Is Cracking Your Knuckles Harmful?

By Dr. Mercola

Your joints, including those in your knuckles, are surrounded by a membrane called the synovial membrane, which forms a capsule around the ends of your bones. Inside this membrane is synovial fluid, which acts as a lubricant and shock absorber so your bones don’t grind together when you move.

When you “crack” your knuckles, or any other joint, it expands the space between your bones, creating negative pressure that draws synovial fluid into the new gap.

This influx of synovial fluid is what causes the popping sound and feeling when you crack a knuckle.¹ If you continually crack your knuckles, the synovial membrane and the surrounding ligaments will loosen, making it easier and easier for your joints to crack.

More than 20 years ago, I co-authored a paper titled “Cracking down on neck cracking,” which was published in the journal American Family Physician.² In it, I argued that self-manipulation may lead to lax ligaments. Personally, I don’t think it’s wise to crack your joints on a regular basis, and research suggests it could have some significant repercussions.

Is Cracking Your Knuckles Associated with Arthritis?

The biggest concern most people have about cracking their knuckles is that it could lead to arthritis, specifically osteoarthritis. If you have osteoarthritis, the cartilage within your joints is progressively being damaged, and the synovial fluid is typically reduced as well.

The pain and joint stiffness that you feel is a result of your bones starting to come into contact with each other as cartilage and synovial fluid diminishes. To date, research has not shown a correlation between knuckle cracking and osteoarthritis in your hands.

In one study of more than 200 people, the prevalence of osteoarthritis in any joint was similar among those who cracked knuckles and those who did not.³ The same held true when specific joint types were examined. The authors stated:

"Total past duration (in years) and volume (daily frequency x years) of knuckle-cracking (KC) of each joint type also was not significantly correlated with OA [osteoarthritis] at the respective joint. A history of habitual KC - including the total duration and total cumulative exposure 'does not seem to be a risk factor for hand OA.'"

If you’re interested in lowering your risk of osteoarthritis, it is typically caused by wear-and-tear on your joints along with lifestyle and diet factors, and aging. Repetitive movements often play a role as well, but while it would seem plausible that cracking your joints is also a type of repetitive movement, so far no link has emerged.

Habitual Knuckle Cracking Might Impair Your Hand Function

While cracking your knuckles might not lead to arthritis, it does appear to have other consequences. In a study of 300 people aged 45 and older, habitual knuckle crackers were again not found to have an increased risk of arthritis in their hands. They were, however, more likely to have hand swelling and lower grip strength.⁴

They also found that knuckle cracking appears to be associated with manual labor, nail biting, smoking, and drinking alcohol… they concluded that habitual knuckle cracking results in functional hand impairment. The damage was likely the result of the repeated stretching and loosening of the ligaments during repeated knuckle cracking.

Interestingly, those researchers noted that cracking your knuckles has been shown to produce “rapid release of energy in the form of sudden vibratory energy, much like the forces responsible for the destruction of hydraulic blades and ship propellers.” This hardly sounds like a completely innocuous habit.

In fact, there are reports in the literature of various injuries that have occurred from knuckle cracking, including overstretching of ligaments in the fingers, dislocated fingers, and a partially torn ligament in the thumb.⁵

Knuckle Cracking Might Be Linked to Knuckle Pads

Knuckle pads are firm nodules that sometimes form over certain joints in your fingers. They’re often associated with repetitive trauma or movement, and they’ve been known to exist since ancient times (Michelangelo’s statue of David has knuckle pads).⁶

Knuckle pads are quite common and while they don’t cause physical symptoms, they can have psychological and cosmetic effects. It seems that knuckle cracking may play a role in at least certain cases of this condition.

There is at least one reported case of knuckle pads in a teenaged girl who reported frequently cracking her knuckles daily. In her case, the nodules slowly enlarged over the course of several years, and cracking of the knuckles was listed as the possible cause.⁷

Are There Benefits to Cracking Your Knuckles?

When you crack your knuckles, the joints become looser and have more mobility for a short period afterward. This perceived positive feeling may be why some people become habitual knuckle crackers.

Another explanation, as reported by one study, is that the movement offers a sort of “therapeutic release.” Chronic knuckle crackers may come to regard the habit as a form of stress relief, although it resembles more of a “nervous habit” like biting your nails (which it is associated with).

Ultimately, there are no significant benefits to cracking your knuckles, and a possibility that it could cause injury or damage to your joints and ligaments over time, so this is one habit that you’re better off without.

If you crack your knuckles and find it difficult to stop, I suggest you to try the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is a powerful self-help method that is very effective for regular stress management as well as for breaking all kinds of addictions, including knuckle cracking. Once the emotional distress is reduced or removed, your body can often rebalance itself and accelerate healing.

Specifically, EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over five thousand years, but without the invasiveness of needles.

Instead, simple tapping with your fingertips is used to input kinetic energy into specific meridians on your head and chest while you think about your specific problem -- whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction, pain, etc. – and voice positive affirmations.

This combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive affirmation works to clear the "short-circuit" — the emotional block — from your body's bioenergy system, thus restoring your mind and body's balance, which is essential for optimal emotional health and the healing of physical disease.

For a demonstration of how to perform EFT, please view the video below featuring EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman. This is a general demonstration that can be tailored to just about any problem. You can also find text instructions and photographs of where to tap on my EFT page.

Link Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Dementia Confirmed

By Dr. Mercola

Vitamin D has been shown to improve a number of brain disorders, including dementia and its most severe form, Alzheimer’s disease,¹ the latter of which now affects an estimated 5.2 million Americans.²

The latest mortality statistics places Alzheimer’s in the top three killer diseases in the US, right behind heart disease and cancer.³ Vitamin D deficiency is also rampant. Researchers estimate that half of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency.

Among seniors, that estimate reaches as high as 95 percent. While certainly not the sole cause of dementia, evidence suggests vitamin D may be a very important factor for successful prevention.

A wide variety of brain tissue contains vitamin D receptors, and when they’re activated by vitamin D, it facilitates nerve growth in your brain. Researchers also believe that optimal vitamin D levels boosts levels of important brain chemicals, and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.

Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on your brain through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties, which are well established.

‘Most Robust Study of Its Kind’ Confirms Link Between Low Vitamin D and Dementia

The link between low vitamin D and dementia has again been confirmed with the publication of a robust six-year long study⁴ conducted by an international team of researchers. As reported by Science Daily:⁵

“[S]tudy participants who were severely vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease...

[A]dults in the study who were moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 percent increased risk of developing dementia of any kind, and the risk increased to 125 percent in those who were severely deficient.

Similar results were recorded for Alzheimer's disease, with the moderately deficient group 69 percent more likely to develop this type of dementia, jumping to a 122 percent increased risk for those severely deficient.”

The authors concluded that: “Our results confirm that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease. This adds to the ongoing debate about the role of vitamin D in nonskeletal conditions.”

The findings also suggest there’s a threshold level of circulating vitamin D, below which your risk for dementia increases. This threshold was found to be right around 50 nmol/L, or 20 ng/ml. Higher levels were associated with good brain health.

Based on previous research, I believe 20 ng/ml is still too low, and potentially dangerously so... When it comes to vitamin D, you really want to be in the optimal or clinically relevant range, and as the years have gone by, researchers have progressively moved that target 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, or 125-175 nmol/L—a far cry from the threshold suggested in this study.

References for target ranges

Sun Exposure Is the Ideal Way to Optimize Your Vitamin D Level

I believe sensible sun exposure is the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D levels. As a general rule, you’ll want to expose large amounts of bare skin to the sun until it turns the lightest shade of pink, if you’re light-skinned.

This typically occurs in about half the time it would normally take you to burn. So if you know you tend to get sunburned after 30 minutes, you’d want to stay in the sun for about 15 minutes.

Those with darker skin may need to pay closer attention to notice when this slight reddening occurs. It’s really impossible to give any firm recommendations for how long you need to stay in the sun to optimize vitamin D production, as it varies greatly depending on a number of factors, such as:

Antioxidant levels and diet in general	Age
Skin color and/or current tan level	Use of sunscreen
Latitude and altitude (elevation)	Cloud cover and pollution
Ozone layer	Surface reflection
Season	Time of day
Weight	Altitude

Other Alternatives: UVB emitting lights or Supplements

Your second-best option would be to use lights that emit UVB.

If your circumstances prevent either of these strategies, then you’re left with taking a vitamin D supplement. GrassrootsHealth has a helpful chart showing the average adult dose required to reach healthy vitamin D levels based upon your measured starting point. Many experts agree that 35 IUs of vitamin D per pound of body weight could be used as an estimate for your ideal dose.

Be sure to take vitamin D3—not synthetic D2—and take vitamin K2 in conjunction with it. The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, and without sufficient amounts, calcium may build up in areas such as your arteries and soft tissues.

This can cause calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries—a side effect previously thought to be caused by vitamin D toxicity. We now know that inappropriate calcification is actually due more to lack of K2 than simply too much vitamin D.

Magnesium Is Also Important for Vitamin D Activity

Magnesium is another important player—both for the proper function of calcium, and for the activity of vitamin D, as it converts vitamin D into its active form. Magnesium also activates enzyme activity that helps your body use the vitamin D. In fact, all enzymes that metabolize vitamin D require magnesium to work. Magnesium also appears to play a role in vitamin D’s immune-boosting effects. As noted by magnesium expert Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD, ND:⁶

“The effectiveness and benefits of vitamin D are greatly undermined in the absence of adequate levels of magnesium in the body. Magnesium acts with and is essential to the activity of vitamin D, and yet most Americans do not get their recommended daily allowance (RDA) of this important mineral.”

As with vitamin D and K2, magnesium deficiency is also common, and if you’re lacking in magnesium and take supplemental calcium, you may exacerbate the situation. Vitamin K2, magnesium, calcium, and vitamin D all work in tandem with each other, which is why it’s important to pay attention to their ratios. Vitamin A, zinc, and boron are other important cofactors that interact with vitamin D, and indeed, zinc deficiency has also been identified as a contributing factor to Alzheimer’s disease.

When taking supplements, it can be easy to create lopsided ratios, so getting these nutrients from an organic whole food diet and sensible sun exposure is generally your best bet. Dietary sources of magnesium include sea vegetables, such as kelp, dulse, and nori. Vegetables can also be a good source. As for supplements, magnesium citrate and magnesium threonate are among the best.

My Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies

Because there are so few treatments for Alzheimer’s, and no available cure, you’re really left with just one solid solution, and that is to prevent it from happening to you in the first place. Diet is part and parcel of a successful prevention plan, and my optimized nutrition plan can set you on the right path in this regard. As explained by neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, author of the book, Grain Brain, Alzheimer’s is a disease predicated primarily on lifestyle choices; the two main culprits being excessive sugar and gluten consumption.

Another major factor is the development and increased consumption of genetically engineered (GE) grains, which are heavily contaminated with glyphosate—a herbicide thought to be worse than DDT, and DDT has already been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s... GE sugar and grains are now pervasive in most processed foods sold in the US, so swapping out processed fare for whole foods is an important part of the equation. In terms of your diet and other lifestyle factors, the following suggestions may be among the most important for Alzheimer’s prevention:

• Avoid sugar and refined fructose. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your sugar levels to a minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you have insulin/leptin resistance or any related disorders
• Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat and pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as butter). Research shows that your blood-brain barrier is negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream, where they don’t belong. That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s
• Optimize your gut flora by regularly eating fermented foods or taking a high-potency and high-quality probiotic supplement.
• Increase consumption of all healthy fats, including animal-based omega-3. Healthy fats that your brain needs for optimal function include organically-raised grass-fed meats, coconut oil, olives and olive oil, avocado, nuts, organic pastured egg yolks, and butter made from raw grass-fed milk. High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are also helpful for preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
• Reduce your overall calorie consumption, and/or intermittently fast. Ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs with coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats. As mentioned above intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jumpstart your body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the inulin/leptin resistance that is also a primary contributing factor for Alzheimer’s. To learn more, please see this previous article.
• Improve your magnesium levels. Preliminary research strongly suggests a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately, most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition and may be superior to other forms.
• Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day. Avoid supplements like folic acid, which is the inferior synthetic version of folate.
• Exercise regularly. It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,⁷ thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the BDNF, (brain derived neurotropic factor) and PGC-1alpha. Research has shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer's.
• Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity. However, you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
• Avoid and eliminate aluminum from your body: Sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc. For tips on how to detox aluminum, please see my article, “First Case Study to Show Direct Link between Alzheimer’s and Aluminum Toxicity.”
• Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
• Avoid anticholinergics and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers. Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.
• Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.
• Avoid electromagnetic fields (EMF) created by wireless devices. The BioInitiative Report,⁸ initially published in 2007, and again in 2012 by an international working group of scientists, researchers, and public health policy professionals, concluded that the existing standards for public safety are completely inadequate to protect your health. The report includes evidence that electromagnetic fields and exposure to radiofrequencies can have a detrimental impact on Alzheimer’s disease, along with a whole host of other chronic health problems.

This Is Your Brain on Knitting

By Dr. Mercola

More than half of US households craft at least once a year,¹ but for some it becomes a daily pastime. If you're an avid crafter – knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, etc. – you've probably lost yourself in a project on more than one occasion.

This tendency to become so absorbed in your craft that you're able to forget about your worries, obligations, and even physical pains is called "flow" – and it's a key reason why crafting may be phenomenal for your mental and emotional health.

Getting Creative Boosts Brain Health, Happiness

Crafts such as knitting and crocheting are no longer viewed as a pastime for the elderly. In fact, they're popular among all age groups, from 18 year olds to those over 65.

People in their 20s and 30s are actually taking up knitting in droves, and not because there's a shortage of baby blankets and hats. The number one reason why people are drawn to this hobby, according to a survey by the Craft Yarn Council, is because it's a wonderful creative outlet.²

Creating is beneficial for a number of reasons, one being that it allows you to become fully immersed in the moment to the extent that your worries fade away. This "flow," according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the secret to happiness. As he stated during a TED talk:³

"When we are involved in (creativity), we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life… You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger."

Not to mention, crafting likely offers many of the same health benefits to your brain that have been associated with brain games and crossword puzzles, which are known to boost memory and cognitive function.

One study revealed that craft activities such as quilting and knitting were associated with decreased odds of having mild cognitive impairment.⁴ Another study, published earlier this year, found that taking part in "cognitively demanding" activities was also beneficial.

This would include learning to quilt or take digital photography, which researchers found enhance memory function in older adults.⁵ Here again the benefits seem to depend on the task being mentally absorbing, which allows you to experience flow.

Crafting May Offer Meditation-Like Benefits

Some experts equate the benefits of crafting-induced "flow" with those of meditation. Indeed, when you're absorbed in a craft, it can induce your body's relaxation response, just like meditation can.

This is a physical state of deep rest that changes physical and emotional responses to stress, decreasing heart rate, blood pressure, rate of breathing, and muscle tension. Even beneficial changes to gene expression have been revealed as a result of the relaxation response.

Meditation acts as a form of "mental exercise" that can help regulate your attention and emotions, while improving well-being, and there's evidence that crafting may do the same.

One study found that engaging in "purposeful and meaningful activities" stimulates your neurological system, counters the effects of stress-related diseases, reduces the risk of dementia, and enhances health and well-being.⁶ This applied not only to meditation but also to:

• Arts and crafts
• Music
• Drawing
• Reading
• Home repairs

Crafting May Be a Natural Antidepressant

A significant number of knitters and crocheters do so because it offers stress relief,⁷ and this isn't only due to prompting flow or triggering your relaxation response. Crafting also activates your brain's reward centers to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that's sometimes described as a "natural antidepressant."

In fact, one study found a strong relationship between knitting frequency and feeling calm and happy.⁸ Those who reported frequent knitting also reported higher cognitive functioning, while knitting in a group was associated with greater perceived happiness and improved social contact and communication with others, the latter of which is also linked to improved mood and brain health. The researchers were so impressed with the findings they noted:

"Knitting has significant psychological and social benefits, which can contribute to wellbeing and quality of life. As a skilled and creative occupation, it has therapeutic potential…"

Engaging in a Hobby You Love Might Fight Brain Degeneration

Research into brain plasticity has proven that your brain continues to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity, which means that cognitive function can be improved, regardless of your age, and cognitive decline can be reversed.

However, if you don't sufficiently challenge your brain with new, surprising information, it eventually begins to deteriorate. In my interview with Dr. Michael Merzenich, professor emeritus at the University of California who has pioneered research in brain plasticity (also called neuroplasticity) for more than 30 years, he explained:

"Generally, by the third or fourth decade in life, you're in decline. One of the things that happens across this period is that you go from a period of the acquisition of abilities to largely using those abilities that have been acquired earlier in life.

By that I mean to say, the fundamental skills that you apply in your profession or in your everyday life are things you master, and you're doing them without thought.

To a large extent, you're operating most of your day without really being consciously engaged in the things you're doing... I've gone without really thinking very much about the physical acts of driving. I'm substantially disengaged.

This has been contributed to substantially by modern culture. Modern culture is all about taking out surprises... to basically reduce the stimulation in a sense on one level, so that we could engage ourselves in sort of an abstract level of operations.

We're no longer interested in the details of things. We're no longer interested in resolving the details of what we see or hear or feel, and our brains slowly deteriorate."

What research into brain plasticity shows us, however, is that by providing your brain with appropriate stimulus, you can counteract this degeneration. Again, a key factor necessary for improving brain function or reversing functional decline is the seriousness of purpose with which you engage in a task. I

n other words, the task must be important to you, or somehow meaningful or interesting — it must hold your attention. Rote memorization of nonsensical or unimportant items will not stimulate your brain to create new neurons, for instance, but learning how to play a musical instrument that you've always dreamed of playing will.

Crafting and Other Hobbies Give Adults Much-Needed Playtime

Unstructured playtime is essential for kids to build their imagination, relieve stress, and simply be kids. But when's the last time you took time for play? Regular playtime for adults, doing hobbies that you enjoy, is actually quite beneficial and even necessary for optimal well-being. Making time for play offers:⁹

• Stress relief: Taking a break from your worries feels good, and if you laugh while you do it, you'll also relax your muscles, optimize your blood flow, and even boost your immune system.
• Better physical health: Back pain, fatigue, sleep troubles, and indigestion often disappear when you make more time for play.
• Increased self-esteem and productivity: When you take time for fun, it makes you feel good about yourself and about your life in general. Playing during your free time also boosts creativity and enhances your problem-solving skills, which, in turn, may make you perform better at work.
• Social support: Engaging in hobbies with friends and family helps you to strengthen relationships and enhance the social support in your life.

If Crafting Is Not Your Thing, Find a Hobby That Is

While I've been focusing on the health benefits of crafting, please realize that similar benefits can be gained from other hobbies as well. This might include knitting, quilting, or scrapbooking… or it might not. Other examples include:

Building model ships, aircraft, railroads, or rockets	Gardening	Sewing	Cooking
Drawing	Painting	Sculpting	Music (playing an instrument, singing, and writing songs)
Soap making	Woodworking	Photography	Stained glass or glass blowing
Jewelry making	Quilling	Digital arts	Origami

The key is to find an activity that is mentally stimulating for you. Ideally, this should be something that requires your undivided attention and gives you great satisfaction… it should be an activity that you look forward to doing. After you've figured out which hobbies you most enjoy, the next step is prioritizing the time to do them. You needn't devote hours each day (unless you want to) – even 15 minutes here and half an hour there is likely to offer you great rewards for your mental health and happiness.

Understand That There Are Antibiotics in Your Fish

By Dr. Mercola

Animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), such as cattle and chickens, are often fed antibiotics at low doses for growth promotion, and those antibiotics are transferred to you via meat, and even via the manure used as crop fertilizer.

The same problems that are occurring on land are now, tragically, also occurring in the sea, with farmed fish becoming another major outlet for antibiotic usage.

Unlike in land animals, fish are not fed the antibiotics for growth promotion but rather for disease prevention. Industrial fish farming, or aquaculture, is the fastest growing form of food production in the world.¹ About half of the world's seafood now comes from fish farms, including in the US, and this is expected to increase.

The close quarters where farmed fish are raised (combined with their unnatural diets) means disease occurs often and can spread quickly. On fish farms, which are basically “CAFOs of the sea,” antibiotics are dispersed into the water, and sometimes injected directly into the fish.

Unfortunately, farmed fish are often raised in pens in the ocean, which means not only that pathogens can spread like wildfire and contaminate any wild fish swimming past – but the antibiotics can also spread to wild fish (via aquaculture and wastewater runoff) – and that’s exactly what recent research revealed.

Multiple Antibiotics Detected in Shrimp, Salmon, Tilapia, and Trout

In the last two decades, aquaculture production has nearly tripled, and with the rise has come a significant increase in the use of antibiotics. In the largest study of antibiotics in US seafood to date, researchers detected five different antibiotics in shrimp, salmon, tilapia, and trout.²

Some of the antibiotics detected are also used to treat human diseases and showed up in wild-caught seafood as well, likely due to wastewater treatment plant runoff.³ Further, even a variety of farm-raised salmon that was labeled as antibiotic-free was found to contain antibiotic residues.

Even though the levels detected were low, and within legal limits, the threat of antibiotic resistance still remains. In fact, the researchers noted that publications reporting antibiotic resistance in aquaculture have increased 8-fold over three decades.⁴

“Antibiotics present at levels well below regulatory limits still can promote the emergence of drug resistant microorganisms,” they noted.⁵

Pesticides Used on Fish Farms Threaten Wild Shellfish

Sea lice, a type of crustacean that is easily incubated by captive fish on farms, have become a significant problem and have been blamed for declining numbers of wild pink salmon, as well as the species that eat them (bears, eagles, orcas, and others).

To control the sea lice, fish farms use numerous pesticides, including diflubenzuron, teflubenzuron, emamectin benzoate, cypermethrin, and delta-methrin. These chemicals are now showing up in dangerous levels in the water, seabed sediment and various marine organisms near Norwegian fish farms.

According to a study by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, levels of the pesticide teflubenzuron in sediment exceeded environmental quality standards (EQS) in 67 percent of the samples, while levels of the pesticide diflubenzuron exceeded EQS in 40 percent of the samples tested.⁶

The levels were so high that shellfish and other marine wildlife in the area may be threatened. The researchers said:⁷

“A crude assessment of the concentrations [of pesticides] detected in the shrimp collected from one location and the levels at which chronic effects are seen in shrimp would suggest that there is a potential risk to shrimp. It would also be reasonable to extrapolate this to any species that undergoes moulting during its life cycle.”

The extensive use of these chemicals in aquaculture could easily have devastating ramifications, especially considering how far they travel in the water and how long they persist. One study found a drug used to kill sea lice also kills other marine invertebrates, can travel up to half a mile and persists in the water for hours…⁸

And, as we often see when chemicals are freely dispersed into the environment… nature often finds a way around them. Sea lice are now becoming resistant to the commonly used pesticides, representing a serious challenge. As reported by the Institute of Marine Research in Norway:⁹

“Pesticide resistance represents a global challenge to food production. Specifically for the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry, salmon lice and their developing resistance to delousing chemicals, for example emamectin benzoate, represents a challenge to sustainability.”

Antibiotics May Contribute to the Spread of Salmonella

Agricultural uses of antibiotics account for about 80 percent of all antibiotic use in the US.¹⁰ It’s beneficial for farmers because continuous, low-dose administration can increase the rate of weight gain in livestock for a relatively low cost to the farmer.

Unfortunately, this practice is also contributing to the alarming spread of antibiotic-resistant disease – and may also be promoting the spread of Salmonella bacteria among infected animals, according to new research.

It’s known that certain animals may act as “superspreaders” of disease, in which they shed large amounts of bacteria in their feces that may make other animals sick, yet the superspreaders have no symptoms themselves.

The animal study showed that some Salmonella-infected mice given the antibiotic streptomycin began to shed large quantities of the bacteria in their feces, essentially becoming superspreaders (except in this case the animals also became ill).¹¹

In other words, instead of reducing the risk of infection, the antibiotic treatment had the opposite effect and instead increased infection risk. And the results held true with another antibiotic, neomycin. The study’s lead researcher noted:¹²

"If this holds true for livestock as well, and I think it will, it would have obvious public health implications. We need to think about the possibility that we're not only selecting for antibiotic-resistant microbes, but also impairing the health of our livestock and increasing the spread of contagious pathogens among them and us."

Pork Industry Uses Web Marketing to Sugarcoat Agricultural Antibiotics Use

Last month, PBS Frontline ran a program titled “The Trouble with Antibiotics,” which detailed the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance in the US. According to a 2013 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on antibiotic-resistant threats,¹³ antibiotics in the American food supply pose "a serious threat" to public health and "should be phased out."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned that we are headed for a "post-antibiotic era" where we will see common infections turning deadly. After years of prodding, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally issued updated guidance on agricultural antibiotics on December 11, 2013.

However, all they really did was ask drug companies to voluntarily restrict the use of antibiotics that are important in human medicine by excluding "growth promotion in animals" as a listed use on the drug label.

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has also stepped in, recently announcing a five-year plan to address antibiotic resistance. Unfortunately, a five-year plan is simply too little, too late. We don't have that kind of time to waste. For each year we delay action, tens of thousands of Americans die, and the resistance problem keeps growing unfettered.

According to CDC statistics, 2 million Americans are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, and at least 23,000 of them die as a result of those infections.¹⁴ Meanwhile, you have a 50/50 chance of buying meat tainted with drug-resistant bacteria when shopping at your local grocery store.¹⁵

The issue is becoming widely known, and the National Pork Board anticipated a flurry of Web activity related to Frontline’s antibiotics program, which directly asked whether “decades of antibiotics in our farm animals” might be related to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.¹⁶ And so, they took matters into their own hands, using paid search engine optimization to ensure that their pro-antibiotics industry Web site had a prominent spot in Web search results. Jarrod Sutton, vice president for social responsibility at the National Pork Board, said in the email seen by Reuters:¹⁷

“The industry will tie any consumer searches for 'PBS Frontline' and 'Antibiotics' to the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance site, Food Source … Included in these searches will be the terms 'pork, antibiotics and Frontline.' In those cases, users will be directed to the National Pork Board and [National Pork Producers Council] NPPC site PorkCares.org."

It’s not the first time the pork industry has used PR campaigns to sugarcoat the realities of CAFO operations. In 2012, the Pork Producers Council released a video that made CAFOs look like idyllic family farms, when in reality these factories are among the most cruel, most polluting and most disease-ridden facilities on the planet.

Are You Interested in Clean Eating?

So-called “clean eating” is seeking out whole foods that are free of chemicals and additives, including those widely used in industrial farming on both land and sea. Despite evidence showing that agricultural antibiotics are a driving factor in environmental pollution and the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease, very little is actually being done to curtail the situation. The agricultural industry and the aquaculture industry are also dragging their feet, despite mounting evidence that they are promoting a massive health-care and environmental crisis. My suggestion to you is: don't wait for CAFOs and fish farms to voluntarily do the right thing.

Don't wait for the government to implement an action agenda. Instead, take decisive action for yourself and your own family. Seek out trusted sources of food that do not use antibiotics and pesticides. Many small farmers use organic principles even if they have not been able to afford organic certification, so your local farmer or farmer’s market is a good place to start. Some grocery chains also offer 100% grass-fed meats; if not, ask them to start carrying it. As for seafood, avoid fish and shellfish raised in aquaculture environments and choose only seafood that is wild-caught, in non-polluted waters, and is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which means it came from fisheries that support sustainable fishing practices.

From a health and environmental perspective, the best choices for seafood include wild-caught sardines, anchovies, and Alaskan salmon.

The Surprising Ways in Which Fast Food and Its Packaging Harms Your Health

By Dr. Mercola

A number of common chemicals are potent endocrine disruptors, meaning, they disrupt your hormone function. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are similar in structure to your natural sex hormones, such as estrogen.

These chemicals can potentially interfere with normal physiology, even in extremely small amounts. Your endocrine glands regulate vital physiological processes such as metabolism, reproduction, growth, and development.

A hormone’s job is to help regulate your cell’s function, sending signals that instruct them to perform certain tasks, but EDCs interfere with proper hormone signaling.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as bisphenol-A (BPA), can mimic your natural hormones, tricking your body into increasing or decreasing hormone production or blocking hormone signals by binding to cell receptors. Therefore, compounds that interfere with these vital processes can produce profound effects.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one well-known endocrine disruptor, and according to recent research, a chain of events that occur probably millions of times each day across the US actually maximizes the harm done by these chemicals. As reported by Time Magazine:¹

“According to a new study²... people who used hand sanitizer, touched a cash register receipt and then ate French fries were quickly exposed to high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical widely used to coat receipt paper.” [Emphasis mine]

Triclosan, Receipts, and Greasy Fingers Maximizes Chemical Exposure

All of these things: triclosan (the active ingredient in many hand sanitizers), bisphenols (both BPA and BPS), and vegetable oils are harmful to your health in isolation.

The featured research now shows that when combined, you create a situation in which your body absorbs the greatest amounts of toxin possible... First of all, absorption of BPA via your skin promotes higher levels of biologically active BPA in your body, compared to ingesting it via contaminated food.

“When scientists added in two other factors—scrubbing hands with hand sanitizer and eating greasy food—the evidence points to a super-sized dose of BPA,” Time Magazine notes.

’The chemicals used to make hand sanitizers, soaps, lotions, and sunscreen degrade the skin’s ability to act as a barrier and so act as skin penetration enhancers,’ says [study author] vom Saal.

So BPA enters the body more efficiently than it would otherwise. Food grease and other oils can act similarly because BPA itself is fat-soluble...”

Remarkably, absorption of BPA occurred in people holding a receipt for as little as TWO SECONDS! According to the author of the study, the amounts of BPA absorption found in his research “are in a zone where effects associated with obesity, diabetes, and neurological effects can result.”

Past research also suggests caution is warranted when handling receipts, even if you only hold them long enough to put them in your wallet. A 2010 study in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry³ found that of 13 thermal printing papers analyzed, 11 contained BPA.

In that study, holding the paper for five seconds was enough to transfer BPA to a person’s skin, and the amount of BPA transferred increased by about 10 times if their fingers were wet or greasy (such as if you've just applied lotion or eaten greasy food).

So far, laws have been passed in a dozen US states banning BPA from a variety of products, primarily products intended for children, such as baby bottles and sippy cups. Connecticut is the only state that has banned BPA in cash receipts.

Other Hazardous Chemicals in Fast Food Packaging

Another hazard associated with fast food relates to the packaging used. While American manufacturers have ceased using perchlorate and perfluorocarboxylates (PFCs) in non-stick food wrappers and take-out boxes, many restaurants are using imported boxes and wrappers.

These may still contain these hazardous chemicals. Research has shown that PFC’s can cause:^{4, 5}

• Infertility -- PFOA and PFOS have been shown to dramatically increase the odds of infertility. In one 2009 study, PFOS increased the risk of infertility anywhere from 70 to 134 percent, while PFOA was linked to a 60 to 154 percent increase in the chance of infertility.
• Thyroid disease -- Another study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that PFOA can damage your thyroid function. Individuals with the highest PFOA concentrations were more than twice as likely to report current thyroid disease, compared to those with the lowest PFOA concentrations.
• Cancer -- PFOA has been associated with tumors in at least four different organs in animal tests (liver, pancreas, testicles, and mammary glands in rats), and has been associated with increases in prostate cancer in PFOA plant workers. The EPA has ruled PFCs as “likely carcinogens,” and has stated that PFOA “poses developmental and reproductive risks to humans.”
• Immune system problems -- Several studies by scientists in Sweden indicate that PFCs have an adverse effect on your immune system. As described in the EWG report on PFCs, PFOA was found to decrease all immune cell subpopulations studied, in the thymus and spleen, and caused immunosupression.
• Increased LDL cholesterol levels – A study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that children and teens with higher PFOA levels had higher levels of total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol, while PFOS was associated with increased total cholesterol, including both LDL cholesterol and HDL or “good” cholesterol.

For more information on the studies linking PFCs with various health problems, please review the Environmental Working Groups extensive report⁶ on this topic.

In response to concerns that PFCs are still reaching consumers via imported fast food packaging, a petition created by consumer and health groups was recently filed⁷ with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), requesting the agency pass regulations to “close this loophole and clearly ban the chemicals in food production.”

Soda Ages You as Much as Smoking, Researchers Claim

In related news, research published in the American Journal of Public Health⁸ claims that drinking soda on a daily basis ages your immune cells to a degree similar to that of a daily smoking habit. To reach this conclusion, the researchers studied the effect of sugary sodas on human telomeres.

Every cell in your body contains a nucleus, and inside the nucleus are the chromosomes that contain your genes. The chromosome is made up of two "arms," and each arm contains a single molecule DNA. A typical DNA molecule is about 100 million bases long. It's curled up like a slinky, extending from one end of the chromosome to the other.

At the very tip of each arm of the chromosome is where you'll find the telomere. Your telomeres shorten with time because they cannot replicate completely each time the cell divides. Hence, as you get older, your telomeres get shorter and shorter. As noted by Time Magazine:⁹

“Shorter telomeres have been linked to health detriments like shorter lifespans and more stress, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer...  [Study author Elissa Epel, PhD] and her team analyzed data from 5,309 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from about 14 years ago.

They found that people who drank more sugary soda tended to have shorter telomeres. Drinking an 8-ounce daily serving of soda corresponded to 1.9 years of additional aging, and drinking a daily 20-ounce serving was linked to 4.6 more years of aging.

The latter, the authors point out, is exactly the same association found between telomere length and smoking... ‘The extremely high dose of sugar that we can put into our body within seconds by drinking sugared beverages is uniquely toxic to metabolism,’ she says.”

The Not-So-Sweet Truth About Artificial Sweeteners

Another toxic hazard inherent with processed foods is artificial sweeteners,¹⁰ which I’ve discussed in many previous articles. Most recently, a study published in the journal Nature¹¹ concluded that artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the microbial balance in your gut. This in turn raises your risk for diabetes. Other studies have found similar results, raising serious questions about the wisdom of recommending artificial sweeteners for diabetics.

One 2012 study published in PLOS One¹² found that chronic lifetime exposure to aspartame, commencing in utero, produces changes in blood glucose parameters in mice. The researchers used a dosage of aspartame that approximates the allowable daily intake (ADI) for aspartame in the US (approx. 50 mg/kg body weight). Not only was aspartame found to decrease insulin sensitivity compared to controls, it also wrought havoc on brain function.

As I’ve mentioned on countless occasions, optimizing your insulin sensitivity is key for optimal health, as insulin resistance is a hallmark of virtually every chronic disease you can think of, but especially type 2 diabetes. Now, contrary to popular belief, aspartame is being revealed as a substance that actually decreases or worsens insulin sensitivity, which is the complete opposite of what you want—especially if you’re already pre-diabetic or diabetic!

Male mice fed aspartame also experienced significantly higher weight gain compared to the control group, whereas female weight gain was unaffected by the aspartame diet compared to controls. Still, deposits of visceral fat—those dangerous fat deposits around internal organs, which are associated with an increased risk of heart disease in humans—increased in aspartame-fed mice of both sexes. Aspartame-fed mice of both sexes also had elevated fasting blood glucose levels compared to non-consumers of aspartame. Another study published in 2007 in the journal Diabetes Care¹³ reported similar results.

The fact that aspartame can alter your microbial balance has also been demonstrated in previous studies. One such study published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology¹⁴ revealed a potential link between aspartame and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Sucralose (Splenda), which is associated with many of the same adverse effects as aspartame, has also been found to decimate your gut flora. In fact, research published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health¹⁵ in 2008 found that Splenda reduces the amount of good bacteria in your intestines by 50 percent!

Fast Food Trans Fats Replaced with Even More Hazardous Varieties

Last but not least, I want to address the issue of fast food grease, which maximizes absorption of BPA through your hands and fingers—especially if you also use hand sanitizers... As you may know, last November the FDA announced¹⁶ it was considering removing partially hydrogenated oils—the primary source of trans fats—from the list of "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) ingredients. This is a great step in the right direction, but unfortunately it appears the food industry has simply replaced one hazardous fat with an even greater hazard...

As explained by investigative journalist Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, while trans fats are being recognized as harmful and are in the process of being eliminated, we’re still faced with a huge problem because restaurants are reverting back to using regular vegetable oils (such as peanut, corn, and soy oil) for frying, and these oils degradeinto toxic oxidation products when heated. In Norway, one research group is trying to assess the effects on worker health in restaurants, but, as Nina notes:

“[These volatile compounds] are very hard to study because... they’re very unstable. They’re hard to isolate. One thing they did was simply to show that these products exist. There’s a whole category called aldehydes, which are particularly worrisome. A group doing research on animals have found that at fairly low levels of exposure, these aldehydes in animals caused tremendous inflammation, which is related to heart disease. They oxidized LDL cholesterol, which is thought to be the LDL cholesterol that becomes dangerous. There's a link to heart disease. There's also some evidence that links these aldehydes in particular to Alzheimer's. They seem to have a very severe effect on the body."

One researcher has found that cyclic aldehydes cause toxic shock in animals through gastric damage. We now know a lot more about the role your gut plays in your health, and the idea that aldehydes from heated vegetable oils can damage your gastric system is consistent with the rise we see in immune problems and gastrointestinal-related diseases.

"When the FDA got rid of trans fats... restaurants began to use these regular liquid oils instead... they were the cheapest possible option to use… The FDA really did not consider any of this literature about these oxidation products. When you implement a law, you're supposed to look at the risks. What will happen if you implement a new regulation? In this case, the FDA did not," Nina says.

Tips to Help You Avoid Toxic Chemicals

We live in a toxic world, and you clearly cannot steer clear of all chemical hazards. However, you can limit or minimize your exposure. As demonstrated in the featured study, safety cannot be ascertained by studying a chemical in isolation, as combinations of chemicals can dramatically increase their absorption and biological effects...

In the case of BPA, you have the combination of hand sanitizer stripping your skin and allowing for greater permeation; followed by touching a BPA-containing receipt and greasy food. This combo of triclosan, BPA, and grease, leads to maximum absorption of the BPA, which is known to cause harm in minute amounts... There are countless other chemicals to beware of as well. To minimize your exposure to some of the most well-researched toxins, consider implementing the following suggestions:

1. Buy and eat fresh, organic produce and grass-pastured, sustainably raised meats to reduce your exposure to added hormones, pesticides, and fertilizers. Also avoid milk and other dairy products that contain the genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST).
2. Eat mostly fresh, raw whole foods. Processed and packaged foods are a common source of chemicals such as BPA and phthalates.
3. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity, such as wild caught Alaskan salmon.
4. Consider skipping the receipt, as most thermal receipts contain BPA.
5. Buy products that come in glass bottles rather than plastic or cans, as chemicals can leach out of plastics (and plastic can linings), into the contents; be aware that even “BPA-free” plastics typically leach other endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are just as bad as BPA.
6. Store your food and beverages in glass, rather than plastic, and avoid using plastic wrap.
7. Use glass baby bottles for your infants.
8. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
9. Filter your tap water for both drinking and bathing. If you can only afford to do one, filtering your bathing water may be more important, as your skin absorbs contaminants. To remove the endocrine disrupting herbicide Atrazine, make sure your filter is certified to remove it. According to the EWG, perchlorate can be filtered out using a reverse osmosis filter.
10. Look for products that are made by companies that are Earth-friendly, animal-friendly, sustainable, certified organic, and Ghttp://gmo.mercola.com/MO-free. This applies to everything from food and personal care products to building materials, carpeting, paint, baby items, furniture, mattresses, and more.
11. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter to remove contaminated house dust.
12. When buying new products such as furniture, mattresses, or carpet padding, ask what type of flame retardant it contains. Avoid items containing PBDEs, antimony, formaldehyde, boric acid, and other brominated chemicals. As you remove toxic items from in and around your home, replace them with those that contain naturally less flammable materials, such as leather, wool, cotton, and silk.
13. Avoid stain- and water-resistant clothing, furniture, and carpets to avoid perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).
14. Make sure your baby's toys are BPA- and BPS-free, such as pacifiers, teething rings and anything your child may be prone to suck or chew on. Better yet, avoid all plastic, especially flexible ones, as even BPA-free products are loaded with other plasticizers that are just as bad if not worse than BPA.
15. Use natural cleaning products, or make your own. Avoid those that contain 2-butoxyethanol (EGBE) and methoxydiglycol (DEGME)—two toxic glycol ethers that can impair your fertility and cause fetal harm.¹⁷
16. Switch over to organic toiletries, including shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants, and cosmetics. EWG’s Skin Deep database¹⁸ can help you find personal care products that are free of phthalates and other potentially dangerous chemicals.
17. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with a fabric one.
18. Replace feminine hygiene products (tampons and sanitary pads) with safer alternatives.
19. Look for fragrance-free products. One artificial fragrance can contain hundreds—even thousands—of potentially toxic chemicals. Avoid fabric softeners and dryer sheets, which contain a mishmash of synthetic chemicals and fragrances.

Monsanto to Keep Selling Pesticide-Coated Seeds EPA Says Don't Help Yields ― And May Harm Bees

By Dr. Mercola

Unbeknownst to many Americans, the majority of soybean, corn, canola, and sunflower seeds planted in the US are coated with neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics).

The chemicals, which are produced by Bayer and Syngenta, travel systemically through the plants and kill insects that munch on their roots and leaves. Neonicotinoids are powerful neurotoxins and are quite effective at killing the pests… but they’re also being blamed for decimating populations on non-target pests, namely pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

This occurs because the pesticides are taken up through the plant's vascular system as it grows, and, as a result, the chemical is expressed in the pollen and nectar of the plant. Despite accumulating evidence that neonics are implicated in widespread bee deaths across the US, Monsanto, DuPont, and Dow, which sell the treated seeds, have no intention of stopping.

Neonicotinoids Lead to ‘No Difference’ in Soybean Yields

The use of neonics becomes even more tragic (and greedy) after an analysis by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found they do little, if anything, to boost crop yields. Bayer, for instance, continues to claim that neonicotinoids help farmers to increase productivity¹… 

But this is not what the EPA’s analysis revealed. According to the EPA, which analyzed the use of neonicotinoids for insect control in US soybean production:²

“EPA concludes that these seed treatments provide little or no overall benefits to soybean production in most situations. Published data indicate that in most cases there is no difference in soybean yield when soybean seed was treated with neonicotinoids versus not receiving any insect control treatment.”

A public comment period on the analysis is open until December 22, 2014… let’s hope that after that time the EPA will take action against these environmentally destructive chemicals. To date, unfortunately, the EPA has failed to take action and has already been sued once by beekeepers and environmental groups for failing to protect bees from neonicotinoid pesticides.

They have also green-lighted another pesticide that is a close cousin to these toxic chemicals (sulfoxaflor). As a result, several beekeeping organizations and beekeepers have filed a legal action against them for approving sulfoxaflor, which is considered by many to be a "fourth-generation neonicotinoid.”

At least, in June 2014, an Executive Order was issued by the US government to investigate pollinator health (including the use of neonicotinoids), although no federal bans have been put in place.

Mounting Evidence Shows Neonicotinoids Are Too Toxic to Use

In 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released a report that ruled neonicotinoid insecticides are essentially “unacceptable” for many crops,³ and in the US, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced that they were restricting the use of 18 pesticide products containing dinotefuran, a type of neonicotinoid.

Neonicotinoids have been increasingly blamed for bee deaths (and were implicated in last year’s mass bee die-off of 25,000 bumblebees along with millions of bee deaths in Canada), prompting the European Union (EU) to ban them for two years, beginning December 1, 2013, to study their involvement with large bee kills. At the end of two years, the restriction will be reviewed.

Meanwhile, an independent review by 29 scientists with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (which looked at 800 studies) put another nail in the coffin for neonicotinoids.

The study found that neonicotinoids are indeed gravely harming bees and other pollinators (like butterflies). And that’s not all. The research also showed serious harm to birds, earthworms, snails, and other invertebrates.⁴ One of the researchers, Jean-Marc Bonmatin with the National Centre for Scientific Research, said:⁵

"The evidence is very clear. We are witnessing a threat to the productivity of our natural and farmed environment equivalent to that posed by organophosphates or DDT… Far from protecting food production, the use of neonicotinoid insecticides is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it."

Neonicotinoids Found in 100 Percent of Midwestern Streams Tested

So there’s solid research showing that neonicotinoids harm bees and other wildlife and do little to increase crop yields… further, research in Environmental Pollution identified yet another route of harm: waterways.⁶

After sampling nine Midwestern stream sites during the 2013 growing season, neonicotinoids were detected at all sites sampled. At different times of the growing season, levels of the insecticides peaked. For instance, after spring planting, levels spiked well above what would be considered toxic for aquatic organisms.⁷

Furthermore, reduced levels were detected in the waterways even before planting, which indicates that they can “persist from applications in prior years.”⁸ As reported by Mother Jones:⁹

“These findings directly contradict industry talking points. Older insecticides were typically sprayed onto crops in the field, while neonics are applied directly to seeds…

‘Due to its precise application directly to the seed, which is then planted below the soil surface, seed treatment reduces potential off-target exposure to plants and animals,’ Croplife America, the pesticide industry's main lobbying outfit, declared in a 2014 report.

Yet… USGS researchers report that older pesticides that once rained down on the corn/soy belt, like chlorpyrifos and carbofuran, turned up at ‘substantially’ lower rates in water—typically, in less than 20 percent of samples, compared to the 100 percent of samples found in the current neonic study.

Apparently, pesticides that are taken up by plants through seed treatments don't stay in the plants; and neonics, the USGS authors say, are highly water soluble and break down in water more slowly than the pesticides they've replaced.”

Top Scientific Journals Won’t Run Dr. Bronner’s Anti-GMO Ad…

David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, recently submitted a short advertorial to two leading science journals: Science and Nature. The short essay described how genetically modified (GM) crops have led to a net increase in pesticide use and cited data from Dr. Ramon J. Seidler, who is a former senior scientist with the EPA.

While magazines including Scientific American and The New Yorker accepted the ad, both journals denied it. Nature gave little in the way of explanation, but Science explained:¹⁰

“…our CEO along with the board have come back saying that we cannot accept the ad. We're concerned about backlash from our members and potentially getting into a battle with the GMO industry.”

It’s unclear what type of backlash they expected, but clearly they weren’t willing to take on any sort of battle in the interest of the sharing of knowledge and information – which scientific journals stand for. Laurie Faraday, the journal’s East regional ad-sales manager told Mother Jones that the editorial side even agreed with what Dr. Bronner’s ad said… they simply feared the backlash of the GMO industry:¹¹

“Science's management found it ‘a little bit controversial,’ and worried that ‘if we allowed that kind of a piece to be printed in Science, then maybe we'd be subject to the GMO world coming after us.’ She added: ‘Ironically, it's not that anyone in the organization disagreed with what it [the ad] said. It's just that we had to consider that the opposite side of the coin might want to start a war in our magazine.’"

Why We Need GMO Labeling: GM Soy Has Higher Levels of Pesticide Residues

From a regulatory perspective, GM crops are considered to be "substantially equivalent" to their non-GM counterparts. This means, that they are essentially the same, with no meaningful differences for your health or the environment. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has (so far) not required labeling of GM foods because they are deemed to be "substantially equivalent" to non-GM foods. It is also due to substantial equivalence that no oversight or long-term safety testing has been required of GM crops.

Yet, research shows that GM crops are not the same as their traditionally grown counterparts. A 2012 nutritional analysis of GMO versus non-GMO corn showed shocking differences in nutritional content. Non-GMO corn contained 437 times more calcium, 56 times more magnesium, and 7 times more manganese than GMO corn. GMO corn was also found to contain 13 ppm of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, compared to zero in non-GMO corn.

Research published in 2014 in the journal Food Chemistry also revealed that GM soybeans contain high residues of glyphosate and its amino acid metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA).¹² The researchers also noted soybeans from different agricultural practices (GMO, organic, and conventional) differ in nutritional quality, and concluded their data “rejects that GM soy is substantially equivalent to non-GM soybeans.” They noted:

“Using 35 different nutritional and elemental variables to characterize each soy sample, we were able to discriminate GM, conventional and organic soybeans without exception, demonstrating ‘substantial non-equivalence’ in compositional characteristics for ‘ready-to-market’ soybeans.”

Genetic testing recently carried out by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) confirmed that GM soy has been detected in infant formula being sold in Portland, Oregon,¹³ where a vote on whether or not to label GM foods is going on today – November 4, 2014. Most mothers would be interested to know if the infant formula they’re buying contains more pesticide residues and other risks from GM ingredients compared to another brand… and this is just one example of why GMO labeling is so important.

Voters in Oregon and Colorado: Vote YES for GMO Labeling Today, November 4, 2014

Today, we have two important measures on the ballot in Oregon and Colorado regarding GMO labeling. If you live in either of these states, please Vote Yes on Measure 92 in Oregon and Proposition 105 in Colorado to call for labeling on genetically modified foods. As you can see in Dr. Seidler’s video above, farmers get color-coated seeds so they know which are genetically modified and which are not… once it’s in your food, don’t you deserve to know the difference?

The Great Boycott Is Here

The insanity has gone far enough. It’s time to unite and fight back, which is why I encourage you to vote with your wallet and boycott every single product owned by members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), considering the fact that it consists primarily of pesticide producers and junk food manufacturers who are going to great lengths to violate some of your most basic rights.

This is just to ensure that subsidized, genetically engineered and chemical-dependent, highly processed junk food remains the status quo. This includes both natural and organic brands. You can start by using the list in the table below. The recent GM labeling victories in Vermont and Oregon clearly show that we have the power to incite great change. In this case, you can help change the food system by taking decisive action with your food dollars.

"We flood their Facebook pages, tarnish their brand names. We pressure financial institutions, pension funds and mutual funds to divest from Monsanto and the other GMA companies. Our motto for Monsanto and GMA products must become: Don't buy them. Don't sell them. Don't grow them. And don't let your financial institution, university, church, labor union or pension fund invest in them," Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) writes.¹⁴

"As soon as the GMA files a lawsuit against Vermont, the Organic Consumers Association, joined by a growing coalition of public interest groups, will launch a boycott and divestment campaign directed against all of the 300 GMA companies and their thousands of brand name products—including foods, beverages, seeds, home and garden supplies, pet food, herbicides and pesticides."

So far, between 2012 and 2014, Monsanto and the GMA have successfully blocked GMO labeling legislation in over 30 states, at a price tag of more than $100 million! These funds were received from the 300+ members of the GMA, which include chemical/pesticide, GE seed, and processed food industries. Together, these industries are working in a symbiotic fashion to grow, subsidize, and manufacture foods that have been clearly linked to growing obesity and chronic disease epidemics. As noted by Ronnie Cummins:

"Until now the GMA colossus has ruled, not only in Washington DC, but in all 50 states. But now that Vermont has passed a trigger-free GMO labeling law, and Oregon is poised to do the same in November, the balance of power has shifted. Monsanto, the GMA and their allies are in panic mode. Because they know that when companies are forced to label or remove GMOs, and also are forced to drop the fraudulent practice of labeling GE-tainted foods as 'natural' or 'all natural,' in one state, they will have to do it in every state. Just as they've been forced to do in Europe, where mandatory GMO labeling has been in effect since 1997."

Are You Supporting Those Who Have Repeatedly Taken a Stand Against Your Health and Right to Know?

To defeat the GMA lawsuit against Vermont, money must be raised for legal assistance to the state. We must also intensify any and all efforts to educate others and put pressure on the marketplace to quell the GMAs radical power grabs. To this end, please make a donation to the Organic Consumers Fund today.

Other ways you can help is by refusing to invest in GMA member companies—even if indirectly through retirement and mutual funds. With enough pressure, we can pressure institutional investors like Fidelity, Vanguard, and State Street to dump the stocks they have in these companies. Moreover, we need to boycott ALL of the 300 companies who are still members of the GMA. Combined, they produce more than 6,000 brand name products, and all of these products are on the boycott list. This includes:

Foods	Beverages	Seeds
Home and garden supplies	Pet foods	Herbicides and pesticides for home and professional use

This may seem as a monstrously difficult task... but if we work together and individually make an effort, collectively we can do it. There are 400 million Americans, and each person makes multiple purchasing and investment decisions each and every day of the year. Every action you take from here on counts. Pro-organic consumer groups will also launch programs placing emphasis on boycotting "Traitor Brands," meaning natural and organic brands that are actually owned by members of the pro-GMO GMA. As noted by Cummins:

"Health-conscious and green-minded consumers often inadvertently support the GMA when they buy brands like Honest Tea, Kashi, Odwalla and others whose parent companies, all members of the GMA, have donated millions to defeat GMO labeling initiatives in California (Prop 37) and Washington State (I-522)."

As a sign of solidarity, please sign the Boycott Pledge now.

Traitor Brands

While I cannot list all of them here, some of the 50 "natural" and/or organic Traitor Brands targeted by this boycott include those listed below. The reason for not focusing the boycott on the conventional parent companies is because pro-organic health-conscious consumers rarely buy Coca-Cola, Diet Pepsi, or sugary breakfast cereals to begin with. The only way to really put pressure on these parent companies is by avoiding the brands they market to organic consumers; the brands you actually typically buy.

"Let's be clear. Junk Food and beverage companies who are members of the GMA are gobbling up organic and 'natural' brands because they recognize the huge profit potential in the fast-growing organic and natural markets. They want our business. If we stop buying their brands, they know there's a good chance we'll find alternative brands. And we might never look back," Cummins writes.

Natural/Organic Traitor Brand	Owned By/Parent company
IZZE	PepsiCo
Naked Juice	PepsiCo
Simply Frito-Lay	PepsiCo
Starbucks Frappuccino	PepsiCo
Honest Tea	Coca-Cola
Odwalla	Coca-Cola
Gerber Organic	Nestle
Sweet Leaf tea	Nestle
Boca Burgers	Kraft/Mondelez
Green and Black's	Kraft/Mondelez
Cascadian Farm	General Mills
Larabar	General Mills
Muir Glen	General Mills
Alexia	ConAgra
Pam organic cooking sprays	ConAgra
Bear Naked	Kelloggs
Gardenburger	Kelloggs
Kashi	Kelloggs
Morningstar Farms	Kelloggs
Plum Organics	Campbells
Wolfgang Puck organic soups	Campbells
RW Knudsen	Smuckers
Santa Cruz Organic	Smuckers
Smuckers Organic	Smuckers
Dagoba	Hersheys
Earthgrain bread	Bimbo Bakeries
Simply Asia	McCormick
Thai Kitchen	McCormick

Nine Additional Ways to Take Your Power Back

In addition to not buying Traitor Brand foods or beverages (even if they're certified organic), here are nine ways you can take power back from the corporate bullies that make up the Grocery Manufacturers Association:

1. Stop buying all non-organic processed foods. Instead, build your diet around whole, unprocessed foods, especially raw fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats from coconut oil, avocadoes, organic pastured meat, dairy and eggs, and raw nuts
2. Buy most of your foods from your local farmer's market and/or organic farm
3. Cook most or all your meals at home using whole, organic ingredients
4. Frequent restaurants that serve organic, cooked-from-scratch, local food. Many restaurants, especially chain restaurants (Chipotlé is a rare exception), use processed foods made by GMA members for their meals
5. Buy only heirloom, open-pollinated, and/or organic seeds for your garden. This includes both decorative plants and edibles
6. Boycott all lawn and garden chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) unless they are "OMRI Approved," which means they are allowed in organic production. If you use a lawn service, make sure they're using OMRI Approved products as well
7. Become an avid label reader. If a GMA member company owns the product, no matter what it is, don't buy it
8. Download the Buycott app for your smartphone, which allows you to scan products to find out if they're part of the boycott before you buy them
9. Join the Organic Consumers Association's new campaign, "Buy Organic Brands that Support Your Right to Know"

To learn more about this boycott, and the traitor brands that are included, please visit TheBoycottList.org. I also encourage you to donate to the Organic Consumers Fund. Your donation will help fight the GMA lawsuit in Vermont, and also help win the GMO labeling ballot initiative in Oregon in November.

Voting with your pocketbook, at every meal, matters. It makes a huge difference. By boycotting GMA member Traitor Brands, you can help level the playing field, and help take back control of our food supply. And as always, continue educating yourself about genetically engineered foods, and share what you’ve learned with family and friends.