This post should actually be called “The Politics of Nutrients.”

The reason for that is that food isn’t considered food anymore, so far as the media or governments or nutritionists are considered. At least that is what In Defense of Food states. Food has been deconstructed down to the point that oranges aren’t oranges anymore. Rather they are a source of Vitamin C. And tomatoes are a source of lycopene.

This technical terminology is used for a very important reason. The reason being that food, especially meat, can never been accused of hurting someone.

For example, cookies and crackers don’t cause cancer and heart disease. Oh no, it’s the trans fat in them. It’s a way of diffusing the blame.  Like, “that murderous thief isn’t bad, they just have a hard heart.”

In Defense of Foodstates that this all started in 1977 when a Senate Select Committe on Nutrition put out a report on health and diet. The research team had recommended that meat consumption be reduced since they had found that meat was the cause (at least a significant cause) of heart disease and other chronic diseases and cancers.

Senator George McGovern decided that this recommendation could not be released (he was, of course, highly influenced by the many meat farmers in his constituency) and formed his own reviewing committee that consisted of lawyers and journalists.

The report was retooled and released with the recommendation to reduce meat intake replaced with a recommendation to limit Saturated Fats.

Frankly, as well read as I am, I can never keep the fats straight. Polyunsaturated, trans, mono saturated, hydrogenated… it’s enough to make the head spin. So now consumers hear that saturated fats are bad for you but where do you find those? How do you keep them straight?

Wouldn’t it be easier to just say ‘meat causes heart disease” or “tomatoes help iron absorption”?

But that’s what those invested in meat or margarine, or Kraft Diner or whatever want you to think. If you are confused then you keep buying what you used to buy. Plus they use that ploy in another way. Have you ever seen eggs enriched with omega fatty acids? Or cheese with probiotics? Enrich something and the public will think it’s good for them. You could enrich cola and see “health conscious” people start drinking cola.

The benefit is never the same from eating an enriched product than from eating the real deal. If you want real vitamins etc. then eat your damn veggies. And, remember that there is nothing that our bodies need in meat. It is a nutritionally void food that raises the pH of your body and makes you more likely to get cancers or diseases. If you think that protein is an important enough reason to keep eating meat than keep eating yourself into a coronary! Cultures and countries that do not eat meat are much healthier and do not not suffer from heart disease and other diseases of affluence.

Another interesting factoid from the book was that in the last world war there was a ration on meat. When that happened the rate of heart disease and stroke etc. went down. Then when the war was over and meat consumption returned to normal the rates went back to their usual trend.

Food for thought…and only that! I certainly wouldn’t consider meat to be food for the body!

In my dream last night I was told by the receptionist of my obstetrician that I had breast cancer.

The thought that raced through my dream mind was that it was so unlikely since I didn’t possess the risk factors. By that, I mean that I don’t have a family history of breast cancer (which in most diseases and cancers only accounts for 3% of the overall risk) and I don’t eat the foods that are more apt to create an environment conducive for a tumor to grow.

I mentioned in a previous posts that a higher body pH (about 8 ) was the healthiest and that a high body pH would make the body an inhospitable place for germs etc. to thrive thus making you more resistant to sickness and disease.

I tested my own pH a while back and found it to be basic instead of acidic and I figure I am on the right track. Now, I don’t think I have breast cancer (fingers crossed ha ha ha), but, even those of us who try their best can fall victim to disease.

In my pH post I mentioned that the foods that lower your pH (into the acidic side) are animal products and processed foods. My family and I try to eat very little processed food, no eggs, no meat and very, very little dairy. Being pregnant (with two other little fellas) has made me very tired and more prone to cheating on our healthy diet. I have found myself eating more french fries and burritos than I used to. This has had a direct effect on my body pH and my overall health. For example, we have weaker immune systems after a bad food binge than we do when we eat well. I also have much more energy and clearer skin when I eat vegan than when I don’t.

But what about cancers? We think of these as non-preventable and non-reversible.

In The China Study PhD T. Colin Campbell states that in his forty years of lab work he has found that animals exposed to carcinogens in their food only developed cancer in the instances where they were also consuming animal proteins. A high animal protein diet was very conducive to cancer growth (100%) whereas a low protein diet showed less proliferance. When the protein was switched for plant proteins there were zero cases of cancer no matter how much protein was consumed.

He was also able to show that you could switch the already established cancer off and back on again by changing the animal protein in the diet to plant protein and vice versa. This means that even though it seems unlikely that you can reverse an already established tumour, you can certainly cause the cancer growth to stop and enter a period of remission. There are diseases (heart disease, diabetes etc.) where the damage can be reversed but I don’t think that we can truthfully say that of cancer at this point.

So it seems that the best diet for prevention is a vegan one composed of whole foods.

I also talked about gene expression very briefly about two months ago. Gene expression is the word use to explain how genes in our DNA may be able to predict where our genetic vulnerabilities are. For example, you aren’t supposed to get lung cancer if you don’t possess that “lung cancer gene.” This explains why a chronic smoker dodges the cancer bullet while his twelve year old daughter, who has never smoked but has been exposed to second hand smoke, gets lung cancer.

But unless you get a gene map done (and I haven’t the foggiest how expensive that would be) you won’t know where your vulnerabilities are. Therefore, your best bet would be to try to prevent disease in general.

Any kind of activity that can help boost your immune system, like getting adequate sunshine, sleep, fresh air, exercise, vitamins etc. should add years to your life.

It only makes sense that garbage in should equal garbage out so eat well and live long!

I have touched on the topic before and it is such a vast and controversial topic that I feared not being able to do it justice. But I can’t wait anymore. I am going to give you a crash course on vaccines and will direct you to more resources to further inform you, should you have the desire to do so.

Vaccines.

The first vaccine was the cowpox/smallpox vaccine created in 1796 by Edward Jenner. It was learned that if you infected a person with cowpox they would become immune to smallpox.

The premise of the vaccine is that you inject a weakened (or in some cases dead) form of the virus/disease that you are trying to develop immunity to into the body and that allows the body to quickly overtake the disease and build antibodies to it.

Immunity is a very complex system and no one really understands how it works. Most people understand the basic principle but no one understands why a vaccine can’t provide lifelong immunity. When you develop a disease and defeat that disease naturally, your body retains those antibodies and remains immune for life. With a vaccine the immunity wears off. No one know why.

This destines you to a lifetime of booster shots. This is where it gets silly.

Take Chickenpox. They are immunizing against it in small children (babies actually) now. So we will see a decrease in Chickenpox in children. This is stupid! Chickenpox is rarely dangerous when young children get it. The immunity provided by the vaccine has an expiration date. Most people do not keep their immunization schedules up to date after they leave school. Which means that by the time Chickenpox is at its most lethal the majority of people will be unprotected. This is nonsense!

It’s the same with the Hep B vaccine. Hep B is a disease that is contracted through intimate contact with another person or through the use of intravenous drugs. They give this vaccine to infants! The logic is that they want to get the kids immunized before they become sexually active. By the time they do become at risk they will require a booster shot. Why not start the first rounds of Hep B immunizations then? They won’t be protected in the future if you vaccinate that early anyways!

And the flu vaccine is one of my biggest pet peeves. The vaccine contains the three strands that lab workers guesstimate to be the big ticket strands for the year. So the flu vaccine is only effective IF you contract one of those three strands and IF you have developed antibodies (immunity) to it. If you don’t, you will still get the flu this year. So why inject yourself with mercury (which IS in the flu vaccine) for nothing?

This industry is about money! The bulk of the vaccines in a child’s immunization schedule are for disease that are of no direct threat to your child. You may say that the reason that they aren’t is because we have high vaccination rates and that it maintains “herd” immunity. Well, these charts (http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/web1.html) show that these diseases were eradicated by two causes: better hygiene and nutrition as well as the advent of better education for the management of sewage and food.

The idea of vaccines being the savior of the modern world is a little stretched. There is merit to vaccines, like in a pandemic situation, but the use of vaccines for every cough and sniffle (and by that I mean for illnesses like the flu and chickenpox!) is unwarranted.

Please take a break from my blog and read these stats from this website: http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/web2.html They are very informative and will give you a clear picture of the actually efficacy and safety of vaccines.

The other problem with mass vaccination (like that done to children and babies and that done during the flu season) is that it isn’t safe! The Vaccination Dilemma (see resources) states that over 400 babies die every year from vaccine side effects (like encephalitis). Add to that the hundreds of babies who develop autism or are damaged in some other way (think liver or brain damage) and you are wracking up quite a toll of damage. The vaccines are tested on healthy children in controlled trials but when they are administered to the mass populace they are administered to those who have weakened immune systems from a sickness or disease, as well as premature babies, babies and children who are underweight etc.

These babies are not able to tolerate the assault of these dangerous injections. Injections that contain ingredients like aluminum, mercury and antifreeze. These are used as preservatives to keep the vaccine fresh and alive but even in high school biology they teach you that these heavy metals are not expelled from the body. Just like the mercury found in fish flesh, we have mercury trapped in our bodies too. These can result in a plethora of problems either immediately or in the future. See this website for a list of toxins found in vaccines: http://www.vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/may2001/whatsinvax.htm

Add to that the chance that the vaccine may not provide immunity and the case for mass immunization starts to look a little weak! This link shows historical evidence that vaccines can fail to provide immunity: http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/web2.html

 Vaccines and the diseases they are supposed to protect us from, both have risks. As a parent you need to become educated and decide what course of action you will take. Some vaccines are moreso associated with problems (ie. MMR vaccine and autism) than others and you may want to pick and choose what, if any, vaccines you want to give your child. The MMR vaccine is a combination vaccine containing Measles, Mumps and Rubella. If you want to immunize for these one at a time or leave out one entirely you should talk to your doctor or public health nurse about getting them in singles instead of the combo.

You need to do your own research because your doctors and nurses are bound to tell you only one side of the story. A nurse in the David Thomson Health Region in Alberta was fired for encouraging parents to look at the ingredients in the vaccines they were told to give to their children.

After a long legal battle she was re-hired because, apparently, it’s unethical to fire someone for encouraging parents to become informed. Her name is Bea Campbell and I had the opportunity to hear her speak two or three years ago.

I also have a close friend who is a newly graduated nurse. When I asked her what she was taught in school about vaccines her response was, “basically that it’s good and that we should do it.”

Wowsers! If you want truth you will need to go on this journey alone. Good luck! 

 

Resources:

National Vaccine Information Centre: http://www.909shot.com/ This website offers information about the vaccines and about the disease that they are supposed to protect us from. You can evaluate the risks of both and make a decision that is informed!

Vaccine Risk Awareness Network: http://www.vran.org/

www.vaccinationdebate.com/ This website has charts, articles, case studies and lots of other information to help you learn more about these little needles.

A Shot in the Dark http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Dark-H-Coulter/dp/089529463X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225814604&sr=1-1

The Vaccination Dilemma (a compilation of stats and articles from all over. There are some great charts in here about the actual risk of the vaccine versus the risk on contracting the disease). http://www.amazon.com/Vaccination-Dilemma-Christine-Murphy/dp/1930051107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225814721&sr=1-1 

Kids-First: Health with no interference by Dr. Ogi Ressel http://www.amazon.com/Kids-First-Health-No-Interference/dp/0970111088

Global Vaccine Institute: www.thinktwice.com

Other books from Amazon (there are hundreds of books out there): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=A+shot+in+the+dark

How important is a healthy digestive system? VERY!

Digestion is more that just creating waste from the food we eat. It starts right in our mouths where saliva helps to break our food down. When I was in high school our teacher told us to put an unsalted soda cracker on our tongues. We were told to just let it sit there; not chew it. The saliva in your mouth will begin to soften it and break it down. It will actually make the cracker start to taste sweet as the breaking down process releases sugars from the cracker.

The food then travels down from the mouth to the stomach (I am going to skip some of the obvious details) and in the stomach is mashed by the textured lining of your stomach and further broken down by our stomach acid.

When the stomach is done its work the “food” will move down into the intestines where most of the absorption process takes place. The success of this phase is crucial because it is here that the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs are expelled from your food.

So, just as important as the foods you eat is your body’s ability to get what it needs from your food. You need to make sure that your intestines have ample time to absorb the nutrients from your waste before it is passed out. You also don’t want to the waste to pass through too slowly.

What can you do to help your body digest better?

Fiber! Fiber keeps everything moving at the right pace. When you have adequate fiber in your diet, the food, and its toxins (from processing, pesticides, whatever) are moved out of the body instead of remaining within. This means you aren’t going to have toxins building up in your colon or toxins being re-absorbed back into the body. And the type of fiber you consume makes a difference too.

Psyllium fiber is great at making you more regular but it has no nutritional merit. If overdone, it can move food along too quickly and result in your feeling full but being nutritionally deficient.

Dietary fiber from salad, veggies etc. is really your best bet. Eating a diet with plenty of vegetables will ensure that your digestion runs at peak efficiency.

Meat is bad for your colon, stomach and just about every part of the digestion process. Our stomach acid doesn’t appear to be designed to handle meat. The actual meat-eaters (wild cats etc.) have a very short intestine (because meat is rather toxic and prolonged time in the intestine is unhealthy) and very acidic stomach acid. So meat will slow up your digestion, allowing more time for your body to become acidic and for your intestine to reabsorb garbage.

Well, science is now realizing that cancer can’t grown in an alkaline environment. So eating alkalizing foods are a great way to fight disease. Alkaline foods are veggies! Foods that cause your body to become acidic are processed foods and meat.

The ability of your body to absorb nutrients and vitamins and minerals is why the kinds of vitamins you take is important. I don’t believe in the synthetic vitamins you buy at the grocery store. These unnatural chemicals are harder for the body to assimilate into your body and they are harder to break down because they are recognized as foreign, or non-food. This is why artificial sweeteners are calorie free. The body doesn’t recognize them as food, which they aren’t, and doesn’t absorb them. At least that is what is supposed to happen. There have been studies that show that we don’t flush all of these chemical substances out which means that some of these chemicals are still floating around in our bodies doing God knows what kind of damage.

You want to buy a natural vitamin that is sourced from natural products. These will be recognized by the body and more readily absorbed.

So take care of your digestive system and pretty much everything else will fall into place naturally. Being “irregular” means there is something operating under par. I don’t believe that band-aid solutions, like eating bran cereals, are the answers. When you have problems with regularity, or are having stools that are too hard or way too soft, you need to adjust your overall diet.

Having an unhealthy digestion process will affect you if more ways than just nutrition. Poor digestions has other symptoms like dull hair, fatigue, overall malaise, trouble concentrating, bloating, constipation etc.

It’s very important that we eat well to be well!

My oh my, where to start.

Yahoo News had an article today about the dangers of eating microwaved food. Well, to be specific the article was talking specifically about meat. The article states that microwaves do not heat/cook meat evenly and can therefore leave pockets of salmonella etc. growing in your food.

I don’t own a microwave. I gave it away about two years ago because I was worried about the health effects of eating microwaved food. I read a study that claimed that your food remains “charged” and that when you test the bodies of people eating microwaved food, their bodies retain radiation from the food for hours after consumption. This is likely to be detrimental to health. I have also read that microwaving your food can destroy the protein as well as vitamins and minerals contained therein.

Our food is already depleted in vitamins and minerals. Do we really need to further deprive our bodies of necessary nutrition by choosing the wrong methods of cooking our food?

To add to the point of salmonella etc. mentioned above I also wanted to talk about the listeria outbreak in Canada (which has as of yesterday claimed 20 lives). This outbreak is originating from a deli meat company in Quebec. This is noteworthy because the Conservative government has played a large role in the deregulation of safety testing in this field and the outcome has been less accountability on behalf of the company and a resulting contamination in meat.

Deregulation is a dangerous idea. You cannot expect that corporations will take the efforts necessary to ensure their products are safe. At the same time that Monsanto pushes the government to lessen regulations and accept pesticides, rBGH and GMO as safe, their CEO has been publicly quoted as saying that it’s not his job to prove his products are safe. A scary thought in a system that largely favours deregulation!

Pharmaceutical companies are another prime example of this. There are more people who die from properly administered drugs than from car accidents, gun violence, terrorism etc. combined. And yet, the FDA keeps allowing Big Pharma shorter and shorter approval times and hasn’t demanded third party analysis of data or anything else as part of the approval process! You can read my article on pharmaceutical integrity here: http://theworldismysoyster.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/the-conscious-consumer-and-the-doctor/ )

Time.com has an article about the flu vaccine (Does the Flu Vaccine Really Protect Kids? by Alice Park). Although this vaccine is touted as a crucial part of your health regime this article states that it isn’t reducing the number of children contracting the flu in the U.S.. The article clearly states that “the immunized youngsters were just as likely to be hospitalized or to visit the doctor  as kids who never received the vaccine.”

The creation of the influenza vaccine is mostly a guessing game. Scientists in a lab try to determine which three flu strains will be the biggest threat for that year and then create anti-bodies for those three strains. The truth is that there are hundreds of flu vaccine strains on the streets every year and the chance of the Flu vaccine actually preventing illness is quite low!

So, here is my advice: don’t contaminate your body and those of your family with the heavy metals contained in these flu vaccines for no reason. You are likely to contract the flu whether or not you vaccinate. So why bother?

Vaccines are difficult for our immune systems to handle (even more so for little ones). Instead of assaulting your immune system prior to the flu season just focus on boosting your immunity naturally (see my article on that here:  http://theworldismysoyster.wordpress.com/category/immunity/ ).

Another example of pharmaceutical integrity (rolls eyes) is an article from October 2008 issues of Pediatrics that states that one in 20 American CHILDREN received free drug samples from their pediatricians in 2004. That doesn’t like a lot but the article also goes on to state that the samples that the kids receive (as is true of ANY samples from your doctor) are samples of the newest, most expensive and least well understood (meaning unsafe) drugs available.

The article (quoted from Yahoo News) stated that “Four of the 15 most frequently distributed samples in 2004 were identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as having significant safety concerns, including new black box warnings or significant revisions to existing warnings.”

Remember that thousands of people die every year from using these drugs. Your family would benefit tremendously from becoming educated about the drugs you take, the reasons you take them and alternatives to them.

More news:

Now pharmaceutical companies are banding together and recommending that parents not give their children cough medicine if they are under the age of six! After spending years marketing to parents of toddlers they have finally caved into the bad publicity and decided to admit what many of us have known for years, that cough medicine is unsafe!

They also state that parents should not use antihistamines to make their kids sleepy (ie. before trips). I have had two parents recommend this to me and it’s all I can do not to yell at them. I severely judge any parent who thinks it’s acceptable to drug their children for unnecessary reasons. I think giving your child an antihistamine to calm them before a trip is equivalent to giving your kids a doobie to mellow them out! Actually, I bet marijuana is much safer!

Drugs are not candy people! Just because you can buy it over the counter, it doesn’t mean it’s safe. Becoming informed is the best thing you can do to protect your family from unnecessary harm.

There is an insurmountable hill of evidence emerging about the damage that animal products wreak on our health. But where do you go from there? How do you make the transition from eating animals and their products to living a healthier life?

Most people are used to the veggies on their plates being the garnish, not the main course. People who are newly adopting a vegetarian lifestyle often fall into the trap of eating too many carbs. They base their diets on spaghetti and veggie pizza. While it is good to have carbs in your diet it is also crucial to keep them in balance. There must be vegetables and sources of calcium and protein. You should think about what you are planning on making and buying and make sure that you are striking a balance in our grocery cart. However, this doesn’t mean counting the amount of calcium or protein you are eating everyday. Just relax, experiment with your recipes, eat a variety of foods and you’ll likely cover all your bases.

The greatest news about going to a vegan diet (no meat (includes all fish and chickens and beef and everything else that has a heart), no eggs, no milk, no dairy, no gelatin etc.) will be that you will never have to worry about calories again! Not only that, but the foods you eat will help to rev your metabolism, increasing the amount of energy you burn. So you can eat like a pig (as long as you eat wholesome foods) and maintain a healthy weight! What diet plan can promise that and actually deliver? And if you think that makes for skinny and weak males, think again. Vegan bodybuilder Bill Pearl is a four time Mr. Universe winner!

But the big question is what do you eat? Well, some good vegan cookbooks are a great place to start. There are lots of websites that offer good ideas for meals. I like www.vegweb.com and www.chooseveg.com/. But there are many to choose from. You can just Google Vegan recipes if you want.

My favorite vegan cookbook is called The Complete Vegan Kitchen (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Vegan-Kitchen-Introduction-Recipes/dp/1401603475/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219690370&sr=8-1). It’s great for when you want some “normal” recipes and everything is made from scratch, which means no preservatives and artificial garbage. There is even a recipe in there for homemade BBQ sauce.

I also like that low GI cookbook I mentioned in an earlier post. Many of those recipes are geared to people who enjoy ethnic food so if you are less adventurous with new flavours you may not get as much out of it as I have. It’s only about half vegan (the rest is vegetarian) but you can make substitutions as you see fit.

Many of your favorite dishes can easily made vegan. You can make a lasagna and top it with bread crumbs instead. You can make a variety of recipes like Sheperd’s Pie by using Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) or soy ground hamburger instead. I even found a great recipe for breakfast sausage in that first cookbook that is scrumptious!

What about eating out? Well, you may want to avoid your favorite steak house but there are many, many options. Even in Redneck Alberta we have vegan restaurants and many vegetarian friendly options.

Check out a local Vegetarian association and they can provide you with a list of vegan restaurants. More and more restaurants are carrying vegan friendly options these days. Just about any restaurant will accommodate your special diet if you ask them to. For example, you can ask that they replace the chicken on your pasta with mushrooms or you can ask for marinara sauce instead of meat sauce.

And if you don’t like to bother people to make special orders for you can go to ethnic restaurants. There is no shortage of options on authentic Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, East Indian menus.

Fast food is uber easy if you are in need of something on the go. The following restaurants have veggie burgers, just ask that they not add cheese: A&W, Burger King, KFC and Harveys. Taco Bell has some delicious bean burritos. Order the seven layer without sour cream and cheese and voila! And any sub place will have a veggie sub.

Even us sweet tooths can be satisfied with vegan friendly baking. We have been brain-washed into thinking you need eggs to bind recipes but that’s not true. I use ground flax seeds or bananas as binders instead. The best homemade cake and homemade pancakes I have EVER had are vegan ones I found on vegweb.com.

There are no more excuses now. Stop making yourself fat and sick and start living to your full potential.

 

Here is a little glossary for those unfamiliar with animal product substitutes:

Tofu: Is made from soy beans. It comes in a variety of firmnesses, flavours and is used for many different reasons. You can buy it as soy milk and soygurt. You can use it as a meat substitute in stir-fries etc., you can use it to make icings and spread and you can scramble it into “eggs.” The possibilities are limitless and since tofu absorbs the flavour of whatever it’s combined with it is a very versatile, low-fat, high protein food.

Tempeh: This is made from soy as well, it’s a different texture and you can buy them in burger forms and combined with grains. I like cutting them into strips and making veggie chicken strips. You fry them in a pan or a wok with homemade BBQ sauce or some hot sauce. Fun! I even have a recipe for oven onion rings and french fries that make a good “junk food” kind of meal.

Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP): This is also soy based. It’s dehydrated chunks of soy protein. These are easy to use as you just need to add some boiling hot water to it and then it fluff up, ready to be used in dishes like veggies tacos etc. You can add seasoning to them as they are very bland and a little soy sauce if you want them to have the characteristic brown colour of meat. You can also buy veggie ground at the grocery store. It’s a similar idea.

Seitan: Is a non-soy meat replacer. It is made from wheat gluten. It is very fun to use in meat dishes, like Chorizo sausages for breakfast. Yumm!

Brewer’s/Nutritional Yeast: A yeast (I don’t believe it will ferment or give rise to anything) that is yellow in colour and kind of tastes/smells like cheese. You can use it to make vegan cheese sauces etc. It’s a good part of your diet because it provides you with some Vitamin B12. You need very little of this Vitamin and your body can store it for up to three years so it’s a good idea to eat some every once in a while.

We all hear that we should reference the sacred Canada Food Guide when we are confused about food portions etc. But, there are many flaws with the Canada Food Guide. It has improved over the years to include legumes and so on and that is a positive thing for everyone’s health but the emphasis on the Milk and Meat groups is still deeply ingrained as is the perception of the healthfulness of these products thanks to very effective brain-washing in our youth.

For example, I was reading my Fit Kids book from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada this morning. The book is only four years old and even there it states that children do not need vitamins or supplements unless they aren’t drinking milk. Those not drinking milk (vegans/lactose intolerant people) are encouraged to take a calcium supplement for the formation of strong bones. What a load of bull!

Experts are saying that those who don’t drink milk have stronger bones than those who do (see the video and read the book mentioned in my last entry for more information). This is because the high fat/protein composition of the milk (plus any added protein and fat from meat consumption) leeches milk from the bones and dumps it in the urine. In fact, those who were at risk of osteoporosis and were recommended a higher milk consumption actually disposed of more calcium in their urine and ended up with weaker bones than those who drank less milk. The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world are countries with high milk consumption. And conversely, the countries that don’t drink milk, like Japan and Thailand, have virtually no incidences of osteoporosis (unless someone starts drinking milk)! This means that a vegan child, for example, wouldn’t need to be on calcium supplements. If they are eating foods rich in calcium, like almods or green veggies ie.kale, they will absorb and retain their calcium. Besides many soy milks and rice milks etc. are calcium fortified these days.

It is shameful that our government and health authorities are still touting the “benefits” of milk when the research is pointing the opposite way. Not only is milk not beneficial, it’s actually detrimental.

Same with meat. Even the food guide puts a high emphasis on meat consumption. The research that is dribbling from the pipe on an almost daily basis (some of it started over fifty years ago) keeps pointing to the inadequacy of our digestive system for breaking down meat and dairy foods. It is literally killing us and people still think it’s healthy!

In the video I posted in the last entry, the presenting Doctor compares the digestive system of carnivores and herbivores and draws the conclusion that our digestive systems are NOT well equiped to handle meat. We are indeed herbivores. You can thrive on a vegan diet but you will die from a meat-based diet.

And the indication that one will waste away or become willowy on a vegan diet is not based in fact either. Consider these burly and strong vegan athletes:

Brendan Brazier: multi-time Iron Man Triathlon winner

Carl Lewis: “Olympian of the Century” -Olympic medalist in track

Chris Evert: Tennis champion

Bill Pearl: Professional bodybuilder and four time “Mr. Universe”

Ed Templeton: Professional skateboarder

Keith Holmes: Boxing champion

Desmond Howard: Heisman trophy winner and Super Bowl MVP

Raja Bell, Salim Stoudamire and Robert Parish: NBA

Edwin Moses: Olympic gold medals (2) for hurdles

Ricky Williams: Ultimate fighting champ

Scott Jurek: Ultra-marathon runner

But back to the Food Guide. It’s not all garbage. If you look at the portion sizes recommended by the Food Guide you can easily see the flaw in our western diets. If you add the maximum servings of grains and fruit and vegetables it adds up to 22 servings of wholesome, vegan food. The meat and milk portions add up to seven servings. There is a definite indication there as to the importance of veggies and fruits and carbs.

The fruits and veggies are the foods that help you fight disease and cancer. They are your antioxidants and your vitamins and minerals.

But consider that meat is pointless. Meat doesn’t make us stronger, meat doesn’t make us healthier and it doesn’t do anything for our health except provide us with fat and protein and alter our hormones and trigger disease and cancer. So why eat it?

The real fuel for our bodies is carbohydrates (the grain group). And it’s completely possible to obtain the amount of protein necessary for a healthy body from a plant based diet. So why not cut out the fat and start fueling our bodies with what it’s supposed to use. The Doctor in the video has a great analogy. If you don’t put the right gas in your car you can’t expect great performance but if you start putting the right gas in your tank you’ll start to see better outcomes from your car.

So fuel up with some healthy plant foods and you’ll rediscover your youth through increased energy and vitality. You’ll live longer and with less aches and pains! You’ll also have a healthier body weight and enjoy a better quality of life.

I have always been amazed by the people’s inability to connect the dots. I have just finished reading The China Study and I have found so much interesting information in there. I had heard of much of these results before but never in that much depth or accompanied with such an analysis.

The last quarter of the book focuses on the politics of health/nutrition. The author states that there is billions of dollars spent on research, most is spent to doing research enabling the creation of drugs, and only a sliver of that is spent on nutrition and prevention. Even the nutrition and prevention budgets of many organisations are actually thinly veiled as drug research budgets.

But what does that mean? Well, it means that these organisations, which are almost always heavily funded by the meat industry, dairy industry, sugar industry and other “bad” food industries, are not wanting to find out that there is a link between diet and food. They want to tell you to keep buying hamburgers but to buy supplements or drugs. If you don’t believe this you need to read the book. The author cites many examples where scientists, influenced by food industries, have made claims such as low cholesterol being bad for you, and how you NEED high cholesterol. There was a top health professional that encouraged people to eat hamburgers saying that they are good for you. Lately the dairy industry has been undergoing trouble for claiming that milk can help you to lose weight. This is not true and they are taking flak for it. Industries will take any bit of research out of context and bang it like a cheap drum. This is bad science and it’s confusing to the consumer.

Even yesterday my husband told me that on the news he was told that being obese can be healthy! Did I miss something? I thought that being obese increased your risk of hundreds of health problems and reduced your lifespan by years.

The point is that these industries fund research that ends up improperly done or improperly analysed to obtain the claims that are beneficial to them. They even establish committees to spy on research being done that may damage their profit margins so that they may strive to discredit them.

I know it sounds awful, but, they are businesses and as such they are deeply worried about their profit margins. That’s why when reports come out saying that milk doesn’t make your bones stronger but ACTUALLY leaches calcium from your bones, these industries have some major damage control to do!

But let us take a moment and focus on diet here. Did you know that heart disease, which affects and kills so many people in Canada and the U.S. is rare in other countries? In fact, the countries that have the most cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Type I and II Diabetes etc. are all countries where meat and milk consumption is high!

Can we blame it on genetics? I mean we ALL have genes. But we don’t all get breast cancer. So what causes one person to get cancer and the other to be healthy?

Did you know that if someone moves from a low risk area (ie. China) to a high risk area (ie. U.S.) that they adopt the high risk for those diseases? Why would someone who is so unlikely to get heart disease in one area all of a sudden become at a high risk of developing it? Could it be because as immigrants come to the land of affluence they adopt our diet?

So if we can clearly see that diet has an impact, why is the government so reluctant to alter our servings of dairy and meat in our food guides? After all, we, as a culture, have been over-eating meat for decades and our rates of disease are skyrocketing. Do they not see a connection?

Even more startling is the differences in our own people. For example, vegans and vegetarians are at a reduced risk of pretty much all diseases and cancers. Plus they are expected to live longer too.

So why do people still think it’s healthy to eat meat and dairy?

There have even been studies showing that cognitive function is improved with a vegan diet. This means a much lower risk of getting Alzheimer’s too! There have been experiments done in schools with many ADD-type children where they have noticed a significant improvement in mood and cognitive function by reducing the meat and dairy out of their lunches. So if your child gets diagnosed with ADD/ADHD you could try a healthy, whole-foods vegan diet for a while and see how it shapes up. It certainly would be much better than putting them on drugs.

But back to the main issue here. The data shows over and over and over again that areas/groups that eat less meat and dairy have much less disease and cancer. So maybe it’s time people started re-evaluating their perspective on diet. Don’t expect to see anything coming from the government acknowledging this anytime soon. They are in bed with those who profit from your sickness. Your meat and dairy and Coca Cola industries as well as your pharmaceutical companies.

Do you see how much big corporations have to lose by having you become healthy? There is much more profit for them in your sickness. But you don’t have to let them win. You can cut back the meat and dairy in your diet (ideally to nothing) and enjoy the benefits of a longer more vital life. This is much better than spending your last years of your prematurely shortened life in pain from your most recent stroke.

And if you are too macho to give us cow’s flesh then consider this: there are many top athletes that are vegan. They are triathlon winners, and boxers, and football players, and heavy weight champions. They are strong, healthy and reach their peak later than omnivores. Think of what you could do with a healthy body weight and all this extra energy!

If you want to watch a video that sumarizes most of this book’s dietary information you can check out this video: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4330900066502406356&hl=en-CA

I didn’t want to write about protein powder or the health benefits of apples today but I did want to briefly touch on an issue that I have been passionately researching for over a year. A full lenght article would take days to write and hours to read so this is just an intro to the idea of pharmaceutical integrity and what that means for you, the consumer/patient.

Few people are unaware that pharmaceutical industries lobby Doctors. We have all seen the shelves of samples and the posters and the calendars and the mugs and notepads in our Doctor’s offices. I have also worked closely to the legislative side of the health industry in Alberta and know that Big Pharma also puts on conferences and meetings to educate the Doctors on the newest developments, in particular, areas of medicine which they, no doubt, have the answer to in the form of a drug.

In fact, in some cases all of the information provided to Doctors and legislators regarding vaccines or other drugs comes directly from the pharmaceutical companies. And they do all of their own safety research and provide reports which, are not peer-evaluated by a third party group for accuracy, relevance and factuality. The information is also protected from being forcibly released to these peer groups in the interest of protecting the company’s profits. This is a very biased and very dangerous way of determining the safety and efficacy of a product. Not only that, but because of the profit reason, the FDA (I don’t know if Canada does this too) has been known to not report serious side effects of certain drugs.

Alive magazine has an article in their September 2006 issue called Bad Science, Could it be what ails you? that addresses the impact that funding can have on study outcomes or rather the interpretation of those outcomes. They are basing their article on a book written by a researcher (epidemiologist John Ioannidis) who stated that as much as more than half of research findings may be wrong. 

The article makes such claims as “almost 16 percent of the scientists said they modified a study because of pressure from funders” and that ”in January 2006 CBC’s The National aired a three-part program exposing Dr. Chandra’s long-term pattern of scientific fraud and financial deception.” There are also references to studies that were said to lean to one conclusion but once peer reviewed were obviously leaning the other way. The article is available here: http://www.alive.com/4770a12a2.php

Big Pharma will spend billions of dollars making sure they inform you and your physician about their new products. It is a business. Adults see ads on TV, their Doctor’s offices and in magazines. They then think that they have adult ADD, or erectile dysfunction or IBS and ask their Doctors for a prescription. The Doctor obliges and starts a stream of unnecessary prescriptions. The worst part is that some of these diseases, like IBS, have actually been created by Big Pharma. Do you stay up at night thinking about work? Do you frequently go to the bathroom? You need drugs!

I had a Doctor prescribe me something for my asthma once. I don’t have asthma! I refused to take the drug until I had an asthma test confirming that I actually had asthma. The result of that test was, of course, negative. Did that deter my Doctor from attempting to give me drugs I didn’t need? NO! Or when I was pregnant I used to go in to my OB’s office and for every little complaint I had she had a prescription. I tore ALL of those up. I had a little bit of nausea for pete’s sake! Why was she prescribing me drugs for a bit of nausea?

In the movie Thank You For Smoking there is a line that the main character uses: “How would Big Tobacco benefit from the death of [cancer boy]? It’s in our best interest to keep him alive and smoking.”

It runs similarly for Big Pharma. It’s in their best interest to keep you sick (or thinking you are sick) for the rest of your life. Their business is selling drugs not enhancing health! That is why one in four visits to Canadian emergency rooms are attributed to side effects related to prescription drug use. One in four people in Canada that show up at the emergency room are being damaged by their “life-saving” drugs. 1.

Big Pharma is not an industry with much integrity. To emphasize that point there are a growing number of Doctors who are taking a “No Free-Lunch” pledge. This is a promise that they will not accept free-lunches or any other gifts from pharmaceutical industry representatives. They will instead base their prescription decisions on third party research and lower prices. When Doctors give you those free samples (which come directly from the companies) they are trying to get you to use the newest and most expensive drugs, instead of the similar, cheaper generic ones!

To show you the lack of integrity present in this industry I have combined a list of examples and their resources. Okay. I know most are from the National Post as I used to be a subscriber but it’s not like they aren’t reputable.

1. Medicine sending thousands to hospital 25% of admissions due to side effects. National Post Nov 1/06 -drug side effects in proper dosages and wrongfully administered drugs (drug names sound and are spelled similar etc.)

2. The politics of health “Profit Before People”-Jason Watkin (president of Biomedica Laboratories) -states that Big Pharma will rush products through safety trials to beat the competitor. They put profit above people’s safety.

3. National Post, Dec 12/07, page A12 has two good articles. ‘Unusual’ amount of allergic reactions to mumps shot put end to inoculations  and  Study links diabetes drugs to heart failure.

4. Cholesterol drugs don’t help ‘bulk’ of takers:study  by Sharon Kirkey National Post (Don’t have the date on this one) -states that cholesterol lowering drugs don’t reduce the number of deaths in women and ONLY show an improvement in high risk men.

5.Class action to be launched over painkiller (oxycontin), National Post Sept 19/07

6. Vitamin C Overstatement – Student ‘blown away’ as science project results in fine for juice giantsNational Post A3, March 28/07 -this is related because GlaxoSmithKline (Big Pharma) was the manufacturer of this juice called Ribena in New Zealand which grossly overstated the Vitamin C content in the juice.

7. Another painkiller pulled off the shelves -Prexige National Post, Oct 5/07

8. Health Canada orders label change on Tamiflu to mention suicides National Post March 28/07 -gross side effects (psychosis)

9. The number behind the meds National Post, Oct 4/06 -How Big Pharm will manipulate data to make their products look favorable.

10. Pharmacy pamphlets omitting key information National Post, A4 -side effects not always listed -excuses: people don’t read them anyways.

11. Three provinces halt use of TB-test liquid after patients in Nova Scotia have allergic reactions. National Post -improper testing before releasing to the public. On the same page is an article about Medication mishaps avoidable.  

12. Study likely spells end for anti-bleeding drugYahoo News June 14/08 -This one is a doozy. Ok. So Bayer has this drug called Trasylol. They are facing a lawsuit because Trasylol led to excessive deaths and the company hid the evidence of harm. These bad results are supposed to end the production of the drug because numerous studies have shown that the incident of death post-surgery (which is what the drug is for) is increased with this drug. The FDA  says that the studies that didn’t show a higher risk were very flawed. Bayer says that they are waiting for results from a Canadian study. 

13. FDA stresses birth defect risk with Roche (and Novartis) drugYahoo News June 16/08 -Some of the problems were birth defects, permanent problems with the brain and nervous system, plus, some of the patients were taking the drug CellCept for stuff it wasn’t approved to treat (like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis).

14. Drug-research spending second to marketing:study CTV.ca News Staff. -Big Pharma is spending more on selling drugs than they are spending on research and development. That doesn’t make me feel confident in their product.

About hospitals in Canada:

• Medicine sending thousands to hospital 25% of admissions due to side effects. National Post Nov 1/06 -drug side effects in proper dosages and wrongfully administered drugs (drug names sound and are spelled similar etc.)
• One in 10 receives wrong meds in hospital CTV.ca Aug 14/07 How does that happen in a place full of health professionals?
• To Tell the Truth: The Ethical and Legal Implications of Disclosure of Medical Error by Michael Waite (Stones Fontaine Carbert lawyer in Calgary) -He talks about the implications to hospitals etc. about reporting fault in incidents resulting in death or harm (think administering the wrong drugs) and says that it is very uncommon for a hospital to admit fault to their patient.
• The truth about hospital Ottawa Citizen -”Almost 14,000 people die annually from in-hospital errors.” That is more people dying that people who die from car accidents, HIV and breast cancer combined!

So now that you know this, how can you protect yourself?

Well I own a Pharmaceutical Compendium. Mine is from 1993 and should probably be upgraded but they are very expensive. These books contain a list of ALL the drugs approved for use at that time. It includes information on research, side effects, instructions for use and much more. I never fill a prescription for myself or my family without reading into it more. Remember how I said that I was prescribed a drug (Advair) for my “asthma?” Well it turns out that Advair is a much more dangerous drug for asthma than the alternatives. It states that right in the package insert that came with my free sample. I was outraged. They don’t even know that I have asthma for sure and they are prescribing me a product that is meant to be used as a last line of defense because it is more dangerous than the other drugs. Nice!

I especially like the list of recalled products for the year. It’s very eye opening when something that you or your friend or neighbour was taking is now deemed unsafe for public use.

So to recap, to protect yourself and your family you can become informed. Look into the diseases that you are told you have and make sure that the side effects listed in reference books actually match what you are experiencing. My husband was misdiagnosed once before.

If you agree with the Doctor’s diagnosis then become informed about the drug s/he is prescribing for you. If the possible side-effects make you uncomfortable you can ask to be prescribed something else.

Ask yourself if you need the drugs? Do you have a mild allergy (or a cold or whatever) that could go without drugs? Can you treat it naturally with supplements, vitamins, herbs or perhaps even with your diet?

There are also websites where you can look up drug information as well:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DrugHerbIndex

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html

For more information on Pharma lobbying see: Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs http://www.freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=197

I am going to wrap this up now. I hope you learned something and will use this information to help you make better choices for you and your family. The only person who is invested in your health is you! 

What a pain!

I am supposed to up my protein intake to 70g from 50g and I thought, sure no problem but I just don’t really crave protein rich foods! Blech!

I get three sources of protein in and I am inclined to think that maybe that is enough. I have bought cheese for snacks but I am in the middle of my usual week of morning sickness and am not at all interested in cheese or anything heavy right now. Thank goodness for chocolate milk. I have switched to regular milk instead of soy milk (I think I said that in the last post) because I worry about the effect of phytoestrogen and it has taken some adjustment taste wise. My problem is that I am lactose intolerant so the milk often gives me stomach aches. What is a girl to do?

In my last posts I have complained about not sleeping well. I don’t know why but I just can’t get comfortable. Anyways, the fatigue coupled with the morning sickness has made me unable to exercise. I had mentioned in an earlier post how my exercise was helping with my chronic back pain. Well, no exercise means back pain and headaches. Sigh.

I did go to AquaFit on Saturday and it was great even if I couldn’t keep up to the old ladies. I am not dumb enough to blame the pregnancy but rather blame the lack of sleep.

I am not too annoyed with the pregnancy. I just want sleep. Who knows why I can’t sleep and who knows if it will remedy itself but I have taken to sleeping on the couch (because I seem to fall asleep there for some reason) and that bugs me. I’d rather sleep in my bed with my husband! I used to sleep on the couch all the time in my last month or so of pregnancy, because that is the only place that would support my chronically bad back and ever expanding stomach, but I surely don’t want to start that now. LOL.

Sorry about the whining today folks. Here’s hoping for a good nights sleep and the end of my morning sickness week to end early.

Now I get to find a Doctor. I really don’t want one but I guess I should have one. Plus, I should be able to hear the baby’s heart beat soon and I would really like to hear that. I really want a midwife but I need to know where I am living before I waste $2,500 on a provider I can’t use.