Organic farms have historically been small, family-run businesses producing for local markets. But as conventional agribusiness and the supermarkets move in, organic shops are expanding, being bought up, and increasingly resembling their non-organic counterparts.

Under pressure by Wal-Mart, many multinational food corporations have developed organic versions of their best-selling brands, including Heinz, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Groupe Danone, Nestle, Unilever Bestfoods, RHM, Mars/Masterfoods, Kraft, Premier Foods, Northern Foods and Pepsi-Co.

You can now get organic ketchup, rice crispies, and ready meals — what started out as a method of producing healthy and nutritious food is now turning out highly industrialized multi-ingredient products.

These industrial organic foods are being marketed along with vitamin-enriched products and functional foods; in the eyes of General Mills, organic is not a revolution so much as a market niche.

Sources:
Organic Consumers Organization February 2008

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Im not at all surprised at this development; it was bound to happen. How could any self-respecting, profit-driven, integrity-challenged food company ever let a swelling market niche go untapped?

That doesnt mean you have to buy into their watered-down, kinda-sorta-organic-even-though-mass-processed versions of what could be real food, however.

You still have the power to circumvent these con-jobs and demand the real deal.

Its mainly a matter of knowing where to find locally harvested organic foods, buying from sources you want to see thrive, and reading packaged food labels like theyre the hottest thing from Oprahs book club.

The fact of the matter is; true organic IS better. Both for you and for the environment.

What is Organic?

To be labeled certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the food must be free of most:

Pesticides
Synthetic fertilizers
Hormones
Antibiotics
Genetic modification
Irradiation
But many argue that true organic food also entails respect for locally produced food, respect for livestock and employees, and environmentally sustainable practices — something that is rarely a goal of large-scale food manufacturers.

Now there is also “organic” food being imported from countries such as China, Sierra Leone and Brazil, where standards, wages, and growing conditions are difficult, if not impossible, to monitor and enforce.

This is one of the reasons why buying locally farmed organic produce is your best bet when making your shopping decisions.

Organic — More Nutrients, Less Toxins

Back in 1998, Regina Hildwine of the National Food Processors Association told the press during the debate over organic standards, “Organic does not mean safer. Organic does not mean healthier.”

Well, those famous last words were NOT the last word on this issue. Studies have demonstrated, again and again, that organic foods are FAR more nutritious than their conventionally grown counterparts.

One four-year long, $25-million study into organic food — the largest of its kind to date — found that:

Organic fruit and vegetables contain up to 40 percent more antioxidants
Organic produce had higher levels of beneficial minerals like iron and zinc
Milk from organic herds contained up to 90 percent more antioxidants
They even found that eating organic foods can help increase the nutrient uptake in people who dont eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables per day!

And, that doesnt even take into account the health benefits of simply reducing your chemical intake, hence reducing your overall toxic load.

The 2007 report Hazardous Pesticides in the European Parliament reveals the disturbing truth that conventionally grown fruits are far more toxic than you might think.

Eight fruit samples, randomly selected at the GB express supermarket in the EU Parliament building in Brussels, were found to be contaminated with no less than 28 different pesticide residues, averaging almost five residues per fruit.

These chemicals included:

10 known carcinogens
3 neurotoxins
3 reproductive and developmental toxins
8 endocrine disruptors
Two of the chemicals are classified as Highly Hazardous by the World Health Organization (WHO), and three of the samples contained such high levels of residue that they were, officially, illegal.

That said, do keep in mind that even though organic vegetables (just like fruits) are better, dont use this as an excuse to avoid non-organic vegetables. If for whatever reason you cant obtain organic vegetables, non-organic veggies are a much healthier option than none at all.

Remember also, if youre a Carb Type, most of your carbohydrates should actually be in the form of vegetable carbs, not grain carbs. Loading up on grains instead of vegetables because its difficult to find organic veggies will likely lead to a health disaster.

Organic Farming Protects Your Environment and Your Health

Organic farming differs from conventional farming in the methods used to grow crops, which has a major impact on your environment.

For example:

Where conventional farmers apply chemical fertilizers to the soil to grow their crops, organic farmers feed and build soil with natural fertilizer, which is far less likely to cause any long-term environmental complications.

Conventional farmers use insecticides to get rid of insects and disease, while organic farmers use natural methods such as insect predators and barriers for this purpose.

Conventional farmers control weed growth by applying synthetic herbicides, but organic farmers use crop rotation, tillage, hand weeding, cover crops and mulches to control weeds.

While herbicides are not nearly as dangerous as insecticides, they still are synthetic chemicals introduced into the environment and clearly are not something that will improve your health.
The article Better Beef, written by California rancher Dave Evans and published in the March 2008 issue of Best Life magazine, gives a great in-depth view of the many benefits of grass-fed beef, from environmental sustainability to the sheer difference in taste and nutrient content of the beef.

Evans also offers this list of grass-fed beef ranchers in the United States, where you can find good-quality meats:

Panorama Meats , Black Angus and Red Angus
www.panoramameats.com
Country Natural Beef , Hereford and Angus
www.countrynaturalbeef.com
Tallgrass Beef
www.tallgrassbeef.com
Niman Ranch , A network of more than 600 independent farmers and ranchers, and probably the easiest to find locally
www.nimanranch.com
Pacific Village , Entirely grass-fed cattle since 2002
www.newseasonsmarket.com

Increases in immune system disasters have greatly increased in recent years. Asthma cases, hay fever, eczema, food allergies, lupus, multiple sclerosis and other afflictions are all on the rise.

Asthma, hay fever, eczema and food allergies are all “allergic diseases” caused by your immune system responding to substances that are ordinarily harmless, such as pollen or peanuts. Autoimmune diseases, which include lupus, MS, Type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, also result from your body’s defense mechanisms malfunctioning, causing your immune system to attack parts of your body such as your nerves, pancreas or digestive tract.

Experts estimate that many allergies and immune-system diseases have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the last few decades. Some studies indicate that more than half of the U.S. population has at least one allergy.

Many researchers suspect the increase has an explanation rooted in aspects of modern living — including the “hygiene hypothesis,” which blames growing up in increasingly sterile homes. Others have pointed to changes in diet, air pollution, and even the rise in obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

One reason that many researchers suspect something about modern living is to blame is that the increases show up largely in highly developed countries in Europe and North America. The illnesses have only started to rise in other countries as they have become more developed.
Sources:
Washington Post March 4, 2008

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

As society in general becomes more sterile, it is causing real problems for your immune system, which is becoming increasingly unable to differentiate between real threats and harmless things like pollen and dust-bunnies.

Think about it: how many people do you know who carry a bottle of antibacterial hand sanitizer with them wherever they go? Meanwhile, youre exposed to antibiotics, in your food and by prescription, while most of the food supply is pasteurized or otherwise treated to remove both good and bad bacteria.

And this is the key: while everyone was so busy killing all of those germs, they didnt stop to think about what this would mean for the future generations. Children are now growing up without being exposed to the bacteria, viruses and parasites that have existed throughout the world — even in developed countries like the United States — since the beginning of time.

To some extent, this is a good thing. But to childrens immune systems, which are not being exposed to bacteria and viruses like they were in the past, it results in an excessive immune response against a routine thing, like a peanut, resulting in allergies and autoimmune diseases.

An Overly Sterile Immune System is Not a Good Thing

Simply speaking, your immune system is composed of two main groups that work together to protect you. One arm of your immune system deploys specialized white blood cells, called Th1 lymphocytes, that direct an assault on infected cells throughout your body.

Counterbalancing this, another arm of your immune system attacks intruders even earlier. It produces antibodies that try to block dangerous microbes from invading your body’s cells in the first place. This latter strategy uses a different variety of white blood cells, called Th2 lymphocytes. The Th2 system also happens to drive allergic responses to foreign organisms.

At birth, an infant’s immune system appears to rely primarily on the Th2 system. But the hygiene hypothesis suggests that the Th1 system can grow stronger only if it gets exercise, either through fighting infections or through encounters with certain harmless microbes. Without such stimulation, the Th2 system flourishes and the immune system tends to react with allergic responses more easily.

In other words, the hygiene hypothesis posits that children not being exposed to viruses and other environmental factors results in their not being able to build up resistance. This could make them more vulnerable to illnesses later in life.

A Little Bit of Dirt is Healthy

Numerous studies have provided very compelling evidence that your body actually benefits from regular exposure to dirt. So when a child is exposed to a bit of bacteria, their immune system does what its supposed to: develop a tolerance to it. Heres a summary of what has been found so far:

Kids who are overly hygienic are at an increased risk of developing wheezing — a symptom of asthma — and eczema. A study in the Archives of Disease in Childhood found that children with the highest degree of personal hygiene — those who washed their faces and hands more than five times per day, cleaned before meals, and bathed more than two times each day — were the most likely to develop eczema and wheezing.
Kids who grow up in extremely clean homes are more likely to develop asthma and hay fever than kids who grow up on farms or in houses with a little bit of dirt, according to a 2002 study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Children who are raised with pets, or who have older siblings, are less likely to develop allergies, possibly because they are exposed to more bacteria.
What Can You Do?

Well, if youre an adult who already has allergies, please read through my past advice on how to get rid of your allergies for good. If you are a parent, please realize that the future of your childs immune system is in your hands. You can help it to build up the resistance it needs by:

Letting your child be a child. Allow your kids to play outside and get dirty.
Not using antibacterial soaps. Simple soap and water is all you need.
Serving locally grown or organic meats that do not contain antibiotics.

Many of the chemotherapies used to fight cancer in modern medicine were developed from natural substances.

For instance:

Taxanes used to treat prostate and breast cancer came from yew trees.
Vinca alkaloids, which are used to treat malignant lymphomas, are made from periwinkle plants.
The anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan come from a component of the Chinese Happy Tree.
Scientists are increasingly focusing on plants used in traditional medicine in their search for new compounds. About three-quarters of the pharmaceutical compounds used today came from plants used in traditional medicine.

Professor Dr. Thomas Efferth from Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg, for example, has begun analyzing 76 Chinese medicinal plants that are believed to treat malignant tumors and other growths. Extracts from 18 of the plants were found to significantly suppress the growth of cancer cells.

With this success rate of about 24 percent, we are way above the results that could be expected from searching through large chemical substance libraries, Efferth said.
Sources:
Eurekalert March 4, 2008
Molecular Cancer Therapeutics January 1, 2008, 7, 152-161

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Most pharmaceuticals that are derived from plants are typically from one active component of the plant that is then isolated and synthetically replicated. In contrast, most traditional medicine remedies use whole plants in their natural state, which is a far cry from the lab-produced cancer treatments used in modern medicine.

While herbal remedies can indeed be powerful, they are typically far safer than most medications. Still, I do not widely support using them as your primary healing approach as they rarely address the primary cause. Like drugs, herbs and other plants are frequently used as band-aids that fail to address the root cause.

However, when used wisely by someone trained in this science they can be enormously beneficial adjuncts to the healing process, and I believe that it is wise to use them. Just be careful to continue to search for the reasons that you initially acquired the health challenge.

Cancer Treatments: Chemo or Natural?

While I dont normally focus on the details of cancer treatments, its worth pointing out that it is very rare for cancer to only have one cause. Rather than simply being caused by a malfunction in your DNA, or a faulty gene you inherited from your grandmother, cancer is more typically triggered by a combination of the following:

Nutritional deficiencies
Toxins in your environment
Emotional conflicts
Hormonal imbalances
Often, cancer can actually be treated, and reversed, by addressing these variables through dietary changes, purifying your environment, and addressing your emotional state.

Chemotherapy is rarely the best option for cancer treatment, as it usually doesn’t cure cancer or extend life, and it really does not improve the quality of your life either. Dr. Ralph Moss, who is the author of eight books on cancer treatment, has reviewed thousands of studies as part of the research for his books — and he has not found one single good study that shows chemo cures cancer or extends life.

What chemo does do, however, is expose your body to toxins that kill all cells that multiply and divide rapidly. This includes not only cancer cells, but also other rapidly multiplying and dividing cells, such as bone marrow, reproductive system cells and hair follicles.

These are powerful drugs that present an assault on your system — one that your body must then overcome along with the cancer. And the effects do not end right after the treatment. One UCLA study found that chemotherapy can actually change the blood flow and metabolism of your brain in ways that can linger for 10 years or more after treatment.

Preventing Cancer: 12 Tips to Live By

No one wants to battle cancer, and there is good news because I believe you can VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple risk reduction strategies.

1. Reduce or eliminate your processed food, sugar and grain carbohydrate intake. Yes, this is even true for whole unprocessed organic grains, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive your insulin and leptin levels up, which is the last thing you need to have happening if you are seeking to resolve a cancer.

2. Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels. This is the end result, and can be easily monitored with the use of simple and relatively inexpensive blood tests.

3. Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.

4. Get regular exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

5. Normalize your vitamin D levels by getting plenty of sunlight exposure and consider careful supplementation when this is not possible. If you take oral vitamin D and have a cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly.

6. Get regular, good sleep.

7. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

8. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

9. Limit your exposure and provide protection for yourself from information-carrying radio waves produced by cell phone towers, base stations, phones and WiFi stations.

10. Avoid frying or charbroiling your food. Boil, poach or steam your foods instead.

11. Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. Energy psychology seems to be one of the best approaches and my particular favorite tool, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). German New Medicine is another powerful tool.

12. Eat at least one-third of your food raw. Personally my goal is 85% raw and I am usually able to achieve that.