Feds say it's okay to lie about pomegranate juice

Federal government says it's okay to lie about pomegranate juice, but not to tell the truth
J. D. Heyes
Monday, May 28, 2012
http://www.naturalnews.com/036000_pomegranate_juice_FTC_health_claims.html

Do you remember our recent story about Coca-Cola getting away with advertising one of its drinks as "Pomegranate Blueberry," even though it only contained a measly 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, of each of those juices? Well, we now learn that the federal government not only sanctions lying about ingredients in drinks, but will punish companies who try to tell the truth about those same products.

To recap:

Beverage company Pom Wonderful which, as its name suggests, manufactures drinks containing lots of pomegranate, lost a federal false advertising suit it launched against Coca-Cola's subsidiary, Minute Maid, which manufactures the aforementioned Pomegranate Blueberry, because while the ingredients are prominently displayed on the labeling, there is very little of them actually in the drink.

But a federal appeals panel, citing federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules, disagreed with Pom Wonderful. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that said federal regulations say a company can name a drink after a "flavoring" that it contains, even if it's not the primary ingredient.

What makes the ruling even more incredulous, given the second part of this story, is the fact that Minute Maid's label on Pomegranate Blueberry says, "Help Nourish Your Brain" above a drawing of fruits. That, as you may have deduced, suggests a medical benefit from drinking this pomegranate concoction, even if there isn't much actual pomegranate in it.

What's 'deceptive' about the truth?

Enter Pom Wonderful, the company that actually puts pomegranate - which research proves can lower harmful LDL cholesterol levels, improve blood flow to the heart for cardiac patients, reduce thickening of arteries that supply blood to the brain, and lower blood pressure - in its drinks.

It seems the same federal court system thinks it's okay for Coca-Cola to sprinkle a little of the juice in its drinks and call it nourishment for your brain, but Pom Wonderful - whose drinks contain 100 percent pomegranate juice - can't tout the fruit's health benefits.

Just days after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down Pom's lawsuit against Coca-Cola, a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) judge ruled that health claims made by Pom were deceptive.

The ruling from Administrate Law Judge D. Michael Chappell came after hearing testimony for months, from May through November 2011 - testimony which included appearances by noted diet and coronary expert Dr. Dean Ornish, who - among other foods - recommends eating pomegranates to improve cardiac health.

Note, too, that Pom Wonderful, a Delaware company which is headquartered in Los Angeles, has spent some $35 million over the past 10 years studying the health benefits of pomegranates, and relied on the results of that body of research in advertising its products.

Not officially sanctioned research

Chappell, however, said Pom's advertising "would lead reasonable consumers to conclude that drinking Pom's juice or taking its supplements would treat, prevent, or reduce serious health problems, and that it was clinically proven to do so," according to Courthouse News Service.

What's more, Chappell said in his 330-page ruling that while Pom's research indeed showed a general health benefit in consuming pomegranate, "the weight of the persuasive expert testimony demonstrates that there was insufficient competent and reliable scientific evidence to support" the company's specific claims.

Huh?

Well, all of this is much easier to understand if you look at it from this perspective. It's all about the Leviathan telling you what is, and is not, "healthy," and what you can, and cannot say, about legitimate research if it is not conducted or sanctioned by the high-and-mighty in D.C.

Pom Wonderful spent tens of millions on research that proves consuming its pomegranate beverages improves overall health. But because the federal government didn't make this discovery, then it's not legitimate and, therefore, inadmissible.

Now do these conflicting rulings make sense?

For the record, pomegranate is quickly gaining favor in health circles for its nutritional value as an antioxidant-rich fruit. It's health benefits are well-documented now, even if you don't read about them in some government agency's literature.

You might say a company that does its own research is tainting the results, but on the other hand, if the same company is later found to have falsified data, what implications would that discovery have for a business that wants to stay around for the long haul?

Sources for this article include:

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/23/46760.htm

http://www.ornishspectrum.com/proven-program/nutrition

World’s Most Heinous Conspiracy

Millions Suffering Needlessly and Dying Prematurely
Steven A. Swan
4-11-12

Imagine there being a scientist who had earned a doctorate degree in cellular biology and physiology (the study of how living things function) way back in 1959. Imagine that this scientist also participated in developing electrocardiography—the interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart.

Imagine that this scientist’s curiosity led her to experiment further with using electricity, as well as radio waves, to analyze substances. Imagine that this scientist discovered that everything in existence, living or dead, animate or inanimate, produces and emits its own radio frequency or range of radio frequencies. (Tiny entities produce a single radio frequency; larger entities produce a range of radio frequencies. The larger the entity, the wider the range.)

Imagine that this scientist invented a device with which she could determine the composition of any substance based upon the radio frequencies emitted by its components. Imagine that this scientist used this invention to analyze individuals with diseases to determine that combinations of toxins and foreign invaders (viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc.) were causing most of them and that by removing these toxins and foreign invaders, virtually all diseases could be cured.

Imagine that this scientist decided against submitting her discoveries for conventional (and somewhat political) scientific review and verification because the process would take much too long and in the interim many people would suffer needlessly and die prematurely. Rather, she opted to disseminate her discoveries directly those who most urgently needed them. She did so by publishing books documenting her discoveries, through media interviews, through word-of-mouth, through whatever she could think of. Fortunately, she was able to reach and help hundreds of thousands of individuals using these methods.

Imagine that when the mainstream medical establishment (including the giant pharmaceutical companies) learned of this scientist’s discoveries, it naturally feared losing its highly profitable health care monopoly. Imagine the mainstream medical establishment, in conjunction with the mainstream scientific community and the corporate-controlled mainstream media, conspiring to savagely and repeatedly vilify this scientist and her discoveries in as many ways as they could imagine.

Imagine this scientist taking all of this unwarranted vilification in stride and continuing her research. This included sharing her new discoveries with others. Being precluded from practicing medicine within the United States because she was not a medical doctor, she also established a clinic in Mexico to help individuals cure their life-threatening diseases. This included closely monitoring their conditions with her invention to ensure that her protocols were being effective. Because they needed her the most, she only admitted the most terminally ill of patients.

Imagine that this scientist was so engrossed in her research and in helping to save the lives of others that she neglected her own health. Inexplicably, she refused to postpone her important work to concentrate on her own ailments. Tragically, in 2009 at the age of eighty, this remarkable scientist’s extraordinary life came to an end.

Imagine this scientist’s detractors using her death as an opportunity to vilify her and her discoveries even further. They cited her death as proof that she was a charlatan, that her discoveries were fabricated, and that her cures did not work. Unfortunately, they have convinced millions of others that their lies are true.

Fortunately, many thousands of us know the real truth. We have used this scientist’s discoveries, inventions, and cures to keep ourselves, our families, our friends, and others healthy and to cure our own ailments and diseases. We only wish that it were easier to overcome the lies of the mainstream medical establishment, et. al., and bring these truths to the millions of other individuals in the world who are suffering needlessly and dying prematurely.

The above account is true. It is the remarkable story of scientist extraordinaire, Dr. Hulda Regehr Clark, Ph.D., N.D. Unfortunately, Dr. Clark is no longer with us. However, there are many thousands of us attempting to disseminate Dr. Clark’s remarkable discoveries to as many others as possible. However, it is a daunting task given the power and influence of those who have conspired against her and her discoveries.

Steven A. Swan has been studying and using Dr. Clark’s discoveries and inventions for many years to keep himself healthy. He was also able to adapt information in Dr. Clark’s final book about curing cancer to cure his own asthma and his own psoriasis.

Swan offers consultations to anyone wishing to use Dr. Clark’s discoveries to cure their own ailments or diseases or who simply wish to understand them better. (Because of the vast amount of scientific information contained in Dr. Clark’s books, they can be somewhat confusing to individuals who have not studied them.)

Swan’s website is entitled Dr. Hulda Clark Consultant and it is located at drclarkconsultant.com. Swan can be reached by email at contact@drclarkconsultant.com.

We Must Free the Revolutionary Health Discoveries of Dr. Hulda Clark

Steven A. SwanDr. Clark Consultant

Over the past few years Big Medicine (i.e., the huge, multinational pharmaceutical companies as well as the beneficiaries of other high-profit medical modalities [surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, diagnostics, cancer research, etc.) and the corporate-controlled mainstream media (MSM) have effectively marginalized the revolutionary health-related discoveries and inventions of Dr. Hulda Clark, Ph.D., N.D. Big Medicine has done so using its vast financial resources to fund its many willing minions, including the mainstream medical research industry. The mainstream media has proactively aided and abetted Big Medicine. We must not allow this travesty to continue.

Dr. Clark’s Discoveries and Inventions

Hulda Regehr Clark received her Ph.D. in the biological sciences way back in 1959 when it was much more difficult to earn a doctorate degree than it is today. Her many years of subsequent research in this field led her to discover the two true reasons behind virtually every disease—1) that the increased number of toxins which we continually take into our bodies compromise our immune systems’ ability to protect us and directly cause some of our ailments and diseases, and 2) that our compromised immune systems are unable to repel foreign invaders such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc., which also can contribute to or directly cause some of our ailments or diseases by (among other things) manufacturing toxic chemicals of their own. These two factors working in conjunction with each other cause virtually every one of our ailments or diseases.

In addition to using traditional scientific methods to confirm these realities, Dr. Clark discovered another revolutionary method for doing so. Even though she was an expert in the biological sciences, her curiosity had introduced her to electromagnetism and the electromagnetic spectrum—from the largest radio waves to the smallest rays of ionic radiation. In conjunction with her research into this field, she took up the hobby of amateur (or ham) radio operation.

Her research into radio waves led her in 1988 to one of her most important breakthrough discoveries—that everything in existence, whether living or dead, animate or inanimate, produces and emits a radio frequency (RF) or a range of radio frequencies. Microscopic entities such as viruses emit a single radio frequency, whereas larger entities such as human beings emit a wide range of radio frequencies.

Using this information, Dr. Clark invented a device with which she could accurately identify substances or entities based upon the radio frequencies they emit. She also determined how to pinpoint the exact locations of these substances or entities within other entities, such as the human body. Astonishingly, using radio frequencies to identify substances is thousands of times more accurate than the latest analytical methods employed by scientific researchers today. It is also much quicker and much less expensive.

Using this information, Dr. Clark was able to identify the particular toxin or toxins responsible for causing any given ailment or disease. She was also able to identify any foreign invader or invaders which might be associated with that ailment or disease.

After Dr. Clark made these important discoveries, she studied many human ailments and diseases and ascertained the factor or combination of factors causing each one. Armed with that information, she was then able to articulate each one’s cure.

Dr. Clark realized that the first step to take to cure ailments and diseases is to reduce the flow of toxins into the body as much as possible. Once this feat is accomplished, our immune systems may recover to the point where they can remove many of the remaining toxins on their own. However this effort is seldom totally effective by itself so the next step is to proactively work to remove the toxins which have accumulated.

Dr. Clark’s many years of research also taught her how valuable herbs are in removing toxins from the body and in exterminating our foreign invaders. These insights led her to become a master herbologist. She also became a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.) during her career.

Dr. Clark’s research into radio frequencies also led her to discover that by subjecting our foreign invaders to their own frequency ranges for a few minutes at a time using a frequency range generator, they could be exterminated. Unfortunately this technique is not effective on all parts of the body because some of them are shielded from the frequency ranges. However using a frequency range generator in conjunction with the proper herbs to exterminate our foreign invaders is extremely effective.

The Dissemination of Her Revelations

Dr. Clark did not conduct her scientific research in a vacuum. Much of her research into specific diseases was prompted by the conditions of actual disease sufferers with whom she was acquainted. She assisted her first patient in 1963 and went on to assist many thousands more over the years.

Even though Dr. Clark had discovered the basic causes of and the basic cures for many diseases, there was much more to be discovered about each one. Dr. Clark subsequently focused her research efforts on discovering further information relative to the causes of and curing the disease that was killing a large number of people—cancer. She also focused her research efforts on refining the causes of and the cures for HIV and AIDS.

Dr. Clark did not want to wait the many years necessary for the mainstream medical research industry and government agencies to analyze and accept her revolutionary discoveries using their conventional methods (double-blind studies, etc.) because too many people (including the control groups in the studies) would needlessly suffer and die in the interim. So she decided to make her discoveries known directly to anyone who was interested in learning them. She did so by authoring books detailing the causes of and the cures for particular diseases and publishing them herself.

In 1993, Dr. Clark published two books. One of them was entitled The Cure For All Cancers. This book detailed the basic causes of and the basic cures for all types of cancer. The other book was entitled The Cure For HIV and AIDS. This book did the same for these two diseases.

Because of Dr. Clark’s many years of research, she possessed vast amounts of information regarding the causes of and the cures for many other diseases. This led her in 1995 to publish a book entitled The Cure For All Diseases. In this book she detailed the causes of and the cures for many diseases individually.

The Demonization of Dr. Clark

Even though Dr. Clark discovered a method for analyzing substances much more accurately and quickly than any modality in existence in the scientific community, which in turn allowed her to discover the causes of and the cures for virtually every disease, not surprisingly, these revelations were met with strenuous hostility from the mainstream medical industry, the mainstream scientific community (which is highly influenced by the mainstream medical industry), and the corporate-controlled mainstream media. The first two groups are much more interested generating profits and longevity for themselves than they are in helping individuals cure their ailments and diseases. All three of them did everything imaginable to try to marginalize Dr. Clark’s revolutionary health discoveries and inventions. However, undaunted by the tremendous opposition to her fantastic discoveries and inventions, Dr. Clark persevered.

In the ensuing years, Dr. Clark made further discoveries into the causes of and the cures for many ailments and diseases. Since one of her primary foci was on curing cancer, she published three subsequent cancer books over the years detailing her discoveries. The last one was published in 2007. In 2003, she updated her HIV and AIDS book. Although she never updated The Cures For All Diseases, many of the discoveries delineated in her subsequent books are applicable to many other diseases as well.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Clark wished to use her discoveries to actually help people cure their ailments and diseases. Early on in her career while she was living in Indiana, many afflicted individuals had learned of her ability to cure a vast number of diseases. So naturally they sought her help in to try to cure their own diseases. So she accommodated them.

On one occasion a couple of officials from the State of Indiana surreptitiously spoke with Dr. Clark about the contrived disease from which one of them was purportedly suffering. After meeting with them, Dr. Clark made her recommendations. She never heard from them again and subsequently moved to California.

Then in the late 1990’s (approximately seven years after that encounter and as she was becoming famous after publishing some of her books), Indiana justice department officials indicted her for practicing medicine without a license. (Do you think that they could have been put up to this by the profiteers of Big Medicine?) Dr. Clark was arrested in California and extradited to Indiana to stand trial. However when the judge realized how much time had elapsed since the initial encounter, he dismissed the charges against Dr. Clark and she returned home.

Helping Individuals Cure Their Ailments and Diseases

Because Dr. Clark possessed a doctorate in science rather than a medical degree, she was precluded from practicing medicine within the United States. However she was not precluded from practicing medicine in Mexico. She therefore established a clinic just over the border with California.

As with her research, her primary focus at the clinic was on assisting individuals suffering from cancer, HIV, or AIDS. Many of her patients were ones whom the mainstream medical industry had already given up hope. However Dr. Clark was willing to admit them and cure their diseases.

In addition to all of the time she spent conducting her other research, Dr. Clark also spent an enormous amount of time with each one of her patients. She would analyze their conditions using radio frequencies when they were first admitted; make recommendations and provide them with various supplements, medicines, and protocols to purge toxins from their bodies, exterminate any foreign pathogens and parasites and remove their remnants, if necessary, bolster their immune systems, etc. She would then spend an enormous amount of time monitoring the progress of each patient to ensure that the protocols were being effective. Another tremendous burden upon Dr. Clark must have been the fact that many of her patients were terminal cases with only short amounts of time to live if she were not there to save them.

Dr. Clark’s Detractors

As Dr. Clark became more famous, her establishment detractors became more vociferous. One group or individual after another decried her discoveries and inventions. They called her a quack and asserted that her discoveries could not be true and that her inventions did not work. However even in the face of all of this negative criticism, Dr. Clark persevered with her work.

Dr. Clark Violated a Cardinal Rule

Unfortunately in her zeal to help others cured their diseases before their time on Earth expired, Dr. Clark violated the first rule of life—one must first ensure one’s own health before helping others. She was so caught up in her research, in disseminating her discoveries to others, and in saving people’s lives that she neglected her own health. She worked seven days a week, she probably did not eat properly, did not get any exercise, did not get enough rest, etc. One can watch her condition deteriorate on videos in which she appeared over the years. In one speech she even remarked that one day she should take the time to regain her own health, but that she was finding it difficult to do so because she was working so hard researching four interrelated diseases—cancer, HIV, AIDS, and malaria. Finally in 2009 at the age of eighty, the time of this wonderful person ran out.

Her detractors seized the opportunity to marginalize her discoveries and inventions even more. They offered as proof that she was a charlatan the fact that she had declared innumerable times over many years that she could cure cancer and then she succumbed to cancer herself. However it was not cancer to which this amazing lady had succumbed, it was her neglect of her own health.

The Marginalization of Dr. Clark’s Revelations and Inventions

After Dr. Clark’s death, the popularity of her revelations diminished. This was largely due to the marginalization of them by her detractors. They did such a fantastic job that, not only was the mainstream public persuaded that her assertions about her discoveries were not true and that her inventions did not work, but many believers in alternative therapies were deceived into believing that she was a charlatan as well. The situation went from being that, at one point, many people were aware of her and talking about her and her discoveries to no one talking about them. At one point you could walk into any given bookstore or health food store and see a number of her books for sale. Now there are none of them on display. It was like she had never even existed.

Another reason that her cancer books did not gain universal acceptance in the first place was because they are relatively difficult to comprehend. This is because cancer is not caused by a single entity, it is caused by a number of entities working in conjunction with each other. As a result, in order to stop a cancer malignancy as well as shrink the tumor or tumors down to nothing, there are numerous steps one must take and numerous toxins to remove. Many individuals simply did not wish to or were unable to expend the time or effort to try to comprehend all of these steps. Further exacerbating the problem was the fact that Dr. Clark included a tremendous amount of scientific information in each book.

Fortunately, Dr. Clark Still Has a Large Number of Passionate Followers

Another reason that Dr. Clark’s revelations were not widely accepted was because the device she invented to analyze substances using radio frequencies is relatively difficult to master. However there are many individuals who have mastered it and who use it to monitor their own health as well as the health of their friends and relatives. In addition, many individuals who worked with Dr. Clark while she was alive continue to use and promote her revelations. There is also a solid core of many thousands of individuals who continue to use Dr. Clark’s revelations to keep themselves healthy.

Partial evidence of the number of individuals who use Dr. Clark’s revelations to keep themselves healthy is the number of testimonials made to her and her accomplishments after her death. These testimonials can be found on the Internet at http://inmemoryofdrhuldaclark.com. There are approximately 550 heartfelt testimonials there. More evidence of her continued popularity is the large number of individuals who still use and promote her remarkable discoveries and inventions on the Internet and elsewhere.

Summary

In summary, we should do everything within our power to stop the vested medical interests and the corporate-controlled mainstream media from marginalizing the revolutionary discoveries and inventions of this remarkable woman and preventing them from becoming widely accepted. This information has the potential of improving the health of virtually everyone on the planet. It is long past time for it to be freed from its confinement. Moreover, Dr. Hulda Clark should be recorded in the annuls of history as one of the greatest scientists and human beings who ever lived.

Copyright 2012 Steven A. Swan

Steven A. Swan is a longtime follower and user of Dr. Clark’s discoveries and inventions. He is now offering his expertise to others who might wish to learn how to use them to cure their own ailments or diseases or who might wish to understand them better.

Contact: contact@drclarkconsultant.com
Website: Dr. Clark Consultant.com (http://www.drclarkconsultant.com)

Is Free Thinking A Mental Illness?

Oct 8th, 2010 http://www.offthegridnews.com/2010/10/08/is-free-thinking-a-mental-illness/

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.

The DSM-IV is the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illnesses and, with each new edition, there are scores of new mental illnesses. Are we becoming sicker? Is it getting harder to be mentally healthy? Authors of the DSM-IV say that it’s because they’re better able to identify these illnesses today. Critics charge that it’s because they have too much time on their hands.

New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior. In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases.

And there are treatments available.

All of this is a symptom of our over-diagnosing and overmedicating culture. In the last 50 years, the DSM-IV has gone from 130 to 357 mental illnesses. A majority of these illnesses afflict children. Although the manual is an important diagnostic tool for the psychiatric industry, it has also been responsible for social changes. The rise in ADD, bipolar disorder, and depression in children has been largely because of the manual’s identifying certain behaviors as symptoms. A Washington Post article observed that, if Mozart were born today, he would be diagnosed with ADD and “medicated into barren normality.”

According to the DSM-IV, the diagnosis guidelines for identifying oppositional defiant disorder are for children, but adults can just as easily suffer from the disease. This should give any freethinking American reason for worry.

The Soviet Union used new “mental illnesses” for political repression. People who didn’t accept the beliefs of the Communist Party developed a new type of schizophrenia. They suffered from the delusion of believing communism was wrong. They were isolated, forcefully medicated, and put through repressive “therapy” to bring them back to sanity.

When the last edition of the DSM-IV was published, identifying the symptoms of various mental illnesses in children, there was a jump in the diagnosis and medication of children. Some states have laws that allow protective agencies to forcibly medicate, and even make it a punishable crime to withhold medication. This paints a chilling picture for those of us who are nonconformists.

Although the authors of the manual claim no ulterior motives but simply better diagnostic practices, the labeling of freethinking and nonconformity as mental illnesses has a lot of potential for abuse. It can easily become a weapon in the arsenal of a repressive state.

Ola Loa is a healthy alternative

Ola Loa is a healthy alternative to sugar-laden children's vitamins and sports drinks Tara Green
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/034090_Ola_Loa_sports_drinks.html

(NaturalNews) A recent report from NaturalNews about children's vitamins and sports drinks lets you know many of the popular mainstream brands of both of these types of products contain large amounts of sugar. Several of our readers wrote asking for suggestions on what they can use to replace the sugary substances. NaturalNews publisher Mike Adams has researched this, and strongly recommends one product line which offers both a tasty yet low sugar drinkable vitamin and excellent sports drink -- Ola Loa.

Absorption

Doctor-formulated Ola Loa vitamins come in flavored packets which you can mix with water. This offers a tremendous advantage because swallowing pills, especially large ones, can create digestive stress on the body. Many people have difficulty absorbing the nutrients contained in vitamin tablets so they receive little nutritive value for the money they spend on vitamins. Nutritional experts believe many people lose as much as 70% of the nutrient value contained in most vitamin pills.

Drinking your vitamins enables your body to absorb them more easily. Compared to other powdered vitamin lines, Ola Loa offers a more complete package of vitamins and nutrients as well as a lower sugar content. Whereas some powdered vitamin products are essentially 90% sugar with only 5% nutritional value, Ola Loa reverses the proportions, delivering approximately 85% nutrients paired with only one gram of sugar. That single gram of sugar derives from fructose, not sucrose, so that Ola Loa has no effect on the body's glycemic system. This makes it healthy for everyone, including children and diabetics.

Children's Formula

Ola Loa Multivitamin formula for kids, contains no preservatives or artificial colors and provides vitamin C, selenium and zinc to protect the immune system as well as B vitamins for energy production. Ola Loa proves that it is possible to produce a great-tasting vitamin product that even kids will enjoy without using the preservatives, artificial colors or chemical sweeteners that many other companies rely on to make their products palatable to children.

Sports Formula

Ola Loa Sport formula provides hydration, energy electrolytes and vitamin C to provide athletes with the support they need to avoid dehydration or energy depletion after intense activity. Ola Loa Sport outperforms major sports drinks brands in delivering electrolytes as well as key restorative nutrients magnesium, folic acid and vitamin B12. Unlike those corporate-owned brands, Ola Loa contains only natural ingredients.

Whereas some sports and energy drinks contain stimulants like caffeine or ephreda, Ola Loa provides a dose of the valuable antioxidant CoQ10. CoQ10 is vital to enable the mitochondria in the cells to engage in the energy reactions that they need to stay alive. The body produces some CoQ10 naturally however chronic illness can slow this biosynthesis. Also, many of pharmaceutical drugs, particularly statins, Big Pharma's pseudo-solution to high cholesterol, inhibit the body's production of CoQ10. Consuming CoQ10 in a drinkable form provides cellular rather than artificial energy.

Ola Loa also stands out from its competitors in offering a healthier form of vitamin B12. Many vitamin products use a form of B12 known as cyanocobalamin. This less expensive version of B12 can be toxic, especially for people who have low antioxidant protection. In high doses, it can cause neurologic problems and even blindness. Ola Loa uses a different form of B12, hydroxycobalamin, which does not have this potential toxicity and which permits the body to utilize the energy benefits of B12 more readily.

Instant Benefits

Since Ola Loa formulas are drinkable, they offer the same instant energy boost as sublingual vitamins. People who drink Ola Loa often report an instant boost in energy and mood. If you were one of the many people who asked NaturalNews for suggestions on healthy alternatives, Ola Loa is the perfect choice.

Mother Nature's thirst-quenching sports drink: Rooibos

Mother Nature's thirst-quenching sports drink comes from twigs and leaves: Rooibos
Friday, September 09, 2011
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
http://www.naturalnews.com/033538_rooibos_sports_drink.html

(NaturalNews) Do you know anyone still drinking Gatorade or other popular sports drinks? If so, you may want to turn them on to Rooibos, an amazing thirst quencher (and a potent source of health protective flavonoids) made by Mother Nature.

Gatorade, Powerade and other sports drinks are made with liquid sugars (glucose and fructose), artificial coloring chemicals (like red #40), citric acid and emulsifiers such as brominated vegetable oil. Anyone who knows anything about nutrition quickly realizes these are not healthful, wholesome ingredients.

I've also released a popular video about Vitamin Water, exposing the truth that even Coca-Cola's own attorneys admit the drink isn't a "healthy" beverage:

http://www.foodinvestigations.com/

Rooibos, on the other hand, is made by Mother Nature. It's the powdered extract of the Aspalatus linearis plant which grows prolifically in South Africa. Remarkably, it's a completely caffeine-free plant that nevertheless tastes like an amazing tea beverage or even a sports drink, simply by adding it to water and mixing in your favorite sweetener such as stevia. Rooibos, by the way, synergizes extremely well with stevia. Even if you don't normally like stevia, when mixed with Rooibos the flavor of the combination suddenly makes stevia far more delicious, and I've had many people rave about this simple combination (rooibos + water + stevia).

Loaded with health-supportive phytonutrients

In addition to the fact that Rooibos contains no caffeine, it's loaded with phytonutrients such as Aspalathin, Quercetin and Luteolin. It also contains Orientin, Isoorientin, Vitexin, Isovitexin, Chrysoeriol, Catechin, Isoqurecetin, Hyperoside and Rutin. (You can look these up to see their supportive health benefits.)

No doubt some combination of these plant-based nutrients (none of which are found in Gatorade or Powerade, by the way) explains why Rooibos is such a powerful thirst quencher. I drank it almost every day throughout the Texas drought we've had over the past few months, and I discovered this drink keeps you hydrated in a way that plain water simply doesn't. No wonder so many professional football teams and sports enthusiasts are also discovering Rooibos to be a powerful, performance-enhancing sports drink.

Getting the good stuff

Watch out for Rooibos that's cut with fillers such as maltodextrin or lecithin. Ideally, you want to get pure Rooibos with no fillers, additives or sweeteners of any kind.

Another huge issue of concern is radiation -- much of the Rooibos brought into the United States is irradiated by the FDA. So getting a supply that isn't irradiated is very, very tricky -- it has even been challenging for our own supplier who recently had to reject a large batch because he tested it and found evidence that it had been irradiated. So he had to order the same batch over again, which fortunately arrived in a non-irradiated state. (Most companies don't even bother to check if their ingredient are irradiated, by the way. Only the most quality-conscious companies even pay attention to this.)

No caffeine, no chemicals

Rooibos powdered extract is made from the leaves and twigs of the Rooibos plant, which is grown entirely without pesticides or synthetic chemicals of any kind. It only takes a tiny amount of Rooibos powder mixed with water to make a deep red "tea-like" beverage that quenches thirst like nothing else. You can also mix it with any kind of milk (almond milk, cow's milk, rice milk, etc.), add a touch of sweetener, and you've got a delicious milk tea beverage that's super smooth.

This is a rare, exquisite herbal extract with a unique nutritional profile that just isn't found in any other herb or superfood. Because its potent flavonoids are so important to protect, it's packed in Miron Swiss Violet Glass which protects it from UV light. Absolutely no chemicals are used to create this extract: No solvents, nothing. In addition, nothing is added to this product. There are no fillers. It is 100% Rooibos powdered extract and nothing else, period.

Our supplier of this extraordinary tea is ImmunoLogic (http://www.immunologic.net/)

Sicko Healthcare

From LATimes.com:
U.S. workers whose wages stagnated over the last decade also saw their health insurance degrade, even as medical costs gobbled up a growing share of their income, two new studies show.

An estimated 29 million adults who had health insurance lacked adequate coverage in 2010, leaving them exposed to medical expenses such as high deductibles that they couldn't afford, according to a survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund.

That is up from 16 million underinsured people in 2003, the survey found, underscoring the rising burden that insurance plans are placing on consumers as the industry raises required co-pays and deductibles.

"Underinsured families are at nearly as high risk as the uninsured because, while they have health insurance, holes or limits in their plans expose them to often unaffordable medical costs," said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, lead author of the new report, which was published in the journal Health Affairs.

More workers also simply lost coverage over the last decade, the survey found. Fifty-two million adults ages 19 to 64 did not have insurance at some point in 2010, up from 46 million in 2003.

That has left nearly half the working-age population without enough protection from illness. Altogether, 44% of U.S. adults were either uninsured or underinsured last year, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

Children and seniors are more likely to have insurance because many qualify for public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

The erosion in insurance coverage, which hit middle- and low-income Americans hardest, meant higher medical bills for U.S. families. The typical family of four with employer-based coverage saw its total monthly healthcare tab almost double between 1999 and 2009 — from $805 to $1,420 — researchers at the Rand Corp. found.

Over the same period, total monthly income grew only 30%, barely keeping pace with inflation, which pushed up prices 29% over the decade...

Healthcare costs rose while insurance coverage fell, studies show
September 08, 2011
Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/08/business/la-fi-health-insurance-20110908

The Fattiest Foods in America!

Source: David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding, Yahoo Health Aug 22, 2011
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/the-fattiest-foods-america

FAT OFFENDER #6: A BURGER
Ruby Tuesday Triple Prime Bacon Cheddar Burger
1,333 calories
101 g fat
1,892 mg sodium

New rule: The more syllables in a menu item's name, the more fat there's likely to be in the dish. Less than 3 percent of the beef produced in this country earns the USDA's "prime" rating, and that's not a bad thing. Prime beef, as it turns out, is the fattiest beef you can sink your teeth into. (Follow me on Twitter for more of the fat-melting secrets I come across every day as the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and Women's Health magazines—and lose your belly fat without ever dieting again.)

If you really want a burger, you're better off heading elsewhere. Not one of Ruby's has fewer than 700 calories. Go with the Plain Grilled Top Sirloin and earn all the beefy protein without the superfluous calories.

Eat This Instead!
Plain Grilled Top Sirloin
290 calories
12 g fat
420 mg sodium

FAT OFFENDER #5: A STEAK
Chili’s Flame-Grilled Ribeye with broccoli and mashed potatoes
1,460 calories
106 g fat (44 g saturated)
3,700 mg sodium

For a healthy diet, the USDA recommends you cap your daily saturated fat intake at 20 grams. This meal more than doubles that, and it's only 12 ounces of meat. Sure, ribeye is a notoriously fatty cut, but it's primarily the bath of butter that pushes this steak's fat count to such unhealthy heights. Switch to the Guiltless Grill Classic Sirloin and save an astounding 1,090 calories.

Eat This Instead!
Guiltless Grill Classic Sirloin with steamed veggies
370 calories
9 g fat (4 g saturated)
3,680 mg sodium

FAT OFFENDER #4: MEXICAN FOOD
Chili’s Bacon Ranch Chicken Quesadilla
1,650 calories
107 g fat (39 g saturated)
3,450 mg sodium

Traditional Mexican food is big on seasoning and light on cheese, but with this quesadilla, Chili's takes a different approach. Trying to appease palates primed for indulgence, the restaurant layers on the fat in four ways: cheese, ranch, bacon, and sour cream. Go with the Margarita Grilled Chicken and you'll cut the overall fat content by more than 80 percent.

Eat This Instead!
Margarita Grilled Chicken
550 calories
14 g fat (4 g saturated)
1,870 mg sodium

FAT OFFENDER #3: A 'HEALTHY' SALAD
IHOP Chicken and Spinach Salad
1,600 calories
118 g fat (32 g saturated)
2,340 mg sodium

Chicken? Good. Spinach? Good. IHOP’s Chicken and Spinach Salad—downright deplorable. You'll need to i-hop for four hours to burn it off. This salad is exactly what makes restaurant food so questionable and potentially unhealthy. The name makes it sound like a paragon of nutritious eating, yet the numbers reveal it to be just the opposite. The chicken here is actually fried chicken, and the spinach is little more than a small bed for bacon and cheddar cheese. You could snarf down six pancake short stacks and still take in less fat. Save yourself the waistline damage and opt for the Simple & Fit Simply Chicken Sandwich instead.

Eat This Instead!
Simply Chicken Sandwich with fresh fruit, side salad, and reduced-fat Italian dressing
565 calories
12.5 g fat (3.5 g saturated)
1,085 mg sodium

FAT OFFENDER #2: 'HEALTHY' FISH
Applebee’s New England Fish & Chips
1,930 calories
138 g fat (24 g saturated)
3,180 mg sodium

The American Heart Association recommends eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least twice a week. By doing so, you lower your risk of such chronic diseases as heart disease and cancer. But if you prepare fish by deep frying it in a tub of bubbling fat—like Applebee's does with this artery-clogging monstrosity—you reverse all those benefits. Opt for Applebee's Garlic Herb Salmon instead. It offers 109 fewer grams of fat, nearly two-thirds fewer calories, and a heap of flavor that will still leave you satiated.

Eat This Instead!
Applebee’s Garlic Herb Salmon
690 calories
29 g fat (8 g saturated)
1,460 mg sodium

FAT OFFENDER #1: PASTA
Cheesecake Factory Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken
2,300 calories
103 g saturated fat
1,517 mg sodium

Cheesecake Factory prefers to keep its nutritional stats hidden, but a law in California forced it to reveal saturated fat. Total fat is still a mystery, but this meal breaks through the 100-gram ceiling on saturated fat alone! The culprits here are the oversized portion and the thick, fat-riddled alfredo sauce. The typical restaurant recipe for this sauce relies on some combination of cream, butter, oil, and cheese, and there's no reason to believe that Cheesecake's version strays from the norm. Unfortunately, the chain offers no single pasta dish with fewer than 1,100 calories, so keep yourself safe by sticking to the new Skinnylicious menu.

Eat This Instead!
Skinnylicious Herb-Crusted Salmon
570 calories
9 g saturated fat
687 mg sodium

Kool Websites: EnerHealth Botanicals

http://www.enerhealthbotanicals.com/

We can be contacted toll free at 866-762-9238 or info@enerfood.com

Our One Stop Source for Health and Immune System Support!

EnerHealth Botanicals, llc was incorporated January 3, 2005. There are two partners in the business, Steve St Clair, Darren Craddock and of course our respective families.

Both of us have been vegetarians since we were teenagers using virtually every green drink out there and we were dissatisfied with the available formulas, too many ingredients that often times did not represent a functional amount and the use of fillers - not to mention that there were very few organic or wildcrafted ingredients.

So, Sometime in 2004 we decided that it was time for a new super green formula as an alternative to the products on the market and thus EnerFood was born. We both knew of certain ingredients we wanted to see in the product and through our joint efforts and prayers the EnerFood formula was given and perfected over several months.

NEW YORK CITY MUST STOP SPRAYING TOXIC PESTICIDES!

NEW YORK CITY MUST STOP SPRAYING TOXIC PESTICIDES IMMEDIATELY!

Mitchel Cohen
mitchelcohen@mindspring.com
(718) 449-0037
Cathryn Swan
cathrynbe@earthlink.net

For Immediate Release -- August 3, 2011

The City has announced it will spray dangerous pesticides in crowded residential areas in Brooklyn and Queens on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011.

The No Spray Coalition is appalled by Mayor Bloomberg's and the City's Department of Health decision to renew the mass-spraying -- no legitimate reasons given.

We also condemn the New York City government's advice to residents and visitors that they personally use insect repellants containing DEET on themselves and their children. DEET is especially dangerous for children and should NEVER be used; it is associated with numerous infant deaths. The City knows this; we negotiated an agreement with the City last year that they wouldn't recommend DEET. And here they are, again, acting in utter disregard of the health and safety of our children, and more generally of all the people of New York.

Furthermore, this year's spray of choice -- Anvil 10+10 -- is listed in Local Law 37 (2005 update, see page 1, paragraph 4, discussion of table 2) that states that for piperonyl butoxide and MGK-264 contained as synergists in Anvil 10 + 10, that

"both of these chemicals are classified as possible human carcinogens by the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs. Only 94 products contain pyrethrins without other carcinogen ingredients. Therefore, most products containing pyrethrins continue to be prohibited under LL37 even if the reference to the EPA list was updated".

Local Law 37 prohibits the use of pesticides by NYC in public places if it contains PBO and/or MGK-264.
Why are they violating their own law?

The No Spray Coalition is also deeply troubled not only by NYC's reckless spraying of Anvil 10 + 10 to kill mosquitoes, but for the City's very short notice -- around 24 hours, that's it!

"After years of litigation to stop this reckless spraying of pesticides which has contributed to skyrocketing increases in cancer and asthma, and now the collapse of bee colonies in the New York area, I am outraged that the Bloomberg Administration is renewing its mindless criminal poisoning of the people and environment of our City," said Howard Brandstein, coordinator of SOS-FOOD, NY State Against Genetic Engineering, and a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought seven years ago by the No Spray Coalition and other organizations against Rudolph Giuliani and the New York City government.

That lawsuit ended in April 2007, when NYC signed a settlement agreement acknowledging, among other stipulations, that pesticides:

may remain in the environment beyond their intended purpose
cause adverse health effects
kill mosquitoes' natural predators (such as dragonflies)
increase mosquitoes' resistance to the sprays, and
are not presently approved for direct application to waterways.

The Department of Health contravenes that settlement by now stating that there are no significant risks of adverse impact to human health associated with the proper use of this product. "That is simply a lie," said No Spray Coalition coordinator Mitchel Cohen. In fact, the spraying puts many New York City residents and visitors at grave risk.

"These kind of ignorant and lying politicians and bureaucrats apparently have no problem destroying our health in order to 'save' us from the so-called West Nile virus," Howard Brandstein added. "Clearly, the spraying jeopardizes a thousand times more people than the disease."

The pesticide the City is spraying -- "Anvil 10 + 10" -- belongs to a class of adulticides known as pyrethroids, which are endocrine disruptors. They mimic hormones such as estrogen, and may cause breast cancer in women and drastically lower sperm counts in men. Pyrethroids have also been associated with prostate cancer, miscarriages and preterm delivery, asthma, toxicity to many vital organs including the nervous system, liver, kidneys and the gastro-intestinal tract, skin rashes, itching and blisters, and nausea and vomiting.

Anvil contains the cancer-causing chemical piperonyl butoxide, which the Environmental Protection Agency lists as a suspected carcinogen. It also contains Sumithrin -- a synthetic toxin, made in the laboratory -- as well as benzene-related chemicals (which the label calls "inert ingredients.")

Thousands of New Yorkers were severely sickened by the spraying in 1999 and 2000. A number of members of the No Spray Coalition, including several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, died from pesticide-related illnesses.

Many suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) or Asthma caused or exacerbated by the spraying. "The City administration must be made to understand that pesticides are extremely dangerous to human health as well as to the natural environment, and have long-term consequences," Cohen said.

The No Spray Coalition strongly urges the City to stop pesticide spraying immediately, reconsider its entire approach, and seek alternative, safe means to control mosquitoes. There are natural, safe ways for each person to ward off mosquitoes. The City should not be poisoning the entire population.

http://www.mitchelcohen.com/

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen

Even Living Together Is Too Much Commitment for Today's Couples

Instead, they're shacking up a few nights a week while keeping option of going to their own home
July 29, 2011
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2011/07/29/even-living-together-is-too-much-commitment-for-todays-couples

FRIDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) -- A growing number of young American adults are engaging in what's called "stayover relationships," in which they spend three or more nights together each week while still having the option of going to their own homes, a new study shows.

"Instead of following a clear path from courtship to marriage, individuals are choosing to engage in romantic ties on their own terms without the guidance of social norms," study author Tyler Jamison, a doctoral candidate in the human development and family studies department at the University of Missouri, said in a university news release.

"There is a gap between the teen years and adulthood during which we don't know much about the dating behaviors of young adults. Stayovers are the unique answer to what emerging adults are doing in their relationships," she added.

There are a number of reasons for this growing trend in stayover relationships, said Jamison, who interviewed college-aged adults in committed, exclusive relationships.

"As soon as couples live together, it becomes more difficult to break up," she explained. "At that point, they have probably signed a lease, bought a couch and acquired a dog, making it harder to disentangle their lives should they break up. Staying over doesn't present those entanglements."

The couples in the study with stayover routines were content in their relationships, but didn't necessarily plan to move in together or get married.

"Many college-aged adults are students who will soon be facing a transition point in their lives," Jamison said. "Most students do not have a definite plan for where they will live or work after graduation, and stayovers are a way for couples to have comfort and convenience without the commitment of living together or having long-term plans."

The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Mass Psychosis in the U.S.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/818/716/NL/James_Ridgeway,_Mass_Psychosis_in_the_U.S..html

Mass Psychosis in the U.S.
James Ridgeway
Thursday, July 14, 2011

“Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In 2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid reflux.

Once upon a time, antipsychotics were reserved for a relatively small number of patients with hard-core psychiatric diagnoses - primarily schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - to treat such symptoms as delusions, hallucinations, or formal thought disorder. Today, it seems, everyone is taking antipsychotics. Parents are told that their unruly kids are in fact bipolar, and in need of anti-psychotics, while old people with dementia are dosed, in large numbers, with drugs once reserved largely for schizophrenics. Americans with symptoms ranging from chronic depression to anxiety to insomnia are now being prescribed anti-psychotics at rates that seem to indicate a national mass psychosis.

It is anything but a coincidence that the explosion in antipsychotic use coincides with the pharmaceutical industry's development of a new class of medications known as "atypical antipsychotics." Beginning with Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel in the 1990s, followed by Abilify in the early 2000s, these drugs were touted as being more effective than older antipsychotics like Haldol and Thorazine. More importantly, they lacked the most noxious side effects of the older drugs - in particular, the tremors and other motor control problems.

The atypical anti-psychotics were the bright new stars in the pharmaceutical industry's roster of psychotropic drugs - costly, patented medications that made people feel and behave better without any shaking or drooling. Sales grew steadily, until by 2009 Seroquel and Abilify numbered fifth and sixth in annual drug sales, and prescriptions written for the top three atypical antipsychotics totaled more than 20 million. Suddenly, antipsychotics weren't just for psychotics any more.

By now, just about everyone knows how the drug industry works to influence the minds of American doctors, plying them with gifts, junkets, ego-tripping awards, and research funding in exchange for endorsing or prescribing the latest and most lucrative drugs. "Psychiatrists are particularly targeted by Big Pharma because psychiatric diagnoses are very subjective," says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, whose PharmedOut project tracks the industry's influence on American medicine, and who last month hosted a conference on the subject at Georgetown. A shrink can't give you a blood test or an MRI to figure out precisely what's wrong with you. So it's often a case of diagnosis by prescription. (If you feel better after you take an anti-depressant, it's assumed that you were depressed.) As the researchers in one study of the drug industry's influence put it, "the lack of biological tests for mental disorders renders psychiatry especially vulnerable to industry influence." For this reason, they argue, it's particularly important that the guidelines for diagnosing and treating mental illness be compiled "on the basis of an objective review of the scientific evidence" - and not on whether the doctors writing them got a big grant from Merck or own stock in AstraZeneca.

Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a leading critic of the Big Pharma, puts it more bluntly: "Psychiatrists are in the pocket of industry." Angell has pointed out that most of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of mental health clinicians, have ties to the drug industry. Likewise, a 2009 study showed that 18 out of 20 of the shrinks who wrote the American Psychiatric Association's most recent clinical guidelines for treating depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia had financial ties to drug companies.

In a recent article in The New York Review of Books, Angell deconstructs what she calls an apparent "raging epidemic of mental illness" among Americans. The use of psychoactive drugs - including both antidepressants and antipsychotics - has exploded, and if the new drugs are so effective, Angell points out, we should "expect the prevalence of mental illness to be declining, not rising." Instead, "the tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007 - from one in 184 Americans to one in seventy-six. For children, the rise is even more startling - a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades. Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children." Under the tutelage of Big Pharma, we are "simply expanding the criteria for mental illness so that nearly everyone has one." Fugh-Berman agrees: In the age of aggressive drug marketing, she says, "Psychiatric diagnoses have expanded to include many perfectly normal people."

What's especially troubling about the over-prescription of the new antipsychotics is its prevalence among the very young and the very old - vulnerable groups who often do not make their own choices when it comes to what medications they take. Investigations into antipsychotic use suggests that their purpose, in these cases, may be to subdue and tranquilize rather than to treat any genuine psychosis. Carl Elliott reports in Mother Jones magazine: "Once bipolar disorder could be treated with atypicals, rates of diagnoses rose dramatically, especially in children. According to a recent Columbia University study, the number of children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder rose 40-fold between 1994 and 2003." And according to another study, "one in five children who visited a psychiatrist came away with a prescription for an antipsychotic drug."

A remarkable series published in the Palm Beach Post in May revealed that the state of Florida's juvenile justice department has literally been pouring these drugs into juvenile facilities, "routinely" doling them out "for reasons that never were approved by federal regulators." The numbers are staggering: "In 2007, for example, the Department of Juvenile Justice bought more than twice as much Seroquel as ibuprofen. Overall, in 24 months, the department bought 326,081 tablets of Seroquel, Abilify, Risperdal and other antipsychotic drugs for use in state-operated jails and homes for children...That's enough to hand out 446 pills a day, seven days a week, for two years in a row, to kids in jails and programs that can hold no more than 2,300 boys and girls on a given day." Further, the paper discovered that "One in three of the psychiatrists who have contracted with the state Department of Juvenile Justice in the past five years has taken speaker fees or gifts from companies that make antipsychotic medications."

In addition to expanding the diagnoses of serious mental illness, drug companies have encouraged doctors to prescribe atypical anti-psychotics for a host of off-label uses. In one particularly notorious episode, the drugmaker Eli Lilly pushed Zyprexa on the caregivers of old people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, as well as agitation, anxiety, and insomnia. In selling to nursing home doctors, sales reps reportedly used the slogan "five at five" - meaning that five milligrams of Zyprexa at 5 pm would sedate their more difficult charges. The practice persisted even after FDA had warned Lilly that the drug was not approved for such uses, and that it could lead to obesity and even diabetes in elderly patients.

In a video interview conducted in 2006, Sharham Ahari, who sold Zyprexa for two years at the beginning of the decade, described to me how the sales people would wangle the doctors into prescribing it. At the time, he recalled, his doctor clients were giving him a lot of grief over patients who were "flipping out" over the weight gain associated with the drug, along with the diabetes. "We were instructed to downplay side effects and focus on the efficacy of drug...to recommend the patient drink a glass a water before taking a pill before the meal and then after the meal in hopes the stomach would expand" and provide an easy way out of this obstacle to increased sales. When docs complained, he recalled, "I told them, 'Our drug is state of the art. What's more important? You want them to get better or do you want them to stay the same - a thin psychotic patient or a fat stable patient.'"

For the drug companies, Shahrman says, the decision to continue pushing the drug despite side effects is matter of cost benefit analysis: Whether you will make more money by continuing to market the drug for off-label use, and perhaps defending against lawsuits, than you would otherwise. In the case of Zyprexa, in January 2009, Lilly settled a lawsuit brought by with the US Justice Department, agreeing to pay $1.4 billion, including "a criminal fine of $515 million, the largest ever in a health care case, and the largest criminal fine for an individual corporation ever imposed in a United States criminal prosecution of any kind,''the Department of Justice said in announcing the settlement." But Lilly's sale of Zyprexa in that year alone were over $1.8 billion.

As it turns out, the atypical antipsychotics may not even be the best choice for people with genuine, undisputed psychosis. A growing number of health professionals have come to think these drugs are not really as effective as older less expensive medicines which they have replaced, that they themselves produce side effects that cause other sorts of diseases such as diabetes and plunge the patient deeper into the gloomy world of serious mental disorder. Along with stories of success comes reports of people turned into virtual zombies.

Elliott reports in Mother Jones: "After another large analysis in The Lancet found that most atypicals actually performed worse than older drugs, two senior British psychiatrists penned a damning editorial that ran in the same issue. Dr. Peter Tyrer, the editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, and Dr. Tim Kendall of the Royal College of Psychiatrists wrote: "The spurious invention of the atypicals can now be regarded as invention only, cleverly manipulated by the drug industry for marketing purposes and only now being exposed."

Bottom line: Stop Big Pharma and the parasitic shrink community from wantonly pushing these pills across the population.”

Cell Phones Cause Cancer?

A report by the World Health Organization that cell phones may contribute to cancer has caused a frenzy on the Internet. Establishment scientists have dismissed the report. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, stated: "When we as consumers hear 'possibly carcinogenic,' we freak. But the data is not at all certain and needs further study." Great to hear the top doctor at the American Cancer Society thinks threats of cancer are overrated! Meanwhile, Donald Berry of the MD Anderson Cancer Center of Houston calls it "just an urban myth that keeps coming up. The panel somehow decided that there is maybe something here that's possibly carcinogenic, which ranks with everything else in the world."
Personally, I think they're right on this one, as the link between cell phones and brain cancer seems absurd. First of all, when I use my phone, it usually is on speaker so I don't have it next to my ear. Further, I rarely use my phone anyways, so instead of having it on my ear, I have it in my front pants pocket right next to my crotch. Who's the moron now, overconcerned scientists?

WHO: Cellphones possibly carcinogenic
Liz Szabo and Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY
6-1-11
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/cancer/story/2011/06/WHO-Cellphones-possibly-carcinogenic/47896306/1

The USDA Ditches the Food Pyramid for a Plate

Meredith Melnick
Thursday, June 2, 2011
http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/02/the-usda-ditches-the-food-pyramid-and-offers-a-plate

So long, pyramid. Welcome, MyPlate! First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled on Thursday the government's new symbol for healthy eating, a colorful plate divided into the basic food groups, which will officially replace the well-recognized but perplexing food pyramid.

With Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the First Lady announced the new nutrition icon, known as MyPlate, as part of her ongoing campaign against obesity.

The plate, which is based on the nutrition advice contained in the government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans, is quartered into sections: fruits, vegetables, grains and protein. Half the plate is taken up by fruits and vegetables. Another smaller circle appears next to the plate representing dairy. Health officials have high hopes that the simple, clear "visual cue" will prompt consumers to make healthier eating choices — something that the decades-old food pyramid largely failed to do.

Even Secretary Vilsack said that he had never been able to make sense of the pyramid — first introduced in 1992, then revamped in 2005 — before taking his post at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). "The reality is that [the pyramid] is a really complex symbol," Vilsack said during the press conference announcing the plate icon on Thursday. "It has a lot of good information, but the reality is that it's too complex a symbol to translate well to meals for Americans."

MyPlate, by contrast, is a "simple, visual, research-based icon that is a clear, unmistakable message about portion size," Vilsack said.

Critics of the original pyramid, which placed foods that made up the largest portions of a recommended diet (grains, fruits and vegetables) at its base, with foods that should be eaten more sparingly (meat, dairy, fat, sugar) at the narrower top, said it was not easily translatable to most Americans' dining habits. For one thing, it told people to eat a specific number of "servings" — an inscrutable measure of food — of each food group per day. Further, the pyramid did not distinguish between healthy foods like brown rice or fish and less healthy foods like white rice or sausage. (Not to mention that the design was tweaked in order to please agricultural and meat lobbies, to which the USDA is responsible.)

The revamped pyramid, which turned the original's bricks into colorful vertical stripes representing food groups, and added a stick figure running up the side to note the importance of exercise, was even more widely ridiculed for offering no meaningful information.

The circular MyPlate departs from the original symbol's shape and better represents how the average person eats — on a plate. "What's more useful than a plate? What's more simple than a plate?" said the First Lady during the press conference. "After a long day of work, parents are asked to be the chef, the referee, the clean-up crew. You name it, we're on it. We can't be nutritionists as well."

The First Lady admitted that even she did not know how much protein was in an ounce of meat. "We can't be expected to measure three ounces of chicken or look up a portion size of rice or broccoli."

The government's updated dietary guidelines released in January suggest that Americans reduce their consumption of salt, sugar and fat; they also advise people increase fruits, veggies and fish. MyPlate reflects those guidelines, showing vegetables and fruits as a bigger proportion of the plate than grains, for example.

However, the dietary guidelines also urge Americans to eat less overall — a message that health officials haven't yet addressed. The New York Times reports:

Officials said they planned to use the plate in a campaign to communicate essential dietary guidelines to consumers, emphasizing one message at a time for best effect.

The first part of the campaign will encourage people to make half their plate fruit and vegetables. Later phases of the campaign will instruct consumers to avoid oversize portions, enjoy their food but eat less of it and to drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Nutritionists said the plate is a step up from the pyramid. "It's better than the pyramid but that's not saying a lot," Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, told the Times. She said that including a large section of the plate labeled "protein" is confusing and unnecessary, because it does not clarify that grains and dairy are important sources of protein and because most Americans already get more protein than they need, the Times reports.

The new icon was created by USDA in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and input from the First Lady's team. The USDA said it had conducted focus groups with about 4,500 people, including children, to develop the symbol.

Obamacare in Action

The predictions about healthcare keep coming. The latest suggests that nearly a third of employers are likely to stop offering health insurance to employees in 2014 when major federal healthcare-reform provisions kick in. This comes from a new report by McKinsey Quarterly.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 7% of employees would be forced into subsidized-exchange policies, the report said, but the survey of more than 1,300 employers suggests otherwise. That research found that 30% said they would “definitely or probably” drop the insurance policies.

As Reuters notes in its article about the latest prediction: That number rises to more than 50% among employers with a high awareness of healthcare reform...

One in three employers may drop health benefits, report says
Marissa Cevallos, HealthKey
June 7, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-healthcare-employer-20110607,0,3210281.story

New Fish & Olive Oil Health Benefits

You don't need to be a Konformist reader to know fish & olive oils have great health benefits, but here's some new things to add to the plus list.
From CharlesPoliquin.com:

In numerous articles and in my BioSignature Modulation courses, I’ve explained that fish oil can help you burn fat by turning on lipolytic genes and reduce stored fat by turning off lipogenic genes. But for some of you, especially those of you on a budget, that may not be a good-enough reason to spend your hard-earned money on this product. That’s all about to change because now I finally have a GREAT reason for you to take fish oil:

Fish oil can help us build muscle!

Yes, you heard me right. Want bulging biceps, powerful pecs, and shoulders like boulders? Fish oil is the supplement for you...

Finally, Fish Oil Is Anabolic!
Charles Poliquin
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/624/Finally_Fish_Oil_is_Anabolic.aspx

And from Huffpo:

Could a traditional food have pain- and inflammation-reducing effects similar to over the counter pain medicine like ibuprofen?

Scientists from Italy, Spain, the U.S. and Australia have discovered that extra virgin olive oil can provide significant health benefits, including the ability to help reduce pain and inflammation.

This robust, flavorful oil is an example of the food as medicine concept, that foods can have a powerful impact on health.

A Mythical, Sacred Oil

From ancient Greece to the Holy Land, olive oil has been treasured. Celebrated as sacred in Greek mythology, the olive branch symbolized peace in Hellenic culture. Evidence of this ancient oil was discovered in 1901 at the "Room of the Olive Press" at Knossos on the island of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. From there olives were pressed into oil over 4,500 years ago and the olive oil was exported to North Africa and mainland Greece.

Cultivation of olive trees spread around the Mediterranean where olive oil flourished along with many early civilizations. The bible speaks of olive oil, and it has been used by Christianity and Judaism as a holy anointing oil...

Recent research has identified the antioxidant called oleocanthal, which is only found in extra-virgin olive oil. Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, in Philadelphia, found that oleocanthal in olive oil has a potency strikingly similar to that of the drug ibuprofen in inhibiting the cyclooxygenase (Cox) enzyme that causes pain and inflammation. Their findings were published in the science magazine Nature.

Given the side effects of common pain relieving drugs, finding a nutritional way to reduce pain and inflammation could be a solution for people suffering from pain.

In another study Italian researchers explain that the characteristic pungent and bitter taste of virgin olive oil have been attributed to phenols in the oil that have potential antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, chemopreventive and anti-cancer benefits.

Research on Health Benefits of Olive Oil

At the meeting of the "International conference on the healthy effect of virgin olive oil" that took place in Spain in 2005, numerous benefits of virgin olive oil from the research were outlined. They looked at the consumption of olive oil from the perspective of issues such as cardiovascular health, cancer and longevity. With respect to anti-aging they noted: "The more recent studies consistently support that the Mediterranean diet, based in virgin olive oil, is compatible with a healthier ageing and increased longevity."

Consumption of olive oil has been associated with:

•Reduction of total cholesterol and an increase in the high-density cholesterol (HDL-C), which has a protective effect on blood vessels.

•Improved sensitivity of cells to insulin, which helps to prevent the Metabolic Syndrome. Preventing Metabolic Syndrome is important, because the syndrome increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

•Decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and Alzheimer's disease.

Potent Antioxidant Power of Olive Oil

Phenolic compounds are potent antioxidants found in virgin and extra-virgin olive oil. These compounds give unrefined olive oils their distinctive flavors and high degree of stability.

Studies indicate these compounds may be able to:

•Turn off the activity of genes that produce the kind of inflammation that causes coronary heart disease.

•Decrease production of inflammatory chemicals called thromboxanes and leukotrienes.

•Decrease the production of the most damaging form of cholesterol, oxidized LDL cholesterol.

•University of South Australia researchers note that compounds from the olive were found to be antimicrobial against various bacteria...

Here is a popular tangy and sweet recipe from my book The Fat Resistance Diet, an anti-inflammatory dietary program.

Pomegranate Lime Dressing
Pomegranate juice is an outstanding source of flavonoids which help to reduce inflammation.

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon unsweetened pomegranate juice

In a jar, shake together the extra virgin olive oil, lime juice, and pomegranate juice. Serves 1.

Leo Galland, M.D.
Practicing physician, author and leader in integrated medicine.
Olive Oil: A Natural Painkiller?
04/26/11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/olive-oil-painkiller-natural-painki_b_850299.html

Stallion Sperm Energy Drink

According to AOL News:
The latest crazy candidate for a food fad may prove to be quite a mouthful.

Raise your glass if you fancy a shot of horse semen, a purported "delicacy" that will debut at the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, New Zealand, in March.

"It is sort of quirky, I suppose," festival organizer Mike Keenan told AOL News, with Kiwi understatement.

"It is the protein of the stallion. It is going to be tastefully done."

The shots, which will sell for $10, are pitched as being healthy energy boosters and will be available to sample as they come or in cherry, licorice or banoffee pie flavors.


So next time I get caught sucking off a horse, I can say: "I'm not doing this because I'm a twisted perverted freak. It's solely for the health benefits!"

(Incidentally, the line also works when caught with transexual hookers. Credit to Eddie Murphy for pointing that out!)

Stallion Semen Served Up in New Zealand as New Energy Drink
Feb 25, 2011
Matthew Hall
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/25/stallion-semen-served-up-in-new-zealand-as-new-energy-drink

50 Natural Antidepressants to Beat the Winter Blues

February 17th, 2011
http://www.nursingschools.net/blog/2011/02/50-natural-antidepressants-to-beat-the-winter-blues

In the wintertime, it can be hard to stay cheery. With dreary weather, lots of time indoors, and lowered activity levels, it's not surprising. But there's a lot you can do to do nurse your happiness, even in the winter months. Read on to find out about food, supplements, and activities you can try to beat the winter blues.

Food & Supplements

These foods and supplements are great for a mood boost.

Natural sweeteners: Sweeteners like agave nectar or maple syrup are great alternatives to refined sugar, which has been linked to depression.

Poultry: Tryptophan and B6 help produce serotonin and other amino acids are good antidepressants.

Water: Dehydration can cause fatigue and depression, so be sure to drink enough water.

Eat lightly and often: Prevent dips in blood sugar that can bring down your mood by eating often and lightly.

Cheese: The tyrptophan in cheddar and swiss cheese can release serotonin.

Walnuts: Try walnuts as a snack for omega 3 fatty acids and uridine that can elevate your mood.

Spinach: Turn to spinach for a good source of folic acid, which can help you maintain proper physical and mental health.

5HTP: The 5HTP supplement can be a precursor to increase serotonin levels.

Whole wheat: Wheat bread with whole wheat can help you produce healthy amounts of serotonin.

Sushi: Fish oil offers a way to increase omega-3 fatty acids in your system, which can help fight depression.

L-tyrosine: L-tyrosine is a precursor to norepinephrine, and it's good for those who don't respond to most antidepressant drugs.

Eat lean protein: Protein offers a great feeling of alertness, as well as productivity.

Oranges: The Vitamin C offered in oranges and citrus fruits can help your body produce dopamine.

Dark chocolate: Boost your spirits with a dark chocolate treat.

Red pepper: Red peppers have good Vitamin C for producing dopamine.

Limit refined carbs: Soda, white flour, cookies, and other foods high in carbohydrates can cause you fatigue and depression.

St. John's Wort: Researchers believe that St. John's Wort may be able to help lift depression.

Phenylalanine: This amino acid can help the body make norepinephrine, an essential neurotransmitter for the brain and happiness.

Calcium citrate: Prevent a calcium deficiency, which can cause irritability, insomnia, and anxiety, with calcium citrate.

Vitamin B-12: B-12 can give you great energy and a mood lifter.

Sam-e: This coenzyme enhances cognitive function, and can treat depression as well as other psychiatric illnesses.

Fish oil: Some instances of depression can be from a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids, and fish oil can help treat the nutritional roots of this deficiency.

Folic acid: A deficiency in folate can cause depression and other mood disorders, so make sure you're getting enough of this supplement.

Kanna: This medicinal herb is part of a class of compounds that can treat depression, anxiety, and more on an as-needed basis.

Ginseng: Ginseng can improve your energy levels and cope with stress.

Activities

Try these activities to lighten your mood this winter.

Read inspiring quotes and jokes: Keep a list of inspiring jokes and quotes to refer to whenever you need them.

Maximize light: Use natural daylight or full-spectrum lighting to inspire happiness.

Call a friend: Reconnect with a favorite friend for an uplifted mood.

Aerobic exercise: Aerobic exercise can offer a natural mood lift.

Get some sunshine: Spending time in the sunshine can help you get the Vitamin D you need to increase serotonin in the brain.

Fake a smile: Pretend you're happy, and it just might happen.

Light Therapy: Light Therapy with bright lights like a fluorescent light unit can be used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Avoid stress: Staying away from prolonged periods of stress can help you avoid imbalances that lead to depression.

Reminisce: Look through old journals or albums for an uplifting walk through memory lane.

Vital energy exercise: Exercise like yoga, t'ai chi, or dance can offer a natural mood lift.

Meditation: Meditation's health benefits include improving mood, as well as reducing anxiety and stress.

Gardening: The act of gardening, as well as friendly bacteria in soil, can increase levels of serotonin and improve your mood.

Make something: Using your creative mind can feed your soul and make you happier.

Acupuncture: Acupuncture may be able to improve your mood, and depressive symptoms.

Inspiring music: Music that inspires you can give you a better mood.

Eat a healthy diet: Taking in enough protein, carbs, vitamins, and minerals can keep your nutrition on track to a positive mind.

Cheer someone else up: Do something thoughtful for someone else, and you just might feel better yourself.

Take a bath: Use essential oils to kick back and enjoy a bath for a natural happiness boost.

Burn frankincense: Frankincense can create a peaceful environment and activate channels in the brain that help depression.

De-clutter: Take on a small de-cluttering job for a sense of accomplishment that can make you happier.

Get some good sleep: Well rested people tend to lower their risk of depression.

Laugh: Having a good laugh can reduce stress hormones that typically cause depression.

Exercise: Getting active can boost your mood and reduce the risk of depression, as well as trigger positive feelings with endorphins.

Taking a time-out: Meditation can reduce the likelihood of depression, allowing you to treat your thoughts as just thoughts.

Consider depression's source: Using depression to make you stronger and solve problems can improve your outlook overall.

NaturalNews Health News

Some recent articles on health from NaturalNews.com:

"Butter has been maligned as unhealthy for decades. Fortunately, the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) disagrees. The WAPF was started decades ago by Weston Price, DDS. He and his wife traveled to isolated locations and examined the diets of peoples free from civilization's degenerative diseases...

Why the Negative PR Campaign Succeeded

Diet fads promoted aspartame as well as margarine as healthy choices. The overweight and even not so slim were manipulated into diets with only weight loss in mind . That popular movement had its foundation in medical misinformation, based mostly on saturated fat nonsense. That nonsense was compounded by the cholesterol scare.

Abstaining from the saturated fats was promoted as a healthy choice. Butter, coconut oil, and palm oil were all given bad press. The doctors, uneducated of real nutritional health science, went right along. Yet all three of those saturated fats are actually health promoting.

This trend was accelerated by corporate greed in the processed food industry. They could righteously insert those cheaper trans fatty liquid oils in packaged goods or sell them as healthy cooking oils. And now it turns out that those oils cause long term health damage, including obesity, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and even cancer..."

You have been lied to about butter
Paul Fassa
Friday, January 14, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/031002_butter_misinformation.html

*

"Arsenic and its related compounds are mostly thought of as killers -- and these natural substances can be just that. Notoriously poisonous to myriad forms of life, arsenic is often used in pesticides. And water supplies in many parts of the world that are contaminated by the natural occurrence of arsenic compounds can cause serious health problems. But despite it's reputation as a dangerous chemical, arsenic has been used in tiny amounts in medicine for over 2,000 years.

Sound crazy? Not any more. Mainstream science has learned that traditional healers were on to something when they treated certain cancers and other difficult-to-treat problems with remedies containing arsenic. It turns out that while a high level of arsenic is known to be carcinogenic, low doses can be an anti-cancer therapy in some cases. For example, a Dutch population study found low levels of arsenic concentrations in drinking water not only didn't increase cancer incidence in people who drank it, but resulted in a decrease in skin cancers..."

Arsenic shows promise as treatment for deadly brain tumors
S. L. Baker
Thursday, January 13, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/030994_arsenic_tumors.html

*

"Rye is more than a flavorful ingredient in baking; research shows that this humble grain packs a serious nutritional punch. Contributing to cardiovascular health, cancer prevention, and management of diabetes, rye is an important addition to the diet. Not only is this grain healthy, but it also has been found to promote weight control and digestive health when consumed as dark rye bread..."

Consumption of rye linked to weight control and vigorous health
Carolanne Wright
Thursday, January 13, 2011

http://www.naturalnews.com/030988_rye_body_weight.html

*

"Regular breads use yeast to rapidly expand the dough mixed for bread. The yeast creates a gas that expands rapidly. So baking with a yeast base is faster. Consider the word yeast and all it implies.

Sourdough is a fermented culture combining friendly yeast and bacteria. This becomes the starter culture for making sourdough bread. The process of fermenting the culture makes the baking process slower than yeast based baking.

Fermented foods are often healthier than their unfermented versions. For example, all the health problems caused by soy products are removed in tempeh, which is fermented soy. The cultures for yogurt and kefir are created by a fermentation process.

Health Benefits of Sourdough

Sourdough breaks down gluten, allowing some wheat sensitive consumers to enjoy bread that tastes good and is not too expensive. But many researchers consider sourdough rye to contain even more nutrition than sourdough wheat breads.

Research has shown that using the sourdough culture for making bread increases the bread`s nutritional impact beyond yeast produced bread. The sourdough process makes starches more digestible by predigesting them, and it lowers insulin resistance while increasing glucose tolerance.

The most controversial benefit is phytic acid or phytate reduction. Phytates are salts derived from phytic acid contained in grains, legumes, and nuts. These phytates bind with several different minerals, including magnesium, and inhibit mineral absorption into the body.

There are two points of view on phytates. Some say we need all the minerals we can get. Anything that inhibits mineral absorption should be at least reduced. Others say phytates have antioxidant and cancer fighting benefits and inhibit excess iron. But even this camp seems to agree that the mineral blocking aspect of phytates can adversely affect those who are mineral deficient.

And who is not mineral deficient? Magnesium, the most important essential mineral for human health, is deficient among most of the civilized population. Magnesium is essential for over 300 different metabolic events in the body. So the phytate factor is a mixed bag nutritionally.

Completely eliminating phytates may not be wise or even possible. Well, the cultured sourdough process does not completely eliminate phytates. It reduces them. Since most of us tend to be mineral deficient, reducing phytates can allow us to have our bread and eat it too.

Sprouted Grains

All sprouted grains, seeds, and legumes have one thing in common: Higher nutrient density. Sprouting converts a starchy food into a virtual vegetable, easier to digest and more nutritious than its source. So why bring this up?

Combining a sourdough culture with sprouted organic grain flour looks like an extremely healthy choice for bread. It`s a little more pricey, but not out of range for most who are health conscious..."

Superfood breads are realistic
Paul Fassa
Saturday, January 22, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/031078_superfood_breads.html

Know Your Eggs

Francis Lam of Salon.com has a great article in Salon describing the meaning behind different definitions for eggs:
Cage-free: The vast majority of industrial eggs are laid by hens in cramped cages, stuffed wing-to-wing so tight they can't walk, spread their wings, or do other chickeny things like lay their eggs in nests. It's foul enough a practice (that was NOT A PUN) that a Nobel-winning zoologist, Konrad Lorenz, lamented its use as "the worst torture." (The fact that Lorenz was a card-carrying member of the Nazi party in his younger years isn't too thrilling, but still.) Anyway, the Humane Society of the United States, whom I don't agree with on every issue, has focused one of its major campaigns on the promotion of cage-free egg production. Which, frankly, seems smart: it's a step toward a good place, but it's also achievable enough that massive fast food chains like Subway and Burger King can pretty readily commit to a switch without breaking too much of a sweat. No one's a hero, but at this scale, the hundreds of millions of hens' lives can be significantly improved at any given moment.

Anyway, the label means that the eggs are laid by hens who are not in cages and have freedom to walk, perch, lay their eggs in nests, etc. Still, they're packed tightly in henhouses, and don't necessarily have any access to the outside.

Free-range: As with meat chickens, the term "free-range" does have a technical U.S. Department of Agriculture definition, but it's so vague as to invite cynical meaninglessness: "Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside." Some producers take this very seriously, actually letting the birds out, but many large producers, who market the vast majority of eggs, interpret this to mean that you just have to have a tiny open window somewhere in the henhouse that faces a parking lot. Both would technically qualify, so that's not encouraging. One thing that can be said, though, is that any egg labeled "free-range" would typically be at least cage-free, even if the "ranging" part of it is suspect.

Free-roaming: Pretty much the same as "free-range," though this label is even weaker, since there is no technical USDA definition for free-roaming eggs. (Help! The eggs are walking around on their own!)

Fertile: I have to confess that I don't really know why you'd want fertile eggs in your market. I mean, are you going to sit on them for a while and hope for some cute little chicks? "Should we brunch or gestate?" isn't a question that's ever been asked in my home, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Anyway, the label means that, poetically, the hens "have access" to a rooster. Make of that what you will, but the Humane Society suggests that "most likely" they are also cage-free.

Natural: Just as with meat chicken, this term really just means that nothing has been added to the egg after harvest, and has nothing to do with how the hen was raised or fed.

Organic: To be certified organic, the eggs must come from chickens that are cage-free and "free-range," fed only vegetarian, certified-organic feed. Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute, whom I spoke with for the meat chicken label story, noted that this is particularly poignant for eggs, because conventional producers often use an arsenic-laced feed to increase production. He also said that, because organic rules forbid antibiotics, they also force producers to keep a healthier, cleaner environment to maintain their flock's health.

In a real way, "organic" might be the most important label, because there is actually an enforcement apparatus at the USDA for it; many of these other labels are governed more by fear of false advertising suits than actual inspectors.

Vegetarian-fed: The definition for this comes from a reader, Jollysapper, who commented that, "'Vegetarian fed' means just that. The food that I (the farmer) buys and feeds to the birds contains no animal byproducts. So the chickens can forage for worms and beetles and mice (I've seen the chickens swallow an occasional field mouse). But I won't feed my chickens dead chickens, cows, ducks, whatever." Note, though, that Jollysapper is referring to pasturing chickens, which is how they get to forage for worms and seed. But the label "vegetarian-fed" in itself doesn't have any bearing on how much freedom the birds are given. They might well be caged. Which brings us to...

Pastured: In theory, "pastured" refers to eggs produced the way you imagine they should be -- the birds are allowed to roam on a pasture, foraging for seeds and insects, and come home to a sheltered house at night. Their foraged diet, among other things, makes for egg yolks that are bright orange, and far tastier. Again, though, this is another label that has no legal binding power. They may or may not be organic (or they may not be certified organic, but still be produced in a way that "organic" or beyond, since certification itself is prohibitively expensive for many small farmers). Usually they are produced by small farmers, and, as Mark Kastel suggests, meet an egg farmer at a market and ask if you can come visit their chickens. If they're proud of how they raise them, they'll probably say yes.

Omega-3 enriched: This label also refers only to the hens' feed, not how they are otherwise treated. To enrich their eggs with Omega-3 fatty acids, the birds' food includes kelp, rapeseed, flax or linseed, or sometimes cod liver oil.

Humane certified: I realize that pictures of cute-things-all-beat-up is a favorite tool of propagandists of all sorts, but I'm sorry, you really can't unwatch a chicken getting de-beaked. Hundreds of millions of chicks -- and not that this should matter in the moral universe, but I'm talking about Peeps-cute chicks -- have their beaks cut or singed off so that when they grow into egg-laying hens, they can't peck each other to death. It's true that in even the most Old MacDonald kind of farm, chickens sometimes peck at each other to establish dominance, sometimes with serious violence. (The phrase "henpecked" actually comes from somewhere.) But it happens so often and with such cannibalistic fury in tightly packed industrial egg-laying henhouses that a bloodless someone started this practice.

What "cage-free," "fertile" and other egg labels mean
Francis Lam
Friday, Jan 28, 2011
http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2011/01/28/egg_marketing_labels/index.html