Isaac Eliaz - How Safe Is Your Cookware?

As an integrative physician, some of the most important recommendations I make for my patients include advice on diet and healthy eating habits. But what about healthy cooking? Cooking techniques that can increase nutrient availability are certainly an important part of a health-promoting diet. However, many people don’t consider the fact that some cooking methods can also increase the presence of toxins in their meal.

A significant number of consumer reports and scientific studies have revealed the presence of harmful, carcinogenic chemicals and heavy metals in aluminum and other nonstick cookware products. Peer-reviewed research suggests that certain nonstick chemicals can contribute to cancer, birth defects, flulike symptoms, elevated cholesterol, abnormal thyroid hormone levels, liver inflammation, weakened immunity, and other health problems. These chemicals also pollute the environment, including public drinking water, and pose numerous health hazards during the manufacturing process. Such staggering reports are encouraging many to look twice at the cookware they use.

Read More:

http://wakeup-world.com/2012/05/22/how-safe-is-your-cookware/

Marco Torres - Shrimp At Grocery Retailers Contains Antibiotics and Carcinogens Affecting DNA

Ron Kendall, director of The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech, said researchers tested only the muscle tissues consumed by people. When concluded, they found evidence of three antibiotics in 30 samples tested. 

Though the sample sizes were small, he said finding antibiotic residues at all is cause for concern. Todd Anderson, a professor of environmental toxicology, and instrument manager QingSong Cai conducted the shrimp analyses. 

"We estimate that at least 80% of all shrimp imported to grocery retailers comes from farmed sources with similar practices," said Graham Beaton, a head toxicologist and food inspector. 

"We know that 80% of all farmed shrimp comes from Asia, mostly from Thailand and China who are well known for producing 'dirty shrimp'." 

Shrimp farming has changed from traditional, small-scale businesses in Southeast Asia into a global industry whose primary motive is profit. Technological advances have led to growing shrimp at ever higher densities, and broodstock is shipped worldwide. 

Sodium Tripolyphosphate is in more than 90% of packaged shrimp and seafood, something of great concern, especially since it's also used in detergents, antifreeze and flame retardants. 

This controversial additive can make expired products appear firmer and glossier, and fool consumers into buying old or spoiled fish, shrimp and other seafood foods that could ultimately make people sick. Worse yet, exposure to the chemical itself could also be very harmful. 

Read More:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/245764-Shrimp-At-Grocery-Retailers-Contains-Antibiotics-and-Carcinogens-Affecting-DNA#.T71QTfVrQp8.email

Yemen on Brink of Hunger Catastrophe Aid Agencies Warn

Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, seven aid agencies said on (23 May 2012) with 10 million people – 44 percent of the population – without enough food to eat. The aid agencies warned that malnutrition rates recorded by the UN in some parts of the country were alarming, with one in three children severely malnourished.

Ministers from the UK, Saudi Arabia and other countries are set to meet at the Friends of Yemen conference in Riyadh today. The agencies - CARE, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Mercy Corps, Oxfam and Save the Children – called on those attending the meeting to scale up efforts to tackle the crisis. The UN humanitarian appeal for the country is just 43 percent funded – a $262 million shortfall.  

Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s International Director, who is visiting Yemen, said:

“Yemeni families are at the brink and have exhausted their ways of coping with this crisis. A quarter of the population has fallen into debt trying to feed their families. Mothers are taking their children out of school to beg on the streets to get money to survive. Donors are focused on politics and security, but failure to respond adequately to the humanitarian needs now will put more lives at risk, further entrench poverty and could undermine political transition in the country.”

Read More:

http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2012-05-23/yemen-brink-hunger-catastrophe

Not so organic - USDA accused of conspiracy with agribusiness insiders

A watchdog group that handles issues dealing with the American agriculture industry is lashing out at the federal government for allegedly corrupting the advisory board that oversees organic food stuffs in the United States.

The Cornucopia Institute from the state of Wisconsin is calling out the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in their latest report by saying that the governmental panel that determines what is and isn’t considered “organic” is stacked with federal insiders with an alternative agenda.

According to the findings in The Organic Watergate paper released this week, the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has taken a turn for the worse in recent years, hiring staffers in bed with corporate entities that aren’t as concerned with protecting consumers as they are with making a buck.

"This is the proverbial fox watching the organic chicken coop,” Mark A. Kastel, co-director of The Cornucopia Institute, says in a press release.

The NOSB was established in order to oversee and monitor any and all synthetic ingredients used in the farming or production of so-called “organic” foods to "assure that it is not a threat to human health or the environment,” as well as recommend policy and modifications “to the regulations governing organic agriculture and food processing” in the US. Without proper oversight, it is feared by some that a slippery slope will effectively erode the USDA’s original standards and allow for Big Business and the government’s corporate colleagues to remove the rules that currently exist to guide consumers.

Read More:

http://rt.com/usa/news/organic-usda-agriculture-board-820/

Amy Coombs - Revenge of the Weeds

It’s a story suited for a Hollywood horror film, yet it’s also a tenet of evolutionary biology. Introduce a toxin to a system, and you inevitably select for resistant survivors. These few individuals gain a reproductive advantage and multiply; sometimes they can’t be stopped with even the most potent chemicals.

For years, this general plot line made headlines in the fields of antibiotic resistance and cancer research. More recently, plants have become a common protagonist. Weeds around the world are developing resistance to glyphosate—one of the most common herbicides on the market—and like bacteria and tumor cells, many plants can also withstand multiple other toxins, each with unique molecular targets.

In January, a hair-raising infestation of the kochia shrub was confirmed in Alberta, Canada. Originally introduced to desert climates as forage for cattle, the tenacious weed can now survive glyphosate, which targets an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of aromatic compounds. It can also withstand chemicals that inhibit the ALS enzyme, involved in the production of amino acids. At least 2,000 acres are now impacted, and “we expect more cases will be confirmed after a field survey this fall,” says Hugh Beckie of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the government department that manages farming policies.

The United States are also being taken by storm. Palmer amaranth recently developed resistance to the same two classes of chemicals in Tennessee. Since 2009, the tall, spindly weed has swept across 1 million acres of cropland, causing some farmers to abandon their fields. And in California, a plant named hairy fleabane recently crept into vineyards. It is now able to withstand both glyphosate and Paraquat—a chemical that hijacks photons from proteins involved in photosynthesis.

Read More:

http://the-scientist.com/2012/05/20/revenge-of-the-weeds/

EU Food Agency Rejects France Ban on Monsanto's YieldGuard GM Maize

Europe's food safety agency EFSA on Monday rejected the grounds for a temporary French ban on a genetically modified strain of maize made by U.S. company Monsanto (IW 500/94).

"Based on the documentation submitted by France, there is no specific scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health or the environment," EFSA said in a scientific opinion issued on its website.

A spokesman for Europe's health commissioner John Dalli said the EU executive "will consider how to follow up on this ruling, though technically we could ask France to raise its ban" on MON 810.

"The commission will wait for the conclusions of the next environment ministers' meeting June 11 in Luxembourg and hopes for a positive outcome to its proposals for cultivation, which have been blocked for almost two years by France and others," spokesman Frederic Vincent told AFP.

Paris had asked Brussels in February to suspend the cultivation of MON 810 on the basis of new scientific evidence after France's top administrative court in November overturned a government order banning the planting of genetically modified crops from Monsanto.

The court said that in a November 2008 ban, the government had failed to prove that Monsanto crops "present a particularly elevated level of risk to either human health or the environment."

Read More:

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/eu_food_agency_rejects_france_ban_on_monsantos_yieldguard_gm_maize_27415.aspx?Page=1&SectionID=2

Graham Harvey - The New Day Age

One of Britain's leading agricultural scientists fears we may be entering a new dark age. Professor Maurice Moloney – director of Rothamsted Research – is worried by green activist threats to trash a trial plot of GM wheat at the Hertfordshire research site. "We face the destruction of a technology that could not just help wheat production in Britain," he says, "but could boost crop yields elsewhere in the world."

Down here in Candleford we take a rather different view. We think that if there’s a new dark age being ushered in, it's because of the decisions made by Prof Moloney and the BBSRC – the funding body that appointed him. Rothamsted's chief responsibility is to conduct research aimed at improving our food security. Britain already has a secure food production system – it’s called the mixed farm. It's capable of producing large amounts of healthy food through biological processes. And it has an inbuilt resilience to climate change by virtue of its biological diversity.

A World Bank-funded study by more than 400 scientists around the world concluded that diverse farming systems like UK mixed farming were the most secure and effective way to feed the world, now and in the future (IAASTD, 2008). You might think –as we do – that a leading research station concerned with food security would concentrate its energies on understanding and refining this established model. But under Professor Moloney, the scientists seem content to gamble our food security on an unproven and potentially unstable technology.

Read More:

http://grahamsquest.co.uk/the-new-dark-age/

Doctors Petition White House to Bar Obama, Biden from Eating Junk Food in Public

A physicians nonprofit wants President Barack Obama to stop chowing down on hot dogs in front of news cameras. In a petition being filed on May 10, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine asks the White House to issue an executive order banning staged photo opportunities that show the president, the first family, the vice president, and members of the president’s cabinet eating unhealthy foods—including processed meats—that can cause cancer and obesity.

“The White House would never set up a photo op showing the president buying cigarettes, so why is it okay to show him eating a hot dog?” says PCRM nutrition education director Susan Levin, M.S., R.D. “Processed meats like hot dogs kill more Americans each year than tobacco does, and they cost taxpayers billions of dollars in healthcare. As role model to millions of Americans the president has a responsibility to watch what he eats in public.”

Since taking office, President Obama has posed for the cameras eating a hot dog at a basketball game with British Prime Minister David Cameron, eating cheeseburgers with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and stopping at a D.C. burger restaurant to share a cheeseburger with a reporter, among other similar instances. His predecessors, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan have also been caught on camera eating unhealthy foods, from ice cream to a Big Mac.

Read More:

http://www.pcrm.org/media/news/white-house-bar-obama-biden-junk-food-photos

Sayer Ji - Coconut Water: Far More Than Just A Refreshing Beverage

Few beverages on this planet are as biocompatible to the human body and its hydration needs as coconut water.  Indeed, coconut water has been reported to have been used forintravenous hydration and resuscitation of critically ill patients in remote regions of the world for over half a century. [1]  It is also an excellent preserving medium for avulsed teeth (andsemen!), besting even Hank's balanced salt solution, a commonly used medical solution. [2]

While some are concerned about the sugar content of this slightly sweet beverage,  recent research shows it actually exhibits blood sugar lowering properties in an experimental model of diabetes.[3]  Additional animal research shows coconut water prevents and reverses high blood pressure associated with fructose feeding-induced hypertension, as well being able to reduce oxidative stress and insulin resistance. [4]   

Perhaps one of the most amazing properties of coconut water is its superior lipid modulating activity in the animal model vis-à-vis the cholesterol-lowering statin drug known as lovastatin.[5]  Which means we can, in clear conscience, modify Hippocrates’ famous saying to: "Let What You Drink Be Your Medicine."

Other medicinal properties of coconut water include:

Read More:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/coconut-water-far-more-just-refreshing-beverage

Sugar makes you stupid

Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid.

A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning — and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology publishes the findings in its May 15 edition.

"Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage."

While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.

The UCLA team zeroed in on high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid six times sweeter than cane sugar, that is commonly added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes more than 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/uoc--smy051512.php