Chances are you have consumed the sweetener aspartame without even knowing it. As the most widely used non-nutritive sweetener in the world, aspartame, sold as NutraSweet or Equal, can be found in thousands of foods, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals.

Though it is FDA approved, aspartame is far from safe. In fact, the FDA has received more complaints about adverse reactions from the artificial sweetener than for all other food additives combined.

While the FDA reports it has received thousands of complaints about aspartame, they admit that only 1 percent of those who experience a reaction to a product ever report it. In other words, millions of people may have experienced headaches, mental confusion, seizures, depression and even blindness and brain cancer, as well as gastrointestinal symptoms related to aspartame without reporting it.

Researchers believe ingesting aspartame is much like drinking a “formaldehyde cocktail.” When the sweetener breaks down in the body, it is absorbed as methanol. Methanol can spontaneously break down to formaldehyde, which can accumulate in your cells and cause health problems. Formaldehyde, which is used in paint remover and embalming fluid, is a poison several thousand times more potent than ethyl alcohol.

Formaldehyde creates the waste product formate. An accumulation of formate in your body can cause excessive acidity in your blood, which can result in blindness, fatal kidney damage, multiple organ system failure, and death.

And if it doesn’t maim or kill you, aspartame can still make you fat. The two main ingredients in aspartame, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, stimulate the release of insulin and leptin. These are the hormones that tell your body to store fat.

Better to stay with old fashion sweeteners liagave, raw honey, rapadure and of course in strict moderation.

More Vitamin D?

Two recent studies found that millions of U.S. children have extremely low levels of vitamin D. Lack of this important nutrient weakens the immune system, putting kids at increased risk for infections like colds and flu, as well as osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer and other health problems as they get older.

Vitamin D also helps the body absorb calcium, which is necessary for the normal development and maintenance of healthy teeth and bones.

While some experts recommend using vitamin D supplements, others believe the natural approach works best. Vitamin-fortified foods, such as cereals and breads, and pill supplements can contain artificial ingredients, which aren’t always recognized or absorbed easily by the body. Over-supplementation is also an unhealthy possibility.

So if you really want to protect your kids from the swine flu and other infectious illnesses, feed them vitamin D-rich foods and make sure they spend enough time outdoors in the sunshine to let their young bodies make vitamin D (experts say about 20 minutes several times a week without sunscreen).

Good vitamin D food sources include some types of fish such as salmon, raw whole milk products (as pasteurization reduces vitamin D), farm fresh pastured eggs and grass-fed beef. If you must supplement, use high-quality cod liver oil.

You may even want to have your children’s vitamin D levels tested so you’ll have an idea of where they stand.

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The Dangers of Gardasil

According to the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, since it was launched in 2006, 47 girls have died after being vaccinated with Gardasil.

Nineteen of those deaths occurred in the first year, and 28 deaths were reported in 2008.

While it is disturbing that the Gardasil death rate seems to be increasing, other young women also have suffered harsh and debilitating side effects.

A recent press release issued by Judicial Watch noted these cases:

·    After receiving her second of three Gardasil doses, one girl experienced migraines and facial swelling, and developed Guillain-Barre syndrome and peripheral neuropathy. She needs a wheel chair to get around.

·    Another young woman experienced fatigue, muscle pain, tremor, dizziness, nausea, convulsions, seizures, and loss of consciousness after getting the vaccine.

·    Other girls have developed genital warts as well as warts on faces, hands and feet.

According to VAERS latest records, more than 13,700 adverse event reports in the United States alone have been linked to Gardasil.

The costly Gardasil is purported to “save lives” by preventing certain types of cervical cancer in women, but is it worth the risk?

Although more than 6 million women contract HPV every year, just 2 percent of the patients participating in a recent study were infected with the kinds of HPV that put them at a higher risk of developing cervical cancer.

We need open discussions about HPV. This infection is sexually transmitted, so it can be prevented with lifestyle choices.

The best way to prevent any cancer is to keep your immune system strong. A healthy immune system is better able to handle a heavier emotional and physical stress load.

Sources:
“New FDA Records Obtained by Judicial Watch Indicate 28 Deaths Related to Gardasil in 2008” Press Release, Judicial Watch, 6/23/09, marketwatch.com

www.mercola.com

Having trouble conceiving? Before you spend time and money on expensive tests and treatments, you may want to evaluate your diet.

A study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that women eating low-fat diets had a lower chance of conceiving.
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Industry-markets/Low-fat-dairy-raises-infertility-risk-study

During the eight-year study, researchers documented the health and nutrition of 18,555 women: 438 were diagnosed with anovulatory infertility, a condition that accounts for a third of female fertility problems.

The women in the study who ate only low-fat or skim-milk dairy products, had an 85 percent chance of experiencing infertility. However, those who ate full-fat dairy foods were 27 percent less likely to have the condition.

The study concluded that women trying to conceive should eat up to two servings of full-fat dairy foods a day, including whole milk, cheese, ice cream and cream cheese. These suggestions are similiar to what the Weston A Price Foundation advises. Though of course WAPF speak about the benefits of grass-fed milk and pastured eggs an grass-fed beef.

Katie Singer, author of “The Garden of Fertility” and follower of the nutritional principles of Dr. Weston A. Price, advises women to eat more fat from whole grass-fed raw dairy foods, grass-fed beef, and free-range eggs and poultry, especially if they are trying to conceive.

Singer says many women in her fertility workshops have irregular or nonexistent ovulation. Because of this, she believes they are at increased risk of uterine cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome and infertility.

After Singer’s students eliminate sugar and tofu from their diets, many of them begin ovulating immediately. However, other students need to add whole dairy and animal fats to their diets to regulate their bodies.

“I’ve seen many women’s temperatures increase significantly when they cut soy out of their diets,” Singer said. “Yet others become ovulatory after they cut back on sugar and increase their consumption of cod liver oil, butter and eggs.”

So the take home message for women is to ditch the low-fat dogma and return to real foods…foods that have nourished human pregnancies before so-called experts convinced us otherwise. Fortunately access to local farm foods are increasing in the Orlando area.