Bees and Our World

It is reported that Albert Einstein once said: 

“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!”

These are words to take to heart. 

There is a new film that has been released and that can be ordered  entitled: More Than Honey. It shows the importance bees play in our lives and our food supply and how they are now disappearing and dying. These special little creatures are not just the providers of a special sweetener you use. They pollinate; they, essentially, are responsible for a great portion of our food supply. Watch the trailer below.


More than Honey - Markus Imhoof (Official Trailer) from CIBER Science on Vimeo.
This is another little video I posted  HERE sometime ago.

Bees pollinate a significant majority of the world's food. In North America alone, honey bees pollinate nearly 95 kinds of fruits, including almonds, avocados, cranberries and apples. In fact, we can thank honey bees for one in three bites of food we eat. We all rely on bees – and the pollination services they provide – every day.

What’s happening to bees?

In recent years, bees have been dying off in droves. First in France in the mid-1990s, then in the U.S. and elsewhere, colonies have been mysteriously collapsing with adult bees disappearing, seemingly abandoning their hives. 

In 2006, about two years after this phenomenon hit the U.S., it was named “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or CCD. Each year since, commercial beekeepers have reported annual losses of 29% - 36%. Such losses are unprecedented, and more than double what is considered normal. Much has been made over the "mystery" surrounding CCD, but two points of consensus have emerged: Multiple, interacting causes are in play – key suspects include pathogens, habitat loss and pesticides; and Immune system damage is a critical factor that may be at the root of the disorder. Read more... 

There is a PDF that is quite interesting. It is a Bee Tool-Kit. You can access it HERE. Share it with your children and grand-children, and make the young ones aware of the importance that bees play in their life and life of this beautiful planet we all share and call home: It is the only one we have.

Check out the little widget in the side-bar and observe the bee-harming pesticides/chemicals being used in our agriculture that remains on your food supply. It is alarming. 

Visit with your local farmer's markets, and ask whether their produce is grown with bee safety in mind. If so, I urge you to patronize and support them.

Have a safe, Natural Living day,
Stephen

What's On Your Food?

It is insane what is used on your food! I have a great widget in the sidebar to find out what pesticides and herbicides are being used in today's chemical based world. You need to know so that you can make wise decisions  in your grocery shopping, especially if you have children or grandchildren living in your home, or you could become pregnant.

An example are oranges and other citrus. Most people handle them without thought. They are handed to children to eat without washing thoroughly or peeling them.

There are some interesting substances listed on the citrus fruit cartons used to help ensure freshness. Some of these are Imazalil (Link to information on toxicity to humans, including carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, acute toxicity, and toxicity to aquatic organisms.), Thiabendazole, and Orthophenylphenate. Then there are coatings of food-grade vegetable, beeswax, petroleum, or shellac-based wax or resin, all used to maintain freshness."

When choosing between organic and non-organic, check the widget in the side bar of this blog first. If it is a fruit, nut, or vegetable that is treated with many pesticides and herbicides, it would be well to choose the organic even if the cost is a bit more. Or, go to your local Farmer's Market and shop. Ask if they are natural growers.  Your health is worth it!

Have a great day...

Healthy Child, Healthy World: What's Invading Your Child's World?

Hello,

We received a few responses from individuals about our post on pesticides and herbicides. Some people feel it is so inconsequential if they "spray several times a year."

Your kids, your grandchildren, and your pets play on your lawn, as well, all the living things in nature that surround you. I won't reiterate here what I previously wrote on 6/17; however the thousands of chemicals that we encounter in our daily life affect everyone in some way, shape, or form. The body wasn't made to handle the onslaught.

There are a lot people who are concerned about this. Here's an interesting video. Chemicals enter our children's lives from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed through so many sources. They enter everyone's life! Watch, ponder, take action, and do what you can. Little changes made everyday by each of us can make a big difference!

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo
This is the book at a very good price.

Whatever products you are using whether it be shower gels, shampoos, hand sanitizers, cleaning products, insecticides, herbicides, etc, do your research on what's listed on the labels. Become an avid label reader. Find out what it is and what it does to your health, your children's health, and the environment. This is so important! Don't just go to the manufacturer's web sites, either. Look further.

The holiday is upon us, and Donna and I wish you a great, safe, 4th of July week-end with your family and friends...

Take care, & God bless,
Stephen

Dr. Harvey Karp

But unlike you and me, chemicals should never be considered innocent until proven guilty; in fact, we must consider them guilty until proven innocent! We must demand that industry prove a substance safe before it is allowed to be sold to millions.

Dr. Alan Greene

The food we eat, the products we put on our skin and use to clean our homes, the toys children play with and put in their mouths-- all of these and more can impact the short-term and long-term health of a child. A green pediatrician thinks about these issues.

Erin Brockovich

I'm an advocate for common sense. If an exterminator uses a chemical that makes a spider drop dead right in front of you, what's its effect on a child?

Devra Davis, PhD, MPH

What I do find alarming is the volume of information that's been withheld from us, and how much we don't know because not enough study is being done on the controversial subjects. That's what people should be alarmed about, and what has to change.

Our Foods, You, and the Corporate World

Recent News:

6,000,000 American children have food allergies. That means 1 in 12 children. That's incredible! It is more pervasive that what was formerly thought by experts. Two in five have severe reactions, and experts, it was said, have no idea what's causing the epidemic.

Interestingly however, there have been experts for many years that do have, and have had "an idea" as to what is causing this horrendous problem.

I have posted a video from a TEDx Event featuring Robin O'Brien. She was a food industry analyst working on Wall Street prior to starting her family of 4 children. Reared on Twinkies and Poor Boys, she admittedly didn't give a lot of credence to health foods and organic produce until the day one of her children had a terrible allergic reaction to her breakfast... scrambled eggs, blue yogurt, and Eggo Waffles. She immediately took the child to her doctor. While at the doctors, she was told that the foods were on the top of the list for allergic reactions. She was alarmed and horrified to be told that common foods that average kids eat could cause her child to be so sick. That event started her analytical mind to seek answers, and what she found shocked her as she dug deeper.

She found:

A reason why children are having more food allergies now than the previous generations...

Chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and bovine growth hormone-a synthetic protein which is linked to breast, prostrate, and colon cancer, that are allowed in the US, are not allowed in over 27 countries in Europe as well as many others around the world, & more.

Ms. O'Brien's lecture is most interesting and important information for everyone, especially parents and grandparents. She has chronicled her findings in her new book, The Unhealthy Truth.

From our own research, Donna and I have known for years that pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, food coloring, food additives, preservatives, etc, affect people. Dr. Feingold's studies back in the 70's tied additives and food coloring to so many health challenges including severe allergies that children were experiencing, and those things are in nearly everything packaged, especially cereals!

Side note here: Read your labels!!! If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. Shop on the perimeter of the groceries stores and avoid the inner aisles whenever you can, for your food choices. Shop for fresh, non-packaged, non-preserved, unadulterated foods as much as possible. Now to get back on track...:)

However, in the US in the last 2 decades there are now GMO's added to the list and more and more pesticides and herbicides-literally thousands of them. With that, as well as, all the other things in our food supply, illnesses and allergies have escalated to alarming proportions among all age groups, especially children. Their immune systems from birth are being attacked from all sides in our highly chemicalized world.

The video is a good overview from a food analyst's standpoint that brings the corporate world and the bottom-line financial aspect into the picture. Watch and do share.

Have a blessed day,
Stephen

Great Quote:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead

P.S. For a PDF on some of the GMO's-CLICK HERE

What's Lurking on Your Produce? Is It Causing ADHD?

A follow-up to our last post: We are hearing the statistics of so many children having ADHD in epidemic proportions. Here's a report from MSN:

Exposure to pesticides used on common kid-friendly fruits & vegetables — including frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and celery — appears to boost the chances that children will be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, new research shows...

The findings are that youngsters with high levels of pesticide residue in their urine, particularly from widely used types of insecticide such as malathion, were more likely to have ADHD, the behavior disorder that often disrupts school and social life, scientists in the United States and Canada found.

“I think it's fairly significant. A doubling is a strong effect,” said Maryse F. Bouchard, a researcher at the University of Montreal in Quebec and lead author of the study published Monday in the Journal of Pediatrics...

Diet is a major source of pesticide exposure according to the National Academy of Sciences,and much of that exposure comes from favorite fruits and vegetables. In 2008, detectable concentrations of malathion were found in 28 percent of frozen blueberry samples, 25 percent of fresh strawberry samples and 19 percent of celery samples, a government report found...

A most alarming finding was a near-doubling in odds of ADHD diagnoses among kids with
higher-than-average levels of the most common of the six metabolites detected. Kids with high levels of dimethyl thiophosphate were 93 percent more likely to have the disorder than children with with undetectable levels of the marker.

Pesticides prey on the nervous system. Boucher studied organophosphate pesticides, which account for as much as 70 percent of the pesticide use in the U.S. They work by interfering with the nervous systems of insects, but have a similar effect in mammals, including humans. Most people in the U.S. have residues of the products in their urine...

Buy organic, make sure to wash, says the article:

The best advice for parents — and anyone who wants to avoid pesticides — is to choose foods least likely to contain them. The Environmental Working Group, a consumer advocacy organization, advises shoppers to buy organic versions of a dozen fruits and vegetables that grow in the ground or are commonly eaten with the skin, because they’re most likely to be contaminated...( Find out here what foods are least and most on the the pesticide list. You may be surprised.)

(The advice:) Make sure to wash all fruits and vegetables under cold running tap water and scrub firm-skinned produce with a brush. Be sure to rinse frozen fruits and vegetables, too.

But don’t wash produce with soap. The Food and Drug Administration says that could
leave behind residues of detergent, and yet more chemicals that everyone would do best to avoid.
-------End of Excerpts

Did you know that those herbicides and pesticides are probably oil-based? They don't come off with just ordinary, tap water, and, as the article said, we shouldn't use detergents because they leave a harmful residue on the produce. What do you do to protect yourself and your loved ones? You can't scrub produce such as strawberries and blueberries.

You have the best water/cleaner for your fruits and vegetables automatically if you have an Living Water ionizer device. Soak your produce in 11.5 pH, strong, alkaline water several minutes to remove as much of these harmful, oil-based pesticides and herbicides as possible.
It is so simple. Call me for more information on this.

If you can, shop locally, and shop organic from sources you are familiar with such as your local Farmer's Market. Know from whom you are buying.

And, since there are so many different interpretations to the term "organic", if at all possible, grow it yourself. Although it is not possible for everyone to garden, that's the only way to really know what you are eating and what's NOT on your food unless you know the farmers personally.

Following is a video that went along with the article:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Till next time... Live naturally,
Stephen
501-802-2440

Visit www.be-alkaline.com to watch videos showing how this water can take care of things naturally & effectively with Water-Living Water!!! Call me if you have any questions. I'd love to talk with you, and it would be my privilege to be the one to introduce you to this amazing advanced, technology in water ionizers. BTW: It is very affordable, too.