These are the un-American, anti-consumer US Senators who voted for the DARK Act

2016-03-21T15:34:24+00:00

These are the un-American, anti-consumer US Senators who voted for the DARK Act, trying to deny you the right to know what’s in your food
by Julie Wilson staff writer

(NaturalNews) The agrichemical industry and Big Food took a major hit yesterday after the Senate blocked a bill aimed at preempting states’ rights from enacting GMO-labeling laws; it also would have reversed any labeling laws currently in place, such as the one Vermont passed in 2014, which is scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2016.

S. 2609, coined the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act by its opponents, was narrowly defeated yesterday after it failed to receive the necessary votes. At least 60 “yes” votes were required for it to pass; however, it fell short, receiving only 49 yes’s and 48 no’s.

The right to know whether or not our food contains ingredients that are genetically altered is so pertinent to public health that we felt it absolutely crucial to let all of you know which of your senators voted for and against the bill, which is widely considered an outright attack on consumer rights.

Website glitch obscures vote tallies
The task of pulling the Senate’s roll call vote tallies should have been an easy one. But it appears that government incompetence has once against muddied the waters. According to Senate.gov, roll call vote tallies are posted online within one hour of the vote.

However, at the time of this writing, if you go to click on March 16 (the date of the DARK Act vote), and click on the tally (48-49), you get what appears to be the correct vote results for S.2609, except that it’s mislabeled as the “Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015.” Next to “Measure Title,” it reads: “A bill to reauthorize and amend the National Sea Grant College Program Act, and for other purposes.”

 

This obviously has nothing to do with GMO labeling, so we phoned the Senate about the error. But they weren’t much help, instead reassuring me that they would “escalate” the matter. Despite the confusion, it appears the vote tallies are in fact correct for the DARK Act; ironically, the measure just seems to be labeled inaccurately.

We believe the vote tallies are correct because they match up with Food and Water Watch’s list of senators they say followed through and voted against the DARK Act after being pressured by activists. Based on that information, we are providing you with what we believe are the correct results for how your senators voted.

Rand Paul votes down DARK Act
Though Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) came out against GMO-labeling last fall, he voted against the DARK Act on Wednesday. Here are how the rest of the senators voted:

Alexander (R-TN), Yea Flake (R-AZ), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Ayotte (R-NH), Yea Franken (D-MN), Nay Paul (R-KY), Nay
Baldwin (D-WI), Nay Gardner (R-CO), Yea Perdue (R-GA), Yea
Barrasso (R-WY), Yea Gillibrand (D-NY), Nay Peters (D-MI), Nay
Bennet (D-CO), Nay Graham (R-SC), Yea Portman (R-OH), Yea
Blumenthal (D-CT), Nay Grassley (R-IA), Yea Reed (D-RI), Nay
Blunt (R-MO), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Yea Reid (D-NV), Nay
Booker (D-NJ), Nay Heinrich (D-NM), Nay Risch (R-ID), Yea
Boozman (R-AR), Yea Heitkamp (D-ND), Yea Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Nay Heller (R-NV), Nay Rounds (R-SD), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Nay Hirono (D-HI), Nay Rubio (R-FL), Not Voting
Burr (R-NC), Yea Hoeven (R-ND), Yea Sanders (I-VT), Not Voting
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay Inhofe (R-OK), Yea Sasse (R-NE), Yea
Capito (R-WV), Yea Isakson (R-GA), Yea Schatz (D-HI), Nay
Cardin (D-MD), Nay Johnson (R-WI), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Nay
Carper (D-DE), Yea Kaine (D-VA), Nay Scott (R-SC), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Nay King (I-ME), Nay Sessions (R-AL), Yea
Cassidy (R-LA), Yea Kirk (R-IL), Yea Shaheen (D-NH), Nay
Coats (R-IN), Yea Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay Shelby (R-AL), Yea
Cochran (R-MS), Yea Lankford (R-OK), Yea Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Collins (R-ME), Nay Leahy (D-VT), Nay Sullivan (R-AK), Nay
Coons (D-DE), Nay Lee (R-UT), Nay Tester (D-MT), Nay
Corker (R-TN), Yea Manchin (D-WV), Nay Thune (R-SD), Yea
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea Markey (D-MA), Nay Tillis (R-NC), Yea
Cotton (R-AR), Yea McCain (R-AZ), Yea Toomey (R-PA), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea McCaskill (D-MO), Nay Udall (D-NM), Nay
Cruz (R-TX), Not Voting McConnell (R-KY), Nay Vitter (R-LA), Yea
Daines (R-MT), Yea Menendez (D-NJ), Nay Warner (D-VA), Nay
Donnelly (D-IN), Yea Merkley (D-OR), Nay Warren (D-MA), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Nay Mikulski (D-MD), Nay Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay
Enzi (R-WY), Yea Moran (R-KS), Yea Wicker (R-MS), Yea
Ernst (R-IA), Yea Murkowski (R-AK), Nay Wyden (D-OR), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay Murphy (D-CT), Nay
Fischer (R-NE), Yea Murray (D-WA), Nay

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

Congress.gov

Senate.gov

Senate.gov

Senate.gov

NaturalNews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/z053356_DARK_Act_US_Senators_GMO_labeling.html

These are the un-American, anti-consumer US Senators who voted for the DARK Act2016-03-21T15:34:24+00:00

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2020-01-04T14:52:15+00:00

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2016-03-29T17:11:46+00:00

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The Eight Most Damaging Ingredients to Watch for on Food Labels by Dr. Mercola

2015-03-23T15:59:35+00:00

By Dr. Mercola

Processed foods are loaded with preservatives, artificial colors, and artificial flavorings, which is one of the reasons that I recommend avoiding them. Once you become a label reader, you’ll realize just how ubiquitous they are.

The best way to avoid toxic chemical additives is to consume only fresh whole foods. But practically speaking, this can be difficult for many people to accomplish, at least 100 percent of the time. Chances are that, despite your best efforts, you’ll have a processed food or two somewhere in your diet.

Therefore, it’s good to know which of the thousands of chemical additives are the most dangerous and should be avoided at all cost when you spot them on a food label.

An article recently posted on One Green Planet1 highlights eight particularly pernicious ingredients that you and your kids are probably eating. There seems to be good consensus about the worst of the worst, as seven of those were also dubbed the “Scary Seven”2 by Andrea Donsky of Naturally Savvy. After reading this article, I highly recommend checking out the Scary Seven Challenge that I partnered with Andrea Donsky to put together to learn more about why these ingredients are scary, and how you can start removing them from YOUR diet today!

If you notice any of these on a food label, put it right back on the shelf! While I agree with all of One Green Planet’s choices, here I’ve selected my own “worst of the worst” ingredients found in processed foods.

1. Artificial Sweeteners

Studies have shown that tasting something sweet enhances your appetite, regardless of calories, and consuming artificial sweeteners has been shown to result in even greater weight gain than consuming sugar.

Aspartame appears to have the most pronounced effect, but the same applies for other artificial sweeteners, such as acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and saccharin. Unfortunately, weight gain is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the health hazards of artificial sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners raise your risk of diabetes. A recent study in Nature3 told us why—they alter your gut microbiome for the worse. For example, best-selling artificial sweetener Splenda (sucralose) can destroy up to 50 percent of your beneficial gut flora.4

It’s been known for some time that consuming sucralose can cause or aggravate inflammatory bowel disease because of its interference with gastrointestinal function.5

Both animal and human studies have shown that Splenda alters glucose and insulin function, thereby promoting weight gain, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes.

But there are additional concerns that sucralose may cause DNA damage, and when heated it releases chloropropanols, which are members of the extremely dangerous class of carcinogens called dioxins.6 Artificial sweeteners are a group of chemical additives that should be completely avoided.

2. Trans Fats and Vegetable Oils

Download Interview Transcript

Ever since the introduction of the first trans fat in 1911, Crisco, trans fats have been implicated in numerous serious health problems. First of all, they promote inflammation, which is a benchmark of most chronic disease.

Trans fats also interfere with basic cell membrane function, which can pave the way for cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Trans fats can radically raise your risk for stroke. A 2010 study involving post-menopausal women found a 30 percent higher incidence of ischemic strokes among those whose daily trans fat consumption was the highest.7

While trans fats are widely recognized as harmful and are largely being eliminated, many restaurants are reverting back to the use of synthetic vegetable oils, which may be creating even MORE of a problem due to the sheer volume people now consume.

Hydrogenated vegetable oils are in the vast majority of processed foods, including crackers, chips, fried foods, and many others. Americans eat more than 100,000 times more vegetable oils than at the beginning of the 20th Century—vegetable oils now comprise about seven or eight percent of all calories consumed.

Unlike trans fats, vegetable oils continue to be ignored despite the fact that they degrade into toxic oxidation byproducts when heated.

One byproduct category is cyclic aldehydes, which are highly inflammatory and may promote heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Vegetable oils such as soybean oil, canola, corn, and other oils have the additional risk of being genetic engineered and contaminated with glyphosate.

3. Artificial Flavors

When you see the term “artificial flavors” on a label, there’s no way to know what it actually means. It could mean that one unnatural additive is included—or a blend of hundreds. For example, strawberry artificial flavor may contain around 50 chemical compounds.8 

Some artificial flavorings have quite serious health concerns. For example, the butter flavoring added to microwave popcorn(diacetyl) has several implications for brain health and may contribute to beta amyloid plaques, which are associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

4. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

MSG is an excitotoxin. This flavor enhancer is most often associated with Chinese food, but it’s actually added to countless processed food products ranging from frozen dinners and salad dressing to snack chips and meats. However, the term “monosodium glutamate” or its acronym MSG might not appear in the ingredient list. Instead, dozens of other names may be used, such as glutamic acid, hydrolyzed protein, yeast extract, and dozens of others. (You’ll find a full list here.)

Part of the problem is that free glutamic acid (MSG is approximately 78 percent free glutamic acid) is the same neurotransmitter that your brain, nervous system, eyes, pancreas, and other organs use to initiate certain processes in your body. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to claim that consuming MSG does not cause ill effects, many experts report otherwise. MSG has been associated with obesity, eye damage, headaches, fatigue, disorientation, depression, rapid heartbeat, and numbness and tingling.

5. Artificial Colors (Dyes)

Every year, food manufacturers pour 15 million pounds of artificial food dyes into US foods.9 However, a 2014 study10 by Purdue University suggests that children may be consuming far more toxic food dyes than previously thought. A variety of common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate cause some children to become more hyperactive and distractible. The amounts of dye in even single servings of some foods are higher than the amounts proven to adversely affect children’s behavior. Many of these dyes are derived for coal tars.11

Nine of the food dyes currently approved for use in the US are linked to health issues ranging from cancer to hyperactivity and allergy-like reactions—and these results were from studies conducted by the chemical industry itself.12 For instance, Red #40, which is the most widely used dye, may accelerate the appearance of immune system tumors in mice, while also triggering hyperactivity in children. Blue #2, used in candies, beverages, pet foods, and more, was linked to brain tumors. And Yellow #5, used in baked goods, candies, cereal, and more, may not only be contaminated with several cancer-causing chemicals but is also linked to hyperactivity, hypersensitivity, and other behavioral effects in children.

6. High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

It’s often claimed that HFCS is no worse for you than sugar, but when you look at contemporary scientific research, you’ll see this is not the case. Americans are consuming massive quantities of fructose, especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, because it’s cheap and easily added to processed foods. HFCS contains free-form monosaccharides of fructose and glucose, so it cannot be considered biologically equivalent to sucrose (table sugar), which has a glycosidic bond that links the fructose and glucose together and slows its break down in your body.

And fructose is hidden throughout the American diet, in food items that may surprise you, including baby foods and condiments. Fructose is primarily metabolized by your liver, because that is the only organ that has the transporter for it. In your liver, fructose is metabolized much like alcohol, causing mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in the same way as ethanol and other toxins. And just like alcohol, your body turns fructose directly into fat.

As a standard recommendation, I advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. For most people, it would be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams. I would also encourage you to have your blood uric acid level checked. High uric acid is a potent marker for fructose toxicity, so if your levels are above the following, then you’d be wise to avoid all forms of fructose until your levels have normalized—just as you would with elevated insulin.

  1. 4 mg/dl for men
  2. 3.5 mg/dl for women

fructose overload infographic

7. Preservatives

Preservatives lengthen the shelf life of foods, increasing manufacturers’ profits—at your expense, since most are linked to health problems such as cancer, allergic reactions, and more. Since this is a broad category with far too many chemical compounds to list here, I’ll highlight my top five.

Preservative Where It’s Found Potential Health Risks
BHA and BHT (butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydrozyttoluene) Chewing gum, breakfast cereals, breads, crackers, potato chips, nut mixes, and many others Neurological problems, behavioral issues, hormonal issues, metabolic dysfunction, and cancer
TBHQ (tertiary-butyl hydroquinone) Instant noodles, crackers, candy, commercial pizza, and many others Nausea and vomiting, tinnitus, delirium, sense of suffocation, liver toxicity, and reproductive mutations; so deadly that just 5 grams can kill you
Sodium benzoate Soft drinks, fruit juices, salad dressings, pickles, and others Hyperactivity, asthma, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer
Sodium nitrite and nitrate Deli meats, bacon, ham, smoked fish, and hot dogs Colorectal, stomach, and pancreatic cancers
Azodicarbonamide Dough conditioner in commercial baked goods (a plastic chemical found in yoga mats and shoe rubber)13 Cancer, asthma, and allergies

8. Genetically Engineered Ingredients

New research on genetically engineered (GE) foods, continues to confirm the danger of adding GE ingredients to processed foods. Unfortunately, GE ingredients are NOT listed on the label! We’re getting closer to passing of labeling laws, but we’re not there yet. If at all possible, I recommend avoiding all foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by selecting only those that are certified organic. The latest GMO study, involving pigs, was one of the most robust scientific studies ever done about the health effects of a GE diet.

Most pigs raised in the US are typically fed a mixture of GE soy and corn. Researchers discovered that this diet causes severe inflammation in the pigs’ stomachs. Overall, inflammation levels were 2.6 times higher in GE-fed pigs than those fed a non-GE diet. While sows were 2.2 times more likely to have severe stomach inflammation when eating GE feed, male pigs were four times more likely to suffer severe stomach inflammation. The GE diet tested simulated that consumed by a typical American, who will be exposed to a variety of different GE foods through his or her daily diet, rather than just one at a time. According to the Non-GMO Project:14

“Most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs. In the US, the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. Increasingly, Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the GMO experiment.”

US Sends ‘Healthier Processed Foods’ to Other Countries

Many foods sold in the US are banned in other countries due to their harmful additives, growth promoters, genetically engineered ingredients, or other dangerous practices. Artificial food dyes, bromate-containing drinks and bread, and carcinogenic preservatives are just a few examples. The food industry has already formulated safer, better products for other countries where harmful ingredients are banned—so why do they insist on selling inferior versions in America? The fact that Americans are in poorer health and die younger than people in other developed countries makes you wonder whether toxic foods might be playing a role.

There are countless examples of US federal regulatory agencies having sold out to industry at the expense of your health, while other countries have chosen to protect their citizens by embracing the precautionary principle. If you want to avoid questionable foods and potentially harmful ingredients, then ditching processed foods is your best option. About 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed foods, so there is significant room for improvement in this area for most people.

Learning to read labels (and understand what may NOT be on the label) is an important part of this process, as most people find they are unable to avoid processed foods 100 percent of the time. If you need some guidance about how to make your diet healthier, I invite you to check out my optimized nutrition plan.

 

Information for this Post was obtained from: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/03/18/8-worst-processed-food-ingredients.aspx

 

The Eight Most Damaging Ingredients to Watch for on Food Labels by Dr. Mercola2015-03-23T15:59:35+00:00

Processed Fructose Is the Number One Driver of Obesity and Diabetes by Dr. Mercola

2015-02-19T16:51:32+00:00

 

Nearly 30 percent of the global population is overweight or obese, and more than one billion people, worldwide, are expected to fall into the obese category by 2030.

Concomitant to rising obesity rates among all age groups, there’s also been a rapid rise in chronic health problems such as type 2 diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, and cancer.

In one recent study,1 which analyzed data from more than five million people, every 11-pound increase in body weight was associated with an in increased risk for 10 types of cancer, including leukemia, uterine, gallbladder, kidney, cervix, and thyroid cancer.

According to a study published in 2013, nearly one in five US deaths is now associated with obesity. That’s nearly three times higher than previous estimates. Obesity is basically a marker for chronic disease. The underlying problem, linking obesity with all of these health issues, is metabolic dysfunction.

The obvious question then becomes: What is causing this rampant metabolic dysfunction in the first place? Compelling evidence shows that processed fructose is a primary driver for both obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The average American consumes one-third of a pound of sugar per day, half of which is processed fructose, which is the most damaging of all. The majority of all this sugar is hidden in processed foods and beverages, so to address obesity and/or diabetes, ridding your diet of processed fare is key for success.

Fructose Is #1 Driver of Obesity and Diabetes, Analysis Confirms

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. He was one of the first to bring attention to the fact that processed fructose is far worse, from a metabolic standpoint, than other sugars, including refined sugar.

Fructose is actually broken down very much like alcohol, damaging your liver and causing mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in the same way as ethanol and other toxins. It also causes more severe metabolic dysfunction because it’s more readily metabolized into fat than any other sugar.

Other researchers are now backing up these claims. Most recently, a meta-review published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings2 confirms that all calories are not equal, which is precisely what Dr. Lustig has been telling us.

The dogmatic belief that “a calorie is a calorie” has significantly contributed to the ever-worsening health of the Western world. It’s one of the first things dieticians learn in school, and it’s completely false. In reality, the source of the calories makes all the difference in the world when it comes to health.

In the featured review3,4,5 the researchers looked at how calories from the following types of carbohydrates—which include both naturally-occurring and added sugars—affected health:

Starch
Pure glucose
Lactose (natural sugar found in dairy)
Sucrose (table sugar)
Fructose, found both in fruit and in processed high-fructose corn syrup
As reported by Time Magazine:6

“What they found was that the added sugars were significantly more harmful. Fructose was linked to worsening insulin levels and worsening glucose tolerance, which is a driver for pre-diabetes.

It caused harmful fat storage—visceral fat on the abdomen—and promoted several markers for poor health like inflammation and high blood pressure.
‘We clearly showed that sugar is the principal driver of diabetes,’ says lead study author James J. DiNicolantonio, a cardiovascular research scientist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. ‘A sugar calorie is much more harmful.'”

US Dietary Guidelines Promote Unhealthy Amounts of Sugar

The researchers warn that current dietary guidelines in the US are harmful, as they promote unhealthy amounts of sugar consumption. According to the Institute of Medicine, as much as 25 percent of your total daily calories can come from added sugars and still be considered healthy.

Similarly, the 2010 US Dietary Guidelines allows up to 19 percent of calories to come from added sugars. Remarkably, the American Diabetes Association does not recommend restricting fructose-containing added sugars to any specific level at all…

In sharp contrast to such liberal recommendations, the American Heart Association suggests limiting sugar to six teaspoons of sugar per day for women and nine teaspoons for men. The World Health Organization suggests limiting added sugar to a maximum of five percent of your daily calories.

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, which is about six teaspoons. If you have signs of insulin resistance, such as hypertension, obesity, or heart disease, you’d be wise to limit your total fructose consumption to 15 grams or less until your weight and other health conditions have normalized.
According to the featured review, the research clearly shows that once you reach 18 percent of your daily calories from sugar, there’s a two-fold increase in metabolic harm that promote prediabetes and diabetes, so current dietary guidelines are definitely a recipe for chronic disease.

Lead author DiNicolantonio told Time Magazine:7

“We need to understand that it isn’t the overconsuming of calories that leads to obesity and leads to diabetes. We need to totally change that around. It’s refined carbs and added sugars that lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, which leads to high insulin levels, which drives obesity.”
DiNicolantonio and his team advise significant governmental changes to address the situation, including ending subsidies of corn, and adding subsidies for healthy whole foods. Most people eat processed foods because they’re cheaper than whole foods, and switching agricultural subsidies around could change that.
Such changes are likely to take time however, so in the meantime, you would be wise to reconsider your own dietary habits. Remember, while you may need to spend a little more now in order to make sure you’re eating healthy, it could save you a ton of money in the long run.

Over the past two decades, the cost of managing type 2 diabetes has doubled, and diabetics spend an average of $2,600 more on health care each year compared to non-diabetics.8 Wouldn’t you rather spend that money on healthier foods, and circumvent the hassles and added health risks associated with diabetes altogether?

Other Recent Research Supports Fructose-Diabetes Link

Other recent research9,10 from the University of Utah also confirms that fructose is more harmful than table sugar. Here, corn syrup was found to have an adverse effect on animals’ rate of reproduction, and caused premature death. According to senior author Wayne Potts,11 “this is the most robust study showing there is a difference between high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar at human-relevant doses.”

Female mice fed a diet in which 25 percent of calories came from corn syrup had nearly double the death rate compared to mice fed a diet in which 25 percent of calories came from sucrose. Corn syrup-fed mice also produced 26.4 percent fewer offspring than those fed table sugar. As reported by Reuters:12

“The study suggests humans, especially women, could face adverse health effects tied to consuming too much corn syrup, which is found in many processed food products… Between 13 and 25 percent of Americans are estimated to eat diets containing 25 percent or more of calories from added sugars, according to the paper.”

According to the authors of this paper, 42 percent of the added sugar found in the US diet comes from corn syrup; 44 percent comes from sucrose. The remaining 14 percent of added sugars are in the form of natural sweeteners such as honey, molasses, and fruit. The evidence clearly shows that processed fructose is the worst in terms of promoting adverse insulin and leptin reactions, which underlie diabetes and a wide variety of other chronic disease states. That said, all sugars contribute to insulin resistance to some degree—including whole grains, which are touted as having heart-health benefits—so to really safeguard your health, you need to pay attention to sugar in all its forms.

Processed Foods Is the Primary Source of Sugar

Doctors and health officials alike are still trying to convince you that you can have your cake and eat it too, as long as it’s “in moderation.” The problem with that is that if you eat a diet consisting primarily of processed foods, moderation goes out the window because virtually all processed food items contain some form of added sugar. Oftentimes, just ONE food item can contain an entire day’s worth of sugar. When you add all the processed foods you eat in a day together, the total amount of sugar can be quite staggering. One recent study has linked the proliferation of restaurants and warehouse clubs like Costco and/or super-centers like Walmart to the rapid rise in obesity—all of which sell primarily processed foods.
As reported by The Atlantic:13

“In 1990, no state had an obesity prevalence of 15 percent or more. By 2010, no state was less than 20 percent obese… Charles Courtemanche, an assistant professor of economics at Georgia State University, analyzed a number of… theories [explaining rising obesity rates] for a recent study,14 Courtemanche realized that a lot of past studies came to conclusions like, ‘the increasing popularity of driving to work is correlated with the rise of obesity.’ But he wasn’t sure what, specifically, was having the greatest effect on obesity’s rise. He gathered 27 things he thought might be contributing to obesity… and put them in what he calls a ‘statistical horserace’…

Only two of the factors ended up being meaningful drivers of obesity: 1) the proliferation of restaurants and 2) the rise of warehouse clubs, like Costco, and super-centers, like those Walmarts that have grocery stores in them… [B]oth restaurants and super-centers saw a remarkable growth since 1990, and together they explain about half the rise in class II and class III obesity—the worst varieties. Interestingly, regular supermarkets actually had a slight negative effect on obesity rates, so it’s not just that food has become more accessible. Instead, Courtemanche said, it’s that it’s become much, much cheaper.”

Although not specified, the food he’s talking about is processed food. Sweetened beverages may be among the worst culprits, and in most places a can of soda is far less expensive than a bottle of water. When bought in bulk, it’s usually even less expensive. So sure, places like Costco may be adding to the problem by providing health-harming foods at even lower prices, but the fact remains that it is the processed food that is the real problem, not just the fact that food is made available at inexpensive prices… If fresh produce was the least expensive food around, more people would probably buy more of it, but they wouldn’t gain a ton of weight as a result

fructose overload infographic

Gut Bacteria Implicated in Both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes—known as insulin-dependent diabetes—is actually an autoimmune disease that occurs because your immune system mistakenly attacks the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. Like other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes occurs because of a malfunctioning in your body’s defense system, or your immune system. According to recent research, onset of type 1 diabetes in young children tends to be preceded by a change in gut bacteria. Involving just 33 children with genetic predispositions, it’s a small study, but previous research has also found that certain microbes can help prevent the disease, suggesting your gut flora may be a predisposing factor for this condition.
“[O]ne hope is that the results will lead to an early diagnostic test for type 1 diabetes, said researcher Aleksandar Kostic, a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard,” WebMD15 writes. “There is also the possibility of developing new therapies for type 1 that would target the ‘ecosystem’ of the gut, he said.”

Research also suggests there’s a connection between certain types of bacteria and body fat that produces a heightened inflammatory response that contributes to metabolic dysfunction. Superantigens—toxic molecules produced by pathogenic bacteria such as staph—may actually play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes through their effect on fat cells. Preliminary research16 presented in 2010 revealed that transplanting fecal matter from healthy thin people into obese people with metabolic syndrome led to an improvement in insulin sensitivity. More recent research suggests that your diet alone can dramatically alter your microbial balance.

According to Jeffrey Gordon, director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University in St. Louis,17 a diet high in saturated fat, and low in fruits and vegetables allows microbes that promote leanness to overtake colonies of microbes that promote obesity. Speaking of obesity and gut bacteria, it’s important to remember that when you take an antibiotic, or regularly consume foods contaminated with antibiotics (such as CAFO beef, courtesy of their use as a growth promoter in livestock), you decimate the beneficial bacteria in your GI tract. This may have a notable impact on your weight and metabolism.18

Optimizing Your Gut Flora May Be One of Your Most Important Disease Prevention Strategies

Optimizing your gut flora may be one of the most important things you can do for your health. Not only could it help normalize your weight and ward off diabetes, but it’s also a critical component for a well-functioning immune system, which is your primary defense against all sorts of disease. Reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria is key for preventing pathogenic microbes and fungi from taking over. To optimize your gut bacteria, keep these recommendations in mind:

Eat plenty of fermented foods. Traditionally fermented and cultured foods are the best route to optimal digestive health. Healthy choices include lassi, fermented grass-fed organic milk such as kefir, various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy). Fermented vegetables, are an excellent way to supply beneficial bacteria back into our gut. And, unlike some other fermented foods, they tend to be palatable, if not downright delicious, to most people. As an added bonus, they can also a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture.

Take a probiotic supplement. Although I’m not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics is an exception if you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis.

In addition to knowing what to add to your diet and lifestyle, it’s equally important to know what to avoid, and these include:

Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a probiotic supplement)
Conventionally-raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plus genetically engineered grains, which have also been implicated in the destruction of gut flora
Processed foods (as the excessive sugars, along with otherwise “dead” nutrients, feed pathogenic bacteria). Unless 100% organic, they may also contain GMOs that tend to be heavily contaminated with pesticides such as glyphosate
Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals, glyphosate (RoundUp) in particular

Obesity and Diabetes Are Preventable and Treatable with Diet Alone

To recap, if you’re insulin/leptin resistant, have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or are overweight, you’d be wise to limit your total sugar/fructose intake to 15 grams per day until your insulin/leptin resistance has resolved. This applies to at least half of all Americans. For all others, I recommend limiting your daily fructose consumption to 25 grams or less, to maintain optimal health. The easiest way to accomplish this is by swapping processed foods for whole, ideally organic foods. This means cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients. My free nutrition plan offers a step-by-step guide to feed your family right.

On a side note, obesity and diabetes—both type 1 and type 2—have also been linked to vitamin D deficiency. Ensuring your vitamin D levels are within optimal range prior to and during pregnancy can help prevent your child from developing type 1 diabetes. And being vitamin D deficient increases your risk for both obesity and type 2 diabetes in general, so it’s an important component for overall health. Cutting out processed foods means you’ll be eliminating a lot of energy (carbs like sugar, fructose and grains) from your diet, which need to be replaced with energy from other sources. The ideal replacement is a combination of:
High-quality healthy fat (including saturated19 and monounsaturated). Those with insulin resistance benefit from upwards of 50-85 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthy fats. Good sources include coconut and coconut oil, avocados, butter, nuts, and animal fats. (Remember, fat is high in calories while being small in terms of volume. So when you look at your plate, the largest portion would be vegetables.)

As many non-starchy vegetables as you want
Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein. Substantial amounts of protein can be found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, and nuts. When selecting animal-based protein, be sure to opt for organically raised, grass-fed or pastured meats, eggs, and dairy, to avoid potential health complications caused by genetically engineered animal feed and pesticides.
Most Americans eat far too much protein, so be mindful of the amount. I believe it is the rare person who really needs more than one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Those that are aggressively exercising or competing and pregnant women will need about 25 percent more, but most people rarely need more than 40-70 grams of protein a day. To determine your lean body mass, find out your percent body fat and subtract from 100. This means that if you have 20 percent body fat, you have 80 percent lean body mass. Just multiply that by your current weight to get your lean body mass in pounds or kilos.

To determine whether you’re getting too much protein, simply calculate your lean body mass as described above, then write down everything you’re eating for a few days, and calculate the amount of daily protein from all sources. Again, you’re aiming for one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass, which would place most people in the range of 40 to 70 grams of protein per day. If you’re currently averaging a lot more than that, adjust downward accordingly. You could use the chart below or simply Google the food you want to know and you will quickly find the grams of protein in the food.

Red meat, pork, poultry, and seafood average 6-9 grams of protein per ounce.

An ideal amount for most people would be a 3 ounce serving of meat or seafood (not 9 or 12 ounce steaks!), which will provide about 18-27 grams of protein Eggs contain about 6-8 grams of protein per egg. So an omelet made from two eggs would give you about 12-16 grams of protein.

If you add cheese, you need to calculate that protein in as well (check the label of your cheese)
Seeds and nuts contain on average 4-8 grams of protein per quarter cup Cooked beans average about 7-8 grams per half cup
Cooked grains average 5-7 grams per cup Most vegetables contain about 1-2 grams of protein per ounce

Article Source:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/18/processed-fructose-obesity-diabetes.aspx?e_cid=20150218Z1_DNL_NB_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20150218Z1_DNL_NB&et_cid=DM69803&et_rid=847810319

 

 

 

Processed Fructose Is the Number One Driver of Obesity and Diabetes by Dr. Mercola2015-02-19T16:51:32+00:00