Black Rice, Please

Rice is one of the most amazing grains that comes white, brown and yes, black. The black is apparently the best and was considered to be 'forbidden' in ancient China, but may be a super food for the today's health conscious.

 

Black rice is the new cancer-fighting superfood, claim scientists

By Daily Mail Reporters

Black rice - revered in ancient China but overlooked in the West - could be the greatest 'superfoods', scientists revealed today.

The cereal is low in sugar but packed with healthy fibre and plant compounds that combat heart disease and cancer, say experts.

Scientists from Louisiana State University analysed samples of bran from black rice grown in the southern U.S. They found boosted levels of water-soluble anthocyanin antioxidants.

Black rice is low in sugar but packed with healthy fibre and plant compounds that combat heart disease and cancer, according to scientists

Anthocyanins provide the dark colours of many fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries and red peppers. They are what makes black rice 'black'.

Research suggests that the dark plant antioxidants, which mop up harmful molecules, can help protect arteries and prevent the DNA damage that leads to cancer.

Food scientist Dr Zhimin Xu said: 'Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar, and more fibre and vitamin E antioxidants.

'If berries are used to boost health, why not black rice and black rice bran? Especially, black rice bran would be a unique and economical material to increase consumption of health-promoting antioxidants.'

Centuries ago black rice was known as 'Forbidden Rice' in ancient China because only nobles were allowed to eat it.

Today black rice is mainly used in Asia for food decoration, noodles, sushi and desserts.

But food manufacturers could potentially use black rice bran or bran extracts to make breakfast cereals, beverages, cakes, biscuits and other foods healthier, said Dr Xu.

When rice is processed, millers remove the outer layers of the grains to produce brown rice or more refined white rice - the kind most widely consumed in the West.

Brown rice is said to be more nutritious because it has higher levels of healthy vitamin E compounds and antioxidants.

But according to Dr Xu's team, varieties of rice that are black or purple in colour are healthier still.

They added that black rice could also be used to provide healthier, natural colourants. Studies linked some artificial colourants to cancer and behavioural problems in children.

The scientists presented their findings today at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: 'In reality, it's unlikely there's a single food out there that will have a great impact on lowering your risk of heart disease. Healthy eating is about a balanced diet overall.

'It's great if you can eat more of some groups of healthy foods, like having five portions of fruit and veg a day, but there is still no conclusive evidence that 'super foods' alone make a real difference to your heart health.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1306356/Black-rice-new-cancer-fighting-superfood-claim-scientists.html#ixzz0y18WcNg8

‘Blue Flu’ cases spreading around Gulf

While the name may not be very scientific, the symptoms are all too real and horrific. 'Blue flu' refers to a state of low oxygenation that first appeared in the Gulf waters as a result of the use of the dispersant Corexit. Now some how, maybe via toxic rains and winds, it is spreading inland and is reducing the oxygen levels inside the bodies of humans, causing them to appear blue, or more accurately, cyanotic. Very dangerous. Especially for those with heart disease or breathing problems. Heart attacks, strokes, seizures, limb loss and general disabilities of all sorts can be expected, all of which have an associated risk of death. On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina we know what happened when the government refused to order an early evacuation. Is history repeating itself?

‘Blue Flu’ cases spreading around Gulf

By Lounge Daddy, 17 August, 2010

“Blue Flu” infecting people along the Gulf of Mexico, other southern states?

Some people are calling it the BP Flu. But it is commonly being called the Blue Flu, because the alleged symptoms include blue lips and skin; and it’s scaring the hell out of people all around the Gulf area –from Texas to Florida.

This Blue Flu is separate from people experiencing something called TILT, or “Toxic-Induced Loss of Tolerance.” TILT is something that hit some of the folks who had been working on the massive cleanup surrounding the oil spill. Symptoms from TILT include eyes and skin being irritated, headaches and dizziness.

People with TILT are typically those who were in the immediate area of the spill, mostly those directly involved with the cleanup. Those suffering from Blue Flu are an entirely different matter. These are people who were not in direct contact with the spill, or the cleanup chemicals. They simply live in the south, near the Gulf.

Symptoms include swollen glands, notably in the neck, fever, vomiting, headache, bluish lip color, numbness in fingers and toes. The most alarming symptom being reported is “severe symptomatic cyanosis.” This is the entire body turning blue, a discoloration of the skin.

Of course this could cause alarm that these are symptoms of oxygen depletion along the Gulf. But could this rather be from all that Corexit that was sprayed everywhere, including dropped through the air from airplanes? This was a lot of chemical deposited in a large area, in a short frame of time. One wonders how the people living in the area could not be sickened from it.

Here’s a littleabout Corexit:

Corexit is a product line of solvents primarily used as a dispersant for breaking up oil slicks. It is produced by Nalco Holding Company which is associated with BP and Exxon.

Corexit is the most-used dispersant in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, with COREXIT 9527 having been replaced by COREXIT 9500 after the former was deemed too toxic.

Oil that would normally rise to the surface of the water is broken up by the dispersant into small globules that can then remain suspended in the water.

Whatever the cause the Blue Flu, it is important to note that the oil spill wasn’t cleaned up – it was covered up. As stated in the above quote, the Corexit that was sprayed and dumped all over the place is simply a (rather dangerous) chemical agent that prevented the oil from surfacing.

After all, the government isn’t interested in your safety. Rather, the government is interested in creating the illusion of safety. And the government often harms even more people in the end in their effort to keep up appearances.

Thus, expect the Blue Flu to be kept under wraps as much as possible. In an effort to deflect criticism, I would not be surprised if the government sounded an alarm over another flu bug – an effort at misdirection. The political class wants the oil spill story out of the way and forgotten.

There are two major articles about Blue Flu that I read, none in the msm.

One story is pretty alarmist in tone, and another that strives to be far more measured with this. However, the story appears to be well written and sourced — the writer quotes people about Blue Flu.

That article is at worldvisionportal.org. The writer wonders if these are symptoms of oxygen depletion in the air and water. Here’s a little from that one:

Along with the symptoms that mimic flu-like viruses, there are increasing cases of severe symptomatic cyanosis. These rapidly increasing symptoms range from bluish lip color to numbness in fingers and toes. There is also a fast growing increase of pneumonia cases which are being diagnosed as chemical induced pneumonia. Those working on boats and those living directly on the coast are the most effected.

Cyanosis is simply oxygen starvation in the blood. With a moderate case involving such a lack of oxygen, the skin appears to have a blueish colour. Hands and fingers especially show these signs as will other extremities such as toes and lips. A lack of oxygen in the blood can also have a purplish appearance where the skin surface is red from sun exposure but the blood beneath the skin is blue. Red and blue make purple.

If all these BLUE FLU symptoms were temporary, most everyone suffering from them would eventually recover as the blood becomes increasingly oxygenated once removed from the oxygen depletion source.

I wanted to double check the statement that “cyanosis is simply oxygen starvation in the blood,” so I went over to wikipedia :

During cyanosis, tissues are uncharacteristically low on oxygen, and therefore tissues that would normally be filled with bright oxygenated blood are instead filled with darker, deoxygenated blood. Darker blood is much more prone to the blue-shifting optical effects,[3] and thus oxygen deficiency – hypoxia – leads to blue discoloration of the lips and other mucous membranes.

The writer goes on to suggest that, “while the Blue Flu symptoms are increasing for more and more people, those who have had 30+ days of direct exposure to the toxic and oxygen depleted Gulf air and water are in immediate danger of permanent and irreversible biological damage… if not death.”

Damn. Now’s a great time to look at the more measured, less panicked article.

Over at Meta Oceanic Research, an article covers a few new Gulf-spill-related symptoms being reported online. The article looks at the symptoms of TILT and the Blue Flu.

The entire article is pretty interesting for the comparison, and it’s a fairly quick read. For the info on the Blue Flu, it references the World Vision Portal. The article ends with this:

We caution the reader that everything in the World Vision Portal post is hearsay so far, but it echoes and dovetails with verifiable similar cases. It’s also extremely well-written and motivates us to keep an eye on the story and research the matter further ourselves.

Interestingly, I believe there was a prediction made by Webbot of a ‘Blue Flu.’

And there have been concerns in science magazines that we could have a problem — a natural problem — with a lack of oxygen. And then, clearly, the oil spill and chemical agents could make a natural problem into an unnatural problem.

Of course panic solves nothing. We’ll keep an eye on this as best we can. It will be interesting to see if the Blue Flu is something that we never hear about again, or if it becomes something too big for the msm to avoid.

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Cancer Has a Sweet Tooth

The least evil reason corporations in the "food business" put high fructose corn syrup in their "food products" is to make bigger profits. A greater evil is that it helps to promote disease conditions that can lead to cancer and the expensive drugs and other treatment that corporations in the "health care business" sell. Worse than that is that they hate people and want them dead. But what ever their reasons for putting HFCS in food products, what is your reason for putting it in your body? Read this and think over what you are doing to yourself.

Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate,

according to a study that challenges the notion that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways. This could explain why other studies have previously linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

According to MSNBC:

"Americans take in large amounts of fructose, mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range of other foods. Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy."

Cancer Research August 1, 2010; 70: 6368

Reuters August 2, 2010

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Are all sugars equal in terms of the health effects they produce?

Sooner or later, science will put this debate to rest once and for all. It's already been conclusively shown that fructose, most commonly consumed in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is FAR more hazardous to your health than regular sugar, but the corn industry still vehemently denies such claims.

Through successful PR campaigns, industry has managed to pull the wool over your eyes for some time now, but eventually even they will have to surrender to the scientific evidence...

Until then, propaganda machines like the Corn Refiners Association's site, SweetSurprise.com, will continue telling you that "research confirms that high fructose corn syrup is safe and no different from other common sweeteners like table sugar and honey. All three sweeteners are nutritionally the same," and that "though the individual sugars are metabolized by different pathways, this is of little consequence since the body sees the same mix of sugars from caloric sweeteners, regardless of source."

But are these metabolic differences of little consequence?

Far from it!

Fructose Speeds Up Cancer Growth

Research just published in the journal Cancer Research shows that the way the different sugars are metabolized (using different metabolic pathways) is of MAJOR consequence when it comes to feeding cancer and making it proliferate.

According to the authors:

" Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different... These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."

In this case, the cancer cells used were pancreatic cancer, which is typically regarded as the most deadly and universally rapid-killing form of cancer.

The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructose for cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer.

If this difference isn't of major consequence, then I don't know what is.

Whether you're simply interested in preventing cancer, or have cancer and want to live longer, you ignore these facts and listen to industry propaganda at your own risk.

How Does Sugar Feed Cancer?

Controlling your blood-glucose and insulin levels through diet, exercise and emotional stress relief can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. These factors are also crucial in order to prevent cancer in the first place.

It may surprise you, but the theory that sugar feeds cancer was born nearly 80 years ago. Even more shocking, most conventional cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars.

In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells.

Malignant tumors tend to use a process where glucose is used as a fuel by the cancer cells, creating lactic acid as a byproduct.[i] The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from cancer cells is then transported to your liver. This conversion of glucose to lactic acid generates a lower, more acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid buildup.[ii] [iii]

This is a very inefficient pathway for energy metabolism, which extracts only about 5 percent of the available energy in your food supply. In simplistic terms, the cancer is "wasting" energy, which leads you to become both tired and undernourished, and as the vicious cycle continues, will lead to the body wasting so many cancer patients experience.

Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decreases the capacity of neutrophils to do their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that help cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as cancer.

In a nutshell, ALL forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer, but in slightly different ways, and to a different extent. Fructose, however, clearly seems to be one of the overall most harmful.

Connecting the Dots: Fructose—Uric Acid—Cancer and Chronic Disease Risk

One particularly interesting tidbit I noticed in this latest study is the mention of how fructose metabolism leads to increased uric acid production along with cancer cell proliferation.

In my first interview with Dr. Johnson, he explained just how detrimental the impact of fructose is on your uric acid level. Interestingly, ONLY fructose, NOT glucose, drives up uric acid as part of its normal metabolic pathways

And, the connection between fructose, uric acid, hypertension, insulin resistance/diabetes and kidney disease is so clear that your uric acid level can actually be used as a marker for toxicity from fructose -- meaning that if your levels are high, you're at increased risk of all the health hazards associated with fructose consumption and you really need to reduce your fructose intake.

For more information about this topic, please see this link.

Dr. Richard Johnson has written one of the best books on the market on the health dangers of fructose, called The Sugar Fix, which explains how fructose causes high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and kidney disease. As I've mentioned previously, he does promote the use of artificial sweeteners in this book, which I cannot recommend. His research on fructose, however, is unsurpassed in my opinion.

Now it's safe to say that cancer, at least pancreatic cancer, is also definitely on the list of diseases that are directly linked to excessive fructose consumption.

So are Fruits Good or Bad for You?

This recommendation has created much controversy among many who regularly consume fruit and believe this recommendation does not apply to them.

Many who eat large amounts of fruit have no symptoms, just as those with high blood pressure may not have any symptoms. However lack of symptoms is no assurance you are not exposing yourself to some danger.

Please remember that over three-quarters of the population has insulin resistance.

How do you know if you have insulin resistance? If you have any of the following conditions it is a safe bet you have it:

Diabetes

High blood pressure

Overweight

High Cholesterol

Cancer

If you have insulin resistance it would be strongly recommended to limit your total grams of fructose from fruit to below 15 grams per day (see the table below). If you believe you are very healthy and are an exception to this recommendation, then you can easily confirm if this is true for you by measuring your uric acid level.

If your uric acid level is greater than 5.5 than you have a risk factor and should limit your fructose consumption. The higher over 5.5, the stronger the risk factor is.

Keep in mind that fruits also contain fructose, although an ameliorating factor is that whole fruits also contain vitamins and other antioxidants that reduce the hazardous effects of fructose.

Juices, on the other hand, are nearly as detrimental as soda, because a glass of juice is loaded with fructose, and a lot of the antioxidants are lost.

It is important to remember that fructose alone isn't evil as fruits are certainly beneficial. But when you consume high levels of fructose it will absolutely devastate your biochemistry and physiology. Remember the AVERAGE fructose dose is 70 grams per day which exceeds the recommend limit by 300 percent.

So please BE CAREFUL with your fruit consumption. You simply MUST understand that because HFCS is so darn cheap, it is added to virtually every processed food. So even if you consumed no soda or fruit, it is very easy to exceed 25 grams of hidden fructose in your diet if you are consuming anything processed.

If you are a raw food advocate, have a pristine diet, and exercise regularly, then you could be the exception that could exceed this limit and stay healthy. But in my experience that is certainly the exception and not the norm.

So please, carefully add up your fruits based on the table below to keep the total fructose from fruit below 15 grams per day.

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose

Limes 1 medium 0

Lemons 1 medium 0.6

Cranberries 1 cup 0.7

Passion fruit 1 medium 0.9

Prune 1 medium 1.2

Apricot 1 medium 1.3

Guava 2 medium 2.2

Date (Deglet Noor style) 1 medium 2.6

Cantaloupe 1/8 of med. melon 2.8

Raspberries 1 cup 3.0

Clementine 1 medium 3.4

Kiwifruit 1 medium 3.4

Blackberries 1 cup 3.5

Star fruit 1 medium 3.6

Cherries, sweet 10 3.8

Strawberries 1 cup 3.8

Cherries, sour 1 cup 4.0

Pineapple 1 slice (3.5" x .75") 4.0

Grapefruit, pink or red 1/2 medium 4.3

Restricting Fructose Consumption is Crucial Part of a Comprehensive Cancer Treatment Plan

Reducing (or preferably eliminating) fructose and other added sugars, as well as limiting grain carbohydrates from your diet, is usually a primary priority on my list of cancer reducing strategies, and for good reason.

This dietary strategy should also be part of your comprehensive cancer treatment plan.

By severely reducing your intake of fructose and carbs in your diet, you help stave off any potential cancer growth, and "starve" any tumors you currently have.

It also bolsters your overall immune function, because sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately.

Unfortunately, few cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer care in the US are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told to "just eat healthy foods." I believe many cancer patients would see major improvement in their outcome if they controlled the supply of cancer's preferred fuel, glucose, and stayed clear of fructose to significantly reduce tumor proliferation.

Starving Cancer – Another Up-and-Coming Strategy

Before I go into further cancer prevention strategies, I'd like to remind you of another recent cancer research development I recently wrote about, namely 'starving' cancer by eating foods that prevent angiogenesis.

Angiogenesis (too many blood vessels) is a hallmark of cancer as the tumor actually needs blood in order to grow (this is how it feeds on the glucose in your bloodstream). But angiogenesis appears to be preventable by consuming foods that are natural inhibitors of excessive blood vessel growth.

When you regularly consume these foods, you can effectively starve any microscopic cancerous growths, effectively preventing them from growing further and becoming dangerous.

According to Dr. Li, who is currently leading this research, resveratrol from red grapes, for example, have been shown to inhibit abnormal angiogenesis by 60 percent. Even more potent is the ellagic acid found in strawberries.

Other potent anti-angiogenetic foods include:

Green tea Berries: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries Cherries

Citrus: oranges, grapefruit, lemons Kale Turmeric

Nutmeg Artichokes Parsley

Garlic Tomato Maitake mushroom

Logically, different foods contain different potencies of anti-angiogenetic compounds. Some foods have even been found to be more potent than current anti-angiogenetic drugs! These include parsley and garlic.

But interestingly, when researchers evaluated a combination of two of the LEAST potent teas, for example, they discovered that this combination tea had greater potency than any given tea by itself.

"There's synergy," Li states, which should come as no surprise to those of you who are well-versed in holistic nutrition.

It is this synergy that makes fresh, whole foods so potently nutritious!

The sum is far greater than the individual parts, and this is why it's far more important to focus on eating a diet of whole, organic foods, rather than obsessing about individual nutrients.

Other Cancer Prevention Strategies

Aside from avoiding fructose and other added sugars (which means cutting out not only soda and sugary beverages, but also processed foods since most are loaded with HFCS), and incorporating more anti-angiogenetic fare into your diet, here are several additional strategies you can incorporate to virtually eliminate your cancer risk:

Normalize your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure. This is one of the most effective, and least expensive, cancer prevention strategies available to most people. Ideally, you'll want to monitor your vitamin D levels to make sure your levels stay within a therapeutic range year-round.

Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.

Exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.

Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with, preferably fresh and organic.

Ideally, you'll also want to determine your nutritional type, as some veggies are better than others, depending on your type. In addition, if you are a carb nutritional type, for example, you may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than a protein nutritional type.

Maintain an ideal body weight.

Get enough high-quality sleep.

Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

References

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] Warburg O. On the origin of cancer cells. Science 1956 Feb;123:309-14.

[ii] Volk T, et al. pH in human tumor xenografts: effect of intravenous administration of glucose. Br J Cancer 1993 Sep;68(3):492-500

[iii] Digirolamo M. Diet and cancer: markers, prevention and treatment. New York: Plenum Press; 1994. p 203

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Americas Mental Illness Epidemic

Seems like everybody is crazy. I saw a movie recently, supposedly a comedy, centered on a funeral, in which every single character displayed signs of mental illness, ranging from neurotic symptoms to frank psychosis and criminality. It seems to me that such films, which don't strike me funny in the least- I can't even remember the name of it, but it starred the leading black comedians of today- are really designed to normalize abnormal behavior, show it to be oh so common and laughable, and then on to a rehearsal of pill popping as the solution.  Americas Mental Illness Epidemic
By Gary G. Kohls, MD
8-25-10

 

Tens of millions of innocent, unsuspecting Americans, who are mired deeply in the mental "health" system, have actually been made crazy by the use of or the withdrawal from commonly-prescribed, brain-altering, brain-disabling, indeed brain-damaging psychiatric drugs that have been, for many decades, cavalierly handed out like candy ­ often in untested and therefore unapproved combinations of drugs - to trusting and unaware patients by equally unaware but well-intentioned physicians who have been under the mesmerizing influence of slick and obscenely profitable psychopharmaceutical drug companies aka, BigPharma.   That is the conclusion of two books by investigative journalist and health science writer Robert Whitaker. His first book, entitled Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill noted that there has been a 600% increase (since Thorazine was introduced in the US in the mid-1950s) in the total and permanent disabilities of millions of psychiatric drug-takers. This uniquely First World mental ill health epidemic has resulted in the life-long taxpayer-supported disabilities of rapidly increasing numbers of psychiatric patients who are now unable to be happy, productive, taxpaying members of society. Whitaker has done a powerful, albeit unwelcome job of presenting previously hidden, but very convincing evidence to support his thesis, that it is the drugs and not the diagnosis that is causing the epidemic of mental illness disability. Many open-minded physicians and many aware psychiatric patients are now motivated to be wary of any and all synthetic chemicals that can cross the blood/brain barrier because all of them are capable of altering the brain in ways totally unknown to medical science, especially when the patients are taking the drugs long-term..   In Whitaker's second book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America, he goes much further in advancing this sobering reality. He documents the history of the powerful forces behind the relatively new field of psychopharmacology and its major shaper and beneficiary, BigPharma. Psychiatric drugs, whose developers, marketers and salespersons are all in the employ of the giant drug companies, are far more dangerous than the drug and psychiatric industries are willing to admit: These drugs, it turns our, are fully capable of disabling ­ often permanently - body, brain and spirit.   More evidence to support Whitaker's well-documented claims are laid out in two important new books written by psychiatrist and scholar Grace Jackson. Jackson did a beautiful job of researching and documenting, from the voluminous basic neuroscience research (which is uniformly ignored by the clinical sciences) the unintended and often disastrous consequences of the chronic ingestion of any of the five major classes of psychiatric drugs. Her second and most powerful book: Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that any of the five classes of drugs that are commonly used in psychiatric patients (antidepressants, antipsychotics, psychostimulants, tranquilizers and anti-seizure/"mood-stabilizer" drugs) have shown microscopic, macroscopic, biochemical, clinical and/or radiological evidence of brain shrinkage and other signs of brain damage, which can result in clinically-diagnosable, permanent dementia, premature death and a variety of other related brain disorders that can mimic mental illnesses. Jackson's first book, Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent was an equally sobering book warning about the many hidden dangers of psychiatric drugs.   This sad truth is that the seemingly knee-jerk prescribing (without very much information being given to patients about the long list of serious long-term adverse effects) of potent and often addicting/dependency-inducing psychiatric drugs has become the standard of care in American psychiatry since the introduction of the so-called anti-schizophrenic "miracle" drug Thorazine in the mid-1950s. (Thorazine was the offending drug that all of Jack Nicholson's fellow patients were coerced into taking at "medication time" in the Academy Award-winning movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".) Thorazine and all the other "me-too" early antipsychotic drugs are now universally known to have been an iatrogenic (= doctor or other treatment-caused) disaster because of their serious long-term, initially unsuspected, brain-damaging effects that resulted in a number of incurable neurological disorders such as tardive dyskinesia and Parkinson's disease.   Thorazine and all the other knock-off drugs like Prolixin, Mellaril, Navane. etc, are synthetic "tricyclic" chemical compounds similar in molecular structure to the tricyclic "antidepressants" like imipramine and the similarly toxic, obesity-inducing, diabetogenic, "atypical" anti-schizophrenic drugs like Clozaril, Zyprexa and Seroquel.   Thorazine, incidentally, was originally developed in Europe as an industrial dye. That doesn't sound so good although it may not be so unusual in the closely related fields of psychopharmcology and the chemical industry, especially when one considers that Depakote, a popular drug marketed initially as an anti-epilepsy drug but now is being heavily used as a so-called "mood stabilizer". Depakote, known to be a hepatotoxin and renal toxin, was originally developed as an industrial solvent capable of dissolving fat - including, presumably, the fatty tissue in human livers and brains.   Some sympathy and understanding needs to be generated for the various victims of BigPharma's compulsive drive to expand market share and "shareholder value" (share price, dividends and the next quarter's financial report) by whatever means necessary. Both the prescribers and the swallowers of BigPharma's drugs have succumbed to BigPharma's cunning marketing campaigns, the prescribers having been seduced by attractive drug company representatives and their "pens, pizzas and post-it note" freebies in the office, and the patients being brain-washed by the inane and unbelievable (if one has intact critical thinking skills) commercials on TV that quickly gloss over the lethal adverse effects in the fine print while urging the watcher to "ask your doctor" about the latest unaffordable wannabe blockbuster drug..   For a quick overview of these issues, I recommend that everybody with an open mind read a long essay written by Whitaker that persuasively identifies the source of America's epidemic of mental illness disability (a phenomenon that doesn't exist in Third World nations because costly psych drugs are not prescribed so cavalierly as in the US).   Whitaker and Jackson (among a number of other ground-breaking and whistle-blowing authors who have been essentially black-listed by the mainstream media and mainstream medical journals) have proven to most critically-thinking scientists, alternative practitioners and assorted "psychiatric survivors" that it is the drugs - and not the so-called "disorders" - that are causing our nation's epidemic of mental illness disability. The Whitaker essay, plus other pertinent information about his books can be accessed at www.madinamerica.com A recent interview on Wisconsin Public Radio can be accessed at www.wpr.org (at their radio archives link) and a long interview with Dr.Joseph Mercola can be heard at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/08/robert-whitaker-interview.aspx   After reading and studying all these inconvenient truths, mental health practitioners must consider the medicolegal implications for them, especially if the information is ignored or if the information is dismissed out of hand by practitioners who might be tempted to not take the time to study this new information. Those people who are hearing about this for the first time need to pass the word on to others, especially their prescribing healthcare practitioners who should be equally concerned. This is important because the opinion leaders in the highly influential (for good or ill) psychiatric and medical industries have been marketed into submission without hearing the all the facts (which may have been intentionally hidden from them. If that is the case, they cannot be automatically blamed for. proceeding in a practice that some day might represent malpractice. It shouldn't have to be pointed out that is the solemn duty of ethical practitioners who are in positions of authority to fully examine potential malpractice issues and then warn others, especially their patients, of the dangers.   Sadly, it must be admitted that most of the over-worked, double-booked care-givers in medical clinics have not yet heard the news that most if not all of the brain-altering synthetic chemicals known as psychotropic drugs (which are treated as hazardous waste unless they are packaged in a swallowable capsule!) have been marketed as safe and effective - but only for short-term use. The captains of the drug industry know that the psychotropic drugs that they present for the FDA-approval have only been tested in animal trials for days and in clinical trials for 6 weeks. They also know ­ indeed they hope - that patients will be taking their drugs for years (despite no long-term trials proving safety and efficacy) as the only "treatment" for mental ill health. They know that their brain-altering drugs are also dependency-inducing (aka addicting, causing withdrawal symptoms when stopped), neurotoxic and increasingly ineffective (a la "Prozac Poop-out") as time goes by.   The truth is that the people diagnosed as "mentally ill" for life are often simply those unfortunates who find themselves in acute or chronic states of crisis or "overwhelm" due to any number of preventable, curable and treatable (without the use of drugs) bad luck accidents such as poverty, abuse, violence, torture, homelessness, discrimination, underemployment, brain malnutrition, addictions/withdrawal, brain damage from electroshock "therapy" and/or exposure to neurotoxic chemicals in their food, air, water or prescription bottles.   Those labeled as the "mentally ill" are just like us "normals" who have not yet decompensated because of some yet-to-happen, crisis-inducing, overwhelming (however temporary) life situation. And thus we have not yet been given a billable code number (accompanied by the seemingly obligatory - and unaffordable - drug prescription or two signifying we are now chronically mentally ill. Unlabeled, we are likely to remain off prescription drugs but with a label and in "the system", it is hard to "just say no to drugs."   The victims of hopelessness-generating situations like simple bad luck, bad circumstances, bad company, bad choices, bad government, big business, and a competitive society that generates a few winners but mostly losers. America tolerates, indeed celebrates, punitive and thus fear-inducing social systems resembling in many ways the infamous police state realities of 20th century European totalitarianism, where people who were different or just dissidents were thought to be abnormal and therefore "disappeared" into insane asylums, jails or concentration camps without just cause or competent legal defense. And many of them were and are drugged with disabling psychoactive chemicals against their will.   The truth is that most, if not all, of BigPharma's psychotropic drugs are lethal at some dosage level (the LD50, the lethal dose that kills 50% of lab animals, is calculated before efficacy testing is done), and therefore the drugs must be regarded as dangerous. The chronic use of these drugs is a major cause of cognitive disorders, brain damage, loss of creativity, loss of spirituality, loss of empathy, loss of energy, loss of strength, fatigue and tiredness, permanent disability and a multitude of metabolic adverse effects that can readily sicken the body, brain and soul by causing insomnia or somnolence, increased depression or anxiety, delusions, psychoses, paranoia, mania, etc. So before filling the prescription, it is advisable to read the product insert labeling under WARNINGS, PRECAUTIONS, ADVERSE EFFECTS, CONTRAINDICATIONS, TOXICOLOGY, OVERDOSAGE and the ever-present BLACK BOX WARNINGS ABOUT SUICIDALITY.   Long-term, high dosage or combination psychotropic drug usage could be regarded as a chemically traumatic brain injury (TBI) or, as drugs like Thorazine were known in the 1950s and 60s, a "chemical lobotomy". That is a useful way to conceptualize this serious issue, because such chemically brain-altered patients are often indistinguishable from those who have suffered a physically traumatic brain injuries or been subjected to ice-pick lobotomies which were popular in the 1940s and 50s - before the drugs came on the market.   America has a mental ill health epidemic on its hands that is grossly misunderstood because it is worsening, not by the supposed disease progression, but because of the neurotoxic, non-curative drugs that are somehow regarded as first-line "treatment."   For more information of these extremely serious topics check out these websites: www.mindfreedom.org, www.breggin.com, www.icspp.org, www.cchr.org, www.drugawareness.org, www.psychrights.org, www.benzo.org.uk, www.quitpaxil, org, www.wildscolts.com, www.endofshock.com, www.mercola.com and www.madinamerica.com and follow the links.   _______________________________________   Dr. Kohls is a family physician who, until his retirement in 2008, practiced holistic mental health care. His patients came to see him asking for help in getting off the psychotropic drugs that they knew were sickening and disabling them. He was successful in helping significant majorities of his patients get off their drugs using a thorough and therefore time-consuming program that was based on psychoeducational psychotherapy, brain nutrient therapy, a drastic change away from the malnourishing and often toxic Standard American Diet (SAD) plus a program of gradual, closely monitored drug withdrawal. Dr. Kohls warns against the abrupt discontinuation of any psychiatric drug because of the common, often serious withdrawal symptoms that can occur with the chronic use of any dependency-inducing psychoactive drug, whether illicit or legal. Close consultation with an aware, informed physician who is hopefully familiar with dealing with drug withdrawal syndromes (starting with the original prescribing physician), who will read and study the above books and become aware of the previously unknown dangers of these drugs and the nutritional needs of the drug-toxified and nutritionally-depleted brain.   Dr. Kohls is a member of MindFreedom International and the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology. He is the editor of the occasional Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.

 

RFID Forced Brain Implants

In the past I was very skeptical whenever I encountered a patient in my practice who claimed to be a victim of forced or covert brain implantation. I just thought they may be delusional. Now in light of the evidence in this case I may owe an apology to those whom I doubted. Are we really living right now in a Big Brother State with remote control of human behavior? Read and decide for your self.

Secretly forced brain implants: Explosive court case

• August 19th, 2010

Copyright Deborah Dupré 2010. All rights reserved. This article cannot be copied, reposted or republished without consent of author.

Warning: The following article may trigger flashback. If the reader has experienced in-home or facility abuse involving possible forced RFID implanting, please read with care, preferably with a trusted significant other.

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What I found...is there is no law on the books requiring that informed consent be obtained. More important, I believe there is a need for such a law, as there continue to be cases where this basic right--I do view it as a basic right--is abused. As I started out, I would like to put this on a personal level for everyone of my colleagues. You just think about your own family, your own son, your own daughter, or grandchildren who might be, the next time they go to a doctor, the subject of some medical experiment that they are not even told about. I do not think there can be many things more un-American than that. ~ Senator John Glenn, introducing failed Bill S. 193 to 105th Congress.

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Among greatest human rights violations imaginable

Few American doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists will break rank or brave the new world of high-tech electronic abuse some of their patients report but evidence mounts that increasing numbers of innocent citizens targeted for U.S. state-sponsored terror are being secretly brain implanted with U.S. RFID chips without their consent for no-touch torture and mind control plus experimentation. One man evidenced this in court; won his case; and now prepares for a continuationin federal court, due to be equally explosive.

RFID is abbreviation for Radio-frequency Identification, a misnomer due to the device functions consisting of far more than ID. It is used for remote technological harassment, torture and even assassination.

James Walbert, resident of Wichita, Kansas, proved his experience as a Targeted Individual under surveillance includes forcefully implanted RFID chips, including in his brain, and subsequent remote electronic abuse. Walbert told Sedgwick County, Kansas court panel that Jeremiah Redford threatened him with “jolts of radiation.”

On November 25, 2008, the court ordered the associated targeted stalking of Walbert to halt. Walbert then began suffering electric shock sensations and hearing electronically generated tones, including popping and ringing sounds.

On December 30th, Court decided in Walbert’s favor, issuing a first-of-its-kind order of protection, banning Redford from using “electronic means” to injure Walbert. That Order has been violated - including by police Walbert told the Examiner.

  "Nothing to date has changed at all - not to say that they are not investigating. There just has been no change at all in this harassment despite this order of protection."

A common misconception is that RFID implants are solely to track individuals 24/7. "Not so," say scientists and investigators, including Paul Baird of Surveillance Issues. (www.surveillanceissues.com)

Surveillance Issues provides information about advanced satellite surveillance and "harassment" technologies that covert government agencies and organized crime syndicates are using on innocent people to neutralize them, suppression through mental torment and physical injury. These technologies are effectively used against RFID implanted persons.

Most RFID devices contain at least two parts: 1) An integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal; and 2) An antenna for receiving and transmitting signals.

With the second RFID part, the antenna, implanted subject can receive sounds, even verbal orders, and thus be subjected to control against his or her best interest, a method of mind control. With the antenna, the subject can also receive electronic pain and injury meeting torture criterion. The antenna has capacity to covertly assassinate the target by directing electric energy from hand-held devices or satellite to a vulnerable body or organ part. Thus, cause of death is attributed to the subject's vulnerability recorded in medical records and viewed by most people as death by "natural cause." (For information on NSA neural remote monitoring, see NSA Signals Intelligence Use of EMF Brain Stimulation, www.surveillanceissues.com/relatedwebsites.htm)

"Mankind has inalienable human rights that are absolute and can not be debased, nor perverted. Human life can not be degraded to a 16 digit RFID chip number embedded under you skin under any circumstance. By uniting on this common ground, we can send a strong message to the IBM funded Verichip that We The People Will Not Be Chipped," is the mission statement of the group, We the People Will Not be Chipped."

But what happens when unwitting, innocent persons are covertly chipped, after drugged or otherwise induced to unconsciousness in their homes after unforced break-ins? Not possible? This is being reported throughout communities in the U.S. and other nations - with growing hard evidence to prove it.

The largest deployment of active RFID is the U.S. Department of Defense. (Wikipedia)

Chipped for failure to comply with bullies

"In 2004, I became an inventor and was then threatened shortly afterwards by the party outlined in the protection order," explained Walbert. "He had stated that I would give him this invention or he would further discredit me and just take it from me."

Walbert says that's when it all started.

"The FBI believes it to be close friends of mine who are executing this crime," says Walbert. "Very soon after the threat for not giving away my invention, I started experiencing very odd things around me, mostly the way people were acting towards me.

Most Targeted Individuals report that friends and even family members begin treating the target differently, as though mentally ill or dangerous. Some of these family members have reported to the Examiner that they were secretly contacted by law enforcement, threatened to keep the contact secret, and told lies about their loved one. The average person perceives and treats the target with less respect or understanding of the state-sponsored crime against them - all due to "official" lies to discredit and isolate the target, making it easier to further persecute him or her since no support or protection exists.

This sworn secrecy part of the program has been reported so many times to the Examiner, it raises serious ethical questions such as: How many people in the fields of medicine and mental health including psychology are directly involved in this system of abuse and just following orders? (See APA CIA torture complicity charge: Is America ready for the whole truth?, Examiner, August 14, 2010)

After a consultation with Walbert, Clinical Psychologists Cathy Meadows, M.A. wrote:

"The techniques used against these targeted individuals are purposely designed to make the victim appear to have a mentally disorder in order to invalidate any claims of wrongdoing by the perpetrators. [The same tactic is presently being used in the Gulf Coast crime against humanity, with focus on mental injury, not physical injuries.] It is a highly organized and multi-faceted attack that is used by many political and religious extremists, by corporations and businesses, and even by organized crime." (Also see: Dupre, Human Targets: KENS 5 reports on Texas TIs in house of horrors, Examiner, Feb. 19, 2010.)

Meadows concludes stating that Walbert's "reasons for the covert attack and details he gives about the attack are in sync with what we know about gang-staling and technological harassment and for this reason I can't rule out his claims."

Walbert now calmly describes the terrifying experiences hundreds of innocent targeted individuals report, a violation of their bodies and minds:

"I then woke up to bloody ears and lots of ringing and nervous system stimulations. Very soon after that I had went to the doctor and they had found something in my ears."

Walbert had scars along with this foreign body in his ear according to doctor reports.

"The whole left side of me was damaged," he told the Examiner.

"I had gone in for an MRI. They found something else in the trapezia area. I had it sent off to a few doctors that I know." (See image online: mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=07d474d83e&view=att&th=12a81e1308f49269&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw)

Dr. John Hall identified the foreign body as an RFID chip, consistent with what investigator William J. Taylor had stated.

Wanting to test his blood for any residues from the implant, the following year, Walbert saw the famous Industrial Toxicologist and Doctor of Integrative Medicine, Dr. Hildegarde Staninger with Integrated Health Services out of Los Angeles. After sending Walbert for 30 blood tests in search of damages, Staninger further confirmed existence of the foreign bodies.

"Well we found the damages - and other implants as well," said Walbert.

He then had further tests run by another investigator to back up findings and confirmations by investigators at William J. Taylor's Agencies. Again, the new investigations concurred with the old.

Walbert then turned to private detector Melinda Kidder who confirmed the findings, stating that what everyone involved in the investigation had all been saying to be truthful, factual and real.

"Very soon after this, I again turned to the State Rep Jim Guest."

In 2006, when the U.S. Department of Defense awarded $1.6 million to Clemson University to develop an implantable biochip, WeThePeopleWillNotBeChipped.com's Yelene Slattery stated, "Soldiers can't choose not to get certain things done because they become government property once they sign up. When does it end? When does it become an infringement on a person's privacy?"

Slattery expressed valid concerns that once the chip is in, soldiers can be put on surveillance, even when off-duty, according to CBS affiliate KUTV. (U.S. Military May Implant Chips In Troops' Brains, Salt Lake City, Utah; Online: http://www.kutv.com/local_story_215001119.html; or see www.wanttoknow.info/a-us-military-may-implant-chips-troops-brains)

By 2008, due to Rep. Guest's leadership in Missouri, it became illegal for businesses to require employees to be micro-chipped.

“When you’re forced to have a chip put in you as a condition of employment, that’s taking away your civil liberties and your freedom,” said Rep. Guest, a King City Republican who added the microchip language to a bill concerning overtime and disability benefits. A that time, Guest vowed to introduce a bill to prohibit all microchip implants in humans. (Chip implants can’t be required in Missouri, Kansas City Star, June 26, 2008-06-26, Online: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/681409.html)

Guest had supported Walbert's first case in which the first protection order of its kind was issued, a major win that offered a glimmer of hope to the hundreds if not thousands of targets having their lives ruined by a covert, sophisticated system of abuse operating at every level of society.

"This time around," Walbert said, "I had solid evidence to present to Representative Guest's offices. Once this issued to his offices, I then had him confirm this evidence as being truthful and accurate and asked for another letter of support per his offices. It was granted."

Guest proceeded to introduce U.S. House Bill 550 against illegal chip implants.

"Rep Guest had came through again for all the victims, as we all knew he would and continues to do," said Walbert.

Walbert finally then turned to the Medical Community. He, like other survivors, wants the implanted devices extracted - but that has not happened.

"I was and continue to be turned away out of fear.

"Several doctors stated that they see it on the MRI and agree with other doctors, but they are not going to help out fear that the government is involved and tear their offices apart for any records that are related to this extraction of this implanted device." (Emphasis added)

Harassment continues

Walbert explains, "In the Order, there's a request to the Courts to have the defendant withheld from the use of such devices, and that is what the order was issued under that request. That is why it was a hit in such a big way. It was and is still the only order of protection from this equipment and its effects that has ever been issued to date.

"I'm preparing to fight the local police. The Federal courts are the only courts I can fight them in considering this is a federal crime."

The courts have waived the filing fee for Walbert and are serving the police via Federal Marshall office. They will deliver the suit to the police.

"Thats kinda kool to see happening to them," said Walbert. "I have political support, investigatory support, medical support, psychological support as well for this case. If there are statement's that have been made against my mental health then we will just add the defamation into the suit as well. I am trying to get local media involved with this case. Just to expose our police department into an negligent state."

To date, Walbert's first case rests on over 557,000 websites, was featured in a Wired Magazine article plus appeared in numerous mainstream media outlets.

Walbert's next court case is due to be just as explosive as the first. This case impacts not only impacts the innocent citizens who silently suffer persecution, denied by those who could help. This goes further.

Baird told he Examiner yesterday that the system of which Walbert reports and fights also has to do with "exclusion of those with character/integrity from public life; a selection process now perfected with use of surveillance technology to ensure that no opposition exists."

Baird stated:

"The Big Brother system of control that we now know about is both the essence of the problem and the reason that approaches to public figures fail to get the necessary result. You can find good and bad in most quarters but not in the mainstream media, politics etc. The good - and I've found quite a few - are on the outer; systematically excluded."

To non-believers, including family, friends and professionals who choose to forsake loved ones or clients due to this seemingly unbelievable hidden system of persecution, including by media, medical and mental health professionals, Walbert says:

"Anyone who who wants more evidence, I have over 800 documents of solid irrefutable evidence to share."

Sources

2010-03-22 Jim Guest Letter RE Implant of Foreign Device.pdf (Download)

Februray 5 James Walbert Medical Necessity Letter Damages 2010.pdf. (Download)

Walbert Letter to the Court.pdf (Download )

Federal case filed 7-20-20110 (Download)

We The People Will Not Be Chipped: www.WeThePeopleWillNotBeChipped.com

Representative Jim Guest (MO) Letter to Congress: http://www.freedomfchs.com/repjimguestltr.pdf

Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID

"Satellite Tyranny'' by Paul Baird: www.surveillanceissues.com

Want to Know: www.WantToKnow.info/microchipimplants

American Cognitive Liberties Association: http://americancognitivelibertiesassoc.org/default.aspx

Monarch the New Pheonix Program: http://www.monarchnewphoenix.com/index.htm

On The Need For New Criteria Of Diagnosis Of Psychosis In The Light Of Mind Invasive Technology, Carole Smith, Journal Of Psycho-Social Studies , Vol 2(2) No 3 2003:
http://www.angelfire.com/or/mctrl/NewCrit-JPSS-CS2.htm

Wired Magazine: Court to Defendant: Stop Blasting That Man's Mind! | Danger Room

Copyright © 2010 Deborah Dupre. All rights res

Join the Good Food Revolution and Save Yourself

Want to do the most good for yourself, your family, your community and ultimately your nation and the world? Join and support the Good Food Revolution. It's vital in the deepest sense. You are what you eat on all levels. A strong family or nation is no better than what it eats. Nutrition is the foundation of everything you or anybody is or does. Don't let soul less corporations dictate what food humans eat based on what profits are in it for them. Get involved and do something today to forward the Good Food Revolution. For starters look at the following article and plan to attend the Growing Power International Conference in September. Contact www.growingpower.org

Mighty Rise of Food Revolution and What it Means to You

Posted By Dr. Mercola |In the article linked below, author Michael Pollan reviews five books that address the heart of the food movement:

• Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front, by Joel Salatin
• All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?, by Joel Berg
• Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer
• Terra Madre: Forging a New Global Network of Sustainable Food Communities, by Carlo Petrini
• The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society, by Janet A. Flammang

Food in America has been more or less invisible, politically speaking, until very recently. However, according to Pollan, writing in AlterNet, these books show that:

"... Food is invisible no longer and, in light of the mounting costs we've incurred by ignoring it, it is likely to demand much more of our attention in the future, as eaters, parents, and citizens. It is only a matter of time before politicians seize on the power of the food issue, which besides being increasingly urgent is also almost primal, indeed is in some deep sense proto-political."

Sources:

  AlterNet July 29, 2010

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The food system in the United States is in desperate need of an overhaul, and with resources like Michael Pollan, Joel Salatin and others -- who are either getting the word out through books and the media or are working right in the field to grow food according to the laws of nature -- the tide may finally begin to turn.
At the forefront of any revolution is knowledge, and that is the stage many are at right now with regard to the food system. Finally, many are realizing that the bulk of the packaged, processed foods found in supermarkets are not real "food" at all, but conglomerations of excessive subsidized farm crops and chemicals manipulated to taste and look edible.
In many parts of the United States, the small farmers who once prided themselves on supplying wholesome foods to neighboring towns have long since closed their doors, replaced by giant CAFOs -- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations -- and expansive fields of genetically modified corn, soy, cotton and canola.
Why are these crops making up the majority of U.S. farmland? U.S. food subsidies are grossly skewed, creating a diet excessively high in factory-farmed "corn-fed" meats, grains and sugars, with very little fresh fruits and vegetables or healthful fats from nuts and seeds.

U.S. Government Subsidizes Junk Food

The food crops currently subsidized are corn, soy, wheat and rice. With these crops making up the bulk of the harvest, what do you end up with?
A fast food diet!
If growers of subsidized fresh vegetables were in a clear majority, you might start to see some fine advertising campaigns promoting the consumption of those veggies …
Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture is deeply entrenched with agribusiness, and current legislations protect the profits of these large industries at the expense of public health.
In fact, the agriculture lobby is more powerful than even the pharmaceutical industry! You don't hear about it as often, but the ramifications of their political influence are just as hazardous to your health as that of Big Pharma.
As this recent New York Times article states, "Thanks to lobbying, Congress chooses to subsidize foods that we're supposed to eat less of."

Is Food Reform on a Political Level Realistic?

Real reform on a political level is a long way off, but as Michael Pollan points out in The New York Review of Books article linked above, even on a national level there are small signs of change apparent. For instance, environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group are attacking the food system for its massive environmental pollution.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that 75 percent of U.S. health care spending is for the treatment of chronic diseases, most of which are preventable through healthier eating. Even Michelle Obama told the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a prominent food industry trade group:
"We need you not just to tweak around the edges but to entirely rethink the products that you're offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children."
These are admittedly small ripples in an ocean overrun with agribusiness scruples. As Pollan wrote:

" … industry-friendly appointments suggest that while the administration may be sympathetic to elements of the food movement's agenda, it isn't about to take on agribusiness, at least not directly, at least until it senses at its back a much larger constituency for reform."

Yet as Pollan also explains, our food policy reaches VERY deep into our everyday lives -- from the rise of diabetes all the way to our national security. Unless the food policy is addressed and corrected, little progress will be made to improve the current health care crisis, increase our energy independence, and reduce the negative impact on our environment and climate.
It is ALL connected and at the root of the problem lies the broken U.S. food system.

Beyond Policy: A Return to a Food-Centered Culture

Moving beyond Washington, there is much more to the food movement than the passage of new laws and regulations. What is attracting many to the myriad of "food movements" out there -- the locavores, the foodies, the supporters of the slow food movement -- is a love for real, pure food -- and the community it builds along with it.
For those looking to enhance their health and remove themselves, at least partially, from the corporative society in which we live, there is no better starting point than food.
As Pollan writes:

"It makes sense that food and farming should become a locus of attention for Americans disenchanted with consumer capitalism. Food is the place in daily life where corporatization can be most vividly felt: think about the homogenization of taste and experience represented by fast food.
By the same token, food offers us one of the shortest, most appealing paths out of the corporate labyrinth, and into the sheer diversity of local flavors, varieties, and characters on offer at the farmers' market."

Nowadays, 90 percent of foods Americans purchase every year are processed foods, a relatively new phenomenon. It has only been in the last several decades that the concept of "food" expanded from meat, vegetables, raw dairy products, fruit and other such natural items to include the highly processed, preserved, artificially flavored and often brightly colored concoctions that now exist in supermarkets.
Sadly, this quasi "food" really caught on, but the good news is that when you hear the term "what's old is new," it can now be applied to food. That is, increasing numbers of people are reverting BACK to the ways of our ancestors, and choosing to purchase food directly from local farmers, and cook it using slow, traditional methods.
For instance, after declining for more than a century, the number of U.S. small farms has increased 20 percent in the past six years. This is in large part a result of the growing demand for higher quality, pure and fresh locally grown foods, which is slowly but surely shaping the business of food in the United States.

Ready to Join the Food Revolution?

With nearly 7 out of 10 Americans being overweight, and 1 in 4 being affected with diabetes or pre-diabetes, the American diet is clearly in dire need of a radical overhaul. Drugs won't fix these dismal health statistics. Only a return to sane, healthy eating habits will.
If you still have not taken a long, hard look at your diet, I urge you to evaluate what you're really feeding yourself and your family on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, many people simply don't know how to cook with fresh ingredients anymore. That's how far we've strayed from our roots. British chef, Jamie Oliver, has realized this travesty and has launched a campaign to teach Americans how to cook again.
Most chefs teach you how to switch up the flavor. Oliver teaches basic skills to save your life -- cooking is that important!
I've said this for many years, and it's worth repeating many times over because it's one of the main solutions to the health hurdles facing much of the United States -- you've got to prepare your food at home!
I also encourage you to support the small family farms in your area. You'll receive nutritious food from a source that you can trust, and you'll not only be supporting the health of your own family but the health of your entire community.
A great Web site to check out along the way is www.localharvest.org. There you can find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other healthy goodies.
Try as they may, industry lobbyists still cannot force you to buy junk foods and foods raised in unhealthy "agribusiness" conditions. The choice is entirely yours, and consumer demand will always win eventually, so the more you demand healthy, unadulterated foods, the more they must produce, one way or another.
Further, knowledge truly is power, and the more people become informed, the faster it will prompt real change to come about. Several wonderful movies that will give you an excellent overview of the problems with modern agriculture and the need for a food revolution, which I highly recommend you watch and share with your friends and family, are:

• Food, Inc.
• The Future of Food
• Food Matters
• Fast Food Nation
• The World According To Monsanto
• Cornography

Related Links:

  Much of the Food Industry Runs on Bribes

  OBESITY CONSPIRACY: The U.S. Government Scandal that's Really Making You Fat

  Most of What You Eat is Not Real Food