High Fructose Corn Syrup Propaganda

Have you seen the industry ads about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) being just like sugar and fine when used in moderation?

Take a look:

Ad for HFCS

Another ad for HFCS

Don't be fooled. They're probably seeing a drop in sales for some or many of their products that contain HFCS because people are becoming more aware that it's not a healthy ingredient.

The truth is HFCS is a synthetic chemical made through a complex chemical process, derived from corn starch using genetically engineered enzymes and most likely genetically engineered corn.

Studies show that HFCS is related to numerous diseases. Obesity is at an all time high since it's introduction. Children are now being diagnosed with type II diabetes, previously called "adult onset diabetes."

Forget the ads you see on TV, hear on the radio or read in newspapers and magazines. They're all paid for by the food industry because they want you to buy their products. Get your nutrition information from a reliable unbiased source that does NOT receive any money from the food or drug industries.

Learn more about food additives.

Tell the FDA What You Think About Irradiating Fresh Lettuce and Spinach

The FDA has approved irradiating lettuce and spinach. There's a 30 day public comment period. Learn more, then Tell the FDA you don't want your fresh produce altered and it's nutritional value destroyed.

Get more nutrition from your food with organic.

Learn more about healthy food.

Agave Nectar - Healthy or Not?

Historically agave nectar was made from the aguamiel of the agave plant. It contains minerals and amino acids and has been used therapeutically. It is healthy as a sweetener.

However, the agave nectar on the health food store shelves today is not really agave nectar, but agave syrup. It is highly processed and many of the nutrients are removed. These sweeteners are very high in fructose. Too much fructose contributes to elevated triglycerides, which is a risk factor for heart disease.

So what sweeteners are healthy to use?

Raw honey has about half the fructose as the agave syrup and pure maple syrup has very little fructose at all. Both of these sweeteners are preferable to the highly processed agave products you find on the grocery store and health food store shelves. Another option is stevia, the Paraguayan variety rather than the Chinese.

Of course, even healthy sweeteners should be used in moderation.

Here are some recipes to treat yourself to healthy sweets.

Trans Fat News

The trans fats found in processed foods have received a lot of negative publicity lately and are being removed from many of the packaged foods on the market.

Trans fats are typically found in foods as partially hydrogenated fats and oils. Recent research has shown trans fats to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, non-agressive prostate tumors and infertility in women.

Beware of labels that say "No Trans Fats!" Read the ingredients to make sure there really are no partially hydrogenated fats or oils. Manufacturers are legally allowed to say no trans fats if there is less than .5 grams per serving.

The food industry's solution to the trans fat fiasco is to replace them with what are called interesterified fats, or fully hydrogenated fats. Not only are these fats not a solution, but they may cause your HDL cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol, to drop even more than the trans fats. In addition, they may raise blood sugar, contributing to diabetes.

Again read the label to make sure there are no hydrogenated or interesterified fats in the product.

There is one kind of trans fat that is good for you. It's the natural trans fat found in meat and butter. The natural trans fats have been found to lower your risk for diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Enjoy your butter and know that animal fats are not the bad guys they have been made out to be! The best animal fats are from organic raw milk and dairy products and organic grass fed meat.

Read more about healthy food.

Food Patterns of our Body

Watch the video.

Read more about healthy food.

The Secret Irradiation of Your Food

The FDA has just approved the secret irradiation of lettuce and spinach before it gets to your grocery store. The nutrients in irradiated food are destroyed. Eating irradiated food will cause you to be nutritionally deficient and your health will suffer greatly.

Read the article here.

Protect your health by growing your own food, buying locally grown food from farmer's markets and buy organic. Organic food cannot be irradiated according to the National Organic Standards.

If you're not buying organic, ask your grocer if they buy irradiated food. If they don't know, don't buy until they find out and make sure it's not irradiated.

Learn more about healthy eating.

Junk Food Fed to Cattle Raised for Meat

It's bad enough that factory farmed animals are kept in inhumane, congested conditions and fed grain which is not their normal diet. Now, because of the rising cost of corn, factory farms have stooped to feeding the cattle junk food. They're mixing potato chips and M&Ms in with the corn to reduce the cost of feeding these animals, making an unhealthy meat even less healthy.

Grass fed cattle eat what nature intended and give you the healthiest meat. However it will cost more BUT it is better for your health.

Watch the video here.

Learn more about healthy food here.

Omega-3's and Your Health

Omega-3's are vitally important to your health. The average American diet is low in Omega-3's and high in Omega-6's. This imbalance is a major contributing factor to many of the diseases rampant in this country today.

When you decide to add Omega-3's to your diet, it's important to eat the right kind of Omega-3's in the right balance.

The food industry has jumped onto the Omega-3 bandwagon to get their piece of the Omega-3 pie. However, there are a lot of products that have been mislabeled as to their Omega-3 content, thanks to an FDA loophole.

There's a good e-book that explains about Omega-3's in easy-to-understand language so that you can determine for yourself whether foods advertised as Omega-3 rich and heart healthy really do live up to the claims.

The Food Industry's Greed: How Misleading Labeling of Omega-3 Foods Undermines American Health with Lois Smithers gives you the facts. You won't find words in this book that say how you should eat, what to buy or how to shop. What you will read is information that will help you make the best choices possible.

Read more...

How to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthy Food

There seems to be a broad consensus that kids don't like healthy foods. If you go into a restaurant and look at the kids menu, it's usually about as far from healthy as you can get.

The truth of the matter is that kids like to eat what they're taught to eat. So when kids don't like healthy food, it's because they were given the sugary, processed and junk foods as small children and that's what they learned to like to eat.

I was appalled when my daughter was a toddler and I went to Mommy & Me gymnastics classes with her. There was a mom who gave her little girl, less than a year old, sitting in a stroller, red licorice to keep her quiet while the mom and her 3-year old son were on the gym floor.

Giving kids cookies, crackers, sugary processed cereals, candy, ice cream and other processed foods is what teaches kids to like junk foods. It's not in their genes.

Kids will like vegetables, fruit, whole and healthy foods if that's what they're given. If you give your kids only healthy foods, they may not like them all, but they'll choose their favorite foods from among the healthy foods they're given.

The best way to get kids to eat healthfully is to start when they're infants. However, you can teach older kids to learn to like healthy foods too. Here's a tool for the whole family to have fun with while you're learning to eat healthier.

A Gift for You

A new lesson will be delivered to your e-mail box every few days. Read each lesson carefully and do the assignment. You will quickly be well on your way to a healthier you!

Natural Healing Conference

Would you like to eat more healthfully, have a healthier lifestyle, and just look and feel better? Are you too tired and stressed, or just too busy to figure out how to do it?

Consider taking a healthy vacation, July 28 - August 3, 2008. The Power of Natural Healing conference is a week long event that will help get you started. Enjoy healthy food. Have some fun. Join the healthy lifestyle generation.

More info...

Food Matters

New documentary on healthy food, the importance of good nutrition and the disastrous failure of our medical/sick care system.

A must see for anyone interested in real health!

This really needs to be spread around to educate people about how they are killing themselves by their food and sick care choices. And most importantly that there is a better way. They can be healthy ... and drugs are not the answer.

Watch the trailer here:

http://www.foodmatters.tv/cmd.php?Clk=2424893

You can view the movie online or purchase the DVD. It's well worth it.

It's a similar format as The Secret; very well done.

Help Get MSG Banned!

John Erb, author of The Slow Poisoning of America has petitioned the FDA to get MSG banned. That petition is now open for public comment at

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=FDA-2007-P-0178

You can read John's petition at the above link. All his points are supported by research studies. I've posted my comments as well.

MSG is a neurotoxin. It causes obesity, diabetes, excites nerve cells to death and more. It's in almost all processed food, even organic. It's in virtually all fast food. Even if you don't eat fast food, you probably know and care about a lot of people who do.

If you buy anything in a package - box, bottle, jar or can - you're probably eating MSG without even knowing it, if you don't know all the names it hides under.

The state of health in this country is abysmal. Removing this one toxic ingredient from our food supply would be one giant step in the direction of improving the health of the people in this country.

Please share any comment you have with the FDA, and if you could, pass this on to your network, the more comments we have the better!

Thanks for helping make our food supply safer.

Warning - Hotdog, Bacon and Sausage Lovers!

Eating processed meat can increase your risk of bowel cancer.

It takes just one small sausage a day or 1.8 ounces of any processed meat, according to a new study, to increase your risk of colon cancer by 20%.

In addition to hotdogs, bacon and sausages, processed meats include ham, salami, pastrami and deli meats - turkey, chicken, ham, roast beef and bologna. Most of these meats are preserved with cancer-causing nitrites.

Although some people say that eating meat in itself increases your risk of cancer, that isn't always true. If meat is prepared properly, cooked at low temperatures in the oven, meat can be a healthy protein option.

Nourishing Traditions, one of my favorite cookbooks teaches you how to prepare traditional foods, including meats and desserts, in a healthy manner.

It is always wise to include a lot of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables in your diet, 50-75% is optimal. Start off lunch and dinner with a dinner plate full of raw salad with at least seven different raw vegetables. Dress it with extra virgin olive oil and raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice. Season it with your favorite herbs and a little good salt like Celtic Sea salt. Follow with your meat, and steamed starchy and non-starchy vegetables.

Get more healthy eating tips here...

Take advantage of the April Special for Healthy Eating: For Extremely Busy People Who Don't Have Time For It.

Soda and Your Kidneys

I have long recommended against soda because it is empty calories and has no nutritional value.

Soda sweetened with sugar has as much as 10 teaspoons of sugar in a single can. A good way to get yourself on the road to diabetes and obesity.

Diet soda, generally sweetened with aspartame or splenda is a toxic cocktail that does not help avoid the obesity issue. In fact, diet sodas seem to be associated with an increase in obesity.

Sodas with phosphoric acid have been known to pull calcium out of the bones, thereby starting you on the road to osteoporosis. Every time I see a child with a broken bone, I wonder how much soda that child drinks and also how healthy their diet is. Osteoporosis has been known to start in childhood.

Now studies seem to be showing that sodas containing phosphoric acid increase the risk of kidney damage, including kidney stones and kidney failure.

Whether soda contains phosphoric acid or not, soda is not a healthy beverage.

For help in finding healthy drinks and foods, visit Healthy Eating Advisor or get a copy of Healthy Eating: For Extremely Busy People...

Grilled Chicken - Heart Healthy or Cancer Causing?

Grilled chicken has typically been promoted as a heart-healthy choice.

However, recently The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine hired an independent laboratory to test grilled chicken from these California restaurants: Outback Steakhouse, TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Chili's, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's and Burger King.

Heterocyclic amines, a group of compounds known to cause cancer, were found in the chicken from every one of these restaurants.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has filed suit against these restaurants for serving food containing cancer-causing chemicals without warning the consumer.

The grilling process causes the formation of heterocyclic amines. So, grilled meats are NOT a healthy choice. When eaten regularly, they increase your risk of cancer.

In addition, most grilled chicken, as well as other meats, has been marinated in sauces that contains MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin and it excites your brain cells to death.

Recently, when I was developing the course, Healthy Eating in a Fast Food World, I intended to search out healthy fast food choices since fast food restaurants are so popular. What I found instead is that most of the food, not only in fast food restaurants, but in restaurants in general, contains MSG, along with a wide variety of harmful food additives. MSG is found in food in restaurants that claim No MSG as well, because MSG goes by a large variety of names. And while the restaurant may not add the ingredient MSG, they may use other ingredients that are hidden sources of MSG, like hydrolyzed protein, yeast extract, autolyzed yeast, gelatin, flavorings and seasonings to name a few. They may not even know that these ingredients they are adding are hidden sources of MSG.

So, how do you cook your chicken so that it is healthy? Here are a couple recommendations:

1. Put it in a skillet with a little bit of water - so it's cooking in the water and not frying - and cook till tender. Season it with your favorite herbs and a little bit of good salt, like Celtic salt. You can also add some onions, peppers and other vegetables to the skillet while you're cooking your chicken.

2. Bake it in the oven in a covered casserole dish at 350 degrees F. Bake it by itself or add vegetables of your choice. Put it on a rack so that it doesn't cook in its grease. Always cook meats at temperatures below 400 degress F; 350 degrees is preferred.

Click here for more information on healthy eating. Get the low down on additives in your food here.