Monthly Archives: April 2010

Clean, Green and Lean by Dr. Walter Crinnion. Guest post. Review. Giveaway.

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Clean, Green, and Lean

An Apple a Day Won’t Keep the Doctor Away — Unless It’s Organic
By Dr. Walter Crinnion,
Author of Clean, Green, and Lean: Get Rid of the Toxins That Make You Fat

The EWG recently studied extensive USDA and FDA testing that measured pesticide residues in produce and then ranked the most commonly eaten fruits and vegetables in this country on a scale from most toxic to most consistently clean. I strongly encourage you to take the list of the “dirty dozen” to the grocery store with you. If your produce manager isn’t stocking organic versions of all of the following, you may want to enlighten him or her.

The Dirty Dozen (highest in pesticides)
Apples
Bell peppers
Carrots
Celery
Cherries
Grapes (imported)
Kale
Lettuce
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Strawberries

What a conundrum. We know we’re supposed to eat our fruit and vegetables because they have crucial nutrients that other foods don’t, but here on the dirty dozen list, some of our favorites are covered with the most toxic agricultural chemicals out there. So do yourself and your family a favor and buy these twelve only if they’re organically grown. And eat a good variety, because they all contain different antioxidants.

If you can’t find organic and you’re determined to eat the forbidden fruit (or vegetable), the nonorganic varieties can sometimes be made less toxic by peeling them (great for apples and potatoes, not so great for lettuce and strawberries). Their toxic content can be further reduced by soaking and scrubbing them in a tub of 10 percent vinegar (also not so great for lettuce and strawberries). And regardless of whether it’s organic or nonorganic, wash it. Whatever it is that’s keeping the bugs at bay at the supermarket is also surely settling on the surface of the produce.

Avoiding the nonorganic versions altogether is the best strategy, though. A study in Seattle showed that when the most toxic fruits and vegetables were removed from preschoolers’ diets (along with almonds) and replaced with organic varieties, the kids’ pesticide levels went way down. Their levels of key pesticides dropped to essentially zero and stayed undetectable until they started eating conventional foods again.

So now that you know what not to eat, what should you eat? You can start with the flip side of the dirty dozen: the clean dozen. Not all nonorganic versions of fruits and vegetables pack a toxic punch, and these twelve have virtually no pesticide levels. These are the nonorganic varieties you can buy without lying awake at night regretting that you’ve made your toxic burden worse.

The Clean Dozen (lowest in pesticides)
Asparagus
Avocados
Cabbage
Eggplant
Kiwis
Mangoes
Onions
Papayas
Pineapples
Sweet corn
Sweet peas
Watermelon

While it would obviously be best to buy organic varieties of all of our foods, when it comes to these twelve fruits and vegetables, you can feel safe buying the commercial varieties. So unless you have a big grocery budget that allows you to buy nothing but organic foods, use your organic allowance to buy organic apples instead of organic broccoli or bananas.

Detoxing Nonorganic Produce

If you can’t find organic varieties, use these methods to reduce your toxic exposure:

  • Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin from commercial varieties of apples, pears, nectarines, and potatoes. You’ll probably need a paring knife to peel peaches.
  • For bell peppers, apples, and celery, use an acid wash:
    1. Fill a large bowl or a plastic food storage container with water.
    2. Add a cup of distilled vinegar.
    3. Let the produce rest in the tub for ten to twenty-five minutes, and then use a vegetable scrub brush to scrub each piece for about sixty seconds.
    4. For grapes and cherries, just let them soak for about sixty minutes.

The above is an excerpt from the book Clean, Green, and Lean: Get Rid of the Toxins That Make You Fat by Dr. Walter Crinnion. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Reprinted by permission of the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Clean, Green & Lean, by Walter Crinnion. Copyright © 2010 by Walter Crinnion.

Author Bio
Dr. Walter Crinnion is one of America’s foremost authorities on environmental medicine. A naturopathic physician, he is the director of the Environmental Medicine Center of Excellence at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Arizona and chair of the Environmental Medicine Department. He is a close colleague of Dr. Peter D’Adamo, author of the monumental bestseller Eat Right 4 Your Type.

For more information, please visit www.crinnionmedical.com and www.wiley.com.



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My thoughts:

Clean, Green and Lean by Dr. Walter Crinnion is a book that aims to show readers how to:

* Stop new toxins from coming into the body.
* Get accumulated toxins out of the body.

The ways to accomplish these goals are simple, too:
* Clean up your diet.
* Clean up your home environment.
* Use toxin-fighting supplements.
* Improve elimination.
(page 6)

Dr. Crinnion, a naturopathic physician, explains how to clean up (and out) your body and your home. This book is packed with information that is easy to understand. There are charts listing the most toxic fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. There are lists of hidden sugar sources and high sugar foods. Having a sibling with celiac disease, I appreciate the amount of information on foods with gluten. There is a chapter of Clean, Green and Lean recipes that is followed by a Fourteen-Day Menu Plan.

This is just a glimpse of Clean, Green and Lean. There is so much more information. I think anyone who’s serious about cleaning up their body and home will find this book to be a valuable resource.

Review copy from FSB Associates

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Giveaway:
Giveaway closed

I’m offering my review copy
You must live in the US
Leave your email in the comment
I’ll use Random.org to decide the winner
Ends Friday, April 30 (tomorrow), noon eastern time


Waiting On Wednesday – April 28

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The Bellini Madonna

May 25th 2010 by Picador USA

Thomas Lynch, a disgraced, middle-aged art historian, goes in search of a lost masterpiece, a legendary Madonna by the Italian master Giovanni Bellini. Insinuating himself into the crumbling English manor house where the painting may be concealed, Lynch attempts to gull the eccentric and beautiful women who live there—though he himself seems to be the pawn in this elaborate game. A Victorian diary draws Robert Browning into the painting’s complicated provenance.

Interlaced with complex clues and hidden jokes, The Bellini Madonna reels from the lush English countryside to the sternly lovely hill towns of the Veneto, from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first.

Posted in WoW

Sunday Summary – April 25

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I had one of those weeks when I enjoyed everything I read. Sheila Roberts’ new book Small Change is timely and entertaining – typical Sheila Roberts. I really liked it! The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom is so good. It’s a dramatic look at plantation life in the 1790s and early 1800s. Marriage and Other Acts of Charity is a wonderful memoir by Kate Braestrup. I listened to the audiobook and that only enhanced the experience of the book. It’s going on my keeper shelf.
 
 
Books read/reviewed:
 
Small Change The Kitchen House Marriage, and Other Acts of Charity
 
 
 
After the Fall
 
 
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II
I’m giving away my ARC of Small Change by Sheila Roberts
My review is here
It’s a quiet giveaway (only mentioned here)
 
open to US residents
leave your email in the comment box (a must!)
Enter by 11pm eastern Monday April 26 (that’s tomorrow)
 
I’ll announce the winner on Tuesday April 27
I’bookfan-mary.blogspot.com/2010/04/small-change-by-sheila-roberts.html
Small ChangeI’m

Show Me 5 Saturday – The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

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1. Book title: The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

2. Words that describe the book: Historical fiction

3. Settings or characters:
* Tall Oaks plantation owned by Captain James Pyke
* Lavinia McCarten, orphaned on the voyage from Ireland to America and taken home with the Captain to live at Tall Oaks.
* Belle Pyke, daughter of Captain Pyke who lives in the kitchen house because her mother was black. Lavinia lives with Belle.

4. Things I liked/disliked about the book:
* I liked that the story was told from the perspectives of Lavinia and Belle.
* I thought the story was completely enthralling
* I thought the book wrapped up a bit too quickly
* I’d love to read a sequel (which is a sign of a good story)

5. Stars or less: 4/5 stars

The Kitchen House: A Novel

From the back of the book:
Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.
Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction, Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.
The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.

(giveaway win from Passages to the Past)

Small Change by Sheila Roberts

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Small Change

Small Change is about three women – Rachel, Tiffany and Jess – who are friends and neighbors. For different reasons they find themselves on the same financial boat and it is beginning to sink. Rachel, a divorced working mother of two, is coming to the end of a long-term substitute teaching job and can’t find another job. Tiffany works at a salon and has a shopping addiction that she tries to hide from her husband. Jess, housewife and former stay-at-home mom, has a jobless grown son living at home and a husband who is about to lose his executive job. These women need money. Yesterday.

Sheila Roberts’ latest novel holds a mirror to an issue faced by many people these days: financial difficulties due to job loss and related fall-out. Trying to compete with her ex, Rachel spends money on her children for things they really don’t need because she feels guilty saying “No” to them. She realizes that the unnecessary spending has to stop when she sees the end of her paychecks looming. Tiffany loves finding a bargain and she finds herself in trouble when she can’t pay her credit card bills – the cards she promised her husband she wouldn’t use anymore. She’s at the point of hiding purchases from her husband. Jess has a boomerang kid who sleeps until noon, surfs the web for a few hours looking for a job, and then heads out for the night to party with friends. That drives her husband crazy and results in shouting matches between father and son. On top of that, her husband’s bank has been bought out and he’s about to lose his job. Talk about stress!

In the past Rachel, Tiffany and Jess would meet weekly to make a craft, talk, share a bottle of wine, etc. In light of their financial situation they turn the weekly gabfest into brainstorming sessions for ways to bring in more money and improve things at home. There are moments of tears and lots of moral support as they start to figure out why they spend and begin to work their way out of their money troubles. It’s not an easy journey but the three women cheer each other on as they face the challenges along the way.

I think everyone can identify with at least one of the characters or knows someone just like one of the women. Because of that, Small Change would be a great selection for a book club. In typical Sheila Roberts style it is entertaining while addressing a serious topic. Roberts offers her characters (and readers) suggestions for cutting expenses and how to live well on a budget. I’m looking forward to trying a couple of her ideas myself!

Visit Sheila’s Website: www.sheilasplace.com

Review copy provided by the author

Marriage and Other Acts of Charity by Kate Braestrup

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Marriage and Other Acts of Charity

I listened to the audiobook read by the author. Kate Braestrup’s gentle, reassuring voice tells the story of her first marriage and what happened after.
Near the end of the book Braestrup repeats something her father once told her:
If an experience is good, it’s good. If an experience is bad, it’ll make a terrific story.

That’s what this memoir is. We hear the good but also the bad and how Braestrup came through the experiences. She is now a chaplain for the Maine Warden Service where she is called upon to help people at the time of injury or death of a loved one, a job she’s well-suited for since she was on the receiving end when her first husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car crash while on duty.


I appreciated Braestrup’s discussions of caritas and where God is when tragedy strikes. A lot to think about, a lot to strive for. This would be a wonderful selection for a book club.

Audiobook was a giveaway win from all about {n}