to [re-mem-ber]:

McDonald’s paid the $1,700 tab for Seminole County, Florida’s report card jackets “in exchange for a coupon, featuring Ronald McDonald, on the card’s cover.” With good grades and attendance, the coupon can be redeemed for a free Happy Meal.

This appears to violate the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which McDonald’s joined last year. Created by the Better Business Bureau, the initiative “provide(s) companies that advertise foods and beverages to children with a transparent and accountable advertising self-regulation mechanism.” Members are not allowed to advertise at schools and cannot place materials in editorial or entertainment content.

Did McDonald’s find a loophole? The report cards are sent straight to the home and may not be easily classifiable as editorial or entertainment. The first compliance review will be in three years. We might have to wait until then for the verdict.

The coupons put parents in a tough spot; a mother in the Seminole school district resented “‘being the bad guy’ that had to deny her daughter the meal.” The mother made the right decision; pairing rewards from doing well at school with unhealthy food is a dangerous combination. The child may only want to do well at school if this same reward is granted, a reward that probably jeopardizes her wellbeing in the long run. It is a safe assumption to believe that the unhealthier a child is, the worse he or she will do in school.

The type of food eaten makes a difference in school performance. A study shows that eating a breakfast with whole grains, like oatmeal, beats eating cold cereal or no breakfast at all. This is probably due to its high protein and fiber, and its gradual raise of glucose levels.

McDonald’s still bleaches all of its grains used, eliminating any nutrition present in its breads. Bleaching most bread creates a poison called alloxon, which has produced diabetes in lab animals, a pretty good sign it is not safe for humans.

McDonald’s has added “healthy” choices to its menu, but these choices are only deceptively healthy, and contain colors and preservatives that have been determined to be detrimental to a human’s health.

McDonald’s defended it’s happy meals, citing that a child could choose a low calorie Happy Meal of Chicken McNuggets, apple dippers, and low fat milk. The combination may be low calorie, but it contains MSG, food coloring, and sodium benzoate. Check McDonald’s ingredients. Most children would probably want the even unhealthier choices, anyway.

McDonald’s is not the only party to blame in this recent event. According to the OrlandoSentinel.com, school board officials call the report card promotions a “business partnership” rather than advertisements.

For schools to find these kinds of “partnerships” beneficial, there must be a lack of funds. If schools were properly paid for and funded, they would not be turning to corporations to print report card jackets.

For more information on the effect of marketing & advertising to children:
Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood
Common Sense Media: Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Preferences
ChildrenNow.org: Media & Obesity

Yes, we now have to worry about superbugs: germs that are so advanced, they are resistant to our antibiotics. But they are resistant to our antibiotics because we overuse them. We use antibiotics for everything– bacteria, viruses, cleaning our hands and bodies, and cleaning our houses. If a germ comes in contact with an antibiotic but does not die, it learns from the experience and passes the information to other germs. Even if a germ is killed, when another bacteria comes in contact with the dead germ, it can still acquire the dead germ’s information about the antibiotic to avoid itself from becoming killed.

The media hype has failed to mention that these germs can be battled with herbs. A research team in 2003 found that Pau d’Arco (also calledTabebuia impetiginosa, Tabebuia avellanedae, Tabebuia heptaphylla) kills MRSA. View the abstract at PubMed.

Why would this information not be more widespread? Is it possible that the public is not informed about these treatments because they are cheap and provide no source of income for the drug companies which support our government?

Drug companies should be smarter about natural treatments and create more pharmaceutical grade alternative medicines, like what has been done with garlic (for cardiovascular diseases) and fish oil (for mood disorders, respiratory health, and arthritis).

The rest of this post is from an article I wrote published at NewsTarget.com:

…Pau D’Arco not only treats drug resistant Staph, it guards against other infections and health problems, including viruses, parasites, and possibly cancer. Antibiotics however, do not work against viruses and cancer. Instead, antibiotics “may help fungi to proliferate within the human body”, and they kill all types of bacteria, including the beneficial bacteria which aid in healthy digestion. A lack of beneficial bacteria has been linked with autism and bowel disorders.

Antibiotic use in children has been correlated with asthma and allergies, and their use can “alter the development of a child’s immune system.” The same study also found that children were less likely to develop these problems if they were exposed to a dog before the age of 1.

So germ exposure can be a good thing, and all this exposure to antibiotics is actually making us weaker and making the harmful bacteria stronger! They are not only over prescribed by doctors, but they are used in agriculture and fed to livestock. So if you are not choosing organic food, you may be taking antibiotics!

Antibacterial soaps and sanitizers create the same problem: stronger, more immune bacteria. Natural soaps wash away dirt and germs from the body, but they don’t help create superbugs. In addition to creating superbugs and lowering our immunity, NewsTarget recently reported that many antibacterial soaps also contain the toxic chemical triclosan which can promote cancer. Antibacterial soaps could also change your hormones.

So before resorting to antibiotics and chemical antibacterials, first try alternatives such as Pau D’Arco, garlic, grapefruit seed extract, honey, colloidal silver, lemon, and tee tree oil. There are many others, and most natural antibiotic alternatives are safe for everyday, preventative use, unlike antibiotics.

The National Resources Defense Council released a detailed analysis confirming the dangers of phthalates, which can affect hormones and reproductive development, with a particular risk to babies and children. Several household and personal items contain the ingredient. In response to the news, Walgreens announced that it will pull air fresheners containing the containment off the shelves, including its own brand. They will soon have more phthalate-free options available.

Statement from Dr. Gina Solomon, NRDC scientist, regarding Walgreens’ Decision:

“Pulling these air fresheners from their shelves is a conscious choice on the part of Walgreens to put their customers first and take the lead on product safety. This is a wonderful example of corporate responsibility and also shows how companies and health groups can work together to find solutions.”

“Hopefully other companies will follow Walgreens’ lead. And we also hope that the federal government will step up and protect citizens further by taking closer look at the risks of phthalates and requiring companies to test for these chemicals and properly label their products.”

So far, only Walgreens as pulled these dangerous products. Phthalates are found in most air fresheners currently on the market.

Read the full report.

Soda is having problems staying out of trouble, and so are the kids who drink it.

The American Journal of Public Health surveyed thousands of teenagers “about their eating and soda-drinking habits, as well as hyperactivity and conduct problems in school, and mental health indicators such as anxiousness, dizziness, hopelessness, panic, sadness, sleeplessness, tension, unhappiness with themselves and a sense that everything is a burden.”

And, yup, of course, the more soda the kid drinks, the more likely he/she is to have these problems.

The exact cause is not determined in this study, only the correlation between soda consumption and mental health problems, but we can can make a few guesses why they have a negative effect on behavior:

Colors and Preservatives: already linked to behavior problems in kids

Phosphoric Acid: as damaging to your teeth as battery acid

Sugar: high sugar intake is linked to pancreatic cancer

Nutritionist Mike Adams said, “It is very clear that diet strongly impacts mood, mental function and behavior. Drinking liquid sugars or artificial chemical sweeteners is much like poison to the human body, and it causes an imbalance in the functioning of the body and mind.” He is the author of The Five Soft Drink Monsters, a guide to kick the soda habit.

A study published in CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), “reports that children receiving antibiotics in the first year of life were at greater risk for developing asthma by age 7 than those not receiving antibiotics.” The investigators followed over 13,000 kids from birth to age 7, monitoring their health.

These folks were very smart too; they distinguished between children receiving antibiotics for respiratory and NON-RESPIRATORY ailments, and took note of other factors “including gender, urban or rural location, neighborhood income, number of siblings at age 7, maternal history of asthma, and pets reported living in the home.” So the results are extremely valid.

Science Daily has a great in-depth explanation of the results. Some highlights:

…absence of a dog during the birth-year doubled asthma risk among children taking multiple courses of antibiotics.

…asthma at age 7 was almost twice as likely in children receiving an antibiotic for nonrespiratory tract infections compared with children who did not receive antibiotics.

Some antibiotic alternatives:

Colloidal Silver

Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE)

Garlic

Honey

A popular ingredient in soft drinks, sodium benzoate, has already been determined to be carcinogenic when combined with a Vitamin C additive. Sodium benzoate has now been found to inactivate a yeast cell’s mitochondrial DNA, potentially leading to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Human and yeast cells contain mitochondria.

According to The Independent, Professor Piper of Sheffield University, the conductor of the experiment, believes that parents and consumers should be cautious of all food and drink with preservatives and additives as the long term effects of most are unknown. Several food additives have already been linked to behavior problems in children.

As noted in a previous entry, sodas also contain phosphoric acid, an ingredient in household cleaners, that approaches the acidity of battery acid and “dissolves away your skeletal system.”

And if the soda is diet, it probably also contains aspartame, a known carcinogen that causes brain tumors and leukemia.

Water, anyone?

A study conducted by the UK’s government Food Standards Agency (FSA) found a definite link between food additives and behavior problems in children, such as temper tantrums and poor concentration. Food colorings and one preservative were tested on 3 year olds and 9 year olds. The culprits are tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104), allura red AC (E129), and the preservative sodium benzoate (E211).

Several individuals and organizations have been been campaining against artificial additives in children’s foods, including the founder of Organix, Lizzie Vann, quoted in the UK Daily Mail:

“If the Government is serious about improving children’s nutrition the ban on artificial food additives must be a priority.”

She has aptly suggested that even though our current research is based on short term study, if the additives are not banned, there will be long term evidence from the general population.

An adviser to the FSA, Vyvyan Howard, a professor of bio-imaging at Ulster University and a father, also thinks these additives should be banned:

“It is the right thing to do to remove these additives from children’s foods. They have no nutritional value, so why put them in?

“But why stop there? Children’s brains and nervous systems are developing beyond the age of one.”

In fact, contrary to what you may have learned, adults do develop new brain cells in a process called neurogenesis; So developing children over the age of one can safely include adults.

Fortunately, some companies have changed without force, including the makers of Smarties who dropped all food coloring even resulting in the absence of the blue variety in their famous rolls.

Progress!

Most soft drinks, the most highly consumed beverages in the United States, also contain phosphoric acid, found to be nearly as acidic as battery acid.

The popular drink ingredient also used in several household cleaners apparently “dissolves away your skeletal system.”

Read the article posted by NewsTarget.com here.