NFA’s Guide to Health & Healing

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/09/05/755478.html

By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer

Wed Sep 5, 7:47 AM

Consumers, not just factory workers, may be in danger from fumes from buttery flavoring in microwave popcorn, according to a warning letter to federal regulators from a doctor at a leading lung research hospital.

A pulmonary specialist at Denver’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies to say doctors there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years.

“We cannot be sure that this patient’s exposure to butter flavored microwave popcorn from daily heavy preparation has caused his lung disease,” cautioned Dr. Cecile Rose. “However, we have no other plausible explanation.”

The July letter, made public Tuesday by a public health policy blog, refers to a potentially fatal disease commonly called popcorn lung that has been the subject of lawsuits by hundreds of workers at food factories exposed to chemicals used for flavoring.

In response to Rose’s finding, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association issued a statement Tuesday recommending that its members reduce “to the extent possible” the amount of diacetyl in butter flavorings they make. It noted that diacetyl is approved for use in flavors by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

One national popcorn manufacturer, Weaver Popcorn Co. of Indianapolis, said last week it would replace the butter flavoring ingredient because of consumer concern. Congress has also been debating new safety measures for workers in food processing plants exposed to diacetyl.

The FDA said in an e-mail it is evaluating Rose’s letter and “carefully considering the safety and regulatory issues it raises.”

Fred Blosser, spokesman for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said it is the first case the institute has seen of lung disease apparently linked to popcorn fumes outside the workplace.

The occupational safety arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is working on a response to the letter.

William Allstetter, spokesman for National Jewish Medical, confirmed the letter was sent by Rose, a specialist in occupational and environmental lung diseases and director of the hospital’s Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic.

“There have been no other cases that we know of other than the industrial occupational ones,” Allstetter said.

Rose acknowledged in the letter that it is difficult to confirm through one case that popping buttered microwave popcorn at home can cause lung disease.

However, she said she wanted to alert regulators of the potential public health implications.

Rose said the ailing patient, a man whom she wouldn’t identify, consumed “several bags of extra butter flavored microwave popcorn” every day for several years.

He described progressively worsening respiratory symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath. Tests found his ability to exhale was deteriorating, Rose said, although his condition seemed to stabilize after he quit using microwave popcorn.

She said her staff measured airborne levels of diacetyl in the patient’s home when he cooked the popcorn. The levels were “similar to those reported in the microwave oven exhaust area” at the quality assurance unit of the popcorn plant where the affected employees worked, she said.

David Michaels, of the George Washington University School of Public Health, who first published Rose’s letter on his blog, The Pump Handle, said the finding is another reason for federal regulators to crack down on diacetyl exposure by workers and consumers.

“This letter is a red flag, suggesting that exposure to food flavor chemicals is not just killing workers, but may also be causing disease in people exposed to food flavor chemicals in their kitchens,” Michaels wrote on his public health policy blog.

If you’re looking for enzymes, here is a good place to buy:

www.BuyEnzymes.com.

After reading Enzyme Nutrition by Dr. Edward Howell, I wanted to get some and expected them to be costly. They are very reasonable.

The Nourishing Our Families Mission Statement:

Nourishing Our Families started as a way to provide consolidated and accurate information and support for people involved in the Traditional Foods community. We are dissatisfied with the misinformation or lack of information given to young families, and particularly breastfeeding mothers, by both other non-profit organizations and the culture at large.

Our purpose is to provide accurate information for making informed decisions in all areas of lifestyle, home and health. Accurate information and informed choice is critical in decision making in order to nourish the body, mind and spirit so that your family will reach its full potential. We wish to combine the facts and theories of solid nutrition and lifestyle with encouragement and support for helping you to feed and nourish your family in the best way possible.

Our goal is to give you the tools, resources and support you need for all facets of the Traditional Foods and Natural Family Living Lifestyle. We believe that Natural Family Living is an inherent extension of a traditional diet. It is critical to the health and sustainability of our families, and the betterment of our society.

http://www.nourishingourfamilies.org/community/

HIDDEN SOURCES OF MSG
June 1, 1995

Food label descriptors that contain enough MSG to serve as common
MSG-reaction triggers

These ALWAYS contain MSG:
Glutamate Textured protein
Monosodium glutamate Hydrolyzed protein
Monopotassium glutamate (any protein that is hydrolyzed)
Glutamic acid Yeast extract
Calcium caseinate Yeast food
Sodium caseinate Autolyzed yeast
Gelatin Yeast nutrient

These very OFTEN contain MSG:
Malt extract Flavors(s) & Flavoring(s)
Malt flavoring Natural flavor(s) & flavoring(s)
Barley malt Natural pork flavoring
Bouillon Natural beef flavoring
Stock Natural chicken flavoring
Broth Seasonings (the word “seasonings”)
Carrageenan Soy sauce
Maltodextrin Soy sauce extract
Whey protein Soy protein
Whey protein isolate Soy protein isolate
Whey protein concentrate Soy protein concentrate
Pectin anything Protein fortified
anything Enzyme modified

These can be used to CREATE MSG:
Protease enzymes Protease Fungal protease Enzymes

Hidden MSG is not limited to use in food. MSG sensitive people have
reported reactions to soaps, shampoos, hair conditioners, and
cosmetics that contain hidden MSG. The most obvious common hiding places
are in ingredients called “hydrolyzed protein” and “amino acids.”
http://www.holisticmed.com/msg/msg-sources.txt

Drinks, candy, and chewing gum are also potential sources of hidden MSG.
Also, aspartic acid, found in aspartame (NutraSweet) ordinarily causes MSG
type reactions in MSG sensitive people. Aspartame is
found in some medications. Check with your pharmacist.

Binders and fillers for medications, nutrients, and supplements, both
prescription and non-prescription, including enteral feeding
materials and some fluids administered intravenously in hospitals, may
contain MSG.

Reactions to MSG are dose related, i.e., some people react to even very
small amounts of MSG while others usually only react to relatively
more. MSG-induced reactions may occur immediately after
contact or after as much as 48 hours.

There are additional ingredients that appear to cause MSG reactions in
ACUTELY sensitive people. A list is available for those interested.

Truth in Labeling Campaign (TLC) PO Box 2532 Darien, IL 60561

I had no idea making butter was this easy!

I set out raw cream for 8 hours, then food processed 2 cups of it on high speed. After a couple of minutes I could hear the noise changing tone, and after about 5 minutes, I stopped it. I put my spoon in, and dredged up pure, yellow, butter!! It was so exciting. I scooped it all into a bowl and patted out the milk. I did another 2 cups and got more! I got probably 1/2 coup of butter.

I have more cream out today and will process it tonight. I want to see how much butter I can get out of a gallon of milk.

Here are some pics:

Making your own flour is easy, and enjoyable. Best of all, fresh flour is packed with nutritional value.

I like to soak, sprout, then dehydrate mine. Soaking breaks down phylic acid, sprouting maximizes nutritional content, and dehydrating makes them dry so them can be ground into flour.

Here’s what I do:

Soak: Place 1 cup wheat berries in a quart-sized mason jar. Fill to the top with water and cover. Let soak overnight.

Sprout: In the morning, drain water, and lay jar on its side. Rinse 2-3 times a day (or more if you want). Within 2-3 days you should see sprouts 1/4″ long. You can sprinkle these right on a salad!

Dehydrate: For dehydrating, pour seeds into the liner of your food dehydrator, and place on the lowest setting overnight (or 8-10 hours). Now they are ready to be ground!

Grinding: Place desired amount of wheat berries in blender and blend on the highest setting for at least 3 minutes. If you have a grain mill, use it! It will produce finer flour.

Enjoy!

As pizza!

http://www.newstarget.com/021789.html

When it comes to health freedom, this is the FDA’s end game. A new FDA “guidance” document, published on the FDA’s website, reveals plans to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs. Massage oils and massage rocks will be classified as “medical devices” and require FDA approval. The document is called Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA is accepting public comments on the docket until April 30th. They tried to sneak this under the radar, but word got out and now the natural health community is up in arms over this rule. If you wish to protect your access to nutritional supplements, herbs, essential oils, homeopathic medicine or any other “complementary” or “alternative” modality, it is crucial that you take action to post your comments with the FDA right now and write your representatives in Washington to put a stop to this outrageous effort to destroy natural medicine. (And be sure to really write them. Just sending an email has virtually no impact compared to writing a physical letter in your own words.)

Click here for the direct link to the FDA’s comment posting page for this docket.

This move by the FDA is designed to once and for all destroy the 1994 DSHEA law that has made supplements “legal” while eliminating nutritional supplements and natural medicine from the United States, ensuring monopoly profits and control by drug companies and the FDA. It is the latest action item by the FDA / Big Pharma conspiracy that will not stop until health freedom has been abolished, drug companies rule the nation, and every citizen is diagnosied with a fictitious disease and drugged up on monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals.

FDA “experts” will decide what’s a drug or medical device
Under these proposed guidelines, FDA “experts” (the same corrupt officials who reapproved Vioxx after it killed over 50,000 Americans) will decide whether herbs, supplements, vitamins or simple devices like massage stones are to be regulated as drugs and medical devices. If the FDA experts, in their infinite wisdom, decide that these things are to be reclassified, they will essentially be outlawed, stripped from the shelves, and regulated out of existence. Anyone who dares to manufacture, promote or sell such products may be branded a criminal and rounded up by armed FDA agents who have a well established history of suppressing natural medicine.

I’ve documented much of the criminal history of the FDA in my recent book, Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them, which suddenly seems even more relevant today than when I wrote it. In that book, I documented the FDA ordered book burnings, the raids on vitamin shops, the kidnapping of natural health practitioners, the threats, intimidation and oppression tactics that have been used to suppress natural medicine for nearly a hundred years now. And now, with this CAM Products Regulation effort, the FDA is about to deal a final, fatal blow to the alternative medicine industry, outlawing nutritional supplements, functional foods, homeopathy and natural therapies all at once.

This is not a drill. It really is time to be alarmed. Nothing else I’ve written about this year is as important as this sinister plot to destroy natural medicine and force the American population to resort to dangerous prescription medications sold at monopoly prices under a system of medical tyranny.

Your access to vitamins, supplements, herbs, and even energy medicine modalities is now directly threatened, and you have until April 30 to make your voice heard.

Action items
First, read the document yourself. Click here for the PDF version.

Take special care to notice the following text, taken directly from the FDA’s own document: (italicized text is from the FDA, with my own translation following)

“…a product used in a CAM therapy or practice may be subject to regulation as a biological product, cosmetic, drug, device, or food (including food additives and dietary supplements) under the act or the PHS Act. Second, neither the act nor the PHS Act exempts CAM products from regulation.”

Translation: Anything used in any system of medicine may now be regulated as a drug or medical device by the FDA. This includes a biofeedback machine, acupuncture needles, a cup of herbal tea, massage oil, a glass of vegetable juice or even a bottle of water.

“…if a person decides to produce and sell raw vegetable juice for use in juice therapy to promote optimal health… [and] if the juice therapy is intended for use as part of a disease treatment regimen instead of for the general wellness, the vegetable juice would also be subject to regulation as a drug under the Act.”

Translation: Raw vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug and must be FDA approved as a drug if it has any health effect whatsoever. Handing a cup of raw vegetable juice to someone and telling them it’s good for the detoxification of their liver will get you arrested for practicing medicine without a license and promoting an “unapproved drug.”

…”biologically based practices” includes, but is not limited to, botanicals, animal-derived extracts, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, proteins, prebiotics and probiotics: whole diets, and “functional foods”. …a botanical product intended for use in treating a disease would generally be regulated as a drug.” …”functional foods” may be subject to FDA regulation as foods, dietary supplements, or drugs under the Act.

Translation: All foods, supplements, superfoods and functional foods may be reclassified as drugs by the FDA, then regulated off the market.

“If… the manipulative and body-based practices involve the use of equipment (such as massage devices) or the application of a product (such as a lotion, cream, or oil) to the skin or other parts of the body, those products may be subject to regulation under the Act.”

Translation: Massage oils and creams will be regulated as “drugs” and acupuncture needles as “medical devices.” Taking this absurdity one step further, massage therapists who use their fingers to touch patients may have their fingers regulated as “medical devices” and be accused of practicing medicine for merely touching patients.

Things that will be regulated out of existence
It is very clear that the FDA is intending to regulate and ultimately destroy the entire CAM industry (Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Based on the explanations in the FDA’s own document, the following things are likely to occur:

* All vitamins, nutritional supplements and functional foods will be stripped of their structure & function claims, reducing them to empty labels where virtually nothing at all is allowed to be stated.
* Vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug. Raw juice retreats will be raided or shut down.
* Growing and selling common garden herbs will get you arrested as a drug dealer.
* Massage oils and handheld massagers will be regulated as “medical devices.”
* Yoga props, pilates machines and weight machines will be regulated as “medical devices” and require FDA approval before being sold or used.
* Raw sprouts and other anti-cancer foods will be regulated as drugs.
* Bottled water that “treats” dehydration will be regulated as a drug.
* Massage therapists who use hot rocks as part of their therapy will have the ROCKS regulated as medical devices! (It’s true. The FDA will actually look at a pile of rocks and declare, “Those are medical devices!”)
* Functional foods, supplements, vitamins and homeopathic remedies will disappear from store shelves, pending FDA “review.” (The only things remaining will be processed junk foods and pharmaceuticals, which is exactly what Big Business wants.)
* Therapeutic tea products, such as green tea, will be outlawed and confiscated.
* Vitamin store owners will be arrested and prosecuted for “practicing medicine without a license.”
* Citizens owning personal inventories of “unapproved drugs” (vitamins and herbs) may have their homes raided at gunpoint and their inventories confiscated by armed law enforcement agents.
* The importation of herbs and functional foods from all countries may be banned.

Keep in mind that the FDA is the same agency that:

* Wants to label irradiated foods as “pasteurized.”
* Voted to put the deadly drug Vioxx back on the market after tens of thousands of deaths, even after its own manufacturer pulled it from pharmacies.
* Raided a church at gunpoint, confiscating biofeedback machines and charging that they were “practicing medicine” by counseling church members on issues like depression.
* Openly allows corrupt, “on the take” experts to vote on new drug approvals, even when those experts are taking money from the same companies impacted by their votes.
* Refuses to legalize stevia, the safe, natural herbal sweetener that’s used virtually everywhere else in the world. The agenda? Protect the profits of aspartame and other chemical sweeteners.
* Openly allows the mass poisoning of the public with cancer-causing food additives such as sodium nitrite.
* Refuses to enforce its own laws regarding unsafe chemical toxins in personal care products, allowing perfume and lotion companies to continue poisoning the public with cancer-causing chemicals that don’t even have to be listed on the label, nor proven safe.
* Ordered the destruction of recipe books that mentioned stevia. (A campaign to keep the public ignorant of the herb.)
* Does everything in its power to protect drug company profits, including discrediting herbs, supplements and alternative medicine.

Does anyone honestly believe that this criminal organization has any capacity whatsoever to act in the public interest? Even many Senators are fed up with the FDA’s unprecedented level of corruption and criminal behavior.

Action items, continued…
Read Jon Barron’s comments on this rule at the JonBarron.org website.

Next, lodge your complaint against the FDA by commenting on this docket through the FDA’s docket comment form.

And finally, write your Senator or Congressperson about this issue and let them know, in blatant language, that you will not stand by and allow the criminals running medicine today to take away your access to vitamins, supplements, herbs and homeopathic medicine. Write the letter in your own words, even if it’s just two sentences. Individual letters have a hundred times the impact of form letters.

Medical wasteland USA
Everything is at stake here. If the FDA gets its way, the United States will become a medical wasteland, dominated by corporate drug company interests, where the naturopaths are imprisoned and their products destroyed. Supplements and herbs will become contraband, and gardeners who grow their own medicinal herbs may be raided and arrested by DEA agents wielding assault rifles. Simply selling dried broccoli sprouts as being “good anti-cancer foods” may land you in prison, and running a vitamin shop could result in you being arrested for “practicing medicine.”

Imagine a nation where Whole Foods stores are stripped of all herbs and supplements, where vitamin shops are emptied and abandoned, where books that promote herbs are bulldozed into large piles and burned, where natural healers are rounded up and “disappeared” into incarceration centers. This is the future that will become reality if the FDA has its way. The plan has been explained to us in plain language. Any agency that openly states “vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug” has quite simply lost its marbles. We’re are now clearly being regulated by clinically insane bureaucrats.

With this desperate proposal by the FDA — clearly designed as a last-ditch effort to save the failing conventional medical industry from a massive public shift towards natural medicine — the war against health freedom has reached our shores, and the FDA is plotting a 9/11-style attack to bring down the towers of health freedom in one swift motion.

This is the same agency that currently represents the greatest threat to the health and safety of the American people, far outweighing the threat of real terrorism. This agency, we have seen, will do ANYTHING to protect the profits and power of drug companies. It will lie, steal, accept bribes, hide scientific evidence, distort statistics, commit scientific fraud, break federal laws, threaten its own drug safety scientists, conspire with drug company executives, intimidate American citizens and use terror-style tactics to achieve its goals of complete domination over foods, drugs and health.

Why do Americans tolerate terrorism in their own government?

It is time we put a stop to this home-grown tyranny. We have fought too hard for freedom in the United States to allow us all to be steamrolled by a criminal front group covertly working for Big Pharma. The FDA has declared war on natural medicine and the American people, and we will lose our family members, children, brothers and sisters as casualties of this war if we don’t stand up now and demand radical changes. It’s time to stop this terrorist organization from destroying the lives of yet more U.S. citizens.

Make your voice heard now, or forever surrender your access to supplements, herbs, superfoods and functional foods. By the time the FDA is done with this country, we’ll all be eating medication for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Action reminders:
1. Lodge a complaint with the FDA by clicking here. MAKE SURE you include the docket number 2006D-0480. But don’t trust this to be enough. The FDA will probably simply delete half the complaints it receives, so don’t trust your complaint to actually count. It’s important to continue…

2. Send a strongly-worded letter to your representatives in Washington. Be sure to cite Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. Tell them you support open access to vitamins, herbs, and supplements, and you do not want CAM to be regulated by the FDA.

3. Send this story to everyone you know. Spread the word. Raise the alarm. With enough public support, the FDA will be forced to back off this insane proposal.

And stay tuned to NewsTarget for more news, analysis and action alerts on health freedom. Even though we’re under constant attack by criminal organizations trying to disrupt our servers and take us off line, we’re still here, beating the drum for health freedom, and hoping that we have enough sane-minded Americans remaining to save this country from its government.

Actual FDA quote is gobbledygook
Here’s an actual FDA statement from the CAM Guidance report:

For example, naturopathic cranberry tablets might be labeled for use to maintain the health of the urinary tract. In this example, the cranberry tablets generally would be regulated as “dietary supplements” …if they were labeled for use to “maintain the health of the urinary tract” rather than “prevent urinary tract infections.” The cranberry tablets would be regulated as “drugs” …if they were labeled for use to “treat urinary tract infections” even if they were labeled as dietary supplements.

Additional phone numbers as listed in the FDA document
Sheryl Lard-Whiteford at 301-827-0379
Daniel Nguyen at 301-827-8971
Ted Stevens at 301-594-1184
Wayne Amchin at 301-827-6739

http://www.newstarget.com/007348.html

Lie #1: Prescription drugs will make you healthier.

Truth #1: Prescription drugs only mask symptoms. They do nothing to correct the underlying biochemical causes of disease. Simultaneously, most prescription drugs cause nutritional deficiencies which lead to further progression of chronic disease. See http://www.newstarget.com/001352.html

Lie #2: You should actively treat the swelling of sprains, strains and other injuries.

Truth #2: Swelling is your body’s natural strategy for enhancing the flow of blood and nutrients to the injured area. If drugs or hormones are used to prevent swelling, the injured tissues won’t heal correctly, greatly increasing the likelihood of repeat injuries to the same area.

Lie #3: Mammograms prevent cancer.

Truth #3: Mammograms actually cause cancer. They dose the breast tissues with harmful radiation. Even when they spot breast cancer tumors, they aren’t “preventing” breast cancer; they’re merely detecting breast cancer. True prevention requires changes in food choice and lifestyle, not the use of imaging technology. See http://www.newstarget.com/000895.html

Lie #4: Vitamins give you “expensive urine.”

Truth #4: The most expensive urine in the world is created by taking multiple overpriced prescription drugs, not vitamins. With more than 40% of the U.S. population now on prescription drugs, the drug content in human urine is now so high that trace amounts of antidepressant drugs can be found in public water supplies. Compared to drugs, vitamins are cheap prevention. Seehttp://www.newstarget.com/001891.html

Lie #5: The sun will give you cancer.

Truth #5: The sun will prevent cancer due to the creation of vitamin D by the skin. Most Americans (and Canadians and Europeans, for that matter) are deficient in vitamin D. As a result, tumor cell growth in the breast and prostate is unregulated. Sensible exposure to natural sunlight generates cancer-preventing vitamin D… at no charge! Sunburns are actually caused by nutritional deficiencies (lack of antioxidants in the skin), not by sensible exposure to sunlight. See http://www.newstarget.com/Vitamin_D.html

Lie #6: CT scans (CAT scans) are perfectly safe.

Truth #6: CT scans expose patients to 1000 times the radiation of chest X-rays. Repeated exposure to CT scans raises a patient’s cumulative radiation to levels experienced by many hydrogen bomb victims in Hiroshima. In addition, rigorous studies have concluded that CT scans offer no medical benefit whatsoever. See http://www.newstarget.com/004060.html

Lie #7: The U.S. health care system is the best in the world.

Truth #7: The health of U.S. citizens is actually the worst of any industrialized nation. We pay double, triple, and even quadruple the price for prescription drugs as any other country. We also have the highest rates of obesity, Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes, plus the highest health insurance costs in the world. The U.S. health care system (”sick care system”) is so bad that people are fleeing the country to seek medical services in Asia. It’s a trend called “medical tourism,” and it’s flourishing. See http://www.newstarget.com/007097.htmln

Lie #8: All surgical procedures have been proven safe and effective.

Truth #8: There is currently NO requirement whatsoever that surgical procedures must be either safe or effective in order to be practiced. Hundreds of thousands of medically unnecessary surgical procedures are performed each year in the U.S. alone, including hysterectomies and prostate cancer surgeries. See http://www.newstarget.com/002608.html

Lie #9: You can get all the nutrition you need from three balanced meals a day.

Truth #9: Today’s foods are nutrient depleted, and they come from depleted soils. Processed and manufactured foods would have to be eaten at the rate of 10,000 calories a day just to meet minimum RDA requirements for basic nutrition. The only way to get adequate nutrition is to supplement with superfoods or whole food concentrates (vitamins, whole food powders, supplement capsules, etc.) along with eating healthy meals. Organizations like the AHA, however, insist that nutrient supplementation is actually bad for your health. See http://www.newstarget.com/001587.html

Lie #10: All these lab tests are for your own good.

Truth #10: At least half of all diagnostic tests ordered by doctors are medically unnecessary. They’re often conducted merely to generate revenues for the hospital or medical group that owns the doctor’s clinic. Some doctors are actually required to generate a certain dollar amount of lab test revenues in order to keep their jobs.

[originally posted on NFA on 5-3-2007]

http://www.newstarget.com/021731.html

Commentary by Mike Adams, the creator of this cartoon:

Humans are the only species on the planet who actually go out of their way to feed their children crap. All other animals instinctly seek out the best nutrition they can find. Birds find grubs, worms and insects to feed their young, honeybees painstakingly collect pollen and create a nutrient-rich superfood that gives rise to a living queen bee, and even dogs, cats and cows try to find the most nutrient-rich foods to offer their offspring.

But humans? Most of them “reward” their children with junk food, sugary sodas, candy laced with petrochemical coloring additives and refined sugars that promote obesity and diabetes. Most parents don’t even make any real effort to follow nutritional discipline at home — they simply buy whatever their children saw advertised on television, caving in to the all-powerful “nag factor” that junk food companies fully exploit when marketing to children.

As a result, human children are the least healthy youngsters of any species on the planet. Baby dolphins are healthier than baby humans, for example, and they are born with healthier nervous systems, fewer toxins and a lot more common sense.

Speaking of common sense, nearly all mammals have the common sense to feed their children their own mother’s milk. A kitten, for example, will drink cat’s milk from its mother. A puppy will drink dog’s milk from its mother. A baby horse will drink horse’s milk from its mother. But humans? We’re sorta stupid. We mostly drink cow’s milk. (And the dairy industry insisted for decades it was better for infants than human milk!)

Of all the mammals on planet Earth, only humans are dumb enough to seek out the mammary gland juice of another species while shunning the breast milk of their own species. And did we choose the milk of a species SMARTER than us that might have more brain-boosting nutrients? Nope. We get our milk from a low-IQ species well suited to pulling a plow. Cow’s milk ain’t exactly brain nutrition, folks. Some people have a hard time understanding that because they’ve been drinking too much of the stuff and those mushy neurons crammed into their thick skulls are firing a bit on the slow side. (A lack of DHA does wonders for boosting stupidity scores.)

Humans, by the way, are not only so collectively short-sighted that they feed their children crap foods and beverages, they actually still haven’t figured out why so many of their children are obese and diabetic! It’s like beating yourself on the hand with a hammer and wondering why your fingers hurt. Gee, the evidence isn’t that difficult to figure out, folks. If you feed your kids sugar, white flour, toxic chemical additives, mind-altering pharmaceuticals and toxic shampoos, lotions and toothpaste, you’re gonna end up with mutant children who aren’t exactly Nobel Prize material.

This isn’t rocket science. The real mystery is how the food companies keep getting away with all the denial of the evidence linking processed foods and beverages to childrens’ health problems. I guess it helps that they influence the government regulators and practically own the mainstream media. They also buy all the prime shelf space at grocery stores, sponsor the big sporting events, and have successfully infiltrated schools and hospitals with junk food restaurants and vending machines. Heck, there’s still a McDonald’s restaurant in the Cleveland Clinic where they perform heart surgery!

If the birds and the bees have figured out how to raise healthy offspring, you’d think that humans might have the brain power to raise their own healthy children, too. And some parents are. There are lots of great parents out there raising kids on a macrobiotic diet, a vegetarian diet or a zero-processed-foods diet. Many of those parents are home schoolers, by the way. Good job to all the parents who actually teach their children healthful eating habits! Keep up the goog work!

Unfortunately, those parents are rare. Most parents just buy whatever crap is being peddled on TV these days. And they feed their kids cancer-causing processed meats, hyperactivity-causing food additives and obesity-promoting refined sugars. They load ‘em up on high-fructose corn syrup and then wonder why little Johnny weighs 150 pounds. (Must be the genes, they think. Cause daddy’s overweight, too.)

And even though some individuals and corporations may get financially rich by selling this junk to families, the bottom line is that we’re all worse off when we raise unhealthy children in society. Why? Because the future cost of treating disease — not to mention the loss of lifetime productivity — is jaw-droppingly HUGE. It’s enough to bankrupt our nation, which is, coincidentally, what seems likely to happen in due course. No democracy has ever survived its citizens losing their health.

We could learn a lot by listening to nature on the subject of nutrition. Most animals eat a raw foods, vegetarian diet. Even the birds and the bees have something important to teach us about nutrition: feed your children right, and your species will survive and thrive. But feed your children crap and your family tree becomes a dead stump in the dirt.

If you’re a parent, I urge you to make an effort to introduce your children to a diet of unprocessed, natural foods. If they’ve been on a sugared-up diet of processed foods so far, they will of course whine about it. But your job as the parent is to give your children what’s best for their health, not what they really really want because their taste buds tell them so.

Always breastfeed newborns and don’t believe the B.S. about infant formula being just as good as mother’s milk (nothing’s as good for infants as the real thing). Don’t bring sugar and soda into your house, and don’t reward kids with junk food. That only trains them to associate pleasure with unhealthful foods, and that’s a curse that could haunt them for the rest of their adult life.

Feed them right and you’ll give them the best gift any parent could hope to offer: a healthful, self-aware future, free from chemicals and disease.

[originally posted on NFA on 3-23-207]