S.510 Food Safety Bill Has Run Aground

Senate bill 510 labeled the "food safety and modernization act" tried to add some new taxes in the bill to "raise revenue". However, only the House of Reps is able to initiate legislation that includes new taxes. This constitutional bungle by the Senate will result in what's called a "blue slip" by the House and the bill will need to be redone and then revoted on. It's unlikely the Senate will have time to do this and all the other things in it's lame duck agenda.



YEAH! OK, it's not dead ... just taking a nap. But when it wakes up, hopefully the new cast of characters in the house/senate will decide that there are better things to spend their time on.

Amplify’d from www.rollcall.com

House May Block Food Safety Bill Over Senate Error

A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.

The blue slip could lead to one of two likely outcomes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could simply drop the issue and let the next session of Congress start from scratch, a strategy that would allow him time in the lame-duck session to tackle other last-minute priorities, such as the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, a long-term continuing resolution, an immigration bill and a repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay service members. Read more at www.rollcall.com

 

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More Sweets... More Diabetes

We've been linking the massive increase in diabetes with increased obesity in the US. Now it's likely that we should focus more on our choices. As you can tell by this article, the researchers are trying to come up with an explanation as to why sugary drinks seem to increase diabetes with or without the presence of obesity since they've "known" that obesity is what causes type II diabetes.



I believe the truth is that sweets/sugars are chemicals to our bodies. We were never designed to be exposed to these purified sugar compounds (and refined flours for that matter) and this exposure repeatedly day after day, year after year has created diabetes AND obesity.



In 1895, the average American consumed about 3-4 lbs of refined carbs in a year and diabetes was number 100 on the disease list. Today, we consume approximately 170 lbs of sugar (and high fructose corn syrup) per year and diabetes has crept into the top 10 killers in the US. Diabetes steals people's quality of life as much as it kills. Diabetes causes blindness, permanent nerve damage, the need for amputations, and kidney damage causing people to go on dialysis.



What this study is saying is that you can no longer use your weight as a determination as to whether or not you are handling sugars/carbs well. If you are interested in living a long time, sweets and refined carbohydrates should be the first thing you get rid of.

Amplify’d from www.medpagetoday.com

Soda Ups Diabetes Risk With or Without Weight Gain

People who drank one or two sugar-sweetened beverages a day, like soda or vitamin water, had a 26% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared with those who barely drank any

Part of sugar-sweetened beverages' contribution to diabetes is via obesity, but there are other pathways as well

sweetened beverages have been linked to increases in serum glucose as well as rapid and dramatic fluctuations in insulin, a cascade linked to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, beta-cell dysfunction, and inflammation.

A recent study has also suggested that fructose, the main sweetener in these drinks, may be linked to high blood pressure as well as increases in LDL and triglycerides. Read more at www.medpagetoday.com

 

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Heartburn Drugs Cause Osteoporosis

Functional medicine doctors and nutritionists have been telling patients this for years. Why? We knew that the body needs stomach acid in order to properly absorb minerals and break down proteins. It's why TUMS is a very bad form of calcium, because it neutralizes stomach acid thereby reducing the likelihood of being absorbed. For this same reason, anemia is quite common because iron is one of those minerals that needs stomach acid to be absorbed. The terrible part of this news story is that they reveal that patients should not be on an acid reducing medication for longer than three 14 day bouts per year. That amounts to 42 days of these drugs for a 365 day year (about 15%). We all know people that "HAVE" to take these medications every day. It's a dilemma. My approach is always very simple, figure out what is causing the stomach's sensitivity to acid and then take care of that. There's that old doctor joke that says "doctor doctor it hurts when i raise my arm" and the doctor responds with "stop raising your arm." Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, and Aciphex all function the same way. Doctor, doctor... it hurts when I secrete stomach acid. Only to have the doctor reply, "here take this and you won't secrete stomach acid any more." Inherently, the mind goes to that place: wasn't I secreting that stomach acid for a reason? Hmmm. http://amplify.com/u/6fbh

Posted via web from drberglund's posterous

Soft Drink Usage = Elevated Blood Pressure

I hope we can finally shake the "salt is the primary reason for elevated blood pressure" season. The truth, I believe we will find, is that refined carbohydrates are responsible for a great deal of the elevated blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes that we see in the US. I have posted this before, but I strongly believe that if we cut out sugar, corn syrup and bleached & unbleached white flour out of diets, 10's to 100's of billions of dollars will be saved that are normally spent on health care in this country. Course, I assume that means a great number of hospitals will close and medicine related jobs will be lost, but we will be a healthier country. http://amplify.com/u/6e3p

Posted via web from drberglund's posterous

Raw Milk letter to Wisconsin State Senator

It's important that we understand just how ridiculous a raw milk ban is. I encourage everyone to fight their state legislature and the FDA in their compulsive need to shut down raw milk commerce ... I know, I know... "to protect us." Yikes. http://amplify.com/u/5zkr

Posted via web from drberglund's posterous

To Know or Not To Know... That is the Question.

Should we be made aware of what's in our food? What it's made of? Or are we too stupid? Will our ignorance get in the way of REAL progress? The US government has taken the stance that what we don't know won't hurt us. I disagree. I believe we should know everything that is in our food. I think we could go farther. If not on the label, at least on the manufacturer's website. Tell us if the seed has been genetically modified, what strain, what pesticides and fertilizers were sprayed on the crops, what chemicals in trace amounts are used to clean the machines at the processing plant... etc I don't think it's asking too much that I know what specifically I am putting in my system. Our wonderful government (of the people and by the people) believes that it is asking too much for them to be honest with us. I'm sure they're thinking we'll make mountains out of mole hills. Hmmm. http://amplify.com/u/5zfy

Posted via web from drberglund's posterous

"Valuable" Research that Proves Mary Poppins was Right!

Seriously? You needed to spend money on a research project that looked at different concentrations of a sugar solution to see if it helped kids not care as much if they were being stuck with a sharp needle? So what's the take home message here. If we give kids a lollipop to suck on they will cry less when I hurt them? I could have told you that. Here's a better research project: Give the kids different kinds of sugar and measure their immune response. There are practitioners that are under the impression that sugar suppresses the body's immune system. Thus, the lollipop would be COUNTER PRODUCTIVE to getting the vaccine to do what we want it to do which is improve immunity. Vaccines are oftentimes a bad idea... giving sugar during the process would seemingly be making a bad situation worse. http://amplify.com/u/5ze8

Posted via web from drberglund's posterous