Pesticides in Your Fruit and Vegetables – When to Buy Organic
By Mark Schauss | March 12, 2009
As anyone who has ever been to one of my lectures can tell you, one of my favorite websites is the one for the Environmental Working Group. Well they just upped their usefullness by posting a listing of the fruits and vegetables with the highest and lowest levels of pesticides. If you print out the pdf file, you can cut out a shopper’s guide to carry in your wallet or purse. The data they used was an analysis of over 87,000 tests for pesticide residues.
The worst “dirty dozen” pesticide laden fruits and vegetables were, in order, peach, apple, bell pepper, celery nectarine, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrot and pear. The suggestion is, if you want to eat these items, you must go organic.
The Clean 15 as they put it, those with the lowest detectable pesticide levels are: onion, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomato and sweet potato.
Handy information to have at your disposal. Thanks to them and the website Foodnews.
Topics: Environment, Food, Health, Our World, Toxicity | 1 Comment »
Organic and Locally Grown Food May Not be Humanities Answer
By Mark Schauss | March 11, 2009
Mother Jones is one of those cutting edge journalism magazines that uncovers truths in the world that are not so apparent. In a brilliantly written article by Paul Roberts, he makes the case that buying organic and locally grown foods while noble ideas, may not fix the food problems our world has. One quote from the article I love is “Our industrial food system is rotten to the core. Heirloom arugula won’t save us.”
We presently have 6.5 billion people on our planet with estimates that 2 billion are starving. It is a reality which we must face. Somehow we muct feed everyone yet do it in a sustainable, ecologically intelligent manner and frankly, after reading the article, organic and locally grown foods don’t fit the bill. This is not to say that eating organic and buying locally grown foods are bad, I actually prefer eating and buying my family’s food this way. We just need to understand the realities of our broken down system and what is best for our planet and for us as citizens of the world.
Now I know that this will anger some purists but let me quote Mr. Roberts again, “…the risks of pragmatism must be weighed against the risk of perfectionism. We can’t wait for the perfect solution to emerge; we need to start transforming the food system today….” We need to act before it becomes critical and so much of a problem that only drastic measures are available. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of intervention.
Topics: Environment, Food, Life, Our World | No Comments »
A New Podcast
By Mark Schauss | February 17, 2009
After taking a 2 1/2 month hiatus, I’ve gotten back into the “studio” and begun a new series of podcasts starting with the one today which is on a lab test I recommend everyone do at least once if not more over, the Environmental Pollutants Biomarker urine test from US Biotek, available from Lab Interpretation LLC.
One of the issues a lot of health care practitioners have made me aware of is the difficulty in actually pronouncing the test metabolites and knowing what they mean. I hope that this podcast helps with that as well as the upcoming series on the markers found in urine organic acid testing which I find invaluable in assessing functional metabolism. This type of testing really helps to determine the needs for a vast array of nutrients, amino acids and minerals as well as the functionality of the citric acid cycle (aka Kreb’s cycle).
Topics: Environment, Health, Laboratory Tests, Petrochemicals, Podcast, Research, Solvents | 1 Comment »
Court Say No To Vaccine Autism Link – Justice or Just Playing By The Rules
By Mark Schauss | February 13, 2009
Just yesterday, a special US federal court declared Thursday that MMR vaccines were not a cause of autism. I wanted to find a way to put the ruling into context when I ran into two posts by a friend, Dr. Andrew Cutler, author of Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities and “Amalgam Illness:” Diagnosis and Treatment, that was on the Autism-Mercury Yahoo newsgroup.
The first one:
“Any lawyer will tell you that we have a legal system, not a justice system. The thing to do is stick to helping your kid, and view this as a political problem. Once the judges think the politicians want them to find that vaccines cause autism, they’ll reverse themselves. Until then no amount of evidence will suffice.”
The second one:
“just like white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan were overjoyed by the Dred Scott and Plessey v. Ferguson rulings of the United States Supreme Court, blog ravers today are overjoyed by the vaccine court ruling. Hopefully everyone will take it upon themselves to drown the blogs in reality.
Points to make:
The Kangaroo court proceedings allowed the plaintiffs to COMPLAIN, but denied them the right to discovery so they had no means of actually gathering and presenting any evidence in support of their case; and The Kangaroo court conspired with the government’s pseudoexperts to redefine the burden of proof, changing it from the 50% that is ‘a preponderance of the evidence’ to the 95% that the perpetrators demanded, so that when even the perpetrator’s own studies showed the plaintiffs were right the court denied them justice and ruled against them.
In a legal sense this is the same as if OJ Simpson had gotten to automatically prevail in the civil case wherein he was found responsible for Nichole’s death because he had been found “not guilty” in a criminal case where proof was required beyond a reasonble doubt.
This is a great example to use since most of the blog ravers think OJ is guilty of killing his wife.”
Sometimes things need to be said in a forceful and bluntly honest way. Thank you Andy!!!
Topics: autism, Health, Neurological Disorders, Opinion, Politics | No Comments »
List of Problem Foods
By Mark Schauss | January 23, 2009
What foods are high in PCBs, hormones, and pesticides? Here is a link to a sitethat lists the 10 worst foods. As with any list of this kind, you need to weigh the risks and make your own decisions. Still the advice about avoiding non-organic strawberries (I don’t believe the stuff about feeding them NutraSweet though) and bell peppers is eye opening.
One of the books mentioned in the blog is The Omnivore’s Dilemma which is an absolute must read. Michael Pollan writes a masterful book about the problems with our food chain. But be forewarned, it can very depressing at times.
Topics: Environment, Food, Health, Life, Our World, Toxicity | 1 Comment »
More Disturbing Evidence of Global Warming
By Mark Schauss | January 22, 2009
This weeks issue of the highly respected journal Science, will have a disturbing report on the effect of global warming on the world’s forests. A preview is found here from CNN. Scientists have been looking at the forests for a 50 year period and as Phillip van Mantgem the lead author of the study says, “It’s not a happy story, but, an important one,” said “These are beautiful places. They do change and respond to their environment, sometimes quickly.”
Maybe the new administration can help to reverse the environmental disasters that the preceding President put into place rapidly. As with the economy, things are likely to get worse before they get better. We should all hope that it isn’t too late.
Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Life, Opinion, Our World, Politics | 8 Comments »
Not All CFL Bulbs Are The Same
By Mark Schauss | January 19, 2009
I recently received a newsletter from the Environmental Working Group, a lobby group for the environment in Washington D.C., which had some very important information in it. There is a lot of talk about the use of compact fluorescent light-bulbs but there is a problem with some of them because of excessive mercury. Which ones are the best? This report gives you the answer.
One of the important items that EWG talks about in the link above is the need by the Obama Administration to upgrade the Energy Star rating system for electronic products as it was set aside under outgoing President Bush. Here are the main points of the proposal EWG has made and hopefully will be put into effect soon:
- Lowering the maximum mercury content in each CFL bulb to 3 milligrams (mg). This measure would save 225 pounds of mercury for every 100 million bulbs.
- Creating a tiered (“Platinum,” “Gold,” “Silver”) rating system to reward creative companies that produce the highest efficiency, longest-lived bulbs with the lowest mercury content.
- Updating minimum requirements every 2 years instead of every 5 years, to take advantage of rapidly changing technology and fierce competition among bulb makers vying for bigger shares of the green-products market.
- Adopt an independently verifiable mercury content limit for CFL bulbs. Energy Star requires only that the manufacturers file a statement about bulb mercury content with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
The sad thing about today’s Energy Star program is that many light bulbs sold in the U.S. which bear the symbol that they are energy efficient cannot be sold in Europe as they contain too much mercury. Even more frustrating is that CFLs do not need the mercury to work.
In the past, I’ve been criticized by some because they claim that any mercury is too much. The research I have done shows that by using these bulbs you actually reduce mercury in the atmosphere. Here is the reason given by the people at EWG to back up my assertion:
Coal-fired electrical plants are a major source of mercury emissions, totaling 104 tons of mercury across the U.S. annually. Energy Star calculates that each CFL bulb generates 70 percent less mercury pollution than a comparable incandescent bulb.
Not only that, but the amount of other toxins that are spewed into our atmosphere would go down as well by reducing the energy needed to light our homes. Do yourself a favor and read the report and get the bulbs that have the least amount of mercury. That way you can vote with your wallet. That is something businesses really listen to.
Topics: Environment, heavy metals, Mercury, Opinion, Our World, Research, Toxicity | 2 Comments »
Another Set of Tips on Being Greener
By Mark Schauss | January 14, 2009
With the new Administration of President Barack Obama about to take office, it is our hope that a change will be made from decisions being made based on an agenda to one based on fact. Science has shown what kind of a global mark humans have made on our environment but the U.S. government has seen fit to not only deny it, but to accelerate it all for the almighty dollar. An economy based on exploitation, be it of humans as in slavary and serfdom, or destruction of the environment is a very shortsighted one built on a weak base, one ready to collapse.
One built on innovation, one built on treading lighter on our world, one where we respect others rights and needs instead of on a singular greedy model is one that is sustainable and morally right. Weplaygreen.org is an organization “focused on bringing professional athletes together to help inspire the communities that support us into action to build awareness of the power we have to reverse the environmental crisis we are just beginning to recognize.”
They have a page on tips to make your day to day life greener and better for the world. Please enjoy and try a few of them.
Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Opinion, Our World, Research, Websites | No Comments »
No Global Warming – No Holocaust, Cigarettes Are Not Addictive and Other Lies
By Mark Schauss | January 9, 2009
Having just watched the History Channel show Last Days on Earth, I heard a beautiful yet disturbing way of describing global warming denialists; when you want to talk about the Holocaust of WWII, do you bring out people who deny that it happened even though it did? Well, when it comes to global warming, thats what Fox News does. Let’s just repeat the tobacco companies CEOs testimony in front of Congress denying that nicotine and cigarettes are addictive. Global warming doesn’t exist, the Holocaust never happened and cigarrettes are safe are three lies that need to be thrown into the garbage.
Still, I think that humans will respond positively to the threat of global warming but only when the pain is very apparent and the denialists are looked at like the ideologic dinosaurs that they are. We can reverse this and make a great world better. We are such a unique planet who can save ourself from a comet, create the Internet and fly to outer space yet the one thing we need to protect ourselves from is ourself. Gain some moral standing to say that our world and our children’s world is worth saving. We need to be honest enough to admit our errors and do something about it. I have faith in our world. Do you?
Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Health, Life | 4 Comments »
The Truth About Weight Gain and Loss
By Mark Schauss | January 7, 2009
My mornings usually begin with a vigorous walk with my two dogs, Lexi and Samson. As we walk through the woods along the creek near my house, I listen to any number of podcasts about subjects ranging from science to history (my favorite being History According to Bob). Lately, I’ve been listening to the Stuff You Should Know podcast from the people who run the website howstuffworks.com.
One page on their site caught my eye which answered the question “Why does the weight come back so quickly once I stop dieting?” It is probably the best information I’ve seen on the subject of weight gain, loss and answers, at least in my opinion, the vexing question of why do diets never seem to work long-term.
Here is a brief bullet point list of what I got out of the page. Of course, you can just go to the page yourself and see what you take out of it.
- For each pound of weight you carry, you need 12 calories per day to maintain that weight. For instance, if you weigh 200 pounds, you need 2,400 to stay at that weight. At 150, you would need 1,800 calories per day.
- If you ingest 2,000 calories and you weigh 150 pounds, you are getting 200 more calories each day which will eventually turn to fat. You will eventually reach equilibrium at 166.67 pounds.
- 3,600 calories equals approximately 1 pound. If you ingest 200 calories per day, you will gain 1 pound every 18 days.
- Say you got up to 166.67 and wanted to return to 150 and you cut back to 1,000 calories a day for 60 days, you will lose 16 pounds. But if you go back up to 2,000 calories a day again, you will jump back up to 166 over time when you hit equilibrium.
- So basically, diets do take weight off, but unless you not only reduce your weight to where you want it to be, you need to use the 12 calories per pound number times your ideal weight to see how many calories you can take in to maintain that weight.
- Exercise is important to burn those excess calories above the equilibrium amount.
In my case, I want to get back down to 170 pounds. This means my daily caloric intake to stay at that weight is 2,040 per day. Since I am at 184 presently, and want to achieve my goal by June 1st, 2009, I need to run a deficit of 350 calories a day under the 2,040 or 1,690 calories a day.
If I additionally exercise each day to the tune of burning 250 calories a day, I can either speed up my goal and achieve it on May 17th (14 days earlier [3600/250 = 14.4]), or I can eat 1,940 calories a day. Since I figure I’ll mess things up once in a while, I’ll go for the early plan.
Bottom line is, diet’s work for the period of time you are on them. For a long lasting control, use the 12 calorie per pound theory and you may just get some success. Of course, if you are environmentally toxic, you might need to change that to 11 or even 10 calories per pound as the toxins can lower your metabolic rate enough to make it more difficult to lose weight and maintain it until you detoxify enough.
Topics: Food, Health, Life, Toxicity, Websites | 1 Comment »