HEALTH IS THE GREATEST REBELLION!

Attack of the clones

2008-06-26T16:04:00.001-04:00

US consumers face advent of cloned food

Sheila McNulty / Free Republic | June 23, 2008

Duane Kraemer approaches with pride the Angus bull eating hay behind a fence at Texas A&M University. As the veterinary surgeon draws near, the bull snorts and paws the ground.

Healthy as he looks, many Americans would not want to see this bull become steak on their plate. His name, “86 squared”, hints at his origins as the clone of a bull called 86.

The US Food and Drug Administration set off a debate across the food industry when it ruled in January that clones of cattle, pigs and goats were safe to eat. Since then the US Department of Agriculture has asked producers to refrain from introducing milk and meat from clones into the food supply “to ensure a smooth and seamless transition into the marketplace”.

Consumer groups, however, believe that may already be happening as the market outpaces regulation. The offspring of cloned animals are not included in the moratorium, they point out, and producers are already selling semen from cloned animals.

US regulators cannot be certain whether any cloned animals have entered the food supply – for the very reason that they are said to be safe to eat. “There is no way to tell them apart,” says Larisa Rudenko, senior adviser at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. “There are no science-based tests to determine whether an animal is a clone.”

With FDA approval, US cloning companies expect interest in their products to grow. Mark Walton, president of ViaGen, the country’s top cloning company, says: “Now that we’ve cleared our biggest hurdle – the FDA’s confirmation that livestock cloning does not affect food safety – our path to profitability is clear.”

The day beef suppliers look to clone cattle that have yielded great steaks may not be far off. “One out of every four steaks doesn’t eat right,” Mr Walton says. “There might be an opportunity in the future to fix that.”

Clones, which are created when a nucleus from the cloned animal is placed in a donor egg from which the nucleus has been removed, are not exact replicas. Most mitochondria, “energy factories” with DNA in them, come from the donor egg. While not predominant in the cells produced, they are present. Environment, nutrition and chance then affect how genes are used.

Dr Kraemer, whose lab has cloned more species than any in the world, says these variables mean a cloned animal is more like a sibling than a facsimile. When his lab cloned the first cat, which was born with different colouring from the animal its cells originated from, people understood “they weren’t getting their animal back”.

More worrying for some who fear they may be eating meat or drinking milk from a cloned animal or its offspring is the higher abnormality rate among clones. A 2002 study found that, of 335 cattle clones, 259 were healthy, meaning 23 per cent were not – three times the percentage among natural-born offspring.

The industry is working on an ear-tag tracking system but it is not mandatory, so the onus is on US companies that want to avoid clones to scrutinise suppliers, particularly when exporting to countries restricting clones in food. The tags would also not be used for the offspring of clones, so tracking would not be all-encompassing.

“The FDA approval has created an uneven playing field for companies exporting,” says Rob Michalak, spokesman for Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, which has long based its brand on the use of natural ingredients. “The approval of cloned animals for meat and dairy happened too expediently. We hope there is further review on a national level.”

The US hopes the rest of the world will agree with its findings. Bruce Knight, a USDA official, says the voluntary moratorium on clones in the food supply gives US trading partners a chance to make their own “scientific decisions”.

Ms Rudenko notes New Zealand and a preliminary finding by Europe’s food safety watchdog agreed with the FDA that cloned animals posed no safety risk to consumers.

But 77 per cent of US consumers are “not comfortable” eating products from cloned animals and 81 per cent believe cloned foods should be labelled, according to the Food Marketing Institute.

The FDA says consumers who want to avoid clones can buy organic food. But Carol Lewis, a mother of four who notes the way growth hormones were for years hidden in milk and meat, says she should not have to pay higher prices to avoid clones.

“Nobody trusts the regulatory bodies to look out for consumers any more,” she says.

WILD (AND NOT-SO-WILD) RECIPES

2008-04-29T13:16:00.002-04:00

WILD (AND NOT-SO-WILD) RECIPES - clicky clicky

Awesome link! It's a recipe guide to wild foraged edibles.

The Biofuels Scam, Food Shortages and the Coming Collapse of the Human Population

2008-04-24T13:07:00.000-04:00

NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published April 23 2008
The Biofuels Scam, Food Shortages and the Coming Collapse of the Human Population
by Mike Adams (see all articles by this author)

(NaturalNews) It was one of the dumbest "green" ideas ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you've achieved a monumental green victory (President Bush, anyone?) all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that's causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world.

I think politicians need to spend less time bragging about their latest greenwashing schemes and more time studying The Law of Unintended Consequences. Because while growing fuel on cropland initially sounds like a great idea, any honest assessment of the total impact leads you to the inescapable conclusion that biofuels are largely a government-sponsored scam. With a few exceptions (see below), biofuels produce no net increase in energy output, and they cause food shortages while creating strong economic incentives for the destruction of the very rainforests we desperately need to stabilize the climate!

And now we're just starting to see the early signs of the economic and social insanity that has been unleashed by this foolish pursuit of biofuels around the world: Food rationing in Sam's Club stores in the U.S., rapidly-rising prices on bread, rice and corn, and price spikes at cafeterias and restaurants that depend on these staple ingredients. The price of rice has tripled globally, unleashing riots in Haiti and Bangladesh, and the United Nations has issued warnings that millions of people around the world now face starvation because they can't afford to buy food. Americans are even starting to hoard food once again, after years of avoiding basic preparedness measures. (One benefit to all this, however, is that farmers are actually getting paid decent prices for their crops now, after years of operating on the verge of bankruptcy...)

Most biofuel efforts are a sham
Not all of these price spikes are due to the conversion of croplands to biofuel fields, but much of it is. As a result, it's suddenly becoming obvious to nearly everyone that the pursuit of biofuels, as currently structured, is a grand greenwashing hoax. It doesn't produce more fuel than it consumes, and it drives up food prices to boot!

Now, there are biofuels programs that really do work. The growing and harvesting of sugar cane in Brazil, for example, provides an 8-to-1 return on energy investment. But even that pursuit is tarnished by claims of unsafe work environments and massive environmental pollution (the sugar cane fields are burned before being harvested, a process that releases massive amounts of CO2 into the environment).

The only truly promising biofuels technology available today is based on microalgae. Feed CO2 to a vat of algae, and you can produce biofuels cheaply and responsibly, without destroying the environment. But these programs are only in experimental phases. Nobody is producing biofuels on a large scale from algae farms (not yet, anyway).

And that leaves the great American breadbasket: The corn and wheat fields. It is here that food is now being displaced by crops grown for biofuel processing. So where a farmer used to grow corn as a food source, he's now growing it to sell to a biofuel processing facility which turns the corn into ethanol. Obviously, the laws of economics come into play here, meaning that every bushel of corn used for biofuels production means one less bushel of corn available for food. Factor in the laws of supply and demand, and you can see that the more crops we use for biofuels, the higher the prices will rise for food.

Politicians, it seems, have no understanding of economics. They need to study the basics as they are presented in Henry Hazlitt's Book, Economics in One Lesson, which is a Libertarian-oriented guide that explains basic economics to anyone willing to learn. Economics is focused on the study of human behavior, or more precisely, consumer choice. Now, it seems, consumers are about to be faced with a choice they never wanted to have to make: Should I buy fuel, or food?

In other words: Do I want to drive my car, or do I want to eat?

You can have fuel or food, but not both
Under a biofuels-focused agricultural policy, the same limited resources (soil, sunlight and water, essentially) can be used for only one thing at a time. You can't use the corn twice, obviously (you can't eat the corn and process it for biofuels at the same time), so you've got to make a choice: Will you grow the corn for fuel, or for food?

The more you grow for fuel, of course, the less food you have, and that drives up food prices. But if you swing back the other way and grow more corn for food to ease food prices, the fuel prices go up. Trying to solve both problems at once is a bit like trying to pick up a wet watermelon seed with your fingers: It keeps slipping to the side.

One thing that has become abundantly clear in all this is that the era of cheap food and cheap fuel is over. I've written about this on NaturalNews, where I use the term "food bubble" to describe the most recent era of cheap food. As it turns out, cheap food is only made possible by cheap oil, and with oil now approaching $120 a barrel (a price that virtually no one thought possible just two years ago), food prices are simultaneously skyrocketing. (Modern farming practices use a lot of fossil fuel. So does transporting food across the country or around the world. Eat local, folks!)

Add to this the fact that global climate change is already underway, altering weather patterns and creating floods, droughts and other agricultural calamities, and you start to get the picture of just how bad things might get. That's not even to mention the very serious problem of collapsing honeybee populations due to a mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder that's devastating honeybee populations across North America right this minute. Honeybees, in case you didn't know, pollinate plants that represent about 30% of all the calories consumed by Americans. That's about one out of every three bites of your dinner, and it all depends on the "free" work performed by honeybees -- bees who are apparently going on strike by refusing to keep working for us.

Prepare for mass global starvation
So, to repeat, the food bubble is now starting to implode. What does it all mean? It means that as these economic and climate realities unfold, our world is facing massive starvation and food shortages. The first place this will be felt is in poor developing nations. It is there that people live on the edge of economic livelihood, where even a 20% rise in the price of basic food staples can put desperately-needed calories out of reach of tens of millions of families. If something is not done to rescue these people from their plight, they will starve to death.

Wealthy nations like America, Canada, the U.K., and others will be able to absorb the price increases, so you won't see mass starvation in North America any time soon (unless, of course, all the honeybees die, in which case prepare to start chewing your shoelaces...), but it will lead to significant increases in the cost of living, annoying consumers and reducing the amount of money available for other purchases (like vacations, cars, fuel, etc.). That, of course, will put downward pressure on the national economy.

But what we're seeing right now, folks, is just a small foreshadowing of events to come in the next couple of decades. Think about it: If these minor climate changes and foolish biofuels policies are already unleashing alarming rises in food prices, just imagine what we'll see when Peak Oil kicks in and global oil supplies really start to dwindle. When gasoline is $10 a gallon in the U.S., how expensive will food be around the world? The answer, of course, is that it will be triple or quadruple the current price. And that means many more people will starve.

Fossil fuels, of course, aren't the only limiting factor threatening future food supplies on our planet: There's also fossil water. That's water from underground aquifers that's being pumped up to the surface to water crops, then it's lost to evaporation. Countries like India and China are depending heavily on fossil water to irrigate their crops, and not surprisingly, the water levels in those aquifers is dropping steadily. In a few more years (as little as five years in some cases), that water will simply run dry, and the crops that were once irrigated to feed a nation will dry up and turn to dust. Mass starvation will only take a few months to kick in. Think North Korea after a season of floods. Perhaps 95% of humanity is just one crop season away from mass starvation.

The carrying capacity of planet Earth has reached its apex
The truth about all this, folks, is that the resources on our planet can only support a limited population, and I think we've over-populated the planet to a point where we're wiping out non-renewable resources at an alarming rate. This means a population correction is due. When there are too many people consuming too much food, using up too much water and burning too much oil, you can get away with a rapid expansion for a little while (a few decades, perhaps), but eventually reality kicks in and there's a global population correction that brings the population size back down to levels that can be sustained on the planet.

It's not a pretty picture. We're talking about the loss of a billion human lives, perhaps more. This is what's coming. It's as predictable as the laws of gravity. When you over-populate a planet and use up all the resources, the population eventually finds itself in a resource panic, and mass death ensues. You can observe the same thing with colonies of bacteria on a nutrient-rich petri dish: They will expand at an accelerating rate, multiplying their numbers until there's no more food left in the petri dish, and then they will experience a massive die-off. You might say that human beings are smarter than bacteria, and that's true, but as current events are clearly demonstrating, they're not much wiser! They still doom themselves to the same stupid fate by refusing to look at the long-term implications of their actions.

Humans are really good at making babies and eating food, but they're terrible at thinking even ten years ahead about the implications of their present-day decisions. That's why the global population control masterminds call people "feeders and breeders," by the way. Those are the two things human beings do extremely well: Fornicate and clean their plate. (Not necessarily in that order, though...)

The economies of our world have, sadly, been based on economic models that strongly encourage this kind of consumption and growth. We live in a "throwaway economy," where people are encouraged to consume and expend as much as possible. No corporation makes money teaching people how to use less. And so we've pushed for aggressive expansion since about the 1950's: Build more, eat more, consume more. We've turned farm lands into housing tracts, and rainforests into biofuel fields. We've over-fished the oceans, over-farmed the soils and over-extended ourselves to the point where a population correction is inevitable. We, the human race, have painted ourselves into a desperate corner, and the simple fact of the matter is that unless we quickly discover some new energy technology that provides the world with cheap, plentiful energy, we are headed straight towards a global population implosion that will leave a billion or more people dead.

And biofuels, of course, are no answer for this problem. You cannot grow enough corn to solve the problems of an expansionist, imperialistic race of beings (that's us humans) who have taken over the planet like a cancer tumor, wiped out countless species, destroyed huge swaths of natural rainforests, poisoned the oceans and rivers, polluted the skies and, at every opportunity, betrayed the very Earth that has given us a home in the first place. Humans can betray Mother Nature for a while, but in the end, we will pay a dear price for our own arrogance, greed and lack of vision. The human race is being sent back to kindergarten, where it needs to learn some basic lessons about living in harmony with the planet. Lessons like: Don't use up all the resources in a few generations. Don't think you're smarter than nature. And never forget how much Mother Nature does for us all for free! (Like pollinating the crops, producing oxygen, cleaning the air, water, etc. Read the book Mycelium Running to learn more...)

In time, we will either learn these lessons, or we will perish. It's really as simple as that. And all these suddenly-popular "save the planet" efforts we've seen by corporations recently are just a joke. We can't save the planet. The planet will be fine after we're gone, folks. What we're trying to save here is human civilization. The very idea that we think we can "save the planet" is arrogant all by itself. All we can do is respect the planet and find ways to live with it as polite guests living on a generous host.

Whether humans survive the next hundred years or not, planet Earth certainly will. And frankly, the planet will do much better without us. With humans gone, the Earth would quickly be restored to a vibrant, pristine state, full of life and abundance. The Earth doesn't need us, folks. But we, of course, certainly need the Earth. The real question is this: Can we learn to play nice and treat the Earth with respect? If not, we won't be around much longer to worry about it.

Nature needs to be granted legal standing
One final thought: I am an advocate of the idea that Mother Nature needs to be granted legal standing. I believe that humans do not automatically "own" nature, and that we cannot simply cut down forests, bulldoze mountainsides, fish the oceans, build dams and engage in other highly disruptive activities without first getting permission and paying royalties to a global Mother Nature Authority that stands up for the rights of the planet. Nature is not ours to own or destroy. We, as the guests on this planet, have no right to simply assume ownership over other living systems on this planet and exploit them for our own financial gain. The "destroy and consume" model of free market enterprise is simply not sustainable, folks. It does not lead us to a happy future; it leads to our own destruction.

Or, put another way, over the last hundred years or so, mankind has committed countless acts of violence against nature. It has pursued a policy of committing atrocities against Mother Nature -- a kind of genocide against anything non-human (animals, plants, fish, etc.). Humans have proven themselves to be, by far, the most violent and destructive life forms to ever exist on this planet. And yet paired with that violence, humans are an infant species, with little or no foresight, with virtually no ability to see the future implications of their own actions. We are, in a sense, the dumbest intelligent creatures ever to walk the face of this Earth.

We can land a man on the moon, but we can't even prevent our own rainforests from being clear-cut by soybean farmers and cattle ranchers. We can develop high-tech medicines, but we can't even openly recognize the more powerful medicines found in a simple dandelion plant. We can create amazing computers and televisions and internet technologies the beam information across the globe at the speed of light, but we pollute those information pathways with corporate ads for useless stuff and dangerous medicines that only make our fellow humans beings less enlightened. We are capable of so much, and yet we have accomplished so little. We are, by any honest assessment, a race of little children, running around the planet with far too much power and not nearly enough maturity. We're like a band of infants with flamethrowers.

Frankly, we don't deserve this planet, and Mother Nature is about to take it away from us. It's time for us to either grow up, or perish. And all these people who say "we have to protect the economy, not the environment" should probably just be rounded up and shipped off to Mars where they can play with the Martian dust all they want until they finally get the picture.

Real ID, a Real Disaster

2008-04-24T12:37:00.000-04:00

http://www.republicmagazine.com/magazines/Republic-Magazine6.pdf

*READ FOR FREE* use the above link

ISSUE #6 - Real ID; a Real Disaster!
**Ships May 2nd** Order Now
Learn to protect yourself against this tyrannical national ID card.. which is already LAW!, RFID: Global House Arrest - A Conversation with Katherine Albrecht by Lee Rogers, Biometrics. No Need for Papers - Learn about the government's plans for a national database already underway.. without your consent, VeriChip Rising - A serious look at slavery in the digital age, America’s Lost Right to Travel by Automobile, History of the Driver’s License - It's original intent, Social Security Numbers: Are They Mandatory for Citizens?, Constitutional Discipline - 4th Amendment by Michael Badnarik, Stop the Social Security Surveillance Act, Dinner with the Devil - a first hand encounter with the policy makers who are intent on abolishing your freedom, The Ever Increasing Denial of Citizen Rights and more...

Forgotten Herbs: They May Not Be Sexy, but They Are Effective

2008-04-22T11:45:00.000-04:00

NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published April 22 2008
http://www.naturalnews.com/023076.html

Forgotten Herbs: They May Not Be Sexy, but They Are Effective
by Kal Sellers

(NaturalNews) It is human nature to forget anything that is not sexy, exciting, expensive, tasty and which does not promise far more than it delivers. This character trait is one we shall have to outgrow if we wish to really better ourselves. The predictability of this human weakness puts corrupt leaders in political office, leads away the world after advertisements that will ultimately destroy them and sabotages the best intentions for health and healing.

Sexy herbs are rarely able to do what they are promoted to do, largely because health does not come from herbs, diet or environment. It comes from within, and I am not talking about your blood. Herbs, diet, environment and exercise are tools we use on our journey as we make the change to health. That is all. The best tool in the world is useless if it is not used for what it is made for. It is like using a screwdriver as a toy that you walk around with and scratch and test and poke with. It is a waste.

On the other hand, herbs that can really help the person who is paying attention and who is really working on him/herself, are often overlooked by mainstream health and wellness hype. Thus the true disciple of health and harmony with nature is left with a lot of hype and not a lot of help.

To this end, we shall re-discover a paltry few forgotten herbs that have never quite been in vogue and which have never been given their due and which are not much used, but which are very useful.

These may provide some key elements you have been missing on your road to health and harmony with nature and within. They may show up to help you, right where you really need help. They are not sexy or expensive, but they are real, authentic and offered by nature as help for you.

Elecampane: First on my list because I think that the need for it is greatest. Elecampane (Inula helenium) is rich in inulin, the indigestible (by us) starch that is ambrosia to healthy flora. It is like spreading fertilizer on a rain forest to our flora.

Our flora-bearing surfaces in the bowel, mucus membranes and skin just burst out into huge, protective flora that covers our body in a nourishing, protective coating that heals our immune system, gives us many medicines, nutrients and checks and balances and helps us in dozens of ways not yet understood by science.

Inulin is extracted from the root of elecampane by soaking it overnight in water and then bringing it to a boil. This is immediately reduced to a very low simmer which is maintained for a couple hours. The resultant liquid is fertilizer for your healthy flora. It will help with regularity, digestion, elimination and irritable bowel conditions.

Inulin aside, elecampane contains another interesting and miraculous medicinal nutrients in a natural context. Sodium phosphate cleans the liver and digestive organs; potassium chloride dissolves fibrinous exudations (this means that it becomes very useful for cysts of all types, clusters under the skin, mucus blocks throughout the body, mucus blocks in the elimination systems, clearing debris from interstitial spaces that block lymph flow -- a condition that leads to low oxygen, pain and immune dysfunction) and calcium chlorine is specific to feeding the heart and toning it to normal activity and health.

Elecampane is often used for the lungs because of the way it dissipates and breaks up mucus and strengthens the body's ability to expectorate.

This list is certainly effective enough to keep in my personal apothecary and to be regularly used by me.

Yucca: This herb, particularly the stalk and flowers, gets little attention, and yet I find it consistently to be the very best anti-inflammatory herb I can find. 10 of these capsules of this part of the plant (one must remember it is a food and not an isolated medicine, so you will need more of it) leaves me feeling as good as Aleve used to, and for just as long.

Usually after three or four days of use, the condition changes away from the inflammatory state. This action, where the condition alters and disappears is an herbal action called "alternative."

Kelp: With all the seaweed supplements on the market and all the hype around them, I am always disappointed that the very prolific Kelp does not get included most of the time.

Kelp is, in my opinion, the most valuable seaweed of all. It is uncontested in its ability to protect from radiation poisoning. It stimulates and heals the thyroid (the only caution lies here, if you have an overactive thyroid, kelp should not be used until that condition is healed). It provides all essential minerals and iodine. It detoxifies every system and part of the body and removes heavy metals and liver toxins.

Kelp is a way to protect one's self against radiation and radioactive particles found everywhere today. Kelp also has an affinity for super-toxins (like really poisonous chemicals in our world) and it will bind to them and render them neutral and easy to eliminate.

Mallow: Any malva or mallow species will work to soothe irritated tissues wherever they are. This herb is so good that just holding the tea in your mouth will cause softening and healing of the mucus membranes.

If I were treating Crohn's disease or irritable bowel syndrome or fistulas of the bowel, I would use mallow in great quantity. This herb puts the fire out, heals the bowel and pulls out toxins that prevent healing.

Mallow root is generally taken in capsules at doses of 8-12 capsules one time daily to create a healing poultice for the colon.

In addition to this, mallow is so nutritious that it is on my list of teas that can replace mother's milk (well, make no mistake, there is no replacement for mother's milk) in the event that the baby cannot nurse. This herb will make a thick tea (full of nutrient-rich mucilage) that will feed the baby and fill them up as good as mother's milk and will keep them soothed and calm and healthy.

Apples: An apple per day really might keep the doctor away for more reasons than we have space to address.

Apples dissolve mineral deposits, improve or remove fibromyalgia, carry vast amounts of oxygen, kill cancer, heal the liver and all vital organs, heal deep injuries to the emotional heart and support normal flora.

Apples will destroy any pathogenic microorganism and will feed and heal the immune system.

Apples flush stored fat and fatty toxins out of the body so that a person on an otherwise healthy program can begin eating one apple in the morning and one before bed after all food has digested and will lose excess weight.

Slippery elm: Why in the world this herb has fallen out of use is beyond me. In some circles it is still used. Slippery elm is great for the immune system and for mucus membranes. It has anti-carcinogenic effects and has the ability to heal areas of the body that have been violently damaged due to injury or surgery.

Slippery elm is another of my baby foods and all of my children get this as part of the weaning process and for food when they are away from momma for some reason.

The recipe for slippery elm gruel is available for free from (www.KalsSchool.com) to registered users (registration is free) from the downloads page under the title "Preparations Printout."

Slippery elm helps with earaches and sore throat and such and is very pleasant to taste. In a weak person who can hold down no food, slippery elm will almost always stay down with ease.

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum): This herb deserves about as much praise as elecampane for some things. Boneset cleans out the stomach and liver and the reproductive organs. It gets its name because it helps with boneset fever. This means that it turns a failing (and potentially harmful) fever, into a successful one -- successful because it provides struggling areas with the needed nutrients and immune activity.

This means that a fever can become your friend much easier with this herb. An old natural healer said, "Give me a fever and I will heal anything." This statement comes from the fact that under a fever, if the system is fed wisely, the body almost becomes fetal in its activity, able to regenerate, change or reset any system, disease or body part in a few hours. High fevers also destroy cancer cells (they die at 105 F, human tissue, in a healthy fever, is not damaged until 107 F).

Boneset is also very good for night sweats and is somewhat anti-periodic (a big word that means it helps with any condition that seems to appear and disappear with regularity, such as night sweats, PMS, rheumatism, etc.).

Boneset also improves bile flow through the liver and the gall bladder, meaning that it cleans and clears them and helps the liver detoxify because that flow is occurring and the liver is not constipated.

Carrot tops: While the whole carrot is useful for the pituitary, the top is a specific food for all the master glands in the brain, but especially the pituitary.

It has been noted that drinking fresh, raw carrot juice every day for two weeks takes an average of 10 years off the face and appearance of the person who does it. This is partly due, no doubt, to the pituitary action and the resultant HGH (human growth hormone) that naturally occurs and regenerates vitality to a more youthful state.

These and other forgotten herbs are well to know because they are inexpensive, safe to use and very helpful.

Until next time, Kal Sellers, MH

About the author
Kal Sellers, MH is a lifelong student and practitioner of the natural healing arts.
Kal is a Master Herbalist, a Massage Therapist, Technician of the Rolf Method of Structural Integration, Iridologist, Mind-Body Medicine Practitioner, Mental Re-programmer, Life Coach, Natural Nutritionist, Reflexologist and more.
Kal is currently attending Life University in preparation for chiropractic school.
Kal currently operates and maintains www.KalsSchool.com an on-line school for natural healing and herbal medicine.
Kal also maintains www.BestFoodist.com as the website for the distribution of his and his wife's books on natural nutrition and companion recipe book (Traci's Transformational Kitchen Cookbook and Traci's Transformational Health Principles).
Kal and Traci have five children, the last three of which were delivered at home, the last by Kal. They live now in Powder Springs, GA where they maintain live classes on food and medicine for anyone choosing to master medical independence and life-long optimal health!

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Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

2008-04-16T11:20:00.002-04:00

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, heart diseases, cholesterol levels, weight loss, kidney problems, digestion, metabolism, high blood pressure, immunity, dental care, diabetes, bone strength, HIV and cancer. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia. As a result of these various health benefits of coconut oil, though its exact mechanism of action was unknown, it has been extensively used in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicinal system.

Coconut oil is often preferred by athletes and body builders and by those who are dieting. The reason behind this being that coconut oil contains lesser calories than other oils, its fat content is easy converted into energy and it does not lead to accumulation of fat in the heart and arteries. Coconut oil helps in boosting energy and endurance, and enhances the performance of athletes.

Health benefits of coconut oil include the following:

Hair Care: Coconut oil is one of the best natural nutrition for hair. It helps in healthy growth of hair providing them a shinny complexion. Regular massage of head with coconut oil ensures that your scalp is free of dandruff, lice, and lice eggs, even if your scalp is dry. Coconut oil is extensively used in the Indian sub-continent for hair care. It is an excellent conditioner and helps in the re-growth of damaged air. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair. It is therefore used as a hair care oil and used in manufacturing various conditioners, and dandruff relief creams.

Stress Relief: Coconut oil is very soothing and hence it helps in removing stress. Applying coconut oil to the head helps in removing mental fatigue.

Skin Care: Coconut oil is an excellent massage oil for the skin as well. It acts as an effective moisturizer on all types including dry skin. The benefit of coconut oil on the skin is comparable to that of mineral oil. Further, unlike mineral oil, there is no chance of having any adverse side effects on the skin with the application of coconut oil. Coconut oil therefore is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays wrinkles, and sagging of skin which normally become prominent with age. Coconut oil is also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections. Therefore coconut oil forms the basic ingredient of various body care products such as soaps, lotions, creams, etc., used for skin care.

Premature Aging: Coconut oil helps in preventing premature aging and degenerative diseases due to its antioxidant properties.

Heart Diseases: There is a misconception spread among many people that coconut oil is not good for the heart. This is because it contains a large quantity of saturated fats. However, coconut oil is beneficial for the heart. It contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including heart burns, high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. The saturated fats present in coconut oil are not harmful as it happens in case of other vegetables oils. It does not lead to increase in LDL and HDL levels. It also reduces the incidence of injury in arteries and therefore helps in preventing atherosclerosis.

Weight Loss: Coconut oil is very useful in reducing weight. It contains short and medium-chain fatty acids that help in taking off excessive weight. It is also easy to digest due as it helps in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems. Further, it increases the body metabolism by removing stress on pancreases, thereby burning out more energy and helping obese and overweight people reduce their weight. Hence, people living in tropical coastal areas, who eat coconut oil daily as their primary cooking oil, are not fat, obese or overweight.

Pancreatitis: Coconut oil is also useful in treating pancreatitis.

Digestion: Internal use of coconut oil occurs primarily as cooking oil. Coconut oil helps in improving the digestive system and thus prevents various stomach and digestion related problems including irritable bowel syndrome. The saturated fats present in coconut oil have anti microbial properties and help in dealing with various bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc., that cause indigestion. Coconut oil also helps in absorption of other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

Immunity: Coconut oil is also good for the immune system. It strengthens the immune system as it contains antimicrobial lipids, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid which have antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia.

Healing: When applied on infections, it forms a chemical layer which protects the infected body part from external dust, air, fungi, bacteria and virus. The curative properties of coconut oil are useful in healing as well. It speeds up the repairing of damaged tissues.

Infections: Coconut oil is very effective against a variety of infections due to its antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. According to the Coconut Research Center, coconut oil kills viruses that cause influenza, measles, hepatitis, herpes, SARS, etc. It also kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and gonorrhea, etc. Coconut oil is also effective on fungi and yeast that cause candidiasis, ringworm, athlete's foot, thrush, diaper rash, etc.

Liver: The presence of medium chain triglycerides and fatty acids helps in preventing liver diseases as they substances are easily converted into energy when they reach the liver, thus reducing work load on the liver and also preventing accumulation of fat.

Kidney: Coconut oil helps in preventing kidney and gall bladder diseases. It also helps in dissolving kidney stones.

Diabetes: Coconut oil helps in controlling blood sugar, and improves the secretion of insulin. It also helps in effective utilization of blood glucose, thereby preventing and treating diabetes.

Bones: As mentioned earlier, coconut oil improves the ability of our body to absorb important minerals. These include calcium and magnesium which are necessary for development of bones. Thus coconut oil is very useful to women who are prone to osteoporosis after middle age.

Dental Care: Calcium is an important element present in teeth. Since coconut oil facilitates absorption of calcium by the body, it helps in getting strong teeth. Coconut oil also stops tooth decay.

HIV and Cancer: It is believed that coconut oil plays an instrumental role in reducing viral susceptibility of HIV and cancer patients.

http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

book recommendation!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-01T11:48:00.001-04:00

"The Hundred-Year Lie"
How Food and Medicine are Destroying Your Health

http://www. hundredyearlie. com/

they library rules.....order it...read it.....get pissed......then let our children magically deal with this mess, heh

Codex Alimentarius EVIL EVIL EVIL

2008-04-01T11:28:00.001-04:00

By Julia Griffin with Rima E.

Laibow

In 2004, Dr.
Rima Laibow left her successful medical practice to battle Codex Alimentarius, (http://www. codexalimentarius. net/web/index_en. jsp) an international legal organization that controls food legislation. Codex’s legislation limits supplements, allows pesticides and GMOs, and irradiates all foods that come into the United States. In this interview, she explains Codex’s agenda, the value of nutrition and changing the future.

Julia: You have to be incredibly devoted to your cause.

What awakened this passion?

Dr. Rima: I had watched Codex by reading the text and observing their process for about 10 years. Although it is invisible, it is not secret. Codex was clearly poisoning the world food supply; it was also increasing its pace, intensity and scope at an accelerated pace. I could not remain silent. In my ethical system, if an evil is being perpetrated and you do nothing, then you become a perpetrator.

At that time, I healed people through natural non-toxic means including diet, dietary supplements, detoxification and other profound technologies. I did not use drugs in my practice, either psychiatry or medicine. I finally decided that I could no longer sit at my desk, with my nice life and a nice practice, while having the joy of curing one person at a time, when I knew that a cataclysm was heading for the world.

So in December of 2004, my husband, General Stubblebine, a two-star general, and I closed the practice within three weeks to take on this global evil. We want to turn it into an opportunity, as the chaotic birthing matrix of the new paradigm of the pro-health, clean unadulterated food, high-potency nutrient approach to staying well or getting well. That is what we believe can come out of the tremendous assault on our health and health freedoms.

Julia: What is Codex Alimentarius? Who are the corporations behind it and how real is the risk?

Dr. Rima: Codex is a United Nations program that is run and administered by the Food and Agricultural Commission (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It is allegedly a food standard organization for international trade of food which has three mandates: (1) to protect health of consumers; (2) to facilitate the free trade of food; (3) to standardize the environmental regulations for governmental and non-governmental organizations. In fact, Codex is a playground for the multi-national corporations which are interested in food and health. The five constituents that benefit from Codex are: big Pharma, big Bio-Techna, big-Chema, big Medica, and big Agra biz.

Behind that, it is about illness. The United States, shamefully, is the driver of this five engine juggernaut. The United States is the bully, the dominant dog in Codex. Whatever the United States wants, it has achieved.

Julia: Why was Codex created initially? What is its purpose?

Dr. Rima: Codex is a pharmaceutical initiative that stems from the German death camps. Its history is quite interesting. The system employed in the German death camps was created and implemented by I. G. Farben (Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie, also called I.G. Farbenfabriken). I. G. Farben was a German conglomerate of companies during World War II, the great Nazi combine that included pharmaceuticals, chemicals, munitions, mining and other heavy industries all combined under a single directorship.

The over-manager of I. G. Farben, Fritz ter Meer, and twenty-six other I. G. Farben employees were deeply involved in what the Germans called “the killing of useless eaters” or people who had lives not worth living. They provided the chemicals that were injected into the hearts of death camp prisoners, as well as having manufactured the gas, Zyklon B, used to kill them.

After World War II, they were incarcerated for four years by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. While imprisoned, Fritz ter Meer hypothesized that food was the answer to gaining world power. He concluded that “he who controls food, can control the world.” He later became the head of Bayer Pharmaceuticals, and he called together the executives of former I. G. Farben, suggesting a letter to urge the United Nations take over the regulation of world food. Fifteen years after they were convicted in the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, this actually happened. In 1962, the Codex Alimentarius Commission was formed.

Fritz ter Meer, Bayer, BASF and Hoechst again became the main designers of the schemes that would profit from human suffering. The deceptive title “Codex Alimentarius” is no accident. It was devised by the same companies and indeed the same individuals, who gave the Auschwitz concentration camp inmates the deceptive slogan “Arbeit mach frei” (“Work makes you free”).

1
In 1963, as a result of this, standards and guidelines began to be promulgated for everything that goes into your mouth: milk, food, oil, nuts, water, vitamins, or minerals. If it goes into your mouth, then there is a standard for it.

No one paid any attention until 1994 when the World Trade Organization was created. The World Trade Organization was given the power to levy trade sanctions to countries that were creating a barrier to trade. Codex then applied to be the standard system by which food disputes were settled between nations. The World Trade Organization has three times rejected Codex and said there are other standards and organization. The best standard is science.

Julia: If Codex is an international organization, then how are we affected?

Dr. Rima: Codex is about international trade, but all countries are encouraged to adopt the Codex regulations as their domestic law, which means poisoning food doesn’t just affect the international trade but all foods grown in your own country. This set of standards will affect the health of everyone in the United States; it is not just nutrients and supplements, but all food…everything that goes into your mouth.

The United States is currently building 200 radiation plants to irradiate every bite of food that we eat. The American food supply is laced with genetically modified foods. In July of 2007, the Codex committee on pesticides brought back seven of the nine deadliest known pesticides in the world because this sells more for the pesticide companies.

Food cannot be kept out of the border because it contains deadly amounts of the pesticides. This will have tremendous impact on fetus, children, adults and early, unnecessary death through chronic and degenerative disease. The literature and the clinical understanding of the damage that these chemicals do to us and the environment are very clear. Codex is not interested in this.

People say, “I will just grow my own food.” The answer is No! The United States plans to implement Codex so that a number will be necessary to grow your own tomatoes or chives. This number obligates you to follow the Codex regulations in any food that you grow. Even your own food will be contaminated or illegal.

Julia: What will be the result of under-nutrition?

Dr. Rima: Mandating global under-nutrition will kill 3.5 billion people within the next 20-25 years through the preventable non-communicable diseases of nutrition, defined by the World Health Organization as cancer, cardio-vascular disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. These are the leading killers in the United States and other developing countries. The estimated number of people who will die because of the under-nutrition mandate passed in 2005 comes from the WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO and other national organizations who monitor the nutrition of the people. Joint reports by these agencies on preventable diseases state that by the year 2020, these diseases of under-nutrition will account for 89% of the world’s deaths.

If Codex is the world food standard, and these diseases are preventable, if Codex supports and monitors the nutritional systems of the world as its first mandate is health, then why does it pass these disastrous guidelines? For instance, all cows used for dairy must be treated with Monsanto bovine growth hormone. Why? Because the basic thrust is that as many people as possible must be sick, have no access to natural remedies (another Codex activity) and have only pharmaceutical options available to them as they suffer and die from these degenerative diseases.

Healthy people who eat healthy food do not become sick as often as people who eat adulterated and degraded food; therefore, they are bad customers for the pharmaceutical industries. Codex was created out of a pharmaceutical initiative. Codex is about degrading the world food supply so that people can become ill and support the illness-care industry. The illness-care industry profits from the sickness of people who eat degraded food.

Codex is like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland where everything on the table is toxic. As Rolf Grosklaus said, when chairing the Codex committee on food for special dietary uses, “Codex is about trade. It would be nice if it could offer health. It is about trade, and that is the bottom line.

”

Julia: Please explain Codex’s role with vitamins, minerals and supplements.

Dr. Rima: We can avoid pasta or cookies or other prepared foods, because there is no way of knowing how much irradiation the ingredients have been subjected to or how much GMO product is in it. If it contains soy, corn, corn oil, fructose, or canola oil, then it has GMO. If you don’t buy organic or cook your own food, then you are asking to be toxic. NEVER eat fast food or frozen dinners.

FDA research and other research have consistently shown that if consumers know that food is genetically modified, then they will reject it. The FDA feels that this is an error, so therefore in order to prevent the consumer from making the wrong choice, the FDA believes that truthful labeling would be false and misleading. It is tremendously important to avoid the prepared food supply.

If you don’t think it makes a difference, then look at this study. Children were fed a regular diet, but for five days with organic pasta and organic vegetables. The pesticide residue in the bodies of those children, who are much more susceptible to pesticides and harmful chemicals, was undetectable within the five days of organic diet.

We can take control of our health. We can find out who provides organic food and buy that food. We can take supplements. We can get rid of the poisons. We can take high potency nutrients.

Julia: What can we do about our food and nutrition?

Dr. Rima: The individual has a great deal of power and freedom if s/he would only see it. People can activate themselves. Every voice counts. When the powers that be have the spotlight of public attention turned on them, and when people start protesting, and countries start feeling the wrath of their consumers, public policy changes, and these forces that come against us, back off, every single time.

Donations are essential. The other side has more money than God. We have no corporate support. We have only the support of the people who believe that this is their battle. We need people to volunteer and to organize locally. It has been buried under absolute silence. National Public Radio has a corporate policy of absolute silence, of never mentioning Codex.

We meet with the press and Codex representatives. We meet with heads of state and consumer representatives. We take the story to other countries and teach them about the 2 step Codex, as well protecting their food and their people. Because we have no sponsor or corporate support, they listen. We give away all of our information freely. We give scientific dossiers on the issues.

The natural solutions foundation (our organization) is also suing the FDA.
There is a legal action called a citizen’s petition which people can join by going to our website: www. healthfreedomusa. org and signing the petition. It would be nice if they would get everyone that they know to sign it too. We have over 100,000 people who have signed saying to the FDA it is illegal three times over to harmonize vitamins, minerals and other nutrients under Codex standards.

You can also go to www. healthfreedomusa. org, take the political action steps and make a donation. Spread this information to friends and colleagues. If they are health professionals, therapists, or healers, they need to make sure that every one of their patients and suppliers knows about this. A lecture called Nutricide is on the website. People can watch that lecture, buy the DVD and show it at their churches, practice and schools.

Becoming active is incredibly important. Let’s get everyone up on their feet and roaring.

1. Remark made by the Dr.
Rath Health Foundation, www4. dr-rath-foundation. org Rima E. Laibow, M.D. is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1970) who believes passionately in the right of Americans to choose their own health paths. She has practiced drug-free, natural medicine for 35 years by seeking the underlying cause of every illness and ailment and treating that root cause.

She believes in using nutrients and other natural options to find, define and treat the problems which underlie degenerative, chronic diseases and poor aging while supporting the immune and other crucial systems. She has enjoyed remarkable success with a wide assortment of cataclysmic problems.

More information: www. healthfreedomusa. org

HERBS and their USES

2008-03-12T10:32:00.002-04:00

Please use the following list of herbs to aid in the relief of your ailments

Acne
Burdock Root, Red Clover, Also you can make a poultice with Chapparel, Dandelion, and Yellow Dock to apply to affected areas

Age-Spots / Aging Skin
Burdock, Milk Thistle, Red Clover, Ginkgo Biloba, Ginsing, Licorice aids Aloe Vera, Astragalus, Black Radish, Dandelione Root, Milk Thistle, Burdock Root

Allergies
Goldenseal Root, Bee Pollen, Lobelia Herb, Chickweed, Burdock Root

Alzheimer's Disease
Butcher's Broom, Ginkgo Biloba, Echinacea Root, Pau D'Arco Bark, Gota Kola Herb, Spirulina Plant, Ginseng Root, Ginkgo Leaf

Anemia
Alfalfa, Bilberry, Cherry, Dandelione, Golden-seal, Grape seeds, Hawthorn berry, Mullein, Nettle, Yellow Dock

Arthritis
Alfalfa Herb, Burdock root, Capsicum Fruit, Wild ginger, Black Cohosh, Devils Claw, Stargrass root

Bladder Infections
Cranberry, Birch Leaves, Goldenseal, Marsh-mellow Root

Blood Builder
Alfalfa Herb, Kelp Plant, Yellow Dock Root

Blood Circulator
Capsicum Fruit, Goldenseal Root, Black Cohosh, True Blue Skullcap Herb, Hyssop Herb, Chickweed Herb, Ginkgo Leaf

Blood Cleanser
Goldenseal Root, Yellow Dock, Red Clover Blooms, Burdock root, Echinacea root, Ginkgo Leaf

Bronchitis
Capsicum Fruit, Lobelia Herb, Wild ginger Root, Peppermint Herb, Eucalyptus Leaf

Bowel Cleanser
Cascara Bark, Fenugreek Seed, Slippery Elm Bark, Mullein Leaf, Aloe Herb

Cancer
Sheep Sorrel Herb, Burdock Root, Slippery Elm Bark, Goldenseal Root, St.John's Wort, Chickweed herb, Garlic Bulb, Red Root, Poke Root, Ginkgo Leaf, Red Clover

Chrohn's
Aloe Vera, Burdock root, Echinacea, Fenugreek, Goldenseal root, Licorice, Marshmellow, peppermint

Cholesterol
Alfalfa herb, Capsicum Fruit, Garlic Bulb, True Blue Skullcap, Thyme Herb, Yellow Dock, Burdock Root, Licorice root, Echinacea Root, Red Clover blooms

Colds
Catnip Herbs, Capsicum Fruit, Garlic Bulb, Wild Ginger Root, Yarrow Herb, Peppermint Herb, Cascara Bark, Pleurisy Root, Licorice root, Myrrh Bark, Mullein Leaf

Depression
Balm, Ginger, Ginkgo Biloba, Licorice Root, Oat Straw, Peppermint, ginseng

Diabetes
Blue Cohosh root, Goldenseal root, Dandelion root, Star Grub root, Queen of Meadow root, Fenugreek seed, Sarsaparilla

Diarrhea
Cayenne, Ginger, Slippery Elm

Gout
Alfalfa, Burdock root, Colchicum Tincture, Hyssop, Juniper

Heart Disease
Aloe Vera, Catnip, Fennel, Ginger, Marshmallow root, Papaya

Hepatitis
Burdock root, Dandelion, Milk Thistle, Black Radish, Goldenseal, Green Tea, Red Clover, Yellow dock, Schisandra, Licorice

High Blood Pressure
Capsicum Fruit, Black Cohosh Root, Garlic Bulb, Ginkgo Leaf, Wild Cherry Bark, Golden Seal Root, True Blue Skullcap Herb, Cascara Bark, Hawthorn Berries

Indigestion
Alfalfa, Aloe Vera, Anise Seeds, Catnip, Chamomile, Fennel, Funugreek, Goldenseal, Papaya, Peppermint

Infection
Golden Seal Root, Capsicum Fruit, Slippery Elm Bark, Myrrh Bark, Poke Root, Licorice Root, Cascara Bark, Yellow Dock Root, Red Clover Bloom, Garlic Bulb

Influenza
Goldenseal, Yarrow, Peppermint, Wild Ginger Root, Sage leaf, Pleurisy Root

Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Milk Thistle, Licorice, Burdock Root, Red Clover, Pepper-mint, Skullcap, Valerian Root

Lupas
Alfalfa, Echinacea, Fever, Pau d'arco, Red Clove

Migraines
Licoric, Feverfew, Ginkgo bilboa extract, Capsicum, Ginger, Pepermint, Rosemary, Valerian, Willow bark

Mononucleosis
Astragalus, Echinacea, Dandelion, Milk thistle, Goldenseal

Multiple Sclerosis
Alfalfa, Burdock, Dandelion , Red Clover, St. Johnswort, Sarsaparilla, Yarrow

Osteoporosis
Feverfew, Alfalfa, Barely, Black cohosh, Boneset, Dandelion Root, Nettle, Parsley, Pook root, Rose hips, Yucca, Horsetail, Oat straw

Parkinson's Disease
Burdock root, Dandelion root, Ginger root, Milk thistle, Cayenne, Goldenseal,Mullein, Siberian ginseng, Yarrow, Hawthorn, Licorice, Red clover, Sarsaparilla

PMS
Angelica root, Cramp bark, Kava kava, Black haw, Black cohosh, Pepermint, Blessed thistle, Wild yambgh

Senillity
Ginkgo biloba, Anise

Smoking
Cayenne, Catnip, Skullcap, Valerian root, Dandelion root, Milk thistle, Slippery elm

Sore throat
Echinaca, Goldenseal, Slippery elm

TOXIC SOUP IN PACIFIC OCEAN

2008-03-12T09:24:00.001-04:00

NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published March 10 2008

Toxic Soup of Plastic Debris, Twice the Size of US, Forms in the Pacific Ocean
by Jo Hartley (see all articles by this author)

(NaturalNews) It is twice the size of the continental United States, yet you cannot set foot on it. Scientists have named it "Plastic Soup", and appropriately so. Floating in the Northern Pacific Ocean lays a huge expanse of plastic refuse. This garbage patch is actually two attached areas on either side of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered by Charles Moore, an American oceanographer, in 1997 as he was traveling between Hawaii and Los Angeles on a yacht. Taking a course usually avoided by sailors, he steered his craft through the "North Pacific gyre" (a vortex created by little wind and strong high pressure systems). Here, thousands of miles from land, he discovered and was surrounded by pieces of plastic trash day after day as he steered his yacht through the area over a week's time period. He believes there is about 100 million tons of debris floating, drifting, and swirling in the Pacific Ocean approximately 500 miles off the coast of California, stretching past the Hawaiian Islands, and extending almost to Japan.

Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, is seeking to confirm Mr. Moore's discovery and is co-coordinating an expedition later this year to locate the garbage patch. He compares the plastic refuse to a new habitat of sorts. Translucent, it lies just below the surface of the ocean and is undetected by satellite photography. The only way it can be seen is by ships sailing through it.

Some trash that might end up in ocean gyres is biodegradable. Not so of our modern plastics, however. Plastics as old as 50 years have been recovered from the ocean. Approximately one-fifth of the plastic soup comes from trash discarded from ships and oil platforms. The remaining four-fifths come from land. It is estimated that plastic makes up 90% of all refuse floating in the ocean and the UN Environment Programme estimated recently that each square mile of ocean water contains 46,000 pieces of floating garbage.

Not only does the plastic trash pose serious risks to marine mammals and sea birds, but the filth-filled water threatens human health as well. The plastic industry is losing or spilling huge amounts of raw materials each year and much of this makes its way to the seas and oceans. These materials act as chemical sponges and attract synthetic chemicals like hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. It is unavoidable for these materials to enter the food chain once they exist in our oceans. Once they enter the food chain, the end of that chain is your dinner plate.

The discovery of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch led Mr. Moore to become an environmental activist. He has recently warned consumers that if we do not cut back on our use of disposable plastics, this plastic soup will likely double in size over the next ten years.

About the author
Jo Hartley
Wife, Mother of 8, and Grandmother of 2
Jo is a 40 year old home educator who has always gravitated toward a natural approach to life. She enjoys learning as much as possible about just about anything!
http://is8enuff.blogspot.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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DRINKING WATER FOUND TO HAVE LOADS OF PHARMS ALL OVER USA

2008-03-12T09:22:00.000-04:00

NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published March 10 2008
Medication Pollution Spreads: Water Supply of 24 U.S. Cities Found Contaminated with Pharmaceuticals
by Mike Adams

(NaturalNews) Analysis of tap water supplies in major metropolitan areas conducted by the Associated Press has revealed that the water supply in 24 major U.S. cities -- serving over 40 million people -- are contaminated with trace amounts of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-seizure medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, psychotropic drugs, pain medications and even caffeine. The upshot of the report is that tens of millions of Americans are unwittingly being subjected to a bizarre medical experiment with unpredictable results. No scientist can say for certain whether long-term exposure to micro doses of multiple pharmaceuticals is safe because such an experiment has never before been conducted on any population.

One of the most startling realizations of the study is that Americans are now using so many medications that their own biological waste products are becoming large-scale environmental pollutants. Yet neither the EPA nor drug companies have yet said anything useful about attempts to protect the environment from the chemical toxicities of pharmaceutical waste. Drug companies have so far pretended the problem doesn't exist. Their goal is to simply sell more drugs, and they seem to be entirely unconcerned about what happens after a typical medication consumer flushes the toilet and sends the toxic chemicals downstream.

If trace amounts of multiple pharmaceuticals are now in the tap water supplies, it also means that any use of tap water involves the further spread of those pharmaceutical chemicals. Watering your lawn, for example, means spraying small amounts of pharmaceuticals on your lawn. For ranchers, watering their cows, pigs or chickens also means dosing those animals with small amounts of pharmaceuticals, and for public schools in the affected cities, all the water fountains used by the children are now functioning as mass medication dispensing machines.

The most dangerous medical experiment in the history of our nation
The mass medication of America has now turned into a grand medical experiment that exposes infants, children, expectant mothers, senior citizens, voters, law enforcement officers, doctors and everybody else to a combination of drugs known to have extremely dangerous, mind-altering side effects when taken in full doses. And yet this mass medication of the population is being conducted with no doctor visits, no prescriptions, no consent and no medical assessment whatsoever. It is essentially a mandatory medication carpet-bombing of the entire population.

We can only guess what the results will be a generation from now. But clues can be gathered by watching the impact of such drugs on aquatic organisms. Amphibians exposed to very low doses of these types of chemicals, for example, begin to grow dual sex organs and suffer widespread infertility problems. Deformities in fish are being increasingly reported in rivers, and the world's oceans now have over a hundred "dead zones" where agricultural runoff and medication runoff have combined to form a toxic aquatic poison that kills all fish. This is the same water being used to create tap water in U.S. cities.

What's in recycled urine, anyway?
I remember hearing people snicker when they learned that NASA was recycling urine on the space shuttle and that astronauts would be drinking each other's recycled urine. Well guess what, folks? In major U.S. cities, almost everybody is drinking somebody else's recycled urine!

And guess what's in that urine? Toxic medications, caffeine, painkillers, and a cocktail of other chemicals like personal care product fragrances, pesticides and more. It's enough to make you sick. Literally.

Guess what else? This is the water used to make sodas and other beverages at local bottling plants. So every time you pick up a can of soda and drink it, not only are you getting the dangerous chemicals intentionally added to those sodas -- like aspartame and phosphoric acid -- you're also getting trace amounts of medication chemicals recycled from other peoples' urine, too! Yum!

Water treatment plants don't remove medication chemicals from the water!
Many consumers mistakenly believe that water treatment plants actually remove these contaminants, but that's not true. Municipal water treatment facilities do remove large solids (like dirt, sand and leaves), but they only sanitize the water by adding chlorine to kill microorganisms. They don't actually remove toxic chemicals from the water. Only distillation -- a highly energy-intensive process -- removes everything from the water (including the minerals).

A few cities treat their water with ozone, which is a far healthier method that avoids the use of toxic chlorine (which is linked to bladder cancer). Ozonation can break down some -- but not all -- medications. So what about countertop filters that use carbon blocks? I'm going to find out the answer to that question later this week when I interview Aquasana, the company that makes countertop filters and shower filters. I'll be sure to ask them for technical details about the ability of their filters to remove trace amounts of pharmaceuticals. That's suddenly an increasingly important question to consumers who don't want to consume toxic chemicals in their water.

Terrorists couldn't have done a better job of poisoning America
What's really interesting in all this is that the water supply is often cited as a security vulnerability to the nation; a weakness in the defense where terrorists could easily dump chemicals and poison the American people. But why would they bother? Drug companies have already poisoned the water supply for them!

And just in case the medication chemicals in the water aren't enough to poison the nation, many water treatment facilities add even more poison in the form of artificial fluoride chemicals that cause bone loss and weaken the immune system. Terrorists could hardly do a better job of poisoning the water supply than what corporate America has done already... with the help of criminally negligent government regulatory agencies, of course.

That brings us to the Environmental Protection Agency, a corrupt organization that has now sold out to big business. Read the following article to learn how the EPA now conspires with the chemical industry to censor scientists who try to protect the public from toxic chemicals: http://www.naturalnews.com/022773.html

The EPA has taken no action whatsoever to regulate or eliminate the presence of pharmaceutical chemicals in the water supply. Apparently, the EPA doesn't mind the fact that infants, babies and pregnant women are now drinking six different medications in their tap water. The agency remains either silent on the issue or in agreement with the corrupt scientists who say the levels of contamination are too low to really matter. But in truth, nobody knows the health effects of combining multiple low-dose pharmaceuticals and feeding it to the population. Anybody who says there's no risk of harm is simply lying.

How to avoid contaminated water
The solution to all this? On a personal level, you'll need to avoid drinking tap water, period. Or filter it really well. Distillation, as I mentioned, is very energy intensive (which makes it bad for global warming), but it does get the water very, very clean. Other consumer-level water filters may remove some amount of pharmaceuticals, but I don't have all the facts on that yet, so I'm not going to make any recommendations until I learn more.

But I am researching it, so stay tuned to NaturalNews.com and subscribe to our e-mail newsletter at http://www.naturalnews.com/readerregist...

I'll be sure to e-mail an announcement when I have new information about the effectiveness of consumer water filters.

Get your medications for free!
The funny part in all this is that if medication trends continue and the presence of pharmaceuticals in the water supply continues to increase, it might get to the point where you no longer need to pay for medications at all! Need some anti-inflammatory drugs? Just drink the water!

Of course, it might be better described as "drinking Big Pharma's kool-aid," because the pharmaceutical industry is now founded on a cult-like belief in chemicals promoted by commissioned drug reps, psychiatric zealots and mind-numbed doctors. The level of irrational belief in the power of pharmaceuticals has reached such a fervor that it can only have been made possible by a mass brainwashing of gullible professionals. They have schools dedicated to this dark art -- they're called "med schools."

Seriously, this tap water contamination is yet one more reason to consider leaving the city and moving closer to nature. America is now so intoxicated with medications that they're showing up in the water! Do you realize how many people have to be taking (and flushing) drugs to get to that point? It means that the nation has become a chemical consumption quagmire that has now poisoned the people, the land, the air and the water.

The people of America deserve better. Problem is, they're too drugged up to know it! Don't you find it interesting, by the way, that the EPA is warning everybody about the environmental dangers of colloidal silver, yet utterly ignoring the environmental dangers of pharmaceutical antibiotics? It's an interesting double standard...

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All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml

you are what you eat

2008-02-05T10:57:00.001-05:00

You are what you eat, so eat well. A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today’s investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called ‘The Doctrine of Signatures’ was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater. Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female – they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Can Chinese Food Cause Cancer?

2008-01-17T09:37:00.000-05:00

Can Chinese Food Cause Cancer?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG), a common ingredient in Chinese food, may cause stomach cancer, according to a study by researchers at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute.

Their analysis of 134 patients found that nearly half of those with stomach, rectal and colon cancer were regular consumers of Chinese food from middle- or low-end restaurants. Most of them also had ulcers, which were also linked to MSG.

In 2004, the World Health Organization declared MSG unsafe for human consumption, but it is still widely used.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Chinese food is usually the first cuisine that comes to mind when anyone mentions MSG, and this is because it was commonly added to Chinese dishes to enhance flavors and make foods taste fresher. Even MSG Symptom Complex, which is a term used to describe short-term reactions to MSG, was called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” for some time in the United States.

It is, however, completely unfair to only point the finger at Chinese restaurants when it comes to MSG.

This food additive, which I can confidently say is one of the absolute worst on the market, is used in canned soups, crackers, meats, salad dressings, frozen dinners and much, much more. It’s found in your local supermarket and restaurants, in your child’s school cafeteria and, amazingly, even in your baby’s food and infant formula (another reason why breastfeeding is vastly superior).

One of the best overviews of the very real dangers of MSG comes from Dr. Blaylock, author of the highly recommended Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills. He explains that MSG is an excitotoxin, which means that it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, acting as a poison.

Aside from harming your brain, MSG has also been linked to:

Obesity
Eye damage

Headaches
Fatigue and disorientation
Depression
Is There MSG in YOUR Food?

Food manufacturers are not stupid. They’ve caught on to the fact that people like you want to avoid eating this nasty food additive. As a result, do you think they responded by removing MSG from their products? Well, a few may have, but most of them just tried to “clean” their labels. In other words, they tried to hide the fact that MSG is an ingredient.

How do they do this? By using names that you would never associate with MSG. Fortunately, you can get a full list of ingredients that contain MSG at MSGMyth.com. For instance, the ingredients below all contain MSG:

Gelatin
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
Yeast Extract
Malted Barley
Rice Syrup or Brown Rice Syrup
In general, if a food is processed you can assume it contains MSG. So if you stick to a whole, fresh foods diet like the one in my nutrition plan, you can pretty much guarantee that you’ll avoid this toxin.

The other place where you’ll need to watch out for MSG is in restaurants. You can ask your server which menu items are MSG-free, and request that no MSG be added to your meal, but of course the only place where you can be entirely sure of what’s added to your food is in your own kitchen.

But to be on the safe side, here is a list of ingredients that ALWAYS contain MSG:

Autolyzed Yeast
Calcium Caseinate
Gelatin
Glutamate
Glutamic Acid
Hydrolyzed Protein
Monopotassium Glutamate
Monosodium Glutamate
Sodium Caseinate
Textured Protein
Yeast Extract
Yeast Food
Yeast Nutrient

And a list of ingredients that OFTEN contain MSG:
Barley Malt
Bouillon
Broth
Carrageenan
Enzyme- modified Substances
Flavoring
Flavors / Flavoring
Malt Extract
Malt Flavoring
Maltodextrin
Natural Flavor / Flavorings
Natural Pork / Beef / Chicken Flavoring
Pectin
Protein- fortified Substances
Seasonings
Soy Protein
Soy Protein Isolate or Concentrate
Soy Sauce and Soy Sauce Extract
Stock
Vegetable Gum
Whey Protein
Whey Protein Isolate or Concentrate

MACA

2008-01-16T11:10:00.000-05:00

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Maca?

Maca is a cruciferous root vegetable indigenous to the high Andean mountain plateaus of Peru. Also called “Peruvian Ginseng” Maca is an exceptionally hardy plant growing where no other crops can survive. At altitudes of 14,000 ft., Maca must endure extreme conditions ranging from freezing cold, fierce winds, to intense sunlight, often all within a period of 24 hours. Herbalists believe that resilient plants are especially valuable from a medicinal perspective and in this category, Maca knows no equal.

Who benefits from Maca?

Everyone! The most exciting news about Maca is that it strengthens and balances the endocrine system of both sexes in the appropriate gender-specific manner. Its action focuses on the hypothalamus/pituitary axis, which governs the intricate and delicate hormonal system of our body. Maca is an ideal addition to the daily diets of both men and women to promote greater energy and stamina improve ability to handle stress and enhance sexual and reproductive health and wellness.

Can Maca help with my menopause symptoms?

Currently, Maca is gaining worldwide attention as a safe, natural, and highly effective alternative to HRT. Many health professionals are integrating Maca into their practices and promoting it as an excellent treatment for menopause since Maca offers an entirely different and completely safe approach to hormones. Maca is a tonic (strengthener) and rejuvenator for the entire endocrine system, thereby encouraging the body to manufacture it's own natural hormones - and in the correct proportion to each other. The results speak for themselves as thousands of women report relief from symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, fatigue, vaginal dryness, and loss of libido.

How is Maca different from menopausal herbs like black cohosh?

Even herbs containing phyto-hormones have a suppressive effect on the glands, which would naturally otherwise produce that hormone. Unlike soy products, black cohosh, licorice root, wild yam, and others containing hormone-like substances, Maca contains no plant hormones. By regulating the hypothalamus/pituitary axis to help insure balanced and healthy hormone levels in the body, Maca works on the root of the problem rather than just the symptoms of the problem.

Will Maca interfere or disrupt my natural hormonal rhythms?

Maca feeds and nourishes the glandular system. It in no way imposes or acts as an aggressor in the body. Rather, it works with the vital life force by giving it the proper tools to ensure optimum health and balance. Maca is a superfood that revitalizes the entire endocrine system, thus allowing the innate wisdom of the body to control the hormonal system from within.

How does Maca benefit andropause?

Andropause, also referred to as male menopause is a decline in, or an inability to utilize testosterone. When levels of this hormone become depleted in a man’s body, the results can be devastating--both physically and emotionally. Thankfully Maca can restore the aging hormonal system back to that of its younger years by strengthening and toning the entire endocrine system. Benefits can include an increase in libido, sexual potency, fertility, energy and stamina.

How much Maca should I take?

A common misconception about herbs is that there is a standard dosage. In actuality, the proper measure is in relation to size, sensitivity, age, and gender. In general though, a typical daily-suggested intake could be anywhere from 1,500-10,000mg daily, split into two or three doses. Remember that Maca is a food; less than 1500mg will likely not deliver desired results. We recommend starting at 1,500mg per day and regulating your own dosage to achieve your personal goals.

Can I take Maca with other supplements/medications?

To date there are no known toxic side effects to Maca. It is a very safe food and just as a common potato or turnip would not interfere with medications or supplements, neither will Maca. In fact, Maca will assist the body in utilizing supplements to their optimum capacity as it helps to further digest and assimilate the nutrients.

Can I give Maca to my children?

Maca has been consumed as a staple food in the diets of Native Peruvians for thousands of years. It has proven to be very safe and it is most definitely beneficial for children.
In today’s world of devitalized and highly processed foods, high sugared snacks and drinks, and demineralized soils, it’s nice for parents to know they have a highly nutritious alternative. Maca has no known side effects and is non-toxic. Maca powder can be added to beverages or food, including yogurt, porridge, applesauce, or pudding.

Can I give Maca to my pets?

The Native Peruvians fed Maca to their livestock to promote endurance, strength, and fertility. It is recorded that the use of Maca in their domesticated animals greatly enhanced their health. It may be of particular interest to breeders to know that Maca absolutely increases fertility, and to further its appeal, Maca also builds strong and vital offspring.

What is the best form of Maca to take?

Look for brands that use pure, certified organic Maca that is grown traditionally in the Peruvian highlands. Make sure that only the root of the Maca plant is used, as this is where the medicinal value resides. For best results, choose gelatinized Maca for greater potency and optimal absorption. Gelatinization is an extrusion process that removes the starch from the root leaving a more concentrated powder that is easier to digest. Maca is available in powder, tablets, and capsules. Powder is the most economical form and tablets and capsules are the most convenient.

Fava Beans: Great For Hormone Replacement With Anti-Cancer Potential

2008-01-07T15:58:00.001-05:00

Originally published January 7 2008
Fava Beans: Great For Hormone Replacement With Anti-Cancer Potential
by Kal Sellers

(NewsTarget) Two years ago this month a good friend of ours joined us for a humble beginning of our natural nutrition and whole food preparation classes. She was one of those students who just took everything and ran with it. She lost about 15 pounds, her bowels started moving better and she looked ten years younger.

For all of this, she complained that she was being driven crazy with hot flashes and did not want to go on hormone therapy. She decided to come see me professionally.

I spoke with her and quizzed her about her diet. She had been following our health program exactly. I figured that she just needed an infusion of plant based hormones.

I explained to her that plant hormones are the best protection in the world. They are large, weak structures that will fill up all the hormone binding sites and keep them satisfied as needed without ever reaching toxic strength. When your body releases hormones erratically (as happens during many times of life but especially during menopause) those hormones can be absent or can be at toxic levels. With plant hormones binding up the receptor sites all the time, you never even know that the levels are up or down and the potential toxic levels (which can cause estrogen-dependent cancer) are never reached.

The best part of all this, I told her, is that your body will stop working so hard at meeting hormonal needs and will get to rest and re-set itself to a new level of health.

I explained that if we all ate natural diets all the time, that we could not avoid huge amounts of plant hormones every day and that our bodies really are designed to get most of their hormone needs from the diet.

She, of course, wanted to know what to do.

I told her about fava beans. These are the most estrogen-dense food known. When sprouted, they become far more so, 3-30 times more.

I had her sprout dry fava beans (which took one afternoon in a bowl of water) and then low-heat them. Low heating is a technique perfected in Traci's Transformational Kitchen Cookbook and Traci's Transformational Health Principles, which allows the bean to stay alive (in fact it will grow during the process and in the fridge thereafter) while softening the hard exterior.

She was then to blend them with a little extra virgin olive oil and seasonings to make a smooth savory "soup". She was to eat at least 1/4 cup every day.

She actually blended them with tomatoes and onions when she did it for real. She had it for dinner and then that night she got sick. I have never seen this before or since. She stayed sick for that night and was a little queasy the next day. After that she stopped having hot flashes. She went a whole year without having hot flashes and then, when they began again, she began eating 1/2 cup of edamame three or four times per week. She has been hot-flash free since that time.

Often today I read articles that are leading the readers to believe that soy is the premier source of phyto-estrogens. Not so at all. Further, many people are reacting to soy as a food reaction and their health gets damaged by it. Besides this, soy protein (which is what many people are using) is a by-product of making soybean oil and is very chemical rich.

Edamame, a green soybean, has none of the drawbacks and most people will not react to it even if they are allergic to dry soybeans and soy products.

Still, fava beans are the best source. They are usually experienced as tasty and are easy to digest. When sprouted, they become the best phyto-estrogen supplement known.

I have given fava beans to many people having hormone problems and I find them reliable relief. As with all sources of phyto-estrogens, fava beans are also somewhat anti-inflammatory.

Herbally (after all, this is an herbal medicine column), we use blessed thistle, black cohosh, kudzu root, wild yam, sarsaparilla, wheatgrass, red clover blossoms, alfalfa, vitex, dong quai and many others for herbal hormone foods. Most of these contain phyto-estrogens, wild yam and sarsaparilla contain steroidal saponins which are hormone building blocks.

I no longer reach first for the herbal aids, however, but recommend sprouted, low-heated fava bean soup.

About the author
Kal Sellers, MH is a lifelong student and practitioner of the natural healing arts.
Kal is a Master Herbalist, a Massage Therapist, Technician of the Rolf Method of Structural Integration, Iridologist, Mind-Body Medicine Practitioner, Mental Re-programmer, Life Coach, Natural Nutritionist, Reflexologist and more.
Kal is currently attending Life University in preparation for chiropractic school.
Kal currently operates and maintains www.KalsSchool.com, an on-line school for natural healing and herbal medicine.
Kal also maintains www.BestFoodist.com as the website for the distribution of his and his wife's books on natural nutrition and companion recipe book (Traci's Transformational Kitchen Cookbook and Traci's Transformational Health Principles).
Kal and Traci have five children, the last three of which were delivered at home, the last by Kal. They live now in Powder Springs, GA where they maintain live classes on food and medicine for anyone choosing to master medical independence and life-long optimal health!

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All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. Newstarget.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NewsTarget.com/terms.shtml

inforwars.com cartoons

2008-01-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Let's make 2008 a great one. Peace, knowledge and love to all.

Human medical experimentation in the United States

2007-12-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published March 6 2006

Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1833-1965)

by Dani Veracity

Introduction by the Health Ranger: The United States claims to be the world leader in medicine. But there's a dark side to western medicine that few want to acknowledge: The horrifying medical experiments performed on impoverished people and their children all in the name of scientific progress. Many of these medical experiments were conducted on people without their knowledge, and most were conducted as part of an effort to seek profits from newly approved drugs or medical technologies.
Today, the medical experiments continue on the U.S. population and its children. From the mass drugging of children diagnosed with fictitious behavioral disorders invented by psychiatry to the FDA's approval of mass-marketed drugs that have undergone no legitimate clinical trials, our population is right now being subjected to medical experiments on a staggering scale. Today, nearly 50% of Americans are on a least one prescription drug, and nearly 20% of schoolchildren are on mind-altering amphetamines like Ritalin or antidepressants like Prozac. This mass medication of our nation is, in every way, a grand medical experiment taking place right now.

But to truly understand how this mass experimentation on modern Americans came into being, you have to take a close look at the horrifying history of conventional medicine's exploitation of people for cruel medical experiments.

WARNING: What you are about to read is truly shocking. You have never been told this information by the American Medical Association, nor drug companies, nor the evening news. You were never taught the truth about conventional medicine in public school, or even at any university. This is the dark secret of the U.S. system of medicine, and once you read the true accounts reported here, you may never trust drug companies again. These images are deeply disturbing. We print them here not as a form of entertainment, but as a stern warning against what might happen to us and our children if we do not rein in the horrifying, inhumane actions of Big Pharma and modern-day psychiatry.

Now, I introduce this shocking timeline, researched and authored by Dani Veracity, one of our many talented staff writers here at Truth Publishing.

Read at your own risk. - The Health Ranger

The true U.S. history of human medical experimentation
Human experimentation -- that is, subjecting live human beings to science experiments that are sometimes cruel, sometimes painful, sometimes deadly and always a risk -- is a major part of U.S. history that you won't find in most history or science books. The United States is undoubtedly responsible for some of the most amazing scientific breakthroughs. These advancements, especially in the field of medicine, have changed the lives of billions of people around the world -- sometimes for the better, as in the case of finding a cure for malaria and other epidemic diseases, and sometimes for the worse (consider modern "psychiatry" and the drugging of schoolchildren).
However, these breakthroughs come with a hefty price tag: The human beings used in the experiments that made these advancements possible. Over the last two centuries, some of these test subjects have been compensated for the damage done to their emotional and physical health, but most have not. Many have lost their lives because of the experiments they often unwillingly and sometimes even unwittingly participated in, and they of course can never be compensated for losing their most precious possession of all: Their health.

As you read through these science experiments, you'll learn the stories of newborns injected with radioactive substances, mentally ill people placed in giant refrigerators, military personnel exposed to chemical weapons by the very government they served and mentally challenged children being purposely infected with hepatitis. These stories are facts, not fiction: Each account, no matter how horrifying, is backed up with a link or citation to a reputable source.

These stories must be heard because human experimentation is still going on today. The reasons behind the experiments may be different, but the usual human guinea pigs are still the same -- members of minority groups, the poor and the disadvantaged. These are the lives that were put on the line in the name of "scientific" medicine.

(1833)
Dr. William Beaumont, an army surgeon physician, pioneers gastric medicine with his study of a patient with a permanently open gunshot wound to the abdomen and writes a human medical experimentation code that asserts the importance of experimental treatments, but also lists requirements stipulating that human subjects must give voluntary, informed consent and be able to end the experiment when they want. Beaumont's Code lists verbal, rather than just written, consent as permissible (Berdon).
(1845)
(1845 - 1849) J. Marion Sims, later hailed as the "father of gynecology," performs medical experiments on enslaved African women without anesthesia. These women would usually die of infection soon after surgery. Based on his belief that the movement of newborns' skull bones during protracted births causes trismus, he also uses a shoemaker's awl, a pointed tool shoemakers use to make holes in leather, to practice moving the skull bones of babies born to enslaved mothers (Brinker).
(1895)
New York pediatrician Henry Heiman infects a 4-year-old boy whom he calls "an idiot with chronic epilepsy" with gonorrhea as part of a medical experiment ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1896)
Dr. Arthur Wentworth turns 29 children at Boston's Children's Hospital into human guinea pigs when he performs spinal taps on them, just to test whether the procedure is harmful (Sharav).
(1900)
U.S Army doctors working in the Philippines infect five Filipino prisoners with plague and withhold proper nutrition to create Beriberi in 29 prisoners; four test subjects die (Merritte, et al.; Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
Under commission from the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Walter Reed goes to Cuba and uses 22 Spanish immigrant workers to prove that yellow fever is contracted through mosquito bites. Doing so, he introduces the practice of using healthy test subjects, and also the concept of a written contract to confirm informed consent of these subjects. While doing this study, Dr. Reed clearly tells the subjects that, though he will do everything he can to help them, they may die as a result of the experiment. He pays them $100 in gold for their participation, plus $100 extra if they contract yellow fever (Berdon, Sharav).

(1906)
Harvard professor Dr. Richard Strong infects prisoners in the Philippines with cholera to study the disease; 13 of them die. He compensates survivors with cigars and cigarettes. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors cite this study to justify their own medical experiments (Greger, Sharav).
(1911)
Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research publishes data on injecting an inactive syphilis preparation into the skin of 146 hospital patients and normal children in an attempt to develop a skin test for syphilis. Later, in 1913, several of these children's parents sue Dr. Noguchi for allegedly infecting their children with syphilis ("Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War").
(1913)
Medical experimenters "test" 15 children at the children's home St. Vincent's House in Philadelphia with tuberculin, resulting in permanent blindness in some of the children. Though the Pennsylvania House of Representatives records the incident, the researchers are not punished for the experiments ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1915)
Dr. Joseph Goldberger, under order of the U.S. Public Health Office, produces Pellagra, a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system, in 12 Mississippi inmates to try to find a cure for the disease. One test subject later says that he had been through "a thousand hells." In 1935, after millions die from the disease, the director of the U.S Public Health Office would finally admit that officials had known that it was caused by a niacin deficiency for some time, but did nothing about it because it mostly affected poor African-Americans. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors used this study to try to justify their medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (Greger; Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1918)
In response to the Germans' use of chemical weapons during World War I, President Wilson creates the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) as a branch of the U.S. Army. Twenty-four years later, in 1942, the CWS would begin performing mustard gas and lewisite experiments on over 4,000 members of the armed forces (Global Security, Goliszek).
(1919)
(1919 - 1922) Researchers perform testicular transplant experiments on inmates at San Quentin State Prison in California, inserting the testicles of recently executed inmates and goats into the abdomens and scrotums of living prisoners (Greger).
(1931)
Cornelius Rhoads, a pathologist from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, purposely infects human test subjects in Puerto Rico with cancer cells; 13 of them die. Though a Puerto Rican doctor later discovers that Rhoads purposely covered up some of details of his experiment and Rhoads himself gives a written testimony stating he believes that all Puerto Ricans should be killed, he later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, where he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients (Sharav; Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1931 - 1933) Mental patients at Elgin State Hospital in Illinois are injected with radium-266 as an experimental therapy for mental illness (Goliszek).

(1932)
(1932-1972) The U.S. Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Ala. diagnoses 400 poor, black sharecroppers with syphilis but never tells them of their illness nor treats them; instead researchers use the men as human guinea pigs to follow the symptoms and progression of the disease. They all eventually die from syphilis and their families are never told that they could have been treated (Goliszek, University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library).
(1937)
Scientists at Cornell University Medical School publish an angina drug study that uses both placebo and blind assessment techniques on human test subjects. They discover that the subjects given the placebo experienced more of an improvement in symptoms than those who were given the actual drug. This is first account of the placebo effect published in the United States ("Placebo Effect").
(1939)
In order to test his theory on the roots of stuttering, prominent speech pathologist Dr. Wendell Johnson performs his famous "Monster Experiment" on 22 children at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport. Dr. Johnson and his graduate students put the children under intense psychological pressure, causing them to switch from speaking normally to stuttering heavily. At the time, some of the students reportedly warn Dr. Johnson that, "in the aftermath of World War II, observers might draw comparisons to Nazi experiments on human subjects, which could destroy his career" (Alliance for Human Research Protection).
(1941)
Dr. William C. Black infects a 12-month-old baby with herpes as part of a medical experiment. At the time, the editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Francis Payton Rous, calls it "an abuse of power, an infringement of the rights of an individual, and not excusable because the illness which followed had implications for science" (Sharav).
An article in a 1941 issue of Archives of Pediatrics describes medical studies of the severe gum disease Vincent's angina in which doctors transmit the disease from sick children to healthy children with oral swabs (Goliszek).

Drs. Francis and Salk and other researchers at the University of Michigan spray large amounts of wild influenza virus directly into the nasal passages of "volunteers" from mental institutions in Michigan. The test subjects develop influenza within a very short period of time (Meiklejohn).

Researchers give 800 poverty-stricken pregnant women at a Vanderbilt University prenatal clinic "cocktails" including radioactive iron in order to determine the iron requirements of pregnant women (Pacchioli).

(1942)
The United States creates Fort Detrick, a 92-acre facility, employing nearly 500 scientists working to create biological weapons and develop defensive measures against them. Fort Detrick's main objectives include investigating whether diseases are transmitted by inhalation, digestion or through skin absorption; of course, these biological warfare experiments heavily relied on the use of human subjects (Goliszek).
U.S. Army and Navy doctors infect 400 prison inmates in Chicago with malaria to study the disease and hopefully develop a treatment for it. The prisoners are told that they are helping the war effort, but not that they are going to be infected with malaria. During Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors later cite this American study to defend their own medical experiments in concentration camps like Auschwitz (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

The Chemical Warfare Service begins mustard gas and lewisite experiments on 4,000 members of the U.S. military. Some test subjects don't realize they are volunteering for chemical exposure experiments, like 17-year-old Nathan Schnurman, who in 1944 thinks he is only volunteering to test "U.S. Navy summer clothes" (Goliszek).

In an experiment sponsored by the U.S. Navy, Harvard biochemist Edward Cohn injects 64 inmates of Massachusetts state prisons with cow's blood (Sharav).

Merck Pharmaceuticals President George Merck is named director of the War Research Service (WRS), an agency designed to oversee the establishment of a biological warfare program (Goliszek).

(1943)
In order to "study the effect of frigid temperature on mental disorders," researchers at University of Cincinnati Hospital keep 16 mentally disabled patients in refrigerated cabinets for 120 hours at 30 degrees Fahrenheit (Sharav).
(1944)
As part of the Manhattan Project that would eventually create the atomic bomb, researchers inject 4.7 micrograms of plutonium into soldiers at the Oak Ridge facility, 20 miles west of Knoxville, Tenn. ("Manhattan Project: Oak Ridge").
Captain A. W. Frisch, an experienced microbiologist, begins experiments on four volunteers from the state prison at Dearborn, Mich., inoculating prisoners with hepatitis-infected specimens obtained in North Africa. One prisoner dies; two others develop hepatitis but live; the fourth develops symptoms but does not actually develop the disease (Meiklejohn).

Laboratory workers at the University of Minnesota and University of Chicago inject human test subjects with phosphorus-32 to learn the metabolism of hemoglobin (Goliszek).

(1944 - 1946) In order to quickly develop a cure for malaria -- a disease hindering Allied success in World War II -- University of Chicago Medical School professor Dr. Alf Alving infects psychotic patients at Illinois State Hospital with the disease through blood transfusions and then experiments malaria cures on them (Sharav).

A captain in the medical corps addresses an April 1944 memo to Col. Stanford Warren, head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, expressing his concerns about atom bomb component fluoride's central nervous system (CNS) effects and asking for animal research to be done to determine the extent of these effects: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect ... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor ... Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure." The following year, the Manhattan Project would begin human-based studies on fluoride's effects (Griffiths and Bryson).

The Manhattan Project medical team, led by the now infamous University of Rochester radiologist Col. Safford Warren, injects plutonium into patients at the University's teaching hospital, Strong Memorial (Burton Report).

(1945)
Continuing the Manhattan Project, researchers inject plutonium into three patients at the University of Chicago's Billings Hospital (Sharav).
The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence and the CIA begin Operation Paperclip, offering Nazi scientists immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top-secret government projects on aerodynamics and chemical warfare medicine in the United States ("Project Paperclip").

Researchers infect 800 prisoners in Atlanta with malaria to study the disease (Sharav).

(1945 - 1955) In Newburgh, N.Y., researchers linked to the Manhattan Project begin the most extensive American study ever done on the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water (Griffiths and Bryson).

(1946)
Gen. Douglas MacArthur strikes a secret deal with Japanese physician Dr. Shiro Ishii to turn over 10,000 pages of information gathered from human experimentation in exchange for granting Ishii immunity from prosecution for the horrific experiments he performed on Chinese, Russian and American war prisoners, including performing vivisections on live human beings (Goliszek, Sharav).
Male and female test subjects at Chicago's Argonne National Laboratories are given intravenous injections of arsenic-76 so that researchers can study how the human body absorbs, distributes and excretes arsenic (Goliszek).

Continuing the Newburg study of 1945, the Manhattan Project commissions the University of Rochester to study fluoride's effects on animals and humans in a project codenamed "Program F." With the help of the New York State Health Department, Program F researchers secretly collect and analyze blood and tissue samples from Newburg residents. The studies are sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission and take place at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Strong Memorial Hospital (Griffiths and Bryson).

(1946 - 1947) University of Rochester researchers inject four male and two female human test subjects with uranium-234 and uranium-235 in dosages ranging from 6.4 to 70.7 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight in order to study how much uranium they could tolerate before their kidneys become damaged (Goliszek).

Six male employees of a Chicago metallurgical laboratory are given water contaminated with plutonium-239 to drink so that researchers can learn how plutonium is absorbed into the digestive tract (Goliszek).

Researchers begin using patients in VA hospitals as test subjects for human medical experiments, cleverly worded as "investigations" or "observations" in medical study reports to avoid negative connotations and bad publicity (Sharav).

The American public finally learns of the biowarfare experiments being done at Fort Detrick from a report released by the War Department (Goliszek).

(1946 - 1953) The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission sponsors studies in which researchers from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston University School of Medicine feed mentally disabled students at Fernald State School Quaker Oats breakfast cereal spiked with radioactive tracers every morning so that nutritionists can study how preservatives move through the human body and if they block the absorption of vitamins and minerals. Later, MIT researchers conduct the same study at Wrentham State School (Sharav, Goliszek).

Human test subjects are given one to four injections of arsenic-76 at the University of Chicago Department of Medicine. Researchers take tissue biopsies from the subjects before and after the injections (Goliszek).

(1947)
Col. E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) issues a top-secret document (707075) dated Jan. 8. In it, he writes that "certain radioactive substances are being prepared for intravenous administration to human subjects as a part of the work of the contract" (Goliszek).
A secret AEC document dated April 17 reads, "It is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans that might have an adverse reaction on public opinion or result in legal suits," revealing that the U.S. government was aware of the health risks its nuclear tests posed to military personnel conducting the tests or nearby civilians (Goliszek).

The CIA begins studying LSD's potential as a weapon by using military and civilian test subjects for experiments without their consent or even knowledge. Eventually, these LSD studies will evolve into the MKULTRA program in 1953 (Sharav).

(1947 - 1953) The U.S. Navy begins Project Chatter to identify and test so-called "truth serums," such as those used by the Soviet Union to interrogate spies. Mescaline and the central nervous system depressant scopolamine are among the many drugs tested on human subjects (Goliszek).

(1948)
Based on the secret studies performed on Newburgh, N.Y. residents beginning in 1945, Project F researchers publish a report in the August 1948 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association, detailing fluoride's health dangers. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) quickly censors it for "national security" reasons (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1950)
(1950 - 1953) The CIA and later the Office of Scientific Intelligence begin Project Bluebird (renamed Project Artichoke in 1951) in order to find ways to "extract" information from CIA agents, control individuals "through special interrogation techniques," "enhance memory" and use "unconventional techniques, including hypnosis and drugs" for offensive measures (Goliszek).
(1950 - 1953) The U.S. Army releases chemical clouds over six American and Canadian cities. Residents in Winnipeg, Canada, where a highly toxic chemical called cadmium is dropped, subsequently experience high rates of respiratory illnesses (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

In order to determine how susceptible an American city could be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of Bacillus globigii bacteria from ships over the San Francisco shoreline. According to monitoring devices situated throughout the city to test the extent of infection, the eight thousand residents of San Francisco inhale five thousand or more bacteria particles, many becoming sick with pneumonia-like symptoms (Goliszek).

Dr. Joseph Strokes of the University of Pennsylvania infects 200 female prisoners with viral hepatitis to study the disease (Sharav).

Doctors at the Cleveland City Hospital study changes in cerebral blood flow by injecting test subjects with spinal anesthesia, inserting needles in their jugular veins and brachial arteries, tilting their heads down and, after massive blood loss causes paralysis and fainting, measuring their blood pressure. They often perform this experiment multiple times on the same subject (Goliszek).

Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, later of MKULTRA infamy due to his 1957 to1964 experiments on Canadians, publishes an article in the British Journal of Physical Medicine, in which he describes experiments that entail forcing schizophrenic patients at Manitoba's Brandon Mental Hospital to lie naked under 15- to 200-watt red lamps for up to eight hours per day. His other experiments include placing mental patients in an electric cage that overheats their internal body temperatures to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and inducing comas by giving patients large injections of insulin (Goliszek).

(1951)
The U.S. Navy's Project Bluebird is renamed Project Artichoke and begins human medical experiments that test the effectiveness of LSD, sodium pentothal and hypnosis for the interrogative purposes described in Project Bluebird's objectives (1950) (Goliszek).
The U.S. Army secretly contaminates the Norfolk Naval Supply Center in Virginia and Washington, D.C.'s National Airport with a strain of bacteria chosen because African-Americans were believed to be more susceptible to it than Caucasians. The experiment causes food poisoning, respiratory problems and blood poisoning (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

(1951 - 1952) Researchers withhold insulin from diabetic patients for up to two days in order to observe the effects of diabetes; some test subjects go into diabetic comas (Goliszek).

(1951 - 1956) Under contract with the Air Force's School of Aviation Medicine (SAM), the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston begins studying the effects of radiation on cancer patients -- many of them members of minority groups or indigents, according to sources -- in order to determine both radiation's ability to treat cancer and the possible long-term radiation effects of pilots flying nuclear-powered planes. The study lasts until 1956, involving 263 cancer patients. Beginning in 1953, the subjects are required to sign a waiver form, but it still does not meet the informed consent guidelines established by the Wilson memo released that year. The TBI studies themselves would continue at four different institutions -- Baylor University College of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine -- until 1971 (U.S. Department of Energy, Goliszek).

American, Canadian and British military and intelligence officials gather a small group of eminent psychologists to a secret meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal about Communist "thought-control techniques." They proposed a top-secret research program on behavior modification -- involving testing drugs, hypnosis, electroshock and lobotomies on humans (Barker).

(1952)
Military scientists use the Dugway Proving Ground -- which is located 87 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah -- in a series of experiments to determine how Brucella suis and Brucella melitensis spread in human populations. Today, over a half-century later, some experts claim that we are all infected with these agents as a result of these experiments (Goliszek).
In a U.S. Department of Denfense-sponsored experiment, Henry Blauer dies after he is injected with mescaline at Columbia University's New York State Psychiatric Institute (Sharav).

At the famous Sloan-Kettering Institute, Chester M. Southam injects live cancer cells into prisoners at the Ohio State Prison to study the progression of the disease. Half of the prisoners in this National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) study are black, awakening racial suspicions stemming from Tuskegee, which was also an NIH-sponsored study (Merritte, et al.).

(1953)
(1953 - 1970) The CIA begins project MKNAOMI to "stockpile incapacitating and lethal materials, to develop gadgetry for the disseminations of these materials, and to test the effects of certain drugs on animals and humans." As part of MKNAOMI, the CIA and the Special Operations Division of the Army Biological Laboratory at Fort Detrick try to develop two suicide pill alternatives to the standard cyanide suicide pill given to CIA agents and U-2 pilots. CIA agents and U-2 pilots are meant to take these pills when they find themselves in situations in which they (and all the information they hold in their brains) are in enemy hands. They also develop a "microbioinoculator" -- a device that agents can use to fire small darts coated with biological agents that can remain potent for weeks or even months. These darts can be fired through clothing and, most significantly, are undetectable during autopsy. Eventually, by the late 1960s, MKNAOMI enables the CIA to have a stockpile of biological toxins -- infectious viruses, paralytic shellfish toxin, lethal botulism toxin, snake venom and the severe skin disease-producing agent Mircosporum gypseum. Of course, the development of all of this "gadgetry" requires human experimentation (Goliszek).
(1953 - 1974) CIA Director Allen Dulles authorizes the MKULTRA program to produce and test drugs and biological agents that the CIA could use for mind control and behavior modification. MKULTRA later becomes well known for its pioneering studies on LSD, which are often performed on prisoners or patrons of brothels set up and run by the CIA. The brothel experiments, known as "Operation Midnight Climax," feature two-way mirrors set up in the brothels so that CIA agents can observe LSD's effects on sexual behavior. Ironically, governmental figures sometimes slip LSD into each other's drinks as part of the program, resulting in the LSD psychosis-induced suicide of Dr. Frank Olson indirectly at the hands of MKULTRA's infamous key player Dr. Sidney Gottlieb. Of all the hundreds of human test subjects used during MKULTRA, only 14 are ever notified of the involvement and only one is ever compensated ($15,000). Most of the MKULTRA files are eventually destroyed in 1973 (Elliston; Merritte, et al.; Barker).

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sponsors iodine studies at the University of Iowa. In the first study, researchers give pregnant women 100 to 200 microcuries of iodine-131 and then study the women's aborted embryos in order to learn at what stage and to what extent radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. In the second study, researchers give 12 male and 13 female newborns under 36 hours old and weighing between 5.5 and 8.5 pounds iodine-131 either orally or via intramuscular injection, later measuring the concentration of iodine in the newborns' thyroid glands (Goliszek).

Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson issues the Wilson memo, a top-secret document establishing the Nuremberg Code as Department of Defense policy on human experimentation. The Wilson memo requires voluntary, written consent from a human medical research subject after he or she has been informed of "the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment." It also insists that doctors only use experimental treatments when other methods have failed (Berdon).

As part of an AEC study, researchers feed 28 healthy infants at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine iodine-131 through a gastric tube and then test concentration of iodine in the infants' thyroid glands 24 hours later (Goliszek).

(1953 - 1957) Eleven patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are injected with uranium as part of the Manhattan Project (Sharav).

In an AEC-sponsored study at the University of Tennessee, researchers inject healthy two- to three-day-old newborns with approximately 60 rads of iodine-131 (Goliszek).

Newborn Daniel Burton becomes blind when physicians at Brooklyn Doctors Hospital perform an experimental high oxygen treatment for Retrolental Fibroplasia, a retinal disorder affecting premature infants, on him and other premature babies. The physicians perform the experimental treatment despite earlier studies showing that high oxygen levels cause blindness. Testimony in Burton v. Brooklyn Doctors Hospital (452 N.Y.S.2d875) later reveals that researchers continued to give Burton and other infants excess oxygen even after their eyes had swelled to dangerous levels (Goliszek, Sharav).

The CIA begins Project MKDELTA to study the use of biochemicals "for harassment, discrediting and disabling purposes" (Goliszek).

A 1953 article in Clinical Science describes a medical experiment in which researchers purposely blister the abdomens of 41 children, ranging in age from eight to 14, with cantharide in order to study how severely the substance irritates the skin (Goliszek).

The AEC performs a series of field tests known as "Green Run," dropping radiodine 131 and xenon 133 over the Hanford, Wash. site -- 500,000 acres encompassing three small towns (Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland) along the Columbia River (Sharav).

In an AEC-sponsored study to learn whether radioactive iodine affects premature babies differently from full-term babies, researchers at Harper Hospital in Detroit give oral doses of iodine-131 to 65 premature and full-term infants weighing between 2.1 and 5.5 pounds (Goliszek).

(1954)
The CIA begins Project QKHILLTOP to study Chinese Communist Party brainwashing techniques and use them to further the CIA's own interrogative methods. Most experts speculate that the Cornell University Medical School Human Ecology Studies Program conducted Project QKHILLTOP's early experiments (Goliszek).
(1954 - 1975) U.S. Air Force medical officers assigned to Fort Detrick's Chemical Corps Biological Laboratory begin Operation Whitecoat -- experiments involving exposing human test subjects to hepatitis A, plague, yellow fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, rickettsia and intestinal microbes. These test subjects include 2,300 Seventh Day Adventist military personnel, who choose to become human guinea pigs rather than potentially kill others in combat. Only two of the 2,300 claim long-term medical complications from participating in the study ("Operation Whitecoat".)

In a general memo to university researchers under contract with the military, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army asserts the human experimentation guidelines -- including informed, written consent -- established in the classified Wilson memo (Goliszek).

(1955)
In U.S. Army-sponsored experiments performed at Tulane University, mental patients are given LSD and other drugs and then have electrodes implanted in their brain to measure the levels (Barker, "The Cold War Experiments").
(1955 - 1957) In order to learn how cold weather affects human physiology, researchers give a total of 200 doses of iodine-131, a radioactive tracer that concentrates almost immediately in the thyroid gland, to 85 healthy Eskimos and 17 Athapascan Indians living in Alaska. They study the tracer within the body by blood, thyroid tissue, urine and saliva samples from the test subjects. Due to the language barrier, no one tells the test subjects what is being done to them, so there is no informed consent (Goliszek).

(1955 - 1965) As a result of their work with the CIA's mind control experiments in Project QKHILLTOP, Cornell neurologists Harold Wolff and Lawrence Hinkle begin the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology (later renamed the Human Ecology Fund) to study "man's relation to his social environment as perceived by him" (Goliszek).

(1956)
(1956 - 1957) U.S. Army covert biological weapons researchers release mosquitoes infected with yellow fever and dengue fever over Savannah, Ga., and Avon Park, Fla., to test the insects' ability to carry disease. After each test, Army agents pose as public health officials to test victims for effects and take pictures of the unwitting test subjects. These experiments result in a high incidence of fevers, respiratory distress, stillbirths, encephalitis and typhoid among the two cities' residents, as well as several deaths (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1957)
The U.S. military conducts Operation Plumbbob at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Operation Pumbbob consists of 29 nuclear detonations, eventually creating radiation expected to result in a total 32,000 cases of thyroid cancer among civilians in the area. Around 18,000 members of the U.S. military participate in Operation Pumbbob's Desert Rock VII and VIII, which are designed to see how the average foot soldier physiologically and mentally responds to a nuclear battlefield ("Operation Plumbbob", Goliszek).
(1957 - 1964) As part of MKULTRA, the CIA pays McGill University Department of Psychiatry founder Dr. D. Ewen Cameron $69,000 to perform LSD studies and potentially lethal experiments on Canadians being treated for minor disorders like post-partum depression and anxiety at the Allan Memorial Institute, which houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. The CIA encourages Dr. Cameron to fully explore his "psychic driving" concept of correcting madness through completely erasing one's memory and rewriting the psyche. These "driving" experiments involve putting human test subjects into drug-, electroshock- and sensory deprivation-induced vegetative states for up to three months, and then playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements for weeks or months in order to "rewrite" the "erased" psyche. Dr. Cameron also gives human test subjects paralytic drugs and electroconvulsive therapy 30 to 40 times, as part of his experiments. Most of Dr. Cameron's test subjects suffer permanent damage as a result of his work (Goliszek, "Donald Ewan Cameron").

In order to study how blood flows through children's brains, researchers at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia perform the following experiment on healthy children, ranging in age from three to 11: They insert needles into each child's femoral artery (thigh) and jugular vein (neck), bringing the blood down from the brain. Then, they force each child to inhale a special gas through a facemask. In their subsequent Journal of Clinical Investigation article on this study, the researchers note that, in order to perform the experiment, they had to restrain some of the child test subjects by bandaging them to boards (Goliszek).

(1958)
Approximately 300 members of the U.S. Navy are exposed to radiation when the Navy destroyer Mansfield detonates 30 nuclear bombs off the coasts of Pacific Islands during Operation Hardtack (Goliszek).
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) drops radioactive materials over Point Hope, Alaska, home to the Inupiats, in a field test known under the codename "Project Chariot" (Sharav).

(1961)
In response to the Nuremberg Trials, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram begins his famous Obedience to Authority Study in order to answer his question "Could it be that (Adolf) Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" Male test subjects, ranging in age from 20 to 40 and coming from all education backgrounds, are told to give "learners" electric shocks for every wrong answer the learners give in response to word pair questions. In reality, the learners are actors and are not receiving electric shocks, but what matters is that the test subjects do not know that. Astoundingly, they keep on following orders and continue to administer increasingly high levels of "shocks," even after the actor learners show obvious physical pain ("Milgram Experiment").
(1962)
Researchers at the Laurel Children's Center in Maryland test experimental acne antibiotics on children and continue their tests even after half of the young test subjects develop severe liver damage because of the experimental medication (Goliszek). The U.S. Army's Deseret Test Center begins Project 112. This includes SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), which exposes U.S. Navy and Army personnel to live toxins and chemical poisons in order to determine naval ships' vulnerability to chemical and biological weapons. Military personnel are not test subjects; conducting the tests exposes them. Many of these participants complain of negative health effects at the time and, decades later, suffer from severe medical problems as a result of their exposure (Goliszek, Veterans Health Administration).
The FDA begins requiring that a new pharmaceutical undergo three human clinical trials before it will approve it. From 1962 to 1980, pharmaceutical companies satisfy this requirement by running Phase I trials, which determine a drug's toxicity, on prison inmates, giving them small amounts of cash for compensation (Sharav).

(1963)
Chester M. Southam, who injected Ohio State Prison inmates with live cancer cells in 1952, performs the same procedure on 22 senile, African-American female patients at the Brooklyn Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in order to watch their immunological response. Southam tells the patients that they are receiving "some cells," but leaves out the fact that they are cancer cells. He claims he doesn't obtain informed consent from the patients because he does not want to frighten them by telling them what he is doing, but he nevertheless temporarily loses his medical license because of it. Ironically, he eventually becomes president of the American Cancer Society (Greger, Merritte, et al.).
Researchers at the University of Washington directly irradiate the testes of 232 prison inmates in order to determine radiation's effects on testicular function. When these inmates later leave prison and have children, at least four have babies born with birth defects. The exact number is unknown because researchers never follow up on the men to see the long-term effects of their experiment (Goliszek).

In a National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) study, a researcher transplants a chimpanzee's kidney into a human. The experiment fails (Sharav).

(1963 - 1966) New York University researcher Saul Krugman promises parents with mentally disabled children definite enrollment into the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, N.Y., a resident mental institution for mentally retarded children, in exchange for their signatures on a consent form for procedures presented as "vaccinations." In reality, the procedures involve deliberately infecting children with viral hepatitis by feeding them an extract made from the feces of infected patients, so that Krugman can study the course of viral hepatitis as well the effectiveness of a hepatitis vaccine (Hammer Breslow).

(1963 - 1971) Leading endocrinologist Dr. Carl Heller gives 67 prison inmates at Oregon State Prison in Salem $5 per month and $25 per testicular tissue biopsy in compensation for allowing him to perform irradiation experiments on their testes. If they receive vasectomies at the end of the study, the prisoners are given an extra $100 (Sharav, Goliszek).

Researchers inject a genetic compound called radioactive thymidine into the testicles of more than 100 Oregon State Penitentiary inmates to learn whether sperm production is affected by exposure to steroid hormones (Greger).

In a study published in Pediatrics, researchers at the University of California's Department of Pediatrics use 113 newborns ranging in age from one hour to three days old in a series of experiments used to study changes in blood pressure and blood flow. In one study, doctors insert a catheter through the newborns' umbilical arteries and into their aortas and then immerse the newborns' feet in ice water while recording aortic pressure. In another experiment, doctors strap 50 newborns to a circumcision board, tilt the table so that all the blood rushes to their heads and then measure their blood pressure (Goliszek).

(1964)
(1964 - 1968) The U.S. Army pays $386,486 (the largest sum ever paid for human experimentation) to University of Pennsylvania Professors Albert Kligman and Herbert W. Copelan to run medical experiments on 320 inmates of Holmesburg Prison to determine the effectiveness of seven mind-altering drugs. The researchers' objective is to determine the minimum effective dose of each drug needed to disable 50 percent of any given population (MED-50). Though Professors Kligman and Copelan claim that they are unaware of any long-term effects the mind-altering agents might have on prisoners, documents revealed later would prove otherwise (Kaye).
(1964 - 1967) The Dow Chemical Company pays Professor Kligman $10,000 to learn how dioxin -- a highly toxic, carcinogenic component of Agent Orange -- and other herbicides affect human skin because workers at the chemical plant have been developing an acne-like condition called Chloracne and the company would like to know whether the chemicals they are handling are to blame. As part of the study, Professor Kligman applies roughly the amount of dioxin Dow employees are exposed to on the skin 60 prisoners, and is disappointed when the prisoners show no symptoms of Chloracne. In 1980 and 1981, the human guinea pigs used in this study would begin suing Professor Kligman for complications including lupus and psychological damage (Kaye).

(1965)
The Department of Defense uses human test subjects wearing rubber clothing and M9A1 masks to conduct 35 trials near Fort Greely, Ala., as part of the Elk Hunt tests, which are designed to measure the amount of VX nerve agent put on the clothing of people moving through VX-contaminated areas or touching contaminated vehicles, and the amount of VX vapor rising from these areas. After the tests, the subjects are decontaminated using wet steam and high-pressure cold water (Goliszek).
As part of a test codenamed "Big Tom," the Department of Defense sprays Oahu, Hawaii's most heavily populated island, with Bacillus globigii in order to simulate an attack on an island complex. Bacillus globigii causes infections in people with weakened immune systems, but this was not known to scientists at the time (Goliszek, Martin).

(1966)
The CIA continues a limited number of MKULTRA plans by beginning Project MKSEARCH to develop and test ways of using biological, chemical and radioactive materials in intelligence operations, and also to develop and test drugs that are able to produce predictable changes in human behavior and physiology (Goliszek).
Dr. Henry Beecher writes, "The well-being, the health, even the actual or potential life of all human beings, born or unborn, depend upon the continuing experimentation in man. Proceed it must; proceed it will. 'The proper study of mankind is man,'" in his "exposé" on human medical experimentation Research and the Individual ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").

U.S. Army scientists drop light bulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis through ventilation gates and into the New York City subway system, exposing more than one million civilians to the bacteria (Goliszek).

The National Commission for the Protection of Research Subjects issues its Policies for the Protection of Human Subjects, which eventually creates what we now know as institutional review boards (IRBs) (Sharav).

(1967)
Continuing on his Dow Chemical Company-sponsored dioxin study without the company's knowledge or consent, University of Pennsylvania Professor Albert Kligman increases the dosage of dioxin he applies to 10 prisoners' skin to 7,500 micrograms, 468 times the dosage Dow official Gerald K. Rowe had authorized him to administer. As a result, the prisoners experience acne lesions that develop into inflammatory pustules and papules (Kaye).
The CIA places a chemical in the drinking water supply of the FDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. to see whether it is possible to spike drinking water with LSD and other substances (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers inject pregnant women with radioactive cortisol to see if the radioactive material will cross the placentas and affect the fetuses (Goliszek).

The U.S. Army pays Professor Kligman to apply skin-blistering chemicals to Holmesburg Prison inmates' faces and backs, so as to, in Professor Kligman's words, "learn how the skin protects itself against chronic assault from toxic chemicals, the so-called hardening process," information which would have both offensive and defensive applications for the U.S. military (Kaye).

The CIA and Edgewood Arsenal Research Laboratories begin an extensive program for developing drugs that can influence human behavior. This program includes Project OFTEN -- which studies the toxicology, transmission and behavioral effects of drugs in animal and human subjects -- and Project CHICKWIT, which gathers European and Asian drug development information (Goliszek).

Professor Kligman develops Retin-A as an acne cream (and eventually a wrinkle cream), turning him into a multi-millionaire (Kaye).

Researchers paralyze 64 prison inmates in California with a neuromuscular compound called succinylcholine, which produces suppressed breathing that feels similar to drowning. When five prisoners refuse to participate in the medical experiment, the prison's special treatment board gives researchers permission to inject the prisoners with the drug against their will (Greger).

(1968)
Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas and the Southwest Foundation for Research and Education begin an oral contraceptive study on 70 poverty-stricken Mexican-American women, giving only half the oral contraceptives they think they are receiving and the other half a placebo. When the results of this study are released a few years later, it stirs tremendous controversy among Mexican-Americans (Sharav, Sauter).
(1969)
President Nixon ends the United States' offensive biowarfare program, including human experimentation done at Fort Detrick. By this time, tens of thousands of civilians and members of the U.S. armed forces have wittingly and unwittingly acted as participants in experiments involving exposure to dangerous biological agents (Goliszek).
The U.S. military conducts DTC Test 69-12, which is an open-air test of VX and sarin nerve agents at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, likely exposing military personnel (Goliszek, Martin).

Experimental drugs are tested on mentally disabled children in Milledgeville, Ga., without any institutional approval whatsoever (Sharav).

Dr. Donald MacArthur, the U.S. Department of Defense's Deputy Director for Research and Technology, requests $10 million from Congress to develop a synthetic biological agent that would be resistant "to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease" (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

Judge Sam Steinfield's dissent in Strunk v. Strunk, 445 S.W.2d 145 marks the first time a judge has ever suggested that the Nuremberg Code be applied in American court cases (Sharav).

(1970)
A year after his request, under H.R. 15090, Dr. MacArthur receives funding to begin CIA-supervised mycoplasma research with Fort Detrick's Special Operations Division and hopefully create a synthetic immunosuppressive agent. Some experts believe that this research may have inadvertently created HIV, the virus that causes AIDS (Goliszek).
Under order from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which also sponsored the Tuskegee Experiment, the free childcare program at Johns Hopkins University collects blood samples from 7,000 African-American youth, telling their parents that they are checking for anemia but actually checking for an extra Y chromosome (XYY), believed to be a biological predisposition to crime. The program director, Digamber Borganokar, does this experiment without Johns Hopkins University's permission (Greger, Merritte, et al.).

(1971)
President Nixon converts Fort Detrick from an offensive biowarfare lab to the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, now known as the National Cancer Institute at Frederick. In addition to cancer research, scientists study virology, immunology and retrovirology (including HIV) there. Additionally, the site is home to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute, which researches drugs, vaccines and countermeasures for biological warfare, so the former Fort Detrick does not move far away from its biowarfare past (Goliszek).
Stanford University conducts the Stanford Prison Experiment on a group of college students in order to learn the psychology of prison life. Some students are given the role as prison guards, while the others are given the role of prisoners. After only six days, the proposed two-week study has to end because of its psychological effects on the participants. The "guards" had begun to act sadistic, while the "prisoners" started to show signs of depression and severe psychological stress (University of New Hampshire).

An article entitled "Viral Infections in Man Associated with Acquired Immunological Deficiency States" appears in Federation Proceedings. Dr. MacArthur and Fort Detrick's Special Operations Division have, at this point, been conducting mycoplasma research to create a synthetic immunosuppressive agent for about one year, again suggesting that this research may have produced HIV (Goliszek).

(1972)
In studies sponsored by the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Amedeo Marrazzi gives LSD to mental patients at the University of Missouri Institute of Psychiatry and the University of Minnesota Hospital to study "ego strength" (Barker).
(1973)
An Ad Hoc Advisory Panel issues its Final Report on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, writing, "Society can no longer afford to leave the balancing of individual rights against scientific progress to the scientific community" (Sharav).
(1974)
Congress enacts the National Research Act, creating the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and finally setting standards for human experimentation on children (Breslow).
(1975)
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare gives the National Institutes of Health's Policies for the Protection of Human Subjects (1966) regulatory status. Title 45, known as "The Common Rule," officially creates institutional review boards (IRBs) (Sharav).
(1977)
The Kennedy Hearing initiates the process toward Executive Order 12333, prohibiting intelligence agencies from experimenting on humans without informed consent (Merritte, et al.).
The U.S. government issues an official apology and $400,000 to Jeanne Connell, the sole survivor from Col. Warren's now-infamous plutonium injections at Strong Memorial Hospital, and the families of the other human test subjects (Burton Report).

The National Urban League holds its National Conference on Human Experimentation, stating, "We don't want to kill science but we don't want science to kill, mangle and abuse us" (Sharav).

(1978)
The CDC begins experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials in New York. Its ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men. Professor Wolf Szmuness of the Columbia University School of Public Health had made the vaccine's infective serum from the pooled blood serum of hepatitis-infected homosexuals and then developed it in chimpanzees, the only animal susceptible to hepatitis B, leading to the theory that HIV originated in chimpanzees before being transferred over to humans via this vaccine. A few months after 1,083 homosexual men receive the vaccine, New York physicians begin noticing cases of Kaposi's sarcoma, Mycoplasma penetrans and a new strain of herpes virus among New York's homosexual community -- diseases not usually seen among young, American men, but that would later be known as common opportunistic diseases associated with AIDS (Goliszek).
(1979)
The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research releases the Belmont Report, which establishes the foundations for research experimentation on humans. The Belmont Report mandates that researchers follow three basic principles: 1. Respect the subjects as autonomous persons and protect those with limited ability for independence (such as children), 2. Do no harm, 3. Choose test subjects justly -- being sure not to target certain groups because of they are easily accessible or easily manipulated, rather than for reasons directly related to the tests (Berdon).
(1980)
A study reveals a high incidence of leukemia among the 18,000 military personnel who participated in 1957's Operation Plumbbob (a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob">"Operation Plumbob").
According to blood samples tested years later for HIV, 20 percent of all New York homosexual men who participated in the 1978 hepatitis B vaccine experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).

American http://www.newstarget.com/doctors.html>doctors give experimental hormone shots to hundreds of Haitian men confined to detention camps in Miami and Puerto Rico, causing the men to develop a condition known as gynecomastia, in which men develop full-sized breasts (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

The CDC continues its 1978 hepatitis B vaccine experiment in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis and Denver, recruiting over 7,000 homosexual men in San Francisco alone (Goliszek).

The FDA prohibits the use of prison inmates in pharmaceutical drug trials, leading to the advent of the experimental drug testing centers industry (Sharav).

The first AIDS case appears in San Francisco (Goliszek).

(1981)
(1981 - 1993) The Seattle-based Genetic Systems Corporation begins an ongoing medical experiment called Protocol No. 126, in which cancer patients at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle are given bone marrow transplants that contain eight experimental proteins made by Genetic Systems, rather than standard bone marrow transplants; 19 human subjects die from complications directly related to the experimental treatment (Goliszek).
A deep diving experiment at Duke University causes test subject Leonard Whitlock to suffer permanent brain damage (Sharav).

The CDC acknowledges that a disease known as AIDS exists and confirms 26 cases of the disease -- all in previously healthy homosexuals living in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- again supporting the speculation that AIDS originated from the hepatitis B experiments from 1978 and 1980 (Goliszek).

(1982)
Thirty percent of the test subjects used in the CDC's hepatitis B vaccine experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).
(1984)
SFBC Phase I research clinic founded in Miami, Fla. By 2005, it would become the largest experimental drug testing center in North America with centers in Miami and Montreal, running Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials (Drug Development-Technology.com).
(1985)
A former U.S. Army sergeant tries to sue the Army for using drugs on him in without his consent or even his knowledge in United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669. Justice Antonin Scalia writes the decision, clearing the U.S. military from any liability in past, present or future medical experiments without informed consent (Merritte, et al..
(1987)
Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson discovers that researchers have removed her son's brain post mortem for medical study. She later learns that the state of Pennsylvania has a doctrine of "implied consent," meaning that unless a patient signs a document stating otherwise, consent for organ removal is automatically implied (Merritte, et al.).
(1988)
The U.S. Justice Department pays nine Canadian survivors of the CIA and Dr. Cameron's "psychic driving" experiments (1957 - 1964) $750,000 in out-of-court settlements, to avoid any further investigations into MKULTRA (Goliszek).
(1988 - 2001) The New York City Administration for Children's Services begins allowing foster care children living in about two dozen children's homes to be used in National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) experimental AIDS drug trials. These children -- totaling 465 by the program's end -- experience serious side effects, including inability to walk, diarrhea, vomiting, swollen joints and cramps. Children's home employees are unaware that they are giving the HIV-infected children experimental drugs, rather than standard AIDS treatments (New York City ACS, Doran).

(1990)
The United States sends 1.7 million members of the armed forces, 22 percent of whom are African-American, to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War ("Desert Storm"). More than 400,000 of these soldiers are ordered to take an experimental nerve agent medication called pyridostigmine, which is later believed to be the cause of Gulf War Syndrome -- symptoms ranging from skin disorders, neurological disorders, incontinence, uncontrollable drooling and vision problems -- affecting Gulf War veterans (Goliszek; Merritte, et al.).
The CDC and Kaiser Pharmaceuticals of Southern California inject 1,500 six-month-old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles with an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. Adding to the risk, children less than a year old may not have an adequate amount of myelin around their nerves, possibly resulting in impaired neural development because of the vaccine. The CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected into their children was experimental (Goliszek).

The FDA allows the U.S. Department of Defense to waive the Nuremberg Code and use unapproved drugs and vaccines in Operation Desert Shield (Sharav).

(1991)
In the May 27 issue of the Los Angeles Times, former U.S. Navy radio operator Richard Jenkins writes that he suffers from leukemia, chronic fatigue and kidney and liver disease as a result of the radiation exposure he received in 1958's Operation Hardtack (Goliszek).
While participating in a UCLA study that withdraws schizophrenics off of their medications, Tony LaMadrid commits suicide (Sharav).

(1992)
Columbia University's New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine give 100 males -- mostly African-American and Hispanic, all between the ages of six and 10 and all the younger brothers of juvenile delinquents -- 10 milligrams of fenfluramine (fen-fen) per kilogram of body weight in order to test the theory that low serotonin levels are linked to violent or aggressive behavior. Parents of the participants received $125 each, including a $25 Toys 'R' Us gift certificate (Goliszek).
(1993)
Researchers at the West Haven VA in Connecticut give 27 schizophrenics -- 12 inpatients and 15 functioning volunteers -- a chemical called MCPP that significantly increases their psychotic symptoms and, as researchers note, negatively affects the test subjects on a long-term basis ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
(1994)
In a double-blind experiment at New York VA Hospital, researchers take 23 schizophrenic inpatients off of their medications for a median of 30 days. They then give 17 of them 0.5 mg/kg amphetamine and six a placebo as a control, following up with PET scans at Brookhaven Laboratories. According to the researchers, the purpose of the experiment was "to specifically evaluate metabolic effects in subjects with varying degrees of amphetamine-induced psychotic exacerbation" ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
Albuquerque Tribune reporter Eileen Welsome receives a Pulitzer Prize for her investigative reporting into Col. Warren's plutonium experiments on patients at Strong Memorial Hospital in 1945 (Burton Report).

In a federally funded experiment at New York VA Medical Center, researchers give schizophrenic veterans amphetamine, even though central nervous system stimulants worsen psychotic symptoms in 40 percent of schizophrenics ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

Researchers at Bronx VA Medical Center recruit 28 schizophrenic veterans who are functioning in society and give them L-dopa in order to deliberately induce psychotic relapse ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

President Clinton appoints the Advisory Commission on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), which finally reveals the horrific experiments conducted during the Cold War era in its ACHRE Report.

(1995)
A 19-year-old University of Rochester student named Nicole Wan dies from participating in an MIT-sponsored experiment that tests airborne pollutant chemicals on humans. The experiment pays $150 to human test subjects (Sharav).
In the Mar. 15 President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), former human subjects, including those who were used in experiments as children, give sworn testimonies stating that they were subjected to radiation experiments and/or brainwashed, hypnotized, drugged, psychologically tortured, threatened and even raped during CIA experiments. These sworn statements include:

Christina DeNicola's statement that, in Tucson, Ariz., from 1966 to 1976, "Dr. B" performed mind control experiments using drugs, post-hypnotic injection and drama, and irradiation experiments on her neck, throat, chest and uterus. She was only four years old when the experiments started.
Claudia Mullen's testimony that Dr. Sidney Gottlieb (of MKULTRA fame) used chemicals, radiation, hypnosis, drugs, isolation in tubs of water, sleep deprivation, electric shock, brainwashing and emotional, sexual and verbal abuse as part of mind control experiments that had the ultimate objective of turning her, who was only a child at the time, into the "perfect spy." She tells the advisory committee that researchers justified this abuse by telling her that she was serving her country "in their bold effort to fight Communism."
Suzanne Starr's statement that "a physician, who was retired from the military, got children from the mountains of Colorado for experiments." She says she was one of those children and that she was the victim of experiments involving environmental deprivation to the point of forced psychosis, spin programming, injections, rape and frequent electroshock and mind control sessions. "I have fought self-destructive programmed messages to kill myself, and I know what a programmed message is, and I don’t act on them," she tells the advisory committee of the experiments' long-lasting effects, even in her adulthood (Goliszek).
President Clinton publicly apologizes to the thousands of people who were victims of MKULTRA and other mind-control experimental programs (Sharav).
In Dr. Daniel P. van Kammen's study, "Behavioral vs. Biochemical Prediction of Clinical Stability Following Haloperidol Withdrawal in Schizophrenia," researchers recruit 88 veterans who are stabilized by their medications enough to make them functional in society, and hospitalize them for eight to 10 weeks. During this time, the researchers stop giving the veterans the medications that are enabling them to live in society, placing them back on a two- to four-week regimen of the standard dose of Haldol. Then, the veterans are "washed-out," given lumbar punctures and put under six-week observation to see who would relapse and suffer symptomatic schizophrenia once again; 50 percent do ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

President Clinton appoints the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).

Justice Edward Greenfield of the New York State Supreme Court rules that parents do not have the right to volunteer their mentally incapacitated children for non-therapeutic medical research studies and that no mentally incapacitated person whatsoever can be used in a medical experiment without informed consent (Sharav).

(1996)
Professor Adil E. Shamoo of the University of Maryland and the organization Citizens for Responsible Care and Research sends a written testimony on the unethical use of veterans in medical research to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs, stating: "This type of research is on-going nationwide in medical centers and VA hospitals supported by tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers money. These experiments are high risk and are abusive, causing not only physical and psychic harm to the most vulnerable groups but also degrading our society’s system of basic human values. Probably tens of thousands of patients are being subjected to such experiments" ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
The Department of Defense admits that Gulf War soldiers were exposed to chemical agents; however, 33 percent of all military personnel afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome never left the United States during the war, discrediting the popular mainstream belief that these symptoms are a result of exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons (Merritte, et al.).

In a federally funded experiment at West Haven VA in Connecticut, Yale University researchers give schizophrenic veterans amphetamine, even though central nervous system stimulants worsen psychotic symptoms in 40 percent of schizophrenics ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

President Clinton issues a formal apology to the subjects of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families (Sharav).

(1997)
In order to expose unethical medical experiments that provoke psychotic relapse in schizophrenic patients, the Boston Globe publishes a four-part series entitled "Doing Harm: Research on the Mentally Ill" (Sharav).
Researchers give 26 veterans at a VA hospital a chemical called Yohimbine to purposely induce post-traumatic stress disorder ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

In order to create a "psychosis model," University of Cincinnati researchers give 16 schizophrenic patients at Cincinnati VA amphetamine in order to provoke repeats bouts of psychosis and eventually produce "behavioral sensitization" (Sharav).

National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) researchers give schizophrenic veterans amphetamine, even though central nervous system stimulants worsen psychotic symptoms in 40 percent of schizophrenics ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

In an experiment sponsored by the U.S. government, researchers withhold medical treatment from HIV-positive African-American pregnant women, giving them a placebo rather than AIDS medication (Sharav).

Researchers give amphetamine to 13 schizophrenic patients in a repetition of the 1994 "amphetamine challenge" at New York VA Hospital. As a result, the patients experience psychosis, delusions and hallucinations. The researchers claim to have informed consent ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").

On Sept. 18, victims of unethical medical experiments at major U.S. research centers, including the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) testify before the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).

(1999)
Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D. testifies on "The Unethical Use of Human Beings in High-Risk Research Experiments" before the U.S. House of Representatives' House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, alerting the House on the use of American veterans in VA Hospitals as human guinea pigs and calling for national reforms ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania inject 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger with an experimental gene therapy as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial. He dies four days later and his father suspects that he was not fully informed of the experiment's risk (Goliszek)

During a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of Propulsid for infant acid reflux, nine-month-old Gage Stevens dies at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh (Sharav).

(2000)
The Department of Defense begins declassifying the records of Project 112, including SHAD, and locating and assisting the veterans who were exposed to live toxins and chemical agents as part of Project 112. Many of them have already died (Goliszek).
President Clinton authorizes the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, which compensates the Department of Energy workers who sacrificed their health to build the United States' nuclear defenses (Sharav).

The U.S. Air Force and rocket maker Lockheed Martin sponsor a Loma Linda University study that pays 100 Californians $1,000 to eat a dose of perchlorate -- a toxic component of rocket fuel that causes cancer, damages the thyroid gland and hinders normal development in children and fetuses -- every day for six months. The dose eaten by the test subjects is 83 times the safe dose of perchlorate set by the State of California, which has perchlorate in some of its drinking water. This Loma Linda study is the first large-scale study to use human subjects to test the harmful effects of a water pollutant and is "inherently unethical," according to Environmental Working Group research director Richard Wiles (Goliszek, Envirnomental Working Group).

(2001)
Healthy 27-year-old Ellen Roche dies in a challenge study at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland (Sharav).
On its website, the FDA admits that its policy to include healthy children in human experiments "has led to an increasing number of proposals for studies of safety and pharmacokinetics, including those in children who do not have the condition for which the drug is intended" (Goliszek).

During a tobacco industry-financed Alzheimer's experiment at Case Western University in Cleveland, Elaine Holden-Able dies after she drinks a glass of orange juice containing a dissolved dietary supplement (Sharav).

Radiologist Scott Scheer of Pennsylvania dies from kidney failure, severe anemia and possibly lupus -- all caused by blood pressure drugs he was taking as part of a five-year clinical trial. After his death, his family sues the Institutional Review Board of Main Line Hospitals, the hospital that oversaw the study, and two doctors. Investigators from the federal Office for Human Research Protections, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, later conclude in a Dec. 20, 2002 letter to Scheer's oldest daughter: "Your father apparently was not told about the risk of hydralazine-induced lupus … OHRP found that certain unanticipated problems involving risks to subjects or others were not promptly reported to appropriate institutional officials" (Willen and Evans, "Doctor Who Died in Drug Test Was Betrayed by System He Trusted.")

In Higgins and Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute The Maryland Court of Appeals makes a landmark decision regarding the use of children as test subjects, prohibiting non-therapeutic experimentation on children on the basis of "best interest of the individual child" (Sharav).

(2002)
President George W. Bush signs the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA), offering pharmaceutical companies six-month exclusivity in exchange for running clinical drug trials on children. This will of course increase the number of children used as human test subjects (Hammer Breslow).
(2003)
Two-year-old Michael Daddio of Delaware dies of congestive heart failure. After his death, his parents learn that doctors had performed an experimental surgery on him when he was five months old, rather than using the established surgical method of repairing his congenital heart defect that the parents had been told would be performed. The established procedure has a 90- to 95-percent success rate, whereas the inventor of the procedure performed on baby Daddio would later be fired from his hospital in 2004 (Willen and Evans, "Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't Warned").
(2004)
In his BBC documentary "Guinea Pig Kids" and BBC News article of the same name, reporter Jamie Doran reveals that children involved in the New York City foster care system were unwitting human subjects in experimental AIDS drug trials from 1988 to, in his belief, present times (Doran).
(2005)
In response to the BBC documentary and article "Guinea Pig Kids", the New York City Administration of Children's Services (ACS) sends out an Apr. 22 press release admitting that foster care children were used in experimental AIDS drug trials, but says that the last trial took place in 2001 and thus the trials are not continuing, as BBC reporter Jamie Doran claims. The ACS gives the extent and statistics of the experimental drug trials, based on its own records, and contracts the Vera Institute of Justice to conduct "an independent review of ACS policy and practice regarding the enrollment of HIV-positive children in foster care in clinical drug trials during the late 1980s and 1990s" (New York City ACS).
In exchange for receiving $2 million from the American Chemical Society, the EPA proposes the Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) to learn how children ranging from infancy to three years old ingest, inhale and absorb chemicals by exposing children from a poor, predominantly black area of Duval County, Fla., to these toxins. Due to pressure from activist groups, negative media coverage and two Democratic senators, the EPA eventually decides to drop the study on Apr. 8, 2005 (Organic Consumers Association).

Bloomberg releases a series of reports suggesting that SFBC, the largest experimental drug testing center of its time, exploits immigrant and other low-income test subjects and runs tests with limited credibility due to violations of both the FDA's and SFBC's own testing guidelines (Bloomberg).

Works cited:

Alliance for Human Research Protection. "'Monster Experiment' Taught Orphans to Stutter.". June 11, 2001.

Barker, Allen. "The Cold War Experiments." Mind Control.

Berdon, Victoria. "Codes of Medical and Human Experimentation Ethics." The Least of My Brothers.

Brinker, Wendy. "James Marion Sims: Father Butcher." Seed Show.

Burton Report. "Human Experimentation, Plutonium and Col. Stafford Warren."

Cockburn, Alexander and Jeffrey St. Clair, eds. "Germ War: The U.S. Record." Counter Punch.

"Donald Ewan [sic] Cameron." Wikipedia.

Doran, Jamie. "Guinea Pig Kids." BBC News. 30 Nov. 2004.

Drug Development-Technology.com. "SFBC."

Elliston, Jon. "MKULTRA: CIA Mind Control." Dossier: Paranormal Government.

Environmental Working Group. "U.S.: Lockheed Martin's Tests on Humans." CorpWatch.

Global Security. Chemical Corps. 2005.

Goliszek, Andrew. In the Name of Science. New York: St. Martin's, 2003.

Greger, Michael, M.D. Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student.

Griffiths, Joel and Chris Bryson. "Toxic Secrets: Fluoride and the Atom Bomb." Nexus Magazine 5:3. Apr. - May 1998.

Hammer Breslow, Lauren. "The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act of 2002: The Rise of the Voluntary Incentive Structure and Congressional Refusal to Require Pediatric Testing." Harvard Journal of Legislation Vol. 40.

"Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After." Micah Books.

Kaye, Jonathan. "Retin-A's Wrinkled Past." Mind Control. Orig. pub. Penn History Review Spring 1997.

"Manhattan Project: Oak Ridge." World Socialist Web Site. Oct. 18, 2002.

Meiklejohn, Gordon N., M.D. "Commission on Influenza." Histories of the Commissions. Ed. Theodore E. Woodward, M.D. The Armed Forced Epidemiological Board. 1994.

Merritte, LaTasha, et al.. "The Banality of Evil: Human Medical Experimentation in the United States." The Public Law Online Journal. Spring 1999.

Milgram, Stanley. "Milgram Experiment." Wikipedia. 2006.

New York City Administration of Children's Services. Press release. 22 Apr. 2005.

"Operation Plumbbob." Wikipedia. 2005.

"Operation Whitecoat." Religion and Ethics (Episode no. 708). Oct. 24, 2003.

Organic Consumers Association. "EPA and Chemical Industry to Study the Effects of Known Toxic Chemicals on Children". 12 Apr. 2005.

Pacchioli, David. Subjected to Science. Mar. 1996.

"Placebo Effect." Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. 2006.

"Project Paperclip." Wikipedia. 2005.

"Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War." Annals of Internal Medicine 123:2. July 15, 1995.

Sharav, Vera Hassner. "Human Experiments: A Chronology of Human Rsearch." Alliance for Human Research Protection.

Sauter, Daniel. Guide to MS 83 [Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas Records, 1931 - 1999]. University of Texas Library. Apr. 2001.

"Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D." News from the Joint Hearing on Suspension of Medical Research at West Los Angeles and Sepulveda VA Medical Facilities and Informed Consent and Patient Safety in VA Medical Research. 21 Apr. 1999.

University of New Hampshire. "Chronology of Cases Involving Unethical Treatment of Human Subjects." Responsible Conduct of Research.

University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library. "Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." 2004.

U.S. Department of Energy. "Chapter 8: Postwar TBI-Effects Experimentation: Continued Reliance on Sick Patients in Place of Healthy "Normals." Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) Final Report.

Veterans Health Administration. Project 112/Project SHAD. May 26, 2005.

Willen, Liz and David Evans. "Doctor Who Died in Drug Test Was Betrayed by System He Trusted." Bloomberg. Nov. 2, 2005.

---. "Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't Warned." Bloomberg. Nov. 2, 2005.

Does Your Skin Care Product Contain These Chemicals?

2007-12-14T14:26:00.000-05:00

Does Your Skin Care Product Contain These Chemicals?

Why don’t you run and get a bottle of any of the skin moisturizers that you are currently using. You might find that your personal care products contain one or probably more of many possibly dangerous ingredients.

Here are a few of the most common suspicious ingredients:

Mineral Oil, Paraffin, and Petrolatum – Petroleum products that coat the skin like plastic, clogging pores and creating a build-up of toxins, which in turn accumulate and can lead to dermatologic issues. Slows cellular development, which can cause you to show earlier signs of aging. Suspected cause of cancer. Disruptive of hormonal activity. By the way, when there’s an oil spill in the ocean, don’t they rush to clean it up – fast? Why put that stuff on your skin?

Parabens – Widely used as preservatives in the cosmetic industry (including moisturizers). An estimated 13,200 cosmetic and skin care products contain parabens. Studies implicate their connection with cancer. They have hormone-disrupting qualities – mimicking estrogen – and interfere with the body’s endocrine system.

Phenol carbolic acid– Found in many lotions and skin creams. Can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma and even death from respiratory failure.
Propylene glycol – Used as a moisturizer in cosmetics and as a carrier in fragrance oils. Shown to cause dermatitis, kidney or liver abnormalities, and may inhibit skin cell growth or cause skin irritation.

Acrylamide– Found in many hand and face creams. Linked to mammary tumors in lab research.

Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate (SLS), also known as sodium laureth sulfate (SLES)– Found in car washes, engine degreasers, garage floor cleaners… and in over 90% of personal care products! SLS breaks down the skin’s moisture barrier, easily penetrates the skin, and allows other chemicals to easily penetrate. Combined with other chemicals, SLS becomes a “nitrosamine”, a potent class of carcinogen. It can also cause hair loss. SLES is sometimes disguised with the labeling “comes from coconut” or “coconut-derived”.

Toluene – Poison! Danger! Harmful or fatal if swallowed! Harmful if inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Made from petroleum or coal tar, and found in most synthetic fragrances. Chronic exposure linked to anemia, lowered blood cell count, liver or kidney damage, and may affect a developing fetus. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) contains toluene. Other names may include benzoic and benzyl.

Dioxane– Found in compounds known as PEG, Polysorbates, Laureth, ethoxylated alcohols. Common in a wide range of personal care products. The compounds are usually contaminated with high concentrations of highly volatile 1,4-dioxane, easily absorbed through the skin.

Dioxane’s carcinogenicity was first reported in 1965 and later confirmed in studies including one from the National Cancer Institute in 1978. Nasal passages and liver are the most vulnerable. Dioxane is easily removed during the manufacturing process by “vacuum stripping”. Warning: It is a synthetic derivative of coconut. Watch for hidden language on labels, such as “comes from coconut”.

Update re: soy lecithin in tea

2007-12-12T15:52:00.000-05:00

Response via email; Celestial Seasonings never responded after three requests for information.

"Thank you for visiting the Bigelow Tea website. You asked why there is soy lecithin in our teas.

Soy Lecithin is a component of soybean that is used in our teas as a flavor emulsifier.

Soy lecithin has always been a part of the natural flavor in some of our teas.

We hope this information is helpful to you.

Cordially,

Kathy Pangrac

Consumer Service Supervisor

Vitamin D deficiency accelerates aging in the elderly

2007-12-12T15:50:00.000-05:00

Vitamin D deficiency accelerates aging in the elderly
by David Gutierrez

(NewsTarget) Insufficient intake of vitamin D may lead to decreased physical strength, increased muscle weakness and increased risk of disability in older women and men, according to a new study published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

Because vitamin D deficiency is widespread, the researchers have suggested that increasing vitamin D intake may help older adults decrease their risk of disability and maintain better muscle strength and physical performance.

Researchers measured the serum levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D for 976 adults over the age of 64. They also took measures of grip strength -- which is a good predictor of the risk of future disability -- and physical performance.

Twenty-nine percent of the women and 14 percent of the men participating were found to be vitamin D deficient, as measured by their blood levels. Compared to the participants with normal vitamin D levels, these people scored 5 to 10 percent lower on measures of grip strength and physical performance. This correlation was found to be independent of other factors, including the participant's activity level, mental function, weight and overall health.

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that the body produces upon exposure to sunlight -- as little as 15 to 30 minutes, depending on skin color, latitude and time of year. It is known to be essential for bone health, but recent studies have suggested that it also plays an important role in protecting against cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis and even the common cold.

The current recommended daily allowance for vitamin D, however, is based upon the levels needed to merely maintain healthy bones -- a level that many researchers believe may be lower than that needed for other health benefits.

According to researcher Denise K. Houston of the Wake Forest University of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, "Higher amounts of vitamin D may be needed for the preservation of muscle strength and physical function as well as other conditions such as cancer prevention."

Because of this, many scientists are now recommending a daily intake of 2000 IU, rather than the currently recommended 400 IU.

iPod, iPhone Contain High Levels of Toxic Chemicals

2007-12-12T15:17:00.001-05:00

iPod, iPhone Contain High Levels of Toxic Chemicals, Violate California Law
by David Gutierrez

(NewsTarget) The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) has announced that the results of independent tests confirm earlier Greenpeace findings that headphone cords used in Apple Inc.'s iPod and iPhone contain high levels of phthalates. According to a lawsuit filed by CEH, Apple's failure to include a warning label on these products places the company in violation of California law.

"There is no reason to have these potentially hazardous chemicals in iPhones," said CEH Executive Director Michael Green. "We expect Apple to reformulate their products to make them safer from cradle to grave, so they don't pose a threat to consumers, workers or the environment."

Phthalates, used to soften plastic and make it flexible, have been found to demonstrate hormone-disrupting effects that can lead to reproductive or developmental diseases or deformities.

Under California's Proposition 65, any product exposing consumers to carcinogens or reproductive toxins must carry a warning label. Yet the most recent test announced by CEH found 6,200 parts per million (ppm) of phthalates in the iPhone headset cable and 6,300 ppm in the iPod's headset cable, levels even higher than the 5,070 ppm that Greenpeace found in the iPhone headset cable.

"Apple customers should know that when they get their hands on an iPhone they may be getting a dose of toxic chemicals as well," Green said. "It's clear that Apple's priority is to market new products as fast as possible, not as safely as possible. For their customers who are buying now, that's just not good enough."

Apple has not responded directly to CEH's litigation letter, but the company did announce that it plans to phase all polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs) out of its products by 2008. According to Apple, PVCs are the source of the phthalates in the headset cords.

The company has drawn criticism from CEH and other environmental groups before, which charge that Apple does not have sufficient policies for the recycling and disposal of e-waste.

Simple Recipes for Children’s Cough, Cold and Flu Syrups

2007-12-12T15:16:00.001-05:00

Simple Recipes for Children’s Cough, Cold and Flu Syrups
by Leslee Dru Browning

(NewsTarget) Children's cough syrups are easy to make and much safer and more effective than over-the-counter cough and cold remedies that were just removed from store shelves. Coughs in children are quite common. Sometimes they are caused by colds and flu, other times; allergies and sinus congestion. A cough that lingers for days or weeks, or becomes severe, should be checked by your child's health care provider to rule out other illnesses.

Why use honey in cough syrups?

Honey has been used intuitively for hundreds of years as a wonderful natural antibiotic by many different cultures. Today, research undertaken by Dr. Shona Blair at Sydney University's School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, has now shown the unusual antibacterial activity of honey, leading to a greater understanding of the ability of honey to kill pathogenic bacteria through several different mechanisms. In studies, honey was effective against many different drug resistant bacteria.

In one scientific test, Dr. Shona Blair used honey to treat E. coli. Dr. Shona Blair saw that honey "attacks" bacteria from several different angles; that the bacteria were overwhelmed and unable to develop resistance, and the bacteria died. In today's world where many antibiotics have become ineffective, honey was able to kill not only the E. coli, but many other types of bacteria.

Honey not only possesses significant antibacterial activity, it has also been shown to actively promote healing by directly stimulating human cells that are important in the immune response to help disease and wounds healing.

Note:

*Don't use honey for children under two years of age - there is a microorganism in honey, which is otherwise harmless for children age two and older, that can sometimes make infants ill because of their young digestive system. Alternatives include brown rice syrup, barley, and organic fruit syrups; as substitutions in the recipes use the same amount as honey.

*For longer preservation of cough syrups, you can add 2 tablespoons of vegetable glycerin to each recipe when not already listed as an ingredient in the recipe. Vegetable glycerin is a thick, clear, sweet substance derived from coconut and palm oils and olive oil. It has long been used as a lubricant and preservative. It is sweet tasting but does not affect blood sugar. American herbalist, Edward E. Shook, N.D., preferred vegetable glycerin instead of alcohol for most of his herbal medicines due to its natural preservative powers.

Honey Lemon Cough Syrup

Lemon helps promote health by quickly alkalinizing the body and honey will kill any bacteria. This is a perfect choice for a quick cough remedy.

Put a pint of honey in a pan on the stove on low heat (Do not boil honey as this changes its medicinal properties) .

Take a whole lemon and boil in some water in a separate pan for 2-3 minutes to both soften the lemon and kill any bacteria that may be on the lemon skin. Let the lemon cool enough to handle then cut it in slices and add it to the pint of honey on the stove. Let mixture cook on warm heat for about an hour. Then strain the lemon from the honey making sure all lemon seeds are removed. Let cool, then bottle in a jar with a lid and store in the refrigerator. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

To soothe a cough, take ½ teaspoon for a 25 lb. child and 1 teaspoon for a 50 lb. child, about 4 times a day or as often as needed. Adults can take 1 tablespoon doses.

Anise Seed Cough Syrup

Anise has been a traditional treatment for coughs, bronchitis and asthma and is now supported by science. The herb contains creosol and alpha-pinene that loosen bronchial secretions and make them easier to cough up. Gently crush 1 tablespoon of anise seed, cover with 1 ½ cups of boiling water. Steep for 30 minutes then strain and simmer remaining liquid down to 1 cup then add 2 cups of honey. Let cool then bottle in a jar with a lid and store in the refrigerator. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

To soothe a cough, take ½ teaspoon for a 25 lb. child and 1 teaspoon for a 50 lb. child, about 4 times a day

Horehound Cough Syrup

Horehound has been used for generations as a cure for children's cough, cold and croup. It has expectorant properties that loosen phlegm from the chest. One of horehound's compounds, marrubiin, stimulates bronchial secretions and helps break up congestion

Make an old-time cough remedy by mixing horehound tea with honey. Make a tea by steeping 1 ounce of dried horehound leaves in a pint of boiling water. Allow it to steep only 10 minutes. Strain off the leaves, then measure the quantity of the liquid remaining. Add twice as much honey as liquid, mix well, cool, bottle and refrigerate. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

To soothe a cough, take ½ teaspoon for a 25 lb. child and 1 teaspoon for a 50 lb. child, about 4 times a day.

Taken from: Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs

Sinus Congestion and Headache Syrup (Also excellent for fevers and cough)

Steep 1 tablespoon of feverfew, ½ lemon cut up, 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, 1 teaspoon of thyme leaves in 1 ½ cups of water for 30 minutes. Strain the herbs from the liquid making sure you remove all lemon seeds. Simmer remaining liquid down to 1 cup of water then add 2 cups of honey plus 2 tablespoons of vegetable glycerin. Let cool then bottle in a jar with a lid and store in the refrigerator. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

Give 1 teaspoon every 4 hours for a 50 lbs. child, 2 teaspoons for a 75 lb child and 1 tablespoon for a 100 lb. child or adult.

Combination Cough Syrup

Add 1 teaspoon each of licorice root, horehound, mullein leaves, thyme leaves, rose hips, marshmallow root and lemon balm leaves to 1 ½ cups of water. Bring herbs and water to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain out herbs. Return liquid to heat and bring to a simmer to reduce liquid to 1 cup. While still warm add 1 cup honey, brown rice syrup or organic fruit syrup and ¼ cup vegetable glycerin. Let cool, then bottle in a jar with a lid and store in the refrigerator. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

Give 1 teaspoon every 4 hours for a 50 lbs. child, 2 teaspoons for a 75 lb child and 1 tablespoon for a 100 lb. child or adult.

Combination Dry Cough Syrup

When children have dry coughs, they need to be treated with moistening herbs with antiviral/antibacterial protection.

1 tablespoon each of cherry bark, thyme, mullein, pleurisy root and oregon grape root added to 1 quart of water.

Bring herbs and water to a boil in a saucepan. Turn heat down to warm, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain out herbs. Return liquid to heat and bring to a simmer to reduce liquid to 1 pint. While still warm add 2 pints of honey. Once cool - bottle, cap, and refrigerate. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

Give 1 teaspoon every 4 hours for a 50 lbs. child, 2 teaspoons for a 75 lb child and 1 tablespoon for a 100 lb. child or adult.

Combination Wet Cough Syrup

This cough syrup will gently encourage coughing to clear the lungs of mucus while providing antiviral/antibacterial properties to fight infection.

1 tablespoon each of astragalus, horehound, mullein, garden sage and oregon grape root added to 1 quart of water.

Bring herbs and water to a boil in a saucepan. Turn heat down to warm, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain out herbs. Return liquid to heat and bring to a simmer to reduce liquid to 1 pint. While still warm add 2 pints of honey. Once cool - bottle, cap, and refrigerate. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.

Give 1 teaspoon every 4 hours for a 50 lbs. child, 2 teaspoons for a 75 lb child and 1 tablespoon for a 100 lb. child or adult.

Give your child lots of fluids in the form of water or teas to help them expel mucus; also, to prevent dehydration from fever.

Antiviral Syrup

Mild tasting antiviral herbs for children include astragalus, hyssop, lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemongrass and ginger root.

Take 1 tablespoon each of astragalus, hyssop, lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemongrass plus 1 teaspoon of ginger and add to 1 quart of boiling water. Turn down heat to warm and cover with lid. Let steep for 30 minutes then strain herbs from liquid. Simmer remaining liquid down to 1 pint then add 1 pint of honey and ¼ cup of vegetable glycerin. Once cooled - bottle, cap, and refrigerate. This syrup will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator

The whole family can use this formula for the prevention of viruses or when down with colds and the flu.

Give 1 teaspoon every 4 hours for a 50 lbs. child, 2 teaspoons for a 75 lb child and 1 tablespoon for a 100 lb. child or adult.

Hyssop Tea

For cough or flu, steep two teaspoons of dried hyssop in one cup of boiling water, covered for ten minutes; strain and drink cool for an expectorant or hot to relieve congestion. Hyssop contains marrubiin, the same compound that makes horehound an excellent expectorant. Hyssop and horehound tea can usually be found in grocery or health food stores.

Lemon Balm Tea

For cough or flu, add two teaspoons of dried lemon balm leaves to one cup of boiling water, cover, and remove from heat. Steep for ten minutes then strain herb. Lemon Balm tea can be taken as often as needed.

Licorice Root Tea

Make a tea by putting ½ teaspoon of licorice root tea in a cup of hot water and steep for 10 minutes; strain. Drink three cups daily to relieve cough, congestion and asthma symptoms. Licorice has soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, and is an expectorant. Licorice root tea can usually be found in grocery or health food stores.

Whooping Cough Tea

1 tablespoon white horehound, 1 tablespoon mullein, 1 tablespoon thyme leaves. Mix all dried ingredients together and store in a jar with a lid. Put 1-2 teaspoons into 1 cup of boiling water. Remove from burner and steep 10 minutes.

Garden thyme has long been considered an effective treatment for whooping cough.

For a 25 lb. child ½ cup and a 50 lb. child 1 cup, 3 to 4 times a day.

Disclaimer - The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your health- care professional. You should not use the information in this article for self-diagnosis or to replace any prescriptive medication. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem, suffer from allergies, are pregnant or nursing.

Honey resource:
Dr. Shona Blair, at Sydney University's School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences

About the author
Leslee Dru Browning is a 6th generation Medical Herbalist & Nutritionist from the ancestral line of Patty Bartlett Sessions; Pioneer Mid-Wife & Herbalist. Leslee practiced Medical Herbalism and Nutritional Healing for over 25 years and specialized in Cancer Wellness along with Chronic Illness. She now devotes her career to teaching people, through her writing, about Natural Healing from An Herbal Perspective.

What is "fragrance"?

2007-12-07T13:53:00.000-05:00

Question: Is it true that the cosmetics industry can put any chemical into a product’s "fragrance" without showing it on the ingredients list? What do they put in there?

Answer: It's true. When you see "fragrance" on a personal care product's label, read it as "hidden chemicals." A major loophole in FDA's federal law lets manufacturers of products like shampoo, lotion, and body wash include nearly any ingredient in their products under the name "fragrance" without actually listing the chemical.

Companies that manufacture personal care products are required by law to list the ingredients they use, but fragrances and trade-secret formulas are exempt. An analysis of the chemical contents of products reveals that the innocuous-looking “fragrance” often contains chemicals linked to negative health effects. Phthalates, used to make fragrances last longer, are associated damage to the male reproductive system, and artificial musks accumulate in our bodies and can be found in breast milk. Some artificial musks are even linked to cancer. And if you've got asthma, watch out-- fragrance formulas are considered to be among the top 5 known allergens, and can trigger asthma attacks. The same kinds of chemicals are often used for fragrances in cleaning products, scented candles, and air fresheners.

To avoid those unpleasant side effects, choose fragrance-free products, but beware labels that say "unscented." It may only mean that the manufacturer has added yet another fragrance to mask the original odor. Check ingredient labels carefully, or search Skin Deep to find products that do not list "fragrance" as an ingredient.

The best solution is not to allow cosmetics companies to get through this loophole. They should be required to list all of their ingredients on the label where consumers can find out what they're buying. On top of that, cosmetics manufacturers regularly include ingredients with known or suspected links to cancer, reproductive toxicity and other negative health effects. The federal government must set safety standards for personal care products.

If you're concerned about the chemicals you use on your body every day, sign EWG's petition at cosmeticsdatabase.com and urge the FDA to make personal care products safe.

A must-visit website

2007-12-05T16:06:00.000-05:00

http://www.safecosmetics.org/

From detergents to baby wipes to mascara, this website is a must see. It also lists the companies that have signed the campaign for safe cosmetics. Just say NO to lead in lipstick!

Health Food Junkie

2007-12-05T14:54:00.000-05:00

I found this interesting and thought-provoking article and thought I'd share it...

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Obsession with dietary perfection can sometimes do more harm than good, says one who has been there.

by Steven Bratman, M.D.
Originally published in the October 1997 issue of YOGA JOURNAL.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

Twenty years ago I was a wholehearted, impassioned advocate of healing through food. In those days I was a cook and organic farmer at a large commune in upstate New York. Today, as a physician who practices alternative medicine, I still almost always recommend dietary improvement to my patients. How could I not? A low-fat, semivegetarian diet helps prevent nearly all major illnesses, and more focused dietary interventions can dramatically improve specific health problems. But I'm no longer the true believer in nutritional medicine I used to be.
Where once I was enthusiastically evangelical, I've grown cautious. I can no longer console myself with the hope that one day a universal theory of eating will be discovered that can match people with the diets right for them. And I no longer have faith that dietary therapy is a uniformly wholesome intervention. I have come to regard it as I do drug therapy: as a useful treatment with serious potential side-effects.

My disillusionment began in the old days at the commune. As staff cook I was required to prepare several separate meals at once to satisfy the insistent and conflicting demands of our members. All communes attract idealists; ours attracted food idealists. On a daily basis I encountered the chaos of contradictory nutritional theories.

Our main entree was always vegetarian, but a vocal subgroup insisted we serve meat. Since many vegetarians would not eat from pots and pans contaminated by fleshly vibrations, the meat had to be cooked in a separate kitchen.

We cooks also had to satisfy the vegans, who eschewed all milk and egg products. The rights of the Hindu-influenced crowd couldn't be neglected either. They insisted we omit the onion-family foods which, they believed, provoked sexual desire.

For the raw-foodists we always laid out trays of sliced raw vegetables, but the macrobiotic adherents looked at these offerings with disgust. They would only eat cooked vegetables. Furthermore, they believed that only local, in-season vegetables should be eaten, which led to frequent and violent arguments about whether the commune should spend its money on lettuce in January.

After watching these food wars for a while, I began to fantasize about writing a cookbook for eating theorists. Each food would come complete with a citation from one system or authority claiming it to be the most divine edible ever created; a second reference, from an opposing view, would damn it as the worst pestilence one human being ever fed to another.

Finding examples wouldn't be difficult. I could pit the rules of various food theories against each other: Spicy food is bad; cayenne peppers are health-promoting. Fasting on oranges is healthy; citrus fruits are too acidic. Milk is good only for young cows (and pasteurized milk is even worse); boiled milk is the food of the gods. Fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, are essentially rotten; fermented foods aid digestion. Sweets are bad; honey is nature's most perfect food. Fruits are the ideal food; fruit causes candida. Vinegar is a poison; apple cider vinegar cures most illnesses. Proteins should not be combined with starches; aduki beans and brown rice should always be cooked together.

Dietary methods of healing are often offered in the name of holism, one of the strongest ideals of alternative medicine. No doubt alternative health practitioners are compensating for the historical failure of modern medicine to take dietary treatment seriously enough. But by focusing single-mindedly on diet, such practitioners end up advocating a form of medicine as lacking in holistic perspective as the more traditional approaches they attempt to correct. It would be far more holistic to try to understand other elements in the patient's life before making dietary recommendations, and occasionally to temper those recommendations with that understanding.

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Orthorexia Nervosa
Many of the most unbalanced people I have ever met are those who have devoted themselves to healthy eating. In fact, I believe some of them have actually contracted a novel eating disorder for which I have coined the name "orthorexia nervosa." The term uses "ortho," meaning straight, correct, and true, to modify "anorexia nervosa." Orthorexia nervosa refers to a pathological fixation on eating proper food.

Orthorexia begins, innocently enough, as a desire to overcome chronic illness or to improve general health. But because it requires considerable willpower to adopt a diet that differs radically from the food habits of childhood and the surrounding culture, few accomplish the change gracefully. Most must resort to an iron self-discipline bolstered by a hefty dose of superiority over those who eat junk food. Over time, what to eat, how much, and the consequences of dietary indiscretion come to occupy a greater and greater proportion of the orthorexic's day.

The act of eating pure food begins to carry pseudospiritual connotations. As orthorexia progresses, a day filled with sprouts, umeboshi plums, and amaranth biscuits comes to feel as holy as one spent serving the poor and homeless. When an orthorexic slips up (which may involve anything from devouring a single raisin to consuming a gallon of Haagen Dazs ice cream and a large pizza), he experiences a fall from grace and must perform numerous acts of penitence. These usually involve ever-stricter diets and fasts.

This "kitchen spirituality" eventually reaches a point where the sufferer spends most of his time planning, purchasing, and eating meals. The orthorexic's inner life becomes dominated by efforts to resist temptation, self-condemnation for lapses, self-praise for success at complying with the chosen regime, and feelings of superiority over others less pure in their dietary habits.

This transference of all of life's value into the act of eating makes orthorexia a true disorder. In this essential characteristic, orthorexia bears many similarities to the two well-known eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. Where the bulimic and anorexic focus on the quantity of food, the orthorexic fixates on its quality. All three give food an excessive place in the scheme of life.

As often happens, my sensitivity to the problem of orthorexia comes through personal experience. I myself passed through a phase of extreme dietary purity.

When I wasn't cooking at the commune, I managed the organic farm. This gave me constant access to fresh, high-quality produce. I became such a snob that I disdained any vegetable that had been plucked from the ground for more than 15 minutes. I was a total vegetarian, chewed each mouthful of food 50 times, always ate in a quiet place (which meant alone), and left my stomach partially empty at the end of each meal.

After a year or so of this self-imposed regime, I felt clear-headed, strong, and self-righteous. I regarded the wretched, debauched souls about me downing their chocolate chip cookies and french fries as mere animals reduced to satisfying gustatory lusts. But I wasn't complacent in my virtue. Feeling an obligation to enlighten my weaker brethren, I continually lectured friends and family on the evils of refined, processed food and the dangers of pesticides and artificial fertilizers.

I pursued wellness through healthy eating for years, but gradually I began to sense that something was going wrong. The poetry of my life was disappearing. My ability to carry on normal conversations was hindered by intrusive thoughts of food. The need to obtain meals free of meat, fat, and artificial chemicals had put nearly all social forms of eating beyond my reach. I was lonely and obsessed.

Even when I became aware that my scrabbling in the dirt after raw vegetables and wild plants had become an obsession, I found it terribly difficult to free myself. I had been seduced by righteous eating.

The problem of my life's meaning had been transferred inexorably to food, and I could not reclaim it.

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Tacos, Pizza, and a Milkshake
I was eventually saved from the doom of eternal health-food addiction through two fortuitous events. The first occurred when my guru in eating--a vegan headed toward fruitarianism--suddenly abandoned his quest. "A revelation came to me last night in a dream," he said. "Rather than eat my sprouts alone, it would be better for me to share a pizza with some friends."

His plaintive statement stirred me, but I could do nothing to change my way of life until a Benedictine monk named Brother David Steindl-Rast kindly applied some unorthodox techniques.

I had met Brother David at a seminar he gave on the subject of gratitude. I offered to drive him home, and on the way back to the monastery, I bragged a bit about my oral self-discipline. Brother David's approach over the subsequent days was a marvelous case of teaching by example.

The drive was long. In the late afternoon, we stopped for lunch at an unpromising Chinese restaurant in a small town. To our surprise, the food was authentic, the sauces were fragrant and tasty, the vegetables fresh, and the eggrolls crisp and free from MSG. We were both delighted.

After I had eaten the small portion which sufficed to fill my stomach halfway, Brother David casually mentioned his belief that it was an offense against God to leave food uneaten on the table. Brother David was a slim man, so I found it hardly credible that he followed this precept generally. But he continued to eat so much that I felt good manners, if not actual spiritual guidance, required me to imitate his example. I filled my belly for the first time in a year.

Then he upped the ante. "I always think that ice cream goes well with Chinese food, don't you?" he asked. Ignoring my incoherent reply, Brother David directed us to an ice cream parlor and purchased me a triple-scoop cone. As we ate our ice cream, Brother David led me on a two-mile walk. To keep my mind from dwelling on my offense against the health-food gods, he edified me with an unending stream of spiritual stories. Later that evening, he ate an immense dinner in the monastery dining room, all the while urging me to take more of one dish or another.

I understood his point. But what mattered more to me was the fact that a spiritual authority, a man for whom I had the greatest respect, was giving me permission to break my health-food vows. It proved a liberating stroke.

Yet more than a month passed before I finally decided to make a definitive break. I was filled with feverish anticipation. Hordes of long-suppressed gluttonous desires, their legitimacy restored, clamored to receive their due. On the drive into town, I planned and replanned my junk-food menu. Within 10 minutes of arriving, I had eaten three tacos, a medium pizza, and a large milkshake. Too stuffed to violate my former vows further, I brought the ice cream sandwich and banana split home. My stomach felt stretched to my knees.

The next morning I felt guilty and defiled. Only the memory of Brother David kept me from embarking on a five-day fast. (I fasted only two days.) It took me at least two more years to attain a middle way and eat easily, without rigid calculation or wild swings.

Anyone who has ever suffered from anorexia or bulimia will recognize classic patterns in this story: the cyclic extremes, the obsession, the separation from others. These are all symptoms of an eating disorder. Having experienced them so vividly in myself 20 years ago, I cannot overlook their presence in others.

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A Menu or a Life?
Consider Andrea, a patient of mine who suffered from chronic asthma. When she came to see me, she depended on several medications to stay alive. But with my help, she managed to free herself from all drugs.

First, we identified foods to which Andrea was sensitive and removed them from her diet. Milk was the first to go, then wheat, soy, and corn. After eliminating these four foods, the asthma symptoms decreased so much that Andrea was able to cut out one medication. But she wasn't satisfied.

Diligent effort identified other allergens: eggs, avocado, tomatoes, barley, rye, chicken, beef, turkey, and tuna. These too Andrea eliminated and was soon able to drop another drug entirely. Next went broccoli, lettuce, apples, and trout--and the rest of her medications.

Unfortunately, after about three months of feeling well she began to discover sensitivities to other foods. Oranges, peaches, celery, and rice didn't suit her, nor did potatoes, turkey, or amaranth biscuits. The only foods she could definitely tolerate were lamb and (strangely) white sugar.

Since she couldn't live on those foods alone, Andrea adopted a complex rotation diet, alternating grains on a meal-by-meal basis, with occasional complete abstention to allow her to "clear." She did the same for vegetables with somewhat more ease, since she had a greater variety to choose from.

Recently, Andrea came in for a visit and described the present state of her life. Wherever she goes, she carries a supply of her own food. She doesn't go many places. Most of the time she stays at home and thinks carefully about what to eat next, because if she slips up, the consequences continue for weeks. The asthma doesn't come back, but she develops headaches, nausea, and strange moods. She must continuously exert her will against cravings for foods as seemingly innocent as tomatoes and bread.

She was pleased with her improvement and referred many patients to me. But I began to feel ill whenever I saw her name on my schedule. The first rule of medicine is "above all, do no harm." Had I really helped Andrea, or had I harmed her? If she had been cured of cancer or multiple sclerosis, the development of an obsession might not be too high a price to pay. But when we started treatment, all she had was asthma. If she took her four medications, she also had a life. Now all she has is a menu. She might have been better off if she had never heard of dietary medicine.

I am generally lifted out of such melancholy reflections by success stories. I have another client whose rheumatoid arthritis was thrown into total remission by one simple intervention: adding foods high in trace minerals to his diet. Before he met me, he took prednisone, gold shots, and anti-inflammatories. Now he has gone a full year without a problem. Seeing him encourages me not to give up entirely on making dietary recommendations.

But my enthusiasm will remain tempered. Like all medical interventions--like all solutions to difficult problems--dietary medicine dwells in a grey zone of unclarity and imperfection. It's neither a simple, ideal treatment, as some of its proponents believe, nor the complete waste of time conventional medicine has too long presumed it to be. Diet is an ambiguous and powerful tool, too complex and emotionally charged to be prescribed lightly, yet too powerful to be ignored.

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Stephen Bratman, M.D., is a holistic physician practicing in Ft. Collins, Colorado. He is the author of The Alternative Medicine Sourcebook: A Realistic Evaluation of Alternative Healing Methods (Lowell House).

soy lecithin in tea?! WHY?

2007-12-03T13:59:00.000-05:00

I am an avid tea drinker, mostly of the herbal variety. I am also an avid label reader. Upon noticing Celestial Seasonings has a 'new look' (their marketing campaign) I also noted that soy lecithin is in many (perhaps all) of their teas. WHY?

I emailed them now 3 times as to why soy lecithin is in their teas. No response. Also I've emailed Bigelow as well, because a google search listed their company as also having soy lecithin in their teas.

What is soy lecithin, you ask? Nowadays it sneaks it's way into everything it seems...read your labels!

I don't know if it is good or bad for us, all I want to know is WHY IS IT IN TEA?? Last I checked tea was herbs, spices and leaves, not emulsifiers!!!
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What is soy lecithin, and is it bad for you?

Soy lecithin is an additive found in many everyday foods, but it’s normally used in such small amounts that it rarely exceeds more than 1 percent of the weight of any food product. It works as an emulsifier in candy bars, keeping the cocoa and cocoa butter from separating. Soy lecithin also can be used in baking to make the dough less sticky and help it rise. It works as a so-called wetting agent, too, that makes cake mixes easier to spread into a pan when liquid is added.

But what exactly is it? Well, it’s a substance that is extracted from soybeans using a solvent such as hexane—and it’s a by-product of soybean oil.

According to registered dietitian and national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association Tara Gidus, soy lecithin is not bad for you. Gidus herself takes it as a nutritional supplement, though not every day; while she was pregnant she occasionally sprinkled it on her breakfast cereal. “It’s high in choline, which is also found in egg yolks, and it’s shown to be good for brain development and heart disease prevention,” Gidus explains. “I wouldn’t make a blanket statement that all pregnant women should take it. It hasn’t been studied all that well, but it is a natural part of the soybean, and you can take it now and then, especially if you’re not a big egg eater.”

However, some of the few soy lecithin studies have shown that choline might help treat dementia. Other experiments showed a slight cholesterol decrease in humans and animals taking soy lecithin or choline supplements. Still, moderation is key—people who chronically take more than 3.5 grams of choline per day occasionally have experienced side effects, including low blood pressure, marked by fainting or dizziness.
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Soy Lecithin: From Sludge to Profit
By Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN

Lecithin is an emulsifying substance that is found in the cells of all living organisms. The French scientist Maurice Gobley discovered lecithin in 1805 and named it "lekithos" after the Greek word for "egg yolk." Until it was recovered from the waste products of soybean processing in the 1930s, eggs were the primary source of commercial lecithin. Today lecithin is the generic name given to a whole class of fat-and-water soluble compounds called phospholipids. Levels of phospholipids in soybean oils range from 1.48 to 3.08 percent, which is considerably higher than the 0.5 percent typically found in vegetable oils, but far less than the 30 percent found in egg yolks.1-6

OUT OF THE DUMPS
Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a "degumming" process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown. The hexane extraction process commonly used in soybean oil manufacture today yields less lecithin than the older ethanol-benzol process, but produces a more marketable lecithin with better color, reduced odor and less bitter flavor.7

Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as "soybean lecithin." Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.8

Today lecithin is ubiquitous in the processed food supply. It is most commonly used as an emulsifier to keep water and fats from separating in foods such as margarine, peanut butter, chocolate candies, ice cream, coffee creamers and infant formulas. Lecithin also helps prevent product spoilage, extending shelf life in the marketplace. In industry kitchens, it is used to improve mixing, speed crystallization, prevent "weeping," and stop spattering, lumping and sticking. Used in cosmetics, lecithin softens the skin and helps other ingredients penetrate the skin barrier. A more water-loving version known as "deoiled lecithin" reduces the time required to shut down and clean the extruders used in the manufacture of textured vegetable protein and other soy products.9,10

In theory, lecithin manufacture eliminates all soy proteins, making it hypoallergenic. In reality, minute amounts of soy protein always remain in lecithin as well as in soy oil. Three components of soy protein have been identified in soy lecithin, including the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor, which has a track record of triggering severe allergic reactions even in the most minuscule quantities. The presence of lecithin in so many food and cosmetic products poses a special danger for people with soy allergies.11-13

LEC IS IN:
THE MAKING OF A WONDER FOOD
Lecithin has been touted for years as a wonder food capable of combating atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, liver cirrhosis, gall stones, psoriasis, eczema, scleroderma, anxiety, tremors and brain aging. Because it is well known that the human body uses phospholipids to build strong, flexible cell membranes and to facilitate nerve transmission, health claims have been made for soy lecithin since the 1920s. Dr. A. A. Horvath, a leading purveyor of soybean health claims at the time, thought it could be used in "nerve tonics" or to help alcoholics reduce the effects of intoxication and withdrawal. In 1934, an article entitled "A Comfortable and Spontaneous Cure for the Opium Habit by Means of Lecithin" was written by Chinese researchers and published in an English language medical journal.14

Lecithin, though, did not capture the popular imagination until the 1960s and 1970s when the bestselling health authors Adelle Davis, Linda Clark and Mary Ann Crenshaw hyped lecithin in their many books, including Let’s Get Well, Secrets of Health and Beauty and The Natural Way to Super Beauty: Featuring the Amazing Lecithin, Apple Cider Vinegar, B-6 and Kelp Diet.15-17

Lecithin did not become a star of the health food circuit by accident. Research took off during the early 1930s, right when lecithin production became commercially viable. In 1939, the American Lecithin Company began sponsoring research studies, and published the most promising in a 23-page booklet entitled Soybean Lecithin in 1944. The company, not coincidentally introduced a health food cookie with a lecithin filling known as the "Lexo Wafer" and a lecithin/wheat germ supplement called Granulestin. In the mid 1970s, Natterman, a lecithin marketing company based in Germany, hired scientists at various health clinics to experiment with lecithin and to write scientific articles about it. These "check book" scientists coined the term "essential phospholipids" an inaccurate term since a healthy body can produce its own phospholipids from phosphorous and lipids.18

In September 2001, lecithin got a boost when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized products containing enough of it to bear labels such as "A good source of choline." Producers of soy lecithin hope to find ways to help the new health claim lift demand for lecithin and increase prices in what has been a soft market. Eggs, milk and soy products are the leading dietary sources of choline, according to recent research conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Duke University.19-21

LEC THAT’S MORE:
PHOSPHATIDYL CHOLINE (PC)
Because many lecithin products sold in health food stores contain less than 30 percent choline, many clinicians prefer to use the more potent Phosphatidylcholine (PC) or its even more powerful derivative drug Glyceryl-phosphorylcholine (GPC). Both are being used to prevent and reverse dementia, improve cognitive function, increase human growth hormone (hGH) release, and to treat brain disorders such as damage from stroke. PC and GPC may help build nerve cell membranes, facilitate electrical transmission in the brain, hold membrane proteins in place, and produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.22-24 However, studies on soy lecithin, PC, and brain aging have been inconsistent and contradictory ever since the 1920s. Generally, lecithin is regarded as safe except for people who are highly allergic to soy. However, the late Robert Atkins, MD, advised patients not to take large doses of supplemental lecithin without extra vitamin C to protect them from the nitrosamines formed from choline metabolism. Trimethylamine and dimethylamine, which are metabolized by bacteria in the intestines from choline, are important precurors to N-nitrosodimethylamine, a potent carcinogen in a wide variety of animal species.25-27

PHOSPHATIDYL SERINE (PS)
Phosphatidyl serine (PS) -- another popular phospholipid that improves brain function and mental acuity – nearly always comes from soy oil. Most of the scientific studies proving its efficacy, however, come from bovine sources, which also contain DHA as part of the structure.28-31 Plant oils never contain readymade DHA. Indeed, the entire fatty acid structure is different; bovine derived PS is rich in stearic and oleic acids, while soy PS is rich in linoleic and palmitic acids.32 Complicating matters further, the PS naturally formed in the human body consists of 37.5 percent stearic acid and 24.2 percent arachidonic acid.33 Yet soy-derived PS seems to help many people.34-36

Russell Blaylock, MD, author of Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills, explains that the probable reason PS works is because its chemical structure is similar to that of L-glutamate, the trouble-making neurotransmitter, amino acid and excitotoxin that exists in high concentration in MSG (monosodium glutamate), HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein) and "natural flavorings" and foods containing these soy derivatives. (See Chapter 11.) Because PS competes with glutamate, it may protect us from glutamate toxicity.37 Ironically, the expensive soy-derived supplement PS is being used to undo damage that may be caused in part by the cheap soy in processed foods

LYSOPHOSPHATIDYLETHANOLAMINE (LPE)
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved lysophosphatidyl-ethanolamine (LPE), another phosphatidyl substance commercially extracted from soybeans, for use as a fruit ripener and shelf-life extender. LPE – once called cephalin -- is now being used to treat grapes, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, apples, tomatoes, and cut flowers.

When applied to fruits that are nearly ripe – going into puberty, so to speak -- LPE promotes ripening. When applied to picked fruit or cut flowers that are already ripe or blooming, however, it will "reduce senescence by inhibiting some of the enzymes involved in membrane breakdown." This can dramatically extend shelf life.38 Whether the substance could also keep human bodies fresh for funeral home viewings has not yet been investigated.

The Benefits of the Acai Berry

2007-11-28T15:54:00.000-05:00

The Acai Berry (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) grows on majestic palm trees in the Amazon Rainforest and looks like a purple marble berry, almost like a grape. Acai has a delicious tropical berry flavor and provides exceptional nutrition. Contains high levels of antioxidants, Omega Fatty (healthy) Acids, iron, Amino Acids, Fiber and many other vitamins and minerals. It's healing and sustaining powers are legendary. The Acai Berry is known to harness the following properties: Antioxidant; antibacterial; anti-inflammatory; antimutagenic and Cardiovascular System.

For many centuries, the healing power of the acai berry was unknown outside of the Amazon rainforest where this amazing fruit grows wild. The rainforests of the world are thought to hold the keys to treating and preventing many of our most feared diseases, and as the rainforests disappear, those cures disappear along with them. The acai berry, however, used by the indigenous peoples of the region for thousands of years to enhance health and vitality, has already been discovered.

The acai berry grows as a wild plant on top of many native palm trees in the Amazon rainforest, with the fruits of the plant being harvested by local farmers and used to make a healthy and nutritious fruit pulp. When quickly frozen, this fruit pulp can retain its vast nutritional value even when being shipped around the world. The acai berry is known for its deep purple color, as well as for being a rich source of many important antioxidant vitamins.

The major benefits of the acai berry are thought to include its strong heart health benefits. The acai berry is known to be a rich source of compounds called anthocyanins. These anthocyanins are the same compounds thought to give red wine its health benefits, but acai berries may contain even higher concentrations of these healthy chemicals than wine, with none of the health risks associated with alcohol.

The acai berry is also a rich source of protein and dietary fiber, in addition to high levels of both omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids, thought to have a protective effect on the heart and cardiovascular system. The omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids contained in the acai berry may also play a role in lowering levels of cholesterol in the blood.

In addition to these important benefits, the acai berry is thought to play a vital role in slowing down the aging process. In health food circles, the acai berry is known as one of the most powerful of the anti-aging superfoods. It is thought that this anti-aging effect is a combination of the high levels of anthocyanins and the strong antioxidant vitamin content the fruit contains. In fact, the acai berry is known to contain ten times as many antioxidant vitamins as grapes and twice as many as blueberries.

For many years the acai berry has been hard to find, even in health food stores and natural grocery stores. As the reputation of this super fruit continues to grow, however, its availability is on the rise. It is now possible to buy acai berries in their raw form, as well as purchasing a number of excellent, highly concentrated fruit drinks made with the healthful and powerful acai berry.

The acai berry is truly one of nature’s most healing foods, and a worthy addition to any healthy diet.

Health Benefits of Cinnamon

2007-11-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

Health Benefits of Cinnamon

Cinnamon…common, comforting, homey. Who would have thought it could be so good for you?

What is Cinnamon?
Cinnamon is the bark of one of a group of trees belonging to the same family. There are many related species marketed as cinnamon. “True cinnamon” is from Sri Lanka and is more delicate tasting than what is commonly sold as cinnamon in the US, which is also called “cassia” or “Chinese cinnamon”. Cassia has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. There are many other species of cinnamon, mainly from Asia and Madagascar. Cinnamon “sticks” or “quills” are rolls of dried bark, and can be grated into a powder or soaked in liquid. Most people buy cinnamon pre-ground.

Cinnamon Nutrition
Would you believe that a mere teaspoon of cinnamon contains 28 mg of calcium, almost one mg of iron, over a gram of fiber, and quite a lot of vitamins C, K, and manganese? It’s true! It also contains about half a gram of “usable” (non-fiber) carbohydrate.

Health Benefits of Cinnamon
In traditional medicine, cinnamon has been used for digestive ailments such as indigestion, gas and bloating, stomach upset, and diarrhea.

More recently, modern medical research has turned its eye on cinnamon and is coming up with some intriguing results. It has a mild anti-inflammatory effect. It also slows the spoiling of food (which is probably related to why it was used as an embalming agent in ancient Egypt), and has anti-fungal properties as well.

In one fun (but unpublished) study, researchers found that sniffing cinnamon resulted in improved brain function – subjects did better on memory and attention tasks when taking whiffs of cinnamon as opposed to other odors or no odor. However, the potential health benefits of cinnamon that have received the most attention have to do with its effects on blood glucose and cholesterol.

Cinnamon May Improve Type 2 Diabetes and Insulin Resistance
This is the news that is most exciting for people who respond to low carb diets, since most (or at least a substantial percentage) of us are probably insulin resistant or diabetic. There have been several studies which show improved insulin sensitivity and blood glucose control by taking as little as ½ teaspoon of cinnamon per day. Improving insulin resistance can help in weight control as well as decreasing the risk for heart disease, so this has a lot of people very interested. To be fair, a recent study showed no effect, so these results are definitely preliminary, but evidence is accumulating. Along with the improvement in blood sugar, these studies have documented improvements in triglycerides and LDL cholesterol.

Adverse Reactions
In “normal uses” in cooking, etc, cinnamon is unlikely to cause problems in non-allergic people, and up to ½ teaspoon at a time are thought to be safe. People attempting to take more as a supplement should be aware of the following: Most negative reactions are in the form of skin rashes, or irritation to the tissues of the mouth or stomach. Cinnamon has a mild anti-clotting effect in the blood, which could be beneficial, but it is conceivable that too much could cause bleeding problems, especially when combined with medications which “thin the blood”, including aspirin. In traditional medicine, high doses are not given to pregnant women, due to possible stimulating effects on the uterus.

Selection and Storage of Cinnamon
Basically, you’re looking to buy it fresh and keep it fresh. Most large grocery stores have a rapid turnover of cinnamon, so you don’t really need to worry. Once home, it is best stored in a dark, cool, dry place. Cinnamon sticks can keep for 2-3 years this way, but powdered cinnamon will gradually lose its flavor, and is best used within six months. (It isn’t bad for you after this time, just less fresh-tasting.) If you want to try a fun array of different cinnamons, try a specialty spice shop such as Penzeys.

Organic IS better and here's why:

2007-11-28T13:23:00.000-05:00

The Results Are In: Organic Foods More Nutritious Than Conventional Foods

Originally published November 18 2007
The Results Are In: Organic Foods More Nutritious Than Conventional Foods
by Katherine East

(NewsTarget) If you have been a supporter and consumer of organic foods because of its better taste and health benefits, then you’ve probably endured the taunts from scoffers and sceptics and labelled a “health nut”, “fanatic” or worse.

Even a government body (the FSA) which provides advice and information on food, has up to now had the following stance on organic foods: "Consumers may also choose to buy organic food because they believe that it is safer and more nutritious than other food. However, the balance of current scientific evidence does not support this view."

Well, now it's almost official: Organic foods really are better for you.

The biggest and most extensive scientific study and research into the benefits of organic food has found that it is more nutritious than ordinary produce and may in fact lengthen people’s lives. They also contain higher levels of antioxidants and flavo-noids which help ward off heart disease and cancer as well as higher levels of beneficial minerals such as iron and zinc. (But you could’ve told them that.)

Newcastle University have been leading this £12m, four-year project, funded by the European Union and their findings show that organic food contains more antioxidants and less unhealthy fatty acids.

They found levels of antioxidants in milk from organic cattle were between 50% and 80% higher than normal milk. Organic wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and lettuce had between 20% and 40% more nutrients than non-organic foods.

Project co-ordinator Professor Carlo Leifert said: "We have shown there are more of certain nutritionally desirable compounds and less of the baddies in organic foods or improved amounts of the fatty acids you want and less of those you don't want. Our research is now trying to find out where the difference between organic and conventional food comes from. What we're really interested in is finding out why there is so much variability with respect to the differences. What in the agricultural system gives a higher nutritional content and less of the baddies in the food?"

The studies have indicated that differences between organic and non-organic produce were so marked, eating organic produce is like eating an extra portion of fruit or vegetables everyday. “If you have just 20% more antioxidants and you can’t get your kids to do five a day, then you might just be okay with four a day,” said Leifert.

The research project included growing both organic and conventional test crops of fruits and vegetables. They also reared cattle on a 725-acre site at Nafferton Farm, Northumberland.

The research will also assist organic farmers to improve their quality and farming methods with a better understanding of how the nutritional quality of produce is affected by agricultural methods.

The question is: will this project, also known as “Quality Low Input Food project”, end years of debate and overturn Government advice that eating organic food is no more than a “lifestyle choice”? The Food Standards Agency has confirmed it will be reviewing the evidence from the research and considering whether to change its advice.

The Soil association, a leading representative of the organic producers, is hoping that this latest research could help to contribute to a "seismic" change in the food industry. The final results of the project will be published over the next 12 months.

____________________________________________________________________________
Organic farming was the only type of farming used worldwide until the invention of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in the early 20th century. When agriculture began to become industrialized and the use of synthetic inputs became the norm, handfuls of farmers throughout the US and abroad reacted by holding on to the farming traditions of before and resisting the new conventions. This type of farming soon came to be known as “organic.”

Buyer Beware
Only USDA certified-organic foods can use the word "organic" in the actual product name.

However, organic ingredients can be listed on the packaging of products that are not entirely organic (for instance, "made with organic flour").
In addition, if a company is certified as an organic producer, it can use the word "organic" in its company name.

This name can appear on all of its products - even those that aren't certified organic. Therefore, it is important to look for the USDA "Certified Organic" seal when purchasing organic products.

The product was grown or raised by a producer who uses practices in balance with nature, using methods and materials that do not harm or destroy the environment. The farmer is committed to maintaining harmony with the environment; building biodiversity; and fostering healthy soil and growing conditions.

Land on which organic food or fibers are grown has been free of known and perceived toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers for three years prior to certification.

Crops are rotated from field to field, rather than growing the same crop year after year. Cover crops such as clover are planted to add nutrients to the soil and prevent weeds.

Organic meat, poultry and egg products come from farms that use organic feed, do not administer antibiotics or hormones, and they give animals access to the outdoors.
Food has been minimally processed, with no artificial ingredients, preservatives, or irradiation and was not produced using genetically modified organisms.

Regulation
In October 2002, organic food became regulated by the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Organic Program. The National Organic Standards Board, a federal advisory panel created to advise the USDA on developing organic legislation, defines organic agriculture as "an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony."

The Difference between Organic and Sustainable
Although many of the principles and practices employed on sustainable and organic farms are the same, some organic farmers are not sustainable, and some sustainable farmers are not organic. The distinction between organic and sustainable can be very confusing, but it’s an important one to understand, as many organic products these days are not sustainable, and are actually produced on massive industrial farms. Some organic dairy farms, for example, raise cows in large confinement facilities but are able to meet the bare minimum requirements for organic certification.

To make the distinction between these two farming methods clearer, here are some comparisons between organic and sustainable:

Certification
Organic farms must be independently certified every year and approved by the USDA, while sustainable farms do not require any official certification.

USDA Definition: “Organic Production”
A production system that is managed in accordance with the [The Organic Foods Production] Act and regulations in this part to respond to site-specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity.

In order to bear the USDA "Certified Organic" seal, a product must contain 95 to 100 percent organic ingredients.iii Products that contain 100 percent organic ingredients can be labeled "100 percent organic," iv while products that contain more than 70 percent, but less than 94 percent organic ingredients can be labeled "Made with Organic Ingredients," but cannot use the USDA "Certified-Organic" seal.v

Violators of organic labeling regulations can be fined as much as $10,000 for each offense. vi Farmers need to prove that their operations comply with all the requirements specified by the USDA, establish and submit their organic farming system plans,
keep all records regarding their organic operations, and permit on-site inspections in order to be certified as an organic producer. vii

Animal Welfare
Organic farmers need to give animals “access” to outdoors, but they can actually confine animals and gain organic certification with as little as an open door leading to a cement patio. In sustainable farms, animals must be permitted to carry out their natural behaviors, like rooting, pecking or grazing. A sustainable farmer might keep his or her animals indoors in bad weather, but the animals are given ample space to move around naturally. Sustainable farmers assure that their animals are healthy, comfortable and well cared for.

Antibiotics
While no antibiotics can be fed to organic-certified livestock, there is no legal restriction for antibiotic use in sustainable farming. Many sustainable farmers do not administer any antibiotics at all, but some may do so when their animals are sick and need to be treated. The milk and meat of animals given antibiotics on these farms are not used for human consumption until the antibiotics have fully passed out of the animals’ systems.

Artificial Hormones
No added or artificial hormones are allowed for organic farming, nor are they used for sustainable farming.

Corporate Involvement
Organic food can be produced by large corporations, while sustainable food production is carried out by small farmers and families who live on the land where they farm.

Size of the farm
For organic farming, there is no limitation on how many acres can be used to grow crops. Sustainable farmers plant crops in relatively small, mixed plots as a form of pest control and to build soil fertility.

Food Miles
Organic food can travel thousands of miles before reaching your dinner plate, and certification does not take into consideration the use of fossil fuels used to truck food. Sustainable food, however, is distributed and sold as close to the farm as possible.

Corporate Takeover
Organic agriculture is becoming more popular because consumers are demanding healthful and environmentally-friendly food. This shift in consumer behavior is good news, but unfortunately, increased demand for organic foods has attracted large agribusiness corporations that intend to profit from the trend.

Although it’s not obvious to consumers, large corporations own many popular organic food brands. For example, Silk soymilk and Horizon dairy products are produced by Dean Foods, the nation’s largest milk producer. viii ix The corporate takeover of organic food is further encouraged by Wal-Mart, as it recently expanded their organic food sales in spring 2006.x Such corporate involvement does not only threaten the existence of small sustainable farmers, but also deteriorates the quality of organic food and makes it harder for small organic farms to compete.

Corporate-owned organic brands can push down the prices of organic products because they’re willing to cut corners in the production process and share a smaller portion of their profits with the farmers. They’ll confine dairy cows most of the year and sacrifice animal welfare,xiwhich allows them to sell their “organic” milk at low prices that small organic farms with higher standards can’t match.

This problem is aggravated by agribusiness’ push to weaken USDA organic standards. In 2005, agribusiness lobbied the Congress to pass a bill that allows for the use of 38 synthetic food substances in the processing and handling of certified organic foods. xiiThe new rule requires consumers to pay more attention to the ingredients of organic food products and to pay more attention to the difference between various organic foods and brands.

What You Can Do
The organic label is a useful tool when you’re shopping in a conventional grocery store, because it helps you find food that is free of pesticides and antibiotics. But don’t go by the label alone! It’s important to look for food that is not only organic, but also local and produced by a small farm with high standards.

Did You Know?

According to the USDA, consumer demand for organic agricultural products has increased steadily in the U.S., rising 20 percent or more annually throughout the 90's.

A 22-year study conducted by the Rodale Institute determined that organic farming operations use 30% less energy than conventional farms.

Between 1997 and 2003, US farmers and ranchers increased the amount of certified organic farmland for crops and livestock by nearly one million acres.

In 2003, 2.2 million acres of the U.S. farmland were used to produce certified organic crops and livestock.

source

The Benefits of Skin Brushing

2007-11-28T13:15:00.000-05:00

source

What is the largest organ in the body?
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

What organ is responsible for ¼ of the body’s detoxification each day?
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

What organ eliminates two pounds of waste acids daily?
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

What is one of the most important elimination organs in the body?
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

What organ receives one third of all the blood that is circulated in the body?
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

When the blood is full of toxic materials, what organ will reflect this with problems?
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

What organ is the last to recieve nutrients in the body, yet the first to shows signs of imbalance or deficiency
ANSWER: THE SKIN!

A Simplistic Approach to Healthier Skin

The practice of dry skin brushing may be old news to those who practice the daily routine, but with all the skin care products and hypes out there, we thought it important to re-introduce a process that is not only a great way to maintain healthy skin, but also helps you to maintain a healthy body. The ability of the skin to excrete toxins is of paramount importance to you.

Dry skin brushing is one of the healthier self-help methods available to us today. Stimulation of the skin sets in motion natural healing pathways within your body. Additionally, it encourages nerve beds within its structure that in turn increases normal healing processes throughout the body.

There are several automatic systems contained by the body including healing processes. Your heart beats by design—you breathe automatically—and your body’s “automatic healing process”, is another. It is set in motion when your body generates an itching response to the required areas. You will obviously scratch that area, and in turn, the area turns red with a fresh blood supply and the natural healing process has now been set in motion. This is the same healing process that will follow a skin brushing session.

Your skin is the primary sign of an internally toxic body. As soon as your internal body becomes toxic, it will spread out into your skin causing your skin to become irritated and itchy. There are numerous ports of elimination of the skin including your mouth, face, and arm pits, the inside of your upper thigh region, feet, and toe nails. Did you know that body odor is also an additional indicator of toxic build-up and is eradicated through the same channels. Let’s not forget your tongue, which builds up a plaque and is yet another gauge of toxins in the body.

Our skin is permeable or porous, and can absorb toxins directly from the environment. According to Jacqueline Krohn, MD, “Caustic chemicals, such as alkaline solutions, can also penetrate the skin. Once a chemical has penetrated the stratum corneum (the most superficial layer of the skin), it moves through the epidermis and into the dermis. Skin brushing will enhance your health significantly. You may wonder how this is accomplished using, “skin brushing”. It is a fact that the skin is one of the optimal ways to getting to the endocrine system and all the glands it reaches very quickly. In addition, at the same time, it triggers them to react successfully. The instantaneous result from a brushing session is a feeling of increased physical well being.

The Benefits Of Dry Skin Brushing

• Dry skin brushing helps to shed dead skin cells, which can help improve skin texture and cell renewal.

• Dry skin brushing increases circulation to skin, encouraging your body’s discharge of metabolic wastes, which greatly aids the lymphatic drainage of the entire body. When the body rids itself of toxins, it is able to run more efficiently in all areas.

• Dry skin brushing also helps to tighten the skin because it increases the flow of blood. Increasing the circulation to the skin can also help lessen the appearance of cellulite.

• Dry skin brushing stimulates the lymph canals to drain toxic mucoid matter into the colon, thereby purifying the entire system. This enables the lymph to perform its house-cleaning duties by keeping the blood and other vital tissues detoxified. After several days of dry brushing, you may notice the gelatinous mucoid material in your stools.

• Dry skin brushing helps with muscle tone and more even distribution of fat deposits.

• Dry skin brushing also rejuvenates the nervous system by stimulating nerve endings in the skin.

• Dry skin brushing helps your skin to absorb nutrients by eliminating clogged pores. Healthy, breathing skin contributes to overall body health.

• Individuals who sit at a computer screen all day long will particularly take pleasure in the benefits of skin brushing. People who have inactive lifestyles or jobs usually experience stiff and sore necks and shoulders that reach even into their arms and down their spines and into their lower backs. Increased blood flow begins entering the areas brushed and you will experience an increase in electromagnetic energy that permits you to feel energized and invigorated.

• LADIES—Cellulite is toxic. Cellulite is toxic materials that are accumulated in your body’s fat cells as they are unable to be eliminated. So, rather than liposuction surgery, how about utilizing the “dry skin brushing” techniques coupled with an alkaline diet program and a great exercising routine. It will break down the unwelcome toxic body deposits and send them scurrying out of your body through the elimination channels we discussed above.

How to Get Started With Your Skin Brushing Regimen

1. Purchase a natural, NOT a synthetic, bristle brush. (vegetable bristle)

2. Purchase a brush with a long handle, so that you are able to reach all areas of your body. Best-case scenario would be one that had a removable head with a strap for your hand.

3. Skin brushing should be performed once a day, preferably first thing in the morning. If you are feeling ill, please do it twice a day until you feel better.

4. Skin brushing should be performed prior to your bath or shower and your body dry and naked.

5. Begin brushing your skin in long sweeping strokes starting from the bottom of your feet upwards, and from the hands towards the shoulders, and on the torso in an upward direction. Always brush towards the heart. Try and brush several times in each area, over-lapping as you go.

6. Avoid sensitive areas and anywhere the skin is broken.

7. After brushing your skin, rinse off in the shower. Paavo Airola, author of Swedish Beauty Secrets, recommends alternating temperatures in the shower from hot to cold. This will further invigorate the skin and stimulate blood circulation, bring more blood to the outer layers of the skin.

8. After getting out of the shower, dry off vigorously and massage your skin with pure plant oil, such as almond, jojoba, sesame or coconut. We like to use a small amount of Euro Organic Oil which is a blend of sunflower, almond, apricot, avocado, and jojoba oils.

9. Don’t forget to clean your skin brush using soap and water once a week. After rinsing, dry your skin brush in an open, sunny spot to prevent mildew.

10. For a thorough lymphatic cleansing, perform skin brushing daily for a minimum of three months.

Caution: Do not brush on or over skin rashes, wounds, cuts, infections, poison oak or poison ivy.

Note: Any well designed program will take about 30 days to see and experience the changes. Please be patient and keep up the program!

Medical Tyranny in Maryland: Parents Threatened With Jail Time for Not Vaccinating Children

2007-11-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

http://www.newstarget.com/022242.html

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published November 14 2007
Medical Tyranny in Maryland: Parents Threatened With Jail Time for Not Vaccinating Children
by Mike Adams

(NewsTarget) This is an action item alert for all those who believe in health freedom. State and County officials in Maryland have announced they will send parents to jail if they don't submit their children to forced vaccinations. State Attorney General Glenn F. Ivey has announced he is willing to criminalize parents if they don't bring them to the courthouse to have them injected, on the spot, with vaccines that contain methyl mercury -- a highly toxic nerve chemical that causes brain damage and is linked to autism. The action is backed by Circuit Judge William D. Missouri, Circuit Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr., and the chairman of the Prince George school board, R. Owen Johnson Jr.

Together, these judges and officials have conspired to turn Maryland into a medical police state, invoking the threat of imprisonment in order to achieve a vaccination goal that has more to do with politics than children's actual health or safety. By threatening to imprison parents who object to the supposed health benefits of vaccinations, these state officials are effectively conspiring to cause thousands of children to be separated from their parents -- a move that would create a humanitarian and public health disaster. This thought has not deterred Attorney General Glenn F. Ivey, who said, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but it's got to get done." That's the kind of quote that might be uttered by a corrupt police officer pointing a gun in your face and demanding that you do something you don't want to do. Actually, that's not far off base from what the state of Maryland is now asking parents to do: Submit to the harming of their children through the injection of a toxic chemical, all enforced at gunpoint.

These vaccines contain thimerosal, a chemical preservative made, in part, with toxic methyl mercury. This toxic substance was banned decades ago in many countries, but not in the U.S. where corrupt health officials cater to the financial interests of drug companies rather than protecting the public. Read NewsTarget's full report on Thimerosal here: http://www.newstarget.com/011764.html

NewsTarget is launching a grassroots action campaign to file an avalanche of complaints with the relevant Maryland officials, demanding that they reverse their position on this issue and apologize for threatening to throw parents in jail for refusing to have their children forcibly vaccinated. We believe that Attorney General Ivey -- a Democrat -- should be ashamed of himself for invoking such tyrannical actions against his own people, and that judges William Missouri and C. Philip Nichols Jr. should be rebuked for conspiring to threaten the free people of Maryland with imprisonment.

Join NewsTarget in complaining to Maryland officials, in your own words, about this outrageous application of state power against the people. Here's who you can contact:

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/staff.asp
100 State Circle, Annapolis, Maryland 21401-1925
Phone: 410.974.3901 • 1.800.811.8336 • MD Relay 1.800.735.2258
Colm O'Comartun, Director of Governor's Office
Fax: (410) 974-3275
Phone: (410) 974-3901; 1-800-811-8336 (toll free)

Maryland Attorney General Glenn F. Ivey
Office of State's Attorney
Courthouse, Room 349M, 14735 Main St., Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
Tel: (301) 952-3500/55; Fax: (301) 952-3775

This is the tyrant who is threatening to arrest and imprison parents who fail to get their children vaccinated.

Board of Education
www.pgcps.org/pgboard.html
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/36loc/pg/html/pge.html#education

Tel: (301) 952-6115
Phone the Board of Ed. office: 301 952-6308 or fax at 952-6114

Elected by Voters to 4-year terms:
R. Owen Johnson, Jr., Chair (chosen by Board in Dec., 4-year term), Dist. 5
Verjeana M. Jacobs, Esq., Vice-Chair (chosen by Board in Dec., 4-year term), At Large
Rosalind A. Johnson, Dist. 1
Heather Iliff, Dist. 2
Pat J. Fletcher, Dist. 3
Linda T. Thomas, Dist. 4
Donna Hathaway Beck, At Large
Ronald L. Watson, Ph.D., At Large
Amber P. Waller,* At Large

County Executive
Elected by Voters to 4-year term:
Jack B. Johnson (D), County Executive, 2010
County Administration Building, Suite 5032
14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 - 3070
(301) 952-4131
e-mail: wjproctor@co.pg.md.us
web: www.co.pg.md.us/Government/ExecutiveBranch/

Prince George County's County Health Department
http://www.co.pg.md.us/Government/AgencyIndex/Health/index.asp

Donald Shell, M.D., M.A.
Health Officer
Headquarters Building
1701 McCormick Drive
Suite 200
Largo, Maryland 20774

Tel: (301) 883-7879
Fax: (301) 883-7896

Public Schools
Prince George's County Public Schools
14201 School Lane
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
301-952-6000

ACLU already contacted
NewsTarget has also contacted the Maryland ACLU, who told us that they cannot take action on this issue until a parent is actually arrested and charged. But at that point, they may take an interest in this case.

Action Items:
If you feel passionate about this issue and want to take a stand, we urge you to call, fax or email the officials named above.

Be sure to contact the office of Attorney General Glenn F. Ivey as well as the school board office of R. Owen Johnson Jr. These are key players in this latest example of medical tyranny.

You do not have to live in Maryland to make your voice heard on this issue. This impacts us all, because if Maryland officials learn they can get away with this kind of Big Brother Medicine scheme, other states may be inspired to pull out their guns and try the same thing. It is crucial that we remind these officials of what country they live in, and here in the United States, We the People still demand our freedoms and our right to choose what kind of medicine is best for our children.

The dangers of vaccines
What's clear is that there is a substantial and scientifically validated link between vaccinations and neurological disorders in children. Maryland state officials apparently have no concern over this matter and are enforcing mandatory vaccinations as if the injections were entirely harmless. This myopic view of the safety of pharmaceuticals is typical of state officials and conventional medical doctors, both of whom are almost always influenced to a large degree by the financial aims of powerful pharmaceutical companies. (Doctors, for example, aren't even taught about the dangers of mercury in vaccines and are told that ALL drugs are safe for use on children, even if those drugs have never been tested on children!)

Due to the enormous amount of information now available about the dangers of vaccinations, there is no question that concerned parents have a right -- if not the responsibility -- to consciously object to the harming of their children via such vaccines. Rejecting mandatory vaccinations is one of the most responsible health decisions an informed parent can make. It is, in fact, all the mindless parents who submit to such vaccinations who are demonstrating a complete lack of concern for the health of their children. These are, no doubt, the same parents who feed their children processed foods, soda pop and school lunches (which contain numerous harmful chemical additives such as sodium nitrite, sodium benzoate and artificial food colors).

Join NewsTarget in taking action, and we'll help put a stop to this medical tyranny. If there's one thing state Attorneys General hate worse than parents who won't get their kids vaccinated, it's waking up to an avalanche of screaming angry parents from all across the country who are tired of being criminalized for merely protecting their children from the dangers of vaccines.

Listen to the Health Ranger Report podcast
I've just posted an urgent audio podcast Health Ranger Report on this issue. You can download it here:
www.NewsTarget.com/Podcasts/HealthRangerReport006-LoFi.mp3

Additional Reading:
Check out the coverage on this topic from across the 'net:

Health Crusader:
www.healthtruthrevealed.com/full-page.php?id=14394731711&&page=article

Prison Planet:
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2007/141107_no_law.htm
(Be sure to watch the Fox News video at the end of this article.)

Vaccine Truth:
www.VaccineTruth.com

Articles on Thimerosal:
www.newstarget.com/thimerosal.html

Washington Post report:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111301408.html

Educate yourself. Stay informed and empowered. Do not tolerate medical tyranny in your community or country!

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All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. Newstarget.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NewsTarget.com/terms.shtml

RAW FOOD DIET: RAW FOOD FACTS by Alissa Cohen

2007-11-08T12:26:00.000-05:00

source: http://www.alissacohen.com/faqs.html

What is raw and living food?

Raw and living food is uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains. There are also some other foods that fall within this category such as seaweeds, raw carob powder, cold pressed olive oil and certain spices and seasonings. Whole, ripe, raw, organic foods in their natural state are what help to keep us healthy, vibrant and free of sickness and disease.

What are the benefits of eating a living and raw food diet?

The benefits of eating a raw and living food diet are too numerous to mention in entirety. The living and raw food diet has helped many people feel better when nothing else has worked.

Many people have healed themselves of diseases and ailments such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, acne, migraines, back pain, neck and joint pain, asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hypoglycemia, colitis, diverticulitis, Candida, arthritis, serious allergies, depression, anxiety, mood swings, heartburn, gas, bloating, skin diseases, obesity, chronic fatigue, cancers and many more. Excess weight seems to just melt off your body when you eat a raw and living food diet!

By eating a raw and living food diet you will begin to turn back the hands of time. By eating a raw and living food diet you will start to look younger and more beautiful. You could turn your hair back to its natural color and stop hair loss. You could erase wrinkles and deep creases and age spots, your circles, bags and eye puffiness would disappear. Your acne and blemishes would be gone. Your teeth would be tighter and your gums would stop bleeding and your skin would glow and your eyes would sparkle. You would notice that you look better without make-up and that you have a natural sunny blush. People eating a raw food diet are the healthiest looking people I have ever seen. They have a glow in their skin, a shine to their hair, a sparkle in their eyes, a healthy, fit, body and look younger than their age. They have a youthful energy and they feel good about themselves and happy to be alive!
If you are sick, tired, overweight or just want to feel better than you do right now, know that this way of eating could be the answer to your prayers. Does it sound like I’m promising a lot? Well, I am because I have seen this raw diet work time and time again. This has been one of the greatest miracles in my life and in the lives of other people whom I’ve shared this with.

Why is raw and living food healthier than cooked food?

Giving up cooked food and switching to a raw and living food diet has helped so many people feel well for the first time in their lives. One of the most amazing things that I have witnessed is how quickly this can happen. Feeling healthier, losing weight and healing your body doesn’t take years or months or even weeks on this diet. You will notice changes within days. When you eat a raw and living food diet you are feeding your body and your cells live foods filled with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other life giving substances that cooking destroys.

There are many factors why raw foods improve health but enzymes and acid alkaline balance are probably the two most important ones.

When food is cooked at over 112 degrees (this temperature can be felt as warm to the touch) we destroy all of its enzymes. This is a problem because we need enzymes for every function in our body. To walk, to talk, to breathe and to move; life itself depends on them. As we age, our bodies natural source of enzymes becomes depleted and we need to replenish this source through the foods we eat. If we do not do this and we continue to eat cooked foods, then we eventually begin to use up our body’s enzyme reserves. Cooking makes it harder for our bodies to break up and digest the foods that we eat. This food then begins to get stored in our bodies as toxins; which can lead to all kinds of diseases and illness.

Dr. Humbart Santillo, M.D., states in his book Intuitive Eating that:

“A human being is not maintained by food intake alone, but rather by what is digested. Every food must be broken down by enzymes to simpler building blocks. Enzymes may be divided into 2 groups, exogenous (found in raw food) and endogenous (produced within our bodies.) The more one gets of the exogenous enzymes, the less will have to be borrowed from other metabolic processes and supplied by the pancreas. The enzymes contained in raw food actually aid in the digestion of that same food when it is chewed. One can live many years on a cooked food diet, but eventually this will cause cellular enzyme exhaustion which lays the foundation for a weak immune system and ultimately disease.”

When we are born we are given a limited amount of enzyme energy that has to last us a lifetime. Think of this as your enzyme bank account. If we do not make regular deposits to this account from eating exogenous enzymes that are found in raw foods and we continue to eat cooked foods that use up our enzyme supply, we become more susceptible to aging, disease and premature death.

The enzymes that are destroyed in cooking food are detrimental in so many ways. Not only does it affect our immune system but also our brain function and our energy levels.

Dr. Edward Howell in his book Enzyme Nutrition says:

“Humans eating an enzyme less diet use up a tremendous amount of their enzyme potential in lavish secretions of the pancreas and other digestive organs. The result is a shortened lifespan (65 years or less as compared with 100 or more), illness, and lower resistance to stress of all types, psychological and environmental. By eating foods with their enzymes intact and by supplementing cooked foods with enzyme capsules we can stop abnormal and pathological aging processes.”

Acid Alkaline Balance:
There is so much to say on this subject. Here is a very brief overview so you can begin to think about what kind of effect the foods you eat have on the acid-alkaline balance in your body. An over acid body is found in most people with acute or chronic diseases. Some common symptoms of an overly acid body are arthritis, depression, headaches, lethargy, gastritis, dulled mentality, canker sores, fatigue, muscle stiffness, stomach aches, chest pain, constipation, irritability, sinus problems, acid reflex, restless sleep and so much more. But an overly acid body can lead to many more serious health problems. For example, cancer cells are able to live better than normal cells in an acid environment.

Dr. Ted Morter states:

“When your body is too acid for too long, it plays the game of life with a lineup of backup systems. These backups are either substitute minerals, or ammonia. When your body is too acid -when your normal pH is too low - the systems and organs of your body work overtime just to stay even. But systems and organs aren’t designed to function flat-out in red-alert mode all the time. They need rest just as you do. If the red - alert goes on for months or even years, systems and organs become exhausted. An exhausted body can’t compete with disease. Eventually, disease wins the game.”

How does our body become too acidic? Diet is the major factor. A diet that is too high in acid forming food will cause the body to become too acidic. And what are acid forming foods? Sadly, the typical American diet of high protein flesh foods, high sugar, high fat and low complex carbohydrates is acid forming. Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, white sugars, flour products, pasta, breads, most cooked grains, most beans, most nuts, candy, soda, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, chemical additives, preservatives, drugs and synthetic vitamins are all acid forming. So how do we get our bodies at the right pH balance and create an internal environment that is slightly alkaline? We can do this by eliminating acid producing foods and eating a diet that is high in raw fruits and vegetables. I say raw because when you cook food it makes it more acidic. When you eat a diet that is made up of raw fruits, vegetables, sprouted nuts, seeds and grains you will begin to shift that acid state to a more alkaline state.

What does someone's daily diet look like when they are eating raw and living food?

The diet of someone eating a raw diet varies according to the person; just as no two people who eat cooked food eat the same.

Whole fruits, smoothies or fruit and vegetable juices are a great way to start the day.

For lunch and dinner there are so many raw food dishes that you could make. Just as it is impossible to list all of the cooked food entrees that people eat, so too would it be impossible to list all of the options available for lunches and dinners. The choices for desserts are so numerous and delicious; when made from raw and living food, there is no guilt and no need to abstain. There are times when I have eaten a whole banana cream pie for lunch. Raw pasta, banana and almond butter sandwiches, fettuccini alfredo, burgers, large salads with guacamole and corn chowder are some of my favorite lunch or dinner items.

There are over 300 recipes in Living on Live Food; Hors d’oeuvres; spanakopita (spinach pie) and jicama fries. Breads, muffins and crackers; apple muffins, onion bagel bread and Mexican crackers. Soups; coconut soup, chili and watermelon soup. Dips and spreads; hummus, refried beans and spinach dip. Salads; Italian tomato basil salad and pear beet and jicama salad along with dressings like Japanese salad dressing and green goddess dressing. Entree's; spinach pizza, BBQ chicken fingers, sushi, crab cakes and meatballs. Desserts; blueberry pie, black forest cake, carrot cake, cannoli and fudge. Fruit drinks, vegetable drinks, smoothies and so much more!

Why don't I have to count calories or fat grams? How can I eat avocados, nuts and other high fat foods on this diet and still lose weight?

There is a huge difference between cooked fats and raw fats.

The studies that have been done linking fats to high cancer rates, heart attacks, kidney failure, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, angina, cardiovascular disease and all of the other diseases that clog up the blood and the arteries have been done with cooked fats. Obesity is linked to a high cooked fat diet.

Raw plant fats on the other hand, have exactly the opposite effect. Raw fats such as avocados, olives, coconuts, nuts and seeds are imperative in a healthy diet. These fats contain antioxidants. They contain oils that help the joints, nerves and bones.

These raw plant fats do not cause the body to gain excess weight because they still contain the enzyme lipase; this is the enzyme that is needed to digest fat. Cooking fats destroy lipase; along with other important enzymes and minerals. The fat digesting enzyme, lipase, breaks up the raw plant foods as they are eaten and help to digest the oils in these foods. Because this food is getting assimilated and digested properly, it is not clogging up the blood and arteries, causing all kinds of chronic and degenerative diseases. It is not getting stored as excess weight in the body. You will not get fat by eating avocados, sprouted nuts and seeds and other plant fats. When I first started this diet I was eating 2-3 avocados a day and losing weight. I didn’t have much weight to lose, but the few extra pounds I had just melted off because I was eating fats in their whole natural form with all of their enzymes intact.

GOJI GOODNESS!

2007-11-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

What are goji berries?
Other Names: Lycium barbarum, wolfberry, gou qi zi, Fructus lycii

Goji berries grow on an evergreen shrub found in temperate and subtropical regions in China, Mongolia and in the Himalayas in Tibet. They are in the nightshade (Solonaceae) family.

Goji berries are usually found dried. They are shriveled red berries that look like red raisins.

Why do people use goji berries?
Goji berries have been used for 6,000 years by herbalists in China, Tibet and India to:
protect the liver

help eyesight

improve sexual function and fertility

strengthen the legs

boost immune function

improve circulation

promote longevity
Goji berries are rich in antioxidants, particularly carotenoids such as beta-carotene and zeaxanthin. One of zeaxanthin's key roles is to protect the retina of the eye by absorbing blue light and acting as an antioxidant. In fact, increased intake of foods containing zeathanthin may decrease the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people over the age of 65.

In recent years, goji juice has become popular as a health beverage. Companies marketing goji juice often mention the unsupported claim that a man named Li Qing Yuen consumed goji berries daily and lived to be 252 years old. Marketers also list extensive health benefits of goji juice, even though there are few published clinical trials in humans.

What research has been done on goji berries?
Goji has only been tested on humans in two published studies. A Chinese study published in the Chinese Journal of Oncology in 1994 found that 79 people with cancer responded better to treatment when goji was added to their regimen.

There have been several test tube studies that show that goji berry contains antioxidants and that goji extracts may prevent the growth of cancer cells, reduce blood glucose, and lower cholesterol levels. However, that doesn't necessary mean that goji will have the same benefits when taken as a juice or tea.

Although goji berries like the ones used in traditional Chinese medicine aren't very expensive, goji juice is very pricey. Considering that a 32-ounce bottle of goji juice (about an 18-day supply) can run as high as $50 USD, the evidence isn't compelling enough at this time to justify the cost of goji juice.

Also, we don't know the side effects of regular goji consumption, or whether it will interfere with treatments or medications.

What do goji berries taste like?
Goji berries have a mild tangy taste that is slightly sweet and sour. They have a similar shape and chewy texture as raisins.

Common forms
In traditional Chinese medicine, goji berries are eaten raw, brewed into a tea, added to Chinese soups, or made into liquid extracts.

Goji juice is also available, usually in 32-ounce bottles.

Goji berries have appeared in snack foods in North America. For example, the health food store Trader Joe's sells a goji berry trail mix.

Possible drug interactions
Goji berries may interact with anticoagulant drugs (commonly called "blood-thinners"), such as warfarin (Coumadin®). There was one case report published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy of a 61-year old woman who had an increased risk of bleeding, indicated by an elevated international normalized ratio (INR). She had been drinking 3-4 cups daily of goji berry tea. Her blood work returned to normal after discontinuing the goji berry tea.
Where to find goji berries
Whole goji berries are available at Chinese herbal shops.

Goji juice can be found in some health food stores, online stores, and through network marketers.

Health Benefits of Rooibos Tea

2007-11-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

Pronounced "roy-boss" and means "red bush" in Afrikaans. Studies have shown this tea is comparable to green tea in the amounts of polyphenols it contains. It shows anti-mutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral activity.

Rooibos is totally pure and natural. It contains no colorants or preservatives.

Rooibos helps delay the aging process! The aging of our bodies is caused by toxic compounds called free radicals which are produced as a by-product of normal cell function. These free radicals attack our healthy cells. Over our lifetime this damage contributes to aging and our immune system weakens. Recently, Japanese scientists have found that Rooibos tea contains a mimic of the enzyme Super Oxide Dismutase (S.O.D.), an antioxidant which attacks the free radicals and limits their damaging effects.

Rooibos helps to relieve stomach ulcers, nausea, constipation, and heartburn.

Have a cup of Rooibos before you get ready for bed to ensure a good night's sleep! Rooibos has been found to help with insomnia, disturbed sleeping patterns and headaches. It contains no caffeine and has a relaxing effect on the central nervous system.

Rooibos helps to give you strong bones and teeth because of its calcium, manganese and fluoride content.

Rooibos helps pacify infants with colic, stomach cramps and sleeping problems. Simply mix some Rooibos tea with expressed breast milk or formula. It is 100% natural with no colorants or preservatives. It is a mother's miracle.

Rooibos contains alpha hydroxy acid and zinc for healthy, smooth skin. This wonder tea is especially useful when applied to skin irritations like itchy skin, eczema, sunburns, diaper rash and acne.

Put used rooibos tea bags in the refrigerator or freezer. After a hard day's work, put on tired or red eyes to soothe and relax.

Rooibos contains magnesium which is necessary for a healthy nervous system.

Rooibos increases the absorption of iron in the body.

Rooibos contains potassium and copper minerals that are necessary for several metabolic functions.

Rooibos is often prescribed for nervous tension and mild depression as it makes a relaxing sedative.

Rooibos contains no oxalic acid and can therefore be enjoyed by persons suffering from kidney stones.

Rooibos helps to control your appetite thus can be beneficial in weight loss.

Rooibos helps you recoup after a hangover.

Rooibos makes a great thirst-quencher and sport drink. Because of its mineral content of iron, potassium, zinc, manganese and sodium, it restores the body's equilibrium after strenuous exercise.

Rooibos is very versatile! Drink it hot or cold, with or without milk, sugar or honey. Add lemon or mix it with fruit juices for a lovely blend. Rooibos tea is also used in cooking and baking. It replaces the liquid content in recipes for soups, marinades, sauces, stews and cakes for added flavor and nutrition.

And Rooibos tastes divine! It is less bitter than most teas.

Food Combining

2007-11-06T12:37:00.000-05:00

Food Combining
By Charles Snyder

Food, we all must eat to survive. We now know that we were designed to eat predominately raw, whole, plant food. But the big question is do we eat it like most health teachers and the media tell us, everything at every meal, or is there a better way?

Does our digestive system have a standard mixture of chemicals that it dumps into our stomach regardless of what we eat? Or, will it make a specific solution for specific foods? Does it make any difference? I will attempt to answer these questions in this lesson.

The digestive system

When most people think of their digestive system they think of their stomach and the small intestines. Many would include the mouth. But did you know that your taste buds and brain are the key to successful digestion?

When you take a bite of a food substance your taste buds analyze what it is and tells your brain what you just eat. Your brain decides what solution will best digest that food and tells your various glands to secrete the correct solution. Or, at least that is what is supposed to happen.

Most of us eat a large variety of food types at each meal. What happens is that the brain gets confused. One second the taste buds tell it you eat potatoes. Before it can prepare to digest the potato it says you eat some flesh food, so it sends some acid to digest the meat. But before it can accomplish that it is told that you have some sugar desert coming down, perhaps even some fruit.

The end result is that it is very rare that your system is not challenged by the variety you eat. The result is that most of the food is not correctly digested. Too much acid is usually the result and we have problems with the acid and wonder why.

It has been proven by millions of people that if we eat a more simple diet with less variety you will digest more of it and need less. You will have less digestive problems.

We were designed to eat mono meals of one type of food at a given meal. Think of it this way. We were designed as gatherers who went from tree to tree to find what was ripe. In the beginning we did not have to worry about storing food. It was always there. So we stopped at a given tree or plant and picked enough for our meal and eat.

Mono meals work best. They are the easiest for our body to digest. Especially when you eat things like melon you should eat them alone at a melon meal, or use them as an appetizer about 30 minutes before the meal. Watermelon digests perhaps the fastest. If you eat watermelon by itself it will be out of your stomach and absorbed in about 30 minutes.

If melons are used as a desert they tend to ferment and cause all sorts of digestive problems. Most people who have problems when they eat melon see these problems disappear if they eat the melon on an empty stomach. Keep in mind that some foods take 4 or more hours to get out of the way of the melon. I like to eat melon as my breakfast.

High Starch ~ High Protein

The standard American Diet (SAD) would combine starches, high protein foods, and sweet deserts in one meal. The theory is that we need all these nutrients all the time at every meal. They ignore physiology completely.

Our bodies do not function on a just in time basis like modern factories. They function like a store with a large warehouse. Only part of the goods are on the shelves. As the stock is removed it is replaced from the warehouse. When we eat we replenish the warehouse, not the shelves, unless we have been fasting for a long time. Because of this we don't need a large variety at each meal.

High protein foods require an acid environment to be digested properly. Starches require a an alkaline environment. The two are not compatible together. The enzymes needed to digest starch are destroyed by the acid needed to digest meat.

I will talk more about protein in a future lesson but think about this. Mothers milk has 5% protein. It would stand to reason that a baby, growing rapidly, would need the highest percentage of protein. Why would an adult ever need more that 5%? Why would you ever need nearly 100% protein?

We need a certain amount of sugar (simple carbohydrate) each day. The type of sugar you get makes a huge difference to your body. The simple sugars found in fruit are the easiest to digest. Our bodies don't have to do anything to use them. That is why you feel energized after eating grapes, or an apple.

On the other hand starches are complex carbohydrates. They are made up of several sugars. The more complex they are the harder it is for the body to brake them down into the simple sugars they are made of so it can use them. That is why you sometimes feel sluggish after eating potatoes. Like you want to take a nap. It takes a lot of energy to digest the starch.

Carrots are a less complex starch. They are easier to digest. Carrot juice is easier yet to digest because the fibre has been removed.

When you eat a starch with a high protein food you create an impossible situation. Either the protein will digest partially and the starch will ferment creating gas, or the starch will digest and the protein will putrefy. Usually both will happen. Along with the limited nutritional value you will absorb the byproducts of fermentation and putrefaction. They are all toxic.

Some foods are compatible

Some foods are compatible with others and may even aid in the digestive process. For instance lettuce will aid in the digestion of protein foods. It will not interfere with the digestion of starch. All other non-starchy vegetables can be combined with either a starch or a protein with little or no problems. For that reason we recommend that you have a vegetable salad with your protein and leave off the starch. Or have a vegetable salad with your starch and leave off the meat or other protein food.

Food combining rules

Keep it simple. Mono meals especially with fruit are best. Always eat melons especially watermelon, at a separate meal or as an appetizer 20-30 minutes before the main meal. Never combine high starch and high protein foods at the same meal.

Starches can be combined with non-starchy vegetables.

Proteins can be combined with non-starchy vegetables.

Something to keep in mind

The greater the variety at a given meal the greater the likelihood that you will over eat.

You can prove this very easily. Eat your favorite fruit till you feel full, satisfied. Then pick up something else you like. Instantly you don't feel full anymore. But then you soon feel the result. Many people suffering with excess weight have lost large amounts of weight and kept it off by just limiting the variety and properly combining their foods.

.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Snyder

Surprise Ingredients In Fast Food

2007-11-05T14:59:00.001-05:00

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published November 3 2007
Surprise Ingredients In Fast Food
by John Andrews

(NewsTarget) The movie Supersize Me has probably had more of an effect than the producers anticipated. Since then, in the fast food industry, there has been a market trend promoting menu items that appear to be healthy. But most of these menu items have ingredients that health conscious consumers would prefer to avoid.

Most health conscious consumers consider healthy foods to be things like raw fruits and vegetables, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, and clean meats like wild Alaskan salmon, or free-range chicken or turkey.

Some ingredients that health conscious consumers consider unacceptable are MSG (or free glutamate, or free glutamic acid, including anything hydrolyzed or autolyzed), trans fats (hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils [3]), artificial colors, artificial flavors, and most preservatives.

Many so-called healthy fast food menu items, upon closer inspection, do not live up to the health hype. Most of the meat from any of the major chains has anything but a simple ingredients list. They add emulsifiers, preservatives, MSG, artificial colors, trans fats, and hidden ingredients under generic labels such as spices, or natural and artificial flavors.

Some of these food additives are not foods at all, but are chemicals that are generally recognized as safe. Most of these additives cannot be found at your local grocery store, probably because they aren’t food. But some can be found at your local hardware store, though in inedible products like low tox antifreeze, silicone caulk, soap, sunscreen, and play sand.

The ingredient information in this article came straight from the various fast food restaurants’ web sites.

McDonald’s

The egg’s reputation is recovering, but scrambled eggs as a part of McDonald’s breakfast include much more than egg. Their pasteurized whole eggs have sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid, and monosodium phosphate (all added to preserve color), and nisin, a preservative. To top it off, the eggs are prepared with liquid margarine: liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils (trans fats), salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil (trans fat), soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, and beta carotene (color). Though not all bad, these added chemicals may be the reason why homemade scrambled eggs taste so much better than McDonald’s.

For coffee drinkers, it would seem fairly safe to just grab a quick cup of coffee at McDonalds on the way to work. But many health conscious people would object to it also including this list of ingredients: sodium phosphate, sodium polyphosphate, Di-Acetyl Tartrate Ester of Monoglyceride, sodium stearoyl lactylate, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium citrate, and carrageenan. Do health nuts still drink coffee?

Salads can usually be counted on to be a “what you see is what you get” item. But McDonald’s adds some interesting ingredients. The salads with grilled chicken also have liquid margarine.

Several salads have either cilantro lime glaze, or orange glaze added. Along with many of McDonald’s sauces, both the cilantro lime glaze and the orange glaze contain propylene glycol alginate. While propylene glycol is considered "GRAS" for human consumption, it is not legal for use in cat food because the safety hasn't been proven yet [10]. Proplene glycol is also used "As the killing and preserving agent in pitfall traps, usually used to capture ground beetles" [10].

The chili lime tortilla strips that are included in the southwest salads have several ingredients used to hide MSG. They also contain two ingredients that advertise the presence of MSG: disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate.

The chicken has sodium phosphates (of an unspecified variety). It could be trisodium phosphate (a cleanser), monosodium phosphate (a laxative), or disodium hydrogen phosphate [11]. Why would McDonald’s add sodium phosphates (a foaming agent), and dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent in their crispy chicken breast filets? It isn’t dishwasher detergent.

Burger King

It’s interesting to note that the BK Veggie Burger has six ingredients commonly used to hide free glutamate (MSG): calcium caseinate, hydrolyzed corn, yeast extract, soy protein isolate, spices, and natural flavors. At the end of the ingredients list, it states This is NOT a vegan product. The patty is cooked in the microwave. Was that a warning statement?

Burger King has three salads to choose from. The TENDERCRISP Garden Salad, the TENDERGRILL Garden Salad, and the Side Garden Salad.

A salad may be a little boring without a dressing like Ken’s Fat Free Ranch Dressing which includes titanium dioxide (an artificial color, or sunscreen, depending on use), preservatives, and the ingredient seemingly mandatory in all ranch dressings: monosodium glutamate.

Once again, as is typical with the fast food industry, they took a simple thing like chicken, and added a long list of ingredients.

TENDERGRILL® CHICKEN BREAST FILET
Chicken Breast with Rib Meat, Water, Seasoning (Maltodextrin, Salt, Sugar, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Garlic Powder, Spices, Natural Flavors, Onion Powder, Modified Corn Starch, Chicken Fat, Chicken Powder, Chicken Broth, Disodium Guanylate and Disodium Inosinate, Citric Acid, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Dehydrated Garlic, and Artificial Flavors.), Modified Corn Starch, Soybean Oil, Salt, Sodium Phosphates. Glazed with: Water, Seasoning [Maltodextrin, Salt, Sugar, Methylcellulose, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Partially Hydrogenated Sunflower Oil, Modified Potato Starch, Fructose, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Dehydrated Garlic, Spices, Modified Corn Starch, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavors, Disodium Guanylate and Disodium Inosinate, Chicken Fat, Carmel Color, Grill Flavor (from Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil), Chicken Powder, Chicken Broth, Turmeric, Smoke Flavor, Annatto Extract, and Artificial Flavors], Soybean Oil. [12]

Taco Bell

Taco Bell’s website didn’t have much emphasis on health. Under the nutrition guide, at the bottom was a link to Keep it Balanced, a token nod to health. It had no serious information on how to really eat healthy. They recommend foods like pizza and tacos (no surprise) because they may include ingredients from several food groups at once. Including several food groups does not necessarily mean it’s a healthy food.

The seasoned beef, carne asada steak, spicy shredded chicken, and even the rice all include autolyzed yeast extract (hidden MSG). Disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate are flavor enhancers used in synergy with MSG [7,8]. Therefore, menu items with disodium inosinate and/or disodium guanylate also contain MSG. This includes the avocado ranch dressing, southwest chicken, citrus salsa, creamy jalapeno sauce, creamy lime sauce, lime seasoned red strips, pepper jack sauce, and seasoned rice.

According to Wikipedia, dimethylpolysiloxane is optically clear, and is generally considered to be inert, non-toxic, and non-flammable. It is used in silicone caulk, adhesives, and as an anti-foaming agent [6]. Appetizingly enough, it’s also included in Taco Bell’s rice.

Wendy’s

At Wendy’s, there are several tempting salads. The mandarin chicken salad seems healthy at first glance. It has diced chicken, mandarin oranges, almonds, crispy noodles, your choice of dressings, and five different varieties of lettuce. Then reality takes a bite when you check the ingredients list. The almonds are roasted and salted. The crispy noodles are not whole grain. The mandarin orange segments are not freshly peeled oranges; most likely canned. The diced chicken has added autolyzed yeast extract (MSG), disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, sodium phosphates (soap?), salt, more salt, sugar, modified corn startch (sic)[1], and the universal umbrella ingredient list: spices, natural flavors, and artificial flavors.

In the ingredients lists for the salad dressings, one surprise was titanium dioxide in the Low Fat Honey Mustard Dressing and the Reduced Fat Creamy Ranch Dressing. It’s a very versatile chemical. It can be used to manufacture paint, sunscreen, semiconductors, and food coloring [2].

Wendy’s Southwest Taco Salad is a salad with Wendy’s chili. Once again, the chili has hidden MSG: autolyzed yeast extract, spices, artificial flavors, natural flavorings, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate (MSG give-aways). It’s puzzling to try to understand why their chili would need to include an anti-caking agent such as silicon dioxide (also known as sand, or glass powder).

See if you can spot the sunscreen, MSG, and soap in this Wendy’s ingredient:

Seasoned Tortilla Strips
Whole Corn, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean or sunflower oil), Salt, Buttermilk Solids, Spices, Tomato, Sweet Cream, Dextrose, Onion, Sugar, Cheddar Cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), Corn Starch, Modified Corn Starch, Maltodextrin, Nonfat Dry Milk, Garlic, Torula Yeast, Citric Acid, Autolyzed Yeast, Natural and Artifical Flavor, Artificial Colors (including extractives of paprika, turmeric and annatto, titanium dioxide, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1), Disodium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Soy Lecithin. CONTAINS: MILK.

Apparently, taste really is all that matters at Wendy’s.

Subway

If a sandwich is advertised as healthy, one would expect that the bread would be whole grain. Not so with Subway’s wheat bread. While it does have some whole wheat flour, it’s the third ingredient, listed just before high fructose corn syrup [4]. None of Subway’s breads are whole grain. Ammonium sulfate (a fertilizer) is also added. Unfinished sandwiches may be composted. The bread also contains azodicarbonamide. From Wikipedia,

Use of azodicarbonamide as a food additive is banned in Australia. In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive has identified azodicarbonamide as a respiratory sensitiser (a possible cause of asthma) and determined that products should be labeled with May cause sensitisation by inhalation [5].

Most of the meats at Subway contain MSG and/or sodium nitrite.

KFC

The chicken, the gravy, and even the rice all have monosodium glutamate added. Not surprisingly, the chicken in the salads also has MSG. For a healthy menu item, the House Side Salad without dressing has nothing more than iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, and tomatoes.

KFC claims 0g trans fat per serving for all their fried chicken. But The Extra Crispy Chicken, Colonel’s Crispy Strips, HBBQ Wings, Boneless HBBQ Wings, Fiery Buffalo Wings, and more have partially hydrogenated soybean oil listed in the ingredients. So if the trans fat content is below 0.5g per serving, they can round down to zero and claim zero grams per serving.

In Closing

The salad a la carte may be the only healthy thing to eat at a fast food place. The side salads offered at the fast food places are hardly a meal, and hardly what one would consider a real salad.

Regarding MSG, it is helpful to remember this statement from Wikipedia when reading food labels.
Under current FDA regulations, when MSG is added to a food, it must be identified as monosodium glutamate in the label's ingredient list. If however MSG is part of a spice mix that is purchased by another company, the manufacturer does not have to list the ingredients of that spice mix and may use the words flavorings or spices. Even food that uses the no msg label may therefore have MSG that is added from a spice mix from another company under current FDA regulations.[9]

As with most meat products in fast food restaurants, consider any meat, including on salads, to include MSG, chemical preservatives, and trans fats. Even seemingly simple items like rice can have ingredients like anti-foaming agents.
References

[1] http://www.wendys.com/food/Nutrition.jsp

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fats

[4] http://subway.com/subwayroot/MenuNutrition/Nutrition/frmUSIngredients.aspx

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azodicarbonamide

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylpolysiloxane

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disodium_inosinate

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disodium_guanylate

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_phosphates

[12] http://www.bk.com/#menu=3,-1,-1

About the author
John Andrews is an electrical engineer currently living in Utah. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 2001 at the University of Utah. John has adopted a whole foods lifestyle rich in raw fruits and vegetables. This lifestyle change has produced a noticeable improvement in physical health, appearance, and mental clarity. He savors knowledge and is eager to teach others how to be healthy.

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Recipe time!

2007-10-31T12:32:00.000-04:00

I realized I have not posted a recipe in ages! Lately I've been getting into eating RAW vegan foods, I feel so much lighter and healthier as a result. A great site is www.goneraw.com for recipes. This came from that site, it is absolutely delicious!

Broccoli Salad

Ingredients
5 cups broccoli, chopped
1 cup sunflower seeds
½ cup onion, chopped
½ cup raisins, soaked until soft
DRESSING
1 cup cashews
3 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup water
Preparation
Blend the dressing ingredients until smooth. Then pour over the broccoli, onion, sunflower seeds and raisins. Mix well.

Alex Jones' ENDGAME The most vital film of this year WATCH IT NOW!

2007-10-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

ENDGAME WATCH IT NOW

OFFICIAL SITE HERE

Fasting with the Master Cleanser

2007-10-23T09:51:00.001-04:00

I am almost finished with another 10 day fast using the Master Cleanser method and I feel great! It's not an easy challenge but well worth it for detox, health and vitality. Here are some resources for more information:

You MUST read this before considering fasting. It's the Master Cleanser fasting 'bible' so to speak:

http://healthandlight.com/TheMasterCleanse.pdf

Further info here, with a great bulletin board for Q & A and support:
http://therawfoodsite.com/mastercleanse.htm

What I'm reading now

2007-10-23T09:44:00.000-04:00

Suggested Viewing

2007-10-23T09:42:00.000-04:00

About Outfoxed

"Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.

The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.

Media experts, including Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.

This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said "There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed."

Director/Producer Robert Greenwald has produced and/or directed 53 television movies, miniseries and features. He is the director of Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Uncovered: The Iraq War and the Executive Producer of the UN series - Unprecedented, Uncovered and Unconstitutional. His new media company, Brave New Films, recently distributed The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress and produced two new TV series - the “ACLU Freedom Files” and “The Sierra Club Chronicles” – which can be seen on Link TV and via the internet.

Running Time: 77 minutes

Healing with Cayenne

2007-10-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

Medicinal Use and Health Benefit of Cayenne Pepper (Capsicum)

"If you master only one herb in your life, master cayenne pepper. It is more powerful than any other." Dr. Schulze
"In 35 years of practice, and working with the people and teaching, I have never on house calls lost one heart attack patient and the reason is, whenever I go in--if they are still breathing--I pour down them a cup of cayenne tea (a teaspoon of cayenne in a cup of hot water, and within minutes they are up and around)." Dr. Christopher

"Cayenne pepper - prized for thousands of years for its healing power. Folklore from around the world recounts amazing results using cayenne pepper in simple healing and in baffling health problems. But cayenne pepper is not just a healer from ancient history. Recent clinical studies have been conducted on many of the old-time health applications for this miracle herb. Again and again, the therapeutic value of cayenne pepper has been medically validated."Dr. Patrick Quillin

The Healing Power of Cayenne Pepper

In a recent letter to the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, three Italian doctors describe how they were able to reduce patients' reported dyspepsia symptoms by more than half - by prescribing red pepper powder. In a study of 30 patients with functional dyspepsia, half of the participants received a placebo, while the other half took 2.5 grams of red pepper powder each day (divided into capsules taken before each of three meals). Both groups took their respective treatments for five weeks, and rated their symptoms each day on a scale of zero to three (higher scores indicated more severe symptoms). By the third week, the red pepper group showed a significant advantage over the control group. And by week five, the pepper group's symptoms had declined 60 percent from their baseline scores - while the control group's scores had only decreased about half as much. The symptom scores included ratings for pain, a feeling of fullness, nausea, and an overall score. The red pepper powder produced significant gains in all four areas.

Many herbalists believe that Cayenne is the most useful and valuable herb in the herb kingdom, not only for the entire digestive system, but also for the heart and circulatory system. It acts as a catalyst and increases the effectiveness of other herbs when used with them.
Cayenne is a medicinal and nutritional herb. It is a very high source of Vitamins A and C, has the complete B complexes, and is very rich in organic calcium and potassium, which is one of the reasons it is good for the heart.

Digestion

Cayenne can rebuild the tissue in the stomach and the peristaltic action in the intestines. It aids elimination and assimilation, and helps the body to create hydrochloric acid, which is so necessary for good digestion and assimilation, especially of proteins. All this becomes very significant when we realize that the digestive system plays the most important role in mental, emotional and physical health, as it is through the digestive system that the brain, glands, muscles and every other part of the body are fed.

Heart

Cayenne has been known to stop heart attacks within 30 seconds. For example, when a 90-year-old man in Oregon had a severe heart attack, his daughter was able to get Cayenne extract into his mouth. He was pronounced dead by the medics, but within a few minutes, he regained consciousness. On the way to the hospital, he remained in a semi-conscious state, but the daughter kept giving him the Cayenne extract. By the time they got to the hospital, he had fully recovered and wanted to go home and mow the lawn. The doctor asked what she had given him, as he said it was the closest thing to a miracle he had ever seen.

If a heart attack should occur, it is suggested that a teaspoon of extract be given every 15 minutes or a teaspoon of Cayenne in a glass of hot water be taken until the crisis has passed. Dr. Anderson also knew of a doctor who rushed out into the parking lot and put cayenne tincture into the mouth of a man who had died of a heart attack while he was parking his car. Within a few minutes, the man’s heart starting beating again.

According to Dr. Richard Anderson, using cayenne and hawthorn berries together has a most incredible effect upon the heart. He believes that a regimen of cayenne and hawthorn berries for several months will greatly strengthen the heart, and possibly prevent heart attacks. He states further that if an attack were to occur in someone who had followed this regimen, chances are very good that no damage would occur. He tells the following story about his mother:

“I had her taking hawthorn berries and cayenne when she had a heart attack at the age of 79. Her diet had not been the best, and she was in an extremely stressful situation. While in the hospital, they found three blocked arteries and wanted to operate immediately. They did not think that she could survive for more than a few weeks if they didn’t operate. (How many have heard that story!) The doctors thought it would be very risky to operate, but they had her there, and there was a lot of money to be made. So they decided to take some tests in the hopes that they could find an excuse to operate. In spite of the fact that she had been taking lots of aspirin for her arthritis, smoked like she was the reincarnation of a boiler factory, and had just had a heart attack, they found that her heart was incredibly strong. In fact, they felt that her heart was stronger than most people in their 30’s! The good news was that not only did she survive the operation, but also she stopped smoking! Well worth the operation, don’t you think? In my opinion, that was the best thing the doctors ever did for her. Well, that is what hawthorn and cayenne can do for the heart, and every good herbalist knows it; every good doctor should also know it, but very few do.”

Emergencies

It is a good idea to always have some Cayenne extract on hand for emergencies. Dr. Anderson carries capsules of cayenne with him in the car and whenever he goes hiking, backpacking or mountain climbing. He says, “You never know when you may find someone having a heart attack or some other emergency.”

The following stories demonstrate only a few of the remarkable emergency uses of cayenne.

If a hemorrhage occurs in the lungs, stomach, uterus or nose, it is suggested that a teaspoon of extract (or a teaspoon of cayenne powder in a cup of hot water) be given every 15 minutes until the crisis has passed. The bleeding should stop in 10-30 seconds. The reason for this is that rather than the blood pressure being centralized, it is equalized by the Cayenne, and the clotting action of the blood becomes more rapid. For external bleeding, take cayenne internally and pour cayenne directly on the wound.

Dyspepsia

In a double-blind study, 30 individuals with dyspepsia were given either 2.5 grams daily of red pepper powder (divided up and taken prior to meals) or placebo for 5 weeks. By the third week of treatment, individuals taking red pepper were experiencing significant improvements in pain, bloating, and nausea as compared to placebo, and these relative improvement lasted through the end of the study.

A placebo-controlled crossover study failed to find benefit, but it only enrolled 11 participants, far too few to have much chance of identifying a treatment effect.

All double-blind studies of topical capsaicin (or cayenne) suffer from one drawback: it isn't really possible to hide the burning sensation that occurs during initial use of the treatment. For this reason, such studies probably aren't truly double-blind. It has been suggested that instead of an inactive placebo, researchers should use some other substance (such as camphor) that causes at least mild burning. However, such treatments might also have therapeutic benefits; they have a long history of use for pain as well.

Because of these complications, the evidence for topical treatments cited below is less meaningful than it might at first appear.

Pain

Capsaicin cream is well established as a modestly helpful pain-relieving treatment for post-herpetic neuropathy (the pain that lingers after an attack of shingles) peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain that occurs most commonly as a side effect of diabetes, but may occur with HIV as well as other conditions), nerve pain after cancer surgery and arthritis.

Capsaicin instilled into the nose may be helpful for cluster headache. (The fact that this has even been considered a viable treatment option shows how painful cluster headaches can be!)

Actual cayenne rather than capsaicin has been tested for pain as well. A 3-week, double-blind trial of 154 individuals with back pain found that cayenne applied topically as a plaster improved pain to a greater extent than placebo.

Skin Conditions

A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of almost 200 individuals found that use of topical capsaicin can improve itching as well as overall severity of psoriasis. Benefits were also seen in a smaller double-blind study of topical capsaicin for psoriasis.

Topical capsaicin is thought to be helpful for various itchy skin conditions, such as prurigo nodularis, but double-blind studies are lacking.

Genetically engineered corn could affect aquatic ecosystems

2007-10-22T09:50:00.000-04:00

Genetically engineered corn could affect aquatic ecosystems

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A study by an Indiana University environmental science professor and several colleagues suggests a widely planted variety of genetically engineered corn has the potential to harm aquatic ecosystems. The study is being published this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

Researchers, including Todd V. Royer, an assistant professor in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, established that pollen and other plant parts containing toxins from genetically engineered Bt corn are washing into streams near cornfields.

They also conducted laboratory trials that found consumption of Bt corn byproducts produced increased mortality and reduced growth in caddisflies, aquatic insects that are related to the pests targeted by the toxin in Bt corn.

Caddisflies, Royer said, "are a food resource for higher organisms like fish and amphibians. And, if our goal is to have healthy, functioning ecosystems, we need to protect all the parts. Water resources are something we depend on greatly."

Other principal investigators for the study, titled "Toxins in transgenic crop byproducts may affect headwater stream ecosystems," were Emma Rosi-Marshall of Loyola University Chicago, Jennifer Tank of the University of Notre Dame and Matt Whiles of Southern Illinois University. It was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Bt corn is engineered to include a gene from the micro-organism Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a toxin that protects the crop from pests, in particular the European corn borer. It was licensed for use in 1996 and quickly gained popularity. In 2006, around 35 percent of corn acreage planted in the U.S. was genetically modified, the study says, citing U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

Before licensing Bt corn, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted trials to test its impact on water biota. But it used Daphnia, a crustacean commonly used for toxicity tests, and not insects that are more closely related to the target pests, Royer said.

Royer emphasized that, if there are unintended consequences of planting genetically engineered crops, farmers shouldn't be held responsible. In a competitive agricultural economy, producers have to use the best technologies they can get.

"Every new technology comes with some benefits and some risks," he said. "I think probably the risks associated with widespread planting of Bt corn were not fully assessed."

There was a public flap over the growing use of Bt corn in 1999, when a report indicated it might harm monarch butterflies. But studies coordinated by the government's Agriculture Research Service and published in PNAS concluded there was not a significant threat to monarchs. Around that time, Royer said, he and his colleagues wondered whether the toxin from Bt corn was getting into streams near cornfields; and, if so, whether it could have an impact on aquatic insects.

Their research, conducted in 2005 and 2006 in an intensely farmed region of northern Indiana, measured inputs of Bt corn pollen and corn byproducts (e.g., leaves and cobs) in 12 headwater streams, using litter traps to collect the materials. They also found corn pollen in the guts of certain caddisflies, showing they were feeding on corn pollen.

In laboratory trials, the researchers found caddisflies that were fed leaves from Bt corn had growth rates that were less than half those of caddisflies fed non-Bt corn litter. They also found that a different type of caddisfly had significantly increased mortality rates when exposed to Bt corn pollen at concentrations between two and three times the maximum found in the test sites.

Royer said there was considerable variation in the amount of corn pollen and byproducts found at study locations. And there is likely also to be significant geographical variation; farmers in Iowa and Illinois, for example, are planting more Bt corn than those in Indiana. The level of Bt corn pollen associated with increased mortality in caddisflies, he said, "could potentially represent conditions in streams of the western Corn Belt."

Once published, the paper will be available at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0707177104v1. Reporters can obtain a copy of this article prior to its publication by contacting the PNAS News Office at 202-334-1310 or PNASnews@nas.edu. Reporters registered with PNAS's EurekaAlert can obtain the article through that service.

To speak with with Todd Royer, contact Jana Wilson, IU SPEA, at 812-856-5490 or wilsonjs@indiana.edu; or Steve Hinnefeld, University Communications, at 812-856-3488 or slhinnef@indiana.edu.

The GMO Food Guide

2007-10-18T13:48:00.000-04:00

The next time you’re at the supermarket, you can use The True Food Shopping Guide to decipher which foods contain genetically engineered ingredients and which do not.

The True Food Network, the grassroots network of the Center for Food Safety, compiled this essential list.

You can browse through the online guide according to food category; there are 20 in all, including:

Condiments
Dressings and salad oils
Tomatoes and tomato sauce
Baby food
Chocolate
The True Food Network was established in 2000 to stop genetic engineering of food and farm crops, and to create a socially just, democratic, and sustainable food system. They have 40,000 members.

TRUE FOODS NOW CLICK HERE

A Field Guide to Buying Organic

2007-10-17T14:51:00.001-04:00

From "A Field Guide to Buying Organic" by Luddene Perry & Dan Schultz
Posted by: DailyOM
Organics 101

It’s easy to overlook the miracle of the modern American supermarket and the complex industry that feeds us. Every week we stroll through brightly lit aisles, surrounded by the least expensive and most abundant food supply in the world, dropping items into a cart without much thought about where it all comes from.1 Shopping for sustenance is natural to us, and we rarely stop to
consider the vast industrial network that allows us this luxury.

Americans’ lack of connection to food production is understandable. In 1900 farmers made up 38 percent of the country’s workforce.2 Today that figure is less than 2 percent, and the closest most of us get to a farm is driving past fields at seventy miles per hour.3 The fact that only a small number of people produce enough food to supply each man, woman, and child in the United States with more than 3,500 calories per day is testament to the incredible efficiency of industrial agriculture. Americans never have to worry about finding store shelves empty. We simply buy what we want and eat it.

Because our system of food distribution separates us from the soil, we experience food as colorful packages bagged in paper or plastic. It’s hard to imagine the people, places, and processes that make it all possible. In some cases–our meat supply, for example–we exercise a willful ignorance and would just as soon avoid the grisly, gristly details. We prefer to think about happy cows on milk cartons, playful cereal box tigers, and friendly green giants on cans.

Even when we do allow ourselves a thought about the variety and quantity of food available to us, our curiosity collapses under the weight of production statistics that we cannot readily comprehend–a direct result of the progress made in the last century. Just one hundred years ago–when almost half the population was either growing crops, gathering eggs, or milking cows–the average life-span in the United States was shorter by twenty-seven years,4 and a much greater percentage of people died or became ill from food-related problems.

But this progress has exacted considerable costs. The industrialization of agriculture (and of culture in general), while improving our lives in many ways, also separates us from the source of our sustenance–the soil. This disconnect poses problems for our health, our environment, and our society.

The Organic Response

How does organic food fit into all this? Simply put, the industrialization of agriculture prompted a response: organic farming. But most American consumers have only recently become aware of organic products, as natural food chains, supermarkets, and even Wal-Mart have introduced this segment of the food industry to a wider audience.

Shopping for groceries today means confronting new choices among goods that appear to be identical except for their prices and the addition of “organic” labels. Based on our notions of organic, we make assumptions about these products, but what do we really know? We may understand that an organic product is grown without synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides, growth hormones, or antibiotics. Beyond that, we are left with several basic questions:

•What exactly does it mean when food is labeled “organic”?
•How do we know the products we buy are organic?
•Where does all this organic food come from?

Here’s the short course. In 1990 Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA). Twelve years later, beginning on October 21, 2002, organic food became eligible for official USDA recognition. The “organic” labels and products you find in stores today are the result of this law, and the law itself is the result of a long, flavorful history of ideological struggle and political wrangling.5 When you buy an organic product, you are paying for an assurance that the product is different–perhaps better–than its conventional counterpart.

The following brief guided tour through the labels will help you understand exactly what this law means to you in the grocery store.

Behind the Seal

The first thing to remember is that any product now sold in the United States that claims to be “organic” must meet the criteria of the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP), set forth in the OFPA. Although the USDA seal is not required, any organic product must include the name and address of a certifying agency accredited by the USDA.6 In other words, if it says “organic,” it has to meet the government standards, and it will most likely display this seal:

The second thing that the well-informed organic shopper should know is that all organic foods are not created equal. Depending on the percentage of organic ingredients a product contains, it falls into one of four categories–only two of which are eligible for official recognition on the Principal Display Panel (PDP), meaning the front of the jar, can, bag, or box.

We’ll use salsa as an example and start with the top of the line. The PDP will look like this:
The “organic label” with a percentage included may seem self-explanatory, but remember: whether it’s 100 percent organic or just organic, the seal itself will look the same. The difference between the product labeled “organic” and one that includes a percentage is a matter of a few percentage points of ingredients.

With the “100% organic” label, every ingredient in the box, can, or jar must be grown organically, except for the salt and water (which are not certifiable). As with all food products sold in the United States, the water must conform to the federal safe drinking water standards. Unlike conventional products, the salt in organic products cannot contain a flowing agent.* In addition, none of the
* The additive that keeps salt from getting lumpy and, incidentally, the inspiration for Morton Salt’s girl with the umbrella–“When it rains, it pours.”ingredients can be irradiated, contain genetically engineered organisms (GEOs), or be grown with sewage sludge fertilizer–the so-called big three.

A product labeled “organic” means that at least 95 percent of its ingredients (either by weight or by volume) must be organic. To meet this criterion is to be as close to perfect as is vegetably possible. For example, during the process of making salsa, let’s say the supply of organic vinegar becomes dangerously low and therefore unavailable. A letter is placed on file from the vinegar source stating that it cannot supply the salsa maker with organic vinegar, and conventional vinegar enters the salsa.7 If the conventional ingredient is not affected by the big three, makes up less than 5 percent of the total ingredients, and is clearly listed in the ingredient panel, the product may be certified “organic.”

The third category of organically labeled foods will be less visible because these products are not allowed to use the word organic as a description of the product. Even though it isn’t eligible for a USDA seal or a certifier’s logo, the product may include the words “made with organic ingredients” and list up to three organic ingredients on the PDP. The “made with . . .” rating requires that at least 70 percent of the ingredients be grown, shipped, and packaged according to organic standards, and the big three rules still apply, even in the remaining 30 percent of nonorganic ingredients.

The last type of organic product bears no seal or certifier’s logo and contains less than 70 percent organic ingredients. Organic ingredients can be listed on the back panel, but all references to the organic content of the product are prohibited on the PDP in order to “assure that these statements are not displayed in such a manner as to misrepresent the actual organic composition of the product.”8 In this last category, the big three are allowed in the nonorganic ingredients. Because it makes little sense for a manufacturer to pay for organic ingredients without being able to advertise them, chances are you won’t see many of these products unless organic labeling standards change to meet industry demands.

Promoting The Positive

2007-10-12T13:51:00.000-04:00

Negative Pull

Sometimes we start out with the best intentions to think and speak only positive thoughts, but the people around us throw us off course. Not everyone fully understands the power our thoughts and words have, or even if they do, they may be stuck in old patterns of negativity. Much of our habitual communication takes the form of complaining and criticizing, and it can be hard to find a way into certain conversations without lapsing into those old habits. However, we always have the option not to participate in negativity or to find a way to influence the situation in a positive direction. In the right company, you may even be able to directly acknowledge the fact that things have taken a negative turn, thus freeing yourself and others from the negative pull.

Not everyone will respond to your cues, and there’s no need to become overly attached to the idea of changing other people, because people have to choose for themselves how they will be in the world. Many people choose negativity because it is familiar to them and feels safe. It is important to give people the space to find their own way, but you can always set an example, subtly representing the power of being positive. At times you may interject an affirmative statement into the conversation, and at others you may simply change the subject. You may also simply withdraw your energy and presence, which also makes a subtle statement. If you feel comfortable enough with somebody that is always negative, perhaps you can have an honest conversation with them; after all, awareness is the first step to change.

A powerful way to free yourself from the negative pull is to enlist allies who are similarly minded. You and a friend, coworker, or family member may agree to work together to continually shift the energy in a situation in a positive direction. The power of two people working to promote the positive is exponentially greater than one person working on their own. As you and your allies work together to lift the energy around you, you will be amazed to see how quickly the positive pull begins to draw people into its orbit, freeing one mind after another from negativity into light.

11 Ways To Improve Your Health

2007-10-12T13:48:00.000-04:00

Hints For A Healthy Lifestyle

1. Our bodies are attuned to the wisdom of many millions of years of evolution and communicate with us through each moment of our lives. Listening to your body by acknowledging and acting on feelings of comfort and discomfort, illness and health, or happiness and despair can lead you to a better understanding of the body's needs.

2. To fuel the fire which is your being, it is vital to consume only that which will benefit the body. Processed and artificial foods should be replaced with fresh produce and whole grains. Exploring macrobiotics, vegetarianism, and other unique diets can become a culinary adventure.

3. There is no medication so formidable as rest. When you sleep uninterrupted for a period of eight hours, your body's natural healing and rejuvenating abilities are free to work unencumbered by physical and mental stresses.

4. Our breath is always with us. Breathing deeply and deliberately provides nourishment in the form of oxygen to the body but also acts to relax the brain and nervous system.

5. The human form has adapted for activity and something is lost when we deny ourselves movement in all forms. Exercise and stretching not only improve the body, increasing the effectiveness of the lungs and circulatory system while expelling toxins and boosting immunity, but also lifts the spirits by stimulating the body's flow of pleasurable endorphins.

6. Yoga unites the mind and the body, promoting health in both. Regular practice of the discipline's complex movements tone and stimulate the physical form while increasing concentration, decreasing stress, and inspiring well-being.

7. The human body possesses the ability to cleanse itself. When you fast, you trigger this ability, prompting beneficial enzymes to enter the bloodstream, where they eliminate accumulated wastes such as pollutants and metabolic wastes, to rebuild immunity and restore health.

8. Balance must prevail for health to exist. Meditation can help you achieve a healthful balance in body and soul. Concentration, meditative breathing, or visualizations focus the mind and allow negativity to drain away, leaving you with a sense of control and self-awareness. Find your bliss.

9. Home is the heart of health and a change in your environment can inspire positive changes within your body. Explore Feng Shui, color therapy, or new methods of organization. Clearing the clutter in your home's pathways may clear clutter in your body and soul.

10. Challenges can be exhilarating at first but, when prolonged, cause stress. Sustained stress can lead to weakened immune function, sickness, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Take time out to care for yourself and focus on relaxing solitary pursuits.

11. Look on the bright side of life. Laughter lowers levels of stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol and increases the levels of pleasurable endorphins within the body, leaving you with a happy afterglow and tension-free muscles. A positive outlook improves immunity and promotes faster healing after surgeries or illness.

KISS OF DEATH!

2007-10-12T11:54:00.000-04:00

Many Lipsticks Have Kiss of Lead
By Karen Jacobs,Reuters
Posted: 2007-10-12 09:23:19
ATLANTA (Oct. 11) - Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the group said on Thursday.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).

Lipstick, like candy, is ingested. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, environmental and women's groups, said the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

One-third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy -- a standard established to protect children from ingesting lead, the group said. Thirty-nine percent of the lipsticks tested had no discernible lead, it said.

"It's critical that manufacturers reformulate their product," said Stacy Malkan, a co-founder of the coalition. "It's possible to make lipsticks without lead, and all companies should be doing that."

Lead can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, the group said in its statement. Lead has also been linked to infertility and miscarriage, it said.

Procter & Gamble Co's makes Cover Girl brand and France's L'Oreal is one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world.

Over the last three months, more than 20 million toys made in China have been recalled, mostly due to the use of lead paint.

The coalition said that some less expensive brands it had tested, such as Revlon, had no detectable levels of lead, while the more expensive Dior Addict brand had higher levels than some other brands.

The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association trade group said in a statement that lead was a naturally occurring element that was not intentionally added to cosmetics.

The FDA has "set strict limits for lead levels allowed in the colors used in lipsticks, and actually analyze most of these to ensure they are followed," the association's statement said. "The products identified in the (CSC) report meet these standards."

L'Oreal's U.S. arm said its products are reviewed and tested by a safety team that includes toxicologists, pharmacists and doctors.

"All the brands of the L'Oreal Group are in full compliance with FDA regulations" as well as safety requirements in international markets, L'Oreal USA said in a statement.

P&G said in a statement that the quantity of lead a consumer might be exposed to from its lip product "is hundreds of times less than the amount that she would get from eating, breathing and drinking water."

"Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure," said Dr. Mark Mitchell, president of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice.

Recommended Viewing: Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties (2004)

2007-10-09T12:04:00.000-04:00

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Congress passed a series of legislations known as The Patriot Act, which is designed to assist law enforcement in preventing future terrorist attacks. Take an inside look at this controversial bill through the eyes of legal analysts and constitutional experts as they examine the possible dangers The Patriot Act poses to our civil liberties and individual freedoms.

Your body wants a salad

2007-10-09T11:55:00.000-04:00

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published October 5 2007
Cooked Food: Your Body Wants A Salad!
by S.A Ramratan

(NewsTarget) Cooked food weakens your immune system. Many believe that cooking is needed for food to get rid of bacteria and make it more digestible. True, there are a few vegetables that are more difficult for some to digest raw, such as those in the cruciferous family (broccoli), but most foods do not become more digestible once cooked.

In 1930, Dr Paul Kouchakoff observed that after eating a meal, a person`s white blood cells (leukocytes) would increase. An increase in white blood cell count usually indicates a stress reaction by the body. Eating a raw meal does not have this same effect on the body. He also observed that most foods that have been altered produce this immune suppressing effect. Your immune system is basically finishing your digestion process for you, which is a function that it is not meant to do.

You can minimize this effect quite easily. If you have anything cooked on your plate, you should have fresh, raw vegetables to go with it. As well, chewing your food thoroughly will lessen the immune response of the cooked food.

The best practice is to eliminate as much processed, altered, and cooked food from your diet as you can. That includes milk, as it is pasteurized and homogenized. That also means removing sugar and white flour from your diet.

Getting used to eating most meals with a big salad, or some cut vegetables will save your immune system a lot of harm. After years of only ingesting cooked foods for every meal - you can imagine the toll this has unknowingly put on your immune system. If you at least include raw vegetables with your cooked meals, you are giving your immune system a break. It has other effects, like keeping you healthy!! Cooking also can take away the antioxidants, and reduce the amount of bioavailable vitamins. So you are doubling your benefits when you eat raw.

Many won`t be able to give up cooked food. But if you add some raw foods to your diet, then you won`t be further harming your body. Reduce the cooked foods in your diet, and replace them with raw foods. Give your body a chance to heal itself. You body has built in properties to heal. Eat the right foods, and you will have a healthier body and mind!

About the author
Sarah is a Chemical and Materials Engineer by education. Through years of focused self-study, she has come to see the benefit of whole food nutrition and allowing the body to heal itself. Undergoing Field Center Facilitator Training, Sarah is passionate about being helpful to others, in any venue, in their quest for a better life.
http://simplebeautyphotography.blogspot.com

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Traditional Herbal Blood Tonic Recipe Revealed by Medical Herbalist

2007-10-04T15:14:00.000-04:00

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published October 4 2007
Traditional Herbal Blood Tonic Recipe Revealed by Medical Herbalist
by Leslee Dru Browning

(NewsTarget) Blood tonics today are used for cancer prevention; cancer treatment; liver health, viral and bacterial infections. In the days of old blood tonics were called Spring Tonics and farmers would religiously take them come Spring Time after a long sedentary winter to get their sluggish blood in shape for the upcoming season of farming. A custom that has been lost in today’s world. Why? And why aren’t blood tonics readily available for purchase from holistic healers or from health food stores? Could it be that pharmaceutical companies don’t want any competition from herbal and botanical medicines?

In Dr. Wright’s Newsletter dated September 17, 2007, he talked about Washington State's war on holistic M.D.s. Sad but true. Holistic healers are still being attacked in the USA that spouts that we are a Free Nation...except when it comes to health care, of course. The onslaught on alternative healers is brought about by Big Pharma, Big Business, the American Cancer Society, the AMA and our elected politicians who are bribed by lobbyists. They don’t want you healthy! Instead, they want the path cleared of anyone who can heal you so they can keep pushing their legal high-profit drugs. In today’s world where the propaganda mantra is “There is no cure”, holistic healers are being harassed, arrested and charged with “moral turpitude”, and put out of business simply because they can cure what ails you.

With the attacks on Natural Medicine it can be hard to find an Herbalist who can make up blood tonics for their cancer clients. Herbalists can be hard to locate, especially those who specialize in cancer treatments because they do not advertise since it is against the law in the USA for any health care practitioner to claim they can heal cancer; or any other illness for that matter, yet, it is not against the law to heal yourself. Therefore, why not learn to make your own? In this article I will give the recipe for the very first blood tonic I made.

Browning's Blended Spirits is a blood tonic I formulated years ago for an 80 year old man who had been diagnosed with Invasive Bladder Cancer that had spread to his lymph. During surgery it was found that his tumor had grown outside the wall of the bladder and the surgeon was unable to remove it all. He refused chemotherapy and radiation treatments and was given only 3-6 months to live. His family called me to see if I could help him. After hearing his case I couldn’t recommend herbal capsules because he had difficulty swallowing so I made him this blood tonic. Also included in his treatment was a Bladder and Kidney tonic along with diet changes.

His cancer was eliminated in 6 months and was verified by a cat scan his doctor did in the hospital. The doctors were mystified when they could not find any cancer in his body, yet they never asked what he did to eliminate his cancer. That alone suggested that his doctors not only didn’t care how he healed himself; but that his doctors weren’t the least bit curious about alternative medicine and how they might learn from his recovery. The gentleman is no longer living, but he did not die of cancer. He died of old age from natural causes. I continued to use this blood tonic recipe for several types of cancer and bacterial illnesses in my practice up until the day I retired.

About the Ingredients:

Browning’s Blended Spirits Blood Tonic contains a comprehensive blend of all-natural ingredients of herbs that are effective for blood purification and detoxification. The ingredients in this blend provide nutritive support to the body and are historically proven to provide both cleansing action and detoxification of the cells throughout the body including the lymph, lungs, liver, heart, colon and bloodstream. Many of the ingredients like burdock root, chaparral, poke root, red clover and yellow dock have been used for years to treat cancer.

What ingredients you will need make the tonic:

3oz each of the following dried herbs:

Anise seed (pimpinella anisum)

Blue violet (viola odorata)

Burdock root (arctium lappa)

Chaparral (larrea tridentate)

Dandelion root (taraxacum officinale),

Fennel (foeniculum vulgare),

Licorice root (glycyrrhiza glabra),

Oregon grape (mahonia aquifolium),

Poke root (phytolacca Americana),

Red clover (trifolium pretense)

Yellow dock root (rumex crispus).

40 oz of Honey or Black Strap Molasses, your choice.

16 oz of Vegetable glycerin.

4 Tablespoons of Citric acid which can be found in health food stores or from herb companies on-line.

5 gallons of distilled water

Purchase the whole herb (cut root and cut leaf) instead of the powdered herb if you can. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the powder absorbs more water leaving you with less liquid; second, the powder takes longer and is harder to strain. I purchase most of my dried herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. Their herbs are processed and handled according to strict organic standards and they will sell individual herbs in a 4oz quantity so you will not have to purchase a full pound. I am sure there are many other herb company’s and health food stores that carry the herbs you will need. Just make sure they are organic.

What cooking tools you will need:

You will also need two stainless steel or glass 20 quart pots with lids.

A large strainer.

A candy or water thermometer.

Cheesecloth.

For bottling you can use regular canning jars. If using pint jars you will need about 24 – 28 jars. If using quart jars you will need about 14 jars. This is a large recipe that will provide one year worth of tonics for the cancer patient, or, if using for a preventative go together with friends or family and share it.

How to make the tonic:

Making this tonic is like canning fruit from your garden. If you can cook you can make it. It takes a few days but is well worth it. You will not find this tonic on the market because it is time intense. The cost would be prohibitive to manufacture it, yet you can make it in your home for around $3.00 a pint. This tonic stores for up to a year if placed in a dark cool closet. They key to keeping tonics fresh is to prevent them from exposure to extreme temperature fluctuations. Don’t let them freeze and don’t let them sit in temperatures above 75*.

In one pot add:

Anise seed, burdock root, chaparral, dandelion root, fennel, licorice root, oregon grape root, poke root, yellow dock root and add 3 gallons of distilled water.

Cover with lid and set on stove on warm heat overnight so that the roots can be softened for extraction.

In the morning turn up the heat and bring the water to a low simmer for about 4 hours then bring to a boil for 15-30 minutes. After boiling turn off heat and strain the liquid into a clean container by laying a layer of cheesecloth over your strainer.

In another pot add:

Blue violet, red clover and add 1.5 gallons of distilled water. Set on counter and let soak in water over night.

In the morning place the pot on the stove on warm/medium heat to steep (not boil) the herbs like you would a cup of tea. Let them steep for at least 4 hours then strain the liquid by laying a layer of cheesecloth over your strainer.

Compost the strained herbs in your garden.

Mixing the pots:

Once the liquid is strained from both pots mix it together in one of the 20 quart pots and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

Then add

16 oz of vegetable glycerin,

40 oz of honey (or black strap molasses for those allergic to honey)

4 heaping tablespoons of citric acid

Stir and let the mixture mingle for 15 minutes or so. When ready to bottle use a candy thermometer to check the temperature of the liquid. You want the temperature between 185* - 190* to prevent any bacteria to grow in the tonics. Maintain this heat temperature throughout bottling.

While waiting for your liquid to reach the accurate bottling temperature prepare your canning jars. Sterilize jars and lids.

Once your bottles are sterilized and your herbal liquid is at the right temperature add the tonic liquid to the hot jars. Fill to ½” from top of jar and cap. Let cool overnight. Check to make sure all the jars are sealed properly then store them.

Once you open a jar of tonic for use you must Refrigerate it. The tonic will last for a month in the refrigerator once it has been opened. Sediment in the bottom of the jars is normal. Give the jar a little shake or stir to mix the sediment before taking.

How much to take:

Adult Folklore Dosage: 2 Tablespoon 2 times a day for cancer, tumors, liver, viral and bacterial infections. In my practice I recommended that cancer patients take this tonic for at least a year and then drop to a maintenance dose of taking it once a day for another year. Some of my cancer patients continue to take it on and off throughout their life to keep their blood and lymph clear of toxins.

For cancer prevention use a bottle of this tonic every 3 months taking 1 Tablespoon 2 times a day.

Do use if you are pregnant. Do not use if you are taking blood thinning agents like Warfarin (also known under the brand names of Coumadin, Jantoven, Marevan, and Waran).

Disclaimer—The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your health care professional. You should not use the information in this article for self-diagnosis or to replace any prescriptive medication. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem, suffer from allergies, are pregnant or nursing.

About the author
Leslee Dru Browning is a 6th generation Medical Herbalist & Nutritionist from the ancestral line of Patty Bartlett Sessions; Pioneer Mid-Wife & Herbalist. Leslee practiced Medical Herbalism and Nutritional Healing for over 25 years and specialized in Cancer Wellness along with Chronic Illness. She now devotes her career to teaching people, through her writing, about Natural Healing from An Herbal Perspective.

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IMPORTANT if you plan on voting for Ron Paul!

2007-10-03T10:45:00.001-04:00

Voting in Primaries: Registered correctly? Do it NOW!
Body: In response to the Ron Paul bulletins:

Closed Primaries. This is nothing new!

This is a standard and old rule in many states regarding voting in primaries: only people registered to a specific party may vote in that party's primary.
This is nothing new in most states.
It is called a "closed" primary.
Closed primaries keep voters from "raiding" a party to pick the weakest candidate and influence a win for their own designated party.
(For example: in open primaries Republicans could vote for Edwards to block Obama or Clinton from winning the Democratic primaries.)

Massachusetts has closed primaries. I believe Rhode Island also has closed primaries. It is likely your state has closed primaries because very few states have open primaries!

According to Wikipedia these are the states that allow open primaries: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

A citizen must register to vote within a certain number of days before an election. Likewise, in states with closed primaries (most states) a person must also change his or her party affiliation within a certain allotment of time.
PAY ATTENTION!
If you are registered as "unaffiliated", "democrat", "independent", etc and you want to vote for Ron Paul you must change your party affiliation NOW.
The new changes do hurt Ron Paul, but it is really nothing new.
CLOSED PRIMARIES are the norm!!!

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_election

Original Bulletin:
States changing primary voting rules!

Ron Paul's popularity bridges the gap between all groups. He is truly a bi-partisan politician. Republicans like him, Libertarians like him, Independents are supporting him as well as many Democrats who see his small government, anti-war stance as attractive.

Ron Paul is the first person in decades to have so many diverse groups support him. It is easy to see why: he believes in freedom and liberty for all. That includes the liberty to not have to go to war and the liberty to keep your entire paycheck. Only days ago he introduced the Tax Free Tips Act because by taxing tips, the IRS punishes workers for "doing a superior job." People in this country are fed up with being lied to and stolen from. They want the war over with and they want it ended NOW.

Ron Paul is fast becoming the only candidate in either party to pledge to end the war. People in general are sick of having no power to do anything and the majority of Americans believe that things are going to get worse for them in the coming years, not better. But Ron Paul offers hope to change all of that. He is truly the only man for the people. What is so amazing that so many Democrats, Independents and Libertarians are planning on voting for him. For those of you that fall into that class, the established Republicans do not want you to do that and are changing rules as we speak to try to shut you out at the voting window.

Many states, in an effort to shut out Ron Paul are now closing their primaries. That means that only Republicans can vote in the Presidential primaries for a Republican candidate. Many states are doing this quickly and quietly and giving people very little time to learn about the new rules. For example, New Hampshire decided only a week ago that you will now have to change your party affiliation by October 12, 2007 or it will be too late to do so. New Hampshire also has a closed primary and only Republicans and possibly Independents will be allowed to vote for Ron Paul.

In New York, you must be registered as a Republican or you cannot vote for Ron Paul and again, you must make this decision by October 12, 2007 or it will be too late. In New York, however, Independents cannot vote for Ron Paul. Same with New Jersey and many states around the nation. I hesitate to give you a link to a site that has correct information about voting in all 50 states because I have yet to find one that does not have an error and besides, this information is changing daily, as Ron Paul gains momentum. The people in power are doing their best to shut out the multitude of voices that want to vote for Ron Paul. If you are a Ron Paul supporter, or even thinking about becoming a Ron Paul supporter, please become a registered Republican immediately so that no matter what your state does to change the rules out from under you, you will still be allowed to vote for this great man.

All of these arbitrary deadlines are designed to keep a candidate such as Ron Paul from gaining momentum and making a last minute push. Effectively, Ron Paul has until October 12, 2007 to get as many Democrats, and others to switch sides in key states like New York and New Hampshire, or they will not be able to vote for Ron Paul in the primaries. That means that the people in power have shortened the Ron Paul campaign to less than two weeks with the stroke of a pen! The Ron Paul campaign now has less than two weeks to teach people about his candidacy and his policies. As of this moment, in New Hampshire you may be registered as an Independent and still vote for Ron Paul. Not so in New York. In New York you must be a registered Republican by October 12, to vote for Ron Paul (Independents cannot vote in the primaries at all). However, for those of you in New Hampshire reading this, I wouldn't trust that come election day the rules won't have been changed on you again. To be safe, make sure your voter registration card says Republican.

So, all of you sitting on the fence folks, the fence is about to crumble beneath you and you will not have the ability to affect the election at all. The rules are changing all over the place for Independents. Now, if you are an Independent in New York or Arizona or New Jersey and many other states you will not be allowed to vote in any primary at all. You will only be able to sit on the sidelines and watch as other people decide for you who your choices are. So get busy! Hurry up and re-register.

In another effort to stem the rising tide of Ron Paul supporters California this week just announced that they too would close their Presidential Primary, again shutting out Independents. (Despite the fact that the voters of California voted on March 26, 1996 to be make it an open primary state). So, once again, unless you are a registered Republican you cannot vote for Ron Paul if you live in California. The only good news, is that as of this moment, the deadline to change your registration is January 21, 2008. However, I would not depend on that. If it looks like Ron Paul might win, they could move that date up too. So don't put this off.

Arizona pulled a sneaky move on its voters. Arizona is an open primary state. That means that anyone can vote in any race - except, and here is the catch, in the Presidential Primary. How can they get away with that? Because, they don't actually call the Presidential Primary a primary at all, it is now officially called a Presidential Preference Election. So, with that new name comes new rules. Arizona actually did this many years ago, but most of Arizona's residents are unaware of this rule. As a result, many many people who want to vote for Ron Paul will be shut out because they think they can stay Independent or "party undeclared" and still get to vote. They will be rudely met by voting proctors who will turn them away at the door.

On top of all of this, many states are moving their primaries up earlier and earlier this year so that a come-from-behind candidate had better do his coming-from-behind in a sprint. Worse yet, if you call the official Secretary of State's office to find out the voting rules, you are likely to get faulty information. In my tiny sampling of seven calls, five of the states gave out incorrect information that if relied upon, would result in that voter not being allowed to vote for Ron Paul. The best place to get correct information is from your state's GOP. (But do not tell them who you are planning on voting for or they may make a mistake in the information. Beware of answers that begin with "I think..." that is almost always followed by a guess and often misinformation. Make them do the work and find out the real dates.) Here is one site that has some information, but please do not rely upon it as the rules may have changed by the time you read it. It will help you find links to places to change your registration.

It is appalling that states are allowed to change their voting rules at the last minute so most people will not hear of the change. It is more appalling that when calling an official state office you are given incorrect information. It is most appalling that millions of Ron Paul voters may not get to vote for their man because they didn't know the rules were switched on them.

So, for all of you Ron Paul supporters out there: Switch now. Hurry. Sign up to be a Republican if you aren't already, get that official voter registration card in hand so on primary election day no one can take away your right to vote! It doesn't matter if right now your state is an open primary state, or they claim to allow Independents to vote, they may close it tomorrow as California just did and they may give you only three weeks to make the change as New Hampshire did. Don't take the risk. Become Republican today. I know this is not fair. I know that the rules used to be different. I know, you may not want to be a Republican but still want to vote for Ron Paul. Please don't let your pride and their trickery get in the way of you voting for the man you want.

And remember New Yorkers and folks from New Hampshire - You have less than two weeks left. HURRY! The deadline is October 12, October 12, October 12... make that your new mantra. Please tell all of your friends.

For you Democrats out there who wanted the war to stop only to find that your party seems content on this war lasting another decade or so, Ron Paul voted against the war in the first place and would vote to stop it the minute he took office, in January of 2009. Isn't another 15 months enough time for this war to rage on and try to end with a "win." I know you may not want to switch parties. But think of it this way, if you do switch, and Ron Paul loses, then that will be another Republican who abandons the party come general election day, so you can have a little taste of revenge for them making you switch parties to vote for this man. How do you know that Ron Paul won't lie and keep this war going too? You can trust a man to behave in the future the way he has behaved in the past.

Protect your right to vote. Don't let them steal the greatest man in history away from you before you have even learned about him. Check out the www.ronpaulportal.com to find links to many ways to learn about Ron Paul. My favorites are the Ron Paul Library link and the You Tube videos.

And they call this a democracy? Ha!

Please send this article to all that you care about. Turn this into a freedom chain letter to spread truth across the country.

IN RI:

The Board of Canvasser's office at Providence City Hall is required by
law to update your voter information. I have attached a link to a voter
registration form here:
http://www.elections.ri.gov/registration/intro.htm
All you have to do is fill out a new form with your updated information and
send it or bring it into Providence City Hall and they will update the
changes for you. If you have any questions please let me know. Thanks

Rob Rock
Elections & Civics Division
Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis
rrock@sec.state.ri.us
401.222.2340

Recommended viewing:

2007-10-03T10:11:00.001-04:00

Produced by award-winning filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, this documentary examines the world's dependency on oil and the impending chaos that's sure to follow when the resource is depleted. Straight from the headlines, this hot-button topic may represent the world's most dire crisis. Through expert interviews, the film spells out in startling detail the challenge we all face and underscores our desperate need for alternative energy.

Watch preview here:
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com

My synopsis:
we are EFFED when oil runs out. Puts the war in a great perspective

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway

2007-10-03T00:34:00.000-04:00

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway
by Jerome R. Corsi
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15497

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman’s Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation’s most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new “SENTRI” system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.

As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming “North American Union” that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.

Just examine the following websites to get a feel for the magnitude of NAFTA Super Highway planning that has been going on without any new congressional legislation directly authorizing the construction of the planned international corridor through the center of the country.

NASCO, the North America SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., is a “non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America.” Where does that sentence say anything about the USA? Still, NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. One glance at the map of the NAFTA Super Highway on the front page of the NASCO website will make clear that the design is to connect Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. into one transportation system.

Kansas City SmartPort Inc. is an “investor based organization supported by the public and private sector” to create the key hub on the NAFTA Super Highway. At the Kansas City SmartPort, the containers from the Far East can be transferred to trucks going east and west, dramatically reducing the ground transportation time dropping the containers off in Los Angeles or Long Beach involves for most of the country. A brochure on the SmartPort website describes the plan in glowing terms: “For those who live in Kansas City, the idea of receiving containers nonstop from the Far East by way of Mexico may sound unlikely, but later this month that seemingly far-fetched notion will become a reality.”

The U.S. government has housed within the Department of Commerce (DOC) an “SPP office” that is dedicated to organizing the many working groups laboring within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada to create the regulatory reality for the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP agreement was signed by Bush, President Vicente Fox, and then-Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005. According to the DOC website, a U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee on Transportation Planning has finalized a plan such that “(m)ethods for detecting bottlenecks on the U.S.-Mexico border will be developed and low cost/high impact projects identified in bottleneck studies will be constructed or implemented.” The report notes that new SENTRI travel lanes on the Mexican border will be constructed this year. The border at Laredo should be reduced to an electronic speed bump for the Mexican trucks containing goods from the Far East to enter the U.S. on their way to the Kansas City SmartPort.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is overseeing the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as the first leg of the NAFTA Super Highway. A 4,000-page environmental impact statement has already been completed and public hearings are scheduled for five weeks, beginning next month, in July 2006. The billions involved will be provided by a foreign company, Cintra Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Spain. As a consequence, the TTC will be privately operated, leased to the Cintra consortium to be operated as a toll-road.
The details of the NAFTA Super Highway are hidden in plan view. Still, Bush has not given speeches to bring the NAFTA Super Highway plans to the full attention of the American public. Missing in the move toward creating a North American Union is the robust public debate that preceded the decision to form the European Union. All this may be for calculated political reasons on the part of the Bush Administration.

A good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.

PER RON PAUL
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst103006.htm

WATCH:

Images you don't see everyday

2007-10-03T00:10:00.000-04:00

http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

Ever wanted to know what's in that hot dog???

2007-09-27T15:47:00.000-04:00

NewsTarget.com releases shocking macrophotography pictures of processed meats: Salami, sausage and hot dogs

www.NewsTarget.com/022001.html

I'll miss you, delicious almonds.....

2007-09-26T14:32:00.000-04:00

This is neat

2007-09-26T14:02:00.000-04:00

Honest Food Guide
The food guide built to benefit you, not big business!!!!!!

http://www.honestfoodguide.org/

Warning: Toxic chemical triclosan can turn your toothpaste into chloroform

2007-09-26T13:51:00.000-04:00

NewsTarget.com

Originally published February 13 2006

Warning: Toxic chemical triclosan can turn your toothpaste into chloroform
by Mike Adams

For years, I have warned people of the danger of personal care products. If you look at the ingredients manufacturers put in their products -- soaps, deodorants, toothpastes and so on -- you will be horrified. These ingredients are highly toxic and cause cancer. They promote leukemia, nervous system disorders and liver problems. Now, some new information has come from Virginia Tech. Researchers that have found that the chemical triclosan, which is found in a lot of antimicrobial soaps and toothpaste products, can react with chlorine in the tap water. Guess what you get? (This is the horrifying part.) Chloroform. This is a toxic chemical that can give you cancer. In the old movies, you might have seen someone give a person chloroform to knock them unconscious. If you breathe enough chloroform, you will die.

If you are brushing your teeth with toothpaste that has triclosan in it, and you are rinsing with tap water that has chlorine in it, you are getting a little chemical reaction right in your mouth. What a wonderful gift from the toothpaste manufacturers. That's not to mention that some of the toothpastes contain fluoride that isn't really fluoride but fluorosilicic acid, which is a toxic waste product that is molecularly similar to fluoride but has a much different effect on the human body -- a toxic effect. When you wash your hands with antibacterial soap that contains triclosan, you are getting the fumes emitted from this chemical reaction.

Your home could be full of toxic chemicals
Most people's homes are toxic waste dumps. They have products that contain triclosan, deodorants that contain aluminum (absorbed right through your skin), shampoos that have toxic fragrance chemicals and hair coloring products that contain cancer-causing chemicals. There are perfumes and colognes that people just slather on like they are taking a bath in them. Their senses get dulled, and soon they can't even smell the stuff anymore.

People also put on clothes that have been washed in detergent loaded with fragrance chemicals. These people run around in these clothes and sweat, which helps the toxicity absorb into the skin and bloodstream where it promotes cancer. There are fake air fresheners and furniture polishes that contain toxic chemicals. These products are all promoted as being helpful when really they are quite deadly. Toothpaste is supposed to help you clean your teeth, but the number one ingredient in toothpaste is calcium carbonate, which is just ground-up seashells that actually mar the enamel on your teeth, giving bacteria a place to hide out and replicate. Some toothpaste also has formaldehyde in it.

The answer to why you are diseased is that if you are the average American consumer, you are bathing and living in a system of toxic chemicals that you have purchased and brought home. You use dish detergents that contain toxic chemicals and then eat off of the plates that were washed in them. How crazy are we in this country that we keep on making products that kill people and putting them on the shelves and printing little "25 percent off" coupons?

You are seriously misled if you think you can just wipe out all of the bacteria in your house with antibacterial soap. Do you think you are going to be germ free? Have you checked your doorknobs and your own skin? What about your toothbrush? I bet there are more colonies of bacteria in your toothbrush than there are people in the entire city in which you live. These antibacterial products are useless. They have no value on the market or in your home. It is all a huge marketing gimmick.

You need immune distress to be healthy
Do you think the microbes on your counter are giving you the flu? That's not what is giving you the flu. You have the flu because you poison your body with all these other toxic products, metabolic disrupters in the food supply and poor nutrition. These poisons create a weak body and weakened immune system, allowing opportunistic bacteria to replicate that wouldn't stand a chance if you had a healthy immune defense in the first place.

Even worse, the use of antimicrobial soaps promotes the spread of superbugs around your house. If you want to be a healthy individual, you have to have a little immune distress. If you don't, your immune system doesn't learn how to defend itself. Your immune system makes a pattern of every invading microbe, and it remembers that pattern forever, so it knows how to beat that invader in the future. If you try to maintain a sterile environment, then your immune system never gets to learn how to do its job. You need some level of exposure to these germs or mild infectious agents if you want to have an active immune system.

Let's talk about fragrances a little more. Even guys that wouldn't wear perfume go out and buy laundry detergent that has perfume in it. When I go to the grocery store, I can't even go near the aisle with all the detergents or I get a headache. I am very sensitive to this because of my sensory acuity. I can pick up subtle sights, sounds and smells thanks to a healthy nervous system.

The manufacturers of products that have triclosan in them keep saying that it is perfectly safe and that it only affects the nervous systems of various organisms. They also say it's safe because you don't drink it. Sure, we aren't swallowing the stuff, but we sure are touching it and bathing in it. Do you think the skin is impermeable? The skin absorbs chemicals, and it can certainly absorb something like triclosan as well. How do you think the nicotine patch works? If nothing was absorbed through the skin, then these patches wouldn't work.

Studies show triclosan is toxic to your health
This Virginia Tech study shows that triclosan is a real health hazard. However, the companies using it are going to say that the study was flawed, and the amount that is used is so minimal that it is well within the safety levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

They may claim some other silly nonsense, too, but the truth is this ingredient has no place in or around the human body. Only fools coat their body with products containing triclosan.

Unfortunately, most people are fooled by this chemical, and they don't understand its real dangers. Personally, I don't need to wash my mouth out with something that is going to create chloroform. This is basic common sense. The fact that these products are even being allowed on the shelves defies common sense. Where has the sanity gone in our consumer products industry? It has been replaced by the profit motive.

Triclosan is put into these products for the convenience of the manufacturers. It will stop their product from going bad, and it allows them to make ridiculous claims on the label. For example, a label may say, "Proven to kill 99.99 percent of bacteria." This sells products, yet it isn't based on any kind of science whatsoever.

If you are new to all this and think everything I just said is crazy, doesn't make any sense or is overly worrisome, then do your research. Don't believe everything I just said -- start doing some reading on triclosan. Start reading about aluminum in deodorants and fragrance in shampoos and perfume, and then you will discover the truth for yourself. You can search Google for information right now. Just search for "triclosan" and see what you find.

If you do the research and are honest with what you find, you will quickly discover that these products are a hazard to your health. They are a threat to you and your family and should be outlawed. They should be reformulated without cancer-causing ingredients. Of course, that would cost Big Business a lot of money. Companies use these ingredients because they are cheap. Where do you think the color comes from in mouthwash? It's from an artificial color chemical. What most manufacturers care about is moving products, and until Congress demands they stop using harmful ingredients, they're going to keep doing so.

I encourage you to find out about more about triclosan and stop using products that contain the chemical. Shop at health food stores. Stop giving your money to manufacturers who are poisoning and exploiting you for profit.