News regarding traditional wisdom and native diets regarding nutrition.
Illnesses from Raw Milk less Severe than Illnesses and Deaths due to Pasteurized Milk
David Gumpert recently published an insightful blog post demonstrating how the mainstream media treats outbreaks of illnesses due to milk. If there are illnesses due to drinking fresh raw milk, it is presented as a public health hazard and something that should be banned, even though there have been no recorded deaths due to drinking raw milk in the past 15 years. When illnesses and deaths occur due to pasteurized milk, however, it is glossed over in the mainstream media, and the fact that the milk was pasteurized as commercial processed milk is not even mentioned in the story. The official position in the mainstream media is that fresh raw milk directly from the farm is dangerous, while store-bought pasteurized processed milk is safe. This is a false belief not supported by the data. As we have previously reported, the raw milk debate is not a debate about food safety as the government, Big Dairy, and the pharmaceutical industry would like you to believe. The most dangerous foods in your local grocery store, causing the most outbreaks of deaths and illnesses, are in the fresh produce department, and the meat sections. And then if you want to include deaths due to FDA approved prescription drugs, the comparison becomes even more absurd.
Carrageenan: How a “Natural” Food Ingredient Allowed in Organics is Making us Sick
If it’s in our food, it must be safe to eat, right? We can say that about countless ingredients that have been proven to be unsafe. Carrageenan is one of them. Since 1969, dozens of studies of food-grade carrageenan have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Results from these scientific experiments point to harmful effects from food-grade carrageenan in the diet. How does this happen? How is it that a harmful ingredient is allowed into—and in some cases thousands—of food items, including those certified organic?
Registered Dietitians Being Told that GMOs Are Safe and Gluten Intolerance Is a Fad
Picture yourself at a continuing education conference for professionals. In the morning, you grab a Hershey’s chocolate milk and head to a panel—sponsored by the Wheat Council—on how gluten intolerance is just a “fad.” After a lunch provided by McDonalds, you listen in on a discussion (hosted by the Big Food front group International Food Information Council) about how GMOs are perfectly safe and environmentally friendly. Was this a continuing ed conference for Big Food propagandists? Nope—Registered Dieticians at the annual conference of the California Dietetic Association.
American Heart Association’s Outdated Dietary Guidelines are Hurting Americans’ Health
The American Heart Association’s woefully outdated dietary guidelines are hurting Americans’ health. Last December, we told you about the American Heart Association’s (AHA) new new cholesterol guidelines that would make 33 million healthy Americans dependent on statins. These are the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world—drugs so dangerous that the FDA mandates their side effects be disclosed in labeling. The problem with AHA’s “logic?” Not only has this bad/good cholesterol dichotomy been solidly debunked by study after study—it was never proven in the first place. According to the Wall Street Journal, the notion that saturated fats and LDL clog our arteries came from a “derailment” of nutrition policy “by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics, and bias.” This article takes a look at some of the other AHA dietary guidelines, accompanied by reasons why they actually are bad for your heart.
Pomegranates Are an Antioxidant-Rich Superfood
Pomegranates contain three types of antioxidant polyphenols, including tannins, anthocyanins, and ellagic acid, in significant amounts. Their antioxidant activity is known to inhibit cell proliferation and invasion, and promote apoptosis (cell death) in various cancer cells. Pomegranates or pomegranate extract may help reduce joint pain and decrease inflammation in arthritis sufferers. They may slow the growth of plaque formation in arteries, boosting heart health.
The Redemption of Cholesterol—How It Supports Your Health
Over the past 60 years, research has repeatedly demonstrated that there’s NO correlation between high cholesterol and plaque formation that leads to heart disease. Despite that, the saturated fat/cholesterol myth has persisted. Dr. Fred Kummerow, who is nearly 100 years old, was the first scientist to document the toxicity of trans fats. Over the past 60 years, his research has repeatedly demonstrated that there’s NO correlation between high cholesterol and plaque formation that leads to heart disease. Dr. Kummerow’s work shows that it’s not cholesterol that causes heart disease; rather it’s the trans fats and oxidized cholesterol that are to blame.
Saturated Fat Phobia Lacks Scientific Basis
Does the thought of a rare-cooked, grass-fed steak, a couple of over-easy eggs cooked in butter, or a tall glass of raw whole milk make your mouth water? These satisfying foods that have been enjoyed for ages are now taboo, according to US health agencies, because saturated animal fats “cause heart disease” and should be severely restricted in a heart-healthy diet. As recently as 2010, the current recommendations from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) call for reducing your saturated fat intake to a mere 10 percent of your total calories or less. This is astounding, and quite the opposite of what most people require for optimal health! Fortunately, there are signs that the saturated fat phobia is lifting in the US, and not a moment too soon, as increasing research banishes the myth that saturated fats harm your health.
GMO Soy Is Scarier Than You Think
Soybeans are the second-largest US crop after corn, covering about a quarter of American farmland. We grow more soybeans than any other country except Brazil. According to the US Department of Agriculture, more than 90 percent of the soybeans churned out on US farms each year are genetically engineered to withstand herbicides, nearly all of them involving one called Roundup. Organic production, by contrast, is marginal—it accounts for less than 1 percent of total American acreage devoted to soy. (The remaining 9 percent or so of soybeans are conventionally grown, but not genetically modified.) Given soy's centrality to our food and agriculture systems, the findings of a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Chemistry are worth pondering. The authors found that Monsanto's ubiquitous Roundup Ready soybeans, engineered to withstand its own blockbuster herbicide, contain more herbicide residues than their non-GMO counterparts. The team also found that the GM beans are nutritionally inferior.
Why You Should Include Onions on Your Dinner Table
Onions are rich in sulfur-containing compounds and other phytochemicals that may boost heart health, offer protection against cancer and diabetes, boost bone health, and more. Onions have a wealth of beneficial properties. They’re anti-allergic, anti-histaminic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant.
Study Compares American Diabetes Association Low-fat Diet to High-fat Ketogenic Diet for Helping Diabetes: Ketogenic Diet Wins
A study published in April 2014 compared two diets with overweight diabetic people. One group ate the standard recommended diet by the American Diabetes Association, which was a low-fat, high carbohydrate, restricted calorie diet, as per the USDA dietary guidelines for a "healthy" diet. The other group, almost in direct contrast to the ADA diet, was encouraged to eat a a very low carbohydrate, high fat, non calorie-restricted ketogenic diet. The results? The ketogenic diet group, although eating far more calories than the ADA group, lost more weight, and more ketogenic dieters reduced their diabetes medication than did the ADA group.
Enzyme Nutrition and Raw Food: Fact or Fiction?
Is there any scientific evidence that enzymes present in raw foods provide significant help for the digestion of foods themselves once the foods enter the human digestive system? Is there any scientific evidence to back up the claims that enzymes actually contain the life force that gives life to plants and animals? Let's take a look at the evidence, and try to distinguish facts from belief.
Raw versus Cooked Food: Which is Healthier?
Is it best to eat food raw or cooked? A look at hundreds of scientific studies draws conclusions that may not support many popular beliefs on this topic.
Diet Soda Sales Plummet as Consumers’ Understanding of Deadly Health Risks Grow
Soda consumption is now in “freefall,” having dropped to its lowest point since 1995, with diet sodas taking the greatest hit. One of the largest studies of its kind found that drinking just two diet drinks a day can increase your risk of an early death from heart disease by 50 percent. Previous research looking at aspartame toxicity also found a clear association between aspartame consumption and non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and leukemia.
Obesity Now Threatens to Overtake Hunger as Global Health Concern Number One
In 1950, the number of starving individuals on Earth was estimated to be around 700 million; 100 million people, primarily in rich countries, were obese. By 2010, the world’s hungry had marginally grown to 800 million, while the number of obese citizens of the world had exploded to 500 million. Estimates suggest that by 2030, more than one billion people, worldwide, will fall into the obese category.
Illinois Legislators Back Off Raw Milk Ban After Consumer Outrage
Under current Illinois law, farmers can sell an unlimited amount of raw milk on the farm without a permit. Legislators and health officials were working hard to completely banish farm-to-consumer agreements in some sneaky ways. This was not lost on Illinois' thriving raw milk market. Now, a proposed bill in Illinois banning the sale and distribution of natural or “raw” milk, has come to a screeching halt this session after legislators heard from thousands of natural milk supporters.
The Health Benefits of Maple Syrup: Why You Should Replace Processed Sugar with Maple Syrup
Maple syrup is one of the many wonders of the world and far more than a simple sweetener. Maple syrup is not only rich in essential nutrients such as manganese as well as zinc, but 34 new beneficial compounds discovered just a few years ago have been confirmed to play a key role in human health. Antioxidants found in maple syrup have anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and anti-diabetic properties.
Soy-Based Formula Linked To Seizures In Children
Phytoestrogens in soy-based formulas are known to carry greater risks than benefits for infants. Babies fed soy-based formula had 13,000 to 22,000 times more isoflavones in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Data published in PLoS One shows that consumption of soy formula may also be associated with a higher rate of seizures in children. In addition, while true cancer of the prostate, carcinoma, is seldom seen in infants and children, other forms of malignant tumors may develop and more cases are appearing in developed nations where the link appears to center around soy infant formula.
Dark Chocolate’s Health Secrets Revealed in New Studies
Cocoa powder is rich in antioxidants. However, it was thought that these molecules were poorly digested and absorbed due to their large size. New research reveals that your gut bacteria breaks down and ferments the components in dark chocolate, turning them into anti-inflammatory compounds that benefit your health. Beneficial gut microbes including Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria “feasted” on chocolate, creating anti-inflammatory compounds that may reduce inflammation of cardiovascular tissue. A wide range of accumulating scientific research has linked chocolate consumption to over 40 distinct health benefits.
U.S. Representative Massie Introduces Bipartisan Raw Milk Freedom Legislation
Fresh raw milk is currently the only food banned in interstate commerce. And while the constitution gives Congress the authority to regulate interstate commerce, the current ban in place was not put there by an act of Congress, but by the FDA, preventing states where the sale of raw milk is legal from being able to transport and sell that milk in other states (where it is also legal). This action by the FDA is usually cloaked in the deception that it is for the sake of public health, however statistics clearly show that raw milk is no more dangerous than any other raw food, and in most cases is probably safer when sold by organic grass-fed small-scale operations. The sale of raw milk in the United States is first and foremost an economical issue, and deals with the rights of dairy farmers to be able to sell their products directly to consumers, bypassing the milk pools of Big Dairy, who enjoy tremendous political favor via farm subsidies. The ban on interstate commerce of raw milk and raw milk products is simply an attempt by Big Dairy to prevent consumers from having a choice between their highly processed commodity dairy products and fresh wholesome products produced by small-scale farmers. Congressman Massie (R–KY), Chellie Pingree (D–ME) and a bipartisan coalition of 18 other lawmakers have introduced legislation to improve consumer food choices and to protect local farmers from federal interference. The two bills – the “Milk Freedom of Act of 2014” and the “Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2014” – are the first in a series of “food freedom” bills that Rep. Massie plans to introduce this year. These bills would make it easier for families to buy wholesome milk directly from farmers by reversing the criminalization of dairy farmers who offer raw milk. Encourage your representatives to support this bipartisan legislation!
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Fraud: A Guide to Purchasing Olive Oil
Do you trust the label on your Extra Virgin Olive Oil? Numerous scandals have been uncovered over the last twenty years which have revealed that many extra virgin olive oils being sold in the United States do not meet the high standard for this product. Many have been adulterated with lower grade olive oils or with nut and seed oils. Others simply have serious flavor and aroma defects, which should prevent them from being called “extra virgin.” The controversy continues to this day. In this article we explain what to watch out for to avoid adulterated olive oils, and how to shop wisely for pure authentic extra virgin olive oils.