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

U.S. health and safety officials have found yet another brilliant way to distract the public from realizing just how dangerous U.S.-made food and drug products are: Blame China! Lately, we’ve seen China blamed for everything from toxic toothpaste, deadly dog food, contaminated ginger and now lead-based paints in Mattel toys.

Of course, all the accusations are true. China’s food and herbal products are so routinely contaminated with pesticides and heavy metals that high-quality supplement formulators in the United States refuse to buy products from China anymore. But the really clever part in all this is that blaming China prevents people from paying attention to the dangerous ingredients openly allowed in the U.S. food supply by the FDA.

Specifically, the FDA currently allows known cancer-causing chemicals to be widely used in both foods and drugs. Sodium nitrite, for example, has been irrefutably shown to cause pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, leukemia and brain tumors in children, and yet the FDA looks the other way while processed meat manufacturers continue to add sodium nitrite to meat products sold throughout the country.

What about all the children eating hot dogs and getting brain tumors from the highly carcinogenic nitrosamines created by eating such foods? No problem: Blame China! How about all the infants suffering birth defects from the nutritional deficiencies caused by their mothers chowing down refined grains, hydrogenated oils and nutrient-depleted procesed foods? No problem: Blame China! If you’re a U.S. regulatory body and you’re looking for an easy way out of owning up to actual responsibility, just play the China card. Invoke the blame game!

Advocating the chemical intoxication of the American people

The FDA also allows all kinds of toxic chemicals to be used in over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Everything from cough syrups to pain pills seems to be openly contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals ranging from synthetic sweeteners to petrochemical-derived coloring chemicals. You can hardly pick up an over-the-counter medication at a convenience store without seeing some scary chemical on the ingredients list.

The USDA, meanwhile, openly allows U.S. farmers to inject cattle with hormones and antibiotics that are banned in most other countries, and the agency even has an open policy of allowing U.S. cattle to be fed chicken poop, roadkill, euthanized pets, and until recently, brain and spinal fluids from other dead, diseased cows. So what happens when consumers eating this stuff suffer bizarre neurological disorders like the human form of mad cow disease? Blame China!

In fact, the U.S. food supply is a toxic brew of synthetic chemicals and artificially modified molecules that are extremely harmful to human health. The list of such ingredients that should be banned from the food supply — but won’t be — include MSG, processed sodium, refined white sugar, refined white flour, aspartame, saccharin, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, chemical preservatives, color fixer chemicals and homogenized dairy fats (which cause heart disease). By screaming “China!” to the U.S. press and pointing the finger at dangerous Chinese-made products, the Food and Drug Administration diverts scrutiny from its own lousy lack of meaningful food safety enforcement with U.S. manufacturers.

The silent treatment

U.S. authorities, of course, remain silent about the deadly chemicals openly allowed in the U.S. food supply. Except for a few radical nutritionists like myself and other independent writers, practially nobody is warning the U.S. public over the dangers of sodium nitrite, MSG, aspartame and fluoride. It took years just to get consensus on the fact that trans fatty acids are dangerous to health, and even then, the FDA still refuses to ban them from the food supply, kow-towing to the interests of giant food corporations who insist they need hydrogenated oils to ensure longer shelf life for their food products (which guantees more profits).

There is currently no effort underway to ban known cancer-causing chemicals from the food supply, even when the science is very clear about the damage such chemicals are causing to the U.S. public. Sodium nitrite is a clear example of a toxic ingredient that has no real use other than turning dead meats a pretty pink color, and yet neither the FDA nor USDA have taken any interest in attempting to ban this ingredient from foods.

So the next time someone mentions to you how dangerous China’s food products are, just ask them these simple questions:

1. Why does the FDA allow leukemia-causing chemicals to be added to hot dogs that are consumed by children? (Sodium nitrite)
2. Why does the FDA allows nerve-damaging monosodium glutamate chemicals (and derivatives) to be used in baby food?
3. Why does the Girl Scouts continue to make its famous cookies with partially-hydrogenated oils known to contribute to essential fatty acid deficiencies in infants?
4. Why is aspartame still allowed in the food supply at all? (An excotitoxin)
5. Why is mercury still tolerated in American dental work (and, in fact, still pushed by the American Dental Association!) when mercury ingestion is so dangerous to human health?
6. Why do vaccination policies still allow the mass injection of babies with methyl mercury, which has been clearly linked to autism and autoimmune disorders?
7. Why are extremely toxic, cancer-causing chemicals openly allowed to be used in skin care products, perfumes and personal care formulas sold throughout America?
8. Why are popular laundry products still allowed to be sold in the U.S. when they contain numerous cancer-causing chemicals that get embedded in the fibers of clothing and are easily absorbed through the skin?
9. Why do U.S. health authorities not merely tolerate, but actually encourage the mass drugging of schoolchildren with amphetamine drugs? (Ritalin, Adderall, etc.)

The answer, of course, is: Blame China! All our health problems are obviously China’s fault, and anyone who suggests the U.S. is to blame for its own diseased population is obviously unpatriotic.

www.newstarget.com

Though all EDEN organic food is grown, handled, processed, and certified in a way that meets and exceeds the requirements for using the ‘USDA Organic’ seal, Eden Foods chooses not to use this seal on its product labels or marketing materials.

Many reasonably ask how Eden came to this decision. The short answer is, this seal does not approach Eden’s high standards for organic, in practice or in spirit.

Years before the implementation of the National Organic Program (USDA’s NOP) in October of 2002, Eden got word in 1992 that a national standard for organic was underway. In theory it seemed like a good idea, but early on we had serious concerns.

Petitioning the NOP several times in the rule drafting process, Eden asked that the new national organic standards be a strong minimum standard, allowing growers and companies to certify to a higher standard. The answer was an adamant No: the USDA intended to set one minimum organic standard, it would not allow higher standards to be certified, and total control would lie with USDA.

In the first draft released to the public, the USDA announced its intention to allow food grown in city and industrial sewage sludge, genetically engineered food, and irradiated food to be certified organic. This became infamously known as the ‘Big Three.’ As deafening public outcry caused the USDA to ‘cave,’ Eden issued a press release that the struggle to save organic standards was still very much alive. We recognized the ‘Big Three’ as a common negotiating tactic: Make an offer that is so ridiculously unacceptable that all future offers would seem good by comparison.

Our concerns have been realized. Under USDA it has become cheaper and easier for manufacturers to market ‘organic’ food that is not organic by any reasonable definition.

The most serious degradation of national organic standards occurred in October 2005. In a back room deal the Organic Trade Association lobbied Congress to legalize the adulteration of organic food with basically any toxic additive a manufacturer may want to use, including substances that do not need to appear on ingredient panels. More than 400,000 consumers contacted their government representatives asking them not to weaken organic standards in such a way, but agribusiness influences prevailed.

As a result, food bearing the ‘USDA Organic’ seal no longer needs to be natural food.

As a company that has worked for decades alongside salt-of-the-earth organic family farmers to grow and make food by the highest possible organic standards, we cannot in good conscience add a symbol to this food that essentially cheapens it.

We can however promise that we will continue to make the best, authentically organic food, grown on family farms we know and trust, handled and processed in a way that does not compromise its integrity.

www.edenfoods.com

The Primary Balance

The Primary Balance is the concept that each of us has the potential to live a healthy, positive and enriching life. That we are created in physical, emotional and spiritual balance and have the ability to achieve unlimited success and happiness.

The goal is to work with you to find your balance and reach your maximum potential using Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Quantum Healing EFT and performance coaching. To give you the tools to develop your own path.

Gayle Nielsen is a Certified Master Hypnotherapist through NATH (National Association of Transpersonal Hypnotherapists), Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Hypnotherapy with American Holistic University, a Kundalini Reiki Master and ordained minister with The Living Spirit Foundation. She is a practitioner of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and of Quantum Touch as well as a martial artist and instructor for over 20 years. Gayle also has career experience as a Six Sigma corporate trainer with a former Fortune 100 company.

Her certification in Past Life Regression and Life Between Lives Therapy will assist you in your personal, spiritual exploration and in reaching a higher level of consciousness. Maybe you just want to satisfy your curiosity about a life path or find out how to improve your relationships with others.

Whether it’s smoking, weight loss, sports attainment, insomnia, phobias or anxieties, spiritual exploration or curiosity, she will work with you to eliminate the obstacles to achieving your goals.

Transpersonal Hypnotherapy

The term “transpersonal”, as used in Transpersonal Hypnotherapy, may be defined as “experiences in which consciousness transcends the boundaries of the personality (and maybe space and time)”. The Transpersonal Hypnotherapist seeks the integration of body, mind and spirit with the goal of expanding self-awareness.

Relaxation Classes

A typical class begins with some gentle Qigong movements and yoga stretches to get energy flowing and begin the relaxation mindset. Then we typically move into some physical stress reduction techniques and progressive relaxation along with breathing patterns. Guided visualizations and brief meditations are taught as well as auto-hypnosis (self-hypnosis).

You are given many tools with which to reduce or eliminate stress in your life - you choose the ones that work for you.

Don’t hesitate to call for more information or to schedule your appointment today!

The Primary Balance
124 South Leonard
West Salem, WI 54667
608-386-7403
www.theprimarybalance.com
 Gayle@theprimarybalance.com

It’s a great marketing gimmick: A bottle of water with a clean, blue label showing images of snow-capped mountains and the claim, “Pure water, perfect taste.” That’s the image created by Pepsico’s Aquafina brand of water, and many consumers leap to the incorrect conclusion that Aquafina is sourced from mountain spring water.

In reality, Aquafina comes from tap water. Yes, the same water you get when you turn on your kitchen faucet. Of course, Aquafina is filtered, purified and perhaps even enhanced with trace amounts of added minerals, but it’s certainly not mountain spring water. It’s just processed tap water — the same stuff that fills your toilet bowl when you flush.

Both the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and the FDA believe there’s really no need to require bottled water manufacturers to admit their products come from tap water. No surprise there — both these organizations routinely act to protect the interests of powerful corporations, and when it comes to bottled water, the biggest companies are often those sourcing the lowest quality water (such as tap water).

This idea that consumers should not be informed their high-priced bottled water is really just filtered tap water is consistent with the aims of food, drug and beverage corporations, who almost universally agree that consumers should be given less information, not more, about the products they’re swallowing. Over the last several decades, corporations have vigorously opposed truth in labeling laws and regulations, including those requiring the labeling of trans fatty acids, sodium content and even ingredients lists! (If the food corporations had their way, all ingredients would be considered “proprietary formulas” and not listed on the label at all.)

This bottled water issue brings to light the apparent deceptive practices of some of the largest suppliers of bottled water products. By avoiding the honest labeling of the source of their water while relying on snow-capped mountain imagery, these companies quietly mislead consumers into thinking their water products are from a pristine, natural source such as a mountain spring.

CAI pressures PepsiCo to tell the truth

PepsiCo only agreed to tell the truth on their bottled water labels after being pressured by Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit organization that helps protect consumers from corporate abuse. See their website at http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org

CAI rallied consumers from around the world to complain to PepsiCo about the current labeling of Aquafina, and thousands of consumers slammed PepsiCo’s phone lines so hard that the company was forced to shut down call center operations. CAI told NewsTarget that within 30 minutes after the call-to-action announcement went live, PepsiCo’s consumer phone lines were no longer being answered and would not allow callers to leave voice mails. Pepsi executives reportedly held an emergency meeting and made a decision to add the phrase, “Public water source” to Aquafina labels.

Reluctantly admitting a small part of the truth

Even then, the phrase “public water source” isn’t very descriptive. To some people, the phrase simply implies that Aquafina is itself a public water source. It’s not the same as admitting, “Aquafina comes from tap water,” which would be a far more honest way to label the product. But PepsiCo seems to have no interest in advertising the source of their Aquafina product, and my guess is that the “public water source” text on the label will be really small and difficult to read. It’s much like the labeling of side effects of prescription drugs: They bury the bad news somewhere that most consumers won’t ever look.

Aquafina is currently the top-selling bottled water brand in the United States. According to CAI, 4 out of 5 consumers now drink bottled water, and 1 out of 5 drink it as their sole water source! (Gee, that’s a lot of plastic going to landfill, too…)

The bottles used to package bottled water are almost always made from plastics containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a carcinogenic chemical that often leaches into the water and gets swallowed by consumers. Click here to read our articles on BPA, a chemical widely believed to contribute to certain cancers. This contamination factor, however, is true for all products stored in plastic bottles, not merely water. Sports drinks, sodas, fruit drinks and even “healthy” smoothie drinks packaged in plastic all share a common risk of BPA contamination.

Bottled water vs. public water infrastructure

The widespread shift towards bottled water products is increasingly causing consumers to lose faith in public water infrastructure, which ultimately leads to public reluctance to support investment in public water supplies. This concerns many cities who are worried that a lack of public support will cause funding for water infrastructure to erode.

These people tend to describe treated municipal water as remarkably pristine and safe for human consumption. In my opinion, however, tap water should never be swallowed without filtering it, since tap water contains scary levels of toxic chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride, a dangerous water additive chemical often contaminated with arsenic. (Click here to learn the truth about water fluoridation.)

So I wouldn’t drink from the public water supply in the first place, but neither do I rely on bottled water. I use a water filtration system to clean tap water before I drink it. (Coincidentally, this is similar to what PepsiCo does when creating Aquafina water, except PepsiCo uses plastic bottles, where I only drink out of glass or stainless steel.)

You can get clean public water in places like Hawaii, Oregon and anywhere that’s close to the mountains, but most folks in first world nations are getting tap water that’s far from pristine. The public water infrastructure in the U.S. may be among the best in the world, but that’s not saying much. I won’t even shower in U.S. public water without using a chlorine filter on my shower head. (Recommended brand: Aquasana at http://www.aquasana.com )

www.newstarget.com

Farm workers and advocate groups, including Beyond Pesticides, filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the continued use of a deadly pesticide called chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos is a highly neurotoxic insecticide developed from World War II-era nerve gas. Exposure can cause dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, numbness in the limbs, loss of intellectual functioning and death.

“This pesticide puts thousands of workers at risk of serious illness every year,” said Erik Nicholson of the United Farm Workers. “It is inexcusable for the EPA to allow the use a pesticide they know to be damaging to people, especially children.”

Luis Medellin, a Lindsay, California resident, suffered first hand exposure to chlorpyrifos. “I got sick, and my mother and younger sisters started throwing up, all this in our own home. It was a terrible feeling, the smell coming in through our air conditioner,” he said. “The government must not allow this dangerous chemical to be sprayed around our schools and communities.”

Chlorpyrifos is used widely on corn, orchard, and vegetable row crops all over the country. Also know as Lorsban, it is responsible for a substantial number of worker poisonings each year and has been found to drift into rural schoolyards and homes. In 2001, an EPA report found that chlorpyrifos poses risks to the health of workers and to the environment. Spraying chlorpyrifos on fields from farm vehicles with open cabs causes “risks of concern” to workers, yet EPA does not require enclosed cabs to protect farmworkers. Workers who enter sprayed fields are also exposed to unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos.

“It’s wrong for EPA to allow continued uses of chlorpyrifos that exposes farm workers and their children to unacceptable risks of pesticide poisonings,” said Patti Goldman, an attorney for Earthjustice based in Oakland.

The 2001 EPA report identified serious risks for children who are exposed to chlorpyrifos through drift onto schoolyards and outdoor play areas as well as take-home residues on their farmworker parents’ clothing and skin. It called for additional study of the risks to children; however, it finalized its chlorpyrifos authorization in 2006 without taking any further action to protect them.

“Recognizing the risks to children, EPA banned most home and garden uses of chlorpyrifos. But by allowing continued use in agriculture, EPA failed to protect farm worker children or children living in rural areas,” said Shelley Davis, attorney for Farmworker Justice in Washington, D.C.“With safer alternatives already in widespread use, the EPA has betrayed the trust of the men, women, and children whose health it is supposed to protect,” she said.

“Poisonings due to accidents, drift, and airborne contamination remain a serious hazard to children in rural and agricultural settings,” said Dr. Routt Reigart, Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston who has treated many chlorpyrifos poisonings. “Chlorpyrifos is a potent neurotoxicant with both acute and chronic effects on children and their developing nervous systems. To protect children it is important to remove this hazard from their environments,” he concluded.

From 1987 to 1998, between 21 and 24 million pounds of chlorpyrifos were applied to more than eight million acres of crops in the US. It is one of the most heavily used insecticides in American agriculture, even though it was phased out of residential use in 2005 primarily because of the hazard it presents to children.

www.beyondpesticides.org