A flame-retardant chemical known as chlorinated tris (TDCIPP) was removed from children’s pajamas in the 1970s amid concerns that it may cause cancer, but now it’s a ubiquitous addition to couch cushions across the US.

It can easily migrate from the foam and into household dust, which children often pick up on their hands and transfer into their mouths. A new study by scientists at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Duke University revealed just how ubiquitous this chemical actually is, as they found traces (and more) of TDCIPP in every study participant tested.

Children May Have Fives Times More Flame-Retardant Chemicals Than Their Moms

Aside from finding TDCIPP in 100 percent of study participants, the researchers found the average concentration in children was close to five times that of their moms.1 High levels of flame-retardant chemicals used to make FireMaster flame-retardant products were also detected.

Children are thought to have higher exposures to many types of chemicals because they spend more time on the floor, where contaminated dust settles, and also put their hands in their mouths more often than adults.

Since these toxins are not chemically bound to the plastics, foam, fabrics, and other materials to which they’re added, they easily leach out into your home where they accumulate in household dust.2 As reported by EWG:3

“A study of house dust collected in California homes in 2006 and in 2011 found 41 different fire retardant chemicals in at least half of the samples. The same study reported significantly higher levels of Firemaster ® 550 compounds in 2011 compared to 2006, indicating increasing use.

The levels of TDCIPP in some house dust exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health risk guidelines.”

The Duke researchers revealed in a separate study that children who wash their hands at least five times a day have 30 percent to 50 percent lower levels of flame retardants on their hands than children who wash their hands less frequently.4

Unfortunately, even though children are among those most at risk from flame-retardant chemicals’ ability to disrupt and harm development, products intended for kids and babies are among those most likely to be doused in flame-retardant chemicals.

For instance, such chemicals were detected in 60 percent of 2011 car seats tested by The Ecology Center,5 most likely in the polyurethane foam. A separate study in Environmental Science & Technology6 also detected flame-retardant chemicals in 80 percent of the following children’s products tested:

Couch Cushions and Mattresses Are Among the Worst Offenders

In 1975, California Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117) was passed. It requires furniture sold in California to withstand a 12-second exposure to a small flame without igniting.

Because of California’s economic importance, the requirement became more or less a national standard, with large amounts of flame-retardant chemicals added to household goods.

Research published in Environmental Science & Technology revealed that 85 percent of couch foam samples tested contained chemical flame retardants.7The samples came from more than 100 couches purchased from 1985 to 2010.

As of July 1, 2007, all US mattresses are required to be highly flame retardant as well, to the extent that they won’t catch on fire if exposed to a blowtorch. This means that the manufacturers are also dousing them with highly toxic flame-retardant chemicals, which do NOT have to be disclosed in any way.

If you want to avoid flame retardants in your mattress, you can have a licensed health care provider write you a prescription for a chemical-free mattress, which can then be ordered without flame retardants from certain retailers.

You can also find certain natural mattresses on the market that don’t contain them. For instance, most wool mattresses do not have flame-retardant chemicals added because wool is a natural flame retardant.

Given the blatant dangers posed by flame retardants, in late November 2013 California’s governor ordered that TB117 be rewritten to ensure fire safety without the use of these chemicals. Starting in January 2014, furniture manufacturers began producing furniture that’s not required to use flame-retardant chemicals, and full compliance is expected by January 2015.

Unfortunately, the updated law only states that the chemicals are no longer required; it doesn’t ban them outright. This means that some companies may continue to use them, and if you’re in the market for new furniture, you’ll need to ask for that made without flame-retardant chemicals.

What Are the Health Risks of Flame-Retardant Chemicals?

Flame-retardant chemicals have been linked to serious health risks, including infertility, birth defects, neurodevelopmental delays, reduced IQ scores and behavioral problems in children, hormone disruptions, and various forms of cancer.

The risks may be especially dangerous to children, as research revealed that children born to women who were exposed to high levels of flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) during pregnancy had, on average, a 4.5 point decrease in IQ.8 Such children are also more prone to hyperactivity disorders.

PBDEs were voluntarily withdrawn from the American market in 2004, but there are still many products on the market that were manufactured before that time – and these products can continue to release PBDEs into your environment.

Previous research has suggested PBDEs may also lead to decreases in TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone).9 When present with normal T4 levels, low TSH is typically a sign that you’re developing hyperthyroidism, which can have significant ramifications both for you and your unborn child if you’re pregnant.

And these chemicals aren’t only dangerous when they transfer into your household dust and indoor air. Ironically, when and if they do catch fire, these chemicals outgas toxins into your air that may kill you faster than “regular” smoke alone. When on fire, objects doused in flame retardants (yes, they can still catch fire) give off higher levels of carbon monoxide, soot, and smoke than untreated objects. These three things are more likely to kill a person in a fire than burns, which means flame-retardant chemicals may actually make fires more deadly.

Flame-retardant chemicals belong to the same class of chemicals as DDT and PCBs (organohalogens), and like the former, they too build up in the environment. These chemicals also react with other toxins as they burn to produce cancer-causing dioxins and furans. This helps explain why female firefighters aged 40 to 50 are six times more likely to develop breast cancer than the national average, likely due to California’s early use of flame-retardant chemicals. Firefighters of both genders also have higher rates of cancer, in part because of the high levels of dioxins and furans they’re exposed to when flame-retardant chemicals burn.

Flame-Retardant Furniture Probably Won’t Save Your Life in a Fire…

Flame-retardant chemicals were developed in the 1970s, when 40 percent of Americans smoked and cigarettes were a major cause of fires. The tobacco industry, under increasing pressure to make fire-safe cigarettes, resisted the push for self-extinguishing cigarettes and instead created a fake front group called the National Association of State Fire Marshals. The group pushed for federal standards for fire-retardant furniture… and their efforts paid off.

The chemical industry claims that fire-retardant furniture increases escape time in a fire by 15-fold. In reality, this claim came from a study using powerful, NASA-style flame retardants, which did give an extra 15 seconds of escape time. This is not the same type of chemical used in most furniture, and government and independent studies show that the most widely used flame-retardant chemicals provide no benefit for people while increasing the amounts of toxic chemicals in smoke. Drops in fire-related deaths in recent decades are not related to the use of flame-retardant chemicals, but instead are due to newer construction codes, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, and self-extinguishing cigarettes.

Reduce Your Family’s Exposure to Flame Retardants

There’s a good chance flame-retardant chemicals are lurking in your home right now. Until these chemicals are removed from use entirely, tips you can use to reduce your exposure around your home include:10

• Be especially careful with polyurethane foam products manufactured prior to 2005, such as upholstered furniture, mattresses, and pillows, as these are most likely to contain PBDEs. If you have any of these in your home, inspect them carefully and replace ripped covers and/or any foam that appears to be breaking down. Also, avoid reupholstering furniture by yourself, as the reupholstering process increases your risk of exposure.
• Older carpet padding is another major source of PBDEs, so take precautions when removing old carpet. You’ll want to isolate your work area from the rest of your house to avoid spreading it around, and use a HEPA filter vacuum to clean up.
• You probably also have older sources of the PBDEs known as Deca in your home, and these are so toxic they are banned in several states. Deca PBDEs can be found in electronics like TVs, cell phones, kitchen appliances, fans, toner cartridges, and more. It’s a good idea to wash your hands after handling such items, especially before eating, and at the very least be sure you don’t let infants mouth any of these items (like your TV remote control or cell phone).
• As you replace PBDE-containing items around your home, select those that contain naturally less flammable materials, such as leather, wool, and cotton.
• Look for organic and “green” building materials, carpeting, baby items, mattresses, and upholstery, which will be free from these toxic chemicals and help reduce your overall exposure. Furniture products filled with cotton, wool, or polyester tend to be safer than chemical-treated foam; some products also state that they are “flame-retardant free.”
• PBDEs are often found in household dust, so clean up with a HEPA-filter vacuum and/or a wet mop often.

Another Way Your Couch Can Kill You That Has Nothing to Do with Chemicals…

Flame-retardant chemicals are only one major health risk linked to sitting on your couch. The other? Sitting in and of itself, assuming it’s done excessively (and most people sit excessively). One 2012 analysis that looked at the findings from 18 studies found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease compared to those who sat the least.11 Sitting for extended periods of time also increases your risk for premature death, and separate research found that women who sat for more than seven hours a day had a 47 percent higher risk of depression than women who sat for four hours or less per day.12

Even temporary vigorous exercise can’t completely compensate for the damage incurred by prolonged daily sitting. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly clear that staying active—and by that I mean engaging in virtually any physical movement—as much as possible, throughout the day, is critical for health and longevity. So keep in mind that your couch can kill in one of two ways… via chemical exposures and by seducing you into too much sitting.

Of course, you may also be doing a lot of sitting elsewhere, like at your office desk or in your car. The following videos, featuring Jill Rodriguez, offer a series of helpful intermittent movement beginner and advanced exercises you can do right at your desk (or virtually anywhere). For a demonstration of each technique, please see the corresponding video in the two tables below. I suggest taking a break to do one set of three exercises anywhere from once every 15 minutes to once per hour throughout your day. For even more suggestions, please refer to my previous article on intermittent movement.

Technique #1: Standing Neck-Stretch: Hold for 20 seconds on each side.

Technique #2: Shoulder Blade Squeeze: Round your shoulders, then pull them back and pull down. Repeat for 20-30 seconds.

Technique #3: Standing Hip Stretch: Holding on to your desk, cross your left leg over your right thigh and “sit down” by bending your right leg. Repeat on the other side.

Technique #4: The Windmill: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then pivot your feet to the right. Push your hip out to the left. Raising your left arm skyward, and your right arm toward the floor, lower your body toward the floor while looking up, and then raise your torso back to standing position. Repeat on the other side.

Technique #5: Side Lunge: Starting with your feet together, take a medium step sideways, and bend down as if you’re about to sit. Use your arms for balance by reaching out in front of you. Return to starting position, and repeat 10-20 times. Repeat on the other side.

Technique #6: Desk Push-Up: Place hands a little wider than shoulder-width apart on your desk. Come up on your toes to make it easier to tip forward. Do 10 repetitions.

Technique #7: Squat to Chair: With your feet shoulder-width apart, sit down, reaching forward with your hands, and stand back up in quick succession. Do 15-20 repetitions.

Technique #8: Single Leg Dead Lift: Place your right hand on your desk, and place your weight on your right leg. Fold your torso forward, while simultaneously lifting your left leg backward. Do 10 repetitions on each side.

Technique #9: Mountain Climber: Get into a push-up position on the floor. Pull your right knee forward to touch your right wrist or arm, then return to push-up position. Repeat on the other side. Try to pick up the pace, and do 20 quick repetitions.

Standing Neck Stretch	Shoulder Blade Squeezes	Standing/Seated Hip Stretch
Windmill	Side Lunge	Push up
Squat to Chair	Single Leg Dead Lift	Mountain Climber

Related Reading:

• Textile Industry’s Health and Environmental Impacts – What Are You Wearing?
• Corporations, Our Health, and a History of Failed Technologies
• How Candida Leads to Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, and Other Mental Disorders
• Insomnia – A Comprehensive Look with Natural Remedies
• Charges Brought upon Doctor and Advocate for Toxic Flame Retardant Chemicals
• Sleep More, Sleep Better
• Why Your Couch Is Killing You
• What’s Ailing You? Could it be Your Mattress?

Related Products:

• Green Lifestyle Market – Home

(NaturalNews – Zach C. Miller) Ever wondered why citric acid is listed in almost every food or drink ingredient label? This little product is found in everything from iced tea to hummus and organic salsa. Let’s take a look at what citric acid is and what it’s used for so universally in the food industries.

Citric acid defined

When I first scanned an ingredient label and saw citric acid, I pictured lemon or lime juice extract or something benign and citrus. But actually, modern-day citric acid is made by fermenting glucose. Citric acid appears as a white, powdery substance which tastes similar to lemon juice. It is made by fermenting Aspergillus niger mold, which produces citric acid as a byproduct of metabolism. This peculiar and cheap method of acquiring inexpensive citric acid (as opposed to squeezing actual lemons and limes which is too expensive) was discovered in 1917 by American food chemist James Currie.

Why is it used in so many foods?

Citric acid is used as both a flavor enhancer and a preservative ingredient. It provides a tart, citrus taste to foods to give a more potent flavor, while at the same time balancing the pH of foods and increasing acidity levels to preserve it for longer. In short, it increases the acidity of a microbe’s environment, making it harder for mold or bacteria to survive and reproduce. So it makes sense that citric acid is found in so many modern products when you consider the positive attributes it provides. But these positives don’t come without a price, as you’ll see below.

The problems with citric acid

The problem with citric acid is that it can potentially be produced with GMOs. Citric acid is made with the use of sugar beets or corn, which, if you follow the GMO issue, you know that these two are some of the biggest offenders of GMO foods in the US. There are also some GM versions of A. niger which are used to produce citric acid.

There are also other health implications that can arise from consuming citric acid separate from the GMO issue. Citric acid has been known to irritate the digestive system (ascorbic acid has similar attributes), causing heartburn and damage to the mucous membrane of the stomach. The eyes, skin and respiratory organs can also suffer scratchy, itchy sensations from overconsumption of citric acid. There have also been European studies which suggest that citric acid could be responsible for promoting tooth decay as well.

And so far you will not find cautionary statements of any kind on any products warning you about citric acid. If you choose to try and avoid citric acid, good luck; you’ll find it in almost every food product imaginable, organic or not.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.sciencedaily.com
http://www.alive.com
http://girlmeetsnourishment.com
http://science.naturalnews.com

A new longitudinal1 study found that girls are developing breasts at an increasingly younger age, which is part of a disturbing trend in the sexual development of our children. American girls (and boys) are hitting puberty earlier than ever before, and upward trends in childhood obesity seem to be playing a major role.

You may be shocked by the latest childhood obesity statistics. As reported byHuffington Post:2

• 17 percent of children and adolescents are now obese
• Childhood obesity has nearly tripled since 1980
• Obesity among kids ages two to five has doubled over the past 30 years, and one in five kids is now overweight by age six
• More than half of obese children were overweight by their second birthday
• The food industry spends more than $1.8 billion marketing to kids each year3—and what they’re selling is primarily processed food and junk food

Data for the puberty study, published in the November 2013 issue ofPediatrics,4 came from a cohort of more than 1,200 girls in and around San Francisco, Cincinnati, and New York City between the ages of six and eight.

Researchers found some cultural variability, but overall, concluded that girls are entering puberty earlier than in the past. Early sexual maturation is not a recent development, nor is it a phenomenon limited to United States. It is a global phenomenon, especially in developed nations.5

Obesity May Be More Significant for Early Puberty Than Previously Thought

Maturing at a younger age brings many long-term risks, both in terms of physical and mental health.6 The pace of sexual development has generally been attributed to three primary factors, according to the website for Theo Colborn’sOur Stolen Future:7

1. Obesity
2. Social factors (such as family environment, stress, overt sexuality in the media, etc.)
3. Toxic contamination (environmental chemicals and pollutants, hormones and hormone-mimics, pesticides, chemicals in plastics, etc.)

According to the featured study, obesity appears to be the most significant factor driving early puberty—or perhaps it’s just the easiest to quantify. Overweight and obese girls in this study developed breasts about a year earlier than normal-weight girls (age eight versus age nine, respectively).

Obesity exposes girls to higher estrogen levels because estrogen is both produced and stored in fat tissue. Girls carrying excess body fat have more estrogen and leptin, which can lead to insulin resistance and the development of more fat tissue, which produces even more estrogen, a vicious cycle that can eventually result in premature puberty, among other problems.

Boys are not immune to the effects of estrogenic chemicals—males of all species are becoming more female, including human boys. Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in developed countries and raises your child’s risk for the following serious health concerns, often persisting into adulthood. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.8

• Impaired insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease, asthma, and other respiratory problems
• Fatty liver disease
• Joint and musculoskeletal problems, and lower extremity fractures9
• Gallstones and gastroesophageal reflux (GERD)

Obesity and Toxic Environmental Chemicals: Two Sides of Same Coin?

There is mounting scientific evidence that environmental contaminants have hormone-mimicking properties that may play a role in premature sexual development. However, it is difficult to measure these effects, as strong as their theoretical basis may be. In terms of research, it’s much easier to correlate a child’s age of onset of puberty with her body mass index (BMI) than with her level of exposure to plastics or pesticides.

However, the obesity and contamination factors are likely two sides of the same coin, having been linked in multiple scientific studies.

The same chemicals that contribute to precocious puberty are in fact also significant players in obesity, such as phthalates.10, 11, 12, 13 Even low levels of toxic chemicals (dioxins, PCBs, BPA, and phthalates) have been shown to cause metabolic changes in mice.

Perhaps the relationship between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and precocious puberty will be clearer in the near future, as the researchers in this latest longitudinal study plan to tackle the chemical exposure issue next.14 For a list of the top 10 chemicals that can potentially cause early puberty in your child, please refer to my previous article on this topic.

The Age of Onset of Puberty Has Dropped Four Years Since 1920

The age of puberty onset for both girls and boys has been steadily dropping throughout recorded history. According to German researchers,15 the onset of puberty for girls has shown the following disturbing trend over the past 150 years:

As you can see, the average age for girls has fallen by four years since 1920 and six years over the last century. The statistics for boys parallel those for girls, with a delay of about one year. According to another study in the journal Pediatrics,16 boys are now beginning sexual development anywhere from six months to two years earlier than the medically accepted standard. While some may shrug off the significance of this trend, it actually has quite profound implications as it can adversely affect your child’s physical and emotional development in a number of ways. Premature puberty has both physical and psychosocial implications that may potentially affect your child well into adulthood—in fact, for the rest of his or her life.

The Physical Consequences of Precocious Puberty

Early onset puberty has been found to have a number of problematic effects. In terms of the physical, your child may have increased risk for the following:

• Hormone-related cancers later in life for girls reaching puberty early, such as breast cancer, due to the early rise in estrogen
• Some have suggested early puberty may be linked to thyroid abnormalities, brain tumors, and testicular cancer in boys, although these effects have not been proven17, 18
• Short stature as adults—once puberty completes, growth generally stops

Far-Reaching Psychological Effects

Perhaps even more concerning are the psychosocial effects of premature puberty. An article containing an extensive review of the literature about the psychosocial effects of precocious puberty reveals just how potentially damaging early sexual development is to your child. When your child’s physical body matures too early, there is not enough time for her mind to adjust to those changes, often producing feelings of fear, confusion, and social isolation.19 The authors explain:

“Early maturation ignites a series of negative environmental responses that influence the course of future development. For example, precocious maturation may cause peers to behave differently towards early maturing girls, which results in social difficulties and feelings of isolation. Early developing girls may seek out friends who are similarly mature or find themselves attracted to older boys, both of which might result in weakening peer relationships.”

As a result of this increased stress, children experiencing early puberty have been shown to have an increased risk for a variety of social, emotional, and behavioral problems, as outlined in the following table. You will see that the effects are truly far reaching and can forever change the course of your child’s life. This is not intended to scare you or bring doom and gloom, but to raise your awareness in the event your child is an early maturer, so that you can provide her the emotional support needed to deal with it. If she reaches puberty ahead of schedule, you will need to be especially aware of and sensitive to her unique developmental needs and challenges.

Tips for Preventing Obesity and Reducing Exposure to Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals

As you can see, precocious puberty is much more than an incidental trend. You can minimize problems by taking steps to optimize your child’s physical and emotional health, beginning the day she is born—or failing that, beginning today! In addition to avoiding excess sugar, junk food, and toxic products, make sure your children get adequate exercise, which is crucial in preventing them from becoming overweight or obese. Physical activity is important for both physical and mental health.

You can cut back on your family’s exposure to dangerous chemicals by implementing the following 16 guidelines. Pregnant women and women who may become pregnant should pay particular attention to reducing their exposure as much as possible, in order to protect the health of their unborn babies.

1. Eat fresh, whole, non-GMO, preferably organic produce and free-range, organic meats to reduce your exposure to added hormones, pesticides, and fertilizers. Also, avoid milk and other dairy products that contain the genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST). Processed, prepackaged foods are a major source of soy and chemicals such as BPA and phthalates.
2. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury (which also has hormone-disrupting effects), supplement with a high-quality purified krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is about the only fish I eat for these reasons.
3. Filter your tap water—both for drinking and bathing. In fact, if you can only afford to do one, filtering your bath water may be more important, as your skin absorbs contaminants. To remove the endocrine disrupting herbicide Atrazine, make sure the filter is certified to remove it.
4. Avoid non-fermented soy, especially if you’re pregnant. Also, never use soy-based infant formula.
5. Optimize your (and your child’s) vitamin D levels. A 2011 study found that girls who are vitamin D deficient may be more than twice as susceptible to premature puberty as girls with optimal vitamin D levels.
6. Store your food and beverages in glass rather than plastic containers, and avoid using plastic wrap and canned foods (which are often lined with BPA-containing liners).
7. Use glass baby bottles and BPA-free Sippy cups for your little ones, and never, ever, ever microwave your child’s food in plastic containers. (It’s best to avoid microwaving food altogether.)
8. Make sure your baby’s toys are BPA-free, such as pacifiers, teething rings, and anything your child may put in her mouth.
9. Use only natural cleaning products in your home to avoid phthalates and other toxic ingredients.
10. Switch over to natural brands of toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, and cosmetics. Avoid all fluoride-containing products and fluoridated water. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database21 is a great resource for finding personal care products that are free of phthalates, parabens, and other potentially dangerous chemicals.
11. Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners, and synthetic fragrances.
12. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
13. When remodeling your home, look for “green,” toxin-free alternatives in lieu of regular paint and vinyl floor coverings.
14. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with a fabric one.
15. When buying new products such as furniture, mattresses, and infant cribs, or carpet padding, ask what type of fire retardant it contains. Be mindful of and/or avoid items containing PBDEs, antimony, formaldehyde, boric acid, and other brominated chemicals—all of which can have an adverse effect on your hormones. As you replace these toxic items around your home, select those that contain naturally less flammable materials, such as leather, wool, and cotton.
16. Avoid stain- and water-resistant clothing, furniture, and carpets to avoid perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).

(NaturalNews – Julie Wilson) The food industry is a sophisticated, calculating and very profitable enterprise that preys on consumer weaknesses, ones they’ve strategically created.

Food sellers have one priority when it comes to consumers, and it’s not their health, but rather assurance. They need you to keep coming back for more, and they achieve this by constructing foods, especially processed foods, with three critical ingredients.

The perfect combination of salt, sugar and fat makes food taste irresistible, triggering intense cravings in the brain. “Salt, sugar and fat are the three pillars of the processed food industry,” said Michael Moss, a New York Times reporter who has investigated the secrets of the food industry’s scientists.

“And while the industry hates the world ‘addiction’ more than any other word, the fact of the matter is, their research has shown them that when they hit the very perfect amounts of each of those ingredients… they will have us buy more, eat more.”

Teams of chemists, physicists and neuroscientists work diligently to develop foods that we can’t stop eating. These perfectly engineered products don’t just leave us craving more but can change the way we feel about healthy foods.

Proof that junk food makes us want fruits and veggies less

Excessive consumption of junk food can change behavior, weaken self-control and lead to overeating and obesity, according to a study by the School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Australia.

Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, researchers discovered that feeding rats junk food made them fat and reduced their appetite for “novel foods.” Led by Professor Margaret Morris, experts taught young male rats to associate two different sound cues with flavors of sugar water — cherry and grape.

The rats raised on a healthy diet stopped responding to the cues linked to a flavor after having recently indulged in one of them. This biological signal is hardwired into animals, protecting them from overeating and promoting a balanced diet.

Rats that ate a diet filled with junk food for two weeks, including cookies, cakes, pie and dumplings, increased their weight by 10 percent and changed their behavior “dramatically.”

The rats “became indifferent in their food choices and no longer avoided the sound advertising the overfamiliar taste. This indicated that they had lost their natural preference for novelty,” the study observed.

Even after being back on a healthy diet, the behavior continued for quite some time, leading researchers to suggest that junk food causes lasting changes in the reward circuit parts of the rats’ brains.

The orbitofrontal cortex, an area of the brain containing the secondary taste cortex, is responsible for representing the reward value of taste. The food industry has learned to manipulate this decision-making process by using tactics that enhance food appeal.

The “crunch” factor is an important one. Studies show that people associate crunchy food with being more fresh or crispier. The louder the crunch, the better — at least in the food industry’s mind.

Food texture in general plays a big role in our desire to eat. Scientists working for Nestle developed oval-shaped chocolate, designed to melt more smoothly in the mouth, as opposed to rough-edged chocolate bars.

Flavor enhancers are one of the industry’s biggest secrets. Designed to keep their texture, boxed foods contain many ingredients that have nothing to do with taste, but instead preservation.

“Ingredients like that are kind of bundled under what may seem like relatively innocuous labels like ‘natural flavours’ or even ‘artificial flavours,’ when truly they are much more surprising when consumers really understand what it is,” said Bruce Bradley, a former food executive who worked for General Mills, Pillsbury and Nabisco.

“There’s tremendous amounts of money spent behind creating tastes and smells that feel real but in reality are completely artificial.”

Additional sources:
http://www.cbc.ca
http://www.eurekalert.org
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://www.nytimes.com
http://science.naturalnews.com

(DrFrankLipman – Frank Lipman) Though America still eats more meat than any virtually other country in the world, consumption at home has been on a downward slide for the past several years. Concerns about factory farming methods and its environmental impact; animal welfare; potential health risks as well as the Meatless Monday movement, all have helped fuel the slide. And while some have cut out meat altogether, many people have simply swapped cows for chicken, thinking it a healthier or earth-friendlier option. Not surprisingly, the switchover to chicken has increased demand and the poultry industry has answered the call, in a way that’s anything but healthy for man or bird. In short, chicken’s got problems – and if you’re a poultry-eater, so do you. Let’s break it down:

Factory-farmed Chicken – It’s For The Birds

Factory-farmed chicken, aka Big Chicken, is the stuff of nightmares: over-stuffed coops, floors covered with excrement and thousands of live animals packed so tightly they’re barely able move, much less engage in comfort behaviors like pecking, wing-stretching or simply walking. The result: stressed-out chickens with reduced immunity to the illnesses that rip through over-crowded facilities. The sick birds (and often the well ones) receive multiple courses of antibiotics, traces of which eventually wind up in our bodies, and over time contribute to antibiotic resistance. In short, nothing good is happening down on the ol’ Big Chicken farm.

Factory-farmed Chicken Poisons People and the Environment
The U.S. raises roughly 10 billion chickens a year, which generate billions of pounds of excrement annually. While some is used as fertilizer, there’s literally tons more waste, which, no matter how well-managed, still tends to “spillover,” contaminating air, land and water. And poultry processing is pretty tough on people too.

Workers face daily exposure to the toxic chemicals used to clean and disinfect poultry, which often trigger severe respiratory problems, sinus troubles, rashes and burns. If that weren’t enough, poultry production is also indefensibly and insanely wasteful: it’s estimated that it takes roughly 700 gallons of water and 6 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of chicken meat. Is this any way to spend our precious resources?

What the Cluck? Your Chicken’s Going to China – And Back

In what must be one of the looniest pieces of legislation ever, late this past August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, perhaps thinking everyone was on vacation and wouldn’t notice, cleared the way for your birds to go on an all-expense paid trip from the U.S. to China and back. In China the chicken will be cooked, packaged, and then shipped back to the U.S for sale. Given China’s questionable track record on food safety, this seems like one of the most wasteful and potentially dangerous chicken-processing schemes ever devised. I urge you to fight back by refusing to buy pre-cooked, ready-to-serve or heat ‘n eat, processed chicken products – no matter how much the kids protest!

Connect With Your Chicken – And Look For Pasture-raised

While raising your own chickens is fantastic for those who can, chances are you’re not one of them. The next best thing is to get to know a local chicken producer from whom you can source fresh, pasture-raised birds. You’ll find them through your local farmers market, health food store, food cooperative or CSA – or visit localharvest.com for lists of small-scale, local and organic farms. An added bonus with these types of extra healthy birds: feel free to eat the skin! For years we’ve been brainwashed into thinking skin is bad but if it’s from healthy, pasture-raised chickens, it’s all good, as they say. If it comes from one of the aforementioned good, clean, toxin-free sources, the saturated fat found in chicken is not bad for you – so enjoy that chicken skin you’ve been denying yourself all these years.

Know Your Chicken Lingo!

If you must go the supermarket route, then bone up on the sometimes confusing terminology and buy the best chicken you can afford:

Certified organic is top of the supermarket health heap and pricey, in part because it means no drugs, antibiotics, chemical additives or pesticides. It also means feed without animal by-products and some daily exercise.

Certified humane and handled means your chicken’s been raised according to standards that require ample space, shelter and gentle handling to limit stress, and it prohibits the use of antibiotics and additives.

Free range means the chickens get to go to an outside, fenced-in pen every day, though there’s no requirement for how much time they spend outdoors.

Raised without antibiotics means just that, but it doesn’t mean drug-free – these chickens are allowed to be dosed with other meds.

Raised without hormones is a label you may often see, but it’s fairly meaningless, as the USDA doesn’t allow their use in chicken in the first place. (Hormones are more commonly used in beef.)

Natural or farm-raised are fairly useless terms, which tells consumers nothing about the way the chicken was raised, what it was fed or if it was treated with meds and antibiotics. Assume these chickens are the most industrial of all!

Take a Page From Grandma and Lighten Up

With the rise of Big Chicken and availability of cheap, plentiful, low-quality factory-farmed birds, we’ve come to expect a chicken in every pot, every day. Look back just a generation or two and you’ll see that for some of our parents and many of our grandparents, poultry was a special occasion treat, not an every day event. Perhaps it’s time we take a page from Granny’s book and start cutting back on chicken consumption to help the environment, the animals, the workers and ourselves. Here are a few suggestions on how to get the ball rolling:

Consider taking part in the Meatless Mondays movement, and add your own Chicken-free Thursdays to help broaden your culinary horizons, be kinder to the earth and to support healthy gut bacteria.

Think of chicken as the side show, not the main event….when you do eat chicken, eat smaller amounts.

Remember, if you are scaling back on animal products, do so without trying to fill up on processed non-meat alternatives, which tend to be full of health-sapping additives and preservatives.

BOTTOM LINE: I encourage you to buy the best, healthiest, freshest, pasture-raised, organic poultry (and meats, too!) possible – and savor every bite.

(NaturalNews – Cindy L. Tjol) For those living in US, about 70 percent of the processed foods one consumes daily actually contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Should this be of concern? Yes! Studies, few as there are, show a strong link between GM-foods and cancer. And it is time to learn about them.

Proponents of GM-foods have been claiming that these “new foods” are safe, but they are actually backed by little or no evidence, except the argument that GM-foods are “substantially equivalent” to non-modified foods so they can be regarded as safe as the latter. At the same time, studies indicating the ill-effects of GM-foods on human health are often hijacked before their completion, or denounced if leaked into the open. It is no wonder that many people are taken aback by the horrendous findings on GM-foods below.

GM-foods and nutritional deficiency

The GM process often results (unintentionally) in the disruption of functioning genes in the genetically modified organism. In other words, while the GM-tomato may look like the “real” thing, it could actually be totally different in substance and nutritional value from its original form, because the genes that give the tomato its very nature have been altered.

Indeed, the existing few studies that analyzed GM-foods already on the market found that these modified foods were significantly lower in nutritional value than non-GM-foods. This means that the long-term consumption of mainly GM-foods in one’s diet could bring about nutritional deficiencies. And when it comes to cancer, nutritional deficiencies have been found to be a major contributing factor.

GM-foods and toxic genes

The only human feeding study on GM-soybeans found that a gene inserted into soybean to make it herbicide-tolerant spontaneously transferred out of the soybean into the DNA of intestinal bacteria in the human subjects. This means that even if the subjects stop eating GM-soybeans, the bacteria in their guts will continue to produce the herbicide-tolerant protein in their bodies.

Imagine what happens then when GM-corn with a gene inserted for producing a pesticide are eaten. One’s gut bacteria could ensure a lifetime supply of the pesticide, even if one diligently keeps away from crops grown with chemicals. And if this pesticide can kill insects, over the long-term, it is not inconceivable that it can kill a human, if not bring about degenerative diseases like cancer.

Indeed, there had been many reports of farm animals dying from consuming GM-crops inserted with the Bacillus-thuringiensis-pesticide-producing gene.

And in what is considered the first ever published study on the long term effects of consuming GM-foods, Gilles-Eric Seralini (from the University of Caen) and his team found that rats developed huge tumors, incurred widespread organ damage and eventually died prematurely, after ingesting GM-corn and trace levels of a chemical fertilizer (known as Roundup) often used with GM-crops.

GM-crops and farming chemicals

Designed to be tolerant of larger quantities of herbicides and other farming chemicals, GM-crops actually allow for more of these chemicals to be used to increase yields. A study on more than 8,000 university-based field trials found that farms cultivating GM-soybeans (known as Roundup Ready soybeans) actually use 2 to 5 times more herbicides (i.e. Roundup) than farms using traditional weed control.

This means that even if the above harms of GM-foods were not consequential (but they are), the amount of farming chemicals used in growing GM-crops would be enough to poison a person. And not surprisingly, farming chemicals like herbicides and pesticides are found to directly cause cancer, if not death.

Moral of the story: Stay as far away from GM-foods as to lower the risk of cancer.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://truthwiki.org
Bollinger, Ty. Cancer: Step Outside The Box. 5th ed. USA: Infinity 510 510 Partners, 2011. Print.
Mercola, Joseph, Dr., and Pearsall, Kendra, Dr. Take Control of Your Health. Schaumburg, IL: Mercola.com, 2007. Print.
Murray, Michael, ND., Pizzorno, Joseph, ND., and Pizzorno, Lara, MA, LMT. The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2005. Print.

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

(DrFrankLipman – Frank Lipman) These days, just about everything is mass-produced, including our food, with large, factory-style farms churning out a seemingly endless supply of meat, chickens, eggs and dairy products. All that mass production equals abundance and lower prices, but if those factory-farmed products are eroding your health, is the savings really worth it? Not in my book. Here’s what’s really going on with mass-produced meats and why you should steer clear:

1. Factory-farmed animals eat crap. Literally.

To keep production costs low, animals raised in factory farms are fed the cheapest possible grains and feeds containing among other things, “by-product feedstuff, ” which begs the question, what’s feedstuff? It’s a nausea-inducing assortment of disturbing ingredients, including municipal garbage, stale cookies, poultry manure, chicken feathers, bubble gum and even restaurant waste. So, when you eat factory-farmed animals, you’re also getting an unintentional serving of “feedstuff.” In short, their bad diet becomes your bad diet – which is counter-productive to your health.

2. Bad diets make for sick animals – and people too.

Cud-chewing critters such as cattle, dairy cows, goats, bison and sheep were designed to eat fibrous grasses, plants, and shrubs—not starchy, low-fiber grains and feedstuffs. When these animals are switched from pasture greenery to grains, many wind up suffering from a number of disorders and painful conditions. The sickened animals are then given chemical additives, plus constant, low-level doses of antibiotics. Their drugs in turn enter your system when you eat antibiotic-treated animals, setting the stage for drug-resistance in your body, particularly if you’re a heavy-duty carnivore.

3. Lousy ingredients won’t create a nutritious product.

It should come as no surprise that animals fed a crappy diet will make for a less nutritious meal. Compared to grass-fed, factory-farmed, grain-fed meats have less vitamin E, beta-carotene, and little of the two health-promoting fats called omega-3 fatty acids and “conjugated linoleic acid,” or CLA. So what’s the end-result of the feed-’em-fast-and-cheap factory farmed method? Inferior food with negligible nutrients and more of the unhealthy fats. Small wonder the stuff is so much cheaper than grass-fed.

4. Stress hurts everyone.

If your goal is to sustain wellness, factory-farmed products just don’t deliver the nutritional goods. In factory farms, chickens, turkeys, and pigs are typically raised in inhumane conditions, tightly packed into cages and pens, unable to practice normal behaviors, such as rooting, grazing, and roosting. In these conditions, the animals get stressed and wind up producing products that are lower in a number of key vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids – talk about empty calories!

5. Factory farming pollutes the earth.

In a conventional feedlot operation, for example, confined cattle deposit large amounts of manure in a small amount of space. The manure must be collected and removed. As it costs money to haul it away, the manure is often dumped nearby, close to the feedlot. As a result, the surrounding soil gets over-saturated with the stuff, resulting in ground and water pollution. But when animals are raised on pasture, their manure is a welcome source of organic fertilizer, not a “waste management problem.” Bottom line: raising animals on pasture is kinder to the environment.

In short, though factory farming enables us to have plenty of cheap and convenient food, it’s food with little nutritional benefit, that can increase your resistance to antibiotics as it pollutes your air, land and water. With so little going for it, doesn’t it seem slightly crazy to eat factory-farmed meats? It does certainly does to me – which is why I strongly suggest that if you’re going to eat meat, buy the good stuff, even if it means having to pay a bit more or buy less of it. Choose grass-fed beef, lamb, bison and poultry, to insure that you’re eating nutritious and healthy meats, as nature intended.

To learn more about what to look for when buying meat, check out my post on meat labeling and for some additional inspiration, check out this animation movie about the meat you eat at themeatrix.com.