Showing posts with label sugar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sugar. Show all posts

Monday, 30 June 2014

Are you what you eat? "Chewicide" (film)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Keidi Obe Awadu, ChewicideMovie.com, LivingSuperFood.com


This is a healthier vegan option
Junk food, fast food, the SAD (Standard American Diet), and highly-processed foods all contribute to our American problems with healthcare and paying for it. "I'm saving money on the 99 cent menu but paying for it at the doctor's office."

Despite all the great and not-so-great (i.e., "official") information on better dietary practices, we still suffer epidemics of man-made chronic disease brought on by chewicide.

Junk food: U.S. men are getting fatter
Chewicide, what's chewicide? Munching brought on by emotional-eating, low self-esteem, the impact of psychological craving brought on by advertising campaigns and empty calories from corporations that favor profit by compromising the health of their consumers.

The use of GMOs, hidden in foods we all eat particularly corn chips, is causing perforations in the lining of our stomachs -- by design. This is the way Monsanto's Roundup-ready pesticide and pest resistant products kill insects, by exploding their stomachs.

French fried slayers: starch, acrylamides, plasticized oil, dipped in red sugar
 
Well, wuddintcha know? They have the exact same effect on school children, working adults, acne-ridden teens, and anyone else who eats conventional, non-organic food. What are the chances?
Whether it's consuming the flesh of animals fed GMOs or plants injected with GMOs or condiments utilizing GMO foods (like the 50 pounds of high fructose corn syrup the average American eats on top of the 162 one-pound sacks of sugar one is trying to digest without developing cancer, diabetes, OCD, ADHD, autism, brain fog, fatigue, erectile dysfunction, depression...), we take in too many harmful ingredients, additives, and calories. Yet most of us are suffering from malnutrition -- a lack of nourishment in spite of the surplus of salt, sugar, and fat our brains' crave.

There is an antidote to the madness and disease: conscious eating of actual food
 
Be conscious or commit chewicide
Companies induce us to eat more (by adding excitotoxic MSG, artificial flavorants, other addictive glutamates, "natural" flavors that are synthesized using petrochemicals, sterilizing preservatives, mold inhibitors, attractive colorants, etc.)  then an entire industry capitalizes on the effect of our standard American diet with ineffective, but highly profitable, medical "treatments," pharmaceutical interventions, surgeries, and radiation sessions to address our symptoms.

But we keep eating. Money doesn't grow on trees, so the only way for corporations to make good money from food is by processing it and selling it at an exorbitant price compared to how much it cost to make. A pound of potatoes, for instance, is worth almost nothing wholesale. But fry it, salt it, bag it, and even a few ounces spells obscene profits. Who cares if consumers' suffer in the transaction?

The best antidote to chewicide is mindful "conscious eating." It is certainly worth the effort to change our lifestyles from committing chewicide to nourishing ourselves on living foods (fresh, green, preferably sprouted). When we let food be our medicine, suddenly we do not need medicine. Food is Nature's perfect answer to all of our health problems. Eating with gratitude, while relaxed and joyful, and  according to one's biomechanics, blood type, and Ayurvedic dosha may also be helpful. Learn more or join the movement
  • What's wrong with American men? As Americans we like to pride ourselves on being the best country in the world [WQ EDITORIAL: when everybody knows that's Switzerland]. However, it's clear that other countries... More proof we're fat. Here's what the average American man looks like compared to other men... How do YOU measure up? Artist compares "average" shape of men from around the world...
  • VIDEO: Hey, why are you so FAT?
  • "If you don't move, you get fat." But how can you move when you're exhausted, and your brain and heart are telling you they're starving, and when plastics and chemicals are making you obese even as you diet? Meanwhile, the diet industry, food corporations, and cancer.... 30th over 1,000 people gathered at IP Church in Los Angeles to hear a Pacifica-sponsored speech by the acclaimed Canadian addiction specialist, physician, and bestselling author Gabor Mate.AUDIO: Poor SLEEP makes us fat, demented American men are fatter than other men... The study adds to a growing body of evidence that there's "an intimate relationship between the amount of sleep we get and our ability to maintain a good, healthy body weight," says sleep expert Helene Emsellem, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland. But Americans don't seem to be getting the message that we need seven to nine hours per night. More than 1 in 5 of us...
  • How Western diets are making world sick It had a visceral potency to it when you could see it directly there." In a conversation on Fresh Air, Patterson tells Terry Gross that the effects of urbanization are making people everywhere in the world both fatter and sicker.

Monday, 16 June 2014

Sugar is worse than cocaine (video)

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Alex Cohen (SCPR.org); Suzi Yoonessi
What's she doin? I'dunno, but it's Barbie! How could it be bad? Her Corvette, dream house
Is it child abuse to give your kids sugar? Coca Barbie doesn't think so!

Funny or Die had a contest, and "Olive and Mocha's Fast Times at Sugar High" took first place. It was an unlikely friendship between a goody-goody and a bad-seed that resulted in havoc at a birthday party.

I'm not hyper! But get me some more candy!
Sugar was the culprit. Not System of a Down's "Sugar," though maybe that had something to do with it. It was the pure white and artificially-flavored confection and killer of America's kids. How could it be worse than the deadly excitotoxin cocaine? For one thing, it's legal. For another, no one suspects it.

We were all high on SUGAR: "The Kombucha mushroom people...!"
 
Birthday party: Fast Times at Sugar High
They shove it into kids, with each American child snorting, shooting (hospital IV), or swallowing an average of 150 one-pounds sacks of it each year, usually hidden in food, desserts, and soda. It dehydrates, ruins the ability to concentrate, sends blood glucose levels through the roof, kicks the immune system offline for about five hours after each it, and eats away at the body. It may or may not directly cause obesity, but it is the cause of early-onset diabetes, brain problems (mental fog, confusion, spectrum disorders), cancer, tooth rotting, premature aging, and more. Yuck!
 
Funny or Die contest
Drugs! Drugs! Get your drugs here!
(SCPR) The L.A. Film Festival this year joined forces with the comedy video website Funny or Die in a talent search for diverse, unique, and authentic voices in the comedy world.
 
The submissions to the "Make 'em LAFF" competition were whittled down to the top 25, then the top 5, and this weekend, the first place winner was revealed: Suzi Yoonessi (audio).

    Wednesday, 11 June 2014

    Placebo? Mind over Muscle at Harvard

    Wisdom Quarterly; Alia Crum, Ellen Langer (Harvard), Psychological Science (18, 2: 165-171)
    (Chauncey McDermott) Mind over matter: "You can do it, Duffy Moon!"

    Mind-Set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect
    ABSTRACT—In a study testing whether the relationship between exercise and health is moderated by one’s mindset, 84 female room attendants working in seven different hotels were measured on physiological health variables affected by exercise. Those in the informed condition were told that the work they do (cleaning hotel rooms) is good exercise and satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle. Examples of how their work was exercise were provided. Subjects in the control group were not given this information. Although actual behavior did not change, 4 weeks after the intervention, the informed group perceived themselves to be getting significantly more exercise than before. As a result, compared with the control group, they showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index. These results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect.

    Shhhh. These are just sugar pills.
    The placebo effect is any effect that is not attributed to an actual pharmaceutical drug or remedy, but rather is attributed to the individual’s mind-set (mindless beliefs and expectations).

    The therapeutic benefit of the placebo effect is so widely accepted that accounting for it has become a standard in clinical drug trials to distinguish pharmaceutical effects from the placebo effect and the placebo effect from other possible confounding factors, including spontaneous remission and the natural history of the condition (Benson & McCallie, 1979; Brody, 1980; Nesbitt Shanor, 1999; Spiro, 1986). Kirsh and Sapirstein (1998), in a meta-analysis of 2,318 clinical drug trials for antidepressant medication, found that [only] a quarter (25.16%) of the patients’ responses were due to the actual drug effect, another quarter (23.87%) were due to the natural history of depression, and half (50.97%) were due to the placebo effect.

    Scholar Shelly Brown: "Bridging science and religion" (news.harvard.edu)
      
    Powerful love medicine (glucose, FD&C red)
    The placebo effect extends much further than medications or therapy: Subjects exposed to fake poison ivy developed real rashes (Blakeslee, 1998), people imbibing placebo caffeine experienced increased motor performance and heart rate (and other effects congruent with the subjects’ beliefs and not with the pharmacological effects of caffeine; Kirsch & Sapirstein, 1998), and patients given anesthesia and a fake knee operation experienced reduced pain and swelling in their ‘‘healed’’ tendons and ligaments (Blakeslee, 1998). More generally, studies suggest that 60 to 90% of drugs and other therapies prescribed by physicians depend on the placebo effect for their effectiveness (Benson & Freedman, 1996; Nesbitt Shanor, 1999).

    The placebo effect does not have to involve inert pills or sham procedures. Symbols, beliefs, and expectations can elicit powerful physiological occurrences, both positive and negative (Hahn & Kleinman, 1983; Roberts, Kewman, & Mercie, 1993).

    Prof. Ellen Langer, Harvard University
    For example, the mere presence of a doctor increases patients’ blood pressure (the ‘‘white coat effect’’), reinterpreting pain in nonthreatening ways (e.g., as sensations) prompts patients to take fewer sedatives and leave the hospital sooner; and the health decline of cancer patients often has less to do with the actual course of the illness and more to do with their negative expectations regarding the disease (Langer, 1989).

    EXERCISE AND THE PLACEBO EFFECT
    As the most common health threats are now infectious rather than chronic, remedies have also changed. Doctors now prescribe behavioral changes such as exercise for chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. We wondered whether the well-known benefits of exercise are in whole or in part the result of the placebo effect. A positive finding would speak to the potentially powerful... More

    Sunday, 8 June 2014

    Addiction: Indonesia and Iboga (video)

    VICE/HBO; Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (ATS), Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Gabor Mate
    The world's biggest Buddhist temple is in Borobudur, Indonesia. It is a mandala shaped like a pyramid topped by stupas or reliquaries and strange "bells" with Buddhas inside, similar to German Die Glocke time-travel technology from WW II (Wisdom Quarterly).

    NICOTINE: Tobaccoland
    Shamans can cure (I-M)
    The dangers of smoking are no secret in the U.S., but in Indonesia, the tobacco industry goes virtually unregulated. The result? Over two-thirds of all males are smokers and tobacco (nicotine with sugar used in curing the leaves, a preservative that makes it much more addictive than in its natural form) addicts. It is commonplace for children as young as six to take up the habit and buy cigarettes legally. Tobacco is a $100 billion industry here, with TV and print ads everywhere. Investigating this phenomenon in Malang, VICE visits a clinic that promises cures to a plethora of modern ailments using tobacco and smoking -- with an intrepid correspondent getting the full "smoke-therapy" treatment.

    IBOGA: Underground Heroin Clinic
    Heroin is one of the most easy-to-become addicted to substances on Earth. While it cannot be said to be addictive itself, according to Dr. Gabor Mate, many susceptible individuals certainly do become addicts, utterly dependent on it even as it brings about their ruin. ["Addiction" is the interaction of susceptibility from childhood trauma and introduction of the substance to the nervous system, usually for self-soothing rituals]. Some people will do anything to kick the habit.

    Enter Ibogaine -- a drug made out of the African iboga root (T. iboga), whose intense, entheogenic and hallucinogenic properties make it a Type-A felony drug (Schedule 1, regarded as having no medicinal or redeeming qualities by the Big Pharma-influenced medical industry as part of the "military-industrial pharmaceutical complex" that pushes artificial, for-profit chemicals and allopathic "treatments" rather than any actual cures).

    Bamboo bridge and waterfall (sun-surfer.com)
    But many swear iboga is the most effective way to kick heroin and other substance addictions like alcohol -- especially when combined with shamanic rituals that involves a human guide who enters into trance, interacts with the spirit world, does face painting, chanting, and engages in other traditional practices. VICE follows the journey of one heroin addict who travels to Mexico, where Ibogaine is legal, to finally quit drugs.

    Monday, 2 June 2014

    An American Junk-Food Tax?

    Xochitl; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; A Martinez, Alex Cohen, Take Two (SCPR.org), Nat'l Burger Day, Vow To Revive Navajo Junk-Food Tax (AP/NPR, April 22, 2014)
    This mouth-watering burger is a delicious, cruelty-free vegan melt with baked fries (Vegan)

     
    Don't tell anyone these are "good" as in healthy.
    FLAGSTAFF, Arizona - Facing a high prevalence of diabetes, many American Indian tribes are returning to their roots with community and home gardens, cooking classes that incorporate traditional foods, and running programs to encourage healthy eating lifestyles [returning back to the Earth].
     
    The latest effort on the Navajo Nation, the country's largest "reservation" [modern internment camp], is to use the tax system to spur people to ditch junk food.
     
    Manzanita/Sobochesh (eattheweeds.com)
    A proposed 2 percent sales tax on chips, cookies, and sodas failed Tuesday in a Tribal Council vote.
     
    But the measure still has widespread support, and advocates plan to revive it, with the hope of making the tribe one of the first governments to enact a junk-food tax.
     
    Elected officials across the U.S. have taken aim at sugary drinks with proposed bans, size limits, tax hikes, and warning labels, though their efforts have not gained widespread traction. In Mexico, lawmakers approved a junk food tax and a tax on soft drinks last year as part of that government's campaign to fight obesity.
    Navajo President Ben Shelly earlier this year vetoed measures to establish a junk-food tax and eliminate the tax on fresh fruit and vegetables. At Tuesday's meeting, tribal lawmakers overturned the veto on the tax cut, but a vote to secure the junk-food tax fell short. Lawmakers voted 13-7 in favor of it, but the tax needed 16 votes to pass. More

    Thursday, 22 May 2014

    White Sugar is the new Cocaine (audio)

    Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich (KPFA.org, Berkeley, 5-21-14)
    I snort my sugar, take the candy straight to my head, which is where it ends up anyway.
     
    Live from Berkeley, Pacifica's Letters and Politics (KPFA FM) focuses in on the effects of carbohydrates and white sugar. Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Robert Lustig, M.D. (UC San Francisco School of Medicine), author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Foods, Obesity, and Disease. They also mention the pioneering work of Dr. Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain. Diabetes? Brain damage? Lack of energy? Heart disease? Obesity? The results will surprise listeners:
    Neuroscience of carbs: Grain Brain, Dr. David Perlmutter, MD (drperlmutter.com)

    Thursday, 20 March 2014

    Choosing money over morality? (Scar Jo)

    Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; BusinessInsider.com
    What would Anathapindika do, which would Anathapindika choose? (AP/Business Inisder)
     
    Scarlett Johansson sells sexy do-it-yourself fizzy pop for money. But Oxfam does not approve since (SodaStream) the Israeli-company's manufacturing base is in Palestine, the un-autonomous region of Israel, exploiting suffering Palestinians. It and the Gaza Strip are known as "the world's largest open-air prison." So after appearing in accused-pedophile and beloved American movie maker Woody Allen's movies, she's taking a stand: She dumped Oxfam, where she once held the title "Global Ambassador." Now she's just a pregnant shill out to destroy the Avenger's franchise. Shills sell sugary soda streams for profitable income streams. We liked her better naked and less obsessed with selling out to the highest bidder.
    Early idea for Scar Jo's Avenger's costume

    Saturday, 14 September 2013

    Why I love Cocaine

    Anonymous, Ashley Wells, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Dennis Romero, laweekly.com
    Sia (and/or her tiny alter ego) is the Girl You Lost to Cocaine
     
    Hi, my name is Minsky. And I'm a coke fiend...

    Hi, Minsky!
     
    ...Not the toxic corn-byproduct and fizzy flavorant-laced poison. I mean the Columbian plant extract. Can'ts get me enough of that powdered goodness. It is the s!

    Nina Sia-khali Moradi it too hot.
    It all started in the Lab, you see? These dealers in fancy coats were just giving it away. Know what I'm talking about? They would force it on me and the other mice. We were going A-1 loco in those cages. Now I know why.
     
    But back then, I was chasing the dragon with the devil in me and I didn't need to eat, sleep, or worry about acting like vermin in the nesting area. It was great. I'd still be on the stuff, but then things got tight. My heart was racing, supplies were low, and I looked like some kind of snake, my hair falling out in patches, and breath like the devil. Can you feel me on that one?

    The best way to rob a bank is to own one, and the best way to deal drugs is work for the pharmaceutical industry selling addictive toxins as "medicine." How to Make Money
     
    It got so bad I was stealing pellets to survive, peeing in the water dish, fighting over nothing, and keeping everyone up with my rodent drama. It was a mess. Think I'm going to go kill myself, or become a born again Christian mouse, or take out a loan, and get a job in the military or at WalMart and really make something of myself. And now it all comes out in the news:

    Love at first Snort?
    Cocaine Takes Over Your Brain After First Snort?")
    Life in the mirror (Irina Slutsky/flickr)
     
    If you ever wondered why Lindsay Lohan repeatedly returned to her nightlife haunts despite warnings from judges and others to tone it down, this might explain it. Allegedly.
     
    SoCal is Tops For Socially Conscious Universities
    New research from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco for the first time documents immediate physiological effects from a first dose of cocaine use, at least on mice. 

    Not only that, but researchers found that the little rodents in question seem to want to go back to the place from where they got their Bolivian marching powder. Strong stuff, that.
     
    The study was published this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
     
    H&M, Brandy Melville Sued Over Estevan Oriol's Gang-Style Photograph
    L.A. (The Informer)
    The academics measured the rodents' brains via "2-photon laser scanning microscopy" and found immediate growth of "dendritic spines" of the frontal lobes.
     
    The researchers claim that's the first time this has been documented for initial doses of cocaine and that it shows how the drug affects immediate physiological changes that can predict addiction. More

    British mom and lingerie model is ditching her life of posing for one of modesty and obedience as a Muslim wife (Thanks Allah and Islam).
    Egyptian monasticism at Wadi Natrun
    OHIO - Dr. Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom of Wittenberg University will present a lecture on the monastic residence at Wadi Natrun. The Desert Fathers of Egypt were the first Christian monks to establish a community on the fringes of the desert. Wadi Natrun, ancient Scetis, was home to thousands of monks from 500-1100 CE. Archaeological work in the region at the Monastery of John the Little demonstrates monastic life in multi-roomed homes with spectacular wall paintings and complex kitchen facilities. Dr. Brooks Hedstrom will present Egyptian monasticism under the Islamic caliphate in the tenth century CE. The lecture is free and open to the public.
    • [Editor's note: All such monasticism is a direct result of Buddhist influence, where monasticism was a novel concept to Jewish and Christian conceptions of spirituality imported from the East and its most successful shramanic tradition.]