Men Should NOT drink this... Neither should women

When it comes to Clinical Studies things can be difficult.  A GOOD study involves a large number of participants over a LONG period of time.  Two such studies are the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

The Nurses' Health Study (NHS):
The original Nurses' Health Study started in 1976 and was set up to investigate risk factors for major chronic diseases in women.

Now in it's third generation, male nurses have been included along side the female participants and there are currently 275,000 participants.

The Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS):
The purpose of this study which began in 1986, is to evaluate a series of hypotheses about men's health relating nutritional factors to the incidence of serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and other vascular diseases.  This study which only uses male participants was originally designed to compliment the NHS study.  In the beginning, 51,529 male health professionals were enlisted including dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, osteopaths, podiatrists, and veterinarians, of which 531 were African-Americans and 877 were Asian-Americans.

Both studies chose health professionals as it was believed they would be more motivated and committed to participating in a long-term project.  In both studies the participants received a survey every two years that asked about diseases and other health related topics such as physical activity, medications being taken and smoking.  Every 4 years the participants were asked detailed questions

about dietary habits.

Normally, clinical studies work backwards.  For example; a cancer trend is noticed and scientists try and work backwards in time from that point to find out why that trend has arisen.

These two long term, high participant studies have given us an insight into what happens to health over time, and is affected by different changes and fads in dietary habits.

For example; the addition of artificial sweeteners to our lives.  When something "new" is introduced it can be deemed "SAFE" for human consumption, but until a significant amount of time has passed, the truth is, scientists just don't know if it really is safe or not.

We know a lot more now about aspartame than we did 20 years ago.  Aspartame is the artificial sweetener that is every where... diet soda, chewing gum, lollipops and small packets that arrive with your coffee.  The number of people that are constantly ingesting aspartame in the hope of reducing their sugar intake is incalculable.  Diabetics, dieters or people with a sugar conscience...

Not to mention all the other times per day you add aspartame to your coffee, tea, etc...

A team of researchers analyzed data from these two studies from the last 22 years to see if aspartame had caused any changes to health.  This means a total of 2,278,369 person-year data, which found
a disturbing trend; just ONE dieta soda A DAY increases the risk of leukemia, non-hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

But this new information goes even further to segment this risk into male and female:

1 can of diet soda per day leads to:

42% higher risk of leukemia in men and women
31% higher risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma in MEN
102% higher risk of multiple myeloma in MEN

Why men?

They don't know.  The original study authors only have a theory: "We hypothesized that the sex differences we observed may have been due to the recognized higher enzymatic activity of alcohol dehydrogenase type 1 (ADH) in men, which possibly induced higher conversion rates from methanol to the carcinogenic substrate formaldehyde." (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2012 "Consumption of artificial sweetener and sugar -containing soda and risk of lymphoma and leukemia in men and women.")

So, what will you do now?  Will this help you quit your aspartame habit?

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

How money can buy what it wants and what that can mean to your health.

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on aspartame and what it can do to your health - none of it good I'm afraid, or back in April my post on the Monsanto Protection Act, not to mention my post back in March - Legal Drug Pushers.  All these posts - and this one, have two things in common:

1. My desire to give you information that will help you to improve and protect your health and that of your family and loved ones.
2. The private and political corruption which means the supermarket shelves are full of products that are KNOWINGLY harmful to our health.

Just to recap a little from my previous posts:

The Monsanto Protection Act:

What we do know about Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) is what Monsanto and only Monsanto has said - they are safe - or at least this is what they want us to believe.  GMOs have been around for 15 years and it has rapidly grown into a $billion business on the promise of eradicating world hunger and the promise that GMO crops would be resistant to blights and therefore wouldn't need as much pesticides as regular crops.

However, neither of these promises have been kept.  And now, thanks to the work of Michael Antoniou of Earth Open Source and Dr. Giles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caan in France, we have more information contrary to Monsanto's.

Seralini and Antoniou have found in their studies on GMOs that they are provoking a range of serious health problems such as; birth defects, cancer, neurological imbalances, embryonic deaths, DNA damage and fetal death.  GMOs are full of pesticides such as RoundUp that contain glyphosate and 2-4-D which is the active ingredient in Active Orange.  So, if we are what we eat, and our food is full of harmful pesticides, it isn't difficult to understand how GMOs are harmful to human health...

...So why is everyone who values good health up in arms about what has gone on recently in Washington?

The answer is very simple.  It is yet another demonstration that private sector companies with lots of money are really the ones with the power - not the government elected to serve and protect the people.

On Tuesday, 26th March 2013, President Barak Obama signed a spending bill: HR933.  Within this bill is a section - Section 735 also called the Farmers Assurance Provision; publicly labelled The Monsanto Protection Act.

Section 735 effectively stops Federal courts from being able to stop the sale or planting of genetically modified (GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, even if these seeds or products made from these GMO and GE seeds and their subsequent harvests are found to be dangerous to human health.

It is believed by many that not enough studies have been carried out on GMO and GE crops to analyze the potential health risks...

Legal Drug Pushers:

Food manufacturers are pushing drugs legally.  Salt, sugar and fat are just as dangerous to our health as other "hard drugs".  And, the western world has been hooked on these three for so long that no-one really knows when it started.

However, the side effects of these drugs are not the ones you would normally associate with "hard drugs".  Sugar - especially in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup, puts a great strain on the liver, raised levels of fat in the bloodstream and  a whole range of problems, which are all associated with cardiovascular disease.

Excessive intake of salt has been linked to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease and over-consumption of fat to obesity, diabetes and other related epidemics.

Just how dangerous are diet sodas?

...Over the years, it has been found that aspartame accounts for over 75% of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA.  Many of these adverse reactions are actually extremely serious, including seizures and even death.  A report has documented 90 different symptoms caused by aspartame, such as:

• Headaches/ migraines
• Dizziness
• Seizures
• Nausea
• Numbness
• Muscle Spasms
• Weight GAIN
• Rashes
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Tachycardia
• Insomnia
• Vision Problems
• Hearing Loss
• Heart Palpitations
• Breathing Difficulties
• Anxiety Attacks
• Slurred Speech
• Loss of Taste
• Tinnitus
• Vertigo
• Memory Loss
• Joint Pain

and the list goes on...

So in this post I want to show you just how corrupt the system is in the USA.  Here is a timeline of how ASPARTAME came to form such a huge part of our diet:

December 1965: A chemist by the name of James Schlatter working for the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle accidentally discovers aspartame while working on an ulcer drug.  Aspartame: a chemical substance 180 times sweeter than sugar but has no calories.

Spring 1967:  G.D. Searle commences safety testing on aspartame - a necessity to apply for FDA approval of food additives.

Autumn 1967:  A biochemist by the name of Dr. Harold Waisman, at the University of Wisconsin, carries out safety tests on aspartame on behalf of G.D. Searle.  He used seven monkeys who were fed milk mixed with aspartame, one monkey died and five others experienced grand mal seizures.

November 1970:  The sweetener of choice, cyclamate, at that time is pulled off the market after being associated with cancer by some scientists.  Other questions are also raised over the safety of saccharin - the only other artificial sweetener on the market.  This leaves the market wide open for aspartame to come into play.

18th December 1970:  The Searle Company executives design a "Food and Drug Sweetener Strategy" hoping to put the FDA into a positive frame of mind about aspartame.  An internal policy memorandum goes so far as to describe psychological tactics that Searle should use to bring the FDA into a "subconscious spirit of participation" on aspartame and get the FDA regulators into the "habit of saying, yes".

Spring 1971:  A very well respected Neuroscientist by the name of Dr. John Olney (whose work was responsible for having monosodium glutamate removed from baby foods), informs Searle that the results of his studies show that aspartic acid - one of the ingredients of aspartame) actually caused HOLES in the brains of infant mice.  In fact, one of Searle's own researchers confirmed Dr. Olney's findings in a similar study.

February 1973: Searle applies for FDA approval after spending tens of millions of dollars on safety trials and presents over 100 studies claiming to support the safety of aspartame.

5th March 1973:  A scientist at the FDA states that after reviewing the safety data presented by Searle that "the information provided is inadequate to permit an evaluation of the potential toxicity of aspartame", she also says that further testing is needed.

May 1974:  A consumer advocate and Attorney by the name of Jim Turner - he was highly involved in getting cyclamate taken off the market  has a meeting with representatives from Searle to discuss Dr. Olney's 1971 study which showed that aspartic acid caused HOLES in the brains of infant mice.

26th July 1974:  The FDA grants approval to aspartame for the first time for restricted use in dry foods.

August 1974:  JIm Turner and Dr. John Olney file the first objections against aspartame's approval.

24th March, 1976:  Thanks to Jim Turner and Dr. J. Olney's petition, the FDA investigates the laboratory practices of G.D. Searle - aspartame's manufacturer.  The investigation results in Searle's testing procedures being found "shoddy", full of inaccuracies and "manipulated" test data.  The investigators reported that they had "never seen anhything as bad as Searle's testing".

10th January, 1977:  For the first time in history the FDA requests a criminal investigation of a manufacturer by formally requesting the U.S. Attorney's Office to begin grand jury proceedings to investigate whether indictments should be filed against Searle for KNOWINGLY misrepresenting findings and "concealing material facts and making false statements" in aspartame safety tests.

8th March, 1977:  Searle hires Donald Rumsfeld as CEO - at that point Rumsfeld was a prominent Washington insider.  His mission was to try to turn the company around, to do this he brought in several of his Washington friends as top management.

1st July, 1977:  Samuel Skinner leaves the U.S. Attorney's Office to fill a position at Searle's law firm (remember at this stage there is an ongoing investigation by the FDA and the U.S. Attorney's Office)

1st August, 1977:  A report compiled by the FDA investigators, headed by Jerome Bressler and called The Bressler Report is released.  The report noted a whole host of discrepancies in Searle's aspartame testing studies such as 98 our of 196 animals died during one of Searle's studies, but were not autopsied until much later - in some cases over a year after death.  There were also many other errors and inconsistencies such as a rat reported alive, then dead, then alive, then dead again; a mass, a uterine polyp, and ovarian neoplasms were found in animals, however, these findings were not reported or diagnosed in Searle's reports.

8th December, 1977:  U.S. Attorney Skinner's withdrawal and resignation stalls the Searle grand jury investigation for so long that the statute of limitations on the aspartame charges expires.  The grand jury investigation is stopped.

1st June, 1979:  The FDA establishes a Public Board of Inquiry to govern safety issues surrounding NutraSweet.

30th September 1980:  The Public Board of Inquiry resolves that NutraSweet should NOT be approved pending further investigations of brain tumors in animals.  The board states; "it has not been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive."

January 1981:  During a sales meeting at Searle, then CEO Donald Rumsfeld states that he is going to do everything he can to get aspartame approved within the year, using his political pull in Washington rather than scientific proof of safety to make sure it is approved.

21st January, 1981:  Ronald Reagan is sworn in as President of the United States of America.  A member of his transition team is Donald Rumsfeld - CEO of G.D. Searle.  That transition team picks Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. to be the new FDA Commissioner.

March 1981:  The FDA creates a commissioner's panel to review issues raised by the Public Board of Inquiry.

19th March, 1981:  Three our of six FDA scientists, after reviewing the brain tumor issues, advise against approval of NutraSweet, stating on the record that the Searle tests are unreliable and not adequate to determine the safety of aspartame.  These scientists were Dr. Robert Condon, Dr. Satya Dubey and Dr. Douglas Park.

15th July 1981:  Dr. Arthur Hayes Jr., the new FDA Commissioner, in one of his first official acts, overrules the Public Board of Inquiry, ignores the recommendations of the FDA scientists and APPROVES NutraSweet for dry products.  Hayes says that aspartame has been shown to be safe for its proposed uses and says few compounds have withstood such detailed testing and repeated close scrutiny.

15th October, 1982:  The FDA announces that Searle has filed a petition that aspartame be approved as a sweetener in carbonated drinks and other liquids.

1st July, 1983:  The National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) asks the FDA to delay approval of aspartame for carbonated drinks pending further testing as aspartame is highly unstable in liquid form.  When liquid aspartame is stored at temperatures above 85ºF/ 29ºC, it breaks down into DKP and Formaldehyde, both known toxins.

8th July, 1983:  The NSDA drafts an objection to the final ruling which permits the use of aspartame in carbonated drinks and syrup bases and requests a hearing on the objections.  The NSDA claims that Searle has not provided reasonable certainty that aspartame and its degradation products are safe for use in soft drinks.

8th August, 1983:  Consumer Attorney, Jim Turner of the Community Nutrition Institute and Dr. Woodrow Monte, Arizona State University's Director of Food Science and Nutritional Laboratories, file a suit with the FDA objecting against aspartame approval based on unresolved safety issues.

September 1983:  Dr. Hayes resigns as FDA commissioner due to controversy about him taking unauthorized rides on General Food's jet - General Foods is a major customer of NutraSweet.  Burson-Marsteller - Searle's PR company which also represented several of NutraSweet's major users, immediately hires Dr. Hayes as senior scientific consultant.

Autumn 1983:  The first carbonated drinks containing aspartame are sold for public consumption.

And that is how aspartame became a part of our lives... ignoring science and by the power of political pull and lobbying.

Source: Real Farmacy

Social Nutrition:
You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

Just how dangerous are Diet Sodas?

Lots of us, and I mean lots - including me, drink diet sodas on a daily basis.  They are something that have been marketed as a way to help you in your quest to lose weight, maintain your healthy weight or as something diabetics can enjoy or a way to avoid the vast amount of sugar found in regular sodas.

But the truth about diet sodas is far uglier than companies such as Coca Cola or Pepsi Co would want us to know.  Aspartame, the chemical that gives diet soda and other goods their sweet taste, is also called NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure.  It was originally discovered by James Schlatter, a chemist at G.D. Searle Company who was testing an anti-ulcer drug but discovered aspartame instead.  It was first approved for use in dry goods in 1974, but Dr. John W. Olney, a neuroscience researcher and a consumer attorney James Turner filed objections in August 1974 and subsequent investigations of G.D. Searle's research practices caused the FDA to postpone approval of aspartame in December 1974.  However, it was finally approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated drinks in 1983.  Then in 1985 Monsanto bought G.D. Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries.

Over the years, it has been found that aspartame accounts for over 75% of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA.  Many of these adverse reactions are actually extremely serious, including seizures and even death.  A report has documented 90 different symptoms caused by aspartame, such as:

• Headaches/ migraines
• Dizziness
• Seizures
• Nausea
• Numbness
• Muscle Spasms
• Weight GAIN
• Rashes
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Tachycardia
• Insomnia
• Vision Problems
• Hearing Loss
• Heart Palpitations
• Breathing Difficulties
• Anxiety Attacks
• Slurred Speech
• Loss of Taste
• Tinnitus
• Vertigo
• Memory Loss
• Joint Pain

But, unfortunately, that's not all.  Researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, say that certain chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by taking aspartame, these are:

• Brain Tumors
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Epilepsy
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Parkinson's Disease
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Mental Retardation
• Lymphoma
• Birth Defects
• Fibromyalgia
• DIABETES
• Systemic Lupus

Why is aspartame so dangerous?

When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 27ºC, the wood alcohol en aspartame converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis.  Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants.  The methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus.

Systemic Lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers.  The victim usually does not know that the aspartame is the culprit.  He or she continues to drink it, irritating the lupus to such a degree that it may become a life-threatening condition.  In the case of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, most of the symptoms disappear and many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly.

The good news is that symptoms from aspartame poisoning including: spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplained depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision or memory loss are reversible.

All you have to do is eliminate diet sodas and other forms of aspartame from your diet.  Diet soda is not a diet product. Diet sodas are a chemically altered, multiple sodium (salt) and aspartame containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates.  It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight than lose it.

These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs, formaldehyde is a toxin and is used primarily to preserve tissue specimens.

Aspartic acid and phenylalanine are neurotoxic when take without the other amino acids necessary for a good balance.  Especially diabetics, the aspartame passes the blood/brain barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain; causing various levels of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic depression, panic attacks, uncontrollable anger and rage.  Aspartame consumption causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics as well.  Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turnarounds in their behavior when these chemicals have been removed from their diet.  Children are especially susceptible to neurological disorders and should never be given artificial sweeteners.

A lot of the problem, as always, is political.  Monsanto funds, among others, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians.  This was recently exposed in the New York Times.  These organizations can not criticize any additives or convey their link to Monsanto because they take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their products.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require warnings on labels of

products containing aspartame, especially regarding pregnant women, children and infants.  The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the general population regarding seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and behavioral symptoms.  The bill was "killed".  It is known that powerful drug and chemical lobbies are responsible for this - as always. 

As I have stated in many of my posts, the only way to truly look after your body is to eat as naturally as possible and to avoid all processed and chemically enhanced food products.  I admit, I have been an avid Diet Coke drinker for years, in fact it made up a large part of my daily beverage intake.  But, since reading up on the dangers of aspartame I have eliminated it from my life - for good.

Having information like this means that you can make an informed decision as to what goes into your body, and knowing the effects those product might have on your health.  There is no greater power than information.

Social Nutrition:
You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

The Monsanto Protection Act

Political lobbying in favor of private companies is, sadly, nothing new.  The tobacco industry did it, the sugar trade industry still does it, so does the fast food industry, so why should Monsanto be any different?

Let's face it, has America seems to have learnt nothing from the previous lessons.

It has been scientifically proven over the years that smoking causes cancer, sugar causes diabetes, obesity and heart disease, the fast food industry is contributing to the vast rise in child obesity as well as causing obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

What we do know about Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) is what Monsanto and only Monsanto has said - they are safe - or at least this is what they want us to believe.  GMOs have been around for 15 years and it has rapidly grown into a $billion business on the promise of eradicating world hunger and the promise that GMO crops would be resistant to blights and therefore wouldn't need as much pesticides as regular crops.

However, neither of these promises have been kept.  And now, thanks to the work of Michael Antoniou of Earth Open Source and Dr. Giles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caan in France, we have more information contrary to Monsanto's.

Seralini and Antoniou have found in their studies on GMOs that they are provoking a range of serious health problems such as; birth defects, cancer, neurological imbalances, embryonic deaths, DNA damage and fetal death.  GMOs are full of pesticides such as RoundUp that contain glyphosate and 2-4-D which is the active ingrediente in Active Orange.  So, if we are what we eat, and our food is full of harmful pesticides, it isn't difficult to understand how GMOs are harmful to human health.

Of course the other problem is that by law, manufacturers do not have to specify on the labels on their products if GMO ingredients are used.  And, it isn't just the USA that has this problem.  The only countries in the world that have said NO to GMOs and have banned Monsanto are:

Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Portugal,

Spain, UK... and the list is growing everyday, as it should.

So why is everyone who values good health up in arms about what has gone on recently in Washington?

The answer is very simple.  It is yet another demonstration that private sector companies with lots of money are really the ones with the power - not the government elected to serve and protect the people.

On Tuesday, 26th March 2013, President Barak Obama signed a spending bill: HR933.  Within this bill is a section - Section 735 also called the Farmers Assurance Provision; publicly labelled The Monsanto Protection Act.

Section 735 effectively stops Federal courts from being able to stop the sale or planting of genetically modified (GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, even if these seeds or products made from these GMO and GE seeds and their subsequent harvests are found to be dangerous to human health.

It is believed by many that not enough studies have been carried out on GMO and GE crops to analyze the potential health risks.

Monsanto apparently helped with the wording of the provision.  This type of cooperation between lawmakers and private companies to mold legislation is nothing new either.  Senator Ray Blunt, Republican of Missouri, worked with Monsanto on a provision that actually allows them to keep selling their GMO and GE seeds which could then go on to be planted even if the crops are found to be harmful to consumers, and could have dire health risks for the general public in the USA and other countries where GMOs and GEs are not prohibited.

The HR933 bill was actually a spending bill to avoid government shut down and to ensure that the federal government will continue to pay its bills.  However, the Center for Food Safety believes that many of the Democrats in Congress did not know that the Provision was included in the bil:

"In this hidden back room deal, Senator Barbara Mikulski turned her back on consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for Food Safety.

It seems the deceit was intentional, using the gay marriage upheaval as a cover - all media attention was focused on the hearing of the oral argument for California's Proposition 8 in the Supreme Court, the signing of the HR933 went almost unnoticed until it was already signed, sealed and delivered.

The "good" news is that this bill will only be in effect for the next 6 months, during this time the government must find another way to fund its operations.  However, the message received by the private sector is that once you have Congress on your side you can basically do what ever you want and ride roughshod over the consumer safety protections.

The main GMO products to avoid are: Corn, Soy, Cotton (oil), Rice, Sugar, Aspartame, Papayas, Canola, Dairy, Zucchini and Yellow Squash.  You can check out the whys here: Top 10 GMO foods to avoid

If you are also looking for a list of GMO free foods you can go here: GMO Free Food Brands

Also, even though many of the countries stated above to have banned GMOs still sell products by Nestlé, Kellogg's, Unilever, Procter and Gamble all of who sell products that have been found to contain GMOs by GreenPeace in the Spanish Market, and you can bet that if they are in their products in the Spanish Market they will also be in the same products in other markets.

The worst thing of all, is that we the consumers have no power of information about which products contain GMOs as stating them on the label is not mandatory.  In 2007 President Obama on the campaign trail, promised Iowa farmers and the rest of the country that if elected he'd label GMO foods.  This has not happened, and in the light of The Monsanto Protection Act it seems very unlikely that this will happen. President Obama even appointed an ex Monsanto executive, Michael R. Taylor to the FDA in 2009 thus assuring a close relationship between Monsanto and the Government.

Social Nutrition:
You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com