Showing posts with label Vegan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vegan. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

The Benefits of Echinacea and Goldenseal in Natural Cold Remedies





The Benefits of Echinacea and Goldenseal in Natural Cold Remedies

By Amelia Bentrup

Have you seen goldenseal and echinacea on the shelves of your local health food store? I'm sure you've heard about the benefits of echinacea. Wondering what the benefits of goldenseal are? With cold season quickly approaching, I bet you're looking for natural cold remedies that work. You may be wondering how echinacea and goldenseal can help you recover faster from the common cold.

One of the benefits of goldenseal is that it helps you feel better without the use of over the counter medication. Colds make your nose feel icky,...it's either constantly running or totally stuffed up and uncomfortable. The beauty of goldenseal is that it is a mucous membrane "alternative"...this means that it moderates mucous membrane flow in the body. It will increase mucous flow in areas with deficient flow and decrease flow in areas with excessive flow. This provides welcome relief when your nose is driving you crazy. Goldenseal is particularly beneficial for sinus infections and other upper respiratory infections.

Other benefits of goldenseal include its anti-microbial properties...another very useful property when you are fighting illness. Berberine and hydrastine are the active anti-microbial components of goldenseal.

Goldenseal is often combined with echinacea, in fact you can even buy goldenseal-echinacea combinations. However, if you can't find echinacea and goldenseal combined; take one 300 mg capsule of echinacea and one 500-mg capsule of goldenseal three times each day. Both goldenseal and echinacea work best when started at the first sign of a cold. Do no use either herbal supplement for longer than 10 days.

Some of the many health benefits of echinacea are its anti-viral, immune-boosting and anti-inflammatory properties. These are all properties you definitely want in an herbal supplement. Echinacea is often recommended for bronchitis, strep throat and influenza.

Scientific studies have shown some controversy over the efficacy of echinacea as a natural cold remedy. Much of the inclusiveness of those studies is likely due to the fact that the studies didn't use a consistently standard echinacea product.  The quality and strength of herbal remedies vary quite a bit. A 2004 study published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics and a 2006 study published in the Journal of Clinical Therapeutics showed that echinacea is in fact an effective treatment for the common cold. In fact, echinacea is even useful for treating canine upper respiratory tract infections. These studies can be found at http://www.greenmedinfo.com/search/node/echinacea.

Echinacea and goldenseal are both available in the form of teas, extracts, or encapsulated powders. Encapsulated powders are the most common form, however, make sure the powder is a powder extract and not just dried herb. Extracts concentrate the active components, making them much more effective.

Amelia Bentrup is the owner and editor of [http://www.my-home-remedies.com], a researched collection of natural home remedies for many common ailments. Visit [http://www.my-home-remedies.com/natural-cold-remedies.html] for more information about treating a cold naturally. You will also find safety information and guidelines for both echinacea and goldenseal along with many other herbs. Copyright: you may freely republish this article provided the text, author credit, active links and this copyright notice remain intact.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Amelia_Bentrup/701824

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Thursday, June 20, 2019

Meat: From Field to Consumption




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Meat: From Field to Consumption

The federal government has from time-to-time tried to intervene within the meat processing industry with such campaigns as “Eat less red and processed meats,” as pronounced by the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). I understand it’s like candy but the whole truth about the road of meat from birth to consumption can be short and cheap, or it can be long and beneficial for human consumption. It’s not like when my Mother use-to go out and grab a chicken out the chicken coop and chop its head off. With those chickens we knew what was fed to the chickens because that was my job, feeding the chickens. Their food consisted of regular crackled-up corn feed. Nowadays that claim is doubtful with any type of meat consumptions which has a gigantic array of additives to enhance the shelf-life and maybe the taste of that particular meat.

The start of the process begins with farmers who believe that they are doing the right thing by producing and grazing millions of farm animals which in turn has a devastating impact on both the water supply and quality of air. Now next these same open-range animals are then moved on downline to the inhumane factory farms or feedlots. At that point they are fed; antibiotics genetically engineered grain and the most ill-reversible fate of all, artificial hormones. The last byproduct of factory meats is very important because it affects the sexual orientation of young people. Do you need that?

Also, there are psychological ramifications to expect with the consumption of confined animal’s hormones (CAFO), that is, you become what you eat, by eating caged stressed animals, and you will in turn become stressed, the waterfall effect. So there you have it, the meat in most cases starts out ok, except for the environmental detriments, and is somewhat contaminated as it makes its way to your plate, and we are talking about 95 percent of beef and a large percentage of other meats still come from feedlots and factory farms.

Trust me, once you stick to vegan and try going back to eating meat once again, you will almost immediately sense the taste of death.  


Credit:
Cummins, Ronnie. 2015 The food fight we might all agree on: because no one in their right mind really wants meat from factory farms. The Free Library (July, 1), http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The food fight we might all agree on: because no one in their right...-a0420197589 (accessed August 29 2016)


Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Cowspiracy: The Unsustainable Nature Of Animals


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Cowspiracy: The Unsustainable Nature Of Animals


By Donald Ardell
Introduction:
I have a few questions for your consideration. After posing these questions, I’ll outline what the evidence suggests about each question. I’ll follow that with a discussion of what it all means for those who want to enjoy quality lifestyles guided by reason, exuberance, athleticism and liberty.
Here are the questions:
  • What do you think is the most destructive industry in America and elsewhere in the world today? Hint: It’s not the tobacco industry. It’s not the oil and gas industry, either.

  • Why are the world’s leading environmental organizations unwilling to talk about the problems that the most destructive industry causes that degrades the environment and threatens the health of every living creature on the planet? Hint: It has to do with donations.

  • What is the leading cause of deforestation?

  • What is the leading cause of water pollution – and guzzler of water?

  • What industry is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry?

  • What industry more than any other drives rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean dead zones, and virtually every other environmental ill?
One more question – then I’ll provide answers and a discussion. This is the most important question: Why is it that one industry, the one featured in what I believe is the correct response to every one of the above questions, almost entirely unchallenged by almost every environmental organization?
Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn have produced a 91 minute film called Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret. It features a variety of notables; the cast includes Michael Pollan, Richard Oppenlander, Will Tuttle, Howard Lyman and Will Potter. Other experts involved include Michael Besancon, Michael Klaper, David Robinson Simon and Kirk R. Smith.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is playing in theaters across the country. I watched it on Netflix. It makes a convincing case that Animal Agriculture is by far the most destructive industry to ever operate on Earth. Nothing else comes close. The data presented throughout the film fully supports this sweeping judgment. In addition to the horror that the products of this industry inflicts on humans and animals and damage to air quality, to ocean resources and to the sustainability of the environment, an equally amazing reality supported throughout the film is the sellout of the world’s environmental organizations to this industry. Representatives of such organizations are silent on the role of Animal Agriculture – that is, the dairy, cattle, pork and other animal protein factory farming operations. This industry seems to have bought not only our politicians but the leadership of the very agencies we rely upon to safeguard the natural world.
This film should alert the public to the mistreatment of humans and the environment in a way that the film Blackfish served to alert patrons of Sea World about the treatment of killer whales.
Despite the ghastly revelations, this documentary is fascinating to watch from beginning to end, and contains many moments that are unexpectedly humorous. It is not unlike Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, in fact, Kip Anderson credits that show as inspiration for his environmental awakening.
The Facts
So, what exactly is the impact of Animal Agriculture on the planet’s ecosystems and environments that make it such a disaster for one and all? Much of the information, but not all, comes from a United Nations News Centre report entitled, Livestock’s Long Shadow – Environmental Issues and Options. The producers of Cowspiracy have set up a website, with regular updates, providing references, notes, sources and the statistics used in the film.
A partial summary of the problems associated with Animal Agriculture includes the following.
GREENHOUSE GASES: Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide and which remains in the atmosphere for 150 years. Cows produce 150 billion gallons of methane per day.
WATER: Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) water use ranges from 70-140 billion gallons annually; animal agriculture water consumption ranges from 34-76 trillion gallons annually. Growing feed crops for livestock consumes 56% of water in the US. The amount of water used to produce 1lb. of beef varies greatly from 442 – 8000 gallons. The filmmakers used the widely-cited conservative number of 2500 gallons per pound of US beef. Five percent of water consumed in the US is by private homes; 55% of water consumed in the US is for animal agriculture. Animal Agriculture is responsible for 20%-33% of all fresh water consumption in the world today – 1/5 of global water consumption.
LAND: Livestock or livestock feed occupies 1/3 of the earth’s ice-free land. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution and habitat destruction. In addition to the monumental habitat destruction caused by clearing forests and converting land to grow feed crops and for animal grazing, predators and competition species are frequently targeted and hunted because of a perceived threat to livestock profits. The indiscriminate use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers used in the production of feed crops often interferes with the reproductive systems of animals and poison waterways. The over – exploitation of wild species through commercial fishing, bushmeat trade as well as animal agriculture’s impact on climate change, all contribute to global depletion of species and resources. Nearly half of the contiguous US is devoted to animal agriculture. The US lower 48 states represent 1.9 billion acres. Of that 1.9 billion acres: 778 million acres of private land are used for livestock grazing (forest grazing, pasture grazing, and crop grazing), 345 million acres for feed crops, 230 million acres of public land are used for grazing livestock.
WASTE: Every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the US. This doesn’t include the animals raised outside of USDA jurisdiction or in backyards, or the billions of fish raised in aquaculture settings. Also in America, 335 million tons of dry matter is produced annually by livestock. A farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people. In this country, 130 times more animal waste than human waste is produced – 1.4 billion tons, from the meat industry annually. (Five tons of animal waste are produced per person.)
In the U.S. alone livestock produce 116,000 lbs of waste per second. The count per animal type is as follows:
* Dairy Cows – 120lbs of waste per day x 9 million cows.
* Cattle – 63lbs of waste per day, x 90 million cattle.
* Pigs – 14lbs. of waste per day, x 67 million pigs.
* Sheep/Goats – 5lbs of waste per day, x 9 million sheep/goats.
* Poultry – .25-1lbs of waste per day, x 9 billion birds.
OCEANS: 3/4 of the world’s fisheries are exploited or depleted; fish-less oceans are likely by 2048. At present, 90-100 million tons of fish are pulled from our oceans each year – an unsustainable rate. This amounts to 2.7 trillion animals pulled from oceans each year. For every 1 pound of fish caught, up to 5 pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill. As many as 40% (63 billion pounds) of fish caught globally every year are discarded. Scientists estimate as many as 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals are killed every year by fishing vessels.
RAINFOREST: Animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of Amazon destruction. One to two acres of rainforest are cleared every second. The leading causes of rainforest destruction are livestock and feed crops.
WILDLIFE: Ten thousand years ago, 99% of biomass (i.e. zoomass) was wild animals. Today, humans and the animals that we raise as food make up 98% of the zoomass.
HUMANITY: World population in 1812 was 1 billion; in 1912, it was 1.5 billion; and in 2012, it was 7 billion. Seventy billion farmed animals are reared annually worldwide; 6 million are killed for food every hour. Humans drink 5.2 billion gallons of water and eat 21 billion pounds of food each day. Worldwide, cows drink 45 billion gallons of water and eat 135 billion pounds of food each day. Worldwide, 82% of starving children live where food is fed to animals and the animals are shipped to and eaten in western countries.
MISC: Dairy consumption may lead to breast lumps and may give guys man-boobs.
The land required to feed one person for 1 year on a vegan diet is 1/6th of an acre. The comparable figures for vegetarians and meat eaters is 3x and 18x, respectively. Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 lbs CO2 equivalent and one animal’s life.
What to Make Of It All?
For starters, the future as we think of living on the Earth today does not lie ahead. It will be different. Quite so. It seems unimaginable that Animal Agriculture will continue as it is – the resources on the planet will not sustain it and we won’t be able to live very well with the deterioration of the environment and the earth’s resources. Things will have to change. How fast will changes come and what will bring changes most rapidly? Nobody knows. However, individual changes by those, like ourselves, who are favorably situated, can be immediate or at least pretty soon, for varied motives.
The film clearly favors a transition to vegan diets, which seems simplistic and unlikely, as well as the only way out of disaster. Most living today, at least under prosperous western standards, are unlikely to make the switch. Of course, they will be gone soon enough – in a few generations in any event.
Everyone with the slightest interest in a healthy lifestyle should watch this film. Besides the major topic of how Animal Agriculture is ruining everything, almost as much as religions have been doing throughout human history, Cowspiracy exposes the complicity of environmental organizations that are ignoring the impact of animal agriculture. This alone makes the film a must see.
Be well and look on the bright side. And maybe, just maybe, think twice next time you pick up a menu or wander the aisles of a supermarket.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Are GMF's Killer Foods

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Killer Foods
By Uche Mbah

In Far away United States Of America, a war has been raging of recent-the war against Monsanto, the food giant that spearheads the research into and production of genetically modified foods, foods manufactured using the activities of genetically modified organisms, GMO. Their Congress has passed a bill that makes it against the law to label foods on the market shelves as being a product of genetically modified organisms. The debate was that, given the fact of an overwhelming evidence that genetically modified foods are harmful to humans, and government insistence that only genetically modified foods are the best for the country, every food that contains GMO should be labeled so that Americans have a choice in deciding whether to buy the GMF or the naturally produced foods. In fact, in recent times, there has been several recalls of shelf foods due to the fact that they were deemed to have used undeclared chemicals in their production.

The government has been at war with the farmers who produce and sell directly to consumers without resort to genetics, with the accusation that their foods are contaminated with the Salmonella species of bacteria. Salmonella is the main causative agent for diarrhea. For example, American federal and state regulators are seeking legal sanctions against farmers in Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, among others. These sanctions include injunctions, fines, and even prison sentences for farmers who fail to join the genetic bandwagon.

Genetic modification of foods started in the nineteen eighties. The biotechnology giant Monsanto began to genetically alter corn to withstand its activities in trying to round up their weed clearing agenda-or herbicide roundup, as it was generally referred to. The goal was to eradicate weeds but not crops and resist a corn pest called the corn borer. These small changes in the Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, the building blocks of proteins in the body, of the corn are expressed by the plant as proteins. Those proteins act as allergens, provoking a disorder marked by the overproduction of a type of white blood cell called an eosinophil.

The U.S. government started approving GMO corn and soybeans for sale in the mid-1990s, and today, 88% of corn, and 93% of soybeans, are the transgenic varieties. According to my findings, due to cross-pollination via winds, birds, and bees, there's no such thing anymore as a GMO-free corn crop in the U.S. "It's almost impossible to find a corn source in the United States that doesn't have the [protein] in it," Dr. Mansman, an allergist who works in a Virginia hospital, told an American Magazine.

Beyond all the hype, beyond all the gobbledygook, GMFs have become the stable shelf food in Europe and America, and the idea has become acceptable in other parts of the world. In fact the Nigerian National assembly has hurriedly passed the bill to back the genetically modified foods production in the country. Former President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee to vet the so called biosafety bill as passed by the National Assembly before he could sign it into law. Then, participants at the 10th anniversary of African Agricultural Technology Foundation, AATF seminar say Nigeria's dream of achieving food sufficiency in 2015 will be a mirage, unless the country adopts biotechnology in the agricultural sector. Even Olusola Saraki, a senator and chairman senate committee on environment and ecology, who is currently the Senate President, decried the delay in signing the bill into law. "As a matter of fact, the benefits of signing the bill into law by Mr President are numerous," he said." These include regulating the safe application of biotechnology in Nigeria to harness benefits in fields of agriculture, medical, environment sustainability and industrial growth." Further more, the law will promote technological and material transfer for research collaboration and commercialization in biotechnology." According to him, since 1996, biotechnology-driven crops had been commercially planted and their adoption had increased steadily, with over 8.5 million planting them in 21 countries, with most African countries developing biosafety.He also noted that all over the world, scientists, who recognized the benefits of the technology, had been at the forefront of the call for safety and regulation of activities in the field of biotechnology. "Therefore, there is the need for Mr. President to assent to the bill in the interest of our nation and the attendant economic and employment opportunities that come with it," he had said. "If this feat is achieved, Nigeria, as a nation, would be sufficient in food production and thereby, save the cost of annual food importation and diversify same into a value chain mechanism."

But the question is, how safe is BMF? Investigations indicate that even scientists at the forefront of the promotion of biotechnology are coming out to speak against it. Most food literature focuses on poor nutritional quality of canned and pre-packaged food, which is the only source of food to certain urban people who have no access to fresh foods from the farm. Chemicals found in food packaging are unhealthy-as, for example, Bisphenol A, or BPA. This chemical has been banned from baby bottles and sippy cups in the United States but find ways into the stable consumption of the nouveau-rich in Nigeria. Since it is used to line food cans, intended as a protective barrier between the metal and the can's contents, BPA actually leaches into the food we eat. The effects of leaching BPA are likely most detrimental for pregnant women, babies and children. This chemical has been linked with obesity, cancer (breast and prostate), early onset of puberty, Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD and retardation of development of brain and nervous systems. The case of early puberty has been a serious societal issue that results in increased rape cases and pedophilia simply because the children look older than they actually are. And Monsanto and other companies are at the forefront of these drugs. France has banned the use of BPA in the preservation of canned foods with effect from 2015. Soon, other European countries will follow suit. Apart from BPA, Aspartmine is another chemical. Aspartame has been linked to several different cancers and even degenerative brain conditions. Consuming aspartame regularly will burn out neurons and has been linked to headaches, mood alterations and even brain tumors. It is regarded as a healthy and sweeter alternative to sugar, though it actually causes diabetes and may also cause obesity. It was developed in a bio-weapons laboratory from excrement from bacteria culture and bleached with other chemicals by Monsanto corporation. It is currently sold under different brand names and used in food seasonings.

Unfortunately this chemical, originally sold by Monsanto Corp, is now being re-branded under different names There are currently efforts underway to include aspartmine in milk and so called diet products-"low sugar" or "sugarless" drinks, even though aspartame is contained in many products already that do not list it as one of the ingredients. But by far the most important of these products are the genetically modified foods. "Introduction of genetically modified food has raised a number of fears, some genuine and some irrational," says Dr.Leo d'Souza, a Jesuit priest and biotech researcher. "Human fears, whether genuine or irrational, have to be attended to." These fears are currently being expressed by Nigerians who are skeptical of the benefits of the foods. For example, The Daily Trust Editorial of 26 June 2013 was particularly critical of the bill. "It may come as something of a surprise," the paper wrote, "to some, even shock to many, that such a profound policy step would be taken without as much as consultation with the public." The paper continued: "Still, even in advanced nations that have pioneered the technology and fully embraced the crops, controversies over them linger. Scientists have raised concerns about their effect on human health and on the environment. It is alleged that the crops damage the soil and that large quantities of fertilizers and hazardous chemicals are required to successfully cultivate them. And for particularly the developing world, GM crops portend another challenge of having to depend on giant companies in the West for seed imports to replant as some of the crops do not have seeds or those with seeds cannot produce high-yield varieties when they are planted. Unless these allegations about the disadvantages of the crops are satisfactorily addressed, it would be premature to expose Nigerian farmers to GM seeds when the technology is still in its infancy in the country, if at all." The paper insisted that the main challenge now is that a large percentage of the national arable land is not being put under cultivation. " Since the advent of the oil boom nearly four decades ago, successive governments have paid scant attention to agriculture as a national security issue. This is the time to do it, by going back to agriculture, which offers better food and economic security than oil. Efforts should also be made to find a solution to the huge post-harvest losses that farmers suffer. If these and many other steps are taken, the country may in the end find it does not have any need for inorganic substances like GM crops to feed the people," the paper concluded.

A group known as the Mother Earth Foundation frowned seriously at the proposed bill. In a statement signed by Nnimo Bassey, Director of the organization, noted that African countries have been generally resistant to the policy. "Contrary to the claims of the{minister of science and technology), Burkina Faso has not introduced GMOs into their food.", Bassey said, "That country planted genetically engineered cotton otherwise called Bt Cotton. The first harvest of that cotton last year was a big disappointment as the farmers got short fibre cotton rather than the long fibres they harvested from the conventional cotton they were used to planting. South Africa is the most problematic on the continent when it comes to the regulation and introduction of GMOs. Public resistance have been strong, but the historical political context must also be considered in understanding the path the nation began to toe and the difficulties in ensuring a transition from certain routes. Studies by the African Centre for Biosafety has revealed that corn products supplied by Tiger Brand in South Africa to companies including to Dangote Foods, a Nigerian conglomerate, has high GMO corn contents. This revelation ought to drive the Nigerian government to order an investigation into the importation of unwholesome foods and food products into Nigeria rather than making announcement of backdoor moves to ambush Nigerians into eating GMOs without their consent." They noted that the widespread dependence on chemical inputs have led to the death of pollinators like bees and saddled the world with silent farms and forests without insects and other beneficial species. "Certainly Nigeria does not want to join the ranks of nations that hire or buy bees to pollinate their farms," Bassey noted. "We are not sure also that Nigerians want to toe a path that may lead to farmers pollinating their crops by hand," he concluded. A federal minister has recently indicated that one of the GMO companies has been approved to open up an office space in the country. "Yes, Monsanto may soon be in Nigeria", a source from the ministry of Agriculture said, "the honorable minister is all taken up with the program."
Studies have shown that GMO feeds have proven harmful to pigs. According to a report, "GM-fed females had on average a 25% heavier uterus than non-GM-fed females, a possible indicator of disease that requires further investigation. Also, the level of severe inflammation in stomachs was markedly higher in pigs fed on the GM diet. The research results were striking and statistically significant. The new study lends scientific credibility to anecdotal evidence from farmers and veterinarians, who have for some years reported reproductive and digestive problems in pigs fed on a diet containing GM soy and corn." Pigs have basically the same digestive structure with humans, and pork is a stable food in most countries. Most of these pigs are eaten by humans with accumulated GMO passed on to humans who consume them.
Genetically modified foods are a typical example of how man tries to show he can control nature. But the final effect will be a disaster to mankind, because, in the new time, every distortion of natural order will be violently corrected, resulting in so many hitherto unknown diseases. Unfortunately, this will coincide with the time of total collapse of World economy, amid political crisis and Natural disasters in a time that was described as a time of great tribulations.

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MRSA Superbugs In Meat

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MRSA Superbugs In Meat

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Natural Foods That Boost Your Immunity


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Natural Foods That Boost Your Immunity | Best Health and Beauty Tips | Lifestyle

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