Natural Communities Magazine A magazine devoted to the local natural wellness culture.

Pesticides that are used on nearly every acre of conventional farmland in the United States are reducing crop yields by one-third.

Pesticides disrupt chemical signaling between plants and impair symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF), an important process for plant growth. At least 30 pesticides are known to disrupt SNF, including the most widely used pesticide in the United States, Roundup.

SNF plays a critical role in supporting crop yields and environmental quality, and well-functioning SNF can greatly reduce farm production costs. In Brazil, soybean SNF reduces production costs by $1.3 billion each year.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 12, 2007, Vol. 104, No. 24

The Organic Center July 2007

Dr. Mercola’s comments

This study points out one obvious reason why well-managed organic crops enjoy enhanced crop yields in the long run. The farmers are not jeopardizing their crops’ health by applying toxic pesticides.

It is very difficult to avoid long term problems in many areas when we continue to rely excessively on synthetic approaches. Once we start tinkering around with the natural order of things — whether it’s adding synthetic fertilizer and pesticides to your food or taking prescription drugs — any number of unpleasant and unforeseen effects can pop up.

And like prescription drugs, pesticides are also a major challenge for your body and can cause many diseases you would want to avoid. In addition to the problems they cause on farms. Pesticides have been clearly associated with a number of problems such as:

• Certain types of cancer
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Miscarriages

You don’t need to have a medical degree to know that anything which kills insects and other living creatures is not likely to be very good for you. Developing babies are particularly at risk, and one of the most important things a pregnant woman can do is avoid these chemicals as if her baby’s life depended on it.
One of the best ways to avoid ingesting pesticides is by buying organic foods. And be aware that it’s not just produce that is the problem; don’t overlook the pesticides in your meat.

www.mercola.com

By Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege

You may already be familiar with the dangers of fructose that I’ve warned about in the past, but what you may not know is that high-fructose corn sweeteners that have been used to sweeten soft drinks and food since the 1970s are major contributors to the obesity epidemic in the United States.

The lead article of the April 2004 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition features this issue and the researchers say consumption of high-fructose corn sweeteners increased more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding changes in intake of any other food or food group.

Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was not only cheaper to make, it was also much sweeter (processed fructose is nearly 20 times sweeter than table sugar), and this switch has drastically altered the American diet.

In 1966, sucrose made up 86 percent of sweeteners. Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used are made from corn. And while people ate no high-fructose corn syrup in 1966, they ate close to 63 pounds each in 2001.

HFCS, which is made from cornstarch, is now used to sweeten:

• Soft drinks
• Fruit juices
• Baked goods
• Canned fruits
• Dairy products
• Cookies
• Gum
• Jams and jellies

It contains similar amounts of both fructose and glucose, whereas sucrose is a larger sugar molecule that is metabolized in the intestine into glucose and fructose.

HFCS is the only caloric sweetener in U.S. soft drinks and over 60 percent of the calories in apple juice, which is used as a base for many fruit drinks, come from fructose. The primary source of HFCS in the American diet is soda and juice—about two-thirds of all fructose consumed in the United States is in beverages.

Researchers estimated that Americans eat 132 calories of HFCS while the top 20 percent of sweetener consumers eat over 300. And some, they say, eat as much as 700 calories per day of HFCS.

So what makes corn syrup such an unhealthy, fat-promoting product?

Fructose is Metabolized to Fat

The digestive and absorptive processes for glucose and fructose are different. Unlike glucose, which the body uses, when one consumes large amounts of fructose it is a relatively unregulated source of fuel for the liver to convert to fat and cholesterol. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. It is also known to raise triglycerides significantly.

Most Fructose is Consumed as a Liquid

The fact that most fructose is consumed in a liquid form significantly magnifies its negative metabolic effects. The devastation it has on our biology would be significantly lessened if it were consumed in solid food, but as I mentioned above, most fructose is consumed in soft drinks and fruit juices.

Fructose Does Not Stimulate Insulin Secretion

In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin, a hormone thought to be involved in appetite regulation, production. Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat and body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food intake and weight gain.

Fructose Has no Enzymes, Vitamins or Minerals

Fructose has no enzymes, vitamins or minerals so it takes micronutrients from the body while it assimilates itself for use. However, eating a small piece of whole fruit, which contains natural fructose, is not likely to be a problem for most people because fresh fruits contain the enzymes, vitamins and minerals that are needed for the fructose to assimilate in the body.

Corn is a Grain, Not a Vegetable

Contrary to common belief, corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and is definitely not fit as a dietary staple and mainstay, primarily because it contains high amounts of sugar. When early Native Americans changed their diet to one based mostly on corn, they had increased rates of the following:

• Anemia
• Dental cavities
• Osteoarthritis
• Bone infections and other bone problems

Corn is Everywhere in the American Diet

Corn, and usually highly processed corn, has become a staple ingredient of the American diet. Cheap corn is truly the building block of the ”fast-food nation,” as Michael Pollan writes in a New York Times article.

Not only is it in HFCS, but animals raised for meat are often fed corn and other grains. Most meat in supermarkets comes from grain-fed animals. On the contrary, grain-free meats not only provide a better balance of omega fats, but also the animals are healthier and more humanely raised, and the risk of acquiring an infection from a healthy animal is very remote.

What You Can Do

Genetic factors clearly play an important role in the development of obesity. However, the rapidity with which the current epidemic of obesity has hit the United States and the rest of the world makes diet and lifestyle a more likely explanation.

So the answer is plain and simple. If you want to lose weight stop drinking soda and processed fruit juices that are sweetened with about eight teaspoons of fructose per serving. I have made many difficult recommendations to patients in their quest to achieve health, but one of the simplest is to stop drinking soda. There is never any reason to drink it and it is one of the easiest foods to give up. Switch to pure water as your beverage of choice and you will be well on your way to better health.

www.mercola.com

Concerns over long distance food transportation (food miles) and global warming, compounded by recent food poisoning scandals, linked to contaminated pet, poultry, and pig food ingredients from China, have taken away many Americans’ appetites for cheap imported foods. Shocked at media reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is inspecting approximately one percent of all imported food, health-minded consumers are demanding that Congress implement mandatory Country of Origin Labels (COOL) labels on food.

Not holding their breath for Congress to act, millions are turning to certified organic food products, both for their family and their household pets. Federal farm policy theoretically requires Country of Origin Labeling for food. Acknowledging polls that indicate that 80% of American consumers want to know where their food is coming from, COOL was incorporated into the 2002 Farm Bill and was to go into effect in September 2004.

Unfortunately, corporate agribusiness, Wal-Mart, and the supermarket chains bribed an ethicaly-impaired Congress with millions of dollars to block implementation of COOL labels. As a result, Americans are buying billions of dollars of imported foods without knowing it, while cheap, bogus “USDA Organic” food from China is starting to appear on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other Big Box chains.

Fortunately, in lat July of 2007, the House Agriculture Committee signed off on their final draft of the 2007 Farm Bill. One of the “last minute” success stories of the legislation was the panel’s agreement to include the requirement that the Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL) be implemented by next year. A special thanks goes out to all of you who have taken part in OCA’s COOL alerts. The law will allow consumers to determine where in the world various grocery store meats come from. This is particularly important in supporting domestic farmers. The text of the Farm Bill will continue to be altered as it now moves on to full Congressional review, so please contact your Representative to let them know you support COOL.

In order to promote health and sustainability, and to save North American family farms, we need to restore our right to know where our food is coming from. Tell Congress to support Country of Origin labels in the 2007 Farm Bill. Click link below to tell congress…
www.organicconsumers.org

As clear-thinking people, natural health consumers sometimes look at the actions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and wonder what planet its decision makers seem to be from. It’s like the FDA is living in a completely different world than the rest of us — a world where nutrients are dangerous, but synthetic chemicals are perfectly safe for human consumption.

In fact, the idea that FDA bureaucrats and modern medicine promoters are living in a different reality is not far from the truth. I my view, FDA decision makers have no connection with reality. They’re simply operating on a system of false beliefs and circular reasoning that justifies their efforts to protect Big Pharma profits by exploiting, misleading and directly harming the public.

Have you ever wondered what rules and beliefs actually drive FDA decisions in that alternate reality? As a service to NewsTarget readers, I’ve assembled a few in this article. These are the rules that define the dogma of modern “scientific” medicine and pharmacology marketing. These rules are followed by FDA bureucrats, drug company executives, psychiatrists, doctors, hospitals and everyone who’s currently profiting from the failed system of medicine operating in the United States today.

These rules, by the way, are no joke. This is not a satire piece. This is a serious exploration of the beliefs under which much of modern medical science operates today. Once you read these and understand just how deeply they are embedded in the minds and actions of conventional medicine operatives today, you’ll realize the magnitude of the medical collapse that now awaits modern civilization. There is nothing in these rules that respects life, nature, compassion or humility. It’s all about the power of man over nature, arrogance, control, exploitation and self delusion.

The 26 beliefs that drive modern medicine and the FDA

1. All herbs are dangerous and might kill you.
2. Vitamins and dietary supplements are not only useless; they’re so dangerous that they should be regulated or banned.
3. The only thing more dangerous than dietary supplements is allowing the public to have access to accurate information about dietary supplements. To maintain control, the public must be kept ignorant of the medicinal uses of all substances other than patented chemicals.
4. Most diseases are caused by pharmaceutical deficiencies and can only be treated with pharmaceutical supplementation.
5. Botanicals interfere with pharmaceuticals, not the other way around. There is no such thing as a pharmaceutical that interferes with an herb.
6. Scientific progress is measured by the degree to which man dominates nature.
7. Free speech should only be protected for drug companies, not nutritional supplement companies.
8. The 300+ synthetic chemicals now found in the blood of nearly everyone are completely harmless and have no negative health effects.
9. The FDA is incapable of making mistakes, and therefore, drug companies should be granted full immunity against consumer lawsuits surrounding the injuries and deaths caused by FDA-approved pharmaceuticals. It is impossible for an FDA-approved drug to cause the death of anyone, because the FDA is infallible.
10. There is no need to safety test chemicals used in cosmetics and personal care products because the skin doesn’t absorb chemicals. Unless, of course, we’re talking about transdermal drug delivery products like the anti-smoking patch, in which case the skin readily absorbs chemicals.
11. Nature cannot be trusted. All herbs must be “standardized” to be safe. And even then, they’re still useless.
12. Phytochemicals only act in isolation. Scientists can understand the physiological action of plant chemicals by isolating them, synthesizing them, and testing them one by one. There is no such thing as “synergistic action” with phytochemicals.
13. The only use for plant chemicals is to serve as ideas from which drug companies can synthesize patented drugs. Phytochemicals (phytonutrients) have no inherent value and their use for preventing, treating or curing any disease should be outlawed and stripped from modern civilization’s knowledge base.
14. Shamans, medicine women, herbalists, midwives and healers are all engaged in quackery based on superstition or voodoo.
15. There is no such thing as bioenergy, intuition, mind-body medicine, quantum physics or therapeutic touch. The entire universe operates only on the physical and chemical levels. There is nothing beyond those two levels yet to be discovered or explored.
16. We already know everything there is to know. No new discoveries are necessary, nor are any paradigm shifts in scientific medicine. It is important that we all reject any new ideas or beliefs that threaten our existing ideas or beliefs.
17. Drug corporations should be protected because they have the best interests of the general public in mind. The future health of the entire world depends on the research being conducted right now by drug companies.
18. Americans are lucky to pay the highest prices in the world for medication. Everyone else has to settle for “bargain” pricing, but Americans get the honor of knowing their dollars help fund the shareholder profits of the world’s wealthiest corporations, all of which deserve unlimited financial riches because they are saving the world from disease.
19. Drugs from Canada are so dangerous that they cannot be allowed to be touched or swallowed by superior Americans. Canadian drugs might be suitable for exporting to third world nations, but not to America.
20. The best way to help consumers is to control them by limiting their options and minimizing their access to information that might confuse them.
21. Nutrition has no role in human health. Any talk about healing with nutrition is quackery.
22. The human body is incapable of healing itself. Health can only be enhanced through chemical or surgical intervention. Patients have no role in determine their own health outcome.
23. “Science” is whatever we say it is.
24. Anything that disagrees with our definition of science is “unscientific.”
25. The “Scientific Method” is the process by which we decide what is science.
26. Conflicts of interest don’t count if we all mean well.

What’s really interesting about these beliefs is that they stand in direct conflict to reality. In reality, for example:

• The human body is naturally biocompatible with foods and medicines from nature.

• Pharmaceuticals interfere with normal human physiology and inevitably cause harm.

• Medicinal plants operate through synergistic action that cannot be understood by isolating and studying their chemical constituents.

• Nature has infinite wisdom; man remains utterly ignorant of the wisdom available in the universe.

• The universe is energetic, not merely chemical or physical, and all things are energetically connected.

• The mind controls the body; beliefs become reality in the tissue.

… and so on. We could add substantially to this list, but you get the idea. Isn’t is fortunate that the universe doesn’t operate from the FDA’s distorted viewpoint?

In time, by the way, our system of modern medicine will cease to exist. No system of medicine based on beliefs that contradict reality has any future.

www.newstarget.com

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes.

In February 2007, the FDA approved Alli—an over-the-counter version of the diet drug Orlistat (Xenical).

The Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has voiced concerns about Orlistat’s safety and efficacy for the past 10 years, as it’s been shown to cause pre-cancerous lesions of the colon.

In April of 2006, a group of doctors with Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to ban Orlistat and deny OTC status to the lower dosage version Alli, offering testimony that Orlistat raises the risk of both colon cancer and gallstones.

Public Citizen cited unpublished studies on Orlistat, showing:

• Orlistat increases the precursor markers to colon cancer by 60 percent in rats.
• When eating a high fat diet and taking Orlistat, the cancer risk increased 2.4 fold.
• Fat soluble vitamin E depletion, due to Orlistat’s fat blocking action, raises the risk of colon Recorded adverse reactions to Orlistat include: 39 cases of increased abnormal blood thinning; several cases of bleeding episodes; 10 hospitalizations, four with life threatening reactions, and one death.
• Dangerous thinning of the blood can occur in people taking drugs like Warfarin (an anti-coagulant), or who suffer from vitamin K deficiency.

In addition, the FDA itself found 37 cases of gallstones in patients of all ages, between 1999 and 2006, prior to releasing Alli for over-the-counter sale.

The safety analysis from the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group is that Alli “has marginal weight loss benefits, common and bothersome G-I tract reactions, significant decrease in absorption of fat soluble vitamins, and problematic use in the millions of people using Warfarin or Cyclosporine.”

The FDA denied Public Citizen’s petition on the same day they approved Alli as an OTC.

Public Citizen’s Health Research Group

Statement to the FDA of Dr. Wolfe February 2007

Petition to the FDA to Remove Orlistat April 2006

Testimony Before the FDA Advisory Committee January 2006

Alli and Gallstones June 2007

Dr. Mercola comments

The sad truth is, although obesity is rampant, OTC diet pills are often purchased by women who are not obese at all. One of Public Citizen’s main concerns over the approval of Alli for over-the-counter sale, is that countless numbers of people will expose themselves to radical and unnecessary health risks, for no reason whatsoever. I agree with their sentiment.

Alli is marketed as a “plan,” which includes a low fat diet and exercise. But honestly, you’d get superior results from the last two alone, without the embarrassing side-effects and the potential onset of lethal diseases.

But people are always looking for a quick, easy fix, and the drug companies are ever so happy to accommodate them. There is no miracle, one-shot cure, and adding a pill to your weight-loss plan will only make it worse, not better.

In fact, dieting is actually a consistent predictor of future weight GAIN; those who participate in formal weight-loss programs usually gain significantly more weight over a two-year period than those who have never participated in such a program.

But this is because most diets are based on myths and half truths. The good news is that there are very effective tools you can use to lose weight successfully:

• Eliminate grains and sugars from your diet
• Add cardiovascular exercise for one hour a day seven days a week at an intensity that is challenging enough to make it difficult for you to talk to someone next to you
• Address the underlying emotional challenges that are keeping you from changing your habits

www.mercola.com

Soy is still widely perceived to be a “health food” in the United States, raking in some $4 billion a year. In the United States, every part of the soybean is used for profit, including soy lecithin — the waste left over after a soybean is processed — and soy protein isolate, which was initially invented to be used to make cardboard.

Many people consume soy because of claims that it can reduce the risk of heart disease, alleviate symptoms of menopause, lower cholesterol and even cut your risk of cancer.

But in reality, as Mary Vance describes in the important essay linked below, when people consume soy products it can eventually lead to health problems ranging from digestive upset and bloating to hormonal disruption. And among infants, the estrogens in soy formula can be devastating, causing problems in their brains, reproductive systems and thyroid glands.

There are 100 years worth of studies demonstrating that soy products can be hazardous to your health, but soy is nonetheless now everywhere in our food supply, often hidden in processed foods.

Utne Reader July / August 2007

Dr. Mercola’s comments

Despite countless studies to the contrary, soy products still regarded by many as a healthy snack. In reality, they contain estrogens that can disrupt your body’s delicate hormonal balance, which can cause extensive health problems, especially for infants, but also for adults. What’s more:

• Soybeans are high in natural toxins, also known as antinutrients.
• Soybeans contain hemaglutinins, which cause red blood cells to clump together.
• Soy contains goitrogens, which can frequently lead to depressed thyroid function.
• Most soybeans are genetically modified, and they contain one of the highest levels of pesticide contamination of all foods.
• Soybeans are very high in phytates, which prevent the absorption of minerals.
• Nearly all soybeans are genetically modified.

Even if you don’t experience obvious symptoms, soy is highly allergenic and a subclinical sensitivity to it can lead to health problems over time.

Soy as it is traditionally consumed in Asian diets (mostly fermented soy products, like miso, natto and tempeh) is far less problematic. The fermented forms are safer, because the fermentation process creates health-promoting probiotics. In addition, soy in Asia is consumed only in small amounts (an average of 9 grams a day compared to over 20 grams a day in the United States).

If you are still consuming potentially dangerous processed soy products that are veiled in a healthy package, check out the resource I’ve compiled — Why Soy Can Damage Your Health — to get up to speed on the major soy deception that’s going on in America.

www.mercola.com

Jock Doubleday, director of the California non-profit corporation Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc., has offered $75,000 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives.

The additives would be the same as those contained in the vaccines recommended for a 6-year-old according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and the dose would be body-weight calibrated. It would include, but not be limited to:

* Thimerosal (a mercury derivative)
* Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
* Phenol (a disinfectant dye)
* Aluminum
* Benzethonium chloride (a disinfectant)
* Formaldehyde (a preservative and disinfectant)

On August 1, 2007, if no one has taken the challenge, the offer will be increased to $90,000 and will increase at a rate of $5,000 per month until someone accepts.

Vaccination Liberation Press Release

Jock Doubleday’s Vaccination Liberation

Dr. Mercola’s comments

Not surprisingly, this offer has been on the table since 2001, but no one has been willing to take that toxic chemical cocktail — except for the children who innocently go in for their routine vaccinations. With the average amount of loans for medical students now well in excess of $100,000 you might have thought some doctor would have tried to cash n on this so they could accelerate the payment of their student loans.

In addition to the vaccine additives listed above, others can include ammonium sulfate, amphotericin B, pig blood, rabbit brain, monkey kidney, betapropiolactone, tri(n)butylphosphate, and a laundry list of other chemicals. The mercury-based preservative thimerosal, in particular, is dangerous. Mercury is a poison and potent neurotoxin. Injecting it into a child, whose nervous system is rapidly developing, can have terrible consequences.

From the evidence I have reviewed and my own clinical experience it is clear that mercury is one of the reasons autism skyrocketed in the last 10 years. Autism has started to decrease now that some the vaccines have eliminated mercury, but be wary; many vaccines still do contain thimerosal, no matter what you may have heard.

And even those vaccines without thimerosal still contain an incredible number of dangerous chemicals. When the mercury is removed, it is typically replaced with another toxic additive that is frequently just as health-harming. The aluminum hydroxide used in many vaccines has been linked to symptoms associated with Parkinson’s, ALS, and Alzheimer’s. Phenols, methanol, isopropyl, and 2-pheoxyethanol are other ingredients which are corrosive or toxic.

The bottom line is, if you are a parent and are considering vaccinating your child, please read up on the potentially devastating side effects of vaccines before doing so. It could mean the difference between life and death. Avoid the fear mongering and take some time to read ALL sides of the issue, not just the propaganda conventional pediatrician will present to you. Most educated parents that I know that have done a careful analysis of the data invariably chose not to vaccinate their children.

www.mercola.com

www.wifarmfresh.org
andrew.dane@ces.uwex.edu
 715.726.7950

3930 6th St
Goodview, MN 55987
drbob@hbci.com
 507-452-4490

164 E 4th St
Winona, MN 55987
drjohn@vailchiropractic.com
 507-474-4260