One of the posters for the GAPS diet support group has posted a link to her blog. I love this because she’s tried a scientific approach to testing the good bacterial growth that fermenting provides. I think the consensus is that two weeks to a month is optimal for good growth.
Just thought I’d pass this along to others following the diet.
More from the organic farmers’s group–this article on Vandana Shiva, an intelligent, feminist activist who is a delight to watch whenever she appears on DN! She doesn’t back down and she has sound arguments to all the corporate-speak.
From the article:
Why do you refer to the term seed slavery?
In another time, some people thought it was alright to own other people as slaves. In our times some corporations think it is alright to own life on earth through patents and intellectual property rights (IPR). Patents are granted for inventions, and life is not an invention. These IPR monopolies on seeds are also creating a new bondage and dependency for farmers who are getting trapped in debt to pay royalties. This is why 270,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide.
Word.
Be sure to click on the Puztai link. Wow. This falls under “if you have nothing to hide…” then why are you trying to quash this information and silence a scientist who made such a discovery…?
…versus Fast Food. Here’s a link to the Slow Food website. As the website states, Slow Food is a way of life–a sustainable way of feeding ourselves without destroying the environment (and ourselves) in the process.
Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement after the first McDonald’s opened its doors in Italy.
The National Heirloom Expo is held annually to draw attention to what’s happening with the GMO seeds and to promote heirloom seeds (non-GMO).
Seed Savers website here. Another website here.
Finally, here’s Treehugger.com, where those dirty effing hippies must hang out. 🙂
Note that in the comments, the readers state there is a controversy with Seed Savers being stacked with corporate toadies….intrigue among the seeds. <sigh>
A rather depressing article here.
Bill and Melinda Gates controlling the world food supply along with Monsanto is a scary thought. It’s apparently not enough for them (Gates) foisting “education reform” on the children of the United States…
…and his comments on environmentalists being against GMO’s speak of his true intent…
As the Grist article states, organic farming has proven to be effective during times of drought, more so than chemical-based farming. And it goes on to remark about organic/sustainable farming being ideal for the poor communities. It’s a no-brainer to me: you put food scraps in a compost pile that turns into a rich soil that you put back into the ground. This rich compost returns nutrients and beneficial microbes back to the soil. One of the problems with chemical farming is that it strips the land of nutrients and the soil deteriorates, requiring more water than compost-rich soil. Any poor person could do that–returning food scraps back to the soil is free.
An interesting article here.
John Ikerd is a retired professor out of the U of Missouri. He’s an advocate of sustainable farming and has written extensively about it. Link here.
The problem that most folks are unaware there is a problem. They go to their grocers, see rows of fresh food and shelves stocked to the hilt, and think everything is great….
…and the only thing left will be GMO food that makes them ill…
Turtle Talk has a link up to this story. I’m glad that the judge gave a nod that the lawsuit has merit–I hope that they pursue it at the state level.
Along those lines, I’ve posted before, but it bears repeating, that I don’t believe that it is a character issue, but that alcoholism is a chemical imbalance of some sort.
In the great book, Potatoes Not Prozac, Kathleen Desmaisons wrote about her experience in counseling alcoholics. (It’s been awhile since I read the book, so I’m going on memory) In it, she describes counseling people who really wanted to quit drinking, but were unable to. She began asking them about diet, and discovered that they reacted to sugar much more so than the average person. They would get spikes in their blood levels after eating sugar–a high with it. That is, when they saw a plate of cookies warm out of the oven, they wanted to devour the entire plate, whereas most folks would be able to stop at a few. When she developed a diet that was low glycemic (slow rises in blood sugar levels), her patients began to get their drinking under control–they no longer had the sugar highs that made it difficult to give up the drink highs, too.
Additionally, I wonder about the connection with zinc. I first read about the connection between zinc and anorexia in the book Food, Mood, Body Connection by Gary Null. He quotes a doctor who was treating anorexic patients and discovered that those that took liquid zinc were helped in an amazing four days’ time. They characteristically had difficulty digesting zinc in any other form. The disgusting part was when this doctor made a presentation to hospital staff about his findings, the bean counters let the person (who invited him) know that this would cut into their profits. The hospital had a clinic for eating disorders…and the ole’ morality versus profits question came up….and you can guess what happened—morality lost. The information was withheld from patients so they could profit off of their condition.
I’ve wondered about this and cravings–whether it be alcohol, chocolate, cigarettes, etc.–because of my own experience of having the chocolate cravings go down when I started taking a supplement with zinc glycinate.
I found this link on how alcoholics are low in zinc–just as anorexics and mercury poisoned folks are—so now it seems there would be a connection? Hmmm…
I’ve joined yet another support group–for GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome).
One of the members also has a blog and posted this. I thought I’d pass it along for anyone also following this diet. It kind of tickles me that the Pickl-It jars are a lot like the jars I’m using for making my own sauerkraut. I think I might try the longer method of fermentation–cabbage itself is known to irritate the thyroid, which is what I suspect is going on with this lady’s child. I’ve noticed the “red neck” rash on my neck after eating sauerkraut, even though it has benefited my gut in other ways…so, yeah, longer fermentation with kefir whey seems to be the ticket.
(A side note~ I didn’t get a migraine last month–just a bad headache…saying this with fingers crossed so not to jinx myself.)
I about fell off my chair when I heard the radio ad that Barack Obama “approves this message”. I thought it sounded too much like an Onion spoof…but, alas…
The message? He approves of coal…and fracking as viable energy sources. Well, not that it’s a surprise that he *still* supports “clean coal”…but I thought that he at least had sense not to endorse fracking…I was apparently wrong.
Story here: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/09/obama_campaign_says_romney_not.html
Look at the faces of the miners–blackened with coal dust that contains mercury, lead, arsenic, and on...
91% of those children had respiratory problems–what more does it take?! A 100%??
From the article:
But according to Stephen Lester, science director of the Virginia-based Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, the air quality tests done at Marsh Fork were “extremely limited” and “provide meaningless information” since they did not test specifically for heavy metals like nickel, lead, arsenic, and mercury found in coal dust. Rather, they conducted standard state tests for mold, air flow, and air filter upkeep
What a joke. See, if you don’t acknowledge there’s a problem…then they don’t have to do something about it. And the chemical industry/coal industry/nuclear industry…and on…can continue doing what they do without being held accountable.
A miner’s viewpoint here.
Environmental Working group has this from 2004. And this from 2001: the revolving door phenomenon.
This woman is a walking toxic dump. Good Grief. This a testament to our body’s ability to withstand a toxic beating and still try to correct the situation…but even the miracle of one’s body has its limits.
The problem with the situation is that as the above article states, scientists are testing folks for toxins in their systems, but they don’t know what it means–it doesn’t mean the presence of disease, but also doesn’t mean there’s no damage done.
From the article:
“Just because it’s there doesn’t mean it’s going to hurt you,” says Bruce Caswell, senior manager of environmental health and safety with the Canadian Chemical Producers Association. But it doesn’t mean it’s not hurting you either. We experience a constant barrage of synthetic stuff, even in the womb. Doses differ as do genetic and physiological vulnerabilities. “None of this belongs in our bodies. Period,” says Riina Bray, a family physician at Women’s College Hospital’s Environmental Health Clinic. Researchers suspect these toxic chemicals have links to a number of cancers, including breast, testicular and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, not to mention reproductive disorders and learning disabilities.
I wonder about the toxin drift as highlighted in this article with David Masty testing positive. I think the bizarre actions of folks in the last decade or so are related to how toxic our environment is–that we’ve reached our limits of how much our bodies can take before we crash–and the result isn’t always physical, but mental. This was one of the most surprising aspects of toxic poisoning that I’ve learned on this odyssey I’m on–I had no idea that toxins affected one’s mental abilities. The medical profession has always treated mental issues as if they were exclusively a problem with the brain–not a likely result of toxic exposure.
And the children being born polluted…it should be enough to make every adult sit up and take notice….
Related to this is the EWG filing suit after Cuomo refuses to release all requested documents.
In my case, although there are numerous red flags, the FDA refuses to recognize that dental amalgams poison people–even though most folks on the mercury support group became sick within a year of amalgam placement. And I know that living near a coal-burning power plant in the 70s also contributed to my mercury/lead/arsenic load. Truly, it was when I first had mercury symptoms–only they were minor annoyances that would be misdiagnosed or ignored.
And the USDA is still recommending a diet that is heavily grain based, even though this may mean it is opening the door for mercury/heavy metal poisoning for Celiacs.
…and then the poor sap that falls ill will be met with the “you don’t have a right to food or shelter…”
commondreams has this up on the questions of who funded this bogus study. Knowing about how corporations are trying to influence university’s research, I was suspicious of this study from the start.
Links on the subject here.
And here.
And here.
And here. This isn’t shocking to me–Monsanto was giving huge amounts to Purdue University. During a panel on the genetically modified organisms, circa 1998, they asserted there was no problem with GMO’s. The panel was made up of three scientists–one against GM’s and the other two for them. The technology was new and had not been tested for adverse affects not only on humans, but nature, as well.
Deer have been known to cross a road to eat organic corn if a choice were given between GMO corn. Here’s a link to an article.
A thought struck me as I read that last article–these crops are engineered to “drink poison”. If we put aside the genetic manipulation, and look at the ability for the gene to absorb much more pesticides, etc., wouldn’t that be multiplying the devastating effects of those chemicals on the body? I mean, we know how devastating chlorinated hydrocarbons (DDT, etc.) are…so it stands to reason that it’s exponentially more so with these GM crops. And the Celiac thing–how much is being influenced by not only eating GM crops, but breathing in that poison from, say, corn pollen? Article here. Note that this was clear back in 1999–this stuff has been known…and yet the Monsanto monster continues to grow…
AP has this up on a yet another disease that implicates a destroyed immune system.
Let’s break this down, shall we?
She was from Vietnam, and came here after the war, in 1975. Although the article doesn’t state that, she most likely was exposed to Agent Orange–exposure to Agent Orange can cause immune system deficiency.
I also wonder about Celiac. When doing my research on it, I had read that Asians don’t get it–it’s just unheard of in that population…but knowing how the medical profession likes to make pronouncements of entire classes of people with a small sampling, I’m suspicious that she might have it and not be diagnosed nor tested. I didn’t have any overt symptoms–it was only because of my Irish-German heritage that I put the puzzle together. And it’s interesting that I have become more sensitive as I have adopted the GAPS diet–allowing my gut to heal.
There isn’t any mention of her diet, nor of the doctor asking her about diet….so one is left to wonder if she’s adopted the Western diet and is suffering because of it. I think the age thing is a big clue–our bodies are miracles that can take a lot of abuse before the cells break down and start to wreak havoc. This is something I’ve noticed on the mercury poisoning support group–some folks will have good health up ’til the time they reach 40, and then things start happening.
There’s also no discussion on toxin exposure. She lives in Tennessee, ranked 11th in toxic exposure. (What? Indiana is *only* ranked 4th? …we must be slipping in polluting our environment./snark) Note the assertion of the article that the EPA is right on top of things… the reporter apparently didn’t get the memo of the corporate polluters who worked to get those regulations repealed.
From the article:
The NRDC also framed its report in a political context, indicating that Sen. Lamar Alexander voted against an attempt by Sen. James Inhofe, R.-Okla., to repeal the Mercury and Air Toxics standard. Sen. Bob Corker supported it.“For too long, Americans have had no choice but to breathe toxic air pollution. Thanks to the EPA, the air is getting cleaner,” said Franz Matzner, NRDC associate director of Government Affairs. “But we need lawmakers who will help clean up the air we all breathe — not lawmakers who do the bidding of big polluters trying to repeal safeguards that protect children’s health. This and future Congresses should let the EPA do its job so all Americans can breathe easier.”
Here’s another article on the toxic junk in Tennessee by Kelly Hearn ( The Nation). Pay attention to the date–I think it could be significant to this woman because she began getting ill in 2009. Holy Crap. Mysterious disease…my arse.
Here’s another discussion on it (same blog). A good discussion on Celiac reaching across several populations that the medical profession has refused to acknowledge. Good Grief. The misery and diseases they have caused by their ignorance.
Here’s a video put out by Millions Against Monsanto…I don’t think they’re going to be awarding a Grammy for it, but it goes for a good cause.
…is the name of the book I found at the library. Authors: Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich (1970, revised 1972)
As promised, this is the text concerning nuclear disaster–specifically, they were concerned with nuclear war (as were we all) but I think with all of the nuclear reactors out there, their theory could be applied:
[…] The entire climate of the Earth would soon be altered. In many areas, where the supply of combustible materials was sufficient, huge fire-storms would be generated, some of them covering hundreds of square miles in heavily forested or metropolitan areas. We know something about such storms from experience during the Second World War. On the night of July 27, 1943, Lancaster and Halifax heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force dropped 2.417 tons of incendiary and high-explosive bombs on the city of Hamburg. Thousands of individual fires coalesced into a fire storm about 6 square miles in area. Flames reached 15,000 feet into the atmosphere, and smoke and gases rose to 40,000 feet. Winds, created by huge updrafts and blowing in toward the center of the fire, reached a velocity of more than 150 miles per hour. The temperature in the fire exceeded 1,450 degrees F, high enough to melt aluminum and lead. Air in underground shelters was heated to the point where, when they were opened and oxygen was admitted, flammable materials and even corpses burst into flames. These shelters had to be permitted to cool 120 days to two weeks before rescuers could enter. [the authors make note of the book The Night Hamburg Died by Martin Caiden].
[…]
In many areas the removal of all vegetation would no be the only effect; the soil might be partly or completely sterilized as well. There would be no plant communities nearby to effect rapid repopulation and rains would wash away the topsoil. Picture defoliated California hills during the winter rains, and then imagine the vast loads of silt and radioactive debris being washed from northern continents into offshore waters, the site of most of the ocean’s productivity. Consider the fate of aquatic life, which is especially sensitive to the turbidity of the waer, and think of the many offshore oil wells that would be destroyed by blast in the vicinity of large cities and left to pour their loads of crude oil into the ocean with no way of shutting them off. [BP oil spill, anyone?]
~~~~~~~~~~~
So…if there were a disaster such as Japan’s here, it would affect the entire area in much the same way. Not as catastrophic as the above, but nevertheless, it would affect the area in much the same say, just on a smaller scale. And what kind of domino effect would there be? Because we all know that what happened in Japan didn’t stay in Japan–it migrated here, causing fish to become radioactive. I found a more in-depth article here with the same researcher–puts a different light on it with him saying, in so many words, “it’s not that bad.” Pfft. What kills me is that they only measured fifteen fish, and ALL of them had it. Yeah, nothing to see here, folks…move along….
Incidentally, the researcher mentions that funding for the project came from Noah. I think that was the writer’s error, and he was actually saying NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
~~~~~~~~~~
Onto the next topic: Synthetic Insecticides (same book)
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons
This group includes DDT, benzen hexachloride (BHC), dieldrin, endrin, aldrin, chlordane, lindane, isodrin, toxaphene, and similar compounds designed to kill insects. DDT is the most thoroughly studied of the chlorinated hydrocarbons, and much of the following discussion is based on it. Its behavior is more or less typical of the group, although other chlorinated hydrocarbons are more soluble in water, more toxic, less persistent, etc. In insects and other animals these compounds act primarily on the central nervous system in ways that are not well understood, but the effects range from hypersexcitability to death following convulsions and paralysis. Chronic effects on vertebrates include fatty infiltration of the heart, and fatty degeneration of the liver which is often fatal. Fishes and other aquatic animals seem to be especially sensitive to chlorinated hydrocarbons. Oxygen uptake is somehow blocked at the gills, causing death from suffocation. That chlorinated hydrocarbons apparently can influence the production of enzymes may account for their wide range effects.
1. Chlorinated hydrocarbons have a wide range of biological activity; they are broad-spectrum poisons, affecting many different organisms in many different ways. They are toxic to essentially all animals including many vertebrates.
2. They have great stability. It is not clear, for instance, ho long DDT persists in ecosystems. Fifty percent of the DDT sprayed in a single treatment may still be found in a field 10 years later. This does not mean, however, that the other 50 percent has been degraded to biologically inactive molecules; it may only have gone somewhere else. […]
3. Chlorinated hydrocarbons are very mobile. For example, the chemical properties of DDT cause it to adhere to dust particles and thus get blown around the world. Four different chlorinated hydrocarbons have been detected in dust filtered from the air over Barbados; frog populations in unsprayed areas high in the Sierra Nevada of California are polluted with DDT. Furthermore, DDT codistills with water; when water evaporates and enters the atmosphere, DDT goes with it. Chlorinated hydrocarbons thus travel in the air and surface waters.
(I found this reference, but was sorely disappointed at the statement that chlorinated hydrocarbons have only been used for the last ten years. Good Grief, a research paper that doesn’t have historical data.)
4. Finally, chlorinated hydrocarbons become concentrated in the fats of organisms. If you think of the world as being partitioned into nonliving and living parts, then these pesticides may be thought of as moving continually from the physical environment into living systems. To attempt to monitor DDT levels merely by testing water (as has been frequently done) is ridiculous. Water is saturated with DDT –that is, can dissolve no more–when it has dissolved 1.2 parts per billion. Besides, the chemical does not remain for long in water, it is quickly removed by any organisms that live in water.
It is these four properties –extreme range of biological activity, stability, mobility, and affinity for living systems –that cause biologist’s fears that DDT and its relatives are degrading the life-support system of our planet. If any one of these properties were lacking, the situation would be much less serious, but in combination they pose a deadly threat.
Organophosphates
This group includes parathion, malathion, Asodrin, diazinon, TEPP, phosdrin, and several others. These poisons are descendatns of the nerve gas Tabun (disopropyl-flurophosphate), developed in Nazi Germany during WWII. All of them are cholinesterase inhibitors; they inactivate the enzyme responsible for breaking down a nerve “transmitter substance,” acetylcholine. The result is, in a acute cases of poisoning, a hyperactivity of the nervous system; the animal dies twitching and out of control.
Unlike chlorinated hydrocarbons, organosphospates are unstable and non-persistent; thus, they tend not to produce chronic effects in ecosystems or to accumulate in food chains.
Organophosphates inhibit other enzymes as well as cholinesterase. Indeed, some of those that show relatively high insect toxicity and low mammalian toxicity do so because they poison an esterase that is more critical to the functioning of insect rater than of mammalian nervous systems. Malathion, which is violently poisonous to insects, is relatively nontoxic to mammals because the mammalian systems contain an enzyme, carboxy-estrase, that destroys malathion. But toxic effects on mammals can occur when malathion is used in combination with other organophosphates, which apparently inhibit the carboxy-esterase enzyme.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was trying to find something written about the effects of the pesticides on enzymes–much is talked about them in health circles–the general consensus is that with the advent of the chemical age, enzymes have been diminished. They advocate raw foods, non-microwaved foods, and organic foods to increase enzyme activity. Enzymes are even more reduced in toxic people like myself, so taking a supplement of enzymes is needed.
I’ve looked at photos of our parents and grandparents when they were our age, and they don’t look as old as the Boomer generation does at that same age. Our skin doesn’t look as healthy, either–it doesn’t have that glow. I have to think it’s from unhealthy food coupled with the toxins in the atmosphere. FW has had many “Ozone days” this summer due to the stupid, unrelenting heat. I didn’t think it affected me that much until I went out for a jog last week on an Ozone day. I felt pretty good jogging, but when I was going up the stairs to my apartment, I started to wheeze. Well now that was not good. So now, when I could be jogging outdoors, I have to do aerobics inside. Not that I mind aerobics, because it’s fun, but I’d rather be outside jogging.
Anyway, I’m concerned about the long term exposure of the chlorinated hydrocarbons–we’ve all been exposed. How much? How long a period? How has our DNA been affected? And just because at the writing of this book the organosphosphates were not of big concern, it was written decades ago–what new information has been uncovered? And is it information that was researched without $$ from chemical companies or those with an agenda?
Eagle 
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