Aluminum, from the Horse's Mouth

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With the recent uptake of news about measles going around Disneyland, it's useful to take a serious look at some of the facts about vaccines.  Consider this series of statements taken from two mainstream sources, the CDC and MedScape (part of WebMD). Specifically, these are cut and paste directly from the sources. [edit: statements in brackets are editorial, and the CDC quote is practically direct; go check it out yourself]  Some of the quotes do not specifically regard vaccination but instead parenteral methods, of which vaccination is one, or general ingestion of aluminum.

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Colour Me Surprised - but just not my teeth.

Image via WikipediaActually, I'm not surprised at all. Neither are, I would imagine, any of the other opponents of fluoride being added to the water supply. It's being revealed now - after 50 years - that the government finally admits one aspect of negative fluoride effects. Fluorosis, or the discoloring and perhaps even slight pitting of teeth, is finally being admitted to.

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TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch Conference

Image via WikipediaThe TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch conference takes place Saturday, Nov 6 from 8:30am to 6pm Pacific Time. Watch as Fake Plastic Fish joins with other fantastic names in a conference about the plastic that has invaded our oceans and our lives.  See the video after the jump (and on Saturday, the 6th, or thereafter - of course).

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Milk Recall Affects Five States (but does it matter?)

Image via WikipediaAn upper-Northeastern dairy has voluntarily recalled 8,000 to 10,000 gallons of milk after it was discovered that a pasteurization machine failure. While it's very admirable that the dairy announced this massive recall in a precautionary measure, recalls like this - let alone the recalls such as the recent egg fiasco or other meat-related incidents that left people ill or dead - should be scaring people far, far away from the idea of purchasing food created in "factory" farms.

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How much do pharmaceuticals spend... to get your money?

Going to the mailbox today I found a letter - sorry, an advertisement - addressed to my mother-in-law, who currently lives with us. Knowing she wasn't going to be opening this junk mail, I was curious to see what exactly was inside. You see, it was from Walgreens and the only thing it seemed to be advertising was the flu shot. This, of course, is not really unexpected. One can find ads for the flu shot pretty much everywhere one looks at this time of year, and it's only going to get worse. I'm certain I will soon be seeing the ubiquitous, massive billboards by the local hospitals again telling us all to cover when we sneeze, wash our hands constantly, and oh, oh oh - don't forget your flu shot!

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Hungry Gamer? Buy Somethin' Will Ya?

Image by pinguino via Flickr

Having grown up with a love of video games and also having a love for Real Food, I felt a bit insulted when I came across a new snack being aimed at game players everywhere. It's called Gamer Grub and it's essentially cheap sugars and carbohydrates in a convenient but wasteful package.

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Vitaminwater: What Happens with Corporations

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Once upon a time, there was a company called "Glaceau" (it technically still exists as a subsidiary - but more on that in a moment) that created SmartWater and later came out with FruitWater, and then VitaminWater. I remember when I first saw FruitWater; it tasted good and had no calories because it had no sugar. I'm still not entirely sure, mind you, how they got the flavor and I suspect even though it was "natural" that it was actually junk but this is also not the subject of the moment. What was interesting was that this drink became popular and it had no sugar.

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Fast Food Salads? Nope, won't trust 'em.

Wendy's restaurant recently introduced four new salads to their money - perhaps you've heard of them? They're calling them "real salads" as if they're made from real food or something. Ian Froeb of Riverfront Times wrote a piece yesterday that caught my eye and points out the fact that these salads contain more calories, salt, and fat* than a KFC DoubleDown.

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McDonalds to CSPI: Buzz Off

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Guest blogger Doug Powers writes today on MicheleMalkin.com about the McDonalds CEO's response to CSPI's recent lawsuit threats. In a nutshell, McDonalds officially tells CSPI to buzz off.

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Yogurt-flavored Sugar is NOT Yogurt!

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Before coming to the realization of how bad sugar is for the body, while I was growing up when I drank tea (the plain old Lipton black) I would load it with cream and sugar, occasionally warranting the offhand remark from any spectators - usually my parents - of, "would you like a little tea with your sugar?"

Today, a co-worker of mine and I cruised the skyway around lunchtime and noticed that the Sola store is finally reopened. We didn't walk in, but we did use the circumstance to comment on the ridiculousness of it. Although it only looked like the remodeling of their store resulted in changing a straight counter to a curved one, the real craziness that is associated with the frozen yogurt industry is summed up in my friend's remark, "Didn't we do away with frozen yogurt back in 1997?"

On top of all of this, entirely coincidentally, the Health Ranger - Mike Adams - posted a new article on how frozen yogurt is not health food, and it's really worth your time. It should be rather telling when the ingredient list for frozen yogurt is hard to find. Mike did some searching and found the vanilla yogurt powder that is used to make these desserts, and it's mostly sugar.  As sad as that is, by now we should probably not be surprised.

For the sake of your health, stay away from the frozen yogurts unless you totally understand that what you are buying and eating is no healthier than artificially-created ice cream. It is possible to make frozen yogurts and ice creams that are healthy, but the odds of finding such options in a restaurant or grocery store are stacked against you.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why yes, that IS my tub of lard... (localnourishment.com)
• Marshmallow beats a container of yogurt? (kellythekitchenkop.com)
• America and Sugar Sitting in a Tree (psychiclunch.com)

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The Stats About PHARMACEUTICAL Companies

Source: Online Colleges and Universities
Created by OnlineEducation.net. Click through to see the original size.

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What's so "smart" about the TetraPak Brik?

Image by barely_legal via Flickr

Recently while discussing which kind of milk is good for you - a discussion that actually comes up a lot with me - I wandered off subject while looking for research and my thoughts came to the Tetra Brik, by TetraPak. Why I didn't see it before this, I'm not sure, but... these are essentially plastic bottles that are masquerading themselves as paper. The company specifically claims that the packaging is "consisting mainly of paper made from wood" yet inside and out, there are multiple layers of plastic and aluminum in addition to that paper.

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"Save the Whales" and Be Healthy?

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The Cove is a crucially-important documentary that will hopefully surface on your must-watch list. This is an exposé on the massive killing, nay, slaughtering of dolphins that happens on a regular basis in one small Japanese town. When considering the intelligence, compassion, and empathy shown by these creatures, it's unimaginable that people would actively hunt and kill them by the thousands, but there's a health-damaging result of hunting them as well.

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Did you take your anti-paranoia pill today? They'll know...

It feels a bit very weird to read that there is "eCare" technology in research and development. Mike Adams of Natural News brings us a frightening analysis of both the Senate's Special Committee on Aging and CNS News' article on health technology. What's interesting to me, besides the fact that it is happening, of course - you can read Mike's story for a more detailed summary - is the general reaction to this news.

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KFC Chicken Pot Pie. There are no words for this.

Image by hddod via Flickr

As a disclaimer, I apologize if this makes you lose your appetite. But then, if you were planning on going to KFC for lunch, I take that back.

Chicken Stock, Carrots, Potatoes (With Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate To Protect Color), Peas, Heavy Cream, Modified Food Starch, Contains 2% Or Less Of Wheat Flour, Salt, Chicken Fat, Dried Dairy Blend (Whey, Calcium Caseinate), Butter (Cream, Salt),

[much more after the jump]
 

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Your Money or Your Health

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It's interesting to see what pops up when you concern yourself with the food that you eat. After recent conversations about restaurants and local "health drinks" I was shown a website about a local weight loss program, Hopkins Fusion,  that sells Herbalife, the same protein powder/sports mix that City Blendz sells, and out of optimistic hope to be able to make a difference I wrote to the company to see if, at least, they knew about the unhealthy ingredients in their "health" shakes, forwarding the link to my recent article about their product. I was a bit taken aback by the response I received.

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Who Told You About Girl Scout Cookies?

Image by The Suss-Man (Mike) via Flickr

As a result of my recent post about Girl Scout cookies, a couple of conversations came up from friends and acquaintences of mine, and it occurs to me that a lot of people might have similar questions.

Dan, a guy came into our office today helping his daughter with her girl scout cookie sales so I looked at his sheet tallking about all the kinds of cookies and EVERYONE of them stated that they had 0 trans fats. So who told you they were loaded with trans fats?

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Trans Fat Ignorance

via @labnol on Flickr

It took a decade starting from 1989 before the government even agreed to make a decision about trans fats. Three four after THAT it was finally made law - but producers had a grace period of until 2006. Thus it is 2010, four years after the final deadline for manufacturers to label the amount of trans fat in products, ...and many people everywhere are still unaware of how much trans fat might be in their food.

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A Little Sludge, er Biosolids on Your Salad?

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This is a guest post by Libby from Whose Authority about a local and nationally-widespread problem that affects your health. She was recently informed from one of her neighbors that their rural area had been targeted for depositing of what's being called "biosolids" as a friendly way of masking its true nature, which is the remaining residue from sewer sludge. Libby forwarded this letter to me; it began as an email to Michele Meyer of the Red Wing city council.

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City Blendz Definition of Nutrition

City Blendz Nutrition opened a retail location in the skyway near our work. I'm not sure whether it's part of a chain or not, but if it is, it's probably a small chain because no one here as ever heard of them. I usually get excited for mom & pop -sized stores, because usually only with individual entrepreneurships will you see innovation in menu choices. None of my group could really tell whether this was going to be a coffee shop or not, because we could see syrup bottles while they were setting up shop, which usually implies coffee. However, as one could also tell by their website, www.mycityblendz.com, it's a smoothie joint. And not just any generic kind, either - one that advertises its food is good for weight loss.

Uh, oh.

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