FYI

Fluoride Exposure May Contribute to Early Puberty
Up until the 1990s, no research had ever been conducted to determine the impact of fluoride on the pineal gland — a small gland located between the two hemispheres of the brain that regulates the production of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate the onset of puberty and helps protect the body from cell damage caused by free radicals.

It is now known — thanks to the meticulous research of Dr. Jennifer Luke from the University of Surrey in England — that the pineal gland is the primary target of fluoride accumulation within your body.

After finding that the pineal gland is a major target for fluoride accumulation in humans, Dr. Luke conducted animal experiments to determine if the accumulated fluoride could impact the functioning of the gland — particularly the gland’s regulation of melatonin.

Luke found that animals treated with fluoride had lower levels of circulating melatonin, as reflected by reduced levels of melatonin metabolites in the animals’ urine. This reduced level of circulating melatonin was accompanied — as might be expected — by an earlier onset of puberty in the fluoride-treated female animals.

Food & Economics

 

  Good Food for a Healthy America
  Today and Tomorrow!

 

 

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New Ag Secretary

TRUE FOOD NETWORK
http://truefoodnow.org/
Tom Vilsack a Disappointing Choice for Secretary of Agriculture
Posted on December 17, 2008 by Heather

President-elect Obama announced his choice for Secretary of Agriculture this morning. We had high hopes that Obama would choose a Secretary who would bring real change to the beleaguered agency. There were some fantastic contenders – the National Farmer’s Union Executive Director Tom Buis; Dr. John Boyd, founder of the National Black Farmers Association and civil rights leader; Minnesota Secretary of State and former Executive Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Mark Ritchie; Rodale Institute CEO Tim LaSalle; Jim Riddle, Coordinator for Organic Outreach at the University of Minnesota, and former chair of the National Organic Standards Board; Kathleen Merrigan, Ph.D., Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts University; and former North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture Sarah Vogel, among others. Unfortunately, the President-elect didn’t choose any of them.
 
Obama picked Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. For those of us who have serious health and environmental concerns about genetically engineered crops, and industrial agriculture in general, it would be difficult to pick someone with a worse track record. Vilsack has catapulted Iowa into the questionable arena of genetically engineered crop production, and was even named “Governor of the Year” by the Biotechnology Industry Organization for his “support of the industry’s economic growth.”  Under Governor Vilsack, The Iowa Department of Economic Development’s Iowa Values Fund Board approved a $9 million incentive package for private cloning company Trans Ova Genetics that, among other things, was allotted to fund the development of a new animal cloning laboratory and animal technology center. He was supportive of planting GE pharmaceutical corn in 2002, and supported (some say instigated) a bill in 2005 that pre-empted cities and counties from regulating GE crops more strictly than the state or federal government. Vilsack is far from the visionary we had hoped for.
 
There are several articles floating around today expressing deep disappointment in Obama’s choice, and Grist Magazine and the Nation have two of the best we’ve seen.
 
We hope that the AgriBusiness-as-usual choice of Vilsack is not a reflection of food and farm policy to come, but we obviously have a lot of work ahead of us. This nation needs nothing short of a New Green Deal to reverse the Bush Administration’s abysmal food safety record and assault on the environment through its promotion of industrial agriculture. We remain hopeful that the Obama Administration will elevate food safety to the top of the government’s list of priorities and require the USDA to fortify food and farm policies so that they are truly protective of human health, worker safety, family farmers, animal welfare, the environment, and local economies – no matter who serves as Secretary of Agriculture.
 
Feeling a bit disappointed with President-elect Obama’s choice for Secretary of Agriculture? Tell the new administration how you feel. The Senate will have to approve Vilsack’s nomination, so stay tuned for action alerts to oppose his confirmation!
Filed under: Massive disappointments, Take Action
 
« Center for Food Safety Urges President-Elect Obama to Quickly Bring Progressive Change to USDA Leave a Reply
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FISH

Eating fish may prevent kidney decline in diabetics

Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:37pm EST

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Eating fish at least twice a week seems to reduce the incidence of kidney disease in patients with diabetes, according to findings from a large British study.

 Although diabetics are advised to limit dietary protein to delay the progression of kidney disease, recent observations suggest that the benefit to the kidneys may have to do with "the protein source rather than quantity," the investigators note in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

 Despite research linking fish to improved outcomes in diabetics, they add, epidemiological evidence of this benefit is scarce.

 Dr. Amanda I. Adler, at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, and fellow researchers therefore conducted a population-based cross-sectional analysis of 22,000 subjects.

 Among the 517 subjects with diabetes, the prevalence of albumin (protein) in the urine (macroalbuminuria), an indication of kidney disease, was 8.3 percent.

According to food questionnaire responses, 18 percent of diabetics who ate fish less than once a week had macroalbuminuria, versus 4 percent of those who included fish in their diet more than twice a week.

 After adjusting the data for clinical, social, demographic, lifestyle, and dietary factors, regular fish consumption remained a significant predictor of freedom from macroalbuminuria among diabetics.

 Adler’s group suggests that "the unique nutrient composition of fish" may prevent kidney damage by enhancing blood sugar control or improving lipid profiles.

They suggest that these findings set the stage for nutritional intervention trials to determine the optimal types of fish, modes of preparation, and dietary frequency to best protect the kidneys of patients with diabetes.

 SOURCE: American Journal of Kidney Diseases, November 2008.

TOXINS

There’s a new infant formula product on the market that’s FDA approved!

Click here to read the full commentary or post comments on this cartoon.

To link to this comic from any website, use this link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/025061.html

Sunshine-Vitamin D Helps Eliminate Mercury

How Sunshine and Vitamin D Can Help You Eliminate Mercury
Accumulating data have provided evidence that vitamin D is involved in brain function. Vitamin D can inhibit the synthesis of inducible nitric oxide synthase and increase glutathione levels, suggesting a role for the hormone in brain detoxification.

The study shows that vitamin D helps remove mercury from your body safely by radically increasing the amount of intracellular glutathione.

Neuroprotective and immunomodulatory effects of this hormone have also been described in several experimental models, indicating the potential value of vitamin D in helping neurodegenerative and neuroimmune diseases. In addition, vitamin D induces glioma cell death, making the hormone of potential interest in the management of brain tumors.

These results reveal previously unsuspected roles for vitamin D in brain function and suggest possible areas of future research.

 

What You Need to Know About Farmed Fish

What You Need to Know About Farmed Fish
 
Declining ocean fish stocks have led to a rapid growth in fish farming. But if you think farmed fish are the answer, you might want to take a second look at its effects.

Carnivorous farmed fish are fed on high levels of fish meal and fish oil. In fact, they require a fish biomass input greater than the fish biomass produced. For the 10 species of fish most commonly farmed, an average of nearly two kilograms of wild fish is required for every one kilogram of fish raised.

Unfortunately, there is an increase in the production trend of carnivorous fish (such as salmon or shrimp) rather than herbivorous or filter feeder fish. Small pelagic fish, such as herring, sardines and anchovies, mainly provide the fish meal and fish oils used for aquaculture feed, increasing pressures on wild fish.

Numbers of popular species such as cod have plummeted; in the Mediterranean, 12 species of shark are commercially extinct. Swordfish in that area, which should grow as thick as a telephone pole, now must be caught as juveniles and eaten when no bigger than a baseball bat. The fish in the seas surrounding Africa and Asia are also in steep decline.

 

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