Month: December 2011

IntraMax

Bloomberg Businessweek reports on a plethora of recent data that identifies junk food addiction as being just as serious as drug addiction. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), monosodium glutamate (MSG), hydrogenated oils, refined salt, and various other chemical preservatives found in processed junk food does the same thing to a person's brain as cocaine does.

A 2010 study conducted by scientists at Scripps Research Institute (SRI) in Florida found that rats given free access to Hormel Foods Corp. bacon, Sara Lee Corp. pound cake, The Cheesecake Factory Inc. cheesecake, and Pillsbury Co. Creamy Supreme cake frosting, experienced significant changes in brain activity and function — and these changes mirrored those that occur in the brains of drug addicts.

Another study conducted by researchers at both the University of Texas in Austin (UT) and the Oregon Research Institute found that prolonged consumption of junk foods results in reduced activity in the striatum, a section of the forebrain that registers reward. In other words, just like with illicit drugs, those addicted to junk food require ever-increasing amounts of it to get the same "high."

"The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it," said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) concerning the findings. "We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain."

In a correlative study, researchers identified a similarity in dopamine production levels between drug addicts and junk food addicts. Addiction to either one essentially causes the brain receptors that receive dopamine signals to lose their responsiveness. As a result, addicts require increasing amounts of the addictive substance to receive the same level of satisfaction.

Since processed foods are loaded with synthetic chemical additives, they are technically drugs themselves. So it is no wonder that millions of people around the world are addicted to them.

Editor's Note: NaturalNews is strongly against the use of all forms of animal testing. We fully support the implementation of humane medical experimentation that promotes the health and well-being of all living creatures.

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IntraMax

Exploring and trying out options for quitting smoking can be overwhelming and turn out to be very expensive and frustrating. The greatest myth about smoking is that if you break the nicotine addiction, you can quit. But the nicotine addiction is broken in 3 to 4 days, so why is it that 95% of smokers who quit "cold turkey" return to smoking within 6 months? On top of it all, none of the programs mentioned above properly address the nicotine addiction in the first place, so the "weaning process" is severely flawed from the start, setting up the smoker for failure.

Although initial research shows that each cigarette contains between 3 to 4 milligrams of nicotine, most premium brands are treated with chemicals by the manufacturer that increase the potency up to 35 times. In May of 1998, the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield sued the major cigarette manufacturers, including Marlboro, who settled for over 6 billion dollars in damages incurred due to the use of ammonia as a free-basing agent for the nicotine.

Long story made short – one cigarette contains up to 100 milligrams of nicotine potency. The patch delivers about .9 milligrams per hour of nicotine into the bloodstream. Nicotine gum contains 3 to 4 milligrams of nicotine per piece, which, again, is nothing close to a cigarette.

Quit smoking pills like Chantix and Zyban don't contain any nicotine at all, but block the brain's receptors to it, so a smoker can actually keep smoking and stay on the pills. This is highly dangerous because, besides blocking nicotine, the brain is also blocked from receiving dopamine and serotonin, the natural body chemistry for dealing with stress, including motivation for fight or flight situations. This sets up the client for heightened anxiety and feelings of suicide, all while not getting any nicotine.

Hypnosis addresses the urge to smoke and the mental and emotional moments of will power. Hypnosis is best for people who have quit smoking and want to assure they never go back. Electronic cigarettes still deliver high potency nicotine and most of the chemicals that come along with it.

The best, most comprehensive smoking cessation program involves addressing not only the nicotine addiction, but all habits, behaviors, and rituals smokers have developed, and replacing them with healthy behaviors that replenish a severely depleted system. The ultimate goal of quitting cigarettes is to never go back. In order to accomplish this, a smoker must consider the whole picture, including breathing patterns, hand to mouth habits, environment changes, vitamins, supplements, motivation, and a host of other aspects that are lacking in their lives.

The science of how lifestyle habits and nutrition promote health and longevity, known as Epigenetics, has dramatically advanced our knowledge base by providing a solid understanding of telomeres: telomeres are the tiny strands of DNA akin to a zipper that shorten with poor dietary choices, inflammation and everyday stress. Researchers reporting in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry show that reducing oxidative stress, cellular inflammation and improving DNA methylation pathways can extend telomere length and slow the biologic aging clock. Specific nutrients provide the necessary building blocks to support DNA health and extend your natural lifespan.

Genetic expression is not set in stone, and our genes are continually under the influence of our environment, lifestyle and dietary choices. Gene settings are made initially from our time in the womb, based largely on the nutritional status and lifestyle of the mother. As we age, our genes instantly read micronutrient and environmental cues in an effort to ensure short term survival. Every morsel of food energy we consume results in an alteration in gene expression, either promoting optimal health or eventual illness.

Targeted Nutrients and Foods Increase DNA Methylation to Maintain Telomere Length
The methylation pathway is critical to maintain DNA integrity and to prevent telomere shortening. Foods and nutrients that donate methyl groups are essential to prevent genetic mutations that result in cancer. Researchers reporting in The Journal of Nutrition found that men with the highest levels of folate in their blood have the longest telomeres when compared to those with the lowest levels. In addition to folate (800 mcg each day), vitamin B12 (500 to 1000 mcg daily) and the entire B-vitamin family are associated with longer telomeres. Sulfur-enriched proteins from nuts and seeds are also important methyl group donors.

Independent research projects have concluded that the minerals zinc (25 to 50 mg per day) and magnesium (400 to 800 mg each day) are necessary to accurately complete DNA sequencing during cell replication. A lack of these cofactors leads to DNA strand breakage, premature cell destruction and acceleration of the aging process. Vitamin C (1 to 3 grams per day) has been shown to slow the loss of telomeres in human vascular endothelial cells, an important element in preventing cardiovascular disease. Vitamin E tocotrienols (400 mg per day of a full-spectrum supplement) have been shown to restore the length of telomeres while reducing DNA damage, making it possible for a nutrient to reverse the shortening of telomeres and reverse an underlying cause of aging.

Stress and inflammation are two controllable factors that independently shorten telomere length and increase cell aging. Stress management is essential to lower the release of chemical messengers that fuel the flames of inflammation. Additionally, researchers have identified a host of polyphenol compounds (resveratrol, grape seed extract and curcumin) that lower systemic inflammation, help to maintain telomere length and extend healthy lifespan.

Raw or Cooked
Whether they're raw or cooked, cherries in any form contain the same anti-inflammatory substances, according to the University of Michigan Health System. They reported that people consuming about 1/2 pound of cherries daily over a period of four weeks noticed significant joint pain relief. To be sure of getting the most from cooked cherries, include the cooking juices.

Canned
Count canned cherries in when including cherries in a regime of pain-relieving foods. The University of Michigan also included canned cherries in its review for helping to relieve aches and pains associated with musculoskeletal conditions. Keeping a couple of cans of tart cherries in the pantry ensures there will always be something in the house in the event supplies of other cherry products run low. This does not include maraschino, whose natural chemical makeup has been altered by preserving and adding sugar.

Juice
Some people swear by the healing effects of drinking tart cherry juice. Tart cherries are thought by some to have the greatest pain-killing power, and Montmorency cherries are considered the most popular sour cherry. Tart cherries are also rich in potassium, which may help the body create an alkaline-forming state, and protect against acidosis, which is a breeding ground for the formation of disease. Drinking six ounces of tart cherry juice daily is the approximate equivalent to 1/2 pound of raw or cooked cherries. Cherry juice can be diluted with water. Mixing black cherry juice and tart cherry juice provides sweetness, making the drink more palatable for some people.

Powder
Taking cherry powder provides a quick, portable, easy way to utilize the benefits of cherries. An animal study funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute in 2008 indicated that rats receiving dried cherry powder had greatly reduced levels of inflammation in their bodies. Additionally, when the cherry powder was fed mixed with a high-fat diet, the rats didn't build body fat or gain weight at the same rate as control animals.

Concentrate
Cherry concentrate is simply cherry juice with the excess water removed. It provides a super-punch of pain-relieving nutrients. As little as two ounces a day diluted with water may offer relief for aching joints and muscles and relieve the agonizing pain of gout. Look for organic cherry concentrate to ensure the absence of pesticides and other chemicals.

Supplements
A variety of supplements contain cherries including capsules, liquid extracts, and snack bars. Cherry supplements may not cure arthritis and gout, but like fresh and cooked cherries and cherry juice, they too offer another way to consume the important chemicals that provide relief for those suffering in pain. Some supplements contain high levels of quercetin and vitamin C as well as antioxidants and anthocyanins. A common daily dose of cherry extract is 2,000 mg divided into four doses throughout the day; however, it's best to consult a health practitioner before taking unfamiliar supplements.

A quick review of just the current and active recalls posted on the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) website shows that more than 60 million pounds of beef, pork, chicken, and turkey products were recalled in 2011 for contamination with Listeria, E. Coli, and salmonella, a total of 60 million pounds (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recal…).

And this is just the meat products that are still in the process of being recalled. There are literally tens of thousands more pounds of meat products that were fully recalled in 2011 (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recal…). Together, this is a massive amount of meat mass, and there are likely tens of thousands of people that ate this tainted meat before the USDA and the companies that produced it got around to recalling it.

If conventional meat were treated the same as raw milk, it would be outlawed
But were any of these companies shut down? Did any of them have all their products forcibly recalled over unfounded suspicion that they may have been tainted? Did any of them have their entire businesses quarantined while bumbling bureaucrats dragged their feet testing the products in question to determine whether or not such drastic actions were even necessary in the first place?

The answer to this, of course, is a resounding no. All of this overreactive tyranny is reserved for small-scale producers of raw, organic foods, and for honest companies like Organic Pastures Dairy (OPD), which had its entire business shut down for over a month because of five unconfirmed cases of E. Coli, which were later determined to have nothing to do with the dairy's raw milk products (http://www.naturalnews.com/034458_O…).

And this is how raw milk is treated everywhere. Nearly half of the country has laws in place that either highly restrict or fully ban access to raw milk, despite the fact that conventional meat — not to mention most of the factory food supply — is much more dangerous. In reality, conventional meat products, not raw dairy products, belong in the class of food products that are considered inherently dangerous and worthy of being more highly regulated, if not banned altogether.

And yet federal and state health officials would like us all to believe that raw milk is the real danger, and that it comes out of cow and goat udders filled with deadly bacteria. And the only way to make it safe, of course, is to blast it with heat and force it through a mechanism that breaks apart the natural fat cells and turns them into a toxin.

In reality, conventional meat products are far more prone to deadly disease than raw milk, and this has been made abundantly clear just by the sheer volume of conventional meat products that were recalled during this past year. So perhaps the USDA, FDA, and state health authorities will get a clue in 2012 and spend more time focusing on one of the real purveyors of foodborne illness — the conventional meat supply.

The Good News
A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2010 found that vitamin B6 when combined with folate and methionine can reduce the chances of lung cancer by as much as two-thirds. Asparagus contains both vitamin B and folate. (Methionine, an amino acid, can be obtained from meat, poultry, fish, cottage cheese, peanuts beans, eggs, garlic, lentils, onions, yogurt and sesame seeds).

In 2009, researchers in Nanjing, China identified a compound called Asparanin A in asparagus. The researchers found that Asparanin A arrests the growth liver cancer cells and can even cause death in those cells.
Asparagus is the best food source of the anti-oxidant glutathione, a substance researchers at the Institute for Cancer Prevention have identified as effective in warding off cancer. Glutathione is also believed to have anti-viral properties.

Research has shown that chronic, excessive inflammation and chronic oxidative stress heighten the risk for many types of cancers. Since asparagus contains many nutrients, including saponins, which have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory property, it deserves a place in a healthy diet, along with other vegetables and fruits. The anti-inflammatory nutrients in asparagus make it an excellent dietary choice for people trying to combat diseases such as arthritis and rheumatism. It can also help prevent varicose veins.

Asparagus benefits the body in many other ways. Ayurvedic healing refers to asparagus as "shatavari" which means "women with a thousand husbands." Ayurvedic experts have used shatavari for centuries to treat the symptoms of menopause as well as infertility and loss of libido.

The Bad News
Asparagus contains an amino acid called asparagine. Normal cells generally manufacture this substance, but leukemia cells often cannot and must obtain their supply from adjacent normal cells. If starved of asparagine, leukemia cells die. Elgar, a pharmaceutical prescribed for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), contains an enzyme, L-asparaginase, which destroys circulating asparagine in order to starve leukemia cells. The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians states "Eating asparagus would seem ill advised for people who have cancers that respond to l-asparaginase."

Conclusions
The popular health myth of asparagus as a magical remedy for cancer is unfounded; the prescriptions which accompany that myth for ingesting massive quantities of this vegetable will likely not have the desired effect. Recommendations which rely solely on one food as a supposed miracle cure are based on a mistaken allopathic "magic bullet" concept to the alternative health model.

Alternative health is about balance, not about one single herb, vegetable or fruit with extraordinary properties. Take with a grain of full spectrum salt any health advice which sounds suspiciously like it came from the Lord of the Rings.
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Nature offers an abundance of healthy choices for creating health and these foods work in combination with each other, and with a healthy lifestyle. Eating reasonable amounts of asparagus, as part a diet which includes many different fruits and vegetables, will help protect you against cancer, as well as help strengthen the body in other ways.

Certain foods are not advisable for some people, who have allergies and food sensitivities. In the case of those few cancers, such as ALL, which respond to l-asparaginase, asparagus may be a food to limit in your diet.

You have probably seen them at one point or another. A concerned mother is portrayed as an idiot for questioning the HFCS content of the mysterious purple drink being fed to her children at a birthday party, and a boyfriend is reprimanded in the park by his girlfriend for refusing to take a bite out of her HFCS-laden popsicle.

These and other corn industry-funded advertisements, which are part of CRA's multi-million dollar campaign to salvage the image of HFCS, are a poor attempt to convince the public that "sugar is sugar," and that the body cannot tell the difference between white, refined sugar and HFCS. But nothing could be further from the truth, says the sugar industry — and CRA even openly admitted this back in 1997 during case proceedings relating to the export of HFCS to Mexico.

"Like the horse and the automobile, sugar and (HFCS) are two different products in terms of their physical and functional characteristics, as well as in their production process, distribution and commercial application," said Peter Buzzanell, a corn industry expert, in an affidavit during that time.

But the corn industry has changed its tune to account for declining sales, and now insists that HFCS is no different than table sugar. And yet the simple compositional differences between HFCS, which is obviously high in fructose, and refined table sugar, which consists of sucrose, are enough to show, at the very least, that the two substances are definitely not the same.

However, CRA says that not only are its claims valid, but that it should also be allowed to rebrand HFCS by calling it "corn sugar" instead. CRA has filed a petition with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rename HFCS, but has already begun using the new name in various products without receiving an official FDA ruling.

"The industry has done a very good job trying to convince people it's sugar from corn," Michael Goran, professor of preventive medicine and director of the Childhood Obesity Center at the University of Southern California (USC), is quoted as saying in AJC. "It's not, it's manufactured from corn by a highly industrialized process."

by: Anthony Gucciardi
(NaturalNews) High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is known to be a contributor to obesity and a number of serious health ailments, but very few health experts and medical publications ever discuss the highly toxic substance hiding within a large percentage of HFCS — mercury. Found in a large number of processed foods and sodas, mercury-containing HFCS is toxic in all forms and may be contributing to the rampant disease rates inside the United States and elsewhere.

The presence of mercury in processed HFCS was first revealed through the results of two little-known U.S. studies. Researchers from the two studies reported that about half of tested samples of HFCS contained the toxic element, a substance known to wreak havoc on the nervous system, neurological function, and overall biological function. Even more concerning is the fact that mercury was found in nearly one third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage items, which listed HFCS as the first-or-second-highest labeled ingredient. Of course these are only a sampling of popular products containing HFCS as a main ingredient, and it is a significant challenge to find processed food brands that do not contain HFCS as a major ingredient.

After the report was released to the mainstream media detailing the presence of mercury in the food supply, health freedom activists immediately began petitioning the FDA to take action. Their calls, while oftentimes highly publicized and met with considerable support, ultimately fell on the deaf ears of the FDA. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy was one such organization that called upon the FDA to remove toxic mercury from processed foods. Even the co-author of the two explosive U.S. studies, Dr. David Wallinga, spoke on behalf of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. In a prepared statement on the subject, he stated:

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply."

Mercury is certainly a threat to health in any amount, but the findings become truly alarming when considering the fact that the average American consumed 37.8 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup in 2008 alone. Much of this HFCS most likely contained mercury, accumulating in the bodies of unknowing consumers who are not privy to the very real dangers of processed junk food. It is also important to note that this it but a single source of mercury exposure. CFL light bulbs, seafood, and amalgam fillings are also common sources of mercury exposure that are contributing to the mercury toxicity of consumers worldwide.

The ubiquitous nature of HFCS makes it nearly impossible to avoid if eating a junk diet full of dead, processed food items. In contrast, eating a high quality organic diet full of raw produce will make it nearly impossible to ever encounter HFCS. Until the FDA or another organization is forced to respond to health conscious activism, choosing 100% organic foods is the best way to avoid mercury-filled HFCS.

Sources for this article include:
http://naturalsociety.com/study-fin…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy…
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceCom…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release…