to [re-mem-ber]:

A recent UK government report found that chickens raised in the widespread, non-organic fashion, have a 23.4% chance of being contaminated with salmonella, a bacteria responsible for food poisoning. The chance of an organic flock having salmonella? Only 4.4%.

What’s the difference between how the chickens are raised?

Organic chickens must have “access to outdoor ranges and pasture, with an emphasis on enabling the animals to express their natural behaviour.” Sounds pretty reasonable.

The non-organic chickens are mostly housed in cages which allow each individual bird the space of a standard sheet of paper. Yes, the 8 1/2 X 11 kind. These birds are also given antibiotics, which not only help to create superbugs and weaken the birds’ immune systems, but they potentially have the same effect on you when you eat the chicken or its eggs.

So, non-organic animals are likely to be raised under harsh conditions and administered antibiotics and hormones (the run-off of which create mutated fish), but what about non-organic fruits and vegetables?

Non-organic fruits and vegetables are grown with synthetic pesticides and fertilizer. So what? Well, studies are showing that more than 90% of children in the US “have detectable residues of at least one neurotoxic pesticide in their urine.” Something is called neurotoxic when it is poisonous to your brain and nervous system.

According to Dr. Mercola, pesticides also contribute to “disruption of the endocrine system, carcinogenicity and immune system suppression. Pesticide exposure may also affect male reproductive function and has been linked to miscarriages in women.”

How can we avoid them? According to a study outlined in a 2003 Environmental Health Perspectives article, children “eating organic fruits and vegetables had six times lower levels of pesticide byproducts in their blood versus children eating conventional produce.”

Anytime that pesticide is found on organic produce, it is either because pesticides have drifted from a nearby non-organic farm or the produce has been contaminated by “long-ago banned pesticides that linger in the environment.” So the effects of pesticide use are extremely long term!

Besides helping you to avoid dangerous pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones, choosing organics also supplies you with more nutrients. Those organically raised chickens we just discussed lay eggs which, according to a Mother Earth News, contain:

1⁄3 less cholesterol
1⁄4 less saturated fat
2⁄3 more vitamin A
2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
3 times more vitamin E
7 times more beta carotene

That’s a huge difference! And the non-organic produce has roughly 17% less nutrients than as its organic counterpart.

If organics are not in your area, you can use this list, compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which shows how much pesticide is likely to be on a given fruit or vegetable, so you can choose those with the least contamination.

While it is better to eat fruits and vegetables with pesticides instead of processed foods, those who eat organically will have a healthy advantage.

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.

Farm workers in Nicaragua were poisoned and sterilized by dibromo chloropropane, a pesticide made by Dow Chemical for use on Dole banana plantations. On November 5th, a jury awarded them $3.3 million dollars.

This particular pesticide has been banned in both the U.S. and Nicaragua, but has had long term effects on those who were in daily contact with the poison. Dole was using the pesticide on its plantations in Nicaragua until 1993, so many people still have this pesticide in their bodies and may be experiencing health problems due to its consumption.

Other pesticides are in wide use in non-organic food, and bans on their use seem to only occur once the damage is widespread. Legal pesticides have been linked with Parkinson’s and premature birth.

The Environmental Working Group conducted a study to find out just how many pesticides were used on individual types of produce and ranked them according to their average number of pesticides. They found up to 11 pesticides on an individual piece of produce. Peaches and apples were found out to be the worst. View the report here.

It is not always possible to purchase organic fruit and vegetables, but this list makes it easier to choose produce based on which types are most likely to be the least harmful.

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

The Ecologist Online reports that Gillette Mach 3 Turbo Gel contains “several skin irritants, four potential carcinogens, three central nervous system poisons and two reproductive toxins.”

David Beckham is pulling in £40m campaigning for the product.

The Ecologist Online has listed the product’s ingredients along with the harmful and potentially deadly side effects reproduced here:

Ingredients

CI59040, CI 42090: Colourings. Adverse effects: Skin irritation 42090 is a potential carcinogen 59040 is an irritant to the mucous membranes of the eyelids, mouth, nose, respiratory tract and genitals; the EU does not allow it in any preparations that come into contact with these areas 42090 is also known as FD&C blue 1, CI 59040 as D&C green 8; both are synthetic coal tar dyes.

The safety of most cosmetics products like shampoos, lotions, hair gels, deodorants, etc can be found at Skin Deep: the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Safety Database.

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?

Merisant, a competing sweetener in France, won its case against Splenda which decided Splenda’s advertising is false. The ads, also used in the United States, say that because Splenda is made from sugar, it tastes like sugar.

From Paul Block, chief executive officer of Merisant:
“We’re pleased the Court held McNeil accountable for Splenda advertising that we believe has intentionally fooled a significant number of consumers into thinking Splenda contains sugar and no calories, and that it is a natural product; both are completely false… Splenda is a synthetic compound – created in a lab and manufactured in a chemical plant – and is no more natural than any other low-calorie sweetener.”

Splenda has 30 days to amend its packaging in France.

Splenda will face similar charges in a U.S. trial this November brought by the Sugar Association.