Think yogurt is healthy?

It's not a diet food or a health food

The video...



There are people who have cut out other dairy products but still eat yogurt and consider it a healthy choice. Yogurt has been sold as a "diet" food that can help you lose weight and keep you healthy. There are many reasons why the typical yogurt brands don't do either. Most yogurts are loaded with either sugar or artificial sweeteners. The sugar counteracts the probiotic effects of the yogurt, and the artificial sweeteners....well, take a look at our videos on artificial sweeteners for more about that. This applies to nondairy yogurts too! Do you know what you're getting in your yogurt?

How food is making us sick What we can do about it

One woman's journey from "typical" food

to Real Food evangelist

Robyn O'Brien shares her personal story and how it inspired her current path as a "Real Food" evangelist. The New York Times has called her "food's Erin Brockovich." Grounded in a successful Wall Street career that was more interested in food as good business than good-for-you, this mother of four was shaken awake by the dangerous allergic reaction of one of her children to a "typical" breakfast. Her mission to unearth the cause revealed more about the food industry than she could stomach, and impelled her to share her findings with others. Informative and inspiring. - See more at: http://www.therealfoodchannel.com/videos/inspiration/how-food-is-making-us-sick.html#sthash.XZx2fCaD.dpuf

Natural antibiotics to stockpile now: 10 herbs and foods that kill superbugs

(NaturalNews) Longtime readers of Natural News know that, because of massive over-prescribing by the modern healthcare industry, today's crop of antibiotics are becoming less and less effective. Another culprit: The increased use of antibiotics in factory-farm animals.

"It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them," warned Alexander Fleming, the creator of the first antibiotic, penicillin, back in 1945 when he received his Nobel Prize for medicine. "There is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."

And while bacteria have been a part of "life" on Earth for humans since the dawn of time, constant exposure to antibiotics -- which kill even "good" bacteria -- is responsible for the rise of superbugs that are resistant to an increasing number antibiotic drugs.

With that in mind, and before you find yourself in dire need of something that will kill the superbugs, here are 10 herbs and foods that will do the job naturally:

-- Honey: In a recently released study, researchers from the Salve Regina University in Newport, Rode Island, reaffirmed that raw honey is one of the best natural antibiotics you can have.

Lead author Susan M. Meschwitz, Ph.D., presented the findings at the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

"The unique property of honey lies in its ability to fight infection on multiple levels, making it more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance," she said.

Honey uses a combination of weapons including polyphenols, hydrogen peroxide and an osmotic effect. Honey is practically an ambidextrous fighter, using multiple modalities to kill bacteria.

-- Colloidal silver: As noted by Gregory A. Gore, in his book, Defeat Cancer:

Silver was used 1,200 years ago by Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, sailors, and then by the pioneers who populated our country. They used it for various illnesses and to keep their foods and liquids from spoiling. Prior to 1938, before antibiotics, colloidal silver was used by doctors as their main substance to fight bacteria in a more natural way than through the antibiotics they use today. Antibiotics can harm our kidneys and liver functions. Colloidal silver promotes healing.

-- Pascalite: This is a type of bentonite clay found only in the mountains of Wyoming. It possesses remarkable healing powers. When it is used topically, it is known for its ability to draw infections from wounds in a matter of hours or days, thereby bringing about total recovery. The first recorded use of Pascalite was in the early 1930s when a trapper named Emile Pascal set his traps near a cold, clear mountain lake, where he had noticed a large number of animal tracks; after getting some of it on his chapped hands, he noticed some time later that it appeared to help them. So he continued to experiment with the substance and found that it had a number of topical uses, including for burns, minor wounds and infections.

-- Turmeric: This herb has been used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for many thousands of years to treat a wide range of infections. The antibacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities have been known to be highly effective in the treatment of bacterial infections. It can also be used topically for MRSA and additional lesions of the skin.

-- Oil of Oregano: This is an essential oil known best for its bacteria-killing abilities, as well as controlling staph infections like MRSA. It contains antioxidant, antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiparasitic and pain-relieving properties. In 2001, Science Daily reported on a Georgetown University study which found that oregano oil's germ-killing properties were nearly as effective as most antibiotics.

-- Tea tree oil: This is also a very potent and essential oil that has been shown to be effective in killing antibiotic-resistant MRSA on the skin. One important note: Therapeutic-grade tea tree oil must be used undiluted if it is to be used for this purpose.

-- Olive leaf extract: This substance has been used for a number of centuries to battle bacterial infections and is now currently being used as well to fight MRSA infections in some European hospitals. It provides immune system support while fighting antibiotic-resistant infections.

-- Garlic: This tasteful seasoning veggie has been used for medicinal purposes around the world for thousands of years. It was even used in the 1700s to ward off the plague. It possesses very potent antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal properties.

-- Echinacea: This compound has been used to treat aging and a wide variety of infections for centuries. It was traditionally used to treat open wounds, as well as blood poisoning, diphtheria and other bacteria-related illnesses. Today, it is used mostly to treat colds and flu.

-- Goldenseal: This is one of the most popular herbs sold on the American market and has recently gained a reputation as an herbal antibiotic and immune system enhancer. American Indians used goldenseal as a medication for inflammatory internal conditions such as respiratory, digestive and genitourinary tract inflammation induced by allergy or infection, according to Herbwisdom.com.

Sources:

http://theweek.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalpedia.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com

http://www.herbwisdom.com

http://www.acs.org

http://science.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045584_natural_antibiotics_superbugs_herbal_medicine.html#ixzz34nbAtNFc

Vitamin D deficiency causes weight gain; here's how to drop the pounds effortlessly by boosting your vitamin supplementation

(NaturalNews) For years, the mathematical equation offered to those trying to lose weight seemed simple enough: Burn more calories than you consume. Piece of cake, right? Unfortunately, as with almost everything concerning the human body, it's not quite as simple as that. Over the years, more and more scientific evidence leaks out -- confirming what many of us have suspected all along -- that proves that weight gain and loss is affected by many, many factors. Among them: genetics, gender, age, hormones, stress levels, exposure to toxins and many health conditions. Even social and environmental factors can come into play.

Vitamin D deficiency causes weight gain

More than one of the most recent studies about weight gain has linked it to a vitamin D deficiency. A study reported by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) (1) found that women whose blood levels of vitamin D reached healthy levels through supplementation during a diet and exercise program lost more weight than those whose blood levels did not. Another study, also published by AJCN (2), showed that the benefits of weight loss -- lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar and insulin levels, and lower blood lipid levels -- were increased in participants who took calcium and vitamin D during their weight-loss program. Still, another study, reported on at SCIENCE.NaturalNews.com (3), showed that people of Asian Indian decent were much more susceptible to obesity and insulin resistance when they were deficient in vitamin D.

The link between vitamin D and weight loss is not clearly understood. Some scientist speculate that special vitamin D receptors on fat cells tell them whether they should be burned as energy or stored as excess body weight. Receptor cells in the brain that control metabolism and hunger levels may need vitamin D to function properly as well.

Vitamin D has also been shown to reduce the systemic inflammation that is associated with being overweight. So, even if you cannot lose as much weight as you would like, having adequate vitamin D levels lessens the stress on your body and, therefore, the harmful effects of carrying extra body weight.

Other vitamin D deficiency factors to consider

Besides weight gain, vitamin D deficiencies have been linked to many other diseases, some of which can also lead to gaining extra pounds. Low blood levels of vitamin D have been linked to depression, for example, and the fatigue and listlessness of depression can lead to inactivity which can, in turn, contribute to weight gain. Vitamin D deficiencies have also been linked to poor blood-sugar control in the body. This can contribute to both weight gain and the risk of developing diabetes.

Serious conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis (MS) have also been linked to inadequate levels of vitamin D, and the resulting inactivity can lead to weight gain which can, in turn, exacerbate the symptoms of both of these conditions. Both RA and MS are sometimes treated with prednisone, a corticosteroid whose side effects include weight gain.

The best sources

According to The World's Healthiest Foods (4), the best dietary sources of vitamin D include fatty fish such as cod, tuna, mackerel and salmon. Cow's milk and eggs also have vitamin D. Some mushrooms, especially if they've been exposed to ultraviolet light, are also a good source of this important vitamin.

While your skin can manufacture D from sunlight, many factors can slow this process: the season, the weather, how far north you live, pollution levels and even the use of sunscreen. Most people will need to take dietary supplements to reach the recommended levels.

Other weight-loss tips

There is no magic pill when it comes to dieting. Even though adding vitamin D supplementation to your routine can be a great first step toward shedding unwanted pounds, don't forget to make other sensible changes to your lifestyle as well. Try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise five or six times a week, for example. You should also cut processed sugars from your diet and eat lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Replace animal fats in your diet, as well -- such as those found in red meat, milk and cheese -- with heart- and waistline-loving polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils like those found in olive oil and avocados.

Sources:

1) http://ajcn.nutrition.org

2) http://ajcn.nutrition.org

3) http://science.naturalnews.com

4) http://whfoods.org

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045575_vitamin_D_deficiency_weight_gain_nutritional_solutions.html#ixzz34naSdKw7

The global food system

Impact of global food production

on our children and on the planet

The video

According to Joan Gussow's Wikipedia bio: Joan Dye Gussow, EdD, is Mary Swartz Rose Professor emerita and former chair of the Nutrition Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University,[2] where she has been a long-time analyst and critic of the U.S. food system. In her classic 1978 book The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology, which tracked the environmental hazards of an increasingly globalizing food system, she foreshadowed by several decades the current interest in relocalizing the food supply. For decades, Joan Gussow has been an observer of the food system and of the effects of poor nutrition on our children. She has been instrumental in the movement toward local farming.

Chinese herbal medicine can treat cancer safely and effectively

(NaturalNews) Australia's University of Western Sydney and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine recently conducted a large, retrospective review of thousands of studies and "hundreds of thousands of cancer patients" which proved that Chinese herbal medicine is indeed a viable treatment for almost all cancers.

The researchers intensely scrutinized lung, liver, stomach, breast, esophageal, colorectal and nasopharyngeal (throat and sinus) cancer. Breast cancer was the fourth most studied of all the cancers. The researchers analyzed and reviewed 2,964 human clinical studies that involved 253,434 mostly cancer patients. Among these were 2,385 randomized, controlled studies and 579 non-randomized, controlled studies.

In 90% of the clinical studies, Chinese herbal medicine was used. However, 72% of these cases used a combination of conventional allopathic treatment and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The remaining 28% used TCM exclusively and were considered experimental.

Among cancer patients, 64% were treated with a combination of conventional allopathic cancer treatment and TCM. The remaining cancer patients received TCM exclusively. However, roughly half of those patients (TCM only) had received allopathic cancer treatment in the past.

In the United States, acupuncture is frequently used merely adjunctively to alleviate pain and other side effects caused by cancer and the allopathic cancer treatments used to treat it. In contrast, China can rely on TCM as their conventional therapy for cancer.

Due to the sheer volume of the study, the results were understandably diverse based on these variables: type of study, type of treatment and the specific outcomes for which the researchers were testing.

Nevertheless, the TCM results were impressively undeniable. Based on 1,015 studies, a whopping 85% of the participants reported a decrease in cancer symptoms, especially pain. Significantly, an additional 883 studies exhibited a 70% increase in survival rates, as well as a 38% reduction in tumor size, a 28% improvement in quality of life, a 19% reduction in relapse and, finally, a 7% reduction in complications.

Other TCM studies with similar results

A previous smaller study was done by Norway's National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the University of Tromso, Norway, in conjunction with the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. The study included 716 trials and 1,198 cancer patients with the following cancers: leukemia, stomach cancer, liver cancer or esophageal cancer.

Again, the results were impressive for TCM; 98.5% of the study participants used TCM and reported an 85% reduction in symptoms.

Yet another much larger study was conducted by researchers from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and it included 1,217 clinical studies from 1958 to 2011 and 92,945 patients. Approximately 66% of the patients exclusively used TCM, and 34% used both TCM and conventional cancer treatment. And 82% of the patients were orally given herbal medicine.

The majority of the TCM patients, 95%, were administered only one type of herbal medicine, which in TCM usually means a traditionally based formula consisting of a precise combination of individual herbs that work synergistically to restore homeostasis generally and especially in the therapeutic target area.

This study concluded that the TCM patient studies exhibited an 88% across-the-board reduction in symptoms, including patients who were treated with only TMC. Survival rates increased 73%. The remaining study trials demonstrated a 96% reduction in symptoms overall, while cancer patients saw a 92% reduction in symptoms.

After thousands of scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of cancer patients, it's clear that TCM impressively improves a wide variety of debilitating diseases, including cancer.

Yet, there are many western allopathic doctors with media influence and bureaucratic clout who angrily maintain their medical monopoly by asserting that TCM and acupuncture provide only placebo effects.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.theepochtimes.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045570_Chinese_herbal_medicine_cancer_treatment_pain_relief.html#ixzz34dudQnos

Irrefutable proof we are all being sprayed with poison: 571 tons of toxic lead 'chemtrailed' into America's skies every year

(NaturalNews) America is being doused every minute of every day with the toxic heavy metal lead as it is burned in "avgas" -- aviation gas, the fuel that powers most piston-driven aircraft (i.e. anything with a propeller). A grand total of 571 tons of lead are dumped each year into the air over our heads from aircraft alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (1)

According to a scientific paper titled, "Lead and Halogen Contamination from Aviation Fuel Additives at Brackett Airfield," (2) X-Ray Fluorescence instrumentation was used to analyze lead, chlorine and bromine content in avgas liquids. The tests showed avgas contains the following:

Lead: 48 ppm
Bromine: 42.6 ppm
Chlorine: 605.2 ppm

Lead is a highly toxic heavy metals that causes bone diseases, brain damage and cancer. Chlorine is a highly-reactive chemical with powerful oxidative properties. The fact that both are being sprayed daily into the air above America is inexcusable.

964 tons of lead released into the air (from all sources)

How much lead is being "chemtrailed" across America due to aviation fuel? According to General Aviation News (3), about 681,000 gallons of avgas were burned each day in 2013.

Avgas weighs approximately 6 lbs per gallon, meaning over 4 million pounds of avgas is burned each day, or over 1.8 million kg of avgas.

If lead is 48 ppm in avgas, that means each kg of avgas contains 48 mg of lead. Multiplied by the 1.8 million kg of avgas burned each day, this means avgas fuel is emitting 86.4 kg of lead PER DAY in the skies over our heads. Over a year, that's 31,536 kg of lead dumped directly into our air, and that lead falls onto our farming soils, forests, lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, children's playgrounds, cattle ranches, and so on.

The National Emissions Inventory says that lead emissions are even higher than what I've calculated here. "Piston-engine aircraft are the chief source of lead emissions in the United States, emitting 57% of the 964 tons of lead put into the air in 2008, according to the most recent figures from the National Emissions Inventory," reports the NIH. (4)

Small aircraft pilots dismiss the problem

Some pilots seem inclined to dismiss this problem entirely. "I'm hooked on lead. Maybe not in the way a junkie is addicted to drugs, but hooked nonetheless," writes Air & Space Magazine columnist David Freed, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. (5) "The tetraethyl lead added to aviation fuel helps keep the engine of my four-seat, 48-year-old Piper Cherokee running smoothly. And that keeps me happy."

He goes on to lament the idea that cleaner lead-free fuels might make him unable to afford to fly: "We live in dread of fuel costs continuing to rise and of FAA airworthiness directives, which often require us to pay for expensive, usually safety-related modifications. Will a government-mandated switch to unleaded fuel ultimately break the bank, leaving us little recourse but to quit flying and sell our airplanes...?"

Later in his article, he does acknowledge that lead is a public health hazard, but he explains that his airplane contributes virtually nothing to the problem: "But is the exhaust from my airplane's 180-horsepower engine really that significant a national health threat...?" he asks. He's right that his one airplane isn't much of a factor in all this, but in a collective sense, if you combine all the piston-driven aircraft flown by pilots like Freed, it becomes a huge issue nationwide. Avgas emissions are the number one source of lead emissions into the skies of America.

(David Freed, by the way, is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Cordell Logan aviation mystery novels. He's a great writer and obviously a thoughtful, intelligent person... almost certainly a likeable guy and a valuable contributor to society in many ways as an investigative journalist. For example, he authored an 8,600-word expose in The Atlantic which detailed how "the FBI pursued the wrong suspect in a string of anthrax murders following 9/11." Obviously, this is the kind of investigative journalist we like to support in the mainstream media -- people who ask real questions and search for truth. So to be clear, I'm not attacking him in a personal sense over his article; I only hope he reconsiders the importance of the aviation industry getting the lead out of its fuels and thereby out of our skies. We need thoughtful, intelligent people on the leading edge of this issue if we ever hope to have lead-free avgas become a reality.)

As the following EPA chart shows, avgas is the No. 1 source of lead emissions, followed by "industry" in the No. 2 spot, then coal-fired power plants third ("electric generation").



By the way, where does all this lead end up? Much of it appears in the food supply, of course, because plants absorb lead from soils and grazing animals eat and concentrate toxins from plants. This is why heavy metals are often higher in milk or meat than in raw grass. It's also part of the reason why I keep finding lead in so many foods when I run atomic spectroscopy tests in my ICP-MS laboratory. Click here to see lead results on cacao, grasses, pet treats, protein products and more.

If I ever happen to fly airplanes, you can bet I'll find a way to burn unleaded gasoline. I'm not going to streak across the sky dumping toxic heavy metals into the atmosphere, especially since part of my current mission is to explore ways that society can develop cleaner food with lower heavy metals. Even better, I would hope to one day see a huge breakthrough in battery power density that could result in, believe it or not, electric airplanes. (Yes, it seems impossible today because it would require at least a 1000-fold increase in battery power density. But humans are really good at achieving remarkable breakthroughs, so I'm going to remain optimistic on this point and hope the scientists can find a far better way to store power than today's current old-school chemical batteries.)

Lead was removed from automobile gasoline by the EPA

As you explore all this, keep in mind that lead used to be added to regular gasoline for many decades. Lead helped engines run better and improved gas mileage. But it also resulted in millions of pounds of lead being dumped directly into the environment, increasing lead contamination of soils and causing people to inhale lead with every breath.

Children's IQs in America noticeably dropped during those "lead years," and IQs were restored to higher levels once lead was removed from gasoline. Today, it is illegal to add lead to gasoline and burn it in vehicles.

But it's perfectly legal to burn lead in aviation fuel. "Avgas is one of the few fuels in the United States that still contain lead, leaving it the single largest source of lead emissions in the country," reports the National Institutes of Health (4). "Concern over the health effects of lead has sparked a contentious effort to finally get the lead out of avgas -- something the aviation and petroleum industries have been attempting for more than two decades, to no avail."

The NIH goes on to describe the harmful effects of lead:

Lead is a well-documented neurotoxicant that is particularly harmful to children, who are typically exposed when they ingest or inhale lead-containing dust in the home. In recent years, serious harm to cognitive and behavioral functions including intelligence, attention, and motor skills has been demonstrated in children with much less lead in their blood than previously thought to cause harm, and it is now understood there is no safe level of lead exposure.

When will we decide to stop poisoning ourselves?

What's clear in all this is that as long as we keep burning lead in avgas, we're going to keep suffering the health effects on the ground. In an age where the academic achievements of American children are routinely overshadowed by children in India, China or Korea, the continued dumping of IQ-damaging lead into our atmosphere seems absurd. What you dump into the sky falls onto the soils and eventually makes its way into the food supply, too, so burning lead in airplanes sooner or later results is all of us eating lead on our dinner plates.

How big of a problem is this in the really big picture? Arguably it's not the most urgent problem we face. Even I would argue that our nation's power grid vulnerability to high-altitude EMP weapons is a far greater threat to us all (especially with North Korea playing around with long-range ballistic missiles carrying with nuclear weapons).

In an era when war seems to be breaking out in the Middle East, and the global banking system seems forever on the verge of collapse, it's difficult for society to focus on the more subtle (but chronic) long-term problems like lead in avgas. But this is a problem that can be solved with a phased switchover to mogas (unleaded fuel). All that's required is some leadership by the FAA and EPA working together to clean up our aviation industry and get the lead out of our skies.

Is it too much to ask that we stop dumping toxic lead into the skies above our own heads?

Sources for this story include:
(1) http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/net/2008inventor...
(2) www.naturalnews.com/files/Lead-Avgas-Airport...
(3) http://generalaviationnews.com/2013/01/02/pr...
(4) http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/121-a54/
(5) http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/the-...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045563_aviation_fuel_toxic_lead_heavy_metals_pollution.html#ixzz34dmVsYr6