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On a recent trip I had some quiet moments to read and I found myself engrossed by Jenny McCarthy’s latest book, Mother Warriors.I admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of her previous book, Louder than Words, but her new book spoke to me and I finished it in less than a day.Much to my surprise, I found myself in tears by the end.No matter your opinion of Jenny McCarthy, she is one of the top VOCAL advocates for the autism community and is pushing nerves and helping spread the word that there’s a big problem.I am a parent of two diagnosed on the autism spectrum, and I am trying to make a difference and be vocal in my own community.Jenny can do what I cannot – give major television interviews, write best-selling books, and generally increase the national awareness about the autism epidemic. I admire her passionately stepping up to say something despite the controversy of the topic. Read More »
Parents of special needs children are already very aware of what they are feeding their children, especially when there is concern about toxic load and the effects the food may have on your child.As the mother of two boys with multiple food allergies/sensitivities, autism, and sensory processing disorder, I monitor every ingredient on every label of everything I buy.For our family, diet was the key to the most significant progress, particularly when my youngest began talking two weeks after we went off of all of the allergenic foods.As a result, I am very conscious of what things come into our home and whether or not each item will help or hinder my children’s progress.Now there’s something else to watch out for.The article, “Beware the Radura: Bombarding food with radiation results in preservation at a price” by Eric Schneider in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Energy Times, had me sit up and take notice.Read More »
A sociologist at Rutgers University questioned more than 150 scientists whose work was relevant to a 2003 political clash between several members of Congress, a Christian lobbyist group called the Traditional Values Coalition, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Of the 112 scientists who responded, more than half said they have since self-censored their grant proposals to remove "red flag" words -- such as gay, lesbian, AIDS, needle-exchange or anal sex. Nearly a quarter of respondents said they either modified their studies to seem less controversial or abandoned controversial grant proposals. At the time of the 2003 debate, members of Congress asked the NIH to explain the medical benefit of 10 government-funded studies some called inappropriate. However, a staffer accidentally sent the NIH a much longer list of 250 proposed "questionable" studies compiled by the Traditional Values Coalition. The NIH Director at that time, Elias Zerhouni, decided to review the full list of studies anyway. While no studies lost their funding because of their inclusion on the list, it is now apparent that scientists did indeed react to the controversy with self-censorship.
Declining ocean fish stocks have led to a rapid growth in fish farming. But if you think farmed fish are the answer, you might want to take a second look at its effects.Carnivorous farmed fish are fed on high levels of fish meal and fish oil. In fact, they require a fish biomass input greater than the fish biomass produced. For the ten species of fish most commonly farmed, an average of nearly two kilograms of wild fish is required for every one kilogram of fish raised.Unfortunately, there is an increase in the production trend of carnivorous fish (such as salmon or shrimp), rather than herbivorous or filter feeder fish. Small pelagic fish, such as herring, sardines and anchovies, mainly provide the fish meal and fish oils used for aquaculture feed, increasing pressures on wild fish.Numbers of popular species such as cod have plummeted; in the Mediterranean, 12 species of shark are commercially extinct. Swordfish in that area, which should grow as thick as a telephone pole, now must be caught as juveniles and eaten when no bigger than a baseball bat. The fish in the seas surrounding Africa and Asia are also in steep decline.
Nestle has recalled 900,000 pounds worth of Lean Cuisine brand frozen chicken dinners following reports of small chunks in the meals. The frozen dinners were distributed nationwide, and at least one person has reported an injury.So far, the blue plastic has been found in three Lean Cuisine dinners -- Cafe Classics Pesto Chicken with Bow Tie Pasta, Spa Cuisine Chicken Mediterranean and Dinnertime Selects Chicken Tuscan.The USDA considered the blue plastic a potential health threat and has ranked the recall as Class I, which means that there is considered to be a “reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.” Amanda Eamich, spokesperson for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, noted that, “It could cause injury -- a piece of plastic could cut your mouth, it could scratch your throat.”
