What’s next in Europe – Patents for Vegetables?

Apr16
Monsanto

Monsanto (Photo credit: arbyreed)

Would you prefer fresh food or engineered food from a factory? You may have already come across these news, but I wanted to share it anyway.

According to an Avaaz http://www.avaaz.org

Monsanto has found a loop-hole in European law and want to apply for patents for vegetable seeds. Once I collected my bottom jaw from the floor, I read the full story on the Avaaz website.

Here is a small excerpt

“It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These
profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive
control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re
trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits
like cucumber, broccoli and melons, virtually forcing growers to pay
them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t.”

The main reason it troubles me to think that this could be true is, that not only are they tampering with what mother nature has provided, now they want to own it as well. This surely can not bode well for a healthy diet, let alone an organic diet.

Please take the time to read the full story here http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?bnTJebb&v=23932

and don’t forget to sign the petition should you feel strongly enough about wanting to stop big companies taking over our food from seed stage.

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In case you want to be a writer

Apr13

Reblogged from Lantern Post:

Click to visit the original post

If this indeed is your (or mine) sorry state of affairs, there is no better, more true advice but the one Charles Bukowski has given us ... and every day I hope to remember it:

so you want to be a writer?       

by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you

in spite of everything,

don't do it.

Read more… 309 more words

This I think is great advice if you are one of those writers who just can not sit still when the weather is warm or rainy and you just have to be out in it rather than sitting on your bum :)

Nutritional Medicine in Europe – soon too be an endangered species?

Apr10
Dietary supplements

Dietary supplements (Photo credit: Andrei Z)

This   article may be reprinted free of charge provided 1) that there is clear   attribution to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, and 2) that both the   OMNS free subscription link http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and also the OMNS   archive link http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml are   included.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine   News Service, April 6, 2013

Clamping Down on   Nutritional Information
In Europe, You’d Better Watch What You Say about Supplements

Commentary by   Gert Schuitemaker, PhD (Netherlands) and Andrew W. Saul (USA)

(OMNS   Apr 6, 2013) The government of the Netherlands, one of 27 European Union   countries, continues to clamp down on alternative medicine. The Netherlands   Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA, http://www.vwa.nl/english) has the tools in place to   restrict communication of information about the beneficial effects of food   and nutrients to promote health and effectively curb disease. And, most   importantly, this bureaucracy makes all decisions as to how strict the rules   are applied.

Netherlands   law is backed up and strictly enforced by new EU rules based on very rigid   codes regarding health claims for foods and dietary supplements. The power is   held by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). These regulations are now in force in   every European Union country.

The Noose   Tightens

When   we go back in history, we see that already in 1958 the Dutch Medicine Laws   defined all substances in nature as medicines, if they were in any way   presented as suitable for curing or preventing a disease. So once a common beet, or vitamin C,   was associated with a preventive medicinal effect, it legally became a drug.   This was the start of censorship and control, and has been buttressed by   subsequent European regulations. Slowly but relentlessly, since 1958, all   substances in nature are being brought into the realm of medical care.

Since   December 14, 2012, the date the new EU rules came into force, the stage is   set for stepped-up enforcement of the law. This serves the   pharmaceutical-dominated belief system of the controlling officials that   “medical claims” (like how vitamin C helps against colds) are illegal.   Now huge fines up to $30,000 may be imposed. Doctors, therapists and other   clinicians are at risk . . . even journalists and publishers. We think you’d   better know what’s going on and learn from people who were unlucky. Perhaps   “unlucky” is not the precise word. “Victimized” might be   more accurate.

Government   power grabs are a serious matter and fit into a long historical trend. Most   governments for years have evidenced no sympathy for complementary medicine.   Take, for example, the recent July 2012 action against homeopathy in the   Netherlands. It is now forbidden by law for homeopathic products to mention   any use of the product on the label or in flyers.

Paying More, and   Paying with Human Lives

In   the Netherlands, there has been an increase of the tax rate on complementary   treatments. At the same time, every citizen is obliged to pay collectively   for a medical system where all alternatives are slowly but effectively being   eliminated. But hazard-ridden mainstream services are defended politically,   financially and economically. Pharmaceutical abuses are   “downgraded” to mere incidents. In the Netherlands alone, with 16   million citizens and not a particularly large nation, nearly 2000 deaths   every year are due to avoidable medical mistakes. Between 30,000 and 40,000   patients are unnecessarily harmed, every year. Were we to be able to count   the errors that do not come out, that number would be vastly higher. And that   is just in one EU country.

Confidence Game

The   medical care system is founded on the confidence of the citizens, who   increasingly tolerate higher and higher costs. Seemingly nothing is permitted   to undermine the system. A comparison with the financial system is obvious:   the international economy, the banks as central players, is built on   confidence. As soon as the confidence disappears, the system will be ruined.   Complementary medicine is an irritant to the official medical care system. It   is a source of continuous criticism. Moreover, alternative health   practitioners often have the safest and most effective therapies to offer   their patients, especially to the growing number of chronically ill. The   regular entrenched interests are fundamentally affected, and laws are made to   protect those in power. Censoring reasonable health claims for supplements   bolsters the medical-pharmaceutical industry.

Slowly   the government has scaled up restrictive measures. Slowly, dissenting   physicians have been gagged. This process goes on over decades. The gagging   takes place such that it is just bearable. Avoiding sudden moves, no healthcare   rebellion breaks out. It would appear that conventional medical authority in   science, media and politics cannot tolerate being challenged. But losing   information access, and losing choice of treatment, are not just marginal   phenomena. Just because freedoms have been lost inconspicuously doesn’t make   the loss any less serious.

It Can Happen   Here

Just   because you live outside the European Union does not mean you are going to   keep your access to dietary supplements. If they can restrict access to fair   information, they can and will restrict access to the supplements themselves.   European legislation is a ready blueprint for legislation in other countries,   including the United States. We urge OMNS readers to protest, in their own   nation, any and all laws that restrict information access, supplement   availability, and treatment options.

Take Action

Online   newsletters and updates from the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH, http://anh-europe.org/), the National Health Federation   (NHF, http://www.thenhf.com/), and other valuable activist   organizations provide background information and opportunities for you to make   a difference. Going through PubMed/MEDLINE week by week, you (and your   doctor) can see that many new studies show the validity of orthomolecular   (nutritional) medicine.

Even   with the restrictions encouraged by the pharmaceutical industry onto   government, more and more people are realizing the importance of readily   available, unbiased information about essential nutrients and how they can   prevent and reverse disease. Restrictions haven’t stamped out people’s desire   for unhampered access to supplements. But take a lesson from the European   Union countries: it is easier to act now and defend your freedoms than it is   to lose them and have to fight to win them back.

 

References:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32002L0046:EN:NOT   [EU-level legislation started in 2002 with this directive (law). There is a   permitted list of nutrients, and by their absence, other nutrients are   excluded.]

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:404:0009:0025:EN:PDF   [link to EU regulation 12-30-2006, the basis for general claims regulation]

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:136:0001:0040:EN:PDF   [link to EU regulation 5-16-12 with the 222 authorized claims]

Up-to-date   register of permitted health claims: http://ec.europa.eu/nuhclaims/

 

Nutritional   Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular   medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more   information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

 

Find a Doctor

To   locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

 

The   peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and   non-commercial informational resource.

This article is too important and had to be reproduced on this site, as a call to action. Please contact te relevant organistions in your country to help prevent resricted access to natural supplements.
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Consumerism – nothing much in big boxes.

Apr3
Ethical consumerism isn't cheap!

Ethical consumerism isn’t cheap! (Photo credit: Tom Raftery)

Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts.(Wikipedia)

As you might all remember, I have spent nearly all of last month in the Snowy Mountains – mostly famous because of the poem about ‘The man from Snowy River’ by Banjo Paterson.

What this time away really brought home in my contemplations is Consumerism. As we all know, experiences bring about change and understanding grows. This in turn hopefully leads to a change in behaviour. Sometimes even a tourist tailored holiday might do this, but all too often the impressions are drowned out by the five stars. All in all, these types of holidays often are driven by consumerism also, buy buy buy…

Once we are back home, we get sucked back into the humdrum of life and not much sticks with us and even the memory of places fades just like photos used to. Hence my delay in returning to the humdrum so I can actually digest what happened.

It is the kind of time away, when you have the chance to live in the land or area you are visiting, that makes experiences go much deeper.

Consumerism and my dislike for it has become an even bigger topic for me since I left for the Snowys then it was before. It is very much tied in with my strong believe that nature is a great healer, especially when it comes to mental health and that we need to look after nature a lot better than we are doing now.

While hiking up to the top of a hill and becoming absorbed into the scenery, I thought, that what we are doing to nature really makes as much sense as for a baby to try kill its own mother, whilst still in the womb.

Anyway, back to the topic – consumerism. Food obviously becomes an issue, when you live a minimum of two hours away from any kind of shop and the house you are going to live in has no edible garden. So off we went to the supermarket to buy provisions for two for three weeks. This was when it all started, all those little bits of food in plastic bags and cardboard boxes, or worse both. I started fretting about what to do with all the rubbish once we have eaten the food. Outside the major city centres recycling has not been introduced. Recyclables and un-recyclables are all dumped in a hole dug in a paddock somewhere. Cringe ! Well, I could go into driving to a recycling station four or five hours away weekly, but then there is the petrol – best not get too complicated in my thinking :) . We found a better solution anyway.

Why, I ask you do we need all this blasted packaging in the first place? Often, even in the past, I thought gosh I’d love a supermarket where you can take your pantry containers with you and fill them up. Does rice really taste better or is it of a better quality when it comes in a fancy coloured bag or box? Even mushrooms have to be prepacked in plastic despite existing knowledge that mushrooms don’t like to be stored in plastic!

Packaging is only a part of consumerism, but most disturbing, as it creates such a pain for nature. Quite frankly, it drives me crazy.

Crazy enough to really start hunting down a supplier who will sell you more than a handful of anything in a box big enough to live in. Oh, and make my own where I can. Even though I never enjoyed cooking and preserving etc. at all, but there comes the time when you really have to walk the talk, or be the change you want to see.

Does anyone have any contacts where food can be bought without all the showy rubbish? Please share them here.

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Nutritional Update

Feb28
Health

Health (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

I will be travelling for the next 3 weeks and unable to post regular updates and really want to leave you with some very worthwhile information to tap into :)

 

The health Delusion – Free Webinar

 

Nutrition scientists Glen Matten and Aidan Goggins are the authors of the award-winning book The Health Delusion, which won the 2013 Medical Journalists’ Association award for best consumer health book. It is essential reading for anyone wishing to untangle the complex and confusing web of mixed nutrition and public health messages and recommendations constantly emerging from both government and media. It’s also a very readable and handy guide, with tips on what we should really be doing to achieve and maintain optimum health in the 21st century.

Their book is the inspiration for our next webinar. We are delighted that both authors will be present at the webinar, discussing with our nutrition scientist Sophie Tully the latest findings on what is required to stay healthy and diminish the risk of chronic disease in the modern world. Aidan and Glen will touch on a broad range of topics, from antioxidants to exercise, fad diets to foetal development, veganism to dairy and meat, and fat to prescription drugs. They also discuss the tools we need to understand, interpret and use evidence-based science to optimise health. This webinar is FREE for anyone wishing to know what ‘health’ really means, whether you are a health-conscious consumer, a practitioner wishing to revise or expand your knowledge, or you are just plain interested.

FREE webinar: The Health Delusion – 12th March 2013 6.00pm – 7.00pm BST

Key topics:

  • Discover the latest findings on      what is required to stay healthy in the modern world
  • Find out how to reduce the risk      of chronic disease in the 21st century
  • Learn about maintaining optimal      health at every stage of life through diet, the correct supplements, and      much needed lifestyle changes
  • Put forward your questions      during the Q&A session at the end

How to sign up

To register interest to attend, log on to our Webinars page and select ‘The Health Delusion’ or call 01223 421434 for further information.
We will send you an event invitation and instructions on how to join the presenters on the day with a unique webinar link.

Wishing you good health,
The Igennus Team

and

The Better Man Project: The Book Has Arrived

The book is out! Click the following link to find it on Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B89PDJU (Can also be found on iTunes and Kobo)

Salvestrols – a bitter pill to swallow?

Feb27
English: Nutrigenomics: bring disease, cancer,...

English: Nutrigenomics: bring disease, cancer, diet and genetics together (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   Remember being told that anything that tastes bad is good for you; the truth is a bitter pill to swallow and so on? That may have been correct before we learned about Salvestrols. Now we know that even the sweet things in life can be good for you.

But before we talk about Salvestrols, let’s talk about why fruit and vegetables may be just the thing to beat one of the biggest adversaries of modern life.

Cancer is a word that has the power to scare most of us. Despite reported advances in cancer research it still stands synonymous to ‘death sentence’ in most people’s vocabulary. Screening is the tool of choice for earliest possible detection and the most advertised method of prevention. But is there anything else you can do, real prevention?

There certainly are many ways to help prevent the risk of developing cancer and at the same time make you feel good all round. Stop stressing, stop smoking, stop drinking, exercise more, minimise the use of contact with environmental poisons and of course eat a healthy diet. Not just any healthy diet, let’s make that an organic diet.

Fresh fruit and vegetables

And that’s where we return to Salvestrols. Here is the story in a nutshell.

The term Salvestrols comes from the Latin word salve (to save) and is used as a family name for a bunch of phyto chemicals (natural chemicals found in plants), which form part of their immune system.  Resveratrol is probably the most widely known, it is produced as a defence mechanism in red grape skins. But there are others in the Salvestrol family.

Salvestrols become active in the body once they are metabolised by cells which carry the enzyme marker CYP1B1. Once Salvestrols are metabolized by these cells, the cells die. Healthy cells do not carry this marker. The punch line is that all cancer cells in humans carry CYP1B1, no matter what type of cancer may develop from them.

 Salvestrols are found in fruits, vegetables and herbs – there is however a ‘but’ to this story. Scientists found through stringent and time-consuming testing, that the western diet is significantly low in Salvestrols.

 

John Deere 4730 Self-Propelled Sprayer

John Deere 4730 Self-Propelled Sprayer (Photo credit: basicbill)

 

 Why? Modern farming (use of fungicides for one) and food processing techniques destroy the naturally occurring Salvestrol content in food. That is why an organic diet is so important. Organically grown foods rely on their Salvestrols, as part of their immune system, to defend themselves against threats, such as fungi.

Here we were thinking that eating organic is only for the taste buds and richer in vitamins and minerals. Thanks to the dedicated work of Prof. Gerry Potter and Professor Dan Burke over the last 20 years we are now aware of an even better reason.

Many of the foods containing Salvestrols are bitter, but there are plenty of sweet things on the list as well.

Don’t forget to put plenty of the following in your organic shopping bag

Berry Harvest from Parents' Garden

Berry Harvest from Parents’ Garden (Photo credit: VancityAllie)

 

Red fruits and all berries – strawberries, raspberries, grapes, cranberries, red currants, plums, as well as black currants, blueberries, blackberries, apples, pears and pineapples.

All green vegetables, particularly the cabbage species and broccoli, don’t forget Kales, Peas and Beans.

 Then grab some artichokes, red and yellow capsicum, avocado, watercress, asparagus.

 If you still have room, go for bean sprouts, celery, salad rocket, pumpkins, squashes, gourds, marrows, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, gherkins.    
Season with, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, lemon verbena, redbush, skullcap, dandelion, plantain and basil.

To keep the Salvestrol content high, please don’t boil your treasures in water.

If you are interested in reading case histories from patients diagnosed with cancer, please go to

http://www.beating-cancer-gently.com/support-files/salvestrolcasestudies2.pdf

 Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol 25, No. 1, 2010 (with authors Brian A. Schaefer, D.Phil.,Catherine Dooner, B.A, M. Danny Burke, Ph.D, Gerard A. Potter, Ph.D)

Or a more detailed and technical article on Salvestrols and CYP1B1, please go to

http://www.hans.org/magazine/173/Salvestrols-A-Natural-Defence-Against.html

to read the article by Professor Dan Burke, PhD.