by: Fallon, Sally, M.A.
Sally Fallon is a nutrition journalist and food historian. She is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, a full spectrum nutritional cookbook which documents the politics behind the cholesterol theory of heart disease. She can tell us which fats and oils are beneficial and which are harmful, with supporting scientific documentation. Sally is editor of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation’s health journal, Wise Traditions, and is a regular contributor to a wide number of alternative health publications.
TRADITIONALLY PROCESSED FOOD
We have always processed our food; that is something that humans do. We cook our food – that is one type of processing. Processing has two functions: to make food more digestible and to preserve food during times when it isn’t readily available. This type of processing produced traditional foods like sausage and the old-fashioned puddings and haggis. It includes bread, grain products, cheeses, milk products, pickles, butter, everything from wine and spirits to lacto-fermented beverages. Farmers and artisans like breadmakers, cheesemakers, distillers, millers and so forth processed this food. This type of processing made delicious foods, retained their nutritional content, and kept the profits on the farm and in the farming communities where it belonged. Food processing should be a cottage industry and produced locally.
Unfortunately, in modern times we have gone from local artisanal processing to factory and industrial processing which actually destroys the food rather than making it more digestible as traditional processing did. Industrial processing depends upon sugar, white flour, processed and hydrogenated oils, additives, synthetic vitamins and an extrusion processing of grains. These are the tools of the food processing industry. Let’s have a look at the typical American breakfast of cereal, skim milk and orange juice.
These cereals are produced by a process called extrusion. They take the grains from the farmer, pay them a pittance for them, make the grains into a slurry and put them in a tank, a machine called an extruder. The grains are forced out of a little hole at high temperature and pressure and shaped into little o’s and flakes and shredded wheat and so forth, or puffed up. A blade slices off each little flake which is carried past a nozzle and sprayed with a coating of oil and sugar to seal off the cereal from the ravages of milk and to give it crunch.
Paul Stitt has written about the extrusion process used for these cereals which treats every grain with very high heat and high pressure and destroys much of the nutrients in the grains. It destroys the fatty acids; it even destroys the chemical vitamins that are added. The amino acids are rendered very toxic by this process. The amino acid lysine, a crucial nutrient, is especially ravaged by extrusion. This is how all the boxed cereals are made, even the ones in the health food stores. They are all made in the same way and mostly in the same factories. All dry cereals that come in boxes are extruded cereals.
The only advances made in the extrusion process are those which will cut cost regardless of how these will alter the nutrient content of the product. Cereals are a multi-billion dollar business which has created huge fortunes. You would think there would be some studies on the effect on man or animals. There are no published studies and there are only two unpublished studies which were done on rats.
THE RAT EXPERIMENTS
Paul Stitt wrote about an experiment conducted by a cereal company in which four sets of rats were given special diets. One group received plain whole wheat, water and synthetic vitamins and minerals. A second group received puffed wheat (an extruded cereal), water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given water and white sugar. A fourth set was given nothing but water and chemical nutrients. The rats which received the whole wheat lived over a year on this diet. The rats that got nothing but water and vitamins lived about two months. The animals on a white sugar and water diet lived about a month. The company’s own laboratory study showed that the rats given the vitamins, water and all the puffed wheat they wanted died within two weeks—they died before the rats that got no food at all. It wasn’t a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition. Results like these suggested that there was something actually very toxic in the puffed wheat itself! Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the pressure of the puffing process may produce chemical changes, which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance.
Another unpublished experiment was carried out in 1960. Researchers at Ann Arbor University were given 18 laboratory rats. They were divided into three groups: one group received corn flakes and water; a second group was given the cardboard box that the Cornflakes came in and water; the control group received rat chow and water. The rats in the control group remained in good health throughout the experiment. The rats eating the box became lethargic and eventually died of malnutrition. The rats receiving the Cornflakes and water died before the rats that were eating the box! But before death, the Cornflakes rats developed schizophrenic behaviour, threw fits, bit each other and finally went into convulsions. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock. The startling conclusion of this study is that there was more nourishment in the box than there was in the Cornflakes. This experiment was actually designed as a joke, but the results were far from funny. The results were never published and similar studies have not been conducted.
Most of America eats this kind of cereal. In fact, the USDA is gloating over the fact that children today get the vast majority of their important nutrients from the nutrients added to these boxed cereals. Many of them are at least 50% sugar; but there are many so-called health food cereals sold in the health food stores, and they are made by the same method. They use whole grains and they may use better quality sweeteners, but they are made by the same method. It may come as a shock to you, but these whole grain extruded cereals are probably more dangerous, because they are higher in protein and it is the proteins in these cereals that are so denatured by this type of processing.
THE EXTRUSION PROCESS
When we put these cereals through an extruder, it alters the structure of the proteins. “Seins”, which comprise the majority of proteins in corn, are located in spherical organelles called protein bodies. One study investigated change in protein body, shape and release of encapsulated alphaseins as a result of the extrusion processing. During extrusion, they found that the protein bodies were completely disrupted and the alphaseins dispersed. The results suggest that seins in Cornflakes, particularly extruded ones, are not confined to rigid protein bodies but can interact with each other and other components of the system forming new compounds which are completely foreign to the human body. The extrusion process breaks down the organelles, disperses the proteins and the proteins become toxic. When they are disrupted in this way, you have absolute chaos in your food, and it can result in a disruption of the nervous system.
OLD FASHIONED PORRIDGE
There is only one way to put these companies out of business; and that is not to eat their food. So what are you going to have for breakfast? We need to go back to the old fashioned porridges as I explain in Nourishing Traditions. These porridges should be soaked overnight to get rid of the anti-nutrients which are normally neutralized in the sprouting process. Soaking will neutralize the tannins, complex proteins, enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid which preserve the grains. You soak the grains in warm water and one tablespoon of something acidic like whey, yoghurt, lemon juice or vinegar. The next morning, it cooks in about a minute. Of course, you eat it with butter or cream, coconut and chopped nuts like our grandparents did. The nutrients in the fats are needed to absorb the nutrients in the grains. That was one of the great lessons of Weston Price, that without the fats you can be taking mineral supplements, you can be drinking carrot juice until it comes out your ears, but you cannot absorb the minerals in your food without vitamin A and vitamin D that are exclusively found in the animal fats.
The minute you start to process your milk you destroy this wonderful food. Milk is one of nature’s most perfect foods from nature’s sacred animal, the cow, and we are putting cows inside all their lives eating foods that cows never before ate. They produce huge amounts of watery milk which is very low in fat, actually only half the amount of fat cows used to produce. Then they ship it to a factory. Emily Green wrote a very nice article in the LA Times, August 2000 about milk processing. Milk processing plants are big, big factories. Visitors are not allowed in modern milk processing plants because hygiene is very important. The largest milk poisoning in American history occurred in 1985 where more than 5,000 people across three states were sickened after a “pasteurization failure” at an Illinois bottling plant. So when something goes wrong with milk from these big plants, it is pretty catastrophic. Inside the plants all you can see is stainless steel. Inside that machinery, milk shipped from the farm is completely remade. First it is separated in centrifuges into fat, protein and various other solids and liquids. Once segregated, these are reconstituted to set levels for whole, low fat and no fat milks; in other words, they want everything to be completely uniform. Of the reconstituted milks, whole milk will most closely approximate original cow’s milk. What is left over will go into butter, cream, cheese, dried milk, and a host of other milk products. The dairy industry loves to sell low fat milk and skim milk because they can make a lot more money from the butterfat selling it for ice cream. When they remove the fat to make low fat milk like 1% or 2% milk, they replace the fat with powdered milk concentrate, which is formed by high temperature spray drying. All reduced-fat milks have dried skim milk added to give them body.
Then the milk is sent by tanker trucks (which are not refrigerated) to bottling plants. The milk is pasteurized at 161? F for 15 seconds by rushing it past super heated stainless steel plates. If the temperature is 200? it is called ultrapasteurized. This will have a distinct cooked milk taste but it is sterile and can be sold on the grocery shelf. In other words, they don’t even have to keep it cool. The bugs won’t touch it. It does not require refrigeration. As it is cooked, the milk is also homogenized by a pressure treatment that breaks down the fat globules so the milk won’t separate. Once processed, the milk will last for weeks, not just days.
Many people, particularly our children, cannot tolerate the stuff that we are calling milk that is sold in the grocery shelves. And you can see why. It starts with cows in confinement, cows fed feed that cows are not designed to digest, and then it goes into these factories for dismantlement and then put back together again. But real milk from pasture fed cows which is not pasteurized, processed or homogenized, is becoming more available. People are finding out where to find it, and it is very encouraging.
When they make dried skim milk, first of all it is forced through a tiny hole at high pressure, and then blown out into the air. This causes a lot of nitrates to form and the cholesterol in the milk is oxidized. Those of you who are familiar with my work know that cholesterol is your best friend; you don’t have to worry about cholesterol except you do not want to eat oxidized cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol is used in research to cause atherosclerosis. So when you drink skim milk or low fat milk because you think that it will help you avoid heart disease, you are actually drinking this oxidized cholesterol which initiates the process of heart disease.
A quote from Processed and Prepared Foods states that “a new orange juice processing plant is completely automated and can process up to 1,800 tons of oranges per day to produce frozen concentrate, single strength juice, oil extracted from the peel, and cattle feed.” They throw the whole orange in there and they actually add enzymes to get as much of the juice as they can even out of the skin. It is a very heavily sprayed crop, being sprayed with organophosphates, cholinesterase inhibitors, which are real mindbenders. They are very toxic to the nervous system and when they put the oranges in the vats and squeeze them, all that pesticide goes into the processing unit. Then they add acids to get every single bit of juice out of these oranges. So you already have a very, very toxic soup.
What about the peel used for cattle feed? This is something new in this business of cattle prisons. The dried left-over citrus peel is processed into cakes which are still loaded with cholinesterase inhibitors and organophosphates. Mark Purdey in England has shown this is correlated with Mad Cow Disease. The use of organophosphates either as a spray on the cows or in their feed is one of the causes of the degeneration of the brain and nervous system in the cow and if it’s doing it to the cow, there’s a possibility it’s doing it to you also. And these things are in the orange juice!
Another abstract states that “Various acid sprays for improving fruit peel quality and increasing juice yield are added to these processed oranges.” The FDA or the USDA has told us that we can no longer buy raw juice. But it might surprise you to know that they have found fungus that is resistant to pressure and heat in the processed juices. They found that 17% of Nigerian packages of orange juice and 20% of mango and tomato juices contained these heat resistant fungi. So there is plenty of danger from contamination from these pasteurized juices. They also found E. coli in the orange juice that was pressure resistant and had survived pasteurization.
In one study, heat-treated and acid-hydrolyzed orange juice was tested for mutagenic activity. The authors hypothesized that the heating process produces intermediate products, which under test conditions, give rise to mutagenicity, and cytotoxicity. In other words you have got cancer-causing compounds in your orange juice. In another study, gel filtration and high performance liquid chromatography were used to obtain mutagenic fractions from heated orange juice and they consisted of several different compounds. You have heated your orange juice to death, you have processed it and yet you still have all of these toxic compounds in it.
How does the orange juice stay cloudy? They add soy protein combined with soluble pectin, and that keeps it permanently cloudy. It might be interesting to know, for those of you who are allergic to soy.
Another study shows just how toxic and damaging these juices are to teeth. They found that rats had more tooth decay from these commercial juices than they did from soda pop which is loaded with sugar. So if you want juice with your breakfast, squeeze yourself an organic orange and that’s a great place to put your cod liver oil.
ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS VS. NUTRITIOUS HOME MADE BROTHS AND SAUCES
NATURAL NOURISHING BROTHS
In the past, all traditional cultures made use of bones to make broth. They recognized that broth supplied a lot of minerals and nutrients in our diet as well as wonderful flavours. We used to make bone broth, beef broth, chicken broth, fish broth, and we used these broths to make sauces and gravies. When we made sauce or gravy at home, we used the good drippings from the good fat of the meat, added some flour, and then the homemade broth. Most artificial soups bases and sauces have artificial meat-like flavours that we used to get from natural gelatin-rich broth. These kinds of short cuts mean that consumers are shortchanged. When the homemade stocks were pushed out by the cheap substitutes, an important source of minerals disappeared from the American diet. The thickening effects of gelatin could be mimicked with emulsifiers, but of course, the health benefits were lost. And gelatin is a very healthy thing to have in your diet. It helps you digest your proteins properly.
ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURINGS, HYDROLYZED PROTEIN AND MSG
Research on gelatin and natural broths came to an end in the 1950s when food companies discovered how to induce mallard reactions and produce meat-like flavours in the laboratory. In a General Foods Company report issued in 1947, chemists predicted that almost all natural flavours would soon be chemically synthesized. Following the Second World War food companies discovered monosodium glutamate, a food ingredient the Japanese had invented in 1908 to enhance food flavours, including meat-like flavours. Humans actually have receptors on the tongue for glutamate – it is the protein in food that the human body recognizes as meat (but the glutamate in MSG has a different configuration which cannot be assimilated properly by the body). Any protein can be hydrolyzed to produce a base containing MSG. When the industry learned how to make the flavour of meat in the laboratory using inexpensive proteins from grains and legumes, the door was opened to a flood of new products including bullion cubes, dehydrated soup mixes, sauce mixes, TV dinners, and condiments with a meaty base. You couldn’t have had all of these processed foods without these fake ersatz flavours.
The fast food industry could not exist without MSG and artificial meat flavours to make secret sauces and spice mixes that beguile the consumer into eating bland and tasteless food. The sauces in processed foods are basically MSG, water, some thickener and emulsifier and some caramel colouring. Your tongue is tricked into thinking that it is getting something nutritious when it is getting nothing at all except some very toxic substances. Even the dressings, the Worcestershire sauce, rice mixes, flavoured to fu, bullion cubes, Knorr soups, imitation garlic and onions, dehydrated foods that you add water to, all of these and anything that has a meat-like taste has MSG in it. Almost all canned soups and stews contain MSG, and the “hydrolyzed protein” bases often contain MSG in very large amounts.
So called “homemade soup” in most restaurants are often made by adding water to artificial flavourings in a powdered soup-base or soup cubes and adding chopped vegetables etc. Even things like lobster bisque and sauces in the seafood restaurants are full of these artificial flavours. It’s all profit based. They even think it is too costly to just use a little onion and garlic for flavouring. So they are using the artificial flavours instead.
Unfortunately, most of the vegetarian foods are loaded with these flavourings. The list of ingredients in vegetarian hamburgers, hot dogs, bacon, baloney etc. may include hydrolyzed protein and other “natural” flavourings.
As I point out in my various workshops, the three most toxic additives in our food supply are MSG, hydrolyzed protein and aspartame, and the first two are in all of these secret sauces with “natural flavours”. Anything that you buy that says “spices” or “natural flavours” contains MSG! They get around it by putting MSG in the mixes, and if it less than 50% MSG they don’t have to put it on the label. You may have noticed that that phrase “No MSG” has actually disappeared. They don’t use it anymore because they found out that there was MSG in all the spice mixes, even Bragg’s amino acids had to take “No MSG” off. These neurotoxins are in the low fat milk, the spray-dried milk and in all the natural flavourings and spices.
HEALTH PROBLEMS WITH MSG
We soon began to realize that there were some problems with this MSG. In 1957 scientists found that mice became blind and obese when MSG was administered by feeding tube. In 1969, MSG-induced lesions were found in the hypothalamus region of the brain. Subsequent studies all pointed in the same direction. MSG is a neurotoxic substance that causes a wide range of reactions from temporary headaches to permanent brain damage. We have a huge increase in Alzheimer’s, brain cancer, seizures, multiple sclerosis and diseases of the nervous system, and one of the chief reasons is these flavourings in our food. MSG is also associated with violent behaviour. And it is everywhere in the food.
Ninety-five percent of processed foods contain MSG, and as you know, in the late 1950s it was added to baby food. They say they have taken it out of the baby food, but they didn’t really remove it. They just called it hydrolyzed protein. There is a wonderful book called Excitotoxins, by Russell Blalock. He describes how the nerve cells either disintegrate or shrivel up in the presence of this free glutamic acid, MSG, if it gets past the blood brain barrier. The glutamates in MSG are absorbed directly from the mouth to the brain. Some investigators believe that the great increase in violence in this country is due, not to sugar, nor even the breakfast cereals, but to the huge increase in the use of MSG in the food which began in the late 1950’s, and particularly because it was put in baby food in very large amounts.
Describing artificial bacon, a food processing magazine claims: “Here is an engineered meat product which looks, cooks, and tastes like bacon, but is formed and laminated by a co-extrusion process. It is made from a mixture of pork, beef, sugar, salt, MSG, and smoked flavour and has a number of advantages. It shrinks very little in cooking; holds its shape and colour well; contains twice the protein and half the fat of bacon; costs less than bacon and the processed product does not delaminate.” Isn’t that nice to know? Of course, now they have figured out how to do this without any meat at all by using soy.
FATS AND OILS
Oil processing starts with the crude vegetable oil and produces various oils, margarine, shortening and so forth. Don’t forget these oils start out loaded with pesticides. The steps involved in processing have to do with bleaching, deodorizing, taking all the nutrients out, filtering, and removing saturates to make the oils more liquid. They also add a hexane solvent in order to squeeze the very last drop of oil out of the seeds. Caustic refining refers to very alkaline, very caustic chemicals that are added to the oil.
Margarine processing uses the cheapest seeds, and most of them are full of pesticides and genetically engineered. Oil is extracted under high temperature and pressure, and the remaining fraction of oil is removed with hexane solvents. Then they steam clean the oils to remove all the vitamins and all the anti-oxidants, but of course, the solvents and the pesticides remain. These oils are mixed with a nickel catalyst and then put into a huge high pressure, high temperature reactor. Emulsifiers are mixed in. What comes out of that reactor, actually, is a smelly, grey type of cottage cheese. Then they mix in the emulsifiers to smooth it out, and steam clean it again to get rid of the horrible smell. Then they bleach it to get rid of the grey colour, and they add artificial flavours and synthetic vitamins. Actually they are not allowed to add a synthetic colour to margarine. They have to add a natural colour, so they add anatto or something natural. It is then packaged in blocks and tubs and then advertising promotes this garbage as a health food.
Saturated fat is the type of fat found in lard or butter. It is a straight molecule and it packs together easily. That is why it’s solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fat, like the type of fat found in olive oil, is a bent molecule. It has a little bend with two hydrogen molecules sticking out. And when that molecule gets built into your cells, the body wants those two hydrogens together; it makes an electron cloud and that is where your body makes reactions in the cell membrane. During hydrogenation, one of those hydrogens is moved to the other side, and it causes the molecule to straighten out so that it behaves like a saturate. The original unsaturated molecule is called ‘cis’ fatty acid, because the two hydrogens are together, and then it becomes a ‘transfat,’ a transfatty acid because the two hydrogens are across from each other. But your body doesn’t know that this new molecule is something that has never been in nature before, so when you eat one of these transfats, or transfatty acids, they become built into your cell membranes. When it gets into your cell membranes, your body starts to realize something is wrong, because it wants to make reactions where those two hydrogens are and it can’t find them. And so the reaction can’t take place. The more transfatty acids that you eat, the more hydrogenated your cells become and the more chaos that you are going to have on the cellular level. So this is a completely phony, toxic molecule that tricks your body into thinking it is something real and your body puts it in a cell, and then the cells can’t work.
All of the margarines, shortenings, spreads, even low trans spreads are made with all these horrible ingredients. In the groceries stores there is just a little bit of space for the butter because all the low profit margarine foods have totally invaded the food supply. You cannot buy any packaged or processed foods that don’t have these transfatty acids in them. They’re in all the chips and crackers, and they now use them for french fries. They used to fry the fries in tallow which is a very safe fat, and gave a little extra profit for the cattlemen and they have lost that market now. Now they use partially hydrogenated soybean oil. It used to be that when you made desserts for your kids, at least they had butter, eggs, cream and nuts and things, all these good wholesome foods. Now they can imitate the butter, eggs and cream and nuts so all you have is sugar, and artificial things in these instant puddings and artificial desserts.
PROBLEMS WITH HYDROGENATED OILS
Many, many diseases have been associated with the consumption of these transfatty acids – heart disease, cancer, and degeneration of joints and tendons (that is why we have so many hip replacements today) . The only reason that we are eating this stuff is because we have been told that the competing fats and oils, the butter, the lard, the coconut oil, the palm oil, the tallow and the suet are bad for us and cause heart disease. And that is nothing but industry propaganda to get us to buy substitutes.
PROCESSED FOOD AFFECTS FERTILITY AND FACIAL STRUCTURE
Weston A. Price discovered that as children eat these processed foods, with each generation, the facial structure becomes more and more narrow. Healthy faces should be broad. They should have perfectly straight teeth and no cavities. When you are eating real foods, nutrient dense foods, you get the complete and perfect expression of the genetic potential. And that genetic potential, that gift from the Creator to all of us is perfection. We were given a perfect blueprint. Whether or not the body temple is built according to the blueprint depends on our wisdom in food choices. When primitive societies abandoned the traditional diet and began to eat processed foods, the next generation developed the altered facial structure. We know that if you continue this diet for three generations, reproduction ceases and that’s what we’re seeing now. About 25% of our couples are infertile, and if we don’t go back to a diet that produces good facial structure, we are going to be wiped out.
FACTORY FOOD PREPARATION – IS YOUR FOOD MADE BY CARING HANDS?
Artificial flavours and preservatives are made by chemical companies in factories; they are not being made by the loving hands of a cook. All the artificial ingredients added to the food help the rich get richer. They have completely processed the life out of the food and then as a concession to the public, thrown in a handful of artificial nutrients. Can you imagine what kind of feeling, what kind of radiation comes from that factory food? It would be better that an individual did not eat at all than to eat food that has been prepared under a feeling of anger, apathy, resentment, depression, or any outward pressure. Think of the pressure that is put on all this food that is made in factories.
SPIRITUAL FOOD PREPARATION – MADE WITH LOVE
If a woman could see the sparks of light going forth from her fingertips when she is cooking, and the substance of light that goes into the food she handles, she would be amazed to see how much of herself she charges into the meals that she prepares for her family and friends. It is one of the most important and least understood activities of life, that the radiation and feeling that go into the preparation of food affect everyone who partakes of it. And this activity should be unhurried, peaceful and happy because the substance of the lifestream performing the service flows into that food and is eaten, and actually becomes part of the energy of the receiver.
That substance starts with the way we farm—the farmer that farms with wisdom and love for the land, the dairyman that farms with love for his animals, the cheesemaker who makes the cheese with the love of her craft, the baker who bakes with the love of the final product, the beverage maker who makes the type of delicious and nutritious beverage that I would like to see come to this nation. That energy goes into the food and when it is eaten by the receiver actually blesses the receiver.
That is why the advanced spiritual teachers of the East never eat food prepared by anyone other than their own chelas (disciples). The person preparing the food may be the only one in the household who is spiritually advanced (this is often the case). An active charge of happiness, purity and peace will pour forth into the food from him, and this pours forth into the other members of the family and blesses them. There are more ways than one of allowing the Spirit of God to enter the flesh of man. So I hope that from what I have shown you, you will turn away from godless food.
Someone from the family needs to get back in the kitchen. It doesn’t mean you have to spend hours in the kitchen, but you need to spend some time in the kitchen preparing food with love, food that has been grown with love and prepared with wisdom and love. If no one in the family has time to go into the kitchen and prepare food, you need to sit down and rethink how you are spending your time because there is simply no other way to get nourishing foods into our children. The situation is really very critical. If we don’t return to good eating practices one mouth at a time, one meal at a time, one farm at a time, preparing our own food and preparing it properly, there is not going to be another generation. Thank you very much.
Chemical Warfare Agents And Toxic Waste Disguised As
Household Cleaning Products
By Lorie Dwornick
The following information is intended to help you make an informed decision about the types of household cleaning products you choose to use for yourself and your families.
You are what you eat, digest and absorb. What you absorb includes what is absorbed through inhalation and the skin, which happens to be the largest organ of the body. When the liver is overworked, the skin takes over with the elimination of toxins. Unfortunately, many toxins are not that easy to eliminate.
Since WWII more than 80,000 synthetic chemicals have been invented. Most have been created from petroleum and coal tar for the purposes of chemical warfare. The sad thing is that hardly any of these substances have been tested for safety, but have been added to our food, water and cleaning products without our consent and most often without informing us of any dangers. There is a lot of intentional suppression in this industry that adds approximately 1000 new chemicals each year.
According to the National Research Council, “no toxic information is available for more than 80% of the chemicals in everyday-use products. Less than 20% have been tested for acute effects and less than 10% have been tested for chronic, reproductive or mutagenic effects.” More than 4.5 billion chemicals are known and 50,000 are commercially distributed. What is worse is that tests are only done on single chemicals. There is never any testing done on combinations, which were exposed to on a daily basis. Imagine what your lifetime exposure is.
It requires a team of scientists, 300 mice, more than $300,000 US, and 2-3 years to determine whether one single suspect chemical causes cancer. These mice have much higher immune systems than we do. Governments are at the mercy of economic agendas. Industry interests almost always win over issues regarding health or government regulation. Only 1% of toxins are required to be listed on labels. This is mainly because the products don’t make any claims about safety. Companies can also classify them as “trade secrets” to avoid listing them. Many of the ingredients labeled “inert” are actually more toxic than the active ingredients. If you don’t know what it is, don’t use it.
The chemical companies spend billions of dollars each year brainwashing us. Ninety-one percent of the population applies 300-million pounds of these poisons annually, often indoors. City dwellers use more chemicals per acre than farmers and spend more than $1 billion annually.
The first agent of chemical warfare was chlorine. The war ended with an abundance of this cheap chemical. In the name of huge profits, it was added to our water supply and many other products. Chlorine is the number one cause of breast cancer and can be lethal. Scientists won’t handle chlorine without protective gloves, facemasks, and ventilation, yet it is in most store-brand cleaners, including dishwasher detergents. The harmful effects are intensified when the fumes are heated, as in the shower. It’s in our drinking water, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, and more
Fluoride is worse, but space limits its discussion here. Do your own research and avoid it. Its one of the biggest scams of all time. It has no benefits whatsoever. It’s extremely poisonous!
Most household cleaners contain toxic chemicals. Ammonia is in almost all of them and is lethal if combined with bleach (forming chloramine). Industry requires readily accessible information about chemicals used in the workplace that includes the effects of combining chemicals. The main manual, Workplace Hazardous Materials Identification System (WHMIS), contains Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). Have a look at this manual. You may be surprised at how dangerous some products are that you use, unsuspectingly, in your home on a regular basis.
The government acknowledges that these cleaning products are hazardous, but regulation only requires labels to indicate if they are: combustible, corrosive, poison, caution, etc.
One Million poisonings in Canada each year are due to household cleaner ingestion. Some are fatal. The #1 cause of household poisoning is dish detergent. What kinds of chemicals are in those products? These statistics were given before the recent hype over anti-bacterial, which are even worse.
Certain types of bacteria are necessary and beneficial. They eat decaying debris and keep the “bad” bacteria in balance. Nature is always safest and was never intended to destroy, like chemicals are.
Each time you wash your dishes, some residue is left on them. The residue accumulates with each washing. Your food picks up part of the residue — especially if your meal is hot ñ and you ingest it.
Dishwashing liquids are labeled “harmful if swallowed.” Most contain Naphtha, a CNS depressant, diethanolsamine, a liver poison, and/or chlorophenylphenol, a toxic metabolic stimulant. Do you want to be using harmful products to clean dishes that you and your family are going to be eating off of?
A few times I unsuspectingly used anti-bacterial soap while visiting and suffered from side effects each time. They include: rough, dry hands, a feeling in my nose as if it had been sanded with coarse sand paper until raw, and the strong smell of ammonia. These effects lasted at least 20 hours after exposure.
Washing your hands with cold water inhibits the spread of bacteria and germs. Hot water encourages growth of unwanted organisms. But in most cases, the bacteria are much safer than the chemicals used to kill them. You can use plain vodka or vinegar as a disinfectant if you are uncomfortable using payphones, washrooms, shopping carts, etc. in public places. Remember, people are organisms.
I spilt some Brand X dish soap on the grass, which I immediately soaked with water until there were no more suds. About a week later the grass was dead. If it kills the grass, what is it doing to us?
Many household products contain harmful chemicals. For example, formaldehyde is in almost all cleaning products, including laundry detergents, toothpaste and shampoo.
Laundry detergents contain phosphorus, enzymes, ammonia, naphthalene, phenol, sodium nitilotriacetate and countless others. These chemicals can cause rashes, itches, allergies, sinus problems and more. The residue left on your clothes, bed sheets, etc. is absorbed through your skin, as is everything else you touch. Thus, the success and popularity of transdermal patches. Don’t fall prey to the bombardment of advertisements strongly suggesting that you absolutely need these products. You don’t, but their profit margins do. If declining health is what you desire, use these products.
Disinfectants are usually phenol- or cresol-based and deactivate sensory nerve endings. They attack the liver, kidneys, spleen, pancreas, and the central nervous system (CNS) and it takes over a year to eliminate the unhealthy effects of spraying 2 ounces, even with heavy cross ventilation.
Oven cleaners are one of the most toxic products people use. They contain lye and ammonia, which eat the skin, and the fumes linger and affect the respiratory system. Then there is the residue that is intensified the next time you turn your oven on. Use sea salt and baking soda instead.
Air fresheners interfere with your ability to smell by releasing nerve-deadening agents or coating nasal passages with an oil film, usually methoxychlor, a pesticide that accumulates in fat cells and over-stimulates the CNS. Dryer sheets fall into this category. They are extremely toxic. Avoid them. (The only reason you require fabric softeners is because the chemicals in laundry soap create the static. It may take several washings with chemical free detergents to eliminate the chemical residue static. Your patience will be well rewarded.) Some other common ingredients include: P-dichlorobenzene, naphthalene and formaldehyde. Fresh, organic citrus juices, vinegar, spices, and essential oils will do a better job, risk free.
Pesticides are dangerous. They are responsible for asthma, bronchitis, eczema, migraines, death, hives, joint and muscle pain for 16 million people in this country and the numbers are growing. Antibiotics are pesticides. You may be surprised to find out just how many everyday products contain pesticides, such as toothpaste and shampoo. Most public buildings are sprayed with pesticides on a regular basis. Don’t count on your doctor to inform you of this. Medication and treatment for the effects of these chemicals is a very lucrative business. Doctors serve the pharmaceutical/chemical industry, not you.
Pesticides are the #2 cause of death by poisoning in this country. They can linger for more than 30 years. Inhalation can lead to nausea, cough, breathing difficulties, depression, eye irritation, dizziness, weakness, blurred vision, twitching, convulsions and more. They are stored in body fat. Long-term they damage liver, kidneys, lungs, and lead to paralysis, sterility, immune suppression, brain hemorrhages, decreased fertility, sexual dysfunction, heart problems and coma. Diazanon is a carcinogen, teratogen (serious birth defects), mutagen (genetic damaging) and it causes death. Pests are not life threatening.
Flea collars are pesticides and release a continuous supply to the pet. In addition to the great harm caused to your pet, it is absorbed through your skin every time you touch your pet. Leave your pet a dish of brewer’s yeast; it will instinctively eat it as needed and repel fleas naturally. Please don’t let the vet turn your pet into a drug addict because of chemical exposure and unnecessary vaccines.
Lice shampoo is a pesticide and is absorbed into the brain. Lindane, the main ingredient, causes convulsions, seizures, cancer and death. You can use your favorite shampoo several times a day, every day. The lice will be gone in less than a week. Lice are not dangerous.
Regular shampoos contain harsh chemicals. Baby shampoos advertised as gentle and “no tears” contain some of the worst chemicals, including anesthetizing agents to cover up the burning sensation that would otherwise be caused when the chemicals contact the eyes. Imagine what effect these agents have on the eyes and brain, especially after repeated uses.
Sodium laurel sulfate and other forms of this substance lower brain acuity and attribute to blindness, yet they are commonly used in shampoos, toothpastes and other personal hygiene products.
Everything that touches your scalp is absorbed into your brain first, so think twice before choosing to bleach, dye, or perm your hair. Use natural alternatives, if you must.
Effects of these toxic chemicals include: illness, allergies, asthma, ear infections, learning disabilities, nervous disorders, respiratory difficulties and more. The American Cancer Society stated “environmental pollution causes cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, coughing, asthma, nervous disorders, emphysema, wheezing, nasal congestion, burning eyes, headache, burning, tingling, skin flushing, muscle aches, irritability, mental confusion, unco-ordination, hyperactivity and other debilitating illnesses.”
The EPA depends on industry-sponsored tests for approval. In 1981, one company was found guilty of falsifying over 90% of more than 2000 studies. Those products are still readily available.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Chemicals Commonly Found in Homes identified 150 as linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological abnormalities. Ten percent cause high blood pressure (HBP) and migraines and 20% are responsible for mental disturbances.
Indoor air in the home has been found to have five times higher toxic chemical concentrations than outdoor air. This is also true in rural areas. A five-year study conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed many indoor air samples to be 70 times more toxic. Could this be why almost everyone is sick, especially children and those working in public buildings with no fresh air intake?
A scientific paper at the “Indoor Air Conference” in 1990 in Toronto stated, “because of household cleaners, housewives have a 55% higher risk of contracting cancer.”
With all these dangers well-documented and well-known, industry still spends millions of dollars each year to convince us that we need these products. It is much more dangerous and expensive to dispose of these toxins in hazardous waste dumps, which are few and far between.
Exposure to toxins has synergistic and cumulative effects. They are known as xenobiotics (foreign to the body). The body was not designed to eliminate them, so it accumulates them. Doctors usually treat these toxic overloads with more poisons. Is it any wonder our healthcare costs are skyrocketing while we keep getting sicker and sicker? There are huge profits being made at the expense of our health.
The main ingredient in most weed killers is 2,4-D (dichlorophenoxyacetic acid). When combined with 2,4,5-T (trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) it forms “Agent Orange.” Use of these products creates more resistant weeds while harming us. These chemicals eventually end up in our water table and in edible crops planted in the vicinity. When was the last time you saw bees, butterflies, dragonflies or ladybugs? They are almost extinct because of the overuse of these and other similar chemicals and pesticides. Are we next on the endangered species list? The effects of these chemical poisonings are often given names and treated as new diseases. We know differently. Treat your lawn with dish soap, coke & beer, diluted with water every month or so and use a mulching mower. Longer grass shades weed seeds. Plant basil to keep mosquitoes and other pests away. There are many books available about companion planting and beneficial insects, to keep the unwelcome ones away without compromising you
You, your pets and children walk on and absorb the harmful chemicals applied to lawns and gardens. Avoid them. Weeds grow where soils are barren and deficient in certain nutrients — the very ones that these weeds provide. They have longer roots that reach lower into the ground to provide those hard-to-reach nutrients, while preventing soil erosion. If you don’t want them to spread, at least cut off the buds/flowers. It’s usually the chemical dependent lawns that attract the weeds and produce larger ones.
These chemicals affect your lawn the way drugs affect you. The more dependent you are on drugs, the sicker you become and the more drugs you take. Its a never ending, vicious cycle of addiction. The less drugs a person takes the stronger their immune system is, and the healthier they are. Its best to avoid them all. The same goes for your lawn. It may take a couple of years for the “withdrawal symptoms” to subside, but the wait will be more than worth it. There is an entire ecosystem below the surface that works interdependently to ensure your soil, and your crops, flourish. The chemicals also kill all these beneficial microorganisms, worms, etc. Nature is our friend, treat it as such.
When Congress passed the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (the legal basis for the EPA’s regulation of disinfectants), it assumed that they were all toxic. No guidelines were created for identifying non-toxic agents. In other words, they are all toxic and to be avoided.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards require testing a chemical to a specified amount listed in the regulation. If it kills half of a group of test animals, the chemical is toxic by this definition. If the test animals survive after being exposed to an amount greater than that listed, the chemical is non-toxic. The tests are done orally, transdermally and by inhalation. Not very strict or reassuring in my opinion. And where are the tests for long-term exposure, or on humans?
Beware of toxic chemicals. The danger doesn’t end with their use. Everything that goes down your drain eventually ends up in your drinking water supply. This is multiplied by what your neighbors and every other person and industry put down their drains. More than four million pounds of household cleaning chemicals go down Canadian drains each year.
Everything that goes down our drains and toilets ends up at the water treatment plants where they are mixed with even more toxic chemicals, recycled and returned to us via our water taps (including drugs and poisons we ingested, inhaled and absorbed, then eliminated). Eventually there will not be enough water to dilute all these chemicals and we will end up with pure chemicals coming from our taps. Hence the huge market for bottled water and point of use filter systems. Avoid distilled and “drinking” water.
The remaining sludge is extremely toxic and is marketed as “natural fertilizer” called “bio solids.” Its used on farms that supply produce to our supermarkets and the livestock industry.
Whatever goes down the sewers on the streets goes directly into the rivers. What we do to the planet, we do to ourselves. If a product is not friendly to the environment, it cannot be friendly to us.
If a product requires special handling or ventilation, don’t expose yourself or your environment to it. This is where you, your family and friends have to live and breathe. Next time you or someone you know feels ill, instead of rushing off to the doctor to get medicated (poisoned), why not look for the cause in a household chemical or food additive and eliminate it? This can save a lot of grief and more toxic overload, which will probably be labeled as some type of serious illness without looking for the cause.
Children are at higher risk when playing on floors with the residue from formaldehyde, asbestos and pesticides from common household cleaners. Their respiration rates are three times higher than adults, and their detoxification systems are not fully developed and cannot filter these toxins out. Have you noticed how many children are on inhalers lately? This is akin to putting the fire out with gasoline. The older you are, the more years of accumulation of these toxins you will have in your system. There are tens of thousands of chemicals in use, but if you ever get tested, they will usually only test for 150 or so, and those are probably not the worst ones. That is only about .002%. Its a joke really.
Personal care and cleaning products are very toxic. Prior to WWII they didn’t exist, homes were clean, and people had fewer health problems. Do we really want to compromise our health so the chemical companies can become wealthy? How many toxic bombs are lurking in your home? There are many safe, chemical free cleaning products on the market today, or if you prefer — use the basics; baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar and water. You’ll be amazed at what a wonderful job they do.
Please do your own research and use the products that are the safest and best for your families. There are numerous books on these subjects. Don’t leave your fate in the hands of multibillion-dollar chemical industries whose only concern is profit. Your shopping habits create a demand for the products you buy. If you don’t like what is contained in the products offered in your stores, let it be known and switch products. Encourage industry to be responsible for their products, as we must be with our purchases. Educate your friends, neighbors and loved ones. Don’t ever give anyone authority over your body or your health. Its your responsibility to be informed. What you don’t know can harm you, and even kill you. Once the damage is done, it may be too late.
Lorie Dwornick is a researcher, educator and activist living in Winnipeg, MB. She found out first-hand about the corruption in “the system” through cover-ups, fabrications and deception affecting her own health. This started her trek to get the answers she’d been denied. When she learns of something she feels others need their eyes opened up to, she makes it known so they don’t have to go through the kind of ongoing ordeal that’s been imposed upon her since becoming the victim of an accident many years ago. Victims are being treated like criminals. Lorie — like many researchers — uncovered all sorts of things she wasn’t even looking for. As the saying goes, “the lies are hidden in plain view.” She believes that eventually enough people will be aware of these things to expose the corruption to the extent that some, if not all, of it can be halted. The truth is almost always the opposite of what the propaganda machine (mainstream media) tells us. It is about mass manipulation and control.
Do your products contain any of these dioxins, cancer-causing agents, carcinogens, toxins, irritants, or contaminants?
Dioxins: a potentially carcinogenic by-product that results from the process used to bleach paper at paper mills. Dioxin-treated containers sometimes transfer dioxins to the product itself. (see Sodium Laureth Sulfate). According to Dr. Epstein, “The Health Protection Branch of Canada has reported dioxin levels in the parts per trillion range in several samples of milk and cream packaged in bleached milk cartons manufactured in the United States. Dioxin has migrated from the cartons to the milk. Very likely U.S. milk products are similarly contaminated with dioxin. Dioxin’s carcinogenicity is up to 500,000 times more potent than that of DDT.”
Talc: carcinogen. Used by some 20 million women in their reproductive years; not to mention, it’s wide use on infants in the form of “baby powder”. According to Dr. Epstein, M.D., “Talc should never be used on babies both because of its carcinogenicity and acute respiratory distress from inhalation that often results in death. There are at least 3 clear cut studies which have been published in the scientific literature that routine application of talc in the genital area is associated with up to a 3 to 4 fold increase in the development of ovarian cancer.”
DEA (diethanolamine): Interacts with nitrites to form a *nitrosamine carcinogen; very common ingredient found in mainstream cosmetics and toiletries. According to Dr. Epstein, “In studies by the National Toxicology Program, to induce cancer of the liver and kidney when applied to the skin of mice, it was shown to be readily absorbed through the skin and to accumulate in organs. After this clear cut study which was released by the National Toxicology Program, you would expect that the mainstream industry to have acted on this and to replace DEA. Not on your life! There’s been a denial and an attempt to trivialize the risk.” Found in bubble bath, shampoo, liquid soap, body lotions, and many other products.
TEA (triethanolamine): Interacts with nitrites to form a *nitrosamine carcinogen. According to Dr. Epstein, “Your best self-protection is to boycott any products containing DEA or TEA. That will send a clear message to the cosmetic industry.” Just like DEA, TEA is very commonly found in creams, lotions, shampoo, and other products.
Bronopol: Act by releasing nitrites which combine with DEA to form *nitrosamines. “One of the most expensive lines of cosmetics today, Chanel , often uses this chemical. So do many leading brands of baby products. And the Body Shop, whose product sales are built on a reputation of containing natural ingredients, also offers products containing this chemical. There are many safer yet equally effective products available,” states Dr. Epstein.
Padimate-O (also known as octyl dimethyl PABA): Act by releasing nitrites which combine with DEA to form *nitrosamines. Found in cosmetics, especially sunscreens. “The most prudent consumers will prefer sunscreens without padimate-O,” states Dr. Epstein.
Fluoride: possible carcinogen. Dr. Epstein states, “There have been several studies incriminating fluoride in bone cancer. The important point about this is that the public have been given no information on this and fluoride in toothpaste is particularly dangerous because kids swallow a significant amount of the fluoride, especially when toothpaste contains saccharin as many toothpastes do.” http://www.nofluoride.com
Saccharin: carcinogen. According to Dr. Epstein, “The evidence on the carcinogenicity of saccharin is literally overwhelming. Saccharin is the only carcinogen identified in diet foods which is listed as a carcinogen on the label.”
Crystalline Silica: carcinogen. According to Dr. Epstein, “Crystalline Silica is present in some personal care products and toiletries. Its been incriminated as a cause of lung cancer in both animal studies and human.”
Para-phenylenediamine Dyes: carcinogenic when oxidized. According to Dr. Epstein, “These are dyes which are extensively used in permanent black and dark brown hair dyes which have been incriminated in a variety of cancers including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.” Something to think about: Jackie Kennedy used to dye her hair black every two weeks or so and she died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Coal Tar Dyes: carcinogens. Blue #1 and Green #3 to name only a few. According to Dr. Epstein, “These carcinogenic dyes are often contaminated with arsenic and lead.” Check your toothpaste label on the box it came in! These artificial dyes are in many other products as well.
Lanolin: highly contaminated with pesticides. According to Dr. Epstein, “Most lanolin samples, at least 50 to 60%, are contaminated.”
Polyethylene Glycol (PEG): “contaminated with a very potent carcinogen; dioxane and very easily absorbed through the skin,” states Dr. Epstein. Used in a wide variety of personal care products.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS): skin irritant. It is rapidly absorbed and retained in the eyes, brain, heart, and liver, which may result in harmful long-term effects. SLS could retard healing, cause cataracts in adults, and keep children’s eyes from developing properly.
Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES): “contaminated with a very potent carcinogen; dioxane and very easily absorbed through the skin,” states Dr. Epstein. SLES is the alcohol form (ethoxylated) of SLS. It is slightly less irritating than SLS, but may cause more drying. Both SLS and SLES may cause potentially carcinogenic formations of nitrates and dioxins to form in shampoos and cleansers by reacting with other product ingredients. Large amounts of nitrates may enter the blood system from just one shampooing!
Formaldehyde: carcinogen. Found in many cosmetic products and conventional nail care systems.
Quanternium-15: releases formaldehyde. According to Dr. Epstein, “This ingredient is generally safe, BUT will break down in the bottle, or tube, or on the skin to release formaldehyde for which the evidence of it’s carcinogenicity is literally overwhelming.”
Aluminum: skin irritant. Has been linked to Alzheimer’s Disease. Very commonly found in antiperspirants; it’s used to clog your underarm pores, so you don’t sweat… not a good thing to do!
Propylene Glycol: strong skin irritant. A cosmetic form of mineral oil found in automatic brake and hydraulic fluid, and industrial antifreeze. In skin and hair care products, propylene glycol works as a humectant, which is a substance that retains the moisture content of skin or cosmetic products by preventing the escape of moisture or water. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) warn users to avoid skin contact with propylene glycol as this strong skin irritant can cause liver abnormalities and kidney damage. Check out your body lotions, deodorant, hair conditioner, hair gel, creams, and many more products!
Mineral Oil: smothers the skin. A derivative of crude oil (petrolatum) that is used industrially as a cutting fluid and lubricating oil. Mineral oil forms an oily film over skin to lock in moisture, but traps in toxins and wastes, and clogs your pores. It hinders normal skin respiration by keeping oxygen out.
Petrolatum: smothers the skin. A petroleum-based grease that is used industrially as a grease component. Petrolatum exhibits many of the same potentially harmful properties as mineral oil.
Alpha Hydroxy Acid: skin irritant. An organic acid produced by anaerobic respiration. Skin care products containing AHA exfoliate not only dead skin cells, but the skin’s protective barrier as well. Long-term skin damage may result from its use.
Alcohol: implicated in mouth, tongue, and throat cancers. A colorless, volatile, flammable liquid produced by the fermentation of yeast and carbohydrates. Alcohol is used frequently as a solvent and is also found in beverages and medicine. As an ingredient in ingestible products, alcohol may cause body tissues to be more vulnerable to carcinogens. Mouthwashes with an alcohol content of 25% or more have been implicated in oral cancers.
Collagen: may suffocate the skin. An insoluble fibrous protein that is too large to penetrate the skin. The collagen found in most skin care products is derived from animal skins and ground up chicken feet. This ingredient forms a layer of film that may suffocate the skin.
Fluorocarbons: can produce mild upper respiratory tract irritation. A colorless, nonflammable gas or liquid commonly used as a propellant in hairspray.
Bentonite: may suffocate the skin. A porous clay that expands many times its dry volume as it absorbs water. Commonly found in many cosmetic foundations, may clog pores and suffocate the skin. *This is also used to put out forest fires because it has the ability to smother the flames.
Kaolin: may suffocate the skin. A fine white clay used in making porcelain. Like bentonite, kaolin smothers and weakens the skin. Used in cosmetic foundations, as well as absorbing powder, face masks, liquid and cake powder and dry blusher.
*Nitrosamine: According to Dr. Epstein, “We’ve known since 1976 that DEA will react with nitrites which are present, as preservatives or contaminants, in personal care products, to produce a carcinogen known as nitrosodiethanolamine. This is found in virtually any cosmetic that contains DEA. Consumers have been exposed without any information and without any guidance whatsoever! In 1979 the FDA warned the cosmetic industry that DEA was dangerous because of this. The cosmetic industry ignored the warning! While over in Europe, strong action was taken to phase out the use of DEA.”
About white sugar, Aspartame, other concentrated sweeteners and health
This page is important stop for all of You who are addicted to sugar, honey, or any other concentrated sweetener. For all of You who eat sugar every day in all kind of food, from bread to Coca Cola, from ice-cream to ketchup, from hot-dog to cakes, jams, candies, sausages, yogurts …
And for all of You who are having problems like colds, flu, food allergies, high cholesterol, candida, cancer, diabetes, fatty degeneration, degenerative diseases, depression, dizziness, crying spells, aggression, insomnia, weakness, skin problems, heart and circulatory diseases…………..Read more
What’s really a “Healthy Diet” ?
It is time to admit that almost all diets explained in hundreds of diet books could actually be dangerous for your health. Why ? Because we humans are not all identical. I will try to introduce you to the term “food tolerance“.
Not all people tolerate all foods! A Healthy Diet