A Natural Environmental Health Facts Ezine

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"A NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH FACTS Ezine" Here to Inform and Help You Become Healthier and Happier while Achieving Quality Longevity!

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Friday June 8, 2007
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Something To Think About
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Splenda Ads Banned!

The Commercial Court of Paris has found that advertising claims used by McNeil Nutritionals, the marketers of the artificial sweetener Splenda, violate French consumer protection laws. They ruled that Splenda's advertising slogans, such as "Because it comes from sugar, sucralose tastes like sugar," are misleading to consumers, and have ordered McNeil to stop using them.

The case was brought against French subsidiaries of McNeil Nutritionals by the competing artificial sweetener firm Merisant. The court awarded Merisant 40,000 Euros in damages.

McNeil was given 30 days to amend all packaging of Splenda in France. The Court also prohibited the distribution of any products in the old packaging after a period of four months.

The ruling came just one day before a similar case between Merisant and McNeil in the United States resulted in an undisclosed settlement agreement that concluded a three-year court battle between the two companies. McNeil also faces a similar case in the United States brought by the Sugar Association, due to go to trial in November.

Europe May 14, 2007 Food Navigator.com

May 14, 2007 Bradenton Herald

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FOOD OF THE WEEK
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Small Powerful Globes and/or Sticks

We harvested the first of these organic globes last week and expect to have them fresh on our table for the summer! Therefore I find it only fitting that Radishes be this week's food of the week?

One of the earliest things ready to eat in our garden are these little round red and small elongated whitish radishes that carries quite a bite in our area. My husband has not been able to tone down the heat of them. I don't remember them being so hot as a child from our garden. Is it the ground here makes things hotter or what? Other parts of the world has these sweet, tangy globes but we contend with hot ones.

Radishes have often been considered more as decoration and garnish than a food, except by those who grow them. Radishes are actually members of the cruciferous (cabbage, etc.) vegetable family and all parts are edible, including the greens. Because they vary in quality, radishes are usually classified as winter or summer plant. Small ones of bold red, pink, purple, white or red and white are usually considered summer radish by some. They may be globe-shaped or elongated, can be fiery hot or tastefully mild.

Most common varieties here in the U.S. are usually round, but can also be ovoid, cylindrical, or turnip-like in shape. They can be the familiar red or white, red and white mix, pink, purple, and black; but the flesh is almost always white. However, there are some stunning varieties that have produced such dramatically colored flesh as black and white stripes or red, green, purple, or fuchsia. Mustard oils are responsible for the tangy taste of radishes not the ground they grow in, or so I'm told.

The most popular, in my part of the world anyway, are red globe radish or Daikon, a general term for a group of long white radishes. So this information is mostly about those two radishes...

The Red Globe is low in calories and an abundance of flavor and crunch. Daikon radishes are similar in nutrients to the Red Globe.

A good source of Vitamin A, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium, Iron and Copper, and a very good source of Vitamin C (ounce for ounce about 42% as much as an orange), Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium and Phosphorus.

Radishes are known to relieve indigestion and flatulence, as well as being a good expectorant. Radishes are suggested as an alternative treatment for a variety of ailments including whooping cough, cancer, coughs, gastric discomfort, liver problems, constipation, dyspepsia, gallbladder problems, arthritis, gallstones, kidney stones and intestinal parasites. Like other cruciferous vegetables, radishes contain sulphurous compounds that have anti-cancer properties. They also contain salicyclates, compounds similar to aspirin and, therefore, should be avoided by those with aspirin sensitivities.

The pre-bagged radishes have a longer refrigerator life than those sold with their greens still attached as the greenery leeches nutrients from the bulb.

Daikon radishes are said to aid the digestive system, especially in the digestion of fatty foods. It is a common ingredient in Japanese cooking and is always grated and added to tempura dipping sauce. Young daikons can be eaten raw but the larger (more than 8 inches long) ones must be cooked. Always peel daikons. Cut up and simmered in stews and soups, daikon tastes light and refreshing rather than heavy or starchy. Daikons are often cut into paper-thin slices by talented Japanese chefs. Daikon greens are delicious too. They can be washed, stacked, rolled as a scroll, and cut crosswise. This produces thin julienne strips which are traditionally salted and left standing for an hour. The moisture is squeezed out. The leaves are then chopped and stored in glass jars for up to a week in the refrigerator. The Japanese stir them into warm rice, they can also be added to soups and other recipes. Of course my sister-in-law has always cooked the greens of the little red ones as well and added garlic and a splash of lemon juice? very good!

Some other varieties of Radishes include:

Beauty Heart; is often sold as a red daikon, and has a striking fuchsia flesh, but can also be green or purple with crimson striping. It is grown mainly in China and treated more as a fruit like an Asian pear.

Blanche Transparent; (Transparent White) is a long, small, white radish and important only in the region where it is grown. It is similar to the winter radish in appearance and taste.

Cherry Belle; is round with crisp, white, mild flesh and can be harvested three weeks after planting.
China Rose; is bright red, with white flesh and a good flavor.
D'Avignon; is rose-colored with a white tip, crunchy, and extremely hot.

French Breakfast; is an elongated radish that sports red shoulders and a white tip. It is milder than the red globe, but just as crisp. If left too long, it becomes hot and woody.

18 Day; is a fast-growing French breakfast type.

Black Spanish; is dark skinned and extremely hot. Round Black Spanish is similar, but globe-shaped.

Müchen Bier; is a tasty green which can be eaten raw or stir fried.
Palatinate Giant Radish; is one of the largest varieties, but no different in taste from its smaller relatives.

Scarlet Globe; is a popular mild variety.

Short Top Forcing; is bright red and excellent for winter sowing under cover.

California Mammoth White; is larger than the White Icicles, oblong in shape, with an average length of eight inches and a slightly pungent flavor.

Chinese Misato Rose; is a round Asian radish about four inches in diameter. Cream and green colored on the outside, it has a beautiful rosy-pink interior.

Easter Egg; comes in pastel shades.

Since we eat them all raw and fresh I have no recipe so pop any one of these radishes into your mouth and enjoy the health benefits?
Lena

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HEALTH TODAY
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Stores Ban Food Additives in the UK

The Europeans have stepped up to the plate, once again, with responsible scientific studies and legislation concerning the dangers of chemical food additives. It may not be a perfect, public ruling, but the Europeans show more concern for the consumer than we, on our side of the pond, do. When it comes to the dangers of artificial sweeteners and food additives, the United States is falling way behind on respectable scientific research and public concern.

Greed, mostly Western, has powered a runaway train of food chemical madness in the world. Fortunately, European scientists not controlled by massive food processing, fast food chains, and mega-pharmaceutical conglomerates, are aware that the addition of food chemicals, GMO (genetically modified) foods, GE (genetically engineered) seeds, fake fats and artificial sugars are making people sick and fat - especially children. They are ready to stop this train.

The United States continues to discredit food research from Europe, research proving aspartame, GMO foods, artificial colorings and preservatives are harmful to human health. But most other countries are not so willing to risk their health and safety, and the health of their children.

We need to pay more attention to what's going on in the countries that are now experiencing new disease syndromes, and witnessing a generation of children becoming stressed, hyperactive, fat and ill - all since the introduction of diet chemical sweeteners and toxic food additives.

The good news: a new EU (European Union) study has now tied chemical food additives to child behavior problems. And they are doing something positive about it!

A study funded by the EU Food Standards Agency (FSA) has drawn a link between temper tantrums, poor concentration, and allergic reactions such as asthma and rashes, to chemical food additives. The findings are likely to shake up the entire food industry, which will now face the need to reformulate a vast array of children's products.

Vyvyan Howard, professor of bio-imaging at Ulster University and an adviser to the FSA, called on parents and manufacturers to protect children. He states: "It is biologically plausible that they (food chemicals) could be having an effect. Parents can protect their children by avoiding foods containing the additives. I personally do not feed these sorts of foods to my 15-month-old daughter."

He called on manufacturers and supermarkets to remove the additives on a precautionary basis.

"It is the right thing to do to remove these additives from children's foods. They have no nutritional value, so why put them in? There are very tight restrictions banning these additives from foods designed for children under the age of one. But why stop there? Children's brains and nervous systems are developing beyond the age of one."

Some leading UK food companies and grocery stores have already responded. Smarties has dropped products with artificial colors, particularly eliminating the blue variety from their shelves.

Marks & Spencer has implemented similar moves to clean the food chemicals off their shelves. Sainsbury's, Britain's third largest supermarket, is set to remove artificial flavors and colors, as well as aspartame from its private label soft drinks. New drink formulas will be on their shelves in June, as the demand for more natural soft drink ingredients is now entering the mainstream-soft-drink sector in the UK. Sainsbury's stated it will use natural colors and fruit and vegetable extracts as coloring agents in bottled drinks. Where flavorings are used, they will be from fruits and other natural sources.

Fortunately, the British markets have ditched the artificial sweetener aspartame, but unfortunately, in favor of diet products with sucralose. In, time, my hope is this newest chemical sweetener will also be banned due to the toxic effects of the chlorine that comprises 3/4 of the sucralose molecule.

This civic move on the part of British supermarkets reflects the growing consumer demand for natural ingredients, particularly in soft drinks. "It's the result of extensive research among our customers revealing just how welcome this development would be, especially amongst parents," said Cathy Port, Sainsbury's category manager for soft drinks.

Many parents in the UK and Europe have become increasingly concerned about the effects of artificial ingredients on their children's health and development. Natural ingredients are becoming a trend likely to play a greater role in soft drink formulas over the next few years. Food and drink products free from artificial flavors, colors and preservatives will set themselves apart from the toxic food additives at the root of so many modern health issues.

Some of the research responsible for proving the dangers of food chemicals was conducted by a team from Southampton University, and confirms earlier studies suggesting food additives cause unhealthy reactions, both individually and as a chemical blend.

The chemical food colors tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) were tested on groups of 3-year olds and 8-to-9 year olds. The team also looked at the health effects of the preservative sodium benzoate (E211), which is commonly used in soft drinks.

The test results are currently being peer reviewed and will then be published, but the results were shown to be similar to earlier findings, published in 2004. The original research was performed on the Isle of Wight. Three-year-old children were given fruit drinks laced with colorings and additives. Parents reported a change in their behavior after the youngsters were fed the additives.

The original findings were questioned because the results relied on anecdotal reports from the parents, and the young age of the children made it difficult to chart behavior in a scientific manner.

Because of these uncertainties, the second research study was commissioned, following the advice of the expert committee, which included Professor Howard.

The reactions of the children in the study were documented as experiencing mood swings, crying, screaming, and the inability to sleep. They also recorded physical reactions to the food chemicals, such as difficulty in breathing and skin rashes.

In the countries that historically do not use food additives (such as aspartame, MSG, and food colorings) recent reactions to these chemicals are considered a tangible, observable behavioral difference and a direct cause and effect to the use of additives. To ignore these behavioral changes and allow the continued presence of food chemicals in the children's food supply can be compared to conducting a long-term experiment on the children's health.

If there is one sliver of doubt that food chemicals are harming human health, especially children's health, these chemicals should be removed without hesitation. If countries are serious about improving their children's nutrition, the ban on artificial food additives must become a priority. At the very least, there should be a WARNING on products containing these chemicals, that they are dangerous to human health.

The food and drink corporations defend the right to market food chemical additives under the umbrella that the use of food additives are strictly regulated under the law. Food additives such as aspartame and sucralose must be approved as safe before they can be put on the market. Even though they claim that consumers' intake of food additives is also closely monitored by government health agencies, when research studies such as the study from Southampton University, are presented, many times they are discounted as anecdotal. When will the consumer be taken seriously?

When sales go down, the manufacturers will stop making money from these dangerous chemicals! Thank you to UK's Smarties, Sainsbury's, and Marks & Spencer for making the appropriate moves to hit 'em in the pocketbook. Once the corporations stop making profits off unhealthy food chemicals, let's hope they will return to the use of natural ingredients for the sake of our children.

Dr. Janet Starr Hull

One-Third of US Water Estuaries in Bad Shape - EPA
By Lisa Lambert
June 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - More than one-third of the coastal waters that link America's rivers and oceans are in poor condition, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report on Tuesday, with Puerto Rico and the Northeast coast faring the worst.

The EPA analyzed 1,239 sites in its first survey of the country's 28 major estuaries, which provide breeding grounds and shelter for fish and birds.

It found that bodies of water with large numbers of people living nearby suffered the most. While counties with big estuaries make up only 6 percent of the coastal land area, they contain more than two-thirds of the coastal population.

The impact of building communities and shipping facilities, and providing them with sewers, put the estuaries under stress.

In estuaries in Northeastern states, between 10 and 20 percent of the water was polluted, and more than 15 percent of the sediment was contaminated, the survey found. More than 10 percent of the organisms and fish in the estuaries facing the northern Atlantic Ocean suffered from chemical contamination.

Estuaries in the Southeastern states were in the best condition, the report said. Less than 10 percent of the water was polluted and about 5 percent of the sediment showed signs of toxins.

The survey also found that the entire San Juan Bay Estuary in Puerto Rico was in poor condition.

Estuaries provide more than 75 percent of the US commercial fish catch, according to the EPA, and the fisheries are worth more than US$1.9 billion.

The EPA said estuary administrators should work with local officials to develop stormwater management plans to curb the contaminated water that runs off into the estuaries.

Rob Brumbaugh of the Nature Conservancy said the EPA's report was a call to action.

"The one thing we know is that estuaries, although they are threatened, they are pretty resilient and respond to restorations," Brumbaugh said. "The mixture of the fresh water input and the saltwater creates ecosystems that are used to fluctuations."

He said the report helped identify estuaries that are thriving and need to be shielded from development as well as those that need rebuilding.

REUTER'S