Now that Obama has followed suit and made Monsanto’s #2 head of the US FDA, things like this are frequently unnoticed. Well done to Natural News to publicizing such atrocities to health and democracy…

When the NutraSweet Company first began petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve aspartame as a food additive back in the early 1970s, it had every intention of conniving its way to success by whatever means possible. Today, after successfully getting aspartame approved and widely accepted around the world with flawed studies and behind-the-scenes manipulation, NutraSweet has once again done the same thing with a new chemical sweetener known as neotame, which is currently approved for use in food without even having to be labeled.

Neotame was approved by the FDA back in 2002 without so much as a single conclusive, independent study proving its safety for human consumption. And yet the agency gave its full blessing not only to neotame’s approval for use in food, but also for its unlabeled use — as far as we know, not a single food product currently sold in the U.S. indicates that it contains neotame (http://www.naturalnews.com/034915_neotame_Monsanto_sweeteners.html).

Two years before the FDA approved neotame, the Monsanto Co. sold the NutraSweet Co. to J.W. Childs Equity Partners II, L.P., a private equity firm that also own the Sunny Delight Beverage Co. and Mattress Firm, among other companies. At the time of this purchase, NutraSweet issued a press release bragging about how neotame would drastically change the sweetener industry, even though it had not yet been approved for use.

Commenting on the company’s plans for neotame, Nick E. Rosa, a former senior vice president at Monsanto who was given the position of president and CEO of NutraSweet at the time the company transferred ownership to J.W. Childs, had this to say:

“The NutraSweet Company revolutionized the sweetener industry in 1981 with the introduction of aspartame, and we intend to do it again with neotame when we receive approval from various regulatory agencies around the world.”

Just as predicted, NutraSweet strong-armed FDA approval for neotame in the U.S. in 2002, and quickly expanded approval to at least 69 other countries in the following decade. But the company presumably still has a lot of work to do if it hopes to bring neotame to the same level as aspartame, which is sold in more than 100 countries and used in more than 5,000 consumers products used by 250 million people worldwide.

As detrimental as aspartame is to health, neotame is potentially far worse. Like aspartame, it is linked to severe neurotoxic and immunotoxic damage because it metabolizes into toxic formaldehyde and other toxic substances. And because it is unlabeled, the general public is unable to self-regulate consumption levels.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nutrasweet.com/media/index.asp

http://www.naturalnews.com/028151_aspartame_sweeteners.html

And in the last 50 years, while claiming endless growth and ‘civilisation’ these systems have been whittled down to the bare minimum, set out for tender to the cheapest bidder to squeeze a profit from.

Youth centers, social clubs, hospices, mental health centers, social welfare systems that take care of housing for the unemployed, art-promoting projects, and the very hospitals themselves have been slowly drifting away with one government cut after another. And this model of how to grow a society is now largely discarded, in favor of private companies doing business instead.

Each of the props that can support a robust, healthy and civil society are dwindling and failing…

Local economies are falling appart, needing greater and greater support from central government, which is financially crumbling under its weight.

So, where is all the money going?

In the same breath, we are opening supermarkets, de-localizing food supplies, and chain stores now dominate high streets, where once local business thrived.

It is simple. Each time a supermarket opens, an average of 300 jobs are lost in the local environment. This is because small, local businesses cannot compete with the ability of supermarkets to undercut them, and so as people flock into the supermarket doors, imagining cheaper prices and greater convenience, local stores go under. And their owners and employees alike join the job queues, or go to work in the supermarkets themselves. And with them, their contributions to the local economy (through taxes, and the spending of their earnings locally) also disappear.

Money spent locally, stays local

90% of the money spent in a supermarket disappears up the chain of command to the shareholders, often hundreds of miles away, in the financial centers of the world – not even in the same country necessarily.

By the trillion !

Whereas, 90% of the money spent in local high streets, gets spent locally, and the money remains in the locale.

So, the money is not disappearing, it is simply being redistributed (or actually focused) in the hands of those that have more than they need already.

And local environments start to fail.

Shops close, high streets lose their vitality, and the society crumbles away.

Lobbying for Power

And of course, the more powerful and affective the chain stores become, the greater their lobbying abilities. meaning that they have greater power to perpetuate their position.

The second biggest asset of supermarkets is the land that they own. Often buying massive tracts of land around towns to stop competition from using it. A sounds business move – to stop rivl supermarkets from getting in on the game, but also stopping smaller business and social projects from taking off. Sad.

They are now instrumental in the culture we are subconsciously affect by. Not only through their multi-million pound advertising campaigns, but their influence of schools (from vending machines in the hallways, to blatant influence over what gets taught in cookery classes, etc), and their pseudo-altruistic funding of sporting activities therein. All to provide a clean face of their product. While they cream billions out of our lack of understanding of the whole financial model.

Meanwhile the health of their consumers plummets, not to mention the horrendous conditions of the poorer countries that churn out slave-labour clothes, and toxin-laden crops who are footing the real bill for this accumulation of funds in all the wrong places.

When is enough enough ?

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I don’t believe it is due to some grand conspiracy theory. To be honest, I don’t believe they are intelligent enough to think it through. It is more likely just a result of the ‘terror of not having enough’ gone wild. After all, how many millions do you need in your account to feel safe ? the answer of course, is that it a feeling of safety and satisfaction is never gonna come from a bank account, but our culture leads us to try.

I don’t even refer to it as greed. It is too judgmental. And I fully believe that in their position, most of us would do the same. Driven by the same lack of safety…

So, while they announce their astronomical profits for another year (along with the banks, petro-corps, and chain stores), we have to ask.. When will it be enough for them…? And that is about all we can ask.

And of course, we have to bring this home, rather than projecting our dissatisfaction upon someone else.

We, as a nation have insane amounts of wealth. We own our own houses, new cars, endless gadgets, and slick clothes. We have peace, electricity, hot running water, limitless food, and warm homes. But we still seek the cheapest of everything. And are willing to forgo the security of other nations, the enslavement of entire populations, the degradation of land, decimation of forests, and extinction of endless species to attempt to fill our own sense of lack.

If we knew, would we still do ?

But would we, if we could actually see the costs of our choices ?

Is information about the devastation our culture reeks enough ?

I try, in vein to education and enlighten about how our choices affect cultures across the world.

Give examples of how atrocities against individuals, and atrocities against nature, are caused directly (or indirectly) by our all consuming habits over here. But I make barely a dent.

And yet, it is all I can do.

I am not hero enough to put myself in their path, and end up like the likes of Julian Assange, or the myriad tribal braves who have fought and died for their land and customs. I admit myself powerless against the human condition.

And so I forward email petitions trying to persuade governments and corporations to change their short-sighted ways and side-lining policies. But what is the point if we are paying for them to uphold these inhumane acts of barbarism, candy-coating in progress…

But there it is. Here I am.

I’m gonna go and get my daughter from school today, and hope that my teachings on fairness will infect her beyond who gets the last biscuit on the plate, into areas of who is allowed to exist on this planet at all. For there is nothing fair or vicil in the ways we are dominating others so we can have what we want. And the worst part is, we aren’t even happy doing so !!!

D

While I totally agree that juice fasting in itself is no great remedy for many of the ailments of our day, I still use them because they work.

If you do anything for a short time (a week, or even a month), the beneficial effect will soon be lost if you just return to the same old diet, as the body will respond in the same way as it did before.

However, if that restful, opening and rejuvenating environment is used to make deep changes in one’s relationship with food, then major headway can be made in making different choices.

This can be achieved in contemplating one’s relationship to food – made easier when not being bombarded with foods effects on the mind – then education comes from the inside.

But the real way to take advantage of that ‘fasting’ state is made when going along to join a retreat of some description, as long as the information and subsequent education points to healthier moves to make in the future.

Thus, the point of a juice fast is not so much to detox the body (though it does help to do so), but to rest the food addictions (wheat & sugar addictions, as well as the constant push from caffeine, and the deadening effects of excess protein, etc) for long enough can give one great insight into why we use foods in the way we do.

The Misinformed lead to Misinformation

Reporters terrorizing the public on the idea of losing muscles mass because of fasting should really do their homework on just how long a fast would have to be undertaken in order to produce such a ‘wasting’ effect.

And the idea of water weight being the reason for weight lose, should try it themselves to see how much more hydrating you become than normal. My experience of 15 years leading juice fasting retreats has shown undoubtedly that there is additional weight put on from this extra hydration, leading to additional pounds being shed during the week of fasting, masked by this hydration. One average, a person with us loses 10lbs (more if there is more to be lost), but with the additional weight of the water they gain during retreat, the overall weight loss (coming from toxins and fat) is actually greater, and the over all result is only seen once that hydration is then lost once people stop drinking so much fluid.

If people return to a standard roasted diet, then of course, the original ailments will return. But if changes are imparted during the week, and expressed in healthier eating habits, then progress has been made.

And I have never seen a greater potential for change than a week with just yourself and those who care about your health.

I challenge any writer on this subject to join us, and not be affected by the simple logic and experience of understand your body better. And that, you just can’t emulate with a few fat-free comments in the newspaper.

Try it !

On the issue of safety, both sides of the debate come armed with research. This year Spanish researchers published an overview of GMO food safety studies in Environment International, finding that peer-reviewed studies had found health risks and no health risks in roughly equal numbers. The paper notes, however, that many studies finding no risks were sponsored by the biotech industry or associates.

Canadian researchers this year reported that the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of their umbilical cord blood samples contained a pesticide implanted in GMO corn by the biotech company Monsanto, though digestion is supposed to remove it from the body. “Given the potential toxicity of these environmental pollutants and the fragility of the fetus, more studies are needed,” they wrote in Reproductive Toxicology.

As the biggest producer of GMO seeds and the compatible pesticide Roundup, Missouri-based Monsanto is at the heart of the GMO debate. Monsanto would not make a representative available for an interview but did offer a statement on the lack of long-term animal or human safety studies on genetically modified crops. “Experts in the field of food safety are satisfied that (the current) approach is sufficient and reliable to assure the genetically modified crops are as safe as their conventional counterparts,” the statement said. “This expert community does not see a need and thus does not recommend long-term tests in humans or animals in order to establish food safety.”

While the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the sale and planting of genetically modified foods for 15 years, it has never required premarket safety evaluations of the foods.

“Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety,” the FDA wrote in a statement to the Tribune, noting that manufacturers are encouraged to consult with the agency about their products.

Used in an estimated 70 percent of all American processed food, genetically modified crops make up 93 percent of all soy, 86 percent of all corn and 93 percent of all canola seeds planted in the U.S., which makes stocking only non-GMO products difficult, said Joe Dickson, quality standards coordinator for Whole Foods Market.

“Until there’s federal government mandated labeling of GMO ingredients, there’s no way to tell if packaged products contain GMO ingredients,” Dickson said. “Our approach is to work in the spirit of partnership with our suppliers … to encourage them to take active steps to avoid GMO ingredients.”

Basu notes that GMO crops have been embraced by farmers in many countries — although not in Japan, Europe or Britain — and cites an International Food Information Council study that found 68 percent of those surveyed believe that FDA’s current labeling practices are sufficient.

“If you look at the adoption of biotech by over 24 countries and over 2 billion acres of biotech crops globally that have been grown in the last 15 years of commercialization, consumers are buying these products,” he said.

Still, Nielsen announced last year that “non-GMO” was the fastest-growing health and wellness claim on store-brand foods in 2009, up by 67 percent from the previous year and representing $60.2 million in sales.

And 2010 brought a new “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal, offering third-party certification that less than 0.9 percent of the ingredients in the product came from genetically modified organisms. More than 4,000 products — including all Whole Foods store brands — have been enrolled in the program, according to executive director Megan Westgate.

Original article here May 24, 2011|By Monica Eng, Tribune reporter

Depression…

It can be caused by many things, childhood trauma, life circumstance, lack of embodiment (exercise), fixation on lack or loss. But a key element is always gonna be nutrition.

If you haven’t got the bits to build the kit, it ain’t never gonna fly.

And we know, we are systemically lacking in the key neurotransmitters that fund the higher functions of empathy, happiness and contentment (Melatonin, Serotonin, Oxytocin, Dopamine, Tryptamines, etc.). So, if you add nutritional deficiency in there, it drops below even the standard norm – which is already pathologically low on a global nightmare kind of scale!

So, the most obvious route out of that (unless you’re depressed of course) is targeting the building blocks of happiness in food. (what do you mean “Valium, and Prozac aren’t foods !)

I’ll leave the psychological work to my esteemed colleagues in that field, and get down to the nuts and bolts (tho do read my previous ‘Gratitude’ article).

Nutritional Solutions

1. Carbohydrates

Many fruits have serotonin, and its precursors (so you can build it), which is the key neurotransmitter cited in states of wellness and relaxation.

Grains have a cascade of endocrine mimics called Opioids – similar to opium in their effect, which stimulate the dopamine receptors in the brain, and give you that MMMMmmmmm feeling. Careful though, they are also as addictive as Opium derivatives, and have a large part to play in our hankering for breads in between binges, and that also goes a long way to explain why we are so hooked on them.

2. Bananas

They contain a substance called tryptophan which has the ability to stimulate the release of serotonin, which improves your mood.

3. Raw sunflower seeds

They are very rich in folic acid and magnesium, both with significant effects in changing bad moods that you may face. Due to the high content of vitamins and minerals, sunflower seeds helps relieve stress, anxiety, fatigue and depression.

4. Raw Nuts

They contain two essential ingredients (omega-3 fatty acids and uridine) which together provide the most powerful antidepressant medicine, according to a study by Harvard University and published in Biological Psychology.

5. Dark chocolate

The requirement is that the chocolate you eat has more than 70% cocoa — many of the less expensive chocolates don’t have this high of a percentage. However almost all the ingredients of a chocolate bar will provide a little help in improving your mood: phenylethylamine, theobromine (‘theo’ meaning godlike), and tryptophan (precursor to tryptamines – the ‘consciousness’ molecules).

Careful of the refined-sugar, hydrogenated-fats, and kidney-stressing-caffeine though – they re the downside of store-bought choc – along with the ethical nightmare of enslaving children to collect cacao pods, and alike !
Always better to make your own. So easy and yummy, with a million variations. See Amida’s choc recipe on this blog somewhere… And you can buy all the bits from us here

6. Omega oils

I write these separately despite their appearing in the Nuts section above. Their inclusion in the diet of clinically depressed folk (as well as ADHD, Autistic, Alzheimer’s, etc) consistently cures the problem – where the cause is attributed to their lack. They are more than brain food. They are 80% of the brain itself, and building a brain out of lard, just don’t do the same thing.

And lastly, as you’ve heard me say before… leave the bloody fish alone, they don’t give us Omegas, they contain the same derivatives that your body builds from Omegas (DHA & EPA), and your system isn’t looking for that. Get it from veggie matter – Linseed oil, flax oil, Pumpkin seed oil and hemp oil.

Sweet dreams

I have received lots of response to my little gloat about my week’s gluttonous duties.

I am spending the week with Mark & Charlotte – the LoveChefs who we have worked with a lot in the last years. They have done endless raw food workshops, courses, and used to run the raw weekends at the end of our retreats. Because that didn’t really work financially, we are employing them to train Nikki (our Yogi) to run her own hi-raw workshops on the final Thursdays on our retreats.

And me… I am acting as the taster and dustbin at the end of their creative processes… Yumm…

But what I am inspired to write here now is how my gratitude for this is overwhelming.

Gratitude

One of the best emotions to cultivate in a person is gratitude. It not only brings a sense of grounding, positivity, love, connection, and humility, but it also promotes the production of wonderful (and unfortunately rare) top-end neurotransmitters that are the neurological end of that feeling, and they in turn produce so much calmness, affection and health in the whole body.

“It is not that happy people are grateful, but that grateful people are happy”

Thus, I have had a gratitude practice for many years – or should I call it a simple mindset – from my years in the forest in Asia, where I lived a very simple (cutting wood, carrying water) lifestyle. And because that is so imbued into my personality, I cannot help but smile when I see water flowing from a tap, or a flame burst magically into life on the hob. Let alone central heating, vegetables to buy on shelves, light at the flick of a switch, and knowledge streaming forth from Google’s (ask God any question) search box ! But then there is the relative peace of our nation, the lack of need to find shelter, safety, protection, and friends for my children. All are such boons to existence, but so easily forgotten in our sense of our busy little lives.

Our mindset tends to pale all of these miracles into mere wallpaper, like they don’t exist. That is the nature of our condition.

To the extent that we no longer even consider our lives a gift, and our bodies kind of an inconvenience – except for what they do for our pleasure-seeking minds. How disconnected is that !?!

And when you really get into it, what is not a miracle? What created all these atoms (and what are atoms anyway ?), and then formed them into molecules, and then organized them into chemistry, and then organic biology; arms, legs, livers, kidneys, etc. Such inconceivably complex structures, self-organizing, self-healing… and then there’s perception – excuse me… ! Quantify that !

And so how can I go for a moment without remembering the walking miracle that I am ! And yet I do. Constantly. Doh ! Just did it again.

And so I set aside a moment when I lay down in my nice warm bed. To remember, just for a moment, how gorgeously lucky I am.

How blessed, privileged, and how fortunate. So many have none of these things.

And all I can do to repay whatever that force is, that brings such ease into my life, is acknowledge it with a moment of thanks.

A deep and respected friend of mine once reworked a standard question into something profound and powerful. Instead of asking “What did I do to deserve this”?, he made it into a spiritual path by asking

“What CAN I do to deserve this !”

And the answer is simple, as any good old book on life will tell you…

Be Grateful. And spread this gratitude to all those around you – by just basically be generous, nice and loving…

There, how hippie am I !!!

But more startling is the lack of imagination that is required to call yourself a scientist. Just a total lack of contextual thinking that leads to further isolation and “up one’s own arse”ness.

I am not disputing the paramount importance of Omegas in food, and the derivatives in our biology – the brain is 80% DHA that you cannot make without Omegas I the diet ! Now that is paramount import !

The proclamation is often how essential fatty acids are for us, in order to grow a brain, and how they must come from fish.Pah !

But in the most wonderful self-proving loop, they go right ahead and prove that eating fish doesn’t give you what the brain needs, by their not spotting that if fish were such a necessity to grow a big brain, then all those land locked cultures couldn’t exist – let alone our primate cousins, who have the same brain-oriented biological requirements… Where are they getting their Omegas ?

Contextualize your facts

Fact 1.

The primate (that’s us)  brain is 80% DHA that you cannot make without Omegas in the diet !

Fact 2.

Omega oils are only found in the plant kingdom, thus fish don’t contain Omega oils, they contain DHA and EPA – the same oils we derive from the Omega oils we eat in plants, in order to build the brain, nerves, and healthy cell structures – same places the fish is using them – because it is an animal – Doh !

Fact 3.

More importantly, your system is not looking for DHA & EPA in food; it is looking for the Omegas – because for millions of years you have been growing brains from a basically vegetarian diet. And in the plant kingdom, there are far greater sources of Omegas, and they will be absorbed much easier than EPA & DHA in fish…

Conclusion 1.

Building your big brain requires Omegas – in (preferably raw) plant matter, not fish.

Conclusion 2.

So, whenever anyone talks about fish oil as essential, question the context of their knowledge. Is their knowledge borne of a personal search, research and conclusion, or are they simply churning out decontextualized knowledge that they read somewhere. And if they are qualified as medical doctor, you just have the question what that means as well.

NB

Lastly, with any view to health, the question of sustainability must come up – as there is no point in being healthy today at the cost of the destruction of your food sources tomorrow (classically lacking context again), so anything that hangs itself on a food source as devastated as fish has to be undermined by its own logic.

And finally….

Leave the bloody fish alone (there’s only about 7 of them left), and rely on linseed or chia seed instead for your oil content.