U.S. Government Test Run Successfully Blocks Independent News Websites For Californians

According to what I'm hearing from several sources in my network of contacts, the U.S. government is putting systems in place to black out online news sites like Natural News, Drudge Report, The Blaze and many others. A practice run that took place earlier this week in California has already achieved this result and confirmed the technical ability to make it happen at will.

The recent outage of news sites experienced by internet users in California was reported by this article on BeforeItsNews.com and confirmed by The Washington Times, The Blaze and other sites. The Natural News reader service team also recorded numerous complaints from California users who were unable to reach our website even though our site was fully functional and serving pages worldwide.

What was especially telling about this outage is that it only affected online news sites while allowing other internet traffic to flow normally. This selective targeting of news websites could have been accomplished by "deep packet inspection used inside the routers that move information packets along the internet," reported Before Its News technical staff. "This technology allows ISP's to look inside the packets your computer sends and receives and then make a decision to allow the packets through, modify the packets or block them. This technique can also be used to slow or speed up traffic."

The selective targeting proves that this was not a general outage. The traffic blockage was specifically targeted to online news sites.

Online news censorship being prepared in advance of large-scale event

This selective blocking that took place earlier this week is widely believed to have been a dry run for a planned online news site blockade by the federal government during an upcoming "major event."

What sort of major event? The sort of major event where the government wants its official narrative to be the only information allowed to circulate, obviously. These tend to be either terrorism events or false flag events which are seized upon by the government to enact harsh new police state regulations and surveillance initiatives to spy on the American people. Similar events in recent U.S. history include Oklahoma City, Waco and of course 9/11 -- all of which were exploited to vastly expand police militarization and the surveillance reach of the federal government. (Patriot Act, anyone?)

What all governments know is the importance of "getting out in front of the narrative" and telling the government's story first, before anyone else can look at the facts and present a more rational explanation for what happened.

Guccifer hacker warned of nuclear bombs in American cities - New York Times

The infamous hacker Guccifer, now arrested, is well known for hacking into the email accounts of members of the Bush family in the United States. According to numerous stories in the mainstream media, Guccifer acquired emails which spoke of a nuclear detonation in a major city in Pennsylvania in 2015.

A widely-cited story published in the New York times just two weeks ago revealed that Guccifer obtained information that he believed indicated a nuclear bomb would be detonated in Chicago and / or Pennsylvania in 2015. As the New York Times explains it, these are "wild conspiracy theories," but the psychologist who interviewed Guccifer insisted the man wasn't crazy at all.

From the NYT, Nov. 21, 2014: [2]

The English-speaking prison psychologist, who attended my meeting with the hacker, rolled his eyes as Mr. Lazar started reading his explanatory text in good but heavily accented English. It was a compendium of wild conspiracy theories involving so-called Illuminati, a secret cabal that he believes runs the world. Most of the conspiracies were old hat, like ones relating to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by Al Qaeda. But others, such as an alleged plan to set off a nuclear bomb in Chicago and an unnamed city in Pennsylvania next year, were clearly his own work.

The psychologist said he had heard them all before but nonetheless had no doubt about the state of Mr. Lazar's mental health. "He is not really crazy at all..."

It is widely speculated across the 'net that Guccifer stumbled across emails of high-level operatives who were discussing plans for nuking American cities. Speculation, of course, is not the same as proof, and it is entirely possibly this may be nothing more than Guccifer's attempts to attract attention.

What event might be coming?

Regardless, there is no question whatsoever that the U.S. federal government has been accelerating its readiness for something big. During the recent Ebola scare (the first wave, because there's still more to come...), it was widely reported that the U.S. State Department put out a bid for 160,000 hazmat suits. Are these for Ebola? Or something else entirely?

Theories of what might be coming our way in 2015 tend to focus on the following speculative possibilities, ranging from "nearly certain" to "way out there:"

• Global financial collapse, where the 2008 bankster bailouts have finally come back to haunt us again in 2015, causing a cascading collapse of global derivatives debt and the fragile banking industry. This would obviously be followed almost immediately by mass social chaos, riots, revolutions and so on.

• Nuclear attack by Russia, in the aftermath of the current petrodollar disaster where Russia is getting economically crushed by plummeting oil prices. See this excellent article by Mac Slavo for a full explanation of the dynamics.

• Nuclear terrorism in America, carried out by whatever radicals with foreign-sounding names the mainstream media wants you to hate at the moment.

• False flag terrorism deliberately carried out on American soil for political purposes (usually to blame some convenient political group such as the Tea Party).

Of these, I personally think financial problems are the most likely. There are already recent signs in the stock market that something has gone terribly awry and a severe market correction is long overdue. The U.S. Treasury's recent creation of $1 trillion in new debt just to pay off old debt is downright shocking. Anyone who understands the power of compounding interest will immediately realize that the U.S. is plummeting toward certain financial insolvency.

I recommend this really good article on ZeroHedge.com which explains what's really happening with the debt situation:

"You have to think about a huge tower of debt on shaky foundations where central banks pump concrete in the foundations in an emergency effort to avoid the building from collapsing and at the same time builders are adding additional floors on top...

We all are in a Ponzi world right now. Hoping to be bailed out by the next person. The problem is that demographics alone have to tell us, that there are fewer people entering the scheme then leaving. More people get out than in. Which means, by definition, that the scheme is at an end. The Minsky moment is the crash. Like all crashes it is easier to explain it afterwards than to time it before. But I think it is obvious that the endgame is near.

ACTION ITEMS: Do this now to avoid being cut off from independent news

Here's what you can do to make sure you're fully informed no matter what happens:

1) Write down the IP address of NaturalNews.com: 108.168.157.185. This is our internet address which you can access without using the domain name "NaturalNews.com." Simply enter these numbers in the address bar of any browser, and you'll go straight to our website.

2) Join SEEN.IS immediately, and start following Natural News there. Our address on seen.is is http://seen.is/profile/NaturalNews. Seen.is is the totally uncensored alternative to Facebook, and it's rapidly growing in popularity among truth-minded people.

3) Subscribe to the Natural News email newsletter if you're not already a subscriber. It's free and you can subscribe using the form at the bottom of this article. We send a daily email newsletter with the hottest stories for the day. During a crisis, even if our website is offline, we will still send out the emails.

4) Sign up to follow us at TSU.co, another new social media website that doesn't censor stories or spy on its users. Click here for the Natural News page on TSU.co, where you can sign up and help spread the word.

5) Follow us on DIASPORA, another truth-telling community of information pioneered by the brilliant minds in the open source community. Click here to visit the Natural News Diaspora pod (yes, we run our own pod) where you can sign up and monitor our news feeds throughout the day. During emergencies or a crisis, we'll be posting on Diaspora, Seen, Tsu and other services to bring you the latest important information.

6) Get your own VPN account set up so that you can bypass local internet censorship. Search online for "VPN services" and sign up now. This is the technique used by Chinese citizens and Falun Gong members to bypass Communist China internet censorship -- the same kind of censorship that's coming to Communist Amerika.

7) Use Startpage.com as your search engine. It doesn't track your searches or record your IP address. Use StartMail.com or Unseen.is for your email accounts. Don't use the popular search engines and email services run by the technology companies feeding your information to the NSA. And yes, ALL the big tech companies are feeding your information to the NSA, just as Edward Snowden revealed in stunning detail. This includes Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.

8) Help support other alternative news websites such as www.BeforeItsNews.com www.SteveQuayle.com www.AllNewsPipeline.com www.TruthStreamMedia.com www.SHTFplan.com www.21stcenturywire.com www.TheDailySheeple.com www.TheLibertyMill.com www.InfoWars.com and so on. You may not agree with everything you see on all these sites, but these are truly independent voices which aren't controlled by the corporate media machine. You won't see recycled White House propaganda on any of these sites, for sure...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/047878_news_blackout_government_censorship_catastrophic_event.html#ixzz3KvLts2th

Red Cross exposed as scam in searing investigation published by ProPublica

A pair of massive, once-in-a-generation storms lambasted regions of the U.S., leaving in their wake destruction, some death and havoc. Hundreds of thousands of people were without food, shelter and power, many for weeks on end.

But Americans responded like they always do after such disasters, whether they occur on home soil or abroad: They opened up their pocketbooks and donated to charities ostensibly aimed at helping victims.

In particular, according to a recent investigative report by ProPublica and National Public Radio, Americans sent the Red Cross hundreds of millions of dollars because they believed that their donations would be well used to relieve the suffering of victims pounded by Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac.

It didn't happen. Per the report:

The Red Cross botched key elements of its mission after Sandy and Isaac, leaving behind a trail of unmet needs and acrimony, according to an investigation.... The charity's shortcomings were detailed in confidential reports and internal emails, as well as accounts from current and former disaster relief specialists.

"Multiple systems failed"

In addition, the investigation found that Red Cross officials in the nation's capital deepened the charity's incoherent response by "diverting assets for public relations purposes," according to this internal Red Cross report. Furthermore, the distribution of relief supplies was "politically driven."

Red Cross supervisors during Isaac directed dozens of trucks that are most commonly used to deliver aid to be driven around mostly empty, "just to be seen," according to one of the drivers, Jim Dunham.

"We were sent way down on the Gulf with nothing to give," Dunham told investigative reporters. In many ways, he added, the Red Cross's relief effort was "worse than the storm."

During Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast, emergency vehicles were diverted from relief work to be used as props for press conferences, which angered disaster response personnel who were attempting to mitigate the storm's damaging effects.

Following both storms, the investigative report continued, problems inherent in the Red Cross left a number of victims in dangerous circumstances in which they were vulnerable to harm, as the charity's internal assessments even stated. For example, victims who were handicapped "slept in their wheelchairs for days," because Red Cross officials had failed to secure adequate numbers of cots.

Also, in one shelter, sex offenders were "all over including playing in [a] children's area," because Red Cross workers "didn't know/follow procedures."

The investigative report further states:

According to interviews and documents, the Red Cross lacked basic supplies like food, blankets and batteries to distribute to victims in the days just after the storms. Sometimes, even when supplies were plentiful, they went to waste. In one case, the Red Cross had to throw out tens of thousands of meals because it couldn't find the people who needed them.

Hardly "near flawless"

As it usually does, the Red Cross managed to assemble a small army of volunteers for the disasters. But, as the investigative report found, many of them were ill-used or misdirected by management personnel. Following Sandy, for instance, volunteers meandered through the streets of New York in search of neighborhoods that had been hit but lost their way because they had not been given GPS equipment to guide them.

And as he so often does, President Obama -- the Red Cross's honorary chairman -- came out on the wrong side of an issue; he publicly endorsed the charity following Superstorm Sandy, assuring the American people that the "Red Cross knows what they're doing."

Moreover, two weeks after Sandy, the charity's chief executive, Gail McGovern, said the group's relief efforts had been "near flawless."

But self-assessments were far less congratulatory.

"Multiple systems failed," say the minutes of a closed-door meeting of top Red Cross officials in December 2012, in reference to operational logistics.

"We didn't have the kind of sophistication needed for this size job," noted a Red Cross vice president in the same meeting, according to the minutes. See them here: Propublica.org.

Sources:

http://www.npr.org

http://www.propublica.org

http://www.propublica.org

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/047863_Red_Cross_charities_Superstorm_Sandy.html#ixzz3Kpcl8JE1

Vaccine Court: Attorneys Win, Families Suffer

By Dr. Mercola

If you or your child were to be seriously injured after receiving a routine government-recommended vaccination, what would you do? You might assume, as many Americans do, that you could choose to hire an attorney and sue the vaccine’s manufacturer.

Or you might sue the doctor if the vaccine was given negligently so you could obtain financial compensation for medical care, pain, and suffering.
But this is not possible. At least, not anymore, because Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have banned vaccine product liability and vaccine injury malpractice lawsuits in the US. Today, vaccine victims are forced to apply to a federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).
Vaccine injury claims are awarded or denied by US Department of Health and Human Services officials using US Department of Justice attorneys, with some cases contested and decided by special masters in the US Court of Federal Claims.
The VCIP was created by Congress in 1986 under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act after vaccine manufacturers threatened to stop producing vaccines if they weren’t protected from vaccine injury lawsuits.
The VICP was supposed to be an alternative to a civil court lawsuit and gave partial liability protection to vaccine manufacturers, pediatricians, and other vaccine providers from civil liability for injuries and deaths caused by federally-recommended childhood vaccines.¹
Drug companies weren’t satisfied with partial liability protection and, in 2011, convinced the US Supreme Court majority to rule that federally licensed and recommended vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe” and that the VICP should be the “sole remedy” for all vaccine injury claims.²
Now, even if it can be proven that a government-recommended vaccine that injured or killed someone in America was defectively designed and could have been made less reactive – nobody can sue drug companies making big profits from government-recommended and mandated vaccines!³
Though the federal compensation system was originally intended to help vaccine-injured Americans by giving them a non-adversarial, expedited, less expensive administrative alternative to a civil court lawsuit, it has morphed into a program that is anything but that.
Sadly, the VICP process often adds more suffering to vaccine victims, who may be left waiting without support and financial assistance for more than a decade. Some VICP claimants even say they felt “attacked” by the government that was supposed to help them.

Associated Press Investigation Reveals Serious Flaws in Vaccine Court

The Associated Press (AP) analyzed nearly 15,000 vaccine-injury cases and hundreds of decisions. They conducted more than 100 interviews using data on vaccine-court cases through January 2013 (they say the government has refused to release an updated list of cases).⁴
While the cases are supposed to be resolved in 240 days or less (with an additional 150 days for potential extensions), less than 7 percent of non-autism cases met this requirement. When autism claims were factored in, only 4.5 percent were resolved in less than 240 days. According to the AP:

“Most non-autism cases take at least two and a half years, with the average case length more than three years, not including cases unresolved at the end of 2012. Hundreds have surpassed the decade mark. Several people died before getting any money.”

Taxpayers and Vaccine Users Foot Bill for VICP Awards

The VICP is funded by a 75-cent tax on each dose of vaccine sold by vaccine manufacturers to the federal government, state governments, HMOs, or individual doctors in private practice and that money is placed into a Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund managed by the U.S. Treasury Department.
To date, there is a surplus of $3.5 billion in the Trust Fund that has not yet been awarded to vaccine victims. In other words, taxpayers and everyone who gets vaccinated in the US pay money into the VICP Trust Fund, which could be described as a de facto vaccine injury self-insurance program.
The problem is that, when the risks of vaccination turn out to be 100 percent for some people, they have no guarantee of getting federal vaccine injury compensation. In fact, three out of four vaccine injury victims are turned away empty handed!⁵

Government Hires Doctors with Ties to the Vaccine Industry

If you apply to the VICP, know that your private attorney likely will be facing well-paid federal health officials and Justice Department attorneys, who have hired high-priced medical experts to discredit your case.
The government, for instance, uses taxpayer money to hire “special experts,” who are often doctors with ties to the pharmaceutical industry, to oppose vaccine injury compensation awards in order to defend vaccine safety in court, according to the AP analysis.
The government is concerned, first and foremost, with maintaining the image of vaccine safety to the American public. They do not want you to know, for instance, that in 2008 they conceded that childhood vaccines contributed to permanent brain damage that included symptoms of autism in 9-year-old Hannah Poling, lest you begin to question vaccine safety.
In vaccine court, the government will fight your claim – even if you have good evidence that your claim is very legitimate -- or they may try to quietly settle it with a lowball offer (which preys on families in urgent need of money).
If the government settles vaccine injury cases outside of the US Court of Claims, they don’t have to admit that the vaccine caused harm, which makes public health officials, medical trade organizations, and drug companies very happy because it preserves the illusion that vaccines are safe for everyone.
 According to the AP investigation:⁶

“Lawmakers designed vaccine court to favor payouts, but the government fights legitimate claims and fails its obligation to publicize the court, worried that if they concede a vaccine caused harm, the public will react by skipping shots.
…If government doctors had their way… 1,600 families would not have gotten more than $1.1 billion in cash and future medical care between the court's opening in 1988 and the end of 2012.
…‘The system is not working,’ said Richard Topping, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney who handled vaccine injury claims but resigned after concluding his bosses had no desire to fix the major flaws he saw. ‘People who need help aren't getting it.’”

Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/12/02/vaccine-court-cases.aspx?e_cid=20141202Z1_DNL_art_2&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20141202Z1&et_cid=DM61553&et_rid=749140869

You Won’t Believe What’s In Your Yogurt – And It’s Not On The Label!

The food industry has a reputation of taking incredibly healthy items and turning them into processed junk food and this is exactly what has happened to most yogurts available on the market. The Cornucopia Institute just came out with a very revealing report (an investigation that took 2 years!) about what’s in yogurt, and how giant food corporations, led by General Mills (Yoplait), Groupe Danone (Dannon), Walmart, and PepsiCo are saturating the market with less nutritious yogurt. Conventional yogurt usually comes from milk produced by cows that are confined and unable to graze in open pasture. They’re usually fed GMO grains, not grass. As the yogurt ferments, chemical defoamers are sometimes added. Then high doses of artificial sweeteners, sugar, or high fructose corn syrup are sometimes added too. That’s not all: colors, preservatives, and gut-harmful carrageenan can be dumped in. These practices alarm me, since yogurt has been such a healthy, longevity-promoting food for ages.

While all of these practices and controversial additives have completely ruined yogurt, what I found most disturbing in the report are the eye-opening claims about what might be in yogurt that isn’t as obvious – and may not even be on the label. Cornucopia was shocked by their own findings and filed a formal complaint with the FDA, asking them to investigate some yogurts on the market because they don’t appear to even meet the legal definition of yogurt!

Surprising Things That Can Be In Yogurt:

HFCS-90 - This variation of high fructose corn syrup contains way more fructose than regular high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). When HFCS-90 is used, the ingredient label won’t indicate that high fructose corn syrup is an ingredient, rather it can be deceptively listed as simply “fructose” or “fructose syrup” without any reference to corn syrup. Regular HFCS contains up to 55% fructose, whereas HFCS-90 has 90% fructose by weight. That’s 9 times more fructose than the average fruit! An overload of fructose in the diet isn’t healthy because diets that are high in fructose are associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease. HFCS-90 is derived from corn starch, which is likely GMO. It’s totally misleading when companies say that fructose is natural and comes from fruit, when it’s a processed additive typically derived from GMO corn.
Neosugar – This is a highly processed form of sugar made by hydrolyzing liquid GMO sugar beets or sugar cane. It’s so heavily processed that your body can’t digest it and it just passes through you like a fiber. It’s also marketed as a prebiotic, but there isn’t much evidence out there that neosugar is more beneficial than real food and it appears to just be a marketing ploy. Natural prebiotics are found naturally in raw fruits and vegetables. According to Dr. Michael Blaut, “It is questionable whether a wholesome diet rich in fruit and vegetables needs to be supplemented with prebiotics for optimal health effects”. Some names used by industry for neosugar are “Nutraflora” and “Fructan”, which is how you may see it listed on the ingredient label. Beware that neosugar is allowed in organic yogurt. Thankfully, the only organic company that is currently known to use neosugar is Horizon, so it’s pretty easy to avoid.
Dimethylpolysiloxane - You’ve heard me refer to this chemical in the past as the silly putty ingredient that’s widely used as a defoamer in oil fryers at restaurants, and famously used in McDonalds french fries and soda fountains. Turns out that it can also be used during the processing of yogurt - and it’s not labeled, even if residues remain in the final product. One of the biggest issues I’ve got with dimethylpolysiloxane is that the FDA allows it to be preserved with formaldehyde, one of the most highly toxic substances on earth. As Cornucopia highlights in their report, most of the safety studies that have been done on dimethylpolysiloxane were conducted or paid for by the chemical companies, and not enough independent research has been done. Every yogurt company I called – Dannon, Chobani, Zoi, Greek Gods - emphatically denied that they use any anti-foaming chemicals, except for one. Yoplait (General Mills) told us it was proprietary information and “We’re sorry, but we don’t share processing information”.
Nanoparticles – There’s a big controversy surrounding the results of a 2012 study that found titanium dioxide in Dannon yogurt. In May, Mother Jones reported that Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt contained the nanoparticle titanium dioxide, but have since retracted this from their article following Dannon’s claims that, “We don’t use any ingredients in Dannon plain yogurt that contain titanium dioxide. In the event we use an added color in our products we label it as an added ingredient”. I also contacted Dannon, and they confirmed this information. However, microscopic particles of titanium dioxide (nanoparticles) can be used as an artificial color to make white foods whiter and brighter. According to Friends of the Earth, there’s been “a tenfold increase in unregulated, unlabeled “nanofood” products on the American market since 2008… made by major companies including Kraft, General Mills, Hershey, Nestle, Mars, Unilever, Smucker’s and Albertsons. But due to a lack of labeling and disclosure, a far greater number of food products with undisclosed nanomaterials are likely currently on the market”. This concerns me because nanoparticles have been shown to carry risks to human health and the environment, and nanoparticles of titanium dioxide are specifically linked to gastrointestinal inflammation.
Synthetic Pesticides – Yogurts that contain fruit likely contain synthetic pesticide residues unless they are organic. Berries are the most popular fruits found in yogurts, and they’re also on the EWG’s Dirty Dozen List of the most contaminated produce. The pectin that is added to some yogurts may also contain another dose of pesticides, as it’s made from conventional fruit. The National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the President’s Cancer Panel all warn about the health dangers of consuming pesticides found on conventional produce.

What’s Missing From Many Popular Yogurts?

Probiotics - The “Live and Active Cultures” seal on a container of yogurt does not guarantee that any probiotics are actually in the yogurt by the time you eat it - it only verifies they were there when it was manufactured. The addition of artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose may compound this problem because they’ve been shown to be antimicrobials that also have the ability to kill beneficial bacteria in the gut, which warrants more research. (sources: 1, 2). Cornucopia sent yogurt samples to the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s Food Processing Center to test for probiotic content, and what they found was astonishing. Several yogurts were found to have less than the required 100 million cultures per gram including Chobani, Walmart Great Value, Yoplait Go-Gurt, LaLa Cult, and Dannon Danimals Smoothies.
Fruit – I know it’s ridiculous, but some fruit-flavored yogurts on the shelves don’t contain any fruit, and are solely flavored with artificial and natural flavors. Yoplait calls one of their flavors “Strawberry Banana Burst GoGurt” but it doesn’t have any strawberries or bananas in it. You also won’t find any fruit in Greek God’s Honey & Strawberry Yogurt, and yogurts targeting children like Dannon Danimals Strawberry Slide Greek Yogurt. The natural and artificial flavors that are used to mimic the taste of fruit are designed to keep you coming back to eat more. As explained by flavor manufacturer Nature’s Flavors, “The trick to making a product taste good is to give the customer only enough flavor to tease their taste buds. You never want to completely satisfy their tastes”. Do you really want to be eating fake flavors that were manufactured to keep you unsatisfied and wanting more, or would you rather just eat real fruit and all the nutrients that come with it?
Beneficial Fat - Cornucopia commissioned the University of Nebraska’s lab to study the nutritional profile of several yogurts, specifically for the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids and the levels of beneficial fats such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). They found that organic yogurt contained better fat ratios and way more CLA than conventional yogurt. Chobani yogurt came out the worst, compared with Cedar Summit Farm’s organic yogurt coming out on top with nearly 20 times more CLA than Chobani.

Always Choose Organic Yogurt.

Last month I broke down for you all the big reasons to only choose organic dairy products, including yogurt, which is corroborated in Cornucopia’s report. When you choose organic, you avoid:

1. Genetically Modified Ingredients (GMO) - Most sweeteners in yogurt come from GMOs. Whenever you see high fructose corn syrup, fructose, or sugar on the ingredient list it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s derived from GMO corn or GMO beet sugar.
2. Growth Hormone Drugs - Banned in over 30 countries, linked to cancer, and may increase the incidence of painful mastitis in cows (requiring antibiotics). 
3. Herbicides & Pesticides - Residues from chemical herbicides and pesticides end up in our food and water, and also contaminate the food of dairy cows. It’s possible that these chemicals are passing through to their milk, which have been linked to kidney disease and other diseases in humans.

How To Choose The Best Yogurt:

The only kind of yogurt I recommend is plain organic yogurt (greek or regular), which you can sweeten yourself with fresh fruit, raw honey or maple syrup. Cornucopia built a great reference, a Yogurt Buyer’s Guide, which rates 114 yogurt brands from best to worst based on these criteria:

• Organic vs. Conventional
• Thickeners and Stabilizers
• Carrageenan 
• Artificial Sweeteners
• Added sugar 
• Artificial coloring 
• Flavors 
• Synthetic nutrients 
• Milk Protein Concentrate 
• Preservatives

They ultimately recommend minimally processed organic brands that are either sometimes grass-fed or 100% grass-fed. These include: Traders Point Creamery, Maple Hill Creamery, Nancy’s, Organic Valley, Kalona, Wallaby Organic, and Clover Stornetta, Stonyfield, and regional brands such as Butterworks Farm, Seven Stars, Straus, Hawthorne Valley Farm, and Cedar Summit. By doing so, we support organic farmers, protect our environment, encourage humane treatment of animals, and ensure good health for ourselves and our families.
Cornucopia also conducted a cost analysis and found that many of the organic yogurts that they recommend are cheaper (per ounce) than conventional over-processed yogurts (including yogurts that are marketed for children) – Yeah! You can read Cornucopia’s complete report, “Culture Wars: How the Food Giants Turned Yogurt, a Health Food, into Junk Food” here. 
Because I know many of you might ask, my personal favorite is Traders Point Creamery (found at Whole Foods & Healthy Home Market), I love that it comes in a glass jar and not plastic and is made from cows fed a 100% organic grass-fed diet.
You can also, of course, make your own yogurt, which my mother has been doing since I can remember! She still makes it for me so I don’t have to buy it that often. I would start with the best ingredients of course – grass-fed organic (and raw – if you can find it) milk would be ideal. Here’s her recipe:

5.0 from 1 reviews

My Mom's Homemade Yogurt

 

Print

Prep time

10 hours

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

10 hours 15 mins

 

Author: Food Babe

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4 cups grass-fed organic milk
• 3 tablespoons plain organic yogurt (purchased or homemade)* or powdered yogurt starter (amount specified on package)**

Instructions

1. Place milk in pot on stove, heat and until milk starts to bubble (medium high heat)
2. Stir consistently to prevent skin from forming
3. Cool milk until it is luke warm - about 110-115 degrees
4. Add organic yogurt or yogurt culture to the milk
5. Pour mixture into small glass jars or one large glass container
6. Place lid on containers, put a towel over them and store in a draft free place at room temperature
7. Yogurt should be complete in about 6-8 hours
8. Place yogurt in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving
9. Store yogurt in fridge for up to 1 week

Notes

***Please choose all organic ingredients if possible***

Please share this information with your friends and family – it’s absolutely critical we know what’s in our yogurt and stop supporting the junk versions of this very otherwise healthy food!
Xo,
Vani
P.S. If you like investigations like this, you will love my new upcoming book The Food Babe Way. It’s available right now for pre-order at a special extra 30% off on Amazon with code “HOLIDAY30” (all uppercase). This will likely be the lowest price ever available so get it now! Offer is only good until Midnight tonight 12/1! (Please note – this coupon code is only good for one hardcover book per account).

Read more: http://foodbabe.com/2014/12/01/yogurt/

RECIPE: Roast Turkey Vegetable Soup

This recipe for Roast Turkey Vegetable Soup, from Earthbound Farm Organic,³ is perfect after Thanksgiving, but you can make it year-round (and substitute organic pastured chicken, if you like).
It makes use of your leftover turkey meat and, even better, the bones and carcass. The latter, which many people throw away as “waste,” are actually what make this soup so good for you – it creates nourishing bone broth.

Roast Turkey Vegetable Soup4 Ingredients 1 organic turkey carcass (with most meat removed) 2 yellow onions (cut into 8 pieces each) 2 large carrots (cut into 1-inch lengths) 2 stalks celery (cut into 1-inch lengths) 1 bay leaf 3 sprigs fresh thyme 12 fresh parsley stems 1 tsp whole black peppercorns 1 large carrot (cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/4-inch slices) 2 stalks celery (sliced 1/4 inch thick) 1 small fennel bulb (cored, cut in half, and sliced 1/4 inch thick) 1 leek (cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/4-inch slices) 1 cup green beans (cut into 1-inch lengths) 2 small zucchini (cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/4-inch slices) 3 cups cubed cooked turkey meat (optional) Salt (to taste) Freshly ground pepper (to taste) Directions Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the turkey carcass and bones in a roasting pan and place in the oven. Roast for 45 minutes, then add the onions, carrots, and celery to the pan. Cook until the vegetables and bones begin to brown, 30 to 45 minutes. Transfer the contents of the roasting pan to a large stock pot. Add cold water to completely cover the bones and bring to a simmer over high heat. Add the bay leaf, thyme sprigs, parsley, and peppercorns; reduce the heat to a setting that will maintain a slow simmer. Cook the stock for 4 hours, adding more water if the level drops below the bones and vegetables. Let cool for 30 minutes, then strain the stock through a colander or sieve, pressing on the solids to extract all the liquid. Discard the contents of the colander. At this point, you can continue with the soup recipe, or cool the stock and refrigerate it, covered, for up to 5 days, or freeze it. Return the stock to a large Dutch oven or 4-quart pot. Add the carrots and cook the soup over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the celery, fennel, and leeks, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the green beans and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the cubed turkey and the zucchini. Continue cooking until the zucchini are tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve hot.

Bone Broth Is Healing to Your Gut

Bone broth is a staple of the GAPS Diet, which is based on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) principles developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. It is an excellent food to improve your gut, bone, and joint health.
The GAPS diet is often used to treat children with autism and other disorders rooted in gut dysfunction, but just about anyone with allergies or less than optimal gut health can benefit from it, as it is designed to heal leaky gut.
If your gut is leaky or permeable, partially undigested proteins have the opportunity to pass through your intestine and access your bloodstream and contribute to allergic reactions. This is known as leaky gut syndrome, or LGS.
When your intestinal lining is repeatedly damaged due to reoccurring leaky gut syndrome, damaged cells called microvilli become unable to do their job properly. They become unable to process and utilize the nutrients and enzymes that are vital to proper digestion.
Eventually, digestion is impaired and absorption of nutrients is negatively affected. As more exposure occurs, your body initiates an attack on these foreign invaders. It responds with inflammation, allergic reactions, and other symptoms we relate to a variety of diseases.
The primary food that you focus on eating if you start out on the GAPS diet is bone broth, because not only is it very easily digested, it also contains profound immune-optimizing components. This is why, even if you don’t have gut issues, bone broth is still a wonderful staple food to include in your diet.

Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/11/30/roast-turkey-vegetable-soup.aspx?e_cid=20141130Z1_SNL_art_2&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20141130Z1&et_cid=DM61531&et_rid=746246558

St. Luke's hospital invests in organic farm to provide health-promoting food to patients

Serving mystery meat, French fries, sugar drinks and Jell-O on a tray is no standard of care, especially for a hospital, which should be leading the way -- boosting patients' ability to heal with the most nutrient-dense foods. Sadly, hospitals have evolved into conveyor belts over time, serving processed foods en masse, foods that must ache from their lack of nutrition. The ache and the void are passed to the patient, limiting their ability to recover and heal.

One must wonder why menu items don't include snacks like selenium-rich Brazil nuts and antioxidant-rich blueberries. Why aren't hospitals serving fresh juices, containing real apples, pears, oranges, carrot, ginger and lemon? How might a fresh herb garden spice up dinner dishes while boosting the healing benefit of the meal? How might a kale-, spinach- and chia-based smoothie lift energy levels of patients? What if hospitals worked directly with organic farms to provide the ill and injured with the most recuperative food, full of minerals like zinc, which helps the body heal?

Farm and hospital working together to set a new standard for patient wellness and recovery

Some hospitals are beginning to wake up to the challenge. In fact, six hospital campuses of St. Luke's in Pennsylvania have teamed up with the Rodale Institute, working together to provide organic produce to patients. Organic produce is now being grown on St. Luke Anderson Campus, in the fields next to the hospital. The hospital's food services vendor, Sodexo Inc., is now bringing in health-promoting foods straight from the neighboring field, providing employees, visitors and patients with a diverse selection of farm-fresh produce.

Ed Nawrocki, President of St. Luke's Anderson Campus, is setting a valuable precedent for other hospitals to follow. "Working with the Rodale Institute to develop an organic, working farm onsite will allow St. Luke's to continue providing patients with a holistic health care experience that creates a positive atmosphere for health and healing," he said. "By providing patients with locally-grown organic produce, St. Luke's is showing a commitment to the environment and promoting the health of its patients and the community."

The new on-site organic food project is not only boosting the spirit of the employees and patients, but it's also bringing community awareness, connecting the dots between healthy food selection and well-being.

Bonnie Coyle, MD, MS, and Director of Community Health at St. Luke's University Health Network, is definitely on board with the program. "Numerous studies prove that organic fruits and vegetables offer many advantages over conventionally-grown foods, such as: increased amounts of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and antioxidants, which reduce incidence of heart disease and some cancers; and a lowered risk of common conditions such as cancer, heart disease, allergies and hyperactivity in children," she said.

Rodale Institute begins a hospital food revolution, providing 44,000 lbs of organic produce in first year

Projects like these are civilly disobedient, deviating from the norm, but are exactly the kind of constructive and positive act of revolution needed for the world to heal. The Rodale Institute is setting a fine example of real healthcare reform, something that forced government insurance payment plans could never accomplish.

Rodale's organic farming practice only takes up five acres of the sprawling 500 total acres that make up St. Luke's Anderson Campus. In the first year, 44,000 pounds of fresh produce was harvested, including lettuce and salad greens, a plethora of herbs, peppers, kale, cucumbers, summer squash, broccoli, tomatoes, Swiss chard, garlic, cabbage, beets and potatoes.

The produce from the five-acre farm is distributed to all six of St. Luke's hospitals. Sodexo uses the organic produce on a daily basis for patient care and for equipping the hospital cafeteria. With the help of organic vegetable farmer Lynn Trizna, the Rodale Institute ensures the highest quality produce -- produce that isn't affected by mass application of pesticides known to make people sicker. Lynn Trizna oversees the USDA Organic Certification process and ensures that the land was transitioned and will continue to be sustained as organic. A 1,120 sq ft. hoop house was constructed in the spring of 2014 to make way for an extended growing season.

Mark Smallwood, Executive Director of Rodale Institute, says that the farm will double in size in the near future, providing more than 100,000 pounds of organic produce yearly.

Smallwood said, "In addition to providing patients, families and staff at the hospitals with fresh, organic produce, organic agriculture builds healthy soil. Organic agriculture reduces pollution from run-off, prevents toxic chemicals from building up in our ecosystem and is a primary driver in carbon sequestration. This partnership presents a 'farm to hospital' model which can be replicated around the world. We're proud to be proving concepts once thought impossible."

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com

http://rodaleinstitute.org

http://anderson.slhn.org

http://science.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/047781_organic_farm_hospital_food_St_Lukes.html#ixzz3K5AIifdG

Toyota To Launch Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Car in 2015

There are futuristic-looking cars, then there are cars that are actually futuristic. The 2016 Toyota Mirai is definitely one of the latter, soon to take its place in history as the first car to bring hydrogen fuel-cell technology to the masses — something you can buy, keep and pass on to your kids when you get old, who by then, will laugh at the idea that at one point, someone thought it was futuristic.

But for now, the Mirai is the future — literally: the name means “future” in Japanese — and Toyota hopes that it will follow in the treads of the successful Prius (whose name means “predecessor” in Latin, incidentally). And this so-called future will become the present starting in the third quarter of 2015.

Like the Prius, the Mirai is not an overtly beautiful creature (yes, that’s some understatement) but it was styled quite deliberately to break the mold. “It’s no secret that when we launched Prius, we decided that making it look different than any other car on the road was a risk worth taking,” said Satoshi Ogiso, Managing Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation. “Prius styling was distinctive then and still is today. We think Mirai will be as well. If the name of your car means ‘the future,’ it had better look futuristic.” 

Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car

Still, the Mirai has a face only an aerodynamicist could love. A clone of the FCV Concept that Toyota trotted around to auto shows in 2013, the Mirai is roughly the same size as the Camry Hybrid, with 2.5 inches more height and an aerodynamic underbody that’s an inch closer to the ground. Like the FCV Concept, the Mirai has gaping triangular outboard air intakes, vertical turn signals, “floating” hood and roof panels and four menacing-looking LED headlamps on each side.

Continue: https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/toyota-launches-the-mirai--a-hydrogen-car-you-can-buy-%E2%80%94-sort-of-233839110.html