Whether you ascribe to conspiracy theories or plain cause and effect, there is no doubt the chemical cocktail we breathe, ingest, and absorb each day is dumbing down America.

CNN reports Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, told a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health that of the 84,000 chemicals on the market today, only about one percent has been studied for safety and that our children are “guinea pigs in an uncontrolled experiment.” He has introduced legislation to require chemical manufacturers to prove product safety before products are marketed to the public.

The Environmental Working Group has conducted studies—body burden testing—since the early 2000s. They measure toxic chemicals in the blood of adults, children, and newborns. Testing for 550 chemicals, they have found 486 in their test subjects. Notable chemicals of concern include:

• BPA
• Lead, mercury, methymercury
• PFCs – “teflon” chemical
• PCBs – banned in the US in 76, still found in cord blood
• Musks from fragrances
• Pesticides
• Perchlorate (rocket fuel)

Cord blood studies show an average of 232 chemicals in the blood of newborn babies, chemicals found in plastics, cosmetics, shampoos, conditioners, mattresses and electronics. The Environmental Working Group is following these children from birth through early childhood and discovering a definite correlation between the number of chemicals found in their blood at birth and later development.

In addition to the chemicals we are exposed to through contamination of our food, water, and environment, our government purposefully forces us to ingest toxins through mandatory vaccinations and fluoridization of our water. Fluoride is more toxic than lead and accumulates in our bodies, yet we drink it every day.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, a retired neurosurgeon, released a you-tubevideo titled Chemical Dumbing Down of Society. It is his belief that the government allows or encourages the use of mercury in vaccinations and fluoride in water to purposefully dumb down our citizens to maintain a malleable society.    Whether our government promotes a toxic environment as a means to control society, chooses to ignore toxicity due to pressure from big business, or is simply not doing its job protecting its citizens, it is time we recognize the fact that our government does not protect us. Our government knowingly allows toxins that can affect our health and development to be included in medications, vaccines, food, water, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, beauty products and household items. It is imperative that we raise awareness on these issues and demand new protections.

For years our school systems have been feeding our children from boxes and cans. Prepackaged, processed foods and fried foods are the standard. Meals made from scratch with fresh whole fruits and vegetables are too expensive for the most of our schools’ meal budgets. And the schools supplement their budgets with vending machines filled with soda and sugared snacks and chips.

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The result has been two-fold: our children’s mental/psychological welfare has suffered and so has their health. We’ve conducted studies that have proven a truly nutritious lunch program results in a sharp rise in academic ability and a decrease in conduct problems. And yet, current practices continue.

We know the way we feed our children contributes to poor health, including obesity, and yet we continue. Not only are we “saving money” with our current lunch program, we are supporting big business.

But the status quo will soon change. Why? Because we’ve seen the light? Because we recognize how truly stupid it is to ignore the nutritional needs of growing children? Because we’ve recognized the link between poor nutrition and chronic or terminal illnesses? Or declining test scores?

No. It seems we may change the way we feed our children because we are running out of soldiers.

Mission Readiness, a group of retired military leaders, is lobbying to eliminate junk food from the schools because obesity is the leading medical reason military applicants are rejected; 27% of military age Americans are too obese to serve.

Hansel and Gretel Had It Easy

We have all read, seen or listened to some variation of Hansel & Gretel from the Brothers Grimm. A witch lives in a deep forest luring children with an edible house and sweet treats hoping to fatten them up for her cannibalistic urges. The children turn the tables as befits fairy tale heroes and get out alive.

Well, according to the newest research from Princeton University published officially in Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior1 and for the mass market in Science Daily2, Hansel and Gretel would be even fatter, slower and more lethargic eating today’s sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup because the weight gain from HFCS is far greater than ordinary sucrose. This would put the outcome of tricking the witch into her own oven in doubt.

HFCS is a corn derivative that typically has 55-percent fructose, 42-glucose and 3-percent other larger sugars. It is cheaper than sucrose in the United States where it is easier to grow corn than sugar cane or sugar beets. Sucrose is a naturally occurring blend of equally balanced fructose and glucose. HFCS replaced sucrose in the early 1970s and the rate of obesity as a population percentage has doubled from 15 to 33-percent since then according to CDC figures cited by Science Daily.

The researchers conducted two experiments. One compared male rats eating rat chow and HFCS water to similar rats eating rat chow and sucrose flavored water. The weight gain was described as “much for the rats eating the HFCS water. Thereally interesting fact about this study: the sucrose water was highly concentrated at levels similar to the few sodas sweetened with sucrose still in the US marketplace, but the HFCS water was half the concentration of the typical HFCS soda.

The second study lasting six months looked at high fructose corn syrup versus water. Here the rats ballooned up with 48-percent weight gains over rats just eating food and unsweetened water. The researchers described the high-fructose corn syrup rats as obese.

“These rats aren’t just getting fat; they’re demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides,” researcher Miriam Bocarsly reported. “In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes.”

The researchers speculated on the reasons why HFCS might be more fattening than sucrose. Apparently, fructose molecules in sucrose are bound to glucose molecules and take longer to hit the bloodstream than the fructose in HFCS, which aren’t bound to anything. The researchers also mentioned that fructose seems to be processed in the liver into fat, while sucrose is metabolized by insulin from the pancreas and is more readily used as an energy source.

“Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn’t true, at least under the conditions of our tests,” says psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. “When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese—every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.”3

The researchers cite previous research articles that show fructose affects hormones like leptin that work with insulin to control satiety, the feeling of being full.

This excerpt from the abstract says it all – “The combined effects of lowered circulating leptin and insulin in individuals who consume diets that are high in dietary fructose could therefore increase the likelihood of weight gain and its associated metabolic sequelae. In addition, fructose, compared with glucose, is preferentially metabolized to lipid in the liver.”4

Not feeling full induces more eating. In the meantime, we can imagine Hansel and Gretel being fed soda and other fructose-laden foods and winding up in the witch’s meat pie. End of story.

Sources for this Article:

1. Bocarsly, ME, et al. “High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristic of obesity in rats:
2. sciencedaily.com viewed 3/30/2010
3. sciencedaily.com viewed 3/30/2010
4. Elliott, SS, et al. “Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome.” Am J
5. Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels.” Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2010.02.012
6. Clin Nutr. 2002 Nov;76(5):911-22.

When it comes to produce, should we choose organic or local? The obvious answer is “both.” But when local, organic produce is not available, which is the greener and healthier choice?

People who vote for organic will argue that organic is always healthier because it is not genetically modified and is not sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. On the other hand, many of the eco-conscious cite the enormous carbon footprint involved in the transportation of produce. It is a bit ridiculous to buy organic California grown oranges in Florida and vice-versa. Buying locally not only saves on fossil fuels, it also keeps money in the local economy.

So, if you’re buying for health, you should always buy organic, and if you’re buying for environmental reasons, you should always buy local, right? Not necessarily.

Which is Healthier?

Locally grown fruits and vegetables may actually be healthier than organic fruits and vegetables shipped in from afar. While GMOs should be avoided at all costs, if health is your primary concern, try to find out if the farmer practices crop rotation. This is necessary to determine the nutritional value of the produce. Consider the distance organic produce travels with the substantial loss of enzymes and nutrients compared to fresh produce. And remember that organic farmers are allowed to use some harmful pesticides under many circumstances. Then consider the significant increase in vitamin and mineral content in produce grown on local farms that practice crop rotation.

The vitamins and mineral content of produce is not always higher when produce is organic, not when the nutrition is determined by the health of the soil and the freshness of the produce. While organic practices typically do promote healthier soil and more nutritious produce, with big business fully on the organic bandwagon soil quality is not always taken into consideration. Consequently, crop rotation, one of the best ways to help restore the soil, can be ignored.

The average person, that is, a person whose health is not degraded to the point where chemical sensitivities are an issue, would do better to ingest a little more pesticides with a lot more vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and enzymes. It behooves the consumer who shops in this manner to choose wisely. If buying conventional for health’s sake, conventional produce that typically contain the highest concentrations of pesticides, like berries and apples, should be avoided. It is likely that the increased benefits of local fresh strawberries are nullified by the enormous amounts of pesticides conventional farmers use to grow them.

Which is Greener?

When purchasing produce, we should consider long term ramifications of decisions. Voting with the pocketbook is the most powerful vote anyone can make considering its frequency and potential to evoke real change. Money talks. Every time a purchase of conventional produce is made a vote is cast for non-organic, environmentally harmful practices. Buying non-organic produce encourages everything the environmentally conscious stand against. Purchasing local conventional produce for the purpose of saving carbon emissions is penny wise and pound foolish.

To further complicate matters, the way food miles are calculated often misses a big piece of the puzzle. When purchasing an apple grown locally, for example, one should take into account the fact that the apple grown on a small scale farm may have arrived to the market via a small farmer’s pickup truck that traveled 65 miles to the market with around 100 apples or so. Compare this to a semi truck carrying two or three thousand apples. We can do the math to calculate the fuel consumed per apple, but in most cases, the math gets way too complicated. Farmers often bring their produce to large farmer’s markets in their area via their pickups and flatbeds, where the produce is shipped all over the country via tractor trailers.

A Better Idea

Ask the local grocery store manager if s/he carries local, organic produce. When shopping at farmer’s markets ask the vendors if they have organic produce and if they practice crop rotation. When the answer is no, move on. This is how change happens.

Even Better

Grow as much of your own food as you can.

Healthy Cooking Methods

How healthy are the various cooking methods? The answer depends on what you cook and how you cook it. If your idea of a healthy main course is blackened fish, crispy fried chicken, or caramelized ribs, you’ve probably never heard of advanced Glycated End Products (also known as advanced glycated end products).

Advanced glycated end products, which were discovered by Louis Maillard in 1912, are a class of chemical byproducts that result from the combination of protein and sugar (usually glucose) when food is cooked by excessive heat.1

Advanced glycated end products can also be formed by the body when too much refined sugar is eaten and elevated blood sugar levels are maintained for too long a time. And food manufacturers intentionally increase the number of advanced glycated end products in food, either by adding sugar or by browning food elements.

Advanced glycated end products aren’t to be confused with glycoproteins, even though they share the same building blocks. A glycoprotein forms when glucose and proteins bind using the normal digestive enzymes with which we all come equipped. This process presupposes gently cooked food and moderate sugar intake from whole fruits and vegetables and very little or no refined sugar. Glycoproteins are part of how the body feeds itself. Advanced glycated end products are something else entirely.

Humans evolved eating raw food and food cooked slowly over a small open flame. Today we cook food quickly and at high heat by flash heating, microwaving, deep-frying, and barbecuing. All of these methods form advanced glycated end products, which are difficult to metabolize and nearly indestructible.

Our immune system reacts to advanced glycated end products as foreign bodies. When our diet is inundated with advanced glycated end products, the immune system is overworked and becomes exhausted, which may lead to allergies or disease. advanced glycated end products spur the release of cytokines, which are part of the inflammatory process. Cytokines collect in the joints of people with arthritis. Another interesting fact about advanced glycated end products and inflammation is that free radical production is nearly five times greater with glycated protein compared to regular protein.4

Not all cooking methods are created equal. Studies have shown that boiling, steaming, or any method involving water tends to greatly limit the number of advanced glycated end products that form. Turning down the heat and extending the cooking time can also create fewer advanced glycated end products than other methods.

There are two different temperature ranges to be aware of: the heat labile point around 245° F and the much lower advanced glycated end products threshold between 120° F and 180° F. The heat labile point applies to fats and proteins that change chemically without the presence of sugar and has similar health risk as the advanced glycated end products discussed here.

How to Avoid Advanced Glycated End Products

• Turn down the heat and extend the cooking time
• Stop eating sugar (The average American eats 140 pounds of sugar per year.3)
• Cook with water (boil, steam and poach)
• Avoid processed foods which are likely to have sugar or browned food elements
• Drink green tea (Recent studies have shown that green tea help remove advanced glycated end products from your body.4)

The following is a small sample of diseases and conditions that can be helped by limiting advanced glycated end products either by changing how we cook or cutting out the sugar:

• Inflammation
• Aging
• Diabetes
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Macular Degeneration
• Hypertension
• Arthritis
• Kidney Disease

This list is not inclusive, but is just enough for all of us to be mindful that how we cook our food is at least as important as what foods we eat.

Eating raw can help a person be healthier, but it can be a hard choice. In some cases, cooking is necessary for economic reasons like extending the shelf life of food. For example, cooking turns stale bread into toast, which tastes the same regardless of how fresh the bread was. Striking the balance between killing off pathogens in poorly stored raw food and overcooking has always been delicate. And for many people the practice of cooking is so ingrained in their culture that eating raw food is unthinkable.  So if you must cook, cook gently.

1.  “Effects of High Temperatures on Meats.” Food and Chemical Toxicology Apr 1985:23(12).
2. Mullarkey, CJ., et al. “Free Radical Generation by Early Gycation Products: A Mechanism for Acceleration of Arthogenesis in Diabetes.”

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• How to Detoxify and Heal the Lymphatic System
• Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases
• Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid
• How to Cure Lyme Disease and Virtually Any Other Bacterial Infection, Naturally

Good food is essential to good health. A healthy diet is dense in nutrients, providing the building blocks for every metabolic process in the body, including the chemical processes involving neurotransmitters in the brain.

There are 4 types of foods that increase your risk of depression or worsen depression:

• Fast Foods—particularly fried foods
• Commercial baked goods
• Soda and other sweetened drinks
• Alcohol

Fast Foods and Trans Fats

It comes as no surprise that multiple studies have concluded there is a definite link between fast food and depression. We have known for some time that physical health suffers from the typical junk food or fast food diet. Is it any wonder that brain function would suffer as well?

Fast foods are full of trans fats that pollute the body and are known to alter the normal electrical activity in the brain.

Commercial Baked Goods

Donuts, cakes, cookies, and breads often contain trans fats. But trans fats aren’t the only culprit with a strong correlation to depression in the typical junk food/processed food diet. High fructose corn syrup should be avoided as well.

High fructose corn syrup is a common ingredient in processed foods found on nearly every label. Studies are finding that there is a significant percentage of the population that suffers from carbohydrate malabsorption. For women, a combination of fructose malabsorption and lactose malabsorption results in a high correlation of depression due to decreased levels of tryptophan.

Sodas

Sodas and other sweetened drinks (check out the label on that cranberry or ruby red grapefruit bottle, and Gatorade) contain fructose corn syrup. (see above).

Alcohol

Alcohol is a depressant. Obviously, if you are depressed, ingesting a depressant is not a great idea. Enough said.

To decrease your risk of depression, avoid all trans fats and high fructose corn syrup and limit your alcohol intake.  Remember, what you eat directly affects how you feel, both physically and emotionally. Eat a healthy diet of 80% raw, organic vegetables and fruits.Your body and your brain will thank you.

Sources for this Article:

• http://www.procarespine.com/junk-food-may-increase-the-risk-of-depression/
• http://www.naturalnews.com/035772_fast_food_depression_nutrition.html
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/could-soda-and-sugar-be-causing-your-depression

Our good friend, Jason Taylor of  The Source Project, is here in the US and he is traveling with Human Revolution.

Jason uses his video camera to document the truths behind our food supply. His work takes him from his home in the UK to the palm fields of Uganda and the shores of Goa. He tells the story of the farmers, the fishermen, and the real people who are being affected by corporate greed, environmental destruction and industrialized agriculture.

Human Revolution is a political rocker who is using music as a medium to spread the word about the unjust, unhealthy, and unlawful practices behind GMOs. His latest tour is titled, GMO Right 2 Know Yes on Labeling Tour!  The goal of the tour is to raise awareness and  educate people about the dangers GMO’s pose to both consumer health and to farmers and get the word out to voters in California to vote YES on labeling this November!  Human’s California tour is sponsored by Dr. Bronners Magic Soap.

We’re going to be following The Human Revolution here on OLM through Jason’s lens. Keep an eye on our blog and facebook page to see what The Human Revolution is up to and help spread the word by sharing the videos, photos, and blog posts with your friends! Let’s help Jason and Human get GMOs labeled in the state of California and throughout the world.

Click here for The Human Revolution tour schedule. 

Visit Jason Taylor’s website to see all of his work.

Recommended Supplements (These supplements help detoxify GMOs):

• Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula
• FloraMend Prime Probiotic – Thorne Research
• Fundamental Sulfur Powder (MSM Powder) – Douglas Labs
• Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse Formula
• Shillington’s Intestinal Detox

Further Reading:

• How to Avoid GMOs
• Foods That Are GMO
• The Difference Between Heirlooms, Hybrids, and GMOs
• The Unspoken Link Between GM-Foods and Cancer
• GMO-Bananas are Going Into Human Trials