On the street where I live

David & Halle, promoting the Seven Suffolk Streets project

It's always great to see a friendly face when you're out and about and as it happens, just as I was arriving home yesterday, I bumped into David and Halle, a couple of our local master composters, who are promoting the Seven Suffolk Streets project on behalf of the Suffolk Waste Partnership.

If you haven't heard of the project before, it's one of the Zero Waste places announced by Defra last year and which has received funding from BREW to help reduce the amount of waste across the county.

Each of the seven districts in Suffolk has selected one street to be the focus of the waste reduction campaign and as you can guess, my very own street is one of the lucky few, as chosen by St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

In November residents received a letter outlining the project as well as a questionnaire about their rubbish and over the last couple of weeks, door-knockers have been visiting homes to introduce the idea in more detail and to offer additional knowledge if needed.

It's all leading up to Waste Reduction Fortnight, which will take place in March, encouraging residents, businesses and schools to have a go at reducing their rubbish by 50%. And the best news is, no extra bins are needed, just extra signposting to local facilities that exist nearby.

Waste Reduction Fortnight kicks off in our street on 1st March, when our previous rubbish will be weighed for the very first time on bin day. To measure the success of the project, the bins will be weighed for the second and final time two weeks later on 15th March.

So far, it seems that residents have been very happy to take part, which is brilliant, not just regarding waste reduction, but also because there will be prizes for the streets that perform the best too! So, we could be onto a real winner for our neighbourhood!

And I am glad that people have responded positively, because I'm going to be doing a bit of door-knocking too, not on my home patch, but joining the crew in Brandon. So if you live up that way, look out because very soon I could be coming to a street near you.

All I can say is, I hope the weather warms up because yesterday I had to rescue David and Halle from a hailstorm that fell thick and fast soon after I took the photo. So keep your fingers crossed, as I don't fair well in the cold.

More information about the Seven Suffolk Streets project can be found at the Suffolk Recycling website: www.suffolkrecycling.org.uk.
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Lucy was a vegetarian and sapiens an omnivore: Plant foods as natural supplements

Early hominid ancestors like the Australopithecines (e.g., Lucy) were likely strict vegetarians. Meat consumption seems to have occurred at least occasionally among Homo habilis, with more widespread consumption among Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens (i.e., us).

The figure below (from: becominghuman.org; click on it to enlarge) shows a depiction of the human lineage, according to a widely accepted theory developed by Ian Tattersall. As you can see, Neanderthals are on a different branch, and are not believed to have been part of the human lineage.

Does the clear move toward increased meat consumption mean that a meat-only diet is optimal for you?

The answer is “perhaps”; especially if your ancestors were Inuit and you retained their genetic adaptations.

Food specialization tends to increase the chances of extinction of a species, because changes in the environment may lead to the elimination of a single food source, or a limited set of food sources. On a scale from highly specialized to omnivorous, evolution should generally favor adaptations toward the omnivorous end of the scale.

Meat, which naturally comes together with fat, has the advantage of being an energy-dense food. Given this advantage, it is possible that the human species evolved to be exclusively meat eaters, with consumption of plant foods being mostly optional. But this goes somewhat against what we know about evolution.

Consumption of plant matter AND meat – that is, being an omnivore – leads to certain digestive tract adaptations, which would not be present if they were not absolutely necessary. Those adaptations are too costly to be retained without a good reason.

The digestive tract of pure carnivores is usually shorter than that of omnivores. Growing a longer digestive tract and keeping it healthy during a lifetime is a costly proposition.

Let us assume that an ancient human group migrated to a geographical area that forced them to adhere to a particular type of diet, like the ancient Inuit. They would probably have evolved adaptations to that diet. This evolution would not have taken millions of years to occur; it might have taken place in as little as 396 years, if not less.

In spite of divergent adaptations that might have occurred relatively recently (i.e., in the last 100,000 years, after the emergence of our species), among the Inuit for instance, we likely have also species-wide adaptations that make an omnivorous diet generally optimal for most of us.

Meat appears to have many health-promoting and a few unhealthy properties. Plant foods have many health-promoting properties, and thus may act like “natural supplements” to a largely meat-based diet. As Biesalski (2002) put it as part of a discussion of meat and cancer:

“… meat consists of a few, not clearly defined cancer-promoting and a lot of cancer-protecting factors. The latter can be optimized by a diet containing fruit and vegetables, which contain hundreds of more or less proven bioactive constituents, many of them showing antioxidative and anticarcinogenic effects in vitro.”

Reference:

Biesalski, H.K. (2002). Meat and cancer: Meat as a component of a healthy diet. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 56(1), S2-S11.

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The Rubbish Diet Challenge: Week 5, Dig for victory

Tomato seedlings on the windowsill in 2009

Can you believe we're now at Week 5 of the Rubbish Diet challenge. How time flies. It doesn't seem that long ago, since I was challenging you to your first weigh-in. I hope all is going well with your efforts to slim your bin and that you're enjoying the mini-challenges.

This week I hope to inspire you to make further inroads into your household waste by doing some extra things around the garden. That is if you happen to be blessed with a small patch to call your own. Even if you don't have a garden, you can still join in if you've only got a windowsill going spare around your home.

This week's guide will get you thinking about how you can reduce waste whilst gardening and how you can use your garden to reduce waste too, helping you to find ways to avoid packaging and divert your kitchen scraps away from the rubbish bin. There are lots of ideas to encourage you to grow your own and includes a mini-guide to composting as well as an introduction to keeping chickens for those who fancy taking their self-sufficiency a little bit further.

So there should be something for everyone this week and even if you're not that much of a keen gardener, I hope you'll get in the spirit and consider planting up at least one small container of your favourite herb, vegetable or fruit-bearing plant.

And if you want to be inspired to compost a bit more, don't just take my word for how easy it is. I've gathered a few examples that have been sent in over the last few months from some of my blogging and Twitter friends, both old and new.

For example, here's how Susanna at A Modern Mother collects her kitchen peelings, in a convenient caddy for transferring to her compost bin in the garden. She's blogged about her composting experiences to help share the knowledge over at
http://www.amodernmother.com/2010/02/how-to-compost.html



And here's an example of how the professionals do it too, thanks to expert gardener Claire Brown from PlantPassion, who saw my plea for photos last year via her Twitter account @PlantPassion. The photo on the left shows the contents from a wooden compost bin, revealing much better quality compost than I make.

Claire sent an example of her plastic dalek composter and new tumbler as well. No doubt, this set up will have some readers browsing with envy.

Claire also sent me a link to a fabulous blogpost she's written about compost bins and rats and includes useful advice, whether you are a novice composter or have been at it for some time. Visit : http://plant-passion.typepad.com/plant_passion/2009/05/could-my-compost-bin-attract-rats.html.


Fellow tweeter and blog reader @MrsBYork sent in a photo of York Rotters' demonstration bin, showing which types of items can go in it. To see a larger version, just click on the photo.







The photo to the right shows Mrs B's compost set up at home, which shows you don't really need much space at all.






Sarah Barnard, author, blogger and Twitter user @ethicstrading, has a couple of dalek type bins and revealed how she managed to get one of them free from her local Frecycle Group. As she says, not bad for a freebie eh! Too right, especially as I had to pay around £20 for mine, which is exactly the same as Sarah's.

Of course if you've got enough land you don't even need to worry about having a container to put it in. You can simply create your own compost heap in a suitable spot that takes your fancy.

So I really don't think I could finish today's introduction to this week's online guide without showing you the king of domestic compost heaps, brought to my attention by fellow Twitter user and composter @MartinCampbell2. Here it is in all its woodland glory. I can only dream of such space and consider it a rather spectacular specimen.



Now it's all very well composting, but eventually you also need to do something with it. Here's an example of what blogger AllGrownUp does with her compost, proving that you don't even need a huge veg patch to justify going to the trouble. In her blogpost she describes what it's like to "harvest" your compost for the very first time and how it's great to have free stuff made from what would otherwise be rubbish.

http://allgrownup06.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-garden.html.

And if you're looking for even more examples of composting, Mrs Green at MyZeroWaste wrote a guide for beginners, which she published on her blog last week: http://myzerowaste.com/2010/02/beginners-guide-to-compost

So with enthusiasm like that, I hope we've all been able to inspire you to get out into whatever space you have and start digging for victory in your war against waste.

Of course you may just fancy putting your feet up until it gets a bit warmer and I can't say I blame you. So let's take advantage with a nice cuppa and grab a moment to read more about this week's Rubbish Diet challenge. You'll find everything you need now online at: http://tinyurl.com/TheRubbishDietWeek5

And when you're finished do go and see how other bloggers are getting on with their own challenges. Share some support and say hi to the following waste watchers: Carol at New Mummy Tips; Pippa at A Mother's Ramblings and Tepary at Grow Family Grow. So far, it looks like they're doing brilliantly. Maybe very soon I'll mention those three little words "Zero Waste Week". Well I might as well start hinting now and it's not as scary as it sounds.

Thanks to everyone who's sent photos and links. It really is appreciated. It's always useful to have a whole range of real-life examples that can be shared with others.

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Vitamin D levels: Sunlight, age, and toxicity

Calcidiol is a pre-hormone that is produced based on vitamin D3 in the liver. Blood concentration of calcidiol is considered to be a reliable indicator of vitamin D status. In the research literature, calcidiol is usually referred to as 25-Hydroxyvitamin or 25(OH)D. Calcidiol is converted in the kidneys into calcitriol, which is the active form of vitamin D.

The table below (from: Vieth, 1999; full reference at the end of this post; click on it to enlarge), shows the average blood vitamin D levels of people living or working in sun-rich environments. To convert from nmol/L to ng/mL, divide by 2.496. For example, 100 nmol/L = 100 / 2.496 ng/mL = 40.1 ng/mL. At the time of this writing, Vieth (1999) had 692 citations on Google Scholar, and probably more than that on Web of Science. This article has had, and continues having, a high impact among researchers.

The maximum average level of blood (or serum) vitamin D shown in the table is 163 nmol/L (65 ng/mL). Given that the human body produces vitamin D naturally from sunlight, it is reasonable to assume that those blood vitamin D levels are not yet at the toxic range. In fact, one of the individuals, a farmer in Puerto Rico, had a level of 225 nmol/L (90 ng/mL). That individual had no signs of toxicity.

Several studies show that pre-sunburn full-body exposure to sunlight is equivalent to an oral vitamin D intake of approximately 250 µg (10,000 IU).

In spite of claims to the contrary, vitamin D production based on sunlight does not cease after 40 years of age or so. Studies reviewed by Vieth suggest that among the elderly (i.e., those aged 65 or above) pre-sunburn full-body exposure to sunlight is equivalent to an oral vitamin D intake of 218 µg (8,700 IU).

Sunlight-induced vitamin D production does seem to decrease with age, but not dramatically.

Post-sunburn sunlight exposure does not increase vitamin D production. Since each person is different, a good rule of thumb to estimate the number of minutes of sunlight exposure needed to maximize vitamin D production is the number of minutes preceding sunburn. For a light-skinned person, this can be as little as 7 minutes.

Vitamin D accumulation in the body follows a battery-like pattern, increasing and decreasing gradually. The figure below, from Vieth’s article, shows the gradual increase in blood vitamin D concentrations following the start of daily supplementation. This suggests that levels start to plateau at around 1 month, with higher levels reaching a plateau after 2 months.

While sunlight exposure does not lead to toxic levels of vitamin D, oral intake may. Below is a figure, also from Vieth’s article, that plots blood levels of vitamin D against oral intake amounts. The X’s indicate points at which intoxication symptoms were observed. While typically intoxication starts at the 50,000 IU intake level, one individual displayed signs of intoxication at 10,000 IU. That individual received a megadose that was supposed to provide vitamin D for an extended period of time.

Non-toxic levels of 10,000 IU are achieved naturally through sunlight exposure. This applies to modern humans and probably our Paleolithic ancestors. Yet, modern humans normally limit their sun exposure and intake of vitamin D to levels (400 IU) that are only effective to avoid osteomalacia, the softening of the bones due to poor mineralization.

Very likely the natural production of 10,000 IU based on sunlight was adaptive in our evolutionary past, and also necessary for good health today. This is consistent with the many reports of diseases associated with chronic vitamin D deficiency, even at levels that avoid osteomalacia. Among those diseases are: hypertension, tuberculosis, various types of cancer, gingivitis, multiple sclerosis, chronic inflammation, seasonal affective disorder, and premature senescence.

Reference:

Reinhold Vieth (May 1999). Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 69, No. 5, 842-856.

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Decluttering: Thank you Suffolk for making it easy to recycle hard plastic

I have to confess that my decluttering antics have not been going great this last week, partly because I've fallen into the zone of despair wondering where else to tackle first. And it's also been a mixed week with my youngest being off school poorly with an unknown allergy rash. While he insists that he's allergic to potatoes, I've spent my time looking after him and balancing all the other things that need doing such as washing pants and having the odd peek into Twitter.

So can you imagine my delight whenI saw a very distracting tweet from @SuffolkHWRC that said [sic]"Hard plastic recycling is now avalible at Hadleigh, Mildenhall & Felixstowe HWRC's".

Well that got me excited in a manner that had me immediately pondering a day out at Felixstowe beach...via a sightseeing visit to the recently upgraded Household Waste Recycling Centre. Poor Mr A, I could imagine the response.

"Here she goes again," he'd say in a less than enthusiastic manner.

But it would be worth it. We've got so many broken plastic toys that have been cluttering up the play shed in the garden that to have the opportunity to send them for recycling would free up a good amount of space.

They are old toys which were down-graded to garden play as soon as they had broken bits and were beyond repair. I couldn't bear the idea of them going to waste in landfill so retained them for a while longer instead. But during the last year, the writing has been on the wall. They're hardly played with anymore and it was time to reconsider their future. My first thought was to advertise them on Freecycle, but even with the group's reputation for saving stuff from landfill, I think a bag of dubious, broken, grit-filled toys may be stretching it somewhat.

There are enough broken toys in the world to share amongst those who find the need, so I think I will give this bag of stuff a new lease of life and take them along to the HWRC.

The good news is however, I discovered yesterday that these facilities are also in place at the HWRC in Bury St Edmunds, so I don't have to circumnavigate the system after all. Mr A will be pleased that he doesn't have to go on a recycling sight-seeing tour next time we're over on the coast.

In fact, when I told him last night about the new facilities at Bury St Edmunds, he gave me a huge grin and said "I know"!

Apparently, he saw the Hard Plastics sign when he was there last time.

Obviously he wasn't as excited as me, as that was weeks ago!

But with my new found knowledge I am now on a mission to go through the children's bedrooms as well as the garden and gather together all of those annoying bits of broken plastic toys. I've also got a few old grotty plastic plates that have seen better days too.

As far as I'm aware, hard plastics recycling facilities are far and few between in the UK, so it's great that this new opportunity has come to Suffolk. The services are operated by a company called Waste Recycling Group. So it's worth checking out their website, to see if they manage waste recovery at a centre near you. Who knows, you might have hard plastic recycling nearby too. Even if it's not available yet, it's always worth checking with your local recycling officer to see if such services are coming soon.

Alternatively, if you're passing through Suffolk, you could always drop them off at a participating recycling centre. Or would that be too cheeky?

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How much vitamin D? Vitamin D Council's recommendations

Since my recent post on problems related to vitamin D deficiency and excess I received several questions. I have also participated in several discussions in other blogs related to vitamin D in the past few days.

There is a lot of consensus about vitamin D deficiency being a problem, but not much about vitamin D in excess being a problem as well.

Some bloggers recommend a lot of supplementation, which may be dangerous because: (a) our body evolved to obtain most of its vitamin D from a combination of sunlight exposure and cholesterol, and thus body accumulation regulation mechanisms are not designed to deal with excessive oral supplementation; and (b) vitamin D, like many fat-soluble vitamins, accumulates in fat tissue over time, and is not easily eliminated by the body when in excess.

The Vitamin D Council has the following general recommendation regarding supplementation:

Take an average of 5,000 IU a day, year-round, if you have some sun exposure. If you have little, or no, sun exposure you will need to take at least 5,000 IU per day. How much more depends on your latitude of residence, skin pigmentation, and body weight. Generally speaking, the further you live away from the equator, the darker your skin, and/or the more you weigh, the more you will have to take to maintain healthy blood levels.

They also provide a specific example:

For example, Dr. Cannell lives at latitude 32 degrees, weighs 220 pounds, and has fair skin. In the late fall and winter he takes 5,000 IU per day. In the early fall and spring he takes 2,000 IU per day. In the summer he regularly sunbathes for a few minutes most days and thus takes no vitamin D on those days in the summer.

For those who have problems with supplementation, here is what Dr. Cannell, President of the Vitamin D Council, has to say:

For people who have trouble with supplements, I recommend sunbathing during the warmer months and sun tanning parlors in the colder months. Yes, sun tanning parlors make vitamin D, the most is made by the older type beds. Another possibility is a Sperti vitamin D lamp.

One thing to bear in mind is that if your diet is rich in refined carbohydrates and sugars, you need to change that before you are able to properly manage your vitamin D levels. You need to remove refined carbohydrates and sugars from your diet. No more white bread, bagels, doughnuts, table sugar, sodas sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup; just to name a few of the main culprits.

In fact, a diet rich in refined carbohydrates and sugars, in and of itself, may be one of the reasons of a person''s vitamin D deficiency in the case of appropriate sunlight exposure or dietary intake, and even of excessive levels of vitamin D accumulating in the body in the case of heavy supplementation.

The hormonal responses induced by a diet  rich in  refined carbohydrates and sugars promote fat deposition and, at the same time, prevent fat degradation. That is, you tend to put on body fat easily, and you tend to have trouble burning that fat.

This causes a "hoarding" effect which leads to an increase in vitamin D stored in the body, and at the same time reduces the levels of vitamin D in circulation. This is because vitamin D is stored in body fat tissue, and has a long half-life, which means that it accumulates (as in a battery) and then slowly gets released into the bloodstream for use, as body fat is used as a source of energy.

It should not be a big surprise that vitamin D deficiency problems correlate strongly with problems associated with heavy consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugars. Both lead to symptoms that are eerily similar; several of which are the symptoms of the metabolic syndrome.

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The Rubbish Diet Challenge: Week 4, cleaning up your mess

Well hello! How are you getting on with your mission to slim your bins? I hope the gradual steps over the the last few weeks have made it easier for you.

Anyway welcome back to Week 4 of the Rubbish Diet challenge, where my alter-ego Delores, will be introducing all sorts of novel ways to tackle the crud that goes in your bin. Look at her! She's a force to be reckoned with and will be rooting through your bins if you're not careful, so if I were you, I'd have a good crack at taking in as many tips as you can from this week's challenge.

Yes, this week's guide takes you through your domestic chores, encouraging you to reassess the amount of stuff that ends up in your rubbish, whether you're doing the washing up, the laundry or just running around the vacuum cleaner. Sorry I meant to write "running around WITH the vacuum cleaner", although I find the original statement far more entertaining.

There are opportunities to slim your bin at every angle through reusable and refillable options. So do keep your eyes peeled for new products that suit your lifestyle. Even Asda is in the news today, announcing the launch of its refillable fabric conditioner trial in five stores across the UK. See the latest article in today's Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenerliving/7119191/Buy-fabric-conditioner-from-refill-machine-to-save-money.html.

But there's even more you can do than that and the great news is with so many alternatives out there, it's not that difficult to reduce the amount of cleaning waste that ends up in your bin.

So to get you in the mood, take a mini-break, grab a cuppa and read the guide to Week 4. You can find it waiting for you at:

http://tinyurl.com/TheRubbishDietWeek4

And when you've finished, let me know how you get on and I promise I'll keep Delores at bay!

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UPDATE: Here's a bit of link-love. To see what NixdMinx makes of Ecover's latest range of waste-free products and how she's getting on without kitchen roll, pop over to her post about Green Living.

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