Playing online casino Malaysia through Alibaba33 online casino Malaysia can be a fun and rewarding experience for those who enjoy playing games for fun. trusted online casino malaysia alibaba33Bet on your favourite slots, live, sporting events and win big! If you enjoy sports, slots like Mega888 ewallet Alibaba33 online casino Malaysia has something for you.

Viagra Malaysia treat erectile dysfunction with the original ED treatment that has helped men feel confident in bed for decades. We’ll connect you with a licensed viagra malaysia healthcare provider to evaluate if our prescription ED treatments could be right for you, including super-affordable generic Viagra viagramalaysiaofficial Viagra is an oral ED medication that works by suppressing an enzyme in the body called PDE5.

Category: Agriculture - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Category: Agriculture - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

GMO Science – Understanding How GMOs Are Created, and What Prominent Scientists Are Saying

According to the World Health Organization, GMOs are “Organisms in which the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.”

Genetically modified organisms are organisms built with genes from more than one species. The process involves laboratories and scientists followed by regulators, lawyers and lobbyists. There is nothing natural about it. So when biotech argues that the techniques for creating GMO crops are just like traditional crop breeding techniques, those statements are blatantly false.

The First Frankenfoods

One of the first GMO crops to be put on the market was Bt-corn. Bt-corn was made a few decades ago by combining the genes of a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, with the DNA of corn. This genetic modification was engineered to create corn that produces pesticide. Every cell now produces a new protein never before seen in corn, the Bt endotoxin or Bt protein. The toxin is produced in sufficient quantities to kill insects.

The Bt protein or Bt endotoxin must be ingested in order for it to kill. After ingestion, the Bt protein binds to the insect’s digestive tract. It can no longer feed, and in a matter of hours its gut breaks down, and bacteria from its digestive tract flood the insect’s body. It dies of septicemia, eaten from within.

The Bt toxin has been found in human blood and in pregnant women and their fetuses. This means that these toxins are not only making their way into our bodies, our bodies are not fully eliminating them.

Other examples of GMOs include adding a gene from a fish into tomatoes and strawberries to protect them from freezing. Goats have been injected with spider genes in order to produce milk that contains proteins more durable than Kevlar. Also rice has been injected with human genes to manufacture pharmaceuticals.

Methods to Create GMOs

Genetically modifying plants and animals are typically created using one of three methods: the gene gun, the plasmid method, and the vector method.

Gene Gun

The gene gun literally shoots genetic material into the targeted cells. Genetic modification using the gene gun begins with either a young plant, or with cells grown in a culture. The gene gun, using specially prepared bullets, bombards the cultured cells or the young plant. The bullets are coated with microscopic gold or tungsten particles that contain segments of DNA. Once the microscopic particles are inside the nucleus of cells, the DNA can merge into the genes of the young plant or the genes of the cells in a tissue culture.

It is interesting to note that the young plant (now called a chimera) will retain most of its physical characteristics, but the plant grown from a cell culture may grow to look very different from the original plant.

The Plasmid Method

The plasmid method, the most common method, uses bacteria to modify an organism. Plasmids are a type of DNA found in bacteria. The process involves bathing the plasmids in enzymes, encoding the bacteria for antibiotic resistance, and then fusing the plasmids into target bacteria. The culture is then treated with antibiotics that kill all of the unmodified bacteria.

The Vector Method

The vector method uses a modified virus to alter the genes of the target cells. The genes to be modified or removed are isolated. The virus is altered to be less destructive and to carry the genetic payload. The virus then infects the target cells with altered genes. The infection modifies the cells’ genetic structure. As the cells multiply, all copies of the cells will express the modified genes.

Artificial Selection Vs. GMOs

Biotech argues that genetically modifying food is no different than artificial selection. Irrefutably, both processes change the genes of plants and animals.

But artificial selection and natural selection carry genes within populations that are constrained by species. Genetically modified foods have no such constraints. Genes from different species are put together to make new organisms. Let’s take a closer look at artificial selection.

What is Artificial Selection

Artificial selection is a process by which natural evolutionary processes are altered by human intervention. Current estimates place the beginning of life at 3 ½ to 4 billion years ago. This long time span is what accounts for the rich diversity of life on Earth. More than 99.9% of all species that have existed on this planet are now extinct. Of those that remain, the plants and animals most useful to us have been domesticated. Instead of survival of the fittest, think survival of the friendliest and survival of the most nutritious and delicious. With our help, the evolution of these plants and animals was put on fast forward.

Through artificial selection (also called artificial breeding) we have bred plants and animals that are in almost all cases so different from their wild counterparts as to be unrecognizable.

Wild carrots, and wild lettuce are, by today’s standards, inedible. Wild carrots produce natural pesticides, which are good for carrots and bad for us, so we bred that trait out of carrots. Wild carrots also provide fewer calories, and less nutrition than their domesticated counterparts. Wild lettuce contains latex. As you might have guessed, latex tastes horrible, and it irritates our digestive tract.

The main limitation of selective breeding is that the organisms to be bred must be closely related, usually of the same species. If not of the same species, they must be very closely related and share a recent common ancestor, such as dogs and wolves, or wild boars and pigs. Attempts to breed more distant relations such as horses and donkeys or lions and tigers usually produce sterile offspring, or no offspring at all. (A mule is bred from a male donkey and a female horse. A hinny is bred from a female donkey and a male horse. Less commonly known, a liger is an animal bred from a male lion and a female tiger. The progeny of a female lion and a male tiger is called a tigon.)

This radical alteration of plants and animals has been going on for a long time. Selective breeding has a proven track record. It isn’t perfect, and agronomists still have a lot to learn to learn in order to improve upon it, but we have been doing it for thousands of years. Without the domestication of plants and animals we could not support our population, not nationally and definitely not globally.

The changes made to domesticated plants and animals over time do alter genes. Desired traits are selected and undesirable traits are selected against. To say this modifies genes is semantically correct, but so does natural selection, but it is not the same thing as genetic modification.

Despite this limitation, it is incredible what can be achieved via artificial selection. We can produce purple potatoes, black tomatoes, yellow watermelon, over 300 breeds of dogs, and more than 800 breeds of cows. Heirloom fruits and vegetables, commercial cultivars, and hybrids have all been realized through artificial selection.

The GMO Debate and Prominent Scientists

Neil Degrasse Tyson argues that all foods are genetically modified, and that people have an irrational fear of these new foods. Bill Nye echoes the same sentiments. Both have begun publicly supporting GMOs. Neither individuals are experts on genetics, nutrition, health, or biology. Dr. Tyson is an accomplished astrophysicist. Bill Nye earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Both individuals studied under Carl Sagan, and the late Carl Sagan had something very different to say about genetic engineering.

“Fortunately, we do not know, or at least do not yet know…how to assemble alternative sequences of nucleotides…to make alternative kinds of human beings. In the future, we might well be able to put nucleotides together…in any desired sequence…to produce human characteristics we think desirable. A disquieting and awesome prospect.” – Carl Sagan

“Biology is more like history than it is like physics. You have to know the past to understand the present. There is no predictive theory of biology just as there is no predictive theory of history. The reason is the same both subjects are still too complicated for us.” – Carl Sagan

A Geneticist Weighs In – David Suzuki

David Suzuki agrees that biology and genetics (a subfield of biology), are unpredictable. He doesn’t think that GMOs have been adequately tested, and he says that biotech has put us all in great experiment by prematurely introducing GMOs to the food supply.

“The problem is this: geneticists follow the inheritance of genes in what we call a vertical fashion. You breed a male and a female. You follow their offspring. You breed them. You follow it on down, within a species. What biotechnology allows us to do is to take genes from this organism and move it, what we call horizontally, into a totally unrelated species. …What biotechnology allows us to do is to switch genes from one to the other without the biological constraints.” -David Suzuki

“The problem is this you see, it’s very, very bad science. We assume that the principles governing the inheritance of genes vertically applies when you move genes laterally or horizontally. There is absolutely no reason to make that conclusion. We have to do more experimentation.” – David Suzuki

Biotech claims that they are thousands of studies proving the safety of GMOs. Many short-term studies, up to 90 days, do show their products are safe. Many long-term studies, show a very different outcome.

Dr. Goodall’s Informed Opinion

Before Jane Goodall’s work our definition of mankind was “man the toolmaker.” Dr. Goodall has made many important scientific discoveries. She proved that chimpanzees use tools, that they eat meat, and that they have a complex social system. She is a highly respected scientist.

She is well informed on GMOs, so her opinion of them is not borne of ignorance. Dr. Goodall has publically accused GMO supporters of fraud, and says that they are the ones who are “anti science”. She has warned Britain and Europe not to lower GM safeguards, and she has condemned politicians for endorsing “Frankenstein food.”

“I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?” Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

When the GMO Studies Are Not Funded By Industry…

A two-year study in France has shown that rats didn’t get cancer in the first 90 days of being fed GMO corn, they began to get cancer after four months. The journal, which published the study, retracted it.

The scientists stand by their results, and they believe that the editorial appointment of Richard Goodman, a former Monsanto employee, is the reason behind the retraction. The study has been criticized for what kind of rats was used, but these are the same kind of rats used in many Monsanto studies.

There have also been long-term studies that show disruption of reproduction due to GMOs with low fertility and high infant death rates in rats and mice.

And while articles will state that there is no evidence, even anecdotal evidence of disease or problems due to GMO livestock feed, this is another lie. Farmers have complained about their animals’ poor health and sterility due to GMO feed.

GMO Contamination

Biotech said they could contain GMOs, but this was another lie. GMOs contaminate other varieties by cross-pollination. This contamination typically comes from natural sources. Birds, insects, wind, and weather can carry pollen or seeds from GMO crops many miles to other farmer’s fields. When this happens, if the farmer isn’t growing the same GMO crop, he isn’t considered the victim, he is often sued for patent violation. The usual procedure is a settlement agreement that forces the farmer into silence.

GMO wheat was not approved by the FDA, but a field of GMO wheat was found in Montana, well after the GMO crop was ordered to be destroyed.

The South Korean government bans the cultivation of GMO crops, but GMOs have been found growing in their country; especially along shipping routes. South Korea imports animal feed, and they import GMO crops, but they do prohibit growing GMOs. Now they have no choice; GMOs are growing themselves.

Many countries have banned the cultivation of GMOs, and most countries require GMOs to be clearly labeled. Canada and the U.S. do not currently require GMO labeling, except in a few states. There is currently a bill called the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, which would eliminate state’s rights to label GMOs.

The Labeling Double-Standard

Biotech has opposed GMO labeling for consumers, but they are certainly pro-labeling when it comes to their seeds. When farmers buy their seed, they extensively label it, and they explain the many restrictions placed on their seeds. One of the restrictions is that farmers are prohibited from growing non-GMO crops alongside GMO crops, making it impossible to compare yields. Biotech claims GMOs increase yield, but this is another lie as proven by crop yields across the world.

One of the more common genetic modifications renders a plant immune to Round Up. This allows the farmer to spray Round Up in large amounts all over his or her field to kill weeds. Unfortunately, this process has resulted in Round Up resistant weeds, and it increases herbicide residues in the crops. Recently, the World Health Organization said the widespread use of Round Up is a main cause of the rising cancer rates worldwide.

How To Avoid GMOs

Avoiding GMOs won’t be easy for most people who eat prepackaged, processed foods. The NON-GMO project verified label is helpful. It means the ingredients are 99% GMO free. Organic also means 99% GMO free. More than 80% of processed foods contain GMO ingredients. If you buy processed foods, buy organic.

Trader Joe’s sells GMO foods, though their name brand items do not contain them.

Whole Foods talks a good game, but so far they have done nothing except provide some organic options. Exclusively organic restaurants are few and far between, and unfortunately, almost any other restaurant will be serving GMO food. The most common GMOs are canola oil, soy (including milk and oil), corn (including high fructose corn syrup), cottonseed oil, zucchini, yellow squash, papaya, aspartame (which is produced from genetically modified bacteria) and sugar (from sugar beets).

Conclusion

Despite what biotech would have you believe, it is not unscientific to reject GMOs. The rest of the world is not too keen on genetically modified foods, and the scientific community is divided on the issue. The majority of scientists appear to support GMO technology, but there is a lot of money involved in supporting it and nothing but hardship for those who dare oppose it. Many scientists are harshly criticized, censored, and have their funding disappear if they are critical of biotechnology.

Censorship has no place in science, and in order for science to thrive, scientific inquiry must be given free reign. If allowed, science is ultimately self-correcting, but not when scientists are coerced into supporting commercial interests before science. This is exactly what is happening.

The belief that GMOs are harmful to human health certainly has scientific validity. Despite what biotech companies would have us believe, we evolved to eat food, not chemicals. We evolved to eat organisms that came from the earth, not organisms that came from a laboratory.

What We Can Do About It

In a free society, it should be easier to opt out of this GMO experiment. We should have the right to choose what we put into our bodies and not have it chosen for us.

We can vote with our dollars, but not when we are kept in the dark.

Please contact your representative and senators (also check out How To Contact Congress) now and let them know you want to see all GMO foods labeled. Ask them to vote against the Food Safety and Labeling Act, which would deny states the right to require GMO labeling.

 

Further Reading:
Sources:

 




Why Conventional Agriculture Has To Stop

When chemicals were first introduced in farming, everyone marveled at what they could do. Yields were dramatically increased. In the beginning, the soil was so healthy, any damage done by chemical fertilizers was imperceptible, and pests had yet to evolve resistance to the insecticides. Our technologies were exported around the world as a revolution in agriculture – the green revolution.

Chemical fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, antibiotics, hormones, factory farms, and genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. It just keeps coming. Almost no one calls it the green revolution anymore because there is nothing green about it, at least not in the modern ecologically friendly meaning of the word green.

Downsides to the Green Revolution

There are a number of problems brought on by conventional agriculture’s techniques. Conventional methods are inhumane to animals; they spread disease and pollution and degrade our nation’s soil and water. In the interests of sustainability, protecting our nation’s resources and improving our health, conventional agriculture needs to be banned, both in the U.S. and abroad.

A return to organic agriculture, which prohibits the use of chemicals and encourages crop rotation, will protect our nation’s arable land, increase the nutritional value of our food, and dramatically reduce our food’s toxicity.

Toxic Food

Yes, our food is toxic when grown by conventional means. Ninety-three percent of Americans tested by the CDC had metabolites of chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin in their urine. Chlorpyrifos has been banned for use in homes because it has been linked to autoimmune diseases and neurological damage, but it is still commonly used on golf courses and in bait containers, and it is sprayed all over our food.

Over 99% of Americans tested, tested positive for exposure to DDT. DDT has been banned from use in the U.S. since 1972. But it’s still perfectly legal to manufacture it in the U.S. ship it to Mexico and other countries, and then have it sprayed on food, and then sell the food to the U.S. DDT has been linked to various cancers and birth defects. It is a persistent toxin that stays in the environment for an extended period of time.

The government sets limits on how much of each pesticide can be on our food, but there is no limit to the number of different approved pesticides that can be on our food or the total amount of chemical contamination. The Pesticide Action Network tells us that Americans are exposed to an average of 10-13 pesticides every day.

As a last resort, organic farmers do use pesticides; however, organic farmers use pesticides that are plant based. These bio-chemicals naturally, quickly decompose. In contrast, conventional agriculture uses a vast array of chemicals, most of them synthetic. There are over 600 pesticides used in the United States. Many of these chemicals are known to last for hundreds or thousands of years before breaking down, and they are toxic to both humans and animals. The degree of exposure to these chemicals directly affects one’s risk of developing numerous cancers, especially cancer of the brain, prostate cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma.

If growing nutrient deficient, chemical laden food isn’t bad enough, conventional agriculture has gone even further by genetically modifying our food to make it easier to grow at an even higher cost to the consumer’s health. Many genetically modified foods are modified to produce pesticides within the plant. GMOs radically alter the microorganisms in the soil, damaging the soil’s fertility. GMOs introduce new allergens, new toxins, and unknown proteins into our bodies.

“Every day we make life or death decisions, decisions about what we eat. This may sound melodramatic, but it’s true.” Superfoods RX

Studies have repeatedly shown that the nutritional content of organic food is dramatically superior to the nutritional content of conventionally grown food. Before the advent of today’s conventional agriculture, our food contained more nutrients. Organic agriculture’s predominant strategy is to cultivate nutrient rich soil. In order to add nutrients back into the soil, organic agriculture uses crop rotation and natural fertilizers. This produces healthy plants, which makes for healthy food.

What About the Soil

We must protect our nation’s arable land in order to protect our food supply for future generations. With approximately 18% to 19% of America’s land being arable, we have the world’s most abundant farming resources. Even though agriculturally viable resources are obviously of great economic value to the entire nation, our nation’s soil is treated as though it were disposable. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and petroleum-based fertilizers strip the soil of nutrients and kill beneficial organisms such as earthworms, predatory insects, and microorganisms. In order to grow anything in such chemical laden soil, more chemicals are added. This process degrades the topsoil and causes salts to build up in the land, leaving barren dirt. After this process strips the land of its agricultural viability, conventional agribusiness moves on, acquiring more farmland. Then the process is repeated, rendering more land barren. By comparison, organic farming replenishes the soil through crop rotation, natural fertilizers, and the use of time-honored, natural techniques.

Deadly Germs

A whopping 50% of antibiotic use is not for human beings but for livestock. The media is constantly warning about the dangers of overuse of antibiotics. The concern is that overuse (and abuse) of antibiotics can breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

It is commonplace to add antibiotics to livestock feed, even when the animals aren’t sick. This is because conventional methods typically overcrowd the animals so badly that too many of them will get sick without an on-going diet that includes antibiotics.

It is cruel and inhumane to force animals to live with their own waste and in such crowded conditions. To keep consumers in the dark about the realities of factory farming, many states are passing laws forbidding filming inside these factory farms. The stench of these crowded pens is unbearable to any but the most stalwart and habituated individuals, and the animals’ waste is so concentrated that it poses a risk to nearby natural water sources.

These are perfect conditions for pathogens to thrive. It provides bacteria with the opportunity for many different food sources, and many different animal hosts to infect. This gives bacteria an opportunity to develop resistance to our medications. These conditions are also ideal for viruses to spread from animal to animal and potentially to humans.

Dead Zones

Conventional farming utilizes phosphorous and nitrogen chemical fertilizers. When rain and runoff carry these fertilizers into the ocean, marine life is suffocated. The fertilizers trigger overgrowth of marine plankton. Once the masses of plankton die, their death feeds ocean bacteria. The bacteria consume oxygen, and with an unnatural overabundance of plankton, the bacteria consume just about all of the oxygen left in the ocean. Shrimp, fish, and all other forms of marine life either leave the area or die from lack of oxygen. The end result is hypoxia, oceanic dead zones. These areas are devoid of nearly all life other than plankton and bacteria.

Scientists have documented coastal dead zones, areas that are hypoxic in over 400 coastal areas. All over the world, these dead zones are found downstream of conventional farming from Chesapeake Bay to Oregon to Denmark, and to the Black Sea.

We have a vested interest in marine life. It is not only shameful that marine animals suffocate as a side effect of our farming pollution, it is also economically damaging. The ocean provides us with billions of dollars worth of food annually. Nothing of commercial importance survives a dead zone, fish, shellfish, and shrimp all either leave the area or suffocate in the dead waters. Many of these dead zones are thousands of square miles. The dead zone off of the Gulf of Mexico was once recorded as being an area larger than the state of New Jersey, 22,000 kilometers.

Conclusion

Pesticide residue, antibiotics, preservatives, and genetic modification directly affect the long-term sustainability of farming, fishing, the consumer’s health, and the health of those who grow and produce the food. We do not exist separately from the environment in which we live. If what we consume is polluted, our bodies become polluted. Beyond choosing what we buy in the store, we as a nation must choose, for the long term or short term, organic or conventional. This choice affects us all, even those not yet born.

If you are in a position to grow your own food, check out How To Start A Vegetable Garden and Ten Great Gardening Tips. If you’re not growing your own food in very healthy soil, it’s time to get more nutrition: Make Your Own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula.

Further Reading:
Sources:



Monsanto Has Ruined Our Honey – It’s Contaminated With Glyphosates From Roundup

A recent study by researchers from Boston University and Abraxis LLC found significant amounts of glyphosates in a food that you wouldn’t necessarily expect: honey.

Five categories of food items were tested from Philadelphia grocery stores: honey, corn and pancake syrup, soy milk, tofu, and soy sauce. Sixty-two percent of the conventional honeys and 45% of the organic honeys sampled had levels of glyphosates above the minimum established limits.

It’s hard to ignore the presence of glyphosate in a large portion of our food supply. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Monsanto’s star herbicide, Roundup. It is interesting to note that the level of glyphosates was much higher in honey from countries that permitted GM crops; honey from the U.S. contained the highest levels.

Even the Organic Honey?

So how did so many of the 69 honey samples, including 11 organic samples, tested contain such high levels of glyphosates? There are two reasons for this. Given that a single honeybee can fly over 6 miles to find nectar and bring back a total of 250 pounds of nectar a year, modern life is set up so that it is almost impossible for them to avoid harmful substances. Pesticides, herbicides, and toxins released into the air from factories and cities make it impossible for all but the most remote beehives to maintain 100% purity.

There’s also the issue of the wax that bees use for their hives. Bees are at risk for Varroa mites, an external parasite that reproduces in the hives, so conventional beekeepers frequently use pesticides to get rid of them. Beeswax retains chemicals, so over time, these chemicals build up and make their way into the honey. While the use of pesticides directly on the beehives isn’t an issue for beekeepers using organic methods, the issue is where they source their wax. A survey of pesticide residues in beehives found that over 98% of them contained at least one pesticide. With such a large amount of wax contaminated, it’s likely that organic beekeepers who purchase commercially available wax will be unable to avoid these toxins.

Can I Ever Eat Honey Again?

Is there any way around the amount of herbicides and pesticides in honey? Short answer? Probably not. Countries that don’t allow genetically modified crops have lower levels of herbicides in their honey, but that list of countries is under attack every day that Monsanto and their buddies are in business. With increased use of chemicals in farming, a greater amount of herbicides and pesticides will make it way into beehives, causing a ripple effect throughout bee colonies.

If you’re going to purchase honey, your best bet is to do your research. Talking to local beekeepers at farmer’s markets can give you an idea of the quality of honey available directly in your area. Even though there were glyphosates in the organic honey, there were still more in the conventional honey. You can increase your odds of getting less toxic honey by researching which countries don’t allow GMOs (not a bad solution for other products, either!).

If you find yourself eating honey often, it could be a good idea to do a detox to remove Candida and toxins from your body.

Further Reading:

Sources: 

 

 

 




GMO Labeling Legislation Introduced In Minnesota

In the dead of winter, the Minnesota State Legislature isn’t letting the snow keep them from reintroducing legislation to label GMOs. At the end of January, HF 351 and SF 335 were proposed in both the House and the Senate. While the state has proposed legislation that would disclose the presence of GMO ingredients to consumers by January of 2017, support for GMO labeling in the state has grown at a fantastic rate. After seeing the Oregon initiative to label GMOs defeated by a mere 812 votes, activists across Minnesota are pushing even more to make sure they get the support they need to pass these bills and let GMO companies know that we want to know what is in our food.

No More GMOs!

Natural News has reported before on the initiatives Minnesotans have been taking to protect themselves from Monsanto toxins. Last December, Minnesota educators started a plan to phase GMOs out of school lunches instead using things like organic squash and hot dogs made from grass fed beef. A month earlier, they had GMO awareness day, distributing information on the lack of proper testing for GMOs and their links to allergies, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other diseases. Educators took the initiative to distribute flyers to parents detailing the negative effects of GMOs on developing children. The Minnesota state legislature has also proposed bills from both the Senate and the House supporting informed purchasing in the past.

Massive Public Support

Even though bills to labels GMOs have been proposed and defeated before, the local support for these two bills is strong in Minnesota. Polls across the nation have found that the majority of Americans want to know about genetically engineered ingredients in their food. Minnesota is no different. Activists from Minnesota’s Right to Know organization have expanded the number of co-authors on both bills and met with over 45 legislators in their quest to get these bills passed. Local news outlets in St. Paul are reporting on the large number of people who showed up to the first Capitol hearing of this bill. Local businesses are also receiving requests from customers asking that they label their products, and that they support bills like this that will allow for informed purchasing.

Big Business Poses a Threat

While the Minnesota’s Farmer’s Union have also voiced support for these bills, there is always the possibility of Monsanto and others throwing a monkey wrench in these plans. Large agricultural corporations like Hormel, Land o’ Lakes, and General Mills are based in Minnesota. Collectively they spent millions of dollars opposing the labeling of GMOs in California. With plenty of time between now and the informational hearing on these bills in April, Monsanto and these other corporations have plenty of time to spread misinformation and lies to Minnesota voters in an attempt to protect their profits.

Show Your Support

If you or any of your loved ones are in Minnesota, let them know that they can make a difference in the campaign to know what’s in our food. Here are some things that you can do to support these bills. Email or call members of the Minnesota congress. Even if you don’t live in Minnesota, they need to know that this bill could be an important first step in labeling GMOs and boosting the health of our nation. Passing these bills will defiantly affect the rest of the United States, and they need to know that they could be part of history.

You can also support the Minnesota Right to Know campaign on Facebook or Twitter. They have up to date notifications on the bills, are organizing opportunities to speak with members of congress, and have volunteer information available for those who want to get involved. They also have a list of local businesses who support labeling genetically engineered products. By supporting these retailers, you vote with your dollars. Let companies in Minnesota know that the more likely they are to let you make informed shopping decisions, the more likely you are to support them.

Recommended Supplements (These supplements help detoxify GMOs):

Further Reading:
Sources:



The DARK Act – Deny Americans the Right to Know – GMO Labeling

An apathy has descended upon the American people, a combination of, “I don’t care,” and, “What difference would it make, anyway?” We have stood back and allowed so many of our rights to be taken away in the last 15 years. We cannot – we must not – lose the right to know what is in the food we eat.

H.R.4432, also known as The DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know) is a bill that will stop efforts to label GMO foods. It will deny individual states the right to pass laws requiring GMO labeling and will make any previously passed state laws null and void. And the ultimate joke is the full title of the bill: H.R. 4432 – Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014.

Of course, the bill is written in such a way that its application is unclear. Yes, it would make sense to have a federal regulation regarding the labeling of GMO foods. Yes, it would be a burden on the manufacturers if each state required a different label. But the truth is, this bill’s ultimate purpose has nothing to do with food safety; it has everything to do with the companies who have spent an estimated 100 million to get it passed – those who benefit from keeping the word GMO off their labels.

So which companies are lobbying for this bill? Well, you’re right if you guessed Monsanto is near the top of the list. They are number three. The first is PepsiCo, followed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

There are two things we can do. One is to tell our represented leaders that we demand the right to choose what we eat. We want GMOs labeled. Every time.

The second thing we can do is start boycotting the businesses that are spending millions of dollars to take away our right to know what we are eating. The following is a short list of those lobbying for the bill to pass.

  • PepsiCo Inc
  • Grocery Manufacturers Assn
  • Monsanto Co
  • Land O’Lakes
  • Kellogg Co
  • International Dairy Foods Assn
  • Abbott Laboratories
  • Kraft Foods Group
  • American Farm Bureau
  • American Seed Trade Assn
  • Bayer AG
  • Biotechnology Industry Organization
  • Coca-Cola Co
  • Ohio Farm Bureau
  • Nestle SA
  • ConAgra Foods
  • American Sugarbeet Growers Assn
  • General Mills
  • Dean Foods
  • DuPont Co
  • Hillshire Brands Co
  • Intl Assn of Refrigerated Warehouses
  • Corn Refiners Assn
  • Syngenta AG

The following organizations are lobbying for labeling of GMO’s and are against passing H.R. 4432.

  • Center for Food Safety
  • Consumers Union of the U.S.
  • Environmental Working Group
  • EWG Action Fund
  • National Farmers Union
  • Natural Products Assn

To find your representatives in Congress and learn how to contact them click on this link. Please ask them to vote against this bill!

To find your senators and learn how to contact them click on this link. Let them know you want them to support the labeling of GMO foods.

Remember the greatest power we have is how we choose to spend our money. If we refuse to buy products from companies that use GMOs, promote GMOs, or oppose labeling of GMOs, and we buy only organic foods, they will lose.

Note from the Editor:

When this story was first published, lobbyists that opposed the bill were listed with those that supported it. We apologize for this error.




Candida or Celiac Disease – Which Came First?

The more we learn about leaky gut syndrome and gluten sensitivity, the more we question which came first, the gluten sensitivity or an overgrowth of Candida?

Gluten free diets may be all the craze right now, but there is a good reason for this. Many people are finding they feel better and their health improves when they remove gluten from their diets.

What Is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein that is made up of gliadin and glutenin. It acts as an emulsifier and it helps to bind food together. Wheat is the most commonly eaten grain that contains gluten, but the list of gluten grains is actually pretty long. It includes:

  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Bulgur
  • Einkorn
  • Emmer
  • Farina
  • Farro
  • Kamut
  • Mir
  • Rye
  • Seitan
  • Semolina
  • Spelt
  • Triticale

Many people who react to gluten are also sensitive to oats. Although oats do not contain gluten, the protein in oats is similar. Also, to avoid gluten with oats it is necessary to purchase gluten free oats and most oats are processed in the same plants as wheat and other gluten containing grains. Cross contamination is pretty much guaranteed if the oats are not gluten free.

In addition to oats, many gluten sensitive individuals react to cow dairy. Some are sensitive to other gluten free grains.

Note that couscous is made of wheat and malts are made of gluten grains. Learn the various names of wheat to avoid it. (See link below.)

What Is Candida?

Candida albicans is a yeast that is found in most humans. A healthy gut contains an abundance of good (beneficial) bacteria that keeps Candida in check, not allowing it to overgrow. If this balance is disturbed (generally through antibiotic use or ingesting too much sugar) Candida overgrows.

Through its metabolic process, Candida releases harmful toxins. As it grows it changes forms from a one-celled yeast to a form with filaments or threads that can cut right through tissues and single cells. It destroys the biofilm lining the intestines and can drill right through the gut wall. Proteins and food particles that never would pass through the villi now enter the bloodstream.

The body reacts to these invading, unnatural substances as if they were pathogens. This release of gluten proteins into the blood may well explain the rise in numbers of gluten sensitive people. Candida is ravaging the health of Americans and is rampant due to our overuse of antibiotics and the outrageously high sugar content in the typical American diet.

To learn more about Candida and how to heal the gut read How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

For a full list of grains and whether or not they contain gluten, check out this list from the Celiac Support Organization.

Recommended Supplements:

Further Reading:
Sources:



Is Wheat Poison? What’s Behind the Rise of Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance

We humans have been hunter-gatherers for more than 99.9% of our history. For millions of years, we subsisted on a diet of fruits, nuts, wild vegetables, bone marrow, seafood, meat, and herbs. Grains such as wheat, corn, barley, oats, and rye were not introduced into the diet until about 10,000 years ago. These grains became staples of our diet due to the introduction of agriculture.

Not everyone fared so well in this new agricultural system. As a matter of fact, the majority of people didn’t. Relying on agriculture for the most of the diet, restricted variety. Archaeologists have discovered that the switch to agriculture resulted in a dramatic decline in health in every culture.

Our bodies are not well adapted to grains, though some tolerate them better than others. Many cannot tolerate grains that contain gluten at all, in any amount. For other sensitive individuals, long-term consumption of gluten destroys their health and may lead to their death.

Contents

History of Celiac Disease

Celiac disease, also known as celiac sprue, non tropical sprue, and gluten sensitive enteropathy, has probably always been with us. The earliest case, known as the “case of Cosa,” is more than 2,000 years old. A young woman’s remains were found southwest of modern day Tuscany, Italy. It is believed that she was between the ages of 18 and 20. We know that she had celiac disease because genetic testing revealed the presence of the HLA-DQ2.5. gene, a definitive genetic marker for the disease. Her skeleton also revealed the typical damage caused by malnutrition that is characteristic of a person with celiac disease who continues to eat gluten throughout their lifetime.

Aretaeus, an ancient Greek physician who was believed to practice in the 1st century AD, was the first to describe one of the most noticeable symptoms of celiac disease. Steatorrhea was the most common symptom, a tendency for fatty stools with poorly digested food. He wrote about a mysterious disease afflicting a number of his patients who he called “koilakos,” which means “suffering in the bowels.” Aretaeus believed the affliction was caused by a lack of heat in the digestive tract. This was a reasonable idea because he found that his patients only partially digested their food. Unfortunately, he did not find the cause or cure. Celiac disease and its debilitating symptoms continued to plague a percentage of the population for centuries, without anyone identifying the source of the problem.

Francis Adams translated Aretaeus’ work from Greek to English at the Sydenham Society of England in 1856. He coined the term coeliacs.

In 1888, Samuel Gee, a British pediatrician, was the first to make the connection between diet and the disease. He said, “If the patient can be cured at all, it must be my means of diet.” Gee experimented with various diets. He showed moderate success by introducing mussels (a gluten free food) into the diet. Eventually though, he put his celiac patients back on a high gluten diet, (no fruit, no sago, no rice, no vegetables) and they got worse, slowing dying a painful death.

Gee primarily fed his patients a diet of thin slices of bread and raw meat. He failed to discover the bread was killing them. Part of the reason was the fact that he was actually treating patients with two different afflictions: celiac disease and tropical sprue, two unique diseases with similar symptoms.

(Tropical sprue is a disease that to this day has an unknown cause, but is believed to be an infection caused by an unknown pathogen. It solely afflicts people in the tropics, and people who have traveled to tropical regions. Damage to the intestines and malnutrition are the typical symptoms.)

Many years later, a Dutch pediatrician, Willem Karel Dicke, discovered a link between celiac disease and wheat. During World War II, food shortages made it impossible for him to feed his patients the standard staples of wheat. Out of necessity, the doctor switched to gluten free alternatives, and his celiac patients thrived under the new diet. When wheat became available again, his patients with celiac disease quickly deteriorated. This lead Dr. Dicke to make the connection between proteins found in wheat and damage to the small intestine. He wrote his thesis on celiac disease and its connection to wheat in 1950.

In the early fifties, Dr. William Holmes Crosby Jr. developed a less invasive technique to biopsy the small intestine. Then in the late fifties, Dr. Cyrus Rubin further refined the intestinal biopsy technique. This refinement lead to a more accurate diagnoses of celiac disease. Dr. Rubin also defined the diagnostic criteria for celiac disease, proving that it afflicts both children and adults.

Then in the 1970s, the right kind of specialist shed more light on the problem. Anne Ferguson, a gastroenterologist, discovered that celiac disease is due to the body’s immune response to gluten in the digestive tract. In 1975, she published a paper in the Lancet, which showed how biopsied tissues from celiac patients react to the proteins found in wheat, while the control biopsies from other individuals did not show this immune response.

Glyphosate and the Rise in Celiac Disease

In 2013, Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff revealed a correlation between the increasing use of glyphosate in agriculture and the growth of celiac disease in the Western population. (Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up, and it is used extensively in modern-day agriculture and landscaping.)

Celiac disease can originate from genetics, but you don’t have to be born with it. Like many diseases, environmental toxicity is increasing its numbers. To further explain this interplay between genetics and environment, the following passage is a quote from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences:

Nearly all diseases result from a complex interaction between an individual’s genetic make-up and the environmental agents that he or she is exposed to.

Examples of environmental agents:

  • Mold
  • Ozone
  • Pesticides
  • Air pollution
  • Cleaning solutions
  • Dust mites
  • Some foods and medications

“Subtle differences in genetic factors cause people to respond differently when exposed to the same environmental agent.  As a result, some possess a low risk for developing a disease through an environmental insult, while others are much more vulnerable.

“As scientists learn more about the connection between genetics and environmental factors, and how that connection may influence human disease, they’ll begin to  develop new strategies for the treatment and prevention of many illnesses.” – Gene-Environment Interaction

Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff have suggested such a strategy. They have urged governments to ban the use of glyphosate in agriculture.

Wheat isn’t grown the way it used to be. Conventional methods of wheat farming have become more toxic. For decades now, farmers have been fertilizing their fields with petroleum based chemical fertilizers and using poisonous insecticides. Recently, wheat farming has grown even more toxic. A common modern farming practice is for many farmers to douse their fields with Round Up right before the harvest. This practice kills weeds that compete with the wheat. It also increases the yield from the wheat crop, which goes to seed more readily as it is dying. Note that no one claims Round Up is good for us; the biotech folks only profess that it isn’t bad for us. Wheat farming has become so toxic, is it any wonder that allergies to wheat and gluten are on the rise?

How We Make Bread

Consider how we make bread in modern times. White bread is manufactured from only one part of the wheat grain – the starch-filled endosperm. This process removes 4/5 of the nutrition. The starch is then ground into a fine powder. This processing is done at high temperatures and more of the nutrients are destroyed. The flour is then gray, so it is bleached with chemicals such as benzoyl peroxide or chlorine gas.

White bread appears to be healthy when one reads the label that lists its fortified vitamins and minerals, but these poor quality, often petroleum based vitamins and minerals are rarely of any nutritional value. All of the good vitamins and minerals were removed during processing.

Unfortunately, there are other added substances that are harmful to sufferers of celiac disease. Yeast, a common leavening agent used in breads, can make the environment in the digestive tract more suitable to an overgrowth of Candida. Those with celiac disease are particularly prone to Candida overgrowth in their digestive tract.

Some amount of Candida in the body is normal, but too much can be very harmful. When Candida multiplies out of control, it kills off good bacteria, releases toxins, and can actually penetrate the intestines by growing through them. This can cause partially digested food particles to enter the bloodstream through the perforated intestines. This is what is referred to as leaky gut syndrome. This often causes an immune system response, which can lead to more food allergies and a variety of autoimmune diseases. Overconsumption of grains, bread, and especially bread that has been highly processed and sweetened with refined sugars, has been linked with Candida overgrowth.

Traditionally, Bread Was Healthier

Breads have been made for more than 8,000 years, but yeast wasn’t introduced in baking until 1668. So what did bakers use before yeast? The traditional cultures used to make dough rise were bacteria, microscopic hard working fermenters that were pulled from the air.

Lactobacilli gives sourdough bread its unique flavor. The same bacteria that bakers have used for centuries to bake bread is closely related to the bacteria used to make yogurt and many cheeses.

This bacteria breaks down gluten and other proteins, making grains with gluten more easily digested. In the past, grains were routinely sprouted before grinding them into flour, another step rarely done today.

Some individuals with celiac disease can tolerate sourdough bread if it is prepared in a precise manner: made with sprouted grains and fermented for an extended period of time.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein that is made up of gliadin and glutenin. It acts as an emulsifier and it helps to bind food together. This is why gluten free foods do not usually have the doughy, elastic consistency of foods containing gluten. Xantham gum is often used in place of gluten as a binder for baked gluten free foods.

Candida, Gluten, and Other Food Allergies

Individuals with celiac disease are commonly allergic to other foods as well. Cow dairy is a very common food allergy for sufferers of celiac disease. Many are sensitive to oats, even when they are gluten free, due to a similar protein. Some are sensitive to other gluten free grains. The reason for this is due to an overabundance of Candida in the intestinal tract. And this is due to sugar.

In modern diets, sugar intake has increased substantially for many years. In other words, along with all of the other changes with how we produce and consume wheat products, we are also seeing a rapid increase in people with an over abundance of Candida due to refined sugars.

Proteins from foods (such as gluten, and many others) enter the blood stream through holes in the intestinal wall due to Candida. Candida, when left unchecked, will actually destroy the protective biofilm and drill holes into the intestinal wall, causing leaky gut syndrome. When foods passes through into the bloodstream undigested, the body sees the proteins as foreign compounds that do not belong, and the body can develop an allergic reaction to the proteins.

Many have reported being able to consume gluten products occasionally after balancing their intestinal flora and healing their gut. It is wise, whenever consuming gluten, to also take a probiotic. Also, we highly recommend not eating any commercial bread. For someone who feels that bread and pasta are too important for them to give up, it’s crucial for them to abstain from wheat products until the intestines are healthy, and then make their own bread and pasta the right way, including soaking, sprouting, and using a strong bacterial culture.

Increased Risk for other Debilitating Diseases

Individuals with celiac disease are more likely to develop several cancers. They are also more likely to have Addison’s disease, anemia, dermatitis, diabetes, thyroid disease, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, sarcoidosis, IgA nephropathy, and Down’s syndrome.

Symptoms

There are over 300 known symptoms of celiac disease. The more common symptoms are listed below.

  • Abdominal bloating and pain
  • ADHD
  • Anemia
  • Arthritis
  • Anxiety
  • Bone pain
  • Bedwetting
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Constipation
  • Delayed growth and puberty
  • Depression
  • Diarrhea
  • Eczema
  • Failure to thrive
  • Infertility
  • Irritability
  • Irregular menstrual periods
  • Joint pain
  • Malnutrition
  • Migraines
  • Miscarriages
  • Osteoporosis
  • Persistent canker sores
  • Rashes
  • Seizures
  • Tingling sensation or numbness in hands or feet
  • Unusually foul-smelling stool, blood or undigested foods in stool
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Vomiting

Diet Is the Only Known Treatment

The treatment for sufferers of celiac disease is to avoid gluten entirely, to eat a completely gluten free diet. The FDA does not require food manufacturers to list gluten on their labels. Wheat is required to be clearly labeled, but gluten is not. The following foods contain gluten:

  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Bulgur
  • Couscous
  • Durum
  • Einkorn
  • Emmer
  • Farina
  • Farro
  • Kamut
  • Malt
  • Mir
  • Oats (unless labeled gluten free oats- oats are often contaminated)
  • Rye
  • Seitan
  • Semolina
  • Spelt
  • Triticale

Gluten is commonly found in breads, bread crumbs, baked goods, beer, biscuits, brewer’s yeast, brown rice syrup (often made with barley enzymes), cereals, communion wafers, crepes, croutons, dextrin, flour tortillas, food coloring, food starch, French toast, granola, gravies, herbal teas, malt vinegar, marinades, sauces, pancakes, pastas, roux, salad dressing, soup, soy sauce, starch, stuffing, waffles, and wine. Any processed food made in a facility that also processes foods with gluten may be contaminated.

Other non-food items that may not be gluten free include:

  • Lipbalm, lipgloss, lipstick
  • Supplements
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Vitamin and mineral pills
  • Over the counter medications
  • Playdough (some kids will eat copious amounts of the stuff when playing with it)

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Many processed foods contain gluten, and unless the package says certified gluten free it probably isn’t. Many items that one might think are gluten free like corn flakes and rice cereal use malt or barley extract as a sweetener. Restaurants that do not offer gluten free menus cannot guarantee that their food is gluten free. And sadly, many that do offer gluten free choices contaminate the food while preparing it.

Conclusion

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, and like all autoimmune diseases, the body’s immune system attacks the body’s tissues. In the case of celiac disease, T cells attack the lining of the small intestine in response to gluten being passed through the digestive tract. This damage to the small intestine makes individuals with celiac disease more prone to cancers of the intestine. When an individual with celiac disease eats gluten, their symptoms can vary drastically in severity. Ingesting gluten can cause severe symptoms on one occurrence and only mild symptoms the next, which can confuse and delay an accurate diagnosis.

Many individuals with celiac disease suffer in silence, living their lives in constant pain and discomfort, because they have yet to be diagnosed.

Like most autoimmune diseases celiac disease affects more women than men. Women are more likely than men to be misdiagnosed as well and more likely to be told that their symptoms are “in their head”. This is one of the reasons why many sufferers of celiac disease are likely to ignore their symptoms until they become unbearable.

Thankfully, celiac disease is not the mysterious death sentence that it used to be in ages past. Now there are gluten free menus, gluten free options at the grocery store, and naturopathic ways to detox from gluten. Even the Catholic Church and the Methodist Church provide gluten free communion wafers upon request.

We know more about this disease and its symptoms than we ever have before. We also understand that gluten destroys the cilia in the intestines, the part of our anatomy that pulls nutrients into the bloodstream. If a person with this disease continues to eat gluten, malnutrition can result because the body is so damaged it is unable to properly metabolize nutrients from food. Individuals with celiac disease are more likely to be diagnosed with other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

We highly recommend that anyone with any autoimmune disease completely remove gluten from their diet and concentrate on healing the gut. Anyone with a history of gluten intolerance needs to heal their gut and balance their flora. Check out How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

Recommended Supplements:

Further Reading:
Sources: