Organic food has no health benefits - or does it?

Organic food has no health benefits, says a new study.

So went the headlines a year ago!
 
But it just goes to show that you should always be wary of headlines - and the first few paragraphs of any report!!

The study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency only looked at levels of nutrition.

It did not consider the pesticide and herbicide residues in food produced by conventional farming methods.  Nor the impact of pesticides on our water supplies and the wholesale use of antibiotics on animals.  

So a report claiming 'no health benefits' is startlingly misleading. 

In fact, the report DID find differences in nutritional levels - they simply chose to present them as 'minimal and therefore inconsequential'.  Lies, damn lies and statistics!!  Put all the pieces together and it all adds up to quite a different picture.

The Food Standards Agency said that it was neither pro nor anti-organic food and recognised that there were many other reasons why people chose to eat organic — such as concern for the environment and wildlife, higher animal welfare standards and stricter rules on use of antibiotic medicines in animals and pesticides on crops as well as taste.

Organic farming is far more than counting vitamins and minerals.  I'm looking forward to the new report, five years in the making, funded by the European Commission and due out this year, which is expected to prove the opposite of last year's headlines!



Books to read (Amazon USA links)

Related articles

• Study: Organic Not More Nutritious. So What!
• Gain a Better Understanding of Organic Foods

Skincare ingredients to avoid

Neals Yard Remedies and NYR Organic believe in saying NO to customers being contaminated by chemicals 

Health is the most important thing to us. When formulating and making our products, we follow the precautionary principle – which means not using anything we believe could cause you, or the planet harm.
 

NO ANIMAL TESTING - unnecessary and cruel
NO GMO INGREDIENTS - not enough is known about the long-term implications
NO PARABENS - linked to oestrogen overproduction
NO NANO PARTICLES - not enough is known about their long-term implications
NO SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCES - often associated with allergic reactions
NO SYNTHETIC COLOURS - often associated with allergic reactions
NO SILICONES - coat the skin, impeding its natural function
NO MINERAL OILS - derived from petroleum, have a tendency to block the skin
NO PHTHALATES - reported to have toxic impact on human and animal life
NO EDTA - doesn't readily biodegrade
NO PROPYLENE GLYCOL - derived from petroleum
NO CARBOMER - derived from petroleum
NO DEA - associated with known carcinogens 

You can buy skincare products from NYR Organic in my online shop.

They contain only wild natural organic and fair-traded ingredients and I trust them.

See you there!! :-)

Books to read (US Amazon links)

• How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace
• What's In This Stuff?: The Hidden Toxins in Everyday Products - and What You Can Do About Them

Related articles

• Seven Skin Care Ingredients To Avoid
• The Hidden Dangers of Fragrance
• Truth + Beauty = Modern Minerals

Reducing toxins - new legislation?

Astonishingly, the toxics reform bill, H.R. 5820, the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act, has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.   

So toxics reform is now moving through both houses of Congress (see my earlier posting about Safety in Cosmetics).

The US default position tends to be that ingredients are OK unless proven dangerous.  That's not so smart.  The US allows whole industries to self-regulate.  The UK's position tends to be the reverse (prompted by regulations imposed by the European Parliamen) which means that centuries-old herbal remedies are in danger because they aren't 'scientifically' proven.  Neither 'one size fits all' is workable.

Fewer toxins - AND fewer natural remedies?

Life is getting complicated for the alternative practitioner. And customer choice is narrowing.

Reflect, relax, restore

Unhook daily. Most of us spend so much time on the input-output cycle, we don’t give adequate time to simply absorbing it all says Mark of Mark's Daily Apple fame. 
 
“Think positive” is nice advice, but it’s tough to do if you are at your limit. It’s easier to find an action that naturally lends itself to positive thinking and feeling, rather than trying to control your thoughts. That in and of itself can become stressful.  Fuming not recommended.

Find an immersing action that works for you and do it religiously. Prayer, meditation, singing, cooking and other activities that get you out of your head and into the moment are vital to helping you manage the stress of constant stimuli and energy demands. 

Reflect on what you are grateful for - and find 'what's perfect in this'...

Find out more about stress, cortisol and the adrenals here  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cortisol/ where flight or fight meets the modern world.

We believe in saying 'No'

Join the Campaign

Say NO to being contaminated without consent.

Which foods have the most pesticides?

If you want to make a small but significant change in your shopping habits, keep this neat little guide to the fruit and vegetables retaining the most pesticide residues in your purse. I do! Or download the iPhone App

Mini guide

Instant calm

Here is a wonderful little relaxing video - brilliant for those of you with smartphones as you can watch it any time you are on the road or in a queue and de-
stress in an instant.

As the website says, you can turn your mobile phone into an oasis of relaxation and tranquility. Gentle flowing water accompanied with the ambience of the forest and Reiki inspired music will calm your mind and invigorate your soul.

Find it at Oxygenate

It's playing for me right now on my desktop. Two Euros well spent.

Let's not be complacent

The official UK take on pesticides and food at the government's Eat Well website

How toxic are you?

Check out the Channel 4 microsite on Toxic Chemicals

Start the healing with writing

Celebrating Diana Raab's new book

Safety in Cosmetics Act 2010 (USA)

Today's good news!!

But will it pass through Congress?

www.safecosmetics.org  

It updates the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938 – which cedes decisions about ingredient safety to the cosmetics industry.

The link between toxins and breast cancer

The UK's No More Breast Cancer campaign wants the link between breast cancer and everyday exposure to toxic chemicals taken seriously. The US has its 1930s legislation under review - it's time we did the same.

Breast cancer cases have hit a new record yet fewer than 50% of cases are attributed to acknowledged ‘risk’ factors – age, obesity, late-age pregnancy, late onset menopause.

The Campaign argues that lifelong, low-level exposure to the cocktail of hundreds of toxics and hormone-disruptors in our everyday lives – from pesticide residues in food to chemicals in consumer products and in the workplace – is linked to ever-rising rates of the disease.

As part of this, they want the British government to mark a new approach by ensuring the substitution of all carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting chemicals with safer alternatives, as soon as they are available.

In the environment

100,000 man-made chemicals are polluting our environment.

500 man-made chemicals are thought to disrupt the hormones in our body and mimic the role of oestrogen – this hormone is closely linked with the development of many breast cancers.

In our bodies

At least 300 man-made chemicals have been found in human blood and body tissue. Cancer-causing substances and hormone-disrupting chemicals are included in this ‘toxic burden’.

So...

Lighten the toxic burden on your body - go organic wherever possible, recognise carcinogenic ingredients. Small differences can make a BIG difference.

Business as usual?

Now this worries me! The Story of Stuff tells us that Estee Lauder continue to use unhelpful chemicals in their products, whilst supporting a Breast Awareness Campaign. A little disingenuous, don't you think??

But does the following quote from their website suggest that they have set out to control world-wide research into the causes of breast cancer? Or is that cynical, nay paranoid?!

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® was founded in 1993 by Evelyn H. Lauder as an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to funding innovative clinical and translational research. The Foundation supports scientists at top universities and academic medical centres worldwide conducting the most advanced and promising breast cancer research that will lead to prevention and a cure in our lifetime. A minimum of 85 cents of each dollar donated to the Foundation goes directly to breast cancer research and awareness programs. In October 2007, $32 million was awarded to 151 scientists across the United States and in Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, the UK and Europe.

Be a savvy shopper leaflet to download

Click the title of this post for a link direct to the .pdf

Print off and fold the two yellow sections so they act as 'doors' to the inner section.

The story of cosmetics

Please watch 'the ugly truth of toxins in, toxins out' - enlightening!

Estee Lauder invites us to support women with cancer - while using carcinogens in their cosmetics. Wot?!

Annie Leonard tells it like it is at The story of stuff Or watch her here :

I am not a guinea pig

http://www.notaguineapig.org/page.cfm?tagID=55718

Chemicals in your home from Environmental Defense Fund on Vimeo.

I'm new here!

You can find out more about me here

Thanks to nickso for the image (via Flickr)