Category: Nutrition

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Government GMO food label coming soon

Should You Care About the Government’s new “Bioengineered” GMO Food Label?

Starting January 2022, some grocery store foods will begin featuring a statement or a symbol indicating that they contain “Bioengineered” ingredients. This labeling law — called by critics the DARK Act when it passed, Denying Americans the Right to Know — is the U.S. government’s solution to informing the public about foods that contain GMOs.

Unfortunately, the law is not a sufficient way to keep GMOs out of your shopping cart. For starters, it largely does not address new types of GMOs, nor meat and dairy products that come from animals fed GMOs

Learn more about the “BE Food” label, and why the Butterfly is still the most trusted and rigorous seal for true GMO avoidance!

What You Need To Know About Bioengineered (BE) Food Labeling

Do you know what GMO really means?

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Things You Can Do to Help Neuropathy

The first thing you need to know about neuropathy is it is nerve damage. The second thing you need to know is that B vitamins are needed by the body to build healthy nerves.

In order to see an improvement in your neuropathy you need to find out what will burn up B vitamins and thus slow your progress. It a matter of math, if you are using things that uses up the B vitamins, you need more of the B vitamins to make progress.

Drinking a lot of coffee, tea and soft drinks (including de-caffeinated coffee, tea and soft drinks) cause……..

See Thing you Should Do….

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Digestion Problems – Is it your Stomach or Liver?

There are many people who complain about digestive problems. They take all sorts of prescription medications and over the counter remedies.   They take natural products as well.  It has a lot of people’s attention.

If people burp or feel nausea, they usually blame their stomach and sometimes just decide it’s too much acid and take an anti-acid tablet.

There is something to understand – If it was the correct reason, you could solve it.   If the problem keeps happening, it’s probably the wrong reason and thus you don’t have a correct solution.   If you take a remedy and it doesn’t solve the problem, you need to find out more.   You need more information.

I’ve posted a video in our newsletter that talks about the gallbladder – BUT – there is a lot of good information about your digestive system and how it works that might give you a better insight into what is happening with you.   Do watch it.   You and Your Gallbladder.

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Medication Side Effects and Nutritional Deficiencies

Ever listen to a drug commercial and their disclaimer at the end where they tell you all the possible side effects.   Or did you ever check on the potential side effects of a drug you are taking on one of the sites www.rxlist.com or drugs.com.  You might wonder what can create so many problems.

Well, it is true that a drug is a chemical that is unnatural to the body and is actually a toxin to the body, but due to those very properties they force the body to make some corrections, or at the very least cover up the symptoms of whatever it is that is a problem.

Read the Article  Medication Side Effects and Nutritional Deficiencies

 

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The Safety of Vitamin B6

by Bob Held

The Linus Pauling Institute found that adverse effects have only been documented from Vitamin B6 supplements and never from food sources.

Therefore, safety concerning only the supplemental form of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, also called pyridoxine hydrochloride) is discussed here.

Although vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin and is excreted in the urine, long-term supplementation with very high doses of pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) may result in painful neurological symptoms known as sensory neuropathy.

Symptoms include pain and numbness of the extremities and in severe cases, difficulty walking. Sensory neuropathy typically develops at doses of pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) in excess of 1,000 mg a day.

However, there have been a few case reports of individuals who developed sensory neuropathies at doses of less than 500 mg of Vitamin B6 daily over a period of months.

None of the studies in which a neurological examination was performed reported evidence of sensory nerve damage at intakes below 200 mg of pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) daily.

To prevent sensory neuropathy in virtually all individuals, the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine set the tolerable upper intake level for pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) at 100 mg/day for adults.

To your health.

McVitamins

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You have to Check the Labels, and more – Healthy Foods

There was a time when shopping at a Health Food Store pretty much assured that you got whole foods without pesticides, hidden sugars or chemicals.   That time has passed.

It is now popular to be natural and healthy.   But once something becomes popular, you are now assured that there are marketers out there that are looking to trick you into buying their products.

First you have to check the labels on any processed foods.  What is really in them?  Make sure you know what each of the ingredients mean.   An example is MSG, which has a long list of of names that actually mean they include MSG.

Emergen-C has been around for a long time.  It’s quite popular.   The company has been bought out by a drug company – Pfizer.   Yes, the world’s biggest drug company.  Pfizer has a history of health care fraud and illegal marketing of its products now wants to sell you Vitamin C.   Their big name multi-vitamin is Centrum.   This is a popular brand due to their advertising, but is actually a collection of man-made vitamins created in the lab.   In fact, people complain about side effects from taking Centrum including headaches and gassy stomach.    What will they do to the vitamin C formula?

Do you like fruit juices?  You can buy many different combinations that sound delicious and are touted as healthy.  But are they what they say they are?   Naked Juice is a popular brand which is owned by the Pepsi Cola Company.  There is a lawsuit due to the fact that their advertising states they are natural but their ingredients are not.  They are being sued for using GMOs and synthetic substances in its “Non-GMO” and “All-Natural” products.  They are hardly “all natural”.

There are more.  The bottom line is that you have to be careful about any processed foods and supplements that you buy.   You have to check the labels.

Here is a site that gives you information on GMO Foods http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/

On supplements, remember to look for whole food supplements, the type that your body recognizes as food, not made in a laboratory.    Some info is here http://www.mcvitamins.com/natural-vs-synthetic.htm

And for that long list of names that mean MSG   http://www.mcvitamins.com/Causes%20of%20Neuropathy/toxins-cause-neuropathy.htm#A    Boy, was I upset when I found a “homemade” soup at a health food store that I liked and checked the ingredients.  Yes, one of the ingredients listed was another name for MSG.  You have to be vigilant.

To your health!

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How do you get good health when you lead a Fast Food Lifestyle?

In the 1950s, a movement was created to free the housewife of all the long hours of work it took to run a household. New gadgets abounded which helped her to cook and clean. If you look at the ads of the day, we find the latest modern convenience being advertised with this goal in mind. New types of dryers, new types of cookware, portable TVs, coffee makers, vacuum cleaners, etc. etc. Portable TVs seems to enable the housewife to watch TV wherever she was and thus be able to see the latest TV ads telling her what else she could buy to free up her time.

There were ads for new types of fabrics that you don’t have to iron. There were ads for the latest cleaning agents that cleaned things with less work. Little is said about the toxins that were added to the cookware, fabrics and cleaning solutions, but it makes things quicker.

Then the food industry caught on. Although already delivering canned and frozen foods, they started developing packaged foods, processed foods, instant cake mixes, instant coffee, and other instant types of beverages which helped shorten the time being spent on cooking. Nothing is said about what is added to the foods to keep them on the shelf longer or to enable them to be instant, etc. etc. but time spent cooking was shortened.

Then in the 60s, fast food restaurants opened up. Now you could herd you family into the local restaurant and for a minimum expense feed them. Of course, you were actually feeding them minimal nutrition as well, but it saved time.

So, yes, now that we are used to this, how do you reverse it and actually get food that is healthy but doesn’t take a long time to prepare. I’ve tried buying cooked foods at my local health food store, which is better than elsewhere but tends to be redundant, doesn’t really give you the foods that you want to eat, and you have to check the small print next to the printed of the food to be certain there isn’t something in the food that you don’t feel good about putting in your body. I’m always looking for evaporated cane juice which seems to be considered an okay way to assimilate sugar, or for the various names that MSG is called.

Yes, we are going to have to use those modern gadgets to figure out if they can make our cooking faster (mixers, food processors and vegetable juicers do help), but we really do have to confront preparing foods to get the most out of what we put into our mouths.

To your health,

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Is Organic Produce Worth The Extra Cost? by Gretchen Scalpi

Found this article and wanted to pass it forward.

Is Organic Produce Worth The Extra Cost?

We all know it’s better to eat more fruit and vegetables. But concerns about the safety of conventionally grown produce versus organically grown always comes up as well.

When produce is organic, it means that it has been produced without using chemical fertilizers or pesticides. There are some compelling reasons why people choose to buy organic produce. The main reason to eat organic produce is to avoid the pesticide residue left on foods. Hands down, organically raised food is better for the environment. Absence of pesticides results in healthier soil, water, and wildlife. Buying organically grown produce supports small farmers and contributes to biodiversity.

Some people choose organic produce because they believe it has a higher nutritional value than commercially grown produce. The comparisons of nutritional content between food organically grown and conventionally grown produce, however, shows little difference. Consider also that much of the produce we buy today is not always locally grown. We have many fruits and vegetables to choose from year round because they have been shipped from other parts of the country (or the world). The fact that a fruit or vegetable is organic does not necessarily translate to nutritional superiority simply because it’s organic. If shipped from far away, it may already be past its nutritional peak.

For many health conscious families, the purchase of organic produce is cost prohibitive. As much as they would like to eat more organically grown food, they simply cannot afford the higher cost. Most of us have a food budget and have to make choices about what we buy, and perhaps a compromise is what’s called for. There are two things you can do to take advantage of organically grown produce as much as possible.

Buy local organic produce when it’s in season. In many parts of the USA, that means taking advantage of certain fruits and vegetables during the warmer months when available. Freezing or canning local organic produce is a possible option for when those items are out of season.

Buy conventionally grown produce from the “Clean 15” list, and organic only for those foods that are on the “The Dirty Dozen” list. The Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables which have the largest amount of pesticide residues, and the Clean 15 have the least amount.

The “Clean 15”:

Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Kiwi fruit
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes
Sweet onions

The “Dirty Dozen”:

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce

When the warm weather arrives again, make a habit of visiting your local farmers’ markets and buy local organic produce throughout the season.

© 2013 Gretchen Scalpi. All rights reserved.

Gretchen Scalpi is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator. She is the author of “The Quick Start Guide To Healthy Eating”, “The Everything Guide to Managing and Reversing Pre-Diabetes”, “The Everything Diabetes Cookbook, 2nd ed.” and “Pre-Diabetes Your Second Chance At Health”. Use your organic produce in the recipes from her book “Quick Start Recipes For Healthy Meals” available at http://gretchenscalpi.com/quick-start-recipes/.