Do you think diet affects allergies?

I always see people who suffer terribly from allergies, and I often wonder ... what is the root cause of them? I am always suspicious because I have never really had allergies, I mean if I am sitting in a dust cloud, of course I get a sore throat and sniffles, but in general I've never had chronic allergies.

Am I lucky, or is there more to it? I really want to believe that diet plays a large part in this. Some people think that's crazy, but in general I feel like a large percentage of common ailments could be cured by change in diet. So could seemingly healthy people be causing their own allergies by eating food loaded with chemicals and pesticides and hormones? I think so, of course I have no proof otherwise nor am I a professional.

I do know that since I have changed my diet (I've always eaten healthy balanced meals) to be mostly organic, I very rarely get sick or tired, unless there is a very good reason. I have seen people who seem to be chronically sick go to McDonald's or Taco Bell for lunch in the middle of complaining that they don't feel well. I have also seen people who have chronic allergies drinking many sodas per day while eating candy bars for lunch, then go to the doctor for an allergy shot.

I really have no idea, but I do feel like most people look for a pill or some other sort of medicine before fixing the obvious, and I would like to believe that the way I take care of myself is at least part of the reason that I am healthy.

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Federal bill helps huge farmers, not California's innovative ones

An interesting fact I saw in an article:

Federal bill helps huge farmers, not California's innovative ones
Carolyn Lochhead
San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau
Sunday, September 23, 2007

"Organic farming has breathtaking potential to improve the environment in ways only dimly understood by the American public and urban lawmakers. If you recycle or drive a Prius, consider this next time you go to a supermarket: One-quarter of California - 27.6 million acres - is farmland, much of it in the heavily polluted San Joaquin Valley. Agriculture covers 40 percent of the land in the United States. How food is grown on that land has big consequences for the air, waterways and wildlife. California now has more than 220,000 acres of certified organic cropland, more than any other state, but still a fraction of the total."

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An organic garden by default

I have an updated version of this post at my new site, Idealist Cafe. Read it over here.

I'm back in Connecticut now visiting my family, and I just had this realization today. I love San Diego and would never really want to move back here to CT, but man does my parent's yard make me jealous. I was thinking about it today and all the possibilities in regards to gardening and growing food.


To start with, there is an apple tree in the yard that is producing apples, with zero upkeep by my mom. It was planted many years ago, and she actually had no idea that there were full size apples on it. Obviously organic also. Along the driveway there are tons of wild grapes. They taste like crap, but that's besides the point. During blueberry season in the past there have been wild blueberries growing. There are wild cherry trees all over the place.


Also, she has a basil plant unlike any I've ever seen before. In her garden, there is a plethora of tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash. And all this grows without any attention on her part. She plants them, then leaves them. No watering except for potted stuff, no fertilizers except all the old stuff that has naturally been composted.

It's crazy. She could literally run an organic farm with minimal maintenance if she wanted to. She's got three acres and the garden probably doesn't even use 1% of the space. This that I've listed is the basics, stuff she barely even tends it, but it shows the potential of it. If someone could just reign in the potential she could probably sell produce, sell grapes for winemaking, sell fresh blueberries, sell pumpkins, salsas, apples ... all by barely doing what she does now anyway.

I mean, just look at these photos.




If you liked this post, please visit my other website, Idealist Cafe, where I have a blog, some green and sustainable tips, and much more.

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Earth Day

I learned of this company, Mission Playground, today at the Balboa Park Earth Day Festival. They've got some great eco clothes, very cool shirts, with great messages, and very affordable.

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