Why Genetically Modified Crops Can Devastate Health

1. GM crops fail to deliver promised benefits.

The consistent finding from independent research and on-farm surveys since 1999 is that GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits of significantly increasing yields or reducing herbicide and pesticide use. GM crops have cost the United States an estimated $12 billion in farm subsidies, lost sales and product recalls due to transgenic contamination. Massive failures in Bt cotton of up to 100% were reported in India.

Biotech corporations have suffered rapid decline since 2000, and investment advisors forecast no future for the agricultural sector. Meanwhile worldwide resistance to GM has reached a climax in 2002 when Zambia refused GM maize in food aid despite the threat of famine.

2. GM crops create escalating problems on the farm.

The instability of transgenic lines has plagued the industry from the beginning, and this may be responsible for a string of major crop failures. A review in 1994 stated, “While there are some examples of plants which show stable expression of a transgene these may prove to be the exceptions to the rule. In an informal survey of over 30 companies involved in the commercialization of transgenic crop plants … almost all of the respondents indicated that they had observed some level of transgene inaction. Many respondents indicated that most cases of transgene inactivation never reach the literature.”

Triple herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape volunteers that have combined transgenic and non-transgenic traits are now widespread in Canada. Similar multiple herbicide-tolerant volunteers and weeds have emerged in the United States. In the United States, glyphosate-tolerant weeds are plaguing GM cotton and soya fields, and atrazine, one of the most toxic herbicides, has had to be used with glufosinate-tolerant GM maize.

Bt biopesticide traits are simultaneously threatening to create superweeds and Bt- resistant pests.

3. Extensive transgenic contamination is unavoidable.

Extensive transgenic contamination has occurred in maize landraces growing in remote regions in Mexico despite an official moratorium that has been in place since 1998. High levels of contamination have since been found in Canada. In a test of 33 certified seed stocks, 32 were found contaminated.

New research shows that transgenic pollen, wind-blown and deposited elsewhere, or fallen directly to the ground, is a major source of transgenic contamination. Contamination is generally acknowledged to be unavoidable, hence there can be no co-existence of transgenic and non-transgenic crops.

4. GM crops are not safe.

Contrary to the claims of proponents, GM crops have not been proven safe. The regulatory framework was fatally flawed from the start. It was based on an anti-precautionary approach designed to expedite product approval at the expense of safety considerations. The principle of ‘substantial equivalence’, on which risk assessment is based, is intended to be vague and ill- defined, thereby giving companies complete license in claiming transgenic products ‘substantially equivalent’ to non-transgenic products, and hence ‘safe.’

5. GM food raises serious safety concerns.

There have been very few credible studies on GM food safety. Nevertheless, the available findings already give cause for concern. In the still only systematic investigation on GM food ever carried out in the world, ‘growth factor-like’ effects were found in the stomach and small intestine of young rats that were not fully accounted for by the transgene product, and were hence attributable to the transgenic process or the transgenic construct, and may hence be general to all GM food. There have been at least two other, more limited, studies that also raised serious safety concerns.

6. Dangerous gene products are incorporated into crops.

Bt proteins, incorporated into 25% of all transgenic crops worldwide, have been found harmful to a range of non-target insects. Some of them are also potent immunogens and allergens. A team of scientists have cautioned against releasing Bt crops for human use.

Food crops are increasingly used to produce pharmaceuticals and drugs, including cytokines known to suppress the immune system, induce sickness and central nervous system toxicity; interferon alpha, reported to cause dementia, neurotoxicity and mood and cognitive side effects; vaccines; and viral sequences such as the ‘spike’ protein gene of the pig coronavirus, in the same family as the SARS virus linked to the current epidemic. The glycoprotein gene gp120 of the AIDS virus HIV-1, incorporated into GM maize as a ‘cheap, edible oral vaccine’, serves as yet another biological time-bomb, as it can interfere with the immune system and recombine with viruses and bacteria to generate new and unpredictable pathogens.

7.Terminator crops spread male sterility.

Crops engineered with ‘suicide’ genes for male sterility have been promoted as a means of ‘containing’, i.e. preventing, the spread of transgenes. In reality, the hybrid crops sold to farmers spread both male sterile suicide genes as well herbicide tolerance genes via pollen.

8. Broad-spectrum herbicides are highly toxic to humans and other species.

Glufosinate ammonium and glyphosate are used with the herbicide-tolerant transgenic crops that currently account for 75% of all transgenic crops worldwide. Both are systemic metabolic poisons expected to have a wide range of harmful effects, and these have been confirmed.

Glufosinate ammonium is linked to neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal and hematological toxicities, and birth defects in humans and mammals. It is toxic to butterflies and a number of beneficial insects, also to the larvae of clams and oysters, Daphnia and some freshwater fish, especially the rainbow trout. It inhibits beneficial soil bacteria and fungi, especially those that fix nitrogen.

Glyphosate is the most frequent cause of complaints and poisoning in the UK. Disturbances of many body functions have been reported after exposures at normal use levels.

Glyphosate exposure nearly doubled the risk of late spontaneous abortion, and children born to users of glyphosate had elevated neurobehavioral defects. Glyphosate caused retarded development of the foetal skeleton in laboratory rats. Glyphosate inhibits the synthesis of steroids, and is genotoxic in mammals, fish and frogs. Field dose exposure of earthworms caused at least 50 percent mortality and significant intestinal damage among surviving worms. Roundup caused cell division dysfunction that may be linked to human cancers.

The known effects of both glufosinate and glyphosate are sufficiently serious for all further uses of the herbicides to be halted.

9. Genetic engineering creates super-viruses.

By far the most insidious dangers of genetic engineering are inherent to the process itself, which greatly enhances the scope and

probability of horizontal gene transfer and recombination, the main route to creating viruses and bacteria that cause disease epidemics. This was highlighted in 2001 by the ‘accidental’ creation of a killer mouse virus in the course of an apparently innocent genetic engineering experiment.

Newer techniques, such as DNA shuffling are allowing geneticists to create in a matter of minutes in the laboratory millions of recombinant viruses that have never existed in billions of years of evolution. Disease-causing viruses and bacteria and their genetic material are the predominant materials and tools for genetic engineering, as much as for the intentional creation of bio-weapons.

10. Transgenic DNA in food is taken up by bacteria in the human gut.

There is already experimental evidence that transgenic DNA from plants has been taken up by bacteria in the soil and in the gut of human volunteers. Antibiotic resistance marker genes can spread from transgenic food to pathogenic bacteria, making infections very difficult to treat.

11. Transgenic DNA may trigger cancer.

Transgenic DNA is known to survive digestion in the gut and to jump into the genome of mammalian cells, raising the possibility for triggering cancer. The possibility cannot be excluded that feeding GM products such as maize to animals also carries risks, not just for the animals but also for human beings consuming the animal products.

12. CaMV 35S promoter increases horizontal gene transfer.

Evidence suggests that transgenic constructs with the CaMV 35S promoter might be especially unstable and prone to horizontal gene transfer and recombination, with all the attendant hazards: gene mutations due to random insertion, cancer, reactivation of dormant viruses and generation of new viruses. This promoter is present in most GM crops being grown commercially today.

13. A history of misrepresentation and suppression of scientific evidence

There has been a history of misrepresentation and suppression of scientific evidence, especially on horizontal gene transfer. Key experiments failed to be performed, or were performed badly and then misrepresented. Many experiments were not followed up, including investigations on whether the CaMV 35S promoter is responsible for the ‘growth-factor-like’ effects observed in young rats fed GM potatoes.

In conclusion, GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits and are posing escalating problems on the farm. Transgenic contamination is now widely acknowledged to be unavoidable, and hence there can be no co-existence of GM and non-GM agriculture. Most important of all, GM crops have not been proven safe. On the contrary, sufficient evidence has emerged to raise serious safety concerns, that if ignored could result in irreversible damage to health and the environment. GM crops should be firmly rejected now.

How do You Know . . .

If Your Food is Genetically Modified?

by Dr. Joseph Mercola with Rachael Droege

When polled only about one-quarter of Americans report having eaten genetically modified food. However, if you randomly pick an item off your grocery store’s shelves, you have a 70% chance of picking a food with genetically modified (GM) ingredients. This is because at least 7 out of every 10 items have been genetically modified.

If more Americans were aware of this fact, the polls would certainly turn out differently, but Americans are kept largely in the dark about GM products, and most are not aware they are eating these foods because there are no labeling requirements for GM foods.

This, despite the fact that there have been no studies done with humans to show what happens when genetically modified foods are consumed, and an ABC News poll found that 92% of Americans want mandatory labels on GM foods.

Even more concerning is the fast that genetically modified organisms are not easily contained. The Washington Post reported “techniques for confining genetically engineered . . . organisms are still in their infancy, and far more work needs to be done to make sure the new products do not taint the food supply or wipe out important species.”

As a consumer, one way you can voice your resistance to these widely untested, experimental organisms is by not purchasing GM products, a task that is not easy to achieve when you consider the extent to which GM products have already saturated the American market.

There are, however, several ways to reduce your chances of eating GM foods — if you know where to look.

Buy Organic

Buying organic is currently the best way to ensure that your food has not been genetically modified. By definition, food that is certified organic must be:

• Free from all GM organisms
• Produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers
• From an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs

However, GM crops are becoming more and more prevalent, and the spread of GM seeds and pollen is a major concern. Even organic products may be contaminated with traces of GM elements that have been spread by wind or insects such as bees.

Read Labels

GM soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically engineered crops. When looking at a product label, if any of the following ingredients are listed there’s a good chance it has come from GM corn or soy (unless it’s listed as organic):

Corn Derivatives (Food ingredients which may contain GM corn)

Soy Derivatives (Food ingredients which may contain GM soy)

As you can see, there are many products that may contain GM soy or corn derivatives (or GM vegetable oil). Some of these products include:

Other Products (Food ingredients which may contain GM ingredients)

Non-food items include cosmetics, soaps, detergents, shampoo and bubble bath.

Aside from corn and soy, other GM foods grown in the United States include cotton, canola, squash and papaya.

Look at Produce Stickers

Those little stickers on fruit and vegetables contain different PLU codes depending on whether the fruit was conventionally grown, organically grown or genetically engineered. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers, organically grown fruit five numbers prefaced by the number 9, and GM fruit five numbers prefaced by the number 8.

For example:

• Conventionally grown PLU: 1022
• Organically grown PLU: 91022
• Genetically modified PLU: 81022

In terms of fruit, another strategy is to avoid hybrid varieties, which are fruits that have been altered by humans. Typically hybrid fruits contain more sugar than regular varieties so they taste sweeter and can be picked out because they don’t contain seeds (seedless watermelon, seedless grapes, etc.).

Avoid Processed Foods

About 70% of all processed foods contain genetically modified ingredients, and the food manufacturers themselves often don’t know for sure whether their products contain GM elements.

There are many reasons why processed foods are not optimal for your health — for instance they often contain trans fat, acrylamide and little nutritional value — so avoiding them will not only help you to cut back on the amount of GM foods you are consuming, but will also boost your health.

What is Trans Fat?

Trans fatty acids are also known as trans fat or hydrogenated oil. Trans fat is an artery-clogging fat that is formed when vegetable oils are artificially hardened into solid fat. This form of fat does not occur in nature and is sometimes called “plastic fat”. Trans fat is associated with initiating poor health and degenerative diseases, including cancer. In fact, Dr. Johanna Budwig, a famous German biochemist and leading European authority on fats and nutrition, proved that trans fat help to initiate cancer. Trans fat does not belong in the human body if good health is desired.

What is Acrylamide?

Acrylamide is a white, odorless but potentially cancer-causing chemical, which has been found in many common foods such as potato chips, French fries, bread, rice and cereals. The chemical is a byproduct of cooking food at high temperatures. In 2002, Swedish researchers discovered acrylamide formation in highly heated food. Now, the FDA and many other countries have confirmed significant levels of acrylamide in many foods as a result of baking or frying – and most likely from grilling and roasting food.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website says: “EPA has classified acrylamide as a Group B2, probable human carcinogen,” and according to the U.K. independent Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC), “. . . exposure to DNA-damaging carcinogens such as acrylamide should be as low as reasonably practicable.” Acrylamide has also been shown to cause cancer and neurotoxic effects in animal studies, and damage to the nervous system in humans who were exposed to the chemical at work.

Five “Health Foods” to Avoid

This morning, if you ate what you considered to be a healthy breakfast such as wheat toast, orange juice, eggs cooked in vegetable oil and a glass of store-bought milk, you’ve just eaten 4 of the following 5 so-called “health” foods that should definitely be avoided. With so many new health claims in the news, you may be confused about what truly is healthy, not to mention the old, traditional claims that are just plain wrong but are so engrained in our society that they’re hard to change.

The following 5 foods are widely known as generally “healthy” foods, but as you’ll soon read, you are much better off without them.

Wheat Bread

Since 1990, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines have recommended that Americans eat 6 to 11 servings of bread and other grain foods every day, and many consumers dutifully purchase wheat bread as opposed to white bread because they believe it is more nutritious. The American Academy of Pediatrics even says that “whole-wheat bread offers a nutritional advantage over white bread.”

However, wheat bread should not be considered a healthy or even necessary part of the diet. Commercial wheat is often contaminated with mycotoxins and mercury fumigants, and is usually highly heated (baked at 350 to 400 deg. F., temperatures far above boiling – the maximum, body-friendly temperature). Most wheat products have not been soaked overnight before processing to eliminate their naturally occurring enzyme inhibitors, which can stress your digestion and deplete your enzyme reserves.

Negative Effects of Wheat

Due to all these factors, most wheat products, no matter what form you find, such as refined white wheat, wheat, whole wheat, cracked wheat, sprouted wheat, etc., they are all capable of causing these following problems:

• Celiac disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Miscarriages
• Headaches
• Infertility
• Developmental delay in children
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Intolerance to highly heated wheat products is far more common than most doctors typically recognize.

Although many health experts preach about the benefits of whole grains, wheat and nearly all other grain products have been highly heated which triggers the formation of toxic compounds. When consumed, these trigger a complex immune response in the body, spending the body’s immune supply of leucocytes (i.e. white blood cells). These toxic wheat compounds accelerate aging by forming free radicals and toxic end-chain glycation products that also tax the body’s eliminatory organs (liver, kidney), setting the stage for chronic illness and later, advanced diseases such as cancer. The best strategy is to limit or avoid highly heated wheat products altogether.

Caution for Kapha Types

If your metabolism is predominantly oriented as a “Kapha”, an Ayuvedic constitutional type (about one-third of all people), then highly heated grains can also dramatically help promote overweight, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. However, no matter what constitutional type, if you indulge in eating highly heated grains, you may be heading for any number of diseases. Avoiding most commercial wheat products may almost certainly mean an increased level of health for you.

Commercial Wheat Bread vs. Organic, Sprouted Wheat Bread

However, truly organically grown wheat (which has not been stored in carbon dioxide-gassed containers or fumigated with mercury fumigants at a later time — often the case even with organic wheat) can be a wonderful, healthy food. It can be sprouted (soaked overnight to eliminate its enzyme inhibitors) and then ground into a liquid paste with water and used to make “flat bread” when heated on a skillet (takes only a minute or two to cook each pancake-like bread). You can use virgin coconut oil as an excellent cooking oil (it has a high smoke point and does not turn rancid at normal cooking temperatures). This delicious bread is heart-healthy and can be a great bread staple for the whole family. Flat breads have been used for centuries in many cultures.

Although it takes time to make homemade flat bread, do not be tempted to buy so-called sprouted bread. This type of bread is often made with wheat which has been contaminated (mold, mercury fumigants, pesticides, etc. – even if labeled organic) and has been highly heated (i.e. heated over boiling temperature – 212 deg. F.) to make the bread. Sprouted bread sources are usually best avoided.

Wheat vs. Wheat Grass

Do not confuse highly heated wheat grain products with organic wheat grass. Well grown, organic, non-fumigated wheat grass (which is not a grain, but a sprout – in the category of a vegetable) which has been low-temperature, air-dried has exceptional health benefits due to its content of a wide range of natural vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more. Please note: literally no American-grown wheat grass or wheat grass juices test free of pesticides. Therefore, we recommend only South American-grown wheat grass as your best source.

Vegetable Oil

Polyunsaturated oils, which include vegetable oils like corn, soy, safflower and canola, are the worst oils you can eat, as generally Americans’ intake of Omega-6 fat from these vegetable oils is far too high.

The Ideal 1:1 Omega Ratio

Experts looking at the dietary ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids suggest that in early human history, the ratio was about 1:1. Currently, most Americans eat a dietary ratio that falls between 20:1 and 50:1. The optimal ratio is most likely closer to the original ratio of 1:1. For most of us, this means we need to greatly reduce the Omega-6 fatty acids (as found in polyunsaturated oils) and increase the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids we consume.

Further, polyunsaturated oils are the worst oils to cook with because they tend to become easily oxidized (rancid) when exposed to heat from cooking. This results in the formation of trans fat, acrylamides, damaging free radicals and a host of other carcinogens.

Virgin Coconut Oil: The Oil of Choice

Unfortunately, the truly healthy oil, unprocessed, virgin coconut oil, is regarded as the ‘dangerous’ oil while vegetables oils are regarded as healthy — when it is really the other way around. Ironically, most sources of coconut oil in the U.S. have been hydrogenated, thus making most coconut oil sources an unhealthy choice. The only coconut oil that is recommended for consumption is the one still in its original, pristine state — extra virgin, unprocessed coconut oil from India (grown in lush soil near the sea).

Soy

In recent years, soy has emerged as a ‘near perfect’ food, with supporters claiming it can provide an ideal source of protein, lower cholesterol, protect against cancer and heart disease, reduce menopause symptoms, and prevent osteoporosis, among other things.

The Confusion of Whole Soy vs. Fermented Soy

However, the research has confused the effects of whole soy vs. naturally fermented soy. For centuries in many traditional cultures, naturally fermented soy products such as tofu, miso and tempeh, have been a mainstay in the food supply and have benefited the populations with increased health and longevity due to their immune-boosting probiotic levels (promoting digestive and intestinal health) and their highly bioavailable phytonutrients such as fermented isoflavones, proven protectors against chronic diseases such as cancer. Whole soy (which has not been fermented) simply does not have these beneficial effects – nor did the ancient cultures consume whole soy in an unfermented form.

Hormone-Balancing Effects of Fermented Isoflavones

Fermented soy (the only desirable form of soy) contains highly bioavailable isoflavones and phytoestrogens that can support healthy estrogen levels. Fermented isoflavones promote healthy menstrual cycles as well as provide dramatically beneficial support during and after menopause, often eliminating the need for synthetic estrogens.

Negative Effects of Unfermented Soy

Numerous studies have found that consumption of whole soy (unfermented)

is associated with many health problems, including:

• Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants
• Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women
• Promote kidney stones
• Weaken the immune system
• Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies

Unfermented soy products, such as soy drinks, soy ice cream and other soy products readily available in health food stores are best avoided. Unfermented whole soy is particularly problematic for infants, and soy infant formulas should be avoided. It is very difficult to digest, causes colic (intestinal gas) as well as other health dysfunctions.

Pasteurized Dairy

Despite the widespread notion that milk is healthy, drinking pasteurized milk (as sold in most grocery stores) is frequently associated with a worsening of health.

Raw Milk and Cream

On the other hand, raw milk (unpasteurized) can be a wonderful health food, especially when made into homemade keifer. Raw cream (not pasteurized) is also an excellent, healthy food, eaten as is or when combined with raw milk to make kiefer. However, beware of your source of raw milk or raw cream. Raw dairy products from unhealthy cows or if left out of refrigeration for long periods of time, can grow unwanted pathogenic organisms which can then infect the consumer.

For all three constitution types (according to Ayurveda), homemade keifer can be an excellent, healthy source of protein, fat and probiotics. However, if you have a Kapha constitution (one of the 3 Ayurvedic constitutions), you may need smaller amounts of keifer to avoid weight gain. If you are a Pitta type, drinking small amounts of raw cream (with its high fat content and rich source of immune-promoting compounds) regularly can be an excellent, health-balancing food. Pasteurized milk or cream does not have these benefits and is best avoided.

Toxic Effects of Pasteurization

The pasteurization process creates many problems in milk. As Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation states:

“Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.

Calves fed pasteurized milk die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally, but pasteurized milk turns putrid and processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk.”

Unfortunately, raw milk is not commercially available. You will need to seek out a local dairy farmer in your area as a supplier. Sally Fallon has compiled a website that provides further information about this important food source, including where you can purchase raw milk.

Orange Juice (and All Fruit Juice)

Fruit juice has about 8 full teaspoons of sugar per 8-ounce glass. This sugar is a fruit sugar called fructose, which in concentrated quantities, can cause a major increase in insulin levels in the body. If consumed on a regular basis, this may contribute to insulin resistance and overweight.

Further, many commercial orange juices are contaminated with mold from damaged fruit when they are processed. Secondly, most commercial oranges are heavily sprayed with pesticides. When oranges are processed, they are squeezed with the rind still on the orange (where the pesticide sprays are), so the juice may contain high pesticide residues. If you drink commercial orange juice regularly, you will be exposed to these mold toxins and pesticide residues. In addition, some commercial orange juices add refined sugar to their products, often not listed on the label. Refined sugar consumption contributes to insulin resistance, immune system impairment, overweight as well as most chronic diseases.

Eat Fruit in its Whole Form

This doesn’t mean that you must avoid fruit, just fruit juice. When the fruit is intact and whole, its fiber moderates the release of fructose into the bloodstream, thus moderating insulin release. A temporary compromise might be to obtain organic fruit, such as oranges, squeeze it to liberate its juice, then dilute it 50/50 with purified water or sparkling water. This helps to slow down the release of insulin when consumed.

Blended Fruit Drinks

If consuming fruit in its whole form is too boring for you, a wonderfully delicious and super healthy way to have a liquid whole fruit drink is to obtain a TurboBlend, a type of heavy-duty kitchen blender. This device will liquefy a whole fruit or combination of fruits within seconds to yield a thick, flavor-rich smoothie with all its fiber intact.

However, if you are overweight, have high blood pressure or high blood sugar, it may be wise to avoid eating most fruits (especially fruit juice) until you have these problems under control. If you do not know your body type, you can complete a Tridosha questionnaire to determine your body type.

Raw Food — One of Your Keys to Outstanding Health

A kitchen is nothing else than a chemical laboratory producing millions of completely new chemical substances that basically never existed in the wild and if, then very occasionally by accident. Cooking will randomly produce millions of different sugar and protein combinations commonly called Maillard molecules.

Throughout the biggest part of our evolutionary history, the one before processing, human beings have never ingested the amount of Maillard molecules we ingest today. The recent introduction of dairy products and grains has equally brought new chemical substances such as new proteins into the dietary spectrum of humans within a very short period of time.

Key Points Regarding the Effects of Cooking on Food and Health

• The food’s life force is greatly depleted or destroyed when it is cooked. The bioelectrical energy field is altered and greatly depleted, as is graphically demonstrated with kirlian photography. Live and bioactive raw food is severely diminished.

• The biochemical structure and nutrient makeup of the food is altered from its original state when cooked. Molecules in the food are deranged, degraded, and broken down. The food is degenerated in many ways. Fiber in plant foods is broken down into a soft, passive substance that loses its broom-like and magnetic cleansing quality in the intestines.

• With cooking, nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are depleted, destroyed, and altered. The degree of depletion, destruction, and alteration is simply a matter of temperature, cooking method, and time.

• Up to 50% of the protein is coagulated with cooking. Much of this is rendered unusable. High temperatures also create cross-links in protein. Cross-linked proteins are implicated in many problems in the body, as well as being a factor in the acceleration of the aging process.

• The interrelationship of nutrients is altered from its natural synergistic makeup. For example, with meat, relatively more vitamin B-6 than methionine is destroyed, which fosters atherogenic free radical-initiating homocysteine accumulation that is a factor in heart problems.

• The water content of the food is decreased. The natural structure of the water is also changed to something far less than optimal.

• Toxic substances and cooked “byproducts” are created. The higher the cooking temperature, the more toxins that are created. Frying and grilling are especially toxin-generating. Various carcinogenic and mutagenic substances and many free radicals are generated in cooked fats and proteins in particular.

• Heat causes the molecules involved to collide, and repeated collision causes divalent bonding in order for new molecules, and hence a new substance, to form. They have even been named “new chemical composites”.

• With cooking, unusable waste material is created, which has a cumulative congesting and clogging effect on your body and is a burden to the natural eliminative processes of your body.

• All of the enzymes present in raw foods are destroyed at temperatures as low as 118 degrees Fahrenheit. These enzymes, named “food enzymes” are important for optimum digestion. They naturally aid in digestion and become active as soon as eating commences. Cooking destroys 100% of these enzymes.

• Eating enzyme-dead food places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks them, which eventually exhausts these organs. The digestion of cooked food uses valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion of cooked food is much more energetically demanding than the digestion of raw food. In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes through the digestive tract in a half to a third of the time it takes for cooked food.

• After eating a cooked meal, there is a rush of white blood cells towards the digestive tract, leaving the rest of the body less protected by the immune system. From the point of view of the immune system, the body is being invaded by a foreign (toxic) substance when cooked food is eaten.

• Putrefactive bacteria, particularly from cooked meat, dominate the natural population of beneficial intestinal flora resulting in dysfunction in your intestine, allowing the absorption of toxins from the bowel. This phenomenon is variously called dysbiosis, or intestinal toxemia.

• A buildup of mucoid plaque is created in the intestines. Mucoid plaque is a thick tar-like substance that is the long-term result of undigested, uneliminated cooked food putrefying in the intestines. Cooked starches and fats in particular are a major culprit in constipation and clogging of the intestines.

• Cooked foods cause a build-up of toxins and waste material in many parts of the body, including within individual cells. Some of these toxins and wastes are called lipofuscin, which accumulates in the skin and nervous system, including the brain. It can be observed as “liver spots” or “age spots.”

• Cooked foods cause malnutrition at the cellular level. Because cooked foods are lower in nutrients, in addition to containing wastes and toxins, individual cells don’t receive enough of the nutrients they need.

• Cooked foods cause a tendency towards obesity through overeating. Because the cells don’t get enough nutrients, they are “always hungry” and hence, “demand” more food. Cooked food is also less likely to be properly metabolized, which is another factor in excess weight gain.

• From time to time, the body experiences detoxification crises also called purification or healing crises. This happens when toxins are released through the skin or dumped in your bloodstream for elimination by the liver, kidneys, and other organs. The symptoms may include headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, colds, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and diarrhea.

• The immune system, having to handle the massive daily invasions of toxins and toxic by-products, eventually becomes overwhelmed and weakened. A key factor in the aging process.

• The wastes, toxins, mutagens, and carcinogens that build up within cells, as well as the daily onslaught of excess free radicals eventually cause some cells to become cancerous – killing an estimated 30% of Americans.

• In general, the natural aging process is accelerated by cooked food. People who switch to raw food often become biologically and visibly younger.

• After eating a cooked meal, there is a general increase in the white blood cells in the blood and a change in the relative proportions of different blood cells occurs. This phenomenon is called “digestive leukocytosis”.

Leukocytosis and Cooked Food

In 1930, research was conducted at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the direction of Dr. Paul Kouchakoff. The effect of food (cooked/processed vs. raw/natural) on the immune system was tested and documented.

Dr. Kouchakoff’s discovery concerned the leukocytes, the white blood cells. It was found that after a person eats cooked food, his/her blood responds immediately by increasing the number of white blood cells. This is a well-known phenomena called “digestive leukocytosis”, which means that there is a rise in the number of leukocytes, or white blood cells, after eating.

Since digestive leukocytosis was always observed after eating, it was considered to be a normal physiological response to eating. No one knew why the number of white cells would rise after eating, since this appeared to be a stress response, as if the body was reacting to something harmful, such as infection, trauma, or exposure to toxic chemicals.

Back in 1930, Swiss researchers of the institute of Chemical Chemistry studied the influence of food on human blood and made a remarkable discovery. They found that eating unaltered, raw food or food heated at low temperatures did not cause a reaction in the blood. In addition, if a food had been heated beyond a certain temperature (unique to each food), or if the food was processed (refined, added chemicals, etc.), this always caused a rise in the number of white cells in the blood.

The researchers renamed this reaction “pathological leukocytosis“, since the body was reacting to highly altered food. They tested many different kinds of foods and found that if the foods were not overheated or refined, they caused no reaction. The body saw them as “friendly foods”. However, these same foods, if heated at too high a temperature, caused a negative reaction in the blood, a reaction that is found only when the body is invaded by a dangerous pathogen or trauma.

The Worst Offenders

The worst offenders of all, whether heated or not, were processed foods that had been refined (such as white flour or white rice), or homogenized (a process in which the fat in milk is subjected to artificial suspension), or pasteurized (also seen in milk, flash-heated to high temperatures to kill bacteria), or preserved (chemicals added to food to retard spoilage or to enhance taste or texture). In other words, foods that were changed from their original, natural state.

Good examples of these harmful foods are: pasteurized milk, chocolate, margarine, sugar, candy, white flour, and regular salt. The researchers found that if these altered, chemical foods were chewed very thoroughly, the harm to the blood could be lessened.

In addition, another amazing finding was that if some of the same food in its raw state was eaten with the cooked counterpart, the pathological reaction in the blood was minimized. However, avoid unnatural, processed foods; replace them with delicious whole foods for optimal health.

Comment: Do not try to switch to an all-raw food diet too fast. Most people can begin with eating 50% of their food uncooked, especially fresh fruit in the morning and including a fresh vegetable salad with lunch.

Reference:

Kouchakoff, Paul, M.D.; “The Influence of Cooking Food on the Blood Formula of Man”; First International Congress of Microbiology; Paris, 1930.

BEHOLD! The Power of Cheese !

By Robert Cohen, author of MILK – The Deadly Poison, (201-871-5871), http://www.notmilk.com

The American Dairy Association has a new marketing campaign that may one day replace their successful milk mustache campaign. The Dairy Education Board welcomes the opportunity to reveal the secret powers of concentrated milk.

How Much Cheese Do Americans Eat?

In 1970, the dairy industry produced 2.2 billion pounds of cheese. The population of the United States was 203 million, which translates to 10.8 pounds of cheese per person. By 1990, America’s population had grown to 248 million, but Americans were eating more cheese, 6 billion pounds worth! That’s an average of 24 pounds per person. In 1994, according to the USDA, the average American consumed 27.7 pounds of cheese. America’s rate of cheese consumption is skyrocketing. As we approach the new millennium, America’s per-capita cheese consumption will break the 30-pound per person level.

OUR NEW CAMPAIGN : BEHOLD THE POWER OF PUS

Constipated by Camembert? Sickened by Swiss? Phlegmed by port wine cheddar?

You do not have to consult Inspector Gadget or Lieutenant Columbo to solve the mystery of cheese. By the time you add up the clues in this column, you’ll solve a major crime and be knighted and made an honorary member of Scotland Yard.

GOT PUS?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows 750 million pus cells in every liter of milk (about two pounds). In Europe, regulators allow 400 million pus cells per liter. France and Italy are known for their magnificent cheeses. Perhaps that’s their secret: Less pus!

Since it takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese, a pound of cheese can contain up to 7.5 billion pus cells. If your American cheese is sliced so that there are 16 slices to a pound, that single slice of American or Swiss can contain over 468 million pus cells.

Got Provolone? Got pus!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF GLUE

Eighty percent of milk protein consists of casein, a tenacious glue. Casein is the glue that is used to hold a label to a bottle of beer. Try to scrape off one of those labels, then consider the effects of casein in your body. Casein is the glue that holds together wood in furniture. Behold the power of glue and behold the power of horrible bowel movements.

Casein is a foreign protein and your body reacts to its presence by creating an antibody. That antibody-antigen reaction creates histamines. Anti-histamines (like Benadryl) are used to counter the effects of histamines. Mucus and phlegm are produced as a result of cheese consumption.

Mucus congests internal body organs. Mucus creates phlegm. The average American lives his or her life with a gallon of mucus clogging the kidney, spleen, pancreas, tracheal-bronchial tree, lungs, thymus, etc. Imagine not eating cheese or any other dairy product for just six days. An internal fog will lift from your body as the mucus leaves. Eat just one slice of pizza on day seven, and 12 to 15 hours later, the mucus will return.

Got Gorgonzola? Got glue!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF PHONY STUDIES

In the name of science, the dairy industry sponsors studies in which people drink milk. These laboratory subjects then answer surveys about what the insides of their mouths feel like. Biased dairy scientists then conclude that milk and dairy products cause no mucus

BEHOLD THE POWER OF AUTOPSY

Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo) had undigested cheese in her stomach 15 hours after eating pizza. Her internal organs were acutely congested with mucus and her neck revealed finger marks from where she tried to choke herself, gasping for breath. Behold the power of a killer.

Got Mozzarella? Got mucus! Got mortuaries?

BEHOLD THE POWER OF HORMONES

Every sip of milk has 59 different powerful hormones. Which ones do you want your little girls to take? Estrogen, progesterone or prolactin? In her lifetime, as a little girl becomes a big girl, then a mature woman, she will produce the total equivalent of one tablespoon of estrogen. Hormones work on a nano-molecular lever, which means that it takes a billionth of a gram to produce a powerful biological effect.

The average American now consumes nearly 30 pounds of cheese each year. That product contains concentrated hormones. One pound of cheese can contain 10 times the amount of hormones as one pound of milk. Nursing cows were never supposed to pass on cheese to their calves. They were, however, designed to pass on hormones, lactoferrins, and immunoglobulins in liquid milk to their infants.

Got Romano? Got raging hormones!

See http://www.notmilk.com/deb/072698.html on hormones.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF ANTIBIOTICS

Got American cheese? Got antibiotics? Consumers Union and the Wall Street Journal tested milk samples in the New York metropolitan area and found the presence of 52 different antibiotics. Eat ice cream, yogurt, and cheese toppings, and you’re also consuming antibiotics. Cows are fed chicken feces as supplemental protein. The droppings are baked and sanitized but the heat process does not destroy the hormones in chicken feed.

Got Parmesan? Got penicillin!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF BACTERIA

In February of 1999, the Land of Lakes Company recalled nearly 400,000 cases of cheese products from supermarkets in every one of America’s 50 states. Cheese makes a remarkable culture medium for bacteria, which stay alive for up to six months. This year’s recall was due to listeria. Eat listeria and it can take up to 45 days for you to get sick. Would you make the connection? Cheeses can also contain mycobacterium paratuberculosis which causes diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome: 40 million Americans are so affected.

Got Colby? Got colds! Got Danish cheese? Got diarrhea! Got Brie? Got bad bowels!

Making Better Choices When Eating Out

Fresh Foods. When choosing a restaurant, ask if they prepare most of their food from scratch (as opposed to using pre-made foods). Using whole fresh ingredients made from scratch has greater food value and helps to avoid the many food chemicals and preservatives found in canned or boxed pre-made foods. Avoid restaurants that sell irradiated food. Irradiation of food produces carcinogenic chemical byproducts.

Food Oils. Ask your waiter what kinds of oils are used in the food. Avoid eating food which contains margarine (as found in mayonnaise, cream sauces, imitation butter pats), canola oil (often found in “health foods” such as bakery items and soups, often used as a cheap but toxic substitute for olive oil) and hydro-genated oils (found in fried foods, white bread, buns, pizza crust, white noodles, etc.) Eating hydrogenated oil is linked to brain degeneration, memory problems, accelerated aging and cancer. (Hydrogenated oil is illegal in Europe – but common in the US diet.) The best oils to use are organic olive oil, organic sesame oil, organic, nonhydrogenated coconut oil and real butter or Indian ghee (clarified butter).

Commercial Meat. Commercial red meat (steaks, hamburgers, etc.) is best avoided in restaurants since commercially produced meat is saturated with artificial hormones (which interferes with the normal hormone balance of both men and women) and is extremely high in pesticides, antibiotics and toxic chemical residues. In addition, commercial beef is mostly grain-fed (instead of grass-fed) which is high in the wrong kind of fat with imbalanced omega ratios and promotes weight gain.

Best Food Choices

Drinks. Do not drink the water served at the table. (Tap water contains hundreds of known toxic chemicals.) Instead, order purified water, either plain or sparkling. Good choices: Perrier, Sole, San Pelligreno. Avoid commercial milk (high in pesticide/chemical residues, pus levels, promotes weight gain). Avoid coffee.

Salad. Order your salad without dressing (commercial dressings are literally guaranteed to contain toxic oils and food chemicals). Ask for olive oil and lemon on the side. Drizzle these over your salad for a delicious, non-toxic tangy dressing. Avoid ice berg lettuce. Avoid croutons or crunchies on top of the salad (these typically contain refined white flour, bad oils and toxic chemical flavorings).

Soup. Soup served in restaurants is usually a poor choice since it usually contains tap water and is often made from pre-made soup mixes. Even restaurants that advertise “homemade” soup often use a vegetable or meat stock that is pre-made (usually full of food chemicals such as MSG, toxic preservatives and hydrogenated oil.)

Breads and buns. Avoid eating bread or buns served with the meal. They are typically made of refined white flour with added synthetic iron, a known free radical inducer (which encourages poor bowel elimination, weight gain, fatigue, increased neurodegeneration). If the item is a sandwich made with white bread or a bun, you can eat the insides and leave the bread. If you do choose to eat bread or buns, request real butter, not margarine. Strictly avoid mayonnaise.

Main Dishes

Creamy Sauces. Avoid main dishes with creamy sauces, since these sauces typically contain bad oils (such as margarine, canola or hydrogenated oils) and are mostly high in food chemicals (MSG, toxic preservatives, etc.) Also avoid food condiments such as ketchup and other sauces (usually full of MSG, artificial flavors).

Pasta and Noodles. Avoid pasta or noodles (such as lasagna) since they are nothing but refined white flour (which encourages sluggish bowels, insulin resistance, weight gain, accelerated aging, increased infection). Fried Food. Avoid eating fried foods (such as fried chicken, French fries, etc.) Eating fried foods stresses the liver and stagnates bile, eventually leading to the formation of gallstones, impaired vision, stiff joints, etc.

Good Choices for Starches. A good starch is baked potatoes or rice (even though most rice is usually refined, at least it will not contain all the synthetic chemicals as found in white bread and buns). Ask your waiter if whole brown rice is available.

Good Choices for Main Dishes: Fresh-baked fish, vegetable and grain dishes. Main dishes with animal protein (meat, poultry or fish) are best eaten at the lunch meal, not at the evening meal. Strive to avoid eating animal protein at the evening meal. Instead, enjoy delicious vegetable-based main dishes. (Eating animal protein in the evening does not allow enough time to properly digest the protein before sleep. Thus, for most people, this encourages weight gain, poor sleep and waking up tired.)

Desserts. Desserts are best avoided in most restaurants. Most desserts will contain white sugar (a known toxic substance and immune suppressor) as well as many toxic food chemicals. In addition, eating sugar after consuming meat and starch is guaranteed to cause intestinal stagnation and gas. Instead, enjoy preparing a simple but delicious dessert using whey protein as the base of a smoothie drink.

Highly Heated Food or Microwaved Food.

Ask if a microwave oven will be used to prepare your food. If so, request that your food be oven-baked instead (even though it will take longer). Avoid eating any food that has been highly heated (i.e. heated over 250 degrees F). Research now proves that highly heated food or food heated in a microwave oven contains unique, carcinogenic (cancer-causing), unusually toxic food chemicals.

Nutritional Protection

Digestive Enzymes. After every meal that contains cooked food, be sure to take plant-based enzymes to assist your digestion and to lessen the digestive stress of eating cooked food.

Protect Your Brain. After every meal eaten in a restaurant, take a brain nutritional formula to help protect your brain and nervous system from toxic oils and hidden food chemicals as well as to deliver superior quality brain and body nutrients.