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>>> Enzymes -
http://juicing-for-health.com/enzymes.html
Enzymes are so vital to our health.
Our digestive enzymes, when kept at an
optimum level with a consistent juicing diet,
will keep many diseases at bay.
The Enzymes in Our Digestive System
First of all, let us understand how our digestive system works. I will try to explain this in as layman a language as possible.
Our human body produces about 22 different digestive enzymes. These enzymes are essential for healthy digestion, yet it is a nutritional compound that is most neglected. Unfortunately, most people lack these enzymes in their bodies due to the poor choices of food we take, and the way food is prepared that deplete the enzymes.
Enzymes can be replenished by eating the right foods. They are found in abundance in fresh plant foods: grains, fruits and vegetables. When God created fruits and vegetables, He had packaged the necessary enzymes to digest the particular nutrients in that fruit. For example, in a juicy sweet fruit, there is sucrase, the enzyme required to digest sucrose. In fibrous foods there is, packaged together, cellulase to digest them. In grains there is maltase, to digest malt, and so on.
So you see, when we cook or process these whole foods, the enzymes are destroyed, causing the foods we consume to be enzyme-deficient and cannot be properly digested. When we consume enzyme-deficient foods, our deprived body will have to generate its own enzymes required to digest the food.
The more we depend on our internally-produced enzymes, the more stress we put on our body systems and organs. When our body enzymes are busy digesting our heavy (meaty) meal that has no enzyme, their other functions of rebuilding and replenishing our worn-out and damaged cells are neglected.
Enzymes Destroyed
For example, when we eat cooked meat (which of course must be cooked), the enzymes would have been destroyed, making the meat to be of no nutrient value. And meat, by the way, takes up to an average of about 8-12 hours to be digested (and even more for some people).
When you consume meat, your digestive system works extra hard to digest the meat. When the system lacks the required enzymes to do its work, it engages enzymes from other parts of the body to help out, depleting the body’s natural enzymes. That’s why, after a heavy meaty meal, you will feel lazy and sleepy. This is because more enzymes than necessary are consumed and are working overtime to digest the meat.
Don’t get too smart and eat plenty of fruits after you consume a huge meal, expecting the fruits to do its job in providing enzymes for digestion. It doesn’t work that way.
Fruits take up to an hour to digest. And, because meat takes much longer to digest, the fruit you consumed after a meal will just sit on top of the undigested food in your intestines. This causes the fruit sugar to ferment in your stomach and it starts to putrefy, producing gas, and causing a host of problems to your health.
Tip: When you do eat a huge meal, drink with it a glass of fresh pineapple juice afterwards (not canned). Pineapple is rich in bromelain which aids digestion by breaking down protein.
What Are Enzymes?
Our bodies need enzymes to break down the nutrients in our body, so that the nutrients can pass through the intestinal walls and be absorbed into our blood. Without enzymes, the vitamins and minerals that we consume really are just passing through our system being of no use.
Enzymes are specialized protein molecules facilitating most of our body’s metabolic processes, like supplying energy, digesting foods, purifying the blood, ridding the body of waste products, etc.
Enzymes assist in keeping our body in top form, help lower the cholesterol level, clean the colon, break down fats, strengthen the immune system, improve the mental capacity, detoxify the body of unwanted wastes, eliminate carbon dioxide from our lungs, building muscles, and many other functions.
Such are the many tasks of enzymes. So, imagine how we abuse our bodies when we feed our bodies with enzyme-deficient food, day after day. It’s no wonder that our body systems start to slow down and deteriorate. And diseases start to set in …
Types Of Enzymes
Enzymes are basically classified into three main groups – metabolic enzymes, food enzymes, and digestive enzymes.
Metabolic enzymes exist throughout our entire body system—in our organs, bones, blood and cells. Their job is to grow new cells and maintain every tissue in our body. When these enzymes are healthy, robust and present in adequate numbers, they will do their job well.
Digestive enzymes are secreted by our various body organs – by our salivary glands, stomach, pancreas and small intestine. As its name suggests, the function of the digestive enzymes is to help in the digestion of our food.
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Inadequate digestive enzymes results in
left-over wastes which toxify our body system.
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The following are the more commonly known enzymes:
¦lipase — breaking down of fats
¦protease — breaking down of proteins
¦cellulase — breaking down of fiber
¦amylase — breaking down of starch
¦lactase — breaking down of dairy products
¦sucrase — breaking down of sugar
¦maltase — breaking down of grains
These enzymes are typically named using ~ase with the name of the chemical being transformed, e.g. lipase for lipids (fats), or lactase for lactose, etc.
Inadequate numbers of any of these digestive enzymes results in incomplete digestion of food in their respective category. This causes left-over wastes which toxify the body system.
Food enzymes exist naturally in the raw food that we consume. Its function is very much like the digestive enzymes, that is to assist in the digestion of our food. When we consume foods that are rich in enzymes, the foods will be “self-digested”, causing less or no stress to our body.
Here’s Something Exciting:
What Food Enzymes Do To Our Blood
These are images of a person’s blood being analyzed under the microscope. A sample blood is taken of a person whose body is lacking in nutrients and enzymes. The blood cells are clustered together and moving very slowly.
This person was then given to drink a glass of carrot, green apple and wheatgrass juice, extracted using the Green Power. Half an hour later, a sample blood was taken again to be observed under the microscope. Lo and behold, the blood cells separated and was suddenly moving about very actively.
The blood cells become active when it received sufficient enzymes. One of the functions of our red blood cells is to carry oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body. When there is sufficient enzymes present in the blood, the blood cells can do their job properly. You see now, how drinking fresh juices regularly can prevent blood clots which can lead to many health problems including thrombosis and heart attacks.
When the blood is toxic and being stagnant or slow moving (caused by eating too much meat and other harmful foods, and not enough enzymes from fresh fruits and juices), it thickens and causes a sluggish system and create untold ailments: from mild ailments like headache/migraine, fatigue, inflammation (e.g. arthritis, gout) to more serious problems like heart diseases and even cancer.
What Happens When Enzymes Are Depleted?
After a prolonged period of depleting the enzymes in our body, and not replenishing them quick enough, two things happen:
¦Our body works overtime to produce more enzymes, causing extra stress which affects our immune system. This lowers our ability to protect from and fight diseases.
¦Our digestive system eventually slows down for lack of enzymes, causing food to be undigested. This undigested food stays in our system and begins to ferment and pollute our blood (a condition called “toxemia“).
Significant short and long-term health problems start to take place. Diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, migraine, PMS, bowel disorder, food allergies, acne, psoriasis, bloating, flatulence, fatigue, anxiety, depression and a long list of other diseases are results of toxemia.
On the other hand, when our enzymes intake is constantly kept at an optimum level, we can expect very minimal wear and tear to our body.
How To Maintain An Optimum Enzymes Level
Once you understood the enzyme-robbers, there are three things you can do
.
¦Firstly, change your eating habits and lifestyle so that you can reduce the stress on your digestive system. We will discuss the possible ways of doing this, on other pages on this site, about where we could have gone wrong and how we can rectify the situation.
¦Secondly, constantly replenish your body with enzymes. There are two ways you can do this. One, is by taking enzymes supplement. I prefer the natural approach by taking fresh fruits and vegetables which are very rich in enzymes. And because we have many years to catch up for having eaten poorly, we can replenish our bodies quickest by drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices. This is what this website is about.
¦Thirdly and finally, understand that we always have a choice concerning what we put into our mouth. Read up on the free information on this site to find out about the how’s and what’s and when’s, etc. Choose today to want to live healthy.
Once you know what foods are harmful, you would look at the food and not desire it. And once you know what foods are healing, strive to eat more of it.
All the best in your journey … it will be worth it.
<<<
>>> Chlorophyll -
http://juicing-for-health.com/joy-of-juicing/vegetable-juicing.html
When you hear the word “chlorophyll“, you may vaguely remember this word from Biology in school. To some of you, the word may mean almost nothing, other than the green thing in plants.
Yes, it is “the green thing” in plants, the phytochemical that makes plants green. But, it is also a very important proteinous compound that acts as our internal healer, cleanser, antiseptic, cell stimulator, rejuvenator and red blood cell builder, just as it is the “lifeblood” of the plant.
Chlorophyll is a green photosynthetic pigment found in abundance in leaves of plants (vegetables). It absorbs sunlight and changes it into chemical energy for the plant.
Researches have reported that the chlorophyll molecule is remarkably similar to hemoglobin in human blood, the substance that carries oxygen in our body. Except that our hemoglobin has an iron element in the center of the structure and chlorophyll has a magnesium element (see picture below). Experiments have shown that our body is able to convert chlorophyll into hemoglobin, thereby enriching the blood.
The Health Benefits of Chlorophyll
The power of sunshine in chlorophyll is wonderfully cleansing in the body. The greener the leaves, the more concentrated the amount of chlorophyll.
The reported health benefits from chlorophyll consumption are just too many. Taken consistently in sufficient amounts, here are some of the powerful remedial effects of this amazing substance:
Click for Green Juice Recipes
¦Increases blood count
¦Detoxifies and cleansing
¦Alleviates blood sugar problems
¦Reduces or eliminates body odors
¦Relieves gastric ulcers
¦Greatly relieves respiratory troubles like asthma and sinuses
¦Kills bacteria in wounds and speeds up healing
¦Reduces inflammation pain
¦Improves bowel functions
¦Improves milk production in lactating mothers
¦Soothes painful hemorrhoids
¦Melt away toxic fats
Go to this page for some quick tips on how to make tasty and healthy green juices.
Other Important Ingredients in Green Juices
Besides chlorophyll, green vegetables also contain other equally amazing substances that work together in synergy, to heal. Only nature has a way of packaging groups of nutrients together that complement each other and when consumed, worked synergistically to repair, to cleanse and to heal.
This is why it is so important that you ensure that your healing foods intake outweigh the amount of harmful foods. Only when this happens, your body can start to heal and you will begin to feel rejuvenated.
But because there is only so much vegetables that we can eat in a day, we need to juice them so that we consume ample amount for our body’s use, for repair and healing.
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Only nature has a way of packaging all the ‘right’
nutrients together that complement each other,
and when consumed, worked synergistically
to repair, to cleanse, and to heal … powerfully.
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When we juice, we are able to extract almost 100% of the nutrients embedded in the fibers. Properly extracted, the green juices are loaded with live enzymes, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium. There are also pro-vitamin A, vitamin B-complex and vitamins C, E and K.
For example, you will be surprised that when you juice 100g of fresh spinach and 50g of fresh parsley (total of 150g), the green juice would yield much more iron than 300g of beef and more calcium than 300g of milk!
Just imagine the amount of goodness you are consuming from these green juices! Moreover, the nutrients from these juices can be quickly assimilated and absorbed by your cells, not taxing on your digestive system.
On its journey down the digestive tract, it does a quick spring cleaning of your system—it cleanses your blood of fungus, bacteria, yeast, parasites, and other toxic matters in the blood.
Don’t we all need such cleansing? And what better way to do the job than with proper fruit/vegetable juicing?
What Vegetables to Juice
To get you conditioned with drinking green juices, let’s start with simple vegetables. Remember, your stomach must feel good after drinking these juices. If you feel queasy or nauseous after drinking any juice, then you must have taken a little too much for your body’s tolerance level at that particular point in time. In which case, try to take less of it the next time, and continue doing so, gradually increasing the amount each time, until it no longer make its presence felt. In time, when your body gets more cleansed of toxins, your tolerance level will increase.
Click for Green Juice Recipes
For beginners, I usually suggest you start with a carrot and/or 2 green apples as the base. Add celery, cucumber, or lettuce, which are the easiest vegetables to drink. Ultimately, you want to aim to include more greens into your juices for its excellent healing properties. Include a slice of lemon when you juice greens to enhance the nutrients absorption rate and improve the juice taste.
See this page for some great tips on how to make great tasting green juices. Get creative, the combinations are endless!
Getting All the Nutrients You Need
While chlorophyll is found in all green vegetables, some of the richest sources of chlorophyll are from alfalfa, barley grass, chlorella, spirulina and wheatgrass. I cannot emphasize enough that we must have a variety in all that we juice, whether it be fruits or vegetables. This is to ensure that our bodies get all the various nutrients that we need.
But with all the fruits and vegetables combined, the one element that is sorely lacking is vitamin B12. A strict vegetarian diet may cause vitamin B12 deficiency because this vitamin is largely found in animal products.
A deficiency in vitamin B12 may result in pernicious anemia or neuritis (inflammation or degeneration of a nerve). To overcome this, you can either take a vitamin B12 supplement, or include chlorella (a kind of algae that has high content of vitamin B12) into your juicing. I do the latter as chlorella has much more health benefits besides providing my vitamin B12 supply.
I like to crush the chlorella tablets into powder form and add them into my green juices. This way, all the health nutrients get absorbed by my body almost immediately. And it also allows for the vitamins synergy to take place at the same time.
<<<
>>> Anti-Oxidants -
http://juicing-for-health.com/definition-of-antioxidant.html
Do you know that there is a “dark side” to oxygen that can be detrimental to your health? Learn how natural anti-oxidants can neutralize the potential damages.
What is Oxidation?
Our entire being, every cell in our body, needs oxygen to help release energy from the food we eat. Whether it be from proteins, carbohydrates or fats. In the process, it creates a byproduct called “oxidation”.
While oxygen is essential to life itself, oxidation is the “dark side” of oxygen that most people don’t know about. Oxygen is chemically reactive and under normal biochemical reactions, can become unstable. It oxidizes neighboring molecules, causing them to be unstable.
This is the same process that causes iron to rust or a cut apple to turn brown, just by its mere exposure to oxygen. In the same manner, oxygen can cause “rusting” in our body which is the root cause of many degenerative diseases.
If oxidation can rust on such a strong material like iron, just imagine what harm it does to our vulnerable body. But thank God, there is provision to counteract this corrosion.
What is Free Radical?
Oxidation is a molecule that has one electron missing, causing it to be unstable. It is also called a free radical. A free radical is corrosive. Like a bad guy, it goes around vandalizing and causing cellular damages in the body resulting in toxic effects.
These free radicals if left roaming rampant in the body without control, will result in cell deterioration and destruction, and ultimately resulting in all kinds of diseases. Some of the diseases which are the direct result of this enemy are, strokes, arterial inflammation, arthritis, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s, and many more. The cancer-causing free radicals are called carcinogenic.
What is Anti-Oxidant?
Colorful vegetables are rich in anti-oxidants.
Anti-oxidants are molecules that has several electrons that can be easily detached without being unstable. It donates an electron to the free radical that has one electron missing, thus neutralizing it and rendering it harmless.
The body that God gives us can produce its own anti-oxidants. However, if the body is being constantly attacked by free radicals faster than the natural production of anti-oxidants, destruction sets in.
To aid our body in keeping its “anti-oxidant tank” full, so that we can easily counteract oxidation, we can supply our body with foods that are rich in anti-oxidants.
What Creates Free Radicals?
In our modern living, especially in the city, we will be constantly attacked by free radicals every where we go and in every thing we do.
¦Air pollution
Air pollution like cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust, barbecue smoke, chemical fumes, toxic garbage fumes, all contain ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other hydrocarbon molecules that generate a huge amount of free radicals. These exposures are associated with asthma, bronchitis, heart attacks and even cancer.
¦Pollution of food and water
Thousands of different chemicals contaminate our water supplies. In addition, there are heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and aluminum that are dangerous to our brain, causing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Our food is not doing any better with all kinds of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, food preservatives, chemicals and untold other dangerous substances that all pose potential health risks.
¦Environmental
Turn every corner and you will be faced with all kinds of free radical producing sources. Dust, dirt, parasites, bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungicides and even the stale air in our homes fill our lungs with this destructive matter.
¦Excessive sunlight
Moderate sunlight is essential and supplies the needed vitamin D to our body. Excessive exposure to both UVA and UVB can increase free radical production in the skin, causing oxidation of the skin cells that leads to skin cancer. The sunscreen you use mostly protect you from UVB, allowing you to stay longer in the sun and not getting sunburned. But it does very little to protect you from UVA that causes more damage.
¦Poultry products
Antibiotic residues and numerous veterinary compounds are commonly found in commercial poultry products. They are found in chicken, beef, pork, turkey, farm-raised fish and dairy products.
¦Medications and drugs
What chemotherapy and radiation therapy does to the body is to increase oxidation in the body to kill the cancerous cells. What it also does is killing the normal cells along with it. Any drugs that enter our body, whether orally or injected are considered a foreign substance. Our body works extra hard to metabolize and eliminate it, putting an increased stress that causes oxidation. This is why, there is usually a “side effect” from any drug that you take.
¦Excessive stress
Emotional stress can increase the level of free radicals in our body. Death of a loved one, a divorce, financial problems, work and personal pressures can all add to the complication of oxidation in our body. Your body may be able to tolerate a short stressful period, but a prolonged and excessively stressed period can cause serious damages to your health.
¦Excessive exercise
Moderate exercise is necessary and even beneficial to your body. But people who exercise excessively runs the risk of increasing the oxidation level in their body. Over-exercising without balancing with anti-oxidants increases the free radicals significantly and is harmful and damaging.
What Foods Are Rich in Anti-Oxidants?
There are thousands of anti-oxidants that we can obtain in the form of phytonutrients, which are found in nature’s whole foods, in fruits and vegetables.
As long as you add a few servings of foods rich in anti-oxidants in your daily diet, your body would know how to make full use of each of them. The anti-oxidants will move around in your bloodstream, like the SWAT team, looking for free radicals and neutralizing them, rendering them harmless.
The rule of thumb is to eat an assortment of “rainbow” colored fresh fruits and vegetables. The deeper the color, the richer the anti-oxidant content. Some examples:
¦Red
Red apples, cherries, grapefruit, red grapes, raspberries, red plums, strawberries, tomatoes, watermelon.
¦Dark green
Asparagus, green capsicums, broccoli, cucumbers, green grapes, green beans, kale, leeks, mustard greens, peas, spinach.
¦Light green to yellow
Alfalfa sprouts, green apples, avocados, bananas, yellow capsicums, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kiwi fruit, lemons, lettuce, limes, onions, pineapple, zucchini.
¦Orange
Apricots, orange capsicums, cantaloupe, carrots, mangoes, oranges, papaya, pumpkin, sweet potatoes.
¦Purple
Beets, blackberries, blueberries, red cabbage, cherries, currants, eggplants, purple grapes, red onions, purple plums.
If you have been following my site, you will see that it is impossible to avoid oxidation and free radicals while we are still in this world. We cannot be fearing what is out there as it will deprive us of living a normal life.
The best thing for us to do is to constantly keep our anti-oxidants at an optimum level to keep our body’s immune system and defenses in tip-top condition.
Studies after studies have shown that individuals with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables has a significantly decreased risk of developing many of these degenerative diseases.
Not only can these fruits and vegetables prevent diseases, it may actually even repair damages that have already invaded the body by reversing cell damages. This site holds your hand as you walk this journey to a healthier new you.
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>>> Phytonutrients -
http://juicing-for-health.com/phytochemical-phytonutrient.html
Phytochemical refers to the compounds
found in plants that are powerfully
beneficial in protecting human from diseases.
What is Phytochemical/Phytonutrient?
“Phyto” comes from the Greek word “phuton” meaning “plants” hence the chemical/nutrient found in plants are called phytochemical or phytonutrient. The terms are used interchangeably but “phytonutrient” is increasingly becoming more popular for the positive association with “nutrient” rather than “chemical”.
Phytochemicals refer to the natural chemical compounds found in plants that make up its color. were originally classified as vitamins. Flavonoids were known as vitamin P, indoles and glucosinolates were vitamin U, etc. But it was later found that phytochemicals are not vitamins at all.
Phytochemical is not a necessity to our body function, nor do they cause any diseases resulting from deficiency. Thus they cannot be classified as vitamins.
But phytochemical has been proven over and over again, to be beneficial for human health, not only in preventing diseases, but also in reversing some disorders.
Unlike most vitamins and enzymes, phytochemicals are not destroyed by preparation techniques such as chopping, extracting, cooking or grating.
In fact, sometimes preparation may even make the phytonutrients more readily available to us. For example, the sulfur compounds from garlic or onions are released when chopped and exposed to air. Or lycopene in tomatoes become more concentrated when processed and made into tomato sauce.
It is estimated that there are tens of thousands of phytochemicals. However, only about 1,000 of these were identified and only about a hundred were actually analyzed and tested.
An astounding fact that proves an amazing Creator is that in each plant, it is believed there are hundreds of different phytochemicals. A simple tomato not only has lycopene, but has several hundreds of other phytochemicals which cannot even yet be identified by mere man.
Recent researches have found that all plants contain compounds that protect them from diseases. When we eat these plants, the very same protective compounds, called phytochemicals, are made available to our bodies. In the same way, it protects our bloodstream, cells, tissues, membranes, organs and immune functions from diseases.
How Does Phytonutrient Work?
Studies after studies have shown that individuals with high intake of the four plant-based food groups—fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes—have a much lower risk of degenerative diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, etc.
How does phytonutrient help prevent these diseases? To understand this, we need to backtrack a little and understand how diseases are formed. Read about anti-oxidant here.
An example: When free radicals run rampant in our body, through the air we breathe, the food we eat, or merely from stress, they cause deterioration and destruction of our healthy cells. This process ultimately result in degenerative diseases in the weakest parts of our body that succumb to the attack.
When we eat food that has phytonutrient, it will quickly activate a group of enzymes that go around cleaning up the free radicals before they cause any harm to the body. In very much the same way, it works like the anti-oxidant. In fact, many phytonutrients are anti-oxidant.
How Much Phytonutrients Do We Need?
As I mentioned above, phytonutrient is not a necessity for our body, but yet we must eat much of it for all its health benefits. You get a variety of phytonutrient from a variety of fruits and vegetables for their different protections of diseases and cancers.
How much phytonutrients you need depends very much on your environment and your lifestyle. Read what creates free radicals. We cannot prevent the formation of free radicals but we can reduce them and minimize their destruction potential to our body.
If you think that you are in the high risk group, plan to increase your fruits and vegetables intake to counter the damaging effects.
Generally, take at least five servings (five cups) of high quality fruits and vegetables daily. If you are in the high risk group, take between eight to twelve servings.
This may sound like a lot but is easily achievable if you juice and make fruits and vegetables part of your daily diet, cutting down on meat, to a vegetables and meat ratio of 5:1. If you have to take meat, opt for fish instead.
Decide to make this new dietary a lifelong commitment, especially if you are eating to reverse a certain condition. You will definitely see an improvement.
The Phytochemical Family
The phytochemical family is so big that a whole book can be written about it. There are over 100 identified phytochemicals, but I have picked out some of the most common and proven phytonutrients to be listed here.
These are available in abundance in fruits and vegetables. You don’t need to remember them all. Just remember that when you eat as much of these whole, unadulterated natural food as possible, it will go a long way in protecting your health in more ways that you will ever know. There is nothing to lose, only much to gain!
Phytonutrient
Health Benefits
Food Sources
Allicin and allylic sulfides
Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, lower the risk of stomach and colon cancer.
Chives, garlic, leeks, onions, shallots.
Anthocyanidins and proanthocyanidins
Anti-oxidants, keep elasticity of capillary walls, anti-inflammatory, stop cancer cell formation.
Dark grapes, berries, cherries, ginger.
Bioflavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, rutin)
Potent anti-oxidants, anti-carcinogenic; bind toxic materials and escort them out of the body.
Apricot, citrus fruits, berries, broccoli, cherries, grapes, papaya, cantaloupe, plums, tomatoes.
Carotenoids (alpha and beta carotene, lycopene, lutein)
Important anti-aging anti-oxidants, enhance immune function, balance blood ssugars, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer (especiially prostate cancer).
Carrots, sweet potatoes, all berries, guava, grapefruit, watercress, pumpkins, tomatoes, watermelon, any dark green leafy vegetables, spirulina and chlorella.
Chlorophyll
Helps build healthy blood, protect against cancer, and a powerful wound healer.
All green vegetables, with high concentrations in grasses like wheat and barley grass; spirulina and chlorella
Coumarins
Have anti-tumor properties, enhance immune functions and prevent the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines.
Beets, carrots, celery, citrus fruits, fennel, green peppers, pineapple, strawberries, tomatoes.
Ellagic acids
Neutralize carcinogens before they can damage DNA, protect from cancer-causing nitrosamines and aflatoxin.
Blackberries, cranberries, grapes, guava, raspberries and strawberries.
Glucosinolates
An important anti-cancer and liver-friendly phytonurient; reduce risks of cancer of breast, colorectal, lung and stomach by helping the liver detoxify. Also regulate white blood cells and cytokines.
Cabbage family vegetables, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards and kale.
Indoles and isothiocyanates
Reduce incidence of cancer, reverse cancer by killing cancer cells and inhibit cancer development.
Plentiful in the cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower. Also in horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, strawberries and raspberries.
Lutein
Powerful anti-oxidant that protects against macular degeneration.
Green leafy vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, broccoli, kale. In fruits – avocado, kiwi fruit, mango, papaya, peaches, oranges, pear, plum.
Phytoestrogens
Bind excess estrogens to a protein made in the blood, thus reducing estrogens to estrogen sensitive tissues. This reduces risks of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Also provide protection for menopausal symptoms, fibroids and other hormone-related diseases.
Alfalfa and sprouts, celery, citrus fruits, fennel, legumes, wheat, licorice,
Phytosterols
Blocks the uptake of cholesterol and excrete it from the body, thus helping to prevent heart diseases. Also halts the development of tumors in breast, colon and prostate glands.
Most plants, especially green and yellow vegetables, seeds, beans and lentils.
Polyphenols
Very potent anti-oxidants with anti-cancer properties, more powerful than vitamin C and E.
Especially found in green tea. Also in bilberries, Siberian ginseng and bee pollen.
Polysaccharides
Protect against radiation. Absorb toxic metals and xenobiotics and discarding them from the body.
Spirulina and chlorella.
Sulforaphane
Its anti-bacterial compounds reduce risks of stomach ulcers and stomach cancers.
From the cruciferous family again, i.e. broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale.
<<<
>>> Essential Fatty Acids – Part 3
http://juicing-for-health.com/efas-good-sources.html
Good Sources of Essential Fatty Acids
There are many good sources of EFAs, but learn what is
suitable for you and safe consumption of the healing fats.
Part 1 – Understanding Harmful Fats
Part 2 – Understanding Essential and Healing Fats
Part 3 – Good Sources of Essential Fatty Acids
Black Currant Seed Oil
Obviously, black currant seed oil is derived from … black currant seeds. They contain unusually high omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Its gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) content is almost twice as much as that of evening primrose oil (EPO).
Black currant seed oil is an excellent source of an omega-3 precursor known as stearidonic acid. It also contains other fatty acids in smaller amounts.
Because of its balanced ratio of both families of essential fatty acids, this oil is almost a wonder oil, effective for treating anti-inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, gout, boosts immune system, helps regulate female menstruation cycles, alleviate symptoms of menopause, help skin disorders and many more conditions.
Borage Seed Oil
Borage seed oil derives from a “blue-star” flower called borago officinalis. It is cultivated for its very high content of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).
Besides its omega-6 fatty acids content, it is also rich in other fatty acids like palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, eicosenoic acid and others.
Like evening primrose oil (EPO), borage seed oil is commonly recommended for alleviating female hormonal problems like irregular menstruation and PMS symptoms.
It could also possibly help with heart and joint function, inflammation, growth of nails and hair, auto-immune disorder, arthritis and eczema. Children who are hyperactive and have allergies may also benefit from taking omega-6 fatty acids.
Fish Oil Extracts
Fish oils derive from the tissues of oily fishes like fresh salmon, herring, tuna and mackerel. These fishes don’t produce the oils themselves but accumulate them from consuming microalgae that produce these oils.
Fish oil extracts are often sold in capsules because they are unpalatable in liquid form. Note, however, capsules are not suitable for young children’s consumption.
Salmon Oil: This oil is high in omega-3 EFAs and also eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). EPA and DHA are important oils for brain development. Infants born to women who have high levels of this type of oil have been found to be in advantage in terms of early development and advanced attention span.
This type of oil can help thin the blood, prevent blood clotting, regulate cholesterol production and strengthen cell walls, heightening protection against viral and bacterial invasion. They are also beneficial in relieving inflammatory problems like rheumatoid arthritis, osteo-arthritis and gout.
Cod-Liver Oil: This oil is a fine source of omega-3 EFAs, vitamins A and D. However, large amounts can be toxic so take no more than prescribed on the labels. The taste of cod-liver oil may be unpalatable, but never use defatted cod-liver oil. Defatted also mean that its nutritive values have been removed.
Evening Primrose Oil (EPO)
Evening primrose is the most reliable source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and usually comes in 500 mg capsules. EPO is widely recommended for women with irregular menstruation cycles, PMS problems or to prevent menopause hot flashes and mood swings.
But EPO is more than that. It has also been found to help with the production of energy and is a structural component of the brain, bone marrow, muscles and cell membranes. EPO can also benefit people with multiple sclerosis, hyperactivity and obesity.
Flaxseed Oil
This is my favorite oil, also called linseed oil. Flaxseed oil is the very best source of omega-3 fatty acids, with smaller amounts of omega-6 fatty acids. Flaxseed oil must be extracted in a dark room with low oxygen and bottled in black bottles to keep the light out.
This oil must always be kept in the refrigerator. It starts to spoil when exposed to oxygen and light so cannot be kept longer than six weeks once the bottle is open. It can be kept up to six months in the freezer but it will remain in its liquid form, never frozen. Flaxseed oil has a nice nutty taste and must not taste bitter. If it is bitter, it has turned rancid.
1-3 tablespoon of flaxseed oil may be taken daily to help maintain and lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, reduce blood clots, eliminate diabetes complications, stop inflammation, relieve asthma, normalize hormones, improve brain function and memory and many more benefits.
Most importantly, flaxseed oil has been proven to be the only oil that cancer patients can take without any problems. It can kill cancerous cells and reduce the growth of tumors.
Consumption
These oils mentioned above are for direct oral consumption. They are very sensitive and must never be exposed to heat. Heat and oxygen will cause the oils to turn rancid and become toxic. Never use them for cooking!
Safe oils to use for cooking are olive oil for light cooking and grapeseed oil for high heat cooking. These oils are not mentioned above as they do not fall under the essential fatty acids category.
The EFAs contain anti-oxidants that are natural preservatives and can be kept for long periods of time, even longer in freezer (but mind the expiration date). Once the bottle is open and exposed to oxygen, it will start to deteriorate and have to be used up within weeks.
The above sources of EFAs are expensive for a reason¾the extraction methods can be rather tedious. Some brands may offer them cheaply on the market. Do not fall for them as they could, in fact, be just soy oil. Shop smart, go for the known brands to ensure quality.
<<<
>>> Essential Fatty Acids – Part 2
http://juicing-for-health.com/efas-healing-fats.html
Understanding Essential And Healing Fats
Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are so healing, yet we constantly
deplete the supply and neglect to replenish them in our body,
causing a host of unnecessary health problems.
Part 1 – Understanding Harmful Fats
Part 2 – Understanding Essential and Healing Fats
Part 3 – Good Sources of Essential Fatty Acids
What are Essential Fatty Acids (a.k.a. Healing Fats)?
Our body can manufacture most of the fats it needs, including cholesterol, saturated fats and unsaturated fats. However, there are two families of fatty acids that our body cannot manufacture and have to be obtained in our diet. They are:
Omega-3
Omega-3 fatty acids are a family of unsaturated fatty acid, named such because of their molecular structure which signifies that the first double-bond exists as the third carbon-carbon bond from the terminal methyl end of the carbon chain. The explanation of these molecular structure can get technical so we will not go into it.
The most common forms of omega-3 are alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Perhaps you have seen these acronyms being used to advertise and market milk powder.
Omega-3 is usually derived from fish oils, such as from cod liver, fresh salmon, herring, tuna, mackerel and similar fishes. Omega-3 always stay liquid, whether they are in cold or room temperature. It is said that these fats protect the fish even in very low temperatures.
However, you may not get much of the omega-3 from fish because when fish are prepared and served on the table, most of the omega-3 are probably removed or destroyed. EFAs are very sensitive to heat, and gets destroyed when cooked.
Another excellent source of omega-3 that I want to emphasize on is from flaxseed oil, which is also suitable for vegetarians, but more on this in Part 3 of this series.
Omega-6
Omega-6 fatty acids are another family of the unsaturated fatty acid, which have in common a carbon-carbon double bond in the sixth position from the end of the fatty acid. Notice the molecular structure compared to that of omega-3.
When both omega-3 and 6 fatty acids are present in the body, they are able to manufacture more omega-3, 6 and even 9, therefore, omega-9 is non-essential from the dietary.
The most common forms of omega-6 are linoleic acid which is the shortest-chained fatty acid, and arachidonic acid which is a precursor for making prostaglandins. However, an unbalanced intake of a high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in which certain harmful prostaglandins are produced in excess may cause development of many illnesses.
Unfortunately, our modern day diet and people’s ignorance have boost this ratio up the wrong way to as high as 25 parts omega-6 to 1 part omega 3 (25:1).
How Can EFAs Work More Effectively?
Taking EFAs in a balanced ratio by itself can help improve health in so many ways. However, the presence of certain co-factors can help give EFA metabolism the extra boost and work synergistically in a very powerful way. These important co-factors are vitamin B6, A, C and E; and minerals copper, magnesium, selenium and zinc.
Therefore, it is not a coincident that foods that are naturally rich in EFAs are also rich in all these co-factor nutrients. Some examples of these foods are beans, nuts, seeds and seafood. Together with vitamins A and C from fresh vegetables (juice is better), this nutrition group would be complete and can build strong immunity.
In order for your EFAs to work more effectively, we need also to eliminate the nutrient-robbers from our body. Some of the nutrient-robbers are:
¦Milk and dairy products: robs zinc and calcium
¦Trans-fat and saturated fats: interferes with enzymes activities
¦Sugar: increases copper deficiency and leaches magnesium which are excreted in the urine
¦Sodium: constantly depletes magnesium and potassium from the body
¦Phosphates: is an essential mineral but large amounts from processed foods cause the digestive tract to be sluggish, thus preventing absorption of vitamins and minerals
¦Pesticides: interferes with the body’s ability to use vitamin B6
¦Free radicals: deteriorates the body’s immune and defense system
Vital Functions of Essential Fatty Acids
As I did a survey with people around me, I realize that none really know that we need EFAs for so many vital functions in our body. None knows how best to consume EFAs, let alone actually consuming them. And all those I asked, were pretty ignorant about the nutrient-robbers I mentioned above. Is it any wonder that degenerative diseases are so rampant?
EFAs are essential to keep our heart, kidney and digestive system healthy. Our body use EFAs to make prostaglandins that regulate blood clotting, hormone production and reduce inflammation. It can lower triglycerides that are fat in the blood and help increase HDL (good cholesterol).
EFAs also keep blood platelets from being sticky and clumping up, and causing blood clots. The functions of EFAs are a long list, but here is only a brief list:
¦EFAs are vital for the membranes around every cell in our body, including our skin, hair and nails, the body’s outer membrane. It can help eliminate skin problems like scalp or dandruff problems, eczema, psoriasis, severe acne and brittle nails.
¦Together with our body’s natural cholesterol and protein, EFAs work to repair and construct new membranes thus reducing the effects of degeneration.
¦Increase the body’s metabolism in burning fats. Continuous consumption of EFAs also help to lose body fats.
¦Effective for brain development and brain health.
¦Helps lower blood pressure by eradicating plaques from the walls of arteries, preventing atherosclerosis.
¦Reduces aggravation of inflammation from conditions such as arthritis, lupus, gout, and other inflammatory problems.
¦Preventing abnormal blood clotting and help wounds to heal.
¦EFAs assist to regulate the body’s cholesterol level and get rid of excess cholesterol from the blood.
¦Help the body manufacture hemoglobin that is so essential to provide oxygen to every cell in the body. The EFAs are also able to hold oxygen that will help build the body’s defense system, increase metabolic efficiency and converts energy.
¦Shorten recovery time for tired muscles from exercise.
¦Regulates and maintain proper body temperature.
¦EFAs help make prostaglandins that are important to regulate immune functioning which in turn can alleviate allergy symptoms.
The list goes on and on. You see now that EFAs are so vital to the proper functioning of our body?
EFAs Deficiency Symptoms
Many degenerative diseases had been traced to EFAs deficiencies. A lack of the proper EFAs in the dietary can cause many unwanted ailments and symptoms. Researches have found that by daily administering EFAs in the purest form, it had been helpful in treating:
¦Acne
¦Arthritis
¦Asthma
¦Behavioral and personality changes
¦Bipolar disorder
¦Depression
¦Gall bladder dysfunction
¦Heart diseases
¦Impaired motor coordination
¦Infertility
¦Kidney problems
¦Learning disability
¦Lupus
¦Miscarriage
¦Muscle tremors
¦Painful menstruation
¦Poor physical growth
¦Poor vision
¦Schizophrenia
¦Skin disorders – eczema, psoriasis, etc.
¦Slow healing of wounds
¦Thirst due to excessive perspiration
We don’t consciously supply our body with EFAs, yet we quickly deplete the supplies by taking the wrong food. Knowing the functions and the importance of EFAs, shouldn’t we now start taking them?
Next, we need to learn the best sources of EFAs and how to choose the safe EFAs.
<<<
>>> Essential Fatty Acids –
Part 1 -
http://juicing-for-health.com/efas-harmful-fats.html
Understanding Harmful Fats
Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are so essential,
but we also need to recognize the HARMFUL FATS
and eliminate them from our diet.
Part 1 – Understanding Harmful Fats
Part 2 – Understanding Essential and Healing Fats
Part 3 – Good Sources of Essential Fatty Acids
Some people cringe when they hear the word “fatty” or “fats”. They think of all the weight they will gain with fatty foods. But this need not be, if we understand which fats to take and which fats to avoid. In fact, when we take the good fats, it actually can help facilitate weight loss.
There are essential fats, and non-essential fats. Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are called such because they are just essential. Yet many of us omit these from our dietary and take the non-essential kinds of fats instead. If we can only differentiate the type of fats we take—cutting out the killer fats, and take more of the healing fats, then we could reduce/reverse many unnecessary health problems.
What Are The Killer Fats?
Before I tell you what the EFAs are, let me share with you which type of fats are killer fats—fats that you need to avoid and cut out from your dietary.
Saturated Fats: Also called “hard fats” found mostly in red meat, animal fats, milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, and palm kernel. They are semi-solid to solid at room temperature. When consumed, these fats tend to clump together and form deposits, along with protein and cholesterol. They get lodged in our cells, blood cells and organs, leading to many health problems, including obesity, heart diseases, stroke, cancers of breast and colon.
Transfat: Transfat is man-made oil. By processing and refining vegetable oils, the structure of polyunsaturated oil is altered into hard fats that our body cannot use. This process is called hydrogenation. Margarine is an example that has gone through this process. When put under a microscope, the molecules of margarine is very similar to that of plastic! Do we want to eat this?
Most processed foods in the market are loaded with trans-fat: French fries, onion rings, fast (fried) foods, commercially baked cakes, cookies, crackers, muffins, pies, croissants, cereals, peanut butter, chocolate, potato chips and even ice creams.
Hydrogenated Cooking Oil
Most vegetable cooking oils fall under this category of unhealthy fats. Further, when it is used for frying, the high temperature oxidizes the oil, turning it rancid and toxic for the body. Many commercial restaurants and fast-food establishments repeatedly reuse the same cooking oil for deep-frying until it becomes dark and rancid. When ingested, this oil generates harmful free radicals that are carcinogenic (cause cancer) in the body.
Vegetable oils are originally nutritionally rich, but through the process of refining and processing to increase shelf life, the EFAs had been destroyed. The following are what we get when we purchase vegetable cooking oils off the supermarket shelves:
¦Mass-produced oils are processed using very high temperature and pressure causing the loss of nutritional substances such as lecithin, vitamins A and E, minerals, chlorophyll. Together with these, the natural aroma is removed, rendering it bland and odorless.
¦Petrochemical solvents are used to extract the oil from the seeds, thus residues of these chemicals may be included in the oils.
¦Synthetic (man-made) anti-oxidants are added to preserve the shelf-life of the oils. When ingested, these cause degeneration of our cells, leading to degenerative diseases.
¦The liquid oils are contained in transparent plastic bottles. The light that goes through these bottles continues to deteriorate whatever nutrition that is left of the oils.
Some examples of hydrogenated oils are from palm oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil, cotton seed oil and corn oil. Do not be deceived by the name which may sound “natural and healthy”.
Safer cooking oil to use are virgin olive oil for light cooking, and grapeseed oil for high heat cooking. These are usually contained in dark glass bottles to prevent oxidation. Oil easily get oxidized from exposure to air and light.
The Dangers of Killer Fats
Our body cannot use these trans-fatty acids, so they simply just sit around fatty tissues and around the body’s organs, blocking out the essential fatty acids. When this happens, it inhibits enzymes to work and interferes with prostaglandin production, causing havoc with blood pressure and normal platelet action.
Other problems that are caused by these harmful fats:
Cardiovascular diseases: The free radicals from ingestion of trans-fat irritate the walls of the blood vessels. When this happens, calcium is sent to soothe the irritation. However, when calcium arrives at the “scene” the presence of oxidants combine with the calcium, turn them into plaques that clog up the arteries. Clogging of arteries causes hypertension. When blood flow to the heart is stopped, a heart attack occurs. When blood flow to the brain is stopped, a stroke occurs.
Hormonal imbalance: A reckless diet of high carbohydrate, sugar, processed foods and trans-fat causes havoc to the production of hormones, rendering an imbalanced in hormones. Along with hormonal imbalance are many other symptoms like menstruation disorders in women, prostate problems in men and excessive hair loss.
Immune system: Trans-fat (heat-damaged fat) and poor eating habits block enzymes from doing its job of regulating EFA metabolism properly. This leads to the immune system breakdown and development of auto-immune diseases similar to lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Mental sluggishness: As our brain is largely composed of fat, the wrong kinds of fats ingested can induce the lipid rich parts of the brain to oxidize and break down. These harmful oils, whether hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, promote inflammation and deterioration of our brain cells.
Obesity: The saturated fat that we consume are stuffed into storage cells called adipose cells. These storage cells can well up to 1,000 times its own size so it is used to store up a big amount of fats. Saturated fats, which are flat, stack up easily in these cells, causing obesity, but not without a host of many other health problems.
Trans-fat And Cholesterol
The twentieth century diet is a good recipe for high cholesterol. Trans-fat is found in almost every processed food that you can purchase from the supermarket. We know that this type of fat can lower your “good” cholesterol (HDL) and increase your “bad” cholesterol (LDL).
Even though LDL (low density lipoproteins) are necessary for our body function, a high level of it in the presence of free radicals cause oxidation (inflammation) of the blood that contribute to the arterial plaque build-up and hardening of the arteries, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and aneurysms.
This video below explains the dangers of trans-fat very well.
How Do We Avoid These Killer Fats?
Governments are now aware of the dangers of trans-fat, and some governments have actually banned trans-fat in restaurant foods. However, it would not be totally eliminated from modern day diet. Most cooking oils are already damaged by processing; and in the name of economy, cheap oils will always still be used for commercial cooking.
The FDA rules that if a single serving contains more than 0.5 grams or more trans-fat then it must be listed on the Supplement Facts panel of the food packaging. So packaging may list trans-fat as 0 gram. But zero does not always mean zero as they most likely still contain 0.5 gram of trans-fat. And these are often also marketed as “reduced fat” or “zero fat” or “low fat”. Even 0.5 gram per serving quickly adds up.
Where possible, avoid these killer fats by:
¦Avoiding fast foods and any commercially prepared food cooked in oil
¦Avoiding processed foods
¦Reading the labels¾look for “hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated oil” even though the label may say “trans-fat 0g”
Increase on your fruits and vegetables intake. Drink fresh juices regularly in order to supply your body with natural anti-oxidants that can help reduce the harmful oxidation caused by these dangerous fats.
Also, learn in the following pages about the essential fatty acids (EFAs) which can help you to reverse most conditions already damaged by the non-essential and harmful fatty acids.
<<<
>>> Carbohydrate -
http://juicing-for-health.com/carbohydrate.html
What are the differences between
complex and refined carbohydrates?
Why is it important to understand these?
Dietary Carbohydrates
A carbohydrate is an organic compound that consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (CH2O). Carbohydrate is the scientific name for sugar.
Carbohydrate foods.
Human bodies are designed to run on carbohydrates, which are the ideal source of our energy. This is because they can easily be converted into glucose that can be used by the body for energy. However, they are not necessary building blocks as the body can also obtain its energy from protein and fats.
A balanced diet consisting of carbohydrate, protein, essential fatty acids and fiber is recommended. Problems arise when the balance is tipped and we eat more of the WRONG kind of carbohydrates.
Most plant foods that are sweet are harmless. Fruits generally contain fructose which is a simple sugar that doesn’t need digesting. However, as our cells only run on glucose, fructose needs to first be converted into glucose, which makes it a slow releasing sugar (low glycemic index).
Very few fruits contain glucose—the fast-releasing sugar—like grapes, bananas, and dried fruits like dried apricots and apples.
Whole grains, vegetables or legumes contain complex carbohydrates whereas fruits contain simpler carbohydrates. When consumed, all these get digested together with all the nutrients and vitamins that the body needs. And it gradually releases the needed energy.
Refined Carbohydrates
With technology, man has processed whole foods and stripped them of their fiber, phytochemical, nutrients and trace element contents, rendering it ‘empty’ and devoid of life. It is this refined carbohydrates that we should be wary of because of the damages it can cause to our body.
The process of refining and cooking in white bread, white rice and refined cereals break down complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates called malt (or maltose). When you eat these foods, your blood sugar level increases rapidly, providing you with a surge of energy. However, a drop in this surge follows soon after as your body struggles to balance your blood sugar level, causing a vicious cycle.
These rise and falls in the insulin level reduces the body’s ability to respond to insulin (a hormone that helps regulate the level of blood sugar), causing the development of a condition called insulin resistance.
When we eat refined carbohydrates from foods that are high in sugar and refined flour, the body uses the sugar thus:
¦30% for immediate energy requirements
¦30% stored in our liver or muscles to be used during sleep
¦40% stored as long-term body fat
So you see, unlike complex carbohydrates that get digested, refined carbohydrates are not fully utilized. And as we keep eating refined sugar everyday, the stored fats just never get used, but instead kept piling on, while causing an imbalance in blood sugar levels.
When this happens, we most often will experience symptoms like fatigue, nervousness, irritability, poor concentration, sweating, headaches, other digestive problems and accelerated aging. In more serious cases, your poor choices of food can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer of breast, colon and prostate, and many more diseases.
How to Know if You Have Sugar Imbalance
Take a quick check to see if your body is having difficulty keeping your blood sugar level even. These are some signals:
¦You have difficulty waking up in the morning even after seven hours of sleep
¦You need a cup of coffee or tea to get you going
¦You often feel sleepy during the day, especially after meals
¦You fall asleep or need to nap during the day
¦You don’t have the energy to exercise and gets breathless
¦You crave food all the time and would binge
¦You get night sweats or frequent headaches
So What Do We Do Now?
There is no quick and easy fix. There is a simple answer but it requires a lot of will power in the beginning. It is mostly about your choice, you can choose to live healthy by choosing the right foods.
By now, you would have an idea about foods that you should consume more—whole foods from the four main food groups—fruits, vegetables, whole grain, legumes.
Foods to avoid: Refined and processed ‘foods’ (if you can call them foods), anything that contain refined sugars like artificial sweeteners, table sugar, brown sugar, processed honey, syrup. Products of refined flour like white bread, cakes, doughnuts, cookies, pastas, etc. You get the idea.
Another advice is to graze your food, eating little and often, rather than gorge like a glutton. This reduces the amount of sugar released into your blood at any one time.
<<<
>>> Amino Acids -
(Protein Building Blocks)
http://juicing-for-health.com/amino-acids-protein.html
Nutrition facts you should know for
the continuing health of your body.
Eat from the right sources of protein
to avoid taxing your kidneys and liver.
What Is Protein?
When we talk about protein … meat, eggs, cheese, muscles all come to mind. There are many myths that surround protein … let’s look at some of them.
Protein is made out of nitrogen-containing molecules called amino acids. They are the basic building material for all living cells.
Every cell in our body needs protein to stay alive. Protein is necessary for tissue repair and for building new tissues.
Your muscles, hair, nails, skin and eyes are made from proteins. So are the cells that make up all the organs in your body system – nerves, lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, brain and your sex glands.
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. When you consume protein, it is broken down into various amino acids and transported throughout your body through your blood. Your cells then pick and choose the amino acids that they need to construct new body tissues, blood cells, enzymes, hormones, etc.
There are 25 different amino acids that piece together to make various proteins for different use, like letters of the alphabet, each serving its own purpose. Of these, 8 are essential amino acids that are like the vowels. Just as you cannot form words without the vowels, you cannot build complete proteins without these essential amino acids.
The Amino Acid Family
For a protein food source to be complete, it must contain the eight essential amino acids. From these the rest of the amino acids can be made. Non-essential doesn’t mean that you don’t need them. It just means that your body can manufacture them. Whereas essential means that your body cannot manufacture them and you have to obtain it from your diet.
Non-Essential
¦cystine
¦homocysteine
¦tyrosine
¦glycine
¦carnitine
¦glutathione
¦serine
¦aspartic acid
¦gamma-aminobutyric acid
¦glutamine
¦glutamic acid
¦arginine
¦alanine
¦proline
¦hydroxyproline
Essential
¦trytophan
¦valine
¦leucine
¦isoleucine
¦methionine
¦phenylalanine
¦threonine
¦lysine
Semi-Essential
¦taurine
¦histidine
Recognizing Protein Deficiency
If you feel tired most of the time, there is also a possibility that you are lacking usable protein in your diet. Some other symptoms:
¦Having puffy eyes in the morning
¦Swollen ankles from water retention (edema)
¦Brittle and weak nails – nails are made of protein, not calcium as most people seem to think
¦Hair thinning
¦Premature aging (looking haggard)
¦Cuts/wounds that take a long time to heal
¦Lethargy
¦Slow growth (in children)
Protein Quality
The common myth is that you should obtain 15% of your total calories from protein, but what kind of protein? The best foods to eat for protein are not necessarily those that are highest in protein, but the quality of protein you take is very important.
For example, a breast-fed baby receive only about 1% of his total calories from his mother’s milk but can double his birth weight in a matter of months. This is because the protein from a mother’s milk is of high quality and can be easily assimilated.
Animal products, though high in protein, are also very high in saturated fats. Moreover, modern farming methods leave much to be desired in the quality of the meat that is full of antibiotics, growth hormones, diseases and pesticides.
How Much Protein?
Some weight loss programs recommend very high protein diets that contain between 100 and 200 grams of proteins a day. This is way too high and can be dangerous for health.
Protein produces breakdown products that give extra work to your kidneys and liver. If your kidneys are healthy and your protein intake is moderate, no problem. But if you have even a mild kidney problem and ate high protein, especially from meat, it adds stress to the kidneys and worsen their condition.
Meat protein is acidic and causes the blood to be acidic, a perfect environment for bacteria to breed and diseases to spark. Marked acid load to the kidneys also increases the risk for kidney stones formation. When the blood is acidic, calcium (an alkalizing agent) is required to neutralize the pH in the blood. This causes calcium imbalance and increases the risk for bone loss.
Different “experts” give different numbers to the amount of protein required. Basically, how much protein you need depends on your body weight, your body fat and your physical activity.
The US RDA suggests 0.8gram/kg/day. For example, if you weigh about 70kg (154lbs) you will need about 56g protein a day (70*0.8). If physically active, undergoing some stress, sickness, pregnant, nursing mothers, and children – add up to 30 grams a day to this basic requirement.
Good Sources Of Protein
Although animal protein is complete protein, it is not encouraged for consumption as it is causes the blood to be acidic and thickens. In any case, some animal proteins are destroyed when cooked, rendering it less bio-available for the body and may become “waste” that stay in the body, causing health problems.
Plant protein is incomplete protein but is preferred over animal protein. Being incomplete means that you need to eat a variety in order to obtain all the amino acids, or to combine with dairy products for them to be useful for your body. However, some of the most complete plant protein sources are from quinoa, spirulina and chlorella (see below).
To give you an idea how much protein there are in some common foods, below is a list of quality sources of protein. Each measurement gives about 20 grams protein, so combine the foods to achieve your daily required amount:
Grains / Legumes
Quinoa
Brown rice
Soybeans
Wheat germ
Chickpeas
100 g / 1 cup dry weight
400 g / 3 cups
60 g / 1 cup
130 g / 2 cups
110 g / 0.75 cup
Fish / Meat
Cod fish
Scallops
Sardines
Beef, organic
Chicken, organic
35 g / 1 small piece
133 g / 1 serving
100 g / 1 serving
80 g / 2 slices
70 g / 1 small piece – breast
Nuts / Seeds
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Peanuts
Almonds
188 g / 1 cup
70 g / 0.5 cup
90 g / 0.5 cup
110 g / 1 cup
Eggs / Dairy (Organic)
Eggs
Natural plain yogurt
Cheddar cheese
Cottage cheese
Whole, low-fat milk
170 g / 2 medium
440 g / 3 small containers
84 g / 3 oz
120 g / 1 small container
600 ml / 2.5 cups
Vegetables
Green beans
Broccoli
Spinach
Potatoes
Avocadoes
200 g / 2 cups
600 g / 1 large bag
390 g / 1 large bag
950 g / 4 large
2 large
Best Protein Food
Believe it or not, when you drink juices, a lot of your fruits and vegetables do contain some protein. Think of protein as building blocks, like wood and bricks that you need when building a house, versus cleansing. When you’re doing body cleanse (juice fast/feast), the body is doing tearing down work (catabolism). Building materials are not needed when you clean your house. Instead you need PLENTY of fresh juices and WATER. Some suggestions of best protein food …
Quinoa
Quinoa (pronounced kee-nwa) is called the “mother grain” because of its near-perfection in natural food quality. It is usually known as a grain, but technically it is a seed that is rich in essential fats, vitamins and minerals. Don’t let the tiny seeds deceive you, its protein quality is unusually complete and far better than that of meat. It is also an excellent source of calcium, iron, vitamins, B and E.
Cook quinoa much like how you would cook rice: bringing two cups of water to a boil with one cup of quinoa, covering at a low simmer and cooking for 14–18 minutes or until the germ separates from the seed. The cooked germ looks like a tiny curl and should have a slight bite to it (like al dente pasta).
Spirulina and Chlorella
Spirulina and Chlorella are single-celled algae that are exceptionally complete plant protein foods. They contain all the essential amino acids and are highly digestible, making them ideal as superior quality protein supplements.
Not only are they high in protein, they are considered whole foods that contain vitamin B12 that is scarce from any other plant food. They are also rich in iron, a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, trace elements, essential fatty acids, phytonutrients and anti-oxidants.
Spirulina and chlorella are food, so there is no worry about overdosage. To see any result at all, at least 10 grams a day is recommended to be taken either in tablet form, powder or liquid. For fighting disease, double or triple the dosage. You know you’re getting enough when your stools are green!
Avocado
Avocado is another food that contains complete protein with all the essential amino acids. The nutritional benefits far outweigh the concern of its high calories. In fact, you will find that most people who eat avocados regularly are not fat.
Other superior nutrition you obtain from avocados are vitamin B3 (niacin or folic acid), calcium, iron, potassium.
<<<
Holistic nutrition -
http://juicing-for-health.com/basic-nutrition/holistic-nutrients.html
>>> Should include:
¦Amino acids (protein)
¦Complex carbohydrates
¦Essential fatty acids (EFAs)
¦Vitamins
¦Minerals and trace minerals
¦Phytonutrients
¦Anti-oxidants
¦Bio-flavonoids
¦Chlorophyll
¦Enzymes
¦Fiber
¦Healthy colon flora (friendly bacteria)
<<<
>>> Health Benefits of Celery
http://juicing-for-health.com/basic-nutrition/healing-vegetables/health-benefits-of-celery.html
The health benefits of celery are more than
just lowering blood pressure. They also
contain at least eight families of anti-cancer
compounds to combat cancer.
Description
Celery is from the same family with parsley and fennel, the Umbelliferae family. It can grow to the height of up to 16 inches. The white celery is grown shaded from direct sunlight, thus has less chlorophyll, compared to its greener counterparts.
The ribs of celery are crunchy and are often used to make soup or salad. It has a salty taste, so celery juice is a good mix with the sweeter fruit juices. Depending on variety, some may taste very salty.
Nutritional Benefits
Celery leaves has high content of vitamin A, whilst the stems are an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, B6 and C with rich supplies of potassium, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium and plenty essential amino acids.
Nutrients in the fiber are released during juicing, aiding bowel movements. The natural organic sodium (salt) in celery is very safe for consumption, in fact is essential for the body. Even individuals who are salt-sensitive can safely take the sodium in celery, unlike table salt (iodised sodium) which is harmful for those with high blood pressure.
While many foods lose nutrients during cooking, most of the compounds in celery hold up well during cooking.
Health Benefits
Celery has always been associated with lowering of blood pressure. When combined with other juices, it provides different formula that help other conditions.
Recent studies have shown that celery might also be effective in combating cancer. Read on.
Some of the health benefits of celery juice:
Acidity: The important minerals in this magical juice effectively balance the body’s blood pH, neutralizing acidity.
Athletes: Celery juice acts as the perfect post-workout tonic as it replaces lost electrolytes and rehydrates the body with its rich minerals.
Cancer: Celery is known to contain at least eight families of anti-cancer compounds. Among them are the acetylenics that have been shown to stop the growth of tumor cells. Phenolic acids which block the action of prostaglandins that encourage the growth of tumor cells. And coumarins which help prevent free radicals from damaging cells.
Cholesterol: This humble pale juice has been shown to effectively and significantly lower total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Colon and stomach cancer: The phytochemical coumarins prevent the formation and development of the colon and stomach cancers.
Constipation: The natural laxative effect of celery helps to relieve constipation. It also helps relax nerves that have been overworked by man-made laxatives.
Cooling: During dry and hot weather, drink a glass of celery juice two or three times a day, between meals. It wonderfully helps to normalize body temperature.
Diuretic: The potassium and sodium in celery juice helps to regulate body fluid and stimulate urine production, making it an important help to rid the body of excess fluid.
Inflammation: The polyacetylene in celery is an amazing relief for all inflammation like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, asthma and bronchitis.
Kidney function: Celery promotes healthy and normal kidney function by aiding elimination of toxins from the body. While eliminating toxins, it also prevents formation of kidney stones.
Lower blood pressure: Drinking celery juice every day for a week significantly helps lower blood pressure. A compound called phtalides help relax the muscle around arteries, dilating the vessels and allowing blood to flow normally. To be effective, drink the juice for one week, stop for three weeks, and start over.
Nervous system: The organic alkaline minerals in celery juice has a calming effect on the nervous system, making it a wonderful drink for insomniacs.
Weight loss: Drink celery juice frequently throughout the day. It helps curb your cravings for sweets and rich food.
Urinary stones, breaking of: The diuretic effect of celery juice also aids the breaking and elimination of urinary and gall bladder stones.
You can expect many more healing benefits from celery juice as you consume its natural sodium. Read how our body lacks and have been deprived of, natural salt.
Consumption Tips
Choose green celery where possible for its chlorophyll. Ensure that the ribs are still firm, not limp. To store in the fridge, keep celery in a sealed container or wrap in a plastic bag.
Do not leave it at room temperature for too long as it tends to wilt quickly. If your celery has wilted, sprinkle it with a little water and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours. It will regain its crispness.
Caution
Celery is such a succulent plant that it produces its own “pesticide” to protect itself from fungi. This protective layer is called psoralens which although protects the celery, may not go down so well with some people.
If you begin having skin problems after eating celery, it might mean that you have some sensitivity to psoralens.
Some people with low blood pressure had complained that celery makes their blood pressure even lower. I personally didn’t encounter that problem so I believe it is also your overall make-up. But, you might want to avoid celery if you have low blood pressure. Listen to your body when you take celery.
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>>> 5 chemicals to yank from your home
Consider pulling these offenders from use on your house, garden, pets and kids. Here are simpler solutions to use instead.
By Marilyn Lewis
Apr 22, 2013
http://realestate.msn.com/blogs/blog--5-chemicals-to-yank-from-your-home
Concerned about home safety? Who isn't. The Natural Resources Defense Council suggests making your home palatable for all inhabitants by tossing out "the five stupidest chemicals that shouldn't be in your house."
You may be surprised to learn that companies aren't required to give safety data to the Environmental Protection Agency on new chemicals in their products. Most chemicals in use today have never been tested for safety, The New York Times says.
"Unlike pharmaceuticals or pesticides, industrial chemicals do not have to be tested before they are put on the market," according to The Times.
1. Antibacterials. Ditch antibacterial soaps, toothpaste, cleaning products, yoga mats, cutting boards, lotions, wet wipes and other antibacterial products. Why? Two words: triclosan and triclocarban. They're found in most antibacterial products.
"Triclosan is found in over 80% of Americans' bodies and exposure has been linked to allergies, impaired reproduction, hormone disruption, and weakened muscles," the NRDC says. The Food and Drug Administration says that, although studies show triclosan alters hormone regulation in animals, it hasn't been proved to hurt humans. At any rate, antibacterial products are no more effective than plai-old soap and water.
•Is your house trying to kill you?
2. Flame retardants. Flame-retardant chemicals in carpets, furniture, clothing and other household goods are linked to "real and measurable health impacts, including lower IQs and decreased attention spans for children exposed in the womb, male infertility, male birth defects, and early puberty in girls," the NRDC says. Some flame retardants were banned from childrens' pajamas in the 1970s. But they're back now. The EPA is investigating. Meanwhile, keep levels down at your house with regular dusting, damp mopping and vacuuming (use a HEPA filter.)
3. Flea-killing pet collars. Collars saturated with pesticides leave a residue that can be picked up by kids when they hang out with pets. Find safe flea-control products in Green Paws' product guide.
•Home, chemical-free home
4. "Weed and feed" lawn chemicals. Avoid products that use 2,4-D, Dicamba and Mecoprop, which can be tracked into the house on shoes and by pets. Small children who play or crawl on the floor are most at risk. Instead, spot-spray weeds in your lawn or pull them by hand.
5. Head-lice shampoos. The shampoos commonly used for killing head lice contain lindane, an insecticide that's a source of worry for a host of health reasons. Here's a PDF brochure on treating head lice at home without lindane.
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>>> Is your yard making you sick?
http://realestate.msn.com/is-your-yard-making-you-sick#11
Is your yard making you sick?
By Karen Aho of MSN Real Estate
The bad news: Allergies strike year-round. In fact, the most common affliction – ragweed – ramps up in autumn. Outside mold and mosquito-borne illnesses persist to first frost, as well, while the risk from chemical toxins lingers indefinitely.
This is not intended as a scare tactic. Rather, consider it a helpful reminder that while spring, pollen and the "lusty month of May" get all the attention, your yard could be making you feel lousy now.
The good news: Late summer and into the fall is a great time to get to work nixing the problem, for both immediate relief and better air come spring.
Many people mistakenly attribute allergies to their pets. Please don't get rid of the dog or cat just yet. At least see first whether your environment could be the cause of that foggy head and fatigue.
Shrubs lining house
Take a look at houses in your neighborhood. How many have large shrubs lining the front or pressed up tight beneath the windows? Many, right?
For good reason. Shrubbery brings proportion and beauty. Under windows, it can heighten security, deterring peepers and burglars.
The problem is that shrubs grow. Then they grow some more.
The side of a home needs light and air to prevent the growth of mold. So, too, does the ground outside. A layer of needles or leaves trapped under a dense thicket of shrubs won't get the light and air it needs to decompose. Mold will form to aid the process.
A good rule of thumb, experts say: Leave at least a 2-foot-wide path between the walls and any plants to ensure airflow and let in sunlight.
Consider also whether the shrubs themselves are making you sick. Yews, for instance, are highly allergenic and are often placed under windows.
Evergreen trees on southern and eastern sides
While trees provide welcome shade during summer, they can also block winter light.
"I continually see the flat-out dumb practice of planting tall evergreen trees and shrubs on the south side of a house," writes Thomas Leo Ogren, author of "Allergy-Free Gardening."
Conifers, which don't lose their leaves, can effectively block out winter's meager offering of light from the south and east. The effect goes beyond darkness and higher heating bills, contributing to damp areas inside and the growth of mold.
"Fresh air and light is the enemy of mold," Ogren says.
Instead, plant evergreens on the northern side of the house; trim those on the southern and eastern sides.
Pesticide use
The days of blanketing the ground with broad-spectrum chemical toxins, left to leach into wells and groundwater for years, are gone. But pesticides are far from being removed from shelves and lawn-care company vans, and the full effects of exposure remain unknown.
Studies have linked lawn pesticides to higher cancer risks and neurological disorders, and exposure is known to trigger an immediate allergic response in some people.
To conquer an infestation, ask experts how to create diversity in your landscape that will let nature take care of the problem. Ask companies to use organic compounds.
"Pesticides do not come without a risk, so you have to weigh that risk," says Nancy Alderman, president of Environment and Human Health Inc., a nonprofit composed of doctors and public-health officials. "These are toxins. They are designed to kill living things."
Toxic mulch
It's been nearly a decade since the federal government banned the use of chromated copper arsenate to treat wood. Mulch made of wood chips today should not leach this dangerous chemical into the soil. That pretty red mulch was once a prime source.
However, given the popularity of recycled and salvaged wood products, property owners shouldn't assume their mulch has a clean history. Snoop out the history of any wood that went into creating that mulch.
Arsenic is a carcinogen, and in the garden it is particularly dangerous for pets and children. And remember, pets and children carry what's outside into the house on their hands, feet and paws.
Too much mulch
Those carpets of wood chips are undoubtedly beautiful. They make a lovely contrast to flowers and plants, and make a nice border against the house.
But don't forget their function: to retain moisture. Spread a layer too close to the house or in a shaded area of the yard and mold will form. You may not see it, but you may start to feel lousy.
"Mold is a very common allergy," Ogren says.
The symptoms mirror those of other allergies and can vary from mild to severe. In people with asthma or other breathing difficulties, mold spores can make life miserable.
Keep mulch 3 inches under or away from house siding, and put it in sunny areas.
"If you have a constant moisture, over time it can cause rot," says Michael Smith, owner of Stonebridge Horticultural Services in Michigan. "It'll draw ants, termites; mold can happen."
Right plant, wrong place
Plants are tough. They may survive in less-than-ideal conditions, but they won't thrive.
Ask them to grow in the wrong soil, climate, light or company, and they will inevitably weaken.
"And the bugs always prey on something that's weak. Always," Ogren says.
Nature then takes its course. The bugs secrete a sweet, sticky substance. Airborne mold spores stick to the substance and germinate. "Within days they start expanding wildly," Ogren says. "So you can go from almost no mold on a bush to the whole bush is covered with mold in a week or two."
Since a plant with mold can release billions of spores, those who are allergic are sure to feel the effects.
Instead of going it alone, consult an expert and plant what's right for that exact spot. If the wrong plant or tree is already there, do what the best gardeners do and yank it.
Unmanaged ponds
It's tempting to integrate a pretty pond or rain garden into the landscape. But let plants hang over or rest on the water and you're creating a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Same goes for any spots shallower than an inch.
Fish can manage the bugs, but you'll need filtration and management. In other words, says David Barmon, owner of Fiddlehead LLC, in Portland, Ore., "They cost a lot of money to maintain."
Ponds with stagnant water can also trap dead animals, creating a stink. More pernicious, however, is the threat that comes with mosquito larvae, which can carry West Nile virus. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that fewer than 1% of those infected with West Nile virus will develop symptoms, there is no medication or vaccine for the virus, and it can be fatal. As of July, 31 cases of West Nile had been reported in the United States this year, including three deaths.
Open rain barrels
See the previous slide about ponds. Any standing water – even seemingly small puddles on open tarps, in birdbaths or on plant holders – are breeding grounds for mosquito larvae. It's easy to forget that catch basins tucked on the side of the house to capture rainwater pose the same risk.
Catch basins should be cleaned out and serviced, says Robert Schweitzer, a landscape architect in New York. To combat mosquitoes, some homeowners use goldfish, which eat mosquito larvae, or vegetable oil, which suffocates the larvae. Both can be placed directly in the catch basin. Garden centers also sell other natural products.
Just don't forget to rescue the goldfish when it gets cold.
Compost bins near house
When a middle-aged man in England died in 2008 after inhaling dense clouds of compost dust, a German scientist told reporters: "Even just opening the lid of a bin containing organic waste can cause mold spores to be stirred up, which, if breathed in, can damage the lungs."
An extreme case? Definitely. An overly cautious reaction? Probably not. Repeated exposure to mold spores heightens the risk of developing an allergy, experts say. Those with asthma or compromised immune systems are more susceptible.
When organic material decomposes, it becomes hot and moist, the ideal environment for fungi. Unprotected contact with compost can, most commonly, cause aspergillosis, the fungal infection that killed the British man; farmer's lung, which resembles pneumonia; histoplasmosis, a lung infection; Legionnaire's disease, a respiratory infection; paronychia, a painful tissue infection; or tetanus, a bacterial infection.
Keep compost bins at least partly uncovered, to allow air circulation, and wear a mask and gloves when turning. Don't bring contaminated clothing into the house.
Trapped leaves
Would you leave stinky cheese outside your front door? Probably not. Then why allow layers of wet leaves to collect under your porch?
Low porches in wooded areas can become traps for wind-blown leaves. Without airflow and sunlight, mold will step in to do nature's job of decomposition.
For people who aren't susceptible to mold spores, this may not pose a problem, and mold will break down the material with time. Many people, however, will develop an allergic response that only grows worse with exposure. Symptoms can range from itchy eyes and headache to foggy brain, extreme fatigue and a general feeling of malaise.
To prevent problems, rake leaves from under the deck come fall. It may involve getting on your hands and knees, but it will prevent billions of mold spores from making a home outside your door.
Overwatering
"I once read about one of the highest mold counts in the United States and it was in Arizona," recalls Ogren, who spent a long career studying the source of pollen and mold that are making so many Americans sick.
How did a desert climate win the musty moisture battle? Automatic lawn sprinklers. People were overwatering their lawns. "It became a big factory for mold," he says. Try watering less often, but more deeply.
Those same automatic sprinklers also have a tendency to spray the side of buildings, generating mold there.
"One doctor thought she was coming down with [multiple sclerosis]. It wasn't MS; it was mold poisoning," he says. "God knows how many people are living in situations like that and feel just lousy."
Overcrowding
Trying to identify the allergen-producing flora here? Don't bother. While there may indeed be allergenic plants, the problem here is one that causes health issues well beyond spring. It's overcrowding, which restricts airflow and leads to what horticulturalists call very unhappy plants.
"The trees are crowding each other, light and air movement is limited, and it's a good candidate for mold-spore issues," Ogren says.
It's not uncommon for once-ideal landscapes to get crowded over time. Get out the saw. A good thinning-out is warranted.
"I've never met a dwarf in my life," says Stephen Woods, president of Smith Tree & Landscape Services, in Michigan. "In the plant world, they don't stay dwarfs, they grow and they grow. That's what they're designed to do."
Too many males
What a wonderful realization for suburban planners: If we plant male trees, our streets will be clean. Male trees are less "dirty," in that they don't shed berries. Now the composition of many urban, suburban and even rural towns is overwhelmingly male, a trend that has made its way into residential yard design as well.
But allergy sufferers and asthmatics, whose numbers are growing, are paying the price: It's the male trees that shed the pollen. People and dogs track all this excess pollen into homes, where it continues to contaminate the air well after traditional allergy season. Too often, people blame their pets, who are merely carrying in allergens from outside.
For cleaner air, say experts, plant – or replant – the females.
Ragweed
The most pernicious allergen in this country thrives in fields, along roadways and in areas of the yard not yet dominated by healthy grass. It's hardy, typically requiring a hefty pull of the root to extricate. It affects a whopping three out of four allergy sufferers and as much as 30% of the population. And it's getting ready to release its pollen now, in late summer through to the first frost, in every state except Alaska.
Ragweed, bearer of hay fever – named for the fall "haying" season – brings the usual and often mind-numbing allergy symptoms. But fall can also be the best time to tackle the bugger, by gearing up a healthy lawn for next year. Pull the weeds, fertilize the soil and plant grass instead.
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>>> The Andersons, Inc. (ANDE) engages in the grain, ethanol, plant nutrient, railcar leasing, turf and cob products, and consumer retailing businesses. It operates in six segments: Grain, Ethanol, Rail, Plant Nutrient, Turf & Specialty, and Retail. The Grain segment operates grain elevators; and is involved in the storage, merchandise, and trade of grains, as well as offers marketing, risk management, and corn origination services to its customers. The Ethanol segment operates four ethanol production facilities; and provides facility operations, risk management, and ethanol, corn oil, and distillers dried grains marketing to the ethanol plants. The Rail segment buys, sells, leases, rebuilds, and repairs a fleet of approximately 23,000 railcars and locomotives, as well as containers; offers fleet management services to private railcar owners; engages in metal fabrication business; and invests in short-line railroad. The Plant Nutrient segment manufactures, distributes, and retails agricultural and related plant nutrients, and pelleted lime and gypsum products to agricultural farm supply dealers and public warehouses; and essential crop nutrients, crop protection chemicals, and seed products, as well as provides application and agronomic services to commercial and family farmers. This segment also offers warehousing, packaging, and manufacturing services to manufacturers and other distributors; and various industrial products, including nitrogen reagents for air pollution control systems. The Turf & Specialty segment produces granular fertilizer and control products for the turf and ornamental markets; and fertilizer and control products, and corncob-based animal bedding and cat litter for the consumer markets. The Retail segment operates The Andersons retail stores; The Andersons Market, a specialty food market; a distribution center; and a lawn and garden equipment sales and service shop. The Andersons, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Maumee, Ohio. <<<
>>> FDA names Taylor Farms as source in parasite outbreak
JoNel Aleccia
NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/fda-names-taylor-farms-source-parasite-outbreak-6C10833090
Infections from the rare cyclospora parasite have sickened at least 400 people in 16 states, health officials said.
Taylor Farms of Mexico, a division of a California-based produce supplier whose greens go to national restaurants including Red Lobster and Olive Garden, shipped parasite-tainted salad mix that has sickened hundreds in Nebraska and Iowa, U.S. health officials said Friday.
Food and Drug Administration officials did not say whether the same bagged salad is tied to a cyclospora outbreak or outbreaks that have sickened at least 400 people in 16 U.S. states.
"The FDA traceback investigation found that illness clusters at restaurants were traced to a common supplier, Taylor Farms de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.," the FDA said in a statement.
Those restaurants included Olive Garden and Red Lobster, operated by Darden restaurants, a spokesman for the Orlando, Fla., firm confirmed.
"The FDA's announcement today regarding Iowa and Nebraska is new information," said Rich Jeffers, communications director for Darden. "Nothing we have seen prior to this announcement gave us any reason to be concerned about the products we've received from this supplier."
FDA's investigation did not implicate salad mix packages sold in grocery stores, officials said. As a result of the probe, the agency will step up surveillance of leafy products exported to the U.S. from Mexico.
The Mexican plant is part of Taylor Farms, a Salinas, Calif.-based firm that supplies lettuce and cut vegetables to national restaurant chains and grocery stores. Taylor Farms has 11 processing plants in the U.S. and one in San Miguel, Mexico, according to the company website.
FDA officials, in conjunction with company leaders, will conduct an environmental assessment of the processing facility in Mexico to determine the probable cause of the outbreak. State officials had said the salad mix included romaine and iceberg lettuce, along with carrots and red cabbage. A 2011 inspection found no "notable issues," the FDA said.
The firm's chairman and chief executive, Bruce Taylor, told NBC News in an email that the company has an extensive testing program in place in Mexico for both water sources and raw product.
"All our tests have been negative and we have no indication of the parasite in our product," Taylor said late Friday.
The contaminated salad mix is likely no longer in the food supply chain in Iowa and Nebraska, where at least 223 people have sickened, health officials emphasized. The last date people reportedly became ill in those states was July 2, they added. The typical shelf life for salad mix is about two weeks.
"Iowa and Nebraska health authorities have said this is not an ongoing outbreak and is no longer in the food supply in those states," said Jeffers, of Darden. "The health and safety of our guests is our top priority and it is completely safe to eat in our restaurants."
Taylor Farms has a history of recalling potentially contaminated leafy greens, including a February 2013 recall of baby spinach over fears it was tainted with Enterohemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC, a particularly virulent bacterium that can cause severe infection and illness. The firm recalled bagged hearts of romaine in 2012 for listeria risk and bagged salad in 2011 over worries about salmonella contamination.
Food safety experts have criticized the investigation of the cyclospora outbreak, which began with two cases in Iowa on June 28, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the illnesses were reported from mid-June through early July.
Michael Osterholm, Minnesota’s former state epidemiologist who now heads the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said the search for the source of the rare parasite took too long and wasn’t as thorough or targeted as it should have been.
“I think it’s really a mess,” Osterholm told NBC News. “To me it’s a situation where we need a major review.”
Osterholm said state investigators, including those in Iowa and Nebraska, which first tagged premixed salad as the source of the outbreak this week, didn’t conduct case-control studies that would have quickly isolated the cause.
But Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, the Iowa state epidemiologist, has defended her state’s response, saying that cyclospora is a difficult bug to detect and track because of its long incubation period and special testing requirements.
States that have reported illnesses include Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Florida, Wisconsin, Georgia, Illinois, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio.
Cyclospora is a parasite excreted in human stool. Illnesses have been associated with contaminated water or food. It causes gastrointestinal symptoms including prolonged diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms.
Cyclospora infections are rare in the U.S., but past outbreaks have been associated with contaminated fresh produce including fruit and herbs. Raspberries imported from Guatemala were responsible for a 1996 outbreak that sickened 1,465 people in the U.S. and Canada and also for a 1997 outbreak that made more than 1,000 people ill, CDC records show.
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Monsanto -- >>> The Monsanto Menace
The feds see no evil as a belligerent strongman seeks control of America's food supply
By Chris Parker
Jul 24 2013
http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-07-24/restaurants/the-monsanto-menace/
Maine farmer Jim Gerritsen says that “Monsanto and the biotechs need to respect traditional property rights and need to keep their pollution on their side of the fence.”
Monsanto’s suburban St. Louis headquarters hides behind trees and security checkpoints. Its business hides behind lawyers, lobbying, and patents.
In the early years, the St. Louis biotech giant helped pioneer such leading chemicals as DDT, PCBs, and Agent Orange. Unfortunately, these breakthroughs had a tendency to kill stuff. And the torrent of lawsuits that comes from random killing put a crimp on long-term profitability.
So Monsanto hatched a less lethal, more lucrative plan. The company would attempt to take control of the world's food supply.
It began in the mid-'90s, when Monsanto developed genetically modified (GM) crops such as soybeans, alfalfa, sugar beets, and wheat. These Franken-crops were immune to its leading weed killer, Roundup. That meant that farmers no longer had to till the land to kill weeds, as they'd done for hundreds of years. They could simply blast their entire fields with chemicals, leaving GM crops the only thing standing. Problem solved.
The so-called no-till revolution promised greater yields, better profits for the family farm, and a heightened ability to feed a growing world. But there was one small problem: Agriculture had placed a belligerent strongman in charge of the buffet line.
Monsanto knew that it needed more than genetically modified crops to squeeze out competitors, so it also began buying the biggest seed businesses, spending $12 billion by the time its splurge concluded. The company was cornering agriculture by buying up the best shelf space and distribution channels. All its boasting about global benevolence began to look much more like a naked power grab.
Seed prices soared. Between 1995 and 2011, the cost of soybeans increased 325 percent. The price of corn rose 259 percent. And the cost of genetically modified cotton jumped a stunning 516 percent.
Instead of feeding the world, Monsanto simply drove prices through the roof, taking the biggest share for itself. A study by Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University, found that rapidly increasing seed and pesticide costs were tamping farmers' incomes.
To further corner the field, Monsanto offered steep discounts to independent dealers willing to restrict themselves to mostly selling Monsanto products. And the arrangements brought severe punishment if independents ever sold out to a rival.
Intel had run a similar campaign within the tech industry, only to be drilled by the European Union with a record $1.45 billion fine for anti-competitive practices. Yet U.S. regulators showed little concern for Monsanto's expanding power.
"They're a pesticide company that's bought up seed firms," says Bill Freese, a scientist at the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit public-interest and environmental-advocacy group. "Business-wise, it's a beautiful, really smart strategy. It's just awful for agriculture and the environment."
Today, Monsanto seeds cover 40 percent of America's crop acres—and 27 percent worldwide.
"If you put control over plant and genetic resources into the hands of the private sector . . . and anybody thinks that plant breeding is still going to be used to solve society's real problems and to advance food security, I have a bridge to sell them," says Benbrook.
Seeds of Destruction
It didn't used to be like this. At one time, seed companies were just large-scale farmers who grew various strains for next year's crop. Most of the innovative hybrids and cross-breeding was done the old-fashioned way, at public universities, and the results were shared publicly.
"It was done in a completely open-sourced way," says Benbrook. "Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture exchanged all sorts of seeds with other scientists and researchers all over the world. This free trade and exchange of plant genetic resources was the foundation of progress in plant breeding. And in less than a decade, it was over."
The first crack appeared in 1970, when Congress empowered the USDA to grant exclusive marketing rights to novel strains, with two exceptions: Farmers could replant the seeds if they chose, and patented varieties had to be provided to researchers.
But that wasn't enough. Corporations wanted more control, and they got it with a dramatic, landmark Supreme Court decision in 1980, which allowed the patenting of living organisms. The decision was intended to increase research and innovation. But it had the opposite effect, encouraging market concentration.
Monsanto would soon go on its buying spree, gobbling up every rival seed company in sight. It patented the best seeds for genetic engineering, leaving only the inferior for sale as conventional, non-GM brands. (Monsanto declined an interview request for this story.)
Biotech giants Syngenta and DuPont both sued, accusing Monsanto of monopolistic practices and a "scorched-earth campaign" in its seed-company contracts. But instead of bringing reform, the companies reached settlements that granted them licenses to use, sell, and cross-develop Monsanto products. (Some DuPont suits drag on.)
It wasn't until 2009 that the Justice Department, working in concert with several state attorneys general, began investigating Monsanto for antitrust violations. But three years later, the feds quietly dropped the case. (They also ignored interview requests for this story.)
"I'm told by some of those working on all of this that they had a group of states that were seriously interested," says Peter Carstensen, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. "They had actually found private law firms that would represent the states on fairly low fees—basically quasi-contingency—and then nobody would drop a dime. Some of the staff in the antitrust division wanted to do something, but top management—you say the word 'patent,' and they panic."
Set the Lawyers to Stun
Historically, farmers have been able to save money on seeds by using those produced by last year's crops for the coming year's planting. But such cost-saving methods are largely a thing of the past. Monsanto's thick contracts dropped like shackles on the kitchen tables of every farmer who used the company's seed, allowing Monsanto access to farmers' records and fields and prohibiting them from replanting leftover seed, essentially forcing farmers to buy new seed every year—or face up to $3 million in damages.
Kansas farmer Bryce Stephens had to stop growing organic corn and soybeans for fear of contamination, and has 30-foot buffer crops to protect his organic wheat.
University of Wisconsin Law School professor Peter Carstensen says that Monsanto’s seed police are the Pinkertons. “These are the strikebreakers, the railroad goons. It’s déjà vu all over again.”
Armed with lawyers and private investigators, the company has embarked on a campaign of spying and intimidation to stop any farmer from replanting seeds.
Farmers call them the "seed police," using words such as "gestapo" and "mafia" to describe the company's tactics. Monsanto's agents fan out into small towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops; infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants. Some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors; others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them into signing papers that give Monsanto access to their private records.
Leading the charge, says Carstensen, is the private police force that once terrorized union organizers from another generation. "You know who does their policing?" he chuckles ruefully. "The Pinkertons. These are the strikebreakers, the railroad goons. It's déjà vu all over again."
In one case, Monsanto accused Indiana farmer David Runyon of illegally using its soybean seeds. Runyon claims the company threatened to sue for patent infringement, despite documentation proving that he'd bought non-patented seed from local universities for years. Monsanto's lawyer claimed the company had an agreement with the Indiana Department of Agriculture to search his land.
One problem: Indiana didn't have a Department of Agriculture at the time.
But most cases never go to trial. In 2006, the Center for Food Safety estimated that Monsanto had pressured as many as 4,500 farmers into paying settlements worth as much as $160 million.
Yet Monsanto wanted even more leverage. So it naturally turned to Congress.
Earlier this year, a little-noticed provision was slipped into a budget resolution. The anonymous measure, pushed by Missouri Republican Senator Roy Blunt, granted the company an unheard-of get-out-of-jail-free card widely known as the Monsanto Protection Act.
Despite indications that GM foods could have adverse health effects, the feds have never bothered to extensively study them. Instead, they've basically taken Monsanto's word that all is kosher. So organic farmers and their allies sued the company in 2009, claiming that Monsanto's GM sugar beets had not been studied enough. A year later, a judge agreed, ordering all recently planted GM sugar-beet crops destroyed until their environmental impact was studied.
The Monsanto Protection Act was designed to end such rulings. It essentially bars judges from intervening during lawsuits—a notion that would seem highly unconstitutional.
Not that Congress noticed. Monsanto has spent more than $10 million on campaign contributions in the past decade—and another $70 million on lobbying since 1998. The money speaks so loudly that Congress has become tone-deaf.
In fact, the U.S. government has become Monsanto's de facto lobbyist in countries distrustful of GM safety. Two years ago, WikiLeaks released diplomatic cables showing how the feds had lobbied foreign governments to weaken laws and encourage the planting of genetically modified crops in third-world countries.
The leaks also showed State Department diplomats asking for money to fly in corporate flacks to lean on government officials. Even Mr. Environment, former vice president Al Gore, was key in getting France to briefly approve Monsanto's GM corn.
These days, the company has infiltrated the highest levels of government. It has ties to the Supreme Court (former Monsanto lawyer Clarence Thomas), with former and current employees in high-level posts at the USDA and the FDA.
But the real coup came when President Obama appointed former Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor as the FDA's new deputy commissioner for foods. It was akin to making George Zimmerman the czar of gun safety.
Trust Us. Why Would We Lie?
At the same time that Monsanto was cornering the food supply, its principal products—GM crops—were receiving less scrutiny than an NSA contractor.
Monsanto understood early on that the best way to stave off bad publicity was to limit research. Prior to a recently negotiated agreement with major universities, the company had severely restricted access to its seeds. Filmmaker Bertram Verhaag's 2010 award-winning documentary, Scientists Under Attack: Genetic Engineering in the Magnetic Field of Money, noted that nearly 95 percent of genetic-engineering research is paid for and controlled by corporations like Monsanto.
Meanwhile, former employees embedded in government make sure the feds never get too nosy.
Michael Taylor has turned that into an art form. He's gone back and forth from government to Monsanto enough times that it's no longer just a revolving door; it's a Batpole. During an early '90s stint with the FDA, he helped usher bovine growth hormone milk into the food supply and authored the decision that kept the government out of Monsanto's GM crop business.
Known as "substantial equivalence," it declared that genetically modified products are essentially the same as their non-GM counterparts—and therefore require no additional labeling or testing for food safety or toxicity. Never mind that no accepted science backed his theory.
"It's simply a political calculation invented by Michael Taylor and Monsanto and adopted by U.S. federal policy-makers to resist labeling," says Jim Gerritsen, a farmer in Maine. "You have this collusion between corporations and the government, and the essence is that the people's interest isn't being served."
The FDA is a prime example. It approves GM crops by doing no testing of its own; it simply takes Monsanto's word for their safety. Monsanto spokesman Phil Angell says the company agrees that it should have nothing to do with verifying safety: "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible," he told the New York Times. "Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
So if neither Monsanto nor the government is doing it, who is?
The answer: no one.
We've Got a Bigger Problem Now
So far, it appears that the GM revolution has done little more than raise the cost of food.
A 2009 study by Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, looked at four Monsanto seeds and found only minimal increases in yield. Since GM crops cost more to produce, their economic benefit seemed questionable at best.
"It pales in comparison to other conventional approaches," says Gurian-Sherman. "It's a lot more expensive, and it comes with a lot of baggage . . . like pesticide use, monopoly issues, and control of the seed supply."
Use of those pesticides has soared as weeds and insects become increasingly resistant to them. Since GM crops were introduced in 1996, pesticide usage has increased by 404 million pounds. Last year, Syngenta, one of the world's largest pesticide makers, reported that sales of its major corn-soil insecticide more than doubled in 2012, a response to increased resistance to Monsanto's pesticides.
Part of the blame belongs to a monoculture that developed around farming. Farmers know it's better to rotate crops and pesticides and leave fields fallow for a season. But when corn prices are high, who wants to grow a less profitable crop? The result has been soil degradation, more static yields, and an epidemic of weed and insect resistance.
Weeds and insects are fighting back with their own law: that of natural selection. Last year, 49 percent of surveyed farmers reported Roundup-resistant weeds on their farms, up from 34 percent the year before. The problem costs farmers more than $1 billion annually.
Pests like Roundup-resistant pigweed can grow as thick as your arm and more than six feet high, requiring removal by hand. Many farmers simply abandon weed-choked fields.
In order to kill the pests, chemical giants like Monsanto and Dow are developing crops capable of withstanding even harsher pesticides, resulting in an endless cycle of greater pesticide use at commensurate financial and environmental cost.
Nature, as it's proved so often before, will not be easily vanquished.
"We are not making our agriculture more resistant to environmental stress, not lowering the amount of pesticides, and not creating a sustainable agricultural system that works," says Mary-Howells Martens, an organic grain farmer in New York. "There are so many things that are short-term, quick-buck kind of things, without any kind of eye to if this is going to be a good deal long-term."
Next Stop: The World!
The biggest problem for Monsanto's global growth: It doesn't have the same juice with foreign governments as it does with ours. That's why it relies on the State Department to work as its taxpayer-funded lobbyist abroad.
Yet this has become increasingly difficult. Other nations aren't as willing to play corporate water boy as our government is. The countries that need GM seeds often can't afford them (or don't trust Monsanto). And the nations that can afford them (other than us) don't really want them (or don't trust Monsanto).
Ask Mike Mack, CEO of the Swiss biotech giant Syngenta. The Swiss, he argues, are more interested in environmental safety and food quality than in saving a few pennies at the grocery store.
"Switzerland's greatest natural resource is that it is a beautiful country that brings in a lot of tourism," he says. "If the Swiss could lower their consumption spending by 1 percent by applying high-productivity farming, they probably would not do it if it requires changing their approach to how they think about food. Countries like Switzerland are a good example where such things as GM food would be very difficult and perhaps commercially inadvisable."
Maybe Europe has simply been around the block enough to know better than to entrust its health to a bottom-line mentality. Although the European Union imports 30 million tons of GM crops annually for livestock feed, it's approved only two GM crops for human consumption.
In April, biotech companies took another hit when the European Union banned neonicotinoids—aka "neo-nics"—one of the most powerful and popular insecticides in the world. It's a derivative of nicotine that's poisonous to plants and insects. German giant Bayer CropScience and Syngenta both make neo-nics, which are used to coat seeds, protecting crops in their early growth stages. In America, 90 percent of the corn crop comes with the coating.
The problem is that plants sweat these chemicals out in the morning dew, where they're inadvertently picked up by bees.
Last year, Christian Krupke, a professor of entomology at Purdue University, did one of the first studies linking neo-nics to the collapse of bee colonies, which threatens the entire food system. One-quarter of the human diet is pollinated by bees.
These mysterious collapses—in which bees simply fly off and die—have been reported as far back as 1918. Yet over the past seven years, mortality rates have tripled. Some U.S. regions are witnessing the death of more than half their populations.
"We're looking at bee kills, persistently during corn-planting time," Krupke explains. "So what was killing these bees at corn-planting?"
While he's still not sure how much responsibility the chemicals bear, his study indicates a link to Monsanto's GM corn, which has been widely treated with neo-nics since 2005.
But while other countries run from the problem, the U.S. government is content to let its citizens serve as guinea pigs.
What's Mine Is Yours
The same worries apply to contamination from GM crops. Ask Frank Morton, who grows organic sugar-beet seeds in Oregon's Willamette Valley and is among the few non-GM holdouts.
This became abundantly clear in 2010, when a federal judge demanded that all U.S. farmers stop planting GM sugar beets. Farmers were surprised to find that there was very little non-GM sugar-beet seed to be had. Since the GM variety was introduced in 2005, Monsanto had driven just about everyone out of the market.
Morton's farm is just two miles from a GM sugar-beet farm. Unfortunately, beet pollen can travel as much as five miles, cross-pollinating other farmers' fields and, in the case of an organic farmer, threatening his ability to sell his crop as organic and GM-free. The contamination can arrive in the most benign ways.
Morton recalls how a landscaper bought potting soil from a nearby GM beet farm, then sold it to homeowners throughout the area. A scientist from Oregon State University discovered the error. Morton claims the landscaper was forced to retrieve the soil—lest nearby farms become contaminated—paying his customers $100 each to not say anything.
It's especially galling because GM crops have perverted longstanding property law. Organic farmers, for example, are responsible for protecting their farms from contamination, since courts have consistently refused to hold GM growers liable.
Kansas farmer Bryce Stephens had to stop growing organic corn and soybeans for fear of contamination; he has 30-foot buffer crops to protect his organic wheat. (Wheat pollen doesn't travel far.)
"Monsanto and the biotechs need to respect traditional property rights and need to keep their pollution on their side of the fence," says Maine farmer Jim Gerritsen. "If it was anything but agriculture, nobody would question it. If I decided to spray my house purple and I sprayed on a day that was windy, and my purple paint drifted onto your house and contaminated your siding and shingles, there isn't a court in the nation that wouldn't in two minutes find me guilty of irresponsibly damaging your property. But when it comes to agriculture, all of a sudden the tables are turned."
Contamination isn't just about boutique organic brands, either. It maims U.S. exports, too.
Take Bayer, which grew unapproved, experimental GM rice at test plots around Louisiana State University for just one year. Within five years, these plots had contaminated 30 percent of U.S. rice acreage. No one's certain how it happened, but Bayer's rice was found as far away as Central America and Africa.
Within days of the announcement, rice futures lost $150 million in value, while U.S. rice exports dropped by 20 percent during the next year. (Bayer ended up paying $750 million in damages.)
Last month brought another hit. A Monsanto test of GM wheat mysteriously contaminated an Oregon farm eight years after the test was shut down. Japan and South Korea immediately halted imports of U.S. soft white wheat—a particularly harsh pill for the Japanese, who have used our white wheat in nearly all their cakes and confectionery since the 1960s.
Monsanto's response? It's blaming the whole mess on eco-terrorism.
Just Label It
Given the company's history, is it any wonder that developing countries like Ecuador, Peru, and Haiti have shied away from GM crops? Haiti felt strong enough that in the wake of its 2010 earthquake, it turned down Monsanto's offer of seeds, even with assurances that the seed wasn't GM.
Brazil is poised to become the world's largest soybean exporter on the strength of Monsanto seed. Still, the country's farmers aren't big fans of the company. Thousands are suing Monsanto for more than $600 million after the company continued to charge them royalties two years after the expiration of its patent.
Trust, unfortunately, has never been Monsanto's strong suit. It's become one of the main motives behind the push for GM labeling.
"If they're going to allow the American people to be lab rats in an experiment, could they at least know where it is so they can decide whether they want to participate or not?" asks Lance Harvell, a Republican state representative from Maine. "If the FDA isn't going to do their job, it's time we stepped in."
Last month, Harvell's GM-labeling law overwhelmingly passed the Maine House (141-4) and Senate (35-0) and awaits the governor's signature. That makes Maine the second state (nine days after Connecticut) to pass a GM-labeling law.
The Right to Know movement has picked up steam since chemical companies defeated California's labeling initiative, thanks to a $46 million publicity campaign full of deceptive statements. A recent ABC News poll found that 93 percent of Americans surveyed support GM labeling.
When Vermont raised the issue a year ago, a Monsanto official indicated that the company might sue. But the states are smart. The new laws in both Maine and Connecticut won't take effect until other states pass similar legislation, so they can share defense costs.
What's interesting is that Harvell, by his own admission, is a very conservative Republican. Yet on this issue, left and right have the same quest for greater caution.
"God gave the seed to the earth and the fruit to the trees," Harvell says. "Notice it didn't say he granted Monsanto a patent. The human body has developed with its seeds. You're making a major leap into Pandora's box—a quantum leap that maybe the human body isn't ready to make yet."
As more information comes out, it's increasingly clear that GM seed isn't the home run it's portrayed to be. It encourages greater pesticide use, which has a negative impact on the environment and our bodies. And whether or not GM food is safe to eat, it poses a real threat to biodiversity through monopolization of the seed industry and the kind of farming monoculture that inspires.
Meanwhile, a study by the University of Canterbury in England found that non-GM crops in America and Europe are increasing their yields faster than GM crops.
"All this talk about feeding the world, it's really PR," explains Wenonah Hauter, author of Foodopoly and executive director of Food & Water Watch. "The hope is to get into these new markets, force farmers to pay for seed, then start changing the food and eating habits of the developing world."
Since farming is such a timeworn tradition, there's a tendency to take it for granted, and that worries a lot of people. But as much as he hates GM, Bryce Stephens is sanguine.
"I've seen changes since I was little to where it is now," the Kansas farmer says. "I don't think it will last. This land and these people here have gone through cycles of boom and bust. We're just in another cycle, and it will be something different."
Providing we don't break it irreparably first.
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>>> Plastics chemical BPA may harm human fertility: Harvard Study
By Steven Reinberg
http://healthyliving.msn.com/pregnancy-parenting/kids-health/plastics-chemical-bpa-may-harm-human-fertility-study-1
(HealthDay News) -- A chemical used in everything from food-can linings to store receipts might also pose some risk for infertility and birth defects, a new study suggests.
Exposure to bisphenol A, or BPA, may disrupt the human reproductive process and play a role in about 20 percent of unexplained infertility, said researchers from Harvard University.
In laboratory experiments, they exposed 352 eggs from 121 consenting patients at a fertility clinic to varying levels of BPA.
"Exposure of eggs to BPA decreased the percentage of eggs that matured and increased the percentage of eggs that degenerated," said lead researcher Catherine Racowsky, director of the assisted reproductive technologies laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
BPA also increased the number of eggs that underwent an abnormal process called "spontaneous activation" that makes eggs act as if they have been fertilized when in fact they haven't been, Racowsky said.
Moreover, many eggs exposed to BPA that matured did so abnormally, increasing the odds for infertility and birth defects such as Down syndrome, she said.
Eggs exposed to the highest levels of BPA were the most likely to show these ill effects, the researchers found. Their results are similar to earlier research examining the effect of BPA on animal eggs, they said.
Racowsky cautioned that these latest results with human eggs were seen in the laboratory, so whether BPA exposure works the same way in real life isn't known. And the research also found only an association between BPA and infertility and birth defects, not necessarily a cause-and-effect link.
In addition, the eggs used in the experiment were going to be discarded because they didn't respond normally and thus could be considered damaged to begin with, she said.
BPA is known to disrupt the hormonal system, with the chemical acting like an artificial estrogen. "There are many ways it can disrupt the hormonal system," Racowsky said.
The chemical is all throughout the environment, Racowsky said, and it's almost impossible to avoid exposure to it. "People need to be aware of the toxins in the environment and try to lead the healthiest life they can possibly lead," she said.
The report was published online July 31 in the journal Human Reproduction.
Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of the Center for Human Reproduction at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., agreed that a laboratory finding does not necessarily mean the same effect will be seen in the real world.
"When you make a leap from the lab to patients you have to examine a whole different model," said Hershlag, who was not involved with the study. "To say from [the results] that this might explain part of unexplained infertility is a bit of a stretch. Unexplained infertility remains unexplained."
One industry group concurred, pointing out that real-world settings often do not mirror lab experiments.
"The physiological relevance of this study is entirely unclear since the BPA concentrations showing effects are vastly higher than the concentration of BPA that could be present in the human body," said Steve Hentges, of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council.
Hentges added that numerous animal studies, "consistently have concluded that BPA does not affect fertility or other reproductive parameters at any dose even remotely close to human exposure levels."
Hershlag also noted that the plastic equipment used with in vitro fertilization (IVF) may contain BPA and could affect the ability of eggs to mature, so it might be better to use glass. That, he suggested, might even improve the success of IVF.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of BPA in products such as baby bottles and sippy cups, but the chemical continues to be used in many other consumer products.
The most prominent continuing use of BPA is in the lining of aluminum and tin cans, where it prevents corrosion.
BPA also is found in inkless cash register receipts, which are coated with the chemical, and a study has shown increased BPA levels in the urine of people who have touched a receipt.
More information
To find out more about BPA, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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>>> Upstart Organic Grocer Sprouts Tests The IPO Waters
Investor's Business Daily
7-31-13
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/upstart-organic-grocer-sprouts-tests-175600848.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CVYOflRbhsAwZKTmYlQ
THE BUZZ
Stocks in the supermarket category have been top performers at No. 21 on IBD's list of 197 industry groups.
The group includes giants such as Kroger (KR) and Whole Foods Market (WFM) as well as last year's IPO of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage (NGVC).
The supermarket category will get a new entrant with the IPO of Sprouts Farmers Market, a retailer of natural and organic food. It sells fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins, meat and seafood, bakery, dairy, frozen foods, body care and natural household items catering to consumers' growing interest in healthy living. The IPO is expected to launch Thursday.
"I think it will do well in the IPO and aftermarket," said Francis Gaskins, founder of IPOdesktop.com. "The industry group has performed well, so investors who've done well in that group might also want to buy this one.
Sprouts has 163 stores in eight states.
Among comparable IPOs is Fresh Market (TFM), which operates more than 129 stores in 25 states. Fresh Market shares rose 46% on its first day in November 2010. It currently trades near 53, 141% above its IPO price of 22.
Another is Natural Grocers by Vitamin College, which rose 33% on its IPO one year ago.
Sprouts plans to raise $278 million with the sale of 18.5 million shares, giving it a market value of $2.3 billion.
THE COMPANY
It all started with a San Diego fruit stand in 1943 by Henry Boney, who later opened several stores. Two of his sons, Stan and Steve, carried the business forward in 1969, opening more stores under different names.
The first Sprouts market was opened in Chandler, Ariz., in 2002, by Stan Boney, his son and two family friends. They expanded operations into Texas and California.
In 2011, private equity firm Apollo Global Management bought a controlling interest in Sprouts, which had 63 stores at the time. Apollo also acquired the 43-store "Henry's Marketplace," a previous business that the Boney family established and later sold, reuniting the two.
Sprouts expanded further when it merged with Sunflower Farmers Market in May 2012, adding another 37 stores and extending its footprint into New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma and Utah.
On a pro-forma basis, combining all entities under one roof, Sprouts reported 2012 sales of $2 billion, up 16% from the prior year.
The company, in its S-1 prospectus, said the cornerstones of its business are "fresh, natural and organic products at compelling prices, an attractive and differentiated shopping experience and knowledgeable team members.
It claims to be one of the largest specialty retailers of natural and organic food in the U.S. According to Nutrition Business Journal, spending on natural and organic food has been growing at a compound annual rate of 10% from 1997 through 2011, when sales reached $43 billion in the U.S. market.
RISK/CHALLENGES
The $600 billion U.S. supermarket industry is highly competitive. Competitors include giant supermarket chains run by Kroger and Safeway (SWY), natural food stores, discount retailers and warehouse membership clubs. They operate on very thin profit margins.
Aggressive expansion, unexpected price cuts and fluctuations on the availability of goods can take a toll.
For the 13-week period ended June 30, for example, Sprouts reported gross margins fell to 30% from 30.4% in the year-ago period due to inflation in certain commodity items, as well as lower margins in vitamins and body-care products due to promotions and inventory adjustments. Its success also depends on the ability to open new stores.
"There is a lot of competition for store sites," said Gaskins.
Sprouts has completed 15 of 19 planned store openings this year. It plans to open another 20 stores in 2014.
"Our proposed expansion will place increased demands on our operational, managerial and administrative resources," the company said in its S-1 statement. "These increased demands could cause us to operate our existing business less effectively, which, in turn, could cause deterioration in the financial performance of existing stores.
Sprouts also sells a significant amount of perishable products. Sales of produce accounted for 25% of net sales in fiscal 2012. Produce is vulnerable to adverse weather and natural disasters, which could reduce the available supply.
THE RESULTS
For the 13-week period ended March 31, Sprouts reported revenue of $574 million, up 16% from the year-ago period, with net income of $19.2 million. Comparable store sales rose 8%. For the 13-week period ended June 30, Sprouts expects to report revenue of $622 million, an increase of 22% compared to the year-ago period. It expects to report same-store sales growth of 10.8%.
Sales in 2012 rose 16% to $2 billion, with net income of $29.2 million and pro-forma adjusted net income of $45 million. Same-store sales rose 10%.
USE OF PROCEEDS
Sprouts estimates net proceeds of $247.6 million, assuming a $15 price, all of which will be used to repay debt. Any remaining proceeds will go to general corporate purposes.
THE MANAGEMENT
J. Douglas Sanders Chief executive and president
Sanders, 43, joined Sprouts upon its founding in 2002 and became president and CEO last August. He was chief operating officer from 2005 to August 2011. He previously held management and consulting positions in the grocery industry.
Amin Maredia
Chief financial officer
Maredia, 41, has served as CFO since August 2011. He previously held management and finance positions at Burger King Corp. from 2006 through 2010. Prior to that he was assistant treasurer and controller for Dynergy.
James Nielsen
Chief operating officer
Nielsen, 42, has served as COO since August 2011. He has held executive positions at retail stores of the Sprouts operations in earlier years. He also served in various roles for Wild Oats Marketplace, including director of operations.
Sprouts Farmers Market
Phoenix, Ariz.
(480) 814-8016 Sprouts.com Lead underwriters: Goldman Sachs Offering price: $14-$16 Expected Date: Thursday, Aug. 1 Ticker: SFM
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>>> Whole oats
http://www.caring.com/articles/5-top-foods-for-men-mushrooms
Oats are an excellent source of manganese and a good source of selenium, tryptophan, phosphorus, vitamin B1 (thiamin), dietary fiber, magnesium, and protein. One cup of cooked oats provides more than 6 grams of protein, more than almost all breakfast grains, particularly those that are corn- or wheat-based.
Harvard researchers who followed 21,376 participants over a period of nearly 20 years in the Physicians' Health Study found that men who had a daily serving of whole-grain cereal had a 29 percent lower risk of heart failure. Oats contain a soluble fiber known as beta-glucan that provides numerous health benefits, from helping reduce fat in the blood to preventing hardening of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks, stroke, or dangerous blood clots. Not only does beta-glucan protect against cardiovascular disease, it also supports the body's immune response by stimulating white blood cell activity. And it stabilizes blood sugar, lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes.
One of the best things about oatmeal is that it's a perfect canvas for pairing with other tasty, healthy ingredients. Walnuts and flaxseed, for example, are even more concentrated in omega-3s than fatty fish; two tablespoons of flaxseed provides 146 percent of the amount recommended for a man's daily diet, while a quarter cup of walnuts provides 95 percent of the daily recommended amount. Almonds and raisins are rich in boron, which enhances testosterone levels in men, helping build muscle and contributing to bone health. Boron has also shown protective effects against prostate cancer. Other good oatmeal toppers include hazelnuts, pecans, and pumpkin seeds; all three contain a plant sterol that's been shown to ease the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia, a common prostate condition in men over 40. If you like your oatmeal sweetened, try raw honey -- it helps lower total cholesterol and is loaded with protective antioxidants.
Quick and healthy tip: Oatmeal isn't the only way to enjoy these healthy whole grains. Add a handful of oats to soups, stews, and chilis -- the fiber will thicken them for a heartier (and healthier) result.
For optimal nutrition, avoid instant and/or flavored oatmeal, which, in addition to being stripped of important nutrients during processing, often contains less-than-healthy additives. Instead, opt for minimally processed or whole oats—look for the steel-cut (known as Irish or Scottish), thick, or old-fashioned varieties.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes and derivative products, such as tomato sauce and ketchup, contain many nutrients that support overall health, but there are two primary reasons they made this list: First, they're a great source of the potent antioxidant lycopene; and second, unlike a couple of other lycopene contenders (namely, watermelon and guava), they're available everywhere year-round.
Research shows a strong association between high lycopene consumption and lower rates of prostate cancer -- the second-leading cause of cancer death in men. In addition to exhibiting preventive effects, lycopene also seems to inhibit the spread of existing cancer and to decrease malignancy. It has shown protective benefits against pancreatic cancer, which is more common in men than women and is one of the most fatal of all cancers, largely due to late diagnosis. Lycopene is also being studied for its effect on male fertility; research suggests that it may boost sperm concentrations in infertile men.
Finally, tomatoes contain phenolic acids, which combat lung cancer, the second most common cancer in men and by far the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, according to the American Cancer Society.
Quick and healthy tip: Like oatmeal, think of tomato sauce as a base for other healthy ingredients, such as garlic, another potent cancer fighter and an excellent source of vitamin B6 (which combats fatigue and supports the nervous system). Garlic has been associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer and has shown protective benefits against colon cancer. Plus, it makes any tomato sauce taste better.
Mushrooms
Jessica Black, doctor of naturopathic medicine and author of The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book, points out that mushrooms are a powerful immune stimulant and immune modulator. "They're great detoxifiers because they thrive on what's decaying around them," she says. Black adds that reishi mushrooms have been shown to reduce cancer-causing free radicals by 50 percent.
You don't have to restrict yourself to the more exotic varieties of mushrooms, though. You'll find health benefits in all types of mushrooms that are available at your local grocery store or farmers' market.
Take creminis, for example. Available at almost any grocery store across America, creminis are an excellent source of selenium, copper, tryptophan, potassium, phosphorus, and the vitamins B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), and B5 (pantothenic acid). They're also high in zinc, manganese, protein, and vitamins B1 (thiamin) and B6 (pyridoxine). For good measure, creminis also provide decent amounts of folate, dietary fiber, magnesium, iron, and calcium.
Here are just a few of the benefits of B vitamins: They combat fatigue, maintain energy levels, help lower cholesterol levels, stabilize blood sugar, coordinate nerve and muscle activity, aid in the development of nerve cells, and support mood and proper heart function. The essential trace element selenium has been used to treat male infertility and has shown benefit in protecting against Parkinson's disease. It's also been shown to trigger the repair of damaged DNA and to inhibit the spread of cancer and stimulate apoptosis (destruction) of cancer cells.
If that's not enough, consider how much animal protein you consume in your everyday diet. Then ask any vegetarian what he or she makes for die-hard carnivorous friends (the ones who start sweating at the thought of a single meal without meat) at a dinner party. Nine times out of ten, you'll get the same answer: mushrooms. All mushroom varieties have a nice, earthy flavor when cooked and can be used as a base for savory gravies, soups, stews, or casseroles. Portobellos in particular make an excellent and flavorful meat substitute due to their size and robust texture. Make them the star dish: Roast them, barbecue them, stuff them, use them in place of burgers. The options are endless.
Quick and healthy tip: Mushrooms are a great addition to just about anything -- omelets, pastas, pizzas, and especially tomato-based sauces.
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>>> 14 foods you should never eat
http://healthyliving.msn.com/nutrition/14-foods-you-should-never-eat#2
Swordfish
Philip Landrigan, MD, professor of pediatrics and professor and chair of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
The Problem: One of Dr. Landrigan's No. 1 warnings to women pregnant or looking to become pregnant? "Make avoiding mercury in fish a priority," he says. Swordfish is notoriously high in the heavy metal, a potent neurotoxin that can damage developing children and even trigger heart attacks in adults. Aside from obvious health concerns, swordfish is often overfished and some of the gear commonly used to wrangle in swordfish often kills turtles, seabirds, and sharks.
12 Fish You Should Never Eat
The Solution: For a healthy omega-3 brain boost, look for fish that are low in contaminants and have stable populations, such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon, Atlantic mackerel, or pole- or troll-caught Pacific albacore tuna. Got a more adventurous palate? Try snakehead fish to satisfy your fish craving and improve the environment. The invasive species lives on land and water, where it wipes out important frogs, birds, and other critters. Snakehead fish is popping up on some restaurant menus, and the taste and texture is about identical to swordfish.
Nonorganic strawberries
Robert Kenner, director of Food Inc. and founder of FixFood.org
The Problem: While filming Food Inc., Kenner says he wanted to film strawberry farmers applying pesticides to their fields. "The workers wear these suits to protect themselves from the dozens and dozens of known dangerous pesticides applied to strawberries," he says. "When I saw this, I thought to myself, if this is how berries are grown, I don't really want to eat them anymore. I haven't been able to eat a nonorganic strawberry ever since." Unfortunately, for the food-concerned public, he wasn't able to get the shot of these farmers. "I guess they didn't think it looked too appetizing."
The Solution: Opt for organic! The Environmental Working Group, which analyzes U.S. Department of Agriculture pesticide-residue data, has found 13 different pesticide residues on chemically grown strawberries.
Diet soda
Isaac Eliaz, MD, integrative health expert and founder of The Amitabha Medical Clinic and Healing Center in Sebastopol, CA
The Problem: Dr. Eliaz stays away from any diet soda or foods, sugar-free candies, and gum containing artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame K, and neotame, among others. "The safety data on these sweeteners is shrouded in controversy and conflicts of interest with the manufacturers of these chemical compounds," Dr. Eliaz warns. "Independent research strongly suggests that when metabolized in the body, these sweeteners can cause health-related issues and problems related to metabolism and weight gain, neurological diseases, joint pain, digestive problems, headaches, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, chemical toxicity, and cancer, among others."
The Solution: If you're craving a soda but want to avoid the shady sweeteners, fake food dyes, and preservatives found in popular brands, try a bottle of Steaz zero-calorie green tea soda or Bionade, a fermented soda that's majorly popular in Europe.
Anything from McDonald's
Joel Salatin, sustainable farmer and author of This Ain't Normal, Folks
The Problem: McDonald's isn't just about food-it's about food mentality, according to Salatin. "It represents the pinnacle of factory-farming and industrial food," he says. "The economic model is utterly dependent on stockholders looking for dividends without regards to farm profitability or soil development."
Fast food typically is loaded with all sorts of the ingredients mentioned earlier in our list-genetically engineered corn, food dyes, artificial sweeteners, and other bad actors in the food supply. The type of farming that supports this type of food business relies on harmful chemicals that not only threaten human health, but also soil health.
The Solution: Learn to cook! You might be surprised to find that paying extra up front for a pasture-raised chicken can be cheaper than buying prepared fast-food chicken. For instance, cooking a chicken and then boiling down the bones for a rich, disease-fighting stock can yield up to three meals for a family! (Here's how to make homemade stock.) Find sustainable farmers at LocalHarvest.org.
Canned tomatoes
Fredrick Vom Saal, PhD, professor of endocrinologist at the University of Missouri
The Problem: The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, or BPA, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Studies show that the BPA in most people's bodies exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. "You can get 50 micrograms of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that's a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young," says vom Saal. "I won't go near canned tomatoes."
The Solution: Choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Eden Organic and Bionaturae. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, such as Trader Joe's and Pomi.
Bread
William Davis, MD, cardiologist and author of the New York Times best-seller Wheat Belly
The Problem: Modern wheat is nothing like the grain your mother or grandmother consumed. Today, wheat barely resembles its original form, thanks to extensive genetic manipulations of the 1960s and '70s to increase yields. "You cannot change the basic characteristics of a plant without changing its genetics, biochemistry, and its effects on humans who consume it," Dr. Davis notes.
In his book, Dr. Davis makes the case that modern-day wheat is triggering all sorts of health problems, everything from digestive diseases like celiac and inflammatory bowel disease to acid reflux, obesity, asthma, and skin disorders. "If there is a food that yields extravagant, extraordinary, and unexpected benefits when avoided, it is bread," says Dr. Davis. "And I don't mean white bread; I mean all bread: white, whole wheat, whole grain, sprouted, organic, French, Italian, fresh, day-old…all of it."
The Solution: Try eliminating bread from your diet for a few weeks to see if you note health improvements. When you do choose grains, look to things like quinoa, buckwheat, millet, and wild rice, but in smaller quantities (less than a half cup) because these can also trigger high blood sugar, Dr. Davis says.
Industrially produced hamburgers
Michael Pollan, author of numerous books and articles on the food system including The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food and Food Rules
The Problem: Cattle raised in filthy conditions, pumped full of growth hormones and fed diets composed mostly of genetically modified corn are three major reasons humane, grass-fed ground beef is a better alternative for your burger. But they aren't the only ones, says Pollan. While a steak or roast usually comes from a single animal, processors of ground beef combine meat from hundreds of animals. "This vastly increases the risk of contamination," he says. USDA scientists have found dangerous levels of disease-causing bacteria in over 50 percent of ground beef samples they've tested.
The Solution: "I love hamburgers, but only eat them when they're grass-fed and ground by a butcher," Pollan says.
Corn
Maryam Henein and George Langworthy, directors of the documentary Vanishing of the Bees
The Problem: Today's corn plants are more like little pesticide factories with roots. Most of the nation's corn supply is genetically engineered to either produce its own pesticide supply within the plant or withstand heavy sprayings of chemicals, which wind up inside of the food. That's problematic not just for bees, but for people, too. "I avoid corn because most is genetically modified, and on top of that, most of the seeds are treated with systemic pesticides that are killing our bees," says Henein. "And let's not be fooled—the sublethal effects of these pesticides also slowly impair our health."
The Solution: In one way or another, corn is present in the vast majority of processed foods. From ketchup to salad dressing, and even bread, it's hard to escape corn ingredients. One to look out for? "I always try to avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup," says Langworthy. "Not only is it unhealthy, but the pesticides used in the production of the corn is detrimental to honeybees and other pollinators."
To avoid genetically engineered corn, which has never been tested for long-term impacts on human health, choose organic or Non-GMO Verified foods.
White chocolate
Drew Ramsey, MD, assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and coauthor of The Happiness Diet
The Problem: The right kind of chocolate serves not only as a sweet treat but a brain-boosting superfood, too. The problem is, white chocolate's health profile is blank. "The data on the health benefits of cacao is pretty awesome," says Dr. Ramsey. "Much of this is due to a set of amazing phytonutrients that can increase blood flow to the brain, protect blood vessels, and boost mood and focus. White chocolate is missing all this goodness."
The Solution: Indulging in a chocolate treat? Look for organic versions from companies like Theo and NibMor.
Artificial sweeteners
Maria Rodale, CEO of Rodale Inc. and author of Organic Manifesto
The Problem: Ironically, there's a lot of evidence that suggest using artificial sweeteners, which have zero calories, is just as bad for your waistline as using regular, high-calorie sugar. For instance, research from the University of Texas has found that mice fed the artificial sweetener aspartame had higher blood sugar levels (which can cause you to overeat) than mice on an aspartame-free diet. Not only are they bad for your health, scientists have detected artificial sweeteners in treated wastewater, posing unknown risks to fish and other marine life. Plus, as Rodale says, "They're unnatural, nonorganic, taste horrible, and lead to all sorts of bad health consequences, false expectations, and short-term strategic thinking."
The Solution: Refined white sugar isn't any healthier, but you can replace it with small amounts of nutritional sweeteners, including honey, blackstrap molasses, and maple syrup, all of which have high levels of vitamins and minerals.
Sprouts
Doug Powell, PhD, professor of food safety at Kansas State University and author of the BarfBlog food-safety website
The Problem: Sprouts have been the source of so many major food recalls that they're not worth the risk, Powell says. Whether bean or broccoli, alfalfa or pea, sprouts have been at the center of at least 40 significant outbreaks of foodborne illness over the past 20 years. They're often found to be contaminated with salmonella, E. coli, and listeria; they're vulnerable to contamination because the seeds require moist, warm conditions in order to sprout—conditions that are ideal for bacteria to multiply.
The Solution: Get the crunch of sprouts—without the added bacteria—by shredding cabbage or carrots onto your sandwiches. If you really enjoy the flavor of sprouts, cook them first.
Butter-Flavored Microwave Popcorn
Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research at Women's Voices for the Earth, a nonprofit that advocates for environmental health issues that directly affect women
The Problem: Diacetyl, a chemical used in butter flavoring, is used in a lot of fake butter flavorings, despite the fact that the chemical is so harmful to factory workers that it's known to cause an occupational disease called "popcorn lung," Scranton says. After news of the chemical got out to the popcorn-eating public, companies started replacing diacetyl with another additive—which can actually turn into diacetyl under certain conditions, she adds. Neither chemical is disclosed on microwave-popcorn bags because the exact formulations of flavorings are considered trade secrets. "It's a classic example of the need for better chemical regulation and improved transparency on the chemicals used in our food and other household products," she says.
The Solution: Make your own popcorn using real butter. Pop it on the stovetop in a pot, or go an easier route: Put a small handful of kernels into a brown paper lunch bag and stick the bag in the microwave. The kernels will pop just like those fake-butter-flavored kernels in standard microwave popcorn bags. When they're done, pour some melted organic butter over them. "Makes pretty good popcorn at a fraction of the cost!" Scranton says.
Food dyes
Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest
The Problem: Health advocates have tried for years to get the Food and Drug Administration to ban food dyes, based on small studies linking them to hyperactivity in children and cancer in animals, and that's one reason Jacobson avoids them. Red 3 has caused cancer in lab rats, and Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 may contain cancer-causing contaminants. But mainly, he says, he avoids them on principle. "I just don't like eating synthetic chemicals and the oftentimes synthetic foods in which they're used." His group criticizes companies that use food dyes to make foods appear healthier than they are and to replace truly healthy ingredients—in a recent report on the nutritional quality of fruit juices, the center noted that Tropicana Twister Cherry Berry Blast contains no berry and cherry juice but lots of the artificial dye, Red 40.
The Solution: Read labels anytime you're buying a prepackaged food. Food dyes can crop up in some really unexpected places, even healthy foods like cheese and yogurt.
Chain-restaurant ice cream sundaes
Dave Zinczenko, author of the Eat This, Not That series
The Problem: "No matter where you go, the ice cream sundaes made in most chain restaurants have a couple things in common—namely, supersized portions and an ingredient list a mile long," he says. " All you really need for ice cream is milk, sugar, and maybe a little vanilla, but somehow these places are loading it up with corn syrup, cellulose gum, and vegetable shortening." In addition to being unhealthy, those additives are usually derived from genetically modified corn and soy.
The Solution: Go local, says Zinczenko. Small-batch ice cream from local stores is less likely to be some industry Franken-food creation. Or, for totally homemade sundaes, you could try making your own ice cream. "A killer caramel sauce can be made with just sugar, butter, and heat, and you'll never have to wonder what kind of chemicals you're loading up on," he says. "Plus, you'll control your portion size, which means you can indulge in moderation without widening your waistline."
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>>> What’s Behind the Secret Epidemic of Hypothyroidism
March 20, 2013
by guest blogger Isaac Eliaz, MD, MS, LAc, integrative medicine pioneer
http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/whats-behind-the-secret-epidemic-of-hypothyroidism/
Most of us don’t ever think about our thyroid. This gland is located in the neck and produces hormones that regulate energy metabolism, control protein synthesis, and adjust the body’s sensitivity to other hormones. The thyroid is also involved in detoxification, growth functions, immunity, and more. Given all of these critical actions, it makes sense to take care of such a precious and sensitive area of health. But, as noted, thyroid health is often just an afterthought, usually following a related diagnosis—if we give it any thought at all.
Unfortunately, this passive approach to thyroid health is not really helping us. Thyroids can be problematic, especially when we’re exposed to toxins, chemicals, and environmental pollutants. Nearly 60 million Americans, mostly women, have some type of thyroid problem. People with thyroid issues often experience:
¦Anxiety/irritability
¦Achiness
¦Muscle weakness
¦Fatigue
¦Weight fluctuations
¦Hair loss
¦Carpal tunnel syndrome
¦Temperature sensitivity
¦Constipation
¦Other issues.
As you can see, these symptoms are mostly nonspecific and could be caused by any number of issues. However, it’s important to be alert to possible thyroid problems, which can increase the risks of heart disease, cancer, infertility, depression, and other serious conditions.
What Can Go Wrong
Thyroid conditions generally fall into three categories: hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and autoimmune thyroid disorders. The most common form is hypothyroidism, an underactive thyroid, which can lead to slowed metabolism, hormone imbalances, immune problems, muscle pain, weight gain, fatigue, dry skin, hair loss, and slow heart rate, among other issues. Hyperthyroidism is the opposite, an overactive thyroid; however, the gland can’t maintain such a fast pace and actually burns out over time, leading back to hypothyroidism. Autoimmune disorders, such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which causes inflammation of the thyroid gland, can have an effect similar to hyperthyroidism—over-activity followed by burnout, leading to underactivity.
Why All the Thyroid Problems?
Think about what the thyroid does. It regulates metabolism, the “pace of life,” among other actions. Now think of all the demands we make on our metabolism. Our modern lifestyles are so frenetic, we hardly ever stop.
On a comparative level, this is especially true for younger women, who are often balancing career, family, and other interests. Statistically, we are seeing more and more hypothyroidism in women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Too many stressful demands are made on them, and when compounded with other factors like an increased toxin load or an unhealthy diet, the gland simply burns out. Adrenal fatigue is also closely related to low thyroid function; when the adrenals are exhausted, the thyroid will suffer, and vice versa.
So the first step in rejuvenating the thyroid is simply slowing down. This isn’t just good for the thyroid. Give yourself the gift of rest and you’ll notice the benefits on every level.
Toxins
The thyroid is also extremely vulnerable to pesticides, heavy metals, and industrial pollutants. This is partly due to the fact that certain pesticides and common environmental toxins (chlorine, fluorine, and bromine) accumulate in the thyroid because they are chemically similar to iodine, which the thyroid naturally absorbs. Also, since the thyroid is a very fast metabolizer, it encounters more toxins. So a gentle, total-body detox to safely remove pesticides, heavy metals, and other risky chemical compounds is important for thyroid health.
The Truth about Iodine
Iodine benefits us in a number of ways, including serving as a natural detoxifier. The thyroid absorbs iodine and, in doing so, replaces other toxins that may have accumulated, such as bromide, which is common in pesticides. Adequate iodine intake can be particularly important if you live near agricultural areas where heavy pesticide use is the norm, such as vineyards or apple orchards. Be careful with supplemental iodine though, as too much can also be a problem. Two to 3 milligrams (mg) of natural iodine supplementation a day is usually sufficient for people with hypothyroidism. For people who are extremely deficient, I recommend 12.5 mg. It’s also important to avoid iodine if you have Hashimoto’s (autoimmune thyroid disease) or hyperthyroidism, as use in these conditions can make the thyroid overactive.
Natural Support for a Healthy Thyroid
A number of minerals contribute to thyroid health, including magnesium, calcium, zinc, selenium, and trace minerals. Specific herbs can also be helpful. Because many thyroid conditions are associated with inflammation, anti-inflammatory herbs are recommended. Traditional Asian herbs Prunella vulgaris (common selfheal), Radix scrophulariae (xuan shen), ningpoensis (Chinese figwort), Melissa officinalis (lemon balm), and Coleus forskohlii (Indian coleus) all benefit the thyroid.
I generally recommend avoiding soy, which can interfere with thyroid enzymes. Also, gluten sensitivity is often associated with thyroid problems, so adopting a gluten-free diet may help to normalize thyroid function.
Supplements that reduce inflammation, improve circulation, and remove toxins and heavy metals are also critical for thyroid health. One of the culprits in thyroid and other chronic health issues is a protein called galectin-3. At elevated levels, galectin-3 fuels chronic inflammation throughout the body. Controlling galectin-3 will do more than bolster thyroid health; the protein has been associated with cancer, heart disease, kidney ailments, and other conditions.
A proven way to combat the effects of elevated galectin-3 is with the dietary supplement, modified citrus pectin (MCP). This form of citrus pectin is enzymatically altered for absorption into the bloodstream. Multiple studies have shown that MCP binds and blocks excess galectin-3, controlling the protein’s harmful effects throughout the body.
Even more importantly, MCP safely removes heavy metals and other toxins from the body—without affecting essential minerals. This specialized detox function is critical for thyroid health. Pectins have also been proven to remove radioactive particles from the body, and were given to victims of the Chernobyl disaster to help detoxify radioactive iodine-13—with good results. The number of thyroid cancers dropped in the groups with high-pectin diets.
The Big Picture
If you think you might have a thyroid issue, I always recommend working with a practitioner who is knowledgeable in this area, since thyroid problems can be tricky to diagnose and treat.
The diagnostic tests for low thyroid are not always accurate, and the physiology of the thyroid is complex. Some people make enough inactive hormone, but the body is not able to activate it. Or the body might make antibodies against its own thyroid tissue. These complex factors need to be sorted out in order to treat the imbalance properly.
Ultimately, many of the same methods we use to support thyroid health, especially detoxification, can enhance overall health as well. In combination with a proper diet emphasizing nutrient-dense whole foods and good lifestyle habits like regular exercise and healthy stress relief, these measures can support thyroid health and general wellness, offering greater energy and vitality over the long term.
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Harvard study -- >>> Impact of fluoride on neurological development in children
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/fluoride-childrens-health-grandjean-choi/
July 25, 2012
For years health experts have been unable to agree on whether fluoride in the drinking water may be toxic to the developing human brain. Extremely high levels of fluoride are known to cause neurotoxicity in adults, and negative impacts on memory and learning have been reported in rodent studies, but little is known about the substance’s impact on children’s neurodevelopment. In a meta-analysis, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and China Medical University in Shenyang for the first time combined 27 studies and found strong indications that fluoride may adversely affect cognitive development in children. Based on the findings, the authors say that this risk should not be ignored, and that more research on fluoride’s impact on the developing brain is warranted.
The study (also available at this link) was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives on July 20, 2012.
The researchers conducted a systematic review of studies, almost all of which are from China where risks from fluoride are well-established. Fluoride is a naturally occurring substance in groundwater, and exposures to the chemical are increased in some parts of China. Virtually no human studies in this field have been conducted in the U.S., said lead author Anna Choi, research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at HSPH.
Even though many of the studies on children in China differed in many ways or were incomplete, the authors consider the data compilation and joint analysis an important first step in evaluating the potential risk. “For the first time we have been able to do a comprehensive meta-analysis that has the potential for helping us plan better studies. We want to make sure that cognitive development is considered as a possible target for fluoride toxicity,” Choi said.
Choi and senior author Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health at HSPH, and their colleagues collated the epidemiological studies of children exposed to fluoride from drinking water. The China National Knowledge Infrastructure database also was included to locate studies published in Chinese journals. They then analyzed possible associations with IQ measures in more than 8,000 children of school age; all but one study suggested that high fluoride content in water may negatively affect cognitive development.
The average loss in IQ was reported as a standardized weighted mean difference of 0.45, which would be approximately equivalent to seven IQ points for commonly used IQ scores with a standard deviation of 15.* Some studies suggested that even slightly increased fluoride exposure could be toxic to the brain. Thus, children in high-fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low-fluoride areas. The children studied were up to 14 years of age, but the investigators speculate that any toxic effect on brain development may have happened earlier, and that the brain may not be fully capable of compensating for the toxicity.
“Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain,” Grandjean says. “The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us.”
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>>> New Research: Average Person Exposed to Cancerous Levels of Toxins
Natural Society
July 25, 2013
http://www.infowars.com/new-research-average-person-exposed-to-cancerous-levels-of-toxins/
We know there are toxins in our foods. These toxins exist in varying levels and come from sources like pesticides, soil contamination, and even the seeds themselves. We can minimize our exposure to these toxins by eating organic and growing our own foods. But, we are all still being exposed at one level or another. A recent, frightening study indicates even the “average” person is being exposed to cancerous levels of toxins like arsenic, dioxins, and DDE.
The research comes from the University of California, Davis, where scientists looked at the diets and related toxin-levels of 364 children between the ages of 2 and 7, 446 parents of young children, and 149 older adults. What they found was not only troubling, but truly scary.
Using dietary surveys and toxin content datasets, the scientists were able to determine an estimated toxin level and compare this to the “cancer benchmark” of each compound. (The “cancer benchmark” is a term used to describe the “exposure level that would generate one excess cancer per million people over a 70-year lifetime”, according to NaturalNews.
In both children and adults, cancer benchmarks were exceeded for dioxins, DDE, dieldrin, lead, and arsenic. Children also exceeded the cancer benchmark for the toxin chlordane. In all cases, children had greater exposure margins than adults. When it came to DDE, children exceeded the cancer benchmark level by more than 10 times. For dieldrin, arsenic, and dioxins, their exposure level was 100 times over the cancer benchmark levels.
We could write a book on the potentially disastrous effects of these toxins, but to put it briefly: DDE is a metabolite of DDT (the now-banned pesticide), which has been linked to cell damage at a DNA level. Chlordane, also banned, is linked to cancer, neorutoxicity and low birth weight. Another banned substance, dieldrin is a suspected cancer and Parkinson’s disease-causer. Finally, arsenic is linked to cancers of the bladder, liver, lung, and kidneys.
Related Read: Warning – Toxins Fill Highly Popular Children’s Vitamins
As a parent, or a responsible person no matter your age or family connections, it’s your responsibility to limit consumption of these toxins in your own diet and the diet of those closest to you.
As reported by NaturalNews, here are the top sources of these food toxins:
Arsenic: poultry, cereal, salmon, tuna, mushrooms.
DDE: dairy, potatoes, meat, freshwater fish, pizza.
Dieldrin: dairy, meat, cucumber, cantaloupe, pizza.
Chlordane: dairy, cucumber, meat, popcorn, potatoes.
Dioxins: dairy, meat, potatoes, cereal, mushrooms.
Acrylamide: crackers, fried potatoes, cereal, graham crackers, chips.
Going organic and giving up processed foods is the best way to steer clear of these foods and know, with reasonable certainty, what you are putting in your body.
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>>> Mystery solved: Here's what's killing bees
Researchers finally pin down the most likely cause of the insects' widespread collapse -- and the fix will not be easy.
By Kim Peterson
http://money.msn.com/now/post--mystery-solved-heres-whats-killing-bees
Honeybee colonies across the nation have been devastated over the past year, leaving scientists desperate to root out the cause. One team of researchers may have found the answer.
Colony collapse disorder, as it is called, has destroyed as much as half of the honeybee hives that farmers need to pollinate fruit and vegetable crops. As a result, some experts are predicting crop shortages and higher food prices.
But to fix the problem, you need to find the cause. A new study out this week points to the most likely factor: a combination of pesticides and fungicides that farmers use to keep crops healthy.
Those chemicals hurt bees' ability to fight infection from a parasite called Nosema ceranae, Quartz reports. The fungicides are particularly harmful because bees that ate pollen with those chemicals were three times as likely to get infected by the parasite.
The pollen the researchers collected for their study was from the East Coast and had an average of nine pesticides and fungicides. One sample, however, contained 21 chemicals.
Researchers still aren't able to say that those fungicides are the definite cause of bee death, but this is as close to an answer as we have at this point. "There's growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals," the study’s lead author told Quartz.
If fungicides are the culprit, it would be a surprise to many farmers, since fungicides have to this point been considered safe for pollinating bees.
But the link is there. And what farmers do with that information could affect the survival of bees across the country.
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>>> 8 Everyday Chemicals Linked to Breast Cancer, Breastfeeding Problems
A slew of common chemicals have been linked to breast cancer and other problems, and even more are suspected of causing problems.
By Emily Main
http://www.rodalenews.com/breast-cancer-and-chemicals
Eating organic food can protect you from the pesticides used in chemical farming.
The chemicals we come into contact with every day could affect a woman's ability to breastfeed, concludes a review of research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The review was compiled by a panel of over 60 toxicologists, epidemiologists, and public health advocates who met back in November 2009 to analyze the existing research on environmental chemicals and breast development and breast cancer. "We know that factors early in life, during puberty, and during pregnancy have a big impact on breast cancer rates," says Ruthann Rudel, lead author of the review and director of research at the nonprofit Silent Spring Institute, which studies how environmental influences can affect breast cancer. "And we know there is a diverse array of chemicals that are doing this."
The purpose of the panel's meeting was to review the existing evidence on endocrine disruptors and determine gaps in what's known and isn't known about how they affect the mammary gland, and how they might play a role in breast cancer and a woman's ability to breastfeed. Much of the research uncovered at the workshop centered on what is known about endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The authors identified eight chemicals for which enough research exists to demonstrate that they alter mammary gland development in such a way that can increase both a woman's risk of developing breast cancer and having difficulty breastfeeding, and even lead to enlarged breasts in young boys and men. To put that number in perspective, another nonprofit health advocacy group, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, recently published a list of 1,373 known endocrine disruptors. In essence, out of more than 1,000 chemicals, only eight have been researched well enough to fully understand their potential health effects. They are:
• bisphenol A, an endocrine-disrupting component of plastic and canned food linings
• the pesticide atrazine, which has been banned in most countries but has been detected in drinking-water supplies in the U.S.
• flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers used in electronics, furniture, and automobiles
• dibutylphthalate, a chemical used in nail polish, paints, and modeling clays to keep them flexible
• dioxin, an industrial contaminant associated with PVC plastic production that builds up in the fatty tissue of animals whose meat and dairy products we consume
• methoxychlor, a now-banned pesticide that is still detected in some U.S. homes
• nonylphenol, a chemical added to pesticides that's also used in petroleum-based laundry detergents
• perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which is used in the production of nonstick and stain-resistant finishes.
Exposures to these chemicals, as well as to natural estrogens, such as the soy phytoestrogen genistein, are most problematic at three stages of life: while a fetus is still in the womb, during puberty, and (for women) during pregnancy. It's during those phases that an individual's mammary glands are developing and are therefore most sensitive to endocrine disruptors. And, the researchers concluded, some of these chemicals are more damaging to breast tissue than they are to other tissues in the body, and at much lower doses.
The primary goals of this workshop were to suggest reforms in the way chemicals are tested, and to encourage scientists and epidemiologists to pay more attention to the way chemicals affect breast development, Rudel says. "Nothing about the way these chemicals are typically tested allows or facilitates a discussion of whether this chemical affects lactation," she says; usually, the mammary gland gets ignored completely. In a related editorial, also published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the Silent Spring Institute's director, Julia Brody, PhD, writes, "Given the magnitude of potential public health impacts on breastfeeding and breast cancer, it is critical to strengthen testing methods and give more weight to them in policy decisions. Good decisions about pollution limits, pesticide approvals, and chemicals in consumer products and food rely on a full and accurate understanding of risks associated with exposure."
Despite the lack of data available on all the chemicals we're exposed to, women can reduce their breast cancer risk and protect their ability to breastfeed with these five easy tactics:
#1: Eat organic to avoid harmful pesticides such as atrazine.
#2: Go plastic-free and food-can-free to reduce your exposure to bisphenol A, which is found in many plastic products and the lining of most food and beverage cans.
#3: Eliminate nonstick pots and pans from your kitchen and buy clothing and furnishings without water-, stain- and dirt-repellent finishes.
#4: Make your own laundry detergent and other cleaners that are free of nonylphenol.
#5: Go au natural when it comes to cosmetics, or find nail polishes that are free of dibutylphthalate; while you're at it, look for nail polishes free of the "toxic trio": dibutylphthalate and the known carcinogens formaldehyde and toluene.
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>>> Toxic Fruit?
http://www.rodalenews.com/pesticides-fruit?cm_mmc=MSN-_-Are%20You%20Living%20In%20A%20Pesticide%20Hot%20Spot-_-Article-_-The%20Worst%20Summer%20Fruits
Summertime is the height of fruit season. At no other time of year can you get fruit that tastes as juicy and sweet as it does right now. The only problem? Most of it has been soaked in pesticides. Fruit is notoriously difficult to grow organically and without pesticides, says Jeff Moyer, farm director at the Rodale Institute, an organic research institution. "Fruit is colorful and high in sugar content," he adds. "We all, many insects included, love sugar." Because most fruits have soft skins, the pesticides that are used to kill those bugs (and the molds and fungi that also love fruit) get into the flesh and into your mouth, and no amount of peeling or washing can remove them.
Each year, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Pesticide Data Monitoring Program and issues a list of the most and least pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables. Following are the fruits you should always buy organic because of the high levels of pesticides found on—and in—them. Of course, "if your choice is between a chocolate doughnut and a conventionally grown peach, the peach should be the obvious pick," says Sonya Lunder, senior analyst at EWG.
Grapes
More pesticides are used on grapes than on any other fruit. Combined, the various samples of grapes used in the 2012 EWG report contained 64 different pesticides
Strawberries
A single sample of strawberries tested by the USDA contained 13 different pesticides.
Imported Plums
The most common pesticide found on plums imported from abroad (most commonly from Chile) is iprodione, which the Environmental Protection Agency has dubbed a "likely" carcinogen.
Pears
In EWG's analysis, 92 percent of the pear samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue, while 26 percent were tainted with 5 or more pesticides.
Peaches
Many of the pesticides used on peaches are systemic. They're sprayed on a tree before it bears fruit, but the chemicals wind up getting into the fruit as it grows, and there's no way to remove them.
Nectarines
Every sample of imported nectarines tested positive for pesticide residues, the USDA found, and the average imported nectarine contained more pesticides by weight than any other food. Domestically grown nectarines didn't fare much better. They contained the same range of pesticides, but at lower levels.
Cherries
One of the most commonly used pesticides on cherries, carbaryl, is suspected of causing cancer and may lead to neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and to birth defects.
Blueberries
More than 40 different pesticides were found on blueberries grown in the U.S.
Apples
Cancer causers, hormone disruptors and neurotoxins have all been detected on apples, 98 percent of which test positive for pesticides. Because they're so popular and are eaten daily by so many people, apples earned the top spot on EWG's list of foods you should always buy organic.
<<<
>>> 7 crazy things pesticides are doing to your body
http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/are-you-living-in-a-pesticide-hot-spot
Agrochemicals, home bug sprays, and lawn treatments could be causing chronic illness in your family.
Pesticides are designed to kill, although the mode of action they use to put the stranglehold on pests varies. Whether it's nerve gas-like neurological disruption, the unbalancing of key hormones, or the stunting of a plant's ability to absorb life-sustaining trace minerals from the soil, none of the chemical interventions seems all that appetizing, especially considering that chemical residues routinely wind up on and even inside of the food we eat everyday. Pesticides are also blamed for diminishing mineral levels in foods.
Agrochemical supporters tend to fall back on a "the dose makes the poison" theory, meaning tiny exposures aren't really that harmful. Increasingly, though, independent scientists are debunking that belief, even proving that incredibly tiny doses could set a person up for health problems that might not crop up until decades down the line. Luckily, eating organic, less processed foods can cut back on your pesticide exposure.
Diabetes
Scientists have been noticing a link between pesticides and diabetes for years. The latest evidence comes out of the Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting, where Robert Sargis, MD, PhD, released the results of a study that suggest tolyfluanid, a fungicide used on farm crops, creates insulin resistance in fat cells. A 2011 study published in Diabetes Care found that overweight people with higher levels of organochlorine pesticides in their bodies also faced a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Prevent it: To save money on organic fare raised without pesticides, cook with organic dried beans. In the home, avoid using chemical air fresheners and artificially scented products -- these things are also blamed for inducing type 2 diabetes.
Cancer
More than 260 studies link pesticides to various cancers, including lymphoma, leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma, and brain, breast, prostate, bone, bladder, thyroid, colon, liver, and lung cancers, among others.
Prevent it: The President's Cancer Panel suggests eating organic and avoiding plastic to lower your risk of environmentally triggered cancers.
Autism & Other Developmental Diseases
How do you get autism? The world's leading autism researchers believe the condition develops from a mix of genes and the pollutants encountered in the mother's womb and early in life. Many insecticides effectively kill bugs by throwing off normal neurological functioning. That same thing appears to be happening in some children. A 2010 Harvard study found that children with organophosphate pesticide breakdown materials in their urine were far more likely to live with ADHD than kids without the trace pesticide residues.
Prevent it: Switching to an organic diet rapidly eliminates pesticide residues in the body.
Obesity
Some agrochemical pesticides act as hormone disruptors, meaning they act like a fake version of a naturally occurring hormone in your body, they block important hormone communication pathways in the body, or they interfere with your body's ability to regulate the healthy release of hormones. More than 50 pesticides are classified as hormone disruptors, and some of them promote metabolic syndrome and obesity as they accumulate in your cells, according to 2012 study appearing in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Parkinson's Disease
More than 60 studies show a connection between pesticides and the neurological disease Parkinson's, a condition characterized by uncontrolled trembling. The association is strongest for weed- and bug-killing chemical exposures over a long period of time, meaning it's important to keep these toxic compounds out of your household routine.
Prevent it: Don't turn to chemical interventions to kill bugs in your home or garden. Instead, use natural pest control measures.
Infertility
Pesticides spell trouble in the baby-making department, thanks to their bad habit of not staying put. For instance, atrazine, a common chemical weed killer used heavily in the Midwest, on Southern sugar cane farms, and on golf courses, has been detected in tap water. Doctors and scientists point to published evidence tying atrazine to increased miscarriage and infertility rates. Other pesticides cause a plunge in male testosterone levels. A 2006 study found chlorpyrifos, a chemical used in nonorganic apple and sweet pepper farming, and carbaryl, a go-to pesticide in strawberry fields and peach orchards, caused abnormally low testosterone levels.
Prevent it: Avoid the worst summer fruit, the kinds most likely to be laced with toxic pesticides. Instead, choose organic grapes, strawberries and imported plums.
Birth Defects
Babies conceived during the spring and summer months -- a time of year when pesticide use is in full swing -- face the highest risk of birth defects. During these months, higher pesticide levels turn up in surface waters, increasing a mother's risk of exposure. Spina bifida, cleft lip, clubfoot, and Down syndrome rates are higher when moms become pregnant during high season for pesticides.
Prevent it: To protect yourself, use a water filter that is certified by NSF International to meet American National Standards Institute Standard 53 for VOC (volatile organic compound) reduction. This will significantly reduce levels of atrazine and other pesticides in your tap water.
<<<
>>> Pesticide Alert: Don't Be Fooled by the Dirty Dozen
A new "Dirty Dozen" list points out the most pesticide-contaminated food, but don't take that to mean that everything else is OK.
By Leah Zerbe
http://www.rodale.com/pesticides-food
If it's not organic, pesticides can be in your food as well as on it.
Chemical-based farming causes problems we can't veggie-wash our way out of. It's common knowledge that conventional fruits and vegetables are contaminated with pesticide residues on their skins and peels. But what many people don't realize is that the problem of pesticides in food is more than skin deep. Pesticides sink into the most nutritious parts of fruits and vegetables—and can't be washed or peeled off.
And while a new Environmental Working Group (EWG) report highlights the "Dirty Dozen" of the produce world—food to always buy organic due to the amount of pesticides used in growing them—it's important to note that buying produce that isn't on that list might not be as protective as you might think, if it's not organic. And that includes food on the EWG's "Clean 15" list. That's because emerging research is finding that pesticide exposure—even in tiny amounts—can mess with the way our genes function throughout our lives and is linked to a range of ailments, from certain cancers to diabetes and obesity. Just this week, researchers found a link between pesticides in food and ADHD in children. "My first reaction is, only buy organic," says Warren Porter, PhD, professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and molecular and environmental toxicologist. "This list implies that one or two pesticides on a product are OK, but not five or 10."
The EWG "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides" lists celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, and imported grapes as the "Dirty Dozen," the ones to always buy organic. Its Clean 15 list, the produce that's lowest in the amount of different pesticides used, includes onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mangos, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potato, and honeydew melon.
While choosing organic versions of the produce found on the Dirty Dozen list is certainly a move in the right direction, it's also important to understand that eating non-organically grown fruits and vegetables listed on the Clean 15 list could still subject you to exposure to harmful chemicals. Toxic chemicals aren't just lurking on the outside of non-organic fruits and veggies, but actually inside them, too. "The fat and water-solubility properties of the pesticides and the non-ionic solvents and surfactants used offer access of the chemicals to every cell in the produce, and thus to every cell in your body," explains Porter. "It's a very serious matter, especially since we know that our own hormone systems respond in the parts per trillion to chemicals."
And although dozens of pesticides are used to grow our food, manufacturers are not required to test for a chemical's impact on learning, aggressive behavior, or its effect on sexual behavior, immune function, or shifts in hormones or fetal development patterns, all things that research has shown will clearly affect health during a lifespan. "The entire EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] registration process is functionally a bait-and-switch process," Porter says. What the public buys off the shelf is not what is registered. "Only the active ingredient—in ultra-pure form—is ever tested," he says, adding that all the other "inert" ingredients mix and can make the chemical more toxic than originally believed. "Furthermore, the EPA registration process is not one that considers safety. The decision as to whether or not to register a product is based on economic criteria, not safety." Products are not tested for how they affect gene expression and activity, for example. "There is significant concern now that we may be affecting generations yet unborn because of potential impacts on the way our genes are expressed, and the possibility that we could pass these changes on to subsequent generations," Porter says. "These kinds of effects are starting to be demonstrated in multiple environmental chemicals," he adds.
Chemical pesticides affect us in other ways, too. We get a double-whammy exposure when they wind up in our food and wash off fields into our drinking water supplies. But production, transportation, and application of farming chemicals are the most energy-intensive part of conventional agriculture—even more than food miles. Aside from that, pesticides kill beneficial, carbon-storing microorganisms in the soil, reducing soil quality, and opening the doors up for more plant diseases and difficulties surviving during droughts.
Here's how to avoid pesticides in food, in water and everywhere else in your life:
• Demand Organic. Eating organic foods dramatically lowers the amount of disease-causing pesticides in your body. A study published in 2005 looked at pesticide breakdown materials in Seattle children who ate conventional produce. They found they were excreting two known neurotoxic pesticides at parts per billion levels (remember, these things negatively affect us at much lower levels than that). "They were being dosed daily with poisons in their chemically produced foods," says Porter. But when those same children were given organic food, their contamination levels dropped significantly.
• Eat whole. Porter explains that two ingredients found in most processed foods in one way or another—genetically engineered corn and soy—likely contain more pesticides because the plants are genetically engineered to survive sprayings of plant-killing glyphosate (Roundup). The problem is, the overuse of pesticides (much like we're seeing with antibiotics) is leading to pesticide-resistant superweeds, forcing farmers to use higher doses of the poison on our crops, and even to "stack" pesticides, meaning use several different types on a crop. Cutting back on processed foods will reduce your exposure. Remember to go for organic whole foods, since you'll likely find chemicals inside conventional whole fruits and vegetables.
• Save money on organic. You can afford organic. The trick is to cook with whole, organic ingredients (soups and Crock-Pot recipes are quick and easy ways to do this), and to eat in season. Hit up your local farmer's market and buy organic in bulk, and then can or freeze extra tomatoes, pickle cucumbers and beans, freeze herbs, or make jam or jelly. Another great way to save money and afford organic is to cut meat out of your daily menu. Opt for organic quinoa, lentils, or dried organic beans as super-cheap, healthy protein sources, and save organic meat for special occasions. And of course, to really save money, grow your own organic vegetable garden. You can grow more than a hundred pounds of produce on a small plot!
<<<
>>> What Biotech Pesticides Are Doing to Our Bodies
Roundup weed killer is now turning up in rain and the air. And that has potentially devastating impacts on our health.
By Leah Zerbe
http://www.rodale.com/roundup-weed-killer-0?page=0,1
Thanks to biotech firms, now even our storms are Roundup-ready.
RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The scientific evidence piling up against Roundup, the best-selling weed killer for home and farm use, is starting to sound a bit sci-fi. The latest damaging evidence against this potent herbicide, once widely believed to be safe, comes from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which is now detecting glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, in streams, the air, and even rain.
While the concentrations detected in rain and air are thousands of times less than what farmers dump onto field crops, emerging scientific evidence about what these chronic low-level exposures do to our bodies is cause for major concern, particularly among unborn babies and young children. These tiny amounts we're breathing in daily could be altering our hormones and wreaking all sorts of havoc on our bodies, but the human health effects may not show up for years or decades. "We don't fully know what our results mean," says study author Paul Capel, PhD, environmental chemist at USGS. "If we go out to the streams or air, we see it. There's a broader off-field exposure. The significance of that, I don't think we really know."
Pesticide-exposure expert Warren Porter, PhD, professor of environmental toxicity and zoology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, did the math. He took the air exposure numbers from the USGS study and found some reason for concern. His calculations showed that the levels found in the USGS survey could lead to accumulated levels that could alter endocrine mediated biochemical pathways, leading to obesity, heart problems, circulation problems, and diabetes. Low-level exposure to hormone disruptors like glyphosate (Roundup's main ingredient) has also been linked to weakened immune function and learning disabilities. "This study is just looking at a single day of exposure," he says. "If you consider that our body hormones work in the parts per trillion and you disrupt normal endocrine function, which tends to alter biochemical pathways, you may be flipping biological switches that have long-term impacts. No one has explored whether Roundup has epigenetic impacts which alter gene expression, possibly for a lifetime."
So why the influx of Roundup in the air? Easy. The majority of corn, cotton, canola, and soy crops grown in the United States are genetically engineered to tolerate heavy dousings of Roundup. Interestingly, the same company, Monsanto, developed both the pesticide and the genetically engineered seed created to handle that pesticide—they're sold together as a package. When we eat those crops (or when they're turned into ingredients used in processed foods), we wind up eating the Roundup, too. Roundup is actually taken up inside of food that we eat, so not only are we breathing it in and getting soaked in it when it rains, but we're also eating it at dinnertime.
The Roundup Hall of Shame
In addition to all the things Roundup is doing to our hormones, scientists have linked it to these other problems:
Nutritional Deficiencies
To kill weeds, glyphosate inhibits a plant's ability to take up trace minerals like manganese and magnesium. Those are things humans need to be healthy, and plant pathologists are noting a decline in nutrients in food since heavy pesticide use ensued. “[Glyphosate] is the most abused chemical we’ve ever had in agriculture,” veteran plant pathologist Don Huber, PhD, professor emeritus of Purdue University, told Rodale.com earlier this year. “We’re using chemical quantities we never would have imagined in the past.”
Birth Defects and Infertility
Scientists released a report earlier this summer citing evidence that Monsanto has known about Roundup's link to birth defects since the 1980s, when internal research found mutations in animals exposed to high doses. In a 2005 study involving human placental cells, Roundup affected synthesis of aromatase, the key enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen. If it's doing the same thing in human bodies, especially fetuses, it could alter sexual development and possibly lead to diseases linked to infertility, like polycystic ovarian syndrome. [Correction: The article previously indicated monkeys were involved in the 2005 study, but it was actually human placental cells.]
Superweed Spawn
Farmers were sold on Roundup Ready crops as chemical dealers promised less work and less chemical use. Unfortunately, as more weeds are exposed to Roundup, they are developing a resistance to it. These hard-to-kill superweeds are emerging, and farmers aren't able to destroy them, even when they dump even higher doses of pesticides on the crops.
Lower Crop Yields
In years of drought (and let's face it, we're experiencing more severe weather extremes these days), chemically treated fields perform worse than organically managed ones, despite promises from chemical companies that Roundup Ready crops perform better in extreme weather conditions. When conditions are more stable, organic farming and Roundup Ready farming methods yield the same amount of a given crop.
So how can you tell the chemical companies to keep Roundup out of our rain and our food?
• Eat organic. Eat healthy, organic food on a budget by purchasing organic fare directly from farmers when it's in season. Choose organic dried beans for a super-cheap and healthy protein source.
• Practice nontoxic weed control at home. Instead of reaching for Roundup or other lawn chemicals to kill weeds, try organic-approved BurnOut—its main ingredients are clove oil and food-grade vinegar. And start setting your mower deck to at least 3 inches. The longer grass length discourages weed growth.
<<<
>>> 7 things pesticides are doing to your body
MSN
6-3-13
http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/7-crazy-things-pesticides-are-doing-to-your-body
Agrochemicals, home bug sprays, and lawn treatments could be causing chronic illness in your family.
Pesticides are designed to kill, although the mode of action they use to put the stranglehold on pests varies. Whether it's nerve gas-like neurological disruption, the unbalancing of key hormones, or the stunting of a plant's ability to absorb life-sustaining trace minerals from the soil, none of the chemical interventions seems all that appetizing, especially considering that chemical residues routinely wind up on and even inside of the food we eat everyday. Pesticides are also blamed for diminishing mineral levels in foods.
Agrochemical supporters tend to fall back on a "the dose makes the poison" theory, meaning tiny exposures aren't really that harmful. Increasingly, though, independent scientists are debunking that belief, even proving that incredibly tiny doses could set a person up for health problems that might not crop up until decades down the line. Luckily, eating organic, less processed foods can cut back on your pesticide exposure.
Diabetes
Scientists have been noticing a link between pesticides and diabetes for years. The latest evidence comes out of the Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting, where Robert Sargis, MD, PhD, released the results of a study that suggest tolyfluanid, a fungicide used on farm crops, creates insulin resistance in fat cells. A 2011 study published in Diabetes Care found that overweight people with higher levels of organochlorine pesticides in their bodies also faced a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Prevent it: To save money on organic fare raised without pesticides, cook with organic dried beans. In the home, avoid using chemical air fresheners and artificially scented products -- these things are also blamed for inducing type 2 diabetes.
Cancer
More than 260 studies link pesticides to various cancers, including lymphoma, leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma, and brain, breast, prostate, bone, bladder, thyroid, colon, liver, and lung cancers, among others.
Prevent it: The President's Cancer Panel suggests eating organic and avoiding plastic to lower your risk of environmentally triggered cancers.
Autism & Other Developmental Diseases
How do you get autism? The world's leading autism researchers believe the condition develops from a mix of genes and the pollutants encountered in the mother's womb and early in life. Many insecticides effectively kill bugs by throwing off normal neurological functioning. That same thing appears to be happening in some children. A 2010 Harvard study found that children with organophosphate pesticide breakdown materials in their urine were far more likely to live with ADHD than kids without the trace pesticide residues.
Prevent it: Switching to an organic diet rapidly eliminates pesticide residues in the body.
Obesity
Some agrochemical pesticides act as hormone disruptors, meaning they act like a fake version of a naturally occurring hormone in your body, they block important hormone communication pathways in the body, or they interfere with your body's ability to regulate the healthy release of hormones. More than 50 pesticides are classified as hormone disruptors, and some of them promote metabolic syndrome and obesity as they accumulate in your cells, according to 2012 study appearing in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Parkinson's Disease
More than 60 studies show a connection between pesticides and the neurological disease Parkinson's, a condition characterized by uncontrolled trembling. The association is strongest for weed- and bug-killing chemical exposures over a long period of time, meaning it's important to keep these toxic compounds out of your household routine.
Prevent it: Don't turn to chemical interventions to kill bugs in your home or garden. Instead, use natural pest control measures.
Infertility
Pesticides spell trouble in the baby-making department, thanks to their bad habit of not staying put. For instance, atrazine, a common chemical weed killer used heavily in the Midwest, on Southern sugar cane farms, and on golf courses, has been detected in tap water. Doctors and scientists point to published evidence tying atrazine to increased miscarriage and infertility rates. Other pesticides cause a plunge in male testosterone levels. A 2006 study found chlorpyrifos, a chemical used in nonorganic apple and sweet pepper farming, and carbaryl, a go-to pesticide in strawberry fields and peach orchards, caused abnormally low testosterone levels.
Prevent it: Avoid the worst summer fruit, the kinds most likely to be laced with toxic pesticides. Instead, choose organic grapes, strawberries and imported plums.
Birth Defects
Babies conceived during the spring and summer months -- a time of year when pesticide use is in full swing -- face the highest risk of birth defects. During these months, higher pesticide levels turn up in surface waters, increasing a mother's risk of exposure. Spina bifida, cleft lip, clubfoot, and Down syndrome rates are higher when moms become pregnant during high season for pesticides.
Prevent it: To protect yourself, use a water filter that is certified by NSF International to meet American National Standards Institute Standard 53 for VOC (volatile organic compound) reduction. This will significantly reduce levels of atrazine and other pesticides in your tap water.
<<<
!!! - Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637
>>> Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize
Abstract
The health effects of a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize (from 11% in the diet), cultivated with or without Roundup, and Roundup alone (from 0.1 ppb in water), were studied 2 years in rats. In females, all treated groups died 2–3 times more than controls, and more rapidly. This difference was visible in 3 male groups fed GMOs. All results were hormone and sex dependent, and the pathological profiles were comparable. Females developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before controls, the pituitary was the second most disabled organ; the sex hormonal balance was modified by GMO and Roundup treatments. In treated males, liver congestions and necrosis were 2.5–5.5 times higher. This pathology was confirmed by optic and transmission electron microscopy. Marked and severe kidney nephropathies were also generally 1.3–2.3 greater. Males presented 4 times more large palpable tumors than controls which occurred up to 600 days earlier. Biochemistry data confirmed very significant kidney chronic deficiencies; for all treatments and both sexes, 76% of the altered parameters were kidney related. These results can be explained by the non linear endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup, but also by the overexpression of the transgene in the GMO and its metabolic consequences.
Highlights
A Roundup-tolerant maize and Roundup provoked chronic hormone and sex dependent pathologies. Female mortality was 2–3 times increased mostly due to large mammary tumors and disabled pituitary. Males had liver congestions, necrosis, severe kidney nephropathies and large palpable tumors. This may be due to an endocrine disruption linked to Roundup and a new metabolism due to the transgene. GMOs and formulated pesticides must be evaluated by long term studies to measure toxic effects..
<<<
>>> GMO foods produce tumors and organ damage in animals per new long-term study
Full paper -
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637
September 19, 2012
By: Carla Ives
http://www.examiner.com/article/gmo-foods-produce-tumors-and-organ-damage-animals-per-new-long-term-study
The California organization "Right to Know" is reporting today, September 19, 2012, that the first ever peer-reviewed, long-term animal study of GMO foods has been released. GMO stands for genetically-modified organism. That study links genetically-engineered corn to mammary tumors, kidney and liver damage.
The study was published in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology. If you have the scientific knowledge and terminology to read it, you can find the complete study HERE. It is long and very detailed.
There have been other studies done in the past on GMO foods which were usually 90-day studies. These studies linked GMO foods to allergies, liver and kidney problems. The release of this long-term animal study gives even further evidence of abnormalities resulting from GMO corn.
Advocates of GMO foods claim that these genetic crop modifications have allowed farmers to be more productive than ever, which equates to more people being fed. The GMO crops need less tilling, which reduces soil erosion, and use less pesticides. Crops are even being developed that will survive droughts, heat waves and other natural disasters, thus ensuring the food supply.
GMOs and GMO foods have been around for almost 20 years. Why, then, is this only the first long-term study? An article in Scientific American suggests that claims on both sides may be somewhat inaccurate due to a lack of independent research. Scientific American claims that agritech companies (those that produce GMO foods) have given themselves veto power over independent research; in other words, they control access to existing research.
To be accepted among scientific professionals, studies must be "peer-reviewed," meaning that other experts in that particular field of study get to review the work and put their stamp of approval on it. According to Scientific American, not all of the GMO food studies make it to a peer review panel. The ones that do make it are usually the ones favorable to the GMOs.
That fact makes this independent, peer-reviewed study very significant. California has a question on their ballot in the upcoming election, Proposition 37, which asks if consumers should have the right to have these products labeled so they can make conscientious buying decisions. Currently, GMOs are not required to state that they are, in fact, GMOs on food packaging.
So what do you think? Should there be labeling on GMO foods to clearly indicate that the food you are purchasing comes from scientifically-altered crops? Is Scientific American maybe off in their analysis of the existing research and it truly is reliable? Are you comfortable with the whole GMO process? Please leave a comment below.
<<<
Monsanto -- >>> MIT study -- >>> Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450
Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut
Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases
Anthony Samsel 1 and Stephanie Seneff 2,*
1 Independent Scientist and Consultant, Deerfield, NH 03037, USA;
E-Mail: anthonysamsel@acoustictracks.net
2 Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Received: 15 January 2013; in revised form: 10 April 2013 / Accepted: 10 April 2013 /
Published:
Abstract: Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide
used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue
otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily
of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes
is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in
biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging
effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact
on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular
systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts
synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria,
as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases
and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders,
obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s
disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease,
and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the
disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins. <<<
>>> An insidious issue with glyphosate is that its toxic effects on mammals take considerable time to be
overtly manifested. Studies on Wistar rats exposed to the highest levels of glyphosate allowed in water
for human consumption for 30 or 90 days showed enhanced lipid peroxidation and glutathione peroxidase
activity, indicators of oxidative stress [44]. A long-term study conducted on rats showed remarkable
pathologies that became apparent only after the three-month period that is usually allotted for toxicity
trials. In this experiment, rats were monitored over their entire lifespan, while being fed either
genetically modified (GM) or non-GM maize that had been optionally treated with Roundup® [9]. The
rats that were chronically exposed to Roundup® developed several pathologies over the course of their
lifespan, including large mammary tumors in the females and gastrointestinal, liver and kidney
pathologies, especially in the males. The males developed both skin and liver carcinomas. Premature
death in the treated male rats was mostly due to severe hepatorenal insufficiencies. Other researchers
have shown that oral exposure to glyphosate in drinking water can induce DNA damage to mouse cells
drawn from blood and liver [45].
Researchers have discovered that Roundup® is sometimes much more toxic than glyphosate by itself... <<<
Full paper -
http://gmoevidence.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/GlyModern-diseaseSamsel-Seneff-13-1.pdf
>>> Modern Wheat Is The ‘Perfect Chronic Poison’ Says Experts
NATASHA LONGO
preventdisease.com
May 23, 2013
http://www.infowars.com/modern-wheat-is-the-perfect-chronic-poison-says-expert/
The world’s most popular grain is also the deadliest for the human metabolism. Modern wheat isn’t really wheat at all and is a “perfect, chronic poison,” according to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist, author and leading expert on wheat.
Approximately 700 million tons of wheat are now cultivated worldwide making it the second most-produced grain after maize. It is grown on more land area than any other commerical crop and is considered a staple food for humans.
At some point in our history, this ancient grain was nutritious in some respects, however modern wheat really isn’t wheat at all. Once agribusiness took over to develop a higher-yielding crop, wheat became hybridized to such an extent that it has been completely transformed from it’s prehistorical genetic configuration. All nutrient content of modern wheat depreciated more than 30% in its natural unrefined state compared to its ancestral genetic line. The balance and ratio that mother nature created for wheat was also modified and human digestion and physiology could simply could not adapt quick enough to the changes.
Davis said that the wheat we eat these days isn’t the wheat your grandma had: “It’s an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic research in the ’60s and ’70s,” he said on “CBS This Morning.” “This thing has many new features nobody told you about, such as there’s a new protein in this thing called gliadin. It’s not gluten. I’m not addressing people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. I’m talking about everybody else because everybody else is susceptible to the gliadin protein that is an opiate. This thing binds into the opiate receptors in your brain and in most people stimulates appetite, such that we consume 440 more calories per day, 365 days per year.”
Asked if the farming industry could change back to the grain it formerly produced, Davis said it could, but it would not be economically feasible because it yields less per acre. However, Davis said a movement has begun with people turning away from wheat – and dropping substantial weight.
“If three people lost eight pounds, big deal,” he said. “But we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of people losing 30, 80, 150 pounds. Diabetics become no longer diabetic; people with arthritis having dramatic relief. People losing leg swelling, acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, and on and on every day.”
To avoid these wheat-oriented products, Davis suggests eating “real food,” such as avocados, olives, olive oil, meats, and vegetables. “(It’s) the stuff that is least likely to have been changed by agribusiness,” he said. “Certainly not grains. When I say grains, of course, over 90 percent of all grains we eat will be wheat, it’s not barley… or flax. It’s going to be wheat.
The Nutrional Value of Wheat is Practically Non-Existent
In Its Current Form
So-called health experts in nutrition who continue to promote the health benefits of wheat are extremely uninformed about the nature of modern wheat and its evolution from growth to consumption. It is shocking how many professionals in public health still recommend wheat products without an assessment of their individual requirements, especially considering the amount of evidence regarding its lack of nutrition and health risks for proportionally large segments of the population.
The majority of wheat is processed into 60% extraction, bleached white flour. 60% extraction–the standard for most wheat products means that 40% of the original wheat grain is removed. So not only do we have an unhealthier, modified, and hybridized strain of wheat, we also remove and further degrade its nutritional value by processing it. Unfortunately, the 40% that gets removed includes the bran and the germ of the wheat grain–its most nutrient-rich parts. In the process of making 60% extraction flour, over half of the vitamin B1, B2, B3, E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, iron, and fiber are lost. Any processed foods with wheat are akin to poison for the body since they cause more health risks than benefits. The body does not recognize processed wheat as food. Nutrient absorption from processed wheat products is thus consequential with almost no nutritional value.
Some experts claim if you select 100% whole wheat products, the bran and the germ of the wheat will remain in your meals, and the health benefits will be impressive. This is again a falsity promoted by the wheat industry since even 100% whole wheat products are based on modern wheat strains created by irradiation of wheat seeds and embryos with chemicals, gamma rays, and high-dose X-rays to induce mutations. Whether you consume 10% or 100% of wheat is irrelevant since you’re still consuming a health damaging grain that will not benefit, advance or even maintain your health in any way.
Dr. Marcia Alvarez who specializes in nutritional programs for obese patients says that when it comes to nutrition, wheat may be considered as an evil grain. “Modern wheat grains could certainly be considered as the root of all evil in the world of nutrition since they cause so many documented health problems across so many populations in the world.” Dr. Alvarez asserted that wheat is now responsible for more intolerances than almost any other food in the world. “In my practice of over two decades, we have documented that for every ten people with digestive problems, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, arthritis and even heart disease, eight out of ten have a problem with wheat. Once we remove wheat from their diets, most of their symptoms disappear within three to six months,” she added. Dr. Alvarez estimates that between the coming influx of genetically modified (GM) strains of wheat and the current tendency of wheat elimination in societies, that a trend is emerging in the next 20 years that will likely see 80% of people cease their consumption of wheat from any form.
It’s Really A Wheat Issue
Some health resources, such as the Mayo Clinic, advocate a more balanced diet that does include wheat. But Davis said on “CTM” they’re just offering a poor alternative.
“All that literature says is to replace something bad, white enriched products with something less bad, whole grains, and there’s an apparent health benefit – ‘Let’s eat a whole bunch of less bad things.’ So I take…unfiltered cigarettes and replace with Salem filtered cigarettes, you should smoke the Salems. That’s the logic of nutrition, it’s a deeply flawed logic. What if I take it to the next level, and we say, ‘Let’s eliminate all grains,’ what happens then?
“That’s when you see, not improvements in health, that’s when you see transformations in health.”
Health Effects
A powerful little chemical in wheat known as ‘wheat germ agglutinin’ (WGA) which is largely responsible for many of wheat’s pervasive, and difficult to diagnose, ill effects. Researchers are now discovering that WGA in modern wheat is very different from ancient strains. Not only does WGA throw a monkey wrench into our assumptions about the primary causes of wheat intolerance, but due to the fact that WGA is found in highest concentrations in “whole wheat,” including its supposedly superior sprouted form, it also pulls the rug out from under one of the health food industry’s favorite poster children.
Each grain of wheat contains about one microgram of Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA). Even in small quantities, WGA can have profoundly adverse effects. It may be pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, cardiotoxic … and neurotoxic.
Below the radar of conventional serological testing for antibodies against the various gluten proteins and genetic testing for disease susceptibility, the WGA “lectin problem” remains almost entirely obscured. Lectins, though found in all grains, seeds, legumes, dairy and our beloved nightshades: the tomato and potato, are rarely discussed in connection with health or illness, even when their presence in our diet may greatly reduce both the quality and length of our lives. Yet health experts dismiss the links between disease and wheat despite all the evidence.
Dr William Davis has documented several hundred clinical studies on the adverse effects of wheat. These are studies that document the neurologic impairments unique to wheat, including cerebellar ataxia and dementia; heart disease; visceral fat accumulation and all its attendant health consequences; the process of glycation via amylopectin A of wheat that leads to cataracts, diabetes, and arthritis; among others. There are, in fact, a wealth of studies documenting the adverse, often crippling, effects of wheat consumption in humans.
The other claim is that wheat elimination ‘means missing out on a wealth of essential nutrients. Another falsity. Dr. Davis states that if you replace wheat with healthy foods like vegetables, nuts, healthy oils, meats, eggs, cheese, avocados, and olives, then there is no nutrient deficiency that develops with elimination of wheat. Dr Davis also states that people with celiac disease may require long-term supplementation due to extensive gastrointenstinal damage caused by wheat.
People with celiac disease do indeed experience deficiencies of multiple vitamins and minerals after they eliminate all wheat and gluten from the diet. But this is not due to a diet lacking valuable nutrients, but from the incomplete healing of the gastrointestinal tract (such as the lining of the duodenum and proximal jejunum). In these people, the destructive effects of wheat are so overpowering that, unfortunately, some people never heal completely. These people do indeed require vitamin and mineral supplementation, as well as probiotics and pancreatic enzyme supplementation.
Due to the unique properties of amylopectin A, two slices of whole wheat bread increase blood sugar higher than many candy bars. High blood glucose leads to the process of glycation that, in turn, causes arthritis (cartilage glycation), cataracts (lens protein glycation), diabetes (glycotoxicity of pancreatic beta cells), hepatic de novo lipogenesis that increases triglycerides and, thereby, increases expression of atherogenic (heart disease-causing) small LDL particles, leading to heart attacks. Repetitive high blood sugars that develop from a grain-rich diet are, in my view, very destructive and lead to weight gain (specifically visceral fat), insulin resistance, leptin resistance (leading to obesity), and many of the health struggles that many now experience.
Wheat gliadin has been associated with cerebellar ataxia, peripheral neuropathy, gluten encephalopathy (dementia), behavioral outbursts in children with ADHD and autism, and paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations in people with schizophrenia, severe and incapacitating effects for people suffering from these conditions.
According to statistics from the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, an average of one out of every 133 otherwise healthy people in the United States suffers from Celiac Disease (CD). However, an estimated 20-30 percent of the world’s population may carry the genetic susceptibility to celiac disease–and the way to avoid turning these genes ‘on’ is by avoiding gluten.
When you consider that undiagnosed CD is associated with a nearly four-fold increased risk of premature death, the seriousness of this food sensitivity becomes quite evident. The primary disease mechanism at play is chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammatory and degenerative conditions are endemic to grain-consuming populations.
Changes in genetic code and, thereby, antigenic profile, of the high-yield semi-dwarf wheat cultivars now on the market account for the marked increase in celiac potential nationwide. “Hybridization” techniques, including chemical mutagenesis to induce selective mutations, leads to development of unique strains that are not subject to animal or human safety testing–they are just brought to market and sold.
Wheat-Free Options
* Note that many of the wheat-free options still contain gluten and many people sensitive to wheat may still experience digestive problems and bloating. Experiment in see what works best for you. Caution is advised with cereal grains if you have diagnosed with gluen intolerance.
1. Cereal Grains: Barley, millet, oats, rice, rye, sorghum, tef and wild rice are all in the same cereal grain family as is wheat. All flours ground from cereal grains may be used as a wheat substitute. Commonly available are barley, buckwheat, rice and rye flour. The less utilized flours may be purchased online or from natural food stores. Note: people with a gluten allergy must also avoid barley, oats and rye.
2. Non-Cereal Grains: Amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat are three grain-like seeds unrelated to cereal grains. (Despite its name, buckwheat is not a wheat-relative.) It is rare for anyone to develop a sensitivity to these non-cereal grains. Amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat are gluten-free and therefore not suitable for making leavened bread; however, they make excellent quick breads and cookies.
3. Nut Meal: Ground nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts make the richest flour substitute for cookies and cakes. Because their fragile fatty acid content gives them a brief shelf life, it’s preferable to grind your own nuts in a food processor just prior to use. Nut meal requires a binding agent such as eggs. Because chestnuts are lower in fat than other nuts, chestnut flour has a longer shelf life. It is available online.
4. Bean Flour: Dried beans, such as navy, pinto and chickpeas may be milled and used, in combination with other flours, as a wheat alternative. Bean flour is, however, not always recommended. It tastes like beans and makes baked goods dense and hard to digest.
5. Other Flour Substitutes: Potato starch, arrowroot powder, and tapioca are thickening agents that substitute for wheat in sauces and gravy. In baked goods these starchy ingredients serve as a binding agent
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Monsanto, Potash Corp, Mosaic -- >>> 3 Agricultural Giants: Which One Would You Buy?
By Victor Selva
May 3, 2013
Tickers: MON, POT, MOS
http://beta.fool.com/victorselva/2013/05/03/3-giants-in-the-agricultural-sector/32795/?source=eogyholnk0000001
In the growing agricultural products market, there are some companies which just can't be ignored. As emerging economies, especially India and China, demand growing volumes, we will look into the growth prospects of the main players: Monsanto (NYSE: MON), PotashCorp (NYSE: POT), and Mosaic (NYSE: MOS).
The leader
Monsanto is a global agricultural product provider that leads the global seed segment. After delivering a strong fiscal 2012, the company recently released results for Q2 2013 and has not disappointed investors. Earnings per share were up 19% year over year to $2.73. Given the encouraging results, most analysts (Morningstar, Barrons, WSJ, Zacks) recommend buying the stock, especially as it trades at a P/E of 22.02, close to its historical low.
Monsanto projects that by the end of fiscal 2013 in August, EPS will reach $4.40-$4.50, upgrading their estimates from $4.30-$4.40. After the first quarter’s earnings report, the company had done the same. This reveals the company’s greater expectations for the year based on these preliminary results.
Corn seed and traits sales grew considerably over the past year, especially in North and Latin America. Revenue from this source was 16% higher than in 2012’s second quarter, reaching $3.28 billion, and driving overall revenue higher by 15.2%. This trend in corn is expected to continue at least until the end of fiscal 2013, with Brazil and Argentina providing the most interesting prospects.
In order to further increase profitability, Monsanto has widened its product offerings by signing a multi-year licensing contract with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. As a result of this agreement, the company will receive annual fixed royalty payments until 2017 and continued minimum payments until 2023.
The Agradis and Rosetta Green acquisitions should increase earnings as well.
Despite the advice to buy, certain risks should be taken into account. For starters, the fact that the company operates worldwide leads to two main issues: 1) the segment is highly competitive internationally, forcing Monsanto to increase production costs in order to produce better, high yielding seed varieties; and 2) as it operates in many countries and regions, the firm is exposed to all kinds of risks related to local political, economic, and currency fluctuations. In addition, the reported revenue from soybeans of $677 million registered a decline of 17%, year over year.
A leading stock in the fertilizer sector
PotashCorp, the fertilizer giant, has divided analysts’ opinions lately. While some experts expect the company to deliver a performance similar to the wider U.S. equity market in the short-term (6 to 12 months), others assume outperformance, thus recommending investors to buy the stock.
In spite of this disagreement, several positives can be found in PotashCorp. Last month, the company announced its results for 2013’s first quarter. Sales volumes increased 83% to 2.2 million tonnes compared to the year ago figure of 1.2 million, and potash sales volume also increased 78%, mainly driven by demand from China and India.
EPS beat the $0.59 analyst consensus, coming in at $0.63 a share; same was the case with revenue which was $2.1 billion, ahead of the $1.82 billion consensus estimate. Given this situation, the outlook seems promising for PotashCorp.
One of the company’s main strengths lies in its diversified product offerings. Nitrogen has proved to be a more resilient and profitable nutrient than potash and phosphate. Given the fact that over 30% of this firm’s revenue during Q1 came from nitrogen, and that demand of this product is strong (over 60% of the fertilizers consumed in the U.S. use nitrogen) and rising, future revenue should be driven by this product.
Also encouraging are the company’s worldwide investments that have consolidated its dominance in the largest potash markets worldwide. PotashCorp owns 22% of China’s leading fertilizer distributor, Sinofert, 32% of Chilean nutrient and lithium firm, Sociedad Quimica y Minera,14% of Israel Chemicals, and 28% of Arab Potash Company in Jordan.
Finally, the firm’s financials are quite strong. It has industry leading net margin of 26.2%, ROE of 21%, ROA of 11.4%, and ROC of 24.8%, as well as EPS and revenue growth of 21.4% and 19.8%, respectively.
Dividend yield of 2.1% is the highest offered by the company throughout its history and one of the best yields in the industry.
It is trading at a reasonable P/E of 16.6x, which is below the 20.9x industry average.
On the downside, asset growth of 14.8% annually has been considerably higher than the revenue growth rate average of 6.3% over the past five years. The weakening in potash demand in the U.S. could seriously affect the company’s finances too.
A stock to bear in mind
Just like in PotashCorp’s case, analysts can’t fully agree on Mosaic, the world´s biggest phosphate producer. Although the company is not particularly strong and last quarter´s results reported very little growth, some recent insider stock purchases have taken place at Mosaic.
On the upside, fiscal third-quarter results included a 9% growth in gross profit year over year to $568 million. Similar was the case with net income, which came in at $345 million, up 26% (YoY). Similar to PotashCorp´s situation, the increased Chinese and Indian potash demand drove this item´s sales volume up 62% (YoY). The vertical integration in its phosphate production also provides the company with some extra advantage, given the fact that rock prices are reaching historical highs and Mosaic mines its own phosphate.
However, the decrease in potash and phosphate consumption worldwide has considerably affected this company that does not deal in nitrogen, and has left it considerably behind PotashCorp in both growth and margins.
Bottom line
It has become clear that Mosaic is not a top investment pick. Monsanto and PotashCorp, however, are. Although both offer considerable upside, I'm inclined towards PotashCorp. Trading at $41 and with a target price of $53, it provides a very interesting entry point, especially given the 11.9x Forward P/E.
With less and less arable land available around the world, increasing yields from existing plots could become vitally important to keeping up with expected population growth. Cheap and effective fertilizers could be the key to achieving this goal. As the global leader in potash production, PotashCorp has established several barriers to entry that make it nearly impossible for competition to break through. Click here now to access The Motley Fool's premium research report that covers precisely what these barriers to entry are and details several other key reasons why PotashCorp presents such a compelling investment opportunity today.
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ADM -- >>> Archer Daniels Held at Neutral
By Zacks Equity Research
Feb 19, 2013
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/archer-daniels-held-neutral-152343666.html
We have retained our Neutral stance on Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM). The company’s strong quarterly performance and continuous focus on enhancing its processing capabilities and global footprint are its strengths. However, we remain on the sidelines due to the projected rise in raw material prices in the near-term and expected decline in demand for corn-based ethanol.
Why the Reiteration?
Archer Daniels is one of the leading players in the global food processing industry and commands a massive network of more than 680 processing and sourcing facilities and 27,000 vehicles operating across the Americas, Europe and Asia for transportation of agricultural commodities. This provides a strong competitive advantage to the company and strengthens its well-established position in the market.
Archer Daniels posted strong results for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2012, as adjusted earnings of 60 cents per share rose 17.6% from the year-ago quarter earnings of $0.51 per share. Net sales of $24,921 million improved 6.9% year over year mainly driven by robust performances at Oilseeds and Agricultural Services segments, partially offset by weak results at the company’s Corn Processing segment.
Moreover, Archer Daniels remains extensively focused on enhancing its processing capacities, which includes expanding crushing capacities in North America, and fertilizer blending and biodiesel capacities in South America. In Europe, the company has acquired processing facilities in Czech Republic and Germany and 3 storing facilities in Slovakia. Further, the company is in talks to acquire GrainCorp, aiming to boost its market share in Australia.
In addition, in order to tap the growing global demand for crops and agricultural products, Archer Daniels is expanding its global footprint in the emerging markets, especially Asia. These initiatives offer a strong upside potential to the company in the long run.
However, we remain slightly cautious on the stock as we believe that the company’s margins may shrink further in the near-term due to rising oilseeds and corn prices resulting from weak agricultural produce in the U.S. Further, U.S. has imported higher sugar-based ethanol from Brazil to meet the growing demand of ethanol, which may adversely affect the demand for Archer Daniels’ corn-based ethanol.
Other Stocks to Consider
Besides Archer Daniels, which holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), other stocks worth considering in the Farm products industry are ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG), Flowers Foods Inc. (FLO) and J&J Snack Foods Corp. (JJSF), all of which hold a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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Monsanto, ADM, Deere - In a World of Scarce Resources, Consider these Stocks
By Robert Ciura
February 13, 2013|
Tickers: AWR, ADM, DE, MON
http://beta.fool.com/rciura/2013/02/13/world-scarce-resources-consider-these-stocks/24122/?ticker=MON&source=eogyholnk0000001
The human population was estimated to be nearly 7 billion in 2011 by The World Bank. Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the number to be slightly higher than that. The world’s population keeps growing, and emerging economies continue to develop. As a result, commodity prices have risen in recent years and are likely to keep rising over time. With that in mind, the following companies have business models poised to profit from the reality of scarce resources.
Monsanto (NYSE: MON) is the $55 billion agricultural giant that provides products for farmers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. Last October, the company reported its full-year financial results, which were very good.
Total revenues rose more than 14% year over year, and earnings per share climbed more than 28% versus the prior year. Since 2008, Monsanto achieved four-year compound annual growth in sales of 4.4%.
Furthermore, the company got off to a great start in fiscal 2013, reporting first-quarter sales growth of more than 20%. Monsanto’s stock has been on fire recently, rising more than 30% in 2012 and has increased more than 6% to begin 2013.
Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) carries a $20 billion market capitalization and manufactures and sells protein meal, vegetable oil, corn sweeteners, flour, biodiesel, and ethanol. In early February, the company reported 2012 second-quarter earnings per share of $0.60, up 18% from the previous year. In addition, the company provided investors with a 9% dividend increase.
Archer Daniels Midland has an impressive dividend track record, having paid dividends for 325 consecutive quarters. The company has raised its dividend every year since 2002. At current prices, the stock looks to be attractive for both value and dividend investors, with a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of less than 15 and a 2.5% yield.
Deere (NYSE: DE) manufactures and distributes agriculture and turf equipment, and construction and forestry equipment, worldwide, commanding a $36 billion market value.
Deere is certainly not an expensive stock, with trailing and forward P/Es of 12 and 10, respectively. In addition, the stock trades for a price-to-earnings growth ratio of 1.13, indicating that the company is priced conservatively in relation to its future growth expectations.
In December, Deere provided investors its annual results, reporting sales and earnings per share growth of 13% and 15%, respectively. In addition, in 2012 Deere raised its dividend by more than 12% and should raise its dividend in time for its next payout.
American States Water Company (NYSE: AWR) provides the most scarce resource of all: water. The company purchases and distributes water in California.
The company is the gold standard for dividend-raisers. American States Water Company has increased its dividend every year since 1955, a streak amounting to 58 consecutive years. Its last dividend raise was an impressive 27% in 2012.
American States Water Company is a small-cap stock with only a $1 billion valuation. Clearly, the company has room to grow, and considering it provides an absolute essential product to society, would be interesting to research for both growth and income investors.
The Bottom Line
As the number of people on this planet keeps rising, its available resources remain constant. There is only so much water and land on this planet available for food production. Developing economies, such as the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have experienced high economic growth and consequently high demand for commodities such as wheat, corn, and water.
Value investors may prefer Archer Daniels Midland and American States Water Company because of their market-beating dividend yields and reasonable valuations. More growth-oriented investors probably would prefer Monsanto and Deere; their yields are slightly lower, but they offer a compelling combination of high dividend growth and the opportunity to profit handsomely from the global economic growth story. No matter an investor's preference, each of the three companies above has an extremely successful business model and will continue to succeed in a world of scarce resources.
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Monsanto -- >>> U.S. agriculture wary as Monsanto heads to Supreme Court
Feb 15, 2013
By Carey Gillam
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-agriculture-wary-monsanto-heads-061928893.html
(Reuters) - A 75-year-old Indiana grain farmer will take on global seed giant Monsanto Co at the U.S. Supreme Court next week in a patent battle that could have ramifications for the biotechnology industry and possibly the future of food production.
The highest court in the United States will hear arguments on Tuesday in the dispute, which started when soybean farmer Vernon Bowman bought and planted a mix of unmarked grain typically used for animal feed. The plants that grew turned out to contain the popular herbicide-resistant genetic trait known as Roundup Ready that Monsanto guards closely with patents.
The St. Louis, Mo.-based biotech giant accused Bowman of infringing its patents by growing plants that contained its genetics. But Bowman, who grows wheat and corn along with soybeans on about 300 acres inherited from his father, argued that he used second-generation grain and not the original seeds covered by Monsanto's patents.
A central issue for the court is the extent that a patent holder, or the developer of a genetically modified seed, can control its use through multiple generations of seed.
The Supreme Court's decision to hear the dispute has sparked broad concerns in the biotech industry as a range of companies fear it will result in limits placed on their own patents of self-replicating technologies.
At the same time, many farmer groups and biotech crop critics hope the Supreme Court might curb what they say is a patent system that gives too much power to biotech seed companies like Monsanto.
"I think the case has enormous implications," said Dermot Hayes, an Iowa State University agribusiness and economics professor who believes Monsanto should prevail. "If Monsanto were to lose, many companies would have a reduced incentive for research in an area where we really need it right now. The world needs more food."
The court battle has ballooned into a show-down that merges contentious matters of patent law with an ongoing national debate about the merits and pitfalls of genetically altered crops and efforts to increase food production.
More than 50 organizations - from environmental groups to intellectual property experts - as well as the U.S. government, have filed legal briefs hoping to sway the high court.
Companies developing patented cell lines and tools of molecular biotechnology could lose their ability to capture the ongoing value of these technologies if the Supreme Court sides with Bowman, said Hans Sauer, deputy general counsel for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
The case also is important to regenerative medicine that relies on stem cell technologies. A stem cell by definition is a cell that can self-replicate, thus the case may answer the question of whether a patentee can control progeny of a patented stem cell, according to Antoinette Konski, a partner with Foley & Lardner's intellectual property practice group.
Monsanto, a $13 billion behemoth in agricultural seed and chemical sales, also sees the case as much bigger than itself.
"This case really centers on the question of twenty-first century technology such as what we bring in agriculture and other companies bring for say stem cell research or nanotechnology.... and how they're going to be handled under principles of intellectual property law," said Monsanto general counsel Dave Snively.
SELF-REPLICATING
Because seeds self-replicate, creating progeny when planted, they are unlike more traditional patented products. Using a computer or smartphone does not create more computers or phones. But using a seed can make new seeds.
For generations all around the world, farmers have practiced the art of saving seed, holding onto some of the grain they harvest each season to plant in a subsequent season. The advent of patented biotech seeds has changed that as Monsanto and rival seed developers barred farmers from seed saving, arguing that if farmers do not buy new seed each year the companies cannot recoup the millions they spend to develop the specialty seeds.
Transgenic crops, which splices genes from other species into plant DNA, have given farmers crops that resist insects and tolerate treatments of herbicide, making killing weeds easier for farmers. The majority of U.S. corn and soybean acres are now planted with patented biotech seeds.
The case before the Supreme Court traces its roots to 1999, when Bowman decided to plant a "second crop" of soybeans after he harvested winter wheat from the farmstead he runs near Sandborn, Indiana.
While he used Monsanto's Roundup Ready engineered seeds for his main, or "first" crop, Bowman said he decided to use inexpensive commodity grain that he could purchase from a local grain elevator for his "second" planting of soybeans in late June. Yields are generally lower for late-planted soybeans because conditions tend to be more optimal in April and May.
The mixture of grain Bowman bought, which he dubbed "junk," carried no patent technology agreement and no directive prohibiting seed saving as do the bagged and branded soybean seeds sold by Monsanto and other seed companies.
The soybean crop turned out so good that Bowman saved some of the seed generated by the plants and sowed them the following year for another late crop. He repeated the process year after year, sometimes supplementing his second planting with more commodity grain he used as seed. All the while he continued to buy first-generation seed each year for his main crop of beans. For those purchases, he signed required "technology agreements" pledging not to save the offspring of those seeds.
Monsanto began investigating Bowman's planting activities in 2006 and asserted that even though he was not saving seed from the progeny of the first-generation seeds he bought, his use of commodity grain and the progeny was a patent violation.
Bowman argued that Monsanto's rights to the seeds he purchased from the grain elevator were exhausted because they were not the first generation seeds other farmers had purchased and planted, but rather a mix of later generation progeny.
"It didn't occur to my mind that this would be a problem," said Bowman, who doesn't have a computer at home so he goes to the library to read about his case on the Internet. "Farmers have always been allowed to go buy elevator grain and use for seed. You have no idea what kind of seed you're buying at an elevator. They claim I'm making a new seed by planting it. But that's far-fetched reasoning."
Bowman said he just wanted cheaper seeds. His legal brief states the technology fees for Roundup Ready soybeans have risen to $17.50 per bag by 2009 from about $4.50 in 1996.
BIG STAKES FOR BOTH SIDES
A lower court ruled in favor of Monsanto, and in May 2010 it ordered Bowman to pay the company $84,456. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals also sided with Monsanto in September 2011.
The Supreme Court's decision to hear the case has raised the hopes of those backing Bowman.
In one of a dozen briefs filed in his support, farmer, environmental and food safety groups claim the courts have carved out an exception to existing patent law that gives biotech companies too much control. They want the Supreme Court to broaden farmers' abilities to use seed, not restrict them.
"Through a patenting system that favors the rights of corporations over the rights of farmers and citizens, our food and farming system is being held hostage by a handful of companies," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups supporting Bowman. "Nothing less than the future of food is at stake."
Bowman's attorneys allege specifically that the appellate court created a "conditional sale" exception to a long-standing doctrine of patent exhaustion in a way that conflicts with existing law.
But Monsanto backers say without extended patent protection, technology companies will not be able to recoup their investment in research and development, and advantageous new technologies could be shelved.
"This case presents a matter of great importance to America's farmers and the decision will have acute impacts on how agricultural producers will... meet the nutritional demands of a growing global population," states one brief filed by 20 soybean, corn, wheat and sugar beet growers groups.
Back on his farm in Indiana, Bowman is looking forward to his trip to Washington and said he does not understand what all the fuss is about. He said few farmers make use of commodity grain for planting, and he doesn't see how a few hundred acres of soybeans hurts Monsanto's billions in annual revenues.
"I bought new seed every year for my first crop. If I had such a good scheme why did I do that," said Bowman.
"If I done something wrong I should pay for it. If I didn't then I shouldn't. I don't think I did," he said.
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Monsanto -- >>> What the Upholding of the Renewable Fuel Standard Will Mean for Businesses
By Joseph Harry
November 20, 2012
http://beta.fool.com/jharry1/2012/11/20/ethanol-impact/16869/?ticker=MON&source=eogyholnk0000001
90 percent of the United States' total gasoline pool consists of ethanol-blended gasoline, according to Bloomberg. Ethanol production itself is projected to take away up to 42 percent of this year’s corn crop. Michal Rosenoer, a biofuels expert who works for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, commented on the situation to the New York Times, stating:
“If the worst U.S. drought in more than 50 years and skyrocketing food prices are not enough to make the E.P.A. act, it falls to Congress to provide relief from our senseless federal support for corn ethanol.”
Rosenoer is referencing the standards enacted during the George W. Bush administration that requires production of millions of gallons of ethanol to mix with gasoline each year. Many ethanol makers are losing money due to the ethanol requirements and hoped for a suspension of the regulation, but to no avail. The EPA recently declined requests by businesses and states to release the shackles of required production. Now that we know ethanol is here to stay, how will it translate to the market?
Energy Companies:
Valero (NYSE: VLO) for example recently closed 3 of its ethanol plants temporarily, with another 3 out of its 10 ethanol plants operating under reduced capacity. A spokesman for Valero elaborated that, "Corn prices have gone up and ethanol margins have gone down. Corn basis levels are high." Shrinking margins due to ethanol and corn prices has, and will most likely now continue to, cause plant shutdowns and reduced operations for the company. Many other producers of energy, especially those heavily concentrated on ethanol, are also feeling the pain due to lower margins.
Food Producers and Suppliers:
The drought this year has added fuel to the fire. Corn prices have been rising ever since 2007, when the Renewable Fuel Standard was enacted to require that ethanol was to be produced and integrated into gasoline. In fact, corn prices have jumped a total of 21% over the last six years.
High corn prices significantly effect soda companies, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi directly, because they rely heavily on high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. The same goes for companies that sell sweeteners that are corn-based, such as Sysco. High corn prices also effect fast-food companies like McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) who serve many menu items that are made with corn-fed animals. This may be part of the reason why the company is shifting towards more chicken-centric items, because it is cheaper to feed chickens then cows- especially when the price to feed the animals is being increased intensively by rising corn prices. Also, rising corn prices due to drought are magnified intensely when an already limited supply of corn is being cut in half to be used in biofuels.
Conclusion:
It is no doubt that the occurrence of a terrible drought is primarily to blame for high corn prices, which have caused ethanol plants to shut down and every aspect of the food markets (from fast-food to cola to livestock and cattle) to feel pain and decreased margins. Even without a small crop, however, corn prices will most likely continue to rise as a large portion of corn production will continue to be directed towards biofuels and ethanol production.
For investment purposes, it would be wise to watch corn prices if an investor is holding any securities that have significant exposure to corn. The EPA has dictated that the RFS is here to stay, at least for now. If corn continues its rise higher, one company to play the rise is Monsanto (NYSE: MON). Monsanto is the world's largest seed company, and corn is one of the company’s biggest drivers.
As seen above, the company seems to be a little expensive with a P/E ratio of 22.49, but this ratio is also on the lower side of what it has been historically over the last 5 years. The company also offers an increasing dividend of .375, which equates to a decent annual 1.8% yield.
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NTRZ Nutracea (.055) Rice/Food/Nutrition Play. Processing and distribution of stabilized rice bran, Rice Oil, and other proprietary, rice bran-based ingredients and formulations. Consolidated revenues for the six months ended June 30, 2012 totaled $19.5 million.
Food Manufacturers
Nutraceuticals
Pet food and Feed Manufacturers
Web page: http://www.nutracea.com/Home
Pink Sheets: http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTRZ/quote
IHUB: http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=6636
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Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Deere & Co | DE | 8.22% |
Zoetis Inc Class A | ZTS | 8.15% |
Bayer AG | BAYN.DE | 6.98% |
Nutrien Ltd | NTR.TO | 6.44% |
Corteva Inc | CTVA | 5.61% |
Archer-Daniels Midland Co | ADM | 5.56% |
Tyson Foods Inc Class A | TSN | 3.90% |
Kubota Corp | 6326.T | 3.64% |
Bunge Global SA | BG | 3.62% |
CNH Industrial NV | CNHI | 3.49% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Deere & Co | DE | 22.26% |
Archer-Daniels Midland Co | ADM | 7.88% |
Corteva Inc | CTVA | 6.92% |
Nutrien Ltd | NTR.TO | 5.69% |
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc | LW | 3.19% |
CF Industries Holdings Inc | CF | 3.12% |
Bunge Global SA | BG | 3.09% |
Kubota Corp | 6326.T | 3.07% |
CNH Industrial NV | CNHI | 2.48% |
The Mosaic Co | MOS | 2.42% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Deere & Co | DE | 23.41% |
Corteva Inc | CTVA | 9.83% |
Archer-Daniels Midland Co | ADM | 8.01% |
Nutrien Ltd | NTR.TO | 7.73% |
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc | LW | 5.04% |
Bunge Global SA | BG | 4.96% |
Ingredion Inc | INGR | 4.78% |
CF Industries Holdings Inc | CF | 4.45% |
The Toro Co | TTC | 4.06% |
Darling Ingredients Inc | DAR | 3.57% |
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