Enviro Mentality

This is NO surprise, that there has been found a possible link to ADHD and pesticides.

Organophosphate pesticides are nerve toxins and work on the nervous system of an insect.  In large doses, the same actions would happen in a human being.

But, we humans are exposed to these compounds on a much smaller scale.  From womb to grave, depending on environmental factors such as where we live (agricultural areas being the highest or high applications of pesticides around the home and yard) to what we eat (organic or not) are cumulative.  These toxins are stored in fat and brain. It is no wonder why so many children today are experiencing ADHD.

Pesticides are excitotoxins causing the neurons in the brain to misfire.  ADHD is one of these conditions. Pesticides are just one class of excitotoxins, many artificial foods contain ingredients which cause this condition.

This is just another  example of the case to end pesticide exposure and a return to organic eating.  By visiting your local farmer’s market, and buying locally produced food, you can limit your pesticide exposure.

What’s on your food?  Below is a list of the highest pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables published by the Environmental Working Group.

This list allows you to make better choices when buying food.  Obviously, for the most tainted products, organic produce is best.   If you can’t get organic, check at your local farmer’s market to see if  local farmers use chemicals.  Many farmers are opting not to because of consumer concerns.  Although local food providers are not ‘certified organic’  (which is a very expensive and paperwork-intensive process) some farmers call themselves ‘beyond organic.’  This means that they go far beyond what the current USDA specifications for organic are.

Notice, too, that imported grapes (from Chile, for example) are higher in pesticides that their U.S. counterparts.

This makes it even more important that you adopt a detox regimen, drink pure water and rid your life of as many chemicals as you can.  This is why herbal detox remedies are important, as well as detox baths.  Add to this the benefits of massage and you’re on your way to a healthier life!

FoodNews: Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides

The Full List: 47 Fruits & Veggies

Note: We ranked a total of 47 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

That organic food in your freezer or refrigerator is probably owned by Kraft, Cargill, Kellogg, Pepsi, Hershey, M&M, Coca Cola and others.  Click here fora link to research done by Phil Howard, Assistant Professor at Michigan University.

It’s obvious that ‘big food’ wants to cash in on the recent rise in demand for organics.  Private labels go from Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Kroger, Target and down to more ‘organic’ companies like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

Ah, but things get dicey when the so-called ‘organics’ get caught with their pants down like Aurora Dairy did in 2007.  Co-mingling non-organic milk with organic, stepping outside the organic standards for feed and bedding,  moving cows from organic facilities to non-organic and continuing to claim milk was organic, and failure to process milk according to the National Organic Program (NOP), and along with a host of other violations. These ‘greenwashed’ products often contain pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones from cross contamination.

Wal-Mart too, has been involved in investigations which allege ‘greenwashing‘ of its products.

What IS Organic?  Watch this short video and see if you are making a difference with your purchases.

Organic certification is under attack.Go to these sites to read more about….

Beauty and Cosmetics: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm

Food: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4756

To HELP PRESERVE ORGANICS, visit the Organic Consumer’s page and use their links to fight back FOR ORGANICS!

Oprah’s show featuring Michael Pollan and “Food, Inc” has many of us ‘foodies’ CHEERING !

This is JUST what’s needed, the well known ‘Oprah Effect’, to kick the plight of small farmers vs pesticide-laden, genetically modified, antibiotic filled food — right into the limelight!  THANK YOU, OPRAH!

People like me know too much.  A trip through the grocery store for us, isn’t what it used to be.  Where I never gave a thought about what I was buying, now I venture through the grocery store like I’m walking through a mine field!  Certain aisles I avoid like the plague: snack food, soda, meat and dairy and the entire frozen food section.  Forget about cereals, bread, lunch meats and anything processed.  Ugh….

I use it as a people watching experience, or rather I should say, a grocery watching experience.  I look at what people have in their carts.  Most of it is crap:  processed, frozen, sugary and full of chemicals.

Thank you, Oprah…. thank you a bazillion times.  What you have done for the local food movement is momentous.  When people see “Food, Inc” and hopefully, “Fresh, The Movie” then perhaps the food movement will get into high gear.  Consumers - the REAL heavy hitters behind everything, will find out about Monsanto’s bag of tricks.

The lid will be blown off Pandora’s box containing the secrets of Tyson, Perdue, and their ‘chicken secrets’, Cargill, ADM, Swift, and many others.  The veil over the food industry is  s-l-o-w-l-y  being exposed.  Everything from the pesticides on your food, mysterious additives in processed food and stuff like soda. Our bodies were not designed to eat this way!  The truth is coming out about artificial ingredients and what they are doing to us!

If every person who reads this (or something else on food) passes it on to another person, in time the chain will be so big;  imagine the voice that people will have when they are educated!

Write to Oprah, foodies…. and get her to do more shows on this!  There are lots of other visionaries such as Sally Fallon from the Weston A. Price Foundation, and farmers advocating grassfed animals.

http://www.eatwild.com/news.html

Because I feel very strongly about supporting local food endeavors and educating people on environmental issues, I recently  made an announcement of an upcoming showing of “Fresh, The Movie” and “Food, Inc.”

In my e-mail I stated: “Please keep this in the back of your minds to come to because these are two VERY IMPORTANT films that anyone concerned about our food supply really needs to see.”

I received an reply from a editor in the Charlottesville area:

“I question the validity of your statement that either or both of these films are important for everyone to see.”

Excuse me????

If you are truly concerned about our food system I would think that you’d want people to see these films.

If you feel that the public has been purposely kept in the dark by the FDA, USDA,  the food industry, large corporations like Wal-Mart, chemical giants such as Monsanto, fast food companies and large agribusiness concerns, how can you ‘question the validity’ of my attempt to educate consumers?

Current health statistics cite rising rates of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, food allergies, birth defects and a host of diseases from our modern diet. Consumption of food laced with pesticides, additives, hormones, antibiotics, artificial colorings and flavorings are making people sick.  Society’s dependence on cheap processed foods, proffered by our ‘friends’ in the food industry and fast food chains, have led to a frightening rate of obesity, illness & premature death.  With this in mind, can you honestly say that either or both of these films are NOT important?

Pending legislation threatens the very existence of small farms and farmer’s markets across this country.  Passage, without amendments, will sound a death knell for small farmers and severely damage organic food concerns. If you support our farmers and local food initiatives, then I would hope you would be for the dissemination of this information.

If  you are committed to preserving the right of citizens to get their food directly from small farmers, instead of corporate giants who put profits ahead of the health of their customers, why then do you not support this venue?

Are you at all concerned about Monsanto and their tactics of bullying, spying on and putting small farmers out of business through litigation?

Do you question Monsanto’s worldwide monopoly for Round-Up Ready crops?  What about the environmental effect of farmer’s increasing use of  pesticides on  all GMOs?  Are you unfazed about the environmental impact of pesticides on the health of this planet & ALL of its inhabitants?

“Fresh” captured many accolades in 2009.  Among them were official selections from:  Environmental Film Festival, Sustainable Living Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Maine International Film Festival and the Kerry Film Festival.  It was reviewed far and wide, garnering praise for insightful views into the food world.

“Food, Inc” also was applauded in many circles last year.  In addition to the Gotham Award, it also was on the list for Academy Award for Best Documentary, the 25th Anniversary Spirit Award, and is on the list for an Oscar Award.

Everyone that I’ve talked to who has seen either (or both) agrees that these two films are important.

Methinks, dear scribe, that you are outnumbered!

As a child of the 50’s, I ate my share of frozen TV dinners. With the advent of the microwave and improved packaging technology, one can live their life without ever having to cook from scratch.

An article posted by Rachael Ray extols the benefits of the new frozen foods. Reading the ingredients, I noticed a ‘Seafood Multi-Pak’.  Hmmmm… knowing that many seafood varieties are imported from China, I’d pass on this one.  China’s dubious record for food purity is well documented.  Inspections of food from China at U.S. ports have turned up a scary list.  Do YOU trust imported Chinese food?  I don’t!

Pork from Hormel?  I’d skip that, too.  If you’ve seen either “Fresh” or “Food, Inc” or done any reading about the food industry at all you’d know that this ‘food’ isn’t really food.  The animals are fed hormones and antibiotics, which YOU are eating when you consume this food. They’re fed GMO corn, which has been sprayed with pesticides.

Knowing what I know about food, I would hardly say that these items are “New and Improved.” Read the ingredient listing on any frozen food and see how many words you can pronounce.  Some of the contents in food you probably don’t want to know… but should.

A recent study in the International Journal of Biological Sciences, has linked organ damage in mammals (rats) to consumption of Monsanto’s GMO corn, NK603, MON 810 & MON 863.  Closely monitoring each animal within set parameters for 90 days,  effects were noticed in the kidney, liver, heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system (formation of blood).  The study goes on to say that there is a potential toxicity relating to the pesticides specific to each species of corn.  It was noted by the scientists in the IJBS:

“Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity….These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown.”

In another GMO report, Greenpeace reiterated that Monsanto’s methods were not intrusive enough to detect inconsistancies in the parameters used in its testing.  In other words, the whole testing process is flawed.

Monsanto obviously complicates the test data by testing with unrelated groups, therefore there can be no clear conclusion.

GMOs have been linked to bee colony collapse and butterfly deaths.  Why wouldn’t this be so?  After all, the plants on which the bees and butterflies feed will kill them.  Between GMO crops and the use of pesticides on them, it is a death knell for pollinators.

GMO corn is in all of our food, be it from the U.S. or imported in food from China or other nations.

Forbes has even bought into the lie that Monsanto is ‘The Company of The Year”.  Read on and get sick!

We need to push for more organic food.  Consumers have a voice against GMO products.

Toxins make pain.  It’s a well documented fact that the more junk you’re carrying around in your system, the more you’ll be in pain.

Again I use myself as a case study.  Years ago worked at Lowe’s in the garden center and inside seasonal department.  I was around the pesticide area constantly.  I swept floors, handled the bags for customers, restocked the shelves. (never without gloves)  I started experiencing pain all through my body.  Sometimes at night it would wake me out of a dead sleep;  I’d wake up screaming as if I were being stabbed!

After I left Lowe’s, my constant pain stopped.  I was being poisoned by pesticides!

Being more conscious of what I eat, I find that when my diet gets ‘junky’ with processed foods slipping in, and dehydration,  I start to experience more pain.  Toxins are building up.  My movement is restricted, I hurt more all over and I find myself reaching for the bottle of aspirin.

A good detox bath with either Epsom salts or Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath takes the edge off that.  It helps the cells release and rebuild. Damaged cells allow more toxins in.

Follow these rules:

• Go on a healthy, all natural (uncooked) food diet for a few days or a week.
• Eat enough fiber.  Elimination of toxins through waste is very important.
• Hydrate - Drink water, green teas, fresh juices - NO soda, fizzy water, juices with sugar or caffeine.
• Go for massages to help drain your lymph system and remove toxins and acids
• Take a detox bath using mustard bath and/or Epsom salts.
• Do what you can to eliminate stress:  learn meditation, go for walks outside; whatever calms you.

You can help your body heal, relieve pain and regenerate.

Last night I watched a PBS documentary on “Nature” called “Frogs:  The Thin Green Line”. These amphibians survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and are truly remarkable.

A troubling aspect is that frogs are disappearing worldwide.  A devastating fungus, Chytrid (Kit-rid) is decimating the numbers of frogs in every corner of the world. In jungles of South America, to the Far East, here in America, silence reigns where before the the song of these creatures filled the air.  Scientists are in a race to discover the cause and how to prevent its spread.  They’ve even taken some from the wild, replicating as best they can their natural habitat, to ensure their survival.

Another disturbing fact is that frogs and toads from suburban areas have been found to have increasing instances of genetic mutations. Frogs taken from drainage ponds and catch basins where water has flowed from lawns into storm drains possess a frighteningly high rate of abnormalities.  Frogs with only front limbs, or with 3 back legs, no back legs and a long tail: these are results of exposure to lawn chemicals, most notably - ATRAZINE.   These frogs were found to have THREE TO FOUR TIMES the allowable limit set by the EPA for exposure to ATRAZINE, the most common ingredient in lawn care chemicals.

Read for yourself.  Do your own research on the subject, but most of all - do your part.  If you own a home, please, for the sake of your children, your pets, neighbors and our Earth - start today to eliminate toxins from your life. Stop using pesticides! This movement is growing and cannot grow fast enough!

Pesticides pose a health risk to humans, especially children.  Because the ‘pests’ they are designed to kill - insects, fungi and plants, their use in the past half century has become the norm.  Not only farmers use them but the average household uses a frightening amount each year.

Pesticide manufacturers will SWEAR that these products are safe.  I once attended a seminar given by some of the folks at Ortho, Spectracide and others.  I was absolutely enraged to hear these men LIE about being able to put these toxins on FOOD, then eat them an hour later!  I wanted to stand up and scream…, alas, it would have meant the end of my job.  They will defend them to the minute they are pulled off the market!

Recent studies show that they cause damage in the following areas of human health:

Skin, lung and eye irritations

Neurological systems

Hormone

Carcinogenic effects

What can you do?  Limit your exposure as much as possible and detox your body often. This list gives information of how you can help yourself avoid pesticides and why!

Just a simple start of a detox bath once or twice a week, plus eating organic food, drinking purified water can go a long way to help reduce the toxic load.  These poisons accumulate in the body, so it’s time to get rid of them - for a healthier YOU !