Fast Food Addiction=Sad Food Choices

I could only shake my head in astonishment at what I was hearing! I  had to keep remembering to close my mouth as I was sitting there with it just hanging open in disbelief! Here is an example of the food mentality all too common today with children.

A woman and her two adopted children:  she’s in her early 60′s, they are in their early teens. All are (no surprise) overweight, one of the girls who is quite short, probably under 5 feet, is well over 100 pounds over weight.  The other is a bit taller and probably close to 75 pounds heavier than she should be.

I listened in horror at this story.  Because their food is charged to a credit card, last month the food expenses were about $1800.00.  Four hundred dollars of that was spend at McDonald’s.  Some days they eat there 2 or 3 times a day. Their other favorites are Burger King, Pizza Hut and Wendy’s.  The girls eat no vegetables; the Mom doesn’t cook because she’s too busy.  Their beverage of choice is sweetened ice tea.  They buy 5 pounds of sugar a week for the tea.  Yes — you read correctly:  five POUNDS. With the exception of a Sunday dinner, there don’t seem to be any other homemade meals that are served.

The sad thing is they don’t seem to care.  THIS is food to them! They laughed at the whole thing;  howled as they told the story! The long-term consequences of this is absolutely frightening!  The Mom is compounding her medical problems by eating this diet.  The girls are surely headed (if not already) for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and other ailments cause by fast food or a diet lacking in essential vitamins and minerals. They get no exercise at all.

Neither of the girls knows how to cook even a simple meal.  They aren’t inclined to learn, either.  Why should they… when McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King are so readily available?

Part of this is from advertising, part from convenience.  Mickey D’s (and others) with their campaigns and never ending product offerings have hoodwinked these woman, and millions like them. They’re TOLD it’s good food.  They’re promised that their fast food has gotten healthier, but HOW can this be healthy when the meat comes from animals treated with antibiotics, growth hormones, fed offal from dead chickens and processed in a way that could essentially make them sick from fecal contamination? Then there are the additives and chemicals used to make the buns, flavor the meat, breading and make up the ‘ice cream’ and flavor the shakes.  What about the pesticides that the cows and chickens have eaten on their grain or are in the vegetables (what little there are) on the sandwiches.  All ingredients in these meals undoubtedly come from fields treated with pesticides and herbicides such as Round-Up and are probably all made from GMO crops!

I later told the Mom and IF… for ONE MONTH… they ate real food, no fast food and used a sweetener such as stevia for their tea… that they all would lose weight, probably without exercising. Their calorie intake as it is right now must be thousands of calories a day…, never mind the salt, sugar and fat consumption! Of course, they’d have to be willing to TRY new food such as eggs, fruits, breads, grains, beans, salads and consume far less meat and processed food.  Their tastes at present are addicted to fast food and it’s a sad testimony.

Is it too much to make a simple breakfast between the three of them in the morning?  How difficult would it be, with all of them participating every evening, to make a home-cooked meal?  Is it so impossible to cook something beforehand, freeze it and have it on a night when they might be in a hurry to be elsewhere?

I still say it:  required reading in schools should be “Fast Food Nation”  by Eric Schlosser and Morton Spurlock’s “Don’t Eat This Book-The Supersizing of America”.  Required movies should be “Fresh, The Movie” and “Food, Inc”

Kids like these are heading toward health problems and an early death. Their generation is the first one that studies show,  that may not outlive their parents.  Already rampant are health issues never seen before in their age group.  These two girls are very likely to have a major health event such as a stroke, cancer of some kind or heart attack by their 40′s or 50′s.

It’s their food choices, bite at a time, that will doom them!

DIET Green Tea ?

Isn’t GREEN TEA a low calorie drink ANYWAY?  Why in God’s name does there have to be Lipton DIET Green Tea?

An end-cap in a local grocery store touted Lipton ‘Sparkling” Green Tea and “Diet” Green Tea.

I almost fell over!

What IS wrong with the corporate mentality that comes up with this garbage that is supposed to pass as ‘healthy’ food? They’ve bastardized TEA into a chemical-laden beverage with absolutely no nutritional value; not that it has any in the first place!

The word ‘diet’ slithered its way into mainstream food back in the 60′s. To satisfy the American public’s desire for ‘healthy’ foods, they scientifically engineer this crap. With one hand in the ‘low fat’ potato chip bag and the other clutching an artificially processed drink, we Americans are chugging it down our three-chinned gullets like waters from the Fountain of Youth!  IF YOU MAKE IT – and LABEL IT ‘DIET’… ‘HEALTHY’ or  ‘NATURAL’ – THEY WILL EAT IT!

There is not ONE PERSON on this earth that will convince me that all the artificial crap in food ISN’T the cause of cancer and obesity.  Our bodies can’t figure out how to metabolize this junk.

Add to this that all of the meat, milk (and dairy products)  and eggs contain growth hormones – and that most of the people in this country…. the FATTEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD – never think what that animal was pumped full of during its miserable life on the stinking feed lot or in a putrid, overcrowded cage!

DO YOU EVER READ LABELS ON FOOD BEFORE YOU BUY IT?

If you can’t pronounce it, or don’t know WHAT it is – don’t eat it!

Cancer Evidence: Exposure to Pesticides

Evidence linking specific cancers with human exposure to agents in the agricultural environment

Bladder Suspected: PAHs Breast Suspected: 2,4-D, chlordane, DDT/DDE, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, malathion, organic solvents, PAHs, triazine herbicides, farm wives living/presence near pesticide applied crops

Brain and other central nervous system Suspected: N-nitroso compounds (fertilizers), parental occupation or occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Colorectal Suspected: alachlor, aldicarb, aldrin, chlorpyrifos, chlordane, dicamba, dieldrin, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Hodgkin’s Disease Suspected: chlorophenols, DDT/DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxy herbicides, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, solvents

Kidney Suspected: N-nitroso compounds (fertilizers), parental occupation/occupation associated with pesticide exposure, solvents

Leukemia Suspected: aldrin, carbon disulfide, chlordane, DDT/DDE, dieldrin, ethylene dibromide, heptachlor, lindane, mancozeb, methyl bromide, parental occupation/occupation associated with pesticide exposure, phosphine, simazine, toxaphene

Lung Strong: air pollution, arsenic and arsenic compounds, diesel exhaust, wood dust Suspected: carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, DDT/DDE, diazinon, dicamba, dieldrin, metolachlor, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, pendimethalin, phenoxyherbicides and/or dioxin contaminants

Multiple myeloma Suspected: DDT/DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides/chlorophenols, glyphosate, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, solvents

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Strong: dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides/chlorophenols Suspected: 2,4-D, carbamate, carbaryl, chlorophenols, dicamba, ethylene dibromide, glyphosate, hexachlorocyclohexane/lindane, MCPA, mecoprop, methyl bromide, organochlorine pesticides, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, phosphine, solvents

Pancreatic Suspected: DDT/DDE, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Prostate Suspected: butylate, chlordane, chlorpyrifos, coumaphos, cyanazine, DDT/ DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides, fonofos, hexachlorobenzene, methyl bromide, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, permethrin, phorate

Ovarian Suspected: atrazine, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Soft-tissue sarcoma Suspected: chlorophenols, DDT/DDE, dioxin-contaminated phenoxyherbicides, occupation associated with pesticide exposure

Skin Strong: arsenic and arsenic compounds, PAHs Suspected: DDT/DDE, occupation associated with pesticide exposure Stomach Suspected: atrazine, agricultural work in the citrus industry, chlordane, occupation associated with pesticide exposure, propargite, and trifluralin

Testicular Suspected: occupation associated with pesticide exposure

ATRAZINE = Cancer and Poison

Last night I watched a PBS documentary on “Nature” called “Frogs: The Thin Green Line”. These amphibians survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and are truly remarkable.

A troubling aspect is that frogs are disappearing worldwide. A devastating fungus, Chytrid (Kit-rid) is decimating the numbers of frogs in every corner of the world. In jungles of South America, to the Far East, here in America, silence reigns where before the the song of these creatures filled the air. Scientists are in a race to discover the cause and how to prevent its spread. They’ve even taken some from the wild, replicating as best they can their natural habitat, to ensure their survival.

Another disturbing fact is that frogs and toads from suburban areas have been found to have increasing instances of genetic mutations. Frogs taken from drainage ponds and catch basins where water has flowed from lawns into storm drains possess a frighteningly high rate of abnormalities. Frogs with only front limbs, or with 3 back legs, no back legs and a long tail: these are results of exposure to lawn chemicals, most notably – ATRAZINE. These frogs were found to have THREE TO FOUR TIMES the allowable limit set by the EPA for exposure to ATRAZINE, the most common ingredient in lawn care chemicals.

This chemical is spread on lawns, used on farms all over the world.  The manufacturer, Syngenta, dismisses the fact that this is a dangerous chemical, despite it’s link to a myriad of cancers and birth defects. It has been banned in European countries, which are far, far ahead of the United States regarding the use of toxins.

Read for yourself. Do your own research on the subject, but most of all – do your part. If you own a home, please, for the sake of your children, your pets, neighbors and our Earth – start today to eliminate toxins from your life. Stop using pesticides! This movement is growing and cannot grow fast enough!

It is up to YOU to let your legislators and government officials know how you feel on this.

It is up to ALL of us!

L-O-V-E Those ARTIFICIAL SWEETNERS? Things You Should Know!

What does DDT, FORMALDEHYDE, CHLORINE and a host of other chemicals have in common with artificial sweeteners?

Plenty!

How about the fact that Splenda more closely resembles the DDT molecule and that CHLORINE molecules are added to make the sweetener. The folks who make it will tell you that it’s made from sugar.  Well, it IS, initially, but the chemical changes that make it into SUCRALOSE  – which is a chemical formation and NOT real sugar is NOT FOUND IN NATURE!  Don’t be fooled by the name.  Additionally, your body does not have the ability to metabolize this chemical because it is artificial!  It is a CHLOROCARBON,  which causes shrinkage in the thymus, calcification in the kidneys.  If you get kidney pain after using this product, STOP using it at once. Nice, huh? It is also a fat soluble substance and remains in the body for a long time.

Did you know that scientists were creating an INSECTICIDE when Splenda was ‘discovered?’

People gobble Splenda ridden products and think nothing of it.  THIS IS NOT FOOD YOU ARE EATING - it is ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS something your body CANNOT PROCESS.

For more history of artificial sweeteners read this.

Personal note:

I ran the gamut of artificial sweetener use.  Grandma was into healthy eating and – we didn’t know any better then – she used saccarine.  I used that till the 70′s.  Then I used Sweet-N-Low… but…  when I started getting severe pain in my kidneys after using it, I started to wonder.  A friend who was an editor, and was currently on the health editing desk – alerted me to the dangers of S&L waaaay back then.  I stopped using ALL artificial sweeteners and have not had any pain since then.

Moms-to-be:  Please, PLEASE do NOT eat foods with artificial sweeteners.  Do not think you are doing your baby a favor by trying to ‘diet’ while you are pregnant.  EAT REAL FOOD – not ‘plastic, poison, artificial’  food!

For God’s sake (your BABY’S sake – really)  don’t drink soda, either.  That is one of the MOST poisonious things you can ingest and your baby is getting it, too.

Find out what IN your food, folks – because it probably is making you sick!

WHY We’re So Messed Up = CHEMICALS

Thank you MONSANTO!  Thank you ORTHO!  Thank you to ALL those wonderful scientists who  thought they were helping this world when some of this stuff was invented.

OK…, OK…, I know about the miracle of plastics and synthetic compounds  and how they have revolutionized life on this planet.

Let’s also remember that as we are finding out, ‘fake’ isn’t better.  Synthetic isn’t necessarily better.  Why?  Because it’s killing us.

Modern science is gathering evidence that artificial ingredients are making us sick.  Decades have passed since this stuff was first introduced into our food.  Look at us now?  We’re fat and sick… some of us are dying from cancer BECAUSE of the stuff.

Our bodies cannot metabolize those fake ingredients.  They cause all sorts of havoc in our bodies as they try to deal with them.  The result:  cancer, hormonal disruptions, illness, allergies and mysterious diseases.

Pesticides are endocrine disruptors, carcinogenic and weaken the immune system.  They are also NEUROTOXINS.  How do you think they kill bugs?  The chemical makes their systems shut down – BANG !  Little by little, with enough exposure, humans suffer a different reaction.  These insidious compounds lodge in fat cells and organs and sit there for decades.  By then – there may be other factors, coupled with the weakened immune system and the whole body goes nuts and says “I GIVE UP!”  Result:  cancer.

I heard a story of a woman who worked at a company where she was in contact chemicals on a regular basis.  I don’t know what the extent OF the exposure was; direct, indirect, exposure to fumes,  or what chemical.  I do know that her hair started falling out, she had terrible pain and many other symptoms.  Doctor after doctor dismissed her as a hypochondriac because their standard blood & urine tests revealed nothing.

Finally she went to a doctor who was inquisitive enough to run some different tests which evidenced that this poor woman was slowly being poisoned!

This is how insidious these things can be.  If you or someone you know has been diagnosed as a hypochondriac, tell them to get a different doctor who will do some extensive tests for poisonings.

It could save their life!

WAKE UP, People!

I am AMAZED every time I go to the grocery store or (infrequently) out to eat.  I watch what others are buying on the grocery line and eating in restaurants.  It’s SCARY !

Yo —-  300 pound woman over there on the checkout line;  her groceries consist of – CASES of DIET soda (yeah.., like that’s gonna make a difference!) bags of chips, frozen this, frozen that, canned goods, ‘flavored’ coffee and (oh gag…) the flavored cream stuff for coffee. Then she’s got SPLENDA, which she may as well be injecting friggin’ anti freeze or something because that stuff is POISON… literally!  She’s trying to get SKINNY eating this CRAP?????

The woman with the kids:  I want to smack the shit out of her for buying  garbage to feed them!

Again – SODA…. what the hell IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?????  Do you wonder why your kids teeth are rotting, why they’re so hyper, and why they – at such a young age – have gastrological problems like ACID REFLUX?  Not to mention these kids look like little blubber people!  This is why!

Here’s some info on ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS:

Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners Nutra-Sweet, Equal and Splenda in diet sodas and low calorie foods are ‘excitotoxins’, causing neurons to fire spasmodically. They are linked to headaches and allergic reactions. “Splenda” has no sugar compound in it rather its molecules are bound with chlorine. Researchers in Britain were looking for a new pesticide formulation when they ‘discovered’ it.  Aspartame metabolizes into formaldehyde.

There are many side effects associated with artificial sweeteners which include: mood swings, anxiety, headaches, increased incidents of hyperactivity, itching, cancers, ringing in the ears, fibromyalgia, dizziness, and as recently discovered, tendency to overeat.

Isn’t THAT lovely?  Isn’t this what you want to eat?

Make sure you’re giving them the recommended dose of CHEMICALS in their food.  Did you know that over 3,000 chemicals are added to our food?  Over 10,000 chemicals, solvents, emulsifiers and preservatives are put into the food we eat.  Is it any wonder why cancer is so rampant?

Parents: Please, PLEASE LOOK at what you are feeding your kids.  Look at what you are feeding yourselves.

Mothers-to-be: You are harming your unborn child with every mouthful of chemicalized, preservative-laden, pesticide coated food.  If you are eating JUNK food – STOP!  Your baby is at risk!  If you still drink soda while pregnant you are, in effect – slowly poisoning your child even before it’s born.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!  Every day you have another choice!

What will YOU CHOOSE TODAY – especially for your children – who cannot choose!

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/02/19/common-toxins.aspx

Food & Wacky, Uncontrollable Kids

I picked up a book in a used book  shop:  “Why You Child Is Hyperactive”  by Ben F. Feingold, M.D.

Dr. Feingold was an allergist, who, back in the 70′s proposed that hyperactivity in children could be traced to chemical additives in food colorings.  His ‘Feingold Diet’ advocated strict adherence to a fresh food, chemical free life.  Parents of ADD and ADHD children were encouraged to keep a food diary.  The results were amazing.

Now, 40 years later, diet and the link to all sorts of disorders, in adults as well as children is mainstream medicine…. well,  practically.  There are still some parents and physicians who barely admit that what goes into a kid’s mouth will result in their little darling turning into the  creature from the black lagoon or Mr. Hyde.

If your child, or one you know, is out of their tree after eating a Happy Meal, you might do well to investigate…, that is unless you have stock in the pharmaceutical company that makes Ritalin!  Or maybe you’re totally oblivious to what it’s really doing to your kid and figure it’s just easier to keep shoving pills down his throat! Hey – if you don’t give a damn…. then keep having those prescriptions filled!

Chemical You….

My current list of books includes one by a prominent physician in environmental medicine. “Huh??” you’re probably thinking – “Environmental medicine – what’s that??”  Just what it says:  a physician who studies  how our environment affects our health.  Years ago, Dr. Roberts would have been called a quack.  Today, the evidence she offers in her books are backed up by solid medical research.

She’s beginning to scare me because too much of what I read in her articles and books mirrors what many other naturopathic, holistic and organic based evidence points out:  we are literally surrounded every day by toxins we have no control over.

CANCER

Maybe it’s because way back – cancer wasn’t diagnosed as cancer, or even at all.  Why, then, does it seem like so many people are getting it?  Not only older people, but young ones as well.  I doubt there is one person alive in this country who doesn’t know somebody with cancer.

Why?

Our environment.  Every single aspect of our lives has in it artificial components of plastic, out-gassing (fumes) or toxins of some sort.  The sad part about this is that the entire population of this world had no say – and is totally unaware that manufacturers, food producers, agribusiness and technology has contributed to it every day.

Chemicals surround us.  Our computers are made from plastics which release chemicals into our environment.  If we’ve sworn off caffeine, and drink decaf instead, chances are we’re getting a good dose of chemicals from the decaffeination process. Got that suit back from the cleaners?  Guess what it’s been cleaned with?  Dry cleaning fluid=chemicals.  If your kids play sports like football or soccer they’re probably rolling around on turf treated with herbicides and other toxic lawn chemicals.  Think you’re safe at work?  Your company probably has a contract with an extermination service and sometimes you’re even sitting at your desk when the guy comes through with the little sprayer tank!  Millions of Americans go to work in environments chocked full of chemicals:  manufacturing facilities with dust and fumes from chemicals, heavy metals, plastic compounds, cleaning solutions,  paints, glues and pesticide residues.  Even if your job does not put you in direct or daily contact, you are still at risk.

We take medicines to make us well, right?  We suffer from various diseases which may have been caused by our body’s reaction to the onslaught of chemicals that started in the womb! Every thing our mother ate, drank, breathed, cleaned with, bathed with;  every time she dyed her hair – we got a little dose of it too. The fetal brain is far more delicate and subject to abnormalities from environmental toxins, as well as hormones created by the mother’s body in response to stress and emotion.  (see ‘The New Feminine Brain”  by Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz)

Our modern world is full of things that we have no control over.  Modern science, supposedly our friends, may unknowingly or KNOWINGLY – have been responsible for the drastic rise in a host of maladies.  From ‘the ‘Big C’ to asthma, fibromyalgia, ADHD, depression – all can be traced to chemical imbalances.  Artificial substances which act as hormone disruptors, making our bodies react with symptoms of an inner world gone haywire:  illness.

Another thing that always scared me was hormone replacement therapy.  Why would a woman want to take the stuff when she could go through a natural process the way her body was designed to do?  OK, for some it’s more uncomfortable than others.  We’re a population of people who don’t want to be uncomfortable.  Now, however, modern medicine is finding that it really ISN’T  ‘nice to fool Mother Nature.’  All the women I know who have taken hormone replacement therapy have cancer in some form or another.  What does that tell you?  I’ll pass, thank you!

When I worked at Lowe’s in the section with the lawn chemicals, after about a month I developed severe body pain.  Every joint would hurt.  At night it usually was the worst.  Sometimes I’d wake up screaming because it felt like I’d been stabbed!  I hurt so bad I gobbled pain killers just to function.  Looking back now, it probably was from exposure to atrazine (‘Weed-B-Gone’) and triazicide and all the other things I was around.  Sweeping the floors and inhaling the dust probably gave me a good dose of pesticides!  Though I wore gloves when handling bags and bottles, there was so much of it in the atmosphere. This is a frightening thought and just one example of how our environment can affect us.

The only thing we can do is learn more, teach others and try our best to live a clean life.  Fastidious detox routines must become the norm, not only with food, massage, detox baths and saunas to beat back the chemical onslaught.

Maybe we can buy ourselves some time.

This is YOUR FOOD We’re Talking About

Corporate America is trying to take one more step to control food.  Small farmers are being threatened yet again by the federal government.  NAIS (National Animal Identification System)  is supposed to provide protection against these food recalls by tracking ‘food’ (in this case, animals) for their life.  Every time an animal is moved, mounds of paperwork have to be completed – for EACH animal. Moreoever – once again – this hurts the people who can least afford it – the SMALL FARMER.

Think it WON’T AFFECT YOU?

Think again.

If your kids have pet rabbits,  if you have a few chickens you keep for eggs or maybe you have a cow or two.  Goats for milking?  Those, too, will be required to be tagged and tracked.

No – what we do NOT need is NAIS.  We need BETTER conditions for these animals to begin with.  Not crowded, disease promoting facilities which harbor dangerous bacteria with lax monitoring systems!  The FDA and USDA cannot do it’s job, so they want to punish the small farmers and impose MORE TAXES on the American people.

Go to Organic Consumers to read more and tell your friends and contact your representatives!  Don’t let AGRIBUSINESS buy the saftey of the American people again!