(about a 12 minute read)
Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni1) is a small subtropical shrub with very sweet leaves and a complicated history. Here is some of what you might want to know before choosing if and how you'll use stevia-based sweeteners, along with tips on growing and using your own stevia plants.
Part 2 of 2; Part 1 is here | Approximately a 6 minute read
How did we become dependent on the doctor visit and the prescription? What happened to the ways we cared for our families before modern pharmaceutical medicine?
When the globalized economy replaces local ways of living, people exchange broad skills and community-reliance for specialized career paths.
Instead of sharing time and resources with family and neighbors to meet everybody's needs, people start to work jobs to pay for basics — and also for new commodities that are assumed essential to living a modern life.
Paying for your needs with money means you need not rely on friends and neighbors, so families and communities are no longer so tightly bound together. Instead of relying on themselves and each other, families now rely on corporate providers and outside experts.
Local knowledge fades away and the understanding of natural remedies grows dim, all but replaced by the profitable kind of medicine that only experts know.
Part 1 of 2; Part 2 is here | Approximately a 6 minute read
Our culture loves the quick fix.
The quicker it works and the less effort we have to put into it, the better we like it. We have fast food, fast internet, fast aps, and... pharmaceutical medicine.
Pharmaceutical medicine is the medical equivalent of fast food – its fast, its convenient, and it erodes our health over time.
In contrast, at-home healthcare and natural remedies are like home-cooked, real food – they take more time and effort and they work more slowly.
Over time, at-home healthcare and natural remedies build robust health on many levels, individual and collective.