A Go To List

A quick note today.

I remember a visit with a dear friend a while back. We got on the topic of food (as often happens with me.) He proceeded to tell me that he snacks on pretzels.  I then quickly asked him – how dare he – after knowing me for so long?  The obvious question being… Had my opinion of pretzels not rubbed off on him?  The following conversation ensued.

Because of the amount of hours that he works on a daily basis, he suggested to me that he could not find the time to read each and every blog that I send out.  So, he jokingly said – and then, of course, confirmed that he was quite serious – would it be possible for me to put together a list of foods to avoid if only to him to save him a whole ton of research. People often ask me for such lists. I hear all the time that people just want the top ten or twenty foods to stay clear of. So here, without further ado:

1. Diet drinks
2. Any food, candy or gum containing aspartame
3. Pretzels
4. Any food product containing BHT (most children’s cereal)
5. Any food product containing food dyes (most children’s cereal and most candy)
6. Farm raised fish
7. Canned food (with the exception of a few)
8. Frozen food (with the exception of a few)
9. Pre-packaged meals (TV dinners)
10. Anything with high fructose corn syrup
11. Anything with MSG
12. Anything with Sulfites (some dried fruit)
13. Anything with Nitrates
14. Fast food (it is not food)

Bacon has gone to $6.00/lb.  It’s too damn expensive and you don’t need cured meats.  So, just to recap, diet drinks are out, lunch meats are out, tilapia is most definitely out, fake candy and snacks are out.  What, you are thinking, has life come to?  What can you enjoy?  Have you made your own sun tea and sweetened it with agave?  Have you baked your own turkey breast and saved money while you’re at it?  Have you had brownies with really great quality chocolate?  Well, explore a little.  Treat your body like a temple and it will level back by looking good and feeling good.

Was The FDA Sleeping In The Year 2000?

Do you have an ant problem or any pesky little creatures that you are trying to get rid of?  Before I go any further, though, let me remind you that I do not believe in killing or harming anyone or anything.  So, don’t actually try this.  But – what is the quickest way to getting rid of ants?  Well, believe it or not, it might be in your pantry.  Yes, you know those pink little packets of poison that are called Sweet and Low.  Yes – that will do the trick!

These little packets of poison had warning labels up until the year 2000.  What, you ask, were on the warning labels?  Well, cancer, of course.  These packets had a warning that stated that the product caused cancer in laboratory animals and might be hazardous to the user’s health.  Well, what happened in the year 2000, you might ask?  Well, how the heck should I know?  Maybe there was too much paperwork on somebody’s desk.  Maybe the person or persons in charge of the FDA in 2000 all of a sudden decided that saccharin – that has been known to cause cancer in lab animals – has somehow become healthy for us.

Saccharin is the first known artificial sweetener that was discovered in 1878, by Constantin Fahlberg, who was a chemist at the Johns Hopkins University in the United States.  The chemical formula of this sweet, synthetic compound is C₇H₅NO₃S.  The basic compound in saccharin is benzoic sulfimide.

Side effects of this carcinogen are as follows:  depression, joint pain, allergies, diarrhea and headaches.  It is also speculated that Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease may also be among the dangers of saccharin.  I’m sure you can imagine if you are pregnant, what the dangers to the fetus might be.  So, if you are pregnant, I would not suggest saccharin in moderation as many people do.

Here’s the thing – there was a 1977 study that concluded that saccharin was harmful to lab animals.  Then, in the year 2000, there was another study that suggested that it was not conclusive due to the fact that lab animals in 1977 had been fed large amounts of saccharin.  This is where I have a great deal of difficulty.  I like studies and I like research but studies like this annoy the %@!$# out of me.

Here’s what I get out of all these studies.  The answer is – they don’t know how much will kill you.  Is it one packet?  Is it 100 packets?  Is it 1000 packets over a lifetime?  But why are you going to take a chance?  Is it worth it?  I know I get a little nutty, but let’s just say what would happen if we rid the world of all these chemicals and additives?  Does anyone out there think we would find a cure for the diseases we are facing today?  I, for one, am hoping to live a very long, healthy life.  So, I prefer to say no to saccharin and no, I won’t feed it to the ants either!

Painfully Sweet.

I must warn all of you, if you are going to continue reading this blog it might be extremely difficult to get through. I suggest however you grin and bear it. I consider all of the blogs I write to be important and informative. This blog however could save your life or the life of someone you know.

A couple years ago, when I had more time, I used to do a weekly TV show in Princeton for Public Access Television. I interviewed a young architect who was stricken with aspartame poisoning. So I was up close and personal to someone whose life had been close to ruined by aspartame. I am one of those health nerds who has done a significant amount of research on artificial sweeteners and know the symptoms related to toxic levels quite well.

Sometimes even after a brief conversation with someone I can pinpoint the symptoms of aspartame poisoning. This happened again recently which is why it is at the forefront of my thoughts. Several days ago I met with a young woman who had been diagnosed first with Multiple Sclerosis then Fybromyalgia and now she is on medications for migraines and she has been told by her physicians that they have no idea what is ailing her. This young woman has spent the last two years of her life undergoing a great deal of testing and has been told that she has a great deal more testing to look forward to. Fortunately, she may be able to avoid any future testing. And you see, her symptoms equate to what is considered to be toxic levels of aspartame in her body. I would like to share with you what those symptoms are and then go into further detail. Her symptoms are migraines, fainting and dizziness, hand shaking, blurry sight, problems with memory, pain in muscles and joints. One of these symptoms would not have been enough but the combination of symptoms were plenty to immediately question her about her food and drink. As it turns out she is ingesting an enormous amount of aspartame. After discovering this, I asked her to please stop. She has already contacted me and shared that in a matter of days she is feeling better. This is a fortunate girl. Sometimes it is caught early enough so that the symptoms will dissipate just as quickly as they began. I warned you that this would be a difficult blog, so prepare yourself. The following list of symptoms have also been known to be caused by aspartame poisoning.

Depression, anxiety, irritability, memory loss, migraines, impaired motor skills, tremors, facial pain, extreme fatigue or extreme hyperactivity, skin lesions, loss of taste, leg swelling,  painful urination, ulcers, permanent brain damage, aspartame addiction as well as birth defects in gestating infants.

It would be irresponsible of me to close out this blog without informing you that aspartame has been linked to dementia, Alzheimer’s, brain cancer and birth defects.  If aspartame does not yet make you as angry as it makes me then allow me to suggest that you take an hour to view SweetMisery.com. If you don’t quite get the seriousness of aspartame yet, this documentary is sure to save your life. This blog may seem harsh to you, my friends, but it is one that is quite necessary. Let us all take a step in the right direction and remember if you are not using aspartame, make an effort to help someone else that might be. You could save a life.

Little Sticks Of Poison

Recently, I have come across many people – and I mean many health conscious people – who chew gum.  Why is that a problem?  Well, my friends, I am sure it hasn’t dawned on most of you, so let me point out how terrible gum really is for you.

Most chewing gum contains aspartame.  So, for those of you who do not ever drink diet soda or refrain from anything else that includes artificial sweeteners, you have either forgotten or do not consider that there might actually be something poisonous in your chewing gum.

“According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting aspartame:  Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes.”

I’m sorry, but I just had to bring this up.  I’ve run into so many people of late that open up their bag and offer me a piece of chewing gum.  I find myself pointing out to people over and over that they are doing everything else right and popping little sticks of poison in their mouth and chewing it for who knows how long.  You would be better served to search out chewing gum with real sugar if you must chew gum.  But ladies, might I point out here, that years and years of chewing gum, believe it or not, will strengthen your jaw muscles and will give you a little bit more of a square jaw – I’m just sayin’.

So, let’s keep our beautiful, oval shaped face and keep our health intact.  Stay away from most chewing gums.  I’m not so sure it looks so pretty anyway.  If you need something to freshen your breath, chew on some parsley.  I promise it will do wonders for your breath and provide some fantastic antioxidants – all at the same time.

By the way – still not sold at how atrocious aspartame is?  Check out the documentary called Sweet Misery.  That will sell you.  Of course, right now, I’m getting visions of people walking around with bunches of parsley in their bag.  Not sure how that’s going to work out.  But – we’ll figure that out too!

Diet Soda, Energy Drinks… Too much caffeine?

Are they joking?

Too much caffeine should be the worst of it!  In fact, I feel compelled, as a result of the recent health alerts in the last week, to talk about the ingredients in these drinks.  If they were only to contain caffeine, I wouldn’t be as concerned.  But in fact, aspartame, combined with all of the other ingredients, that do not resemble anything natural, are far worse than caffeine might be.  Although, I should clarify that the amount of caffeine is definitely dangerous and no one should consume that much caffeine but I feel that it is important to point out that I believe the chemicals cause far more damage than strokes and heart attacks.  In fact, I feel, at some point in the near future, we might be so fortunate that these drinks will be downright illegal.  There are many studies that show they cause heart disease, cancer, brain tumors, and a multitude of many other things.  These drinks are a scary addiction for pre teens and teen agers and it is our responsibility to advise the young minds out there about the harm they might be inflicting on their bodies.

If this seems a bit extreme, please take the time to watch the documentary titled, Sweet Misery, and it might shed a whole new light on that dangerous additive called aspartame.  I just, quite frankly, don’t understand what would possess people to consume drinks that would – even if they were not cancer causing and dangerous – at the very least – dehydrate you.  Which means, as a woman, I would rather drink water and juice to replenish the very things that are so critical to the body.

If you’re not worried about your heart and your brain, for goodness sake, stay away from the wrinkly look you will no doubt be left with after years and years and years of these drinks.  Instead, let’s all keep our heart healthy, keep our brain in tact, and pursue that healthy glow!  Drink as much water as you can and why not just flavor it?  And no, I don’t mean Vitamin Water.

If you don’t know what to do with all the extra diet soda you have around the house, try pouring it down your drains.  It will work far superior to Draino to unclog your drains and far less expensive!  Although, if you live in Colts Neck, NJ, we might worry about what it will do to our septic systems… Just kidding!

Make sure you drink 3 or 4 glasses of water when you first wake up to start the day off right.  And then, by all means, have a great cup of java.  Add some cinnamon to it to get some extra antioxidants.  Remember – drink 5 glasses of water for every cup of coffee you have to stay hydrated.

Strong blog to follow…