I’ve written before about the toxic chemicals in some personal care products:

• Is Your Sunscreen Helping You or Hurting You?
• 11 Toxic Ingredients to Avoid in Hand Soap and Sanitizer and Safer Options for Your Family
• Does Your Toothpaste Have These Dangerous Ingredients? Plus Natural Toothpaste Options
• Safer, Natural, Non-Toxic Shampoo for Adults and Children
• Skin Moisturizer Ingredients to Avoid, Plus Some Great Natural Lotion Options

The Story of Cosmetics

To get a quick story about this, watch this 8 minute video. You may be surprised at what you learn.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

The Safe Cosmetics Act

It’s up to Congress to close gaping holes in the outdated federal law that allows cancer-causing chemicals in baby shampoo, hormone disruptors in fragrance, and lead in lipstick. That’s what you get when you have a $50 billion industry that’s practically self-regulated.

What can you do?

• Visit the SafeCosmetics website.
• Learn more about the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011.
• Ask your Representative to support safe cosmetics. (It takes less than a minute to do.)
• Read labels and start buying safer products for you and your family.
• Look for my upcoming article where I will share easy ideas for replacing two common cosmetic products with simple things at home.

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Related Articles:

• Loving Naturals Sunscreen Review: Organic, Safe Sunscreen for Babies, Kids, Adults

Worst eczema flare up: photo taken 4/8/09

California Baby® Calendula Cream to the Rescue

My husband went to Whole Foods to find something else that might work for our son. The employee working in the body section suggested California Baby Calendula Cream, saying it was great for skin. After verifying that the ingredients list was good, he brought it home.

We put some on our son’s cheeks and the very next day I noticed improvement – I was shocked! We kept using it and it just kept getting better and better – way faster than I ever imagined! Check out this photo taken just five days after the one above.

Photo taken 4/13/09, just 5 days after applying California Baby Calendula cream

You can still see some light red patches but it is a drastic improvement, especially in such a short time.

We kept using it and I don’t know exactly when it disappeared, but I found this photo taken a few weeks later that shows it’s all gone.

Photo taken 5/1/09: No more eczema

Needless to say we were beyond thrilled with the results! And know what else? He never again had an eczema flare up on his cheeks. Amazing!

Why California Baby® Calendula Cream Is So Awesome

• Great Ingredients: California Baby Calendula Cream contains the active ingredient Calendula, which has been used to heal the skin for centuries. The other ingredients are great, too. In fact, California Baby Calendula Cream gets a rating of 1 on the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Cosmetics Database. You’ve heard me talk about this rating before and a rating of 1 is great (it means it has a low hazard).

• Versatile: It is safe enough to use on a baby, but effective enough for adults to use, also. (It makes a great face cream for moms and dads.)

• Eco-Friendly Company: I love the company’s eco-friendly position. From minimal packaging, to easy plastic to recycle, to recycled paper and soy inks for product info tags and literature, to their eco-friendly showroom.
  

• Other uses: In addition to eczema, California Baby Calendula Cream can also be used for perioral dermatitis and other skin sensitivities, including the diaper area for simple rashes. It can also be used on cuts and scrapes and cradle cap.

• Reasonably Priced: While some might initially balk at the price, I assure you it’s cheap in the long run. A little goes a long way; our jar lasted quite awhile. And I am guessing it’s cheaper than any prescription ointment – and less toxic, too. You can’t put a price on that!

I have recommended California Baby Calendula Cream to other mom friends when they talk about their child’s problems with eczema. They have all reported back to me that it has worked great (and fast) for them as well!

Where to Buy California Baby® Calendula Cream

You can find California Baby Calendula Cream in stores like Whole Foods, Target, and Babies R Us, and online at Amazon.com. (I’ve also added it to my Amazon store.) Remember, if you purchase through my Amazon.com links, it will help support my efforts here at Parentingtips365.com.

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Related Articles:

• Skin Moisturizer Ingredients to Avoid, Plus Some Great Natural Lotion Options
• Eczema Relief for Parent and Child: Tips for Preventing and Coping with Flareups

You have probably heard that plastics contain dangerous chemicals such as Bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates, which mimic hormones in your body. They have been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Hopefully you’ve taken steps to avoid BPA, like using only stainless steel drinking bottles or glass food storage containers.

But did you know that there is BPA in the lining of food and beverage cans as well? Yes, it’s true. The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A. Canned tomatoes are likely to have even higher levels of BPA; the high acidity of tomatoes causes more BPA to leach into food.

Can-Free Tomato Solution? Pomi Tomatoes in a Box are BPA Free

Thankfully there is an easy way to avoid BPA from canned tomatoes: Pomi tomatoes come in a BPA-free box!

Pomi tomatoes come straight from Italy and they contain one ingredient: tomatoes. Italy’s standards for tomatoes and farming all fresh produce are much stricter than here in the U.S. Here are some more great reasons to choose Pomi tomatoes:

Why Pomi Tomatoes are a Great Choice

• All natural: The only ingredient is tomatoes!
• Pesticide free: Pomi grows their tomatoes without pesticides; many consider it to be an organic product because of this.
• Non-GMO
• Grown in accordance to the EU’s regulations for eco-sustainable agriculture
• Packaging is recyclable and BPA free
• No preservatives, water, artificial flavor, additives, or citric acid
• Low in sodium

You can read more by going to www.pomionline.it and clicking on the British flag at the bottom.

My Thoughts

When I first opened the box, all I could smell was fresh tomatoes! If I didn’t know any better, I would have said they were straight from the garden. Seriously, they smelled that great. And when I used them in a meal, they tasted as good as the tomatoes my mom canned from her garden! I was very impressed!

Where to Buy Pomi Tomatoes

I have seen Pomi tomatoes in my local Whole Foods. But if you aren’t fortunate enough to have a store that carries Pomi tomatoes, you can always find them on my favorite online store: Amazon.com!

Go to Amazon.com now and buy Pomi’s Strained Tomatoes and Chopped Tomatoes. You will have peace of mind from buying a safe tomato product and you will be very happy with the taste! Enjoy!

[Disclosure: I received some samples of Pomi tomatoes from the marketing firm Think Cannon.  With that being said, the comments and opinions above are purely my own.]

Read all the posts in the Healthy Living series by clicking on the icon on the left.

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

Related Articles:

• Kids Konserve Discount for an “Eek-O-Friendly” Halloween!

Also, throughout the month of March I will be sharing our favorite healthy recipes. As you know, the Healthy Living series I started earlier this year is well under way and future articles will share even more information about living a healthy lifestyle, including more information about why we made these changes – and how you can too.

10 Years Ago

Ten years ago we didn’t eat as healthy as we eat now, but of course we thought what we ate was fine. (Don’t most people think they eat healthy when asked?) I am trying to remember what we ate then, and here is what I came up with:

• Breakfast: Cold (boxed) cereal with milk
• Lunch: Deli meat sandwich
• Dinner: Various things, but vegetables played a minor role on our plate

I specifically remember a time when we ordered pizza almost every week and I drank Mountain Dew with it. And I remember going to fast food restaurants and not thinking anything of it. We used our microwave a lot, too, even for cooking frozen vegetables (which seems so odd to me now). I am pretty sure I sometimes ate cookies for breakfast, too, because I was an adult and COULD do it – HA!

I also remember that being a time when I had my percentage body fat measured and was surprised to find it rather high. I also got sick a lot (colds) and went immediately to the doctor where I was given some useless drug, which I happily took.

Slow Changes

I don’t remember exactly how we got started with our healthy eating overhaul; perhaps it was the conversations my husband had with our chiropractor that gave us the spark. The information he gave us was interesting, and we followed it up with some research. Slowly, we decided to change the way we ate.

While we were doing our initial change, I remember eating some interesting things, for breakfast especially. We were following a cookbook called Back to the House of Health and eating the “Zippy Breakfast”, which was a bowl of brown rice with lemon juice, olive oil, liquid aminos, avocado, and tomato. Or alternately we would make a big salad (yes, green salad for breakfast)! We would pile it with various greens including sprouts and top it with our homemade salad dressing.

We started shopping at Whole Foods Market, a natural and organic grocery store. We looked for new recipes and kept with it.

We increased our veggie portions on our plate and added more fresh vegetables. We started eating hot rice cereal for breakfast, as well as eggs. We increased our healthy fats by including olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, and coconut oil into our diets. We switched to deli meats from Whole Foods (without nitrites and other preservatives) and then eventually switched to cooking regular chicken breasts and cutting them up for sandwiches.

We did feel completely tired as our body started cleansing, and this was good. Out with the toxins and in with the real food and nutrition.

What We Do Now

I won’t go through all the changes we made, because there were many and it covered the span of YEARS. My biggest advice if you want to really make a lifestyle change is to make health a hobby. Put time into research. Ask questions. Try new recipes. Change one thing at a time. Always yearn to grow and change and learn more.

Trying to compare and contrast what we do now compared to how we used to eat, here are just a few snippets:

• Breakfast: We eat oatmeal with ground flax seed, coconut oil, and fruit. We also sprinkle cinnamon on top; my husband adds turmeric, too. We eat eggs almost every morning, too.
• Lunch: I cook a bunch of organic chicken (usually thighs, but sometime breasts) in a glass pan, with plenty of organic seasonings. I cut into serving portions (which are smaller than they used to be) and freeze all in a big container. Each day for lunch, I pull out some chicken and warm it up in a saucepan on the stove top. We put it on a sprouted grain wrap with various veggies.
• Dinner: Various meals but with organic and better ingredients. Vegetables now take up half or more of our plate.

Here are a few other things we do now:

• Eat real foods
• Eat organic (fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, butter, etc.)
• Low dairy (no more milk)
• Eat 75% vegetarian
• The meat we do eat is mainly chicken, turkey, bison, or whatever game my dad gives us. We eat very little beef; we do not eat any pork at all.
• Low processed foods/snacks and what we do buy is natural or organic
• Absolutely none of these ingredients in food: hydrogenated oils, MSG (in any name/form), food colorings, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives, hormones
• Low/no sugar
• We only drink filtered water; no juice, soda, etc. (we installed a reverse osmosis unit under our sink, which makes it SO easy)
• Absolutely no fast food, and reduced our restaurant visits to those that have better ingredients (we love Jason’s Deli)
• We do not use our microwave at all; food is cooked or reheated on the stove top or in the oven.
• We only cook with stainless steel or glass; no aluminum or plastic. Same with food storage.

my son helping me pick out organic fruits and veggies (after this photo was taken, he said "now we need to get more avocados")

Resources

Here are a few places we learned about nutrition:

• We talked to our chiropractor, who also was a clinical nutritionist. You can search out healthy professionals in your own life. Information can be varied and contradicting, though, so listen smartly.
• Mercola.com
• Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Cookbook & Program
• NaturalNews.com
• Weston A. Price

What Can You Do?

When you decide to eat healthier, all the information can be overwhelming. My advice is to make changes slowly; change one thing at a time. Incorporate that change into your life until it becomes a habit. Then change something else – and keep going. Like anything, if you try to do everything at once, it may be too hard to maintain, and  you end up not changing anything!

A good start is to follow my blog, or other health blogs, to learn about healthy options. Find the people who are the most vibrant and see what they do.

Wendy – ParentingTips365.com

Read all the posts in the Healthy Living series by clicking on the icon on the left.

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

Related Articles:

• 5 Foods Your Kids Should NOT Be Eating
• Healthy Vegetarian Recipe: Quinoa Chowder with Spinach and Feta
• What Not to Eat: The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup
• 7 Healthy Foods (And How to Get Kids to Eat Them!)
• Classic to New Favorites: Comfort Food Recipes the Whole Family Will Love

Before I get started explaining to you exactly why HFCS is bad for you and why you should avoid it at all costs, here’s a thought to ponder. Isn’t it odd that a food product is spending up to $30 million to convince you it’s safe to eat?

Did You Know?

• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the number one source of calories in the U.S. and causes far more damage than white sugar. (Mercola.com)
  
• HFCS is the most popular sweetener in many pre-packaged products because it has a sweetness similar to table sugar but is cheaper to produce, easier to transport, blends into other foods more easily, and gives products a longer shelf life. (NaturalNews.com)

What Foods Contain High Fructose Corn Syrup?

Carbonated sodas are sweetened with HFCS, as are candy bars, cookies, jams and jellies, bread, salad dressings, pizza sauce, fruit drinks, breakfast cereals, food bars, peanut butter, ketchup, dairy products, canned fruit, and thousands of other grocery items. It seems HFCS is used in almost everything! Check the labels on the food in your pantry. What do you see?

What Does High Fructose Corn Syrup do to Our Bodies?

• HFCS is linked to diabetes in children.
• HFCS is linked to diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.
• HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It also inhibits the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.
• HFCS converts to fat in your body faster than any other sugar.
• HFCS causes severe liver damage.
• HFCS is linked to kidney disease.
• HFCS may raise bad cholesterol levels.
• HFCS is linked to ADHD.
• HFCS robs the nutrients of anything beneficial you may consume.
• HFCS may contain mercury. (I wrote an article about this last year.)
• HFCS affects taste receptors, imprinting both the tongue and the brain with a stronger desire for sweet foods throughout life.
• HFCS interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like magnesium, copper, and chromium.
• HFCS modifies the brain’s appetite-regulating centers thus leading to more eating and weight gain.
• HFCS produces the toxic chemical hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) when heated. HMF has been linked to DNA damage in humans.
• HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which has its own well-documented side effects and health concerns, such as increasing your risk of developing a food allergy to corn.
• Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on “the pill”.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is Not Natural

The Corn Refiners Association insists that HFCS is a “natural” ingredient, and therefore you should be comfortable eating it.

I love how Christopher Wanjek, Bad Medicine columnist for Live Science, puts it:

High-fructose corn syrup could be all-natural if cornstarch happened to fall into a vat of alpha-amylase, soak there for a while, then trickle into another vat of glucoamylase, get strained to remove the Aspergillus fungus likely growing on top, and then find its way into some industrial-grade D-xylose isomerase. This funny coincidence didn’t happen in nature until the 1970s in a lab somewhere in Japan.

The FDA recently changed their stance and now says that HFCS cannot be considered ‘natural’, although they still do not have a formal definition of the term ‘natural’.

What Now?

Now that you’ve learned about the dangers of HFCS, you’ll want to learn how to eliminate it from your diet. Take a few days to let this information soak in. Read some of the links in the article and below under ‘References’ for even more information. Start looking at the foods in your pantry and start reading the food labels on everything you buy in the store. Start replacing items containing HFCS with those that do not.

In a few days I will have a supporting article to share with you titled “How to Remove High Fructose Corn Syrup From Your Diet“.

Pick Your Poison

Dr. Mercola offers this advice regarding HFCS and artificial sweeteners:

Even though HFCS is clearly something you want to avoid, it is not as bad as artificial sweeteners, which damage your health even more rapidly than HFCS. (I spent several years researching artificial sweeteners for my book Sweet Deception, which goes into these issues in great detail).

So, for example, if you have to choose between soda sweetened with HFCS (regular soda) or artificial sweeteners (diet soda), choose HFCS.

I will provide more information about the dangers of artificial sweeteners in an upcoming post.

References

Three of my favorite websites for natural health information are Mercola.com, NaturalNews.com, and WestonAPrice.org. Specifically on high fructose corn syrup, here are a few articles I recommend:

• Corn Syrup’s New Disguise on Mercola.com
• Debate About Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup on Mercola.com
• Fructose is No Answer for a Sweetener on Mercola.com
• How High Fructose Corn Syrup Damages Your Body on Mercola.com
• New Research Links High Fructose Corn Syrup to Diabetes in Children on NaturalNews.com
• High Fructose Corn Syrup and Diabetes: What the Experts Say on NaturalNews.com
• The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup on NaturalNews.com
• The Murky World of High Fructose Corn Syrup on WestonAPrice.org

You can also become a Facebook fan of each of those websites for great health information sent right to your news feed!

Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. It does not replace the advice of your health care practitioner.

Here’s to the start of a healthier year for you and your family!

Wendy – ParentingTips365.com

Read all the posts in the Healthy Living series by clicking on the icon on the left.

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

Related Articles:

• March is National Nutrition Month®: ‘Nutrition From the Ground Up’
• How to Remove High Fructose Corn Syrup from Your Diet
• Cheesy Lentils: Easy Vegetarian Recipe
• 5 Foods Your Kids Should NOT Be Eating
• 15 Reasons Not to Drink Soda Pop of Any Type: Regular, Diet, or Natural

ME!

That’s right, consider me your personal healthy living assistant! I’m going to share some simple tips that you can implement in your busy family’s life; tips that will help get you on track to live a healthier, eco-friendly life.

I am going to cover many areas of healthy living:

• Learn what foods and food ingredients to avoid (and learn healthy alternatives).
• Learn non-toxic ways to clean your house, clothes, and body.
• Learn simple things you can do to protect our environment.
• Learn about natural health and wellness options.

My goal is to provide simple tips (maybe monthly) that you can incorporate into your life. As we all know, if you want to make changes permanent, they key is to change slowly. Try one new thing in your life and make it a habit. Then add another. Before you know it, you have made major steps toward a healthier life for you and your entire family!

How to Receive the Healthy Living Tips

There are several ways to know when I write a new post to this blog:

• Subscribe to this blog in a feed reader (like Google reader).
• Subscribe using email (get an email sent to you containing the blog post). Look on the top right side of my home page.
• Become a fan of my Facebook page and receive new blog post updates conveniently in your news feed.
• Bookmark this page and come back often. Click on the “Simple Tips for Living a Healthy, Green, Eco-friendly Life” picture on the right side of the page (or below).

I’d love to hear from you! As you start out on this journey, let me know how you are doing. Ask me questions. Give me updates. I want to help you in the best way I can!

Click on the icon on the left to see all posts in this series.

Wendy – ParentingTips365.com

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

Related Articles:

• Cheesy Lentils: Easy Vegetarian Recipe
• The Secret to Easy, Quick, and Healthy Home-Cooked Meals
• 6 Tips to Help Busy Families Enjoy Healthy Meals at Home
• 5 Foods Your Kids Should NOT Be Eating
• Love Your Earth Home: 18 Things You Can Do This Week to Help the Environment

The book is designed to be a step-by-step guide to help parents learn the new communication skills. The information is presented in seven chapters:

1. Helping Children Deal With Their Feelings
2. Engaging Cooperation
3. Alternatives to Punishment
4. Encouraging Autonomy
5. Praise
6. Freeing Children from Playing Roles
7. Putting It All Together

Each chapter is divided into two parts:

• Part 1 discusses the new topic, provides short exercises to help learn and understand the topic, shows cartoons that illustrate “ineffective” and “effective”methods, and ends with a quick reminder page that is perfect for reference.
• Part 2 is filled with common questions, comments, and parents’ stories to help understand the topic further and hear about real situations.

The book starts by addressing how important it is to respect and accept your child’s feelings. Empathy towards another person, especially a child, might be difficult for many people. The authors suggest reading the book slowly so you can practice one aspect at a time.

The book has a great section on problem solving and it focuses on involving your child in the process.

I was surprised to learn how they don’t agree with the common use of time-outs as punishment. Once they explained their reasoning, I agree with them completely.

What I Thought

The book was easy to read and I loved the cartoons they used to help illustrate ideas; the visual aspect really helped me learn the ideas. I did do all the exercises, as they suggest, and it really helped me understand why these ideas work so well. I was also surprised to learn the correct way to give praise; it will definitely take some practice!

This is easily the best parenting book I’ve read! It falls in line exactly with how I wish to parent my child. It will take some time for these new ideas and methods to become more natural, but I’m so glad I have this book to help me.

When Should You Read This Book?

As the authors say, it’s never too early or too late to read this book. I read this book now and my child just turned two. Even if he’s too young for some of the situations discussed, he’s never too young to have a mom that talks to him with respect. I’m glad I read it now; it gives me time to start changing the way I talk – and think.

The book is also great for improving relationships with anyone; it can help improve how you communicate with adult family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.

Other Books by the Authors

The authors have also written several other books that may be of interest to you:

• Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
• How To Talk So Kids Can Learn
• How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk
• Liberated Parents, Liberated Children: Your Guide to a Happier Family

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

Related Articles:

• Gentle Parenting Technique: Modeling Positive Behavior in Children

Despite changing the formula of their cookies in the recent past, these cookies remain full of ingredients that harm your health in many ways. Let’s take a quick look at some of the bad ingredients used in Girl Scout Cookies®, using the Caramel deLites® as an example. Take a look at the ingredients list.

Vegetable Shortening (palm, partially hydrogenated palm kernel, and/or coconut oils)

Trans fatty acids, also known as trans fat, are an artery-clogging fat that is formed when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening.

The Girl Scouts organization touted “healthier” cookies recently by saying they now have “zero trans fat per serving“. Don’t let that fool you, though. If a food contains 0.5 grams trans fat per serving, they are allowed to say “0″ grams trans fat on the nutrition label. If you look at the ingredients list you will still see “partially hydrogenated” oils. Folks, anything that says “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated” IS trans fats. I don’t care if it’s less than 0.5 grams per serving; if a food contains partially hydrogenated anything, I am not eating it! Do not rely only on the number next to the “trans fat” label – always read the ingredients list!

Listed on Mercola.com as one of the 12 food additives to avoid, “trans fat increases bad cholesterol (LDL) while lowering level of good cholesterol (HDL). It can also cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease.”

Listed on NaturalNews.com as one of the top five cancer-causing foods, trans fats also “promote heart disease, interrupt metabolic processes, and cause belly fat that crowd the organs and strain the heart”. Trans fats can also increase a woman’s infertility risk by 70 percent.

Sugar, Corn Syrup, Sweetened Condensed Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sorbitol, Dextrose, Glycerine

Sugar, sugar, and more sugar! Let’s look closer at a few of them:

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is made from corn starch. Through processing, it’s made into a concoction of fructose and corn syrup. From NaturalNews.com,

Fructose does not trigger insulin release. This in turn means that fructose doesn’t affect leptin levels either. Since it increases neither insulin nor leptin levels, fructose consumption does not generate the same satiety signals as glucose. The result is overeating and weight gain.

Also from NaturalNews.com, HFCS “is the most popular sweetener in many pre-packaged products because it has a sweetness similar to table sugar but is cheaper to produce, easier to transport, blends into other foods more easily, and gives products a longer shelf life”.

What does HFCS do to our bodies?

• HFCS contains mercury.
• HFCS is linked to diabetes in children.
• HFCS is linked to diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.
• HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It also inhibits the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.
• Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter.
• HFCS causes severe liver damage.
• HFCS linked to kidney disease.
• HFCS is linked to ADHD.
• HFCS robs the nutrients of anything beneficial you may consume.

Sorbitol, also known as glucitol (a sugar alcohol), is an artificial sweetener. It is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine and can cause bowel problems including diarrhea, pain, and extreme weight loss if ingested in large quantities.

Glycerine, also called glycerol, is classified by the FDA as a sugar alcohol and is a by-product of biodiesel production. (Yum!) It is probably used because it has a lower glycemic index, which many people think is automatically better. As Dr. Mercola says:

The glycemic index doesn’t measure how a food or specific ingredient affects you over time. Moreover, it fails to take into account the harm chemicals like sucralose, sorbitol and refined fructose contained in supposedly low-GI foods do to your body; they convert directly into triglycerides and adipose tissue instead of blood glucose, accelerating obesity, diabetes, hypoglycemia and cardiovascular disease.

Artificial Color (Red #40 Lake, Yellow #5 Lake, Blue #1 Lake, Blue #2 Lake)

Artificial colors certified by the US Food and Drug Administration are made from petrochemicals and coal tars! Listed on Mercola.com as one of the 12 food additives to avoid, artificial colors have been linked to cancer as well as many other health issues such as ADHD, rashes, and asthma. Food colorings contain heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Here is a table with the ingredients of food colorings.

I looked around and found an article stating that Dr. Ben Feingold has made a link between hyperactivity and food coloring. He also noticed a marked increase in the ADD/ADHD classification after the mass introduction of food colorings into our society. I encourage you to read the other great information on that website www.victoryoveradhd.com.

Another great site to check out, www.fightagainstfoodcoloring.com, mentions a study conducted at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine that showed that a certain food coloring had negative effects on the immune system. In this study, caramel food coloring was shown to diminish immune system function which could alter the body’s ability to fight off infection and even cancer.

Also from www.fightagainstfoodcoloring.com comes this information about Red 40, which is in Caramel deLites®:

Red 40 is a commonly used food coloring dye added to a variety of products. While it may make food esthetically pleasing in appearance, it can cause a negative reaction in those who consume it.

Children are most often the ones who have sensitivity to red 40, whether or not their parents have realized it or not. Reactions include temper tantrums, hyperactivity, aggressive behavior, uncontrolled crying and screaming, kicking, nervousness, dizziness, inability to concentrate and sit still among other findings. Physically you may get frequent headaches or migraines, upset stomach and feel ill after ingesting this additive. Often when Red 40 is eliminated from the child’s diet a remarkable change is noticed immediately.

Natural and Artificial Flavors

I’m always leery when “natural flavors” or “artificial flavors” are listed in an ingredients list. Seems to me like a nice, easy way for the manufacturer to hide some less-than-stellar ingredients they don’t want you to know about. In fact, that’s exactly what they ARE doing! Some companies are putting secret chemicals in food that mask bitter flavors by turning off bitter flavor receptors on the tongue. That way, when the chemicals reach your tongue it fools your brain. What are those secret chemicals listed as on your ingredient list? They are conveniently listed under “artificial flavors”. NaturalNews.com has the entire article.

*****************************************************

Whew. That’s a lot to say about cookie ingredients.

What Can You Do?

Of course my suggestion is to stop eating Girl Scout Cookies immediately. If you really want your Girl Scout cookie fix, I have done a quick search of the web and found some recipes for homemade girl scout cookies. Notice how simple the ingredient list is? At the bottom of that article are links for several other popular flavors of Girl Scout Cookies. Here is one more article with a recipe for homemade thin mint cookies.

What Can The Girl Scouts Corporate Organization Do?

I haven’t tried those recipes but if someone can come up with a similar cookie using basic ingredients, then why can’t the Girl Scouts demand their manufacturer do the same? Or maybe they need to find a different manufacturer. There are plenty of brands of cookies made with natural ingredients. For example, I did a quick search online and found Bella’s Cookies. At any rate, if they continue to have little girls peddle cookies, they need to find better cookies.

Or here’s an even more radical idea for them: what about doing fund raising with something besides cookies? Go Green Fundraising has some great ideas.

Last year the National Action Against Obesity called for a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies. They also met with the Girl Scouts of the USA and urged a plan to transition away from cookies as the Girl Scouts’ primary source of fund raising and to engage the entrepreneurial spirit of the Girl Scouts to conceive new ideas for fund raising that are health and environment friendly.

I would also hope the Girl Scouts could think of a new fund raising idea that brings them more money than the measly 40 cents per box out of the $3.50 sales price.

I had to laugh when reading the Girl Scouts’ website, where they explain “Why Girl Scout cookies?“. Their answer was, “customers get a great product”. After reading more about the ingredients in their cookies, do YOU think they sell a “great product”? I sure don’t. After looking at the ingredient list, my husband describes the cookies as “sugared sawdust”. I think I have to agree with my husband on this one.

What do you think?

-Wendy – ParentingTips365.com

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

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As you may know by now, one of my favorite websites is NaturalNews.com. In an email I received the other day I was alerted to a chance to sign a Health Revolution Petition to be sent to every member of the House and Senate as well as the office of President Obama. The petition calls for many important changes, just a few of which are:

• Protect children from products that compromise their health (such as getting processed foods out of the school lunch program and encourage the use of fresh, unprocessed foods).
• Federal government encouragement and reward for the People taking personal responsibility for their own health.
• Restore health freedom to all Americans and legalize healing (includes affirming the rights of American moms and dads to choose to avoid mandatory vaccinations of their children and protecting access to dietary supplements).
• Protect the food supply (by banning harmful things such as GMOs, MSG, aspartame, and sodium nitrite).
• Restore honest science to medicine.
• End era of big pharma domination over health care.
• Ban man-made, non-natural cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products.
• Invest in disease prevention.

The petition goes into much more detail for each of these items and I encourage you to read it all. And then I encourage you to sign the Health Revolution Petition so the government can know how we really feel the health care system should be changed!

(You can get to the petition through the link in the sentence above or by the icon on the right side of my website.)

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

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• The Most Powerful Woman in My World is Me

Over the past few years I’ve been doing research on fluoride and have learned many unsettling things about how dangerous it is and about how we’ve all been deceived about its benefits and risks. Why would anyone tell us it’s good to put in our water supply since it prevents tooth decay when they know that’s not true? If you can’t already guess, these types of answers usually revolve around money!

Fluoride: Dangers and Deceptions

My warnings to you about fluoride come in two forms: the health dangers of fluoride itself as well as the dangers from continued deception on the part of government and public health officials to convince us that fluoride is safe. There are several main points I want to share with you, from Mercola.com:

• Fluoride does not stop tooth decay, but instead causes teeth to rot and crumble, similar to the mechanism that causes osteoporosis.
• Federal health agencies have known these facts for years, but have been controlled by the political interests of the nuclear arms, aluminum, and phosphate manufacturers.

Fluoride Added to Public Water Supplies

For a more in-depth look at the deceptions behind the start of mass water fluoridation, I encourage you to read the book The Fluoride Deception, by Christopher Bryson. The book describes how fluoridating water began in the mid 1940’s as a solution to fluoride pollution generated by the Atomic Bomb Program and the aluminum industry. The book talks about the real people and real events that lead to the start of mass water fluoridation.

Those in the public health field might tell you the fluoride added to tap water is safe because fluoride occurs naturally in water. But the fact is that the fluoride added to public water supplies is not organic fluoride at all but is really fluorosilicic acid, which is a toxic waste product purchased in bulk from chemical companies. According to ChemicalLand21.com, fluorosilicic acid’s other uses are:

• wood preservative
• sterilization of equipment
• electroplating
• tanning
• glass etching
• cement hardening
• oil acidizing
• rust removal in textile field
• lead refining

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to drink anything that can also harden cement!

Surely They Test The Fluoride Added to the Water, Right?

Wrong! From NaturalNews.com, industrial-grade fluoride added to the water supply has never been subjected to toxicological testing or FDA review for safety in human ingestion. Furthermore, when scientists study fluoride’s toxicity to humans, they study pharmaceutical grade fluoride (the same stuff used in antidepressant drugs), but NOT the fluoride compounds actually USED for water fluoridation (from Mercola.com).

Drugging the Entire Population

What would you think if a drug that is not approved by the FDA was dripped into the public water supply under the guise of its ‘health benefits’? From TheFluorideDebate.com:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that fluoride is not a mineral nutrient; it is a prescription drug. Every prescription drug has side-effects, including fluoride. Fluoride has never received FDA approval and does not meet the legal requirements of safety and effectiveness necessary for such approval. Once this drug is put in the water there is no control over individual dosage.

Paul Connett  PhD says water fluoridation is unethical because:

I encourage you to read the rest of that article on Mercola.com by Paul Connett: The Absurdities of Water Fluoridation.

Fluoride is the only chemical added to the water supply for a medical reason; the other chemicals are added for water purification.

Many European countries are banning fluoride supplements and fluoridation of water supplies, Canada is considering lowering levels. Even some U.S. Cities are questioning water fluoridation. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, the tooth decay rates of countries which do not fluoridate their water supplies are just as low, or even lower, than those countries which do.

Other Sources of Fluoride

From Mercola.com, other sources of fluoride that you want to limit or eliminate to reduce your exposure include:

• Fluorophenyl-containing pharmaceutical drugs
• Toothpaste and mouthwash
• Food and beverages processed with fluoridated water
• Mechanically de-boned meat
• Pesticide residue on food
• Soy baby formulas
• Instant tea

Also from Mercola.com:

Adding fluoride to the drinking water causes bioaccumulation in our cells, year after year. If fluoride is in the water, it’s everywhere:

• growing vegetables and fruit
• washing vegetables and fruit
• in the meat of animals who have drunk fluoridated water
• in toothpaste
• in canned foods
• in processed foods
• in soft drinks
• in beer

Mass Fluoridation is Based on Fraudulent Science

Mike Adams from NaturalNews.com has many great articles on the dangers of fluoride. In one, he talks about the fraudulent science behind mass fluoridation. I encourage you to read the entire article; it’s long but has so much good information in it. Here are a few of the main points:

• Fluorisilicic acid, which is added to public water supplies, is not fluoride but is a toxic waste byproduct purchased from chemical companies.
• If cities didn’t purchase fluorosilicic acid from chemical companies, those companies would have to spend millions of dollars disposing of this waste product because it is an EPA regulated toxic waste.
• It is regulated by the EPA because it is a health hazard to humans.
• There is no credible evidence that mass consumption of fluorisilicic acid improves dental health; any evidence cited by the EPA, the American Dental Association, and dentists has been fraudulently concocted.

From an article on WestonAPrice.org, in 1999 the Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a report stating that the mass fluoridation of public water supplies was a great public health success. In that same report, they go on to admit the effects of fluoride are ‘topical’ rather than ‘systemic’. How can they say fluoridating the public water is a health success while admitting that fluoride’s benefits are not obtained from drinking it?

Scientists Against Water Fluoridation

In an article on NaturalNews.com, the Fluoride Action Network states that many scientists, doctors, and other professionals have signed a petition to call for the end of water fluoridation. Some of the main points in the article include:

• Symptoms of fluoridation in the human population include an increase in the risk of bone fractures, decreased thyroid function, lowered IQ, arthritic-like conditions, dental fluorosis, and osteosarcoma.
• The PPM levels of fluoride present in the U.S. water supply are adequate to facilitate many of these symptoms in certain groups including children, diabetics, above-average water drinkers, and those with poor kidney function, among others.
• Fluoride works in a topical sense, not a systemic one. What this means is that any benefit against tooth decay by fluoride is derived from direct application to the teeth, not by ingesting the substance into the body where it has potentially toxic biological effects.
• Large studies have shown little difference in the prevalence of tooth decay between fluoridated and un-fluoridated areas.

If that information troubles you as much as it does me, you can also sign a message to Congress to end water fluoridation. (The link is from the Fluoride Action Network.)

How Fluoride Harms Your Body

Fluoride is not biodegradable and it accumulates in the body and bones resulting in a toxic or poisoning effect.

• Fluoride accumulates in fat cells.
• Fluoride damages your brain.
• Fluoride can affect hormonal systems and endocrine systems.
• Fluoride damages your thyroid gland.
• Fluoride accumulates in your bones increasing the risk of fracture. There is also a bone cancer/fluoride connection, as mentioned in two articles on Mercola.com. (Article 1, Article 2)
• Fluoride may contribute to early puberty.
• Fluoride increases the uptake of aluminum into the brain.
• Fluoride can negatively affect fertility.
• Fluoride is linked to arthritis, emphysema, and nervous system disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit disorder (ADD).

From Mercola.com, fluoride is a systemic poison that:

• inactivates 62 different enzymes
• increases lead absorption
• increases the aging process
• increases the incidence of cancer and tumor growth
• disrupts your immune system
• lowers thyroid function
• causes genetic damage
• interrupts DNA repair-enzyme activity
• increases arthritis
• reduces IQ, and impairs learning and memory processes

There’s more. Also from Mercola.com, according to Paul Connett, PhD:

• Fluoride accumulates in your bones and makes them more brittle and prone to fracture. Lifetime exposure to fluoride will contribute to higher rates of hip fracture in the elderly.
• Fluoride accumulates in your pineal gland, possibly lowering the production of melatonin, a very important regulatory hormone.
• There are serious concerns about a connection between fluoridation and the current epidemics of both arthritis and hypothyroidism.
• In animal studies fluoride at 1 ppm in drinking water increases the uptake of aluminum into your brain.
• Counties with 3 ppm or more of fluoride in their water have lower fertility rates.
• The fluoridating agents most commonly used in the United States not only increase the uptake of lead into children’s blood but are also associated with an increase in violent behavior.

Fluoride Harms Babies and Fetuses

In an article on NaturalNews.com, medical pathologist and toxicologist Dr. Vyvyan Howard discusses the effects of toxic substances, like fluoride, on the development of fetuses and infants. He noted that the “very very low levels” of fluoride in human breast milk indicate nature’s way of keeping fluoride away from developing babies. Yet by giving babies tap water we are going around nature’s protection mechanism. (Yet another reason to breastfeed.)

In November 2006, the American Dental Association actually advised parents to avoid giving fluoridated water to babies.

For those of us who are genuinely concerned about our health, and especially the health of our little ones, removing fluoride from our drinking water is imperative.

What Can You Do Now?

• Use toothpaste and mouthwash that does not contain fluoride. Health food stores have many brands and I’ve seen some mainstream stores carry one or two brands in their natural section. You can also find some online. We use the Jason brand and like it; they have many varieties.
• Insist that your dentist not do fluoride treatments for you or your child. Insist they use plain pumice for cleaning teeth. Yes, it’s grainy but it is so much better than the fluoride-containing pumice.
• Do not drink tap water, or any water, containing fluoride. Get a reverse osmosis water filter for your kitchen sink and use it for drinking water, washing food, cooking, etc.
• Pass this information along to your friends and family.

How to Prevent Cavities, Tooth Decay, and Gum Disease Naturally

In an article on NaturalNews.com an interesting point is raised. What did people do before there was fluoride toothpaste and fluoride in the water? Here is an excerpt from that article:

Dr. Weston Price was one of history’s most amazing dentists. He studied many Indigenous people who never had any problems with rotting teeth until coming into contact with modern industrialization. They lived right into old age without any significant tooth decay. Yet when they began eating the standard diet of today, their teeth began to decay quite quickly.

This information leads us to some tips for the natural prevention of cavities, tooth decay, and gum disease. From NaturalNews.com:

• Avoid sugar and processed foods.
• Eliminate fruit juice and sodas.
• Drink adequate amounts of water.
• Brush and floss at least twice a day, especially after eating sweet foods.
• Brush with a toothpaste that contains casein, natural mint extract, and Xylitol.
• Consume large amounts of calcium-rich foods.
• Stay away from all refined sugars.
• Drink green and black tea. Frequent consumption of green tea or black tea reduces plaque build-up and also suppresses bacteria levels in the mouth. Do not add sweeteners, milk, or cream to the tea.
• Keep your toothbrush clean. The bacteria that are the main cause of cavities can grow on a toothbrush. A few times a week, disinfect your toothbrush by boiling it in saltwater for about a minute. Toothbrushes should be replaced every month.

Some Great Must-Read Articles

In addition to all the great articles I’ve linked to throughout this article, here are some more; I encourage you to read them all as they are filled with information you need to know.

• Fluoride Action Network Informational website about fluoride.
• Fluoride: Worse than We Thought on WestonAPrice.org
• The Fluoride Debate: A Response to the American Dental Association’s booklet “Fluoridation Facts”
• What Your Dentist Isn’t Telling You About Fluoride This is a list of fluoride links on Mercola.com.
• Is Fluoride Really as Safe as You Are Told? This three-part article on Mercola.com is long but full of great information that you must read.
• Why Tap Water Can Harm Your Kids on Mercola.com
• Top 20 Things That Are More Dangerous to Children than Lead Pain in Mattel Toys This article on NaturalNews.com lists fluoride in water as one of twenty dangerous things for children.

Let me ask you again – do you still think fluoride is healthy?

©2012 Parenting Tips 365. All Rights Reserved. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement.

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