Food Revolution Summit

Bestselling author John Robbins is personally interviewing 21 people who are leaders in movements for healthy, sustainable, humane and delicious food. From April 28-May 6, there will be three interviews broadcast daily, and you can listen in – for free. You’ll get cutting edge disease-beating, health-activating, age-reversing information. These tools can help you and your family to thrive and to make a difference in the world. Get more info on the summit speakers, and register today, at: http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

This summit offers up-to-date, highly useful information from an amazing array of inspiring voices and, including expert doctors and acclaimed researchers such as Dean Ornish, MD (Preventive Medicine Research Institute) and T. Colin Cambell, Ph.D (The China Study); NY Times best-selling authors Marianne Williamson (Spiritual Principles for Weight Loss) and Kathy Freston (Quantum Wellness); Culture-changers and icons such as Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) and Rory Freedman (Skinny Bitch); Natural health pioneers such as Joseph Mercola (Mercola.com) and David Wolfe (Radiant Health Now); Food system innovators such as Vandana Shiva (How to Stop Big Ag) and Ronnie Cummins (Organic Consumers Association), and many more inspiring visionaries.

The Summit offers training, inspiration and practical know-how from modern day heroes of health and sustainability. Participants are promised answers to burning questions, tools for dealing with family and peers, and practically useful insights, ideas, motivation and tips, all from the comfort and convenience of your phone and computer. The summit will include focus on the latest thinking on preventing and reversing heart disease, cancer and diabetes; the truth about GMOs, soy, raw foods, and grass-fed beef; the social, ethical and environmental impact of what you eat; and how to inspire your family to join you in making healthy choices.

Learn more and register for free at: http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

I invite you to listen to an amazing collection of interviews in the Food Revolution Summit. John Robbins is personally interviewing 21 food movement leaders April 28-May 6. http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

With rates of obesity and chronic illness continuing to rise, GMOs penetrating ever deeper into our food supply, and industrialized agriculture reeking havoc on our world, the time... is ripe for big changes. Check out the Food Revolution to learn what you can do! http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

Never before has such a remarkable group of visionary leaders come together for a global virtual summit on food. This is a 2012 event you do not want to miss! Check out the Food Revolution http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

Genetically engineered food is unlabeled, untested, and you're probably eating it. Genetically modified foods have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions in people; to sickness, sterility and fatalities in livestock; and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals. Find out more in the Food Revolution Summit, http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

If you don't count French fries, ketchup or pizza as vegetables, more than half of Americans eat no vegetables at all. It’s time for a food revolution! Check out the Food Revolution Summit for cutting edge insights from 21 of the top food visionaries in the world. http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

Industrial agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all our factories, cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, trains and ships combined. Find out more, learn what you can do, and be inspired by 21 of the top food leaders in the world at http://foodrevolution.org/cmd.php?af=1451415

Benefits of Laughter:

•Hormones: Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline), dopamine and growth hormone. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells. All this means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.

•Physical Release: Have you ever felt like you "have to laugh or I'll cry"? Have you experienced the cleansed feeling after a good laugh? Laughter provides a physical and emotional release. •Internal Workout: A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. It even provides a good workout for the heart.

•Distraction: Laughter brings the focus away from anger, guilt, stress and negative emotions in a more beneficial way than other mere distractions.

•Perspective: Studies show that our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a 'threat' or a 'challenge'. Humor can give us a more lighthearted perspective and help us view events as 'challenges', thereby making them less threatening and more positive. (For more on changing your perspective, see this article on cognitive reframing.)

•Social Benefits of Laughter: Laughter connects us with others. Just as with smiling and kindness, most people find that laughter is contagious, so if you bring more laughter into your life, you can most likely help others around you to laugh more, and realize these benefits as well. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can reduce their stress levels, and perhaps improve the quality of social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!

How To Use Laughter: Laughter is one of my all-time favorite stress management strategies because it's free, convenient, and beneficial in so many ways. You can get more laughter in your life with the following strategies: Instead of complaining about life's frustrations, try to laugh about them. If something is so frustrating or depressing it's ridiculous, realize that you could 'look back on it and laugh.' Think of how it will sound as a story you could tell to your friends, and then see if you can laugh about it now. With this attitude, you may also find yourself being more lighthearted and silly, giving yourself and those around you more to laugh about. Approach life in a more mirthful way and you'll find you're less stressed about negative events, and you'll achieve the health benefits of laughter.

Health Benefits of Laughter: Stress Relief, Immunity, and More By Elizabeth Scott, M.S.

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Sources:  U.S. News & World Report June 4, 2010

It’s easy to forget that the processed, packaged foods and fast food restaurants of today are actually a radical change in terms of the history of food production. The frozen food business didn’t begin until the mid-1920s when the General Seafoods Company set up shop and began selling crudely frozen fish fillets, and fast food restaurants didn’t get a foot hold until after World War II.

TV dinners didn’t even come around until the 1950s … before that it was a home-cooked meal or no meal at all.

The Generational Effects of a Processed Food Diet

It’s now well known that dietary changes can prompt epigenetic DNA changes that can be passed on to future generations. For instance, pregnant rats fed a fatty diet had daughters and granddaughters with a greater risk of breast cancer.

It could be that we’re just now starting to see these types of generational effects showing up in humans, caused by our grandparents’ and parents’ penchant for processed foods.

If that’s the case, then we have even more incentive to make drastic changes, and soon, because the disease trends we’re now seeing are only going to get worse as much of the processed foods consumed today are not even food-based!

So who knows what kind of genetic mutations and malfunctions we’re creating for our future generations when a MAJORITY of our diet consists of highly processed and artificial foods. As it stands, 90 percent of foods Americans purchase every year are processed foods!

It’s a frightening prospect, to say the least, especially when you consider that the White Castle’s and Big Mac’s of yesteryear were FAR healthier than the denatured, trans fat- and sugar-filled fare that’s being served today.

With nearly 7 out of 10 Americans being overweight, and 1 in 4 being affected with diabetes or pre-diabetes, the standard American diet, SAD, 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.

Four Major Offenders in Processed Foods

Since their introduction, processed foods have really taken over American mealtimes because they’re relatively inexpensive, they taste good, and they make fixing dinner a snap. No longer do you need to fuss with actually cleaning or chopping a vegetable. Simply pop their prepared boxes of food in the microwave and you’re ready to go.

But remember that whatever you think you’re saving now, time or money-wise, by using processed foods, you’ll end up paying many times over later on when your health begins to fail -- and it likely will, if you’re on a fast food/processed food diet long enough.

So what, exactly, makes processed foods so bad? Processed foods often have little nutritional value and are chemically altered to increase the appeal to your taste buds, so they can override your body’s signals that would otherwise tell you it’s time to stop eating and try something else. They are also loaded with additives that are harmful in their own right.

Among them:

1. Fructose
   
   

   As most of you know about 35 years ago the technology to produce this sweetener became commercially available. This radically reduced the price of sugar and now it has become the number one source of calories in the US.

   The majority of processed foods contain high-fructose corn syrup or some variation thereof. Consuming fructose suppresses feelings of satiety in several ways, which eventually will have serious consequences for your weight and overall health.

   Fructose diminishes your feelings of fullness because it does not stimulate a rise in leptin, one of the most powerful hunger- and fat storage regulators in your body. Fructose also reduces the amount of leptin crossing your blood-brain barrier by raising triglycerides.

   Leptin resistance, in turn, is perhaps one of the most significant factors underlying human disease. For example, it plays a significant if not primary role in the development of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, reproductive disorders, and perhaps the rate of aging itself.

   Additionally, whereas glucose suppresses ghrelin (also known as “the hunger hormone,” which makes you want more food), fructose, again, does not.

   Fructose also increases your insulin levels, interfering with the communication between leptin and your hypothalamus, so your pleasure signals aren’t extinguished. Your brain keeps sensing that you’re starving, and prompts you to eat more.

   For the sake of your health, I strongly advise keeping your fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, but this is virtually impossible if you eat a lot of processed foods.

2. Genetically Modified Ingredients
   
   

   Some 75 percent of processed foods contain GM ingredients, which are being increasingly linked to serious health problems.

   Just last year the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) reviewed the available research and issued a memorandum recommending that all doctors prescribe non-GMO diets to all patients because they are causally linked in animal feeding studies to:

   • Infertility
   • Immune system problems
   • Gastrointestinal problems
   • Organ damage
   • Dysfunctional regulation of cholesterol and insulin
   • Accelerated aging

   One of the first steps to avoiding GM ingredients is to cut back on processed foods in your diet.

3. MSG
   
   

   Monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer, is added to thousands of processed and restaurant foods.

   MSG is one of the worst food additives on the market and is used in canned soups, crackers, meats, salad dressings, frozen dinners and  much more. It’s found in your local supermarket and restaurants, in your child’s school cafeteria and, amazingly, even in baby food and infant formula.

   MSG is so popular because it actually enhances the flavor of foods, making processed meats and frozen dinners taste fresher and smell better, salad dressings more tasty, and canned foods less tinny.

   However, it is also an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain damage to varying degrees -- and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and more.

4. Food Additives
   
   

   More than 3,000 food additives -- preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients -- are added to foods in the United States. While each of these substances are legal to use, whether or not they are entirely safe for long-term consumption -- by themselves or in combination -- is a different story altogether.

   Many of them, such as sodium nitrate, BHA, BHT, aspartame, Blue 1, 2, and potassium bromate, have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. Others are estrogen-mimicking xenoestrogens that have been linked to a range of human health effects, including reduced sperm counts in men and increased risk of breast cancer in women.

   Studies have also shown that a variety of common food dyes, and the preservative sodium benzoate -- found in many soft drinks, fruit juices and salad dressings -- cause some children to become measurably more hyperactive and distractible.

   Meanwhile, E-numbered food dyes (such as tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) do as much damage to children's brains as lead in gasoline, resulting in a significant reduction in IQ.

   Fortunately, when you avoid processed foods you’ll also automatically avoid virtually every one of these toxic food additives.

Returning to Your Whole Unprocessed Food Roots

I’ve said this for many years, and it’s worth repeating many times over because it’s one of the main solutions to many of the health problems plaguing modern-day humans  -- cook your food from scratch, at home!

Remember, someone, you, a relative, your spouse, or someone you employ, has to spend some time in the kitchen.

This is the “secret” to getting healthier, losing weight and really enjoying your food.

Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough have tackled this issue head-on in their book Real Food Has Curves, which is a great starting point to “relearn” the basics of how to enjoy and prepare real, healthy food.

Many people are under the mistaken impression that cooking from scratch is an extremely complicated affair that takes lots of time and costs more than they could possibly afford. More often than not, this is simply not true.

In a previous article, Colleen Huber offers a list of helpful guidelines on how to cook whole food from scratch, while keeping your day job, and British chef Jamie Oliver offers a variety of free recipes on his site, plus tips on what’s in season. You can even subscribe to his RSS feed so you don’t miss any of his newly added recipes.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find you can whip up a healthful meal from scratch in the same amount of time it would have taken you to drive down the street to pick up fast food. Of course, you’ll be way more satisfied when you eat your home-cooked meal, both physically and mentally, than if you ate a “value meal #5.”

Finally, learn how to recognize “real” food from the chemical-laden, artificially flavored concoctions that line most supermarket shelves. Whether you’re shopping at a supermarket or a farmer’s market, here are the signs of a high-quality, healthy food:

• It’s grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
• It’s not genetically modified
• It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
• It does not contain artificial anything, nor any preservatives
• It is fresh (if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh local conventional produce, the latter is the better option)
• It did not come from a factory farm
• It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
• It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

If you prepare your meals using primarily foods that meet these eight criteria, you will be making major strides (and delicious ones, at that!) for your family’s health.

- Dr. Mercola