Why the History of the American Diet Matters

16-minute video by Stephan Guyenet on why America's food history matters. Fascinating and will indict you to eat simpler foods.

Amazing Pineapple--It Digests Protein, Fights Gout, & Raises Alkaline PH

 I've been eating raw pineapple lately.  I am trying to stay away from fruit because of the sugars, but pineapple has a fantastic effect on my muscles and energy.  I wrote a nurse friend of mine, and he mentioned that bromelain is a great digestive enzyme that has the ability to clean your system.  Even better, I thought.  The enzymes in bromelain do a good job of breaking proteins.  Even Paleo nutritionists recommend this, primarily for the digestive enzymes that break down proteins found in meat.  I've heard that it is a good cancer remedy as well.  So if you're a big meat eater, then I encourage you to include a slice of pineapple on your plate or as a garnish to your pastrami sandwich to-go.  Also, if you want all of the nutritional benefits of the foods you're eating, bromelain and other digestive enzymes in pineapple help to absorb those nutrients better.  I have over eaten on meat, and after 18 hours I do not always see the whole meal pass through me as it used to when I was younger.  Age then is a factor.  As we put on the years, our digestive tract may slow down.  Then more than ever try a slice of pineapple.  It's refreshing during the summer when it is in season. Bromelain also helps to treat gout.  What do I mean by "treat"?  I mean that if you incorporate pineapple into your high-meat diet, then you can either prevent gout outright or discourage its formation.  That's what I mean by "treat."  Eat healthy and stay well.  Here are some excellent tips on how to eat fruit properly.

Pineapple is amazing.  In addition to breaking down proteins and making them more available in digestion, pineapple also has a high alkaline content at 7.4 ph.  A healthy mouth that supports good dental enamel has an alkaline content of 7.6.  So, as Dr. Ellie Phillips suggests, eat 1 slice of pineapple before and after a dentist visit.

Karen Roth, holistic nutritionist, reviews the health value of raw pineapple.

VACCINES ARE TROUBLE

Verstraeten Study Proving That Thimerosal in Vaccines Causes Autism and A Lot of Other Neurological Diseases

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reporting in 2009 on the Simpsonwood Conference of 2000.  Here is some additional information on the Verstraeten Study.

The 2000 Simpsonwood Conference.  Here is Kennedy's report on the Simpsonwood memo.

Farmageddon: The Truth About the Food and Dairy Industry

Packers, slaughterhouses, and the feedlots have the money; and that's who controls the beef industry and USDA.  A whole revolving door, from the pharmaceutical and the beef industry to the USDA and get legislation passed on their pet projects.  USDA spends a million dollars plus monitoring small farmers.

Linda Detwiler is the USDA's spy who goes out onto small farms and harasses Americans.  Way to go, Linda!  Here is a book covering the mad sheep fiasco.

Several farmers in this documentary make the excellent point that food grown on a small farm allows a consumers to know where the food they consume comes from.  So if anything does go wrong, the consumer can contact that particular farmer.  Contrast that scenario with food grown at a large agri-farmer in several different states.  It's much more difficult to find the source of bad food through large farms.  I remember that in 2006 when there was the spinach scare in California that took over a week to locate the source of the tainted crop.

Rawesome Foods in Venice, CA has been "raided" a few times in the past 3 to 5 years.  Because it is a membership co-op, it is open only 2 days a week, Wednesdays, 12-8, and Saturdays, 9-4.  Watch this:

It is interesting to learn who greenlights the warrants and on whose behalf. You have the LA County District Attorney's Office, LA County Police, and the LA County Sheriff's Department. That's quite an expenditure of law enforcement to take down a tiny, contracted farm in Ventura County. Didn't know that LA County has jurisdiction over Ventura County.  LA Building & Safety is threatening to shut down Rawesome Foods because of "illegal" structures. 

Water: Let It Flow.

 

Water, water, water.  Healing.  Oh, yes.  Or at least it should be.  What with all of the contaminants in water everywhere, how does one remove the contaminants that affect you in particular?  Can we boil the contaminants out of water?  Perhaps.  But which ones?  Fluoride, chlorine, BPA.  I was shocked to read that BPA can cause obesity; that it can produce a hypothyroid; that it can interfere with neurological function; and that it can feminize men as well as destroy a man's fertility.  I wish that life weren't so complex.  Maybe life 200 years ago wasn't.  But we are here and we have to deal with what we are dealt.  I've been drinking bottled water for far too long.  I'd also heard all the arguments about which is better--bottled water or tap.  I think that they are both bad.  I'm just not sure that filtered water from some of the counter top filters produce adequate results, and by adequate results I am referring to water that both tastes good and fresh and water that is free, yes free, from biologically disruptive chemicals.

THE PROBLEM: CHEMICALS FOUND IN BOTTLED WATER DISRUPT BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES.  I like lists.  Here is a list of contaminants identified by the US EPA.

I purchase Arrowhead's Filtered water and Mountain Spring water.  I purchased the filtered water because I thought that I was getting the purest kind of water.  Well, maybe.  The problem is that filtered water has little to no taste.  I taste nothing . . . except the plastic that has leached into the water.  The texture of the water is not crystal clear crisp and sharp.  The texture and the taste is oily.  I'm not sure but I believe that the BPA is an oil by-product.  Plastics are oil by-products.  This article that calls for a ban on BPA states the following:

"Of course what the scientists are doing will be amplified many times by public opposition to such chemicals. BPA leeches from its container into whatever it happens to contain. If you microwave a TV dinner for example, the chemical content of the plastic container would find its way into the food you are going to eat. Likewise, when bottled water or a soft drink is manufactured and shelved, BPA leaches into the liquid over the time it takes to be purchased and consumed. The chemical is in food can linings, often in dental fillings, and can be found in 95 percent of paper money. It seems clear that public opposition is more than called for to reduce exposure, and it will be key in future regulation."

The subject of bottled water gets more distressing by the hour.  I read on Wikipedia tonight that bottled water companies are not required by law to report that their product has fluoride or if it does it is not required to report how much fluoride it has.  Unbelievable.  Here is the statement on Wikipedia:

"In some areas, tap water may contain added fluoride, which helps prevent tooth decay and cavities.^[21] Most bottled water manufacturers in the United States either add fluoride to their product or provide a fluoridated bottled water product (my emphasis). The Food and Drug Administration of the United States does not require bottled water manufacturers to list the fluoride content on the label.^[22] Water fluoridation remains controversial in countries where forced fluoridation is practiced (the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and a handful of other countries)."

SOLUTIONS?

Few and far between?  Not what you'd think.  Expunging the PBA out of your cells and tissue can be had with a few adjustments made to your diet, or accomplished with things that you're already consuming in your diet.  Here is a short list:

1.  Black tea

2.  Probiotics

3.  Melatonin

A longer list is here.  I am skeptical about melatonin.  Dr. Barry Sears, who I followed for many years, made the point that melatonin in doses larger than 1mg can have adverse side effects on testosterone: so men beware.  In fact, this is one of the side effects of BPA.  So if you find yourself consuming a lot of bottled water, avoid the melatonin, unless you want to be transgendered without expensive surgery.  That was a really bad joke.  A Japanese study found that ". . . out of the Japanese Department of Environmental Technology, found that the probiotic bacteria – Bacillus pumilus, is capable of degrading BPA."  That's quite a claim. 

FINALLY.  WHERE DOES WATER COME FROM?

WATER STORAGE

The best way to store water would be in a glass container, a ceramic container, or a metal container, preferably steel.  It has been my experience that if you use any plastic container, the plastic by-products will leech into the water itself and the water, though pure of any bacteria, my taste oily and plastic, particularly if you leave the plastic container out in the sun.  Does that oily, plastic taste mean that PBA has leached into the water?  I can't say for sure, but I can say that water does taste like an oil by-product.  So my answer is ceramic, glass, or metal--copper, steel, aluminum

I had a discussion once with my niece over bottled water, specifically Arrowhead's bottled spring water and distilled water.  We shared a similar experience where we both purchased a 1 gallon bottle and talked about how the water tasted like the plastic.  All of these companies ship their bottled water on trucks.  Sometimes these delivery trucks sit for hours, days, and weeks with merchandise locked in the covered bed.  Depending on the season and depending on the location, like Southern California, the heat can have a destructive influence on the plastic of which the bottles are made.  Imagine hundreds are thousands of bottles sitting in a diesel trailer under a 100-degree August sun.  Those bottles will melt as will their chemical composition: the chemicals will leak into the water, change its composition and structure, and definitely changing its taste.

So storage is a big issue of water quality.

HOW TO ACHIEVE SAFE, CLEAN DRINKING WATER

Here is one step.

DRUGS IN OUR WATER SUPPLY: CAN THEY CAUSE AUTISM?  I DON'T KNOW, BUT I DO KNOW THAT WHEN I DRINK FROM THE TAP I GET HEADACHES

Check this out.