In praise of the prickly pear: Let they food be thy medicine

The Prickly Pear cactus is a common sight in the American West and Mexico. The plant is native to Mexico but has been introduced to many other parts of the globe. In the genus Opuntia it’s also know as nopales, paddle cactus, beavertail or tuna. There are about 200 species…

BP claims shoddy cement work by Halliburton caused Gulf oil disaster

A federal court will soon assess damages and lay blame for the massive Deepwater Horizon oil disaster that sent hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and that killed 11 people, back in April 2010. And BP, which has taken most of the brunt…

ASA sues Obama Administration for interfering with state, local medical marijuana laws

(NaturalNews) The battle continues to rage between the individual states and the federal government over the legalized cultivation and use of medical marijuana. Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the nation’s largest medical marijuana advocacy organization, has now filed a lawsuit against the Obama Administration’s Justice Department for aggressively trying to subvert state and local laws by shutting down legal medical marijuana dispensaries. California, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, and a handful of other US states all have laws on the books that permit the growth, possession, and use of medical marijuana in some way, shape, or form. But the federal government still ignorantly classifies the natural plant as a Schedule I narcotic under the Controlled Substances Act, a tenet of the “War on Drugs” that has been a source of much conflict over the past several years. This ongoing clash between state and federal law has led to numerous federal raids of medical marijuana growers and distributors, particularly in the State of California where medical marijuana laws are among the most lenient, and where the plant is most utilized. The federal government also routinely intimidates local officials to try to get them to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. In a most recent raid, for instance, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) stormed Northstone Organics, a fully-licensed marijuana cultivation collective in Mendocino County, Cal. Agents reportedly cut down all 99 of the group’s marijuana plants, and handcuffed the owner and his wife with zip-ties. With a lawsuit, ASA hopes to finally put an end to this type of federal government oppression of medical marijuana both in California, and in the other states that have legalized the plant. “Although the Obama Administration is entitled to enforce federal marijuana laws, the Tenth Amendment forbids it from using coercive tactics to commandeer the law-making functions of the State,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the lawsuit in San Francisco’s Federal District Court. “This case is aimed at restoring California’s sovereign and constitutional right to establish its own public health laws based on this country’s federalist principles.” For the first time ever, a recent Gallup poll shows that most Americans now support legalizing marijuana. Fifty percent say that general marijuana use should be legalized, while only 46 percent say it should remain illegal (http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx). Sources for this article include: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=6921

Don’t waste your money and risk your health with "funny honey" illegally imported from China

(NaturalNews) Raw, unfiltered honey is your healthiest choice for health benefits. You couldn’t ask for a healthier sweetener, unless you pay more for New Zealand Manuka honey. However, there are several honey scams that deprive you of honey’s health benefits. Some of the honey posers are absolutely unhealthy. The best is pure raw honey. Adulterated honey is mostly real honey with additives, which should be listed on the label. Then there is imitation or fake honey. It is usually a syrupy concoction of cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup in water with colorings and binding additives, and maybe a small amount of honey. Both pure and adulterated honeys have similar identification markings, pollen . Fake honey has no pollen. Honey can be legitimately filtered to remove wax and other large particles. But ultra-filtering removes the pollen completely. Almost 80% of the brands from big box grocers and pharmacies tested by Food Safety News had no trace of pollen. Add 100% without pollen in those little packets of honey provided by airlines and restaurants. Products are listed here (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/). Despite even congressional demands that the FDA do something to curb the fraud, the FDA refuses. Maybe they’re too busy harassing raw milk providers. “Ultra filtering makes no sense,” asserted Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association. He went on to say no real honey producer would do that because it’s costly and diminishes quality. But Jensen added this stinger: “In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it’s even safer to assume that it entered the country in violation of federal law.” Chinese honey is fake funny honey that bypasses strict tariffs, imposed a few years ago to keep cheap Chinese honey from squeezing USA bee keepers out of the honey market. The reason it’s so cheap is that it usually has no honey in it! So how do they avoid the tariffs and keep that high markup intact? Simply misdirecting the point of origin is one way. Sending it to Canada or Mexico, then changing the shipping labels there and sending the containers across the border is the essence of this shuffle. Another way is to simply lie about the contents of 50 gallon drums, using fake labels of other items that match the funny honey prices. Since either method involves food brokers in the middle, retailers who purchase at good prices don’t ask questions. According to reporters investigating, they don’t answer questions either. This is probably not a Chinese conspiracy. The Chinese are having the same issues with funny honey on their grocery shelves. Co-ops, farmers markets, and respected health food stores all had high marks from Food Safety News. Pollen showed up in all the products tested. So the worst honey you could get from them is adulterated, i.e. containing mostly real raw honey partially filtered with some additives. Again, your best bet is raw, unfiltered honey from a reliable source. It’s worth the extra cost for its nutritional and healing properties. Sources for this article includes: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/smuggled-honey-ultra-filtered_n_1079948.html http://www.grist.org/list/2011-11-07-most-honey-isnt-really-honey http://imkers.blogspot.com/2011/10/fake-honey.html http://ecobites.com/eco-news-articles/natural-health/3487-are-you-buying-fake-honey http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/pure-honey.html

11 shocking things you now realize to be true (but you never would have believed them just three years ago)

(NaturalNews) We are living through a time of great awakening . The people of our world are beginning to open their eyes and realize the stunning depth of the scams and collusion taking place all around them. These scams that steal their wealth, poison them with chemicals, enslave them with financial trickery and control their minds with propaganda. These scams are the very fabric of modern government , the mainstream media, universities and so-called “science” institutions. Here are 11 of those scams that you probably never would have believed just 2-3 years ago; but now you probably realize these are true! Welcome to the real world, my friends. Now that we recognize the depth of the scams, let’s change things for the better. (Occupy America!) #1 – Most of the honey you buy in the grocery store contains no actual honey whatsoever It’s true, the so-called “honey” isn’t even technically honey. Most of it is made of cheap “mystery” sweeteners, illegally imported from China, right under the nose of the FDA. http://www.naturalnews.com/034123_honey_pollen.html http://www.naturalnews.com/034102_honey_consumer_alert.html #2 – The fluoride that’s dripped into municipal water supplies is actually a highly toxic industrial chemical byproduct This scam is exploding in the faces of all the ignorant dentists and doctors who have been pushing this poison for years. Once again, they were wrong; the “conspiracy theorists” were right. http://www.naturalnews.com/033753_water_fluoridation_hidden_camera.html http://www.naturalnews.com/031547_fluoride_industrial_waste.html http://www.naturalnews.com/031602_fluoride_tooth_enamel.html #3 – Flu vaccines often contain live flu viruses and actually cause the flu as a way to worsen the flu season and scare more people into buying vaccines It’s also true with MMR vaccines, which cause the measles. Flu vaccines are the greatest medical hoax that has ever been perpetrated on the world: http://www.naturalnews.com/033998_influenza_vaccines_effectiveness.html http://www.naturalnews.com/033816_swine_flu_vaccines_neurological_disorders.html http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_vaccines_junk_science.html http://www.naturalnews.com/031043_flu_vaccines_quackery.html #4 – Ron Paul is deliberately stripped out of mainstream news reports, online polls and debate coverage in order to “game the system” against him The power elite don’t really want “fair and open” elections in America, you see. It’s all about rigging the system to make sure a globalist puppet gets elected instead of a Man of the People. http://www.naturalnews.com/033528_Ron_Paul_smear_campaign.html http://www.prisonplanet.com/realclear-politics-skews-ron-pauls-poll-numbers.html http://www.prisonplanet.com/cnbc-cans-debate-poll-because-ron-paul-was-leading.html #5 – The United States government openly trafficks illegal guns into Mexico as a way to cause gun violence in the USA It all seemed so very clever until they got caught , and now it just seems flatly criminal . So why can the federal government run illegal guns and nothing happens to them, but if you or I do it, we go to prison for a long, long time? http://www.naturalnews.com/032934_ATF_illegal_firearms.html http://www.naturalnews.com/033802_Fast_and_Furious_scandal.html http://counterthink.com/Fast_and_Furious.asp #6 – Prestigious U.S. hospitals are widely engaged in black market organ trafficking and organ transplants And why not? It’s profitable, and they can claim they’re “saving lives!” Make no mistake: the organ transplant industry is steeped in dark, psychopathic criminal activity . http://www.naturalnews.com/028994_organ_transplants_black_market.html http://www.naturalnews.com/034060_organ_trafficking_transplants.html #7 – The child sex slave industry is huge, highly profitable, and found everywhere across America (and the world) You wouldn’t have believed this, probably, until the whole Penn State scandal recently made headline news around the world. As everybody now knows, Penn State sports officials routinely raped young children , even pimping them out to other criminal rapists who paid big money to rape young boys. This went on for 15 years right inside a prestigious university, right here in America. Are you shocked? You shouldn’t be. Alex Jones has been sounding the alarm about this for a decade . Nobody listened to him. They couldn’t believe it was real. People would rather bury their heads in the sand than face reality. And yet, this Penn State scandal just scratches the surface. The far deeper horrifying truth of all this is that Child Protective Services routinely kidnaps young American children and sells them into sex slavery — so-called “white slavery.” That story has not yet been covered by the mainstream media. http://www.naturalnews.com/032501_Maryanne_Godboldo_Child_Protective_Services.html http://abcnews.go.com/US/penn-state-sex-scandal-spreads-texas-alleged-alamo/story?id=14932340 http://www.prisonplanet.com/archive_elite_sex_ring.html http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/10/justice/pennsylvania-coach-abuse/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/who_knew_what_about_jerry_sand.html #8 – Commercial chickens are routinely fed arsenic, and commercial cows are routinely fed chicken poop Oh, you didn’t know that? When you eat conventional beef, you’re eating meat from cows who created that meat by consuming chicken poop. Yumm! Can I have some more poop on that burger, please? http://www.naturalnews.com/032659_arsenic_chicken.html http://www.naturalnews.com/000987.html http://www.naturalnews.com/028675_beef_chicken_poop.html #9 – “Natural” foods and cereals are routinely made with genetically modified ingredients Oh, you thought “natural” meant better than organic? Non-GMO? Stop getting suckered by the cereal companies and dishonest food conglomerates. Know what you’re really eating: http://www.naturalnews.com/033838_breakfast_cereals_GMOs.html http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=15C9C662CC545B8E96934878801B85DF #10 – The global banking industry is a criminal racket that steals wealth from working class People and redistributes it to the global wealthy elite You wouldn’t have believed this five years ago, but now, looking at your own bank account, the job you lost, the house you can’t sell and the health care you can’t afford, it’s all sinking in: The global financial system is an engineered con that suckers working-class people into giving up all their wealth, piece by piece, until they die bankrupt. Indentured servitude… http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000564_Federal_Reserve_financial_bailout_money_supply.html http://www.naturalnews.com/025672_money_WHO_government.html http://www.prisonplanet.com/goldman-sachs-rules-the-world-with-trader-alessio-rastani.html #11 – The U.S. government routinely conspires with pharmaceutical giants to conduct criminal, inhumane medical experiments on innocent people Recent revelations about the U.S. government’s secret medical experiments in Guatemala are just the tip of the iceberg here. Dr. Jona Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, also ran unethical medical experiments on people. In fact, the entire history of modern medicine (pharmaceuticals, vaccines, chemotherapy and more) is something of a “house of horrors” of inhumane medical experiments on innocent victims. http://www.naturalnews.com/033483_Guatemalan_prisoners_medical_experiments.html http://www.naturalnews.com/031564_Jonas_Salk_medical_experiments.html http://www.naturalnews.com/033988_anthrax_vaccine_medical_experiments.html http://www.naturalnews.com/019189.html http://www.naturalnews.com/019187.html What else is true? Ever wonder what else might be true about our world that you never would have believed just a few years ago? Maybe it’s time you started reading books by Jim Marrs or even David Icke . Now is a good time to start listening to the Robert Scott Bell Show on www.NaturalNewsRadio.com where you’ll also hear news from Patrick Timpone . Perhaps it’s time we all started questioning history , medicine, corporate science, banking institutions and all governments. Discard your blinders. Maybe it’s time we opened our eyes to reality and stopped lying to ourselves about the depth of corruption and evil in our world. And why would we do that? Because that’s the first step to positive revolution where we work together to create a better world … a world where such criminality and suffering is ancient history. Accept reality, in other words… and then CHANGE it for the better. Open your eyes at the following websites: www.NaturalNews.com www.AlternativeNews.com www.InfoWars.com www.LewRockwell.com www.CCHRint.org www.ActivistPost.com

The second American revolution has begun

(NaturalNews) There’s a sense of desperation in America today. Their jobs are being exported out of the country, their health insurance is being dropped by employers, their dollars are becoming increasingly worthless with each passing day and their futures don’t look very promising. They’re angry, frustrated and desperate, so they take to the streets and protest. Occupy Wall Street! Occupy The Fed! Take to the streets! It’s the right thing to do, but what most protesters — and nearly all Americans — don’t fully grasp is that nearly every powerful institution is a criminal racket . It’s not just Wall Street that’s operated like a criminal mob, folks: It’s the U.S. Congress. It’s the health care industry. It’s conventional agriculture, the mainstream media, the processed food manufacturers, the government regulators and of course the entire military industrial complex. Nearly everything around you is a criminal operation . The banks openly steal your homes while laundering money for global drug lords. The U.S. government runs illegal guns into Mexico while allowing cocaine and heroin back into the USA to be sold at pumped-up black market prices. The mainstream media broadcasts outright lies and complete fabrications as if they were fact. Much of modern medical “science” is complete quackery or fiction, funded by corporations for the purpose of expanding corporate power. The local water supply is intentionally contaminated with toxic poisons known as “fluoride,” and the local food supply is tainted with other dangerous chemicals like aspartame, MSG and BPA. Your local hospital is almost certainly involved in a medical racket that seeks to insert high-profit medical procedure charges onto patient bills, and your local nursing home most likely throws granny in the hospital for a few days in order to get triple billing from Medicare upon their return. Doctors prescribe antibiotics because they get kickbacks from the drug companies, and the medical journals are little more than science whores who have been bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. And don’t forget vaccines, which have become the pathway through which infectious disease is actually spread among the population using live viruses injected into innocent children (http://www.naturalnews.com/033447_Institute_of_Medicine_vaccines.html). Wake the heck up, people! Most of modern society is a giant con. Nearly every institution, every mega corporation, every government and nearly every politician or bureaucrat is really just a criminal mobster trying to steal your wealth or gain control over your actions and thoughts. Most institutions actually cause the very things they claim to be fighting against! Why does the cancer industry promote cancer? The cancer industry actually promotes cancer, didn’t you know? The DEA runs drugs! The ATF runs guns (http://www.naturalnews.com/032934_ATF_illegal_firearms.html). The FDA keeps deadly drugs legal while trying to outlaw safe, affordable natural remedies. The EPA openly allows deadly toxic chemicals to be dumped into the environment (like mercury fillings from dental offices). The CDC actually promotes complete falsehoods about infectious disease in order to scare people into thinking everybody needs to get vaccinated. And then the vaccines are intentionally contaminated with live viruses in order to spread disease and make the CDC look even more important! (http://www.naturalnews.com/025760.html) Meanwhile, the President is actively destroying the economic base of America, aided by feds who threaten business owners like Gibson Guitars which are only trying to manufacture quality American-made products. The purpose of all this? To destroy America’s economy from the inside out. It is intentional. It is being engineered . The U.S. economy is supposed to collapse by design, get it? Beyond the economy alone, the entire “war on terror” is a complete and utter hoax, having been fabricated from the very start by government insiders. From 9/11 to present-day terror, it has all been a pathetic and cowardly string of fabrications and staged events for the sole purpose of destroying freedom in America. Most of what you’re told from “official” sources is flat-out false Are you getting this? Nearly everything you’ve been told is a lie. Everything you hear on the mainstream news is either a complete fabrication or a wild distortion of reality. And the things you don’t hear on the evening news are the things that really matter — things like the fact that your money is being quietly stolen from you by the Federal Reserve. Nearly everything you are told by the White House, or the FDA, or the EPA — or any government regulator — is a complete and total lie. There is no room for truth in a system of outright tyrannical lawbreaking. That’s what we have today instead of government: A cabal of criminal thugs who operate with impunity while violating laws with complete disregard for human rights or the Bill of Rights. Did you know, for example, that the Obama administration runs a secret death panel that decides which Americans to add to a “kill list?” This kill list is then handed over to the President who decides which Americans to simply assassinate or murder. Think I’m making this up? Then why was it openly reported by Reuters? (http://www.naturalnews.com/033835_White_House_kill_list.html) Watch this astonishing interaction between ABC News reporter Jake Trapper and White House Spokesperson Carney, who completely excuses the Obama administration’s outright murder of an American citizen with absolutely zero evidence, no due process, no trial and no proper legal justification whatsoever: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1E3C8FBEAFD167D8F97A8ADBE8F2E451 Why things are the way they are – the honest truth Do you wonder why so many people are sick and diseased today? Because the health care system is designed to make you sick! Do you wonder why so many people are bankrupt today? Because the financial system is designed to keep you bankrupt! Do you wonder why voters have so little power versus the corporations today? Because the political system is designed to keep the corporations in power while keeping you enslaved. Do you wonder why you are still paying $3 or $4 per gallon of gas? Because the energy industry is designed to keep you enslaved to high-profit energy sources while oppressing free energy technology. Do you ever wonder why the best innovations in medicine, free energy and human consciousness are always suppressed ? Because the system is designed to destroy or censor any technologies that would lend themselves to longevity, freedom or increased awareness. Do you wonder why America remains in perpetual war with an unseen enemy? Because the whole system is designed to operate in a state of perpetual warfare so that the people can be kept in a state of constant fear while being denied their freedoms. Join the revolution This is why I invite you to join the revolution in whatever constructive way you can. Now is the time to make your voice heard, just as all those protesting right now are doing. My only bit of wisdom to pass along in this regard is to make sure it’s your OWN voice and don’t let yourself be played by some organized globalist agenda that now wants to hijack the protests for their own nefarious purposes. The essence of freedom is LIBERTY, honest money, private property rights and a system of law that applies to everyone . YES, the globalist bankers are crooks. They probably deserve to be strung up in a public square somewhere, but even such actions should never be taken without due process and a proper trial. What’s really wrong with America today is that the criminal elements are running the show, from the White House to Wall Street. And it’s time the People demanded that EVERYONE abide by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. After all, didn’t the President swear to protect it when he became President? So why does he now selectively ignore it? The revolution happening right now is a revolution borne out of frustration, and although it seems to lack focus in the mixed messages heard on the street right now, it will soon coalesce into a call for justice and an end to the systems of tyranny that dominate the American landscape today. The transition out of freedom and justice will be fraught with violence, I fear, and there will soon be Martial Law declared across our land. Be prepared for what’s coming, and have no illusions that the second American revolution is now at our doorstep. I only ask: What will you do with this opportunity? Will you stand for liberty and justice when it really counts? Keep reading NaturalNews for more coverage of all this. And if you want to learn the latest preparedness information, I’ve just released a new course with Daniel Vitalis called The Surthrival Series (http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Surthrival_Vitalis_Adams__NN.htm).

North American Union has arrived: First official Mexican shipping truck to cross US border

(NaturalNews) Beginning this week, Mexican truckers will officially be allowed to bypass border inspections and drive directly into the US to deliver their goods. The pilot program not only complies with provisions set forth in the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, but it also ratchets up another notch towards a North American Union (NAU), where borders among the US, Mexico, and Canada are virtually eliminated. For years, public outcry and concern by some politicians over its sweeping implications have prevented the new trucking policy from being implemented. After all, drug trafficking, illegal entry by Mexican immigrants, and even violent standoffs at the border are already problematic under the current system, which requires that Mexican truckers transfer their goods to US truckers at the border. But under the new system, Mexican truckers will be permitted to freely cross the border and drive deep into America’s heartland. For the inaugural event, Mexican trucking company Transportes Olympic will cross over the US border at Laredo, Tex., on Wed., Oct. 26, where it will travel 450 miles north to Garland, Tex., to deliver industrial equipment. According to the Associated Press (AP), US Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-San Diego) and Bob Filner (D-San Diego) have expressed bipartisan opposition to the plan, which not only threatens thousands of American jobs, but also opens wide the floodgates of open entry into the US. “There’s absolutely no upside to the program,” said Joe Kasper, a spokesman for Rep. Hunter’s office, to the AP. “It’s a good example of foreign interests overtaking American interests, at the expense of jobs, security and safety. The program was a bad idea when it was created under NAFTA and it’s a bad idea now. It should be stopped right away.” Todd Spencer, owner-operator of the Independent Drivers Association (IDA), an international trade organization that promotes the interests of truck drivers, shares a similar sentiment. Spencer told the AP that “the beneficiaries of opening border (sic) will be few and the casualties will be plenty.” All Mexican trucks participating in the program will be required to have electronic monitoring devices installed, and their drivers will have to submit to criminal background checks and be able to speak English. But in reality, these protocols will do little to nothing to prevent the wave of new criminal activity that is sure to arise. Sources for this article include: http://hosted2.ap.org/CARIE/7f780b0f92634e54be4b48f9179deaa4/Article_2011-10-19-US-Mexico-Trucking/id-9a3fbf5836bc4c3888fcf2327c552ec1

FDA Trilateral Cooperation Charter – the end of health freedom as we know it

(NaturalNews) As horrific as the recent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) guidelines are for health freedom (http://www.naturalnews.com/033482_FDA_dietary_supplements.html), they are not necessarily the worst threat currently on the regulatory horizon. Far off the radar of most in the natural health community is the quietly-developing North American Trilateral Cooperation Charter (TCC), which threatens to merge the dietary supplement regulation guidelines of the US, Mexico, and Canada into a single, highly-restrictive regulatory paradigm. The “Food and Nutrition” section of Health Canada’s “International Activities” website explains that TCC, which was officially signed by representatives from seven food, drug, health, and trade agencies of the three North American countries, is designed to “improve product safety” and “promote public health.” This is done by “facilitat[ing] the communication, collaboration, leveraging of resources, and the exchange of information on issues of mutual interest among the three countries” (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/intactivit/trilateral-coop/charter_charte-eng.php). There are many problems with such a cooperative arrangement, but one specific area of particular concern is the document’s references concerning the collaboration of product regulation among the three countries. In the summary, Health Canada states that collaboration under TCC is “intended to cover all products,” including “dietary supplements, natural health products, and food.” On the surface, efforts to mutually improve product safety by working together with one another may sound like a worthy goal. But a deeper investigation reveals that the real goal of the charter is to “harmonize” food and drug regulations among the three countries, which is also the goal of the global Codex Alimentarius guidelines (http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/us/trilateral.html). We already know that the FDA is pushing for full control over dietary supplements, and intends to have supplement manufacturers comply with a regulatory approval process similar to what is required for drugs. Any such approval process is a clear violation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which requires only a notification process for supplement ingredients. It just so happens that in both Canada and Mexico, vitamins and dietary supplements are already treated like drugs, and are subject to excessive government regulatory guidelines and scrutiny. If the US merges its regulatory protocols with those of the two other countries … well, you know the rest. Though there appears to be little that can be done to stop this formation of a North American Union, spreading the news about its existence and its greater agenda will at least help to expose it. And if enough people put pressure on their Congressmen to revoke or resist compliance with the charter, it may be possible to stop it from taking effect.

Hidden sources of food coloring chemicals in your diet

(NaturalNews) The toxicity potential of synthetic food colors is complex and controversial. Color additives are mostly used to make high-calorie, low-nutrition foods appear healthy. Many, including Dr. Alexander Weil, claim those additives are toxic or carcinogenic. They usually show up on labels with the color and a code number. Some food color additives, such as caramel and carmine, have less bad press. But there is enough bad press overall to force more color additive manufacturers into using natural plant extracts instead of synthetic chemicals. Caramel and Carmine Caramel, the grandfather of food coloring, is the most ubiquitous. It’s what makes colas brown, like Pepsi, Coca-Cola and others. It’s in almost any brown liquid including whiskey, brown gravies, many soy sauces, and most balsamic vinegars. It’s also used in many junk food items from cookies to potato chips. It’s created by caramelizing (burning) sugar. Any food burnt or charred can be carcinogenic due to acrylamide content. The FDA acknowledges the toxic potential of acrylamide in large doses, but considers caramel’s acrylamide content insignificant. Sometimes caramel is processed with ammonium. That’s indicated by the codes Caramel E150C and E150D. The FDA concedes some side effects from E150C and E150D. California has listed all caramel coloring as carcinogenic. Carmine or cochineal is a mash from crushed beetles stripped off cacti in lower Mexico and South America. Formerly used only to create red fabrics, it’s now an FDA approved food color additive. Some people can have extreme allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock resulting in coma or death. So when you see carmine on your strawberry yogurt’s list of ingredients, know that you’re eating beetle juice yogurt. Truly Natural Color Additives Natural plant based extracts have begun to emerge as food color additives. Annatto, a yellow-orange extract from the seeds of a tropical shrub, is often used for cheese and butter. It can cause allergic reactions for some, usually hives. Anthocyanin is an extract from various red and purple plant sources. Beta carotene, chlorophyll, paprika, red beets, saffron, and turmeric are obvious plant sources. Food color additive companies are filing patents for their extracts with those colors. Getting exclusive patent rights may involve a little chemical tweaking. Petroleum Based Food Colors FDA approved chemical food colors are indicated by FD&C (Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics) and are approved synthetic colors. As of 2007, the following seven were FDA approved for any food: Blue #1, Blue #2, Green #3, Red #3, Red #40, Yellow #5, and Yellow #6. Many are banned in Europe. The State of California, Dr. Weil, and others think they should be banned too. Currently, because of many complaints from parents and pediatricians, the FDA is investigating the effect of synthetic food colorings on adolescents and children. But thus far, the FDA has rejected food coloring health danger claims, even overruling their own scientists who urged banning Red #3 in 1983. Sources for more information include: Mike Adams on food color additives http://www.naturalnews.com/022870_artificial_colors_food.html#ixzz1YeNewL3k All Natural News food color additive articles http://www.naturalnews.com/food_coloring.html http://www.npr.org/2011/03/30/134962888/fda-probes-link-between-food-dyes-kids-behavior http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/2991.html http://www.iatp.org/files/421_2_105204.pdf FDA Panel to Consider Warnings for Artificial Food Colorings http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/health/policy/30fda.html

The most moronic TV news journalist ever? Gold is "backed by nothing" while dollars are backed by government!

(NaturalNews) When it comes to money and gold, some mainstream journalists have such low IQs that it’s a wonder they can string words together at all. Here’s the latest example of truly idiotic journalism in a precious video that’s now being called the most moronic piece of mainstream TV journalism ever aired. It comes to us courtesy of CTV in Canada, which is actually Canada’s top-rated news network in terms of total viewers: Watch the clip here: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=94051052ECB937B813C37910C72A9CD7 Or on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWyrjwXoIqA In this video, you’ll see bimbo reporter Bridget Brown explain, in her own struggling words, why the U.S. dollar is a far safer financial instrument than gold. As she confidently articulates to whatever hapless Canadian viewers are dumb enough to watch the mainstream news channel this aired on, gold is “backed by nothing!” Lest you think that alone deserves some sort of award in its own right, the genius actually continues. The dollar, she says, is backed by what she calls the “American government.” Should we remind her that the Americas includes Central America and South America, too, and that the phrase “American government” could mean the government of Peru, or Panama or even Mexico? Naw, that might confuse her even more… Her brilliance continues when she says “…so no matter what is happening to the American economy, something like the U.S. dollar is backed by the Federal Reserve. That’s gonna be around a year from now.” Oh wow. You mean the same Federal Reserve that has devalued the dollar by more than 95% since its inception in 1913? See the chart at: http://www.aier.org/images/stories/charts_large/ppd_lg.png Or see another fascinating chart here: http://www.whatamimissinghere.com/archives/26993 And I hate to break it to Bridget, but gold has been around for a few billion years on our planet, while the Federal Reserve is but a temporary blip of monetary insanity that will soon cease to exist at all. The dollar, too, will be little more than a short-lived piece of historical curiosity before too long. Her conclusion in all this is that — swallow before you read this — dollars are therefore far safer than gold because they’re backed by government! This is one dizzy reporter who apparently spent her college years partying at the sorority rather than attending economics 101. By this same logic, you could argue that social security is more reliable than gold because it, too, is backed by “American government.” Or heck, even Medicare is more reliable than gold! Well gee, who needs precious metals at all if we can just take the government’s word on everything? Next, this reporter will probably tell us that governments never lie, never collapse and never go bankrupt, either. I can’t wait for part two in this amazing sage of journalistic fiction. Perhaps Bridget should write children’s fantasy books instead of attempting to report the news, eh? We are living out Idiocracy In witnessing all this, I can’t help but remember my favorite satire movie Idiocracy , in which society has devolved into a clumsy cabal of low-IQ degenerates who believe everything they see on TV. (http://www.naturalnews.com/021558_Idiocracy_Hollywood.html) But what really makes this latest example so relevant to our modern times is that mainstream journalists are almost universally complete morons when it comes to economics, gold, the Federal Reserve and fiat currencies. I’ve watched mainstream media journalists argue against gold for at least the last decade, during which the value of gold compared to dollars has skyrocketed beyond what any of them thought possible. And yet, somehow, gold is just never good enough for these teleprompter-reading dizzy-headed reporters who probably couldn’t even tell you what year the Federal Reserve was even created (or why). Heck, they probably think the Federal Reserve is a branch of the federal government. And Federal Express, too, for that matter. These reporters need to watch my video called Freetopia , which exposes the economic fallacies that ultimately lead free nations into economic collapse: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=16899B46FEB0BBE3E322E75EA08442A8 That’s actually a bit of fiction that says more about modern-day reality than all the mainstream media economic news reports put together. The full faith and credit of paper! But getting back to the bimbo’s report on gold, I am curious to know what she thinks gold should be backed with if it’s not “backed by anything” at the moment, as she explains. Ivory? Silver? The words of politicians? I wonder what she thinks has more intrinsic value , ounce for ounce, than gold? Paper? It makes me shudder to think that this passes for news delivery these days. I especially love the fact that the main news desk host didn’t even bother to correct her when she began spouting total economic nonsense on live television. Huh? What? Back to you, Brenda! It all reminds me of that satisfying quote from Mark Twain who said “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” That quote applies to most of mainstream journalism today, which is widely infected by the “stupid” virus when it comes to economics, the rule of law and liberty in general. Is it any wonder the mainstream media is losing viewers in record numbers as people turn to alternative media for intelligent analysis of the world around them? Along those lines, check out our newest site www.AlternativeNews.com which aggregates important alternative news headlines from across the ‘web, including intelligent news about gold and the coming collapse of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar.

Next Page »