Tags
acne aging anti-aging beauty detox diet exercise fasting healing health healthy lifestyle healthy living healthy recipes inspiration juicing Living la Vida Raw meditation mindfulness Move Your Body Natural Beauty natural cures Natural Cures natural remedies nutrition nutritionist parasites raw raw food Raw Food for Thought raw foods raw girl Raw News raw recipes Raw Spirit Recipes skin spirulina stress vegan vegan lifestyle vegan recipes vegetarian Veggie Love wellness yogaNewsletter Sign-up
Tag Archives: Raw News
Scientific Study Finally Proves The Dangers of GMOs
This weekend I found myself overwhelmed with disappointment and sadness for the horrible turn our food supply and our health is taking in this country. Just in case you didn’t know, President Obama signed the Monsanto Protection Act, which now gives them free reign to plant their “frankenfoods”, put farmers out of business, malign natural order, and poison the American people without opposition. Beware! They are now above the law; the balance of power has shifted completely, and indeed the veggie is hitting the fan. About a week ago I posted an excerpt from paper I wrote on The Dangers of Consuming GMO’s. One of the major concerns that I brought up in dealing with the subject matter was the lack of scientific studies that properly demonstrated the extent to which consuming foods, plants, and animals that are genetically modified can have on human health as well as the environment prior to GMO foods taking over our supermarkets. We are now living in an age where 75- 80% of food on shelves contains genetically modified organisms. Until recently there were no studies longer than three months conducted that were unsupervised by the manufacturers of the GMO plants and pesticides, primarily because these studies were banned. Thankfully late last year this video was posted which gives an overview of an extensive two-year scientific study conducted in which rats were fed GMO corn.
I am not a fan of animal testing or abuse, but this is much-needed evidence that GMOs will play a huge part in destroying the health of America and soon citizens worldwide. What they found was that after three months, coincidentally the timeframe that the Monsanto approved studies ended, tumors began to develop in the rats consuming GMO corn and the tumors continued to grow until excessively large, eventually leading to the death of the rats. If you did not read my past article on GMOs I highly suggest you do so, and also please watch the short video below to learn more about the study and it’s implications. I will be writing a followup post soon that expounds upon the dangers of consuming soy products, which are the next most commonly found GMO in your food besides corn.
The veggie is seriously hitting the fan guys, it is time to stay vigilant, remain informed, and safeguard your health and the health of those you love. By any means necessary, EAT ORGANIC. Grow it if you have to while you still can, join a co-op, find some bargains, but do what you can and also avoid produce and meats that are not organic, and all processed foods, most especially those that include corn or soy. The scary thing is that many of our products are not properly labeled, and this is done intentionally. The best rule of thumb: if you aren’t sure what it is or what that long complex chemical name means, don’t eat it. It may narrow your food choices down a great deal, but it will without a doubt save your life. -XoXo Raw Girl
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Njd0RugGjAg#!]
Thoughts on Mayor Bloomberg’s Obesity Intervention
If you haven’t heard Mayor Bloomberg has decided to employ another tactic to fight obesity in New York City. He’s proposing a ban on all soft drinks/ sodas over 16 ounces in stores, restaurants, and even movie theaters. This would still allow someone to purchase another drink if they like, but would reduce the serving to no more than 16 ounces at a time. His reasoning, which I feel is correct, is that people tend to eat the portion size given to them. If you cut the serving, you may help a lot of people curb obesity and disease.
According to an ABC news report on this issue: “If you have just one 20 ounce soda a day and you cut that out of your diet, you can lose 25 pounds in one year!” That’s pretty astounding, and I believe worthy of action. I am all for allowing people the freedom to make their own choices, but enabling the American population to become obese and strung out on pharmaceuticals has got to stop! Fast food is a drug. If one of your parents or siblings was strung out on cocaine, would you not eventually have to intervene and show some tough love? A hard drug addiction is not that different from fast foods. There have been many documented scientific studies that prove that fast foods are as addictive as heroine or cocaine and produce similar responses in the brain. I also don’t think that if you leave it up to the consumers—who are strung out like crack addicts on sugar, salt, etc. that is making them fatter and sicker—that they will necessarily make the right choice.
The fact is companies spend all this money on these manufactured, factory made foods that are DESIGNED to make you want to eat more and more, and give you no nutrition. Our bodies need minerals, vitamins, and high quality nutrients to thrive. When you choose to eat fast food you are essentially feeding your body absolutely nothing of substance and therefore you can remain hungry and overeat large portions. On top of that the sugars, the salts, and the manufactured flavors added will keep you coming back for more. If the portion sizes of most fast food items were changed, labeling of foods was more transparent, and laws were in place to discourage consumption of disease inducing foods and encourage companies to sell life rather than death for the sake of profit our society would be a much healthier place.
Some people argue that the government may be going too far. That to me is a moot point. There are plenty of people serving in our government profiting from the subsidizing of corn and all the high fructose corn syrup laden drinks and foods that are making Americans sick. At this point I think the government along with companies peddling these fast foods have a duty to apologize, intervene, and stop the trajectory of obesity and disease. Why not make the cost of eating real, healthier foods the most affordable so even people with low incomes have the means to choose health? I shouldn’t be able to pay less money for a box full of fake chemicals and industrial materials that will in turn make me sick and strung out. It is time for a shift. If things continue as they are, it’s about to get very serious in America and the healthcare system is not going to be prepared for it. The veggie will definitely hit the fan, and I won’t be happy to say I called it.
That said, if Mayor Bloomberg wants to wage an intervention on the obese population in the Big Apple via cutting out soda consumption, I applaud him for it. The issue Mr. Bloomberg, is that if you want to tackle obesity for real, you can’t propose to cut down on soda consumption and then go and support National Donut Day. I’m pretty sure some of those same people who guzzle sodas over 16 ounces get down with a Krispy Kreme every now and then. It’s all or nothing Mr. Bloomberg, and the only way you will earn respect from the masses is if you commit fully. I say EAT TO LIVE. -XoXo Raw Girl
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOMmZDaG2qc&feature=related]
To read more on the issue check out this article:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=8685040
The Queen of Southern Fried Needs to Go VEGAN
If you missed this bit of news in January of this year, Paula Deen, Queen of all things southern fried and buttery, went public with the fact that she has type 2 diabetes and has known for several years. I heard about this and was not surprised. The woman has a recipe for Fried Cheesecake for heaven sakes. We all love food personalities that offer fun and easy ways to prepare good food, but you cannot push butter dipped, fried, and sugar laden foods on people and expect them to thrive.
What Paula has done is make an empire off of Southern home cooking and the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) which consists of butter, heavy cream, salt, sugar, flour, and all things processed while sacrificing the long-term health and well-being of her fans and now, even herself. Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain called her “the worst most dangerous person to America,” and further asserted “when you’ve been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you have type 2 diabetes it’s in bad taste, if nothing else.” Today, I was reminded of Paula Deen when I came across comedienne Kristen Wiig’s SNL skit. It had me DYING with laughter. You can check out the video via the link below. She applies butter as lip gloss at some point in the video. It’s too much hilarity.
I laughed until my sides ached, but when I finished the video, I felt sorry for Paula Deen. No one should have to live with diabetes or any debilitating disease. I hope that somehow she stumbles upon the documentary Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days and watches it. If she does she may learn that raw foods can completely reverse her condition, and maybe she would even venture over to the veggy team. That would be revolutionary. The former Queen of Southern Fried could become a Vegan poster girl, and may lead some other folks lost in the land of butter and cream to the veggie promise land. Until then, Team VEGAN is definitely winning. Those of us who do it right get to satisfy our taste buds, are getting the nutrients our bodies’ need, look younger, feel energized, and would never touch a Southern fried anything. -XoXo Raw Girl
Click here to watch the SNL skit: http://eater.com/archives/2012/03/11/snl-parodies-paula-deens-lawsuit-diabetes.php
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9ysdY30XU]
The FDA to Approve Genetically Engineered Salmon? GROSS.
Today I was calmly going about my day when I received an email from moveon.org that turned my smile into a frown, which progressed to full on outrage. The FDA is getting ready to approve genetically engineered salmon?!! For a vegans and vegetarians who don’t eat fish, you may think so what? But there are a lot of people who swear off cow and chicken because of the horrible conditions these animals are reared under in the U.S. and they consider fish a viable, safe option. This will not be so anymore if this passes.
If the FDA gets away with this, and is able to sell unlabeled salmon that is genetically engineered to the public, they will do more. You give a dog an inch, they want to take the whole bone. It is time for us consumers to wake up and demand that our right to safe consumable food not be infringed upon. If we do not stand for it, no one will. These gangsters also known as the FDA, Monsanto, and all the giant super “food” companies selling us high fructose corn syrup, salt, industrial materials, and sugar by the tons will win. They will win and more of us, and our loved ones will be in the hospital dying or hooked to pharmaceuticals for the rest of our lives. Please read the letter below and join me in signing this petition. No one is allowed to sell me GMO ANYTHING without my permission. -XoXo Raw Girl
_________________
Dear MoveOn member,
The FDA is on the brink of approving genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. This would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States.
The salmon is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice the normal rate. The government already requires labels to tell us if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised—don’t we also have a right to know if our salmon is genetically engineered? Without labels, we’ll never know.
More than forty countries, including Russia and China, already require labels on genetically engineered foods. As Americans, we firmly believe that we deserve the same right to know what we are eating.
That’s why I created a petition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on SignOn.org, which says:
Commissioner Hamburg, we urge the FDA to require the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. We have a right to know about the food we eat and what we feed our families, but under current FDA regulations, we don’t have that ability when it comes to genetically engineered foods.
Polls show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare. Please listen to the American public and mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods.
Will you sign the petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=271198&id=35796-9107681-GYAwWkx&t=2
Beware of How You Slice Your Melon: Cantaloupe Recall
If you haven’t heard already, mid-September a large shipment of cantaloupes from a farm in Colorado was tainted with listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
Two people died, and at least 22 are ill in seven states: Colorado, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. If you were planning on getting down with a melon sometime soon, think twice. The melons have been recalled, but better safe than sorry at least for a little while. Especially beware if you are in any of these states where Jensen Farms cantaloupe was distributed: Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. One of the couples affected by the outbreak is now suing the company responsible, Jensen Farms.
The other crazy tidbit to note is that sickness cause by eating food contaminated by listeria can onset weeks, and even months after contact. It can seriously affect the elderly, and adults with compromised immune systems, so make sure to keep your immunity up! (Spirulina is a great option.)
I am saddened that so many of our fruits and veggies are being tainted due to poor handling or cross contamination with animal bacteria. We live in an age where most of us consume veggies that were grown far away from the cities we live in and shipped to stores. Take precautions everyone! Try to eat as local as possible so you know where your veggies come from. And if all else fails remember to bless your food! The energy of positive thought has been proven to transform. -XoXo Raw Girl
To read the full articles check out these links:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2093390,00.html
Taco Bell Fiasco: Fast Food = Fast Death
Hope everyone is staying warm in this crazy DMV weather! It took me three hours to get home yesterday, after leaving my car in a parking lot and hitching a ride with a family member. Then to top it off, got home and internet and power shut down before I could finish this post! Needless to say, I am ecstatic that all’s well now and I will never take lights and heat for granted again.
You may have already heard yesterday about the law suit being filed against Taco Bell. When I heard about it, I really was not surprised. It must have been over ten years ago, that I ventured into Taco Bell to purchase a meal. I remember my mother used to take us there from time to time and we would buy tacos and take them with us to the movies. Back then I always wondered (in my meat-eating, fast food ignorant days), what the heck I was exactly eating, although I didn’t know to ask. Now that I have undergone my complete vegan transformation the thought of consuming one really makes we want to hurl.
According to the lawsuit in addition to the mere 35% beef that is in their tacos, Taco Bell has also included: “water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch.” Anti-dusting agent? Really? See guys, this is what started to drive me bonkers when I began this journey that lead me to raw foods. When I discovered that products like cottage cheese have bleach in them, and that there are countless chemical laden processed foods with industrial or lab-made materials, I refused to eat any of it. NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE FOOD. Taco Bell, McDonald’s un-chicken nuggets, and all the other fast food chains and processed food manufacturers really should be forced to own up to the fact they are not selling food. If you are going to be allowed to sell me blended animal parts mixed with chemicals, then I should know and it should be labeled as such. So I really hope this lawsuit serves as forewarning to other fast death chains or at best gives Taco Bell a run for their money. –XoXo Raw Girl
To read more about the post check out the link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/taco-bell-beef-lawsuit_n_813185.html
Ban on Traditional Medicines in Europe!
It’s starting my friends. Our freedom to achieve optimal health is slowly but surely being eroded as laws are going into effect that will limit our access to organic foods, high quality supplementation, and natural medicines. This year, beginning in April, many traditional medicines will no longer be available in Europe. The more I read, the more outraged I become.
The FDA in cohorts with major corporations, and individuals/entities concerned with GREED and the control of the worldwide population is not going to stop jeopardizing our freedoms. Products and foods that are natural are being attacked in a real, mafia-like way. Why? Because they are POWERFUL. The more we take our own health in our hands, avoid using pharmaceutical drugs, and become independent beings who consume foods full of life force, the more power we have to exercise our minds and bodies, to create, and to consider opposing a power paradigm that is intent on us becoming dull, lifeless, disease-ridden, and drug dependent puppets for the system. Please read more about this ban, and about CODEX in the links below, and visit the Alliance for Natural Health site to take action on their petitions or donate. If you think we don’t got next, please think again! CODEX guidelines that regulate our food supply and are expected to be implemented in 2012. This may be the last year to stock up on all things herbal, or at the very least learn how to grow them ourselves before the veggie indefinitely hits the fan. -XoXo Raw Girl
To read more about this ban visit:
http://www.anh-usa.org/traditional-medicines-to-become-illegal-in-europe/
To read more about CODEX, visit:
Raw Foodist 109 Years Old & Still Kickin’
Tomorrow, Wednesday January 25th 2012 @ 5pm EST, tune in to hear my interview with Bernando on Newd Radio! Just to refresh your memory, I thought I would repost this entry that features a video on Bernando. Anyone can listen via www.newdradio.com. It is a pre-recorded show, so any comments or questions can be directed to the Raw Girl Facebook page or to rawgirltoxicworld@gmail.com. My show Healthy Living in a Toxic World will only be airing for the next five weeks, so catch it while you can! -XoXo Raw Girl
Can you imagine turning one hundred and nine, and still functioning better than some people in their sixties and seventies? For Bernando LaPallo this is reality. Today I stumbled across several videos and the Fox News interview of him, just after his birthday and was astounded. The man not only still has his health and vigor in tact, (he has never had any terminal diseases or sicknesses that plague our aging population) he is also pursuing goals of authoring additional books and opening a restaurant.
Apparently he has been on a primarily raw diet since before it was even a fad, and continues to maintain a highly raw diet, only eating meat once a year. That, he says has been the key to his longevity. I found some videos of him on you tube showing his morning “superfood” smoothie that consisted of fruit, Echinacea extract, a superfood powder that he helped formulate with essential nutrients, and garlic. If this isn’t proof of how natural foods can enhance the quality of life, I don’t know what is. Check out Bernando’s interview below, it might give you some fuel to jump on the raw bandwagon. As for me, I’m on board for life. -XoXo Raw Girl
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUDIWxKs7nc]
For more on Bernando LaPallo and a link to his book, “Age Less, Live More” check out his blog:
The Buck Stops Here: GMO Salmon Approved by the FDA?
Ever since the gulf oil spill debacle, I have been making a running joke that pescatarians will soon be extinct. To top it off, shortly after the oil spill fish from those waters was deemed as safe for consumption. You got to be kidding me! So you can imagine my outrage when I was riding into Georgetown last week and heard a program on NPR discussing the possibility that the FDA may approve genetically modified Salmon that grows to market size in 16 to 18 months versus the normal cycle of three years. In order to make this happen the fish is inserted with two genes, one of which is a growth hormone. The FDA, who I am now sure is a gang of food science gangsters determined to jeopardize the health of Americans by any means necessary, apparently “gave AquaBounty Technologies a thumbs-up,” and came to the conclusion that eating freakishly grown salmon pumped with growth hormone was safe.
As of this week, AquaBounty Technologies has begun producing this GMO salmon in Panama. My hope is that the salmon will be properly labeled to alert consumers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the FDA gives the company a loophole to squirm out of that commitment that would at least allow consumers to make a choice as to what kind of salmon they want to consume. Apparently some scientists have adamantly warned against this, and also declared that consumption of this fish could exacerbate allergies present in certain consumers. My sentiments are very clear on this issue, but as I hear news of more and more disruptions of nature’s cycle I keep wondering: where does the buck stop?
To listen to the program on NPR visit this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129706395
Another article: http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?l=e&country=0&special=&monthyear=&day=&id=38441&ndb=1&df=0
-XoXo Raw Girl
Invisible Crustaceans in Every Refreshing Glass of NYC Tap Water
So the next time you’re in the Big Apple on a muggy summer day and you head out to eat or over to your friend’s place, and you just happen to down that nice refreshing glass of ice water to quench your thirst, you know what else you’ll be drinking? Shrimp. Seriously, I wish it was a joke. Am I the only one who thinks this is utterly disgusting? I really hope not. Sometimes when I am visiting friends, eating at a restaurant, or on-the-go away from home I get that look of derision when I turn down tap water. It’s that knowing—- “Oh your one of those whose too good for tap water,” look. Sometimes they actually just come out and say just that, (especially in New York). I just shrug, and smile, thinking about all the little critters that I am avoiding.
I know that I am a bit of a clean water Nazi, and I really am okay with that. Why? Because I love to avoid at all costs parasitic infections, trace pharmaceuticals, and now apparently in NYC, tiny shrimp in my glass of H2O. A friend sent me a link and I almost gagged on my glass of reverse osmosis water. Prior to this heads up, you wouldn’t catch me drinking water that was anything but alkaline or distilled in New York anyway, but this just makes my case all the more firm. I hope that all you lovely raw foodies and vegans (really anyone nowadays), but you especially, will get on the clean (truly clean, not just clean in the commercial) water bandwagon very soon.
Too many diseases nowadays are born just from lack of clean water alone. I definitely feel blessed to have such a wide range of choices between tap, glorified tap, bottled water, distilled, alkaline water etc. but I am not ignorant enough to forget the fact that for many people in our world it isn’t even an option. -XoXo Raw Girl
Check out the picture of the Shrimp in your NYC Tap Water:
http://gizmodo.com/5626497/you-swallow-invisible-shrimp-with-every-gulp-of-nyc-tap-water
For previous musings on water options, check out this past article: