Category Archives: GAPS

Growing concern over super bugs and super weeds

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common dreams has this link up on the octopus of GMO corn and the emerging super bugs that are resistant to the pesticides….

…and of course, their answer is to….throw more pesticides after them.

We all saw this coming, so why are Monsanto and Syngenta still allowed to market this monster?

Congress, can you hear the American public that you love to  *quote*  all the time?  Can you hear us above the *clink* of money in your pocket? (Be sure to click on the media link and its pathetic and sometimes belittling coverage).

Vilsack, can you cut your ties with Monsanto and do what is right for the environment and our health?

Here’s a report about GMO’s in the waterways in my own backyard.  This is a freaking nightmare.

As a side note, here’s an article on aerial spraying and untested chemicals.  Gees-o-pete, does anyone stand up to the chemical industry??

Correction

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I was thinking about the previous post and I misstated something:  my doctor actually urged my (ex) husband to urge me to get a hysterectomy.  Incredible, eh?  Not to mention a sneaky way to influence me to get an unnecessary operation that would have caused more problems than it solved.

Again, I am so grateful that I did my research and listened to my intuition and didn’t succumb to the pressure.

Giving thanks. 🙂

Celiac diagnosis

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I found a used book on natural medicine by an M.D. that actually believes in food as a healing or in my case, a hurting element of health;  exercise, and vitamin supplements helping one to stay healthy.  The book is called Natural Prescriptions by Robert M. Giller, M.D. and Kathy Matthews (this cover isn’t the same as my book, so I’m not sure if it is the same one or another updated version).

I guess now would be a good time for the lawyer-speak:  The suggestions here are not meant to diagnose or cure.  If you are having health issues, you should seek the guidance of a health care practitioner.

Dr. Giller touches on Celiac disease.  He mentions the neurological connections with schizophrenia and depression, but he fails to note migraines, seizures, and possible Alzheimer’s as symptoms of Celiac.  He also states that once one begins the gluten-free diet, one’s symptoms should abate in a couple of weeks.  bwahahahahahahahahahaha. Obviously not an expert of Celiac.  Healing the gut, as noted by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, takes one to two years, depending on severity.  But Dr. Giller does note that one cannot go back to eating gluten after the symptoms subside.

Anyway, Dr. Giller did have some pretty good questions to diagnose Celiac:

1.  Do you have Irish, Scottish, English, or Scandinavian heritage?  (I would add German or Dutch)      Dr. Giller notes that every 1 in 215 Irish suffer from Celiac. Whoa.

2.  Is there a history of intestinal disease in your family? Does anyone in your family experience similar symptoms including chronic gas, bloating, and indigestion?  (This is harder to answer because the farting thing is kinda a dirty little secret…I can’t imagine folks sitting around at family gatherings talking about it.  :p  )

3.  Have you ever had a blistery rash on the inside of your elbows, behind your knees, or at other body folds?

4.  Is your abdomen ever swollen?  (Take heed of this–I just thought that I had gained weight (due to thyroid/mercury) and that was why my abdomen was swollen.  Nope.  It was dramatic how much it shrunk when I began the gluten diet.  If you recall, I lost twenty pounds within six months.  Remarkable. )

5.  Is chronic fatigue a serious problem in your life, affecting your job performance and social obligations?  (I notice just before I get a migraine, my energy levels plummet. BUT this is an incredible improvement from just three years ago, when I got tired just walking twenty feet from my bedroom to the front room.   Most people are mischaracterized as being lazy when they actually have chronic fatigue.)

6.  Do you have frequent diarrhea or constipation?  (This is a tricky question because if you have been undiagnosed all of your life, what is “normal” to you is not a true indication of health.  That is, you may suffer from either or both, thinking this is just how your body is, without knowing that you’re a Celiac.  So you might not think to mention this to the doc because it is “normal” for you.)

7.  Does your family have a history of stunted growth or delayed maturity?  (This is my family.  My son was the shortest kid in his class until his Junior year in high school, when he grew.  I did not fully mature physically until in my late twenties. )

Of course, Dr. Giller does not mention GMO’s and their possible implication with gut inflammation.  This book was published in 1994, so the GMO monster had not yet been released (as far as we know—I keep reading different dates as to when this monster was released.)

 

 

 

Histamine and the Brain

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A member of the mercury support group posted a link to an interesting report on the effects of histamine on the brain and the resulting serious psychological problems.

I am of the belief that many mental problems are not caused solely by brain chemicals gone awry.  I know too much now to ever go back to that thinking–mercury poisoning has taught me that.  Rather, I think many mental problems are manifesting in the brain, but the real issue is something gone wrong in the body.  And the issue of environmental toxins is key, also.

This page explores the effects histamine has on a person’s personality.  It is just stunning how severely someone can be affected.

I learned something today.

The Food Stamp Lie **edited

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**edited.  I missed the claim that he purchased all of this on $21.55  + 6.03 …. So, he’s saying that he used this for a week? At five weeks, that would be $137.90…and that’s only if you live within walking distance of a big box store (that pays minimum wage to its employees) …..but it still stands that this is not  healthy nor sustainable, without meat, fruits and veggies, butter (or olive oil) and eggs.

Donny Ferguson, an aide in the office of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), made the bogus claim that he could eat well on the amount of food allowed with Food Stamps, or SNAP, as it is officially called.

I was surprised to see such a well thought out response here.  Not expecting that from Forbes, for sure. 🙂

I read a rather lame article on MSNBC.  (not linking to it, you’ll have to google it.)   The article writer didn’t bother listing the food items that Ferguson bought, but started with the headline “Republican Staffer Beats Food Stamp Challenge”   I don’t know why folks think MSNBC is liberal…it’s not.  Save for a couple of the more enlightened ones.  I’m sure they’ ll be gone, however, if they really stick their necks out….a la Phil Donahue.  (I find it highly ironic that I grew up on Phil Donahue and my kids have control freak and bully Dr. Phil.)

The llist of the items bought by Ferguson:

For $21.55 Ferguson purchased at Dollar Tree:
Two boxes of Honeycomb cereal
Three cans of red beans and rice
Jar of peanut butter
Bottle of grape jelly
Loaf of whole wheat bread
Two cans of refried beans
Box of spaghetti
Large can of pasta sauce
Two liters of root beer
Large box of popsicles
24 servings of Wyler’s fruit drink mix
Eight cups of applesauce
Bag of pinto beans
Bag of rice
Bag of cookies

For $6.03 at the Shoppers Food Warehouse next door Ferguson bought a gallon of milk and a box of maple and brown sugar oatmeal.

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First, there are no can sizes listed. Highly suspect.  How big a box of sugar-coated cereal?  How big a can of chemically suspect red beans and rice?  How big a jar of grape jelly?

Speaking from a Celiac viewpoint, I couldn’t get past Day One of this wheat based diet.  I would be ill after the first meal, and in a hospital by the end of the month….if I made it that long.

Secondly, as the Forbes article mentions, this diet is void of fruits and vegetables.  And meat, too.  Not one egg.  No flour.  No butter. It has everything to encourage heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dental decay.  There is nothing nutritious or healthy about this diet.

I don’t drink milk, but if I did before the crash and burn, I would have stopped by now because it’s too expensive and nutritionally questionable with pasteurized milk from grain-fed cows kept in captivity shot up with antibiotics.

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This is not a sustainable diet–for the planet nor for its inhabitants.  It’s disingenuous.  And no doubt if someone follows this diet, the repubs would be blaming them for getting sick and costing taxpayers $$$ dollars in healthcare costs.  Pffft.

Goliath is winning…

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….this is not good….we have third generation bee farmers who are giving up because of the genocide of bees. (buzz-a-cide?)

From the Chicago Tribune link:

Die-offs of bee populations have accelerated over the last few years to a rate the U.S. government calls unsustainable. Honeybees pollinate plants that produce roughly 25 percent of the foods Americans consume, including apples, almonds, watermelons and beans, according to government reports.

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I’m afraid that they will wake up too, too late….and it won’t be until the crops have died and the fields are empty.  God help us then.

Congress to the hungry:

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Eat Sh*t.  (Yeah, I know, I’ve said it before, but it speaks so well of the contempt of the poor).  As they debate the Farm Bill, once again they target the vulnerable and less able to fight back:  the food stamp recipients….giving them even less money for food that they can’t afford now…

I was watching CSPAN this morning with Rosa Delauro who is adamant on keeping the food stamp funds as is…and targeting the fraud in other areas that nobody speaks about.  You never hear the so-called conservatives, who love to kick the poor when they’re down, talk about this.   They try to categorize the Food Stamp program as full of fraud and waste….but never quite get around to putting facts out there.  Ronald Reagan started the “welfare queen” lie by taking a true story (a woman on welfare arrived to pick up her food stamps when they were still paper, in a Cadillac.  What Reagan and his ilk failed to report was that the woman was being given a ride by a wealthy lady so she could pick up her stamps.  Nice way to skew public perception to hate these lazy good-for-nothings that are driving around in luxury vehicles../snark.)  Good on Rosa when a woman caller called in spewing the conservative talking points that there was massive fraud and waste in the program.  A man also called in saying, “I don’t want to see anybody starve, but there are other ways for them to get food.  You have to cut these programs.”  Yeah, he doesn’t want to see people starving, so they best do it behind closed doors to soothe his conscience.

From the article:

Government audits and court records show hundreds of millions of dollars in losses due to fraud in a variety of farm programs, including crop insurance and subsidies that help agribusinesses promote their products abroad. The rate of food stamp fraud, on the other hand, has declined sharply in recent years, federal data shows, and now accounts for 1 percent of the $760 billion program, or $760 million a year.

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It would be damn near impossible to commit fraud with the food stamp program.  (Note that the error rate is at 3 percent.  3 % !! ) You must give them employment information, bank statements, rent information, number in household, etc., and you are checked up on.  And if they see anything that doesn’t sound right to them, they will call you and question it.

For instance, when I told them how little I made when in FW, they were questioning me on how I could make it on that low amount.  I told them that I washed my clothes in the tub (with the exception of once a month washing my jeans and towels in the washing machines); I cut my own hair (with sometimes hilarious results); went without deodorant except for important things like job interviews; washed my hair every other day, even though it needs it every day especially in the hot weather; I walked nearly everywhere so I didn’t use gas;  I brush my teeth with baking soda,  I count the number of squares of toilet paper I use, and other things like using cloth pads (but I didn’t tell them that as it’s really none of their business).

Everything that I needed (thyroid and other supplements) my son helped pay for.  I am actually quite proud of myself for handling this as I have–this isn’t how I was raised and it’s been a learning experience.

A caller called in who said she was a former food stamp recipient but now has a college degree and is working.  But, alas, she says now that the program should be cut.  Hello?  It never ceases to amaze me how those who have made it forget how difficult it was and lose their empathy for those in that position. (As a side note:  it also never ceases to amaze me how quick conservatives are to take money for themselves at taxpayer expense, but still have the nerve to deny people something as basic as FOOD.)

And I have a college education, but look where I am now….done in by stupid amalgams put in my mouth that made me ill, and wages that stagnated (otherwise, I might have been able to keep from losing my home and weathered the storm until I got well…perhaps not, but it would have been worth the shot.)

They mentioned on CSPAN that most folks on food stamps are disabled.  A man in the building I used to live in said he only gets $16 per month in food stamps.  He’s in a wheelchair.    Others on disability are not living it up.  You can’t buy cigarettes and alcohol on food stamps.  You also can’t buy toilet paper, soap,shampoo, trash bags, and other necessities.  Some people were using the plastic grocery bags for their trash in my building…much to the disdain of the management (throwing them down the trash shoot created mega problems).

Also mentioned in the CSPAN program is the fact that good ole Teflon Bill Clinton had changed the Food Stamp program drastically…while signing away jobs per NAFTA….Reagan would have been sooo proud.  It wasn’t until 2008 that they had addressed it again.

This whole debate is nonsensical.  No one with a shred of conscience can seriously say that denying people a basic need such as food is something that “has to” be done…especially when there is so much corporate welfare out there and a bloated defense department.  (OMG, did she really say cut the defense dept?  Watch out for drones, dear…)

Top Chef Colicchio on GMO’s

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“…spraying Agent Orange on our food….”  A pretty stunning statement…glad to see Melissa Harris-Perry allowing him to speak out.

Green Pasture has this up on Dr. Huber’s speech on glyphosate.  (Purdue is pooh-poohing his assertions.  I found a web page from Purdue that says that Dr. Huber was exaggerating the implications.  Um-hmmm….a Purdue scientist with many, many years of experience is now suddenly incompetent?  I don’t think so.   There might be some reasons $$$ why…Purdue and other universities speak against Dr. Huber.)

From the article:

Huber spoke about a range of key factors involved in plant growth, including sunlight, water, temperature, genetics, and nutrients taken up from the soil. “Any change in any of these factors impacts all the factors,” he said. “No one element acts alone, but all are part of a system…When you change one thing,” he said, “everything else in the web of life changes in relationship.”

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Word.

Anybody who has grown a garden can attest to all the factors named above that impact your garden’s productiveness.  Like I said, it truly is a miracle how a plant can grow from a tiny seed.  The wonder of it all never ceases to amaze me.   And it also never ceases to amaze me how scientists feel they know better than nature.

 

As Dr. Huber asserts–if a plant is in a weakened state, it will not be able to fight off disease (or pests).  Everybody thinks that you *have to* spray bug killer and you *have to* use fertilizers to have a healthy plant, when it is a healthy soil (through composting) that creates the healthy plant and subsequently, the ability to fight off disease and pests.

More:

Huber reported on what he described as a newly discovered pathogen. While the pathogen is not new to the environment, Huber said, it is new to science. This pathogen apparently increases in soil treated with glyphosate, he said, and is then taken up by plants, later transmitted to animals via their feed, and onward to human beings by the plants and meat they consume.

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He said laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the organism in pigs, cattle and other livestock fed these crops, and that they have experienced sterility, spontaneous abortions, and infertility.

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Pretty sobering, eh?

Here’s the Rodale report on organic versus conventional farms.  This is one of the best reports I’ve ever seen.  I used this report back in 1999 (?) to counteract a Hudson Institute toadie’s assertion that organic farms did much worse than conventional—if I recall correctly, it was Dennis Avery who made the assertion.

He actually said in the article that he read in Organic Gardening that they had problems with low yields and bugs.  I happened to subscribe to it at the time, and there was no such thing in that article!  It reported the opposite:  that yields were good, and only a few plants were affected by bugs….and the best part was that with composting, the organic fields were able to retain moisture much better than the conventional soil, therefore, the organic field’s plants weathered a drought better than the conventional field.

 

 

 

Another freaking trade agreement that benefits corporations, not people….

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Yep.

The U.S. has already had a taste of this type of policy under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). In 2005, the Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade sued the U.S. the U.S. government for banning imports of beef and live Canadian cattle after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada. In the end, the U.S. prevailed, but not until it had spent millions to defend itself in court.   Mexico wasn’t so fortunate when three companies (Corn Products International, ADM/Tate & Lyle and Cargill) sued the Mexican government for preventing imports of high fructose corn syrup. Mexico lost all three cases, and was forced to pay out a total of $169.18 million to the three firms.

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The Obama Administration is trusting corporations like Dow AgroSciences, Cargill and DuPont, and trade groups like the Pork Producers Council and Tobacco Associates, Inc., to write food safety policies. In all, more than 600 corporations have been given access to drafts of various chapters of the TPP. Requests for the same level of access, from members of Congress and from the public, have been denied.

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This has serious implications towards the fight against GMO’s, as the article states.  It’s hard enough fighting against the ag bullies like Monsanto….it will be even harder with an agreement like this in place.  The whole “fast track” process usurps the democratic process of allowing the American public and its elected representatives an opportunity to know what is going on and the opportunity to vote against it.

Truly, if you’re doing something that is positive, you’re not going to try to hide it.  They’re like little kids who poop their pants and then go hide somewhere hoping not to be discovered….but the smell gives them away…

*whew*  Do you smell something?

 

 

GM Wheat found in Oregon

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In case you didn’t click on the link for yet another farm crop contaminated with GMO’s….

I just want to know how many times Monsanto can get away with this before somebody finally lays down the law?

What’s to say that they aren’t doing this in other countries…allegedly releasing GMO seed via unsuspecting farmers who plant the seed, not knowing it’s GMO, and by the time the discovery is made…well, too late…it’s already been released into the environment??

Bopping around on the web, I found this article about products that were thought to be GMO free, but alas…Sweden was, by other articles I read, proactive and was against GMO’s.  So….where did this come from?  I can’t say that I know enough about the timeline with Sweden, but is certainly raises questions.  What is worrisome is how Monsanto has worn down the resistance to GMO’s, if this is any indication.

Here’s a good article on what countries have banned GMO’s.  Note that even though Japan banned GMO products, it *still* got contamination…by importing Canadian GM canola….stunning…absolutely stunning.  Alarms should be going off all over at this news.  Also, the article mentions the India farmers’ suicides…and the water thing.  Why doesn’t anyone bring up that the cotton plants were much more thirsty than the heirloom cotton?  That seems to escape everyone’s notice–we can’t afford to use more of our precious water resources for frankencrops that require more water to survive.

Note also the refusal of a tuna shipment to Greece when it was tested positive for GM.  It had  been packed in genetically modified soybean oil!  So, evidently, one doesn’t have to consume GMO’s to be altered by it–one only has to touch it.  Which brings more worries about breathing in GM corn pollen.  As I have said in previous blogs, my allergies during the summer always get worse after corn pollen has started to enter the atmosphere.  And with my previous post on how GM enters the DNA of gut flora….just scares the crap out of me–even carefully trying to avoid GM food, I could still end up more contaminated.  I say more contaminated because I ate GM food before I was aware of it–as most Americans who are unaware of eating GM food.