Know the Chemicals in Your Food!

This information is from the following website:

http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/11/11/whats-really-in-the-food-the-a-to-z-of-the-food-industrys-most-evil-ingredients/

What’s really in the food? The A to Z of the food industry’s most evil ingredients

Submitted by Drew Kaplan on November 11, 2011 – 11:17 amOne Comment

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The best way to take care of our bodies is to be careful what we put into them. Below is a great article on what ingredients we should avoid.

~Health Freedoms

Ever wonder what’s really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, “What ingredients should I avoid?” So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world). If you want to stay healthy and out of the hospital, read ingredients labels and make sure you avoid all these ingredients:

Acrylamides - Toxic, cancer-causing chemicals formed in foods when carbohydrates are exposed to high heat (baking, frying, grilling). They’re present in everything from bread crusts to snack chips, and because they aren’t intentional ingredients, acrylamides do NOT have to be listed on labels.

Aspartame – Chemical sweetener that causes neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraine headaches.

Autolyzed Proteins – Highly processed form of protein containing free glutamate and used to mimic the taste-enhancer chemical MSG.

BPA (Bisphenol-A) – A hormone mimicking chemical found in nearly all food packaging plastics. Active in just parts per billion, BPA promotes cancer, infertility and hormone disorders. It also “feminizes” males, promoting male breast growth and hormone disruption.

Casein – Milk proteins. Hilariously, this is widely used in “soy cheese” products that claim to be alternatives to cow’s milk. Nearly all of them are made with cow’s milk proteins.

Corn Syrup - Just another name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (see below). Frequently used in infant formula products.

Food Colors – FD&C Red #40, for example, is linked to behavioral disorders in children. Nearly all artificial food colors are derived from petroleum, and many are contaminated with aluminum.

Genetically Modified Ingredients – Not currently listed on the label because the GMO industry (Monsanto and DuPont) absolutely does not want people to know which foods contain GMOs. Nearly all conventionally grown corn, soy and cotton are GMOs. They’re linked to severe infertility problems and may even cause the bacteria in your body to produce and release a pesticide in your own gut. If you’re not eating organic corn, you’re definitely eating GMO corn.

High Fructose Corn Syrup – A highly processed liquid sugar extracted with the chemical solvent glutaraldehyde and frequently contaminated with mercury. It’s also linked to diabetes, obesity and mood disorders. Used in thousands of grocery items, including things you wouldn’t suspect like pizza sauce and salad dressings.

Hydrochloride - When you see anything hydrochloride, such as Pyridoxine Hydrochloride or Thiamin Hydrochloride, those are chemical forms of B vitamins that companies add to their products to be able to claim higher RDA values of vitamins. But these are synthetic, chemical forms of vitamins, not real vitamins from foods or plants. Nutritionally, they are near-useless and may actually be bad for you.

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein – A highly processed form of (usually) soy protein that’s processed to bring out the free glutamate (MSG). Use as a taste enhancer.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils - Oils that are modified using a chemical catalyst to make them stable at room temperature. This creates trans fatty acids and greatly increases the risk of blocked arteries . It also promotes what I call “sludge blood,” which is thick, viscous blood that’s hard to pump. This is usually diagnosed by doctors as “high blood pressure” and (stupidly) treated with blood-thinning medications that are technically the same chemicals as rat poison (warfarin).

Phosphoric Acid – The acid used in sodas to dissolve the carbon dioxide and add to the overall fizzy-ness of the soda. Phosphoric acid will eat steel nails. It’s also used by stone masons to etch rocks. The military uses it to clean the rust off battleships. In absolutely destroys tooth enamel. Search Google Images for “Mountain Dew Mouth” to see photos of teeth rotted out by phosphoric acid.

Propylene Glycol – A liquid used in the automotive industry to winterize RVs. It’s also used to make the fake blueberries you see in blueberry muffins, bagels and breads. (Combined with artificial colors and corn syrup.)

Sodium (Salt) - The processed white salt lacking in trace minerals. In the holistic nutrition industry, we call it “death salt” because it promotes disease and death. Real salt, on the other hand, such as “dirty” sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, is loaded with the trace minerals that prevent disease, such as selenium (cancer), chromium (diabetes) and zinc (infectious disease). Much like with bread and sugar, white salt is terrible for your health. And don’t be fooled by claims of “sea salt” in grocery stores. All salt came from the sea if you go far back enough in geologic time, so they can slap the “sea salt” claim on ANY salt!

Sodium Nitrite – A cancer-causing red coloring chemical added to bacon, hot dogs, sausage, beef jerky, ham, lunch meats, pepperoni and nearly all processed meats. Strongly linked to brain tumors, pancreatic cancers and colon cancers. The USDA once tried to ban it from the food supply but was out-maneuvered by the meat industry, which now dominates USDA regulations. Sodium nitrite is a complete poison used to make meats look fresh. Countless children die of cancer each year from sodium nitrite-induced cancers.

Soy Protein – The No. 1 protein source used in “protein bars,” including many bars widely consumed by bodybuilders. Soy protein is the “junk protein” of the food industry. It’s made from genetically modified soybeans (often grown in China) and then subjected to hexane, a chemical solvent that can literally explode.

Sucralose – An artificial chemical sweetener sold as Splenda. The sucralose molecule contains a chlorine atom (http://www.naturalnews.com/027491_a…;). Researchers have repeatedly found that artificial sweeteners make people fat by actually promoting weight gain.

Sugar – The bleached, nutritionally-deficient byproduct of cane processing. During sugar cane processing, nearly all the minerals and vitamins end up in the blackstrap molasses that’s usually fed to farm animals. (Blackstrap molasses is actually the “good” part of sugar cane juice.) Molasses is often fed to farm animals because every rancher knows that farm animals need good nutrition to stay alive. Amazingly, conventional doctors don’t yet realize this about humans, and they continue to claim that eating sugar is perfectly fine for you. Sugar promotes diabetes, obesity, mood disorders and nutritional deficiencies.

Textured Vegetable Protein - Usually made of soy protein which is extracted from genetically modified soybeans and then processed using hexane, an explosive chemical solvent (see Soy Protein, above). Widely used in vegetarian foods such as “veggie burgers” (most of which also contain MSG or Yeast Extract, by the way).

Yeast Extract - Hidden form of MSG that contains free glutamate and is used in many “natural” food products to claim “No MSG!” Yeast extract contains up to 14% free glutamate. You’ll find it in thousands of grocery store products, from soups to snack chips. I even once spotted it used on fresh meat!

Food label tricks

Here’s a trick food companies frequently used to pack more sugar into their products without making sugar look like the first ingredient:

Ingredient labels, you see, must list the most prominent ingredients first, and some consumers might freak out of they saw a box of cereal that said, “Sugar, whole grain wheat, corn” and so on. Instead, the company uses 3 or 4 different forms of sugar to distribute them farther down the label, like this:

“Whole grain wheat, sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids…”

This way, the first ingredients looks like “whole grain wheat” when, in reality, the cereal might be over fifty percent sugars!

How to buy honest food

• Shop are your local farmer’s market, food co-op or CSA.

• In the USA, look for the USDA Organic label on foods. This is a legitimate claim to being certified organic. It’s one of the few programs run by the USDA that actually has integrity.

• Read the ingredients labels! If you see names of chemicals you can’t pronounce, don’t buy it.

• Buy more unprocessed food ingredients and make your own meals rather than buying ready-to-eat, processed foods, which are almost universally formulated with disease-promoting ingredients.

I Can't Be Santa This Year!

The elegant young widow entered the room with rounded shoulders and tragedy hiding behind her pretty green eyes. She came to visit me while her two young boys were in school. She seemed utterly exhausted from the sheer volume of grief she had been experiencing over the last year.

Holly’s husband was a military pilot who died in January 2011, when his chopper was shot down in Afghanistan. Not only did she have to deal with the death of the love of her life, but she was also reeling from all of the challenges of having been a military wife one day, and a military widow the next. She had stood up valiantly to all that was required of her including moving out of military housing, relocating to be near her parents, and struggling to make a living. Now, almost a year later, she was facing her first holiday season as a widow. Somehow the unending facets of grief seemed too much. She had come to me, not just to discuss the endless waves of grief that still haunted her, but more than that, she wanted to understand how to even contemplate a holiday season without her Jim. She was fearful that she would destroy the holidays forever for her two boys. She didn’t want to do that, but holiday festivities wanted to make her throw up.

“I’m numb. It’s November and I am facing Thanksgiving and Christmas and my heart is so broken, I can still barely get through each day. I don’t care if I ever see a Christmas tree, a Santa costume or a Christmas card again. Thanksgiving? Forget it! What do I have to be thankful for? I lost my husband, my kids are acting out, I can barely make ends meet and if it weren’t for my parents, well, I don’t know what I would have done.” Holly’s lovely face seemed to have aged in the last year. She continued.

“I look in the mirror and frankly, I don’t know who I am anymore. It’s as if the day I saw those two marines come up my walkway the woman I was somehow vanished.” Holly doesn’t even seem to notice as the tears stream down her face. “I feel like an empty shell. I still can’t sleep. I barely function at my job, I snap at the boys. When does this get better!” she demanded.

“The truth is,” I told her, “it just doesn’t get better for a while. Grieving is the hardest work you will ever do. Parenting while grieving taxes you to the max. The first holiday season after a death is horrible. The barrage of ‘festivities’ only seems to magnify the pain of your loss. If it were just you, if you only had to take care of yourself, it would be hard enough, but your boys will want to have some elements of Christmas.”

“When Jim was deployed to Afghanistan, I always knew that he could die. I did. I told myself that I could be a brave Marine wife but when it actually happened I –I—I’m not so brave. I feel like all I want to do is curl up in bed and tell the world to leave me alone!”

I took a deep breath and responded. “And yet, the demands of being a Mom pull you out of bed each morning. Even though you are probably mechanically getting the boys ready for school, doing lunches, chauffeuring them back and forth, at least you are still that constant in their life. Have they talked with you about any of their fears? When children lose a parent, they are often secretly terrified that the remaining parent will also die. What have they said?”

Holly is now quietly weeping. She takes a deep breath. “Mickey is six and he acts the tough guy. Little Jake is four and he seems to whine all the time. When I put the boys to bed, -- I still do that even when I don’t feel like it – sometimes the three of us just talk about Jim and what we miss and then we all cry. Sometimes the boys cry ‘til they fall asleep. This isn’t living. I don’t feel like I’m being a good mom. I feel like we are all drowning and no day is a good day. Christmas? I would just like to not have to deal with it! What am I supposed to say in a Christmas card? ‘My husband died and my life sucks, love the Smiths’?”

“Holly, life is grim right now. But you are doing better than you think. The hard truth is that this first Christmas without your husband will be the hardest one. Future ones will also be tough but each year will be a bit better. Grief is healed by degrees, moment to moment, each moment, each day becoming a little bit better than yesterday. To get you through the coming two months of holidays, let’s develop a plan and that plan has to include asking your friends and family to help you.”

“When Jim died, I stopped being a military wife. I didn’t just lose my husband I lost my entire military support system and my military identity. The wives were always ‘there’ for each other. The wives helped me in those early days, but now that I have moved back home, I don’t have that kind of connection. No one here knows what this is like - no one knows me. I –I feel so –so alone with this darkness.”

“You may feel alone with the unrelenting intimacy of grief, but you are not alone in the world. You do have your parents, your extended family, and I bet they want to help. But you find that they are tip-toeing around your feelings and avoiding you – right?”

“Yes, and it’s so awkward. I just cocoon myself.”

“Holly, you can’t heal ‘til you come out of that cocoon, and your boys can’t hope to feel like they can even smile again until you literally give them permission to find something to smile about. Grieving takes courage, courage no one can understand until they walk this lonely path. Give your sons and yourself permission to be happy about something each day. Even though you can’t even imagine being happy again. Allow little upbeat moments to seep into your day. Force yourself to smile at your sons. They need to see this in you. Smile at something your boys say or do. They need your love in an ‘emotionally present’ way.”

“I know I’m not ‘emotionally present’. I love them so much and watching them grieve magnifies my pain!”

I urged her to focus on what she could practically do at this point. “If you decide to do anything for the holidays it will help your boys. I bet you are doing Thanksgiving with your parents.”

“Yes. Mom is having a few friends over who know about our situation.”

“Good. This gets you out and participating in a nice dinner and it gives your boys something to anticipate. Now lets focus on managing the holidays in a way that you can actually face.”

Shaking her head. “I can’t face much. . . .”

“Ask some of the Moms to invite your boys over to make cookies. Tell them what happened. Ask them to help you. You can do this. Your boys need to know that they can start participating with school friends and building relationships. Then ask your parents to help you to do the tree. Have each boy go with your parents separately so that they can do their shopping for you and for each other. Go shopping with your boys for the grandparents. Get your mom to help you with all of this if she is willing.”

Holly sighs, a long sad sigh. “Yes, my mom is great. She keeps offering to help. You’re telling me to let her. I guess I don’t know how to be a normal mom again. Tears begin to fall again. “Is it OK to still cry sometimes?”

“Holly, it is absolutely OK to cry whenever you want! However, at some point, you have to give yourself permission to begin to heal a little tiny bit each day. If you have to force yourself to smile at your boys, then do that. This will help all of you heal. Allow Christmas to seep into your world. You don’t have to go all out. Do the bare minimum and let that be enough. Remember, you are that beautiful flower chilled by the cold of death but stubbornly refusing to stop growing, blooming and showering the world with your light and your goodness. Remember, that at the end of the day, you are still a wonderful person, a terrific mom and a great friend. Be a friend to yourself and focus on finding ways to be happy a bit more each day. I know you can do this.”

Holly took a long, deep breath. “Yes I can. I know my boys need me and more than that, I need them. I guess I just needed a reality check.”

“Perhaps, but more than that, you need to be kind to yourself. Grieving is such hard work, and yet, you grow from the experience. Always remember your goodness. The challenge is to be patient with yourself and at the same time to begin to nudge yourself out of your darkness. When we talk next time, I will want you to tell me about the little moments that you are taking pleasure in with your sons. Whether or not you can see it, you are healing. It is time to start anticipating genuinely enjoying your life again (watches Holly shake her head) and no, it isn’t going to be today, or next week, but that day is coming. All I’m doing is helping you to open the door to living a wonderful life again. You can do it.”

Karmic Concept: When you are working through your grief process remember to ask for help from family, friends and co-workers. Look forward to each day and the potential of something positive happening. You can do it!

To learn more about healing grief, please check out The Lightworker’s Guide to Healing Grief: http://www.amazon.com/Lightworkers-Guide-Healing-Grief/dp/0876045875/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319578747&sr=1-1by

The Mind as Essence

The following quote is from a book that my brother Paul Debs told me about. This book  [which is available from Amazon.com], written by Charles L. Denhaene is titled: 

How To Become Happy By Eternal Knowledge. 

It was written in 1928 and feels so antiquated that it almost seems like 'olde' English. However, the content is amazing in its simple message: You can use your mind to heal your body. Paul has told me that this method, if followed sincerely, diligently and with a pure heart and a love for your own body can be exceptionally effective. So, I am offering some of the essential quotes from the book.

"The mind is essence and finds it strength in essence. When it is well guided and properly directed, it goes forth and seeks in various plants the essences it needs to kill in our bodies the bad germs of disease and drives out the deadly poisons.

If a person feels a pain somewhere and if that person thinks immediately in the spirit, [if the person] passes the hand very slowly over the painful spot, repeating very rapidly: 'Go away, I will have you no more, the pain stops at once, and if you persevere, it will disappear completely in the end.'

'God has created the plants to cure me; my mind will seek the essences and I shall be cured.' (One must especially repeat: I shall be cured.)

The mind knows them [the essences] very well and can even repair the tissues which do not work well in our body with the help of the nerves and the blood.

So each night, when you have gone to bed, say well to yourself: "By the essence, all goes better and better" Repeat as often as you can, as if you were reciting your rosary, in a low voice, just loud enough for your mind to hear.  .   and whatever ill you may have will be forced to leave."

In these times, we need every tool in our arsenal to care for our bodies. This simple process holds the potential to literally send our subconscious out to find the exact flower or plant essence to heal whatever is hurting in our body or whatever our body needs and that could include help in getting to or staying asleep! It costs nothing and is worth a try. Thanks Paul!

The Three Sources of Life Chi

Client: “I am trying to understand how chi works. I know that chi is energy, but is it more than that and can I enhance it?”

Tina: “Chi is energy, power, sickness, health, happiness and pain.”

Client: “OK, I find that a bit overwhelming, perhaps I should focus on something manageable. What kind of chi affects the human body?”

Tina: “Chi is life itself and it is more than this. There are primarily three kinds of chi that affect the human body. The first one is a familiar one. Literally, you are what you eat. ”

Client: “So we get chi from food.”

Tina: “Yes. So to be specific, the more the food that you eat is bursting with life force, or chi, the more chi you will have in your body.”

Client: “Oh, so this is why there is so much talk about ‘processed food: it has less life force.”

Tina: “Less life force. I would say that most processed food, is so processed that it is unrecognizable as to what it originally started out as and in some cases has absolutely no life force. The less adulterated your food, the more life force. Chicken does not have fingers and the sheer volume of ingredients makes you wonder just exactly what is in a nugget, bite or finger of that type of non-existent chicken.”

Client: “I remember reading about a fast food hamburger that would not ever rot if left unrefrigerated on a counter. I guess there is no life force in that supposed piece of food.”

Tina: “Exactly. Food, in its most basic form, fresh from the farm or fresh/flash frozen is going to have the highest life force. Food that rots is full of life force. When it rots, that life force is leaving the food. Simple food is always your best bet and that will not have any extra sugars or fats.”

Client: “Alright, so chi comes from the food you eat. Where else does the chi come from that helps your body?”

Tina: “We all have something called ancestral chi. Ever wonder about the phrase you heard your parents use that noted that someone came from ‘good stock’? ”

Client: “Yeah, always sounded like we were being compared to live stock in a meat yard.”

Tina: “Well, basically, the stronger the gene pool throughout the generations, the stronger will be your ancestral chi. Look at the genes of your family. How long did your relatives live? One of the reasons for marrying someone and having children is to strengthen and extend the energy of a given gene pool.”

Client: “So if your personal gene pool is lousy, everyone dies at a young age, what can you do?”

Tina: “Well you can’t control that, but you can control the food you eat and your surroundings, which is the third source of chi.”

Client: “You mean that your home provides you with chi?”

Tina: “Yes it does. Think about it. If you enter a home that is immaculate, is well done, ie, well decorated, that makes you feel comfortable, and offers you a sense of peace and happiness, don’t you feel like that location is helping you when you are there?”

Client: “I guess so. That seems like common sense.”

Tina: “Well, we seem to have lost some of our most basic common sense in these times.”

Client: “So how a home is decorated makes a difference?”

Tina: “It isn’t just decoration, it is the overall look and feel of the home. Frankly, how do you feel when you are there? Is the location healing or harmful.”

Client: “So does clutter affect chi?”

Tina: “Heavens yes! Clutter takes up the space for chi to circulate. The more clutter you have, the less chi you will have. The less clutter, the better overall air circulation and the better you will feel.”

Client: “So a minimalist way is the best way. Nothing about to get in the way of chi - is that what you recommend?”

Tina: “Oh no, live, enjoy your home, but be aware of how it feels. Again, this is the point of Feng Shui. Balance your home using color, texture, placement, removing threatening things and things that creep you out. Over time, you will be able to walk into your home and feel an unmade bed because your home will feel so balanced. It’s wonderful!”

Client: “Sounds like a lot of work.”

Tina: “Not really. Once you elevate your home to that place of peace and happiness, there is a part of you that will always want to keep it that way and where something is out of balance, you will want to fix it because it will routinely bother you.”

Client: “Who knew just a discussion of chi could be so complicated?”

Tina: “This is the basic level. When you start studying chi on more esoteric levels, you come to learn that the more balanced your home, the more beautiful your surroundings the happier you will be emotionally. The happier you are emotionally, the less illness you will have. The healthier you are, the happier you are the closer you can feel to the Divine. Also, the better the chi in your home is, the healthier will your plants and animals be as well. It is all related. Even appliances in your home will need less repairs once the chi is raised.”

Client: “So, will doing all of this affect ancestral chi?”

Tina: “Absolutely. You come in with a set of genes or cards. Literally, life is how you play the hand that is dealt to you. If you take what you are given and then greatly enhance that chi, those genes, you will find that you are growing on profound levels and you may just change those genes for yourself and potentially future generations.”

Client: “But what if you didn’t grow up eating well, or in a nice place or really feeling healthy?”

Tina: “Change it! Who says that you have to accept what you are given? Be that maverick in the family and change you life by changing the chi in our life. It is a tremendous feeling!”

Client: “So chi can be life changing, life enhancing and life giving.”

Tina: “Exactly! Clean up! De-clutter! Put some art on the walls, play beautiful music, be happy. Imagine how happy the chi will be in your home and how healthy you, your plants and animals will all be!”