Most people feel they are doing a good job if they are able to consume a substantial proportion of organic produce in comparison to conventionally grown foods. Eating 100% organic is not feasible for many, for reasons of availability and financial resources. However, as conventional methods have increasingly depleted soils and yield outputs, their cost goes up, while the cost of organic farming continues to go down. We might even see a parity of cost, if large agribusiness farms were not so heavily subsidized by the government.

The increased cost of conventional farming owes in large part to the larger volume of chemicals required to squeeze the same yield out of ever more depleted land, and the use of newer and stronger pesticides and herbicides against organisms that have developed resistance to conventional chemicals. For this reason, the average number of pesticides and other toxic chemicals applied to conventional produce during its growing and harvesting seasons is now an astounding 47 to 67. The Environmental Working Group periodically issues a report on the 12 most contaminated species of produce when purchased from conventional sources. These are known as the Dirty Dozen. The Dirty Dozen list that was issued for 2010 includes the following:

Dirty Dozen (47-67 separate pesticides in this produce if not organic):
Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce

The Good News
There are still some kinds of produce that have very little, if any, contamination present. Or their skins are thick enough to protect the heart of the fruit inside, without systemic treatment affecting the whole plant. These items are called the Clean Fifteen. So if there are some fruits and vegetables you cannot locate from organic sources in your area, and are not prepared to grow in your own backyard, the following are relatively safe to eat, even when grown conventionally.

Clean Fifteen (safer to eat these if non-organic – minimal pesticide residues in edible portion):

Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Kiwi fruit
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit

Use discernment in shopping, apply common sense, and enjoy happy eating!

Our Joint History
This internal population has been around as long or longer than we have. We’ve evolved together, and we could not get along without them. Many of our intestinal bacteria are necessary for breaking down food, digesting it properly, providing vitamins and enzymes through their action, and assimilating the nutrients from it. They keep the inner environment healthy and clean and act as part of our immune system, killing off or crowding out harmful bacteria and other nefarious intruders like fungi, viruses, and yeasts.

Mother’s Milk
Unfortunately, conditions of modern life have made it difficult to maintain the proper balance of good to bad bacteria. Beginning in infancy, the foundational basis for healthy internal bacterial colonization is a regular diet of mother’s milk. But too few babies actually get this foundation. Soured and fermented foods – which strengthen and enrich the internal bacterial matrix – are still part of the cuisine in Asian and Eastern European cultures, but they are much less common in most of the developed world.

Antibacterial Soaps, Antibiotics, and Vaccines
The skin, the body’s first line of defense against invading pathogens, is richly laden with a host of protective bacteria. Though they can withstand periodic washing with traditional soaps, they are killed by antibacterial soap, and these soaps have become the norm. In the past, young children were exposed to a wide array of relatively benign pathogens, and part of their immune development was to become strong through this regular contact. Ironically, antibacterial soaps are unable to kill the truly dangerous organisms like MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus). Our normal protection would be the beneficial or relatively harmless bacteria that would otherwise be living on the surface of the skin and hands – they would crowd out bugs like MRSA. But once these are wiped out, so is our protection. MRSA developed in hospitals – you might say it was incubated in hospitals – and has been on the rise for the past 25 years. Ever more powerful antibiotics work against it only temporarily; then these drugs serve to breed even more resistant bacteria. Moreover, both staph bacteria as well as antibiotic drugs greatly potentize the virulence of fungal infections.

The experience of allowing an illness to take its natural course through symptoms and recovery is how we have traditionally become strengthened by overcoming diseases. But this process is short-circuited when medications are given to suppress symptoms. The drug, rather than the body’s immune cells, kills the pathogen. Then the cleanup that would normally follow, of immune cells and lymph mobilizing the purging and removal of dead bacteria, worn-out cells, and morbid tissue, is also short-circuited. This leaves a gradually increasing toxic load that sooner or later requires major detoxification efforts to clear, without which chronic health issues like arthritis, congestion, inflammation, obesity, tumors, fatigue, and organ damage arise.

Many childhood diseases like measles, mumps, and chicken pox were a normal part of growing up until recent years. With the proliferation of vaccines against them, one more factor in developing native immune strength has been eliminated. And if the vaccines are administered too many at one time or too early in life, they can actively interfere with proper immune growth and development, especially if the adjuvant in the vaccine contains mercury or aluminum, both known neurotoxins.

Growing up in an environment that in many ways is too sterile deprives children of the robustness that has characterized normal childhood since time immemorial. The supplanting of rural life through urbanization, the fear of abduction by strangers, the need for after-school care and organized indoor activities for children of working parents, their being driven or bussed to school instead of walking, and the ubiquitous presence of electronic media to absorb their focus – all have dramatically curtailed the amount of sun exposure available to growing children. So one of the primary sources of immune support – a rich supply of Vitamin D – has been largely eliminated. There has been so much fear-mongering of the potential for cancer from sun exposure that many youngsters never see the light of day without sunscreen.

Because our children have weaker immune systems than in the past, they are vulnerable to many more infections and thus exposed early to far more antibiotic treatment than ever before. Of necessity, these medicines have gotten more powerful. Yet even a single two-week course of treatment with antibiotics can eliminate most or all of the gut bacteria so critical to health. The relationship between intestinal flora and overall resistance to disease is suggested by the direct correlation found by the National Cancer Institute in 2004 between antibiotic use and risk of breast cancer (http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/2004/antibioticsQA).

Food and Water Supply
Finally, the rise of unsustainable farming methods has resulted in the degradation of health for all populations throughout the industrialized world – though this effect is much less pronounced in places like France, where demand for high quality cuisine has resisted giving way to profits and convenience. This change has taken place through numerous parallel routes. First, the wholesale replacement of natural farming methods with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides has depleted the soils and destroyed the millions of micro-organisms living in them. Health-conscious people nowadays take probiotic bacteria to support healthy intestinal flora. But before the advent of artificial farming methods in the late 1940’s, people got a plentiful supply of these beneficial bacteria simply by eating every day. The foods grown in humus-rich soils were teeming with microflora. (For this reason, it’s a good idea to include soil-based probiotics in a nutritional supplement plan.)

Factory-farmed livestock are subjected to the most abysmal conditions of crowding and inappropriate feed that they live out their short lives in a diseased state, requiring continuous use of antibiotic treatment just to survive to the slaughterhouse. Beef cattle and chickens are fed large amounts of hormones and antibiotics to fatten them quickly for profitability. We, the consumers at the top of the food chain, are exposed to all these recycled drugs in our meat, milk, and eggs. We also get second-hand drugs from groundwater contamination when people flush expired drugs down the toilet, and fecal contamination of crops via spilled runoff into irrigation ditches.

Indoctrinated Tastes
Hybridization of fruit and vegetables over the past century has resulted in produce so much sweeter than traditional foods that people’s tastes have changed radically over time. Especially in America, there is very little tolerance in the typical diet for the traditional tastes of bitter, sour, and pungent – requirements in many other cultures and regional cuisines for gastronomic balance. This means we no longer crave some of the basic tastes that are actually necessary for health, hewing only to the sweet and salty provided in carb-laden, greasy packaging.

Currently, the decline in intestinal health demonstrated in the prevalence of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), Candida, intestinal parasites, dysbiosis, acid reflux, colitis, obesity, malabsorption syndrome, pancreatitis, Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, and colorectal and pancreatic cancers, represents a shift from the 90/10 ratio of good to bad bacteria to a complete reversal for many people – 10% beneficial to 90% pathogenic organisms. This alarming trend is mirrored in the standard American diet (‘SAD’), which now consists of 90% processed food and only 10% whole, natural foods. A similar and probably related ratio is the percentage of farmland – approximately 80% – devoted to ‘agribiz’ crops like soy and corn. Agribiz grains and soy are used both as livestock feed that is alien to the animals’ natural diet, and as harmful GMO food for humans – primarily high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and soy oil or beans used in processed and fast foods. Nor can grain-fed livestock provide health-promoting food for humans. This basic state of affairs is responsible for a huge part of the nation’s healthcare cost woes and individual misery. (http://www.healthyeatingresearch.org/images/stories/her_wingspread/6atpfarmbilloverview.pdf.)

What Can We Do About It?
For parents of young children and growing adolescents, the implications are clear. We control what we purchase, prepare, and feed ourselves and our families. We make conscious choices about the healthcare we seek and the form it takes. We are the ultimate arbiters of our children’s activities and lifestyle (though they may be resistant to change at first). A child’s interest in eating wholesome food will be enormously enhanced by having him or her help tend a backyard garden and prepare food from it. One of the wonderful qualities of children is that they can change so quickly, both in their habits and preferences, and in their ability to heal and overcome setbacks.

As adults, we too can change, becoming more conscious of where our food comes from and the life-giving elements it needs to provide for us. Eating foods that are naturally fermented, cultured, soured, or sprouted fosters that lively mix of bacteria inside. Complementing our meals with foods like sunflower sprouts, kombucha tea, crème fraiche, sprouted grains, naturally cured meats and naturally pickled beets, buttermilk, sauerkraut, kefir, kimchee, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, green apples, soaked nuts, raw cheeses and butters, and bitter herbs and lettuces, will support health and enable us to re-establish vibrant tastebuds. Buying dairy from pasture-grazed lands, eggs from free-range chickens, and meat from grass-fed animals will ensure the highest nutritional value and the most humane conditions for the animals who gave their lives to feed us. Supporting local farmer’s markets brings us closer to the land and our connection to the earth. The food is sold within hours of being harvested, so its freshness offers more intensity of taste, vitality, and life force than supermarket produce. Convenience food seems cheaper, but not in the toll it takes on our health, the animals, and the planet we all share.

Dr Clark made several brilliant discoveries. The most important were these: (1) Every serious illness is associated with and can be traced to a specific parasite. (2) Each of these parasites is associated with a particular toxic metal or chemical which, when stored in the human body, provides a symbiotic “safe haven” for that organism. (3) Industrial solvents – traces of which can be found in almost all personal care products and household cleansers – enable parasites to persist in the human body, rather than being spontaneously and routinely eliminated, as was the case prior to the 1960s. It is this persistence over the long term that creates multiple deleterious effects that can ultimately destroy health.

All of the bad news from these discoveries was balanced by good news, for Dr Clark also discovered that every pathogenic organism had a signature Hertz frequency that, when transmitted electrically, would kill it. She devised an instrument called a zapper that could be set to various frequencies in order to eliminate infection or disease. Through painstaking research over many years she was led to her discovery that each organism had this signature ‘elimination’ frequency. Moreover, that the causative organism itself could be identified by the nature and symptoms of the presenting illness; and finally, that it could be cured using the appropriate frequency. The voltage needed to combat microscopic organisms was so minute that it did not disturb the human energy field or have any ill effects on the patient.

Because the liver is so central to eliminating toxins, and because detoxification is impaired when the liver itself is toxic, Dr Clark popularized a liver flush that had been used as a home remedy for generations but nearly forgotten in the modern era. The key aspects of Dr Clark’s treatments are herbal remedies, electronic zapping, and liver and gall bladder detoxification, as well as avoiding the solvents and heavy metals that led to the problem in the first place.

Readers may not be familiar with Dr Clark’s work because it has been aggressively suppressed and denounced by the pharmaceutical and medical industries along with their allies in the US government. She treated people at her low-cost clinic in Auburn, California, for many years until she was harassed into leaving the country. She thereafter moved her lab and offices to San Diego so she could maintain her clinic just over the border in Mexico. Among the hallmarks of Dr Clark’s prodigious humanitarianism are that she worked tirelessly despite threats and intimidation well into old age. She did not operate for-profit businesses; her treatment protocols, books, and tested-pure herbal products are still available at cost, for amazingly low prices in this difficult economy. Due to her inability to treat the large numbers of patients wishing to see her, she accepted only the most severe, those with end-stage terminal illness; and yet the recovery rate of those seeking treatment was above 90%. She believed in empowering health consumers and felt that less severe cases would respond well to following the protocols she made available through her books and online.

Dr Clark was dedicated to freedom of speech, expression, thought, and religion as well as freedom from suffering. This she demonstrated in death as well as life by requesting that memorial donations be made to Amnesty International, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and the American Civil Liberties Union. To visit her memorial website, go to  www.InMemoryOfDrHuldaClark.com.

While some devotees of cologne and perfume like their fragrances long-lasting, they may be unaware that it is phthalates – causing the disagreeable odor at the nail shop – that act as a perfume fixative, retaining the smell for 24 hours and sometimes much longer, even after clothing has been laundered in a washing machine or professionally cleaned. In fact, these same chemicals permeate the fragrance in laundry detergent, which is why it doesn’t wash away in the rinse cycle. If you find that you cannot seem to wash off fragrance from laundry detergent, fabric softener, shampoos, cologne, pump soap, dishwashing liquid, or cleaning products, you might want to change brands because you could be compromising your health. The chemicals in fabric softener sheets like Bounce are left embedded in clothing. They shorten the life of sheets and clothes, and the substance rubs off on your skin, potentially causing skin irritation and respiratory problems.

Also be aware that the switch from one heavily advertised brand to another is not likely to help.

How to Buy Safe Cleansers and Cosmetics that Enhance your Health

Buying products designated “unscented” eliminates the toxics in synthetic fragrances, but if they are commercial brands they will likely contain toxic chemicals elsewhere in their ingredients, many of which according to US labeling laws are not required to be listed.

Natural botanicals and pure essential oils, by contrast, have therapeutic properties and have been used – literally for thousands of years – for their health-conferring benefits as well as for beauty and enjoyment. The safest approach to shopping for personal care items and household products is to buy from companies that have never used toxic ingredients. These include the following:

(1) 100% Organic products which by legal definition preclude use of toxic processing or ingredients

(2) Cosmetic companies like Aubrey that never test their products on lab animals because there is no need, as the ingredients are all known to be safe

(3) Products containing scents naturally derived from botanicals like coconut oil or essential oils

(4) “Green” companies like Method whose mission is to produce quality products that do not harm the environment

(5) Cosmetics made using 100% pure, distilled essential oils by genuine aromatherapy companies

Reputable aromatherapeutic products are available in most health food stores as well as online. Trader Joe’s does a good job of providing unscented and natural-scented soaps, shampoos, and laundry detergent as well as organic produce and pet food. This does not apply to all TJ brands, however; read the labels to be sure of what you’re getting.

Don’t be fooled by heavily advertised brands like Clairol Herbal Essences, a shampoo that has co-opted two of the most holistic-sounding words in its very name, yet is highly toxic. If a product is advertised on television, the ad budget has compromised the quality of the product. It means the company’s priority is on marketing, promotion, and hype.

Skin creams, makeup, shampoos, or colognes purporting to be “natural” may not be – not if the single word fragrance is listed in the ingredients. Sadly for the unsuspecting public, the word fragrance is legally defined as a scent produced synthetically in a laboratory, usually through petroleum-based chemistry.

Topical preparations are absorbed systemically through the skin, in some cases more efficiently than if they were consumed orally. For this reason, it’s a good idea to avoid putting anything on your skin that you wouldn’t consider safe to eat.

Scented sprays, gels and plug-in fresheners offer no public health benefits yet contain harmful chemicals linked to breathing difficulties, developmental problems in babies and cancer in laboratory animals.

In houses, offices and restrooms, Americans suffer significant exposure to a veritable cocktail of dangerous and potentially dangerous volatile organic compounds. In cases of mold and damp indoor environments, air fresheners may hide an indicator of potentially serious health threats to the respiratory system.

Proposed truth-in-advertising labeling would require listing all ingredients in air fresheners. The government should ban ingredients that would cause allergies or appear on California’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm.

The air fresheners can contain a number of harmful chemicals including benzene, formaldehyde, and phthalates.

Lab animal studies show that some phthalates interfere with hormonal systems, disrupt testosterone production and cause malformation of sex organs. Some studies of humans have shown a link between exposure and adverse changes in the genitals of baby boys.

The Natural Resource Defense Council sent 14 air fresheners to be tested for phthalates in an independent lab. The tests found that 12 products, including those marked “all natural,” contained phthalates.

Rewriting History

While Walgreens pulled the offending products from their shelves, other industry representatives insist the air fresheners “pose no health threat and contribute to a better quality of life in many households.” Further, that air fresheners “do contribute to the quality of life. Fragrances have been used for centuries, dating back to when the Chinese and the Egyptians used incense and fragrant oils. They obviously have a value, or consumers wouldn’t buy them” (Bill Lafield, op cit).

Of course, what Mr Lafield fails to mention is that the fragrances used for centuries bear no resemblance to the petrochemically-based synthetics his group sells that make people sick. Before the rise of the chemical industry, traditional sources for cosmetics were botanically-based, derived from common nut or fruit oils like coconut, apricot, and olive; or from essential oils such as rose, jasmine, sandalwood, frankincense, and lavender. These botanicals and volatile oils actually enhanced health. One of the health hazards cited in the environmental groups’ petition is the ability of air fresheners to mask the smell of mold, an indicator of potentially serious health threats to the respiratory system.

Among the many ironies of misleading industry statements such as the quote from Lafield is that traditional fragrances – essential oils like lemon, tea tree, eucalyptus, and others that are commonly used to purify dank air – have antimicrobial actions that in fact kill bacteria and fungus, making breathing easier for people with respiratory conditions.

The news of a statewide ban on phthalates follows several other alarms sounded recently about the presence of chemical dangers to health to which the public and wildlife are commonly exposed, in everyday consumer products and even new forms of advertising.

Wetlands advocates and other environmental groups have issued warnings and public safety requests to Bay Area residents to forgo phthalate- and bisphenol-containing plastics, cosmetics, and cleansers because the chemicals in these products find their way into runoff that kills or harms wildlife in the Bay. As for human health, phthalates – linked to cancer, birth defects, and neurological damage – were found in 75% of urine samples tested in a 2003 study on safety (http://www.environcorp.com/img/media/Phthalates.pdf).

Meanwhile, perfluorinated compounds – used in Scotchgard, Gortex, and nonstick surfaces like Teflon, are showing up in marine life literally throughout the world – the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Ganges in India, the Midway Atoll in the Pacific, Korea, Canada and the US, and even as far away as Antarctica . These chemicals have caused hormone disruption, immune compromise, and devastating neurological effects. They have been linked to cancer in whales and dolphins, a disease previously unheard of in cetaceans (http://assets.panda.org/downloads/causesforconcern.pdf).

Fake Cookie Smells

Last year, San Francisco bus shelter ads exuding aromatic smells of chocolate chip cookies were pulled after multiple complaints and controversy. Conceived by the “Got Milk” people – the California Milk Processor Board, the ads prompted complaints by health activists in defense of people with asthma and chemical sensitivity. Resisting behavioral manipulation, diet-conscious people complained of being driven by temptation while waiting for the bus. Others worried that cookie smells would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the homeless who routinely sought shelter there from the elements but might not have the ready purchasing power to satisfy cravings (SF Chron, 11/30/06 and 12/6/06). Clearly, if the smells were genuine baking aromas, they would not trigger asthma attacks or neurological symptoms; rather it is synthetic chemicals that are health hazards.

Synthetic Pheromonal Pesticide

Hundreds of residents in Fresno were hospitalized earlier this month with stomach pains and shortness of breath when a synthetic pheromone-containing chemical was sprayed on crops to eradicate the brown apple moth. Whether it was the pheromone itself that caused illness, or other chemicals added to the pesticide, is still under investigation. Judge Robert O’Farrell issued a temporary injunction to stop the spraying, but he has since ruled that the spraying can resume, even though the source of the problem has not been identified; thus it would seem that locals will again be at risk (SF Chron 10/19/07).

Front-page news last week from the California Assembly highlighted passage of a statewide ban on phthalates, a softener in plastics (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/16/07). A nationwide push to ban phthalates is currently taking place in nine other states as well, according to the advocacy group Environment California. Though common in the US in items ranging from baby bottles, toys and teething rings to hospital IV bags, household cleansers and cosmetic fragrances, phthalates are banned in fourteen countries, as well as the European Union.

“Death by Perfume”

Long suspected of causing adverse health effects, phthalates in items ranging from plastics to perfumes have been linked to hormone disruption in animals, developmental damage in young children, and breast cancer (Gretchen Lee, Breast Cancer Fund, op cit). In the class of phthalates is the substance that “fixes” the scent in perfumes, making their smell linger. Phthalate enables molten acrylic to soften, and its noxious volatile odor is what causes nausea, headaches and other neurological symptoms in susceptible people when exposed to the smell of acrylic nails being applied in manicure shops.

Industry representatives claim that a ban will deny consumers the products they “want and need” by removing them from store shelves, and that “scientific reviews here and in Europe have found these toys safe for children to use.”(Jack Gerard, American Chemistry Council, ibid). However, a ban by the European Union suggests otherwise. Absent citation of such scientific reviews, one suspects they may be industry-funded research commissioned and designed to arrive at the conclusion of safety.

The pineal gland, in the center of the cranium at the base of the brain, receives sunlight at dawn through your closed lids, secreting melatonin in response to the light and waking you up. Your internal clock is set by this mechanism. So precise is this clock that it will wake you at the same time each morning with or without an alarm. It will wake you even at an odd hour, if you mentally program yourself to get up then.

Current research suggests that the pineal gland, master of life rhythms, is even responsible for programming the lifespan itself. Though this phenomenon is little understood so far, what does make sense is to maximize your time awake during sunlight hours and minimize the time spent staying up late under artificial light. In accordance with circadian (daily) rhythms, your body undergoes detoxification, repair of tissue, and rebuilding of new tissue during sleep. Each organ system has its own nighttime cycle for repair and rejuvenation. The key organ of detoxification, the liver, does its work between 10pm and 2am, and this timing is very exact. The detox phase will not occur unless the body is fully at rest.

Because your body has to shift gears into the darker, quieter phase of the year at this time, the organic effort required and the resulting stress can result in colds or flu. As winter approaches, your body begins to slow down and conserve energy. It might mean gaining a few pounds, pounds easier lost in spring than winter. The physiological slowing down of winter may also mean sleeping more, which for most people would be a good thing, as sleep deprivation is a common health (and safety) issue. You can facilitate the changes your body is going through by changing your diet accordingly: a fall and winter cuisine based on root vegetables, the cabbage family, nuts, seeds, soups, squashes, and stews. The berries and melons that so delighted us in spring and summer now give way to late-harvest grapes and persimmons and cold-weather fruits like apples and pears. The colors of your meals will reflect the world outside of dark greens, deep reds, purples, golds, yellows, and oranges.

The internal fires of digestion are harder to ignite in colder weather, so it is kind to your body as well as comforting to plan on warm foods more often, especially at breakfast. For this reason it is also best to avoid drinking ice-cold water and other drinks; the temperature difference is shocking to internal membranes, and significant effort is required to heat the liquid to body temperature.

The need for fats and oils is also higher in winter, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is by taking cod liver oil – of all the fish oils the one richest in Vitamin A and D. Cod liver oil protects against cancer, mental health problems, arthritis, and immune challenges. It is not possible to meet daily Vitamin D requirements from sunlight at any time in Temperate Zones except during the three months of summer, and dietary sources are limited. Cod liver oil that is free of contaminants is available at health food stores (see also Products web page) and identified by certification. High quality oils are very fresh, contain antioxidants, and are thus free of fishy odors; they come in lemon and mint flavors that taste good and blend well in smoothies or salad dressings.

Making these simple commonsense adjustments to seasonal changes can mean the difference between getting sick and staying well. Seasonal changes in the fall and spring are an especially good time to do your own detox, which will assist the efforts of your organs already underway. More on detoxing in the next update!