Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Childhood: A Caffeine Buzz From Soft Drinks

Caffeine is a toxic compound that stimulates the body due to the body's need to eliminate the toxin. The body makes the heart beat faster in order to try to eliminate the toxin through the organs of filtration faster. For children to be given caffeine or refined sugar is really unfortunate!

NY Times Reports:

A small study at an urban pediatric clinic suggests that children younger than 12 are routinely consuming so much caffeine that it could interfere with their sleep. The source, almost exclusively, is caffeinated soft drinks, like Coca-Cola.

About 75 percent of 228 children in the study (published online on Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics) consumed caffeine. Children 5 to 7 swallowed an average of 52 milligrams a day, and those 8 to 12 averaged 109 milligrams — about the same amount as a cup of drip coffee.

Caffeine is a diuretic, and the study was designed to see whether the consumption was associated with bed-wetting. It was not, but sleep was another matter. Average sleep times for the caffeine drinkers were slightly less than the amount recommended for these ages by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American Beverage Association disputed the study, citing a 2002 review finding that caffeine’s effects on children “seem to be modest and typically innocuous.”

“Caffeine is safe, even for children,” said Maureen Storey, the association’s senior vice president for science policy.

The new study’s authors acknowledged that it did not prove a link between caffeine and sleep problems. Still, the lead author, William J. Warzak, a professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska, says that avoiding it is a good idea. “But,” he added, “you’re not a terrible parent if a kid has a Coke away from home.”

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Awareness: Of Medicines and Mismeasurements--- Pediatric Over the Counter Drugs ?

It is amazing how something as important as labeling childrens medication can be and how it is ignored. Unclear instructions can be deadly as the article below explains. What is even more interesting is how many kids are being given drugs that they don't need at all. Just because a child gets a runny nose or sore throat does not mean they need over the counter drugs. A high temperature needs to be controlled but not a mild grade one. Childrens bodies are very vital and always working to restore equilibrium and usually more than capable of staying well if fed correctly and exercised. No reason at all to interfere with the processes by polluting the system of the little person with the extremely powerful chemicals known as 'over the counter' drugs.



Over the year that ended on Nov. 1, 2009, researchers examined the directions and measuring devices in 200 nonprescription pediatric liquid medicines — drugs for allergy, cough and cold, pain or gastrointestinal problems, and medicines in combination products.

Writing online on Nov. 30 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers report that 52 of the medicines had no measuring device in the package, and that 146 of the other 148 had inconsistencies between the dosing directions and the devices, including missing or superfluous markings, unfamiliar units of measurement (for example, drams or cubic centimeters), or undefined or nonstandard abbreviations.

In November 2009, the Food and Drug Administration published voluntary guidelines for the labeling of dosing directions and measuring devices for over-the-counter liquid medicines. “The plan is that we can expect to see changes by next winter,” said Dr. H. Shonna Yin, the lead author.

But Dr. Yin, an assistant professor of pediatrics at New York University, is not finished. “When we do the study again,” she said, “we’ll see if voluntary guidelines work, or if we need something stronger.” In the meantime, she said, parents should pay careful attention to both directions on packages and the labeling on measuring devices. “A tablespoon,” she warned, “is three times as large as a teaspoon.”





NY TIMES REPORTS:

Giving the correct dose of an over-the-counter pediatric medicine is critical, but the package labeling and dosing information can be virtually incomprehensible. And an overdose can be deadly.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Obesity Surgery May Become Option for Many More - A Fantastic Trend!

Isn't this great? Weight Loss Surgery is going mainstream! There may be some cases where surgery is required but that is very unlikely. Once again instead of becoming interested in the root cause of obesity in our society and making a shift towards a healthier world, we are encouraging ignoring the cause and just focusing on the symptom of obesity. Health should be the priority, not some numeric number! So many people are compromising their health just to lose weight, when the most effective way to address obesity is the comprehensive approach that addresses exercise, food intake and awareness over negative thought patterns.

Weight-loss surgery, once a last resort for extremely overweight people, may soon become an option for those who are less heavy.

An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration will consider on Friday a request by Allergan, the pharmaceutical company, to significantly lower how obese someone must be to qualify for surgery using the company’s Lap-Band device, which restricts intake to the stomach.

On Wednesday, the F.D.A. acknowledged that a new study by the company showed that people in the proposed range of obesity who had the band experienced “statistically significant decreases in all measures of weight loss.”

If the agency approves the change, the number of Americans eligible for the Lap-Band operation could easily double, ensuring more sales for Allergan and probably more insurance coverage for such operations. But the proposed change, sought at a time when the obesity epidemic in the United States seems intractable, still leaves some people uneasy, in part because of side effects and failure rates. In addition, long-term weight reduction is hard to maintain.

“You’re talking about millions and millions of people who would meet these criteria,” said Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School. “Let’s make sure by the most rigorous research that this is safe and effective.”

A new generation of diet pills has failed to gain federal approval, limiting options for overweight Americans, and Allergan and other companies are betting that surgery will become more of a frontline option rather than a last resort.


Thursday, December 9, 2010

Radiation Rules Differ for Humans and Pets - NY Times reports

Whenever possible radiation is to be avoided. The effects are not well understood and variable amongst different people. There are other options usually. The Hippocrates Institute in Palm Beach, Fl is one of the premiere centers for curing cancer through fasting, green fluids, and rest.


WASHINGTON — One group receiving treatment for a thyroid disorder is given a radioactive drug that makes the patients a potential hazard to children or pregnant women for several days. Still, doctors usually send them home immediately after treatment.

Yet another group of thyroid patients given the same drug in much smaller doses must be quarantined for two to five days under government rules, until the radiation the patients emit is sharply reduced.

What is the difference? The first group is made up of human patients, and the second is made up of cats and dogs.

In October, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, complained to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that its policy on human thyroid patients was creating dilemmas for patients, some of whom are sent home immediately after radiation treatment to households with children or pregnant women.

Now, Mr. Markey is pointing out that the rules are much stricter for house pets, even though they usually get radiation doses 90 percent to 98 percent smaller than the ones given to humans. On Thursday, he plans to ask the commission to revisit the regulations.

“The public is more protected from a radioactive Fluffy than from a radioactive father who receives the very same treatment and is then just sent home,” said Mr. Markey, who is the chairman of a House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the nuclear commission.

“The N. R. C. needs to immediately change its nonsensical policy and act to protect public health instead of industry’s bottom line,” he said.

In an interview, a spokesman for the commission, David McIntyre, acknowledged the disparity in the regulations. Under the commission’s rules, radiation exposure to a person from a human patient is supposed to be limited to 500 millirems per treatment, while the exposure to humans from treated pets should be one-fifth that amount. (By comparison, the average American gets about 360 millirem a year from natural sources.)

But, Mr. McIntyre said, “The higher limit for humans is appropriate because of the benefits to the patient in being able to recover at home in the care and presence of loved ones, and because the risk of exposure to others can be managed by taking appropriate precautions.”

“The lower limit for animals is appropriate because it is more difficult to manage the exposure to humans,” he added.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Half of Europeans are overweight, a report shows

Congratulations to Europe! They are finally catching up to epidemic status we have already reached with regards to obesity in the USA. Obesity is so devastating because it is fundamental in it's effects. Exercise more! Stop treating your body like it is a garbage disposal. Obesity is simple to tackle!


Over half of adults living in the European Union countries are now overweight or obese according to a report.

The rate of obesity has more than doubled over the past 20 years in most EU member states, international experts say.

The UK comes out worst, shortly followed by Ireland and Malta, where a quarter of the population is obese.

World experts meet this week to discuss how to reverse the "worrying trend".

The European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) who compiled the Health at a Glance Europe 2010 report believe the key to success is encouraging children to adopt healthy habits.

Currently, one in seven children in the EU is overweight or obese - and the figures are set to rise even further.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Extra Calcium and Vitamin maybe Harmful says NY TIMES

The following Article for NY TIMES 11/30/10 says that the recent trend towards Vitamin D Supplementation and Calcium supplementation is totally unnecessary and actually could be a health risk.

Vitamins and minerals can only be utilized by the body when they come 'chelated' or placed within the context of a living cell. That is why all nutrition should be attained through whole foods. When vitamins, minerals and sugars are taken out of context of each other the way God designed it, they become insults to the body which is unable to read that language of separtation.

The very high levels of vitamin D that are often recommended by doctors and testing laboratories — and can be achieved only by taking supplements — are unnecessary and could be harmful, an expert committee says. It also concludes that calcium supplements are not needed.

The group said most people have adequate amounts of vitamin D in their blood supplied by their diets and natural sources like sunshine, the committee says in a report that is to be released on Tuesday.

“For most people, taking extra calcium and vitamin D supplements is not indicated,” said Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, a member of the panel and an osteoporosis expert at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute.

Dr. J. Christopher Gallagher, director of the bone metabolism unit at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb., agreed, adding, “The onus is on the people who propose extra calcium and vitamin D to show it is safe before they push it on people.”

Over the past few years, the idea that nearly everyone needs extra calcium and vitamin D — especially vitamin D — has swept the nation.

With calcium, adolescent girls may be the only group that is getting too little, the panel found. Older women, on the other hand, may take too much, putting themselves at risk for kidney stones. And there is evidence that excess calcium can increase the risk of heart disease, the group wrote.

As for vitamin D, some prominent doctors have said that most people need supplements or they will be at increased risk for a wide variety of illnesses, including heart disease, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

And these days more and more people know their vitamin D levels because they are being tested for it as part of routine physical exams.

“The number of vitamin D tests has exploded,” said Dennis Black, a reviewer of the report who is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.

At the same time, vitamin D sales have soared, growing faster than those of any supplement, according to The Nutrition Business Journal. Sales rose 82 percent from 2008 to 2009, reaching $430 million. “Everyone was hoping vitamin D would be kind of a panacea,” Dr. Black said. The report, he added, might quell the craze.

“I think this will have an impact on a lot of primary care providers,” he said.

The 14-member expert committee was convened by the Institute of Medicine, an independent nonprofit scientific body, at the request of the United States and Canadian governments. It was asked to examine the available data — nearly 1,000 publications — to determine how much vitamin D and calcium people were getting, how much was needed for optimal health and how much was too much.

The two nutrients work together for bone health.

Bone health, though, is only one of the benefits that have been attributed to vitamin D, and there is not enough good evidence to support most other claims, the committee said.

Friday, November 26, 2010

91 Year Old Track and Field Star demonstrates Anti-Aging Value of Exercise

I have been saying this for a long time and here you go! Check out this 91 year old athlete who started her career at age 77!

On the third floor of the Montreal Chest Institute, at McGill University, Olga Kotelko stood before a treadmill in the center of a stuffy room that was filling up with people who had come just for her. They were there to run physical tests, or to extract blood from her earlobe, or just to observe and take notes. Kotelko removed her glasses. She wore white New Balance sneakers and black running tights, and over her silver hair, a plastic crown that held in place a breathing tube.

Tanja Taivassalo, a 40-year-old muscle physiologist, adjusted the fit of Kotelko’s stretch-vest. It was wired with electrodes to measure changes in cardiac output — a gauge of the power of her heart. Taivassalo first met Kotelko at last year’s world outdoor masters track championships in Lahti, Finland, the pinnacle of the competitive season for older tracksters. Taivassalo went to watch her dad compete in the marathon. But she could hardly fail to notice the 91-year-old Canadian, bespandexed and elfin, who was knocking off world record after world record.

Masters competitions usually begin at 35 years, and include many in their 60s, 70s and 80s (and a few, like Kotelko, in their 90s, and one or two over 100). Of the thousands who descended on Lahti, hundreds were older than 75. And the one getting all the attention was Kotelko. She is considered one of the world’s greatest athletes, holding 23 world records, 17 in her current age category, 90 to 95.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/magazine/28athletes-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Hospitals- no progress in Patient safety! To be avoided when possible!

The study, conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.

“It is unlikely that other regions of the country have fared better,” said Dr. Christopher P. Landrigan, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. The study is being published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

It is one of the most rigorous efforts to collect data about patient safety since a landmark report in 1999 found that medical mistakes caused as many as 98,000 deaths and more than one million injuries a year in the United States. That report, by the Institute of Medicine, an independent group that advises the government on health matters, led to a national movement to reduce errors and make hospital stays less hazardous to patients’ health.

If you have not read the book yet titled "Confessions of a Medical Heretic" by Dr. Robert Mendehlson... i can not suggest it enough.


He explains that hospitals are like war zones in that they should avoided at all costs. NY Times reported yesterday:

Study Finds No Progress in Safety at Hospitals

Efforts to make hospitals safer for patients are falling short, researchers report in the first large study in a decade to analyze harm from medical care and to track it over time.

Among the preventable problems that Dr. Landrigan’s team identified were severe bleeding during an operation, serious breathing trouble caused by a procedure that was performed incorrectly, a fall that dislocated a patient’s hip and damaged a nerve, and vaginal cuts caused by a vacuum device used to help deliver a baby.

Dr. Landrigan’s team focused on North Carolina because its hospitals, compared with those in most states, have been more involved in programs to improve patient safety.

But instead of improvements, the researchers found a high rate of problems. About 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care, some more than once, and 63.1 percent of the injuries were judged to be preventable. Most of the problems were temporary and treatable, but some were serious, and a few — 2.4 percent — caused or contributed to a patient’s death, the study found.

Friday, November 19, 2010

30 Day Intensive Yoga Teacher Training in Miami begins January 8th, 2011 and London March 5th, 2011

Fred Busch Power Yoga 200 Hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training begins in Miami on January 8th, 2011 and in London March 5th, 2011 in company with Wayne Leal and Sweaty Betty.

The Miami Training is Intensive 30 Days. London Teacher Training with Wayne Leal is over 2 months.

for questions and/or to register email fbusch911@gmail.com subject 'teacher training'

Curriculum is Below

Fred Busch Teacher Training
Workshops/ TT Module Presentations



Intro to Yoga and Yoga Philosophy
What is Yoga? What is Power Yoga? How do the different styles of Yoga relate to each other? What is the goal of Yoga? How does Meditation relate to Yoga? This workshop will begin to answer all of these questions and many more and we look into the historical background of Yoga and Tantra and then relate it to the present day movement of Yoga around the world.

5 Koshas (Sheaths)
The 5 Koshas are an energetic understanding of a person visualized as layers or more or less density of energy. The body itself being the least subtle layer, and subsequent layers of prana, mind, wisdom, bliss form concentric circles around the Center of Your Being... the Atman. This discussion of the Koshas will focus on understanding how this vision of human anatomy is useful in todays world.

Learning to Self Practice- Opening Sequence, Sun A, Sun B
In learning to Self Practice, which is the most valuable skill in Yoga, it is important to know some fundamental principles which will keep you confident and doubt free, which happen to be the only obstacles to a consistent Self-Practice. This workshop will break down the Fred Busch Power Yoga Opening Sequence and Sun Salutations so as to create complete understanding of the sequence, the alignment, the point of gaze, and the correct breathing and attitude. With this workshop you will be empowered to begin your Self-Practice on days you don’t make it to the studio.
Drsti, Pranayama, Meditation


The 4 Paths and the 8 Limbs (Ashtanga) of Yoga
There are 4 Paths of Yoga classically known in India. This workshop will discuss the 4 Paths and how they differ and how they are similar. Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga are the 4 Paths of Yoga which will be discussed. From Raja Yoga comes the great Sage Patanjali, the greatest Yoga master of all time and the author of the Yoga Sutras. Inside the Yoga Sutras, between Books 2 and 3, is found the section on Ashtanga Yoga, the Eight Limb Path, and within it, Patanjali explains the scientific formula for enlightenment and bliss. This is a workshop dedicated to illuminating our intellects and preparing ourselves for Living Enlightenment.





Mastering Standing Poses in Self Practice
The standing poses in Power Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, and other Hatha Yogas form the foundation for developing the strength and openness required to sit in meditation for long periods of time. The standing poses were developed much later in time and were created to build fitness, stability and good health. Their are many benefits to standing poses, however the benefits are even greater when the Asana is performed perfectly.
A good and aligned yoga pose creates powerful lines of energy in the body and the result is energetic flow that is both powerful and healing. This workshop will address the many alignment principle inherent in the standing poses of Power Yoga. We will discover here how many poses share the same alignment principles and learn to do visualize the ideal body and thus self correct yourself in Self-Practice.


Yoga Anatomy 1
Learn the bones, the joints, and the Muscles! This introduction to Physical Anatomy is well suited to beginners in the subject as we take it from the very beginning with Directional Terms and basic vocabulary. From there we learn the bones, types of joints, and the names and locations of the most important muscles in the body. We relate this info to Yoga by incorporating yoga poses that use the various muscles and feeling and seeing inside our own bodies for the pathway of the various muscle groups.

The Famous Fred Busch Food Talk
Fasten your seat belts and hold on tight, because this is often the most powerful presentation of information you will ever witness. In the Yoga Teacher Training version of the food talk, Fred will take no prisoners as he presents his understanding of the subject of Food. Welcoming all questions and all challenges, this workshop includes scientific discussions of the role of Vitamins, Minerals, Protein, Essential Fatty Acids, Enzymes, Probiotics, Immune System, Energy levels, Detox. Fred will discuss how easy it is to be an unhealthy vegetarian and will explain the principles to eating with more intelligence and more respect for biological design.


Yoga Sutras of Maharishi Patanjali
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are one of the most important of all Scriptures in the world. Written by Patanjali in a Sutra form, designed to be hidden out in the open, the Sutras are the accumulation of Yogic and Tantric wisdom that existed from the antiquities. Patanjali presented all of them in one single volume and in doing so did a service for Humanity that is divine. Each Yoga Sutra is ‘independently intelligent’ as Fred’s master explains, they each by themselves can deliver you from bondage into enlightenment, also known as Kaivalya, Nirvana, Bliss, Samadhi. In this workshop we will read all the Sutras with English translation and discuss many in full detail.


Fred Busch’s Healing Sequences for Power Yoga
Most injuries start small and get worse over time due to aggravation, something called not listening to your body. This is very common in Yoga because most teacher don’t understand how to let the body heal itself while still doing daily yoga. Most Yoga teachers suggest to either take a week off, or just keep going and push through it!
The fact is that both of those approaches don’t work which is why people don’t easily heal themselves and injuries can become chronic and spread and implicate other muscles. This is not the only option! The Fred Busch Healing Sequences offer a means to continue your daily yoga practice, get stronger in your core, and become the most advanced Yogi of them all, all while healing yourself of whatever injury has been gifted to you.


Arm Balances and Intermediate Poses
In order to learn arm balances from the beginning it is necessary to understand which muscles are really responsible for creating the lift of the seeming ability to defy gravity. This lift generally comes from the core muscles and so this workshop targets and identifies the preparation poses required to master before arm balancing becomes easy. We will then practice the actual arm balances in a specific and detailed way to assure everyone know exactly how to enter the poses over time.

Poses in this workshop will include: Forearm Stand, Handstand, Astavakrasana, Bhujapidasana, Peacock, Side Crow, Crow, Koundinyasana




Chakras Workshop
The chakras are energetic vortices in the body that have been seen by the mystics and can be perceived in the auric field. They are psycho-energetic centers that represent the potential of human consciousness and a map of the territory of human evolution.
This discussion of the chakras will cover the individual Chakras Color, Element, Sound, Emotion, Gland, and Poses. We will discuss how being stuck in the first three chakras has limited most people from seeing the true potential of human bliss which comes from moving into the Heart Center and awakening the THIRD EYE.


Inversions and Backbending
Ready to learn as much as you can about Headstand, Shoulderstand, and Backbends?
This is the workshop for you! We will start with a comprehensive safety discussion about Headstand and Shoulderstand with relation to the cervical spine and thoroughly cover the contra-indications for Inversions. Then we will take those who are ready to experience and realize which muscles groups are actually responsible for mastery of the inversions. We will practice and learn all the preparation poses and then get ready to MOVE OFF THE WALL, If you are ready, and the time has come for you, and your backbends are reasonable. We will learn about the 2 DIFFERENT HEADSTANDS and practice both of them and then discuss and learn the details for Shoulderstand.

We will then address Spine and Back Bends and we will discuss how many students do backbends that are not very effective. In this detailed workshop on the nature of Back bending and front body opening, we will cover the many variation of backbends and why different versions are more suitable for different student types. Making sure your yoga practice is always serving you most effectively.




Sanskrit Alphabet

The Sanskrit Alphabet is a divinely realized continuum of sound waves that are harmonic to your Chakra system and resonant to the sound waves of the cosmos.
The Sanskrit Alphabet is sacred and incredibly healing when pronounced correctly.
This workshop will cover the basics to pronunciation of the 51 Letters of the Sanskrit Script of Devanagari. You will learn how to read elementary Sanskrit words and how to pronounce the names and words in the many sacred Sanskrit Mantras. We will cover the 5 Mouth Positions of Sanskrit and vowels and consonant sounds as well as the Anasvara and Visarga grammatical components. Make your chanting precise and feel the energetic difference in the sound waves vibrating within and around you.


Massage for Yoga Teachers

Just a few very simple massage techniques can make the difference between a good yoga teacher and great one. This very popular workshop (everyone loves massage and wants to learn to massage better!) focuses on the most practical and satisfying massage moves that help a person feel less tense and more relaxed. Fred Busch massage training for Yoga teachers is available to anyone who wants to learn a better quality of touch. For Yoga teachers this is invaluable information which will without question improve the quality of your classes and the quality of care for your students.



Chanting Sanskrit Mantras

This is a workshop designed to highlight the healing and illuminating effects of chanting Mantras in Sanskrit. Sanskrit sounds are scientific and specific frequencies that are associated with your Chakras and help to balance and energize them. We will cover several of the most Sacred Mantras on Earth: Gayatri, Maha Mritunjaya, Sri Ram Jay Ram, and several others as we also discuss the universal nature of Spiritual Enlightenment and bliss. We will focus on correct sanskrit pronunciation using the 5 mouth positions and the power of visualization and intention.


Pranayama, Meditation, Mala Beads

The system of Yoga and enlightenment as expressed in the eight limb path of Patanjali speaks of limbs Pranayama, Dharana, Dhyana, and then Samadhi. Patanjali’s formula for liberation places Pranayam before Meditation and Meditation before Samadhi. This is a very specific formulation and in this workshop we will explore and experience why this order of practice is so powerful. In addition we will learn how to use Mala beads in a seated meditation practice of silent mantra chanting. We will learn pranayama and meditation practices for your Self-Practice, giving you the tools for Living Enlightenment.

Teaching Techniques

Just because you are good in your yoga practice does not make you a good teacher. Teaching is a different skill, which is one reason there is a difference between a yoga teacher and a yoga master. We are seeking to be both Masters in our personal spiritual practice, as well as being great, expressive and charismatic teachers. This workshop will dissect what are the subtle skills that great teachers use to make their classes better than average. Use of music, tone of voice, pace of speech, and so many other factors are at play in the creation of an amazing yoga class for all participants. Skills of observation will be honed to prepare teachers to identify students who need special variations. This workshop will help you take your yoga teaching to the next level!


Pranayama Comprehensive Workshop

Many Pranayamas are described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gerhand Samhita, sister scriptures from the middle ages. This workshop will cover almost all of the classical Pranayamas from the sacred scriptures. Each pranayama will be thoroughly explained and discussed, then demonstrated, then the class will experience.
Ujayi, Alternate Nostril Breathing, Sithali, Kabalabhati (Breath of Fire), Bastrika (Bellows) are all practiced in this very comprehensive introduction to the basics of Pranayama and the benefits they can incorporate into your life.


Prenatal Yoga

Learning how to teach pregnant women safely is an invaluable skill. This workshop is outsourced to our resident Prenatal Yoga Master Michelle Fonte and is designed to prepare the teachers understand the safety considerations in Pregnancy yoga. This workshop will also provide a beginners pre-natal yoga set for those who are interested in teaching Pre-Natal Yoga. This is usually run as a certification program, but certification is at complete discretion of the teacher.





Restorative Yoga

Restorative Yoga is one of the most advanced styles of Yoga to teach even though poses are all supported and relaxing and held for many minutes at a time. Restorative Yoga requires lots of information about the best ways to use props to create comfortable and sustainable poses for people to relax in. This workshop will cover the basics of theory about the healing benefits of Restorative Yoga and will then enjoy the experience of deep relaxation and renewal the comes from the healing and wonderful Restorative Yoga experience.


Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is a guided relaxation experience which is practiced laying on the ground in Shavasana. Yoga Nidra is always guided because it requires the relinquishing of the mind to the guide of the meditation. Yoga Nidra is the ultimate restorative yoga pose. It is not sleeping! It is beneficial and deeply restful and healing as the brain is induced into the brainwaves that are most restorative and healing, the delta waves. We will discuss Yoga Nidra and then experience a 45 Minute Yoga Nidra guided by one of Fred’s Gurus.


Variations and Cues for Power Yoga

What is the most effective way to explain a Yoga pose to somebody? What are the best and most precise words to use? What is the least effort in speaking that can yield the most refined speech? This workshop will address this and do so in the context of a workshop on leading students through creative flow variations. There are literally infinite number of directions that can be taken from nearly every pose. This workshop will teach you to think creatively and be able to build your own safe, intelligent, and satisfying Yoga Vinyasa Flows.


Benefits and Contra-Indications in Yoga Asana

The many benefits of Yoga Asanas to health and mental well being could fill volumes. Yoga practice as a whole is beneficial and each of the individual poses within target different muscles, organs, glands, meridians, and visualizations. Each pose has specific benefits and this workshop will explore the main standing and seated poses and their benefits to strength, flexility, organs, glands and respiration.

Yoga poses can also be very dangerous if practiced by the wrong person. The wrong pose practiced by the wrong person can create injuries or other damage. Yoga teaching is a huge responsibility as you take another persons health and wellbeing into your hands. The other half of this workshop will discuss that are called Contra-Indications to Yoga Poses. These are conditions and situations that certain yoga poses are better avoided. We will cover the main diseases and conditions in a basic overview of what is contra-indicated in different scenarios. This information is mandatory for good and safe Yoga Instruction.


Teaching Privates

The art of teaching Private Yoga classes and very small groups is a skill that pays itself back a hundredfold. A Yoga teacher will generally make most of their money through teaching privately so the ability to be confident and resourceful in a home setting is required. Teaching 1 on 1 offers many opportunities and many challenges that group classes do not afford. This workshop will shed light on how to take advantage of the opportunities while avoiding any of the difficulties from the challenges so as to make your private clients very satisfied with their Yoga class and experience with you.

Obesity in the Developing world follows USA Obesity to epidemic level

Obesity in the developing world is following right behind the outrageous rate of obesity in the USA and other developed countries. Obesity is a crime against humanity in my opinion, especially childhood obesity. How can we let our children get obese? It is disgusting...truly. Let us prevent obesity and get the kids back in shape with exercise and good healthy foods that are not sugary, not fried, and not loaded with saturated animal fat and cooked proteins.

These poor kids are growing up and they have NO CHANCE to be healthy in adulthood because they are on a fast track to diabetes and heart disease and social ills. It is really something that is so preventable that this country needs to take a hard look at the obvious food industry culprits and interest groups like Dairy and Beef/Chicken rendering companies. Lets all wake up and stop following the heard off the cliff and knock some sense into our selves and leaders to stand up against this. It is almost a national security issue if everyone in the country is Fat how can we even defend ourselves? we certainly can not defend ourselves against the trillions of dollars that will be wasted dealing with the health care ramifications of an entire nation of overweight and obese sick people.

and now as the NY Times reports... the rest of the world is following our sad example.


Developing countries should act now to head off their own "obesity epidemic", says a global policy group.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity levels are rising fast.
In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.
Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip the OECD average.
Increasing obesity in industrialised countries such as the UK and US has brought with it rises in heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
However, increasing prosperity in some developing countries has led to a rise in "Western" lifestyles.
Now the OECD warns that they are catching up fast in terms of obesity rates.
Across all the countries represented in the OECD, 50% of adults are overweight or obese.
Childhood obesity
Rates in the Russian Federation are only just below this, and while fewer than 20% of Indians are classed this way, and fewer than 30% of Chinese people, the body says things are worsening fast.

Cell phones and brain cancer... an epidemic that is growing so please use Speakerphone only!

To me it is a pretty simple fact. Radiation to the inner ear has a direct access to the brain and is not blocked by the bones of the skull like radiation would normally be. Long term exposure to the high levels of radiation emitted by all cell phones is causing an epidemic of brain tumors and brain cancer. Please everyone only use cell phones on SPEAKER PHONE and keep those things far away from your ear! Read below if you don't believe. NY TIMES reported today:


I’m paraphrasing here. But the legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn’t want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry’s manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch.

The warnings may be missed by an awful lot of customers. The United States has 292 million wireless numbers in use, approaching one for every adult and child, according to C.T.I.A.-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry’s primary trade group. It says that as of June, about a quarter of domestic households were wireless-only.

If health issues arise from ordinary use of this hardware, it would affect not just many customers but also a huge industry. Our voice calls — we chat on our cellphones 2.26 trillion minutes annually, according to the C.T.I.A. — generate $109 billion for the wireless carriers.

The cellphone instructions-cum-warnings were brought to my attention by Devra Davis, an epidemiologist who has worked for the University of Pittsburgh and has published a book about cellphone radiation, “Disconnect.” I had assumed that radiation specialists had long ago established that worries about low-energy radiation were unfounded. Her book, however, surveys the scientific investigations and concludes that the question is not yet settled.

Brain cancer is a concern that Ms. Davis takes up. Over all, there has not been a general increase in its incidence since cellphones arrived. But the average masks an increase in brain cancer in the 20-to-29 age group and a drop for the older population.

“Most cancers have multiple causes,” she says, but she points to laboratory research that suggests mechanisms by which low-energy radiation could damage cells in ways that could possibly lead to cancer.

Children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults, Ms. Davis and other scientists point out. Radiation that penetrates only two inches into the brain of an adult will reach much deeper into the brains of children because their skulls are thinner and their brains contain more absorptive fluid. No field studies have been completed to date on cellphone radiation and children, she says.



San Francisco has become the first city in the US to require mobile phone retailers to post radiation levels next to the handsets they sell.

The board of supervisors, or council, voted 10-1 to approve the measure.

"This is about helping people make informed choices," said the law's chief sponsor, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell.

The mobile phone industry has pointed to studies that it says show mobile phone radiation was not harmful to people.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The South Beach Detox ONLINE and Local Versions available

If you want to improve your life in any way... eating smarter is a great way to start. It is not easy to just stop your habits and patterns without a bit of guidance. For this we have created the South Beach Detox to not only give you a great and effective Detox, but to also provide you with some very potent skills to live more attuned to your biology and thus receive the enormous benefits which come from wisdom in action.

The South Beach Detox will accomplish both a short term detox and a long term reprogram of your sometimes destructive patterns that are easily transcended with the right illumination.

Welcome to the South Beach Detox… where you will create your own Bliss.

The South Beach Detox programs are the perfect combination of Food, Exercise, and Meditation to create the ideal environment for your body to rest, detox, and recharge.

Let us begin by defining what a detox is, why they work, and then why the South Beach Detox is unique/special.

All Detox Programs operate under the principle that when we eat less, our digestive organs are requiring less energy and thus our body has this energy liberated for use in more important directions, like cleansing and healing.
The South Beach Detox is special for several reasons.

The Sobe Detox utilizes a proprietary three pronged approach that creates a specific positive feedback cycle virtually guaranteeing success and transformation.
Intelligent, Complete Nutrition, Exercise and Yoga, and use of Meditation and Awareness are the three components that feed on each other to create a snowball effect of positive transformation that can be experienced on every level of your being.

Most importantly you will learn how easy these skills are to perpetuate in your life after the Detox.

As you proceed through these next few days, please do as much resting and relaxing as possible. Take naps or rests anytime you can. Try to avoid unnecessary social events or conversations of any sort. Remember that this is special time for you to go within, feel the connection with your self, and above all, rest and relax.

During the days of the South Beach Detox it is suggested that you speak to very few people, if any, about your Detox. Staying quiet is one of the secret keys to success and this is especially true for a time when rest is so important.

And always know that as long as less energy is required by the digestive system, the body considers this rest, even if you end up going about your daily work.

Never be hungry. If you are hungry drink more ReNew Me Powder and fill your stomach up each time by drinking lots in a short time rather than slow sips.

So get ready to feel great! The key to the South Beach Detox is our combination of the Right Food, the Perfect Exercise, and Practice of Meditation and Awareness to bring a feeling of contentment and well being into our life! Enjoy the process of learning new things and feeling more peaceful everyday and experience this entire program as a blessing, a true opportunity, to realize your dreams.

For all details on the components of the South Beach Detox and other important information make sure you read the manual and listen to all the tracks in this program.

Prevention is the best solution! Please people let prevention save you from suffering!

It is impossible to overemphasize the value of prevention. There is no doubt that this is a complex and polluted world and sometimes ailments can not be prevented or are genetic. But that is more rare than you might believe and the fact is that we MUST do whatever we can to act intelligently so we can prevent the Cancer diagnosis that many people are receiving these days.

Cancer is not good. But it can be a sign that lifestyle needs to change and if heeded can lead to a transformational experience and bring enlightenment. The problem with Cancer is the diagnosis itself and the treatments and the lack of quality of life that can follow. Below is a NY Times article on the Side Effects of Radiation that were not well understood by the patient.

If you want to cure yourself of cancer, begin to research the thousands of cases of people who have cured their cancer through raw foods. The best place to cure cancer in the United States is Hippocrates Institute in Palm Beach, Fl.

Prevent Cancer by eating lots of well washed fruits, and vegetable based foods. Eat as much Raw Vegan Food as humanly possible... enjoying the blessings of Fruit that God put on this planet for us. Drink Green Liquids like Spirulina or A.F.A. Blue Green Algae (best) and exercise everyday. Exercise everyday with Yoga if possible, eat according to your primate biology (you are not an omnivore and certainly not a carnivore), and become aware of patterns of self judgment and self criticism and transcend with waves of gratitude and surrender.

This is the formula for the prevention of almost all disease. To the degree that our actions will assist us in prevention, these are the actions to take. Be smart, be aware and then do what you want! It is your life... just realize that health is the only WEALTH.

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NY Times 10/06/10

Wiry, fair-haired and in his 60s, the patient had received a prostate cancer diagnosis a year earlier. When his doctors told him that surgery and radiation therapy were equally effective and that it was up to him to decide, he chose radiation with little hesitation.

But one afternoon a month after completing his treatment, the patient was shocked to see red urine collecting in the urinal. After his doctors performed a series of tests and bladder irrigations through a pencil-size catheter, he learned that the bleeding was a complication of the radiation treatment.

He recalled briefly hearing about this side effect three months earlier, but none of the reports he had been given or collected mentioned it, and once he had recovered from the angst of the emergency room and the doctor’s office visits and the discomfort of the clinical work-up, he didn’t give it more thought — until a few weeks later, when he started bleeding again.

By the time I met him, he was in the middle of his third visit to the hospital. “I feel like I’m tied to this place,” he said. He showed me a plastic jug partly filled with urine the color of fruit punch, and he described a post-treatment life marked by fear of going to the bathroom and discovering blood. “If I had known that my life would be like this after radiation,” he sighed, “I would have chosen the surgery.”

Whether conducted at a laboratory bench or in clinical trials, medical research has long been driven by a single overriding goal — the need to find a cure. Usually referred to more modestly as a search for “the most effective treatment,” this standard has served as both a barometer of success and a major criterion for funding. Most published studies are marked by a preponderance of data documenting even minor blips in laboratory values or changes in the size of a spot of cancer or area of heart muscle damage on specialized X-rays. Some studies bolster the apparent success of their results with additional data on societal effects like treatment costs or numbers of workdays missed.

Few studies, however, focus on the patient experience.

The result of all this emphasis on cure has been a nearly embarrassing richness of choice for patients with diabetes, heart disease, H.I.V. infections and even some cancers. The increasingly sophisticated treatment regimens that now make up medicine’s armamentarium have transformed once life-threatening diseases into chronic ones, but in the process have given rise to a group of individuals who are caught in the unenviable position of living with an illness that never quite goes away. No longer forced to make once-in-a-lifetime life-or-death treatment decisions, they instead struggle each day with the side effects of the very treatments that keep them alive.

For many of these patients, the most important question becomes not “What treatment will allow me to live the longest?” but rather “Which treatment can I live with?”

Now, according to a paper published last month in the policy journal Health Affairs, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a new initiative mandated by the federal health care overhaul, may offer a chance to alter the prevailing winds of medical research so the needs of this growing segment of the patient population are addressed. With a 21-member board made up of individuals from both the public and private sectors, the institute has a mandate to set the agenda for research comparing treatments for common diseases and to finance the most important studies. But according to the paper’s authors, the potential of such an enterprise will be fully realized only if the institute supports initiatives and strategies that place the patient experience not only front and center in research but also smack in the middle of the medical mainstream.

“To some extent, we’ve conquered death,” said Dr. Albert W. Wu, lead author and a general internist and professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “Now we have people living with chronic illnesses, and how they experience quality of life every day has become an important part of how they are doing and whether the treatments are worthwhile.”

To effectively capture the patient perspective, Dr. Wu and his co-authors propose making patient-reported outcomes a more routine part of clinical studies and practice and administrative data collection, in some cases requiring the information for reimbursement. For several months now, they have been incorporating data about patient experiences into routine medical practice at Johns Hopkins. Using a dedicated portal called PatientViewpoint.org, patients can, at the suggestion of their physicians, fill out surveys about their energy levels, social functioning, mental health, nausea and pain. The information is then handled like more traditional clinical testing; access is reserved for the patients themselves and their doctors.

Currently, the site is open only to patients diagnosed with breast or prostate cancer, but Dr. Wu and his colleagues hope that eventually all doctors will be able to order patient surveys that measure experiences like levels of pain, physical functioning or depression, proactively identifying results that are high or low, then reviewing those results with patients. And despite initial concerns that patients might feel overburdened by the questionnaires, most have been enthusiastic.

“Patients want to have more conversations with their physicians and other providers about these kinds of issues,” Dr. Wu said. “Sometimes it’s difficult to cover all this information during the medical encounter, and these surveys may be another opportunity to do that.”

Not all clinicians or researchers, however, are eager to embrace patient-reported outcomes. Many have never received training in the research methods involved and are skeptical about the value of a discipline or drill that is unfamiliar. “This is considered to be squishy, soft stuff,” Dr. Wu said. “It’s still not something you can order on a laboratory slip.”

Nonetheless, Dr. Wu is hopeful that the new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute will provide more direction to all researchers, while establishing new and more comprehensive standards that require patient-reported and quality-of-life outcomes. “I think we have a real opportunity right now, and this institute has great potential to be a positive force in understanding how treatments work and what’s effective and for whom,” he said.

But he also cautioned: “We have to remember to include the patients. We have to include their perspective if we want to come up with evidence that they can really use to make better decisions for themselves about treatment and care.”

US Government Promoting Cheese and Warning against it at same time?

This is just fascinating. We need to take a hard look at the role food companies are playing in the overall degradation of our health. Yes it is peoples responsibility to eat for themselves, but the game is stacked unfairly against intelligence when the marketing and commercials come into play. It is not easy to resist the temptations and seductions of the campaigns.

And now the Federal Government wants to help market cheese? and is at the same time engaged in an anti-obesity drive that suggest cheese be drastically reduced from the diet?

If you want to fight childhood obesity, it is simple. Reduce or eliminate animal based foods from kids diets, eliminate refined sugars (as dangerous as cocaine in some ways), eliminate fried foods and fast foods. Exercise every day.

that is it! read below and see the details of government hypocrisy at its best!

Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies.

Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign.
Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. “This partnership is clearly working,” Brandon Solano, the Domino’s vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times.
But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories.
And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
Urged on by government warnings about saturated fat, Americans have been moving toward low-fat milk for decades, leaving a surplus of whole milk and milk fat. Yet the government, through Dairy Management, is engaged in an effort to find ways to get dairy back into Americans’ diets, primarily through cheese.
Americans now eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, nearly triple the 1970 rate. Cheese has become the largest source of saturated fat; an ounce of many cheeses contains as much saturated fat as a glass of whole milk.
When Michelle Obama implored restaurateurs in September to help fight obesity, she cited the proliferation of cheeseburgers and macaroni and cheese. “I want to challenge every restaurant to offer healthy menu options,” she told the National Restaurant Association’s annual meeting.
But in a series of confidential agreements approved by agriculture secretaries in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Dairy Management has worked with restaurants to expand their menus with cheese-laden products.
Consider the Taco Bell steak quesadilla, with cheddar, pepper jack, mozzarella and a creamy sauce. “The item used an average of eight times more cheese than other items on their menu,” the Agriculture Department said in a report, extolling Dairy Management’s work — without mentioning that the quesadilla has more than three-quarters of the daily recommended level of saturated fat and sodium.
Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.
The organization’s activities, revealed through interviews and records, provide a stark example of inherent conflicts in the Agriculture Department’s historical roles as both marketer of agriculture products and America’s nutrition police.
In one instance, Dairy Management spent millions of dollars on research to support a national advertising campaign promoting the notion that people could lose weight by consuming more dairy products, records and interviews show. The campaign went on for four years, ending in 2007, even though other researchers — one paid by Dairy Management itself — found no such weight-loss benefits.
When the campaign was challenged as false, government lawyers defended it, saying the Agriculture Department “reviewed, approved and continually oversaw” the effort.
Dr. Walter C. Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health and a former member of the federal government’s nutrition advisory committee, said: “The U.S.D.A. should not be involved in these programs that are promoting foods that we are consuming too much of already. A small amount of good-flavored cheese can be compatible with a healthy diet, but consumption in the U.S. is enormous and way beyond what is optimally healthy.”
The Agriculture Department declined to make top officials available for interviews for this article, and Dairy Management would not comment. In answering written questions, the department said that dairy promotion was intended to bolster farmers and rural economies, and that its oversight left Dairy Management’s board with “significant independence” in deciding how best to support those interests.
The department acknowledged that cheese is high in saturated fat, but said that lower milk consumption had made cheese an important source of calcium.
“When eaten in moderation and with attention to portion size, cheese can fit into a low-fat, healthy diet,” the department said.
In its reports to Congress, however, the Agriculture Department tallies Dairy Management’s successes in millions of pounds of cheese served.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Guayaquil Yoga Teacher Training Starts MONDAY!!!














Fred Busch Power Yoga Teacher Training, a Yoga Alliance Certified 30 Day intensive course Guayaquil, Ecuador November 8th

Hosted by Samadhi Centro de Yoga en Guayaquil

For info about future Teacher Trainings in South America contact alex@limayoga.com

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Teacher Training Guayaquil starts Nov. 8th 2010

I am so excited to meet the great group developing at Samadhi Centro de Yoga in Guayaquil Ecuador for my first 200 Hour Teacher Training conducted in Ecuador. There still may be a space or two left if interested....call for details or email alex@limayoga.com or call 305 606 2169

Yoga Alliance Teacher Training in Ecuador with Fred Busch, Andrea Goldbaum, andAlex Landazuri

Begins Nov 8th 201o
Samadhi Centro de Yoga

Great News! A new way to kill chickens!

i just heard the news that 2 large commercial chicken slaughterhouses are going to employ a different way of killing their chickens. Generally they grab the chicken and hold it upside down and while it is resisting and feeling the stress of death, they cut its neck and let them run around bleeding and suffering for a while before they eventually die.


what a great evolution of humanity that 2 chicken producers will now use a new technique... gas the birds with carbon dioxide until they pass out... once unconscious they hang them up on a string and slit their throats while they are sleeping.


it is less barbaric... but only slightly and now it seems even more like a concentration camp then before.

if people are so interested in chickens and other animals not suffering, why are we killing them?
why do we pretend to care about these birds or other innocent animals when we are just killing them anyway.

it would be best to not depend on animal proteins which are inherently cancerous, and move to a more logical plant based diet where we don't have to kill chickens at all.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Salmonella and Eggs... but why eat eggs anyway?

An Iowa Egg Farmer and a History of Salmonella




Eggs are diseased ridden half voided out life forms that are literally torture chambers for the chickens that are forced to produce them... And they are disgusting and full of nasty bacteria. Should be avoided. Look at how there is no regulation at all!

On a July night in 1987, scores of elderly and chronically ill patients at Bird S. Coler Memorial Hospital in New York City began to fall violently sick with food poisoning from eggs tainted with salmonella.

Amber Waterman/Sun Journal, via A.P.

Austin J. DeCoster

Readers' Comments

Readers shared their thoughts on this article.

“It was like a war zone,” said Dr. Philippe Tassy, the doctor on call as the sickness started to rage through the hospital. By the time the outbreak ended more than two weeks later, nine people had died and about 500 people had become sick. It remains the deadliest outbreak in this country attributed to eggs infected with the bacteria known as Salmonella enteritidis.

This year, the same bacteria sickened thousands of people nationwide and led to the recall of half a billion eggs.

Despite the gap of decades, there is a crucial link between the two outbreaks: in both cases, the eggs came from farms owned by Austin J. DeCoster, one of the country’s biggest egg producers.

Mr. DeCoster’s frequent run-ins with regulators over labor, environmental and immigration violations have been well cataloged. But the close connections between Mr. DeCoster’s egg empire and the spread of salmonella in the United States have received far less scrutiny.

While some state regulators took steps to clamp down on tainted eggs, the federal government was much slower to act, despite entreaties from state officials alarmed at the growing toll.

Farms tied to Mr. DeCoster were a primary source of Salmonella enteritidis in the United States in the 1980s, when some of the first major outbreaks of human illness from the bacteria in eggs occurred, according to health officials and public records. At one point, New York and Maryland regulators believed DeCoster eggs were such a threat that they banned sales of the eggs in their states.

“When we were in the thick of it, the name that came up again and again was DeCoster Egg Farms,” said Paul A. Blake, who was head of the enteric diseases division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1980s, when investigators began to tackle the emerging problem of salmonella and eggs.

By the end of that decade, regulators in New York had forced Mr. DeCoster to allow salmonella testing of his farms and, along with other states, pushed the egg industry in the eastern United States to improve safety, which led to a drop in illness.

But the efforts were patchwork. For example, Iowa, where Mr. DeCoster has five farms tied to the current outbreak, required no testing.

Monday, September 20, 2010

President Clinton goes VEGAN

Bill Clinton has finally used his amazing intellectual prowess to focus on his health and has decided to become Vegan in order to reverse heart disease and live longer to enjoy his Grandchildren!


This could be great for the Boomers who have been reluctant to want to change their lifestlyle and who have blamed their age and being too set in their ways! Not anymore!


Bill Clinton talks about going veg to reverse heart disease

, so he can be healthy in the years ahead to see his potential grandchildren.

Scroll down for video.

We also have this from ecorazzi.com:

"I'm trying to be one of those experimenters," said Clinton. "Since 1986, several hundred people who have tried essentially a plant-based diet, not ingesting any cholesterol from any source, has seen their bodies start to heal themselves -- break up the arterial blockage, break up the calcium deposits around the heart. 82 percent of the people who have done this have had this result, so I want to see if I can be one of them."

Just hours ago, Ecorazzi received exclusive information from a friend of Clinton (who wishes to remain anonymous) regarding first-hand conversations with the former president about his vegan diet.

According to our source, Clinton decided to adopt the diet in the early part of May. While he does occasionally eat fish, the former president otherwise follows a strict vegan diet.

What made him go vegan? According to our source, Clinton has read many books on the topic, including books by T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. Dean Ornish. Although losing weight

was a benefit of the dietary change, the choice to go vegan was about more than just losing weight.

"I've never known him not to say what's on his mind," says our source. "And he knows quite a bit and likely has a lot to say about the benefits of a vegan diet. He has read The China Study, and he knows the issues. With time, I think it's likely he could become the most outspoken proponent of a complete vegan diet."

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

High Fructose Corn Syrup name changing to fool the public

It is really amazing that it is legal to do stuff like what the corn industry is attempting to ask the FDA for. They are simply asking permission to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to 'corn sugar'. This is a blatant and unacceptable attempt to fool the public into eating foods with high fructose corn syrup without knowing it.

Refined sugars like high fructose corn syrup is really dangerous and leads to obesity and diabetes directly. The FDA should not even consider this request. It is criminal in my opinion.

A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup


Would high-fructose corn syrup, by any other name, have sweeter appeal?

The Corn Refiners Association, which represents firms that make the syrup, has been trying to improve the image of the much maligned sweetener with ad campaigns promoting it as a natural ingredient made from corn. Now, the group has petitioned the United States Food and Drug Administration to start calling the ingredient “corn sugar,” arguing that a name change is the only way to clear up consumer confusion about the product.

“Clearly the name is confusing consumers,” said Audrae Erickson, president of the Washington-based group, in an interview. “Research shows that ‘corn sugar’ better communicates the amount of calories, the level of fructose and the sweetness in this ingredient.”

According to the market research firm NPD Group, about 58 percent of Americans say they are concerned that high-fructose corn syrup poses a health risk.

Some scientists over the years have speculated that high-fructose corn syrup may contribute to obesity by somehow disrupting normal metabolic function, but the research has been inconclusive. As a result, most leading scientists and nutrition experts agree that in terms of health, the effect of high-fructose corn syrup is the same as regular sugar, and that too much of either ingredient is bad for your health.

Marion Nestle, a professor in New York University’s department of nutrition and a longtime food industry critic, says that Americans consume too much of all types of sugar, but that there is no meaningful biochemical difference between table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.

“I’m not eager to help the corn refiners sell more of their stuff,” Dr. Nestle wrote in an e-mail. “But you have to feel sorry for them. High-fructose corn syrup is the new trans fat. Everyone thinks it’s poison, and food companies are getting rid of it as fast as they can.”

Dr. Nestle says she thinks the plural “corn sugars” is a better description of high-fructose corn syrup, which is actually a mixture of glucose and fructose. But she agrees that the corn refiners “have lots of reasons to want the change.”

“Even I have to admit that it’s not an unreasonable one,” Dr. Nestle said.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the health advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, said he thought the term “high-fructose corn syrup” had misled many into thinking the sweetener was composed mainly of fructose, a simple sugar found in honey and fruit.

“Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are nutritionally the same,’’ said Dr. Jacobson, who has a doctorate in microbiology. “I don’t know if ‘corn sugar’ is the best term, but it’s better than ‘high-fructose corn syrup.’ ”

High-fructose corn syrup, which came into widespread use in the 1970s, isn’t particularly high in fructose, but was so named to distinguish it from ordinary, glucose-containing corn syrup, according to a report in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose (also known as table sugar) contain about the same amount of glucose and fructose. In fact, one commonly used version of the ingredient known as HFCS-42 actually contains less fructose (42 percent) than table sugar, which has 50 percent fructose, according to the report.

“The name is confusing, and consumers don’t understand that it has the same calories as sugar,” said Ms. Erickson, of the Corn Refiners’ Association. “They also think it’s sweeter tasting. That’s why the alternate name provides clarity for consumers when it comes to the ingredient composition and helps them better understand what’s in their foods.”

Table sugar comes primarily from sugar cane or sugar beets. High-fructose corn syrup is made essentially by soaking corn kernels to extract corn starch, and using enzymes to turn the glucose in the starch into fructose. The ingredient is a favorite of food makers for practical reasons. Compared with sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup doesn’t mask flavors, has a lower freezing point and retains moisture better, which is useful in making foods like chewy granola bars. And because the corn crop in the United States is heavily subsidized, high-fructose corn syrup is also cheap. As a result, it’s now used in so many foods, from crackers to soft drinks, that it has become one of the biggest sources of calories in the American diet.

But the public perception of high-fructose corn syrup as unhealthful has prompted many food companies to stop using it in their products, including Hunt’s Ketchup, Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice and Wheat Thins crackers.

The F.D.A. has six months to respond to the name-change petition. If the agency accepts it, the decision on whether to allow the name “corn sugar” on food labels may take another 12 to 18 months.

Although food label changes aren’t common, the F.D.A. has allowed name changes in the past. The ingredient first called “low erucic acid rapeseed oil” was changed to “canola oil” in the 1980s. More recently, the F.D.A. allowed prunes to be called “dried plums.”

“It’s rare that food ingredient labels are changed, and when they are it’s always been to provide clarity to consumers,” Ms. Erickson said. “This is a classic case for consumers to better understand an ingredient.”

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Low Carb diet has too many Animal Foods! NY Times Reports Today

NY Times reports today that the Low Carb diets like Atkins Diet are not safe. Article explains how people who remove the carbohydrate calories in favor of animal food calories, as prescribed in Atkins Diet, are seriously compromising their health.


I always say that losing weight must be done while getting healthier and should not be done at the expense of overall health.

People in my field have long suspected Atkins Diet for being dangerous. This article is showing that more of the mainstream researchers are finally becoming aware of the facts of high animal product diets.




Nutrition: Risky Additions to a Low-Carb Diet

Atkins-style low-carbohydrate diets help people lose weight, but people who simply replace the bread and pasta with calories from animal protein and animal fat may face an increased risk of early death from cancer and heart disease, a new study reports.

The study found that the death rate among people who adhered most closely to a low-carb regimen was 12 percent higher over about two decades than with those who consumed diets higher in carbohydrates.

But death rates varied, depending on the sources of protein and fat used to displace carbohydrates. Low-carb eaters who drew more protein and fat from vegetable sources like beans and nuts were 20 percent less likely to die over the period than people who ate a high-carbohydrate diet.

But low-carb dieters who got most of their protein and fat from animal sources like red and processed meats were 14 percent more likely to die of heart disease and 28 percent more likely to die of cancer, the analysis found.

The study, published Sept. 7 in Annals of Internal Medicine, analyzed data from more than 85,000 healthy women aged 34 to 59 who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study, and almost 45,000 men aged 40 to 75 who took part in the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study. Participants filled out questionnaires every four years.

“If people want to follow a low-carb diet, this provides some guidance,” said the paper’s lead author, Teresa T. Fung, an associate professor of nutrition at Simmons College in Boston. “They should probably eat less meats.”