Best Workouts, Low-Fat Myth Busted, Roundup Found in Everything, Needless Chemo

Fall Reminder

It is that time of year when it is not possible to get the required amount of vitamin D from sun exposure as the sun is now too low in the sky to trigger vitamin D creation in your skin. Everyone living in the northwest especially should be taking a vitamin D3 supplement. Natural doctors recommend a dosage of 2,000 to 8,000 IU per day. I take 5,000 IU per day and more if I feel like I am fighting off a cold.

To Live Longer, Make Your Workout a Playdate. Study Finds Tennis Adds Almost 10 years To Your Life

By Jamie Ducharme

Experts like to say the best form of exercise is whatever kind you’ll actually do. But that may not always be the case; new research finds that people who combine exercise with their social lives may be at an advantage over solitary exercisers.

The social interaction involved in partner and team sports may compound the plentiful benefits of physical activity, adding more years to your life than solo exercise, according to a study published Sept. 4 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Tennis, badminton and soccer are all better for longevity than cycling, swimming, jogging or gym exercise, according to the research.

“For both mental and physical well-being and longevity, we’re understanding that our social connections are probably the single most important feature of living a long, healthy, happy life:”  says study co-author Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “If you’re interested in exercising for health and longevity and well-being, perhaps the most important feature of your exercise regimen is that it should involve a playdate.”

The study was based on data from about 8,000 adults who were part of the Copenhagen Heart Study. They completed a comprehensive health and lifestyle questionnaire, which included questions about type and frequency of physical activity, and were monitored by the researchers for around 25 years, a period during which about 4,500 of the subjects died.

Tennis came out on top in the research. Compared with sedentary people, those who reported playing tennis as their main form of exercise could expect to add 9.7 years to their life span, followed by badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years), jogging (3.2 years), calisthenics (3.1 years) and health-club activities (1.5 years).

It's about time to do away with that low-fat dietary myth once and for all. 

For decades we've been told that whole-fat dairy products will make us fat and clog our arteries. And how did the so-called experts come up with that notion? 

No one is quite sure. It's just one of those things that showed up on the doorstep one day and everyone assumed it was based in fact. But the real facts are that low-fat dairy products won't do a thing to keep you healthy. Actually, it's just the opposite. 

And now, a new study has discovered what could be the biggest reason of all why you'll want to pour that skim milk down the drain.

If you're one of those mavericks who buys full-fat yogurt and orders a whole-milk latté at Starbucks, keep up the good work! 

Not only are you going against the tide of "expert" opinion -- but you may very well be doing something that will help keep you from developing diabetes. 

That's right, diabetes. And not by some little, insignificant amount, either. 

Just-published research in the journal Circulation found that in over 3,300 people who had been studied for over 15 years, those who consumed full-fat dairy products were a whopping 46 percent less likely to develop diabetes. 

That's close to slashing your diabetes risk in half just by ditching tasteless skim milk, fake cheese and those hideous pretend coffee creamers -- and replacing them with the real deal. 

The lead researcher, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy, says that, at this point, the science is clear -- it's time to stop recommending low-fat dairy products.

And that's something I've been saying for years. But unfortunately, I don't think Dr. Mozaffarian knows what he's up against. 

The low-fat mantra is one of the most sacred cows out there, as far as the mainstream and our government are concerned. Why, even the USDA-run school lunch program forbids whole milk to be served to school children! 

That's how crazy this has become. 

And groups like the USDA, CDC and American Heart Association are in no hurry to admit they've been wrong for decades. 

Of course, there's nothing keeping us from breaking free from the chains of these flavorless and unhealthy products. Especially when you hear the other low fat myths busted in Dr. Mozaffarian's research and other recent studies: 

Myth #1: Whole milk and other full-fat dairy products will make you fat. BUSTED! Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard found that those who shunned skim and other low-fat dairy products not only weighed less, but had an overall lower risk of becoming obese. 

Myth #2: Low-fat dairy products are healthier. BUSTED! As the Circulation study researchers commented, there's an "absence of any evidence for the superior effects of low fat dairy." In other words, that low-fat mantra was pulled straight out of the air and into public health policy.

Myth #3: Full-fat dairy products cause heart disease. BUSTED! A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine discovered that a dairy fat (found in good amounts in butter!) called margaric acid, "significantly reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease." 

So how do these full-fat products help our hearts and reduce our diabetes risk? It could be as simple as the fact that people who consume enough fat don't crave as much sugar or carbs. 

At any rate, the evidence is in (once again), and the facts are clear. And it's time to put all this nonsense about the health benefits of low-fat dairy out to pasture for good. 

Pesticides on Food

California growers apply 300 pounds of pesticides to each acre of conventional strawberries. Testing shows that up to 17 different pesticides can be found on a single strawberry sample. So what can you do to minimize your exposure to harmful pesticides? Eat organic as much as possible.

But if that isn’t possible, here is a list of the cleanest 15 fruits and vegetables that you can use as a guide when shopping.

1.     Avocados

2.     Corn

3.     Pineapples

4.     Cabbage

5.     Sweet Peas

6.     Onions

7.     Asparagus

8.     Mangoes

9.     Papayas

10. Kiwi

11. Eggplant

12. Honeydew

13. Grapefruit

14. Cantaloupe

15. Cauliflower

And here are the 12 worst fruits and vegetables where organic is the best choice

1.  Strawberries
2. Apples
3. Nectarines
4. Peaches
5. Celery
6. Grapes
7. Cherries
8. Spinach
9. Tomatoes
10. Bell Peppers
11. Cherry Tomatoes
12. Cucumbers

I know that organic foods can be expensive or difficult to find sometimes. If you live near a Trader Joes they have very affordable pricing for organic fruits and vegetables. At the very least try to buy organic for the worst foods on the list and do yourself and your family’s health a favor.

Needless Chemo Treatment

By Jenny Thompson at Health Science Institute

If you or someone you love has received chemotherapy for breast cancer, you know what a miserable experience it is. 

You may have spent months too tired to move off the couch, doubled over the toilet, or watching your hair fall out in clumps. And you were promised all along that the chemo was saving your life. 

Now imagine finding that you never needed to have those toxic drugs pumped into your body at all. 

Believe it or not, that's the exact situation that countless women are in right now. A frightening new study has found that half of chemo treatments for breast cancer are totally unnecessary. 

Chemo drugs are being handed out based on little more than guesswork-- and it's all because the mainstream is turning its back on a simple test that could help you avoid needless misery. 

You know by now that I'm no fan of chemotherapy. Aside from all of the sickening side effects, we know that chemo can trigger aggressive secondary cancers down the road because it does not kill the cancer stem cells. 

So it's an outrage that we'd ever expose anyone to chemo who couldn't possibly benefit. But it's happening all the time -- especially to women with breast cancer.

You see, the mainstream likes to pair breast cancer surgery (which is also often unnecessary) with chemo, supposedly to keep the cancer from coming back. 

But for nearly a decade now, a genetic test called MammaPrint has been available that can tell patients with breast cancer the chances of that cancer returning and whether there's any benefit to chemo. 

You'd think no woman would ever be asked to endure chemo without getting a test like this first. But many docs aren't using it -- and that's needlessly putting countless women right in harm's way. 

A major, nine-year study using the MammaPrint test has just been wrapped up, and it involved nearly 7,000 women with breast cancer from all over the world. 

And it found that nearly half of those women never needed chemo at all. These poor women went through untold amounts of suffering for absolutely no benefit. 

That's not just wrong -- it's practically criminal. 

In fact, the outcomes were so similar (a 95 percent survival rate) between the chemo group, and the ones who didn't undergo chemo based on the genetic test, one expert said they were practically identical. 

But instead of using tests like MammaPrint, lots of docs just look at cancer cells under a microscope and basically guess how aggressive a tumor might be. 

That's a little like telling the weather by licking your finger and sticking it in the air. 

And if there's one place where we shouldn't be doing any guesswork, it's in cancer care -- especially when we're asking women to submit to treatments that can wreck their quality of life. 

Dr. Martine Piccart, lead investigator in this study, said that it's clear that many women who get chemo don't need the treatment, yet suffer all the side effects with no benefits. 

And it's important to make sure you're not one of them. 

Now, there are some doctors (but not enough) using genetic tests like MammaPrint or another called Blueprint. And it's worth finding out if your doc is one of them. 

And it's always a good idea to get a second or third opinion before you agree to any cancer treatment, and to make sure you research your alternatives. 

Because fighting cancer is tough enough -- and the last thing you need is to find out you got some sickening and dangerous treatment you never needed in the first place. 

Testing Shows Roundup Is Now In Everything

The Monsanto name may soon disappear... but its toxic legacy keeps marching on.

The latest place the company's cancer-causing weed killer Roundup has turned up is in breakfast cereals and other products made from what should be "healthy" oats -- the kind your kids and grandkids eat all the time -- made by big names such as Quaker, General Mills, and Kellogg's.

Last month, I told you how the German drug giant Bayer, which just purchased Monsanto, made it clear that it was going to be ditching the tainted "M" moniker and absorb the soon-to-be nameless corporation into Bayer -- "advancing together as one."

Well, Bayer can engage in any corporate shenanigans its lawyers say to, but it won't change the fact that Monsanto and its "too-big-to-ban" chemical glyphosate (Roundup's active ingredient) has contaminated large amounts of the food we eat. And deep-sixing the Monsanto name won't solve the problem.

Monsanto may soon vanish, but the only way to make glyphosate do the same in your home is to take matters into your own hands.

When the Environmental Working Group's Children's Health Initiative recently looked at a selection of bestselling foods made from oats, what it found was shocking.

Out of 45 items sampled, glyphosate was found in all but two of the products made with conventionally grown oats. And almost three-quarters of those samples had levels of the chemical that exceeded what EWG scientists consider safe for kids.

Some of the cereals that turned up especially high residues included Back to Nature Classic Granola, Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oats Cereal, and Quaker Dinosaur Eggs instant oatmeal.

It's practically unbelievable that this pernicious poison has been allowed to be used so extensively that it's now turning up everywhere. Back in April, the EWG learned from internal emails that the FDA has been testing different foods for glyphosate for two years now... but has yet to release any information except to say it's found "a fair amount."

That really tells us a lot, right?

Remember, Roundup's rap sheet is already long enough for it to have been locked up ages ago. For example: Four years ago, researchers found that it interferes with the bacteria in the GI tract, which in turn depletes essential amino acids.

Studies have linked it to kidney and liver damage. It's considered to be a contributing factor in obesity, depression, autism, inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease.

Three years ago, it was said to be a "probable human carcinogen" by the World Health Organization. And that cancer finding has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to a California jury in the case of Dewayne Johnson.

I recently told you about Johnson, a 46-year-old father of three who sprayed plenty of Roundup while working as a groundskeeper for a school district in California.

He developed terminal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that he believed was directly caused by his exposure to Roundup, and a jury agreed, awarding him $289 million in damages.

But don't think that this was some little matter that a crazy jury had a knee-jerk reaction to. The extensive evidence put forth in this trial, which a stable of Monsanto lawyers attempted to block at every turn, was pure and simple science.

And I'm sure that executives from Quaker and General Mills and every other company that manufactures food products -- especially ones for kids -- where glyphosate was recently found are having emergency meetings around the clock right now.

Johnson's case, however, is far from the only one out there. Currently, there are over 700 plaintiffs -- people who worked as farmers, gardeners, and landscapers -- who are also in the same boat.

They used Roundup without a second thought... and now they have cancer.

The fact that so many products made from oats turned up with this toxin is particularly shocking, since Roundup was initially only intended to be used on crops grown from genetically modified seeds (with corn, soy, canola, and sugar beets being the top GMO crops).

But it turns out that it's often applied to non-GMO commodities, such as wheat and oats, as a drying agent prior to harvest.

That's the bad news. The good news is that more than two-thirds of the 16 organic oat-based products tested contained no detectable traces of glyphosate -- and the rest had amounts well below that EWG safety margin.

These results are perhaps the best evidence yet that buying organic products is an effective way of avoiding glyphosate -- as well as other toxic chemicals -- in your food.

And if you purchase any conventional, non-organic products that contain corn, soy, canola and sugar, make sure that they're certified as being GMO-free.

We can't turn back the clock to the time before Roundup came on the scene, but we can do everything in our power to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from this poison that Monsanto unleashed on the world.

Until next time, stay healthy and happy

JD Roma

The information on this blog is provided for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical care, and medical advice and services are not being offered. If you have, or suspect you have, a health problem you should consult your physician (preferably a Naturopath).