Health & WellnessS


Popcorn

Obama administration hooks up 'global warming' agenda to healthy eating guidelines

Jeff Stier
Washington Examiner
Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:00 UTC
vegetables
© Thinkstock
When "Big Food" and "Big Food Police" congratulate each other for coming together with the White House, as they did when new food nutrition labels were unveiled last week, consumers and small businesses should be very nervous.

But the controversial new labels are small potatoes compared to what the Obama administration is now cooking up. At a closed-door meeting Friday, administration officials and their advisers will plot to insert the global warming agenda into dietary guidelines mandated by Congress.

The Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments are updating the guidelines for publication next year.
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Vader

Food police coming: Obama administration to insert global warming activism into dietary guidelines mandated by Congress

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That?
Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:46 UTC
global warming debate
© Michael Ramirez
Aaargh! Forget nutrition and medical guidelines, carbon footprint is the new diet selector.

Climate Change Activists to Meet Food Police at Closed-Door Meeting March 14

New York, NY / Washington DC - At a closed-door meeting to take place March 14, the Obama Administration's Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services plan to update the nation's "dietary guidelines" - a document with significant repercussions for food stamps, military and school meals programs - to include anti-global warming activism.

In an article, "Obama administration pollutes guidelines for healthy eating with unhealthy ideologies," published Sunday by the Washington Examiner, National Center Senior Fellow and Risk Analysis Division Director Jeff Stier says environmental activists within the U.S. government plan to change the nation's dietary guidelines to promote foods that they believe have "a smaller carbon footprint."
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Pills

Antibiotics - the fat drug

Pagan Kennedy
New York Times
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 14:28 UTC
Image
© Jing Wei
If you walk into a farm-supply store today, you're likely to find a bag of antibiotic powder that claims to boost the growth of poultry and livestock.That's because decades of agricultural research has shown that antibiotics seem to flip a switch in young animals' bodies, helping them pack on pounds. Manufacturers brag about the miraculous effects of feeding antibiotics to chicks and nursing calves.Dusty agricultural journals attest to the ways in which the drugs can act like a kind of super-food to produce cheap meat.

But what if that meat is us? Recently, a group of medical investigators have begun to wonder whether antibiotics might cause the same growth promotion in humans. New evidence shows that America's obesity epidemic may be connected to our high consumption of these drugs. But before we get to those findings, it's helpful to start at the beginning, in 1948, when the wonder drugs were new - and big was beautiful.
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Heart

Omega-3 fatty acids may improve children's sleep patterns: study


CTV News
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 02:18 UTC
sleeping child
© UnknownOmega-3 fatty acids have been shown to help improved sleep for some children.
A new pilot study indicates increasing children's intake of omega-3 fatty acids may improve their sleep.

The study from the University of Oxford is said to be the first to analyze the potential link between sleep and fatty acid status in healthy children. Findings will be published in the Journal of Sleep Research.

Researchers provided 362 children from 74 Oxford primary schools with either daily 600-milligram supplements of algal sources or a placebo over a 16-week period to determine if sleep would improve.
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Bacon

U.S. deadly pig virus cases on the rise: 4,106 cases in 26 states

Meredith Davis
Yahoo! News
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:03 UTC
Image
© National Pork Board
Cases of the deadly Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, a highly contagious pig disease, are increasing across the U.S. farm belt, a group of animal health researchers said.

Confirmed cases of PEDv increased by 252 in the week ending March 1, bringing the total number to 4,106 in 26 states, according to data released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Health Laboratory Network.

While one case can represent an individual animal or an entire herd at a single site, swine specialists estimate PEDv has killed at least 4 million U.S. hogs since it was discovered in May 2013.

Pork processors were finding it more difficult to purchase hogs for slaughter due to the virus, which is starting to affect the pork supply and could eventually boost pork prices for consumers, industry sources said.
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Better Earth

New Study: Organic farms support 34 - 43% more species than GMO farms

Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:36 UTC
Organic Farms
© Natural Society

A new study will make it hard for Monsanto, Dow, and DuPont to argue that they aren't simply desirous of eliminating all of nature, and then - us. A detailed analysis of species diversity - more plants, animals, and insects - is included in the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Oxford University's report published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, looking at data from 94 previous studies covering 184 farm sites dating back to 1989. It shows how organic farms support life on planet Earth, and how GMO farms do not.

That's no haphazard report. It covers lots of acreage and goes back 25 years. This very same report proves that this increase of biodiversity is stable over 30 years on organic farms, as compared to conventional ones. Is this really any surprise though, to anyone who has been paying attention to what neonicotinoids do to pollinators, and what Bt toxins do to farm animals and people?

Sean Tuck of Oxford University's Department of Plant Sciences, and lead author of the study said:
"Our study has shown that organic farming, as an alternative to conventional farming, can yield significant long-term benefits for biodiversity. Organic methods could go some way towards halting the continued loss of diversity in industrialized nations."
The study only looked at 'species richness' and in some cases pollinator colonies were a whole 50% higher on organic farms compared to GMO, pesticide-laden ones.
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Water

Harvard says fluoridated water is causing cognitive disorders

Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:36 UTC
Fluoridated Water
© ButterBeliever.com.
A newly published study in Harvard's The Lancet weighs in on the toxins causing autism and ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) say that along with these numerous environmental toxins, fluoridated water is adding to the higher incident of both cognitive and behavioral disorders.

Harvard had already published a study in 2006 that pointed to fluoride as a 'developmental neurotoxicant', and this newer study looks to over 27 additional investigations into the matter via meta nalysis. In the previous study, it was already established that fluoride consumption lowered children's IQ scores.

The left-over from industry, passed off as 'medicine,' obstructs brain development, and can cause a full spectrum of serious health issues - from autism to dyslexia, ADHD, ADD, and more.

The study calls the effects from this chemical a 'silent epidemic' that mainstream media and many scientific papers have ignored.

Two of the main researchers involved in the study, Philippe Grandjean from HSPH and Philip Landrigan from ISMMS, say that incidences of chemical-related neurodevelopmental disorders have doubled over the past seven years from six to 12.

The study admits that there are numerous chemicals to blame - many of which are untested or ceremoniously approved by the FDA, USDA, and CDC without truly knowing their long term ramifications on human health - but that fluoride is a definite culprit.
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Beaker

Proof: They don't have to use harmful artificial color dyes

Aaron Dykes & Melissa Melton
Truthstream Media.com
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 15:04 UTC
Image
© Truthstream Media.com
If they can use real food for colors instead, why are so many U.S. products laced with risky ingredients banned around the world?

We were confronted with a neon-colored popsicle that seemed like a young kid's dream and a parent's nightmare - that is, until we realized that unlike most of its peers on the junk food market, this sugary treat DOES NOT use artificial color dyes - which have been banned in Europe and most of the world due to their proven links to hyperactivity and cancer.

Comment: Food Dyes: The Color of Controversy:

Food Dyes: The Toxic Situation
Do Synthetic Food Colors Cause Hyperactivity?
Is It Really Worth Using Food Dyes If They Cause Cancer?
The Rainbow Of Food Dyes In Our Grocery Aisles Has A Dark Side
Organic Foods Offer Alternative to Foods Containing Food Dyes & Pesticides Linked to Raising Children's Risk of ADHD

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Cookies

It doesn't take much sugar for it to wreak havoc on your body

Jill Richardson
Alternet
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:27 UTC
Image
At least a can of soda per day is safe, right? Nope, much much less, according to the World Health Organization.

Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Righteous Porkchop, just coined a new catchphrase that ought to go viral: "Sugar is NOT just an empty calorie."

Her statement contradicts the notion we've had for years that the worst thing about sugar is its lack of nutrients. Either you're eating sugar in addition to all of the calories you need to stay healthy, or you're eating it instead of them. In the former case, you're getting too many calories; in the latter, you're getting too few nutrients. This idea is so dominant it was recently cited in an anti-sugar op-ed in the Guardian.

Even if that was the case, we're eating too much sugar. Or, more specifically, too much added sugar. Sugars that are naturally present in whole foods like fruit are okay; it's the sugar added to whole foods that we must worry about. Previously, the World Health Organization said we should limit consumption of added sugars to 10 percent of calories. Even then, more than seven in 10 Americans ate too much sugar. On average, about 15 percent of our calories came from added sugars.
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Syringe

Chemotherapy patients more likely to die in hospital ICU rather than peacefully at home as they would have preferred


CBS Local
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 12:56 UTC
Image
© Toni L. Sandys/Getty ImagesCancer patients who received chemo were more likely to die in a hospital intensive care unit rather than at home.
More than half of end-stage cancer patients receive chemotherapy during the last few months of their life, and those who received such treatment were more likely to die in a hospital intensive care unit, hooked to a ventilator, rather than at home as they would have preferred, says a new study.

Patients were also less likely to have discussed their end of life wishes with their oncologist compared to other end-stage cancer patients who opted not to continue chemotherapy.

Researchers say doctors have a hard time initiating conversations with their patients, especially those dying from metastatic cancer.

"There's a subtle dance that happens between oncologist and patient," Dr. Alexi Wright, an assistant professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the study's lead author, told the Boston Globe. "Where doctors don't want to broach the subject of dying, especially in younger patients, because it makes those patients think we're giving up on them."

Comment: Perhaps some doctors fail to give up on treatments because of pressure from BigPharma. Chemotherapy is a big business, has been shown to be toxic and in some cases to make cancers worse. There are far less toxic and more effective treatments for cancer, but as those provide no financial incentives they are portrayed as quack therapies or ignored. Patients who refuse barbarian chemotherapy protocols may live longer and have far more peaceful deaths when they do pass!
75% of physicians in the world refuse chemotherapy for themselves
Greed: Why an accepted "cure" for cancer won't be found
Study: Chemotherapy May Trigger Cancer Growth
Woops! Study Accidentally Finds Chemotherapy Makes Cancer Far Worse
Why is "Hot Chemo" an Acceptable Cancer Treatment - But IV Vitamin C is "Too Far Out There"?
Yet another cancer cure to put Big Pharma out of business? Korean scientists kill cancer with magnet field

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