Study suggests link between ultra-processed foods, cancer

Yahoo – AFP, 15 February 2018

Scientists suggested on Thursday a link between cancer and "ultra-processed" foods

Scientists suggested on Thursday a link between cancer and "ultra-processed" foods such as cookies, fizzy drinks and sugary cereals, though outside experts cautioned against reading too much into the study results.

Researchers from France and Brazil used data from nearly 105,000 French adults who completed online questionnaires detailing their intake of 3,300 different food items.

This was compared to cases of diagnosed cancer among the group.

"The results show that a 10-percent increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet was associated with increases of 12 percent in the risk of overall cancer and 11 percent in the risk of breast cancer," said a press statement from The BMJ which published the research.

No significant association was found for prostate or colorectal cancer.

Foods on the list included packaged breads, buns, pizzas and cakes, crisps, industrially-produced desserts, sodas, fish and chicken nuggets, instant noodles and soups, and frozen ready meals.

Previous research had linked processed foods high in sugar, fat, and salt to obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but firm evidence for increased disease risk has been "scarce", the team said.

They stressed their research showed no more than a correlation between a diet high in ultra-processed foods and cancer. This could be coincidental, and does not prove conclusively that these types of food actively cause cancer.

Ian Johnson, a nutrition researcher from the Quadram Institute Bioscience in England, said the authors identified "some rather weak associations, of low statistical significance."

"The problem is that the definition of ultra-processed foods they have used is so broad and poorly defined that it is impossible to decide exactly what, if any, causal connections have been observed," he said in comments via the Science Media Centre.

Tom Sanders of the King's College London agreed that the term "ultra-processed food" was "difficult to define".

"The definition excludes many home-made or artisanal foods such as bread, cakes, biscuits, butter, meat, cheese, tinned fruit and vegetables as well as sugar and salt used in domestic food preparation," he said.

"From a nutritional standpoint, this classification seems arbitrary and based on the premise that food produced industrially has a different nutritional and chemical composition from that produced in the home or by artisans. This is not the case."

Related Articles:

Non-stick chemicals common in fast food packaging: study

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.

(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.

Australian researchers in peanut allergy breakthrough

Yahoo – AFP, August 17, 2017

Australian researchers have reported a major breakthrough in the relief of deadly
peanut allergy with the discovery of a long-lasting treatment (AFP Photo/A Majeed)

Sydney (AFP) - Australian researchers have reported a major breakthrough in the relief of deadly peanut allergy with the discovery of a long-lasting treatment they say offers hope that a cure will soon be possible.

In clinical trials conducted by scientists at Melbourne's Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, children with peanut allergies were given a probiotic along with small doses of a peanut protein over an 18-month period.

Related Searches

Peanut Butter FudgePeanut FactorySpread Peanut Butter

When the experiment ended in 2013 some 80 percent of the kids were able to tolerate peanuts.

The research, published Wednesday in medical journal The Lancet, found that four years on, about 70 percent could still eat peanuts without an adverse reaction.

"The importance of this finding is that these children were able to eat peanuts like children who don't have peanut allergy and still maintain their tolerant state, protected against reactions to peanut," lead researcher Mimi Tang said.

"These findings suggest our treatment is effective at inducing long-term tolerance, up to four years after completing treatment, and is safe.

"It also suggests the exciting possibility that tolerance is a realistic target for treating the food allergy."

Food allergy affects one in 20 children and about two in 100 adults, with seafood, cow's milk, eggs and peanuts among the most typical triggers.

Peanuts are one of the most common foods to cause anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction.

The researchers said the Murdoch study provides the "strongest evidence yet that a cure may be possible for peanut allergy".

"This is a major step forward in identifying an effective treatment to address the food allergy problem in Western societies," Tang said.

Ten-year-old Olivia May suffered a reaction when she tried to eat a peanut butter sandwich seven years ago.

"We visited the allergist the first time [and] he said 'sorry, you're going to have to go home and empty your pantry out, clear it of all nuts, anything with nuts in it'," Oliver's mother Tanya told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

But after taking part in the trial, Oliva no longer suffers from her allergy.

"I think perhaps one of the best things has been to be able to just go to parties and I can drop her off or at a sleep over," Tanya May said.

"I used to hand over a EpiPen (epinephrine injector) to a parent I'd hardly knew and give them a thirty-second explanation how to use it.

"[But] to not have to worry about putting that responsibility in someone else's hands is a great relief."

Fifty-six children completed the study, with half receiving a placebo and half receiving the treatment, which encourages the immune system to develop a tolerance to the allergy.

Researchers are now aiming to confirm the results with a larger study of the treatment they say "holds important implications for attacking the modern food allergy epidemic".

Australian researchers announce peanut allergy breakthrough #peanutallergy pic.twitter.com/u0fADkxshF

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 18, 2017

Non-stick chemicals common in fast food packaging: study

Yahoo – AFP, February 1, 2017

Burgers, fries, tacos and pastries come wrapped in grease-proof paper and boxes
that often contain non-stick chemicals that may be able to leach into food,
US researchers said (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Miami (AFP) - Burgers, fries, tacos and pastries come wrapped in grease-proof paper and boxes that often contain non-stick chemicals that may be able to leach into food, US researchers said Wednesday.

The study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters tested more than 400 samples from 27 fast food chains in the United States.

Almost half of paper wrappers and 20 percent of paperboard samples -- such as boxes for fries and pizza -- contained fluorine, a marker for highly fluorinated chemicals used in stain-resistant carpets, non-stick cookware and waterproof outdoor apparel.

"Wrappers for Tex-Mex food, desserts and breads were the most likely to contain fluorine," said the report.

The study did not show any specific harm to human health from exposure to these chemicals -- known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) -- in food wrappers.

But researchers warned that exposure to some PFASs has been associated with cancer, thyroid disease, immune suppression, low birth weight, and decreased fertility according to prior studies.

"These chemicals have been linked with numerous health problems, so it's concerning that people are potentially exposed to them in food," said lead author Laurel Schaider, an environmental chemist at the Silent Spring Institute.

"Children are especially at risk for health effects because their developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals."

Six of the samples contained a long-chain PFAS called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, even though several major US manufacturers agreed to stopping using C8 compounds in food packaging due to health hazards, after a 2011 US Food and Drug Administration review.

Researchers also detected some shorter-chain PFAS compounds, which have been increasingly used as replacements for the longer chain PFASs.

"The replacement compounds are equally persistent and have not been shown to be safe for human health," said co-author Arlene Blum, founder of the Green Science Policy Institute.

"That's why we need to reduce the use of the entire class of highly fluorinated compounds. The good news is there are non-fluorinated alternatives available."

About one in three American kids eat fast food every day.

The United States began phasing out certain PFASs in 2000, but other countries still produce them, and they tend to linger in the environment for long periods after being discarded in landfills.

Prior studies have shown that substances in food packaging can migrate into food.

Related Articles:

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.

(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.

The slow decline of fast food in America

Yahoo – AFP, Luc Olinga, 9 Nov 2014

The hospitals of the Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Missouri no longer

 serve fast food in their cafeterias, after ending a contract with McDonald's in 2012

-- two years ahead of schedule (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

New York (AFP) - The hospitals of the Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Missouri no longer serve fast food in their cafeterias, after ending a contract with McDonald's in 2012 -- two years ahead of schedule.

In Kentucky, Kosair Children's Hospital signed up to serve Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets to its patients when it opened in 1986. But it has now followed in TMC's footsteps.

The reversals by hospital chains that once embraced McDonald's reflect a waning love affair with fast food in the United States, as consumers become increasingly aware of the benefits of eating better.

The reversals by hospital chains reflect a 

waning love affair with fast food in the 

United States, as consumers become 

increasingly aware of the benefits of 

eating better (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

"Fast foods have their place, but I am not so sure their place is inside the hospital," recalled John Bluford, the former TMC chief executive.

"We thought that we needed to change the game a little bit and start creating a culture of health," Bluford told AFP.

"It was a health-concerned decision and a mission-driven decision, given our mission to improve the health of our community."

Shifting tastes

Sales of McDonald's in the United States fell 3.3 percent in the last quarter. The consumption of sodas fell last year to 1995 levels, according to the industry specialist Beverage Digest.

Americans drank on the average 51 gallons (nearly 200 liters) of soda per person in 1998; last year, it was 44 gallons.

The fall is more marked for light sodas, which fell six percent amid concerns sparked by studies suggesting some synthetic sweeteners were carcinogenic.

"There's a shift away from the perception of food that is mass-produced towards food that is perceived to be more homemade or artisanal or sustainably produced," said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, associate clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"Consumers want to feel that they're doing healthier things and eating a healthier diet."

More and more Americans are making the link between fast food and sodas, and life-long health problems like obesity and diabetes, said Sriram Madhusoodanan, an organizer of the anti-fast-food campaign "Value [the] Meal" at Corporate Accountability International.

Campaigns like theirs are scoring gains against the powerful industry.

In December 2011, San Francisco required fast food chains to add more low-sugar, low-salt foods like fruit and vegetables for children.

And those campaigns are also showing results.

The US Centers for Disease Control said in February that there had been a 43 percent fall in obesity among two- to five-year-olds over the previous decade.

Much more needs to be done, according to the organization Trust for America's Health. More than two-thirds of adult Americans remain overweight, it says.

Christopher Gindlesperger, spokesman for the American Beverage Association, downplayed the role sodas play in the health problem.

Because of the greater popularity of low-sugar sodas, he said, the amount of sugar consumed from sodas has fallen 40 percent in the last 10 years.

Sugar-related diseases "are very serious and very complex," he said.

"If you look at the government data, you see that calories in the American diet from sodas are just a small piece of the overall (total)... We empower our customers to make the choices that are right for them."

New options

The success of the restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill symbolizes the new face of the American diet.

Launched in 1993, Chipotle advertises that it uses hormone-free meat and locally-raised organic vegetables.

More and more Americans are making the

link between fast food and sodas, and

life-long health problems like obesity and

diabetes (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

"From the very beginning, Chipotle has used really high-quality fresh ingredients, and prepares all the foods we serve," company spokesman Chris Arnold told AFP.

"So from the beginning, we were doing something which is pretty different than what was happening in traditional American fast food."

Fast food chains are reacting to the new social and market pressure. McDonald's has eliminated some of its controls on franchises to allow them to adapt menus to customers' tastes.

Last year, Taco Bell phased out its children's menu. And drink companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are expanding their beverage lines with lower-sugar options.

McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Pepsi did not respond to requests for comment from AFP.

For Madhusoodanan, the real change will come when McDonald's stops tempting children with toys to sell its "Happy Meals".

"They are changing, they're coming around because the public is now demanding it. They have to change," said Bluford.

Related Articles:

McDonald's Faces 'Millennial' Challenge

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.

(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.

Dutch food policy needs rethink on dairy and meat: WRR

DutchNews.nl, Friday 03 October 2014

The Netherlands is one of the world's biggest exporters of dairy products

The government needs to intervene to ensure people eat less meat, salt, sugar and fat, according to the influential scientific council for government policy (WRR) in a new report.

The WRR advises the government on ‘future developments of great public interest’ and focuses on sustainable food production in its latest report, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The organisation says despite the importance of agricultural exports to the Dutch economy, the Netherlands should produce less dairy and meat products. The Netherlands should also develop official policy toward food, rather than toward agriculture, the council says.

Production

The current approach, with the focus on production, has been very successful and led to an abundant supply of good, cheap food. However, natural resources are being depleted and agricultural land is become exhausted, the council warns.

In addition, the shortage of water and phosphates and a manure surplus are all having an impact on biodiversity. At the same time, obesity is an increasing problem internationally, as is the increase in resistant bacteria in factory farming.

Sustainability

To counteract the effects of current farming policy, we need to eat less meat and dairy products and grow food more sustainably, the WRR says in its recommendations. Fat, sugar and salt in food should be reduced and the current plethora of labeling be reduced to just two.

‘Production and consumption in the Netherlands are contributing to the global ecological problem,’ the council states. Dairy products and meat have a ‘disproportional impact’ and it would be good for both the environment and human health to produce and consume less, the council says.

The Netherlands no longer has an agricultural ministry and its work is now done by the economic affairs department, the Volkskrant points out. Deputy economic affairs minister Sharon Dijksma said in a reaction the report is an ‘important’ document which ‘asks the right questions’.

Related Articles:

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You’re Doing Dairy Wrong: Dutch Farmers

Halve meat consumption, scientists urge rich world

Study: Alarming rise in obesity

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.


(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.


(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.

North Jersey doctor to grow 'food as medicine' practice on Morris County farm

NJ, Susan K. Livio, The Star-Ledger

Dr. Ron Weiss is seen in his hoop house with onions that are curing on the historic
 348 acre Ethos Health community supported agriculture farm that Dr. Ronald Weiss
 purchased in Long Valley, where he will be integrating the food grown on the farm
into his medical practice.

LONG VALLEY — After taking care of some of Hudson County’s sickest residents for 25 years, internist Ronald Weiss says he’s figured out how to make people healthy — and it’s not by writing prescriptions or ordering surgery.

Weiss would rather recommend a daily dose of what’s growing on his 348-acre, 18th-century farm in Long Valley. And next week, this city doctor will get that opportunity when he launches New Jersey’s first farm-based practice, rooted in the philosophy that the right food — fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, beans and seeds — is medicine.

About 55 miles from his West New York office last week, Weiss sat outside the farmhouse at which his assistant, Asha Gala of Califon, had prepared a lunch that vibrated with color: a salad of baby kale, radicchio, purple carrots, cucumbers, onions and cherry husk tomatoes tossed with a walnut vinaigrette, followed by eggplant rollatini with tofu instead of cheese, and dairy-free chocolate pudding garnished with raspberries.

Fruits and vegetables contain nutrients that prevent inflammation, which is believed to because of many chronic diseases, said Weiss, a 52-year-old married father of two and an assistant professor at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

"There are so many naturally occurring drugs on this plate," he said. "Plant-based whole foods are the most powerful disease-modifying tools available to practitioners — more powerful than any drugs or surgeries."

"I am not saying if you fall down and break your ankle, I can fix it by putting a salve of mugwort on it. You need someone to fix your fracture," Weiss said. "I am talking about treating and preventing chronic disease — the heart attacks, the strokes, the cardiovascular disease, the cancers … the illnesses that are taking our economy and our nation down."

Weiss said he so believes in this reinvention of his medical career, he cashed in all of his assets — even selling his practice, at which he still sees patients three days a week — to buy the farm. In June, he launched Ethos Health, a community-supported agriculture project.

His two farmers have produced fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs for 90 families, who pay a membership fee and volunteer their time picking potatoes and weeding. It’s a collaboration that encourages people to take a keener interest in their diets, which is where health care should start, he said.

"Human health is directly related to the health of the environment, the production of food and how it is grown," said Weiss, who earned an undergraduate degree in botany at Rutgers College of Arts in Science in Newark. "I see this farm as an opportunity for me to take everything I’ve done all my life, all the biology and chemistry of plants I have studied, and link them to the human biological system."

Weiss acknowledged that his philosophy is not shared by many of his peers.

He was thrilled when Kim A. Williams, president-elect of the American College of Cardiology, published an essay last month advocating his patients eat a plant-based diet. Williams described how becoming a vegan reduced his cholesterol levels after a low-fat diet had failed.

Some doctors, however, criticized Williams’ essay, saying a diet eschewing all meat, fish, eggs or dairy products is still experimental, according to published reports.

Nutrition science has long been a moving target for a confused public, hungry for answers on how to eat healthier. In March, the British journal Annals of Internal Medicine added to the mystery after reviewing 72 studies and concluding there was "no significant evidence that saturated fats increase the risk of heart disease."

The American Heart Association recommends a diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry and nuts.

Asha Gala of Califon cooks farm produce into an Eggplant Rollatini meal on the

 historic 348 acre Ethos Health community supported agriculture farm that Dr. Ronald

\ Weiss purchased in Long Valley, where he will be integrating the food grown on

the farm into his medical practice.

The plant-based diet is also a hard sell for some patients. For the doubters, Weiss tells them about 90-year-old Angelina Rotella of West New York, who came to his office on the night before Christmas Eve, in a wheelchair with congestive heart failure.

"I asked her, ‘Do you want me to call 911 and admit you to Palisades General? Or will you let me feed you sweet potatoes and kale?’ Amazingly enough, with the help of her daughter, she chose this," Weiss said. "She doesn’t have diabetes anymore and chronic heart failure. She is cooking, sewing and walking around town. I’m not saying it’s easy, but she seized the opportunity and she is transformed."

Angie Rotella-Suarez, who lives upstairs from her mother, said she faithfully prepared her meals, strictly adhering to Weiss’ diet of grains (such as whole-grain brown rice and sweet potatoes), steamed greens (including kale and spinach), fruit (a big serving of wild organic blueberries is a must) and water.

The results have been "more than a miracle," Rotella-Suarez said in a telephone interview. Within two weeks, her mother stopped taking her blood pressure medication.

"Eight months later, she is down 40 pounds. My mother is out of the wheelchair. My mother does the dishes again," Rotella-Suarez said, starting to cry. "She hasn’t done the dishes in seven years, easy."

The recovery was so swift, Rotella-Suarez and her sister both adopted the vegan diet and each lost 40 pounds; they are no longer pre-diabetic.

"It sounds like a hoax, but Dr. Weiss is absolutely thorough. He is the best of what the medical profession has to offer," she said. "He is not living in a make-believe world."

There is something dreamlike about Weiss’ farm in Long Valley — a pastoral section of Washington Township, where 39 percent of its acreage is preserved for agriculture. Facing a canopy of mature trees on Schooley's Mountain, the farm’s winding driveway circles a farmhouse listed on the national register of historic places. Visitors are greeted in the unpaved parking lot by Maya, farm manager Nora Pugliese’s dog, who barks and promptly rolls over for a belly rub. A crumbling German stone barn will be restored to serve as an exercise and wellness center where Gala, a nutritional education trainer, will offer cooking demonstrations and other programs.

Education is critical because people are being asked to abandon the only diet they’ve ever known. "If the patients wants to come with us, great," Gala said. "We meet the patients wherever they are."

"Food is Medicine," a lecture by Weiss last Tuesday night, drew about 60 people to the Brookside Community Center in Mendham. Questions ranged from "How do you feel about vaccines?" ("I have two little children, and we have given them every single vaccine around") to "Which are better for you? Raw or cooked vegetables?" (Both are good, but studies say celery and carrots are better cooked.)

Beth Niehoff of Mendham, a married mother of four, admitted the idea of changing everyone’s diet daunted her.

"What if you someone does this 80 percent?" she asked.

"Well, then you will have 20 percent of issues, which is fine. I work with people who say, ‘I don’t want to go that far,’ " Gala said.

Weiss conceded it’s not easy convincing people to graze for their health in a fast-food world. Once a year, he confessed, he looks forward to eating a hot pastrami sandwich.

Related Articles:

Study: Alarming rise in obesity

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.


15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.

'Sugar tax' needed to curb childhood obesity, say experts

Tax to deter consumption of soft drinks among measures proposed by Action on Sugar, as well as ban on junk food sports sponsorships

theguardian.com, Press Association, Sunday 22 June 2014

Action on Sugar said: 'Obesity in children leads to the premature development
 of cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attacks and heart failure.' Photograph:
Nick Ansell/PA

A campaign group has called on the government to introduce a "sugar tax" to discourage consumption of sweetened soft drinks.

Action on Sugar said it had developed a seven-point plan to curb childhood obesity following a request for its views from the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

The measures include bringing in a sugar tax, limiting the availability of ultra-processed foods and sweetened soft drinks, and banning "junk food sports sponsorships".

The group's chairman, Professor Graham MacGregor, said: "Obesity in children leads to the premature development of cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attacks and heart failure, which are the commonest cause of death and disability in the UK.

"Obesity predisposes to type 2 diabetes, which further increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and also, importantly, it can lead to severe complications, ie the commonest cause of blindness, renal dialysis and amputation of the lower limbs.

"These complications are extremely expensive to manage, and will cripple the NHS if the increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes is not stopped immediately.

"Obesity is preventable if the food environment is changed, yet the current policies are not working. The UK requires the implementation of this coherent strategy, starting by setting incremental sugar reduction targets for soft drinks this summer. No delays, no excuses."

Dr Aseem Malhotra, cardiologist and science director of Action on Sugar, said: "It is really quite shameful that the food industry continues to spend billions in junk food advertising targeting children, the most vulnerable members of society. They even manage to associate sugary products with sport.

"Physical activity has a multitude of benefits but a child doing an hour of PE every day would be putting all to waste if they ended up gorging on a burger and chips and a packet of crisps washed down with a sugary drink. One has to run half a marathon to burn off those calories. It's time to bust the myth of physical activity and obesity and dissociate junk food and sport."

The seven measures called for are:

• Reduce added sugars by 40% by 2020 by reformulating food.

• Cease all forms of targeted marketing of ultra-processed, unhealthy foods and drinks to children.

• Dissociate physical activity with obesity via banning junk food sports sponsorships.

• Reduce fat in ultra-processed foods, particularly saturated fat – 15% reduction by 2020.

• Limit the availability of ultra-processed foods and sweetened soft drinks as well as reducing portion size.

• Incentivise healthier food and discourage drinking of soft drinks by introducing a sugar tax.

• Remove responsibility for nutrition from the Department of Health and return it to an independent agency.

Action on Sugar – a group of specialists concerned with sugar and its effects on health – is working to reach a consensus with the food industry and government over the harmful effects of a high sugar diet, and bring about a reduction in the amount of sugar in processed foods.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We know some people eat too many calories including sugar. Childhood obesity is at its lowest since 1998 but more should be done.

"Next week we will get expert scientific advice on sugar which will help shape future thinking. We will consider these recommendations as part of this."

Related Articles:

Study: Alarming rise in obesity

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.


(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.


(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.