Are GMOs Safe?

While many studies claim no correlation to any health issues with GMO consumption, there are a number of studies that do show frightening correlations including multi-organ damage and reproductive disruption. The serious health risks are becoming harder to dismiss.

How to Avoid GMOs

It’s not easy. It is estimated that 60 to 70 percent of processed food contains a GMO ingredient, according to the Colorado State University Extension.

As for produce, buying organic is one very good way to avoid GMOs. There are times when organic crops have been contaminated, but for the most part, buying organic keeps you free of genetically modified foods. We prefer to purchase most of our food from local farmer’s markets where we can get to know the farmers. Besides growing it yourself, local farmer’s markets are typically the best way to get the freshest, healthiest produce. And buy heirloom produce as much as possible! It’s funny looking, but much healthier and much tastier! Read The Difference Between Heirlooms, Hybrids, and GMOs for more information on heirlooms.

Another way to avoid GMOs is to avoid the foods that are most often genetically modified.

What Foods are Genetically Modified?

The foods most likely to be GMO are corn, soybeans, cotton (for oil), canola (also a source of oil), squash, papaya,  and sugar beets, which are refined into sugar. There’s also GMO alfalfa, but that is used for animal feed, not for sprouts that people eat. That leaves quite a lot of your garden untouched.

GMO versions of tomatoes, potatoes, and rice have been created and approved by government regulators, but they aren’t commercially available.

GM Corn

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 70 percent of corn grown in the United States has been genetically engineered. The two most common genetically modified corns are BT corn and herbicide resistant corn. BT corn is genetically altered to contain the bacterial Bt toxin, an insecticide. Herbicide resistant corn varieties are resistant to glyphosate herbicides, Liberty and Roundup. Now fourteen countries grow herbicide-resistant GM corn.

Corn hybrids have been marketed with tolerance to imidazoline herbicides under the trademark “Clearfield.” Not to be confused with GMOs, the herbicide-tolerance trait was bred into the corn by using a tissue culture selection and the chemical mutagen ethyl methanesulfonate.

For those who eat a conventional, modern diet, GM corn seems to be in everything! It’s prevalent in most processed foods. Look out for the following ingredients which are either made directly from GM corn or are processed using GM corn:

• Artificial Sweeteners (many are derived from corn in one way or another)
• Artificial Flavors
• Ascorbic Acid (most vitamin C is made from GMO corn)
• Caramel Color
• Citrate (Calcium Citrate, Magnesium Citrate, Potassium Citrate, Sodium Citrate)
• Corn Meal
• Corn Oil
• Corn Starch
• Corn Syrup
• Decyl Glucoside (body care products like shampoo)
• Dextrin
• Glucose
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Honey (High fructose corn syrup is often fed to bees to increase production. In addition, honey is often mixed with corn syrup by unscrupulous companies). Lactic Acid (often made using corn fermentation)
• Maltodextrin
• Modified Food Starch
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) (often made from corn)
• Natural Flavors
• Sodium
• Vitamin E (Tocopherols)
• Xanthan Gum
• Xylitol

And believe it or not, this is an incomplete list. As you may have figured out, this means breads, cereals, baby foods, baby formulas, sauces (ketchup, BBQ sauce, etc.) veggies burgers, soy cheese, protein powders, supplements, candies, instant dinners, peanut butters, pastas, and even hospital IV’s are likely to contain genetically modified corn. Almost anything packaged! This is one of many reasons to prepare your own food and avoid anything processed.

Even organic corn has been shown to be contaminated by pollination. The farther away non GMO corn is from GMO corn fields, the less likely it will be contaminated, but it seems to be spreading.

GM Soy

The first genetically modified soybeans were planted in the United States in 1996. Now, more than 93% of  soybeans the United States produces are genetically modified, according to the USDA. GM soybeans are planted all over the world. The most commonly used GM soybeans are Roundup Ready soybeans. Soybeans have natural protection against pests. But weeds are a major problem for farmers growing soy. Roundup Ready soybeans possess a gene, agrobacterium sp. strain CP4, a bacteria, that causes the soybean to be herbicide resistance. Now the farmers can spray massive amounts of herbicides onto the crop fields without harming the soybeans.

Fortunately, since soy is well known to cause severe allergic reactions in people (and we suspect that the number of people allergic to soy is on the rise partly due to the GM soy), it’s fairly common for packaged foods to be labeled as having soy, or labeled to show they were processed in facilities that also process soy. But there are lots of food manufactures who do not label soy or that use soy and label it under a different name. Below is a list of both common names for soy and ingredients that are often derived from or contain soy. So watch out for these ingredients:

• Daidzéine
• Edamame
• Estrogène Végétal
• Fermented Soy
• Flavoring (including natural and artificial)
• Génistéine
• Glycine
• High Protein Flour (possibly)*
• Hydrolyzed Plant, Soy or Vegetable Protein*
• Hydrolyzed Soy Protein
• Isoflavens
• Isoflavone
• Isolated Soy Protein
• Isolated Soybean Protein
• Kinnoko Flour
• Kyodofu (freeze dried tofu)
• Lecithin
• Legume
• Many vegetable broths
• Miso
• MSG
• Natto
• Phytoestrogen
• Phytosterol
• Plant Esters
• Plant Estrogen
• Shoyu
• Shoyu sauce
• Soja
• Soya
• Stanol
• Sterol
• Tamari
• Tempeh
• Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)
• Tofu
• Vitamin E
• Xanthan Gum

GMO soy is found in pastries, infant formulas, supplements, protein powders, cereals, vitamin E, bread, cheese, dough, candy… Once again, pretty much anything and everything processed and packaged as convenient food.

Meat, Dairy, and Eggs

While scientists are beginning to genetically modify animals, the current problem with GMOs from meat comes from the foods we feed our livestock.

Chickens, cows, and pigs (as well as many “free range” livestock) are fed genetically modified corn and soy. You are what you eat (and drink, and are injected with). So conventional meat, eggs, and dairy are essentially made up of GMO corn and soy.

Farmers who want to avoid genetically modified feed can purchase corn and soy feed that is labeled GMO free. But the feed is often contaminated with GMOs. Even organic animal feed is not free from contamination! In 2006, Albert Straus, owner of the Straus Family, wanted to make sure the food he was producing was completely free of genetically modified foods. He made the decision to test the feed he used for his 1,600 cows and found that nearly 6% of the corn feed he used, labeled organic, was contaminated by GMOs (read the Times article, When Organic Isn’t Really Organic).

While dairy shares the same problem as meat and eggs, as it is essentially created in large part from genetically modified animal feed, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, also known as RBGH, is another problem with conventional milk. This Monsanto hormone artificially forces cows to increase their milk production by 15 percent.  While not a genetic modification, it’s worth mentioning that this is nasty stuff that should be avoided at all costs.

The easiest way to avoid meat contaminated with GMOs is to go vegan or to know the farmer that raised the meat so you can be assured that precautions are taken. Regardless of where one’s ethics are when it comes to eating meat, animals should be allowed to roam freely and eat what nature intended. This produces healthier meat that is generally completely GMO free. But with the spread of genetically modified pollen, it may eventually become harder and harder to insure animals don’t eat GM plants.

GM Beets/Sugar

More than 50% of sugar sold in America comes from sugar beets. Genetically modified, Roundup Ready sugar beets account for more than 90 percent of the crop. This figure is likely to increase since the USDA granted non-regulated status for genetically engineered beets just last year, and the FDA approved them to be to be sold on the market under the name “sugar.”

If the ingredients say “cane sugar,” there should not be GM beet sugar in the food.

GM Papaya

The only currently commercially-produced GM fruit is the Hawaiian papaya. In the late 1980s, the University of Hawaii developed a papaya genetically engineered to be resistant to Papaya Ringspot Virus. They did it by transferring viral genes encoded with capsid proteins into the papaya genome. The capsid proteins cause something similar to an “immune response” from the plant. The genetically modified papaya plants are no longer susceptible to infection, allowing farmers to cultivate the fruit even when the virus is widespread. The GM papaya is often held up by GMO proponents as proof of how genetically engineering food can benefit us.
The first GMO papayas were grown in Hawaii commercially in 1999. Now these Transgenic papayas account for more than three quarters of Hawaiian papaya crops and they are contaminating the organic crops. NW Resistance Against Genetic Engineering reported that independent laboratory testing results showed widespread GM contamination.

Nearly 20,000 papaya seeds from across the Big Island, 80% of which came from organic farms and the rest from backyard gardens or wild trees, showed a contamination level of 50%.”

Fortunately GM papayas can be avoided if you buy  the large Caribbean or Mexican red papayas, which are not genetically modified.

GM Canola/Rapeseed

Accordning to Wikipedia, “A genetically engineered rapeseed that is tolerant to herbicide was first introduced to Canada in 1995. In 2009, 90% of the Canadian crop was herbicide-tolerant. As of 2005, 87% of the canola grown in the US was genetically modified. A 2010 study conducted in North Dakota found glyphosate- or glufosinate-resistance transgenes in 80% of wild natural rapeseed plants, and a few plants that were resistant to both herbicides.”

If it’s not labeled Organic or certified GMO free, canola oil is almost definitely genetically modified.

GM Squash

Summer squash and zucchini were genetically modified to become more resistant to viruses and bacteria. But there was a problem. Cucumber cockroaches love GMO squash. They wound the leaves, leaving open holes in them. The cockroaches’ feces get absorbed into the stem causing bacterial diseases.

Some experts say that genetically modified squash have blended with wild squash species.

Farmers generally do not want to use GMO squash seeds for the aforementioned issues, and most experts say that conventional store bought squashes are very unlikely to be GM squash.

GM Fish

The AquAdvantage salmon has been created by adding a growth hormone regulating gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter gene from an ocean pout to the Atlantic salmon’s genes. These genes enable the salmon to grow all year (as opposed to growing only during the spring and summer). The AquAdvantage salmon grows much faster than wild salmon and matures to twice the size of regular salmon. Many environmentalists and scientists are worried that GMO salmon could have negative impact on the environment and mutate over time.

The application for FDA approval requires land-based tank cultivation. There are no sea-based pens under discussion at this time. But if there was ocean contamination, consider the ramifications. The contamination would be impossible to stop once it starts, and the changes to the salmon population, as well as any species that foods on the salmon,, would be irrevocable.

The good news is that as of this writing AquAdvantage salmon has not been approved by the FDA. The bad news is that it is likely to be approved very soon.

Whole Foods and Trader Joes have vowed that they will not sell genetically modified seafood.

It would seem that farm raised seafood would be good for the environment, considering the toxins such as mercury in the seafood and the deviational effects our fishing industry has had on our oceans. But with the way fish are farmed, there are significant environmental and health concerns. From dyes being used in the feed, to much higher levels of toxins in farm raised fish, we cannot recommend consuming any farm raised seafood at this time. For more information on these environmental and health concerns read Top 10 Problems from Food and Water Watch.

Artificial Sweeteners, Preservatives, Artificial Flavors, and Artificial Colors

Many of these additives are derived from genetically modified organisms, as if we need another reason to stay away from them.

GM Cotton

Like corn and soy, cotton has been genetically engineered to handle pesticides. At least half of the cotton grown in the world has been genetically modified to resist pests and pesticides. GM cotton has been blamed for many farming issues in India including soil infertility and a rise in farmer suicides.

Cottonseed oil is used to make vegetable oil and margarine, but cotton itself has gossypol, a toxin that makes it inedible. But scientist have recently been able to silence the gene that produces the toxin, so cotton  may end up being a food crop for more than just oil.

To avoid wearing clothing made from GMO cotton, buy organic cotton clothing or look for a GMO free label.

Wheat

Recently an Oregon farmer sprayed a patch of wheat with Roundup. Some of the wheat survived. The farmer then sent samples to be analyzed by a laboratory. The wheat was a genetically engineered Monsanto Roundup Ready wheat that had never been approved anywhere in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/WSrcq912DOI

But there are many other reasons to avoid wheat. Artificial selection over many years has changed the proteins in wheat, which is causing massive health issues. Check out 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Gluten for more information.

GM Potatoes

There are no transgenic potatoes marketed for human consumption at this time. That may soon change. BASF requested cultivation and marketing approval in 2011 for its Fortuna potato, genetically modified to be resistant to late blight.

Many consumers concerned about GMO foods believe that conventional potatoes will not sprout because they are genetically modified. But this is not the case.

Potatoes are treated with fungicides while they grow, then they are sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines for easier harvesting. Finally, after the potatoes are extracted from the ground they are treated on order to prevent them from sprouting. It’s been said that many farmers have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without the chemicals.

UPDATE (5/1/2015): Genetically Modified Potatoes are not on the market. Avoid any potatoes that are not organic for the GMO issue and other reasons.

GM Tomatoes

In 1994, the transgenic Flavr Savr tomato was approved by the FDA for marketing in the U.S. The modification allowed the tomato to delay ripening after picking. But these GM tomatoes have disappeared. Transgenic tomato (FlavrSavr) had a “deactivated” gene (Antisense approach). This meant that the tomato plant was no longer able to produce polygalacturonase, an enzyme involved in fruit softening. The premise was that tomatoes could be left to ripen on the vine and still have a long shelf life, thus allowing them to develop their full flavor. These GM tomatoes, however, did not meet  expectations. Although they were approved in the US and several other countries, tomatoes with delayed ripening have disappeared from the market after peaking in 1998. At this point, no genetically modified tomatoes are being grown commercially in North America or in Europe.

The nearly perfectly round and bright red tomatoes you see in the grocery stores, lacking in flavor and nutrition, are hybrids. For more information, check out The Difference Between Heirlooms, Hybrids, and GMOs.

GM Peas

Australian scientists genetically modified peas with genes from kidney beans, creating a protein that functions as a pesticide. Studies have shown strong evidence that these genetically modified peas may create significant health issues including immune system disruption. The good news is that these genetically modified peas are not approved for human consumption and are not available.

GM Rice

Currently, there is no large scale production of genetically modified rice. Bayer has developed a strain of rice they call LL62 with increased tolerance to glufosinate-containing herbicides. This genetically modified rice has been approved in the United States, but farmers are not yet using it.

There is a wide variety of genetically modified rice not yet approved in any country. GM research for rice includes making rice resistant to herbicides, diseases, and pests; increasing nutritional value; eliminating rice allergies; producing human blood protein; increasing yield; improving tolerance to drought and salinity; and enhancing nitrogen use efficiency.

GM Yeast

Genetically modified yeast is approved in the United States for making wine.

In the United Kingdom genetically modified yeasts were approved a few years ago. The yeasts are a bakers’ yeast that displays a shorter rising time and a brewers’ yeast that is used in diet beer. Neither of the GM yeasts are used commercially on a large scale at this time.

Bananas

Despite what you read online in many uninformed websites, bananas are not genetically modified. The bananas we eat are a result of selective breeding. Wild bananas have a large, woody seed in the middle of the fruit. They also have much less edible fruit.

GM Alfalfa

In January of 2007 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that he would authorize the unrestricted commercial cultivation of genetically modified alfalfa developed by Monsanto and Forage Genetics.

Experts who are not in the pockets of Monsanto agree that massive GM contamination of alfalfa, more so than any other GM crop, is only a matter of time.

GMO alfalfas are treated with Monsanto’s Roundup ready that have been related to many health problems and crop failures, including a mysterious unknown organism discovered last summer in Midwestern fields that is connected to seemingly healthy fields are suddenly littered with yellowed leaves and dead plants (check out More Details on the Strange Organism That Could Destroy Monsanto).

From my research, alfalfa is the most freighting GMO on the market (though I would pick salmon if it were on the market today). It’s a shame. Alfalfa is an amazing plant with awesome health benefits (Read more about alfalfa and its health benefits).

GM Contaminated Honey

Canadian honey was banned by Europe after it was found that the honeybees in Canada were feeding off of genetically modified canola.

Bees are often fed high fructose corn syrup to increase their honey production. In addition, testing has shown that conventional honey imported into the U.S. is sometimes mixed with high fructose corn syrup and is usually processed to filter out the pollen or heated, which destroys its nutrients.

Only use organic raw honey, and do not cook with it (it destroys the health benefits).

Other Ways to Avoid GM Foods

A common myth is that you can tell which produce is genetically modified by its bar code. Five-digit numbers that start with a “9″ signify that the product is organic, while a five-digit number starting with “8″ implies that it is a GMO. The problem is that there are no labeling requirements for GM foods. And since consumers have shown that they don’t particularly want GMOs in their diets, the companies don’t want to label as such.

But there will be a way we can tell which foods are GMO and which are not regardless of whether or not we get labeling laws passed.

A handheld device that detects pesticides, heavy metals, and genetic modifications will soon be available. We are very excited about this and cannot wait for it to hit the market!

In the not too distant future, consumers will be able to run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, GMOs, pesticides, food safety, and more with their smartphones and other hand-held devices.”

Check this article for more information

In closing…

There is a lot of misinformation about GMOs. I’ve tried to dispel some of it, but there are a few other issues that should be addressed that don’t fit into the scope of this article. Please do take the time to check out Top Five Myths Of Genetically Modified Seeds, Busted, an NPR article by Dan Charles.

We need to label genetically modified foods. Personally, I feel that organic foods should be our staple. Organic food is real food. It should be the food that doesn’t require labeling, while everything else should. But then again, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t even have GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, etc.

The truth is, if we take time to cultivate nutrient dense soil and look at growing food from a long term perspective, toxic chemicals aren’t needed at all. And we would all be healthier for it. But with the way things are now, we can’t rely on big business to do this. Organic standards are consistently dwindling. And whether or not GMO foods get labeled, we need to take back our health, stand up to big agriculture business, and start growing our own food and supporting small local farmers we know and trust. Marching on the streets against Monsanto is great. It needs to happen. But money talks. Vote with your wallets. And spread the word. I do believe that we are on the cusp of some radical changes with our food system. I’m just not yet sure which way the change is happening.

Recommended Supplements (These supplements help detoxify GMOs):

• Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula
• FloraMend Prime Probiotic – Thorne Research
• Fundamental Sulfur Powder (MSM Powder) – Douglas Labs
• Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse Formula
• Shillington’s Intestinal Detox

Further Reading:

• How to Avoid GMOs
  
• The Difference Between Heirlooms, Hybrids, and GMOs
• The Unspoken Link Between GM-Foods and Cancer
• GMO-Bananas are Going Into Human Trials

At some point in our lives, we have all been under the illusion that if we are sick, the conventional medical profession has all the answers to our pain. There has been little questioning or second guessing on using the hospital as our primary form of treatment, and as a result, it has become filled with procedures and treatments that are profitable to the industries that provide them, but not to the actual end user of those services. In fact, many of these procedures could very well be considered to do more harm than good, once people fully understand the carnage they cause, and the natural options that were available to them without the collateral damage. With that said, lets look at 5 hospital procedures that are doing more harm than good.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy has been widely used as a treatment for cancer with one or more cytotoxic drugs, in hopes that this deadly poison will kill off rogue cancer cells and leave the patient with enough healthy cells to regain their health. Unfortunately, this “kill all” approach is akin to burning down your house when you discover you have a rodent problem. Sure, it gets rid of the rodents, but it also leaves you with nothing but a smouldering foundation in which to rebuild, which will prove to be much more costly than a safer and more targeted approach.

Further to that, some research suggests that when chemotherapy damages healthy cells, they secrete a protein that actually accelerates the growth of cancer tumours! So now you not only have severely damaged your immune system with toxic chemotherapy and rendered it highly ineffective in healing your body of the damage, BUT it can also further accelerate the growth of the cancer tumours you are trying to eliminate! Has chemotherapy saved lives? In some people’s definition, yes it has saved many lives. However, for those who undergo chemotherapy treatment, their lives are often compromised with extreme nausea and vomiting, hair loss, weight loss, ‘”chemo brain”, immune system dysfunction, and general malaise. Not only that, but they appear to be at a higher risk for it to return using this method, so in the end they may not be saved at all, and are only delaying the inevitable – a vengeful return of the cancer cells.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation is the medical use of ionizing radiation, often used as part of a cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells. It uses very high energy and is often referred to as the “burn” method when treating cancer patients. Although this method takes a more targeted approach to the body and the cancer cell tumour location, it still subjects the body to high levels of radiation, which creates additional damage to healthy cells as well.

Furthermore, some recent published data on radiation exposure suggests that approximately 25,000 Americans develop cancer every year as a result of radiation, and not only through cancer treatments, but from other medical imaging procedures such as CT scans, PET scans, MRI’s, and x-rays. In addition to that, a study from the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that women undergoing radiation for breast cancer treatments are putting themselves at serious risk of developing heart disease later in life. Has radiation saved lives? Again, in many people’s definition, yes. However, the area being treated with radiation can cause further problems such as infertility, heart disease, thyroid issues, infections, and ironically other cancers due to the mutation of the DNA of healthy cells.

Surgery

Recently, Angelina Jolie informed the media that she had both of her breasts removed due to her concern over her predisposition to breast cancer with the BRCA1 gene. Although this may seem a bit of a radical move to many, people all over the world are having surgeons cut out pieces of their body that are considered mutated, a liability, or otherwise useless. Various surgeries being utilized start at birth with circumcision, and extend to other parts of the body including the appendix, tonsils, gall bladder, testicles, ovaries, breasts, kidneys, sections of intestinal tract, and more.  As a fully functioning unit that interacts with all other organs and systems of the body, one has to wonder what health issues can arise from these surgeries, as well as the psychological damage incurred.

Has surgery helped save lives? Sure. Has it also given people a false sense of security that cutting out the “problem” will result in no recurrence of other or similarly related issues? I believe so. We have to be careful about the surgeries we undergo and their actual perceived end benefit. We were given body parts for a reason, and cutting them out when other more natural methods could rectify the problem can be doing far more harm than good.

Antibiotics

An antibiotic is a treatment often prescribed by doctors to inhibit bacterial growth or kill bacteria altogether. Unfortunately, antibiotics prescribed in modern medicine today do not distinguish between good and bad bacteria, and as a result, they seek to clear out all bacteria in its path. There are over 100 trillion good bacteria in our bodies (10x more than cells) that play a critical role to our overall health and well being. They dramatically assist in digestion and immune system function (of which 80% is in the gut), so if compromised, those two vitality important functions become severely compromised.

So when your doctor indiscriminately prescribes antibiotics for bacterial infections, you are effectively compromising your inner ecology, destroying the bad weeds and good seeds, which is going to leave your lush ecosystem dead and bloated. Are antibiotics able to save lives? Yes, and in some VERY acute emergency situations they may be required. However, in 95% of cases they are likely unnecessary, and more natural means can be much more effective, while doing no harm. Killing the very organisms that have a positive effect on your overall health can easily be argued as doing more harm than good.

Instead of a round of hospital prescribed antibiotics, consider natural antibacterial solutions like garlic, colloidal silver, and Pau D’Arco, and make sure to continually colonize your gut with healthy bacteria through kefirs and other fermented foods.

Vaccines

Vaccines have been a hot debate for a few years now, and the heat is definitely being placed on vaccine manufacturers and doctors to prove that they actually work as intended and don’t create additional damage that makes them more risky than the disease they are trying to defend against. Unfortunately, we have been led to believe that vaccines are the answer to warding off various diseases, when in actuality, our safest and best line of defense is our immune system.

The problem is we have not been educated on how to avoid immune system disruptors and how to strengthen our immune system through proper nutrition, so we fall back on the medical profession for answers. As a result, we have 3-4x more vaccinations now than we did 30 years ago. In the same period, a number of health issues have grown (such as allergies) and the ever growing link between vaccines and autism continues to gain strength. Not only that, but there is research that suggests that major declines in life threatening infectious diseases either occurred without or in advance of vaccination efforts. In addition to that, the list is LONG when it comes to the ingredients vaccines contain. As many as 44 chemicals, excipients, preservatives, and fillers have bee identified, with commonly cited ones being aluminum, animal tissues and organs, animal embryos, formaldehyde, gelatin, mercury thimerosal, MSG, and sorbitol. See a complete list here. So in the effort to control disease, we end up injecting children (and adults) with several toxins that actually hinder the very system we need to defend against the diseases we are concerned about.

In can definitely  be argued that vaccines are doing far more harm than good. Download this Physicians Warranty of Vaccine Safety if you are still unsure of avoiding vaccines, and get the answers you need from the doctor directly. Vote For The System You Want To See In The Future As scary as it may be when faced with a cancer diagnosis, recommended surgery, bacterial infections, and protecting our children and ourselves from “outbreaks”, we have to find the courage and open mind to educate ourselves and closely watch the effects of the current medical system and their questionable ways. Only then can we be ready to accept change and consider alternatives that not only do no harm, but also treat the body in a humane way that facilitates greater healing. While in that process, ensure you consume the most potent and healing super foods and herbs, that support immune function and nourish your body. You body will take care of the rest.

This video shares some information most people do not know about gluten.

Gluten is one of the causes behind almost all of the major and minor health issues we face today. Wheat is not what it used to be. We changed it. And the wheat we eat today is just plain toxic to us.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/xloudUAXwRE

If you are looking to feel better and restore your health, in virtually every case, getting off of wheat and refined sugars are the first and most important step.

There are so many supplements to choose from, so many supplements with so many claims. I have tried hundreds. One of the reasons I do what I do is that I have always been very in tune with my body. I can tell what feels good, what feels amazing, and what feels like nothing, or worse. Most of the supplements people take don’t do anything. Or worse, these mainstream supplements often toxify the body.

Don’t get me wrong, I do a lot of research. I’m researching almost every day for hours and hours. But my body knows best. And in my experience, the two supplements everyone should have are a nutrition powder and a very good all purpose detoxification tincture.

The Best Nutritional Supplement

I don’t take a nutritional supplement every day. I am fortunate to have access to a wide variety of nutritionally dense vegetables and I eat large salads with a wide variety of produce virtually every single day. This is by far the very best way to get your vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and all of the nutrients you need for vitality.

But every now and then I do need extra nutrition. And sometimes I can’t or don’t have one of my salads. When I am traveling for instance, it can be tough to find healthy produce. I like to have a complete whole food sourced multivitamin/mineral nutrition powder with me for times like this. And if you don’t eat fresh raw produce regularly and/or if you eat refined processed foods, you would benefit from a high quality nutrition powder.

For mass produced supplements I like Green Vibrance. It’s a good company that makes good products. For the money and the availability (you see Green Vibrance everywhere these days!) it’s a great product.

But for getting the most nutrition possible, insuring that all of the nutrition is completely bio available, I like Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula. It’s not as easy to find. In fact, there are only a very few places you can get it. But it’s the best nutrition supplement on the market that I know.

It doesn’t have the most ingredients, but what it does have gives your body the right building blocks for health and wellness. When there are too many ingredients in a formula, it can’t do that. Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula has the highest quality ingredients and you will actually feel the difference. It’s amazing.

Is is expensive. In fact, any good nutrition powder is going to be pricey (Total Nutrition Powder and Green Vibrance are about he same price). Sure, health is priceless, but getting your nutrition out of a bottle costs a lot when it’s quality.

Want to save some money? Eat salads like the ones I make (click here). Still need a good supplement? Most people do. I recommend you make your own (click here).

But of course, you can always purchase from us. Total Nutrition is available at our store, Green Lifestyle Market.

The Best Herb

I have to give you two here. Garlic and Cayenne are a tie. I could not include one without the other.

The Amazing Benefits of Garlic

Garlic. If you are coming down with a cold, chew on a clove. Breath in and out of your mouth and keep chewing as long as you can (it likely won’t be long at first, but you’ll get better and better). I put raw garlic in my salads and when I cook I put in garlic at the last minute so it doesn’t cook and lose it’s effectiveness (sometimes I put some in early and then some in later). I feed garlic to my dog in her homemade dog food. It keeps fleas and other parasites away.

My family of four goes through a lot of garlic. I suspect anyone who knows a tenth of what garlic can do would eat a lot of it.

All that garlic can do for us is astounding! Its nutrition includes magnesium, calcium, B1, B6, C, phosphorus, copper, potassium, selenium, and tryptophan.  Garlic can help with a wide range of ailments including, but certainly not limited to, hair loss, acne, colds and flus, bacterial infections, fungus (yeast, Candida, athletes foot, etc.), psoriasis, weight control, cold sores, detoxification, cardiovascular health, and inflammation reduction. It even wards off mosquitoes!

The Amazing Benefits of Cayenne

Capsaicin is incredible. What Capsaicin can do is just mind boggling to me. I always try to keep a bottle of liquid cayenne extract with me because it can actually save someone’s life. If you see someone suffering from a heart attack, they need Capsaicin and lots of it! It can make the difference between life and death, and it can also make the difference between major damage and an easy recovery.

Capsaicin increases blood flow, helps to sooth muscle tension and pain, wakes you up, and helps with focus. Capsaicin is also used to treat bursitis, diabetes, osteoarthritis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, shingles (herpes zoster), postherpetic neuralgia. stomachaches, digestive problems including stomach aches, indigestion,  cramping pains, gas, treatment of the circulatory system, and hemorrhaging.

The Best Herbal Supplement

The best herbal supplement has garlic and cayenne. Ingredients also include Red clover, chaparral, poke root, periwinkle lower, mullein, burdock seed and root, yellow dock root, goldenseal root, Oregon grape root, and bloodroot. This is not for the faint of heart! This tincture will kick you in the mouth! But it’s truly amazing stuff.

Shillington’s Blood Detox

I was really sick recently. I haven’t been sick in such a long time, but I was bedridden, feeling like I was 90 years old on my deathbed.

I have little restraint. And I loved getting high. I had just moved to California and got a prescription for marijuana. I told them I needed the prescription for anxiety, which was due to using marijuana illegally. I thought it was funny, but the prescriber made me come up with another reason to get the prescription. I think we said insomnia.

I got high a lot. And my tolerance shot way up very quickly. I was over a gram a day in less than a week. I was wasting a lot of money and my health was deteriorating. I am not one of those people who have convinced myself that smoking marijuana is good for you. THC has its benefits, but smoking anything, as much fun as it can be, is not healthy. And that’s not to mention the likelihood of smoking pesticides and other chemicals.

Within a couple of months my thyroid was shot, my adrenals were barely functioning, and I was peeing dark brown, almost red urine, And I still had a bunch of weed left!

One day I woke up and I couldn’t move. My body wouldn’t stand. I felt nauseous and dizzy and as sick as I’ve ever been. The next day I was worse. I won’t bore you with the long list of symptoms, but the point is that I made myself very sick (for the first time in so many years!) with a combination of way too much smoking and (probably) some weed that got sprayed very heavily with pesticides. And yes, it was medical grade.

I called my warehouse and told them to send me some Blood detox.  For 3 days I was having trouble simply making it to the restroom (and urination took forever!). When I got the Blood Detox, I was up and walking normally within an hour. It was amazing.

It was a great experience, too–one that I am yet to completely recover from– but I’m back to about 97% (I need to take the time to do a radical full body detox). I learned a lot. And I suppose you could say I grew up, since my desire to get high is next to nothing now. But mostly, it solidified my belief that blood detox is the most amazing herbal supplement I’ve ever come across.

For absolutely any health condition, I recommend blood detox. By itself, in many instances, it can make a huge difference. In combination with other target herbal remedies and nutrition it can work miracles.

If you can only afford one herbal tincture, Shillington’s Blood Detox is what I recommend you have and keep with you at all times. At the first sign of a cold, like a sore throat or congestion, take a dropper full. For any and all ailments, from cancer to diabetes to fibromyalgia, this is the first tincture I recommend, second only to a healthy diet. After a night of drinking and/or using recreational drugs (not that I condone getting high) I do recommend Blood Detox afterwards.

Healthy blood means a healthy body. There is nothing more important for your health than getting enough nutrition and having clean, relatively toxin free blood.

If you need a total body detox or are suffering from any serious ailment, I recommend using the Blood Detox Tincture in conjunction with the Blood Detox Tea.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask underneath within the comments or contact me via Facebook or Twitter.

I often hear things like, “I’m on a tight budget. I live off of Top Ramen!”

I regularly get clients who want to change their diet though they live on a very limited budget. The common misconception is that eating healthy costs more. It can, but it doesn’t have to.

What I tell people is that you need to spend your money on nutrition, not calories. And this video explains the difference beautifully.

The more active you are, the more calories you need. I recommend people with active lifestyles bulk up on beans, brown rice, amaranth, oats, and quinoa. If you shop around, you can get these products for $2 a pound or less. And they provide nutrient dense calories.

Even if you’re at a gas station, usually, you still have decent choices. You know that little fruit basket that’s right by the register? A banana will usually cost you less than the Snickers bar, and instead of robbing your body of nutrition to balance out the acidity and undo the other damage refined foods cause, you’re feeding your body.

“But Snickers really satisfies!” one client said to me, quoting the old marketing line. And it may be true.  If you’re used to eating junk food, it is what your body wants. And lots of that junk food tends to sort of stick with you for a while. While the sugars get digested very quickly, much of the other ingredients in refined crap food don’t digest well at all. This leaves people with a full feeling for a longer period of time than when they eat fruit and vegetables. The trick is to learn to not need that full feeling. Or to always have those above mentioned bulk foods ready and waiting to consume.

I always eat lots of produce. On days that I am active, I also eat  more beans, brown rice, amaranth, oats, and quinoa. But most importantly, I’ve learned not to want that full feeling. I feel lighter and cleaner. And I pay careful attention to how my body feels due to what I eat. But most importantly, nutrition, to me, is the most valuable thing in the world, next to air and water. And that’s how I chose to spend my money and feed my body.

And be sure to check out local farmers markets for higher quality, more densely nutritious produce. Since farmers markets are trendy these days, you’ll probably have to shop around quit a bit for the deals. If you’re lucky enough to live by a u-pick farm, you cannot get any better than that! When I stayed in Arizona. I got most of my vegetables for $2 a pound  at Schnepf Farms. Organic, and as fresh as it can be, you can’t beat those prices! And getting a little dirty while really seeing where your food comes from is good for the whole family.

But because I myself am often on a very tight budget, this is the most important rule I live by when shopping for produce:

In order of most to least desirable produce:

1. Fresh, truly organic (I am not talking about the certification), heirloom, and local
2. Fresh and local heirloom
3. Fresh and local
4. Fresh and organic
5. Fresh conventional (sans GMO and some of the worst offenders for being laden with pesticides like the dirty dozen here)

I almost never buy frozen and never buy canned produce.

It takes practice. Changing your diet the right way means changing your lifestyle. It means preparing your own food. It means shopping with a totally different mindset. Learning new recipes and learning how to cook quick, healthy, delicious meals takes time. But the reward can be a life without aches, pains, and disease. Vitality is not only priceless, but in the long run, it’s much less expensive. And if done right, it’s even cheaper in the short run.

Know Your Produce – Perfect Produce Is Unnatural

There is nothing quite like the taste of a fresh fruit or vegetable straight from the garden. To the eye of the gardener, this vegetable picked ripe off of the vine is perfect. They nurtured it, carefully tended to it, and then finally, get to enjoy the fruit of their labors. However, compare this vegetable to one at the grocery store and it is suddenly asymmetrical, small, not candy apple red, and even has, gasp!, a brown spot.

To gardeners, this poses the question, “What is it about those grocery store vegetables that make them all so perfectly colored, perfectly big, and perfectly symmetrical? And, how did they become the standard of how a vegetable should look?” The truth of the matter is that they look perfect because they are unnatural.

In order to understand the differences between fresh produce from a garden and what you see on the average grocery store shelf, you’ve got to look far beyond what is apparent on the surface. In fact, it all comes down to the minutest material of the plant, it’s DNA. As we have gained an understanding of genetics, we’ve also learned how to manipulate the genetic material of the food we grow, for good, and for bad. Let’s take a look.

Heirlooms

We’ll start with what’s natural, the way fruits and vegetables have been grown and propagated for thousands of years. It’s a very simple concept: you save the seeds of a fruit or vegetable with favorable characteristics, (typically color, shape, size, and flavor), and plant them year after year. Other than selecting which fruit or vegetable seeds to save, the seeds are in no way manipulated. The plants are allowed to open pollinate and ripen in their own time. Today, we refer to these plants as heirlooms. Since seeds from heirloom plants can be harvested and planted year after year, a farmer or gardener never has to purchase those particular seeds again. In a sense, it’s the ultimate sustainable agriculture practice.

Figure 1. If an heirloom plant is allowed to open pollinate with other plants of the same variety, the seeds will produce a fruit identical to the parent plant. Source: Kerry Soltis

Hybrids

Heirlooms, however, like all things good and natural, are not perfect. They have a relatively small gene pool and typically lack disease resistance. As we began to learn more about the genetics of these heirlooms, certain varieties were cross-pollinated in order to create new varieties with disease resistance and traits that would enable them to grow in a wide variety of climates. In other words, rather than allowing the plants to open pollinate, two different varieties were purposely crossed to create a plant with specific traits, a hybrid.

Figure 2. If you cross-pollinate two plants, each with a dominant favorable trait, the resulting fruit will bear both of those traits. Source: Kerry Soltis

These sorts of hybrids are a great blessing to farmers and gardeners who live in hot, humid, or very dry environments. They enable more people to grow their own food, decrease their pesticide usage, and live more sustainable lifestyles.
The one major downfall of these hybrids is that their seeds do not necessarily result in plants that are identical to the parent plant, so seeds cannot be saved.

Figure 3. This punnet square illustrates a cross between two hybrid plants. If you were to cross two heat tolerant, flavorful varieties, only half of the resulting plants would be identical to the parent plant. Source: Kerry Soltis

For a gardener or small farmer, growing certain hybrid varieties is not a bad thing, by any means. However, in the mid 1900s, the agriculture industry began taking hybridization to the next level by selecting for traits that would benefit their industry, and thus, their profits. Size, shelf life, high yields, and aesthetics quickly became the top priority for food production. Why not right? Who wouldn’t want large quantities of produce on grocery store shelves? It all sounds great until you realize what traits are compromised to get these varieties—mainly nutrition and taste. Researchers often refer to the decrease in nutrient content when high yielding plant varieties are developed as the Genetic Dilution Effect.

Studies have found that nutrient content in many of the nation’s main food crops have dramatically decreased over the last century. For example, the protein in wheat, barley, and corn has decreased by approximately 40% since the 1940s. The calcium in broccoli has decreased by more than 50%. Furthermore, since these hybrid plants produce high yields of larger fruits and vegetables, more nutrient rich fertilizers must be applied to support their growth, resulting in more nutritional losses. Raspberries, for example, when fertilized with large amounts of phosphates, will produce double the yield, yet their mineral content decreases by 20-30%. So essentially, our grocery stores are packed with an abundance of big, beautiful fruits and vegetables, but their nutritional value has never been lower. And don’t forget taste. Taste isn’t typically on the high priority list when it comes to creating hybrid varieties for mass production.

Figure 4. When plants are hybridized for mass production, aesthetics, yield, and shelf life are often selected for over nutrition and taste. Source: Kerry Soltis

Hopefully it’s starting to become apparent that when it comes to perfection, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. That home-grown tomato with a little brown spot is probably starting to become much more appealing than those “perfect” grocery store varieties that lack nutrition and flavor.

GMOs

The scary truth is that produce manipulation does not end with these tasteless hybrids. Here in the United States more genetically modified (GMOs) crops are being planted each year. These plants are created using biotechnology. Techniques such as, splicing, microinjection, viral carriers, and bacterial carriers create plant varieties that could never occur naturally. These methodologies give food scientists the ability to introduce favorable genes of completely unrelated species into food producing plants. Unfavorable genes can now also be silenced. Many of these food crops, particularly corn and soy, are ending up in common food products. These food products are not required to be labeled as containing GMOs, so there is no way to avoid them other than buying foods with an organic label.

Not only is this process unnatural, it also has the potential to be extremely dangerous to our health and the environment. A frequently used method for creating pest resistant plant varieties involves artificially inserting a toxin carrying gene from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, into plant DNA. The resulting plants then produce that toxin, which in turn will kill the larvae of their pests. It is currently unclear how this toxin affects humans. In a similar process, soy beans are genetically engineered so that they can tolerate high levels of pesticide application. As a result more toxic pesticides are being applied to these crops.

We shouldn’t be messing with Mother Nature though; she’ll always find a way around our ingenious ideas. Since the onset of this mass pesticide use, superweeds and superbugs have emerged that have adapted to the pesticides, so that they are in no way effected by them. Unfortunately these superweeds and superbugs have the potential to spread into our natural ecosystems and severely disrupt ecological balances.

Figure 5. DNA from a completely non-related organism is inserted into plant DNA so that it produces toxins, making the plant pest resistant. Source: Kerry Soltis

It’s all pretty scary stuff, especially when you consider that Monsanto, the major U.S. company behind all of this genetic engineering, has gone so far as to patent their genomic creations. Farmers who elect to plant GMO crops must sign an agreement that they will not save seeds. Even worse, as wind, insects, and birds spread the seeds and pollen of GMO crops, heirloom crops become contaminated with the GMO DNA. Heirloom farmers have no way of knowing that their crops have been contaminated until they plant the compromised seeds. Monsanto has such a stronghold on the industry that when this occurs the heirloom farmers are sued for infringement on patent laws rather than Monsanto being penalized for contaminating the crops of these farmers.

Consumers, gardeners, and local farmers hold the power when it comes to fighting back against food modification. If we change our perception of the perfect produce and begin selecting fruits and vegetables that are locally grown, nutritious, and flavorful, agriculture will have no choice but to respond accordingly. It’s Darwinism at the grocery store level. We get to decide what is fit to stock the shelves and what isn’t!

Further Reading:

• Understanding and Detoxifying Genetically Modified Foods
• How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• Scientists Against GMOs – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Doctors Against GMOs – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Celebrities Against GMOs
• How to Avoid GMOs

The Dervaes family grows more than 6,000 pounds of food a year, on 1/10 acre located just 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles.

With over 400 species of plants, 4,300 pounds of vegetable food, 900 chicken and 1,000 duck eggs, 25 lbs of honey, plus seasonal fruits throughout the year, they are able to produce  over 90% food they eat, and they sell food on their front porch making about $20,000 a year.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/NCmTJkZy0rM

Follow the Dervaes and their Urban Homesteading activites at http://urbanhomestead.org