Chemical Food Dyes

If you go to almost any child's birthday party now days, you will most likely find a colorful, brightly frosted birthday cake with colors so vivid, you can't possibly miss them. Yes, birthday parties and colorful cakes SEEM to go hand -in-hand, but do they necessarily HAVE to? Some may call it "common sense" to "need" a colorful birthday cake in order to celebrate, yet others may call it "materialistic" to "need" colorful birthday cakes. The same goes for blue applesauce, florescent cereals, green ketchup, purple "vitamins" and all colors of sugar drinks. So, why would someone opt out of those brightly colored chemical dyes in their child's celebration? Let's find out through a little bit of history, study, and effects.

"In the 1800's some manufacturers colored products with potentially poisonous mineral-and metal based compounds. Toxic chemicals tinted certain candies and pickles, while other color additives contained arsenic....." John Henkel

HISTORY

(Taken from http://www.fennogold.org/) Natural food colors were first used, but the cheaper chemical colorants quickly took their place because they were cheaper to make, easier to use, control and mix into foods and had limited flavor to alter the taste of foods. By the time the early 1900's hit, there were more than 80 types of dyes, none of them having been tested for short/long term affects. The dyes created were, and still are, derived from PETROLEUM ANILINE, and were first named coal-tar colors because the starting product was taken from bituminous coal. Laws were eventually made to attempt to control the extent and identify the colors, but nevertheless, very little research done on the safety of putting them in the human body.

SOURCES/EFFECTS

RED #40

Is usually in anything red, pink, purple, burgundy, or orange colored, possible foods: Popsicles, salad dressing, kids drinks and cereals, ice cream, & chips. It is also sprayed on many non-organic, fresh red apples, red potatoes, cherries and strawberries to enhance them with a more appealing look.

Holistic health views this food dye to have a negative/weakening impact on our killer cells: T-cells, macrophages and white cells. Abnormal cell growth in ANY AREA of the body, brain, bone or pituitary glands. Dr. Feingold did his own research to find that this food dye can increase hyperactivity, anger, rage, and irritability.

BLUE #1

Found in most any foods that are blue, green, purple, including many of the same items as those having Red #40 on them.

Ingesting Blue #1 can lead to illnesses involving the spleen,enlarged lymph nodes, weak veins, polyps in the brain and spleen, some tumors, chronically high triglyceride count, skin problems, weak immunity, abnormal cell growth anywhere in the body.

Yellow #5

Found in green, yellow, orange and brown items such as pickles, drinks, chips, medicines, Hepatitis B vaccine, soap, lotion and various toiletry items.

Yellow #5 in the body can lead to abnormal cell growth and weakness of the liver, abnormal cell growth in the prostate, ovaries, vagina, cervix, intestines, can lead to blood sugar imbalances, improper filtering of toxins out of the blood stream, bone marrow weakness and abnormal T-cell or white blood cell production.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES WRITTEN ON THE STUDY OF DYES ON CHILDREN:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2984519.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3742423.stm

Much of the above information came from a "Blessed By Nature" Handout

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

Do You Put 100% Faith in Modern Medicine, or in GOD?

PLEASE hit PLAY to watch the movie FIRST, so that it lines up with the intended song :)

There is definately a place for modern medicine--for emergencies and life-threatening surgeries/illnesses. HOWEVER, I believe pharmaceuticals are waaay over used, and the Pharmaceutical industry is focused too much on profits....please make careful to note that I view doctors differently than pharmaceutical companies, who sponser and fund their medical training.....the quote "DON'T KILL THE MESSANGER" can be applied to this situation.

It is our responsibility to seek out non-invasive measures of treatment for OTHER purposes beyond emergencies. If we don't seek it out, and we put 100% belief in one particular system....we may end up unknowlingly using the system for more than we should. God gave us plants for oils and herbs.....this is the least invasive way of healing from non-emergencies. My intention is to only make you think.....

I am personally one of the 42% that the video mentioned who have been directly affected by a medical mistake...an "experiment" on my right knee you might call it--words from another knee doctor who said that that type of procedure shouldn't have been done on anyone. What makes me know (along with the other doctor's words), that he messed up? He cut the leftover ligaments holding my knee in place to "balance it better", and ended up having to follow it up with YET ANOTHER surgery to attempt to correct the first "experiment". The results? Well, I have to be very careful not to have it fall out of placeduring exercise involving twisting and turning. Later, in my years of studying natural methods, I found that all you need is one shred of ligament in order to repair the entire thing with the proper nutrients. I have come to learn that I need to search out answers, rather than settling for them; I need to pray about decisions heavily before putting total trust in another person's actions if it may be potentially life altering; I will choose to seek out first and foremost, methods of healing that are not invasive, but rather natural ways.

In the clip above, it also mentions that "You're told to stay out of the sun, yet 50,000 people die from cancer each year due to not enough sun exposure". God made the sun to be our major acessable source of VITAMIN D. Without the proper levels of vitamins and nutrients supplied to our bodies on a daily basis, our bodies become suseptable to diseases such as CANCER.

Vitamin D --can be obtained naturally from the sun (ONLY WITHOUT SUNSCREEN), fish liver oils, and meat and dairy raised in the sun (organic ones are). SO, YES! Cows raised in the sun have enough vitamin D in them to pass on through their milk and meat--cows raised indoors in industrial corporate buildings are deprived of vitamin D, and therefore need synthetic Vitamin D added to milk in the processing.

• "NATURAL SOURCES of Vitamin D increase the absorption, retention, and utilization of magnesium, calcium and phosphorus." pg 193, Adelle Davis's book, Let's have Healthy Children


• "Studies have shown that calcium is retained efficiently only when 2,000 units of natural Vitamin D are taken daily. Vitamin D added to calcium tablets, (also commercial milk).... are not stable and should not be relied upon" as a source. pg 99, Adelle Davis's book, Let's have Healthy Children

I had always assumed the more sunscreen, the better, when dealing with health. But, since reading up on Vitamin D and its benefits, I now know to just limit the amount of time in the sun I spend with my children. We usually try to balance time outdoors between shade and direct sunlight. We also start early in the spring getting our bodies accustomed to the sun again by spending hours at a time outdoors. That way, when summer comes, our bodies don't get burned from being a couple hours in the sun without sunscreen. Sun is beneficial for your skin, burning skin is not, and sunscreen is not. If you plan on taking a trip to somewhere tropical, or have no shade on a long day outdoors, there are Natural Sun Creams (click on words for link), if you find you need one. If you start early, there's no reason for sunscreen if you don't over-do it it on any given day! God made the sun for a specific reason, along with making our skin be able to soak it up to detox for a specific reason.

Did you know that "sun spots" are acutally spots that your body is using energy from the sun to detox through, by bringing impurities to the surface? GOD DESIGNED nutrients to detox--too much of a certain nutrient (including Vitamin D from the sun) can speed up the detoxing process too much. So, in essence, a cancerous tumor your body was working on fighting (our body is constantly fighting and breaking up cancerous cells) is instead pushed to the surface to be labeled skin cancer instead of another form. Want more info on cancer? Here's another BLOG post of mine on cancer, click on the following word link: http://bodymindsoulfood.blogspot.com/2009/05/cancer-movie-not-to-miss.html

Dr. Mercola says in one of his newsletters: "Vitamin D levels in your blood fall to their lowest point during flu seasons. Unable to be protected by the body’s own antibiotics (antimicrobial peptides) that are released by vitamin D, a person with a low vitamin D blood level is more vulnerable to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections."

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

God's Baby

God blessed us with a little miracle at the beginning of April 2009. I remember feeling a little "BLAH" that day, feeling sick to my stomach, with everything else out of sorts. It disappeared after a few days, so I just attributed it to some new juice I had tried..... LATER ON, I would find out that it was a baby that we would never know while it was alive.

At 10 weeks, when we discovered that I was expecting a baby, the baby had already passed away a few days prior, thus setting off "symptoms". It broke my heart to find out, but I know God has a reason for everything, and trusted that LIFE WOULD GO ON. I know under any other circumstances, as I looked down at my flat stomach laying in bed, I would be thankful for it's appearance, but tonight it would be most difficult to see it again considering the circumstances that led up to it.

Today as I found out about the loss, the day seemed so dark and lonely at first. My mind kept swirling with questions and thoughts--so much that I don't even remember driving home from the hospital. God DOES provide comfort in these dark of times, though, I just wasn't ready to look for it. So, even though I felt too weak to pray for myself (ever been there?), and too hopeless to even want to try, I had a gracious friend who God put in my path at the time offer a prayer to me that changed my outlook COMPLETELY. As the day's events unfolded, I would soon see that this WASN'T the horrible event that I kept thinking it was--this was an opportunity to teach our girls about life and death, and to know that God blessed us with a baby that he chose ME to lovingly carry for the blessed short time it was alive! An OPPORTUNITY, instead of a nightmare that my mind kept telling me it SHOULD be! As my focus of the days events changed, so did the actual events unfolding before my eyes.....

My miracles started as I talked with the Chaplin at Sanford Hospital to find out what becomes of the baby once it was"born". Some people may just want to move on and not glance back at the pregnancy-gone-sour, but I couldn't rest easy unless I knew what was generally accepted as the methodology of closure for the precious tiny soul. The Chaplin told me that he would be leaving when we were coming in, so the college campus pastor from my Alma-mater would be on call. I quickly realized that God wanted to give me a familiar comfort for tonight's surgery, something I had never even considered a possibility! I learned that he generally only works about 3 nights a month, and I "happened" to come in on one of those nights! (Happened? Not at all.......more like "was planned to be by divine intervention "!) My college pastor and I have kept up over the years--so he already knew we were expecting a baby, along with knowing our family dynamics, family values, and our family goals.

We decided as a family to do this together, since the girls had been there for the ultrasound, seeing the baby on the screen, and then seeing both their mama and the ultra sound technician brushing back the tears they shared at that moment. Yes, they knew, and were full of questions. Like I said, this was an OPPORTUNITY to share both the blessing AND the sadness with them!

When I got chauffeured into the surgery room, I soon realized that God's plan of comfort wouldn't stop at just my campus pastor friend, he was going to bless me with a room full of familiar faces! Out of the 5 people in my surgery room, I knew 3 of them! (and there were several rooms full of other people!) A classmate/friend from college was my anesthesiologist, one of my nurses was a friend who I had bought scrapbook supplies from for years, and my doctor was my very own, who happened to be on call tonight. YES, God had surrounded me with comforting, familiar faces for the surgery I had been needlessly dreading all day long! Quite awkwardly, most of the night I found myself not being able to hide the smile God had painted on me with such loving hands.

After surgery, we had a ceremony in our room with my college pastor, which was so very meaningful, that I couldn't hold back the tears. Although I may not remember all the words he spoke from the sheer magnitude of the evening, I do remember, that as we held hands he said that we were together as a family for the first time, and that the next time we would be together would be in the presence of our savior. AMEN.

Through this, I have learned that God's plan is God's plan. We may tell ourselves that we are in control but if God's plan is to have a baby in his arms, then so it shall be. Praise the Lord forevermore!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14