Real food is healthy food, not the imitation products that are created to trick us into buying them, thinking we are doing the healthy, right thing.
But what really bothers a lot of people is that real, actual food is often illegal, with chemical-laden ingredients and artificial processing considered the "norm." It may be the norm, all right, but now so are all the health problems that result from their use.
Driven by money, this industry isn't going to change soon, if at all. The pharmaceutical companies provide the money, which gives them the power to decide what is eaten and what is not. Even the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which is supposed to be looking out for our safety, is under the thumb of "big pharma" and does nothing to protect the consumer from, well, Big Pharma.
Here is a video that explains the problem by spotlighting just one ingredient...blueberries.
What can we do? Just stop buying this stuff. Read the ingredients list!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Will Alternative Health Care Ever Become Mainstream?
About 75 percent of U.S. health workers use alternative healing methods, according to the HealthDay.com News site on August 26. Compare that to 38 percent of the general public using alternative, sometimes referred to as holistic, healing methods. The most striking finding is that doctors and nurses are more than twice as likely to use the services of an alternative health practitioner than health workers in other areas, such as technical and administrative departments.
These statistics arose from a survey conducted in 2007 under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health. Researchers at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing with the Allina Health System in Minneapolis analyzed the findings and published their study in the journal Health Services Research.
Alternative health care, also referred to as complementary medicine, can include such areas as nutritional supplementation, diet, acupuncture, yoga, massage, chiropractic, herbal medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy and many other areas of interest. The researchers listed 36 types of care included in the study. The most common reasons given for seeking alternative care were back, neck and joint pain.
The study's leader noted that the prevalent belief has always been that alternative therapies aren't as well researched or evidence-based as traditional medical science, but that has changed in recent years. If medical professionals are taking advantage of alternative services more often, it should help people feel more comfortable discussing their needs, concerns and desires with their physicians.
Read the article:
http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=656106
These statistics arose from a survey conducted in 2007 under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health. Researchers at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing with the Allina Health System in Minneapolis analyzed the findings and published their study in the journal Health Services Research.
Alternative health care, also referred to as complementary medicine, can include such areas as nutritional supplementation, diet, acupuncture, yoga, massage, chiropractic, herbal medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy and many other areas of interest. The researchers listed 36 types of care included in the study. The most common reasons given for seeking alternative care were back, neck and joint pain.
The study's leader noted that the prevalent belief has always been that alternative therapies aren't as well researched or evidence-based as traditional medical science, but that has changed in recent years. If medical professionals are taking advantage of alternative services more often, it should help people feel more comfortable discussing their needs, concerns and desires with their physicians.
Read the article:
http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=656106
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Supplements Under Attack by the FDA - Again
They keep trying to criminalize the vitamin industry and if current efforts move forward, they may succeed this time. And who are "they?" For one, the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, along with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), who has sponsored a bill in Congress that would drive this latest attack down our throats.
If that happens, all supplements formulated after 1994 will be required to undergo the FDA approval process, which typically takes years and costs millions of dollars to complete. That alone would put most vitamin companies out of business, which I believe is the purpose of this proposed legislation.
Since natural substances cannot be patented, there is no way the new requirements would ever lead to any approvals of nutritional supplements. This leaves only one alternative: a pharmaceutical industry takeover of all products, which would necessarily need to be artificial and synthetic.This is nothing short of a complete attack on every individual's ability, freedom and desire to be responsible for their own health.
A very good explanation of this can be found here:
http://www.anh-usa.org/dietary-supplement-labeling-act-a-huge-smokescreen/
If that happens, all supplements formulated after 1994 will be required to undergo the FDA approval process, which typically takes years and costs millions of dollars to complete. That alone would put most vitamin companies out of business, which I believe is the purpose of this proposed legislation.
Since natural substances cannot be patented, there is no way the new requirements would ever lead to any approvals of nutritional supplements. This leaves only one alternative: a pharmaceutical industry takeover of all products, which would necessarily need to be artificial and synthetic.This is nothing short of a complete attack on every individual's ability, freedom and desire to be responsible for their own health.
A very good explanation of this can be found here:
http://www.anh-usa.org/dietary-supplement-labeling-act-a-huge-smokescreen/
Thursday, March 31, 2011
What's up with Gluten-Free?
A lot of people have varying degrees of sensitivity to gluten, a protein found in certain grains, the best known being wheat. The problem can range from a mild intolerance to a major allergy, and even the dreaded Celiac Disease.
This is not a trifling problem, and has been around for a lot longer than many realize. Like other allergies, until it's recognized for what it is, sufferers have had to endure a variety of diagnoses and treatments, often ineffective. I am one of them.
Gluten intolerance wasn't even a topic of anyone's conversations over 20 years ago when I was suffering from an unknown condition that left me with severe stomach and gut pain after eating.
Allergy testing at the time didn't even include gluten, so I was diagnosed (provisionally) with an ulcer. But the usual treatments had no effect at all and I continued to suffer. At times, I was simply afraid to eat and would go for days without a meal.
Finally, a friend casually mentioned that it was ironic that he was a wheat farmer but was allergic to his product!
Once my condition came into focus then, I learned how to deal with it by controlling my diet. Unfortunately, though this condition is becoming better understood now, it's still considered extremely controversial, as the skeptics refuse to accept its existence.
For now, as with all alternative health options, it's up to each of us to do our own research and personal experimentation to find what works best.
I have a chapter on gluten intolerance in my book, Alternative Healing Choices, available as an ebook as well as a Kindle version.
You can also search the Internet for information by using the search term, "gluten free." Many web sites have sprung up on this important topic, and you can find everything you need to know, including recipes.
This is not a trifling problem, and has been around for a lot longer than many realize. Like other allergies, until it's recognized for what it is, sufferers have had to endure a variety of diagnoses and treatments, often ineffective. I am one of them.
Gluten intolerance wasn't even a topic of anyone's conversations over 20 years ago when I was suffering from an unknown condition that left me with severe stomach and gut pain after eating.
Allergy testing at the time didn't even include gluten, so I was diagnosed (provisionally) with an ulcer. But the usual treatments had no effect at all and I continued to suffer. At times, I was simply afraid to eat and would go for days without a meal.
Finally, a friend casually mentioned that it was ironic that he was a wheat farmer but was allergic to his product!
Once my condition came into focus then, I learned how to deal with it by controlling my diet. Unfortunately, though this condition is becoming better understood now, it's still considered extremely controversial, as the skeptics refuse to accept its existence.
For now, as with all alternative health options, it's up to each of us to do our own research and personal experimentation to find what works best.
I have a chapter on gluten intolerance in my book, Alternative Healing Choices, available as an ebook as well as a Kindle version.
You can also search the Internet for information by using the search term, "gluten free." Many web sites have sprung up on this important topic, and you can find everything you need to know, including recipes.
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