A wise man states:

Top Ten GMOs to avoid

Genetically modified foods have been shown to cause harm to humans, animals, and the environmental, and despite growing opposition, more and more foods continue to be genetically altered. It’s important to note that steering clear from these foods completely may be difficult, and you should merely try finding other sources than your big chain grocer. If produce is certified USDA-organic, it’s non-GMO (or supposed to be!) Also, seek out local farmers and booths at farmer’s markets where you can be ensured the crops aren’t GMO. Even better, if you are so inclined: Start organic gardening andgrow them yourself. Until then, here are the top 10 worst GMO foods for your “do not eat” GMO foods list.

Top 10 Worst GMO Foods for Your GMO Foods List

1. Corn: This is a no-brainer. If you’ve watched any food documentary, you know corn is highly modified. “As many as half of all U.S. farms growing corn for Monsanto are using genetically modified corn,” and much of it is intended for human consumption. Monsanto’s GMO corn has been tied to numerous health issues, including weight gain and organ disruption.

2. Soy: Found in tofu, vegetarian products, soybean oil, soy flour, and numerous other products, soy is also modified to resist herbicides. As of now, biotech giant Monsanto still has a tight grasp on the soybean market, with approximately 90 percent of soy being genetically engineered to resist Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. In one single year, 2006, 96.7 million pounds of glyphosate was sprayed on soybeans alone

3. Sugar: According to NaturalNews, genetically-modified sugar beets were introduced to the U.S. market in 2009. Like others, they’ve been modified by Monsanto to resist herbicides. Monsanto has even had USDA and court-related issues with the planting of it’s sugar beets, being ordered to remove seeds from the soil due to illegal approval.

 

4. Aspartame: Aspartame is a toxic additive used in numerous food products, and should be avoided for numerous reasons, including the fact that it is created with genetically modified bacteria.

5. Papayas: This one may come as a surprise to all of you tropical-fruit lovers. GMO papayas have been grown in Hawaii for consumption since 1999. Though they can’t be sold to countries in the European Union, they are welcome with open arms in the U.S. and Canada.

6. Canola: One of the most chemically altered foods in the U.S. diet, canola oil is obtained from rapeseed through a series of chemical actions.

7. Cotton: Found in cotton oil, cotton originating in India and China in particular has serious risks.

8. Dairy: Your dairy products contain growth hormones, with as many as one-fifth of all dairy cows in America are pumped with these hormones. In fact, Monsanto’s health-hazardous rBGH has been banned in 27 countries, but is still in most US cows. If you must drink milk, buy organic.

9. and 10. Zucchini and Yellow Squash: Closely related, these two squash varieties are modified to resist viruses.

The dangers of some of these foods are well-known. The Bt toxin being used in GMO corn, for example, was recently detected in the blood of pregnant women and their babies. But perhaps more frightening are the risks that are still unknown.

With little regulation and safety tests performed by the companies doing the genetic modifications themselves, we have no way of knowing for certain what risks these lab-created foods pose to us outside of what we already know.

The best advice: steer clear of them altogether.

GMOs need labeling if not banned!

Reduce Blood Pressure naturally

Lose the weight and not the muscle

How much muscle did you lose while on that last diet? Too much, probably, according to research showing that dropping pounds could mean losing valuable lean muscle.

A few scientists have even suggested regular dieting could be harmful since muscle is a crucial tissue for so many facets of long-term health.

Dietary protein has long been thought to be the key to protect against dieting-induced muscle loss. Now, a new long-term study from various universities, headed by researchers at the University of Georgia, is confirming that eating higher amounts of quality protein while reducing calories can help maintain muscle mass at the same time as losing weight.

In a 12-month randomized clinical trial, published in Nutrition and Metabolism, subjects went through a four-month period of weight loss followed by eight months of weight maintenance. Scientists randomly placed 130 middle-aged men and women on calorie-reduced diets that were either high-protein (30 percent of intake from protein) or low-protein (15 percent of intake from protein). The two diets were formulated to be equal in total calories, total fat, as well as fiber content. Physical activity was accounted for and found to be similar between the groups.

While both groups lost weight, researchers found that more fat relative to lean body mass was lost in the high-protein group compared to the low-protein group. In the low-protein group there was about a 40 percent loss in lean tissue, while only 21 percent and 25 percent was lost in the high-protein group for men and women, respectively.

This study’s results add to evidence that a diet higher in quality protein during calorie restriction helps to retain muscle mass. The protein content of a meal, especially one high in branched-chain amino acids, including leucine (found in high concentrations in whey protein), has been shown to trigger muscle synthesis and support the preservation of lean muscle mass.  

Dietary protein requirements are usually expressed as 15 to 20 percent of total calorie intake. When someone reduces calories, the amount of protein they eat may drop as a result of decreased overall intake. Generally, individuals may eat too little protein while dieting, promoting a loss of lean body mass. Isagenix Isalean products (Soups, Shakes, and Bars) as well as IsaPro and IsaLean Pro offer 18-35 grams of leucine-rich whey protein to help preserve your lean muscle mass while losing fat.

Reference:

Evans EM, Mojtahedi MC, Thorpe MP, Valentine RJ, Kris-Etherton PM, Layman DK. Effects of protein intake and gender on body composition changes: a randomized clinical weight loss trial. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2012;9:55. DOI:10.1186/1743-7075-9-55

BMI is out ABSI is in!

Dr Noreen

New Body Index - ABSI (A Body Shape Index) being used as a better predicter of premature Death than BMI (Body Mass Index)...READ ON!

Nutshell from "The Scientist" By Cristina Luiggi | July 19, 2012
A New Obesity Metric -A new index for body shape is better at predicting premature death risk.

A new measurement that takes into account waist circumference in addition to traditional Body Mass Index (BMI) data provides information about the risk of premature death for an individual. Known as A Body Shape Index (ABSI), the metric was tested on national health and nutrition data from 14,000 adults in the United States and found to show a better correlation with death rate than does the BMI.

“Measuring body dimensions is straightforward compared to other most medical tests, but it’s been challenging to link these with health,” Nir Krakauer, a researcher at City College of New York, who led the study published in PLoS ONE, said in a press release. “Our results give evidence that the power-law scaling of waist circumference, weight, and other body measurements can be used to develop body shape indices that point to added risk.”

Grassfed vs Grainfed

Pesticide free fruits and veggies

The AFF has been trying to shut down consumers’ access to our Shopper’s Guide since 2010. That year, the group asked for and received nearly $200,000 in taxpayer dollars to launch its attack on the guide. First, members of the AFF lobbied top Obama administration officials to weaken the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual pesticide residue tests, which EWG uses to compile the Shopper’s Guide.


http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/          

This natural ingredient in diary products can cause digestive problems

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Carrageenan has been used by the food industry for nearly 50 years and, during that time, has been extensively studied. Although researchers have reliably proven that dietary doses of carrageenan can lead to harmful inflammation, the additive is still approved for use in foods. Carrageenan so reliably causes inflammation that scientists actually use it to induce inflammation in biological experiments, explains Joanne Tobacman, MD, a physician-scientist at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, who has been studying the effects of carrageenan in human cells and lab animals for nearly 20 years.

In a recent statement to the National Organic Standards Board, Dr. Tobacman explained that carrageenan itself and its breakdown product both create dangerous inflammation, a condition that serves as the backbone of more than 100 human diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and arteriosclerosis. Inflammation also fuels other life-threatening diseases, including cancer.

In addition, Kastel says, harvesting the seaweed for carrageenan has been shown to damage coral reefs.

While some organic products do contain carrageenan, organic standards prohibit the use of harmful ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, petroleum-based fake food dyes, and artificial flavors, along with other harmful ingredients that have been linked to heart damage, ADHD, and other health problems. Still, if you'd like to avoid carrageenan in organic foods, simply read the label or choose from some of these carrageenan-free organic picks below.

Organic Foods Free of Carrageenan:

Chocolate Milk
• Castle Rock Organic Farms
• Crystal Ball Farms
• Strafford Organic Creamery
• Trickling Springs Creamery

Cottage Cheese
• Nancy's
• Organic Valley

Cream
• Organic Valley
• Butterworks Farm
• Strauss Family Creamery

Ice Cream
• Stonyfield
• Green & Black's Organic
• Julie's
• Alden's

Yogurt
• Seven Stars
• Stonyfield (all brands except caramel Oikos and Squeezers)
• Horizon (all except Tuberz)
• Wallaby

Soymilk
• Eden Soy
• Westsoy

Eat your greens

Mad cow disease and meat you eat

Story at-a-glance by Dr Mercola:

Is the Meat You Are Eating Being Fed Animal Feces?

• It’s now illegal to feed beef-based products to cows, a rule put in force to stop the spread of Mad Cow Disease … but the beef industry has found ways to circumvent this rule by using a feed product known as “chicken litter”
• Chicken litter, a rendered down mix of chicken manure, dead chickens, feathers and spilled feed marketed as a cheap feed product for cows, can contain cow meat and bone meal
• The USDA is not doing enough to prevent the spread of, and to detect, Mad Cow Disease cases; this includes not only the chicken litter feed that’s commonly fed to cows, but other violations and allowances as well
• Along with “chicken litter,” meat from CAFOs may also contain a mix of other dangerous and disgusting “additives” – from antibiotic-resistant disease to extreme growth promoters and cloned animals
• Support the small family farms in your area, particularly organic farms that respect the laws of nature and feed animals only what nature intended
• 

Healing properties of ginger

1. Haven’t been feeling hungry? Eat fresh ginger just before lunch to stoke a dull appetite and fire up the digestive juices.

2. Ginger improves the absorption and assimilation of essential nutrients in the body.

3. Ginger clears the ‘microcirculatory channels’ of the body, including the pesky sinuses that tend to flare up from time to time.

4. Feeling airsick or nauseous? Chew on ginger, preferably tossed in a little honey.

5. Can’t stop the toot-a-thon? Gas—oops—guess what?! Ginger helps reduce flatulence!

6. Tummy moaning and groaning under cramps? Munch on ginger.

7. Reeling under joint pain? Ginger, with its anti-inflammatory properties—can bring relief. Float some ginger essential oil into your bath to help aching muscles and joints.

8. Got a surgery done? Chewing ginger post-operation can help overcome nausea.

9. Stir up some ginger tea to get rid of throat and nose congestion. And when there’s a nip in the air, the warming benefits of this tasty tea are even greater!

10. Bedroom blues? Try adding a gingery punch to a bowl of soup. (Pss...the Ayurvedic texts credit ginger with aphrodisiac properties)


Even cows like it!