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Over 130,000 cases of diabetes now linked to soda consumption, HFCS

Mike Adams
NaturalNews.com
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:45 UTC
For years, advocates of natural health have been hammering away at the message that soda causes diabetes and obesity. The soda industry, meanwhile, has remained in denial mode, mirroring the ridiculous position of the tobacco industry that "nicotine is not addictive." Soda doesn't cause diabetes, the industry claims, and it's perfectly safe to consume in essentially unlimited quantities.

The Corn Refiners Association has joined the denial with its own spin campaign that seeks to convince people High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is totally natural and completely harmless. HFCS is, of course, the primary sweetener used in sodas and soft drinks.

Now comes new research presented at the American Heart Association's Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference in San Francisco. This new research reveals that over the last decade, soda consumption has conservatively caused:
  • 130,000 new cases of diabetes
  • 14,000 new cases of heart disease
  • 50,000 more "life years" with heart disease over the last decade
"The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a dramatic health benefit," said senior study author Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo (associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco).
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Cheeseburger

Coke's New Healthy Front: Why Coke's New 'Healthy Front' Could Be Just a Big Bluff...

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
coke
© Unknown
Diet Coke and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health have joined forces to raise awareness about women's risk of heart disease. Diet Coke's Red Dress Program will take center stage at high-profile events.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest points out that Coca-Cola, whose products are not exactly heart healthy, is a strange partner for the NHLBI.

Are such partnerships a benign win-win? History suggests otherwise.

In 1984, Kellogg cooked up a partnership with the National Cancer Institute to put health claims for fiber on the boxes of All-Bran cereals. In doing so, Kellogg (and NCI) went around the FDA and undermined that agency's control over health claims on food packages -- leading to problems that the agency is still struggling to fix.

Sources: Food Politics February 17, 2010
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Natural Compounds in Carnivorous Plants Could Fight Human Fungal Infections

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
The vast array of plants in nature includes carnivorous plants that kill to survive. How can a plant zap a flying or crawling insect? By using a highly evolved group of compounds and secondary metabolites to trap and absorb prey. Now Tel Aviv University researchers say they've found a way these natural plant compounds could benefit human health by fighting serious fungal infections.

The Venus fly trap is probably the best known example of a carnivorous plant. Native to the tropics, these plants lure unsuspecting beetles, ants, flies and other creatures into a cavity filled with liquid that botanists call a "pitcher". The instant insects fall into this trap, enzymes are activated that dissolve the bugs and provide the plant with needed nutrients, such as carbon and nitrogen, which can be difficult to extract from soil.

For a study just published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the Israeli researchers investigated the biology of the carnivorous plant Nepenthes khasiana, which is native to India.
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Vitamin D Deficiency Now So Widespread That Rickets is On The Rise Once Again

E. Huff
NaturalNews
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
A clinical review paper published in the British Medical Journal is warning the public that widespread vitamin D deficiency is resurrecting the once-obsolete disease called rickets. According to Professor Simon Pearce and Dr. Time Cheetham, authors of the paper, people are getting far too little sunlight exposure which is necessary for the body to produce adequate levels of vitamin D.

Nowadays, children spend most of their time indoors staring at computer and television screens rather than playing outside in the sunlight. On the rare occasion that they venture outside, zealous parents are quick to apply UV-blocking sunscreen that prevents the sun's useful UVB rays from penetrating their skin and producing vitamin D. The result is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency that is leading to all sorts of illness and disease.

Rickets, a disease in which a person's bones do not properly develop and harden, results when a person is getting too little vitamin D and most likely not enough calcium. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is a mere 400 IU, an amount that is said to be adequate for preventing rickets.
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Pills

McCain Beats a Hasty Retreat Over his Anti-Supplement Bill

Tiffany Richards
Wellness Resources
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
Minneapolis, Minnesota - Senator John McCain showed his true colors as a big-government regulator when he recently introduced a bill, S.3002, that would have drastically impaired access to dietary supplements in the U.S. He expected his bill to be popular, at least amongst Democrats, and did not expect any significant opposition. After all, McCain is in a serious primary struggle with J.D. Hayworth and could very well lose his Senate seat in Arizona's August primary vote. The fact that he seriously misrepresented the dietary supplement industry to promote this legislation quickly showed him as not even understanding his own bill. Then he found himself on the receiving end of communications from tens of thousands of irate supplement users - as did many other members of Congress. Now he is trying to quietly back out, as his staff has acknowledged that he has withdrawn support for his own bill.

McCain himself has not yet made any public statements to this effect. However, a letter from Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) to McCain has been posted on the McCain senate website and indicates the current bill is dead.
      Read More...
Cow

Banned in 160 Nations... Yet U.S. FDA Regards it as Safe?


Dr. Mercola
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:37 UTC
Image
A livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs has been approved by the FDA.

The beta agonist ractopamine, a repartitioning agent that increases protein synthesis, was recruited for livestock use when researchers found the drug, used in asthma, made mice more muscular.

Ractopamine is started as the animal nears slaughter.

How does a drug marked, "Not for use in humans. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear, and a NIOSH-approved dust mask" become "safe" in human food? With no washout period?

The drug is banned in Europe, Taiwan and China, and more than 1,700 people have been "poisoned" from eating pigs fed the drug since 1998, but ractopamine is used in 45 percent of U.S. pigs and 30 percent of ration-fed cattle.

Sources:

AlterNet February 2, 2010
      Read More...
Magic Wand

Lemon Grass Fights Headaches


Science Alert
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:26 UTC
Image
© iStockphoto
In tests, extracts from the plant inhibited
human blood platelets from clumping
together, in the same way that aspirin
does.
Griffith University researchers have found native lemon grass, used by Indigenous Australians as traditional medicine, has the potential to relieve headaches and migraines.

The findings of the five-year study were reported in the most recent edition of the academic journal Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Research by Professor Lyn Griffiths, Dr. Darren Grice and Dr. Kelly Rogers has scientifically proven the lemon grass plant Cymbopogon ambiguus may be as good as aspirin when it comes to treating headaches.
      Read More...
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Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) Recall Leaves Food Consumers Wondering: What is This Stuff?

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:00 UTC
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) is one of most common soy-based food "fillers" used to make literally thousands of processed food products. It's found in veggie burgers, gravy mixes, soups and many other grocery products. Last Thursday, one of the largest producers of HVP in the United States, Las Vegas-based Basic Food Flavors Inc., was the subject of an FDA consumer safety warning announcement. Salmonella had been found contaminating the company's HVP production equipment, the FDA said, and a nationwide recall was initiated that now includes products from Trader Joe's, Safeway, McCormick and many other companies.

See the FDA list of recalled products here.

Most Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein isn't purchased directly by consumers; it's used by food production companies as an ingredient in mainstream processed foods. So it shows up in thousands of grocery products -- and most consumers are not aware they're eating this ingredient. In fact, many consumers are, for the first time, asking, "What is HVP?"
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Tai Chi Helps People with Arthritis of the Knee

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
Tai Chi can reduce pain and improve function in people who suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee, according to a study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and published in the journal Arthritis Care and Research.

Tai Chi is a traditional form of Chinese exercise that involves slow, rhythmic movements. The study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Researchers conducted the study on 40 people over the age of 55 who were suffering from arthritis of the knee. Half the participants were assigned to either a twice-a-week Tai Chi class, while half were assigned to a twice-a-week general wellness and stretching class. All participants were instructed to repeat their Tai Chi or stretching exercises at home for 20 minutes per day. At the beginning and end of the study, they filled out questionnaires about their pain, mental state, quality of life and other health-related information.
      Read More...
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Elderly Patients Aggressively Over-Treated with Pharmaceuticals

E. Huff
NaturalNews
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00 UTC
Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration research group have determined that seniors over the age of 80 are being given too many drugs and in too high of doses. Particularly with high blood pressure, doctors are too aggressively treating the elderly with pharmaceuticals which is doing them more harm than good.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly a quarter of all Americans between 20 and 75 have hypertension while roughly 70 percent of those over 75 have it.

The conventional approach to treating high blood pressure is to prescribe a variety of drugs that, together, doctors hope will achieve a target of 140/90 mmHg. However after scouring several studies to see if such treatments are actually working, Dr. James Wright, head of Cochrane, found that too many drugs in very large doses is having no positive effect. In fact, he found that the more conservative the approach, the more beneficial the results.
      Read More...
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