Rather Be Healthy

Indigestion has many aspects, from simply feeling bloated and too full to full blown IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). The latter includes both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Basic eating habits can prevent simple indigestion and keep gastrointestinal disorders away or minimize them if they already exist. Start with a good eating environment that’s without stress, bad feelings, or talking about stressful activities. Actually, too much of any gabbing interferes with good digestion.

That’s because digestion begins with enzymes and beneficial bacteria from the saliva in the mouth. Cramming in to much food with each bite and swallowing after only two or three chews overwhelms the beginning of digestive function.

It’s also a good idea to avoid cold beverages while eating. Liquids should not be cooler than room temperature. Ayurveda and Chinese medicine point respect to what they call the fire of digestion that begins in the stomach. Also, drink sparingly while eating, lest you drown the fire of digestion.

The foundation for proper food mixing is based on not mixing foods that require different time spans for complete digestion. Animal foods, especially meats, take the longest. Next comes complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains. Then simple carbohydrates, refined grains, etc.

Fruits are digested the quickest. That’s why they should be eaten away from main meals. The same goes for processed carbohydrate or sugary desserts. When slower digesting foods mix into the faster digesting foods, fermentation can occur leading to indigestion.

It’s also a good idea to include soluble fiber foods with insoluble fiber foods, with an attempt toward eating soluble fiber foods first. For example, your main dish with rice or potatoes (soluble fiber) should precede salad (insoluble fiber). Source [1] below contains lists of soluble and insoluble fiber foods.

Herb and spice remedies for indigestion
(1) Aloe vera juice is great for digestive problems and healthy in so many other ways. It can be regarded as a miracle plant juice. Look for unadulterated, unsweetened, unpasteurized, and non-irradiated aloe vera juice, whether pressed from whole leaves or the fileted gel within the leaf.

The whole leaf versus gel only controversy is one you should explore to decide what makes sense to you. Aloe vera is anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer. It requires only a little aloe vera consumption to handle digestive problems, but much more to cure cancer. It also facilitates detoxification.

Aloe vera has been clinically proven (though not publicized by MSM) to handle both extremes and a lot of health issues in between. (http://www.naturalnews.com/021858_aloe_vera_gel.html)

(2) A simple technique of thoroughly chewing a handful of dry fennel seeds after eating can facilitate good digestion. These are usually available in Indian restaurants the way mints are up for grabs in many western eateries. But you can have them on hand at home cheaply. Some swear by fennel tea for indigestion.

(3) Ginger and coriander aid digestion. Ginger powder or ground ginger root can be used as a spice. Ginger tea or capsules soothes many digestive disorders or upset stomachs from motion sickness or other causes.

Coriander seeds or powders are used in Indian and Chinese cuisine. Their additions are great for promoting good digestion. Using the coriander anti-inflammatory plant leaves, commonly known as cilantro, helps remove heavy metals from your system. (http://www.naturalnews.com/035741_heavy_metals_cilantro_detox.html)

(4) Fermented foods contain naturally produced probiotic beneficial bacteria. They should be eaten often. They include sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, pickles, aged cheese, “live” yogurts, and fresh sourdough bread baked without bromine and without preservatives.

Making your own milk or water kefir helps you maintain the proper beneficial to pathogenic balance of 85 to 15 in your gut. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036419_probiotics_immunity_bacteria.html)

Reversing or reducing this optimum ratio leads to Candida overgrowth and a plethora of weird symptoms too difficult to diagnose for most MDs.

Less sugar and fewer refined carbs in your diet will also help maintain that intestinal flora balance. Avoid antibiotics. Be prepared to take heavy doses of probiotic supplements if you’re forced into antibiotic use.

Sources for this article include:

[1] Souble fiber foods http://www.helpforibs.com/diet/fiber1.asp and Non-soluble fiber foods http://www.helpforibs.com/diet/fiber2.asp

http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/product/fennel.aspx

http://www.herballegacy.com/Baldwin_Medicinal.html

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038434_indigestion_home_remedies_spices.html#ixzz2FxX0vsSS

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McDonald’s serving up ‘restructured meat technology’ – you want fries with that?

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038442_McDonalds_McRib_sandwich_restructured_meat_technology.html#ixzz2FxUGWquq

Well, it’s that time of year again when McDonald’s rolls out its venerable McRib sandwich. Tens of millions of Americans will purchase one – or, judging by the nation’s ever-widening belt line, several – but most will do so without knowing all they should know about this popular sandwich.

Besides high caloric content, there are several other reasons why you should avoid the McRib, a boneless pork product smothered in BBQ sauce that famously resembles a rack of ribs, as much as you avoid most of the other “delicacies” served by this fast-food behemoth. In addition, The Blaze reports, there are several “fun facts” about the sandwich you may not have known:

A sandwich ‘built’ from scratch?: The McRib is a product of Rene Arend, who came up with the idea and design of the sandwich. That said, Richard Mandigo, a professor from the University of Nebraska, who developed the “restructured meat product” that the McRib is actually made of.

According to Chicago magazine, citing a 1995 article by Mandigo, “restructured meat product” is described thusly:

Restructured meat products are commonly manufactured by using lower-valued meat trimmings reduced in size by comminution (flaking, chunking, grinding, chopping or slicing). The comminuted meat mixture is mixed with salt and water to extract salt-soluble proteins. These extracted proteins are critical to produce a “glue” which binds muscle pieces together. These muscle pieces may then be reformed to produce a “meat log” of specific form or shape. The log is then cut into steaks or chops which, when cooked, are similar in appearance and texture to their intact muscle counterparts. … Such products as tripe, heart, and scalded stomachs are high in protein, completely edible, wholesome, and nutritious, and most are already used in sausage without objection.

Still hungry?

Packed with calories – and ingredients: In a time of labeling, when government entities and the public are pushing for more disclosure, the package for the McRib would have to grow just to list all of its ingredients.

According to the current box labeling, the sandwich consists of just five basic components – a pork patty and BBQ sauce with pickle slices, onions and a sesame bun.

But, as Time magazine points out, a closer examination of McDonald’s own list of ingredients reveals that the sandwich contains a total of 70 ingredients, including azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching component that is often used to produce foamed plastics (think gym mats and the soles of shoes). In fact, “the compound is banned in Europe and Australia as a food additive,” says Time. Other ingredients include ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80.

Besides, the sandwich itself contains an incredible amount of calories – 500 at least – along with 26 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates and 980 milligrams of sodium, nearly half the recommended daily amount of about 2,400 milligrams.

Not a good choice for your heart: The ingredients, combined with a dose of 10 mg of saturated fat (nearly half of the recommended daily allowance), make the McRib an enemy of a healthy heart, say the experts.

“Think about that for a second: When you eat a McRib, you’re eating the same chemical ingredients and compounds in those disgusting yoga mats at the gym. And that’s on top of the fact that it tastes terrible in the first place,” writes Rick Paulas, food editor for KCET, a public television network in southern California. “Which means it’s time to ask: Why are we still eating this?”

That’s a very valid question. In the meantime, that sound you hear is the further tightening of the nation’s belt line.

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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.

You can slow down your aging process and help stave off heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. U.S. News & World Report offers some tips on how to do it:
1.
Free radicals. Free radicals are chemically unstable molecules that attack your cells and damage your DNA. You can limit your exposure to them by avoiding cigarettes, trans fats, charred meats, and other sources.

Organic fruits and vegetables will also limit your exposure to pesticides and herbicides, which contain the harmful molecules.

2.
Inflammation. Inflammation is a major player in many diseases of aging, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. One way to avoid it is to follow a Mediterranean-style diet.

Other great anti-inflammatory foods include turmeric, dark chocolate, and the anti-aging chemical resveratrol. Exercise is another great way to lower inflammation.

3.Glycation. Glycation is what happens when sugar mixes with proteins and fats to form molecules that promote aging. Advanced glycation end products, or AGEs, are thought to accelerate your aging process by churning out free radicals and promoting inflammation. One way to avoid ingesting AGEs is to turn down the heat when you cook. The browning effect of high-heat cooking causes these molecules to form. Limiting your intake of sugar-filled foods in general will also help.
4.Stress. Stress initiates the release of a variety of hormones that make your pulse race and cause your blood pressure to rise. The hormone cortisol, released to lessen these effects, also creates problems when it remains chronically elevated. Try practicing relaxation techniques to help manage stress, and get enough sleep every night.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Death is surely inevitable, but I do believe you can live far longer than the average life expectancy, which, in the US, is around 78. Genetics may play a role, but is NOT the final determining factor for whether you’ll live a long healthy life.

Barring an accident, your lifestyle has everything to do with your longevity. It’s already been established that diet can override genetic predispositions for disease, for example, so don’t fall into the trap of believing your health and longevity is somehow the inevitable result of what’s in your gene pool.

Please understand that the list in the summary above is from US News and World Report and it is THEIR concept of what contributes to aging. Of course you don’t get the newsletter for their views so I am going to use their list as a springboard to provide you with my thoughts on the topic.

The Leading Cause of Premature Aging and Premature Death

Increased insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity has clearly become the leading candidate for premature death. This results from two primary conditions: too much sugar and processed foods, combined with insufficient exercise.

Interestingly, controlling these two factors could likely eliminate more than 90 percent of:
•High blood pressure
•Obesity
•Diabetes
•High cholesterol

Of all the molecules capable of inflicting damage in your body, probably the most damaging of all are sugar molecules. Fructose in particular is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that speeds up the aging process.

This is mostly an artifact of the postindustrial agricultural revolution that we live in as over thirty years ago scientists learned how to cheaply produce sugar from corn and now it is loaded in nearly all processed foods and has become the number one source of calories in most developed countries.

Fructose is a major contributor to:
•Insulin resistance and obesity
•Elevated blood pressure
•Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
•Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout

How does it do all this?

Fructose adversely affects your body in a number of ways, but one of the mechanisms that causes significant damage is glycation; a process in which the sugar bonds with proteins and form so-called advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. It’s a fitting acronym because – along with oxidation – it’s one of the major molecular mechanisms whereby damage accrues in your body, which leads to disease, aging, and eventually, death.

When sugar glycates it creates inflammation, which activates your immune system in a defensive maneuver. Macrophages are scavenger cells that are part of your immune defense system, and as such they have special receptors for AGEs, aptly called RAGEs (think: raging inflammation). These RAGEs bind to the AGEs and get rid of them.

Unfortunately, this process can leave its fair share of battle scars. Inside your arteries, for example, the scar tissue created from this process is called plaque. This also explains why there’s such a strong connection between diabetes and heart disease.

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

However, most people would be wise to limit their fructose to 15 grams or less, particularly if you have elevated uric acid levels, which can be used as a predictor for fructose toxicity. (For more information on this, please see this recent article.)

This includes keeping track of your fructose intake from whole fruits. For a helpful chart showing the fructose content of many common fruits, please see this link.

I recommend this lower level simply because if you consume processed foods or sweet beverages at all, you’re virtually guaranteed to consume “hidden” sources of fructose.

How to Prevent Free Radical Damage

The most widely accepted idea for life extension is the free radical theory, which says that as you age, you begin to “self-destruct,” courtesy of free radicals – aggressive chemical compounds created as a byproduct of your natural metabolism that damage your DNA.

Lifestyle choices such as smoking, consuming processed foods laden with trans fats and other harmful chemical additives, along with pesticide- and other chemical exposures further add to your body’s free radical burden.

With time, your DNA eventually becomes damaged beyond your body’s ability to repair, and once your biological processed fail, you die.

Antioxidants continually combat these free radicals – which is why a diet high in natural antioxidants is so important for your health and longevity. Antioxidants are abundant in a number of foods, and your BEST bet to get high quality antioxidants is to consume raw fresh organic vegetables and fruits.

Supplementation can also be useful and resveratrol appears to be particularly potent and is often referred to as a “fountain of youth” that can extend lifespan. It is unique among antioxidants because it can cross the blood-brain barrier to help protect your brain and nervous system.

Another important but often overlooked antioxidant is coenzyme Q-10, but more specifically the reduced version, called ubiquinol.

Your liver produces CoQ10 and it is actually an essential nutrient for health and longevity because it provides energy to every single cell in your body. Unfortunately, after age 25, your natural levels of this critical compound begin to decline, which is why I personally take the reduced form, ubiquinol, every day.

CoQ10 is also an absolute necessity if you’re on statin drugs as they can quickly deplete your body of coQ10. This is in part why statins are so harmful to your heart.

Glutathione (GSH) is another important and underutilized antioxidant. This is one antioxidant though I believe you can optimize with proper diet and if you are leading a healthy lifestyle it is probably unnecessary to supplement. However if you are sick and disabled and recovering, you certainly could consider supplementation.

Interestingly, increased glutathione levels may actually play a role in stopping telomere shortening, which is one of the most exciting anti-aging discoveries in recent years. If you missed my article on this fascinating new theory, you can read it here.

Now, I’m not a fan of taking fistfuls of supplements in lieu of altering your diet to get the nutrients you need, and I have reservations against using glutathione supplements in particular. When it comes to glutathione, one of your best sources is high quality whey protein. Other food sources include free range animal foods and eggs.

Just remember that there are vast differences between whey products. You’ll want to make sure your whey protein is derived from grass-fed cows and very carefully processed to preserve the fragile amino acid precursors. Many whey proteins on the market are highly processed and may also contain undesirable additives.

I am so convinced by the research on telomeres and glutathione that I take our Miracle Whey protein every morning, and a second dose before my twice weekly strength training days.

Additionally, I use Sprint 8 — specific “anti-aging” exercises that boost human growth hormone production.

Learning from Those Who’ve Lived the Longest

Longevity researchers have long searched for the magic common denominators that might explain the extended life spans of centenarians. What they found is that the people who’ve lived the longest tend to eat a natural, plant-based diet and live in areas that promote regular physical activity, such as daily walking.

They also tend to have effective strategies for coping with the inevitable stresses of life, such as prayer, meditation, and having strong social networks. In fact, being able to effectively cope with stress, it turns out, is one of the MAJOR common denominators for those who live long, healthy lives.

One of the proposed reasons for this strong link is that stress, just like fructose, promotes inflammation in your body.

Indeed, most of the research indicates that longevity hinges on preventing chronic inflammation, and avoiding sugar/fructose while consuming an antioxidant-rich diet of whole, fresh foods, along with physical exercise and effective stress reduction methods work hand-in-hand to do just that.

The Anti-Aging Lifestyle

Going back to where I started, of all the healthy lifestyle strategies I know of that can have a significant impact on your longevity, normalizing your insulin and leptin levels is probably the most important.

There is no question that optimizing your insulin levels is an absolute necessity if you want to slow down your aging process, and that means modifying your diet to avoid excessive amounts of fructose, grains, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients like trans fats.

Here are the rest of my top “anti-aging” recommendations:
•
Learn how to effectively cope with stress – As discussed earlier, stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day, so developing effective coping mechanisms is a major longevity-promoting factor.

Meditation, prayer, physical activity and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. I also strongly believe in using energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to address deeper, oftentimes hidden emotional problems.

•Eat a healthy diet based on your nutritional type – My nutrition plan, based on natural whole foods, is your first step toward increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life. This is so important, I now offer the full nutritional typing program for FREE.
•Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels. This is another very powerful and inexpensive intervention that can have profound benefits on your health. In the summer you can do this for free by careful and safe sun exposure but even in the winter a therapeutic level of oral vitamin D (typically 5-10,000 units of vitamin D3 for most adults)
•
Animal based omega-3 fats – Correcting the ratio of omega-3 to healthful omega-6 fats is a strong factor in helping people live longer. This typically means increasing your intake of animal based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil, while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats (think trans fats).

I do not, however, recommend the new prescription strength fish oil medication, sold under the name Lovaza. Don’t be fooled by their “all-natural” PR campaign. This is actually a drug to treat very high triglyceride levels.

However, as with most other drugs, Lovaza comes with potentially dangerous side effects that you would not experience with a natural fish oil or krill oil supplement. Side effects include flu-like symptoms, infections, back pain, skin rashes, upset stomach, taste changes, digestive issues, chest pain, migraines and respiratory problems!

Additionally, new research strongly suggests that 500 mg of krill oil is more potent and far less expensive.

•Get your antioxidants from foods –Good sources include blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, beans, and artichokes.
•Use coconut oil – Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known to reduce your risk of heart disease and lower your cholesterol, among other things. In fact, it’s doubly beneficial because it can be both eaten and applied directly to your skin. Coconut oil can be used in place of other oils, margarine, butter, or shortening, and can be used for all your cooking needs.
•
Get your resveratrol naturally – Resveratrol is one of the forerunners in the anti-aging pill race, but more than likely, by the time they’ve manipulated it into a synthetic pill (like the fish oil discussed above), it won’t be healthy for you.

Although resveratrol is the antioxidant found in red wine, I can’t recommend drinking wine in the hopes of extending your life because alcohol is a neurotoxin that can poison your brain and harm your body’s delicate hormonal balance. Instead, get your resveratrol from natural sources, such as whole grape skins and seeds, raspberries, mulberries, and peanuts.

•
Exercise regularly, and correctly– Studies repeatedly show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay your onset of hypertension, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and the falls that lead to hip fracture. Although a lifetime of regular exercise is ideal, it’s never too late to start. It’s been shown that even individuals in their 70’s can substantially increase both strength and endurance with exercise.

I’m also excited about the research showing how high-intensity, interval training can increase longevity as this specific style of training promotes human growth hormone production – yet another aspect of the longevity puzzle.

•Avoid as many chemicals, toxins, and pollutants as possible – This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
•Avoid pharmaceutical drugs – Pharmaceutical drugs kill thousands of people prematurely every year – as an expected side effect of the action of the drug. And, if you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need any of them in the first place.

Incorporating these healthy lifestyle guidelines will help set you squarely on the path to optimal health and give you the best shot at living a much longer life. For even more anti-aging information, please review the related articles listed below.

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The #1 WORST Food that CAUSES Faster Aging (beware!)

Do you eat these foods that HARM your blood sugar and age your joints and skin faster? Some are even deceptively marketed to you as “healthy” by giant food corporations. Avoid or minimize these and look 5-10 years YOUNGER than your real age.

by Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist
& Catherine Ebeling – RN, BSN

Due to biochemical reactions in your body that occur with every type of food you eat on a daily basis, some foods age you FASTER than your real age, while other foods help to FIGHT aging.

Eat the wrong foods regularly, and you can look and feel 10 or more years OLDER than your real age (not fun!) … but eat the right foods, and over time, you can start to look 5-10 years YOUNGER than your real age.

Three of the processes that go on inside your body that have a MAJOR impact on your rate of aging are called “glycation”, “inflammation”, and “oxidation”. When we talk about aging, we’re not just talking about wrinkles on your skin or how thick your hair is… we’re also talking about factors that you can’t see, such as how well your organs function, and whether your joints are degrading.

Yes, I’m sure you’ll agree this is much more important than just how you look superficially (although we’ll show you how to improve BOTH!)

So let’s dig right in and I’ll show you how your rate of aging can be directly related to the foods you might eat every day, and how to protect yourself…

The #1 WORST food that ages you faster:

Wheat based foods (yes, even “whole wheat”)

Before I tell you why wheat can actually speed up the aging process in your body, let’s clarify some simple biochemistry in your body…

This deals with “glycation” in your body, and substances called Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). These nasty little compounds called AGEs speed up the aging process in your body including damage over time to your organs, your joints, and of course, wrinkled skin.

So with that said, what is one of the biggest factors that increase production of AGEs inside your body? This may surprise you, but high blood sugar levels over time dramatically increase age-accelerating AGEs in your body. This is why type 2 diabetics many times appear that they have not aged well and look older than their real age. But this age-increasing effect is not just limited to diabetics.

So, let’s get back to how “whole wheat” relates to this…

Here is a little-known fact that’s often covered up by the massive marketing campaigns by giant food companies that want you to believe that “whole wheat” is healthy for you… but the fact is that wheat contains a very unusual type of carbohydrate (not found in other foods) called Amylopectin-A, which has been found in some tests to spike your blood sugar higher than even pure table sugar.

In fact, amylopectin-A (from wheat) raises your blood sugar more than almost any other carbohydrate source on earth based on blood sugar response testing.

This means that wheat-based foods such as breads, bagels, cereals, muffins, and other baked goods often cause much higher blood sugar levels than most other carbohydrate sources. As you know now, the higher your average blood sugar levels are over time, the more AGEs are formed inside your body, which makes you age FASTER.

You’ve probably heard about the potential health-damaging effects of gluten (also found in wheat) in the news recently, but this blood sugar aspect we just covered is not talked about that often, and is yet another reason to reduce or eliminate wheat-based foods in your diet. Your body will thank you by aging slower and looking YOUNGER! And losing bodyfat is typically a fun side effect of eliminating or reducing wheat in your diet!

Another problem with wheat-based foods and aging…

As it turns out, baked wheat products contain carcinogenic chemicals called acrylamides that form in the browned portion of breads, cereals, muffins, etc. These carcinogenic acrylamides have been linked in studies to possible increased risk of cancer and accelerated aging. Note that acrylamides are also found in high levels in other browned carbohydrate sources such as french fries or any other browned starchy foods.

Don’t worry though… There’s a trick that you can use to protect yourself from these carcinogenic acrylamides, and it has to do with eating the RIGHT foods that COUNTERACT damage from these nasty chemicals. I’ll show you how to find the EXACT foods that protect your body on the next page!

Other foods to watch out for that can increase aging in your body include corn-based foods that also disrupt blood sugar highly (corn cereals, corn chips, corn syrup), soybean oil and other “vegetable” oils that contain excessively refined and processed fats that cause inflammation in your body, and also excess sugars from candies, cakes, and sweetened drinks.

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Wheat and grain-based foods are all around us. We love our bagels, pasta, bread, and breakfast cereals. For many, the thought of eliminating these staples from our diets seems wholly unreasonable, if not ludicrous. But a growing number of people are switching to wheat-free diets — and for very good reason. As science is increasingly showing, eating wheat increases the potential for a surprising number of health problems. Here’s why you should probably stop eating wheat.

Without a doubt, wheat plays a major role in our diets. It supplies about 20% of the total food calories worldwide, and is a national staple in most countries

But as is well known, some people, like those with celiac disease, need to stay away from it. The problem is that their small intestine is unable to properly digest gluten, a protein that’s found in grains. But wheat is being increasingly blamed for the onset of other health conditions, like obesity, heart disease, and a host of digestive problems — including the dramatic rise in celiac-like disorders.

So what’s going on? And why is everybody suddenly blaming wheat?

The answer, it appears, has to do with a whole lot of nastiness that’s present in grain-based foods. Wheat raises blood sugar levels, causes immunoreactive problems, inhibits the absorption of important minerals, and aggravates our intestines.

And much of this may stem from the fact that wheat simply ain’t what it used to be.

Hybridized wheat

Indeed, today’s wheat is a far cry from what it was 50 years ago.

Back in the 1950s, scientists began cross-breeding wheat to make it hardier, shorter, and better-growing. This work, which was the basis for the Green Revolution — and one that won U.S. plant scientist Norman Borlaug the Nobel Prize — introduced some compounds to wheat that aren’t entirely human friendly.

As cardiologist Dr. William Davis noted in his book, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health, today’s hybridized wheat contains sodium azide, a known toxin. It also goes through a gamma irradiation process during manufacturing.

But as Davis also points out, today’s hybridized wheat contains novel proteins that aren’t typically found in either the parent or the plant — some of which are difficult for us to properly digest. Consequently, some scientists now suspect that the gluten and other compounds found in today’s modern wheat is what’s responsible for the rising prevalence of celiac disease, “gluten sensitivity,” and other problems.

Gluten and Gliadin

No doubt, gluten is a growing concern — and it’s starting to have a serious impact on our health, and as a result, our dietary choices.

Gluten is a protein composite of gliadin and glutenin that appears in wheat as well as other grains like rye, barley, and spelt. It’s also what gives certain foods that wonderful, chewy texture. Gluten also helps dough to rise and keep its shape.

The problem, however, is in how it’s metabolized. According to Alessio Fasano, the Medical Director for The University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research, no one can properly digest gluten.

“We do not have the enzymes to break it down,” he said in a recent interview withTenderFoodie. “It all depends upon how well our intestinal walls close after we ingest it and how our immune system reacts to it.” His concern is that the gluten protein, which is abundant in the endosperm of barley, rye, and wheat kernels, is setting off an aberrant immune response.

Specifically, the gliadin and glutenin are acting as immunogenic anti-nutrients. Unlike fruits, which are meant to be eaten, grains have a way of fighting back. They create an immunogenic response which increases intestinal permeability, thus triggering systemic inflammation by the immune system — what can lead to any number of autoimmune diseases, including celiac, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and so on. And this holds true for people who don’t have celiac disease.

Davis also believes that gliadin degrades to a morphine-like compound after eating, what creates an appetite for more wheat; his claim, therefore, is that wheat actually has an addictive quality to it.

Gliadin, what scientists call the “toxic fraction of gluten,” has also been implicated in gut permeability. When someone has an adverse reaction, it’s because gliadin cross talks with our cells — what causes confusion and a leak in the small intestines. Fasano explains:

Gliadin is a strange protein that our enzymes can’t break down from the amino acids (glutamine and proline) into elements small enough for us to digest. Our enzymes can only break down the gliadin into peptides. Peptides are too large to be absorbed properly through the small intestine. Our intestinal walls or gates, then, have to separate in order to let the larger peptide through. The immune system sees the peptide as an enemy and begins to attack.

The difference is that in a normal person, the intestinal walls close back up, the small intestine becomes normal again, and the peptides remain in the intestinal tract and are simply excreted before the immune system notices them. In a person who reacts to gluten, the walls stay open as long as you are consuming gluten. How your body reacts (with a gluten sensitivity, wheat allergy or Celiac Disease) depends upon how long the gates stay open, the number of “enemies” let through and the number of soldiers that our immune system sends to defend our bodies. For someone with Celiac Disease, the soldiers get confused and start shooting at the intestinal walls.

The effects of gluten and gliadin clearly vary from person to person. But as a recent study showed, nearly 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease, and another 1.4 million are likely undiagnosed. And surprisingly, another 1.6 million have adopted a gluten-free diet despite having no diagnosis.

In addition, it’s estimated that about 18 million Americans have “non-celiac gluten sensitivity,” which results in cramps and diarrhea.

High glycemic index

Wheat also raises blood sugar. As Davis notes, the glycemic index of wheat is very high (check out this chart from Harvard to see how various foods rank). It contains amylopectin A, which is more efficiently converted to blood sugar than just about any other carbohydrate, including table sugar.

Consequently, two slices of whole wheat bread increases blood sugar levels higher than a single candy bar. Overdoing the wheat, says Davis, can result in “deep visceral fat.”

Wheat can also trigger effects that aren’t immediately noticeable. Small low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles form after eating lots of carbohydrates — which are responsible for atherosclerotic plaque, which in turn can trigger heart disease and stroke. And in fact, it has been shown that a wheat-free diet can improve glucose tolerance in individuals with ischaemic heart disease.

Lectins

Lectins, which are a class of molecules, can be found in beans, cereal grains, nuts, and potatoes. And when consumed in excess, or when not cooked properly, they can be harmful.

Now, most lectins are actually quite benign, and in some cases they can even be therapeutic — like fighting some forms of HIV.

But the problem with some lectins, like the ones found in whole grains, is that they bind to our insulin receptors and intestinal lining. This increases inflammation and contributes to autoimmune disease and insulin resistance. It also facilitates the symptoms of metabolic syndrome outside of obesity.

Phytic acid

Phytates are also a problem, a compound that’s found within the hulls of nuts, seeds, and grains. Phytic acid cannot be digested by humans. And worse, it binds to metal ions like calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron. In turn, these minerals cannot be properly absorbed after eating.

Consequently, any minerals that might be provided by consuming grain-based foods are not well metabolized. So phytates, combined with gluten, make it difficult for the body to absorb nutrients — which can lead to anemia and osteoporosis.

The Fiber myth

Lastly, a common argument in favor of continuing to eat whole grains is that they provide necessary fiber. This is actually a bit of a myth. As nutrition expert Mark Sisson has noted, “Apart from maintaining social conventions in certain situations and obtaining cheap sugar calories, there is absolutely no reason to eat grains.”

And indeed, we can get adequate amounts of insoluble fiber simply by eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.

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Organic foods are required by U.S. federal law to be produced in ways that promote ecological sustainability, without common toxic and genetically engineered ingredients.

But organic products are increasingly being forced to compete with products that are labeled as “natural.” There are no restrictions on the term “natural”, and it often constitutes nothing more than meaningless marketing hype. Most disturbing of all, many foods labeled as “natural” actually contain genetically engineered ingredients, and breakfast cereals are particularly guilty of this.

California’s Proposition 37, which would have required GE foods to be labeled as such and prevented GE foods from being mislabeled as “natural,” was defeated back in November due to massive donations from multinational corporations that hide GE ingredients behind natural labels and “wholesome” advertising.

One such company was General Mills, which donated more than $1.1 million to the No on Prop. 37 campaign to defeat the GE labeling law. I recently told you this betrayal of consumers’ trust will backfire, and General Mills just got a taste of the backlash.

Good Business 101: Do Not Deceive Your Customers

At the beginning of December, General Mills’ Cheerios brand released a Facebook app asking “fans” to “show what Cheerios mean to them.” The app allowed users to create their own placards using Cheerios’ trademarked black font on a yellow background, where dots and periods featured little cheerios. One day later, the app was abruptly pulled after thousands of angry “fans” expressed their disgust over the company’s betrayal. According to Activist Post1:

“You could literally spend all day looking at ‘Recent Posts by Others’ on Cheerios’ Facebook page – they are nearly all complaints about GMOs and declarations of boycotts.”

Cheerios diligently deleted posts as quickly as they could, and most have now been removed, along with the app. But screenshots of some of the creations have been preserved on Cheeseslave2 and the Happy Place3 website.

Examples include:
•Occupy Food
•Poison
•Science Experiment
•Cheerigmos
•Caution GMOs

Photos by ActivistPost.com

As stated in the featured article4:

“General Mills has drawn their line in the sand, spent over a million to deceive paying customers, and is now trying to hide the backlash from other customers who do not yet know the damaging nature of genetic modification. It just goes to show that the fight for truth about GMOs in the face of deception by Monsanto, DuPont, and large food corporations is far from over. And consumers are winning without needing millions for a failed hushmoney campaign.”

Parents are Waking Up to the Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods

In a recent press release 5, Alisa Gravitz, CEO and president of Green America, stated:

“The sheer volume of comments on Cheerios’ Facebook page raising concerns around genetically engineered ingredients is incredibly inspiring. It is also amazing to see the creativity that visitors to Cheerios’ Facebook page use to call out Cheerios on using their customers as a science experiment for GMO consumption. Cheerios is a cereal that is frequently fed to children, and many of the comments are from concerned parents who are worried about the fact that they have been feeding a cereal with genetically engineered ingredients to their children.”

One such parent posted a comment on Cheerios Facebook page saying,

“So sorry that the food my kids loved as toddlers is one I can’t support anymore. I can’t believe that General Mills has the well-being of its customers in mind when it contributes to movement against labeling of GMOs.”

She expresses exactly what so many people are now waking up to — the fact that there are an ever growing number of genetically engineered ingredients in our food that we had no idea were there. As far as Cheerios goes, you’d never get the impression there might be anything unnatural about their cereal. According to its website6:

“Cheerios has been a family favorite for years — with good reason! Its wholesome goodness is perfect for toddlers to adults and everyone in between. Made from whole grain oats, Cheerios has no artificial colors or flavors. Those wholesome little O’s have only one gram of sugar. They’re low in fat, have no saturated fat and are naturally cholesterol free. Cheerios are also an excellent source of folic acid and a good source of fiber.

Maybe that’s why parents feel so good about serving Cheerios to their families. It’s a healthy way to start the day, a perfect snack, and tastes great in a recipe. You can trust Cheerios for a lifetime of wholesome goodness for your whole family.”

However, two of the first three ingredients in Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios are corn starch and sugar — two ingredients that might be genetically engineered (a majority of corn-based ingredients and sugar from sugar beets on the US market is now GE). The thing is we can’t know since they don’t have to disclose whether they’re using GE ingredients or not on the label. But the fact that General Mills chose to cough up well over a million dollars to avoid GE labeling definitely leads one to believe that, most likely, these (and/or other ingredients) of Cheerios ARE indeed the genetically modified versions. If that’s the case, then there goes the “trust” for “a lifetime of wholesome goodness.”

The fact that General Mills would rather pay millions to hide that their products contain GE ingredients rather than give you the choice to buy something else, or reformulate their product without GE ingredients (which would be the sensible thing to do if they were really concerned about children’s long-term health and well-being) is quite telling. And fortunately, people are now starting to see through these shady tactics where actions do not match their words.

Sugar Doesn’t Need to Be Genetically Modified to Be Hazardous to Your Child’s Health

Besides the issue of whether the sugar in your favorite processed food is genetically engineered or not, it’s important to remember that sugary breakfast cereals are bad news for your child’s health no matter what.

Many are utterly fooled by advertisements promising “wholesome goodness,” when it’s really very little difference between many popular breakfast cereals and a candy bar. The following video illustrates this quite effectively. Honey Nut Cheerios contains the equivalent of four added teaspoons of sugar in each bowl compared to the original Cheerios. Few parents would allow their child to heap four teaspoons of sugar onto their cereal. Yet they fail to understand just how much sugar is hidden in the processed foods they serve their kids each day.

Are You Being Misled by Your Favorite “All-Natural” Brand?

Last year, a report from the Cornucopia Institute titled Cereal Crimes7 exposed how most “natural” brands are actually just charging you more for what often amounts to genetically engineered ingredients. This is in all likelihood part of the reason why so many “natural” brands spent millions of dollars to defeat California’s GMO labeling campaign.

According to the report:

“[There is a] vast differences between organic cereal and granola products and so-called natural products, which contain ingredients grown on conventional farms where the use of toxic pesticides and genetically engineered organisms is widespread… Our analysis reveals that “natural” products — using conventional ingredients — often are priced higher than equivalent organic products. This suggests that some companies are taking advantage of consumer confusion.”

This is significant, because surveys have shown that more consumers pay attention to the “100% Natural” claim than the “100% Organic” label. In one such survey, 31 percent of respondents said the “100% Natural” label was the most desirable eco-friendly product claim, compared to just 14 percent who chose “100% Organic.” Food companies clearly know this, and they’re cashing in on your confusion. The truth is, synthetic ingredients and additives, toxic pesticides, fumigants and solvents frequently show up in products bearing the “natural” label, while these are strictly prohibited in organic production. But the most disturbing finding presented in the Cereal Crimes report related to the presence of genetically engineered ingredients found in so-called all-natural foods:

“The Cornucopia Institute sent samples of breakfast cereal to an accredited and highly reputable GMO testing laboratory. Samples were tested for the exact percentage of genetically engineered corn or soybeans, using the most sophisticated and accurate tests commercially available.

The results were stunning. Several breakfast cereal manufacturers that market their foods as “natural,” even some that claim to avoid genetically engineered ingredients and are enrolled in the Non-GMO Project, contained high levels of genetically engineered ingredients.”

Natural products found to contain 100 percent genetically engineered grains included:

Kashi®

Mother’s®

Nutritious Living®

General Mills Kix®

GoLean®

Bumpers®

Hi-Lo®

Remember: “Natural” Label Does NOT Prohibit Genetically Modified Ingredients

The USDA certified organic label is your best guarantee that the food was produced without:
•Toxic pesticides
•Genetically engineered (GE) ingredients
•Carcinogenic fumigants
•Chemical solvents

This peace of mind is something the “100% Natural” label will NOT give you. Genetically engineered (GE) ingredients are of particular concern when it comes to food products like breakfast cereals and granola bars, because, in the US, the vast majority of the most common ingredients in these products — corn, soy, and canola — are genetically modified. Unfortunately, more than 60 percent of consumers erroneously believe that the “natural” label implies or suggests the absence of GE ingredients, according to a 2010 Hartman Group poll. If you’re one of the 60 percent, please understand that at the current time, the ONLY label that can protect you against GE ingredients is the USDA 100% Organic label.

In Lieu of GMO Labeling, 100% Organic is Your Only Assurance

Once you realize that much of the “natural” claims are hype, it becomes easier to navigate around the deception. To find brands that are committed to sustainable organic agriculture and avoiding genetically engineered ingredients use Cornucopia’s Cereal Scorecard8.

Another factor to consider is the fact that many small family farms actually adhere to fully organic practices even though they may not have gone through the expense of obtaining organic certification. So labels aren’t everything when it comes to healthful food. But if you’re going to shop by the label, make sure it’s the certified 100% organic label. Until or unless we get GMO labeling in the US, the 100% USDA Certified Organic label is the only assurance you have that the food you buy does NOT contain genetically engineered ingredients.

Keep Fighting for GMO Labeling in North America

With the defeat of Prop. 37 in California, 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.org9:

“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.”

The initiative reports having regional leaders across the state. In order to get I-522 on the 2013 ballot, they need to collect 241,153 valid signatures by December 31, 2012. I urge you to share this information with everyone you know in Washington State, and ask them to sign the petition.

Vermont has also created a Right to Know Campaign10, and is also gathering signatures.

Remember, as with CA Prop. 37, these are people’s initiatives, and 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 — including General Mills. 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.
•If you live in Vermont, please sign the VT Right to Know GMO’s petition.
•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 and Vermont initiatives

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

By Dr. Mercola

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, there may be good reason to carefully consider your decision to include pork as a regular part of your diet, because despite advertising campaigns trying to paint pork as a “healthy” alternative to beef, research suggests it may be hazardous to your health on multiple levels. One of the most potentially acute hazards is contamination with pathogenic bacteria.

According to a surprising new investigation by Consumer Reports1, 69 percent of all raw pork samples tested — nearly 200 samples in total — were contaminated with the dangerous bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica, which causes fever and gastrointestinal illness with diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps.

Ground pork was more likely than pork chops to be contaminated.

The pork also tested positive for other contaminants, including the controversial drug ractopamine, which is banned in many parts of the world, including China and Europe. The drug, which was found in more than 20 percent of the samples, is used to boost growth in the animal while leaving the meat lean. Worst of all, many of the bacteria found in the pork were resistant to multiple antibiotics, making treatment, should you fall ill, all the more problematic and potentially lethal.

According to the featured report:

“We found salmonella, staphylococcus aureus, or listeria monocytogenes, more common causes of foodborne illness, in 3 to 7 percent of samples. And 11 percent harbored enterococcus, which can indicate fecal contamination and can cause problems such as urinary-tract infections.”

While Nutritionally Sound, Pork is Probably Still Best Avoided

Pork is an arguably “healthy” meat from a biochemical perspective, and if consumed from a humanely raised pastured hog like those on Joel Salatins’ farm and prepared properly, there is likely minimal risk of infection. However, virtually all of the pork you’re likely to consume do not fit these criteria.

So for most all industrially raised pork, I believe there is enough scientific evidence to justify the reservations or outright prohibitions in many cultures against consuming it. Nearly all pigs raised in the U.S. come from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFO’s. These inhumane environments are typically toxic breeding grounds for pathogens.

These animals spend their short, miserable lives on concrete and steel grates. Antibiotics are given liberally with their feed, making their massive waste even more toxic.

This is why you can smell a CAFO swine operation miles before you see it. At an operation like Joel Salatin’s, you couldn’t smell any sign of pigs. These pigs were raised humanely and organically, where both animal and land are managed symbiotically.

Unfortunately, raising animals in CAFO’s is the standard for Americans. For many of us, CAFO pork is the only option available.

This is why my nutrition plan recommends consciously avoiding pork whenever possible unless you can assure yourself that the hogs were raised like the video above. Granted, the occasional consumption of pork might be fine, but it’s a risk, and the more you consume it the more likely it is that you will eventually acquire some type of infection. The pork and swine industry has been continually plagued, and continues to be so to this day, by a wide variety of hazardous infections and diseases, including:
•PRRS — A horrendous disease, which I first reported on in 2001, but which had been a nightmare for many nations since the mid-1980s, is still alive and kicking today. At one point referred to as “swine mystery disease,” “blue abortion,” and “swine infertility,” the disease was finally named “Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome” (PRRS), and may afflict about 75 percent of American pig herds.

The PRRS virus primarily attacks the pig’s immune system, leaving its body open to a host of infections, particularly in the lungs. Initial research revealed that the virus was transmitted via semen, saliva and blood, leaving pigs herded closely together and transported in close quarters by trucks more susceptible to infection. However, according to research presented at the 2007 International PRRS Symposium, the disease is also airborne, making eradication efforts very difficult.
•The Nipah Virus – Discovered in 1999, the Nipah virus has caused disease in both animals and humans, through contact with infected animals. In humans, the virus can lead to deadly encephalitis (an acute inflammation of your brain). I originally reported on this virus in 2000, but according to CDC data, the Nipah virus reemerged again in 20042.
•Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus (PERV) – According to a study in the journal Lancet, this virus can spread to people receiving pig organ transplants, and according to test tube studies, PERV strains do have the ability to infect human cells3. PERV genes are scattered throughout pigs’ genetic material, and researchers have found that pig heart, spleen and kidney cells release various strains of the virus.
•Menangle Virus – In 1998, it was reported that a new virus infecting pigs was able to jump to humans. The menangle virus was discovered in August 1997 when sows at an Australian piggery began giving birth to deformed and mummified piglets.

Pork is NOT Advisable in a Raw Diet

As explained by Consumer Reports, thoroughly cooking your pork is important for safety, so if you’re on a raw diet (which can include raw meats), pork should definitely NOT be part of your menu… Again, while I don’t recommend it, if you DO opt to eat pork, it would be wise to follow these safe handling tips and guidelines, issued by Consumer Reports4:
•When cooking pork, use a meat thermometer to ensure that it reaches the proper internal temperature, which kills potentially harmful bacteria: at least 145° F for whole pork and 160° F for ground pork.
•Keep raw pork and its juices separate from other foods, especially those eaten raw, such as salad.
•Wash your hands thoroughly after handling raw meat.
•Choose pork and other meat products that were raised without drugs. One way to do that is to buy certified organic pork, from pigs raised without antibiotics or ractopamine.
•Look for a clear statement regarding antibiotic use. “No antibiotics used” claims with a USDA Process Verified shield are more reliable than those without verification. Labels such as “Animal Welfare Approved” and “Certified Humane” indicate the prudent use of antibiotics to treat illness.
•Watch out for misleading labels. “Natural” has nothing to do with antibiotic use or how an animal was raised. We found unapproved claims, including “no antibiotic residues,” on packages of Sprouts pork sold in California and Arizona, and “no antibiotic growth promotants” on Farmland brand pork sold in several states. We reported those to the USDA in June 2012, and the agency told us it’s working with those companies to take “appropriate actions.” When we checked in early November, Sprouts had removed the claim from its packages.
•If your local supermarket doesn’t carry pork from pigs raised without antibiotics, consider asking the store to carry it. To find meat from animals that were raised sustainably — humanely and without drugs — go to eatwellguide.org. To learn about the Consumers Union campaign aimed at getting stores to sell only antibiotic-free meat, go to NotinMyFood.org.

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Caroline Barringer is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP), and an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program.

I first met Caroline at the November 2011 Weston Price Wise Traditions event, where I had the opportunity to enjoy some amazing fermented vegetables that her company had prepared.

I immediately started incorporating them into my own diet, and after about six weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this minor change had dramatically decreased plaque formation on my teeth, which has been a chronic problem for me.

Caroline has been involved with nutrition for about 20 years, and is now one of Dr. McBride’s chief training partners, helping people understand the food preparation process, which relies heavily on fermented and traditionally-prepared whole foods.

Caroline’s journey began when her health suffered a blow.

“First and foremost, I’m a professional singer and voice-over artist. In my younger years, when I first moved to New York (I’m originally from Florida), I had a rigorous performance schedule, and this schedule really took a toll on my health,” she says.

“I noticed severe energy issues and chronic fatigue, acne, and a lot of reflux, a lot of digestive issues. So, I was searching for food to be my medicine.

I was a vegetarian for a while, so I first started out with Ann Wigmore’s Living Foods Lifestyle. And of course, she’s mostly vegan, but she’s into the whole enzyme-rich foods, the probiotic-rich foods. And that was really pivotal for me, even though I was still a vegetarian and I did not realize the importance of animal fats and animal products in my diet. It was the beginning of the journey to health for me.”

The Phenomenal Health Benefits of Fermented Vegetables

Cultured or fermented foods have a very long history in virtually all native diets, and have always been highly prized for their health benefits.

The culturing process produces beneficial microbes that are extremely important for human health as they help balance your intestinal flora, thereby boosting overall immunity. Moreover, your gut literally serves as your second brain, and even produces more of the neurotransmitter serotonin—known to have a beneficial influence on your mood—than your brain does, so maintaining a healthy gut will benefit your mind as well as your body.

Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators and detox agents available, meaning they can help rid your body of a wide variety of toxins, including heavy metals. This is part of what makes Dr. McBride’s GAPS Nutritional Protocol so effective. It effectively restores your own detoxification system, and the fermented/cultured foods are instrumental in this self-healing process. And you don’t need to consume large amounts either.

Caroline recommends eating about a quarter to half a cup (2 to 4 oz) of fermented vegetables or other cultured food, such as raw yoghurt, with one to three meals per day. Bear in mind that since cultured foods are very efficient detoxifiers, you may experience detox symptoms, or a “healing crisis,” if you introduce too many at once. Caroline recommends beginning with very small servings and working your way up to the quarter- to half cup serving size. This way your intestinal microbiota has the chance to adjust.

“If they introduce too much, too fast, they will experience some die-off symptoms that can be uncomfortable and confusing. This is where we lose people. The innate intelligence of their bodies tells them to eat more cultured foods because they’re in such a state of dysbiosis. So, they go to town and eat a whole jar of veggies. Then they go into a healing crisis and they are afraid to try cultured foods again,” Caroline warns.

“… Start slow, and that way you won’t have a headache or you won’t have that outbreak… you will start to see yourself eliminating more naturally, and the proper stool will form, the shape will change, and it will be all be beneficial to you. Let your innate intelligence guide you, and if you see something or feel something that’s not so right, don’t dismiss the cultured foods and say, “Oh, that was bad for me, it caused a reaction.” That’s not what your body’s telling you. Your body’s telling you, “Slow down.”

There are Many Varieties of Cultured Foods

Ideally, you’ll want to include a variety of cultured foods and beverages in your diet, as each food will inoculate your gut with a variety of different microorganisms. Fermented foods you can easily make at home include:
•Cultured vegetables (including pureed baby foods)
•Chutneys
•Condiments, such as salsa and mayonnaise
•Cultured dairy, such as yoghurt, kefir, and sour cream
•Fish, such as mackerel and Swedish gravlax

In this interview, Caroline discusses the process of fermenting your own vegetables in some detail, so for more information, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript. According to her, most people are very intimidated, if not downright frightened that the culturing process might lead to some horrific pathogenic infection… While understandable, this fear is undeserved. Caroline addresses this and other concerns in her article “Taking the Mystery out of Culturing Your Own Superfoods.”[1] Clearly, educating yourself about the process will help alleviate concerns about eating fermented foods, which are very much “alive.”

“If they could only grasp the important concept that it’s NOT the microbe; rather, it is the terrain (immune system) we should be worried about!” she says.

How to Culture Your Own Vegetables

While you can do wild fermentation, which is allowing whatever is on the vegetable or fruit that you’re culturing to just naturally take hold and culture the food, this method is very time consuming. Inoculating the food using a so-called starter culture speeds up the fermentation process.

Although you can use a crock pot, Caroline recommends culturing your veggies directly in the glass Mason jars, which eliminates the need for a crock pot and eliminates a transfer step in the process. This also allows you to make smaller batches, and it eliminates the presence of wild yeasts which can occur when using a crock. These yeasts tend to give the food a cheesy sort of flavor, which many find unpalatable.

Here’s a quick summary of Caroline’s recipe for how to make your own fermented veggies:
1.Shred and cut your chosen veggies
2.Juice some celery. This is used as the brine, as it contains natural sodium and keeps the vegetables anaerobic. This eliminates the need for sea salt, which prevents growth of pathogenic bacteria
3.Pack the veggies and celery juice along with the inoculants (starter culture, such as kefir grains, whey, or commercial starter powder like our Complete Probiotics, all of which can be used for vegetables) into a 32 ounce wide-mouthed canning jar. A kraut pounder tool can be helpful to pack the jar and eliminate any air pockets
4.Top with a cabbage leaf, tucking it down the sides. Make sure the veggies are completely covered with celery juice and that the juice is all the way to the top of the jar to eliminate trapped air
5.Seal the jar store in a warm, slightly moist place for 24 to 96 hours, depending on the food being cultured. Ideal temperature range is 68-75 degrees Fahrenheit; 85 degrees max. Remember, heat kills the microbes!
6.When done, store in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process

Here are a few of Caroline’s suggestion for how to store the jars for optimal fermentation. (Remember, they don’t require a heated environment and only need to be kept around 72 degrees):

“Simply put the jars into a [portable] cooler and place the cooler OFF the floor (the floor is usually too cold due to heat rising away from it). Wrap the jars inside the cooler in an old towel and place an additional jar of HOT water into the cooler to make the environment warm. You can replace the hot water jar when you “think” about it – no need to obsess.

You can also place the jars in a casserole dish or baking dish and wrap them in a towel and place them in your oven with the oven heat OFF of course, but switch the oven light on. The heat emitting from the appliance bulb will keep the veggies warm.

Another option is to place as many jars as possible into a dehydrator and set it to the lowest temperature setting, but most dehydrators only accommodate a couple of jars max. It’s best to prepare many jars at one time due to the given fact that making veggies is a labor intensive process. I like the cooler or oven incubation processes best. They work well every time.”

Last but not least, resist the temptation to eat out of the jar! This can introduce organisms from your mouth into the jar. Instead, always use a clean spoon to take out what you’re going to eat, then, making sure the remaining veggies are covered with the brine solution, recap the jar.

One Dozen Tips and Tricks for Making Delicious Cultured Vegetables

Due to my own interest, Caroline has shared a lot of information with me. Here are a dozen more of her tips and tricks that she didn’t share during the interview:
1.Cabbage should comprise at least 80 percent of your vegetable blend. Carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, turnips and other hard root veggies can also serve as a great base for your cultured veggies, but they’re not as economical.
2.Five to six medium-sized heads of cabbage will yield about 10-14 quart-size (32 oz) jars of fermented veggies.
3.You can use red or green cabbage, but make sure they’re hard and heavy, with densely packed leaves. The lighter, leafier varieties will tend to turn into mush that doesn’t ferment well.
4.Add in other vegetables to suit your taste, such as: red, yellow or orange bell pepper, butter nut squash, dill, parsley, kale, collards and red or golden beets. Beware: use bell peppers sparingly as they have a very strong presence. One small pepper for 12 to 14 jars is plenty.
5.Always use ORGANIC vegetables!
6.Peel your vegetables as the skins can add a bitter flavor.
7.When adding aromatics, such as onion, garlic and ginger, remember that fermenting increases the flavor multiple-fold, so a little goes a long way. Don’t overdo it! A few medium-size cloves is enough to infuse a dozen jars or more with a mild garlic flavor.
8.Onion tends to overpower, no matter how little is used, so Caroline doesn’t use it in any of her blends.
9.When adding herbs, only use fresh organic herbs, in small amounts. Tasty additions include: basil, sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano.
10.Add sea vegetables or seaweed to increase the mineral, vitamin and fiber content. You can add pieces of whole dulse, or use flakes. Wakame and sea palm, which do not have any kind of fishy flavor, need to be presoaked and diced into desired size. Arame and hijaki do have a fishy flavor.
11.Use two packets of starter culture for a 12-14 jar batch during summer season. In the winter, you’ll need three packets.
12.During summer, veggies are typically done in three to four days. In the winter, they may need up to seven days. Just open up the jar and have a taste. Once you’re happy with the flavor and consistency, move the jars into the fridge.

Tools of the Trade

Having the right tools can make the process easier. You don’t need much, but canning jars, and a food processor to slice and dice large amounts of vegetables are recommended.

Canning jars can be found at your local hardware store and at some grocery stores as well. Amazon.com and other online sources also carry them. The 32 oz jars work really well, but you can find both smaller and larger, depending on your needs. Do get the wide-mouthed version, as they are much easier to work with. It allows you to get your hand down into the jar, and it’s very important to pack the jar firmly with vegetables to eliminate any air pockets.

Caroline explains:

“You want to squeeze all the oxygen out, and you want your cultured veggies or whatever you’re culturing to be anaerobic, meaning oxygen-free. Underneath water is the best way to do that, or underneath the liquid in the jar. And that wide-mouthed allows you to keep pressing down… A kraut pounder [can be helpful]. It looks like a tiny baseball bat. You can go to krautpounder.com, I believe, and you can buy a little kraut pounder, and you just use that to press down to get all the oxygen out. That way, when you seal up this jar, you have this perfect, anaerobic environment within that vessel for it to culture.”

Caroline recommends a couple of models of food processors, emphasizing quality and power for optimal performance:
•Cuisinart Home Kitchen Models, Elite series: This is for general home use and usually available on Amazon.com. Very reliable, powerful and it has a large 14-cup capacity so you don’t have to keep taking it apart to dump out the processed contents.
•Waring Cuisinart Commercial Food Processor with feed chute: Heavy-duty and high quality, this food processor is worth the investment ($599 and up) if you plan to make veggies often and in larger batches. This one is NOT available on Amazon.com. You will need to purchase online from a restaurant supply store.

Another tip includes using the shredding disc rather than the “S” shaped blade. Make sure the food processor model you buy comes with a shredding disc, as some don’t. In worst case, purchase it separately. According to Caroline, “the shredding blade makes a “slaw/traditional kraut-like” texture to the veggies. The “S” blade finely minces veggies into a more pulp-like, crushed consistency. This can be too soupy and during the culturing process, become more like a mushy salsa. Definitely SHRED your veggies for the best results – unless you like the crushed version.”

Additional Resources

In addition to the wealth of information shared in the interview above, I highly recommend getting the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, which provides all the necessary details for the GAPS protocol. We were finally able to convince Dr. Campbell-McBride to print it in the U.S., so I now offer it for sale in my store. It saves you a few dollars, compared to ordering it from the U.K..

www.Immunitrition.com is another helpful resource where you can learn more about cultured and fermented foods. If you’re so inclined, you can also find information about how to become a Certified Healing Foods Specialist here.

Additionally, if for whatever reason you just don’t have the time, effort, energy, ambition, motivation, or discipline to ferment your own foods, but you understand and appreciate the value of them, Caroline has a company that sells them. I used hers for a month before I started making my own. So, if you just want to put your toe in the water and see if you like them, you can order a jar or two and try them out.

You can find her products on www.CulturedVegetables.net or www.CulturedNutrition.com.

I feel very strongly that if we can catalyze a movement to get more people to implement this ancient dietary wisdom to their normal eating patterns, then we’ll start seeing a radical change in health.

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

By Dr. Mercola

Pharmaceutical companies have kept the wool pulled over Americans’ eyes for many years, and had many convinced that they were working fervently to develop safe medications that would cure and prevent virtually every disease plaguing the world.

But these modern-day messiahs are not the saints they would have you believe … not even close.

According to Dr. David Healy, who has had the opportunity to investigate the circumstances behind the approval of certain drugs at a level that very few others have been able to, drug companies frequently hide vital information about their drugs in order to get it on the market and keep it there.

The drug companies that manufacture some of the best-selling drugs in the world have committed some of the greatest crimes against human health, and all of them have at one point or another been found guilty of criminal activity—some have been nailed several times.

So much so that several pharmaceutical companies are on the Top Corporate Criminals list. Yet we entrust our health, our very lives, to these same corporate “personages” who cannot be put in jail for cutting lives short, and who view billion dollar fines as nothing more than the cost of doing business.

As recently as July 2, GlaxoSmithKline plead guilty to three counts of criminal misdemeanor and other civil liabilities relating to the prescription drugs Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia, and agreed to pay a total of $3 billion in fines.

In 2009 Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its drugs, including the painkiller Bextra and their antipsychotic drug Geodon.

Dr. Healy, a professor of psychiatry in North Wales and Great Britain is a former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and author of over 175 peer-reviewed articles, 200 other pieces, and 20 books, including Let Them Eat Prozac (one of my favorites), and Pharmageddon, another favorite.

His time is divided between an active psychiatry practice and research.

For example, he has studied the serotonin-uptake theory in depressed patients, and is adamant that there’s no evidence indicating that depressed patients have something wrong with their serotonin system, which makes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) a dubious treatment for depression. It may even be part of the equation for why some people become suicidal on SSRI’s, even if they’ve never had such tendencies before.

“We’ve got 30 to 40 years’ worth of work, and no evidence has come to light that there’s anything wrong with the serotonin system in people who were depressed,” he says.

Profits Before Life—The Sad History of Antidepressant Drugs

Dr. Healy’s conviction that SSRI’s can make people actively suicidal was originally borne directly out of his own clinical experience. Since then, the research demonstrating this link has become quite clear, and this class of drugs now carry a “black box” warning. What’s really infuriating though is the evidence that has since emerged showing that pharmaceutical companies knew about it, and hid it, and it wasn’t until it became an obvious issue in clinical practice that a warning was finally issued. People literally lost their lives because these companies didn’t want to risk sluggish sales.

“I got involved as an expert witness in some legal cases that involved these drugs,” Dr. Healy explains. “When you get involved as an expert witness in legal cases, you get to go behind the scenes. You get to go into the company archives, and you get to see what the clinical trials really showed, and what the company personnel really thought about the issues.

Then it was clear that the trials also really showed those problems. It was clear that the companies knew there was a problem, and they were in the business of trying to hush the whole thing up.

… The regulators also clearly knew there was a problem, I would say from very early on. They may well have known there was a problem even before the drugs came to the market. They certainly knew there was a problem shortly after Prozac was launched and a great number of people complained about the fact that they had a problem on this drug.

When they looked at the data – the kinds of data that the FDA, for instance, would have been able to see when they held the first public meeting about whether SSRI drugs, Prozac in particular, could cause people to become suicidal – they had a lot of data that the rest of us didn’t have. They had data on the other SSRIs that haven’t yet been marketed…. I’m sure it was very clear to them then that the SSRIs can cause people to become suicidal.”

Publicly, the FDA argued that putting a warning on the drug might deter people from treatment, so by doing the right thing, we might end up with a detrimental outcome. However, no one addressed the fact that not putting a warning on the drug might make more people use them, hence killing more people, more indiscriminately. This is exactly the situation we’re dealing with now. Even with the warning, antidepressants are prescribed more or less willy-nilly, for everything from anxiety to pain, high blood pressure, and insomnia—minor ailments that in NO WAY warrant such a huge risk.

“[The information] the FDA had points very clearly not just to the fact that [SSRI] drugs can cause a problem, but that on balance, they harm more people than they help,” Dr. Healy says. “How the FDA squared this, I’m not sure.”

SSRI’s Likely Harm More People than They Help

In addition to suicidal thoughts and behavior, there also seems to be an association between antidepressants and other violent behaviors, such as homicides and school shootings. Unfortunately, while suicide has become a well-established (yet oft-ignored) side effect, the data on other types of violence is, again, being hidden.

“We haven’t had hearings about this issue,” Dr. Healy says. “People haven’t had access to the data. There’s been no publications around it. This is one of the biggest problems on which there’s a huge amount of data, but to which we’ve got little or no access.”

Dr. Healy estimates that possibly 1,000 to 2,000 people taking an SSRI drug commits suicide each year in the US who would not have done so were they not on the drug. He also believes there’s a comparable number of people who will commit a violent act against others as a result of the drug, who would not have done so otherwise. Then there’s the issue of generational harm. Birth defects, miscarriages (as many as 20,000 per year), and voluntary abortions due to the baby being diagnosed with a birth defect are other devastating side effects that get little if any attention.

Why is that?

Why is so little attention given to the very serious nature of the side effects associated with these drugs? Why are antidepressants seemingly handed out like candy to cheer people up, as opposed to treat serious mental conditions?

A major part of the problem is the too-cozy-for-comfort relationship between drug companies and psychiatrists and other prescribers. Adding to that problem is the fact that drug companies are actively hiding and suppressing negative data on their drugs, so psychiatrists prescribe drugs without having the real facts.

Psychiatry is Committing “Professional Suicide”

Dr. Healy was recently featured in Time Magazine1, after giving a speech at the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) second largest annual meeting. The topic of the session was conflicts of interest in psychiatry. Maia Szalavitz writes:

“Arguing that his profession is “committing professional suicide” by failing to address its dangerously close relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, he likened psychiatry’s attitude toward its faltering legitimacy to the Vatican’s widely derided response to its child-sex-abuse scandal by priests — essentially that psychiatry is brushing off justifiable concerns as hype instead of dealing with the source of the problem.

Few experts believe that psychiatry’s relationship with the drug industry is healthy. While several speakers at the session pointed out that other specialties are similarly entangled with industry, “everyone does it” is generally not a valid defense where conflicts of interest are concerned.

… “I’m going to argue that we need you to be biased. We want you to be biased by treatments that work,” Healy told his colleagues. “I don’t mind if you’re my doctor and you’ve given talks for industry. My concern is not that you’ve been paid by industry, but that you’ve been fooled by industry. The key conflict is whether people are hiding data from you.”

The article goes on to detail some the more unsavory aspects of conflicts of interest—the kind of suppression activities that lead to demolished careers, and worse. Dr. Healy has been personally targeted by drug companies for speaking out against various drugs and exposing wrongdoing. His presentation at the APA included a document obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, which reveals Eli Lilly’s plan for countering his public discourses on how drug companies hide drug data. One of these strategies includes planting people in the audience of his presentations to argue the industry’s view.

What Clinical Trials Do and Do Not Show

According to Dr. Healy, in the clinical trials done to bring antidepressants to market it is virtually impossible to show that they have an overall positive effect. Part of the problem that few consider is the fact that clinical trials are not designed to answer some of the most important questions we have about any given drug, such as: Does this drug save lives?

“From what we know of the data that’s there, the answer is no, they [antidepressants] don’t save lives,” Dr. Healy says. “Clinical trials also aren’t designed to answer the question, “Will these drugs get people back to work?” From the data we have, we have no reason to think that these drugs will be more likely to get people back to work than placebo would, for instance.

In terms of what most people understand the word “work” to really mean, which is [in the vein of the questions] “Will my life be saved?” or “Will I be able to get back to being employed?” we have no evidence that these drugs “work.” What we’ve got is clinical trials based on rating scales, where you can show that the drug does marginally better than placebo on these rating scales. But that’s all we have.”

Fortunately, there are other alternatives, which have been shown to have a more life-enhancing effect than antidepressants, such as niacin (vitamin B3). The renowned and recently deceased Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Abram Hoffer was a strong advocate of the use of niacin in psychiatric illness, specifically for schizophrenia, for which there don’t seem to be many really good treatments.

What he discovered was that niacin deficiency is a major contributor to pellagra, the symptoms of which mimic depression.

He believed there’s a subgroup of people who have an increased nutritional requirement for niacin, making them not merely deficient per se, but niacin dependent. When they don’t get it on a regular basis, and typically in far higher doses than normal, they’re predisposed to psychiatric illnesses. Dr. Healy believes there may be significant value in niacin supplementation, adding that one of the mechanisms of niacin is detoxification, especially lead. This makes sense, since it it’s a potent vasodilator, which would increase supply to the filtering organs, thereby aiding in the excretion process.

To view the full interview, please click HERE!

Download the Full Interview Transcript

What’s the Mechanism of SSRI’s that Make Them so Pernicious?

According to Dr. Healy, the mechanism of harm has not been clearly established. The most likely mechanism of harm is the fact that they act on your serotonin system.

“Serotonin is the most primitive neurotransmitter there is. Even in a single-celled creature, it’s there. When you’re acting on it, you’re acting on a mechanism that is very primitive and very, very profound,” Dr. Healy says. “So, it may be just purely the action on your serotonin system that is the problem.

Now, people who say, “I know SSRIs work” are doing the same kind of thing as saying “I know red wine works.” If you have a nice glass of red wine in the evening, you feel mellowed out and chilled out… The SSRIs can work in the same kind of way, and can do a useful thing, which is: chill people out. You can get people who were stressed from work who are now a little less stressed at work because of the SSRI they’re on. In that sense, they can clearly work—not for all people, but for a portion of people.

But when you test them out in groups of people who are clinically depressed (just as we would find if we were to test alcohol out in groups of people who are clinically depressed in six- to eight-week trials) it’s actually rather hard to show that they do any better than placebo. They have, in fact, much the same rates of improvement compared to placebo, as we would expect to find if the drug we were actually testing was alcohol rather than Prozac, for instance.”

… What you’ve got in the case of the SSRIs is much more like a psychic aspirin.

They numb you slightly. They take the emotional pain away. But they do this only when your serotonin system’s working normally. And they make your serotonin system more abnormal after you’ve been on a course of treatment than it was to begin with.”

Do Prescription Drugs Save Lives?

In his book Pharmageddon, Dr. Healy expands on the skewed data and other manipulation techniques employed in drug trials. While we spend a great deal of time discussing antidepressants in this interview (which you can listen to in its entirety by following the hyperlink provided above), the situation in terms of proving benefit is the same for other drugs.

Statins, for example, can indeed lower your cholesterol levels, and many do so quite well. So in that sense, they “work.” But as with antidepressants, if you ask the question “Do these drugs save lives?” the answer becomes rather murky.

“If you ask the question “Are people going to be better able to work on these drugs?” then the answer is clear: They’re actually going to be LESS able to go to work,” Dr. Healy says. “They’re going to have a range of problems and other symptoms that they didn’t have off the pills.

Now, if you got marginally raised lipid levels, that is not something that interferes with your capacity to work. But if you’re on a drug like one of the statins for instance, you are on a drug that may cause muscle aches, pains, cognitive failures, and may seriously interfere with your capacity to work.”

Osteoporosis drugs are another good example of drugs that, overall, do more harm than good.

“They say up to a third of women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis,” Dr. Healy says. “But they don’t. This is an osteoporosis that’s created by the DEXA scanners that the pharmaceutical companies gave away for free when they were marketing drugs for osteoporosis. If you scan bones, you’ll almost always find little bits of thinning here and thinning there.

So you can create the diagnosis of osteoporosis, and you put these women on pills. Because they’re on pills, they think their bones are brittle, so they’ll probably do the wrong thing, which is they’ll think they shouldn’t go out and mow the lawn. They shouldn’t jog… because their bones are brittle and they might have a fracture. But in fact, getting out to mow the lawn, jog, and get physically fit is a much better thing for them to be doing than to be taking osteoporosis pills, unless they’ve got very severe osteoporosis.”

Personally, I don’t see a reason for ever using an osteoporosis drug. They’re extremely poisonous, and they kill your osteoclasts, the cells responsible for destroying old damaged and unnecessary bone cells that set your osteoblasts up to replace it with new bone tissue. This creates a dynamic balance of bone resorption and bone building. They make your bone denser, but at the same time they make them weaker.

Why You Don’t Want a Doctor Who Follows All the Latest Guidelines

The sad truth is, there’s no easy way to determine what you can trust when it comes to medical research and official treatment guidelines. So much of it has been tainted by economic conflicts of interests. An important point made by Dr. Healy is that a doctor who strictly keeps to the guidelines is going to be far more controlled by the pharmaceutical industry than might be good for your health…

“We’re in a world where you want a doctor who, for the sake of giving you good care, is prepared to take the risk of losing their job, because this is the world that good doctors increasingly are being forced into. They’re being forced into being the kind of physician that says, “I know the guidelines are wrong. Yes, they based it on the latest evidence. But the industry actually controls the evidence, and as far as they do, they control the guidelines process also. I’m going to go by what seems to be the best thing for me to do for my patients.”

Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to pick out articles in the literature and say, “We can believe this and not that.” In fact, you could almost say that the articles in what we used to think of as the best journals in the field – like the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and other journals like this – are more likely to be compromised than articles in perhaps journals that are less well-known.”

A perfect example of this is the article I recently did on a study that was widely promoted in the media, which declared that eggs were associated with as much risk for strokes as smoking. It was a critically flawed study. And when we looked at the funding of the study, we discovered strong ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Two of the three researchers in question, have declared interests in statins. Now do you think the companies that make statins might have a vested interest in getting you to be afraid of eggs and cholesterol? Of course they do. The third researcher helped create the vegan “Portfolio Diet,” which only allows egg substitutes and then only sparingly, so he too has a financial stake in scaring people away from eggs.

How Outsourcing Clinical Trials Can Skew or Hide Unsavory Findings

Another significant problem that most people don’t have a clue about is how outsourcing clinical trials to other countries can affect their believability. Even trials done in the US have been plagued with fraud, such as enlisting patients that don’t actually exist. The matter of potential fraud increases with overseas trials, because the FDA does not have the ability to double-check the veracity of the data even if they wanted to (and even in US trials they rarely do).

“There’s a trial recently that brought Abilify® to the market with an indication for maintenance treatment for bipolar disorder. This trial was run in approximately 30 U.S. clinical trial centers and two further clinical trial centers in Mexico. In the trial centers based in the United States, when you added all the patients together, you found that Abilify® didn’t do any good.

It couldn’t beat placebo as a maintenance treatment for patients who had bipolar disorder.

In the Mexican centers, however, it really did beat placebo. It wonderfully beat it. All of the patients down there who got Abilify® did well, and the patients who got placebo did poorly. When you added the two Mexican centers into the U.S. centers, overall you’ve got a marginal result, which showed that Abilify® was slightly better than placebo.

But this was caused by the Mexican patients. Now, clearly, the Mexican data looks very dodgy, very shaky. The FDA knew this was happening, but didn’t in any way investigate the issues. They noted that it was odd, but they didn’t investigate the issues, and they didn’t stop the company, later, from publishing the trial without drawing any attention to the fact that, “Well, you know, our results don’t look all that good when you leave the Mexican trial centers out of the picture.”

Dr. Healy’s Take on the Future of Medicine

Dr. Healy doesn’t cast too much blame on the FDA though, stating that the agency always has been and probably always will be an agency that contributes to public health, “but does so by regulating the wording of adverts that the pharmaceutical companies put out.” He points out that it’s not really the FDA’s job to evaluate the product or the practice of medicine, stressing that this responsibility really falls on doctors.

“Back 30 to 40 years ago, we were a lot safer not because the FDA were doing their job better, but because doctors were doing their job better,” he says.

I think it’s medicine that has lost its way. I think the FDA is still doing what it has always been doing, which is a very minimal job. I mean, most people out on the street want someone there to protect them from the risk that drugs or industry may pose. They’re hoping that that’s the FDA, when, in fact, that has never been FDA’s brief. It’s been the brief of doctors to do that, and we’ve been failing at that job more and more in recent years.”

When asked what he thinks the solution is, Dr. Healy responds:

“I think my solution is this: the job of the doctors have been like the job of the pilot of a plane. Their job is to get you from Chicago to Houston alive—not to get you there 15 minutes earlier; it’s to get you there alive…

Doctors seem to have forgotten this. If they can’t get you there alive; if they can’t be the people whose professional identity is linked to keeping you safe when you go on treatment, they’re going to be replaced by cheaper prescribers – by pharmacists or nurses. Anyone can get you on the pill these days. It takes an expert to keep you safe. I think if doctors don’t realize this, they’re committing professional suicide.”

How You Can Get More Informed, and Be Part of the Solution

Dr. Healy is a strong advocate for doing things to make a difference. And this was the impetus behind a brand new website called www.rxisk.org. His goal for this website is to create a people’s movement for safer drugs.

“We want people to go in there and report any of the problems they may be having on the medicines that they’re on. They can report this to FDA as well. But if they report to us, we’re going to feed their reports through to FDA,” Dr. Healy explains.

Potentially one of the most valuable features on the site will allow you to go through a series of questions that will help you determine whether ailments you’re having are associated with any of the drugs you’re taking. At the end, you will get a report that you can then bring with you to your prescribing doctor, to aid you in making a more comprehensive risk versus benefit analysis. The idea is to try and create better teamwork between you and your doctor. Furthermore, you will get feedback on potential problems with individual drugs long before you’d get it from the FDA.

I feel this could be an excellent tool for anyone currently taking any drug, as well as for anyone considering taking one. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, and when it comes to drugs, you really need to do your due diligence, as the risks are all on you—not on your doctor, the FDA, or the pharmaceutical company.

Weighing the risks versus the benefits is crucial, but in order to do this, you need reliable, truthful information, and I believe www.rxisk.org can be a valuable resource that will only become more valuable with time, as people begin to use it and file their own reports on side effects. So please, bookmark it on your computer and refer to it whenever needed, and share it on your social networks. Together, as a community, we can help the movement for safer drugs.

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