Hidden Toxins Affecting You & Your Childs Health!

What a coincidence that the day after our “Everything in Moderation?” lecture the news is about mercury contamination being found in many products sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Now HFCS is bad enough on its own, but many common foods you and your children might consume were found to have mercury in them. Mercury is a dangerous metal and is unsafe in any amount.

“Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80 percent more HFCS than average.

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply,” the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.”

Mercury is found in vaccines, in dental fillings, in foods like fish and HFCS, and in case you didn’t hear, even snow has unusually high levels of mercury. And that’s only one toxin.

Mercury is a factor in allergies, hypersensitivity and all the associated disorders of this, and immune system dysfunction. It can make one more sensitive to dairy and wheat allergies – 2 items I have long advocated people avoid. Worse – doctors are not trained nor aware of chemical toxins affecting our health. Most also do not even know the basics about processed dairy and wheat being issues as well.

Tell me what bothers you? No matter what it is, from weight loss to depression, you name it, there are good chances several toxins are affecting whatever problems you have.

What can we do to counter this? Avoid the known risks like tuna & HFCS, buy organic as much as possible, and consume lots of cilantro! I have become a whiz at using cilantro in many of my recipes!
🙂

Everything in Moderation? A New Look

If caffeine is toxic - whats moderation?

A common phrase I often hear from my clients when asked about their health is ‘everything in moderation.’ But what exactly defines moderation? How do we know that our moderation is really balanced? Are there hidden factors we are unaware of that skew our idea of moderation? Is moderate exposure to toxins a safe and healthy choice?

In this era of increasing health risks such as cancer, infertility, emotional issues like depression and anxiety, and the epidemic of childhood issues like ADD/ADHD and autism – can we afford to wait until after the fact to realize we did not do our best to prepare ourselves and our family?

Dr. Eunice Stagliola, MyHealthExperts resident toxicologist, is going to speak on such issues in the first of her lecture series on ‘Living Toxic’. This lecture is going to be this Wednesday, January 28 at 7 pm at Tommy K’s in Stamford. Seating is limited so RSVP ASAP!

Tommy K’s is at 54 Research Drive, Stamford. Call (203) 325-9544 for directions. Please feel free to share this invitation with others you think may be interested.

Are Toxins Making You Fat (& Sick)?

Hidden Toxins Can Make You Fat!

Could be. Read this:

“Ask why diabetes is epidemic in the 21st century and most people will point the finger at bad diet, laziness and obesity. According to a small but growing group of scientists, though, the real culprit is a family of toxic chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. If these researchers are right, POPs – which include some of the most reviled chemicals ever created, including dioxins, DDT and PCBs – may be key players in the web of events that lead people to develop the disease. “ (NewScientist.com 09/15/08)

Diabetes is right there with obesity. And of course in the holistic model we acknowledge that everything is connected – so if POPs can facilitate obesity and diabetes, these in turn can lead to hormone dysfunction, which can effect brain chemistry, leading to emotional problems like depression, anxiety, etc.

Detox is going to be a key focus of mine in 2009 since its become clear its a critical but often overlooked factor in our lives. Once again, more greens and enzyme rich unheated foods are key. Also consider a properly designed detox program. I have a real toxicologist, Eunice Stagliola, PhD, working on creating one for us right now. Stay tuned!

The Biggest Loser (In More Ways Than One)

Who is The Biggest Loser?

The hit TV show ‘The Biggest Loser” teams up people and has them in a boot camp style program of exercise and diet to lose weight. Once again in this matrix of deceit we’re not told the truth; that participants exercise for 3 to 4 hours a day and eat ridiculuosly low calorie diets. Plus they also have them losing water weight, often by dehydration. This is very unhealthy. The show is a real sham, read for yourself of the crazy antics done to lose weight, and how many of the participants gained weight back after the show. But thats what most people want – the quick fix.

I do love the title, as you may come to realize, this is a year of paradigm shifts. Losers will be the winners (ever hear of the ‘Sermon on the Mount? lol), people will do more by doing less, and some open minded individuals may even gain everything by giving everything up. The ‘in’ thing will be the ‘nothing’. Or maybe I am just surfing the zeitgeist too much again!

Back to losing. As in the TV show, one of the biggest thing people want to lose is fat. Its an interesting thing to think about; all the images that fat symbolizes. Unhealthy, unattractive, lazy, sloth (one of the 7 deadly sins), emotionally challenged (everyone knows over-eating is often an emotional issue), the list goes on and on. Bouncing from one cause and effect to the next, we’re like ping pong balls in an endless game. Feeling empty, we overeat (or over-work, drink, etc), then we feel fat or sick, so most reach for the quick fix – like a diet drug, or even a diet. Then the diet drug has side effects, so we take something else to deal with that. But then we realize one of the effects of all this was more weight gain – so we are back to square one. Its the same circle with any issue if you look deep enough.

Did you ever walk into the gym or somewhere else and feel fat (or unattractive)? Or feel that someone would judge or look at you and see how fat you were? What I find so funny is that at that very moment, someone WAS doing just that. They are your worst enemy. And who might that be? Why, YOU of course! Talk about sleeping with the enemy. More on that later.

Here are some practical tips on losing weight for the new year:
1) Eat Less. Exercise More. Sounds easy. But few can actually do it. Diet is really the key for losing weight, not exercise. For most people that means whole foods, lower carb (NO SUGAR), and healthy fats and proteins. Eat some protein with every meal.
2) Don’t skip meals: people who skip meals often lower their metabolism
3) Go back to 3 meals a day: All that 6 meal a day stuff I think is not good for our health. The GI tract needs time to be empty for us to detox. The only exception is post workout – have a recovery shake to build muscle.
4) Try Intermittent Fasting: This works wonders for many people. Ask me more and I will tell you how to do this.
5) Eat Organic: Researchers report that dieters with the most organochlorines (pollutants from pesticides, which are stored in fat cells) experience a greater than normal dip in metabolism as they lose weight, perhaps because the toxins interfere with the energy-burning process. Other research hints that pesticides can trigger weight gain. Always choose organic when buying peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, and pears; non-organic versions tend to have the highest levels of pesticides.
6) Sleep and Stress: Get a handle on these – sleep 8 hrs and get stress levels under control. Critical for weight loss.
7) Lift weights: Intense exercise like weightlifting increases insulin sensitivity, and this will help with long term weight loss.
8.) Exercise in a fasted state can increase fat burning.
9) Stay well hydrated.
10) Stop beating yourself up: The same self that got you into this problem is now beating you up for being there. Stop trusting your thoughts!

That little ‘you’ is the biggest loser – so lose it! Discover the bigger ‘YOU’ that is your source, your true self, and the key to happiness!

Red Meat: Good or Bad?

Does red meat deserve its bad name?

There have been numerous studies strongly linking the daily/frequent consumption of red meat to esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer and though tenuously, breast cancer in women in addition to health issues such as Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. When you actually look at the reasons why red meat is bad, most of them can be sidestepped and we can still all enjoy our slabs of beef now and then without the guilt.
1. Eat Grass Fed Only:
a) Conventional cattle are fed dead animals and chicken feces in a process called rendering. This is how BSE (‘Mad Cow Disease’) is spread and how meat can infect humans with the BSE prion. This alone would turn most people off eating regular meat. Rendering is still practiced in the US on a large scale and some critics have pointed out the increasing number of Alzheimers disease as misdiagnosed mad cow disease.
b) Commercially bred cattle are also fed grain, so they usually have a higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-6s are the unhealthy kind and high levels have been linked to cardiovascular issues. You could sidestep this by eating grass fed beef that has been found to contain a higher amount of healthy nutrients like zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamins B-6 and B-12. You could also go for the leaner cuts of meat and reduce the fat consumed per piece of meat.
2. Eat Smaller Portions:
a) New data suggests that we only need about 20 grams of protein to stimulate muscle growth. This means we can eat smaller portions of meat which are less costly.
b) More importantly, red meat also contains a high amount of iron in a form that is more readily absorbed by the body compared to iron you would get in spinach which will only get absorbed if your body needs it. Iron, as much as we need it, is not healthy at high levels, especially for men. It accelerates membrane damage by free radicals (reactive oxygen species) as well as damage to other large molecules in the cell like DNA, RNA and proteins. DNA damage will increase the risk of getting cancer. High iron levels in the gut decrease the absorption of calcium. While your body can buffer against calcium deficiencies to a point, I could spend all day telling you what terrible things could happen if calcium levels were too low for an extended period of time. You could consider eating red meat as a treat and not as a staple. That way, your body only has to deal with sporadic increases in iron. For those that have a deficiency in iron, this may not be a major problem.
3. Eat It Rare:
a) Cooking beef at high temperatures – grilling, broiling, high temperature pan frying etc can results in formation of known carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs). You could cook at slower temperatures, and if you must add oil to a steak, try the healthy oils like coconut that are more stable when heated.
b) Buying grass fed beef and cooking on low temperature keeps the proteins in a more natural state and may enhance bioavailability. So once again, better utilization of the food – we get the benefits with smaller portions (and less calories!).

Whole Foods and Tommy K’s in Stamford, Ct sell grass fed beef, and of the two, I prefer Tommy K’s meat selection. Rob, the owner of Tommy K, actually met with the farmers that raise the cattle!

If you enjoy this information, please share it with others who could benefit from it.

The Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods To Eat Organic

Organic is often more nutritous than conventional produce!

I’m convinced that the cumulative effects of myriad miniscule exposures to an array of chemicals may be far worse than currently thought. And the recent debacle of the FDA’s stance on Bisphenol A (BPA) where it was found to have used the opinion of the Chemical Industry only serves the point that Industry and Government are often dangerously slow to act.

One simple thing you can do is to to eat the most heavily contaminated foods in their organic version only! Here is the list of foods to buy Organic, and in bold are the more popular foods I prefer.
Eat Organic Only:
1.Apple
2.Peaches
3.Bell peppers
4.Pears
5.Celery
6.Potato
7.Cherries
8. Raspberries
9. Imported grapes
10. Spinach
11. Nectarines
12. Strawberries

And if you need to cut corners and save money, these foods are relatively clean and the conventional version can be eaten:
1.Asparagus
2.Kiwi
3.Avocado
4.Mango
5.Banana
6.Onion
7.Broccoli
8.Papaya
9.Cauliflower
10.Pineapple
11.Sweet corn
12.Sweet peas

Enjoy!

“You Have Cancer” – Now What?

Every day your body develops cancer cells – life and death go on in harmony inside you on a cellular level without your awareness. Typically cancer cells committ suicide via the p-53 apoptosis gene. But in a body overwhelmend with stress, poor nutrition, environmental toxicity and other genetic and epigenetic factors, cancer cells can proliferate rapidly.

Its amazing that the more you learn about the science of health and your body, the lines separating you and your world blur. Global warming is wrecking the planet and now we know that inside our bodies excess heat in the form of inflammation is wrecking our bodies too. Both are caused by burning too much fuel – in the form of oil for society, and food for our bodies. Both forms of overheating are caused by a cancerous lifestyle where you, your friends and family (society) blindly chase an agenda that seems good and noble but is really a Malthusian tragedy of epidemic proportions. Or is that a Darwinian tragedy? Lets call it both.

As Yeats predicted a century ago, the Second Coming is at hand and the Joker in the film Batman: The Dark Knight is the poster boy for our collective Karma coming home to roost. As Yeats said, ‘the ceremony of innocence is drowned’ meaning your blind ignorance to the consequences of your lifestyle will not protect you from the pain and suffering created by it. Pain is a blessing in disguise – it really helps us to wake up and see the dysfunction in our lives – be it physical, mental or spiritual. We can run from it – medicating with drugs, alcohol, working too much, making money into a God, etc, but my guy feeling is we can NEVER escape it, even in death. On your last breath all the running in the world will not save you and you will have to face yourself.

Any idiot can see our current system is cancerous. On a personal level, cancer rates are rising. Cancer is no fun – trust me. Two of my close friends are currently going through the ordeal now and its rough. Chemo is painful and extremely toxic, increasing the risks of unhealthy reactions in the future by its very poisonous nature. A ‘Catch-22′.

So what do we do – roll the dice and hope we dont get cancer or is there another way? For me its breaking free of the cancerous lifestyle I am leading. It’s hard to break free. Our culture does not reward real freedom, or true individuals, only those who operate withing the acceptable confines of what serves the economy and nation. We crucify, imprison or kill those who preach a message of freedom. I am not ready to be crucified or even imprisoned, but I will start carrying my cross at least! lol ….I find that by taking baby steps I can crawl out of my grave and into a new paradigm for wholistic living. And in that connect more with the core experience of what it means to be alive.

One of my clients asked me how to lose his belly fat- and I asked him what he thought caused it. “Stress” he answered. “So try stress management” I told him. “I can’t do that’ he replied, ‘because I am afraid I will lose my motivation and drive.” “I love it!” I said, “Do you realize just how deep that idea is? That you, a devout Christian, are an utter hypocrite? This is your hypocracy staring you in the face!”. Our stress is addictive – the adrenaline we release is a morphine like compound and it sure feels good. Cortisol is another stress hormone, and both of these together are literally toxic to our bodies. And the cortisol is also what contributed to my clients belly fat as the fat cells there have more sensitivity to cortisol fluctuations.

Bottom Line – the best cancer strategy is PREVENTION!

Live Longer and Prevent Cancer by S-L-O-W-I-N-G DOWN!
Two of the most powerful and simple things you can do to prevent cancer are, taking in the Light and the Darkness. By day – the sun is the most potent anti-cancer weapon you have. All you need is a small amount daily, or even 3-4 times a week as I wrote before in previous e-mails, to radically reduce the chances of getting cancer. This is because the sun enables endogenous vitamin D synthesis to take place from cholesterol. So you can drop cholesterol levels and reduce cancer risks. I take 10-15 minutes 4-5 times a week, stop my hectic work schedule and force myself to SLOW DOWN. Go out in the sun and treat myself to creations best source of health! (Read my article on Suntan Science if
interested)

By night – the dark also serves us. Sleep releases melatonin, the most potent anti-oxidant an anti-cancer hormone our bodies make. Darkness is needed for this to happen – any light hitting the body (thats right, the body has light sensitive cells everywhere) will blunt melatonin release. You cannot make up for lost sleep when it comes to the anti-cancer benefits of melatonin release. Many of my clients do not sleep well, wired on stress and caffeine by day they find it hard to ‘let go’ and shift into the darkness unless they are medicated. Not good. Slow down and breathe, take back your life and align yourself with the harmony naturally present in the world, and you will reap enormous benefits from it.

Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall, And All the Kings Horses and All…:
You think all the money in the world can save you? What good does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? Ask Jackie Onassis, who had the best medical care money could buy – it did not save her life. The statistics on chemotherapy are abysmal unless you follow them with a complimentary protocol of detox, IV nutrients etc. One of my mentors, Gary Null, was offering to help
Jackie at the time, but her Harvard and Yale educated doctors assured her she had the best care money could buy. And of course a nice coffin to go along with it.

Tough? Sometimes we all need a little tough love to see outside the prisons of our mind. We all have to die sometime, so in a deeper sense 20 days or 20 years extra to live are no difference. But I think most of us are not ready for that lesson yet and would prefer the 20 year option. 

Conclusion: Connect Your Dots!!
Preventing cancer and the other diseases is the smartest choice. All of these are caused by inflammation – running too hot (“FASTER, HARDER”) through our lives. And of course 3 billion people just like you, running too hot, is leading the planet to heat up as well. What kind of legacy are we
leaving our children and their children?

Slow down, experience each moment more fully. Breathe slow and deep, relax, get out in the sun a little. Make good, deep sleep a value as well. Take time to make healthy meals. Work less – where the hell is it written 40 + hour workweeks are healthy and essential to a great life?

Be aware of your choices or one day soon you will beware of that “rough beast, slouching towards Bethlehem to be born”.*

Colony Collapse – Humanity Next?

We’re not sure exactly why huge numbers of honey bee colonies are dying out.  But its not a good sign in this era of increasing collapse of the very fabric of life, that grand web of complexity that we humans depend on for survival.

Bees are responsible for about 40% of our food since they pollinate all the plants that we depend on to eat, and to feed the livestock we eat as well. so they are an important part of the food chain.  Feral, or wild honey bees have been declining since the 1970’s and are now practically non-existent. Colonies kept by beekeepers are now following the same course, in massive numbers.

Comedian Bill Maher sums it up quite well: “Here’s a quote from Albert Einstein: “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Well, guess what? The bees are disappearing. In massive numbers. All around the world. And if you think I’m being alarmist and that, “Oh, they’ll figure out some way to pollinate the plants…” No, they’ve tried. For a lot of what we eat, only bees work. And they’re not working. They’re gone. It’s called Colony Collapse Disorder, when the hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, and all that’s left are a few queens and some immature workers — like when a party winds down at Elton John’s house. Also, if your stinger stays up more than 48 hours, call your doctor.”
 

Clinton or Obama? How Politics Affects Your Health!

In order to understand and see what a really healthy and whole life is, you need to take a “systems approach”.  It will not work as well using the typical scientific reductionistic method of compartmentalizing the individual threads that together make the vast web called your life.  Just look at modern health care for one of many examples of how the science reductionism (the best process we have to understand the world vs. say religion) has fallen short.

This is, after all, YOUR world. Not mine, or the Presidents, yours. We are all a cast of characters inside this enormous video game you found yourself in called “Life”.  And its your game (“please insert another quarter to continue playing“).  So the more pieces of the puzzle you connect, the more threads in the web of your life you weave together, the better you will be in the game of life.

My clients know I can be very political. My party is the Truth Party and it has very few members. I even lost one client over my political discourse. I am not for or against any party, I am simply for the Truth. But that is a very difficult and uncomfortable position to have in this modern world. Because not only does absolute power corrupt absolutely**, but corruption involves lies, deceit and a host of other things that all affect your life in unseen and often dangerous ways!

There is no one to blame in your game, the cast of characters and their software was set up a long time ago, so get over trying to blame others. I used to blame the drug industry (I worked in it so its a qulaified blame) for what Burton Goldberg calls the “Medical Holocaust” but realize they are set up the way they are because we, collectively as a society, are the way we are. We don’t want to take full responsability for our lives, and wait until its too late so we have to reach out to an industry set up to give us ‘happy pills’ (pills or a surgery to remove what bothers us). But this never really works, the cause has never been found and so we go on (if we live) until the cause rears its ugly head once more. (“…and what rough beast, its hour come around at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?“)

How does politics affect your life & health? In countless ways, starting with the PAC’s who control legislation that allows more toxins to spew into your food, your air, your water, basically all over the place.  The outright bias of the FDA in stopping natural, non-toxic treatments to be used because of the financial threat to the medical industry. The paltry amount of money spent on prevention by our government.  The lies, such as when the EPA under Christine Todd Whitman and under pressure from the Bush Administration, told residents of Manhattan that the air quality after 911 was safe and they could return to their homes. The list goes on and on.

Wake up. Start to gain a deeper understanding of this game and see how you can make better, more informed choices! You can’t save the world but you can Save yourself!

 ** Even more revealing was that Lord Acton also said:  Great men are almost always bad men.

Sushi is Toxic!

Yet another piece of the puzzle showing as the planet goes, so do we.  Here we see once again a common food (sushi) loaded with heavy metals. This was taken from the respected Dr. Eades blog:

“The International Herald Tribune published an article story showing that even sushi-grade tuna is crawling with mercury, which makes fish eating now a Faustian bargain. We can get the omega-3s, but at the expense of a ton of mercury.

Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. The sushi was bought by The New York Times in October.

But maybe this is just a freaky sample. I’m not so sure. And the article goes on to state that the more expensive the tuna, the greater the contamination.

These findings reinforce results in other studies showing that more expensive tuna usually contains more mercury because it is more likely to come from a larger species, which accumulates mercury from the fish it eats. Mercury enters the environment as an industrial pollutant.”

Avoid sushi! Eat lower on the food chain, take flax oil and krill oil for Omega-3 fatty acids!

Source:http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/

Drowning in Poisons

Another of countless studies showing just how SEVERELY polluted our planet, and our bodies are. The true depth and breath of this problem is being kept hidden from the public.  Children are our “Canary in a coal mine” in that they are much more sensitive to exposures than adults. And children are increasingly developing neurological, immunological andf behavioral problems due largely to the toxic loads their bodies are subjected to. We might literally poison ourselves into extinction if current trends persist.

WASHINGTON – A recent study by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that three quarters of 285 commonly consumed foods and beverages are contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic rocket fuel ingredient. According to the study, every day, the average two-year-old is exposed to more than half of the EPA “safe” dose (RfD) of perchlorate from food alone. This is bad news for children in communities in 28 states who also are exposed to perchlorate through contaminated tap water. Very low levels of perchlorate in tap water will cause the average two year old to exceed EPA’s safe exposure level.

Two-year-olds are particularly vulnerable because they eat and drink substantial amounts of food and water relative to their small size. An Environmental Working Group analysis of FDA data found that perchlorate levels as low as 4 parts per billion (ppb) in tap water could expose the average two-year-old to an unsafe dose of the rocket fuel contaminant every single day.

FDA’s finding of high food exposures for small children makes clean up of perchlorate-contaminated water imperative. Perchlorate in tap water can be controlled through filtration and clean up. Perchlorate in food is harder to manage because the source of contamination is not clear, although contaminated irrigation water is one known source where levels could be reduced.

read more here: http://www.ewg.org/node/25877

Most Dangerous Foods to Eat?

Forget about industrialized meats and processed foods which are typically very unhealthy on their own. With regards to fruits, this study shows the most poisonous:

• Peaches and apples topped the Dirty Dozen list. Almost 97 percent of peaches tested positive for pesticides, and almost 87 percent had two or more pesticide residues. About 92 percent of apples tested positive, and 79 percent had two or more pesticides. The rest of the Dirty Dozen include sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
• Onions, avocados, and sweet corn headed the Consistently Clean list. For all three foods, more than 90 percent of the samples tested had no detectable pesticide residues. Others on the Consistently Clean list include pineapples, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, bananas, cabbage, broccoli, and papaya.

There is growing scientific consensus that small doses of pesticides can adversely affect people, especially during vulnerable periods of fetal development and childhood when exposures can have long lasting effects. Because the toxic effects of pesticides are worrisome, not well understood, or in some cases completely unstudied, shoppers are wise to minimize exposure to pesticides whenever possible.

While washing and rinsing fresh produce can reduce levels of some pesticides, it does not eliminate them. Peeling also reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the peel. The best option is to eat a varied diet, wash all produce, and choose organic when possible to reduce exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

Although the Shopper’s Guide only measures pesticide residues on produce, buying organic also makes sense if you’re concerned about bacterial contamination. Organic farmers meet all the sanitation standards required of conventional growers and, on, top of that, meet tight restrictions on the use of compost and other organic material that do not apply to conventional fruit and vegetable growers.

source: http://www.ewg.org/sites/foodnews/release.php

How You Eat, Think and Exercise Affects Your Genes (& children)!!

From Project Censored Top Stories of 2008:

# 15 Toxic Exposure Can Be Transmitted to Future Generations on a “Second Genetic Code”
Source:
Rachel’s Democracy & Health News, October 12, 2006
Title: “Some Chemicals are More Harmful Than Anyone Ever Suspected”
Author: Peter Montague
http://www.precaution.org/lib/06/ht061012.htm

Student Researchers: Kristen Kebler and Michael Januleski
Faculty Evaluator: Gary Evans, M.D.

Research suggests that, contrary to previous belief, our behavior and our environmental conditions may program sections of our children’s DNA. New evidence about how genes interact with the environment suggests that many industrial chemicals may be more ominously dangerous than previously thought. It is increasingly clear that the effects of toxic exposure may be passed on through generations, in ways that are still not fully understood. “This introduces the concept of responsibility into genetics and inheritance,” said Dr. Moshe Szyf, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal, “This may revolutionize medicine. You aren’t eating and exercising just for yourself, but for your lineage.”1
The new field of genetic research, called epigenetics, involves what scientists are referring to as a “second genetic code” which influences how genes act in the body. If DNA is the hardware of inheritance, the epigenetic system is the software. The epigenetic system determines which genes get turned “off” or “on” and how much of a certain protein they produce.
It is this switching system that allows the genetic material in each cell to influence the creation of proteins—which ones are manufactured, in what sequence, and how many. Proteins are the building blocks of our bodies. The chemicals and hormones in our bodies are proteins. They determine, in large part, how we look, how we feel, even how we act.1
Now, it seems that this chemical switching system may also act in reverse. In most cases, epigenetic changes (changes to DNA from current environmental conditions) are not passed from parents to their offspring. Scientists are still not sure how—but genes seem to be “wiped clean” after a sperm fertilizes an egg. Based on the recent data, however, researchers are intrigued by the notion that some of the genetic changes influenced by our diet, our behaviors, or our environment, may be passed on from generation to generation.
On average, 1,800 new chemicals are registered with the federal government each year and about 750 of these find their way into products, all with hardly any testing for health or environmental effects. The bad news about chemical contamination is steadily mounting, while the number of new chemicals is steadily increasing. Many critics of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are renewing their admonitions that government agencies practice the “precautionary principle”—the rule of “do no harm first” in the approval of new drugs and chemicals.
In 2005, the European Union responded to this situation by trying to enact a new law called Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH), which requires that chemicals be tested before they are sold—not after. As they say in Europe, “No data, no market.” At the same time, US and European chemical industries—and the White House—began working overtime to subvert the European effort to enact REACH. Their efforts failed, however, and the REACH act was adopted by the European Union in December, 2006.2 Chemical companies throughout the US and Europe are still struggling with how they will respond to the new requirements.

Citations
1. Anne McIlroy, “Chemicals and Stress Cause Gene Changes That Can Be Inherited,” Globe & Mail, March 11, 2006. See http://www.precaution.org/lib/06/prn_code_2.060311.htm.
2. “European Parliament OKs World’s Toughest Law on Toxic Chemicals,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 14, 2006.

UPDATE BY PETER MONTAGUE
Basically this story tells us that environmental influences (like our mother’s diet and her exposure to toxic chemicals) are far more important to us than anyone suspected just a decade ago.
It turns out that environmental influences shape us from the moment of conception onward, and the earliest months and years of life are the most important ones. It is called “fetal programming” and it means our first environment (the womb) can determine what sorts of diseases will afflict us later in life. Furthermore, some of these early influences can be inherited by our offspring and even by their offspring. So your personal pattern of disease may have been set by your grandmother’s diet, or by her exposure to toxicants.
These findings imply that keeping toxic industrial chemicals out of the environment is far more urgent than anyone has previously thought. With more than 1,000 chemicals presently entering commercial channels each year with almost no health or safety testing, this is not welcome news.
In May 2007, a group of two hundred scientists from five continents issued strongly worded consensus statement (the “Faroes Statement”) saying that early exposure to common chemicals leaves babies more likely to develop serious diseases later in life, including diabetes,

attention deficits, certain cancers, thyroid disorders, and obesity, among others.
Notably, the scientists urged governments not to wait for more scientific certainty but to take precautionary action now to protect fetuses and children from toxic exposures.
Most of the mainstream press continued to tiptoe around this story, with a few important exceptions, until May 2007 when the Faroes statement blew the story open. Now that it is out in the open, we’ll have to see if the mainstream press has what it takes to explain the far-reaching ramifications of these findings.
The best source of information on this topic (and many others) is http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org. Search for “epigenetics,” “fetal programming,” or “gene expression.”

e concerns, warns Parry, over how the Pentagon judges “threats” and who falls under the category of “those who would harm us.” A Pentagon official said the Counterintelligence Field Activity’s TALON program has amassed files on antiwar protesters.

In the view of some civil libertarians, a form of martial law already exists in the U.S. and has been in place since shortly after the September 11 attacks when Bush issued Military Order Number One, which empowered him to detain any noncitizen as an international terrorist or enemy combatant. Today that order extends to U.S. citizens as well.

Farrell ends her article with the conclusion that while much speculation has been generated by KBR’s contract to build huge detention centers within the U.S., “The truth is, we won’t know the real purpose of these centers unless ‘contingency plans are needed.’ And by then, it will be too late.”

UPDATE BY PETER DALE SCOTT
The contract of the Halliburton subsidiary KBR to build immigrant detention facilities is part of a longer-term Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.” In the 1980s Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld discussed similar emergency detention powers as part of a super-secret program of planning for what was euphemistically called “Continuity of Government” (COG) in the event of a nuclear disaster. At the time, Cheney was a Wyoming congressman, while Rumsfeld, who had been defense secretary under President Ford, was a businessman and CEO of the drug company G.D. Searle.

These men planned for suspension of the Constitution, not just after nuclear attack, but for any “national security emergency,” which they defined in Executive Order 12656 of 1988 as: “Any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.” Clearly September 11 would meet this definition, and did, for COG was instituted on that day. As the Washington Post later explained, the order “dispatched a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans.”

What these managers in this shadow government worked on has never been reported. But it is significant that the group that prepared ENDGAME was, as the Homeland Security document puts it, “chartered in September 2001.” For ENDGAME’s goal of a capacious detention capability is remarkably similar to Oliver North’s controversial Rex-84 “readiness exercise” for COG in 1984. This called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to round up and detain 400,000 imaginary “refugees,” in the context of “uncontrolled population movements” over the Mexican border into the United States.

UPDATE BY MAUREEN FARRELL
When the story about Kellogg, Brown and Root’s contract for emergency detention centers broke, immigration was not the hot button issue it is today. Given this, the language in Halliburton’s press release, stating that the centers would be built in the event of an “emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S.,” raised eyebrows, especially among those familiar with Rex-84 and other Reagan-era initiatives. FEMA’s former plans ‘for the detention of at least 21 million American Negroes in assembly centers or relocation camps’ added to the distrust, and the second stated reason for the KBR contract, “to support the rapid development of new programs,” sent imaginations reeling.

While few in the mainstream media made the connection between KBR’s contract and previous programs, Fox News eventually addressed this issue, pooh-poohing concerns as the province of “conspiracy theories” and “unfounded” fears. My article attempted to sift through the speculation, focusing on verifiable information found in declassified and leaked documents which proved that, in addition to drawing up contingency plans for martial law, the government has conducted military readiness exercises designed to round up and detain both illegal aliens and U.S. citizens.
How concerned should Americans be? Recent reports are conflicting and confusing:

In May, 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began “Operation Return to Sender,” which involved catching illegal immigrants and deporting them. In June, however, President Bush vowed that there would soon be “new infrastructures” including detention centers designed to put an end to such “catch and release” practices.

Though Bush said he was “working with Congress to increase the number of detention facilities along our borders,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he first learned about the KBR contract through newspaper reports.

Fox News recently quoted Pepperdine University professor Doug Kmiec, who deemed detention camp concerns “more paranoia than reality” and added that KBR’s contract is most likely “something related to (Hurricane) Katrina” or “a bird flu outbreak that could spur a mass quarantine of Americans.” The president’s stated desire for the U.S. military to take a more active role during natural disasters and to enforce quarantines in the event of a bird flu outbreak, however, have been roundly denounced.

Concern over an all-powerful federal government is not paranoia, but active citizenship. As Thomas Jefferson explained, “even under the best forms of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” From John Adams’s Alien and Sedition Acts to FDR’s internment of Japanese Americans, the land of the free has held many contradictions and ironies. Interestingly enough, Halliburton was at the center of another historical controversy, when Lyndon Johnson’s ties to a little-known company named Kellogg, Brown and Root caused a congressional commotion—particularly after the Halliburton subsidiary won enough wartime contracts to become one of the first protested symbols of the military-industrial complex. Back then they were known as the “Vietnam builders.” The question, of course, is what they’ll be known as next.

Additional links:
” Reagan Aides and the Secret Government,” Miami Herald, July 5, 1987, http://fpiarticle.blogspot.com/2005/12/front-page-miami-herald-july-5-1987.html

“Foundations are in place for martial law in the US,” July 27, 2002, Sydney Morning Herald, smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/ 1027497418339.html

“Halliburton Deals Recall Vietnam-Era Controversy: Cheney’s Ties to Company Reminiscent of LBJ’s Relationships,” NPR, Dec. 24, 2003, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1569483

“Critics Fear Emergency Centers Could Be Used for Immigration Round-Ups,” Fox News, June 7, 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/ story/0,2933,198456,00.html

“U.S. officials nab 2,100 illegal immigrants in 3 weeks,” USA Today, June 14, 2006, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-06-14-immigration-arrests_x.htm

Your Drinking Water is being Polluted by Military & Corporations

From Project Censored: Top Censored Stories of 2008

# 17 Drinking Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations
Sources:
Environment News Service, March 24, 2006
Title: “Factories, Cities Across USA Exceed Water Pollution Limits”
Author: Sunny Lewis
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-24-05.asp
AlterNet, August 4, 2006
Title: “Military Waste in Our Drinking Water”
Authors: Sunaura Taylor and Astor Taylor
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/39723/

Student Researchers: Jonathan Stoumen, Adrienne Magee, and Julie Bickel
Faculty Evaluator: Sasha Von Meier, Ph.D. and Steve Norwick, Ph.D.

Water is essential to life, contributing to blood circulation, digestion, metabolism, brain activity, and muscle movements. Yet reliably pure water is growing scarce, even in the United States. Despite the federal government’s avowed commitment “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters,”1 corporations, municipalities, and the US military pollute our waters—often with little or no accountability.
“Polluters are using America’s waters as their dumping ground,” said US PIRG’s Clean Water Advocate Christy Leavitt. (US PIRG is the national lobby office for the state Public Interest Research Groups, nonprofit public interest advocacy organizations.) “Troubled Waters: An Analysis of Clean Water Act Compliance,” released by US PIRG in March 2006 shows that, between July 2003 and December 2004, over 62 percent of industrial and municipal facilities across the country discharged pollution into US waterways at rates above limits established by the Clear Water Act (CWA).
Using the Freedom of Information Act, US PIRG investigated major facilities’ compliance—or lack of it—with established federal limits on pollution discharges. The average facility discharged pollutants in excess of its permitted limit by over 275 percent, nearly four times the legal limit. Nationally, 436 major facilities exceeded their limits at least half of the time during the study’s timeframe. Thirty-five facilities exceeded their permits during every reporting period. Seven states allowed more than one hundred violations of at least 500 percent (Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Massachusetts). The study could not analyze facilities in California, Oregon, or Washington due to unreliable data.
Corn farming—think ethanol—is the crop most likely to leach chemical contaminants into waterways.2 Atrazine, which several European nations have banned, is an herbicide widely used in agribusiness, especially on major crops such as corn. The EPA identifies atrazine as the second-most common herbicide in drinking wells. Maximum safe levels of atrazine in drinking water are three parts per billion, but scientists have found up to 224 parts per billion in Midwestern streams, and 2,300 parts per billion in Corn Belt irrigation reservoirs.
Today more than 40 percent of US waterways are unsafe for swimming and fishing, and, as shown by the PIRG study, industrial pollution of the nation’s waters persists—despite the goals of the 1972 Clean Water Act to make all US waters safe for fishing, swimming, and other uses by 1983, and to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into waterways by 1985.
One reason for these ongoing failures is the Bush administration’s consistent efforts to shortchange the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and to gut the Clean Water Act. In 2003, the Bush administration significantly weakened protections for small streams, wetlands, and other waters, despite Bush having declared 2002-2003 the Year of Clean Water.
However, opposition to environmental protection for clean waterways stems from not only the Bush administration but also the US military, whose pollution poisons the very citizens it is supposed to protect in the name of national security. Weapons production, by the US military and its private contractors, generates more hazardous waste annually than the five largest international chemical companies combined, accounting for one-third of the nation’s toxic waste. Furthermore, the US military is among the most frequent violators of environmental laws.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has sought and received exemptions from a number of crucial public health and environmental laws. Dramatic increases in the amounts of trichloroethylene (TCE) in public aquifers have been one fatal consequence of these exemptions. TCE, a known carcinogen, is used commercially as a solvent. It is the most widespread industrial contaminant in US drinking water. Since the Korean War, military contractors, such as Hughes Missiles Systems (purchased by Raytheon in 1997), have used TCE to degrease airplane parts, and to clean fuel lines at missile sites.
Consequently, TCE contamination is especially common around military facilities. The Pentagon is responsible for the TCE contamination of over 1,400 properties. In 2001, the EPA sought to force the government to require more thorough cleanups at military sites, by lowering the acceptable limits on TCE from five parts per billion to one part per billion. In response, the DoD joined the Department of Energy and NASA in blocking the EPA’s proposed action. The Bush administration charged the EPA with inflating TCE’s risks, and called on the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate the EPA’s claims. The Academy’s 2003 report confirmed the EPA’s assessment, linking TCE to kidney cancer, impaired neurological function, reproductive and developmental damage, autoimmune disease, and other human ailments. The Bush administration and the DoD have ignored these inconvenient findings. As a result, citizens, who pay for the military budget with their tax dollars, are also paying with their health and sometimes their lives.

Citations
1. Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 USC. 1251 et seq), Section 101(a).
2. Sasha Lilley, “Green Fuel’s Dirty Secret,” CorpWatch, June 1, 2006.

UPDATE BY SUNNY LEWIS
Compliance with the Clean Water Act on the part of industrial and municipal water facilities and land developers is of utmost importance to the quality of America’s waters—from wetlands, ponds, and small streams to mighty rivers and the Great Lakes.
The US Public Interest Research Group, US PIRG, which discovered the failure of 62 percent of facilities to comply with the law based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, intends to do more work on this subject later this year.
Christy Leavitt of US PIRG, quoted by ENS in the original article, says the group will issue another report based on updated figures obtained in May from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
As ENS reported, US PIRG recommended that all US waters be protected by withdrawal of what the group called “the Bush administration’s 2003 No Protection” policy which excludes many small streams and wetlands from protection under the Clean Water Act.
Since the ENS report was published, the US Supreme Court handed down a ruling on the scope of the Clean Water Act that many water and environmental experts as well as Members of Congress believe has muddied the legal waters and made new legislation necessary.
In June 2006, the high court ruled in the case Rapanos et ux., et at. v. United States that there are limits to the federal government’s authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act, but failed to agree on the confines of that power.
The consolidated case involved conflicts between developers who wanted to build condos and stores on wetlands and federal regulators, who refused to allow the developments under the authority of the Clean Water Act. The waters at issue were wetlands adjacent to ditches and drains that connected to “navigable waters” of the United States.
For a full discussion of the ruling, please see the ENS report, “US Supreme Court Decision Fails to Clarify Clean Water Act,” at http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2006/2006-06-19-10.asp.
In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in another case, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Corps of Engineers, SWANCC, that non-navigable, isolated, intrastate waters do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.
On May 25, 2007, a bi-partisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives that attempts to clarify the original intent of Congress in the 1972 Clean Water Act in the wake of these two decisions.
To achieve clarification, the new measure, the Clean Water Restoration Act, replaces the term “navigable waters of the United States” with the term “waters of the United States.”
The Clean Water Restoration Act has 158 original cosponsors, and the endorsement of more than three hundred organizations representing the conservation community, family farmers, fishers, surfers, boaters, faith communities, environmental justice advocates, labor unions, and civic associations.
It replaces a bill mentioned in the original ENS report, the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act, that was not approved during the 109th Congress.
As ENS reported in March 2006, US PIRG recommended that the Clean Water State Revolving Fund be fully funded to help communities upgrade their sewer systems.
The Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund guarantees loans for cities and towns so they can borrow for sewer projects at a lower interest rate, saving local taxpayers billions of dollars nationwide.
On March 8, 2007, ENS reported that the Bush administration’s budget proposal to cut some $400 million from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund budget came under fire by members of both parties in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
On March 9, 2007, ENS reported that the US House of Representatives passed the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007. For the first time in twenty years, the measure H.R. 720, would reauthorize the Clean Water State Revolving Funds. At press time, this measure had not come before the US Senate.
For its part, the US EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, OECA, says its actions to enforce Clean Water Act requirements in FY 2006 resulted in more than 283 million pounds of pollutants reduced.
Most of these reductions are the result of the EPA’s “national priority efforts” to control overflows from combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows and contamination caused by surface runoff from stormwater and concentrated animal feeding operations, the agency said.
Working in partnership with states, OECA says it concluded major legal settlements with dozens of cities to bring critical sewer systems back into compliance.
The settlements require comprehensive plans to improve the maintenance and operation of systems to reduce overflows, and long-term capital construction projects to expand treatment capacity to ensure that sewage is properly treated before being discharged, the OECA said in the “EPA Fiscal Year 2006 Accomplishments Report.”
The settlements concluded in FY 2006 will reduce overflows of untreated or inadequately treated sewage by 26 million pounds, with an estimated investment of $930 million in sewer system upgrades and improvements.
To find out more about the scope of the Clean Water Act and compliance with this law, visit:

US Public Interest Research Group: http://www.uspirg.org/

US EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/

US EPA Clean Water Act Compliance Assistance:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/assistance/bystatute/cwa/index.html

Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund:
http://www.epa.gov/owm/cwfinance/cwsrf/index.htm

Stormwater Authority: http://www.stormwaterauthority.org

Cell Phone Dangers: They Might Kill You

It appears that just like cigarettes and asbestos where the threat of danger from them was obvious to some very early on, but it took decades for the general public to become aware, cell phones are the next big danger. 

Cell phones appear to alter heat shock proteins (hsp) in the blood brain barrier, allowing more toxins to enter the brain. In addition, the radiation emmitted from the phone can affect normal cell functioning in the tissues near where the cell phone is (usually the ear).  The dangers do not appear to be short term – but from long term exposure. This is a new issue because cell phone use has only exploded in the last 10 yrs. And now the data coming in is showing an association with increasing tumors in those specific areas of the body.

Using the cell phone in a car or train is even more dangerous because the cell phone has to increase power each time it links to a new tower. This makes the user get even more radiation exposure.

Best thing is to get a hands free headset. Even blue tooth technology involves a small receiver so it too can expose us to the same, albeit less, radiation.