Month: March 2007

There have been a lot of great articles and studies done recently about the benefits of chocolate on health. And, there have been the typical “morning TV talk show” comments about, “See I knew all that chocolate was good for me! Yuk-yuk!” Well, what we think of as “chocolate” amounts to a little actual chocolate and a LOT of sugar… which mitigates the benefits to our health, unfortunately! Sugar, as I have said many times before, is a “metabolic poison!” But, raw, dark, untreated chocolate (as always, foods are healthier in their natural form) does seem to almost be too good to be true health-wise!

Check out this information:

Eating Chocolate May be More Important to Your Health Than Penicillin

“Epicatechin, a compound found in unrefined cocoa, could have health benefits that rival penicillin and anesthesia in terms of importance to public health. Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has spent years studying the effects of routine cocoa drinking on the Kuna people of Panama. The Kuna, who drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week, have a less than 10 percent risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes. Hollenberg believes that epicatechin should be considered a vitamin, and other nutrition experts believe that epicatechin is so important that it could even warrant a rethinking of how vitamins are defined. Epicatechin is removed from commercial cocoas because it tends to have a bitter taste. It is also found in teas, wine, chocolate and some fruits and vegetables.”

Wow! This is amazing information! Now, here’s what Dr. Joseph Mercola says about this information:

“Consuming chocolate could be far more important than anyone, including me, ever imagined. I remember very clearly reviewing the first studies that came out nearly 10 years ago. I was absolutely convinced that since they were funded by Mars candy there was massive conflict of interest and very little truth to the science. But time has certainly disproved that. Now, there still isn’t any benefit to eating the vast majority of candy that is passed off as chocolate. The major benefits are restricted to the raw and very bitter cacao beans (from which cocoa is processed) and the more they are processed and sweetened the more the benefits are decreased. Does epicatechin-rich cocoa really reduce the risk of the four most deadly diseases — cancer, heart failure, diabetes and stroke — to less than 10 percent? It’s possible. In fact, some experts believe these diseases may eventually be viewed as the result of an epicatechin deficiency.”

I have long thought that we need to “re-visit” the question: “What is a vitamin?” One of the things that I learned in my natural health classes leading to my doctorate was that at one point it was arbitrarily claimed that there “were no more vitamins to be found.” A similar statement was made in 1899 by Charles H. Duell, then Director of U.S. Patent Office, when he said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” RIGHT! The supposed “fact” that “there can be no more vitamins” has even led to a more recently discovered co-enzyme (most vitamins function as co-enzymes) being called “Co-Enzyme Q10.” Why not “Vitamin Q?” Well, because, “there can be no more vitamins!” People can be SO arrogant! So… will epicatechin eventually be thought of as an essential vitamin? It certainly sounds important!

You read that right… lighter fluid!

So What Really Is In A McDonald’s Chicken McNugget?

“Most folks assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know, for example, that a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is 56% corn? What else is in a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget? Besides corn, and to a lesser extent, chicken, The Omnivore’s Dilemma describes all of the thirty-eight ingredients that make up a McNugget – one of which I’ll bet you’ll never guess… McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasi-edible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the ‘leavening agents’: sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are ‘anti-foaming agents’ like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it’s also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to ‘help preserve freshness.’ According to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause ‘nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.’ Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

And people buy these for their kids?

Again, this sounds like an old SciFi movie… scientists breed a new form of mosquito for “good reasons” and release it into the wild, only to have it take over! Well, that sounds like this true news story from the BBC:

GM mosquito ‘could fight malaria’

“GM” here is “Genetically Modified.” The picture with the article says: “The GM mosquitoes could be identified by their green fluorescent eyes.” Wow!

“A genetically modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects. It gives new impetus to one strategy for controlling the disease: introduce the GM insects into wild populations in the hope that they will take over. The insect carries a gene that prevents infection by the malaria parasite. Details of the work by a US team appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. The researchers caution that their studies are still at an early stage, and that it could be 10 years or more before engineered insects are released into the environment.”

Ten years for people to come to their senses and not try to “improve on nature” by modifying the genes of species. Whether it is animals, food, insects, or people… can we really say that we are smart enough to know ALL the implications of something like this?

“U.S. doctors may be over-prescribing antibiotics for sinus infections, which are often caused by viruses and not bacteria, according to a study released Monday. A review of two national surveys of visits to doctors and recommended treatments found antibiotics prescribed for about 82 percent of acute sinus infections and nearly 70 percent of chronic sinus infections, researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha said. That ‘far outweighs the predicted incidence of bacterial causes. The literature repeatedly shows that viruses are by far the most frequent cause of acute rhinosinusitis,’ the study, published in this week’s Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, said.”

Antibiotics Over-prescribed for Sinus Infections

Again, YOU are the person most responsible for YOUR health… if your Allopathic practitioner prescribes an antibiotic, ask why, and mention this study! Remember that “anti” means “against” and “bio” means “life.” These drugs are designed to kill living bacteria. The problem arises when they kill the good bacteria in the gut. (As well as your body building resistance to the effects of the antibiotic… or the “bad” bugs building resistance to them… so that if you ever were to really need them… they wouldn’t be as effective.) Ask questions! Become the leader of your own healthcare, not a blind follower!

No… I bet not!

New warnings for sleeping pills

“The most widely prescribed sleeping pills can cause strange behavior like driving and eating while asleep, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which announced Wednesday that strong new warnings would be placed on the labels of 13 drugs. The agency also ordered the makers of the well-known drugs, Ambien and Lunesta, and the producers of 11 other commonly used sleeping pills to create patient fliers explaining how to safely use them. The fliers, which the agency says it requires when it sees a significant public health concern, will be handed out at pharmacies when consumers fill their prescriptions. Although the agency says that problems with the drugs are rare, reports of the unusual side effects have grown as use of the sleeping pills have increased. U.S. sales of Ambien and Lunesta alone last year exceeded $3 billion. Use of those medications and other similar drugs has soared by more than 60 percent in the United States since 2000, fueled by television, print and other advertising. Last year, makers of sleeping pills spent more than $600 million on consumer advertising.” (Emphasis mine!)

$600 Million to tell you how GREAT the drugs are… but simple fliers that tell you, oh yeah, by the way… they may turn you into a loon!

“Omega-3 Fatty Acids, found in flaxseed, fish and other foods, may reduce the risk of getting colorectal cancer by two-thirds in men, a new study suggests. There is one caveat, though: the effect is seen in men who do not take aspirin.”

Omega-3 fatty acids slash colorectal cancer risk in men by 66 percent

I have no connection to, nor do I profit from this link at all, but here is one of the best sources I know of for excellent quality Omega-3 Fatty Acids… Krill Oil!

Antarctic Pure Krill Oil

The above link goes to Dr. Mercola’s site… and, as I say, I am not connected with him at all, except that I do take these myself, and find them to be VERY beneficial. I debated mentioning them specifically, but it is the only place I know of to get this particular product, at this quality.

Krill Oil supports a healthy heart, is beneficial for blood sugar health, supports the health of joints, the brain and nervous system, cells, skin, and many other areas that “Baby Boomers” (such as myself) are interested in supporting!