There are multiple reasons you should not start smoking, or you should quit. Despite decades of warnings by the U.S. Surgeon General, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to call tobacco the “single largest preventable cause of cancer and disease in the United States.”¹

Today, cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 people every year and nearly 41,000 from exposure to secondhand smoke.² There are short-term and long-term side effects. Smoking stains your teeth, changes your physical appearance and increases your risk of gum disease and tooth loss.

After years of smoking, you’ll experience irreversible health damage to your heart, brain, respiratory system and reproductive health. The good news is when you stop smoking the beneficial changes begin in the first 24 hours and continue to mount over the coming days, weeks and years as your body clears out the damage done by nicotine and hundreds of other chemicals.³

Smoking also severely impacts the environment. While you might have thought cigarettes were completely biodegradable, it turns out the filters are made of plastic — not paper or biodegradable fibers — that can take up to 10 years to decompose.⁴

Marketing Tool Greatest Contributor to Plastic Pollution

In the 1950s, fears of lung cancer emerged. At this point cigarette companies initiated a shift in design from unfiltered to filtered cigarettes in an effort to allay fears of consumers.⁵ Tobacco smoke from cigarettes contain nearly 250 harmful chemicals, including heavy metals, arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde and polonium-210, a radioactive chemical element.⁶

Cigarette filters were reportedly engineered to reduce lung cancer by blocking toxic exposure. However, this created a problem for cigarette companies as the filter also reduced the smoker’s level of satisfaction with the cigarette.

In response, the companies redesigned the filters so they were not as effective, essentially creating a marketing tool in an attempt to assure smokers of the health benefits associated with filters, while still giving the smoker the nicotine hit. These claims were called fraudulent by the World Health Organization (WHO).⁷

While filters do block some toxins, they also make smoking smoother, encouraging smokers to puff more frequently and smoke more cigarettes. The tobacco industry recruited smokers under the guise that filtered cigarettes would protect their health.

However, when scientists analyzed the number of lung cancers based on the year of birth, they found the most common type of lung cancer in the 1960s and 1970s was squamous cell carcinoma, accounting for two-thirds of the cases. Today, with an increasing number smoking filtered cigarettes, the rate of adenocarcinoma is increasing.⁸ 

Dr. David Wilson, pulmonologist at the University of Pittsburgh, comments the survival rates of the two types are nearly the same, demonstrating there is no persuasive evidence filters “have a beneficial impact on overall lung cancer survival.”⁹ However, while the filters don’t improve a smoker’s health, they do have a significant negative impact on the environment.

European Union Cracks Down on Plastics and Cigarette Butts

Although plastic straws and bags receive widespread attention, an even larger problem are the plastic filters on cigarette butts. Today, they rank as the most littered item in the world. Nearly 6 trillion cigarettes are manufactured each year and over 90 percent of them contain plastic filters.¹⁰

Some cities have levied fees on cigarette packets to fund street cleaning, and others have levied fees against those who litter. Although some experts advocate for the development and implementation of biodegradable filters, others believe these also contain toxins that take a long time to degrade, and biodegradable cigarettes may increase littering as smokers feel “permitted” to drop them into the environment.

In late 2018, the European Parliament¹¹ proposed widespread reduction in plastic use, including reducing plastic in tobacco products by 50 percent by 2025, bumping this to 80 percent by 2030. These targets were later rejected in lieu of tobacco companies being made responsible for funding campaigns to raise awareness about the problem of cigarette butt litter.

More recently, the European Chemical Agency¹² proposed phasing out over 39,000 tons of plastics per year intentionally added into the environment, beginning in 2020. These include microplastic fibers and fragments in cigarette filters, cosmetics, detergents and coatings.¹³

This draft targets microplastics not considered necessary, but have been added for convenience or profit. Although the U.K. imposed a limited ban on plastic microbeads, the measure by the European Union is more comprehensive.

A scientific committee will review the proposal for slightly over a year before sending their opinion to the European Commission. At that time, the Commission will have three months to prepare legislation and it could take up to eight months after this before the use restrictions would come into force.¹⁴

WHO Calls Cigarette Butts the Most Acceptable Form of Littering

The Truth Initiative¹⁵ believes visible cigarette litter is so commonplace, even in areas where smoking rates have gone down, in part because they take so many years to decompose. Even under the most optimal conditions, it takes at least nine months for a cigarette butt to decompose and in many cases it takes years.

Unfortunately, littering is also one of the most common ways smokers dispose of their butts. Some communities have attempted to curb cigarette litter with disposable receptacles and smoke-free policies. But, littering is so common nearly 75 percent of smokers report doing it and studies estimate as much as 65 percent of all cigarette butts are littered.¹⁶

According to the WHO,¹⁷ tossing a cigarette butt out your car window or on the ground is one of the most acceptable forms of littering. Many are stubbed out on the pavement or dropped into gutters where they’re carried through storm drains to rivers, streams and oceans.

Decreasing smoking rates may contribute to a lack of public awareness, especially in geographical areas more prone to experiencing a reduction in smoking rates. Santa Cruz County Tobacco Education Coalition Cochair, Rachel Kippen, comments:¹⁸

“Most of us have used a plastic bag or plastic straw, so we feel a sense of responsibility for how those products are revised, reused or recycled to be more environmentally friendly. However, most of us don’t smoke. In fact, less than 12 percent of California residents smoke. That leaves 88 percent wondering how to make a difference.”

According to Ocean Conservancy, the results of the 2017 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) reports for the first time, in more than 30 years of the ICC, the top 10 items collected around the world were made of plastic.¹⁹

More than 780,000 volunteers in more than 100 countries collected 20.5 million pounds of trash. Cigarette butts topped a list that also included food wrappers, plastic beverage bottles, bottle caps and plastic grocery bags.

Plastics Damaging and Killing Aquatic Life

In a recent study published in the BMJ,²⁰ scientists evaluated the effect cigarette butts are having on aquatic life. They placed fish in water where cigarette butts had been soaked and then removed. After four days, half the fish had died, demonstrating deadly toxins from the butts seep into the environment.²¹

Small pieces of plastic found in fibers or fragments and microbeads are also making their way into wild-caught and farmed fish alike. Fish appear to be confused by small plastic debris in the ocean and seek it out for food. In one study, scientists found behavioral evidence marine organisms are attracted to the chemical signature in plastic debris.²²

Fish that feed by filtering sea water for plankton are ingesting large amounts of plastic, blocking their ability to absorb nutrients and having toxic side effects.²³ By examining the bodies of beached whales, scientists have found large pieces of plastic, but the effects of microplastics, though less obvious, may be just as harmful.

According to the United Nations, at least 800 species around the world are affected by marine debris, 80 percent of which is plastic. Not all damage is done from ingestion as sea creatures can also become entangled in plastic debris, causing suffocation, starvation and drowning. A recent study found sea turtles ingesting just 14 pieces of plastic have an increased risk of death.²⁴

Fish in the Pacific Northwest eat up to 24,000 tons of plastic each year, causing intestinal injury and death. The plastic also bioaccumulates up the food chain, often landing on your food plate. In a recent study²⁵ of California fish markets, researchers found 25 percent of fish had plastic microfibers in their gut.

Microplastics Found in Tap Water, Bottled Water and Food Sources

Research commissioned by media outlet Orb revealed alarming data about plastic pollution in tap water, with 83 percent of samples tested worldwide coming back as contaminated. In the U.S., 94 percent of tap water samples were found to contain plastic — the most out of all the locations tested.²⁶

For example, 16 fibers in tap water taken at the visitor’s center in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., along with fibers in samples taken from Trump Tower in New York, were part of the findings. Plastic fibers were also found in water taken from Indonesia, India, Ecuador, Uganda, England and Lebanon.

Orb noted six primary sources of “invisible plastics,”²⁷ one of which is synthetic microfibers from clothing, up to 1 million tons of which are released during washing each year. It’s unknown what the environmental effects of microfiber pollution may be, but their irregular shape may make them harder for marine life to excrete than other microplastics such as microbeads.

Researchers at the State University of New York also tested 259 bottles of 11 popular bottled water brands for the presence of microscopic plastic.²⁸ Brands included Aquafina, Nestle Pure Life, Evian, Dasani and San Pelligerino. On average, the bottled water tested contained 325 pieces of microplastic per liter; just over 10 of those pieces were at least 100 microns in size, the rest were smaller.

Much of the research on microplastic pollution focuses on marine environments, but the toxins are also likely accumulating on land. According to research published in Science of the Total Environment,²⁹ “Annual plastic release to land is estimated at four to 23 times that released to oceans.”

The use of sewage sludge, or biosolids, as fertilizer may be particularly problematic, as it is basically made up of whatever’s left over after sewage is treated and processed.

Become Part of the Solution Instead of Part of the Problem

On a global scale, a variety of efforts are underway to curb plastic waste and pollution. From turning plastic waste into liquid fuel to creating synthetic fibers that don’t shed, enterprising entrepreneurs are seeking ways to keep plastics out of the environment. Some manufacturers are also looking to create easily recycled packaging materials.³⁰

You can take a stand on an individual level, making a conscious choice to use less plastic and stop littering. To become part of the solution instead of part of the problem, consider taking the following steps:³¹

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Ground beef is one food that you’ll want to make sure you have on hand. Always opt for grass-fed organic beef to insure the best quality. This means they won’t have been pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, and will have been fed grass instead of corn. Grass is the natural feed for cattle, so it only makes sense that that’s what we should be feeding them. As long as you have ground beef handy you’re halfway there to being ready to take on any of these recipes.

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Easy Paleo Ground Beef Meal Ideas

Paleo Sloppy Joes in a Sweet Potato (sweet potatoes + homemade sloppy joe mix)

One Sheet Paleo Meatballs with Roasted Tomatoes (low carb, sheet pan meal)

Easy Homemade Paleo Ground Beef Enchiladas (family favorite)

Mexican Meatball Soup (this soup is the best!)

Easy and Budget Friendly Eggplant Beef Casserole (241 calories/serving)

Spicy Beef Tortilla Soup with Avocado (soul-satisfying and spicy)

Deconstructed Beef Paleo Burritos (makes a good hearty breakfast)

Teriyaki Meatballs with Roasted Japanese Vegetables (with homemade teriyaki sauce)

Low Carb Mini Beef Paleo Pizzas (2.6 carbs/serving)

The Best Paleo Bolognese Pizza (made with a cauliflower crust)

Ground Beef Zucchini Sweet Potato Skillet (Primavera Kitchen)

Paleo Korean Beef Bowl (Real Simple Good)

Roasted Carrot Hash with Ground Beef and Bacon (Paleo Running Momma)

Crockpot Paleo Hamburger Soup Recipe (Food Faith Fitness)

Weeknight Paleo Ground Beef Stroganoff (Hot Pan Kitchen)

30-Minute Vegetable and Ground Beef Skillet (The Roasted Root)

Zucchini and Broccoli Ground Beef Stir Fry (Paleo Bee)

Citrus Ground Beef Stir Fry (The Castaway Kitchen)

Grain-Free Thai Beef Bowls (Tasty Yummies)

Paleo Ground Beef Korma (Foraged Dish)

Paleo Taco Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing
Rebecca has cooked up a wonderful taco salad for us, and has created a creamy avocado dressing to go over the entire thing. It uses plenty of ground beef, and has distinct flavors you find in Mexican cooking like black olives, chili powder, and paprika. The avocado dressing will give you the health benefits of avocado, including healthy fat and potassium, while giving it the creaminess so you don’t have to use any dairy. This can make a great lunch or dinner on the Paleo diet, and the recipe shown makes two servings so it’s good for a couple.

Salisbury Steak
Bite into this juicy Salisbury Steak recipe and you’ll love being on the Paleo diet. It’s made with plenty of ground beef, and almond flour is used instead of general purpose flour that you’ll find in the traditional recipes. The result is a moist and juicy steak that’s smothered in a creamy sauce. Use coconut milk instead of whipping cream, don’t worry they say it’s OK in the recipe, and you’ll be getting a dairy free Salisbury Steak that can roll with the best of them. Even though it’s served with some mushrooms you’ll want to eat a full portion of vegetables along with your steak.

Paleo Cajun Burgers with Caramelized Onions
These burgers are served with caramelized onions on top, and no bun so you don’t have to worry about any grain issues. She leads you to her recipe for making a Cajun seasoning mix from scratch, and we recommend making a big batch of it so you can use it for other times when you need to add a little Cajun spice to a meat. She has this resting on a bed of creamed spinach, and you’ll want to serve it with a vegetable no matter which way you go. We might recommend putting it on a bed of baby spinach for a simple way to serve it up.

Stuffed Acorn Squash
Put your acorn squash to good use with this beef-stuffed recipe. By following their directions you’ll end up with a squash that is fully cooked and has an awesome texture, while still being firm enough to hold together all of the ground beef inside. The nice part about this recipe is that it fulfills both your meat and vegetable requirement for a balanced Paleo meal, so you don’t have to cook any supplemental dishes with it. Many onlookers think Paleo is just a meat diet, but that’s far from the truth since vegetables play such a big role in it.

Thai Beef with Basil
Get a taste of Thailand with this amazing Thai beef and basil recipe. It’s using grass-fed ground beef, carrots, lime juice, chiles, and garlic to bring you a nice assortment of flavors all in one bowl. You may have noticed that it’s served over a bed of rice, but this is actually cauliflower rice, keeping it within the realm of a Paleo meal. When you use cauliflower rice you are getting your vegetables along with your meat so it’s a more balanced meal and will keep you satisfied longer.

Finger Lickin’ Chipotle Meatballs
These meatballs have been dubbed finger lickin’, and for good reason, they have chipotle flavoring, and lots of it. There are plenty of ingredients just to make the meatballs, and plenty more to make the sauce that they go in. It’s fine because even though there are a lot of ingredients they’re all Paleo friendly so you can eat this without worrying that you’re doing anything wrong. The beauty is that it’s 20 minutes to prepare this and another 20 minutes to let it cook, so it’s a relatively quick meal you can make any day of the week.

Habanero Chili
This is the chili for those that like to live life on the hot side. They have added up to two habanero peppers to it, which will provide all of the heat needed. There is also plenty of ground beef, so you won’t be short on meaty yumminess. There’s onion, carrots, and celery so you’re pretty much covered as far as your vegetables go. They’ve even put bacon in this to give it a savory flavor. If you don’t like things really hot, just go with one habanero and add more the next time you make it if you didn’t think it was hot enough.

Pizza Pie Casserole
Nothing goes over better than this pizza pie casserole for a family that is begrudgingly going along with your Paleo plan. It’s made in layers and one of those layers is ground beef. The top of the casserole gets cheese if you want, but it’s optional so Paleo purists can make this dairy free by just opting out of the cheese. It will still taste really good, and taste like a pizza. There’s a veggie crust and plenty of pepperoni so you don’t have to worry if you’ll be getting that classic pizza taste, or if you’ll be missing out on your veggie serving.

Shepherd’s Pie
Traditional shepherd’s pie is off limits for Paleo followers because it uses white potatoes as the base, and those aren’t allowed on Paleo. To get around it they are using sweet potatoes, which has a similar consistency, but of course adds a different flavor to the dish. So while it might not taste exactly like the real thing, it also won’t do your body in harm by eating it. These are the types of trade offs you’ll need to make while on Paleo, and most people feel like it’s worth it because of the way their body responds.

Thai Meatball Curry
Most Thai curries will be in the form of a bowl of soup with a mixture of meats and vegetables swimming in a spicy and creamy broth. This Thai curry variation uses meatballs and a serving of sauce to do the trick. They have the recipe broken down into two lists of ingredients. One list is for the meatballs, and the other is for the curry. You then combine the two and delight in some delicious meatballs from ground beef, and an awesome curry that combines well with the meat. Serve this with a veggie and you’re all set.

Turkish Stuffed Eggplant
These stuffed eggplants are the way to go if you want to have a meal that you don’t have to serve a side with. They’re totally fit for a meal all by themselves, as you’ll be getting plenty of vegetables and a good portion of meat with each serving. We’re not quite sure what makes this dish Turkish, as there’s only a bit of salt and pepper and parsley used for flavoring, so maybe it’s dish that is often served in Turkey. Whatever the case, Paleo is great because you can borrow from all types of cuisine, as long as it keeps you in line.

Beef Jerky
Did you ever think you’d be able to make beef jerky with ground beef? It’s possible, as long as you follow the steps in this recipe. They’re using coconut aminos, which is a bit like soy sauce but is wheat free, so you’ll find it used a lot in recipes that would normally call for soy sauce. You set your oven at its lowest setting to dry out the beef and make it into jerky you can have on the go, or any time you need a snack and want to stay on the Paleo side of things. Conventional beef jerky is not Paleo thanks to all of the things they add to it during the process.

Indian Ground Beef Coconut Curry
With so many versions of curry across the globe, it’s always good to hop around and try different ones to see which you like best. Most people are torn between Indian style and Thai style, and this Indian coconut curry is something you just have to sample. It’s made with ground beef, and some select spices that give it a classic taste while keeping it within the Paleo realm of ingredients. They have the potato listed as optional, and that’s a good thing because you’ll want to leave it out to keep it purely Paleo.

Pumpkin Sliders with Honey Drizzle
A slider is another name for a mini sized burger that just plain looks cute on your plate. These pumpkin sliders are basically burgers that have pumpkin incorporated right into them, and come in smaller sizes. They’ve concocted a nice honey drizzle for the top which is just honey that you pour on top. Instead of a bun they serve this up on a slice of raw tomato. That works to get the wheat out of it and also add some more nutrition to the entire meal. You may need more than one of these to feel full if it’s a meal, and they also make great appetizers.

Paleo Italian Meatball Hoagies
These probably won’t look like any hoagies you’ve ever eaten before, but they’re totally meant to grab the taste of a hoagie, but put it in a form that is Paleo approved. You’ll notice there isn’t a big hunk of white bread that a hoagie is known for, and instead this is served on buns made from zucchini. The recipe for the meatballs is provided, so you’ll be able to cook these up properly without worrying if you are cheating on your diet. Nothing is worse than doing really well all week on a diet plan and then cheating and eating a meal you know you’re not supposed to have.

Meatball Sandwich with Zucchini “Bread”
This meatball sandwich uses i zucchinas the bread, so you don’t have to worry about wheat and grain issues and can just focus on how good the meatballs taste. There’s even a coconut sauce that is on this to make it taste even better, and Jodi has done a good job of making sure that all of the ingredients are Paleo friendly. It’s good to have a backup sandwich recipe like this one in case you ever crave a sandwich which will likely happen at some point if you used to eat them a lot before going Paleo.

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According to the latest statistics¹ by the American Heart Association (AHA), nearly half (48 percent) of all American adults have some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD) — a classification that includes high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke — and deaths from CVD are again on the rise, after decades of being on the decline.

In 2016, there were 840,678 recorded deaths from CVD in the U.S., up from 836,546 the year before. The rise in prevalence of CVD, however, is primarily driven by updated blood pressure guidelines, which as of 2017 identify a blood pressure over 130/80 mm Hg as hypertensive, whereas before the cutoff was 140/90 mm Hg.

According to the AHA, about 80 percent of CVD cases could be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which includes lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol, controlling Type 2 diabetes, avoiding smoking, exercising and maintaining a healthy weight.

To this, the AHA has now also added the recommendation to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night. Blood pressure remains a primary focus, however. Volunteer president of the AHA said in a press release:²

“As one of the most common and dangerous risk factors for heart disease and stroke, this overwhelming presence of high blood pressure can’t be dismissed from the equation in our fight against cardiovascular disease.

Research has shown that eliminating high blood pressure could have a larger impact on CVD deaths than the elimination of all other risk factors among women and all except smoking among men.”

Cholesterol Is Not a Culprit in CVD

While I agree with four of the AHA’s suggestions, high cholesterol has been repeatedly found to not be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and higher cholesterol may actually be healthier than lower levels. Three to some degree interrelated factors that have a far greater influence on your cardiovascular health are:

• High iron³
• Insulin resistance
• Chronic inflammation

Elevated iron levels will significantly contribute to inflammation, but even if your iron is normal, chronic inflammation can be caused by a wide range of factors, starting with your diet. Your diet is also the key factor at play when it comes to your insulin level, and can worsen the effects of iron overload.

High Iron Significantly Raises Your Risk of CVD

Most people, including doctors, fail to recognize that excess iron causes significant biological harm. When iron reacts with hydrogen peroxide, which is produced as a normal part of energy production in your mitochondria, hydroxyl free radicals are formed. These are among the most damaging free radicals known, causing severe mitochondrial dysfunction, which in turn is at the heart of most chronic degenerative diseases.

Importantly, elevated ferritin has been linked to dysfunctional glucose metabolism,⁴ raising the risk of diabetes fivefold in men and fourfold in women, a magnitude of correlation similar to that of obesity.⁵ High ferritin also doubles your risk of metabolic syndrome,⁶ a condition associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

If you eat excessive processed foods and net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) the situation is further exacerbated, as burning carbs as your primary fuel can add another 30 to 40 percent more reactive oxygen species on top of the hydroxyl free radicals generated by the presence of high iron.

A meta-analysis⁷ published in 2013 found that 27 of 55 published studies demonstrated a positive relationship between iron and CVD, with higher iron levels being linked to higher risk of disease. Twenty of the studies found no significant relationship, and only eight reported a negative relationship, with higher iron levels being associated with lower risk of disease.

For example, a Scandinavian study found elevated ferritin levels raised men’s risk of heart attack two- to threefold. In another, people with high ferritin were five times more likely to suffer a heart attack than those with normal levels.

A third found elevated ferritin doubled the risk of heart attack. Importantly, in this study they found that each 1 percent increase in ferritin raised the risk of heart attack by 4 percent, and the only risk factor that weighed heavier than ferritin was smoking.

Canadian scientists have also evaluated the link between serum iron (opposed to serum ferritin) to heart attack risk, as ferritin is not a perfect marker for iron status. They too found that higher iron raised the risk of heart attack in men twofold, and fivefold in women.

Two Tests That Reveal More About Your CVD Risk Than Cholesterol

Rather than focusing on cholesterol, two tests that are far more important for assessing your CVD risk are the serum ferritin and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) tests. The GGT test can be used as a screening marker for excess free iron and is a great indicator of your sudden cardiac death risk. The recommended, ideal levels, of ferritin and GGT are as follows:

Ferritin and GGT are interactive, and low GGT tends to be protective against higher ferritin. So, if your GGT is low, you’re largely protected even if your ferritin is a bit higher than ideal. Still, it would still be wise to take steps to lower your ferritin to a more ideal level. On the other hand, even if your ferritin is low, having elevated GGT levels is cause for concern and needs to be addressed.

Other tests that can help you evaluate your CVD risk include an NMR LipoProfile, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, fasting insulin, fasting blood sugar, your HDL/cholesterol ratio and triglyceride/HDL ratio. For more information about these tests, “Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease.”

How to Lower Your Iron and GGT

If your iron level is too high, the easiest way to lower it is to donate blood two or three times a year. If you have severe overload you may need to do more regular phlebotomies. Regular sauna use, which is an effective form of detoxification, is also helpful, as is avoiding red meat.

To lower your GGT, you’ll need to implement strategies that boost glutathione, as GGT is inversely related to glutathione. As your GGT level rises, your glutathione goes down. The amino acid cysteine, found in whey protein, poultry and eggs, plays an important role in your body’s production of glutathione. Red meat, which does not contain cysteine, will tend to raise GGT, as will alcohol, so both should be avoided.¹⁰

Research also suggests eating at least 10 servings of fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C, fiber, beta-carotene, anthocyanins and folate per week can help reduce GGT.¹¹

General detoxification is another important component if your GGT is high, as your liver’s job is to remove toxins from your body. The fact that your GGT is elevated means your liver is under stress. For additional tips on how to lower chronic inflammation, see “Cholesterol Isn’t the Problem in Heart Disease; Inflammation Is.”

The Role Insulin Plays in Heart Disease

According to Dr. Thomas Dayspring, a lipidologist (expert on cholesterol), most heart attacks are due to insulin resistance. In the video above, biochemical engineer Ivor Cummins explains the role insulin resistance plays in heart disease, and why cholesterol is not the problem.¹²

In simple layman’s terms Cummins demonstrates the connection between the metabolic functionality of adipose fat — which actually acts as a signaling organ — and insulin sensitivity, and how and why:

• A metabolically healthy normal weight (MHNW) person who has good insulin sensitivity has a low risk level for cardiovascular disease (CVD)
• A metabolically obese yet normal weight (MONW) individual who is insulin resistant has a high risk
• A metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) individual who is insulin resistant also has a high risk
• But a metabolically healthy obese (MHO) individual who has good insulin sensitivity is at low risk for CVD

In other words, there’s healthy body fat and unhealthy body fat, or put another way, fat that protects your health and fat that promotes disease. The key difference is the presence or absence of insulin sensitivity. The higher your insulin resistance, the worse markers such as fasting insulin, triglyceride-HDL ratio and HbA1c will be, suggesting you’re at increased risk for diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

Recent research has shown that two specific metrics — circulating adiponectin and macrophages — can with near 100 percent accuracy predict your obese phenotype, meaning whether you’re obese insulin sensitive or obese insulin resistant. But what makes one person insulin sensitive and another insulin resistant? This is where your diet comes into play.

More often than not, excessive amounts of glucose from net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber) are what set the disease process into motion by causing your insulin level to spike. When repeated over time, your adipose fat tissue begins to lose its systemic signaling capabilities, precipitating insulin resistance.

Eventually, the high sugar load will cause your pancreas to diminish its production of insulin, and the hyperinsulinemia that prevented lipolysis of triglycerides in your fat cells will cease. Subsequently, your liver will begin to output glucose even when you’re not eating, and this is when your blood glucose finally begins to skyrocket.

Prior to this, the elevated insulin actually kept the blood glucose in check. But as insulin production drops, there’s nothing to prevent the blood glucose from rising anymore.

Eighty Percent of Americans Are Insulin Resistant to Some Degree

The late Dr. Joseph Kraft, former chairman of the department of clinical pathology and nuclear medicine at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chicago, wrote the book “Diabetes Epidemic and You: Should Everyone Be Tested?” In it, he presents data that suggests 80 percent of Americans are in fact insulin resistant, or have “diabetes in situ.”

Based on data from 14,000 patients,¹³ Kraft developed a powerful predictive test for diabetes.¹⁴ He would have the patient drink 75 grams of glucose, and then measure their insulin response over time, at half-hour intervals for up to five hours.

He noticed five distinctive patterns suggesting that a vast majority of people were already diabetic, even though their fasting glucose was normal. Only 20 percent of patients had healthy post-prandial insulin sensitivity and low diabetes risk. According to Kraft, “Those with cardiovascular disease not identified with diabetes … are simply undiagnosed.”

One of the take-home messages here is that insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (a condition marked by excess insulin in your blood relative to your level of glucose) are two sides of the same coin, as they drive and promote each other. In other words, if you have hyperinsulinemia, you are essentially insulin resistant and on your way toward developing Type 2 diabetes.

In summary, both insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia promote fatty liver and high blood glucose, and both of those in turn promote atherosclerosis. High blood pressure is another side effect of insulin resistance that drives atherosclerosis by placing stress on your arteries. As noted by Cummins, most idiopathic hypertension (high blood pressure with no known cause) is now thought to be caused by hyperinsulinemia.

Hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance promotes inflammation, causing your visceral fat to release inflammatory cytokines and systemic signaling molecules. Over time, your visceral fat becomes increasingly resistant as well, causing the systemic signaling to falter. Taken as a whole, this cascade of events drives atherogenic dyslipidemia, characterized by the now familiar culprits: high LDL cholesterol, oxidized LDL and triglycerides, and low HDL.

According to Cummins, while high LDL is a very erratic marker for heart disease risk, an elevated LDL “particle count” is actually a very good marker for insulin resistance. Thus, the LDL metrics should be more thought of as indicative of inflammatory issues, and not as the LDL itself being the problem. In their entirety, all of these factors are what flag the development of heart disease.

Three Underlying Causes of Heart Attacks

High cholesterol and blocked arteries are also the conventional explanation for why heart attacks occur.

Alas, there’s plenty of evidence refuting these notions. In his 2004 book, “The Etiopathogenesis of Coronary Heart Disease,”¹⁵ the late Dr. Giorgio Baroldi wrote that the largest study done on heart attack incidence revealed only 41 percent of people who have a heart attack actually have a blocked artery and, of those, 50 percent of the blockages occur after the heart attack, not prior to it.

This means at least 80 percent of heart attacks are not associated with blocked arteries at all. According to Dr. Thomas Cowan, a practicing physician, founding board member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of “Human Heart, Cosmic Heart,” three of the core, underlying issues that cause heart attacks are:

Statins Do More Harm Than Good for Your Heart

Unfortunately, we’re wasting tens of billions of dollars on ineffective treatments and surgical procedures for heart disease in the U.S. Among them are statin drugs to lower cholesterol.

While these drugs may decrease the frequency of mild heart attacks, they will not necessarily lower your risk of heart disease or death from a major heart attack because of the damage they cause to your muscles, including your heart muscle.

Importantly, statins deplete your body of CoQ10, vitamin K2, dolichol and selenium, thereby threatening your heart and overall health even further. Statins’ ability to lower the risk of minor heart attacks may actually be related to their ability to lower C-reactive protein, far more so than the lowering of cholesterol.

However, according to Dr. Duane Graveline, who himself was a victim of statin side effects and ultimately died from complications related to statin use, you only need one-tenth of the dosage, say 2 milligrams (mg) rather than 20 mg to get this anti-inflammatory benefit, and there are far safer and more effective ways to lower inflammation than taking a statin, even at a low dosage.

Statistics Reveal Stents Are Poor Solutions for CVD

Stents, a commonly performed surgical procedure used to remediate damage from coronary artery disease, are another often ill-advised “remedy” for heart disease. Three studies^18,19,20 published in 2017 and 2018 reveal just how ineffective this procedure is. There are a number of parameters that are crucial for evaluating the efficacy of a treatment for heart disease, including:

• Mortality — Will the patient actually live longer as a result of that intervention?
• The risk of heart attack as a result of the intervention
• Alleviation of angina (chest pain)

Earlier research had already dismissed the use of percutaneous interventions (PCI) for most of these parameters, showing the use of stents had no impact on long-term rates of death, nonfatal myocardial infarctions (MI) or hospitalization rates for acute coronary syndrome.

The sole indication left for the use of stents was angina, as some of the findings showed it helped reduce prevalence of chest pain. Alas, these studies show even this parameter is unaffected by stent placement.

In one of these studies,²¹ 200 participants with severe single vessel blockage were selected. During the initial six weeks, all patients underwent an exercise test followed by intensive medical treatment, after which they were randomly assigned to two groups.

The first underwent a PCI during which coronary angioplasty was performed and a stent was placed. The second group also underwent a PCI procedure with an angiogram but without a balloon angioplasty or stent placement. At the conclusion of the six weeks, patients again underwent an exercise test and were questioned about their symptoms.

Lo and behold, there was no difference in chest pain (angina) between the treatment group and the sham group. Both groups experienced nearly identical improvements in exercise tolerance and no difference in reported improvements of their symptoms.

How to Protect Yourself Against CVD

In summary, to protect yourself against CVD, you’ll want to implement strategies that:

1. Lower your insulin resistance and restore your insulin sensitivity
2. Increase your parasympathetic tone and deactivate your sympathetic nervous system
3. Improve microcirculation to your heart
4. Improve your mitochondrial function

Here are a number of suggestions that can help you accomplish these things:

Some of these strategies are also part of Dr. Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease — a lifestyle-based program that can be boiled down to “Eat well, move more, stress less and love more.” This highly effective program is approved for reimbursement under Medicare’s intensive cardiac rehabilitation program and many insurance companies.

Ornish details the program in his book, “Undo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases.” If you would like further guidance, you can find a listing of all the sites that have been trained and certified to teach the program on Ornish.com, along with support groups you can attend free of charge. At present, there are facilities offering the program in 18 states.

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The latest debacle to hit the U.S. poultry industry is rubbery chicken nuggets — in this case due to actual bits of rubber that were found in the food. The discovery came after some unlucky consumers discovered the rubber in their nuggets and contacted the company, Tyson Foods, one of the largest meat producers in the U.S.

More than 36,000 pounds of the nuggets, in more than 7,200 bags, have since been recalled, and if you happen to have any in your freezer, it’s specifically Tyson white meat panko chicken nuggets sold at club stores in 5-pound plastic packages, with a “best if used by” date of November 26, 2019.

The rubber is believed to have come from a seal on a piece of equipment, which was pinched during processing and ended up in the nugget “blend.”¹ According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the recall is due to contamination with “extraneous materials,” and although no adverse reactions have been reported, you should not consume them.²

“FSIS is concerned that some product may be frozen and in consumers’ freezers,” the agency said in a news release. “These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”³

In an unappetizing coincidence, Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation recalled more than 58,000 pounds of breaded popcorn chicken products because of reports that they, too, may contain rubber bits. The products were shipped to Publix Super Markets in Florida to be used in the deli department.

The problem was discovered again by a consumer, who warned Publix employees about white rubber in the chicken.⁴ Rubber bits lurking in your nuggets is, unfortunately, only one of many reasons to be wary of consuming industrial chicken — and these represent only two in a slate of recent recalls.

Perdue Recalls Nuggets Contaminated With Wood, Undeclared Allergens

Perdue, another U.S. poultry giant, also recently recalled more than 68,000 pounds of chicken nuggets due to contamination with extraneous materials, in this case wood. The nuggets, Perdue SimplySmart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets, Gluten Free, have a best by date of October 25, 2019, and were sold in 22-ounce plastic bag packages in retail locations across the U.S.

“The problem was discovered when the firm received three consumer complaints that wood was found in the product. A complaint was also reported to FSIS’ consumer complaint monitoring system,” FSIS reported.⁵ It’s unknown how the wood ended up in the nuggets. In a separate incident, Perdue also recalled another 16,000-plus pounds of “fun shapes” chicken nuggets because they contain an undeclared milk allergen.

“These items were produced with the wrong back panel label and have an incorrect ingredient statement that did not have the milk allergen declared on the package,” Perdue stated.⁶ It’s not an unheard of mistake in the industry. In fact, Taylor Farms also recalled chicken products (about 2,100 pounds’ worth) in February 2019 due to misbranding and undeclared allergens.

The Taylor Farms chicken products were incorrectly labeled as “Chili Relleno” and contain wheat, an allergen not declared on the label.⁷ FSIS, in announcing the recall, attempted to restore the public’s faith in their services, stating, “FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify that recalling firms are notifying their customers of the recall and that actions are being taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers.”⁸

As for ensuring contaminated meat products aren’t put on the market in the first place, however, FSIS, which is charged with overseeing the safety of the nation’s meat production, may be missing the mark.

FSIS Uses Questionably High Drug Residue Cutoff Levels

FSIS uses cutoff levels for drug residues in meat that are higher than those recommended by Consumer Reports, other scientists and other government agencies. Known formally as the minimum level of applicability (MLA), FSIS set higher cutoff limits partly in response to updated testing equipment that is able to detect lower amounts of potentially dangerous substances.

Consumer Reports quoted Robert Poppenga, Ph.D., a professor of veterinary toxicology at the California Animal Health & Food Safety Lab at the University of California, Davis, who has worked with the FSIS:⁹

“Analytical equipment has gotten so sensitive that it’s possible to detect things that you wouldn’t have 20 years ago … [the MLA gives] authorities some flexibility, and if they do find something at a very, very low level, they don’t necessarily have to take regulatory action.”

The high safety thresholds set by FSIS are inconsistent even with those set by other U.S. government agencies. For instance, the FSIS regulatory cutoff for chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, in meat is 3 parts per billion (ppb), but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has blocked imports of shrimp that contained the drug at levels of 0.3 ppb.¹⁰

Another drug, the anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone, has safety cutoffs ranging from 1 to 11 ppb in Europe, in contrast to the FSIS’ much more generous limit of 50 ppb.¹¹ For reasons unknown, FSIS does not use the limit of quantitation (LOQ), which is the lowest amount of a substance that can be reliably measured. LOQ is a widely accepted scientific standard.

Why Your Chicken Dinner Could Be Making You Sick

It’s a sad state of affairs when the potential for rubber bits in a chicken product may be the least of your worries. Disease-causing salmonella is also commonly found in concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) chicken, which makes up most of what’s found in your typical grocery store.

A June 2018 FSIS report found that the extent of salmonella contamination in U.S. chicken parts is largely unknown because 35 percent of large chicken slaughter facilities in the U.S. are not meeting FSIS inspection standards.¹²

Perhaps in response, in November 2018 FSIS for the first time publically published chicken producers and their rankings on salmonella safety standards, which are updated each week as new samples are tested.

The rankings range from category 1 to 3. Category 1 describes facilities that had less than 50 percent of the maximum allowable salmonella during the testing window. Category 2 describes facilities that had more than 50 percent (but still within the maximum allowed), while category 3 is the worst — facilities that exceeded the maximum level of salmonella.¹³

If you look at the FSIS rankings,¹⁴ what you’ll notice is the frequency of category 2 and 3 on the list. A category 3 ranking isn’t grounds for immediate suspension, either. Instead, FSIS notifies facilities if they don’t meet standards and at that point decide whether further action is needed.

E. Coli in Chicken May Cause UTIs

Aside from salmonella, in a study of 2,500 chicken, pork and turkey samples purchased from large retail stores in Flagstaff, Arizona, nearly 80 percent were found to contain E. coli.¹⁵ Even more disturbing, a strain of E. coli known as E. coli ST131 showed up in both the meat samples, particularly poultry, and human urinary tract infection (UTI) samples from people who visited a medical center in the area.

Most of the E. coli in the poultry was a variety known as ST131-H22, which is known to thrive in birds and was also found in the human UTI samples.

“Our results suggest that one ST131 sublineage — ST131-H22 — has become established in poultry populations around the world and that meat may serve as a vehicle for human exposure and infection,” the researchers noted, adding that this E. coli lineage is just one of many that may be transmitted from poultry and other meat sources to people.

Not to mention, while chicken is often viewed as a healthy source of protein, it’s lacking in nutrition, in part because most CAFO chickens are fed grains instead of being able to roam free and eat species-appropriate foods.

The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA) also published a study that compared the nutrition of chickens fed on pasture with the USDA’s National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference values for CAFO chicken. The pasture-raised chickens were higher in vitamins D3 and E and had an average omega-3-to-6 ratio of 1-to-5, compared to the USDA’s value of 1-to-15.¹⁶

Decades ago, when chicken was still largely raised on small farms, it was reasonable to consider chicken healthy, but not so today. One study from London Metropolitan University found that, compared to 1940, chicken in 2004 contained more than twice as much fat, one-third more calories and one-third less protein, the latter being the main nutritional reason most people eat chicken.¹⁷

Antibiotics usage for purposes of growth promotion is another real problem, and one that’s associated with the rise of drug resistance. In November 2017, a report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also revealed the number of Americans infected with multidrug-resistant Salmonella via contaminated food is on the rise, increasing from 9 percent in 2014 to 12 percent in 2015, and poultry is a primary source of these infections.¹⁸

Skip the CAFO Chicken, Choose Pastured Chicken and Eggs Instead

With concerns of contamination and recalls rampant, I recommend skipping CAFO chicken in favor of pasture raised chicken from a local grass fed farmer.

Some farmers are taking it to the next level by using poultry-centered regenerative agriculture, in which tall grasses and trees protect the birds from predators instead of cages — in addition to optimizing soil temperature and moisture content, extracting excess nutrients that the chickens deposit, bringing up valuable minerals from below the soil surface and being a high-value perennial crop.

Opposite of CAFOs, these poultry-centered systems are regenerating the land instead of destroying it, raising chickens humanely instead of cruelly and producing nutritionally superior, not inferior, food. Another alternative, particularly if you can’t find pastured chicken, is skipping chicken entirely and choosing organic, pastured eggs instead.

Whole eggs are an excellent source of protein, healthy fats (omega-3) and antioxidants, including choline, along with vitamins A, D, E and K. Pastured eggs can provide you with much of the nutrition that CAFO chickens cannot, without the risks of contamination.

The gold standard would be eating eggs from your own backyard chickens, but a competitive runner-up is organic, pastured eggs from a local farmers market or food co-op. If you live in even a semi-rural area, you’re also likely to signs around advertising farm-fresh eggs. Stop by and ask the farmer how the chickens are raised and if it’s on pasture, you’re in luck.

Above all else, avoid buying into the hype that the CAFO chicken sold in grocery stores and served in most restaurants is good for you; see it for what it really is: one of the riskiest food items out there in terms of contamination and the potential for foodborne illness.

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In an interview with CBS News, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), flat-out denied that vaccines can and do cause injuries and death. The news outlet had featured parents who are concerned about vaccination risks, including one woman whose middle child suffered from severe reactions to vaccinations.

Understandably, she then refused to vaccinate her youngest son and stated, “If I could go back, I wouldn’t have vaccinated any of my kids.”¹ When asked what to say to such parents, who have experienced adverse vaccine reactions among their own children and are hesitant to have the same procedure performed on another child, Fauci graciously said they shouldn’t be denigrated but that they must be told vaccines are “very safe.”

“[T]he lack of safety and adverse events, things like autism … that issue is based purely on fabrication and that’s been proven … there is no association whatsoever between the measles vaccine and autism,” he said. The reporter again questioned Fauci’s claims there are no studies showing vaccines may cause harm, and asked if he were perhaps not looking at the right studies.

“That’s just not true … that’s just not true, period,” Fauci said, refusing to even entertain the notion that vaccines may cause adverse reactions in some people, and that parents of vaccine-injured children may be justified in their hesitation to vaccinate their other children.

The $4 billion (and growing) payouts for vaccine injuries and deaths in the U.S. suggest that concerns about vaccine safety are well founded and that the right to know and freedom to make voluntary vaccine decisions must be protected in public health policies and laws.

Health Chief at NIH Denies Vaccine Injuries While $4 Billion Has Been Paid Out to Vaccine Victims

The vaccine industry operates under a shield of immunity from liability unlike any other given to corporations that manufacture commercial products sold for a profit in the U.S. In most cases, if a product injures or kills a person, its manufacturer can be held financially accountable in a civil court of law. With vaccines, however, this is not the case.

In the U.S., there is a federally operated vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) that Congress created under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act as an alternative to a vaccine injury lawsuit. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively removed all liability from vaccine manufacturers, even when the company could have made a vaccine safer, and made the VICP an “exclusive” legal remedy for the vaccine injured.

In what has become known as “vaccine court,” the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. handles vaccine injury and death petitions filed in the VICP when the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice oppose awarding federal compensation to a vaccine victim.

In their latest release of data and statistics, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), while again stating that the U.S. has “the safest, most effective vaccine supply in history,” revealed that approximately $4 billion has been paid out to vaccine-injured victims since 1988.²

Children’s Health Defense, which is working to end childhood health epidemics by eliminating harmful exposures, explained why this figure is likely lower than it really should be:³

“Over the vaccine court’s 30-year history, individuals and families have filed over 20,000 petitions for vaccine injury compensation. This month, even as 12 percent of filed petitions remained unadjudicated, the payouts crossed over the $4 billion threshold.

This amount was awarded in response to barely a third (31 percent or 6,276) of the filed petitions. There is no telling how much more money the taxpayer-funded program might have shelled out if the court had not chosen to dismiss the remaining petitions (56 percent) — possibly doing so fraudulently in at least some cases.”

The federal VICP compensates vaccine victims through a federal trust fund that collects a surcharge on every dose of vaccine given. Vaccine manufacturers do not have to contribute any money to the trust fund managed by the Department of Treasury and used to compensate vaccine victims.

There is a Vaccine Injury Table (VIT), which lists vaccine side effects acknowledged by the government to be caused by vaccines.

In order to win an uncontested federal vaccine injury compensation award, the vaccine injured person or the parent or guardian of that person, usually with the assistance of an attorney, must demonstrate that he or she developed certain clinical symptoms and medical conditions on the VIT within a certain timeframe of receiving a certain vaccine and that there is no other more biologically plausible explanation for the vaccine-related injury or death.

“Over the three decades, despite the stated intent to furnish an ‘accessible and efficient forum for individuals found to be injured by certain vaccines,’ the NVICP has devolved into a protracted and litigious David-versus-Goliath battleground,” Children’s Health Defense added.

“The vaccine court, in actuality, is ‘not a court at all but … a consumer-funded government claims program that uses … employees of Health and Human Services (HHS), rather than judges to make decisions on compensation.”⁴

Vaccine Injuries Are Real

Fauci suggested that reports about lack of vaccine safety and reports of serious vaccine reactions and injuries are fabricated. However, numerous studies do, in fact, link vaccines to harm. Even the so-called “fraudulent” autism study he spoke about deserves a hard second look.

Again and again, you hear that the autism-vaccine link was based on a single study published in 1998 by a doctor, Andrew Wakefield, who has been discredited, and that the hypothetical association between vaccines and autism has since been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked. It sounds definitive enough, and is often repeated as established fact.

Yet, William Thompson, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases (NCIR), confessed that he conspired with colleagues to cover up links found between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.

Other research also suggests vaccinated children may have more health problems than unvaccinated children. For instance, among unvaccinated premature infants, no link to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) was found. However, a significant link between vaccinations and NDD was detected, regardless of whether the child was premature or full-term.

The combination of preterm birth with vaccination was associated with a 660 percent increased odds of NDD,⁵ suggesting a synergistic effect and a need to fully research whether it’s safe to vaccinate premature infants.

Further, in a pilot study comparing the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children, those who were vaccinated were more likely to have been diagnosed with any chronic illness as well as other health conditions like otitis media, pneumonia, allergies and eczema.⁶

In 2013, a physician committee at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences, even pointed out that the current federally recommended childhood vaccine schedule for infants and children from birth to age 6 had not been adequately studied for safety.⁷

CNN Accidentally Uses Picture of Vaccine Reaction to Scare People About Measles

One of the scare-tactics being used as of late are media reports warning about measles outbreaks, which are often blamed on unvaccinated children. In one such report, CNN reported the state of Washington was “under a state of emergency” due to a handful of measles cases.

The photo they used for the story, which has since been removed, purported to show a child with measles, but was actually a photo of a child with a rash caused by a vaccination.

At the bottom of the article, you can still read their correction, “This article and an accompanying video previously included a photograph of a child with a rash linked to a vaccination. The image has been removed.”⁸ While measles can be serious, particularly in people with compromised immune systems, the majority of cases resolve on their own without complications.

Declaring a state of emergency in Washington may be a bit of a stretch, considering it wasn’t long ago when getting measles was common during childhood and rarely caused complications in healthy children. Similar fear-mongering occurred in 2015, when visitors to Disneyland in California got measles and transmitted the disease to other people in California, Washington, Utah and Colorado.

The 188 cases of measles reported in the U.S. in 2015 were used to create propaganda to persuade legislators to introduce new legislation to eliminate vaccine exemptions and further limit parents’ ability to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices for their children.

In the 2013-2014 school year, almost 95 percent of U.S. children entering kindergarten had received two doses of MMR vaccine,⁹ as had 92 percent of school children ages 13 to 17 years.¹⁰ That high rate of vaccination for MMR among U.S. school children continues today. ¹¹

This high MMR vaccination rate should theoretically ensure “herd immunity,” but outbreaks of both measles and mumps keep occurring, which hints at vaccine failure. One proposed solution is to introduce a third MMR vaccination as a “booster” dose at age 18.

In 2015, Barbara Loe Fisher explained that the fear-mongering over measles cases in Disneyland was more about covering up vaccine failures than it was about protecting public health, and it remains much the same way today:

“The hype about … cases of measles reportedly linked to Disneyland has more to do with covering up vaccine failures and propping up the dissolving myth of vaccine acquired herd immunity than it does about protecting the public health.

It has a lot to do with defensive doctors trying to blame a minority of parents who are refusing to place irrational faith in them and their moving goal posts, and are choosing instead to think and act rationally.

That third MMR shot is coming to America and so is a massive Pharma-led lobby attempt to demonize and punish all Americans who defend the human right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking, including vaccine risk-taking.

The calls to strike down those who do not use every dose of the growing list of government-mandated vaccines, is on a fast track. It will include banning the unvaccinated from exercising the right to get a public education, medical care, employment, and many other human and civil rights.”

Pediatric Neurologist Told Department of Justice Vaccines Can Cause Autism

The existence of a potential link between vaccines, mitochondrial disorder and autism was a subject of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services omnibus autism proceedings in 2007. Children’s Health Defense and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are requesting an investigation into fraud and obstruction of justice by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials while representing HHS during the proceeding.

“DOJ attorneys and HHS officials purposefully and maliciously deceived the NVICP, also known as ‘vaccine court,’ in order to deny relief to 5,400 children whose injury claims threatened to bankrupt the vaccine program,” the request reads.¹²

Part of the fraud involves the so-called “Zimmerman concealment,” referring to Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a pediatric neurologist, who is a pro-vaccine expert witness the U.S. government used to debunk and turn down autism claims in vaccine court.

In a Full Measure report,¹³ award-winning investigative reporter and former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson¹⁴ explained, “Zimmerman was the government’s top expert witness and had testified that vaccines didn’t cause autism. The debate was declared over. But now Dr. Zimmerman has provided remarkable new information.” She added:¹⁵

“He claims that during the vaccine hearings all those years ago, he privately told government lawyers that vaccines can, and did cause autism in some children. That turnabout from the government’s own chief medical expert stood to change everything about the vaccine-autism debate. If the public were to find out …

And he has come forward and explained how he told the United States government vaccines can cause autism in a certain subset of children and [the] United States government, the Department of Justice, suppressed his true opinions.”

Health Officials Continue to Deny Vaccine Risks

In a sworn affidavit dated September 7, 2018, Zimmerman stated that, in 2007, he told DOJ lawyers he had “discovered exceptions in which vaccinations could cause autism. “I explained that in a subset of children, vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation did cause regressive brain disease with features of autism spectrum disorder,” Zimmerman wrote.¹⁶

Reportedly, this “panicked” the DOJ. Zimmerman was fired and told his services would no longer be needed, which could be interpreted as an attempt to silence him. According to Zimmerman, the DOJ then went on to misrepresent his opinion in future cases, making no mention of the exceptions he’d informed them of.

“Meantime, CDC — which promotes vaccines and monitors vaccine safety — never disclosed that the government’s own one-time medical expert concluded vaccines can, in some children with certain health conditions, cause autism. To this day public health officials deny that’s the case,” according to the Full Measure report,¹⁷ coming full circle and echoing the statements of NIAID director Fauci.

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Shake up your diet with these decadent, nutrient-dense recipes.

By now, you’ve probably heard of smoothie bowls. The concept is simple: Pour a perfectly blended smoothie into a bowl instead of a glass. But the magic doesn’t stop there. Smoothie bowls are notoriously packed with delicious toppings, from granola and berries to nuts and chocolate. These nutritious recipes make the perfect healthy breakfast or quick-and-easy snack.

Chocolate Peanut/Almond Butter Bowl

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 4.5 oz Reveri Vanilla Almond Blossom
• 1 fluid oz unsweetened almond milk
• 1 oz natural unsalted peanut butter, or natural unsalted almond butter
• 2 tbsp chocolate whey or vegan protein powder
• 1 tbsp raw cacao nibs
• 3.5 oz ice

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high until well-mixed.
2. Pour mixture in a bowl and top with sliced banana, granola, chia seeds, walnuts or cacao nibs.

Triple Berry Bowl

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 4.5 oz Reveri Vanilla Almond Blossom
• 1 fluid oz unsweetened almond milk
• 2 oz frozen strawberries
• 1.5 oz frozen blueberries
• 0.5 oz frozen raspberries
• 2 tbsp vanilla whey or vegan protein powder
• 3.5 oz ice

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high until well-mixed.
2. Pour mixture in a bowl and top with granola, seeds, nuts or fruit.

Blue Majik Reveri Bowl

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 4.5 oz Reveri Vanilla Almond Blossom
• 2 oz unsweetened coconut or almond milk
• 1 frozen banana
• ½ cup frozen pineapple, or frozen peeled pear
• ¼ cup frozen cauliflower
• 1 tsp Blue Majik powder
• 3.5 oz ice

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high until well-mixed.
2. Pour mixture in a bowl and top with fresh berries and cacao nibs.

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This sweet and spicy Indian flavored Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad is a perfect go to lunch. This versatile salad is easy to fix and serves well as a side for dinner. My family enjoys it as a dip or salsa with some tortilla chips.

Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad is originally one of my very first recipes. Before I started my blog, I used to casually toss this salad for my lunch and fulfill my protein requirements. This salad also satisfied my taste buds with its various flavors in the same bowl. My original intention was always to use up the over ripe papaya which my family refused to consume. AH! Nothing has changed though…… I still try to finish up the leftovers from my family.

One day when I served this Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad to my friends, they simply loved it. They were blown away with the variety of flavors in their mouth. That gave me an idea to share this recipe with you all so you can also enjoy its deliciousness.

Therefore, I have come up with improvised version of Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad. This recipe is quite dear to me because I found this in my old recipe book which I used to write for myself. That food diary is still my hidden treasure which gradually I plan to share it with you all in this blog.

Ingredients of Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad

Black beans
Onions
Cilantro
Avocado
Jalapeno
Lemon juice
Papaya
Basil
Salt
Himalayan pink salt/black salt
Dry roasted cumin powder
Crushed black pepper

All these ingredients are easily available in the stores. Black salt (kala namak) is easily found in the Indian store. However, you may substitute it with Himalayan pink salt too. I have specially mentioned the dry roasted cumin powder because that enhances the flavor of this salad. It makes this salad even more appetizing. Moreover, dry roasted cumin powder is a great digestive along with black salt.

I am sure your family will love this salad as much as my family loves it.

So, if you get a chance to fix this Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad please leave your feedback in the comments below. I love to read what’s cooking in your kitchen.

The post Vegan Papaya Black Bean Salad appeared first on Kiipfit.com.

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Only 20 minutes and 7 ingredients stand between your blissful chocolate-filled dreams and these healthy Vegan No-Bake Brownies!

Dreams do come true.

Does anyone else dream of brownies and all their delicious variations? Rich, sweet, chewy or cake-like, plain jane or loaded with sprinkles and frosting – we don’t discriminate. Brownies are just plain good and satisfy that sweet tooth in a snap.

OK, Jess avoids brownies with eggs in them because of her allergy, but that’s just one more reason you want to make these Vegan No-Bake Brownies – no eggs! Oh and these beauties are also vegan, paleo-friendly and gluten-free because we believe everyone should be able to enjoy a brownie whenever possible – especially on the cusp of the love and sweets-filled holiday of Valentine’s Day!

Not a fan of nuts, no worries! We both love a nut-filled brownie, but if you’re not a fan of walnuts (pistachios or macadamia nuts are great options) or just simply don’t do nuts, feel free to omit them. Fair warning though – they’ll seem even fudgier, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – just sayin’!

Only 20 minutes and 7 ingredients stand between your blissful chocolate-filled dreams and these healthy Vegan No-Bake Brownies! Click To Tweet

A beautiful chain reaction of time-saving events

No eggs = no oven. No oven = brownies made in record time because they’re so easy to make. While most brownies require the use of an oven, you can go right ahead and turn yours off. These no-bake brownies are made using just a food processor, a spoon and your hands. {AKA: Last-minute Valentine’s dessert that makes you look like you spent a lot of time making it.}

Skeptical? Don’t be. For all the ingredients and kitchen tools these Vegan No-Bake Brownies lack, they make up for in taste and nutrients. Thanks to a big dose of raw cacao (or baking cocoa), you get a big dose of flavanoids – a class of antioxidants that appear to promote general health and may lower your risk for heart disease and certain cancers. They also contain coconut oil (which you can read more about here) and a handful of omega-3 fatty acids from walnuts. And with a touch of pure grade B maple syrup that adds the perfect amount of sweetness while keeping sugars and carbs in check without compromising flavor – the myth of a tasty and healthy brownie is brought to life.

Ooey, gooey and wonderfully messy to eat

You know a brownie’s good when you have to either lick your fingers or wipe your hands (or face?) with a washcloth after. Ain’t no shame here unless of course you’re hosting an ultra-fancy tea party, where chocolate-covered faces are frowned upon. And even then, c’mon! Kids get messy ALL the time when it comes to desserts and we applaud them. Something to think about.

These Vegan No-Bake Brownies do require refrigeration because they’re not baked, but one bite and you’ll be convinced that you’ve just experienced the best brownie texture ever after allowing them to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes after removing them from the fridge. We know it’s hard to wait, but trust us. That little bit of time takes the cold edge off and allows their flavors to really shine. Can’t wait the extra minutes? OK, you can twist our arm! Be a rule-breaker and enjoy one straight out of the fridge – the flavors will still be heavenly.

Ready to get fudge-faced?

Just in case we didn’t paint as clear a picture of just how irresistible these Vegan No-Bake Brownies are, be sure to watch this how-to video that will likely make you wonder why you haven’t started making them yet!

So go ahead – make your Valentine’s (or your own) sweet dreams come true! And share that love with us over on IG @therealfoodrds – the messier the better in our opinion!

Hungry for More? Subscribe to get our newsletter delivered straight to your inbox! And be sure to stay in touch on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Let’s Get Cookin’

Vegan No-Bake Brownies

Brownies were never so healthy yet so rich and chocolatey until these. Made with only wholesome ingredients they’re a treat you can feel good about enjoying and sharing.

• Author: The Real Food Dietitians
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 20 mins
• Yield: 16 Brownies
• Category: Dessert

Instructions

1. Place almond butter, coconut oil, maple syrup, salt and cacao powder in the bowl of a food processor. Process just until blended, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.
2. Stop processor and add coconut flour. Process just until a ball of dough starts to form.
3. Transfer dough to a clean bowl. Add walnuts and stir to incorporate.
4. Press dough into an 8×8-inch pan lined with parchment paper or use your hands to pat dough into an 8×8-inch square on a parchment paper-lined tray or small baking sheet.
5. Place on plate in the fridge and allow to chill at least 30 minutes.
6. Cut into 16 squares.
7. For optional chocolate drizzle. Add chocolate chips and 1/4 tsp. coconut on in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir continuously until chocolate is a smoothie consistency. Drizzle over bars.
8. Store in a covered container in the fridge for up to 1 week. May be frozen for longer storage.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 brownie
• Calories: 129
• Sugar: 3 g
• Sodium: 25 mg
• Fat: 12 g
• Carbohydrates: 8 g
• Fiber: 2 g
• Protein: 3 g

Pin now to make later!

 

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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter. 

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About Jessica Beacom

Jessica is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist living in Boulder, CO with her hubby and two daughters. She’s been described as a ‘real food evangelist’ and loves sharing her knowledge with others to help them break free of the diet mentality and find their own food freedom. In her spare time she enjoys CrossFit, telemark skiing, mountain biking, teaching herself how to play the banjo and camping out under the stars.

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