I don’t believe there is any greater insidious threat to our health than genetically modified foods (GE or GMO).  Think about what it means.  You are taking a gene that is in one species (say a lectin) and splicing it into species that may not even be in the same family.  What will the body do with it?   All one has to do is read about the immune systems response to oral antigens to know we are in for a potential catastrophic disaster.

This is not selective breeding.  I hear pro GMO folks say well ‘we are just speeding up evolution.’  That statement is a fallacy as evolution is a process of slow change.  Our immune systems and digestive systems are not changing and adapting along with the GMO foods

The danger of GMO foods trumps bisphenol-A (BPA) worries.  It trumps chemical toxins accumulating in the fat of livestock.   It is far more disastrous than aeriel spraying pesticides on crops.  All of the aforementioned issues can somehow be contained, so they are not the threat that GMOs pose. Once GMO food gets loose in the environment it can cross pollinate into organic food (which it has already done).   And once GMOs cross pollinate then food as our bodies know it can become an immunological nightmare.  Physicians that deal with allergies, hypersensitivities and environmental illnesses are very concerned about GMOs.     Click here for a study demonstrating GMOs inducing food hypersensitivities in mice (i.e. inflammatory mediator release and a loss of oral tolerance to common foods).

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(From HealthDay News) — Pregnant women with low levels of vitamin D may be putting their children at risk for language difficulties, Australian researchers report.

Taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy may relieve the problem, they suggest.

“Adequate vitamin D levels among pregnant women may be important for the optimal development of their baby,” said lead researcher Andrew Whitehouse, an associate professor and reader in developmental psychopathology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia. “However, it is important for the findings of this study to be replicated before any strong conclusions are made.”

Vitamin D levels among pregnant women have decreased steadily over the past 20 years, most likely because of less exposure to sunlight, Whitehouse said.

“The effects of lower maternal vitamin D levels on the developing offspring is not fully understood,” he said. “The current study found that women with vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy have an increased risk of having a child with developmental language difficulties.” Read the rest of this entry

Since Valentine’s Day is upon us it is a good time to bring up chocolate and the moral consequences that goes along with purchasing the majority of chocolate we find on the shelves. Certainly chocolate has a plethora of benefits as can easily be found in research studies. These are often because of the powerful plant chemicals known as polyphenols which are made by the plant to protect itself, however us humans can ingest polyphenols for nutritional benefit.   A truly polyphenol rich dessert would be a dark chocolate with Shiraz red wine which will warm and protect your heart.

But the dark side of chocolate is where does it come from?   CNN did a feature a couple of weeks ago looking into the cocoa slave trade, click here for the link as it is well worth a conscience chocolate lover’s time. (will open in a new window/tab). Read the rest of this entry

Yesterday I watched a phenomenal webinar on the effects of food chemicals and child behavior. It was entitled “Driven to Distraction: Food, chemicals and child behavior” and hosted by an organization that is worth knowing, Healthy Food Action.   The webinar was recorded and they promise to have it up soon, once they do I’ll post a link.

Today a video with a similar theme was posted on a Functional Medicine listserv I am on. If you want to see digestion of wholesome foods vs. processed foods you need to check out this video. Amazing how long long those Ramen noodles are intact in the stomach. I guess we can also just use a compost bin to compare processed vs. whole instead of expensive technology.

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As we age we lose our ability to properly absorb B12.  There is something called Intrinsic Factor which is needed for B12 to be properly absorbed.  Therefore if we take oral supplements of B12 that we swallow they aren’t doing us much good either because the intrinsic factor is not available to absorb what is in a vitamin pill.    That is why many physicians use B12 injections.   In my office I use sublingual B12 that is absorbed through the capillaries under the tongue directly into the blood stream.   Anyone who is severely B12 deficient should use injections to get their levels up.   But really anyone over 60 might want to get a complete blood count (CBC) to determine if they might be B12 deficient.   If you see your (Mean Corpuscular Volume) MCV greater than around a 95 and your Hematocrit (HCT) and Red Blood Cell Count (RBC) on the low end of normal you may be B12 insufficient.   (A blood test for B12 directly is not a good measurement of B12 status.  Better measurements are Methylmalonic Acid (MMA) and Homocysteine which is a measure of folate status.) Read the rest of this entry