Edgy Mama

Here are a few of my wacky ideas for saving $ while honoring your kids’ big day. Tell me yours?

(Here’s video of Wild and Bryan Freeborn from this morning’s Today Show, 3/13/09).

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Asheville Girl Scout Wild Freeborn, who, via a YouTube video and some social media savvy, was trying to sell enough boxes of Girl Scout cookies to send her entire troop to GS camp for a week.

I bought 4 boxes from Wild, who told me she ended up selling around 700 total boxes, all to folks in the Asheville area (not enough to send the entire troop to camp, but still impressive). Despite her initiative and business aptitude, the Girl Scouts’ national organization made Wild remove the YouTube video, as they have an archaic rule about not selling on-line (which in truth, Wild wasn’t. No $ went over the Internets).

Two days ago, Newsweek published a story about Wild, which garnered hundreds of comments. Today Wild and her dad, Bryan Freeborn, are heading up to NYC to make an appearance on The Today Show.

Congrats to Wild for trying, inadvertantly, to drag the Girl Scouts into the 21st century. Sometimes, kids really do have the best ideas.

Need I say more?

Supposedly, some mom got kicked out of our local Denny’s for breastfeeding her babe. Crazy.

I’m debating whether or not to dive back into this debate in my column.

I wouldn’ t have been able to leave the house if I hadn’t be able to breastfeed in public. That would have been very, very bad.

My kids didn’t ever take a bottle. They went straight from the breast to the cup. And I flashed my boobs all over town and in Georgia, when, I think, it was still illegal there. So what?

I haven’t had time to research this further, but it’s one, scary, and two, from a reputable source. Although I’ve avoided buying products containing high fructose corn syrup for years, surely my kids have swallowed some (check out the table at the end of the press release for products that tested high for mercury).

Press Release from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Jan. 26, 2009

Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated With Mercury, New Study Finds
Brand-Name Food Products Also Discovered to Contain Mercury

Minneapolis – Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples
of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient—including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.

HFCS use has skyrocketed in recent decades as the sweetener has replaced
sugar in many processed foods. HFCS is found in sweetened beverages, breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS. Consumption by teenagers and other high consumers can be up to 80 percent above average levels.

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms,” said IATP’s David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.”

In the Environmental Health article, Dufault et al. found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS. Dufault was working at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when the tests were done in 2005. She and co-authors conclude that possible mercury contamination of food chemicals like HFCS was not common knowledge within the food industry that frequently uses the sweetener. While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testing.

For its report “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn
Syrup,” IATP sent 55 brand-name foods and beverages containing HFCS as the first or second ingredient to a commercial laboratory to be tested for total mercury. Nearly one in three products tested contained detectable mercury. Mercury was most prevalent in HFCS-containing dairy products, followed by dressings and condiments. Attached is the summary list of the 55 products and their total mercury content.

In making HFCS, caustic soda is used, among other things, to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. For decades, HFCS has been made using
mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants. The use of mercury cells to produce caustic soda can contaminate caustic soda, and ultimately HFCS, with mercury.

“The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack
food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury,” said Dr. Wallinga. “The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients.”

While most chlorine plants around the world have switched to newer,
cleaner technologies, many still rely on the use of mercury cells. In 2005, 90 percent of chlorine production was mercury-free, but just 40 percent of European production was mercury-free. Four U.S. chlor-alkali plants still rely on mercury cell technology. In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama
introduced legislation to force the remaining chlor-alkali plants to phase out mercury cell technology by 2012.

The Environmental Health article by Dufault et al. can be found at:
www.ehjournal.net.

“Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” by David
Wallinga, M.D., Janelle Sorensen, Pooja Mottl and Brian Yablon, M.D., can be found at: www.iatp.org.

IATP works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. www.iatp.org

The Table below ran together, but you get the idea. Yup, there’s mercury in Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup and Nutri-grain bars. Go clean out your pantries!

Table A: Total mercury detected in 55 brand name foods and beverages high in HFCS
Product Name Total mercury detected (ppt) Laboratory detection limit (ppt)
Quaker Oatmeal to Go 350 80
Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce (Heinz) 300 100
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup 257 50
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce 200 100
Nutri‐Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars 180 80
Manwich Bold Sloppy Joe 150 80
Market Pantry Grape Jelly 130 80
Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly 100 80
Pop‐Tarts Frosted Blueberry 100 80
Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup 87 50
Wish‐Bone Western Sweet & Smooth 72 50
Coca‐Cola Classic 62 50
Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt 60 20
Minute Maid Berry Punch 40  30
Yoo‐hoo Chocolate Drink 30 20
Nesquik Chocolate Milk 30 20
Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk 30 20
Hy‐Top Syrup ND 50
Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red ND 50
NOS High Performance Energy Drink ND 50
A & W Root Beet ND 30
Dr. Pepper ND 30
Wyler’s Italian Ices ND 30
Market Pantry Ice Pops ND 30
Kool‐Aid Bursts Tropical Punch ND 30
Kool‐Aid Cherry Jammers ND 30
Sunny‐D ND 30
Snapple Peach Iced Tea ND 30
Powerade Orange ND 30
Lipton Green Tea ND 30
Zoo Juice Orange ND 30
Tropicana Twister Cherry Berry Blast ND 30
Fanta Orange ND 30
Pepsi ND 30
7‐Up ND 30
Hi‐C Wild Cherry ND 30
Jell‐O Strawberry ND 100
Market Pantry Applesauce ND 100
Mott’s Applesauce ND 100
Campbell’s Tomato Soup ND 100
Aunt Jemima Original Syrup ND 100
Hershey’s Caramel Syrup ND 100
Hershey’s Strawberry Syrup ND 100
Market Pantry Thousand Island ND 100
Smucker’s Strawberry Syrup ND 100
Heinz Hotdog Relish ND 100
Market Pantry Cranberry Sauce ND 100
Market Pantry Tomato Soup ND 100
Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce ND 100
Mrs. Butterworth Original Syrup ND 100
Heinz Tomato Ketchup ND 100
Wish‐Bone Thousand Island Dressing ND 100
Welch’s Grape Jelly ND 100
Nesquik Strawberry Milk ND 20
Land O’ Lakes Chocolate Milk ND 20

Here’s a story I wrote for Mountain Xpress’  Web site about the new Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act. In researching this, I was surprised by the far-reaching, seemingly unconsidered, consequences of the act for small businesses, crafters, and even libraries. Read the story and tell me what you think.

Looking for something fun to do with the fam this weekend? Rock out to Secret Agent 23 Skidoo at The Grey Eagle!

The Asheville local and hip-hop for kids king performs Saturday at 2 p.m.

We’ve been listening hard to his album, Easy, at home. Check out Skidoo’s website for video goodness, including the most adorable hip-hop song ever sung–Family Tree–by Skidoo and daughter, Saki.

Over dinner last night, we brainstormed possible team names for the girls’ softball team.

Any idea how to explain that the Asheville Beavers is not an appropriate name for a team of 8 to 10-year-old girls?

Turns out the boy came up with the most creative monikers, including my favorite, The Fearless Chihuahuas.

My girl likes the name the Asheville Rodents, though she wisely realizes that her teammates might not like it. She’s one of the only 9-year-old girls I know who has a soft spot for rodents. Luckily, our two cats and one dog are reason enough to prevent us from adopting one.

Other team name possibilities are the Cubbies, the Tsunamis, and the Snakes. Like most pre-adolescent girls, they seem torn between being cute and being tough.

I’ll let you know the final name decision after tonight’s scrimmage.

This weekend is all about photography and softball for me–and photos of softball (yes, Day in the Life of Asheville has arrived–or this time, 36 hours in the LOA).

Oh, and tomorrow’s Earth Day. See you at MLK, Jr. park. I’ll be the tired one with the camera and the grumpy kids.

UPDATE: The team went with the North Asheville Cubbies.

Both my kids had chronic ear infections as babies. My girl had her tonsils removed when she was four and only had one ear infection after that. We had the boy’s tonsils removed at 16 months because he’d had non-stop ear infections from the age of 6 months. Also, since he was still nursing, he didn’t have to be hospitalized after the surgery. In fact, he had an amazingly easy recovery–he was nursing in recovery. Unfortunately, the tonsillectomy didn’t cure him of ear infections. He’s had three sets of tubes, the last of which fell out over a year ago. However, one of the tiny holes in his eardrum won’t heal. He keeps getting yeast infections in that ear canal. This being a kid who eats yogurt every day, often twice a day. Of course probiotics in your bloodstream don’t necessarily mean probiotics in your ear canal.

I’ve been in our ENT’s office every 1 to 4 months for the past eight years. I send the man a Christmas card. We talk about our gardens. And we talk about ears–ear anatomy, Eustachian tubes, hearing loss, inflammation, antibiotics, and various kinds of prescription ear drops.

I reckon I’ve spent about 36 hours in his waiting room, and another 24 in his examining room. I know, in the scheme of problems, that ear infections are minor, but I must say I’m tired of talking about, thinking about, and dealing with ears.

Here!

And on my gallery page.

I need to figure out how to embed a Flickr slideshow in Wordpress. Anyone?