Aspartame and the Politics of Food

Aspartame/Nutrasweet approval:

"Rumsfeld was president of Serle corporation in 1977, maker of aspartame, then, part of Reagan transition team, and got aspartame 'legalized' by appointing a defense department contractor [??] (Hayes) as head of FDA!

In January 1981 Rumsfeld told a sales meeting, according to one attendee, that he would call in his chips and get aspartame approved by the end of the year. On January 25th, the day the new president took office, the previous FDA commissioner's authority was suspended, and the next month, the commissioner's job went to Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes.

Transition records do not show why the administration chose ***Hayes, a professor and Defense Department contract researcher.*** In July Hayes, defying FDA advisors, approved aspartame for dry foods -- his first major decision. In November 1983 the FDA approved aspartame for soft drinks -- Hayes' last decision. In November 1983 Hayes, under fire for accepting corporate gifts, left the agency and went to Searle's public-relations firm as senior medical advisor. Later Searle lawyer Robert Shapiro named aspartame NutraSweet.

Monsanto purchased Searle. Rumsfeld received a $12 million bonus. Shapiro is now Monsanto president. .....Former White House Chief of Staff Rumsfeld owed a debt of gratitude to former White House confidante and Rumsfeld friend Donald Kendal, Pepsi's chairman. The Pepsi announcement and aggressive marketing (millions of gumballs, a red and white swirl, tough contracts) made NutraSweet known in every home. ....From 1985 to 1995, researchers did about 400 aspartame studies. They were divided almost evenly between those that gave assurances and those that raised questions about the sweetener. Most instructively, Searle paid for 100% of those finding no problem. All studies paid for by non-industry sources raised questions."---James S. Turner

Aspartame is a toxin, and is unique in this hazardous respect. This in NOT an allergic reaction, but rather a true toxin. No other food can be provided as a comparison to the toxic nature of NutraSweet. Upon closer examination, the available research revealed that the manufacturer (Monsanto) and the FDA are manipulating the public (via the media) into thinking that aspartame is safe. It is not. As an American who trusted the system we all created, as an American who worked for the system, it made me angry that public health has taken a backseat to greed. This is the "engine" that perpetuated this epidemic: the collusion of our government with multi-national conglomerate influence. Arthur M. Evangelista Former FDA Investigator. Aspartame: The History Of A Killer - The Whole Story By Arthur M. Evangelista

http://www.whale.to/vaccine/fda2.html

Got the Implant

but I don't believe I will fill it. I also was given a script for some sort of antibiotic that has the side effect of deadly Got the implant and I am feeling pretty much no pain. This is good. Of course I took 2 Advil when I got home and I think that is helping a lot. I was given a script for Vicoden for the pain but I doubt I will fill it. I was also given an antibiotic whose worst side effect is deadly diarrhea. That drug is making me a bit light headed but that is one of the side effects. I know this will do a number on my digestive tract but I will be replacing the flora with doses of raw milk and yogurt. And the course lasts only 4 days, not the usual 10 days.

It took Dr Silvers about an hour to drill a hole in my jaw due to extreme bone density (this is very good). I'm in the top 5% as far as dense bones go. he got the hole drilled put in the implant and than found a pocket of infection in the tooth next to the implant and scraped that out while he had the gum open and the root exposed. than he packed it with bone powder in hopes of regrowing the bone that had eroded by the tooth allowing crud to creep in and cause a small abscess.

I gotta say this is the best my mouth has felt in about 7 years. There is almost no pain and for the first time in years I believe there is no infection present in my mouth.

Getting the Implant Today

Today, at 9am, I get a titanium screw implanted in my lower jaw and I am a bit nervous about this. I know it's going to be painful, though apparently not as painful as a full deep periodontal cleaning/scraping (which I went through about 5 years ago). I visited my friend Linn yesterday (to pick up some home grown grapefruit, fresh from Florida, that a mutual friend grew in her backyard) and she had an implant put in a while ago and was telling me that it feels like they take a drill (like a drill you would use for a construction project, not a dentist drill) and drill a hole in your jaw than put in a titanium screw and than you let that set up with the jaw bone for a while. Linn said a year, my periodontist who is putting this thing in said 2 to 3 months (I have a feeling it will be far closer to 2 to 3 months as I seem to have tremendous healing abilities-likely from the great diet I eat and the fact I do not do prescription drugs, especially antibiotics, so my immune system is top notch and can do its' job). After the screw is set into the jawbone than I go to my regular dentist and get a veneer (fake tooth) put on the screw and I am done and should have no further problems for the rest of my life (knock wood).

Sounds good, but frankly I am nervous about the whole thing. I know this is gonna hurt like Hell for a couple of days (and I am not a fan of the NSAID's like Advil but will probably take my fair share over the next 48 hours). It's going to make my mouth feel different than it has since the offending tooth came out last May and there is some small chance that the screw will not set and I will have to get it taken out and a bridge put in (or just go toothless). Linn has told me that tobacco smoking is a no no and I do smoke 5 to 7 hand rolled cigarettes a day and I am not very interested in stopping this addiction. But this might just get me to quit. Than again, I was told that smoking while having stitches in my gums from the periodontal deep cleaning/scraping was a big no no and I still smoked and recovered about 3 months ahead of schedule. Perhaps all the prescription drugs big Pharma pushes on people are far worse for the human immune system than a few smokes. Not that you will hear such blasphemy from them or anyone influenced by them, such as 99% of what you see/hear on television and the radio

Ah, well I am now rambling and it is time to get more ready for this ordeal

Drug Deathmatch

This is funny and I think it actually happened (if the pix are not photoshopped)

Drug Deathmatch:

To identify the strongest medicines on the market, I decided to undertake a Drug Deathmatch, pitting one over-the-counter drug against another, and seeing which emerged victorious in my body. Honestly, Consumer Reports should be covering this crap, but obviously they don't have the guts...

How to Punish Drug Users: Poison Them!

I found this on Tom Harper's blog Who Hijacked My Country (a blog I discovered using Blog Explosion) This is a left of center political blog that has a lot of good ideas and news (well if you are a lefty). this is about the most dangerous idea the US House of representatives has had yet. As you surely know by now I am not an herbicide user and the biological agent proposed in this article is almost too scary for words. They want to spread a mold based herbicide that will kill anything it touches (including amimals such as humans), does not leave the soil for decades, rendering the soil unusable for farming food crops and it spreads beyond the area where it was sprayed. I thought chemical herbicides were bad but now they have created a true monster and if recent history is any indicator the GOP in the US house of reps likely will seriously try and pass a bill through allowing the use of this dangerous material.

If you want to take action simply click on the "Click here" link in the article and it will take you to a site where you can contact your US Reps.

How to Punish Drug Users: Poison Them!
by Tom Harper
4-6-06

The House of Representatives has decided that the best way to prevent drug use is to poison the crops. That’ll teach those lowly drug users a lesson. And for good measure let's poison everyone else in the community as well.

The House wants to authorize research into an herbicide that’s so dangerous, some governments have stockpiled it as a weapon. Even John Walters — our gung ho Drug Czar — is against using this herbicide because of the hazards.

The herbicide is a toxic, mold-like fungus which kills crops. These fungi — called mycoherbicides — have been heavily researched for the past thirty years. Practically everyone has agreed that this is not an option for controlling coca leaves or opium poppies. That is, everyone except for our House of Nazis Representatives.

These herbicides attack neighboring crops and orchards as well as the “drug” crops that are being targeted. They cause severe symptoms in any people or animals that come in contact with them. They also contaminate the soil so that nothing else will grow there.

Our government is ready to conduct “field studies” in Columbia and Afghanistan. Some governments might interpret this kind of “field study” as an act of war.

The Senate hasn’t yet voted on this bill. If you think this is the sickest wackiest law you’ve ever heard of, please tell your senators. Click here to e-mail your senators and ask them to vote AGAINST this madness.

Lettuce and Antibiotics (A Rant)

I just finished making many soil blocks and "pricking" 4 kinds of lettuce into those soil blocks. Than I put them under lights where they will spend the next 10 days or so growing bigger and bigger before being put in a cold frame to harden off for a week or so. After being hardened off they will be ready to transplant into the garden. the first batch of lettuces is out in the cold frame going through their hardening phase and next week (weather permitting) will be ready to be transplanted into the garden. In another 30 days after that they should be ready to cut and sell. It felt good to go and do something garden related.

I have been remiss in posting much this week. It's not that there has not been a lot going on here on the farm it is mostly because I have had an ear infection. I decided to go to see a doctor about it last week and was prescribed antibiotics that caused several side effects (I did not think I was allergic to all classes of penicillin but it looks like I am). So I went back on Tuesday and got sulfa based antibiotics and ear drops. I also had my ear irrigated to remove the plug of pus that was interfering with my hearing (What?). It was nice to be able to hear out of my left ear again and the ear drops seem to be working but the new antibiotics caused me to feel like death warmed over after taking them for 36 hours. I was tired, listless and full of pain-your basic flu symptoms but without a fever. And than on top of it all I got a yeast infection. If you have never had one you are lucky, if you have you know what I am going through. A burning itch in my nether regions that I would not wish on anyone I liked.

Fortunately Eugene had just made some yogurt out of the fresh raw milk we bought at the farmers' market on Saturday and yogurt is the best remedy for a yeast infection. And this yogurt because it was made with clean milk from healthy cows is powerful stuff. So along with eating yogurt to keep my intestinal flora alive despite the onslaught of antibiotics (as of yesterday evening it is a former onslaught but it will take a few days to get things close to normal in my gut) I am now using the stuff topically as well.

I gotta say I do not do well on antibiotics and I do not plan on taking them ever again. they are a truly evil drug. The last time I had to take them for an infected finger the damn things almost gave me a heart attack and cause some wild mood swings that were hard on Eugene

And yet most Americans take them incessantly. They take them for viral infections (which is a useless thing to do as antibiotics are not antiviral drugs and will do zero for a virus). They get a lot of antibiotics in their meat and milk if they eat anything other than organic or pastured meat and milk. I suppose this is why so many Americans are so unhealthy and must have health insurance. They consume way too many toxic drugs, most unknowingly. Of course the industrial food people will tell us that the drugs fed to livestock are okay, even good for us. The Pharmaceutical folks will tell us we cannot possibly be healthy without their drugs (Of course, if everyone was truly healthy big Pharma would wither and die. It is in their best interests to have as many sick people as possible because sick people take drugs and healthy people do not). But what do expect from an industry run by former drug pushers, you know the rich white frat guys who supplied their brothers with all kinds of recreational wonders like LSD, MDA, Cocaine back in the 1960's and 70's. Than they graduated went on to take over the family pharmaceutical business. And now they have more power than perhaps someone who has taken acid numerous times should.

The good news is despite my drug problems my ear seems to be on the mend and the drugs are leaving my body and things are getting back to normal.