WiFi in schools puts children at real risk

Some alarming news about wifi:

WiFi in schools puts children at real risk

We at Mast Sanity are campaigning for WiFi to be removed from schools pending proof of safety which has never been shown.

On the contrary, much of the scientific evidence, and there are thousands of papers on microwave radiation, point to harmful effects such as DNA damage and cancers in the medium term.
To put WiFi in schools is simply unacceptable and unethical.
We already know what the Government’s ‘research’ on WiFi in schools will say.

We already know the exposures are similar to being in the main beam from a phone mast as we have already measured them. It does not take two years and £300,000 of taxpayers money.
The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines do not protect the public from anything but heating in the short term. They do not protect against any other effects from constant exposure.

At a recent conference in London the head of the Russian equivalent organisation, Prof Grigoriev, said the guidelines are out of date and the safety of the future generations is not assured.
The Health Protection Agency will merely compare their results with these out of date guidelines and say that WiFi is fine.

Meanwhile, we have reports of teachers suffering effects such as migraines from WiFi exposure.
No one knows what the children are suffering as no one has done a health survey and no one will.

Source

Yoga for Children

Yoga for Children

Wholesome is a word we often associate with our children's well-being. We feed our kids wholesome food to nourish their growing bodies. We encourage wholesome activities to help them develop good habits and useful skills.

Yoga is not only wholesome, but holistic as well. In other words, it's an activity that develops the whole child—physically, mentally, and emotionally. What's more, kids of all ages have fun doing yoga and watching their balance, flexibility, and strength improve. They also learn to focus and relax. This positive experience is likely to keep them practicing yoga as adults, reaping yoga's many benefits for years to come.

Many types of exercises help children develop strong muscles, but the strength they gain is rarely balanced with increased flexibility. Yoga postures, however, improve both strength and flexibility, giving kids an ease of movement that helps them improve their performance and prevent injuries. They develop balance, coordination, and the ability to focus. Even kids who aren't athletic enjoy yoga. Because yoga is a gentle, noncompetitive form of exercise, they can practice, do well, and build confidence in a nonthreatening environment.

On a deeper physical level, yoga's focus on good posture helps young spines grow straight and strong. The poses regulate and balance the production of hormones, which is especially important as children approach and pass through puberty. Yoga also improves their digestion, nutrient absorption, and elimination while helping to strengthen the immune system.

In yoga, kids get their bodies and minds working together. They concentrate on positioning and moving in a slow, controlled manner. Sometimes they focus on holding a pose, on their breathing, or on the animal they are imitating. This ability to focus carries over into other aspects of their lives, making it easier for them to concentrate on schoolwork and other important tasks.

Yoga also gives children valuable tools to help them cope with the stress they often face. This stress may be in the form of academic pressure, sports competitions, problems at home, and so on. Yoga postures, breathing, and relaxation techniques teach them how to calm the mind and release excess tension from the body.

Yoga is a wonderful activity for children. It builds strength, stamina, and flexibility and teaches patience, perseverance, and concentration, helping kids become happier and more productive. Whether children are dealing with tight muscles, obesity, divorce, fear, or anxiety, they can use yoga to bring them relief not only throughout their childhood, but also in their adult live

Keeping healthy over the holidays

With all the holiday cooking- and eating- there's always a bit of worry that comes in with it. Cook and eat healthy over the holidays with Wai Lana's help, kick back, eat all you want, and be happy. :)

Click here to get some of Wai lana's recipes

Women's safety

I got this little email today.. I haven't been able to check the sources but I think it may just be valid. Better safe and informed than ignorant right?

Use pad for more than 3 hours can cause cervical cancer & bacteria infection.


FOR THOSE OF US WHO USE SANITARY NAPKINS/PADS:

IF u ever wondered what were the ingredients that made popular brands so
'free! and light and carefree', well here's the bit:

The material that makes the pad so paper THIN, is cellulose gel. YEap,
it's not even cotton!!!!!!

DO NOT wear the same pad for more than 3 hours of a maximum!!! After
this duration, the genital area is prone to bacterial action and may
result in cervical cancer or other complications!!!!!!!!!!

REMEMBER! NEVER NEVER NEVER WEAR THE SAME PAD FOR MORE THAN 3 HOURS!!!!

SO yes, please pass on this message to as many women as possible and
save lives!!!!!!!!!!

If you are a woman and use pads, but especially if you use tampons, read
this and pass it on to your friends. For the men receiving this email,
please forward it to your friends, significant others, wife, sisters, mothers,
daughters, etc.) Thanks!

Check the labels of the sanitary pads or tampons that you are going to
buy the next time and see whether you spot any of the familiar signs
stated in this email.

No wonder so many women in the world suffer from cervical cancer and
womb tumors. Have you heard that tampon makers include asbestos in
tampons? Why would they do this?

Because asbestos makes you bleed more, if you bleed more, you're going
to need to use more. Why isn't this against the law since asbestos is so
dangerous? Because the powers that be, in all their wisdom (not), did
not consider tampons as being ingested, and, therefore, didn't consider
them illegal or dangerous.
This month's Essence magazine has small article about this and they
mention two manufacturers of a cotton tampon alternative. The companies
are: Organic Essentials @1-800) 765-6491 and Terra Femme @(800)755-0212.

A woman getting her Ph.D. at University of Colorado at Boulder sent the
following: 'I am writing this because women are not being informed about
the dangers of something most of us use: tampons. I am taking a class
this month and I have been learning a lot about biology and women,
including much about feminine hygiene. Recently we have learned that
tampons are actually dangerous (for other reasons than TSS). I'll tell
you this - after learning about this in our class, most of the females
wound up feeling angry and upset with the tampon industry, and I for
one, am going to do something about it To start, I want to inform
everyone I can, and email is the fastest way that I know how


HERE ! IS THE SCOOP:
Tampons contain two things that are potentially harmf ul: Rayon (for
absorbency), and dioxin (a chemical used in bleaching the products). The
tampon industry is convinced that we, as women, need bleached white
products in order to view the product as pure and clean. The problem
here is that the dioxin, which is produced in this bleaching process,
can lead to very harmful problems for a woman. Dioxin is potentially
carcinogenic cancer-associated)and is toxic to the immune and
reproductive systems. It has also been linked to endometriosis and lower
sperm counts for men. For both sexes, it breaks down the immune system.


Last September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that
there really is no set 'acceptable' level of exposure to dioxin given
that it is cumulative and slow to disintegrate. The real danger comes
from repeated contact Karen Couppert 'Pulling the Plug on the Tampon
Industry'). I'd say using about 4-5 tampons a day, five days a month,
for 38 menstruating years is 'repeated contact', wouldn't y! ou? Rayon
contributes to the danger of tampons and dioxin because it is a highly
absorbent substance. Therefore, when fibers from the tampons are left
behind in the vagina (as usually occurs), it creates a breeding ground
for the dioxin. It also stays in a lot longer than it would with just
cotton tampons. This is also the reason why TSS (toxic shock syndrome)
occurs.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

Using feminine hygiene products that aren't bleached and that are all
cotton. Other feminine hygiene products
(pads/napkins) contain dioxin as well, but they are not nearly as
dangerous since they are not in direct contact with the vagina. The
pads/napkins need to stop being bleached, but, obviously, tampons are
the most dangerous.


So, what can you do if you can't give up using tampons? Use tampons that
are made from 100% cotton, and that are UNBLEACHED. Unfortunately, there
are very few compani! es that make these safe tampons. They are usually
only found in health food stores.


Countries all over the world (Sweden, Germany, British Columbia, etc.)
have demanded a switch to this safer tampon, while the U.S. has decided
to keep us in the dark about it. In 1989, activists in England mounted a
campaign against chlorine bleaching. Six weeks and 50,000 letters later,
the makers of sanitary products switched to oxygen bleaching (one of the
green methods available) (MS magazine, May/June 1995).

WHAT TO DO NOW:
Tell people. Everyone. Inform them. We are being manipulated by this
industry and the government, let's do something about it! Please write
to the companies: Tampax(Tambrands), Playtex, O.B., Kotex. Call the 800
numbers listed on the boxes. Let them know that we demand a safe product
ALL COTTON UNBLEACHED TAMPONS.

AND FOR THOSE OF US WHO USE SANITARY NAPKINS/PADS:

IF u ever wondered what were the ingredients that made popular brands so
'free! and light and carefree', well here's the bit:

The material that makes the pad so paper THIN, is cellulose gel. YEap,
it's not even cotton!!!!!!


DO NOT wear the same pad for more than 3 hours of a maximum!!! After
this duration, the genital area is prone to bacterial action and may
result in cervical cancer or other complications!!!!!!!!!!

REMEMBER! NEVER NEVER NEVER WEAR THE SAME PAD FOR MORE THAN 3 HOURS!!!!

SO yes, please pass on this message to as many women as possible and
save lives!!!!!!!!!!

References:
1 Women Health Issues - Thrush

Making a difference: The Lipstick Plant

I found this to be an interesting little article:

Making a difference: The Lipstick Plant

By Anne Moore
November 25, 2008 6:00 AM

Q. What is the difference between a trailing vine and poison ivy?

A. Lipstick!

Another definition, as if we needed one! But while the subject is fresh in our minds, let's take a look at a favorite plant that lives up to its name.

Once in a while in giving a common name to a plant, we run across one that is so perfectly obvious that nothing else will do. It's all here. The bright red two-inch flowers (the lipstick) grow out of a dark red, almost brown, calyx (the tube), and look for all the world just like the lipstick looks when you have twisted it upward and are ready to apply it.

As long as the flowers are in bud, they retain the smooth oval rounded shape of a lipstick. Once the bud opens, however, the several petals form a trumpet shape and the long stigma emerges. This gives the flowers a different and very dramatic appearance, but the bright red color remains.

The Lipstick Plant, Aeschynanthus, is one of a large family of plants, the gesneriads, many of which are among our most popular and decorative houseplants. Unlike most plant families that originate from similar climate zones, gesneriads are found in moist, warm tropics as well as high, cold and dry regions. Some are epiphytes from the Greek EPI "on" or "upon" and Phyte "plant," which means that, in their native habitats, they grow on or upon other plants as opposed to growing in soil. Think of bromeliads up in the tropical forest canopy as a good example of epiphytes.

Other gesneriads are lithophytes from the Greek Litho "stone" and Phyte "plant," which means that they are found growing on rocks. In both cases, the growth habit is to facilitate the plants' need for brighter light and better nourishment than they would find on the forest floor. But it does not mean that they live off their host in the sense that they take nourishment from it as would a parasite, from the Greek Para "beside" and Sitos "food," or "one who sits next to his host and steals his food!"

A little Greek can be a dangerous thing! The point to be made is that these plants already have exhibited a high degree of independence in their evolution, which means that they can be housetrained to live happily with us in pots.

As always, we have a choice of family members. One original popular species, A. Hildebrandii, produces flaming orange flowers on a more upright plant. There are other species with slight degrees of variation in form and foliage, but all produce brightly colored flowers.

Q. What happens when you take away the lipstick?

A. It's still a lovely plant!

Deadheading helps keep the plant in bloom. But even when the flowers fade, the long, trailing stems with their small opposite leaves give the plants a delicate, chain-like appearance that make them very attractive foliage plants, especially in hanging pots or baskets.

Lipstick plants originated in the humid tropical regions of Malaysia and Java, giving us a good clue to their care in our homes. Like most epiphytes, the Lipstick Plant requires growing conditions that provide bright light combined with well-drained soil that is allowed to dry out somewhat between waterings.

Gesneriads' number one requirement is strong, bright light but not scorching sunlight. For maximum bloom, they require 12 to 14 hours of bright light each day, which can present a bit of a problem during the winter. You can place them in a south-facing window with a little shade, or in an unshaded east or west window, but they will do better with the addition of some artificial light and are good candidates for growing under lights.

If you have a grow-light stand, or a single grow-light bulb, place the plant directly under it for an even longer period, 14 to 16 hours per day. Or use fluorescent lights, one cool white and one warm white flourescent tube together in a 4-ft. stand. Inadequate light will result in slow growth and weak bloom.

Maintain the soil at an evenly moist level using tepid water and avoid getting water on the leaves. These plants do not like chlorine or salts in their water. Use collected rain water or distilled water if you can, or allow your watering pot to sit uncovered overnight, which eliminates those additives.

These plants like humidity. Feed them with ¼ strength balanced fertilizer each time you water, or ½ strength once every two weeks, when they are growing actively and/or in bloom. Although they do not like drafts, they do appreciate good air circulation. And they like it warm — normal home temperatures of 70 -75 degree during the day, with a 10 degree drop at night, are fine. When it comes to care they pair well with their cousins, African violets.

After flowering, prune back the stem ends to prevent the plant from getting straggly and to promote new growth. Root up the stem ends as cuttings and repot to increase your collection. Prepared soil mixes for African violets work well, or mix your own soil at a ratio of 1 part packaged potting soil, to 2 parts peat moss, to 1 part each of builders' sand (not beach sand) and perlite. A "soilless" mix of one-third each perlite, vermiculite and peat moss with a bit of lime would do as well.

Your Aeschynanthus will love to go outdoors in the summer, hanging from branches of a tree in bright light or dappled shade. It won't be lonely ...

Q. What is the difference between a well-fed hummingbird and a hungry one?

A. The Lipstick Plant.

Source

Making a difference: The Lipstick Plant

I found this to be an interesting little article:

Making a difference: The Lipstick Plant

By Anne Moore
November 25, 2008 6:00 AM

Q. What is the difference between a trailing vine and poison ivy?

A. Lipstick!

Another definition, as if we needed one! But while the subject is fresh in our minds, let's take a look at a favorite plant that lives up to its name.

Once in a while in giving a common name to a plant, we run across one that is so perfectly obvious that nothing else will do. It's all here. The bright red two-inch flowers (the lipstick) grow out of a dark red, almost brown, calyx (the tube), and look for all the world just like the lipstick looks when you have twisted it upward and are ready to apply it.

As long as the flowers are in bud, they retain the smooth oval rounded shape of a lipstick. Once the bud opens, however, the several petals form a trumpet shape and the long stigma emerges. This gives the flowers a different and very dramatic appearance, but the bright red color remains.

The Lipstick Plant, Aeschynanthus, is one of a large family of plants, the gesneriads, many of which are among our most popular and decorative houseplants. Unlike most plant families that originate from similar climate zones, gesneriads are found in moist, warm tropics as well as high, cold and dry regions. Some are epiphytes from the Greek EPI "on" or "upon" and Phyte "plant," which means that, in their native habitats, they grow on or upon other plants as opposed to growing in soil. Think of bromeliads up in the tropical forest canopy as a good example of epiphytes.

Other gesneriads are lithophytes from the Greek Litho "stone" and Phyte "plant," which means that they are found growing on rocks. In both cases, the growth habit is to facilitate the plants' need for brighter light and better nourishment than they would find on the forest floor. But it does not mean that they live off their host in the sense that they take nourishment from it as would a parasite, from the Greek Para "beside" and Sitos "food," or "one who sits next to his host and steals his food!"

A little Greek can be a dangerous thing! The point to be made is that these plants already have exhibited a high degree of independence in their evolution, which means that they can be housetrained to live happily with us in pots.

As always, we have a choice of family members. One original popular species, A. Hildebrandii, produces flaming orange flowers on a more upright plant. There are other species with slight degrees of variation in form and foliage, but all produce brightly colored flowers.

Q. What happens when you take away the lipstick?

A. It's still a lovely plant!

Deadheading helps keep the plant in bloom. But even when the flowers fade, the long, trailing stems with their small opposite leaves give the plants a delicate, chain-like appearance that make them very attractive foliage plants, especially in hanging pots or baskets.

Lipstick plants originated in the humid tropical regions of Malaysia and Java, giving us a good clue to their care in our homes. Like most epiphytes, the Lipstick Plant requires growing conditions that provide bright light combined with well-drained soil that is allowed to dry out somewhat between waterings.

Gesneriads' number one requirement is strong, bright light but not scorching sunlight. For maximum bloom, they require 12 to 14 hours of bright light each day, which can present a bit of a problem during the winter. You can place them in a south-facing window with a little shade, or in an unshaded east or west window, but they will do better with the addition of some artificial light and are good candidates for growing under lights.

If you have a grow-light stand, or a single grow-light bulb, place the plant directly under it for an even longer period, 14 to 16 hours per day. Or use fluorescent lights, one cool white and one warm white flourescent tube together in a 4-ft. stand. Inadequate light will result in slow growth and weak bloom.

Maintain the soil at an evenly moist level using tepid water and avoid getting water on the leaves. These plants do not like chlorine or salts in their water. Use collected rain water or distilled water if you can, or allow your watering pot to sit uncovered overnight, which eliminates those additives.

These plants like humidity. Feed them with ¼ strength balanced fertilizer each time you water, or ½ strength once every two weeks, when they are growing actively and/or in bloom. Although they do not like drafts, they do appreciate good air circulation. And they like it warm — normal home temperatures of 70 -75 degree during the day, with a 10 degree drop at night, are fine. When it comes to care they pair well with their cousins, African violets.

After flowering, prune back the stem ends to prevent the plant from getting straggly and to promote new growth. Root up the stem ends as cuttings and repot to increase your collection. Prepared soil mixes for African violets work well, or mix your own soil at a ratio of 1 part packaged potting soil, to 2 parts peat moss, to 1 part each of builders' sand (not beach sand) and perlite. A "soilless" mix of one-third each perlite, vermiculite and peat moss with a bit of lime would do as well.

Your Aeschynanthus will love to go outdoors in the summer, hanging from branches of a tree in bright light or dappled shade. It won't be lonely ...

Q. What is the difference between a well-fed hummingbird and a hungry one?

A. The Lipstick Plant.

Source

Teachers, you lead the way

Here's a nice little proverb from Wailana to ponder on:

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
Chinese proverb

Anyone and everyone is a teacher sometime or other in their life. Parents are the first teachers of a child, then later, school teachers, professors, spouses, siblings, friends- we all teach one another. This little proverb reminds me of that beautiful fact.



As for Wailana- being my yoga teacher, I give many thanks to her and to all my past and present teachers, who have given me so much and helped me become who I am today.

Relax into Yoga

Relax into Yoga

Want to make your yoga session more enjoyable and more beneficial? Then relax as you practice. Whether you do yoga for exercise, to relieve stress, or both, you'll get more out of it if you relax. Don't stress about how stiff you are; don't strain to get into a pose. Just do your best and enjoy it.

If you're always thinking about where you "should" be, you'll miss what's going on in your body at the moment. But that awareness is the key to yoga. So instead of worrying about how inflexible you are, just notice your tight spots. Watch your breath; notice how it affects your body, and let it help you open and release into the pose. Observe your mind—keep it focused on the pose and the breath. Don't let it bully you into pushing too far. It's best to hold a pose just this side of your limit. As you breathe and relax into the pose, you'll be able to hold it longer and gradually extend your boundaries.

You can even relax in strengthening poses. While contracting certain muscles, relax those that don't need to work. Don't hold unnecessary tension in your face or jaw, in your neck or shoulders. This tension blocks the flow of energy in the body that yoga is designed to enhance. And it's that free-flowing energy that makes you feel good. So relax into yoga and yoga will help you relax.

Source

Yoga for Muslims?

This is too bad. Indeed, it really just is a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge. As they say, knowledge is the torch of light which dissipates all ignorance. This really is no one's loss but those people who will cease to practice yoga exercises for fear that it will somehow make them a bad Christian or Muslim or what not.

Top Islamic body: Yoga is not for Muslims
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysia's top Islamic body on Saturday ruled against Muslims practicing yoga, saying it had elements of other religions that could corrupt Muslims.
Malaysia's top Islamic body is not keen on yoga.

Malaysia's top Islamic body is not keen on yoga.

The National Fatwa Council's non-binding edict said yoga involves not just physical exercise but also includes Hindu spiritual elements, chanting and worship.

"It is inappropriate. It can destroy the faith of a Muslim," Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin told reporters.

He noted that clerics in Egypt issued a similar edict in 2004 that called the practice of yoga "an aberration."

Though the council's decisions are not legally binding on Malaysia's Muslim population, many abide by the edicts out of deference, and the council does have the authority to ostracize an offending Muslim from society.

The Malaysia fatwa reflects the growing strain of conservatism in Malaysia, which has always taken pride in its multi-ethnic population. About 25 percent of Malaysians are ethnic Chinese and 8 percent ethnic Indians, mostly Hindus.

Recently, the council issued an edict banning tomboys, ruling that girls who act like boys violate the tenets of Islam.

The Fatwa Council took up the yoga issue after an Islamic scholar last month expressed an opinion at a seminar that it was un-Islamic.

But yoga teacher Suleiha Merican, who has been practicing yoga for 40 years, called yoga "a great health science" and said there is no religion involved.

"We don't do chanting and meditation. There is no conflict because yoga is not religion based," Merican, 56, told The Associated Press.

There are no figures for how many Muslims practice yoga, but many yoga classes have a sprinkling of Muslims attending.

Putri Rahim, a housewife, said she was no less a Muslim after practicing yoga for 10 years.

"I am mad! Maybe they have it in mind that Islam is under threat. To come out with a fatwa is an insult to intelligent Muslims. It's an insult to my belief," Putri said.

In a recent blog posting, social activist Marina Mahathir criticized the council for even considering a yoga ban, calling it "a classic case of reacting out of fear and ignorance."

Source

Wailana's come up with all these wonderful ready-made, wholesome gifts. What better gifts to give your friends and loved ones?

















Click here for more information on Wailana's Gift Baskets

Allergies, Asthma and Autism: How Did Our Children Get So Sick?

Allergies, Asthma and Autism: How Did Our Children Get So Sick?

By Robyn O'Brien


Buzz up!

Since when did it get so hard to be a mom? Ten years ago, we didn't worry about sending a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into school with our children; we didn't medicate our eight-year olds to get them through the school day; and the movie Rain Man was all we knew of autism.

Today it is estimated that 50% of Hispanic and African-American children will develop diabetes, that 1 in 90 boys has autism, and that 1 in 4 children has asthma. Pediatrics just reported that from 2002-2005, there was a 103% increase in diabetes medication for children, a 47% increase in asthma medication, a 41% increase in ADHD medication and a 15% increase in high cholesterol medicine.

How did our children get so sick?

As a proud, American mother of four children, I was stunned to learn that there are chemicals that have been added to the U.S. food supply over the last ten years that have either been banned or labeled in countries like Australia, Europe, the UK, Japan....even Russia -- because of the health risks they present. I was stunned to learn that no human studies have ever been conducted on the long-term safety of these chemical additives, so our children have literally been engaged in a live human trial for the last ten years without our informed consent!

* Did you know that food additives and dyes have been linked to asthma and ADHD?
* Did you know that insecticides have been engineered into our food supply? Yikes!
* Did you know that there is a synthetic growth hormone introduced into milk in 1994? Yuck!
* Did you know that Kraft doesn't include Yellow #5 in the mac 'n cheese boxes they sell overseas?

Did you know that allergies are one of the first indicators that a child's immune system is compromised? Some might even say that children with allergies are our "canaries in the coalmine," warning us of how dangerous our food supply has become.

If we stop to listen to these little "canaries," we can learn a lot! And we can go a long way in protecting the health of our little ones!

If you need a little inspiration or a bit of background information on what's going on with our food, log onto www.allergykids.com, search our Resources page, and learn a little (or a lot!) about simple steps that you can take to protect the health of your family. We've been featured in the New York Times, on Good Morning America, on CBS News with Katie Couric and in other news media talking about the toxins in our food supply and the impact that they are having on the health of our children (and all of us!).

And feel free to ask me a question. We've built out a great team of experts, including pediatricians, scientists, neurologists and researchers from around the world to help you take care of your family!

Check out www.allergykids.com and then circle back and let's get to work, as there is so much that you can do to take control of what may seem like an out of control situation!

Source

10 Easy Home Remedies

10 Easy Home Remedies

10 Easy Home Remedies

Feeling under the weather? If you’re sick of running to the drugstore and popping pills, these 10 inexpensive home remedies may be just the alternative you’re looking for. We reached out to the experts for non-pharmacological treatments that can help resolve your minor health ailments. From colds to insomnia, fatigue to indigestion, read on to learn their advice for solving your everyday health problems the all-natural way.

Source

Mobile Phone Use While Pregnant Causes Neurological Problems in Babies

These are very alarming findings!

Mobile Phone Use While Pregnant Causes Neurological Problems in Babies

(NaturalNews) The first large-scale study to look at the connection between mobile phone use in pregnancy and later behavioral problems in children has overwhelmingly come back with a finding that such phone use places undeveloped babies at risk.

Researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Aarhus, Denmark surveyed 13,519 women who had given birth in Denmark in the late 1990s about their mobile phone use habits while pregnant, and their children's use of the phones up until the age of seven. Due to the fact that cell phone use was less widespread a decade ago, about half of the women in the study had not used the phones while pregnant, or used them only infrequently.

Women who used handsets two or three times per day while pregnant were 54 percent more likely to give birth to children who developed behavioral problems by the time they reached school age than women who did not use them. The risk of behavioral problems increased along with the mother's mobile phone use during pregnancy.

If children used the phones themselves while very young, they were 80 percent more likely to suffer behavioral difficulties, 25 percent more likely to suffer from emotional problems, 34 percent more likely to have trouble relating to their peers, 35 percent more likely to be hyperactive and 49 percent more likely to have conduct problems than children who did not use mobile phones.

The findings were published in the journal Epidemiology.

One of the lead researchers, Leeka Kheifets of UCLA, had previously stated in writing that there was "no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to radiofrequency fields [including those from mobile phones] and any adverse health effect." A well-known skeptic of the connection between mobile phone use and health or behavioral problems, Kheifets admitted to being surprised by the current study's findings.

The researchers attempted to demonstrate that some other confounding factor - such as smoking during pregnancy, socioeconomic status or a family history of mental illness - had caused the behavioral effects observed. But when they corrected for these factors, the contribution of mobile phones actually became statistically stronger.

Saying that they did not know of any biological mechanism by which mobile phones could cause behavioral problems, the researchers urged that their results "should be interpreted with caution." They also suggested that there might be some correlation between cellular phone use and some other factor that leads to behavioral difficulties - such as neglect by a mother that spends too much time on the phone.

But they conceded that "if [the results] are real they would have major public health implications."

Sam Millham of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the University of Washington School of Public Health, said that he is certain the study results are accurate. Recent research conducted in Canada on pregnant rats demonstrated that radiation similar to that from mobile phones caused structural changes to the brains of the fetuses, he said.

Millham is considered a pioneer in researching the connection between mobile phone use and negative health effects.

The study's results came not long after the Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection released new warnings about the use of mobile phones by pregnant women and children. Use of cellular phones by children can lead to short-term "disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability," while long-term use can cause "depressive syndrome [and] degeneration of the nervous structures of the brain."

The committee counseled pregnant women and children to limit their exposure to mobile phones, warning that the health risk from the devices "is not much lower than the risk to children's health from tobacco or alcohol."

Natural News

Cheap and Beautiful Christmas Gift idea

I just got this email today...

Click here

Dear Wai Lana customer,

We’d like to introduce you to
Wai Lana’s Favorite Soups, which is just in time for those chilly winter days.

From fabulous French Onion to creamy Potato Leek, this gorgeous cookbook has something for everyone: comforting classics, hearty vegetable soups, silken blends, healing broths, Thai curries, Asian noodle soups, sustaining stews, and more. Mouthwatering recipes for all occasions!
• Delicious, healthy soups the whole family will love
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Technology and hearing

I watched a documentary on cochlear inplants on Discovery Channel a while back, and here's a little story about someone else who's gotten them:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Her story began nearly six months ago with a decision to sacrifice her hearing in order to remove a dangerous tumor from her brain stem.

Jessica Stone has a condition called Neurofibromatosis, which causes tumors to grow throughout her body. The Michigan woman has had 20 removed since the age of 15.

The most serious surgery occured last spring when doctors removed a tumor pressing on her brain stem. It left Jessica completely deaf.

We've followed Jessica in the days leading up to that surgery, and through her transition into a world without sound.

But a few months ago, Jessica learned she might be able to hear again with the aid of cochlear implants.

After her surgery in April, Jessica began chronicling her journey into silence through video blogs -- from her home in Muskegon to her frequent trips to Chicago to the moments before her cochlear implant surgery.

It hasn't been an easy five months for Jessica.

"I feel kind of left out and secluded on a lot of things," she said.

Even a simple walk along Lake Michigan is filled with silent waves crashing on the beach.

"Every day I wake up and I have to remind myself this is your life you have to keep doing this because I don't give up."

Jessica hasn't. She was determined to learn to live in a deaf world.

Using her new blackberry to keep connected with friends and family, learning to drive without the radio, and she's even learned to play the drums by feeling the vibrations they make.

After mastering her new skills, she finds herself at yet another crossroad in life.

"Maybe I'll hear my dog whining to go outside in the morning or my dad playing guitar or be able to call my mom and tell her all the stupid things I did today."

Because, maybe, Jessica will be able to hear again.

In September she underwent surgery for a cochlear implant. Now, she's waiting to learn if her world will no longer be silent.

It means another trip to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a visit with another doctor, and unfortunately, shaving her head one more time to attach the implant.

Dr. Teresa Zwolan with the University of Michigan Cochlear Implant Program begins with a series a beeps to test Jessica's hearing.

Jessica Stone: "I think I'm getting something."

Jessica's mom and dad hold their breath -- waiting -- hoping.

Jessica stone: "Yeah, I got it!"

But those first sounds are only a first step.

After all, they still need to learn whether or not Jessica can hear more than beeps but voices too.

"Hello Jessica, one, two, three, four, five."

Jessica Stone: "No, I'm just getting beeping."

A few more adjustments...

"1-2-3-4-5."

Jessica Stone: "1-2-3-4-5??"

"Beep beep beep"

Jessica: "Beep, beep, beep?"

"Yeah, very good."

And for the first time in five months, she hears her parent's voices.

Dad: "I love you."

Jessica: "I love you?"

It's an unbelievable ending.

Jessica Stone: "I never thought I was going to hear my parents say I love you and I did today.

"I can hear again. I want to cry I'm so happy about it."

It even surprised her doctors.

Dr. Zwolan said,"She's our first. She's our first like this and she's unique and she's special."

The voices that Jessica hears don't sound like they do to you and me. She describes them as robotic like Rosie the Robot on the Jetsons.

But she's kept that positive attitude saying now she has the best of both worlds. She can hear her parent's voices, but if she doesn't want to listen to their advice she can just take off the implant.

2008 will be a year Jessica will never forget. It's the year she learned to appreciate the little things.

The year she learned that sometimes acceptance, a positive attitude and a little faith can move mountains.

Jessica already has plans for her future. She says she wants to become a patient advocate for Neurofibromatosis and live in Chicago.

Source

Fantastic stuff!

Healthy Lifestyle tips

Eating for Health
Yogis know that it is important to eat just the right amount to keep the body healthy—neither too much nor too little.

Eating too much makes your organs of digestion and elimination work overtime; this is a waste of energy that makes you feel tired and lethargic. Not only that, if you overeat consistently, you may become seriously overweight, and that can lead to heart disease and other physical ailments.

When food cravings arise, whether due to stress, inner emptiness, or the desire for a taste flash, we often go for junk food because it tastes good and is readily available. But chips, crackers, chocolate, cookies and the like are high in sugar, salt, and fat and low on nutritional value. While it's fine to munch these things occasionally, when eaten regularly, they are harmful to your body.

So yogis try to remember that food is meant to sustain the body and keep it healthy, not harm it. It's much better to nibble a piece of fruit than to resort to junk food. And if stress or emptiness is the cause of the craving, try relaxation or meditation techniques before you head for the snacks.

Wai lana's Weekly Message

Tofu Seaweed Tempura

I tried this yummy recipes today, and

Nori is roasted seaweed that comes in packets of flat thin sheets. It is widely used in Japanese cuisine, most commonly wrapped around sushi. In this recipe, small pieces of tofu are wrapped in flavorful nori, then lightly fried in a seasoned, crispy batter and served with a sweet sesame-flavored dipping sauce. Try serving these irresistible tempura with Asian Noodle Salad.

20 oz. firm tofu, drained
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sesame oil

1 cup unbleached white flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 Tbsp. Bragg liquid aminos
Approximately 1 cup water
3 sheets of nori seaweed
2 to 3 cups fresh bread crumbs
2 cups vegetable oil for deep-frying

Sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water
3 Tbsp. raw sugar
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp. water
Fresh daikon and ginger, finely grated, for serving

1. Cut the tofu into 16 rectangles approximately 2 inches long x 1 inch wide x 1 inch thick. Place in a large baking dish. Mix the soy sauce and sesame oil together and pour over the tofu. Marinate for 1-2 hours, turning occasionally.

2. Mix the next 5 batter ingredients together to the consistency of pancake batter. (The water needed may vary slightly.)

3. Cut the seaweed into 1-inch-wide strips. Wrap each strip around the center of each piece of tofu. Seal with water. Lightly roll in the extra flour, then dip in the batter and roll in the bread crumbs.

4. In a large nonstick skillet heat the oil on high heat. Deep-fry the tofu until golden brown, turning as necessary. Drain on a wire rack or strainer.

5. Mix the first 4 sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute, then gradually add the cornstarch mixture, stirring well until thickened.

6. Serve the sauce in a small bowl along with the tempura. In a separate bowl serve the grated daikon and ginger.

Serves 8

Nutritional Information Per Serving:
Calories: 288, Fat 16.4g (147 cal), Carbohydrate 24.4g (98 cal), Protein 10.8g (43 cal)
Added information: Saturated Fat 1.2g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 764mg, Dietary Fiber 1.1g

Source

Gems of Wisdom

Something to ponder on from Wailana's Gem of Wisdom:

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
Chinese proverb

And something to laugh about:

see more puppies

Top 10 Germiest jobs

The 10 Germiest Jobs in America: Is yours on the list?

* by Sarah Jio, Vitamin G, Glamour Magazine, on Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:00am PDT


We're getting over the stomach flu in my house (NOT fun), so believe me, I've been thinking about germs this week--specifically how to avoid them. So a recent headline caught my eye: The 10 Germiest Jobs in America. Of course, I had to click and learn more. Here's the scoop ...

Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, whose nickname is "Dr. Germ," spoke to ABC News recently, about the germiest professions in America:

1. Teacher/day-care worker
2. Cashier, bank employee
3. Tech support/computer repair
4. Doctor or nurse
5. Lab scientist
6. Police officer
7. Animal control officer
8. Janitor or plumber
9. Sanitation worker (AKA garbage man/woman)
10. Meat packer

I think I'd add pest control workers to the list. Just think of those poor guys (and gals) crawling around in dark basements in search of rats. Ewww.

Do you have a germy profession that you'd add to the list? A friend of mine is a librarian at a public library and she Purells her hands all day long. (Is Purell the best way to kill germs?)

And, a quick side note about Purell, and all other alcohol-based hand sanitizers folks: These don't "breed" bacteria as many people fear (I've been seeing some comments to this extent on the blog, so I thought I'd speak up). It's easy to come to this conclusion given all the warnings from health experts about superbugs and how bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, yada, yada, yada--but rest assured, hand sanitizing gels aren't the reason. These are alcohol based and don't contain any "antimicrobial" properties (most don't, anyway). It's antibacterial soaps and wipes that have some health experts worrying. The thought is that bacteria are becoming stronger and bolder as a result of our love-affair with antibacterial everything. So, Purel away--it just kills the bugs and doesn't make them grow bigger and stronger. And maybe read up on antibacterial soaps and products before using--just FYI.

From: Yahoo News

Wai lana's Carrot Cake

This is simply delicious!

Carrot Cake

Cake:
1 cup safflower oil
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup raw sugar or granulated fructose
1 1/2 cups water

4 cups unbleached white flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
2 cups carrots, grated
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Frosting:
2 cups low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp. fresh orange juice
Chopped walnuts for garnishing (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl combine the oil and sugars. Whisk in the water. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices.

2. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar/oil mixture and mix well. Add the carrots, nuts, and cranberries and mix well. Pour the batter into 2 lightly oiled and floured loaf pans. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool before frosting.

3. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the orange juice and mix briefly, then switch to high speed for 2-3 minutes. Spread the frosting evenly on the cake. Garnish with chopped walnuts if desired. This cake is best served at room temperature; refrigeration tends to dry it out.

Makes 2 loaf pans or 18 slices

Nutritional Information Per Serving:
Calories: 473, Fat 22.4g (201 cal), Carbohydrate 62.2g (249 cal), Protein 5.8g (23 cal)
Added information: Saturated Fat 4.7g, Cholesterol 18mg, Sodium 421mg, Dietary Fiber 1.9g

From: Wailana's Recipes

18 Facts About Cinnamon

18 Facts About Cinnamon
You may already know that cinnamon is good for you, but did you know there is a mythological creature called the Cinnamon Bird? Here are some interesting facts and trivia about this extraordinary spice.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) is a tree belonging to the Lauraceae family. The bark of the tree is what is used as a spice.

True cinnamon, or Ceylon cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon).

Cassia, a related spice, is sometimes sold as cinnamon but it is not "true cinnamon." Cassia is sometimes called "Indonesian cinnamon" or "Chinese cinnamon." In fact, most powdered cinnamon sold in the United States is actually cassia. It is harder to find true Ceylon cinnamon.

Cinnamon gets is scent and flavor from a chemical compound called cinnamaldehyde.

The word cinnamon comes from the Greek kinnamomon.

Cinnamon is mentioned in Chinese writings as far back as 2800 BC.

In the book of Exodus, God instructs Moses to make a holy anointing oil out of cinnamon, cassia, olive oil, myrrh, and hemp. (Exodus 30: 22-33).

There was an ancient belief in something called the Cinnamon Bird that supposedly lived in Arabia and used cinnamon to build its nests. Herodotus wrote that these birds flew to an unknown land to collect the cinnamon and took it back with them to Arabia. The Arabians got the cinnamon from the birds by tempting them with large chunks of raw meat. The birds took the heavy pieces of meat back to their nests, which caused the nests to fall and the cinnamon to rain down and be collected by the people.

Pliny the Elder wrote that the Cinnamon Bird did not exist and was a tale invented to raise the price of cinnamon.

Pliny also wrote that 350 grams of cinnamon were equal in value to five kilograms of silver.

In Ancient Egypt, cinnamon was used in the embalming process.

The Egyptians also used cinnamon medicinally and as a flavoring in food and beverages.

Cinnamon was used on funeral pyres in Ancient Rome. In 65 AD, Nero burned a year's supply of cinnamon at his second wife Poppaea Sabina's funeral in order to show the depth of his grief.

In the Middle Ages, cinnamon was only affordable by the wealthy elite of society. A person's social rank could be determined by the number of spices they could afford.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, there were power struggles among European nations over who would control Ceylon and the very lucrative cinnamon industry. In 1833, other countries began growing cinnamon and the need to control Ceylon diminished.

Hypocras is a famous centuries-old spiced wine that is spiced with cinnamon. It is named after Greek physician Hippocrates, who was believed to have invented it in the 5th century BC, though the exact origin is unclear. Hypocras is generally not produced commercially anymore, though it is still produced in small amounts in some regions of France.

Cinnamon has many health benefits. It has shown promise in the treatment of diabetes, arthritis, high cholesterol, memory function, and even leukemia and lymphoma.

Two teaspoons of cinnamon has about 12 calories.

mm.. I love cinnamon!

Ginger for Winter Ills

I could so totally use some of this today.

Ginger for Winter Ills
Ginger is well known for its spicy bite in Asian cooking, but not everyone knows it's also an effective remedy for a number of ailments, including colds and flu. Ginger is a stimulant that helps increase agni, the internal fire that regulates the digestive and circulatory systems. Low agni causes blockage and constipation, allowing toxins to accumulate, which creates a breeding ground for disease. Ginger helps by increasing the agni, which, in turn, burns away toxins and waste matter, improves digestion, and paves the way to recovery. Ginger even helps eliminate harmful bacteria and parasites.

Ginger is especially good during cold and flu season. It helps clear the sinuses, relieves congestion headaches, and reduces fever. It's also an expectorant that expels mucus from the lungs and throat. The most effective way to take it for colds and flu is ginger tea. Here's a simple recipe:

2 cups water
¼ cup diced fresh ginger
2 tsp. honey

Boil the water, then add the ginger and simmer for about 20 minutes. Strain into a cup and add 2 teaspoons of honey (or to taste). If you like, you can add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne pepper to the pot to increase the stimulating, heating effect. Let me forewarn you now, though: This tea is fiery! Sip it—don't gulp it down.

Wai Lana's weekly message

DANGER!: Pregnant Women and Cell Phone Use

Study Cautions Pregnant Women On Cell Phone Use
Cell-phone-using moms more likely to have unruly children






May 19, 2008

Cell Phones and Cancer
• Cancer Center Workers Warned about Cell Phone Risks
• New Mexico Allergy Sufferers Want Public Wi-Fi Ban
• Study Cautions Pregnant Women On Cell Phone Use
• Researcher: Cell Phones 'More Dangerous Than Smoking'
• Cell Phones May Provide False Sense Of Security
• Study Suggests Cell Phone-Salivary Gland Cancer Link
• Scientist Worries WiFi May Harm Children
• British Study To Examine Cell Phone-Health Links
• Study: Cell Phone Use Not Linked to Cancer Risk
• FDA Will Review Cell Phone-Cancer Link
• Supreme Court Clears Cell Phone Cancer Suits for Trial
• St. Louis Researchers Find Cell Phone Radiation Doesn't Promote Cancer
• Swedish Study Finds No Cell Phone-Cancer Link in First Decade of Use
• WHO Study Examines Cellphone Risks to Kids
• Judges OKs Cell Phone Safety Case
• Cell Phones May Harm Sperm Cells, British Study Finds
• Swedish Study Finds Cell Phone-Brain Tumor Link
• Firefly Promotes Cell Phone for Kids
• Researchers: Cell Phones Pose Cancer Risk for Kids
• British Lab Will Study Cell Phone Radiation
• Swedish Study Finds Higher Risk in Long-Term Users
• Cell Phones Probably Safe: British Study
• Court Blocks Cell Phone "Ray Blockers"
• Cell Phone Radiation Suit Dismissed
• Baltimore attorney Peter Angelos enters cell suit
• New Orleans judge lets cell-phone suit stand
• Report Finds "Legitimate Questions" About Cell Phone Safety
• Doctor Blames Cell Phones for His Brain Tumor
• Cell Phone Cancer Link
• Readers Report Their Problems
• Cell Phone Safety: An Editorial
A new study by UCLA and and Danish researchers has raised another cell phone health issue.

After surveying more than 13,000 children, the scientists have concluded that women who used a cell phone while pregnant are much more likely to have unruly children.

While previous health studies have linked radiation from cell phones with potential tumor formation, this is the first research to tie cell phone use to behavioral issues.

The researchers said children of mothers who used cell phones while pregnant, even infrequently, ran a higher risk of developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotional control, and relationships by the time they started school. The risk increased if the children themselves used cell phones before age seven.

Since the researchers could not pinpoint a reason that cell phone use could affect behavior, critics may suggest that the link may not actually exist. Instead, the link might be explained by cultural factors.

The researchers themselves do not discount that notion. They admit the results could have other reasons, such as that mothers who tended to talk on the phone a lot might pay less attention to their children. They say the study "should be interpreted with caution" and checked by further studies.
Greater risks

The risk of behavioral problems may pale in comparison to the possible effects of radiation highlighted earlier this year by British health researcher Dr. Vini Khurana.

"Mobile phones could have health consequences far greater than asbestos and smoking," he said.

Khurana – a neurosurgeon who has published more than 30 scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has written a paper based on the research, which is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

from:

Best Recipes: Steamed Pudding

I tried Wai Lana's Steamed Pudding recipe today. It's pretty good. I threw in some extra raisins and such and baked it longer than said, I like things nice and crunchy for the most part.. so I did a little over baking.

Steamed Pudding

Steamed pudding is a traditional English dessert that’s ideal to serve during the colder months when you feel like something more filling. Maple syrup is a natural nonrefined sweetener that is rich in potassium, calcium, and iron, with trace amounts of B vitamins.

1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup golden or maple syrup

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 cup milk
1/2 Tbsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup dates, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup pecans, macadamia nuts, or your favorite nuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups unbleached white flour

1. Oil a medium bowl that can fit inside a large covered saucepan. Set aside. Melt the first set of ingredients together in a saucepan. Set aside. Cream the butter and honey together in a medium bowl. Add the vinegar, milk, and vanilla and mix well.

2. In a separate bowl combine the third set of ingredients and mix well. Add to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Avoid overmixing.

3. Place the batter in the oiled bowl, filling it 1/2 to 2/3 full to leave room for the pudding to expand as it cooks. Pour the syrup over the pudding. Cover the bowl with foil to make a tight seal (a proper steaming bowl with a lid is best, but this works well too).

4. Set the bowl inside a large saucepan and fill the saucepan with water to halfway up the side of the bowl. Cover with a tightly fitting lid. Bring to a boil on high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 1 hour. Check the water level from time to time and top up as necessary.

5. After 1 hour, remove the bowl from the saucepan and check to see if the pudding is cooked by inserting a sharp knife. If the knife comes out clean, the pudding is cooked. If not, reseal and cook a little longer. Cool, then turn the pudding upside down on a serving plate. The syrup will fall nicely over the pudding.

Serves 8-10

Note: This recipe can be doubled; just be sure to increase the size of the bowl and saucepan accordingly. Also, for a vegan version, substitute soymilk and nonhydrogenated soy margarine for the milk and butter.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:
Calories: 351, Fat 7.6g (68 cal), Carbohydrate 66.8g (267 cal), Protein 4g (16 cal)
Added information: Saturated Fat 3.6g, Cholesterol 15mg, Sodium 213mg, Dietary Fiber 1.6g

5 Ways to Keep Pollution From Harming Your Heart

5 Ways to Keep Pollution From Harming Your Heart
By Sarah Klein

When he was 10 years old, John O’Connor was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse, a condition that can affect blood flow to and from the left side of the heart. Today, the 23-year-old eats a meat-free diet, exercises regularly, and meditates to lower his stress and keep his heart healthy. But there’s a hidden heart-health risk factor that he says he doesn’t know much about: air pollution.

O’Connor lives in Philadelphia, which ranks No. 11 on the American Lung Association’s list of most polluted U.S. cities in terms of unhealthy levels of ozone. Emerging research suggests that simply breathing the air in big cities like Philly increases O’Connor’s risk of having additional heart problems and potentially compromises his recovery if he had a heart attack.

A September study by Harvard University epidemiologists found that the microscopic particles in polluted air can decrease the heart’s electrical functioning in people with serious coronary artery disease. Avoiding air pollution can reduce the risk of heart attack, heart failure, and other complications, especially in patients who are recovering after being hospitalized, according to Diane R. Gold, MD, the study’s senior author and an associate professor of medicine and environmental health at Harvard.

In fact, air pollution plays a major role in the heart’s health. Smoking is a well-documented culprit in heart disease, but a 2003 study by New York University researchers found that a nonsmoker living in a polluted city has about the same risk of dying of heart disease as a former smoker.

To read more, click here

Asana of the Week

Bowing Pose - finish

Click here to watch the video.

Presidential Elections

With all eyes on the presidential race, here is a wise saying from Wai Lana's Meditation Station that we can apply to the elections:

A man who knows he is a fool is not a great fool.
Chuang-Tse

New Cool Eco Friendly Car

Air Cars: A New Wind for America's Roads?
by Jim Ostroff
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Kiplinger'sPersonalFinance

Air1.gif
Courtesy of MDI

A new carmaker has a plan for cheap, environmentally friendly cars to be built all over the country

An air-powered car? It may be available sooner than you think at a price tag that will hardly be a budget buster. The vehicle may not run like a speed racer on back road highways, but developer Zero Pollution Motors is betting consumers will be willing to fork over $20,000 for a vehicle that can motor around all day on nothing but air and a splash of salad oil, alcohol or possibly a pint of gasoline.

More from Kiplinger.com:

• Does It Pay to Buy That Hybrid?

• What You Need to Know About Leasing a Car Now

• Easy Ways to Save Money on Transportation

The expertise needed to build a compressed air car, or CAV, is not rocket science, either. Years-old, off-the-shelf technology uses compressed air to drive old-fashioned car engine pistons instead of combusting gas or diesel fuel to create a burst of air to do the same thing. Indian carmaker Tata has no qualms about the technology. It has already bought the rights to make the car for the huge Indian market.

The air car can tool along at a top speed of 35 mph for some 60 miles or so on a tank of compressed air, a sufficient distance for 80% of consumers to commute to work and back and complete daily chores.

Air2.gif
Courtesy of MDI

On highways, the CAV can cruise at interstate speeds for nearly 800 miles with a small motor that compresses outside air to keep the tank filled. The motor isn't finicky about fuel. It will burn gasoline or diesel as well as biodiesel, ethanol or vegetable oil.

This car leaves the highest-mpg vehicles you can buy right now in the dust. Even if it used only regular gasoline, the air car would average 106 mpg, more than double today's fuel sipping champ, the Toyota Prius. The air tank also can be refilled when it's not in use by being plugged into a wall socket and recharged with electricity as the motor compresses air.

Automakers aren't quite ready yet to gear up huge assembly line operations churning out air cars or set up glitzy dealer showrooms where you can ooh and aah over the color or style. But the vehicles will be built in factories that will make up to 8,000 vehicles a year, likely starting in 2011, and be sold directly to consumers.

There will be plants in nearly every state, based on the number of drivers in the state. California will have as many as 17 air car manufacturing plants, and there'll be around 12 in Florida, eight in New York, four in Georgia, while two in Connecticut will serve that state and Rhode Island.

More from Yahoo! Finance:

• 5 Ways to Save on Child-Care Costs

• Europe Returning to Land of In-Reach

• Get 'Em Before They're Gone Gifts
Visit the Family & Home Center

The technology goes back decades, but is coming together courtesy of two converging forces. First, new laws are likely to be enacted in a few years that will limit carbon dioxide emissions and force automakers to develop ultra-high mileage cars and those that emit minuscule amounts of or no gases linked with global warming. Plug-in electric hybrids will slash these emissions, but they'll be pricey at around $40,000 each and require some changes in infrastructure -- such as widespread recharge stations -- to be practical. Fuel cells that burn hydrogen to produce only water vapor still face daunting technical challenges.

Second, the relatively high cost of gas has expedited the air car's development. Yes, pump prices have plunged since July from record levels, but remain way higher than just a few years ago and continue to take a bite out of disposable income. Refiners will face carbon emission restraints, too, and steeply higher costs will be passed along at the pump.

Tata doesn't plan to produce the cars in the U.S. Instead, it plans to charge $15 million for the rights to the technology, a fully built turnkey auto assembly plant, tools, machinery, training and rights to use trademarks.

The CAV has a big hurdle: proving it can pass federal crash tests. Shiva Vencat, president and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors, says he's not worried. "The requirements can be modeled [on a computer] before anything is built and adjusted to ensure that the cars will pass" the crash tests. Vencat also is a vice president of MDI Inc., a French company that developed the air car.

From: Yahoo News

Neti

I saw this interesting article about neti in Yahoo today:

I am officially one of those neti pot nut jobs
* by Jessica Ashley, Shine staff, on Thu Oct 30, 2008 10:54am PDT


I woke up this morning to the bright sunshine and whir of the heater running. I pulled myself out of bed, yawned, stretched and sniffled.

It's prime cold season here and I know that by the runny nose and slips of paper begging families to wash hands frequently that my son brings home from preschool. I'm trying to combat six months of congestion and a Costco investment in lotion-laced Kleenex with a vitamin C commitment, drinking more water, getting more sleep and holding my breath as I walk though the adorable germ infestation that is my son's classroom. But this morning, I didn't need any of that. I was barely awake, I was sniffly and I was jonesing for my neti pot.

Yeah, I said jonesing.

I cleaned the bathroom a couple weeks ago and slipped my neti pot -- the lovely little porcelain wonder aptly described as "a cross between Aladdin’s lamp and your grandmother’s gravy boat" and a "nose bidet" that normally sits next to my moisturizer and hand soap on the counter -- into a drawer. I was having company and didn't need them or a babysitter to know I practice nasal irrigation so often I need to have the neti pot out as prominently as my toothpaste.

In the days that my neti pot lived in the drawer, I only used it a couple of times, far less often than has become the unexpected ritual over the past nine months. When I loaded it up with warm water and salt this morning, I wasn't exactly shaking, but I was definitely excited to let my old friend meet my neglected nasal passages.

If you're not down with neti pots or clearing the sinus cavity with a pot full of saline, no worries. I get it. It seems nasty. You should know, though, that if you ever complain of allergies or a cold or headaches or a blister on your baby toe, I will launch into my sales pitch on how the neti pot will help you if you can just get over letting gravity clear out all the grossness from behind your face.

Why would I not only embrace my nasal irrigation after only a few weeks off but also willingly serve as a Neti Pot Disciple? Because it works. From the day my friend told me that neti potting not only left her devoid of any trace of her horrible seasonal allergies but also left her feeling kind of high from all that oxygen now making its way into her brain, I was hooked. I bought the pot and closed my eyes to the strange and compelling horror that comes from watching water stream from one nostril and went for it.

With that first breath, a deeper and seemingly "cleaner" inhale than I'd had since being at the top of a mountain in Maui, I was convinced. And then my own summer allergies never appeared. Colds seemed shorter and I found sweet relief during a period of chronic migraines. All from the neti pot.

It's not a miracle. It's just ancient science at work on your sinuses. I believe, though, that it has worked wonders on me. Like lathering on a mud mask or sinking into the massage chair for a pedicure, I get a little thrill out of shoving a spout in my nose. Those people I laughed at in my head while I politely listened to their alternative methods of self-care? Yeah, I'm one of them now.

A little shaky, a little stuffed up and so ready for one more hit off the salty good stuff.

What about you? Have you been converted to the neti pot way?


P.S. Want to see a couple of crazy YouTube demos on neti pot usage? Start with this one that I swear is really a robot lady trying to abduct the masses through homeopathy (do her eyes ever move?). Then move on to this regular guy giving the neti a go. If you prefer to see a beautiful woman blowing water and God-only-knows-what out of her nose in your neti pot instructional videos, watch this one.

From: Yahoo Blogs

Personally I like to use Wai Lana's Neti pot, which makes doing neti very easy.


Neti is something which all yogis practice for clarity of the brain and for basic cleanliness, so it's definitely a good thing. It helps keep off sickness as well.
It's just like.. brushing your teeth.. cleaning your ears..
that kinda thing.

Sugar: the sweetest killer

I’ve been seriously reconsidering my love for sugar. Woe, woe- my sweets, my heart- caramel, chocolates, cakes, pies and cookies… shall I really leave you all behind? My heart aches for your sweetness (or maybe it’s more of my tongue). Ok, ok. Well, I can still have my honey, and at least the unrefined sugar, right? Here’s an article every sugar lover will not want to read, but must:

Refined Sugar - The Sweetest poison of All...
Why Sugar Is Toxic To The Body
In 1957, Dr. William Coda Martin tried to answer the question: When is a food a food and when is it a poison? His working definition of "poison" was: "Medically: Any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease. Physically: Any substance which inhibits the activity of a catalyst which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction."1 The dictionary gives an even broader definition for "poison": "to exert a harmful influence on, or to pervert".
Dr. Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. "What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals are present. Nature supplies these elements in each plant in quantities sufficient to metabolize the carbohydrate in that particular plant. There is no excess for other added carbohydrates. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results in the formation of 'toxic metabolite' such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars containing five carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites interfere with the respiration of the cells. They cannot get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally. In time, some of the cells die. This interferes with the function of a part of the body and is the beginning of degenerative disease."2
Refined sugar is lethal when ingested by humans because it provides only that which nutritionists describe as "empty" or "naked" calories. It lacks the natural minerals which are present in the sugar beet or cane.
In addition, sugar is worse than nothing because it drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination makes upon one's entire
system. So essential is balance to our bodies that we have many ways to provide against the sudden shock of a heavy intake of sugar. Minerals such as sodium (from salt), potassium and magnesium (from vegetables), and calcium (from the bones) are mobilized and used in chemical transmutation; neutral acids are produced which attempt to return the acid-alkaline balance factor of the blood to a more normal state.
Sugar taken every day produces a continuously overacid condition, and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally, in order to protect the blood, so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin. Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver's capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.
When these comparatively harmless places are completely filled, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat. The whole body is affected by their reduced ability, and abnormal blood pressure is created. The parasympathetic nervous system is affected; and organs governed by it, such as the small brain, become inactive or paralyzed. (Normal brain function is rarely thought of as being as biologic as digestion.) The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red corpuscles starts to change. An overabundance of white cells occurs, and the creation of tissue becomes slower. Our body's tolerance and immunizing power becomes more limited, so we cannot respond properly to extreme attacks, whether they be cold, heat, mosquitoes or microbes.
Excessive sugar has a strong mal-effect on the functioning of the brain. The key to orderly brain function is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables. The B vitamins play a major role in dividing glutamic acid into antagonistic-complementary compounds which produce a "proceed" or "control" response in the brain. B vitamins are also manufactured by symbiotic bacteria which live in our intestines. When refined sugar is taken daily, these bacteria wither and die, and our stock of B vitamins gets very low. Too much sugar makes one sleepy; our ability to calculate and remember is lost.
SUGAR: HARMFUL TO HUMANS AND ANIMALS
Shipwrecked sailors who ate and drank nothing but sugar and rum for nine days surely went through some of this trauma; the tales they had to tell created a big public relations problem for the sugar pushers. This incident occurred when a vessel carrying a cargo of sugar was shipwrecked in 1793. The five surviving sailors were finally rescued after being marooned for nine days. They were in a wasted condition due to starvation, having consumed nothing but sugar and rum. The eminent French physiologist F. Magendie was inspired by that incident to conduct a series of experiments with animals, the results of which he published in 1816. In the experiments, he fed dogs a diet of sugar or olive oil and water. All the dogs wasted and died.3
The shipwrecked sailors and the French physiologist's experimental dogs proved the same point. As a steady diet, sugar is worse than nothing. Plain water can keep you alive for quite some time. Sugar and water can kill you. Humans [and animals] are "unable to subsist on a diet of sugar".4 The dead dogs in Professor Magendie's laboratory alerted the sugar industry to the hazards of free scientific inquiry. From that day to this, the sugar industry has invested millions of dollars in behind-the-scenes, subsidized science. The best scientific names that money could buy have been hired, in the hope that they could one day come up with something at least pseudoscientific in the way of glad tidings about sugar.
It has been proved, however, that (1) sugar is a major factor in dental decay; (2) sugar in a person's diet does cause overweight; (3) removal of sugar from diets has cured symptoms of crippling, worldwide diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart illnesses. Sir Frederick Banting, the codiscoverer of insulin, noticed in 1929 in Panama that, among sugar plantation owners who ate large amounts of their refined stuff, diabetes was common. Among native cane-cutters, who only got to chew the raw cane, he saw no diabetes. However, the story of the public relations attempts on the part of the sugar manufacturers began in Britain in 1808 when the Committee of West India reported to the House of Commons that a prize of twenty-five guineas had been offered to anyone who could come up with the most "satisfactory" experiments to prove that unrefined sugar was good for feeding and fattening oxen, cows, hogs and sheep.5
Food for animals is often seasonal, always expensive. Sugar, by then, was dirt cheap. People weren't eating it fast enough. Naturally, the attempt to feed livestock with sugar and molasses in England in 1808 was a disaster. When the Committee on West India made its fourth report to the House of Commons, one Member of Parliament, John Curwin, reported that he had tried to feed sugar and molasses to calves without success. He suggested that perhaps someone should try again by sneaking sugar and molasses into skimmed milk. Had anything come of that, you can be sure the West Indian sugar merchants would have spread the news around the world. After this singular lack of success in pushing sugar in cow pastures, the West Indian sugar merchants gave up.
With undaunted zeal for increasing the market demand for the most important agricultural product of the West Indies, the Committee of West India was reduced to a tactic that has served the sugar pushers for almost 200 years: irrelevant and transparently silly testimonials from faraway, inaccessible people with some kind of "scientific" credentials. While preparing his epochal volume, A History of Nutrition, published in 1957, Professor E. V. McCollum (Johns Hopkins university), sometimes called America's foremost nutritionist and certainly a pioneer in the field, reviewed approximately 200,000 published scientific papers, recording experiments with food, their properties, their utilization and their effects on animals and men. The material covered the period from the mid-18th century to 1940. From this great repository of scientific inquiry, McCollum selected those experiments which he regarded as significant "to relate the story of progress in discovering human error in this segment of science [of nutrition]".
Professor McCollum failed to record a single controlled scientific experiment with sugar between 1816 and 1940. unhappily, we must remind ourselves that scientists today, and always, accomplish little without a sponsor. The protocols of modern science have compounded the costs of scientific inquiry. We have no right to be surprised when we read the introduction to McCollum's A History of Nutrition and find that "The author and publishers are indebted to The Nutrition Foundation, Inc., for a grant provided to meet a portion of the cost of publication of this book". What, you might ask, is The Nutrition Foundation, Inc.? The author and the publishers don't tell you. It happens to be a front organization for the leading sugar-pushing conglomerates in the food business, including the American Sugar Refining Company, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Curtis Candy Co., General Foods, General Mills, Nestlé Co., Pet Milk Co. and Sunshine Biscuits-about 45 such companies in all. Perhaps the most significant thing about McCollum's 1957 history was what he left out: a monumental earlier work described by an eminent Harvard professor as "one of those epochal pieces of research which makes every other investigator desirous of kicking himself because he never thought of doing the same thing".
In the 1930s, a research dentist from Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Weston A. Price, traveled all over the world-from the lands of the Eskimos to the South Sea Islands, from Africa to New Zealand. His Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects,6 which is illustrated with hundreds of photographs, was first published in 1939. Dr. Price took the whole world as his laboratory. His devastating conclusion, recorded in horrifying detail in area after area, was simple. People who live under so-called backward primitive conditions had excellent teeth and wonderful general health. They ate natural, unrefined food from their own locale. As soon as refined, sugared foods were imported as a result of contact with "civilization," physical degeneration began in a way that was definitely observable within a single generation. Any credibility the sugar pushers have is based on our ignorance of works like that of Dr. Price.
Sugar manufacturers keep trying, hoping and contributing generous research grants to colleges and universities; but the research laboratories never come up with anything solid the manufacturers can use. Invariably, the research results are bad news. "Let us go to the ignorant savage, consider his way of eating and be wise," Harvard professor Ernest Hooten said in Apes, Men, and Morons.7 "Let us cease pretending that toothbrushes and toothpaste are any more important than shoe brushes and shoe polish. It is store food that has given us store teeth." When the researchers bite the hands that feed them, and the news gets out, it's embarrassing all around. In 1958, Time magazine reported that a Harvard biochemist and his assistants had worked with myriads of mice for more than ten years, bankrolled by the Sugar Research Foundation, Inc. to the tune of $57,000, to find out how sugar causes dental cavities and how to prevent this. It took them ten years to discover that there was no way to prevent sugar causing dental decay. When the researchers reported their findings in the Dental Association Journal, their source of money dried up. The Sugar Research Foundation withdrew its support. The more that the scientists disappointed them, the more the sugar pushers had to rely on the ad men.
SUCROSE: "PURE" ENERGY AT A PRICE
When calories became the big thing in the 1920s, and everybody was learning to count them, the sugar pushers turned up with a new pitch. They boasted there were 2,500 calories in a pound of sugar. A little over a quarter-pound of sugar would produce 20 per cent of the total daily quota. "If you could buy all your food energy as cheaply as you buy calories in sugar," they told us, "your board bill for the year would be very low. If sugar were seven cents a pound, it would cost less than $35 for a whole year." A very inexpensive way to kill yourself. "Of course, we don't live on any such unbalanced diet," they admitted later. "But that figure serves to point out how inexpensive sugar is as an energy-building food. What was once a luxury only a privileged few could enjoy is now a food for the poorest of people."
Later, the sugar pushers advertised that sugar was chemically pure, topping Ivory soap in that department, being 99.9 per cent pure against Ivory's vaunted 99.44 per cent. "No food of our everyday diet is purer," we were assured. What was meant by purity, besides the unarguable fact that all vitamins, minerals, salts, fibers and proteins had been removed in the refining process? Well, the sugar pushers came up with a new slant on purity. "You don't have to sort it like beans, wash it like rice. Every grain is like every other. No waste attends its use. No useless bones like in meat, no grounds like coffee." "Pure" is a favorite adjective of the sugar pushers because it means one thing to the chemists and another thing to the ordinary mortals. When honey is labeled pure, this means that it is in its natural state (stolen directly from the bees who made it), with no adulteration with sucrose to stretch it and no harmful chemical residues which may have been sprayed on the flowers. It does not mean that the honey is free from minerals like iodine, iron, calcium, phosphorus or multiple vitamins. So effective is the purification process which sugar cane and beets undergo in the refineries that sugar ends up as chemically pure as the morphine or the heroin a chemist has on the laboratory shelves.
What nutritional virtue this abstract chemical purity represents, the sugar pushers never tell us. Beginning with World War I, the sugar pushers coated their propaganda with a preparedness pitch. "Dietitians have known the high food value of sugar for a long time," said an industry tract of the 1920s. "But it took World War I to bring this home. The energy-building power of sugar reaches the muscles in minutes and it was of value to soldiers as a ration given them just before an attack was launched." The sugar pushers have been harping on the energy-building power of sucrose for years because it contains nothing else. Caloric energy and habit-forming taste: that's what sucrose has, and nothing else. All other foods contain energy plus. All foods contain some nutrients in the way of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins or minerals, or all of these. Sucrose contains caloric energy, period.
The "quick" energy claim the sugar pushers talk about, which drives reluctant doughboys over the top and drives children up the wall, is based on the fact that refined sucrose is not digested in the mouth or the stomach but passes directly to the lower intestines and thence to the bloodstream. The extra speed with which sucrose enters the bloodstream does more harm than good. Much of the public confusion about refined sugar is compounded by language. Sugars are classified by chemists as "carbohydrates". This manufactured word means "a substance containing carbon with oxygen and hydrogen". If chemists want to use these hermetic terms in their laboratories when they talk to one another, fine. The use of the word "carbohydrate" outside the laboratory-especially in food labeling and advertising lingo-to describe both natural, complete cereal grains (which have been a principal food of mankind for thousands of years) and man-refined sugar (which is a manufactured drug and principal poison of mankind for only a few hundred years) is demonstrably wicked. This kind of confusion makes possible the flimflam practiced by sugar pushers to confound anxious mothers into thinking kiddies need sugar to survive.
The use of the word "carbohydrate" to describe sugar is deliberately misleading. Since the improved labeling of nutritional properties was required on packages and cans, refined carbohydrates like sugar are lumped together with those carbohydrates which may or may not be refined. The several types of carbohydrates are added together for an overall carbohydrate total. Thus, the effect of the label is to hide the sugar content from the unwary buyer. Chemists add to the confusion by using the word "sugar" to describe an entire group of substances that are similar but not identical. Glucose is a sugar found usually with other sugars, in fruits and vegetables. It is a key material in the metabolism of all plants and animals. Many of our principal foods are converted into glucose in our bodies. Glucose is always present in our bloodstream, and it is often called "blood sugar". Dextrose, also called "corn sugar", is derived synthetically from starch. Fructose is fruit sugar. Maltose is malt sugar. Lactose is milk sugar. Sucrose is refined sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beet. Glucose has always been an essential element in the human bloodstream. Sucrose addiction is something new in the history of the human animal.
To use the word "sugar" to describe two substances which are far from being identical, which have different chemical structures and which affect the body in profoundly different ways compounds confusion. It makes possible more flimflam from the sugar pushers who tell us how important sugar is as an essential component of the human body, how it is oxidized to produce energy, how it is metabolized to produce warmth, and so on. They're talking about glucose, of course, which is manufactured in our bodies. However, one is led to believe that the manufacturers are talking about the sucrose which is made in their refineries. When the word "sugar" can mean the glucose in your blood as well as the sucrose in your Coca-Cola, it's great for the sugar pushers but it's rough on everybody else.
People have been bamboozled into thinking of their bodies the way they think of their check accounts. If they suspect they have low blood sugar, they are programmed to snack on vending machine candies and sodas in order to raise their blood sugar level. Actually, this is the worst thing to do. The level of glucose in their blood is apt to be low because they are addicted to sucrose. People who kick sucrose addiction and stay off sucrose find that the glucose level of their blood returns to normal and stays there. Since the late 1960s, millions of Americans have returned to natural food. A new type of store, the natural food store, has encouraged many to become dropouts from the supermarket. Natural food can be instrumental in restoring health. Many people, therefore, have come to equate the word "natural" with "healthy".
So the sugar pushers have begun to pervert the word "natural" in order to mislead the public. "Made from natural ingredients", the television sugar-pushers tell us about product after product. The word "from" is snot accented on television. It should be. Even refined sugar is made from natural ingredients. There is nothing new about that. The natural ingredients are cane and beets. But that four-letter word "from" hardly suggests that 90 per cent of the cane and beet have been removed. Heroin, too, could be advertised as being made from natural ingredients. The opium poppy is as natural as the sugar beet. It's what man does with it that tells the story. If you want to avoid sugar in the supermarket, there is only one sure way. Don't buy anything unless it says on the label prominently, in plain English: "No sugar added". use of the word "carbohydrate" as a "scientific" word for sugar has become a standard defense strategy with sugar pushers and many of their medical apologists. It's their security blanket.
CORRECT FOOD COMBINING
Whether it's sugared cereal or pastry and black coffee for breakfast, whether it's hamburgers and Coca-Cola for lunch or the full "gourmet" dinner in the evening, chemically the average American diet is a formula that guarantees bubble, bubble, stomach trouble. unless you've taken too much insulin and, in a state of insulin shock, need sugar as an antidote, hardly anyone ever has cause to take sugar alone. Humans need sugar as much as they need the nicotine in tobacco. Crave it is one thing-need it is another. From the days of the Persian Empire to our own, sugar has usually been used to hop up the flavor of other food and drink, as an ingredient in the kitchen or as a condiment at the table. Let us leave aside for the moment the known effect of sugar (long-term and short-term) on the entire system and concentrate on the effect of sugar taken in combination with other daily foods.
When Grandma warned that sugared cookies before meals "will spoil your supper", she knew what she was talking about. Her explanation might not have satisfied a chemist but, as with many traditional axioms from the Mosaic law on kosher food and separation in the kitchen, such rules are based on years of trial and error and are apt to be right on the button. Most modern research in combining food is a labored discovery of the things Grandma took for granted. Any diet or regimen undertaken for the single purpose of losing weight is dangerous, by definition. Obesity is talked about and treated as a disease in 20th-century America. Obesity is not a disease. It is only a symptom, a sign, a warning that your body is out of order. Dieting to lose weight is as silly and dangerous as taking aspirin to relieve a headache before you know the reason for the headache.
Getting rid of a symptom is like turning off an alarm. It leaves the basic cause untouched. Any diet or regimen undertaken with any objective short of restoration of total health of your body is dangerous. Many overweight people are undernourished. (Dr. H. Curtis Wood stresses this point in his 1971 book, Overfed But undernourished.) Eating less can aggravate this condition, unless one is concerned with the quality of the food instead of just its quantity. Many people-doctors included-assume that if weight is lost, fat is lost. This is not necessarily so. Any diet which lumps all carbohydrates together is dangerous. Any diet which does not consider the quality of carbohydrates and makes the crucial life-and-death distinction between natural, unrefined carbohydrates like whole grains and vegetables and man-refined carbohydrates like sugar and white flour is dangerous. Any diet which includes refined sugar and white flour, no matter what "scientific" name is applied to them, is dangerous.
Kicking sugar and white flour and substituting whole grains, vegetables and natural fruits in season, is the core of any sensible natural regimen. Changing the quality of your carbohydrates can change the quality of your health and life. If you eat natural food of good quality, quantity tends to take care of itself. Nobody is going to eat a half-dozen sugar beets or a whole case of sugar cane. Even if they do, it will be less dangerous than a few ounces of sugar. Sugar of all kinds-natural sugars, such as those in honey and fruit (fructose), as well as the refined white stuff (sucrose)-tends to arrest the secretion of gastric juices and have an inhibiting effect on the stomach's natural ability to move. Sugars are not digested in the mouth, like cereals, or in the stomach, like animal flesh. When taken alone, they pass quickly through the stomach into the small intestine. When sugars are eaten with other foods-perhaps meat and bread in a sandwich-they are held up in the stomach for a while.
The sugar in the bread and the Coke sit there with the hamburger and the bun waiting for them to be digested. While the stomach is working on the animal protein and the refined starch in the bread, the addition of the sugar practically guarantees rapid acid fermentation under the conditions of warmth and moisture existing in the stomach. One lump of sugar in your coffee after a sandwich is enough to turn your stomach into a fermenter. One soda with a hamburger is enough to turn your stomach into a still. Sugar on cereal-whether you buy it already sugared in a box or add it yourself-almost guarantees acid fermentation.
Since the beginning of time, natural laws were observed, in both senses of that word, when it came to eating foods in combination. Birds have been observed eating insects at one period in the day and seeds at another. Other animals tend to eat one food at a time. Flesh-eating animals take their protein raw and straight. In the Orient, it is traditional to eat yang before yin. Miso soup (fermented soybean protein, yang) for breakfast; raw fish (more yang protein) at the beginning of the meal; afterwards comes the rice (which is less yang than the miso and fish); and then the vegetables which are yin. If you ever eat with a traditional Japanese family and you violate this order, the Orientals (if your friends) will correct you courteously but firmly. The law observed by Orthodox Jews prohibits many combinations at the same meal, especially flesh and dairy products. Special utensils for the dairy meal and different utensils for the flesh meal reinforce that taboo at the food's source in the kitchen.
Man learned very early in the game what improper combinations of food could do to the human system. When he got a stomach ache from combining raw fruit with grain, or honey with porridge, he didn't reach for an antacid tablet. He learned not to eat that way. When gluttony and excess became widespread, religious codes and commandments were invoked against it. Gluttony is a capital sin in most religions; but there are no specific religious warnings or commandments against refined sugar because sugar abuse-like drug abuse-did not appear on the world scene until centuries after holy books had gone to press.
"Why must we accept as normal what we find in a race of sick and weakened human beings?" Dr. Herbert M. Shelton asks. "Must we always take it for granted that the present eating practices of civilized men are normal?... Foul stools, loose stools, impacted stools, pebbly stools, much foul gas, colitis, hemorrhoids, bleeding with stools, the need for toilet paper are swept into the orbit of the normal."8
When starches and complex sugars (like those in honey and fruits) are digested, they are broken down into simple sugars called "monosaccharides", which are usable substances-nutriments. When starches and sugars are taken together and undergo fermentation, they are broken down into carbon dioxide, acetic acid, alcohol and water. With the exception of the water, all these are unusable substances-poisons. When proteins are digested, they are broken down into amino acids, which are usable substances-nutriments. When proteins are taken with sugar, they putrefy; they are broken down into a variety of ptomaines and leucomaines, which are nonusable substances-poisons. Enzymic digestion of foods prepares them for use by our body. Bacterial decomposition makes them unfit for use by our body. The first process gives us nutriments; the second gives us poisons.
Much that passes for modern nutrition is obsessed with a mania for quantitative counting. The body is treated like a check account. Deposit calories (like dollars) and withdraw energy. Deposit proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals-balanced quantitatively-and the result, theoretically, is a healthy body. People qualify as healthy today if they can crawl out of bed, get to the office and sign in. If they can't make it, call the doctor to qualify for sick pay, hospitalization, rest cure-anything from a day's pay without working to an artificial kidney, courtesy of the taxpayers. But what does it profit someone if the theoretically required calories and nutrients are consumed daily, yet this random eat-on-the-run, snack-time collection of foods ferments and putrefies in the digestive tract? What good is it if the body is fed protein, only to have it putrefy in the gastrointestinal canal? Carbohydrates that ferment in the digestive tract are converted into alcohol and acetic acid, not digestible monosaccharides. "To derive sustenance from foods eaten, they must be digested," Shelton warned years ago. "They must not rot." Sure, the body can get rid of poisons through the urine and the pores; the amount of poisons in the urine is taken as an index to what's going on in the intestine. The body does establish a tolerance for these poisons, just as it adjusts gradually to an intake of heroin. But, says Shelton, "the discomfort from accumulation of gas, the bad breath, and foul and unpleasant odors are as undesirable as are the poisons".9
SUGAR AND MENTAL HEALTH
In the Dark Ages, troubled souls were rarely locked up for going off their rocker. Such confinement began in the Age of Enlightenment, after sugar made the transition from apothecary's prescription to candymaker's confection. "The great confinement of the insane", as one historian calls it,10 began in the late 17th century, after sugar consumption in Britain had zoomed in 200 years from a pinch or two in a barrel of beer, here and there, to more than two million pounds per year. By that time, physicians in London had begun to observe and record terminal physical signs and symptoms of the "sugar blues".
Meanwhile, when sugar eaters did not manifest obvious terminal physical symptoms and the physicians were professionally bewildered, patients were no longer pronounced bewitched, but mad, insane, emotionally disturbed. Laziness, fatigue, debauchery, parental displeasure-any one problem was sufficient cause for people under twenty-five to be locked up in the first Parisian mental hospitals. All it took to be incarcerated was a complaint from parents, relatives or the omnipotent parish priest. Wet nurses with their babies, pregnant youngsters, retarded or defective children, senior citizens, paralytics, epileptics, prostitutes or raving lunatics-anyone wanted off the streets and out of sight was put away. The mental hospital succeeded witch-hunting and heresy-hounding as a more enlightened and humane method of social control. The physician and priest handled the dirty work of street sweeping in return for royal favors.
Initially, when the General Hospital was established in Paris by royal decree, one per cent of the city's population was locked up. From that time until the 20 century, as the consumption of sugar went up and up-especially in the cities-so did the number of people who were put away in the General Hospital. Three hundred years later, the "emotionally disturbed" can be turned into walking automatons, their brains controlled with psychoactive drugs. Today, pioneers of orthomolecular psychiatry, such as Dr. Abram Hoffer, Dr. Allan Cott, Dr. A. Cherkin as well as Dr. Linus Pauling, have confirmed that mental illness is a myth and that emotional disturbance can be merely the first symptom of the obvious inability of the human system to handle the stress of sugar dependency. In Orthomolecular Psychiatry, Dr. Pauling writes: "The functioning of the brain and nervous tissue is more sensitively dependent on the rate of chemical reactions than the functioning of other organs and tissues. I believe that mental disease is for the most part caused by abnormal reaction rates, as determined by genetic constitution and diet, and by abnormal molecular concentrations of essential substances. Selection of food (and drugs) in a world that is undergoing rapid scientific and technological change may often be far from the best."11
In Megavitamin B3 Therapy for Schizophrenia, Dr. Abram Hoffer notes: "Patients are also advised to follow a good nutritional program with restriction of sucrose and sucrose-rich foods."12 Clinical research with hyperactive and psychotic children, as well as those with brain injuries and learning disabilities, has shown: "An abnormally high family history of diabetes-that is, parents and grandparents who cannot handle sugar; an abnormally high incidence of low blood glucose, or functional hypoglycemia in the children themselves, which indicates that their systems cannot handle sugar; dependence on a high level of sugar in the diets of the very children who cannot handle it. "Inquiry into the dietary history of patients diagnosed as schizophrenic reveals the diet of their choice is rich in sweets, candy, cakes, coffee, caffeinated beverages, and foods prepared with sugar. These foods, which stimulate the adrenals, should be eliminated or severely restricted."13
The avant-garde of modern medicine has rediscovered what the lowly sorceress learned long ago through painstaking study of nature. "In more than twenty years of psychiatric work," writes DR Thomas Szasz, "I have never known a clinical psychologist to report, on the basis of a projective test, that the subject is a normal, mentally healthy person. While some witches may have survived dunking, no 'madman' survives psychological testing...there is no behavior or person that a modern psychiatrist cannot plausibly diagnose as abnormal or ill."14 So it was in the 17th century. Once the doctor or the exorcist had been called in, he was under pressure to do something. When he tried and failed, the poor patient had to be put away. It is often said that surgeons bury their mistakes. Physicians and psychiatrists put them away; lock 'em up.
In the 1940s, DR John Tintera rediscovered the vital importance of the endocrine system, especially the adrenal glands, in "pathological mentation"-or "brain boggling". In 200 cases under treatment for hypoadrenocorticism (the lack of adequate adrenal cortical hormone production or imbalance among these hormones), he discovered that the chief complaints of his patients were often similar to those found in persons whose systems were unable to handle sugar: fatigue, nervousness, depression, apprehension, craving for sweets, inability to handle alcohol, inability to concentrate, allergies, low blood pressure. Sugar blues!
DR Tintera finally insisted that all his patients submit to a four-hour glucose tolerance test (GTT) to find out whether or not they could handle sugar. The results were so startling that the laboratories double-checked their techniques, then apologized for what they believed to be incorrect readings. What mystified them was the low, flat curves derived from disturbed, early adolescents. This laboratory procedure had been previously carried out only for patients with physical findings presumptive of diabetes. Dorland's definition of schizophrenia (Bleuler's dementia praecox) includes the phrase, "often recognized during or shortly after adolescence", and further, in reference to hebephrenia and catatonia, "coming on soon after the onset of puberty". These conditions might seem to arise or become aggravated at puberty, but probing into the patient's past will frequently reveal indications which were present at birth, during the first year of life, and through the preschool and grammar school years. Each of these periods has its own characteristic clinical picture.
This picture becomes more marked at pubescence and often causes school officials to complain of juvenile delinquency or underachievement. A glucose tolerance test at any of these periods could alert parents and physicians and could save innumerable hours and small fortunes spent in looking into the child's psyche and home environment for maladjustments of questionable significance in the emotional development of the average child. The negativism, hyperactivity and obstinate resentment of discipline are absolute indications for at least the minimum laboratory tests: urinalysis, complete bloodcount, PBI determination, and the five-hour glucose tolerance test. A GTT can be performed on a young child by the micro-method without undue trauma to the patient. As a matter of fact, I have been urging that these four tests be routine for all patients, even before a history or physical examination is undertaken. In almost all discussions on drug addiction, alcoholism and schizophrenia, it is claimed that there is no definite constitutional type that falls prey to these afflictions.
Almost universally, the statement is made that all of these individuals are emotionally immature. It has long been our goal to persuade every physician, whether oriented toward psychiatry, genetics or physiology, to recognize that one type of endocrine individual is involved in the majority of these cases: the hypoadrenocortic.15 Tintera published several epochal medical papers. Over and over, he emphasized that improvement, alleviation, palliation or cure was "dependent upon the restoration of the normal function of the total organism". His first prescribed item of treatment was diet. Over and over again, he said that "the importance of diet cannot be overemphasized". He laid out a sweeping permanent injunction against sugar in all forms and guises.
While Egas Moniz of Portugal was receiving a Nobel Prize for devising the lobotomy operation for the treatment of schizophrenia, Tintera's reward was to be harassment and hounding by the pundits of organized medicine. While Tintera's sweeping implication of sugar as a cause of what was called "schizophrenia" could be confined to medical journals, he was let alone, ignored. He could be tolerated-if he stayed in his assigned territory, endocrinology. Even when he suggested that alcoholism was related to adrenals that had been whipped by sugar abuse, they let him alone; because the medicos had decided there was nothing in alcoholism for them except aggravation, they were satisfied to abandon it to Alcoholics Anonymous.
However, when Tintera dared to suggest in a magazine of general circulation that "it is ridiculous to talk of kinds of allergies when there is only one kind, which is adrenal glands impaired...by sugar", he could no longer be ignored. The allergists had a great racket going for themselves. Allergic souls had been entertaining each other for years with tall tales of exotic allergies-everything from horse feathers to lobster tails. Along comes someone who says none of this matters: take them off sugar and keep them off it.
Perhaps Tintera's untimely death in 1969 at the age of fifty-seven made it easier for the medical profession to accept discoveries that had once seemed as far out as the simple oriental medical thesis of genetics and diet, yin and yang. Today, doctors all over the world are repeating what Tintera announced years ago: nobody, but nobody, should ever be allowed to begin what is called "psychiatric treatment", anyplace, anywhere, unless and until they have had a glucose tolerance test to discover if they can handle sugar. So-called preventive medicine goes further and suggests that since we only think we can handle sugar because we initially have strong adrenals, why wait until they give us signs and signals that they're worn out? Take the load off now by eliminating sugar in all forms and guises, starting with that soda pop you have in your hand. The mind truly boggles when one glances over what passes for medical history. Through the centuries, troubled souls have been barbecued for bewitchment, exorcised for possession, locked up for insanity, tortured for masturbatory madness, psychiatrised for psychosis, lobotomised for schizophrenia. How many patients would have listened if the local healer had told them that the only thing ailing them was sugar blues?

From: GHC Health