Autism is often associated with compromised immune function, and environmental factors are increasingly suspected to play a role in the alarming recent increase in the disorder.

A new hypothesis for a principle cause of autism is an insufficient supply of cholesterol sulfate to the fetus during gestation, and to the infant postnatally. This could be related both to insufficient sun exposure and insufficient dietary sulfur, for both the mother and the child.

According to a paper in Medical Hypotheses, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:

“A novel contribution is the theory that endothelial nitric oxide synthase produces not only nitric oxide but also sulfate, and that sulfate production is stimulated by sunlight. We further hypothesize that the sulfur shortage manifests as an impaired immune response, including an increased susceptibility to eczema and asthma. Proposed corrective measures involve increased dietary sulfur intake for both the mother and the child, and increased sun exposure.”

Paul Jaminet, an astrophysicist from Harvard with a strong interest in health and diet, and Dr. Ron Rosedale have recently been having a lively internet debate.  Jaminet believes that carbohydrates from starches such as potatoes and cooked rice are healthy “safe starches” that if not consumed can lead to “glucose deficiency”. Dr. Rosedale disagrees.

According to Dr. Rosedale, all sugars and foods that convert into sugar will have a detrimental effect if eaten.  He argues that while a bowl of rice difference in carbohydrate per day in a diet is a small difference, that small difference can make a big difference in terms of your health, especially for those with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Rosedale says:

“Furthermore, I believe that we all have, at least some degree, corruption in insulin and leptin signaling, that lie at  the heart of the chronic diseases of aging such as (type 2) diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, obesity, and even many cancers, and therefore everyone can and should benefit from an optimal, not just better, diet … [T]here is no such thing as a glucose deficiency or a healthy need to eat starches”.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an endocrine-disrupting compound that is used in plastic products and the lining of nearly all food and beverage cans.  Exposure to BPA has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and potential problems during fetal development.  A recent study found that after just five days of eating one can of soup a day, human BPA levels increased by more than 1,000%.

According to Time Magazine:

“Although the study … looked only at canned soup, the results likely apply to other canned foods and beverages as well … 93% of Americans have a detectable amount of BPA in their bodies. BPA comes not only from food and drink in cans, but also those packaged in polycarbonate plastic. The chemical is also found on thermal register receipts, which people receive at checkout at nearly every retailer.”

Other recent studies have confirmed that BPA contributes to generalized obesity, abdominal obesity, and insulin resistance.

Controversy has recently arisen over the concept of “safe starches” — starches that have a significantly lower “glycemic index” than glucose (GI 100) and which are therefore considered by some to be unlikely to cause negative health effects.  In some cases, this may depend on the particular variety of the food; while white rice is typically listed with a GI of 70 or 72, Bangladeshi rice has a GI of just 37.

An article on the website Perfect Health Diet further argues that, as a rule, gentle cooking of starchy plants leads to a lower glycemic index and high cooking temperatures lead to a higher glycemic index.  This would mean that in general industrially processed foods, which are often processed at very high temperatures, have high GIs.  In addition, adding some fat to starch is an effective means of lowering its GI, according to the article.

Perfect Health Diet states that:

“Flour tortillas have a GI of 30, compared to a GI of 72 for wheat bread, because tortillas are made with lard.  Butter reduces the glycemic index of French bread from 95 to 65 … a study… showed that adding fat to starches could increase the gastric emptying time — the time for food to leave the stomach — by 50%.”

To learn about how dairy, fiber, vinegar, and other natural foods may also reduce the harmful effects of starches, you can click on the link below.

Studies have shown that broccoli sprouts, which are high in glucoraphanin, can decrease both blood pressure and renal and vascular oxidative stress and inflammation. A new study sought to determine whether a metabolite of glucoraphanin, sulforaphane, was responsible for the improved blood pressure.

Sulforaphane was given to rats over a period of 4 months.  It was shown to lower blood pressure and provide other benefits, including reversing kidney damage.

According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:

“Sulforaphane administration rectified pathological abnormalities in [the rats’] kidneys and significantly improved blood pressure. This was associated with normalization of global kidney DNA methylation suggesting that DNA methylation could be associated with hypertension.”

Monsanto has long been trying to establish control over the seeds of the plants that produce food for the world.  They have managed to help get laws passed which state that their genetically modified seeds are patented and belong to them. But they intentionally spread these seeds to organic farms — after which they take the farmer to court with the intent of bankrupting them and putting them out of business.

This is exactly what happened to Percy Schmeiser of Saskatchewan, Canada.  Percy worked on farming and developed his own seeds for 50 years, and Monsanto threatened him, intimidated him, and tried to take his land away.  But Percy didn’t give in, and eventually beat them in court.

According to Wake Up World:

“Monsanto threw everything and the kitchen sink at Percy and his wife and Percy fought back … But mainly Percy did not quit and he persisted in numerous court challenges that Monsanto threw his way to stop one Canadian farmer with guts and ethics.”

McDonald’s is looking for a new source of eggs for its Egg McMuffins. The company will no longer accept eggs from Sparboe Farms, which has been cited by the Food and Drug Administration for significant and serious violations.

The FDA cited at least 13 violations of rules meant to prevent dangerous salmonella outbreaks.

According to ABC News”:

“In its statement, McDonald’s said its decision was based on concerns about ‘the management of Sparboe facilities.’”

Many people believe that they are making a healthier choice if they forgo a can of soda and instead drink fruit juice.  But are they?

In fact, fruit drinks are not only less than healthy, they are in many cases actually worse for you than soft drinks. They can be higher in sugar, and much higher in calories. They are responsible for a good deal more obesity than most people are aware of.

According to Discovery.com:

“Considering an 8-ounce serving of Snapple Apple has more sugar than 2 and a half Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, you were probably [better] off reaching for the box rather than the bottle.”

To read more disturbing facts about fruit juice you might not have known, you can click on the link below.

The U.S. Congress is trying to keep pizza and French fries on school lunch menus, fighting Obama administration proposals to make school lunches healthier.  Their final version of a spending bill would undo school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year.

The bill also would also continue to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, a standard the USDA had sought to end.

MSNBC reports:

“Food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes, and some conservatives in Congress say the federal government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.”

The U.S. Congress is trying to keep pizza and French fries on school lunch menus, fighting Obama administration proposals to make school lunches healthier.  Their final version of a spending bill would undo school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year.

The bill also would also continue to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, a standard the USDA had sought to end.

MSNBC reports:

“Food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes, and some conservatives in Congress say the federal government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.”

Your body weight does not always accurately reflect your health.  Your weight tells you nothing about your body’s composition, nor does it indicate where any additional fat is accumulated. Over the years, you may lose muscle and gain fat but see little change in your weight.

However, such a change in body composition may reflect declining health, especially if you have visceral fat packed in and around your abdominal organs.  Visceral fat is associated with a heightened risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  In fact, a recent report found that women drinking 2 or more sugar-sweetened beverages each day were more likely to develop raised levels of triglycerides and accumulate visceral fat — even if they did not put on weight overall.

According to DrBriffa.com:

“It’s entirely possible for someone to be a ‘healthy’ weight, and have biochemical and physiological evidence of enhanced risk of disease.”

Today is the day pickle lovers everywhere unite to express their love for this versatile salty snack. Whether you’re attending a festival teeming with samples of the hundreds of pickle varieties or just enjoying a tasty gherkin at home, there’s no denying the snackability of a pickle and its brine.

At just 1 calorie each, dill slices are a great snack or addition to any sandwich, and leftover pickle brine is a must for a delicious Bloody Mary. Check out this recipe for DIY pickled cukes and don’t forget to take a look at these recipes and pickle trivia in celebration of National Pickle Day!

• In Poland, drinking pickle brine is a common hangover remedy
• Vlasic unveiled the world’s largest pickle in 1999. Measuring 16 inches in length, 3-1/2 inches in diameter and weighing nearly 5 pounds, this award-winning pickle is 10 times the size of traditional pickles!
• “Pickle” is derived from the Dutch word “pekel,” meaning brine
• "Koolickles” are made by soaking dill pickles in a mixture of Kool-Aid and pickle brine

read more

A study has determined that micro RNA (miRNA) from plants remains stable after cooking and digestion, and that it has been found in significant quantities in human blood and tissue.

What’s more, this plant miRNA has been shown to interfere with human miRNA by mimicking it and binding to the receptors.  Specifically looked at were levels of MIR168a and MIR156a, the two plant miRNAs with the highest levels in human subjects, and MIR166a, a plant miRNA with a significant but more modest level.

According to Evolvify:

“The three plant miRNAs found were present in different levels in different plants … It is worth noting that these three plant miRNAs, MIR168a, MIR156a, and MIR166a, were detected in [rice and] other foods, including Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa pekinensis), wheat (Triticum aestivum), and potato (Solanum tuberosum).”

Childhood diet is critically important for proper brain development, and the quality of breakfast is thought to affect children’s cognitive functioning. A study sought to analyze the relationship between breakfast staples and intelligence in children.

Researchers divided close to 300 children into three groups according to their breakfast staple — rice, bread, or both. They found that those in the rice group had a significantly larger gray matter ratio and a higher perceptual organization index.

According to the study:

“… [O]ne possible mechanism underlying the difference between the bread and the rice groups may be the difference in the glycemic index (GI) of these two substances; foods with a low GI are associated with less blood-glucose fluctuation than are those with a high GI.”

On his website “Livin’ La Vida Low Carb”, Jimmy Moore examines the notion of “safe starches”, a concept promoted by Paul Jaminet in his book The Perfect Health Diet.  Jaminet claims that those on low-carb diets who add back in certain “safe starches” will find relief from insulin resistance.

UK-based senior nutritionist Emily Maguire argues that terming any starch foods as “safe” is not only difficult to comprehend but could also result in very misleading information — and she especially questions potatoes and white rice being included as “safe’ foods in any form of low carb recommendation, as basic principles of metabolism and nutrition show that these foods cause the greatest spike in blood sugar levels.

Dr. Ron Rosedale, a medical doctor who has used low-carb diets to treat his patients with obesity, diabetes and chronic diseases for over two decades, further notes that there is no such thing as a safe non-fiber starch such as rice or potatoes.

According to Dr. Rosedale:

“Eating starch will raise blood sugar to some extent in all living beings that do so, and that will cause some degree of harm in everybody. Therefore, the term ‘safe starch’ is an oxymoron. ‘Tolerably harmful’? Perhaps for some”.

Many nutritionists are currently recommending increased intake of fish and fish oils to raise consumption of omega-3 fats.  But can the collapsing global fisheries support current, let alone increased, use of fish and fish oils?

There is little doubt about the ongoing worldwide collapse of fish stocks. Despite increasing fishing effort, global catches have been in decline since the late 1980s, and the number of collapsed stocks has been increasing exponentially since 1950.  Projected forward, these trends could imply the collapse of all commercial fish stocks by the middle of the twenty-first century.

According to Primal Wisdom:

“In short, the drive to eat more fish and fish oils will only accelerate the rate of destruction of marine ecosystems … Perhaps people eating increased amounts of seafood will suffer the same fate as ocean fish. Seafoods commonly contain chemical contaminants that appear to impair fertility, including mercury, PCBs, PEs, and others.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control  have long claimed that between 1998 and 2008, there were two deaths from raw milk. This number is often used in media reporting about raw milk.  But those illnesses actually appear to have come from a form of cheese that isn’t legal under current FDA regulations.

In December, Mark McAfee, the owner of Organic Pasture Dairy, challenged claims on the Centers for Disease Control web site stating that raw milk is dangerous. The agency actually agreed to make some slight changes to its language on the site, but did not change a reported death from Salmonella Typhimurium in California.  But the state was not reporting that death.  He did not receive a response from the CDC until he threatened to file a Freedom of Information Act request.  At that time, he discovered the death was from that same form of cheese mentioned above, queso fresco.

According to Health Impact News Daily:

“Why is this important? Because statistics have become important weapons in the war over food rights. When the CDC says there have been two deaths from raw milk between 1998 and 2008, that statistic carries a powerful message: you can die from drinking raw milk … If it turns out that the two people it says died from drinking raw milk didn’t, in fact, die from drinking raw milk, then the CDC has lost an important weapon in the government’s campaign of fear around raw milk. If no one died in that eleven-year period, suddenly, raw milk isn’t quite the danger it has been made to appear. “

Even if poultry comes
from a farmer’s market, it’s not often free-range in the way you might think. Be
wary if people are not allowed tours of the farm; “free range” may mean that
the birds are kept in dark sheds rather than individual cages.

When chickens were produced in a sustainable manner, they
were generally smaller, mostly dark
meat chicken. But white meat chicken breasts have become the standard in the
U.S., and now even small farmers are trying to supply them — at the expense of
making the pastured model truly grass-fed and truly pastured.

According to Hunt
Gather Love:

“Is this really all going back to bare
efficiency? Maybe we should rethink chicken’s place in the production system in
the first place. Thousands of pastoral cultures did grass-fed quite fine
without it … Maybe if you can’t produce something well in a commercially
viable way, you shouldn’t produce it at all?”

Soda has gradually moved from being a special treat, decades ago, to being a daily fixture in American life today.   Half of the U.S. population over the age of 2 currently consumes sugary drinks daily.  And diet drinks, 100% fruit juices, sweetened teas and flavored milk products are not even included in that total.

Male teens are the most frequent consumers, drinking about 252 to 273 calories every day on average.

According to CNN:

“… [S]oda drinking for youths between the ages of 6 and 17 was at 37% in the 1970s and then 56% in the 1990s. This latest research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that from 2005 to 2008, consumption increased again.”

A new report from Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food
Policy and Obesity states that many fruit drinks heavily marketed to children contain
dangerously high levels of sugar.  A
significant number of parents mistakenly consider such drinks to be healthy
alternatives to soft drinks.

The report notes that such drinks increase the risk for
obesity and diabetes, and that drinking just one 8-ounce sugary drink each day
increases a child’s odds of becoming obese by 60 percent.

CBS News lists the seven brands singled out by the Yale
researchers as the worst offenders, which include:

“An 8-ounce serving of Hawaiian Punch … [which has] 29
grams of added sugar — 193 percent of the sugar a child needs for an entire
day — in addition to artificial sweeteners.”

The bacteria in your gut may be controlling your life more
than you ever realized.  Researchers have
recently reported a link between gut bacteria and the development of multiple
sclerosis in mice. Gut bacteria has also previously been linked to obesity,
depression and much more.

In the most recent experiment, researchers studied mice bred
to develop a disease similar to multiple sclerosis.  Those raised in an environment with no
bacteria never developed symptoms. Once typical gut bacteria were introduced, however,
the mice began to show signs of the disease.

Discover News reports:

“If
a healthy gut microbial community proves important for different aspects of our
health, what could we do to encourage the bacteria that would prevent obesity
or disease?  One option might be to take
probiotics, eat a particular diet, or minimize antibiotic use”.

A new study finds that teenagers who drink many soft drinks get into more fights and carry more weapons, on average.  The findings add to a growing body of research regarding the effects of nutrition on behavior.

For the latest study, researchers surveyed more than 1,800 students in Boston public schools. The teens answered questions about how much non-diet soda they drank, whether they had been violent towards others, and if they had carried a knife or gun in the previous year.

According to Discovery News:

“Even when the researchers controlled for alcohol, tobacco, BMI and other details, though, they found a steady rise in violence alongside higher levels of soda drinking. Twenty-three percent of teens who drank fewer than one soft drink a week reported carrying a weapon, for example, compared to 43 percent who drank five or more cans a week. And violence towards peers rose from 35 percent in the low-consumption group to 59 percent in the heaviest soda-drinkers.”

CBS San Francisco recently did an excellent series of reports about the Paleo diet movement. Dr. Kim Mulvihill was the only member of the mainstream press present at the recent Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles.  She took part in Dr. Lynda Frassetto‘s scientific study on the Paleo diet herself.

Close to 20 states or cities in the U.S. are considering the possibility of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.  Organizations that have called for reductions in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption include the World Health Organization, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association, Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The beverage industry, however, has been flexing its economic and political might in ways reminiscent of the tobacco industry during the 1950s. The arguments they are making are the same as the ones that were made on behalf of cigarettes decades ago — that the taxes are “discriminatory” in singling out one category of food, that taxes will not work, and that government should not tell people what to do.

According to Time Magazine:

“Similar to tobacco companies, the soda industry has created a front group, Americans Against Food Taxes, to run anti-tax campaigns  … The tobacco industry paid scientists who did research disputing links between smoking and lung cancer, the addictive nature of nicotine, and the dangers of second-hand smoke. The soda industry funds scientists who reliably produce research showing no link between [sugar-sweetened beverage] consumption and health … The beverage industry has been successful thus far in fighting off significant taxes through heavy lobbing, questionable tactics, and the attempt to appear public-health minded, but they, too, are likely to be embarrassed as light shines upon them.”

Have you ever wondered if there was a reason that your child’s
school cafeteria offered foods like Apple Jacks, Pop-Tarts, Giant Goldfish Grahams
and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins?  It turns
out that the manufacturers of those sugar-laden products pay hefty rebates to
giant food service companies to encourage them to purchase their highly
processed goods. In fact, nearly everything that goes into running a public
school cafeteria comes with a rebate check to help make sure the industrial
version of food wins out.

For example, more than 100 companies paid rebates in recent
years to Chartwells, the food service management company hired by D.C. Public
Schools.  The list includes General
Mills, Kraft, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, and Tyson.

According to La Vida Locavore:

“John
Carroll, an assistant New York State attorney general investigating rebating
practices there, has said rebates pose ‘an inherent conflict of interest’ in
school feeding programs because they favor highly processed industrial foods
… Produce vendors can’t afford to pay a rebate for local apples.”

Is it possible to use soy as an aid to celibacy?  Traditional wisdom says yes, and a fair amount of science backs it up. Many studies have shown that soy’s estrogenic isoflavones interfere with the production and usage of testosterone in your body.  There’s also some evidence that soy can cause gynecomastia (male breast enlargement), and quite a lot of evidence for its reproductive toxicity.

The most recent piece of evidence is a case study of a 19-year-old man who become vegan, began consuming soy in large quantities, and soon after experienced loss of libido and erectile dysfunction.  Lab assessment revealed low levels of testosterone with increased levels of DHEA.

According to Dr. Kaayla Daniels in an article on the Weston A. Price Foundation website:

“During the year prior to this workup, the young man’s diet had packed a whopping punch of soy isoflavones, averaging 360 mg per day, from soy milk, soy crisps, tofu, soy sauce, soy nuts and edamame. This level of soy consumption is far above average, yet increasingly common these days as people quit meat and dairy products for soy substitutes …  After discontinuing his vegan diet and eliminating soy foods altogether, he noticed a gradual improvement in sexual function over the course of a year and his lab tests revealed gradual normalization of testosterone and DHEA levels.”

To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the notion that they come from actual potatoes in any recognizable way. The Pringles company, in an effort to avoid taxes, once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips.

The process begins with with a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape. This dough-like substance is then rolled out into an ultra-thin sheet cut into chip-cookies by a machine.

According to io9:

“The chips move forward on a conveyor belt until they’re pressed onto molds, which give them the curve that makes them fit into one another. Those molds move through boiling oil … Then they’re blown dry, sprayed with powdered flavors, and at last, flipped onto a slower-moving conveyor belt in a way that allows them to stack. From then on, it’s into the … and off towards the innocent mouths of the consumers.”

Not only has genetic engineering failed to increase the yield of any food crop, but it has greatly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of “superweeds”.  A new report from 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups finds that GM crops have not lived up to their promises.

The report states that hunger has reached “epic proportions” since the introduction of GM technology; purported potential benefits such as drought resistance and salt tolerance have yet to materialize on any scale.

According to Reader Supported News:

“The study accuses Monsanto of gaining control of over 95% of the Indian cotton seed market and of massively pushing up prices.  High levels of indebtedness among farmers is thought to be behind many of the 250,000 deaths by suicide of Indian farmers over the past 15 years. …  GM crops are adding to food insecurity”.

In the 1970s, investigators were searching for new models of diet-induced obesity.  Anthony Sclafani looked at something new, and disarmingly simple — what came to be known as the “cafeteria diet”.  He gave rats access to a variety of both palatable human foods and standard rat food.  They ignored the rat food and rapidly became obese.  The cafeteria diet remains the quickest and most effective way of producing dietary obesity and metabolic syndrome in rodents using solid food.

A number of studies have found similar effects in humans, sometimes when the studies weren’t even looking for it.  One such study began simply as an attempt to design a novel way of accurately measuring food intake.  Investigators created an “automated food-selection system” consisting of two large vending machines filled with a variety of prepared foods.  The study subjects immediately began consuming excessive calories.  Over the course of just seven days, the volunteers gained an average of 5.1 pounds. 

According o Whole Health Source:

“Just as in rats, exposing humans to a variety of readily accessible, energy dense, palatable foods causes excessive food intake and rapid weight gain.  The degree of overeating varies by individual, but nearly everyone overeats to some degree.  Whatever the mechanism(s) underlying this may be, the phenomenon has important implications for the commercialization of food and the associated obesity epidemic in affluent nations.”

In recent years, boxes of the “Fruit Roll-Ups” manufactured by General Mills began featuring labels touting their nutritional benefits. A new lawsuit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest(CSPI) has accused the company of false advertising.

The class action suit alleges that General Mills is guilty of misleading the public with the packaging of the “fruit flavored snack”.  The packaging contains terms like “naturally flavored,” a “good source of Vitamin C,” “low calorie,” “low fat,” and “gluten free.”

According to Jezebel, CSPI argues:

“Defendant’s Fruit Snacks contained trans fat, added sugars, and artificial food dyes; lacked significant amounts of real, natural fruit; and had no dietary fiber. Thus, although the Products were marketed as being healthful and nutritious for children and adults alike, selling these Fruit Snacks was little better than giving candy to children.”