Cleansing Blog

(NaturalNews) Yogurt maker Dannon has been hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company has made false and misleading claims about the health benefits of its probiotic line of yogurts.

“Deceptive advertising has enabled Dannon to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ordinary yogurt at inflated prices to responsible, health- conscious consumers,” said attorney Timothy G. Blood.

“All of Dannon’s claims for Activia and DanActive are completely supported by peer-reviewed science and are in accordance with all laws and regulations,” the company responded.

Dannon advertises its Activia and DanActive yogurts as containing probiotic bacteria that help boost the immune system and regulate digestion. An aggressive marketing campaign by the company includes a high-profile ad campaign and a Web site with links to studies showing the benefits of the probiotic bacteria used in Activia products.

The studies cited by Dannon were all funded by the company.

Filed in the United States District Court in California, the lawsuit says that there is no evidence that the yogurt itself functions as advertised, regardless of what various varieties of probiotic bacteria may do in the laboratory.

Probiotics are microorganisms that provide health benefits inside the body, but some scientists say that probiotics remain poorly understood. Of the thousands of probiotics that exist, very few have been tested for their effects when consumed by humans as part of their diets. Laboratory research does not necessarily translate into real health benefits, these researchers say.

“At present, the quality of probiotics available to consumers in food products around the world is unreliable,” says a 2006 report by the American Society for Microbiology.

There are few FDA regulations on marketing claims made on probiotic products, as long as those products do not claim to be equivalent to drugs that have the ability to cure diseases.

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(NaturalNews) Research is continually showing that using your brain in news ways helps prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s. One way of knowing which parts of your brain is used most is to take this simple test that shows you if you are right or left brain dominant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFV6h6MX…

Here are some general differences between people who are right brain and left brain dominant:

Left Brain Functions

* uses logic

* detail oriented

* facts rule

* words and language

* present and past

* math and science

* can comprehend

* knowing

* acknowledges

* order/pattern perception

* knows object name

* reality based

* forms strategies

* practical

* safe

Right Brain Functions

* uses feeling

* “big picture” oriented

* imagination rules

* symbols and images

* present and future

* philosophy & religion

* can “get it” (i.e. meaning)

* believes

* appreciates

* spatial perception

* knows object function

* fantasy based

* presents possibilities

* impetuous

* risk taking

In order for us to have full access to our full potential, we need to be able to access both sides of our brains. I was pleasantly surprised that with some effort, I could make the dancer spin in the other direction, which means that I am using the left side of my brain, which is normally more dormant.

The right brain left brain test can show us which part of our brain is most in need of some work, so that we can prevent brain shrinkage and dementia (provided we continue to eat a healthy diet of brain enhancing superfoods).

I actually really enjoy doing addition and math problems, as well as logic and sudoku puzzles. I try not to use a calculator when I need to do number crunching. I am sure that for me, who lives in the creative fantasy world of the right brain, this is particularly beneficial, and truly works my brain in the way that will prevent future illness and disease.

On the other hand, I am sure there are many left brained people who may benefit from doing creative activities, such as painting or poetry in order to work and expand their brain capacity.

Finding out which side of our brain is dominant is a good starting point for realising how our brain works, and how we can wake up other parts of our brains to not only prevent disease, but to live up to our full potential as human beings.

Imagine how much more full our lives will be if we are using every part of our brain. Einstein is a perfect example of someone who used both sides of his brain interchangeably. He was obviously incredibly scientific, logical, and math oriented, yet he was completely in touch with his intuition and right brain creativity.

He once said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” (Not a quote you would think of as coming from the typical left brain scientist.)

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THURSDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) — U.S. health officials have widened their warning on peppers from Mexico after another salmonella-tainted sample, along with tainted irrigation water, was found at a second farm.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now advises consumers to avoid all raw serrano peppers from Mexico, along with raw jalapenos from that country and all the foods that contain them, the agency announced late Wednesday night.

“Laboratory testing has confirmed that both a sample of serrano pepper and a sample of irrigation water collected by agency investigators on a farm in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, contain Salmonella saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint as the strain of bacteria that is causing the current outbreak in the United States,” the agency said in a news release.

A contaminated jalapeno pepper had been identified two weeks ago at another Mexican farm in a different part of the country, which turned the months-long search for a source of the nationwide outbreak away from fresh tomatoes.

Meanwhile, the latest victim count across the United States and Canada, as of Wednesday, stood at 1,319 , with at least 225 people requiring hospitalization, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The discovery of the contaminated serrano pepper and tainted irrigation water led Lonnie King, the chief of the CDC’s center for foodborne illnesses, to tell the Associated Press on Wednesday, “We have a smoking gun, it appears.”

But health officials cautioned that the investigation wasn’t over and that contamination of several different types of produce was still possible.

The FDA was still analyzing samples taken from many farms in Mexico, the agency’s statement said.

Mexico’s Agriculture Department, according to AP, disputed the FDA’s conclusion that the source of the salmonella outbreak had been found in the Nuevo Leon farm’s irrigation water.

In a statement released Wednesday to the AP, Mexican agriculture officials said, “The farm unit in question ended its harvest more than a month ago, so the sample they say they have lacks scientific validity.” The statement added that the sample “was taken recently from a tank holding rain water that was not used in production.”

Also on Wednesday, U.S. health officials defended their focus on fresh tomatoes at a congressional hearing, saying early signs clearly implicated that produce.

Fresh tomatoes had been the suspected source of the outbreak that began in April. But three weeks ago, U.S. health officials cleared the current crop for consumers. Two weeks ago, they found the first tainted pepper, and then they narrowed the source of contamination to crops in Mexico, not the United States.

According to the CDC, the breakdown by state of ill people shows: Alabama (3), Arkansas (21), Arizona (56), California (11), Colorado (16), Connecticut (5), Florida (4), Georgia (40), Idaho (6), Illinois (116), Indiana (20), Iowa (2), Kansas (21), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Maine (1), Maryland (38), Massachusetts (29), Michigan (26), Minnesota (22), Mississippi (2), Missouri (20), Montana (1), New Hampshire (5), Nevada (13), New Jersey (16), New Mexico (106), New York (39), North Carolina (28), Ohio (10), Oklahoma (25), Oregon (11), Pennsylvania (13), Rhode Island (3), South Carolina (2), Tennessee (10), Texas (502), Utah (2), Virginia (31), Vermont (2), Washington (17), West Virginia (1), Wisconsin (13), and the District of Columbia (1). Five ill persons are from Canada; four appear to have been infected while traveling in the United States, and one individual remains under investigation.

Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea in humans. Some 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States each year, although the CDC estimates that because milder cases aren’t diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be 30 or more times greater. Approximately 600 people die each year after being infected.

However, the strain of Salmonella saintpaul had been previously considered rare. In 2007, according to the CDC, there were only six people infected in the country during April through June.

Health News, news

Men who take up cycling could be harming their health if they don’t choose the right bicycle. They should be wary of problems ranging from genital numbness, erection problems and soreness to skin irritation in the groin area.

Men who cycle frequently can also experience changes to their sperm function because of the excessive heat generated in the pelvic area. Male infertility is recognized as a possible side effect of cycling. Regular cyclists also run a higher risk of testicular damage and impaired testicular function.

Mountain bikers run a particular risk. Studies have shown that they exhibit higher levels of scrotal abnormalities than on-road cyclists.

What should men look for in a bicycle? The proper fit, including the correct level of pedal resistance and saddle height. A properly padded saddle, along with bike shorts, can also help to reduce sexual problems among male cyclists.

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Which job should you take? What car should you buy? Are you ready for another baby?Life is full of tough choices, and the bigger they are, the harder they get.

Research shows that most people will not choose at all when presented with several good options. But practice, experience, and rules of thumbs can help you to make those decisions. Here’s how:

Analyze Outcomes

When making a choice, then, it pays to take some time to consider the outcome you expect. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the probable outcome of this choice?
• What outcomes are highly unlikely?
• What are the likely outcomes of not choosing this one?
• What would be the outcome of doing the exact opposite?

Thinking in terms of long-term outcomes can help you find clarity and direction.

Ask Why Five Times

For instance:

1. Why should I take this job? It pays well and offers me a chance to grow.
2. Why is that important? Because I want to build a career and not just have a string of meaningless jobs.
3. Why? Because I want my life to have meaning.
4. Why? So I can be happy.
5. Why? Because that’s what’s important in life.

Follow Your Instincts

People who make decisions quickly, even when lacking information, tend to be more satisfied with their decisions than people who research and carefully weigh their options. Your unconscious is very good at working through complex problems. People who “go with their gut” are actually trusting the work their unconscious mind has already done.

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(NaturalNews) Obesity was a factor in up to two dozen child protection cases in the United Kingdom in 2007, according to an investigation conducted by the BBC.

The BBC cites this as only part of a growing trend toward the stigmatization of the overweight and obese.

“When we first started talking about obesity as a problem, it was very hard to be heard,” said Dr Ian Campbell of the nonprofit Weight Concern. “Now the pendulum has swung too far the other way — we hear nothing but. And the net result is that the kind of moralizing the obese and overweight have always suffered has somehow become institutionalized.”

On the one hand, some health professionals have said that overfeeding children is tantamount to child abuse. Overweight children are more likely to develop childhood diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other problems that more typically develop later in age. They are also more likely to grow into obese adults, and are thus at a higher risk of adult heart disease, diabetes, various cancers and other health problems that lead to earlier death.

These were among the reasons that led British child protection officials to threaten to take an obese boy away from his mother in early 2007. He was eventually allowed to remain.

As part of the same trend, at least eight National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom have introduced bans or restrictions on providing non-urgent surgery to those who are overweight. The trusts argue that patients with a lower body weight recover better and are more likely to have successful operations. But critics accuse the health industry of simply using the overweight as a convenient way to cut costs.

“This is really about resources,” said Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum. “You can’t argue that denying a hip-and-knee operation to an obese person is in their interests, as it may well be the inability to walk about and exercise which is making their problems worse.”

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Africans purchase 36 billion bottles of Coke a year, at a price of 20-30 American cents per bottle. Since the price is so low, and because Coca-Cola analyzes sales so closely, the Coke bottle has actually become a reliable tracker of stability and prosperity in Africa.

For example, the ups and downs during Kenya’s post-election violence this year could be traced in sales of Coke in Nairobi’s slums and in western Kenya’s villages.

Coca-Cola is the largest private-sector employer in Africa. A study has suggested that 1 percent of South Africa’s economy is in some way related to the distribution and sale of Coke.

The company expects sales in Africa to grow by an annual 10 to 13 percent over the next few years, outstripping economic growth.

Health News, news

Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee company, has announced that it is closing 600 of its 6,800 U.S. stores and laying off more than 12,000 employees. During the past year, the stock has dropped nearly 50 percent.

What went wrong at Starbucks?

Their core business was, frankly, overcharging consumers for coffee, which was very lucrative. But then they expanded into selling CDs, producing movies such as “Akilah and the Bee,” which bombed at the box office, and other ventures.Starbucks is trying to recover by introducing a new, brewed coffee called Pike Place, and by offering “healthy” protein-boosted smoothies and a new frozen drink.

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Despite the nagging of diet experts, fitness instructors, public health officials, doctors, nurses and moms, the tide of obesity that has practically engulfed Western civilization over the past two decades shows no sign of reaching its ebb.

In the United States, the percentage of adults who are obese — defined by the National Institutes of Health as a body-mass index exceeding 30 — has doubled since 1990, climbing from 12 percent to a whopping 24 percent in 2005, closely tracking Oregon figures, according to the Oregon Health Division.

For the most part, the blame for the obesity epidemic has fallen on diet and exercise, with particular emphasis on familiar evils such as the proliferation of junk food, the advent of the remote control, trans fat, ever-longer commutes and even the disappearance of physical education in schools.

But now some researchers have identified a new suspect: pollution.

Attributing obesity to diet and exercise is “practically scientific dogma at this point,” says Bruce Blumberg, associate professor of developmental and cell biology at UC Irvine. But, he continues, “diet and exercise are simply not adequate to explain the explosion of obesity in Western countries.”

Instead, Blumberg believes the obesity epidemic actually is due, in part, to industrial pollution — specifically to low levels of toxic compounds he calls “obesogens.”

Just as exposure to carcinogens can trigger cancer, Blumberg and other researchers say exposure to obesogens can trigger a dramatic increase in the amount of fat produced in a person’s body, leading to excess weight and obesity.

The precise mechanism by which these obesogens operate remains dimly understood. They belong to a class of compounds known as “endocrine disrupters” because they block or pervert the operation of the hormones that govern crucial biological processes such as growth, reproduction, sexual development and behavior.

Five years ago, Blumberg was studying the biological effects of various marine pollutants — in particular, tributyl tin, or TBT, a pesticide notorious for its toxic properties, such as bizarre mutations in the shells of mollusks and the sex organs of sea snails.

Blumberg and his co-workers exposed female frogs to extremely low levels of TBT; as expected, TBT did indeed cause sexual mutation among frogs. But what was really striking, he says, was that the hapless amphibians got fat — really fat.

“To be honest, I will have to say we stumbled on this,” he says.

Ideas, news

While traipsing around the mountains last weekend, I noticed how little snow there is on California’s Mt. Shasta for this time of year. Shasta seems to have less snow every summer, a very visible — and personal to me, since I pass it regularly — sign of global warming. I wondered if, if everyone in Congress had a personal experience of the pristine beauty of the wilderness — smelled the clean air, listened to the silence, witnessed the tiny perfection of wildflowers in their myriad hues — they would be fighting harder to preserve it. It’s human nature to give more value to that which affects us personally.

It’s also human nature to forget that everything that happens on and to this planet affects all of us… eventually. So taking it a step further, what if every high school teen were required to spend a few nights under the trees in the middle of nowhere? Would we, could we begin to develop a cultural sensitivity that gradually would result in a healthier planet and culture?

As I hiked, the mountain air definitely was loosening brain cells, so I let my mind ramble as well, mapping out paths to a more peaceful, happier world. These trails might be useful for
any one of us to explore, but if we made them mandatory for politicians and teenagers (interesting emotional pairing), they definitely would benefit all of us… eventually.

• Per my original inspiration, a week of camping and hiking in any North American mountain range. Being away from creature comforts and forced to co-exist with nature would remind us of our connection to the earth, and those with whom we share it.

• Two weeks in a third-world country. Seeing how other people live is a guaranteed way to inspire appreciation for what you’ve got. Running hot and cold water, refrigeration and a change of clothes are a given for most Americans. Doing without for even a short period of time would be a real eye-opener.

• A coast-to-coast road trip across the US via backroads. (Benefits similar to above, only closer to home and less dramatic.)

• Use only public transportation for a month. (Benefits getting closer all the time.)

• Learn a second language. (Very useful on above.)

These ideas are like preventative medicine. Studies have already shown the value of sending troubled kids to the outdoors in Outward Bound-type programs. Whatever we invest now will save us a bundle in the long run.

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