Public school bans students from bringing lunches from home, forces them to eat cafeteria food

(NaturalNews) Individual responsibility and personal freedom are becoming a thing of the past in the nation’s public schools, as strict control over what students can and cannot eat — or bring to school to eat — escalates to near-dictatorial levels. The Chicago Tribune reports that for the past six years, Little Village Academy on Chicago’s West Side has prohibited students from bringing their own lunches from home, a policy that many say subverts parental authority and violates students’ rights. Principal Elsa Carmona first enacted the food policy after observing some of her students drinking sodas and eating chips for lunch, instead of eating a well-balanced meal. By both mandating that students eat lunch at school and improving the quality of food served, she hoped to improve the health of her students. While they appear to be good intentioned, Carmona’s efforts have actually angered many students who say they would prefer to bring their own lunches from home. And ironically, the policy has had the opposite effect, in some cases, of actually causing students not to eat anything at all, which is even worse for their health. Students that have food allergies or other medical conditions that require them to eat something other than what is served in the cafeteria are able to be exempted from the policy. Most students, however, still end up being forced to eat whatever is served. And many students that do not have medical conditions, but that would prefer a meal from home, are stuck without a choice in the matter. “This is such a fundamental infringement on parental responsibility,” said J. Justin Wilson, a senior researcher at the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) in Washington, to the Chicago Tribune . “Would the school balk if the parent wanted to prepare a healthier meal? This is the perfect illustration of how the government’s one-size-fits-all mandate on nutrition fails time and time again.” Last year, a non-profit group known as “Mission: Readiness” came on the record accusing school cafeterias of being a threat to national security because they are allegedly making children “too fat to fight” in the military. The group has called for strict federal food legislation to control what children can and cannot eat (http://www.naturalnews.com/029226_school_lunches_national_security.html). And late last year, the state of Pennsylvania’s board of education actually proposed banning all sweets from school functions, including birthday parties (http://www.naturalnews.com/030365_junk_foods_schools.html). Sources for this story include: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-school-lunch-restrictions-041120110410,0,4567867.story

Fresh spinach too dangerous for children, says microbiologist

(NaturalNews) When in doubt about the safety of your food, just kill it. Well, according to some food safety experts, anyway. A recent Chicago Tribune article suggests that in order to be sure the spinach you eat is free of E. coli , it has to be microwaved for about four minutes. Charles Pavia, a microbiologist from the New York Institute of Technology, recently conducted a study on what it takes to kill dangerous pathogens from spinach. Presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Boston, the study claims that boiling spinach for 30 seconds destroys up to 93 percent of bacteria. When boiled for a minute, spinach becomes 98 percent bacteria-free, and at two minutes, 99 percent of bacteria is destroyed. But according to the study, the best way to make sure practically all bacteria is killed is to nuke spinach for four minutes in the microwave. Anything less, and some bacteria is sure to remain, which can be potentially harmful to those who are susceptible to infection from even low pathogen counts. Of course not everyone will get sick from very low levels of pathogens, especially those with strong immune systems and healthy diets, but Pavia explained that cooking spinach for two minutes will at least significantly reduce pathogen counts, making food safer. So what about fresh spinach? Well, according to Pavia, it is not safe. “I think the take-home message really is, if you don’t want to cook your spinach, don’t give it to a child, based on what we know about who gets sickest the most,” he emphasized. Spinach is not inherently dangerous, though. E. coli is found primarily in cattle feces, which often spreads from conventional cattle lots onto nearby fields, contaminating produce; the bacteria does not occur naturally on produce. In other words, killing living foods to eliminate dangerous bacteria treats the symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself. Sources for this story include: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-heb-spinach-20100914,0,5412790.story

Gender bender chemical atrazine widely contaminates U.S. public water supply

(NaturalNews) Emerging research increasingly indicates that the U.S. water supply is widely contaminated with the endocrine disrupting chemical atrazine, but that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking almost no action on the threat. Atrazine is an herbicide widely sprayed on corn fields in the Midwest, and one of the most widely detected groundwater contaminants in the country. According to an analysis of state and federal records by the Chicago Tribune , atrazine has been detected in the drinking water of a million people in 60 Illinois communities over the past four years. Yet the EPA requires testing for the chemical only four times a year, meaning that short-term spikes of the toxin go undetected — and unregulated. Special agreements between the EPA and Syngenta, the top manufacturer of the atrazine used in the U.S., have led to limited weekly or biweekly testing for the chemical by 130 water utilities in 10 different states. In 2008, nearly half of these communities in the Midwest alone experienced atrazine levels in their water above the federally imposed limit of 3 ppb (parts per billion) at least once. In Flora, Illinois, levels spiked as high as 30 ppb at one point. In nine Midwestern communities, atrazine levels averaged higher than 3 ppb for the full year. Yet unless levels higher than 3 ppb are detected during one of the EPA’s four official yearly tests, the agency is helpless to take action. Likewise, contamination detected at other times need not, under the Safe Water Drinking Act, be reported to the public. This has led to a situation where citizens are not only unaware that their water is contaminated, they are never told that an inexpensive home filter could remove the toxin from their water. Even the EPA’s “safe” level of 3 ppb, however, may be far too high; studies suggest that atrazine is biologically active in levels as low as 0.1 ppb, mimicking the action of hormones in the body. A recent meta-analysis of 125 studies by researchers from the University of South Florida found that the chemical causes developmental and reproductive defects in amphibians and fish. Another study, conducted by University of California-Berkeley researchers and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , found that small amounts of atrazine lowered testosterone levels and fertility in male frogs. Many of the frogs were chemically castrated or even turned into females. Prenatal exposure to low levels of atrazine has also been shown to predispose rats to cancer as adults. And according to a 2009 study by researchers from Indiana University, human children conceived between the months of April and July, when atrazine levels in water are highest, were more likely to suffer from nine different kinds of birth defects than children conceived in other months. “Atrazine … appears to have effects during critical stages of fetal development,” said Suzanne Fenton of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a former EPA researcher. Atrazine has been banned in Europe for its contaminating effects on groundwater, and a handful of U.S. states prohibit spraying in certain contamination-prone areas. Yet the EPA’s most recent ruling on the chemical, issued in 2006, endorses its use. The Bush-era ruling was based on a 2003 review heavily funded by Syngenta. Bush administration officials are known to have met with officials from the company at least 50 times before issuing their ruling, including at two industry-dominated panels. The EPA’s position has drawn the ire of states that have been stuck with regulating the atrazine problem on their own. In 2009, 44 water utilities in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi and Ohio sued the federal government to reimburse them for the costs of atrazine cleanup. Since the 2003 EPA review, a further 100 studies have been published showing health risks from atrazine exposure. The Obama administration is now conducting a review of the EPA’s stance on the chemical. Sources for this story include: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-atrazine-water-20100417,0,2193737.story.

Ancient ‘Paleo’ diet key to healthy living and weight loss, some say

(NaturalNews) Eat like a cave man to lose weight, build muscle and feel great. This is what advocates of the “Paleo” diet say is the key to healthy living, a diet that consists only of meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and mushrooms — also known as the “Paleolithic”, or Paleo diet. A recent Chicago Tribune article tells the story of Rick Larson, co-owner of a West Sacramento, Calif., gym called CrossFit. Larson, a Paleo diet supporter, explains in the story that many of his gym members were getting great workouts, but that few were following healthy diets. After experiencing incredible success himself on the Paleo diet, he decided to offer the program to his members as well. “For the first time in my life, I started to feel quite healthy. I didn’t get any respiratory problems, my arthritis problems went away, and I felt like I gained more muscle mass,” he explained in the report about his own experience. After 11 weeks on the diet, he was also able to drop excess weight and achieve a body fat percentage of 2.7. Fifteen of Larson’s gym members agreed to participate in the diet program and also experienced good results, including Santinia Pasquini, 33, who dropped eight pounds after just one week. The key to the Paleo diet is to avoid all refined sugars, grains, dairy products, beans, legumes and anything processed. Though difficult, advocates say sticking to a Paleo diet fits the human genetic makeup better than most modern diets because it represents the foods that our ancestors ate and thrived on. According to Johny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., in his book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why , the Paleo diet has other benefits, including helping to clear up acne. “[T]he Paleo Diet might not entirely clear up acne in every single person who has acne, but it will almost always have an important positive effect on blood sugar and weight,” he says. Sources for this story include: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-health-fitness-paleo-diet,0,6654000.story