Raw Living Foods Lifestyle - chiDiet.net

The Animals of the World... Alice Walker

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men."

- Alice Walker, author and activist.

Elevated Mercury, Arsenic, Selenium in Fish

STORE-BOUGHT FRESHWATER FISH CONTAIN ELEVATED LEVELS OF MERCURY, ARSENIC AND SELENIUM

“We were surprised by our results since we had hypothesized that levels of contaminants in fish would be higher in specimens caught near once heavily polluted sites,” said Conrad D. Volz, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., principal investigator, department of environmental and occupational health, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health... http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/24306

- [ News like this has brought me back to 100% raw. - Jim Carey ]

Science Proves an Apple a Day is Good

Modern science reported recently that eating apples inhibits the growth of bowel and liver cancer cells in the laboratory.

Rui Hai Liu, lead scientist at Cornell's Department of Food Science, wrote in the journal Nature: "Our results indicate that natural antioxidants from fresh fruit could be more effective than a dietary supplement."

How amazing. Research scientists continue to confirm that foods made by Nature are actually better for the human body than processed foods and supplements.

So stop at the store today and purchase a bag of apples.

Even better, visit your health food store and purchase a bag of organically-grown apples that haven't been dipped in wax. And then eat at least one every day.

From http://chetday.com/appleaday.htm

USDA Proposes Rule Undermining Organics and Small Farms

The USDA is accepting public comments until December 3 on a new proposed rule that would force small farms growing green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and lettuce, to put into place industrial-style sterilization measures that reduce biodiversity and soil fertility.

The proposal follows in the wake of the USDA's recent controversial crackdown on raw almonds, continued interference with raw milk production, and bans on the sale of locally produced organic meat directly to consumers. The proposed rules basically cover up the fact that e-coli 0157H contamination in lettuce and spinach crops comes from feedlot or industrial livestock-contaminated irrigation waters or contamination in large processing plants. The rule limits hedgerows, and other non-crop vegetation commonly found on and around small organic and sustainable farms.

In addition, although every organic farmer knows that healthy soil is literally alive with multiple types of healthy bacteria, the rules also discourage the development of beneficial microbial life in the soil. Send a message to the USDA today.

Learn more and take action: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_8679.cfm

The Ecological Footprint of Farm Animals

The population explosion should not be thought of exclusively in terms of people - not when one considers the ecological footprint represented by the world’s 3.2 billion cattle, sheep, goats, and domesticated bison across the globe.

About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly through overgrazing, compaction, and erosion caused by livestock.- http://www.vivavegie.org/vv101/101reas2007.htm#77.

Organic is Tastier - More Evidence

In any controversy it can be helpful to consider the views of disinterested parties. So, on the subject of agricultural policy and practice, it’s worth noting that an unimpeachably neutral group has joined the ranks of those who prefer organic foods over foods produced with the help of synthetic chemicals. That group is 40 Swiss rats... the rats were better at telling the difference between organic and conventional foods than many humans have beenm...organic produce generally does pack more antioxidants and other potentially healthful and potentially flavorful phytochemicals than conventional produce...

What do phytochemicals have to do with flavor?

Phytochemicals are chemicals created by plants, and especially those that have effects on other creatures.

Plants make many of them to defend themselves against microbes and insects: to make themselves unpalatable, counterattack the invaders and limit the damage they cause.

Most of the aromas of vegetables, herbs and spices come from defensive chemicals. They may smell pleasant to us, but the plants make them to repel their mortal enemies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/dining/03curi.html

Thanks to www.vegMichigan.org

The "normal" American diet - Schmidkonz

"It has become 'normal' to live off fast foods, frozen TV dinners, processed, and artificial foods fortified with synthetic vitamins, and animal products at almost every meal. We feed our children trash such as candy bars and sugar-coated cereals with artificial blueberries. We consume countless chemical additives that no knowledgeable person could even pretend to be safe."

- Theodore H. Schmidkonz

Food, Enzymes and Biophotons

Structural Integrity and Active Enzymes

Most raw food, like our lives, is very perishable. When it is exposed to temperatures above 105 degrees it starts to rapidly break down, just as our bodies would if we had a fever that high.

One of the constituents of foods that can break down are enzymes. Enzymes, of course, help us digest our food. Enzymes are proteins, though, and have a very specific three-dimensional structure in space. Once they are heated much above 105 degrees this structure can change. Enzymes function very similar to a lock and key and once their shape is changed the key no longer works and they are no longer able to provide the function for which they were designed.

This may be a major factor that explains why cooked foods contribute to chronic illness, as their enzyme content is damaged and thus requires us to make our own enzymes to process the food. Many people gradually impair their pancreas and progressively lose the ability to digest their food after a lifetime of processed foods.

Biophotons and Food

Another important aspect of raw foods is the energetic aspect. Without light there is no health. We are human photocells whose ultimate biological nutrient is sunlight.

Dr. Johanna Budwig from Germany has stated that live foods are electron rich and act as high-powered electron donors and as solar resonance fields in the body to attract, store, and conduct the sun's energy in our body. The greater our store of light energy, the greater the power our overall electromagnetic field, and consequently the more energy is available for healing and the maintenance of optimal health.

Currently there are about 40 scientific groups worldwide working on biophotons. The largest association is the International Institute of Biophysics http://www.lifescientists.de/ib_000e_.htm in Neuss (Germany), founded to investigate and understand, via an interdisciplinary approach, living systems. There are 14 Governmental Research Institutes and Universities with common research in:

Coherence in Biology
Biocommunication
Biophotonics

What Are Biophotons?

Biophotons are characterized by an extremely high degree of order and can be described as a type of biological laser light which is capable of interference and appears to be responsible for many effects which ordinary incoherent light could not achieve. Its high coherency lends the biophoton wave the capability of creating order and transmitting information while chaotic, incoherent light simply transmits energy.

An indication of the coherent characteristics of biophotons is exhibited through experimentally proven knowledge that the so-called induced emission of biophotons diminishes hyperbolically, which illustrates an exclusive characteristic of coherent emission. There are clear experimental indications that biophotons have an important regulating function within the single cells, but also between the various cells.

It is possible that the entire living organism is pervaded by a coherent biophoton field, which influences and regulates functions on various hierarchical levels of control and organization. Single cells seem to communicate with one another with the aid of the biophoton field by creating continuous waves.

Accordingly, the biophoton field would be a rigidly structured field of information and regulation that combines the single parts of the organism in a holographic manner at the speed of light and coordinates their function with one another.

There is a broad spectrum of various frequencies and polarization and therefore, a very high density of information. According to current developments in research, the biophoton wave is emitted from the chromatin of the cell nucleus. Calculations show that the helix form of the DNA molecule exhibits the ideal geometric form of a hollow resonator, which allows it to store light very effectively.

From: http://www.apophaticmysticism.com/Qigong.html

Does Food Have 'Vitality' And Can We Absorb Its Life-Force?

Of particular interest is the technique of counting photon emissions. Every living organism emits biophotons or low-level luminescence (light with a wavelength between 200 and 800 nanometers). This light energy is thought to be stored in the DNA during photosynthesis and is transmitted continuously by the cell.

It is thought that the higher the level of light energy a cell emits, the greater its vitality and the potential for the transfer of that energy to the individual which consumes it. Significant differences have been found in favor of organically produced food (Figures 15.6 and 15.7), but differences also occur with respect to location, freshness and stage of maturity (ripeness) (p. 571-572).

From http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/food-quality.html

Sunlight And Health

Sunlight is vital. Without the sun there is no life. We notice very clearly what a revitalizing effect sunlight has on our body and spirits when, after a long winter, we enjoy the first rays of spring sun. But we can absorb sun energy via our food as well as through the skin.

We also live on light

The latest research (Prof. F.A. Popp and Dr H. Niggli) shows that, in addition to the chemical composition of our food, light energy (biophotons) is also an important factor in food quality. The more light a food is able to store, the more nutritious it is. Naturally grown fresh vegetables, for example, and sun-ripened fruits are rich in light energy. The capacity to store biophotons is therefore a measure of the quality of our food.

Stored sun energy finds its way into our cells via food in the form of minute particles of light. These light particles are called 'biophotons', which are the smallest physical units of light. According to Popp and Niggli, they contain important bio-information, which controls complex vital processes in our bodies. The biophotons have the power to order and regulate, and, in doing so, to elevate the organism to a higher oscillation or order. This is manifested as a feeling of vitality and well-being.

From http://www.naturalproducts.co.za/html/spirulina.htm

DNA And Light

DNA is the central storage repository for light in our body and is twisted around itself in a double helix, which can turn right or left. It belongs to the group of nucleic acids, of which there are two chains: the DNA and the RNA. DNA and RNA are built like a helix. Both strands form the structure and consist of sugars and phosphate groups that show a basic reaction.

The links are attached to the sugars and are basic. However, there are only four bases in the DNA: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. Only recently have researchers realized that cells do not simply absorb light but emit it coherently; the DNA and RNA molecules are a laser-active medium and can produce an optical hologram that communicates with the resonance of the background fields of our Earth and the planets as well as galaxies.

This means that they can give off light in a non-chaotic manner. Coherency is the ability of waves to overlap, where spatially different sources of photons either strengthen or weaken each other. This results in a structured state where waves can form a coherent and communicating field, and this field is interactive to a high degree; in the case of non-coherent photons, any interference causes them to collapse within seconds.

Hence, the way ultra-weak luminescent cell radiation works is of significant importance. It does not radiate chaotically, but behaves in a stable manner, phased like a laser-which is light in a coherent form.

Communication turns out to be one of our most basic properties-communication within the system as well as communication with the outside. The aim is to counteract entropy, loss of structure, chaos, a state of high disorder, so as to create and maintain a state of excitement. A high level of order within the body enables an undisturbed flow of information and communication.

This, in turn, maintains the metabolism as well as all other life processes. The building and depletion of cells, the synthesis of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids as well as the flow of neurotransmitters and the entire cell metabolism all work on an extremely rapid transfer of information that can only be achieved by light transmission.

Lack of energy and blockages are signs of disturbance in the flow or process of life. This disturbance can occur on all levels, whether atomic particle or cell, organ or psyche. Hence, any disease can be interpreted as a manifestation of a loss of information and communication with the body!

Life and all particles of a system relate to each other coherently and where they communicate with each other to achieve a sensible cooperation in order to produce the optimal condition for the entire system. Light emission is strongest whenever DNA is reproduced.

The DNA emits about 90% of the biophotons in the cell nucleus. The DNA is an excellent storage medium for light and thus also for oxygen because of its form, the double helix. Perhaps this is why DNA is the basis for all processes occurring in the body-and thus also participates in metabolism.

At least two functions are currently assigned to the DNA: the coding of genetic information, which is passed onto the next generation in the germ cell, and the storing of information to build all cell components. The coherent light from the DNA controls all-important biochemical and changing processes. These processes are the result of information carried by photons. DNA and RNA produce optical holograms and are in resonance with all background fields.

from Dr. Mercola of http://www.mercola.com

- Contributed by Sharon Liess

FDA to reclassify vitamins, supplements, herbs, vegetable juices as regulated drugs

Originally published April 11 2007

Health freedom action alert:
FDA attempting to regulate supplements, herbs and juices as "drugs"

by Mike Adams

When it comes to health freedom, this is the FDA's end game. A new FDA "guidance" document, published on the FDA's website, reveals plans to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs.

Massage oils and massage rocks will be classified as "medical devices" and require FDA approval.

The document is called Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA is accepting public comments on the docket until April 30th. They tried to sneak this under the radar, but word got out and now the natural health community is up in arms over this rule. If you wish to protect your access to nutritional supplements, herbs, essential oils, homeopathic medicine or any other "complementary" or "alternative" modality, it is crucial that you take action to post your comments with the FDA right now and write your representatives in Washington to put a stop to this outrageous effort to destroy natural medicine. (And be sure to really write them. Just sending an email has virtually no impact compared to writing a physical letter in your own words.)

Click here for the direct link to the FDA's comment posting page for this docket.

This move by the FDA is designed to once and for all destroy the 1994 DSHEA law that has made supplements "legal" while eliminating nutritional supplements and natural medicine from the United States, ensuring monopoly profits and control by drug companies and the FDA. It is the latest action item by the FDA / Big Pharma conspiracy that will not stop until health freedom has been abolished, drug companies rule the nation, and every citizen is diagnosied with a fictitious disease and drugged up on monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals.

FDA "experts" will decide what's a drug or medical device

Under these proposed guidelines, FDA "experts" (the same corrupt officials who reapproved Vioxx after it killed over 50,000 Americans) will decide whether herbs, supplements, vitamins or simple devices like massage stones are to be regulated as drugs and medical devices. If the FDA experts, in their infinite wisdom, decide that these things are to be reclassified, they will essentially be outlawed, stripped from the shelves, and regulated out of existence. Anyone who dares to manufacture, promote or sell such products may be branded a criminal and rounded up by armed FDA agents who have a well established history of suppressing natural medicine.

I've documented much of the criminal history of the FDA in my recent book, Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them, which suddenly seems even more relevant today than when I wrote it. In that book, I documented the FDA ordered book burnings, the raids on vitamin shops, the kidnapping of natural health practitioners, the threats, intimidation and oppression tactics that have been used to suppress natural medicine for nearly a hundred years now. And now, with this CAM Products Regulation effort, the FDA is about to deal a final, fatal blow to the alternative medicine industry, outlawing nutritional supplements, functional foods, homeopathy and natural therapies all at once.

This is not a drill. It really is time to be alarmed. Nothing else I've written about this year is as important as this sinister plot to destroy natural medicine and force the American population to resort to dangerous prescription medications sold at monopoly prices under a system of medical tyranny.

Your access to vitamins, supplements, herbs, and even energy medicine modalities is now directly threatened, and you have until April 30 to make your voice heard.

Action items

First, read the document yourself. Click here for the PDF version.

Take special care to notice the following text, taken directly from the FDA's own document: (italicized text is from the FDA, with my own translation following)

"...a product used in a CAM therapy or practice may be subject to regulation as a biological product, cosmetic, drug, device, or food (including food additives and dietary supplements) under the act or the PHS Act. Second, neither the act nor the PHS Act exempts CAM products from regulation."

Translation: Anything used in any system of medicine may now be regulated as a drug or medical device by the FDA. This includes a biofeedback machine, acupuncture needles, a cup of herbal tea, massage oil, a glass of vegetable juice or even a bottle of water.

"...if a person decides to produce and sell raw vegetable juice for use in juice therapy to promote optimal health... [and] if the juice therapy is intended for use as part of a disease treatment regimen instead of for the general wellness, the vegetable juice would also be subject to regulation as a drug under the Act."

Translation: Raw vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug and must be FDA approved as a drug if it has any health effect whatsoever. Handing a cup of raw vegetable juice to someone and telling them it's good for the detoxification of their liver will get you arrested for practicing medicine without a license and promoting an "unapproved drug."

..."biologically based practices" includes, but is not limited to, botanicals, animal-derived extracts, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, proteins, prebiotics and probiotics: whole diets, and "functional foods". ...a botanical product intended for use in treating a disease would generally be regulated as a drug." ..."functional foods" may be subject to FDA regulation as foods, dietary supplements, or drugs under the Act.

Translation: All foods, supplements, superfoods and functional foods may be reclassified as drugs by the FDA, then regulated off the market.

If... the manipulative and body-based practices involve the use of equipment (such as massage devices) or the application of a product (such as a lotion, cream, or oil) to the skin or other parts of the body, those products may be subject to regulation under the Act."

Translation: Massage oils and creams will be regulated as "drugs" and acupuncture needles as "medical devices." Taking this absurdity one step further, massage therapists who use their fingers to touch patients may have their fingers regulated as "medical devices" and be accused of practicing medicine for merely touching patients.

Things that will be regulated out of existence

It is very clear that the FDA is intending to regulate and ultimately destroy the entire CAM industry (Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Based on the explanations in the FDA's own document, the following things are likely to occur:

• All vitamins, nutritional supplements and functional foods will be stripped of their structure & function claims, reducing them to empty labels where virtually nothing at all is allowed to be stated.
• Vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug. Raw juice retreats will be raided or shut down.
• Growing and selling common garden herbs will get you arrested as a drug dealer.
• Massage oils and handheld massagers will be regulated as "medical devices."
• Yoga props, pilates machines and weight machines will be regulated as "medical devices" and require FDA approval before being sold or used.
• Raw sprouts and other anti-cancer foods will be regulated as drugs.
• Bottled water that "treats" dehydration will be regulated as a drug.
• Massage therapists who use hot rocks as part of their therapy will have the ROCKS regulated as medical devices! (It's true. The FDA will actually look at a pile of rocks and declare, "Those are medical devices!")
• Functional foods, supplements, vitamins and homeopathic remedies will disappear from store shelves, pending FDA "review." (The only things remaining will be processed junk foods and pharmaceuticals, which is exactly what Big Business wants.)
• Therapeutic tea products, such as green tea, will be outlawed and confiscated.
• Vitamin store owners will be arrested and prosecuted for "practicing medicine without a license."
• Citizens owning personal inventories of "unapproved drugs" (vitamins and herbs) may have their homes raided at gunpoint and their inventories confiscated by armed law enforcement agents.
• The importation of herbs and functional foods from all countries may be banned.

Keep in mind that the FDA is the same agency that:

• Wants to label irradiated foods as "pasteurized."
• Voted to put the deadly drug Vioxx back on the market after tens of thousands of deaths, even after its own manufacurer pulled it from pharmacies.
• Raided a church at gunpoint, confiscating biofeedback machines and charging that they were "practicing medicine" by counseling church members on issues like depression.
• Openly allows corrupt, "on the take" experts to vote on new drug approvals, even when those experts are taking money from the same companies impacted by their votes.
• Refuses to legalize stevia, the safe, natural herbal sweetener that's used virtually everywhere else in the world. The agenda? Protect the profits of aspartame and other chemical sweeteners.
• Openly allows the mass poisoning of the public with cancer-causing food additives such as sodium nitrite.
• Refuses to enforce its own laws regarding unsafe chemical toxins in personal care products, allowing perfume and lotion companies to continue poisoning the public with cancer-causing chemicals that don't even have to be listed on the label, nor proven safe.
• Ordered the destruction of recipe books that mentioned stevia. (A campaign to keep the public ignorant of the herb.)
• Does everything in its power to protect drug company profits, including discrediting herbs, supplements and alternative medicine.

Does anyone honestly believe that this criminal organization has any capacity whatsoever to act in the public interest? Even many Senators are fed up with the FDA's unprecedented level of corruption and criminal behavior.

Action items, continued...

Read Jon Barron's comments on this rule at the JonBarron.org website

Next, lodge your complaint against the FDA by commenting on this docket through the FDA's docket comment form.

And finally, write your Senator or Congressperson about this issue and let them know, in blatant language, that you will not stand by and allow the criminals running medicine today to take away your access to vitamins, supplements, herbs and homeopathic medicine. Write the letter in your own words, even if it's just two sentences. Individual letters have a hundred times the impact of form letters.

Medical wasteland USA

Everything is at stake here. If the FDA gets its way, the United States will become a medical wasteland, dominated by corporate drug company interests, where the naturopaths are imprisoned and their products destroyed. Supplements and herbs will become contraband, and gardeners who grow their own medicinal herbs may be raided and arrested by DEA agents wielding assault rifles. Simply selling dried broccoli sprouts as being "good anti-cancer foods" may land you in prison, and running a vitamin shop could result in you being arrested for "practicing medicine."

Imagine a nation where Whole Foods stores are stripped of all herbs and supplements, where vitamin shops are emptied and abandoned, where books that promote herbs are bulldozed into large piles and burned, where natural healers are rounded up and "disappeared" into incarceration centers. This is the future that will become reality if the FDA has its way. The plan has been explained to us in plain language. Any agency that openly states "vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug" has quite simply lost its marbles. We're are now clearly being regulated by clinically insane bureaucrats.

With this desperate proposal by the FDA -- clearly designed as a last-ditch effort to save the failing conventional medical industry from a massive public shift towards natural medicine -- the war against health freedom has reached our shores, and the FDA is plotting a 9/11-style attack to bring down the towers of health freedom in one swift motion.

This is the same agency that currently represents the greatest threat to the health and safety of the American people, far outweighing the threat of real terrorism. This agency, we have seen, will do ANYTHING to protect the profits and power of drug companies. It will lie, steal, accept bribes, hide scientific evidence, distort statistics, commit scientific fraud, break federal laws, threaten its own drug safety scientists, conspire with drug company executives, intimidate American citizens and use terror-style tactics to achieve its goals of complete domination over foods, drugs and health.

Why do Americans tolerate terrorism in their own government?

It is time we put a stop to this home-grown tyranny. We have fought too hard for freedom in the United States to allow us all to be steamrolled by a criminal front group covertly working for Big Pharma. The FDA has declared war on natural medicine and the American people, and we will lose our family members, children, brothers and sisters as casualties of this war if we don't stand up now and demand radical changes. It's time to stop this terrorist organization from destroying the lives of yet more U.S. citizens.

Make your voice heard now, or forever surrender your access to supplements, herbs, superfoods and functional foods. By the time the FDA is done with this country, we'll all be eating medication for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Action reminders:

1. Lodge a complaint with the FDA by clicking here. MAKE SURE you include the docket number 2006D-0480. But don't trust this to be enough. The FDA will probably simply delete half the complaints it receives, so don't trust your complaint to actually count. It's important to continue...

2. Send a strongly-worded letter to your representatives in Washington. Be sure to cite Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. Tell them you support open access to vitamins, herbs, and supplements, and you do not want CAM to be regulated by the FDA.

3. Send this story to everyone you know. Spread the word. Raise the alarm. With enough public support, the FDA will be forced to back off this insane proposal.

And stay tuned to NewsTarget for more news, analysis and action alerts on health freedom. Even though we're under constant attack by criminal organizations trying to disrupt our servers and take us off line, we're still here, beating the drum for health freedom, and hoping that we have enough sane-minded Americans remaining to save this country from its government.

Actual FDA quote is gobbledygook

Here's an actual FDA statement from the CAM Guidance report:

For example, naturopathic cranberry tablets might be labeled for use to maintain the health of the urinary tract. In this example, the cranberry tablets generally would be regulated as "dietary supplements" ...if they were labeled for use to "maintain the health of the urinary tract" rather than "prevent urinary tract infections." The cranberry tablets would be regulated as "drugs" ...if they were labeled for use to "treat urinary tract infections" even if they were labeled as dietary supplements.

Additional phone numbers as listed in the FDA document

Sheryl Lard-Whiteford at 301-827-0379
Daniel Nguyen at 301-827-8971
Ted Stevens at 301-594-1184
Wayne Amchin at 301-827-6739

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View original article: http://www.newstarget.com/z021789.html

"If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention."

Dangers of the new chocolate

Am reading now how dangerous the new chocolate candy is that won't melt in your hands or heart, liver, fingers or toes! Anything so highly processed that the Gulf soldiers won't have to end up with messy fingers is like plastic in one's body.

One loses all feeling in one's fingers and toes, feet swell up and the heart gives up.

Here's the article: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1912320.htm

- Dr. Flora

Sauerkraut, Meat and Potatoes

Renata on Raw

You would think that I knew how to make sauerkraut considering I come from a German background where sauerkraut, meat and potatoes are a staple in the daily menu. Not so. I learned it just recently.

I mentioned in a previous newsletter how I never liked being in the kitchen. It seemed such an effort: long hours of preparation for the meal, and long hours of cleanup after the meal. The meal itself did not last that long.

And then the digestion part. It took me hours to recuperate from a heavy meal.

In contrast, the raw kitchen is quick, easy and clean, no grease and heavy pots and pans. And the digestion takes care of itself since the enzymes are intact in raw living food, so the body can use its metabolic enzymes for their main function: tissue repair instead of breaking down food particles.

Well, let me get back to the sauerkraut part. Meat and potatoes have been cut out of my diet. However, the sauerkraut plays an important role, more than ever, actually. And why is that, you may ask?

Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. Canned or bottled sauerkraut you buy in the store is pasteurized and has some ingredients your body's chemistry does not think as a valuable addition to your diet. So, what is the solution? Do it yourself. It really is not that difficult and you will be surprised about the effect of homemade sauerkraut on your body.

The enzymes in fermented foods stimulate the growth of friendly bacteria. These bacteria are like the Merry Maids for your internal tubing, they sweep it out and leave it clean. People with elimination challenges such as diarrhea and constipation might add a daily dose of homemade sauerkraut. The results will speak for themselves.

A rather pleasant side effect is clearing up of your skin. As you are aware, your skin is actually an elimination organ. If the primary elimination organs are stressed beyond capacity, the skin comes to the rescue and works overtime. Unwise dietary choices such as dairy (www.notmilk.com gives you an idea about the effects of dairy) can clog up the delicate pores and the skin will loose its ability to do its assignment.

So, with a little help from our friend the humble cabbage your intestinal life can get jump-started, and the elimination challenges will be eliminated.

What's in YOUR "milkshake?"

The 59 Ingredients in a Fast Food Strawberry Milkshake

Now, that's not a very good start, is it? Fifty-nine ingredients. So, I looked, and it turns out that in one fast food restaurant strawberry milkshake from a big fast food chain, there are two ingredients that are notably absent: Milk and Strawberries!! Does that put you off for life already? Well, let's see if I can put you off a bit further.

It turns out that the strawberry flavor they use to flavor their milkshakes is actually made from 40 different chemicals. Let me read you a couple of the names of these chemicals. This is just the strawberry flavor. Forty different chemicals.

Amyl valerate
Anethol
Ethyl lactate
Methylphenylglycidate (Oh, my word! That's a mouthful and a half!)
Ionone
Maltol
Methyl benzoate
That's just to name but a few of those 40 ingredients that go into their strawberry flavoring.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've had strawberry milkshakes from fast food chains before, and some of them are very, very tasty. But after finding out that there's 59 ingredients, and that both milk and strawberries are absent from these milkshakes, I can definitely say I've been put off for life, and I hope you are as well.

Read more: http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/Fast-Food-Milkshakes-Exposed-27226.aspx

[Thanks to Steven Gibb.]

From a Chinese oil refinery to your Twinkie

Food makers don't often know where the chemicals in their products come from.
By Steve Ettlinger, STEVE ETTLINGER is the author of, most recently, "Twinkie, Deconstructed."
May 29, 2007 in the LA Times

WHEN I began researching the ingredients for Twinkies, I naively thought that their raw materials were extracted from nuts, beans, fruit, seeds or leaves, and that they came from the United States. I was looking to link places with foods — along the lines of California wine or Maine lobster, but for thiamine mononitrate. It turned out that I was way off.

Although eight of the ingredients in the beloved little snack cake come from domestic corn and three from soybeans, there are others — including thiamine mononitrate — that come from petroleum. Chinese petroleum. Chinese refineries and Chinese factories. And there are other unexpected ingredients that are much harder to trace. So much for the great "All-American" snack food.

When you bite into a Twinkie, you are chewing on an international nexus of suppliers. Most of our processed foods — salad dressing, ice cream, meal-replacement drinks — are processed with foreign additives: essential ones, like B vitamins for fortifying flour and the preservative sorbic acid, as well as Malaysian or Indonesian palm oil products, European wheat gluten, Peruvian colorants, Chadian gums and Swiss niacin, made from Swiss water, Swiss air (nitrogen) and North Atlantic or Middle Eastern oil. It's a nice contrast to recall that Champagne comes only from Champagne, France.

Like many other industries, food additives have been off-shored. No major domestic vitamin or sorbic acid manufacturers remain in the U.S. Our last vitamin C plant closed in 2005 — in fact, it closed as I was speaking to an employee about a tour — and most of our artificial colors and flavors come from abroad as well. Our chemical industry is rapidly dismantling its expensive domestic plants and either forming joint ventures with Chinese companies or simply buying chemicals from them. This leads to lower food and pharmaceutical prices, but perhaps at the cost of quality control.

How can you have quality control when you don't even know where the ingredient is coming from? During my Twinkie research, I was particularly surprised that many American food additive "manufacturers" buy chemicals, especially vitamins, from distributors and do not know, or don't ask, where they come from. The distributors usually sing the same song, as they often buy from importers, and the importers buy from exporters who — no surprise — are often not able or willing to identify all of their sources.

Now that the tainted pet food scandal has made us more aware that many additives come from overseas, and China in particular — and that some unscrupulous or, at the very least, unprofessional Chinese manufacturers mix cheaper and poisonous adulterants into some food or pharmaceutical products — most of us would like to see some action. What can be done?

First, Chinese and any other foreign manufacturers should fall under both their home country's and the U.S. government's regulations and controls. This would take a concerted education effort in China, which has the challenge of teaching small, uneducated and very independent entrepreneurs the market value of meeting American standards.

Second, we need to increase U.S. inspection of imported foods and additives. This means increased personnel and budgets and a serious commitment from the government to a tight, professional program. The Food and Drug Administration should classify additive adulteration the same way the Agriculture Department classifies meat contamination: totally unacceptable. Congress would have to reverse the trend of underfunding the FDA.

Finally, as consumers, we can swallow hard and decide to pay just a little more for well-inspected processed food — or eat more local fruits, vegetables and whole grains and buy minimally processed and sustainably farmed foods.

Smart processed-food and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to find guaranteed safe alternatives. But consumers must be prepared to pay a higher price for safe food — and to make informed choices about what ingredients go into our food and where they come from.

If you want to have your snack cake and eat it too, you have to remember: You are what you eat.

May 29, 2007 in the LA Times

One Soda a Day Increases Diabetes Risk 85 Percent

From Dr. Mercola:

Women who drink more than one can of sugar-filled soda a day might be increasing their chances of developing diabetes along with gaining weight.

A study showed that women who drank the minimum of one soda each day could increase their likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes by 85 percent over the women who drank less than one can a day.

Along with increasing the risk for diabetes, the high sugar and calorie content contained in sodas were also found to compound the risk of developing other chronic diseases such as obesity. These findings led researchers to believe the sugar found in soda and energy drinks could result in an overabundance of energy, which could trigger obesity and the packing on of extra pounds.

The Growing Number of Diabetes Cases in America

In 2002, 18.2 million Americans were found to have diabetes

Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States

The number of people with diabetes has almost doubled over the years of 1990 to 2002

Researchers stated that school officials are now taking actions against the growing childhood obesity problem by encouraging their students to drink beverages other than sugar-filled soft drinks.

USA Today June 8, 2004

Drink soda and damage your DNA

Research from a British university suggests that sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in many soft drinks, has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

This could eventually lead to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's.

When a UK professor of molecular biology and biotechnology tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells, he discovered that it was damaging important DNA in the cells' mitochondria.

Mitochondria serve as the "power stations" for cells, and damage to them can lead to serious cell malfunctions associated with aging and age-related disease. The damage caused by sodium benzoate was great enough to cause the mitochondria to stop functioning.

Sodium benzoate occurs naturally in berries in small amounts, but is used in large quantities to prevent mold in soft drinks such as Sprite, Diet Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.

Read the complete article in The Independent May 27, 2007.

Locally grown Organics gaining popularity

If you’d like to know exactly where your fresh produce and meat came from, you now have that option.

Irv Cernauskas is co-operator of Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks, an online sales site where the public can order local and organic produce, meat, dairy and eggs and have it delivered year-round to their homes (www.freshpicks.com). Fresh Picks contracts with farmers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan to provide the organic foods.

Cernauskas spoke at “Homegrown, Northwest Indiana: A Local Foods Expo” March 13 at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso.

His interest in the environment and fresh food began at the age of 5. He lived in Windsor, Ontario, and when the family went north on vacation he remembers smelling fresh air and eating blueberries off the bush for the first time.

Cernauskas has been involved in nonprofit environmental organizations and is a board member of The Land Connection and Seven Generations Ahead, which creates market opportunities for organic farmers.

“There’s a demand for good food,” Cermauskas said, adding that the benefits of organic, fresher food include:

• Better health. “The last place to cut the budget is for good quality food,” Cernauskas said, citing the possibility of toxic chemicals, mad cow disease and E. coli as dangers to health.

• Protection of the environment, such as watersheds, wildlife habitat and reducing global warming.

• Support of the local economy. “We import more food than we export,” Cernauskas said.

• Humane treatment of animals. “If we know the animals we eat have had a decent life, on free range, we feel less guilt.”

Cernauskas said before he and his wife began their business, he held focus groups to see if the idea of delivering locally grown food to people’s homes was feasible.

“These groups told us that if ethical food was available, 30 percent would choose it if it were available,” he said.

Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks now has 1,100 customers to whom they deliver in 55 ZIP code areas around northern Illinois.

“They’re thrilled to get fresh food,” Cernauskas said. “Not all of them can get to farmers’ markets.”

Scott Hutcheson, who conducts economic and community development work for Purdue University and moonlights as “The Hungry Hoosier,” a food writer, also spoke at the expo.

“I get to drive around Indiana and eat,” Hutcheson said. “Local food is the new organic.”

Hutcheson spoke about the “Slow Food Movement,” which grew out of abhorrence of today’s fast food culture.

“You can now find place-based foods on menus, “ he said, like Nick’s English Hut in Bloomington, which lists Fischer Farms Natural Black Angus Beef Burger.

Since 1994, farmers’ markets have grown from 1,755 to more than 4,300 in 2006. Yet, Wal-Mart plans to open 265 super centers this year.

“How do the systems co-exist?” Hutcheson asked. “Wal-Mart does sell organic foods. I can see people going to Wal-Mart for staples, then to the farmers’ market for other items.”

A survey conducted in Indiana revealed “local” means within state for 39 percent of respondents; 46 percent were willing to pay 1 to 5 percent more for fresh goods. Hutcheson mentioned that Collins Caviar in Michigan City is a “rock star” of producers, along with Capriole Goat Cheese in Greenville and Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville.

“So what is the state of the plate in Indiana?” Hutcheson asked. “Well, we have appetizers and side dishes, but not a well-planned meal yet; we need new networks and initiatives for local foods. We need more local food expos like this. We should challenge ourselves to spend 10 percent of our food budget on locally produced food.”

From the Herald Argus: http://heraldargus.com/hanews/archives/ha/display.php?id=374552&query=organic%20food.

Don't be fooled by the Whole Wheat doughnut

Krispy Kreme has introduced a whole wheat, caramel-flavored glaze doughnut, containing 180 calories. In comparison, a Tim Hortons honey-dipped yeast doughnut has 210 calories, and a Krispy Kreme "cookies and kreme" doughnut has 400 calories.

However, health experts have pointed out that the new doughnut is not `healthier' so much as it is 'less unhealthy.'

Read more: http://www.mercola.com/2007/mar/17/dont-be-fooled-by-a-whole-wheat-doughnut.htm.

Americans starving by choice???

More than two-thirds of Americans are starving themselves of necessary nutrients says a new study published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University on 8,900 U.S. citizens over the course of four years, found that less than a third of the study participants eat daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, even when foods like french fries are considered a "vegetable".

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4558.cfm.

The future of Food

You might want to invest an hour watching this in-depth interview conducted by the Massachusetts School of Law with director Deborah Koons Garcia about her alarming and enlightening 2004 documentary.

Garcia's interest in the science behind food and how it could be manipulated started very early as a teenager experimenting on mutating seeds and plants with radiation and chemicals.

Back then, there was no problem comparing untainted plants with mutated ones, Garcia says, as the latter were thicker, bigger and more deformed.

That long-ago experiment Garcia conducted made such a profound impression, she maintained her keen interest in agriculture -- opting then for organic foods over conventionally grown ones -- even as she studied filmmaking at the University of North Carolina.

Originally, the film was going to be about pesticides, until it took a completely different and important direction based on a tip from a fellow filmmaker and farmer about the blight of genetically modified (GM) foods, a crisis in the making about which many Americans feel lukewarm, at best.

http://www.mercola.com/2007/mar/22/learn-more-about-the-future-of-food-from-its-director.htm

The truth about carrots

I say, “Carrot,” and you say, “Rabbit.” Granted, some might gravitate toward a more affectionate, “Bunny.” Either way, we’ve been trained by impressive characters like Bugs Bunny, Rabbit from Winney the Pooh, and even Peter Cottontail. We think rabbits like carrots. But this isn’t the whole truth. Given the choice, rabbits prefer leafy, chlorophyll-laden carrot tops to their buried, beta-carotene-dyed roots. And if the tops are gone, they’ll take beets over carrots. Even Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, was not particularly fond of carrots.

The other word you might think when you hear, “Carrot,” is, “Eyesight.” We’ve been told eating carrots help improve our eyesight. But once again, we have been led astray. It’s vitamin A that conducts eyesight repair and maintenance; it’s found in shellfish and grass-fed animal products like butter, egg yolks, liver, and organ meats. We’ve been told beta carotene can help our eyesight too, when it’s converted into vitamin A in our upper intestines. But it only does this under rare, optimal conditions (that children cannot have). When the two nutrients were linked in 1919, the beta-carotene to vitamin A conversion was thought to be 4:1. That’s now being disputed to be higher than 6:1 and Weston A. Price Foundation claims it to be altogether unwise to rely on plant sources for vitamin A. 

Vitamin A’s heightened importance to the eye is so great that even its scientific name is based on its retina work, called retinol. What it does is repair rhodopsin, the retina responsible for detecting the color purple. Rhodopsin turns yellow—or bleaches—when exposed to light. After thirty minutes of dark it can be regenerated—but only with the help of a certain fat-soluble nutrient, Vitamin A. Around 1913 and 1914, scientists began to pinpoint this transaction, connecting night blindness and general blindness to the lack of vitamin A. Add a few years and beta-carotene became thrown into the mix and mixed things up.

So by World War II, it was a wide-spread belief that beta-carotene found in carrots could help you see well, especially at night. It stretched far enough that Britain’s Royal Air Force used it to cover up the discovery of their new radar system. In the race to create the “death ray”, Britain won with a silent victory; they didn’t leak a word about it. Instead, they unabashedly gave credit for the expert accuracy of RAF fighter pilots to diets that included lots of carrots. This rallied British citizens while propaganda entreated, “CARROTS, Keep you healthy and help you to see in the blackout.” The clever cover up worked; German Nazis didn’t question the marked increase of downed planes during the 1940-41 Blitz and British citizens ate more vegetables.

To add to carrot connivance: The carrot is some 5,000 years old and for the majority of its existence it could be found in almost every color (purple, white, red, yellow, black, green) - except orange. Orange carrots didn’t come into existence until the 1600s, through hybridization in Holland. Today, almost all carrots descend from the Dutch orange carrot.

So add that to your word association: “Carrot”, and “Rascally.”

Mercedee Renz
- thanks to http://www.goodnessgreeness.com/.

Global warning against eating fish - ANY fish

The health risks posed by mercury contaminated fish is sufficient to warrant issuing a worldwide general warning to the public — especially children and women of childbearing age-to be careful about how much and which fish they eat. That is one of the key findings comprising "The Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution" published today in a special issue of the international science journal Ambio.

Developed at the Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant last August in Madison, Wis., the declaration is a synopsis of the latest scientific knowledge about the danger posed by mercury pollution. It presents 33 principal findings from five synthesis papers prepared by the world's leading mercury scientists and published in the same issue of Ambio. The declaration and supporting papers summarize what is currently known about the sources and movement of mercury in the atmosphere, the socioeconomic and health effects of mercury pollution on human populations, and its effects on the world's fisheries and wildlife.

Five other major findings in the declaration were:

    * On average, three times more mercury is falling from the sky today than before the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago as a result of the increasing use of mercury and industrial emissions.
    * The uncontrolled use of mercury in small-scale gold mining is contaminating thousands of sites around the world, posing long-term health risks to an estimated 50 million inhabitants of mining regions. These activities alone contribute more than 10 percent of the mercury in Earth's atmosphere attributable to human activities today.
    * Little is known about the behavior of mercury in marine ecosystems and methylmercury in marine fish, the ingestion of which is the primary way most people at all levels of society worldwide are exposed to this highly toxic form of mercury.
    * Methylmercury exposure now constitutes a public health problem in most regions of the world.
    * Methylmercury levels in fish-eating birds and mammals in some parts of the world are reaching toxic levels, which may lead to population declines in these species and possibly in fish populations as well.

read more: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/uow-mco030207.php and
http://ambio.allenpress.com/ambioonline/.

Toxins leaking into canned food

An alarming new study from the Environmental Working Group analyzed samples of canned fruit, vegetables, soda, and baby formula on sale in the nation's supermarkets and found that more than 50% were tainted with a chemical linked to birth defects, ADHD and cancer.

The chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), is an ingredient in plastics that lines food cans. According to the study, the chemical has been leaching into foods at levels up to 200 times the government's recommended "safe" level of exposure.

According to Dr. Frederick vom Saal, a professor of biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a long-time expert researcher of BPA, there are 94 scientific studies indicating deleterious health effects from BPA. "If BPA was treated as a drug, it would have been pulled immediately. This chemical can be replaced right now by safer materials, and the public would never notice the difference."

OCA is planning to launch a campaign later this year to pressure food companies, especially organic companies, to stop using BPA-tainted cans and other toxic or non-sustainable packaging.
More: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4414.cfm.

The world's first Bionic Burger

A man has been collecting hamburgers for over a decade; many are still "edible:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic. (3 1/2 minute video)

Farmer power the key to green advance

According to a new article in BBC’s “Green Room” at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6387975.stm 850 million people go to bed hungry in a world that produces more than enough food for all. The fix for this according to journalist Michel Pimbert is to allow farmers to do what they do without corporate and government interference and to move away from industrial agriculture.

According to Pimbert the replacement of the small farmer by corporate farming is not inevitable. He says: "The political choices made by governments and their corporate friends can still be decisively rejected and reversed. But this depends on creating inclusive alliances between farmers, fisher-folk, indigenous peoples, scholars and other citizens to exert countervailing power - which is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the food sovereignty movement."

My Note: I think that the increasing popularity of the raw lifestyle will have a massive impact on this movement. It creates consumer demand for the type of high quality fresh organic food that is only available from small organic farms. If you care about the future of food, organics, and the small farmers, come out and support the Raw Film Festival – See http://www.serenityspaces.org/spring.asp

With Thanks and Hope,
Jinjee
http://www.TheGardenDiet.com

Girl Scout cookies still have trans-fats

Although Girl Scout cookies are not being marketed as having "zero trans fats per serving," they still contain partially hydrogenated oils, which is another name for trans fatty acids.

According to FDA guidelines, an item with less than 0.5 percent of trans fat per serving can be deemed "zero trans fat." One serving, however, is two cookies; since many people eat more than two at a single sitting, they could therefore be ingesting significant quantities of trans fats unintentionally.

Trans fats increase levels of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and lower levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), increasing the risk of coronary heart disease. Read more: http://www.mercola.com/2007/mar/13/new-girl-scout-cookies-still-have-trans-fats.htm.

A fatty snack that's not a No-No

Can a snack that's 70 percent fat be good for you? Yes, if it's cashews.

Everyone's favorite nut improves baroreflex sensitivity. That's a fancy way of saying that when your blood pressure rises, cashews tell your heart to calm down, among other cardio benefits. So at upcoming holiday parties, don't feel guilty about picking all the cashews out of the mixed nuts -- you're just eating healthfully! Read More: http://www.realage.com/news_features/tip.aspx?v=1&cid=17608.

Chicken, eggs, and the "free range" fallacy

No government laws regulate the use of terms such as “free-range” and “free-roaming” for egg producers.

For poultry raised for meat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), defines free-range and free-roaming for labeling purposes as having “access to the outdoors.” The USDA generally “relies upon producer testimonials to support the accuracy of these claims.” However, the lack of routine verification of these “testimonials” enables producers to stretch the definition of these terms.

Under the USDA National Organic Program, all certified organic chicken and egg producers must also provide “access to the outdoors” for their birds. To meet this requirement, however, many “certified organic” and “free-range” birds are crowded into sheds with open siding or with a few enclosed porches, which may be closed off for several months during the year. The birds may never actually set foot outside, and the organic and free-range standards do not outline any other animal welfare criteria, such as the amount of space individual birds must have.

In addition to being vague and not substantially improving animal welfare, “free-range,” “cage-free,” and “organic” labeling programs fail to address many of the cruelties inherent in chicken meat and egg production.

More: http://www.satyamag.com/feb06/engebretson.html.

Basic foods for your arteries

Three foods your arteries can't get enough of: onions, celery, and parsley.

Whether you add them to soups, relish dishes, sandwiches, or salads, improving the health of your arteries may be as simple as munching on these flavor boosters. People who eat more flavonoid-rich veggies like these cut their risk of hardening of the arteries -- especially in the legs -- in half.

Read more: http://www.realage.com/news_features/tip.aspx?v=1&cid=17606.

Vegan honey?

There is no honey on earth that is vegan....no matter where it's gotten from.  It's an animal product, not a plant product.  It is what is it is. Use the regurgitated bee saliva if you like, but never kid yourself that it is vegan, nor that even on private farms, that a wing or leg don't get lost here & there.  (In commercial farms they get gassed & prior to that, lose ALOT of wings & legs.)  Dates should work well in most recipes [instead of honey].  -- marr

Grocer Takes Truth in Food Labeling to a Higher Level

Hannaford Brothers, a New England grocery chain, has developed a system called Guiding Stars that rates the nutritional value of the food and drinks at its stores.

Items can receive a rating from zero to three stars. Of the 27,000 products rated, 77 percent received no stars, including most processed foods - even those advertised as being healthy: The Ledger (Lakeland, FL).

New North Carolina wineries

I was watching ABC tonight and they did a story about the farmers of North Carolina switching from growing tobacco to wine grapes.

I'm reminded of Connecticut which used to have a lot of tobacco farms just north of Hartford along with those red drying barns all over the place. When they decided to sell the land and build homes there they found out that the ground was saturated in herbicides. Several locations became EPA superfund sites because the ground was so contaminated.

Of course to a cigarette smoker what's a little extra herbicide but I wonder how safe that wine in the Carolinas will be because whatever was in the ground will be taken into the grapes.

- Steven Gibb, www.RawFriends.com.

Eating Chart

The benefits and effects of eating certain foods. A handy chart in .pdf format: Download EatingChart.pdf (94.0K)

- thanks to Jan Jenson

An insider's guide to food labels

Few people know that the food coloring listed as cochineal extract comes from female beetles. Food activists want to spread the word

When you dig into a strawberry Yoplait yogurt, take a moment to contemplate where the beautiful pink color comes from. Strawberries? Think again. It comes from crushed bugs. Specifically, from the female cochineal beetles and their eggs. And it's not just yogurt. The bugs are also used to give red coloring to Hershey (HSY) Good & Plenty candies, Tropicana grapefruit juice, and other common foods.

You won't find "crushed bugs" on the list of ingredients for any of these foods, however. Companies have a bit of latitude in describing exactly what they put in our food. Many larger companies, such as General Mills (GIS), the manufacturer of Yoplait, and Pepsi (PEP), the maker of Tropicana, identify the dye in their products as either carmine or cochineal extract. Still, many companies simply list "artificial color" on their ingredients list without giving any details.

Food activists are trying to change disclosure requirements: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2006/db20060807_789872.htm.

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

From Catherine: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.htm.

Veggie diet reduces risk of E. coli illness

Sarah Keating, M.D. - Etobicoke, Ontario

As a physician, I hope the E. coli outbreak from spinach doesn't dissuade people from eating plenty of other leafy green vegetables, which are full of calcium, fiber and anti-oxidants. In addition, this outbreak underscores the critical need to take precautions against food-borne illnesses ("Killer bacteria hunted in fields of California," Cover story, News, Tuesday).

By avoiding beef — the largest source of E. coli — we can significantly reduce our risk of getting sick because animal products are the source of essentially all E. coli infections. Fruits and vegetables become contaminated only when they come in contact with water contaminated by animal agriculture, animal-based fertilizers, kitchen surfaces used for meat preparation, or unwashed hands that have picked up an animal-borne infection.

Everyone, especially meat eaters, is at risk for E. coli, but children younger than 5 and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to suffering the most severe symptoms: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2006/09/veggie_diet_red.html.

Eating too much bread increases kidney cancer risk

Eating a lot of white bread may increase the risk of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common type of kidney cancer, while vegetarian food lowers it, a case-control study has revealed.

Previous studies on RCC had shown that diet plays an important role in monitoring the risk of the disease, but they did not tell which foods could be harmful or beneficial.

With a view to discern the relationship between specific foods and RCC risk, researchers led by Fancesca Bravi of the Institute of Pharmacological Research "Mario Negri" in Milan, conducted a large case-control study of 2301 Italians.

They found that there is a significant association between high bread consumption and RCC risk: http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=39009.

Fruit and veggies build stronger bones

Teenagers who eat fruit and vegetables every day may build stronger bones than those who don't, according to new research from Cambridge University.

Teenage boys and girls who ate lots of fruit and veg were found to have heavier and stronger bones, especially in their spines: http://www.thenewspaper.org.uk/health/pg000769.php.

Artificial sweeteners - the Big Lie

(Dr. Mercola) It is easily one of the most widespread and dangerous deceptions of our time, and a genuine threat to your health in ways you likely can't even imagine.

In fact, when you discover the inside story on this one, you'll be exposed to the absolute dark heart and soul of how giant food and drug corporations and the government are secretly risking your health for their own personal gain ... and you will be astonished at the important new insights I've uncovered that haven't been revealed anywhere else.

It took me and seven full-time investigators over two years to compile the information in my brand new book, "Sweet Deception: Why Splenda, NutraSweet and the FDA May Be Hazardous to Your Health."

We poured through stacks of papers and correspondence with the FDA, and carefully reviewed thousands of studies to create this book -- and to provide you with a proven roadmap out of the health nightmare that the food and drug giants have created and the FDA allows to occur.

Read more, and watch the short video: http://www.mercola.com/sweet-deception-aspartame.

Health benefits of bananas

Never put your banana in the refrigerator!!!

After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at wor k leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking &Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS
PS: Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time! I will add one here; want a quick shine on our shoes?? Take the INSIDE of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe...polish with dry cloth. Amazing fruit!

Eating your vegetables will keep you young: study

(AFP) - Vegetables are brain food, according to new study which found that eating veggies can help prevent cognitive decline in the elderly.

"Compared to people who consumed less than one serving of vegetables a day, people who ate at least 2.8 servings of vegetables a day saw their rate of cognitive change slow by roughly 40 percent," study author Martha Clare Morris of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago said in a press release.

"This decrease is equivalent to about five years of younger age."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061024/hl_afp/ushealthfoodageing_061024001744.

Fox News kills story on milk contamination by BGH

Milk, Lies, and Videotape - Monsanto's War Against Your Health
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axU9ngbTxKw

Move over drug companies. Your position as the greediest companies on the planet with the least concern for truth and human life has been displaced. Monsanto has just pushed you out. Yes, the chemical giant, the maker of Roundup, aspartame, genetically engineered seeds, and BST hormone (which increases a cow's milk production), is the new emperor of Pillage for Profit.

Reporters at a Fox News affiliate in Florida did an in-depth investigation of the dangers of Monsanto's BST in milk and its clear connection to cancer in people who consume the milk. Monsanto lawyers heard about the story and threatened the network with "dire consequences" if the program was aired.

The network tried to bribe the reporters to change the story. They refused. The station then threatened to fire them. They  fought back. The station negotiated to make changes to the story that the reporters could live with. But after an unheard of 83 rounds of rewrites and cuts, the final story was so watered down, the reports refused to go along with it.

Fox fired them for insubordination. The reporters filed suits as whistleblowers and a jury awarded them $425,000.

A happy ending?  I wish it were so.  Here's what happened next: Fox appealed and five major news chains filed briefs in support of Fox. The Florida appeals court (notice this wasn't from a jury) reversed the verdict, denying them whistleblower protection. The court found that Fox, and the media in general, have no obligation to tell the truth! In other words, the media can report known fiction (lies) to you as real news.

Now consider this: If I were to write a fantastic story about a supplement that I also endorsed, but exaggerated the story to make it sound better than it is, federal agencies would quickly take action against me. In fact, I would face very stiff fines and a possible jail sentence. Why? Because "commercial" speech is not protected by the first amendment.

But the media can lie to you over the airways. According to the courts, it's not commercial speech. The courts hold that the media aren't profiting from the sale of the drugs (or other products). While that's technically true, the networks are profiting - and in a big way - from by the ad revenue their lies protect.

I repeatedly saw the same problem in Anchorage, where one of the largest advertisers was a local hospital. The local paper conveniently avoided stories about the hospital's scandalous gross negligence. A woman with a bowel obstruction was allowed to languish over the weekend untreated until her bowel became gangrenous and she needed emergency surgery to avoid imminent death. The local newspaper wouldn't run the story for fear of losing ad revenue from the hospital.

This story is to remind you not to believe anything you read, see, or hear in the mass media regarding medicine or alleged scientific studies. Anything and everything presented to you is likely tainted by what effect the story has on their advertising dollars.

If you would like more information on this story about Monsanto, please click on this website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axU9ngbTxKw. If you're as outraged as I am, please forward this to your friends. If they're drinking milk from hormone-injected cows, this story could save their life. And they certainly won't get this information from the mainstream media.

Yours for better health and medical freedom,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD

- thanks to Sharon Liess

Health benefits of prunes

Prunes are a good source of fiber and have long been recognized as a nutrient-rich fruit with multiple health benefits. But according to a recent study from Tufts University in Boston, prunes may also help slow the aging process in both the body and brain. The study ranked the antioxidant value of commonly eaten fruits and vegetables using an analysis called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity). Prunes topped the list with more than twice the antioxidant capacity as other high-scoring fruits such as blueberries and raisins.

ORAC is a test tube analysis that measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances. Early findings suggest that this same antioxidant activity translates to animals, protecting cells and their components from oxidative damage.

"If these studies are borne out in further research, young and middle-aged people may be able to reduce their risk of diseases of aging – including senility – simply by adding high antioxidant foods to their diets," said Floyd P. Horn, administrator of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, in Beltsville, Md.

The role of fruits and vegetables in health promotion and disease prevention may also be related to nutrients, other than the vitamins, minerals and fiber, found in these plant-based foods. In addition to well-known antioxidant vitamins A and C and beta-carotene, there are over 1,800 other biologically active compounds that have been identified in foods. Research is just beginning to identify these nutrients and to describe their activity in the human body; however, many are believed to offer the protective benefits of antioxidants.

At The Wholefood Farmacy, prunes can found in Phi Plus and DetoxiPhi, which are two of the most popular foods amongst the family of Wholefood Farmacy Wholesale Club Members.

As always, we are at your service,
The Wholefood Farmacy Team
www.wellthychoices.wholefoodfarmacy.com

- thanks to Jan Jenson [thewellthcoach@alltel.net] for sharing this article with us.

E-coli outbreak, or not?

Hi, everyone,

I have received many correspondence regarding the "E.coli-contaminated spinach" incidences that have dominated the media for days. Consider that E.coli are the major bacteria of the colon. E.coli are responsible for the final stages of protein-digestion that release special amino acids (protein) for brain and nerves. E.coli are also responsible for producing volumes of the Vitamin-B family. E.coli are our most important bacterium for building and strengthen our brains and nervous systems.

Do you think that if the spinach had been contaminated, wouldn't thousands of people have been harmed? Consider that I know about 600 very diseased people who have eaten FRESH feces with trillions of active E.coli to improve protein digestion and have never gotten sick from eating E.coli, and have improved their health and even reversed cancer by eating E.coli. As I stated in my recipe book, University of Toronto used veratoxin produced by E.coli to dissolve human brain tumors in 2-5 days. All animals lick theirs and others' feces many times a day, every day. Do you really think that a few dead E.coli that may remain on any food from fertilizer is going to cause illness? It is more likely that some people are allergic to a pesticide or herbicide that might be on the spinach. Organic spinach was not to blame (see article below).

Consequently, I must consider that governments (USDA, FDA, CDC, and health departments) are calling the vomit and diarrhea of a few people food-contamination to make us believe that nature is a threat to us instead of all of the cancer(and other disease)-causing industrial pollution that government allows industry to subject us to every day. Could it be that governments are protecting industry, themselves and our economy instead of our health? Could it be that they protect industry and themselves from lawsuits? Do they want us to believe that they truly protect us? Is It all a ruse?

I suggest that you become rational and empirically experiment and explore reality rather than believe nonsensical hype.

healthfully,
dr. aajonus vonderplanitz, ph.d. nutrition
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Company: organic spinach not to blame
By JUSTIN M. NORTON, Associated Press Writer          Mon Sep 18, 2006, 3:32 AM ET

The company whose fresh spinach was linked to an E. coli outbreak that's sickened at least 109 people said its organic products had been cleared of contamination, while health officials continued working to pinpoint the bacteria source.

Natural Selection Foods LLC, the country's largest grower of organic produce, said late Sunday that manufacturing codes from packages of spinach that infected patients turned over to health officials all were from non-organic spinach. Natural Selection packages both organic and conventionally grown spinach in separate areas at its San Juan Bautista plant.

The company, however, did not immediately lift any recalls of 34 brands. Those brands include the company's own labels and those of other companies that had contracts with Natural Selection to produce or package its spinach.

Meanwhile, Salinas-based River Ranch Fresh Foods added to its recall spring mixes containing spinach sold under the labels Hy-Vee, Fresh N' Easy and Farmers Market, FDA officials said. All contain spinach purchased from Natural Selection, they said.

The Food and Drug Administration and California Department of Health Services planned Monday to work toward tracing the infected greens to individual farms. The inquiry will review irrigation methods, harvest conditions and other practices at farms possibly involved.

The spinach could have been contaminated in the field or during processing. About 74 percent of the fresh-market spinach grown in the U.S. comes from California, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.

There is no indication that the outbreak was deliberate, said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

The FDA continued to warn consumers not to eat fresh spinach or products containing fresh spinach until further notice.

"This is unquestionably a significant outbreak in terms of E. coli," Acheson said.

E. coli cases linked to tainted spinach have been reported in 19 states, with Wisconsin reporting the most cases, including the death of a 77-year-old woman.

Other states reporting cases were California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming, according to the CDC.

Seven new cases reported Sunday were in states with previous illnesses, Acheson said.

In Ohio, state health officials said they were investigating the death of a 23-month-old girl who was sickened by E. coli to determine whether the case was related to the outbreak. The girl's mother said she often buys bagged spinach.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday they've started an Atlanta-based emergency operations center to help state health agencies with E. coli testing. Epidemiologists are helping test spinach samples and stool samples of infected people, center spokeswoman Lola Russell said.

The center is helping when state health agencies can't perform the tests or when a second opinion is needed, Russell said.

Natural Selection recalled its packaged spinach throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico as a precaution after federal health officials said some of those hospitalized reported eating brands of prepackaged spinach distributed by the company.

However, some restaurants and retailers may be taking spinach out of bags before selling it, so consumers shouldn't buy it at all, the FDA said.

Boiling contaminated spinach can kill the bacteria, but washing won't eliminate it, the CDC warned.

Federal officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by Natural Selection. As the investigation continues, other brands may be implicated, officials said.

Natural Selection was founded in 1984 by Drew and Myra Goodman. Within two years, its best-known brand, Earthbound Farm, began shipping pre-washed, packaged salad fixings, and the company's "spring mix" became a mainstay of restaurants and supermarkets.

___

On the Net:

Center for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov

Natural Selection Farms: http://www.ebfarm.com

Is Organic food really more expensive?

The great expense of poor food choices is charged to both our bodies and the future, as well as to our wallets.

A recent experimental trip to a large fast food chain cost $17.26 for four sandwiches and four "regular fries." For my $17.26, I got 2.80 pounds, net weight, of "food," once I had thrown out all the packaging.

This amounted to over six dollars per pound, which is triple the average price of organic foods in a typical health food store. And most people think that fast food is cheap, and organic food is expensive! - http://www.naturopathyworks.com/pages/nutrition.php

- thanks to Helen Terry

More on US rice contamination

Recently, Organic Bytes reported on the USDA's announcement that a variety of genetically engineered (GE) rice unapproved for human consumption has contaminated the U.S. food supply. Since then, Japan has banned imports of U.S. rice, while the EU is requiring that all rice imports from the U.S. be tested for contamination.

With the U.S rice industry in turmoil, the USDA admits it has no idea how extensive the contamination is. Rice farmers say they don't feel the USDA is adequately monitoring the biotech industry. "This is real money that farmers are losing," said Arkansas Rice Growers Association Executive Director Greg Yielding, who said he has fielded dozens of calls from frantic rice farmers. "It is a big deal. We do not feel that USDA and APHIS have adequate funds or staff to do this job. They can't tell you where anything is even though they get permits for it."

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1865.cfm

Green tea drinkers may live longer in Japan

(Reuters) - A study of more than 40,000 men and women in Japan has found that those who drink a lot of green tea may live longer, researchers said: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060912/hl_nm/tea_dc_1.

New legal protection for Organic farms in Minnesota

A ground-breaking legal precedent was established last week between organic farmers, consumers, and oil pipeline companies. OCA, following a legal initiative spearheaded by Gardens of Eagan and supported by other organic farms in Minnesota, alerted members about the state's plan to allow the construction of an oil pipeline that would have cut across several organic farms, thereby undermining or destroying the farms' hard-fought organic certification.

Thanks to the Minnesota organic community and the willingness of the Minnesota Pipeline Company to respect organic farms, a new legal precedent has been established in the state that essentially provides special protections to organic farms (given the expensive and difficult process of acquiring organic certification).

According to Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association, "Part of the reason for taking this legal action was not only to prevent this pipeline from disrupting several organic farms in Minnesota but also to set a legal precedent for any other organic farms in the state, or anywhere in the United States."

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1972.cfm

US rice supply contaminated

(Washington Post) Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced late yesterday that U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice had become inadvertently contaminated with a genetically engineered variety not approved for human consumption: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/18/AR2006081801043.html.

The most dangerous ingredients in conventional foods

1) Sodium nitrite -- causes cancer, found in most processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage. Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical).

2) Hydrogenated oils -- causes heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many "manufactured" foods. Used to make oils stay in the food, extending shelf life. Sometimes also called "plastic fat."

3) Excitotoxins -- aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others (see below). These neurotoxic chemical additives directly harm nerve cells, over-exciting them to the point of cell death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They're found in diet soda, canned soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian foods. They're used to add flavor to over-processed, boring foods that have had the life cooked out of them.

Source: A new book by Mike Adams, entitled "Grocery Warning" takes a scientific look at a plethora of problematic ingredients in the everyday foods we eat.

Learn more: http://www.organicconsum ers.org/2006/article_705.cfm

Biotech firm and government hid rice contamination from the public

The US Department of Agriculture announced on August 17th that US commercial long-grain rice supplies are contaminated with "trace amounts" of genetically engineered rice unapproved for human consumption: http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3575.

Fast-food restaurants giving up on healthier choices

Fast food restaurants, in an attempt to appeal to consumers looking for so-called "indulgent" food, are increasingly creating meals that consist of giant portions, despite the objections of nutritionists: http://www.mercola.com/2006/aug/19/fast-food_restaurants_giving_up_healthier_choices_for_good.htm.