Candida or Celiac Disease – Which Came First?

The more we learn about leaky gut syndrome and gluten sensitivity, the more we question which came first, the gluten sensitivity or an overgrowth of Candida?

Gluten free diets may be all the craze right now, but there is a good reason for this. Many people are finding they feel better and their health improves when they remove gluten from their diets.

What Is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein that is made up of gliadin and glutenin. It acts as an emulsifier and it helps to bind food together. Wheat is the most commonly eaten grain that contains gluten, but the list of gluten grains is actually pretty long. It includes:

  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Bulgur
  • Einkorn
  • Emmer
  • Farina
  • Farro
  • Kamut
  • Mir
  • Rye
  • Seitan
  • Semolina
  • Spelt
  • Triticale

Many people who react to gluten are also sensitive to oats. Although oats do not contain gluten, the protein in oats is similar. Also, to avoid gluten with oats it is necessary to purchase gluten free oats and most oats are processed in the same plants as wheat and other gluten containing grains. Cross contamination is pretty much guaranteed if the oats are not gluten free.

In addition to oats, many gluten sensitive individuals react to cow dairy. Some are sensitive to other gluten free grains.

Note that couscous is made of wheat and malts are made of gluten grains. Learn the various names of wheat to avoid it. (See link below.)

What Is Candida?

Candida albicans is a yeast that is found in most humans. A healthy gut contains an abundance of good (beneficial) bacteria that keeps Candida in check, not allowing it to overgrow. If this balance is disturbed (generally through antibiotic use or ingesting too much sugar) Candida overgrows.

Through its metabolic process, Candida releases harmful toxins. As it grows it changes forms from a one-celled yeast to a form with filaments or threads that can cut right through tissues and single cells. It destroys the biofilm lining the intestines and can drill right through the gut wall. Proteins and food particles that never would pass through the villi now enter the bloodstream.

The body reacts to these invading, unnatural substances as if they were pathogens. This release of gluten proteins into the blood may well explain the rise in numbers of gluten sensitive people. Candida is ravaging the health of Americans and is rampant due to our overuse of antibiotics and the outrageously high sugar content in the typical American diet.

To learn more about Candida and how to heal the gut read How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

For a full list of grains and whether or not they contain gluten, check out this list from the Celiac Support Organization.

Recommended Supplements:

Further Reading:
Sources:


Is Wheat Poison? What’s Behind the Rise of Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance

We humans have been hunter-gatherers for more than 99.9% of our history. For millions of years, we subsisted on a diet of fruits, nuts, wild vegetables, bone marrow, seafood, meat, and herbs. Grains such as wheat, corn, barley, oats, and rye were not introduced into the diet until about 10,000 years ago. These grains became staples of our diet due to the introduction of agriculture.

Not everyone fared so well in this new agricultural system. As a matter of fact, the majority of people didn’t. Relying on agriculture for the most of the diet, restricted variety. Archaeologists have discovered that the switch to agriculture resulted in a dramatic decline in health in every culture.

Our bodies are not well adapted to grains, though some tolerate them better than others. Many cannot tolerate grains that contain gluten at all, in any amount. For other sensitive individuals, long-term consumption of gluten destroys their health and may lead to their death.

Contents

History of Celiac Disease

Celiac disease, also known as celiac sprue, non tropical sprue, and gluten sensitive enteropathy, has probably always been with us. The earliest case, known as the “case of Cosa,” is more than 2,000 years old. A young woman’s remains were found southwest of modern day Tuscany, Italy. It is believed that she was between the ages of 18 and 20. We know that she had celiac disease because genetic testing revealed the presence of the HLA-DQ2.5. gene, a definitive genetic marker for the disease. Her skeleton also revealed the typical damage caused by malnutrition that is characteristic of a person with celiac disease who continues to eat gluten throughout their lifetime.

Aretaeus, an ancient Greek physician who was believed to practice in the 1st century AD, was the first to describe one of the most noticeable symptoms of celiac disease. Steatorrhea was the most common symptom, a tendency for fatty stools with poorly digested food. He wrote about a mysterious disease afflicting a number of his patients who he called “koilakos,” which means “suffering in the bowels.” Aretaeus believed the affliction was caused by a lack of heat in the digestive tract. This was a reasonable idea because he found that his patients only partially digested their food. Unfortunately, he did not find the cause or cure. Celiac disease and its debilitating symptoms continued to plague a percentage of the population for centuries, without anyone identifying the source of the problem.

Francis Adams translated Aretaeus’ work from Greek to English at the Sydenham Society of England in 1856. He coined the term coeliacs.

In 1888, Samuel Gee, a British pediatrician, was the first to make the connection between diet and the disease. He said, “If the patient can be cured at all, it must be my means of diet.” Gee experimented with various diets. He showed moderate success by introducing mussels (a gluten free food) into the diet. Eventually though, he put his celiac patients back on a high gluten diet, (no fruit, no sago, no rice, no vegetables) and they got worse, slowing dying a painful death.

Gee primarily fed his patients a diet of thin slices of bread and raw meat. He failed to discover the bread was killing them. Part of the reason was the fact that he was actually treating patients with two different afflictions: celiac disease and tropical sprue, two unique diseases with similar symptoms.

(Tropical sprue is a disease that to this day has an unknown cause, but is believed to be an infection caused by an unknown pathogen. It solely afflicts people in the tropics, and people who have traveled to tropical regions. Damage to the intestines and malnutrition are the typical symptoms.)

Many years later, a Dutch pediatrician, Willem Karel Dicke, discovered a link between celiac disease and wheat. During World War II, food shortages made it impossible for him to feed his patients the standard staples of wheat. Out of necessity, the doctor switched to gluten free alternatives, and his celiac patients thrived under the new diet. When wheat became available again, his patients with celiac disease quickly deteriorated. This lead Dr. Dicke to make the connection between proteins found in wheat and damage to the small intestine. He wrote his thesis on celiac disease and its connection to wheat in 1950.

In the early fifties, Dr. William Holmes Crosby Jr. developed a less invasive technique to biopsy the small intestine. Then in the late fifties, Dr. Cyrus Rubin further refined the intestinal biopsy technique. This refinement lead to a more accurate diagnoses of celiac disease. Dr. Rubin also defined the diagnostic criteria for celiac disease, proving that it afflicts both children and adults.

Then in the 1970s, the right kind of specialist shed more light on the problem. Anne Ferguson, a gastroenterologist, discovered that celiac disease is due to the body’s immune response to gluten in the digestive tract. In 1975, she published a paper in the Lancet, which showed how biopsied tissues from celiac patients react to the proteins found in wheat, while the control biopsies from other individuals did not show this immune response.

Glyphosate and the Rise in Celiac Disease

In 2013, Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff revealed a correlation between the increasing use of glyphosate in agriculture and the growth of celiac disease in the Western population. (Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up, and it is used extensively in modern-day agriculture and landscaping.)

Celiac disease can originate from genetics, but you don’t have to be born with it. Like many diseases, environmental toxicity is increasing its numbers. To further explain this interplay between genetics and environment, the following passage is a quote from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences:

Nearly all diseases result from a complex interaction between an individual’s genetic make-up and the environmental agents that he or she is exposed to.

Examples of environmental agents:

  • Mold
  • Ozone
  • Pesticides
  • Air pollution
  • Cleaning solutions
  • Dust mites
  • Some foods and medications

“Subtle differences in genetic factors cause people to respond differently when exposed to the same environmental agent.  As a result, some possess a low risk for developing a disease through an environmental insult, while others are much more vulnerable.

“As scientists learn more about the connection between genetics and environmental factors, and how that connection may influence human disease, they’ll begin to  develop new strategies for the treatment and prevention of many illnesses.” – Gene-Environment Interaction

Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff have suggested such a strategy. They have urged governments to ban the use of glyphosate in agriculture.

Wheat isn’t grown the way it used to be. Conventional methods of wheat farming have become more toxic. For decades now, farmers have been fertilizing their fields with petroleum based chemical fertilizers and using poisonous insecticides. Recently, wheat farming has grown even more toxic. A common modern farming practice is for many farmers to douse their fields with Round Up right before the harvest. This practice kills weeds that compete with the wheat. It also increases the yield from the wheat crop, which goes to seed more readily as it is dying. Note that no one claims Round Up is good for us; the biotech folks only profess that it isn’t bad for us. Wheat farming has become so toxic, is it any wonder that allergies to wheat and gluten are on the rise?

How We Make Bread

Consider how we make bread in modern times. White bread is manufactured from only one part of the wheat grain – the starch-filled endosperm. This process removes 4/5 of the nutrition. The starch is then ground into a fine powder. This processing is done at high temperatures and more of the nutrients are destroyed. The flour is then gray, so it is bleached with chemicals such as benzoyl peroxide or chlorine gas.

White bread appears to be healthy when one reads the label that lists its fortified vitamins and minerals, but these poor quality, often petroleum based vitamins and minerals are rarely of any nutritional value. All of the good vitamins and minerals were removed during processing.

Unfortunately, there are other added substances that are harmful to sufferers of celiac disease. Yeast, a common leavening agent used in breads, can make the environment in the digestive tract more suitable to an overgrowth of Candida. Those with celiac disease are particularly prone to Candida overgrowth in their digestive tract.

Some amount of Candida in the body is normal, but too much can be very harmful. When Candida multiplies out of control, it kills off good bacteria, releases toxins, and can actually penetrate the intestines by growing through them. This can cause partially digested food particles to enter the bloodstream through the perforated intestines. This is what is referred to as leaky gut syndrome. This often causes an immune system response, which can lead to more food allergies and a variety of autoimmune diseases. Overconsumption of grains, bread, and especially bread that has been highly processed and sweetened with refined sugars, has been linked with Candida overgrowth.

Traditionally, Bread Was Healthier

Breads have been made for more than 8,000 years, but yeast wasn’t introduced in baking until 1668. So what did bakers use before yeast? The traditional cultures used to make dough rise were bacteria, microscopic hard working fermenters that were pulled from the air.

Lactobacilli gives sourdough bread its unique flavor. The same bacteria that bakers have used for centuries to bake bread is closely related to the bacteria used to make yogurt and many cheeses.

This bacteria breaks down gluten and other proteins, making grains with gluten more easily digested. In the past, grains were routinely sprouted before grinding them into flour, another step rarely done today.

Some individuals with celiac disease can tolerate sourdough bread if it is prepared in a precise manner: made with sprouted grains and fermented for an extended period of time.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein that is made up of gliadin and glutenin. It acts as an emulsifier and it helps to bind food together. This is why gluten free foods do not usually have the doughy, elastic consistency of foods containing gluten. Xantham gum is often used in place of gluten as a binder for baked gluten free foods.

Candida, Gluten, and Other Food Allergies

Individuals with celiac disease are commonly allergic to other foods as well. Cow dairy is a very common food allergy for sufferers of celiac disease. Many are sensitive to oats, even when they are gluten free, due to a similar protein. Some are sensitive to other gluten free grains. The reason for this is due to an overabundance of Candida in the intestinal tract. And this is due to sugar.

In modern diets, sugar intake has increased substantially for many years. In other words, along with all of the other changes with how we produce and consume wheat products, we are also seeing a rapid increase in people with an over abundance of Candida due to refined sugars.

Proteins from foods (such as gluten, and many others) enter the blood stream through holes in the intestinal wall due to Candida. Candida, when left unchecked, will actually destroy the protective biofilm and drill holes into the intestinal wall, causing leaky gut syndrome. When foods passes through into the bloodstream undigested, the body sees the proteins as foreign compounds that do not belong, and the body can develop an allergic reaction to the proteins.

Many have reported being able to consume gluten products occasionally after balancing their intestinal flora and healing their gut. It is wise, whenever consuming gluten, to also take a probiotic. Also, we highly recommend not eating any commercial bread. For someone who feels that bread and pasta are too important for them to give up, it’s crucial for them to abstain from wheat products until the intestines are healthy, and then make their own bread and pasta the right way, including soaking, sprouting, and using a strong bacterial culture.

Increased Risk for other Debilitating Diseases

Individuals with celiac disease are more likely to develop several cancers. They are also more likely to have Addison’s disease, anemia, dermatitis, diabetes, thyroid disease, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, sarcoidosis, IgA nephropathy, and Down’s syndrome.

Symptoms

There are over 300 known symptoms of celiac disease. The more common symptoms are listed below.

  • Abdominal bloating and pain
  • ADHD
  • Anemia
  • Arthritis
  • Anxiety
  • Bone pain
  • Bedwetting
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Constipation
  • Delayed growth and puberty
  • Depression
  • Diarrhea
  • Eczema
  • Failure to thrive
  • Infertility
  • Irritability
  • Irregular menstrual periods
  • Joint pain
  • Malnutrition
  • Migraines
  • Miscarriages
  • Osteoporosis
  • Persistent canker sores
  • Rashes
  • Seizures
  • Tingling sensation or numbness in hands or feet
  • Unusually foul-smelling stool, blood or undigested foods in stool
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Vomiting

Diet Is the Only Known Treatment

The treatment for sufferers of celiac disease is to avoid gluten entirely, to eat a completely gluten free diet. The FDA does not require food manufacturers to list gluten on their labels. Wheat is required to be clearly labeled, but gluten is not. The following foods contain gluten:

  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Bulgur
  • Couscous
  • Durum
  • Einkorn
  • Emmer
  • Farina
  • Farro
  • Kamut
  • Malt
  • Mir
  • Oats (unless labeled gluten free oats- oats are often contaminated)
  • Rye
  • Seitan
  • Semolina
  • Spelt
  • Triticale

Gluten is commonly found in breads, bread crumbs, baked goods, beer, biscuits, brewer’s yeast, brown rice syrup (often made with barley enzymes), cereals, communion wafers, crepes, croutons, dextrin, flour tortillas, food coloring, food starch, French toast, granola, gravies, herbal teas, malt vinegar, marinades, sauces, pancakes, pastas, roux, salad dressing, soup, soy sauce, starch, stuffing, waffles, and wine. Any processed food made in a facility that also processes foods with gluten may be contaminated.

Other non-food items that may not be gluten free include:

  • Lipbalm, lipgloss, lipstick
  • Supplements
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Vitamin and mineral pills
  • Over the counter medications
  • Playdough (some kids will eat copious amounts of the stuff when playing with it)

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Many processed foods contain gluten, and unless the package says certified gluten free it probably isn’t. Many items that one might think are gluten free like corn flakes and rice cereal use malt or barley extract as a sweetener. Restaurants that do not offer gluten free menus cannot guarantee that their food is gluten free. And sadly, many that do offer gluten free choices contaminate the food while preparing it.

Conclusion

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, and like all autoimmune diseases, the body’s immune system attacks the body’s tissues. In the case of celiac disease, T cells attack the lining of the small intestine in response to gluten being passed through the digestive tract. This damage to the small intestine makes individuals with celiac disease more prone to cancers of the intestine. When an individual with celiac disease eats gluten, their symptoms can vary drastically in severity. Ingesting gluten can cause severe symptoms on one occurrence and only mild symptoms the next, which can confuse and delay an accurate diagnosis.

Many individuals with celiac disease suffer in silence, living their lives in constant pain and discomfort, because they have yet to be diagnosed.

Like most autoimmune diseases celiac disease affects more women than men. Women are more likely than men to be misdiagnosed as well and more likely to be told that their symptoms are “in their head”. This is one of the reasons why many sufferers of celiac disease are likely to ignore their symptoms until they become unbearable.

Thankfully, celiac disease is not the mysterious death sentence that it used to be in ages past. Now there are gluten free menus, gluten free options at the grocery store, and naturopathic ways to detox from gluten. Even the Catholic Church and the Methodist Church provide gluten free communion wafers upon request.

We know more about this disease and its symptoms than we ever have before. We also understand that gluten destroys the cilia in the intestines, the part of our anatomy that pulls nutrients into the bloodstream. If a person with this disease continues to eat gluten, malnutrition can result because the body is so damaged it is unable to properly metabolize nutrients from food. Individuals with celiac disease are more likely to be diagnosed with other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

We highly recommend that anyone with any autoimmune disease completely remove gluten from their diet and concentrate on healing the gut. Anyone with a history of gluten intolerance needs to heal their gut and balance their flora. Check out How to Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

Recommended Supplements:

Further Reading:
Sources:


Dangerously High Arsenic Levels Found in Rice

What is Arsenic Anyway?

Arsenic is a naturally occurring, toxic element found in the earth. It is found in over 200 different minerals. There are two main types of arsenic: organic and inorganic. Organic arsenic compounds are primarily found in marine life, but they are also sometimes found in terrestrial life forms. Exposure to arsenic from organic sources is widely considered to be less toxic than exposure to inorganic arsenic.

A Poison Fit for a King

Arsenic has been used as a poison for centuries. Assassins have historically been very fond of arsenic because symptoms of arsenic poisoning resembled other sicknesses like food poisoning. The resulting death would look like natural causes. In low doses, arsenic poisoning could cause diarrhea, confusion, paralysis, or weakness. Arsenic was difficult to detect as it has little odor, almost no taste, and it doesn’t affect the color of food. How many kings and queens have died of arsenic poisoning? No one knows, but many historians speculate that kings and queens who died young rarely died of natural causes.

Where Does All This Arsenic Come From?

The majority of arsenic that we are exposed to is not of natural origin. Natural processes can bring arsenic into the atmosphere (such as volcano eruptions), but only one third of the arsenic in our atmosphere is of natural origin. Arsenic can be found in the earth’s crust, in deeply drilled wells, and in rocks, soil, air and water.

We Have Industry to Thank for This

Industrial activities such as mining, smelting, and the burning of coal in power plants all play a role in contaminating our environment with arsenic. Arsenic is produced commercially from arsenic trioxide, which is one of the leftover byproducts of smelting copper and other metals. Arsenic is commonly used by the timber industry as a preservative for treating wood. Arsenic is also an active ingredient in many insecticides and herbicides, and it is a common additive in chicken and swine feed (apparently it is used to fatten them up). The timber industry and agriculture industry account for over 90% of environmental arsenic pollution that is not due to natural processes.

No One Would Want to Die This Way

Consistent exposure to even small amounts of arsenic has been linked to several diseases, many of which are fatal. Arsenic is so toxic that it causes many different cancers, including skin cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer and prostate cancer. Over consumption of arsenic has also been linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, reproductive problems, and it is known to compromise the immune system.

How Arsenic Gets into Rice

Many plants can absorb arsenic from its environment and rice is one those plants. Rice absorbs high amounts of arsenic from the soil, from water and from pesticides. Unfortunately, with so much arsenic contaminating the soil and water, organic rice can contain dangerous levels of arsenic even though it has not been exposed to pesticides. Counter-intuitively, there are actually higher levels of arsenic found in brown rice than in white rice. This is because more of the arsenic is found in the outer layers of the grain. The outer layers of the rice are removed during the processing that turns brown rice into white rice. (This processing also removes the majority of the nutrition found in rice).

While the FDA Does Nothing, Consumer Reports Steps Up

Consumer Reports has been doing the job that the FDA should have been doing for a long time now. On their website, you can find recommended weekly allowances for rice consumption based upon the levels of arsenic that rice contains. There is no federal limit for levels of arsenic in rice (but there is a biological limit, and one of its many names is cancer).

Since 2012, Consumer Reports has been asking the FDA to set a limit for arsenic in rice, a request that has been ignored. Over the past couple of years, Consumer Reports have tested over 700 foods containing rice, and they have tested hundreds of different samples of rice grown in different regions. It turns out that knowing where your rice is grown is very helpful if you wish to avoid high levels of arsenic in your food.

Not All Rice Fields Are Created Equal

Rice grown in California, white basmati rice grown in California, India and Pakistan and sushi rice grown in the US typically has almost half of the arsenic content as rice grown elsewhere. Rice that is grown in the US (with the exceptions being Californian rice, quick cook rice and sushi rice) contain the highest levels of arsenic. Rice labeled as having been grown in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas also stood out as having very high levels of arsenic in it.

One company in particular stands out as being proactive on this issue. Lundberg Farms is located in California. Their CEO, Grant Lundberg, recently issued a statement about the high levels of arsenic found in rice.

“We recently updated the published levels of arsenic in our rice, which now covers three consecutive years of data. I am happy to report that the levels of inorganic arsenic continue to remain low, and average less than half of the standard established by Codex. We are also actively engaged in the development of a code of practice through Codex to help develop ways to reduce arsenic levels even further.”

Codex is an international standard. Once again, we have no standards to rely on from the FDA.

Conclusion

According to the USA Rice Federation, you should eat rice because the benefits outweigh the risks. These are the people who are selling us rice, so no surprise there. The FDA recommends that Americans consume a variety of grains, and they say they’re looking into the arsenic problem. We recommend that you limit the amount of grains in your diet, especially rice. Also when you eat rice, eat rice that is grown in California. A healthy diet consists of 80% raw produce, with more vegetables than fruits as the main staple of your diet – not grains of any variety.

Recdommended Supplements:

Further Reading:

 Sources:



Permaculture Agriculture – The Transition to a Sustainable Future

“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Albert Einstein.

Permaculture stands for permanent culture. It is an ecological method of design that shapes many practices, including farming.

The term permaculture was first coined by two Australians, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison. However, many of their design ideas were inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s sustainable farming methods. The founders of permaculture recognize that a change in farming is needed. A change in culture is needed as well – a change in the way we view the world.

American culture, and indeed Western culture, often sees human beings as somehow separate from nature, that nature is out there and we are in here. Anthropologists don’t necessarily see such a demarcation from us and nature and neither do permaculturists. Not only are human beings a part of nature, it is optimistically believed that we can do more than mitigate our harm to the environment. Through the active implementation of permaculture principles, we can actually improve the environment around us.

A Grassroots Movement

We don’t need negativity to promote change. Negative emotions interfere with creativity. Bill Mollison believes that positive change is more effective from bottom to top, than it is from top to bottom. If we wait for change to come from the politicians, we could be waiting a long time. Change yourself. Change the way you garden. Change could come from one neighborhood at a time, rather quickly. Permaculturists believe that we must be the change we seek to find in the world.

Permaculture methods are similar in some ways to organic methods of farming, but the differences lie in matters of degree, sustainability, and working within an improved upon ecosystem, instead of trying to work against it. Permaculture doesn’t allow the use of any chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides, while organic farmers can use a short list of approved chemicals. Permaculture also doesn’t allow the use of motorized machines or plastics as their use is not sustainable in the long term. Despite these prohibitions, permaculture techniques are designed to be less labor intensive than industrial farming.

Working Smart and Not Hard

Permaculture espouses thoughtful planning in place of protracted labor. To this end, Bill Mollison’s book suggests planning from the home dwelling out, with zone zero starting in at the center.

Zone zero would apply permaculture principles in an effort to reduce energy use, efficiently use water, and utilize natural resources such as sunlight. From outside the home, the most labor intensive crops are placed as close to the main dwelling as possible, and a compost pile/bin for kitchen waste and a greenhouse would be nearby. From there in concentric circles, crops and livestock are placed out from the main dwelling. The last two zones are the wild and semi-wild areas used for firewood and as a habitat for wild plants and animals. The placement and contents of zones 2 and 3 are primarily determined by the amount of labor needed to maintain the zones and their relationships to one another. The relationships between different plants, crops, and livestock are carefully considered in the planning stage of a permaculture farm. It is these relationships of one element to another and their maintenance requirements that determine the design of a permaculture farm.

How Plants Can Benefit Each Other

One such relationship is the symbiotic relationship between leguminous plants and nitrogen fixing bacteria. Leguminous plants are among the best known nitrogen fixing plants, but literally thousands of plants are known to help fix nitrogen into the soil. Many of these nitrogen fixers are not in the legume family. A useful permaculture technique is planting nitrogen fixing plants alongside food producing plants. This is done both with indigenous plants and pioneering plants that are well suited to the area. (With so many thousands of plants that fix nitrogen into the soil, it is a wonder why anyone uses nitrogen fertilizer).

Nitrogen deficiency is one of the most common limiting factors for the growth of crops. Nitrogen fixing trees are the most commonly used nitrogen fixing plants in permaculture designs. Permaculture stresses the need for bio-diversity, so when given the option, using a wide variety of nitrogen-fixing plants is ideal. A large variety of food producing plants also helps to prevent pest infestations.

Natural Pest Control

Pest control in permaculture is achieved without the use of synthetic chemicals due to their destruction of the soil and the destruction of the natural balance. For example, encouraging ladybugs to proliferate in your garden is usually a more successful method of controlling smaller pests such as aphids than spraying pesticides. After all, a ladybug can eat up to fifty aphids in a day.

When insecticides are used to control aphids, two things invariably happen. By a process of selection, the aphids with some inherent resistance against pesticides will survive and go on to breed the next generation of pesticide resistant aphids. Meanwhile, the ladybugs are killed off due to their far greater rate of exposure.

The ladybugs that do survive the initial pesticide exposure will succumb to the poison after eating a number of the surviving aphids. Their exposure increases with each aphid they eat until the amount in their tissues becomes too high for survival. All that remains are pesticide resistant aphids in greater numbers than before because the pesticide application killed off most of the aphids’ natural predators.

The goal is to use and encourage beneficial organisms – to have them do the work for you, to work in harmony with the natural order instead of working against it. You can put in ladybug habitats and spray ladybug lure to attract them. When you make conditions favorable for beneficial organisms, you can watch them make themselves right at home in your garden or on your farm. If you need a jumpstart, you can purchase many beneficial organisms online and have them delivered to your door.

Fighting Biology With Biology

In some parts of Australia, grasshoppers are such a problem that the guinea fowl is an absolute necessity. Before choosing a permaculture site, many Australian permaculturists will look for areas where the guinea fowl have chosen to live before buying land. In the outback, they also utilize small ponds dug out by the fruit trees to provide a habitat for tree frogs or rock piles to attract lizards. Both frogs and lizards help eat the remaining pests that the birds miss.

Slugs, grubs and aphids are not necessarily the most challenging pests to most home gardeners and farmers. Ants are often a more difficult challenge. Not only are they known to bite, they have also been known to cultivate aphids. That’s right, Homo sapiens are not the only farmers in the animal kingdom. Ants have been known to spread aphids to your plants so the aphids can feed on your plants and the ants can then feed on the aphids’ sugary secretions. Ants also occasionally prey on the aphids as well, making it a complex relationship, not really a symbiotic one. Ants secrete a toxin that inebriates aphids and makes the aphids easier to control.

Obviously, two pests in one can be double the trouble. Pouring boric acid over ant hills has been known to slow down ants, but it will not stop them. As soon as boric acid gets wet, it is no longer an effective control against insects. The answer is to fight biology with biology. Beneficial nematodes are one solution a permaculturist might utilize.

Heterorhabditis bacteriophora nematodes are parasitoids that prey on ants and dozens of other garden pests. They are harmless to mammals and other vertebrates. They patrol the soil to a depth of seven inches eating anything they find savory like fleas, weevils, ants, beetles, etc. Again, they can be purchased online.

With careful planning, pest control can also be a task delegated to your livestock. But pest control is only one goal of many. Chickens and ducks are known to eat pests while they fertilize the soil with their waste.

Why placement in a farm or garden matters

In Bill Mollison’s chicken model, he describes four separate elements to a farm that can be used to benefit one another or they can be placed to stand alone without any relationship. His example includes a chicken coop, a pond, a greenhouse, and a forest. By placing all four of these elements next to each other, a beneficial relationship can be realized.

The forest provides shade and forage to feed the chickens. When the temperature rises with the midday sun, the chickens leave their coop due to the high heat. They find shade and food within the forest. In the forest area, if pests were left unchecked, they could harm the trees and other plants. The chickens’ manure also helps to fertilize the forest.

When the chickens are in their chicken coop, their body heat helps to keep the greenhouse warm. The pond placed next to the greenhouse reflects additional sunlight and warmth back to the greenhouse and to the chicken coop.

Placed separately, these aspects of a farm do next to nothing to benefit one another. When placed together, a more harmonious relationship is realized.

How Our Efforts Can Improve the Environment Around Us

Permaculture seeks to reproduce what hundreds or thousands of years of natural processes can do to the soil in a fraction of the time, in a more controlled and productive design than what would be rendered by natural processes alone. Conserving water in a permaculture design is a top priority. All known forms of life need water; life on the farm is no exception. This is typically accomplished by three methods, and when used together, the results are amazing.

The first and most difficult step is to alter how water flows over the land. This is done by altering the contour of the land so that it will retain water. After a rainfall, water will typically flow off of the land and into the nearest stream or river. By altering the contours of the land, water can be retained. This helps provide sufficient water for the plants and the microorganisms in the soil.

Another common technique is to bury wood and/or charcoal beneath the plants. This practice helps to retain water in the soil, and it retains nutrients for plants that they can utilize as needed.

Finally permaculture uses mulch as a final step in retaining water. When water would otherwise evaporate due to the heat, it is trapped beneath a layer of leaves, pine needles, or other mulch such as wood chips. As the mulch breaks down, it also serves as fertilizer for the plants.

Take a good look at the next wooded area you walk by. I’m willing to bet that things are growing like crazy. The main reason for this growth is the layers of leaves and natural mulch that serve the area by retaining water.

As biological beings we will always impact the environment around us, but a permaculture principle is the notion that instead of having a detrimental impact on the environment, we humans can have a beneficial impact on our environment.

Beyond Organic

Organic agriculture is often described in terms of what it isn’t rather than what it is. There is a good reason for this. For far too many organic farmers, the only difference between their farm and a conventional farm is the list of chemicals they are not allowed to use on their crops or the restrictions place on the feeding and care of their animals. To many permaculturists, the strides made by organic farmers, though commendable, are far from adequate. Permaculture can be better described by what it is, rather than by what it isn’t.

Permaculture was invented to address the shortfalls of agriculture, to take several steps beyond all-natural, organic farming. The overall idea is to drastically change the methods of production, to promote logical, interactive, natural processes, and to create a healthy, sustainable, permanent culture of productive, truly organic farming.

Our Survival Depends On It

Despite what sci-fi movies often suggest, if we destroy the Earth there really is nowhere left to go. Our survival as a species depends on our ability to live on Earth and not exhaust our resources. A permanent culture is a culture that can survive indefinitely. Changing culture, changing the way in which we view the world, is phenomenally difficult, but our survival as a species is certainly worth the effort.

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The Discovery Of the Superoxide Dismutase – An Enzyme and An Antioxidant

Like many great discoveries, the first antioxidants were discovered by accident.

Joe McCord was looking for the function of a different enzyme when he chanced upon a mysterious enzyme that seemed to be present in every form of life except anaerobic bacteria, bacteria that does not need oxygen to survive. In the beginning, neither McCord nor his mentor, Irwin Fridovich, understood the purpose of this enzyme, which they named superoxide dismutase (SOD), but they were convinced that it was important.

This discovery was the beginning of research into antioxidants and free radicals. In the late sixties, when McCord and Fridovich first published their findings, their research was received with little enthusiasm. Most of their peers did not grasp the importance of antioxidants and their role in human health and vitality. Now, decades later, we know a great deal more about how free radicals are generated and the role antioxidants play in the body to protect against their damage.

What Are Free Radicals?

Free radicals are molecules that are inherently unstable. In an effort to become more stable, free radicals will steal electrons from other molecules in close proximity. This electron theft makes the victimized molecule more unstable, and it in turn will steal electrons from other nearby molecules in order to become more stable, and so on. This chain reaction of robbing Peter to pay Paul can cause a great deal of cell damage, as well as cell death.

Free radicals are all around us; they are not easy or even possible to avoid. Many diseases and injuries create free radicals in the body. Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, influenza, sinus infections, and yeast infections all create free radicals. Injuries, even minor ones such as sprains, muscle aches, and strains, all generate free radicals. Toxins generate free radicals and toxins are everywhere – in our food, water, and the air we breathe. Even if our air was perfectly clean, simply taking in oxygen throughout the body generates free radicals.

Unavoidable Free Radicals

Oxygen molecules generate what is collectively known as oxidative stress. Oxygen is actually highly corrosive. Most of us don’t think of it that way because we need oxygen to live; without oxygen our cells would quickly die. But taking oxygen into the body generates a free radical superoxide, an unstable form of oxygen. Obviously, there’s no way to avoid this. Oxygen is just one of our unavoidable sources of free radicals. Metabolizing our food also creates free radicals. Sunlight, smoking, radiation and even eating burnt food can create free radicals in the body.

So why aren’t we all dead yet? That’s where antioxidants come in.

How Does SOD Work?

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is both an enzyme and an antioxidant that protects against the free radical, superoxide. SOD changes this free radical to hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, hydrogen peroxide is still a free radical. SOD then works in concert with another antioxidant, catalase, to change hydrogen peroxide from an unstable free radical to water, a stable compound.

SOD is produced in the body from three minerals: copper, zinc, and manganese. Good sources of copper and manganese can be found in whole grains and nuts. Good sources of zinc include egg yolks, milk, oatmeal, nuts, legumes, and meat.

Antioxidant Supplementation

Joe McCord, now a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, thinks we should find ways of supplementing our diet in order to increase the two antioxidants in our bodies that do most of the work: superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. According to McCord, these two enzymes are the antioxidants that neutralize 99% of the free radicals in our bodies. By McCord’s reasoning, if we can get the body to produce more of these two antioxidant/enzymes, our bodies would be far more efficient at fighting free radicals.

McCord and his coauthor showed how a supplement containing five plant extracts simultaneously increased the body’s production of SOD and catalase and also decreased the markers associated with oxidative, stress-related aging. Their supplement contained green tea, turmeric, milk thistle, ashwagandha (also known as winter cherry), and bacopa.

So when it comes to antioxidants, more is more. Don’t megadose on one nutrient; rely on several nutrients to do their work in combination. Joe McCord Ph.D, Lester Packer Ph.D., Sanjay Gupta M.D., and Don Colbert M.D. are among the many experts who believe that antioxidants work best as a team. When these nutrients are used individually, the resulting health benefits are meager, if at all. This is one of the reasons why the public is getting mixed results back from scientists about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of vitamins in clinical trials. It is speculated by these and other experts that antioxidants are far more effective when they are in our diet (either as a result of supplementation or through our food) in proportionally combined doses.

Most of the body’s antioxidant protection comes from the combined efforts of vitamins A, C, and E, SOD, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. These antioxidants effectively prevent the majority of the damage that would be done by free radicals.

If we run low on these nutrients, cell damage can occur as a result. When Don Colbert M.D. was experimenting with different fasts for his best-selling book, Toxic Relief, he experienced this kind of nutrient shortage firsthand. On day seven of his water only fast, he noticed small white splotches had begun forming on the outside of his skin. Due to his medical training, he immediately knew what had happened; he had exhausted his body’s catalase, and his system was no longer able to convert hydrogen peroxide to water. Of course, he broke the fast immediately.

Antioxidants work synergistically. Increasing some antioxidants will help your body increase others. Take glutathione, for instance. Glutathione can both detoxify the body and neutralize free radicals. The liver manufactures glutathione from three amino acids: cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine.

Glutathione can also be consumed in foods such as fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. However, the amount of glutathione produced can be increased by increasing Vitamin C and N-acetylcysteine in the diet. The previously mentioned herb, milk thistle (one of the five plant extracts in McCord’s study that was shown to increase SOD production) can encourage the liver’s output of glutathione by as much as 35%!

Vitamin C and vitamin E are well known antioxidants. Vitamin C can protect the water soluble interior of the cell, and Vitamin E can protect the cell’s fatty outer membrane. These nutrients can get pretty complicated. For instance, there are eight different kinds of vitamin E. High doses of vitamin C, or any other nutrient, wouldn’t offer this kind of protection without the combined help from other antioxidants.

Many people believe supplemented forms of antioxidants will do them some good, but they don’t often understand that when it comes to supplemented antioxidants quality really matters, and it isn’t possible to get everything you need from pills alone. Some vitamins that also act as antioxidants are of such poor quality that they are of no benefit and may be actually harmful. Many of these detrimental vitamins are derived from petroleum. For example, a common synthetic form of vitamin E is dl-alpha-tocopherol or dl-alpha-tocopheryl. This form of vitamin E is actually more harmful than going without any vitamin E supplementation at all.

Conclusion

Antioxidants (and many other nutrients) are naturally found in many foods. Antioxidants (the ones that scientists have discovered so far) are especially high in the following foods: artichokes, apples, blueberries, blackberries, black beans, red beans, kidney beans, carrots, cherries, cruciferous vegetables, citrus fruits, cantaloupes, watermelon, pecans, romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, onions, leeks, pumpkin, cabbage, green tea, and milk thistle tea.

The healthiest diet is an 80% Raw Food Diet. When 80% of your diet is comprised of raw, fresh, organic produce (more vegetables than fruits) your body receives the benefit of nutrient dense foods loaded with antioxidant vitamins and enzymes. To increase nutrition, you may want to add Doc Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula to your diet. Here’s the recipe to make your own.

Sources:

The Seven Pillars of Health by Don Colbert M.D.

Chasing Life by Sanjay Gupta M.D.

 



Yes, Cold Weather Can Make You Sick – Scientists Finally Confirm What We All Knew

We’ve all been told, “Get a coat on or you’ll catch a cold!” Many of us have ignored this advice. We’ve been told by educators and those “in the know” that cold weather doesn’t make us sick, viruses do. New research shows Mom was right, and the so-called “experts” didn’t know what they were talking about.

Research has now shown that viruses spread more effectively in guinea pigs kept in cooler conditions than those kept in warmer conditions. Epithelial mice cells kept in cooler conditions were more prone to viral infection than those cells kept four degrees (Celsius) warmer. Yale researchers found that in epithelial mice cells, colder conditions helped viruses to thrive. In a human study, the participants who soaked their feet in ice water developed cold symptoms in greater numbers than the control group of participants whose feet were kept warm.

Beyond the Cold Conditions Lie the Answer

Typically, there is more than one cause for anything and “catching a cold” is no exception. It is true that without some exposure to pathogens (like a virus) cold weather alone will not make us sick. For years, researchers forced cold conditions upon research participants in a sterile environment, and sometimes they even exposed them to viruses. Afterward, they declared that cold weather has nothing to do with infection rates and cold can’t give you a cold. In reality, it is far more complicated than that.

Several studies are showing new evidence as to how cold weather effects the cold and flu season. A variety of factors are at play here, including our exposure to pathogens like viruses, temperature’s effect on a virus, the temperature’s effect on our immune system, stress and its effect on our immune system, and our tendency for greater exposure to infected people in the fall and winter.

Without a doubt, cold weather alone will not give someone the cold or the flu. No matter how cold you get, getting cold in and of itself will not cause a viral infection. If you get cold enough, it is possible, even probable, that you can get hypothermia, and that can kill you. You must be exposed to a virus or another pathogen in order to get sick. (Exposure is frequent; some experts say fairly constant.) Cold weather does play an important role in the annual flu season during which 5-20% of Americans catch a cold or flu.

Cold Weather Makes Viruses More Durable

In cold weather, viruses enjoy extra protection from the elements. The outer membrane of many viruses (including the influenza virus) is primarily made up of fatty-like substances known as lipids. At temperatures around freezing and below, this outer membrane hardens and solidifies into a robust gel. This gives viruses extra protection during cold weather. As the temperature rises above freezing, the outer membrane of a virus becomes less solid – more of a gelatinous liquid. At temperatures of 105 degrees and higher, the viruses’ outer covering is liquid with no real solid form. This diminished protection can leave the virus damaged or destroyed by the elements.

Lowered Immune Response Due To Cold Weather

When human beings become cold, one of the unfortunate side effects is constriction of the blood vessels. Our white T-cells are transported via our blood vessels, so getting cold can inhibit your immune response. Also, the stress associated with being really chilled causes the body to release the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol does facilitate some necessary functions, but too much is a bad thing. Too much cortisol also inhibits the immune system.

A Tendency To Go Kamikaze (Apoptosis)

Cells have the ability to self-destruct. It is not something commonly done, except in the most dire circumstances. If the cell’s survival is impeding the survival of the larger organism, cells have been known to off themselves as a form of altruistic sacrifice. (The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one). Cells infected with a virus are sometimes able to do this in order to slow the viruses’ spread. Warm cells are more eager to self-destruct than cold cells, which…well… sometimes get cold feet.

Every year as winter approaches, the earth receives less direct sunlight for either the northern or the southern hemisphere. (When it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, and vice-versa). Obviously, this is a gradual process. During the winter, there are fewer hours of daylight in the day and less direct sunlight. Most of us also spend more time indoors. This has a tendency to depress some people. That general feeling of malaise is not caused by our preference for warm weather, alone. The more likely culprit for that blah feeling is a lack of vitamin D. Our bodies require sunlight to synthesize vitamin D. Vitamin D plays an important role in our immune defense and in maintaining our mood. In the winter months, we are likely to be running low on this crucial vitamin.

Conclusion

As previously mentioned, when it comes to catching a cold or the flu, exposure is key. Even before the weather gets cold in early fall, many people come back from vacation, students start college or school, kids are brought back to daycare, and people tend be around each other in enclosed areas more than in the summer months. This combined with other factors tends to make for good conditions for viruses and bad conditions for us.

Does this mean you or your kids should always bundle up before venturing out into cold weather? Nah. A little virus battle is good for us. Try making your immune system strong enough that viruses don’t stand a chance and take some risks. Check out Bullet Proof Your Immune System.

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MSG’s Many Side Effects and Aliases

This”Natural Flavor” Is Not So Natural

Even if you’ve never had a college course in chemistry, you’re likely familiar with the acronym. MSG stands for monosodium glutamate. In the modern era, this food additive is found in nearly every processed food, and you may not realize it due to its many, many names.

The Origins of MSG

According to the FDA, MSG has been used “throughout history”. If by throughout history they mean in Japan for the last hundred years, then yes, but recorded history goes back 10,000 years, not only one hundred.

Kombu dashi is a traditional Japanese broth that has been made for centuries. In 1908, chemist Ikeda Kikuanae isolated the ingredient in kombu dashi’s sea kelp that gave the dish its flavor- MSG. The product that ultimately originated from Ikeda’s work was patented in the U.S., France, and Japan. In Japan, he dubbed the flavor enhancer umami, which means tasty. When Ikeda partnered up with the Suzuki Chemical Company, umami was marketed under a different name, Ajinomoto, which means the essence of taste.

Initially, the Suzuki chemical company struggled to turn a profit selling MSG. For the first four years, MSG was unprofitable in Japan. Ultimately their marketing strategies shifted from targeting food manufacturers and restaurateurs to housewives. This shift in marketing turned a profit for the company. Over time, MSG became a commonly used household ingredient in Japan. Restaurants and food manufacturers later adopted its use and the flavor enhancer came into widespread use throughout Asia and the Western world.

What is MSG?

Monosodium glutamate escaped extensive testing because it is derived from an amino acid, glutamate, one of the building blocks of protein. There are twenty such amino acids; many of which our bodies can produce on their own, while some of them our bodies cannot.

Our bodies naturally produce glutamate. The body not only uses glutamate as a constituent of protein, it also uses it as a neurotransmitter. Our bodies manufacture just enough of the amino acid at a time to maintain brain function. Too much is toxic to our nerve and brain cells. The excess of free glutamate in MSG causes excitotoxicity, a pathological condition that excites nerve cells and brain cells to the point of death.

How Much Is Too Much?

That is what the debate is all about.

MSG is often found in foods that have been heavily processed. Even if MSG is not listed on the label, it is often a by-product of processing food. Enzymes added to processed foods will break down the proteins until MSG or the free form of glutamate is created in the food. Anything hydrolyzed creates the same cause and effect. Health conscious consumers, who are trying to avoid MSG, must take care to learn the different names of ingredients that are high in MSG if they wish to avoid it. MSG is even found naturally in some foods.

Glutamate/glutamic acid comes in a bound form and a free form. The free form of glutamate or glutamic acid is found naturally in small amounts in foods such as cheese, dairy, tomatoes, fermented soy products and seaweed. The bound form of glutamate has not been known to cause adverse reactions in people, except in rare circumstances.

The majority of MSG in the American diet is not of natural origin. The majority of MSG that Americans consume is added to processed foods or created as a by-product of the processing itself. It is also found in much of the food that is served in restaurants. The amount of MSG is particularly high in low-fat foods, canned goods, soups, and gravies.

Until recently, the easiest way to avoid MSG was to avoid processed foods, but in the late nineties, MSG became even harder to avoid. In 1998 the EPA approved the use of sprays containing free glutamic acid to be used on fruits, vegetables, and other plants. Consumers have no way of knowing how much spray has been used, how much free glutamic acid the plant has absorbed, or how much is left as residue on the plant. The spray most commonly used is AuxiGro. At present, consumers can avoid MSG sprayed produce by buying organic produce, but the industry has been requesting permission to use MSG sprays on organic produce as well. So far, organic produce is not sprayed with MSG.

How much is too much MSG? Our research and experience recommends that all MSG that is not of natural origin be avoided.

How Bad is MSG?

MSG sensitive individuals can experience these symptoms within an hour of consuming only three grams.

MSG Side Effects

  • Stomach cramps
  • Nausea/vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Migraine headaches
  • Heart palpitations
  • Rapid heartbeat
  • Sharp rise in blood pressure
  • Rapid drop in blood pressure
  • Blurred vision
  • Joint pain
  • Stiffness in joints
  • Achiness all over body
  • Dizziness, & loss of balance
  • Light headed
  • Depression
  • Frequent need to urinate
  • A numbing or burning sensation in the mouth
  • Swelling of the face
  • Pain or tightness in the chest
  • Shortness of breath

In studies with lab animals, research has conclusively confirmed that consuming high doses of MSG causes lesions in the hypothalamus. What is the hypothalamus for? The hypothalamus controls vital functions like heart rate, breathing, body temperature, appetite, thirst, and sleep. The hypothalamus also influences emotions and impulses like anger, fear, love, compassion, empathy, depression, and libido.

In studies with lab animals, young animals that were fed diets high in MSG showed numerous health problems. These problems persisted throughout the animals’ life. Problems like obesity, malformed organs, abnormal reproductive systems, infertility, unprovoked rage, overt aggression, antisocial behavior, impaired cardiovascular responsiveness, and high triglycerides, cholesterol, and VLDL. Many of these animals also showed signs of an impaired immune system. These animals showed abnormal hypothalamic function. These results were duplicated in many different animals, not only with lab mice.

MSG also forces the pancreas to release insulin. This causes the blood sugar to drop and typically makes one very hungry. This is why it is commonplace for individuals to become hungry only an hour or so after consuming foods high in MSG.

MSG also wrecks havoc on our hormones and causes sleep disorders and strong PMS symptoms.

What the Food Industry Does Not Want You To Know

Although the FDA requires that the ingredient monosodium glutamate be listed on food labels, it does not require ingredients that contain MSG to be listed as MSG. If we are to avoid MSG, we must avoid the following ingredients as well. The food industry does not want you to know about these ingredients…

Ingredients That Always Contain MSG

  • Ajinomoto
  • Autolyzed yeast or autolyzed yeast extract
  • Calcium caseinate
  • Calcium glutamate
  • Gelatin
  • Glutamate
  • Glutamic acid
  • Hydrolyzed oat flour
  • Hydrolyzed plant protein
  • Hydrolyzed protein or
  • Hydrolyzed anything else
  • Magnesium glutamate
  • Monopotassium glutamate
  • Plant protein extract
  • Sodium caseinate
  • Soy sauce extract
  • Textured protein
  • Torula Yeast
  • Umami
  • Vetsin
  • Yeast extract
  • Yeast food
  • Yeast nutrient
  • Or anything enzyme modified

Ingredients That Usually Contain MSG

(or MSG is created during their processing)

  • Artificial flavors and flavorings
  • Barley malt
  • Bouillon
  • Brewer’s yeast
  • Broth
  • Carageenan
  • Citric acid, citrate
  • Cornstarch
  • Enzymes
  • Enzyme modified ingredients
  • Malt extract
  • Malt flavoring
  • Malted barley
  • Maltodextrin
  • Monoammonium glutamate
  • Natrium glutamate
  • Natural flavors and flavorings
  • Oligodextrin
  • Pectin
  • Powdered milk
  • Protease
  • Protein-fortified ingredients
  • Seasonings
  • Soy protein
  • Soy protein concentrate
  • Soy protein isolate
  • Soy sauce
  • Spices
  • Stock
  • Ultra-pasteurized ingredients
  • Whey protein
  • Whey protein concentrate
  • Whey protein isolate

Unfortunately, this is not an exhaustive list. MSG is truly one of the best-hidden ingredients on the market. As you can see, it has many guises. Consumers are given other information such as cholesterol, calories, and sugars. But the degree of neurotoxicity (the amount of MSG) is mysteriously hidden on the label.

MSG does not change the actual taste of foods the way substances that are sweet, salty, bitter, or sour do. Instead it alters the taste of food by stimulating the sensation of taste. It is added to foods in the hope that consumers will become addicted. It is added to foods in many different ways, listed as many different ingredients, in the hope that we will not take the effort to learn its many names.

Neuroscientists overwhelmingly agree that MSG is toxic. It kills neurons by exciting them until the neurons die. MSG is an excitotoxin, so it is toxic for everyone, some more than others. Newborns are four times more sensitive to MSG than adults, and individuals with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or multiple sclerosis are more sensitive than people without neurodegenerative diseases.

Anyone who is sick and trying to heal naturopathically (which, incidentally, is the only way to actually heal), will have to stop eating MSG. Any parent with a child who exhibits behavior problems needs to find those hidden sources of MSG in their child’s diet and get their kid off of MSG (and every other additive). You’ll see a difference in two weeks or less. The bottom line is this: do you want to eat a food additive that kills your brain cells in addition to doing other damage throughout your body? Do you want to feed it to your child, ever? For any reason?

The FDA assures us that MSG is safe, but a neurotoxin, in any amount, is never fit for human consumption.

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