Nestlé Acquiring Garden of Life, Pure Encapsulations, Douglas Laboratories for 2.3b
Atrium Innovations owns Douglas Laboratories, Pure Encapsulations, Wobenzym, Klean Athlete, and a few more brands. You may know them best for Garden of Life supplements. Nestlé announced last Saturday that they are buying Atrium Innovations for 2.3 billion.
“We value Atrium’s history as a highly successful company and welcome its 1,400 employees to the Nestlé family. Their brands are a natural complement to our Consumer Care portfolio, which offers nutritional solutions in the areas of Healthy Aging, Healthy Growing, Gut Health and Obesity Care. Atrium’s portfolio will extend our product range with value-added solutions such as probiotics, plant-based protein nutrition, meal replacements and an extensive multivitamin line, enabling consumers to address their health and wellness goals.” – Nestlé
Peter Luther, soon to be x-CEO, had this to say:
Since Atrium was established in 1999, we have been dedicated to providing premium-quality, science-based, professionally recognized products to consumers and healthcare practitioners. We are very pleased to be joining Nestlé Health Science as we share a common purpose of helping people lead healthier lives by providing good-for-you products made with the highest standards for quality and efficacy. Nestlé will provide Atrium with the resources to accelerate the growth of our brands and reach more people globally.”
Nestlé is a Swiss multinational food and beverage company that sells baby food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea, confectionery, dairy products, ice cream, frozen food, pet foods, and snacks – none of which are particularly healthy. The company is no stranger to negative news, as it is reportedly int he spotlight for various human rights abuses. Remember when Nestlé’s Chairman said that water is not a basic human right? (He later adjusted that claim.) For other reasons to be concerned, check out Why Nestlé is one of the most hated companies in the world or watch this video:
A Million Consumers Call to Block Monsanto Bayer Merger
Farming, environmental, and consumer groups have delivered a petition with over a million signatures to the Department of Justice asking them to block the merger between German pharmaceutical company Bayer and agricultural giant Monsanto. The petition was delivered days ahead of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on technology in agriculture and data-driven farming. The petition is in addition to two recent reports showing the damaging impact of the merger on both farmers and consumers.
The first report from is Consumer Federation of America, “Mega-Mergers in the U.S. Seed and Agrochemical Sector the Political Economy of Tight Oligopolies on Steroids and the Squeeze on Farmers and Consumers,” and examines the Bayer Monsanto merger as an oliogopoly and discusses how having only select companies in charge will effect our food system. The second report is from Friends of the Earth, SumOfUs and the Open Markets Institute and entitled “Bayer-Monsanto Merger: Big Data, Big Agriculture, Big Problems.” It looks at the implications of the Bayer Monsanto merger on competition and farmer choice, especially in the area of data-driven farming.
Bayer and Monsanto’s toxic mega-merger is a danger to our planet and everyone living on it. Over 1 million Americans have called on the Department of Justice to protect our farmers and families from the consolidation of corporate power. Bayer and Monsanto’s merger is a direct threat to the future of people and our environment. The Justice Department must put on the breaks and stop this merger.” – Erich Pica, President Friends of the Earth
Consumers are concerned and worry that this could become a damaging monopoly.
If the Bayer-Monsanto merger is approved, the new company would be the world’s largest vegetable seed company, world’s largest cottonseed company, world’s largest manufacturer and seller of herbicides, the world’s largest owner of intellectual property/patents for herbicide tolerant traits. Should the merger move forward, 77 percent of the corn seed in America would be controlled by two companies, Bayer-Monsanto and Dow-DuPont. – OCM
The United States Department of Agriculture has rolled back several healthy school lunch requirements. These changes include allowing schools to serve flavored milk, opt out of whole grain requirements, and more slowly reduce the sodium in their offerings. In the USDA’s press release, Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture, cited their reasons for the changes, “Based on the feedback we’ve gotten from students, schools, and food service professionals in local schools across America, it’s clear that many still face challenges incorporating some of the meal pattern requirements. Schools want to offer food that students actually want to eat. It doesn’t do any good to serve nutritious meals if they wind up in the trash can. These flexibilities give schools the local control they need to provide nutritious meals that school children find appetizing.”
Many of the issues cited by the USDA as problematic for school lunch providers are not actually a problem. A statement released by Center for Science in the Public Interest Vice President for Nutrition Margo G. Wootan:
Virtually 100 percent of schools are already complying with the final nutrition standards, including the first phase of sodium reduction…Nine out of 10 school-aged children are eating too much salt, which is why reducing sodium levels in school meals is so important. The USDA should be doubling down on helping schools reduce sodium, not slowing down progress, as the Trump administration proposed today.”
Diet is the foundation of health, and it’s fitting that the government making it easier to serve schoolchildren less nutritious lunches is also the administration dismantling the current healthcare system without a viable system to take its place. The USDA considers the school lunch program a part of its nutrition safety net. So why is it making it easier for vulnerable school children to eat poorly?
Nutrition Education and Healthy Choices
Today, one in five children between the ages of 6-19 is obese, and that number has tripled since the 1970s. More than one-third of Americans are obese. The healthcare costs for an obese person are nearly $1,500 higher for an obese person than a normal weight person. Our health nationwide is not improving because we are failing to properly educate kids about healthy food and healthy lifestyle choices. Only one in ten Americans eat enough vegetables. Combine that with a nutrition safety net willing to compromise health standards out of concern with program operators, school nutrition professionals, industry, and other stakeholders. It’s no wonder kids don’t know how important healthy food choices are, let alone how to make them.
50 Healthcare Workers Were Fired For Refusing the Flu Shot
Late last month a Minnesota-based health system fired about 50 employees for refusal to get the flu shot. Essentia Health announced in September that employees would be required to get vaccinated for influenza unless a religious or medical exemption is obtained. The company said it was trying to keep their patients from getting sick at its 15 hospitals and 75 clinics.
Essentia reported that 99% of the company’s eligible employees received the shot, or received an exemption. The United Steelworkers union filed an injunction in an attempt to delay the policy, but a federal judge has denied the request. Minnesota Public Radio has reported that two other unions are filing grievances on behalf of workers who lost their jobs.
Mandatory influenza vaccinations for health care workers — who really benefits from this draconian measure? While public health officials tell you that mandatory flu shots for all health care workers will protect patients from influenza, there’s virtually no good scientific evidence to support such claims. If health and safety were really the chief aim of this forced vaccination policy, why not mandate vitamin D testing and optimization, since vitamin D supplementation has been shown to be 10 times more effective than getting a flu shot if you are vitamin D deficient? Even if you’re not deficient in vitamin D, studies evaluating the “number needed to treat” (NNT) reveal it is estimated that one person would be spared from getting sick with influenza for every 33 people taking a vitamin D supplement (NNT = 33), whereas 40 people would have to receive the flu vaccine in order to prevent a single case of the flu (NNT = 40). But, what would the financial incentive be for that? Unfortunately, it appears mandating annual flu shots for health care workers is little more than a for-profit scheme transformed into oppressive health policy and law by drug industry insiders and powerful lobbyists.” – Mercola, Vaccine Deficient Employees Fired to Gain Health Care Funding
One Million Receive Faulty Dengvaxia Vaccine Which May Cause Dengue Rather Than Prevent it
The Philippines’ Department of Health launched the world’s first public dengue immunization drive last year to the tune of $69.54 million. Dengvaxia is the vaccine used, produced by Sanofi. On Dec 1st, the Department of Health halted the use of Dengvaxia. Sanofi said the vaccine should not have been used. Nearly 734,000 children aged 9 and over in the Philippines have received the vaccine.
As far as we know, as far as we are made aware, there are no reported deaths that are related to dengue vaccination…
Sanofi said the vaccine should only be used on individuals previously infected with dengue, due to evidence it can worsen the disease in people not previously exposed to the infection.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dengue is a mosquito-borne “pandemic-prone viral disease” and can produce severe flu-like symptoms, breathing problems, hemorrhaging, and organ failure. WHO says that about half the world’s population is at risk of dengue, and estimates indicate nearly 400 million are infected every year. Dengue is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in many Asian and Latin American countries. The global incidence of dengue has risen dramatically in recent decades, according to WHO.
…but the World Health Organization issued a report in mid-2016 that identified the risk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdlDqd9WAd8
What We Know
Sanofi’s Dengvaxia is the first-ever approved vaccine for dengue. The company says the vaccine is also registered in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, and Venezuela. The vaccine has also been used in a public immunization program in Brazil, which makes a total of around one million people who have had a dose of the drug.
Sanofi explained “new findings” at a news conference in Manila, but the World Health Organization issued a report in mid-2016 that identified the risk. A non-governmental organization said it had received information that three children died who were vaccinated with Dengvaxia, and a senator said he was aware of two other cases. The Department of Health Undersecretary Gerardo Bayugo told Reuters that the three children referenced died due to causes not related to the vaccine, and Sanofi claims that no deaths have been attributed to the program.
For those not previously infected by dengue virus, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection,” – Sanofi
The WHO now recommends that Dengvaxia is only to be administered to subjects “known to have been infected with dengue prior to vaccination,” pending a full review of the study.
As far as we know, as far as we are made aware, there are no reported deaths that are related to dengue vaccination.” – Ruby Dizon, Sanofi’s Medical Director
What’s Being Done?
The Philippines ordered a probe on Monday into the immunization program, and the program was suspended on Friday, December 1st. According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, further information will be released on Dec. 12 or 13 by the WHO advisory body, Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization.
The Key to Happiness is Going Vegan, Affirms World Happiness Expert
Matthieu Ricard is a former French genetic scientist, Tibetan monk, and author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. His designation as the world’s happiest man is the result of a scientific research done on him and other advanced meditation practitioners in 2012, where during a meditation on compassion, 256 sensors on his skull measured levels of gamma rays in his brain never before reported in the history of neuroscience. Even though Matthieu is widely known and respected, the wise monk shows no sign of ego, as he kindly shares with the world the secret to finding true happiness.
Why We Cannot be Happy Eating Animals
On a video Matthieu participated in for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), he demonstrates how the act of buying and eating animals creates a domino effect of negativity in all aspects of our life.
First of all, the animals, with 60 billion land animals and a trillion sea animals killed each year. Next, the environment, since the whole chain of factory farming involved in meat production today is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases nowadays, after homes and before transportation. Poverty in the world: 800 million tons of grains that could feed 1 billion people are sent from developing countries towards rich countries for meat production.
“So the first victims are, of course, animals, but everyone else loses too! Even human health! The WHO (World Health Organization) published a report showing that the regular consumption of meat was bad for health.”
So let’s be logical. If we ask the people of every nation whether they would like to live in a world filled with beauty, safety, prosperity, joy, kindness, love, peace, laughter, justice… most are likely to say yes. But to truly create such reality we must produce more of these acts (beauty, peace, love, justice and etc.) individually, so that this may turn into a ripple effect, creating this new collective reality. But how will we achieve such life when we are taking away innocent beings from their families and societies, forgetting that they are capable of feeling the same emotions we do, such as trust, love, joy, and fear and then serving them on our plates?
According to Matthieu,
…When you see the intensive conditions in which dairy cows are raised, for instance, it’s absolutely unimaginable. They are confined to stalls during their short lives, unable to see the sky, and when they become less productive, they are eliminated. When you know that 10 to 15 percent of them, sometimes more, are cut up into pieces while they were still conscious because they were improperly stunned, they die little by little, it’s unimaginable. But this is the reality of their lives, every day, all year long.”
So we must urgently ask ourselves, can any kind of death bring true happiness? Is it ethical and just? Will this act bring more fulfillment into our individual lives or consequently to our collective experience?
That’s right, the answer is no.
The Key to Happiness
Matthieu reveals the key to happiness and it´s simpler than we thought.
He says: “True happiness can be attained when we avoid causing pain to others…”
Matthieu’s wise words become even more interesting when we take a look at the results from the 2010 happiness survey done on Harvard´s class of 1980. It turns out that the number one item listed as one of utmost importance to achieve happiness is doing good for others.
This strongly correlates to what Matthieu has shared with us. Happiness is to think of others (people and animals) and keep from bringing them suffering, it is to think of the world and the future generations, the environment and ourselves (our health) doing what is morally correct.
How Meat Consumption is Hurting our Health and Planet
“The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future—deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.” Says the World Watch Institute.
But how much in numbers are we truly talking?
The millennium ecosystem assessment shows that meat and dairy products are responsible for:
70% of global freshwater consumption
It takes around 147 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of corn. A single beef steer or a heifer can eat 1,000 or more pounds of feed over a few months (since they are often fed corn and soy feed to achieve a speedier growth), consuming large amounts of water that could be preserved instead.
38% of total land use
In various nations of the world, you see lands being taken over, Amazonian forests cut down for soy production for cattle, banks of wild streams muddied and trampled by grazers in New Zealand, countries like Greece that were rich in woodlands are now dry and taken over by goats.
19% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions
Because cows chew on grass, and their digestive system works differently than ours, they end up releasing a lot of methane into the air and atmosphere. So, the more meat-eating humans, the more cows, the more methane, the more greenhouse gasses, and the worse it will be for the planet.
A scientific study that was done also indicates that the long-term consumption of red meat, and specially processed meat, is associated with an increased risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer in both women and men.
But this isn’t the only source to share such information.
Dr. Marco Springmann from the Oxford Martin School, says: “Imbalanced diets, such as diets low in fruits and vegetables, and high in red and processed meat, are responsible for the greatest health burden globally…”
All of the above data show us that this lifestyle is extremely harmful to our health and for the planet, as it’s not sustainable. As the world population increases, the tendency is for the demand of meat production to increase, which could mean that we are looking at an unavoidable worldwide point of no return.
Watch this video for a quick 3-minute summary.
How a Vegan Lifestyle can Change the World
According to the recent 2016 Oxford study, a vegan diet could bring various benefits, such as:
Save 8 million lives by 2050 – The study concludes that almost half of the avoided deaths would be due to the reduction of the consumption of red meat as the other half would be a result of an increased fruit and vegetable intake as well as calorie reduction causing fewer people to be obese or overweight.
Save money on healthcare – About 700 to 1.000 billion US dollars.
Avoid climate-related damages – Which would have otherwise cost 1.5 trillion dollars.
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2/3 – By adopting vegan dietary guidelines we could cut out 70% of these emissions which would bring an economic benefit of as much as 570 billion US dollars.
To summarize on the greenhouse gases matter, Nick Hewitt, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in the Department of Environmental Science at Lancaster University says “The biggest lifestyle choice you could make to reduce greenhouse gasses is to stop eating meat. It’s hard to think of another single lifestyle change we could make that would have the same effect.”
Bringing Happiness to the World
We have enough scientific evidence supporting the numerous problems within the animal-based product industries, as well as we are aware of how it negatively affects our health, our environment and the animals themselves. For those of you who comprehend this and are asking yourselves what you can do now, the answer is simple — Take action! Be the example, and exclude meat products from your plates, choose vegetarian and vegan options, bring awareness to your friends, family, and colleagues. Your actions will bring about a ripple effect, that will turn our collective reality into one free of suffering, full of environmental restoration, better human and animal health, which inevitably brings about greater feelings of joy, purpose, and love. Happiness takes courage and effort, so the Tibetan monk and former scientist, a true master of happiness and compassion, humbly makes a plea— he asks that we become vegan like him.
President Trump Has Nominated A Pro-Vaccine Exec to Secretary of the Health and Human Services
President Trump has just nominated Alex Azar, the former chief lobbyist and President of the US division of drug the company Eli Lilly, to be the next Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS). Alex Azar was deputy secretary for Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. He is slated to replace Dr. Tom Price as head of the department.
Eli Lilly invented and manufactured thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative used in vaccines that have been repeatedly linked to autism and other neurological disorders.
In contrast to Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon and former Republican congressman, Mr. Azar is a lawyer and health care expert who allies predicted would use his deep knowledge of the federal bureaucracy to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda of undermining President Barack Obama’s health care law. Mr. Azar recently called the Affordable Care Act a “fundamentally broken system.” –NY Times
Prior to employment at Eli Lilly, under George W. Bush, Azar was general counsel and later deputy secretary of HHS at the time the decision was made to give an expedited efficacy and safety review to Gardasil, a vaccine for human papilloma virus produced by Merck that has enormous safety issues. As general counsel (head attorney) for HHS, Azar participated in the Autism Omnibus Proceeding that denied more than 5000 claims of vaccine injury, even though HHS settled one of the test cases that found that Hannah Poling’s autism was indeed caused by vaccine injury. Azar is exactly the wrong person to head HHS. Azar must be approved by the Senate, and the Autism Action Network will be working hard to stop his confirmation.
While the head of Eli Lily in the US, Azar was also on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Association, a trade and lobbying association for manufacturers of biological products including drugs, vaccines and GMOs. Azar’s career perfectly mirrors the “revolving door” door between regulatory agencies and the industries that they supposedly regulate in the public interest. The revolving door is one of the clearest indicators of government corruption. And Azar is only 50 years old, so we can probably expect several more trips through the revolving door before his career is done.
Azar has the wrong experience, the wrong track record, the wrong associations, and the wrong personal financial and career interests to head HHS. America has the most expensive healthcare and drugs in the world, yet our indicators of public health are among the lowest found in developed countries. A former lobbyist for one of America’s largest drug companies is not the person who will bring desperately needed reform. The head of HHS should be an advocate for allowing research to go wherever honest science leads, regulatory policy that puts the safety and health of the public before corporate and physician’s profits, transparency in all medical research and regulatory reviews, informed consent as the basis for all medical procedures, and aggressive policies to end the epidemics of autism, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and on and on.
As a candidate, and in office, President Trump said he would “drain the swamp of government corruption.” In his tweet announcing the Azar’s nomination, Trump wrote, “He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!” But according to the Dow Jones Newswires, “during Alex Azar’s tenure Eli Lilly & Co. executive prices rose dramatically for some of the company’s top drugs.” The last person we need heading HHS is a drug company fox guarding the hen house. Alex Azar should not be confirmed as Secretary of HHS.
Please share this message with friends and family and please post to social networks.
If you’ve like to take action, click on Autism Action Network and scroll down, there’s an email form. You can also call the White House and politely express your opposition to Azar’s nomination at (202) 456-1111.
Other Trump News Regarding Health, Human Rights, Animal Rights, and Environment
The Keystone Pipeline Leaked 210K Gallons in South Dakota. President Donald Trump issued the federal permit for the Keystone XL project in March, though it had been rejected by the previous administration due to environmental concerns, and many argue the pipeline addition is not even needed.
ased to be joining Nestlé Health Science as we share a common purpose of helping people lead healthier lives by providing good-for-you products made with the highest standards for quality and efficacy. Nestlé will provide Atrium with the resources to accelerate the growth of our brands and reach more people globally.”
