Rather Be Healthy

Over the past couple of years, we’ve learned the unsavory truth about “pink slime,” reconstituted meat, and how the use of meat glue cheats you out of your hard-earned money at the grocery store and threatens your health.

We’ve also learned that fast food fare such as McDonald’s hamburgers contain so many chemicals and so few real food ingredients that a burger fails to show signs of decomposition after more than a decade…

The famous McDonald’s McRib also came under closer scrutiny, and turned out to be something less than mouthwatering. The McRib sandwich is a non-standard item on the fast food restaurant’s menu;1 its annual return is always advertised with great fanfare — last year it even made the headlines on ABC News.2

The pork sandwich is described as a tasty fan favorite slathered in tangy barbecue sauce, slivered onions and tart pickles, served on a hoagie style bun. Sounds perfectly normal, but what’s it made of, really? In a November 2011 article, CBS Chicago news3 spilled the beans on this seasonal favorite:

“More than 70 ingredients make up the McRib and, yes, one of them is pork. But as CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole reports, there’s also an ingredient that can be found in shoes… [Registered dietician Cassie] Vanderwall gave the McRib a closer look and found the McRib has azodicarbonamide, which is used to bleach the flour in bread. It has other uses. ‘It could be on your yoga mat, in your gym shoes, in your anything that’s rubbery,’ Vanderwall said…

Then there’s the pork – which is really restructured meat product. In other words, it’s made from all the less expensive innards and castoffs from the pig… Vanderwall said the McRib ingredient list ‘reminds me of a chemistry lab.’”

To see pictures of a ‘deconstructed’ McRib sandwich, check out foodfacts.info’s McRib page.4 It sure doesn’t look so appetizing anymore once the sauce is washed off and the meat sliced in half. In fact, it can barely pass meat, which was the point CBS news tried to make in the first place.

What is “Food” Anyway?

Two years ago, the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine singled out McDonald’s in their advertisement against obesity-related deaths. As the ad claimed, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and heart attacks are hallmark diseases associated with a fast food diet – a clear indication that it does not provide the appropriate nutrition for your body.

So, is McDonald’s fare really food?

When you consider the fact that a large number of the ingredients in a fast food meal exist nowhere in nature, but are rather concocted in a lab, the answer would have to be ‘no.’ Unfortunately, and to our severe detriment, ever since the advent of the so-called TV dinner back in the 1950’s, the concept of “food” has expanded from meat, vegetables, raw dairy products, fruit and other such natural items to include the highly processed, preserved, artificially flavored and often brightly colored chemical concoctions. But man simply was NOT designed to thrive on man-made chemicals.

Sadly, store-bought foods you might not recognize as processed, such as ground beef, are oftentimes no better. As reported last year, approximately 70 percent of the ground beef sold in U.S. supermarkets contains “pink slime” added in as a cheap filler.

The Pepto-Bismol-colored concoction consists of beef scraps and cow connective tissues, which has been treated with ammonium hydroxide (basically a solution of ammonia in water). It can legally make up 15 percent of any given beef product, which shaves about three cents off the cost for a pound of ground beef. The trimmings used come from parts of the cow that are most likely to be contaminated with dangerous bacteria like E. coli — which is why it must be treated with ammonia to kill off the pathogens in the first place. It’s really industrial food practices like this that pose very real threats to your health, not raw unpasteurized dairy products and other non-processed whole foods…

Russia Throws Poisonous Meat Back to U.S.

In related “questionable food” news, Russia has recently banned U.S. meat supplies after discovering it contains ractopamine — a beta agonist drug that increases protein synthesis, thereby making the animal more muscular. This reduces the fat content of the meat. As reported by Pravda,5 Russia is the fourth largest importer of US meats, purchasing about $500 million-worth of beef and pork annually.

The drug is banned for use in 160 countries, including China and Russia, but allowed in 24 countries, including Canada and the United States. According to the New York Times,6 the ban took effect as of December 7, 2012, and Russian health regulators stated that while they will initially conduct their own testing, foreign countries will soon be required to certify their meat as ractopamine-free if they want to export it to Russia. While the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) considers ractopamine safe and doesn’t test for it, Russia’s chief health inspector, Gennady Onishchenko, claims there are “serious questions” about the safety of the drug. He told the New York Times:

“For instance, use of ractopamine is accompanied by a reduction in body mass, suppression of reproductive function, increase of mastitis in dairy herds, which leads to a steep decline in the quality and safety of milk.”

Ractopamine is also known to affect the human cardiovascular system, and may cause food poisoning, according to Pravda.7 It’s also thought to be responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown, and increased death and disability in livestock. While other drugs require a clearance period of around two weeks to help ensure the compounds are flushed from the meat prior to slaughter (and therefore reduce residues leftover for human consumption), there is no clearance period for ractopamine. In fact, livestock growers intentionally use the drug in the last days before slaughter in order to increase its effectiveness.

According to veterinarian Michael W. Fox, as much as 20 percent of ractopamine remains in the meat you buy from the supermarket. Despite potential health risks, the drug is used in 45 percent of U.S. pigs, 30 percent of ration-fed cattle, and an unknown percentage of turkeys.

Mexico and Brazil have announced that they will comply with Russia’s demand for ractopamine-free meats.8 The US has shown no sign of coming to an agreement, however. Instead the US has accused Russia of violating World Trade Organization (WTO) rules — an accusation Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has dismissed as being part of business as usual, since “all WTO members break these rules.”

How to Identify REAL Food

There are major incentives to center your diet on real foods as opposed to “food-like” products, the primary one being that real food is essential for optimal health. Real foods also taste delicious, and when bought from sustainable sources help to protect the environment. But with all the sneaky tricks being employed, how can you tell the difference? Here’s a listing of the characteristics and traits of real food versus processed “food products.”

Real Food

Processed Food-Like Products

It’s grown, and sold “whole”

Produced, manufactured in a factory, and sold in neat, convenient packages

Variable quality

Always the same (no quality or taste variance)

Spoils fast

Stays “fresh” for extended periods of time

Requires preparation

No preparation required, just heat and serve

Vibrant colors and rich textures

Contains fillers, additives and preservatives to make otherwise dull and bland mixtures appetizing

Authentically flavorful

Artificially flavorful

Strong connection to land and culture

No connection to land or culture

Shopping Guidelines for Real, Health-Promoting Food

As the U.S. agriculture industry now stands, antibiotics, pesticides, genetically engineered ingredients, hormones and countless drugs are fair game for inclusion in your food. So if you purchase your food from a typical supermarket, you’re taking the chance that your food is teeming with chemicals and drugs — even those that have been banned in other countries due to adverse health effects.

So please do your health a favor and support the small family farms in your area. You’ll receive nutritious food from a source that you can trust, and you’ll be supporting the honest work of a real family farm.

It all boils down to this: if you want to optimize your health, you must return to the basics of healthy food choices. Put your focus on WHOLE foods — foods that have not been processed or altered from their original state — food that has been grown or raised as nature intended, without the use of chemical additives, drugs, hormones, pesticides, fertilizers, and “mystery concoctions” of discarded scrap parts.

It’s really as simple as that!

And it’s not nearly as daunting a task as it may seem to find a local farmer that can supply your family with healthy, humanely raised animal products and produce. At LocalHarvest.org, for instance, you can enter your zip code and find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, all with the click of a button. Once you make the switch from supermarket to local farmer, the choice will seem natural, and you can have peace of mind that the food you’re feeding your family is naturally wholesome. That said, regardless of where you do your grocery shopping, these are the signs of high-quality, health-promoting foods you want to look for:
1.It’s grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
2.It’s not genetically modified
3.It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
4.It does not contain any artificial ingredients, including chemical preservatives
5.It is fresh (keep in mind that if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may actually be the better option)
6.It did not come from a factory farm
7.It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
8.It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

If the food meets these criteria, it is most likely a wise choice, and would fall under the designation of “real food.” Keep in mind that reclaiming your kitchen is part and parcel of healthful living, so you know exactly what you’re putting in your body. If you need help to get started, see Colleen Huber’s helpful tips on how to eat healthier organic food on a budget. And if you’re “hooked” on fast food and other processed foods, please review my article How to Wean Yourself Off Processed Foods in 7 Steps. It’s one of the absolute most positive life changes you could make!

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

By Dr. Mercola

To some, a ketogenic diet amounts to nothing less than a drug-free cancer treatment. The diet calls for eliminating carbohydrates, replacing them with healthy fats and protein.

The premise is that since cancer cells need glucose to thrive, and carbohydrates turn into glucose in your body, then cutting out carbs literally starves the cancer cells.

This type of diet, in which you replace carbs with moderate amounts of high quality protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, is what I recommend for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It’s simply a diet that will help optimize your weight and health overall, as eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode to fat burning.

Ketogenic Diet May Be Key to Brain Cancer Recovery

The featured video shows Thomas Seyfried, Ph.D, who is one of the leaders in teasing the details of how to treat cancer nutritionally. I am scheduled to interview him shortly and hope to have that interview up later this year. In the video, Professor Seyfried discusses how, as a metabolic disorder involving the dysregulation of respiration, malignant brain cancer can be managed through changes in the metabolic environment.

“In contrast to normal neurons and glia, which transition to ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate) for respiratory energy when glucose levels are reduced, malignant brain tumors are mostly dependent on non-oxidative substrate level phosphorylation due to structural and functional abnormalities in mitochondria. Glucose and glutamine are major fuels for malignant cancer cells.

The transition from glucose to ketone bodies as an energy source is an ancestrally conserved adaptation to food deprivation that permits the survival of normal cells during extreme shifts in nutritional environment. Only those cells with a flexible genome, honed through millions of years of environmental forcing and variability selection, can transition from one energy state to another.

We propose a different approach to brain cancer management that exploits the metabolic flexibility of normal cells at the expense of the genetically defective and metabolically challenged. This evolutionary and metabolic approach to brain cancer management is supported from studies in orthotopic mouse brain tumor models and from case studies in patients.

Calorie restriction and restricted ketogenic diets (R-KD), which reduce circulating glucose levels and elevate ketone levels, are anti-invasive, anti-angiogenic, and pro-apoptotic towards malignant brain cancer.”1

Current conventional cancer treatment typically involves chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is a cytotoxic poison, and radiation is devastating to the human body. More often than not, the treatment is what eventually kills the patient. This can no longer be accepted as “the best we can do.” As Dr. Seyfried says:

“The reason why we have so few people surviving is because of the standard of care. It has to be changed, if it’s not changed, there will be no major progress. Period.”

Metabolic Therapy/Ketogenic Diet Being Investigated as Cancer Treatment

CBN News recently published an article on the ketogenic diet.2 Clearly, many people are realizing that what we have been doing in terms of fighting cancer is simply not working, and we cannot afford to continue in the same way. Prevention must be addressed if we ever want to turn the tide on the growing incidence of cancer across all age groups. But even more astounding, in terms of treatment, is that cancer may respond to diet alone.

“Dr. Fred Hatfield is an impressive guy: a power-lifting champion, author of dozens of books, a millionaire businessman with a beautiful wife. But he’ll tell you his greatest accomplishment is killing his cancer just in the nick of time,” CBN News writes. “The doctors gave me three months to live because of widespread metastatic cancer in my skeletal structure,” he recalled. “Three months; three different doctors told me that same thing.”

Dr. Hatfield was preparing to die when he heard of metabolic therapy, also known as the ketogenic diet. He had nothing to lose so he gave it a try, and… it worked. The cancer disappeared completely, and at the time of his interview (above), he’d been cancer-free for over a year.

The video above also features Dr. Dominic D’Agostino who, along with a team of researchers at the University of South Florida studies metabolic therapy. They found that when lab animals were fed a carb-free diet, they survived highly aggressive metastatic cancer better than those treated with chemotherapy. CBN reports:

“’We have dramatically increased survival with metabolic therapy,’ [Dr. D’Agostino] said. ‘So we think it’s important to get this information out.’ It’s not just lab mice. Dr. D’Agostino has also seen similar success in people – lots of them. ‘I’ve been in correspondence with a number of people,’ he said. ‘At least a dozen over the last year-and-a-half to two years, and all of them are still alive, despite the odds. So this is very encouraging.’”

How Does Ketogenic Diet Starve Cancer Cells?

Dr. D’Agostino explains how the ketogenic diet can have such a dramatic (and rapid) effect on cancer. All of your body’s cells are fueled by glucose. This includes cancer cells. However, cancer cells have one built-in fatal flaw – they do not have the metabolic flexibility of your regular cells and cannot adapt to use ketone bodies for fuel as all your other cells can.

So, when you alter your diet and become what’s known as “fat-adapted,” your body starts using fat for fuel rather than carbs. When you switch out the carbs for healthy fats, you starve the cancer out, as you’re no longer supplying the necessary fuel – glucose – for their growth. As D’Agostino explains:

“Your normal cells have the metabolic flexibility to adapt from using glucose to using ketone bodies. But cancer cells lack this metabolic flexibility. So we can exploit that.”

I’ve previously discussed ways to “starve” cancer, and eliminating sugar/fructose and grains (ie carbohydrates) is at the very top of the list. It’s the most basic step without which few other dietary strategies are likely to succeed. In order to be effective, you must first STOP doing that which is promoting cancer growth (or poor health in general), and then all the other preventive strategies have the chance to really have an impact.

What Makes for a Cancer-Fighting Diet?

Please remember addressing your diet should be at the top of your list. Naturally, processed foods and soft drinks do not belong in a cancer-preventive diet, as they are loaded with carbs that turn into fuel for cancer cells. Carbs also raise your insulin and leptin levels, and keeping your insulin and leptin signaling healthy is imperative if you want to avoid chronic disease of all kinds, including cancer.

Processed foods may also contain trans fat – the only type of fat you really need to avoid like the plague. They are also loaded with omega-6 fats which the featured otherwise excellent video failed to mention. Increasing the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is another potent way to increase your risk of cancer cell proliferation.

What About Protein?

One of my primary mentors in the importance of insulin and leptin, Dr. Rosedale. was one of the first professionals to advocate both a low-carb and moderate protein (and therefore high quality fat) diet. This was contrary to most low-carb advocates who were, and still are, very accepting of, if not promoting, high protein, as a replacement for the carbs.

If you or someone you know is challenged with cancer, the healthiest option may be to replace the carbs with beneficial fats, and limit your protein to high quality organic/pastured sources only. Dr. Rosedale advises 1 gram of protein per kilogram of lean body mass which for most people will be about 50 grams of protein a day (or 0.5 grams per pound of lean body weight). While you can take carbs to very low levels in ketogenic diets, you must have some protein every day to replace your body’s requirements. The key is to add healthy fat to replace the carbs and excess protein.

Olives and Olive oil

Coconuts and coconut oil

Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk

Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in protein and omega-6 fat

Organic pastured egg yolks and pastured meats

Avocados

The Fallacies of Fats and Carbs

Coincidentally, Dr. Robert Lustig – another expert on the dangers of high carb diets – was recently interviewed by NPR radio’s Science Friday segment.2 His new book, Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease, tackles the persistent myths about fat that is endangering the health of millions. It’s difficult to know just how many people have suffered poor health because they followed conventional low-fat recommendations, but I’m sure the number is significant.

The fact is that you’ve been thoroughly misled when it comes to dietary advice. Still today, many doctors, nutritionists, and government health officials will tell you to avoid saturated fat and keep fat consumption to below 10 percent while keeping the bulk of your diet, about 60 percent, as carbs. This is madness, as it’s the converse of a diet that will lead to optimal health. As an example, you’ve probably seen the whole grain label, which is certified by the American Heart Association3 of all things. Do whole grains support heart health? Hardly. The following outtake from the transcript addresses this head on:

“Flatow: …there’s something that came out yesterday released from Harvard… and it talks about one of the most widely used industry standards, the wholegrain stamp. [It] actually identified grain products [bearing the stamp] were higher in both sugars and calories than products without the stamp.

Lustig: Absolutely. And to be honest with you, wholegrain doesn’t mean much… Basically what it means is you start with a whole grain; that is the starch on the inside, the kernel, or the husk or the bran on the outside, and then whatever you want to do with it is perfectly fine. It’s still a whole grain. So if you pulverize it and add sugar to it, hey it’s still a whole grain because that’s what you started with. But you know what? All the benefits you get from whole grain are gone as soon as you pulverize it. So…. what it means is irrelevant because the definition is not helpful.”

Other Lifestyle Factors that Influence Your Cancer Risk

Other lifestyle factors that have been found to have an impact on chronic disease and cancer include:
•Vitamin D: There’s overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. You can decrease your risk of cancer by more than half simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure or a safe tanning bed. And, if you are being treated for cancer, it is likely that higher blood levels – probably around 80-90 ng/ml – would be beneficial. To learn the details on how to use vitamin D therapeutically, please review my previous article, Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency. In terms of protecting against cancer, vitamin D has been found to offer protection in a number of ways, including:
◦Regulating genetic expression
◦Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
◦Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
◦Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
◦Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous
•Getting proper sleep: both in terms of getting enough sleep, and sleeping between certain hours. According to Ayurvedic medicine, the ideal hours for sleep are between 10 pm and 6 am. Modern research has confirmed the value of this recommendation as certain hormonal fluctuations occur throughout the day and night, and if you engage in the appropriate activities during those times, you’re ‘riding the wave’ so to speak, and are able to get the optimal levels. Working against your biology by staying awake when you should ideally be sleeping or vice versa, interferes with these hormonal fluctuations.

There’s a spike of melatonin that occurs between midnight and 1am that you don’t want to miss because the consequences are absolutely spectacular. Melatonin is not only a sleep hormone, but it also is a very powerful antioxidant. It decreases the amount of estrogen your body produces, and boosts your immune system. It also interacts with other hormones. So, if you go to bed after 10, it can significantly increase your risk of breast cancer.
•Effectively addressing your stress: The research shows that if you experience a traumatic or highly stressful event, such as a death in the family, your risk of breast cancer is 12 times higher in the ensuing five years. I believe energy psychology tools are ideal to address stressors in your life. My favorite is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but there are many others available as well.
•Exercise: If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk of cancer, exercise doesn’t immediately come to mind. However, there is some fairly compelling evidence that exercise can slash your risk of cancer.

One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. Additionally, exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood. Your immune system is your first line of defense against everything from minor illnesses like a cold right up to devastating, life-threatening diseases like cancer.

The trick about exercise, though, is understanding how to use it as a precise tool. This ensures you are getting enough to achieve the benefit, not too much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physical structure and maintain strength and flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. This is why it is helpful to view exercise like a drug that needs to be carefully prescribed to achieve its maximum benefit. For detailed instructions, please see this previous article.

Additionally it is likely that integrating exercise with intermittent fasting will greatly catalyze the potential of exercise to reduce your risk of cancer and stimulate widespread healing and rejuvenation.

You CAN Beat ‘the System’…

Cancer is the second most lethal disease in the US after heart disease (not counting iatrogenic mortality, aka “death by medicine”). We all know that the war on cancer has been a dismal failure. Tragically, conventional wisdom is blind when it comes to cancer prevention and treatment and hundreds of thousands die prematurely every year as a result. They have little to no appreciation of the concepts discussed in this article. But you don’t have to fall into that trap as you know better and can take control of your health and ability to treat cancer in your own hands.

The ketogenic diet, which can be summarized as a high-fat, moderate-protein, no-grain-carb diet, has brought many back to health, even after being diagnosed with aggressive cancer, and given no hope of survival. Hopefully, research by the likes of Dr. D’Agostino will become more widely known. Until then, do your own research and take control of your own health, and that of your family.

Severely limiting sugar/fructose, processed foods of all kinds, sweetened beverages (as well as diet versions), and replacing carbs with healthy fats and high quality protein can do what no medicine can – it can prevent disease from setting in, and may even be the U-turn you’re looking for if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer or other chronic disease. Add to that appropriate sun exposure, sleep, effective stress management, and regular exercise, and you’ll be well ahead of the rest of the population.

Splenda, also known as sucralose, is an artificial, chemical sweetener.

Despite advertisements stating “Made from Sugar, so it Tastes like Sugar”, which attempt to confuse consumers, Splenda is not natural and contains no elements of natural sugar.

You may also be surprised to learn that Splenda contains chlorine. Yes, the same chlorine that goes in swimming pools. And here’s the worst side effect:

Just like chlorine kills off micro-organisms in swimming pools, Splenda and sucralose kill off healthy bacteria that lives in your gut — healthy bacteria that is vitally important to virtually every aspect of your health.

Recently, a study at the University of Duke confirmed this very finding. Not only is sucralose a heavily-processed, chemical artificial sweetener, but it’s also damaging to your gut health, which goes on to affect every other aspect of your health.

Here’s a direct quote from that study:

“Splenda suppresses beneficial bacteria and directly affects the expression of the transporter P-gp and cytochrome P-450 isozymes that are known to interfere with the bioavailability of nutrients. Furthermore, these effects occur at Splenda doses that contain sucralose levels that are approved by the FDA for use in the food supply.”

Did you know that over 80% of your immune system finds it’s home in your gut? In fact, there are more than 100 TRILLION living bacteria in your gut that control many aspects of your health, and due to things like the ingestion of artificial sweeteners like Splenda, most folks have created a massive bacterial imbalance in their body.

But, it doesn’t just stop with the use of Splenda or other artificial sweeteners. Here are some other common items that are contributing to the bacterial imbalances that BILLIONS of folks are silently suffering from all around the world:

*Antacids
*Diet beverages and food items (remember, sucralose is added to MANY foods, beverages, and supplements as a sweetener beyond just those little yellow packets that you may use in your coffee)
*Ibuprofen
*Antibiotics
*Laxatives
*Alcohol consumption
*Processed, packaged foods
*Certain brands of mouth wash, chewing gum, dishwasher detergent, and toothpaste
*Non-organic fruits and vegetables
*Non-organic meats
*Non-organic dairy products
*Sugar

If you are in contact with any of these items, it could be contributing to a serious imbalance in your gut bacteria and an overall decline in your health.

What’s more, if you suffer from irregular bowel movements, constipation, gas, bloating, acid reflux, indigestion, skin problems, overall sickness, bad breath, fatigue, urinary tract infections, sugar cravings, and/or an inability to lose weight, these symptoms are a near telltale sign that your gut bacteria is ALREADY severely imbalanced and has literally become a ticking time bomb.

But even worse, here are some of the more serious consequences that can result from gut imbalances left unaddressed:

*Severe irritable bowel syndrome and extreme daily discomfort
*Serious skin disorders like eczema and psoriasis
*A constant battle with ongoing fatigue and low energy levels
*A life full of chronic sickness and pain due to a declining immune system
*Cirrhosis and cancer of the liver
*Metabolic syndrome
*Diabetes

Fortunately, you can correct imbalances in bad bacteria by supplementing with “good” bacteria known as probiotics. In fact, research is now suggesting that supplementing with a quality probiotic supplement every single day just may be even more important for your health and longevity than taking a daily multivitamin…the problem is finding a quality product that overcomes the pitfalls of most probiotic supplements.

You may not know this, but more than 93% of the probiotics found in traditional probiotic products will be dead by the time they reach your gut (the “final destination” that they must reach alive and well in order to provide you with their beneficial properties).

Because probiotics are living organisms, they are also very fragile and sensitive to light, heat, and the extremely acidic environment of your stomach, leaving you with very little live probiotics to benefit from once they reach their home in your intestinal track.

To combat this massive problem, at BioTrust nutrition we developed an extremely unique micro-encapsulated probiotic product called Pro-X10 that protects each probiotic cell through a wide range of environments to ensure that you get what you pay for – live, active probiotic cells that can make all the difference in your health.

But, it gets even better. Also included is Actazin, an extract of the New Zealand Kiwifruit and one of the most powerful probiotic support nutrients of all time. Actazin supports the natural growth of “good” bacteria in your gut, helps keep your bowel movements regular, and assists in maintaining long-term digestive health including the restoration of damaged intestinal lining.

Beyond that, we’ve included a number of unique probiotic strains in Pro-X10 that provide additional benefits like oral health, constipation relief, and immune defense, easily making Pro-X10 the #1 probiotic on the market.

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If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Its getting close to that time of year again when vaccines will be promoted very heavily at every Walgreens in the US, so this is for my American friends. Since returning to England last November I’ve yet to experince if the hype is as bad here.

Have you ever wondered what’s really in vaccines? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine additives page, all the following ingredients are routinely used as vaccine additives:

• Aluminum – A light metal that causes dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. You should never inject yourself with aluminum.

• Antibiotics – Chemicals that promote superbugs, which are deadly antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that are killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.

• Formaldehyde – A “pickling” chemical used to preserve cadavers. It’s highly toxic to the nervous system, causing blindness, brain damage and seizures. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services openly admits that formaldehyde causes cancer. You can see this yourself on the National Toxicology Program website, featuring its 12th Report on Carcinogens.

There, the formaldehyde Fact Sheet completely neglects to mention formaldehyde in vaccines. This is the “dirty little secret” of government and the vaccine industry. It does state, however, that “…formaldehyde causes myeloid leukemia, and rare cancers including sinonasal and nasopharyngeal cancer.”

• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – A neurotoxic chemical called an “excitotoxin.” It causes brain neurons to be overexcited to the point of death. MSG is toxic even when consumed in foods, where it causes migraine headaches and endocrine system damage. You should NEVER inject MSG into your body. But that’s what health workers do when they inject you with vaccines.

• Thimerosal – A methyl mercury compound that causes severe, permanent nervous system damage. Mercury is highly toxic to the brain. You should never touch, swallow or inject mercury at any dose. There is no safe dose of mercury! Doctors and vaccine pushers LIE to you and say there is no mercury in vaccines. Even the CDC readily admits vaccine still contain mercury (thimerosal).

In addition, National Toxicology Programs admits in its own documents that:

• Vaccinations “…may produce small but measurable increases in blood levels of mercury.”

• “Thimerosal was found to cross the blood-brain and placenta barriers.”

• The “…hazards of thimerosal include neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity.” (This means brain and kidney toxicity.)

• “…similar toxicological profiles between ethylmercury and methylmercury raise the possibility that neurotoxicity may also occur at low doses of thimerosal.”

• “… there are no existing guidelines for safe exposure to ethylmercury, the metabolite of thimerosal.”

• “…the assessment determined that the use of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines might result in the intake of mercury during the first six months of life that exceeded recommended guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…”

• …”In the U.S., thimerosal is still present as preservative in some vaccines given to young children, as well as certain biological products recommended during pregnancy. Thimerosal remains a preservative in some vaccines administered to adolescents and adults. In addition, thimerosal continues to be used internationally as a vaccine preservative.”

The report then goes on to say that the FDA studies thimerosal and somehow found it to be perfectly safe. It also states that vaccine manufactures are “working” to remove thimerosal from vaccines, but in reality it’s still being manufactured right into the vaccines.

By the way, this report also reveals that the FDA requires preservatives like thimerosal only in so-called “multi-dose” vaccines — vials that contain more than one dose of the vaccine. Drug companies could, if they wanted to, produce “clean” single-dose vaccines without any mercury / thimerosal. But they choose not to because it’s more profitable to product mercury-containing multi-dose vaccines. As the report admits, “Preservatives are not required for products formulated in singledose vials. Multidose vials are preferred by some physicians and health clinics because they are often less expensive per vaccine dose and require less storage space.”

So the reason why your child is being injected with vaccine boils down to health care offices making more money and saving shelf space!

“Mercury in vaccines is a conspiracy theory!
I’ve been told by numerous “skeptics” and doctors that there’s no such thing as mercury in vaccines, and that any such suggestion is nothing more than a “wild conspiracy theory.” That just goes to show you how ignorant all the skeptics, doctors and health professionals really are: They have NO CLUE what’s in the vaccines they’re dishing out to people!

All they have to do is visit this CDC vaccine additives web page, which openly admits to these chemicals being used in vaccines right now. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it turns out. It’s the status quo of modern-day vaccine manufacturing!

And just in case the CDC removes that page, here’s a screen shot, taken October 22, 2012, showing exactly what was on the CDC vaccine additives page:

Feel that headache after a vaccine? That’s the feeling of chemicals eating your brain
Now, consider this: The most common side effect of a vaccine injection is a headache. The CDC admits that over 30 percent of those receiving vaccines experience headaches or migraines. Gee, think about it: What could possibly be in vaccines that would cause headaches, migraines and brain damage?

Ummm, how about the mercury, the formaldehyde, the aluminum and the MSG!

Even if you believe in the theory of vaccines as a helpful way to train the immune system to recognize pathogens, why would anyone — especially a doctor — think it’s okay to inject human beings with mercury, MSG, formaldehyde and aluminum?

The argument of the vaccine pushers is that each vaccine only contains a tiny dose of these highly toxic substances, and therefore it’s okay to be injected with them. But this argument makes a fatal error: U.S. children are now receiving over twenty vaccines by the time they’re six years old! What’s the cumulative effect of all these vaccines, plus the mercury from dental fillings and dietary sources? What’s the effect of injected mercury on an immune-suppressed child living in a state of chronic nutritional deficiency?

Scientists don’t know that answer because such studies have never been conducted. So they pretend that nothing bad will happen and keep pushing more and more vaccines on infants, children and even expectant mothers. They’re playing Russian roulette with our children, in other words, where every injection could cause a seizure, coma, autism or death.

Why doesn’t the vaccine industry offer “clean” vaccines free from all toxic additives?
If vaccines are supposed to be good for you, why do they contain so many additives that are BAD for you? You wouldn’t want to eat mercury in your tuna fish. You wouldn’t want MSG in your sandwich, and you certainly wouldn’t want formaldehyde in your soda. So why would you allow yourself to be injected with these deadly substances?

And just as importantly, why wouldn’t the vaccine industry offer CLEAN vaccines? Without any brain-damaging additives?

Think about it: When you buy health food, you want that health food to have NO mercury, NO MSG, NO aluminum and certainly no formaldehyde. No sane person would knowingly eat those neurotoxic poisons. And yet, astonishingly, those same people literally line up to be INJECTED with those exact same brain-damaging poisons, with the justification that, somehow, “This injection is good for me!”

Absurdly, the vaccine industry says these toxic ingredients are intentionally added to vaccines to make them work better! Yes, that’s the reason: Mercury makes vaccines work better, they insist. Click here to see a video news report actually claiming mercury makes vaccines work better, granting children “improved behavior and mental performance.”

No, I’m not making this up. The mainstream media literally claims that mercury is GOOD for babies. Vitamins might kill you, they say, but mercury is good for you!

But hold on a second: I thought the theory behind vaccines was that weakened viruses would give the immune system a rehearsal so that it would build up antibodies to the real thing. Where does mercury, MSG or formaldehyde fit anywhere in that theory? Does your body benefit in any way from exposure to formaldehyde? Of course not. The very idea is ludicrous.

So are there such things are clean vaccines? I challenge you to try to find one. They simply don’t exist for the population at large. Nearly all vaccines for the masses are deliberately formulated with neurotoxic chemicals that have absolutely nothing to do with the science of vaccinations, but everything to do with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, early-onset dementia, immune suppression, and the mass dumbing down of brain function.

Vaccines are designed with chemical additives to poison the population, not to protect the population
That’s the real purpose of vaccines: Not to “protect children” with any sort of immunity, but to inject the masses with a toxic cocktail of chemicals that cause brain damage and infertility: Mercury, MSG, formaldehyde and aluminum. The whole point of this is to dumb the population down so that nobody has the presence of mind to wake up and start thinking for themselves.

This is precisely why the smartest, most “awake” people still remaining in society today are the very same ones who say NO to vaccines. Only their brains are still intact and operating with some level of awareness.

The system wants you to stay dumbed down, of course. It makes you easier to control. Watch George Carlin brilliantly explain the concept of “Obedient Workers” (explicit):

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/037653_vaccine_additives_thimerosal_formaldehyde.html#ixzz2H675uonJ

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

By Dr. Mercola

Science has proven time and again that Mother Nature is the best physician, and food is the best medicine. Broccoli, for example—and to an even greater degree, broccoli sprouts—have been repeatedly shown to be one of nature’s most valuable health-promoting foods, capable of preventing a number of health issues, including but not limited to:
•Hypertension1
•Allergies2
•Diabetes3
•Osteoarthritis4, 5
•Cancer

How Broccoli Can Help Slow Progression of Arthritis

What is Broccoli Good For? For starters, it can help with arthritis. Most recently, the benefits of broccoli for the prevention and treatment of the most common form of arthritis has made headlines. As reported by BBC News6:

“Eating lots of broccoli may slow down and even prevent osteoarthritis, according to a team of researchers at the University of East Anglia who are starting human trials following on from successful lab studies.7

Tests on cells and mice showed that a broccoli compound, sulforaphane – which humans can also get from Brussels sprouts and cabbage – blocked a key destructive enzyme that damages cartilage.”

According to lead researcher Ian Clark, the results are “very promising,” as they’ve now shown that sulforaphane works in each of the three laboratory models they’ve tried so far—in human and cow cartilage cells, tissue, and live mice.

Sulforaphane, which is known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, can also be found in other cruciferous vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage.

Broccoli, however, is one of the richest sources of this potent compound, and broccoli sprouts appear to be one of the richest sources of all. The compound also has anti-diabetic and antimicrobial activity. According to Clark:8

“As well as treating those who already have [osteoarthritis], you need to be able to tell healthy people how to protect their joints into the future. There is currently no way in to the disease pharmaceutically and you cannot give healthy people drugs unnecessarily, so this is where diet could be a safe alternative. Prevention would be preferable and changes to lifestyle, like diet, may be the only way to do that.”

The Anti-Cancer Properties of Broccoli

Sulforaphane, a sulfur compound, has also been shown to kill cancer stem cells, thereby slowing tumor growth. Some researchers believe eliminating cancer stem cells may be key to controlling cancer.

This is something current chemotherapies cannot do, but food can! I have long touted the cancer busting power of broccoli; ever since studies in the mid-1990s showed that the broccoli compound glucoraphanin — a precursor to sulforaphane – boosts cell enzymes that protect against molecular damage from cancer-causing chemicals.9, 10

Studies have also found that sulforaphane normalizes DNA methylation11—a process by which a methyl group (one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms) is added to part of a DNA molecule. DNA methylation is a crucial part of normal cell function, allowing cells to “remember who they are and where they have been” and is important in regulating gene expression.

DNA methylation also suppresses the genes for things you don’t want, such as viral and other disease-related genes, and abnormal DNA methylation plays a critical role in the development of nearly all types of cancer.

The sulforaphane from broccoli plays a role in activating more than 200 different genes. Specifically, it appears that broccoli contains the necessary ingredients to switch ON genes that prevent cancer development, and switch OFF other ones that help it spread. And you don’t have to consume a truckload of broccoli to reap its benefits.

In fact, a 2008 study published in PLoS One12 found that just four servings of broccoli per week could protect men from prostate cancer. One serving of broccoli is about two spears, so that’s only 10 broccoli spears per week. In this study, the researchers collected tissue samples over the course of the study and found that the men who ate broccoli showed hundreds of beneficial changes in genes known to play a role in fighting cancer.

Sulforaphane Works on a Wide Variety of Cancers

Other researchers have looked at sulforaphane’s effect on breast cancer, and discovered that it hinders the growth of human breast cancer cells as well—at least in the laboratory. Here, they found that it does so by disrupting the action of protein microtubules within the cancer cells, which promote cell division and growth. Interestingly enough, certain cancer drugs also work in this manner. The upside of broccoli, of course, is that it doesn’t come with ANY of the side effects associated with synthetic drugs. Furthermore, as reported by PreventDisease.com13:

“Previous research has also proven that the compound blocks the formation of breast tumors in rats, and it can even force colon cancer cells to commit cell suicide. It seems that sulforaphane works its magic on the detoxification enzymes that try to defend the cancer-promoting substances.”

The interesting aspect of chemoprotection strategies is that they’re almost never organ-specific. Rather, chemoprotection produces a general cancer protective effect which blocks multiple steps — a cascade of steps — that are common to cancer formation. This is probably a reason why broccoli appears to work against a variety of different types of cancers.

Sprouts—An Even More Potent Alternative

As stated earlier, about 10 broccoli spears per week has been shown to offer protection against prostate cancer, which isn’t a whole lot, but research14 has shown that fresh broccoli sprouts are FAR more potent, allowing you to eat far less in terms of quantity. This is also an excellent alternative if you don’t like the taste (or smell) of broccoli. In terms of research, even small quantities of broccoli sprout extracts have been shown to markedly reduce the size of rat mammary tumors that were induced by chemical carcinogens. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University15:

“Three-day-old broccoli sprouts consistently contain 20 to 50 times the amount of chemoprotective compounds found in mature broccoli heads, and may offer a simple, dietary means of chemically reducing cancer risk.”

When compared to either broccoli or cauliflower, which also contains sulforaphane,16 three-day-old broccoli sprouts contain anywhere from 10 to 100 times higher levels of glucoraphanin, compared to the mature varieties. Best of all, you can grow broccoli sprouts at home quite easily and inexpensively. Another major benefit is that you don’t have to cook them. They are eaten raw, usually as an addition to salad.

Furthermore, if you opt for mature broccoli heads, it becomes more important to make sure you’re purchasing a variety of high potency.17 In tests, the chemoprotective abilities of samples from 22 varieties of fresh and seven brands of frozen mature broccoli varied greatly. Fresh broccoli sprouts, on the other hand, are far more uniform in their potency.

Interestingly, researchers have found that an extract of broccoli sprouts helps protect your skin from sun damage, which could potentially lead to skin cancer. According to Dr. Paul Talalay, a professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore:18

“Cells contain an elaborate network of protective genes that code for proteins that protect against four principal injurious processes to which all of our cells are exposed and which are the causes of cancer, degenerative disease and aging. Those four processes are: oxidation; DNA damage; inflammation and radiation, namely ultraviolet radiation. The cells’ protective system normally operates at about one-third capacity, so the real question is what would ramp up that system.

The highest doses of sulforaphane extract reduced UV-induced redness and inflammation (erythema) by an average of 37 percent, although protection varied from 8 percent to 78 percent. If you apply an extract of broccoli sprouts that contains high levels of sulforaphane to regions of human skin, you can protect them very substantially.” [Emphasis mine]

How to Grow Your Own Broccoli Sprouts

Broccoli sprouts look and taste similar to alfalfa sprouts, and are easily grown at home, even if you’re limited on space. I strongly recommend using organic seeds, and a pound of seeds will probably make over 10 pounds of sprouts. From the researcher’s calculations mentioned earlier, this can translate up to as much cancer protecting phytochemicals as 1,000 pounds (half a ton) of broccoli!

I used to grow sprouts in Ball jars over 10 years ago but stopped doing that. I am strongly convinced that actually growing them in soil is far easier and produces far more nutritious and abundant food. It is also less time consuming. With Ball jars, you need to rinse them several times a day to prevent mold growth. Trays also take up less space. I am now consuming one whole tray of sprouts every 2-3 days and to produce that much food with Ball jars I would need dozens of jars. I simply don’t have the time or patience for that. You can find instructions on how to grow sprouts by viewing a step-by-step guide at rawfoods-livingfoods.com.

Your Diet Can Be a Powerful Cancer Prevention Tool

There’s little doubt that one of the best ways to improve your health is to make sure you’re eating plenty of fresh, organic vegetables, ideally locally-grown, with a majority of them consumed raw. Two of the easiest and most efficient ways to optimize your vegetable intake is to juice your vegetables and add sprouted seeds. Sprouting is undoubtedly one of the best ways to increase the nutritional content of your diet, as the sprouting process tends to increase nutrient content and bioavailability of those nutrients.

Sprouts—which again are eaten raw—also contain valuable enzymes that allow your body to absorb and use the nutrients of all other foods you eat as well. Some sprouts, like sunflower seeds, have up to 30 times the nutrient density of even home grown organic vegetables. I personally consume about 4-6 ounces of sunflower seed sprouts every day that I either grow at home or our team does in our office.

Juicing is another great way to get a wider variety of veggies into your diet, and will help your body absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables by making them easily digestible. You’re also avoiding the risk of damaging any of their sensitive micronutrients through cooking, which destroys many micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. For more in-depth guidelines and information about juicing, I recommend you review the juicing section of my nutrition plan.

My Recommended Vegetables List provides a guide to the most nutritious vegetables and those to limit due to their high carbohydrate content. Broccoli is certainly on the most nutritious list, but so are many others like celery, Bok Choy and beet greens. Remember, variety is key. So while broccoli and broccoli sprouts are the focus of this article, they should be part of a wide variety of vegetables and legumes in your diet. There are many other foods that contain other cancer-protective nutrients and compounds, as well as so-called anti-angiogenetic foods, which effectively help “starve” cancer by preventing blood vessels from forming to feed microscopic tumors in the first place:

Green tea

Berries: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries

Cherries

Red grapes

Kale

Turmeric

Nutmeg

Artichokes

Parsley

Garlic

Tomato

Maitake mushroom

Fermented veggies are another outstanding superfood. But whatever method you choose; juiced, whole, sprouted, cooked or fermented, do make it a point to eat your veggies. This is one food group that is incredibly diverse, so there’s a wide variety to choose from and plenty to suit virtually everyone’s tastes. And, as you can see, mounting evidence shows that eating vegetables every day is a cornerstone of good health, and a habit that can go a very long way toward preventing disease of all kinds, including cancer.

The United States is the number one per capita consumer of corn in the world. As expounded in books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, high-fructose corn syrup and other corn-derivatives work their way into nearly every kind of processed food on the market.

In the US, corn is one of the top four most heavily subsidized food crops, so farmers have every reason to plant plenty of it.

Unfortunately, since corn is a grain, it breaks down to sugar very rapidly and typically increases your insulin resistance if regularly consumed. Elevated insulin levels in turn are linked to most chronic degenerative diseases, including everything from obesity and diabetes to premature aging.

Making matters worse, the vast majority of American-grown corn is also genetically engineered (GE) to produce Bt toxin (a pesticide that kills bugs by making their stomachs explode), which is then consumed by you.

Studies now show that, contrary to industry assurances, this built-in Bt toxin survives the journey through your digestive system, and can make you allergic to a wide range of substances. This is in stark contrast to naturally produced Bt toxin which is rapidly broken down in the environment and never makes it to your stomach.

As Corn Became King, a Fast-Food Nation Was Born

The featured documentary, King Corn1, follows two college buddies, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, as they set out to learn more about corn—how it’s grown, and how it ends up in so many of our foods. As stated in the film’s synopsis:

“With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.”

Far from providing us with critical nutrition, US agricultural policies contribute to the declining health of Americans and worsens the out-of-control obesity epidemic. Current farm subsidies bring you high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, junk food, corn-fed beef raised in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), monoculture, and a host of other contributors to our unhealthful contemporary diet.

And as stated in the film, were you to grow corn without these government assistance payments, you’d be virtually guaranteed to lose money. The farm subsidies are what’s keeping the wheel of this cheap food ingredient rolling. In short, as stated in a recent research paper2:

“Government-issued payments have skewed agricultural markets toward the overproduction of commodities that are the basic ingredients of processed, energy-dense foods.”

Do You Know How Much Corn You’re Eating Every Day?

A conservative estimate3 of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption suggests Americans over the age of two consume an average of 132 calories a day from HFCS, with the top 20 percent of consumers ingesting an average of 316 calories from HFCS daily. This is bound to have significant health consequences.

For an excellent scientific analysis on fructose, I suggest reading the report titled: “Fructose, Weight Gain, and the Insulin Resistance Syndrome,4” published in one of my favorite nutritional journals, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It will open your eyes to some of the major problems associated with this sweetener. Other statistics included in the film include the following:
•Over the past 15 years, taxpayers have paid corn farmers more than $77 billion in subsidies; yes that is billion with a “b”
•More than 75 percent of farm subsidies are paid to a mere 10 percent of America’s farmers
•Since the late 1970s, the real price of fruits and vegetables have risen by 30 percent, while the price for soda has decreased by 34 percent

According to a 2011 report5 by the non-profit U.S. PIRG called “Apples to Twinkies,” each year, your tax dollars (in the form of agricultural subsidies) would allow you to buy 19 Twinkies, but less than a quarter of one red delicious apple!

So far, public health officials have had little to say about any of this, yet it seems quite clear that they should. The US farm subsidy program is completely upside down, subsidizing junk food in one federal office, while across the hall another department is funding an anti-obesity campaign. This hypocrisy shows just how broken and wasteful our regulatory system really is.

Worst of all, the farm bill creates a negative feedback loop that perpetuates the highly profitable standard American diet, so the US government is, in essence, subsidizing obesity and chronic disease. With the 2013 Farm Bill set to be finalized by the end of September 2013, this could be a key time to implement important policy changes in the near future.

Redesigning the System Could Help Fight Obesity and Protect the Environment

The time is ripe for change, and redesigning the system could help move us toward economic, and nutritional, recovery. If we’re going to subsidize farmers, let’s subsidize in a way that helps restore the health of American citizens and our land—programs that might just pay for themselves by the reduction in healthcare costs they bring about. Two years ago, Mark Brittman of the New York Times6 argued that subsidy money could easily be redirected toward helping smaller farmers to compete in the marketplace in a number of ways. For example, funds could be redirected toward:
•Funding research and innovation in sustainable agriculture
•Providing incentives to attract new farmers
•Saving farmland from development
•Assisting farmers who grow currently unsubsidized fruits and vegetables, while providing incentives for monoculture commodity farmers (corn, soy, wheat, rice) to convert some of their operations to more desirable foods
•Leveling the playing field so that medium-sized farms can more favorably compete with agribusiness as suppliers for local supermarkets

FoodCorps—Turning Corn Fields Into School Gardens

King Corn co-creator Curt Ellis is also Co-Founder and Executive Director of the national nonprofit organization FoodCorps, which came up with the ingenious idea of turning acres of corn into school gardens:

“FoodCorps recruits leaders for a year of full-time public service in high-obesity, limited-resource public schools. Service members deliver food and nutrition education that teaches kids what healthy food is, build and tend school gardens that engage children and parents in growing fresh food in the schoolyard, and team up with farmers and chefs to get healthy, high-quality ingredients into school lunch.”

Since mid-August 2012, FoodCorps has started 411 garden projects in 10 states with the help of close to 3,300 community volunteers, and have harvested nearly 29,600 pounds of fresh produce for local schools. To learn more about the program, please see the FoodCorps website.7

Help Support Small Farms with a Farm Bill That Works

If you don’t like the idea of your tax dollars lining the pockets of wealthy corporations that flood the market with sugary beverages and processed foods laden with HFCS, join forces with organizations that are actively working for positive change. Here are three different actions you can take:
•The Environmental Working Group has started a petition urging Congress to enact a Farm Bill that protects family farmers who help us protect the environment and public health. Take a moment to sign it now.
•Sign up with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition to keep abreast of news and action alerts relating to the 2013 Farm Bill.
•Join Food Democracy Now, an organization co-founded by King Corn director Aaron Woolf.

Of course, you can also voice your opinion every day by voting with your wallet and supporting small family farms in your area. Even if it means buying just one or two items at your local farmers market, instead of the big box store, those little purchases add up.

Say no to junk food producers by not buying it, and return to a diet of real, whole foods—fresh organic produce, meats from animals raised sustainably on pasture, without cruelty, and raw organic milk and eggs. Eating this way will earn you a long, healthy life—whereas the typical American diet may set you on the path toward obesity and chronic disease.

How many times have you heard it mentioned that sugar causes cancer, that cancer patients should avoid sugar, or that sugar is the favorite food of cancer cells? The truth is, this goes beyond mere hearsay or traditional knowledge; there is actually a large volume of scientific evidence available which shows the link between sugar and increased cancer risk. Here, ten such studies are summarized.

1. Colorectal Cancer in Women (United States)

A study conducted by Harvard Medical School found that women who ate the most foods with high glycemic load – the glycemic index, or GI, of a food gives an idea of how quickly sugar (more specifically, glucose) levels in the blood rise after eating it – had almost three times the risk of getting colorectal cancer in the future, compared with women who ate lesser amounts of such foods.

Typically, processed foods made from refined grains and refined sugar, including candy bars, cakes, cookies and other snacks, are high glycemic foods

“We find a very straightforward and clear association between high-glycemic foods and the risk of colorectal cancers,” said lead researcher Simin Liu, MD, ScD.

This study involved some 40,000 American women.

2. Colorectal Cancer in Men (United States)

Another study at Harvard University found that middled aged men whose diets tended to increase blood sugar levels quicker, i.e. those who ate more high GI foods, had a 32% higher chance of getting colorectal cancer over a period of 20 years.

The study, which involved more than 50,000 men, also found that this effect seemed to be more pronounced in heavier men.

3. Breast Cancer in Women (United States)

The Women’s Health Study found that those who consumed a diet which raised blood sugar levels more had a 135% higher risk of getting breast cancer in the 7-year period of the study.

4. Endometrial Cancer in Women (United States)

The Iowa Women’s Health Study looked at some 23,000 post-menopausal women. It found that those who consumed a diet which raised blood sugar levels more had a 46% higher risk of getting endometrial cancer over a period of 15 years.

5. Endometrial Cancer in Women (Italy)

Another study in Italy carried out on women with endometrial cancer found that those who consumed a blood sugar-raising diet had a 110% higher risk of getting this disease.

6. Pancreatic Cancer in Women (United States)

In a study which followed almost 90,000 US women participating in the Nurse’s Health Study for a period of 18 years, it was found that women with a high glycemic load intake had a 53% higher risk of getting pancreatic cancer. A similar increase in risk, 57%, was observed for fructose intake.

Further, the study also found that women who were heavy and with low levels of physical activity experienced greatly enhanced risk. Women in this group with high glycemic load had 2.67 times the risk of their counterparts with low glycemic load intake!

7. Pancreatic Cancer in Men and Women (Sweden)

A study carried out by Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and Central Hospital in Västerås, Sweden followed almost 78,000 Swedish men and women with no previous diagnosis of cancer or history of diabetes for a mean period of more than 7 years. The subjects were aged from 45 to 83 years.

The study found that consuming added sugar, soft drinks, sweetened fruit soups or stewed fruit increased the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Those who ate the most sugar had a 69% higher risk compared with those who ate the least sugar. The corresponding higher risk for soft drinks was 93%, while for sweetened fruit soups or stewed fruit it was 51%.

The study concluded that “high consumption of sugar and high-sugar foods may be associated with a greater risk of pancreatic cancer”.

8. Prostate Cancer in Men (Italy)

An Italian study examined the habits of men aged 46 to 74 who had prostate cancer and compared their dietary choices to similar men who did not contract the disease. The study found that those men whose diets were more likely to increase blood sugar levels had a 57% higher risk of getting prostate cancer.

9. All Cancers in Men and Women (Korea)

A large study carried out by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea tracked almost 1.3 million Korean men and women, aged between 30 and 95 years, for a period of 10 years.

The study found that those with the highest fasting glucose levels were more likely to die from all types of cancer combined. For the men, the strongest link was found for pancreatic cancer, while significant links were also reported for oesophagus, liver and colorectal cancers. For the women, the strongest associations were for liver and cervical cancers.

All in all, besides being more likely to die from cancer, those with highest fasting blood glucose levels also had higher risk of developing cancer.

And obesity had a part to play, too. “This study provides more information on glucose intolerance, an emerging cause of cancer. It points to increased cancer risk as another adverse consequence of rising obesity around the world,” concluded Sun Ha Jee, leader of the study.

Another thing to note – the study participants were said to be substantially leaner than the typical population in Western countries, as mentioned by the study team.

10. Various Cancers in Men and Women (Sweden)

A study carried out at Umea University Hospital in Sweden looked at almost 65,000 people in northern Sweden for a mean period of 8 years.

The study found that women with the highest blood sugar levels had a higher risk of getting cancer before the end of the study period. This group of women also had higher risk of endometrial cancer, while those below 49 years of age had higher risk of breast cancer. In addition, both men and women who had the highest levels of blood sugar had higher risks of pancreatic cancer, urinary tract cancer, as well as malignant melanoma.

These results led Par Stattin, MD, PhD, part of the study team, to state that keeping blood sugar levels within the normal range “may reduce cancer risk”.

Why Does Cancer Love Sugar? – A Study Suggests Why

A study team at Duke University School of Medicine has suggested a possible reason why cancer cells like sugar so much.

Basically, according to the researchers, in healthy cells, certain growth factors regulate their metabolism and cell survival. When these growth factors are removed, there is loss of glucose uptake and metabolism, and the cells die.

However, they found that cancer cells are able to maintain glucose metabolism by using a protein called “Akt”, which promotes glucose metabolism. This prevents cell death, even when the growth factors are not available.

What We Need to Take Note of

So, then, based on the findings of the abovementioned studies, can we conclude that sugar feeds cancer? The truth is, sugar feeds all cells in our bodies. It therefore cannot be all bad.

Two things we must take note of, however, is the amount and the type of sugar which we consume.

Consuming too much sugar causes our bodies to produce excessive amounts of insulin. And insulin itself encourages the growth of cells, something which is good for healthy cells, but not cancerous cells.

The other key point is to avoid simple sugars. Broadly speaking, processed and refined foods, including soft drinks, sugary beverages, candy bars, cakes, other desserts, as well as other snacks, contain high amounts of simple sugars. These are high GI foods, which can cause insulin levels to spike.

On the other hand, natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables are so much safer and better for health. Even fresh fruit juice, despite its high sugar content, is great for health. On top of that, healthy whole foods come with a wide concoction of vitamins and minerals, something which refined sugar is totally devoid of.

Simple Sugars Cause Obesity

When one’ insulin levels suddenly increase, the level of sugar in the blood can suddenly crash. This, then, can cause one to feel intensely hungry. People then eat more, and feel hungry again soon, and the cycle keeps going.

Further, because of their lack of nutrition, foods with a lot of simple sugars are basically empty calories. When the body’s nutritional needs are not met, it continues to crave for food, which again explains the non-stop eating and feasting.

The more refined sugars one eats, the fatter one becomes, yet the more malnourished one can be. It is a huge paradox, and a dangerous one at that.

Conclusion

Refined sugar is devoid of important nutrients, causes obesity, causes cavities, and also increases cancer risk. If you or a loved one are battling cancer, or are serious about avoiding the disease, you may want to take note of your intake of this common yet dangerous substance.

Main Sources

Various medical journal and health websites

About the author
Reuben Chow has a keen interest in natural health and healing as well as personal growth. His website, All 4 Natural Health, offers a basic guide on natural health information. It details simple, effective and natural ways, such as the use of nutrition, various herbs, herb remedies, supplements and other natural remedies, to deal with various health conditions as well as to attain good health. His other websites also cover topics such as depression help, omega 3 fatty acids, as well as cancer research and information

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

The interview above is with Dr. Richard Johnson, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, where he runs the kidney division and is in charge of transplantation and research about blood pressure. He has also written the best book on the market on the dangers of fructose, called The Sugar Fix and his newest book The Fat Switch.

About 70 percent of Dr. Johnson’s work involves research and, for a number of years, he has been studying the effects of fructose on the metabolic system in animals and cell culture, as well as in clinical studies. The majority of his research has focused on how fructose is related to obesity, high blood pressure, kidney disease, fatty liver, and other health-related problems.

Here, Dr. Johnson discusses how uric acid in your blood can wreak havoc on your blood pressure, insulin production and even kidney function.

He didn’t start by looking at fructose, however. It began when he realized that uric acid is a major component of obesity, high blood pressure and kidney disease. In fact, he discovered that 90 percent of obese adolescents newly diagnosed with high blood pressure had elevated uric acid levels. He was able to normalize the blood pressure in 87 percent of these adolescents simply by lowering their uric acid levels.

The question was: What raises uric acid?

It’s been known that meats and purine rich foods can raise uric acid, but it turns out that one of the most potent ways to raise uric acid is by consuming large amounts of fructose! You probably already know fructose is a sugar, but you may not realize is that it’s distinctly different from other sugars, as it’s metabolized in your body through very specific pathways that differ from those of glucose. Uric acid is a byproduct of fructose metabolism. In fact, fructose typically generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion.

Sugar actually makes you eat more sugar. Eating it triggers the production of your brain’s natural opioids — a key factor in addiction. Your brain essentially becomes addicted to the sugar-induced opioid release, not unlike addictions to morphine or heroin. The more you eat, the more you crave. This vicious cycle underlies much the overconsumption of sugar today.

But let’s take a step back and look at what uric acid is, and how it’s linked to fructose consumption.

What is Uric Acid and How Much is Too Much?

Uric acid is a normal waste product found in your blood. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been known for a long time that people with high blood pressure, overweight, and people with kidney disease, often have high uric acid levels as well.

It used to be thought that the uric acid was secondary in these conditions, and not the cause – but Dr. Johnson’s research indicates that it could be a lead player in the development of these conditions, rather than just a supporting actor, when its levels in your body reach 5.5 mg per dl or higher.

At this level, uric acid is associated with an increased risk for developing high blood pressure, as well as diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.

Interestingly, uric acid functions both as an antioxidant, and as a pro-oxidant once inside your cells. So, if you lower uric acid too much, you lose its antioxidant benefits. But if your uric acid levels are too high, it tends to significantly increase inside your cells as well, where it acts as a pro-oxidant.

Dr. Johnson believes the ideal range for uric acid lies between 3 to 5.5 mg per dl. As already mentioned, above this range your risk of developing all the problems listed correlate quite well. In the following statement, Dr. Johnson explains just how closely tied uric acid levels are to fructose consumption:

“If you give animal’s fructose, they develop diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and fatty liver. And in most of these conditions, if we lower uric acid, we can prevent many of these conditions, [although] not completely. So lowering uric acid seems to benefit some of the mechanisms by which fructose causes disease.

So a very important point is that if you take two animals and you feed one fructose and feed the other one the exact same number of calories but give it as dextrose or glucose, its only the fructose-fed animal that will develop obesity, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and high triglycerides, signs of inflammation, vascular disease, and high blood pressure.”

This bears out in humans as well. Over the last 20 years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in fatty liver disease throughout the world, and studies done by Dr. Johnson and a group of researchers at Duke University showed that people who develop fatty liver drink a lot more soft drinks, and ingest far more fructose than the average person in the community.

Folks, this is exactly why I am so passionate about educating you on the dangers of fructose! I am thoroughly convinced that it’s one of the leading causes behind the massive rise in needless suffering from poor health and premature death.

One of the people who truly opened my eyes and educated me on this issue is Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California in San Francisco. If you still haven’t watched his excellent lecture on the dangers of fructose and other sugars, I strongly recommend you take the time to do it. (I’ve published it in two parts. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.)

How Much Fructose are You Consuming?

It’s no secret that we are eating more sugar than at any other time in history. In 1700, the average person ate 4 pounds of sugar a year. By 1800, it was 18 pounds. By 1900 it was about 90 pounds.

Today, about 25 percent of all Americans consume over 134 grams of fructose a day, according to Dr. Johnson’s research. That kind of consumption equates to more than 100 pounds of sugar per year! And it just so happens this statistic dovetails nicely with the statistics showing that one in four Americans is either pre-diabetic or has type 2 diabetes. The two main sources of that sugar are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and table sugar.

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.

However, for most people it would actually be wise to limit your fruit fructose to 15 grams or less, as it is virtually guaranteed that you will consume “hidden” sources of fructose from most beverages and just about any processed food you might eat.

Since 55 percent of HFCS is fructose, one can of soda alone would nearly exceed your daily allotment. It is easy to see that anyone who is drinking three, and certainly four will easily exceed 100 grams of fructose per day. For an eye-opening look at the damaging health effects of today’s high fructose diet, I recommend your watching the expose recently done by 60 Minutes.

Are Fruits Good or Bad for You?

Keep in mind that fruits also contain fructose, although an ameliorating factor is that whole fruits also contain vitamins and other antioxidants that reduce the hazardous effects of fructose. Juices, on the other hand, are nearly as detrimental as soda, because a glass of juice is loaded with fructose, and a lot of the antioxidants are lost.

It is important to remember that fructose alone isn’t evil as fruits are certainly beneficial. But when you consume high levels of fructose it will absolutely devastate your biochemistry and physiology. Remember the AVERAGE fructose dose is 70 grams per day, which exceeds the recommend limit by 300 percent.

So please BE CAREFUL with your fruit consumption. You simply MUST understand that because HFCS is so darn cheap, it is added to virtually every processed food. Even if you consumed no soda or fruit, it is very easy to exceed 25 grams of hidden fructose in your diet.

If you are a raw food advocate, have a pristine diet, and exercise very well, then you could be the exception that could exceed this limit and stay healthy. But in my experience that is far less than one in 1,000 people and probably closer to 1 in 10,000 people. So please, carefully add your fruits based on the table below to keep the total fructose from fruit below 15 grams per day.

FRUIT

Serving Size

Grams of Fructose

Limes

1 medium

0

Lemons

1 medium

0.6

Cranberries

1 cup

0.7

Passion fruit

1 medium

0.9

Prune

1 medium

1.2

Apricot

1 medium

1.3

Guava

2 medium

2.2

Date (Deglet Noor style)

1 medium

2.6

Cantaloupe

1/8 of med. melon

2.8

Raspberries

1 cup

3.0

Clementine

1 medium

3.4

Kiwifruit

1 medium

3.4

Blackberries

1 cup

3.5

Star fruit

1 medium

3.6

Cherries, sweet

10

3.8

Strawberries

1 cup

3.8

Cherries, sour

1 cup

4.0

Pineapple

1 slice
(3.5″ x .75″)

4.0

Grapefruit, pink or red

1/2 medium

4.3

FRUIT

Serving Size

Grams of Fructose

Boysenberries

1 cup

4.6

Tangerine/mandarin orange

1 medium

4.8

Nectarine

1 medium

5.4

Peach

1 medium

5.9

Orange (navel)

1 medium

6.1

Papaya

1/2 medium

6.3

Honeydew

1/8 of med. melon

6.7

Banana

1 medium

7.1

Blueberries

1 cup

7.4

Date (Medjool)

1 medium

7.7

Apple (composite)

1 medium

9.5

Persimmon

1 medium

10.6

Watermelon

1/16 med. melon

11.3

Pear

1 medium

11.8

Raisins

1/4 cup

12.3

Grapes, seedless (green or red)

1 cup

12.4

Mango

1/2 medium

16.2

Apricots, dried

1 cup

16.4

Figs, dried

1 cup

23.0

Glucose Makes Fructose Even More Potent!

Fructose consumption clearly causes insulin resistance, whereas straight glucose does not. Insulin resistance can eventually lead to full blown diabetes. Interestingly, glucose actually accelerates fructose absorption. So when you MIX glucose and fructose together, you absorb more fructose than if you consumed fructose alone.

This is an important piece of information for people who want to make a better effort at controlling their weight. With an epidemic of obesity going on in this country – two out of three people are overweight, and one out of three is obese – it has become clear that fructose is the single most important factor in this epidemic.

A Second Uric Acid Trigger

In his studies, Dr. Johnson found one more common substance that also elevates uric acid levels, namely beer! It turns out that the yeast and all that’s used to make beer work together to make beer another powerful uric acid trigger. The classic “beer belly syndrome,” is also quite similar to metabolic syndrome, and includes abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia (high triglycerides), high blood pressure, and even insulin resistance.

While this concept is still new, pilot studies support Dr. Johnson’s findings, so beer consumption is also something to definitely consider when you’re watching your weight and trying to improve your health.

How to Restrict Fructose Consumption

In his book, Dr. Johnson reviews the effectiveness of reducing fructose intake to help prevent or treat obesity. He provides detailed tables showing the content of fructose in different foods – an information base that isn’t readily available when you’re trying to find out exactly how much fructose is in various foods.

The fructose content of fruits that I included above came from his work.

The results of following the suggestions in this book are backed up by a controlled clinical trial, in which overweight people who followed the diet saw significant improvements in weight and blood pressure. Reducing sugar in your diet can be tough for some people. After all, sugar is just as addictive as cocaine! But it’s possible, and Dr. Johnson provides helpful guidelines for doing so in his book.

It calls for following a very low fructose diet for two weeks, which has the effect of “rebooting” your system. Sugar activates its own pathways, and the more sugar you eat, the more sensitive you become to it, and the more your body starts absorbing. By cutting out sugar for a period of time, you can reduce the hyperactive metabolic system that has developed, and start over.

What Sweeteners Can You Use?

It’s worth noting here that some alternatives that would appear healthy to most people are still loaded with fructose. Agave syrup, for example, is being falsely advertised as “natural.” It is actually HIGHLY processed and is 80 percent fructose. The end product does not even remotely resemble the original agave plant and has virtually no nutritive value. For more information about agave, please see my previous in-depth report on this topic.

Likewise, honey is very high in fructose. Although its fructose content varies, it typically contains about the same amount as HFCS, or more. So even though honey contains many other beneficial nutrients, you’ll want to use honey very sparingly.

A far safer alternative is to use pure glucose.

You can buy pure glucose (dextrose) as a sweetener for a few dollars per pound. It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness-but still well worth it for your health as it has ZERO grams of fructose. Remember, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is far safer than the metabolic poison fructose.

Another option is to use the herb stevia.

While you’re making this fresh start, you will want to learn as much as possible about reading labels, which I’ve addressed in many previous articles, and becoming familiar with the fructose content of everything you eat.

Trust me, this isn’t the last time we’ll be talking about fructose, or hearing about Dr. Johnson’s work. I’m passionate about helping you take control of your health and sharing this vital information with you, which can radically change your health for the better.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Serious honey bee die-offs have been occurring around the world for the past decade, which is an alarming trend considering one of every three bites of food you eat depends on the good graces of the honey bee.

They pollinate at least 130 different crops in the United States alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts. Without honey bees, farmers would have to resort to pollinating their crops by hand, which would be an incredibly expensive and labor intensive undertaking, if it could even be done on the same scale.

No one knows exactly why the bees are disappearing, but the phenomenon, dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), is thought to be caused by a variety of imbalances in the environment, secondary to current agricultural and industrial practices.

Bees are sensitive to the constant flood of manmade chemicals into their environment and bodies, especially pesticides, many of which accumulate over time … and now new research has provided some of the strongest evidence supporting this theory to date.

Pesticide Exposure Proven to Impact Bee Colonies

Exposure to pesticides has been associated with changes in bee behavior and reductions in colony queen production, both of which could have detrimental impacts on the life of the colony. However, the impact of pesticides on individual bee behavior, and its subsequent impact on the colony as a whole, had not yet been determined … until now.

You see, bee colonies are like living cities, and each individual bee plays a crucial role. A healthy hive is occupied by a collection of overlapping generations. Tasks are divided up according to age and colony needs via a very intricate system of communication:
•Younger worker bees (nurse bees) tend to the queen and the baby bees.
•Older worker bees forage for food and water for the colony, convert nectar into honey, construct and clean wax cells, and guard the hive from invaders. Worker bees develop stingers to defend the eggs lain by the queen.
•Drones have only one purpose—to mate with the queen. In fact, the queen will leave her hive only once in her lifetime, in order to mate with several drones and store up enough sperm to last the rest of her life.1

Researchers explained:2

“Social bee colonies depend on the collective performance of many individual workers. Thus, although field-level pesticide concentrations can have subtle or sublethal effects at the individual level, it is not known whether bee societies can buffer such effects or whether it results in a severe cumulative effect at the colony level. Furthermore, widespread agricultural intensification means that bees are exposed to numerous pesticides when foraging, yet the possible combinatorial effects of pesticide exposure have rarely been investigated.”

This is what the new study set out to determine, and it was revealed that bees given access to two commonly used agricultural pesticides were adversely affected in numerous ways, including:
•Fewer adult worker bees emerged from larvae
•A higher proportion of foragers failed to return to the nest
•A higher death rate among worker bees
•An increased likelihood of colony failure

The researchers said:

“Here we show that chronic exposure of bumble bees to two pesticides (neonicotinoid and pyrethroid) at concentrations that could approximate field-level exposure impairs natural foraging behaviour and increases worker mortality leading to significant reductions in brood development and colony success.

We found that worker foraging performance, particularly pollen collecting efficiency, was significantly reduced with observed knock-on effects for forager recruitment, worker losses and overall worker productivity. Moreover, we provide evidence that combinatorial exposure to pesticides increases the propensity of colonies to fail.”

Leading Pesticide Makers Heading Up Bee Research?

Pesticide manufacturers are likely none too pleased about the recent accusations hurled against their products, so they’ve taken matters into their own hands and purchased leading bee research firms, ostensibly to study colony collapse disorder and other bee research.

Monsanto, which is the world leader in genetically modified (GM) crops (and the pesticides and herbicides that go along with them), recently bought Beeologics, a company whose primary goal is finding a solution to the colony collapse disorder.

Beeologics states their mission is to become the “guardian of bee health worldwide.” Monsanto bought the company in September 2011, just months before Poland announced it would ban growing of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) MON810 maize, noting, poignantly, that “pollen of this strain could have a harmful effect on bees.”3

The ongoing blight of GM crops has been implicated in CCD for many years now. In one German study,4 when bees were released in a GM rapeseed crop, then fed the pollen to younger bees, scientists discovered the bacteria in the guts of the young ones mirrored the same genetic traits as ones found in the GM crop, indicating that horizontal gene transfer had occurred.

Further, the newer systemic insecticides, known as neonicotinoids, have become the fastest growing insecticides in the world. Two prominent examples, Imidacloprid and Clothianidin, are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops. Virtually all of today’s genetically engineered Bt corn is treated with neonicotinoids.

Bee colonies began disappearing in the U.S. shortly after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allowed these new insecticides on the market. Even the EPA itself admits that “pesticide poisoning” is a likely cause of bee colony collapse.

These insecticides are highly toxic to bees because they are systemic, water soluble, and very pervasive. They get into the soil and groundwater where they can accumulate and remain for many years and generate long-term toxicity to the hive. They enter the vascular system of the plant and are carried to all parts of it, as well as to the pollen and nectar. Neonicotinoids affect insects’ central nervous systems in ways that are cumulative and irreversible. Even minute amounts can have profound effects over time.

One of the observed effects of these insecticides is weakening of the bee’s immune system. Forager bees bring pesticide-laden pollen back to the hive, where it’s consumed by all of the bees. Six months later, their immune systems fail, and they fall prey to secondary, seemingly “natural” bee infections, such as parasites, mites, viruses, fungi and bacteria. Indeed, pathogens such as Varroa mites, Nosema, fungal and bacterial infections, and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) are found in large amounts in honey bee hives on the verge of collapse.

In addition to immune dysfunction and opportunistic diseases, the honey bees also appear to suffer from neurological problems, disorientation, and impaired navigation. These effects have great consequence, as a bee can’t survive for more than 24 hours if she becomes disoriented and unable to find her way back to the hive.

Bayer is Now Heading Up Bee Research, Too

Interestingly, Bayer CropScience – a leading manufacturer of the neonicotinoid pesticides at the heart of the CCD debate (lawsuits against Bayer from beekeepers are ongoing) – plans to open the North American Bee Care Center by July 2013. The Center is intended to be a research hub as well as promote “the active promotion of bee-responsible use of Bayer products along with communication activities worldwide.”5

Clearly, the forthcoming research from Beeologics and the North American Bee Care Center may now be tainted with regard these companies’ products and their impact on bee populations.

Already, in 2010 a study by Montana bee researcher Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk found that CCD was not caused by pesticides but rather a combination of fungus and virus, found in all collapsed colonies, may be the culprit … what was not widely reported in the media, however, was that Dr. Bromenshenk received a significant research grant from Bayer to study bee pollination – a massive conflict of interest that is likely to be carried over into any upcoming research from Bayer and Monsanto.

Losing Bees is About More Than Just Honey

When most people think of honey bees, they think honey. But honey is only a small part of the useful work bees do for us in the United States. Honey bees are critical components of U.S. agriculture, used to pollinate nuts, fruits and vegetables. The California almond crop alone requires 1.3 million colonies of bees, and bees actually add an estimated $15 billion in value to crops like these.

A full one-third of the U.S. food supply depends on pollination from bees. Apple orchards, for instance, require one colony of bees per acre to be adequately pollinated. So if bee colonies continue to be devastated by colony collapse disorder — or whatever is causing them to die — major food shortages could result. If honey bees disappear, so, too, will all of these other innovations and any new developments that may be honey bee-inspired in the future. And that’s not all. Bees also contribute to many other areas of human health, including:
•Playing an important role in human medicine; raw honey, which has potent anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties, is being used for wound healing and treating coughs, while “stun” chemicals from bee stings are being looked at as an effective anesthetic for humans
•Propolis, the “caulk” honey bees use to patch holes in their hives, may slow the growth of prostate cancer and has powerful immune-modulating effects, along with potent antioxidant and anti-microbial action, and healing, analgesic, anesthetic, and anti-inflammatory properties
•Bee pollen, which is often referred to as a superfood because it contains a broad range of nutrients required by your body. About half of its protein is in the form of free amino acids that are ready to be used directly by your body and can therefore contribute significantly to your protein needs.
•Honey bees have helped make scientific discoveries in many fields, including the aeronautics industry, which used the design of the six-sided honeycomb to help design aircraft wings; honeybee communication systems have even been adopted by computer programmers to help run Internet servers more efficiently6

You Can Take Action to Help Honey bees

The documentary film Vanishing of the Bees recommends four actions you can take to help preserve our honeybees:
•Support organic farmers and shop at local farmer’s markets as often as possible. You can “vote with your fork” three times a day. (When you buy organic, you are making a statement by saying “no” to GMOs and toxic pesticides!)
•Cut the use of toxic chemicals in your house and on your lawn, and use only organic, all-natural forms of pest control.
•Better yet, get rid of your lawn altogether and plant a garden. Lawns offer very little benefit for the environment. Both flower and vegetable gardens provide excellent natural honeybee habitats.
•Become an amateur beekeeper. Having a hive in your garden requires only about an hour of your time per week, benefits your local ecosystem, and you can enjoy your own honey!

If you are interested in more information about bee preservation, the following organizations are a good place to start.
•Pesticide Action Network Bee Campaign7
•The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees8
•American Beekeeping Federation9
•Help the Honey Bees 10
If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Children are probably not the first ones who come to mind when you think about stress. After all, they’ve got no bills to worry about, no job or other responsibilities on their shoulders…

Yet, children feel stress, too – often significantly. They worry about making friends, succeeding at school or sports, and fitting in with their peers. They may also struggle with the divorce of their parents or feel anxious about war and violence they see on the news.

While a child’s natural state is to be happy, vibrant and curious, it’s estimated that up to 15 percent of children and teens are depressed at any given time.1

In reality, many of the same worries that make you feel anxious and sad have the same impact on your children. However, kids also have unique needs that can interfere with their ability to be happy if left unmet.

Nine Tips for Raising a Happy Child

Virtually every parent wants their child to be happy. The Huffington Post recently highlighted seven simple strategies for achieving this goal,2 and I’ve added a couple of my own as well.

1. Healthy Eating

Mood swings and even depression in kids are often the result of a heavily processed-food diet. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain! Your gut and brain actually work in tandem, each influencing the other.

This is why your child’s intestinal health can have such a profound influence on his mental health, and vice versa – and why eating processed foods that can harm his gut flora can have a profoundly negative impact on his mood, psychological health and behavior.

The simplest way back toward health and happiness, for children and adults alike, is to focus on WHOLE foods — foods that have not been processed or altered from their original state; food that has been grown or raised as nature intended, without the use of chemical additives, pesticides and fertilizers.

You, a family member, or someone you pay will need to invest time in the kitchen cooking fresh wholesome meals from these whole foods so that you can break free from the processed food diet that will ultimately make you and your children sick.

Food is a part of crucial lifestyle choices first learned at home, so you need to educate yourself about proper nutrition and the dangers of junk food and processed foods in order to change the food culture of your entire family.

To give your child the best start at life, and help instill healthy habits that will last a lifetime, you must lead by example. If you’re not sure where to start, I recommend reading my nutrition plan first. This will provide you with the foundation you need to start making healthy food choices for your family.

2. Eating on Time

If a child goes too long without eating, it may lead to fluctuations in blood sugar levels that lead to irritability. Children need to refuel their growing bodies on a regular schedule, so try to keep your child’s meal and snack times consistent.

3. Regular, High-Quality Sleep

Too little sleep not only makes kids prone to being grouchy and having mood swings, it also negatively impacts children’s behavior and attention. In fact, as little as 27 minutes of extra sleep a night has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s mood and behavior.3

Children aged 5 to 12 need about 10-11 hours of sleep a night for optimal mood and health. To help your child get a good night’s sleep, get the TV, computer, video games and cell phone out of your child’s bedroom, and be sure the room is as dark as possible. Even the least bit of light in the room can disrupt your child’s internal clock and her pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin. I recommend using blackout shades or drapes. For my complete recommendations and guidelines that can help you improve your child’s sleep, please see my article 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep.

4. Free Play

Unstructured playtime is essential for kids to build their imagination, relieve stress and simply be kids. Yet today, many kids are so over-scheduled that they scarcely have time to eat dinner and do homework, let alone have any free time for play. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics states that free, unstructured play is essential for children to manage stress and become resilient, as well as reach social, emotional and cognitive development milestones.4

Along with slowing down and resisting the urge to sign your child up for too many activities, be sure to provide your child with simple toys like blocks and dolls that allow for creative play. Free play time is also an ideal time for active play – like tag or chasing butterflies – which is naturally mood-boosting (as exercise is for adults).

5. Express Emotions

Kids need to yell, cry, stomp their feet and run around with excitement. This is how they express their emotions, which is healthy for emotional development and will prevent a lifetime of internalizing negative emotions. Encourage and allow your child to vent and express his emotions in healthy ways.

6. Make Choices

Kids are constantly being told what to do, so giving them the ability to make choices goes a long way toward increasing their happiness. Try letting your child decide what to wear or what to eat (within reason), or give her a few choices for activities and let her decide which one to do.

7. They Feel Heard

Your child knows when you’re not really listening to them (such as if you’re ‘talking’ to them while surfing the Web or watching TV). Yet a child’s happiness will soar when he feels like his parents truly listen and respond to what he’s saying. Not only will you feel more connected to your child, but you’ll also build his self-confidence and happiness.

8. Unconditional Love

Above all else, children need unconditional love, and they need it consistently. If your child makes a mistake, let her know you still love and support her regardless. Your child will grow up confident and happy knowing you are behind her every step of the way.

9. Be Happy Yourself

If you’re stressed out and unhappy, your child will sense this and also feel sad and worried in response. You are your child’s first role model, so lead by example by embracing the bright side of life. If you need some help, use these 22 positive habits of happy people to become a happy person yourself.

Does Your Child’s Mood Need an Extra Boost?

If you’ve addressed the lifestyle factors listed above, especially proper diet, sleep and time for free, unstructured play, but your child is still unhappy (for no obvious reason, such as being bullied or due to stress such as divorce at home), try these three tips below:
•High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats: Low concentrations of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are known to increase your risk for mood swings and mood disorders. Those suffering from depression have been found to have lower levels of omega-3 in their blood, compared to non-depressed individuals. Krill oil is my preferred source of omega-3 fats.
•Regular sun exposure: This is essential for vitamin D production, low levels of which are linked to depression. But even beyond vitamin D, regular safe sun exposure is known to enhance mood and energy through the release of endorphins.
•Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): If difficult life circumstances and the negative emotions they create are making happiness hard to come by for your child, try EFT, which is a form of do-it-yourself psychological acupressure. This simple technique can help clear your body and mind of negative emotions so you can implement positive goals and habits more easily in your life, and kids can learn to do it themselves.