Health & WellnessS


Cow

Why Is Fattier Grassfed Meat Best?

Stanley A. Fishman
tendergrassfedmeat.com
Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:51 UTC
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© tendergrassfedmeat.comGrassfed sirloin roast, with a delicious, nutritious fat cap.
Our culture has a phobia about animal fat. The horrid nutritional guidelines just issued by the U.S. government tell us to eat meat only occasionally, and eat only lean meat. This is truly a shame, because animal fat from pastured animals contains many vital nutrients that are easily absorbed and hard to get elsewhere. Animal fat from grassfed animals also gives great taste, tenderness, and satisfaction (unlike the lumpy, greasy fat so prevalent in factory meat).

All grassfed meat is leaner than factory meat. Many producers advertise how lean their grassfed meat is. Some grassfed meat is much leaner, and some contains more fat. So which is better? For our ancestors, the choice was simple. Fat meat was desirable and cherished - lean meat was eaten to avoid starvation or thrown to the dogs.

For me, the answer is also simple. Most of the nutrients in grassfed beef are in the fat. Fattier cuts of grassfed meat have more flavor and come out more tender. The fattier the better, when it comes to grassfed meat.
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Heart

A Cure for Heart Disease

Sheldon Zerden
The Epoch Times
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 19:09 UTC
The cholesterol myth and the trillion-dollar industry that has developed to treat cardiovascular disease is a formidable obstacle to overcome for those who would rather prevent heart attacks than treat the symptoms with bypass surgery, angioplasty, stenting, and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

In 1790, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria mandated autopsies for everyone who died in a hospital. This was a virtual laboratory for medical researchers. In 1890, it was discovered that when a thyroidectomy (removal of the thyroid gland) was performed, the result was a condition called myxedema, in which a jelly-like mucin substance filled the arteries.

This blockage was enough to cause a heart attack and subsequent death. However, in those days, the major cause of death was tuberculosis. Heart disease was infrequent, so a cure for heart disease was not sought.

Today, it's a different story. Heart attacks and all the treatments for this problem are fighting a losing battle. When you treat the symptoms of a disease, you don't get to the root cause of the problem.

Sometimes the solution to a problem is so simple that we can't believe it. We therefore overlook it.

In 1890, Viennese pathologists discovered that a thyroid deficiency caused heart attacks. Researchers found that the removal of the thyroid gland (thyroidectomy) brought about a complete blockage of the arteries.
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Heart

Three Things You May Not Know About Heart Health

Paula Owens
Ahwatukee.com
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:02 UTC
What causes heart disease? A healthy heart is a cornerstone of health, well being, physical ability and longevity. There are many risk factors we're aware of that we can control, such as smoking, lack of exercise, obesity, Type II diabetes, stress and poor diet. Manufactured foods promote systemic inflammation. Food items such as white flour, hydrogenated oil and trans fats, margarine, corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, flavors or coloring are poisonous to your heart and overall health.

A study appearing in the December 2010 issue of the journal Cardiology Research and Practice reports that long-term adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet results in significant improvements in several risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes in overweight men. The beneficial shifts included a decline in blood glucose and blood pressure, insulin, LDL cholesterol, oxidative stress and triglycerides.

Elevated C - reactive protein and elevated fasting insulin: C-reactive protein (CRP) and fasting insulin are tests that determine the level of inflammation in your body. CRP level is used as a marker of inflammation in the arteries. Fasting insulin is a test that screens for diabetes and heart disease, but it's also a marker for inflammation. The higher your insulin levels are, the more inflammation your body is producing. Inflammation can stem from a poor diet, oxidative stress, emotions, gum disease, being overweight, injuries, smoking, long-term infections, existing heart condition, diabetes and too much or too little exercise.
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X

Canada: Supermarket chicken harbours superbugs


CBC News
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:54 UTC

Chicken bought at major supermarkets across Canada is frequently contaminated with superbugs - bacteria that many antibiotics cannot kill - an investigation by CBC TV's Marketplace has found.

Marketplace researchers - along with their colleagues at Radio-Canada's food show L'Epicerie - bought 100 samples of chicken from major grocery chains in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

The chicken included some of the most familiar label names in the poultry business.

The 100 samples were sent to a lab for analysis. Two-thirds of the chicken samples had bacteria. That in itself is not unusual - E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter are often present in raw chicken.

What was surprising was that all of the bacteria uncovered during the Marketplace sampling were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Some of the bacteria found were resistant to six, seven or even eight different types of antibiotics.
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Info

US: Eaters Must Become More Political -- We Can't Just Vote With Our Forks

Wenonah Hauter
Alter Net
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00 UTC
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© unknown
Our voices must begin to compete with the very strong preference elected politicians have for getting reelected - and funding their campaigns.

As the popular face of the Obama administration's advocacy for healthy, nutritious food, Michelle Obama has conveniently side-stepped several critical consumer food issues like organics, genetically engineered food, fair markets for farmers and ranchers, and local and regional food economies. But, while Mrs. Obama has remained silent on these topics, the actions of the agencies that regulate our food under President Obama speak volumes. And progressives don't like what they are hearing.

Last year, the FDA began paving the way for approval of genetically engineered (GE) salmon. They pressed on despite the lack of independent research to determine what the health or environmental impacts of such a product would be, and despite concerns from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the FDA's process to "fast track" GE salmon's approval. The first transgenic animal approved for human consumption, GE salmon would open the floodgates for GE cows and pigs, which biotech companies are waiting in the wings to finally commercialize after years of research and development.

But Americans don't want it: A 2009 Consumer Reports poll revealed that the majority of consumers would not eat genetically engineered food, while a poll we conducted with Lake Research Partners last year showed that 78 percent of Americans were against the approval of a GE salmon for human consumption.

Now, the USDA has approved the unrestricted growing of GE alfalfa, which could destroy the organic dairy industry and block farmers from the export market since many countries won't accept GE-contaminated crops. The USDA has also "partially deregulated" GE sugar beets. Soon, many candy bars in America could be produced from sugar grown with Monsanto's dangerous Roundup Ready herbicide.
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Yoda

Grocery Store Wars


You Tube
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 14:12 UTC
Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away...
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Arrow Down

Newsweek Publishes Disgraceful Article on Antioxidants

Jonathan V. Wright, MD
Alliance For Natural Health
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00 UTC
berries
© unknown
In their January 25 issue, Newsweek published a scientifically unsupportable article, claiming that antioxidants "may not be good for your health." We asked natural biomedical researcher and physician Jonathan Wright, MD, to comment - and he didn't mince words!

Here we go again. Another one-sided "mainstream media" attack on an aspect of natural healthcare, filled with to-be-expected misinformation, partial information, and - of course - no attempt at all to present both sides of the manufactured controversy. This time it's Newsweek magazine, with an article entitled "Antioxidants Fall from Grace."

The article starts with a "blog quote" from someone Newsweek has chosen as an "authority," an individual identified as "British chemist and science writer David Bradley." A bit odd that Newsweek couldn't find a full professor who trashes antioxidants in a professional journal article, but that's not the main point. The main point is that "science writer, chemist, and blogger" Bradley showed the same incomplete understanding of the function of antioxidants that many healthcare professionals have, writing in his blog: "It's always struck me as odd that you would want to ingest extra antioxidants anyway, given that oxidizing agents are at the front-line of immune defense against pathogens and cancer cells....Suffice to say that taking antioxidant supplements...may not necessarily be good for your health if you already have health problems."

Let's review some basic definitions. As my chemistry professor, Louis Feiser of Harvard, told us, "oxidation" and "reduction" are two inseparable sides of the same coin. When a molecule loses electrons, it has been "oxidized"; when it gains electrons, it has been "reduced." Since one molecule's loss is always another molecule's gain, the oxidation/reduction must always occur simultaneously, and the whole electron-exchange transaction is called a "redox reaction."
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Bizarro Earth

Are we throwing pesticides and precaution into the wind?


Clinical Nature
Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:21 UTC
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© iStockphoto.com/Kirby Hamilton

Almost a decade ago, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published its report titled, Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000. The report is based on selected case studies from the last century detailing how inaction to early warnings resulted in late lessons learned some decades later.

Such examples are well known to us today: Marie Curie died from her discovery of ionising radiation, the ozone damage caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) will continue to increase our risk of skin cancer for the next 50 years, during which thousands will die from asbestos induced mesothelioma. The hazards of these beneficial technologies were not known about, and perhaps could not have been known about until it was too late to stop some of their irreversible effects. In the context of such unprecedented scientific progress, the EEA called for a better understanding of the use of the precautionary policy in public policy making.
The precautionary principle states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action.
What scientists now know is that our politics and regulatory frameworks are grossly inadequate to protect the public from the present and future consequences of pesticide use and exposure. A decade of research into their endocrine-disrupting effects has resulted in some conceptual shifts in scientific thinking that suggest it's about time we implemented the precautionary principle.
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Cookie

Stopping Addiction to Sugar: Willpower or Genetics?

Dr. Mark Hyman
DrHyman.com
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:50 UTC
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We are all programed to like sugar. New research shows some are genetically much more prone to sugar and food addiction than others. I have observed this in my patients, but now it is becoming clear why some have more trouble kicking the sugar habit than others.

As I reviewed in my previous article on food addiction, the science demonstrating that people can be biologically addicted to sugar in the same way we can be addicted to heroin, cocaine or nicotine is clear. Bingeing and addictive behaviors are eerily similar in alcoholics and sugar addicts. In fact, most recovering alcoholics often switch to another easily available drug: sugar.

It seems that we all vary a bit in our capacity for pleasure. Some us need a lot more stimulation to feel pleasure driving us to a range of addictive pleasures that stimulate our reward center in the brain - drug and alcohol addictions, compulsive gambling, sex addiction and, of course, sugar, food addiction and compulsive eating. We often see these as moral failures or results of character defects. In fact, it may be that addicts of all stripes are simply unlucky and born with unfortunate genetic variations in our reward and pleasure mechanisms.
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Cow

Do Milk and Sugar Cause Acne?

Dr. Mark Hyman
DrHyman.com
Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:38 UTC
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It's confirmed. Dairy products and sugar cause acne.

As our sugar and dairy consumption has increased over the last 100 years so has the number of people with acne. We now have over 17 million acne sufferers, costing our health care system $1 billion a year. Eighty to ninety percent of teenagers suffer acne to varying degrees. The pimply millions rely on infomercial products hawked by celebrities or over-the-counter lotions, cleansers, and topical remedies. Recent research suggests that it's not what we slather on our skin that matters most but what we put in our mouth.

Many have suggested a diet-acne link, but until recently it has not been proven in large clinical studies. Instead dermatologists prescribe long-term antibiotics and Accutane, both of which may cause long-term harmful effects. In 2009, a systematic review of 21 observational studies and six clinical trials found clear links. Two large controlled trials found that cow's milk increased both the number of people who got acne and its severity. Other large randomized prospective controlled trials (the gold standard of medical research) found that people who had higher sugar intake and a high glycemic load diet (more bread, rice, cereal, pasta, sugar, and flour products of all kinds) had significantly more acne. The good news is that chocolate (dark chocolate that is) didn't seem to cause acne.

The dietary pimple producing culprits - diary and sugar (in all its blood sugar raising forms) - both cause spikes in certain pimple producing hormones. Dairy boosts male sex hormones (various forms of testosterone or androgens) and increases insulin levels just as foods that quickly raise blood sugar (sugar and starchy carbs) spike insulin.
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