The True Food Shopping Guide is a great tool for helping you determine which brands and products contain GM ingredients. It lists 20 different food categories that include everything from baby food to chocolate.

Additionally, here are four simple steps to decrease your consumption of GM foods as much as possible:

• Reduce or eliminate processed foods in your diet. The fact that 75 percent of processed foods contain GM ingredients is only one of the many reasons to stick to a whole foods diet.
• Read produce and food labels. Conventionally raised soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically modified crops. Ingredients made from these foods include high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn flour and meal, dextrin, starch, soy sauce, margarine, and tofu.
• Buy organic produce. By definition, food that is certified organic must be free from all GM organisms, produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. Additionally, grass-fed beef will not have been fed GM corn feed.

FROM WWW.MERCOLA.COM

Here is the  True Food Shoppers Guide mobile application for iPhone and Android!

The mobile app was created to help you find and avoid GE ingredients wherever you shop. Our guide gives you valuable information on common GE ingredients, brands to look for, and look out for, and common sense tips to keep you in the know. Stop shopping in the dark and download your new pocket shoppers’ guide today! Check out this video review of the app on livingmaxwell.com.

Get it for FREE on iTunes (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) or Android Market by searching for “True Food.”

The True Food Shoppers Guide also arms you with valuable information regarding common GM ingredients, as well as brands to look for, and to look out for. The application includes a “Four Simple Tips” section, which offers easy ways to avoid GM ingredients, a “Supermarkets and GMOs” section to help consumers identify GM and non-GMO private-label store brands, and a rbGH and rbGH-free dairy guide.

Go to this site for all the info: http://truefoodnow.org/shoppers-guide/

Other than the fact the flu shot doesn’t really work it is preserved with mercury at 250 times the allowed safe level recommended by the EPA. According to the CDC, the majority of flu vaccines contain thimerosal.
Some contain as much as 25 mcg of mercury per dose. This means that
it may contain more than 250 times the Environmental Protection
Agency’s safety limit for mercury.

They also contain aluminum — a neurotoxin that has been linked to
Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain
other toxic or hazardous ingredients like

Triton X-100 — a detergent
Phenol (carbolic acid)
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
Betapropiolactone – a disinfectant
Nonoxynol – used to kill or stop growth of STDs
Octoxinol 9 – a vaginal spermicide
Sodium phosphate
Squalene – which has been linked to Gulf war Syndrome

Last but not least, I think it says a lot that 70 percent of doctors
and nurses, and 62 percent of other health care workers do NOT get
the yearly flu shot.

The reasons why they opted to not get vaccinated were:
They didn’t believe the vaccine would work
They believed their immune systems were strong enough to withstand
exposure to the flu
They were concerned about side effects

If your doctor won’t take the flu shot should you?

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CHILDREN AND VACCINES

In fact, one shocking statistic brought to light in this video is
that BEFORE the CDC advocated vaccinating children under the age of
five, the number of children dying from the flu was very low, and
on the decline.

Then, in 2003, just after children aged five and under started getting
vaccinated, the number of flu deaths SKYROCKETED. The death toll was
enormous compared to the previous year, when the flu vaccine was not
administered en masse to that age group!

from Dan Jackowiak
www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com

RICO’S COMMENTS:

Flu shots …. scaring the ignorant public to get an unnecessary and HARMFUL vaccines that puts tens of millions of dollars in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies.  All this at the expense of our health! Like Dan says, why would I get a shot that my Doctor wouldn’t even take? Knowledge is power. Take control of your health.

DO NOT GET THE FLU SHOT.

People who really know about health know about virgin coconut oil. It’s the oil of choice for health-conscious people, and it’s used in everything from smoothies (delicious!) to personal care products. You can use coconut oil both inside and outside your body. It’s a natural plant-based alternative to canola that’s plentiful, and safe for all kinds of cooking. It’s easily digested, free of toxins… and actually comes with a host of major health benefits.

It’s useful for cooking because coconut oil has a much higher temperature tolerance than even extra virgin olive oil. Its fat molecules stay intact, in other words, at higher stovetop temperatures, so that makes it safer for use as a cooking oil. You can use coconut oil in practically any recipe that calls for vegetable oil or shortening. Shortening, by the way, is just hydrogenated vegetable oil. Never eat that because it’s terrible for your health. Replace it with coconut oil .

It’s composed mostly of medium-chain-fatty-acids (MCFA). MCFAs are widely regarded as extremely useful for providing sustainable energy due to their molecular structure. Many bodybuilders and athletes rely on MCFAs as a key part of their high-performance diets. It ramps up your body’s ability to convert fat into energy, increasing your metabolism and actually helping you to lose weight.

Coconut oil contains lauric acid, one of the key building blocks of your immune system and a powerful anti-viral/anti-microbial.

Coconut oil has the power to

• Power overall heart health
• Boost your metabolism
• Raise your antioxidant levels
• Promote weight loss
• Strengthen your immune system
• Stimulate healthy thyroid function
• Maintain healthy cholesterol balance

Unlike canola, coconut oil actually protects the heart by keeping fat and cholesterol in your bloodstream in proper balance.

Coconut oil can also be used as a partial replacement for butter. It doesn’t quite have the butter taste, but it’s close, and the healthy fats in it resemble butter in many recipes.

It’s great for skin, hair, face and your entire body, head to toe. Use it as a skin care product. It helps to moisturize and keeps your skin elastic, radiant, and youthful.

from www.naturalnews.com   and www.alsearsmd.com

RICO’S COMMENTS:

I have used virgin coconut oil for years. I consume 3 tablespoons a day, use it for salads and cooking and use it as a lotion. You shouldn’t put anything on your body you can’t consume. It is one more step you should take in your journey to better health.

Toxins are everywhere — from household cleaning products to plastics in our kitchen-ware, phthalates and Bisphenol-A in our plastic water bottles, and even in our tap water and air supply. We live in a sea of toxins, and a large body of growing evidence shows that these toxins are, in part, responsible for the epidemic of disease we see in the twenty-first century. Toxic exposures affect the health of all brains, young and old. We must also deal with all the by-products and toxic metabolic wastes created by our own bodies.

________________________________________________________________

Bisphenol-A [is a] a chemical that mimics the female sex hormone estrogen and is used to make consumer products ranging from plastic baby bottles to the linings of tin cans.

- Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith

_________________________________________________________________________

You should be drinking a lot of water, but please beware of plastic water bottles. Plastics made from polycarbonate resin can leach Bisphenol-A (BPA), a potent hormone disruptor. BPA may impair the reproductive organs and have adverse effects on tumors, breast tissue development, and prostate development by reducing sperm count. BPA can leach into water bottles through normal wear and tear and exposure to heat and cleaning agents.

- C. W. Randolph, M.D.

________________________________________________________________________

Over the past two decades, BPA has meanwhile become an integral chemical in the packaging of millions of food products and other plastic goods; more than six billion pounds of BPA are used each year in resins lining metal cans, food packaging, hot beverage cups, and in blends with other types of plastic products. Lab research shows that the bond that secures BPA molecules to food and beverage packages changes over time, resulting in the release of free BPA into the food we eat and the beverages we consume, as well as into the environment.

- Donna Jackson Nakazawa

________________________________________________________________________

RICO’S COMMENTS:

The average person has 2.2 lb of toxins stored in their body. We put thousands of toxins in our bodies every day through the products we use (cosmetics, shampoo, lotions, sprays, food, liquids, etc.) The absolute way to better health and avoidance of chronic disease is to try and avoid this things and use natural alternatives. Also, you need to have a regular system of detoxification and internal cleansing. You must get these toxins out of your body on a regular basis or they will do long term damage.

Even if you think you are being healthy by drinking lots of water, bottled water is NOT the way to go, as you can see by reading above. For years I have only drank ionized alkaline water right out of my machine every day. I take it with me to the gym and to work or wherever I go, in a stainless steel container, free of toxins that might absorb into my water. Seeing that next to oxygen, water is the key to life, you might want to try drinking water that is actually healthy for you!

Below is a very encouraging note on people finally taking their health into their own hands!

Residents in Concord, in what seems to be a first for a U.S. town, voted last week to ban the sale of plastic water bottles in their small, affluent municipality effective Jan. 1. The decision has prompted celebration from environmental activists and objection from bottled water industry executives who don’t want other cities and states to follow suit.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/mass-town-votes-to-ban-sale-of-bottled-water/19465741

Don’t microwave your food or drinks in plastic containers; avoid using plastic wrap to cover food in the microwave.

- Mark Hyman MD

Diet soft drinks are addicting. When you drink them, changes take place in your brain that make you behave differently. Your body actually becomes addicted to the unnatural sweetness like it’s a drug.

When your drink contains aspartame, sucralose, or any other artificial sweetener, you over-stimulate your sweetness receptors. It changes the way you think about the way things should taste.

You crave high-intensity sweetness. And naturally sweet foods like fruit don’t taste as good to you. Vegetables lose their appeal, because they’re not sweet.

Your diet soda has no calories, so when the calories don’t arrive, your body tells your brain to go out and get them. Your appetite increases, and you get cravings that cause you to overeat. What’s worse, you turn to high-carbohydrate foods and sweets to make up the calorie void. But now, the insulin you’ve poured into your blood tells your body to turn whatever you do eat into fat.

www.alsearsmd.com

Americans drink billions of gallons of diet soda every year, it comes as little surprise that one of the most popular articles abuzz on the New York Times Web site is about the potentially waist-thickening effects of diet soda. The article highlights a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota who scrutinized the dietary intake of 9,514 volunteers ages 45 to 64 over the course of nine years. TheTimes honed in on the effects of diet soda: specifically, drinking one can of the stuff each day can increase the risk of developing metabolic disorder, a scary collection of risk factors including increased waist circumference, high blood pressure and low levels of good cholesterol, by 34 percent.

RICO’S COMMENTS:

If you cut ONE thing out of your diet, cut all SODA out. Replace with quality water. You will see noticeable health benefits by doing so. We all know that keeping an alkaline pH is the key to good health and avoiding disease. Soda is one of the most acidic beverages there is. It takes about 32 glasses of alkaline water to negate the acidity in ONE SODA! Soda also robs your body of calcium and either puts tons of refined sugar or toxic sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, etc.) in your body.

Diet soda makes you fat and is addicting!

THERE IS NOT ONE NUTRITIOUS THING IN ANY SODA.

The multi-million-dollar home abdominal machine infomercial market absolutely amazes me and proves how uneducated most of the public is about fat loss, nutrition, and spot reduction.  If they come out with one more ab-roller, ab-tracker, ab-rocker, or ab-cruncher I’m going to flip. If you think an ab machine can transform your gut into washboard abs, look up the word “gullible” in the dictionary. Of course the infomercial models have sculpted abs but they didn’t get them from using a piece of plastic. It is virtually impossible to get those kind of abs with one device and a few minutes a day.

“As long as people will accept crap, it will be

financially profitable to dispense it.”

… Dick Cavett

I saw another famous infomercial guru hawking his “wonder machine” the other day. He wants you to believe his machine simulates six different exercises at once and that you can change your body remarkably in just three minutes a day. Then he hits you with all of the bells and whistles: Call now, and we will take off a whole payment. Call now and receive a slim down book. Lose a dress size in just 10 days. Thirty-day money back guarantee.  This piece of plastic and metal costs over $200! What a steal! He’s stealing money from you!

Myth: You can lose the fat around your waist by doing

ab exercises.

Fact: You don’t lose fat in the areas where you work the

specific muscle. You lose fat when you expend more

calories than you take in. Fat is lost throughout the

body—not just in one place.

Here’s the scoop — there’s no such thing as spot reduction!  You can’t trim fat in specific areas of the body unless you have liposuction done.  Exercising a particular muscle group will not make the fat around that muscle disappear. Exercise causes the release of such hormones as adrenaline into the bloodstream. In turn, these hormones travel through the bloodstream, stimulating fat release throughout the body. Any exercise device that promises you weight loss in only one targeted area is a fraud. The only thing it will trim is dollars from your wallet.

Everybody has a six-pack. The only problem is many of us hide it behind a thick layer of fat. The only way to see your six-pack is to get rid of that layer. The way to do this properly is to combine strength training and aerobic exercise with a low-fat, healthy diet. Why do I write? ……….to empower you……….knowledge is power. What you do with this knowledge is up to you!

RICO CONNOR

TOTAL HEALTH FOR LIFE, LLC

• Acts as an anti-viral agent — Oregano oil can aid in protecting us against the common cold.
• Powerful anti-inflammatory
• Can help relieve congestion
• Emmenagogue — Oregano oil can aid in healing irregular menstruation and reducing the negative effects of menopause.
• Anti-allergen — Oregano oils produce a sedating effect on the hyper-sensitivity of allergies, offering relief for allergic reactions.
• Potent anti-oxidant capacity — Through neutralizing free-radicals, oregano oil helps us slow the process of cellular deterioration, thus slowing the process of aging. Anti-oxidants aid in protecting us from cancer, eye-diseases, muscle degeneration, as well as many nervous-system disorders. Rosmarinic acid, a component of oil of oregano, is an antihistimine, and a more powerful antioxidant than vitamin E.
• Digestive aid — Stimulates the flow of bile in the digestive organs
• Possesses powerful anti-fungal properties — With regular use, oregano oil can help protect us against fungal infections.

Oregano oil is also a excellent source of vitamins and minerals. It is high in the vitamins A C, and E complex, as well as zinc, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, copper, manganese and niacin.

from:  http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/oregano-oil/

RICO’S COMMENTS:

Even the “healthy” things on fast food menus are terrible for you. Don’t let their slick advertising fool you. The chicken is full of antibiotics and raised in factory farms. There is hidden sugar in everything and the items are full of fat. There ARE restaurants that serve organic vegetables, free range chicken and grass fed beef. Most restaurants will cook your food the way you like it also.

www.mercola.com

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the swine flu pandemic officially over on August 9^th. The swine flu, which we were warned would kill millions, if not tens of millions of people, turned out to be a complete “dud” as far as pandemics go, but health agencies and governments around the world still managed to create massive fear of this hybrid flu virus.

And, of course, vaccine makers made millions off their novel H1N1 vaccines.

Last year the United States contracted for the manufacture of over 170 million doses of swine flu vaccine. Probably the most significant accomplishment of this website was that we were able to contribute to the fact that only 90 million doses were used in the United States.

Key WHO Pandemic Advisors had Financial Ties to Vaccine Makers

This was perhaps suspected, but when the World Health Organization finally released a list of pandemic advisors, it finally confirmed that at least five of the key players who influenced the phase six pandemic declaration indeed had financial ties to vaccine makers.

As we now know, our tax dollars were completely wasted on these nonessential pandemic vaccines, and it appears as though financial conflicts of interest between WHO pandemic advisors and the industry may have had a great deal to do with it.

Is it really wise to take advice from people who have a financial stake in the outcome of the decision to declare a worldwide pandemic?

I think recent history tells us the answer is clearly NO!

We now have the policy in place that every single American is supposed to get a flu shot this coming year, from six months of age through the year of death. That means every clinic; every doctor who has that flu vaccine is going to be pushing hard for it. Even in pregnant women.

RICO’S COMMENTS:

I can tell you one thing …. along with Dr. Mercola, I will never be forced to get a vaccine that has not been proven safe, effective, or necessary. It’s time to share this info with everyone you know so that on the next round of manufactured hysteria you, along with them will not run to your Doctor to get a shot of toxic ingredients that will cause more harm than good and line the pockets of the big drug companies. They care about money …. PERIOD.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH AND YOUR LIFE

The Many Health Benefits of Exercise

Just as there are at least 20 diseases and conditions directly attributable to being overweight, there are a large number of health benefits that are directly attributable to exercise.

By improving your physical fitness, you can effectively:

• Lower your triglyceride levels
• Increase your levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL)
• Lower your blood glucose levels
• Normalize your insulin levels

All of these factors are indicators of “metabolic fitness,” which is a cornerstone of optimal health. Even older people who do endurance exercise training end up with metabolically younger hearts.

Additional health benefits, many of which are the direct result of normalizing your insulin levels, include:

Building strong bones, Losing weight, Increasing your energy levels, Slowing down your aging process

In addition, exercise has been associated with preventing telomere shortening, making it a very powerful anti-aging strategy. (For more information on telomeres, please see this previous article.) And, if you exercise properly, which I’ll discuss in a moment, you can reap even greater anti-aging benefits.

With nearly 7 out of 10 Americans being overweight, and 1 in 4 being affected with diabetes or pre-diabetes, the American diet is clearly in dire need of a radical overhaul. Drugs won’t fix these dismal health statistics. Only a return to sane, healthy eating habits will.

Further, knowledge truly is power, and the more people become informed, the faster it will prompt real change to come about. Several wonderful movies that will give you an excellent overview of the problems with modern agriculture and the need for a food revolution, which I highly recommend you watch and share with your friends and family, are:

• Food, Inc.
• The Future of Food
• Food Matters
• Fast Food Nation
• The World According To Monsanto
• Cornography

WWW.MERCOLA.COM

RICO’S COMMENTS:

When I’m in a grocery store, which isn’t very often, I am boggled by the junk in people’s shopping carts at the checkout counter. I want to say something to let these people know what terrible things they are putting into their bodies and being horribly bad role models for their children! ….. Carts full of whole milk, 2 liter soda bottles, processed meats and cold cuts, white bread, sugary cereal, processed snacks, etc. Obesity is an epidemic in the US and it keeps getting worse! Is it because people just don’t care? I think it’s because people need good role models in their lives and they need inspiration and motivation. I know if I could hang out with any person for one month I could dramatically change their health and their life. I can give you the information without being next to you but then the most important part for success is up to you.

Do you know what that is? It’s MIND-BODY CONNECTION. You think and then you do. You are what you think you are. Taking action. Visualization. The mind controls the body. What stops you from going to the gym, playing some tennis, going out for a jog, etc.? It’s not because your legs are paralyzed…..it’s because your mind isn’t strong enough. You have to practice Mind-body connection skills to be successful at it and incorporate it into your daily lifestyle. Once you do, and have the knowledge on nutrition, exercise and avoiding the many health risks of the modern era, you will be successful at your journey to optimal health.