to [re-mem-ber]:

Although mainstream media may lead you to believe that sunshine is bad for you, a deficiency in Vitamin D is actually a bigger threat than overexposure to the sun. New research suggests that higher levels of Vitamin D3 can lessen the severity of multiple sclerosis, a largely misunderstood autoimmune disorder. What is understood is that the immune system is not functioning properly, and that is really all you need to know. It means the body is fundamentally upset in some way, it is out of balance. What exactly is on earth that allows it to sustain our types of life? Water, oxygen, food, and sunlight. It is very easy to understand that not eating, drinking, or breathing will cause death very quickly (not eating being the slowest of these), but sunshine should be included as well. Lack of sunlight and vitamin D3 is very detrimental to the body and has been correlated with all kinds of disorders like juvenile diabetes, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and Osteoporosis.

Worried about getting burned? The best way to to start getting adequate sun is to slowly work up over a period of days. 15 minutes, then 20, and so on until you are acclimated and not getting burned. If you want to stay out longer, wear light sunblocking clothing or use a safe sunscreen. There are numerous sunscreens on the market that may be worse for you than sun overexposure because they contain toxic ingredients that can change your hormones or cause melanoma. AOL even published a story claiming “almost half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products may actually increase the speed at which malignant cells develop and spread skin cancer.” Always check the ingredients of any product you rub into your skin, because your body absorbs it. You can check the ingredients of all cosmetics at the EWG’s Skin Deep cosmetics database.

Although specified quantities are a little vague, there are a few supplements that are gaining support (from research in mainstream studies!) as fat busters. These are not diets and quick fixes; but these supplements have been shown to be advantageous in the fight against fat.

Vinegar – “Modern scientific research suggests that acetic acid, the main component of vinegar, may help control blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and fat accumulation.” Apple cider vinegar has long been an alternative health staple, even a cure-all, with claims ranging from weight loss to the elimination of gout, arthritis, and acne. It’s nice to see a powerful folk remedy finally tested in its claims and undoubtedly validated.

Lignans – This link is only a correlation, but pretty strong. “High intake of lignans was associated with lower body fat mass and BMI, compared to women with the lowest average intakes.” The highest amount of lignans are found in flax seed, and some other notable lignacious foods are sesame seed, sunflower seed, kale, broccoli with red wine topping out the best of the beverages. So can you eat as much food with lignans as you want? Probably not. Calories cannot be ignored, though these foods may lead to a feeling of fullness that could help you eat less. For a more complete list of foods with lignans, see http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/lignan.php

White Tea – While green tea may be the most publicly touted for weight loss (with an equal amount of controversy), white tea’s anti-fat nature has been tested and proven in the lab. Researchers found that white tea actually stopped the development of new fat cells and increased the fat use of old cells. But why white tea? Well, white, green, and black teas can all be made from the same tea leaves, white tea is just picked earliest. It’s made from the first buds of the plant and is “less processed than the other teas and contains more of the ingredients thought to be active on human cells.”

Curcumin (in Turmeric) – When fed a high fat diet, mice fed curcumin gained less weight. BONUS: These lucky mice also showed lower cholesterol levels and separate studies show curcumin can lower rates of dementia!

Red Pepper – Capsaicin, the hot part of hot peppers stopped immature fat cells in the lab from growing up and filling with fat. Just like some diners with timid tastebuds, capsaicin can also cause some fat cells to self-destruct. Extra hot sauce, please.

Melon Extract – The study was carried out on hamsters because they experience cholesterol build up similarly to us. Two groups of hamster were fed high fat diets, but by the end of the studies, the hamsters that also took melon extract had lower body weights, by 29%! Bonus: This supplement has also been proven to lower perceived stress and improve quality of life which makes sense it would also help with weight gain since added stress can mean added weight.

CLA & Safflower oil – Fellow Natural News writer Sherry Baker has the scoop here: http://www.naturalnews.com/026599_body_fat_weight_loss_health.html

These are not get thin quick schemes and are certainly not diets on their own. None of this research says if you add these supplements to your diet you will immediately drop massive amounts of weight; they do not cure obesity. When added to a high fat, high calorie lifestyle, these diet accessories will allow you to gain less weight than overeating without their help. It is more realistic to think they can help you maintain a healthy weight and help balance out those occasional days of overconsumption. Most people know when they’ve overeaten. If you’re trying to lose weight, intuitively find your baseline for satiation and stay true to yourself.

A few squares of dark chocolate can smooth arterial flow for up to 8 hours. This isn’t a reason to continue smoking, but if someone you love won’t quit or can’t, make sure he takes this tip to heart. His heart will thank you.

Read details of the full study here (via Science Daily).

Beets and other foods that contain specific nitrates have been found to increase blood flow in the body including the brain (via Natural News).

What other benefits could increased flood flow have? It could combat:

• cognitive decline
• poor circulation
• limb numbness
• headaches

Beets specifically have already been found to help people work out harder and longer when drank as juice before exercise. Beets are quickly being acknowledged as a new superfood up to the ranks of Chlorella and Spirulina. If your local grocer doesn’t carry them, speak with the manager, and they will probably order them for you.

Pomegranates have been found to have a cumulative beneficial effect to patients undergoing dialysis. From Nutraingredients-USA.com, pomegranate juice “yields a lower level of oxidative stress, reduced inflammation, an improvement in lipid profile, and reductions in blood pressure.”

This isn’t an overnight fix, they followed patients for 12 months total, and benefits increased over time.

If you recommend this to a loved one undergoing dialysis, make sure they get real pomegranate juice. There are a lot of phonies up on the shelves loaded with added sugar and preservatives, even food coloring. Check the ingredients on the label and take a look at an analysis done by Natural News which shows you which brands to avoid and which to pick up.

Kidneys are the only thing pomegranates are good for.  They can boost sperm count, prevent breast cancer, and prevent Alzheimer’s. These three benefits alone can be helpful to everyone!

Happy juice drinking.

In a study recently published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, mothers who were low on the vitamin folate during the earliest stages of their pregnancy had children that were more prone to hyperactivity, inattention, peer problems, and neural tube defects. The study followed women for an average of 9 years, so the study is extremely valid.

Folate is a great supplement for mothers-to-be to begin immediately upon learning about pregnancy, but it is also a vitamin that all women of childbearing age should take or include in their diets because according to folicacidnow.com, “half of pregnancies are unplanned.” Low folate levels are vital for prevention of neural tube defects (NTD) which effect the baby’s spinal cord in the first 20 days after conception before a mother may even know she is pregnant. After this time, increased folate will not be able to correct these conditions.

Folate is important for men, too. It can increase sperm count, increase chances of conception, and lower rates of cardiovascular disease.

Folate is important for people of all ages.

From WHFoods.com:

What can high-folate foods do for you?

• Support red blood cell production and help prevent anemia
• Help prevent homocysteine build-up in your blood
• Support cell production, especially in your skin
• Allow nerves to function properly
• Help prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures
• Help prevent dementias including Alzheimer’s disease

What events can indicate a need for more high-folate foods?

• Irritability
• Mental fatigue, forgetfulness, or confusion
• Depression
• Insomnia
• General or muscular fatigue
• Gingivitis or periodontal disease

Excellent sources of folate include romaine lettuce, spinach, asparagus, turnip greens, mustard greens, calf’s liver, parsley, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, and lentils.

If you’re concerned about your folate intake from food, The Vitamin Code has a supplement which is raw and derived from food, so you can be absolutely sure you’re getting the amount you want and from a natural source.

Monsanto is an important topic for Earth Day. They are responsible for much of the food that we eat, and this financial quarter, Monsanto posted a profit of 887 million dollars. What have they been up to?

Monsanto sells 90% of the world’s Genetically Engineered seed. Genetically engineered foods are proven to cause a multitude of health problems including fertility problems, immunity disruption, birth defects, and asthma. See the government studies here.

France, Switzerland, and Greece are so convinced that they banned the production of GM crops. Russia is now looking to follow suit. All of these countries still allow the import of GM food products, but Azerbaijan thinks it can do without anything GM. India already has a ban on products with genetically modified ingredients, but Greenpeace discovered that Pepsico’s Doritos Corn Tortilla Chips contain GMOs and have illegally snuck into New Delhi supermarkets!

India is extremely on point with these issues. Dr Mira Shiva, of the Initiative for Health, Equity and Society states it clearly:

“This is a serious violation of people’s right to safe food as consumers are being kept ignorant of the presence of potentially dangerous GM ingredients in the food products. There is growing scientific evidence on the health hazards of GM foods across the world and it cannot be ignored any more. The mandate of keeping hazardous food out of the country should be the duty of the Health Ministry and it should take immediate steps to stop the illegal entry of these foods.”

What about the US?

GM crops and products are widespread in the US, and products are not required to be labeled.

53% of the world’s GM crops are grown in the US.

The US shares a patent with Monsanto for the Terminator gene in “suicide seeds.” These seeds to not yield crop a second year in a row, so farmers must continue to buy seed every year. They are reportedly being used in several places around the world, including Haiti.

On the fence about GM? Watch Greenpeace’s video Genetic Engineering: the world’s greatest scam?. You can also read The Union of Concerned Scientists’ eBook Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops.

You can sign up to support sustainable agriculture here.

Continue to be on the lookout for Monsanto, they are constantly expanding their product reach. Monsanto is responsible for Agent Orange used in Vietnam, plastics, bovine growth hormone, and NutraSweet.

For more information, see:

Wiki entry on Monsanto

Greenpeace GE News

GMWatch.org

banGMfood.org

Food, Inc

Happy Earth Day. Eat wisely!

This could be a big win for consumer rights and safety. A private citizen brought a lawsuit against The Gerber Products Company which was initially dismissed, but has now been reinstated by the US Court of Appeals. A product of Gerber, formerly called “Fruit Juice Snacks” depicts real fruit on the packaging when its key ingredients are corn syrup and refined sugar. Gerber has now changed the name to “Juice Treats”, which hasn’t really changed much since juice is still not a major ingredient.

The Court of Appeals sided with the private citizen and decided consumers should not be “expected to look beyond misleading representations on the front of the box to discover the truth from the ingredient list in small print on the side of the box.”

The lawsuit will continue with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) as counsel. Unfortunately in the meanwhile, the product will remain with baby and toddler food at the supermarket, instead of in the candy isle.

Gerber is definitely not the only offender of deceptive food product marketing, and hopefully a ruling against the company will help shape future marketing of unhealthy foods. If all is handled correctly, the candy isle will soon become half of the grocery store.

Please follow this link and urge the FDA not to pull vitamin B6. Add your comment. If you do not currently take the vitamin, consider this research to understand how beneficial this vitamin is, and how it should continue to be available over the counter to the countless Americans already supplementing with it :

It has been proven to help protect heart disease, reduce the risk of cancer, reduce contraceptive pill side effects, help correct anemia, control blood pressure, and many others. See this research and more here.

It is not just an important vitamin to increase health, but having a B6 deficiency can actually reverse health and cause nerve damage.

The pharmaceutical company medicure is petitioning the FDA to ban the vitamin so it can release its own drug made from it. The same thing happened with red yeast rice. According to NaturalNews.com:

Drug companies ripped off the lovastatin molecules from red yeast rice, then patented them. Once they achieved FDA approval for their “statin drugs,” it was easy to file a petition requesting the outlawing of red yeast rice, claiming the supplement was “adulterated” with drugs! Which drugs? Statin drugs, of course — the very same drugs that were isolated from red yeast rice in the first place!

What the FDA has done and might do in this case seems inherently flawed. They are trying to make a natural component of some foods only available by a prescription. They could still make their own higher potency vitamin B6 drug WITHOUT pulling lower potency products from the shelves, and because of the benefits, many Americans would choose to go to their doctors. But not all. That’s competition, and unfortunately because modern medicine has been slow to catch on to the benefits of natural health products, this is the consequence it must face.

Pharmaceuticals do still have a monopoly, and as a result, we pay the highest amounts for drugs in the world! And unfortunately it seems that the FDA would like to ensure the future of pharmaceutical companies more than the American citizens, many of which pay outrageous amounts for health care, and may rely on vitamins and minerals they can buy at their local stores. The FDA, who receives major funding from pharmaceutical companies, and the pharmaceutical companies themselves, need to suck it up and face this loss.

If this goes through, we might soon have to get all of our vitamins from doctors, as it will continue to carve out the precedent that any vitamin can be pulled if a pharmaceutical company wants to market it. And why wouldn’t they? Americans spend $7.5 billion a year on vitamins.

Add your comment to the FDA:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=090000648051908f

Suspicions have finally been confirmed: mercury has been linked to autism by the University of Texas Health Science Center. The researchers found that the distance a child lived from a mercury emitting coal power plant or other industrial facility influenced the his or her likelihood of autism. You may have even seen ads lately advocating the use of coal as a clean energy source. CARE Energy says on their website that coal is becoming cleaner by reducing “the emissions of electricity generation.” They do not even mention mercury! Where do you think the elevated levels in fish come from? Researcher Vincent St. Louis said: “We can say conclusively that if you reduce mercury emissions it will result in less mercury in fish.”

Although the study only focused on one aspect of mercury exposure (as a study must do in order to be considered valid), how can we not conclude mercury is dangerous in every context? Pollution by mercury is “…is a problem of global magnitude,” says James Hurley, assistant director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Aquatic Sciences Center. We have yet to find how much destruction is being caused by mercury. But we know that it has already had negative impacts on humans, wildlife, and the environment. It is safe to say it has impacted our future, too.

Unfortunately mercury is extremely prevalent. Mercury has been found in California rainwater from industrial waste in China. For energy conservation, we are advised to switch to fluorescent light bulbs. They do save energy, but they are filled with mercury. “According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately 800 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of every year.” Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com figures that amounts “to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste. Astonishingly, that’s almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year. It only takes 4mg of mercury to contaminate up to 7,000 gallons of freshwater, meaning that the 30,000 pounds of mercury thrown away in compact fluorescent light bulbs each year is enough to pollute nearly every lake, pond, river and stream in North America (not to mention the oceans).” LEDs are a great alternative to fluorescents.

Some children may develop autism as a result of mercury exposure, but just because someone is not affected in this particular way, it is not safe to believe it is not affecting them AT ALL. It seems more dramatic to believe that an individual is somehow IMMUNE to mercury than that he or she is being affected in less quantifiable and identifiable ways. Just because a person does not exhibit enough similar symptoms as those corresponding to a disease or disorder label with a disorder does not mean their quality of life is unaltered. Parents of children with autism seek answers. The general population seems less motivated about finding out why they are sick or obese or tired, though mercury has also been linked with damaging the nervous systems of unborn children, heart attack, and stroke.

Several disorders and diseases have been linked to pollutants and chemicals and toxins in our environment and our food. Asthma is now linked to several household cleaning products and air fresheners. High fructose corn syrup is linked to diabetes. Pesticides are linked to hormone complications and premature births.

It might not be possible to be completely isolated from mercury overexposure, but there are some precautions to take:

-avoid fluorescent lighting
-avoid living near coal power plants (for every 10 miles, the rate of autism dropped 1-2%)
-support alternative energy sources
-be cautious of fish intake, replace with omega-3 supplement like OmegaBrite

There are better options to all of our toxic products and energy sources; we just have to start choosing them!