The FDA is Just as Corrupt as the AND

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Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Threatens Your First Amendment Rights and Attempts to Censor Paleo Blogger

By Dr. Mercola

When it comes to nutrition, it is very important that you have the right to freedom of choice. Unfortunately, organizations such as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), formerly known as American Dietetic Association (ADA), are threatening your freedom of choice and information about your health and nutrition.

Why should you be concerned?

Your most fundamental tool for staying healthy is your ability to pursue different avenues and philosophies of care, and based on that information, decide which one is best for you.

If you hope to ever achieve optimal health and wellness, you have to address your nutrition — it’s the most fundamental factor. Anyone who disputes that doesn’t understand health.

The Alliance for Natural Health is on the frontline in the battle for your freedom of choice. In the interview above, Attorney Gretchen DuBeau discusses just how vital this issue is and how organizations like AND are trying to monopolize the health industry.

It’s one more example of money and power taking precedence over what’s in the best interest of the consumer.

Your health care options should not be limited or censored by government agencies — or worst yet, criminalized for being outside the box. Particularly because what’s INSIDE the box in our “healthcare” system is generally counter to good health!

Organizations like AND are trying to use the legislative system to create an unfair monopoly in the same way physicians have (via the AMA). Their goal is simple: eliminate the competition. Paleo Blogger Steve Cooksey found himself in exactly that position — targeted by the AND because he was considered to be “the competition.”

Paleo Blogger Attacked by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

When Steve Cooksey received a disturbing 19-page letter from the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition, complete with threats of arrest, he did what others are often afraid to do: he made it public. It seems his blog, which features nutrition principles based on the Paleo Diet, upset the dietetics board because it went firmly against their recommendations for diabetics. They accused him of providing “nutrition advice” or “nutrition counseling” without a license.

The Board ordered that Cooksey take down the nutritional advice or face prosecution… and outrageously prohibited him from even offering such advice for free to friends over the phone!

To fight back, on May 30, 2012, Cooksey filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition for violating his freedom of speech rights, assisted by the Institute for Justice.

On October 5, 2012, a federal court dismissed Cooksey’s lawsuit on the grounds he did not suffer an injury that gives him a basis to challenge the government’s actions. But he’s not backing down. He plans to appeal and will argue that the government cannot single people out, tell them their speech is illegal, and then plead in court that it has not chilled their speech. But there’s much more to this story than meets the eye. The North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition is a state chapter of the AND, and leaked internal documents show the affront against Steve Cooksey is only the beginning.

If it Were Up to the AND, Dear Abby Would be Thrown in Jail!

In April 2012, Forbes contributor Michael Ellsberg wrote an article1 detailing a leaked internal AND document that suggested the agency is moving full-steam ahead with a “strategy for gaining legal control over the term ‘nutritionist,’ as a path to limit competition for its members by silencing competing types of nutrition counseling.”

In December 2011, the AND, which is typically associated with the professional license “Registered Dietitian (RD),” applied for patents on a variety of nutrition-related professional titles, ranging from “certified nutrition coach” and “nutrition professional” to “registered nutrition educator” or “nutrition associate.” The leaked document is even more brazen, as the AND goes on at length to describe a “Mega Issue,” which is basically the need to protect the Registered Dietitian license, and increase licensure efforts and retaliations against non-licensed parties across the country.

The purpose of this is not to protect the public from receiving harmful nutrition advice, but instead to control the industry and monopolize profits. There is now an army of AND volunteers in every state who are actively trying to pass legislation at the state level — and they’ve been successfully doing so for the past decade. They operate quietly, under the radar, attacking people for “practicing without a license.” Dietitians are even promised prizes for turning people in. And this appears to be the web in which Steve Cooksey was trapped.

The AND wants you to be able to get your nutritional advice only from one of their conventionally trained Registered Dietitians, who has undergone nutritional brainwashing and sticks to the official party line. This would exclude and silence your chiropractor, naturopath, personal trainer, and any number of other individuals who may have valuable points to offer. The Institute of Justice regards this as blatant infringement on first amendment rights, and I agree. As the Institute for Justice states2:

” … the First Amendment does not allow the government to ban people from sharing ordinary advice about diet, or scrub the Internet — from blogs to Facebook to Twitter — of speech the government does not like. North Carolina can no more force Steve to become a licensed dietitian than it could require Dear Abby to become a licensed psychologist.”

AND Conferences Sing the Praises of Processed Foods and Feature Coca-Cola Exhibits

Many are unaware the AND is partnered with and sponsored by junk-food giants, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mars and Kellogg. Consequently, dietary advice from many RDs is likely to be heavily biased by information from food-industry bigwigs.

Case in point: the AND’s annual conference is often called “the world’s largest meeting of food and nutrition experts.” Interestingly, these conferences are absent of any true nutritional experts whose knowledge could make a positive impact on Americans’ health. But they do showcase numerous representatives from Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kellogg, PepsiCo and other processed food and junk-food giants3. Aren’t these the companies that make precisely the foods we need to eat LESS of in order to stay healthy and fight obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and countless other chronic diseases?

According to Really Eat Right, a campaign dedicated to ending the AND’s collusion with junk food and pharmaceutical industries4:
•AND claims sugar and artificial colors are safe for children
•AND is under investigation by congress
•AND receives about $1 million a year in payments from the pharmaceutical industry
•AND allows pharmaceutical companies to market their controversial products at AND events
•The credentialing arm of the AND (the Commission on Dietetic Registration) offers continuing professional courses sponsored by Coca-Cola

It’s obvious the real mission of the AND is to support the processed food and pharmaceutical industries, rather than improve public health. Unfortunately, many people will adopt their nutritional advice, and their health will suffer, as a result.

The FDA is Just as Corrupt as the AND — Probably Even More So!

An even more pernicious force than the AND is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is essentially an extension of the medical monopoly that strives to limit access to truthful information about nutrition and health. Their latest target has been the nutritional supplement industry. By making it virtually impossible for you to obtain good information about supplements, they increase the sale of drugs, and this makes the pharmaceutical industry oh, so happy.

I’ve received many warning letters from the FDA for saying things that are contrary to their recommendations. I’ve not been accused of saying things that are untrue, or in some way deceiving or harming people — I’ve been warned to stop saying things that are true but against the FDA’s regulations. The message is, you can only say something they approve of, and whether it’s truthful or not is beside the point.

In Europe, the censorship issue is even worse. Not only can supplement companies be pursued for making health claims, but now physicians are prohibited from giving advice about supplements. They are crippling our ability to help people achieve any level of health. Free speech is being stifled. We will never be able to access good information unless the law is changed.

The Free Speech About Science Act (H.R. 1364)

Fortunately, there is a bright spot on the horizon. Congressman Chaffetz and other representatives have introduced H.R. 1364, the Free Speech About Science Act (FSAS)5, a bill that would enable supplement companies to cite peer reviewed science. Currently, FDA regulations prohibit any reference to scientific studies by manufactures of a dietary supplement or by food producers, regarding its health benefits. Violations can result in FDA declaring common dietary supplements and food to be “unapproved drugs” — and this is censorship.

In the FDA’s view, even providing a link to a study on a website converts a healthy fruit or nut into an unapproved drug — a bizarre position that effectively censors scientific information and greatly restricts your access to valuable scientific research that would help you make informed choices about your health.

The Free Speech About Science Act provides a limited and carefully targeted change to FDA regulations so that legitimate, peer reviewed scientific studies can be referenced by manufacturers. The bill amends the appropriate sections of current law to allow the flow of legitimate scientific and educational information while still giving FDA and FTC the right to take action against misleading information and false or unsubstantiated claims.

You Can Help Fight for Your First Amendment Rights

There are steps you can take to protect free speech and your right to natural health information, including nutritional supplements.
1.Go to the Alliance for Natural Health and click on the “Campaigns” tab to find out what campaigns are currently active. Click on the “Take Action” tab to find out where the AND is active (at the state level) and where you can help. The action steps depend on the particular state. The site will help you contact the appropriate legislative representative so that you can urge them to not support certain bills.
2.Also visit Really Eat Right, which tracks the actions of the AND. The site exposes AND’s funding of pharmaceutical and junk food industries, as well as concerns about advice you may get from a registered dietitian.
3.Support H.R. 1364, the Free Speech About Science Act. You can do this by going to this page on the Alliance for Natural Health website, which includes a quick way to send your message to Congress.

Where Can You Find Truly Unbiased Nutrition Info?

Do you want nutrition advice that isn’t influenced by corporate agendas?

“Real” foods like grass-fed beef, raw butter, organic cage-free eggs, vegetables and the like are not the subject of commercial jingles or billboards, but they are the types of foods that will support optimal health. Many people are beginning to realize the bulk of the packaged, processed foods found in supermarkets are not real “food” at all, but conglomerations of excessively subsidized farm crops and chemicals manipulated to taste and look edible.

The easiest way to break free of this corporate-influenced dietary trap is by focusing on WHOLE, unadulterated foods, meaning foods that have not been processed or altered from their original state. You can find guidance about how to eat more healthfully in my free nutrition plan.

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




Coca-Cola’s Misleading Aspartame Information.

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

The Coca-Cola Company Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness (an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one), has released an “aspartame safety” page that is described as a “resource for professionals.”1

The only problem is that it claims aspartame is safe for use by nearly all populations, except for those born with the genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU). In reality, research suggests this artificial sweetener may be implicated in health risks ranging from cancer to seizures and even death.2

Coca-Cola’s Misleading Aspartame Information

Aspartame is used in more than 6,000 products worldwide, including Diet Coke products, which may contain up to 190 milligrams (mg) of aspartame per 8.3 fluid ounce serving.

Coca-Cola notes that “when aspartame is digested, the body breaks it down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol” – and it is methanol that is one of the root problems with aspartame.

However, Coca-Cola (and many other food and beverage manufacturers) often misleadingly counter the claims of methanol being a harmful aspect of aspartame by pointing out that it also occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables. For instance, Coca-Cola writes:

“Compared to amounts obtained from an aspartame-sweetened beverage, these components are consumed in much greater amounts from a variety of foods, including milk, meat, dried beans, fruits and vegetables… a serving of tomato juice provides about six times more methanol, compared to an equivalent serving of a beverage sweetened with aspartame.”

So why would methanol cause a problem in aspartame?

Methanol in Fruits and Veggies Differs From Methanol in Aspartame…

Download Interview Transcript

Aspartame is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, which provides the majority of the sweetness.

That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol. This is in sharp contrast to naturally occurring methanol found in certain fruits and vegetables, where it is firmly bonded to pectin, allowing the methanol to be safely passed through your digestive tract.

(However, the methyl alcohol can be liberated by putrefying bacteria that spoil fruits and vegetables and in fact methanol is an indication of spoilage in fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Monte recommends cutting off all spoiled parts before eating your fruits and veggies. I believe most people avoid eating spoiled produce. If not, it would be a wise move. It’s the putrefaction that liberates the methyl alcohol.)

Methanol acts as a Trojan horse; it’s carried into susceptible tissues in your body, like your brain and bone marrow, where the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme converts it into formaldehyde, which wreaks havoc with sensitive proteins and DNA.

All other animals have a protective mechanism that allows methanol to be broken down into harmless formic acid, but according to aspartame expert Dr. Woodrow Monte, there’s a major biochemical problem with methanol in humans, because of the difference in how it’s metabolized compared to in all other animals. This is why toxicology testing on animals is a flawed model. It doesn’t fully apply to humans.

Aspartame Poses Major Biochemical Problems in Humans

Coca-Cola also misleadingly challenges the link between aspartame and headaches, stating:

“Most studies investigating a relationship between aspartame and headaches show no effect. However, results from some small studies have shown a positive connection between aspartame intake and headaches, suggesting a susceptible population subset, although there is no biological explanation. Inconsistent findings may be caused by lack of objective measurements for headache onset or duration.”

This simply isn’t true. There is, in fact, an obvious biological explanation according to Dr. Monte:

“‘Here is the story: there is a major biochemical problem here,’ he says. ‘Methyl alcohol is known now, and has been known since 1940, to be metabolized differently by humans from every other animal.'”

Both animals and humans have small structures called peroxisomes in each cell. There are a couple of hundred in every cell of your body, which are designed to detoxify a variety of chemicals. Peroxisome contains catalase, which help detoxify methanol. Other chemicals in the peroxisome convert the formaldehyde to formic acid, which is harmless, but this last step occurs only in animals.

When methanol enters the peroxisome of every animal except humans, it gets into that mechanism. Humans do have the same number of peroxisomes in comparable cells as animals, but human peroxisomes cannot convert the toxic formaldehyde into harmless formic acid.

So to recap: In humans, the methyl alcohol travels through your blood vessels into sensitive areas, such as your brain, that are loaded with ADH, which converts methanol to formaldehyde. And since there’s no catalase present, the formaldehyde is free to cause enormous damage in your tissues.

Symptoms from methanol poisoning are many, and include headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, numbness and shooting pains in the extremities, behavioral disturbances, and neuritis. The most well known problems from methanol poisoning are vision problems including misty vision, progressive contraction of visual fields, blurring of vision, obscuration of vision, retinal damage, and blindness. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication and may cause birth defects.

Aspartame May Be More Toxic in Men than Women

In one recent study,3 the health statistics for nearly 48,000 men and over 77,000 women over the age of 20 were reviewed, in which they found that men who consumed more than one diet soda per day had an increased risk of developing multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This was the longest-ever human aspartame study, spanning 22 years. Interestingly enough, this association was not found in women. Leukemia was associated with diet soda intake in both sexes.

I first found out about this study when ABC News contacted me and requested that I provide them with a comprehensive analysis of this 40-page study within an hour. Fortunately, I have extensively reviewed this topic and was able to provide their requested review.

One hypothesis for the difference between the sexes is that men have a higher activity of the enzyme ADH (explained above), which metabolizes methanol and converts it to formaldehyde. More formaldehyde circulating in your blood would naturally have more opportunity to cause greater damage.

Although the authors’ summary conclusion mentions they do not rule out the possibility of chance for this association, it’s worth noting that this is because they could not offer a conclusive explanation for the difference between the sexes. I carefully reviewed this study in its entirety, and found it to be extremely well executed. While the mechanism responsible for the difference between the sexes for certain cancers need to be studied further, Dr. Monty’s research demonstrates a perfectly viable mechanism of harm, including cancer.

The long-term nature of this study is really crucial because one of the primary tricks companies use to hide the toxicity of their products is short-term tests. The longest study prior to this one was only 4.5 months, far too short to reveal any toxicity from chronic exposure. Unfortunately, because there are so many of these short-term trials, manufacturers get away with saying that aspartame is one of the most studied food additives ever made and no health concerns have ever been discovered. As Coca-Cola put it on their page:

“Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly studied food ingredients, with more than 200 scientific studies confirming its safety.”

Researchers Downplayed Aspartame’s Toxic Effects…

Unfortunately, even though Harvard University researchers originally put out a press release alerting of these potential cancer dangers, they soon caved to pressure from industry and issued a second press release that minimized the impact of the study. Even the study’s authors offered only a milquetoast conclusion:

“Although our findings preserve the possibility of a detrimental effect of a constituent of diet soda, such as aspartame, on select cancers, the inconsistent sex effects… do not permit the ruling out of chance as an explanation.”

One hypothesis for the difference between the sexes is that men have a higher activity of the enzyme ADH, as I mentioned earlier, which metabolizes methanol and converts it to formaldehyde. More formaldehyde circulating in your blood would naturally have more opportunity to cause greater damage. It’s possible that there is some hormonally mediated protection against the adverse effects of aspartame in women, in addition to men having higher ADH activity, but the study was not designed to answer that question. All in all however, I believe the study offers significant supporting evidence of the danger that aspartame-sweetened and other “diet” drinks and foods pose.

Alcohol with Diet Soda Accelerates Intoxication

In a related study,4 researchers found that mixing alcohol with diet soda, compared to regular soda, gets you drunk faster. The study compared Smirnoff Red Label with Squirt (a lemon-lime soda) against the same vodka mixed with Diet Squirt. The diet drink increased breath-alcohol content (BAC) by 18 percent — the near-equivalent of one additional standard drink, and enough to push you over the legal limit for driving. As reported by Counsel & Heal:5

“While diet drinks save calorie intake, they actually accelerate the intoxication. The reason is that since diet drinks have less sugar in them, they get digested faster in the intestine and the alcohol in the drink gets mixed in the blood faster. So it is always a good idea to have alcohol with regular soft drinks, as alcohol with diet soft drinks accelerates the intoxication process.”

A Historical Timeline of Aspartame

Aspartame is the number one source of side-effect complaints to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with over 10,000 complaints filed and over 91 symptoms documented that are related to its consumption. With that many reports of adverse effects, it’s hard to believe aspartame is still allowed on the market. Unfortunately, aspartame’s approval was and still is largely a political affair. Many readers have long forgotten what the 60-Minutes’ correspondent Mike Wallace stated in his 1996 report on aspartame – available to view in this 2009 article – that the approval of aspartame was “the most contested in FDA history.”

And for good reason. At the time, independent studies had found it caused brain cancer in lab animals, and the studies submitted by G.D. Searle to the FDA for the approval were quickly suspected of being sloppy at best. To get an idea of of how aspartame made it through the FDA approval process despite warning signs of potential health hazards and alleged scientific fraud, take a look at the historical timeline of aspartame:

Food Industry Undermines Health Policy, Study Finds

According to a recent international analysis of the involvement by “unhealthy commodity” companies in health policy-making, researchers warn that self-regulation was failing, calling for more stringent industry regulations by outside parties.6 The analysis, which was published in the journal Lancet,7 points out that aggressive marketing of health harming foods by multinational food companies is the driving factor behind global epidemics of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Even more importantly, the researchers cited industry documents that reveal how companies are actively trying to affect health legislation and avoid regulation that might harm their bottom lines. As reported by Reuters:8

“This is done by ‘building financial and institutional relations’ with health professionals, non-governmental organizations and health agencies, distorting research findings, and lobbying politicians to oppose health reforms… They cited analysis of published research which found systematic bias from industry funding: articles sponsored exclusively by food and drinks companies were between four and eight times more likely to have conclusions that favored the companies than those not sponsored by them.

‘Regulation, or the threat of regulation, is the only way to change these transnational corporations,’ wrote the researchers, led by Rob Moodie from the University of Melbourne in Australia. Ian Gilmore, special adviser on alcohol to Britain’s Royal College of Physicians said the findings were ‘a final nail in the coffin’ of the idea that involving the alcohol industry in public health measures could work. ‘Any government serious about public health should in future divorce its public health activities from industry involvement,’ Gilmore, who was not involved in study, said in a statement.”

The Most Dangerous Food Additive on the Market: Are You Being Affected?

Unfortunately, aspartame toxicity is not well known by physicians, despite its frequency. Diagnosis is also hampered by the fact that it mimics several other common health conditions. It’s quite possible that you could be having a reaction to artificial sweeteners and not even know it, or be blaming it on another cause. To determine if you’re having a reaction to artificial sweeteners, take the following steps:
•Eliminate all artificial sweeteners from your diet for two weeks.
•After two weeks of being artificial sweetener-free, reintroduce your artificial sweetener of choice in a significant quantity (about three servings daily).
•Avoid other artificial sweeteners during this period.
•Do this for one to three days and notice how you feel, especially as compared to when you were consuming no artificial sweeteners.
•If you don’t notice a difference in how you feel after re-introducing your primary artificial sweetener for a few days, it’s a safe bet you’re able to tolerate it acutely, meaning your body doesn’t have an immediate, adverse response. However, this doesn’t mean your health won’t be damaged in the long run.
•If you’ve been consuming more than one type of artificial sweetener, you can repeat steps 2 through 4 with the next one on your list.

If you do experience side effects from aspartame, please report it to the FDA (if you live in the United States) without delay. It’s easy to make a report — just go to the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator page, find the phone number for your state, and make a call reporting your reaction.

Are You Addicted to Artificial Sweeteners?

Artificial sweeteners tend to trigger enhanced activity within your brain’s pleasure centers, yet at the same time provide less actual satisfaction. This separation of the taste of sweetness from caloric content means that when you consume artificial sweeteners, your brain actually craves more of it because your body receives no satisfaction on a cellular level by the sugar imposter. This can actually contribute to not only overeating and weight gain, but also an addiction to artificial sweeteners.

In order to break free, be sure you address the emotional component to your food cravings using a tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). More than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works to overcome food cravings and helps you reach dietary success. If diet soda is the culprit for you, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short amount of time.

If you still have cravings after trying EFT or Turbo Tapping, you may need to make some changes to your diet. My free nutrition plan can help you do this in a step-by-step fashion.

If you’re searching for a safer sweetener option, you could use stevia or Lo Han, both of which are safe natural sweeteners. Remember, if you struggle with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or extra weight, then you have insulin sensitivity issues and would likely benefit from avoiding ALL sweeteners.

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




The scam behind ‘BPA-free’

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

Common BPA substitute is just as bad

by Dr. Mark Stengler

February 12, 2013
The scam behind ‘BPA-free’

It’s the one-letter switch that could put your health and the health of your family in jeopardy — and it’s a switch no one has warned you about.

It’s the shift away from bisphenol-A to bisphenol-S in food containers, packages, and paper products.

On the surface, it sounds great.

You know all about BPA by now — about how it mimics estrogen in the body and has been linked to obesity, diabetes, thyroid problems, sexual dysfunction, and a whole lot more.

So you go out of you way to buy “BPA-free” products — even when that means paying extra.

But before you open your wallet, consider what makes those products “BPA-free” in the first place — because in many cases, it’s that BPS I just mentioned.

As the names suggest, both BPA and BPS belong to the same class of chemicals — but the similarities don’t end with the names and chemical class. They also share many of the same risks — and in some cases, BPS could be even worse than BPA.

In one new in vitro study, University of Texas researchers found that BPS does pretty much the same thing as BPA, at least on the cellular level. In a series of tests, BPS interfered with the response to estrogen.

This disrupted critical cellular processes, including the growth and death of those cells.

This didn’t happen at massive doses either. It happened at very small levels of exposure — levels equal to what a human might be exposed to from BPS leeching into food and drink from plastic containers, according to the researchers.

The experiments were done on rat cells in a lab dish, but other recent studies have been every bit as worrying. One study last year even found that BPS is actually more effective at penetrating the skin than BPA.

What makes that report so disturbing is that paper is actually one of the prime sources of BPA and BPS exposure — including the paper receipts we all handle nearly every day.

Clearly, avoiding BPA, BPS, and the rest of the endocrine-disrupting hormones out there is a lot harder than simply looking for labels on packages. But there’s one easy way to avoid the entire alphabet soup of bad chemicals.

And all you have to do is avoid the foods and drinks you shouldn’t be eating anyway. That means pass on anything in a can, bag, or bottle and shop the perimeter of the supermarket instead.

That’s where you’ll find everything you need — fresh fruits and vegetables and lean meats.

Along with avoiding dangerous chemicals, you and your family will also eat better at every meal.

And maybe you should tell the clerk to keep the receipt.

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




Biotech Industry Ups Propaganda Efforts..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

Biotech Industry Ups Propaganda Efforts with Undercover Ambassadors
For years now I’ve warned of the many potential dangers of genetically engineered (GE) foods, pointing out that such crops might have wholly unforeseen consequences.

In recent years, such suspicions have increasingly proven correct, forcing the biotech industry to up the ante of their propaganda campaign.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Monsanto: Battered, Bruised, and Still Growing”1 sets the stage for the discussion that follows. The dark heart of Monsanto has been exposed in recent years, and they’re in dire need of an image makeover.

I bet they probably have the best and brightest propaganda experts on speed dial these days. In the featured article, the company is lauded for “fending off” California Proposition 37 last November, as labeling foods containing genetically engineered ingredients would be “befuddling” to consumers.

“I’d be up for the dialogue around labeling. Maybe we’ll look back and say [Prop 37] was the start of a more reasonable debate. But it was a confusing proposition,” Monsanto Chief Executive Hugh Grant tells the Wall Street Journal.

Grant goes on to talk about how the company is now going “back to the basics of reconnecting” with their customers, and how consistency in messaging and predictable pricing is helping turn the tide that has threatened to engulf them over the past three years.

Biotech Industry Ups Propaganda Efforts with Undercover Ambassadors

Part of this makeover program appears to be the recruitment of seemingly independent “ambassadors” to covertly lobby the GE agenda. The appearance of being an independent voice is imperative for the role to be effective, SpinWatch2 said in a recent article.

According to an October 2011 article in the Guardian, leaked emails from a PR company working with EuropaBio listed potential candidates for the role3, including Lord Patten, chancellor of Oxford University and BBC Trust chairman; Sir Bob Geldof; former Irish EU commissioner and attorney general David Byrne; former UN secretary general Kofi Annan; and Mark Lynas, an environmentalist and writer who claims to have helped create the anti-GE movement back in the mid-1990’s. According to the Guardian:

“The 10 or more ambassadors will not be paid directly, but the lobbyists have offered to write, research and place articles in their names, arrange interviews and speaking engagements with the Financial Times and other international media, and secure for them what could be lucrative speaking slots at major conferences.

In addition, EuropaBio says it will introduce them to the highest-level European bureaucrats and MEPs in order for them to make the case for GM within EU institutions.”

In 2011, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas responded to the news by saying:

“This brazen attempt by EuropaBio to recruit covert ‘ambassadors’ to ‘change the debate’ on GM is yet further proof that the powerful GM lobby will stop at nothing to push its hugely unpopular and unnecessary products onto European citizens. We need far stronger regulation on corporate lobbyists across the EU to prevent this kind of insidious behind-the-scenes maneuvering from seriously undermining our democratic system.”

The Art of Spin, and the World of “War Craft”

When confronted, the above named candidates denied knowledge of EuropaBio4, known as “the voice for the biotech industry at the EU level.” Most, including Mark Lynas, also claimed they’d reject the offer to peddle GMO policy should they be asked.

What a difference a year makes. While Lynas suddenly began writing about his “conversion” in 2010, he recently took to the stage as a veritable born-again proselytizer of genetically engineered crops at the January 3 Oxford Farming Conference5.

What better ambassador for the tattered and bruised Monsanto than a “former foe” having “seen the light of science” and, of his own free will (supposedly), deciding to mend his ways and right the wrongs he’s done against the biotech industry?

“I want to start with some apologies,” Lynas says. “For the record, here and upfront, I apologize for having spent several years ripping up genetically modified (GM) crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonizing an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.

As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter-productive path. I now regret it completely.

So I guess you’ll be wondering – what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist.”

Gimme a break… If you believe the conversion of Lynas was based on scientific enlightenment, I have a religion of my own you might be interested in. To me, this has all the hallmarks of a carefully crafted propaganda campaign. People have likened Lynas’ opening statements to Martin Luther King apologizing for the civil rights movement, or the Pope renouncing Catholicism. Indeed.

But while many choose to see his new stance as evidence that concerns about genetically engineered foods have been unfounded and overblown, all I see is someone who has sold their soul to the proverbial Devil. You can tell that this is part of a spin campaign for the sheer fact that Lynas goes to great lengths to take as much credit as possible for founding and steering the anti-GM movement. This way, his conversion becomes far more powerful.

Spin and Propaganda Techniques — Are You Still Deaf and Blind to Them?

As SpinWatch points out in its revealing article6, concerns about genetically engineered foods began decades before Lynas entered the scene. Crediting him as “the mastermind of the anti-biotechnology campaign” is PR talk. It’s the jargon of propaganda. And it has one sole purpose — to build up Lynas as a trustworthy independent voice on issues relating to genetically engineered foods.

“… while Lynas says he co-founded the anti-GM movement in 1995, the first wave of resistance to the possible uses of genetic engineering in food and farming began two decades earlier in the mid-1970s,” SpinWatch notes.

“By the early 1980s concerned US scientists and academics had founded the Council for Responsible Genetics, and by the late 1980s a US network called the Biotechnology Working Group was meeting regularly to plan joint strategies and actions regarding the new technology. It was composed of approximately 20 national and local NGOs, and included regular participation by representatives of the European Greens and an Australian NGO, GenEthics. By the early 1990s the Consumers Union and the Union of Concerned Scientists were also on the case.

Concern over GMOs had also begun to appear on the international policy agenda in the years running up to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which called for the establishment of a Biosafety Protocol. It was also at Rio that the first international workshop on GMOs took place. Among those addressing it was Vandana Shiva. This is worth noting because Lynas implies in his speech that it was the movement that he supposedly co-founded in the UK in 1995 which “exported” GM opposition worldwide. In reality, concerns over GM in food and farming were already well established on the world stage.”

… After hearing how Lynas was portraying himself, Sue Mayer contacted him7 to say, ‘I think I can lay claim to having been one of the leaders of the campaign in the UK thoughout the 1990s and until 2007 when I left GeneWatch. It’s strange that although we did speak on the phone once in the late 90s we never met and I missed the fact that you helped start the anti-GM movement!!’ Mayer added, ‘I think this is a very misleading claim and you should feel ashamed of yourself. I wouldn’t normally worry about people puffing themselves up like this but I am concerned that you are letting this be used to promote yourself and the biotech industry.’

Mayer is not alone. Nobody we have spoken to among the many leading figures of the 1990s counts Lynas as either a founder or a leader. Indeed, if he was even involved in the grassroots actions of 1995-1996, then nobody we spoke to remembers it.

Beware: Front Groups with an Aim to Mislead You

Now that Washington State has been confirmed with enough signatures to allow voters to take a stand on GMO labeling, Monsanto and their henchmen are revving up their propaganda campaign, which also includes friendly-sounding front groups8 paid to spead misleading information and industry propaganda, while pretending to serve you.

“We think labeling is really intended to frighten people away from a technology,” said Healther Hansen of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests. “It’s implying that there is something wrong with the food and we think that’s misleading to the consumer,” Komo News writes9. Who is Heather Hansen? She’s a contract lobbyist from the William Ruckelshaus Center at WSU10. And, William Ruckelshaus11 was a board member for — you guessed it — Monsanto…

Why GE Crops are NOT the “Most Tested” Product in the World

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant claims genetically engineered crops are “the most-tested food product that the world has ever seen.” What he doesn’t tell you is that:
a.Industry-funded research predictably affects the outcome of the trial. This has been verified by dozens of scientific reviews comparing funding with the findings of the study. When industry funds the research, it’s virtually guaranteed to be positive. Therefore, independent studies must be done to replicate and thus verify results
b.The longest industry-funded animal feeding study was 90 days, which recent research has confirmed is FAR too short. In the world’s first independently funded lifetime feeding study, massive health problems set in during and after the 13th month, including organ damage and cancer
c.Companies like Monsanto and Syngenta rarely if ever allow independent researchers access to their patented seeds, citing the legal protection these seeds have under patent laws. Hence independent research is extremely difficult to conduct
d.There is no safety monitoring. Meaning, once the GE item in question has been approved, not a single country on earth is actively monitoring and tracking reports of potential health effects

All in all, if their genetically altered seeds have something wrong with them that potentially could cause consumer illness, Monsanto would rather NOT have you find out about it. Not through independent research, nor through a simple little label that would allow you to opt out of the experiment, should you choose not to take them on their word.

Why don’t they want labeling? Because you might sue them for putting your health in danger! Doesn’t this remind you of the public health debate that went on for decades over another multi-billion dollar industry — cigarettes?

For decades the companies producing this cancer-causing product denied they caused any harm, denied nicotine was addictive, and even ran advertisements featuring doctors claiming cigarettes were good for your cough. They produced study after study by their own scientists claiming there was no health threat whatsoever from cigarettes. Executives from every major cigarette company even lied to Congress under oath, claiming they had no knowledge cigarettes were addictive, when in fact they did know — they even manipulated the nicotine content12 of cigarettes to keep you hooked! Bet you didn’t know that, did you?

Genetically engineered foods are just another wolf in the same old sheep’s clothing. The propaganda and the fraud have worked so well for so long, why bother changing something that works so well? Don’t fall for the same old scheme! Instead, read what the few independent researchers are really saying about the science behind genetically engineered foods. You can find all previous articles on this topic on my dedicated GMO News page.

Keep Fighting for Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods

While California Prop. 37 failed to pass last November, by a very narrow margin, the fight for GMO labeling is far from over. The field-of-play has now moved to the state of Washington, where the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act,” will require food sold in retail outlets to be labeled if it contains genetically engineered ingredients. As stated on LabelWA.org:

“Calorie and nutritional information were not always required on food labels. But since 1990 it has been required and most consumers use this information every day. Country-of-origin labeling wasn’t required until 2002. The trans fat content of foods didn’t have to be labeled until 2006. Now, all of these labeling requirements are accepted as important for consumers. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also says we must know with labeling if our orange juice is from fresh oranges or frozen concentrate.

Doesn’t it make sense that genetically engineered foods containing experimental viral, bacterial, insect, plant or animal genes should be labeled, too? Genetically engineered foods do not have to be tested for safety before entering the market. No long-term human feeding studies have been done. The research we have is raising serious questions about the impact to human health and the environment.

I-522 provides the transparency people deserve. I-522 will not raise costs to consumers or food producers. It simply would add more information to food labels, which manufacturers change routinely anyway, all the time. I-522 does not impose any significant cost on our state. It does not require the state to conduct label surveillance, or to initiate or pursue enforcement. The state may choose to do so, as a policy choice, but I-522 was written to avoid raising costs to the state or consumers.”

Remember, as with CA Prop. 37, they need support of people like YOU to succeed. Prop. 37 failed with a very narrow margin simply because we didn’t have the funds to counter the massive ad campaigns created by the No on 37 camp, led by Monsanto and other major food companies. Let’s not allow Monsanto and its allies to confuse and mislead the people of Washington and Vermont as they did in California. So please, I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can, regardless of what state you live in.
•No matter where you live in the United States, please donate money to these labeling efforts through the Organic Consumers Fund.
•If you live in Washington State, please sign the I-522 petition. You can also volunteer to help gather signatures across the state.
•For timely updates on issues relating to these and other labeling initiatives, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
•Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the Washington initiative.

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




The #1 WORST Food that HARMS Your Brain

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health


The #1 WORST Food that HARMS Your Brain

Certain foods you eat can indeed harm your brain, both in impaired learning ability as well as impaired memory. Even worse, the wrong food and drink choices throughout your life can even lead to the terrible and deadly disease of Alzheimers.

A friend of mine just told me that her dad died of Alzheimers recently and it was just a terrible disease where he didn’t even know who she was anymore towards the end. It’s time our society starts taking degenerative diseases like Alzheimers, cancer, and heart disease more seriously throughout our lives, and not just once it’s too late. Even in our 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, the choices we make with our daily food can PREVENT these terrible diseases.

So let’s dig in with the topic today of foods that harm your brain, and what you can do about it…

Food #1 that HARMS your brain: Fructose

In a 2012 UCLA study published in the Journal of Physiology, researchers found that a diet high in fructose over time can damage your memory and learning ability.

Beyond the harm to your brain, it’s well known in the research world that a high fructose diet can also cause insulin resistance in your body over time, and possibly lead to type-2 diabetes and extra body fat. If that’s not enough, a high fructose diet also detrimentally affects your triglyceride levels in your blood as well as small dense LDL particles that cause plaque in your arteries.

So what we have here is high-fructose intake = impaired memory and learning in your brain, increased risk of diabetes, and increased risk of heart disease. Oh, and we forgot to mention extra belly fat too… Yum – who wants another can of soda pop or a large bowl of corn syrup sweetened ice cream!

The average person eating a modern western diet of processed food consumes a LARGE quantity of fructose without even thinking about it from all of the soft drinks (high fructose corn syrup typically), sweetened juice drinks, orange juice, processed junk foods such as cakes and candies, as well as the HFCS that’s added to store-bought salad dressings, breads and cereals, and even condiments like ketchup.

Note that many sports drinks, even though marketed as “healthy”, can have large amounts of corn syrup or even crystalline fructose as their main sweetener. These sports drinks can be equally as bad as a soda for your body and your brain. Don’t be fooled by the clever marketing showing pictures of pro athletes guzzling this stuff.

Also note that agave syrup (aka, agave nectar) which is marketed as a “healthy” sweetener as well, is one of the most concentrated forms of processed fructose in sweeteners as well. I personally stay away from agave sweeteners as much as possible unless the amounts are very small.

All of these fructose-laden foods and drinks are easy to avoid though if you choose to eat consciously… for example, make homemade salad dressings from your favorite olive oil and vinegar with added spices, or choose to drink unsweetened iced tea with lemon instead of sweetened drinks or juices. If you use a lot of ketchup, try to reduce the quantity by mixing with mustard or hot sauce, which typically don’t contain HFCS sweetener in any significant quantities.

Last thing to note about fructose… Yes, natural whole fruits do contain fructose, but generally contain MUCH smaller quantities of fructose than you would consume in a sweetened juice drink, soft drink or sweetened junk foods. Also, the phytonutrients, antioxidants, and fiber that’s contained in most whole fruits counteracts any negative effects of fructose. I personally try to keep fruit intake to no more than 1-2 pieces a day due to the sugar and fructose content of larger amounts of fruit.

Here’s a trick: Did you know that limes and lemons contain virtually zero fructose, and only 3-4 grams of total carbs in a whole lemon or lime, whereas a typical orange contains 6 grams of fructose and 25 grams of total sugar per fruit. I squeeze lemons and limes daily into either water or teas for a healthy flavorful drink. Fresh lemon juice has even been shown to control blood sugar response from a meal…another bonus!

Other Foods that HARM Your Brain:

You probably already know some of the harmful health effects of these foods, but long term effects on your brain are yet another…

Trans fats — strongly inflammatory in your entire body including damage to cell membranes throughout your body. Avoid hydrogenated oils in processed foods and deep fried foods.

Mercury — studies show that mercury from pollution (coal burning plants are the biggest source of mercury pollution to air and water) and from fish that are high on the food chain such as tuna, shark, swordfish, tilefish, etc can possibly cause long term negative effects on your brain. Limit these types of fish to a couple times a month and focus more on fish such as salmon, trout, and many other types of smaller fish to reduce your mercury load.

Wheat-based foods — In the groundbreaking book, Wheat Belly, Dr William Davis makes a very convincing argument that wheat has addictive properties in the brain. Wheat contains compounds termed “exorphins” that have an effect in your brain similar to opiate drugs. This explains why people have such a hard time giving up their beloved breads, cereals, pasta, and muffins because these foods are mildly addictive.

I know personally from past experience that if I have have a pasta dinner, I’ll go back for seconds and thirds as I just can’t seem to stop eating the stuff. And then hours after dinner, I’ll get cravings for more carb-based foods or sweets. But if I pass on the pasta and just have meat, veggies, and salad, I find myself totally satisfied after dinner with no cravings later at night.

The good news is…

There are plenty of superfoods, herbs, and spices that can protect your brain and your other organs too!

In fact, did you know that turmeric is one of the highest antioxidant spices that also exhibits brain-protecting effects? In India, where curry containing turmeric and other spices is eaten daily, rates of Alzheimers disease is among the lowest in the world, proving some of the brain-protecting effects of turmeric.

In addition, the powerful DHA and EPA omega-3 fats in fish oil has been proven in countless studies to protect your brain from damage over the years.

by Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist
Co-Author of the best seller: The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

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The undisputed leader in probitics..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

1 Trillin CFU’s per litre…

How Digestion Works.

Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones.

And why Progurt is so beneficial..

Digestion

The whole digestive system is around 9 meters long. In a healthy human adult this process can take between 24 and 72 hours. Food digestion physiology varies between individuals and upon other factors such as the characteristics of the food and size of the meal.

Food enters the mouth, being chewed by teeth, with chemical processing beginning with chemicals in the saliva from the salivary glands. This is called mastication. Then it travels down the esophagus into the stomach, where hydrochloric acid kills most contaminating microorganisms and begins mechanical break down of some food (e.g., denaturation of protein), and chemical alteration of some. The hydrochloric acid also has a low pH, which allows enzymes to work more efficiently. After some time (typically an hour or two in humans, 4–6 hours in dogs, somewhat shorter duration in house cats, …), the resulting thick liquid is called chyme. Chyme will go through the small intestine, where 95% of absorption of nutrients occurs, through the large intestine, and are eliminated during defecation.

Human Gastro Intestinal Tract

The human gastrointestinal tract refers to the stomach and intestine, and sometimes to all the structures from the mouth to the anus. (The “digestive system” is a broader term that includes other structures, including the accessory organs of digestion). In an adult male human, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is 5 metres (20 ft) long in a live subject, or up to 9 metres (30 ft) without the effect of muscle tone, and consists of the upper and lower GI tracts. The tract may also be divided into foregut, midgut, and hindgut, reflecting the embryological origin of each segment of the tract.

Transit Time

The time taken for food or other ingested objects to transit through the gastrointestinal tract varies depending on many factors, but roughly, it takes 2.5 to 3 hours after meal for 50% of stomach contents to empty into the intestines and total emptying of the stomach takes 4 to 5 hours. Subsequently, 50% emptying of the small intestine takes 2.5 to 3 hours. Finally, transit through the colon takes approximately 30 hours.

Immune System

The gastrointestinal tract is a prominent part of the immune system. The surface area of the digestive tract is estimated to be the surface area of a football field. With such a large exposure, the immune system must work hard to prevent pathogens from entering into blood and lymph.

The low pH (ranging from 1 to 4) of the stomach is fatal for many microorganisms that enter it. Similarly, mucus (containing IgA antibodies) neutralizes many of these microorganisms. Other factors in the GI tract help with immune function as well, including enzymes in saliva and bile. Enzymes such as Cyp3A4, along with the antiporter activities, also are instrumental in the intestine’s role of detoxification of antigens and xenobiotics, such as drugs, involved in first pass metabolism.

Health-enhancing intestinal bacteria serve to prevent the overgrowth of potentially harmful bacteria in the gut. These two types of bacteria compete for space and “food,” as there are limited resources within the intestinal tract. A ratio of 80-85% beneficial to 15-20% potentially harmful bacteria generally is considered normal within the intestines. Microorganisms also are kept at bay by an extensive immune system comprising the gut-associated lymphoid tissue.

Progurt vs Yogurt

• Human Probiotic Isolate™ (HPI)
• 1 Trillion CFU per litre
• Live powerful culture
• Multiple strains
• Colonising strains
• Broad spectrum
• Unique formulation
• Greater potency
• Guaranteed freshness
• Natural Ingredients
• No artificial additives
• No artificial fillers
Guaranteed Potent and Fresh

The probiotic bacteria have been isolated, identified, purified and produced in the laboratory.Store bought yogurts go through a distribution to consumption process that can take up to 45 days. E.g. Factory production – Storage – Distribution – Store Shelf – Home – Consumption. Progurt is produced and consumed within 7 days, guaranteeing absolute freshness and potency of live probiotic bacteria of human origin and a simply beautiful taste.

Made from Natural Ingredients

Progurt is guaranteed completely natural, with absolutely no additives or satbilizers.

• No artificial flavours
• No artificial colours
• No artificial preservatives
• Low GI
• No sugar
• No cornstarch
• No gluten
• No pectin
• No gelatine
• No cochineal
• No binders
• No stabilizers
• No aspartame or saccharin
• No high fructose corn syrup
• No added mineral compounds

Progurt is revolutionising the entire probiotic and yogurt industry. The foundation to this revolution rests with one single Sachet. Each Progurt Sachet contains a unique formulation of probiotic bacteria.

Progurt’s unique formulation using multiple viable probiotic strains of Human Probiotic Isolate™ (HPI), combined with its potency and freshness, makes Progurt an amazing probiotic – in the form of a yogurt.

Progurt initiates balance of gut flora – improving digestion, nutrition, absorption and nutritional support to every living cell in your body.

Nothing has been compromised in bringing you the ultimate probiotic.

*CFU (Colony Forming-Unit) is a unit of measurement of viable bacterial numbers.

Contains Beneficial Human Strains

The beneficial effects of probiotics are attributed to the characteristics of specific strains. Probiotic strains must be resilient in order to survive in the intestinal tract in which they are dwelling.

The probiotic stains must be able to withstand human stomach acid, in order to make it to the intestinal tract. They must also be able to withstand human intestinal fluids, and they must be able to colonize the human intestinal tract to exert their greatest benefits.

Choosing the Right Probiotic Strains

Gut microbial flora is species specific, in exactly the same way the mother’s milk of a species is species specific.

Bacterial preparations, referred to as probiotics are widely available commercially. It is important to recognize and choose the right product. Many bacterial preparations are harvested from the gut flora of mammals such as swine or cattle.

Dairy products provide an ideal medium in which these organisms can grow. However, gastric acidity and the action of bile salts are just some of the main obstacles to survival of probiotics in humans, including those found in some of the specialised commercial yogurts

Shop at the Progurt Online Store.
Or call +61 2 9922 2188.

7 foods that help you control your cravings.

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

7 specific foods that will also help you control your cravings.

#1 Avocados

Yup, that’s right, a fatty food. But this fat is a good fat and these are loaded with two vital nutrients that will quickly kill belly fat: fiber and monounsaturated fats. These little suckers keep you full for hours.

#2 Nut Butters

Peanut butter and almond butter are loaded with monounsatured fats that can stave off hunger and provide valuable nutrition. Just be sure that it’s natural nut butter because the regular grocery store versions are filled with sugar and trans fats.

#3 Eggs

Need a quick breakfast solution? Look no further than to eggs. Loaded with protein, vitamin B6, V12, A, D, E, and K, as well as folate, choline, lutein, calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids, you simply cannot go wrong. Choose free range chickens whenever possible and the nutritional benefits will be amplified.

#4 Dark Chocolate

More good news. That chocolate craving that you have, it too can be satisfied. Dark chocolate is actually a powerful source of antioxidants and it contains a natural “fat burner” called theobromine that will increase the rate of fat burning that takes place in the body. Stick to a few squares after a healthy meal to crush those chocolate cravings.

#5 Oatmeal

Another great breakfast food you can’t go wrong with. If you want to cure the mid-morning craving attack, start your day off with oats. Oats are a very good source of wholesome fiber and contain no sugar at all so they will keep your blood sugar levels on a nice even keel.

Mix in a little cinnamon for further blood sugar control support and to reduce belly fat and you’ve got a perfect way to start your day.

#6 Berries

Black berries and raspberries provide a great way to settle down sugar cravings. What’s more, their high fiber content keeps you feeling full while the antioxidants and vitamins improve your health.

#7 Wild Salmon

Last but not least, don’t forget about salmon. Another food that’s jam packed with protein and healthy omega fatty acids and that will help squash those cravings and keep your blood sugar balance in check. Eat this in the evening with some wholesome vegetables and you can kiss your cravings good bye for the night.

That’s 7 foods right there, but don’t forget about veggies and beans. Both are backed with nutrition and fiber to keep you full and satisfied.

Eating more of these foods during your day will help eliminate cravings, but if you want an ever faster and easier way to crush cravings and fight fat, then do this…

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




Invest in nutrition to reduce health care costs

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

The economy is rough and budgets are tight, but there are things you can do right now to save money while still living an organic, non-GMO lifestyle.

Here are three of the biggest ones that can save you money not only this year, but year after year:

#1) Invest in nutrition to reduce health care costs
It’s hard for us to notice expenses that are prevented through nutrition and healthy supplements. After all, if you’re taking vitamin D that prevents cancer, you never see the cancer so you don’t really notice is was prevented.

And yet, if you really think about it, nutrition buys you health and disease prevention for pennies on the dollar compared to the cost of prescription drugs, doctor visits and expensive health insurance.

Astoundingly powerful nutrients like zinc, magnesium and vitamin D cost mere pennies a day, yet they deliver a small fortune in health care value in terms of the savings in long-term health care costs. Much the same is true with medicinal herbs, physical fitness and even holistic therapies like chiropractic and acupuncture.

It’s amazing to me that many people are ready and willing to spend $1,000 or more each month on health insurance, but they scoff at spending $200 a month on organic foods, nutritional supplements or a gym membership.

Trust me: I’ve done the math on this, and the returns are huge on investing in quality nutrition, superfoods, physical fitness and preventive holistic treatments (including therapeutic massage).

#2) Shop for organic, non-GMO foods at Green PolkaDot Box
In business for over a year now, Green PolkaDot Box now ships frozen organic, non-GMO foods (as well as non-frozen foods and even fresh produce) all over the USA. Just as importantly, their prices are way lower than Whole Foods, where everything seems to be disturbingly expensive.

Over the last year, GPDB has quietly become a powerhouse online discount retailer of organic, non-GMO foods, supplements, personal care, pet care, home care and even baby foods. They’ve got fast shipping, outstanding customer service, and an ever-increasing selection of truly outstanding brands including Nutiva, Amy’s, Late July and hundreds of others. I call GPDB “the Amazon.com of organic, non-GMO products.”

Click here to check them out now, and remember that shipping is FREE on orders of $75 or more (in the 48 states only). There is a small surcharge for shipping frozen items, but it’s still amazing because the boxes arrive with the foods still frozen inside!

I’ve been using GPDB to buy Ezekiel sprouted grain breads, organic nut butters, premium olive oil, organic pet food, truly natural shampoo, manuka honey and all sorts of other things. GPDB has actually become my #1 source of groceries. It has vastly reduce my need to go to the local grocery store where everything smells like laundry detergent (know what I mean?).

Green PolkaDot Box.

#3) Grow some of your own
You’d be amazed how much money you can save by growing some of your own food. With sky-high food prices these days, the payoff for home gardening is more enticing than ever.

Think about it: Organic red bell peppers sometimes cost as much as $5 each at the store. You can grow them for practically nothing!

It’s also easy to grow organic tomatoes, okra, green bell peppers (those are all summer crops) or in the cooler times of the year grow your own broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.

Sweet potatoes are also ridiculously easy to grow, and they produce like crazy. Lots of culinary herbs are also super easy to grow, including rosemary, parsley, cilantro and savory.

Believe it or not, in warmer climates it’s also super easy to grow your own tobacco! I used to grow huge tobacco plants in South America, and we also grew neem and cayenne peppers to make our own organic insecticide liquids. (We also threw in some castor bean oil that we grew ourselves, too.)

Growing some of your own food also gives you contact with the soil, healthy sunshine and enjoyment of nature. You’ll learn some self-reliance and you’ll reduce your food bill. Think about it: Gardening is the process of turning seeds that cost mere pennies into wholesome, organic foods that are worth big dollars. Make this the year that you grow a garden!

Summary
There are lots of other strategies for saving money while staying healthy with organics. You can buy in bulk instead of smaller packaged sizes. You can buy unprocessed ingredients instead of manufactured organic foods. You can also grow and sell some of your own chem-free produce at the local farmer’s market so that organic gardening actually pays you back.

Living an organic lifestyle doesn’t have to cost you a fortune, and if you’re spending a lot of money on organic products right now, you may be paying more for them than you need to. Find creative ways to cut costs without compromising on your health. Keep buying organic, in other words, but find opportunities to save money along the way.

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




FDA oversight grossly lacking

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

Imported seafood is full of chemicals, drugs and feces – yet the FDA inspects hardly any of it

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039077_seafood_chemicals_FDA_inspections.html#ixzz2KmHVsYhV

Most imported seafood, including shrimp, is from large fish farms in Asia, including China, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. There are also seafood or fish farms in Canada, Mexico, and South America that export to the U.S. and others countries.

Fish farming is just that. Breeding, cultivating, and harvesting fish from ponds, drainage ditches, or cages in lakes and even the open sea. There are also green houses with large containers of water. Unusual tropical fish, catfish, and salmon are farmed and sometimes deceptively sold as wild caught.

Farmed fish and shrimp pro and con
Proponents of fish farming point out that it’s more ecological since wild fish areas are invaded less as fish farms proliferate. Of course, there is the added incentive of not having to resort to seafaring vessels or fleets to come in with catches. Fish farming is more reliable and less expensive.

Since recent innovations of stacking indoor pools for breading shrimp was innovated, there is an incredible amount of farmed jumbo shrimp that is retailed and used in restaurants. These stacked pools permit up to 25 kilograms of shrimp to be bred in one cubic meter of water.

The stacked pool idea was spawned in Texas. So less farmed shrimp is imported now than a few years ago. But that doesn’t preclude antibiotics, bacterial, and chemical contamination from getting into those stacked pools.

Just like massive factory farms for sending hoofed meat to slaughter houses, there are problems with overcrowding and feeding in fish farms. Antibiotics are used in crowed aquatic conditions. And what they are fed can include even salmonella laced pig feces, as discovered in several Chinese fish farms.

FDA oversight grossly lacking
While the FDA orchestrates raids on raw milk providers, alternative cancer clinics, supplement companies, and issues threatening letters to nut and fruit growers for promoting actual scientific health findings on their products, they barely sniff imported seafood or locally farmed fish and shrimp from a distance.

According to the CDC, 44 percent of the 39 food borne illness outbreaks caused by imports from 2005 to 2010 involved seafood. In 2011, 91 percent of the 4.7 billion pounds of seafood consumed in the U.S. was imported. The FDA tested samples from only two percent of this at best. It seems 2012 was a better year.

They inspected 330 samples of Vietnamese farmed shrimp exported to Little Rock, Arkansas, and found 67 samples containing the bacteria Klebsiella, which is resistant to most antibiotics and causes urinary infections and pneumonia.

In addition to bacterial contamination, certain antibiotics used in fish farming are problematic. Residues of nitrofuran antibiotics have been discovered in imported farm fish. Nitrofurans are carcinogenic.

A U.S. wild shrimp trade association, the Southern Shrimp Alliance, complained to the FDA recently that three Vietnamese shrimp farms were ordered to test all their exports with Canadian authorities after extremely dangerous fluoroquinolone antibiotics were detected. But the FDA did nothing for U.S. imports from those companies.

The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) claims to pick up the slack from FDA’s inadequate screening. Their Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) label supposedly assures your seafood is totally safe. But the GAA is a fox guarding hen house industry group of seafood provider executives. (http://www.gaalliance.org/bap/wheretobuy.php)

The University of Victoria’s Seafood Ecology Research Group placed the BAP seal at 16th out of 20 total certifications for seafood safety standards.

Inadequate food safety screening for imported seafood leaves us with equally ignored, locally farmed fish and shrimp as well as wild fish and shrimp from our BP Corexit contaminated gulf. It’s time to be very picky about seafood.

Sources for this article include:

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.popsci.com

http://www.motherjones.com

Homepage 2017

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Police state that illegally destroyed family farm..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food

Owners of now-defunct Morningland Dairy speak out against rogue police state that illegally destroyed their family farm

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039075_Morningland_Dairy_police_state_family_farms.html#ixzz2KmF0ULxi

In the greatly unsettling aftermath of the complete and total destruction of Missouri-based Morningland Dairy by the corrupt Missouri Milk Board, farm owners Joe and Denise Dixon have been able to share the sordid details of their harrowing experience mostly with the alternative media and select others who have not been hopelessly brainwashed by the system. And in the process, they have also had the unique opportunity to share with the world, first hand, what ruthless and unrelenting tyranny truly looks like.

As we reported recently, Morningland became an instant enemy of the state after federal and foreign officials illegally raided a private, California-based food cooperative back in 2010 that carried some of the farm’s products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and later the Missouri Milk Board, falsely accused Morningland of selling tainted raw milk cheese, and several years later, forcibly stole and discarded nearly 20 tons of this perfectly good cheese without legitimate cause. (http://www.naturalnews.com)

And there are many more details to this shocking display of brutal, police state force against innocent, American farm owners that simply cannot be covered in full in the space of a short article. Details such as the fact that the Missouri Milk Board never collected and tested real cheese samples in accordance with the law, for instance, and never afforded the Dixons a proper trial by jury in accordance with the U.S. Constitution prior to removing more than 36,000 pounds of cheese from their farm and dumping it in a landfill.

“Dressed in casual clothes, with no special gear, they loaded up all 36,000-plus pounds of hard-earned cheese, and sent it off to a local dump in two large dumpsters,” explain owners Joe and Denise Dixon, on their farm’s website about what happened that fateful Friday morning. “Months and months’ worth of fresh, whole, raw milk, made into healthful, tasty cheese through a lot of hard work, just destroyed, without ever being properly tested.”

Inspector Don Falls, executive secretary Gene Wiseman, and Howell County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Al Jones all directly responsible for illegally destroying family farm
The Dixons name names, too, identifying Don Falls, an inspector for the Missouri Milk Board who altered batch numbers of Morningland cheese samples and lied about the safety of Morningland’s cheese, and Gene Wiseman, executive secretary of the Missouri Milk Board, who duly refused to acknowledge the farm’s clean test results for the cheese and instead chose to brutally persecute the Dixons. These two men, as well as the handful of mindless minions who helped them fully execute their criminal oppression against the Dixons on January 25, 2013, are all responsible for the unjustified and illegal destruction of Morningland’s entire inventory of cheese.

You can find contact information for both Don Falls and Gene Wiseman here:
http://mda.mo.gov/animals/milk/staff.php

You can contact the Howell County Sheriff’s Office here:
http://www.howellcountysheriff.org//Contact%20us.htm

You can also read further details of the Morningland saga here:
http://morninglanddairy.webs.com/recallinfocourtaction.htm

“We have to wonder how the Missouri Attorney General’s Office representatives, now-retired Howell County Judge David Dunlap, and other Missouri officials feel about playing the fool in accepting the obviously false testimony from Missouri Milk Board inspector Don Falls and executive secretary Gene Wiseman, as they professed our cheese to be a danger to the public,” add the Dixons.

Be sure to listen to this powerful interview with the Dixons conducted by America’s Voice Now host Mike Evans, in which you will hear first hand what this victimized couple has endured at the hands of a police state gone mad: http://youtu.be/KUoyB3b5phQ

Sources for this article include:

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.newswithviews.com/Hannes/doreen111.htm

http://americanvisionnews.com

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