UK Finally Makes Smart Decision to Protect Children… Why Doesn’t the US?
Ministers of parliament and senior advisers in the UK government ruled against the flu vaccine for children under 5. This decision comes even though a flu epidemic is currently striking the UK.
Possibly they took a look at what Dr. Hugh Fudenberg, one of the world's leading immunologists, has had to say on the flu vaccine. Fudenburg found that anyone who had more than two flu vaccines between 1970 and 1980 has a far higher chance of having Alzheimer's in old age.
According to Vaccine Truth:
"Perhaps the UK government has learnt their lesson. Instead of vaccination they have decided to bring back last year's Swine Flu ads with the caption 'Catch it, Bin it, Kill it' ... The message is the best way to combat the flu is a lesson in hygiene."
Sources:
Vaccine Truth December 31, 2010
Mail Online December 31, 2010
UK children under 5 will not be receiving the flu shot this season, thanks to a ruling by UK ministers and senior government advisers.
After canceling the immunization program for children aged 6 months to 5 years in 2010, they have decided to continue on with the no-flu-shot plan for this age group, citing that vaccination would not have any significant gains.
This was a wise government decision because flu shots are typically ineffective and can be risky for many people, including children, the elderly and virtually every age group in between.
U.S. Still Recommends Flu Shots for Kids, Despite Serious Red Flags
Physicians in America have been insisting that every child age 6 months to 18 years get an annual flu shot for several years now, but health officials have now ramped up those recommendations, telling EVERY person over the age of 6 months get a flu shot EVERY year, healthy or not, low risk or high.
What will receiving a flu shot every year every year of your life do to your immune system?
With all of those vaccinations, will you be more susceptible to influenza-related complications and death? Will children, who are already subjected to 48 doses of 14 vaccines from day of birth through age six, be at added risk for developing chronic health problems from being given a flu shot every year throughout elementary, junior high and high school?
We really don't know.
Health officials have leapt ahead with recommendations of "flu shots for all" without safety studies -- so by getting a flu shot, you are effectively offering yourself, or your child, up as a laboratory rat. In other words, YOU are the safety study!
This year's seasonal flu shot is a combination vaccine that contains two regular strains of influenza and the new 2009 pandemic H1N1 "swine flu" vaccine -- you will not be given the choice to take the seasonal and swine flu vaccines separately.
This is the same type of flu vaccine that Australia suspended during its most recent 2010/2011 flu season for use in children under the age of 5 because it caused a surprisingly high number of reports of children suffering high fevers, vomiting and febrile convulsions. By June of 2010, more than 1,000 adverse reactions in children under the age of 5 had been reported.
Flu shots are also heavily recommended to pregnant women, even though, as the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) reports:
"Influenza vaccines are Category C drugs, which means that animal reproduction studies have not been conducted and it is not known whether these vaccines can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or if they can affect reproduction capacity."
Unfortunately, the push to vaccinate every man, woman and child in the United States is getting stronger.
New Jersey has passed a law requiring all children attending daycare or pre-school to get an annual flu shot, and some health care workers are being fired if they refuse to get an annual flu shot.
This can only be viewed as the prelude to a much larger campaign that, in the future, may end up dictating whether you will be allowed to enter a college or university to get higher education, get a job, or even travel … Simply put, this trend of mandating annual influenza vaccinations must be resisted and stopped.
Health Care Reform Bill Threatens Schoolchildren With Flu Vaccines
Making it even more difficult for parents to opt OUT of flu vaccination for their children, section 2524 of the health care reform bill includes a program called "No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza."
As part of this program elementary and secondary schools across the United States will be used as "influenza vaccination centers" where kids can learn to read and get their flu shots all in one day.
You can read about the program for yourself right in the bill, starting on page 1,391, but the text reads:
"The program under this section shall be designed to adminster vaccines consistent with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the annual vaccination of all children 5 through 19 years of age."
For now the program is voluntary, however a similar scenario that took place during the swine flu outbreak left many children vaccinated "accidentally" without their parents' consent.
As Organic Health Advisor reported:
• One woman who circled "no" on a permission slip regarding the H1N1 swine flu vaccine found out later that her 5-year-old daughter had been administered the nasal mist swine flu vaccine at school.
• A 7-year-old Ohio boy, who has had problems with medications, was also vaccinated for the H1N1 swine flu at school against his parents' wishes.
• At least three children in New York City were "mistakenly" given the H1N1 swine flu vaccine without permission.
• A 6-year-old girl with epilepsy was given the H1N1 swine flu vaccine without permission at school and ended up in the hospital as a result.
• Another 7-year-old boy in Kentucky was also given the H1N1 swine flu vaccine at school "by accident."
Individual schools will have a choice of whether or not they're going to participate in the "No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza" program, so it's a good idea to call your school board and find out where they stand on this issue (while sharing your concerns about turning schools into flu vaccination clinics).
Flu Shots Have Never Been Proven Effective
Flu shots simply do not work as the vaccine manufacturers would like you to believe.
For example:
• Giving young children flu shots appeared to have no impact on flu-related doctor visits or hospitalizations during two recent flu seasons, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
• The flu vaccine is no more effective for children than a placebo, according to a large-scale, systematic review of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
• NO studies have conclusively proven that flu shots prevent flu-related deaths among the elderly.
• A study published in the Lancet found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people. (Many of the "flu" deaths the government claims happen each year are actually caused by diseases like pneumonia, and NOT the flu.)
• Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine also confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia, despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent today.
So make no mistake, if your child gets a flu shot he can still get the flu (or flu-like symptoms). This is because it only protects against certain strains, and sometimes the type A and type B influenza strains that are selected to be in the annual flu shot do not match the strains that actually circulate. So it's anyone's guess about which flu viruses will be in your area.
What is known, however, is that flu shots will actively depress your immune system, which may make it even more likely that you'll get sick.
Vaccines Suppress Your Immune System
During the peak of flu season is a time when you want your immune system functioning at its optimal level. But as soon as you get a flu shot, or any other vaccine, the effectiveness of your immune system diminishes, and may not return to normal for weeks to months. Here are just some of the ways vaccines impair and alter your immune response:
• Some components in vaccines are neurotoxic and may depress your immune and brain function, particularly heavy metals such as mercury preservatives and aluminum adjuvants
• The lab-altered vaccine viruses themselves may further impair your immune response
• Foreign DNA/RNA from animal tissues can wreak havoc in your body and trigger autoimmunity in some people
• Vaccines may alter your t-cell function and make you more susceptible to chronic immune dysfunction and chronic illness
• Vaccines can trigger allergies by introducing large foreign protein molecules into your body that have not been properly broken down by your digestive tract (since they are injected). Your body can respond to these foreign particles in the form of an allergic reaction
So to achieve questionable temporary immunity against a few of the many viral strains of influenza, you are lowering your defense against millions of other pathogens while exposing yourself to the vaccine side effects. These include, as NVIC reports:
"The 2009 pandemic H1N1 "swine flu" vaccine and the 2010/11 seasonal influenza vaccine containing the pandemic H1N1 component have generated increased reports of Guillain Barre syndrome (GBS), Bell's Palsy, and idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP); convulsions and narcolepsy."
Many flu vaccines in the U.S. also still contain the mercury preservative thimerosal in amounts above federal safety guidelines!
If You're Hurt by Vaccines You Have Little Legal Recourse
Prior to October 1, 1988, if you or your child were injured by a vaccine you were allowed to file a lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer to receive compensation for harm arising from the vaccine.
Since then legislation was passed stating anyone who is injured and wishes to receive compensation is required to apply through The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), the so-called "vaccine court," prior to pursuing a lawsuit.
NVICP was "established to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines, stabilize vaccine costs, and establish and maintain an accessible and efficient forum for individuals found to be injured by certain vaccines."
But when you read between the lines, you discover what this really means is that a program has been put into place to protect vaccine manufacturers and NOT to look out for those injured by vaccines.
According to Barbara Loe Fisher of NVIC, who along with other vaccine-choice advocates is calling on Congress to revamp, and possibly even repeal, this fatally flawed program:
"… two out of three children are turned away for federal compensation."
If a child becomes seriously injured or even dies after receiving a vaccine, the vaccine makers are completely shielded -- and IF they are ever awarded compensation through NVICP, it is the taxpayers who pay, not the vaccine makers.
As the PPJ Gazette recently reported:
"A common misconception is that vaccine liability funds are supplied by the manufacturers, yet I discovered that they are financed by the consumers with a $0.75 to $3.75 surcharge per dose applied as an excise tax. The manufacturers deposit this surcharge fee to the vaccine fund and deduct it as an expense from their taxes."
But again, most cases heard by the vaccine court are turned down for compensation. The PPJ Gazette continues:
"To apply for damages as a result of vaccines, you must first submit to the [Vaccine Liability] "fund." Your case will then be handed over to the Vaccine Liability Court, which consists of a panel of 3 to 5 selected individuals called 'Special Masters.'
The Special Masters may or may not lack a medical background and may or may not lack knowledge of Constitutional due process laws. This is the panel that will "hear" your case to decide whether it has any merit. There is no jury.
If your case is determined to have merit, you can receive compensation. If the Special Masters rule against you or you are not satisfied with their decision, you then have the option of filing your case with a federal or state court. You will likely be financially ruined by this time. It is rare for federal and state courts to even agree to hear vaccine cases and rarer still for them to rule against Vaccine Court."
So, make no mistake about it. You had better be very informed about the potential risks before receiving a vaccine, or allowing one to be administered to your child, because if something goes wrong you will have a very hard time holding the vaccine manufacturers accountable.
9 Top Tips to Stay Flu-Free
Most of the "flu like" illness that people experience is not associated with type A or type B influenza strains but with other types of viruses and bacteria. Even so, between 5 and 20 percent of Americans do get influenza in the average flu season and the majority of them have uncomplicated cases and develop natural immunity to the strains they were infected with that lasts for years!
Unfortunately, if public health officials and drug companies marketing vaccines have their way, your children and grandchildren won't be allowed the opportunity to develop this important natural immunity to type A and type B influenza strains.
Healthy children rarely suffer complications from influenza and, in fact, may rarely get it in the first place. Instead of continuing to get a flu shot that has been proven ineffective and has questionable safety, the real way to prevent the flu is through optimal lifestyle and nutrition, as follows.
1. Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I've previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu -- not the influenza viruses.
One Japanese study revealed that a group of children taking vitamin D3 was 58 percent less likely to catch influenza A. That's a higher effectiveness than any flu vaccine can claim, and doesn't come with a barrage of potentially devastating side effects.
So I would STRONGLY urge you to have your and your children's vitamin D level monitored to confirm your levels are at a therapeutic level, which is between 50-65 ng/ml.
2. Avoid sugar and processed foods. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
3. Get enough rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night's Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
4. Have effective tools to address your stress. We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness.
If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.
5. Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of responding to challenges that can lead to illness. You can review my exercise guidelines for some great tips on how to get started, and I also suggest learning the phenomenal Peak 8 exercises as well.
6. Take a good source of animal-based omega-3 fats like krill oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils like trans fats found in most processed foods, as it will seriously damage your immune response.
7. Wash your hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap for this -- antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
8. Eat garlic regularly. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in the body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use. However, if you are allergic or don't enjoy garlic it would be best to avoid as it will likely cause more harm than good.
9. Avoid hospitals and vaccines. I recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you're having an emergency, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds, and could be one of the likeliest places you could be exposed to flu bugs.
Related Links:
New Proof that This Common Medical Treatment is Unnecessary and Ineffective
Why Flu Shots For Kids Don't Work
Blood on Their Hands: The World’s Slickest Con Job and a Stack of Deadly LIES...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
2nd week of my SP Purification
Since the start of the new year I have changed to decaf coffee with no sugar or cream and I have eliminated the "avoid" foods on my food allergy testing (dairy, eggs, wheat/gluten and beef) also, I just finished the first(no meat) week of an SP Purification. In the next 2 weeks of the program I will be adding back fish and chicken. I really am feeling good and totally enjoying the new abundance of veggies in the diet. The plan is to stay on a diet free of processed foods after the Purification is done, just loads of veggies, clean meats and healthy fats.
Friday, January 14, 2011
not # 3
This post was suppose to be #3 on the 2010 top 10, but I thought this really needed to get out there. These numbers are insane, where are the adults and where is the common sense?
Resist Giving This to Your Child - Even if Your Doctor Recommends it
More than a quarter of children and teens in the United States are taking a medication on a regular basis. Close to seven percent are on two or more prescription drugs.
Prescribing medications to children can cause problems; many of them have not had their effects on children researched.
Even in ones that have, the consequences of using them over the course of a lifetime is usually unknown.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
"... [C]hildren and teens are ... taking a wide variety of ... medications once considered only to be for adults, from statins to diabetes pills and sleep drugs, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by IMS Health, a research firm.
Prescriptions for antihypertensives in people age 19 and younger could hit 5.5 million this year if the trend though September continues ... Unhealthy diets and lack of exercise among children ... fuel the use of some treatments, such as those for hypertension."
Meanwhile, there's an ongoing discussion about which is more dangerous: alternative medicine or prescription drugs?
A recent survey led found four deaths between 2001 and 2003 that were associated with use of alternative treatments in Australia.
However, according to health and nutrition expert Dr. Gary Null, deaths associated with use of dietary supplements or alternative medicine are extremely rare compared to the death toll from the medical errors and prescription drugs.
Yet despite the well-documented dangers of prescription drugs and a painful recession, drug companies still represent the nation's third most profitable business sector in the U.S.
How do they do that?
At least in part by cheating the government, misrepresenting science, and bribing doctors. Writing in AlterNet, Martha Rosenberg lists 15 ways the drug companies lie, break the law, or risk your health for profit.
Here are a few of them:
1. Astroturf Patients
They create fake patient advocacy groups to lobby for drug company interests. These front groups often push the FDA to approve an expensive drug that has acceptable, cheaper alternatives.
2. Cheating the Government
Drug companies are a top defrauder of the federal government. They've been hit with $14.8 billion in wrongdoing settlements in the last five years -- but that's still cheaper than going about things the legal way.
3. Dangerous Trials
Presiding over clinical trials can make a doctor thousands per patient -- and sometimes they compromise patient safety just to get at that money.
4. Deceptive Trials
Trials that only determine that a drug is "not worse" than another one can skew results. And some research deliberately skewed, with results decided upon before the trial is ever conducted.
To read the other ways in which the drug companies rip you off, see Rosenberg's article.
Sources: Food Consumer December 24, 2010 ; Wall Street Journal December 28, 2010 ; Archives of Disease in Childhood December 22, 2010 [Epub ahead of print]
The recent article on child and teen drug use published in The Wall Street Journal is nothing if not shocking.
It's exceedingly hard to fathom that more than 25 percent of American youths are now taking prescription medication on a regular basis. Among adolescents aged 10 to 19, the figure jumps to 30 percent, and nearly seven percent are taking two or more drugs.
This is an absolute prescription for disaster, and there's simply NO justification for it, other than to maximize corporate profits for the drug cartels. These are kids for God's sake. How could it be possible that one in four would need drug assistance in the healthiest years of their life?
Few trends highlight the fatal flaws in the U.S. medical system more than our ruthless drugging of children. Not only are kids coming down with chronic diseases once only seen in adults (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression), but they are being medicated with toxic drugs rather than being taught how to get healthy, naturally.
In a couple of decades, these kids will find out that the medications they've been given have done nothing to heal their bodies, and if nothing changes they will find themselves on an increasing list of drugs that will accelerate their early demise.
The Dangerous Play of Pediatric Drugs
Children and adolescents should be, for the most part, at their health peak. Instead, this age group now represents the leading growth category for the pharmaceutical industry, with increases nearly four times higher than those seen in the rest of the population, as of last year.
This is extremely troubling and tragic for a number of reasons:
1. Research on drug safety is limited in general, but nearly non-existent for many of the drugs now prescribed to children
2. The impact of using drugs—ANY drug—for the majority of an entire lifetime is not only "poorly understood," but entirely unknown, as such long-term studies have not been done. Hence the current generation of child drug users are literally acting as long-term guinea pigs
3. The future health care costs for these children is likely going to be astronomical, as their health will begin to spiral downward due to side effects from the drugs—which will be treated with an ever increasing number of drugs and costly medical treatments
4. Older, established drugs are also rarely scrutinized for safety in children, since drug companies have little incentive to test medicines once their patent protection has expired
Some of the most commonly prescribed drugs for children and teens these days include drugs for:
• Asthma
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Statins
• Diabetes drugs
• Sleeping pills
The last three of these drugs are designed for adults. They were never intended for widespread use in children, and safety and effectiveness data for pediatric use does not exist.
In fact, 75 percent of all prescription drugs do NOT have labeling instructions for children, leaving their use in children up to your physician's discretion.
Unhealthy Lifestyles are Making Kids Sick
Some of the largest jumps in prescriptions for kids are drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heartburn.
Since 2001, the use of heartburn and acid reflux medications among adolescents has jumped 147 percent, while girls aged 10 to 19 taking medications for type 2 diabetes has jumped close to 200 percent in the last nine years. And prescriptions for antihypertensives for children under the age of 19 are predicted to reach 5.5 million this year, The Wall Street Times reports.
Every one of these "chronic diseases" is virtually always the result of an unhealthy lifestyle, namely poor diet, lack of exercise, and stress.
But instead, kids are taught from a young age that in order to "feel better" they need to go to the doctor or the nearest drug store and get medicine. To make matters worse, kids are exposed to TV commercials, some with animated characters and talking animals, pedaling drugs to their parents and sometimes directly to teens.
This is an atrocity, as what is needed to treat these types of ailments is a prescription for a healthier lifestyle.
For example, if your child has high blood pressure, step number one is to avoid fructose such as high fructose corn syrup, which is the number one source of calories in the US. So, get your kid off cola, sports drinks and processed foods. Then encourage some daily physical activity, and drugs will in most cases be completely unnecessary.
Sadly, only an estimated 10 percent of parents follow advice that involves lifestyle modification, even when it comes from their doctor or pediatrician.
Please, don't be in the majority on this issue, especially when it involves the long-term health of your child.
Which are More Dangerous: Drugs or Alternative Medicine?
FoodConsumer.org recently reported on an Australian surveillance study that found alternative medicine had caused the death of four children between the years of 2001 and 2003.
A total of 39 reports of side effects attributable to the use of alternative medicine were also found.
When you compare that to the death statistics of modern drugs, the answer to the subhead above becomes rather self-evident.
That's not to say that alternative medicine has a flawless safety record. However, if safety is a concern for you and your family, opting for a well-established natural folk remedy over a drug is surely going to provide you with a far greater safety margin when you need to treat a symptom. (The best "remedy" however, is going to be an overall healthy lifestyle that focuses on a nutrient-dense diet, exercise, toxin avoidance and stress relief.)
That said, let's compare the death statistics of alternative medicine with the mortality statistics of the conventional drug route.
Dr. Null and colleagues published an oft-cited report in 2003 about the death toll caused by drugs and conventional medical treatments, which included the following statistics.
• Adverse drug reactions -- 106,000 deaths/year
• Medical errors -- 98,000 deaths/year
• Unnecessary procedures -- 37,136 deaths/year
• Surgery -- 32,000 deaths/year
Additionally, a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, which analyzed 62 million death certificates from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available), found that almost a quarter-million of those deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
In an AMA article discussing the study, one co-author quoted as stating that "medication errors are the second-leading cause of accidental death, and the only kind of accidental death that is increasing over time."
An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year, and adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
The costs of adverse drug reactions to society are more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
So, going back to the fact that over 25 percent of American youths are now taking prescription drugs on a chronic basis, you don't need a crystal ball to see what the future has in store...
Dirty Big Pharma Tricks that Risk Your Health for Profit
In a December 22, 2010 article, Martha Rosenberg spells out the many ways drug companies maintain their standing as the third most profitable industry sector in the US, despite a dwindling economy and poor publicity.
She hits the nail on the head in her evaluation of their "winning" tactics:
"[B]y cheating the government, misrepresenting science, bribing doctors, patients and pharmacies, and squeezing the FDA.
… Pharma has often been criticized for lack of creativity in developing new drugs. But these dirty tricks show its creativity is alive and well when it comes to putting the public at risk just to turn a profit."
Yes, the drug industry has shown a remarkable knack for creativity when it comes to misleading the public, lying to doctors, and swindling our government out of dwindling resources.
Rosenberg comes up with no less than 15 different unethical strategies employed by the industry to ensure their survival while risking yours. I highly recommend reading through her article for an eye-opening look at "how it's done."
We've seen an increasing lack of ethical behavior from the drug industry in recent years. Deceptive propaganda is at an all-time high, while out-and-out criminality appears to have become standard practice.
Together, these two factors are destroying the health of millions, bankrupting both individuals and our government, and undermining the very foundation of what "medical science" is supposed to entail.
All in all, 19 drug companies have made AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s.
The United States seems to be moving towards fascism in which there is an unholy alliance and merger between government and corporate interests.
However, there is a ray of hope.
Organizations like the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the False Claims Act Legal Center, and Politicol News are now starting to investigate and publicize the illegal and criminal actions that these companies have been getting away with for years.
Thanks to the federal False Claims Act, state and federal investigators have a gun that they can use to hunt down and prosecute these heinous crimes with. If you visit the False Claims Act Legal Center website, you'll get a hint of just how much this type of corporate has been going on.
But again, it's just a hint, just the tip of an iceberg. What it does prove, however, is that Big Pharma can't be trusted. They have the criminal history to prove it.
That said, I urge you to step off this out-of-control train; to reconsider the use of drugs both for yourself and for your children. As I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of health problems now treated with drugs are both preventable and treatable without drugs.
So please, do your homework, and remember that lifestyle changes ARE the cures you're looking for. Pills will never, ever address the underlying cause of your health problems.
That's not what they're designed to do!
Since we began this comment discussing the needless drugging of children, I'll wrap this up with some of my recommendations for raising a healthy child.
Tips for Keeping Your Child Drug-Free and Healthy
It's quite common for parents -- especially first-time parents -- to rush their children to a physician for every minor ailment. It's important to remember that in the first year or two of life, your child's immune system is still being formed, and their experiences during this time can often predict whether or not they will have life-long health problems.
Scientific studies continually support the wisdom of limiting exposures to "foreign" substances for children, including synthetic chemicals -- which includes drugs.
Along with immune system development, your child's nervous system continues to develop well into their seventh year of life. With the recent epidemic increase in the rates of autism, attention deficit, and hyperactivity disorders, it would seem prudent to nurture and protect your child's health in every way possible.
It's also important to remember that your child's immune system and overall health is most influenced by diet, not by drugs or supplements. Many if not most of the chronic diseases kids are now facing can be prevented with proper food choices, along with the commonsense strategies that follow:
• Breastfeed – Feeding your child breast milk and avoiding baby formulas (especially soy formulas, which can be deadly) is perhaps one of the best things you can do to nurture your child's inherent immune system, setting the stage for optimal health.
• Get educated on vaccinations – Before you go along with the standard protocol, do your homework on childhood vaccinations, and opt out of any vaccination where the risks are greater than the potential benefit.
• Proper diet – So many people, including health professionals, do not pay enough attention to diet. I recommend determining your child's nutritional type and following my nutrition plan from an early age to avoid many common ailments and chronic diseases later on. You should also be sure your child is not consuming too much fructose from consuming soda, candy or other processed foods.
Fructose is highly destructive to virtually every body system within your child. So eliminate ALL sodas, and be VERY cautious about drinking fruit juices, as they are also high in fructose. It's far better to eat whole unprocessed fruits instead.
• Exercise -- Too much sedentary time is actually one of the forces driving the child obesity epidemic. About 30 percent of U.S. children are now overweight, and, childhood diabetes has increased 10-fold in the last 20 years.
If your child is in this group, it is imperative that you limit their TV, computer and video game time, and replace them with a regular exercise program. Overweight and obese children will need at least 30 minutes of exercise each day, and may benefit from closer to 60 minutes.
Even if your child is not overweight, you should encourage him or her to take part in physically engaging activities throughout the summer, after school days, and on the weekends.
• Treat fevers properly -- A fever is actually a good thing and can improve your child's immune system, making them much healthier in the long run. High fevers can be especially beneficial as they are far better than any immunization at building an authentic, life-long immune response.
When you suppress these fevers with Tylenol or another medication, you can cause far more harm than good. (I advise avoiding most all of the anti-fever medications unless your child is absolutely miserable or the fever is over 104 degrees F.) A tepid bath can be a soothing and effective alternative.
• Avoid antibiotics – Many common infections -- such as colds and the flu -- for example, are still treated with antibiotics even though it's common knowledge that antibiotics CANNOT treat those kinds of infections! This kind of antibiotic abuse will only be a detriment to your child's health in the long run.
• Healthy outlets for stress – Kids can be under a lot of stress to keep their grades up and forge new relationships with their peers. Make sure that your kids know how to release their sadness, stress, or other negative emotions, and encourage them to engage in relaxing activities if you know they've had a stressful day.
These lifestyle strategies will help prime your child for a lifetime of optimal health.
In the event your child is offered a prescription drug, I would strongly encourage you to do the research before giving your child any medication, and only do so if there is truly no other option (you may need to seek out the opinion of a physician who is knowledgeable about natural medicine).
Related Links:
7 Drugs That Can Kill Children with a Single Pill
American Kids are the Most Medicated in the World
The Tragic Consequences of Drugging Our Children
Resist Giving This to Your Child - Even if Your Doctor Recommends it
More than a quarter of children and teens in the United States are taking a medication on a regular basis. Close to seven percent are on two or more prescription drugs.
Prescribing medications to children can cause problems; many of them have not had their effects on children researched.
Even in ones that have, the consequences of using them over the course of a lifetime is usually unknown.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
"... [C]hildren and teens are ... taking a wide variety of ... medications once considered only to be for adults, from statins to diabetes pills and sleep drugs, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by IMS Health, a research firm.
Prescriptions for antihypertensives in people age 19 and younger could hit 5.5 million this year if the trend though September continues ... Unhealthy diets and lack of exercise among children ... fuel the use of some treatments, such as those for hypertension."
Meanwhile, there's an ongoing discussion about which is more dangerous: alternative medicine or prescription drugs?
A recent survey led found four deaths between 2001 and 2003 that were associated with use of alternative treatments in Australia.
However, according to health and nutrition expert Dr. Gary Null, deaths associated with use of dietary supplements or alternative medicine are extremely rare compared to the death toll from the medical errors and prescription drugs.
Yet despite the well-documented dangers of prescription drugs and a painful recession, drug companies still represent the nation's third most profitable business sector in the U.S.
How do they do that?
At least in part by cheating the government, misrepresenting science, and bribing doctors. Writing in AlterNet, Martha Rosenberg lists 15 ways the drug companies lie, break the law, or risk your health for profit.
Here are a few of them:
1. Astroturf Patients
They create fake patient advocacy groups to lobby for drug company interests. These front groups often push the FDA to approve an expensive drug that has acceptable, cheaper alternatives.
2. Cheating the Government
Drug companies are a top defrauder of the federal government. They've been hit with $14.8 billion in wrongdoing settlements in the last five years -- but that's still cheaper than going about things the legal way.
3. Dangerous Trials
Presiding over clinical trials can make a doctor thousands per patient -- and sometimes they compromise patient safety just to get at that money.
4. Deceptive Trials
Trials that only determine that a drug is "not worse" than another one can skew results. And some research deliberately skewed, with results decided upon before the trial is ever conducted.
To read the other ways in which the drug companies rip you off, see Rosenberg's article.
Sources: Food Consumer December 24, 2010 ; Wall Street Journal December 28, 2010 ; Archives of Disease in Childhood December 22, 2010 [Epub ahead of print]
The recent article on child and teen drug use published in The Wall Street Journal is nothing if not shocking.
It's exceedingly hard to fathom that more than 25 percent of American youths are now taking prescription medication on a regular basis. Among adolescents aged 10 to 19, the figure jumps to 30 percent, and nearly seven percent are taking two or more drugs.
This is an absolute prescription for disaster, and there's simply NO justification for it, other than to maximize corporate profits for the drug cartels. These are kids for God's sake. How could it be possible that one in four would need drug assistance in the healthiest years of their life?
Few trends highlight the fatal flaws in the U.S. medical system more than our ruthless drugging of children. Not only are kids coming down with chronic diseases once only seen in adults (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression), but they are being medicated with toxic drugs rather than being taught how to get healthy, naturally.
In a couple of decades, these kids will find out that the medications they've been given have done nothing to heal their bodies, and if nothing changes they will find themselves on an increasing list of drugs that will accelerate their early demise.
The Dangerous Play of Pediatric Drugs
Children and adolescents should be, for the most part, at their health peak. Instead, this age group now represents the leading growth category for the pharmaceutical industry, with increases nearly four times higher than those seen in the rest of the population, as of last year.
This is extremely troubling and tragic for a number of reasons:
1. Research on drug safety is limited in general, but nearly non-existent for many of the drugs now prescribed to children
2. The impact of using drugs—ANY drug—for the majority of an entire lifetime is not only "poorly understood," but entirely unknown, as such long-term studies have not been done. Hence the current generation of child drug users are literally acting as long-term guinea pigs
3. The future health care costs for these children is likely going to be astronomical, as their health will begin to spiral downward due to side effects from the drugs—which will be treated with an ever increasing number of drugs and costly medical treatments
4. Older, established drugs are also rarely scrutinized for safety in children, since drug companies have little incentive to test medicines once their patent protection has expired
Some of the most commonly prescribed drugs for children and teens these days include drugs for:
• Asthma
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Statins
• Diabetes drugs
• Sleeping pills
The last three of these drugs are designed for adults. They were never intended for widespread use in children, and safety and effectiveness data for pediatric use does not exist.
In fact, 75 percent of all prescription drugs do NOT have labeling instructions for children, leaving their use in children up to your physician's discretion.
Unhealthy Lifestyles are Making Kids Sick
Some of the largest jumps in prescriptions for kids are drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heartburn.
Since 2001, the use of heartburn and acid reflux medications among adolescents has jumped 147 percent, while girls aged 10 to 19 taking medications for type 2 diabetes has jumped close to 200 percent in the last nine years. And prescriptions for antihypertensives for children under the age of 19 are predicted to reach 5.5 million this year, The Wall Street Times reports.
Every one of these "chronic diseases" is virtually always the result of an unhealthy lifestyle, namely poor diet, lack of exercise, and stress.
But instead, kids are taught from a young age that in order to "feel better" they need to go to the doctor or the nearest drug store and get medicine. To make matters worse, kids are exposed to TV commercials, some with animated characters and talking animals, pedaling drugs to their parents and sometimes directly to teens.
This is an atrocity, as what is needed to treat these types of ailments is a prescription for a healthier lifestyle.
For example, if your child has high blood pressure, step number one is to avoid fructose such as high fructose corn syrup, which is the number one source of calories in the US. So, get your kid off cola, sports drinks and processed foods. Then encourage some daily physical activity, and drugs will in most cases be completely unnecessary.
Sadly, only an estimated 10 percent of parents follow advice that involves lifestyle modification, even when it comes from their doctor or pediatrician.
Please, don't be in the majority on this issue, especially when it involves the long-term health of your child.
Which are More Dangerous: Drugs or Alternative Medicine?
FoodConsumer.org recently reported on an Australian surveillance study that found alternative medicine had caused the death of four children between the years of 2001 and 2003.
A total of 39 reports of side effects attributable to the use of alternative medicine were also found.
When you compare that to the death statistics of modern drugs, the answer to the subhead above becomes rather self-evident.
That's not to say that alternative medicine has a flawless safety record. However, if safety is a concern for you and your family, opting for a well-established natural folk remedy over a drug is surely going to provide you with a far greater safety margin when you need to treat a symptom. (The best "remedy" however, is going to be an overall healthy lifestyle that focuses on a nutrient-dense diet, exercise, toxin avoidance and stress relief.)
That said, let's compare the death statistics of alternative medicine with the mortality statistics of the conventional drug route.
Dr. Null and colleagues published an oft-cited report in 2003 about the death toll caused by drugs and conventional medical treatments, which included the following statistics.
• Adverse drug reactions -- 106,000 deaths/year
• Medical errors -- 98,000 deaths/year
• Unnecessary procedures -- 37,136 deaths/year
• Surgery -- 32,000 deaths/year
Additionally, a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, which analyzed 62 million death certificates from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available), found that almost a quarter-million of those deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
In an AMA article discussing the study, one co-author quoted as stating that "medication errors are the second-leading cause of accidental death, and the only kind of accidental death that is increasing over time."
An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year, and adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
The costs of adverse drug reactions to society are more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
So, going back to the fact that over 25 percent of American youths are now taking prescription drugs on a chronic basis, you don't need a crystal ball to see what the future has in store...
Dirty Big Pharma Tricks that Risk Your Health for Profit
In a December 22, 2010 article, Martha Rosenberg spells out the many ways drug companies maintain their standing as the third most profitable industry sector in the US, despite a dwindling economy and poor publicity.
She hits the nail on the head in her evaluation of their "winning" tactics:
"[B]y cheating the government, misrepresenting science, bribing doctors, patients and pharmacies, and squeezing the FDA.
… Pharma has often been criticized for lack of creativity in developing new drugs. But these dirty tricks show its creativity is alive and well when it comes to putting the public at risk just to turn a profit."
Yes, the drug industry has shown a remarkable knack for creativity when it comes to misleading the public, lying to doctors, and swindling our government out of dwindling resources.
Rosenberg comes up with no less than 15 different unethical strategies employed by the industry to ensure their survival while risking yours. I highly recommend reading through her article for an eye-opening look at "how it's done."
We've seen an increasing lack of ethical behavior from the drug industry in recent years. Deceptive propaganda is at an all-time high, while out-and-out criminality appears to have become standard practice.
Together, these two factors are destroying the health of millions, bankrupting both individuals and our government, and undermining the very foundation of what "medical science" is supposed to entail.
All in all, 19 drug companies have made AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s.
The United States seems to be moving towards fascism in which there is an unholy alliance and merger between government and corporate interests.
However, there is a ray of hope.
Organizations like the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the False Claims Act Legal Center, and Politicol News are now starting to investigate and publicize the illegal and criminal actions that these companies have been getting away with for years.
Thanks to the federal False Claims Act, state and federal investigators have a gun that they can use to hunt down and prosecute these heinous crimes with. If you visit the False Claims Act Legal Center website, you'll get a hint of just how much this type of corporate has been going on.
But again, it's just a hint, just the tip of an iceberg. What it does prove, however, is that Big Pharma can't be trusted. They have the criminal history to prove it.
That said, I urge you to step off this out-of-control train; to reconsider the use of drugs both for yourself and for your children. As I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of health problems now treated with drugs are both preventable and treatable without drugs.
So please, do your homework, and remember that lifestyle changes ARE the cures you're looking for. Pills will never, ever address the underlying cause of your health problems.
That's not what they're designed to do!
Since we began this comment discussing the needless drugging of children, I'll wrap this up with some of my recommendations for raising a healthy child.
Tips for Keeping Your Child Drug-Free and Healthy
It's quite common for parents -- especially first-time parents -- to rush their children to a physician for every minor ailment. It's important to remember that in the first year or two of life, your child's immune system is still being formed, and their experiences during this time can often predict whether or not they will have life-long health problems.
Scientific studies continually support the wisdom of limiting exposures to "foreign" substances for children, including synthetic chemicals -- which includes drugs.
Along with immune system development, your child's nervous system continues to develop well into their seventh year of life. With the recent epidemic increase in the rates of autism, attention deficit, and hyperactivity disorders, it would seem prudent to nurture and protect your child's health in every way possible.
It's also important to remember that your child's immune system and overall health is most influenced by diet, not by drugs or supplements. Many if not most of the chronic diseases kids are now facing can be prevented with proper food choices, along with the commonsense strategies that follow:
• Breastfeed – Feeding your child breast milk and avoiding baby formulas (especially soy formulas, which can be deadly) is perhaps one of the best things you can do to nurture your child's inherent immune system, setting the stage for optimal health.
• Get educated on vaccinations – Before you go along with the standard protocol, do your homework on childhood vaccinations, and opt out of any vaccination where the risks are greater than the potential benefit.
• Proper diet – So many people, including health professionals, do not pay enough attention to diet. I recommend determining your child's nutritional type and following my nutrition plan from an early age to avoid many common ailments and chronic diseases later on. You should also be sure your child is not consuming too much fructose from consuming soda, candy or other processed foods.
Fructose is highly destructive to virtually every body system within your child. So eliminate ALL sodas, and be VERY cautious about drinking fruit juices, as they are also high in fructose. It's far better to eat whole unprocessed fruits instead.
• Exercise -- Too much sedentary time is actually one of the forces driving the child obesity epidemic. About 30 percent of U.S. children are now overweight, and, childhood diabetes has increased 10-fold in the last 20 years.
If your child is in this group, it is imperative that you limit their TV, computer and video game time, and replace them with a regular exercise program. Overweight and obese children will need at least 30 minutes of exercise each day, and may benefit from closer to 60 minutes.
Even if your child is not overweight, you should encourage him or her to take part in physically engaging activities throughout the summer, after school days, and on the weekends.
• Treat fevers properly -- A fever is actually a good thing and can improve your child's immune system, making them much healthier in the long run. High fevers can be especially beneficial as they are far better than any immunization at building an authentic, life-long immune response.
When you suppress these fevers with Tylenol or another medication, you can cause far more harm than good. (I advise avoiding most all of the anti-fever medications unless your child is absolutely miserable or the fever is over 104 degrees F.) A tepid bath can be a soothing and effective alternative.
• Avoid antibiotics – Many common infections -- such as colds and the flu -- for example, are still treated with antibiotics even though it's common knowledge that antibiotics CANNOT treat those kinds of infections! This kind of antibiotic abuse will only be a detriment to your child's health in the long run.
• Healthy outlets for stress – Kids can be under a lot of stress to keep their grades up and forge new relationships with their peers. Make sure that your kids know how to release their sadness, stress, or other negative emotions, and encourage them to engage in relaxing activities if you know they've had a stressful day.
These lifestyle strategies will help prime your child for a lifetime of optimal health.
In the event your child is offered a prescription drug, I would strongly encourage you to do the research before giving your child any medication, and only do so if there is truly no other option (you may need to seek out the opinion of a physician who is knowledgeable about natural medicine).
Related Links:
7 Drugs That Can Kill Children with a Single Pill
American Kids are the Most Medicated in the World
The Tragic Consequences of Drugging Our Children
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
#2 on the 2010 top Health articles
Great article on Exercise.
_short intense workouts of 30sec all out followed by 90 sec coast are much better for growth hormone stimulation.
_diet affects the outcome of the work out.
_insulin resistance this is a biggie that is restored.
The ROM work out is a shot intense work out and can easily be modified to this exactly.
There ABSOLUTELY IS NO EXCUSE for "not having the time". WE are talking 4 minutes!
_short intense workouts of 30sec all out followed by 90 sec coast are much better for growth hormone stimulation.
_diet affects the outcome of the work out.
_insulin resistance this is a biggie that is restored.
The ROM work out is a shot intense work out and can easily be modified to this exactly.
There ABSOLUTELY IS NO EXCUSE for "not having the time". WE are talking 4 minutes!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Mercola's 10 Best articles of 2010
I thought I would post one each week, the first is his article about sugar and fructose.
Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly
Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.
Fructose, a sweetener usually derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.
Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.
Sources:
Grist December 15, 2009
J Clin Invest 2009
Times Online 2009
This study takes its place in a growing lineup of scientific studies demonstrating that consuming high-fructose corn syrup is the fastest way to trash your health. It is now known without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all it’s myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll.
And fructose in any form -- including high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and crystalline fructose -- is the worst of the worst!
Fructose is a major contributor to:
• Insulin resistance and obesity
• Elevated blood pressure
• Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
• Depletion of vitamins and minerals
• Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout
A Calorie is Not a Calorie
Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on the Earth--uses glucose for energy.
If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you’d consume about 15 grams per day -- a far cry from the 73 grams per day the typical adolescent gets from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it’s mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all which moderate any negative metabolic effects.
It isn’t that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you’re exposed to that make it dangerous.
There are two reasons fructose is so damaging:
1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.
Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS.
Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, it’s about 20% sweeter than table sugar.
HFCS is either 42% or 55% fructose, and sucrose is 50% fructose, so it's really a wash in terms of sweetness.
Still, this switch drastically altered the average American diet.
By USDA estimates, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars, and most of that is HFCS. The average Westerner consumes a staggering 142 pounds a year of sugar! And the very products most people rely on to lose weight -- the low-fat diet foods -- are often the ones highest in fructose.
Making matters worse, all of the fiber has been removed from these processed foods, so there is essentially no nutritive value at all.
Fructose Metabolism Basics
Without getting into the very complex biochemistry of carbohydrate metabolism, it is important to understand some differences about how your body handles glucose versus fructose. I will be publishing a major article about this in the next couple of months, which will get much more into the details, but for our purpose here, I will just summarize the main points.
Dr. Robert Lustig[i] Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used:
• After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
• Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is “burned up” immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
• The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
• Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
• When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
• The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
• Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain’s communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.
If anyone tries to tell you “sugar is sugar,” they are way behind the times. As you can see, there are major differences in how your body processes each one.
The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased belly fat, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome -- not to mention the long list of chronic diseases that directly result.
Panic in the Corn Fields
As the truth comes out about HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association is scrambling to convince you that their product is equal to table sugar, that it is “natural” and safe.
Of course, many things are “natural” -- cocaine is natural, but you wouldn’t want to use 142 pounds of it each year.
The food and beverage industry doesn’t want you to realize how truly pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices, but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975 has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry.
The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which pretty much means nothing and is based on nothing.
There is plenty of data showing that fructose is not safe -- but the effects on the nation’s health have not been immediate. That is why we are just now realizing the effects of the last three decades of nutritional misinformation.
As if the negative metabolic effects are not enough, there are other issues with fructose that disprove its safety:
• More than one study has detected unsafe mercury levels in HFCS[ii].
• Crystalline fructose (a super-potent form of fructose the food and beverage industry is now using) may contain arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals.
• Nearly all corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, which comes with its own set of risks.
The FDA isn’t going to touch sugar, so it’s up to you to be proactive about your own dietary choices.
What’s a Sugarholic to Do?
Ideally, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.
I also realize we don’t live in a perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always practical or even possible.
If you want to use a sweetener occasionally, this is what I recommend:
1. Use the herb stevia.
2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation.
3. Use organic raw honey in moderation.
4. Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.
5. Avoid agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave’s meteoric rise in popularity is due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are processed out.
6. Avoid so-called energy drinks and sports drinks because they are loaded with sugar, sodium and chemical additives. Rehydrating with pure, fresh water is a better choice.
If you or your child is involved in athletics, I recommend you read my article Energy Rules for some great tips on how to optimize your child’s energy levels and physical performance through good nutrition.
Read More in Part 2 of the this story.
________________________________________
[i] Robert H. Lustig, MD: UCSF Faculty Bio Page, and YouTube presentation “Sugar: The bitter truth” and “The fructose epidemic” The Bariatrician, 2009, Volume 24, No. 1, page 10)
[ii] “Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup?” 20 Feb 2009, Grist
Related Links:
Dramatic Example of How the Food Industry Lies to You About Corn
Guess Who Funds High Fructose Corn Syrup Studies?
Sugar is Back on Food Labels—This Time as a Selling Point
Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly
Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.
Fructose, a sweetener usually derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.
Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.
Sources:
Grist December 15, 2009
J Clin Invest 2009
Times Online 2009
This study takes its place in a growing lineup of scientific studies demonstrating that consuming high-fructose corn syrup is the fastest way to trash your health. It is now known without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all it’s myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll.
And fructose in any form -- including high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and crystalline fructose -- is the worst of the worst!
Fructose is a major contributor to:
• Insulin resistance and obesity
• Elevated blood pressure
• Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
• Depletion of vitamins and minerals
• Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout
A Calorie is Not a Calorie
Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on the Earth--uses glucose for energy.
If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you’d consume about 15 grams per day -- a far cry from the 73 grams per day the typical adolescent gets from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it’s mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all which moderate any negative metabolic effects.
It isn’t that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you’re exposed to that make it dangerous.
There are two reasons fructose is so damaging:
1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.
Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS.
Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, it’s about 20% sweeter than table sugar.
HFCS is either 42% or 55% fructose, and sucrose is 50% fructose, so it's really a wash in terms of sweetness.
Still, this switch drastically altered the average American diet.
By USDA estimates, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars, and most of that is HFCS. The average Westerner consumes a staggering 142 pounds a year of sugar! And the very products most people rely on to lose weight -- the low-fat diet foods -- are often the ones highest in fructose.
Making matters worse, all of the fiber has been removed from these processed foods, so there is essentially no nutritive value at all.
Fructose Metabolism Basics
Without getting into the very complex biochemistry of carbohydrate metabolism, it is important to understand some differences about how your body handles glucose versus fructose. I will be publishing a major article about this in the next couple of months, which will get much more into the details, but for our purpose here, I will just summarize the main points.
Dr. Robert Lustig[i] Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used:
• After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
• Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is “burned up” immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
• The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
• Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
• When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
• The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
• Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain’s communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.
If anyone tries to tell you “sugar is sugar,” they are way behind the times. As you can see, there are major differences in how your body processes each one.
The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased belly fat, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome -- not to mention the long list of chronic diseases that directly result.
Panic in the Corn Fields
As the truth comes out about HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association is scrambling to convince you that their product is equal to table sugar, that it is “natural” and safe.
Of course, many things are “natural” -- cocaine is natural, but you wouldn’t want to use 142 pounds of it each year.
The food and beverage industry doesn’t want you to realize how truly pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices, but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975 has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry.
The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which pretty much means nothing and is based on nothing.
There is plenty of data showing that fructose is not safe -- but the effects on the nation’s health have not been immediate. That is why we are just now realizing the effects of the last three decades of nutritional misinformation.
As if the negative metabolic effects are not enough, there are other issues with fructose that disprove its safety:
• More than one study has detected unsafe mercury levels in HFCS[ii].
• Crystalline fructose (a super-potent form of fructose the food and beverage industry is now using) may contain arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals.
• Nearly all corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, which comes with its own set of risks.
The FDA isn’t going to touch sugar, so it’s up to you to be proactive about your own dietary choices.
What’s a Sugarholic to Do?
Ideally, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.
I also realize we don’t live in a perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always practical or even possible.
If you want to use a sweetener occasionally, this is what I recommend:
1. Use the herb stevia.
2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation.
3. Use organic raw honey in moderation.
4. Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.
5. Avoid agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave’s meteoric rise in popularity is due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are processed out.
6. Avoid so-called energy drinks and sports drinks because they are loaded with sugar, sodium and chemical additives. Rehydrating with pure, fresh water is a better choice.
If you or your child is involved in athletics, I recommend you read my article Energy Rules for some great tips on how to optimize your child’s energy levels and physical performance through good nutrition.
Read More in Part 2 of the this story.
________________________________________
[i] Robert H. Lustig, MD: UCSF Faculty Bio Page, and YouTube presentation “Sugar: The bitter truth” and “The fructose epidemic” The Bariatrician, 2009, Volume 24, No. 1, page 10)
[ii] “Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup?” 20 Feb 2009, Grist
Related Links:
Dramatic Example of How the Food Industry Lies to You About Corn
Guess Who Funds High Fructose Corn Syrup Studies?
Sugar is Back on Food Labels—This Time as a Selling Point
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