Documentary: Cereal Killers "Let Fat Be Thy Medicine"

Contrary to popular belief, you do not get fat from eating fat. You get fat from eating too much sugar and grains.

Refined carbohydrates promote chronic inflammation in your body, elevate low-density LDL cholesterol, and ultimately lead to insulin and leptin resistance.

Insulin and leptin resistance, in turn, is at the heart of obesity and most chronic disease, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s—all the top killers in the US.

To normalize your weight and protect your health, it is crucial to address your insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains.

Donal O’Neill turned the American food pyramid upside-down—eliminating sugars and grains from his diet and dramatically boosting his fat intake, thereby reducing his hereditary risk factors for heart disease to nil. Watch a trailer to his new movie "Cereal Killers - Let Fat be Thy Medicine.

Sue Taylor

Allergist

Allergy Testing and Allergy Therapy

The Allergy Co and Ottawa Holistic Wellness

Reference: Mercola.com

Hidden Sources of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, has long been at the center of health debates. Government agencies claim that it safe while growing scientific evidence says the opposite. MSG has been shown in several studies to have neurotoxic effects, and although the government agencies claim that problems associated with MSG affect only about 2 percent of the population, many health experts say that number is significantly higher. Moreover, they aver that MSG is at the root of many health problems for tens of millions of people.

But while other substances known to cause sensitivity or unwanted health effects can be clearly identified -- and avoided -- simply by reading food labels, MSG can be called by many different names and is used in many different substances, making it extremely difficult to identify monosodium glutamate and all its hidden forms by packaging alone.

You may know that another common term for MSG is processed free glutamic acid, and that can help in weeding out some products; however, because MSG is used in the production or processing of so many products, you can still experience the consequences of MSG even when it's not specifically listed on the label.

For instance, according to the site TruthinLabeling.org, which is dedicated to monitoring MSG in food products, any of the following labeling terms indicate that MSG is present (3):

• Glutamic acid
• Hydrolyzed protein of any type
• Monopotassium glutamate
• Protein
• Glutamate
• Whey protein concentrate
• Autolyzed yeast
• Citric acid
• Other ingredients that almost always include or produce free glutamic acid during the processing phase include:
• Seasonings
• Bouillon, broth or stock
• Any "flavors" or "flavoring," including so-called natural flavoring
• Anything "ultra-pasteurized"
• Pectin
• Amino acids
• Maltodextrin
• Carrageenan
• Oligodextrin
• Barley malt, malted barley or malt extract
• Brewer's yeast
• Citric acid, Citrate

And finally, the site lists the following ingredients as being suspected of containing enough MSG to serve as triggers in those who are highly sensitive to the substance:

• Modified food starch
• Corn starch
• Dextrose
• Rice syrup
• Corn syrup
• Brown rice syrup
• Annatto
• Products that are "pasteurized"
• Milk powder
• Lipolyzed butter fat
• Reduced fat milk
• Mmost products that are identified as "low fat" or "no fat"
• Vinegar, including balsamic vinegar
• Products that list the terms enriched or vitamin enriched

What's worse, if you think you'll be "safe" by purchasing food products from health food stores, you couldn't be more wrong. Protein powders and essentially any food containing hydrolyzed proteins is highly likely to contain MSG, and although products labeled "organic" cannot contain MSG as an ingredient, other ingredients used in organic food production may use or create MSG. For instance, MSG may occur naturally in some products, including tomato products and cheeses -- especially parmesan cheese. But simply because it occurs naturally doesn't mean that it's safe to consume or won't cause reactions in people who are sensitive to it.

And food products aren't the only culprits. MSG can be hidden in fillers used in dietary supplements and drugs -- even in personal care items like shampoo, soap, body wash, conditioner and cosmetics, all products that allow MSG to be absorbed by the body. MSG is also commonly used in many pesticides, herbicides and even fertilizers, resulting in residues on or within the edible portion of fruits and vegetables.

Sue Taylor

Allergist

Allergy Testing and Allergy Therapy

The Allergy Co and Ottawa Holistic Wellness

Reference: Naturalnews.com

Check your mecury intake from fish with this handy online calculator

Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but it is also a danger to human anatomy -- a neurotoxin to the brain. Mercury can spur allergies, irritability, social anxiety, shyness and even eating disorders like anorexia.

Today's precarious human activities facilitate mercury further into the air, soil and water. The burning of fossil fuels lets off elemental mercury that can take on many forms in the environment.

Fish readily take up these forms of mercury and pass it into humans. Today, the average mercury level in tuna measures 250 ppb, as documented by the US Natural News Forensic Food Lab.

A handy online calculator created by the National Resources Defense Council can help you monitor your mercury intake from a variety of seafood sources. The results warn if you have exceeded EPA safety limits.

For example, a 160-pound female who eats three cans of chunk light tuna per week exceeds the chart's safety zone. This is equivalent to consuming about 0.12 micrograms of mercury per kilogram of body weight per day, an amount exceeding EPA safety standards.

Sue Taylor

Allergist

Allergy Testing and Allergy Therapy

The Allergy Co and Ottawa Holistic Wellness

Reference: Naturalnews.com

Family pets make for healthier children with less allergies

According to a new study, children who grow up in families that include a dog, or to a lesser extent a cat, are less likely to suffer infections, allergies, asthma, and other common childhood ailments. Published in the journal Pediatrics, the new research highlights the importance of early exposure among children to germs, dirt, and other forms of "uncleanliness" for the purpose of building strong immunity.

For their study, researchers from Kuopio University Hospital in Finland evaluated nearly 400 infants born at the hospital between September 2002 and May 2005. The team asked parents of these children to fill out questionnaires about their children's health from the time these children were born until they reached their first birthdays.

The questionnaire, which was structured more in the form of a daily diary, kept tracks of the number of infections the children developed, as well as how often they experienced things like fevers, runny noses, coughs, and wheezing. The frequency of these and other conditions was then analyzed in light of whether or not the children had a dog or cat living at home with them.

Overall, 35 percent of the children evaluated spent a majority of their first year of life in regular contact with a pet dog, while 24 percent lived in direct contact with a cat. Compared to children who lived with no pets at home, those who lived with a dog were more than 31 percent healthier during any given week than those who did not live with a dog, based on the parents' diary reports.

Children living in families with dogs were also 44 percent less likely to develop inner ear infections, and 29 percent less likely to need antibiotic drugs, than children living in families without dogs. Children living with dogs, in fact, were the least likely of all children, including those living with cats, to develop any sickness at all, and were the healthiest among all the children.

"These results suggest that dog contacts may have a protective effect on respiratory tract infections during the first year of life," wrote lead author Eija Bergroth of Kuopio University Hospital, concerning her and her team's findings. "Our findings support the theory that during the first year of life, animal contacts are important, possibly leading to better resistance to infectious respiratory illnesses during childhood."

A 2011 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) uncovered similar findings among children living on farms. It appears as though children exposed to a variety of unique germs and microbes in the family-farm environment develop stronger immunity, and are thus far healthier, than children living in more "sanitary," urban environments.

Sue Taylor

Allergist

Allergy Testing and Allergy Therapy

The Allergy Co and Ottawa Holistic Wellness

Reference: Naturalnews.com

Benefits of Green Tea

Coffee is a common allergen for many of my Ottawa clients. When I advise them to avoid coffee they often ask for an alternative. Green tea is a safe alternative and provides a number of positive health benefits.

People who drank a beverage containing green tea extract showed increased connectivity between the parietal and frontal cortex of the brain.

The increased activity was correlated with improved performance on working memory tasks.

The researchers believe the results suggest green tea may be useful for treating cognitive impairments, including dementia.

Green tea may also be beneficial for heart health, bone health, type 2 diabetes, weight loss, vision health, and more.

Much of the research on green tea has been based on about three cups daily, which is easily attainable for most people.

Sue Taylor

Allergist

Allergy Testing and Allergy Therapy

The Allergy Co and Ottawa Holistic Wellness

Reference: Mercola.om