WASHINGTON POST– For years, advocates of agricultural biotechnology have promised a future in which foods will be genetically engineered to give more nutrition and to prevent chronic diseases, in which crops will be modified to thrive in salty soil or hot or dry climates and in which consumers will benefit directly from science’s ability to tweak other characteristics of plants.

So far, however, that has generally not happened, and the main beneficiaries of agricultural biotechnology remain farmers battling pests and weeds that threaten staple crops such as soybeans, corn and cotton, as well as the companies that develop and produce genetically modified seeds.

But last week, consumers were reminded of what might be available in the future. Researchers at the British-government-sponsored John Innes Center announced that they had developed a purple tomato that has high levels of beneficial anthocyanins — antioxidants known to neutralize potentially harmful oxygen molecules, or free radicals, in the body and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. The genes for the purple tomato came from snapdragons.

The creators of the purple tomato, a team led by Cathie Martin, tested their fruit in cancer-susceptible mice and found that the animals on a diet of 10 percent powdered purple tomatoes in their pellets lived significantly longer than those eating powdered normal red tomatoes. Her findings were published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Continue reading about “Extra Nutritious” Genetically Engineered Food Years Away.

© Washington Post, 2008

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ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS– Chinese children drinking well water with very high levels of fluoride scored poorly on intelligence testing compared to those with lower exposures.

This is one of the first studies in humans to find that too much fluoride is associated with low performance on intelligence tests. More information is needed to ascertain if the sum total amount of ingested fluoride from tap water, consumer products and other sources are enough to inhibit brain development in children living in the US and other countries where fluoridation is common.

Fluoride is a recommended additive to public water supplies to promote healthy teeth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 66% of the US population receives fluoridated water through the taps in their homes. Fluoride combats tooth decay in two ways. It strengthens tooth enamel, and it allows teeth damaged by acid to repair, or remineralize, themselves.

Excessive fluoride intake can have negative consequences on bone, teeth and the brain. Too much of the ion can lead to skeletal fluorosis, a condition in which teeth have weak enamel and bones have poor mineralization. 

Continue reading about High Fluoride Levels in China Linked to Low Intelligence, Study Finds.

© Environmental Health News, 2007

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ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP- Eleven unions representing more than 7,000 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency are calling for a national moratorium on programs to add fluoride to drinking water, citing what they call a possible cancer risk.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, the unions say the agency should act even before a committee of the National Academy of Sciences completes a report on the issue early next year.

J. William Hirzy, an EPA scientist and vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Local 280, said Johnson should act now in light of allegations that a Harvard University dentistry professor downplayed research showing an increased risk of bone cancer for boys who drink fluoridated tap water.

Harvard said in June it is investigating the allegations against Chester Douglass, who heads the school’s Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology.

Continue reading about EPA Union Calls for Moratorium on Fluoride in Drinking Water.

© Environmental Working Group, 2005

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BRUCE LIPTON, PHD– Sometimes, the body’s natural harmony breaks down, and we experience dis-ease, which is a reflection of the body’s inability to maintain normal control of its function-providing systems. Because behavior is created through the interaction of proteins with their complementary signals, there are really only two sources of dis-ease: either the proteins are defective or the signals are distorted.

About 5 percent of the world’s population is born with birth defects, which means they have mutated genes that code for dysfunctional proteins. Structurally deformed or defective proteins can “jam the machine,” disturb normal pathway functions, and impair the character and quality of lives. However, 95 percent of the human population arrives on this planet with a perfectly functional set of gene blueprints.

Because the majority of us have a perfectly healthy genome and produce functional proteins, illness in this group can likely be attributed to the nature of the signal. There are three primary situations in which signals contribute to dysfunction and dis-ease. The first is trauma. If you twist or misalign your spine and physically impede the transmission of the nervous system’s signals, it may result in a distortion of the information being exchanged between the brain and the body’s cells, tissues, and organs.

The second is toxicity. Toxins and poisons in our system represent inappropriate chemistry that can distort the signal’s information on its path between the nervous system and the targeted cells and tissues. Altered signals, derived from either of these causes, can inhibit or modify normal behaviors and lead to the expression of dis-ease.

The third and most important influence of signals on the dis-ease process is thought, the action of the mind. Mind-related illnesses do not require that there be anything physically wrong with the body at the outset of the dis-ease. Health is predicated upon the nervous system’s ability to accurately perceive environmental information and selectively engage appropriate, life-sustaining behaviors. If a mind misinterprets environmental signals and generates an inappropriate response, survival is threatened because the body’s behaviors become out of synch with the environment. We may not think that a thought could be enough to undermine an entire system, but, in fact, misperceptions can be lethal.

Continue reading about The Nature of Dis-Ease. 

© Bruce Lipton, 2009

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NATURAL NEWS- Today the medical mafia struck another devastating blow to the health and freedom of all Americans. With the support of an inarguably corrupt Congress that has simply abandoned the real needs of the American people, the sick-care industry has locked in a high-profit scheme of disease and monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals in a nation that can ill afford either one.

And this Pharma-funded betrayal, it turns out, was led by the Democrats. Passed on a 219-212 vote that was only accomplished thanks to closed-door, last-minute secret meetings among the last holdouts, this new legislation puts America under the stranglehold of the medical mafia while doing absolutely nothing to address real health care reform.

There is no mention in the bill, for example, of vitamin D for preventing cancer, or orthomolecular medicine for preventing degenerative disease. There’s not even a word about protecting health freedom or ending the century of oppression that has been waged against naturopathic practitioners by the AMA, FDA and FTC.

The new legislation does, however, lock in billions of dollars in monopoly profits for the pharmaceutical companies — the same companies who spent millions of dollars pushing for its passage and who depend on the continuation of sickness and disease for their future profits.

There’s only one problem with this health care reform bill: It doesn’t reform health care. It has almost nothing to do with health care at all, in fact: It’s really more of an effort to expand a broken sick-care system. When faced with the problem that our sick-care system doesn’t work, Congress somehow decided that fixing the problem merely involved expanding the failures to include everyone!

Continue reading about New Healthcare Bill- Reform or Expansion of a Broken System?.

© Natural News, 2010

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