many things that could go wrong. It would be something that would need to be managed as a co-operative, for each community.
If there was a problem raising funds, there are plenty of wealthy people who I am sure would like to put an investment into a poor area, so that they could see it make a difference, and still have the benefit of a non taxed investment.
It might make it easier for the British Government to cut down on their own civil servant bill! Get the infrastructure going, and people employed again.
With all the sad and awful news, this story really cheered me up this morning. Well done you guys!
http://rt.com/news/italy-town-new-currency-303/
Where we are in Brittany (France), this region has always considered itself seperate from France itself!
I need to look up which great sage was asked what he thought of the French revolution, His answer was 'It is too early to tell'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai
The world has made incredible reforms over the last few hundred years, it would be good to get a balanced structured approach to the whole question of system changes. At least with a monarch, you get someone's face on your money that isn't connected with politics, and with ours, someone who is definately a genuine institution in Her own right.
There is a lot that is good with the world we live in, how about hearing some more of the wonderful things we all get up to, as well as the 'bad news' that sells the news.
Perhaps we are seeing 'The poor inheriting the Earth', as it was prophesied.
I have been thinking about that Tax the French want to put on people owning a second home.
What is so sad to see is how the costal towns in Brittany have become ghost towns, and local small fishing industry lost because so many Parisians own second homes they only visit for 3 weeks a year. This obviously put the cost of homes up for local people, and because the locals had to move away, and lose their livelihoods, these villages can't even support local shops.
In principle, perhaps it would be better to have the system we have here in Jersey, that if someone very wealthy wants to come and buy a property here, there is a particular category of housing that is available. This person also has to prove that they can provide a certain amount of tax to our coffers... not sure we get it all!
However, our heretage properties that fell into disrepair were the ones bought up, and millions of pounds lavished on them to restore them. This is good for the economy. Without our wealthy community, we would have lost our valuable heretage houses, as none of us would have the resources to restore them.
I think there must be some way of arbitrating this, based on the amount of time the house is occupied. For instance if the house is used by ourselves, friends or family for say 4 months of the year minimum, then we get no tax. (We still pay our normal local service taxes anyway). That if these are 'off peak' months that the house is occupied, then we get a better deal, in that we bring money into the local economy during those months that tourism is generally low.
So long as ths does not add to our tax burden in our own country, or extra in our 2nd home in France if we use it, we are no worse off. I think this ought to be a local community tax, and the money kept to support communities that have been decimated through the buying up of local housing that serves local industries that then died because there were no affordable homes.
Please don't do this retrospectively to us, as right now we couldn't be in a position to pay extra tax. However, if there was a scheme to allow communities to re-build through a buy back of 2nd homes without the tax burden to the seller, I wonder if many French would consider selling these properties? These could go into a local housing bank, and keep them as rent paying properties for first time homes, or tourism management. Perhaps the 'Parisians' might like to sell their 2nd home, and rent another one back on time share that is in the letting market?
What happened in Spain, was that many people invested in building projects. The value of the houses dropped significantly, and I think many people 'sold' their houses back to the banks in order to cut their losses. This meant there was no income from the use of the homes, and tourism money into the economy.
I was reminded of the story of the Golden Goose the other day. If you take all it's eggs, and your Goose dies you end up with nothing.
What the banks and megga companies have engineered, is the ceremonial killing of the Goose for us. Bankers aren't elected, why should they be able to affect policy making by Politicians we have duly elected.
This seems a complete idiots guide to the 'Ruin of Nations'.
Resolving these issues would go a long way to getting both Spain and Greece back on it's feet, and all the beautiful small communities in France thriving again, producing local product for local communities, rather than having to go to huge supermarkets, miles away. Besides, once a supermarket war has started in your area, you know you are in for trouble.
The only way out of this whole merry go round is to produce local seasonal food like we used to, and only support local growers.