-In 1987, the Montreal Protocal, an international treaty to ban ozone depleting chemicals, mandated the phase out of the fumigant methyl bromide, which is used widely in the U.S. on crops like strawberries. The full phase out was to take place over the course of 18 years.
-In 2004, the Bush Administration began pushing for exemptions to the treaty to allow the U.S. to continue using chemicals like methyl bromide for economic reasons.
-In 2005, the Administration began considering converting methyl bormide use to a new chemical marketed by Arysta Life Sciences known as methyl iodide, which does not deplete the ozone layer.
-But unlike many other pesticides, methyl iodide vaporizes quickly, causing it to drift far distances. Although the state of California has categorized it as cancer causing, and the EPA admits it causes thyroid tumors, the agency has been pushing to approve the chemical since 2006.
-In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on September 25, 2007, the nation's leading chemists asked EPA not to approve methyl iodide without further scientific review. The chemical has been used to induce cancer in laboratory experiments and causes neurological and thyroid problems, as well as miscarriages in studies with laboratory animals.
-On October 5, 2007, the EPA approved methyl iodide for widespread use in the U.S., putting farmworkers, families and rural communities at risk.
Please send a letter to the EPA requesting they heed the advice of the nation's leading chemists.
The Codex Alimentarius is a threat to the freedom of people to choose natural healing and alternative medicine and nutrition. Ratified by the World Health Organization, and going into Law in the United States in 2009, the threat to health freedom has never been greater. This is the first part of a series of talks by Dr. Rima Laibow MD, available on DVD from the Natural Solutions Foundation, an non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about how to stop Codex Alimentarius from taking away our right to freely choose nutritional health
Nutricide - Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs
Prescription for Disaster is an in-depth investigation into the symbiotic relationships between the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA, lobbyists, lawmakers, medical schools, and researchers, and the impact this has on consumers and their health care. During this thorough investigation, we take a close look at patented drugs, why they are so readily prescribed by doctors, the role insurance companies and HMO's play in promoting compliance, and the problem of rising health care costs. We examine the marketing and public relations efforts on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies, including sales reps, medical journals and conferences. Further, we look at alternatives to traditional pharmacology and drug therapy, such as vitamins and nutritional supplements, and why they are often perceived as a competitive threat to the drug manufacturers. Alternative therapies also include diet, exercise and a healthy lifestyle.
Prescription for Disaster takes you on a journey through the tangled web of big business, the way disease is treated today, and the consequences we suffer as a society.
Excellent documentary showing how dangerous artificial sweetner Aspartame is. From its history, to its effects this video is enough to shock anyone into really looking at there food labels next time they shop. Aspartame is a toxic food that came into the world as an investment By Donald Rumsfeld, while ignoring the deadly effects the tests showed. Take a good look at this video, it could save lives.
In this video, Christopher Bryson, an award-winning journalist and former producer at the BBC, discusses the findings of his new book The Flouride Deception.
EARLY REVIEWS of The Fluoride Deception:
"Bryson marshals an impressive amount of research to demonstrate fluoride?s harmfulness, the ties between leading fluoride researchers and the corporations who funded and benefited from their research, and what he says is the duplicity with which fluoridation was sold to the people. The result is a compelling challenge to the reigning dental orthodoxy, which should provoke renewed scientific scrutiny and public debate."
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Fluoride Deception (Interview With Christopher Bryson)
Dr Malcolm Kendrick speaks about World Health Organisation data gathered in their MONI-CA study. MONItoring Trends in CArdiovascular Disease.
From the EU Monica WHO data I took all data on fat intake and CHD rate from virtually all European countries for1998-1999 The data was then regressed using Quattro Pro. The regression line was drawn using the results. Both analyses show that doubling the national fat intake reduces the national Coronary Heart Disease rate by half! Total Fat (%of diet) Multiple R 0.667; Regression "p" = 5.43 E-07 Saturated Fat Intake (%of diet) Multiple R = 0.584; Regression = "p" < 0.00001
Elevated Cholesterol does not actually cause heart disease; excess levels of cholesterol in the blood can complicate an existing cardiovascular condition. For this reason millions take statin drugs and risk the potential side effects to their liver. Alternatives to statins have come along way and now Natural Alternatives are as good or better that the leading statin drugs. Guggulipids, Pantethine, phytosterols, and many fibers in the right combination have proven to be as effective as dangerous statin drugs. Clinical Studies have proven that the right combination of Guggulipids, Pantethine, phytosterols, and many fibers can normalize elevated cholesterol levels in as little as 90 days. Ratios of HDL and LDL can be improved by making simple changes to your diet. Ideally, cholesterol levels within reason are not as important as proper HDL to LDL ratios. Elevated cholesterol can be reduced significantly, up to 20 points or more, in about 90 days. Low fat diets and cholesterol have very little to do with each other. The body makes up to 80 percent of all the cholesterol in your body while the rest comes from dietary intake. Since cholesterol in the diet makes up such a small amount of the total cholesterol in the body, low cholesterol diets are often ineffective in controlling the elevation. Elevated cholesterol is a liver problem and must be approached by detoxifying the liver and nourishing it with key nutrients such as Guggulipids, Pantethine, phytosterols, fiber. Lecithin is another agent that is very helpful for liver function and as such can help to regulate cholesterol in the bloodstream The formula we have developed here at The Institute of Nutritional Science not only helps to lower cholesterol safely without the dangers of statins, but we can also improve the HDL and LDL ratios at the same time.
Six McDonalds-munching Americans eat 100% vegan live foods for a month. Medical results are fantastic. Doctors and experts are interviewed including Gabriel Cousens, MD and David Wolfe. Raw for 30-Days
Raw for 30-Days will document the journey of five Americans suffering from Adult Onset Type II Diabetes, who undergo a radical 30-day diet and lifestyle change in the hope of reversing or reducing their insulin dependence. The film will show the eating habits that led to the development of this disease and will posit an alternative approach to living and eating, one in which foods can heal and hold the potential to reverse Diabetes. We will recruit subjects who have been subsisting on a standard American junk food diet and who are now insulin dependent and Diabetic. Those selected will journey to the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona to undergo a 30-day health regimen consisting of 100% raw organic living foods that are purported to heal Diabetes. We will select a diverse group of subjects, representative of the different segments of the population most affected by this epidemic. Examples include a Native American from a Reservation, an African American from an urban Northeast city, a Mexican American living in the western US and a Caucasian person from the mid-west or a Southern city such as Chattanooga, TN
Neal Barnard MD discusses the science behind food additions. Willpower is not to blame: chocolate, cheese, meat, and sugar release opiate-like substances. Dr. Barnard also discusses how industry, aided by government, exploits these natural cravings, pushing us to eat more and more unhealthy foods. A plant-based (vegan) diet is the solution to avoid many of these problems. Neal Barnard is the founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
Chocolate, Cheese, Meat, and Sugar -- Physically Addictive Foods
Americans are known around the world for our voracious appetite for sugary treats. Our collective sweet tooth compels us to ingest mountains of candy and cookies, truckloads of ice cream and sodas, and many other confections.
But we also swallow enormous amounts of “hidden” sugars that are added to a bewildering array of processed foods, from cereals to ketchup and from canned fruits to some vitamins.
Consumption of sweeteners in the U.S. has risen from 113 pounds per person per year in 1966 to around 142 pounds per person per year in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Compare that to an average of 8.3 pounds of broccoli and 25 pounds of dark lettuces for 2003, according to U.S. News and World Report. Americans now consume an average of 61 pounds a year of high fructose corn syrup (especially in sodas), and we scarf down 20 teaspoons of added sugar a day (not including lactose or fructose naturally found in milk and fruit).
The USDA recommends adults consume no more than eight or nine teaspoons of sugar for a typical 2,000-calorie diet. Staying within this limit can be much easier said than done, however, considering that some candy bars, 12-ounce sodas and one-cup servings of ice cream contain around nine teaspoons of sugar.
What’s wrong with sugar? In addition to its tooth-rotting properties, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition and public health at New York University, explains, “Sugar’s empty calories (meaning lack of nutrients) contribute to the big problem with the American diet: too many calories.” Sugar has also been widely linked to increasing risk for type II diabetes. Plus, the sweet stuff has a considerable environmental footprint (see EarthTalk, this issue).
Sticky Business
Closely related to sugar is the now ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup, which is prepared by treating cornstarch with acids or enzymes. The sticky, tooth-attacking syrup is often made with genetically engineered corn, and, like sugar, it contains no nutritional value beyond its caloric content. During the past few decades, corn syrup (which tastes sweeter than sugar) has become the sweetener of choice for many food processors, who load it into everything from baked goods to sauces, jellies, drinks and even frozen fruit. In fact, corn syrup recently overtook sugar itself as America’s most popular sweetener.
Corn syrup is a blend of fructose and glucose, while refined sugar is made of the larger molecule sucrose. Recent research suggests that fructose may be handled differently in the body than other sugars. “It appears to behave more like fat with respect to the hormones involved in body weight regulation,” Peter Havel, associate professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, told the Washington Post. “Fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin secretion. It doesn’t increase leptin production (a hormone that helps regulate appetite and fat storage) or suppress production of ghrelin (which helps regulate food intake). That suggests that consuming a lot of fructose, like consuming too much fat, could contribute to weight gain.”
Partly because they are also sweeter than sugar pound for pound, a number of artificial sweeteners have been on the U.S. market for years, and are ubiquitous in such foods as diet soda and “sugar-free” candy. Perhaps echoing the sentiment of many environmentalists, Nestle cautions, “I don’t like artificial sweeteners because I do not like artificial anything when it comes to food.” Observers have also questioned whether the widespread adoption of artificial sweeteners has made much of a dent in the ever-growing American waistline.
Less popular than it once was, saccharin (often known as Sweet ‘N Low) has long raised red flags among food safety scientists after it was definitively linked to bladder cancer in male rats. The industry denies those studies have any application to human beings, but the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) points out, “In some studies, saccharin has caused bladder cancer in mice and in female rats and other cancers in both rats and mice.”
The group also suggests staying clear of the German-made sweetener acesulfame-k, which it says has been linked to cancer and other ailments in lab animals. Safety tests of the chemical, conducted in the 1970s, were of “mediocre quality,” reports CSPI.
The sugar substitute aspartame, known as NutraSweet, Equal and Spoonful, accounts for 75 percent of adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. In recent years, aspartame has been at the center of an Internet firestorm, in which various advocacy websites have linked it to cancer, ADD, autism, Parkinson’s disease and other problems. CSPI cautions, “Most such claims are not supported by studies.” However, the group does point out that a 2005 study found that “even low doses of aspartame increased the incidence of lymphomas and leukemia in female rats and also might have caused occasional brain tumors.”
Other Options
A relatively new sweetener on the block is British-made Splenda, which was first approved in the U.S. in 1998. Splenda is the trade name of the patented sweetener sucralose, which is marketed solely by Johnson and Johnson subsidiary McNeil Nutritionals.
When it was first introduced, sucralose sparked considerable consumer excitement, because it is extremely low in calories. Sucralose is now appearing in everything from baked goods to sweetener packets, and makes up about 50 percent of the U.S. sugar substitute market, according to the Associated Press.
However, Splenda’s success hasn’t been entirely sweet. Lawsuits have been filed in several states against McNeil Nutritionals on behalf of the sugar industry, which claims the company misrepresents Splenda with its slogan “made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar.” In fact, Splenda is made in a patented, highly industrial process that adds chlorine atoms to sucrose. McNeil countersued, claiming the sugar industry is waging a “malicious smear campaign”—including promotion of the slick Truth About Splenda website—by trying to convince consumers that Splenda is “unhealthy or unsafe” and that they “would be better off consuming refined sugar.”
Jim Murphy, a Sugar Association lawyer, told the Associated Press, “I think one of the concerns is that there really have been no long-term studies that resolve whether or not consumption of Splenda is healthy.” Echoing this concern, natural products retailer Whole Foods moved to ban sucralose from its stores on the basis that there aren’t enough studies to prove that it is safe and the fact that it requires heavy industrial processing.
The good news is a number of more natural alternatives are becoming widely available to help people enjoy their food without risking their health (see “How Sweet It Isn’t,” Eating Right, November/December 2003). Better choices include maple syrup, honey and date sugar, which at least provide some nutrients in the form of vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and minerals, even though their sugar content is very similar to regular sucrose.
Agave nectar absorbs more slowly into the bloodstream than traditional sugar, making it less likely to result in an energy “crash” after consumption. Natural birch sugar, called xylitol, packs fewer calories than cane or beet-based sugar. Some nutrients are also found in Sucanat, a brand name for organically grown, dehydrated cane juice.
BRIAN C. HOWARD is managing editor of E.
CONTACTS
Center for Science in the Public Interest 1875 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20009 Phone: (202) 332-9110
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