Bueller’s Kitchen

Please take a moment and let me know what you have most enjoyed reading on my blog during this past year. I’d also love to know what you would like to read about this upcoming year and feel free to pick more than one or make up new ones:

Recipes
Mercury Detox
Raw Food Diet
Health News
Shopping
Journal of My Ongoing Experiences

All the best!
Bueller

Wishing all my readers much love, happiness, and peace! Happy Holidays!

Jeremy Piven is leaving his Broadway stage immediately due to high mercury levels. He was feeling exhausted and couldn’t get over it. Boy, do I know what that’s like! I hope this brings some much needed attention to this and that Jeremy has a speedy recovery.

It is clear from David Mamet’s (producer of PLOW) comments in the article below from E! Online that people still do not understand the severity of this illness or take it seriously:

I’m glad Piven’s doctor, Dr. Carlon Colker, stood up for him and explained that it was absolutely necessary and quite frankly not up to Piven. He had to leave. Read more here:

According to E! Piven’s levels were 6 times that of normal. He was eating a lot of sushi and taking chinese herbs which are suspected to be part of the cause. I’d be curious to know if he has mercury fillings on top of that. Read more here.

I saw the doctor today and I’m all better, super strong, and ready to start detox again in a week. So I will keep you posted. In the meantime this is a fascinating time line from the Environmental Working Group about how the FDA has failed for decades to warn people about mercury:

March 2004

1950s: Mass poisoning in Minamata, Japan from fish contaminated with mercury-laden wastewater provides first evidence that the fetal brain is harmed by mercury.

1970s: Another mass poisoning, this one in Iraq from mercury contamination in grain, results in deaths and permanent impacts to exposed children.

1990s: A string of studies are published showing permanent brain damage among about 1000 children in the Faroe Islands exposed to mercury in the womb from their mother’s consumption of contaminated seafood.

JANUARY 2001: FDA issues first advisory about mercury in seafood for women of childbearing age, saying it is safe for women to eat 12 ounces of a variety of any type of seafood except four that should be completely avoided — shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. Agency includes no warnings on canned tuna and many other fish high in mercury.

APRIL 2001: EWG publishes new analysis showing that 25% of all women would be exposed to unsafe levels of mercury if they followed FDA’s advice. In resulting press account, FDA officials tell the New York Times that they couldn’t give women better information because their focus group research told them that women would stop eating fish altogether if presented with all the facts about mercury.

APRIL 2001: EWG files Freedom of Information Act request to get the focus group transcripts in which, according to FDA, women indicated they did not want detailed information on the dangers of mercury in seafood.

MARCH 2002: EWG publishes analysis of focus group transcripts which finds that FDA had essentially lied to the New York Times, and that women want clear information about the hazards of mercury in fish and will continue to eat fish low in mercury. EWG also finds that an FDA official told focus groups that canned tuna contains enough mercury to harm the developing brain of a baby in the womb. EWG’s findings are featured in a front-page story in the NY Times food section. The FDA immediately announces plans to convene their expert advisory panel to assess the agency’s seafood advisory.

July 2002: The advisory panel meets, finds that the FDA’s advice is inadequate, and sends them back to the drawing board to create a meaningful advisory based upon sound science and adequate fish testing. EWG made a presentation to this panel.

DECEMBER 11, 2003: After implementing a token fish testing program, FDA releases a new draft advisory containing no substantial changes from the initial version. At the same time, the advisory panel meets again, and once again warns the FDA that the advisory again has the same problems as the previous version, finding that the FDA’s advice is inadequate, particularly with regard to the troubling levels of mercury in canned tuna, and sending them back to the drawing board to create a meaningful advisory based upon sound science and adequate fish testing.

DECEMBER 22, 2003: EWG files a Data Quality Act (DQA) challenge that will require the FDA to set scientifically-sound public health policies. The FDA has 60 days from date of receipt to respond to our challenge.

FEBRUARY 19, 2004: FDA sends EWG a letter saying that they cannot meet the February 20 deadline for responding to our DQA challenge. The letter advises that FDA will respond by April 20th.

MARCH 2004: FDA releases a purportedly “new” advisory. The underlying advice remains substantially the same as the first advisory issued three years ago. An EWG analysis shows that 99 percent of all babies in the womb would exceed a safe dose of mercury if their mothers followed FDA’s advice and ate a can of albacore tuna each week.

APRIL 14, 2004: FDA sends EWG a second delay notice, saying that they cannot meet the April 20 deadline for responding to our DQA challenge. The letter advises that FDA will respond by June 20th.

JUNE 16, 2004: FDA sends EWG a third delay notice, saying that they cannot meet the June 20 deadline for responding to our DQA challenge. The letter advises that FDA will respond by August 20th.

And the misinformation and misleading of the public and even worse, pregnant women, just keeps getting worse. Check out the latest article about the FDA’s attempt at covering up mercury toxicity once again:

One thing I really really miss are my lattes. I would drink soy lattes but soy milk for me is very acid/mucus forming as well as an estrogenic so it messes with my hormones. I have estrogen dominance so I stay away from natural estrogens that would just overload my system even more. So in desperation for a hot tasting yummy beverage I came up with this and I have to say I love it even more than all the others. I wish Starbucks would make this!

Bueller’s Almond Milk Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte

2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I use Blue Diamond that you can get at Whole Foods or you can make your own)
Teeccino Herbal Chai Coffee
1 dropper full of dark chocolate stevia liquid
cinnamon (1/4 teaspoon)
pumpkin spice (option, but I love it - just a sprinkle)

Heat the almond milk in a saucer, just before it boils or as hot as you desire
Use a frother to froth the milk
or use a Bodum Hot Chocolate Maker/Frother - I really want one of these.

At the same time turn on the kettle and while it’s boiling measure out 1 big scoop of the Chai Coffee and put it in a one cup coffee dripper (don’t forget a filter). I like this one from Bluebottle Coffee Company because it’s ceramic and not plastic. Poor just enough water over the grinds and fill to the rim of the dripper and let drip into mug.

Then pour the hot frothy almond milk to fill the rest of the mug and enjoy a delicious chai latte!

One of my favorite online shows is Daryl Hannah’s LOVE LIFE show. It is so much fun. So if you need some inspiration and some smiles check it out here. If you’re a wine drinker here’s a great episode explaining the difference between organic, biodynamic and regular wine:

Great article on new plant protein powders on the market. I will have try some of these. They sound really good. Check out the article here:

I hear a lot on the forums and from my readers that they don’t know how to eat “perfectly” or they don’t know how to cut everything bad out of their diet. Here’s a story to inspire you. Don’t worry about being perfect, just eat a little bit better than everyone else and you’ll already be on your way to better health. If every month or year you just aim to do a little bit more, then in no time you will be far healthier than you could ever imagine! It’d be pretty easy to be above average in regards to the American diet. So take it a slow and just keep trying. My advice, “NEVER GIVE UP”!

My dad sent me this from Jeffrey Gitomer’s Sales Caffeine issue 368 and I thought it was great:

SHOT IN THE BUCK
It isn’t hard to be better.
By Colin Pearce

Why? Not many people are doing it.

I will never forget the first time I heard a motivational speaker.

I had grown up listening to great preachers, teachers and storytellers and they were the only model I had for my interest in speaking, but on that night in February 1978 I heard the founder of the National Speakers Association of Australia, John Nevin, give his ‘Mountain Man’ presentation and I finally knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was already thirty years old.

He made one thing clear. You don’t have to be that much better than the rest to be better than the rest.

John pointed out through his interest in horse racing that most of the great prize winners did not win the big stakes by much more than a head or even a nose. I’d never thought about it like that. I guess I had grown up believing that the winners in life were all miles ahead of the pack. They were somehow luckier or more gifted. I, being the third son of a poor widow from an average neighborhood was never likely to enjoy such ‘luck’.

But he told us that great golfers only won major tournaments by one putt. He showed us that the difference between a pass and a fail, or an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ was often only one mark.

The great tennis champions only hit the ball over the net one more time than the people they defeat. Many football games and hockey matches are won by only one goal - just a flick or a kick or a nudge of the ball a couple of degrees either way will make the difference between the championship and relegation.

It made me think of Victor Borge’s story about the man who invented a new soft drink. He started with a drink called ‘1Up’ but after meeting with no success he went on to invent ‘2Up’, then ‘3Up’, each time without success. He continued on all the way to ‘6Up’ finally dying in despair, a broken failure.

“But”, shouts Borge, “He didn’t know how close he got!”

I took John Nevin’s message to heart and have made it part of my own. It was the way I brought up my four children. I told them they didn’t have to be brilliant. They just had to give life a good shot and it would make a huge difference because so many other kids and their parents couldn’t give a darn. They would stand out in a crowd all their lives because for most people even being average is an effort but being a bit above average is not an impossible ask.

I speak to a lot of retailers in my work. Most of them are wonderful conscientious people. Others wouldn’t work in an iron lung. Sometimes I think I am wasting my life talking to people who will never get it. Five Star Service is so easy to provide but too many lazy self-interested sods can’t see it.

However this makes it so much easier for the rest of us. We only have to do a little better than them and we will stand out like well lit cities on a hill.

Bright Idea:
Be above average today.

Check the Food Matters Skin guide for what chemicals you may not be aware of that are in every kind of product you can imagine that goes on your skin (i.e. baby wipes, mascara, lotion, shampoo, etc.)

Skin Guide

This is eye opening video from Food Matters: