Edible black gold: 8 Health benefits of chaga mushrooms

November 25, 2022

by Joanne Washburn

Chaga mushrooms may look more like burnt pieces of bark than actual mushrooms, but these edible fungi have long been used in traditional medicine because of their numerous health benefits.

Chaga mushrooms are native to the cold regions of Russia, Northern Canada, Korea and Alaska. They normally grow on the bark of birch trees, where they produce a woody growth that looks like burnt charcoal.

According to research, the Russians were the first to brew chaga mushrooms and drink chaga tea. They believed that chaga mushrooms possess antiviral, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties.

Despite their unappealing appearance, chaga mushrooms are highly valuable. Experts say only one out of every 4,000 birch trees will have chaga mushrooms growing on it. They are also impossible to grow domestically. Due to their rarity and reported benefits, chaga mushrooms are sometimes aptly referred to as “black gold.”

The health benefits of chaga mushrooms

Chaga mushrooms have only recently gained popularity in the West because of their many benefits. Chaga mushrooms can:

– Provide essential nutrients – Chaga mushrooms are nutrient-dense. They contain vitamin D, potassium, calcium, iron and zinc. Vitamin D and zinc play key roles in regulating your immune response, while potassium helps keep your heart healthy. Calcium keeps your bones strong, while iron allows your body to continuously make red blood cells.

– Improve gut health – Traditionally, chaga mushrooms are consumed as an herbal tea to improve digestion. Experts believe chaga mushrooms promote good digestion by regulating the production of bile, which helps break down food. In turn, this makes it easier for your body to absorb nutrients.

– Slow aging – Chaga mushrooms contain powerful compounds called polyphenols. As antioxidants, polyphenols protect healthy cells from oxidative stress, which has been implicated in premature aging. By supplying your body with antioxidants, chaga mushrooms may help slow aging.

– Lower blood sugar – Multiple animal studies have shown that chaga mushroom extract can lower blood sugar levels in rats genetically modified to be obese and diabetic.

– Lower blood cholesterol – Chaga mushroom extract can also lower blood cholesterol. In an eight-week study involving rats with high cholesterol, researchers found that chaga mushroom extract reduced “bad” cholesterol, which can build up in the arteries and raise heart disease risk.

– Prevent and treat cancer – Chaga mushrooms contain compounds called triterpenes, which can help prevent and treat cancer by triggering the death of cancerous cells. Test tube studies have also found that the triterpenes in chaga mushrooms can target cancerous cells without harming healthy cells.

– Boost immunity – Many mushrooms, chaga included, contain a polysaccharide called beta-glucan. Beta-glucan has been shown to protect against infections caused by bacteria and viruses. Chaga mushrooms also stimulate white blood cells, which are essential for fighting off harmful microorganisms.

– Fight inflammation – Inflammation is the body’s natural response to illness. But it can lead to various chronic health problems if it gets out of hand. Fortunately, many mushrooms, chaga included, are loaded with antioxidants that keep inflammation in check.

Chaga mushroom recipes

Chaga mushrooms are available in capsule, tablet and tincture form. Chaga mushrooms are also sometimes combined with other mushrooms and edible fungi as part of coffee or tea blends. Foods.news.

Was the Thanksgiving celebration of 1621 the first in North America? No

November 25, 2022

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers, it’s my pleasure to share with you all this magnificent article that was posted by one of my good FB friends, Eduardo J. Bolaños, regarding the history of the Thanksgiving Holiday, which recently has been criticized in a negative way in an effort of give a bitter taste to a dinner time that unites families and friends in a peaceful dinner ceremony every year. The following article is a positive side of what the true Thanksgiving celebration is all about. Hope you had a wonderful and loving dinner ceremony, because I did, and for which I say thank you to those who invited me. – Marvin Ramírez

Before the arrival of the pilgrims to North American lands, in 2 Spanish expeditions in the years 1541 and 1598 to what is now the United States, Thanksgiving Masses were celebrated followed by a meal together with natives

THE FIRST (REAL) THANKSGIVING

The event of the first thanksgiving in this land is not that which was celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621 as the vast majority of Americans have been taught. The real first thanksgiving to the one true God was celebrated eighty years before the Pilgrim’s feast! It occurred during the expedition of the Catholic Conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado.

Beginning in 1539, Francisco Coronado organized a large expedition from Mexico, which included five Franciscan missionaries. He brought with him 336 soldiers and settlers, 100 native Mexican Christians, 552 horses, 600 mules, 5000 sheep, and 500 cows, pigs and goats. (This expedition marked the introduction of these animals into the south-western United States.) The expedition arrived in what is now Arizona and found Indian pueblos. After establishing a base in Arizona, Coronado headed east to establish a base-mission near present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. When they crossed the river which is now called the Rio Grande, they named it Rio de Nuestro Señora (River of Our Lady). This is its original name as it appeared on the first maps of this region.

Though no supposed cities of gold were found in this region, Coronado continued to send out expeditions and send missionaries with them. That there were missionaries on every expedition should tell us that the search for supposed “golden cities” was not the primary reason for the explorations of Coronado. (The gold was needed to fund expeditions, and was not sought for personal gain.) Spreading the one true Faith among the pagan native Indians was of primary importance.

In April of 1541, Coronado, with a group of soldiers and some missionaries, left Albuquerque, New Mexico and headed north-east and crossed a section of northwest Texas (the Panhandle). In encountering some of the local Indians the missionaries found that the natives were immediately open to receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After a few weeks of instruction, members of the Jumano Indian tribe converted and received Baptism. The expedition then arrived in Palo Duro Canyon where, on May 29, Father Juan Padilla, O.F.M., offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (Father Padilla would eventually become the very first martyr of the Faith in America when he was martyred in 1542 in what is now Kansas.) A thanksgiving feast followed. It consisted of game that had earlier been caught. The feast was celebrated in thanksgiving to God for His many blessings and for the recent converts. This event is the first actual Thanksgiving Day celebrated in America by Christians.

There was another Thanksgiving celebration which also occurred years before the Pilgrims landed. In 1598, Catholic explorer Juan de Oñate led an expedition from Mexico City into New Mexico. The expedition included over 200 soldiers and colonists, the soldiers being headed by Captain Gaspar Pérez de Villagra. Many had their families with them. A number of Christian Indian converts with their families from Mexico were also in the party. With the group were several thousand head of livestock, including cows, horses, mules, sheep, goats, and pigs. Eighty three wagons carried provisions, ammunition, tools, plants, and seeds for wheat, oats, rye, onions, chili, peas, beans and different nuts.

On the expedition were two Franciscan priests and six Franciscan friar brothers. The party experienced many hardships. Soon after entering New Mexico, just across what is now called the Rio Grande River (originally named Rio de Nuestro Señora -River of Our Lady) near present-day El Paso, Texas, they were attacked by hostile Indians. A number of wagons and numerous head of livestock were lost. But no person from the expedition was killed, though a number Indians were killed in the attack.

After moving much farther north along the river, Juan de Oñate and the Franciscans erected a large cross and Oñate took possession of the land. He declared:

“I want to take possession of this land today, April 30, 1598, in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on this the Day of the Ascension of Our Lord.”

Immediately afterward a High Mass was offered in thanksgiving. Then the entire group gathered for a banquet of thanksgiving to God for protecting them and for allowing them to arrive at the place after so many hardships along the way. The festive meal consisted of fish, game, fruits and vegetables. After this first thanksgiving banquet, the expedition headed further up along the river and by June had established the mission-town of San Juan (still populated to this day).

Though there was a thanksgiving feast celebrated in 1541, as we earlier saw, it was never commemorated afterwards. In contrast, for some years after the Thanksgiving Feast of 1598, a feast was celebrated by the Spanish and Christian Indians of New Mexico in thanks to the true God for bringing them through many hardships and for His blessings. Today this thanksgiving feast is commemorated every thirtieth day of April in San Juan, New Mexico.

It is only now that we can turn to the story of the Pilgrims and their thanksgiving. After a long and harsh winter, the Pilgrims received help from the friendly Wampanoag Indians in planting crops during the spring of 1621. They worked hard and in autumn had a very good harvest. In November of 1621 they invited the local Indians, who were still pagan and worshipped false gods, to feast with them to give thanks to God for the blessings of a successful harvest. The Catholic student of history should recognize that it is impossible to give thanks to the same God “together”, let alone the true God, when those involved believe in different gods. But this didn’t apparently bother anyone. (Recall, the Indians who took part in the true first thanksgiving were converts.) It should also be pointed out that the Pilgrim’s thanksgiving was more of a (successful) harvest celebration than a religious thanksgiving observance.

This event was not celebrated yearly by the Pilgrims, as many think and have been taught (they had done so only for a couple more years), nor by anyone in the original thirteen colonies for years. Though George Washington called for a day of Thanksgiving while he was President (only in response to the successful ratification of the Constitution), it was not celebrated as a yearly holiday feast until Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day as a holiday in November, 1863.

So now you know that the Pilgrims did not celebrated the first Thanksgiving in America. The first Thanksgiving feast was celebrated back in 1541, and the first annual feast in 1598 in New Mexico by Spanish-Catholic colonists and Indian converts to the Faith. They thanked the true God for bringing them safely through many troubles and dangers and that the seed of the Gospel of Christ was beginning to take root in this land. Because of the often anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic prejudice of English-Protestants (whose text books dominated the American educational system), generations of Americans have never learned these facts of our history.

-Adam S. Miller

(Taken from the soon-to-be published “Journey America: Pathways to the Present”, Marian Publications, Inc. This article was first published in a slightly abridged version in “From The Housetops,” Serial No.55, Fall, 2002)

Biden administration guts most of public charge rule, but immigrants still fearful

November 25, 2022

by Sunita Sohrabji

Ethnic Media Services

The Biden Administration last week gutted the signature Trump-era policy known as public charge, which effectively imposed a wealth tax on people seeking to gain permanent residency in the US.

The new rule will go into effect on Dec. 23. It has already undergone a 60-day public comment period, and thus needs no further adjudication before it takes effect.

The rule greatly narrows the definition of public charge to just two criteria: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and institutionalization for long-term care.

The Trump administration had broadened the definition of the seldom-used 1999 rule to include immigrants receiving Medicaid, public housing, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as part of the public charge inadmissibility determination, even if they were applying for those benefits on behalf of their US born children.

The rule — which gave immigration officers the discretion to determine if an individual applying for a green card might become dependent on the government — would also have been imposed on people attempting to permanently enter the US.

Lawsuits and injunctions kept Trump’s policy from ever being imposed, except for a brief window in 2020. The US Supreme Court killed Trump’s rule in 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden took office.

But despite non-implementation, the rule had a chilling effect on immigrant communities. Millions of people disenrolled themselves and family members from federal benefits to which they were entitled, for fear of invoking public charge inadmissibility when they applied for permanent residency.

“This action (today) ensures fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in a Sept. 8 press statement. “Consistent with America’s bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them.”

The public charge test potentially impacts approximately 10 million immigrants and 12 million children, many of whom are US citizens, but born into mixed-status families.

“We welcome this long-awaited change in policy. It will have a beneficial impact on millions of immigrants, primarily women and children,” said Essey Workie, director of the Migration Policy Institute Human Services Initiative.

“But while the rule is moving in the right direction, immigrant communities are still fearful of what might happen in the future. A change in administration might bring back the restrictive rules, impacting immigration status,” said Workie in an interview with Ethnic Media Services.

Lawsuits and injunctions are definitely expected, but those must be based on technical or procedural issues. “I don’t see that applying to this situation,” said Workie.

Zenobia Lai, executive director of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, said: “The Department of Homeland Security has realized the chilling effects of the public charge rule on immigrant families, especially those with US born children. We must move from that chill to a thaw.”

She noted that benefits received by children or other family members would not count when an immigration officer determines whether an applicant is deemed a public charge. She clarified that only government assistance would count and — under the new rule — would be limited to TANF and long-term medical institutionalization. Lai expressed her hope that those two categories would be removed in the future.

Lai also clarified that benefits received during the Covid-19 pandemic would not be considered for inadmissibility under the public charge rule.

She noted that immigration officers are mandated to weigh in on the totality of an applicant’s financial resources and future income prospects. Almost 60 percent of people applying for adjustment of status will be asked to provide an affidavit of support from a family member or other individual.

“This will be highly considered for the approval of the application to adjust status,” said Lai.

The Trump administration’s rhetoric had a chilling effect on immigrant families. For example, during the Trump administration, more than 240,000 children in Texas were dis-enrolled by their parents from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, noted Anne Dunkelberg, Program Director for the Health and Wellness Team at the non-profit organization Every Texan.

In Texas, one out of every four children has a parent who is not a US citizen. Many of them are undocumented, Dunkelberg noted at a press briefing Sept. 13.

“Parents no longer need to fear enrolling their eligible family members in public benefits. It will not affect their own immigration status,” she said.

There has been so much misinformation about the public charge rule, which has deterred people from enrolling themselves for benefits to which they are entitled, said Jennifer Duarte of Texas-based Project Vida. “Families are still fearful, based on misinformation. The new public charge is a small win in an ongoing battle,” she said.

“Politicians have stoked fear in the immigrant community, and will continue to do so,” said Esther Reyes Martinez, director of immigration policy and advocacy at the Children’s Defense Fund in Texas. She noted that the new rule has been written in a way to make it much more difficult for future administrations to attempt to change it.

Several organizations hailed the new rule. Asian Americans Advancing Justice released a statement, noting that the previous public charge rule was “cruel by design.”

“It was not only meant to favor white and wealthy immigrants applying for admission or a green card, but also aimed to create fear and confusion about the use of critical, life-saving programs within low-income communities of color.”

“Tragically, the issuance of the last rule caused many immigrants of color, including Asian Americans, to withdraw from health care, nutrition programs, housing services, and other benefits,” said the organization, noting that the new rule greatly simplifies the public charge test.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a press statement: “The Biden administration’s public charge rule aligns with longstanding principles in immigration law and provides helpful clarifications to pre-existing guidance.”

“This policy is an important step in advancing the Biden administration’s priority of addressing socioeconomic and racial inequities that have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

“Colonial presence”: Argentina rejects the visit of British Princess Anne to the Malvinas Islands

November 25, 2022

The Foreign Ministry questioned that the sister of King Carlos III arrived “without warning” to the island territory in dispute of sovereignty

by the cable services of El Reportero

The Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected this Tuesday the “unannounced” arrival of British Crown Princess Anne to the Falkland Islands to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1982 war, which was considered by the country’s government South America as a “colonial” act.

During her visit to the insular territory in conflict of sovereignty, the sister of King Carlos III visited the Mount Pleasant base of the British forces, in Puerto Argentino.

“Argentina rejects the official activities of Princess Anne, of the British royal house, in the Malvinas Islands. The activity occurs in exercise of the illegal British occupation of the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces “, denounced the Foreign Ministry after the news was published on the social networks of the royal family.

“Our country once again calls on the United Kingdom to resume bilateral negotiations in compliance with resolution 2065 and other resolutions of the General Assembly and its Special Committee on Decolonization,” the statement said.

Likewise, the secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona, pointed against the British Crown and recalled the calls of the United Nations Organization (UN) to resume diplomatic negotiations to resolve the conflict.

“Princess Anne, of the British royal house, arrived in Argentina without warning. Her country violates international law with its colonial presence in the South Atlantic against UN resolutions and world outcry. Perhaps that explains the impoliteness,” the official said.

The UN Special Committee on Decolonization urged the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom to resume negotiations on sovereignty.

Last October, the Argentine request obtained broad international support at the first session of the joint general debate on decolonization issues of the United Nations General Assembly Commission on Special Policy and Decolonization.

The journalist who told the story of Pancho Villa’s revolution, one interview at a time

November 25, 2022

John Reed’s eyewitness accounts of traveling with Pancho Villa’s army are still available today online

by John Pint

In 1913, leftist American journalist and poet John Reed spent four months traveling with Pancho Villa’s army, sending regular dispatches to Metropolitan Magazine in New York City, which were collected and published the following year as “Insurgent Mexico,” still available as a free ebook from Project Gutenberg.

Reed’s preconceived notions about Mexicans changed radically during his time as a war correspondent here, and he later described his days in Mexico as the “most satisfactory period” in his life.

It’s easy to find books describing the Mexican Revolution in terms of battles and dates, but Reed excels at showing us the aspirations, frustrations and quirks of the generals, soldiers and “peons” (as he likes to call them) caught up in the conflict.

An example is Reed’s conversation with Torribio Ortega, one of the first generals to revolt against Porfirio Díaz, who had become a de facto dictator after decades in power.

Says Reed: “At dawn next morning, General Ortega came to the [train] car for breakfast — a lean, dark Mexican who is called ‘The Honorable’ and ‘The Most Brave’ by the soldiers. He is by far the most simple-hearted and disinterested soldier in Mexico.”

“He never kills his prisoners,” Reed continues. “He has refused to take a cent from the Revolution beyond his meager salary. Villa respects and trusts him perhaps beyond all his generals. Ortega was a poor man, a cowboy. He sat there, with his elbows on the table, forgetting his breakfast.”

“‘You in the United States,’ said Ortega, smiling, his eyes flashing, ‘do not know what we have seen, we Mexicans! We have looked on at the robbing of our people, the simple, poor people, for 35 years, eh? We have seen the rurales [country police] and the soldiers of Porfirio Díaz shoot down our brothers and our fathers, and justice denied to them. We have seen our little fields taken away from us and all of us sold into slavery, eh? We have longed for our homes and for schools to teach us, and they have laughed at us. All we have ever wanted was to be let alone to live and to work and make our country great, and we are tired — tired and sick of being cheated…’”

Reed introduces Francisco “Pancho” Villa — born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula and a key figure in the revolution — like this:

“Villa lived in El Paso, Texas, and it was from there that he set out, in April, 1913, to conquer Mexico with four companions, three led horses, two pounds of sugar and coffee and a pound of salt.”

Reed greatly admired Villa’s original and imaginative approach to warfare, which he was forced to invent for himself because he never had an opportunity to learn accepted military strategy.

“His method of fighting,” says Reed, “is astonishingly like Napoleon’s. Secrecy, quickness of movement, the adaptation of his plans to the character of the country and of his soldiers — the value of intimate relations with the rank and file, and of building up a tradition among the enemy that his army is invincible and that he himself bears a charmed life — these are his characteristics.

“And where the fighting is fiercest — when a ragged mob of fierce brown men with hand bombs and rifles rush the bullet-swept streets of an ambushed town — Villa is among them, like any common soldier.”

Reed gives us an example of Villa’s humor in this exchange with locals in Durango watching the passing of his army from atop a little mound.

“‘Oyez!’ said Villa. ‘Have any troops passed through here lately?’

‘Si, señor!” answered several men at once. ‘Some of Don Carlo Argumedo’s gente [people] went by yesterday pretty fast.’

‘Hum,’ Villa meditated. ‘Have you seen that bandit Pancho Villa around here?’

‘No, señor!’ they chorused.

‘Well, he’s the fellow I’m looking for. If I catch that diablo, it will go hard with him!’

‘We wish you all success!’ cried the pacificos [noncombatants] politely.

‘You never saw him, did you?’

‘No, God forbid!’ they said fervently.

‘Well!’ grinned Villa, ‘in the future when people ask if you know him, you will have to admit the shameful fact! I am Pancho Villa!’ And with that, he spurred away, and all the army followed.…”

Finally, Reed gives us a few insights on the futility of war from “an old peon, stooped with age and dressed in rags, crouched in the low shrub, gathering mesquite twigs.”

Reed, anxious to see action after crossing a dusty plain outside Torreón, Coahuila — where a fierce battle was raging — asked the old man how he could get close to where the fighting was taking place.

The aged campesino (farmer) straightened up and stared at his inquisitor. “‘If you had been here as long as I have,’ said he, ‘you wouldn’t care about seeing the fighting.

‘Carramba! I have seen them take Torreón seven times in three years. Sometimes they attack from Gómez Palacio and sometimes from the mountains. But it is always the same — war. There is something interesting in it for the young, but for us old people, we are tired of war.’ He paused and stared out over the plain. ‘Do you see this dry ditch? Well, if you will get down in it and follow along, it will lead you into the town.’ And then, as an afterthought, he added incuriously, ‘What party do you belong to?’

‘The Constitutionalists.’

‘So, first it was the maderistas [followers of revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero], and then the orozquistas [followers of leader Pascual Orozco] and now the — what did you call them? I am very old, and I have not long to live; but this war — it seems to me that all it accomplishes is to let us go hungry. Go with God, señores.’”

“Insurgent Mexico” offers us a chance to look into the very souls of those caught up in the Mexican Revolution. This remarkable book is well worth reading.

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.

“Colonial presence”: Argentina rejects the visit of British Princess Anne to the Malvinas Islands

November 25, 2022

The Foreign Ministry questioned that the sister of King Carlos III arrived “without warning” to the island territory in dispute of sovereignty