The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health

The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health

From Publishers Weekly:

This provocative and frightening look at the synthetic chemicals used by the processed foods, pharmaceutical and chemical industries delivers an excellent, up-to-date summary of “what is really in our food, water, vitamins, prescription drugs, childhood vaccines, cosmetics, and in our homes.” Former Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Fitzgerald (Mugged by the State) takes aim at the belief that “lab-created synthetics are as benign as—and more effective than—naturally occurring foods and medicines.” The “hundred-year lie” dates from 1906, the year Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act. Utilizing a range of articles from science journals and government reports, along with interviews with scientists and environmentalists, Fitzgerald looks at synthetic chemicals—from artificial sweeteners to antidepressants—that are diminishing our health. Throughout, Fitzgerald explodes various myths such as that one right dose of a particular drug works for everyone and that all food additives have been tested for safety. Still, Fitzgerald’s faith in Eastern and other natural healing processes will not convince everyone. The author concludes with practical steps for “choosing a diet of pure foods and a lifestyle free of synthetics.”

Big Health Benefits Attributed To Raw Diet: Six Diabetics In Documentary Are Able To Reverse Their Disease

Source: LEF Daily News

Big Health Benefits Attributed To Raw Diet: Six Diabetics In Documentary Are Able To Reverse Their Disease
 
The Hartford Courant, Connecticut
 
03-31-08
 
Mar. 31–In his 2004 film “Super Size Me,” director Morgan Spurlock humorously documents the dramatic health consequences of eating all the wrong things for 30 days. Subsisting on a McDonald’s-only menu, he gains 25 pounds and a host of ailments, among them the decidedly unfunny side effects of liver damage and sexual dysfunction.
 
So what might happen, then, after 30 days of eating all the right things?
 
That question was the seed that evolved into “Raw for 30 Days,” an independent documentary film that chronicles the experience of six diabetics who sign up for a radical diet change. The participants, most diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, move into an Arizona retreat center where they are medically supervised during a challenge to stay off dairy, meat, sugar, alcohol and processed foods. Keeping to a vegan, raw-foods diet of only uncooked, organic plant-based foods, the filmmakers claim participants were able to naturally reverse their diabetes, losing significant weight and coming off their insulin.
 
Set to be distributed online before a summer release at smaller film festivals, the documentary is by no means poised to be a cinematic blockbuster. But buzz has been building for more than a year in raw- and health-food circles. Proponents are wondering if the information can resonate with a mainstream American public plagued with an obesity epidemic and chronic diseases.
 
“I think it’s going to take people to the level of believing, truly believing, that you are what you eat,” says Glen Colello, a holistic health counselor and owner of the newly opened West Haven raw- and health-foods cafe Catch a Healthy Habit. “Maybe people will see this movie and realize medication isn’t their only option.”
 
Such was the intent of the team behind the film, led by creator and executive producer Mark Perlmutter, a longtime vegetarian who himself shifted to a largely raw, or living-foods, lifestyle. He said he witnessed the health benefits in eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds in their natural state. The philosophy is that uncooked foods are more nutrient-rich and have their enzymes intact and take less energy to digest, thereby freeing the body to heal itself.
 
Perlmutter learned more after moving to Arizona, where he became familiar with the work of raw-food pioneer Gabriel Cousens, a medical doctor who runs the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia. The center became the setting for the documentary, filmed in 2006 with six diabetics picked from a pool of more than 100 candidates.
 
Audiences will see those who stick with the program go through dramatic transformations. One participant initially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes later learns he actually had type 1 diabetes, considered incurable without a pancreas transplant.
 
“So, how do we get people to do this for themselves? They can’t all go to Arizona,” says Perlmutter. “It’s great to get a couple of miracle stories about these people having major breakthroughs, but the question is how do you get [the medical establishment] to embrace something that obviously works for some people?”
 
But traditional medicine has embraced alternative therapies over the last decade, with many doctors now weaving holistic and naturopathic approaches into conventional treatments. There is, however, skepticism about the long-term benefits and loftier claims of extreme approaches such as raw foods, which dietitians caution can be difficult to sustain and may add up to an unbalanced diet that leaves out too many important foods. Most doctors advise patients to seek their physician’s opinion before starting any such diets.
 
Scientific studies do show clearly the relationship between dietary choices and health. The World Health Organization determined that 70 percent of chronic diseases worldwide could be prevented entirely with changes to diet and lifestyle. In the United States, that figure jumps to 80 percent.
 
“Absolutely. Yes. Diet has a tremendous impact on disease progression and disease manifestation,” says Dr. Mitch Kennedy of the University of Connecticut Health Center, the facility’s first certified naturopathic physician. “And the fact is that most people don’t eat well. All you have to do is look around at what’s available — the fast-food chains and packaged foods and what’s in the food labels.”
 
Kennedy says there are merits to a raw-foods lifestyle. The nutrient content in foods is best preserved in its raw state. And considering the average American doesn’t get the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, most would do well to introduce more into their diets. Yet, he rarely recommends an entirely raw plan. It can be a drastic change, hard on the digestive system and lead to deficiencies in vitamin B12 without consumption of meat or dairy products.
 
When asked for comment, the American Diabetic Association declined to address the film directly, saying only that “weight loss through any means can lower glucose levels in those with type 2 diabetes, sometimes even to normal.” It cautioned against any “one-size-fits-all diabetic diet” and encouraged healthful eating and exercise habits.
 
Kirt Tyson, the misdiagnosed type 1 diabetic, and the most successful of the film’s six participants, says he knows the raw-food plan cured him of his disease. A Baltimore native, he says he went from his worst — a four-day hospitalization with his blood sugar at 1,200 — down today to normal levels. He remains on a raw diet, no longer on insulin.
 
“When you get diagnosed with this disease, you’re always told … there’s no cure. So from that moment, you feel so defeated,” says Tyson, 26, now a graduate student studying naturopathic medicine at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine & Health Sciences in Arizona. “What this film does is give hope back to people. It’s not a one-shot thing. You have to work for it. I have to work at it every day.”
 
He doesn’t advocate ignoring traditional medication, but says patients need to be better informed about all options available to them.
 
“Hopefully in the future, I’ll be able to do some research to show how this diet is actually working,” he says. “I don’t know the chemistry behind it. But you can’t look at a guy who was once taking insulin, and now is not and say there’s not something to it. Clearly, it’s working for me.”
 
For more information about the film, visit www.RawFor30Days.com
 
Contact Joann Klimkiewicz at .
 
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Hartford Courant, Conn.

7-step Plan to Boost Low Thyroid and Metabolism

Low Thyroid Function: A 7 Step Plan to Overcome This Hidden Epidemic From UltraWellness-Running the Right Tests for Low Thyroid Function Can Help Diagnose and Correct Thyroid Problems in Millions of People
 
Market Wire
 
03-21-08
 
LENOX, MA, Mar 20, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Many of the 45 million people affected by hypothyroidism don’t know they have it because doctors aren’t running the right tests. But by following the new guidelines for hypothyroid testing, as well as running lesser-known tests, doctors could diagnose more people with low thyroid function.
 
“There are many reasons for low thyroid function, yet I’ve seen lots of patients with this problem who were just ignored by their doctors,” said Mark Hyman, M.D. of UltraWellness. “Most doctors just check something called the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which doesn’t give a full picture of the thyroid, the interpretation of this test is incorrect most of the time.”
 
Most doctors only regard TSH levels over 5 or 10 as worth treating, but new guidelines from the American College of Endocrinology consider anybody with a TSH level over 3.0 as hypothyroid. There are also other tests, including free T3, free T4 and thyroid antibodies, which are essential for diagnosing low thyroid function.
 
“Using old guidelines and thinking, conventional medicine misses millions who suffer with hypothyroidism,” said Hyman. “I like to look at all of the factors that could be causing chronic thyroid problems such as chronic inflammation from gluten intolerance or food allergies, chronic stress, heavy metals such as mercury, or deficiencies of vitamin D, selenium, vitamin A, zinc, and omega-3 fats.”
 
Hypothyroidism can also be caused by environmental toxins such as pesticides, which act as hormone or endocrine disruptors and interfere with thyroid hormone metabolism and function, causing hypothyroidism, creating a slow metabolism and preventing weight loss.
 
“I believe a comprehensive approach is needed to address chronic thyroid issues and to diagnose them. Unfortunately, most of the options for healing by conventional care are quite limited and only provide a partial solution, but by following my seven-step plan you can achieve optimal health and UltraWellness,” said Hyman.
 
For more information on identifying symptoms of hypothyroidism and Dr. Mark Hyman’s seven-step plan to address hypothyroidism, visit The UltraWellness Blog (www.ultrawellness.com/blog).

Sources:
Life Extension Daily News
7-step Plan to Boost Low Thyroid and Metabolism – The Ultrawellness Blog

 

Michael Pollan “In Defense of Food” (and older stuff, too)

I was lucky enough while commuting to catch an interview with Michael Pollan on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Science Friday (highly recommended) discussing his new book, In Defense of Food. The 35 minute interview can be listened to here or here. This looks like another terrific offering from a wonderful author.

I first learned of Mr. Pollan and his food-based investigative journalism, during another interview with Terri Gross on Fresh Air. He discussed the lengths he went to for a New York Times Sunday Magazine article entitled “Power Steer” on the life of meat cows. He set about to steward a cow through it’s short life-cycle in the meat industry and the results were, well, listen to that fascinating broadcast here (51 minutes).

Things done RIGHT with America’s food in 2007

The Organic Consumers Association sent out a special year-end edition of their newsletter, Organic Bytes, noting one positive development each month of 2007.  Click each link for an article detailing the accomplishments:

January:  Dozens of “Certified Organic” candidates sworn into office

February:  Field trials of experimental biotech grass halted

March:  Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa banned

April:  USDA bans cloned foods from organics

May:  Consumers successfully pressure congress on country of origin labels

June:  Factory farm has organic certification yanked

July:  Congress preserves local food and crop safety laws

August:  Beer giant goes organic

September:  OCA declares victory in its “Frankenbucks” campaign

Ocbtober:  Class action lawsuit in 27 States launched against factory farms

November:  rBGH being driven off the market:  “rBGH-Free” labeling protected

December:  Massive NAIS threat to family farmers held off

FreeRice

FreeRice > Take a multiple-choice vocabulary quiz and feed people for every word correctly or incorrectly identified. How cool is that? The more you play, they more food gets delivered. It’s also adaptive to individual skill levels.

I think I could definitely use some help with my lexicon (50¢ please).