Ice Cream is Good for You!

Ice Cream is not only good, it’s good for you too! But don’t overdo!

Ice Cream in the Food Pyramid

Dietary guidelines from the Food Pyramid tell us to include 2-3 portions of milk, yogurt or cheese in our diet everyday. USDA says okay to Ice Cream.

Fat in Ice Cream

Recently, food scientists have discovered there is good fat and bad fat. Everyone needs some good fat in their diet. Fat is an important part of a healthy diet, because it helps our bodies and brains stay healthy.

Fat is used by the brain and the nervous system. Toddlers and young children need a good amount of fat because their brains are developing so quickly. Kids from 6-8 years old should eat 50-60 grams daily. Kids from 9-12 years old should have 60-75 grams in their diet each day. If you have a balanced diet, about 30% of calories should come from fat.

Food labels list the fat content per serving size, so it isn’t too hard to figure out if you are getting enough fat in your diet.

For example:
On average, Peanut Butter contains 16 grams of fat in a 2 Tablespoon serving. Compare that with Ice Cream that contains 14 grams of fat in one serving.

Good Facts About Fat

Fat helps fuel the body. Energy comes from burning fat. Fat helps vitamins travel in the body to where they are used to build healthy cells. Fats are necessary to make hormones. And it takes fat to create tissue for the nervous system. Without fat we wouldn’t think clearly or move as quickly.

What is Ice Cream?

According to Canada’s Food and Drug Act Ice Cream is mostly air. In fact, only 36% of Ice Cream is solid, that leaves 64% puffed air. Out of the 36% solid, only 8% of Ice Cream is milk/fat, 2% is flavor, syrup, fruit or nuts.

What’s your favorite Ice Cream?

A survey by the International Dairy Foods Association reported Vanilla as the most popular Ice Cream flavor. Here’s the breakdown:

1. 29% Vanilla
2. 12% Chocolate
3. 11% Nuts
4. 8% Neapolitan
5. 7% Cookies/Baked Flavors
6. 5% Fruit
7. 4% Candy Flavor
8. 3% Strawberry
9. 3% Chocolate Chip
10. 3% Mint Chocolate Chip
11. 2% Coffee
12. 2% Fudge/Marble
13. 11% Miscellaneous /Everything else

Vanilla sells the most because it’s the main ingredient in milk shakes, Ice Cream cakes, banana splits and it’s great on Apple Pie!

The Right Amount

Wise people tell us that Moderation is the Key to Good Health Habits. What that means is too much is not a good thing but too little probably isn’t very good either. There is a balance that is correct. So when it comes to Ice Cream how do you know what’s right? Simply, you don’t want to eat lots of it in one sitting , and you don’t want to eat it every day.

Keep Ice Cream special and you won’t eat too much. Eat Ice Cream on special occasions or just once in a while. Ice Cream was designed as a dessert treat for Kings. It adds sweet fun after a meal. It adds delicious delight to Birthday Celebrations.

Remember, a portion of Ice Cream is just one scoop.

Follow the guidelines and you won’t overdo. You can Eat Ice Cream and Enjoy it too!

Smooth Heels

There are few things as pleasing as producing something that is useful, good for you, and environmentally friendly.

Some of the best home-made cosmetics recipes come from Rosemary Gladstar and Jeanne Rose. Both women are long standing matriarchs of the herbal movement. Both women share their wisdom with the next generations of herbalist.


Although I can’t recall exactly where I got this recipe, it has proven useful, good for me and environmentally friendly. So I decided to share it.

With summer comes sandals and with sandals comes dry heels.

Heel Softener
1 tablespoon cocoa butter
1 tablespoon marshmallow root powder
1 teaspoon beeswax
1 teaspoon avocado oil

Place all ingredients in a glass or ceramic pot. Warm until all ingredients are melted together. Stir. Remove from heat. Pour into a jar. Cool.

Use with a pumice stone for best results.

Good Morning Blue Jays

This sporty fellow in the blue suit stops by the bird feeder each morning. A voracious appetite sends him on his morning rounds through the neighborhood cafeteria, Cyanocitta cristata better known as Blue Jays are omnivorous.

A most aggressive bird, the Blue Jay drops and swoops onto the ground chasing a Titmouse of her low hanging perch in the process munching a beetle bug, then bounds back up to the seed feeder for a taste, then one hop to the peanut butter grain mix and off over the fence into the wild of the Commons Hollow Property. These birds range across most of the United States and are unique in their coloring and behavior.

Larger than most back yard birds, Blue Jays average 9 -12 inches high with a 13- 17 inch wing span. They are easily identified by their blue and white feathers with black about the neck and a stripe at the eye. Males and females are virtually identical.

Blue Jay families are highly vocal, calling to each other relaying locations of delicious snacks, water and each other. They also warn when hawks or other predators come within range.

Bird Watching books and magazines encourage responsible environmental stewardship, as well as just having a great time with friends and family learning about the place we live.

For more information about Blue Jays, visit these and other web sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jay
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Blue_Jay.html
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/bluejay.htm

Truly a delightful time, watching Blue Jays will captivate the attention of young and old alike.

Mother's Day 2008

For Mother’s Day 2008 to meet expectations it must reach an estimated spending spree of $3.8 billion. This breaks down, according to IBIS World, in the following way: $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts, and $68 million on greeting cards. Notably, 7.8% of jewelry sales are attributed to Mother’s Day gifts.

Greeting card holidays always seemed, well, commercial. Instead, it seems that a tribute paid to honorable people, or ideals might be better served in thoughtful deed at a more logical or appropriate time.

The purpose of the acknowledged origins of Mother’s Day are many. Several cultures site the observance of Goddess manifestation in Mother Goddess or Earth Goddess.

Clearly, the moment of birth or beginning gave the ancient ones pause. The act of becoming Mother in ancient times, as today is an journey of transfiguration for the woman into Mother and the Child into existence. While an occurrence happening everyday, each event is one that should be observed with awe and wonder.

Later, as in the American tradition, the women who sought to call a particular day, Mother’s Day had another agenda, most notably, anti-war or pro-sanitation stances for the American population. These women hoped to find within other women the force of will to make our society less violent and more caring, as a Mother might seek these conditions for her children, so should society seek to make better the conditions of each citizen.

It seems logical that most Mothers would be for Peace, yet, War Continues around the world. It seems that the world would have made headway in some way with “Mothers Against” name your type of pain & suffering, as it shows itself in Lack of Care, Lack of Funding, Lack of Love, yet we find reports of suffering in the daily paper as well as down the street, perhaps, next door.

It was my desire that my children not observe these quirky cultural days in relation to me. Should they desire to do so otherwise with their offspring, that is a choice they will make.

The experiment seems to be successful as we went about our business in much the same way as we do everyday. In much contrast to the day becoming hectic with additional obligations of a “nice dinner out”, our regular simple faire is quite acceptable.

Time is the gift I received with a bit more sleep in the morning, calm throughout the day, a chance to regroup before another busy week and meditation in the sun on this lovely Mother’s Day.