The operant word in that previous sentence being need.

Because somehow, at some point that whizzed past my eyes, we’ve arrived at a time where corporations are making products for, get this:

Consumer Stereotype Novelty.

I know. I know. I must be mad for thinking that a company — a natural care company at that — would ever stoop so low as to produce products simply because it matches the stereotype of their consumer and, as a result, creates a novelty, rather than being based out of desire or necessity.

But here I am, about to tell you how Weleda have done that; and what’s worse, they’ve gone ahead and made a product which is not only novel in the most banal sense, but will also go ahead and give you mouth ulcers. Hurray.

So, as I’m always on the lookout for new vegan/natural body/oral care products in my local Waitrose (they now have half 7 vegan-safe haircare products, where previous there were 2!), I noticed a few weeks ago that they had begun to stock Weleda’s Salt Toothpaste.

My curiosity aroused and my teeth awaiting a try, I came home to try it out.

The taste is in the name, and whilst table salt (sodium chloride) is only the 13th ingredient, the taste was not all that pleasant. Admittedly, I did get accustomed to it after my sixth brush, but by this point the salt toothpaste had begun to unload its adverse effects. And adverse they were.

Indeed, by the sixth brush (I brush my teeth twice a day, sometimes three times if I’ve eaten particularly sugary foods — I take oral hygiene very seriously) an ulcer had begun to form in my mouth. Awesome.

Thinking nothing of it (ulcers can be attributed to citrus fruits, which I’d eaten the previous day), I cut my citrus fruit intake and continued to brush my teeth with the stuff. Not only did it sting like a BITCH, but the next day that forming ulcer had become a real nasty one (like, you have no idea) and another had formed. Both in close proximity to my teeth. Oye.

The next day I checked the ingredients and discovered, to my shock, some serious questionables. Suffice it to say, Weleda’s Salt Toothpaste is not the natural! Gentle! Loving! Ecological for your being! deliciousness that I had been promised. Not. Happy. Between the denatured alcohol and parfum (= perfume, and isn’t specified if it has assface chemicals in), I couldn’t help but be left behind feeling a little bereft.

I’m not happy. Whatsoever. And Weleda’s Salt Toothpaste is the exact reason why. I can’t enjoy my weekly hummus binge and I most certainly can’t have my usual Thursday night colourful vegetable binge. Yeah, I’m a sad health freak, but dude? Seriously? Uber huge ulcers in my mouth are the shits.

And that’s why, after much frustration and wincing in pain, I give Weleda’s salt toothpaste an unsightly:

]]> http://www.thedailywiggle.com/2010/why-i-threw-weledas-salt-toothpaste-in-the-bin-fast/feed/ 1 http://www.thedailywiggle.com/2010/home-2009-film/ http://www.thedailywiggle.com/2010/home-2009-film/#comments Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:50:16 +0000 Matt http://www.thedailywiggle.com/?p=1234 There are few things in the world, least of all films, which begin, middle and end awe-inspiringly. Yet, as surprised as I was, Yann Arthur-Bertrand’s 2009 Film ‘Home‘ did just that, and without seeming like they were trying, to boot.

Home's title card stands for almost everything it embodies.

When I first stumbled upon Home I wasn’t enthused to go and watch it. On the contrary, I was pretty sure that Home would just be another ‘The Earth is dying and it’s YOUR fault’ movie. The fact is that ‘Global Warming’ has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars for the film industry just as much as it has Western governments and my drive to go and get told why I’m fucking up my own planet, quite frankly, was not how I wanted to spend my Wednesday evening. Thankfully, I had gotten Home quite wrong.

To begin, Home opens with a curious clip of all of the child brands of the PPR Group (the organization that sponsored Home to cover all of their extra costs) swirling around, merging together into the title card for the film. For a film that whiffs of environmentalism even before you begin, it almost puts you off balance of what’s going on: have they uploaded the wrong video? Has some crazy 4chan corporation swapped the video? Sadly, this rather unsightly entry into Home leaves you with low expectations. And even more thankfully, these are then blown out of the water several seconds later with the actual beginning of Home.

After the title card swoops in, the film begins; this is the point where you will either crap your pants in awe or wonder if your eyes just got a Hi-Def-blu-ray-omg-wtf-bbq upgrade. As every shot in Home was filmed in extremely high-definition, the entire sequence of footage flows excellently and produces a real masterpiece of cinematography.

The narrator (Glenn Close) suddenly stars her voiceover. “Listen to me, please,” she begins, “you’re like me.” Her soft, almost raspy voice lends well to the overall feel of Home, and as she’s one of the two entire components of the film, rightfully so. Whilst others might assume someone like Morgan Freeman would fit the role for such a large undertaking, Close delivers something far more ethereal — and far more perfect — in Home. There’s a humility in Close’s voice and it fits just perfectly with what Home is all about; our common humanity is shown well, and whilst her scripting no doubt has a large part to play in this, there’s an excellence spun into Home from the very first, to the very last, words that Close speaks.

Whilst Home is an environmental film, the truth is that Home features far more on the humanity of life on Earth than the impact we’re having. Indeed, only the latter portion of the entire film is about climate change, and even this is given an unexpected twist near the end — contrasted against the usual ‘The world is ending. Run to the hills’ attitude — Home manages to balance ecological awareness with historical and scientific facts.

Indeed, the message of Home is almost a little paradoxical than expected. Where usually I would see some expectation forced on the viewer for them to suddenly become an eco-warrior, there is encouragement of moderation, intelligence and personal responsibility for a greater whole. Rather than trying to push me into the pocket of environmentalism, Home concludes with positivity, hope and real kindness. This, to me, is what makes Home truly striking. They push past the front beauty of the footage presented and really open up the deep mechanisms behind it all; the giant web of life that exists all around us. The role of the consumer. Above everything, the bigger picture in all of our lives, without the bullying nature of general ecological films.

However, there are some real kinks in Home which really make me wonder about to what extent Home is anything more than a voiceover and some fancy cinematography. As you see right from the start, Home was sponsored by the PPR group. PPR contains brands such as Gucci, Puma and YvesSaintLaurent, all of which, just like any other corporations and their respective brands, are based upon consumerism and, ultimately, damage the planet. Whilst I can understand that the PPR group may have simply wanted exposure, the question remains how unadulterated Home really is in all of this.

Nonetheless, Home has a lot to offer to everyone, regardless of age or personal opinion. We see the world, from the mass greenhouses of Spain to the Ganges in India and bush fires in Australia, in the true frame which exists around all of humanity. It’s hard to really quantify Home, and trying to pull it together now holds true to that. I would watch Home again, if not for its message but for the jaw-droppingly stunning beauty of the film. Whilst some parts do feel a little bit “Let’s save the planet from global warming otherwise we’re all going to die”, ultimately there exists a compassion about Home that makes it gentle even for the most cynical of us. For that, I award Home a delicious

9 out of 10 stars

Home is free to watch on the HomeProject channel.

It’s a difficult balance to find, and even the best hand soaps out there have issues.

For the past year I’ve been using Ecover to keep my muts clean at home. Sadly, with winter came chapped, dry skin and few natural oils left on my hand; my Ecover soap, sadly, not doing me any favours. Cracked, bleeding knuckles became the norm.

Not cool.

A few days ago I stumbled upon a new soap, made by Organic Surge who proclaim on the front of their o-so-special soaps that they’re soft on sensitive skin.

I snatched a bottle and span it round in my hands: “We’re against animal testing” it said.

A quick cringe, as that can sometimes mean “we don’t like animal testing, so we make our parent company do it instead“, as, I believe, was the case in the very beginning of Tom’s of Maine.

I got home after having bought a bottle and jumped on the internets. Thankfully, their clear FAQ section details that they do not test on animals, nor are any of their ingredients tested on animals.

That’s an extra 10 points for them, right then and there.

So I went for a tinkle, realised I hadn’t brought it up, opened the bathroom door with my elbows and fetched it, and then tried it out.

I want to be EXTREMELY EMPHATIC ABOUT ITS AWESOMENESS, but I’m worried that you won’t believe me.

Because Organic Surge’s hand soap?

Oh. Em. Gee.

EVERY other soap I’ve ever used leaves my hands clean but, hmm, a little stripped. Even so-called “sensitive skin” soaps usually chap me a teensy bit, often having Sodium Laurel Sulphate or Sodium Laureth Sulphate in it, which can be a bit of a catch-all cleanser.

Great if your skin is, y’know, not vulnerable to EVERYSINGLECHANGEINTHEATMOSPHERE.

If, however, you have more, ahem, delicate skin? It’s a different story.

And that’s why I am counting my stars or blessings or whatever, because this stuff? It’s good. REAL good.

I finished washing my hands, gave them a good dry-down with a towel and checked for dryness.

There was none. Absolutely none.

Considering that the back of my hands had gotten that teeny-tiny flaky skin thing when your skin is dry, and then the little-finger knuckle’s skin had split made me shocked.

Real shocked.

Because not only had my skin suddenly become soft like a baby’s rear, but the cracks on the knuckle had sealed right up, forming a teensy crust.

Kinda disgusting, I know, but the fact that this soap had banished my dry and splitting skin in one wash… well, I think that’s the testimont to all-natural products.

I did mention that Organic Surge products are free from parabens, sodium lauryl/laureth sulphate, chemical irritants, artificial fragrances, synthetic colourants and chemical alcohol, didn’t I?

Well I should have. Because my gawd, it’s making a difference.

If you’ve ever suffered from a case of dry-skin-itis, or happen to be plagued by having the back of your hands feel all rough, I’d seriously recommend Organic Surge’s hand soaps.

This review is based upon their Bergamot soap, but I find it VERY hard to believe the other fragrence would be much different.

You have my unconditional vote on this: a very effective, high-quality product in a very competitive market.

I’m sold.

Organic Surge hand soap gets a rare full marks here:

10 Out Of 10 Stars

Hence, why so many people, omnis and vegetarians, find cheese to be such a central part of their lives.

And that’s why so many vegans find they have cravings for cheese randomly, after months or even years into being vegan.

As always, in our modern world getting ones vegan muts on an alternative to non-vegan foods is pretty darned easy.

Enter Cheezly by Redwood Foods.

Warning, the Redwood website is quite strange and may freeze your browser (like it did to mine!).

I’ll be honest, when I first thought about eating non-vegan cheese I didn’t have the highest expectations. And honestly? Those medium expectations were just about fulfilled.

The reality is that “cheeze” (vegan cheese), will always be a false product. No matter how I try to clothe it, I can’t help but remember that what I’m eating is something processed. Here’s the low-down:

Cons… D:

• The cheese taste isn’t massively strong, and there isn’t any cheese smell to pick up on when you’re preparing it. As such, your senses aren’t hugely tricked.
• When it ‘melts’ it turns into a hunk of gunk. It doesn’t look all that appealing, there isn’t any difference in colour among the melted cheeze and there’s NO way it’s gonna get stretchy.
• If you leave it in a non-airtight container (ie. in your fridge uncovered), it will turn pink in a few days. Disconcerting? You betcha.
• If you cook cheezly in the oven (say, on a pizza), you’ll find the cheeze either disintegrated into the tomato-sauce base or dried-out and browned on the top. Not fantastic, for sure.
• There is a fair amount of saturated fat in most of the Cheezly range, so best it be more of a one-off than a regular to your refrigerador.

Pros!

• Cheezly doesn’t have any cholesterol, trans fat, artificial colours, artificial preservatives, wheat, gluten, genetically-modified ingredients or casein. In a lot of soy products like vegan cheeze and tofu, the original soya can have been genetically-modified. For people like me who outright protest the genetic-modification of plants, this is FANTASTIC.
• Cheezly comes in a wheel, not in plastic slices, so you can do whatever you like with it, which is nice.
• Its consistency when preparing is JUST like cheese. If you grate it too hard it’ll start to crumble a little; if you keep it in your hand for 20 seconds it’ll start to melt a tiny bit.
• All of Redwood’s products are verified by the vegetarian and vegan society, which is a very trust-inducing label.
• The calories in the Cheezly range? AT LEAST HALF that of normal cheeze. That means you can have double!

Ultimately, Cheezly cheeze by Redwood is just about what you should expect: a fake cheese that acts like a fake cheese. If you’re DYING for the taste of cheese then it could very well be an adequate solution, but there’s real doubt in my mind that it’ll ever become a regular for my belly.

I give Cheezly a fair but firm 6.5/10 Stars.

For me? I love a good appliance. A busty blender. An magnificent mixer.

This week: A miniature food processor (“mini chopper”) by the oft-proclaimed master in the kitchen appliance world, Kenwood.

Now first and foremost, I’ve gotta say I was initially DYING to try this out. Not only did we not have any sort of food-processor-type appliance in our kitchen (boo!), but also, being a vegan, I need something that can chop, grind and partially-purée products efficiently. After the Kenwood blender attachment to our big Kenwood mixer station turned out to be, well, a bit ineffective at blending anything but the most water-based of potions, I was having to smush everything up with a hand blender.

Not fun. Especially with tomato-based things (read: TOMATO EVERYWHERE).

So, where was I? Oh yeah. The mini chopper and my epic excitement. Not only was it something I’d been needing for such a long while, it had the sticker pictured right attached to it, too. Considering I’d drop my homosexual trou’ for Delia Smith (below) at any point in the day, I was looking forward to whipping up mini batches of delicious with my new mini chopper.

I wish I could deliver happier news.

My first foray into using it was of lukewarm success. The sauce had been whizzed into an acceptible thickness and my pasta seemed to enjoy its state of liquidity. Unfortunately, this was probably the best I could get out of this little hunk of technology.

On the second use I found the screw-on top of the processor got itself stuck and then, as I went to wash my hands, something suddenly exploded and richocheted off the side of the fridge. After recovering from my sudden “OMGWTFATERRORISTISINTHEHOUSE” reaction, I soon found that the base had somehow screwed itself on too tightly (which is odd, as the screw only has one “track” to go down). The base had chipped and then flung off. Not fantastically inspired by this, but I went on. Everything gets a little broken, right?

On my third attempt, using it seemed to go okay until the blade, which I had under-estimated in uber sharpness, suddenly ripped out a chunk of my thumb. That was a fun, blood-filled night, for sure.

On the fourth and, honestly, most frustrating-of-them-all go, I found the mini chopper battling something which I would’ve thought would be EASY for a food processor, mini or not: herbs. Sadly, the chopper just couldn’t handle them very well and, despite the piercing wails that it produced, my basil and thyme remained unchopped. I was not amused.

And tonight? After a thorough washing from last time’s experience I promptly found a gush of trapped water ruminating in one of its several shafts. After attempting to wash, drain and dry it all out, I’m still pretty sure I’ve just infected myself with some type of fungus.

Arguably, Kenwood’s “Mini Chopper” is living up to the same expectation which we should expect: a small, extremely-sharp bladed, screamingly-loud food processor fit to process very small quantities at a time. The entire contraption seems to have 2 settings built into it: screechingly fast and quiet-screechingly stuck. Frankly, coming from a company which touts itself as being the best in the kitchenware business, its mini food processor leaves a lot to be desired; not to mention, cleaned.

And for that reason I would urge you to purchase a more conventional Kenwood food processor rather than the mini chopper unless you’re prepared to do a lot of awkward drying, put up with something screaming in your kitchen and your herbs to wrap around the blade connector shaft.

It is because of all of this that…

Unimpressed, I give Kenwood’s Mini Chopper a frustrated 3 out of 10

Between devouring hummus and chomping on carrots, there soon comes a point where you long for pizza. And creamy pasta. And, at times, something a little more ‘meaty’.

It’s not that we have any real desire to eat animals or their products; it’s the texture, the taste, the associations.

Now, of course, in this “day and age” finding vegan alternatives to “normal” foods is an easy task for us veganos. But what happens when you want to make something a little more complex and curious, like Black-Bean Burgers, Tofu Florentine or Green-Tea Icecream Sandwiches?

Lucky for us, we have books like Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and, my most favourite, Veganomicon.

Now, before I go anywhere, I’ve got to admit to you that I’ve not tried a huge amount of recipes yet.

That’s not to say that the recipes are necessarily long, cumbersome or difficult to produce. Rather, I’m lazy.

What I CAN say is that every. single. recipe. I’ve tried so far has come out FANTASTICALLY.

Like, you know when you recipes and see the pictures and are all like “Yeah, but they had 10 people on hand to help them make it and had all the perfect ingredients and no doubt cooked 3 of the same things and then took a picture”? Well, that’s what I am… with all recipe books, no matter what.

So imagine my SUPREME delight when, on my 6th recipe, even with a couple of Matt-style substitutions (as in, “I prefer the taste of this more even though it won’t go with the recipe”), the food survived!

Time and time again the recipes have come out on top — so much so that my own meat-inhaling dad decided that he wanted some of my ‘funny vegan stuff’. True story.

The fact is that Veganomicon is the most elaborate vegan cookbooks I have ever encountered in my time as a vegan (coming up to 3 years around April). Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily call it ‘exhaustive’, there are easily enough recipes in there to be cooked and adapted to last, quite literally, almost a lifetime.

On the same fantastic vein, if you have any specific deitary requirements such as a soy allergy, gluten intolerance, dislike for fat, or if you only have access to a Plain Jane supermarket, every recipe is counter-marked against if it’s soy-free or can be made under 45 mins. Nifty or what?

Naturally, I have a few grips with any cookbook — Veganomicon is no different.

My biggest gripe had to be the curious style of recipe categorization. Instead of listing the recipes in typical “Breakfast”, “Lunch”, “Dinner” or “Sunday Afternoon Food”, “Finger Food”, “Hearty Meals” format, they instead went for the main ingredient of the dish as the categories. For some people that might be well and good, for me it’s a little bit of an inconvenience. I enjoy being able to use a cookbook in the same way I would use a shop window: to browse what catches my interests. Unfortunately, with Veganomicon, that liberty is somewhat lacking.

Likewise, because Veganomicon is a US-written book, all of its measurements are in cups and ounces. As I currently live in the UK I find it somewhat difficult to judge how much of what I need to put in as I don’t have a set of measuring cups (as they aren’t standard kitchen equipment over here). Consequently, sometimes I ‘eyeball’ how much of an ingredient I need or use mugs to measure. Albeit every recipe has come out beautifully so far, I can’t help but feel a little precarious just chucking in ingredients without knowing how much I’m using.

Overall Veganomicon is a fantastic cookbook which, despite my little gripes, I would warmly recommend to any vegan peeps who don’t already have this sacred tome of vegan deliciousness. It’s expansive, comes with lots of little tips (along with a how-to guide on cooking vegetables and a section on low-fat cooking) and contains a fantastic range of recipes that are so good you would wonder why you ever ate meat in the first place!

I award Veganomicon a vegany 8.5 stars out of 10!

I mean,TV is fine for a while. But, just between you and me, I get pretty tired of watching predictable storylines and un-original content which I could find on 7 other channels.

So, being a typical man, I decided to return to my computer-game playing roots and checked out something I’ve been looking to play for a good long while:

Supreme Commander.

Labelled as the “spiritual successor” to the fondly-remembered Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander holds the same premise of technologically-advanced factions fighting each other to gain the highest level of power in their universe.

Now, as you can tell from the name, Supreme Commander was intended to be a game where you’d have an extremely large amount going on all at once. Indeed, it touts a simple scrolling system to be able to zoom out from your current view into a map-wide one. In the same fashion, you can narrow all the way down to see waves running up shorelines and individual turrents on your naval units.

The game itself consists of 3 separate factions: The United Earth Federation (“UEF”), the Cybran Nation and the Aeon.

The UEF is a militaric ‘federation’ whose intent is to impose peace through the use of baring arms. Their units are pretty vanilla in style and, overall, hold to be the most ‘human’ looking of the three factions (go figure…).

The Cybran Nation are a group of cyborg humans who, originally, lived in peace with normal humans until riots started to break out and they left to form their own colonies (after a large amount of these cyborg humans were ‘pacified’, as the intro to the game informs us). Their units appear to be much more hellish-looking, with small, random, jutting spikes being present on most things you build.

The last is the Aeon, a group of mysterious humanoids who practice something called ‘the way’. It is inferred to us that the way supports peace throughout the universe, though, just like with the UEF, they demand it through the use of arms. This faction is much more ethereal looking — most structures have few straight lines in their meshes (contrasting to the UEF’s structures, which are generally VERY box like) and their units are similarly designed.

The missions themselves occur along 3 different storylines, each based upon a specific faction.

As the game is ’supreme’, the graphics are — like I mentioned — delicious to look at. However, far too often I found myself watching the zoomed-out whole map screen, not being able to differentiate which units were which without working out what I’d sent where.

In fact, all too often it can seem like the whole system of grandness instilled in the game is a little flawed. With no way to turn down the scrolling speed in the options menu, I often found myself using the zoom in/zoom out functions to get myself across the map. Whilst this wasn’t necessarily a problem, at times it was a bit of a fuss. And likewise, because of how many units you have to send in different directions, it can often be very, very difficult to appreciate the detail that was built into the graphics. Watching my ‘commander’ unit knock down trees as he stamps along to his next location can easily go unnoticed because of the sudden air strike noted on the zoomed-out map radar and the 6 submarines which are bombing my ship factories.

The units themselves are split along 3 tiers: Land, Air and Naval. Often, however, the tiers overlap — for example, the UEF have an amphibuous tank which can skim across the surface of water without slowing down whatsoever. Likewise, the Cybran’s have a ship which can deploy legs to walk over any land which should get in its way. Though, doing so makes the ship move very slowly.

And therein lies one of Supreme Commanders main flaws: its AI. Often the AI built into Supreme Commander is lacking, at best. Every time I’ve asked a group of 5+ units to go somewhere, I watch the command slowly spread across the group, ultimately making the entire selection of units move in an extremely ugly — not to mention tactically poor — line towards wherever I’ve clicked.

In the same vein, often the AI doesn’t seem to recognize what’s going on — especially when it’s losing. On more than one occasion I’ve zerged a base only to later find peripheral tanks positioned which haven’t been scrambled to counter-attack me. Whilst it doesn’t necessarily negate immersion into the game, it can sometimes be a bit of a “What the heck?” moment.

Don’t be fooled by my harsh words, though. There are many, many fine points about Supreme Commander. My most pressing of which being the music.

Jeremy Soule, the creator of the score for Total Annihilation, the Guild Wars series, TES 3: Morrowind, TES 4: Oblivion and Order of War, amongst others, has obviously put his soul (excuse the pun) into the music for Supreme Commander. Scores that range from patriotically inspirational to ruminatingly low add perfectly to create an ambiance that matches the current goings-on in the game. Sometimes the game will think I’m under attack (say I’ve left a building to degrade instead of completing construction of it), and when one of the several extremely inspirational scores start playing, I find myself just building units and sending them to some noble suicide just to make what’s going on match the music.

It’s fantastic, and considering Soule’s other mega successes with previous scores (many of which I have on my computer as I write this because of just how dear the music is to me), there’s no surprise that Supreme Commander soon becomes an experience from the music. You can find a wide selection of his previous work, including Supreme Commander, along with previews of songs on DirectSong.

Overall, Supreme Commander is a fantastic way to forget about real life. It’s interesting, gripping and isn’t simply a collection of “Destroy the enemy” missions. Whilst you’ll sometimes find the AI to be a little stunted, and a few other personal niggles like scrolling speeds, you’ll soon be hooked to Supreme Commander.

A delicious game which I’m happy to recommend, and so I happily award this game 8 out of 10 stars:

I mean, after all, the stuff we use has to be both free from animal products and not-tested animals! What type of vegan would settle for anything less? :]

And let’s not forget the fact that finding vegan shampoo without a bazillion crazy ingredients is like finding an un-awesome recipe in Vegan With A Vegnence (thanks Isa!). It’s very hard to find.
Luckily for us vegans, we have Green People.

If you didn’t know, Green People is bodycare product company that specializes in organic, chemical-free formulas. The company started initially by a mother who wanted to treat her daughter’s excema, and soon found that her daughter’s problems were being caused by the harsh chemicals found in the bodycare products she was using on her daughter.

What started as something tiny has blossomed into something fantastic. Heck, just check their mile-long testimonial page!

So, as I’m sure you can expect, because of how much I’m singing the praises of Green People, I’ve naturally tried a selection of their products. Namely of which a few of their haircare products (including deoderants).

Now, let me preface everything by saying that Green People products aren’t cheap. In fact, you’d probably be hard-pressed to find yourself bodycare products in your supermarket that cost more than theirs.

Yet in this case cost most certainly equals quality. And, for once, quantity.

As far as I can tell from my testing, every Green People haircare product is highly concentrated, and indeed they even label on the back of each bottle that it’ll last generally last up to 3 times as long as your regular shampoo. This is most certainly true.

If you consider the fact that Green People donates 10% of its profits to charity, has products which are almost always fully organic, products which are never tested on animals and gives full disclosure on its ingredients list, you can start to see why their prices are a little steeper than that of other green bodycare companies.

So why should you shop with Green People?

• They are an extremely ethical company which devotes 10% of its profits to charity.
• Most of its products are organic or mostly organic.
• Their products are never tested on animals and a high majority are approved by the Vegan Society.
• None of them contain harsh chemicals in, true to their brand, and they list every ingredient they use (perfect for people like me with sensitive skin).
• Very few of their ingredients are synthetic. In fact, to a large degree you’ll notice that the ingredients tend to be essential oils and naturally-derived agents.
• Most of their products are highly concentrated, meaning that they’ll last easily 3 times as long as your average bottle of shampoo (a 200ml Green People bottle = approx. 600/700ml of normal shampoo).
• All of their packaging is either recycled, reused or biodegradable.

However, some points to take into consideration:

• Because of how concentrated the products are, and that they use mostly organic ingredients, the prices are a little higher than most.
• Their products can lather quite extensively (I personally love this), and so if you’ve only got 2 minutes to shower, they aren’t going to quickly strip your hair like most conventional shampoos (though they will do their job with a good shampoo massage and leaving it for a couple of mins).
• Because they are sensitive, if you are prone to dandruff build-up or more than gentle sweating, you might want to get their more intensive products, as their ’sensitive’ range of products really are for very sensitive conditions.

Overall, I love Green People. They’re a company with a solid ethical foundation and I’m always impressed by their products living up to the claims they make.

If you’re a conscious consumer, this company is the one for you.

I happily give Green People:

Beautiful ones. Useful ones. Boring ones.

But never in my entire life have I ever come across a website that has moved me. Or the words have stilled me. Or, most importantly, humbled me.

Violence Unsilenced is a website devoted to the expression, anonymous or not, of female experiences with abuse. Sexual. Physical. Emotional. Mental. Domestic. Regardless, it’s a site where people come together to share their support with someone who talks about their abuse. I found VU, as it’s often referred to, a while back, and before I knew it I became a regular ‘troop’ for these women, marching on and giving my support whenever it was needed.

In fact, as a personal rule, whenever I see a tweet pop up in my twitter to ask for support for the latest poster, I do. Not simply for the fact that I’m getting a mega dose of good karma, but because I know that if I were in their position, I would want someone to give a shit.

Without doubt, one of the most powerful feelings created from Violence Unsilenced is the spirit of community and mutual support. Often within a few hours of posting, one person’s experiences can have anywhere from 10 to 50 comments giving support, love and kindness. It’s not just empowering for the writer, but it’s hugely powerful for the commenter. Well, it is for me, at least.

More beautifully is how obvious it is that violence unsilenced is needed. According to the about page itself, VU has a backlog of posts to be published of several months. Combined with the worrying ‘FAST ESCAPE’ buttons in the sidebar and helpline numbers sprinkled throughout the site, it only leads me to find Maggie, the creator, a compassionate and wonderful woman for birthing Violence Unsilenced into the world.

Something which I will never forget, however, is a little extra bit of effort Maggie herself made for me a few weeks ago.

I was checking my emails and, out of the blue, I noticed an email from her. Of all things, she was thanking me for being a regular commenter. She said that me being a guy can very much help posters on the site to not form negative associations with men in general (well, no, she didn’t say that exactly, but it was implicit about the man thing), and to just say that she appreciates my commenting.

And yet, for me, that to me is everything that Violence Unsilenced is about.

Going the extra mile. Doing something kind, even though you don’t have to. Appreciating someone and their sharing of words, just because you know it’s not always easy to write them.

That’s what VU is to me. And for that? I am deeply, deeply moved.

I don’t really like tofu all that much.

Sure, it can be okay if you do it nicely, and it can go with some things. But usually? It suffers from blandular fever, and before I know it, I’ve got two slices of bread with one big slab of moderately tasteless blah in the middle.

I’m sure you can imagine: not nice!

When I was out getting the old grocerios the other day, I noticed in the vegan/vegetarian section of my local supermarket that they had this new type of tofu from my favourite EVER tofu-product makers, Taifun!

This new tofu product? Their wonderful ‘smoked sesame and almond tofu‘, pictured to the right.

Obviously, I just had to try it out. And I’ll be honest here, I had my reservations. I’ve tried tofu products like these before, and really? They usually suck. Big time.

So, with trepidation, I put Taifun’s magic tofu to the test and tried a basic ‘fry and sandwich’. I was impressed. Here’s what I found:

Pros

• The flavour was perfect, and didn’t overpower (or randomly disappear mid-chew) me whatsoever, unlike a lot of other meat analogue products.
• It’s organic, so I feel a lot better for putting it into my belly.
• The company is independent, so buying it from them also made me feel pretty good about myself.
• Even though it’s made of tofu, I couldn’t detect much of the usual ‘tofu’ consistency, which was nice.
• As it’s smoked, there’s a certain ‘meat’ sense about the whole thing, which makes it great for a heartier sandwich
• Their smoked sesame and almond tofu only has 8 ingredients, discounting water. And I can find all but one in a supermarket if I wanted to.
• Per 100g there are only 185 calories (and 18.8g of protein)! For something with sesame seeds and almonds in, I’m very much impressed. Albeit the fat content is a little high (10.7g of fat per 100g), I know that this fat is NOT trans or saturated fat.

Cons

• Albeit the product was nice, but getting it out felt a bit nasty as some liquid ‘residue’ is left in the packet. A couple of times (because I had to, uhm, retest it… ;D ) this liquid spilled on the floor and needed quick cleaning up.
• Because of this water content, frying it can become a nightmare. I mean, when did you last put oil and water in a pan and enjoy it? Trust me. Not fun for a perhaps more inexperienced-with-spitting-fat cook.
• I can’t remember the exact price, but I remember that it was easily above a couple of pounds. The one listed here (my favourite online wholefood retailer) sells it at £2.99. That’s not exactly cheap for 200 grams of tofu.

Ultimately, I really, really enjoyed Taifun’s delicious tofu product, and I’ll easily be going back for more. Though the price is a little steep, I think it’s well deserved as the product itself is high quality, tastes delicous and works perfectly in a sandwich on a crisp winter’s day.