April 1, 2010

by Kathleen Barnes

The health care reform law has its benefits and its drawbacks, but requiring restaurant chains to post nutrition information is a stroke of genius.

Starting next year, any restaurant with more than 20 stores must post calorie counts right next to the item on the menu and have full nutrition information, including fat, sodium and sugar content available on the premises of the restaurant, not just on a distant website.

Calorie counts will also be posted on menus at drive-thrus.

Better choices

What does this mean to you? Maybe it will give you pause when you decide to order a double Whopper with cheese at a whopping 1010 calories, and instead go for the 360-calorie cheeseburger. Or skip the 2210-calorie bloomin’ onion appetizer at Outback (134 grams of fat!) or even the Wendy’s deceptive chicken BLT salad at 780 calories, Ruby Tuesday’s healthy sounding Bella turkey burger at 1145 calories and the On The Border grande taco salad with beef at 1450 caories.

I personally think a great deal of the obesity problem in America is a skewed idea of how much we are eating and how many calories and fat we are consuming. Armed with easily available information, I have the faith we’ll all start to make better choices.

Restaurants making better choices, too

I think it’s also possible that restaurant chains, being legally required to bare their secrets that have enticed us for so long, may actually start to rein themselves in make their products healthier and less calorically out of the ball park and perhaps even (imagine this!) reduce portion sizes.

Similar laws have been in effect in New York City for some time and several states were considering their own laws before the federal legislation trumped them.

There are limits to the law: It only applies to chain restaurants with more than 20 stores. At latest count, that means about 200,000 restaurants. It does not apply to the 375,000 restaurants and small chains, nor does it apply to schools, hospitals and corporate cafeterias.

But it’s a start. A good start.

October 12, 2009

Here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, autumn has arrived. There’s a blush of gold across the mountainsides and the reds of the maples flare along the ridge lines.

Fall always means apple time with a visit to the sweetly scented farm store and a bite into the freshest, crispest tangy Gala apple, juice running down my happy chin.

It’s a cherished rite I’ve celebrated for much of my llfe.

The pleasure is amplified by the multitude health benefits of eating apples.

Apples, like all fruits and vegetables, have antioxidant properties that prevent DNA injury and the mental and physical deterioration usually associated with aging.

New research from Cornell University shows that apples contain powerful phytochemicals that may help inhibit breast cancer cell growth. Flavonoid antioxidants, including quercetin and catechins, help apples rank high on the antioxidant list.

Here are some excellent reason to enjoy an apple today:

Lung disease: Those same catcechins found in apples help counter serious lung ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Recent studies also show a relationship between the amount of flavonoid- and quercetin-rich foods you eat, like apples, and protection against lung cancer.

Alzheimer’s: Regular consumption of apple juice helps us maintain mental sharpness and may even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from the University of Massachusetts.

Heart disease and stroke: Apples are excellent sources of soluble fiber that has been shown to decrease the risk of all types of heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association. Furthermore, the flavonoids in apples not only decrease the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol, they also reduce the risk of dying of a heart attack, according to a long-term Finnish study. Apples also help lower cholesterol by helping retain quercetin in your blood, helping usher out harmful fats.

Various types of cancer: Numerous studies have shown that dietary flavonoids, like those found in apples, are protective against several types of cancer, including bladder and lung cancers associated with smoking. Men who eat the most apples have also been found to have a lower rate of prostate cancer.

References:

1Liu, J., Dong, H., Chen, B., Zhao, P. and Liu, R.H. Fresh apples suppress mammary carcinogenesis, proliferative activity, and induce apoptosis in the mammary tumors of the Sprague-Dawley rat. J. Agric. Food Chem. 57 (1): 297-304, 2009.
2Chan, A and Shea, T. Dietary Supplementation with Apple Juice Decreases Endogenous Amyloid 03B2 Levels in Murine Brain. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 16:1, 2009.

By Kathleen Barnes

If I found myself stranded on a desert island, I’d have the assurance of an unlimited source of the healthiest food I could imagine: Omega-3 fatty acids and high quality protein from wild caught fish. Add a few tropical fruits and I could probably live a long and healthy life on my desert island.

Of course, if I am lucky enough to find myself far away from the “civilized world,” I improve my chances of finding fish free of toxins.

Fish may just be the stuff of life. Its healthy fats are essential to optimal cardiovascular function, joint health, brain function and blood sugar metabolism, just to mention a few of its multitude of benefits.

Sadly, most of the fish available on North American markets comes from fish farms which are little more than cesspools of toxic sludge that not only pollute our waterways, but pollute our bodies when we consume them.

They’re completely unsustainable as well Salmon are carnivorous, so it takes 2.2 pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of farmed salmon. Fish farming is rapidly depleting wild fish populations.

Fish farms produce about one-third of the world’s seafood, most notably nearly all the catfish and trout and half of the shrimp and salmon so important to human nutrition.

It’s cheap: Farmed salmon can be $4 to $5 a pound cheaper than wild-caught salmon, but the price is too high in terms of our health and to the health of our environment and wild fish populations.

Toxic mash

In a landmark 2002 study, Canadian researchers found that a single serving of farmed salmon contains three to six times the World Health Organization’s daily intake limit for dioxin and PCBs.
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), chemicals once used in the manufacture of electrical and heating equipment, paints, plastics, rubbers, dyes and many other substances, were banned in 1977 after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called them “probable human carcinogens.”

However, PCBs are still present in water, soil, aid and food supplies.
In its Dec. 26, 2005 issue, U.S. News and World Report reported that farmed salmon are raised on fish pellets derived from local fish that often contaminated with PCBs.

The study in the November 2005 issue of the Journal of Nutrition reports that contaminant levels in farmed salmon from certain regions increase the risk of cancer enough to outweigh benefits.

The study showed that farmed salmon from South America, specifically Chile, had the lowest level of pollutants, followed by those form North America. Europe had the highest level, according to David Carpenter, co-author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany’s School of Public Health. Pacific wild salmon also has some contaminants from the natural environment, specifically mercury, but these are at a low enough level that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Mercury can be a big problem with farmed fish. Purdue University nutritionists found that eating as little as one fish sandwich from farmed fish weekly could give a 60-kg. adult a 40% of the safe maximum mercury exposure.

Fish farms are most often composed of huge net enclosures in the open sea. Disease is rampant in these crowded pens.

Large quantities of chemicals are used in aquaculture, including antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, anesthetics, vitamins, minerals and anti-parasitical substances most often dumped directly into the ocean waters.

Not only are these potentially toxic substances incorporated into the tissues of the farmed fish, tides and even simple wave action sweep these chemicals out of the nets and into the open seas.

The use of antibiotics is particularly hazardous to the health of human beings and fish since it promotes the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Farmers dose their captive fish with a potent anti-parasitic drug called ivermectin, to rid them of sea lice and known to kill some species of shrimp.

Damage to the environment

Within a few years after large scale fish farming operations began in Canada, shrimp fishermen began pulling up traps full of a deadly mixture of feces, excess antibiotic –laden fish feed and decayed salmon carcasses that had drifted out of the pens.

It’s estimated that one single pen of 200,000 fish produces as much fecal waste as a city of 25,000 people.

In British Columbia, many inlets are caged off for huge Atlantic salmon farms. Although fish farmers assure that they have contained these genetically modified fish with voracious appetites to encourage fast growth, an estimated 40,000 to 1 million have escaped.

Biologists have found Atlantis salmon from the farms in 77 British Columbian streams. When these super-fish get into the wild, they compete unfairly for food resources, causing an increased rate of starvation among wild fish,” wrote Bruce Barcott in a December 2001 article in Mother Jones magazine.

Yet business is booming for fish farmers. Stricter environmental regulations in Norway have pushed fish farming operators to the Western hemisphere. In early 2002, the Canadian government lifted its seven-year moratorium on expanding fish farms in British Columbia. By 2003, there were 85 fish farms in operation in British Columbia and 90 applications pending. The government has stated its intention to quadruple the province’s salmon production by 2013.

Part of the allure of fish farming is to reduce the pressure on the world’s oceans, but that may be wishful thinking. Fish farming is an inefficient means of producing protein. A Feb. 6, 2003 article in The Christian Science Monitor notes that raising carnivorous fish like salmon and shrimp may actually reduce the numbers of wild fish since it takes 2.2 pounds of ground-up fish to make a pound of farmed salmon.

Answer: Avoid most fish

Yet there seems to be a Gordian knot around fish consumption – and the very experts on whom we rely for the best possible information are sending us mixed messages about the best way to get the healthy fats fish provides.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets much more lenient toxin levels than does its kissing cousin, the Environmental Protection Agency. Most experts recommend being even more conservative about toxin exposure and some advise avoiding fish altogether.

Despite nutritionists extolling the virtues of high fish consumption, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration strongly recommends limiting the amount of fish we eat. The health advisory issued in March 2004 does not distinguish between farm-raised and wild-caught fish.

Let’s face it: Nearly all fish contains some level of mercury.

The FDA recommends that all women who are pregnant, may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children abstain completely from shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish because of the high levels of mercury contamination that may be particularly harmful to unborn babies and the developing nervous system of young children.
The FDA advisory recommends weekly consumption of no more than 12 ounces of fish and shellfish lower in mercury, including shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.

It also advises keeping up to date on local fish safety warnings and, if there is no advisory available, not to eat more than six ounces of local-caught fish weekly.

Yet many of us are still getting too much mercury—some of it due to the 40 tons of mercury released into the atmosphere annually by coal-fired power plants.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study in November 2005 that showed fully six percent of U.S. women of childbearing age had mercury levels above the levels that could put them at risk for nervous system defects.

Natural health advocate Joseph Mercola, D.O., says several more fish should be added to the list of fish to avoid, including tuna steaks, sea bass, oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, marlin, halibut, pike, walleye, white croaker and largemouth bass and urges the FDA to expand the list of fish to be avoided and those acceptable for limited consumption.

“I now warn my patients against consuming any fish, whether farm-raised or naturally-caught: fish of all varieties from any waters are now showing dangerously high levels of the tasteless, but highly toxic metal, mercury,” says Mercola.

from
Michelle Schoffro Cook, DNM, DAc, CNC

Do you suffer from cellulite or fatty deposits? Do you experience aches and pains? Are you overweight? Do you experience abdominal bloating? Do you feel bloated or have areas on your body that seem pudgy? Have you been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, lupus, or other chronic immune system disorder? Have you ever yo-yo dieted? Do you experience eye puffiness? Do you experience 2 or more cold or flu viruses yearly? Have you experienced breast cancer?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, your lymphatic system may be sluggish.This system is possibly the most neglected cleansing and healing system in the body, yet it is intensely powerful. It is a complex network of fluid-filled nodes, glands, and tubes tht bathe our cells and carry the body’s “sewage” away from the tissues and neutralize it. It includes the spleen, tonsils, and thymus gland and plays an important role in boosting immunity, lessening pain and inflammation, and an overall sense of lightness and health.

A recent study found that 80 percent of women have sluggish lymphatic systems and that getting them flowing smoothly is the key to easy weight loss and improved feelings of well-being. Another study found that women with cellulite showed lymphatic system deficiencies. Here’s how you can get your lymph flowing smoothly:

1. Breathe deeply. The lymph system has 3 times more fluid than blood in the body, yet no heart-type organ to pump it. One of the main ways it moves is through breathing deeply. Breathe in that sweet smell of healing oxygen.

2. Get moving. Exercise also ensures the lymph system flows properly. The best kind is rebounding on a mini-trampoline, which can dramatically improve lymph flow, but stretching and aerobic exercise also works well.

3. Drink plenty of water. Without adequate water, lymph fluid cannot flow properly. To help ensure the water is readily absorbed by your cells, I frequently add some fresh lemon juice or Cellfood oxygen+nutrient drops to pure water.

4. Forget the soda, trash the color-laden sports-drink, and drop the sugary fruit “juices” that are more sugar than fruit. These sugar, color, and preservative-laden beverages add to the already overloaded work your lymph system must handle.

5. Eat more fruit on an empty stomach. The enzymes and acids in fruit are powerful lymph cleansers. Eat them on an empty stomach for best digestion and maximum lymph-cleansing benefits. Most fruits are digested within 30 minutes or so and are quick to start helping you feel better.

6. Eat plenty of green vegetables to get adequate chlorophyll to help purify your blood and lymph.

7. Eat raw, unsalted nuts and seeds to power up your lymph with adequate fatty acids. They include: walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias, Brazil nuts, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds.

8. Drink pure, unsweetened cranberry juice. Cranberries and cranberry juice emulsifies stubborn fat in the lymphatic system. Dilute it about 4:1 water to cranberry juice. Alternatively, if you prefer a sweeter juice, dilute one part cranberry juice with two parts unsweetened apple juice and two parts water.

9. Add a few lymph-boosting herbal teas to your day, such as astragalus, echinacea, goldenseal, pokeroot, or wild indigo root. Consult an herbalist or natural medicine specialist before combining two or more herbs or if you’re taking any medications or suffer from any serious health conditions. Avoid using herbs while pregnant or lactating and avoid long-term use of any herb without first consulting a qualified professional.

10. Dry skin brush before showering. Use a natural bristle brush. Brush your skin in circular motions upward from the feet to the torso and from the fingers to the chest. You want to work in the same direction as your lymph flows–toward the heart.

11. Alternate hot and cold showers for several minutes. The heat dilates the blood vessels and the cold causes them to contract. Avoid this type of therapy if you have a heart or blood pressure condition or if you are pregnant.

12. Get a gentle massage. Studies show that a gentle massage can push up to 78 percent of stagnant lymph back into circulation. Massage frees trapped toxins. You can also try a lymph drainage massage. It is a special form of massage that specifically targets lymph flow in the body. Whatever type of massage you choose, make sure it is gentle. Too much pressure may feel good on the muscles but it doesn’t have the same lymph stimulating effects.

Michelle Schoffro Cook, DNM, DAc, CNC is a best-selling and six-time book author and doctor of natural medicine, whose works include: The Life Force Diet, The Ultimate pH Solution, and The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan. Learn more at: www.TheLifeForceDiet.com.

May 27, 2009

by Kathleen Barnes

Organic food is good for you and good for the planet. Most of the readers of this site would agree on that point.

In the U.S., organic foods are subject to federal regulations that govern how the foods can be grown, raised and processed.

Definition of organic foods

In general, organic foods and livestock must be grown without the use of non-organic pesticides, insecticides and herbicides. Livestock must be raised without the routine use of so-called prophylactic antibiotics (an oxymoron if there ever was one!) and fed a generally healthy diet.

Processed organic foods (another oxymoron, in my opinion) must be free of artificial additives and preservatives and they must not result from genetically modified ingredients or be subjected to food irradiation or chemical ripening.

What a wonderful toxic soup!

Here are other differences between conventional farming and organic farming:

Conventional farmers:
Apply chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth.
Spray insecticides to reduce pests and disease.
Use chemical herbicides to manage weeds.
Give animals antibiotics, growth hormones and medications to prevent disease and spur growth.

Organic farmers
Apply natural fertilizers, such as manure or compost, to feed soil and plants.
Use beneficial insects and birds, mating disruption or traps to reduce pests and disease.
Rotate crops, till, hand weed or mulch to manage weeds.
Give animals organic feed and allow them access to the outdoors. Use preventive measures — such as rotational grazing, a balanced diet and clean housing — to help minimize disease.
Source: Mayo Clinic

Organic food is now big business

Until the 1990s, organic food growers were largely Mom and Pop farms and their produce was sold in local farmers markets. Not only were these farms sustainably operated, the food traveled a short distance from farm to market to table and was therefore environmentally sound and more nutritious.

Now organic food and beverages count as the fastest growing segment of the U.S. food industry with upwards of $15 billion in annual sales.

As a result, the organic food movement has become big business. With that comes the baggage of agribusiness, including shaky standards full of loopholes, including the import of so-called “organic:” ingredients from other countries with few, if any, organic certification standards.

Organic food is higher in nutrients

Organic food is good for you. Research shows organic food contains 50% more nutrients, minerals and vitamins than produce that has been intensively farmed. It’s questionable whether that is still true in view of the mega farming practices that include soil-depleting intensive single crop production and dairy operations where cows rarely if ever, see the light of day.

Organic food may not be organic at all

Buyer beware: Organic food isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

You can pretty much trust foods that contain only one ingredient. Fruits, vegetables, eggs or meat are labeled 100% organic have fulfilled the ever-more-lax USDA certification standards and are marked with a small “USDA Organic” seal.

However, foods that contain more than one ingredient, like cereals or bread are much more complex. Read your labels carefully:

• A food is 100% organic only if it contains label that specifically says so.
• If a food carries a “USDA Organic label,” it means that 95% of the ingredients are organically produced. The other 5% is anybody’s guess.
• Worst of all, if the label says “Made with Organic Ingredients,” that means the product must contain at least 70% organic ingredients. In other words, 30% can be non-organic and contain artificial preservatives, additives and other harmful substances.

Organics are more expensive

Organic food is generally more expensive than conventionally produced food, largely because of the labor-intensive farming methods necessary to produce organics.

However, many supermarket chains now carry private label “generic” organic foods at more comparable prices.

Consider the pesticide load

If your budget won’t permit going entirely organic, consider the chart below to help you decide which foods are worth the expenditure:

Pesticide Load in Fruits and Vegetables

FRUIT/VEGETABLE PESTICIDE LOAD
1 (worst) Peach 100 (highest)
2 Apple 93
3 Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4 Celery 82
5 Nectarine 81
6 Strawberries 80
7 Cherries 73
8 Kale 69
9 Lettuce 67
10 Grapes-Imported 66
11 Carrot 63
12 Pear 63
13 Collard Green 60
14 Spinach 58
15 Potato 56
16 Green Beans 53
17 Summer Squash 53
18 Pepper 51
19 Cucumber 50
20 Raspberries 46
21 Grapes-Domestic 44
22 Plum 44
23 Orange 44
24 Cauliflower 39
25 Tangerine 37
26 Mushrooms 36
27 Banana 34
28 Winter Squash 34
29 Cantaloupe 33
30 Cranberries 33
31 Honeydew Melon 30
32 Grapefruit 29
33 Sweet Potato 29
34 Tomato 29
35 Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37 Papaya 20
38 Eggplant 20
39 Cabbage 17
40 Kiwi 13
41 Sweet Peas-Frozen 10
42 Asparagus 10
43 Mango 9
44 Pineapple 7
45 Sweet Corn-Frozen 2
46 Avocado 1
47 (best) Onion 1 (lowest)
Source: Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Penguin Books 2008)

I have to add a personal note here: I know coffee is technically a vegetable. Certainly it is a staple of life for many of us. However, coffee is not included on the above list.

Coffee is one of the most pesticide intensive crops in the world. If you’re a coffee lover like I am, consider lowering your toxic load by buying organic coffee, better yet shade grown and fair traded to add to the eco-friendly perks. (Pun intended!)

May 21, 2009

by Kathleen Barnes

It’s barely been a week since I wrote about the dangers of genetically modified (GM) foods and now the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has released a strongly-worded warning about the health dangers associated with Frankenfoods.

Calling for a moratorium on GM foods, the AAEM says these foods “pose serious health risk.”

Stay away from genetically modified foods

The AAEM calls for:

* A moratorium on GM food, implementation of immediate long-term safety testing and labeling of GM food.

* Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community and the public to avoid GM foods.

* Physicians to consider the role of GM foods in their patients’ disease processes.

* More independent long term scientific studies to begin gathering data to investigate the role of GM foods on human health.

Citing numerous animal studies that show that GM foods cause damage to various mammalian organ systems, “It is imperative to have a moratorium on GM foods for the safety of our patients and the public’s health,” said Dr. Amy Dean, AAEM board member.

Children at greatest risk from GM foods

Experts have warned that children are most likely to be adversely effected by toxins and other dietary problems related to GM foods.

Animal studies have shown that GM foods:

* Increase infant mortality

* Cause sex organ mutations

* Change DNA in emboyros of parents fed GM foods

* Cause infertility

* Cause immune system dysregulation, including increase in cytokines that are associated with asthma, allergy and inflammation

* Increase overall mortality and more

The only published human feeding study revealed what may be the most dangerous problem from GM foods: The gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function.

What consumers can do

None of us should wait to for our doctors’ recommendations. Those will be a looooong time coming.

Stay away from GM foods. Fruits and vegetables that are GM will have a sticker with a five-number code that begins with “8.” Don’t buy them.

The greatest sources of GM are in foods included in processed food. In those cases, it is virtually impossible to tell what types of foods have been used. For a large number of reasons avoid processed foods.

Avoid all foods that contain soy or corn derivatives (including high fructose corn syrup), cottonseed and canola oil and sugar from sugar beets since many, if not most, will come from GM sources.

If American consumers refuse to purchase GM foods, food processors will be forced to remove all GMs from the food supply as is the case in Europe.

Read more about the GM issue and the AAEM’s warning. Educate yourself and take action.

May 14, 2009

by Kathleen Barnes

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods and crops, often called Frankenstein foods or Frankenfoods, have become pervasive in the worldwide foodstream.

These pseudo foods are made from crops that are genetically altered to create a new organism with a so-called desirable trait such as insect resistance or desired nutrients.

Unnatural cross species breeding

Genetically modified (GM) technology allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism to another, often between non-related species. For example, insect resistant crops were created by inserting the toxin production gene from the Bacillius thuringiensis bacteria into the genetic structure of a plant such as corn or soybeans.

Prevalence of GMOs

In the latter part of the 1990s, GMOs suddenly appeared in 2/3 of all U.S. processed foods. The sudden proliferation of the potentially dangerous organisms (more about that later) came about from a Supreme Court ruling that permitted patents of life forms.

Between 1997 and 1999, one-quarter of all U.S. farmland was converted to raising GM foods. Currently, GM crops are grown on more than 250 million acres of farmland worldwide.

Unless you are a fanatic food purist, you’ve undoubtedly ingested GMOs, whether it’s in soy sauce at your favorite Chinese restaurant, popcorn at your local movie theater or indulged in an occasional candy bar.

While the labels on those foods will tell you the exactly calorie count amount of carbs, protein, sugars, sodium and all, it doesn’t give you one vital piece of information: that the product was made with Franken foods. You have no way of knowing and Big Agriculture wants to keep it that way.

Frankenfood lobby is huge

The rapid expansion of the Frankenfood in the U.S. industry is largely due to the enormous political influence of a handful of agribusiness giants like Monsanto.

The agribusiness industry initially argued that GM crops would require fewer toxic chemicals to produce, so they’d be good for the environment. Apparently Congress and Supreme Court have bought that story hook, line and sinker.

European countries are much more cautious. GM corn (the most common genetically modified crop) has been banned in six European Union countries.

Dangers of GMOs

So why should we be concerned?

In terms of the growing process:

1. GM crops were a very temporary fix that has engendered the emergence of “superweeds,” especially among canola or rapeseed crops, which require more herbicides to control and in more lethal dosage levels.
2. There are terminator plants and suicide seeds that do not produce a second generation, so farmers must purchase new seed every year.
3. Flowerless and fruitless “terminator trees” are designed to exude poisons from every leaf, killing most insects.

Wonder why these are called Frankenfoods? Read on.

1. Huge agribusiness conglomerates are buying up seed producing companies at a high rate. Now 55% of the planet’s commercial seeds are in the hands of just 10 seed-growing companies, many of them controlled by the very companies that are the biggest proponents of GM foods. How long will it be before it is impossible to buy seeds for your home garden that have not been genetically modified? The day may not be far off when there is no food that has not been genetically altered. Some conspiracy theorists surmise this has been the intention of mega-agribusiness from the beginning.
2. Information about health hazards of GM foods is scarce.
3. They may wipe out protected plant and insect species, causing ecological imbalances that are potentially disastrous.

What GM foods might mean in terms of human health:

1. The biggest problem is that we do not know what effect these organisms could have on human health. Follow-up on animal studies that suggest some dire effects have not been pursued by regulators.
2. Proteins created by inserted genes in these plants are not recognized by mammalian organisms and can cause severe allergic reactions. These are made all the more serious because those who may be sensitive are unaware that they are consuming GM foods.
3. We can only surmise how the results of animal studies might translate to humans, including a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weight, inability to reproduce and altered DNA that may increase cancer risks.
4. Additional animal studies have daunting results: GM peas caused lung damage in mice. GM potatoes causes cancer in rats. Bacteria in your gut can assimilate DNA from GM foods that your body cannot recognize and to which the human body may have unpredictable reactions.

What can you do?

The most powerful tool of consumers is to vote with out pocketbooks. By refusing to buy GM foods, food manufacturers will be forced to listen.

Alternate health advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola offers a way of determining if produce comes form GM plants.

He says, ”Examine produce stickers on the fruits and vegetables you buy. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers; organically grown fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number “9” and GM fruit have five numbers prefaced by the number “8.”

He adds, “Keep in mind, too, that soy, corn, cottonseed (used in animal feeds) and canola are four of the crops most likely to be GM, and these are also ingredients commonly added to virtually every processed food. So if you eat processed foods be sure to buy only organic variety or ideally, cut them largely out of your diet.”

You can also educate others by making noise and lots of it. Contact your legislators, demand regulation or, better yet, elimination of all GM foods. Write letters to the editor. Produce flyers for your local supermarkets and health food stores.

You can make a difference.

Note: This post was written by Dr. Scott Olson, a naturopath extraordinaire, whose book, Sugarettes, is packed with eye-opening information about the dangers of sugar. I’m hoping to be able to give you more guests post form Dr. Olson and other experts. ~Kathleen

Sugar can be sneaky. You might think that you know when you are eating sugar; after all, sugar tastes sweet. But the moment you start reading labels, you begin to realize how many foods you eat have sugar in them. Food manufactures also have a bad habit of changing the name of sugar in order to confuse you into not knowing that you are eating sugar.

Sugar has well-known addictive qualities; this is the reason why it is added to crackers, coffee, peanut butter, salad dressing, sauces, salsa and just about every other food you eat.

Labels Can Be Confusing

If you take a peek at a label, it may not be that clear to you that the food you are buying contains sugar. One of the best ways figure out if there is a sugar in the food is to look out for the “ose” ending. Many sugars have an “ose” ending, such as: glucose, fructose, maltose and others. It is not a guarantee that you are looking at a sugar when you see the “ose” ending, but most likely so.

The Many Names of Sugar

Sugar is sugar no matter what the name and here are some of the other names for common sugar additives:
• Beet sugar
• Brown sugar
• Cane sugar
• Concentrated grape juice
• Confectioner’s sugar
• Corn sweeteners
• Corn syrup
• Crystallized cane juice
• Dextrin
• Dextrose
• Evaporated cane juice
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrate
• Galactose
• Glucose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• HFCS
• Honey
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Malt
• Maltodextrin
• Maltose
• Mannitol
• Maple syrup
• Molasses
• Powdered sugar
• Raw sugar
• Sorbitol
• Sorghum
• Sucrose
• Table sugar
• Turbinado sugar
• White sugar
• Xylitol

Other Hidden Sugars

If you are trying to find the sneakiest sugars of them all, you have to look beyond the list above. The sneakiest sugars are the foods that act like sugar. These foods, such as breads, cracker, chips, bagels and even potatoes, act just like sugar in your body. If you are looking to make the plunge into a sugar-free diet because you understand how bad sugars are for your health, then you should also remember to include the foods that act like sugar.

Any step that you might take to remove sugars from your diet is a step towards better health. This guide to the sneaky sugars should help you along your way.

–Dr. Scott Olson

January 19, 2009

Most of us think sugar adds sweetness to life, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sugar is an artificial food that is not only addictive, it causes diabetes and weight gain.

Ask anyone who “needs” that boost of a Coke at 4 p.m. or who can’t get through a day without a donut or piece of cake or handful of cookies.

What’s happening when you get that sugar jolt? The sugar travels fairly quickly through your system and gets to your brain, which loves sugar because it actually causes a “high.”

Sugar highs and lows

The high doesn’t last long because blood sugars begin to crash and so, a couple of hours later, you find yourself looking for another sugar high. Maybe this time it’s a cocktail or a pre-dinner snack because you’re tired and need energy to get dinner ready. Dinner, presumably containing a little protein, will even out the sugars for a few hours, but the inevitable crash comes again, perhaps just before bedtime, so you need a little “midnight snack,” and on and on.

If you think you’re not addicted to sugar, try this test: Go completely without sugar for three days. If you don’t want it, crave it and eventually find yourself feeling cranky, sleepy and unfocussed, you’re not addicted. But if you’re like the average Joe who eats 1/4 pound of sugar every day, you’re addicted.

What is this doing to your body?

Insulin resistance

Well, among other things, it’s causing insulin resistance. That means your pancreas is producing the insulin you need to properly metabolize glucose in its many forms, but your body has lost the tools it needs to balance out those sugars, causing a vicious cycle of high blood sugar, sugar crashes, low blood sugar and sugar cravings which, when they’re satisfied, lead to sugar highs and crashes. Over and over until your body can no longer handle sugars at all.

You can find this and lots more at Dr. Scott Olson’s website.

Obesity

Among other things, that sugar is making you fat. Yes, sugar is in itself high in calories and completely without any nutritional value. But even worse, the most common types of sugars like high fructose corn syrup actually convert to fat much more quickly than any other type of food.

Genetic damage?

Now comes a new piece of research that suggests that sugar not only hurts you, it can hurt your children and grandchildren.

No, I’m not talking about Moms and Nanas who stuff the kids and grandkids with sweets. I’m talking about sugar causing genetic damage.

The Australian research team found that one hit of sugar can affect you for as long as two weeks. Furthermore, regularly eating sugar can actually cause permanent genetic damage that passed along bloodlines.

“We now know that chocolate bar you had this morning can have very acute effect, and those effects can continue to up to two weeks,” said lead researcher Sam El-Osta, for Australia’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Regular poor eating habits amplify the sugar damage, said El-Osta, with genetic damage that can last month or years and can potentially be passed along bloodlines into children.

If you can’t stop eating sugar for yourself, do it for your future children.

–Kathleen Barnes
Natural Living Now

http://www.kathleenbarnes.com

Today is a first: I’m re-posting a blog entry from I’ve never re-posted a blog entry before, but I plan to start now. Anthony Ruffa a master herbalist a/k/a WildAlchemist, is reporting on the latest scientific evidence that should cause us all to re-think any thoughts of drinking tap water. Here’s his blog entry, reprinted with permission:

Top 11 compounds in US drinking water

A comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread but low-level presence of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.

Little was known about people’s exposure to such compounds from drinking water, so Shane Snyder and colleagues at the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas screened tap water from 19 US water utilities for 51 different compounds. The surveys were carried out between 2006 and 2007.

The 11 most frequently detected compounds – all found at extremely low concentrations – were:

• Atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease

• Atrazine, an organic herbicide banned in the European Union, but still used in the US, which has been implicated in the decline of fish stocks and in changes in animal behaviour

• Carbamazepine, a mood-stabilising drug used to treat bipolar disorder, amongst other things

• Estrone, an oestrogen hormone secreted by the ovaries and blamed for causing gender-bending changes in fish

• Gemfibrozil, an anti-cholesterol drug

• Meprobamate, a tranquiliser widely used in psychiatric treatment

• Naproxen, a painkiller and anti-inflammatory linked to increases in asthma incidence

• Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant that has been used to treat epilepsy

• Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used against the Streptococcus bacteria, which is responsible for tonsillitis and other diseases

• TCEP, a reducing agent used in molecular biology

• Trimethoprim, another antibiotic

The concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water were millions of times lower than in a medical dose, and Snyder emphasises that they pose no public health threat. He cautions, though, that “if a person has a unique health condition, or is concerned about particular contaminants in public water systems, I strongly recommend they consult their physician”.

Christian Daughton of the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory says that neither this nor other recent water assessments give cause for health concern. “But several point to the potential for risk – especially for the fetus and those with severely compromised health.”

Daughton says the contamination surveys help people realise how they are intimately and inseparably connected with their environment. “The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment also serves to make us acutely aware of the chemical sea that surrounds us,” he says.

Modern life

While the US government regulates the levels of pathogens in US drinking water, there are no rules for pharmaceuticals and other compounds, apart from one: the herbicide atrazine. The atrazine levels measured by Snyder and colleagues were well within federal limits.

Snyder says water utilities could make drinking water purer. But the costs of “extreme purification” – far beyond what is needed for safety alone – are huge in terms of increased energy usage and carbon footprint. Ultra-pure water might not even be safe, adds Snyder.

The widespread occurrence of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors reflects improved detection techniques, rather than greater pollution, says Snyder. Contamination is a fact of modern life, he adds.

“As we continue to populate and aggregate, our wastes will certainly accumulate where we live,” he says. “We as a species have decided to live a modern life, with pharmaceuticals, plastics, transportation – therefore we must accept that there will be a certain degree of contamination.”

Journal reference: Environmental Science and Technology, in press

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16397-top-11-compounds-in-us-drinking-water.html