Expiration dates of bottled pills

Cleared my pantry cupboard today. Got rid of old noodles, expired canned foods and chinese herbs. If I don't remember the purchase date then I would toss them away. I even found a package of some chinese candy I bought awhile back and was aghast to find 'aspartame' listed in the ingredients. Have I been ingesting that?? Ugh.

I filled up 1 big garbage plastic bag. I felt bad about contributing the the earth's waste with that one big bag.

Next, I moved on to my shelf of many, MANY vitamin and mineral pills. I thought to myself that surely they all will need to be thrown away since I got them a long long time ago. To my surprise, some of them haven't expired yet. Some will expire in 2008, some 2009. Most expire this year though. It got me thinking -- isn't it a bit unnatural to have such stuff hanging around for a few years in a bottle? It's almost like ... plastic. The garbage bag smelled of chemical when it was slowly loaded up with the pills. The smell is similar to the hospital hallway. Have you ever done that -- inhale a bottle of pill? Smells yucky. I can tolerate the smell of chinese herbs much better than the pills.

Oh, and a bit of update about my boys. I have been making spinach and apple juice for J. 40% spinach juice, and 60% apple juice. Fresh ones, mind you. None of that store bought pasteurized ones. He has to drink it if he wants his snack and that's the first thing he drinks in the morning upon waking up. Spinach juice is more platable than wheatgrass.

J has bad eczema on his butt -- near the opening of the anus. It gets really inflamed and itchy and would interrupt his sleep because of the intense itching. He would scratch till it became bloody raw. He also can't wear underwear because the slightest chafing of the skin would itch him like crazy.

Within 2 weeks of drinking the green juice, I see a difference on the skin. The itch and inflammation went down and the skin smoothed out a little. We'll see how it is after a few more weeks of drinking this apple and spinach juice. I am hopeful that his skin will improve.

As for L ... sad to report that he's 'reacting' to fruits. Not sure if he's developing new senstivities to fruits or the body is throwing off toxins stirred by the fruits. I am not sure. He could also be reacting to airborne allergens at school. I started making green juice for him in the morning. Sometimes wheatgrass (home-grown) and other times, whatever green leaf vegie I find in the fridge. He hates it but I explain (and threaten) that he has asthma and he needs to drink them. I drank bitter herbs while growing up ... he has to do so as well. Suffer the poor children. hehe. Anyway, he's recovering a lot faster with the green juice so I have to keep it up. I thought I could get away with it by giving him green smoothies once a day but nope, I can't. It's so much work but at least it's better than taking singulair. With the green juice and inhalers, he finally stop wheezing after 2 weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow.

I was skeptical about fresh green juice but it does work. The chlorophyll is the key. Lots of work and money ... but instead of putting the money in pills, I just divert them to plants. We'll see. I've read about spirulina. I'm going to try that next. Oh, and raw cocoa powder too. Hehe.