Drug Makers Push for Indemnity for Fast-Tracked Ebola Vaccines

By Dr. Mercola

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), millions of doses of Ebola vaccine should be ready and available next year. Efficacy trials for two different Ebola vaccines are slated to begin in December. As reported by The Verge:¹

"The WHO says that there are no plans to begin a mass vaccination program until at least June 2015, and then only if the growth of the epidemic justifies it."

The vaccine industry has a number of hurdles to conquer before they will stand to make a fortune from an Ebola vaccine however.

For starters, vaccine manufacturers are demanding indemnity against lawsuits that may arise from the use of a fast-tracked Ebola vaccine,² similar to the indemnity claimed by the United Nations (UN), whose peacekeepers stand accused of causing the cholera outbreak in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the small country.

An estimated 700,000 Haitians have contracted cholera and 8,500 have died from it since the beginning of the outbreak. While the source of the outbreak could not be conclusively determined, a group of Haitians filed a lawsuit against the UN in 2013.

A lawyer for the US Justice Department recently called for the case to be dismissed, saying the UN is "absolutely immune" to claims of wrongdoing.³ This is the kind of "immunity" vaccine makers want as well, but indemnity might not be quite as easy to get as initially thought in this case.

Can You Trust Government Agencies and Health Experts to Prevent a Deadly Pandemic?

The federal government may also expect some resistance to a mass vaccination program against Ebola.

Considering how the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has bungled the handling deadly pathogens in the past, and has so far clumsily tripped over every Ebola hurdle placed in its path.

We probably have more to fear from the federal government than the viruses themselves. Hence when the federal government arrives at your door saying "we are here to help," it's understandable why some may want to run in the other direction...

We've also seen public health "experts" act in ways that really raise questions about their ability to give sound advice in a pandemic situation. NBC News' chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman, for example, was exposed to Ebola while on assignment in Liberia.

She and other members of her news team were supposed to stay in quarantine for 21 days, but decided to break their quarantine to get some take-out... Writing for KevinMD.com, Barbara Ficarra notes:⁴

"Her actions for violating the quarantine are unacceptable and very disconcerting. As a medical communicator, her role is to provide accurate, credible and trustworthy health information to the public, and to demonstrate good, sound judgment...

Dr. Snyderman basically showed the world that it's OK to dodge the rules at your own discretion. She had no regard for her role as a medical communicator...

As a health professional, Dr. Snyderman may be confident that she posed no risk to the public, but as a medical communicator, she demonstrated disregard to any rules and made them her own..."

Unlike Dr. Snyderman and her news team, upon return from work in Sierra Leone, epidemiologist nurse Kaci Hickox was placed under a 21-day long mandatory quarantine.⁵ She recently spoke to CNN, criticizing the decision to detain her, even though she's tested negative for Ebola twice, and is asymptomatic.

As noted by the White House administration, state efforts to enforce mandatory quarantine of health care workers returning from Africa might have the unfortunate result of discouraging them from volunteering their services.

Shortly after her media appearance, Hickox was released.⁶ While one could argue that quarantine is a good idea to control the spread of infection, imprisoning someone who is asymptomatic is still quite different from honoring a voluntary 21-day home quarantine as a safety precaution.

Dr. Snyderman broke government protocol for a sandwich. At the same time, she advocates mandatory vaccination, claiming unvaccinated people are endangering others...

Nurse to Challenge Fear-Based Policy

How are we measuring threats of disease against the rights of individuals? It appears our rights are gone when the threats appear as minor as possible, while an incompetent government and fear mongering media led by big pharma mislead and conquer.

My guess is that Hickox was released because they feared facing a court challenge that might set a precedent conflicting with the existing Supreme Court rulings about forced vaccinations and forced sterilization. If so, it was "too little, too late," as Kaci Hickox is still going ahead with a lawsuit. As reported by Reuters⁷ on October 28:

"Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer, said Kaci Hickox's isolation upon her return from West Africa raised 'serious constitutional and civil liberties issues,' given that she shows no Ebola symptoms and has not tested positive for the disease.

'We're not going to dispute that the government has, under certain circumstances, the right to issue a quarantine,' said Siegel... 'The policy is overly broad when applied to her.'

The lawsuit would be the first to challenge the 21-day mandatory quarantine imposed by New Jersey for anyone arriving with a high risk of having contracted Ebola from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea... The case could also affect similar policies announced by other states including New York and Illinois.

The lawsuit will argue that Hickox's constitutional right to due process was violated when she was forced into isolation... State officials implemented a blanket policy without identifying a rational basis for confining asymptomatic individuals like Hickox, he said. 'The case law makes clear that the policy should be driven by medical fact, not fear,' he said."

Vast Majority of American Ebola Patients Have Recovered

Vaccine makers are shielded against lawsuits if a vaccine is either added to the vaccination schedule or classified as a pandemic vaccine. But there may not be enough Ebola victims to justify pandemic classification in the US.

As reported by Forbes⁸ on October 21, 80 percent of then-diagnosed Ebola patients in the US have in fact survived—and most of those without a vaccine or other Ebola-specific medication. So far, only one American patient, Thomas Duncan, who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the US, has died from the disease.

Amber Vinson, a nurse who initially tested positive for the virus, has since been confirmed virus-free and has been moved out of isolation.⁹ Another unnamed American Ebola patient who had been working with WHO in Sierra Leone was discharged from Emory University Hospital on September 19—10 days after being admitted and treated for Ebola.

Missionary Nancy Writebol, who contracted the disease while doing aid work in Liberia, was discharged Emory University Hospital on August 19 after being treated for two weeks. Dr. Kent Brantly, another aid worker, was also discharged after nearly three weeks of treatment.

Brantly and Writebol both received the experimental and as-of-yet unapproved drug Zmapp. Maternity ward nurse Debbie Sacra, diagnosed with Ebola on September 3, received a blood transfusion from Dr. Brantly, and was also found to be virus-free on September 25.

On October 23, Dr. Spencer Craig, who had treated Ebola patients in Guinea, tested positive for the virus in New York City, and is currently in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center.¹⁰ He's described as being "in good shape." The next day, October 24, Dallas nurse Nina Pham who'd been diagnosed with Ebola on October 12, was announced virus-free, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted the disease while on assignment in West Africa, was also released from the hospital on October 22 after spending just over two weeks in isolation.¹¹ He too received a blood transfusion from Ebola survivor Dr. Brantly.

What Are the Chances an Ebola Vaccine Will Work as Expected?

Recent developments also raise questions about the feasibility of successfully eradicating Ebola with a vaccine. It's important to understand that vaccine-acquired immunity is temporary, and only protects against the particular strain of the virus included in the vaccine.

New Zealand, for example, is currently battling a "rogue" flu strain that is affecting even those who have received their annual flu shot,¹² as the circulating strain was not included in this season's vaccine. In another example, an 18-year old San Diego student recently died from a strain of meningitis that was not covered by the vaccine approved for use in the US. As noted by Fox5 News:¹³

"A vaccine is available to prevent certain strains of meningococcal disease and is routinely recommended for children and adolescents 11 to 18 years of age, including a booster for those entering college if they received their last dose prior to age 15... According to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the current vaccine used in the United States blocks some, but not all strains of meningococcal bacteria – including serogroups A, C, Y and W-135. Vaccines used in Europe, Canada and Australia defend against serogroup B."

Pandemic Flu Vaccine Made People Sicker

Moreover, a number of studies have now suggested that vaccination may actually increase the future risk of infection. Case in point: the 2008-2009 flu vaccine actually made people more prone to pandemic swine flu. As noted in the Canadian press two years ago:¹⁴

"Canadian researchers noticed in the early weeks of the pandemic that people who got a flu shot for the 2008-2009 winter seemed to be more likely to get infected with the pandemic virus than people who hadn't received a flu shot. Five studies done in several provinces showed the same puzzling and unsettling results... a new study suggests the findings may indeed have been real."

The study in question was led by Dr. Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, and the findings were presented at the the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in 2012. Thirty-two ferrets were divided into two groups: one group receiving the 2008 flu vaccine and the other a placebo. All the ferrets were then infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus. End result?

The vaccinated ferrets became significantly sicker than the unvaccinated animals, which is the exact converse of what vaccines are supposed to do. At the time, Dr. Skowronski noted that: "The findings... are consistent with the increased risk that we saw in the human studies." It's still unclear what caused this effect, but two theories suggested at the time were described as follows:

1. The "original antigenic sin" hypothesis: if the virus in the vaccine is close but not an exact match to the pandemic virus in circulation, it might actually facilitate infection, as the antibodies generated are not able to adequately neutralize the virus.
2. The "infection block hypothesis" relates to vaccine-acquired versus naturally-acquired immunity. When you recover from a bout of the flu, it's possible that your body creates antibodies capable of defending against other similar strains of the virus—at least for some time. The flu vaccine, on the other hand, only offers protection against the strains included in the vaccine. The theory here is that those who received a flu shot in 2009 (and didn't get sick with the flu) were therefore more susceptible to the pandemic virus the following year.

Indeed, when blood samples from healthy, unvaccinated children and children who had received an annual flu shot were compared, the unvaccinated group was found to have naturally built up more antibodies across a wider variety of influenza strains compared to the latter vaccinated group. Needless to say, this gives those who are unvaccinated a clear advantage when a really nasty viral flu comes along...

Selenium Deficiency Could Potentially Play an Important Role in Ebola Lethality

Here's yet another factor that could play an important role in the Ebola outbreak: selenium deficiency. The documented relationship between low selenium status and impaired immunity in relation to Ebola goes back to 1995. Intriguing evidence suggests that the lethal hemorrhaging associated with the Ebola virus may be influenced by a lack of selenium...

According to Dr. Gary Gordan, adults need at least 400 micrograms (mcg) of selenium per day, but if the virus is making seleno-proteins—which Ebola is thought to do—you may need several times that amount. The documentation I'm referring to was published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in 1995,¹⁵ and reads in part:

"The expression of this hypothetical protein could impose an unprecedented selenium demand upon the host, potentially leading to severe lipid peroxidation and cell membrane destruction. This could also contribute to the characteristic hemorrhaging caused by intravascular blood clotting, due to the thrombotic effect of selenium (Se) deficiency. The possibility that this gene might contribute to the extreme pathogenicity of the Zaire strain of Ebola virus by this mechanism is also consistent with the observation that this potential selenoprotein gene is not present in the Ebola Reston strain, which was not pathogenic in humans...

It is very well documented that selenium plays a significant role in the regulation of blood clotting via its effects on the thromboxane/prostacyclin ratio. Selenium has an anti-clotting effect, whereas selenium deficiency has a pro-clotting or thrombotic effect. Selenium deficiency has been associated with thrombosis and even hemorrhaging, which has been documented in a number of animals with severe selenium deficiency... but is almost never seen in humans, probably because such an extreme selenium deficiency is rarely attained due to the diversity of human diets.

Thus, the possibility that a rapid depletion of selenium due to the formation of viral selenoproteins could be a factor contributing to the severity of the hemorrhagic symptoms is mechanistically very feasible. Our analysis suggests that severe Ebola infections could produce an artificial and extreme Se depletion, resulting in extensive cellular damage due to lipid peroxidation, combined with enhanced thrombosis.

This could also contribute to the associated immune deficiency that has been observed in Ebola infections.

To our knowledge, indicators of Se status and lipid peroxidation have never been examined in Ebola patients. However, selenium has apparently been used with great success by the Chinese in the palliative treatment of an infectious hemorrhagic fever. Although this did not involve Ebola virus, there are a number of different hemorrhagic fever viruses, and they may share common mechanisms. This example provides yet another reason to expect that pharmacological doses of selenium may also have some benefit in Ebola infections." [Emphasis mine]

Fast-Tracked Vaccines Are Typically Fraught with Safety Hazards

As I've discussed many times previously, there are tremendous hazards inherent with fast-tracking pandemic vaccines. By their very definition, fast-tracked vaccines are those that have received very little safety testing prior to being used, and in the US, regulations place ALL the risk on the public receiving the vaccine, allowing the vaccine makers a free pass if and when something goes terribly awry—as it did with the pandemic H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

Not only did the prior year's flu vaccine (which was not fast-tracked) increase your odds of developing more severe H1N1 infection, the fast-tracked pandemic H1N1 vaccine also turned out to have very grave side effects, including a 660-900 percent increased risk for narcolepsy, which devastated the lives of thousands around the world. When you receive a fast-tracked vaccine, you take risks that you likely will never be compensated for, should something go wrong.

The PREP Act removes your right to a trial jury unless you can provide clear evidence of willful misconduct that resulted in death or serious physical injury. But first you must apply for and be granted permission to sue by the DHHS Secretary. The most problematic aspect of the PREP Act is that it removes all financial incentive to make a safe product. In fact, vaccine makers now have a negative incentive to test it for safety, because if they are aware of problems, then they could potentially be held liable for willful misconduct.

As long as they can prove they "didn't know" of any problem, they will not be liable for damages, and this fact undoubtedly makes fast-tracked pandemic vaccines very attractive in their eyes. There's lots of money to be made, and zero risk on their behalf. It even saves them money on research as the "safety studies" are basically done by tallying up the damage well after the fact... In the meantime, it's in their best interest to know as little as possible about the adverse reactions the vaccine might cause.

For the most part, most all of the conventional media portrays the entire vaccine process as something heroic and vital to the health of our culture, and they will be reluctant to ever promote any news that contradicts this belief. But as recent history shows, the GREATEST danger could actually be the CDC and other bioterror labs.

I believe we need to consider the financial motives behind the promotion of pandemics and the vaccines that go along with them. It is vital for you to carefully research ALL sides of the vaccine issue and not merely trust federal public health authorities, most physicians, and the media, as they are largely influenced by massive conflict of interest and collusion. Seek other independent and objective views like those at NVIC before you make any important decisions about deciding to vaccinate.

Green Tea Helps Lower Blood Pressure, and Much More...

By Dr. Mercola

Pure water is by far the ideal beverage of choice, but high-quality tea can be a valuable addition. Not only does tea rehydrate as well as water does, most teas also have additional health benefits.¹

High-quality tea—green tea in particular—contains polyphenol antioxidants that are recognized for their disease prevention and anti-aging properties. Polyphenols can account for up to 30 percent of the dry leaf weight of green tea.

Within the group of polyphenols are flavonoids, which contain catechins. One of the most powerful catechins is epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), found in green tea. EGCG has been shown to positively impact a number of illnesses and conditions.

Previous research² has shown that green tea polyphenols act on molecular pathways to shut down the production and spread of tumor cells. They also discourage the growth of the blood vessels that feed the tumors.

EGCG even acts as an antiangiogenic and antitumor agent, and helps modulate tumor cell response to chemotherapy.³ Study results also show EGCG can be helpful for the prevention of arterio­sclerosis, cerebral thrombus, heart attack, and stroke—in part due to its ability to relax your arteries and improve blood flow.⁴

Green Tea Lowers Blood Pressure Naturally

Some of the latest research in this area again confirms such health benefits. After analyzing 25 randomized controlled trials, the systematic review, published in the British Journal of Nutrition in October⁵ concluded that long-term tea intake significantly improved blood pressure. As reported in Time Magazine:⁶

“After 12 weeks of drinking tea, blood pressure was lower by 2.6 mmHg systolic and 2.2 mmHg diastolic. Green tea had the most significant results, while black tea performed the next best...

Reducing systolic blood pressure by 2.6 mmHg ‘would be expected to reduce stroke risk by 8 percent, coronary artery disease mortality by 5 percent and all-cause mortality by 4 percent at a population level...’”

While unable to determine exactly how much tea you need to drink to receive these benefits, a number of previous studies have suggested the ideal amount lies around three to four cups of tea per day.⁷ 

For example, one 2007 study⁸ found “clear evidence” showing that three or more cups of tea—in this case black tea—reduced the risk of coronary heart disease.

Similarly, drinking three to four cups of green tea daily has been shown to promote heart and cardiovascular health,⁹ again courtesy of its ability to relax blood vessels and protect against blood clots.

Green Tea—Helpful Against Obesity, Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s Disease

There are certain compounds and nutrients that seem to have near limitless health potential, and catechins are part of that pack. Fortunately, high-quality green tea is an excellent source of these antioxidants, making them easily available.

Besides its beneficial effects on your circulatory system, previous studies have demonstrated that EGCG in particular has a regulatory effect on fat metabolism, thereby increasing fat oxidation and preventing obesity. It can even help improve exercise performance.

One 2010 study¹⁰ evaluating EGCG’s potential in weight loss found it increases fat oxidation by a respectable 33 percent. EGCG may also aid weight loss by inhibiting fat cell development and increasing fat excretion. Obesity and diabetes tend to go hand in hand, and what is beneficial for one is usually beneficial for the other as well.

Indeed, one animal study¹¹ found that EGCG was as effective as the diabetic drug Avandia in moderately diabetic mice, suggesting green tea, or a high-quality green tea extract, could be helpful for the prevention and/or treatment of diabetes.

Researchers have also discovered that green tea has the potential to enhance the function of your brain, and prevent age-associated brain degeneration.

Specifically, EGCG appears to decrease the production of the protein beta-amyloid, which can over-accumulate in your brain, resulting in nerve damage and memory loss over time¹² – a condition related to Alzheimer’s disease.

In one study,¹³ published in 2005, researchers injected pure EGCG into mice genetically programmed to develop Alz­heimer’s; the results showed a decrease of as much as 54 percent in the plaque associated with Alzheimer’s.

Other Health Benefits of Green Tea

Catechins in green tea may also help protect against glaucoma and other eye diseases. In one study,¹⁴ scientists analyzed eye tissue from rats that drank green tea and found that eye tissues such as the lens and retina had in fact absorbed green tea catechins.

According to the authors, oxidative stress causes biological disturbances such as DNA damage and activation of proteolytic enzymes that can lead to tissue cell damage or dysfunction—and, eventually, ophthalmic diseases. Green tea catechins have also been found to:

• Lower your breast cancer risk
• Ease inflammation and pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)¹⁵
• Reduce your risk of autoimmune diseases
• Promote healthy gums
• Improve digestion

A botanical ointment containing a green tea extract was even found to be an effective treatment for external genital and anal warts, according to the results of one 2008 study.¹⁶ Genital and anal warts are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), and there has been a lack of effective, well tolerated treatments.

The researchers assigned over 500 adults with up to 30 warts to receive either an ointment containing sinecatechins, or a placebo. In the sinecatechins groups, warts cleared completely in roughly 57 percent of patients, compared to just 34 percent of subjects in the control group.

Quality Green Tea Is Green

Out of the seemingly endless varieties of tea out there, there is only a handful I would recommend drinking. My two favorites are Matcha green tea and Tulsi—a powerful adaptogenic herb that also provides important therapeutic benefits.

Green tea in general is among the least processed kinds of tea, which is why it contains some of the highest amounts of EGCG. Unlike other teas that you steep and strain, Matcha tea comes in the form of a powder that you add right into the water.

Matcha tea can contain over 100 times the EGCG provided by regular brewed green tea, and since you’re consuming the entire ground tea leaf, you’re getting the most benefit from each cup of tea you drink.

Besides being an excellent source of antioxidants, green tea is also packed with vitamins A, D, E, C, B, B5, H, and K, manganese, and other beneficial minerals such as zinc, chromium, and selenium. A telltale sign of high quality is that the tea is in fact green. If your green tea looks brown rather than green, it’s likely been oxidized, which can damage or destroy many of its most valuable compounds.

To boost the benefits of green tea, add a squirt of lemon juice to your cup. Previous research has demonstrated that vitamin C significantly increases the amount of catechins available for your body to absorb. In fact, citrus juice increased available catechin levels by more than five times, causing 80 percent of tea's catechins to remain bioavailable!

Tea Can Be a Valuable Part of a Healthy Diet

If you enjoy green tea, by all means add a few cups to your day. Just be sure to drink your green tea “straight.” Adding sugar, milk, or other “embellishments” (one exception being some citrus juice), will counter many of the benefits of the tea. Again, green tea contains the most EGCG of all tea varieties, and other than water, I believe high-quality green tea is one of the most beneficial beverages you can consume.

Another excellent choice is Tulsi tea, which is also chockfull of antioxidants. The complex and unique chemistry of this aromatic herb also offers benefits that go over and beyond that of other teas. Tulsi tea contains hundreds of beneficial compounds known as phytochemicals—non-nutritive plant compounds that have protective and health promoting properties. Working together, these compounds possess potential antioxidant, adaptogenic, and immune-enhancing properties that can fight stress and help promote your general health in multiple ways, including:

• Bolstering your immune system
• Providing you with a calming effect and relief from occasional stress
• Promoting healthy metabolism
• Helping maintain optimal blood sugar levels
• Supporting normal cholesterol levels

How to Recognize Nutrient Deficiencies

By Dr. Mercola

If you eat a balanced, whole-food diet like the one described in my nutrition plan, you’re probably giving your body more-than-adequate amounts of the vitamins and minerals it needs to function.

If not (and this applies to the majority of the U.S. population), there’s a good chance your body is lacking in important nutrients. Even if you do eat well, other factors – such as your age and certain health conditions (digestive issues and others) – can impact your body’s ability to absorb the nutrients in your food.

Meanwhile, soil quality, storage time, and processing can significantly influence the levels of certain nutrients in your food, such that even healthy produce may not be as nutrient-rich as you may think.

Nutrient deficiencies can be sneaky, too. Unless you are seriously deficient for some time, you may notice no symptoms at all, leading you to believe (falsely) that your body is getting all the nutrition you need.

More often, however, such deficiencies do cause symptoms, which can range from minor to severe. Unless you know what to look for, however, you’re likely to mistake the signs for something else…

5 Signs Your Body May Be Nutrient Deficient

If you’ve noticed a mysterious health symptom that has no apparent cause, it’s worth considering whether a nutrient deficiency may be to blame. Q for Equinox recently shared 5 examples to watch for. As Dr. Susan Blum, founder of the Blum Center for Health, said:¹

“You may not get a disease but you can end up with impaired functioning, because vitamins are co-factors for all the bio-chemical reactions in the body. We need them in order to function properly.”

1. Cracks at the Corners of Your Mouth

This can be a sign of iron, zinc, and B-vitamin (niacin, riboflavin, and B12) deficiency, or that you’re not getting enough protein. Good dietary sources of these nutrients include organic free-range poultry and eggs, wild-caught Alaskan salmon, oysters, and clams (if you can be sure they are harvested from non-polluted waters), Swiss chard, and tahini.

Because iron absorption is enhanced by vitamin C, be sure your diet also includes plenty of vitamin C-rich veggies like broccoli, red bell peppers, kale, and cauliflower.

2. Hair Loss and a Red, Scaly Rash (Especially on Your Face)

This can be a sign of biotin (vitamin B7) deficiency. Your body needs biotin for metabolizing fats, carbohydrates, and amino acids, but it’s most well-known for its role in strengthening your hair and nails. Egg yolks from organic, free-range eggs are one of the best sources of biotin.

The best way to consume eggs, provided they come from a high-quality source, is to not cook them at all, which is why my advanced nutrition plan recommends eating your eggs raw.

However, beware of consuming raw egg whites without the yolks as raw egg whites contain avidin, which can bind to biotin and potentially lead to a deficiency.

If you cook the egg white, the avidin is not an issue. Likewise, if you consume the whole raw egg (both yolk and egg white) there is more than enough biotin in the yolk to compensate for the avidin binding. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon, avocados, mushrooms, cauliflower, nuts, raspberries, and bananas also contain biotin.

3. Red or White Acne-Like Bumps (on Your Cheeks, Arms, Thighs, and Buttocks)

This can be a sign of deficiency in essential fatty acids like omega-3s, as well as vitamin A or vitamin D deficiency. Increase your intake of omega-3 fats by eating more sardines and anchovies (or wild-caught Alaskan salmon) or taking a krill oil supplement.

You can find vitamin A in foods like leafy green vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, and red bell peppers, while vitamin D is best obtained through safe sun exposure or use of a high-quality tanning bed.

4. Tingling, Prickling, and Numbness in Your Hands and Feet

This can also be a sign of B-vitamin deficiency (particularly folate, B6, and B12). The symptom is related to the deficiency’s effect on the peripheral nerves and may be combined with anxiety, depression, anemia, fatigue, and hormone imbalances.

Some good sources of B vitamins include spinach, asparagus, beets, organic free-range eggs and poultry, and grass-fed beef.

5. Muscle Cramps (in Your Toes, Calves, Backs of Legs, and Arches of Feet)

Muscle cramps may be a sign of deficiencies in magnesium, calcium, and potassium, especially if it happens frequently. Fix this by eating more almonds, hazelnuts, squash, dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, and dandelion), broccoli, Bok choy, and apples.

80 Percent of Americans May Be Deficient in Magnesium

Magnesium deserves special mention because an estimated 80 percent of Americans are deficient in it. Magnesium is a crucially important mineral for optimal health, performing a wide array of biological functions, including but not limited to:

• Activating muscles and nerves
• Creating energy in your body by activating adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
• Helping digest proteins, carbohydrates, and fats
• Serving as a building block for RNA and DNA synthesis
• Acting as a precursor for neurotransmitters like serotonin

Meanwhile, calcium tends to be a problem when taken in high quantities and can cause more harm than good. It's very important to have a proper balance between these two minerals. If you have too much calcium and not enough magnesium, your muscles will tend to go into spasm, and this has consequences for your heart in particular.

Excessive amounts of calcium without enough magnesium can lead to a heart attack and sudden death. Unfortunately, there's no easily available commercial lab test that will give you a truly accurate reading of the magnesium status in your tissues.

Only 1 percent of magnesium in your body is distributed in your blood, making a simple sample of magnesium from a serum magnesium blood test highly inaccurate.

Some specialty labs do provide an RBC magnesium test, which is reasonably accurate. However, it’s also important to be on the lookout for signs and symptoms of deficiency.

Early signs of magnesium deficiency include loss of appetite, headache, nausea, fatigue, and weakness. An ongoing magnesium deficiency can lead to more serious symptoms, including:

Numbness and tingling	Muscle contractions and cramps	Seizures
Personality changes	Abnormal heart rhythms	Coronary spasms

It May Be Difficult to Get Enough Magnesium from Food Alone

Seaweed and green leafy vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard can be excellent sources of magnesium, as are some beans, nuts, and seeds, like pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds. Avocados also contain magnesium.

Juicing your vegetables is also an excellent option to ensure you're getting enough of them in your diet. However, most foods grown today are deficient in magnesium and other minerals. Herbicides like glyphosate also act as chelators, effectively blocking the uptake and utilization of minerals.

As a result, I believe it would be highly unusual for most people to have access to foods that are rich in magnesium, which is why I believe it is prudent to consider a magnesium supplement. This is my personal strategy even though I have access to highly nutrient-dense foods. Besides taking a supplement, another way to improve your magnesium status is to take regular Epsom salt baths or foot baths. Epsom salt is a magnesium sulfate that can be absorbed into your body through your skin. Magnesium oil (from magnesium chloride) can also be used for topical application and absorption. If you opt for a magnesium supplement, be aware that there are several different forms of magnesium, as detailed below:

Magnesium glycinate is a chelated form of magnesium that tends to provide the highest levels of absorption and bioavailability and is typically considered ideal for those who are trying to correct a deficiency	Magnesium oxide is a non-chelated type of magnesium, bound to an organic acid or a fatty acid. Contains 60 percent magnesium and has stool softening properties
Magnesium chloride / magnesium lactate contain only 12 percent magnesium, but has better absorption than others, such as magnesium oxide, which contains five times more magnesium	Magnesium sulfate / magnesium hydroxide (milk of magnesia) are typically used as a laxative. Be aware that it's easy to overdose on these, so ONLY take as directed
Magnesium carbonate, which has antacid properties, contains 45 percent magnesium	Magnesium taurate contains a combination of magnesium and taurine, an amino acid. Together, they tend to provide a calming effect on your body and mind
Magnesium citrate is magnesium with citric acid, which has laxative properties but is one of the higher quality magnesium supplements	Magnesium threonate is a newer, emerging type of magnesium supplement that appears promising, primarily due to its superior ability to penetrate the mitochondrial membrane

Omega-3: Another Common Nutrient Deficiency

Remarkably, omega-3 deficiency is believed to be a significant underlying factor in up to 96,000 premature deaths each year! This deficiency was revealed as the sixth biggest killer of Americans, with results showing that low concentrations of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA were associated with an increased risk of death from all causes and accelerated cognitive decline. Those suffering from depression have also been found to have lower levels of omega-3 in their blood than non-depressed individuals.

Part of the problem is that most Americans eat too many inflammatory omega-6 fats (think vegetables oils) and too few anti-inflammatory omega-3s, setting the stage for the very health problems you seek to avoid, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes, just to name a few. The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is 1:1, but the typical Western diet is between 1:20 and 1:50. Common signs and symptoms that your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio may be out of balance include:

Dry, flaky skin, alligator skin, or "chicken skin" on backs of arms	Dandruff or dry hair	Brittle or soft nails	Cracked skin on heels or fingertips
Lowered immunity and frequent infections	Dry eyes	Poor wound healing	Frequent urination or excessive thirst
Fatigue	Allergies	Poor attention span, hyperactivity, or irritability	Problems learning

Sardines are one of the most concentrated sources of omega-3 fats, with one serving containing more than 50 percent of your recommended daily value.² They also contain a wealth of other nutrients, from vitamin B12 and selenium to protein, calcium, and choline, making them one of the best dietary sources of animal-based omega-3s.

If you decide to take omega-3s in supplement form, I believe krill oil is superior to fish oil. The omega-3 in krill is attached to phospholipids that increase its absorption, which means you need less of it, and it won't cause belching or burping like many other fish oil products. Additionally, it contains almost 50 times more astaxanthin, a potent antioxidant, than fish oil. This prevents the highly perishable omega-3 fats from oxidizing before you are able to integrate them into your cellular tissue.

90 Percent of Americans Aren’t Getting Enough Choline

Choline is another nutrient worth noting, as National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data shows that 90 percent of U.S. children and adults (including pregnant women) are not getting enough.³ Choline is a B vitamin known for its role in brain development. Choline intake during pregnancy "super-charged" the brain activity of animals in utero, indicating that it may boost cognitive function, and improve learning and memory. It may even diminish age-related memory decline and your brain's vulnerability to toxins during childhood, as well as conferring protection later in life.⁴

In adults, choline helps keep your cell membranes functioning properly, plays a role in nerve communications, prevents the buildup of homocysteine in your blood (elevated levels are linked to heart disease), and reduces chronic inflammation. Animal foods like organic free-range eggs and pastured meat are some of the best sources of choline, so if you're a vegan or vegetarian who does not consume any animal foods, you may be at particular risk of deficiency. The following chart shows some of the best choline sources to help you choose your foods wisely:⁵

Food	Serving	Total Choline (mg)
Beef liver, pan fried	3 ounces	355
Wheat germ, toasted	1 cup	172
Organic free-range egg	1 large	126
Grass-fed beef, trim cut, cooked	3 ounces	67
Brussel sprouts, cooked	1 cup	63
Broccoli, cooked	1 cup, chopped	62
Wild-caught salmon	3 ounces	56
Raw milk	8 fl oz.	38
Organic peanut butter, smooth	2 tablespoons	20

Are You Deficient in Vitamin D?

Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in adults of all ages who always wear sun protection (which blocks vitamin D production) or limit their outdoor activities. Researchers estimate that 50 percent of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, and this percentage rises in higher-risk populations such as the elderly and those with darker skin. For instance, it’s estimated that over 95 percent of US senior citizens may be deficient in vitamin D, not only because they tend to spend a lot of time indoors but also because they produce less in response to sun exposure (a person over the age of 70 produces about 30 percent less vitamin D than a younger person with the same sun exposure).⁶

Signs you may have a vitamin D deficiency include age over 50, having darker skin, obesity, achy bones, feeling blue, head sweating, and gut trouble. When it comes to vitamin D, you don't want to be in the "average" or "normal" range, you want to be in the "optimal" range. The reason for this is that as the years have gone by, researchers have progressively moved that range upward.

At present, based on the evaluation of healthy populations that get plenty of natural sun exposure, the optimal range for general health appears to be somewhere between 50 and 70 ng/ml. As for how to optimize your vitamin D levels, I firmly believe that appropriate sun exposure is the best way. In fact, I personally have not taken a vitamin D supplement for three or four years, yet my levels are in the 70 ng/ml range.

Tips to Supercharge Your Diet with Nutrients

As much as possible, I recommend getting the nutrients your body needs from whole foods. This means minimizing processed foods as much as possible and instead focusing on healthy fats, fresh produce, grass-fed meats and pastured poultry, raw dairy products, organic free-range eggs, nuts and seeds, and, if you’re healthy, moderate amounts of fruit. That being said, there are a few tricks to get copious amounts of nutrients with little effort. You’ll still need to eat a variety of foods to get the wide range of nutrients your body needs, but the tips that follow will give you an excellent start:

• Homemade Bone Broth: Bone broth contains high amounts of calcium, magnesium, and other nutrients.
• Sprouts: Sprouts can contain up to 100 times more enzymes than raw fruits and vegetables, allowing your body to extract more vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fats from the foods you eat.
• Juicing: Juicing not only helps you to consume more nutrient-rich veggies, it also helps you absorb the nutrients they contain. Juicing will help to "pre-digest" the veggies for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.
• Fermented Foods: Fermented foods support the beneficial bacteria in your gut, which helps with mineral absorption and plays a role in producing nutrients such as B vitamins and vitamin K2.

Carrot Coconut Soup

By Dr. Mercola

Soup can be wonderfully satisfying and phenomenally healthy if you make it with the right ingredients. In this case, the “right” ingredients include warming herbs and spices like ginger, garlic, turmeric, and pepper, combined with creamy coconut and a hint of carrots and sweet potato for a bit of sweetness.

This carrot coconut soup is simple to prepare – make it in big batches so you’ll have some leftover to freeze. It’s particularly suited for cool fall and winter days, but, really, you can enjoy this soup any time of year.

What Makes Carrot Coconut Soup so Good for You?

Two words: whole foods. Each ingredient in this carrot coconut soup is real; there’s no modified food starch, potassium chloride, soy protein isolate, caramel color, or monosodium glutamate (MSG), which are examples of the additives commonly found in canned soups.

When you make homemade soup, you control the ingredients, which means that the end product is not only far more delicious but far healthier, too. In the carrot coconut soup recipe that follows, for instance, you’ll find a rich assortment of veritable superfoods, which you get to enjoy in each and every bowl.

Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is made from the expressed juice of grated coconut meat and water. About 50 percent of the fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, which is rarely found in nature. Your body converts lauric acid into monolaurin, a monoglyceride that can actually destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as Giardia lamblia.

Lauric acid is a type of medium chain fatty acid (MCFAs), which is easily digested and readily crosses cell membranes. MCFAs are immediately converted by your liver into energy rather than being stored as fat.

There are numerous studies showing that MCFAs promote weight loss, including one study that showed rats fed MCFAs reduced body fat and improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.¹

Yet another study found that overweight men who ate a diet rich in MCFAs lost more fat tissue, presumably due to increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation from the MCFA intake.² In addition, coconut milk is rich in antioxidants and nutrients, including vitamins C, E and B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron.

Carrots

Carrots are rich in beta-carotene (pre-vitamin A), vitamin K1, vitamin C, and calcium. I generally recommend eating carrots in moderation because they contain more sugar than any other vegetable aside from beets.

However, when eaten as part of an overall healthy diet, the nutrients in carrots may provide you with protection against heart disease and stroke while helping you to build strong bones and a healthy nervous system. In particular, carrots are associated with a 32 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease³ and a lower risk of heart attacks in women.⁴

Antioxidants in carrots, including beta-carotene, may also play a role in cancer prevention. Research has shown that smokers who eat carrots more than once a week have a lower risk of lung cancer,⁵ while a beta-carotene-rich diet may also protect against prostate cancer.⁶

Using carrots in soup may be ideal, as the nutrients such as beta-carotene and phenolic acids appear to increase when carrots are cooked.⁷

Bone Broth

Homemade broth or "stock" is a powerful food as it’s easily digestible, helps heal the lining of your gut, and contains valuable nutrients that promote healing throughout your body.

The gelatin found in bone broth is a hydrophilic colloid that attracts and holds liquids, including digestive juices, thereby supporting proper digestion.

Bone broth also reduces joint pain and inflammation courtesy of chondroitin sulfates, glucosamine, and other compounds extracted from the boiled down cartilage.

Amino acids such as glycine, proline, and arginine in bone broth all have anti-inflammatory effects, and bone broth contains high amounts of calcium, magnesium, and other nutrients that play an important role in healthy bone formation. You can learn how to make your own homemade bone broth here.

Sweet Potato

Orange-colored sweet potatoes owe their appearance to the carotenoid beta-carotene. As an antioxidant, beta-carotene can help ward off free radicals that damage cells through oxidation, which can speed up aging and make you vulnerable against chronic diseases.

This antioxidant can help support your immune system, as well as lower your risk of heart disease and cancer. Research shows that sweet potatoes can help regulate blood sugar because of their ability to raise blood levels of adiponectin, a protein hormone created by your fat cells, to help regulate how your body metabolizes insulin.

Sweet potato extract is said to help reduce inflammation in brain and nerve tissue throughout your body. The phytonutrients within sweet potatoes also influence fibrinogen, an important glycoprotein required for blood clotting. Together with thrombin and fibrin, balanced amounts of fibrinogen are important for wound healing and blood loss prevention.

Onions

Onions are rich in sulfur-containing compounds and other phytochemicals that may boost heart health, offer protection against cancer and diabetes, boost bone health, and more.

They’re anti-allergic, anti-histaminic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant, and onions have a particularly high concentration of beneficial polyphenols, with more polyphenols than garlic, leeks, tomatoes, carrots, and red bell pepper.

Onions contain numerous anti-cancer compounds, including quercetin, which has been shown to decrease cancer tumor initiation as well as inhibit the proliferation of cultured ovarian, breast, and colon cancer cells.⁸ As reported by the National Onion Association, onions are considered a dietary anti-carcinogen.⁹

Garlic

Fresh garlic is a potent antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal agent with immune-boosting effects. It’s thought that much of garlic’s therapeutic effect comes from its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin, which are also what give it its characteristic smell.

Other health-promoting compounds include oligosaccharides, arginine-rich proteins, selenium and flavonoids. Research has revealed that as allicin digests in your body, it produces sulfenic acid, a compound that reacts with dangerous free radicals faster than any other known compound.¹⁰ This is one of the reasons why I named garlic as one of the top seven anti-aging foods you can consume.

Ginger

Ginger is one of the best natural remedies if you struggle with motion sickness or nausea, and it is a powerful anti-inflammatory, which makes it a valuable tool for pain relief. Ginger also has broad-spectrum antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-parasitic properties, to name just several of its more than 40 pharmacological actions.

In addition, ginger shows promise for fighting cancer, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, asthma, bacterial, and fungal infections, and because it is a thermogenic substance, it also has beneficial impacts on metabolism and fat storage.

Turmeric

Turmeric, the yellow-pigmented "curry spice" often used in Indian cuisine, contains curcumin, the polyphenol identified as its primary active component and which exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Curcumin is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which is one reason why it holds promise as a neuroprotective agent in a wide range of neurological disorders.

Researchers have investigated curcumin for its potential role in improving Parkinson's disease, for instance, along with dementia. Curcumin also has the most evidence-based literature supporting its use against cancer of any other nutrient studied, and it’s also shown promise for many other health benefits, from enhancing wound healing to protecting against cataracts.

Carrot Coconut Soup

This soup takes only about 30 minutes to make, but is packed with flavor and nutrition:

Carrot Coconut Soup11 Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 1 large onion, chopped 1 Tbsp. + 3 cups bone broth 2 Tbsp. fresh ginger, sliced 4 medium cloves garlic, chopped 1 tsp curry powder or turmeric 2 cups sliced carrots, about 1/4-inch thick 1 cup sweet potato, cut into about 1/2-inch cubes 5 oz. coconut milk Salt and white pepper to taste Directions: Chop onion and let it sit for at least five minutes to bring out its health benefits. Heat 1 Tbsp. broth in a medium soup pot. Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and ginger and continue to sauté for another minute. Add curry powder or turmeric and mix well with onions. Add broth, carrots, and sweet potato and simmer on medium high heat until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Add coconut milk. Blend in batches making sure blender is not more than half full. When it's hot, and the blender is too full, it can erupt and burn you. Add salt and pepper to taste. Return to soup pot and reheat. Serves 4

Visit Our Food Facts Library for Empowering Nutrition Information

If you want to learn even more about what's in the food you're eating, visit our Food Facts library. Most people are not aware of the wealth of nutrients available in healthful foods, particularly organic fruits and vegetables. By getting to know your food, you can make informed decisions about how to eat healthier and thereby boost your brain function, lower your risk of chronic disease, lose weight, and much more.

Food Facts is a directory of the most highly recommended health foods to add to your wholesome diet. Its purpose is to provide you with valuable information about various types of foods including recipes to help you maximize these benefits. You'll learn about nutrition facts, scientific studies, and even interesting trivia about each food in the Food Facts library. Remember, knowing what's in your food is the first step to choosing and preparing nutritious meals each and every day. So visit Mercola Food Facts today to get started.

How to Lose Weight by Identifying Hidden Sugars in Your Diet

By Dr. Mercola

Not all sugars are created equal, and they’re hidden in most of today’s processed foods. Nutritionist, fitness trainer, and author JJ Virgin has written a new book that helps open your eyes to the way sugars are hidden.

The book also provides practical tips on how to wean yourself from this pernicious ingredient that will decimate your health.

In The Sugar Impact Diet: Drop 7 Sugars to Lose Up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks, she tackles the confusion surrounding sugar. Many health-conscious people are still under the mistaken belief that as long as the sugar is all-natural, it’s fine to eat.

Not so. Agave, natural fruit juice, raw cane sugar, and any number of other natural sugars will still wreak havoc on your health.

“[S]ugar is really public enemy number one,” she says. “That’s why I chose to focus on it. I don’t think added sugar is really the problem; I think it’s what’s in a lot of our food that we don’t recognize [as sugar].

Whether it’s having apple juice (which is worse for you than a soda), or having a yogurt sweetened with fruit juice concentrate, or whether you’re just thinking that fruits are free for all, these are all creating problems.

I wanted to create a structured program that could help someone break free of those sugar cravings, drop the weight forever, and then let them go back and [do a food] challenge... in order to connect the dots between what happens when they drink one of those big fruit smoothies that are supposed to be so healthy.”

To End Sugar Cravings, Your Body Needs to Burn Fat as Its Primary Fuel

As JJ notes, whether the sugar comes in the form of a muffin, a fruit juice-sweetened yogurt, or a smoothie, it’s all the same thing to your body. “Food is information,” she says. And she’s right.

Once you break free from your body’s constant need for yet another sugar fix (remember, sugar is more addictive than cocaine!), you’ll experience great levels of newfound energy and clarity of mind. But in order to get there, you need to retrain your body to burn fat as its primary form of fuel instead of sugar.

This can be a real challenge for many. JJ’s book specifically addresses the gradual process of getting from burning sugar to burning fat as your body’s primary fuel, in order to maximize your chances for success.

“There’s got to be a transition period, where you go from sugar burner to getting your body to be able to start to burn fat again,” she explains.

“You have to taper down from where your starting point is, which is what I call a Sneaky Sugar Inventory, of things you would never think about (like sundried tomatoes and marinara sauce) that we’re just using like crazy not realizing how much sugar this is actually adding into our food.”

The Sugar Impact Scales: A New Way of Looking at Sugar

As an initial step, you’ll want to weigh yourself and measure your waist-to-hip ratio, to determine your starting point. Next, you do an initial inventory of all the hidden sugars in your diet.

This means reading the labels on all the foods you eat, including items you might never expect to contain sugar, such as that jar of pickles, condiments, sauces, and marinades, and so on. JJ lists all the sneaky places sugars hide in your diet in her book, and by creating what she calls Sugar Impact Scales, she’s created a new way of looking at sugar.

“It looks at fructose grams, glycemic load, nutrient density, and fiber. Bad are fructose and glycemic load; good are nutrient density and fiber,” she explains.

“Depending on where the food falls, it can either be low, medium, or high-sugar impact. The reason this was so important to me is I keep looking at programs out there, and they either focus on fructose... glycemic index, or glycemic load.

That can be very confusing because it makes things like agave sweetener look great. It makes milk look great... People go, ‘We should have fructose because fructose is low on the glycemic index.’

The difference between fructose and glucose is fructose doesn’t trigger the whole insulin response. Because of that, it doesn’t trigger insulin, leptin, or ghrelin, so it doesn’t tell your body you ate anything. Instead, it just goes to the liver. If there’s no room for it to become glycogen... it starts becoming fat.

You look at that and you go, ‘Okay, food is information. What does fructose say?’ It says, ‘Hey, make fat but don’t tell us we ate. Stay hungry.’ What a nightmare!”

So what are the basic symptoms of having high-sugar impact? Gas and bloating are common, as sugar feeds yeast, fungi, and detrimental bacteria in your gut. Other symptoms include joint pain, headaches, fatigue, inability to lose weight or weight loss resistance, and sugar cravings.

By grading yourself on those and other symptoms, while tracking your waist, hip, and weight, you’ll get a clearer picture of how sugar impacts your body, and your progress in terms of retraining your body to burn fat instead of sugar as its primary fuel.

The Three Phases of the Sugar Impact Diet

The first phase or cycle is a one to two-week long taper cycle, in which you switch from high sugar impact foods to medium sugar impact foods. As an example, if you typically eat regular pasta, you’d switch over to quinoa pasta.

She also recommends scheduling your meals to where you’re not eating every two hours; rather you stretch the time between meals to prevent insulin spikes. This is one form of intermittent fasting. At the end of this taper-down period of one or two weeks, you retest yourself on the sugar impact quiz, to see how you’ve done.

If all is going as planned, you should notice a reduction in your symptoms. At that point, you move on to phase two, in which you’re really resetting your taste buds and reclaiming your sugar sensitivity, meaning your ability to taste how sweet a food really is.

“What I’m doing is I’m getting rid of all of the fructose. We’re getting down to five grams or less [per day], just as low as possible because you don’t want your body to be good at processing fructose. One thing we know is that the more fructose you eat, the better you get at handling fructose, which means the faster it goes to your liver, the faster you start making fat, and the more fat you make.

If someone’s used to eating fruit, they eat more fruit, they eat more fruit, and they can handle it. If you never eat any fruit, and you ate a bunch of fruit, you’d be bloated, you’d be gassy, and it’d be horrible. I take fruit out altogether except for things like lemons, limes, avocado, tomato, and olives. And we go down to all low-sugar impact foods. But you’re still eating great stuff. You’re eating wild salmon, grass-fed beef, kale, avocado, nuts and seeds, a little quinoa, legumes, and lentils.”

Most people can make the shift from burning sugar to burning fat as primary fuel in this second phase of the program in a couple of weeks, although it may take longer if you’re seriously insulin/leptin resistant. “The reason it can happen so fast is number one, you’ve got to do that initial one-week [taper] period,” she explains. “Whenever you look at a program, you want to jump right into the most intense part, but you can’t because you’ll fail.”

In the third phase of the program, you start to challenge yourself by reintroducing some of the medium or even high sugar impact foods. Most people will now find that they’re overwhelmed by the sweetness, or they’ll feel bloated or downright ill by the high-sugar food. As a result, the psychological grip of sweet foods lessen, as you simply do not want to go back to feeling horrible once you’re feeling really great. Interestingly, sour taste, such as that from cultured vegetables, helps to reduce sweet cravings, too.

This is a doubly-beneficial thing, as fermented vegetables also promote gut health. “It’s a sweet tooth strategy,” JJ says. “One of the things that I do in these books is I try to keep it simple and give people simple strategies. But I’m always thinking, “How am I healing their gut with this? How am I improving their gut flora? How are we reducing inflammation?”

Healthy Snack Alternatives

Nuts, which are one of my favorite snack foods, are also great for satisfying the occasional hunger pang. Typically, when I’m at home, I only have one meal a day, a very large salad. But I will snack on nuts, specifically macadamia nuts and occasionally pecans, because of two criteria:

1. They’re very high in fat – the good fat, oleic acid, which is similar to olive oil, and
2. They’re low in protein, so you won’t run the risk of eating a whole day’s worth of protein in a few handfuls of nuts (which could be the case if you eat a lot of almonds)

That said, as JJ warns, be aware of your food triggers, and if you cannot keep a jar of nuts in your house without polishing off the whole thing in one sitting, you just turned a good thing into something bad. While nuts do contain healthy fats, they also tend to be high in calories, so moderation is in order.

“If you know something’s your trigger, don’t bring it into the house. It doesn’t matter if it’s healthy or unhealthy. But I think if you put them into little serving baggies, that’s a perfect way to go with it. I also like that because most people aren’t home all day long, so I say, ‘Put one in your car. Put it in your purse. Put it in your office so that you have them scattered around if you ever get in trouble.’

Another healthy snack that is much harder to overdo is dehydrated kale chips. I’m in the process of planting six dozen kale plants on my property to create a surplus for this very reason. That way I can have kale chips year-round. Roasted Brussels sprouts are another alternative that you can’t really “overdose” on.

Last But Not Least—The Maintenance Phase

It’s quite rare to find someone who’s not burning sugar as their primary fuel these days. To check yourself, simply observe how frequently you feel hungry. If you’re hungry every two hours or so, you’re burning sugar. You’re craving food because sugar is fast burning, and your hunger is an indication that your body wants to be refueled. Once you’re burning fat as your primary fuel, you can easily go five to six hours or longer without feeling hungry, as fat is a far slower-burning fuel. Sugar cravings are also virtually eliminated once you’re burning fat rather than sugar.

Most everyone watching this would benefit from applying a program such as the one JJ has put together. The question is, once you’ve successfully made the switch, how long do you have to continue eating this way? What does the maintenance phase look like?

“The maintenance phase is different from the weight loss phase,” JJ explains. “It’s like dating and marriage. Totally different beasts, right? During the maintenance phase—for weight loss—it’s about setting new goals and doing different fitness activities. The biggest thing that I want someone to do is to connect the dots between what they’re eating and how they feel. It’s to lose that sweet tooth that they had and reclaim their sugar sensitivity so they really say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s how sweet a blueberry really is.’

[In the maintenance phase] you’ve got to mix up your exercise; you’ve got to mix up your food... [F]ood is information. You want your food to tell your body to burn fat not sugar, keep steady energy, great focus, and reduce inflammation. It’s the same with exercise. Exercise can be therapeutic or destructive. I do no endurance training at all. I do not believe in endurance training. I did so much endurance training [when I was younger, yet] I was always slightly overweight. I was never lean.”

JJ recommends high intensity interval-type exercises over endurance training, and for good reason. Endurance training is actually among the least effective forms of exercise when it comes to weight loss, and research has shown that the benefits of high intensity exercise are not necessarily related to calories burned. Rather, it creates beneficial metabolic changes that promote health and muscle growth while boosting fat burning.

These metabolic changes, which include boosting human growth hormone (HGH), do not occur when you’re doing endurance training such as long-distance running.

She’s also a big proponent of exercising in a fasted state, as this actually helps repair, restore, and rejuvenate your muscle tissues. A conflicting approach calls for loading up on carbs and protein before and after exercise, to boost performance and muscle building. So which one should you follow? It may be worth taking JJ’s advice, and experiment to determine what works best for you, depending on your fitness and weight loss goals:

“I kind of play with both of them. Because if you eat a little bit before you work out, you can generally work out harder. If you’re doing resistance training, a lot of times you’re better off having a little bit [of food] before. If you’re doing burst training, ideally here’s what you would do: on burst-training days, do it first thing in the morning. It doesn’t take long anyway. It’s 15 minutes at the most. Ideally, do that a couple of mornings a week, two or three mornings a week. You do your resistance training two times a week, have a little bit of food before; have something really good afterwards, and you’re set.”

More Information

If you’ve tried cutting calories while still eating foods like gluten, pasteurized dairy, and processed fructose, yet failed to lose weight, the problem lies not in insufficient calorie restriction. Rather, you were still eating the wrong foods, albeit in smaller amounts. Once you start viewing food as information, you can begin to appreciate how certain foods, fructose in particular, instructs your body to store fat and not let any of it go...

What you eat makes all the difference, and when it comes to successfully losing weight, a major key is switching your body from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel. In order to do this, you need to cut down on the fructose-laden foods that tell your body to:

• Store the sugar as fat
• Eat more (as fructose doesn’t trigger insulin, leptin, or ghrelin to the same degree as glucose, which means it doesn’t tell your body you just consumed a whole bunch of calories)

The take-home message here is that you CAN “reset” your body to burn fat instead of sugar as its primary fuel, at which point sugar cravings will disappear. To learn more about JJ Virgin’s program, which takes you through this process step by step, I recommend picking up her book, The Sugar Impact Diet: Drop 7 Sugars to Lose Up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks, available for pre-order now through Barnes & Noble and will be on Amazon November 4th. 

The Best Way to Clean and Organize Your Refrigerator

By Dr. Mercola

Most people clean their kitchen on a regular basis, but for many this includes only a cursory wiping of the outside of the refrigerator door. Experts recommend cleaning out your fridge, inside and out, about once every week…

But most Americans do so only once or twice a year¹-- and even then typically only when faced with a spill or bad odor. In one survey conducted by Whirlpool Corp., for instance, 33 percent said they spend no time cleaning their refrigerator prior to a trip to the grocery store.

While 27 percent said their strategy to fit in the newly purchased groceries is simply to “shove everything in and not worry about organization.”² This certainly isn’t ideal, but…

Is an Unorganized, Little-Cleaned Fridge an Actual Health Risk?

It can be. Any bacteria, parasite, or virus that can cause food poisoning can be transferred to your refrigerator shelves and crisper drawers from spilled or leaking food. Even food that’s not contaminated can become dangerous if it’s left in the back corner of your fridge for too long, and anything it touches also runs the risk of making you sick.

That being said, the most important aspect of preventing food-borne illness is not knowing how to clean your refrigerator… it’s knowing where to find high-quality foods. Disease-causing bacteria and other pathogens run rampant in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which is where most meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs in your supermarket come from.

For instance, two-thirds of fresh, whole CAFO broiler chickens bought nationwide contained Campylobacter or Salmonella, the leading causes of food-borne disease,³ according to a Consumer Reports study. Meanwhile, organic poultry farms have been found to have significantly lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria than CAFOs.⁴

So the precautions about carefully cleaning your refrigerator and avoiding cross-contamination are well placed. But please remember that foods sourced from CAFOs are those most likely to harbor disease-causing bacteria in the first place. Food that is raised on small, local organic farms in accordance with the laws of nature (such as feeding on grass for cows) is likely to pose much less of a threat.

From an organizational standpoint, there is a method for where to store your food that’s based on safety. Certain parts of your refrigerator are colder than others while other spaces (like the shelves on the door) fluctuate in temperature.

It’s important to store highly perishable foods that require cold storage in the coldest, most temperature-stable areas of your fridge to avoid spoilage.

Sub-Zero’s Fridge Organization Study Reveals ‘Chaos’ in Most Americans’ Fridges

Kitchen appliance maker Sub-Zero has studied the way Americans organize their fridges – and the results weren’t pretty. They handed 12 different people a week’s worth of groceries and asked them to put them away in a fridge. The result was “chaos.” For instance, many people:

• Stored meat and soda cans in the crisper drawers, which have a special temperature and humidity meant to store vegetables
• Stored milk on the refrigerator door, which is the warmest part of the fridge
• Did not know what to do with the special cheese compartment

Sub-Zero’s corporate marketing manager noted, “most people don't know what they are doing when they pack the refrigerator.”⁵ The company responded by including cards that explain which parts of the refrigerator work best for storing which items, as well as which foods are best left right on the counter.

Planning Your Meals Before You Shop Can Help You Avoid Some of the Chaos

The chaos that erupts in many Americans’ fridges is likely partly due to a lack of “refrigerator organization” knowledge… but often it’s also the result of poor meal planning. If you’ve got containers of food sitting in your fridge for long enough to get moldy (or forget what’s even in the container), you’re probably not planning out your meals as efficiently as possible.

Before you go food shopping, make a meal plan for the week. Do a thorough check of what you already have on hand so you don’t let good food go bad. If you’re on a budget and need to prioritize which foods to buy organic, choose organic animal products (meat, eggs, and dairy) first, and then purchase organic produce.

Examples of excellent “staple” items that can make a weekly appearance on your grocery list include:

• Organic pastured eggs
• Organic grass-fed beef
• Wild-caught MSC-certified sardines or Alaskan salmon (don’t be afraid to store fish in your freezer, as doing so will actually kill parasites)
• Raw dairy products, including cheese and yogurt
• Avocados and other organic produce, especially leafy greens and cruciferous veggies

Where to Store Different Foods in Your Fridge

The infographic below, from Nutrition Action,⁶ gives a quick explanation of how to best organize your fridge for food safety. What you’ll notice is that raw meat, fish, poultry, and even leftovers – the foods that necessitate cold, stable temperatures – should be kept on the bottom shelf.

This also ensures that any drippings will not contaminate other foods on their way down. The crisper drawers, meanwhile, are intended for fruits and vegetables – but not all fruits and vegetables.

Those meant for the crisper include leafy greens, melons, celery, broccoli, and apples, while others can be safely stored on the top shelf. Apples should actually be stored away from other uncovered produce, as the ethylene gases they produce can cause other foods to spoil faster.

As for the middle shelf, that works best for cheeses and cooked meats, while the door should be used to store condiments, including butter. You'll also want to make sure your fridge is kept cold enough -- below 40° Fahrenheit, or 4° Celsius.

This will ensure food safety. Also leave enough space in your fridge for cold air to circulate. If your refrigerator is too tightly packed, your food will spoil faster.

Important Tips to Keep Your Food Fresh

The average US consumer wastes 61 percent of the food he or she purchases. You can drastically reduce this by learning the basics of proper food storage. To best preserve beets, for example, you would remove the green tops and refrigerate the beets and the greens in separate plastic bags, while corn should be refrigerated while still in the husk to stay fresh the longest.

Citrus fruits, on the other hand, can last up to two weeks right on the counter, while garlic and onions need to be stored in a dark, cool pantry, where they will stay fresh for up to four months.

Herbs can be notoriously tricky to keep from wilting, but if you keep them in an airtight container wrapped in a moistened paper towel, they'll maintain their freshness for up to 10 days in your fridge. The life of leafy greens can also be extended by as much as three extra days if you don't wash them before putting them in your fridge.

Also keep in mind that apples, pears, and bananas release natural ripening agents that will hasten the demise of any other produce placed in their vicinity. For more details, I’ve listed 27 tips to make your groceries last longer here, which include:

1. Store onions in old pantyhose to keep them fresh for up to eight months (tie a knot in between each one to keep them separate).
2. Chop dry green onions and store them in an empty plastic water bottle. Put the bottle in the freezer and sprinkle out what you need when you’re cooking.
3. When storing potatoes, keep them away from onions (this will make them spoil faster). Storing them with apples will help keep the potatoes from sprouting.
4. Store salad greens in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and add a paper towel to help absorb moisture. A salad spinner will also help remove excess moisture -- a key culprit in wilting leaves -- from your greens.
5. Mushrooms should be stored in a paper bag in a cool dry place, or in the fridge. Avoid storing mushrooms in plastic, as any trapped moisture will cause them to spoil.

How to Best Clean Your Refrigerator

Why do so many Americans seem to resist cleaning out their fridge? Because it’s a hassle. Still, doing a thorough cleaning once a week or so is important for sanitary reasons, and will also force you to go through the food in your fridge (prompting you to use up what you can and discard anything that’s spoiled).

The best time to clean your fridge is when it’s low on food, such as right before a trip to the grocery store or farmer’s market. Dispose of food that’s spoiled (use common sense on this one, but don’t base the decision on a food’s expiration date alone). Ultimately, the greatest factor impacting whether your food is “safe” isn’t total storage time, but rather is related to how much time it spends in the temperature “danger zone” (between 40-120°F).⁷

Next, tackle one shelf or drawer at a time, removing all items, cleansing the surface using a soft cloth, natural soap, and hot water, and then drying it thoroughly. As you replace your food items, take care to organize them according to the storage guidance above. While you might be tempted to use a strong disinfectant to kill germs in your fridge, such cleansers often contain toxic chemicals – and many of them can damage the surface of your shelves.

Check the owner’s manual to be sure the cleaning agent you use is safe for your particular model (but most should do fine with natural soap and water). For extra cleaning power, try making this homemade antibacterial solution: mix two cups of water with three tablespoons of castile soap and 20-30 drops of tea tree oil. Spray onto the surface, then wipe off. After you’ve done your weekly cleaning, be sure to also “spot” clean as necessary, especially if you notice any spills or drips.

Bitter Pill: The Dangerous Side Effects of Fluoridated Antibiotics

By Dr. Mercola

Fluoroquinolones are among the most dangerous drugs on the market and should be avoided unless your life depends on it. Despite their dangers, they're the most commonly prescribed class of antibiotics in the United States... In 2010, Bayer's top two fluoroquinolones (Cipro and Avalox) brought in $1 billion in sales.

That same year, Johnson & Johnson sold $1.3 billion-worth of its drug, Levaquin. All antibiotics carry a risk of side effects, but fluoroquinolones are in a class by themselves when it comes to potential health risks.

No other antibiotic carries as high a potential to cause serious, permanent injuries and even death, as the fluoroquinolones do. Despite their higher than normal risks, doctors frequently prescribe them as a first line of treatment even for mild infections. Always ask your doctor if there is a safer alternative.

And, adding insult to injury, most victims claim they were never warned that there are dire adverse effects associated with these antibiotics. I strongly advise you to educate yourself about the risks of fluoroquinolones, and refuse any prescription for these drugs unless absolutely necessary.

What Makes Fluoroquinolones So Dangerous?

Fluoroquinolones have fluoride as a central part of the drug. Fluoride is a known neurotoxin, and drugs with an attached fluoride molecule are able to penetrate into very sensitive tissues, including your brain.

The ability to cross the blood-brain barrier is what makes fluoride such a potent neurotoxin. Fluoride also disrupts collagen synthesis, and can damage your immune system by depleting energy reserves and inhibiting antibody formation in your blood.

According to Todd R. Plumb, M.D.¹--a physician and fluoroquinolone victim—fluoroquinolone toxicity appears to be functional, not structural, as structural abnormalities are not typically seen on the radiological studies of patients with fluoroquinolone toxicity. Based on the available research, he cites the following four possible mechanisms of harm by fluoroquinolones:

• Inhibition or disruption of the central nervous system GABA receptors
• Depletion of magnesium and disruption of cellular enzyme function
• Disruption of mitochondrial function and energy production
• Oxidative injury and cellular death

Bitter Pill features three victims whose lives have been shattered by the long-term health effects of fluoroquinolones. Placing the blame squarely on the drug maker, one of them says: "[These side effects are] not something they're just finding out now. These people are criminals. They belong in prison for the rest of their lives."

Dr. Terence Young, MD, also featured in this video, lost his 15-year old daughter to a lethal drug effect in 2000.

Channeling his grief into finding out how that could happen, he says he discovered "corrupt practices that prevented doctors and patients learning what the true risks of prescription drugs were. And the reason that's happened is because of this incredible marketing power of the pharmaceutical industry."

Beware the Serious Side Effects of Fluoroquinolones

Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally issued a warning that fluoroquinolone antibiotics, taken by mouth or injection, carry a risk for permanent peripheral neuropathy.²

Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage in the arms and/or legs, characterized by "pain, burning, tingling, numbness, weakness, or a change in sensation to light touch, pain, or temperature, or sense of body position."

But the risk for peripheral neuropathy was noted in 2001, when Dr. Jay Cohen published documentation showing the following fluoroquinolone-related reactions.³ Adverse reactions of fluoroquinolones were documented in Europe as far back as the 1980s:

Nervous system symptoms occurred in 91 percent of patients taking fluoroquinolones (pain, tingling and numbness, dizziness, malaise, weakness, headaches, anxiety and panic, loss of memory, and psychosis)

Musculoskeletal symptoms in 73 percent of patients (tendon ruptures, tendonitis, weakness, and joint swelling)

Sensory symptoms in 42 percent of patients (tinnitus, altered visual, olfactory, and auditory function)

Cardiovascular symptoms in 36 percent of patients (tachycardia, shortness of breath, chest pain, and palpitations)

Skin reactions in 29 percent of patients (rashes, hair loss, sweating, and intolerance to heat or cold)

Gastrointestinal symptoms in 18 percent of patients (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain)

In a letter to his Congressman, Dr. Cohen wrote:⁴

"These severe reactions are occurring in patients who are usually healthy, active, and young. Most often, the antibiotics are prescribed for mild infections such as sinusitis, urinary or prostate infections. Most reactions occur very quickly, sometimes with just a few doses of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Reactions are acute, severe, frightening, and often disabling."  [Emphasis mine]

Despite persistent warning signs, the FDA didn't take action until 2008, at which point they added a black box warning about severe tendon damage. They waited another five years before issuing a warning about permanent neuropathy.

This is yet another sad example demonstrating that just because a drug is FDA approved does NOT mean it has a proven safety record. Fluoroquinolones have also been associated with the following health problems and adverse effects:⁵

Retinal detachment, which can cause blindness	Disruption of collagen synthesis and collagen degradation,6 causing muscle, tendon, cartilage, and/or ligament damage	Nausea and diarrhea
Acute kidney failure	Hallucinations and/or psychotic reactions.  (About one-third of patients tend to experience some sort of negative psychiatric effect, such as anxiety, personality changes, or confusion)	Hearing problems
Brain fog	Painful rashes	Disruptions to blood sugar metabolism7
Depression	Phototoxicity	Peripheral neuropathy
Seizures	Heart damage	Acute liver toxicity8, 9

PLEASE—Only Use Fluoroquinolones as a Last Resort

Dr. Cohen's documentation differs rather drastically with the drug makers' own data. The drug companies claim less than one percent of subjects in clinical trials suffered serious adverse reactions. That's a far cry from Dr. Cohen's data showing a vast majority of patients taking the drugs experience more serious symptoms.

According to Bitter Pill, about 100 Canadian deaths have been attributed to fluoroquinolones since 1985. Freedom of Information documents obtained from the US FDA reveal more than 50,000 reports of adverse reactions and 3,000 deaths. Dr. Young believes the full picture is undoubtedly far worse than that, since most doctors never report suspected drug side effects and/or deaths. Patients also rarely report side effects of drugs they're taking. Previous research suggests that actual reports represent about one percent of the reality.

If your doctor prescribes a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, please be certain that your condition warrants the risks. Fluoroquinolones should really be reserved for treating only the most serious bacterial infections that remain unresponsive to other treatments. While several drugs in this class have been removed from the market due to their deadly adverse effects, six remain FDA-approved for use in the US:

Ciprofloxacin (Cipro)	Levofloxacin (Levaquin)
Gemifloxacin (Factive)	Moxifloxacin (Avelox)
Norfloxacin (Noroxin)	Ofloxacin (Floxin)

Get Into the Habit of Reporting Adverse Drug Reactions

If you believe you have experienced a reaction to a fluoroquinolone—or any other drug for that matter—please report it to MedWatch, the FDA's safety information and adverse event reporting program. It is vital that they hear from each and every one of you who has experienced an adverse drug reaction. This is a major impetus in getting dangerous drugs removed from the market, and physicians almost never report the reactions themselves so it's really up to you to help make sure dangerous drugs are taken off the market. MedWatch offers several reporting options:

• Telephone 1-800-FDA-1088
• Fax to 1-800-FDA-0178
• File a report online
• Mail a report (FDA form 3500) in a postage-paid envelope to MedWatch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9787

Support for Fluoroquinolone Victims

Victims of fluoroquinolones damage are so numerous, they've banded together in a worldwide network, calling themselves "Floxies." Quite a few Floxies are in the medical field themselves (or were, before they were poisoned), and are on a mission to help fellow fluoroquinolone poisoning victims. This is how the documentary Certain Adverse Events came about. If you haven't already seen this film, I highly recommend it.¹⁰

For more information, you can also visit the following websites (there are many more in addition to these if you search by the term "fluoroquinolone"):

• Levaquinadversesideeffect.com
• CertainAdverseEvents.com
• Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Toxicity Advocacy Page (Facebook)
• SurvivingCipro.com
• MyQuinStory.com