Jamie Oliver, a chef from England who was known as The Naked Chef, is on a mission to eradicate obesity. While he has already spread the word in his native land, he is now in the USA, the motherboard for fat, hoping to really get the revolution started. He says in this video  that if America can make big changes, he believes the rest of the world will follow. I am encouraged to see the strides he is making in this country by holding talks, and now a show about working with a small town in West Virginia, known as the unhealthiest town in the country, to get them into shape.

While I consider Jamie’s work commendable, and I support him all the way, I wish he would explain that obesity is just one of the symptoms of the poor health this country is in due to an atrocious diet and sedentary lifestyle. Being fat is just the body’s natural reaction to an unnatural situation. It is not natural to eat all the artificial foodstuff that we eat in this country. And it is also not natural for humans to sit at desks all day and then in front of computers and tv’s all night. We need to truly explain how much our civilization has changed over the past century to better understand how to attack this problem.

Getting fat is only the tip of the iceberg. We can see fat and therefore make the connection that eating too much and moving too little have played a role in this. But what many people don’t see or make the connection with, is that this lifestyle of fast food and less activity also contributes to many other health problems like heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, depression, ADHD, asthma, allergies and autoimmune diseases. This lifestyle is killing us, all of us.

Like Jamie, I think education is one of the keys to getting this obesity epidemic turned around. We need to teach people about real food and the harmful ingredients they are consuming everyday unwittingly. We need to force our food manufacturers to provide the truth on their labels. We need to encourage more sustainable farming practices and encourage people to support these efforts by shopping locally to get more fresh food for their families. We need to require our schools to provide more natural, whole foods for our children, and to educate them about how to make healthier choices. And we need our government to stand up to many big businesses and demand they improve their standards, or face big consequences.

This is not to say we should police what people eat and do. It is more about our society changing their attitude about food and sustainability. It is also about greed and lying. We have been coerced into buying fake food for a long time. With very powerful artificial ingredients that cause cravings, and offering this junk at such low prices, the food industry has known for a long time how to get us hooked on their products. And we are hooked. Our metabolism has been damaged by these man-made ingredients, and our brains are now wired to need more.

So my hat is off to you Jamie Oliver. You have a long road ahead of you, but many of us will be there for the long haul. We are tired of feeling and looking like crap. We are tired of our kids having ADHD and being drugged into submission. We are tired of dealing with allergies and asthma, and not doing well in school, and getting lazier by the minute. And we are exhausted from the pain and suffering we feel from losing too many loved ones to this modern killing machine. It’s time for a food fight, a food revelation- a food revolution!

You mean the world may not be flat after all? This invention is not only significant for physicians and scientists to help diagnose and better treat neurological disorders, but it is yet another reminder to medical professionals that we still do not have sensitive enough diagnostic tools to detect all diseases.

So many doctors still profess that many health problems people have are just not “real” or in a patient’s head. This reaction is due to the fact that many times when patients complain of symptoms, doctors don’t “see” anything wrong. For a long time, we weren’t able to see diabetes, or MS, or cancer for that matter. And until we invented tools like x-rays and MRI’s, these diseases were said to be in people’s heads too.

Being able to measure and “see” neurotransmitter activity is still being develop, and this missing piece may provide some very needed information for the medical community to better understand so many diseases that have been accused of being all in someone’s head. I personally believe that anyone who complains of health problems, actually has a health problem. Whether or not we can “see” it is simply a matter of having the right technology. All diseases are real, and most doctors would do well to study medical history a little to see that we have accused people of being crazy about health problems since the beginning of time, simply because the healers simply could not figure them out. Any doctor who claims a health problem is all in someone’s head is as ignorant to me as the people who jailed Galileo for suggesting that the world was round.

This is a brief but very informative article about how we can actually reverse the damage to the body from BPA (plastic ingredient). Scientists at Duke have shown that ingesting spinach (or high levels of folate, found in many dark greens should be as beneficial) and soy (best in the natural form of fermented soy like miso, tempeh and tofu) can actually move BPA out of the body.

BPA has been implicated as a strong endocrine disruptor. Essentially BPA has an estrogenic effect on the body and can cause many hormonal imbalance problems (think PMS, bad periods, infertility, menopause problems, and reproductive cancers). And it is in a lot of things that we come in contact with everyday, all day.

Scientists at Duke also found that the affects of BPA could be seen in several generations of mice initially exposed to it. But once they ingested high levels of folate (spinach) and genistein (soy), they were able to reverse the damage from the BPA. This is hopeful news.

So how does soy and spinach have this reversing affect on BPA? Well soy has an estrogenic affect on the body. It can literally wedge its way into estrogen receptors in our cells. But it appears to do this gently and more naturally than artificial estrogens (xenoestrogens) like BPA (and pesticides, etc). And spinach and other foods high in folate help the body’s detoxification system so that the body can better metabolize these estrogens and convert them into safer metabolites.

With this discovery in mind, it would follow that many other foods that have natural estrogenic affects and boost our detoxification systems could be helpful in getting BPA out of our bodies. A few to mention here are; red clover, black cohosh, seaweeds, kale, and many dark greens. I am sure we will find a lot more natural plants that can help us detox and rid our bodies of BPA, as well as many other toxic chemicals we are all exposed to everyday. Now, if we could just get the manufacturers of the world to slow down the production of these poisons and concentrate their efforts on finding safe, healthier alternatives. With studies like this, we are heading in the right direction.

I have had IBS for years. It started during college and then worsened after the birth of my first child at the age of 26.  Now many people, expecially the “experts” would look at the events surrounding when my IBS began and worsened and attribute it to stress. But stress really only exacerbated the problem, it didn’t cause it. The main reason my IBS is better now is that I avoid very specific food chemicals that cause it to flare up. The main chemicals to avoid are MSG, and aspartame (or any artificial sweetener). But all artificial food chemicals contribute to IBS.

The reason these chemicals trigger IBS is that most of them are very concentrated forms of excitatory amino acids. And for people who get IBS (most of which also get migraines) their bodies are not able to metabolize excitatory amino acids very well. Why can’t some of us metabolize certain amino acids? Well that is where lots of theories come into play.

I believe that many metabolic defects occur as a result of our bodies being over burdened with new chemicals to process, and over time the enzymes needed to break down these chemicals get depleted , resulting in metabolic disorders. So, by avoiding the chemicals that deplete these enzymes, over time we can build up that system and metabolize better. Unfortunately, most of us don’t realize this and by the time we make these changes, irreparable damage may be done.

I had IBS for years before I made dietary changes, and I was able to improve my IBS attacks. I still get flares occasionally (mostly during hormonal ups and downs- another trigger). But if you remove most artificial chemicals from your diet, you will find much relief from IBS, as well as many other problems that ail you. Also, try adding digestive enzymes and probiotics, and you should be IBS-free in no time.

This writer raises the bigger and more important question about our healthcare problems- what’s making us sick in the first place. He discusses the seldom discussed role of the over 80,000 new, man-made chemicals that have been poured into us and the earth over the past 50 years. Uh, this may be a long shot, but just maybe they are hurting us in someway…?

Finally, the science and medical communities are admitting that more drugs and surgery may not be the best answer to our epidemics of cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, autism, and autoimmune diseases. That maybe we need to consider why we are all getting so sick and fat so much more now, and in such a relatively short timespan. And if we can identify what factors are contributing to these diseases maybe we can limit our exposure or avoid them and prevent many diseases from occurring in the first place. Unfortunately this is a daunting task. These chemicals are literally everywhere and in everything.

But now that the science is starting to reveal the dangers of these toxins, such as BPA in plastics, and many, many other chemicals, we at least know where to begin.  And it seems like a very fitting time for this revelation. This month, many world leaders are convening in Copenhagen to discuss the possible solutions to global warming (and pollution in general). And it is no coincidence that the health of our planet is in the same poor state that its inhabitants are.

Hopefully, our government will take notice and look into more innovative ways to clean up our earth, which should improve our overall health in the process. We will all have to change our lifestyles to accommodate these changes, but the payoff will be well worth it.

This is about a very recent study showing that annual mammograms increases breast cancer in high-risk women. This study showed that the younger a woman is when exposed to the radiation from mammograms, the more it increases the risk of actually getting breast cancer. This adds to the latest recommendation for women to not have mammograms before age 50.

So ladies, if you have a family history of breast cancer, the safest screening tool is thermography. If no history, and no symptoms (which unfortunately there may not be any), then skip the annual mammograms at least until age 50. And if possible, try thermograms instead. There is a blood test being studied which will hopefully be available in the next few years.

This article discusses the role of a gene variant that affects how our bodies activate vitamin D. They found that some people are missing a specific enzyme that is needed to activate vitamin D. I think this is what we will find is happening with the whole vitamin D deficiency epidemic. Most of us do get enough vitamin D, but we are deficient in an enzyme that activates the vitamin. The bigger question is why are so many of us deficient in this enzyme if it is necessary. Either many of us don’t need as much vitamin D (think people from the northern hemisphere) as recent studies indicate. Or something is depleting or blocking this enzyme (think diet and artificial chemicals). This is where more study is needed. I have been wondering for a long time how could we all be so deficient in vitamin D, as the studies are suggesting. It seemed too broad to say that all people need the same amount of vitamin D to be healthy. I am sure there is much more to the vitamin D story than we know at this point. For now, however, I am supplementing with 2,000 iu’s vitamin D3 until we know better.

This article explains that the death toll related to H1N1 has been increased from 1,200 to 4,000. Another headline that falsely alarms us. Read the article in its entirety and you will find out that the number of deaths has not actually gone up, but that the CDC decided to lump deaths from pneumonia into this number based on the assumption that many pneumonia deaths may be caused by the flu. There was no test done to be certain these people ever had the flu. Of course, they may have had the flu,  or may not , no one will ever know.

I think the main reason so many of us are scared of this new virus is that it seems to be affecting more younger people. Supposedly young, “healthy” children are dying from it. But according to Dr. Gabe Kelen of Johns Hopkins, most of the younger people dying from this flu had underlying health problems and are dying from staph infections.  Which raises another question: could over- use of antibiotics be playing a role in the deaths from H1N1? Another point that the CDC refuses to address.

So why would the CDC do this? This is just speculation, but maybe they feel a little embarrassed because they estimated that 35,000- 40,000 people could die from the H1N1 “pandemic”. So to save face, they upped the figure. I am not saying the CDC wants more people to die from the flu- of course they don’t. But they are a little worried about losing more credibility. And they should be. It is hard today to trust any of the health groups because we know there is so much corruption in this system. Too much money is invested in our country being sick.

I worry about my family catching the flu. But I have a hard time listening to groups like the CDC scare us into getting a vaccine that I know darn well many of the people in the CDC have a monetary interest in. There is too much evidence indicating that they are exaggerating the dangers of the H1N1 flu. The numbers keep getting manipulated with no real explanation. They are avoiding the studies that show that vaccinated people are not much more protected from the flu than those who are not vaccinated, and they turn their heads on the countless people who have experienced very negative side effects from the vaccine. And they never offer more natural advice that has a ton of studies behind it like taking vitamin D3 and probiotics (both pretty inexpensive ways to protect against the flu).

So for now, I will continue to do preventive things like eat healthy, take some supplements like D3, multi-minerals and probiotics, and hope these will be enough to protect me and my family.

Good blog Bill … please keep questioning and pointing out the closed-minded stupidity of most of our organized systems today. I am a new fan.

As an unorthodox nutritionist (I just believe in eating “real” food, in normal portions, and exercising moderately), and an ex health insurance company employee, I know first-hand how the “system” hates heretics or dissenters, especially when it comes to common sense arguments.

Anytime we point to a flaw or unanswered question in the “system” we are accused of saying it is a conspiracy, which is supposed to discredit the naysayer and discourage any questions.

What’s interesting is that most conspiracies don’t start out as conspiracies. The vaccine debacle is a good example of a good intention gone wrong due to greed and indoctrination. The concept of injecting a virus into our bodies at a very low level in order to create an indelible imprint on our immune systems so that we will not actually get the full blown virus has merit. But unfortunately doing this too often, or for minor conditions and adding artificial, dangerous chemicals to the mix really changes the original intention.

People are always so amazed when I tell them what chemicals are added to many vaccines. They can’t believe our government and medical community would “poison” us on purpose. And I agree. They wouldn’t do it on purpose, but they would be reluctant to check it out more closely if it meant losing profit. But what is happening is that drug companies are charging scientists with the tasks of finding “cheap” ways of preserving and fortifying the vaccines. And for the most part, these adjuvants (added chemicals) are safe for many people in these small doses. However, what they aren’t looking into is which people will not be able to tolerate these chemicals due to variances in drug metabolism abilities, what these chemicals will do to us when combined with other chemicals, and what will all these vaccines do to our immune systems when given so many at once, and throughout our lives.

Of course the people who don’t want to confront these questions are the ones who have a lot at stake, mostly money. So what started as a good idea, most definitely can turn into a conspiracy. I personally will side with the studies and practitioners who have no monetary motivation behind their message; the people who are warning us of the possible dangers with vaccines and that are calling for further research, in other words, the heretics. And, I will boost my own natural defenses by taking Vitamin D3, probiotics, maybe some Vitamin C, eat a healthy diet (this needs more explanation than I want to provide now), and get some physical activity and sun. Strange how we never hear the medical community put out ads with this advice, even though there are heaps of studies supporting it. But there is no big money in this strategy.

Please keep pressing for more common sense and the truth.