Side Effects. Oh those blessed money making side effects!!!!!

Well, it could probably be said that every drug out there, even the most innocuous ones like aspirin, have side effects.  I don't think willow bark has any, but then it is pretty hard to get accurate and specific doses and effects from drinking willow bark tea.  Plus it tastes like crap.  Aspirin on the other hand, has specific effects, relieves pain, swelling, fever, and causes intestinal and stomach problems, thins the blood as well as Reye's syndrome.  So, there must be a happy medium, take aspirin when needed for the benefits, not too long to avoid the nasty problems.  That is unless one of the side effects are what you really want, like thinning the blood.  I've talked about it here before, I take a baby aspirin every day because it is almost as effective as Plavix, but six hundred times cheaper and without the HUGE risk of death and other nasty side effects that the prescription med has. In fact, Plavix really only works when taken with an aspirin every day, so the reality is that Plavix by itself probably doesn't do much of anything at all, other than cause a few deaths and disabilities here and there. 

I did not even know that Plavix would even help my condition if it weren't for the huge numbers of DTC (Direct to Consumer) ads for the anticlotting drug that filled magazines and TV shows.  Anymore, that's how most drugs are gotten into the hands of the end consumers.  (I could say patients, but that is probably not exactly correct)  People see ads for cures for all sorts of diseases on the TV.  The Big Pharma companies WANT consumers to think that they are sick, then go to the doctor and ask for a prescription.  This method of selling your product works quite well, Big Pharma now spends nearly 6 times as much on marketing than they do on research for new drugs.  And they tell us about all the diseases we have that we did not know about until it was pointed out to us on Prime Time how heartburn was a serious threat to our health, if your legs fall asleep there are pills for that, if you think you might be depressed then there are pills for that, and that those pills can be greatly augmented by other pills, that acne can be cured with a pill, that gout can be cured with a pill, if you have dry eyes then you can take a pill, if you don't want to eat right then you can take a pill, and finally, that laughing out loud was a neurological problem, and there is a pill to cure that as well.  (Not kidding about the last one ((PsuedoBulbar Affect))

As a race, we are sicker than we thought, and the cool thing is, insurance pays for you to try it all.

You might just get lucky, with enough pills going into you, there is a possibility that enough side effects might cover whatever your problem might be.  And you have to believe it, side effects abound in the medication industry.  That's the reason that we have drugs to begin with.  Finding a chemical or combination of compounds and seeing what it does within the human body.  And as so often happens, after giving to to humans, finding out other things that it does.   And if at all possible, capitalizing on those, side effects.  Let's look at one fun drug in particular.  Cyclosporin.  This is a drug that for many decades was the drug of choice to suppress the immune system so that organs from one human could be transplanted into a different human.  Cyclosporin has a lot of nasty side effects, like making your hair fall out, or unusual growth of hair in places, making you susceptible to infections and in many cases unable to fight infections and therefore dying, dizziness in a big way, uncontrolled thirst, numbness, tingling, loss of appetite, and the big one, making your eyes water like crazy.  WOW!  Okay. here's a drug that has a very specialized market, transplant patients.  It helps the body fight the natural tendency to reject a new kidney or heart or whatever.  But now, a side effect that the manufacturer can capitalize on, dry eyes.  WOO HOO!  Surely there must be a lot more people out there with dry eyes that have insurance, and therefore will want this rather nasty stuff to make their eyes water.  SURELY THERE MUST BE!  If not, advertise on TV and TELL the consumers watching that they NEED a drug that has proven itself to have extremely noxious side effects (like unable to fight off infections like TB or pneumonia and then dying) in order to moisten their eyes.

Everything out there for us to get a script from our docs started out as a side effect for a drug.  Some, very few, the intended effect is the real deal and what they planned.  Most, are side effects and should be used with caution.  Sometime when sitting in front of TV, take a moment and actually listen to what the announcer tells you might possibly happen to you if your take their drug.  In almost every case, there is a huge number of serious problems possible.  Remember, the desired effect is generally only one of the things that will happen to your body when you take any drug.  Assess the risk before you take any of their money making pills. 

the First Death has been recorded, how long before it affects the world population?

When I was told I had MRSA, I was sent to an infectious disease specialist and was told that there were specific antibiotics that would kill off the specific strain of bacteria living in my sinuses.  They knew this because they cultured the MRSA and then they tested a variety of antibiotics on the cultures.  Then they stuck a PICC line in my arm and hooked antibiotics to it three times a day for a month.  I had diarrhea for a month.  I still have MRSA as well, modern medical techniques didn't seem to work the way they thought they would.  Even  though they told me they would cure me, they gave me a pamphlet that detailed how to live with MRSA.  A "Guide" on how to live with an infectious disease for which there was no cure and how to safely interact with others in your life and not spread the disease to anyone else. 

The medical profession's back up plan and attempt to immunize themselves from lawsuits.

Unless you live in a cave or are a teen or post teen entranced with the antics of Hollywood foolishness, you probably have heard about antibiotic resistant bacteria. There have been a few mentions on the mainstream news media.  A few.  Not nearly enough in my opinion.  Some of the things I have seen are the reminders that if you have the flu, or flu like symptoms, an antibiotic will not have any effect against a virus.  Taking antibiotics needlessly is one of the causes of the epidemic of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the world today.  (And of course you can take Tamiflu, but that's another story all together. (Tamiflu)  I cringe whenever I hear that statement.  It might have some basis in truth, however the reality of the problems is Modern Meat, and how animals are raised in CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) wherein the conditions are so horrific and unsanitary that processors must feed huge amounts of antibiotics to the animals in an effort to reduce diseases and deaths in the operations.  Fully 80% of the antibiotics manufactured in this country are feed to cattle and other animals for human consumption.  And then humans eat the carcasses that contain residues of antibiotics.  This is why all the antibiotic resistant bacteria have come into existence.  You are eating low doses of antibiotics daily, and bacteria have developed immunity to those antibiotics.  When introduced into mainstream medical environments, those with a little immunity, grow colonies that have a lot of immunity.  Thus, MRSA and other forms of bacteria that the modern world is having a tough time coping with. 

In November of this year, a man died in New Zealand from an infection of Actinomycetes bacteria growing in his brain that he caught after brain surgery to repair a brain hemorrhage.  Named KPC-Oxa 48, this strain of bacteria is totally unaffected by every known antibiotic that modern science has created.  You probably didn't hear about that on "The View" or "TMZ Live".  You won't either, at least until important people, hollywood do-nothings, become infected and die.  Then, it will be all over the news.  But so far, one guy, in a hospital in New Zealand, a place where most adults could not even tell you which hemisphere it occupies; has died from exposure and infection from a bacteria that potentially could mean the end of mankind.  The unfortunate part of this is that MOST people in the world have this belief that Modern Medicine will save them and the miracles that the medical profession perform daily will continue to allow them to live happy carefree lives, eat at McD's, enjoy Coke, and Kentucky Fried offerings and never have to worry about some guy dying a world away.  It is of course, a fantasy.  Modern Medicine is the number one cause of death in America today.  Those in the medical profession are barely able to keep their selves out of lawsuits for all the harm they do, curing anyone is secondary to covering their asses. (Modern Medicine)

I guess I could now explain that any sort of belief that Big Pharma will swoop in and produce new antibiotics that will save the world.  However I don't think that will happen.  Big Pharma is more concerned with making new drugs to make money.  Pushing new drugs through the approval process with little or falsified testing has gotten a few of them into hot water, but let's remember that it is always "after the fact".  Making a new antibiotic that will cure what will soon become a worldwide epidemic is of little interest to Big Pharma, the governments of the world will require them to produce it and distribute it pretty much free of charge, or at least free of profit anyway.  Not a lot of incentive there.  And besides, it's only one death so far. 

One death.  Who accepts the blame for it?  No one will.  But in reality, it is each and every one of us that caused it.  If we stopped eating the Modern Meats that is produced for us, then Big Agribusiness would stop producing the stuff in the horrific unsanitary manner they do. It all starts with one person saying no.    

NO!

America Has MAGIC BEANS For SALE, (health wealth and long life in a pill)

Lipozene has been clinically proven to melt away belly fat, and with NO dieting or exercise.  If you sprinkle Sensa on your food everyday you will lose weight without exercise or dieting.  Quick Trim, Dr. Oz Diet Pills, Belly Off, Bliss Fat Girl Slim, Nature's Secret, and, well, tons of Magic Beans and Snake Oil for sale on the internet, on TV, in every magazine and in every store.  They all contain their own "Patented" formula of Snake Oil, a revolutionary concoction that is guaranteed to make you lose weight, get sexy, look like the twenty year old models and all with no effort on your part.  Magic Beans indeed by any definition.  And they work too.  Look at how many varieties there are on the market.  Look at how slick the expensive advertising is for the products.  And look at sales of weight loss supplements have soared to over 1.5 BILLION dollars annually. And that doesn't even include sales of weight loss food categories such as Kellog's Special K cereal, ready to eat meals from Jenny Craig and others, and nutrition bars, that are regularly advertised as weight loss Magic Beans.  Depending on who you believe, sources estimate that the entire weight loss food and supplement industry is from 20 to 40 BILLION Dollars annually.  That includes everything from weight loss pills to ready to eat meals to group therapy diet plans to food sprinkles.  It doesn't take into consideration the other 20 or so billion attributable to diet books and weight loss seminars and weekend retreats and celebrity promotions and gym memberships. 

They must work, people keep buying their crap.  And Special K cereal flies off the grocery store shelves. 

Special K is one of the worst offenders of the group, read the ingredients, it's nearly 13% sugar.  And it has no fiber at all.  NONE!!!!!  I think that pretty much all of the medical world agrees now that fiber is an important part of every dietary plan.  And no sugar should be as well.

And all of the vitamins are added in as supplements.  And again, let's remember that the FDA states that the values used for nutritional labeling need to be within 20% of actual values.  (CFR 21.101.9 (c) )  Manufacturers regularly use the upper 20 for good stuff, and the lower 20 for the bad. Given that fact, it's possible that the wonderful Make you Skinny just by eating wonderful breakfast cereal every day Special K could in fact be as high as 18 or 19 percent plain old Genetically Modified Sugar Beet processed white sugar.  Scary, but Cheerios are just as bad for you.  And your kids.  And as more and more research is coming out that shows the link between sugar consumption and heart disease, these products are showing up to not be the Magic Beans that they are claimed to be.  Advertised to be heart healthy, Cheerios are anything but.  Well, I think it would be safe to say that most everything from the BIG AGRI-GIANT Food manufacturers and processors are NOT what they claim them to be. 

Well, with the exception of them being giant money machines to the wall street do-nothings, that's the only claim that appears to have any truth to it.  "Buy our stock, we turn crap into profits and everyone benefits!"  Well, everyone but the consumers benefits.  I guess that's why over the past couple decades or so the leaders of our country as well as those in power at Monsanto, (possibly other companies as well, no one has yet verified it) all eat organic food.  One, they can afford it, and two, they know it's better and non-toxic. 

But back to the magic beans hypothesis.  How do these things work?  What magic component, which specific pathway or control process within the human anatomy that any of these specific weight loss product manufacturers have discovered and are claiming to capitalize on, do their specific products work with?  And how is it that modern medicine, of which the entire industry does an EXCEPTIONAL job of capitalizing on anything they can make money on, has not done so?  Logical inference tells us that no such Magic Bean or Snake Oil exists.  If the AMA and Big Pharma aren't making money on a magic weight loss product, then it doesn't exist.  And Americans WANT those Magic Beans and Snake Oil.  Americans BELIEVE in the magic of modern medicine, modern pharmacology and modern food processing techniques and products.  Americans absolutely BELIEVE in fairy tales and Magic Beans.  Americans WANT to eat canola laced high fat high sugar cookies right along with their HFCS soda (or worse, aspartame soda) their chips and processed meat and white bread and all the other crap that comprises the Standard American Diet; and then they want the modern Magic Beans of Big Business to save them from the excesses of which they have indulged and their savior to be in the form of a pill or tasty sugary breakfast cereal that cures their ills, makes them fit and fabulous, and with no pain or problems.  In short, Americans WANT Magic Beans.  The sad fact of the matter is that Big Pharma, Big Food, and even the AMA promise all Americans what they want.  And make tons of money giving it to them, even though none of it works.  They do a good job of selling us Snake Oil.  And Americans keep going back for more and more of it.  In 2010 it is estimated that Americans spent 310 BILLION dollars on prescription drugs, and another 107 BILLION dollars on over the counter drugs.  And for the same year, food for home consumption was 617 Billion, and processed food through away from home sales was 557 Billion.

What this means is that Americans spend 1.17 Trillion dollars on food, and 418 Billion dollars on cures for the problems that all that processed food causes.  And just to put it all into perspective, of that Trillion dollars in food sales, only about 58 billion is fresh produce. 

If Americans want Magic Beans, they do exist.  Right there in the produce section of your supermarket.  Fresh, raw and fermented are the Magic Beans that Americans need right now.  The more unprocessed your diet, the greater the chances for you to lose weight, avoid long term degenerative diseases and have a long healthy life.  It won't make you look like the 20 year old models on the Snake Oil commercials, but it will help you get there.  

Responses to my Critics. At least to those that take the time to email their personal objections to what they consider, my drivel.

December 2, I wrote an entry into my blog here entitled, Superiority.  I received a few emails about it.  Some telling me that I can't read an abstract from an introduction and then claim to have knowledge about what the article is about.  Actually, that is sort of the point of an abstract, to quantify into one paragraph what the entire 16 articles and some 200 odd pages of text deal with.  And the conclusions based on the research.  It's true, I did not spend the hundred bucks for a twenty-four hour purchase of the symposium.  I did not need to.  Each and every article includes an exceptionally well written and cognizant paragraph that specifically tells me in way way way fewer words, what the entire treatise is about.  If those people that wrote to me would like to spend the money and after doing so determine that the body of each article does in fact contain information and conclusions NOT detailed in the abstract, then I will in fact print a retraction.

However, I doubt that will happen. 

People everywhere are the same.  They like the status quo, they like to have the media spoon feed them the pablum of information sweetened with their daily dose of mindless Hollywood drivel and never ever get fed any information that will in fact tell them that the world is not in fact glorious and their lives are wondrous and if they ever get sick, then the medical industry with their hard working doctors that have all had rigorous training will sit down with them and discuss with them individually what the best course of treatments are that will care for their specific ailments and they know within their hearts that with the best of recommendations for medications given to them by their healthcare professionals they will fill their prescription and receive a treatment that is guaranteed to be well tested, safe, free of side effects, manufactured under the strictest controls possible and will in fact work as a panacea for them and all will be well and good. 

Even fairy tales don't have endings like that.  Certainly reality doesn't.  The plain fact of the matter is that the daily TV news, where it is estimated that over 90% of the Americans that have any knowledge of current events receive that information, has never ever reported anything about the criminal activities of Big Pharma.  And there has been a lot.  As reported here previously, thirty billion bucks in fines, in just the last ten years.  None of which was reported on mainstream TV, except a couple times on 60 minutes.  You will see cutesy series dramas about how overworked interns and residents are in their quest to receive their medical credentials.  They laugh a lot, and put condoms on bananas, but you will never hear the truth about how overworked they truly are because interns and residents working 100 to 140 hours a week save the hospitals money, and the safety of patients is always secondary to money.  Doctor shows always seem to perpetuate the myth that doctors pay attention to their patients and work hard to determine what are the root causes of any patient's symptoms.  The truth is, that doctors are not taught how to CURE any disease, they are in fact taught to write prescriptions that are in line with their AMA doctrine that drugs cure symptoms.  Never do they cure diseases.  That is also secondary, if they cured you, then you wouldn't need the doctor anymore. 

The absolute biggest crime against humanity is GERD.  The Big Pharma companies have created a specific disease from heartburn.  And created a drug to treat it, without actually knowing the specific actions within the human body that cause the desired effects that they now are able to market to consumers as a real disease.  The truth is that most people taking PPI's to control their heartburn are slowly having their digestive system compromised and they are losing the ability to digest the foods that they eat.  They don't tell you that in the commercials though do they?  GERD is serious, it is very rare, most people with heartburn are overweight or consume alcohol in excess and/or smoke.  Or have a very very poor diet.  All of which are easy cures, but no doctor in America will tell a patient this, instead they are all on the AMA path towards what they are told, and never what is right.  And all to the destruction of the livelihood of the citizens.  At this point, we don't have any idea what will happen down the road to the 40 million or so people that take over the counter PPIs or other prescription ones that are stronger, and yet for which the manufacturers still have no idea why they perform what they do.  The only thing they do know, is that long term use affects the ability of the stomach to excrete acids in the manner in which it was designed to do.  You will never see that on TV, it doesn't perpetuate the Disneyland concept of wondrous joy that the rulers of our country, big businesses, want us to perceive. 

So, with all that said, sorry to the three people that wrote such scathing and critical emails to me.  It was almost as if I was married again for a moment.  Sigh, good thing I'm not, the ex, like readers, are yesterday's old news. 

The world surprises me at times. Growth in the food industry.

I get a lot of industry magazines.  A lot.  There are a lot of them out there.  Lots of ads for the latest technology, the latest food additives that mask flavors of other additives, a lot of stuff.  And articles about how the world of food is changing, how companies are dealing with the problems in the marketplace.  And the occasional story about what some business did to escape fines or jail time for deeds they have done, or rather allegedly did.  This week, I got another rag, from Sosland Publishing.  This one is "the State of the Industry" and it contains a lot of information.  It divides up the food industry into specific categories and then gives information on the leaders in each category.  By company, and by product.  Then there is information as to volume of sales, and the big one, this year's percent of increase or decrease in sales for each company and product.  And this is where the surprises come. 

Breads, breakfast cereals and other grain based foods, beverages, dairy, processed foods frozen and others, canned soups, and yes, even burger places.  There is a lot about meat as well, but none of that pertains to what I found to be exciting in the reports.The really big, and I mean REALLY BIG news is that most of the categories are still dominated by the giants of their industries in total sales, but the thing is, they all seem to be slipping.  All of the giants lost sales.  The big winners, all of the natural food companies.  Huge growth in many cases.  Double digits.  And even Campbell's 100% Natural soup grew an amazing 232%.  Of course that's offset by the 256% increase in sales of their Scooby-Doo soups.  Jeez, marketing still is king.  But overall, most of the big guys lost sales, the natural guys gained impressive amounts. 

I just had to give this info to the internet.  It is vindication that American consumers might just actually using their brain matter to determine what they need to put into their bodies. 

Superiority

The dregs of society ruled the world back in the 20's here in America.  Bootleggers, mob bosses, ruled the underworld and took their cut of all of the crime from prostitution to theft rings and robberies to protection and numbers.  Same thing is happening today, Drug cartels are made up of men that control the drug trade through fear, intimidation and money.  Both groups are people that have an overly developed sense of entitlement and superiority.  That's what it takes to become a drug lord or Mafia boss, superiority over and above those minions that serve them, and especially over those that they cater to.  And the biggest part, is total disrespect for the laws that govern their actions and their ability to make money in the manner in which they perceive to be a necessary part of life, as they are providing a service, and a product, however illegal and damaging that product is to the humans that want it.  And lastly, they have little regard for human life, the utilization of weaponry and explosives isn't just popular movie fodder, but all part of the reality of drug and organized crime life.

And now we have a new, legal group of mafia types that control what we think we need.  Prescription drugs.  The product may be legal, the industry may be legalized, but the methods for marketing and the methods followed for regulatory approval show the true nature of the leaders, the kingpin CEOs of these corporate criminal organizations.  And, just like their underworld counterparts, these leaders have little regard for human lives even though the stated purpose of their entire industry is to help the human condition through the discovery of new medicines and the manufacturing of quality products that are safe, wholesome and effective against a whole host of diseases and symptoms.

What a crock.  The drug industry is overcome with fraud and corruption.  When things get bad, and I mean they have to be REALLY BAD, then and only then does the FDA step in and exercise its power and authority and attempt to regulate the industry.  In the last ten years, fines against the big drug companies have totaled over THIRTY BILLION dollars.  Fines for marketing drugs for purposes not approved for, falsifying data in order to receive approval for questionable drugs, and for giving kickbacks and bribing doctors to write prescriptions for specific drugs.  And even though these giant corporations have been caught doing these illegal activities in the past, they keep doing them at the direction of the leaders of the industry.  The CEOs that are part of the elite Mafia style group that believe themselves to be above the law, and probably are.  We HAVE to remember that since 1992, the FDA has the power to put the leaders of drug companies in JAIL for their actions.  And yet, even though they fine them, billions of dollars, not a single one has found their freedom removed.  And yet thousands of citizens have either died or been seriously injured, many with extremely debilitating side effects.  And the illegal tactics continue.  And no one has been jailed.  Thousands have died.  But then again, on the flip side, billions of dollars in profits have made a lot of people rich.  Some of them have been government regulators.  And all it would seem, have little regard for human life.

The drug industry in America is unique.  Regulated, sort of, and price protected.  But the government that has shown itself to have the best interests of the industry that gives them money over and above the citizens that the are sworn to protect.  It's all pretty shady. The somewhat prestigious industry periodical "the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics" just recently published their latest issue that just happened to include a symposium on the Big Pharma industry giants here in America.  Or perhaps we should refer to ourselves as "AmeREAMica" cause these guys show us just exactly how we, citizens and consumers of the drug industry, are getting REAMED.   This quote is from the abstract of just the introduction to the article,
"Today, the goals of pharmaceutical policy and medical practice are often undermined due to institutional corruption — that is, widespread or systemic practices, usually legal, that undermine an institution's objectives or integrity. In this symposium, 16 articles investigate the corruption of pharmaceutical policy, each taking a different look at the sources of corruption, how it occurs, and what is corrupted. We will see that the pharmaceutical industry's own purposes are often undermined. Furthermore, pharmaceutical industry funding of election campaigns and lobbying skews the legislative process that sets pharmaceutical policy. Moreover, certain practices have corrupted medical research, the production of medical knowledge, the practice of medicine, drug safety, the Food and Drug Administration's oversight of the pharmaceutical market, and the trustworthiness of patient advocacy organizations."   (journal article)

I thought I was the only one that saw how corrupt our government as well as the industry leaders that control the government all are.  Wow, I guess not, I'm just one of a whole lot of people that see the reality of what is going on.  This article details how the corruption of just one industry, the pharmaceutical industry, has leveraged itself into the workings and the actual legislation and workings of our government.  It isn't just me, a lot of people, smart people, people with degrees of higher learning, are all starting to look at the criminal activity of our lawmakers, and those that control them, corporate mafia types.

Don't get in the way of the spray of bullets, those in power will do anything to stay there.  And we all know that to them, our lives are meaningless.

I'm a nutty guy and long for The Simple Life, when long term degenerative diseases were rare

Ah, it's true, I'm kind of a nutty guy.  I have tried to be nuttier more now than ever before, and it seems that my belief in being nutty has been statistically proven to engender longer life with fewer long term degenerative diseases that plague modern man.  Or at least, modern Western man that consumes the SAD (Standard American Diet)  Now, there is proof that the simple life is better for you.  It appears that a whole bunch of doctors (well at least people with initials after their names) published a new report in the rather prestigious New England Journal of Medicine about how eating nuts, daily, helps you to become a healthier, more long lived and freer from degenerative diseases than people that don't eat nuts.  (NEJM article)

When I was but a youth, my mother always bought and had around for the holidays, a big bowl of nuts in the shell.  Sort of a holiday decoration I guess.  And always there was a nutcracker set with them on the coffee table and it was a great source of amusement for her to watch as her children would attempt to overcome the forces that Mother Nature uses to keep her generous bounty away from the prying hands of rambunctious youths.  As I grew in years and lost the wisdom and common sense that usually declines in the lives of most humans achieving puberty as they embark on their personal existences; I left behind the enjoyment we found in the efforts to crack and remove the wondrous nut meats.

Lately though, I have tried to forgo the ingestion of those items on my lists of things to avoid that I write about here on my blog (Don't put that in your mouth) and I have gone back to eating tree nuts frequently.  And a week and a half ago, there is actual scientific evidence that we ALL should be doing just that.  This report is fascinating.  With huge numbers of people involved in the study (76,464 women and 42,498 men) over the period of 1980 to 2010, the statistical findings point to a very exciting health benefit of eating nuts every day.  The actual conclusion is simple, the frequency of nut consumption was inversely associated with total and "cause-specific" mortality, independent of other predictors of death.  Basically this means that for subjects that ate nuts at least seven times per week during the trial period, the rates of mortality due to heart disease, cancer and respiratory diseases, were statistically less.  Actually, significantly less.  As nut consumption diminished, the mortality rates increased. 

I'm not sure what this means to those that have taken on the responsibility of controlling our food supply.  Yep, the good ol' FDA.  To this day, the FDA does not in anyway accept the concept that diet controls health.  And I don't mean that all diseases can be cured via diet, there are certain specific genetic diseases that have no connection.  However the overwhelming majority of health problems in America ARE a direct result of the SAD.  The FDA philosophy is simple, and has been stated and restated many times over the years; No Vitamin, Mineral or Food has the ability to cure any disease.  Science knows this to be incorrect (think scurvy, beriberi, etc.) but the rulers of the FDA that operate at the whim of giant agribusinesses refuse to accept that.  Instead, when any chemical manufacturer submits a report about a specific chemical additive to be added to the huge and growing list of chemical additives that are now added to processed foods (modern meat is included) and the report shows a low possibility that that one chemical might be okay at low doses, the chemical is approved for use.  However the American diet includes that chemical, and hundreds, probably even thousands of low dose exposures to a myriad of chemical additives.  No one eats just one.   

For me, I rarely eat processed foods or modern meat.  I eat raw, fermented and fresh, organic when I can afford it, and I eat a lot of nuts.  And for me, it seems to be working.  My long term degenerative problems (that were in all actuality caused by modern medicine) seem to not be getting much worse.  I like nuts.  I am in fact, a nutty kind of guy, and now there is confirmation for me, and all Americans, to be nutty.

Don't put that in your MOUTH!!!!!!

This is about the things we ingest, daily, and why we shouldn't.  It has nothing to do with your mother yelling at you when you were a tiny babe not to put that, whatever it was, into your mouth.  Or whatever it was you were thinking, some of you have more vivid imaginations than I. 

Before I begin, I should say that the list is huge.  And this entry will only go over some of the more radical forms of adulteration of your food.  It is a good idea to limit your intake of ANY processed foods and also any drugs you take.  The safety of ALL additives and drugs are questionable.  Please remember, the FDA does absolutely NO testing on its own, instead it makes all regulatory decisions based on data from the companies that are wanting the FDA to grant regulatory permission for them to make, money.  Buttloads of money.  When extremely large amounts of money are involved, then it is frightening how what is right takes a back seat to what is profitable.  It happens all the time, FDA regulators make decisions to profit corporations, and then take jobs with the companies they just helped.  This link is to a google search for the phenomena (Monsanto Revolving Door)  I guess that what I am trying to say here is that you have to watch out for your safety because you don't have anyone watching for you.  Back in 1999, when the top agrigiant food manufacturers meet to discuss the obesity problem in America, the CEO of General Mills brought the meeting to an end with his proclamation that he didn't care about the consumer, as consumers only cared about taste and therefore his company gave them what they wanted. General Mills, makers of cereals that are one third or more SUGAR.  Healthy snacks of yogurt that are one third or more, SUGAR.  And a list of grocery store stars that are nothing but genetically modified crops in a chemical feast that are scientifically engineered for flavor and to be, well, addictive.  The first taste is free, just like the pushers in those old black and white drug films showing us how our lives would be destroyed if we smoked that deadly ganja and shot up that nasty heroin.  Or ate those nasty Lucky Charms and Oreos.

Don't put that in your mouth!

1. Aspartame.  Yes it's true, there are over a hundred and ninety studies showing aspartame to be safe.  Yes prominent people with letters after their names claim it is safe.  Yes, there are more than two hundred and eighty studies showing the stuff is bad.  The FDA itself banned the stuff because of the brain deterioration problem and it was only the efforts of Donald Rumsfeld that got it approved.  This link is to a list of the timeline of events leading to the approval. (Aspartame approval)  The timeline is incomplete, it does not show the internal decisions within the FDA where 70% of the top researchers stated, on record, that they opposed approval as the stuff was totally contrary to the safety of the consumers.  Two years after the approval of aspartame the FDA became flooded with complaints about the stuff and began an adverse reaction hotline for consumers to report toxic reactions to aspartame.  After defining 92 distinct specific side effects and documenting thousands (at what the FDA believes the unreported events may be as high as 1.7 million) serious incidents directly related to aspartame toxicity, the FDA shut down the hotline.  Because,..... well, no one in the industry wanted to know about the bad shit.  (FDA on side effects) I tell you again, you are the only one that can watch out for you.
2.  Canola Oil.  Yes, it's true, the Canadian Canola Council tells us on their website that canola is safe and a product of generations of "Traditional" plant breeding techniques to reduce the toxic quality of the oil from one of the most toxic plants on the planet, the rape plant.  It's also true that most of the stuff on their website is all lies. (Canola myths)  Pretty much everything from the lie about it being traditional (the two scientists that developed canola wrote the book "the Rape of Canola" and how they developed the genetic engineering techniques to make canola that were then refined and are now used to genetically alter all the GMO's in our world) to the lies about how safe the stuff is (erucic acid content is limited to be 2% by weight.  Erucic acid is a cumulative and neurodegenerative toxin) to how the oil has the perfect mix of mono and poly unsaturated fats (the Canola Council always test unprocessed oil for these measurements, processed canola is far far different) and all the way to the height of hilarity lie, that Canola is from the same family as broccoli, kale and cabbage, and those are harmless, (That's because we don't eat the seeds of those other plants) By definition, the stuff is toxic, the reasoning is that a little bit won't kill you, 2% isn't enough to make your brain full of holes like what happens with "Mad Cow Disease", which the Canola Council vehemently denies has any links to canola.  (That in itself scares me)  Five minutes on the internet will yield lots of SCIENTIFIC STUDIES showing how bad the stuff actually is.  That 2% that doesn't hurt you today, accumulates in your system over, well, decades.  It will also show you the fifty billion dollars in annual sales stats.  Not a lot of bad press is ever printed in the media about canola, but I bet industry leaders don't eat the stuff.
3. Genetically Modified Organisms. GMO's or also Genetically Engineered or GE foods.  Where do I start.  (GMO labeling Failed) You know, I wish I was wrong about all this stuff.  I really do.  I wish that GM foods were the miracle they want them to be.  That they in fact raised crop yields, but they don't.  That they were as nutritious as the non GM versions, except they have been proven to lack the same nutrients.  I wish they didn't cause degenerative system failure and cancers, but new studies show they do.  I wish the BT toxin that they inserted into crops really did kill insects and had no harmful effects on humans, they don't, the insects evolved immunity and BT toxin really does cause neurological and other system damages.  And I wish that the pesticides and herbicides they spray on the crops didn't leave residues on the crops and that research didn't show how long term consumption of these residues eats away at your liver, brain and pancreas.  But they do.  When Monsanto denies that HGT,(Horizontal Gene Transfer) doesn't ever happen, I wish it were true, but it isn't. The sad truth is that the world may never recover from the GMO catastrophe as the unintentional spread of the genetic material may soon spread to the entire planet and to most of the food crops (as well as the pesky weed species)  All of this info can be found be looking here at my website, search GMO in upper right hand search box.  And go to the google, search for what does the president eat, you will find interviews with the executive chefs for the last four presidents.  The first family ONLY eats organic.  So do the execs at Monsanto.  That right there should tell the masses a little something.
4. Artificial Additives, colorants, yeast nutrients and artificial flavors.  Wow, let's throw MSG in there as well as the problems with that are pretty well documented.  All of this stuff, just based on the name, should be scary.  ARTIFICIAL.  Big ones are Potassium Bromate and Azodicarbomide.  Two toxins added to bread to make is softer.  Both, outlawed in just about EVERY OTHER COUNTRY in the world, but the fast food industry loves those soft soft buns for their burgers.  To hell with consumer health, everyone uses the stuff so those that get sick and die can't prove they only ate their crap.  Aaah a loophole, nicely provided to the agri food industry by the wonderful FDA.  Colorants for the most part are petrochemical products illegal in most of the rest of the world, BHA, BHT and a whole host of other preservatives are coming under scrutiny by scientists because of the proven risks for cancer, and many other degenerative problems (Vitamin E, Tocophorals are more expensive, but virtually non-toxic)  MSG, wow, this stuff is incredibly nasty.  And never, EVER let someone tell you that glutamates are naturally occurring and therefore MSG can't be bad for you.  Arsenic is found in apple seeds, and apple juice.  It's not harmless, but you would have to eat a barrel of apples to hurt you.  Arsenic the processed chemical, will kill you.  Same thing.  When people travel to Europe, they always tell me that the bread there tastes soooooo  much better than bread here.  Duh, look at the labels and read all the shit that is put into American breads, even the stuff at the local bakery.  
5. Modern Meat.  Ugh, yuck.  Do I have to explain this here again?  Meat, sorry, modern meat, is just about the most disgusting thing in the supermarket today.  It is coated with bacteria from the, well, rather unsanitary conditions that the animals are raised in live in sleep in sit in lie in and shit in.  Yeah, shit bacteria that are in such high concentrations that the processors would literally have to soak the dead animals in BLEACH for ten minutes to start to kill them all.  E. coli, Salmonella, Cliptospridium, and a whole host of others that in reality, are all now resistant to antibiotics because the meat industry feeds it to the animals in an attempt to reduce the diseases and deaths from those same bacteria that the animals live in.  Plus, all the other crap they feed the animals, arsenic, Ractopamine, and worst of all, a diet of GM crops that recent research is showing to destroy the intestines and genitals of the animals.  Yuck, read some of my other stuff about - meat at    (Meat 1 ) (Meat 2 ) (Meat 3 )
6. High Fructose Corn Syrup.  You know, those commercials with the parents eating Popsicles seems innocent enough, and they tell us that HFCS is okay.  Wow, must be the same singsong hypnotic crap put out by the propaganda machine that paid to have the GMO labeling law voted out in Washington and California.  I mean really, those commercials must have some hidden subliminal orders to vote no on GMO because people can't be that stupid, can they?  I don't know, maybe they are, anyway, look here at HFCS info.   (High Fructose Corn Syrup - Now, a known toxin)  It isn't just the new findings for the toxicity of that newly discovered problem, but it is the complete and utter failure of the FDA to protect American consumers from the Mercury contamination that was found in the manufacturing processes of most of the major processing facilities of HFCS in 2005.  High levels of mercury and yet the FDA did nothing, shows you what money will do for business when given a choice of following their mandate or costing business money.  (Mercury)

Sheesh, that's probably enough.  I mean most of the people that I talk to that say they read my blog here tell me that I am sort of a whacko and that all of the stuff I talk about just can't be true.  They tell me that the FDA is there to protect us.  See above, the Monsanto revolving door.  The FDA is now, and has been for forty years, simply a stepping stone for aggressive people to jump into private industry.  Usually at the expense of the health of those the organization is charged with protecting.  Earlier last month the FDA announced they are going to look into banning trans fats from the food supply.  56 years after the first scientific reports were published showing how bad they were.  The FDA is so backlogged with approvals for NEW chemical artificial additives to be added to the GRAS list that approvals now take up to 4 years from date of application.  And let's not ever forget that the FDA only uses data from the manufacturer to determine whether or not GRAS status should be granted, AND that the food industry itself gets to decide whether or not they even NEED to apply for permission from the FDA as to whether or not they CAN use any chemical additive.  The FDA would only pull permission to use something if they found it to be harmful, but as proven by the aspartame fiasco, most people don't report problems, and they really don't care.  

As a parting thought, let's look for a moment at just the drug industry.  Big pharma regularly falsifies data in order to get approval for new drugs, they then resort to bribery, kickbacks and a bit of extortion to sell as much of the new stuff as possible before they are shutdown by the FDA.  Big Pharma civil fines for doing exactly those things have been over thirty BILLION dollars in the last ten years.  And it has not in any way stopped the big drug companies from continuing the practices because although the FDA HAS the power to put CEOs of the drug companies in jail, something somehow, (can't be money) has stopped them from doing so.  As long as they make more money than they pay in fines, and not go to jail, the practices will continue.  When you go to the doctor and the AMA drone prescribes a new drug for you, chances are that when you get the script filled the doctors name goes into a database and the numbers keep adding up for him until after enough prescriptions are filled, he will win an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas.  And everybody is happy.  The doctor gets a tan and a lot of rum, the pharma rep gets heated seats on his BMW, the pharmacy that filled the prescription makes money, the insurance company gets to pad their profits and show that they need to raise rates, and Big Pharma sold the pills for six to twelve hundred times what it cost to manufacture.  And you, well you might be one of the lucky 60 to 70 percent of the people that don't have serious health problems and side effects from the barely tested drug that the manufacturer never had to test to determine if it interacts with any other meds or over the counter stuff you might be taking.  Oh, and you might see some benefit from the drug itself too.  Might.  But the rest of the industry is just happier than a cat crapping in your favorite slipper.

No one is out there looking out for your safety as much as you.  Or as you should be.  Those that tell us they are, don't have such a great track record.  The FDA cracks down on small industries all the time and the giants, get ever bigger as they swallow up the small fry that can't compete against the stifling industry standards that are instituted by the FDA to destroy the small guys.  It's all here at (FDA targets small guys)

What can we do?  Well, I don't put that crap in my mouth!

Labeling GM foods failed, millions of lives are still at risk.

This stuff is kind of scary.  It is like the people at Monsanto that want so desperately to be Gods and to create life, just never gave a thought to what their creations would ever do.  Yep, just like Frankenstein.  The good doctor created life, but had no control over what his monster did.  Might have saved the little girl, but it destroyed the villagers.  Now, we have some more scientific studies showing what is really going on with the creations coming out of the labs at Monsanto and other Gene-Tech companies. A new report is out showing the transfer of inserted genes for the production of Bt Toxin into crop plants has now transferred to weeds.  This is not from HGT, or Horizontal Gene Transfer, which is the process in which the inserted genes migrate from the cells of the crop into the mitochondria of bacteria in close proximity.  As in when humans eat GM foods and their gut bacteria pick up the inserted genes to make Bt toxin.  This study is just about simple cross contamination.  How the pollen of one crop migrates to similar species to other members of that group, to others, to others then to weeds that we don't want and now are becoming super weeds, resistant to Roundup via the never before thought of process known as "Natural Selection". We also have this same process now for insect attacks as well.  The insects have developed resistance to Bt toxin.  The areas where insects aren't resistant are getting smaller as insects evolve through the same process of "Natural Selection" and develop that immunity. 

Isn't that just like a basic concept when trying to decide what to create?  Well, it SHOULD be a basic consideration, for non-Godlike mortals.  Just one more in the long list of flaws that are showing up in the reality that we mortals now have to live with in the world designed by those that play God, but don't have the training to do so.

1. One Gene, One Protein concept - just not the way it turned out.  When Monsanto started on their divine journey the human genome project was not finished.  We now know that the human genome consists of about 25K genes, making about 100K proteins.  Oops, it sure seems that the genes interact to make the proteins needed for life, and one extraneous gene in there is going to cause a bit of trouble.  I'm pretty sure that it is not just humans, but every living thing.
2. Natural Selection concept - well, it is not the way the world evolved according to my holy roller brother, but it does have a place in science, especially when we can actually SEE the results occurring right before our eyes.  Insects eat the Bt toxin crops, most die.  Those that don't, breed more insects with resistance.  Same with weeds sprayed with glyphosate, some die, those that don't, produce resistant offspring.  Oops, is that part of God's plan, or just an accident.  THAT is a bit of philosophical debate that is beyond my desire to participate in.
3. Pollen Contamination concept- yup, insects, wind, mechanized farming, all transfer pollen from one field, to another, and from one species, to similar ones.  Soon, there will not be any non-GM crops in the world, they will all be Genetically Modified.  Wait, that already seems to have happened in the high mountains of Mexico and the indigenous farmers can no longer grow the corn of their ancestors because it has been contaminated with GM corn and the new GM stuff has shallow root systems and higher nutrient needs requiring chemical fertilization that the natives have never had to do before.  Not sure why Monsanto hasn't sued the natives for patent infringement as they have done in the past, when they find those fields of what are supposed to be non-GM crops and can test the crops and find that they are contaminated.  Well, the natives can't afford the chemical fertilizer let alone paying the new gods in town.  However Monsanto tries and tries, and in America that process is very successful.  Soon the whole world will owe Monsanto because their divine concept is turning out to be a divine money machine.  
4. Horizontal Gene Transfer concept- I ate corn chips on Memorial Day.  Pretty sure they were GM corn, they would have to be as GM corn is pretty much everywhere.  The scary part here is that we have scientific evidence that the genes inserted into the corn to produce Bt toxin and resistance to glyphosate can and do migrate into the genetic material of the bacteria living in my intestinal tract.  Oops, you would think that those wanting to be God would at least look at this aspect of their work before attempting it. If mere mortals wanting to play God can insert genes into other species, doesn't it stand to reason that so can God?
5. Long Term Feeding Studies concept - no GM crop was ever required to undergo the scrutiny of testing before being approved for mere mortal consumption.  Oops, seems that lately a few very prominent and well respected scientists and organizations have begun to do that very thing.  And the results are not too favorable for Monsanto.  Rats fed GM corn and soy develop cancers at an alarming rate.  Mice and hamsters that make it to the third generation become sterile.  Humans, well, we don't really know now do we.  Hmmm, playing God doesn't give Monsanto omnipotence.  But the rise in cancer, childhood brain developmental problems, multiple degenerative diseases all seem to coincide with the introduction of GM foods on the market.  Being married, to a self professed god,  sort of gave me a perspective wherein I can see that just wanting something to be, does not make it so.  Monsanto and all the other gene tech giants WANT there to be nothing wrong with their crap, but then again don't want to test it, and publicly denounce any that do.
6. Substantial Equivalence concept - Monsanto somehow got the Senate of the United States to buy into the concept that GM foods are exactly the same in every way as their non-GM counterparts, without ever actually testing any of the stuff to prove the validity of their godlike proclamation.  Oops, that just isn't so.  Testing shows just how far off they are with GM corn having over 430 times LESS calcium as non-GM corn, 113 times LESS Magnesium and 7 times less Manganese.  All very important elements needed for human growth.  All lacking dramatically in just one GM crop tested.
7. Substantial Equivalence and Allergenicity concept - the thinking behind the one gene one protein concept gave rise to the belief that when the Monsanto Gods created new plants, those plants could not in anyway be different from regular plants because they only inserted selected genes.  There could not ever be any other mutations to the plant other than what was desired.  Oops, that one was the biggest and most obvious flaw in their thinking.  The actual process of making GM plants involves the injecting of select genes into split seed embryos and attempting to grow them into plants.  For every 10,000 attempts, they get 4 to grow.  For every 1,000 that grow, 2 might RESEMBLE the original plant.  For every 10,000 that resemble the original, only 2 or 3 make it to the testing to see if odd toxins are being grown in there along with their desired traits.  And even if they are present, only the really nasty ones are found, the chronic ones are not tested for in long term studies.  See number 5.  The very process should have alerted them to the potential hazards, yet their desire overshadowed common sense.
8. One of the concepts that Monsanto and the gang stress is that GM crops are more productive, with greater yields with less energy consumption than traditional farming techniques.  Oops, seems that this is just not so, one group of scientists poured over the data from farms in America, Canada, France, and Germany and found that traditional farming outpaced production of GM crops, well, everywhere.  Kind of not exactly what our new gods proclaim, but we are forced to believe it anyway.

So,what's the answer.  Well labeling of GM products in our food is a first step.  But the SHEEPLE in both California and Washington all have shown that they are indeed, just like sheep and easily swayed by the massive amounts of money the manufacturers in an entire industry poured into the TV campaigns telling the populace that GM crops are safe, wholesome, and the only way to feed a world growing with more sheeple.  The thing is that Monsanto and all the GM industry, the agrochemical industry and the entire giant industrialized corporate farm industry rely on the lies that they tell us.  Most of the rest of the world have laws in place to label GM foods, and in most of the rest of the world, people don't buy those products.  To stay alive, those agrigiants must keep the truth from the sheeple that consume the products their industry makes.  You, and me.  The future of our livelihood and the health of our descendants lies with the decisions we make now.  I don't eat their crap, it's up to you to decide what you want for you and yours.

Good luck in life, as always, your own destiny is held by you and you alone.  Temptation surrounds you, choose wisely.

New Drugs, New lawsuit opportunities

I just don't understand how the world works.  Yes, it's true, I, a man, admit that I don't know everything.  From what I understand, that would appear to be pretty rare. But then again when I was married, the ex knew everything, so maybe it's true about women as well and any single individual such as myself admitting that they don't know everything is what's rare.  It certainly is true about leaders of big drug manufacturing companies.  They never actually admit they don't know what is going on with new drugs, how they work, how many or the severity of the side effects might be, and yeah, how many will die.  And of course the big one there, how much profit can be squeezed out of the drug before those numbers get too high that the drug is recalled.  And that's what it's all about, profit. I do understand that part of how the world works, the drive and the need to make a profit on the things that you manufacture.  One can't make things and sell them at a loss.  The little spice packet/dip mixes that I make and sell, I make money on them.  IF I made as much as the drug companies did, I would sell them for about 800 dollars apiece instead of 3 bucks.  And if I did my business the same way the drug companies do, a lot of that extra profit would go towards settlements to people that ate my products and got sick, disabled and or died because there were ingredients in my dips that I had no idea what they were or what they did.  And of course, a big part of my profit would go to paying lawyers. For both sides.  In fact the drug industry is just about the biggest reason the shyster business has grown so much in the past fifty years.

Every year Americans go to drugstores and fill Billions of prescriptions.  Most people assume that those drugs that pharmacist workers hand over to you have been thoroughly tested and proven to be safe, effective against whatever maladies the doctor proscribed them to you for, and that the manufacturers know exactly what the drug will do to your body once you take the pill or inject the fluid into your body.  That is not exactly the case, for the most part, scientists can only guess as to what is happening and the real truth is that for the most part, they have no idea why MOST drugs actually work and the processes happening within the body that produce the desired effects.  And the side effects as well.  They don't like to admit it, but it really is true, most of the stuff we take daily is a mystery.  Even aspirin.  Scientists think they understand most of the actions that aspirin produces in the human body, but not all of them.  The big drug companies, Big Pharma, seems to like making new drugs, test them minimally and then expose as many unsuspecting consumers as they possibly can.  And they have been taken to court for doing illegal things over and over again.  When the profits are higher than the fines and lawsuits, there is no incentive to make safe drugs.  Read my other entries about Big Pharma at (Drug Fines) and (Fraud in an entire industry)

Take a look at some of the new drugs that are all the rage with the shyster set filling the airways with commercials for their services to sue the drug companies.

Victoza - from Victoza.com, (once-daily injectable medication that may help improve blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes) see that - may help.  MAY.  The literature is filled with their own doubt as to what the stuff does, however one side effect is that in many people they make greater amounts of insulin.  Lots of lawsuits in the works for those using this stuff and had no idea that the stuff would destroy their pancreas and thyroid glands.  Yikes.  Lawyers get to buy lots of new homes from this stuff.

Fosamax - the Merck website explores the wondrous nature of this drug to stop bone loss in humans.  It glosses over the parts about death, cancers, and a whole myriad of things that long term users of the drug are experiencing now that are the reason so many new BMW's get into the driveways of shysters.  And look, Merck even tells us that the exact method of action Fosamax takes is not completely understood.  Lawyers don't care.

Actos - Seems to be a lot, I mean a LOT of commercials on TV for shysters because of Actos.  Yeah, if after taking the stuff and you pissed blood, and if hurt like the Dickens, I would see a lawyer too.  This one works by making the human body more receptive to insulin, but scientists again are not certain how or why that happens.  We do see that a lot though now don't we.  Seems like it happens a lot, I mean a LOT.  Woo hoo, private schools for shyster kids.

Crestor, and all the Statins - One of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, and the whole class of drugs, statins, are totally unnecessary.  As the metabolic actions of statins are poorly understood, the numbers and severity of side effects are enormous.  And diet, exercise and in reality, eating celery everyday all do a better job than statins and with no side effects that make shysters rich.  

Yaz, Yamin and Ocella - These are all part of the new generation of birth control pills containing drosperinone, a very different form of progesterone.  Seems that after the rush job for approval, then all the really bad side effects came out, from heart disease to blood clots to destruction of the liver and a bunch of others.  Shysters love these ready made lawsuits that the makers willingly settle and make them rich.

Sheesh, that's enough for now, I have a lot to do today, I do have a very small business to run and I have to go to the co-packer to pick up my salsa.  Go print labels, and of course, just daydream about the high profit margins that make the top ten drug companies more profitable than all of the rest of the Fortune 500 companies combined.  Seems like I'm not the only one licking their chops over those statistics, every shyster in the country salivates when they see the lines at the pharmacy.

Trans Fats soon to be a thing of the past in America.

Seems that the FDA does every once in a while, take actions that are good for Americans.  Last week they announced their intent to remove trans fats from the GRAS list.  At least they have announced that they are going to take 60 days for comments on timeframes for removing trans fats.  The actual process could take years, and if a manufacturer wants to continue to make foods using trans fats, there will be a process in place for them to do so.  If you think about it though, this action is pretty remarkable.  The first study done that correlated the use of trans fats and heart disease was published in 1956.  Research and scientific studies about just how bad trans fats are for humans have grown and have been so overwhelming in their stigmatization of the ill effects that even the fast food industry has begun to alter their processes to remove those pesky trans fats from their menus.  And the fast food industry does not do those things easily.  Again, last week the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy published their report on how fast food has failed in their advertised efforts to provide healthy food for children.  Looking at all the possibilities for a child's meal at all the fast food places there are a total of 5,427 possible meals.  And only 33 made the grade to be considered, "Healthy".  The industry talks big, but lies lies lies about their actual actions.  So the fact that they have already begun to remove trans fats says a lot about how bad they are for us.

So we should rejoice, the FDA has after only 57 years of researchers in the private sector publishing paper after paper about how monstrously awful trans fats are to humans; has decided to look into banning them from our food supply.  Sometime in the future, and most of them, unless there are no alternatives, and, well, you know, if they really want to keep using them.  But it is a great step toward making the American diet healthy.

If I think about it, I could make a list of the stuff the FDA allows into our food supply that researchers have shown to be bad.  And it would be pretty long.  Stuff like aspartame, potassium bromide, ractopamine, BHA and BHT, Azodiacarbomide, glyphosate, GMOs, and the list goes on and on.  I can only wonder how many people will be alive or living lives free of disabling degenerative diseases in another 50 years or so as the FDA finally takes action to begin to remove the known toxins from our food supply.

I will repeat again what I say all the time here.  The FDA does not regulate CHRONIC toxins in our food supply.  That is up to you.  Watch what you eat, read the ingredients, and never never never ever eat that crap from fast food places. The fast food industry makes billions of dollars each year, and some of that money is used to enrich the lives of the members of the regulatory bodies of the federal government.  That is more than just speculation, lobbyists for the industry spread a great deal of cash around Washington do-nothings in ever greater quantities in very successful campaigns to keep regulations of their industry to minimums.  The FDA instead is beginning to regulate small farms in America.  Huge restrictions on dairy, egg, fruit and vegetable production from small farms is about to drive those industries our of business.  But again, those small businesses will be snapped up by the giant agribusinesses and life will go on.  (Corporate Raiding of Small Businesses approved of by FDA)  The list of recalled foods processed by those giants will grow, and the FDA will tell us all how they are protecting us and our lives are better here on Animal Farm USA.

GMO LABELING LAW DEFEATED, again. Corporate money buys the election, again.

I had thought that the population in Washington state were of a differing mentality than those down in California.  Seems likely that they are not.  Last year the voters in California responded to the millions of dollars in campaign money that Monsanto, Coke, Pepsi, Nestle, Safeway and a whole host of major corporations that donated money to the drive to keep citizens from knowing what kind of food they are consuming. 

Monsanto and all of the big corporations that make money by using cheap crops loaded with pesticide and herbicide residues that were never tested for long term safety, KNOW that people don't want to eat things that are unsafe.  If a label is required, the thought process is that consumers will equate that specific requirement as being classified as unsafe.  The same as for cigarettes and alcohol.

Of course those labels have not ever really hurt alcohol and cigarette sales much.  But so far, that little label identifying normal, regular everyday foods has not done a whole lot for sales of GM crops in Europe.  In fact sales are minimal there.  Monsanto back in 1998 tried the reverse psychology approach there.

Monsanto seems to have two faces when it comes to consumers.  One face for European consumers  in which they gleefully tell the sheeple there that their creations created in their own godlike image of themselves are actually BETTER than their traditional counterparts and therefore labeling of any food product with the information that therein lies Genetically Modified crops that were created in a laboratory then doused heavily with toxic chemicals are in fact better for human consumption than traditional foods.  The company tells Americans the exact same thing, they just don't want us to be able to know which foods we are eating contain their poisons.

What Americans must remember is that Monsanto is a profit driven company, that UNDERSTANDS that they can get away with placing profit above the health and welfare of their customers, their workers, and the economy and environment of the entire planet.  Let us not EVER forget that Monsanto is the company that is responsible for:

PCB's
The cost of cleaning up the 40+ superfund sites contaminated at Monsanto facilities with PCB's is estimated to be over TEN TRILLION DOLLARS!  In the past thirty years, Monsanto has contributed less than 50 million to the cost.

AGENT ORANGE
This was an environmental disaster for Vietnam, and a horrific death associated with all that were exposed to the stuff that Monsanto assured the US government was absolutely safe.  And it is still in use to this day, it is sprayed on virtually all cotton grown in the world, with problems spreading to all surrounding communities.

DDT
Yes, Monsanto manufactured DDT and told the world it was harmless.  Guess what?  It wasn't.  DDT still exists in the environment in measurable amounts in most of the US and still affects the lives of birds and wildlife and probably even has unknown effects on citizens as well.  We just don't know.

ASPARTAME, GLYPHOSATE, AND NOW GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD
Monsanto and its subsidiaries are responsible for these wonders.  Aspartame was approved in THE most controversial federal regulatory agency decision ever!  With the FDA director approving the poison after 70% of the FDA staff stated it was toxic.  He then left the FDA to work at Monsanto at a 1000 dollars a day in a ten year contract.  And not have to do anything.  There are volumes of research showing the toxicity of the stuff, and yet it is still the number one fake sweetener on the market.  Research is showing us the lies Monsanto told the world about both glyphosate and GM foods.  Past propaganda from Monsanto pointed out that glyphosate was non-toxic and biodegradable.  All lies, the company has had legal sanctions against them to stop such advertising.  GM foods were touted as exactly the same as traditional crops based on.... well the Monsanto desire for them to be.  Approval is predicated on that belief.  And no testing is required to insure that the desire of Monsanto is in fact, the truth.  Independent research coming out of reputable independent facilities all over the world is showing us that the Monsanto vision of how they can make money, is all a lie.  Read some of my other articles written about this very subject.

(Selling your Soul)  ( A good lawyer) ( GM testing) (Needs of the Few) (Recovery)

We are at a crossroads.  Monsanto believes that they control the traffic signs.  The sheeple that don't care about their lives, their health, the welfare of their loved ones, will be herded down the path that not just Monsanto, but all of the big agribusiness giants want us to go.  Those that think for themselves, will go where they need to go.

Let us not ever forget that Hitler did not have any where near the control of the media, the food supply and the population that our government, that is controlled by agribusiness, has today.  When the sheeple are herded in the direction that Monsanto wants you to go, which way will you run?

CREATION, the story of the beginning.

I'm trying to achieve bliss.  Not bliss, but BLISS.  For me, there is an actual Bliss Point.  Actually for everyone there is a Bliss Point.  Nobody likes to talk about it, but it exists, and for people like me, it is the ultimate expression of one's ability to create.  I do it via trial and error.  Big food manufacturers do it with lots of scientific testing, people with proven palate acumen and tasting ability sampling thousands of combinations, charting of specific ingredient densities of specified additives in which past performances and ratings have been calculated and the scariest part is the laboratory use of artificial tasting equipment that was made using living human cells that are kept alive in an artificial environment with the whole thing manufactured to give specific human type responses to levels of specified flavor constituents within a given trial recipe for a product.  All of the technical capabilities possible in modern science coming together in a laboratory by highly trained people attempting to find, The Bliss point, that point where the levels of salt, sugar, processed fats all come together with the maximum desirability with flavor, texture and ultimate satisfaction.  Oh, and yeah, the big guys also test to find out what kinds of toxic additives can be added and in what quantities without destroying the drive to The Bliss Point.  By toxins, I mean preservatives, anti caking agents, artificial colorants, artificial flavorings, artificial, well, anything.  It's difficult to imagine, but new products coming from corporate food takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce.  Those pesky problems with trying to mask the metallic flavors of so many of the artificial additives makes for a long and drawn out process.  And of course there is the other problem about how adding any of the good things, fat, sweet or salt are only good up to a point, and it is the technological methods of find that point, that Bliss Point, that costs so much money.

Hard to think about it, but all of the processed food in the stores has gone through, a Creation process.

Me, I have been doing this awhile and so pretty much know what tastes good, to me anyway.  And I formulate a product, make it, taste it, make more and sell it.  Seems so pedestrian when compared to how the big guys do it all.  I mean, really, I taste test a product with no added fat, sugar, salt or chemicals.  No wonder I am such a small timer.  But then I don't actually have hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out how to make something taste so good as to be, well, almost addictive.  Like Oreos.  Yep, professor Schroeder and his team at the University of Connecticut have come out with a new study about, food, specifically about Oreos.
“Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do. It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”

 Oreos.  And Cocaine.  I quite eating them when they changed the gunk in the middle to hydrogenated canola and palm kernel oil back in the eighties.  Somehow I think that might have been a wise decision, especially after reading about this new stuff.  I mean we have known for quite a while about sugar and how bad it is for us, or at least the bad info and research has been available, just never talked about by the media.  Those guys don't ever want to offend those that pay them advertising dollars.  But just for fun, check out this cool 45 minute video about sugar.  (the Secrets of Sugar)  those Canadians on occasion have the cojones to put out correct info. 

One of the things that I do when I talk to people at farmers markets is to tell them about the state of the food supply in America today.  And the failure of the government to protect us, as citizens, from the damaging effects of the processed food industry.  And of course I do it with the hope that I will get a teaching job.  I do teach healthy, real cooking to people.  I use real ingredients, make real wholesome food quickly and full of flavor, not fat, sugar and salt.  And yes, I do it because I make a few bucks teaching.  But I also love to get the word out that processed foods are THE reason that Americans have higher rates of obesity, cancer, heart disease, cancer, inflammatory diseases, and well, really, everything pretty much that goes wrong with the body is a result of poor diet, toxic additives and environment.  We, those that want to alter our lifestyles and change our eating habits, must find our own personal Bliss Point in the foods that we make and consume.  It isn't hard, it is all about eating crap, and attempting to enjoy a long slow miserable death; or lowering our Bliss with good foods, no sugar, little salt and living better.

I've found my Bliss.  If you need help finding yours, contact me. 

Again with this religion stuff, you promised to never talk about it ever again.

Yes, a while back I said I shouldn't talk about religion ever again.  Well, it is a deep subject, and perhaps worthy of a mention now and again.  I guess that the conversations yesterday have led me to bring it all up again.  It seems as though some people (my brother) like to point toward the perceived problems with things that don't measure up to their world viewpoint and faith.  Anything that stresses that ideal about the infallibility of the bible, and modern religion is wrong, no possibility of compromise whatsoever.  I on the other hand understand that viewpoints differ, and accept the fact that it takes all kinds to make a world.  And that leads me into today's thoughts about, not religion itself, but about god.

What kind of a creature is god?  Benevolent, beneficent, sure, whatever.  God is all things to all religious men.  God has taken time to create this incredible universe and according to my brother, out of the billions and billions of galaxies each containing billions and billions of stars god has created life on this one planet out of all the other planets out there in this great cosmos.  And on that one planet, god has decreed that it is his provenance to make sure that young catholic boys don't masturbate.  Given what we know about the activities of catholic priests, there does seem to be some correlation between a man devoting his life to god and what we believe god is doing.  You know, sex wise.  Anyway, my brother tells me that the great cosmos is in fact devoid of any other life.  That all life in this universe is here on planet earth and that god created this place for us.  And we are to go forth and multiply like Mexicans and never masturbate.  And give countenance and devotion unto the god, the creator.  Through prayer.  That's how we communicate with our god, the creator.  It is not a one way street, god shows us daily the miracle that god has created for us here on planet earth by making the sun rise, the birds sing, the rain come and of course the mosquitoes bite and the germs kill, and earthquakes destroy and tornadoes kill and destroy; god makes life happen.

There is an old cartoon that I remember seeing a long time ago that is appropriate here, a man is sitting on a bench talking to god and he asks of him why does god allow war, disease, poverty and death to be so rampant here on earth.  And god looks at the man and says that he was just about to ask the man the same thing.  I take it a step further and say that man then says that he learned all that from god himself as god does a pretty good job of destroying and killing the people that were chosen to live their lives on this planet created for people by god.  When we look at all the suffering going on in this world, and all, or well most attributable to god, we begin to see why there is a need for prayer, for the people to communicate with god.  To ask forgiveness for sins, for forgiveness for masturbating, for cheating on a spouse, and most often, to ask for help to save loved ones from death as a result of all the problems that beset mankind both from god and from himself.  Plus I'm sure there are a lot of prayers to hit the lottery, or for a roll of the dice, or a horse or dog to speed it up a bit.  Given that man was created in the image of god, or so we have been told, then maybe there is a correlation between mankind and the sadistic nature of listening to the prayers of mere mortals asking for things beyond their means, and to save people from death and suffering.  So the question is in reality, does god listen to prayers?  It is the standard reply from the religious among us that god answers all prayers, we just don't always understand the answers.  That means it is all pure hokum and they have no answers either.  But what if this planet was chosen as the location of the indoctrination of hell unto those that deserve it.  A place where beings of incredible power and ability that have misused their power and are sent here to serve out a sentence from the greatest beings of all, the actual creators of the universe.  Those sentenced to serve in hell are strapped into a chair, not necessarily in the literal sense, and forced to listen to the continuous prayers of the beings created especially for that purpose.  Beings that live on this imperfect planet and living lives with free will and the actual sinner here is our god, forced to listen forever to the incessant whining of people here on this planet as they go on and on and on and on and on about how they need to win the lottery and how they are sorry for having sex with the paper boy and the gardener, and how they stole that money from petty cash and blamed the secretary, and how their parent needs to be saved from the ravages of a deadly disease, and of course how the teenage boy couldn't help himself and masturbated.

It all sounds a bit tiresome.  Having to listen to all those prayers, constantly, day in, day out.  For a god that is able to create a universe and then create human beings, having to listen to all that crap for all eternity seems like a waste of good divine ability.   

Then there is sin.  What is sin?  Is it sin to kill a man that is trying to kill you?  In war, no, in the streets, maybe, because he slept with your wife, no way.  Except in the bible, it was the duty of the populace to stone, and kill, a woman that slept with a man not her husband.  So when did that change?  Bestiality is a sin, or well, it is illegal, but when I lived in Austin I was sleeping with a woman that wanted me to urinate on her after sex.  Anal sex.  Is that a sin?  I guess the more important question, is it illegal?   And since no one was hurt, and the young maiden enjoyed the experience, on many occasions, was it a sin?

God has a mighty weird job.

Absolute Faith, blind and otherwise.

I think that faith, absolute faith, has indeed become a fixture in our modern world.  Blind faith.  Absolute total faith in a system of belief wherein the concept and details are not actually provable, at least not yet.  But for those that believe, provability is secondary to the actual belief.  And I'm not actually talking about religion, although there are many parallels with modern day religion that we can draw from.  My brother tells me that one of the causes of a breakdown in morality in America is the loss of religion, however statistics show this to be actually a bit off from reality.  Atheists statistically are more moral, commit fewer crimes, murders, tax evasions and adultery than those who profess to be religious.  So what this means is that life here in America does not require an absolute belief in blind faith.  There of course is that other argument that atheists will be the first ones on their knees praying at the first sign of a miracle; however when the Cardinals made it to the Super Bowl, I didn't see masses of people praying, and that in itself was a miracle.

Sorry, I digress.  But the facts are that my life here in America, and yours as well, are ruled by absolute and total BLIND FAITH. When scientists postulate about some abstract concept, they do experiments and collect data from which conclusions can be drawn.  That is called the scientific method.  For the most part it rules how science has moved forward these past several hundred years and why you can read this on your computer.  The scientific method has real provable tangible results attributable to cause and effect relationships in everything around us from the movement of the heavenly bodies to how such heavenly bodies as Sophia Vergara came to be the way she is.  The religious method of faith is just the opposite, there is a concept that must be believed, therefore scholars view the world and attempt to find facts that support the concept that they want the rest of the world to take with Blind Faith. 

In today's world, we, all of us, are expected to accept in total and complete Blind Faith, the concept that Genetically Modified foods are safe, healthy, of substantial equivalence to traditional foods and all without any scientific testing whatsoever.  Monsanto WANTED these conclusions to be the inerrant truth, and so not unlike the Creationist Method displayed above, so it is.  Back in 1996 the Senate held hearings, at the request of Monsanto, to give blanket approval for all Genetically Modified crops that were about to come out into the marketplace.  As support for their desire, Monsanto took some of the crops and fed them to rats for a grand total of sixty days.  The rats lived, and to this day, I cannot find the results of the Monsanto feeding studies of GM corn done in 1995 anywhere.  The fact that the rats lived must have been enough for Monsanto to have total and complete BLIND FAITH in their miracle foods.  They requested, and received, approval for GM crops to be grown here in America.  Without any further testing. 

 

This is just one aspect of how BLIND FAITH doesn't work.  The projected appearance that Monsanto wants us all to have is that the FDA will protect us from harm.  The reality is far far different.  Let's remember that the FDA doesn't actually do any testing of new food products, they instead utilize the research from the businesses that are introducing new food products to the world and using THAT data alone, determine whether or not approval should be granted.  Again, BLIND FAITH rules how the FDA protects us, as they take as the gospel truth, data, from Monsanto and others, as to how safe the GM crops are.  They also did the same for glyphosate, Roundup.  The problems become apparent when we begin to peek around the curtain at the man working the controls.  Just like when we question religion, we begin to see that the conclusions don't have any facts supporting them.  When Roundup was first patented by Monsanto, the BLIND FAITH claim was that it was harmless, biodegradable and completely non-toxic.  That has been proven as outright lies.  Genetically Modified crops have been presented to the world with the BLIND FAITH proclamation that they are substantially equivalent to traditional crops, harmless, and will increase productivity.  And all with virtually no research, data, or testing to substantiate the claims.  Sort of like the bible.  BLIND FAITH.  It works for a belief in a benevolent higher order of being, but for me that same concept doesn't work for the world in which I live in.  I WANT PROOF that these GM crops are safe, in long term testing.  I can't accept precursory testing done by the manufacturers when prominent scientists all over the world are doing the sorts of testing that SHOULD have been done 17 years ago and never was.  And the results of that independent testing is giving us a very disturbing reality.  One that does not fit in with the visionary BLIND FAITH required by those that demand it of us. 

I'm not an atheist, I do have a system of beliefs that work for me, and are in fact taken by me with blind faith.  Just in case you were wondering.  However I do believe that those that play at being a god, like Monsanto, the Senate, the president and my ex; need a bit of scientific proof to back up their claims.