Bamboo Biodiesel Taxi

This Bamboo Taxi Van runs on coconut biodiesel fuel. Looks so pretty and fun for a trip around town.

Picture and article are at Fast Company.

Sausage and ice cream shop?

While in the U.P. I asked for directions from the dimestore clerk (they still have a dime store in Crystal Falls!) on how to get to th St. Vincent DePaul store - the equivalent to a Goodwill store here. She told me to go down 2 blocks to the ice cream shop. Went outside looking down the street ........no ice cream shop in sight. That's cuz it really is the sausage shop. Is it just me, or is that an odd combination or what?
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Patent for cranberry seed oil claims anti-cancer properties

Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. has won a patent for a method of extracting oil from the tiny seeds of cranberries. This news makes me want to go out and buy a bag of cranberries and just take a look at those seeds....pretty tiny if I remember correctly. It will take an awful lot of berries to come up with enough oil with therapeutic value, but Ocean Spray is wise to come up with a product that uses the left over mash left from squeezing out all that juice. The patent claims the extracted oil can be used for “treating or reducing the occurrence of breast cancer,” among other diseases. This is a pretty powerful claim, and from what I have read all research is definitely in the preliminary stage.

The patent claims the use of the oil for its anticancer, hypocholesterolemic, antithrombotic, antioxidizing, antiatherogenic, antiinflammatory, and immunoregulatory properties. I am already a big believer in the use of grapefruit seed extract and I think it makes sense that seeds would be powerhouses in medicinal value. Just think of the nutrient value one gets from seed sprouts. I would think that one could look at the beneficial aspects of a vegetable or fruit and then look to the seed for the corresponding concentrated benefit.

Here are some reference links: Beverage Daily Article ; Journal of New England Technology Article

The above cranberry image comes from Information Website for Cranberry Seed Extracts which provides exactly the information it says it does! No product page though, and is provided by a company called Fruit Essentials Incorporated....I have no idea who they are except that they are located in Wisconsin, not New England.

I did find a botanical seed oil available online at Botanic Oil Innovations, so obviously this is a market that is being jumped on by others. I have no affiliation or monetary connection to any of these links by the way. Just thought they might be helpful.


- donna

Contradictions to some current propaganda against soy products

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-soy-compound-and-bone-building.html

Direct quote:

After two years, those taking the soy product had better bone mineral density than those taking placebo. "[Even] after one year, there was a clear difference in the women who got the genistein," said Steven Wilson, a biostatistician at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, and a co-author of the study, published June 19 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.


The research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and the University of Messina, Italy.

Genistein, an isoflavone phytoestrogen, is found abundantly in soybean products. Experts who study it hope it can build bone without the adverse side effects -- such as increased risk of heart disease and certain cancers -- associated with hormone replacement therapy.

Published ahead of printed in the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers reviewed the findings of 15 studies and found despite the claims that soy lowers testosterone levels. Soy consumption had no significant effect on testosterone