Magnesium and Vitamin D-3 Connection

Vitamin D deficiency, the cause of probably 60% of the diseases in the U.S. and the world today, is a bit more complicated than appears on the surface.

Most people believe that just taking a vitamin D-3 supplement will eliminate their deficiency in two to three months by raising their D-3 levels to “normal”, and expect all of their health problems to disappear.

That’s the quick fix syndrome, and I wish it were so.

You can improve the quality of your health by just taking a vitamin D supplement, but better still, by taking care to include the other missing ingredient in your diet, the mineral magnesium, you can really raise your overall health and the quality of your life.

The inclusion of these magnesium laden healthy and tasty raw vegetables in your diet will result in turning a small health correction into a full blown shot-in-the-arm!  This can positively impact your longevity.  The supporting science is well documented.

Magnesium is the key factor in converting vitamin D-3 into 1,25D₃ the only form of vitamin D the body can use.

Magnesium from supplements does not work well because the body has a difficult time  metabolizing minerals that are not combined with food.

As such, magnesium laden vegetables are the simplest, easiest, and most efficient way for the body to build up a sufficient store of magnesium to meet the body’s various every day needs.

Having a deficiency of magnesium is not only harmful to the body, it is wasteful; your body will not be able to convert all of the vitamin D-3 you are getting, from supplements or sun, into its useable form.

Like so many North Americans:
•    You are probably eating too many grains and cheese,
•    You are not getting enough magnesium-rich foods.

Whole grains ARE healthy to eat, but not too much of them.

Grains, like cheese, are acid forming, especially soft cheeses.

So too are meat and fish, pasteurized fruit drinks, most processed foods, fast foods, sodas, coffee, tea, and power drinks.

Are you asking yourself “So What”? What has acidity got to do with vitamin D and magnesium? A whole lot!

Let me explain.

Think of how meat tenderizer works.  You pick up a cheaper cut of beef from your local butcher.  You know it’s tough, so you coat it with meat tenderizer and let it sit.

When you think it is ready, you broil it or whatever, and it is tender as can be.
What happened?  The highly acidic meat tenderizer attacked the tough sinews between the cells tenderizing the beef to the extent that you can cut it with a fork.

The acid tenderizer is so effective, if you left it on the beef long enough, the beef would dissolve and disintegrate.

The same would happen to your organs if the acid from acid forming foods you eat were not neutralized with the minerals magnesium, potassium or calcium, which are alkaline.

One of your body’s highest priorities is to protect your organs from destruction.

If you do not give your body enough alkaline forming foods to provide your body with sufficient neutralizing alkaline minerals, your body will strip the minerals from your bones and muscles in order to protect the organs from destruction.

If the acid content of your body is overwhelming, and your body cannot supply enough minerals to neutralize the acid, your body will then encapsulate the acid molecules in fat cells and keep them encapsulated until it builds up excess alkali.

Only then will your body release and neutralize the excess acid it has been storing to protect itself.  One of the side effects of storing acid in fat cells usually results in weightgain or obese.

Why am I telling you this?

Because the more acid there is in your body, the more magnesium, potassium and calcium your body will need to neutralize all the acid.

You need to know that your body is desperate to neutralize this acid and will take these minerals from anywhere it can get them.

This action is vital to your very existence!

Osteoporosis, which is so common today, is a result of your body stripping minerals from your bones creating holes in them and making them brittle.

Another result could be the softening of your bones called osteomalacia which will dangerously weaken your skeletal structure.

To make matters even worse, fewer minerals would be available for other vitally essential uses in your body as your body’s first priority is neutralizing its excess acid.

A prime example being the need for magnesium to convert the vitamin D-3 into the active form, (1,25D₃), which is the only form of D the body can use.

You cannot make up a magnesium deficiency by taking more vitamin D-3.  If the D-3 is not converted, your body cannot use it.

Here are some of the problems you may encounter if your magnesium level is low:

•    Your body will have trouble converting Vitamin D into the form it can use to create its amazing benefits.
•    Your body won’t be able to produce ATP (cells power engine)
•    Your body will decrease expression of Vitamin D receptors which impairs receptor signaling.  Poor signaling interferes with the normal workings of bodily functions.
•    Your body will limit the use of what calcium and magnesium is available.  Suppress the release of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin, hormones that help regulate the metabolism of calcium and magnesium.
•    Your body will compromise the activity of enzymes that regulate your membrane mineral pumps that are vital in keeping potassium inside the cell and sodium outside the cell as well as performing other functions.
•    Your body needs magnesium for more than 300 enzymatic reactions.
•    Your body loses much needed potassium and calcium via your urine.

That is a long list of nasty happenings, but not a complete one.  These will have long term nasty effects on your health.

Magnesium is an antacid.  You need antacids in your body —- magnesium, potassium and calcium—-the kind that come from food, not drugs, to neutralize acid waste.

The more antacids you make available in your diet the less you have to take from your body stores (bones and muscles).

The purple pill, Tums, and other over-the-counter antacids are not the solution!

These are just chemicals that will neutralize the acid in your stomach, disrupt the digestive process and minimize your body’s ability to extract much needed nutrients from the food you eat.

To get enough magnesium in your diet so that your vitamin D functions properly, and to facilitate all important enzymatic reactions, you must eat magnesium rich foods to balance the acid-base in your diet to reduce the loss of magnesium and other alkaline buffers in your urine.

Here’s is what I suggest:

•    Eat lots of fruits and magnesium rich vegetables such as spinach, bok choy, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard.  Mix them in with your organic salad greens.
•    Have at least one banana a day.
•    Eat a hand full of nuts a day.  Ten to twelve.
•    Minimize eating cheese and especially do not eat processed cheese.
•    Don’t use processed salt.  Use only sea salt.
•    Avoid fast foods, all processed foods, and pasteurized orange, grapefruit and other juices.
•    Eliminate soda and power drinks from your diet and minimize the intake of coffee.
•    Eat only lean meat and or wild fish and free range chicken.
•    Eat as much organic as you can.

Your body is a highly complex marvel of functionality.  It requires you to understand and provide what it needs to keep it functioning at its peak to allow you to live the vibrant healthy life that is available to you, just for the taking.

Don’t be like the average Joe who knows more about, and spends more on, his car then he does his body.

Take your vitamin D-3 and make sure you eat enough magnesium rich foods.

Supplements alone will not do the job.  Your body works best in an alkaline state, pH 7.3, so do your best to keep it there!  Increase your intake of magnesium rich vegetables.

Help us at Good Health Supplements solve the country’s health care problems —– follow our advice and ——- STAY HEALTHY!

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2010 – All Rights Reserved

Note: Good Health Supplements are dietary supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals as necessary on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Individual results will vary and statements mentioned are anecdotal and may not represent typical results.

Is Your Diet Making You Sick?

I have lost count of the times I hear the lament “I always eat healthy — so why am I sick”?

What is distressing is that these people really work at eating healthy, but to no avail.

They don’t drink soda. They do drink lots of water.  They don’t eat cold cuts that contain nitrates or other prepared meats or foods.  They eat lots of fruits and vegetables as they should and as is recommended.

You would think, as they think, that with such a healthy diet, they would be getting all the nutrients they need for a healthy life.

So why are they getting sick?

The answer is—because consuming conventional food, they are not getting the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients they think they are getting.

Their life is being sabotaged by the large conglomerate farms who are the major producers of our conventional fruits, vegetables, grains, milk and cheese.

The same is true for the factory farms that provide us with the major supply of our meat and fish.

The soil of conventional farms is depleted and has been for the last 80 years.

Conventional farming (i.e., intensive farming that uses chemicals) returns little or nothing to the soil and gradually depletes the soil of minerals.

Because only a small number of nutrients are replenished when using chemical fertilizers, (especially nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus), the soil gradually loses its trace elements that are essential for health, such as boron, chromium and selenium.

The mineral content in our food has become severely diminished.

Fruits, vegetables and other plants that we rely upon to supply minerals in our diet cannot take adequate amounts of minerals from the soil if there are no minerals there to take.

In 1940 and again in 1991, tests were performed on various fruits, vegetables (including carrots, broccoli, spinach and potatoes) and meats for mineral content.

It was found that the amounts of calcium, magnesium, iron and copper in our vegetables had declined during those 51 years by as much as 75 to 96 percent, while meats had lost 41 percent of their calcium and 54 percent of their iron.

Fruits had lost 27 percent of their zinc.  Apples and oranges had lost 67 percent of their iron.

The tests were repeated in 2002 with similar results.

It is not only mineral content that has declined over the past half century. Levels of vitamins A and C have also dropped dramatically.

Wheat has lost much of its protein since 1900.

Nitrogen fertilization in conventional farming was found to decrease vitamin C concentrations in many fruits and vegetables.

Using potatoes as one of the examples, in a study to find out what nutrients the potato has lost over the last 50 years. This is what was concluded:

• 100% of Vitamin A
• 57% of Vitamin C and Iron
• 28% of Calcium
• 50% of Riboflavin
• 18% of Thiamine

Here are further examples, taken from the USDA’s own studies of the loss of vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables.  Today as compared to 1975.

• Apples: vitamin A is down 41%
• Sweet peppers: vitamin C is down 31%
• Watercress: iron is down 88%
• Broccoli: calcium and vitamin A are down 50%
• Cauliflower: vitamin C is down 45%; vitamin B1 is down 48%; and vitamin B2 is down 47%
• Collards greens: vitamin A is down 45%; potassium is down 60%; and magnesium is down 85%

The USDA reported some 30 years ago that, “the highest death rate areas in the US generally corresponded to those where agriculturists had recognized that the soil was depleted.”

Degenerative diseases are prevalent in North America and Europe, in contrast with the absence of these diseases in places that have maintained natural farming methods.

Human milk has been found tainted with over 350 man-made contaminants including pesticides.

In the United States, dairy cows may be injected with a genetically modified growth hormone (rBGH also known as rBST, recombinant bovine somatotropin) to increase milk production.

Canadian and European governments have refused to permit the use of this hormone.

Not only does it increase the incidence of mastitis in cows, but it also increases the incidence of cancer in human beings.

The Pesticide Action Network reported that the overall incidence of cancer has risen by about 50 percent since 1971, and pesticide residues in food may be a contributing factor.

International authorities have listed 160 extensively used pesticides as possible human carcinogens.

Tests carried out in 2003 found chemical residues in one third of fruits and vegetables, with some containing as many as five different chemicals, some present in amounts exceeding government-set limit.

Chemicals applied to the surface of a fruit or vegetable can be partially removed by washing or peeling, but some chemicals enter and permeate the plant or are designed not to wash off in water (rain).

Safety tests do not consider the ‘cocktail effect’ of the many agro-chemicals and food additives that are simultaneously present in the human body.

Many pesticides are suspected of being endocrine disrupters, affecting sexual characteristics, hormone production or metabolism, thyroid function or brain function.

Children are especially susceptible, and later in life, may suffer disorders of behavior and reproduction and be more prone to disease.  These chemicals affect not only human beings but also other animals.

On the other hand, fertilization of crops with cow dung (as may occur on organic farms) can increase vitamin B12 to a level that may contribute significantly to the diet of vegans.  Secondary nutrients also tend to be more abundant in organically grown fruits and vegetables.

A well-enriched soil resulted in excellent plant health, which, in turn, produced healthy animals that fed upon well-nourished plants; and human beings whose diet consisted of these fresh and wholesome healthy plants and animal products also enjoyed abundant health.

Organically reared cows, which eat fresh grass, clover pasture and grass clover silage, produced milk on average 50 percent higher in Vitamin E (alpha tocopherol), 75 percent higher in beta carotene (precursor of Vitamin A) and two to three times higher in the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthine than non-organic milk.

Organic milk not only has more antioxidants but also higher levels of omega 3 essential fatty acids.

More recently, doctors and nutritionists administering “alternative” cancer therapies have found that a completely organic diet is essential for a successful outcome.

According to the Nutritional Cancer Therapy Trust (NCTT), nutritional cancer therapies that involve the avoidance of pollutants and toxins as much as possible, the exclusive consumption of organically grown foods and increases in nutrient intakes, have yielded good results.

The director of NCTT said that “the overwhelming number of patients following alternative cancer therapies are those who have been declared terminal, with minimal life expectancies following initial allopathic treatment. The ability of these patients to gain remission from all clinical evidence of cancer is therefore very significant.”

To sum up, food produced according to organic principles is superior to that produced by conventional means, i.e., with chemical inputs.

Organic foods are likely to have higher nutritional content, such as vitamins and minerals.

They also rarely contain residues of harmful agricultural chemicals or additives, and for the time being, they exclude GM foods that could damage the immune systems and/or internal organs of experimental animals.

Out of all of the nutrients analyzed only niacin levels actually did increase.

The conclusion was very similar for 25 fruits and vegetables under the same test conditions.

Broccoli had a huge reduction in which all nutrients had significantly declined, surprisingly including niacin.

An article from (Natural News) states that soil scientists have known for many years about the decline in soil fertility.

To address the problem, farmers, agricultural companies and governments have advocated a number of solutions which, however, have not ensured that our food is more nutritious.

Farming is big business and the aim is to give people cheaper food and make profits.

This has meant that crops are genetically modified to ensure resistance against disease and to stimulate faster growth, that pesticides and herbicides are used to control pests, that ammonium-based fertilizers are applied to try to improve the soil.

This business has created an entirely unnatural ecosystem, where the soil has become barren and devoid of micro-organisms that are needed to create organic mineral complexes.

The trace minerals have been used up and there is no immediate way to restore the micro-organisms.

The minerals from the soil contribute to producing nutrient rich food (including minerals).

These nutrients are absorbed by us when we consume food.

Like it or not we are connected to the soil. If it’s depleted, then so are we.

Unhealthy, barren soil does not produce food that is abundant in nutrients.

For example, between 1951 and 1999 Vitamin A was completely lost in onions and potatoes.

Soil that is depleted is unable to help nutrient deficient plants overcome attacks from pests and fungus. This means more pesticides are used.

Synthetic (inorganic) fertilizers have little benefit since they create insoluble mineral complexes which are difficult for plants to absorb.

Dr Richard Drucker (of Drucker Labs) reports that healthy nutrient-rich crops need 70 trace minerals, but that farming is only replacing 3-5 of these.

Government authorities have been aware of the problem for 70 years.

In 1936 it admitted that almost all soils in the US were depleted of minerals, and this was reiterated again in 1992 at the Earth Summit.

What does that say about progress?

Another reason why soils are depleted is acid rain.

The University of Maine published a study in the December 2003 issue of the Soil Science Society of America Journal which confirms that acid rain depletes nutrients from the soil.

Authorities have long ignored scientists’ reports that acid rain depletes the soil of nutrients needed for growing trees.

Can we then get minerals from other sources? Drucker believes that the best inorganic trace minerals from coral, colloidal or ionic, have very large and insoluble molecules that are difficult to absorb at cellular level.

Further, once they are absorbed, they accumulate in the body and are stored in fatty tissues. Over time, these substances become toxic leading to possible disease.

Given this problem, we can assume that it will be difficult to get minerals from other sources.

He does suggest that we need high quality supplements until a solution is found.

Organic minerals have very small molecules which are easily absorbed through the cells. The minerals work as activators in the body as they are required to set off chemical reactions.

For example, magnesium is an activator for over 300 enzymes and is important for the energy system of the body.

Dr Linus Pauling is famous for saying that every disease, sickness and ailment is related to mineral deficiency.

The reason is that minerals are required for every cell in our body to function.

If minerals are lacking in our food, vitamins are of no use because vitamins (and enzymes) need minerals for them to work in our bodies.

This means that vitamin supplements would be of no use unless we also have adequate minerals.

Organic crops contained significantly more vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus and significantly less nitrates than conventional crops.

There were non-significant trends showing less protein but of a better quality and a higher content of nutritionally significant minerals with lower amounts of some heavy metals in organic crops compared to conventional ones.

Conclusions: There appear to be genuine differences in the nutrient content of organic and conventional crops.

In commercial conventional farming, minerals like iron and magnesium have dropped by more than 80 percent. That’s from the powerful fertilizers they use that practically sterilize the soil – leaving it with little to no mineral content.

Because of the lack of vital vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and phytochemicals in conventionally grown and raised food, those who are on conventional diets cannot possibly live a healthy life, even if they are taking an abundance of nutritional supplements.

The amount of herbicides, pesticides and hormones found in conventional farmed and raised foods make the bodies of those consuming these foods toxic and acidic.

That is a recipe for developing every major disease you can think of and the reason we have so many sick people among those eating a conventional western diet.

So now you know.

If you don’t eat organic, there is no way you won’t eventually get diseased given the lack of nutrients and the heavy content of herbicides, pesticides, and hormones that are in all conventionally grown and raised food.

People tell me that organic food is expensive.  I tell them it is not.

When you consider that organic food has a 50% to 60% higher content of nutrients then conventional food, you will find that you will not have to eat as much.

Your body will get the nutrients it needs, with much less consumption, and no poisons.

Soil all over the US is so depleted of nutrients that even organic farms are feeling the pinch.

This is why it is so important to supplement your diet with all natural nutritional supplements even when you eat organic foods.

To balance the equation for a healthy life, if you drink, drink alcohol in moderation, drink at least 64 ounces of filtered tap water a day, no bottled water, no soda of any kind, no power drinks, and do exercise on a regular basis.

Your life is in your hands, not your doctors.

Be kind to your body and it will be kind to you.

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2009 – All Rights Reserved

Note: Good Health Supplements are dietary supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals as necessary on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Individual results will vary and statements mentioned are anecdotal and may not represent typical results.

It's Food Care!

It is a given that all life begins at the cellular level.

It is also a given that for your cells to function as healthy cells, they must have the energy level they were designed for, 70 to 90 millivolts.

At that level your cells easily absorb nutrients, convert the nutrients into usable components the body needs, then rids itself of the resultant waste created by this conversion process.

Energy also allows your cells to rid themselves of the toxins they absorb from the nutrients (food) you feed them.

When the nutrients you feed your cells contain high levels of toxins, as do most packaged and conventional foods available to us today, the cell’s energy becomes overtaxed, dissipated, and unable to rid themselves of all the toxins.

This condition causes a lowering of the cells millivolt energy level. This results in cellular dysfunction, inflammation, and the beginnings of disease.

Example: Cancer cells have a measurable energy level of 15 to 20 millivolts.

The purer our food, the fewer toxins our cells have to deal with.  This minimizes cellular stress, and optimizes cellular health.

Healthy cells easily perform the functions they were designed for and quickly rid the body of waste and toxins.

Conventional foods sprayed with herbicides and pesticides cause toxic build-up in our cells.  Toxins are poisons that interfere with the normal function of providing nutrients to the body.

The greater the toxic build-up, the fewer the nutrients the cells can provide.

It stands to reason then, if we don’t get the nutrients we need from our cells, our bodies cannot function in the healthy manner for which they were designed.

Our bodies will break down in one way or another and, over time, will develop some form of degenerative disease.

It’s really that simple.

Cells are not something people think about in their relationship to their bodies. Cells exist, and people take them for granted.

When was the last time you had a conversation with anybody about your cells?

The result is, people don’t understand their cells needs or workings.

Let me emphasize, your cells are where life begins.

Cells make tissues. Tissues make organs. Organs make systems. If you want to be healthy all your life, you had better pay attention your cells.

Your cells need you to ingest good food so it can get good nutrition.

Your cells cannot convert toxins into anything useful.  They cannot convert toxins into the energy needed to function.

Worse — toxins absorb energy leaving little left for nutrient conversion.

With that said, let me tell you that we live in a country that promotes and supports a basic food supply  loaded with toxins.

And what’s even more frightening, companies like Monsanto, with the blessing and support of our government, are increasing their influence and are succeeding in crowding out healthy food and filling the marketplace with more and more of their Genetically Engineered “Franken foods”.

If you think our health care bill is high now, wait until you see what that bill will grow to if we allow this trend to continue.

Let’s take a look at what is happening in Argentina after 12 years of planting Monsanto’s GE soya.

Soya  is now planted in over 50% of Argentina’s farm land.

Remember these promises:

1. Monsanto GE soya will increase yields per acre versus conventional soya.

2. Use Monsanto GE soya and the farmer will need to use less herbicide.  It should also be noted that Monsanto GE soya seeds are far more expensive than conventional soya seeds.

We know that herbicides are detrimental to the health and welfare of humans, animals and fish.

We also know that these herbicides, when sprayed onto farms, don’t stay on those farms but get into our streams, rivers and lakes from run-off from those farms, or contaminate other farms and homes by the wind.

The following report is a result of an important study done in Argentina relating to the environmental damage due to the use of Monsanto’s GE soya.

I am using Argentina as an example in a country that is being destroyed by Monsanto’s GE soya and herbicide and is now waking up and starting to take back some control, versus what is happening here in the USA where Monsanto is destroying farms and farmers, and poisoning our food supply, because there is no control.

In April 2009 Andrés Carrasco, an Argentinian embryologist, gave an interview to the leading Buenos Aires newspaper Página 12, in which he described the alarming results of a research project he is leading, studying the impact of the herbicide glyphosate on the fetuses of amphibians.

Dr Carrasco, who works in the Ministry of Science’s Conicet (National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations), said that their results suggests that the herbicide could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses.

Glyphosate is the herbicide used in the cultivation of Monsanto’s genetically modified soya which now covers some 18 million hectares, about half of Argentina’s arable land.

Carrasco said that the doses of herbicide used in their study were “much lower than the levels used in the Monsanto fumigations”. Indeed, as some weeds have become resistant to glyphosate, many farmers are greatly increasing the concentration of the herbicide.

According to Página 12, this means that, in practice, the herbicide applied in the fields is between 50 and 1,540 times stronger than that used by Carrasco.

The results in the study are confirming what peasant and indigenous communities – the people most affected by the spraying – have been denouncing for over a decade.

The study also has profound consequences for the USA’s anti-narcotics strategy in Colombia, because the planes spray glyphosate, reinforced with additional chemicals, on the coca fields (and the peasants living among them).

Three days after the interview, the Association of Environmental Lawyers filed a petition with the Argentine Supreme Court, calling for a ban on the use and sale of glyphosate until its impact on health and on the environment had been investigated.

Five days later the Ministry of Defense banned the planting of soya in its fields.

This sparked a strong reaction from the multinational biotechnology companies and their supporters.

Fearful that their most famous product, a symbol of the dominant farming model, would be banned, they mounted an unprecedented attack on Carrasco, ridiculing his research and even issuing personal threats.

He was accused of inventing his whole investigation, as his results have not yet been peer-reviewed and published in a prestigious scientific journal.

According to an article in the Argentine press, after news about the study broke, Dr. Carrasco was the victim of an act of intimidation, when four men arrived at his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and acted extremely aggressively.

Two of the men were said to be members of an agrochemical industry body but refused to give their names. The other two claimed to be a lawyer and notary.

They apparently interrogated Dr. Carrasco and demanded to see details of the experiments. They left a card Basílico, Andrada & Santurio, attorneys on behalf of Felipe Alejandro Noël.

Carrasco was firm in his response: “When one is dealing with a subject of limited public interest, one can keep the study secret until all the last details have been resolved. But when one uncovers facts that are important for public health, one has an obligation to make an effort to publish the results urgently and with maximum publicity.”

Even so, he was clearly taken aback by the strength of the reaction. “It was a violent, disproportionate, dirty reaction”, he said. “I hadn’t even discovered anything new, only confirmed conclusions that others had reached. One has to remember, too, that the study originated in contacts with communities that have suffered the impact of agro-chemicals. They are the undeniable proof of the impact.”

He is not intimidated: “If I know something, I will not shut my mouth.”

Further: The intense application year after year of a single herbicide – glyphosate – has led to the emergence of weeds that have become resistant to this chemical.

Some of the better known of these “super-weeds”, as they are popularly called, are: Hybanthus parviflorus (Violetilla), Parietaria debilis (Yerba Fresca), Viola arvensis (Violeta Silvestre – Field pansy), Petunia axillaris (Petunia), Verbena litoralis (Verbena), Commelina erecta (Flor de Santa Lucía – Slender dayflower), Convolvulus arvensis (Correhuela – Field bindweed), Ipomoea purpurea (Bejuco – Morning glory), Iresine difusa (Iresine) and recently Sorghum halepense (Sorgo de alepo – Johnson grass), which, because it is a difficult weed to control, has caused considerable alarm among farmers.

“Super Weeds” created by ecological imbalances inherent in mono-cropping with a GM crop, long predicted by ecologists, are jeopardizing the long-term economic and environmental viability of RR soya.

But instead of rethinking the whole agricultural model and encouraging farmers to return to mixed farming, where natural balances make it far easier to control weeds, the Argentine authorities had been offering their full support to Monsanto, which is planning over the next five years to introduce a new form of GM soya.

The new soya will have a gene inserted into it which makes it resistant to dicamba, a herbicide that kills broadleaf weeds.

According to Robert Hartzler, a weed specialist at Iowa University, dicamba brings its own problems. The compound’s volatility means that it will kill off broad-leaved plants on fields and in houses up to half a kilometer away, which will undoubtedly cause yet further serious problems for the rural population.

Monsanto is confident that resistance won’t become a serious problem, but Hartzler is not so sure. “I don’t think we can say that resistance won’t develop”, says Hartzler, “but it is a much lower likelihood than with other herbicide classes. But then, that’s what they originally said about glyphosate.”

Now back to the USA.

Here’s a recent headline and introduction of a report published by our USDA:

USDA Says Biotech Is Compatible with Organic
The Unexplored Potential of Organic-Biotech Production 
Global Agricultural Information Network 
By Cyndi Barmore 
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, 5/26/2009

Report Highlights:

The organic movement rejects biotechnology as inherently contradictory to its fundamental goal of promoting environmental protection in agriculture.

European organic promoters in particular stress respect for nature over yield maximization, campaigning for a return to traditional production methods and inputs. [1]

In reality, the divide between organics and biotechnology is an artificial construction maintained by ideology rather than science.

A governmental decision to change organic regulations to permit the use of biotechnology could have far-reaching policy implications for global agriculture.

Allowing producers to gain organic certification for biotech crops could encourage the development of a new type of environmentally sustainable agricultural production with greater benefits for the consumer.

The following is a response to this report by the USDA from Organic Consumer Association.

OCA Editor’s Note: This USDA report attempting to make the case for ‘organic genetically engineering’ is part of a well-funded campaign coordinated by Monsanto and their governmental, corporate, and non-profit partners to legitimize a dangerous and untested technology.

This is a campaign to impoverish farmers by making them dependent on expensive genetically modified seeds and the array of chemicals needed to grow them. It is also making guinea pigs of consumers who are being force-fed unlabeled genetically modified foods.

There are several important reports that rebut the USDA’s specious claims of the benefits of genetic engineering, including: Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2009 www.ucsusa.org click on Food & Agriculture then Failure to Yield [A must read]) and Who Benefits from GM Crops? Genetically Modified Crops Increase Pesticide Use and Fail to Alleviate Poverty (Friends of the Earth International and Center for Food Safety, 2008 www.centerforfoodsafety.org [A must read]) Learn about the World According to Monsanto.

With the battle to save our farms and food supply ongoing, I am now happy to report that thanks to the efforts of the Union of Concerned Scientists and OCA, (August 29, 2009), the USDA has pulled their pro-GMO report from their Web site after receiving thousands of letters from organic consumers.

This is another example of the power the public has when they join together and speak up.

If we are to survive as a healthy human race we need to understand the peril we are in and know we can survive if we keep in mind the needs of our cells.

Think about the need of your cells every time you put food in your mouth.

The huge corporations poisoning our food supply are all about money.

Take away their money and you take away their power and we can get back to wholesome food and the healthy nutrients needed to feed our cells.

We need to eat organic.

We need to boycott such food giants like Kellogs who have switched to genetically engineered sugar.

Whole Foods Markets who are offering “Natural” foods that are nothing more than conventional foods at higher prices.

Hamburger fast food chains buy the cheapest, lowest grade beef out of feed lots steeped in filth.

National brand chicken and pork come from factory farms loaded with hormones and anti-biotics.

The same is true for milk and butter that is not organic.

Boycott soy bean oil because it is processed with the poisonous solvent, hexane.

Refined vegetable oils and hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are trans-fats that are just short of plastic.

Canola oil which is genetically engineered and loaded with omega 6 which is detrimental to heart health.

Sodas, power drinks and especially diet sodas are especially bad for you.

Bleached white and enriched white flour in any form should not appear in your diet.

Processed foods are your cell’s enemy.

Eat at least 60% raw foods. Eat wild fish, not farmed.

Grass fed beef, not grain fed, wherever possible.  The difference in taste is as significant as the benefit to your body.

Do you use a deodorant?  If you do because you need to, then know that your body has an abundance of toxins.

People with a low level of toxins in their bodies do not develop body odor.

Take care of your cells and you can guarantee yourself a healthy, robust and long life.

And before I forget, here’s a message from my trainer…

“If you don’t exercise, your life will not be as robust or long lasting.”

To your cells!  May they forever be brimming with energy.  The rest will take care of itself!

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2009 – All Rights Reserved

Note: Good Health Supplements are dietary supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals as necessary on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Individual results will vary and statements mentioned are anecdotal and may not represent typical results.

Health Reform?

Health Care Reform? – If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be a joke!

What is health care reform anyway?

It would appear to me that health care reform would mean ways to keep people from getting sick. Ways to keep people healthy.

That to me is real health care reform.

Instead we have the whole country battling over drugs and medical care while every year the number of people who develop a chronic disease grows larger and larger.

What is wrong with our Presidents — past, present, and probably future?

What is wrong with our senators and members of congress?  Do they all have their heads buried in the sand or is it all about greed and self-interest?

This is not a Democrat, Republican, or Independent issue— it’s about everyone!

We the people are being ripped off royally by our representatives in support of lobbyists, large food producers, pharmaceutical companies, the USDA, the FDA, the Medical and Dental professions, medical insurers (whose monopolistic practices are also protected by the government) — and we do nothing about it except argue about the next drug and our medical reimbursement plans.

We the people allow ourselves to be led and directed exactly where our government wants us to be — totally under their control to protect the huge amounts of money they receive from the drug and food giants for their political election campaigns.

The current public town-hall meetings are all about the verbiage of the new so called “reforms” of our health care laws that the President is working overtime to shove down our throats.

If he would spend as much time getting us freedom of choice, when it come to our own health care, instead of forcing us to be under the constraints of our medical system and FDA, my sense is we would all be healthier and far better off.

There are many ways to nutritionally heal ourselves that are far more effective, and much, much, less expensive then drugs.

These cures are forbidden to us by our government making the use of these cures illegal and even criminal in some cases.

Our government does a great job in protecting the profits of our medical professionals and drug companies, but not our health or our wallets.

Think about this.

Your government is controlling your body when it comes to health care and you have nothing to say about it!

The only way for you to keep the government from controlling your body is to travel to a foreign country for treatment of your own choice.

Your only other option is to never get sick.

Why is it so difficult to see that real health care starts with the food we eat?

Why is it so difficult to understand that healthy food creates healthy bodies, and that healthy bodies don’t need medical care?

Why is it so difficult to understand that if we cleaned up our food supply, and by that I mean the heavily pesticide-ridden farm grown fruits and vegetables, corn, slop, hormone and anti-biotic fed meats, fish and poultry — we would eliminate over 80% of the diseases in this country within a short period of time?

Think my number is ridiculous?

Go back 60, 70 years. Type 2 diabetes did not exist.  Neither did lupus, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue syndrome.

Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes were at considerably lower levels.  Few people talked about obesity or fad diets.

We may have not been number one in longevity at that time, but we were nowhere near 38th on the list as we are today.

Knowing how bad our conventional food supply is, I eat mostly organic.

I know organic food is more expensive than conventional food, but what I found was that when I switched to organic food, I ate less.

I satisfied my hunger on much less food because organic food is about 40% to 60% more nutritious than conventional food.

Conventional food is grown using heavy doses of pesticides.

Here is a list of the 12 most pesticide-ridden crops that lead to eventual cancer and other diseases:

Nectarines – Peaches – Apples – Celery – Sweet Bell Peppers – Strawberries – Cherries – Lettuce – Grapes – Pears – Spinach – Potatoes

Can you prevent your body from ever getting cancer and other chronic diseases?  You surely can.  Only buy these foods listed above if they are organic.

Buy local and buy at a health food store.

Make sure you buy organic and you will reduce your exposure to pesticides by up to 90%.

Even with organics, it may be wise to wash your fruits and produce in a dilution of food-grade peroxide available at your local health food store.

Only you have the power to make changes in our food supply.

If you don’t buy these pesticide-ridden fruits and vegetables, the big farm corporations will be forced to bring healthier food to the market place or go out of business.

You have immense power in your hands.

Learn to use it for a better, healthier life while sending a message to our politicians.

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2009 – All Rights Reserved

Dieting With a Full Plate?

In my last newsletter I promised to tell you how to lose weight without going on crash or fad diets, or cutting down on food consumption while everyone around you is enjoying a full plate.

I confess that dieting with a full plate was not my idea.

The idea came from the non-profit Lifestyle Center of America.

They are publishing a book written by three doctors.

The book tells you how you can eat with a full plate of food and lose pounds at the same time.

The book will be available for sale to the public about December of this year.

When it becomes available, I will let you know where you can buy a copy.

The book will help you to change your eating habits enjoyably, and help you to extend your life by slimming down and doing it in a healthy way.

In the meantime I will give you a preview for you to get a head start with and be in better shape for when the book becomes available.

Okay — so what’s the secret to dumping pounds?

The secret is food fiber!

• Fiber bulks you up.
• Fiber promotes elimination.
• Fiber is non-caloric and takes the place of fat building calories you would be eating instead.
• Fiber foods are high in nutrition.
• Fiber foods are tasty and delicious.

To help you burn all those extra calories you do not need, which may cause you problems, your intake of fiber should not be less than 30 grams per day.

To help you reach that goal, I am giving you the following  list of fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains that will be recommended in the book.

The book will also show you ways to add fiber to the foods you already eat, and give you a list of recipes that will help you increase your fiber intake plus desserts that do the same.

It is a wonderful and healthy concept that works.

I am listing the top 5 in each category. They were chosen not only for their fiber content but for their overall nutritional benefits.

Here is the list:

Fruit:
Raspberries  8.0 g fiber/1cup – Pears  5.5 g fiber /1 medium – Apples 4.4 g fiber/1 medium – Oranges 3.1 g fiber/1 medium – Bananas 3.1 g fiber/1 medium.

Vegetables:
Avocado 6.7 g fiber/1/2 medium – Broccoli 5.1g fiber/1 cup – Spinach 4.3 g fiber/1 cup – Sweet Potatoes 3.8 g fiber/1 medium – Carrots 2.3g fiber/1/2 cup

Beans:
Please note.  If you soak your beans overnight, you will not have a gas problem.
Navy Beans 9.6 g fiber/1/2 cup – Lentils 7.8 g fiber/1/2 cup – Pinto Beans 7.7g fiber/1/2 cup – Black Beans 7.5 g fiber/1/2 cup – Kidney Beans 5.7 g fiber/1/2 cup

Nuts & Seeds:
Flax Seeds 5.6 g fiber/1 oz. – Almonds 3.5 g fiber/1 oz. – Sunflower Seeds 3.0 g fiber/1/4 cup – Peanuts 2.3 g fiber/1 oz. – Walnuts 1.9 g fiber/1 oz.

Grains:
Wheat 8.2 g fiber/1 cup – Pearled Barley 6.0 g fiber/1 cup – Quinoa 5.2 g fiber/1 cup
Oats 4.0 g fiber/1 cup – Brown Rice 3.5 g fiber/1 cup

Print this newsletter and keep the list handy so that you can count the number of grams of fiber you are eating every day in addition to what you normally eat.

Strive for at least 30 grams of fiber per day.

Good health is all about what you eat and drink.

And don’t forget about exercise. Exercise makes your lymph system work more efficiently, which in turn will boost your immune system.

You will also do your body a great service if you buy organic.

I know that sometimes that is not possible but try to buy as much organic as you can.

And as a side note…my wife and I saw the movie “Food, Inc.” last night.

If you can find it at a theater near you, don’t miss it.

It is an incredible eye-opener about the few large corporations that control our food supply and the quality of food they ship to our food markets and restaurants.

It is a must see for everyone.  If it doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what will.

You will learn why this country is the sickest developed country in the world and how to protect yourself from becoming another victim.

It is all about food, and you do have choices.

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2009 – All Rights Reserved

Are you hungry for change? If so, watch the provocative new film called “Food, Inc.”.

Here’s a short video trailer for you to watch.
NOTE: Video takes a few moments to load before it starts playing.

“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.

Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually.

We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.”

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2009 – All Rights Reserved

The debate has many sides to the conversation, however, there was an interesting article about non-organic soy at the Organic Consumers Association website titled Boycott Non-Organic, GMO, Hexane-Processed Soy Organic vs. Conventional Soy written by Alexis Baden-Mayer, Esq., Organic Consumers Association, July 1, 2009

Here is the article for your review and if you wish to read more please select the article link title listed above.