Obama’s economic policies have created a nation of jobless citizens dependent on government handouts

It’s no secret that the U.S. national debt is poised to increase by more than $6 trillion during President Obama’s first four years in office. All of this additional spending, he has often said, was needed to “stimulate the economy”, curtail unemployment and get Americans…

Sauerkraut promotes good health (and good fortune, too)

Many cultural traditions eat fermented vegetables on New Years Day to bring good fortune. Folklore has it that the long threads of sauerkraut potentially represent a long life. Greens are also associated with money and thus thought to bring good fortune. A practical…

Saga of 12-year-old foster boy reveals state’s psychiatric drug abuse of children

(NaturalNews)A 12-year-old Texas boy testified before Congress that he was drugged for four years with multiple anti-psychotic medications while in the state foster system. The boy, identified only as Ke’onte, recalled that the drugs left him “in a stupor” and physically ill. Governmental…

Many popular organic brands now owned by large industrial food processors

(NaturalNews) Since the initial release of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) draft of organic standards in 1997, large industrial food processors have been gradually acquiring or forming strategic alliances with organic food brands. And a series of detailed charts assembled by Philip H. Howard, an assistant professor at Michigan State University (MSU), provides a visual glimpse into how the organic industry has changed over the years. It was expected that, with the establishment of national organic standards to replace the loose patchwork of state and local standards that existed prior, large food producers would want in on the action. And many got what they wanted, as they quickly gobbled up many of the largest and most viable organic brands that existed at the time. Howard explains that most acquisitions of organic brands by industrial food processors occurred between 1997 and 2002, when USDA organic standards were fully implemented. During that time, Dean Foods acquired the White Wave / Silk brand, for instance, and the Kellogg company acquired the popular Kashi brand. Other major acquisitions over the years include Kraft’s takeover of Boca Foods and Back to Nature, General Mills takeover of LaraBar and Cascadian Farm, and Pepsi’s takeover of Naked Juice. And many other acquisitions have taken place over the years as well, which you can learn more about here: https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html Do these buyouts mean that the acquired brands are no longer reputable or of the same quality as they were before? The answer to this, of course, is dubious. In many cases, the contents of an acquired brand’s products have remained mostly or completely the same — the parent company simply wanted a strategic piece of the pie. But in other cases, the acquired brand’s offerings were altered to cut costs. Perhaps the most widely-known case of brand tampering occurred with Dean Foods Silk brand. As many NaturalNews readers may already know, Silk quietly stopped using organic soybeans in its soy milk products, but did not tell customers. Silk even kept the same barcodes and product packaging, which resulted in some retailers unknowingly selling the altered product as if it was organic for months after the change was made (http://www.naturalnews.com/027450_food_foods_Dean.html). At the same time, many industrial food processed have developed organic versions of their existing brands in response to growing consumer demand for organic food, which has improved the overall quality of many popular brands. These include the introduction of a Campbell’s Soup organic line, for example, and a Kellogg’s organic cereal line. To learn more about who owns what in the organic industry, visit: https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html

Four years after Clinton’s victory over sugary drinks in public schools, they’re more widely available than ever

(NaturalNews) It was only four years ago that, with much fanfare, former President Bill Clinton announced the Alliance for a Healthier Generation , a project of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. This project was supposed to drastically reduce junk food and soda availability in public schools. It was a voluntary program involving Kraft Foods, Mars, Campbell Soup, Dannon and PepsiCo, and back in 2006, this was a very big deal of an announcement that had Bill Clinton looking like a hero for solving the “junk food in public schools” problem. I remember how CNN and other news sources called this a “victory for public health” and touted it as a model for solving the childhood obesity problem now facing America. Of course, the rest of us knew better. We quickly realized this was merely a voluntary program designed to create a lot of positive press at the time of the announcement (which it did). But we also knew it would never be enforced . Just a lot of talk, in other words, and no real action. Today soda availability in public schools reaches an all-time high Fast forward four years to the present. It’s November, 2010. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago publish a study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. That study says students’ ability to purchase sugary sodas and sports drinks from school vending machines is at an all-time high! Instead of vending machines disappearing from schools, they’ve invaded them. Just as we all knew back in 2006, the voluntary “Alliance for a Healthier Generation” program was a ruse — a decoy designed to get the government to back off of industry regulation by claiming “the industry can regulate itself.” Four years later, the results are now obvious: MORE sodas in schools. MORE obesity and MORE diabetes among schoolchildren. I guess the industry can’t regulate itself, after all. (Is anyone surprised?) Asking the soda industry to sell less soda is sort of like asking Big Tobacco to stop marketing cigarettes. No industry is going to voluntarily harm its own bottom line. According to the study, in 2007 only 49 percent of students could buy high-calorie drinks from vending machines or school stores, but by 2009 that number rose to an alarming 61 percent . So much for Clinton’s Alliance. So much for all the spin, hype and grandstanding. Once again, it turns out that food companies always put profits ahead of public health ; even when it comes to schoolchildren. It’s time to ban sodas and junk foods from public schools So what’s the real solution to this issue? Ban all sodas and junk foods in public schools , period. A school is not the proper place to poison our children with foods and chemical additives that cause diabetes, cancer, heart disease and attention disorders. We need to pass laws to reign in the corporations on this issue, because they’ve proven their voluntary efforts simply don’t work. Selling sodas and junk food to children is wrong . It’s something that should be immediately halted across the nation. At the same time, don’t believe politicians when they claim to solve such problems via “voluntary” agreements with the for-profit junk food industry, either. Such agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Australian courts rule that Vioxx should never have been approved for sale

(NaturalNews) Australian courts recently ruled that Vioxx, a popular prescription painkiller, should never have been approved and allowed on the market. The case represents the world’s first successful class action lawsuit against a drug company for damage caused by its drugs. Merck, the drug giant that produced Vioxx, was deemed by the courts as negligent for failing to properly inform doctors who were prescribing the drug about the dangers and health risks associated with the drug. As a result, thousands of patients around the world have suffered severe injury or death because of Vioxx. Graeme Peterson, a 59-year-old man represented in the case, was awarded the equivalent of about $266,000 for injuries inflicted upon him by Vioxx. He suffered a heart attack from the drug in 2003 that has left him unable to work since. He took the drug for more than four years, and still keeps a Vioxx tablet with him as a reminder of what almost killed him. Though great for Australians, injured patients in the U.K. have not had the same success. Norman Lamb, a member of the British Parliament, explained that he and others have been trying to convince Merck for years that it should compensate the many British citizens who were injured by the drug. But Merck continues to deny liability and the British government has failed to successfully negotiate a settlement. “Ministers made promising noises then after a meeting between the Government and the company they weakened their position. I believe that the ministers came under pressure from the company and their own civil servants to shut up,” explained Lamb in a U.K. article. Unfortunately, this is typically the case with most drug company lawsuits. The Australian case is a landmark victory that should typify how class action lawsuits against drug companies are handled and hopefully a similar victory will one day be achieved for the many British cases of Vioxx injuries. One such case involves Raymond Eaton, whose wife died from heart problems that were likely caused by Vioxx. Mrs. Eaton, who had been suffering from a severely debilitating form of rheumatoid arthritis, was immediately prescribed Vioxx upon its release. The drug helped her pain, but four years later, she suffered a coronary from which she never recovered. Since she never had any heart problems prior to taking Vioxx, Raymond is convinced that the drug was responsible. Over 80 million people around the world were taking Vioxx prior to its being pulled from the market, and many lawyers from other countries have been awaiting the outcome of the Australian litigation. The success of the case established a precedence for Merck’s liability due to negligence, providing a way for the thousands, if not millions, of injured patients around the world to receive restitution for damages caused by Vioxx. Sources for this story include: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/vioxx-ruling-gives-hope-for-payouts-to-british-lsquovictimsrsquo-1917042.html

Swedish girl grows her face back after side effect to pharmaceuticals caused her face to fall off

(NaturalNews) Four years after a rare drug reaction caused her face to turn black and fall off, 19-year-old Eva Uhlin has beaten the odds and made a nearly full recovery. In September 2005, Uhlin took a capsule of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol and marketed in the United States as Tylenol) to bring down a fever. The combination of her virus and the drug, however, produced a rare condition known as Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. When she woke up the next day, blisters were spreading all over her body, including her face. “It was terrifying, because at the time they didn’t know what was wrong with me or what would happen to me,” she said. “When I looked in the mirror … I didn’t recognize myself.” Uhlin’s skin began to burn, scab, blister and fall off on her face, arms, back, chest and stomach. Her lips actually grew together, making it impossible for her to open her mouth. “It felt like something was crawling around under my skin, I was in total shock , it was like something out of a horror film,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what was happening. I had taken Paracetamol many times before.” After four years of treatment, Uhlin’s skin has mostly returned to normal, but she still suffers from lingering effects of the disease, such as sensitivity to bright sunlight. She must still take eye drops daily. Folke Sjoeberg, one of her doctors, said she was lucky to recover as much as she did from the condition, which kills 40 percent of those that it afflicts. “The condition is very uncommon and it strikes only one in a million people,” he said. “With this condition you have to just let it run its course because there is no way to stop it. I’m very glad that Eva has done so well after all that happened.” Sources for this story include: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/6974596/Swedish-girl-grows-back-face-after-reaction-to-Paracetamol.html.