Palm oil controversy

If you received this month's National Geographic, you may have already seen the article titled Borneo's Moment of Truth. It goes into detail how Borneo's rainforests are being destroyed by palm oil plantations.

Of course my first move was to check my Spectrum Organic Palm Oil, and thankfully, it is produced sustainably.

Oils like palm and coconut are not bad for you. In fact, coconut oil is surprisingly good for you. Certainly, fats that are artificially modified to be solid at room temperature are much worse for your body than the naturally occurring kinds. Coconut oil barely qualifies in this regard; it turns to liquid at about 76 degrees. Also, if you regularly consume these fats along with high amounts of sugar, you are going to have a problem. I am of the opinion that eating sugar is far worse for your body than fat is. Our ancestors ate fat for hundreds upon thousands of years. Sugar is too new to be considered food by our bodies.

So! All of that being said, you don't have to feel guilty about using your Spectrum organic palm shortening. It's produced sustainably and that makes us and the planet very happy.

On to my recipe for today. I made a moisturizer for my son and myself. My son has very dry skin, and my legs get itchy sometimes, so after using it on him, I started using it on myself. Now I'm hooked! Plus, it's 100 percent organic.

ORGANIC PALM OIL MOISTURIZER

2 cups Spectrum palm oil shortening
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Simply Organic orange flavor (ingredients: organic sunflower oil, organic orange oil)
EDIT: 1 tbsp olive oil

Whip it up with beaters until it gets a bit fluffy. Then use a little bit and see if you like the level of smell from the orange flavor. If you want more, add some and whip it up again. If not, you're done.

Of course, you can use any other extracts that don't contain sugar. Extracts without sugar and chemicals should be rule one for anybody following SCD anyway, so go nuts with whatever's in your cabinet at the time. :)

Put it into any container you wish -- I picked a plastic screw top Ziploc round container to cut down on the chance that I'd break something. Let's face it, I'm a klutz.

You can also use a bit as lip balm if you like -- this moisturizer is completely edible!

I wanted to add a quick note about Spectrum oils. I had been using Spectrum coconut oil to treat my son's cradle cap. I just grabbed a different brand while in a hurry, and it is not working as well at all. It was an unrefined brand -- that wasn't the mistake. So, word to the wise. Apparently brands do matter when it comes to coconut oil.