You might think this article has nothing to do with nutrition, but think again! As strange as it may seem, breathing exercises are something that I teach my patients almost every single day. Why would that matter for nutrition? Surprisingly, we cannot assimilate foods when the body experiences a  stress response. This is also called the fight or flight response, when your sympathetic system is turned on. Think of a deer freezing in the middle of the road. Then think about your gastrointestinal tract freezing when you are under stress. For some people it means diarrhea, for others constipation. Long term, this can lead to more pronounced health problems and even malnourishment. The blood flows away from the gut and into your limbs so that you have about 15-20 minutes of a burst of energy to fight or run away from the proverbial tiger. Unfortunately, while tigers do not chase us, worry about the next mortgage payment, your job insecurity, your child’s adolescence, your spouse’s infidelity….all of these  stressors produce exactly the same physiological response as when a shoe is actually thrown at you and you have to duck or when somone cuts in front of you at the red light. This is how we are programmed. Please hear me out here: for every 15 minutes of fight or flight you need three times as long to bring your balance back to zero. And, even worse, the brain does not distinguish from that shoe flying at you and your worry that your boss will terminate your job! This is profound when you start mapping your life. Have you allowed enough relaxation to compensate for the amount of stress in your life? Likely NOT.

I teach patients not to eat when under stress, to avoid business lunches, and if they must eat for business, to nod, smile and focus their attention to chewing because chewing, like breathing, slows you down.

What we have to re-learn is how to breathe deeply. You do not have to learn transcendental meditation. All you need is to sit comfortably, be quiet, and start to breathe. It is as simple as that. And watch what happens.

Be good to your heart….and your digestive tract! Breathe!

Heart patients saw a big risk reduction from practising meditation

Heart disease patients who practise Transcendental Meditation have reduced death rates, US researchers have said.

At a meeting of the American Heart Association they said they had randomly assigned 201 African Americans to meditate or to make lifestyle changes.

After nine years, the meditation group had a 47% reduction in deaths, heart attacks and strokes.

The research was carried out by the Medical College of Wisconsin with the Maharishi University in Iowa.

It was funded by a £2.3m grant from the National Institute of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

‘Significant benefits’

The African American men and women had an average age of 59 years and a narrowing of the arteries in their hearts.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION Introduced in India in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi In the 60s the Beatles popularised it by travelling to India to learn the technique from the Maharishi The Maharishi Foundation says TM is a programme for the development of consciousness Courses are only available through the foundation They cost from £190 for students to £590 for people with incomes over £40,000

The meditation group were asked to practise for 20 minutes twice a day.

The lifestyle change group received education classes in traditional risk factors, including dietary modification and exercise.

Over nine years, there were 20 events (heart attacks, strokes or death) in the meditation group and 31 in the health education group.

Dr Robert Schneider, lead author and director of the Centre for Natural Medicine and Prevention at the Maharishi University in Iowa said:

“At the end of the 9 years, 80% of the meditation group were still practising at least once a day.

“But there was very little change in the health education group.

“Their lifestyle was much the same in terms of diet and exercise – it’s a very difficult thing to make those changes.”

As well as the reductions in death, heart attacks and strokes in the meditating group, their average blood pressure was significantly lower (5mm Hg), and there was a significant reduction in psychological stress in some participants.

Dr Schneider said other studies had shown the benefits of Transcendental Meditation on blood pressure and stress, irrespective of ethnicity.

“This is the first controlled clinical trial to show that long-term practise of this particular stress reduction programme reduces the incidence of clinical cardiovascular events, that is heart attacks, strokes and mortality,” he said.

Dr Schneider said that the effect of Transcendental Meditation in the trial was like adding a class of newly discovered drugs for the prevention of heart disease.

He said: “In this case, the new medications are derived from the body’s own internal pharmacy stimulated by the Transcendental Meditation practice.”

Ingrid Collins, a consultant educational psychologist at the London Medical Centre, said: “I’m not at all surprised that a change of behaviour like this can have enormous benefits both emotionally and physically.

“Physical and emotional energy is on a continuum and whatever happens to us physically can affect our emotions and vice versa.”

British Heart Foundation Cardiac Nurse Ellen Mason said: “This is a fascinating area and the results were impressive.

“However, in order to fully assess the difference transcendental meditation could have on heart patient’s lives, we need to see research confirming it in a far bigger study and with other ethnic groups.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8363302.stm

This is a delightful snapshot of a thriving community. Connection within a community is so closely related to the longevity of one’s life. I grew up in Poland where allotments with fruits and vegetables are very common. Since most people live in apartments, they take a bus to their little gardens at the outskirts of town. In fact, I always feel envious when my mother in Poland tells me which friend or sibling just brought her fresh apples or radishes from their gardens…

The article also reminded me of the famous centenarian Okinawans, who have been studied for their longevity. While the new generation of Okinawans are consuming more of a Western diet and will not reach the age of their grandparents, I encourage you to read more about the Okinawans and their happy community lives.

In America, we dread aging as we associate it with nursing homes and debilitating physical and mental detarioration. But this story reminds us that it does not have to be that way. And if you are up for the challenge, I will teach you what to do to meet your senior years in style!

Steven Morris, Thursday 3 December 2009 19.21 GMT

Charlie and Mabel Northam with their onions. According to a national study of 3 million pension records, the sleepy village of Montacute near Yeovil in Somerset boasts the longest life expectancy in the country. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt

Some put it down to the water, others believe the clean, fresh Somerset air is the reason for their longevity. Charlie and Mabel Northam, still going strong at 89 and 90 respectively, swear they have lived so long because they eat a locally produced onion every day and drink spring water from a nearby hill.

The sprightly pensioners of Montacute, near Yeovil, a place of honey-coloured hamstone cottages and gorgeous woods and valleys, were today celebrating being pinpointed as the place in England where you are likely to live the longest.

The south-west of England as a whole did well in the study, carried out by pension experts, with six towns and villages featuring in the English top 10. Parts of the north of England fared rather less well. Bootle in Merseyside propped up the table for England and when figures for the UK as a whole were thrown into the mix, areas of Glasgow also came out poorly.

In Montacute the revelation did not cause the Northams’ routine to falter. As ever they ate a couple of fried onions for lunch, washed down with half pints of spring water.

For 40 years Mr Northam grew vegetables, producing 500 onions a year among other things on his allotment. “I had 30 rows of potatoes, spinach, runner beans – you name it I grew it and I didn’t use any chemicals.” He had to give up, but the couple still swear by fresh, local vegetables.

“I think this is a lovely place,” added Mr Northam, who turns 90 on New Year’s Eve. “I suppose that’s one of the big reasons that people live so long. People are happy. We were always happy-poor.”

The Northams have built their lives around the village church. They were married there 64 years ago and Mr Northam has sung in the choir for 81 years. Living to a ripe-old age seems to run in the family. Mrs Northam’s mother, Mary Ellen Adams, who lived next door, died at 106. “So we may still have some time to go,” she said.

Lifelong resident Shirley Hann is another who believes growing your own is key to a long life. A mere spring chicken at 74, she keeps a thriving vegetable patch.

“People here all have allotments or a little vegetable patch in their back garden. I’ve been eating home-grown veg my whole life,” she said.

Her cousin, Keith Hann, 72, said he had grown his own for half a century. “I grow everything. I’ve got three allotments, and I’ve grown about 95% of my fruit and veg for nearly 50 years.”

Bill Dufton, 83, was to be found on top of a ladder, restoring the window frames of his 500-year-old home. He believes good healthcare is one of the reasons people are lasting so long here. “We have a good health centre down the road. We have all sorts of pills to take. I put it down in good part to the NHS – and also that this is a great place for walking. That keeps you fit.”

In the post office, sub-postmaster Myrtle Hann, a whippersnapper at 63, said she believed great community spirit helped keep elderly people going. “It’s the sort of village where people help each other get by. I think that helps. People feel secure.”

The study was carried out by actuaries at the international business consultancy Watson Wyatt. Understanding in which areas people are likely to last longer has become important for people such as bosses of insurance companies and pension funds.

Though the study that put Montacute on the top of the list focused on men only, Watson Wyatt said the evidence was that it would hold true for women too. The bottom line was that if a Montacute man reached the age of 65, he was likely to carry on to 90, and any partner would probably survive a couple of years on top of that.

Kevin and Carolyn Bowmaster, landlord and lady of the village pub, the Phelips Arms, agree that the water and fresh air is good but also think the good beer and wine might have something to do with it. “People do enjoy themselves here and coming to the pub is a part of that,” said Mr Bowmaster.

The pub hosts regular outings by two rival groups – the Romeos, made up of gentlemen of a certain age, and the Juliets, their female counterparts.

Violet Myram, 88, founder of the Juliets, said: “We go out and have a meal and conversation. I expect I’m the oldest but, fingers crossed, we’re all fighting fit.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/dec/03/onion-health-village-long-life

The Expense of Eating With Celiac Disease

And we are “battling” it as we like to battle many things these days. But the truth of the matter is that anti-inflammamatory “diet” is not something invented. This is how we used to eat, how we are designed to eat. I often tell my patients, this is how we forgot to eat. So going back to it is remarkably easy, and I have to say that the therapeutic effects are equally remarkable. Just ask any of the patients that took my 30 Day Detox Program. This is a big word, detox, but in fact the program is just a very simple anti-inflammatory protocol, the way we “forgot to eat”. The reason why we suffer from inflammatory conditions is exactly because instead, we pick the food products that prevent the body from doing what it is designed to do.

According to the principles of naturopathic medicine, when the body is given all the tools it needs, all it wants to do is to be in balance, equilibrium. So that is my take on the hot topic of inflammation! Kasia Kines

August 17, 2009, LA Times

The drug factor

It makes sense that anti-inflammatory methods might help the heart, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Assn. and professor of physiology and biophysics at University of Colorado Denver’s Health Sciences Center.

Statin drugs, for example, are known to cut heart disease risk by reducing cholesterol levels — among other things, these meds fight inflammation.

“We don’t know how much of statins’ effect are due to their anti-inflammatory effects,” Eckel says. But, he adds, a growing number of researchers suspect that this property is important.

Fish oil, rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and derived from oily fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel — is already recommended by the American Heart Assn. to help prevent cardiovascular disease. It has been shown to reduce blood triglyceride levels and slightly lower blood pressure, lowering the risk for heart attacks and strokes.

There is also reason to believe that anti-inflammatory substances would help to ward off cancers. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to prevent tumors with people with inherited colorectal cancer, for example.

And population studies have shown that people who had been taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds for other conditions were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

In trials, such drugs have failed to treat already-developed Alzheimer’s, but the studies suggest that it might be possible to prevent the disease by reducing inflammation, says Greg Cole, a professor of medicine and neurology at UCLA and associate director of the UCLA Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

But it is not safe to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for years because of harmful side effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. What about anti-inflammatory foods? Several clinical trials, in the U.S. and abroad, have shown that people with mild memory complaints related to aging (not necessarily Alzheimer’s disease) showed significant improvement when given the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid, Cole says.

And in an 18-month study released in June sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, treating Alzheimer’s disease with docosahexaenoic acid slowed its progression in a subgroup of the study population.

There are other trials with positive results for fish oil in early Alzheimer’s cases, but they are not large enough to be definitive, Cole says.

But, he adds, “the real utility is not to slow the progression of someone who’s already demented, but it’s to treat before dementia happens. We’d like to turn off or keep down [the inflammation] with something that doesn’t cause gastrointestinal bleeding or other side effects.”

Cole’s laboratory is looking at the potential for Alzheimer’s prevention by controlling inflammation with omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin. Other food substances — such as resveratrol in red wine and flavonoids in fruits — may have anti-inflammatory effects by acting along the same pathway that curcumin does, he says.

Cole suspects that people are more likely to take a supplement or two than to radically change their diets. “Nutritionists, they’ll tell you to eat right. It is good, sound advice, but you can’t always get people to do it,” he says. “The question is, can you find an easier supplement approach that doesn’t require a restricted diet?”

Supplements do have their drawbacks. “Many Alzheimer’s researchers were prescribing vitamin E [an antioxidant] to all their patients,” says Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and the executive vice president of the Alzheimer’s Assn. of the California Southland. “But some data came out that people had high bleeds and suffered from cardiovascular problems.”

Dietary revamp

Perhaps a complete diet overhaul — difficult though that may be — would be a better strategy. The Mediterranean diet, named for the region in which it originated, has many anti-inflammatory features.

It includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, whole grains, alcohol, and healthful fats like olive and canola oil. It has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of blood clots. Studies have shown that diets high in fish, olive oil and cooked vegetables reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. A Mediterranean diet or elements of it seems linked to reduced risk for a number of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. (See related story online.)

“If people noticed they’re slightly overweight, or if blood pressure is starting to creep up, or if blood sugar [increases], and they went on a Mediterranean-type diet, they might be able to decrease inflammation and stop the progression of disease,” says Dr. Wadie Najm, a clinical professor of family medicine and geriatrics at UC Irvine who directs an integrated medicine clinic at UCI that focuses on complementary and alternative medicine.

Many patients visiting his clinic have chronic inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and gastrointestinal problems such as Crohn’s disease. Patients begin a specialized diet and exercise, and make other lifestyle changes to decrease inflammation.

“In three weeks, if [patients] follow the protocol, we see great results in improvement in symptomology and reduction in flare-ups,” says Bianca Garilli, a naturopathic doctor at the clinic.

Of course, these dietary and other lifestyle changes might help treat pain conditions through the placebo effect — a belief in a treatment rather than the treatment itself, says Dr. Roger Chao, an associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and director of clinical guidelines development for the American Pain Society.

“You’re giving something for people to focus on and do something good for themselves,” Chao says.

At the end of the day, there is evidence to suggest that your best bet at curbing inflammation is to eat a healthful diet — and keep your weight in check — without specifically thinking about anti-inflammatory foods.

“There is no doubt that if you lose weight, inflammation is dramatically improved,” Greenberg says. When a person is overweight or obese, body fat breaks down into fatty acids, which circulate in the blood. These fatty acids promote an immune response in the same way that infection does, increasing inflammation.

It will take time to tease apart the effects of anti-inflammatory diets and supplements. But Cole thinks the effort is well worth it. “The alternative to these kinds of things aimed at prevention is to pay for treatments,” he says. “And we can’t always afford them.”

The smaller the farms and the more variety of crops the farmer can grow, the better a chance to avoid or minimize infestations. Monocultures tend to deplete soil most rapidly and are most vulnerable to infestation. If only small farmers were financially able to afford what they do.  Support the local farmers> Remember also that organic label is expensive and takes time. Not every small farmer can afford the certification. Ask the farmers at your local market. You may be able to find those who do not use persticides while not organic or who are transitional, meaning that they no longer spray and are going towards organic. Some farmers will only spray as needed depending on the season. Please talk to you farmers! Hopefully, herbs will find the way to help them grow foods that feed us! Kasia Kines

Herbs ‘can be natural pesticides’ BBC, August 17, 2009

Common herbs and spices could help protect crops against pests Common herbs and spices show promise as an environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional pesticides, scientists have told a major US conference. They have spent a decade researching the insecticidal properties of rosemary, thyme, clove and mint. They could become a key weapon against insect pests in organic agriculture, the researchers say, as the industry attempts to satisfy demand. The “plant essential oils” have a broad range of action against bugs. Some kill them outright while others repel them. Details were presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington DC. These new pesticides are generally a mixture of tiny amounts of two to four different herbs diluted in water. The research was led by Dr Murray Isman, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Some spice-based commercial products now being used by farmers have already shown success in protecting organic strawberry, spinach, and tomato crops against destructive aphids and mites, Dr Isman explained. “These products expand the limited arsenal of organic growers to combat pests,” he said. “They’re still only a small piece of the insecticide market, but they’re growing and gaining momentum.” Unlike conventional pesticides, these “killer spices” do not require more limited approval from regulatory bodies and are readily available. An additional advantage is that insects are less likely to evolve resistance – the ability to shrug off once-effective toxins – Isman says. They’re also safer for farm workers, who are at high risk for pesticide exposure, he notes. But the herb-based pesticides also have shortcomings. Since the essential oils made from these herbs tend to evaporate quickly and degrade rapidly in sunlight, farmers need to apply them to crops more frequently than conventional pesticides. Some last only a few hours, compared to days or even months for conventional pesticides. As they are also generally less potent than conventional pesticides, they must be applied in higher concentrations to achieve acceptable levels of pest control, Dr Isman said. Researchers are now seeking ways of making the novel pesticides longer-lasting and more potent, he added. “They’re not a panacea for pest control,” Dr Isman explained. Conventional pesticides are still the most effective way to control caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles and other large insects on commercial food crops, he added. “It comes down to what’s good for the environment and what’s good for human health.”

 I can’t tell you how often I am asked by patients if they should stop their artificial sweeteners, whether it is Splenda or Aspartame. The most interesting thing is that many patients know what I will say. So here is a great article on the intelligence of our brain. After all, there’s something very beautiful and strangely reassuring about natural unheated local “raw” honey or a little drizzle of maple syrup.

We seem to be on a quest to quench our overly sweet tooth with chemicals that pretend to be sugars but are not. However, sweetness and sugar are necessary and our brains run on glucose, the simple sugar, alone. You have to provide the real thing. Our energy is glucose, not protein, ladies and gentlemen. How many patients do I have to teach to actually eat real meals so that they can enjoy a little dessert made of ground cashews, cardamom, orange peel and dates, which is perfectly sweet, without fooling our body’s needs?

As you are overfed and malnourished, you are likely to be also zinc deficient, and that alters your taste, so you have to have a lot of sweetness added to foods to taste anything. Therefore, if you feel you have a problem of too much affection to sugar, please eat meals. Have lentils and brown rice or bean chili for lunch. Something simple but substancial. Have a real natural whole foods dessert afterwards. You will not expand your waistline and you will not overeat the sweet treats. Your brain will rediscover guiltless pleasure from real foods! Enjoy this interesting article. Kasia Kines

August 31, 2009

New research adds another dimension to the uncertainty: It suggests that even when artificial sweeteners fool the taste buds, they still don’t fool the ultimate arbiter of our appetites — our subconscious brains.

The latest evidence for this comes from a brain scanning study performed in the Netherlands. Paul Smeets, a neuroscientist at University Medical Center Utrecht, used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses in people sipping two versions of orangeade, one containing sugar and one containing a mix of four artificial sweeteners: aspartame, acesulfame K, cyclamate and saccharin.

The mixture of artificial sweeteners was concocted to match the taste of real sugar as closely as possible. And the sugary and artificial drinks were administered on different days — making it harder for the tasters to notice any difference between the two. Subjects often guessed wrong on which drink was which. “They didn’t know,” Smeets says.

Yet the fMRI scans revealed consistent differences in how their brains responded.

Both sugar and the noncaloric sweeteners activated a brain region called the amygdala, which signals sensory pleasure. But only the sugared drink turned on a cherry-sized nugget of brain tissue in a region called the caudate.

That little nugget, Smeets concluded, seemed to represent an unconscious perception of calories — assessed quite separately from the sweet taste.

“We think the brain can distinguish, even if the people themselves cannot distinguish, between a caloric and a noncaloric sweet drink,” says Smeets, who presented his results at the Human Brain Mapping meeting in San Francisco in June.

Brain-imaging experiments sometimes draw criticism for producing little more than colored spots on a brain map — high-tech Rorschach ink blots that researchers may over-interpret according to their own biases. But another study, published earlier this year, suggests that Smeets is onto something.

Edward Chambers, an exercise physiologist at the University of Birmingham in Britain, compared the effects of sugar and artificial sweeteners on peoples’ ability to do hard aerobic exercise — and he found some striking differences.

Chambers has previously shown that the mere taste of sugar can improve endurance in athletes who have fasted for several hours. If the athletes rinse their mouth with sugared water but don’t swallow any, it improves their performance in an hour-long cycling workout by a small but consistent amount. The apparent promise that sugar will soon reach the bloodstream provokes the cyclists’ brains to drive their legs harder — the same way that the promise of a paycheck in the mail motivates a cash-strapped student to go shoe shopping.

But when Chambers tried the same experiment with a mixture of the artificial sweeteners aspartame and saccharin, he saw no such effect. Tasting the artificial sweeteners didn’t improve cycling speed, even though they tasted sweet.

Tasting a nonsweet sugar, maltodextrin (whose flavor was masked with aspartame and saccharin so it tasted the same), did improve cycling speed.

“The sweetness is the conscious perception of the substance,” Chambers says. “But there also appears to be this unconscious nutrient-sensing occurring” in the mouth. Athletes couldn’t consciously distinguish the sugared and nonsugared drinks, but their brains picked up the difference.

Chambers also did fMRI scans of his athletes’ brains. He found that the sugared mouth rinses strongly activated two reward centers in the brain, the anterior cingulate cortex and caudate, whereas the artificial sweeteners activated these brain areas only weakly — similar to Smeets’ results.

These studies heighten lingering questions about the usefulness of artificial sweeteners. Although some studies over the years have found that artificially sweetened foods and drinks reduce calorie consumption and weight gain, others suggest they might not.

“We have some idea that in the short term there’s calorie savings” with artificial sweeteners, says Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Obesity Research at the University of Washington in Seattle. “But then people say that what you do today at lunch may not translate into saving pounds of body weight at the end of four weeks. So we need more studies.”

Research has shown that drinking an artificially sweetened beverage can whet the appetite and stimulate people to eat more in a subsequent meal — an effect not seen when people drink a sugared beverage or glass of water before eating. It suggests that artificial sweeteners may turn on brain areas that create appetite, but not provide satiation. This might trigger people to eat a bigger lunch, says Guido Frank, a psychiatrist who studies eating disorders and brain responses to sweeteners at the University of Colorado at Denver. Frank’s brain imaging experiments have hinted as much.

In addition, some epidemiological studies find that people who regularly consume artificially sweetened drinks carry, on average, a few more pounds

than people who don’t.

But other studies have muddied the picture.

A small study published in 2007 found that artificially sweetened drinks trigger more eating only in people who don’t drink them very often. People who habitually drink lots of artificially sweetened beverages didn’t consume a larger meal after drinking one — suggesting that their subconscious brains have adjusted to the sweeteners over time.

“There is no 100% clear message,” Frank concludes. But, he adds, just as people are encouraged to keep an eye on their intake of real sugars, so should the dietary role of artificial sweeteners be carefully considered.

“If you manage to replace all your sugar drinks with a combination of a glass of water, a can of diet soda and three carrots, that would be a good thing,” he says. “But you could argue that using large amounts of artificial sweeteners is not really as helpful as one might think, because maybe you cannot really trick the brain. Maybe the body still gets the calories from somewhere else.”

One approach might be to avoid the zero-calorie drinks that crowd our grocery aisles in favor of reduced-calorie drinks that combine artificial sweeteners with real sugars. Such drinks might preserve the brain’s connection between sweetness and calories, Smeets says.

Or one might drink sugary drinks — but more slowly. A study published earlier this year by Smeets found some merit to this advice. Smeets allowed his subjects to drink their fill of sugar-sweetened orangeade but strictly controlled the size of their sips using a pump. People drank less orangeade overall when their sip size was smaller.The upshot, Smeets says, is that a low-tech solution might suffice — for example, drinking through a thin straw rather than gulping, and avoiding artificial sweeteners altogether. Or, as Frank suggests, substituting a glass of cold water for that 44-ounce soft drink.

“The ideal artificial sweetener would really fool the body,” Smeets says. “But I’m not sure that is possible.”

I cannot even view the video that comes with this article. I have seen a lot and I know a lot, but that doesn’t make it easier for me to view it at all. Gandhi was the one who said that we should be judged as a society based on how we treat animals. Factory farming is supported by us, unknowing consummers. I feel I have a responsibility to share this with you all so that you can make more conscious choices with your food money against the human cruelty to animals. I decided not to include the video as it is very graphic, but here is a link to it to those of you that dare to see it. Do not watch it with your children. Below is the article itself. Bottom line: if you do eat eggs, look for a local farmer who has a very small operation, allows hens to dig in the dirt and be in the sun, who can answer your questions and concerns. Be aware that any food product you buy that has egg white or yolk added will be part of this industry and these practices. You have to click on the link to view the video but the article is below it.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/01/chicks-being-ground-up-al_n_273652.html

Chicks Being Ground up Alive Video

Posted on 9/1/09 by www.huffingtonpost.com

(AP) WASHINGTON — An undercover video shot by an animal rights group at an Iowa egg hatchery shows workers discarding unwanted chicks by sending them alive into a grinder, and other chicks falling through a sorting machine to die on the factory floor.

Chicago-based Mercy for Animals said it shot the video at Hy-Line North America’s hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, over a two-week period in May and June. The video was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

Hy-Line said in a statement it has started an investigation “of the entire situation,” adding that it would have helped their investigation “had we been aware of the potential violation immediately after it occurred.”

The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards.

These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.

In other parts of the video, a chick is shown dying on the factory floor amid a heap of egg shells after falling through a sorting machine. Another chick, also still alive, is seen lying on the floor after getting scalded by a wash cycle, according to the video narrator.

Hy-Line said the video “appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies,” referring to chicks on the factory floor.

But the company also noted that “instantaneous euthanasia” – a reference to killing of male chicks by the grinder – is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.

According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can’t lay eggs and don’t grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.

The United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that figure and the practice behind it.

“There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens,” said the group’s spokesman, Mitch Head. “If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need.”

Using a grinder, Head said, “is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks.”

Hy-Line says on its Web site that its Iowa facility produces 33.4 million chicks. Based on that figure, Mercy for Animals estimates a similar number of male chicks are killed at the facility each year. Hy-Line did not comment on that estimate.

Mercy for Animals says it will call on the nation’s 50 largest grocery chains to include labels on their eggs that say, “Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry.”

Head called that proposal “almost a joke,” saying the group had no credible authority, and had questionable motives. “This is a group which espouses no egg consumption by anyone – so that is clearly their motive.” The video does in fact end with a call for people to adopt a vegan diet, which eliminates all animal products – meat, eggs or dairy.

Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals, said most people would be shocked to learn that 200 million chicks are killed a year.

“Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?” he said.

As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.

“The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day,” he said.

There was a time when red meat was a luxury for ordinary Americans, or was at least something special: cooking a roast for Sunday dinner, ordering a steak at a restaurant. Not anymore. Meat consumption has more than doubled in the United States in the last 50 years.

Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.

The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.

Results of the decade-long study were published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. The study, directed by Rashmi Sinha, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, involved 322,263 men and 223,390 women ages 50 to 71 who participated in the National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study. Each participant completed detailed questionnaires about diet and other habits and characteristics, including smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, education, use of supplements, weight and family history of cancer.

Determining Risk

During the decade, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died, and the researchers kept track of the timing and reasons for each death. Red meat consumption ranged from a low of less than an ounce a day, on average, to a high of four ounces a day, and processed meat consumption ranged from at most once a week to an average of one and a half ounces a day.

The increase in mortality risk tied to the higher levels of meat consumption was described as “modest,” ranging from about 20 percent to nearly 40 percent. But the number of excess deaths that could be attributed to high meat consumption is quite large given the size of the American population.

Extrapolated to all Americans in the age group studied, the new findings suggest that over the course of a decade, the deaths of one million men and perhaps half a million women could be prevented just by eating less red and processed meats, according to estimates prepared by Dr. Barry Popkin, who wrote an editorial accompanying the report.

To prevent premature deaths related to red and processed meats, Dr. Popkin suggested in an interview that people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week.

In place of red meat, nonvegetarians might consider poultry and fish. In the study, the largest consumers of “white” meat from poultry and fish had a slight survival advantage. Likewise, those who ate the most fruits and vegetables also tended to live longer.

Anyone who worries about global well-being has yet another reason to consume less red meat. Dr. Popkin, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, said that a reduced dependence on livestock for food could help to save the planet from the ravaging effects of environmental pollution, global warming and the depletion of potable water.

“In the United States,” Dr. Popkin wrote, “livestock production accounts for 55 percent of the erosion process, 37 percent of pesticides applied, 50 percent of antibiotics consumed, and a third of total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface water.”

Finding a Culprit

A question that arises from observational studies like this one is whether meat is in fact a hazard or whether other factors associated with meat-eating are the real culprits in raising death rates. The subjects in the study who ate the most red meat had other less-than-healthful habits. They were more likely to smoke, weigh more for their height, and consume more calories and more total fat and saturated fat. They also ate less fruits, vegetables and fiber; took fewer vitamin supplements; and were less physically active.

But in analyzing mortality data in relation to meat consumption, the cancer institute researchers carefully controlled for all these and many other factors that could influence death rates. The study data have not yet been analyzed to determine what, if any, life-saving benefits might come from eating more protein from vegetable sources like beans or a completely vegetarian diet.

The results mirror those of several other studies in recent years that have linked a high-meat diet to life-threatening health problems. The earliest studies highlighted the connection between the saturated fats in red meats to higher blood levels of artery-damaging cholesterol and subsequent heart disease, which prompted many people to eat leaner meats and more skinless poultry and fish. Along with other dietary changes, like consuming less dairy fat, this resulted in a nationwide drop in average serum cholesterol levels and contributed to a reduction in coronary death rates.

Elevated blood pressure, another coronary risk factor, has also been shown to be associated with eating more red and processed meat, Dr. Sinha and colleagues reported.

Poultry and fish contain less saturated fat than red meat, and fish contains omega-3 fatty acids that have been linked in several large studies to heart benefits. For example, men who consume two servings of fatty fish a week were found to have a 50 percent lower risk of cardiac deaths, and in the Nurses’ Health Study of 84,688 women, those who ate fish and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least once a week cut their coronary risk by more than 20 percent.

Ties to Cancer

Choosing protein from sources other than meat has also been linked to lower rates of cancer. When meat is cooked, especially grilled or broiled at high temperatures, carcinogens can form on the surface of the meat. And processed meats like sausages, salami and bologna usually contain nitrosamines, although there are products now available that are free of these carcinogens.

Data from one million participants in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition trial found that those who ate the least fish had a 40 percent greater risk of developing colon cancer than those who ate more than 1.75 ounces of fish a day. Likewise, while a diet high in red meat was linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer in the large Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, among the 35,534 men in the study, those who consumed at least three servings of fish a week had half the risk of advanced prostate cancer compared with men who rarely ate fish.

Another study, which randomly assigned more than 19,500 women to a low-fat diet, found after eight years a 40 percent reduced risk of ovarian cancer among them, when compared with 29,000 women who ate their regular diets.

Retrieved May 4, 2009 from

David Kessler Knew That Some Foods Are Hard to Resist; Now He Knows Why

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 27, 2009

He went in the middle of the night, long after the last employee had locked up the Chili’s Grill and Bar. He’d steer his car around the back, check to make sure no one was around and then quietly approach the dumpster.

Kessler’s aggressive approach toward the tobacco industry led to billion-dollar settlements between Big Tobacco and 46 states and laid the groundwork for legislation now pending in Congress that would place tobacco under FDA regulation.

Psoriasis link to health problems

Psoriasis causes itchy red patches on the skin

Women with psoriasis have an increased risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure, a study suggests.

Harvard Medical School researchers believe the inflammation associated with the chronic skin condition may be to blame.

The study published in Archives of Dermatology study follows other work linking psoriasis with health problems.

The condition, which affects up to 3% of the population, is linked to an over-active immune system.

These data illustrate the importance of considering psoriasis a systemic disorder rather than simply a skin disease Harvard Medical School

It causes skin cells to divide too fast, leading to the formation of scaly “plaques” of unshed cells on the surface.

The Harvard team focused on 78,000 female nurses who were free of diabetes and high blood pressure at the start of the 14-year study.

Women with psoriasis were 63% more likely to develop diabetes and 17% more likely to develop high blood pressure than women without psoriasis.

The link remained strong even after taking into account factors such as age, body mass index and smoking.

Insulin resistance

The researchers said that inflammation was a known risk factor for high blood pressure, and may also contribute to insulin resistance, a condition which often leads to type 2 diabetes.

Alternatively, they suggested that use of steroid therapy or other treatments for psoriasis may in some raise the risk of both conditions.

Writing in the journal, they said: “These data illustrate the importance of considering psoriasis a systemic disorder rather than simply a skin disease.

“Further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying these associations and to find out whether psoriasis therapy can reduce the risk for diabetes and hypertension.”

The Psoriasis Association said ciclosporin, a tablet used to treat moderate to severe psoriasis, had been linked to high blood pressure.

However, it said the extent of the relationship between drug therapy and problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure was unclear.

“We would urge anyone concerned about developing diabetes or high blood pressure to make an appointment to discuss it with their GP.”

Ellen Mason, of the British Heart Foundation, agreed further research was needed fully to understand the effect of psoriasis on the inside of the body.

She said: “As psoriasis is already a difficult, long term condition to endure, it is important to reassure people that there were many women with psoriasis that did not develop diabetes or high blood pressure during the course of the study.”

Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8008038.stm on 4/23/2009

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