A recent study performed by the Prevention Institute concluded that more than 50 percent of the food and beverage products on the market with fruit pictured on their packaging actually have little to no fruit at all in the ingredients list.

The Prevention Institute, which is a non-profit community health advocacy group in California conducted a survey of 37 heavily marketed foods with fruit on the packaging and found that 51 percent contained no fruit at all.

In addition, another 16 percent contained minimal amounts of fruit (10 percent or less). The other 33 percent did have an acceptable amount of fruit, but they also high amounts of sugar as well.

Both Juicy Fruit Gum and Froot Loops cereal were found to have no fruit in them at all.

Situations such as these raise concerns regarding product packaging that misleads consumers.

“The packages might lead a parent to believe (these products) are a healthier option for their children, when many do not actually deliver any of the nutritional benefits of whole fruit,” wrote the authors of the study.

This unfortunately is nothing new. Food & beverage manufacturers have been misleading consumers for years about their products.

What’s different now and congruently worse, is that now these misleading companies have a new target market…children. The Institute of Medicine reports an estimated $10 billion in marketing is spent yearly on products such as these. In 2005, Advertising Age magazine reported an average of  $7.2 billion being spent in mass media advertising, meaning there was a 4 percent increase in 1 year.

Take Gatorade for example; while they may not be putting pictures of fruit on their labels, they market the product to children & adults as something that healthy people such as athletes should drink to replenish themselves.

Next time you’re in the supermarket, pick up a bottle of Gatorade and read the ingredients. This stuff is loaded with junk like high fructose corn syrup and sugar.

Here’s my advice. Next time you want something fruit flavored, try some organic fruit. Nothing comes closer to the taste of real fruit than, well…real fruit.

There are some manufactures out there that do actually contain 100 % fruit juice. Two of which include Juicy Juice and Capri Sun Fruit Waves.

My recommendation for drinks will always be water. Water forms the basis for all body fluids, including blood and digestive juices as well as aids the transportation and absorption of nutrients. It also helps eliminate waste.

Overall, an estimated $10 billion in marketing is spent yearly, according to a 2006 report by the Institute of Medicine. For comparison, according to a year-end advertising industry report by Advertising Age magazine, in 2005 the food and beverage industry spent $7.2 billion in mass media advertising, up nearly 4 percent from the previous year.

It seems as though the decision that took place last month for New York to ban the use of trans fats in restaurants has spurred an interest in many cities across the country that are considering to do the same. Of these, Los Angeles may be the first large city to get the ball rolling.

Attorneys for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and LA City Council advised officials that state law would not permit a local ban on trans fats. With this in mind the group’s desire to take a proactive approach resulted in an alternative measure: a voluntary ban by restaurants on trans fats.

A plan such as this would be incentive driven with things such as window decals that would let a potential customer know if the establishment they are thinking about eating in is trans fat free or not.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, Director of Public Health for Los Angeles County, feels this type of information could help customers make better eating decisions. The stickers “could help consumers decide if they want to go into a restaurant,” he said.

The non-law may not be necessary, according to some.

In August, Wendy’s made an announcement that included removing all trans fats from its menu. Soon after, establishments such as Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, MacDonald’s and Starbucks made similar statements.

What I like most about this situation is that the public is taking matters into their own hands and taking action.

Rather than waiting for “Big Brother” who’s actually supposed to be monitoring things like this in a supposed effort to keep the public’s safety a priority, they are making things happen independently.

It was only a matter of time before people started realizing how dangerous trans fats actually are. Now, thankfully the city of Los Angeles will be the first of many to take the best possible measures to eliminate this poison from public restaurants.

According to a group of researchers in Korea, cold remedies that contain the drug phenylpropanolamine (PPA) pose an increased risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke, especially among women.

PPA, which was recalled by the FDA in 2005, is a drug that was formerly used as a nasal decongestant for over-the-counter cough and cold medicines as well as an appetite suppressant. According to the Korean researchers, even small doses of PPA can increase the risk of stroke.

Initially, the FDA asked pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily remove the PPA from medicines nearly 5 years ago. In late 2005 it re-classified the drug as “unsafe” and removed it from over-the-counter medicine.

Many companies have removed PPA from their new formulas of medicine, but older medicines may contain the drug.

The Seoul National University Hospital, who is responsible for the research, said the primary focus of the study was to determine whether a stroke could be triggered by PPA in smaller doses. An earlier study performed by Yale University researchers in May 2000 already concluded that the use of PPA in appetite suppressants and diet pills can increase the risk of stroke.

The Seoul study consisted of 940 people who had a hemorrhagic stroke. Each was paired up with two controls. The researchers concluded that 1.7 percent of the women who had a stroke also had ingested a cold or cough medicine containing PPA, versus just 0.7 percent of the controls. They also determined that longer exposure to PPA increased risk of stroke.

The study also concluded that while men are at risk, the percentage of men affected by PPA was a very small amount. Both the Seoul study and the Yale study found that women who have taken PPA are at a higher risk.

The study results can be found in the January 9th issue of Neurology.

And to think, some new medicines still contain this poison.

The risk of the ingredients found in over the counter cough medicines have been apparent for years. Some studies have even shown such ingredients to be deadly to infants. Other studies have shown cough syrups to be just as effective as water in treating coughs. The only difference is the refined carbs found in the syrups.

Yet many people rush to the pharmacy the minute they feel a tickle in their throat. Instead, head over to your natural supplement store and pick up some marshmallow, licorice, eucalyptus oil and peppermint oil and thyme. At least you won’t have to worry about getting a stroke.

Research by the University of Miami concludes that the mineral selenium may be an effective weapon against HIV. Supplementing with selenium on a daily basis seems to keep HIV under control and strengthen the immune system at the same time.

A double-blind study of 262 HIV patients, which divided patients into two groups was performed. One group received the supplements, while the others received placebos. Those taking the 200 micrograms of high-selenium yeast each day fought the disease much better. Nine months later, when the study was completed, each patient was given a comprehensive medical exam. The patients who took selenium on a daily basis had a lower amount of the HIV virus in their bloodstream as well as better immune cell counts compared to those who took the placebos instead.

This may be news to some but it’s actually no surprise to me. Every condition under the sun can be controlled through natural supplements, without medications.

Big Pharma of course would have you think other wise. Why? Because they make money in two ways.

The first is by you being sick.

The second is through the fear that unsuspecting customer has about what may happen if they don’t take their drugs.

That fear, drives most people to the pharmacy with prescriptions ready to be filled. It acts as a catalyst to drive revenue for these drug companies.

Selenium’s strong antioxidant properties may help reverse damage that HIV does to the immune system.

While more research is still needed to conclude the overall impact selenium has on people with the HIV virus, this type of exposure definately helps educate people who think prescription medication is their only hope for help.

It seems like lately everyone wants jump on the “organic” bandwagon but few actually have the right to claim the title.

An investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is moving forward with regard to suspicions that retail giant Wal-Mart has mislabeling certain products as “organic” and in turn misleading consumers.

“We are beginning an investigation that will look into signage and whether it can be considered misleading,” said Jim Rabbitt, director of the department’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The primary focus of the investigation is to determine whether allegations put forth by the watchdog group The Cornucopia Institute including signs and banners that read “Wal-Mart Organics” being placed on or above shelves containing items that are not certified organic.

In March 2006, an announcement from Wal-Mart stated the selection of organic products in its stores would be doubled.  Following the announcement was an ad campaign in parenting and women’s magazines as well as on television. The company stated that one of it’s goals was to make organics more affordable to general consumers.

Typically in supermarkets, organic food costs 30 to 40 percent more in price than for food grown using chemicals and genetic engineering. The result has been a 15% annual growth in the organic industry over the last five years.

According to the Cornucopia Institute, they initially took notice to labeling problems at Wal-Mart’s prototype store in Plano, Texas. Further investigation revealed the same problems in at least four states including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Cornucopia Institute filed complaints with both the state of Wisconsin as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA has not yet decided whether to investigate.

Joan Schaffer, spokesperson for the agency’s national organic program says “We’re seeking more information to determine what action should be taken.”

Randy Lee, chief financial officer of grocery co-op PCC Natural Markets, had this to say about the USDA’s lack of action regarding Wal-Mart’s practices and the USDA’s lack of action.

“A huge amount of work went into coming up with a standard of quality in the organic industry,” he said. “If these allegations are true, then it very easily erodes those standards and comes with a significant business impact on other retailers that have higher standards.”

“Where is the USDA in all this?” he asked.

Folks, I ask the same thing. It seems rather ironic that government agencies scrutinize every move that certain natural supplement manufacturers make, yet anytime Big Pharma or any powerful company deceives the public, they are nowhere to be found.

The decision of falsely labeling products “organic” in an effort to increase revenue that has become the “organic bandwagon” is pretty disturbing in my opinion.

Hopefully someday, the government will take more action on matters such as this and protect the “healthy” consumer’s interest.

Last week, an announcement from Starbucks Coffee (the world’s largest retailer of specialty coffee) stated the company was switching many of its stores in western states and New England to milk which does not include the controversial artificial hormone rBGH.  This is a move experts say will further harm Monsanto’s declining sales of the hormone.

On Jan. 17, Starbucks stated that 37 percent of its dairy products will be free of rBGH in a number of stores in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, Northern California and New England.

Created by Monsanto and sold as Posilac, rBGH is an artificial hormone which is administered to an estimated one-third of the 9 million dairy cows in America to increase the production of milk and boost farmers’ per-cow revenues. However, since the FDA approved it in 1993, consumer advocacy groups have opposed rBGH claiming the full effects it has on humans remains unknown. Aside from that, it can boost the risk of developing cancer.

In the later part of 2006, Montesano became aware that lower profits could result from increasing consumer demand for milk free of hormones.  In November, the company issued a warning to investors: “We believe some processor requests for ‘r-BST-free’ milk, coupled with rising feed costs, could limit our future sales.”

For companies that produce organic dairy products, such as Dean Foods’ “Horizon” brand organic milk, higher profits may result because of higher demand for dairy products free of rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Dean Foods spokesperson Marguerite Copel, thinks Starbucks’ decision to switch to hormone-free milk in many locations could mean big bucks.

Folks, this is one of the reasons why I’m a consumer health advocate. I sincerely feel Starbucks’ decision is a direct result of a movement from people who have become educated about the dangers of food additives and factory farming practices.

This is information that powerful corporations would hope you would never find about. Their efforts to bamboozle the public into feeding themselves poison are becoming halted more and more every day because of the amount of information now available on the Internet.

Safeway also announced earlier this week that its milk suppliers in Washington and Oregon would no longer be using rBGH to increase milk production.

Following the threat of a lawsuit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Cadbury-Schweppes announced it would stop marketing its lemon-lime 7UP soda as “All Natural”. For those of who are not aware, this poison contains high-fructose corn syrup which is manufactured through an industrial chemical process that turns starch molecules into fructose and glucose molecules.
 
According to a CSPI press release, Cadbury-Schweppes has made alternative plans to emphasize the ingredients in 7UP “for which there is no debate” over their “all natural” status. The CSPI said such ingredients will exclude factory-manufactured sweetener high-fructose corn syrup.
 
Cadbury-Schweppes and the CSPI came to an agreement which included Cadbury-Schweppes dropping its “All Natural” claim and in return, the CSPI would no longer move forward with the lawsuit against the company for allegedly making misleading health claims.
 
Steve Gardner, litigation director for CSPI states: “We are pleased that Cadbury-Schweppes has fixed what was a flawed and deceptive marketing campaign and that this issue was resolved without our actually suing,”. “We look forward to seeing exactly which words the company uses to describe its ingredients on labels and on marketing materials, but trust they won’t imply that high-fructose corn syrup is ‘natural,’” he said.
 
Nowadays, it seems as though everyone wants to be healthy. Everyone wants to eat the right stuff. Yet for so many people, this is such a difficult thing. As an alternative, what has happened is manufactures of unhealthy products are labeling their products as all natural or organic when in fact, they couldn’t be further from each.
 
We’re not talking about oatmeal here folks. This is 7UP. It’s soda. Even the people with the most unhealthiest eating habits know this stuff is terrible for you.
 
CSPI also announced the possibility of a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and Nestle over possible deceptive labeling of its Enviga green tea weight-loss beverage. Kellogg and Viacom are on the list as well for allegedly marketing junk food to kids.
 
The Center’s litigation and proactive behavior has apparently lit a fire under the rear ends of some major food and beverage manufacturers including Frito-Lay, Tropicana, Quaker, KFC and Procter & Gamble to cease deceptive labeling campaigns.
 
The time could not have come sooner.

The New England Journal of Medicine published information recently suggesting that two drugs prescribed for Parkinson’s Disease might have much greater risks for damage to heart valves that supposed “experts” previously thought.

Two studies were performed. The first, included researchers from the Instituti Clinici di Perfezionamento in Milan analyzing echocardiogram images from 155 patients who were on a variety of Parkinson’s drugs. They compared these images to a sample of 90 healthy people. Twenty-three percent of patients on the Parkinson’s drug pergolide (also known as Permax) displayed moderate to severe valve problems. The same is true for nearly 29 percent of those taking cabergoline (also known as Dostinex, among other names). None of the patients on other Parkinson’s medications and less than 6 percent of the control group showed heart valve problems.
 
Scientists in Berlin and in Montreal conducted the second study where more than 11,400 medical records of patients with Parkinson’s Disease in the UK were reviewed. Patients on pergolide and cabergline, showed to be between a five-to-seven-times greater risk of leaky valves than in those on other Parkinson’s medications.
 
Dr. Bryan Roth, a pharmacology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was not involved in either study had this to say:

“This is an extraordinarily high risk,” “It’s a bad side effect. As far as I know, there are no medications that can reverse it.”
 
An estimated 1.5 million people in the United States, and about 6 million people all over the world are afflicted with Parkinson’s disease. It is a condition with symptoms that include tremors, loss of muscle control, and even death. Parkinson’s is usually the result of a deficiency of the chemical dopamine in the brain. The drug levodopa, which promotes dopamine production in the brain is the primary treatment for the disease.
 
Pergolide and cabergoline are typically not used as primary treatments for Parkinsons. However, they are often used synergistically with levodopa, or a substitute for levadopa if the disease becomes progressively worse.

Eli Lilly and Co. marketed pergolide for 14 years before they added heart valve damage to the list of potential side effects. By that time, this poison had been prescribed to about half a million people. Lilly says the risks were only significantly increased for five in 100,000 users.
 
So what does that mean? That these five people’s lives are worth nothing?
 
Big Pharma really seems to blow my mind sometimes. First off, they make billions from selling poison to people. Their revenue is fear based. People basically put this stuff in their body because they’re afraid of what may happen if they don’t.
 
That in itself makes me sick to my stomach. But at least in most situations people are aware of the side effects. In essence, they get to pick their own poison, even if it is only out of fear.
 
But when a chemical is on the market for that long with no listing of an extremely serious side effect, that blows my mind.
 
Here’s one more fact I find to be rather interesting. A few years back, the supplements Pondimin and Redux which contained fen-phen were pulled off the market because evidence suggested fen-phen caused heart valve problems. Yet when a paper published by Dr. Bryan Roth warned that pergolide and cabergoline appeared to set off the same heart-related mechanism as fen-phen, nothing was done.

Folks, I urge you to learn about some safe and natural alternatives that can help slow the progression of Parkinson’s Disease.

Very recently, I began taking notice to a number of stories involving doctors being shocked at the results that their patients are achieving by simply changing their diets rather than using prescription medications. I recognized how harmful and sometimes useless prescription med’s can be as well as how effective and safe nature’s remedies can be along time ago.

It seems now however, that I’m noticing the reactions of some medical doctors with regard to their patients improving their health naturally.

This all goes back to my theory on medical doctor’s and prescription medications. Many people think I hate doctors. That’s actually not the case. I happen to think many doctors are genuinely nice people who began studying medicine with the hope of changing and saving lives.

Ignorance however, is something I have little tolerance for, especially when it comes to people’s health.

Back to my point. Medical doctors spend years in school learning about countless areas of science, medicine, the body, sickness, etc. One area of training that is often non-existent in medical school is the healing power of foods, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals. In fact, I’ll venture to say that most doctors have no more nutritional knowledge than the average person who has never studied nutrition.

Here’s a fact you may not know. While there are exceptions in certain schools, in America, Canada, most of Europe and even Australia, virtually no requirement that doctors learn nutrition before they receive medical licenses and begin to practice medicine exists.

Think about this for a second. In most areas of our lives, when we have a problem, we typically try the easiest, safest, least extreme way to fix it. If that doesn’t work, we may try something else until we eventually fix the problem.

Why should the same principles not apply to illness? There are hundred’s of easy, non-extreme ways to cure ailments naturally and safely with no harmful side effects. Yet doctors completely side step all that information and instead utilize methods that are more dangerous and extreme. I find that to be not only flat out crazy but ignorant as well.

Statin drugs, for example. This stuff is poison. Yet most doctors will tell people with high cholesterol that these chemicals are their only hope in lowering cholesterol. What’s worse is in many cases, doctors tell people they need to be on this stuff for the rest of their lives. I beg to differ…Lower cholesterol naturally

Here’s the harsh reality, statin drugs mean Big Money to the Big Pharma and unfortunately, for the monopoly that currently exists between the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA to stay alive, doctors will continue to finish medical school with almost no knowledge about nutritional healing and continue to shove chemicals in people’s bodies. 

The fact is that any disease, condition, ailment or infection that nature created, nature also has a cure for. You just have to open your eyes a little bit. And at certain times (like when your doctor is telling you the only hope for help is drugs) close your ears a little bit.

New Years Day is supposed to be a time of celebration. To celebrate what’s to come, to celebrate what has happened. Well on New Year’s Day 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that two patients suffering from lupus passed away from of a rare brain infection after medical doctors prescribed the Genentech and Biogen drug Rituxan, which was never approved to treat lupus.
 
The FDA posted a notice on it’s website stating Rituxan was approved to treat lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes) and rheumatoid arthritis, but not lupus. In some cases however, medical doctors prescribe the drug to treat lupus. They do this through a practice known as “off-label” prescribing where doctors prescribe a medication (as long as the medicine was approved by the FDA to treat some condition) to treat a condition it was not approved for.
 
This is an issue that I have found to be ludicrous since day one. In a nutshell, as long as the FDA approves a drug, no matter what it’s for, it can be prescribed for anything. So in reality, if he or she really wanted to, a doctor could prescribe anti-depressant medication such as Prozac for a stomach condition. What a joke!

Think about it. You have stomach problems. You’re always running to the bathroom. Perhaps you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. You go to the doctor and he/she prescribes a medication for something completely different, which is “justified” by the fact that the drug is FDA “approved”.
 
Well, here’s a harsh dose of reality. After taking Rituxanm, two patients contracted a rare brain infection known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) and died. Not only is the drug associated with (PML) but it also includes warning information on viral infections. By the way, after taking the drug, cancer patients reported worsening of existing viral infections or reactivation of old infections.
 
Here’s the bottom line folks. The FDA says there is no known treatment for PML, and doctors should discuss the risk of taking Rituxan with patients. They claim to be working to gather more information about Rituxan and PML and to strengthen the warnings about PML in the Rituxan product label. But the fact is, they should just simply not allow anyone to prescribe it, period.
 
The whole thing is a joke which just yet again corresponds to the fact that an alliance between the FDA and the Big Pharmaceutical companies exists.
 
While in the mind of the unaware public, the FDA “watches over and regulates” the prescription drug market, in reality, anything goes. Unfortunately this time, the proof lies within the death of two human beings.