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

309 Pearl St
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-784-5738
 www.violetflame.biz

The American Obesity Association reports approximately 127 million US adults are overweight, 60 million are obese, and 9 million are severely obese totaling over one-third of the adult American population. Consequently, fad diet plans and concoctions promising dramatic results have become popular. However, these magical shortcuts don’t offer long-term success, and some may even be dangerous to your health.

We have become such an instant society, with drive-thru windows, remote controls, and instant access communications including computers and cell phones, we now unrealistically expect instant results for every thing. Fad diets appeal to people because they promise quick and easy weight loss. These get-slim-quick schemes stand to make millions of dollars by keeping people confused and convincing them effective weight management is complex. The dieting fad industry takes advantage of people wanting to look and feel better, and who are willing to try anything if it helps them lose weight.

These dieting myths became popular because many of them work for a short period of time. When someone stops eating certain types of food or eats “special” combinations of foods, resulting in fewer calories being consumed, initially weight can be lost. Unfortunately, most of this weight lost is from water and lean muscle, not body fat. Understandably, most people can’t keep up with the demands of a diet strictly limiting their food choices or requiring them to eat the same foods over and over again, as with the nineties low-fat craze and the current low-carbohydrate craze.

Regrettably, people who use fad diets usually end up gaining back any weight lost and, many times, gain even more weight. Furthermore, recent research indicates this repeated “yo-yo” dieting may actually reduce one’s life span. Many people will still prefer quick fix fad diets and pills instead of making long-term changes in their eating and exercising habits.

Currently there are very few controls or regulations informing and protecting the dieting consumer from these rip-offs. Without health risks being disclosed, weight loss “success” is vaguely defined using short-term results, and weight loss “failure” is always the consumer’s fault. The few regulations existing are rarely, or, at most, loosely enforced. Suffice to say: buyers beware.

The American Academy of Family Physicians warns to steer clear of diets or diet products:

• Claiming to help you lose weight very quickly (more than 1 or 2 pounds per week). Remember, it took time to gain unwanted weight and it will take time to lose it.
• Promising you can lose weight and keep it off without giving up “fatty” foods or exercising on a regular basis. If a diet plan or product sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Basing claims on “before and after” photos.
• Offering testimonials from clients or “experts” in weight loss, science, or nutrition. Remember these people are probably being paid to advertise the diet plan or product.
• Drawing simple conclusions from complex medical research.
• Limiting your food choices and not encouraging you about balanced nutrition by eating a variety of foods.
• Requiring you to spend a lot of money on things like seminars, pills, or prepackaged meals in order for their plan to work.

These scams focusing on one element encourages people to ignore the complete picture of health and proper weight management. In conclusion, there is regrettably no magical secret key to weight loss making it easy and practically effortless to lose weight.

www.newstarget.com

Guess who sells the most organic food? Big, bad, Wal-Mart.

A new report by Scarborough Research finds that the nation’s largest retailer is also the nation’s largest organic retailer, selling the most organic foods (though Whole Foods has a higher concentration of organic merchandise) and has the most organic shoppers.

According to their report, 29 percent of organic consumers shopped at Wal-Mart in the last week. The reason appears to be linked to Wal-Mart’s prominent local market penetration. They also found that organic consumers tend to be younger, with high level incomes who spend an average of 15 percent more on their grocery bills than regular consumers.

Sources:

New York Press October 10, 2007

Scarborough Research (Press Release)

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Unfortunately, because Wal-Mart has a major history of abusive practices, their entry into the organic food market could devastate your small, local organic farmers, as well as your health.

Earlier this year, I ran stories about Wal-Mart’s intention to dominate the organic market, and it appears they’ve succeeded. They are the largest food retailer in the United States, and they’re also China’s eighth-largest trading partner – a country where organic enforcement standards are close to non-existent. Just how fresh and organic can food shipped from China be? Are you really getting what you think you’re paying for, even if the price is slightly lower than what you’d find at your local farmers market?

Wal-Mart has, time and time again, shown that they do not have your best interest at heart, as they’ve spearheaded the campaign against stricter food regulations, port inspections, and country-of-origin labeling.

To be fair, I congratulate Wal-Mart for responding to the pressure for healthier fares that we helped create. But because of their unhealthy tactics — which have been consistently demonstrated in the past, and which are so brilliantly documented in the movie expose’ Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price — I believe that falling for Wal-Mart’s cheap promises of healthy fresh foods, available regardless of the season, is a mistake.

In the pursuit of the organic food customer, Wal-Mart is contributing to the degradation of the organic food standards, based on well-founded allegations of selling mislabeled foods produced at factory farms. The USDA has identified numerous incidents of fraudulent labeling in five states, including Minnesota and Texas. Among the products Wal-Mart deceptively labeled as organic were Silk Soy Milk, Florida Crystals Natural Sugar, and various produce items.

You have to remember, just because someone slaps an organic label on a food product, that label does not somehow magically transform a junk food into a health food. Organic sugar and processed foods are every bit as pernicious to your health as conventional sugar and processed foods.

If you want to help yourself, and your country, then support your local farmers, and make sure you purchase fresh organic produce that hasn’t seen more of the world than you have. This is truly your best bet to optimize and protect your health. Also, stick with fruits and vegetables that are in season, according to your nutritional type, to get the most bang for your buck.

www.mercola.com

You may notice mold in your home by its musty smell or those unsightly spreading blotches on shower curtains, ceilings or walls. What you might not associate with mold is an emotional problem. But an article in the October issue of American Journal of Public Health makes that connection. It reports on a study that has found a link between mold in the home and an increased incidence of depression.

This association between mold and mood disorder was found by questioning six thousand adults from Germany, Italy, Switzerland and five other countries. They were asked about health and living conditions. Then their homes were visually assessed for prevalence of mold. Even when issues typically associated with depression such as overcrowding and unemployment were factored in, researchers still found more depression among those who lived in moldy homes.

In fact, the study found that among those who lived in moldy surroundings the risk for depression went up approximately 40 percent.

Lead study author Edmond D. Shenassa of Brown University School of Medicine in Rhode Island indicates that it isn’t clear whether the moldy conditions led to the development of depression, or whether people who are already depressed are less likely to combat mold in the home. He’s ready to do more work to pinpoint cause and effect.

Molds are fungi found everywhere as a natural part of the environment. To grow, mold requires water. When a home has excessive moisture these fungi can reproduce rapidly, producing millions of microscopic spores that can become airborne and cause allergies and other health problems. Vulnerable individuals, such as people with preexisting illnesses, are particularly at risk.

A study published in the September issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology reports that a dilute household bleach solution (1:16 bleach to water) effectively kills common mold. Researchers at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center say that dead mold can still precipitate allergic reactions, but they found the bleach solution neutralizes the mold allergens that caused reactions in their test subjects.

Check with the Environmental Protection Agency for information on mold prevention and clean up www.epa.gov/mold/moldresources.html .

Hain Celestial Group Inc., the maker of Celestial Seasonings teas, received a warning from U.S. regulators that some of its powdered drink mixes contain an unsafe herb.

Some Celestial Seasonings tea mixes, called Zingers to Go, contain a South American herb, stevia, that must be removed from teh pruducts, the Food and Drug Administration said in a warning letter posted Tuesday on its Web site.

Stevia is a main staple sweetener in many countries, including Japan and China, where it’s found in multiple food products. Companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Cargill Inc. have been developing products that substitute stevia for artifical sweeteners like aspartame, but the FDA currently bans any food product from containing the natural sweetener.

”While FDA has received inquiries and petitions for the use of stevia or stevia extracts in food, data and information necessary to support the safe use have been lacking,” according to the FDA letter. But on the FDA’s own website, a GRAS petition submitted to FDA in 1995 cited over 900 Stevia studies, none of which indicated any safety concerns regarding human health.

According to the American Herbal Products Association, “Stevia leaf is a natural product that has been used for at least 400 years as a food product, principally as a sweetener or other flavoring agent. None of this common usage in foods has indicated any evidence of a safety problem. There are no reports of any government agency in any of the above countries indicating any public health concern whatsoever in connection with the use of stevia in foods.”

The agency’s letter named the company’s Zingers to Go Tangerine Orange Wave Herb Tea as containing the additive. Other flavors of the Zingers to Go powdered drink mix also were labeled on the company’s Web site as containing stevia, according to the letter.

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_7140.cfm

American consumers who buy organic food regularly are still a small minority, but are growing, according to a survey conducted last month. Most people - whether organic consumers or not - consider organic foods to be safer, better for the environment and healthier. In addition, the majority of consumers surveyed said they found organic products to be generally more expensive, but most of the consumers who buy organic food said these products taste better and are worth the extra cost. “The many people who have positive attitudes to organic food suggest that the increase in consumption of organic food is likely to continue and, in a few years time, could account for a much larger share of the food market,” according to the survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive last month and released yesterday. The online poll gathered responses from 2,392 online respondents, with figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.The survey comes at a time when overall awareness of organic as a ‘healthier’ alternative to conventional food and drink products is growing . According to the latest figures from the organics industry, the market last year grew beyond expectations to represent almost a third of all retail food and beverage sales.Released earlier this year, the Organic Trade Association’s (OTA) 2007 Manufacturer Survey found that U.S. sales of organic foods totaled nearly $17 billion in 2006, exceeding last year’s forecasts of $16 billion. This marks a 22 percent increase compared to sales of $14 billion in 2005. Organic foods’ 3 percent share of total food sales is up from 1.9 percent in 2003 and approximately 2.5 percent in 2005.According to the latest findings from the Harris poll, the number of consumers who report buying organic products ‘all the time’ still remains small - only one percent of the population. However, a further six percent said they by organics ‘most of the time’, while 31 percent responded ‘occasionally’, and 33 percent ‘rarely’. Some 26 percent of respondents said they ‘never’ buy organics.

Those who buy organics (including those who only buy them occasionally and rarely) report that their organic purchases are much more likely to have increased (32 percent) than to have decreased (5 percent) over the past year - evidence that organic food consumption has been rising, according to Harris.

Almost 80 percent of all respondents believe that organic food is safer for the environment, while 76 percent said they also thought it was healthier. Out of frequent organic food buyers, these figures jump to 92 percent and 98 percent respectively.

Some 86 percent of frequent organic food buyers also think it tastes better, but only 39 percent of all adults think this way. In addition, 95 percent of people, including 88 percent of frequent organic food buyers, believe organic food is more expensive.

About a third (36 percent) of American adults, including almost all (91 percent) frequent organic food buyers, believe that ‘organic food is much better for you’ and that ‘the extra expense is worth it to have better food’. A smaller 29 percent of the public believe it is ‘a waste of money as it is no better for you than conventional foods’. Some 36 percent said they ‘are not sure’.

The poll also found that some segments of the population are more likely to buy organic food regularly, including college graduates (11 percent), Liberals (11 percent), Westerners (10 percent), Echo Boomers (those aged 18-30; 10 percent), and Gen Xers (those aged 31-42; 9 percent).

www.beyondpesticides.org

After a number of delays, the Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to take action on their version of the Farm Bill on Tuesday, October 23rd. Right now, many confidential negotiations and back room deals are underway in preparation for the Committee’s Farm Bill mark-up next week. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) announced today that his draft Farm Bill includes strong provisions to promote organic and sustainable agriculture, conservation, beginning farmers and better nutrition. However, various sources have indicated that funding levels remain low for many of these crucial programs. With the Agriculture Committee set to vote next week, and the full Senate vote as early as the week of October 29th, NOW is the time to act. Please contact your Senators and ask them to support increases in funding for conservation, organic agriculture, healthy food and beginning and minority farmer programs.

TAKE ACTION:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_7765.cfm

Another opportunity for the FDA to squash the raw milk movement.

Several prominent American dairies have joined together, forming the Raw Milk Cheesemakers Association, in the hopes of heading off regulation that might ban their products.

The new association’s aim is to come up with guidelines and protocols that would ensure the safety of domestic cheeses made from unpasteurized milk, by helping their members implement safe manufacturing practices.

But, will it be enough?

Currently, the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulations allow the production of raw-milk cheese as long as the cheese is matured for at least 60 days. Typically, aged cheeses, which are low in moisture and high in acid, do not provide the conditions that pathogens need in order to survive.

But, according to Richard Koby, an attorney for the Cheese Importers Association of America, the FDA fears the 60-day rule is based on old science that no longer holds up, and a newly created FDA working group is looking into the safety of cheeses of all kinds.

Although the Raw Milk Cheesemakers Association’s goal is to provide assurances of safety, Michael Herndon, an FDA spokesman, said, “For some raw-milk cheeses, there may be no such thing as a set of protocols that will make them safe. It may well be that one outcome for us is that some cheeses will have to be made from pasteurized milk or thermized milk.”

San Francisco Gate September 26, 2007

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Isn’t it interesting how, all of a sudden, age-old traditional practices of cheese making may be deemed unsafe for human consumption because it’s an old science?

Raw-milk cheese has been consumed in Europe for ages, and if the science of it posed a health risk, I’m sure we all would have been well aware of the problem by now.

If you’ve read my newsletter for any length of time, you know I’m a major advocate of raw milk (and raw-milk products), despite the fact that I can’t eat or drink it myself – not due to any problem with raw milk in and of itself mind you, but I’ve developed a serious sensitivity, and dairy products just don’t agree with me. But I’ve seen dramatic health improvements in many of my patients who made the switch from pasteurized to raw milk.

Your body is wise, and will give you the feedback you need to make healthy choices, so if raw milk gives you problems, avoid it. But if it makes you feel great, as it often will, then you can rest assured that it’s definitely a healthy food choice.

Pasteurized milk, on the other hand, should be avoided by virtually everyone. For more information about the problems with pasteurized milk, see my previous article Why You Don’t Want to Drink Pasteurized Milk.

Why Raw-Milk Cheese is So Good For You

In addition to the many benefits of raw milk, which I’ve previously written about in depth, raw-milk products are also a great source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is an essential fatty acid, and is right up there toward the top of the list – together with omega-3 — in terms of health potential, due to its anti-cancer and fat-fighting properties.

CLA is actually so potent a cancer fighter that animal studies show as little as 0.5 percent CLA in your diet could reduce tumors by over 50 percent. Other animal studies have shown it can reduce your risk of several types of cancer, including:

• Breast
• Colorectal
• Lung
• Skin
• Stomach

CLA has become widely popular in the form of expensive dietary supplements, but beware — As with all nutrients, it is far better to get them from food than from synthetic supplements, not to mention that CLA supplements can be outrageously expensive.

Even worse, studies show that the type of CLA used in dietary supplements has been associated with an array of negative side effects, including:

• Promoting insulin resistance
• Raising glucose levels
• Reducing HDL (good cholesterol)
• Stomach upset

Obviously, that’s NOT what you want.

Your best bet for increasing your CLA naturally is to incorporate grass-fed beef into your diet, as well as dairy products from grass-fed cows, including raw milk, raw butter and raw milk cheese. But make sure you’re getting your meat and dairy from grass-fed animals, as they have three to five times more CLA than grain-fed animals.

In addition to being a potent cancer fighter, CLA also helps your body to rid itself of fat. Not only does it appear to reduce body fat, but it does so while preserving muscle tissue. This is why it is so widely sold as a dietary supplement to body builders and dieters alike, but, as I mentioned above, the only safe way to increase CLA in your diet is from grass-fed animal products — not from supplements.

Other studies suggest that CLA also:

• Increases metabolic rate
• Lowers cholesterol and triglycerides
• Lowers insulin resistance
• Reduces food-induced allergic reactions
• Enhances your immune system

Raw-milk cheese is obviously a vital health food that we should all do our best to keep legally on the market.

www.mercola.com

Acting on behalf of organic food consumers in 27 states, class action lawsuits are being filed this week in U.S. federal courts in St. Louis and Denver, against one of the nation’s largest organic dairies. The suits charge Aurora Dairy Corporation, based in Boulder, Colorado, with allegations of consumer fraud, negligence, and unjust enrichment concerning the sale of organic milk by the company. This past April, Aurora officials received a notice from the USDA detailing multiple and “willful” violations of federal organic law that were found by federal investigators, specifically not providing mandatory pasture access and bringing non-organic cows onto their massive feedlots. Unfortunately the USDA gave Aurora what the OCA considers a “slap on the wrist,” rather than taking away the corporation’s USDA Organic certification.

Commenting on this week’s class action lawsuit, Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the OCA stated: “If the USDA refuses to properly enforce organic standards, then organic consumers have no choice but to act as their own enforcement body, using the courts to punish those corporations, like Aurora, that put profits ahead of organic integrity.” Two weeks ago Aurora threatened to sue the OCA, Cornucopia Institute, and the Center for Food Safety if we didn’t back off. Now it looks like Aurora will have to face the consequences of their “willful violations” of organic standards in court. OCA would like to thank the hundreds of organic consumers across the country who have joined in on this class action lawsuit. We would like to also thank the several hundred OCA network supporters who have sent us over the past two weeks more than $15,000 to carry on this important legal battle. But now we need your help more than ever. If you can afford to help us fight this David versus Goliath battle over organic integrity, please send us a donation now.

www.organicconsumers.org

The U.S. government is once again working closely with powerful corporations to knowingly deliver a nutritionally deficient food supply to the American people. This most recent example concerns the new rules by the Almond Board of California (ABC) and backed by the USDA to mandate the pasteurization of all commercially-grown almonds in California with substances that include highly toxic propylene oxide (PPO). As reported by the Health Freedom Foundation, propylene oxide is so toxic that it was “…banned by both the National Hot Rod and American Motorcycle Racing Associations, where it had been used as a fuel before being deemed too dangerous.”

NewsTarget has reported on this story for several months, urging consumers to help stop the ruling from going into place, but corporations won the initial round. Since September 1st, all the almonds commercially grown in California have been pasteurized or sanitized through either heat treatments or toxic chemical treatments.

Both the Organic Consumers Association (www.OrganicConsumers.org) and the Cornucopia Institute (www.Cornucopia.org) have strongly opposed this almond pasteurization requirement. Today, the Health Freedom Foundation (www.HealthFreedom.net) announced a grassroots consumer action campaign to petition the USDA to suspend these almond pasteurization rules for 180 days. NewsTarget supports this petition and urges all American consumers to support this 180-day suspension of the killing of California almonds by clicking HERE to send an online message to your legislative representatives in Washington.

NewsTarget has published a CounterThink cartoon on this subject called The Killing of California Almonds. Feel free to share the cartoon or post it on your website (along with a link back to NewsTarget).

Today NewsTarget has also posted an exclusive video interview on the subject of almond pasteurization fraud. In the video, we interview Seth Leaf, co-founder of LivingNutz (www.LivingNutz.com), a small manufacturer of hand-made raw, sprouted nut products that has been caught up in the chaos of this bewildering decision by the Almond Board of California. Click here to view this video interview on YouTube.

Fraudulent marketing, illegal labeling

The Almond Board of California is right now conspiring with the USDA to allow the fraudulent labeling of almonds that are being sold to consumers. How? Pasteurized, fumigated or cooked almonds will be openly labeled as “raw” almonds. As you can see from previous stories published by NewsTarget on this issue, the Almond Board of California recognizes no substantial difference between cooked and raw almonds, and thus does not see any need to distinguish between them on product packaging.

I believe this position is an example of outright consumer marketing fraud designed to misinform consumers and protect the sales of pasteurized almonds by intentionally mislabeling them as “raw.” No reasonable person would dare say that cooked eggs are the same as raw eggs, or that cooked lettuce is the same as raw, fresh lettuce, but somehow the Almond Board of California continues to pretend that cooked almonds are virtually identical to raw almonds. The advocating of this position is, in my opinion, a violation of truth in labeling laws and nothing short of a corporate-masterminded conspiracy to intentionally hoodwink consumers by selling them an inferior (cooked) product that is knowingly mislabeled.

Raw almonds, for the record, are vastly superior to cooked almonds in terms of nutrition. They contain more anti-cancer phytonutrients, more usable protein and healthier fats. Once these elements are exposed to high temperatures (through pasteurization or other methods), these nutritional qualities are irreversibly degraded, rendering the almond deficient in the nutrients it had when it was first harvested. This degradation of health-enhancing nutrients has the result of contributing to nutritional deficiencies and imbalances in North American consumers — people who are already in a state of chronic nutritional deficiency due to the consumption of other processed foods.

It also sets a precedent for the intentional mislabeling of food products being purchased by North American consumers. The FDA is already on record stating that irradiated foods should not be truthfully labeled as such since the label might “confuse” and “misinform” consumers (who are apparently too stupid to understand what irradiation really means, the FDA believes). Now, with the USDA backing this fraudulent labeling decision by the Almond Board of California, we have two dominant government agencies (the FDA and USDA) who are both in favor of the blatant mislabeling of food products in order to keep consumers ignorant of how their foods are really being processed and degraded.

Two issues need to be reversed

There are really two important issues here that need to be reversed in order for the almond industry to regain any real credibility with consumers:

1) The ruling requiring the mandatory pasteurization or fumigation of all almonds needs to be rescinded. Raw almonds represent no legitimate health risk whatsoever to consumers. (There’s far more e.coli in meat products, and you don’t see the U.S. government banning raw meat, do you?)

2) The labeling of pasteurized almonds as “raw” needs to be stopped. This is fraudulent, misleading labeling and it has the effect of causing consumers to realize they cannot trust ANY almonds, regardless of what the package says. After all, if pasteurized is labeled as “raw” then what does “organic” mean on the package? What does anything mean? The words on the package apparently have no meaning at all; at least not one that regular people would understand and agree to. This will ultimately lead to devastating financial losses among U.S. almond growers. In my interview with Seth Leaf, for example, we learn that Seth’s company, Living Nutz (www.LivingNutz.com), now has to purchase raw almonds from Spain!

The Almond Board of California has, in my opinion, lost its marbles. Can we interject some sanity into this issue and pressure the ABC and USDA to restore integrity to the U.S. almond industry? We’ll know soon enough. In the mean time, you can play an important role in these three ways:

Action items

1) Contact your representatives in Washington and call, write or fax them a letter telling them strongly oppose this fraudulent action by the ABC and USDA.

2) Share the cartoon: The Killing of California Almonds.

3) Share the video interview: Seth Leaf speaks out about pasteurized “raw” almonds.

Thank you for your effort. Together, we have a legitimate shot at bringing the almond industry back to its senses and restoring truly raw almonds to the marketplace. And if this doesn’t fly, NewsTarget will be announcing a global boycott of almonds grown in the United States (and asking you to join along…)

www.newstarget.com