Chemical companies, Big Tobacco and the toxic products in your home

From the Chicago Tribune website:

The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. The toxic chemicals are present in nearly every home, packed into couches, chairs and many other products. Two powerful industries — Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers — waged deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised.

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You may know that the larger the fish, the more contaminants it contains: mercury and PCBs in particular. If you've stopped eating albacore tuna for this reason, you will be happy to know that Wild Planet makes some that is low in mercury! They also offer various types of salmon, sardines and shrimp. Their sardines (one of the best fish you can eat, by the way) contain "3 times more calcium and phosphorus than milk, more iron than cooked spinach, as much protein as steak, and as much potassium as bananas." They also contain 885 mg DHA and 210 mg EPA of omega-3. Sardines also provide vitamins B12 and D, selenium and CoQ10. I recently tried sardines (theirs) for the first time and loved them!

You can get good deals, although there is limited selection, on Wild Planet products at Vitacost
http://www.vitacost.com/Referee?wlsrc=rsReferral&ReferralCode=1918481 but you can find and buy all of their products on the Wild Planet website: http://www.wildplanetfoods.com/

You can find out more about fish and contaminants in this PDF guide from the Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/files/fishguide.pdf

Foods as Preventative Medicine

Two slices of Jarlsberg cheese a day to fight lung cancer? It's true! Plus, bananas and squid to prevent breast cancer, tangerines to prevent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, arugula to prevent lung cancer. Dr. Oz says that with prescription drugs, we don't even get close to these large percentages in risk reductions of cancer when eating these and the other foods on his list. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/anti-cancer-shopping-list

Healthy Exposure (No to Toxins) on Facebook

Like my new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nototoxins

Organic Grocery and Product Coupons

Organic Food Coupons and Deals on Organic Products

http://www.organicdeals.com/

Organic Food Coupons

• http://www.bestorganicfoodcoupons.com/
• http://www.organicgrocerydeals.com/
• http://commonkindness.keycodecoupons.com/
• http://www.mambosprouts.com/free-coupons/
• http://www.couponing101.com/category/organicnatural/
• http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/
• http://www.healthesavers.com/HealthESavers/Coupons.aspx

Eat the Food, Eat the Packaging

You may know that PFOA, a toxic chemical, is found in microwave popcorn bags and to stay away from it. But what is in the bags of potato chips, popcorn and other snacks we eat? And how about in delivery pizza boxes? Do we need to be concerned? I am, and I've been asking many food manufacturers questions about their packaging (or expressing my gratitude for their having used safe packaging) on Facebook.

I recently tasted—and quickly became addicted to—Popcorn Indiana's Dark Fudge Chocolate Chip popcorn. I was eating it every day. Then it occurred to me: what's the bag made of? For months now, I have been trying to get a response from Popcorn Indiana about what chemicals are in their bags. I called and spoke to someone and told her I wanted to know what chemicals, if any, were in the bag. I specifically stated that I did not want an answer like "there is no BPA." She came back to the phone with that exact answer, that there was no BPA. BPA is usually not found in these bags, to my knowledge, so that statement holds no weight. Then when I expressed my dissatisfaction with that answer, she told me she would look into it, speak to the appropriate people who would have that information and call me back the next week (it was a Friday). I never heard anything more. That was several months ago. I also stopped buying their popcorn—not only because I do not know what chemicals are in the bag but because they obviously do not care about addressing consumer concerns. I refuse to support a company like that.

Here are some links to get you started with your own research on PFOA, PCBs and PFCs:

The Doctor TV Show: What’s Really in Your Food?

Pizza boxes and chip bags may cause breast cancer

Potato Chip Chemical May Cause 1/3 of Diet Cancers

Monsanto Buys Out Research Company

I just received this e-mail and had to share. Please take action bysigning the petition!

Upon discovering research that identified pesticides as a leading contributor to declining bee populations, Monsanto, a major producer of genetically modified foods, decided to simply buy out Beelogic, the research company. Put a stop to this manipulation of research!

Monsanto will now be able to point the blame away from chemicals used in GMO food production. And to make matters worse, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) may begin to use this bogus research, which will encourage other companies to fund and manipulate research as well.

It is imperative that we find the real reasons why the bee population is declining.

Take action today. Together we can stop the USDA from utilizing research funded by Monsanto!