Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Olya Dalrymple scoops Nutella-flavored ice cream for a customer at iScream in Berkeley, where sugar is plentiful.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is a toxic, addictive substance that should be highly regulated with taxes, laws on where and to whom it can be advertised, and even age-restricted sales, says a team of UCSF scientists.

In a paper published in Nature on Wednesday, they argue that increased global consumption of sugar is primarily responsible for a whole range of chronic diseases that are reaching epidemic levels around the world.

Sugar is so heavily entrenched in the food culture in the United States and other countries that getting people to kick the habit will require much more than simple education and awareness campaigns, the UCSF scientists said.

It’s going to require public policy that gently guides people toward healthier choices and uses brute force to remove sugar from so many of the processed foods we eat every day, said Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF.

“The only method for dealing with this is a public health intervention,” Lustig said in an interview. “Everyone talks about personal responsibility, and that won’t work here, as it won’t for any addictive substance. These are things that have to be done at a governmental level, and government has to get off its ass.”

In response to the study, the food and beverage industries said in statements that sugar cannot be blamed for high rates of chronic disease in the United States and elsewhere.

Comparing sugar to alcohol and tobacco is “simply without scientific merit,” the American Beverage Association said. “There is no evidence that focusing solely on reducing sugar intake would have any meaningful public health impact.”

Altering biochemistry

Lustig has written and talked extensively about the role he believes sugar has played in driving up rates of chronic illness such as heart disease and diabetes. Excessive sugar, he argues, alters people’s biochemistry, making them more vulnerable to metabolic conditions that lead to illness, while at the same time making people crave sweets even more.

It’s sugar, not obesity, that is the real health threat, Lustig and his co-authors – public health experts Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis – say in their paper. They note that studies show 20 percent of obese people have normal metabolism and no ill health effects resulting from their weight, while 40 percent of normal-weight people have metabolic problems that can lead to diabetes and heart disease. They contend that sugar consumption is the cause.

In other words, not everyone gains a lot of weight from over-indulging in sugar, but a large proportion of the U.S. population is eating enough of it that it’s having devastating health effects, they say.

“The gestalt shift is maybe obesity is just a marker for the rise in chronic disease worldwide, and in fact metabolic syndrome, caused by excessive sugar consumption, is the real culprit,” said Schmidt, a health policy professor who focuses on alcohol and addiction research.

22 teaspoons a day

Americans eat and drink roughly 22 teaspoons of sugar every day – triple what they consumed three decades ago – and most people aren’t even aware of the various ways sugars sneak into their diets, often via breads and cereals and processed foods. Terms that identify sugars on labels include sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, hydrolysed starch and invert sugar, corn syrup and honey.

Ultimately, getting those sugars out of the American food culture is going to require a massive shift in how foods and beverages are made in the United States, the authors say. In the paper, they say that the Food and Drug Administration needs to remove sugar from the list of foods “generally regarded as safe,” meaning they can be used in unlimited quantities.

But the food and beverage industries have repeatedly denied that sugar is the main villain behind rising rates of obesity, or the increases in diabetes and heart disease. Instead, industry representatives say that a complex cultural shift – toward a more inactive lifestyle and increased calories overall – is to blame.

And not all scientists agree that sugar should shoulder the entire burden for the chronic diseases afflicting modern Americans.

“When you get into this argument about sugar in the diet, you also have to look at the type of food that has a high sugar content,” said Jo Ann Hattner, a San Francisco registered dietitian who teaches nutrition courses at Stanford. “Those foods have few nutrients and little fiber, and that’s not good for you. So is it sugar itself that’s harmful?”

Good advice: Eat less

That said, Hattner added, there’s no doubt that people in general consume too much sugar and that everyone could benefit from eating less – and especially looking out for “hidden” sugars in their diets. Those sugars are often found in processed foods like sodas, cereals and breads. Even cookies contain much more sugar than they did a decade or two ago, nutritionists say.

But while individuals certainly can make small changes to their diets to eat more nutritiously, that alone is not going to effect major public health improvements, Lustig and his co-authors said.

In their paper, they argue for taxes on heavily sweetened foods and beverages, restricting advertising to children and teenagers, and removing sugar-ladened products from schools, or even from being sold near schools. They suggest banning the sale of sugary beverages to children.

Schmidt noted that those policies could nudge people toward healthier choices – but only if, at the same time, healthier choices are made widely available. Such policies have worked in reducing alcohol consumption and smoking rates, she said. There’s no reason they can’t work with sugar too.

Lustig said he realizes that there will likely be heavy resistance to the idea of largely removing sugar from American diets – and resistance not just from the food and beverage industries, but from the public at large.

“Everybody yells, ‘Nanny state, this guy is trying to control our food,’ ” Lustig said. “But it’s already being controlled. It limits consumer choice when so much of our food is controlled by these industries. I’m actually trying to undo the nanny state.”

E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/02/MN891N1PQS.DTL

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UC San Francisco Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.

Among the helpful resources for parents and teachers with the same question is http://teenagebrain.blogspot.com which compiles interviews with many specialists on the topic.

Some quotations from these interviews sum up the current knowledge:

The greatest changes to the parts of the brain that are responsible for impulse-control, judgement, decision-making, planning, organization, and involved in other functions like emotion, occur in adolescence. This area of the brain (prefrontal cortex) does not reach full maturity until around age 25!

Dr. Cohen’s summary: Don’t explain things to teenagers the same way you would an adult. Make sure their diet is as balanced as possible. If they are not getting healthy fats (particularly omega 3 fish oils) to help  with brain development and  and healthy proteins (crucial for neurotransmitter formation) their brains are not going to function as well as they could.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime I know your teenager isn’t a criminal; this points out how important fish oil is for mood stabilization and how omega 3′s have been shown to help with depression and bipolar disorder.

Caviar and Sturgeon* (Imported Wild-caught) Caviar, Paddlefish (Wild-caught from U.S.)		Caviar (U.S. Farmed) Sturgeon (U.S. Farmed) Sturgeon: White (Wild-caught from OR and WA)
Chilean Seabass/Patagonian Toothfish*	Cobia (U.S. Farmed) Sablefish/Black Cod/Butterfish (AK, BC)	Sablefish/Black Cod/Butterfish (CA, OR, WA)
Cod: Atlantic (Trawl-caught from Canadian and U.S. Atlantic) Cod: Pacific (Imported)	Cod: Pacific (U.S. Bottom Longline, Jig and Trap) Cod: Atlantic (Hook-and-Line from Iceland and Northeast Arctic) Haddock (U.S. Atlantic Hook-and-Line)	Cod: Atlantic (Bottom Gillnet, Bottom Longline, Bottom Trawl and Danish Seine from Iceland and Northeast Arctic) Cod: Atlantic (U.S. Gulf of Maine Hook-and-Line) Cod: Pacific (U.S. Trawl) Haddock (Iceland Atlantic and U.S. Atlantic Trawl)
Crab: King (Imported)	Crab: Dungeness; Kona (Australia); Stone	Crab: Blue* (U.S.); Jonah; King (U.S.), Kona (HI); Snow (AK, Canada)
Crayfish (Imported Farmed)	Crayfish (U.S. Farmed) Prawn: Spot (BC)	Prawn: Spot (BC)
Flounders or Soles (Atlantic Wild-caught, Except Summer Flounder)	Halibut: Pacific (U.S.)	Flounder, Sanddab, Sole (Wild-caught from U.S. Pacific) Flounder: Summer (Wild-caught from U.S. Atlantic)* Turbot, Greenland*
Groupers (HI and U.S. Atlantic*) Grouper: Gag; Snowy; Warsaw; Yellowedge (U.S. Gulf of Mexico)*	Mahi Mahi (Troll/Pole from the U.S. Atlantic) Striped Bass (Farmed or Wild-caught*)	Black Sea Bass Grouper Black and Red (U.S. Gulf of Mexico)* Mahi Mahi (Imported Troll/Pole and U.S.)
Hake: White	Tilapia (U.S. Farmed)	Hake: Offshore, Red and Silver Tilapia (Farmed in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras)
Halibut: Atlantic or California* (Set Gillnet)	Cobia (U.S. Farmed) Halibut: Pacific (U.S.) Tilapia (U.S. Farmed)	Flounder, Sanddab, Sole (Wild-caught from U.S. Pacific) Summer Flounder (Wild-caught from U.S. Atlantic) Turbot, Greenland*
Lobster: Caribbean Spiny (Brazil)	Lobster: Caribbean Spiny (FL) Lobster: Spiny (Baja California, Mexico, CA)	Lobster: American/Maine (Trap-caught) Lobster: Caribbean Spiny (Bahamas)
Mahi Mahi (Imported Longline)	Mahi Mahi (Troll/Pole from the U.S. Atlantic)	Mahi Mahi (Imported Troll/Pole and U.S.)
Marlin: Blue* or Striped* (Imported)	Swordfish (Harpoon and Handline-caught from Canada, the U.S., North Atlantic and East Pacific)*	Marlin: Blue (HI)* Swordfish (Drift Gillnet from CA)* Swordfish (Longline from HI and U.S. Atlantic)*
Monkfish	Mahi Mahi (Troll/Pole from the U.S. Atlantic) Sablefish/Black Cod/Butterfish (AK, BC)	Mahi Mahi (Imported Troll/Pole and U.S.) Sablefish/Black Cod/Butterfish (CA, OR, WA)
Orange Roughy*	Halibut: Pacific (U.S.) Tilapia (U.S. Farmed)	Flounder, Sanddab, Sole (Wild-caught from U.S. Pacific) Summer Flounder (Wild-caught from U.S. Atlantic)* Turbot, Greenland*
Pompano: Florida	Striped Bass (U.S. Farmed or Wild-caught*)	Black Sea Bass
Rockfish: Pacific (Trawl)	Halibut: Pacific (U.S.) Rockfish: Black (U.S. Hook-and-Line) Sablefish/Black Cod/Butterfish (AK, BC) Striped Bass (U.S. Farmed or Wild-caught*)	Flounder, Sanddab, Sole (Wild-caught from U.S. Pacific) Rockfish (Hook-and-Line or Jig from the Pacific) Sablefish/Black Cod/Butterfish (CA, OR, WA)
Salmon (Farmed, including Atlantic)*	Arctic Char (Farmed in Recirculating Systems) Salmon (AK Drift Gillnet, Purse Seine and Troll) Salmon, Freshwater Coho (U.S. Farmed in Tank Systems)	Salmon (Drift Gillnet, Purse Seine and Troll from CA, OR, WA) Salmon, Coho (BC, Wild-caught)
Sharks* and Spiny Dogfish*	Cobia (U.S. Farmed) Halibut: Pacific (U.S.)	Dogfish: Spiny (BC)* Sturgeon (U.S. Farmed) Sturgeon: White (Wild-caught from OR and WA)
Shrimp (Imported Except Canada and Thailand from Fully Recirculating Farms)	Prawn: Spot (BC) Shrimp (U.S. Farmed in Fully Recirculating Systems or Inland Ponds) Shrimp: Pink (OR)	Prawn: Spot (U.S. Pacific) Shrimp (Wild-caught from Canada and U.S.) Shrimp (U.S. Farmed in Open Systems) Shrimp (Thailand from Fully Recirculating Farms)
Snapper: Red or Vermilion (U.S.)	Tilapia (U.S. Farmed)	Snapper: Gray; Lane*; Mutton*; Yellowtail (Wild-caught from U.S. Atlantic and U.S. Gulf of Mexico) Snapper, Silk (Wild-caught from U.S. Caribbean, U.S. Gulf of Mexico and U.S. South Atlantic) Tilapia (Farmed in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras)
Swordfish (Imported)*	Mahi Mahi (Troll/Pole from the U.S. Atlantic) Swordfish (Harpoon or Handline from Canada, U.S., North Atlantic and East Pacific)*	Mahi Mahi (Imported Troll/Pole and U.S.) Swordfish (Drift Gillnet from CA)* Swordfish (Longline from HI and U.S. Atlantic)*
Tilapia (Farmed from China and Taiwan)	Tilapia (U.S. Farmed)	Tilapia (Farmed in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras)
Tilefish: Blueline and Golden (U.S. Gulf of Mexico and U.S. South Atlantic)*	Mahi Mahi (Troll/Pole from the U.S. Atlantic) Striped Bass (U.S. Farmed or Wild-caught*)	Mahi Mahi (Imported Troll/Pole and U.S.) Tilefish, Golden (U.S. Mid-Atlantic)*
Tuna: Canned (All Except Troll/Pole)	Tuna: “White” Canned Albacore (Troll/Pole from the Canadian and U.S. Pacific) Tuna: “Light” Canned Skipjack (Troll/Pole)	Tuna: “White” Canned Albacore (Troll/Pole Except Canadian and U.S. Pacific)
Tuna: Albacore (North Atlantic and All Longline Except HI)* Tuna: Bigeye (All Longline Except U.S. Atlantic)* Tuna: Blackfin (All Longline and Purse Seine)* Tuna: Bluefin (Wild or Ranched)* Tuna: Skipjack (Purse Seine and All Imported Longline) Tuna: Tongol (All Gillnet and Purse Seine Except Malaysia) Tuna: Yellowfin (All Purse Seine and Longline Except HI and U.S. Atlantic)*	Tuna: Albacore (Troll/Pole from the Canadian and U.S. Pacific) Tuna: Bigeye (Troll/Pole from the U.S. Atlantic) Tuna: Skipjack (Troll/Pole) Tuna: Yellowfin (Troll/Pole from the Pacific and U.S. Atlantic)	Tuna: Albacore (HI Longline and South Atlantic Troll/Pole)* Tuna, Bigeye (Troll/Pole and U.S. Atlantic Longline) Tuna: Blackfin (Troll/Pole)* Tuna: Skipjack (Longline from HI and the U.S. Atlantic) Tuna, Tongol (Troll/Pole or from Malaysia) Tuna, Yellowfin (Troll/Pole Except Pacific and U.S. Atlantic) Tuna, Yellowfin (Longline from HI and the U.S. Atlantic)

Best Choices: Seafood in this category is abundant, well-managed and caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.

Good Alternatives: These items are an option, but there are concerns with how they’re caught or farmed-or with the health of their habitat due to other human impacts.

Avoid: Take a pass on these items for now. They are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.

The Super Green List: A list of wild and farmed seafood that’s healthy for people and the oceans.

	Key AK BC CA FL HI OR WA Mid-Atlantic Northeast Southeast / Alaska British Columbia California Florida Hawaii Oregon Washington New York to North Carolina Connecticut to Maine South Carolina to Texas A slash is used to separate different market names for the same fish.

My practice gets you out of pain and back to what you love doing by considering the whole picture. In addition to the musculo-skeletal problems you expect your chiropractor to note, I look at how your diet or emotional stress may be interfering with your system hindering your ability to recover and heal efficiently.

ProActive Chiropractic, in San Francisco, will run a cutting-edge nutrition class in January 2012 the will teach you simple ways to clean up your system therefore helping improve energy and complement your exercise goals for the new year.

To make it reasonable in the midst of the financial stress of the holiday season, we are offering a special: register with a friend by Christmas and we’ll waive the second registration fee! That’s two for the price of one! Email or call us (415-762-8141) to get more information.

Become your own Health Champion™ with assistance from Detox 360°™, an integrative new detox system. Look great, renew your health, and energize your life!

There are many different detoxes or cleanses out there now. I researched a ton of them, narrowed the field to the three that most closely match my practice’s priorities and goals, and tried  out those three. I even tried them on my wife before I settled on Detox 360°™. The supplies provided by Detox 360°™ best fit my practice because the supplements are cleanest and most honest and the materials share my focus on educating patients to keep themselves out of the doctor’s office. Over four sessions (Thursdays in January at 6pm), I will lead support sessions to help you through the detoxification and show you how to make long-term changes that will benefit you long after you’ve finished the cleanse.

Do You…

• Experience headaches or migraines?
• Feel fatigued or sluggish?
• Have aching joints or muscles?
• Feel your weight is getting out of control?
• Feel unfocused or foggy?
• Have digestive problems?

If so, the Detox 360°™ program can help renew your sense of well-being. Read about the program’s unique, multi-pronged approach to learn how Detox 360°™ differs from other detox methods.

Why Should I Detoxify?

Never before in human history have we been exposed to so many environmental toxins! The air we breathe and the chemicals in our food, water, houses, and workplaces, as well as the various products we put on our bodies, all expose us to environmental toxins. Low-level bioaccumulation from multiple sources, building up year after year, increases our toxic load. This may result in symptoms such as fatigue, rashes, brain fog, etc., manageable at first, but then gradually may result in degenerative disorders, autoimmune, neurological dysfunction, and hormonal imbalances. Our bodies are equipped to neutralize these toxins and clear them out or store them.

Our detoxification organs—kidneys, liver, lymph, lungs, intestines, and skin—work hard each day to address such exposure. However, due to factors such as genetics, stress levels, dietary issues, lifestyle practices, nutritional balance, and exposure levels, our ability to neutralize and excrete these toxins may vary. Unless we take active steps to address toxic exposure, our health may be affected to varying degrees.

The best approach is to fight this problem on many fronts. A simple cleansing diet or supplements, although helpful, may not be enough to make a major difference. The Detox 360°™ program has been designed by healthcare and nutrition experts to provide a coordinated, multifaceted answer.

More Than a Cleansing Program

Detox 36°™ is a multifaceted foundational system, which incorporates many important clinical considerations in its planning and design. It addresses several key areas such as allergies, inflammation, toxicity, systemic and metabolic stress, mental-emotional stress, susceptibility factors, and much more. It is primarily a lifestyle-changing program, which helps anchor health-promoting habits and dietary adjustments that can become a new way of life, or may be used periodically to take advantage of its dramatic benefits. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with the therapeutic regimen recommended by your healthcare practitioner. The goal of Detox 360°™ is to provide a clinically tested system of dietary and lifestyle recommendations, with supportive formulas, which when used together, will have a significant impact on your health.

This 4-week program includes educational DVDs, a highly detailed manual with easy-to-use food guides and recipes, daily journals, detailed explanations of toxicity sources, detox mechanisms, detox-promoting lifestyle practices, targeted nutrition, as well as supportive therapeutics. You are taken through a simple, step-by-step approach with clear explanations of how to complete each week’s regimen.

About the Detox 360°™ Process

In just a few weeks, you can begin to experience results and look forward to continued improvement. The Detox 360˚™ program includes:

1. Dietary support of the body’s detox processes, emphasizing whole foods and eliminating known inflammatory and allergenic foods
2. Lifestyle practices, such as regular exercise, healthy sleep habits, etc. that support detoxification
3. Support of liver detox pathways
4. Stimulating kidneys, lymphs and liver through physician-formulated homeopathic drainage formulas

Testimonials

“My nutrition practitioner recommended a food elimination and detoxification program (Detox 360°™). After four weeks, I was out of pain for the first time in years.”
- Suzanne K, School Superintendent

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- Sheri S., Home Health Nurse

The content and images on this page are property of Detox 360°™

Posted via email from ProActive Chiropractic in San Francisco, California

The 10 cereals with the highest sugar content (by percentage weight) are:

• Kellogg’s Honey Smacks (55.6%)
• Post Golden Crisp (51.9%)
• Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow (48.3%)
• Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries (46.9%)
• Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch Original (44.4%)
• Quaker Oats Oh!s (44.4%)
• Kellogg’s Smorz (43.3%)
• Kellogg’s Apple Jacks (42.9%)
• Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries (42.3%)
• Kellogg’s Fruit Loops Original (41.4%)

The EWG just published a wonderful report addressing this issue and giving healthy alternatives (remember protein is crucial at breakfast). Spend a few minutes going through it, especially if you’re a parent and your kids eat dessert for breakfast, I mean cereal.

7 Foods That Should Never Cross Your Lips

Is your food loaded with toxins and chemicals? Here, simple swaps to protect yourself

Available at: http://www.prevention.com/tips/nutrition/7-foods-should-never-cross-your-lips

Two of the top man-made medical breakthroughs in the past 100 years may also be two of the deadliest and most harmful to you and your loved ones. Further, odds are nearly 100% that you and your loved ones have already been treated with these two “breakthroughs” — and may be at risk of the effects now or in the years to come.

Three-quarters of U.S. children have taken antibiotics by the time they’re 2 years old. What does this mean for their future health?

1. Antibiotics

Antibiotics can work wonders when they’re prescribed for bacterial infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis. In this way they truly have been a breakthrough that has saved countless numbers of lives.

The problem with antibiotics is that they are often prescribed to treat viruses — against which they are useless. Viruses like upper respiratory infections, measles, mumps, chickenpox, flu, and gastroenteritis are all viral infections, which antibiotics do nothing for.

Antibiotics, however, do kill bacteria, and they do this quite well. The problem is that they not only kill the bad bacteria that may be causing your illness, but they also kill ALL bacteria, including the good kind in your digestive tract that your body needs, leaving barren territory for all sorts of trouble to brew.

If you have taken antibiotics unnecessarily, for a virus, for instance, you may have therefore killed off all of the good bacteria in your system.

You are exposed to antibiotics not only by prescription medications, but also in animal food products and possibly your drinking water. In fact, about 70 percent of all antibiotics produced in the United States are given to livestock and poultry, which you then feed to your family.

Further, when drugs are excreted in waste, the compounds linger in the environment. In the case of livestock waste, the antibiotic-laced manure is spread directly onto farm crops as fertilizer. From there it may run off into nearby streams.

The result is that bacteria is able to mutate into strains that are resistant to the widely spread antibiotics, paving the way for infections that cannot be easily cured.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2 million people in hospitals get infections each year, which cause 90,000 deaths. Of these, more than 70 percent of the bacteria that causes these infections are resistant to at least one common antibiotic that is typically used to treat them.

New research from the University of Iowa found a new strain of MRSA in 70 percent of hogs and 64 percent of workers on farms that routinely use antibiotics. Experts are now realizing that these drug-resistant bacteria can spread via the food supply, water runoff and other methods, potentially putting the entire population at risk.

(Stay tuned for an upcoming article on this rapidly growing man-made antibiotic health risk that is causing MRSA outbreaks across the U.S.!)

2. Vaccines

Vaccines commonly contain toxic additives including aluminum, mercury, antibiotics, formaldehyde and MSG.

Like antibiotics, vaccines have been touted as a medical breakthrough that has saved many lives. However, recently there has been growing concern that the country’s one-size-fits all, and sometimes mandatory, vaccination policies are not in the best interest of your individual health.

For starters, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) points out that vaccines bypass your body’s natural processes for establishing immunity, leading to what some experts call “artificial immunity.” NVIC states:

“Vaccines provide temporary immunity and sometimes vaccines fail to provide even temporary immunity for some individuals. Because vaccination does not exactly mimic the immunity produced after natural infection, which is often longer-lasting or permanent, booster doses of vaccines are often required to extend vaccine-induced immunity.”

Another issue of concern is the potentially dangerous ingredients added to vaccines. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Chemicals are added to vaccines to inactivate a virus or bacteria and stabilize the vaccine, helping to preserve the vaccine and prevent it from losing its potency over time.”

The CDC continues:

“Chemicals commonly used in the production of vaccines include a suspending fluid (sterile water, saline, or fluids containing protein); preservatives and stabilizers (for example, albumin, phenols, and glycine); and adjuvants or enhancers that help improve the vaccine’s effectiveness. Vaccines may also contain very small amounts of the culture material used to grow the virus or bacteria used in the vaccine, such as chicken egg protein.”

It says right on the CDC’s own Web page that the following ingredients are commonly added to vaccines. You may notice that most of these additives are potentially toxic, and likely substances you do not want injected into your (or your child’s) body:

• Aluminum gels or salts of aluminum, which are added as adjuvants to help  stimulate a better response to the vaccine.

• Antibiotics, which are added to some vaccines to prevent the growth of germs (bacteria) during production and storage of the vaccine.

• Egg protein is found in influenza and yellow fever vaccines, which are prepared using chicken eggs. Ordinarily, persons who are able to eat eggs or egg products safely can receive these vaccines.

• Formaldehyde is used to inactivate bacterial products for toxoid vaccines, (these are vaccines that use an inactive bacterial toxin to produce immunity).  It is also used to kill unwanted viruses and bacteria that might contaminate the vaccine during production.

• Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 2-phenoxy-ethanol, which are used as stabilizers in a few vaccines to help the vaccine remain unchanged when the vaccine is exposed to heat, light, acidity, or humidity.

• Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that is added to vials of vaccine that contain more than one dose to prevent contamination and growth of potentially harmful bacteria.

The bottom line is that vaccination is not a foolproof way to avoid disease. The shots do cause side effects, and sometimes those side effects are serious, even deadly.

This is why NVIC continues to ask, “Is the atypical manipulation of the immune system with more and more vaccines in early life setting some children up for chronic disease and disability? Is less better?”

They point out that American children are the most highly vaccinated children in the world (receiving 49 doses of 14 vaccines before the age of 6), and are also among the most chronically ill and disabled. The CDC admits that one in six U.S. children is now developmentally delayed. NVIC also points out:

• During the past quarter century, the number of children with learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma and diabetes has more than tripled.
• More than twice as many children have chronic brain and immune system dysfunction today than did in the 1970s when half as many vaccines were given to children.

So before you decide to get vaccinated (or vaccinate your children) make sure you’re informed of the risks and alternatives first.

Already Taken Antibiotics and Received Vaccines?

You’re far from alone.

The vast majority of Americans have received all of the CDC’s recommended vaccines (along with their toxic additives). Further, 63 percent of U.S. children have taken antibiotics before their first birthday, and 75 percent have gotten their first dose within two years of birth.

So what can you do to protect your health from these potentially toxic assaults?

Fortify Your Body With Probiotics

Donna Gates, nutritional consultant, points out that, fortunately for us, our bodies are remarkably intelligent and quite capable of keeping us healthy if we give them the right “tools.” The key to fighting off illness within your body (this includes not only bacterial infections but also viruses too) is to balance the good and bad bacteria in your gut.

Probiotic supplements have recently become increasingly popular in the United States for this reason, but there’s another way to get good bacteria in your system — and it’s quite tasty! Cultured foods, things like kefir (a fermented milk drink that tastes like tart yogurt) and traditionally fermented sauerkraut, natto and other vegetables are among the best sources of probiotics around.

This is especially important if you have taken antibiotics. Gates says:

“It is absolutely essential to eat probiotic foods and drink probiotic beverages like kefir if you must take an antibiotic. They are a much smarter “antibiotic,” as nature, which is far smarter than humans, has equipped them with the innate ability to know which bad bacteria to attack, and which bacteria to leave alone.

If you consume them during antibiotic therapy, they will continually replace the good bacteria that the antibiotics wipe out. Then continue eating them for a minimum of three months to ensure that you renew a new, healthy “inner ecosystem” in your intestines. Best yet, incorporate these delicious new foods into your diet forever. You’ll be very glad you did.”

So whichever method you choose (choosing both the supplements and the cultured foods is best), be sure that your body is getting a steady source of good bacteria. Once your gut is balanced and healthy, you’ll have to worry much less about illness in the first place, because at this point your immune system will be functioning at its optimal, disease-fighting level.

In choosing a probiotic supplement for yourself, choose one of a high therapeutic dose if you have been on a round of antibiotics.

It can be used where a more aggressive therapeutic approach is required, such as if you are coming off antibiotic therapy. Probiotic Supreme™ delivers 15 billion organisms per dose in a caplet form and uses a patented delivery system to ensure delivery of the highest number of live organisms to your intestinal tract.

Studies have shown that probiotics may be helpful with both immune system modulation and allergies, plus they’re imperative if you’ve recently been on antibiotic therapy. It’s a simple step that may help keep you and your family in the best health possible.

Detox Your Body of Heavy Metals From Vaccines

Along with taking probiotics to fortify your gut health, we highly recommend detoxing heavy metal toxins from your body on a regular basis.

There are many ways of removing toxic chemicals heavy heavy metals from your body, but most of them involve expensive treatments where a doctor injects you with drugs or vitamins intravenously via a drip. Many of these drugs will also strip the good minerals from your body, something that is not recommended since it is difficult to replenish these important substances.

Like other chemicals, heavy metals can accumulate in your body not only from vaccines, but also from silver dental fillings, contaminated seafood and other foods, cosmetics, pollution, contaminated water, and other sources, so it would be wise to disarm this potential “time-bomb” now before it causes serious illness in the future.

Since most of you reading this have likely already been exposed to the secret health risks of antibiotics and vaccines described above (and probably for many years now), consider asking me in my San Francisco office about detox options and probiotics to rebuild healthy flora.

The Medical Myths of Heart Disease